Lisa is a young innocent girl living near Moscow alone with her mother, who constantly shed tears for her early deceased husband, and Lisa had to do all the housework and take care of her. Lisa was very honest and naive, she was used to trusting people, she had an integral character, that is, if she surrendered to any feeling or deed, she performed this action completely, to the end. At the same time, she did not know life at all, because she lived all the time with her God-fearing mother, away from all sorts of noisy village entertainment.
The mother calls Liza “kind”, “sweet”: Karamzin puts these epithets into the peasant woman’s mouth, proving that peasant women also have a sensitive soul.
Lisa believed the young, handsome Erast, because she really liked him, and besides, she had never encountered such graceful treatment. She fell in love with Erast, but her love was platonic love, she did not perceive herself as a woman at all. At first, this suited Erast, since after the depraved life in the capital he wanted to take a break from constant sexual intrigue, but after that he inevitably became interested in Lisa as a woman, because she was very beautiful. Lisa didn’t understand anything about this, she only felt how something had changed in their relationship, and it worried her. Erast’s departure to war was a real misfortune for her, but she could not even think that Erast had any plans of his own . When she saw Erast in Moscow and talked to him, she experienced a severe shock. All her gullibility and naivety were deceived and turned to dust. As an extremely impressionable nature, she could not withstand such a blow. Her whole life, which had previously seemed clear and straightforward to her, turned into a monstrous pile of incomprehensible events. Lisa could not survive Erast's betrayal and committed suicide. Of course, such a decision was a desperate way to avoid solving a life problem that confronted her, and Lisa could not cope with it. Scared real life and the need to get out of the illusory world, she chose to die weakly rather than fight and try to understand life as it really is.
You can use a modern analogy that describes such situations very well: she was so immersed in the “Matrix” that the real world turned out to be hostile for her and tantamount to the complete disappearance of personality.
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The story " Poor Lisa"is the best work of N. M. Karamzin and one of the most perfect examples of Russian sentimental literature. It contains many wonderful episodes describing subtle emotional experiences. The work contains wonderful...
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Erast was a rich young nobleman, satiated and tired of life. He had good inclinations and tried his best to be honest; at least he understood what he was doing sincerely and what he was not doing. You could say that wealth spoiled him because he...
N. M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” was one of the first sentimental works of Russian literature of the 18th century. Its plot is very simple - the weak-willed, although kind, nobleman Erast falls in love with the poor peasant girl Lisa. Their love ends...
Lisa is a poor peasant girl. She lives with her mother (“a sensitive, kind old lady”) in the village. To earn her bread, Lisa takes on any job. In Moscow, while selling flowers, the heroine meets the young nobleman Erast and falls in love...
Sentimentalism is one of the most significant literary trends XVIII century in Russia, the brightest representative of whom was N.M. Karamzin. Sentimentalist writers showed interest in depicting ordinary people and ordinary human feelings. By...
"Poor Liza" is a sentimental story by Russian writer Nikolai Mikhailovich. Date of writing: 1792. Feelings are the main thing in Karamzin’s work. This is where his passion for sentimental stories came from. In the 18th century, this story became one of the first to be published in the style of sentimentalism. The work caused a huge number positive emotions among Karamzin's contemporaries, young people accepted this with particular delight, and critics did not have a single unkind word.
The narrator himself becomes part of the story. He tells us with particular sadness and regret about the fate of a simple village girl. All the heroes of the work shock the reader’s mind with the sincerity of their feelings, the image of the main character is especially noteworthy. The main thing in the story is to show how sincere and pure the feelings of a poor peasant woman and the low, vile feelings of a rich nobleman can be.
The first thing we see in the story is the outskirts of Moscow. Sentimentalist writers generally paid a lot of attention to describing the landscape. Nature closely watches the development of relations between lovers, but does not empathize with them, but on the contrary, remains deaf in the most important points. Lisa is a kind girl by nature, with an open heart and soul.
The main place in Lisa's life was occupied by her beloved mother, whom she adored to the depths of her soul, treated her with great respect and reverence, and helped her in everything until Erast appeared. “Not sparing her tender youth, her rare beauty, she worked day and night - weaving canvas, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, taking berries in the summer - and selling them in Moscow” - these are lines from the story, from which it is clear how the girl tried to everyone to be useful to the mother and protected her from everything. Her mother sometimes pressed her to her chest and called her her joy and nurse.
