Essay on the topic: Russian village as depicted by Solzhenitsyn in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor. Analysis of Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matrenin’s Dvor” What kind of hinterland is shown in the work Matrenin’s Dvor

Composition

The name of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was banned a few years ago, but currently we have the opportunity to admire his works, in which he demonstrates exceptional skill in depicting human characters, in observing the destinies of people and understanding them. All this is revealed especially clearly in the story of Matrenin Dvor. From the first lines of the story, the reader learns about the completely inconspicuous and ordinary post-war life of the Russian village. But Solzhenitsyn was one of the first to identify in Russian literature of the second half of the twentieth century a range of themes and problems of village prose that had not previously been raised or were hushed up. And in this sense, the story of Matrenin Dvor occupies a very special place in Russian literature.

In this story, the author touches on such topics as the moral and spiritual life of the people, the relationship between power and man, the struggle for survival, and the opposition of the individual to society. The writer focuses on the fate of a simple village woman, Matryona Vasilievna, who worked all her life on a state farm, but not for money, but for chopsticks. She got married even before the revolution and from the very first day of her family life began to take care of household chores. The story Matryona's Dvor begins with the narrator, a former Soviet prisoner Ignatyich, returning to Russia from the steppes of Kazakhstan and settling in Matryona's house. His story is calm and full of various kinds of details and details, giving everything described a special life-like depth and authenticity: In the summer of 1956, from the dusty hot desert, I returned at random to Russia.

Matryona Vasilyevna is a lonely woman who lost her husband at the front and buried six children. She lived alone in a large old house. Everything had been built long ago and soundly, for a large family, but now lived a lonely woman of about sixty. The theme of the home, the hearth, in this work by Solzhenitsyn is stated very sharply and definitely.

Despite all the hardships and adversities, Matryona did not lose her ability to respond to someone else's misfortune. The heroine is the keeper of the hearth, but this only mission of hers acquires true scale and philosophical depth under the pen of Solzhenitsyn. In the simple life of Matryona Vasilyevna Grigorieva, that same unostentatious righteousness shines through, without which Russia cannot be reborn.

She suffered a lot from the Soviet regime, worked tirelessly all her life, but never received anything for her work. And only love and the habit of constant work saved this woman from everyday melancholy and despair. I noticed that she had a sure way to regain her good mood - work. Immediately she either grabbed a shovel and dug up the potatoes. Or she would go for peat with a bag under her arm. Otherwise, with a wicker body, the berries are deep in the distant forest. And she bowed not to the office desks, but to the forest bushes, and having broken her back with burdens, Matryona returned to the hut, already enlightened, satisfied with everything, with her kind smile.

Without accumulating wealth or acquiring any good, Matryona Grigorieva managed to preserve for those around her a sociable disposition and a heart capable of compassion. She was a rare person with an immensely kind soul, and did not lose the ability to respond to someone else’s misfortune. So, not a single plowing operation could be done without it. Together with other women, she harnessed herself to the plow and pulled it on herself. Matryona could not refuse her help to any relatives, even if she herself had urgent matters. The absence of any self-interest and desire to preserve her property leads to the fact that Matryona meekly gives Kira and her husband the upper room, cut off from the old house.

I didn’t feel sorry for the upper room itself, which stood idle, just as Matryona never felt sorry for her labor or goods. And the upper room was bequeathed to Kira anyway. But it was scary for her to start breaking the roof under which she had lived for forty years... And for Matryona it was the end of her life. In the second part of the story, the reader learns about Matryona Vasilievna’s youth. From a young age, fate did not spoil the heroine: without waiting for her only love Thaddeus, she married his younger brother, and when her beloved returned, he uttered terrible words that Matryona remembered for the rest of her life: ... if it weren’t for my dear brother, I would chopped you both up.

The image of the righteous woman Matryona in the story is contrasted with Thaddeus. Fierce hatred is felt in his words about Matryona’s marriage to his brother. The return of Thaddeus reminded Matryona of their wonderful past. Nothing wavered in Thaddeus after the misfortune with Matryona; he even looked at her dead body with some indifference. The train crash, under which both the room and the people transporting it ended up, was predetermined by the petty desire of Thaddeus and his relatives to save money on little things, not to drive the tractor twice, but to make do with one flight.

