“Who should live well in Rus'” by Nekrasov is an epic poem, because in the center of its image is the whole of post-reform Russia. The poem covers the entire life of the people in an unusually broad way. Nekrasov wanted to depict in his work all social strata from the peasant to the tsar, however, the life of the people remains the main subject of the narrative. From the very beginning of the poem, its main character is also defined - a man from the people. And yet the picture of peasant life would not be so vivid if it did not tell us about the share of a simple Russian woman. Arguing on this topic, one cannot help but turn to the main female image of the poem.

A special and very large place in the poem is occupied by the image of the peasant woman Matryona Timofeevna. In the exceptional female image of Matrena Timofeevna, Nekrasov showed the full severity of the "women's share." This theme can be traced throughout Nekrasov's work, but nowhere has the image of a Russian peasant woman been described with such tenderness and participation, so truthfully and subtly. And it is this heroine who will answer in the poem the eternal question about the female share, why “the keys to female happiness ... are abandoned, lost from God himself” ...

Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina is a smart, selfless woman, the bearer of an "angry" heart, remembering "unpaid" grievances. The fate of Matryona Timofeevna is typical for a Russian peasant woman: after marriage, she ended up "from a girl's holy hell in hell", various sorrows fell upon her one after another. As a result, Matrena is forced to take on overwhelming male labor in order to feed her large family.

Being a "governor", Matryona still remains a man of the working peasant masses. She, smart and strong, the poet entrusted herself to tell about his fate. "Peasant Woman" is the only part in Nekrasov's poem, all written in the first person. However, this story is not only about Matryona's female share. Her voice is the voice of the people themselves. That is why Matrena Timofeevna sings more often, and “Peasant Woman” is a chapter permeated with folklore motifs, almost entirely built on folk poetic images. The fate of the Nekrasov heroine is constantly expanding to the limits of the all-Russian. Nekrasov managed to combine the personal fate of the heroine with mass life, without identifying them. Because, unlike most peasant women, whose marriage was determined by the will of their parents, Matryona Timofeevna marries her beloved.

Further, a picture of traditional family life in a peasant environment unfolds before us, the whole common life. As soon as Matryona entered her husband's family, all household duties immediately fell on her shoulders. Like any other Russian peasant woman, Matrena Timofeevna was brought up in respect for the older generation, so in the new family she unquestioningly “obeyed” the will of her husband and his parents. The seemingly unbearable work in the harsh peasant life becomes her everyday business, and the women's business.

As you know, beatings in a peasant family were also quite common, however, the heroine of the play is by no means a downtrodden slave. For the rest of her life, the only case of a beating by her husband crashes into her memory. At the same time, a song was put into the heroine's mouth when telling about this, which, without distorting the heroine's individual biography, gives the phenomenon a broad typicality.

Let us also recall the terrible tragedy of the loss of a child that Matryona Timofeevna experienced. Matryona was very upset by the death of her child, despite the ignorant aristocratic convictions that the peasants do not care about their children, because there are at least a dozen of them in each family. However, to the simple Russian heart of Matrena, like any other woman, all her children are dear, she wishes each of them a better life, she cares about everyone equally.

Nekrasov constantly in his poem emphasizes the truly Christian humility of a simple Russian woman, who sometimes faces terrible, unbearable trials. However, Matryona Timofeevna relies on the will of God in everything, like thousands of other women with difficult fates. The heroine takes her life for granted, which is why she, with deep worldly wisdom, pronounces the answer to the question about the female share: "the keys to female happiness ... are lost from God himself." So, we have before us a collective image of the majority of Russian women, who are wholeheartedly devoted to their family, courageously carrying on their shoulders a huge burden of caring for their relatives and friends, and they carry their burden with incredible humility to fate, relying only on God and on themselves. Such is the female share of the Russian peasant woman, embodied in the person of Matryona Korchagina.

Tasks and tests on the topic "Why does Matrena Timofeevna claim that "the keys to female happiness ... are abandoned, lost from God himself"? (Based on the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Rus'.")

