Early romantic works of M. Gorky

The purpose of the lesson: trace how the writer’s intention is revealed in the composition of the stories.

Methodical techniques: analytical conversation.

During the classes

The composition (construction of a work of art) is subordinated to one goal - to most fully reveal the image of the main character, who is the exponent of the author's idea.

II. Conversation

What are the features of the composition of the stories “Makar Chudra” and “Old Woman Izergil”?

(The composition “Makar Chudra” and “Old Women Izergil” is a story within a story. This technique is often found in literature (we will give examples). By telling the legends of their people, the heroes of the stories express their ideas about people, about what they consider valuable and important in life They seem to create a coordinate system by which one can judge them.)

What role do the portrait characteristics of the characters play in the composition?

(Portrait characteristics play an important role in the composition. Radda’s portrait is given indirectly. We learn about her extraordinary beauty from the reactions of the people whom she amazed. “Perhaps her beauty can be played on the violin, and even then to the one who will treat this violin as his own knows the soul"; "one tycoon", "handsome as hell on holiday", "saw her and was dumbfounded." Proud Radda rejected both the money and the offer to marry that tycoon: "if only the eagle would go to the raven's nest of her own free will entered, what would she become?” Pride and beauty are equal in this heroine.

But Loiko’s portrait is drawn in detail: “The mustache lay on his shoulders and mixed with his curls, his eyes glow like clear stars, and his smile is like the whole sun, by God! It’s as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse.” The image is not just romantic - fabulous, with folklore formulations.)

What is the conflict in the work and how is it resolved?

(Talking about the love of Radda and Loiko Zobar, Makar Chudra believes that this is the only way a real person should perceive life, the only way between love and pride is the death of both - neither wanted to submit to his loved one.)

(The image of the narrator is one of the most inconspicuous, he usually remains in the shadows. But the look of this person traveling around Russia, meeting different people, is very important. The perceiving consciousness (in this case, the hero-narrator) is the most important subject of the image, the criterion for the author’s assessment of reality , a means of expressing the author's position. The narrator's interested gaze selects the brightest characters, the most significant, from his point of view, episodes and tells about them. This is the author's assessment - admiration for strength, beauty, poetry, pride.)

(In “The Old Woman Izergil” the author confronts in legends an ideal that expresses love for people and self-sacrifice, and an anti-ideal - taken to the extreme. These two legends seem to frame the narrative of the life of the old woman Izergil herself. Condemning Larra, the heroine thinks that her fate is closer to the pole Danko - she is also dedicated to love. But from the stories about herself, the heroine appears rather cruel: she easily forgot her old love for a new one, left people she once loved. Her indifference is amazing.)

What role does the portrait of the old woman Izergil play in the composition?

(The portrait of the heroine is contradictory. From her stories one can imagine how beautiful she was in her youth. But the portrait of the old woman is almost disgusting, anti-aesthetic features are deliberately intensified: “Time bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched, as if the old woman was talking with bones." She has a toothless mouth, her hands tremble, and her fingers are crooked. The moon illuminated her dry, cracked lips, a pointed chin with gray hair on it and a wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. In place there were black pits in her cheeks, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair that had escaped from under the red rag that was wrapped around her head. The skin on her face, neck and arms was cut with wrinkles, and with every movement of old Izergil one could wait , that this dry skin will tear all apart, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes will stand in front of me." The features of the portrait of Larra, which the old woman herself talks about, brings these heroes closer together: "He lives for thousands of years, the sun has dried his body, blood and bones, and the wind scattered them.” The old woman’s individualism, her stories about people who have passed through their life circle and turned into shadows, the old woman herself, ancient, “without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow” remind the narrator of Larra (remember that Larra also turned into shadow). Thus, with the help of a portrait, the images of Izergil and Larra are brought closer together, the essence of the heroes and the position of the author himself are revealed.)

How do romanticism and realism compare in the story?

(The autobiographical hero is the only realistic image in Gorky’s early romantic stories. His realism lies in the fact that his character and fate reflected the typical circumstances of Russian life in the 1890s. The development of capitalism led to the fact that millions of people were torn from their places, many of whom they formed an army of tramps, vagabonds, cut off from their past life and unable to find a place for themselves in new conditions. Gorky’s autobiographical hero belongs to such people.)

What artistic techniques are used to create a picture of the scene of action in the story “Chelkash”?

(Formally, the story consists of a prologue and three parts. The prologue outlines the scene of action - the port: “The ringing of anchor chains, the roar of clutches of cars delivering cargo, the metallic scream of iron sheets falling from somewhere on the stone pavement, the dull knock of wood, the rattling of cabs' carts , the whistles of steamships, sometimes piercingly sharp, sometimes dullly roaring, the cries of loaders, sailors and customs soldiers - all these sounds merge into the deafening music of a working day...” Let us note the techniques with the help of which this picture is created: first of all, sound writing (assonance and alliteration ) and non-union, which gives dynamism to the description.)

What is the role of the portrait of the characters in the story?

(The portrait of the hero in the first part reveals his character: “dry and angular bones, covered with brown skin”; “disheveled black and gray hair”; “crumpled, sharp, predatory face”; “long, bony, slightly stooped”; with a “hunchbacked , a predatory nose" and "cold gray eyes." The author directly writes about his similarity "with the steppe hawk with his predatory thinness and this aiming gait, smooth and calm in appearance, but internally excited and vigilant, like the age of that bird of prey that he resembled ".)

What is the meaning of the word "predator"?

(Let us note how many times the epithet “predatory” was encountered. Obviously, it reveals the essence of the hero. Let us remember how often Gorky likens his heroes to birds - an eagle, a falcon, a hawk.)

What is Gavrila's role in the story?

