The captain's daughter as a historical novel. The novel "The Captain's Daughter" as a historical painting

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Text content of presentation slides: MIKHAIL VASILIEVICHLOMONOSOV (1711 - 1765) (Literature lesson 6th grade) Historian, rhetorician, mechanic, mineralogist, artist and poet, he experienced everything and went through everything. A.S. Pushkin CHILDHOOD Born on November 21, 1711 in the Arkhangelsk province in the village of Denisovka near Kholmogory in the family of a Pomor peasant. The deacon of the local church taught Mikhail to read and write. A passion for knowledge and a difficult family situation forced Lomonosov to make a decision - to leave his home and go to Moscow. TO MOSCOW Kholmogory Moscow YEARS OF STUDY In 1730 he entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow, where he not only acquired a taste for scientific studies, but studied the Latin language, became familiar with the sciences of that time and academic disciplines. At the beginning of 1736, as one of the best students, Lomonosov was sent to the university at St. Petersburg Academy Sciences Despite difficult conditions life, an inquisitive young man from the first days of his arrival at the Academy showed great interest in science. And in the fall of 1736, the three best students, including Lomonosov, were sent by the Academy of Sciences to Germany to study mathematics, physics, chemistry, philosophy and metallurgy. MARBURG Student at a German university In 1741, Lomonosov returned to Russia. Lomonosov's scientific interests were truly all-encompassing. He owns works in the fields of physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, and philology. SCIENCE Diploma of professor of chemistry In 1748 he created a chemical laboratory in which he conducted scientific research, including developing the composition of glass, porcelain and smalt, which he used for his mosaics created in 1751. Lomonosov in his chemical laboratory. MOSAIC PICTURES M.V.Lomonosov shows his works to Empress M.V.Lomonosov. Poltava battle. Mosaic. In 1755, on the initiative of Lomonosov and according to his project, Moscow University was founded, “open to all persons capable of science,” and not just to nobles. MOSCOW UNIVERSITY Lomonosov died in St. Petersburg on April 4, 1765. Lomonosov’s grave in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra “Two astronomers happened together at a feast” Happened together - met together. They argued in the heat - they argued hotly, heatedly. The circle of the Sun walks - it walks around the Sun. How do you reason about this doubt? – How do you reason, what do you think about this controversial issue? Zharkov (noun) - roast (roast - fried food, usually meat. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 -1543) - Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist. Best known as the author of the medieval heliocentric system of the world. Heliocentric system of the world Claudius Ptolemy (c. 87- 165) - Ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, music theorist and geographer. He lived in Alexandria, where he spent astronomical observations. Geocentric system of the world What is the theme of the poem? What makes it so unusual? Who are Copernicus and Ptolemy? When did they live? Could they really meet each other? Why do you think Copernicus and Ptolemy meet in Lomonosov’s poem? Where do they meet? What is the contrast between the views of scientists? Who does the owner of the house turn to to resolve this dispute? How does the cook resolve this dispute? What is the idea of ​​the poem? LET'S DISCUSS WHAT WE READ

">Topic 6. “The Captain's Daughter” - a realistic historical novel by A.S. Pushkin

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">Task ">:

">Explore scientific literature on the topic of the lesson, based on your own analysis of the literary text. Prepare answers to the questions provided.

">Questions ">:

;color:#000000">1. What factors, in your opinion, determined the noticeable activation of historical genres in world and Russian literature in the 1830s?

;color:#000000">2. Cover the main aspects of the debate about the genre nature of the work of A.S. Pushkin " Captain's daughter».

;color:#000000">2.What achievements of modern historical prose did A.S. Pushkin rely on? Comment on the following statement by the Russian writer about the historical novels of Walter Scott: “">"The main charm of Walter Scott's novels is that we are introduced to the past tense not with">enflure ;vertical-align:super"> ">(the pomposity) of French tragedies, not with the stiffness of sensitive novels not with the dignité (dignity) of history, but in a modern, but homely way."

">3.Based on benchmarking novels by Walter Scott "Rob Roy" and A.S. Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter”, draw conclusions about the specifics of the artistic solution to the problem of historicism in romantic and realistic prose. Rough plan analysis:

">a) how is the problem of the evolution of the protagonist’s character solved in the compared works?

">b) what significance do historical circumstances play in the lives of the heroes of Scott and Pushkin?

">c) what are the principles of depicting a popular movement and its leader in English and Russian novels?

">4. What, in your opinion, is artistic sense two-hero plot basis of Pushkin's novel?

">5. What artistic means does Pushkin use to express his position as a writer in the novel?

">Literature

">Main

1. ;color:#000000">Gay N.K. ;color:#000000"> Pushkin the prose writer. Life-creativity-Work. =- M.: IMLI RAS, 2008. 488 p.
2. ;color:#000000">Gukovsky G. A.;color:#000000">Pushkin and the problems of realistic style. M.: Goslitizdat, 1957. 416 pp.; or electronic resource. access mode;color:#000000">http://feb-web.ru/feb/pushkin/default.asp;color:#000000">.
3. ;color:#000000">Makogonenko, G. P.;color:#000000">The work of A.S. Pushkin in the 1830s: in 2 books [Text] / G. P. Makogonenko. L.: Khudozh. lit., 1982. - Book 2 (1833 -1836) 464 p.

">Additional

;color:#000000">1. "> Bocharov, S. G. "> Pushkin's Poetics: Essays. - M.: Nauka, 1974. 207 p.

The novel, the core of which is the love story of Masha Mironova and Pyotr Grinev, has turned into a broad historical narrative. This principle is from private destinies to historical destinies people - permeates the plot of "The Captain's Daughter", and it can easily be seen in every significant episode.

"The Captain's Daughter" became a truly historical work saturated with modern social content. The heroes and minor characters in Pushkin's work are multifaceted characters. Pushkin does not have only positive or only negative characters. Each person appears as a living person with his inherent good and bad traits, which are manifested, first of all, in actions. Fictional characters are associated with historical figures and included in historical movement. It was the course of history that determined the actions of the heroes, forging their difficult fate.