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Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina is a peasant woman. The third part of the poem is dedicated to this heroine.

M.T. - “A portly woman, Broad and dense, 38 years old. Beautiful; hair with gray hair, Big strict eyes, Eyelashes of the richest, Harsh and swarthy.

Among the people about M.T. the glory of the lucky woman is coming. She tells the strangers who come to her about her life. Her story is told in the form of folk laments and songs. This emphasizes the typical fate of M.T. for all Russian peasant women: "It's not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women."

In the parental home of M.T. life was good: she had a friendly non-drinking family. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up "from a girl's will to hell." The youngest in her husband's family, she worked for everyone like a slave. The husband loved M.T., but often went to work and could not protect his wife. The heroine had one intercessor - grandfather Savely, her husband's grandfather. M.T. she has seen a lot of grief in her lifetime: she endured the harassment of the manager, survived the death of the first-born Demushka, who, due to Savely's oversight, was bitten by pigs. M.T. failed to retrieve the son's body and he was sent for an autopsy. Later, another son of the heroine, 8-year-old Fedot, was threatened with a terrible punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry she-wolf. Mother, without hesitation, lay down under the rod instead of her son. But in a lean year, M.T., pregnant and with children, is likened to a hungry she-wolf herself. In addition, the last breadwinner is taken away from her family - her husband is shaved into soldiers out of turn. In desperation, M.T. runs into the city and throws himself at the feet of the governor's wife. She helps the heroine and even becomes the godmother of the born son M.T. - Liodora. But the evil fate continued to haunt the heroine: one of the sons was taken to the soldiers, "they burned twice ... God anthrax ... visited three times." In the "Woman's Parable" M.T. sums up his sad story: “The keys to female happiness, From our free will, Abandoned, lost From God himself!”

/ Characteristics of heroes / Nekrasov N.A. / To whom in Rus' to live well / Matrena Timofeevna

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The female image in the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who should live well in Rus'”

The image of a Russian woman, her fate occupy a special place in Nekrasov's poetry. A woman is always the main bearer of life, the embodiment of its fullness and diversity. In the poem “Who in Rus' should live well-sho9raquo; the largest of all chapters - "The Peasant Woman" is devoted to understanding the female share. The image of Matrena Timofeevna embodied the features of all Russian women bound by one fate. A woman's fate is difficult, and sometimes tragic, but not bending under the blows of fate, a Russian woman remains the embodiment of wisdom, kindness and love.

Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina is not young, and, probably, it was no coincidence that the poet inscribed her image in the most mature, most fertile time of nature - the harvest time. After all, age maturity implies the maintenance of life outcomes, the rethinking of the past years is a kind of harvesting.

What does Matrena Timofeevna reap? Nekrasov shows the Russian peasant woman in all her greatness:

Beautiful; gray hair,

Big eyes, stern

It was to her - a sensible and strong poet who entrusted the story of the difficult female fate. This part of the poem, the only one of all, is written in the first person. But the voice of a peasant woman is the voice of the whole people, who are accustomed to expressing their feelings in song. Therefore, Matrena Timofeevna often does not talk, but sings. The entire chapter is based by the poet on folk poetic images and motifs. We see the traditional rites of peasant matchmaking, wedding cries and lamentations. We hear folk songs and the personal fate of the heroine seems to be the fate of the entire Russian people. Matrena Timofeevna lived a hard life. Happy as a girl, she took a sip of “goryushka9raquo;, falling “from girlish holy to hell.” Like all her contemporaries in the new family, resentment, humiliation, back-breaking work awaited her. These women had one joy - their children. So Demushka - "my handsome man drove away all the anger from the soul with an angelic smile." But Demushka died, Matryona was orphaned. Other relatives also died, the husband was under the threat of recruitment. Mat-rena Timofeevna defended him, did not become a soldier:

I am so grateful to her

From the time the peasant woman begged for her happiness, they called her the “governor’s wife”, “they praised the lucky one.”

Raising children. Isn't it joy?

