In this article, we will consider a brief analysis of the story "The Stationmaster", which Alexander Pushkin wrote in 1830, and which was included in the collection "Belkin's Tale".
There are two distinct main characters in this story. This is the stationmaster himself, who serves at the station, his name is Samson Vyrin. And his beloved beautiful daughter Dunya. There is also the hussar Minsky, who also played an important role. So, in a nutshell, the plot of the story "The Stationmaster":
Samson Vyrin is a petty official who works at the station. He is kind and peaceful, although passing people constantly break the bad mood on him. Vyrin's daughter Dunya is a beauty and helper. Once, the hussar Minsky comes to them, who pretends to be ill in order to spend several days with the girl with whom he fell in love. Then, having deceived his father, the hussar takes Dunya to Petersburg. Samson Vyrin makes attempts to take his daughter away, but nothing comes of it. With grief, he begins to drink, and, in the end, he drinks himself from such an unhappy life, turning into a decrepit old man. Dunya, apparently, marries Minsky, gives birth to three children for him, does not need anything. Upon learning of the death of her father, she deeply regrets and reproaches herself all her life.
Such is the plot of the story, without its consideration, the analysis of "The Stationmaster" would be incomplete.
Problems of the story
Of course, Pushkin raises a number of issues in this story. For example, we are talking about a conflict - an eternal conflict - between parental will and children. Often, parents do not let the child leave the parental home, and grown-up children want to live an independent life.
So it is in The Stationmaster, which we are analyzing. Dunya's daughter helps Vyrin well, because his work is not easy, there are not enough horses, people get nervous and angry because of this, some conflicts are constantly brewing, and Dunya's charm and her good appearance help to settle a lot. In addition, she works for comfort in the house, serves in front of clients. It is not surprising that Samson Vyrin values his daughter so much and does not want to let her go, because for him she is the main thing in life.
When Minsky takes Dunya away, it seems to Vyrin that it looks like a kidnapping, he does not believe that she herself wants to go with him. Having gone to rescue his daughter, Vyrin is faced with a firm reaction - the hussar does not want to part with his beloved, although it seems to the stationmaster that he simply uses her as a new toy - he will play and leave.
Samson Vyrin is confused and dejected, and although he goes back to his place, he imagines the fate of his daughter in a very depressing way. He can’t believe that Dunya and the hussar Minsky will be happy, and in the end he just becomes an inveterate drunkard.
What does the story "The Stationmaster" teach, what did the author especially want to emphasize? Many conclusions can be drawn, everyone will find something for themselves. But in any case, you can see the motivation to cherish family ties, love loved ones and think about their feelings. In addition, you should never despair and allow circumstances to drive yourself into a corner.
We hope that the summary of this work will also help you. You have now read a brief analysis of The Station Agent. We also bring to your attention an article with an essay on this story.
The story of A. S. Pushkin "The Stationmaster" is one of the stories of the cycle told by a certain Ivan Petrovich Belkin under the title "Tales of Belkin". Dated September 14, 1830. Its plot was allegedly heard and recorded by the author of the work. The story is simple and ordinary, but it is told with special lyricism, which the author makes the reader sympathize with and empathize with the heroes of the story.
The work raises the problem of the "little man", humiliated and unhappy. Samson Vyrin is a stationmaster who has one joy - his daughter Dunya. The surname was chosen by A. S. Pushkin not by chance, it was formed from the name of the postal station Vyra, which the author knew well.
The center of the story is the life of an ordinary person, a stationmaster, whose work is hard and provides money only for food. The visiting hussar Minsky drags Dunya with him, and she leaves her parents' house without her father's consent. Samson cannot be comforted by grief, because his daughter was the whole meaning of life for him. One day Samson Vyrin decides to go to Minsky to talk to him and see his daughter. But the meeting turned out to be unpleasant. Dunya fainted, and Minsky drives Vyrin out of the gate, putting money in his pocket. So the poor father left with nothing. The reader will learn that a few years later Dunya came to her father, but already at his grave and cried for a long time ...
This worldly story makes the reader feel sorry for the unfortunate old caretaker who lost his daughter. Minsky's wealth did not allow Dunya to communicate with his father. The caretaker was very worried about how his beloved daughter lives. And Dunya constantly thought about her father. The "little man" - Samson Vyrin - although of a low social class, is not devoid of rationality and sincere feelings, he does not believe in his daughter's happiness and tries to save her.
A special subject in the story is the furnishings of the room where Vyrin lived. Its walls were hung with paintings depicting scenes of the return of the prodigal son. Samson waited for his daughter to come to her senses and return, but the miracle did not happen.
