Poor mind and feelings. Essay on the topic of mind and feelings in literature

Final essay is an exam format that allows you to assess several aspects of a student’s knowledge at once. Among them: lexicon, knowledge of literature, ability to express one’s point of view in writing. In short, this format makes it possible to assess the student’s overall proficiency in both language and subject knowledge.

1. 3 hours 55 minutes are allotted for the final essay, the recommended length is 350 words.
2. Date of the final essay 2016-2017. In 2015-2016 academic year it was held on December 2, 2015, February 3, 2016, May 4, 2016. In 2016-2017 - December 7, February 1, May 17.
3. The final essay (presentation) is held on the first Wednesday of December, the first Wednesday of February and the first working Wednesday of May.

The purpose of the essay is reasoning, a competent and clearly constructed point of view of the student using examples from literature within given topic. It is important to note that the topics do not indicate a specific work for analysis; it is of a supra-subject nature.

Topics for the final essay on literature 2016-2017

Topics are formed from two lists: open and closed. The first one is known in advance and reflects approximate common topics, they are formulated as concepts that contradict each other.
A closed list of topics is announced 15 minutes before the start of the essay - these are more specific topics.
Open list of topics for the final essay 2016-2017:
1. “Reason and Feeling”,
2. “Honor and dishonor”,
3. “Victory and defeat”,
4. “Experience and mistakes”,
5. “Friendship and enmity”.
The topics are presented in a problematic manner, the names of the topics are antonyms.

An approximate list of references for all those who will write the final essay (2016-2017):
1. A.M. Gorky "Old Woman Izergil"
2. A.P. Chekhov "Ionych"
3. A.S. Pushkin " Captain's daughter", "Eugene Onegin", "Station Warden"
4. B.L. Vasiliev “Not on the lists”
5. V.A. Kaverin "Two Captains"
6. V.V. Bykov "Sotnikov"
7. V.P. Astafiev "Tsar Fish"
8. Henry Marsh “Do No Harm”
9. Daniel Defoe “Robinson Crusoe”,

10. Jack London “White Fang”,
11. Jack London "Martin Eden",
12. I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"
13. I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons"
14. L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
15. M.A. Sholokhov "Quiet Don"
16. M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"
17. F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment", "Idiot"
18. E. Hemingway “The Old Man and the Sea”,
19. E.M. Remarque “On western front no change"
20. E.M. Remarque "Three Comrades".

Argumenyou are on the topic "Reason and Feeling"

The point of view must be reasoned; in order to formulate it correctly, one should involve literary material, corresponding to the topic. The argument is the main component of the essay and is one of the evaluation criteria. The following requirements apply to it:
1. Match the theme
2. Include literary material
3. Be included in the text logically, in accordance with the overall composition
4. Be presented through quality writing.
5. Be properly designed.
For the topic “Reason and Feeling,” you can take arguments from the works of I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons", A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit", N.M. Karamzin " Poor Lisa", Jane Austen "Sense and Sensibility".

Examples of final essays

There are a number of final essay templates. They are assessed according to five criteria, here is an example of an essay that received the highest score:
An example of an essay on the topic: “Should reason prevail over feelings?”
What to listen to, reason or feelings - this is the question every person asks. It is especially acute when the mind dictates one thing, but feelings contradict it. What is the voice of reason, when one should listen more to its advice, a person decides for himself, and the same with feelings. Without a doubt, the choice of one or the other depends on the specific situation. For example, even a child knows that stressful situation You shouldn’t give in to panic, it’s better to listen to reason. It is important not only to listen to both reason and feelings, but also to truly learn to distinguish between situations when it is necessary to listen to the first or the second in to a greater extent.

Since the question has always been relevant, it has found wide circulation both in Russian and in foreign literature. Jane Austen, in her novel Sense and Sensibility, reflected this eternal contradiction through the example of two sisters. Elinor, the eldest of the sisters, is distinguished by her prudence, but is not devoid of feelings, she simply knows how to manage them. Mariana is in no way inferior to her older sister, but prudence is not inherent in her in any way. The author showed how their characters were affected in the test of love. In the case of her older sister, her prudence almost played tricks on her cruel joke, thanks to her reserved nature, she did not immediately let her lover know how she felt. Mariana became a victim of feelings, so she was deceived by a young man who took advantage of her gullibility and married a wealthy lady. As a result, the older sister was ready to come to terms with loneliness, but the man of her heart, Edward Ferras, makes a choice in her favor, refusing not only the inheritance, but also his word: an engagement to an unloved woman. Marianne, after a serious illness and suffering deception, grows up and agrees to be engaged to a 37-year-old captain, for whom she does not have romantic feelings, but deeply respects her.

The heroes in A.P.’s story make a similar choice. Chekhov "About Love". However, Alyohin and Anna Luganovich, succumbing to the call of reason, give up their happiness, which makes their action correct in the eyes of society, but deep down in their souls, both heroes are unhappy.

So what is reason: logic, common sense or just a boring mind? Can feelings interfere with a person’s life or, conversely, provide an invaluable service? There is no clear answer to this debate: who to listen to: reason or feeling. Both are equally important for a person, so you just need to learn how to use them correctly.

Still have questions? Ask them in our VK group:

« Strong mind" and "tenderest feelings"

Written in late XVIII century "Poor Liza", two hundred years later she retained her attractive force for the modern reader.