The peasants are perplexed: is it possible that they were looking for such happiness. But the courageous woman Matryona Timofeev-na does not grumble at her fate, adequately reflecting all her blows. Isn't her happiness in steadfastness of character? After all, a weak person cannot be happy, he is always dissatisfied with his fate.

Nekrasov is one of the few writers who admires in a woman who is not her "sweet"; weakness, femininity, but the strength of the character of a Russian woman, her vitality, her ability to defend her case. The image of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina is one of the most vivid and capacious images of the poem, personifying the fate of Russia itself.

The chapter "Last Child" switched the main attention of the truth-seekers to the people's environment. The search for peasant happiness (Izbytkovo village!) Naturally led the peasants to the "lucky" - "governor", the peasant woman Matryona Korchagina. What is the ideological and artistic meaning of the chapter "Peasant Woman"?

In the post-reform era, the peasant woman remained just as oppressed and deprived of rights as before 1861, and it was obviously an absurd undertaking to look for a happy woman among the peasant women. This is clear to Nekrasov. In the outline of the chapter, the “lucky” heroine says to the wanderers:

I think so,

What if between women

Are you looking for a happy

So you are just stupid.

But the author of “To whom it is good to live in Rus'”, artistically reproducing Russian reality, is forced to reckon with folk concepts and ideas, no matter how miserable and false they may be. He only reserves the copyright to dispel illusions, to form more correct views on the world, to bring up higher demands on life than those that gave rise to the legend of the happiness of the “governor”. However, the rumor flies from mouth to mouth, and the wanderers go to the village of Klin. The author gets the opportunity to oppose life to the legend.

The Peasant Woman begins with a prologue, which plays the role of an ideological overture to the chapter, prepares the reader for the perception of the image of the peasant woman of the village of Klin, the lucky Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina. The author draws a “thoughtfully and affectionately” noisy grain field, which was moistened “Not so much by warm dew, / Like sweat from a peasant’s face.” As the wanderers move, rye is replaced by flax, fields of peas and vegetables. The kids frolic (“children rush / Some with turnips, some with carrots”), and “women pull beets”. The colorful summer landscape is closely linked by Nekrasov with the theme of inspired peasant labor.

But then the wanderers approached the "unenviable" village of Klin. The joyful, colorful landscape is replaced by another, gloomy and dull:

Whatever the hut - with a backup,

Like a beggar with a crutch.

Comparison of "wretched houses" with skeletons and orphaned jackdaw nests on bare autumn trees further enhances the tragedy of the impression. The charms of rural nature and the beauty of creative peasant labor in the prologue of the chapter are contrasted with the picture of peasant poverty. By landscape contrast, the author makes the reader internally alert and distrustful of the message that one of the workers of this impoverished village is the true lucky woman.

From the village of Klin, the author leads the reader to an abandoned landowner's estate. The picture of its desolation is complemented by the images of numerous courtyards: hungry, weak, relaxed, like frightened Prussians (cockroaches) in the upper room, they crawled around the estate. This “whining household” is opposed by the people who, after a hard day (“the people in the fields are working”), return to the village with a song. Surrounded by this healthy work collective, outwardly almost not standing out from it (“Good way! And which Matryona Timofeevna?”), Making up part of it, appears in Matryona Korchagin's poem.

The portrait characterization of the heroine is very meaningful and poetically rich. The first idea of ​​​​the appearance of Matryona is given by the replica of the peasants of the village of Nagotina:

Holmogory cow,

Not a woman! kinder

And there is no smoother woman.

The comparison - “a Kholmogory cow is not a woman” - speaks of the health, strength, stateliness of the heroine. It is the key to further characterization, it fully corresponds to the impression that Matryona Timofeevna makes on the truth-seeking peasants.