(The image of Gavrila serves as the antithesis of the image of Chelkash. Chelkash is contrasted with Gavrila, a simple-minded village guy. The portrait of Gavrila is constructed in contrast with the portrait of Chelkash himself: “childish blue eyes” look “trusting and good-natured”, movements are clumsy, his mouth is sometimes “wide open”, sometimes “ spanks with his lips." Chelkash feels like the master of the life of Gavrila, who has fallen into his “wolf’s paws,” and a “fatherly” feeling is mixed in with this. Looking at Gavrila, Chelkash recalls his village past: “He felt lonely, torn out and thrown out forever from that the order of life in which the blood that flows in his veins was developed.")

(In the third part, the dialogue between Chelkash and Gavril, it finally becomes clear how different these people are. For the sake of profit, the cowardly and greedy Gavrila is ready for humiliation, crime, murder: he almost killed Chelkash. Gavrila evokes contempt and disgust in Chelkash: “Vile! .. And you don’t know how to fornicate!” Finally, the author separates the characters like this: Gavrila “took off his wet cap, crossed himself, looked at the money clutched in his palm, sighed freely and deeply, hid it in his bosom and with wide, firm steps walked towards the shore , opposite to the one where Chelkash hid.”

The author is clearly on the side of the “predatory” Chelkash. The image of Chelkash is romantic: he is a thief, but a bright, courageous, courageous person. Gorky doesn’t even call the cowardly and greedy Gavrila a person - he finds the definition of “vile” for him.)

II. Questions about the early romantic stories of M. Gorky

How do you understand the principle of “romantic dual worlds” in Gorky’s works? Justify your answer.

What are the features of landscape in Gorky's early romantic stories? What is the role of landscape?

How do you understand the words of the heroine of Gorky’s story “Old Woman Izergil”: “And I see that people are not living, but everyone is trying on”?

What was the “cautious man” from the story “Old Woman Izergil” afraid of when he stepped on Danko’s “proud heart”? What literary characters can this “cautious man” be compared to?

What is the ideal of a person in Gorky's early romantic stories?

What do you think is the meaning of contrasting Gorky's heroes - Chelkash and Gavrila?

What do you see as the features of Gorky’s romanticism?

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Maxim Gorky entered Russian literature in the 90s of the 19th century. His entry was very striking; he immediately aroused great interest among readers. Contemporaries wrote with amazement that the people of Russia, who did not know Dostoevsky, know little of Pushkin and Gogol, do not know Lermontov, know Maxim Gorky more than others, but only know Tolstoy in bits and pieces. True, there was also a certain touch of sensationalism in this interest. People from the lower classes were attracted by the very idea that a writer from among them, who knew first-hand life from its darkest and most terrible sides, had come to literature. Writers and readers belonging to the elite circle were attracted to Gorky’s personality, in addition to his talent, by his exoticism: the man saw such depths of the “bottom of life” that no writer before him knew from the inside, from personal experience.
This rich personal experience gave M. Gorky abundant material for his early works. In these same early years, the main ideas and themes were developed, which later accompanied the writer throughout his work. This is, first of all, the idea of an active personality. The writer has always been interested in life in its development and fermentation. M. Gorky developed a new type of relationship between man and the environment. Instead of the formula “the environment is stuck,” which was largely decisive for the literature preceding the 90s of the 19th century, the writer voices the idea that a person is created by resistance to the environment. From the very beginning, M. Gorky's works fall into two types: early romantic texts and realistic stories. The ideas expressed by the author in them are in many ways close.
The early romantic works of M. Gorky are diverse in genre: these are stories, legends, fairy tales, poems. The most famous of his early stories are “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”. In the first of them, the writer, according to all the laws of the romantic genre, draws images of beautiful, brave and strong people. Based on the tradition of Russian literature, M. Gorky turns to the images of gypsies, who have become a symbol of will and unbridled passions. In the work, a romantic conflict arises between the feeling of love and the desire for freedom. It is resolved by the death of the heroes, but this death is perceived not as a tragedy, but rather as a triumph of life and will.
In the story “Old Woman Izergil” the narrative is also built according to romantic canons. Already at the very beginning, a characteristic motif of dual worlds arises: the hero-narrator is the bearer of social consciousness. They tell him: “...you Russians will be born old men. Everyone is gloomy, like demons.” He is opposed by the world of romantic heroes - again, beautiful, brave, strong people: “They walked, sang and laughed.” The story poses the problem of the ethical orientation of the character of a romantic person. The romantic hero and other people - how do their relationships develop? In other words, the traditional theme: man and environment. As befits romantic heroes, Gorky's characters oppose their environment. This obviously manifested itself in the image of the strong, beautiful, free Larra, who openly violated the law of human life, opposed himself to people and was punished by eternal loneliness.
He is opposed to Danko. The story about him is built as an allegory, people are looking for a way to a better, fair life, from darkness to light. In Danko, M. Gorky embodied the image of the leader of the masses. And this image is written according to the canons of the romantic tradition. Danko, like Larra, is opposed to the environment and is hostile to it. Faced with the difficulties of the path, people grumble at their leader, blaming him for their troubles, while the masses, as befits a romantic work, are endowed with negative characteristics (“Danko looked at those for whom he had labored, and saw that they were like animals. Many people stood around him, but there was no nobility on their faces." Danko is a lone hero, he convinces people with the power of his personal sacrifice. M. Gorky realizes and makes literal a metaphor widespread in language: the fire of the heart. The hero's feat regenerates people and carries them along with him. But from this he himself does not cease to be a loner; the people who are carried forward by him remain not only a feeling of indifference to him, but also hostility: “People, joyful and full of hope, did not notice his death and did not see that he was still burning next to Danko's corpse is his brave heart. Only one cautious person noticed this and, fearing something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot.”
Gorky’s legend about Danko was actively used as material for revolutionary propaganda, the image of the hero was cited as an example to follow, later it was widely used by official ideology, and was intensively introduced into the consciousness of the younger generation (there were even candies with the name “Danko” and with images of burning hearts on the wrapper) . However, with M. Gorky everything is not as simple and unambiguous as involuntary commentators tried to present it. The young writer was able to sense in the image of a single hero a dramatic note of incomprehensibility and hostility to him from the environment, the masses. In the story “Old Woman Izergil” the pathos of teaching inherent in M. Gorky is clearly felt.
It is even more clear in a special genre - songs (“Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”). Today they are perceived rather as a funny page in the history of literature. In the past, they have more than once provided material for parodic interpretation (for example, during the period of M. Gorky’s emigration, an article appeared with the title “Former Glavsokol, now Tsentrouzh”). But I would like to draw attention to one important problem for the writer in the early period of his work, formulated in “The Song of the Falcon”: the problem of the collision of the heroic personality with the world of everyday life, with the philistine consciousness. This problem was largely developed by M. Gorky in his realistic stories of the early period.
One of the writer’s artistic discoveries was the theme of the bottom man, the downtrodden, often drunken tramp - in those years they were usually called tramps. M. Gorky knew this environment well, showed great interest in it and widely reflected it in his works, earning the definition of “singer tramping." This topic itself was not completely new; many writers of the 19th century turned to it. The novelty was in the author's position. If earlier people evoked compassion primarily as victims of life, then with M. Gorky everything is different. His tramps are not so much unfortunate victims of life as rebels who themselves do not accept this life. They are not so much outcasts as rejecters. An example of this can be seen in the story “Konovalov”.
Already at the beginning, the writer emphasizes that his hero had a profession, he is “an excellent baker, a craftsman,” the owner of the bakery values him. Konovalov is a gifted person - gifted with a lively mind. This is a person who thinks about life and does not accept an ordinary, heroless existence in it: “It’s melancholy, a rigmarole: you don’t live, you rot!” Konovalov dreams of a heroic situation in which his rich nature could manifest itself. He says about himself: “I haven’t found a place for myself!” He is fascinated by the images of Stenka Razin and Taras Bulba. In everyday life, Konovalov feels unnecessary and leaves her, eventually dying tragically.
Another Gorky hero from the story “The Orlov Spouses” is also akin to him. Grigory Orlov is one of the most striking and controversial characters in the early works of M. Gorky. This is a man of strong passions, hot and impetuous. He is intensely searching for the meaning of life. At times it seems to him that he has found it, for example, when he works as an orderly in a cholera barracks. But then Gregory sees the illusory nature of this meaning and returns to his natural state of rebellion, opposition to the environment. He is capable of doing a lot for people, even sacrificing his life for them, but this sacrifice must be instant and bright, heroic, like Danko’s feat. No wonder he says about himself: “And my heart burns with a great fire.”
M. Gorky treats people like Konovalov, Orlov and the like with understanding. However, if you think about it, you can see that the writer already at an early stage noticed a phenomenon that became one of the problems of Russian life of the 20th century: a person’s desire for a heroic act, for feat, self-sacrifice, impulse and inability for everyday work, for everyday life, for her everyday life, devoid of a heroic aura. People of this type, as the writer foresaw, can turn out to be great in extreme situations, in days of disasters, wars, revolutions, but they are most often unviable in the normal course of human life. Today, the problems posed by M. Gorky in his early work are perceived as relevant and pressing for solving the problems of our time.

Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, 1868-1936) is one of the most significant figures in world culture of our century and at the same time one of the most complex and controversial. In the last decade, attempts have been made to “throw Gorky’s work off the steamship of modernity.” However, let’s not forget that at the beginning of the century they tried to do the same thing with Pushkin and Tolstoy...

Perhaps only Gorky managed to reflect in his work the history, life and culture of Russia in the first third of the twentieth century on a truly epic scale.

Early work of A.M. Gorky is marked by the influence of romanticism. There may be some things you like about any writer’s legacy and some things you don’t like. One will leave you indifferent, while the other will delight you. And this is even more true for the huge and varied creativity of A.M. Gorky. His early works - romantic songs and legends - leave the impression of contact with real talent. The heroes of these stories are beautiful. And not only externally - they refuse the pitiful fate of serving things and money, their life has a high meaning. Heroes of the early works of A.M. Gorky are courageous and selfless (“Song of the Falcon”, the legend of Danko), they glorify activity, the ability to act (images of the Falcon, Petrel, Danko). One of the most striking early works of A.M. Gorky's story "The Old Woman Izergil" (1894). The story was written using the writer’s favorite form of framing: the legend of Larra, the story of the life of Izergil, the legend of Danko. What makes the three parts of the story a single whole is the main idea - the desire to reveal the true value of the human personality.

In 1895, Gorky wrote his “Song about the Falcon.” In the contrasting images of the Snake and the Falcon, two forms of life are embodied: rotting and burning. To more clearly show the courage of the fighter, the author contrasts the Falcon with the adapting Snake, whose soul is rotting in petty-bourgeois complacency. Gorky pronounces a merciless verdict on philistine prosperity: “He who is born to crawl cannot fly.” In this work, Gorky sings a song to the “madness of the brave,” claiming it as the “wisdom of life.”

Gorky believed that with the organization of a “healthy working people - democracy,” a special spiritual culture would be established, in which “life would become joy, music; labor is pleasure." That is why at the beginning of the 20th century the writer’s confessions about the happiness of “living on earth” were very frequent, where “a new life in a new century” should begin.

This romanticized feeling of the era was expressed by “Song of the Petrel” (1901). In this work, a personality was revealed through romantic means, overthrowing a stagnant world. The image of the “proud bird” contains all the manifestations of feelings dear to the author: courage, strength, fiery passion, confidence in victory over a meager and boring life. The petrel combines truly unprecedented abilities: to soar high, to “pierce” the darkness, to summon a storm and enjoy it, to see the sun behind the clouds. And the storm itself is their realization.

Everywhere and always A.M. Gorky strove for the revival by nature of the given foundations of human existence. Gorky's early romantic works contained and captured the awakening of the human soul - the most beautiful thing that the writer always worshiped.

