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

Words and tastes contrary

And contrary to wishes

On us from a faded line

Suddenly, there is charm.

What a strange thing for our days

It's not a secret for us.

But there is merit in it:

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 of French Revolution, in the intensity of feelings that was characteristic of Europe in those years, but with the ceremonial and pomp of the Baroque still preserved, the leading trends in literature were sensual and sensitive romanticism and sentimentalism. If the emergence of romanticism in Russia is due to the translations of the works of these poets, and later it was developed by its own Russian compositions, then sentimentalism became popular thanks to the works of Russian writers, one of which is “Poor Lisa” by Karamzin.

In the words of Karamzin himself, the story "Poor Lisa" is "a very uncomplicated fairy tale." The story of the fate of the heroine begins with a description of Moscow and the author's admission that he often comes to the "deserted monastery" where Lisa is buried, and "listens to the muffled 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 before Karamzin was not familiar to Russian literature. The title of the story is built on the connection own name the heroine with an epithet characterizing the sympathetic attitude of the narrator towards her, who at the same time constantly repeats that he has no power to change the course of events (“Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad story?”).

Liza, 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 his desire to always buy lilies of the valley from Lisa and finds out where she lives. The next day, Lisa is waiting for the appearance of a new acquaintance - Erast, 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 to keep their feelings secret from her mother. For a long time“their embraces were pure and immaculate,” and Erast “all the brilliant fun big light”appear “insignificant in comparison with the pleasures with which the passionate friendship of an innocent soul fed his heart.” However, soon the son of a wealthy peasant from neighboring village. Erast objects to their wedding, and says that, despite the difference between them, for him in Lisa “the most important thing is the soul, sensitive and innocent soul". Their dates continue, but now Erast "could not be satisfied with being just innocent caresses." “He wanted more, more, and finally, he could not want anything ... Platonic love gave way to such feelings that he could not be proud of and which were no longer new to him. After some time, Erast informs Lisa that his regiment is going on a military campaign. He says goodbye, 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 circumstances have changed: on the campaign he lost almost all of his estate, and is now forced to marry a rich widow. Erast gives Lisa a hundred rubles and asks the servant to escort the girl out of the yard. Lisa, having reached the pond, under the canopy of those oaks, which just "a few weeks before had witnessed her delights", meets the neighbor's daughter, gives her the money and asks her to tell her mother with the words that she loved the man, and he cheated on her. After that, he jumps into the water. The neighbor's daughter calls for help, Lisa is pulled out, but too late. Lisa was buried near the pond, Lisa's mother died of grief. Erast until the end of his life "could not be consoled and considered himself a murderer." The author met him a year before his death, and learned the whole story from him.

The story revolutionized public consciousness XVIII century. Karamzin, for the first time in the history of Russian prose, turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically mundane features. His words "and peasant women know how to love" became winged. Not surprisingly, the story was very popular. In the noble lists, many Erasts appear at once - the name 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 Lisiny 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 (“Poor Liza died in these streams for days; / If you are sensitive, passerby, take a breath”), and satirical, hostile to the heroine and author (“Erastov died in these streams bride. / Drown yourself, girls, there is enough room in the pond”).

"Poor Lisa" has become one of the pinnacles of Russian sentimentalism. It is in it that the refined psychologism of Russian artistic prose, recognized throughout the world, is born. Importance had an artistic discovery by Karamzin - the creation of a special emotional atmosphere corresponding to the theme of the work. The picture of a pure first love is drawn very touchingly: “Now I think,” Liza says to Erast, “that without you life is not life, but sadness and boredom. Without your dark eyes, a bright month; without your voice, the nightingale singing is boring ... "Sensuality - the highest value of sentimentalism - pushes the characters into each other's arms, gives them a moment of happiness. The main characters are also characteristically drawn: chaste, naive, joyfully trusting people, Liza appears as a beautiful shepherdess, least of all like a peasant woman, rather like a sweet secular young lady, brought up on sentimental novels; Erast, despite dishonorable act, reproaches himself for him until the end of his life.

In addition to sentimentalism, Karamzin gave Russia a new name. The name Elizabeth is translated as "honoring 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 Eloise, a friend of Abelard, appears. After her, the name is associated with a love theme: the story of the "noble maiden" Julie d "Entage, who fell in love with her humble teacher Saint-Pre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau calls "Julia, or New Eloise» (1761). Until the beginning of the 80s of the XVIII century, the name "Lisa" was almost never found in Russian literature. Choosing this name for his heroine, Karamzin broke the strict canon European literature XVII-XVIII centuries, in which the image of Lisa, Lisetta 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 classicism, weakened the ties between the name and its bearer in literary work. Instead of the “name-behavior” link familiar to classicism, a new one appears: character-behavior, which was a significant achievement for Karamzin on the way to the “psychologism” of Russian prose.

