About the product
Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” cycle, written in 1830 in the Boldino autumn, includes four small plays: “The Miserly Knight,” “Mozart and Salieri,” “The Stone Guest” and “A Feast in the Time of Plague.”
In the first three plays, Pushkin talks about human passions and vices (stinginess, envy, jealousy, passion for hoarding). “A Feast in the Time of Plague” shows a picture of a nationwide disaster.
We recommend reading online a summary of “Little Tragedies” chapter by chapter, which will be useful in preparing for literature lessons, as well as for a reading diary.
The material was prepared jointly with the highest category teacher Lyubov Alexandrovna Koroshchup.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 30 years.
"Feast in Time of Plague"
The tragedy “A Feast in the Time of Plague” was written in 1830 in Boldin and published in 1832 in the almanac “Alcyone”. To write his play, A.S. Pushkin borrowed a dramatic excerpt from John Wilson’s poem “City of Plague” that he translated. The plot was taken from another work, but the best parts of the tragedy were written by the poet himself.
In the play “A Feast in the Time of Plague,” the poet clearly depicts the fear of death. Being one moment away from certain death, everyone behaves differently. Someone feasts and has fun, as if death does not exist at all. However, she reminds herself of herself in the form of a cart with the dead driving through the streets. Someone begins to pray earnestly, trusting in the will of the Almighty Lord God. Some find comfort through poetry, experiencing their own pain in songs and poems. Others try to overcome the fear of death with the power of their inner spirit.
The main character of the tragedy “A Feast in the Time of Plague” is the chairman of the feast, Walsingham. This man is brave, he is not used to running from danger, but prefers to face it face to face. Walsingham is far from a poet and never was, but for the first time, under the impression of a fatal disease that claimed a huge number of lives, he composed a hymn to the plague. The chairman learns to live in an atmosphere of fear and tries to enjoy the feeling of mortal danger. Even thoughts about the recent death of his mother and beloved wife cannot overcome his fortitude.
In the work, the priest is contrasted with the chairman. He reassures all those who have lost relatives and friends due to an ominous disease. The priest confronts death and the fear of death with humble prayers. He believes that all separated souls will be united in heaven. The priest calls on the feasters not to denigrate the memory of the dead and to stop the feast and fun.
The tragedy “A Feast in the Time of Plague” allows us to understand the strength of the human spirit and inner strength in the face of the fear of imminent death.
You can use this text for a reader's diary
Main characters
- The Baron is a greedy old man whose purpose in life is to accumulate wealth.
- Albert is the son of a baron, a brave knight.
- Don Juan is a Spanish grandee, a famous sensualist.
- Dona Anna is the widow of the commander, with whom Don Guan is in love.
- Walsingham is the chairman of the feast.
- Mozart is a great musician and composer.
- Salieri is Mozart's rival, his envier.
Analysis of the tragedy "Mozart and Salieri"
In the second tragedy - “Mozart and Salieri” - Pushkin took advantage of the widely spread legend about the death of the great Austrian composer Mozart, separated as if out of envy by his friend, the Italian Salieri. On the basis of this legend, Alexander Sergeevich built a deep philosophical drama of enormous intellectual tension. Salieri of his tragedies is a gifted musician, fanatically confident that nothing exists and should not exist in the world against which solitary and constant human labor and cold, strict mathematical calculation would be powerless. Salieri perceives the personality of Mozart and his brilliant music with its universal accessibility, beauty and humanity as a kind of “miracle” that refutes the entire edifice of his life as a person and musician. By poisoning Mozart, Salieri sacrifices him to his life principles and the harmony of his theoretical constructs. But the attempt to establish them at the cost of crime turns into a moral defeat for the dry, selfish, rational Salieri, and a victory for the deeply humane and cheerful Mozart, addressed to the world and people.
Analyzing the character of Shakespeare’s Othello, Pushkin noted: “Othello is not jealous; he is trusting." In his “little tragedy,” Pushkin subjects the character of Salieri to the same complex analysis. Pushkin's Salieri envies Mozart, but not because he is envious by nature. His feelings for Mozart stem from the painful awareness of the falsity of that path in art, in the name of which Salieri became an artisan, “killing” sounds, dismantling music “like a corpse.” A gifted person and musician, Salieri in his soul, more than anyone else, is aware of Mozart’s superiority over himself, feels the truth and power of his art. But this is what makes him suffer painfully, giving rise to envy and hatred of his younger and happier rival.