The reality of the picture emphasizes the accessible language of the story. The author, who is also the narrator, is also a feature of the work. The sincere sympathy of the author shows through between the lines. The narrator takes pity on Vyrin and inquires about his fate: “Is the old caretaker still alive?”
The plot of this story is sad, but still it has a happy ending - Dunya, despite her new position in society, remembers her father and loves him. She is happy in the family, it is a pity that her father found out this way.
"The Stationmaster" - is the beginning of a new strip of creativity of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. If in the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" he tries to hide his attitude to everyday issues under some humor and a sarcastic attitude towards surrounding problems. Yes, and Belkin himself in other stories tries to mask his sympathetic attitude to a simple and ordinary routine life, in this story he describes it as it is, without humor and desire to embellish the current situation.
The author feels deep pity, he is insanely sorry for the broken life of the stationmaster, he experienced a real storm and severe pain at the very end of his own existence, so he parted with her on a rather sad note.
For the first time in a work, Pushkin admits notes of serious condemnation towards divine frivolity, which, despite all the contradictions, was quite close and dear to him.
The stationmaster lives a quiet and peaceful life, the meaning of which is Dunya's daughter. But at one point everything collapses, she dies, which completely destroys the usual way of life. He cannot get used to the fact that the center of his existence is gone, and now he will have to continue to live alone. He meets a hussar who did not want to share his grief with him, he does not try to understand an elderly man who at that moment needed help and support.
Belkin's stories became the first realistic stories that received wide publicity. The author was able to accurately convey the realism of different life situations of that era, in every person at that time there was a small revolution, which the main author is watching from the sidelines. A real revolution takes place in the life of the stationmaster, which ends in tragedy.
He could not deal with his own contradiction, deal with what happened and break the situation. He lost his beloved and dear person, now he has no one to share sorrows and happiness with. Alexander Sergeevich accurately conveys all his inner experiences, suffering and loneliness that he experiences. Actually, therefore, the reader understands that a successful outcome will not work.
Analysis 2
For every creator, the existence of the common man seems rather strange and slightly aloof. Still, a creative person exists with slightly different experiences and concerns, completely different priorities live in his mind.
Nevertheless, if you look at the works of many Russian writers, then the theme of the so-called little man, that is, a simple man who practically does not think about high things, and lives by his simple interests, is actively touched upon.
This theme in many respects begins precisely with the Stationmaster Pushkin, where the author, almost for the first time, begins to sympathize with ordinary people and sincerely sympathize with the difficult fate of such people. After all, if you look at previous works, then there the author still focuses on secular people, analyzes how the representatives of the high society of the village and the city differ and other topics that are not particularly close to the common people.
In The Stationmaster, Pushkin shifts the emphasis, and we see confirmation of this fact in the description of the hussar Minsky, who is given only with small strokes and does not represent a person as such. This hero could become the main one if you look from the other side and play a story in the work similar to how Pechorin kidnaps Bella. Nevertheless, here a representative of a higher class, who is far from the needs of the common people, is given as a certain destructive and disharmonious element.
The protagonist, in turn, is, as it were, the embodiment of simple domestic happiness. Samson Vyrin is not a stupid or narrow-minded person, yes, he does not perform and will not perform feats, he is used to comfort, but in a sense, he is the salt of the earth, it is on such people that the world is kept. At the same time, Minsky here is almost the complete antipode of happiness, he pursues only personal interests and, as a result, creates a tragedy not only for the caretaker, but also for Dunya.
Most likely, she will never forgive herself again for such a separation from a man who lived only for her. Minsky feels in Vyrin a clear competitor and that is why he kicks him out of his house like that, he understands how attached Dunya is to him. In fact, he buys his happiness, although happiness cannot be bought.
As a result, in fact, Minsky buys only unhappiness, he makes unhappy two people who were previously happy. Of course, he can give Dunya well-being and a certain family comfort, but will she be as calm as she was at the station, daily watching identical pictures on the walls, a colorful bed curtain and pots of balsam? Will this heroine discover something new for herself besides secular society, which in reality is deeply unhappy?
Pushkin in this work, though not openly, but quite clearly sympathizes with the protagonist and is sad about a broken fate. He sees the negative side of the willfulness of the hussar and his sensuality. He also sees some beauty and true happiness in the simple and uncomplicated life of a small person.
Essence, meaning and idea
The work belongs to the period of the poet's work, called the Boldin autumn, and in terms of genre orientation is a story written in the style of sentimentalism and realism, included in the author's prose collection entitled "The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin."
The main theme of the work is reflections on the problems of small people who find themselves in a disadvantaged position. In addition to this topic, the author examines in the story the issues of morality, human love, which are relevant in the modern world.
