The history of the creation of Pushkin's work "The Stationmaster"
Boldin autumn in the work of A.S. Pushkin became truly "golden", since it was at this time that he created many works. Among them is Belkin's Tales. In a letter to his friend P. Pletnev, Pushkin wrote: "... I wrote 5 stories in prose, from which Baratynsky neighs and beats." The chronology of the creation of these stories is as follows: on September 9, "The Undertaker" was completed, on September 14 - "The Stationmaster", on September 20 - "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman", after almost a month's break, the last two stories were written: "Shot" - October 14 and "Snowstorm " - The 20th of October. The Belkin Tales cycle was Pushkin's first completed prose work. Five stories were united by the fictional face of the author, about which the "publisher" spoke in the preface. We learn that I.P. Belkin was born "of honest and noble parents in 1798 in the village of Goryukhino." “He was of medium height, had gray eyes, blond hair, a straight nose; his face was white and thin. “He led the most moderate life, avoided all kinds of excesses; it never happened ... to see him tipsy ... he had a great inclination towards the female sex, but his bashfulness was truly girlish. In the autumn of 1828, this sympathetic character "fell ill with a catarrhal fever, which turned into a fever, and died ...".
At the end of October 1831, The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin were published. The preface ended with the words: “Considering it a duty to respect the will of our author’s venerable friend, we express our deepest gratitude to him for the news brought to us and hope that the public will appreciate their sincerity and good nature. A.P. The epigraph to all the stories, taken from Fonvizin's "Undergrowth" (Mrs. Prostakova: "That, my father, he is still a hunter of stories." Skotinin: "Mitrofan is for me"), speaks of the nationality and simplicity of Ivan Petrovich. He collected these “simple” stories, and wrote them down from different narrators (“The Overseer” was told to him by the titular adviser A.G.N., “Shot” by Lieutenant Colonel I.P., “The Undertaker” by the clerk B.V., “Snowstorm "and" Young lady "girl K.I. T.), processing them according to their skill and discretion. Thus, Pushkin, as a real author of stories, hides behind a double chain of simple-minded storytellers, and this gives him great freedom of narration, creates considerable opportunities for comedy, satire and parody, and at the same time allows him to express his attitude to these stories.
With the full name of the real author, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, they were published in 1834. Creating in this cycle an unforgettable gallery of images living and acting in the Russian provinces, Pushkin talks about modern Russia with a kind smile and humor. While working on Belkin's Tales, Pushkin outlined one of his main tasks as follows: "Our language needs to be given more will (of course, in accordance with its spirit)." And when the author of the stories was asked who this Belkin was, Pushkin replied: “Whoever he is, you need to write stories like this: simply, briefly and clearly.”
The analysis of the work shows that the story "The Stationmaster" occupies a significant place in the work of A.S. Pushkin and is of great importance for all Russian literature. It almost for the first time depicts the hardships of life, the pain and suffering of the one who is called the "little man". The theme of “humiliated and offended” begins with it in Russian literature, which will introduce you to kind, quiet, suffering heroes and will allow you to see not only meekness, but also the greatness of their hearts. The epigraph is taken from a poem by PA Vyazemsky "Station" ("College registrar, / Postal station dictator"). Pushkin changed the quote, calling the stationmaster a "collegiate registrar" (the lowest civil rank in pre-revolutionary Russia), and not a "provincial registrar", as it was in the original, since this rank is higher.
Genus, genre, creative method
"The Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" consists of 5 stories: "Shot", "Snowstorm", "The Undertaker", "The Stationmaster", "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman". Each of Belkin's Tales is so small in size that one could call it a story. Pushkin calls them stories. For a realist writer reproducing life, the forms of the story and the prose novel were especially suitable. They attracted Pushkin with their much greater than poetry, intelligibility to the widest circles of readers. “Tales and novels are read by everyone and everywhere,” he noted. Belkin's Tale" are, in essence, the beginning of Russian highly artistic realistic prose.
Pushkin took the most typical romantic plots for the story, which in our time may well be repeated. His characters initially find themselves in situations where the word "love" is present. They are already in love or just crave this feeling, but it is from here that the plot unfolds and pumps up. Belkin's Tales was conceived by the author as a parody of the genre of romantic literature. In the story "Shot *" the main character Silvio came from the outgoing era of romanticism. This is a handsome strong brave man with a solid passionate character and an exotic non-Russian name, reminiscent of the mysterious and fatal heroes of Byron's romantic poems. The Blizzard parodies Zhukovsky's French novels and romantic ballads. At the end of the story, a comic confusion with suitors leads the heroine of the story to a new, hard-won happiness. In the story "The Undertaker", in which Adrian Prokhorov invites the dead to visit him, Mozart's opera and the terrible stories of romantics are parodied. The Young Lady Peasant Woman is a small, elegant situation comedy with disguise in the French style, which takes place in a Russian noble estate. But she kindly, funny and witty parodies the famous tragedy - "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare.
In the Belkin Tales cycle, the center and peak are The Stationmaster. The story laid the foundations of realism in Russian literature. In essence, in terms of its plot, expressiveness, complex capacious theme and ingenious composition, in terms of the characters themselves, this is already a small, concise novel that influenced subsequent Russian prose and gave rise to Gogol's story "The Overcoat". The people here are simple, and their history itself would be simple if various everyday circumstances had not intervened in it.
