Karamzin poor Lisa summary of the main characters. Heroes of the story "Poor Lisa" by Nikolai Karamzin
The main character of the story is a poor young peasant woman from a village near Moscow. Liza was left early without her father, who was the breadwinner of the family. After his death, he and his mother quickly became impoverished. Lisa's mother was a kind, sensitive old woman, but already unable to work. Therefore, Lisa took on any job and worked without sparing herself.
One of the heroes of the story, the old mother of the main character, Lisa. She is a kind, caring and sensitive woman who lives in a village near Moscow. After the death of her husband, who was the main breadwinner of the family, she and her daughter quickly became impoverished. Her health did not allow her to work hard, and she saw badly already.
Lisa's father
The episodic character was a wealthy and hardworking peasant who never drank alcohol. After his death, his wife and daughter quickly became destitute.
Shepherd
An episodic character, a young man who drove his flock past Lisa. Instead, Lisa represented her beloved Erast.
Servant of Erast
An episodic character, brought Lisa out of the yard after Erast told her that he was getting married.
elderly widow
An episodic character, a rich but elderly bride of Erast, whom he is forced to marry, as he lost his entire estate in cards.
Kind woman
An episodic character, a random woman who brought Lisa to her senses and helped her get up after she fainted after leaving Erast.
Anyuta
An episodic character, a fifteen-year-old girl, Lisa's neighbor, whom she accidentally met near the pond. Having given her the money and asked them to give it to her mother, as well as kiss her and explain that Lisa was betrayed and she can no longer live.
N.M. Karamzin wrote an extremely touching and dramatic story about a simple and at the same time age-old situation: she loves, but he does not. But before answering the question of what is the characterization of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa", you need to at least refresh the plot of the work at least a little.
Plot
Lisa is an orphan. Left without a father, she is forced to go to work: selling flowers in the city. The girl is very young and naive. On one of her “working days”, Liza saw a young man (Erast) in the city who bought flowers from her, paying 20 times more than they cost. Erast said at the same time that these hands should collect flowers only for him. However, he didn't show up the next day. Liza was upset (like all young girls, she was very greedy for compliments). But the next day, Erast himself visited Lisa at her home and even talked to her mother. The young man seemed very pleasant and polite to the old mother.
And so it went on for some time. Erast reveled in the virginity and purity of Lisa, and she (a peasant girl of the 19th century) was simply stunned by the courtship of a young handsome nobleman.
The turning point in the relationship came when Lisa spoke about her possible imminent marriage. She was upset and depressed, but Erast reassured her and painted her future and said that the sky above them would be in diamonds.
Liza cheered up a little - she believed Erast and, on a wave of relief, gave him her innocence. As expected, the nature of the meetings has changed. Now Erast again and again took possession of the girl, using her without a twinge of conscience for his own needs. Then both Liza and the relationship with her bored Erast, and he decided to escape from all this burden to the army, where he did not serve the Fatherland, but quickly squandered his fortune.
Returning from the army, Erast, of course, did not say a word to Liza about this, she herself somehow saw him on the street in a carriage. She rushed to him, but after a not very pleasant conversation that happened between them, the former lover put Lisa out the door, putting money in.
Lisa, out of such grief, went and drowned herself in the pond. The old mother followed her in as soon as she learned about the death of her daughter, she immediately had a stroke, and she died.
Now we are ready to answer the question of what is the characteristic of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa".
Lisa's character
Lisa was actually a child, despite the fact that she had to go to work early as her father died. But she did not have time to learn how to live properly. The girl's inexperience attracted a young superficial nobleman who sees the goal of his life in pleasure. In this row is poor Liza with her admiration. Erast was very flattered by the attitude of such a young and such a fresh girl, and she was naive to the extreme. Took the attitude of a young rake at face value, and it was all a game of boredom really. Who knows, maybe even Lisa secretly hoped for the position of a mistress over time. Of her other qualities of character, it is worth noting kindness and spontaneity.
Perhaps we have not described all the facets of the personality of the main character, but it seems that there is enough information here so that the characterization of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa" is understandable and covers the very essence of her being.
Erast and its inner content
The second main character of the story - Erast - is a typical aesthetic and hedonist. He lives only to enjoy. He has a mind. He could be brilliantly educated, but instead the young master just burns his life, and Lisa is entertainment for him. While she was pure and immaculate, the girl was interested in Erast, how the ornithologist was fascinated by the species of birds he had recently discovered, but when Lisa surrendered to Erast, she became the same as everyone else, which means that he got bored, and he, driven by a thirst for pleasure, moved on without really thinking about the consequences of his vile behavior.