The success of this small book can be explained simply: it is about love, that is, about the eternal, about what always worries people, especially young people. In the story, the feeling of love is revealed as a mobile, changeable feeling, capable of renewing the soul, enriching it (both through happiness and through suffering).

The story can be studied from different angles, but to ensure success, let us turn to its moral and philosophical issues.

Presenter story line The story boils down to the love story of Lisa and Erast. Karamzin always pays great attention the inner world of a person, his feelings, experiences, believing that understanding them helps the formation of the human soul. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to trace what nature the characters’ feelings are, how they develop, and what they lead to. The answers to these questions will allow us to reach eternal problems life: love is happiness and love is tragedy; fate and circumstances; nature and man.

So, let's turn to the feelings of the heroes, first of all to the feeling of love main character stories - Lisa (about the fact that she - main character, say both the title of the story and the place of this image in the system of developing events).

By portraying the wide and far from unambiguous flow of the heroine’s feelings, Karamzin discovered the true skill of a psychologist. This manifested itself in a special presentation emotional experiences Lisa. Before us appears a continuous process of changing, immediate feelings, thoughts, impressions, memories of Lisa, caused by the most important external and internal events for her heart.

Thus, Lisa’s first meeting with a beautiful stranger gives rise to confusion in her soul, which after some time gives way to excitement. The mother's warnings bring her to tears. Not meeting the next day young man with a “kind face”, Lisa is sad. But as soon as Erast appeared in her room, Lisa’s heart was filled with insane “joy.”

At night she cannot sleep: “The image of the Erasts... appears vividly to her.” The morning brings her sad thoughts that Erast is not a “simple peasant”, not a “shepherd” dear to her heart, but his declaration of love destroyed the thoughts, delighting Lisa. Her heart is full of “pure and at the same time passionate feeling,” which she does not try to hide.

But mother makes plans for Lisa’s marriage, without connecting them with Erast, and Lisa “cries.” Erast consoles her: he promises her an eternal chaste “paradise” “in the village” or “in deep forests", and Liza forgot everything in her rapture. She also forgot herself... And then she becomes “scary” and “tears are rolling from her eyes”: it seems to her that there will be no “former” happiness.

Her bitter assumptions are correct: Erast has not been with Lisa “for five days in a row,” and she is experiencing “the greatest anxiety.”

Having learned from Erast about his upcoming departure for the army, Lisa becomes desperate and, after seeing him off, “loses feelings and memory.” Her days without Erast became “days of melancholy and sorrow.”

Finally, Erast’s marriage, his deception, the money with which he seems to buy her off - all this, together with memories of past happiness, shakes her soul, and she commits suicide.

As we see, Lisa, having fallen in love, goes through different psychological states: in a short time of love, she experienced timidity, excitement, hope, joy, happiness, anxiety, sadness, melancholy, fear, despair and, finally, shock. All these are manifestations of boundless love.

Karamzin focuses attention not only on the heroine’s internal experiences, but also on external details that help convey one or another of her states. This should include views, speech, actions, objects of the external world caught by the gaze, etc. For example: Lisa “dared to look at the young man”; "fast Blue eyes they turned to the ground, meeting his gaze”; “Joy flashed in Liza’s eyes, which she tried in vain to hide; her cheeks glowed like the dawn on a clear summer evening; she looked at her left sleeve and pinched it right hand" and so on. There are many examples similar to those given in the story, and students, at our request, will find them. Together we conclude: Karamzin managed to show the richness of Lisa’s soul, its ambiguity, its depth. We agree with researchers of Karamzin’s work: the writer, introducing readers to the “curves of the heart,” immerses us in the tense, emotional atmosphere of “tender passions.”

And what image does Erast’s spiritual life receive? Of course, here too Karamzin acts as a true psychologist, who knows perfectly well what shapes the human personality and what role the feeling of love plays in this.

Therefore, the writer’s story focuses not so much on the story of the hero’s life, but on the story of his soul. Under the influence of what is it developing? inner life Erast? First of all, its natural properties affected (“ kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy"), then the environment did its job (“absent-minded Savor”, filled with secular amusements, not always harmless) and reading novels that took him into the world of careless, naive pleasures. As a result, boredom settled in Erast’s soul (he “complained about his fate”) and a thirst for spontaneous, pure feelings and sensations.

Circumstances turned out to be merciful to Erast: on his way he met Lisa - the personification of purity and spontaneity. “It seemed to him that he had found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time.” Even in her very appearance, he saw God’s providence. “Natura calls me into her arms, to her pure joys,” he thought. Lisa's love is a test of the hero, a test of his decision to start new life, testing his heart, the depth of his feelings.

In the history of his relationship with Lisa, one can see a certain duality, which makes itself felt in the most subtle sphere - in the sphere of love, and this duality is a consequence of both a “kind heart” and a harmful environment that deepened his frivolity and selfishness. On the one hand, Erast is sincerely in love with Lisa, he is proud of them pure relationships, recalling his former life with disgust. He cares about Lisa’s peace and knows how to dry her tears. He cries, parting with her... It seems that his heart has been resurrected and lives with new feelings - completely worthy. On the other hand, the old Erast is visible in the new Erast: his feelings for Lisa have no true depth, they contain an element of play that captivates him; in love, he thinks in cliches, probably taken from the books he read: he calls Lisa, according to custom, “shepherdess”, says that “he will take her to himself and will live with her inseparably in the village and in the dense forests, as in paradise “, that for him “the most important thing is the soul, the sensitive, innocent soul,” etc.