The theme of the work "The Stationmaster"
In Belkin's Tales, along with the traditional romantic themes from the life of the nobility and estate, Pushkin reveals the theme of human happiness in its broadest sense. Worldly wisdom, rules of everyday behavior, generally accepted morality are enshrined in catechisms, prescriptions, but following them does not always and does not always lead to good luck. It is necessary that fate give a person happiness, so that circumstances successfully converge. The Tales of Belkin shows that there are no hopeless situations, one must fight for happiness, and it will be, even if it is impossible.
The story "The Stationmaster" is the saddest and most difficult work of the cycle. This is a story about the sad fate of Vyrin and the happy fate of his daughter. From the very beginning, the author connects the modest story of Samson Vyrin with the philosophical meaning of the entire cycle. After all, the stationmaster, who does not read books at all, has his own scheme for perceiving life. It is reflected in the pictures "with decent German verses", which are hung on the walls of his "humble, but tidy monastery." The narrator describes in detail these pictures depicting the biblical legend of the prodigal son. Samson Vyrin looks at everything that happened to him and his daughter through the prism of these pictures. His life experience suggests that misfortune will happen to his daughter, she will be deceived and abandoned. He is a toy, a small man in the hands of the powerful of the world, who have turned money into the main measure.
Pushkin declared one of the main themes of Russian literature of the 19th century - the theme of the "little man". The significance of this topic for Pushkin was not in exposing the downtroddenness of his hero, but in discovering in the “little man” a compassionate and sensitive soul, endowed with the gift of responding to someone else’s misfortune and someone else’s pain.
From now on, the theme of the "little man" will be constantly heard in Russian classical literature.
The idea of the work
“None of the Tales of Belkin has an idea. You read - nice, smooth, smoothly: you read - everything is forgotten, there is nothing in your memory but adventures. "Belkin's Tales" are easy to read, because they do not make you think" ("Northern Bee", 1834, No. 192, August 27).
“True, these stories are entertaining, they cannot be read without pleasure: this comes from a charming style, from the art of telling, but they are not artistic creations, but simply fairy tales and fables” (V. G. Belinsky).
“How long have you been re-reading Pushkin's prose? Make me a friend - read all of Belkin's Tale first. They should be studied and studied by every writer. I did this the other day and I cannot convey to you the beneficent influence that this reading had on me ”(from a letter from L.N. Tolstoy to PD Golokhvastov).
Such an ambiguous perception of the Pushkin cycle suggests that there is some secret in Belkin's Tales. In The Stationmaster, it is contained in a small artistic detail - wall paintings telling about the prodigal son, which were in the 20-40s. a frequent accessory of the station environment. The description of those pictures takes the narrative out of the social and everyday plane into the philosophical one, makes it possible to comprehend its content in relation to human experience, and interprets the “eternal story” about the prodigal son. The story is imbued with the pathos of compassion.
The nature of the conflict
An analysis of the work shows that in the story “The Stationmaster” is a humiliated and sad hero, the ending is equally sad and happy: the death of the stationmaster, on the one hand, and the happy life of his daughter, on the other. The story is distinguished by the special nature of the conflict: there are no negative characters who would be negative in everything; there is no direct evil - and at the same time, the grief of a simple person, a stationmaster, does not become less from this.
A new type of hero and conflict entailed a different system of narration, the figure of a narrator - the titular adviser A. G. N. He tells a story heard from others, from Vyrin himself and from a “red-haired and crooked” boy. The abduction of Dunya Vyrina by a hussar is the beginning of a drama, followed by a chain of events. From the post station the action is transferred to Petersburg, from the caretaker's house to the grave outside the outskirts. The caretaker is unable to influence the course of events, but before bowing to fate, he tries to turn back the story, save Dunya from what seems to the poor father to be the death of his “child”. The hero comprehends what happened and, moreover, descends into the grave from a powerless consciousness of his own guilt and the irreparable misfortune.
“Little man” is not only a low rank, the absence of a high social status, but also a loss in life, fear of it, loss of interest and purpose. Pushkin was the first to draw the attention of readers to the fact that, despite his low origin, a person still remains a person and he has all the same feelings and passions as people of high society. The story "The Stationmaster" teaches you to respect and love a person, teaches you the ability to sympathize, makes you think that the world in which the stationmasters live is not arranged in the best way.
The main characters of the analyzed work
The author-narrator sympathetically speaks of "real martyrs of the fourteenth grade", stationmasters accused of all sins by travelers. In fact, their life is a real hard labor: “The traveler takes out all the annoyance accumulated during a boring ride on the caretaker. The weather is unbearable, the road is bad, the coachman is stubborn, the horses are not driven - and the caretaker is to blame ... You can easily guess that I have friends from the respectable class of caretakers. This story is written in memory of one of them.
