Initially, the work was a sketch from a series of female portraits, conceived at the end of 1864. In a letter to N. N. Strakhov, an employee and critic of the Epoch magazine, on December 7, 1864, N. Leskov writes: Volga) area. I propose to write twelve such essays...”
As for the rest of the essays, the idea of writing remained unfulfilled.
As for "Lady Macbeth ...", from an essay, according to the original idea of \u200b\u200ba local character, this work, when it was created, grew into an artistic masterpiece of world significance.
Katerina Izmailova is a “villain involuntarily”, and not according to subjective data, a killer not by birth, but by the circumstances of her life. Being a slave of her own feelings, Katerina consistently overcomes a number of obstacles, each of which seems to her the last on the way to complete liberation and happiness. The persistence with which the heroine tries to subjugate circumstances to her will testifies to the originality and strength of her character. She stops at nothing, goes to the end in her terrible and, most importantly, useless struggle and dies, only having completely exhausted the remarkable supply of spiritual and vital forces released to her by nature.
Leskov, with a slight self-irony, expressed in the title of the story, as it were, points to the transfer of Shakespeare's character to a "lower" social sphere.
At the same time, self-irony is a purely Leskovian feature of social satire, deliberately used by the writer, giving it an original coloring within the framework of the Gogol direction of Russian literature.
Pikhter - a large wicker basket with a bell for carrying hay and other livestock feed.
Quit steward - a headman from the peasants, appointed by the landowner to collect quitrent.
Yasman the falcon is a daring fellow.
Kisa - a leather tightening bag, purse.
Paterik - a collection of the lives of the venerable fathers.
Throne - the patronal, or temple, holiday - the day of memory of the event or the "saint", in whose name this temple was built.
Forshlyag (German) - a small melodic figure (of one or more sounds) that adorns the melody, trill. Local - common.
Job is a biblical righteous man who meekly endured the trials sent down to him by God.
“Outside the window it flickers in the shadows ...” - an excerpt from Ya. P. Polonsky’s poem “The Challenge”, not quite accurately conveyed, in the original - not “hollow”, but “cloak”.
Sources:
- Leskov N. S. Novels and stories / Comp. and note. L. M. Krupchanova.- M.: Mosk. worker, 1981.- 463 p.
In the subsequent literary years, Leskov continues to develop the problem of the fate of a strong, extraordinary personality in the conditions of the “crowded Russian life”, the pressure of life circumstances. He is increasingly attracted to complex, contradictory characters, unable to withstand the harmful influence and power over them of the surrounding reality and hence subject to moral self-destruction. Leskov observed such characters more than once in everyday Russian reality, they amazed him with their inner power and passion.
Among them is the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, nicknamed Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district "from someone's easy word" for her crimes. But Leskov himself sees in his heroine not a criminal, but a woman “performing a drama of love,” and therefore presents her as a tragic person.
Love attraction to Sergei is born in Katerina from the boredom that overcomes her, reigning in the "merchant's chamber with high fences and lowered chain dogs", where "it is quiet and empty ... not a living sound, not a human voice." Boredom and "longing to the point of stupor" make the young merchant pay attention to "a young man with a daring handsome face, framed by jet-black curls."
Katerina descends into the yard solely out of a desire to unwind, to drive away the annoying yawn. The description of the heroine's behavior on the eve of the first meeting with Sergei is especially expressive: "for nothing to do," she stood, "leaning against the jamb," and "husked sunflower seeds." In general, in the feeling of a bored merchant's wife for the clerk, there is more the call of the flesh than the yearning of the heart. However, the passion that captured Katerina is immeasurable. “She was mad with her happiness,” she “without Sergey, it became unbearable to survive an extra hour.” Love, which blew up the emptiness of the heroine's existence, takes on the character of a destructive force that sweeps away everything in its path. This becomes apparent when Izmailova's crimes are revealed. No, her inner world is not shaken by the court's decision. Not excited about the birth of a child: "for her there was no light, no darkness, no good, no good, no boredom, no joy." Her whole life was completely consumed by passion. She "now was ready for Sergei in fire and water, in prison and on the cross." Previously not knowing love, Katerina is naive and trusting in her feelings. For the first time, listening to love speeches, “foggy” by them, she does not feel the falsity hidden in them, is not able to discern the given role in the actions of her beloved. For Katerina, love becomes the only possible life, which seems to her a "paradise". And in this earthly paradise, the heroine discovers a beauty hitherto unseen by her: apple blossoms, clear blue skies, and "moonlight shattering on flowers and leaves of trees," and "golden night" with its "silence, light, aroma, and salutary enlivening warmth." On the other hand, the new, heavenly life is full of a pronounced egoistic beginning and unbridled willfulness of Katerina, who directly declared to her beloved: “... if you, Seryozha, will you change me, if you will exchange me for anyone, for any other I am with you, my friend, forgive me, I will not part alive. But what a bright, frantic Katerina stands against the backdrop of the colorless lackey Sergei. Unlike her lover, she will not back down from her frenzied love either at the pillory or at the prison stage. The character of the heroine, incredible in strength and meaning, grew up before the readers, who contained in herself the cause and consequences of love-catastrophe and who fully drank the cup of such love, or, as Leskov said about his Katerina Izmailova, "performing the drama of love." However, this incredible female character also has an incredibly terrible result: a spiritual dead end leading to death without repentance, when Katerina drags her hated rival Sonetka into the water shafts, from which her murdered father-in-law, husband and Fedya look at her.
