Brief description of Aleko from the poem Gypsy.  Aleko - characteristics of the hero (character) (Gypsies Pushkin A.S.)

GYPSIES

(Poem, 1824)

Aleko- a fugitive from civilization with its “unfreedom”, persecuted by the “law”, the hero of the last of the cycle of “Byronic” poems by Pushkin, in which all the (already obviously insoluble) problems posed by this genre are condensed to the limit.

A. wants to become part of the “wild”, natural world. When the gypsy Zemfira finds him in the desert steppe, he follows her to the camp to become a gypsy. The gypsies do not mind - their will knows no prohibition (here the chains are intended exclusively for the bear), just as it does not know constancy. The Wise Old Man, Zemfira’s father, explains this to the newcomer - once, twice (“...freedom is not always sweet / To those who are accustomed to bliss”). He agrees in advance - because he loves Zemfira, wants to always be with her - and become a “free inhabitant of the world”, like a “bird of God” without knowing care and labor. Alas, he does not realize that the gypsies are free to the end; that for all their passion they do not know long-lasting, hot passion, and therefore they do not know fidelity; that he needs freedom from someone else's dictate, but he never recognizes someone else's freedom from himself. First of all, Zemfira’s freedom to love whoever she wants.

Thus, the Byronically fragmentary plot, breaking up into short dramatic passages, approaches the inevitable climax of the love (and semantic) conflict. Having spent two years with his beloved Zemfira, A. suddenly hears her allusive song: “Old husband, formidable husband /<...>I love someone else...” This is self-exposure, contrastingly shaded by Zemfira’s answer, consistently free: “you are free to be angry.”

The end is near; Nothing can stop her - not even the third (according to literary and folklore account, necessarily the last) warning of the Old Man. Having learned from Zemfira that the Russian moans and sobs terribly in his sleep, he calls A. for a conversation: he again reminds that “people here are free,” tells an instructive story about his Love for Zemfira’s mother, Mariu-la, who left with a gypsy from another camp ; All in vain. Finding Zemfira with someone else, A. kills both. That is, he administers court, which is possible only where there is law. Having described a full circle, the action returns to the starting point - the European, who fled from the law into freedom, himself judges the will according to the law established by him. What is the value of freedom that does not promise happiness? What is the value of a civilization from which one cannot hide, because it nests in man himself? A. does not find an answer - he remains completely alone, rejected (but not condemned!) by the camp. Unlike the Caucasian captive from Pushkin’s poem of the same name, he cannot return to the “Russian”, European space, where “Our two-headed eagle / Still roars with its momentary glory.”

According to the law of the genre, the circumstances of the hero’s life are correlated with the circumstances of the life of the author (who himself is “...dear Mariula<...>repeated the tender name"). The connecting link between them is not only the autobiographical epilogue, not only the name A., through which the name of Pushkin himself, Alexander, shines through. The legend about Ovid, which - again for educational purposes - is told by the Old Man, is very important. It is with Ovid, whom Rome expelled from the center of the empire to the northern outskirts, in the Danube regions, that Pushkin compares himself in poems from the period of southern exile. It is with Ovid, who among the free people yearned for the empire, that A. Starik compares. And yet the line separating the author’s inner world from the hero’s inner world is clearly drawn. The author has already realized that “fatal passions are everywhere / And there is no protection from fate”; he is more experienced and wiser than A.; he does not so much rhyme his experiences with the feelings of the hero as coldly and harshly analyze his spiritual world.

The Old Man’s phrase addressed to A. - “Humble yourself, proud man” - served as the starting point for the historiosophical constructions of F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Pushkin Speech” (1880); the image of A. became for Dostoevsky the personification of the individualistic, godless principle of Western European culture; he is opposed by Tatyana Larina, personifying the humble beginning of Russian conciliarism.

