“Nekrasov’s Woman” is a famous image of a heroic Slavic woman from Russian literature. The one who “stops a galloping horse and enters a burning hut.” She can do everything, works tirelessly and, it seems, does not even need a male protector. “But these are the best testaments of feminism in action!” - you say. But it's not that simple.
No one accuses Nikolai Alekseevich of deliberately creating a negative image or disrespect for women - society was completely different then, and we understand this. But while “Frost, Red Nose” is being studied at school, we consider it important to explain why you should not focus on this image now.
So, we re-read Nekrasov’s poem and found many reasons not to be “Nekrasov’s women.”
Concentration on external attributes
There are women in Russian villages
With calm importance of faces,
With beautiful strength in movements,
With the gait, with the look of queens, -
“Am I sitting nicely?” “What if I seem like a bungler?” “I move awkwardly and hold my hands strangely.” We think about this on dates, during interviews, and when we cross the office to the water cooler. Women spend a lot of effort trying to look beautiful from the outside. We are taught from childhood that we need to flutter gracefully and keep our back straight.
What's bad about it? Constant fixation on external appearance prevents us from focusing on the action itself. In the second season of Sex Education, Olivia covers her partner's head with a pillow because she is embarrassed by the way her face looks during orgasm. And this is a great illustration of how worry about evaluation prevents us from immersing ourselves in the process.
Philosopher Michel Foucault talked about the “Panopticon” - an ideal cylindrical prison with glass partitions, where one guard can observe everyone at the same time. The prisoners do not know exactly when they are being watched, but they are aware that it can happen at any moment. That's why they always behave perfectly. Now this concept is widely used in Gender Studies - women feel like prisoners in a Panopticon where they have to look good while having sex, working out at the gym, taking out the trash, or doing whatever they want.
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It is Plastov who is a first-class artist and the brightest. More than anything else, he liked to describe the landscapes of village life. When you look at his paintings - Examples of conscience from literature
Conscience is a quality that torments a person throughout the years for actions that he should not have done.
Total idealization
Beauty, the world is a wonder,
Blush, slim, tall,
She is beautiful in any clothes,
Dexterous for any job.
The need to always look good is not so bad. But we must not only be dazzling, but also do great things at the same time. The idealization of women is a narrative that has evolved over centuries. Classical literature set the stage for high expectations and romanticized the image of a woman without flaws. Glossy magazines clearly showed what it should look like: an ideal body, polished style, a dizzying career, a strong family and obedient children. Social networks have elevated the idea to the absolute level, showing that not only models and actresses are ideal, but simply any women around us.
A woman should be able to do everything - this idea is so familiar that the phrase “Loving wife and happy mother” in the profile header on Instagram evokes pity in most people: poor thing, she didn’t succeed professionally. Girls who have built a career but did not get married also evoke sympathy among many. And even if you started a family and started your own business, God forbid you fail to dye your overgrown roots once. You will immediately move into another category of “poor things” - those who have given up on themselves.
“Russian Women” - an essay based on Nekrasov’s poem
“Russian Women” - essay
Nekrasov's poem "Russian Women" tells the story of the wives of the Decembrists who bravely followed their husbands to Siberia. The main heroines of the poem are princesses Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya. Initially, Nekrasov planned to call the work “Decembrist Women,” but later changed the name. This was not done by chance, because the author in the poem not only talks about the past, he also correlates it with the present, finds common features in the character of his contemporaries and the Decembrists. Russian women - they have always been like this: brave, selfless, loving, ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of their family and simple female happiness. Selflessness is the main trait that is inherent in Russian women, isn’t it? In addition to this, we can name several more characteristic features: loyalty, sense of duty, generosity, courage... No, our women really deserve to have poems dedicated to them! The Decembrists made a brave decision to follow their husbands, and they did this not only out of love and compassion, but also out of a sense of justice.