The main character in the story "The Stationmaster" is Samson Vyrin, a man of about 50 years old. The caretaker was born around 1766, in a peasant family. The end of the 18th century, when Vyrin was 20-25 years old, was the time of the Suvorov wars and campaigns. As is known from history, Suvorov developed initiative among his subordinates, encouraged soldiers and non-commissioned officers, promoting them in their service, instilling camaraderie in them, demanded literacy and ingenuity. A man from the peasantry under the command of Suvorov could rise to the rank of non-commissioned officer, receive this title for faithful service and personal courage. Samson Vyrin could be just such a person and served, most likely, in the Izmailovsky regiment. The text says that, having arrived in St. Petersburg in search of his daughter, he stops at the Izmailovsky regiment, in the house of a retired non-commissioned officer, his old colleague.
It can be assumed that around 1880 he retired and received the post of stationmaster and the rank of collegiate registrar. This position gave a small but constant salary. He got married and soon had a daughter. But the wife died, and the daughter was the father's joy and consolation.
Since childhood, she had to shoulder all the women's work on her fragile shoulders. Vyrin himself, as he is presented at the beginning of the story, is “fresh and cheerful”, sociable and unembittered, despite the fact that undeserved insults rained down on his head. Just a few years later, driving along the same road, the author, stopping for the night at Samson Vyrin's, did not recognize him: from "fresh and vigorous" he turned into an abandoned, flabby old man, whose only consolation was a bottle. And the whole point is in the daughter: without asking for parental consent, Dunya - his life and hope, for the sake of which he lived and worked - fled with a passing hussar. The act of his daughter broke Samson, he could not bear the fact that his dear child, his Dunya, whom he protected from all dangers as best he could, was able to do this with him and, even worse, with himself - she became not a wife, but a mistress.
Pushkin sympathizes with his hero and deeply respects him: a man of the lower class, who grew up in need, hard work, did not forget what decency, conscience and honor are. Moreover, he puts these qualities above material goods. Poverty for Samson is nothing compared to the emptiness of the soul. It is not in vain that the author introduces into the story such a detail as pictures depicting the story of the prodigal son on the wall in Vyrin's house. Like the father of the prodigal son, Samson was ready to forgive. But Dunya did not return. The father's suffering was aggravated by the fact that he knew well how such stories often end: “There are a lot of them in St. Petersburg, young fools, today in satin and velvet, and tomorrow, you see, they are sweeping the street along with the barren tavern. When you sometimes think that Dunya, perhaps, immediately disappears, you involuntarily sin and wish her a grave ... ". An attempt to find a daughter in the vast Petersburg ended in nothing. This is where the stationmaster gave up - he took to drinking completely and after a while he died without waiting for his daughter. Pushkin created in his Samson Vyrin an amazingly capacious, truthful image of a simple, small person and showed all his rights to the title and dignity of a person.
Dunya in the story is shown as a jack of all trades. No one better than her could cook dinner, clean the house, serve the passerby. And the father, looking at her agility and beauty, could not get enough. At the same time, this is a young coquette, knowing her strength, entering into a conversation with a visitor without shyness, "like a girl who has seen the light." Belkin in the story sees Dunya for the first time, when she is fourteen years old - an age at which it is too early to think about fate. Dunya knows nothing about this intention of the visiting hussar Minsky. But, breaking away from her father, she chooses her female happiness, albeit, perhaps, not for long. She chooses another world, unknown, dangerous, but at least she will live in it. It's hard to blame her for choosing life over living, she took a risk and won. Dunya comes to her father only when everything she could only dream of has come true, although Pushkin does not say a word about her marriage. But six horses, three children, a nurse testify to the successful completion of the story. Of course, Dunya herself considers herself guilty of the death of her father, but the reader will probably forgive her, as Ivan Petrovich Belkin forgives.
Dunya and Minsky, the inner motives of their actions, thoughts and experiences, throughout the story, the narrator, the coachman, the father, the red-haired boy are described from the outside. Maybe that's why the images of Dunya and Minsky are given somewhat schematically. Minsky is noble and rich, he served in the Caucasus, the rank of captain is not small, and if he is in the guard, then he is already big, equal to an army lieutenant colonel. The kind and cheerful hussar fell in love with the ingenuous caretaker.
Many actions of the heroes of the story are incomprehensible today, but for Pushkin's contemporaries they were natural. So, Minsky, having fallen in love with Dunya, did not marry her. He could do this not only because he was a rake and a frivolous person, but also for a number of objective reasons. First, in order to marry, an officer needed the permission of the commander, often marriage meant resignation. Secondly, Minsky could depend on his parents, who would hardly have liked the marriage with the dowry and non-noblewoman Dunya. It takes time to resolve at least these two problems. Although Minsky was able to do it in the final.
The plot and composition of the analyzed work
The compositional construction of Belkin's Tales, which consists of five separate stories, has been repeatedly addressed by Russian writers. F. M. Dostoevsky wrote about his intention to write a novel with a similar composition in one of his letters: “The stories are completely separate from one another, so that they can even be put on sale separately. I believe Pushkin was thinking of a similar form for the novel: five tales (the number of Belkin's Tales) sold separately. Pushkin's stories are indeed separate in all respects: there is no cross-cutting character (as opposed to the five stories of Lermontov's Hero of Our Time); no common content. But there is a general technique of mystery, "detective", which lies at the basis of each story. Pushkin's stories are united, firstly, by the figure of the narrator - Belkin; secondly, by the fact that they are all told. Narrativeness was, I suppose, the artistic device for which the whole text was started. Narrativeness, as common to all stories, simultaneously allowed them to be read (and sold) separately. Pushkin thought of a work that, being whole as a whole, would be whole in every part. I call this form, using the experience of subsequent Russian prose, a novel-cycle.
