Summary of “Boris Godunov” for a reader’s diary
Full name of the author : Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Title : Boris Godunov
Number of pages : 144. Pushkin A. S. Publishing house “Play of Words”. 2008
Genre : Drama
Year of writing : 1825
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
Main characters
Boris Godunov is a Russian Tsar who killed Tsarevich Dmitry, the son of Ivan the Terrible, in order to ascend to the throne.
Grigory Otrepiev is an impostor, a fugitive monk who proclaimed himself Tsarevich Dmitry.
Shuisky is a prince, an experienced and cunning courtier.
Vorotynsky is a prince from the Rurik family.
Marina Mnishek is Otrepiev’s beloved, who knew about his deception.
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Analysis of the drama “Boris Godunov” by Pushkin
clause 1. Topics and problems
1. Topic:
Morals of Russian people of the Middle Ages.
Problem:
Troubled times in the history of Russia are a cruel period.
Such are Boris Godunov and the impostor Grishka Otrepiev. Godunov kills the child, and Otrepyev assigns himself the royal title by deception. He gathers troops, fights like a real thug. It is not difficult for Otrepyev to slander the monk who just supported him. Few of the soldiers believe Grishka, but the main thing for the military leaders is to settle personal scores with Godunov and weaken Russia.
The princes and boyars who are in the service of Godunov are deceitful, flattering, and two-faced. At any moment they can refuse the oath and take the side of the enemy, kill the children of their sovereign. It's a depressing picture, but it won't always be that way. There is a way out, as evidenced by the reaction of the people. After the murder of the son of Ivan the Terrible, the crowd could not accept Godunov. When the new government kills Boris's children, the people are silent. People protest silently. People do not accept wars and murders, but want to live honestly, joyfully, happily.
2. Topic:
The moral choice of two key figures - Boris Godunov and False Dmitry. The tragedy of Godunov.
Problem:
The moral choice is made in favor of one’s own ambitions, not in favor of spiritual values. The struggle for power brings a lot of suffering to the instigator of this struggle and his people.
If a person commits a terrible act, then in time he will suffer the same evil fate that he did to another. You have conflicting feelings towards Boris Godunov. He strives to do a lot for the country, but believes that any means will do to seize power. Boris suffers a complete defeat. Otrepiev will drag Russia into the war, into a difficult period that will call into question the country’s independence.
clause 2. Idea and pathos (ideological and emotional assessment)
The ideological pathos of the tragedy is the disclosure of the law of retribution, which says that a person is responsible for the consequences of his atrocities.
If a person killed a child, then through remorse he will no longer be able to be happy. And consider that something similar to his misdemeanor could befall his own family. Based on the phrase of the holy fool, Pushkin compares Godunov with King Herod, a biblical character. Pathos is especially pronounced in a social context. The reaction of the people expresses their indignation against the Herod kings. And here we are talking not only about Boris Godunov, but also about the new government, whose reign begins with the murder of children. In response to this event, the crowd remains silent, expressing their clear protest at what happened.
clause 3. Main characters (their place in the figurative system)
The image of power in the person of Godunov and False Dmitry is in opposition to the image of the people who want to see a ruler with clean hands.
The images of princes, boyars, the Tsar's Duma - all of them are in unity with the image of the tsar and, at the same time, in confrontation with him. I didn’t see any of the characters whose heart was devoted to the king. Godunov and his closest servants are connected only by common pressing issues. As soon as the wind begins to blow in the other direction, as happened with the appearance of False Dmitry, the subjects renounce their oaths, going over to the side of a greater force.
clause 4. Literary devices
Symbolic characters play a large role in the work.
They help reveal the underlying meanings of a particular story. For me, the holy fool became such a key character in Boris Godunov. He is considered a fool, a madman, but he behaves in harmony with himself - he says what he thinks.
The remaining characters strive for power by any means - deceiving, betraying, shedding blood. Or they are saving their lives, trying to keep their nose to the wind, playing along with the new government, a strong leader. They can be understood; it is not so easy to survive in an authoritarian state with harsh, ruthless laws.
It is this holy fool, whom the boys offend, who shows by his actions the value to which one should strive. Unfortunately, under autocratic power, the words he speaks can only be forgiven by the insane.
clause 5. Conflict of the work
In my opinion, there are two pronounced conflicts in the work.
The internal conflict of Boris Godunov, who killed a child, his guilty conscience, the boys standing in his eyes are acutely perceived. He lost the opportunity to rejoice, to feel happy. Such a life soon leads him to death. He does not see the death of his own children, but most likely assumes such an outcome.
Another conflict of the work is social - the conflict between the tsarist autocratic power and the people. Many chapters show the people's attitude to what is happening.
Authoritarian power, moving towards its goal, sweeps away everything in its path, even kills children. The overwhelming majority of people in the crowd do not agree with their actions. Ordinary people condemn the behavior of the authorities. He doesn't like Godunov. At the sight of another murder associated with the establishment of the power of False Dmitry, the crowd protests again - it remains silent.
The princes and boyars in the service of the autocrat also have a hard time. They have to get out, betray, shed blood, abandon their promises and obligations. Reading stories like this, you remember the question: “Who can live well in Rus'?”
Plot
Princes Shuisky and Vorotynsky discuss that after the death of the Tsar, only the Tsarina’s brother, Boris Godunov, can claim the throne. However, Boris, having taken refuge in a monastery, has been refusing the royal throne for a month now. Shuisky has no doubt that Boris was the killer of the baby prince, but the prince does not dare to convict him of a terrible crime. Godunov agrees to accept the reign only after people gather on Red Square and beg him to become ruler.
