Leningrad State University named after A.S. Pushkin
Faculty of Philology
Department of Russian Language and Literature
Essay on the course "Russian literature of the XVIII century" on the topic:
Ideological and artistic originality of Sumarokov's comedies (on the example of the comedy "Cuckold by Imagination")
Performed:
2nd year student
full-time education
Ershova Valeria
Checked:
Associate Professor, Candidate of Phil. n. Vigerina L. I.
Introduction 3
The history of the interpretation of the concept of "comedy" 4
The origins of A.P. Sumarokova 5
The ideological and artistic originality of A.P. Sumarokova 6
Analysis of the comedy "Cuckold by Imagination" 8
Conclusion 10
Introduction
Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (1717-1777) occupies a special place in the history of Russian culture. He is not only the founder of the Russian theater, writer, poet and journalist, but also one of the most prominent representatives of the socio-political thought of his time. His work differs from his contemporaries in the originality of form and content. The unusual manner of presentation, about which researchers have spoken so much, cannot leave the reader indifferent. Guskov N.A. suggests that its formation was influenced not only by the social upbringing and position of the writer (the ideology of the aristocratic opposition), but also by the awareness of the "uniqueness of one's own personality" and the experience of "bitterness from the mismatch of self-esteem with the reaction of others" . This, as you understand, led to a conflict with society. But precisely because of this, the writer revealed himself as an original, original, sometimes contradictory, but still unique personality, whose works played a big role in the development of Russian drama and literature in general.
A.P. Sumarokov (1717-1777): Life and work: Sat. Art. and materials / Ros. Go. B-ka; Comp. E.P. Mstislavskaya. - M .: Pashkov House, 2002. - 304 p. - (To the 285th anniversary of the birth and 225th anniversary of the death) p. 42
The history of the interpretation of the concept of "comedy"
The definition of comedy in ancient times differs sharply from the modern understanding. Now comedy is a genre of fiction characterized by a humorous and satirical approach. It is also a type of drama in which the moment of effective conflict or struggle of antagonistic characters is specifically resolved.
And in ancient, ancient times, comedy was defined as a genre of fiction, which is characterized by a bad beginning and a happy ending.
Sumarokov himself in his "Epistle on Poetry" defines the social and educational function of comedy, its purpose:
The property of comedy is to correct temper with a mockery;
To laugh and use is its direct charter.
That is, by exposing human vices in a funny way, comedy should contribute to the liberation from them.
The origins of comedy creativity Sumarokov
During the period of his literary activity (second half of the 1730s - late 1750s) Sumarokov became the largest literary exponent of the ideology of the advanced nobility of the middle of the 18th century. His worldview was determined by "an understanding of the role and significance of the nobility in the Russian state as the main driving force of social progress." In his opinion, people differ in public life only in the degree of clarity of their "mind". Sumarokov also recognizes the natural equality of people and inequality in society. At the same time, the poet did not approve of the slavish forms of exploitation of serfs by landlords, because the nobles had to be impeccable in everything.
In the work of Sumarokov, as well as in other phenomena of the noble culture of those years, the changes that took place in the Russian nobility of the 50-60s were reflected. XVIII century. Palace coups did not affect the social basis of the feudal state, but only led to a change in the “handfuls” of the ruling class. The coup of 1741, which placed Elizabeth on the throne and removed the Germans from power, led to the emergence of a new “handful” (Bestuzhev, Vorontsov, Shuvalov). The embezzlement, embezzlement, bribery, arbitrariness of officials that followed this event caused indignation. On the other hand, the development of luxury among the nobility, extravagance, increased exploitation of the peasants by the landlords - all this resented Sumarokov.
That is why in his early work there was criticism of the courtier, “proud, swollen like a frog”, and high society dandy, and bribe-takers - clerks. And as time went on, he felt more compelled to oppose the ways of Elizabethan rule.
The ideological and artistic originality of A.P. Sumarokova
P.N. Berkov. History of Russian comedy of the 18th century. L.: Ed. "Science", 1977. pp. 31-43
Comedy creativity Sumarokov lasted over 20 years. Sumarokov's comedies are by no means abstract satires on universal human vices. Almost all of his comedies, with the possible exception of "Three brothers of partners", have one common feature - pamphlet. This is a frank means of literary and social struggle, directed against certain individuals, against specific, personal enemies of the playwright - Trediakovsky, Sumarokov's son-in-law A.I. Buturlin, writer F.A. Emlin and others, or against those whom he considered enemies of the noble group to which he himself belonged. This feature of Sumarokov's comedies was clear to his contemporaries.