The poem consists of two parts. The first part tells about Princess Trubetskoy, shows her romantic mood, and emphasizes the beauty of her act. The second part, which tells about Princess Volkonskaya, is a kind of family memoir, a grandmother’s story addressed to her grandchildren. The second part tells about the same events as the first, but conveys them somewhat differently.
The poem “Russian Women” is the embodiment of female images that are worthy of being admired and set as an example. The work proves that the image of a “Russian woman” is an image that does not belong to any one social stratum. Real women can be born both in a peasant hut and in a noble mansion. In fact, the images of princesses in Nekrasov’s poem are generalized images that absorb the best qualities of women. The author really admires the Decembrists for their heroic deeds. Purposefulness, fortitude, resistance to life's adversities - these are the qualities that are glorified in the poem and which invariably evoke respect from the readers of the work. Can modern women boast such a set of character qualities? Undoubtedly, they can, because only external circumstances have changed, but inside Russian women have remained - Russian Women with a capital R!
If you liked the essay on the poem “Russian Women”, pay attention to the essays on other works of Nekrasov:
- The image of Princess Volkonskaya in Nekrasov’s poem “Russian Women”
- “Russian Women”, a summary of the chapters of Nekrasov’s poem
- The image of Princess Trubetskoy in the poem “Russian Women”
- “It’s stuffy! Without happiness and will...", analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “Farewell”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “The heart breaks from torment,” analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “Sorry”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “Green Noise”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “Uncompressed strip”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- “Forgotten Village”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- Images of landowners in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
- The image of Savely in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
- “Sasha”, a summary of Nekrasov’s poem
- “In Memory of Dobrolyubov”, analysis of Nekrasov’s poem
- The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
Based on the work: “Russian Women”
According to the writer: Nikolay Nekrasov
Prohibition on complaints and defending your opinion
He endures both hunger and cold,
Always patient, even...
I saw how she squints:
With just a wave, the mop is ready!
Russian literature is permeated with the idea that patience and submission are the highest virtues of a woman. In Anna Karenina, everyone admires the courage of Dolly Oblonskaya, who humbly forgives her husband’s infidelities and tries to distract herself by caring for her children. One of the most moral characters in War and Peace, Princess Marya, endures all her father’s insults and does not contradict him.
In Quiet Flows, Natalya Melikhova patiently waits for her husband while he lives with someone else, and is content with his cool love when he returns. An attempt to rebel is immediately punished - she has an abortion and dies. The moral is clear: it is better not to complain.
These are not just stories from books of past centuries. This is our reality. Even now you may be given advice like “be patient - don’t destroy your family”, “be wiser, you are a woman”, “give in to your husband”. Good girls don't complain, don't argue, don't defend their point of view. Their task is to be muses and inspire men.
A woman’s ability to convey her position - in detail, clearly, in words through her mouth - is often perceived as nit-picking or whims. But the ability to pretend to be weak, to manipulate a man on the sly, to deceive him with “feminine things”, praise, undertones and hints is presented as worldly wisdom.
The fate of a Russian woman in the works of N. A. Nekrasov
The fate of a Russian woman in the works of N. A. Nekrasov
1. The fate of a Russian woman in the works of Nekrasov.
2. Images of peasant women in the poems “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and “Frost, Red Nose.”
3. Wives of the Decembrists in the poem “Russian Women”.
The keys to female happiness, From our free will, Abandoned, lost from God himself!
N. A. Nekrasov.
“Who lives well in Rus'”
The great Russian poet N. A. Nekrasov in his works addressed the most relevant and pressing topics for his time: the fate of the common people, love for their native land, the poet’s civic position. The writer was also concerned about such a topic as the Fate of a Russian woman ; it occupies a significant place in Nekrasov’s work. The heroines of his poems and poems belong to different social strata: these are simple peasant women and princesses. Their charming features seem to merge into one unique image of Nekrasov’s “majestic Slavic woman,” in which folk ideas about a real beauty are embodied: “The world is a marvel of beauty, / Blush, slender, tall, / Beautiful in all clothes, / Dexterous for any work "
The Russian woman in Nekrasov’s works is richly endowed with high spiritual qualities. In the image of a Russian peasant woman, the poet shows a person who has not lost faith, not broken by any trials and sorrows. Nekrasov admires her perseverance in the face of adversity, her pride and self-esteem, and her tireless care for her family and children.
