- Essays
- On literature
- Nekrasov
- The image of peasants in the poem Who Lives Well in Rus'
The image of the peasants in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is very twofold; the author himself seems to divide all peasants into those who are ready for a free life after the abolition of serfdom and those who are so accustomed to groveling before their masters that they... they cannot live for another.
From the very beginning, the reader meets seven main characters, freed after the abolition of serfdom, peasants who decided to argue about who should live well in Rus'. There is simply no point in talking about each of them separately, because Nekrasov put into their images a piece of the true Russian peasant, the totality of their characters is one big image of the Russian peasantry.
These men were tall, healthy, heroic. Based on the fact that they are very interested in how other people live, we can conclude that they are inquisitive. They are good-natured and sincere, incorruptible and value freedom, tired of constant oppression.
However, one should not exaggerate the positive image of the peasants, because they are not at all so ideal: they love to sip a glass, they see happiness in prosperity, and not in spiritual things, they constantly argue, and their disputes reach the point of assault. The main characters are also not endowed with the ability to write correctly; only one of them, Demyan, is able to read syllables. The most stubborn of the peasants is Luka, who was stupid and previously served with the priest.
Nekrasov, with the help of other people whom the main characters meet along the way, tells us about how the peasants of that time really lived. For example, Yakim , who put all his strength and soul into the land, lived very poorly and did not have a penny to his name, although he was a very hardworking peasant. Yakim lost his last money when he sued a merchant in St. Petersburg and lost the case. Nekrasov says that at that time there were a lot of such ships.
The positive sides of the peasants are also manifested in the two other heroes encountered - Trophim and Agape. Agap does not want to bow to the master Utyatin and does not want to put on a performance for him, and when he is finally forced to do this, he dies the next day. This shows that it is easier for the Russian peasant to die than to submit.
Trofim, on the other hand, is the quintessence of tolerance and endurance; he was able to endure fourteen pounds, after which he crawled home, barely alive.
Girin is endowed with absolute honesty , whom the people elect as burgomaster, but for his honesty and ideological spirit, Girin repays with freedom - he goes to prison.
Essay Peasants in the work Who Lives Well in Rus'
Nekrasov's work became the final stage in his work. This poem can rightfully be called a novel about the life of the people. The poet clearly and truthfully depicted the picture of Russia before and after the reform of 1861 and the changes that occurred. The author created the poem at a time when changes were inevitable, and everyone understood that ruin and bondage awaited the peasants.
At the very beginning, you can see how the men began to argue about who was living well. This suggests that it is they who have a difficult fate. They, in order to once again find the answer to their question, go to the villages. They want to see where they live happily. The men will walk through the Frightened Province, talk with the peasants of many villages, where they will learn about what is hard for the Russian people. On the way they will meet the priest and the master. It is here that the author contrasts two worlds - the people and the masters. The ruthlessness of the landowners and their despotism, which turned the villages into “Neelovs” and “Razutovs”, provides a clear contrast with the breadth and high morality of the peasants. Klim Lavin, Matryona Timofeevna, Yakim Nagoy - these and other peasants are depicted in more detail. The poet shows the beauty of their soul and nobility. But at the same time, Nekrasov notices their shortcomings.
He writes that the Russian peasant likes to drink and then go out on a grand scale. So, Yakim Nagoy says to himself that he works as hard as he can, but then drinks until he stupefies. But not all peasants tolerate the bullying of their masters. So, for example, Agap Petrov is tired of listening to the master’s speeches for his every dissatisfaction and he directly expresses to him everything that he thinks. As a result, he dies, unable to bear the violation of his human feelings. Another lover of truth is depicted especially clearly in the poem - this is Yakim Nagoy. He lives the same miserable life as all the peasants. But he intends to stand up for his rights. Matryona Timofeevna also lives hard. From an early age she worked like hell. Nothing has changed in her marriage, it has only gotten worse. Hard labor, abuse from her husband and the death of her baby befell her. And although her life was full of hardships and hardships, the woman remained kind and generous.