A.A. Gorelov, uch. ed. V. I. Korovin, note the floor of the collection Op.
I.V. POZDINA
(Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University, Chelyabinsk, Russia)
UDC 821.161.1-31 (Leskov I.S.)
BBK Sh33(2Rus=Rus)-8.44
GENRE OF SYNCRETIC STORY IN N.S. LESKOV. ESSAY-TRAGEDY "LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSKY DISTRICT"
Annotation. To create the original ecstatic character of the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" N.S. Leskov synthesizes elements of various artistic systems: sentimentalism, romanticism within the framework of a realistic narrative; folklore and literary traditions. The development of the plot and the finale of the story are built according to the laws of dramatic action. Heroine N.S. Leskova demonstrates a willingness to recklessly and ecstatically, that is, in the manifestation of an extreme degree of excess, indulge in passions, a tendency to sudden impulsive decisions, sharp reactions, a catchy expression of feelings, which is inherent in the heroes of the drama to a much greater extent than the heroes of the epic. Thus, in the narrative, "essay" and "tragedy" collide, giving rise to a "dramatically acute sense of being." Genre syncretism is ambivalent in nature, the purpose of which is to describe passion and express its condemnation.
Keywords: syncretism, genre, N.S. Leskov, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", essay, tragedy, folklorism, mythopoetics, epic, drama.
It is known that N.S. Leskov resorted to "removing" the border between the story, essay and story, giving many of his works complex genre constructions. In the title and subtitle of the analyzed story, the artistic tradition and the documentary genre - the essay - are fused. Genre complexity is explained not only by the writer's well-known commitment to everyday fact. The issue of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is on a par with the journalism of the early 1860s. N.S. Leskov actively participated in the well-known controversy of the 1860s, devoted a number of articles to the problem of women's emancipation, where he spoke about the possibility of freedom and equality of a woman with a man only through conscious and voluntary involvement in labor activity. But "minute impressions", liberation through debauchery, according to the writer, leads to a decline in morals and unbridledness. The saying "the first song is sung blushing" and its variant
- “to sing the first song blushing” - are included in the article “Russian women and emancipation” and taken as an epigraph to the “essay”, which is also
testifies to the close problems of a journalistic article and a work of art. Three years after the journalistic articles by N.S. Leskov again turns to the problem of emancipation, but now he is already solving it in the realm of art proper. Thus, within the framework of the concept of a woman in the literature of the 1860s of the 19th century, the “essay” “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” can also be considered as a polemically sharpened version of the answer to the proposed N.G. Chernyshevsky as a model for resolving family conflicts, and as an illustration of the tragic consequences of a modern woman's lack of ideas about the boundaries of what is permitted. And, finally, as an answer to the even sharper controversy of its time “about the Russian man”, about the possibilities in the depths of Russian life of the origins of real drama. In this case, the "essay" emphasizes the problems and uses the analytical capabilities of the documentary genre. Real life facts are comprehended by the writer in journalism, with its open presentation of a fact, an author's idea, a social problem. In the "essay" N.S. Leskov, these facts are artistically explored as a "continuation" or "variation" of the problem, but already with the possibilities of the artistic form. In contrast to The Musk Ox, where the fact enters the artistic system through the genuine “memoir-ness” of the narrative, as a result of which there is a focus on authenticity, in the “essay” “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” an “illusion of documentary” is created: the art form itself “ plays" essay.
Meeting with the narrative frame in the title "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", the reader immediately enters the associative background of the work. Shakespeare's reminiscence contains a reference to the genre of tragedy, and the "essay", with its stubborn attraction to the fact, unfolds into a toponymic legend about terrible events that once occurred. The plot of the story, like the entire compositional structure of “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, is subject to the disclosure of character, which “you will never remember without spiritual awe” [Leskov 1956: 96], and unfolds in a social and everyday aspect. N.S. Leskov uses the method of introduction to the genre. The motive of the rumor: "from someone's easy word" they began to call her "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district" - connects the past with the present and translates the perception of the text into an "illusion" of an actual event. But the “illusion” has another side, giving an assessment of the event and commensurate it with the tragedy - that “spiritual awe”, the strength and psychological depth of which is reflected in the paraphrase: “Lady Mac-
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bet." The mention of "Macbeth" immediately evokes certain associations in the reader, a capacious world image arises that embodies Leskov's idea of folk drama: "Sometimes in our places such characters are set that no matter how many years have passed since meeting with them, some of them never remember without trepidation. Among such characters is the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, who played out a once terrible drama" [Leskov 1956: 96].