Born on March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of 11 he became an orphan and until 1888 he lived with relatives in Kazan. He tried many professions: he was a cook on a ship, worked in an icon-painting workshop, and was a foreman. In 1888 he left Kazan for the village of Krasnovidovo, where he was engaged in the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. Maxim Gorky's first story, "Makar Chudra", was published in 1892 in the newspaper "Caucasus". In 1898, the collection “Essays and Stories” was published, and a year later his first novel “Foma Gordeev” was published. In 1901, Gorky was expelled from Nizhny Novgorod to Arzamas A.N. Durnov. Gorky, whom we do not know. // Literary newspaper, 1993, March 10 (No. 10). .

A little later, the writer’s collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater began. The plays “At the Lower Depths” (1902), “The Bourgeois” (1901) and others were staged at the theater. The poem “Man” (1903), the plays “Summer Residents” (1904), “Children of the Sun” (1905), “Two Barbarians” (1905) belong to the same period. Gorky becomes an active member of the “Moscow Literary Environment” and takes part in the creation of collections of the “Knowledge” society. In 1905, Gorky was arrested and immediately after his release he went abroad. From 1906 to 1913, Gorky lived in Capri. In 1907, the novel “Mother” by R.M. Mironov was published in America. Maksim Gorky. His personality and works. - M., 2003..

The plays “The Last” (1908), “Vassa Zheleznova” (1910), the stories “Summer” (1909) and “The Town of Okurov” (1909), and the novel “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1911) were created in Capri. In 1913, Gorky returned to Russia, and in 1915 he began publishing the journal Letopis. After the revolution, he worked at the World Literature publishing house.

In 1921, Gorky again went abroad. In the early 20s, he finished the trilogy “Childhood”, “In People” and “My Universities”, wrote the novel “The Artamonov Case”, and began work on the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”. In 1931, Gorky returned to the USSR. He died on June 18, 1936 in the village of Gorki.

At the end of the 90s, the reader was amazed by the appearance of three volumes of “Essays and Stories” by a new writer - M. Gorky. “Great and original talent,” was the general judgment about the new writer and his books G.D. Veselov.

Growing discontent in society and the expectation of decisive changes caused an increase in romantic tendencies in literature. These trends were reflected especially clearly in the work of young Gorky, in such stories as “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Makar Chudra”, and in revolutionary songs. The heroes of these stories are people “with the sun in their blood”, strong, proud, beautiful. These heroes are Gorky's dream. Such a hero was supposed to “strengthen a person’s will to live, arouse in him a rebellion against reality, against all its oppression.”

The central image of Gorky's early romantic works is the image of a hero, ready to perform a feat for the good of the people. The story “Old Woman Izergil,” written in 1895, is of great importance in revealing this image. In the image of Danko, Gorky put a humanistic idea of a man who devotes all his strength to serving the people.

At the initial stage, Gorky's work bears a strong imprint of a new literary movement - the so-called revolutionary romanticism. The philosophical ideas of the beginning talented writer, the passion and emotionality of his prose, the new approach to man differed sharply from both naturalistic prose, which went into petty everyday realism and chose the hopeless boredom of human existence as its theme, and from the aesthetic approach to literature and life, which saw value only in “refined” emotions, characters and words.

For youth there are two most important components of life, two vectors of existence. This is love and freedom. In Gorky's stories "Makar Chudra" and "Old Woman Izergil" love and freedom become the theme of the stories told by the main characters. Gorky's plot discovery - that old age tells about youth and love - allows us to give a perspective, the point of view of a young man who lives by love and sacrifices everything for it, and a man who has lived his life, seen a lot and is able to understand what is really important, what remains at the end of a long journey.

The heroes of the two parables told by the old woman Izergil are complete opposites. Danko is an example of love-self-sacrifice, love-giving. He cannot live, separating himself from his tribe, people, he feels unhappy and unfree if the people are unfree and unhappy. Pure sacrificial love and the desire for heroism were characteristic of romantic revolutionaries who dreamed of dying for universal human ideals, could not imagine life without sacrifice, did not hope and did not want to live to old age. Danko gives his heart, illuminating the path for people.

This is a fairly simple symbol: only a pure heart, full of love and altruism, can become a beacon, and only a selfless sacrifice will help free the people. The tragedy of the parable is that people forget about those who sacrificed themselves for them. They are ungrateful, but perfectly aware of this, Danko does not think about the meaning of his dedication, does not expect recognition or reward. Gorky argues with the official church concept of merit, in which a person does good deeds, knowing in advance that he will be rewarded. The writer gives an opposite example: the reward for a feat is the feat itself and the happiness of the people for whose sake it was accomplished.

The son of an eagle is the complete opposite of Danko. Larra is a loner. He is proud and narcissistic, he sincerely considers himself higher, better than other people. He evokes disgust, but also pity. After all, Larra does not deceive anyone, he does not pretend that he is capable of love. Unfortunately, there are many such people, although their essence is not so clearly manifested in real life. For them, love and interest come down only to possession. If it cannot be possessed, it must be destroyed. Having killed the girl, Larra says with cynical frankness that he did it because he could not own her. And he adds that, in his opinion, people only pretend to love and observe moral standards. After all, nature gave them only their body as their property, and they own both animals and things.

Larra is cunning and knows how to talk, but this is a deception. He loses sight of the fact that a person always pays for the possession of money, labor, time, but ultimately a life lived in one way and not another. Therefore, Larra’s so-called truth becomes the reason for his rejection. The tribe expels the apostate, saying: you despise us, you are superior - well, live alone if we are unworthy of you. But loneliness becomes endless torture. Larra understands that his whole philosophy was just a pose, that even in order to consider himself superior to others and be proud of himself, others are still needed. You can’t admire yourself alone, and we all depend on evaluation and recognition from society.

The romanticism of Gorky’s early stories, his heroic ideals are always close and understandable to youth; they will be loved and will inspire more and more generations of readers to search for truth and heroism.