The stories were written by Pushkin in the same chronological order, but he arranged them not according to the time of writing, but on the basis of a compositional calculation, alternating stories with “unfavorable” and “prosperous” endings. Such a composition communicated to the entire cycle, despite the presence of deeply dramatic provisions in it, a general optimistic orientation.
Pushkin builds the story "The Stationmaster" on the development of two destinies and characters - father and daughter. The stationmaster Samson Vyrin is an old, honored (three medals on faded ribbons) retired soldier, a kind and honest man, but rude and simple-hearted, is at the very bottom of the table of ranks, at the lowest rung of the social ladder. He is not only a simple, but a small person whom every passing nobleman can insult, shout, hit, although his lowest rank of the 14th class still gave the right to personal nobility. But all the guests were met, calmed down and given tea by his beautiful and lively daughter Dunya. But this family idyll could not continue forever and ended, at first glance, badly, because the caretaker and his daughter had different fates. A passing young handsome hussar Minsky fell in love with Dunya, deftly acted out the illness, achieved mutual feelings and took away, as befits a hussar, a crying but not resisting girl in a troika to Petersburg.
The little man of the 14th grade did not reconcile himself with such an insult and loss, he went to St. Petersburg to save his daughter, whom, as Vyrin, not without reason, believed, the insidious seducer would soon leave, drive out into the street. And his very reproachful appearance was important for the further development of this story, for the fate of his Dunya. But it turned out that the story is more complicated than the caretaker imagined. The captain fell in love with his daughter and, moreover, turned out to be a conscientious, honest man, he blushed with shame at the unexpected appearance of his father, deceived by him. And the beautiful Dunya answered the kidnapper with a strong, sincere feeling. The old man gradually drank himself from grief, longing and loneliness, and contrary to the moralizing pictures about the prodigal son, the daughter never came to visit him, disappeared, and was not even at her father's funeral. The rural cemetery was visited by a beautiful lady with three small barchats and a black pug in a luxurious carriage. She silently lay down on her father's grave and "lay for a long time." This is the folk custom of the last farewell and commemoration, the last "forgive". This is the greatness of human suffering and repentance.
Artistic originality
All the features of the poetics and style of Pushkin's artistic prose were revealed in relief in Belkin's Tales. Pushkin appears in them as an excellent novelist, who is equally accessible to a touching story, a short story with a sharp plot and vicissitudes, and a realistic sketch of manners and life. Artistic requirements for prose, which were formulated by Pushkin in the early 1920s, he now implements in his own creative practice. Nothing unnecessary, one thing necessary in the narrative, accuracy in definitions, conciseness and conciseness of the syllable.
"Tales of Belkin" are distinguished by the extreme economy of artistic means. From the very first lines, Pushkin introduces the reader to his heroes, introduces him into the circle of events. The characterization of the characters is just as stingy and no less expressive. The author almost does not give an external portrait of the characters, almost does not dwell on their emotional experiences. At the same time, the appearance of each of the characters emerges with remarkable relief and distinctness from his actions and speeches. “The writer needs to study this treasure without ceasing,” said Leo Tolstoy about Belkin’s Tales to a familiar writer.
The meaning of the work
In the development of Russian artistic prose, a huge role belongs to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Here he had almost no predecessors. Prosaic literary language was also at a much lower level compared to poetry. Therefore, Pushkin faced a particularly important and very difficult task of processing the very material of this area of verbal art. Of Belkin's Tales, The Stationmaster was of exceptional importance for the further development of Russian literature. A very truthful image of the caretaker, warmed by the author's sympathy, opens the gallery of “poor people” created by subsequent Russian writers, humiliated and offended by the social relations of the then reality that were the most difficult for the common man.
The first writer who opened the world of “little people” to the reader was N.M. Karamzin. Karamzin's word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa" had the greatest influence on subsequent literature. The author laid the foundation for a huge cycle of works about "little people", took the first step into this hitherto unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such writers of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others. A.S. Pushkin was the next writer, whose sphere of creative attention began to include all of vast Russia, its expanses, the life of villages, Petersburg and Moscow opened not only from a luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor people's houses. For the first time, Russian literature so poignantly and clearly showed the distortion of the individual by a hostile environment. Pushkin's artistic discovery was directed to the future, it was paving the way for Russian literature into the still unknown.
It is interesting
In the Gatchina district of the Leningrad region in the village of Vyra there is a literary and memorial museum of the stationmaster. The museum was created in 1972 based on the novel by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Stationmaster" and archival documents in the preserved building of the Vyra postal station. It is the first museum of a literary hero in Russia. The postal station was opened in 1800 on the Belarusian postal route, it was the third
on the account station from St. Petersburg. In Pushkin's time, the Belarusian large postal route passed here, which went from St. Petersburg to the western provinces of Russia. Vyra was the third station from the capital where travelers changed horses. It was a typical post station, which had two buildings: north and south, plastered and painted pink. The houses faced the road and were interconnected by a brick fence with large gates. Through them, carriages, carriages, wagons, carts of travelers drove into a wide paved courtyard. Inside the yard there were stables with senniks, a barn, a shed, a fire tower, hitching posts, and in the middle of the yard there was a well.