Thanks to the principle of historicism (the unstoppable movement of history, directed towards infinity, containing many trends and opening new horizons), neither Pushkin nor his heroes succumb to despondency in the darkest circumstances, do not lose faith in either personal or general happiness. Pushkin finds the ideal in reality and imagines its implementation in the course of the historical process. He dreams that in the future there will be no feeling of social divisions and social discord. This will become possible when humanism and humanity become the basis of state policy.

Pushkin's heroes appear in the novel from two sides: as people, that is, in their universal and national qualities, and as characters playing social roles, i.e. in their social and public functions.

Grinev is both an ardent young man who received a patriarchal home education, and an ordinary teenager who gradually becomes an adult and courageous warrior, and a nobleman, an officer, “the Tsar’s servant,” faithful to the laws of honor; Pugachev is both an ordinary man, not alien to natural feelings, protecting an orphan in the spirit of folk traditions, and a cruel leader of a peasant revolt, hating nobles and officials; Catherine II is both an elderly lady with a dog, walking in the park, ready to help an orphan if she was treated unfairly and offended, and an autocratic autocrat, mercilessly suppressing the rebellion and administering harsh justice; Captain Mironov is a kind, inconspicuous and flexible man, under the command of his wife, and an officer devoted to the empress, without hesitation resorting to torture and committing reprisals against the rebels.

In each character, Pushkin reveals the truly human and social. Each camp has its own social truth, and both of these truths are irreconcilable. But each camp also has its own humanity. If social truths separate people, then humanity unites them. Where the social and moral laws of any camp operate, the human disappears.

If temporarily Pugachev the man, with his pitiful soul, sympathizing with the offended orphan, had not prevailed over Pugachev, the leader of the rebellion, then Grinev and Masha Mironova would certainly have died. But if Catherine II had not won during her meeting with Masha Mironova human feeling instead of social benefit, then Grinev would not have been saved, spared from trial, and the union of lovers would have been postponed or not taken place at all. Therefore, the happiness of the heroes depends on how much people are able to remain human, how humane they are. This especially applies to those who have power, on whom the fate of their subordinates depends.

The human, says Pushkin, is higher than the social. It is not for nothing that his heroes, due to their deep humanity, do not fit into the play of social forces. Pushkin finds an expressive formula to designate, on the one hand, social laws, and on the other, humanity.

In contemporary society, there is a gap, a contradiction between social laws and humanity: what corresponds social interests of one class or another, suffers from insufficient humanity or kills it. When Catherine II asks Masha Mironova: “You are an orphan: are you probably complaining about injustice and insult?”, the heroine replies: “No way, sir.” I came to ask for mercy, not justice.” The mercy that Masha Mironova came for is humanity, and justice is the social codes and rules accepted and operating in society.

According to Pushkin, both camps - the nobles and the peasants - are not humane enough, but for humanity to win, there is no need to move from one camp to another. It is necessary to rise above social conditions, interests and prejudices, to stand above them and remember that a person’s rank is immeasurably higher than all other ranks, titles and ranks. For Pushkin it is quite enough that the heroes are within their environment, within their class, following their moral and cultural tradition, will maintain honor, dignity and be true to universal human values. Grinev and Captain Mironov remained devoted to the code of noble honor and oath, Savelich to the foundations of peasant morality. Humanity can become the property of all people and all classes.

Pushkin, however, is not a utopian; he does not portray things as if the cases he described had become the norm. On the contrary, they did not become a reality, but their triumph, albeit in the distant future, is possible. Pushkin turns to those times, continuing the important theme of mercy and justice in his work, when humanity becomes the law of human existence. In the present tense, a sad note sounds, making an amendment to the bright history of Pushkin’s heroes - as soon as big events leaving with historical scene, the cute characters of the novel also become invisible, getting lost in the flow of life. They touched historical life only for a short time. However, sadness does not wash away Pushkin’s confidence in the course of history, in the victory of humanity.

In The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin found a convincing artistic solution to the contradictions of reality and all of existence that confronted him.

The measure of humanity became, along with historicism, beauty and perfection of form, an integral and recognizable feature of Pushkin’s universal realism, which absorbed both the strict logic of classicism and the free play of imagination introduced into literature by romanticism.

Answer option 2:

“The Captain's Daughter” is a work of wide thematic coverage. It vividly reflected the life of the people, the images of peasants and Cossacks, the life of landowners, provincial society and the life of a fortress lost in the steppes, the personality of Pugachev and the court of Catherine II. The novel depicts people representing different strata of Russian society, revealing the morals and way of life of that time. "The Captain's Daughter" gives a wide historical picture, covering the Russian reality of the era of the Pugachev uprising.

The problems of “The Captain's Daughter” are unusually acute and diverse. The situation and demands of the people, the relationship between the landowners and the peasantry and the problems of state domestic policy, serfdom and the moral and everyday aspects of the life of the nobility, the duties of the nobility to the people, the state and their class - these are the main issues raised by Pushkin in the novel. The most important of them is the question of the historical and political meaning and significance of the peasant uprising.

A historical novel about the 18th century, at the same time it is a political novel of the 1830s. The image of the people's struggle against the nobility - the peasant uprising - is given in "The Captain's Daughter" in the most detailed form. The contradictions within the nobility themselves attract much attention to a lesser extent. Pushkin strives to reveal and show the whole range of phenomena associated with the uprising of the peasantry. The wide spread of the movement, its causes, the origins and beginning of the uprising, its course, the social and national composition of the participants in the movement, the ordinary mass of the rebels and its leaders, reprisals against the landowners and the attitude of the rebels towards civilians, the psychology of the peasant masses, the politics of the noble monarchy and the noble reprisals against peasantry - all this is reflected in the novel.