The compositional structure of the story consists of three components, the first of which is a lyrical digression of the author, the second part is presented in the form of conversations between the narrator and the main character, where the storyline develops and climaxes, and the third part is described in the form of an epilogue.
The author presents the key character of the story as a fifty-year-old old man, Samson Vyrin, distinguished by kindness and sociability, boundless love for his only daughter Dunyasha. A man is characterized by cordiality, responsiveness, meek and open soul.
The girl is the second protagonist of the work and is depicted as a caring daughter, protecting the old man from the claims of the guests, who, however, is carried away by a visiting military officer and leaves her father alone. As a result of the departure of his beloved daughter, Samson descends, washing down grief with alcohol, and subsequently dies, without waiting for Dunyasha to return.
The semantic load of the work is to reveal the image of a little man, unable to withstand life circumstances that broke his weak, stupid, but kind and meek personality.
In this regard, the author reflects on the moral issues in the relationship between parents and children, emphasizing the need to remember the person who made it possible to feel the taste for life, as well as experience the best human feelings in the form of love, motherhood, personal happiness.
The finale of the story is presented by the author as sad and sad, but the narrative content is filled with hope for changes in the human heart that can overcome selfishness and indifference in loved ones. This is demonstrated in the scene when the girl realizes the impossibility of returning a dear and devoted person to this life and deep human remorse.
The work is one of the most powerful stories included in the writer's prose collection.
Pushkin wrote his Onegin from a whole generation of young people. They lived at the expense of serfs, received education, led an empty secular life, did not work anywhere.
What does this concept mean? Ecology is the science of the relationship between man and the environment. Each person relates to nature differently. Someone takes care of her, takes care of her, while others only do
Radishchev, like many contemporary Russian and foreign writers, was guided by the culture of perception of his time, the mores of his contemporaries. It `s naturally. It prompted him to create in the style of sentimentalism.
This cycle includes several short stories, which are interconnected by one narrator - Ivan Petrovich Belkin.
This character is fictional, as Pushkin wrote, suffering from a fever and died in 1828.
In contact with
The reader learns about the fate of the narrator when he just begins to get acquainted with the cycle of stories that can be read online. The author in his work acts as a publisher and in the "Foreword" talks about the fate of the narrator Belkin himself. This cycle of stories by Pushkin came out of print in 1831. It included the following works:
- "Undertaker".
History of the creation of the story
Alexander Pushkin worked on a work staying in 1830 in Boldino. The story was written quickly, in just a few days, and already on September 14 it was finished. It is known that some money issues brought him to the Boldin estate, but the cholera epidemic forced him to linger.
At this time, many beautiful and wonderful works were written, among which the most outstanding is The Stationmaster, a brief retelling of which can be found in this article.
The plot and composition of the story
This is a story about ordinary people who experience both moments of happiness and tragedy in their lives. The plot of the story shows that happiness is different for each person and that it is sometimes hidden in the small and ordinary.
The whole life of the protagonist is connected with the philosophical thought of the entire cycle. In the room of Samson Vyrin there are many pictures from the famous parable of the prodigal son, which help not only to understand the content of the whole story, but also its idea. He waited for his Dunya to return to him, but the girl did not return. The father was well aware that his daughter was not needed by the one who took her away from the family.
The narrative in the work comes from the perspective of a titular adviser who knew both Dunya and her father. In total, there are several main characters in the story:
- Narrator.
- Dunya.
- Samson Vyrin.
- Minsky.
The narrator passed through these places several times and drank tea in the caretaker's house, admiring his daughter. According to him, Vyrin himself told him this whole tragic story. The plot of the whole tragic story takes place at the moment when Dunya secretly runs away from home with a hussar.
The final scene of the work takes place in the cemetery, where Samson Vyrin now rests. He asks for forgiveness at this grave and Dunya, who is now deeply repentant.
The main idea of the story
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin constantly emphasizes in his story: everything parents want their children to be happy. But Dunya is unhappy, and her sinful love brings torment and worries to her father.
The behavior of Dunya and Minsky drives Vyrin to the grave.
Samson Vyrin dies because, while continuing to love his daughter, he has lost faith that he will ever see her again.
Dunya seems to have deleted her father from her life, and this ingratitude and loss of the meaning of life, which was in her daughter, leads to such a sad ending to the story.
Brief retelling of the story
Each person met with the caretakers, setting off on the road. Usually such people cause only anger and rudeness. Few of those who are on the road revere them, considering them either robbers or monsters. But if you think about what their life is like, delve into it, then you will begin to treat them more condescendingly. For days on end they have no peace, and some irritated passers-by can even beat them, venting their annoyance and anger that they have accumulated while driving.
