Read the work The Stingy Knight. Stingy Knight

All of Pushkin's works are filled with galleries of various images. Many captivate the reader with their nobility, self-esteem or courage. More than one generation has grown up on the remarkable work of Alexander Sergeevich. Reading his poems, poems and fairy tales, people of different ages get great pleasure. The same can be said about the work " Stingy Knight"His heroes and their actions make even the youngest lover of Alexander Sergeevich's work think.

Meet the brave but poor knight

Our article will only outline summary. "The Miserly Knight", however, is worthy of familiarizing yourself with the tragedy in the original. So let's get started...

A young knight, whose name is Albert, is going to the next tournament. He asked Ivan's servant to bring his helmet. As it turned out, it was pierced through. The reason for this was his previous participation in the battle with the knight Delorge. Albert is upset. But Ivan tries to console his master, saying that there is no need to be sad about the damaged helmet. After all, young Albert still repaid the offender. The enemy has still not recovered from the terrible blow.

But the knight replies that it was the damaged helmet that gave him heroism. It was stinginess that became the reason to finally defeat the enemy. Albert complains about his poverty and modesty, which did not allow him to remove Delorge’s helmet. He tells the servant that during dinners with the Duke, all the knights sit at the table in chic outfits, which are made from expensive fabrics, while Albert, due to lack of money to buy new clothes you have to be present in armor...

This is how the tragedy itself begins, and from this we began to present its summary.

"The Miserly Knight": the appearance of a new hero of the work

Young Albert, in his conversation with a servant, mentions his father, who is such a stingy old baron that not only does he not allocate money for clothes, but he also spares money for new weapons and a horse. There is also an old Jewish moneylender named Solomon. The young knight often used his services. But now this creditor also refuses to lend to him. Only subject to collateral.

But what can a poor knight give as bail except his uniform and good name! Albert even tried to persuade the moneylender, saying that his father was already very old and would probably die soon, and, accordingly, all the huge fortune he owned would go to Albert. Then he will definitely be able to pay off all his debts. But Solomon was not convinced by this argument either.

The meaning of money in a person’s life, or his attitude towards it

Solomon himself, mentioned by the knight, appears. Albert, taking this opportunity, wants to beg him for another sum. But the moneylender, although gently but firmly, refuses him. He explains to the young knight that his father is still quite healthy and will live even thirty years. Albert is sad. After all, then he will be fifty years old and will no longer need the money.

To which the Jewish moneylender reprimands the young man that he is wrong. At any age, a person needs money. It’s just that at every stage of life people approach wealth differently. Young people are mostly too careless, but older people find true friends in them. But Albert argues with Solomon, describing his father's attitude towards wealth.

He denies himself everything, and puts the money in chests, which he then guards like a dog. And the only hope for young man- that the time will come when he will be able to take advantage of all this wealth. How do the events that our summary describes further develop? "The Miserly Knight" tells the reader about the terrible advice that Solomon gives to young Albert.

When Solomon sees the plight of the young knight, he hints that he should hasten his father’s departure to another world by giving him poison to drink. When Albert realized the meaning of the moneylender’s hints, he was even going to hang him, he was so outraged. The frightened Jew tries to offer him money to avoid punishment, but the knight kicks him out.

Upset, Albert asks the servant to bring wine. But Ivan says that there is none left in the house. And then the young man decides to turn to the Duke for help and tell him about his misfortunes, as well as about his stingy father. Albert cherishes the hope that he will at least be able to force his father to support him as he should.

The Greedy Baron, or a description of a new character

What happens next in the tragedy? Let's continue with the summary. The stingy knight finally appears to us himself: the author introduces the reader to poor Albert's father. The old man went to the basement, where he hides all his gold, in order to carry another handful of coins. Having opened all the chests filled with wealth, the baron lights a few candles and sits nearby to admire his fortune. All of Pushkin's works very vividly convey the images of the characters, and this tragedy is no exception.

The Baron remembers how he came into possession of each of these coins. Many of them brought people a lot of tears. Some even caused poverty and death. It even seems to him that if you collect all the tears shed because of this money together, a flood will certainly happen. And then the thought occurs to him that after his death, an heir who did not deserve it at all will begin to use all this wealth.

Leads to indignation. This is how Alexander Sergeevich describes Father Albert in his work “The Stingy Knight”. An analysis of the entire tragedy will help the reader understand what this attitude towards money and neglect of his own son led the baron to.

Meeting of a greedy father and a beggar son

In fashion, the knight at this time tells the Duke about his misfortunes, about his greedy father and lack of maintenance. And he promises the young man to help convince the baron to be more generous. After some time, the father himself appeared at the palace. The Duke ordered the young man to hide in the next room, and he himself began to inquire about the baron’s health, why he so rarely appears at court, and also about where his son was.

