Poor Lisa as an example of sentimentalism. Sentimentalism. Karamzin"Бедная Лиза". Внешний и внутренний конфликт!}

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin became the most prominent representative in Russian literature of a new literary movement - sentimentalism, popular in Western Europe at the end of the 18th century. The story “Poor Liza,” created in 1792, revealed the main features of this trend. Sentimentalism proclaimed primary attention to the private life of people, to their feelings, which were equally characteristic of people from all classes. Karamzin tells us the story of the unhappy love of a simple peasant girl Liza and a nobleman Erast, in order to prove that “peasant women also know how to love.” Lisa is the ideal of the “natural person” advocated by the sentimentalists. She is not only “beautiful in soul and body,” but she is also capable of sincerely loving a person who is not entirely worthy of her love. Erast, although superior to his beloved in education, nobility and wealth, turns out to be spiritually smaller than her. He is unable to rise above class prejudices and marry Lisa. Erast has a “fair mind” and a “kind heart,” but at the same time he is “weak and flighty.” After losing at cards, he is forced to marry a rich widow and leave Lisa, which is why she commits suicide. However, sincere human feelings did not die in Erast and, as the author assures us, “Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. Having learned about Lizina’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer.”

For Karamzin, the village becomes a center of natural moral purity, and the city - a source of debauchery, a source of temptations that can destroy this purity. The writer's heroes, in full accordance with the precepts of sentimentalism, suffer almost all the time, constantly expressing their feelings with abundantly shed tears. As the author himself admitted: “I love those objects that make me shed tears of tender sorrow.” Karamzin is not ashamed of tears and encourages readers to do the same. As he describes in detail the experiences of Lisa, left behind by Erast, who had gone into the army: “From that hour, her days were days

melancholy and sorrow, which had to be hidden from the tender mother: all the more did her heart suffer! Then it only became easier when Lisa, secluded in the dense forest, could freely shed tears and moan about separation from her beloved. Often the sad dove combined her plaintive voice with her moaning.” Karamzin forces Liza to hide her suffering from her old mother, but at the same time he is deeply convinced that it is very important to give a person the opportunity to openly express his grief, to his heart’s content, in order to ease the soul. The author examines the essentially social conflict of the story through a philosophical and ethical prism. Erast sincerely would like to overcome class barriers on the path of his idyllic love with Lisa. However, the heroine looks at the state of affairs much more soberly, realizing that Erast “cannot be her husband.” The narrator is already quite sincerely worried about his characters, worried in the sense that it is as if he lives with them. It is no coincidence that at the moment when Erast leaves Lisa, the author’s heartfelt confession follows: “My heart is bleeding at this very moment. I forget the man in Erast - I’m ready to curse him - but my tongue does not move - I look at the sky, and a tear rolls down my face.” Not only the author himself got along with Erast and Lisa, but also thousands of his contemporaries - readers of the story. This was facilitated by good recognition not only of the circumstances, but also of the place of action. Karamzin quite accurately depicted in “Poor Liza” the surroundings of the Moscow Simonov Monastery, and the name “Lizin’s Pond” was firmly attached to the pond located there. Moreover: some unfortunate young ladies even drowned themselves here, following the example of the main character of the story. Liza herself became a model that people sought to imitate in love, though not peasant women who had not read Karamzin’s story, but girls from the nobility and other wealthy classes. The hitherto rare name Erast became very popular among noble families. “Poor Liza” and sentimentalism were very much in keeping with the spirit of the times.

It is characteristic that in Karamzin’s work Liza and her mother, although they are stated to be peasant women, speak the same language as the nobleman Erast and the author himself. The writer, like Western European sentimentalists, did not yet know the speech distinction of heroes representing classes of society that were opposite in terms of their conditions of existence. All the heroes of the story speak Russian literary language, close to the real spoken language of the circle of educated noble youth to which Karamzin belonged. Also, peasant life in the story is far from genuine folk life. Rather, it is inspired by the ideas about “natural man” characteristic of sentimentalist literature, whose symbols were shepherds and shepherdesses. Therefore, for example, the writer introduces an episode of Lisa’s meeting with a young shepherd who “was driving his flock along the river bank, playing the pipe.” This meeting makes the heroine dream that her beloved Erast would be “a simple peasant, a shepherd,” which would make their happy union possible. The writer, after all, was mainly concerned with truthfulness in the depiction of feelings, and not with the details of folk life that was unfamiliar to him.

Having established sentimentalism in Russian literature with his story, Karamzin took a significant step in terms of its democratization, abandoning the strict, but far from living life, schemes of classicism. The author of “Poor Liza” not only strove to write “as they say,” freeing the literary language from Church Slavonic archaisms and boldly introducing into it new words borrowed from European languages. For the first time, he abandoned the division of heroes into purely positive and purely negative, showing a complex combination of good and bad traits in Erast’s character. Thus, Karamzin took a step in the direction in which realism, which replaced sentimentalism and romanticism, moved the development of literature in the mid-19th century.

Development of a lesson on the topic: “Sentimentalism as a literary and aesthetic direction. “Poor Lisa” N.M. Karamzin as a work of sentimentalism."

