The theme of the story is poor Lisa. “Poor Lisa”: analysis of the story

Despite words and tastes

And contrary to wishes

On us from the faded line

Suddenly there is an air of charm.

What a strange thing for these days,

It is by no means a secret for us.

But there is dignity in it too:

She's sentimental!

Lines from the first performance “ Poor Lisa»,

libretto by Yuri Ryashentsev

In the era of Byron, Schiller and Goethe, on the eve French Revolution, in the intensity of feelings characteristic of Europe in those years, but with the ceremoniality and pomp of the Baroque still remaining, the leading trends in literature were sensual and sensitive romanticism and sentimentalism. If the emergence of romanticism in Russia was due to translations of the works of these poets, and only later was developed by its own Russian works, then sentimentalism became popular thanks to the works of Russian writers, one of which is “Poor Liza” by Karamzin.

According to Karamzin himself, the story “Poor Liza” is “a very simple fairy tale.” The narrative about the fate of the heroine begins with a description of Moscow and the author’s confession that he often comes to the “deserted monastery” where Lisa is buried, and “listens to the dull groan of times, swallowed up by the abyss of the past.” With this technique, the author indicates his presence in the story, showing that any value judgment in the text is his personal opinion. The coexistence of the author and his hero in the same narrative space was not familiar to Russian literature before Karamzin. The title of the story is based on the connection own name heroine with an epithet characterizing the sympathetic attitude of the narrator towards her, who constantly repeats that he has no power to change the course of events (“Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad true story?”).

Lisa, forced to work hard to feed her old mother, one day comes to Moscow with lilies of the valley and meets her on the street young man, who expresses a desire to always buy lilies of the valley from Lisa and finds out where she lives. The next day, Lisa waits for a new acquaintance, Erast, to appear, without selling her lilies of the valley to anyone, but he only comes the next day to Lisa’s house. The next day, Erast tells Lisa that he loves her, but asks her to keep their feelings secret from her mother. For a long time“their embraces were pure and immaculate,” and to Erast “all the brilliant fun big world"seem "insignificant in comparison with the pleasures with which the passionate friendship of an innocent soul nourished his heart." However, soon the son of a rich peasant from neighboring village. Erast objects to their wedding and says that, despite the difference between them, for him in Liza “the most important thing is the soul, sensitive and innocent soul" Their dates continue, but now Erast “could no longer be content with just innocent caresses.” “He wanted more, more, and finally, he couldn’t want anything... Platonic love gave way to feelings of which he could not be proud and which were no longer new to him.” After some time, Erast informs Lisa that his regiment is setting off on a military campaign. He says goodbye and gives Lisa’s mother money. Two months later, Liza, having arrived in Moscow, sees Erast, follows his carriage to a huge mansion, where Erast, freeing himself from Lisa’s embrace, says that he still loves her, but the circumstances have changed: on the hike he lost almost all of his money at cards. estate, and is now forced to marry a rich widow. Erast gives Lisa a hundred rubles and asks the servant to escort the girl from the yard. Lisa, having reached the pond, under the shade of those oak trees that just “a few weeks before had witnessed her delight,” meets the neighbor’s daughter, gives her money and asks her to tell her mother with the words that she loved a man, and he cheated on her. After this he throws himself into the water. The neighbor's daughter calls for help, Lisa is pulled out, but it is too late. Lisa was buried near the pond, Lisa's mother died of grief. Until the end of his life, Erast “could not console himself and considered himself a murderer.” The author met him a year before his death, and learned the whole story from him.

The story made a complete revolution in public consciousness XVIII century. For the first time in the history of Russian prose, Karamzin turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically ordinary features. His words “even peasant women know how to love” became popular. It is not surprising that the story was very popular. Many Erasts appear at once in the lists of nobles - a name that was previously infrequent. The pond, located under the walls of the Simonov Monastery (a 14th-century monastery, preserved on the territory of the Dynamo plant on Leninskaya Sloboda Street, 26), was called the Fox Pond, but thanks to Karamzin’s story it was popularly renamed Lizin and became a place of constant pilgrimage. According to eyewitnesses, the bark of the trees around the pond was cut with inscriptions, both serious (“In these streams, poor Liza passed away her days; / If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh”), and satirical, hostile to the heroine and the author (“Erastova died in these streams bride. / Drown yourself, girls, there’s plenty of room in the pond”).

