/ / / The image of Matryona in Solzhenitsyn's story "Matryonin Dvor"
A very touching work by the Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The author was a humanist, so it is not surprising that a pure kind female image of the main character appears in the story.
The narration is conducted on behalf of the narrator, through the prism of attitudes of which we recognize the images of other characters, including the main character.
Matrena Vasilievna Grigorieva - central. By the will of fate, a former prisoner Ignatich settles in her house. It is he who tells us about the life of Matryona.
The woman did not immediately agree to accept a tenant in her yard, advised to find a place cleaner and more comfortable. But Ignatich was not looking for comfort, it was enough for him to have his own corner. He wanted to live a quiet life, so he chose the countryside.
Matryona is a modest resident of the village, simple-hearted and friendly. She was already about sixty years old. She lived alone, as she was a widow and lost all her children. To some extent, the guest diversified her lonely life. After all, now Matryona had someone to get up early for, cook food, there was someone to talk to in the evenings.
The narrator notes that Matryona's round face looked sick because of the yellowness and cloudy eyes. She sometimes had bouts of some kind of illness. And although she was not considered an invalid, the disease knocked her down for several days. Having learned about the difficult fate of the woman, Ignatich realized that her illness was quite understandable.
In her youth, Matrena loved Thaddeus and wanted to marry him. However, the war separated the lovers. The news came that he was missing. Matryona was sad for a long time, but at the insistence of her relatives, she married the brother of her former lover. After some time, a miracle happened - Thaddeus returned home alive. He was upset when he learned about the marriage of Matryona. But later he also marries and has many children. Since the children of Matryona did not live long, she takes on the upbringing of one child of Thaddeus and his wife. But her adopted daughter leaves her. After the loss of her husband, Matryona is left completely alone.
The image of Matryona is very light and at the same time tragic. She has always lived more for others than for herself. Despite the pain, Matryona did not shy away from hard work for the benefit of society. However, the narrator notes that the woman did not receive her pension for a long time.
Matrena never refused to help her neighbors. But her disinterested deeds, innocence caused more misunderstanding from the side of her fellow villagers than gratitude.
The woman endured all the trials steadfastly, did not become an embittered person. They say about such people that they have an inner core.
The end of Matryona's life is very tragic. Thaddeus, beloved by her, played a special role in this. He turned out to be a rotten man and insisted that Matryona give him the inheritance of her daughter Kira. Even then, the old woman did not defend her rights, but even helped to dismantle her hut, which led to her sad end.
The image of Matryona is the image of an ingenuous woman misunderstood by others.
The theme of the righteous in literature is not new, and yet in Solzhenitsyn's story it is revealed especially truthfully. The main characters of “Matryonin Dvor” are simple peasants, whose life is not like a fairy tale, the description of village life can shock the modern reader. What is the picture of the division of property of a living and healthy woman in the work: relatives rush her to part with earthly goods, as if hinting that she lingered in this world. The main character is a person of great spiritual strength: the death of children, a failed marriage, lonely old age - none of this broke the woman. Analysis of the story allows you to see a true, far from morality and beauty, picture of the life and worldview of a simple village people.
Characteristics of the heroes of “Matryonin Dvor”
Main characters
Ignatich (narrator) |
This is an autobiographical image. The author is returning from the places where he lingered ... Nobody is waiting for him, so it was decided to stop in central Russia. He wants to work as a teacher somewhere in the outback, and despite his past, by some miracle, he is sent to a remote village. The image of the narrator is very simple, and this is what is interesting: he is a calm, patient, unpretentious, wise person. Knows how to listen and see what is not said aloud, notices important things. He saw in Matryona Vasilievna a deep, sincere person, strong in his simplicity. It is he who notes that she has fewer sins than a lame cat (after all, she eats mice!). After the death of Matryona, the tenant realizes that she was a righteous man, despite the remarks of her relatives, who speak badly about the departed relative and her way of life. |
Matryona |
A simple woman from a small village. All six of Matryona's children died in infancy. Her husband did not return from the war, after many years she stops waiting for him and gets used to loneliness. The life of a peasant woman is full of deeds and worries, she is a very deep, pure person. Her life is based on the folk calendar, beliefs. Matryona Vasilievna is not deprived of a sense of beauty, modern art is alien to her, but when she heard Glinka's romances on the radio, the woman shed a tear. The mistress of the house has her own special look at life, politics, work. She does not condemn anyone, she is silent a lot, she rejoices every day. |
Thaddeus |
A tall, strong old man, he was not touched by gray hair, despite his age. Brother of Matrona's husband. He was going to marry Matryona, but having disappeared in the war, he got home for several years. Matryona was forced to marry his brother. Thaddeus returned alive, found a woman named Matryona and married her. He persuades Matryona to dismantle part of the house, which eventually led to her death. Despite the tragedy, he comes to share the property on the day of the funeral. |
Minor characters
In the work “Matryonin Dvor”, the characters reveal their nature in full force precisely at the turning point, when misfortune happens. Even the narrator Ignatich begins to truly understand Matrona only after her death. The characterization of Solzhenitsyn's heroes consists of a mass of small details, deeds and inadvertently spoken words. This is the peculiarity of the writer, he is a skilled master of the artistic word. In the list of the author's works about the Russian soul, this story is perhaps the most poignant and vivid.