Her portrait is extremely concise, but it gives an idea of ​​the strength of character, self-esteem (“a portly woman”), and moral purity and exactingness (“big, stern eyes”), and the hard life of the heroine (“hair with gray hair” in 38 years old), and that the storms of life did not break, but only hardened her (“severe and swarthy”). The harsh, natural beauty of a peasant woman is further emphasized by the poverty of clothing: a “short sundress”, and a white shirt that sets off the heroine’s skin color, swarthy from a tan. In Matryona's story, her whole life passes before the reader, and the author reveals the movement of this life, the dynamics of the depicted character through a change in the portrait characteristics of the heroine.

“Thoughtful”, “twisted”, Matryona recalls the years of her girlhood, youth; she, as it were, sees herself in the past from the outside and cannot but admire her former girlish beauty. Gradually, in her story (“Before Marriage”), a generalized portrait of a rural beauty, so well known in folk poetry, appears before the audience. Matrena's maiden name is "clear eyes", "white face", which is not afraid of the dirt of field work. “You’ll work in the field for a day,” says Matryona, and then, after washing in a “hot baenka,”

Again white, fresh,

For spinning with girlfriends

Eat until midnight!

In her native family, the girl blooms, “like a poppy flower”, she is a “good worker” and “sing-dance hunter”. But now comes the fatal hour of farewell to the girl's will... From the mere thought of the future, of the bitter life in "another God-given family" the bride's "white face fades". However, her blooming beauty, "handsomeness" is enough for several years of family life. No wonder the manager Abram Gordeich Sitnikov "boosts" Matryona:

You are a written kralechka

You are a hot berry!

But the years go by, bringing more and more troubles. For a long time, a severe swarthyness replaced a scarlet blush on Matrena's face, petrified with grief; "clear eyes" look at people strictly and severely; hunger and overwork carried away the "pregnancy and prettiness" accumulated in the years of girlhood. Emaciated, fierce by the struggle for life, she no longer resembles a "poppy color", but a hungry she-wolf:

She-wolf that Fedotova

I remembered - hungry,

Similar to kids

I was on it!

So socially, by the conditions of life and work (“Horse's attempts / We carried ...”), as well as psychologically (the death of the first-born, loneliness, the hostile attitude of the family) Nekrasov motivates changes in the appearance of the heroine, at the same time asserting a deep internal connection between images of a red-cheeked laughter woman from the chapter “Before marriage” and a graying, portly woman met by wanderers. Cheerfulness, spiritual clarity, inexhaustible energy, inherent in Matryona from her youth, help her survive in life, maintain the majesty of her posture and beauty.

In the process of working on the image of Matrena, Nekrasov did not immediately determine the age of the heroine. From variant to variant there was a process of “rejuvenation” by its author. To "rejuvenate" Matrena Timofeevna makes the author strive for life and artistic truthfulness. A woman in the village grew old early. An indication of the age of 60 and even 50 conflicted with the portrait of the heroine, the general definition of “beautiful” and such details as “big, strict eyes”, “richest eyelashes”. The latter option eliminated the discrepancy between the heroine's living conditions and her appearance. Matryona is 38 years old, her hair has already been touched by gray hair - evidence of a difficult life, but her beauty has not faded yet. The "rejuvenation" of the heroine was also dictated by the requirement of psychological certainty. 20 years have passed since the marriage and death of Matryona's first-born (if she is 38, not 60!) and the events of the chapters "She-Wolf", "Governor" and "Hard Year" are still quite fresh in her memory. That is why Matryona's speech sounds so emotional, so excited.

Matrena Timofeevna is not only beautiful, dignified, healthy. A smart, courageous woman with a rich, generous, poetic soul, she was created for happiness. And she was very lucky in some ways: a “good, non-drinking” native family (not everyone is like that!), marriage for love (how often did this happen?), prosperity (how not to envy?), patronage of the governor (what happiness! ). Is it any wonder that the legend of the "governor" went for a walk in the villages, that fellow villagers "denigrated" her, as Matryona herself says with bitter irony, a lucky woman.

And on the example of the fate of the "lucky" Nekrasov reveals the whole terrible drama of peasant life. The whole story of Matryona is a refutation of the legend about her happiness. From chapter to chapter the drama grows, leaving less room for naive illusions.