“Poor Liza” became one of the pinnacles of Russian sentimentality. It is here that the refined psychologism of Russian artistic prose, recognized throughout the world, originates. Important had Karamzin's artistic discovery - the creation of a special emotional atmosphere corresponding to the theme of the work. The picture of pure first love is painted very touchingly: “Now I think,” says Lisa to Erast, “that without you life is not life, but sadness and boredom. Without your eyes the bright month is dark; without your voice the nightingale singing is boring..." Sensuality - the highest value of sentimentalism - pushes the heroes into each other's arms, giving them a moment of happiness. The main characters are also drawn characteristically: chaste, naive, joyfully trusting of people, Lisa seems to be a beautiful shepherdess, less like a peasant woman, more like a sweet society young lady brought up on sentimental novels; Erast, despite dishonest act, reproaches himself for him for the rest of his life.

In addition to sentimentalism, Karamzin gave Russia a new name. The name Elizabeth is translated as “who worships God.” In biblical texts, this is the name of the wife of the high priest Aaron and the mother of John the Baptist. Later, the literary heroine Heloise, Abelard's friend, appears. After her, the name is associatively associated with a love theme: the story of the “noble maiden” Julie d’Entage, who fell in love with her modest teacher Saint-Pré, Jean-Jacques Rousseau calls “Julia, or New Eloise"(1761). Until the early 80s of the 18th century, the name “Liza” was almost never found in Russian literature. By choosing this name for his heroine, Karamzin broke the strict canon European literature XVII--XVIII centuries, in which the image of Lisa, Lisette was associated primarily with comedy and with the image of a servant-maid, who is usually quite frivolous and understands everything related to love affair. The gap between the name and its usual meaning meant going beyond the boundaries of classicism, weakening the connections between the name and its bearer in literary work. Instead of the “name - behavior” connection familiar to classicism, a new one appears: character - behavior, which became a significant achievement of Karamzin on the way to the “psychologism” of Russian prose.

Many readers were struck by the author's audacious style of presentation. One of the critics from Novikov’s circle, which once included Karamzin himself, wrote: “I don’t know whether Mr. Karamzin made an era in the history of the Russian language: but if he did, it’s very bad.” Further, the author of these lines writes that in “Poor Liza” “bad morals are called good manners”

The plot of “Poor Lisa” is as generalized and condensed as possible. Possible lines of development are only outlined; often the text is replaced with dots and dashes, which become its “significant minus”. The image of Lisa is also only outlined, each trait of her character is a theme for the story, but not yet the story itself.

Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the contrast between city and countryside into Russian literature. In world folklore and myth, heroes are often able to act actively only in the space allotted to them and are completely powerless outside of it. In accordance with this tradition, in Karamzin's story, a village man - a man of nature - finds himself defenseless when he finds himself in urban space, where laws different from the laws of nature apply. No wonder Lisa’s mother tells her: “My heart is always out of place when you go to town.”

The central feature of Lisa’s character is sensitivity - this is how the main advantage of Karamzin’s stories was defined, meaning by this the ability to sympathize, to discover the “tenderest feelings” in the “curves of the heart,” as well as the ability to enjoy contemplation own emotions. Lisa trusts the movements of her heart and lives with “tender passions.” Ultimately, it is ardor and ardor that lead to her death, but it is morally justified. Karamzin’s consistent idea that for the mentally rich, sensitive person doing good deeds naturally removes the need for normative morality.

Many people perceive the novel as a confrontation between honesty and frivolity, kindness and negativity, poverty and wealth. In fact, everything is more complicated: this is a clash of characters: strong - and accustomed to going with the flow. The novel emphasizes that Erast is a young man “with a fair amount of intelligence and kind hearted, kind by nature, but weak and flighty.” It was Erast, who from the point of view of Lysia’s social stratum is the “darling of fate,” who was constantly bored and “complained about his fate.” Erast is presented as an egoist who seems to be ready to change for the sake of a new life, but as soon as he gets bored, he, without looking back, changes his life again, without thinking about the fate of those he abandoned. In other words, he thinks only about his own pleasure, and his desire to live, unencumbered by the rules of civilization, in the lap of nature, is caused only by reading idyllic novels and oversaturation with social life.