Aleko is the hero of A.S. Pushkin’s poem “The Gypsies” (1824). A. is, first of all, a generalized image of the young, European-educated generation of the 19th century, to which Pushkin counted himself. This is a hero of the Byronic type, endowed with such a keen sense of dignity that he perceives all the laws of the civilized world as violence against man. The conflict with society, with which A. is connected by birth and upbringing, is the starting point of the hero’s biography. However, A.'s past is not revealed in the story. The hero is characterized in the most general sense as a “fugitive”, forcibly expelled or voluntarily leaving his familiar environment. Above all, he values ​​freedom and hopes to find it in the natural free life of a gypsy camp.

The story “Gypsies” is based on the contrast between two social structures, characteristic of romanticism: civilization and wild will. Criticism of the contradictions of civilization occupies an important place in the work. A. denounces the “captivity of stuffy cities”, in which people “trade according to their will”, “they bow their heads before idols and ask for money and chains.”

The image of "chains" was traditionally used by the Romantics to characterize feudal despotism and political reaction. In "Gypsies" he is relegated to modern times. A.'s break with civilization goes beyond narrow personal problems and receives a deep ideological justification. Thus, the motive of exile in the hero’s fate is initially perceived as a sign of his high capabilities, his moral advantages over a flawed civilization.

Subsequently, the exile A. appears among the primitive people, whose life Pushkin characterizes with the metaphors “will”, “bliss”, “laziness”, “silence”. This is a kind of paradise, where evil has not yet penetrated and where, it seems, A. can rest his soul and find his happiness. But it is precisely such an environment, fundamentally alien to activity, that in contrast reveals the oddities of A.’s personality and character. The life practice of a romantic hero is traditionally carried out in passions. Such a hero manifests himself in stormy experiences, in the exclusivity of desires and actions, especially in the sphere of love relationships. In the previous world, A.’s life was not successful; Finding himself in a gypsy camp, he pins his hope for another, new life on Zemfira. She is “more precious to him than the world.” As long as Zemfira loves him, life for A. is full of harmony. But with Zemfira’s betrayal, the newfound balance collapses. A.'s pride is offended, his heart is tormented by jealousy and the need for revenge. Blinded by an explosion of indomitable desires, in an effort to restore the trampled, as it seems to him, justice, A. inevitably goes to crime - the murder of Zemfira. In A.’s love, possessive, egoistic instincts are manifested, i.e. those moral qualities that characterize him as the bearer of the spirit of the civilization he despises. The paradox of A.’s fate is that it is he, the champion of freedom and justice, who brings blood and violence into the innocent simple life of the gypsies - that is, morally corrupts it. This plot twist reveals the hero's failure. It turns out that the “son of civilization” (as A. Belinsky called it) is incompatible with the communal gypsy life, just as he is incompatible with the world of enlightenment. A second expulsion - this time from a gypsy camp - and punishment by loneliness complete the hero’s storyline.

A.’s life credo is clarified in the story by Zemfira’s old father. If A. defends the rights of an individual, then the old gypsy, obediently accepting the natural order of being, speaks on behalf of tribal life. In the unpredictable behavior of a gypsy woman, in the spontaneity of her love, he sees only a surge of natural forces that are not subject to human judgment. The old man, who once in his youth also experienced the pangs of love, now wants to warn A., to convey his experience to him. But “angry and strong” A. does not hear the old man and does not accept his advice. “No, without arguing, // I will not renounce my rights, // Or at least I will enjoy vengeance,” he declares.

Confronting two life philosophies, Pushkin does not give preference to one or the other. The most important technique of contrast in romantic thinking is necessary for particularly vivid illumination of the conflict under consideration. In essence, A. symbolizes in this conflict the extremes of development of a modern individualistic society, the enormously expanded principle of personality. This perhaps explains the maximum generalization of the characterization of the hero, who is deprived of a real biography and nationality, and is excluded from a specific historical and everyday environment. In literary criticism, there has been a long tradition of accusing A. of insolvency (Belinsky saw him as an egoist, Dostoevsky - an eternal outcast). But Pushkin’s position is much more complex than exposing the hero. Although in “Gypsies” the hero is objectified, the presence of autobiographical features in him (A. is the gypsy form of the name Alexander) indicates a lyrical interpretation of not only some of the hero’s views (criticism of modernity, for example), but also the general tone of the author’s compassion for his fate. A. tragic. In an expressive portrait of the hero of the time, doomed to follow the paths of evil and paying with his life for his errors, Pushkin showed the imperfection of human nature itself, the objective tragedy of the ways of development of human culture.