Many readers were struck by the audacity of the author in the style of presentation. One of the critics from the Novikov circle, which once included Karamzin himself, wrote: “I don’t know if 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 maximally generalized and compressed. Possible lines of development are only outlined, often the text is replaced by dots and dashes, which become its “significant minus”. The image of Lisa is also only outlined, each feature of her character is a topic for a story, but not yet the story itself.

Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the opposition of the city and the 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 - turns out to be defenseless, falling into urban space, where laws operate that are different from the laws of nature. No wonder Lisa's mother tells her: "My heart is always in the wrong place when you go to the city."

The central feature of Lisa's character is sensitivity - this is how the main merit of Karamzin's stories was defined, meaning by this the ability to sympathize, to discover "tender feelings" in the "bends of the heart", as well as the ability to enjoy contemplation own emotions. Liza trusts the movements of her heart, lives "gentle passions." Ultimately, it is ardor and fervor that lead her to death, but morally she is justified. The idea consistently pursued by Karamzin that for the mentally rich, sensitive person doing good deeds naturally removes the need for normative morality.

Many perceive the novel as a confrontation between honesty and windiness, kindness and negativity, poverty and wealth. In fact, everything is more complicated: this is a clash of characters: strong - and accustomed to go with the flow. The novel emphasizes that Erast is a young man "with a fair mind and good heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy. It was Erast, who, from the point of view of the Lisa social stratum, is the “darling of fate”, was constantly bored and “complained about his fate.” Erast is represented by an egoist who thinks that he is 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 whom he abandoned. In other words, he thinks only about his own pleasure, and his desire to live, not burdened by the rules of civilization, in the bosom 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’s not without reason that Erast calls her his shepherdess. Having read novels in which “all people carelessly walked along the rays, bathed in clean springs, kissed like turtledoves, rested under roses and myrtle”, he decided that he “found in Liza what his heart had been looking for for a long time.” Therefore, he dreams that he will “live with Lisa, like brother and sister, I will not use her love for evil and I will always be happy!”, And when Lisa gives herself to him, the satiated young man begins to grow cold 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, when he no longer wants to meet with Lisa and goes on a campaign with the regiment; the second time - when Lisa finds him in the city and he tells her about his upcoming marriage.

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

The story caused a lot of frank imitations: 1801. A.E. Izmailov "Poor Masha", I. Svechinsky "Seduced Henrietta", 1803 "Unfortunate Margaret". At the same time, the theme of "Poor Lisa" can be traced in many works of high artistic value, and plays in them the most different roles. So, Pushkin, turning 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 Lisa" and turned the "sad story" into a story with a happy ending "The young lady is a peasant woman." Nevertheless, the same Pushkin in The Queen of Spades shows the line of the future life of the Karamzin Lisa: the fate that would have awaited her if she had not committed suicide. An echo of the theme of a sentimental work also sounds in the novel “Sunday” written in the spirit of realism by L.T. Tolstoy. Seduced by Nekhlyudov, Katyusha Maslova decides to throw herself under a train.

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

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 sound like this: "Poor Lisa": the main idea and its variations, "because everyone also knows that the main idea usually not one in the work - the main author's messages, as a rule, are several.

So, let's begin.

Plot

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

First, he shows her that he loves, 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 the young Erast also suffered and lived a life without happiness, but for some reason this is hard to believe. If life teaches us anything, it is that people who are unscrupulous and selfish 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 it? Whether the case is 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 guys who want to seduce these girls. Now in certain circles it is fashionable to talk about any classic that it is, they say, a warning - “a novel-caution”, “a story-caution”, etc. If you can say that the essay “Poor Lisa” (its main idea) is warning, then it is empty, because the girls one way or another will fall into the net to the guys callous, soulless. Why? Cause young women will always want 'big and pure love and this longing will lead them through the labyrinth of suffering.

Is there an antidote for unfortunate fate?

Of course, yes, and it is only one thing - the training of the mind, education. If Liza were cynical, intelligent, educated (besides, she is 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 in this paragraph is not the main idea of ​​the work “Poor Liza”, but when reading 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 argue with the masters." Unfortunately, it could not be taught otherwise in those days (18th century). So, let's dwell on the fact that the main idea of ​​the story "Poor Lisa" is "love of evil." In turn, we hope that modern girls Lisa's story will still serve as a warning.

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

The history of the creation of the work

Wherever the name of N. M. Karamzin occurs, his story “Poor Liza” immediately comes to mind. Having glorified the young poet, she 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. In it, the story "Poor Lisa" was first published. 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. Radonezhsky, subsequently became the center of attention for couples in love who came there for walks. Later the pond was renamed "Lizin's pond".