In this light, falling in love with Lisa is only a necessary addition to the idyllic picture being created - it is not for nothing that Erast calls her his shepherdess. Having read novels in which “all the people walked blithely along the rays, swam in clean springs, kissed like turtle doves, rested under roses and myrtles,” he decided that “he found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time.” That’s why he dreams that he will “live with Liza, like brother and sister, I will not use her love for evil and I will always be happy!”, and when Liza gives herself to him, the sated young man begins to cool in his feelings.

At the same time, Erast, being, as the author emphasizes, “kind by nature,” cannot just leave: he is trying to find a compromise with his conscience, and his decision comes down to paying off. The first time he gives money to Liza’s mother is when he doesn’t want to meet with Liza anymore and goes on a campaign with the regiment; the second time is when Lisa finds him in the city and he informs her about his upcoming marriage.

The story “Rich Liza” in Russian literature opens the theme “ little man", although the social aspect in relation to Lisa and Erast is somewhat muted.

The story caused many outright imitations: 1801. A.E. Izmailov “Poor Masha”, I. Svechinsky “Seduced Henrietta”, 1803. "Unhappy Margarita." At the same time, the theme of “Poor Lisa” can be traced in many works of high artistic value, and plays them the most different roles. So, Pushkin, moving to realism in prose works and wanting to emphasize both his rejection of sentimentalism and its irrelevance for contemporary Russia, he took the plot of “Poor Liza” and turned the “sad story” into a story with a happy ending “The Young Lady is a Peasant”. Nevertheless, in the same Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades,” the line of the future life of Karamzin’s Liza is visible: the fate that would have awaited her if she had not committed suicide. An echo of the theme of the sentimental work is also heard in the novel “Sunday” written in the spirit of realism by L.T. Tolstoy. Seduced by Nekhlyudov, Katyusha Maslova decides to throw herself under the train.

Thus, the plot, which existed in literature before and became popular after, was transferred to Russian soil, acquiring a special national flavor and becoming the basis for the development of Russian sentimentalism. Russian psychological, portrait prose and contributed to the gradual retreat of Russian literature from the norms of classicism to more modern literary movements.

When a person wants to hear the most concise review of a work, he asks about its main ideological content. Since N.M. Karamzin is on our agenda, the topic will be: “Poor Liza”: the main idea and its variations,” because everyone also knows well that the main idea usually not one in a work - there are usually several main author's messages.

So, let's begin.

Plot

The events will not be discussed in detail here, but it is simply worth reminding the reader that this is an extremely dramatic story about a poor naive girl named Lisa and a rich, handsome but unscrupulous young man named Erast.

First, he shows her that he loves her, that he is pleased with her purity and innocence, then, when Erast gets his way, he leaves the girl under various pretexts.

Lisa gets upset, finds a deep pond and takes her own life.

N.M. Karamzin wants to convince the reader that young Erast also suffered and lived his life without happiness, but for some reason it’s hard to believe. If life teaches anything, it is that unscrupulous and selfish people live much better than those who have at least some moral principles and beliefs. The work “Poor Liza”, the main idea hidden in it, does not lead the reader to this kind of understanding, which is a pity.

"Love is evil..."

And we know who uses it. But seriously, evil is only when “one loves, and the other allows himself to be loved” (La Rochefoucauld). Reciprocal love is beautiful, but it is, as a rule, everyday and ends happy marriage and children. Who wants to read about this? Either it’s tragic, as in the work “Poor Liza,” the main idea of ​​which is in our field of vision.

How fresh is the story told by Karamzin?

The story of poor Lisa is eternal. There will always be stupid and naive girls and voluptuous boys who want to seduce these girls. Now in certain circles it is fashionable to say about any classic that it is a warning - a “warning novel”, a “warning story”, etc. If we can say that the essay “Poor Liza” (its main idea) is warning, then it is empty, because girls will one way or another get caught in the net of callous, soulless guys. Why? 'Cause young women will always want 'big and pure love", and this desire will lead them through the labyrinth of suffering.

Is there an antidote to an unfortunate fate?