Alexander Pushkin in his work went from romanticism to realism. The young author still believed in the ideas of the romantics, but at a more mature age he became an adherent of a realistic view of life.

The first step towards realism was the poem "". Here the author rethinks the image of the romantic hero, looks deeper at such categories as freedom and honor.

The main character of the poem is called Aleko. It is not difficult to understand that this is a shortened version of the author's name. The hero belongs to the enlightened youth of the 19th century, to which Pushkin himself belonged.

The hero is positioned in the poem as a fugitive. What is he running from? Judging by his statements, he leaves the false high society that is disgusting to him and hopes to find freedom among the gypsies. In this he is similar to the Byronic type of hero. He feels like a stranger among his own. But will he become one of the strangers? As the tragic ending of the poem shows, definitely not.

Aleko is endowed with a keen, even painful, sense of self-esteem. The framework of the civilized world is perceived by him as violence against man. He wants to find freedom for himself. Therefore, he gladly follows the young gypsy woman to the camp. The girl's father will not contradict his desire to stay. But he hints that it is unlikely that such a young man, pampered by the blessings of city life, will get used to the wretched existence of the gypsies. Aleko is convinced of the opposite. The hero assures that he does not regret his past life.

Aleko remains to live in the camp. And, it seems, he finds the long-awaited harmony among this free people. The life of the gypsies is primitive, but the love of young Zemfira replaces everything for him. They are not forbidden to love each other, no one sets any limits inherent in a civilized society.

The author in the poem takes a new look at the category of freedom. Gypsies are freedom-loving by nature. But this freedom has nothing to do with the spiritual ideal state, but manifests itself in licentiousness and primitiveness.

Zemfira's mother abandons her as a child, following a new man. Zemfira doesn’t even blame her, because she’s the same. The girl is a fan of free love. Her heart does not become attached to one man for a long time. This happened with Aleko. She became passionately attached to him, but after a while she became interested in the young gypsy. I didn’t feel guilty because I considered myself free. And she perceived her husband’s insults as oppression of her free way of life.

Aleko is not able to understand Zemfira, because he grew up in a different society, where such behavior by a woman is condemned. The main character feels insulted and seeks revenge. This opportunity is given to him. He kills Zemfira and her lover. Aleko always wanted freedom for himself, but he himself does not give freedom to others. Thus, he reveals himself as an egoist.

Aleko is the main character of the poem “Gypsies” - a romantic hero without ideals.

Writers often draw inspiration from reality and the circumstances in which they find themselves. Pushkin was in exile in the city of Chisinau in 1824 and there he managed to stay for more than two weeks in a gypsy camp. This experience allowed him to create the poem Gypsies, which describes the existence of a Gypsy camp.

In essence, this poem invites readers to consider the problems of two different worlds. On the one hand, we see the world of civilization and culture, from which Aleko comes. On the other hand, before us is a gypsy camp - actually a wild existence.

The world of civilization exists according to laws and rules, from which, in essence, Aleko lives. After all, the accepted rules degenerate into baseness and dirt under the influence of human nature (meaning, of course, the negative side of this nature).

Formally, Aleko is running away from the law, from human law. However, probably in this Pushkin also means not only persecution by the law as such, but also an escape from the human law of meanness. The main character of the poem complains about the baseness of foundations and the constraint of people who, as it were, keep themselves in a corral of falsehood.

The main character runs to a gypsy camp, which seems to exist outside the law. There is tradition and ritual there. A kind of genuine humanity that regulates the everyday life of free people.