Although the behavior of a young person becomes unethical only through the prism of certain moral values. If a person is unprincipled (which was Erast), then he cannot even feel the share of baseness that is contained in his actions.
A person who seeks only pleasure in life is superficial by definition. He is incapable of deep feelings. And, of course, he is an opportunist, which proves Erast's marriage for the sake of money with an already middle-aged widow.
The confrontation between Lisa and Erast as a struggle between light and shadow, good and evil
At first glance, it seems that Lisa and Erast are like day and night, or good and evil. Accordingly, the characterization of Liza from the story "Poor Liza" and the characterization of Erast are deliberately opposed by the author of the story, but this is not entirely true.
If the image of Liza is good, then neither the world nor people need such good. It is simply not viable. Nevertheless, on the whole, a well-written (albeit slightly sentimental) story "Poor Lisa". The characteristic of Lisa, which can exhaustively define her, is naivety, reaching the point of stupidity. But this is not her fault, because we are talking about a peasant girl of the 19th century.
Erast is also not evil in its purest form. For evil, strength of character is needed, and the young nobleman is not endowed with it, to his regret. Erast is just an infantile boy running from responsibility. It is completely empty and empty. His behavior is disgusting, but it is difficult to call him evil, and even more so the embodiment of evil. This is all that the story "Poor Lisa" revealed to us. Erast's characterization is more than exhaustive.
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The incredibly sincere and emotional work of Karamzin does not leave anyone indifferent - in the story the author described the typical feelings of people in love, outlining the picture from the very beginning to the decline of the feelings of one of the beloved.
Philosophical overtones and psychological basis make this work look like a legend - a sad story based on real events.
Character characteristics
Karamzin's story does not differ in a significant list of heroes. There are only five of them:
- Lisa;
- Lisa's mother;
- Erast;
- Annushka;
- Author.
The image of Lisa is depicted in the best traditions of sentimentalism - she is a sweet and sincere girl, tender and impressionable: “pure. a joyful soul shone in her eyes.
The girl is somewhat similar to an angel - she is too innocent and virtuous: "beautiful in soul and body." It seems that she grew up in a different world, because she was able, despite all the difficulties of society and the era, to preserve goodness and humanity.
At the age of 15, Lisa was left without a father. Life with her mother was difficult financially, but easy psychologically - a friendly, trusting relationship was established between mother and daughter. Mother, being a compassionate woman, constantly worries about her beloved daughter, like all parents, she wishes her a better fate. The woman could not survive the loss of her daughter - the news of Lisa's death became fatal for her.
Erast is a nobleman by birth. He is a smart and educated person. His life is typical for a young man of his age and class - dinner parties, balls, card games, theater, but this does not bring him much joy - he is rather tired of all the entertainment. Acquaintance with Lisa noticeably changes him and instead of boredom, he develops an aversion to the attributes of social life.
The harmonious life of Lisa allowed him to consider other aspects of existence: "he thought with disgust about the contemptuous voluptuousness that his feelings used to revel in."
The image of Erast is not devoid of positive qualities - he is a gentle and courteous person, but the selfish spoiledness of the young man did not allow him to become as harmonious as Lisa.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with which came out from the pen of the classic author N. Karamzin.
The image of Annushka in the story is fragmentary - we meet this character already at the end of the work: after learning about Erast's wedding, Lisa realizes that she cannot come to terms with this and does not realize her life without this person - the option to commit suicide seems to her one of the most acceptable. At this time, Liza notices Annushka, the neighbor's daughter, and instructs her to give the money to her mother. After that, Lisa rushes into the pond.
Criticism
Karamzin's story was repeatedly called a breakthrough of its time, the motif so typical of European literature was first transferred to the plane of Russian culture, which was already an innovation. The special interest of the public in the work was also caused by the introduction of a new direction - sentimentalism.
Literary critics and researchers highly appreciated Karamzin's story and noted that the author managed to recreate "living" reality in front of the reader - the work was surprisingly realistic, devoid of artificial emotions and images.
Russian scientist, professor-philologist V.V. Sipovsky believed that Karamzin was the "Russian" Goethe - his living word contributed to a breakthrough in literature.