The text of the story not only refers to the past, to "tradition", it demonstrates the process of "adding tradition", supported by the personal and creative activity of the writer. The story of the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, elevated to the rank of legend, unfolds before the reader. The basis for this genre characteristic is the presence in the periodicals of the city of Mtsensk of articles confirming the existence of the Leskovian legend [Voronkov 2002: 19; Godlevskaya 2002: 4], which, in turn, goes back to Shakespearean tragedy, preserving the memory of the genre. The unexpected meeting in the formula of the title of the "kondovoy" of Russia and Shakespeare turns into its own significance. From the very beginning of the "essay" of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" in the places of the planned genre intersections, or from the "boundary" meanings, a qualitatively new character begins to be created, living a true tragedy in his life. A Russian drama unfolds before the reader. Leskov's heroine, who has realized personal freedom through a flared passion, goes her way of the cross in the conditions of provincial reality, the artistic analysis of which is offered by N.S. Leskov.
Lev Anninsky, commenting on the plot of the story “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, claims that Leskov’s four-time murderer for the sake of love cannot be put into any “typology of characters”. “After all, who is strangling? - asks Anninsky. - A native of the people, "gardener" Nekrasovsky, clerk-prankster. Yes, a Russian woman, “from the poor”, a whole nature, ready for anything for love, is our recognized conscience, our last justification. That is, two traditionally positive characters of Russian literature of that time. They strangle a person for the sake of passion. They choke the child. There is something to despair of" [Anninsky 1986: 90]. These words of Anninsky polemically sharpen the interpretation of Leskov's heroine, but they capture the ambivalent nature of the evaluation of heroes: on the one hand, the heroes of N.S. Leskov are recognized as "traditionally positive" "heroes"
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popular "love story", and on the other hand, condemnation is expressed. In this regard, we emphasize that the life seemed to the writer complex, confusing, paradoxical, not amenable to simplified, unambiguous comprehension and evaluation.
So, the beginning of the story is marked by opposite and even mutually exclusive tendencies at the level of genre interactions: there is a destruction of the boundaries between fact and fiction, and a “high” tragedy should take place in the prosaic Russian outback. The interpretation of the character is dominated by ambivalence, which forms the living space of the characters and the entire artistic system of the story.
The narrative does not immediately turn to tragedy, but begins with a banal love story of a bored merchant's wife and a clerk. The plot of a "love novel" is built according to the laws of folklore genres, which are based on song and lubok motifs, the most significant of which are the recognizable dramatic ballad plot of the love story of "Princess Volkhonskaya and Vanka the Klushnik" [Kireevsky 1983: 304] and the "funny" plot of lubok motifs. pictures about the tricks of the "merchant's wife and clerk" [Rovinsky 1900: 120]. Processing folklore material, N.S. Leskov contaminates the dramatic and the comic, achieving this not only with folklore stylization, but also with literary means and techniques. The nature of Katerina Izmailova's passion combines "heartfelt weakness" and "extraordinary strength." The depiction of “weakness of the heart” appears in the narrative in the spirit of a sentimental tradition, while “strength” will require romantic, even demonic, “pulsations” of the art system. Let us turn to the analysis of the text of the story.
The love of Katerina Lvovna, like any other Russian woman, is based on a sensual principle, for the time being restrained by “dead boredom” and “merchant etiquette”. During the first meeting, unexpected for Katerina, the “experienced girl” brings down a stream of “sensual speech” on her. The erotic character of his speeches is given by motifs of loneliness, sadness, melancholy, the motif of the heart, which is especially consonant with sentimental aesthetics: with a knife from my chest and would have thrown it at your feet” [Leskov 1956: 102]. Appeal to sensuality, openness of intentions, complimentary exclamations, the key word "heart" are characteristic of the seducer's popular folklore phraseology and at the same time are
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signs of sentimentality. Katerina experiences a feeling of "indescribable" fear from a new feeling unknown to her so far. In front of her is a good fellow from her folklore girlish dreams: “. well done with a daring handsome face, framed by jet-black curls. [Leskov 1956: 99], with speeches that she had never heard when she was married to an unloving, unkind husband: “Her heart never really lay with him” [Leskov 1956: 98].
However, the "liveness" of the nature of the heroine N. S. Leskov manifests itself at the first opportunity. The departure of an unloved husband, spring, “it is warm, light, cheerful, and through the green wooden lattice of the garden you can see how different birds fly from knot to knot through the trees” [Leskov 1956: 98]. Heroine N.S. Leskova seeks to restore the disturbed balance between her own needs of nature and the outside world. It is the “life of the heart” that determines the harmony of the universe for it.
The scene of a date in the garden, culminating in terms of expressing the sensual impulses of the heroine, is presented in the spirit of the folk aesthetics of understanding love:
“- Are you mad for me, Seryozha?
How not dry.
How are you dry? Tell me about it.
How can you tell about it? Is it possible to explain about this, how you dry? Yearned.
Why didn’t I feel this, Seryozha, that you were killing yourself for me? They say they feel it.
Sergei kept silent” [Leskov 1956: 108].