The representatives of the gypsy camp in the poem are for the most part the gypsy Zemfira, who becomes Aleko’s beloved and gives birth to his son, and Aleko’s wise father, who instructs the hero regarding gypsy customs. First, the main character accepts the new world, he becomes part of it, settles down, gets a family and a source of income.

However, in reality this hero does not change completely and at the end of the poem we understand that he was running away not only from human society, but also from himself. He is left alone, and even the gypsies leave this jealous man, who destroys his wife and her lover. Aleko cannot come to terms with the new world and its orders, which seem to not exist.

The wise gypsy tells the hero about the love of gypsies and asks not to complain about the temporary nature of this phenomenon. Gypsies can fall in love with someone else and you shouldn’t expect anything else.

The Gypsy tradition is about freedom, including giving freedom to others. They let Aleko make his own choice, but want nothing more to do with him. Aleko, in turn, does not understand this unwritten law of freedom and cannot provide freedom to others, although he wants freedom for himself.

The poem ends with a scene of his loneliness. It is as if he finds himself between two worlds in a complete void, in which he has to understand himself.

In structure, the poem is close to romanticism, although Pushkin introduced some innovations for his time. Of the main images that the author uses, the image of the Moon, which also represents the soul of the main character, should be noted.

Option 2

This poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was written a long time ago, more than two hundred years ago. The plot is quite interesting. Pushkin’s poem “The Gypsies” shows the life of free gypsies and the life of the city with its laws and inhabitants. But here there is not only a description of the life and customs of the camp, but also the romantic story of Aleko and Zemfira. He is a freedom-loving young man who cannot put up with the life he has. Aleko is a romantic and wants to live in a free and ideal world, so he ends up with the gypsies. The old gypsy man gives him the opportunity to stay and offers to share food and shelter.

Zemfira, on the other hand, personifies freedom and independence; she is a beautiful black-eyed gypsy. Aleko stays with them, but he is sad and yearning, and does not understand the reason for this.

But time passes, and the guy can no longer be distinguished from others living in the camp; he has become like all the gypsies. Aleko understands that even in the camp there is no complete freedom that he so dreamed of. Here, too, everyone lives by the rules, and everything is repeated day after day. But there are also those who have come to terms with their life here and do not demand more, for example, the Old Man just sits and basks in the sun. It seems that each of them is on his own together.

But one day the gypsy Zemfira starts a song in which she hints that she loves someone else. She says that her mother sang this song to her and teases Aleko with this song. As a result, Aleko kills Zemfira. And here all his negative traits appear, which we did not see at the beginning of the poem. He is overcome by anger at Zemfira and everything ends tragically.

The meaning of the poem is that everyone is looking for their destiny and a “better lot,” but not everyone is happy in finding what they thought they needed. Only the Old Man has come to terms with his lot and is happy about the new day he has lived. Every person thinks that it is better in another place or with others, but you can’t escape fate. And a striking example of this is Aleko and the gypsy Zemfira.

The problems raised in Pushkin’s work are relevant to this day, because people continue to look for a place where, in their opinion, it is better, but most often the problem lies in the person himself and his worldview.

Analysis of the work Gypsies

Often authors take their inspiration from the environment in which they live. Such a legendary author as Pushkin was also inspired to write the poem “Gypsies”. In 1824, the author was in the city of Chisinau and spent two weeks there in a gypsy camp. Thanks to this experience, he created a poem that everyone knows.

This story helps the reader take a closer look at the problem of two worlds. One world is civilization, culture and laws. Another world - the wildness of a gypsy camp.

The entire civilization rests only on written laws and various rules. It was from all this that the main character of the work, Aleko, wanted to escape. He wanted to plunge into the world of wildness and freedom and ended up in a gypsy camp.

You can say that Aleko wants to run away from the laws. All this is strange to him, he wants to hide from everyone.