The old man suddenly begins to complain about the heir. Allegedly, young Albert wants to kill him and take over the wealth. The Duke promises to punish the young man. But he himself runs into the room and calls the baron a liar. Then the angry father throws the glove to his son, and the young man accepts it. The Duke is not only surprised, but also outraged. He took away this symbol of the upcoming duel and kicked both of them out of the palace. But the old man’s health could not withstand such shocks, and he died on the spot. This is how it ends latest events works.

“The Stingy Knight” - which not only introduced the reader to all its characters, but also made us think about one of the human vices - greed. It is she who often destroys the relationship between close friends and relatives. Money sometimes makes people do inhumane things. Many of Pushkin's works are filled deep meaning and point out to the reader one or another shortcoming of a person.

“The Miserly Knight” was created in the genre of a small tragedy, consisting of three scenes. In it, the dialogues reveal the characters of the main characters of the play - the Jew, the son of Albert and the old baron, collector and keeper of gold.

Scene one

Albert has a tournament coming up, and he is worried that he doesn’t have enough money to buy armor and a dress. Albert scolds a certain Count Delorge, who made a hole in his helmet. You can understand and feel how difficult Albert’s financial situation is if he says that it would be better if the count pierced his head rather than his helmet.

He tries to send his servant Ivan to a Jewish moneylender in order to borrow some money. But Ivan says that the old Jew Solomon has already refused his debt. Then it turned out that it was necessary to buy not only a helmet and a dress, but also a horse, until the wounded horse of the knight Albert got back to his feet.

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and the person who came turned out to be a Jew. Albert does not stand on ceremony with Solomon, calling him a damned Jew almost to his face. A curious dialogue took place between Solomon and Albert. Solomon began to complain that he had no extra money, that he kind soul, helps the knights, but they are in no hurry to repay their debts.

Albert asks for money with the expectation of a future inheritance, to which the Jew quite reasonably noted that he is not sure that Albert will live to receive the inheritance. He could fall in battle at any moment.

The Jew gives Albert treacherous advice - to poison his father. This advice infuriates the knight. He kicks the Jew out. Fleeing from the enraged Albert, Solomon admits that he brought him the money. The young knight sends Ivan after Solomon, and he decides to turn to the duke so that he will bring his father to reason and demand that his father provide his son with maintenance.

Scene two

The second scene shows the old baron’s basement, where “Tsar Kashchei is wasting away over gold.” For some reason, after reading this scene, I remember this line from the introduction to “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. The old knight is alone in his basement. This is the old man’s holy of holies; he never lets anyone in here. Even my own son.

There are 6 chests with gold in the basement. They replace all human attachments for the old man. The way the baron talks about money, how attached he is to it, suggests the conclusion that he has become a slave to money. The old man understands that with such money he could fulfill any desire, achieve any power, any respect, force anyone to serve him. And his vanity is satisfied with the realization own strength and power. But he is not ready to use his money. He gets pleasure and satisfaction from the shine of gold.

If it had been his way, he would have taken all six chests of gold to the grave. He is saddened by the thought that his son will waste all the accumulated gold on fun, pleasure, and women.

Oh, if only I could from unworthy glances
I hide the basement! oh, if only from the grave
I could come as a sentry shadow
Sit on the chest and away from the living
Keep my treasures as they are now!..

Scene three

This scene takes place in the castle of the Duke, whom Albert serves, and to whom he turned to reprimand his own father. At that moment, when Albert was talking with the duke, the old knight also came to him. The Duke invited Albert to hide in the next room, and he himself cordially received the old knight, who had served his grandfather.

The Duke showed diplomacy and tact in his conversation with the old warrior. He tried to find out why his son was not at court. But the baron began to dodge. At first he said that his son had a “wild and gloomy disposition.” The Duke again repeated his request to send his son to him, the Duke, to serve and assign him a salary corresponding to his rank. Giving your son a salary meant opening your chests. The Baron could not accept this. Passion for money and service to the “golden calf” were higher than his love for his son. And then he decided to slander Albert. The Baron told the Duke that Albert dreams of robbing and killing the old man. Albert could no longer bear such slander; he jumped out of the room and accused his father of black lies and slander. In response, the father threw down his glove as a sign of a challenge to a duel. Albert raised his glove and said, “Thank you. This is my father’s first gift.”

The Duke took the glove from Albert and forced him to leave the palace until he called him. His Highness understands the real reason slander and reproached the baron: “You, unfortunate old man, aren’t you ashamed...”