In the plot of the main stories of the chapter "Peasant Woman" ("Before Marriage", "Songs", "Demushka", "She-Wolf", "Hard Year", "Woman's Parable"), Nekrasov selected and concentrated the most ordinary, everyday and at the same time the most events characteristic of the life of a Russian peasant woman: work from an early age, simple girlish entertainment, matchmaking, marriage, humiliated position and difficult life in a strange family, family quarrels, beatings, the birth and death of children, caring for them, overwork, hunger in lean years , the bitter lot of a mother-soldier with many children. These events determine the circle of interests, the structure of thoughts and feelings of the peasant woman. They are remembered and presented by the narrator in their temporal sequence, which creates a feeling of simplicity and ingenuity, so inherent in the heroine herself. But for all the outward everydayness of events, the plot of the “Peasant Woman” is full of deep inner drama and social sharpness, which are due to the originality of the heroine herself, her ability to deeply feel, emotionally experience events, her moral purity and exactingness, her disobedience and courage.

Matryona not only acquaints the wanderers (and the reader!) with the history of her life, she “opens her whole soul” to them. The tale form, the narration in the first person, gives it a special liveliness, spontaneity, life-like persuasiveness, opens up great opportunities for revealing the innermost depths of the inner life of a peasant woman, hidden from the eyes of an outside observer.

Matrena Timofeevna tells about her hardships simply, with restraint, without exaggerating her colors. Out of inner delicacy, she even keeps silent about her husband’s beatings, and only after the question of the wanderers: “It’s like you didn’t beat it?”, Embarrassed, she admits that there was such a thing. She is silent about her experiences after the death of her parents:

Heard dark nights

Heard violent winds

orphan sadness,

And you don't need to say...

Matrena says almost nothing about those moments when she was subjected to the shameful punishment of whips... But this restraint, in which the inner strength of the Russian peasant Korchagina is felt, only enhances the drama of her story. Excitedly, as if re-experiencing everything, Matryona Timofeevna tells about Philip's matchmaking, her thoughts and anxieties, the birth and death of her first child. Child mortality in the village was colossal, and with the oppressive poverty of the family, the death of a child was sometimes perceived with tears of relief: “God cleaned up”, “one mouth less!” Not so with Matryona. For 20 years, the pain of her mother's heart has not subsided. Even now she has not forgotten the charms of her firstborn:

How written was Demushka!

Beauty is taken from the sun...etc.

In the soul of Matrena Timofeevna, even after 20 years, anger boils against the “unrighteous judges” who sensed prey. That is why there is so much expression and tragic pathos in her curse to the "villainous executioners" ...

Matryona is first of all a woman, a mother who devoted herself entirely to caring for children. But, subjectively caused by maternal feelings, aimed at protecting children, her protest acquires a social coloring, family adversity pushes her onto the path of social protest. For her child and with God, Matryona will enter into an argument. She, a deeply religious woman, alone in the whole village did not obey the hypocrite wanderer, who forbade breastfeeding children on fast days:

If you endure, then mothers

I am a sinner before God

Not my child

Moods of anger, protest, sounded in the curse of Matryona to the “villain-executioners”, do not stall in the future, but manifest themselves in forms other than tears and angry cries: she pushed the headman away, tore Fedotushka, trembling like a leaf, out of his hands, silently lay down under the rod ("She-wolf"). But year after year more and more accumulates in the soul of a peasant woman, barely restrained pain and anger.

For me insults are mortal

Gone unpaid... —

Matrena admits, in whose mind, apparently, not without the influence of grandfather Saveliy (she runs into his gorenkoka in difficult moments of her life!), The thought of retribution, retribution is born. She cannot follow the advice of the proverb: "Keep your head down, humble heart."

I bow my head

I carry an angry heart! —

she paraphrases the proverb in relation to herself, and in these words is the result of the ideological development of the heroine. In the image of Matrena, Nekrasov generalized, typified the awakening of the people's consciousness, the mood of emerging social anger and protest, observed by him in the 60-70s.