Artwork test
to Central Russia. Thanks to new trends, a recent convict is now not refused to become a school teacher in the Vladimir village of Miltsevo (in the story - Talnovo). Solzhenitsyn settles in the hut of a local resident, Matryona Vasilievna, a woman of about sixty, who is often ill. Matryona has neither a husband nor children. Her loneliness is brightened up only by the ficuses planted everywhere in the house, and the rickety cat picked up out of pity. (See description of Matrona's house.)
With warm, lyrical sympathy, AI Solzhenitsyn describes the difficult life of Matryona. For many years she did not have a single ruble of earnings. On the collective farm, Matrena works "for the sticks of workdays in the filthy accountant's book." The law that came out after Stalin's death finally gives her the right to seek a pension, but even then not for herself, but for the loss of her husband, who went missing at the front. To do this, you need to collect a bunch of certificates, and then take them to the social security and the village council many times, 10-20 kilometers away. Matrona's hut is full of mice and cockroaches that cannot be bred. From living creatures, she keeps only a goat, and feeds mainly on “kartov” (potatoes) no larger than a chicken egg: her sandy, unfertilized garden does not give her larger. But even with such a need, Matryona remains a bright person, with a radiant smile. A good mood helps her to maintain work - hiking for peat in the forest (with a two-pound bag over her shoulders for three kilometers), mowing hay for a goat, chores around the house. Due to old age and illness, Matryona has already been released from the collective farm, but the formidable wife of the chairman now and then orders her to help at work for free. Matryona easily agrees to help her neighbors in the gardens without money. Having received 80 rubles of pension from the state, she puts on new felt boots, a coat from a worn railway overcoat - and believes that her life has noticeably improved.
"Matrenin Dvor" - the house of Matryona Vasilievna Zakharova in the village of Miltsevo, Vladimir Region, the scene of the story by A. I. Solzhenitsyn
Soon Solzhenitsyn also learns the story of Matrena's marriage. In her youth, she was going to marry her neighbor Thaddeus. However, in 1914 he was taken to the German war - and he disappeared without a trace for three years. And without waiting for news from the groom, in the belief that he was dead, Matryona married Thaddeus' brother, Yefim. But a few months later, Thaddeus returned from Hungarian captivity. In his hearts, he threatened to chop Matryona and Yefim with an ax, then he cooled off and took another Matryona, from a neighboring village, for himself. They lived next door to her. Thaddeus was known in Talnovo as an imperious, stingy peasant. He constantly beat his wife, although he had six children from her. Matryona and Yefim also had six, but not one of them lived more than three months. Yefim, having gone to another war in 1941, did not return from it. Matryona, friendly with his wife Thaddeus, begged her youngest daughter, Kira, for ten years raised her as her own, and shortly before Solzhenitsyna appeared in Talnovo, she married her to a locomotive driver in the village of Cherusti. The story of her two fiancés Matryona told Alexander Isaevich herself, being worried at the same time, like a young woman.
Kira and her husband in Cherusty had to get a piece of land, and for this they had to quickly put up some kind of building. Old Thaddeus in the winter suggested moving there the upper room, attached to the mother's house. Matryona was already going to bequeath this room to Kira (and three of her sisters were marking the house). Under the persistent persuasion of the greedy Thaddeus, after two sleepless nights, Matryona agreed during her lifetime, breaking part of the roof of the house, dismantling the upper room and transporting it to Cherusti. Before the eyes of the hostess and Solzhenitsyn, Thaddeus with his sons and sons-in-law came to the matryona yard, clattered with axes, creaked with torn boards and dismantled the upper room into logs. The three sisters of Matryona, having learned how she succumbed to the persuasion of Thaddeus, unanimously called her a fool.