In “Mozart and Salieri,” Pushkin expressed his moral ideal: the words of a spiritually broken man after the crime of Salieri: “Genius and villainy are two incompatible things” affirm the idea of the incompatibility of art and crime, of moral purity and spiritual nobility as integral qualities of a true man of art, without whom he is inevitably condemned to creative sterility.
Summary
Stingy Knight
The young knight Albert is brave and courageous, but he is forced to lead a semi-beggarly existence due to the exorbitant greed of his father, a noble baron. At a knight's tournament, he wins a brilliant victory over his opponent, but is not at all happy about it - his helmet is broken, his zealous horse is limping, and there is no money, let alone to buy himself a new dress.
Albert is forced once again to turn to the Jew Solomon, a moneylender from whom he borrows money. Solomon gives advice to the young man on how to get rich quickly, hinting that “it’s time for the baron to die.” He invites the knight to use the services of an experienced pharmacist and poison his greedy father, but the young man drives the moneylender out in a rage.
Albert sees no other choice but to turn to the Duke for help so that he can influence the Baron.
Meanwhile, the Baron goes down to the basement and enjoys the sight of his six chests filled with gold coins. In gold he sees joy and self-confidence. The Baron is only saddened by the fact that after his death all the treasures will flow into the “satin torn pockets” of his dissolute son.
During a chance meeting in the ducal chambers, a disgusting scene plays out between father and son - the baron accuses Albert of attempted murder, and the hot young man is ready to fight his own father, defending his honor. Unable to withstand the intensity of passions, the miser dies, and the amazed Duke exclaims: “A terrible age, terrible hearts!”
Detailed summary of “The Miserly Knight.”
Mozart and Salieri
Salieri, completely devoid of inspiration and love for art, shares how “the first step was difficult and the first path was boring.” However, he managed to study musical harmony perfectly, like an exact science. Now Salieri writes musical compositions in the manner of an experienced artisan, selecting tones according to mathematical rules.
However, the glory of the hardworking and persistent Salieri is overshadowed by the young and incredibly gifted Mozart. He gains popularity not through hard work, but through natural talent, which greatly irritates Salieri. He recognizes the unconditional gift of his comrade: “You, Mozart, are God, and you don’t know it yourself,” and laments that the Lord so generously measured out talent for such an unworthy reveler as Mozart.
Salieri is confident that Mozart will not bring any benefit to art, and his death will not be a tragedy for true music connoisseurs. Wanting to get rid of a dangerous rival, Salieri invites Mozart to the tavern to poison him.
At the table, a sad and thoughtful Mozart admits to a friend that he sees a black man everywhere who “gives no rest day and night.” The musician is sure that it is his death that is on his heels. He plays his most beautiful creation - “Requiem”.
Salieri pours poison into Mozart's glass of wine, who drinks and soon dies. However, getting rid of a rival does not bring satisfaction to the criminal, since “genius and villainy are two incompatible things.”
Detailed summary of “Mozart and Salieri.”
Stone Guest
Don Guan, famous throughout Madrid as a “cunning tempter” and a “godless corrupter,” secretly returns from exile to his hometown. His guilt lies in the fact that by his grace the valiant commander died, and the angry king sent the duelist outside Madrid.
The hero, through whose fault so many women's destinies were ruined, is dissatisfied with life in exile - the local young ladies turned out to be too insipid and boring. He strives to go to Madrid to indulge in lovemaking with his beloved, the young actress Laura.
Meanwhile, the flighty Laura, surrounded by her fans, enjoys everyone's attention. During her separation from Don Juan, she did not remain faithful to him, which she admits when meeting her lover.
The loving rake is not too saddened by this news, since his heart is already occupied by the beautiful Dona Anna, the widow of the commander he killed. He watches for a woman in the cemetery near the statue of her husband and confesses his tender feelings to her. Dona Anna is trying to stop this conversation, since there is “no place for such speeches, such madness.”
The persistent Don Guan gets the widow to agree to a date, but at the same time calls him by a different name. The mocker invites the statue of the commander to come and see how he will be nice to his wife.
Finding himself in Dona Anna’s chambers, he is ready to give “everything for a single favorable glance.” The woman begins to succumb to the charms of the experienced tempter, but at that moment a stone statue of the commander appears in the room, shakes Don Guan’s hand and falls with him into the underworld.