The author constructs the plot of the chapter “Peasant Woman” in such a way that more and more difficulties arise on the life path of the heroine: family oppression, the death of a son, the death of parents, the “terrible year” of lack of bread, the threat of Philip’s recruitment, twice a fire, three times anthrax ... On the example of one fate, Nekrasov gives a vivid idea of ​​the deeply tragic circumstances of the life of a peasant woman and the entire working peasantry in "liberated" Russia.

The compositional structure of the chapter (gradual escalation of dramatic situations) helps the reader to understand how the character of Matryona Timofeevna develops and strengthens in the struggle with life's difficulties. But for all the typical biography of Matryona Korchagina, there is something in it that distinguishes her from a number of others. After all, Matryona was denounced as a lucky woman, the whole district knows about her! The impression of unusualness, originality, vital uniqueness of fate and, most importantly, the originality of her nature is achieved by the introduction of the chapter "Governor". How not a lucky woman, whose son the governor herself baptized! There is something to marvel at the villagers ... But even more surprising (already for the reader!) Is Matryona herself, who, not wanting to bow to fate, is sick, pregnant, runs at night to an unknown city, “reaches” the governor’s wife and saves her husband from recruitment . The plot situation of the chapter “Governor” reveals the strong-willed character, determination of the heroine, as well as her sensitive heart for goodness: the sympathetic attitude of the governor evokes in her a feeling of deep gratitude, in excess of which Matryona praises the kind lady Elena Alexandrovna.

However, Nekrasov is far from the idea that "the secret of people's contentment" lies in the lord's philanthropy. Even Matryona understands that philanthropy is powerless before the inhuman laws of the existing social order (“peasant / Orders are endless ...”) and ironically over her nickname “lucky”. While working on the chapter "The Governor", the author, obviously, sought to make the impact of the meeting with the governor's wife on the further fate of the heroine less significant. In the draft versions of the chapter, it was indicated that Matryona, thanks to the intercession of the governor's wife, happened to help out her fellow villagers, that she received gifts from her benefactor. In the final text, Nekrasov omitted these points.

Initially, the chapter about Matryona Korchagina was called "The Governor". Apparently, not wanting to attach too much importance to the episode with the governor's wife, Nekrasov gives the chapter a different, broadly generalizing name - "Peasant Woman", and the story about the meeting of Matryona with the governor's wife (it is needed to emphasize the unusual fate of the heroine) pushes back, makes the penultimate plot episode of the chapter. As the final chord of the confession of the peasant woman Korchagina, there is a bitter "woman's parable" about the lost "keys to women's happiness", a parable expressing the people's view of women's fate:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

abandoned, lost

God himself!

To remember this full of hopelessness legend, told by a passing wanderer, Matryona is forced by the bitter experience of her own life.

And you - for happiness stuck your head!

It's a shame, well done! —

she throws with a reproach to the strangers.

The legend of the happiness of the peasant woman Korchagina has been dispelled. However, with the entire content of the chapter "Peasant Woman" Nekrasov tells the contemporary reader how and where to look for the lost keys. Not “keys to female happiness”... There are no such special, “female” keys for Nekrasov; from social oppression and lawlessness.

N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a rather rare and artistically unique phenomenon. And if we recall the analogues, then it can only be compared with Pushkin's novel in verse. The monumentality and depth of the depiction of characters, combined with an unusually vivid poetic form, will be common to them.
The plot of the poem is simple: seven peasants set out to find out "who lives happily, freely in Rus'" and wander, trying to find this person. Having traveled many roads, having seen many people, they decided:

Not everything between men
Find a happy
Let's touch the grandmother!

They, as happy, are pointed to Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed the Governor. This is a peasant woman, reputed to be happy among the people, Wanderers find her:

Matrena Timofeevna,
stubborn woman,
Wide and dense
Thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray hair,
The eyes are large, stern,
Eyelashes are the richest.
Stern and swarthy.