Matrena Vasilievna Zakharova - the prototype of the main character of the story
A tractor was brought in from Cherusti. The logs of the chamber were loaded onto two sledges. The fat-faced tractor driver, in order not to make an extra trip, announced that he would pull two sleds at once - so it turned out to be more profitable for him in terms of money. The disinterested Matryona herself, fussing, helped to load the logs. Already in the dark, the tractor with difficulty pulled a heavy load from the mother's yard. The restless worker did not sit at home here either - she ran away with everyone to help along the way.
She was not destined to return alive ... At the railway crossing, the cable of an overloaded tractor burst. The tractor driver with his son Thaddeus rushed to get along with him, and Matryona was carried along with them. At this time, two coupled locomotives approached the crossing, backwards and without turning on the lights. Unexpectedly flying in, they smashed to death all three who were busy at the cable, mutilated the tractor, fell off the rails themselves. A fast train with a thousand passengers almost got into the wreck, approaching the crossing.
At dawn, everything that was left of Matryona was brought from the crossing on a sled under a dirty bag thrown over. The body had no legs, no half of the torso, no left arm. And the face remained intact, calm, more alive than dead. One woman crossed herself and said:
- The Lord left her the right hand. There will be prayers to God...
The village began to gather for the funeral. Women relatives lamented over the coffin, but self-interest was visible in their words. And it was not hidden that Matrena's sisters and her husband's relatives were preparing for a fight for the legacy of the deceased, for her old house. Only the wife of Thaddeus and the pupil of Cyrus sobbed sincerely. Thaddeus himself, who lost his once beloved woman and son in that catastrophe, clearly thought only of how to save the logs of the upper room scattered during the crash near the railway. Asking for permission to return them, he continually rushed from the coffins to the station and village authorities.
AI Solzhenitsyn in the village of Miltsevo (in the story - Talnovo). October 1956
On Sunday Matryona and son Thaddeus were buried. The memorials are over. In the coming days, Thaddeus pulled out a barn and a fence from his mother's sisters, which he immediately dismantled with his sons and transported on sleds. Alexander Isaevich moved in with one of Matryona's sister-in-laws, who often and always with contemptuous regret spoke of her cordiality, simplicity, how she was "stupid, helped strangers for free", "didn't chase after the equipment and didn't even keep a pig." For Solzhenitsyn, it was precisely from these disdainful words that a new image of Matryona surfaced, which he did not understand her, even living side by side with her. This stranger to her sisters, ridiculous to her sister-in-law, a non-possessive woman who did not accumulate property for death, buried six children, but did not like her sociable disposition, felt sorry for the rickety cat, and once at night, during a fire, she rushed to save not the hut, but her beloved ficuses - and there is the same righteous man, without which, according to the proverb, the village does not stand.
Matrena Timofeevna image and description according to plan
1. General characteristics. Matryona Timofeevna is the main female heroine of the poem a "", to whom the part "Peasant Woman" is entirely devoted.
The age of Matrena Timofeevna is approaching forty years, but she still retains traces of her former beauty. Hard peasant labor did not break the woman. She carries herself with great dignity and gravity.
Matrena Timofeevna is not afraid and loves her work, realizing that it is the key to all peasant life.
2. Typical image. The fate of Matryona Timofeevna is similar to thousands of the same ordinary peasant women. From a very early age, the girl began to help her parents with the housework. Youth and an excess of strength allowed Matryona not only to manage her work, but also to have time to sing and dance, in which she became a real master.
Life in the parental home as a whole was a very happy time for Matryona. As was customary at that time, the groom for Matryona was found by her parents. It was very difficult for a cheerful and lively girl to part with her native hearth. Life in a strange house at first seemed unbearable to her. In the absence of her husband, the girl was reproached at every step. It was at this time that she fell in love with her Philip, who became her protector.
The tragic position of a woman of that era is best expressed in the saying: "Beats - it means she loves." Matrena Timofeevna believes that she was very lucky with her husband. However, her story of an undeserved beating suggests otherwise. If Philip hit Matryona several times just because she did not have time to answer him in time, then the woman had to meekly fulfill any of his orders. The narrator calls this situation - "we always have frets."
3. Tragedy. Matrena Timofeevna received the strongest stimulus to life after the birth of her son. It was no longer so hard for her among her husband's relatives. She established a warm, trusting relationship with her grandfather Saveliy. The trouble crept up imperceptibly. Infant mortality was generally very high at that time, mainly due to inadequate child care.