I saw little good in life, there was more loss and suffering: I gave birth and buried six children, my husband did not return from the last war... The whole village decided that Matryona was damaged. But man is designed in such a way that he cannot just suffer and suffer all the time. Matryona also finds the bright sides of life. They gave me a pension, albeit small, but permanent. The tenant pays, and the school adds money. Matryona should live peacefully even in her old age. Yes, it was not the same fate.

The husband’s relatives prevailed and demanded that the upper room be given over to the young people to start a household. Matryona doesn’t feel sorry for her property, just as she never felt sorry for others, but it’s scary to break the roof under which she lived for forty years. It was not for nothing that vague premonitions crowded into the heroine’s soul. Somehow life collapsed along with the upper room. The hostess walked these days as if lost. And with the upper room they did everything in Russian, a blunder, just to take her away. Human greed led to tragedy. This always happens: one thing is layered on top of another. Thaddeus was greedy to give good timber for a sleigh, the tractor driver wanted to take it all away in one trip... and people died. No Matryona. A loved one was killed, the author sadly notes.

Living under the same roof with this woman, he did not think about what a wonderful person she was. Only now I began to realize that she was hardworking, warm-hearted and somehow especially selfless. Her neighbors condemn her, not realizing that it is not Matryona’s shortcomings, but her merits.

The author openly admires the heroine’s language, which includes dialect words. A duel, she says about the strong wind. Spoilage is called a portion. This woman retained a bright soul and a sympathetic heart, but who will appreciate her? Perhaps Kira’s pupil and a guest, but most people don’t even know that a righteous woman, a beautiful soul, lived among them! Reading Solzhenitsyn’s story, you can’t help but think that his heroine is akin to Nekrasov’s hardworking and persistent women, on whom the world has always rested.

Other works on this work

The magazine “New World” published several works by Solzhenitsyn, among them “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The story, according to the writer, is “completely autobiographical and reliable.” It talks about the Russian village, about its inhabitants, about their values, about goodness, justice, sympathy and compassion, work and help - qualities that fit into the righteous man, without whom “the village is not worth it.”

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is a story about the injustice and cruelty of human fate, about the Soviet order of post-Stalin times and about the life of the most ordinary people living far from city life. The narration is told not from the perspective of the main character, but from the perspective of the narrator, Ignatyich, who in the whole story seems to play the role of only an outside observer. What is described in the story dates back to 1956 - three years passed after the death of Stalin, and then the Russian people did not yet know or understand how to live on.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is divided into three parts:

1. The first tells the story of Ignatyich, it begins at the Torfprodukt station. The hero immediately reveals his cards, without making any secret of it: he is a former prisoner, and now works as a teacher at a school, he came there in search of peace and tranquility. In Stalin's time, it was almost impossible for people who had been imprisoned to find a job, and after the death of the leader, many became school teachers (a profession in short supply). Ignatyich stays with an elderly, hardworking woman named Matryona, with whom he finds it easy to communicate and has peace of mind. Her dwelling was poor, the roof sometimes leaked, but this did not mean at all that there was no comfort in it: “Maybe to someone from the village, someone richer, Matryona’s hut did not seem friendly, but for us that autumn and winter it was quite good."
2. The second part tells about Matryona’s youth, when she had to go through a lot. The war took her fiancé Fadey away from her, and she had to marry his brother, who still had children in his arms. Taking pity on him, she became his wife, although she did not love him at all. But three years later, Fadey, whom the woman still loved, suddenly returned. The returning warrior hated her and her brother for their betrayal. But hard life could not kill her kindness and hard work, because it was in work and caring for others that she found solace. Matryona even died while doing business - she helped her lover and her sons drag part of her house across the railroad tracks, which was bequeathed to Kira (his daughter). And this death was caused by Fadey’s greed, avarice and callousness: he decided to take away the inheritance while Matryona was still alive.
3. The third part talks about how the narrator learns about Matryona’s death and describes the funeral and wake. Her relatives are not crying out of grief, but rather because it is customary, and in their heads there are only thoughts about the division of the property of the deceased. Fadey is not at the wake.