A striking example of such a heroine is Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” A simple Russian woman sincerely and artlessly tells us about her difficult fate. Her story truthfully reflects the everyday hardships of all Russian peasant women of that time: a humiliated, dependent position, separation from her husband, the pain of a mother who lost her son, inescapable poverty. But she endured it all with dignity:
“I walked around with anger in my heart, / But I didn’t say too much / A word to anyone.”
Despite all the hardships, Matryona Timofeevna did not lose self-respect; a protest breaks out in her story: “They have no soul in their chest... / There is no cross on their neck!” the fate of a Russian woman with three loops of silk, white, red and black, and says to the wanderers: “You have not started a business - to look for a happy woman among women!” These words are confirmed by the Fate of the Russian woman Daria, the heroine of another poem by Nekrasov - “Frost, Red Nose”. The lot of the peasant woman, who is forced to take on not only women’s work, but also all men’s work, is unbearable, and in the end dies. Her sad fate is also perceived as a typical phenomenon:
The fate of a Russian woman had three difficult parts , And the first share: to marry a slave, The second - to be the mother of a slave’s son, And the third - to submit to a slave until the grave,
And all these terrible shares fell on the woman of the Russian land. Constant worries about the family, raising children, endless exhausting chores around the house and in the field - all this fell on Daria. She courageously struggles with everyday difficulties, but we see that a widowed woman cannot do the work of two. Daria is exhausted under the double burden of loss and overwork that has fallen on her. This is probably why she falls into a sleepy stupor in the forest, which is why she freezes.
Nekrasov sincerely sympathizes with his heroine and admires her: in the image of Daria, the poet shows the best qualities of a Russian woman, in whom external attractiveness is combined with enormous moral wealth. Nekrasov confidently asserts, speaking about Russian peasant women, that “the dirt of the wretched situation does not seem to stick to them.” A simple Russian woman patiently “endures both hunger and cold”; there is still room for compassion and understanding in her soul. Daria sets out on foot many miles from home for a miraculous icon that could heal her husband; and Matryona Timofeevna forgave Savely the hero for the mistake that led to the death of her child. Nekrasov glorifies women capable of self-sacrifice and moral deeds. The images of princesses Trubetskoy and Volkonskaya, the heroines of the poem “Russian Women,” captivate from the first pages of the poem. In this work, the author talks about the wives of the Decembrists who voluntarily shared the tragic fate of their husbands. All the governor’s arguments in a conversation with Princess Trubetskoy cannot shake the courageous woman’s decision: “Our rights seem to you / Rights - not joking. / No! I don’t value them, / Take them quickly! / Where is the renunciation? I'll sign it! / And lively - horses.” Just to be close to my husband! And no hardships, no threats will stop her on her chosen path.
The same can be said about Princess Volkonskaya, whose life is full of “sad losses.” “I shared joy with him, and I must share prison / I must... It’s heaven’s will!..” says the brilliant princess, who now finds herself the wife of a state criminal, with Christian humility. These words of hers contain love, a sense of duty, and submission to God’s will, which united her with this man.
Initially, Nekrasov intended to call his poem “Decembrist Women,” but later changed this name to “Russian Women.” The high moral qualities that characterize the heroines of this poem are fortitude, self-sacrifice, will, and Christian humility. These are the best features of a Russian woman, no matter what class she belongs to. The poet bows to the moral beauty of the Russian woman:
And if I filled my life with the struggle For the ideal of goodness and beauty And the song composed by me bears beautiful features of Living love. O my mother, I am moved by you, You saved the living soul in me.