1. Number of lessons – 2 (double lesson)
2. Objective of the lesson:

To give students an idea of ​​the period of sentimentalism in Russian literature
Lesson objectives:
Educational: To form students the concept of “sentimentalism” as a system of views on the possibility of reflecting the world in a changing social consciousness; to ensure that students master the features of the direction using the example of an analysis of its features in the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”; familiarize students with the concepts of “pastoral”, “sentiment”, “sentimental”, “languor”, “melancholy”; develop skills in working with text using various mental operations (perception, research, understanding, comparison, proof, synthesis).
Educational: Enrichment and complexity of vocabulary; development of communicative properties of speech when reading, using the necessary expressiveness and expressiveness; development of thinking through the construction of oral analysis, highlighting the main thing, comparison, construction of analogies, generalization, systematization, explanation, proof, refutation; development of cognitive mental processes of students based on feelings and experiences
Educational: Nurturing aesthetic ideas about the possibilities of personal self-realization through music, painting, literature; fostering an attentive attitude to one’s feelings; nurturing such personality qualities as sensitivity, compassion, empathy, cordiality.
Lesson type: Learning new material.
Lesson type: Lesson-conversation with elements of theoretical and practical research.
Lesson methodology: The basic one is the heuristic method, which is based on a heuristic conversation in the form of interrelated questions. In addition, the teacher uses practical problem tasks that are of a research nature. Thus, a partially search, research method is also used.
Lesson design (you can use slides or illustrations on the board): portrait of N.M. Karamzin, portraits of the classicism era, for example, “Portrait of General A.I. Gorchakov” by V.A. Tropinin, “Portrait of G.R. Derzhavin” by V.L. Borovikovsky, portrait of M.V. Lomonosov brushes by an unknown artist of the 18th century, etc.; portraits and landscapes of the era of sentimentalism, for example, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina”, “Portrait of Anna Gavrilovna and Varvara Gavrilovna Gagarin” by V.L. Borovikovsky, “Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume” by I.P. Argunov, “Portrait of Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park” by V.L. Borovikovsky, “Portrait of E.I. Nelidova” by D.G. Levitsky, “A carriage going to the fair” by Thomas Gainsborough, “Landscape in the vicinity of Beauvais”, “Summer Pastoral” , “Resting Shepherd and Shepherdess” by Francois Boucher and others, photographs of landscapes of Pavlovsk, “Sentimental Waltz” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, B.Sh. Okudzhava’s song “Let’s compliment each other,” epigraph, table, which is filled in as the conversation progresses. Text of the story “Poor Liza”, cards with printed excerpts from works subsequent to Karamzin’s story (Klushin, Izmailov, Milonov, Malyshev)
Lesson Plan

1. Updating previous knowledge. Repetition of information about the personality of N.M. Karamzin.
2. Main part.

Lesson 1 Formation of the concept of “Sentimentalism” through a heuristic conversation about the features of the composition of the word, about the features of paintings of this period in comparison with classic examples, about the features of musical accompaniment. Conclusion about sentimentalism as a literary and aesthetic direction.
Lesson 2. Formation of skills and abilities to develop the acquired knowledge about sentimentalism using the example of the analysis of the story by N.M. Karamzin “Poor Liza”, focusing on the main components of the method: nature, the feelings of the characters, classlessness, the image of the author. Working with cards A message about the significance of the story for the further development of Russian literature

1. Homework.

Lesson progress
1 lesson.

1. Updating previous knowledge. Repetition of information about the personality of N.M. Karamzin.

Teacher: Hello guys. In the last lesson, we met a very interesting personality of the late 18th and early 19th centuries - Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Remember what makes this person interesting.
Students: they recall interesting facts from Karamzin’s biography, his career, awards, titles, literary and historical activities, reforms in the field of language. For example, they may remember that Karamzin advocated limiting the use of foreign words and suggested using “national” instead of the word “public.” It was Nikolai Mikhailovich who stood at the origins of the appearance of the letter “Y” in the Russian language (you can demonstrate a monument to this letter and mention Dashkova’s role in its appearance). It was Karamzin who introduced into use many words that are now familiar (“industry”, “development”). The reformer was also responsible for the discovery of such a punctuation mark as the “dash”, the most emotional in the Russian language.
Teacher: During the last lesson, some of you were offered excerpts from E. Osetrova’s wonderful book “The Three Lives of Karamzin” as homework for preparing mini-replicas about Karamzin. What interesting facts can you add to our conversation?
Students (2-3 people):

1. Karamzin was very sensitive to the style of writing, and in modern opinion, his attitude was not democratic. Here is a case cited by Evgeny Osetrov: “Dmitriev sent to Karamzin, expressing in a letter doubts about the accuracy of some of the words he used. Karamzin not only answered his friend’s doubts, but also formulated some important stylistic principles for him, in which his antidemocraticism is clearly manifested. Karamzin wrote: “Don’t change the little birds - for God’s sake, don’t change them! Your advisors may be good in another case, but in this case they are wrong. The name birdie is extremely pleasant for me because I heard it in an open field from good villagers. It awakens two kind ideas in our soul: about freedom and rural simplicity. There is no better word for the tone of your fable. A bird almost always resembles a cage, and therefore captivity.” “What does not convey a bad idea to us is not low. One man says little bird and guy: the first is pleasant, the second is disgusting. At the first word, I imagine a red summer day, a green tree in a flowering meadow, a bird’s nest, a fluttering robin or warbler, and a dead villager who looks at nature with quiet pleasure and says: Here is a nest! here's a birdie! At the second word, a stout man appears in my thoughts, scratching himself in an indecent manner or wiping his wet mustache with his sleeve, saying: oh boy! what kind of kvass! We must admit that there is nothing interesting for our soul here! So, my dear I., is it possible to use another word instead of guy?”
2. Osetrov notes that Karamzin was not only the first to introduce the word “literature” into use, but also became the first writer who lived on literary income from publishing magazines and almanacs.
3. The author of the book notes that Karamzin the poet always cherished poetic soil, and it bore abundant fruit in the poetry of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Pushkin, Ryleev... For example, let's compare:

A storm raged in the darkness of the night,
A menacing ray flashed in the sky,
Thunder roared in the black clouds,
And the heavy rain made noise in the forest. (N. Karamzin)
And here’s how a similar picture is realized by K. Ryleev:
The storm roared, the rain made noise,
Lightning flew in the darkness,
The thunder roared incessantly,
And the winds raged in the wilds.
Teacher: It is with the name of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, who is so attentive to the word and the feeling expressed through it, that a new round of development of Russian literature will be associated, which we will talk about.
II. Main part.
Formation of the concept of “Sentimentalism” through a heuristic conversation about the features of the composition of the word, about the features of paintings of this period in comparison with classic examples, about the features of musical accompaniment. Conclusion about sentimentalism as a literary and aesthetic direction.
Epigraph on the board:
“The sensitive heart is a rich source of ideas; if reason and taste help him, then success is undoubted" (N.M. Karamzin)
Music is playing P.I. Tchaikovsky “Sentimental Waltz”.
Teacher: The history of literature cannot be represented as a straight line divided into equal segments: in such and such a year one era ended, and in such and such a new era began. The history of literature is most likely like an endless curved line. Like a winding forest path winding through the wilderness, it bends around obstacles, sometimes gets lost in the thick grass and suddenly appears again to lead us further. That is why it is so difficult, and often impossible, to understand when and which particular book changes the smooth course of literary time and begins a new countdown. Russian literature is extremely lucky in this sense. It is easy to name a single name that stood at the origins of sentimentalism, a single story of several pages that made a revolution in the literary world. For them it is Karamzin, and the story is “Poor Liza.” What unusually new thing was embodied in it?
The word "sentimentalism" comes from the French "sentiment».
The word is written by the teacher on the board.
Teacher: Choose words with the same root for the written word, based on a French source.
Students: sentimental, sentimental, sentiment, sentimental, sentimentality.
Teacher: Make up phrases with these words
Students: Sentimental novel, show sentimentality, continuous sentimentality, etc.
Teacher: Find Russian synonyms for the word sentimental
Students: Sensual, soulful, sensitive
Teacher: What does the word " sentiment »?
Students: Excessive sensitivity in words, expressions, actions
Teacher: What does the suffix - ISM- mean? Draw analogies with other words where such a suffix still occurs.
Students: Classicism, romanticism, realism, communism, etc. The suffix denotes a certain system of views, a direction.
Teacher: Let's now connect our research on the word and give a definition to this direction.
Students: Sentimentalism is an artistic ideological and aesthetic movement associated with the predominance of feeling over reason.
Teacher: The music that accompanies our conversation is “Sentimental Waltz” by P.I. Tchaikovsky. Why do you think it is called that? What do you imagine when you listen to this kind of music?
Students: Such music is addressed to human feelings, the sounds seem to excite something hitherto dormant in us. Before your eyes is a huge hall with large mirrors, candles, candelabra, ladies with bare shoulders, strict gentlemen. Feelings flow, change, reveal themselves in all details...
Teacher: So, what is the first feature of sentimentalism as a movement, an artistic method?
Students: The first most important feature of sentimentalism is the transmission of the movement of feelings, a detailed description of a person’s inner world, his experiences, and moods.
As the conversation progresses, during which students independently come to conclusions about the features of sentimentalism, a table is filled out, which will subsequently “work” in the second lesson, where the story “Poor Lisa” will be analyzed.

Teacher: You just said that there is a ball, ladies and gentlemen. Please pay attention to the portraits that are hung on different sides of the board. On the one hand - portraits of the period of classicism (indicated in the list of design for the lesson), on the other - of the period of sentimentalism (indicated in the list of design for the lesson). A person always wanted to read about what he felt, to see the movements of his soul on canvases, and not dead mannequins. Sentimentalism in this sense “blew up” classicism. What is the fundamental difference between the portraits, which seem to be on opposite sides of the barricades?