Aleko fled to the gypsies, who, in his opinion, do not obey the laws. After all, there is no law there, there are traditions.

The representative of this camp in Pushkin’s poem is Zemfira, with whom Aleko falls in love. The woman bore him a son. Initially, the main character of the poem accepted this new feast, he wants to become a part of it all. He started a family and found a job to provide for his wife and child.

However, the reader understands that the hero has not changed completely. At the end of the work, it becomes clear that the hero was running away not from people, but from himself. Aleko just can’t come to terms with the new world, with all the orders and unwritten laws. He is not ready for such a life.

One wise gypsy explained to the main character that gypsies are very loving. First they love one, then the other. You shouldn't take this to heart.

Gypsies value freedom and put it first. They are for the right to choose in everything, even in relationships. Aleko must make a choice, because they no longer want to deal with him. They don't even want to see him anymore. The hero does not understand why this is so. He does not understand these laws and does not want to give someone freedom, although he himself is in search of this freedom for himself.

Pushkin's poem ends with the main character left alone. He found himself between two worlds, in some kind of emptiness. He has yet to understand himself and it will not be easy.

In its structure, this poem is very close to romance. Pushkin experimented and made many adjustments to make the work successful. All images are chosen quite accurately and successfully. Each character carries a certain story that you want to know. Also, the work is very instructive and interesting.

One of the characters in Gogol's work The Night Before Christmas is Osip Nikiforovich, a rural clergyman. The author describes the appearance of Osip Nikiforovich as rather unprepossessing and not particularly outstanding

Zemfira represents a wonderful artistic embodiment of an integral, spontaneous nature. It is maintained by the poet from the first word to his last exclamation. Her short song, which she sings while rocking the child, is filled with poetic charm and grace. The passionate, impetuous nature of the gypsy was expressed entirely in her words:

Old husband, terrible husband, I hate you,
Cut me, burn me: I despise you;
I am firm, I am not afraid, I love another,
No knife, no fire. I'm dying in love.

All of Zemfira’s ardent love and thirst for boundless freedom were expressed in these words. She behaves so energetically and defiantly towards Aleko because she defends the most precious and cherished thing she has: freedom of feeling.

After all, a simple wild gypsy has nothing else in which she could show her personality, except for a free and sincere feeling. To take this away from her would mean to deprive her of her spiritual appearance; She instinctively understands this, and therefore says: “I die loving.”

Without this feeling, Zemfira becomes a living corpse, and then she prefers physical death. With this exclamation, she dies, maintaining the consciousness of her human dignity, since, according to the wild gypsy, to love means to live, and without free and sincere love there is no life. Her lover is killed, the object of her free passion is dead, and therefore there is no point in living.

The old gypsy man, Zemfira's father, is directly opposite to Aleko in character; He is a calm person, with a simple and complacent attitude towards life. Through his lips, the poet condemns Aleko’s selfishness and cruelty:

The old man is a representative of simple people close to nature. He is kind and meek, kind and generous. He renounces the evil, proud Aleko, but there is no malice in his heart even against his daughter’s killer.

He tells him: “Sorry! may peace be with you." Pushkin is clearly more sympathetic to the old gypsy man than Aleko. This reflected the Russian nature of the poet and expressed his aspirations for popular principles. But he still does not quite clearly understand the principles of the people.

He forced, for example, the old man to justify Zemfira’s betrayal, reasoning that love appears and disappears at the whim of the heart and cannot be stopped, just as one cannot indicate a place in the sky for the moon, order it to illuminate one cloud and not another.

According to popular belief, on the contrary, love should be eternal. But, consciously forcing the old man to express ideas that are dissimilar to his character, the poet unconsciously draws him correctly: the old man, until his death, did not stop loving and did not forget his wife who cheated on him.

The old gypsy is the complete opposite of Aleko. This is a person who not only loves his freedom, but knows how to appreciate and respect the freedom of others. His wife Mariula once left with a gypsy from a neighboring camp, leaving her husband and leaving a little daughter. The old man did not chase after her to take revenge, since he believed that no one was “able to hold back love.”

