Devotion and betrayal in the story of poor Lisa. Write an essay Karamzin poor Lisa betrayal and loyalty in
One of the main moral laws is life according to the laws of the heart. Karamzin's story “Poor Liza” attracts us because it reflects human passions: deceit and love, fidelity and betrayal. When I read this work, I was very touched by the fate of this girl and her mother.
Main characters story - Lisa and Erast belong to different social categories, therefore, their values are also different. Lisa belongs to the class in which values lie in hard work, touching in the manifestation of mutual feelings, filial and mother's love. After Lisa’s father passed away, she began to help her mother in everything. This woman, a kind-hearted person, called her nurse and prayed that God would reward her for all her efforts and diligence.
The measured life was disrupted by the meeting of Lisa and Erast, a young man from a noble family. The girl's mother liked him. No one could have imagined that this meeting would end tragically. Erast swore eternal love to his chosen one. The girl sincerely believed in the honesty of his intentions. Lisa herself knew how to love faithfully and devotedly. The betrayal she experienced from Erast drove her to suicide. The author does not blame the girl for being too gullible or for committing a sin. He mourns her pitiful fate.
Lisa died due to social inequality, due to the fact that each of the layers had its own values and foundations. If for Lisa love was the meaning of life, then for her other half it was just fun. In his story, Karamzin accuses our society of imperfection, that because of victory material assets over moral, an innocent girl died.
LISA- the heroine of N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” (1792). The plot of the story is simple. Poor peasant girl L. meets the young nobleman Erast. Tired of the world, he falls in love with a spontaneous, innocent girl with the love of his brother. However, soon platonic love turns into sensual love. Meanwhile, Erast goes to war. “No, he really was in the army, but instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost almost all his property.” To improve matters, Erast marries a rich widow. Having learned about this, L. drowns himself in the pond.
Karamzin uses a very common plot of European petty-bourgeois drama, transplanting it onto Russian soil. At the same time, the writer takes a certain risk - the reading society might not accept his heroes with their “lost hearts.” The characters of L. and Erast, despite all their conventionality, turn out to be too complex for the unprepared reader. None of the characters can be confidently called a positive or negative character. A special role belongs to the narrator, whose image was also new to literature of the late 18th century. The beauty of direct communication had a surprising effect on the reader, creating an inextricable emotional connection between him and the author, which develops into the replacement of fiction with reality.
With Poor Liza, the Russian reading public received one important gift - the first place of literary pilgrimage in Russia. Shortly before writing the story, Karamzin returns from a trip to Europe, where he visits many memorable literary places. Having experienced for himself what emotional charge the effect of co-presence conceals, the young writer accurately indicates the location of his story - the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery. Even Karamzin himself did not imagine what impact his innovations would have on the reader. Almost immediately, “Poor Lisa” began to be perceived by readers as a story about true events. Numerous pilgrims flocked to the modest pond near the monastery walls.
The real name of the pond was forgotten - from now on it became Liza's Pond. On tree trunks, curious visitors wrote words of compassion for the poor girl and gratitude to the author of the story. For example, on one of the trees there was carved:
“In these streams, poor Lisa ended her days,
//If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh!”
There were also ironic inscriptions: “Erast’s bride died here in the pond.//Drown yourself, girls, there’s plenty of room in the water...”
Actually, with “Poor Liza” a new era began in Russian literature; from now on, the main measure of everything becomes a sensitive person. This led to incredible reader interest. “Karamzin was the first in Rus' to write stories that interested society...” noted V.G. Belinsky. Such interest significantly expanded the circle of the reading public and raised the self-awareness of the Russian reader to the European level. Over time, the popularity of the work decreased significantly: the Russian reader “outgrew” the stage of sensual sobbing. However, the image of L. is firmly entrenched in the Russian literary tradition. In the future, motifs of this image will be found in E.A. Baratynsky, A.A. Delvig, A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky. Poor Lisa is a sufferer, a saint, a victim of social inequality, a sinner. The image of the heroine gradually ceased to belong to the writer, becoming part of the literary tradition, turning into a national cultural myth.
Lit.: Lotman Yu.M. The Creation of Karamzin. M., 1987; Toporov V.N. “Poor Liza” by Karamzin. Reading experience. M., 1995.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) greatly influenced the development of Russian literature, transforming the Russian language, freeing it from complex Latin constructions and Slavicisms, bringing it closer to living human speech.