But the old man felt unwell and died, remembering not his son, but the keys to his treasured chests. In conclusion, the Duke utters the phrase that has become popular: “Terrible age, terrible hearts.”

. (The other three are “Mozart and Salieri”, “The Stone Guest”, “Feast during the Plague”.)

Pushkin “The Miserly Knight”, scene 1 – summary

Pushkin “The Miserly Knight”, scene 2 – summary

Albert's father, the baron, meanwhile goes down to the basement where he stores his gold to add a new handful to the sixth, still incomplete, chest. With bated breath, the stingy knight looks around at the accumulated wealth. He decides today to “throw himself a feast”: to open all the chests and admire them by candlelight. In a long monologue, the Baron talks about the enormous power that money gives. With their help, you can erect luxurious palaces, invite beautiful young nymphs into magnificent gardens, enslave free genius and sleepless labor, put bloody villainy at your service... (See Monologue of the Miserly Knight.)

However, money is almost always born of evil. The stingy knight admits: he took many coins from the chests from poor widows who had nothing to feed their children. Others, repaid as debt, may have been obtained by plundering in the forests and on high road. Putting the key into the lock of the chest, the stingy knight feels the same as people who “find pleasure in killing” feel when they plunge a knife into the victim.

Stingy knight. Painting by K. Makovsky, 1890s

The Baron's joy is darkened by only one thought: he himself is already old, and his son Albert is a spendthrift and a reveler. The father has been accumulating wealth for many years, and the son is able to squander it in the blink of an eye. The stingy knight bitterly complains that after death he cannot hide his basement from the “gaze of unworthy”, come here from the grave and sit on the chests as a “guard shadow”.

Pushkin “The Miserly Knight”, scene 3 – summary

Albert complains to the Duke in the palace that his father has doomed him to extreme poverty. The Duke promises to talk to the Baron about this.

A stingy knight just arrives at the palace. Albert hides nearby for a while, and the Duke tells the Baron: his son rarely appears at court. Perhaps the reason is that the young knight has nothing to buy good clothes, horse and armor? The Duke asks the Baron to give his son a decent allowance.

The stingy knight frowns in response and assures the Duke that Albert is dishonest man, who was mired in vices and even tried to rob and kill his father. Albert, hearing this conversation, runs into the room and accuses his parent of lying. The stingy baron challenges his son to a duel, throwing him the gauntlet. Albert readily picks it up.

Stunned by the hatred of father and son for each other, the Duke loudly reproaches them both. The stingy knight shouts in excitement that he is stuffy - and unexpectedly dies. At the last moment he looks for the keys to the chests. The tragedy ends with the Duke’s phrase: “Terrible age, terrible hearts!”

"The Stingy Knight" - dramatic work(play), conceived in 1826 (plan dates back to early January 1826); created in the Boldino autumn of 1830, it is part of Pushkin’s cycle of small tragedies. The play was filmed.

The Miserly Knight shows the corrupting, dehumanizing, devastating power of gold. Pushkin was the first in Russian literature to notice the terrible power of money.

The result in the play is the words of the Duke:

...Terrible century - Terrible hearts...

With amazing depth, the author reveals the psychology of stinginess, but most importantly, the origins that feed it. The type of stingy knight is revealed as a product of a certain historical era. At the same time, in the tragedy the poet rises to a broad generalization of the inhumanity of the power of gold.

Pushkin does not resort to any moral teachings or discussions on this topic, but with the entire content of the play he illuminates the immorality and crime of such relations between people in which everything is determined by the power of gold.

Obviously, in order to avoid possible biographical connections (everyone knew the stinginess of the poet’s father, S.L. Pushkin, and his difficult relationship with his son), Pushkin passed off this completely original play as a translation from a non-existent English original.

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See what “The Miserly Knight” is in other dictionaries:

The hero of the dramatic scenes of the same name (1830) by A. S. Pushkin (1799 1837), a miser and a miser. A common noun for people of this type (ironic). encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. M.: Locked Press. Vadim Serov. 2003 ... Dictionary of popular words and expressions

- “THE MISTERY KNIGHT”, Russia, Moscow theater “Vernissage”/Culture, 1999, color, 52 min. Teleplay, tragicomedy. Based on the drama of the same name by A. S. Pushkin from the series “Little Tragedies”. Cast: Georgy Menglet (see MENGLET Georgy Pavlovich), Igor... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema

Noun, number of synonyms: 1 miser (70) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

Stingy Knight- Werkdaten Titel: Der geizige Ritter Originaltitel: The Miserly Knight (Skupoi ryzar) Form: durchkomponiert Originalsprache: russisch Musik … Deutsch Wikipedia

(mean) knight- Iron. About a stingy person. The voluptuous man, on the contrary, proceeds from the ideal of physiological completeness; he is a stingy knight of pleasures, who puts into a treasured chest his gold of caresses, kisses, favors bestowed upon him, everything that he managed to snatch from... Dictionary of oxymorons of the Russian language

"The Stingy Knight" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.