As a result, it is not the high, but the low, familiar feelings that win in him. Lisa loses interest for him. He deceives her, betrays his oath. All this gives rise to the impression that Erast could not stand the test of love and his soul was not cleansed of evil. This impression is supported by the narrator, whose position is given openly: “I forget the man in Erast - I’m ready to curse him,” he says.

But from the ending of the story we learn that Erast, after Lisa’s death, “could not console himself and considered himself a murderer.” What does this indicate? Erast, who previously did not have the ability to self-esteem, calls himself a “murderer.” The phrase “he could not be consoled” reveals a lot to us. In addition, we learn that he visits Lisa’s grave.

Can we say that the rebirth of the soul has occurred? What do the significant words at the end of the story reveal to us: “Now, perhaps, they have already been reconciled”? We are talking about the meeting of the souls of Erast and Lisa in another world, after death, about their reconciliation, which means we're talking about and about forgiveness, and this can only happen if Erast’s soul is cleansed and he admits his own mistakes and delusions.

Thus, Karamzin, using the example of Erast’s life, convincingly shows what a big role feelings of love play in the formation of human personality.

IN love story Several points are important for Erast and Lisa, and they need to be addressed. Exploring the “anatomy” of love, Karamzin raises the question of the possibility and impossibility of happiness in love. What is this happiness? Is it controllable? What kind of happiness is complete - thoughtless or reasonable? In answering these questions, we will rely on the text.

Let's take scenes like this. Here Karamzin introduces us to the momentary happiness of “passionate friendship”, in which there is neither past nor future, it lives only in the present, filling souls with pure delight. Lisa and Erast were given the opportunity to experience these blissful moments. “They sat on the grass... looked into each other’s eyes, said to each other: “Love me!” - and two hours seemed like an instant to them,” writes Karamzin. Lisa and Erast were destined to experience the momentary happiness of love-passion, when they were not afraid of anything, did not think about anything, surrendering completely to the flow of feelings. And this is the almighty power of love!

But Karamzin warns, using the example of Erast, that “the fulfillment of all desires is the most dangerous temptation of love,” for if not its death, then its irreversible fatal changes may occur. That is why the writer’s thought about the necessity of reason is so important. The theme of reason begins to appear in the story almost immediately. We get acquainted with the mother’s reasonable view of Lisa’s behavior and her life; thinks about own destiny and the fate of Erast Lisa, but her mind is not allowed to triumph. And Erast doesn’t think about anything at all - he floats with the flow of feelings, making idyllic plans for life with Lisa, “like with a sister.”

The theme of reason also sounds powerfully in the narrator’s speeches. Turning to Erast, he exclaims: “Reckless young man! Do you know your heart? Can you always be responsible for your movements? Is reason always the king of your feelings?

Reflections on this statement allow us to conclude: the moment of love, when a person surrenders completely to the feeling, is beautiful, it is a happy moment, but long life and strength of feeling is given by reason, reason.

It was not reason that prevailed in the relationship between Lisa and Erast, and this is one of the reasons for their troubles. But the writer does not blame his heroes for their “delusions”, he only explains the behavior of the heroes, and this position is wise: he knows that there are people who are controlled by passions, and this is their reward and punishment.

The story powerfully includes the problem of fate and circumstances. Karamzin does not equate these concepts. Circumstances as a sum real reasons determined the behavior of both Lisa and Erast: after the death of her father, Lisa was forced to help the family and went to Moscow to sell flowers, where she met Erast; circumstances develop for Erast in such a way that he is obliged to join the army and part with Lisa for a while; circumstances forced him to marry “an elderly rich widow” in order to improve his fortune. But all these circumstances are still not fatal.

But there are, according to Karamzin, higher, fatal forces that pronounce their sentence on a person: Lisa, for loving thoughtlessly and recklessly, doomed herself to physical death; Erast, for not keeping his vow to always be with Lisa, doomed himself to moral death: he “was unhappy until the end of his life.”

Higher powers are also represented in the image of Nature. Nature takes great place in Karamzin’s worldview. For him, she is like a creation of the Supreme - the embodiment of beauty, the “feeling” mind. In some of the writer’s works, she appears under the name of Nature (the visible, visible world, on the one hand; on the other, the inherent higher power any possibilities). Karamzin’s nature has many faces in relation to man: she sympathizes with him, can approve of him or condemn him, she is able to warn him of danger and turn into an enemy. Both man and humanity can be in harmony with Nature, and they can also turn into the plaything of terrible, fatal forces.

These views of Karamzin on Nature were also manifested in the story “Poor Liza”. We've seen a lot here different faces Natures that manifested themselves differently in relation to Lisa and Erast.

Lisa first appears before us as a girl of “rare beauty,” pure and young, with lilies of the valley in her hands. These lilies of the valley are a symbol of her spring blossom and purity. But it is these flowers that Lisa will throw into the Moscow River when she does not meet the young man she liked so much... What do comparisons taken from the natural world give the reader? We comprehend spiritual beauty and inner world heroine, we learn that a “pure, joyful soul” glows in her eyes, “like the sun glows in drops of heavenly dew.” Sometimes Nature accurately reflects Lisa’s feelings and carefully “warns” her. This warning was made by Nature at the very beginning of the emergence of Lisa’s love. She did not sleep at night, “woke up almost every minute and sighed.” In the morning, before sunrise, Lisa sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked “at the white mists that were agitated in the air.”