He also does not take revenge on Aleko for taking away the last joy in his life - his daughter. The image of the old gypsy is clearly romantic. But such an interpretation would have been necessary for Pushkin in order to highlight Aleko’s egoism more clearly. Zemfira is also the opposite of Aleko in the sense that she does not think about her life, she is submissive to her feelings.

In contrast to Aleko, the poem gives images of gypsies: free, following the dictates of her immediate feelings, Zemfira, her simple and ingenuous father. The moral concepts of the gypsies, romantically presented by Pushkin, are fully expressed in the sentence passed by the old gypsy to the murderer of his daughter:

“Leave us, proud man! We do not torment, we do not execute,
We are wild, we have no laws. We don't need blood or groans;
But we don’t want to live with a murderer.”

The proclamation of humanity and goodness - this is the inner meaning of Pushkin’s last romantic poem. However, the poet is not inclined to recognize the life of the gypsies as his ideal: he does not see the full embodiment of human aspirations in it either. Pushkin understands that “nakedness,” poverty, and primitive views do not constitute human happiness, although they compare favorably with the “brilliant shame” of secular life.

The very “truth” of following one’s feelings and desires among gypsies does not rise to the heights of humanistic consciousness. Yes, they don’t torture or execute people, but still, in the name of their own happiness, they destroy the happiness of others. Aleko, whom Zemfira cheated on, suffers and tries to drown out his suffering in bloody revenge.

The old gypsy, abandoned by Mariula, knows: “what happened will not happen again,” “in succession joy is barked to everyone,” and he calms down and seems to be reconciled. But his heart is cold and sad, but loneliness also torments and burns him. How vividly the story of the old gypsy conveys these feelings:

I was young; my soul
At that time it was seething with joy;
And not one in my curls
The gray hair has not yet turned white, -
Between young beauties
There was one... and for a long time she was,
I admired the sun like the sun,
And finally he called me mine...
Oh, my youth is fast
Flashed like a falling star!
But you, the time of love, has passed
Even faster: only a year
Mariula loved me.
Once upon a time near the Kagul waters
We met an alien camp;
Those gypsies, their tents
Having broken near ours at the mountain,
We spent two nights together.
They left on the third night, -
And, leaving his little daughter,
Mariula followed them.
I slept peacefully; the dawn flashed;
I woke up, my friend was gone!
I search, I call, and there is no trace.
Longing, Zemfira cried,
And I cried - from now on
All the virgins of the world hate me;
My gaze is never between them
I didn't choose my girlfriends
And lonely leisure
I no longer shared it with anyone.
Therefore, the poem ends with a gloomy final chord. Therefore, Pushkin does not find happiness among the “poor sons of nature.”

Realistically showing the relationships between people that developed in the “captivity of the stuffy cities” of that time, depicting the “fatal passions” that penetrate into the “nomadic canopy,” Pushkin, in a bright romantic aspiration, dreams of a happy, free, humane human life.

He dreams of a world in which the happiness of each person will not be in conflict with the happiness of other people - a world in which freedom will have its basis in a high, meaningful, creative life.

Aleko represents the complete opposite of the character of the gypsies. His speeches and his entire worldview are simple and calm. Whether he was talking about the betrayal of his Mariula, or telling the legend about Ovid, or driving out his daughter’s murderer, the tone of the old gypsy’s speeches was equally objective, alien to impetuosity and passion. It's not that he treats people indifferently. With warm feeling, he talks about the “holy elder” Ovid, exiled by the Roman emperor to the banks of the Danube, the love and attention of local residents to him, his wonderful stories, his longing for his native land.

He cannot forget his love for Mariula. But over the years, with life experience, the old man developed a calm, philosophical attitude towards people and life. Nothing can outrage him. Aleko complains that Zemfira does not love, the old man says that this is in the order of things: a woman’s heart loves in jest. Aleko was cheated on by Mariula - the old man reasons:

Who can hold on to love?
When we are done, joy is given to everyone;
I bet it won't happen again.