The great Russian writer Maxim Gorky (Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich) was born on March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod - died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki. At an early age he “became popular,” in his own words. He lived hard, spent the night in the slums among all sorts of rabble, wandered, subsisting on an occasional piece of bread. He covered vast territories, visited the Don, Ukraine, the Volga region, Southern Bessarabia, the Caucasus and Crimea.

Start

He was actively involved in social and political activities, for which he was arrested more than once. In 1906 he went abroad, where he began to successfully write his works. By 1910, Gorky had gained fame, his work aroused great interest. Earlier, in 1904, critical articles and then books “About Gorky” began to be published. Gorky's works attracted the interest of politicians and public figures. Some of them believed that the writer interpreted events taking place in the country too freely. Everything that Maxim Gorky wrote, works for the theater or journalistic essays, short stories or multi-page stories, caused a resonance and was often accompanied by anti-government protests. During the First World War, the writer took an openly anti-militarist position. greeted him enthusiastically, and turned his apartment in Petrograd into a meeting place for political figures. Often Maxim Gorky, whose works became more and more topical, gave reviews of his own work in order to avoid misinterpretation.

Abroad

In 1921, the writer went abroad to undergo treatment. For three years, Maxim Gorky lived in Helsinki, Prague and Berlin, then moved to Italy and settled in the city of Sorrento. There he began publishing his memoirs about Lenin. In 1925 he wrote the novel “The Artamonov Case”. All of Gorky's works of that time were politicized.

Return to Russia

The year 1928 became a turning point for Gorky. At the invitation of Stalin, he returns to Russia and for a month moves from city to city, meets people, gets acquainted with achievements in industry, and observes how socialist construction develops. Then Maxim Gorky leaves for Italy. However, the next year (1929) the writer came to Russia again and this time visited the Solovetsky special-purpose camps. The reviews are the most positive. Alexander Solzhenitsyn mentioned this trip of Gorky in his novel

The writer's final return to the Soviet Union occurred in October 1932. Since that time, Gorky has lived in his former dacha in Spiridonovka in Gorki, and goes to Crimea on vacation.

First Writers' Congress

After some time, the writer receives a political order from Stalin, who entrusts him with preparing the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers. In light of this order, Maxim Gorky creates several new newspapers and magazines, publishes book series on the history of Soviet plants and factories, the civil war and some other events of the Soviet era. At the same time he wrote plays: “Egor Bulychev and others”, “Dostigaev and others”. Some of Gorky's works, written earlier, were also used by him in preparing the first congress of writers, which took place in August 1934. At the congress, organizational issues were mainly resolved, the leadership of the future Union of Writers of the USSR was elected, and writing sections by genre were created. Gorky's works were also ignored at the 1st Congress of Writers, but he was elected chairman of the board. Overall, the event was considered successful, and Stalin personally thanked Maxim Gorky for his fruitful work.

Popularity

M. Gorky, whose works for many years caused fierce controversy among the intelligentsia, tried to take part in the discussion of his books and especially theatrical plays. From time to time, the writer visited theaters, where he could see with his own eyes that people were not indifferent to his work. And indeed, for many, the writer M. Gorky, whose works were understandable to the common man, became a guide to a new life. Theater audiences went to the performance several times, read and re-read books.

Gorky's early romantic works

The writer's work can be divided into several categories. Gorky's early works are romantic and even sentimental. They do not yet feel the harshness of political sentiments that permeate the writer’s later stories and tales.

The writer's first story "Makar Chudra" is about gypsy fleeting love. Not because it was fleeting, because “love came and went,” but because it lasted only one night, without a single touch. Love lived in the soul without touching the body. And then the death of the girl at the hands of her beloved, the proud gypsy Rada passed away, and behind her Loiko Zobar himself - they floated across the sky together, hand in hand.

Amazing plot, incredible storytelling power. The story “Makar Chudra” became Maxim Gorky’s calling card for many years, firmly taking first place in the list of “Gorky’s early works.”

The writer worked a lot and fruitfully in his youth. Gorky's early romantic works are a cycle of stories whose heroes were Danko, Sokol, Chelkash and others.

A short story about spiritual excellence makes you think. "Chelkash" is a story about a simple man who carries high aesthetic feelings. Fleeing from home, vagrancy, meeting of two - one is doing his usual thing, the other is brought by chance. Gavrila's envy, mistrust, readiness for submissive servility, fear and servility are contrasted with Chelkash's courage, self-confidence, and love of freedom. However, Chelkash is not needed by society, unlike Gavrila. Romantic pathos is intertwined with tragic. The description of nature in the story is also shrouded in a flair of romance.

In the stories "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil" and, finally, in "Song of the Falcon" the motivation for the "madness of the brave" can be traced. The writer places the characters in difficult conditions and then, beyond any logic, leads them to the finale. What makes the work of the great writer interesting is that the narrative is unpredictable.

Gorky's work "Old Woman Izergil" consists of several parts. The character of her first story, the son of an eagle and a woman, the sharp-eyed Larra, is presented as an egoist incapable of high feelings. When he heard the maxim that one inevitably has to pay for what one takes, he expressed disbelief, declaring that “I would like to remain unharmed.” People rejected him, condemning him to loneliness. Larra's pride turned out to be destructive for himself.

Danko is no less proud, but he treats people with love. Therefore, he obtains the freedom necessary for his fellow tribesmen who trusted him. Despite the threats of those who doubt that he is capable of leading the tribe out, the young leader continues on his way, taking people along with him. And when everyone’s strength was running out, and the forest did not end, Danko tore open his chest, took out his burning heart and with its flame illuminated the path that led them to the clearing. The ungrateful tribesmen, having broken free, did not even look in Danko’s direction when he fell and died. People ran away, trampled on the flaming heart as they ran, and it scattered into blue sparks.

Gorky's romantic works leave an indelible mark on the soul. Readers empathize with the characters, the unpredictability of the plot keeps them in suspense, and the ending is often unexpected. In addition, Gorky’s romantic works are distinguished by deep morality, which is unobtrusive, but makes you think.