She tells them about her life - full of worries, grief and sadness of the life of a simple Russian peasant woman. Matrena says that if she was happy, then only before marriage. What is this happiness? And here's what: We had a good, non-drinking family.
The little girl has turned into an adult girl - a hard-working, beautiful face and strict disposition. She did not stay too long in the girls, she quickly found a groom, and Philip Korchagin was a “stranger on the mountain”. The hard life of a daughter-in-law in the house of her mother-in-law began for the heroine:

The family was big
Grumpy ... got to hell with a girl's holi!

Matryona lives in harmony with her husband. He raised his hand to her only once, and even then according to the teaching of his mother and sisters.
Matrena's son Demushka was born - the only consolation in the absence of her husband. But she did not rejoice at him for long: the grumpy mother-in-law sent her to work, saying that grandfather Savely would look after her son. But he overlooked the affairs, fell asleep, exhausted by the sun, and Demushka was eaten by pigs.
But it didn’t end there, they didn’t let Matryona bury her son. They conducted an investigation, suspecting her of a shameful relationship with grandfather Saveliy and the murder of Demushka, slashed the body of the boy and. not finding anything, they gave it to their mother, distraught with grief. For a very long time Matryona could not move away from this nightmare.
She missed her parents very much, but they did not often spoil her with their arrival. Three years flew by like one day. What a year, then children. ... No time to think, no sadness.
In the fourth year, a new grief befell the heroine: her parents died. She left close people - Philip and children. But even here fate did not calm down, punishing either her children or her husband. When his son Fedotushka was eight years old, his father-in-law gave him as a shepherd. Once the shepherd left, and one sheep was dragged away by a she-wolf, judging by the bloody trail, she had just given birth. Fedot took pity on her and gave the already dead sheep he had beaten off. For this, the people in the village decided to flog him. But Matryona stood up for her son, and the landowner, passing by, decided to let the boy go, and punish his mother.
The following describes a difficult, hungry year. On top of that, Philip was taken to the soldiers out of turn. Now Matrena, who has a few days left before the new birth, is not a full-fledged hostess in the house, but a host, together with her children. One night she fervently prays in the field and, inspired by some unknown force, hurries to the city to bow to the governor. But he only meets his wife there. In practice, this woman has another son of Matryona in her arms. Elena Alexandrovna helped the heroine, returning Philip and becoming the godmother of the child, whom she herself named Liodorushka. So Matryona got her nickname - "lucky".
It was about all this that Matryona Korchagina, who is considered by the people to be the happiest woman, told the wanderers:

My feet are not trampled.
Not tied with ropes
Not pierced with needles...

That's all happiness. But stronger than all this is the “spiritual thunderstorm” that passed through the heroine. You can’t turn a wounded soul inside out and you won’t show people, and therefore for everyone she is a lucky woman, but in fact:

For a mother that has been scolded,
Like a trampled snake,
The blood of the firstborn has passed
For me insults are mortal
Gone unpaid
And the whip passed over me!

Such is the image of Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina, the governor's wife, who is known among the people as a happy woman. But is she happy? In our opinion, no, but in the opinion of a simple peasant woman of the 19th century, yes. This elevates Matryona: she does not complain about life, does not complain about difficulties. Her firmness of spirit, determination delights the reader.
The image of Matrena Timofeevna, undoubtedly one of the strongest, shows the true character of a Russian woman who

Stop a galloping horse
He will enter the burning hut.

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Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" contains, in its key moment, the search by seven male peasants for people whose life would be happy. One day they meet a certain peasant woman - Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, who tells them her sad life story.

Age and appearance

At the time of the story, Matryona is 38 years old, but the woman herself considers herself an old woman. Matryona is a rather beautiful woman: she is portly and stocky, her face has already noticeably faded, but still retains traces of attractiveness and beauty. She had large, clear and stern eyes. They were framed by beautiful thick eyelashes.