The girl's life proceeded calmly, until one day she fell in love with the young nobleman Erast. He is a smart, educated, well-read man. He loved to remember those times when people lived from holiday to holiday, did not care about anything and lived only for their own pleasure. They met when Lisa was selling flowers in Moscow. Erast immediately liked the girl; he was captivated by her beauty, modesty, kindness and gullibility. Lisa's love came from the bottom of her heart, and the power of this love was so great that the girl completely trusted Erast with both soul and heart. This was the first feeling for her. She wanted a long and happy life with Erast, but happiness was not as lasting as she pictured in her dreams.
Lisa's lover turned out to be a mercantile, low and vain person. All her feelings seemed like mere fun to him, because he was a man who lived one day at a time, without thinking about the consequences of his actions. And Lisa initially captivated him with her purity and spontaneity. They declare their love to each other and promise to keep their love forever. But having received the desired intimacy, he no longer wants anything. Lisa was no longer an angel for him, which delighted and replenished Erast’s soul.
At the meeting, Erast reported about the military campaign and forced absence. Lisa cries, worried about her beloved. He comes to say goodbye to her mother and gives her money, not wanting to sell Liza’s work to others in his absence. But he’s not sad at all, he’s not so much serving as he’s having fun. He lost almost all his fortune at cards. In order not to think about this headache, he decides to marry a rich widow.
Two months have passed since the breakup. Lisa accidentally saw Erast when she came to the city to buy rose water. He is forced to admit his sins in his office, giving her a hundred rubles and apologizing, asking the servant to escort the girl from the yard. Poor Lisa herself doesn’t know how she ended up near the pond. She asks the neighbor girl passing by to give her mother money and words that she loved one person, and he cheated on her. She then throws herself into the pond.
The betrayal of a loved one is too strong a blow for Lisa’s fragile soul. And he became deadly in her life. Her life has become too much work, and she decides to die. A moment, and the girl is taken out from the bottom of the river, lifeless. This is how the story of the poor peasant woman ends. The mother, unable to bear the death of her only daughter, dies. Erast lived a long, but completely unhappy life, constantly reproaching himself for ruining the life of the good and kind Liza. It was he who told the author this story a year before his death. Who knows, maybe they have already reconciled.
In the outskirts of Moscow, not far from the Simonov Monastery, there once lived a young girl Lisa with her old mother. After the death of Liza's father, a fairly wealthy villager, his wife and daughter became poor. The widow became weaker day by day and could not work. Liza alone, not sparing her tender youth and rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and berries in the summer and selling them in Moscow.
One spring, two years after her father’s death, Lisa came to Moscow with lilies of the valley. A young, well-dressed man met her on the street. Having learned that she was selling flowers, he offered her a ruble instead of five kopecks, saying that “beautiful lilies of the valley, plucked by the hands of a beautiful girl, are worth a ruble.” But Lisa refused the offered amount. He did not insist, but said that in the future he would always buy flowers from her and would like her to pick them only for him.
Arriving home, Lisa told her mother everything, and the next day she picked the best lilies of the valley and came to the city again, but young man I didn’t meet you this time. Throwing flowers into the river, she returned home with sadness in her soul. The next day in the evening the stranger himself came to her house. As soon as she saw him, Lisa rushed to her mother and excitedly told him who was coming to them. The old lady met the guest, and he seemed very kind to her and nice person. Erast—that was the young man’s name—confirmed that he was going to buy flowers from Lisa in the future, and she didn’t have to go into town: he could stop by to see them himself.
Erast was a rather rich nobleman, with a fair amount of intelligence and a naturally kind heart, but weak and flighty. He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, and not finding it, he was bored and complained about fate. At the first meeting, Lisa’s immaculate beauty shocked him: it seemed to him that in her he found exactly what he had been looking for for a long time.
This was the beginning of their long dates. Every evening they saw each other either on the river bank, or in a birch grove, or under the shade of hundred-year-old oak trees. They hugged, but their hugs were pure and innocent.
Several weeks passed like this. It seemed that nothing could interfere with their happiness. But one evening Lisa came to a date sad. It turned out that the groom, the son of a rich peasant, was wooing her, and her mother wanted her to marry him. Erast, consoling Lisa, said that after his mother’s death he would take her to him and live with her inseparably. But Lisa reminded the young man that he could never be her husband: she was a peasant, and he was of a noble family. You offend me, said Erast, for your friend the most important thing is your soul, a sensitive, innocent soul, you will always be closest to my heart. Lisa threw herself into his arms - and at that hour her integrity had to perish.
The delusion passed in one minute, giving way to surprise and fear. Lisa cried saying goodbye to Erast.