Sergey’s silence, his dry answers Katerina does not notice, filled with delight from these confessions, she hears her inner melody, responding in the image of a garden: “Look, Seryozha, what a paradise, what a paradise! exclaimed Katerina Lvovna, looking through the dense branches of a blossoming apple tree covering her, at the clear blue sky, on which stood a full, fine moon" [Leskov 1956: 108]. "Golden night! Silence, light, aroma and beneficial revitalizing warmth” [Leskov 1956: 109].
The feelings of the heroine are bare boundlessly. The folklore-idyllic picture, conversations about feelings, caresses under flowering trees, confessions, delights, spiritual radiations of the heroine are conveyed in a landscape-psychological parallel: the radiance of the moonlight that gilded the entire garden. The garden keeps warm - Katerina Lvovna's warm heart. The motive of heat is associated with emotional experiences -
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mi heart attraction, the desire for spiritual intimacy, deeper, trusting relationships.
Noting the differences in the manifestations of the sentimental element, we emphasize: if in sentimentalism the naturalness of nature is interpreted as a need for virtuous behavior, then in Lesk's text, sentimental tonality performs a different stylistic function. The lubok-folklore phraseology of the seducer is colored with sentimentality: Sergei's speech is replete with exclamations, rhetorical questions, loud confessions, seeks to evoke sympathy for his position, appealing to sensuality, exposing his jealousy. The heart becomes the central subject of the seducer's speech: "... my whole heart sank in baked blood!" [Leskov 1956: 110] “I feel what love is and how it sucks my heart like a black snake” [Leskov 1956: 111]. A sign of the true interests of a popular young man is the absence of sentimental intentions and the presence of a vulgar tone of illiterate speech: “What am I going to get out of here, - Sergey answered in a happy voice” [Leskov 1956: 110].
The presence in the realistic narrative of elements of another aesthetic system - sentimentalism - shows the propensity of the nature of the main character to naked sensuality, the inability (or unwillingness) to guess the other interests of her lover. The falsely sentimental sensitivity of Sergei's speeches becomes the "key" to Katerina Lvovna's heart. Neither the rumors about his previous love affairs, his inconstancy, nor his "dryness" during a date in the garden alarm Katerina Lvovna. She is immersed in a new world of sensory-bodily experiences. Her reflection is connected only with what can break the inner idyllic existence. In the center of her world is “her Earring” and that new sensual-corporeal world that he personifies: “. with him, the hard labor path blooms with happiness” [Leskov 1956: 132].
The concentration of sensuality, extreme devotion to self-dissolution in a loved one, a complete lack of soundness in actions, the slavery of one's feelings, which knows no moral barriers - this is, according to N. S. Leskov, "the love of many too passionate women" [Leskov 1956 : 132]: “Katerina Lvovna was now ready for Sergei in the fire, in the water, in the dungeon and on the cross. He made her fall in love with him to the point that there was no measure of devotion to him. She was mad with her happiness." [Leskov 1956: 112].
The central monologue of Katerina, in the scene in the garden under blooming apple trees, is consonant with love by the strength of passion and frankness of confessions.
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bovnoy romance lyrics. The song-romance arises and exists at the junction of two poetics: folklore and literary; the purpose of the genre is to present the dramatic side of human existence, to express emotional, often tragic experiences. This genre is characterized by lyricism, recreates the intimate experiences of people, has certain thematic and genre features. For him, the motive of seduction is obligatory: “I don’t know how you lured me, / I only know one thing that lured me” [City songs, ballads and romances 1999: 284]. Romances are characterized by a combination of natural scenes and acute experiences, love yearnings and the motive of betrayal. The outcome may be bitter, may be accompanied by the motive of death. Husbands, children, rivals, heroes themselves can be involved in the fatal circle of death. We find all these details in the text of N.S. Leskov. The scene in the garden is filled with sensual lyricism and passion, the motives of seduction and betrayal sound in it. In the story, the father-in-law, the husband, the innocent child, the rival and, finally, the heroine herself are involved in the circle of death.
In the monologue indicated below, Katerina, in lyrical reflection, also prophesies the further course of events: “... so if you, Seryozha, let me change, if you exchange me for anyone, for any other, I’m with you, my hearty friend Excuse me, I won’t part alive” [Leskov 1956: 110].
How a subspecies of the genre of love romance can move into another
Ballad, under special conditions. The peculiarity of the Leskovsky text is also that we have before us an action-packed story about fatal circumstances, and in the center of this story is a man of a special tragic fate.
Again, we are faced with a situation where the development of the action of the “love story” in N.S. Leskov’s story determines the specifics of the genre existence of a folk song [see. on this: Pozdina 2012: 111]. In the text analyzed by N.S. Leskov, there is a transition from the genre subspecies of the love romance to the genre subspecies of the ballad romance. The further development of the action will be directed along the mainstream of a ballad romance - which will be determined both by the sharp expression of feelings, and the details of history accompanying them, including the criminal one, and the tragic outcome that has come to pass. And yet the creators of ballads knew the limit, beyond which it was impossible to go. The heroine, N. S. Leskova, eliminates this limit with the epic motif of unbridled power that we have already designated, which goes back to the epics about Vasily Buslaev.