Students: Classicism is a literary, aesthetic, ideological direction that places reason, service to the state, strict hierarchy, and attention to the statesman, the enlightened person, and the Citizen at the center. Hence the portraits are mainly of government officials: generals, scientists, courtiers. Their faces are filled with pride, their penetrating gaze clearly indicates extraordinary mental abilities, their clothes are a sign of nobility, as a rule, they are buttoned up with all the buttons - rigor and proportionality are needed in everything. But facial expressions are impassive, since feelings and emotions for classicists are base manifestations of a person. They should be ashamed.
Portraits made according to the laws of sentimentalism attract people by the liveliness of the image, not by its belonging to the rank, but by its facial expression. It is interesting to see the “game of the oval”: the oval of the face, neckline, hairstyles, which creates a special peace. It is interesting that portraits of peasant women appeared during this period. The extra-class value of a person is affirmed - another equally important feature of sentimentalism.
Teacher: Notice the background of the portraits from different directions. What's the difference? What other feature of sentimentalism can we infer?
Students: In portraits of the classical period there is no background or it is presented in very abstract terms. In portraits of the period of sentimentalism, a person is usually depicted against the backdrop of nature. His connection with her is emphasized, and hence the aggravation and naturalness of feelings, simplicity, ease. Truthfulness. So, another couple of sentimentalism is the image of the world of the human soul through the world of nature. A connection with nature, the ability to feel and understand it will characterize the value orientations of the individual.
Teacher: In Western culture of the period of sentimentalism (and it originated in England) there was such a thing as pastoral is a genre in literature, painting, music and theater that poetizes peaceful and simple rural life.
(Illustrations of examples of pastorals in painting are listed in the list of designs for the lesson)


What do you think, won’t the artist’s personality show through? A musician, a writer in his works?
Students: Of course it will. After all, before his characters gain feelings, the author himself must feel the same, reveal himself, his attitude.
Teacher: You and I will need to prove this trait using the example of a sentimentalistic text, like the others that we have developed.
Let's summarize the results in tabular form and in oral derivation form using textbook data ( students read an introductory article about sentimentalism in the textbook and, combining what they heard and read, draw a general conclusion in the form of a table and in the form of an oral statement).

Sentimentalism is a literary and aesthetic movement that aimed to awaken sensitivity in a person. The movement originated in Europe in the second half of the 18th century, when the educational ideas of classicism dominated there. Sentimentalism turned to the description of a person and his feelings. The ideology of sentimentalism is essentially close to the Enlightenment: people can be made perfect, but the emphasis in education should be shifted to the world of feelings. A compassionate and compassionate person cannot be angry. Sentimentalism discovered that a person, having compassion for his neighbor, helping him, sharing his sorrows and sorrows, can experience a feeling of satisfaction. It is important to show the historical opposition of sentimentalism to classicism. Classicism is based on the cult of reason. The terrible events of the French Revolution, which ended the brilliant age of Enlightenment, cast doubt on the primacy of reason in human nature. “Is reason always the king of your feelings?” - Karamzin asks his hero (“Poor Liza”). Feeling was proclaimed to be the basis of human personality.
Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to translations of the novels “Werther” by J.V. Goethe, “Pamela,” “Clarissa” and “Grandison” by S. Richardson, “The New Heloise” by J.-J. Rousseau, "Paul and Virginie" by J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Considering Catherine's interests, her feminine heart, and her correspondence with Walter and Rousseau, it can be assumed that the road to sentimentalism was paved. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791–1792). His story “Poor Liza” (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity, melancholy and the theme of suicide. However, he did not lose the educational, didactic principle so characteristic of Russian literature.
Sentimentalists believed that by cultivating sensitivity in a person, the ability to respond to the pain of others, evil could be defeated. The heroes of the works of sentimentalists are simple people with a rich spiritual world. Sentimentalists call for appreciating the details of life around us and listening to every movement of the soul. They often shed tears, sigh, gasp - not only women, but also men, and to us living in the 21st century, this behavior seems a little funny.
The most famous works of sentimentalist writers in Europe, besides those mentioned: Lawrence Sterne's story “A Sentimental Journey” (1768), George Berkeley’s “Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge” (1710), James Thomson’s descriptive poem “The Seasons”, Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Traveler” , "Abandoned Village"
But let us pay attention to those changes in the image of personality that are completely new compared to the aesthetics of classicism. In classicism, the hero embodies the universal; in sentimentalism, the hero acquires individuality. To portray individuality, you need to look closely at character traits - this is how psychologism is born. A sentimentalist writer creates a special image in his work - the image of the author-storyteller. In classicism, the author's position is objectivity. In sentimentalism, the writer strives to express his own attitude to the events described, the image of the author-storyteller is individualized. In the article “What an Author Needs,” N. M. Karamzin wrote: “You want to be an author: read the history of the misfortunes of the human race - and if your heart does not bleed, leave the pen - or it will depict to us the cold gloom of your soul.”
Teacher: The features of sentimentalism that we have identified as a direction, one might say, a literary method, as we have already said, were most clearly manifested in N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza.” We will turn to the evidence of this thesis in lesson 2.
Lesson 2
Formation of skills and abilities to develop the acquired knowledge about sentimentalism using the example of the analysis of N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”, focusing on the main components of the method: nature, feelings of the characters, unnaturalness, the image of the author. Working with cards. A message about the significance of the story for the further development of Russian literature
Teacher draws attention to the second epigraph written on the board for the second lesson :
“Poor Liza” is...an exemplary work, dedicated not to external events, but to a “sensitive” soul.
E. Sturgeon
Teacher: In the autumn of 1790, twenty-four-year-old N.M. Karamzin returned to Russia from Europe - in a fashionable tailcoat, with a fashionable high hairstyle, with ribbons on his shoes, with a lot of French, German and English books, and most importantly - with a supply of ideas. Since 1791, he began publishing the “Moscow Journal”, then the journal “Bulletin of Europe”. N. M. Karamzin became famous at the age of 25 when he published his story “Poor Liza.” Girls and boys read and re-read it, knew entire passages by heart, and went to admire the pond mentioned in this story. “Poor Liza” influenced several generations of Russian readers: it was unlike other works of Russian literature not only in language, but also in content.
What features of a new word in literature were proposed by N. M. Karamzin? Support your observations with text. (As students answer, the second column of the table is filled in: “Implementation of the features of sentimentalism in the story “Poor Lisa”).
Students: Briefly retelling the simple plot of the work, they note that the focus of the author’s attention is on the experiences of the characters, the world of their changing feelings, and the plot itself is built on these changes.
Passages are read out describing the feelings of the characters; they are analyzed from the point of view of vocabulary, syntax, conveying emotion, joy, sadness.
For example:

1. All the veins in her began to clog, and, of course, not from fear. She got up and wanted to go, but she couldn’t. Erast jumped out onto the shore, approached Lisa and - her dream was partly fulfilled: for he looked at her with an affectionate look, took her hand... But Lisa, Lisa stood with downcast eyes, with fiery cheeks, with a trembling heart - she could not take his hands away - she couldn’t turn away when he approached her with his pink lips... Ah! He kissed her, kissed her with such fervor that the whole universe seemed to her to be on fire! “Dear Lisa! - said Erast. - Dear Lisa! I love you" and these words resonated in the depths of her soul, like a heavenly, amazing music; she hardly dared to believe her ears and... But I throw down the brush. I will only say that at that moment of delight Liza’s timidity disappeared - Erast learned that he was loved, loved passionately with a new, pure, open heart.
2. "She came to her senses - and the light seemed dull and sad to her. All the pleasantness of nature disappeared for her along with dear to her heart»
3. "Erast admired his shepherdess- that’s what he called Lisa - and, seeing how much she loved him, he seemed more kind to himself. All the brilliant amusements of the great world seemed insignificant to him in comparison with the pleasures that the passionate friendship of an innocent soul nourished his heart. With disgust he thought about the contemptuous the voluptuousness with which his feelings formerly reveled.”
4. “Erast could no longer be satisfied with just the innocent caresses of his Lisa - just her eyes filled with love - with one touch of the hand, with one kiss, with one pure embrace. He wanted more, more, and finally could not desire anything - and whoever knows his heart, who has reflected on the nature of its most tender pleasures, will, of course, agree with me that the fulfillment of all desires is the most dangerous temptation of love. Lisa was no longer for Erast this angel of purity, which previously inflamed his imagination and delighted his soul. Platonic love gave way to feelings of which he could not be proud and which were no longer new to him.”