Of course, yes, and there is only one thing - training the mind, education. If Lisa were cynical, smart, educated (besides, she was also beautiful, like an angel), would she need such an empty and meaningless person as Erast? The answer is negative. Of course, the reflection presented at this point is not the main idea of ​​the work “Poor Liza,” but when one reads it, such a conclusion suggests itself.

Lisa was due to the fact that she was taught from an early age: “Your destiny is to live on your knees and not contradict the masters.” Unfortunately, they could not teach it any other way in those days (18th century). So, let’s dwell on the fact that the main idea of ​​the story “Poor Lisa” is “the love of evil.” In turn, we hope that modern girls Lisa's story still serves as a cautionary tale.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) one of the largest Russian writers of the times of sentimentalism. He was called "Russian Stern". Historian, creator of the first generalizing historical work“History of the Russian State” in 12 volumes.

History of the creation of the work

Wherever the name of N.M. Karamzin appears, his story “Poor Liza” immediately comes to mind. Having glorified the young poet, it is one of the brightest works in Russian. This work is considered the first sentimental story that brought fame and popularity to the author.

In 1792, Nikolai Karamzin, who was 25 years old, worked as the editor of the Moscow Journal. The story “Poor Liza” was first published in it. According to contemporaries, at that time Karamzin lived in the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery at Beketov’s dacha. He knew those places well and transferred all their beauty to the pages of his work. Sergius Pond, allegedly dug by S. Radonezh, subsequently became the center of attention for couples in love who came there for walks. Later the pond was renamed “Lizin Pond”.

Literary direction

Since the end of the 17th century, an era with its own clear rules and boundaries of genres has triumphed. Therefore, the sentimentalism that replaced it, with its sensuality and simplicity of presentation, close to simple speech, took literature to a new level. With his story N. Karamzin laid the foundation for noble sentimentalism. He did not advocate the abolition of serfdom, but at the same time showed all the humanity and beauty of the lower class.

Genre

Karamzin is the creator short story- “a sensitive story.” Before this, multi-volume works were widespread in the 18th century. “Poor Liza” is the first psychological story based on a moral conflict.

Creative method and style

The innovative approach in the story is the very image of the narrator. The narration is told on behalf of the author, a person who is not indifferent to the fate of the main characters. His empathy and participation are conveyed in the manner of presentation, which makes the story comply with all the laws of sentimentalism. The narrator sympathizes with the characters, worries about them and does not condemn anyone, although during the course of the story he gives vent to his emotions and writes that he is ready to curse Erast, that he is crying, that his heart is bleeding. Describing the thoughts and feelings of his characters, the author addresses them, argues with them, suffers with them - all this was also new in literature and also corresponded to the poetics of sentimentalism.

Karamzin was also able to show the landscape in a new way. Nature in the work is no longer just a background, it harmonizes and corresponds to the feelings that the heroes of the story experience. Becomes the active artistic force of the work. So, after Erast’s declaration of love, all nature rejoices with Lisa: the birds are singing, the sun is shining brightly, the flowers are fragrant. When the young people were unable to resist the call of passion, a storm roared as a menacing warning, and rain poured from the black clouds.

Problems of the work

• Social: the story of lovers belonging to different social strata, despite all the beauty and tenderness of feelings, leads to tragedy, and not to the happy ending that is accustomed to in old novels.
• Philosophical: the struggle of the mind with strong natural feelings.
• Moral: the moral conflict of the story. Wonderful feelings between the peasant woman Lisa and the nobleman Erast. As a result, after short moments of happiness, the sensitivity of the heroes leads Lisa to death, and Erast remains unhappy and will forever reproach himself for Lisa’s death; It was he, according to the narrator, who told him this story and showed Liza’s grave.

Characteristics of heroes

Lisa. The main character is a peasant girl. The author showed it true image, not similar to the general idea of ​​peasant women: “ beautiful body and a villager at heart”, “tender and sensitive Lisa”, loving daughter your parents. She works, protects her mother from worry, without showing her suffering and tears. Even in front of the pond, Lisa remembers her mother. She decides to take a fatal action, confident that she helped her mother in any way she could: she gave her the money. After meeting Erast, Lisa dreamed that her lover would be born a simple shepherd. This emphasizes the unselfishness of her soul, as well as the fact that she really looked at things and understood that there could be nothing in common between a peasant woman and a nobleman.