We emphasize that the scene in the garden is one of the most important episodes in
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development of the action and in clarifying the nature of the character of the main character. In this scene, the technique of retardation is used, which is a structural feature of the epic narrative, slowing down the action at the peak of the development of feeling. This is the culmination in the plot of the "love story", a turning point, after which the action takes a turn towards tragedy, and other facets of the nature of Katerina Lvovna's character begin to appear. The growing motif of "strength", which will make itself known in the scene of her husband's murder, will require a different artistic structure, with different laws of action development - a dramatic one.
Against the background of the chronicleness of the narrative chosen by N. S. Leskov, the analyzed story is distinguished by a steady increase in tension in the development of a single through action. In an epic work, as a rule, there is no through tension and, therefore, a single climax, which is a structural feature of a dramatic look. The notable "action-packedness" based on criminal incidents is inextricably linked with its significant dramatization.
Compositionally, the story consists of small chapters, each of which has its own scenic conclusion: the scene of Katerina's seduction, the scene in the garden, the scene of her husband's murder, the scene of strangulation of the child, the scene of exposure, the scenes in hard labor, and, finally, the final scene. The first action of the drama takes place in the limited stage space of the Izmailovs' house, the metaphor of which can be "paradise" as Katerina's sensual state of mind. The second act of the drama will take place in penal servitude, but also in the limited space of the chronotope, the metaphor of which is "hell" as a punishment for rampant sensuality. Certain scenes are deliberately theatrical. So, before the murder of the father-in-law, there is a change in the appearance of the “sinned, but always submissive daughter-in-law” [Leskov 1956: 105]. A sudden change in Katerina Izmailova disarms her husband, an experienced merchant who, at the time of the murder, practically does not defend himself. The demonstration of riotousness makes the scene of the murder of Zinovy Borisovich especially theatrical. In order to provoke her husband into a collision, Katerina Lvovna plays out a whole performance: at the right moment she brings Sergei onto the stage, defiantly kisses and pardons him. Her audacity and courage are outrageous, expressions are throws and whips. In this scene, she is characterized by surprise, spontaneity, defiant intonations: ““Come on, Seryozhechka, come on, come on, my dear,” she beckoned the clerk to her. Sergey shook his curls and boldly sat down near the hostess.<...>- What? Isn't it nice? Look-
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ko, look, my yasmen falcon, what a beautiful! Katerina Lvovna laughed and passionately kissed Sergei in front of her husband” [Leskov 1956: 118].
The second climactic center in the story, which breaks the narrative into "before" and "after", plot-forming and revealing a qualitatively different side of Katerina Lvovna's love, is the murder of a child. In none of the other scenes is there such a concentric convergence of the mythopoetic context: sacred and demonic, which determines the originality of the genre structure of the story, leading into the sphere of ontological values [see. more: Pozdina 2012: 127]. One cannot but agree with Catherine Géry, who asserts ambivalence within the very artistic system of the story: “This system constantly oscillates between the sexualization of the world and the moral condemnation of sexuality” [Géry 2004: 105].
The final scene - seems to be the climax of the triumph of rampant demonic elements. The demonic takes over reality. Reality becomes the embodiment of hell: piercing cold, the roar of the waves, the rampant elements. The bodily (sexual) frenzy is equated with the frenzy of the underworld, demonic forces, both external and internal, in the very essence of the heroine. Katerina Lvovna in the final act of the tragedy, in the mystery act, reunites with her natural world of elemental demonic forces. The motive of the biblical curse sounds in the roar of the raging elements. The realistic picture of the hard labor path is aggravated by the personal love tragedy of Katerina Lvovna. In the last act of the tragedy, the farce of Katerina Lvovna's former lover sounds like a reminder of what they have done, their crimes, the sinfulness of their love. There is a change of masks. The frozen look of Katerina Lvovna, moving lips are undoubted symptoms of her unbearable pain, exaggerated suffering and loneliness, the borderline state of catastrophe. The crisis psychological state is transmitted through the visual and auditory planes of perception: “Her head was on fire; eye pupils. animated by a wandering sharp brilliance"<...>“Among the vile speeches of Sergei, a rumble and a groan could be heard from the opening and squelching shafts” [Leskov 1956: 142].
The dialogue of the characters in the finale is of a non-textual nature: “Katerina Lvovna set off on her way completely lifeless: only her eyes looked at Sergei in a fearful way and did not blink away from him” [Leskov 1956: 138]. Wanting to whisper a prayer, she echoes Sergei's speeches: “How are we with
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they walked around the battlefield, sat out the long autumn nights, escorted people out of the wide world with a fierce death” [Leskov 1956: 142]. But this "seeming" external dialogue suggests that each of the heroes of this tragedy carries his own drama. And each of them utters a monologue, but a specific monologue - on the "threshold" of death.