Features of sentimentalism
The writer’s creativity cultivates feelings, calls for kindness and mercy. This is how a new direction in Russian literature was born - sentimentalism, which assigned the main role to the inner world of man.
Perhaps today the work “Poor Liza” seems somewhat distant from life, and the feelings of the characters seem unnatural. However, it should be remembered that Karamzin worked in And the work “Poor Liza,” written in 1792, served as a source of inspiration for subsequent Russian writers, being an excellent example of this genre. Sentimentalism is characterized by acute conflicts, often leading to the death of the hero, and “Poor Lisa” is no exception. The death of the girl shocks and makes many generations of readers empathize.
New name
In addition to a new genre, Karamzin gave our country a new name and made it popular. Translated, Elizabeth means “who worships God.” This was the name of the mother of the wife of the high priest Aaron. This name was practically not found among Russian writers until the 80s of the 18th century. It is worth noting that in European literature this name was often associated with the image of a maid, a servant, usually frivolous and flirtatious, and was used mainly in comedies. The image of Lisa in the story of the work (read below), however, does not follow this tradition. Breaking the usual framework of the meaning of the word, Karamzin also broke with classicism and its established definitions.
The image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa" played important role in the development of Russian literature as a whole, so I would like to dwell on it in more detail. You will see that she was a strong character, not at all the way European authors are used to portraying her. We propose to consider the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” with quotes and a summary of the work.
Characters, plot
But first, let us indicate the other characters in the story and briefly describe its main events. In addition to the peasant woman Lisa, the main characters include: her mother, Erast and the narrator. The plot of the work is generally not new: a man seduces young girl and then throws her away. However, this story had its own characteristics. The author described a situation typical for Russia in the 18th century: a nobleman, a landowner, knowing his impunity and taking advantage of it, seduces a peasant woman, a young girl. What is striking about this story is that at that time, in this situation, society did not at all seek to condemn the landowner, and in any case the truth was on his side.
Already in the title one can guess the attitude of the author himself towards his heroine: he calls Lisa poor.
First meeting with the heroine
The story begins with a description of Moscow, where some events subsequently take place, and also in the vicinity of which the heroine was subsequently buried.
For the first time on the pages of the work, the author describes Lisa to us through the eyes of the narrator. When talking about her, he uses many epithets (“dear,” “beautiful,” etc.), so that the reader may even get the idea that the narrator loved Lisa. However, the ending of the story makes it clear that he simply feels sorry for her. It should be noted that in this story the narrator expresses the attitude of the author himself towards his heroine. Why does Karamzin love and feel sorry for Liza?
Lisa's past
Let's turn to the heroine's past and briefly describe the image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa". This girl is a peasant by birth, lives in a poor hut with her old mother. When our heroine was 15 years old, her father, a “wealthy villager,” died, and after his death the family became poor and was forced to rent out the land for a very small fee. Due to poor health, her mother was unable to work, and Lisa had to work very hard to somehow feed herself and her mother. The girl was engaged in various crafts - she knitted stockings, weaved canvas, collected and sold flowers in Moscow in the spring, and berries in the summer. We don’t know Lisa personally yet, but we already understand that she is selfless, ready to make sacrifices for the sake of her loved ones, and hardworking.
Lisa's character
As the plot develops, the character of the main character, the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” by N. M. Karamzin, is revealed. Poor Lisa is a very attractive heroine. We understand that this is a pure and deep soul with a receptive and soft heart. Lisa was often sad about her father’s death, but she tried not to show it to her mother and tried to appear “calm and cheerful.” The girl is timid and shy by nature. When she first met Erast, she “showed him the flowers and blushed.”
This is the image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa". The plan of this image is complemented by one more detail. It is necessary to note the honesty of the heroine. When Erast wanted to buy flowers from her and offered a ruble instead of five kopecks, she said that she didn’t want anything extra. Lisa is naive, sometimes to the extreme: she immediately tells a complete stranger where she lives.
Main character's speech
Analyzing this, we can say that the image of Liza in the story “Poor Liza” was not worked out carefully enough: her speech is sometimes not like that of a peasant woman, but like that of a girl from high society. It is clear that an uneducated simple girl simply could not express herself like that. Despite this, the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Liza” by Karamzin is considered the first image of a woman from the lower class in Russian literature. The depiction of a girl from the people in the 18th century was very progressive and atypical, especially as the heroine of a romance novel. Karamzin put a deep meaning into the image of Liza in the story “Poor Liza”: before God and love there are no classes, all people are equal, “and peasant women know how to love.”