Literary direction

From the end of the 17th century, the era triumphed with its clear rules and genres. 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 novel- "Sensitive story" Prior to this, multi-volume works were widespread in the 18th century. "Poor Lisa" is the first psychological story based on a moral conflict.

Creative method and style

An innovative approach in the story is the very image of the narrator. The story is told on behalf of the author, a person who is not indifferent to the fate of the main characters. His empathy and participation is conveyed in a manner of presentation, which makes the story consistent with all the laws of sentimentalism. The narrator sympathizes with the heroes, worries about them and does not condemn anyone, although in 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 in the story. Nature in the work is no longer just a background, it harmonizes and corresponds to the feelings experienced by the characters of the story. Becomes an active artistic force of the work. So, after Erast's declaration of love, all nature rejoices with Lisa: birds sing, the sun shines brightly, flowers are fragrant. When young people could not resist the call of passion, a storm roars with a formidable warning, and rain pours from 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 a happy ending, which is used 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 the 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 ​​\u200b\u200bpeasant women: “ beautiful body and the soul of a villager”, “gentle and sensitive Liza”, loving daughter your parents. She works, protects her mother from anxiety, not showing her suffering and tears. Even in front of the pond, Lisa remembers her mother. She decides on a fatal act, confident that she helped her mother in any way she could: she handed over the money to her. After meeting Erast, Liza dreamed that her lover was born a simple shepherd. This emphasizes all the disinterestedness 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 wild life in search of comfort in secular amusements. But not finding what he wanted, he was bored and complained about his fate. Karamzin in the image of Erast showed new type hero - a disillusioned aristocrat. He was not a "treacherous 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 represented in the image of " extra person”, weak and unadapted to life. The author emphasizes that Erast was kind by nature, but a weak and windy person. He was dreamy, imagined life in pink, 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, as the main attention of the reader is riveted to the main characters. Nevertheless, one should not forget that famous words Karamzin, “and peasant women know how to love” do not refer to Lisa, 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 the ground was her daughter, whom she could not leave alone, which is why she dreams of marrying Lisa in order to be calm for her future. The old woman cannot stand the grief that has befallen her - the news of Lisa's suicide - and dies.

Plot and composition

All events of the story take place over three months. However, the author tells about them as about the events of thirty years ago. In addition to the psychology of the characters, 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 Liza. Near her grave, he likes to sit in thought under the canopy of trees and look at the pond. This description was made by Karamzin so accurately and picturesquely that the pilgrimage of fans of the story to the monastery began, the search for the place where the hut was, the search for Lisa's grave, etc. Readers believed that this story really happened.

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

As Karamzin said about the story "Poor Lisa": "The tale is not very intricate." Erast is a young, wealthy nobleman who 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 wealthy elderly widow. Having accidentally met Erast in the city, Liza decides that his heart belongs to another. 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 opens this story to the narrator a year before his death. “Now, maybe they have already reconciled!” - with these words, Karamzin concludes his story.

The meaning of the work

N. M. Karamzin, having created “Poor Lisa”, 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 narration closer to colloquial speech, which added even more reality to the plot and closeness with the reader.

(According to the story "Poor Lisa" by Nikolai Karamzin)

print version

At the end of the eighteenth century, a new direction began to take hold in literature - sentimentalism, which was led in Russia by the young talented writer Nikolai Karamzin. It was cutting-edge, inspired by the ideology of the Enlightenment, art that portrayed man and life itself in a new way. Based on its predecessors, sentimentalism, like realism, proclaimed the extra-class value of a person, brought up a sense of dignity and respect for one's strengths, abilities and talents. But there were also significant differences between the two. Realism, revealing the personality, closely connected it with the surrounding world. Sentimentalism, extolling a person, immersed the reader only in the moral world of his hero, isolated him from life, circumstances, everyday life. He contrasted the wealth of property and the nobility of origin with the wealth of feeling and the nobility of the soul. But the hero of this literary direction, unfortunately, was devoid of fighting spirit. running away 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. Being in his solitude, he still strived for happiness and love.