The dwelling of such a caretaker is poor and miserable. There is never peace in it, as guests spend time there waiting for horses. Only compassion can be evoked by such a caretaker who, regardless of the weather, is looking for horses, trying to please all those passing by. The narrator, who has been traveling for twenty years, often visits such dwellings, and he is well aware of how hard and thankless this hard work is.
The narrator in 1816 again went to work. At that time he was young and hot-tempered and often quarreled with the stationmasters. One rainy day, he stopped at one of the stations to rest from the road and change clothes. The tea was served by a girl who was lovely. At that time, Dunya was 14 years old. The attention of the visitor was also attracted by the pictures that adorned the walls of the caretaker's poor dwelling. These were illustrations from the parable of the prodigal son.
Samson Vyrin was fresh and cheerful, he was already fifty years old. He loved his daughter and raised her freely and freely. The three of them drank tea for a long time and chatted merrily.
A few years later, the narrator soon found himself again in the same places and decided to visit the stationmaster and his lovely daughter. But it was impossible to recognize Samson Vyrin: he had grown old, there were deep wrinkles on his unshaven face, he was hunched over.
In the conversation, it turned out that three years ago, one of the passers-by, seeing Dunya, acted out fainting and illness. Dunya looked after him for two days. And on Sunday he was going to leave , offering to bring the girl to the church mass. Dunya thought for a moment, but her father himself persuaded her to sit in a wagon with a young and slender hussar.
Soon Samson became agitated and went to mass, but it turned out that Dunya never appeared there. The girl did not return even in the evening, and the drunken coachman said that she had left with a young hussar. The caretaker immediately fell ill, and when he recovered, he immediately went to St. Petersburg to find Captain Minsky and bring his daughter home. Soon he was at the reception of the hussar, but he simply decided to pay him off and demanded that he never again look for meetings with his daughter, and did not disturb her.
But Samson made one more attempt and made his way into the house where Dunya lived. He saw her among luxury, happy. But as soon as the girl recognized her father, she immediately fainted. Minsky demanded to expose Vyrin and never let him into this house again. After that, returning home, the stationmaster grew old and never bothered Dunya and Minsky again. This story struck the narrator and haunted for many years.
When, after a while, he again found himself in these parts, he decided to find out how Samson Vyrin was doing. But it turned out that he died a year ago and was buried in the local cemetery. And in his house housed the family of the brewer. The brewer's son accompanied the narrator to the grave. Vanka said that in the summer some lady with three children came and went to his grave. When she learned that Samson Vyrin had died, she immediately began to cry. And then she herself went to the cemetery and lay for a long time on the grave of her father.
Analysis of the story
This is a work of Alexander Pushkin the most difficult and saddest of the whole cycle. The short story tells about the tragic fate of the stationmaster and the happy fate of his daughter. Samson Vyrin, having studied the biblical parable of the prodigal son from pictures, constantly thinks that misfortune can happen to his daughter. He constantly remembers Dunya and thinks that she, too, will be deceived and one day she will be abandoned. And it worries his heart. These thoughts become disastrous for the stationmaster, who died, having lost the meaning of his life.
History of creation
Boldin autumn in the work of A.S. Pushkin became truly "golden", since it was at this time that he created many works. Among them is Belkin's Tales. In a letter to his friend P. Pletnev, Pushkin wrote: "... I wrote 5 stories in prose, from which Baratynsky neighs and beats." The chronology of the creation of these stories is as follows: on September 9, “The Undertaker” was completed, on September 14 - “The Stationmaster”, on September 20 - “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”, after almost a month's break, the last two stories were written: “Shot” - on October 14 and “Snowstorm " - The 20th of October. The Belkin Tales cycle was Pushkin's first completed prose work. Five stories were united by the fictional face of the author, about which the "publisher" spoke in the preface. We learn that P.P. Belkin was born "of honest and noble parents in 1798 in the village of Goryukhino." “He was of medium height, had gray eyes, blond hair, a straight nose; his face was white and thin. “He led the most moderate life, avoided all kinds of excesses; it never happened ... to see him tipsy ... he had a great inclination towards the female sex, but his bashfulness was truly girlish. In the autumn of 1828, this sympathetic character "fell ill with a catarrhal fever, which turned into a fever, and died ...".