IN " Explanatory dictionary Russian language" edited by D.N. Ushakov explains the word “fog” not only as a state of air, but also as a symbol of the unclear, confusing, incomprehensible. In this context, “fogs” are a prophetic sign, because Lisa does not see her future clearly, it is covered in fog.

But Lisa’s feelings are so pure and beautiful that Nature “cannot help but share” her joy: after all, Lisa loves and is loved. "What a wonderful morning! - says Lisa. - How fun it is in the field! The larks have never sung so well, the sun has never shone so much, the flowers have never smelled so pleasant!”

Nature is “fastened” to Lisa and in the moment of her misfortune - in the moment of her “delusion”. At this time, “a storm roared menacingly, rain poured from black clouds - it seemed that nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence.” But Nature does not turn away from Lisa - she takes pity on her, sympathizes with her. When Lisa, after Erast left for the army, retired to the forest, where she shed tears and “moaned about separation from her beloved,” “the sad turtle dove combined her plaintive voice with her lamentations.”

We can say that nature in the story is always next to Lisa. Spring, morning, sun, lilies of the valley, dawn, birds, quiet moon, thunderstorm, lightning, rain - everything takes part in her joys and sorrows, everything speaks of the harmonious relationship established between Lisa and Nature. In Nature's behavior there is sympathy, pity for poor Lisa, but there is no curse, no condemnation...

Is Nature connected with Erast? In fact, there is no such connection, and its absence is also a characteristic of the hero. It is interesting that Liza is always accompanied by light, the sun, even at night, during her dates with Erast, “the quiet moon... silvered Liza’s light hair with its rays,” but this same moon seemed to never see Erast.

The accompanying images, taken from the world of Nature and characterizing Erast, are images of darkness: he always comes to Lisa “in the evening,” twilight will soon come (“it was getting dark”). Liza, personifying “light,” is drawn into this “evening,” “into the night,” and nature pities her, but not Erast.

Everything this hero touches dies or turns into its opposite: simply the “tall oak tree” near which Erast met with Lisa becomes “gloomy,” and Lisa, who recently made friends with nature, will pray: “Oh, if If only the sky would fall on me: If only the earth would swallow up the poor!” And in the hut, once warmed by the love of two humble hearts - mother and daughter, after the death of Lisa, caused by the deception of Erast, and the death of the poor old woman, the wind will “howl”.

Nature is included in all the main events of the story, so it is next to the heroes, sees them and evaluates them fully, quite emotionally and at the same time fairly. Karamzin affirms the idea that Nature is endowed with reason and it is impossible not to take into account its assessments. True, some see much more humanism in the narrator’s hopes for the resurrection of Erast’s soul than in Nature’s attitude towards this hero. But this opposition is false, because the narrator’s position is dictated by his organic connection with Nature, and therefore comes from Nature. This is clearly seen from the following examples.

The narrator confesses his love for walks “without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through meadows and groves, over hills and plains.” But this recognition alone means little. To discover precisely the organic connection between the narrator and Nature, it is necessary to explore artistic structure at least a microtext, which allows us to judge the originality of Karamzin’s aesthetics. You can take a short excerpt from the description of the Moscow surroundings:

"On the other side of the river you can see Oak Grove, near which numerous herds graze... Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, the Sparrow Hills are blue...

I often come to this place and almost always see spring there; I come there and grieve with nature on the dark days of autumn.”

What does this description reveal? In the first paragraph, the landscape is given in perspective, this expands the space. Artistic simplicity, the absence of metaphors, and the harmonic structure of speech give it an almost epic character. This is a calm landscape, but its calm is not cold, not dispassionate - it is warmed by the warm feeling of the narrator. Hence the lyricism in the sparse description of nature, which is achieved mainly through the special structure of sentences. So, in each sentence we see inversions that create a special, lyrical intonation: “an oak grove is visible,” “numerous herds are grazing,” “the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines,” “the Sparrow Hills are blue.” The main words denoting specific objects of the natural world are placed at the end of the sentences - they become stressed because they are important for the narrator: he highlighted “grove”, “herds”, “Danilov Monastery”, “Sparrow Hills”.

By using verbs with color (“shines”, “turn blue”), he thereby sanctified these places, since the glitter is caused by the gold on the domes of the monastery, glowing under the sun, and the blue comes from the sky. Gold and blue colors, along with white, are the most common in icon painting and artistic painting temples.

The triple repetition of words in the first paragraph is typical: “beside”, “further”, “further”. Here each word out of three is used in a new lexical meaning, which creates the effect of emotional intensity, increasing solemnity, and the repetition of the consonant “l” in each of the three words gives the sentences a softness and melodiousness. As a result, prose under Karamzin’s pen is truly “poeticized” (Yu. M. Lotman). Consequently, the narrator, his soul sensitive to beauty, Nature, is also “poeticized”

The second paragraph is extremely important: it introduces us to a special artistic style Karamzin. Images of spring and autumn appear here. It is known that these words, as a rule, were used in the works of sentimentalists not only in their direct meaning(time of year) - usually their capacity, depth, and subtext were taken into account. The word “spring” was certainly associated with the words “light”, “joy”, “hope”, “happiness”, “flourishing”, etc.; the word “autumn” was associated with the collapse of hopes, withering, the end of life. Therefore, these words created their own lyrical theme. They were usually either italicized or written with capital letters to show that given word -- whole topic, a sign of great meaning.