Main characters

Matryona Vasilievna Grigorieva is an elderly woman, a peasant woman, who was released from work on the collective farm due to illness. She was always happy to help people, even strangers. In the episode when the narrator moves into her hut, the author mentions that she never intentionally looked for a lodger, that is, she did not want to make money on this basis, and did not profit even from what she could. Her wealth was pots of ficus trees and an old domestic cat that she took from the street, a goat, as well as mice and cockroaches. Matryona also married her fiancé’s brother out of a desire to help: “Their mother died...they didn’t have enough hands.”

Matryona herself also had six children, but they all died in early childhood, so she later took in Fadey’s youngest daughter, Kira, to raise her. Matryona rose early in the morning, worked until dark, but did not show fatigue or dissatisfaction to anyone: she was kind and responsive to everyone. She was always very afraid of becoming a burden to someone, she did not complain, she was even afraid to call the doctor again. As Kira grew up, Matryona wanted to give her room as a gift, which required dividing the house - during the move, Fadey’s things got stuck in a sled on the railroad tracks, and Matryona got hit by a train. Now there was no one to ask for help, there was no person ready to unselfishly come to the rescue. But the relatives of the deceased kept in mind only the thought of profit, of dividing what was left of the poor peasant woman, already thinking about it at the funeral. Matryona stood out very much from the background of her fellow villagers, and was thus irreplaceable, invisible and the only righteous person.

Narrator, Ignatyich, to some extent, is a prototype of the writer. He served his exile and was acquitted, after which he set out in search of a calm and serene life, he wanted to work as a school teacher. He found refuge with Matryona. Judging by the desire to move away from the bustle of the city, the narrator is not very sociable and loves silence. He worries when a woman takes his padded jacket by mistake, and is confused by the volume of the loudspeaker. The narrator got along with the owner of the house; this shows that he is still not completely antisocial. However, he doesn’t understand people very well: he understood the meaning by which Matryona lived only after she passed away.

Topics and issues

Solzhenitsyn in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” talks about the life of the inhabitants of the Russian village, about the system of relationships between power and people, about the high meaning of selfless work in the kingdom of selfishness and greed.

Of all this, the theme of labor is shown most clearly. Matryona is a person who does not ask for anything in return and is ready to give herself all for the benefit of others. They don’t appreciate her and don’t even try to understand her, but this is a person who experiences tragedy every day: first, the mistakes of her youth and the pain of loss, then frequent illnesses, hard work, not life, but survival. But from all the problems and hardships, Matryona finds solace in work. And, in the end, it is work and overwork that leads her to death. The meaning of Matryona’s life is precisely this, and also care, help, the desire to be needed. Therefore, active love for others is the main theme of the story.

The problem of morality also occupies an important place in the story. Material values ​​in the village are exalted over the human soul and its work, over humanity in general. The secondary characters are simply unable to understand the depth of Matryona’s character: greed and the desire to possess more clouds their eyes and does not allow them to see kindness and sincerity. Fadey lost his son and wife, his son-in-law faces imprisonment, but his thoughts are on how to protect the logs that were not burned.

In addition, the story has a theme of mysticism: the motive of an unidentified righteous man and the problem of cursed things - which were touched by people full of self-interest. Fadey made the upper room of Matryona's hut cursed, undertaking to knock it down.

Idea

The above-mentioned themes and problems in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” are aimed at revealing the depth of the main character’s pure worldview. An ordinary peasant woman serves as an example of the fact that difficulties and losses only strengthen a Russian person, and do not break him. With the death of Matryona, everything that she figuratively built collapses. Her house is torn apart, the remains of her property are divided among themselves, the yard remains empty and ownerless. Therefore, her life looks pitiful, no one realizes the loss. But won't the same thing happen to the palaces and jewels of the powerful? The author demonstrates the frailty of material things and teaches us not to judge others by their wealth and achievements. The true meaning is the moral character, which does not fade even after death, because it remains in the memory of those who saw its light.

Maybe over time the heroes will notice that a very important part of their life is missing: invaluable values. Why reveal global moral problems in such poor settings? And what then is the meaning of the title of the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”? The last words that Matryona was a righteous woman erase the boundaries of her court and expand them to the scale of the whole world, thereby making the problem of morality universal.