Despite the censorship, Pushkin shows the social orientation of the movement and the people’s hatred of the nobility quite clearly. At the same time, he reveals another side of the Pugachev movement - the inherent humanity of the participants in the uprising in relation to “ to the common people" When the Belo-Gorsk fortress was captured, the Cossacks took away only the “officers’ quarters.” The anger of Pugachev himself against Shvabrin, who oppresses an orphan from the people (Masha Mironova), is terrible. And at the same time, the author says in the “Missed Chapter”: “The heads of individual detachments sent in pursuit of Pugachev... autocratically punished both the guilty and the innocent.” Pushkin was impartial, painting historically true picture peasant uprising, showing purely feudal methods of dealing with serfs. The fact that the peasants, at the first approach of Pugachev’s troops, instantly became “drunk” with hatred of the landowners, is shown by Pushkin to be strikingly true.

The people depicted in The Captain's Daughter are not a faceless mass. With his characteristic artistic laconicism, Pushkin showed the serf peasantry in an individualized manner. He didn't draw pictures Everyday life peasantry, their way of life. In the foreground were the themes of uprising and reprisals against the landowners, so Pushkin individualized the images of the peasants in the aspect of their political consciousness, their relationship to the landowners and to Pugachev as the leader of the movement.

Pushkin characterizes the political consciousness of the rebellious peasantry as spontaneous. The typical side, the basis of this consciousness, however, is a clear understanding by each participant of the movement of its social orientation. Pushkin shows this very clearly in the scene of Grinev’s arrival in Berdskaya Sloboda. The sentry peasants capture Grinev and, without thinking about the reasons, strange phenomenon How the officer’s voluntary visit to Pugachev must have seemed to them, they have no doubt that “now” or “in the light of God,” but “father” will order the noble landowner to be hanged. But this typical thing with varying strengths of logic and action appears in the Berd guard, in the peasant at the outpost in “The Missing Chapter,” in Andryushka the zemsky, in the Belogorsk Cossacks, and in Pugachev’s closest assistants. Pushkin shows the various stages of this consciousness and, thus, achieves the individualization of images. At the same time, it is created single image rebel people.

In Pushkin's depiction, the people are a spontaneous, but not a blind, non-reasoning force. Although its consciousness is immature, the people are not wax from which leaders mold what they want. Pushkin, on the contrary, shows that the attitude of the people towards Pugachev is the result of the understanding by the masses of the social, anti-serfdom orientation of the uprising. The image of the people and the image of their leader merge into one in the novel, reflecting historical truth.

Pushkin emphasized the lack of idealization, realism in the depiction of Pugachev, and the artistic and historical fidelity of the image. The image of Pugachev is revealed in all the complexity and inconsistency of his personality, combining the qualities of an outstanding person, the leader of a mass popular movement with the features of a dashing, experienced Cossack who has wandered a lot around the world. First and main feature Pushkin's Pugachev - his deep connection with the people. Genuine realism is manifested in all its strength in the typical contrast between the attitude of the nobility and the people towards Pugachev.

Some critics saw the “hare sheepskin coat” motif as a purely formal device for the successful development of the plot. There is no doubt that this motive is deeply meaningful, revealing in the image of Pugachev the features of natural nobility and generosity.

The nobility and humanity of Pugachev are contrasted with the cruelty and selfishness of the “enlightened” nobleman Shvabrin. The image of Pugachev is revealed in his relationship with Grinev. The author very fully puts into Grinev’s ideas about Pugachev the official interpretation of the leader of the peasant uprising: a monster, a villain, a murderer. Throughout the novel, Pushkin shows the opposite - Pugachev’s humanism, his ability to show mercy and justice towards kind and honest people. This was by no means an idealization of the peasant leader. Pushkin was interested in the activities of Pugachev as the leader of the uprising. Pushkin's Pugachev is gifted, talented as a military leader, and in this regard is contrasted with the mediocre and cowardly Orenburg governor.

Many times in the novel, Pushkin emphasizes Pugachev’s inquisitiveness, intelligence, sharpness, and the absence in him of traits of slavish humiliation. All these features reveal the appearance of the true Pugachev. For Pushkin they expressed at the same time national character Russian people.

But for all that, the image of Pugachev and his closest associates also shows the weakness of the movement, its political immaturity. The monarchical form of Pugachev’s political program, his entire image of the tsar-father, was rooted in the mood of the people themselves, in their aspirations for a “people's tsar.” Pugachev is characterized by distrust and hostility towards every “master”. Pugachev's good nature and simple-heartedness are also traits of the people's character. The leading image in this image is greatness and heroism, which so impressed Pushkin. This is expressed by the symbolic image of the eagle that the fairy tale speaks of, an image in which Pushkin also shows the tragedy of Pugachev’s fate.

Pushkin endows Savelich with some of the traits and characteristics characteristic of part of the serf peasantry. This is a type that reflects one of the aspects of feudal reality, which depersonalized the peasant.

The image of Shvabrin depicts the typical features of the “golden” noble youth of Catherine’s time, who perceived Voltairianism only as the basis for cynical skepticism and for a purely selfish and crudely epicurean attitude to life. Shvabrin’s character and behavior also contain the features of that adventuristic noble officer who carried out palace coup 1762. He is filled with indifference and contempt for simple and honest petty people; his sense of honor is very poorly developed. External education and brilliance were combined in Shvabrin with internal moral emptiness.

Great importance V ideological content The novel has the image of Catherine II. Drawing the image of Catherine N, Pushkin reveals the connection that really existed between the “Kazan landowner” and wide circles of the nobility. This connection is shown through such details as Ekaterina’s high assessment of Captain Mironov’s personality. The change in Catherine’s face when reading the request for pardon from Grinev, who was friends with Pugachev, in her cold, calm refusal reveals the queen’s mercilessness towards popular movement. Without denouncing Catherine directly, Pushkin simply painted the image of the autocrat precisely as a “Kazan landowner,” historically truthful. Pushkin showed what was truly significant in the policy of Catherine II at the time of the Pugachev uprising and in her attitude towards the rebels.