Along the edges of the paved courtyard of the post station, there were two wooden stables, sheds, a smithy, a barn, forming a closed square, into which an access road led from the tract. Life was in full swing in the yard: troikas drove in and out, coachmen bustled about, grooms led away lathered horses and brought out fresh ones. The northern building served as the caretaker's dwelling. Behind him and preserved the name "House of the Stationmaster".
According to legend, Samson Vyrin, one of the main characters in Pushkin's Belkin Tales, got his surname from the name of this village. It was at the modest postal station Vyra A.S. Pushkin, who traveled here more than once from St. Petersburg to the village of Mikhailovskoye (according to some sources, 13 times), heard a sad story about a little official and his daughter and wrote the story "The Stationmaster".
In these places, folk legends have developed, claiming that it was here that the hero of the Pushkin story lived, from here the passing hussar took away the beautiful Dunya, and Samson Vyrin was buried at the local cemetery. Archival research also showed that for many years a caretaker, who had a daughter, served at the Vyra station.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin traveled a lot. The path he traveled across Russia is 34 thousand kilometers. In the story “The Stationmaster”, Pushkin says through the mouth of his hero: “For twenty years in a row I traveled to Russia in all directions; almost all postal routes are known to me; several generations of coachmen are familiar to me; I didn’t know a rare caretaker by sight, I didn’t deal with rare ones.
Traveling along the postal routes, slow, with a long "sitting" at the stations, became a real event for Pushkin's contemporaries and, of course, was reflected in literature. The theme of the road can be found in the works of P.A. Vyazemsky, F.N. Glinka, A.N. Radishcheva, N.M. Karamzin, A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov.
The museum was opened on October 15, 1972, the exposition consisted of 72 items. Subsequently, their number increased to 3,500. The museum recreated the atmosphere typical of postal stations of Pushkin's time. The museum consists of two stone buildings, a stable, a barn with a watchtower, a well, a saddlery and a smithy. There are 3 rooms in the main building: the caretaker's room, the daughter's room and the coachman's room.
Gukovsky GL. Pushkin and Russian Romantics. - M., 1996.
BlagoyDD. The creative path of Pushkin (1826-1830). - M., 1967.
Lotman Yu.M. Pushkin. - SPb., 1987. Petrunina N.N. Pushkin's Prose: Ways of Evolution. - L., 1987.
Shklovsky V.B. Notes on the prose of Russian classics. M., 1955.
The plot of the story "The Stationmaster" is based on a case from ordinary life. For the reader, the situation is simple and recognizable: a postal station located in the middle of nowhere, a monotonous, tiresome bustle, endless people passing by. Pushkin chooses as an epigraph a playful poetic statement of his friend, the poet Prince P.A. Vyazemsky:
collegiate registrar,
Post station dictator.
However, this epigraph emphasizes the serious tone of the story, expressing deep sympathy for the fate of the stationmaster, an official of the lowest - fourteenth - class Samson Vyrin. The plot intrigue of the story is that the passing hussar takes with him the only daughter of Vyrin, the light and meaning of his whole bleak life - Dunya. This incident was very ordinary, not distinguished by anything from among the same innumerable misfortunes that await a person. However, the purpose of the story is different: not to capture one of them, but to show the fate of the father and daughter in a changing time.
Pushkin called his story "The Stationmaster", wanting to emphasize that its main character is Samson Vyrin and that the idea of the story is connected primarily with him. The image of Samson Vyrin opens the theme of the “little man” in Russian classical literature, later developed by Pushkin himself in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” (1833) and continued by N.V. Gogol, first of all, in the story "The Overcoat" (1842). The theme of the “little man” was further developed in Russian literature in the prose of I.S. Turgenev and F.M. Dostoevsky, gradually replacing the literature of the nobility and creating the basis for works about the hero - a representative of the general population, "the man of the majority". Therefore, the author, describing the low social status of the hero on the first pages of the story, calls for paying close attention to him as a person. This caused an ironic discussion about “what would happen to us if, instead of the generally convenient rule, honor the rank of rank, another was introduced, for example: honor the mind of the mind? What controversy would arise!
The name of the hero - Samson Vyrin - was compiled by the author in order to express his attitude to the personality and character of this person. The combination of the heroic biblical name Samson, who accomplished outstanding feats, and the ordinary, inexpressive surname Vyrin expresses the author's idea that, despite the low origin of the hero, he is characterized by high, noble feelings. He selflessly loves his daughter, while caring only about her well-being. It also preserves pride and dignity. Let us recall what his natural reaction was when the hussar shoved money into the cuff of his sleeve, as if paying off the old man.