Sumarokov's comedies are divided into 3 periods of the writer's work:
1 period - 1750
2nd period - 1764-1768
3rd period - 1772-1774
Outside of these groups, the comedy Dowry by Deception differs from the rest not only in the chronology of its appearance, but also in themes, construction methods and some other characteristics. We will consider it a little later.
1 period. Of Sumarokov's comedies of the 1750s - Tresotinius, Arbitration Court, Husband and Wife Quarrel, Narcissus - the pamphlet is most clearly expressed in Tresotinius. The audience immediately recognized Trediakovsky in the main character. The focus of Sumarokov's attention is not the entertaining of the plot, but the depiction of the main negative character as a concrete personality - in other words, the pamphlet in Tresotinius prevails over the comic in action.
The scheme outlined in Tresotinius is maintained by Sumarokov basically in almost all of his other comedies: the comic action develops only in order to show in more detail the main character in pamphlet and - to a certain extent - socially generalized.
The pamphlet character of Sumarokov's first comedies also determined the manner of "building" the language of the main characters. Being an outstanding parodist and loving this literary genre, Sumarokov successfully and, apparently, vividly conveyed the language of Trediakovsky, petimeters, clerks, the prototype of Fatyuya and Narcissus-Beketov. This parody-caricature style helped the playwright to make his characters easily recognizable, funny, and sometimes even completely funny. However, it also had a negative meaning: against the backdrop of a bright, noticeably stylized, parodic speech of the main characters, the language of the rest of the characters somehow smoothed out, lost its expressiveness.
It is also noteworthy that the characters, when they have to express the idea of the play, do not speak their usual language, as in other parts of the comedy, but a higher, even somewhat bookish one, reminiscent of the language of Sumarokov's prose. As a result, Sumarokov's early comedies do not leave a holistic impression in terms of language.
In the "Arbitration Court" ridicule of pedantry and clergy is vehemently expressed. What was new was that Sumarokov ironically depicted here a dandy - the gallomaniac Dyulizh, who has a pamphlet portrait combined with socially generalized features. It is noteworthy that Sumarokov in the "Arbitration Court" takes the opportunity to show the "monstrosity" of his heroes in relation to the Russian language. For example, in the VI phenomenon of the first act, Krititsyondius, a hero-parody of Trediakovsky, repeating the arguments from his article, ridicules the expression “Give me a seat!” Used in the tragedy “Khorev” by Prince Kiy. Dulizh proposes to change the phrase to "Give me a canapé!".
For Sumarokov, the “corruption of the language” by clerks with their bureaucracy, pedants with their Slavic and Latin language is a phenomenon that should be fought in all kinds of literary genres: in satire, in the theoretical “epistole”, in comedy. "Corruption of the language" for Sumarokov is a social disaster, and he pays great attention to this issue. Thus, in the comedy "A Quarrel between a Husband and Wife", we are presented with an example of the jargon of "helicopters" and "helicopters", which in the future will lay the foundation for the motive of satirical ridicule of these types in Russian literature.
Expanding the circle of the comedic image, Sumarokov in “A Quarrel between a Husband and Wife” gives the first sketch in Russian comedy of a village nobleman, Fatya, distinguished by ignorance, playing with his serfs in a pile and drinking honey and kvass.
From the foregoing, we can conclude that Sumarokov is beginning to grope for new ways of artistic generalization. From this side, the comedy "Narcissus" also deserves attention, which is interesting in that Sumarokov sets new tasks in it. Meaning "passion" and not "personality", Sumarokov admits that Narcissus "is a man like a man, but because of his pride on his beauty, he is completely shawl" (i.e. a madman).