Her hair was already noticeably touched by gray hair, but you could still recognize her hair color. Her skin was dark and rough. Matryona's clothes are similar to the clothes of all peasants - they are simple and neat. Traditionally, her wardrobe consists of a white shirt and a short sundress.

Personality characteristic

Matryona has considerable strength, "Khokhloma cow" - this is the author's description of her. She is a hardworking woman. Their family has a large household, which is mainly taken care of by Matryona. She is not deprived of both intelligence and ingenuity. A woman can clearly and clearly express her opinion on a particular issue, sensibly assess the situation and make the right decision. She is an honest woman - and she teaches her children the same.

All her life after marriage, Matrena had to endure humiliation and various difficulties in her work, but she did not lose the main qualities of character, retaining her desire for freedom, but at the same time she brought up impudence and harshness.
The life of a woman was very difficult. Matrena spent a lot of energy and health working for her husband's family. She steadfastly endured all the sorrows and unfair treatment of herself and her children and did not grumble, over time her situation improved, but it was no longer possible to restore her lost health.

Not only physical health suffered from life's litigation - during this time, Korchagina cried a lot of tears, as she herself says, "you can score three lakes." Ironically, she calls them the unthinkable wealth of all life.

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Religion and true faith in God allowed Matryona not to go crazy - according to the woman herself, she finds solace in prayer, the more she indulges in this occupation, the easier it becomes for her.

One day, the governor's wife helped Matryona solve her difficulties in life, so people, remembering this case, Matryona in the common people began to call her "governor's wife" too.

Matrona's life before marriage

Matryona was lucky with her parents - they were good and decent people. Her father did not drink and was an exemplary family man, her mother always took care of the comfort and well-being of all family members. Her parents protected her from the hardships of fate and tried to make her daughter's life as simple and better as possible. Matryona herself says that she "lived like Christ in her bosom."

Marriage and first sorrows

However, the time has come and, like all adult girls, she had to leave her father's house. One day, a visiting man, a stove-maker by profession, approached her. He seemed to Matryona a sweet and good person, and she agreed to become his wife. According to tradition, after marriage, the girl moved to live in the house of her husband's parents. This happened in the situation of Matryona, but here the first disappointments and sorrows awaited the young girl - her relatives accepted her very negatively and hostilely. Matryona was very homesick for her parents and for her former life, but she had no way back.

The husband's family turned out to be large, but not friendly - since they did not know how to treat each other kindly, Matryona was no exception for them: she was never praised for a job well done, but always found fault and scolded. The girl had no choice but to endure humiliation and rude attitude towards herself.

Matrena was the first worker in the family - she had to get up earlier than everyone else and go to bed later than everyone else. However, no one felt gratitude towards her and did not appreciate her work.

Relationship with husband

It is not known how husband Philip perceived the current unfavorable situation within his new Matrenin family - it is likely that due to the fact that he grew up in such conditions, this state of affairs was normal for him.

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In general, Matrena considers him a good husband, but at the same time she harbors a grudge against him - once he hit her. It is likely that such a characterization of their relationship by Matryona was very subjective and she considers the significance of her husband from the position - it can be even worse, so my husband is very good against the background of such absolutely bad husbands.

Children of Matryona

The appearance of children with a new family was not long in coming - on the Kazan Matryona she gives birth to her first child - her son Demushka. One day, the boy remains under the supervision of his grandfather, who treated the task entrusted to him in bad faith - as a result, the boy was bitten by pigs. This brought a lot of grief to Matrena's life, because the boy for her became a ray of light in her unsightly life. However, the woman did not remain childless - she still had 5 sons. The names of the elders are mentioned in the poem - Fedot and Liodor. The husband's family was also not happy and not friendly towards Matryona's children - they often beat the kids and scolded them.

New changes

The hardships of Matrena's life did not end there - three years after marriage, her parents died - the woman was very painfully experiencing this loss. Soon her life began to improve. The mother-in-law died and she became a full-fledged mistress of the house. Unfortunately, Matryona failed to find happiness - by that time her children had become old enough to be taken into the army, so new sorrows appeared in her life.