Later, A.S. Pushkin, in his work “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman,” continued this theme, but it was Karamzin who first introduced it into literature.
A new attitude towards women
Another innovation of the writer was his attitude towards women. After all, in the 18th century she was considered lower than a man, she had no freedom. A woman could not love whoever she wanted; her parents were looking for a chosen one for her daughter. Of course, in such a situation it was rare to meet happy married couples. Those who tried to love against the will of their parents were disgraced in the eyes of society; such love was considered immoral. The image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa” by N. M. Karamzin clearly shows this. Later, the theme was developed by other writers, in particular Ostrovsky.
Lisa's crime was that she dared to love in spite of public opinion. And Russian peasant women have always been able to love passionately, ardently and forever. Refusing to marry a rich peasant son from a neighboring village, Lisa devoted herself entirely to her lover.
Erast's betrayal
But Erast turned out to be a scoundrel, abandoning Lisa. The heroine only accidentally finds out about his betrayal. Having gone to Moscow to buy rose water, she accidentally runs into his carriage on the street. Lisa rushes to her, but the carriage passes her and stops at the yard big house. The heroine runs up and hugs her lover, but he calmly announces that he is getting married (as it turns out later, he married a rich widow to improve his situation, since he lost almost all his money at cards during the campaign) and asks to leave him alone, trying pay off Lisa with money. And Karamzin does not justify his hero at all, but openly condemns him. Erast will be punished for his betrayal: he is destined to be unhappy for the rest of his life and blame himself for Lisa’s death. At the end of the work he dies.
Continuing to analyze the image of Liza in the story "Poor Liza" by Karamzin, we must note one more important detail- she loved Erast, but at the same time did not forget about her mother, and it was caring for her that stopped Lisa from trying to go to war for her lover. Although the heroine was very worried about Erast, she was afraid that he would be killed in the war. After all, Lisa couldn’t even write messages to her lover, because she simply didn’t know how to do it.
The death of a poor girl
Lisa's suicide is a very important episode in revealing her character. After all, this girl seemed to be the embodiment of Christian virtues. How could such a pure soul decide to commit such a grave sin? The heroine decides to drown herself by throwing herself into the water. But one cannot blame Lisa - grief deprived her of her last strength, and the heroine simply could not stand it. Even before her death, she does not forget about her mother: going to the pond to drown herself, she gives a neighbor girl one hundred rubles with a request to give them to her mother and say that her daughter loved a man, and he cheated on her. Although the writer does not justify the heroine’s suicide, he still forgives Lisa. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin believes that, despite the severity of the crime, Lisa’s soul will go to heaven.
The meaning of the story
Many writers of the 19th century (Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Ostrovsky, Goncharov, Tolstoy) drew inspiration from this image and created many vivid female characters, as pure and selfless as the image of Lisa in the story “Poor Lisa”.
In this story, the author touched upon important themes of the imperfection of the structure of society and the shortcomings of human nature. We cannot fix something on our own; we can only accept it as a fact, and it is pointless to condemn and reproach someone. There is no villain in the work, there is only a man belonging to a secular circle, acting in accordance with generally accepted opinions. Erast had a naturally kind heart, but the “artificial” upbringing and education he received spoiled his character. The writer sympathizes with him, since in this situation it is not the person who should be blamed, but the mores of the era and society under which the hero lived.
Immediately after its publication (in 1792), the work aroused great interest, which continued unabated for several decades. Even outright imitations appeared, for example, “Seduced Henrietta” by Svechinsky (1803), “Poor Masha” by Izmailov (1801).
The image of Lisa in the story "Poor Lisa" summary which you just reviewed, will be remembered by readers for a long time. And even now it is not forgotten, because humanistic ideas are always relevant.
Here you need to clearly understand what kind of betrayal we are talking about. They are different. Betrayal of a loved one, betrayal of the Motherland, one’s ideals and principles. In my essay I would like to talk about betrayal in love. Is it possible to forgive a loved one if he cheated? I think it's both yes and no. It all depends on the specific case. Sometimes it is worth giving a loved one, if we value him, another chance. And sometimes it is better to immediately end all relationships to avoid repeated betrayals. Betrayal in love is always an acute pain that is caused to you by the person closest to you, a wound that sometimes takes years to heal, but some cannot survive.