Karamzin, with the help of images of spring and autumn (spring - to a greater extent), conveys the excited state of the living, sensitive soul of the narrator, caused by memories, which is not fully, fully revealed, but is taken out, as they say, out of brackets, and therefore in Karamzin and nature and man are unusually multidimensional.

The analyzed passage helps to get acquainted with the poetics of Karamzin the prose writer: with the peculiarities of his style, poetic usage, with the special structure of sentences - and ultimately be convinced of the organic merging of Nature and the narrator. It is this organic fusion with Nature as some higher intelligent force that allows the narrator to intervene in events, evaluate the characters and express hopes for the resurrection of Erast’s soul.

All the characters (which include not only Lisa and Erast, but also the narrator and Nature) and the style of the story itself help us to realize author's position as humanistic. The light ones also appeared in her. personal qualities writer (high morality, intelligence, nobility, sensitivity, kind heart, selflessness, religiosity, etc.), and Karamzin’s views on the poet-creator as an enlightened, virtuous, independent person and on art itself as moral strength, capable of inspiring sublime feelings in the reader. When creating his story, Karamzin combined the categories “good” and “beautiful” - moral and aesthetic. As a result, we have Karamzin the artist and Karamzin the philosopher.

In a work of small volume (the theme itself, plot, organization of material, figurative world, language), Karamzin managed to openly express himself: he sang love as a feeling that can enrich human soul, experience and revive it; he advocated the harmony of reason and feelings in love; he promoted humane treatment to a person, condemning him for deviations from the laws of morality, but believing in the resurrection of his soul; he urged to believe in higher power and serve virtue.

Karamzin’s moral lessons are worthy of attention even in today’s difficult days, especially since these are the lessons of a man whose “firm mind,” according to V. A. Zhukovsky, “was always softened by the most tender feeling.”

It was no coincidence that Karamzin placed the action of the story in the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery. He knew this outskirts of Moscow well. Sergius Pond, according to legend, dug by Sergius of Radonezh, became a place of pilgrimage for couples in love; it was renamed Lizin Pond.

Literary direction

Karamzin is an innovative writer. He is rightfully considered the founder of Russian sentimentalism. Readers received the story enthusiastically, because society had long been thirsty for something like this. The classicist movement that preceded sentimentalism, which was based on rationality, tired readers with teachings. Sentimentalism (from the word feelings) reflected the world of feelings, the life of the heart. Many imitations of “Poor Lisa” appeared, a peculiar popular literature, which was in demand by readers.

Genre

“Poor Liza” is the first Russian psychological story. The characters' feelings are revealed in dynamics. Karamzin even invented a new word - sensitivity. Lisa's feelings are clear and understandable: she lives by her love for Erast. Erast’s feelings are more complex; he himself does not understand them. At first he wants to fall in love simply and naturally, as he read in novels, then he discovers a physical attraction that destroys platonic love.

Issues

Social: the class inequality of lovers does not lead to a happy ending, as in old novels, but to tragedy. Karamzin raises the problem of human value regardless of class.

Moral: a person’s responsibility for those who trust him, “unintentional evil” that can lead to tragedy.

Philosophical: self-confident reason tramples on natural feelings, which French enlighteners spoke about at the beginning of the 18th century.

Main characters

Erast is a young nobleman. His character is written in many ways. Erast cannot be called a scoundrel. He is just a weak-willed young man who does not know how to resist life’s circumstances and fight for his happiness.

Lisa is a peasant girl. Her image is not described in such detail and contradictory, it remains in the canons of classicism. The author sympathizes with the heroine. She is hardworking loving daughter, chaste and simple-minded. On the one hand, Lisa does not want to upset her mother by refusing to marry a rich peasant, on the other hand, she submits to Erast, who asks not to tell her mother about their relationship. Lisa thinks, first of all, not about herself, but about the fate of Erast, who will face dishonor if he does not go to war.

Lisa's mother is an old woman who lives with love for her daughter and the memory of her deceased husband. It was about her, and not about Liza, that Karamzin said: “And peasant women know how to love.”

Plot and composition

Although the writer's attention is focused on the psychology of the heroes, external events that lead the heroine to death are also important for the plot. The plot of the story is simple and touching: the young nobleman Erast is in love with the peasant girl Lisa. Their marriage is impossible due to class inequality. Erast is looking for pure brotherly friendship, but he himself does not know his own heart. When the relationship develops into an intimate one, Erast grows cold towards Lisa. In the army he loses a fortune at cards. The only way to improve matters - to marry a rich elderly widow. Lisa accidentally meets Erast in the city and thinks that he has fallen in love with someone else. She cannot live with this thought and drowns herself in the very pond near which she met her beloved. Erast realizes his guilt and suffers for the rest of his life.

The main events of the story take about three months. Compositionally, they are framed with a frame associated with the image of the narrator. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reports that the events described at the lake happened 30 years ago. At the end of the story, the narrator returns to the present again and remembers Erast’s unfortunate fate at Lisa’s grave.

Style

In the text, Karamzin uses internal monologues; the narrator’s voice is often heard. Landscape sketches are in harmony with the mood of the characters and are in tune with the events.

Karamzin was an innovator in literature. He was one of the creators modern language prose close to colloquial speech educated nobleman. This is what not only Erast and the narrator say, but also the peasant woman Liza and her mother. Sentimentalism did not know historicism. The life of the peasants is very conditional; these are some kind of free (not serfs) pampered women who cannot cultivate the land and buy rose water. Karamzin's goal was to show feelings that are equal for all classes, which a proud mind cannot always control.