Erast. In the novel his image corresponds social society, in which he grew up. A wealthy nobleman with the rank of officer, who led a riotous life in search of joy in social fun. But not finding what he wanted, he was bored and complained about fate. Karamzin in the image of Erast showed new type the hero is a disillusioned aristocrat. He was not a “cunning seducer” and sincerely fell in love with Lisa. Erast is also a victim of tragedy, and he has his own punishment. Subsequently, many more heroes of works of Russian literature are presented in the image of “ extra person", weak and unadapted to life. The author emphasizes that Erast was a kind person by nature, but a weak and flighty person. He was dreamy, imagined life in roses, having read novels and lyric poems. Therefore, his love did not stand the test of real life.

Lisa's mother. The image of Lisa's mother often remains out of sight, since the reader's main attention is focused on the main characters. However, we should not forget that famous words Karamzin’s “even peasant women know how to love” refers not to Liza, but to her mother. It was she who devotedly loved her Ivan, lived with him in happiness and harmony long years and took his death very hard. The only thing that kept her on earth was her daughter, whom she could not leave alone, so she dreams of marrying Lisa off in order to be calm about her future. The old woman cannot stand the grief that befalls her - the news of Lisa's suicide - and dies.

Plot and composition

All the events of the story take place over three months. However, the author talks about them as events that happened thirty years ago. In addition to the psychology of the heroes, which is revealed to the smallest detail in the story, the ending is also influenced by external events that pushed main character take a decisive step.

The story begins and ends with a description of the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery, which remind the narrator of the deplorable fate of poor Lisa. Near her grave, he likes to sit thoughtfully under the shade of trees and look at the pond. This description was made by Karamzin so accurately and picturesquely that a pilgrimage of fans of the story to the monastery began, a search for the place where the hut was, a search for Lisa’s grave, etc. Readers believed that this story really happened in reality.

What was new and unusual in the story was that instead of what was expected (according to the usual novels) happy ending the reader encountered the bitter truth of life.

As Karamzin said about the story “Poor Liza”: “The fairy tale is not very complicated.” Erast, a young, rich nobleman, falls in love with the daughter of a settler, Lisa. But due to class inequality, their marriage is impossible. He is looking for a friend in her, but friendly communication develops into deeper mutual feelings. But he quickly lost interest in the girl. While in the army, Erast loses his fortune and, in order to improve his financial situation, marries a rich elderly widow. Having accidentally met Erast in the city, Lisa decides that his heart belongs to someone else. Unable to come to terms with this, Lisa drowns herself in the very pond near which they once met. Erast remains unhappy until the end of his days; he suffers from the pangs of repentance for many years and reveals this story to the narrator a year before his death. “Now maybe they have already reconciled!” - Karamzin concludes his story with these words.

Meaning of the work

N. M. Karamzin, having created “Poor Liza,” laid the foundation for a cycle of literature about “little people.” Created a modern literary language, which was spoken not only by nobles, but also by peasants. He brought the narrative closer to colloquial speech, which further added reality and closeness to the reader to the plot.

(Based on the story "Poor Liza" by Nikolai Karamzin)

print version

At the end of the eighteenth century, a new direction began to take hold in literature - sentimentalism, the leader of which in Russia was the young talented writer Nikolai Karamzin. It was an advanced art, inspired by Enlightenment ideology, that depicted man and life itself in a new way. Based on its predecessors, sentimentalism, like realism, proclaimed the transcendental value of man, fostered a sense of dignity and respect for one’s strengths, abilities and talents. But there were also significant differences between these two directions. Realism, revealing personality, closely connected it with the world around it. Sentimentalism, exalting man, immersed the reader only in the moral world of its hero, isolated him from life, circumstances, and everyday life. He contrasted property wealth and nobility of origin with wealth of feeling and nobility of soul. But the hero of this literary direction, unfortunately, was devoid of fighting spirit. Escaping from real world, in the cruel feudal reality he always turned out to be a victim. But at home, in the circle of his passions and experiences, it was great person, because he was a morally free and spiritually rich person. While in his solitude, he still strived for happiness and love.