Detailed summary of “The Stone Guest”.
Feast in Time of Plague
During a severe plague epidemic, a company of several men and women decides to throw a real feast on the street. They raise a glass in memory of their cheerful friend who fell victim to a fatal disease.
The chairman of this unusual feast, Walsingham, invites Mary to sing a sad song, and then feast and have fun with renewed energy. The girl sings a beautiful, but very sad song about her homeland, which was hit by misfortunes after the plague epidemic.
Everyone present loves the song, and only the daring Louise claims that only naive and sentimental people are “happy to melt from women’s tears.” But, seeing a cart loaded with dead people, the first one faints.
Walsingham sings a gloomy hymn to the plague, which he himself composed under the influence of recent events. A priest approaches the feasters, who calls on them to stop the fun, since their “hateful delights are disturbing the silence of the coffins.”
The chairman refuses to dissolve his company, but the priest reminds him of how he “fought with a cry” over the graves of his mother and beloved wife, who died of the plague. Walsingham does not even accept these arguments. He remains to feast with his friends, but plunges into deep thought.
Detailed summary of “A Feast During the Plague.”
Analysis of "The Miserly Knight"
The first of the “little tragedies” - “The Miserly Knight” - takes the reader to the Middle Ages. Its heroes are the old baron and his son Albert - knights, descendants of a once glorious, warlike family. But times have changed: young Albert is full of thoughts not so much about genuine military exploits, but about victories in court tournaments and success with secular beauties. The spear and helmet, from being formidable means of fighting an external enemy, turned into brilliant decorations in Albert’s eyes; concern for maintaining his dignity at the duke's court makes him dream of satin and velvet, and humiliate himself before the moneylender.
Compared to the ardent and generous, but at the same time sharing the tastes and prejudices of the court, Albert, his father, the old baron, is a man of a more integral era, going back into the past. This is a strong, unbending nature, cut as if from one piece. But the old baron is a ruthless usurer and miser, whose stinginess has taken the form of a kind of tragic mania. The old baron treats the piles of gold growing in his chests as an ardent young lover and at the same time as a poet, before whose eyes a whole world unknown to other people is revealed. Each doubloon he accumulates is not something impersonal for the baron; it appears to him as a clot of human sweat, human blood and tears, and at the same time a symbol of his gloomy and solitary power, based on the power of money. In the baron’s monologue, in a gloomy dungeon, where he is alone, in the glare of lighted candles, enjoying the contemplation of his wealth, Pushkin with exceptional poetic power outlined his strong, unbending character, the ugly, tragic passion that burns and drains him.
Analysis of "The Stone Guest"
The third “little tragedy” - “The Stone Guest” - was written by Pushkin based on the plot of an ancient Spanish legend about the clever and skillful seducer of women Don Juan, who was cruelly punished for his diabolical art. By the time “The Stone Guest” was created, this legend had gone through a number of dramatic adaptations, of which Pushkin was especially well known for Moliere’s comedy “Don Juan” and Mozart’s opera of the same name (from its libretto, Pushkin chose the epigraph for “The Stone Guest”). Each of these adaptations gave its own, original interpretation of the character of the central character, who in the 19th century, during the poet’s lifetime, sparkled with new, unusual colors in Byron’s famous poem. Pushkin's Don Guan is also not like his predecessors. This is a poet of love passion. Both in his love for Inese (about which Pushkin’s Guan tells his servant Leporello in the first scene), and later in his relationship with Laura and Dona Anna, Guan is alien to pretense, sincere, filled with genuine feeling. Don Guan is bold, courageous, eloquent, he is fascinated by risk and danger. He is characterized by an acute curiosity for life, inherent in a man of the Renaissance, a desire to try his luck in spite of dilapidated church and religious-moral dogmas. But the overflowing energy of a free, uninhibited personality is combined in him with indifference to the moral consequences of his actions.
Unlike the authors of other plays about Don Juan, Pushkin shows the character of the hero in motion. In him - the “obedient student” of debauchery, which Don Guan remained for a long time, by his own admission - lived a man with other, higher aspirations. Love for Donna Anna makes Guan “reborn”, to realize this other person in himself. But this “resurrection” occurs too late - the killer of the commander and Don Carlos dies. Having experienced a moment of pure, genuine happiness, he is morally defeated and must “uncomplainingly” give his life as payment.