"Threshold of death" in the text of N.S. Leskov is outlined by the author's comment, which sounds as if "behind the scenes", but it is he who determines the "horizon" of connections and meanings of everything that forms human life: Job: Curse the day you were born and die. Anyone who does not want to listen to these words, who is not flattered by the thought of death even in this sad situation, but frightens, should try to drown out these howling voices with something even more ugly. The simple person understands this very well: then he unleashes all his bestial simplicity, begins to be stupid, to mock himself, people, feelings. Not particularly tender even without that, he becomes purely angry" [Leskov 1956: 140]. The motives of the Last Judgment exacerbate the ontological problem, bring it to the "limits". “The situation of social loneliness of an individual reveals ontological loneliness: one who is not ready to look beyond the border of this world (and, therefore, beyond the border of himself), turns out to be closed on his own finite corporeality - “bestial simplicity”” [Savelova 2005: 25]. According to Catherine Zhery, “irrational, uncontrollable forces are found in the very psychological warehouse of the heroine: Katerina Lvovna is in the grip of something dark that is higher than her, but at the same time is an integral part of herself” [Gery: 2004 110].
Indeed, all murders are committed by her as a “ritual of sacrifice” on the altar of “love attraction” (“curse of sex”): everything that stands in the way is instantly eliminated, even at the cost of her own life. That is why the final scene is not a suicide, but another murder, even more ritualistic: the heroine performs the rite of initiation, the final transition to the other world, which completes the turn of the plot to a catastrophe. The epic narrative reveals the "closing" event inherent in drama. The unity of action consists in moving towards an inevitable catastrophe. According to S.M. Telegin, the author of the mythological concept of the image of Katerina Izmailova, “the fate of any person is tragic, but not everyone feels this, since not everyone has an acute awakening of his
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individuality, not everyone consciously and with pain feels his personality, his “I”, with an excess of vital energy, with the love-passion awakened in Katerina Lvovna” [Telegin 1998: 56]. "Redundancy" is stated in the first lines of the "essay", and the whole story of Katerina Izmailova - the prerequisites for the disaster - determines its accomplishment and demonstrates the ensuing consequences.
The legend that is being formed before the eyes of the reader creates the illusion of an event in the present, and therefore the finale of the essay, as well as the development of the action, is built according to the laws of drama. The reaction to the final event is with the hero and the “spectator” (reader), and in the text of the “essay” there are spectators, “living witnesses” of the event, whose reaction is witnessed by the narrator-narrator - “everyone is petrified”, occurs simultaneously.
Thus, the heroine of N. S. Leskov demonstrates a readiness to recklessly and ecstatically, that is, in the manifestation of an extreme degree of excess, to indulge in passions, a tendency to sudden impulsive decisions, sharp reactions, a catchy expression of feelings - which is inherent in the heroes of the drama much more than the heroes of the epic.
The genre correlation of the Leskian text with the Shakespearean tragedy required the correspondence of the Shakespearean romantic conception of personality [Gery 2004: 110]. Katerina Izmailova reveals the natural giftedness of the creative creation of "love attraction", the readiness to lay down the whole world at the feet of her beloved. Love is perceived by her as a way of self-affirmation of a person who suddenly felt inner freedom, complete emancipation of personal feelings, a "Renaissance" experience of love.
G.K. Shchennikov, exploring the work of Dostoevsky, points out that such an experience reflected the historical process: a grandiose shift in the general attitude of a person, in the structure of a holistic attitude of the individual to the world: love as the element of feelings, passion as the element of the national spirit and passion as an artistic object capable of expressing the general the state of the era [Schennikov 1987: 44]. In terms of the strength of passion and awareness of freedom, the absence of restraining principles, the heroine of N. S. Leskova is close to the heroes of Dostoevsky. These writers are also brought together by the artistic characterization of the time of the beginning of the second half of the 19th century: the understanding of freedom as an impulse and revelry of passions and passion as an artistic object capable of expressing the general state of the era. Like the heroes of Dostoevsky, the free passion of the liberated person N.S. Leskova is by nature dual, ambivalent. On the one hand, this is a direct
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the need to sacrifice oneself to another, the need for self-giving, dissolution in the beloved. On the other hand, this is a terrible deformation of the picture of the world and consciousness, sublimating passion in crimes. Like Dostoevsky, N.S. Leskov is not interested in the development of feelings, but in the combination of polar principles: terrible crimes intensify the passion of Katerina Izmailova.
Heroine N.S. Leskova carries the potential of a romantic personality: the triumph of emancipation and unbearable pain and suffering, merged in the ecstatic pulsations of nature. In the associative background of the work, the theme of the original sinfulness of man, damnation, redemption by blood, the theme of the lost paradise sounds. The image of Katerina Lvovna embodies the romantic idea of the presence of the other world in the earthly world, she herself has the ability to cross the border between the earthly and the demonic. In the aesthetics of romanticism, the soul of a person does not belong to him alone, it serves as a plaything for mysterious forces. But if in romanticism there is an awareness of the alienness of these forces to man, then N. S. Leskov's heroes discover that the power of the dark is an integral part of themselves, part of their nature, the expression of which is Jung's archetypal model of the evil Trickster [Jung 1997: 338]. The personification of absolute evil, which cannot be explained either from the point of view of the manifestation of the will of the individual, or from the point of view of the order of things indifferent to morality, attracted the attention of romantics. Katerina Lvovna appears as an emanation of primary chaos and the realm of shadows and is a given archaic type, ambivalent in nature, a bearer of evil and always a victim herself. She commits a number of crimes in an atmosphere of demonic chaos. Its irretrievable estrangement from the world gives no hope of rebirth. Many researchers of the tragedy genre agree that its plot is based on the archetype of the victim.