Most a shining example A work corresponding to the direction of sentimentalism was Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza.” She introduced a new word into literature, it spoke about Russian life, about moral world ordinary people. But what is most important is that the story, as a genre, has ceased to be satirical or adventurous. Karamzin created a new type of work, in which, according to Belinsky, “as in a mirror, the life of the heart is truly reflected, as it is understood, as it exists for the people of that time.” “Sensitivity” - this is how the main advantage of Karamzin’s story was defined in the language of the eighteenth century, which taught people compassion, revealed the most tender feelings and tender passions in their souls. The modern reader discovers in this work, first of all, tragedy human life that era.

The plot of “Poor Lisa,” presented to us as a “sad story,” is extremely simple, but full of dramatic content. It is dedicated to traditional love theme: stories of two feelings loving people. In solving this problem, Karamzin destroys the literary canons of that period concerning such works. His heroes seek happiness in love, but living in a big and cruel world, they find themselves drawn into some kind of conflict with reality that is incomprehensible to them. The inhuman, fatal law of this very reality deprives them of happiness, makes them victims, dooms them to death or constant suffering. Karamzin's heroes are like shipwrecked people, thrown onto a harsh and wild shore, alone in a deserted land. The conflict in “Poor Lisa” is generated by reality and its contradictions.

The main character of the story, “beautiful, amiable Liza,” although she is the daughter of a wealthy villager, is just a peasant woman. After the death of her father, she is forced, not sparing her tender youth, her rare beauty, to work day and night to feed herself and her sick mother. A sensitive, kind old woman thanks the Almighty for such a daughter. “God gave me hands to work with,” says Lisa. And she works: weaves canvas, knits stockings, collects berries and flowers to sell them in Moscow. And it was while selling lilies of the valley that she met a young man who would later become main love throughout her life. Erast is a wealthy nobleman, “with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty.” He leads an absent-minded life, thinks only about his own pleasure, seeks it in secular amusements, often gets bored and complains about fate. But with the advent of love, his life immediately changes. Karamzin surprisingly poetically and romantically describes the feeling that arose in these young people, comparing it with delightful, magical, heavenly music. Having learned that Erast loves her, Lisa, a pure soul, selflessly, without thinking, surrenders to this feeling. The awakening of morning nature reflects the birth of Liza’s love: “But soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: the groves and bushes came to life; the birds fluttered and sang; the flowers raised their heads to be saturated with the life-giving rays of light.” Nature, throughout the story, along with the heroes, will be the main thing. actor. She will help us better understand the feelings and experiences of each character; together with them she will be happy and sad, laugh and cry.

But beautiful, mutual love does not stand the test of strength. And the cruel world in which young people live is to blame for this. In this world, conventions are higher than human happiness. A complex social conflict arises: the gap between the rich nobleman and the poor villager is unusually large. Erast does not have enough strength to protect his love, he is forced to abandon it. What a touching picture the author paints in the parting scene, where the poor girl, saying goodbye to her lover, seems to be saying goodbye to her soul. Even nature remains silent at this moment. But the heroine still has a golden ray of hope, the belief that she will be happy. Lisa's dreams are not destined to come true. Revealing her lover's deception, she realizes that she will no longer be able to live in this world. The poor girl throws herself into the waters of a deep pond. And in this desperate act the full strength of her tender and fragile soul is revealed.

The reader, of course, condemns Erast for weakness and blames him for Lisa’s death. But is he the only one to blame? After all, having learned about the tragedy that happened, the hero never finds consolation and remains unhappy for the rest of his life. It seems to me that Erast has been sufficiently punished; moreover, it is not only he who must answer, but also society, the order that, with its laws, dooms people to death.

Showing us the drama human soul, Karamzin still refuses to study the causes that cause it. He tries in every possible way to avoid the question - who is to blame? There is suffering in his play, but there are no people to blame for it. The writer seeks to explain everything only by the fatal law of the prevailing evil in the world. Karamzin is afraid of the social contradictions that dominated Russia at that time. But trying to escape from them into the moral world does not bring him a saving way. The turning point in the writer’s convictions, when he begins to believe that the artist should be an “organ of patriotism,” will come much later. In the meantime, Karamzin gives the reader the opportunity to admire the amazing story of beautiful and pure love. With all the strength of his talent, he glorifies this feeling, which is the greatest value in life.

The text of the essay has been moved to our new website -

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

Literary direction

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

Genre

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

Issues

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

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

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

Main characters

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

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

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

Plot and composition

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

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

Style

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

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