History of creation

“The Miserly Knight” was conceived in 1826, and completed in the Boldin autumn of 1830. Published in 1836 in the magazine “Sovremennik”. Pushkin gave the play the subtitle “From Chenston’s tragicomedy.” But the writer is from the 18th century. Shenston (in the tradition of the 19th century his name was written Chenston) there was no such play. Perhaps Pushkin referred to a foreign author so that his contemporaries would not suspect that the poet was describing his relationship with his father, known for his stinginess.

Theme and plot

Pushkin’s play “The Miserly Knight” is the first work in a cycle of dramatic sketches, short plays, which were later called “Little Tragedies”. Pushkin intended in each play to reveal some side human soul, all-consuming passion (stinginess in “The Stingy Knight”). Spiritual qualities and psychology are shown in sharp and unusual plots.

Heroes and images

The Baron is rich, but stingy. He has six chests full of gold, from which he does not take a penny. Money is not servants or friends for him, as for the moneylender Solomon, but masters. The Baron does not want to admit to himself that money has enslaved him. He believes that thanks to the money sleeping peacefully in his chests, everything is within his control: love, inspiration, genius, virtue, work, even villainy. The Baron is ready to kill anyone who encroaches on his wealth, even his own son, whom he challenges to a duel. The duke prevents the duel, but the baron is killed by the very possibility of losing money. The Baron's passion consumes him.

Solomon has a different attitude towards money: it is a way to achieve a goal, to survive. But, like the baron, he does not disdain anything for the sake of enrichment, suggesting that Albert poison his own father.

Albert is a worthy young knight, strong and brave, winning tournaments and enjoying the favor of the ladies. He is completely dependent on his father. The young man has nothing to buy a helmet and armor, a dress for a feast and a horse for a tournament, only out of despair he decides to complain to the duke.

Albert has excellent spiritual qualities, he is kind, he gives the last bottle of wine to the sick blacksmith. But he is broken by circumstances and dreams of the time when the gold will be inherited by him. When the moneylender Solomon offers to set Albert up with a pharmacist who sells poison to poison his father, the knight expels him in disgrace. And soon Albert already accepts the baron’s challenge to a duel; he is ready to fight to the death with his own father, who insulted his honor. The Duke calls Albert a monster for this act.

The Duke in the tragedy is a representative of the authorities who voluntarily took on this burden. The Duke calls his age and the hearts of people terrible. Through the lips of the Duke, Pushkin also speaks about his time.

Issues

In every little tragedy, Pushkin gazes intently at some vice. In The Miserly Knight, this destructive passion is avarice: the change in personality of a once worthy member of society under the influence of vice; the hero's submission to vice; vice as a cause of loss of dignity.

Conflict

The main conflict is external: between a stingy knight and his son, who claims his share. The Baron believes that wealth must be suffered so as not to be squandered. The Baron's goal is to preserve and increase, Albert's goal is to use and enjoy. The conflict is caused by a clash of these interests. It is aggravated by the participation of the Duke, to whom the Baron is forced to slander his son. The strength of the conflict is such that only the death of one of the parties can resolve it. Passion destroys the stingy knight; the reader can only guess about the fate of his wealth.

Composition

There are three scenes in the tragedy. From the first, the reader learns about the heavy financial situation Albert, associated with his father's stinginess. The second scene is a monologue of a stingy knight, from which it is clear that passion has completely taken possession of him. In the third scene, the just duke intervenes in the conflict and unwittingly becomes the cause of the death of the hero obsessed with passion. The climax (the death of the baron) is adjacent to the denouement - the Duke’s conclusion: “A terrible age, terrible hearts!”

Genre

"The Miserly Knight" is a tragedy, that is, a dramatic work in which main character dies. Small size Pushkin achieved his tragedies by excluding everything unimportant. Pushkin's goal is to show the psychology of a person obsessed with the passion of stinginess. All “Little Tragedies” complement each other, creating three-dimensional portrait humanity in all its diversity of vices.

Style and artistic originality

All “Little Tragedies” are intended not so much for reading as for staging: how theatrical the stingy knight looks in a dark basement among gold flickering in the light of a candle! The dialogues of the tragedies are dynamic, and the monologue of the miserly knight is a poetic masterpiece. The reader can see how a bloody villain crawls into the basement and licks the hand of a stingy knight. The images of The Miserly Knight are impossible to forget.