About the product
The tragedy “A Feast in the Time of Plague” by Pushkin was written in 1830 based on a passage from John Wilson’s poem “City of Plague”, which perfectly suited the mood of the writer. Due to the raging cholera epidemic, Pushkin could not leave Boldino and see his bride in Moscow.
For better preparation for a literature lesson, as well as for a reading diary, we recommend reading online a summary of “A Feast in the Time of Plague.”
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Ilyina Galina Sergeevna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 36 years.
Boldino autumn
Before his son’s marriage, his father gave him the village of Kistenovo, and the poet went to take over the inheritance. Kistenovo is a village near Boldino. He expected only a month, but was delayed by three due to the cholera epidemic that occurred in Moscow. Pushkin called it a plague for himself.
You can’t get to Moscow - there are quarantines all around. The poet works fruitfully, but he is consumed by concern for his family and friends who remained in “plague-ridden” Moscow. Under such circumstances, the poet makes for himself an interlinear translation from English of “City of the Plague,” dedicated to the plague that raged in London in 1666 and, rethinking its content, writes his original work “A Feast in the Time of Plague,” a brief summary of which will now be presented.
Summary
There is a table on the street laden with rich dishes. Several young men and women are sitting behind him. One of those present, a young man, addresses the group and reminds everyone of the carefree Jackson, whose jokes always lifted everyone's spirits. However, now the resilient Jackson, having become a victim of a ferocious plague, lies in a cold coffin. The young man offers to raise glasses of wine in memory of a close friend “with a cheerful clink of glasses, with an exclamation, as if he were alive.”
The Chairman agrees to the proposal to honor the memory of Jackson, who was the first to leave their circle of friends. But he just wants to do it in silence. Everyone agrees.
The chairman asks Mary, whose voice “brings out the sounds of her native songs with wild perfection,” to sing a sad song to the honest company, and then again turn to the fun with redoubled force.
The girl sings about her homeland, which recently flourished, but has now turned into a wasteland: schools and churches are closed, the once generous fields have become desolate, the cheerful voices and laughter of local residents are not heard. And only in the cemetery does life reign - one after another, coffins with victims of the plague are brought here, and “the groans of the living fearfully ask God to rest their souls.”
The chairman thanks Mary “for the plaintive song” and suggests that in the girl’s homeland at one time there raged the same terrible plague epidemic as the one that is now claiming people’s lives.
Suddenly, the decisive and daring Louise intervenes in their conversation, claiming that such mournful songs have long been out of fashion and only naive souls are “glad to melt from women’s tears.”
The chairman asks for silence: he listens to the sound of the wheels of a cart loaded with corpses. At the sight of this terrible sight, Louise becomes ill. With her fainting, the girl proves that she is cruel and heartless only at first glance, but in fact, a tender, vulnerable soul is hidden in her.
Having come to her senses, Louise shares a strange dream that she had while fainting. A terrible demon - “all black, white-eyed” - called her into his terrible cart filled with the dead. The girl is not sure whether it was a dream or reality, and asks this question to her friends.
The young man replies that although they are relatively safe, “the black cart has the right to drive around everywhere.” To lift the mood, he asks Valsingam to sing a “free, lively song.” To which the chairman replies that he will not sing a cheerful song, but a hymn in honor of the plague, which he himself wrote in a moment of inspiration.
The gloomy hymn praises the plague, which not only “flatters with a rich harvest,” but also bestows an unprecedented rapture that a strong-willed person can feel before death.
Meanwhile, a priest comes to the feasters, who reproaches them for inappropriate, blasphemous fun during such a terrible grief that has engulfed the entire city. The elder is sincerely indignant that their “hateful delights disturb the silence of the tombs,” and calls on the young people to come to their senses.
The feasters drive the priest away, but he begs them to interrupt the monstrous feast and go home. Otherwise, they will never be able to meet the souls of their loved ones in heaven.
To which Walsingam replies that “youth loves joy,” but a gloomy mood reigns at home. The priest reminds the young man that he himself buried his mother three weeks ago and “fought with a cry over her grave.” He is sure that the unfortunate woman is watching her feasting son with tears in her eyes.
Walsingham responds to the priest’s order with a decisive refusal, since at the feast he is held back by “despair, terrible memories” and he simply cannot bear the horror of the dead emptiness of his home. The chairman asks the priest to go in peace and not bother them with his sermons.
As he departs, the priest in his last word mentions the pure spirit of Matilda, Walsingham’s deceased wife. Hearing the name of his beloved wife, the chairman loses his peace of mind. He is saddened that Matilda’s soul looks at him from heaven and sees him not as “pure, proud, free” as she always considered him during his life.
The priest asks Walsingam for the last time to leave the feast, but the chairman remains. But he no longer indulges in fun as before - all his thoughts hover somewhere very far away...
Walsingham's Song
The Chairman turned to poetry for the first time in his life last night and created a hymn to the Plague. He sings with inspiration in a hoarse voice.
In Russia, the lines of this anthem have been snatched up for quotes. Many people don’t even know where they get these sayings from. We know Pushkin without reading it, but it would be nice to read and think about it. But this is the essence of it. When cold Winter comes, everyone hides in warm houses near lit fireplaces and has fun at hot feasts. And now the formidable Queen - the Plague - is knocking on all the windows. How to escape from it? Yes, just like from Winter - lock yourself up, light the fires, pour glasses and start feasting, throwing balls. There is an inexplicable rapture in battle and on the edge of a dark abyss. So when meeting the Plague, which threatens death and destruction, there is a strange pleasure - with bated breath, to see who will overcome whom. And therefore let us praise the Plague - we are not afraid of the darkness of the grave and together we fill our glasses and feast. Courage mixed with fear that must be overcome is the meaning of Walsingham’s song, its summary. A feast during the plague is a courageous and desperate resistance to the irresistible plague that strikes all living things.