At the end of October 1831, The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin were published. The preface ended with the words: “Considering it a duty to respect the will of our author's venerable friend, we express our deepest gratitude to him for the news brought to us and hope that the public will appreciate their sincerity and good nature. A.P. The epigraph to all the stories, taken from Fonvizin's "Undergrowth" (Ms. Prostakova: "That, my father, he is still a hunter of stories." Skotinin: "Mitrofan is for me"), speaks of the nationality and simplicity of Ivan Petrovich. He collected these “simple” stories, and wrote them down from different narrators (“The Overseer” was told to him by the titular adviser A.G.N., “The Shot” by Lieutenant Colonel I.L.P., “The Undertaker” by the clerk B.V., "Snowstorm" and "Young lady" by the girl K.I.T.), having processed them according to his skill and discretion. Thus, Pushkin, as a real author of stories, hides behind a double chain of simple-minded storytellers, and this gives him great freedom of narration, creates considerable opportunities for comedy, satire and parody, and at the same time allows him to express his attitude to these stories.
With the full designation of the name of the real author, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, they were published in 1834. Creating in this cycle an unforgettable gallery of images living and acting in the Russian provinces, Pushkin talks about modern Russia with a kind smile and humor. While working on Belkin's Tales, Pushkin defined one of his main tasks as follows: "Our language needs to be given more will (of course, in accordance with its spirit)." And when the author of the stories was asked who this Belkin was, Pushkin replied: “Whoever he is, you need to write stories like this: simply, briefly and clearly.”
The story "The Stationmaster" occupies a significant place in the work of A.S. Pushkin and is of great importance for all Russian literature. It is almost the first time that life's hardships, pain and suffering of the one who is called the "little man" are depicted in it. The theme of “humiliated and offended” begins with it in Russian literature, which will introduce you to kind, quiet, suffering heroes and will allow you to see not only meekness, but also the greatness of their souls and hearts. The epigraph is taken from a poem by P.A. Vyazemsky’s “Station” (“College registrar, / Postal station dictator”), Pushkin changed the quote, calling the station superintendent a “college registrar” (the lowest civil rank in pre-revolutionary Russia), and not a “provincial registrar”, as it was in the original , since this rank is higher.
Genus, genre, creative method
"The Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" consists of 5 stories: "Shot", "Snowstorm", "The Undertaker", "The Stationmaster", "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman". Each of Belkin's Tales is so small in size that one could call it a story. Pushkin calls them stories. For a realist writer reproducing life, the forms of the story and the prose novel were especially suitable. They attracted Pushkin with their much greater than poetry, intelligibility to the widest circles of readers. “Tales and novels are read by everyone and everywhere,” he noted. Belkin's Tale" are, in essence, the beginning of Russian highly artistic realistic prose.
Pushkin took the most typical romantic plots for the story, which in our time may well be repeated. His characters initially find themselves in situations where the word "love" is present. They are already in love or just crave this feeling, but it is from here that the deployment and pumping of the plot begins. Belkin's Tales was conceived by the author as a parody of the genre of romantic literature. In the story "The Shot", the main character Silvio came from the outgoing era of romanticism. This is a handsome strong brave man with a solid passionate character and an exotic non-Russian name, reminiscent of the mysterious and fatal heroes of Byron's romantic poems. The Blizzard parodies Zhukovsky's French novels and romantic ballads. At the end of the story, a comic confusion with suitors leads the heroine of the story to a new, hard-won happiness. In the story "The Undertaker", in which Adrian Prokhorov invites the dead to visit him, Mozart's opera and the terrible stories of romantics are parodied. The Young Lady Peasant Woman is a small elegant sitcom with dressing up in the French style, unfolding in a Russian noble estate. But she kindly, funny and witty parodies the famous tragedy - "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare.
In the Belkin Tales cycle, the center and peak are the Stationmaster. The story laid the foundations of realism in Russian literature. In essence, in terms of its plot, expressiveness, complex capacious theme and tenial composition, in terms of the characters themselves, this is already a small, concise novel that influenced subsequent Russian prose and gave rise to Gogol's story "The Overcoat". The people here are simple, and their history itself would be simple if various everyday circumstances had not intervened in it.
Subject
In Belkin's Tales, along with the traditional romantic themes from the life of the nobility and estate, Pushkin reveals the theme of human happiness in its broadest sense. Worldly wisdom, rules of everyday behavior, generally accepted morality are enshrined in catechisms, prescriptions, but following them does not always and does not always lead to good luck. It is necessary that fate give a person happiness, so that circumstances successfully converge. Belkin's Tales shows that there are no hopeless situations, one must fight for happiness, and it will be, even if it is impossible.