Karamzin, according to the scientist, provided readers with the reverse side of the coin, showing that a person’s life, even if he is just an invention of the author, does not always have to be filled with idyll, sometimes it can have fatality and tragedy: “The Russian public, accustomed to in old novels to comforting outcomes in the form of weddings, who believed that virtue is always rewarded and vice is punished, for the first time in this story she met with the bitter truth of life.
A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, analyzing the significance of "Poor Liza", focused on the European basis of the story both in terms of plot and in terms of sentimentalism, which had not yet spread to the territory of Russia, but was already widespread in Europe. “Everyone sighed until they fainted” - he gives such an assessment of the impact on the public to the work, and already quite ironically notes that after the release of “Poor Lisa”, everyone began to “drown in a puddle”.
G. A. Gukovsky also speaks of the same effect, noting that after reading Poor Lisa, crowds of young people began to appear near the Simonov Monastery and admire the surface of the lake, in which, according to Karamzin’s idea, the girl drowned.
In his opinion, nature in the story performs its own special function - it sets the reader up for a lyrical perception of reality. Poor Liza is not so much a real peasant woman as an ideal opera heroine, and her sad story should not outrage, but only create a lyrical mood.
V.N. Toporov argues that "Poor Lisa" has become a significant work not only in Russian literature, but also in the work of Karamzin - it was this work that opened the era of a "breakthrough" both in the work of a literary figure and in the historical development of literature as a whole.
“Poor Liza” is precisely the root from which the tree of Russian classical prose has grown, whose powerful crown sometimes hides the trunk and distracts from reflections on the historically so recent origins of the very phenomenon of Russian literature of the New Age.
Winged phrases from the story
I love those items that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow!
Everyone is sentimental in one way or another. Some people show their sentimentalism from an early age, while others acquire this feeling after some time, having acquired sufficient life experience.
Special emotions that arise in a person during contact with objects of material or spiritual culture help to create the effect of catharsis - emotional relief.
Peasants know how to love!
Until a certain point, it was believed that the peasants were not emotionally and mentally similar to the aristocrats. The essence of this statement was not the lack of education of the peasants, but the conviction that the peasants, even with education, would not be able to become similar in spiritual development to representatives of the aristocracy - they were not characterized by high manifestations of feelings, in fact, it turned out, based on this theory, that the peasants were guided exclusively instincts, they are characterized by only the most simple emotions. Karamzin showed that this is not so. Serfs can show different feelings and emotions, and theories that they are several stages lower in their development are prejudices.
It is better to live by your own labors and take nothing for nothing.
This phrase reflects the moral principles of an honest person - if you have not earned a certain thing, then you have no right to claim it.
Old people are suspicious
In view of their age and life experience, old people try to protect young people from the mistakes of youth. Since young people are often in no hurry to share their problems and concerns with the older generation, the only way to find out about the upcoming problem is to analyze the behavior of the individual, and for this you need to be observant.
How good everything is with the Lord God! It is necessary that the King of Heaven loved a person very much when he so well removed the worldly light for him.
In the world of nature, everything is harmonious and aesthetically pleasing. A person with a sensual soul cannot but notice these subtleties and admire them. In spring and summer, the feeling of the beauty of nature is felt especially vividly - the nature that slept in winter returns to life and pleases the world around with its charm. Beings who have the opportunity to see all this beauty cannot be unloved by God, otherwise he would not have tried to create such a beautiful and harmonious world.
The fulfillment of all desires is the most dangerous temptation of love.
There is always love fervor between lovers, however, in the case when relations between people develop too quickly and there is an effect of permissiveness, the fervor quickly fades away - when everything is achieved, there is not a single secluded corner in the soul of a person where a dream or fantasy - there is no reason for dreams, if in this case the relationship does not go to another level (for example, marriage), then there is a fading of emotions and passion in relation to the object of one's passion and admiration.
Death for the fatherland is not terrible
A person is not conceivable without his “roots”, one way or another, each individual must be aware of himself not only as part of society, but also as part of the state. The improvement and problems of the state should be perceived by everyone as the problems of their own family, so death in the name of one's state is not inglorious.