Teacher: Indeed, the world of feelings, so close and understandable to the reader, made this story one of the most beloved among young people of that time. What edifying notes will we see in the demonstration of these experiences?
Students: Pure sincere feelings are demonstrated primarily by Lisa. She worries deeply, especially since this is her first love. Erast is a bird of a different flight, and Karamzin uses features of the psychological portrait drawing us this hero: “ Now the reader should know that this young man, this Erast, was a rather rich nobleman, with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty. He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, but often did not find it: he was bored and complained about his fate. Lisa's beauty made an impression on his heart at the first meeting. He read novels, idylls, had a fairly vivid imagination and often moved mentally to those times (former or not), in which, according to the poets, all people carelessly walked through meadows, bathed in clean springs, kissed like turtle doves, rested under They spent all their days with roses and myrtles and in happy idleness. It seemed to him that he had found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time. “Nature calls me into its arms, to its pure joys,” he thought and decided - at least for a while - to leave the big world».
However, his emotions reveal a certain consumerist attitude towards love, far from platonism. Although at the end of the story his grief is inconsolable: “ Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. Having learned about Lizina’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer. I met him a year before his death. He himself told me this story and led me to Lisa’s grave. “Now maybe they have already reconciled!”
Teacher: How is the difference in experiences related to the characteristics of the heroes’ social status?
Students: Lisa is a peasant woman. She is from a poor family, she is used to earning her own food, she takes care of her mother: “ Lizin's father was a fairly prosperous villager, because he loved work, plowed the land well and always led a sober life. But soon after his death, his wife and daughter became poor. The lazy hand of the mercenary poorly cultivated the field, and the grain ceased to be produced well. They were forced to rent out their land, and for very little money. Moreover, the poor widow, almost constantly shedding tears over the death of her husband - for even peasant women know how to love! - day by day she became weak and could not work at all. Only Lisa, who remained after her father for fifteen years, only Lisa, not sparing her tender youth, not sparing her rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and taking berries in the summer - and selling them in Moscow" The heroine is pure in her thoughts, frank in her desires, she is sincere and naive. Using the example of Lisa, Karamzin exclaims: “ And peasant women know how to love!” With this, he once again emphasizes the non-classical principle of depicting heroes. Erast is a man of the city, a rich nobleman, “with a fair amount of intelligence,” truth, and with a “kind soul.” He had seen a lot, managed to enjoy the temptations of life, his mind and the city could not help but leave an imprint on his soul, hence, apparently, his treacherous act towards the heroine.
Teacher: Already reading excerpts of descriptions of the characters’ experiences, you came across descriptions of nature. There are quite a lot of them in the text. Let's analyze the updated functions of the appearance of landscape in sentimental texts.
Let's go back to the beginning of the story. How is it unusual? Is the landscape the same type and why?
“Perhaps no one living in Moscow knows the outskirts of this city as well as I do, because no one is in the field more often than me, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - wherever the eyes look - through the meadows and groves, hills and plains. Every summer I find new pleasant places or new beauty in old ones.
But the most pleasant place for me is the place where the gloomy ones rise, gothic towers Si...new monastery. Standing on this mountain, you see on the right side almost all of Moscow, this terrible bulk houses and churches, which appears to the eye in the form majestic amphitheater: a magnificent picture, especially when the sun shines on it, when its evening rays glow on countless golden domes, on countless crosses ascending to the sky! Below are lush, densely green flowering meadows, and behind them, along the yellow sands, flows a bright river, agitated by the light oars of fishing boats or rustling under the helm of heavy plows that sail from the most fertile countries of the Russian Empire and supply greedy Moscow with bread. On the other side of the river one can see an oak grove, near which numerous herds graze; there young shepherds, sitting under the shade of trees, sing simple, sad songs and thus shorten the summer days, so uniform for them. Further away, in the dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov Monastery shines; even further, almost at the edge of the horizon, the Sparrow Hills are blue. On the left side you can see vast fields covered with grain, forests, three or four villages and in the distance the village of Kolomenskoye with its high palace.”
Students: The author does not act entirely traditionally. He doesn't start with the history of the heroes. Karamzin begins to narrate the impressions of the author-narrator, his experiences, and these experiences are closely connected with the natural world that opens up to his eyes. But the landscape is not the same type. It “stratifies” into “positive” and “negative” as in a photographic image. The “positive” depicts the motionless, harmonious, natural life of nature. It does not change century after century, therefore it gives the author a feeling of eternal peace and comfort. This is exactly how it was customary to depict the “sacrament of nature” in the genre of pastoral and idyll (which we have already mentioned). However, there is also “the other side of the river,” depicting which Karamzin acts as a historian. On the “negative” is the moving, changeable, menacing life of History. Traces of fast-flowing time are visible everywhere. The author prepares us for the fact that the plot of the story will conditionally swing between the poles of rural life (natural, harmonious) and urban life (changeable and destructive).
Teacher: So, the beginning of the story opens with urban and rural landscapes, the role of which is symbolic. He predicts a further antithesis, which subsequently organizes the plot. But nature in the story, as we have already noticed, deepens the experiences of the heroes. Find and read the relevant passages. Observe who the natural world is more supportive of with its compassion?
Students: Nature helps to understand the state of mind mainly only of the heroine. She is close to her, understands her language, is used to talking with flowers, wind, trees
For example:

1. “Let's turn to Lisa. Night came - the mother blessed her daughter and wished her a gentle sleep, but this time her wish was not fulfilled: Lisa slept very poorly. The new guest of her soul, the image of the Erasts, appeared so vividly to her that she woke up almost every minute, woke up and sighed. Even before the sun rose, Lisa got up, went down to the bank of the Moscow River, sat down on the grass and, saddened, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air and, rising up, left shiny drops on the green cover of nature. Silence reigned everywhere. But soon the rising luminary of the day awakened all creation: the groves and bushes came to life, the birds fluttered and sang, the flowers raised their heads to be saturated with the life-giving rays of light. But Lisa still sat there, sad. Oh, Lisa, Lisa! What happened to you? Until now, waking up with the birds, you had fun with them in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like the sun shines in drops of heavenly dew; but now you are thoughtful, and the general joy of nature is alien to your heart…»
2. “Lisa returned to her hut in a completely different state from the one in which she left it. Heartfelt joy was revealed on her face and in all her movements. “He loves me!” - she thought and admired this thought. “Oh, mother!” - Lisa said to her mother, who had just woken up. - Oh, mother! What a wonderful morning! How fun everything is in the field! Never have larks sung so well, never has the sun shone so brightly, never have flowers smelled so pleasant!”
3. “I can’t live,” thought Lisa, “I can’t!.. Oh, if only the sky would fall on me!” If the earth swallowed up the poor!.. No! the sky is not falling; the earth does not shake! Woe is me!" - She left the city and suddenly saw herself on the shore of a deep pond, under the shade of ancient oak trees, which a few weeks before had been silent witnesses to her delight. This memory shook her soul; the most terrible heartache was depicted on her face.

Teacher: Following the appearance of “Poor Liza” by N.M. Karamzin, a huge number of similar works arose; in terms of plot and language, they were no longer new and, more often than not, were imitative and insufficiently perfect in terms of form and artistic means. However, thanks to them, we can talk about a special “dictionary of nature symbols” of sentimentalists, which wandered from text to text. Now we will work with cards that contain excerpts from sentimental works contemporary to Karamzin. These are mainly landscapes and the experiences of the characters against their background. Compile a unique dictionary of sentimentalist symbols. Explain the meaning of some words. (if you have time, you can analyze some of the artistic imperfections of the texts).
CARD No. 1
N.P.Milonov “The Story of Poor Marya” (excerpt)
« Marya, in her fits of melancholy, often walked through the groves and valleys alone in her heartfelt sorrow. Beautiful places, a branchy oak tree, a babbling brook constituted all of Marya’s bliss. She often sat alone in quiet solitude until late at night. Her father was not keen on the delights of nature and often scolded her; Marya was innocent in her soul, and her father’s reproaches could not apply to her. Sometimes on a quiet spring evening, Marya sat down, hunched over, by the window, looking at the blue sky, at the bright moon, sometimes a pearl tear sparkled on her black eyelashes and, in the languid light of the moon, shone like a transparent diamond.”
CARD No. 2