The story "The Stationmaster" is the saddest and most difficult work of the cycle. This is a story about the sad fate of Vyrin and the happy fate of his daughter. From the very beginning, the author connects the modest story of Samson Vyrin with the philosophical meaning of the entire cycle. After all, the stationmaster, who does not read books at all, has his own scheme for perceiving life. It is reflected in the pictures "with decent German verses", which are hung on the walls of his "humble, but tidy monastery." The narrator describes in detail these pictures depicting the biblical legend of the prodigal son. Samson Vyrin looks at everything that happened to him and his daughter through the prism of these pictures. His life experience suggests that misfortune will happen to his daughter, she will be deceived and abandoned. He is a toy, a small man in the hands of the powerful of the world, who have turned money into the main measure.
Pushkin declared one of the main themes of Russian literature of the 19th century - the theme of the "little man". The significance of this topic for Pushkin was not in exposing the downtroddenness of his hero, but in discovering in the “little man” a compassionate and sensitive soul, endowed with the gift of responding to someone else’s misfortune and someone else’s pain.
From now on, the theme of the "little man" will be constantly heard in Russian classical literature.
Idea
“None of the Tales of Belkin has an idea. You read - sweetly, smoothly, smoothly: you read it - everything is forgotten, there is nothing in your memory but adventures. "Belkin's Tales" are easy to read, because they do not make you think" ("Northern Bee", 1834, No. 192, August 27).
“True, these stories are entertaining, they cannot be read without pleasure: this comes from a charming style, from the art of telling, but they are not artistic creations, but simply fairy tales and fables” (V. G. Belinsky).
“How long have you been re-reading Pushkin's prose? Make me a friend - read all Belkin's Tales first. They should be studied and studied by every writer. I did this the other day and I cannot convey to you the beneficent influence that this reading had on me ”(from a letter from L.N. Tolstoy to P.D. Golokhvastov).
Such an ambiguous perception of the Pushkin cycle suggests that there is some secret in Belkin's Tales. In "The Stationmaster" it is contained in a small artistic detail - wall paintings telling about the prodigal son, which were a frequent part of the station environment in the 1920s and 1940s. The description of those pictures takes the narrative out of the social and everyday plane into the philosophical one, makes it possible to comprehend its content in relation to human experience, and interprets the “eternal story” about the prodigal son. The story is imbued with the pathos of compassion.
The nature of the conflict
In the story "The Stationmaster" - a humiliated and sad hero, the ending is equally sad and happy: the death of the stationmaster, on the one hand, and the happy life of his daughter, on the other. The story is distinguished by the special nature of the conflict: there are no negative characters who would be negative in everything; there is no direct evil - and at the same time, the grief of a simple person, a stationmaster, does not become less from this.
The new type of hero and conflict entailed a different narrative system, the figure of the narrator - the titular adviser A. G. N. He tells the story he heard from others, from Vyrin himself and from the “red-haired and crooked” boy. The abduction of Dunya Vyrina by a hussar is the beginning of a drama, followed by a chain of events. From the post station the action is transferred to Petersburg, from the caretaker's house to the grave outside the outskirts. The caretaker is unable to influence the course of events, but before bowing to fate, he tries to turn back the story, save Dunya from what seems to the poor father to be the death of his “child”. The hero comprehends what happened and, moreover, descends into the grave from a powerless consciousness of his own guilt and the irreparable misfortune.
“Little man” is not only a low rank, lack of high social status, but also loss in life, fear of it, loss of interest and purpose. Pushkin was the first to draw the attention of readers to the fact that, despite his low origin, a person still remains a person and he has all the same feelings and passions as people of high society. The story "The Stationmaster" teaches you to respect and love a person, teaches you the ability to sympathize, makes you think that the world in which the stationmasters live is not arranged in the best way.
Main heroes
The author-narrator sympathetically speaks of "real martyrs of the fourteenth grade", stationmasters accused of all sins by travelers. In fact, their life is a real hard labor: “The traveler takes out all the annoyance accumulated during a boring ride on the caretaker. The weather is unbearable, the road is bad, the coachman is stubborn, the horses are not driven - and the caretaker is to blame ... You can easily guess that I have friends from the respectable class of caretakers. This story is written in memory of one of them.
The main character in the story "The Stationmaster" is Samson Vyrin, a man of about 50 years old. The caretaker was born around 1766, in a peasant family. The end of the 18th century, when Vyrin was 20-25 years old, was the time of the Suvorov wars and campaigns. As is known from history, Suvorov developed initiative among his subordinates, encouraged soldiers and non-commissioned officers, promoting them in their service, instilling camaraderie in them, demanded literacy and ingenuity. A man from the peasantry under the command of Suvorov could rise to the rank of non-commissioned officer, receive this title for faithful service and personal courage. Samson Vyrin could be just such a person and served, most likely, in the Izmailovsky regiment. The text says that, having arrived in St. Petersburg in search of his daughter, he stops at the Izmailovsky regiment, in the house of a retired non-commissioned officer, his old colleague.