Their dates continued, but how everything changed! Lisa was no longer an angel of purity for Erast; platonic love gave way to feelings that he could not be “proud of” and which were not new to him. Lisa noticed a change in him, and it saddened her.
Once during a date, Erast told Lisa that he was being drafted into the army; they will have to part for a while, but he promises to love her and hopes to never part with her upon his return. It is not difficult to imagine how hard it was for Lisa to be separated from her beloved. However, hope did not leave her, and every morning she woke up with the thought of Erast and their happiness upon his return.
About two months passed like this. One day Lisa went to Moscow and on one of the big streets she saw Erast passing by in a magnificent carriage, which stopped near a huge house. Erast came out and was about to go out onto the porch, when he suddenly felt himself in Lisa’s arms. He turned pale, then, without saying a word, led her into the office and locked the door. Circumstances have changed, he announced to the girl, he is engaged.
Before Lisa could come to her senses, he took her out of the office and told the servant to escort her out of the yard.
Finding herself on the street, Lisa walked wherever she looked, unable to believe what she heard. She left the city and wandered for a long time until she suddenly found herself on the shore of a deep pond, under the shadow of ancient oak trees, which several weeks before had been silent witnesses to her delight. This memory shocked Lisa, but after a few minutes she fell into deep thought. Seeing a neighbor's girl walking along the road, she called her, took all the money out of her pocket and gave it to her, asking her to tell her mother, kiss her and ask her to forgive her poor daughter. Then she threw herself into the water, and they could no longer save her.
Liza’s mother, having learned about the terrible death of her daughter, could not withstand the blow and died on the spot. Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. He did not deceive Lisa when he told her that he was going to the army, but, instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost his entire fortune. He had to marry an elderly rich widow who had been in love with him for a long time. Having learned about Liza’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer. Now, perhaps, they have already reconciled.
Once upon a time there lived a young and sweet girl, Lisa. Her wealthy father died, and Lisa was left with her mother to live in poverty. The unfortunate widow grew weaker every day and could no longer work. Lisa wove canvases day and night, knitted stockings, went to buy flowers in the spring, and picked berries in the summer, then sold them in Moscow.
Two years after her father's death, the girl went to the city to sell lilies of the valley and met a young man on the street. He offered a whole ruble for her goods instead of five kopecks, but the girl refused. The guy asked to always sell him flowers picked just for him.
When Lisa returned home, she told her mother about the stranger. In the morning she picked the most beautiful lilies of the valley, but did not meet the guy. Upset, Lisa threw the flowers into the river, and in the evening of the next day the young man himself came to her house.
Lisa and her mother greeted the guest. He seemed very nice and accommodating to them. The guy introduced himself as Erast and said that from now on he would become Lisa’s only buyer, and that the girl would no longer go to the city.
Erast was rich, smart, kind, but his character was weak and fickle. Lisa's beauty sank deeply into the nobleman's soul. Thus began their meetings and long dates. Several weeks passed and everything was fine with them, but one day Lisa came with sadness on her face. A rich groom began wooing her, and her mother decided to marry her off. Erast promised the girl to take her to him after the death of her mother, despite the fact that the peasant woman and the nobleman cannot be together. One more moment and the couple would have drowned in depravity, but delusion gave way to reason.
After some time, Erast went into the army, but promised to return and love the girl forever. But two months later, Lisa met Erast in the city and found out that he was engaged. Lisa was beside herself with grief. She walked along the street and reached a local deep pond. She stood there for a long time, lost in her thoughts. I saw a girl passing by and gave her all the money so that she would give it to her mother, and then rushed into the water.
Upon learning of her daughter's death, the old woman died on the spot. And Erast was unhappy until the end of his days. In the army, he played cards and lost his entire fortune, after which he had to marry an elderly rich widow to pay off the debt. He learned about Lisa's fate and felt guilty.
In the outskirts of Moscow, not far from the Simonov Monastery, there once lived a young girl Lisa with her old mother. After the death of Liza's father, a fairly wealthy villager, his wife and daughter became poor. The widow became weaker day by day and could not work. Liza alone, not sparing her tender youth and rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and berries in the summer and selling them in Moscow.
One spring, two years after her father’s death, Lisa came to Moscow with lilies of the valley. A young, well-dressed man met her on the street. Having learned that she was selling flowers, he offered her a ruble instead of five kopecks, saying that “beautiful lilies of the valley, plucked by the hands of a beautiful girl, are worth a ruble.” But Lisa refused the offered amount. He did not insist, but said that in the future he would always buy flowers from her and would like her to pick them only for him.