Folk character in the work

Solzhenitsyn reasoned in the article “Repentance and Self-Restraint”: “There are such born angels, they seem to be weightless, they seem to glide over this slurry, without drowning in it at all, even if their feet touch its surface? Each of us has met such people, there are not ten of them or a hundred of them in Russia, these are righteous people, we saw them, were surprised (“eccentrics”), took advantage of their goodness, in good moments answered them in kind, they disposed - and immediately immersed again to our doomed depths.”

Matryona is distinguished from the rest by her ability to preserve her humanity and a strong core inside. To those who unscrupulously used her help and kindness, it might seem that she was weak-willed and pliable, but the heroine helped based only on her inner selflessness and moral greatness.

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Many pages in Solzhenitsyn's works tell about the history of Russia. This topic was not chosen by chance by the author. In it he tries to convey all his knowledge and experiences of that time. 1956 is a time of violence and despotism. The people carry a heavy load under which their backs bend. The life habits and living conditions of the people will be shown in his works. True, the bitter truth of life will not be hidden in Solzhenitsyn’s stories. The writer's works are imbued with pain and suffering of people. Reading his stories, it is impossible to remain indifferent. An example is Solzhenitsyn’s famous story “Matrenin’s Dvor”, where poverty, pain and injustice will also be described.

This story begins with a mathematics teacher trying to settle in a village. Having traveled to several villages, he liked the one where Matryona lived, a woman aged sixty. This place was similar to many places of that time. It was not distinguished by wealth, but on the contrary, it was consumed by poverty.

Matryona’s house did not shine with cleanliness and was not well made: “Matryona’s house stood right there* nearby, with four windows in a row on the cold, non-red side,” covered with wood chips, on two slopes and with an attic window decorated like a tower. The house is not low - eighteen crowns. However, the wood chips rotted, the logs of the frame and the gates, once mighty, turned gray from age, and their cover thinned out.” The author described Matrenin's house in detail, thereby showing the poverty of the Russian peasant.

“The spacious hut, and especially the best part near the window, was lined with stools and benches - pots and tubs with ficus trees. They filled the hostess's loneliness with a silent but lively crowd. They grew freely, taking away the poor light of the northern side. In the remaining light and behind the chimney, the roundish face of the hostess seemed yellow and sick to me. And from her clouded eyes one could see that the illness had exhausted her.” Matryona was “exhausted by illness,” and this is true. Matryona was sick a lot, and sometimes did not get up from the stove. A woman who spent her whole life in work did not see any kindness or warmth in life. Fifteen years ago she was married and had six children. But the husband did not return from the war, and the children died one after another. In this life she was lonely: “Besides Matryona and me, there were also living in the hut: a cat, mice and cockroaches.”

This woman experienced a lot in life, but was not even awarded a well-deserved pension: “There were many injustices with Matryona: she was sick, but was not considered disabled; She worked on a collective farm for a quarter of a century, but because she was not at a factory, she was not entitled to a pension for herself, and she could only get a pension for her husband, that is, for the loss of a breadwinner.” Such injustice reigned at that time in all corners of Russia. A person who does good for the country with his own hands is not valued in the state; he is trampled into the dirt. Matryona earned five such pensions throughout her working life. But they don’t give her a pension, because on the collective farm she received chopsticks, not money. And to achieve a pension for your husband, you need to spend a lot of time and effort. She collected papers for a very long time, spent time, but all in vain. Matryona was left without money. This absurdity of laws is more likely to drive a person into a phobia than to ensure his financial situation.

Life is so unfair to Matryona. The state is not interested in how people like Matryona live. A bureaucratic apparatus is shown that does not work for people. The slogan “Everything for man!” has been crossed out. Wealth does not belong to the people, people are serfs of the state. It is precisely these problems that A.I. addresses. Solzhenitsyn.

The main character does not even have livestock, except for a goat: “All of her bellies were one dirty-white, crooked-horned goat.” Her food consisted of one potato: “I walked around and cooked in three cast irons: one cast iron for me, one for myself, one for the goat. She chose the smallest potatoes from the underground for the goat, small ones for herself, and for me - the size of a chicken egg.” The swamp of poverty is sucking people in, and there is no good life in sight.