It can be assumed that around 1880 he retired and received the post of stationmaster and the rank of collegiate registrar. This position gave a small but constant salary. He got married and soon had a daughter. But the wife died, and the daughter was the father's joy and consolation.
Since childhood, she had to shoulder all the women's work on her fragile shoulders. Vyrin himself, as he is presented at the beginning of the story, is “fresh and cheerful”, sociable and unembittered, despite the fact that undeserved insults rained down on his head. Just a few years later, driving along the same road, the author, stopping for the night at Samson Vyrin's, did not recognize him: from "fresh and vigorous" he turned into an abandoned, flabby old man, whose only consolation was a bottle. And the whole point is in the daughter: without asking for parental consent, Dunya - his life and hope, for the sake of which he lived and worked - fled with a passing hussar. The act of his daughter broke Samson, he could not bear the fact that his dear child, his Dunya, whom he protected from all dangers as best he could, was able to do this with him and, even worse, with himself - she became not a wife, but a mistress.
Pushkin sympathizes with his hero and deeply respects him: a man of the lower class, who grew up in need, hard work, did not forget what decency, conscience and honor are. Moreover, he puts these qualities above material goods. Poverty for Samson is nothing compared to the emptiness of the soul. It is not in vain that the author introduces into the story such a detail as pictures depicting the story of the prodigal son on the wall in Vyrin's house. Like the father of the prodigal son, Samson was ready to forgive. But Dunya did not return. The father’s suffering was aggravated by the fact that he knew well how such stories often end: “There are a lot of them in St. Petersburg, young fools, today in satin and velvet, and tomorrow, you see, they are sweeping the street along with the barren tavern. When you sometimes think that Dunya, perhaps, immediately disappears, you involuntarily sin and wish her a grave ... ". An attempt to find a daughter in the vast Petersburg ended in nothing. This is where the stationmaster gave up - he took to drinking completely and after a while he died without waiting for his daughter. Pushkin created in his Samson Vyrin an amazingly capacious, truthful image of a simple, small person and showed all his rights to the title and dignity of a person.
Dunya in the story is shown as a jack of all trades. No one better than her could cook dinner, clean the house, serve the passerby. And the father, looking at her agility and beauty, could not get enough. At the same time, this is a young coquette, knowing her strength, entering into a conversation with a visitor without shyness, "like a girl who has seen the light." Belkin in the story sees Dunya for the first time, when she is fourteen years old, an age at which it is too early to think about fate. Dunya knows nothing about this intention of the visiting hussar Minsky. But, breaking away from her father, she chooses her female happiness, albeit, perhaps, not for long. She chooses another world, unknown, dangerous, but at least she will live in it. It's hard to blame her for choosing life over living, she took a risk and won. Dunya comes to her father only when everything she could only dream of has come true, although Pushkin does not say a word about her marriage. But six horses, three children, a nurse testify to the successful completion of the story. Of course, Dunya herself considers herself guilty of the death of her father, but the reader will probably forgive her, as Ivan Petrovich Belkin forgives.
Dunya and Minsky, the inner motives of their actions, thoughts and experiences, throughout the story, the narrator, the coachman, the father, the red-haired boy are described from the outside. Maybe that's why the images of Dunya and Minsky are given somewhat schematically. Minsky is noble and rich, he served in the Caucasus, the rank of captain is not small, and if he is in the guard, then he is already big, equal to an army lieutenant colonel. The kind and cheerful hussar fell in love with the ingenuous caretaker.
Many actions of the heroes of the story are incomprehensible today, but for Pushkin's contemporaries they were natural. So, Minsky, having fallen in love with Dunya, did not marry her. He could do this not only because he was a rake and a frivolous person, but also for a number of objective reasons. First, in order to marry, an officer needed the permission of the commander, often marriage meant resignation. Secondly, Minsky could depend on his parents, who would hardly have liked the marriage with the dowry and non-noblewoman Dunya. It takes time to resolve at least these two problems. Although Minsky was able to do it in the final.
Plot and composition
The compositional construction of Belkin's Tales, which consists of five separate stories, has been repeatedly addressed by Russian writers. He wrote about his intention to write a novel with a similar composition in one of his letters to F.M. Dostoevsky: “The stories are completely separate from each other, so that they can even be put on sale separately. I believe Pushkin was thinking of a similar form for the novel: five tales (the number of Belkin's Tales) sold separately. Pushkin's stories are indeed separate in all respects: there is no cross-cutting character (as opposed to the five stories of Lermontov's Hero of Our Time); no common content. But there is a general technique of mystery, "detective", which lies at the basis of each story. Pushkin's stories are united, firstly, by the figure of the narrator - Belkin; secondly, by the fact that they are all told. Narrativeness was, I suppose, the artistic device for which the whole text was started. Narrativeness, as common to all stories, simultaneously allowed them to be read (and sold) separately. Pushkin thought of a work that, being whole as a whole, would be whole in every part. I call this form, using the experience of subsequent Russian prose, a novel-cycle.