Arriving home, Lisa told her mother everything, and the next day she picked the best lilies of the valley and came to the city again, but this time she did not meet the young man. Throwing flowers into the river, she returned home with sadness in her soul. The next day in the evening the stranger himself came to her house. As soon as she saw him, Lisa rushed to her mother and excitedly told him who was coming to them. The old woman met the guest, and he seemed to her to be a very kind and pleasant person. Erast—that was the young man’s name—confirmed that he was going to buy flowers from Lisa in the future, and she didn’t have to go into town: he could stop by to see them himself.
Erast was a rather rich nobleman, with a fair amount of intelligence and a naturally kind heart, but weak and flighty. He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, and not finding it, he was bored and complained about fate. At the first meeting, Lisa’s immaculate beauty shocked him: it seemed to him that in her he found exactly what he had been looking for for a long time.
This was the beginning of their long dates. Every evening they saw each other either on the river bank, or in a birch grove, or under the shade of hundred-year-old oak trees. They hugged, but their hugs were pure and innocent.
Several weeks passed like this. It seemed that nothing could interfere with their happiness. But one evening Lisa came to a date sad. It turned out that the groom, the son of a rich peasant, was wooing her, and her mother wanted her to marry him. Erast, consoling Lisa, said that after his mother’s death he would take her to him and live with her inseparably. But Lisa reminded the young man that he could never be her husband: she was a peasant, and he was of a noble family. You offend me, said Erast, for your friend the most important thing is your soul, a sensitive, innocent soul, you will always be closest to my heart. Lisa threw herself into his arms - and at this hour her integrity was to perish.
The delusion passed in one minute, giving way to surprise and fear. Lisa cried saying goodbye to Erast.
Their dates continued, but how everything changed! Lisa was no longer an angel of purity for Erast; platonic love gave way to feelings that he could not be “proud of” and which were not new to him. Lisa noticed a change in him, and it saddened her.
Once during a date, Erast told Lisa that he was being drafted into the army; they will have to part for a while, but he promises to love her and hopes to never part with her upon his return. It is not difficult to imagine how hard it was for Lisa to be separated from her beloved. However, hope did not leave her, and every morning she woke up with the thought of Erast and their happiness upon his return.
About two months passed like this. One day Lisa went to Moscow and on one of the big streets she saw Erast passing by in a magnificent carriage, which stopped near a huge house. Erast came out and was about to go out onto the porch, when he suddenly felt himself in Lisa’s arms. He turned pale, then, without saying a word, led her into the office and locked the door. Circumstances have changed, he announced to the girl, he is engaged.
Before Lisa could come to her senses, he took her out of the office and told the servant to escort her out of the yard.
Finding herself on the street, Lisa walked wherever she looked, unable to believe what she heard. She left the city and wandered for a long time until she suddenly found herself on the shore of a deep pond, under the shadow of ancient oak trees, which several weeks before had been silent witnesses to her delight. This memory shocked Lisa, but after a few minutes she fell into deep thought. Seeing a neighbor's girl walking along the road, she called her, took all the money out of her pocket and gave it to her, asking her to tell her mother, kiss her and ask her to forgive her poor daughter. Then she threw herself into the water, and they could no longer save her.
Liza’s mother, having learned about the terrible death of her daughter, could not withstand the blow and died on the spot. Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. He did not deceive Lisa when he told her that he was going to the army, but, instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost his entire fortune. He had to marry an elderly rich widow who had been in love with him for a long time. Having learned about Liza’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer. Now, perhaps, they have already reconciled.
The story “Poor Liza,” written by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, became one of the first works of sentimentalism in Russia. The love story of a poor girl and a young nobleman won the hearts of many of the writer’s contemporaries and was received with great delight. The work brought unprecedented popularity to the then completely unknown 25-year-old writer. However, with what descriptions does the story “Poor Liza” begin?
History of creation
N. M. Karamzin was distinguished by his love for Western culture and actively preached its principles. His role in the life of Russia was enormous and invaluable. This progressive and active person He traveled a lot around Europe in 1789-1790, and upon his return he published the story “Poor Liza” in the Moscow Journal.
Analysis of the story indicates that the work has a sentimental aesthetic orientation, which is expressed in interest in people, regardless of their social status.
While writing the story, Karamzin lived at his friends’ dacha, not far from which he was located. It is believed that he served as the basis for the beginning of the work. Thanks to this, the love story and the characters themselves were perceived by readers as completely real. And the pond not far from the monastery began to be called “Liza’s Pond.”