Take the case of peat: “We were standing around the forest, but there was nowhere to get a firebox. Excavators were growling all around in the swamps, but they were only transporting them to the authorities.” This suggests that everything goes only to those who distribute, that is, to the authorities. But honest people have to steal, because there is no other choice, otherwise it will be death. “Well, they used to steal timber from the master, now they stole peat from the trust.” This shows the submission of the people. The peasants tolerate arbitrariness and steal.

But Solzhenitsyn shows not only material impoverishment, but also spiritual one. The people around Matryona experience a deformation of moral concepts: good - wealth. During Matryona's life, relatives begin to share the house (upper room). The dilapidated room is transported on a tractor. The tractor gets stuck and is hit by an express train. Because of this, Matryona and two other people die. Greed takes over people. Thaddeus, who in the past loved

Matryona, at the funeral, worries not about her death, but about the logs. He values ​​wealth more than human life.

This environment in which people live leads them to theft, greed and loss of moral values. People deteriorate and become cruel. But Matryona retained her humanity. The purely Russian character of Matryona is perfectly shown. Kindness and compassion for all living things. Matryona was offended all her life. But what is the source of her soul? At work - distraction from everything, inspiration, care. She draws strength from nature. Matryona's miserable life did not make her heart and soul miserable.

The tragedy lies in all the absurdity and cruelty of the structure of society. Poverty and wretched conditions drive a person to bestial behavior. The state rests on the people, and every effort must be put into the good of the people. If the people live well, the state will also live well. We must not forget people, but educate and teach goodness and truth. Only then will people grow into spiritually rich individuals.

Annotation. This research work will analyze the story of A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Matrenin's Dvor". The article shows what the Russian village was like as depicted by the author himself. The writer touches on the topic of the peasantry and its way of life, which was noticed by the researchers of this work.

Abstract. In this research work the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matryona’s place” will be analyzed. In the article it is shown what was the Russian village in the image of the author. The writer touches upon a subject of the peasantry and it is life what researchers of this work paid attention to.

Keywords. A.I. Solzhenitsyn, Matrenin's yard, village, life, story, everyday life, choice, character.

Keywords. A.I. Solzhenitsyn, Matryona’s place, village, life, story, life, choice, character.

Quite a few pages in the work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn talks about the history of Russia, the peasantry, and the Russian land. In the small genre, the writer tries to convey all his worldviews and knowledge of life.

The year 1956 is a time of liberation from violence and tyranny of power for many people. It is generally accepted that the twentieth century became a bloody era for the history of Russia, which brought the country and its people many trials and suffering.

The person is who everything is focused on; he carries a heavy load under which his back bends. The morals and living conditions of the people are quite well shown in the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The story “Matrenin's Dvor”, which describes injustice, poverty and pain, depicts a Russian village in the 50s of the last century.

It should be noted that almost all of the writer’s works are imbued with the pain and suffering of people. It is simply impossible to remain indifferent while reading his stories.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” was written by A.I. Solzhenitsyn in 1959. Considering the content-formal level of the work under study, we emphasize that the story begins with how a certain mathematics teacher tries to settle in the village. Having traveled several times, he liked the village of Talnovo, where Matryona lived, a lonely woman of about sixty, due to illness, released from work on the collective farm. The village in which the heroine lived was not rich, but on the contrary, she was consumed by poverty.

The works show a typical village of that time. The author describes not only the material, but also the spiritual impoverishment of people. Matryona's house did not shine with cleanliness and was not well built. The author described Matrenin's shelter in detail, thereby showing the poverty of the Russian peasantry. The writer is not just interested in the life of the people, this topic is connected for him with the idea of ​​​​heredity, with loyalty to traditions, as well as with moral problems. There is no harmony in this village, there is only envy, irresponsibility, stinginess, self-interest and deception. According to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, collective farm life destroyed the village; people did not want to work for the collective farm, so they were forced to steal peat to earn a living. The only Matryona lives conscientiously among this distorted world, but few people appreciate and respect the heroine among her fellow villagers. After the death of her six children, one after another, the village decided that there was corruption in her.