In the work of N.S. Leskov is not just a pessimistic "excess" of the image, but in its disastrous "excess" a tragic picture of the world is revealed. In his memoirs, N. S. Leskov emphasized the horror and fear he experienced while writing the story: “But when I wrote my Lady Macbeth, under the influence of inflated nerves and loneliness, I almost reached delirium. At times I felt unbearably terrified, my hair stood on end, I froze at the slightest rustle, which I made myself by moving my foot or turning my neck. Those were hard moments that I will never forget. Since then, I have avoided describing such horrors” [Leskov 1956: 499].
Undoubtedly, we are talking about liberated to its extreme
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limits of female sexuality, destroying the world and the very nature of man. This is the writer's warning to modern society and the expression of nostalgia for the ideal natural states of man, the affirmation of the highly moral ideal of a woman in an era of emancipation, a nihilistic decline in morals.
Thus, the "folk" legend about the villainous merchant Izmailova grows into a story about a living person. This is how the artistic effect of the versatility of the manifestation of human nature is achieved. Terrified by the terrible demonic nature of sexual desires that he discovered, which can awaken animal instincts in a person, the writer seeks to find harmony.
A lively, highly original and controversial aesthetic image, embodying the ecstatic type, is created at the border of the intersection of various modes of artistry, embodying the author's concept of man. So in the story of N.S. Leskov, "essay" and "tragedy" converge, giving rise to a dramatically acute sense of being, which ensures the uniqueness of the artistic form. Genre specificity is manifested not only in the syncretism of various genre formations, but, above all, in the ambivalent nature of this syncretism, and, consequently, the artistic system itself, aimed at describing passion and expressing its condemnation.
LITERATURE
Anninsky L.A. Three heretics: stories about A.F. Pisemsky, P.I.
Melnikov-Pechersky, N.S. Leskove. M. : Book, 1986.
Voronkov A. "Lady Macbeth" wanders around the cops? // Spaces of Russia. 2002. 28 Aug. P. 19. (About the house where the prototypes of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" lived in the city of Mtsensk, about the accuracy of the version).
Godlevskaya E. A terrible house // Generation. 2002. May 28. P. 4. (About the house on Lenina Street (formerly Staro-Moskovskaya) in the city of Mtsensk, which belonged to the merchant Inozemtsev; according to the version, the events described by N.S. Leskov in “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” took place here).
Proud songs, ballads and romances / comp. text and comments. A. Kulagina, F.M. Selivanova. M. : Sovremennik, 1999.
Zhery K. Sensuality and Crime in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by N.S. Leskova // Russian literature. 2004. No. 1. pp. 102-110.
Kireevsky P.V. Collection of folk songs P.V. Kireevsky: in 2 vols. T.1. L: Nauka, 1983.
Leskov N.S. Sobr. op. : in 11 t. M. : GIHL, 1956. T. 1.
Pozdina I.V. Genre specifics of N.S. Leskov in the 1860s: monograph. Chelyabinsk: Chelyabinsk Publishing House. state myth-restoration of the story
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N.S. Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District") // New about N.S. Leskove. M.; Yoshkar-Ola: Prometheus, 1998. S. 46-58.
Rovinsky D.A. Russian folk pictures: in 2 volumes. St. Petersburg. : Edition R. Golike, 1900.
Savelova L.V. The specifics of the genre structure of N.S. Leskov 1860-1890s: dis. ... cand. philol. Sciences. Stavropol, 2005.
Telegin S.M. In the land of Shakespeare's passions (mytho-restoration of N.S. Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District") // New about N.S. Leskove. M.; Yoshkar-Ola: Prometheus, 1998. S. 46-58.
Shchennikov G.K. Dostoevsky and Russian realism. Sverdlovsk: Publishing House Ural. un-ta, 1987.
Jung K.G. Soul and myth: six archetypes. Kyiv: Port-Royal; M. : Perfection, 1997.
Sometimes in our places such characters are born that no matter how many years have passed since meeting with them, some of them you will never remember without spiritual awe, says Leskov at the very beginning of his essay, as he himself called it, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district . Such words of the author are not accidental, because it is to the number of such outstanding natures, such strong characters that his heroine Katerina Lvovna Izmailova belongs.
Already in the title of his work, this text is intended only for private use - Leskov directly indicates the relationship of his heroine with Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. Both that and another kill in aspiration to the purpose of those who hinder them; both perish under the weight of their crimes. However, in my opinion, the forces that drive these heroines, make them go to murder and betrayal, differ, and radically. If Lady Macbeth commits all her evil deeds for the sake of ambition, for the sake of striving to make her husband king, then Katerina is driven by a blind bestial passion for her lover, the clerk Sergei.