The theme of personal freedom dominates the writer’s early work. The heroes of Gorky's works are freedom-loving and are ready to even give their lives for the right to choose their own destiny.

The poem "The Girl and Death" is a vivid example of self-sacrifice in the name of love. A young girl, full of life, makes a deal with death for one night of love. She is ready to die in the morning without regret, just to meet her beloved again.

The king, who considers himself omnipotent, dooms the girl to death only because, returning from the war, he was in a bad mood and did not like her happy laughter. Death spared Love, the girl remained alive and the “bony one with a scythe” no longer had power over her.

Romance is also present in “Song of the Storm Petrel”. The proud bird is free, it is like black lightning, rushing between the gray plain of the sea and the clouds hanging over the waves. Let the storm blow stronger, the brave bird is ready to fight. But it is important for the penguin to hide his fat body in the rocks; he has a different attitude towards the storm - no matter how he soaks his feathers.

Man in Gorky's works

The special, sophisticated psychologism of Maxim Gorky is present in all his stories, while the personality is always given the main role. Even the homeless tramps, the characters of the shelter, are presented by the writer as respected citizens, despite their plight. In Gorky's works, man is placed at the forefront, everything else is secondary - the events described, the political situation, even the actions of government bodies are in the background.

Gorky's story "Childhood"

The writer tells the life story of the boy Alyosha Peshkov, as if on his own behalf. The story is sad, it begins with the death of the father and ends with the death of the mother. Left an orphan, the boy heard from his grandfather, the day after his mother’s funeral: “You are not a medal, you shouldn’t hang around my neck... Go join the people...”. And he kicked me out.

This is how Gorky's work "Childhood" ends. And in the middle there were several years of living in the house of my grandfather, a lean little old man who used to flog everyone who was weaker than him on Saturdays. And the only people inferior to his grandfather in strength were his grandchildren living in the house, and he beat them backhand, placing them on the bench.

Alexey grew up, supported by his mother, and a thick fog of enmity between everyone and everyone hung in the house. The uncles fought among themselves, threatened the grandfather that they would kill him too, the cousins drank, and their wives did not have time to give birth. Alyosha tried to make friends with the neighboring boys, but their parents and other relatives were in such complicated relationships with his grandfather, grandmother and mother that the children could only communicate through a hole in the fence.

"At the bottom"

In 1902, Gorky turned to a philosophical topic. He created a play about people who, by the will of fate, sank to the very bottom of Russian society. The writer depicted several characters, the inhabitants of the shelter, with frightening authenticity. At the center of the story are homeless people on the verge of despair. Some are thinking about suicide, others are hoping for the best. M. Gorky's work "At the Depths" is a vivid picture of social and everyday disorder in society, which often turns into tragedy.

The owner of the shelter, Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev, lives and does not know that his life is constantly under threat. His wife Vasilisa persuades one of the guests, Vaska Pepel, to kill her husband. This is how it ends: the thief Vaska kills Kostylev and goes to prison. The remaining inhabitants of the shelter continue to live in an atmosphere of drunken revelry and bloody fights.

After some time, a certain Luka appears, a projector and a blabbermouth. He “fills up” for no reason, conducts lengthy conversations, promises everyone indiscriminately a happy future and complete prosperity. Then Luke disappears, and the unfortunate people whom he encouraged are at a loss. There was severe disappointment. A forty-year-old homeless man, nicknamed Actor, commits suicide. The rest are not far from this either.

Nochlezhka, as a symbol of the dead end of Russian society at the end of the 19th century, is an undisguised ulcer of the social structure.

The works of Maxim Gorky

"Makar Chudra" - 1892. A story of love and tragedy.
"Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka" - 1893. A poor, sick old man and with him his grandson Lenka, a teenager. First, the grandfather cannot withstand adversity and dies, then the grandson dies. Good people buried the unfortunate people near the road.
"Old Woman Izergil" - 1895. Some stories from an old woman about selfishness and selflessness.
"Chelkash" - 1895. A story about "an inveterate drunkard and a clever, brave thief."
"The Orlov Spouses" - 1897. A story about a childless couple who decided to help sick people.
"Konovalov" - 1898. The story of how Alexander Ivanovich Konovalov, arrested for vagrancy, hanged himself in a prison cell.
"Foma Gordeev" - 1899. A story about the events of the late 19th century that took place in the Volga city. About a boy named Thomas, who considered his father a fabulous robber.
"Bourgeois" - 1901. A story about bourgeois roots and the new spirit of the times.
"At the Bottom" - 1902. A poignant, topical play about homeless people who have lost all hope.
"Mother" - 1906. A novel on the theme of revolutionary sentiments in society, about events taking place within a manufacturing factory, with the participation of members of the same family.
"Vassa Zheleznova" - 1910. The play is about a youthful 42-year-old woman, the owner of a shipping company, strong and powerful.
"Childhood" - 1913. A story about a simple boy and his far from simple life.
"Tales of Italy" - 1913. A series of short stories on the theme of life in Italian cities.
"Passion-face" - 1913. A short story about a deeply unhappy family.
"In People" - 1914. A story about an errand boy in a fashionable shoe store.
"My Universities" - 1923. The story of Kazan University and students.
"Blue Life" - 1924. A story about dreams and fantasies.
"The Artamonov Case" - 1925. A story about the events taking place at a woven fabric factory.
"The Life of Klim Samgin" - 1936. Events of the beginning of the 20th century - St. Petersburg, Moscow, barricades.

Every story, novel or novel you read leaves an impression of high literary skill. The characters carry a number of unique characteristics and characteristics. The analysis of Gorky's works involves comprehensive characteristics of the characters followed by a summary. The depth of the narrative is organically combined with complex but understandable literary techniques. All works of the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky were included in the Golden Fund of Russian Culture.