Story test
1. How old was Liza when her father died?
A) 19
B)15
AT 10
2. Why did the family live in poverty after the death of their father?
A) could not pay rent for land
B) workers did not cultivate the land so well and the harvest decreased
C) the money was spent on the treatment of sister Liza
3. At what price did Liza sell lilies of the valley?
A) 5 kopecks
B) 5 rubles
B) 13 kopecks
4. Why didn't Liza sell flowers for 1 ruble?
a) It was too cheap
B) her conscience did not allow her
C) The ruble was spoiled
5. Why do Lisa and Erast meet at night?
A) Erast is busy all day
B) They can be slandered
C) Their meetings can cause a quarrel with Erast's bride
6. Why was Lisa afraid of a thunderstorm during one of their nightly meetings with Erast?
A) She was afraid that the thunder would strike her as a criminal.
B) Lisa was always afraid of thunderstorms.
C) The storm was very strong and the girl was afraid that her mother would wake up and find that Lisa was not at home.
7. Why didn't Erast refuse to go to war?
A) could not contradict the order
B) Lisa became disgusting to him
C) everyone would laugh at him and consider him a coward
8. Why is Erast not afraid to die in war?
a) He knows no fear
B) death for the Fatherland is not terrible
C) he has been dreaming of death for a long time
9. Why did Erast order Lisa to forget him?
A) he was tired of the girl
B) was afraid that everyone would laugh at him when they found out about their relationship with Lisa
C) he was engaged and the relationship with Lisa could harm his marriage.
10. What did Liza do with the money that Erast gave her?
A) returned Erast back
B) gave to the beggar standing under the church
C) gave it to the neighbor's daughter to give it to Lisa's mother.
11. How did Lisa's mother take her death?
A) killed Erast
B) drowned in grief
c) The news was so overwhelming for her that she died immediately
12. What do the peasants think when they hear the howling of the wind in the house where Liza lived with her mother?
A) it's Lisa's soul crying
B) tramps climbed into the house for the night
C) It is Erast who comes to yearn for his lost happiness.
Key:
B 2.b 3.a 4. b5.b 6.a 7.c 8.b 9.c 10.c. 11. At 12
Thus, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of Karamzin's story on the development of literature and culture. The images of his characters are endowed with actually typical qualities, however, the depiction of their inner world and a vivid description of the feelings of the characters creates a picture of realism and uniqueness.
Characteristics of the hero
Lisa is a poor peasant girl. She lives with her mother (a "sensitive, kind old woman") in the countryside. To earn a living, Lisa takes on any job. In Moscow, while selling flowers, the heroine meets the young nobleman Erast and falls in love with him: "having completely surrendered to him, she only lived and breathed with him." But Erast betrays the girl and marries another for money. Upon learning of this, Lisa drowns herself in the pond. The main feature in the character of the heroine is sensitivity, the ability to love devotedly. The girl does not live by reason, but by feelings (“gentle passions”). Lisa is kind, very naive and inexperienced. She sees only the best in people. Her mother warns her, "You don't know yet how evil people can offend a poor girl." Lisa's mother associates evil people with the city: “My heart is always out of place when you go to the city ...” Karamzin shows bad changes in Lisa’s thoughts and actions under the influence of the depraved (“urban”) Erast. The girl hides from her mother, whom she used to tell everything, her love for the young nobleman. Later, Lisa, along with the news of her death, sends the old woman the money that Erast gave her. "Lizina's mother heard about the terrible death of her daughter, and ... - her eyes were closed forever." After the death of the heroine, pilgrims began to walk to her grave. To the place of Liza's death came to cry and grieve the same unfortunate girls in love, as she herself was.
The story "Poor Lisa", written by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, became one of the first works of sentimentalism in Russia. The love story of a poor girl and a young nobleman won the hearts of many of the writer's contemporaries and was received with great enthusiasm. The work brought unprecedented popularity to the then completely unknown 25-year-old writer. However, with what descriptions does the story “Poor Liza” begin?
History of creation
N. M. Karamzin was distinguished by his love for Western culture and actively preached its principles. His role in the life of Russia was enormous and invaluable. This progressive and active man traveled extensively in Europe in 1789-1790, and upon his return he published the story "Poor Lisa" in the Moscow Journal.
Analysis of the story indicates that the work has a sentimental aesthetic orientation, which is expressed in interest in, regardless of their social status.
While writing the story, Karamzin lived in a dacha with his friends, not far from which he was located. It is believed that he served as the basis for the beginning of the work. Thanks to this, the love story and the characters themselves were perceived by readers as completely real. And the pond near the monastery began to be called "Lizina Pond".