And a tender smile ran across the Beauty’s fiery lips, And so she, with longing in her eyes, fell into the arms of her beloved... “Be happy!” - Eros whispered to her, Reason? The mind was already silent. A. S. Pushkin “Reason and Love”

Sentimentalism Main idea Main idea The desire to represent the human personality in the movements of the soul Main theme Main theme Love Heroes and characters Heroes and characters Refusal of straightforwardness in assessing characters, attention to ordinary people The role of landscape The role of landscape Means psychological characteristics heroes Main genres Main genres Story, journey, novel in letters, diary, elegy, message, idyll

The author emphasizes that the action takes place precisely in Moscow and its environs, describes, for example, the Simonov Monastery, creating the illusion of authenticity. This was an innovation for Russian literature of that time: usually the action of works took place “in one city.” The first readers of the story perceived Liza's story as a real tragedy of a contemporary; it is no coincidence that the pond under the walls of the Simonov Monastery was named Liza's Pond, and the fate of Karamzin's heroine received a lot of imitations. The oak trees growing around the pond were dotted with touching inscriptions (“In these streams, poor Lisa died in her days; If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh!”). “….here the image of the Mother of God sends my friends to flight…..but most often what attracts me to the walls of the Simonov Monastery is the memory of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa. Ah!..." The meaning of the Simonov Monastery in the story "Poor Liza"

FIRST MEETING …. Lisa came to Moscow with lilies of the valley. A young, well-dressed, pleasant-looking man met her on the street. She showed him the flowers and blushed. “Are you selling them, girl?” – he asked with a smile. “I’m selling,” she answered. - “What do you need?” - “Five kopecks.” - “It’s too cheap.......”

LOVE IS A MORAL TEST OF HEROES Lisa Erast Strength of character, the ability to deeply feel, Tenderness, dedication, BUT RELIANCE Duality of nature, harmful environment, frivolity, selfishness. It seems to him that he has been resurrected for new feelings, but there is no depth. It is not the high, but the low, habitual feelings that win. The soul has not been cleansed of evil, it deceives Lisa.

CONCLUSIONS: 1. Karamzin shows that love plays a big role in human life. 2. But he warns that the fulfillment of all desires is the most dangerous temptation in love, since this leads, if not to death, then to the most fatal changes. 3. In his opinion, reason is necessary

THE THEME OF REASON, REASON ERAST. She doesn’t think about anything, goes with the flow, makes idyllic plans for life with Lisa as her sister. LISA thinks about her fate, but her mind is not allowed to triumph. NARRATOR Constantly in tension, he is close to the heroes, but cannot help them in any way. “Reasonable man, is reason always the king of your feelings?”

THEME OF MIND, REASON. What prevails in the relationship between Lisa and Erast? Feelings, not reason, are the cause of their troubles. If people are controlled by passions, then happiness and pleasure will be followed by retribution - punishment. “Oh, Lisa, Lisa! Where is your guardian angel? Conclusion: The moment of love, when you give yourself entirely to a feeling, is beautiful, but it is the MIND that gives long life and strength to feelings.

THE PROBLEM OF FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCES Circumstances are the sum of real reasons; they do not have the same hopelessness as fate. Erast is forced to join the army; marry a rich widow to improve his financial situation. ROCK - ? BUT, according to Karamzin, there are higher, fatal forces that pronounce their sentence on a person.

RESULT OF THOUGHTLESSNESS LIZA doomed herself for the fact that she thoughtlessly, recklessly loved, to PHYSICAL death. ERAST, for not keeping his vow to always be with Lisa, doomed himself to MORAL death: “he was unhappy until the end of his life.” The AUTHOR does not blame the heroes, but explains the reasons for their troubles, warns the reader about possible troubles if they forget about reason.

THE PROBLEM OF MAN AND NATURE Higher powers are represented in the image of nature: SHE 1. The embodiment of beauty. 2. The feeling mind (sympathizes, approves, condemns, warns, becomes an enemy). CONCLUSION: a person can be in harmony with nature, and he can also turn into a toy of terrible fatal forces.

IMAGE OF NATURE 1. First meeting with Erast - Lisa holds lilies of the valley in her hands. 2. Then she will throw the lilies of the valley into the river. 3. Nature warns: Lisa did not sleep all night at the very beginning of love. In the morning, fog is a symbol of uncertainty. (prophetic fog - L. does not see her future, it is closed to her). 4. During Liza’s delusion, nature is raging: “the storm roared menacingly, rain poured from black clouds... nature lamented about Liza’s lost innocence” Find a description of nature in the text.

IMAGE OF NATURE 5. Nature takes pity on Lisa when Erast leaves for the army. Lisa retires to the forest. “The turtledove joined his plaintive voice to her lamentations.” 6. In the work, nature sympathizes with Lisa, pities her, but does not curse or condemn her. 7. Lisa is accompanied by light, the sun. 8. Erast always appears in the evening, even the light of the moon illuminates Lisa’s hair, but does not touch Erast. Everything this hero touches dies both morally and spiritually.

CONCLUSIONS 1. The moment of love, when you give yourself entirely to a feeling, is beautiful, but it is REASON that gives long life and strength to feelings. 2. There are higher, fatal forces that pronounce their sentence on a person. 3. A person can be in harmony with nature, and he can also turn into a toy of terrible fatal forces. 4. Nature is endowed with intelligence, and it is unreasonable to ignore its assessments. What conclusions did you draw for yourself?