What happened in the village was the result of a massive spiritual illness experienced by people. Matryona went through all the hardships of life. During the First World War, her fiancé, Thaddeus, went missing; he returned three years later, when Matryona was already married to his brother Efim. The children died, the husband did not return from the Second World War. A woman has hard and unpaid work on a collective farm, hopeless poverty, loneliness and hunger.

Thus, Matryona is the embodiment of the author's ideal. A woman who spent her whole life in work did not see any kindness or warmth in life. In this life she was lonely, and those around her were experiencing a deformation of moral concepts: good - wealth. Greed takes over people. Matryona lives on the money she earned with her own hands, without begging for anything from either the authorities or the people. Even during Matryona’s life, her relatives begin to share the house. The dilapidated room is transported on a tractor. The tractor gets stuck and is hit by an express train. It is because of this that Matryona and two other people die. Greed takes over people, even Thaddeus at the funeral worries not about her death, but about the logs. For him, wealth is more valuable than human life.

This is the environment in which these people live, the situation itself drives them to theft, stinginess and loss of moral values. People deteriorate and become cruel. But Matryona retained her humanity, it is no coincidence that the author so well conveyed to us the purely Russian character of the main character of the work, her kindness and sympathy for all living things.

Where does she have so much warmth and humanism? We think that she draws strength from nature. Matryona's miserable life did not make her soul and heart callous. The whole tragedy lies in all the absurdity and cruelty of the structure of society. We observe in the story how poverty drives a person to bestial acts. Except for our heroine Matryona, who has a purely Russian character, a person with a selfless soul, an absolutely unrequited, humble, honest, just righteous woman, according to the author himself.

The idea of ​​the work is that the author wanted to emphasize the idea that it is on the common people that any state rests, therefore we must not forget people, a person must be enlightened and taught goodness and truth from an early age. Only then will he grow into a spiritually rich personality. The most commonly used trope by writers is allegory.

Only after Matryona's death does the narrator understand her real character and the meaning of her existence. “We all lived next to her and did not understand that she was the very righteous person without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.”

Undoubtedly, Matryona is righteous not by faith, but by way of life. According to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, it is on such people that society rests; it is in such people that the essence of the national character is hidden. It should be noted that the writer’s village prose began with the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The writer portrays the heroine as something that is losing its past and moving further and further from its origins. A.I. Solzhenitsyn sees salvation in only one thing - in those righteous people who remained in Russian villages, in those truly national characters who were able to survive all the trials and are able to save the country.

The death of the heroine is the death of the moral foundations of the village, which Matryona supported with her life. She was the only one in that village who lived in her own world, arranged her life with work, honesty, kindness and patience, she was able to preserve her soul and inner freedom. Despite the tragedy of the events, the story contains very warm, bright, piercing notes. The writer sets the reader up for good feelings and serious thoughts. Through the dullness of life, hope for something “bright” breaks through, and this is embodied in the heroine Matryona herself. Consequently, the story is permeated with the pathos of heroism and tragedy.

Thus, we have come to the conclusion that almost all of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works help to fight for peace and the good of humanity. They teach us to be kinder and more patient with each other. The author showed, using the example of one individually taken fate of a person, how a moral choice can change a person’s life, and this choice depends on him. For our contemporaries, the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works have not only educational, but also educational significance. They help the reader to cultivate feelings of patriotism and love for the small ones, without which there cannot be a large homeland.

In conclusion, we note that the positive heroine of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, Matryona, is a simple and outwardly inconspicuous woman, but she is the righteous woman without whom, according to the proverb cited by the teacher-storyteller, “neither a village nor a city is worthwhile.” The whole country rests on the hard work of people like her.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn managed to create and convey to readers the image of a hero who embodies incredibly moral and spiritual strength. This is what the main character of the story, Matryona, turned out to be.

Bibliography:

1. Solzhenitsyn A.I. Matrenin Dvor // Stories. M., 1990. pp. 112-146
2. Solzhenitsyn A.I. Matrenin Dvor // Collected Works. T.Z. Vermont-Paris, 1997. pp. 7 - 122.