With his “History of the Pugachev Rebellion” and “The Captain’s Daughter,” the poet raises the “question of questions” - about the past, present and future of the people, the enlightened nobility, and power; Much less often, one special reason for these searches was considered: the influence of the internal, personal motives of Pushkin himself on the formation of his heroes. Pugachev's time undoubtedly gave Pushkin more scope for archival research and general historical reasoning than recent times. Moreover, Pushkin’s “Shakespearean” historicism was decisively opposed to the allusive method, when the story of the uprisings in the 1770s would be entirely reduced to straightforward allusions to the latest riots: for the poet it is important that there was a real, not speculative historical connection; the continuity of these and these events, when the interaction of the past and the modern is revealed as if by itself.

The peculiarities of the genre also include the presence in the novel of two points of view, two views on what is happening: Grinev and the author. Grinev sees the Pugachev uprising from the point of view of a private person, an individual taking direct part in the events. Pushkin looks as if from above, trying to evaluate objectively; thanks to him, the fate of the characters in the novel develops only this way and not otherwise, because in the writer’s opinion this is exactly what the natural process of historical development looks like.

Since the novel is written in the first person, it takes the form of a memoir. And the peculiarity of the memoirs is not just the autobiographical nature, but also the confessional nature of the narrative. That is, Grinev’s point of view prevails here. The main text of the novel consists of Grinev's "notes", only in the afterword the "publisher" says how he got the "manuscript": it was given to him by Grinev's grandson, who learned that the "publisher" was engaged in "work relating to the times described by his grandfather." “Publisher” is Pushkin’s literary mask; “work” means “The History of Pugachev.” The afterword also indicates the extent of the “publisher’s” participation in the work on the manuscript: he decided “to publish it separately, adding a decent epigraph to each chapter and allowing himself to change some of his own names.”

It is worth noting that epigraphs, by the way, have a special meaning: they not only indicate the theme of each chapter and determine its narrative tone, briefly hinting at the events that will take place in this chapter. Epigraphs are signs of the author's “presence” in the text of the novel. They are correlated with the content of the chapters, and also, to a certain extent, have a subjective author's coloring: they reveal the author's attitude to Grinev's story. In other words, epigraphs can be called “summaries” of chapters.

Thus, the novel “The Captain's Daughter” is a complex interweaving of the actual historicism of the era, which aroused Pushkin’s genuine interest, fictional characters, helping to evaluate this era, descriptions of the fate of an entire family who lived at that time, an example of the growing up of a particular representative of it, as well as the author’s view of this era and his understanding of the reasons for what was happening. We said above that there is a problem with a clear definition of the genre. And in the example of the novel “The Captain's Daughter” we are most convinced of this: the novel turns out to be historical, and moral, and educational, and family life, and even to some extent philosophical. And what’s surprising is that when you read this work, you don’t even think about this genre diversity, it was used so unobtrusively and successfully by Pushkin.

8. Historical novel “The Captain's Daughter”

To put Walter Scott in his belt

Pushkin called a “novel” a certain historical action developed on the destinies of individual people. He worked on writing the novel “The Captain's Daughter” for many years. Somewhere in the mid-twenties, he was thinking about how to write a novel, and even predicted to one of his friends that he would outshine Walter Scott himself.

But, nevertheless, this was postponed from year to year, and Pushkin began writing the work that would later be called “The Captain’s Daughter” in 1832. So this work went in parallel with “The History of Peter” with “The History of Pugachev” and with other works.

The first edition of The Captain's Daughter was completed in the summer of 1936. And, having completed his manuscript, Pushkin immediately began to redo it. Why? In order to understand this, perhaps it would be worth starting from the beginning - with the epigraph. The epigraph to “The Captain's Daughter” is known to everyone: “Take care of your honor from a young age.” This, so to speak, is the main meaning, the main consideration contained in this novel.

Another thing is also known - that, in fact, the proverb itself, Russian, it is contained in the collection of Russian proverbs in the Pushkin library, is known to everyone, but, as always, the situation is not so simple. It turns out that Pushkin could know this proverb as a Latin one. Well, everyone knows Onegin’s lines: “In those days when in the gardens of the Lyceum // I blossomed serenely, I read Apuleius willingly, // But I did not read Cicero...” Apuleius is a Roman writer of the 2nd century AD. His work “The Golden Ass” is known, but in addition, he also wrote something called “Apology” - a speech in defense of himself against accusations of magic. In this work, he quotes this proverb approximately as follows: “Honor is like a dress: the more it is worn, the less you care about it.” And therefore honor must be protected from a young age. By the way, this “Apology” was published in Russian in 1835, and Pushkin could have remembered it or read it again while working on “The Captain’s Daughter.”

But one way or another, the novel was dedicated to the most pressing, most important problems of morality of that era, and not only that. The moral potential of “The Captain’s Daughter” has survived to this day and even deepened, becoming understood much more subtly and better. It is only important to understand that along with Latin proverb“The Captain’s Daughter” includes what Dostoevsky in Pushkin called “worldwide responsiveness.” That is, we are talking about the fact that the thing was written in line with not only Russian culture, but also world culture.

The author's path to the novel

The author's path to a novel begins very early. It turns out that a lot in the novel is based on the author’s own experience, personal experience. For example, he finds the name Grinev in 1830 in a bulletin about cholera in Moscow. It was so periodical, which he read back in Boldino with concern for his loved ones - how are they doing there in the cholera city. So Pyotr Grinev is listed as one of the donors of money to help the victims. That is, he begins to have some positive associations with this name very early.

Or another example. When leaving Boldino, Pushkin was stopped by cholera quarantines. And, describing this detention, this forced stop, he draws a situation that we find in the missing chapter of “The Captain’s Daughter”, which will be discussed later, when the main character Petrusha arrives in native village. He is also not allowed in at the Pugachev outposts, just as Pushkin himself was not allowed in during the cholera quarantines. That is personal experience is always present in the text of the novel.