For a modern person, the death of Demushka, gnawed alive by pigs, looks simply monstrous. The attitude of Matryona Timofeevna herself is very characteristic. She is ready to come to terms with the death of her son ("God took away the baby"), but she almost goes crazy during the autopsy, considering this the greatest sin and abuse of an innocent child.
4. Black stripe. Misfortunes never come alone. Matrena only had time to move away a little from the death of her first-born, as her parents died. After that, the woman completely devoted herself to work and raising other children. Another blow awaited her ahead: her husband was illegally taken into the soldiers. The loss of the head of the family could lead to starvation. Philip's relatives and fellow villagers could not count on the help.
5. Women's happiness. Matryona Timofeevna was incredibly lucky. Thanks to the governor's wife, she got her husband back. Ordinary peasants very rarely sought justice. But does this isolated case allow Matryona to be considered "lucky"? Her whole past life was filled with suffering, humiliation and hard work. At present, anxiety for the fate of grown-up children has been added to the previous problems. Matrena herself answers this question: "The keys to female happiness ... are abandoned, lost."
There are a lot of heroes in the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'". Some of them pass by. They are mentioned in passing. For others, the author spared no space and time. They are presented in detail and comprehensively.
The image and characterization of Matrena Korchagina in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is one of such characters. Women's happiness - that's what the wanderers wanted to find in Matryona.
Biography of the main female character
Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina grew up in a family of simple peasants. When she meets the wanderers, she is only 38 years old, but for some reason she calls herself an "old woman". So quickly flies the life of a peasant woman. God gave the woman children - she has 5 sons. One (first-born) died. Why are only sons born? Probably, this is a belief in the appearance in Rus' of a new generation of heroes, honest and strong like a mother.According to Matryona, she was happy only in the father's family. They took care of her, guarded her sleep, did not force her to work. The girl appreciated the care of her relatives, answered them with kindness and labor. Songs at the wedding, lamentations over the bride and the crying of the girl herself are folklore that conveys the reality of life.
Things have changed in my husband's family. There were so many sufferings that not every woman could endure them. At night, Matrena shed tears, during the day she spread like grass, her head was lowered, anger hid in her heart, but accumulated. A woman understands that everyone lives like that. Philip treats Matryona well. But it is difficult to distinguish a good life from cruelty: he flogs his wife with a whip until she bleeds, goes to work, leaves her alone with her children in a hated family. The girl does not require much attention to herself: a silk scarf and sleigh rides return her to cheerful singing.
The vocation of a Russian peasant woman is to raise children. She becomes a real heroine, courageous and strong. Grief is on the heels. The first son - Demushka dies. Grandfather Savely could not save him. The authorities mock the mother. They torment the body of a child in front of her eyes, the pictures of horror remain in her memory for life. Another son gave a sheep to a hungry she-wolf. Matryona protected the boy, standing in his place for punishment. Mother's love is strong:
"To whom to endure, so mothers!".
Korchagina came to the defense of her husband. The pregnant woman went to the governor with a request not to take him into the soldiers.
The appearance of a woman
Nekrasov describes Matryona with love. He recognizes her beauty and amazing attractiveness. Some features for the modern reader are not characteristic of beauty, but this only confirms how attitudes towards appearance have changed over the centuries:- "impressive" figure;
- "wide" back;
- "dense" body;
- Holmogory cow.
- "written kralechka";
- "filling berry";
- "good ... comely";
- "white face".
- The woman is neat in her clothes: a white cotton shirt, a short embroidered sundress.
Matryona's character
The main character trait is diligence. Since childhood, Matrena loves work and does not hide from it. She knows how to put haystacks, ruffle flax, thresh on the barn. The woman's household is large, but she does not complain. She gives all the strength that she received from God to work.Other features of the Russian beauty:
Frankness: telling the wanderers her fate, she does not embellish or hide anything.
Sincerity: a woman does not prevaricate, she opens her whole destiny from her youth, shares her experiences and "sinful" deeds.
Love of freedom: the desire to be free and free remains in the soul, but the rules of life change the character, make one be secretive.
Courage: often a woman has to become a "brash woman." She is punished, but "arrogance and obstinacy" remain.
Loyalty: the wife is devoted to her husband, in all situations strives to be honest and faithful.
Honesty: Matryona herself leads an honest life and teaches her sons to be like that. She asks them neither to steal nor to cheat.
Woman sincerely believes in God. She prays and consoles herself. It becomes easier for her in conversations with the Mother of God.