“Poor Liza” by Karamzin as a sentimental story
“Poor Liza” is, in fact, a short story, a genre in which no one had written in Russia before Karamzin. But the writer’s innovation is not only in the choice of genre, but also in the direction. It was this story that secured the title of the first work of Russian sentimentalism.
Sentimentalism arose in Europe back in the 17th century and focused on the sensual side human life. Issues of reason and society faded into the background for this direction, but emotions and relationships between people became a priority.
Sentimentalism has always strived to idealize what is happening, to embellish it. Answering the question about what descriptions the story “Poor Liza” begins with, we can talk about the idyllic landscape that Karamzin paints for readers.
Theme and idea
One of the main themes of the story is social, and it is connected with the problem of the attitude of the noble class towards the peasants. It is not for nothing that Karamzin chooses a peasant girl to play the role of bearer of innocence and morality.
Contrasting the images of Lisa and Erast, the writer is one of the first to raise the problem of contradictions between the city and the countryside. If we turn to the descriptions with which the story “Poor Liza” begins, we will see a quiet, cozy and natural world that exists in harmony with nature. The city is frightening, terrifying with its “huge houses” and “golden domes.” Lisa becomes a reflection of nature, she is natural and naive, there is no falsehood or pretense in her.
The author speaks in the story from the position of a humanist. Karamzin depicts all the charm of love, its beauty and strength. But reason and pragmatism can easily destroy this wonderful feeling. The story owes its success to its incredible attention to a person’s personality and his experiences. “Poor Liza” aroused sympathy among its readers thanks to Karamzin’s amazing ability to depict all the emotional subtleties, experiences, aspirations and thoughts of the heroine.
Heroes
A complete analysis of the story “Poor Liza” is impossible without a detailed examination of the images of the main characters of the work. Lisa and Erast, as noted above, embodied different ideals and principles.
Lisa is an ordinary peasant girl, whose main feature is the ability to feel. She acts according to the dictates of her heart and feelings, which ultimately led to her death, although her morality remained intact. However, there is little peasant in the image of Lisa: her speech and thoughts are closer to book language, but the feelings of a girl who has fallen in love for the first time are conveyed with incredible truthfulness. So, despite the external idealization of the heroine, her inner experiences are conveyed very realistically. In this regard, the story “Poor Liza” does not lose its innovation.
What descriptions does the work begin with? First of all, they are in tune with the character of the heroine, helping the reader to recognize her. This is a natural, idyllic world.
Erast appears completely different to the readers. He is an officer who is only puzzled by the search for new entertainment; life in society tires him and makes him bored. He is intelligent, kind, but weak in character and changeable in his affections. Erast truly falls in love, but does not think at all about the future, because Lisa is not his circle, and he will never be able to take her as his wife.
Karamzin complicated the image of Erast. Typically, such a hero in Russian literature was simpler and endowed with certain characteristics. But the writer makes him not an insidious seducer, but a sincerely in love with a person who, due to weakness of character, could not pass the test and preserve his love. This type of hero was new to Russian literature, but immediately took root and later received the name “ extra person».
Plot and originality
The plot of the work is quite simple. This is the story of the tragic love of a peasant woman and a nobleman, the result of which was the death of Lisa.
What descriptions does the story “Poor Liza” begin with? Karamzin draws a natural panorama, the bulk of the monastery, a pond - it is here, surrounded by nature, that he lives main character. But the main thing in a story is not the plot or descriptions, the main thing is feelings. And the narrator must awaken these feelings in the audience. For the first time in Russian literature, where the image of the narrator has always remained outside the work, a hero-author appears. This sentimental narrator learns a love story from Erast and retells it to the reader with sadness and sympathy.
Thus, there are three main characters in the story: Lisa, Erast and the author-narrator. Karamzin also introduces the technique of landscape descriptions and somewhat lightens the ponderous style of the Russian literary language.
The significance of the story “Poor Lisa” for Russian literature
Analysis of the story, thus, shows Karamzin’s incredible contribution to the development of Russian literature. In addition to describing the relationship between city and village, the appearance of the “extra person,” many researchers note the emergence of the “little person” - in the image of Lisa. This work influenced the work of A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, who developed the themes, ideas and images of Karamzin.
The incredible psychologism that brought Russian literature worldwide fame also gave rise to the story “Poor Liza.” What descriptions does this work begin with! There is so much beauty, originality and incredible stylistic lightness in them! Karamzin’s contribution to the development of Russian literature cannot be overestimated.