The work of early Gorky should not be reduced only to romanticism: in the 1890s. he created works that were both romantic and realistic in style (among the latter, for example, the stories “The Beggar Woman,” “Chelkash,” “Konovalov” and many others). Nevertheless, it was precisely the group of romantic stories that was perceived as a kind of calling card of the young writer; it was they that testified to the arrival in literature of a writer who stood out sharply from his predecessors.

First of all, the type of hero was new. Much in Gorky’s heroes made us recall the romantic literary tradition. This is the brightness, exclusivity of their characters, which distinguished them from those around them, and the drama of their relationship with the world of everyday reality, and the fundamental loneliness, rejection, and mystery for others. Gorky's romantics make too stringent demands on the world and the human environment, and in their behavior they are guided by principles that are “crazy” from the point of view of “normal” people.

Two qualities are especially noticeable in Gorky’s romantic heroes: pride and strength, which force them to defy fate and boldly strive for boundless freedom, even if they have to sacrifice their lives for the sake of freedom. It is the problem of freedom that becomes the central problem of the writer’s early stories.

These are the stories “Makar Chudra” and “Old Woman Izergil”. The poeticization of love of freedom itself is a completely traditional feature for the literature of romanticism. The appeal to the conventional forms of legends was not fundamentally new for Russian literature. What is the meaning of the conflict in Gorky’s early romantic stories, what are the specifically Gorky features of its artistic embodiment? The uniqueness of these stories lies in the fact that the source of conflict in them is not the traditional confrontation between “good” and “evil,” but the clash of two positive values. This is the conflict of freedom and love in “Makar Chudra” - a conflict that can only be resolved tragically. Radda and Loiko Zobar, who love each other, value their freedom so much that they do not allow the thought of voluntary submission to their loved one.

Each of the heroes will never agree to be led: the only role worthy of these heroes is to dominate, even if we are talking about mutual feelings. “Will, Loiko, I love you more than you,” says Radda. The uniqueness of the conflict lies in the complete equality of equally proud heroes. Unable to conquer his beloved, Loiko at the same time cannot give up on her. Therefore, he decides to kill - a wild, “crazy” act, although he knows that by doing so he sacrifices his pride and his own life.

The heroine of the story “Old Woman Izergil” behaves in a similar way in the sphere of love: feelings of pity or even regret give way to the desire to remain independent. “I was happy... I never met those I once loved,” she tells her interlocutor. “These are not good meetings, it’s like meeting dead people.” However, the heroes of this story are involved not only and not so much in love conflicts: it is about price, meaning and various options for freedom.

The first option is presented by the fate of Larra. This is another “proud” person (such a characteristic in the mouth of the narrator is more likely to be praise than a negative assessment). The story of his “crime and punishment” receives an ambiguous interpretation: Izergil refrains from direct assessment, the tone of her story is epically calm. The verdict was entrusted to the nameless “wise man”:

«– Stop! There is punishment. This is a terrible punishment; You wouldn’t invent something like this in a thousand years! His punishment is in himself! Let him go, let him be free. This is his punishment!”

So, Larra’s individualistic freedom, not enlightened by reason, is the freedom of rejection, turning into its opposite - into punishment by eternal loneliness. The opposite “mode” of freedom is revealed in the legend of Danko. With his position “above the crowd,” his proud exclusivity, and finally, his thirst for freedom, at first glance, he resembles Larra. However, the elements of similarity only emphasize the fundamentally different directions of the two “freedoms”. Danko’s freedom is the freedom to take responsibility for the team, the freedom to selflessly serve people, the ability to overcome the instincts of self-preservation and subordinate life to a consciously defined goal. The formula “in life there is always a place for achievement” is an aphoristic definition of this freedom. True, the ending of the story about Danko’s fate is not unambiguous: the people saved by the hero are not at all complimentary attested by Izergil. Admiring the daredevil Danko is complicated here by a note of tragedy.

The central place in the story is occupied by the story of Izergil herself. The framing legends about Larra and Danko are deliberately conventional: their action is devoid of specific chronological or spatial signs, and is attributed to an indefinite deep antiquity. On the contrary, Izergil’s story unfolds against a more or less specific historical background (during the course of the story, well-known historical episodes are mentioned and real place names are used). However, this dose of reality does not change the principles of character development - they remain romantic. The life story of the old woman Izergil is a story of meetings and partings. None of the characters in her story are given a detailed description - the metonymic principle dominates in the characterization of the characters (“a part instead of the whole,” one expressive detail instead of a detailed portrait). Izergil is endowed with character traits that bring her closer to the heroes of legends: pride, rebellion, rebellion.

Like Danko, she lives among people and is capable of heroic deeds for the sake of love. However, her image does not have the integrity that is present in Danko’s image. After all, the series of her love interests and the ease with which she parted with them evokes associations with Danko’s antipode, Larra. For Izergil herself (namely, she is the narrator), these contradictions are invisible; she tends to bring her life closer to the model of behavior that makes up the essence of the final legend. It is no coincidence that, starting with the story of Larra, her story rushes to Danko’s “pole”.

However, in addition to Izergil’s point of view, the story also expresses another point of view, belonging to that young Russian who listens to Izergil, occasionally asking her questions. This persistent character in Gorky’s early prose, sometimes called “passing,” is endowed with some autobiographical features. His age, range of interests, and wanderings around Rus' bring him closer to the biographical Alexei Peshkov, which is why in literary studies the term “autobiographical hero” is often used in relation to him. There is also another version of the terminological designation - “author-narrator”. You can use any of these designations, although from the point of view of terminological rigor, the concept of “image of the narrator” is preferable.

Often, the analysis of Gorky’s romantic stories comes down to talking about conventional romantic heroes. Indeed, the figures of Radtsa and Loiko Zobar, Larra and Danko are important for understanding Gorky’s position. However, the content of his stories is broader: the romantic plots themselves are not independent, they are included in a larger narrative structure. Both in “Makar Chudra” and in “Old Woman Izergil” the legends are presented as stories of old people who have seen life. The listener of these stories is the narrator. From a quantitative point of view, this image takes up little space in the texts of the stories. But for understanding the author’s position, its significance is very great.