Analysis of the work
In small tragedies, “A Feast in Time of Plague” is the fourth and final work. Characters:
- Chairman Walsingham,
- priest,
- Mary,
- Louise.
This work differs from other tragedies in that the entire action consists of monologues of the heroes, their performance of songs and speeches made by the feasters. No one takes actions that can change the situation. The whole plot is based on what motives led them to the feast. Each participant in the feast has their own: the young man comes to forget himself, Louise avoids loneliness. She needs people's support, she is afraid of death. Only Mary and Walsingham have the courage to face the danger.
The song sung by Mary expresses people's feelings towards this misfortune. It glorifies self-sacrifice. To protect a loved one from danger, you can sacrifice your life. Such a sacrifice is the strongest proof of love. Mary's song conveys the idea that love is stronger than death and will defeat it. Mary, as a repentant sinner, wants to know the purity and beauty of self-denial.
The Greatness of the Human Spirit
However, Mary’s song sounds only self-denial, an attempt to atone for her sins. Only Walsingam defies death itself. In a solemn hymn, the chairman of the feast opposes the danger with his unbending will. The more formidable the blows of a catastrophe, the stronger a person resists it. In the guise of Plague and Winter, the great poet glorifies not death, but a person who is able to resist it.
This is the main idea that should be indicated in the analysis of Pushkin’s “Feast during the Plague”. After all, according to the great poet, the “mortal heart” in terrible moments of danger acquires immortality. If Mary sings a song of self-denial in honor of another person, then Walsingham's hymn is dedicated to the struggle of a lonely person against death.
The meaning of the work “A Feast in Time of Plague”
The reason for the creation of this play was the cholera epidemic in 1930, which is why Pushkin was locked in Boldino for three long months. Moscow was cordoned off, quarantine restrictions did not allow free movement. For the author, the epidemic was not just a disease, it became for him an invincible element that breaks the usual foundations of life, turns once friends into irreconcilable enemies, portends a threat to peaceful existence and threatens to drag him into oblivion. The main leading idea in the play was a person’s confrontation with his fear of the impending threat of imminent death.
The play “A Feast in Time of Plague” is one of four “small tragedies” for the theater. To be precise, this play is a translation of one of the scenes of the English dramatic poem by John Wilson - “City of Plague”. Wilson's poem depicts the events in London in 1666, when the plague was rampant in the streets. A.S. When creating his own play, Pushkin got rid of some of the characters and added several original fragments, where one must look for the secret meaning in order to understand Pushkin as a playwright.
Although the plot was completely borrowed, the best parts were invented and added by Pushkin. And this is precisely what concerns Mary’s lyrical song, where the desire to love and live is sung, provided that death can no longer be resisted. However, Mary's song, like herself, lacks sinlessness. In essence, this is the song of a repentant maiden and in it there is only a huge lust for this innocence, unattainable for her. The solemn and tragic song of the chairman of the feast, Walsingham, reveals his unbending courageous character. Only he understands the depth and severity of events. This song expresses his unshakable credo in life and his way of confronting fear in the face of death. The anthem is filled with unshakable faith in every person and glorifies his ability to be higher and stronger than harsh circumstances. Walsingham implies that a person who mentally submits to death dies long before his physical death occurs.
In the face of danger, people tend to behave differently, because they have nothing more to lose and they consider themselves dead in advance, so they do not hesitate to have noisy feasts with inappropriate behavior, love and enjoy life as best they can. Death periodically reminds itself when a cart loaded with dead bodies passes by the feast.
People are beginning to seek protection and consolation in God, to whom they have not turned before. The priest calls out to everyone, trying to save their souls to alleviate suffering in heaven. Others, like Mary, do not want any consolation and devote themselves to creativity, experiencing the bitterness of the upcoming separation from everything that is dear to their hearts. People like the main character, Walsingham, find pleasure in the struggle of their spirit with the fear of death, believing that by overcoming this fear one can gain immortality. And if the priest took care of the spiritual vessel, then Walsingham glorified the spiritual courage of the layman, who does not want to accept death meekly and does not need the instructions of strangers. This is how the eternal antagonism is manifested, when some defend the inner abilities of a person, while others seek salvation in fidelity to customs.
The conflict in this play does not lead to confrontation. Everyone remains strictly to their own opinion. Only the chairman of the feast, Walsingham, had a momentary weakness and almost followed the pious priest, but in the end he remained with his own and only thought about whether he did the right thing in not going or not.
People live here, sing songs, laugh, cry, make fiery speeches and inspiring monologues, but do absolutely nothing that could prevent the expected outcome of events. Unlike other tragedies, in this play the dramatic action is more weakened. The tragedy is that the heroism of the Chairman is devoid of sacrifice for the sake of the people, and the Priest is not ready to accept the spiritual courage of the personality of mere mortals and replaces it with the authority of religion and a sermon on the humility of the servant of God.
Pushkin set himself a super task - to encourage people to make the right choice in the current situation, and to make it for the sake of their moral image. A person must remain human and not lose his head, especially in difficult times.