After six years of reign, Boris Godunov is disappointed - he does a lot for the people, but he is only cursed. The monarch believes that the cause of all his failures is his conscience, stained with the blood of an innocent child.
Meanwhile, a young monk Grishka Otrepyev escaped from the monastery, calling himself Tsarevich Dmitry and wanting to rule in Moscow. He gets to the Lithuanian border, where he is exposed by the bailiffs, but he manages to escape from them.
Prince Pushkin informs Shuisky about the appearance of False Dmitry. Both are seriously thinking about a coup. Having learned about the impostor, Boris Godunov is seriously worried - he doubts Dmitry’s death, but Shuisky assures him that the prince is dead.
The impostor wastes no time and, with the help of promises and persuasion, gathers like-minded people to march on Moscow and overthrow Boris Godunov. Poles and Don Cossacks join him. Having lost his head from love for the daughter of Voivode Mnishek, Marina, Otrepyev confesses to her who he really is. A cold and calculating girl promises to become his wife as soon as he wins the royal throne.
An impostor with an army crosses the border, unrest and unrest are increasingly occurring among the common people. The Patriarch says that near the grave of Tsarevich Dmitry, miracles and healings occur. To expose False Dmitry to the people, it will be enough to bring him to this holy place. On the square in front of the cathedral in Moscow, the holy fool Nikolka, in front of everyone, accuses the tsar of murdering Tsarevich Dmitry.
The decisive battle takes place near Novgorod-Seversky, and Boris Godunov’s army is defeated. False Dmitry continues his offensive, but unexpectedly Boris Godunov dies in the capital, having managed to bless his beloved son Fedor to the kingdom.
Prince Pushkin pushes the royal governors to treason, proclaims False Dmitry king and organizes a rebellion against the heirs of Boris Godunov. The king's wife and children were strangled, while the people were told that they themselves had been poisoned. The boyars call on the people to honor the new king, but ordinary people express their protest in silence.
Essay on the topic: The main theme of the tragedy “Boris Godunov”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Composition. The main theme of the tragedy "Boris Godunov"
The main theme of the tragedy - the king and the people - determined the important place that Pushkin assigned to Boris Godunov in his play. The image of Boris Godunov is revealed widely and diversified. Boris is shown both as a king and as a family man; His various spiritual qualities are noted. Boris is endowed with many positive traits. His great mind, powerful will, responsiveness, and desire to “calm his people into contentment and to reassure him in glory” are attractive. Like a tender father, he sincerely mourns the grief of his daughter, shocked by the unexpected death of her fiancé: What, Ksenia, what is it, my dear? The brides are already a sad widow! You keep crying about your dead groom... Guilty one, why are you suffering? ' As a person who deeply understands the benefits of education, he rejoices at his son’s success in science: Study, my son, science reduces the experiences of fast-flowing life for us... Study, my son, and it will be easier and clearer - You will comprehend the work of a sovereign. Boris is an experienced politician, he soberly takes into account the attitude of the boyars towards him, understands the entire difficult situation within the country at that time and gives reasonable advice to his son in his dying will. Having married his daughter to the Swedish prince, he thinks about strengthening the connection between Rus' and Western European states. Despite all these qualities, the people do not like the king. Boris Godunov is a typical representative of the autocracy that began to take shape in Muscovite Rus' from the time of Ivan III and reached its heyday under Otherwise IV. Boris will continue the policy of Ivan IV - the concentration of all state power in the hands of the tsar. He continues the fight against the noble boyars and... like Ivan IV, he relies in this struggle on the serving nobility. Appointing Basmanov as commander of the troops, Boris tells him: “I’ll send you to command them: I’ll put you not in line, but in mind as a commander.” Boris continues the policy of the Moscow tsars in relation to the people: “Only with strictness can we vigilantly restrain the people. So thought John (III), the calmer of storms, a reasonable autocrat, so did the hundred-fierce grandson (Ivan IV).” He continues the policy of enslaving the peasants, he “Yuryev decided to destroy laziness,” that is, to destroy the right of the peasants to move from one landowner to another and thereby finally assign the peasants to the landowners. This serfdom policy of Boris strengthens the people’s first distrustful and then hostile attitude towards him. But Boris differs from his predecessors in that he became king through a crime, and not through legal succession to the throne. In the 17th century, as some writers of that time say, Boris Godunov was considered the murderer of Dmitry Tsarevich, the son of Ivan IV. Karamzin shared the same opinion. Karamzin viewed Boris’s very tragedy as a consequence of his crime: God punished Boris for the murder of the infant prince. Pushkin, “resurrecting the past century in all its truth,” also depicts Boris as the murderer of Demetrius. But, in contrast to the writers of the 17th century and Karamzin, he does not explain the unhappy reign of Boris and his failure to found the royal Godunov dynasty with this crime. The murder of Dmitry causes Boris mental anguish and increases the people's hostility towards him, but this is not the main reason for his tragic fate. The death of Boris is due to social reasons, the struggle of class forces. The boyars, the Don Cossacks, the Polish gentry, and, most importantly, the people came out to fight him. Gavrila Pushkin tells Basmanov that the Pretender is strong not because of “Polish help” or the Cossacks, but because of “popular opinion.” The people rebelled against Godunov, and this is the main reason for the death of Boris, since the people are the main, decisive force of history. The people turned away from Boris and then rebelled against him because they saw in him a despot who not only does not care about the welfare of the people, but, on the contrary, worsens their situation by enslaving the peasantry; saw in him the murderer of the prince; considered all his “good deeds” and “generosity” as “a means of preventing confusion and rebellion.” So Pushkin shows that the main reason for Boris’s tragedy is that he lost the respect, love and support of the people.