The same thing happens with heroes. For example, when Petrusha Grinev arrives at the Belogorsk fortress, he meets there with an officer exiled there, Shvabrin. And it is interesting to note that the portrait of this very Shvabrin: a man of short stature, somewhat dark, ugly, completely coincides with the description of Pushkin himself by memoirists, very many. Why did Pushkin suddenly give his appearance to the main negative character?

Probably, there was a moment here, as it were, of parting with youth, with sinful inclinations young Pushkin. And, apparently, this is such a “scapegoat”, that is, he puts his sins into the biography and character of the hero and, thereby, parting with the violent beginning of his life.

One way or another, this is a novel from Russian life. And Pushkin’s life experience is presented all the time. Well, for example, the priest, the rector of the church in Belogorsk fortress is Father Gerasim. And, in fact, why is this person called that? Because this is Pushkin’s memory of his lyceum teacher - Gerasim Petrovich Pavsky, who taught him the law of God and instructed him in moral life. Then he will be mentioned in Pushkin’s diary as one of our smartest and kindest priests. That is, we see how Pushkin’s own life experience is reflected on the pages of The Captain’s Daughter.

Pushkin's personal experience comes to the surface in the most unexpected places. We remember well how Masha, having arrived in St. Petersburg, did not actually reach the capital, but stopped in Tsarskoe Selo, in Sofia, and lived there in the house of the postal station superintendent. And it is from there that she goes out to the park in the morning, meets with Catherine... But all this is historically impossible, because the postal station in Sofia, near Tsarskoye Selo, was created many years later than the possible meeting of Catherine II with Masha. Pushkin describes the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, Tsarskoe Selo of the 19th century. That’s where Sofia is, and that’s where all this is happening, which is historically completely impossible. But when Pushkin needs to express character through historical circumstances, he distorts them quite easily.

Another episode is connected with the same episode. Why is Masha dating Ekaterina? Was this meeting a coincidence? After all, the day before, the owner of the apartment where Masha was staying takes her around Tsarskoye Selo, shows her the sights, talks about the daily routine of the empress, who gets up at such and such an hour, drinks coffee, walks in the park at such and such an hour, and has lunch at such and such an hour and so on. An attentive reader should have realized that Masha went to the park for a reason for a walk early in the morning. Walking is bad for the young girl's health, the old woman tells her. She goes to meet the empress and knows very well who she met. They both pretend that an unknown provincial woman is dating an unknown court lady. In fact, both of them understand what is happening. Well, Ekaterina understands because Masha tells herself: who she is and what she is. But Masha knows who she is talking to. And thus her audacity increases in meaning. She contradicts not any lady at all, but the empress herself.

“The Captain's Daughter” is perhaps not only the great beginning of Russian literature, Russian prose, but also a thing that has survived eras. For example, Tvardovsky, the first poet of other times, of another era, said that, perhaps, there is nothing higher in Russian literature than “The Captain’s Daughter”, that here is the source of all that literature for which our fatherland is famous.

One of the approaches to The Captain's Daughter may be a sketch of Pushkin's plan, known as “The Son of an Executed Archer.” This is also a kind of prototype of a future novel, unfortunately not written. The action there takes place during the time of Peter the Great. And here's what's interesting. The carrier of the main moral meaning This thing is not the daughter of the executed captain, but the daughter of the executed archer - executed by Peter. That is, the main characteristic of one of the main characters is still observed in this sketch. But there complicated story family relationships, substitution of one person for another. A reconstruction of this novel is possible, but for us the main thing is that the main, so to speak, spiritual motives of the thing that we know from “The Captain's Daughter” have already been stated there.

Anachronisms of manor life

Something in the novel is explained by the fact that it was published in Pushkin’s magazine Sovremennik. The magazine was intended for non-service patrimonial nobles and their families. And, it would seem, the life of the estate will not come to the surface in this magazine, which gives readers some kind of world perspective life. There will be foreign publications and some science articles. And suddenly “The Captain’s Daughter”! The reader is very familiar with estate life, and therefore it seems like why?

Meanwhile, it turns out that the life of the estate is very deeply and correctly reflected in “The Captain's Daughter”. This is an estate from the pre-Pushkin era and, in a sense, is an image of earthly paradise. In that earthly paradise leaks happy childhood hero. He plays with the children in the yard and goes hunting with his father. They don't drink there, don't spend their nights playing cards, and only play nuts. This is the paradise that remains in the hero’s consciousness for the rest of his life, the paradise that he wants to reproduce later, becoming a free, non-service landowner himself.

Those. the landowner here acts not as a master, but rather as the head of the old peasant community, for whom the serf men and women are the same family that he must take care of, and this is the meaning of his life, his existence. This is a world where receiving and sending a letter is an event. This is a world where chronology is counted not from a general calendar, but from local incidents, for example, “the very year when Aunt Nastasya Gerasimovna fell ill.”

It's narrow, wonderful beautiful world. The time and space of the manor's house are cyclical, closed, everything here is predictable, if not for the subsequent sharp turns of the novel's plot. True, the attentive reader realizes that in the description noble estate Grinev Pushkin uses his personal experience, which is not always applicable and correct in Catherine’s time. Many details in Grinev rather betray Pushkin, i.e. a person after all from a different historical era.

This is especially evident when the Frenchman Monsieur Beaupre appears at the Grinevsk estate, who, in general, in the 60s of the 18th century still had no place in the remote provincial Volga estate of the Simbirsk province. Those. theoretically this is conceivable, but the influx of French tutors will come later, when the Great French Revolution occurs, when Napoleon is defeated and a mass of unfortunate French people go to Russia for a piece of bread, in order to simply survive. This is the Beaupre whom Pushkin knows, but whom, of course, Grinev did not know.

Here the difference between eras is very clearly visible. It was in Griboyedov-Pushkin times that there was an influx of these so-called teachers “in more numbers, at a cheaper price.” And such details are very often found in The Captain's Daughter. For example, Grinev knows a lot of things that his real peer from a provincial estate could not know, including French, details of Russian history, which were not yet known until the publication of Karamzin’s main work. This is all Pushkin’s personal experience in estate life, which Petrusha Grinev does not yet have at her disposal.