Let us remember the story “Poor Liza” by N.M. Karamzin. Poor, poor Lisa, I felt her pain as if it were my own. Literature teaches us a lot, by the way, and how to relate to betrayal, examples of which we often find in works of fiction. I'll try to prove this.
In Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace,” the main character Natasha Rostova cheats on Andrei Bolkonsky. She could not stand the year of separation from her fiancé. Anatol Kuragin, on the advice of his sister Helen Bezukhova, seduces a young, inexperienced girl. Yes, yes, inexperienced and naive. Natasha is young, cheerful, open to the world. She believes words and promises, she believes that everyone around is as kind and honest as she is. She wants to love, her heart is filled with a thirst for love. It’s scary to imagine what a blow Pierre’s words were for her: Anatole is married, he’s playing with her. She fell ill and was on the verge of death. But time heals wounds. Upon learning of the betrayal, Bolkonsky breaks off the engagement without explanation. He cannot forgive and understand Natasha. But, having met during the war, when Andrei is mortally wounded and Natasha is caring for him, he understands how stupid this is. His contempt for Natasha, his desire to take revenge on Anatoly - everything goes away. But love is the most important thing. Bolkonsky forgives Natasha, we forgive her too, understanding and empathizing.
But in the same novel we meet a completely different heroine, Helen Kuragina, calculating and soulless. She, on the urgent advice of her father, marries the “bag of money” Pierre Bezukhov, whom she seduced with her too frank beauty. And what? She cheats on him with Dolokhov, Boris... The list is huge. She does not consider betrayal a bad act, telling Pierre: “Look at yourself. Is it possible for you not to cheat?” She doesn’t care about Pierre’s experiences or his honor. And in high society, which she adores, she manages to present herself as a victim and her husband as a tyrant. And they sympathize with her, who is completely deceitful. Pierre shoots with Dolokhov and almost dies, realizing how stupid this is. Helen does not deserve such actions. Pierre simply leaves this woman. During the war, when Pierre joins the militia, Bolkonsky, the Rostovs fight, Natasha helps the wounded, Helen has fun and thinks about who to choose from two suitors, whether it is possible to stay with both. A dissolute life leads to death. And we, of course, feel a little sorry for her. After all, this is how she was raised in a family where the mother competed with her daughter, and Vasily Kuragin was soulless and dishonest, but vain and calculating. Such betrayal cannot be forgiven. You have to run away from people like Helen. No matter how they pretend, they can betray at any moment. Because more than anything in the world they love themselves and their well-being.
Thus, I have no doubt that I have proven my point. In some cases, betrayal can be forgiven, in others it is better not to forgive. It all depends on the specific case, the specific person. But once again I would like to remind you that betrayal in love is a betrayal that deeply hurts and brings mental pain to the person you loved just yesterday. Is he worthy of this? Be honest with the people you love! Don't hurt them!
Volkova Elena
(2017 graduate)
What action can be called treason? Of course, everyone will answer this question in their own way. I'll try to formulate my point of view. In my opinion, treason is such actions as betraying a loved one, or in wartime, going over to the side of the enemy. To support my words, I will give several examples.
Let us remember N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza.” The main character, a simple peasant girl, fell in love with a young nobleman named Erast with all her heart. He, too, seemed to have found his ideal in Lisa. However, the happiness did not last long. The author shows that soon the passion in the hero’s heart gave way to boredom and cooling. Moreover, having lost at cards, he decided to improve his situation by marrying a rich elderly widow. He did not say a word about his intentions to Lisa, moreover, he deceived her, saying that he was going to the army and would certainly return to her. She learned the truth only by accident. This was such a heavy blow for her that out of despair the girl committed suicide. Erast’s act can undoubtedly be called treason, because he betrayed the feelings of the girl who loved him, acted dishonestly, lying to her and secretly marrying another.
Another example of betrayal can be called the act of the Fisherman from the story “Sotnikov” by V. Bykov. The work tells about two partisans who were captured by the police during the Great Patriotic War. If Sotnikov bravely withstood torture and accepted death with honor, then Rybak, on the contrary, from the first minutes in captivity only thought about how to save own life. He was ready to do anything for this: to give away the location of a partisan detachment, to go over to the side of the enemies, to personally participate in the execution of a comrade. By doing this, he betrayed his comrade-in-arms, violated his duty as a defender of the Fatherland, and betrayed his Motherland.
Thus, we can come to the conclusion: treason can be called such actions, which are based on betrayal. By cheating, a person betrays the trust of loved ones, comrades, and sacrifices duty and honor.