Most a prime example a work corresponding to the direction of sentimentalism was Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa". She introduced a new word into literature, she spoke about Russian life, about moral world ordinary people. But most importantly, the story, as a genre, has ceased to be satirical or adventurous. Karamzin created a new type of work, in which, according to Belinsky, “the life of the heart is faithfully reflected as in a mirror, as it is understood, as it exists for people of that time.” "Sensitivity" - this is how, in the language of the eighteenth century, they defined the main merit of Karamzin's story, which taught people compassion, revealed in their souls the most tender feelings and the most tender passions. The modern reader discovers in this work, first of all, tragedy. human life of 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 the traditional love theme: stories of feelings of two loving people. In solving this problem, Karamzin destroys the literary canons of that period concerning such works. His characters are looking for happiness in love, but living in a big and cruel world, they find themselves drawn into some incomprehensible conflict with reality. The inhuman, fatal law of this very reality deprives them of happiness, makes them victims, dooms them to death or constant suffering. The heroes of Karamzin are like people who have been shipwrecked, thrown onto a harsh and wild coast, lonely on a deserted land. The conflict of "Poor Liza" is generated by reality, its contradictions.

The main character of the story, “beautiful, kind Liza”, although she is the daughter of a wealthy peasant, 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 in order 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: weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking berries and flowers to sell them in Moscow. And it was by selling lilies of the valley that she met a young man who would later become main love her whole life. Erast is a rich nobleman, "with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy." He leads a distracted life, thinks only about his own pleasure, seeks it in secular amusements, often misses and complains about his 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. Learning that Erast loves her, Lisa, a pure soul, selflessly, without hesitation, surrenders to this feeling. In the awakening of morning nature, the birth of Liza's love is reflected: “But soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creations: groves, bushes came to life; the birds fluttered and sang; the flowers raised their heads to be nourished by the life-giving rays of light.” Nature, throughout the story, along with the characters, will be the main actor. She will help us to better understand the feelings and experiences of each character, together with them she will rejoice and be 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 a rich nobleman and a poor villager is unusually large. Erast does not have enough strength to protect his love, he is forced to give it up. What a touching picture the author paints in the parting scene, where the poor girl, saying goodbye to her beloved, seems to say goodbye to her soul. Even nature is silent at this moment. But the golden ray of hope still lives in the heroine, the belief that she will be happy. Lisa's dreams are not destined to come true. Revealing the deceit of her lover, she realizes that she can no longer live in this world. The poor girl throws herself into the waters of a deep pond. And in this desperate act, all the strength of her tender and fragile soul is manifested.

The reader, of course, condemns Erast for weakness, blames him for Liza's death. But is he the only one to blame? After all, having learned about the tragedy, the hero never finds consolation for himself and remains unhappy until the end of his life. It seems to me that Erast has been punished enough, moreover, not only he, but that society, that order that dooms people to death with its laws, must answer.

Showing us 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 no one is guilty of it. The writer seeks to explain everything only by the fatal law of evil prevailing in the world. Karamzin is afraid of the social contradictions that prevailed at that time in Russia. But an attempt to escape from them into the moral world does not bring him a saving way out. 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 sings of this feeling, which is the greatest value in life.

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Karamzin did not accidentally attribute the action of the story to 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 accepted the story enthusiastically, because society has long yearned for something like this. The classical trend that preceded sentimentalism, which was based on rationalism, tired readers with sermons. Sentimentalism (from the word feelings) reflected the world of feelings, heart life. Many imitations of "Poor Lisa" appeared, a kind of mass literature that was in demand by readers.

Genre

"Poor Lisa" is the first Russian psychological story. The feelings of the characters 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 the value of a person, regardless of class.

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

Philosophical: a self-confident mind tramples on natural feelings, which the French Enlightenment 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, to fight for his happiness.

Lisa is a peasant girl. Her image is not spelled out in such detail and contradictory, remains in the canons of classicism. The author sympathizes with the heroine. She is a hardworking, loving daughter, chaste and ingenuous. On the one hand, Liza does not want to upset her mother by refusing to marry a rich peasant, on the other hand, she submits to Erast, who asks her not to tell her mother about their relationship. First of all, Lisa thinks not about herself, but about the fate of Erast, who will be dishonored 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 dead husband. It was about her, and not about Liza, that Karamzin said: “Even peasant women know how to love.”

Plot and composition

Although the writer's attention is focused on the psychology of the characters, 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 does not know his own heart. When the relationship develops into an intimate one, Erast grows cold towards Lisa. In the army, he loses fortune at cards. The only way to improve things is to marry a wealthy elderly widow. Lisa accidentally meets Erast in the city and thinks that he has fallen in love with another. 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 decorated with a frame associated with the image of the narrator. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reports that the events described by the lake happened 30 years ago. At the end of the story, the narrator returns to the present again and recalls the unfortunate fate of Erast at Lisa's grave.

Style

In the text Karamzin uses internal monologues, the voice of the narrator is often heard. landscape sketches harmonize 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. So say not only Erast and the narrator, but also the peasant woman Lisa and her mother. Sentimentalism did not know historicism. The life of the peasants is very conditional, they 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.