The events of the story "The Stationmaster" by Pushkin do not take place in front of the reader, he learns them from the narrator, who acts both as a narrator and as a hero of the work. The exposition, or prologue, of the work includes two parts: the narrator's reasoning about the fate of the stationmasters, allowing the writer to use it both to characterize the time, the state of the roads, morals, and to represent a specific place of action. Three times the hero-narrator arrives at the station, which was located on the "road, now destroyed", as well as the memory of the people who once lived there. Thus, the story itself about the main events consists of three parts, like a triptych - a three-part pictorial picture. The first part is an acquaintance with the inhabitants of the postal station, a picture of a peaceful, unclouded life; the second is the sad story of the old man about the misfortune that befell him, and about the fate that fell to Dunya; the third part conveys a picture of a rural cemetery, which performs the function of an epilogue. Such a composition gives the story a philosophical character.
An important role in the story "The Stationmaster" is played by the seasons. This is how the story of the events begins: “In the year 1816, in the month of May, I happened to pass through the *** province ...” This is how the narrative is introduced, as if the beginning of life is depicted. The description of the weather also corresponds to this, everything around is full of strength and energy: “It was a hot day. Three miles from the station, *** began to drip, and a minute later the pouring rain soaked me to the last thread. And here is the last arrival of the hero-narrator, the end of the story: “It happened in the fall. Greyish clouds covered the sky; a cold wind blew from the reaped fields, blowing red and yellow leaves from oncoming trees. This landscape sketch symbolizes the past life, dying. So the epilogue becomes a philosophical commentary on the story.
The content of the story "The Stationmaster" correlates with the parable of the prodigal son. The narrator sees pictures depicting this plot on the walls of Vyrin's room. The story of the prodigal son from the Bible tells us about the eternal situation in the life of a person who leaves his parental home without a blessing, makes mistakes, pays for them and returns to his father's house. Pushkin describes this story with light humor, but humor serves not to express a mocking attitude, but to focus on the right moments. For example, "... a venerable old man in a cap and dressing gown releases a restless young man, who hastily accepts his blessing and a bag of money." In this scene, Pushkin draws the reader’s attention to two circumstances: the young man “hurriedly” accepts everything from his father, as he is in a hurry to start an independent and cheerful life as soon as possible, and the young man with equal haste accepts “a blessing and a bag of money”, as if they are equivalent to a person. Thus, the whole story is built on a wise and eternal story about human life, the irreversible flow of time and the inevitability of change.
"Station Master" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.
History of creation
On September 14, 1830, Alexander Sergeevich finished one of the stories in the cycle "Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" under the title « » . The period in which Pushkin completed the story is called the Boldin autumn. In those months, Alexander Sergeevich was in Boldino, where he was “led” by the need to resolve financial issues. Caught by the cholera epidemic, forced to stay in Boldino much longer than planned, Pushkin created a whole galaxy of works, which were later recognized as the pearls of the poet's work. Boldin autumn has become truly golden in the artist's work.
Belkin's Tales was Pushkin's first completed work. They were published under the name of the fictional character Ivan Petrovich Belkin, who fell ill with a fever that turned into a fever and died in 1828. Pushkin, as a "publisher", talks about him in the preface to the stories. The cycle saw the light in the middle of autumn 1831. With an indication of the true authorship, the stories were published in 1834. "The Stationmaster" played a big role in the development of Russian literature, taking a significant place in it, telling almost for the first time about the hardships of the fate of that same "little man", about the humiliations and hardships that fall to his lot. It was "The Stationmaster" that became the reference point for a series of Russian literary works addressed to the theme of "humiliated and offended."
Themes, storylines, direction
In the cycle, the story "The Stationmaster" is the compositional center, the peak. It is based on the characteristic features of Russian literary realism and sentimentalism. The expressiveness of the work, the plot, the capacious, complex theme give the right to call it a novel in miniature. This, it would seem, is a simple story about ordinary people, however, everyday circumstances that intervened in the fate of the characters make the semantic load of the story more difficult. Alexander Sergeevich, in addition to the romantic thematic line, reveals the theme of happiness in the broadest sense of the word. Fate gives a person happiness sometimes not when you expect it, following the generally accepted morality, worldly foundations. This requires both a fortunate combination of circumstances and the subsequent struggle for happiness, even if it seems impossible.
The description of the life of Samson Vyrin is inextricably linked with the philosophical thought of the entire cycle of stories. His perception of the world and life is reflected in the pictures with German poems hung on the walls of his dwelling. The narrator describes the content of these pictures, which depict the biblical legend of the prodigal son. Vyrin also perceives and experiences what happened to his daughter through the prism of the images surrounding him. He hopes that Dunya will return to him, but she did not return. Vyrin's life experience tells him that his child will be deceived and abandoned. The stationmaster is a "little man" who has become a toy in the hands of the greedy, mercenary sowers of the world, for whom the emptiness of the soul is more terrible than material poverty, for whom honor is above all.