It can be said that Katerina is a symbol of Shakespearean passions, which are deformed and perverted in Russian soil so much that even love turns into a destructive passion. Leskov, pays great attention to the analysis of the reasons for such a distortion of human feelings and characters. And, in his opinion, one of the reasons for this is the soulless, deadening emptiness of provincial life. It is not for nothing that the word boredom becomes one of the key words for Leskov when describing Katerina’s life: Exorbitant boredom in a locked merchant’s chamber with a high fence and lowered chain dogs more than once made the young merchant feel melancholy, reaching the point of stupor ... With all the contentment and kindness, Katerina Lvovna’s life in mother-in-law's house was the most boring ... It seems like Katerina Lvovna walks around the empty rooms, starts yawning out of boredom and climbs the stairs to her matrimonial bedchamber ... And the same boredom will wake up again, the Russian boredom of a merchant's house, from which, they say, fun even choke.
It was these conditions of complete spiritual vacuum and longing that led to the fact that even such a bright and pure feeling as love turned into a blind and unrestrained bestial passion in the soul of the heroine.
The fact that the passion that flared up in Katerina's soul is really bestial, Leskov emphasizes by the fact that in the character of the heroine the pagan began, the bodily is sharply opposed to the spiritual. Katerina, although she is a woman, has tremendous physical strength, and Leskov in every possible way emphasizes her outlandish heaviness, bodily excess. Passion for Sergei makes Katerinina's excess unfold in full power of pagan strength, and all the dark sides of her nature come out. She begins to live, as it were, in accordance with the words of Macbeth: I dare everything that a man dares. And only a beast is capable of more.
Katerina's actions, committed under the influence of passion and at first not even causing much condemnation, inevitably lead her to a fall into pitch evil, to an absolute contradiction with Christianity. This is especially emphasized by the fact that she commits the murder of Fedya, the last and most terrible crime of Katerina, on the night before the feast of the Entry of the Virgin into the temple.
Even love does not justify Katerina, for the sake of which she went to murder, for the sake of which she went to hard labor, for the sake of which she experienced all the grief of betrayal by Sergei and for the sake of which she drowned her rival Sonetka with her in an icy river. The feeling does not justify the heroine, because what Katerina feels in herself cannot be called love. This is a dark passion that blinds a person to the point where he no longer sees the difference between good and evil, between truth and falsehood. This; repeatedly emphasized by Leskov, who, condemning his heroine, does not leave her the slightest chance of justification in the eyes of the reader.
Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, a girl from a poor family, now the wife of a wealthy merchant Zinovy Borisovich, lives in a house with her husband and father-in-law Boris Timofeevich. The girl suffers from boredom all the time, because she is used to living, albeit poorly, but cheerfully, she does not like to read books, invites guests and rarely visits, because this does not give her much pleasure. One day, Katerina hears the laughter of the peasants, goes to them and sees how they fool around and have fun. Unable to resist, she joins them and has fun with them. During this fun, the peasant Sergey (Filippych) pesters her all the time. Later, the cook Aksinya tells Katerina that Sergei has already taken possession of many girls, and one must be more careful with him. But when Zinovy \u200b\u200bBorisovich is away, Sergei sneaks into Katerina's room, declares his love, and she reciprocates.
Boris Timofeich later finds out about their relationship, hides Sergei in the basement. Katerina tries to find out where her lover is, but to no avail. After some time, Boris dies, poisoned by mushrooms with sour cream (Katerina poured rat poison into it). Everyone will soon find out about their relationship, rumors reach her husband. He returns, and Katerina and Sergei, with some difficulty, strangle him and bury him in the basement so that the body is not found. It turns out that Zinovy has a nephew Fyodor Zakharov Lyamin. She and her mother come to Katerina, the child falls ill, and Katerina and Sergei suffocate him with a pillow (his death would be attributed to illness). This scene is seen by one man, everyone will immediately know about it, Katerina and Sergey are sent into exile. On the way, Katerina bribes the guards to spend time with Sergei, but he no longer needs her. First, he cheats on her with the kind Fiona, then with Sonetka. He gives her her stockings, Katerina spits in his eye out of hatred, she is robbed at night. And when they cross the Volga, at first she calmly and thoughtfully looks into the distance, and then suddenly grabs Sonetka and jumps into the water with her.
The main problem is "what love is capable of." Feelings so captured the soul of Katerina that she thinks only about her beloved, does everything for him, without thinking about the consequences. Therefore, the portrait of Sergei changes in the course of the story, while Katerina remains equally soulless and obsessed. Only at the end, having lost his love, Katerina no longer loves herself, or him, or her life. After all, she devotes all of herself to him, and receives nothing in return (and understands what her husband experienced). She is also tormented by her conscience: the dead come to her, and we understand that love is not an excuse for evil, because true, pure love should not bring evil. The author conveys this idea to the reader in his work, pointing out the immorality of his characters.