Conflict of justice and mercy

But let’s return to the question: why did Pushkin suddenly begin to remake his novel, having just staged last point, having just completed it. Apparently, because he was not satisfied with the moral potential that turned out to be inherent there. After all, in the end, the potential of "The Captain's Daughter" can be described as a confrontation between two main principles - justice and mercy.

Here, the bearer of the idea of ​​justice, legality, and state necessity is old man Grinev. For him, the concept of state necessity, of noble honor is the meaning of life. And when he is convinced that his son Petrusha betrayed his oath and took Pugachev’s side, he does not take any steps to save him. Because he understands the correctness of the punishment that follows.

Apparently, in the first version this was not the case at all. After all, Petrusha, the old man’s son, fought with the Pugachevites in front of his father’s eyes - he shot at them. Well, the famous episode of leaving the barn. And thus, the old man was convinced that he had not betrayed any oath. And, therefore, he needs to be saved. Therefore, he is slandered. And, perhaps, in the first version he was the main character saving his son.

And, apparently, this situation did not suit Pushkin. Because, as always, women became the bearers of his mercy. The hero's bride Masha and Catherine II. This is who the bearers of mercy were. And at the same time, Masha Mironova came to the fore - a direct continuation of Onegin’s Tatiana, a bearer not of justice, not of state rules, but of mercy and philanthropy. This is what probably forced Pushkin to immediately begin remaking the novel.

It was clear to him that in the conditions of state-legal relations, neither the plot nor even the plot of the novel could survive. In the missing chapter, which was not included in the main text of the novel and remained from the first version, we find an extremely interesting difference between the first and second editions and the version, between the first and second editions.

For example, old man Grinev lets Masha go to St. Petersburg not at all because he hopes that she will bother for the groom. He took it out of his heart. He's gone. He simply lets her go with the parting words: “God give you a good groom, not a branded criminal.” And for some reason he lets Savelich go with her. This departure of Savelich from the estate, this gift from old man Grinev to Masha - he gives his eager serf to his ex-bride's ex-son - completely changes the situation. It turns out that Masha is in conspiracy with Petrusha’s mother, with the old man’s wife; they both know that she is going to ask for a groom, but he does not know. He remains in his irreconcilability towards his son, in his distance from the corrupted Catherine’s court, which he does not consider a moral authority. That is, this is the character who was the main character in the first edition. But this is not the main thing in “The Captain's Daughter”.

And that’s why the two editions talk about two stages of Pushkin’s consciousness. He moved toward a completely different prose, toward prose where the main characters were “heroes of the heart.” This is his term, this is a line from his poem “Hero”, written back in the 20s. And the fact that people who are extremely authoritarian and state-minded, such as Catherine II or the peasant Tsar Pugachev, show heroism of heart, mercy, this becomes the basis. Here, perhaps, we somewhere find the features of Pushkin, what he would have been like in the 40s and 50s if he had lived to that time. Here you can see the edge of a completely different Pushkin, opposing statehood in many of its manifestations. That is, he does not cease to be a lyric poet, and here we must take this into account.

“Naked prose” and the female gaze

When, already in his very mature years, Tolstoy re-read Pushkin's prose, he noticed that this, of course, is wonderful prose, but it seems to him somehow a little “naked”, devoid of a lot of life details. And apparently this is true. Because Pushkin, and this is clearly visible in “The Captain’s Daughter,” relieves the reader of landscapes, descriptions of clothing, appearance, and some weather conditions. It only gives the meaning of what is happening and what reflects the character of the characters. This freedom of the reader, who is free to come up with the picture that is proposed, is, perhaps, the main strength of Pushkin’s prose.

The second feature of The Captain's Daughter is familiar to us from Eugene Onegin. The bearer of the author's view of life and circumstances is a woman. In the first case, Tatyana, in the second case, Masha, Maria Ivanovna. And it is she who, at the end of the novel, ceases to be a plaything of circumstances. She herself begins to fight for her happiness and for the happiness of her betrothed. Even to the point that she rejects the verdict of Catherine II, who says: “No, the empress cannot forgive Grinev, because he is a traitor.” “No,” Masha answers, and thus acts with such strength of independence, which not only in the 18th century, but even much later - in Tatyana’s and Onegin’s times was not characteristic of Russian women. She insists on her own against the royal will. Which, in general, also expresses a certain understanding by Pushkin of the role of adviser to the sovereign, which he imagined for himself and which did not come true. Even regardless of what we are talking about, this is a continuation of Karamzin’s idea of ​​​​an adviser to the king - “the king is a confidant, not a slave.” This is what Masha gives out.

Despite the fact that Pushkin himself understands that this is not historical truth, this is pure fiction. And, in parallel with “The Captain’s Daughter,” he writes an article about Radishchev, where he gives the most important considerations about the 18th century. The fate of Radishchev, he writes, is a sign of “what harsh people still surrounded Catherine’s throne.” They carried nothing with them except state concepts.

And so Masha, who is ahead not only of her century, but also of the future century, becomes Pushkin’s ideal, becomes, as it were, a prototype of those heroes and heroines who, perhaps, would have populated Pushkin’s poetry and prose - in the 40s, but God willing , and in the 50s.

A cloud, a storm and the challenge of fate

The description of the snowstorm in the second chapter of “The Captain's Daughter” is textbook; at school you had to learn this episode by heart, it is so textbook and very famous. The coachman, driving Grinev across the steppe, says: “Master, would you order me to return?” We have already noticed that a cloud on the horizon foreshadows a storm, but not only a storm. In line with the biblical tradition, a cloud that fell to the ground has a completely different meaning - the meaning of a sign that God bestows on the chosen people, letting them know where to go.

This is a very strong tradition in Russian literature. For example, the same Akhmatova said that “Onegin is an airy mass,” and this also goes back to this biblical image clouds showing the way.