The narration comes from the lips of a titular adviser, whose name is hidden behind the initials A. G. N. In turn, this story was “transferred” to the narrator by Vyrin himself and a “red-haired and crooked” boy. The plot of the drama is the secret departure of Dunya with a little-known hussar to Petersburg. Dunya's father tries to turn back time in order to save his daughter from what he sees as "death". The story of the titular adviser takes us to St. Petersburg, where Vyrin is trying to find his daughter, and the mournful ending shows us the grave of the caretaker outside the outskirts. The destiny of the "little man" is humility. The irreparability of the current situation, hopelessness, despair, indifference finish off the caretaker. Dunya asks for forgiveness from her father at his grave, her repentance is belated.
Plan
1. Introduction
2.History of creation
3. The meaning of the name
4. Genus and genre
5.Theme
6. Issues
7.Heroes
8. Plot and composition
"The Stationmaster" is part of the "Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" series. The story of a man who lost his only daughter was a great success with his contemporaries. The work was filmed in 1972.
History of creation. The story was created in the famous "Boldino autumn" of 1830 - one of the most fruitful stages of Pushkin's work. In the poet's manuscript, the date of completion of work on the work is set - September 14th. The story was published in 1831.
The meaning of the name. The title refers to the protagonist of the work, the stationmaster Samson Vyrin. At the beginning of the story, there is a digression by the author, in which he speaks with sympathy about this category of officials, who work as if in "hard labor".
Genus and genre. sentimental tale
main topic works - the fate of the "little man". Stationmasters in the time of Pushkin were a downtrodden and humiliated category of bureaucracy. Passers-by vented all their anger and irritation on them. The stationmaster belonged to the lowest, fourteenth class according to the Table of Ranks. Any traveler treated him with disdain and did not hesitate in expressions. According to the author, there were often cases of assault, which remained without consequences. Pushkin himself traveled frequently in Russia and was acquainted with many of the stationmasters. The poet treated the people below him with respect. He saw that any person has his own deep inner world. Despised people are often much purer and nobler than the refined upper class. Most likely, Minsky does not even consider that he is committing a mean act. In his opinion, in any case, Dunya will be better off in St. Petersburg than at this godforsaken station. He does not think about Samson's feelings at all. As a last resort, Minsky is ready to settle with him with money. For him, Dunya is just a commodity, a treasure that must be taken from the stationmaster.
Issues. The main problem of the story is the defenselessness of the stationmaster. The hard service of Samson Vyrin was brightened up by the only daughter who served as a joy and consolation for the old man. Naturally, a beautiful girl attracted the attention of all those passing by. Samson was not even aware of the danger and was glad that Dunya was helping him in his work. The girl really softened the hearts of irritated travelers. The meanness of the hussar hit the main character painfully. He understands that Dunya would never have left him voluntarily. The girl succumbed to the seductive persuasion of a handsome traveler, and when she came to her senses, it was already too late. In St. Petersburg, Samson is again humiliated. The hussar, not embarrassed, thrusts money into him in exchange for his daughter. After that, the old man is not even allowed on the threshold. Another problem of the story is the danger to which the daughters of defenseless people were constantly exposed. The nobility enjoyed their advantage and cases of seduction were in the order of things. In the story, Dunya was still not deceived and became the lawful wife of a hussar, but this is a very rare case. In reality, after some time, the girl would have bothered Minsky and would have been forced to return to her father in disgrace. Dunya achieved happiness at a very high price. Probably for the rest of her life she felt her indelible guilt towards her father. Belated repentance is evidenced by the story of the boy, who says that the lady lay motionless on the grave for a long time.
Heroes. Stationmaster Samson Vyrin, his daughter Dunya, Captain Minsky.
Plot and composition. The story consists of three visits by the narrator to one of the stations. During the first, he met Samson Vyrin and appreciated his lively daughter Dunya. The second visit took place a few years later. The narrator was amazed at how old his acquaintance had aged. He learned his sad story. The passing captain Minsky deceived Dunya with him. Heartbroken, Samson reached St. Petersburg and tried to pick up his daughter. But Minsky treated him rudely, and Dunya no longer showed any desire to return. A few more years passed. The narrator revisited the station and learned that Samson had died of drunkenness. The boy told him that Dunya had come to his father's grave. The narrator himself went to the cemetery to pay tribute to the unfortunate father.
What does the author teach. Pushkin draws the attention of readers to the fact that people who do not enjoy any respect also experience great joy and deep suffering. Samson's grief was understandable only to the narrator. Minsky did not pay any attention to him at all and tried to pay off. Similar cases occurred at every turn, but only a few felt compassion for the deceived and humiliated poor.
"The Stationmaster" - is the beginning of a new strip of creativity of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. If in the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" he tries to hide his attitude to everyday issues under some humor and a sarcastic attitude towards surrounding problems. Yes, and Belkin himself in other stories tries to mask his sympathetic attitude to a simple and ordinary routine life, but in this story he describes it as it is, without humor and desire to embellish the current situation.
The author feels deep pity, he is insanely sorry for the broken life of the stationmaster, he experienced a real storm and severe pain at the very end of his own existence, so he parted with her on a rather sad note.
For the first time in a work, Pushkin admits notes of serious condemnation towards divine frivolity, which, despite all the contradictions, was quite close and dear to him.
The stationmaster lives a quiet and peaceful life, the meaning of which is Dunya's daughter. But at one point everything collapses, she dies, which completely destroys the usual way of life. He cannot get used to the fact that the center of his existence is gone, and now he will have to continue to live alone. He meets a hussar who did not want to share his grief with him, he does not try to understand an elderly man who at that moment needed help and support.