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At the end of the 18th century, the leading literary movement in Russia was sentimentalism, as was classicism, which came to us from Europe. N. M. Karamzin can rightfully be considered the head and promoter of the sentimental trend in Russian literature. His “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and stories are an example of sentimentalism. Thus, the story “Poor Liza” (1792) is structured in accordance with the basic laws of this direction. However, the writer moved away from some of the canons of European sentimentalism.
In the works of classicism, kings, nobles, and generals, that is, people who performed an important state mission, were worthy of depiction. Sentimentalism preached the value of the individual, even if insignificant on a national scale. Therefore, Karamzin made the main character of the story the poor peasant woman Lisa, who was left early without a breadwinner father and lives with her mother in a hut. According to sentimentalists, both people of the upper class and low origin have the ability to deeply feel and perceive the world around them with kindness, “for even peasant women know how to love.”
The sentimentalist writer did not have the goal of accurately depicting reality. Lizin's income from the sale of flowers and knitting, on which peasant women live, could not provide for them. But Karamzin depicts life without trying to convey everything realistically. Its goal is to awaken compassion in the reader. For the first time in Russian literature, this story made the reader feel the tragedy of life in his heart.
Already contemporaries noted the novelty of the hero of “Poor Liza” - Erast. In the 1790s, the principle of a strict division of heroes into positive and negative was observed. Erast, who killed Lisa, contrary to this principle, was not perceived as a villain. A frivolous but dreamy young man does not deceive the girl. At first he has sincere tender feelings for the naive villager. Without thinking about the future, he believes that he will not harm Lisa, will always be by her side, like brother and sister, and they will be happy together.
The language in works of sentimentalism also changed. The speech of the heroes was “freed” from a large number of Old Slavonicisms and became simpler, closer to colloquial. At the same time, it became full of beautiful epithets, rhetorical turns, and exclamations. The speech of Lisa and her mother is florid, philosophical (“Ah, Lisa!” she said. “How good everything is with the Lord God!.. Ah, Lisa! Who would want to die if sometimes we didn’t have grief!”; ““Think about the pleasant moment in which we will see each other again." - “I will, I will think about her! Dear, dear Erast! Remember, remember your poor Liza, who loves you more than herself!” ).
The purpose of such language is to influence the reader’s soul, to awaken humane feelings in it. Thus, in the speech of the narrator of “Poor Lisa” we hear an abundance of interjections, diminutive forms, exclamations, and rhetorical appeals: “Ah! I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow!”; “Beautiful poor Liza with her old lady”; “But what did she feel then when Erast, hugging her for the last time, pressing her to his heart for the last time, said: “Forgive me, Lisa!” What a touching picture!”
Sentimentalists paid great attention to the depiction of nature. Events often unfolded against the backdrop of picturesque landscapes: in the forest, on the bank of a river, in a field. Sensitive natures, the heroes of sentimentalist works, keenly perceived the beauty of nature. In European sentimentalism, it was assumed that a “natural” person close to nature possesses only pure feelings; that nature is capable of elevating the human soul. But Karamzin tried to challenge the point of view of Western thinkers.
“Poor Liza” begins with a description of the Simonov Monastery and its surroundings. So the author connected the present and past of Moscow with the history of an ordinary person. Events unfold in Moscow and in nature. “Natura”, that is, nature, following the narrator, closely “observes” the love story of Lisa and Erast. But she remains deaf and blind to the heroine’s experiences.
Nature does not stop the passions of the young man and girl at the fateful moment: “not a single star shone in the sky - no ray could illuminate the delusions.” On the contrary, “the darkness of the evening nourished desires.” Something incomprehensible is happening to Lisa’s soul: “It seemed to me that I was dying, that my soul... No, I don’t know how to say it!” Lisa’s closeness to nature does not help her in saving her soul: it is as if she is giving her soul to Erast. The thunderstorm breaks out only after - “it seemed that all nature was lamenting about Liza’s lost innocence.” Lisa is afraid of thunder, “like a criminal.” She perceives thunder as punishment, but nature did not tell her anything earlier.
At the moment of Lisa’s farewell to Erast, nature is still beautiful, majestic, but indifferent to the heroes: “The morning dawn, like a scarlet sea, spread across the eastern sky. Erast stood under the branches of a tall oak tree... the whole nature was in silence.” The “silence” of nature in the tragic moment of separation for Lisa is emphasized in the story. Here, too, nature doesn’t tell the girl anything, doesn’t save her from disappointment.
The heyday of Russian sentimentalism occurred in the 1790s. A recognized propagandist of this trend, Karamzin developed the main idea in his works: the soul must be enlightened, made heartfelt, responsive to other people's pain, other people's suffering and other people's concerns.