The stories were written by Pushkin in the same chronological order, but he arranged them not according to the time of writing, but on the basis of a compositional calculation, alternating stories with "unfavorable" and "prosperous" endings. Such a composition communicated to the entire cycle, despite the presence of deeply dramatic provisions in it, a general optimistic orientation.
Pushkin builds the story "The Stationmaster" on the development of two destinies and characters - father and daughter. Stationmaster Samson Vyrin - an old honored (three medals on faded ribbons) retired soldier, a kind and honest man, but rude and simple-hearted, is at the very bottom of the table of ranks, at the lowest rung of the social ladder. He is not only a simple, but a small person whom every passing nobleman can insult, shout, hit, although his lowest rank of the 14th class still gave the right to personal nobility. But all the guests were met, calmed down and given tea by his beautiful and lively daughter Dunya. But this family idyll could not continue forever and ended, at first glance, badly, because the caretaker and his daughter had different fates. A passing young handsome hussar Minsky fell in love with Dunya, deftly acted out the illness, achieved mutual feelings and took away, as befits a hussar, a crying but not resisting girl in a troika to Petersburg.
A small man of the 14th grade did not reconcile himself with such an insult and loss, he went to St. Petersburg to save his daughter, whom, as Vyrin, not without reason, believed, the insidious seducer would soon leave, drive out into the street. And his very reproachful appearance was important for the further development of this story, for the fate of his Dunya. But it turned out that the story is more complicated than the caretaker imagined. The captain fell in love with his daughter and, moreover, turned out to be a conscientious, honest man, he blushed with shame at the unexpected appearance of his father, deceived by him. And the beautiful Dunya answered the kidnapper with a strong, sincere feeling. The old man gradually drank himself from grief, longing and loneliness, and contrary to the moralizing pictures about the prodigal son, the daughter never came to visit him, disappeared, and was not even at her father's funeral. The rural cemetery was visited by a beautiful lady with three small barchats and a black pug in a luxurious carriage. She silently lay down on her father's grave and "lay for a long time." This is the folk custom of the last farewell and commemoration, the last "forgive". This is the greatness of human suffering and repentance.
Artistic originality
All the features of the poetics and style of Pushkin's artistic prose were revealed in relief in Belkin's Tales. Pushkin appears in them as an excellent novelist, who is equally accessible to a touching story, a short story sharp in plot and twists and turns, and a realistic sketch of manners and life. Artistic requirements for prose, which were formulated by Pushkin in the early 1920s, he now implements in his own creative practice. Nothing unnecessary, one thing necessary in the narrative, accuracy in definitions, conciseness and conciseness of the syllable.
"Tales of Belkin" are distinguished by the extreme economy of artistic means. From the very first lines, Pushkin introduces the reader to his heroes, introduces him into the circle of events. The characterization of the characters is just as stingy and no less expressive. The author almost does not give an external portrait of the characters, almost does not dwell on their emotional experiences. At the same time, the appearance of each of the characters emerges with remarkable relief and distinctness from his actions and speeches. “A writer needs to study this treasure without ceasing,” Leo Tolstoy advised a familiar writer about Belkin's Tales.
The meaning of the work
In the development of Russian artistic prose, a huge role belongs to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Here he had almost no predecessors. Prosaic literary language was also at a much lower level compared to poetry. Therefore, Pushkin faced a particularly important and very difficult task of processing the very material of this area of verbal art. Of Belkin's Tales, The Stationmaster was of exceptional importance for the further development of Russian literature. A very truthful image of the caretaker, warmed by the author's sympathy, opens the gallery of “poor people” created by subsequent Russian writers, humiliated and offended by the social relations of the then reality that were the most difficult for the common man.
The first writer who opened the world of “little people”* to the reader was N.M. Karamzin. Karamzin's word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa" had the greatest influence on subsequent literature. The author laid the foundation for a huge cycle of works about "little people", took the first step into this hitherto unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such writers of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.
A.S. Pushkin was the next writer, whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages, Petersburg and Moscow opened not only from a luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor people's houses. For the first time, Russian literature so poignantly and clearly showed the distortion of the individual by a hostile environment. Pushkin's artistic discovery was directed to the future, it was paving the way for Russian literature into the still unknown.