Aleko killed his daughter. The old man does not take revenge. For what? After all, she cannot be resurrected. He only expels the killer, because Aleko was not born for wild will. The old man doesn’t even wish him harm: “Sorry! may peace be with you” - these are the last words of the gypsy.

From the point of view of artistic truth, the image of this philosophizing gypsy raises objections. Do such people exist? Undoubtedly, this is an idealized image; but the characters in the poem are always exceptional characters, so some sophistication in the poetic characterization of the gypsy is appropriate.

What features did the poet endow with the old gypsy man and what is the ideological and compositional role of his image?

V. Belinsky says this about the old gypsy man: “This is one of those persons whose creation all literature can be proud of. There is something patriarchal about this gypsy. he has no thoughts: he thinks with feelings—and how true, deep, and human are his feelings! His language is full of poetry."

The old gypsy is endowed with a simple and calmly wise attitude towards life; he is kind, hospitable and tolerant. In his speeches one can hear the experience of many years lived. His role in the poem, as Belinsky points out, is the role that the chorus played in ancient Greek tragedy, explaining the actions of the characters in the tragedy and pronouncing the verdict on them. It is clear that the poet assigns such a role to a person whose moral qualities stand above the other characters in the poem.

In the old man’s speeches we hear the voice of folk legend, and it is not for nothing that he utters this word when beginning the story about Ovid. Listening to Zemfira’s singing, the old man remarks: “So, I remember, I remember: this song / Was composed in our time,” that is, he speaks of Zemfira’s song as a folk song.

His very story about Mariul, “a story about himself,” is similar to a sad folk song about love, betrayal, and separation.

Among the young beauties Oh, my youth is fast
There was one... and for a long time she flashed like a falling star!
Like the sun, I admired But you, the time of love, has passed
And finally he called me mine. Even faster: only a year
Mariula loved me.

Reading these beautiful poems, we feel in them the life and movement of images, comparisons, epithets characteristic of folk poetry. Belinsky quite rightly noted that the old gypsy is opposed to the tragic hero of the poem and stands above Aleko.

However, according to Belinsky, “despite all the sublimity of the old gypsy’s feelings, he does not clarify the ideal of man: this ideal can only be realized in a consciously rational being, and not in a directly rational one who has not escaped the tutelage of nature and custom.” A deeply correct remark that warns against calling the old gypsy the ideal hero of the poem.

In the depiction of the old gypsy man and Zemfira, as well as the gypsy camp as a whole, filled with the author’s respect and love for his heroes, an important side of his work is revealed. It is devoid of any traces of national exclusivity, while at the same time being completely Russian in spirit.

People of different races and nations, both large and small, enjoy complete equality in the poet’s works, despite the fact that in those days many people, even from among educated society, were characterized by a disdainful attitude towards people of small, “savage” nations.

In contrast to the image of Aleko, the image of an old gypsy is given in the poem - the embodiment of folk wisdom, that folk psychology and morality that develop among ordinary people living in the lap of nature, outside the influence of urban civilization. The old gypsy man not only loves his freedom, but also respects the freedom of others.

He did not take revenge on either Mariula, who left him, or her lover; Nor does he take revenge on Aleko for his murdered daughter. The old man is a whole person, his feelings are deep. Abandoned by Mariula, he no longer loved anyone. He is cordial and hospitable, with a kind soul. All his feelings are natural and not distorted.

In the image of Zemfira, the second theme of the poem is posed, although it is closely related to the first: the defense of a woman’s right to freedom of feeling, to personal happiness, the right to independently decide the issue of her life. Zemfira is also an integral nature, living according to the laws of feelings. Having fallen in love with the young gypsy, she boldly declares to Aleko:

No, that's it, I'm not afraid of you! —
I despise your threats
I curse your murder.