In The Captain's Daughter, a cloud on the horizon is like a challenge from fate. There is Savelich, who says: “Master, let’s go back, drink some tea, go to bed and wait out the storm.” And on the other hand, Grinev, who says: “I don’t see anything wrong, let’s go!” And they find themselves in this terrible storm, in which they almost die.

AND symbolic meaning this storm turning the whole action is obvious. Well, let's say they came back. What would happen then? Then Grinev would not have met Pugachev and would normally have been executed after the capture of the Belogorsk fortress. This is the first thing a blizzard does. Meeting Pugachev and avoiding execution is again a challenge from fate, which rewards a person who goes towards danger. There is a lot of Pushkin in this. This idea of ​​challenging fate runs through all of his work, but this is a separate big topic, which can only be touched upon a little here. And so the cloud predetermines everything that will happen next: love, unhappy love, the capture of the fortress, execution, further difficulties and horrors of the hero’s biography - it all begins with a cloud.

The motive for challenging fate can be heard further - in the duel with Shvabrin, in his behavior before the execution, which, fortunately, did not take place, in the noble silence in the Investigative Commission, where he does not mention the name of his beloved... This is all defined as a response to the challenge of fate. The same thing happens to Masha, the bride, who avoids mortal danger, but is ready to sacrifice her life for the groom, for his parents in the denouement of the novel.

The biblical cloud leads to the fact that in the end evil is defeated, retreats, and good triumphs. And, in fact, traditionally this goodness crowns the narrative. However, human happiness, according to Pushkin, still remains within the limits of the general exile of the earthly, and here individual destinies clearly begin to border on the fate of the people, with their history.

“In the rank of a historical story”

At the end of the story, Pushkin puts into the mouth of his hero an aphorism that perhaps applies to all national life, as they say, from Gostomysl to our days. “God forbid we see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless.” This maxim, perhaps, finally confirms Pushkin’s novel in the rank of a historical story. Historical not in the sense of material, but in the sense of the idea of ​​history, and especially Russian history, in its original and very typical form.

The historical on the pages of "The Captain's Daughter" sounds, I would say, in full voice. This is especially audible where the author, willingly or unwillingly, deviates from real, so to speak, documented history. For example, in one of the versions of the story, Pugachev completely anecdotally offers Grinev to serve in his army, and for this he undertakes to reward him with the title of Prince Potemkin.

Clearly, the humor lies in the fact that Pugachev does not understand the difference between a family title and a government position. Pushkin refuses this option, apparently because someone points out to him historical mistake: by the time of Pugachev’s execution, Catherine, perhaps, does not even know about the existence of Potemkin, these are two different eras– the era of uprising and the era of Potemkin favoritism. So he refuses.

But in principle, Pushkin is still right, because in both states, Catherine’s and Pugachev’s, favoritism equally flourishes, which is especially obvious in Peter’s and post-Petrine Russia. Pushkin may be historically wrong, but he is absolutely right in line with the philosophy of history. The logic of history triumphs over chronology, and this in no way detracts from the merits of the literary text.

The same applies to the details of the biography of Pyotr Grinev. Petrusha, in a conversation with the impostor, with Pugachev, reveals knowledge of the details of the fall of False Dmitry I at the beginning XVII century, i.e. details of the Time of Troubles. In general, catching a poet with factual inaccuracies is, as a rule, a pointless exercise. It usually indicates our misunderstanding fiction or, to put it another way, a lack of understanding of the figurative fabric.

Sometimes you hear that you can study Russian history using The Captain's Daughter. Well, you can, of course, but you just need to understand the nature of the features of this study. We must be aware that the novel depicts this story as a whole, in a highly artistic sense. The author often neglects the authenticity of detail in the name of the authenticity of the artistic whole. Therefore, using The Captain's Daughter, you can study the entire Russian history as a whole, but not the history of the Pugachev rebellion, because here the author neglects the historical truth of the episode in the name of the historical truth of the whole, all of Russian history, taken as a great centuries-old unity.

It is on the pages of the novel, as well as in the scenes of “Boris Godunov,” by the way, that Pushkin often abandons facts in favor of the generalized historical truth of the entire past as a whole. He thinks that with this amendment we should accept the artistic fabric of “The Captain’s Daughter” as the work of a great historian.

Neither in “The Captain's Daughter” nor in his other works did Pushkin create a complete history of Russia. Yes, in fact, he probably did not strive for this. But his great talent in the field of history is beyond doubt. Pushkin's thought illuminates such dark corners of history that are perhaps inaccessible to a professional historian limited by known facts. And therefore, our best, main historians have always recognized this ability in Pushkin, which, perhaps, they themselves did not fully possess. This was understood by such scientists as Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov, Vasily Iosifovich Klyuchevsky, Sergei Fedorovich Platonov and many, many others.

Their colleague, Evgeniy Viktorovich Tarle, our famous academician, summed up their thoughts. He used to tell his students that Dantes’ shot deprived Russia of not only brilliant writer, Pushkin already managed to become this during his lifetime, but also the greatest historian, who only barely felt the taste of science.

From Apuleius: “Shame and honor are like a dress: the more shabby they are, the more careless you treat them.” Quote according to ed. Apuleius. Apology. Metamorphoses. Florida. M., 1956, S. 9.

Pushkin A.S. Alexander Radishchev.