"Solid mind" and "tenderest feelings"

“Poor Liza,” written at the end of the 18th century, has retained its attractive power for the modern reader two hundred years later.

The leading plot line of the story comes down to the love story of Lisa and Erast. Karamzin always pays great attention to the inner world of a person, his feelings, experiences, believing that understanding them helps the formation of the human soul. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to trace what nature the characters’ feelings are, how they develop, and what they lead to. The answers to these questions will allow us to come to the eternal problems of life: love is happiness and love is tragedy; fate and circumstances; nature and man.

So, let us turn to the feelings of the characters, first of all to the feeling of love of the main character of the story, Lisa (the fact that she is the main character is indicated by both the title of the story and the place of this image in the system of developing events).

By portraying the wide and far from unambiguous flow of the heroine’s feelings, Karamzin discovered the true skill of a psychologist. This was manifested in the special presentation of Lisa’s emotional experiences. Before us appears a continuous process of changing, immediate feelings, thoughts, impressions, memories of Lisa, caused by the most important external and internal events for her heart.

Thus, Lisa’s first meeting with a beautiful stranger gives rise to confusion in her soul, which after some time gives way to excitement. The mother's warnings bring her to tears. Not having met a young man with a “kind face” the next day, Lisa becomes sad. But as soon as Erast appeared in her room, Lisa’s heart was filled with insane “joy.”

But mother makes plans for Lisa’s marriage, without connecting them with Erast, and Lisa “cries.” Erast consoles her: he promises her an eternal chaste “paradise” “in the village” or “in the dense forests,” and Lisa, in ecstasy, forgot everything. She also forgot herself... And then she becomes “scary” and “tears are rolling from her eyes”: it seems to her that there will be no “former” happiness.

Her bitter assumptions are correct: Erast has not been with Lisa “for five days in a row,” and she is experiencing “the greatest anxiety.”

Finally, Erast’s marriage, his deception, the money with which he seems to buy her off - all this, together with memories of past happiness, shakes her soul, and she commits suicide.

Karamzin focuses attention not only on the heroine’s internal experiences, but also on external details that help convey one or another of her states. This should include views, speech, actions, objects of the external world caught by the gaze, etc. For example: Lisa “dared to look at the young man”; “her blue eyes quickly turned to the ground, meeting his gaze”; “Joy flashed in Liza’s eyes, which she tried in vain to hide; her cheeks glowed like the dawn on a clear summer evening; she looked at her left sleeve and pinched it with her right hand,” and so on. There are many examples similar to those given in the story, and students, at our request, will find them. Together we conclude: Karamzin managed to show the richness of Lisa’s soul, its ambiguity, its depth. We agree with researchers of Karamzin’s work: the writer, introducing readers to the “curves of the heart,” immerses us in the tense, emotional atmosphere of “tender passions.”

Therefore, the writer’s story focuses not so much on the story of the hero’s life, but on the story of his soul. Under what influence does Erast’s inner life take shape? First of all, his natural qualities affected him (“a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty”), then his environment (“absent-minded social life,” filled with secular amusements, not always harmless) and reading novels that took him into a world of carefree, naive pleasures. As a result, boredom settled in Erast’s soul (he “complained about his fate”) and a thirst for immediate, pure feelings and sensations.

Circumstances turned out to be merciful to Erast: on his way he met Lisa - the personification of purity and spontaneity. “It seemed to him that he had found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time.” Even in her very appearance, he saw God’s providence. “Natura calls me into her arms, to her pure joys,” he thought. Lisa's love is a test of the hero, a test of his decision to start a new life, a test of his heart, the depth of his feelings.

In the history of his relationship with Lisa, one can see a certain duality, which makes itself felt in the most subtle sphere - in the sphere of love, and this duality is a consequence of both a “kind heart” and a harmful environment that deepened his frivolity and selfishness. On the one hand, Erast is sincerely in love with Lisa, he is proud of their pure relationship, recalling his former life with disgust. He cares about Lisa’s peace and knows how to dry her tears. He cries, parting with her... It seems that his heart has been resurrected and lives with new feelings - completely worthy. On the other hand, the old Erast is visible in the new Erast: his feelings for Lisa have no true depth, they contain an element of play that captivates him; in love, he thinks in cliches, probably taken from the books he read: he calls Lisa, according to custom, “shepherdess”, says that “he will take her to himself and will live with her inseparably in the village and in the dense forests, as in paradise “, that for him “the most important thing is the soul, the sensitive, innocent soul,” etc.

Can we say that the rebirth of the soul has occurred? What do the significant words at the end of the story reveal to us: “Now, perhaps, they have already been reconciled”? We are talking about the meeting of the souls of Erast and Lisa in another world, after death, about their reconciliation, which means we are also talking about forgiveness, and this can only happen if Erast’s soul is cleansed, he admits his own mistakes and delusions.

Thus, Karamzin, using the example of Erast’s life, convincingly shows what a big role feelings of love play in the formation of human personality.

In the love story of Erast and Lisa, several points are important, and they need to be addressed. Exploring the “anatomy” of love, Karamzin raises the question of the possibility and impossibility of happiness in love. What is this happiness? Is it controllable? What kind of happiness is complete - thoughtless or reasonable? In answering these questions, we will rely on the text.