Belkin's stories became the first realistic stories that received wide publicity. The author was able to accurately convey the realism of different life situations of that era, in every person at that time there was a small revolution, which the main author is watching from the sidelines. A real revolution takes place in the life of the stationmaster, which ends in tragedy.
He could not deal with his own contradiction, deal with what happened and break the situation. He lost his beloved and dear person, now he has no one to share sorrows and happiness with. Alexander Sergeevich accurately conveys all his inner experiences, suffering and loneliness that he experiences. Actually, therefore, the reader understands that a successful outcome will not work.
Analysis 2
For every creator, the existence of the common man seems rather strange and slightly aloof. Still, a creative person exists with slightly different experiences and concerns, completely different priorities live in his mind.
Nevertheless, if you look at the works of many Russian writers, then the theme of the so-called little man is actively touched upon, that is, a simple man who practically does not think about high things, and lives by his simple interests.
This theme in many respects begins precisely with the Stationmaster Pushkin, where the author, almost for the first time, begins to sympathize with ordinary people and sincerely sympathize with the difficult fate of such people. After all, if you look at previous works, then there the author still focuses on secular people, analyzes how the representatives of the high society of the village and the city differ and other topics that are not particularly close to the common people.
In The Stationmaster, Pushkin shifts the emphasis, and we see confirmation of this fact in the description of the hussar Minsky, who is given only with small strokes and does not represent a person as such. This hero could become the main one if you look from the other side and play a story in the work similar to how Pechorin kidnaps Bella. Nevertheless, here a representative of a higher class, who is far from the needs of the common people, is given as a certain destructive and disharmonious element.
The protagonist, in turn, is, as it were, the embodiment of simple domestic happiness. Samson Vyrin is not a stupid or narrow-minded person, yes, he does not perform and will not perform feats, he is used to comfort, but in a sense, he is the salt of the earth, it is on such people that the world is kept. At the same time, Minsky here is almost the complete antipode of happiness, he pursues only personal interests and, as a result, creates a tragedy not only for the caretaker, but also for Dunya.
Most likely, she will never forgive herself again for such a separation from a man who lived only for her. Minsky feels in Vyrin a clear competitor and that is why he kicks him out of his house like that, he understands how attached Dunya is to him. In fact, he buys his happiness, although happiness cannot be bought.
As a result, in fact, Minsky buys only unhappiness, he makes unhappy two people who were previously happy. Of course, he can give Duna well-being and some family comfort, but will she be as calm as she was at the station, daily watching identical pictures on the walls, a colorful bed curtain and pots of balsam? Will this heroine discover something new for herself besides secular society, which in reality is deeply unhappy?
Pushkin in this work, though not openly, but quite clearly sympathizes with the protagonist and is sad about a broken fate. He sees the negative side of the willfulness of the hussar and his sensuality. He also sees some beauty and true happiness in the simple and uncomplicated life of a small person.
Essence, meaning and idea
The work belongs to the period of the poet’s work, called Boldin’s autumn, and in terms of genre orientation is a story written in the style of sentimentalism and realism, included in the author’s prose collection entitled “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin”.
The main theme of the work is reflections on the problems of small people who find themselves in a disadvantaged position. In addition to this topic, the author examines in the story the issues of morality, human love, which are relevant in the modern world.
The compositional structure of the story consists of three components, the first of which is a lyrical digression of the author, the second part is presented in the form of conversations between the narrator and the main character, where the storyline develops and climaxes, and the third part is described in the form of an epilogue.
The author presents the key character of the story as a fifty-year-old old man, Samson Vyrin, distinguished by kindness and sociability, boundless love for his only daughter Dunyasha. A man is characterized by cordiality, responsiveness, meek and open soul.
The girl is the second main character of the work and is depicted as a caring daughter, protecting the old man from the claims of the guests, who, however, is carried away by a visiting military officer and leaves her father alone. As a result of the departure of his beloved daughter, Samson descends, washing down grief with alcohol, and subsequently dies, without waiting for Dunyasha to return.
The semantic load of the work is to reveal the image of a little man, unable to withstand life circumstances that broke his weak, stupid, but kind and meek personality.
In this regard, the author reflects on the moral issues in the relationship between parents and children, emphasizing the need to remember the person who made it possible to feel the taste for life, as well as experience the best human feelings in the form of love, motherhood, personal happiness.
The finale of the story is presented by the author as sad and sad, but the narrative content is filled with hope for changes in the human heart that can overcome selfishness and indifference in loved ones. This is demonstrated in the scene when the girl realizes the impossibility of returning a dear and devoted person to this life and deep human remorse.
This story is built simply original and unique. The basis of this plot combines a tense fight between Belikov and Kovalenko, the characters of the plot who do not coincide at all with characters, with different principles and ideals.
Anna is one of the female characters of the work, which allows you to more subtly feel the inferiority of the world of the inhabitants of the doss house.
The picture of the morning summer nature looks quite bewitching and attractive to the human eye. The rising sun illuminates everything around with its gentle and warm rays.