Showing the man as illiterate and rude, the author noted that he had not lost his intelligence and resourcefulness. One of these characters is Klim Lavin, who managed to cunningly gain the favor of the landowner and take the position of mayor in order to help his villagers. The robber Kudeyar and Yermil Girin, who ended up in prison defending the interests of the peasants, can be honorably called fighters for the rights of the humiliated. Nekrasov’s poem shows not only the time when life was especially difficult for peasants, but also the ways of struggle for people’s happiness.
The image of the main wanderer characters
The first peasants with whom the reader meets are truth-seeking peasants who argued about who lives well in Rus'. For the poem, it is not so much their individual images that are important, but the overall idea that they express - without them, the plot of the work would simply fall apart. And, nevertheless, Nekrasov gives each of them a name, a native village (the names of the villages themselves are eloquent: Gorelovo, Zaplatovo...) and certain character traits and appearance: Luka is an inveterate debater, Pakhom is an old man. And the views of the peasants, despite the integrity of their image, are different; each does not deviate from his views even to the point of fighting. In general, the image of these men is a group image, which is why it highlights the most basic features characteristic of almost any peasant. This is extreme poverty, stubbornness and curiosity, the desire to find the truth. Let us note that while describing the peasants dear to his heart, Nekrasov still does not embellish their images. He also shows vices, mainly general drunkenness.
The peasant theme in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is not the only one - during their journey, the men will meet both the landowner and the priest, and will hear about the life of different classes - merchants, nobles, and clergy. But all other images in one way or another serve to more fully reveal the main theme of the poem: the life of peasants in Russia immediately after the reform.
The poem includes several crowd scenes - a fair, a feast, a road along which many people are walking. Here Nekrasov portrays the peasantry as a single whole, which thinks alike, speaks unanimously and even sighs at the same time. But at the same time, the images of peasants depicted in the work can be divided into two large groups: honest working people who value their freedom and serf peasants. In the first group, Yakim Nagoy, Ermil Girin, Trofim and Agap stand out.
Last One
This is what the peasants called their last landowner, Prince Utyatin, under whom serfdom was abolished. This landowner did not believe in the abolition of serfdom and became so angry that he had a stroke.
Fearing that the old man would be deprived of his inheritance, his relatives told him that they had ordered the peasants to turn back to the landowners, and they themselves asked the peasants to play this role.
Portrait
The last one is an old man, thin as hares in winter, white, a beaked nose like a hawk, long gray mustache. He, seriously ill, combines the helplessness of a weak hare and the ambition of a hawk.
Character traits
The last tyrant, “fools in the old way”, because of his whims, both his family and the peasants suffer. For example, I had to sweep away a ready-made stack of dry hay just because the old man thought it was wet.
The landowner Prince Utyatin is arrogant and believes that the nobles have betrayed their age-old rights. His white cap is a sign of landowner power.
Utyatin never valued the lives of his serfs: he bathed them in an ice hole and forced them to play the violin on horseback.
In old age, the landowner began to demand even greater nonsense: he ordered a six-year-old to be married to a seventy-year-old, to quiet the cows so that they would not moo, to appoint a deaf-mute fool as a watchman instead of a dog.
Unlike Obolduev, Utyatin does not learn about his changed status and dies “as he lived, as a landowner.”