But Karamzin warns, using the example of Erast, that “the fulfillment of all desires is the most dangerous temptation of love,” for if not its death, then its irreversible fatal changes may occur. That is why the writer’s thought about the necessity of reason is so important. The theme of reason begins to appear in the story almost immediately. We get acquainted with the mother’s reasonable view of Lisa’s behavior and her life; Lisa thinks about her own fate and the fate of Erast, but her mind is not allowed to triumph. And Erast doesn’t think about anything at all - he floats with the flow of feelings, making idyllic plans for life with Lisa, “like with a sister.”

Reflections on this statement allow us to conclude: the moment of love, when a person gives himself entirely to a feeling, is beautiful - it is a happy moment, but it is reason, reason, that gives a long life and strength to a feeling.

The story powerfully includes the problem of fate and circumstances. Karamzin does not equate these concepts. Circumstances as a sum of real reasons determined the behavior of both Lisa and Erast: after the death of her father, Lisa was forced to help the family and went to Moscow to sell flowers, where she met Erast; circumstances develop for Erast in such a way that he is obliged to join the army and part with Lisa for a while; circumstances forced him to marry “an elderly rich widow” in order to improve his fortune. But all these circumstances are still not fatal.

Higher powers are also represented in the image of Nature. Nature occupies a large place in Karamzin’s worldview. For him, she is like a creation of the Supreme - the embodiment of beauty, the “feeling” mind. In some of the writer’s works, she appears under the name of Nature (the visible, visible world, on the one hand; on the other, some possibilities inherent in a higher power). Karamzin’s nature has many faces in relation to man: she sympathizes with him, can approve of him or condemn him, she is able to warn him of danger and turn into an enemy. Both man and humanity can be in harmony with Nature, and they can also turn into the plaything of terrible, fatal forces.

These views of Karamzin on Nature were also manifested in the story “Poor Liza”. Here we saw many different faces of Nature, which manifested themselves differently in relation to Lisa and Erast.

Lisa first appears before us as a girl of “rare beauty,” pure and young, with lilies of the valley in her hands. These lilies of the valley are a symbol of her spring blossom and purity. But it is these flowers that Lisa will throw into the Moscow River when she does not meet the young man she liked so much... What do comparisons taken from the natural world give the reader? We comprehend the spiritual beauty and inner world of the heroine, we learn that a “pure, joyful soul” glows in her eyes, “like the sun glows in drops of heavenly dew.” Sometimes Nature accurately reflects Lisa’s feelings and carefully “warns” her. This warning was made by Nature at the very beginning of the emergence of Lisa’s love. She did not sleep at night, “woke up almost every minute and sighed.” In the morning, before sunrise, Lisa sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked “at the white mists that were agitated in the air.”

In the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, edited by D.N. Ushakov explains the word “fog” not only as a state of air, but also as a symbol of the unclear, confusing, incomprehensible. In this context, “fogs” are a prophetic sign, because Lisa does not see her future clearly, it is covered in fog.

The narrator confesses his love for walks “without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through meadows and groves, over hills and plains.” But this recognition alone means little. In order to discover precisely the organic connection between the narrator and Nature, it is necessary to examine the artistic structure of at least the microtext, which allows us to judge the originality of Karamzin’s aesthetics. You can take a short excerpt from the description of the Moscow surroundings:

“On the other side of the river one can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze... Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, the Sparrow Hills are blue...

I often come to this place and almost always see spring there; I come there and grieve with nature on the dark days of autumn.”

The triple repetition of words in the first paragraph is typical: “beside”, “further”, “further”. Here, each of the three words is used in a new lexical meaning, which creates the effect of emotional intensity, increasing solemnity, and the repetition of the consonant “l” in each of the three words gives the sentences a softness and melodiousness. As a result, prose under Karamzin’s pen is truly “poeticized” (Yu.M. Lotman). Consequently, the narrator, his soul sensitive to beauty, Nature, is also “poeticized”

The second paragraph is extremely important: it introduces us to Karamzin’s special artistic style. Images of spring and autumn appear here. It is known that these words, as a rule, were used in the works of sentimentalists not only in their direct meaning (season) - their capacity, depth, and subtext were usually taken into account. The word “spring” was certainly associated with the words “light”, “joy”, “hope”, “happiness”, “flourishing”, etc.; the word “autumn” was associated with the collapse of hopes, withering, the end of life. Therefore, these words created their own lyrical theme. They were usually highlighted either in italics or written with a capital letter to show that the word was a whole topic, a sign of great meaning.

All the characters (which include not only Lisa and Erast, but also the narrator and Nature) and the style of the story itself help us understand the author’s position as humanistic. It revealed both the bright personal qualities of the writer (high morality, intelligence, nobility, sensitivity, kind heart, selflessness, religiosity, etc.), and Karamzin’s views on the poet-creator as an enlightened, virtuous, independent person and on art itself as moral force capable of inspiring sublime feelings in the reader. When creating his story, Karamzin combined the categories “good” and “beautiful” - moral and aesthetic. As a result, we have Karamzin the artist and Karamzin the philosopher.

In a small work (the theme itself, plot, organization of material, figurative world, language), Karamzin managed to express himself openly: he sang love as a feeling capable of enriching the human soul, testing and reviving it; he advocated the harmony of reason and feelings in love; he promoted a humane attitude towards man, condemning him for deviations from moral laws, but believing in the resurrection of his soul; he called to believe in higher powers and serve virtue.

Karamzin’s moral lessons are worthy of attention even in today’s difficult days, especially since these are the lessons of a man whose “solid mind,” according to V.A. Zhukovsky, “was always softened by the most tender feeling.”