"Poor Lisa" by Karamzin as a sentimentalist story
“Poor Liza” is, in fact, a short story, in the genre of which no one wrote in Russia before Karamzin. But the writer's innovation is not only in the choice of genre, but also in the direction. It was behind this story that the title of the first work of Russian sentimentalism was entrenched.
Sentimentalism arose in Europe in the 17th century and focused on the sensual side of human life. Questions of reason and society went by the wayside for this direction, but emotions, relationships between people became a priority.
Sentimentalism has always sought to idealize what is happening, to embellish. Answering the question about what descriptions the story “Poor Liza” begins with, we can talk about the idyllic landscape that Karamzin paints for readers.
Theme and idea
One of the main themes of the story is social, and it is connected with the problem of the attitude of the nobility towards the peasants. It is not for nothing that Karamzin chooses a peasant girl for the role of the bearer of innocence and morality.
Contrasting the images of Lisa and Erast, the writer is one of the first to raise the problem of contradictions between the city and the countryside. If we turn to what descriptions the story "Poor Lisa" begins with, then we will see a quiet, cozy and natural world that exists in harmony with nature. The city, on the other hand, frightens, terrifies with its “mass of houses”, “golden domes”. Lisa becomes a reflection of nature, she is natural and naive, there is no falsehood and pretense in her.
The author speaks in the story from the position of a humanist. Karamzin depicts all the charm of love, its beauty and strength. But reason and pragmatism can easily destroy this wonderful feeling. The story owes its success to the incredible attention to the personality of a person, his experiences. "Poor Lisa" evoked sympathy from her readers thanks to Karamzin's amazing ability to portray all the spiritual subtleties, experiences, aspirations and thoughts of the heroine.
Heroes
A complete analysis of the story "Poor Liza" is impossible without a detailed examination of the images of the main characters of the work. Liza and Erast, as noted above, embodied different ideals and principles.
Lisa is an ordinary peasant girl whose main feature is the ability to feel. She acts according to the dictates of her heart and feelings, which ultimately led her to death, although her morality remained intact. However, in the image of Liza there is little peasant: her speech and thoughts are closer to the language of the book, but the feelings of the girl who fell in love for the first time are conveyed with incredible truthfulness. So, despite the external idealization of the heroine, her inner experiences are conveyed very realistically. In this regard, the story "Poor Lisa" does not lose its innovation.
What descriptions begin the work? First of all, consonant with the character of the heroine, helping the reader to recognize her. This is a natural idyllic world.
Erast appears completely different to readers. He is an officer who is only puzzled by the search for new entertainment, life in the world tires and bores him. He is not stupid, kind, but weak in character and changeable in his affections. Erast truly falls in love, but does not think about the future at all, because Lisa is not his circle, and he will never be able to marry her.
Karamzin complicated the image of Erast. Usually such a hero in Russian literature was simpler and endowed with certain characteristics. But the writer does not make him an insidious seducer, but a sincerely fallen in love man who, due to weakness of character, could not pass the test and keep his love. This type of hero was new to Russian literature, but he immediately took root and later received the name "superfluous person."
Plot and originality
The plot of the story is pretty straightforward. This is the story of the tragic love of a peasant woman and a nobleman, the result of which was the death of Lisa.
What descriptions begin the story "Poor Lisa"? Karamzin draws a natural panorama, the bulk of the monastery, a pond - it is here, surrounded by nature, that the main character lives. But the main thing in the story is not the plot and not the descriptions, the main thing is feelings. And the narrator must awaken these feelings in the audience. For the first time in Russian literature, where the image of the narrator has always remained outside the work, the hero-author appears. This sentimental narrator learns the love story from Erast and retells the reader with sadness and sympathy.
Thus, there are three main characters in the story: Lisa, Erast and the author-narrator. Karamzin also introduces the technique of landscape descriptions and somewhat lightens the ponderous style of the Russian literary language.
Significance for Russian literature of the story "Poor Lisa"
An analysis of the story thus shows Karamzin's incredible contribution to the development of Russian literature. In addition to describing the relationship between the city and the countryside, the appearance of an “extra person”, many researchers note the birth of a “little person” - in the image of Liza. This work influenced the work of A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, who developed the themes, ideas and images of Karamzin.
The incredible psychologism that brought world fame to Russian literature also gave rise to the story "Poor Lisa". With what descriptions does this work begin! How much beauty, originality and incredible stylistic lightness are in them! One cannot overestimate Karamzin's contribution to the development of Russian literature.