Let us return to the analysis of the central plot of the story “Old Woman Izergil”. This segment of the narrative - the heroine’s life story - is framed in a double frame. The inner frame consists of the legends about Larra and Danko, told by Izergil herself. External - landscape fragments and portrait characteristics of the heroine, communicated to the reader by the narrator himself, and his short remarks. The outer frame determines the spatiotemporal coordinates of the “speech event” itself and shows the narrator’s reaction to the essence of what he heard. Internal - gives an idea of the ethical standards of the world in which Izergil lives. While Izergil’s story is directed towards Danko’s pole, the narrator’s meager statements make important adjustments to the reader’s perception.

Those short remarks with which he occasionally interrupts the old woman’s speech, at first glance, are of a purely official, formal nature: they either fill pauses or contain harmless “clarifying” questions. But the very direction of the questions is indicative. The narrator asks about the fate of the “others,” the heroine’s life companions: “Where did the fisherman go?” or “Wait!..Where is the little Turk?” Izergil tends to talk primarily about herself. Her additions, provoked by the narrator, indicate a lack of interest, even indifference, to other people (“The boy? He died, the boy. From homesickness or from love...”).

It is even more important that in the portrait description of the heroine given by the narrator, features are constantly recorded that associatively bring her closer not only to Danko, but also to Larra. Speaking of portraits. Note that both Izergil and the narrator act as “portrait painters” in the story. The latter seems to deliberately use in his descriptions of the old woman certain signs that she endowed with legendary heroes, as if “quoting” her.

The portrait of Izergil is given in some detail in the story (“time has bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery,” “the skin on her neck and arms is all cut up with wrinkles,” etc.). The appearance of the legendary heroes is presented through individually selected characteristics: Danko - “a handsome young man”, “a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”, Larra - “a handsome and strong young man”, “only his eyes were cold and proud”.

The antithetical nature of the legendary heroes is already given by the portrait; however, the appearance of the old woman combines individual features of both. “I was alive, like a ray of sunshine” - a clear parallel with Danko; “dry, cracked lips”, “wrinkled nose, curved like an owl’s beak”, “dry... skin” - details that echo the features of Larra’s appearance (“the sun dried up his body, blood and bones”). The “shadow” motif common in the description of Larra and the old woman Izergil is especially important: Larra, having become a shadow, “lives for thousands of years”; the old woman - “alive, but withered by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow.” Loneliness turns out to be the common fate of Larra and the old woman Izergil.

Thus, the narrator does not at all idealize his interlocutor (or, in another story, his interlocutor Makar Chudra). He shows that the consciousness of a “proud” person is anarchic, not enlightened by a clear idea of the price of freedom, and his very love of freedom can take on an individualistic character. That is why the final landscape sketch sets the reader up for concentrated reflection, for the counter activity of his consciousness. There is no straightforward optimism here, the heroism is muted - the pathos that dominated the final legend: “It was quiet and dark in the steppe. The clouds kept crawling across the sky, slowly, boringly... The sea rustled dully and sadly.” The leading principle of Gorky’s style is not spectacular external depiction, as it might seem if only “legends” came into the reader’s field of view. The internal dominant of his work is conceptuality, tension of thought, although this quality of style in his early work is somewhat “diluted” by stylized folk imagery and a tendency towards external effects.

The appearance of the characters and the details of the landscape background in Gorky's early stories are created by means of romantic hyperbolization: showiness, unusualness, “excessiveness” - the qualities of any Gorky image. The very appearance of the characters is depicted with large, expressive strokes. Gorky does not care about the visual concreteness of the image. It is important for him to decorate, highlight, enlarge the hero, and attract the reader’s attention to him. In a similar way, Gorky’s landscape is created, filled with traditional symbolism and imbued with lyricism.

Its stable attributes are the sea, clouds, moon, wind. The landscape is extremely conventional, it serves as a romantic decoration, a kind of screensaver: “...dark blue patches of sky, decorated with golden specks of stars, sparkled tenderly.” Therefore, by the way, within the same description, the same object can be given contradictory, but equally catchy characteristics. For example, the initial description of the moonlit night in “Old Woman Izergil” contains contradictory color characteristics in one paragraph. At first, the “disc of the moon” is called “blood-red,” but soon the narrator notices that the floating clouds are saturated with the “blue radiance of the moon.”

The steppe and the sea are figurative signs of the endless space that opens up to the narrator in his wanderings across Rus'. The artistic space of a specific story is organized by correlating the boundless world and the “meeting place” of the narrator with the future narrator highlighted in it (the vineyard in “The Old Woman Izergil”, the place by the fire in the story “Makar Chudra”). In the landscape painting, the words “strange”, “fantastic” (“fantasy”), “fabulous” (“fairy tale”) are repeated many times. Fine precision gives way to subjective expressive characteristics. Their function is to present an “other”, “unearthly”, romantic world, and contrast it with the dull reality. Instead of clear outlines, silhouettes or “lace shadow” are given; lighting is based on the play of light and shadow.

The external musicality of speech is also noticeable in the stories: the flow of phrases is leisurely and solemn, replete with various rhythmic repetitions. The romantic “excessiveness” of the style is also manifested in the fact that nouns and verbs are entwined in the stories with “garlands” of adjectives, adverbs, participles - whole series of definitions. This stylistic manner, by the way, was condemned by A.P. Chekhov, who friendly advised the young writer: “... Cross out, where possible, the definitions of nouns and verbs. You have so many definitions that the reader finds it difficult to understand and gets tired.”

In Gorky’s early work, “excessive” colorfulness was closely connected with the young writer’s worldview, with his understanding of true life as a free play of unfettered forces, with the desire to introduce a new – life-affirming tonality into literature. Subsequently, M. Gorky’s prose style evolved towards greater conciseness of descriptions, asceticism and accuracy of portrait characteristics, syntactic balance of phrases