Literature

1. Belkind V.S. Time and space in the novel by A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter". // Pushkin collection. L., 1977.
2. Dolinin A.A. Once again about the chronology of “The Captain’s Daughter”. // Pushkin and others. Collection of articles for the 60th anniversary of Professor S.A. Fomichev. Novgorod, 1997.
3. Dolinin A.A. Walter – Scott’s historicism and “The Captain’s Daughter”. // Pushkin and England. Series of articles. M., 2007.
4. Zaslavsky O.B. The problem of mercy in The Captain's Daughter. // “Russian Literature”, 1995, No. 4.
5. Karpov A.A. The plot of the noble lion in “The Captain’s Daughter” // “Russian Literature”, 2016, No. 3.
6. Krasukhin G.G. Grinev is a narrator. // Historical and literary collection. To the 60th anniversary of Leonid Genrikhovich Frizman. Kharkov, 1995.
7. Listov V.S. About the missing chapter of The Captain's Daughter. // Listov V.S. New about Pushkin. M., 2000.
8. Listov V.S. The worlds of “The Captain’s Daughter”. // Listov V.S. “The Voice of the Dark Muse” M., 2005.
9. Lotman Yu.M. Ideological structure"The Captain's Daughter" //Pushkin collection. Pskov, 1962.
10. Makogonenko. G.P. About the dialogues in “The Captain’s Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin. // Classical heritage and modernity. L. 1981.
11. Oksman Yu.G. Pushkin at work on “The History of Pugachev” and the story “The Captain’s Daughter”. // Oksman Yu.G. From "The Captain's Daughter" to "Notes of a Hunter". Saratov, 1958.
12. Orlov A.S. Folk songs in "The Captain's Daughter". // Artistic folklore. M., 1927. Issue. 2-3.
13. Ospovat A.L. From materials for commentary on “The Captain’s Daughter.” //Europe and Russia. Digest of articles. M., 2010.
14. Rogachevsky A.B. “Cavalry Maiden” N.A. Durova and “The Captain's Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin: the right of the storyteller. //"Philological Sciences", M., 1993, No. 4.
15. Skobelev V.P. Pugachev and Savelich (to the problem of national character in A.S. Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter”). // Pushkin collection. Pskov, 1972.
16. Khalizev V.E. On the typology of characters in “The Captain’s Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin.. //Concept and meaning: collection in honor of the 60th anniversary of Professor V.M. Markovich. St. Petersburg, 1996.

Story by A.S. Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter" as historical novel

A.S. Pushkin began work on The Captain's Daughter in 1833 and completed it in 1836. In the last years of Pushkin's life, the theme of the peasant uprising was one of the central ones in his work. In the 1930s, the number of peasant riots and disturbances, directed primarily against serfdom, increased. Back in 1824, Pushkin thought about the role of the people in the history of Russia. In the drama "Boris Godunov" the poet raises important problem- the problem of the people and the authorities. Then he again touches on this topic in the unfinished story “The History of Gray-haired Goryushkin” and continues it in “Dubrovsky”.

Now the writer focuses on “popular opinion” as an active and even decisive factor in history. But Pushkin believes that changing the political structure of society is impossible without bringing the nobles and peasant masses closer together. How can this rapprochement occur?

Probably, it was precisely this problem that Pushkin reflected on in his story “The Captain’s Daughter,” which also not only reflects the uprising of 1773 - 1775, but also touches on such important topics as problems of duty, honor and human dignity.

The work is narrated from the perspective of an eyewitness who directly observed the events of those times. But Grinev is not a faceless means of conveying facts, he is a person who has his own assessment, his personal perception and understanding of what is happening. Therefore, observing events through the perception of Grinev, a rather typical hero, we have the opportunity not only to imagine the historical situation of Russia in the 70s of the 18th century, but also learn about the life of the nobility of that time, about their ideas, views and ideals. By depicting the images of the main characters, not very voluminous, but meaningful and bright, does Pushkin sufficiently reflect the mores of Russian society in the era of Catherine? For example, drawing Grinev’s parents, he tells us about the life of the middle class of nobles who read the “annually received” “Court Calendar”, respect service and value devotion to the fatherland. The kind Savelich, who suffers the master’s injustices, but still loves the “master’s child” with all his heart, is also a typical image. Many peasants went over to Pugachev’s side and began to fight against serfdom and their masters. But there were many people like Savelich who, having gotten used to it, could no longer imagine themselves independent of their masters.

Images of Zurin, an ordinary Russian officer leading a dissolute life and not having any serious thoughts in his head, Mironov and his wife, living peacefully and simply, their godfather Ivan Ignatievich, a good-natured old man who loves his service, and finally, Pugachev himself, with his “gentlemen” generals" - all these images give us an almost complete picture of life provincial nobility of that time, about his conflicts with peasants who were tired of enduring oppression and injustice. Belinsky calls these images “a miracle of perfection in fidelity, truth of content and mastery of presentation.”

This story by Pushkin can be called a historical novel not only because it well reflects the life of peasants and... nobility of Catherine's era. It also conveys specific historical facts quite clearly, in particular the Pugachev uprising. Pushkin forces his narrator to mention even those events that neither he himself nor those around him witnessed (for example, the news of the capture of other fortresses by Pugachev. From the story of the messenger and from the letter of the general).

Of course, from this we can conclude that the main theme in the story for the author was the peasant uprising, and not the love story of the captain’s daughter with the district officer Belgorod fortress. As I already said, Pushkin is trying to find ways to bring the nobles and peasants closer together. This problem undoubtedly plays an important historical role, since the poet sees the possibility of changing the political structure of society only through this rapprochement. But, showing how Grinev perceives everything around him, Pushkin explains that the nobles are not yet able to understand the Peasants, since the path of rapprochement for Pushkin was the same understanding of universal human values. moral values, this means that a rapprochement between the peasant masses and the nobility is still impossible. In some places in the story, Grinev does not even understand the conversations of his companions, he cannot explain his strange, incomprehensible craving for Pugachev, the noble officer only blindly obeys his duty and oath, even going against his heart for this.

Of course, Pushkin does not agree with this understanding of duty and honor, but he does not undertake to argue with his main character, giving us the opportunity to see what ideals and foundations the society of that time followed. Undoubtedly, this again tells us that the story is historical in nature.

In my opinion, they also emphasize the historicity of the work and exact dates indicated by Pushkin in the text, and the correct sequence of events, and specific facts about the capture of fortresses, about the siege of Orenburg.

Reading A. S. Pushkin’s story, “The Captain’s Daughter,” we simultaneously follow the plot of an ordinary story and observe the events of a historical novel. This work is interesting and informative and, according to Belinsky, one of the most best works Russian literature.