Sentimentalism in the story by Karamzin N.M. "Poor Lisa."
The touching love of a simple peasant girl Lisa and a Moscow nobleman Erast deeply shocked the souls of the writer’s contemporaries. Everything in this story: from the plot and recognizable landscape sketches of the Moscow region to the sincere feelings of the characters - was unusual for readers of the late 18th century.
The story was first published in 1792 in the Moscow Journal, the editor of which was Karamzin himself. The plot is quite simple: after the death of her father, young Lisa is forced to work tirelessly to feed herself and her mother. In the spring she sells lilies of the valley in Moscow and there she meets the young nobleman Erast. The young man falls in love with her and is even ready to leave the world for the sake of his love. The lovers spend evenings together, until one day Erast announces that he must go on a campaign with the regiment and they will have to part. A few days later, Erast leaves. Several months pass. One day Lisa accidentally sees Erast in a magnificent carriage and finds out that he is engaged. Erast lost his estate at cards and, in order to improve his shaky financial situation, marries a rich widow for convenience. In despair, Lisa throws herself into the pond.

Artistic originality.

Karamzin borrowed the plot of the story from European romance literature. All events were transferred to “Russian” soil. The author emphasizes that the action takes place precisely in Moscow and its environs, describes the Simonov and Danilov monasteries, Sparrow Hills, creating the illusion of authenticity. For Russian literature and readers of that time, this was an innovation. Having become accustomed to happy endings in old novels, they met the truth of life in Karamzin’s work. The writer’s main goal - to achieve compassion - was achieved. The Russian public read, sympathized, sympathized. The first readers of the story perceived Lisa's story as a real contemporary tragedy. The pond under the walls of the Simonov Monastery was named Lizina Pond.
Disadvantages of sentimentalism.
The plausibility in the story is only apparent. The world of heroes that the author depicts is idyllic and invented. The peasant woman Lisa and her mother have refined feelings, their speech is literate, literary and no different from the speech of Erast, who was a nobleman. The life of poor villagers resembles a pastoral: “Meanwhile, a young shepherd was driving his flock along the river bank, playing the pipe. Lisa fixed her gaze on him and thought: “If the one who now occupies my thoughts was born a simple peasant, a shepherd, - and if he were now driving his flock past me: ah! I would bow to him with a smile and say affably: “Hello, dear shepherd!” Where are you driving your flock? And here green grass grows for your sheep, and here flowers grow red, from which you can weave a wreath for your hat.” He would look at me with an affectionate look - maybe he would take my hand... A dream! A shepherd, playing the flute, passed by and disappeared with his motley flock behind a nearby hill.” Such descriptions and reasoning are far from realism.
The story became an example of Russian sentimental literature. In contrast to classicism with its cult of reason, Karamzin argued for the cult of feelings, sensitivity, and compassion: heroes are important for their ability to love, feel, and experience. In addition, unlike the works of classicism, “Poor Liza” is devoid of morality, didacticism, and edification: the author does not teach, but tries to evoke empathy for the characters in the reader.
The story is also distinguished by “smooth” language: Karamzin abandoned pomp, which made the work easy to read.

“For even peasant women know how to love...”
N.M. Karamzin

Sentimentalism is a direction of literature of the 18th century. It contradicts the strict norms of classicism and, first of all, describes the inner world of a person and his feelings. Now the unity of place, time and action does not matter, the main thing is the person and his state of mind. N.M. Karamzin is probably the most famous and talented writer who actively worked in this direction. His story “Poor Liza” reveals to the reader the tender feelings of two lovers.

Features of sentimentalism are found in N. Karamzin’s story in every line. The lyrical narrative is conducted smoothly, calmly, although the work feels the intensity of passion and the power of emotions. The characters experience a new feeling of love for both of them - tender and touching. They suffer, cry, part: “Lisa was crying - Erast was crying...” The author describes in great detail the state of mind of the unfortunate Lisa when she accompanied Erast to the war: “... abandoned, poor, lost feelings and memory.”

The entire work is permeated by lyrical digressions. The author constantly reminds of himself, he is present in the work and comments on everything that happens to his characters. “I often come to this place and almost always meet spring there...”, the author says about the place near the Si...nova monastery, where Lisa and her mother’s hut was located. “But I throw down the brush...”, “my heart bleeds...”, “a tear rolls down my face,” - this is how the author describes his emotional state when he looks at his heroes. He feels sorry for Lisa, she is very dear to him. He knows that his “beautiful Lisa” deserves better love, honest relationships, and sincere feelings. And Erast... The author does not reject him, because “dear Erast” is a very kind, but by nature or upbringing a flighty young man. And Lisa's death made him unhappy for the rest of his life. N. M. Karamzin hears and understands his heroes.

A large place in the story is devoted to landscape sketches. The beginning of the work describes the place “near the Si..nova monastery”, the outskirts of Moscow. Nature is fragrant: a “magnificent picture” is revealed to the reader, and he finds himself in that time and also wanders through the ruins of the monastery. Together with the “quiet moon” we watch the lovers meet and, sitting “under the shade of an old oak tree,” we look into the “blue sky.”

The name “Poor Lisa” itself is symbolic, where both the social status and the state of a person’s soul are reflected in one word. The story by N. M. Karamzin will not leave any reader indifferent, it will touch the subtle strings of the soul, and this can be called sentimentality.