- The image of Savely in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
- The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” N. A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily and freely in Rus',” who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. This is a group portrait, therefore, in the image of the seven “temporarily obliged” ones, only general traits characteristic of the Russian peasant are given: poverty, curiosity, unpretentiousness. Men do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the tsar. Peasant truth-seekers have a sense of self-esteem. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, taller, and smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the people’s love for work and their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matryona Timofeevna’s crop is dying, the men without hesitation offer her help; they also help the peasants of the Illiterate province with mowing. Traveling around Russia, men meet various people. Revealing the images of the heroes encountered by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the situation of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, nobility... But the author still pays the main attention to the peasants. The images of Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Girin, Saveliy, Matryona Timofeevna combine both general, typical features of the peasantry, such as hatred of all “shareholders” who drain their vitality, and individual traits. Yakim Nagoy, personifying the mass of the poor peasantry, “works himself to death,” but lives as a poor man, like the majority of the peasants of the village of Bosovo. Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for “interest holders”. The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Rus': he “once lived in St. Petersburg,” but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “torn like a sticker” and “took up his plow.” Another image of the Russian peasant is Ermila Girin. The author endows him with incorruptible honesty and natural intelligence. Having gone against the “peace”, sacrificing public interests for the sake of personal ones - having given up a neighbor’s guy as a soldier instead of her brother - Yermila is tormented by remorse and comes to the thought of suicide. However, he does not hang himself, but goes to the people to repent. The episode with the purchase of the mill is important. Nekrasov shows the solidarity of the peasantry. They trust Ermila, and he takes the side of the peasants during the riot. The author’s idea that Russian peasants are heroes is also important. For this purpose, the image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero, is introduced. Despite the unbearably hard life, the hero has not lost his best qualities. He treats Matryona Timofeevna with sincere love and deeply worries about Demushka’s death. About himself he says: “Branded, but not a slave!” Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He ponders whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights and oppressed state. Savely comes to the conclusion: it is better to “understand” than to “endure,” and he calls for protest. Savelia's combination of sincerity, kindness, simplicity, sympathy for the oppressed and hatred of the oppressors makes this image vital and typical. A special place in the poem, as in all of Nekrasov’s work, is occupied by the display of the “female share”. In the poem, the author reveals it using the example of the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This is a strong and persistent woman, fighting for her freedom and her feminine happiness. But, despite all her efforts, the heroine says: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women.” The fate of Matryona Timofeevna is typical for a Russian woman: after marriage, she went to hell from a “maiden holiday”; Misfortunes fell on her one after another... Finally, Matryona Timofeevna, just like the men, is forced to work hard at work in order to feed her family.
The image of Matryona Timofeevna also contains features of the heroic character of the Russian peasantry. In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the author showed how serfdom morally cripples people. He leads us through a procession of courtyard people, servants, serfs, who, over many years of groveling before the master, have completely lost their own “I” and human dignity. This is the faithful Yakov, who takes revenge on the master by killing himself in front of his eyes, and Ipat, the slave of the Utyatin princes, and Klim. Some peasants even become oppressors, receiving insignificant power from the landowner. The peasants hate these slave slaves even more than the landowners, they despise them. Thus, Nekrasov showed the stratification among the peasantry associated with the reform of 1861. The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to escape reality. God is the supreme judge from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is hope for a better life.
N. A. Nekrasov worked on his poem for a long time - from the 1860s until the end of his life. During his lifetime, individual chapters of the work were published, but it was published in full only in 1920, when K.I. Chukovsky decided to release the complete collected works of the poet. In many ways, the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is built on elements of Russian folk art; the language of the poem is close to that which was understandable to the peasants of that time.
Images of Matryona and Savely
The life of peasants in Nekrasov's poem would not be completely depicted without the image of a Russian woman. To reveal the “female share”, which is “grief is not life!” the author chose the image of Matryona Timofeevna. “Beautiful, strict and dark,” she tells in detail the story of her life, in which only then was she happy, as she lived with her parents in the “girls’ lounge.” Afterwards, hard work began, equal to men, the nagging of relatives, and the death of the first-born distorted the fate. For this story, Nekrasov allocated an entire part of the poem, nine chapters - much more than the stories of the other peasants occupy. This well conveys his special attitude, his love for a Russian woman. Matryona amazes with her strength and resilience. She endures all the blows of fate without complaint, but at the same time she knows how to stand up for her loved ones: she lies down under the rod in place of her son and saves her husband from the soldiers. The image of Matryona in the poem merges with the image of the people's soul - long-suffering and long-suffering, which is why the woman's speech is so rich in songs. These songs are often the only opportunity to pour out your melancholy...
The image of Matryona Timofeevna is accompanied by another curious image - the image of the Russian hero, Savely. Living out his life in Matryona’s family (“he lived for one hundred and seven years”), Savely thinks more than once: “Where have you gone, strength? What were you useful for? All the strength was lost under rods and sticks, wasted during back-breaking labor on the Germans and wasted away in hard labor. The image of Savely shows the tragic fate of the Russian peasantry, heroes by nature, leading a life completely unsuitable for them. Despite all the hardships of life, Savely did not become embittered, he is wise and affectionate with those without rights (he is the only one in the family who protects Matryona). His image also shows the deep religiosity of the Russian people, who sought help in faith.