There is a certain system in the choice of characters' names in Sumarokov's comedies of 1750, as well as in later ones. "Lovers", father of the bride, maid, i.e. characters familiar to the court audience from French comedies received names from classical French comedy (Doront, Octavius, Clarice, etc.) or built on their model (Infimena), as well as from Italian interludes (Arlikin, Pasquin). Some negative characters were supplied with fanciful, invented nicknames, such as Tresotinius, Krititsiondius; others received from Sumarokova Russian folklore names - Fatyuy, Dodon. This style of name marked the beginning of a certain tradition of Russian comedy. This gave Sumarokov's comedies some kind of non-Russian character.
The intrigue in Sumarokov's comedies of the 1750s is simple, but the number of actors is quite large. Unsuccessful matchmaking was the main line of development of the plot. In the center are the positive hero and heroine, whose marriage ends the comedy, they are opposed by a negative applicant or several applicants; the parents of the bride, or at least her father, are obligatory; the servants of the "lovers" or the servant of the owner of the house, the clerk are also obligatory characters. The rest of the characters (pedants, Erast the bully in Tresotinius, judges in the Arbitration Court) are episodic, although they sometimes have significant significance. A deviation from the usual plot scheme is "A quarrel between a husband and wife." This comedy does not have the usual denouement, but is limited to Delamida's statement that she does not intend to get married. Thus, the unusual denouement was supposed to serve the purpose of ridiculing "crazy coquettes."
Sumarokov introduces in his early comedies one technique that will remain for a long time in the practice of Russian comedians of the XV I I I century: the action of the play often begins with a brief monologue of a servant or maid, in which the content of the comedy is succinctly stated and a general description of the main characters is given. least replaced the then usual libretto of the play. There are few remarks in these comedies: they sparingly characterize the movement or intonations of the characters, but do not aim to depict the interior.
These features, linking Sumarokov's early comedies with the Italian comedy of masks, were largely preserved in his subsequent works.
2 period. Despite the fact that the method of conditional depiction of characters is also characteristic of the second group of comedies, nevertheless, they differ from the first ones in a greater depth and conditionality of the image of the main characters.
The second group of comedies written between 1764 and 1768 are comedies of character. Their essence is that all attention is paid to the main character, and the rest of the characters serve to reveal the character traits of the main character. So, "Guardian" is a comedy about a nobleman - usurer, swindler and hypocrite Outsider, "Poisonous" - about the slanderer Herostratus, "Narcissus" - a comedy about a narcissistic dandy. The rest of the characters are positive and act as reasoners. Sumarokov's images of negative heroes are most successful, in whose characters many satirical features are noticed, although their image is still far from creating a socially generalized type.
One of the best comedies of this period is the comedy "The Guardian", which focuses on the image of a bigot, a miserly nobleman Outlander, ripping off orphans who fell under his care. The “original” of the Outsider is a relative of Sumarokov, son-in-law of Buturlin. It is characteristic that he is also depicted as a central image in other comedies (The Likhoimets, Dowry by Deception). In the comedy "Guardian" Sumarokov does not show the bearer of some kind of vice, but draws a complex character. Before us is not only a miser who knows neither pity nor conscience, but he is a hypocrite, an ignoramus, a debauchee. Disclosure of character is facilitated by both speech and characteristics, and everyday details.
New in comedies about the miser is a broader reflection of Russian reality. The comedies of this period include everyday life, sometimes even in small details.
Sumarokov's comedy "Poisonous" (1768) is close to the comedies about the miserly. This is the most pamphlet play. It is generally accepted that, in the person of Herostratus, the author settled accounts with his literary opponent, the writer F.A. Emin. Although a closer analysis of the hints scattered in the comedy, one can understand that the situation was more complicated. The image of Herostratus is made up of features characteristic of various literary and other figures of that time. The principle of "expansion" of the originally given image of the "poisonous", i.e., the slanderer, the slanderer, is found here to a greater extent than in comedies about the stingy.
The influence of the achievements of Russian comedy of the late 1750s - the first half of the 1760s is also reflected in the language of the characters: noble "lovers" speak in a "high" style, their speech is rich in inversions, often has a dactylic ending.
Sumarokov's pamphlet comedies of the 1760s have a number of features that make them related to his tragedies of the same time: they also carry out a certain political trend, which manifests itself in different ways in different comedies. So, in the comedies about the miser, the main idea is the assertion that usury, to which both Elizabeth and Catherine II declared war on the throne upon accession to the throne, continues, despite everything, to flourish.
In the comedy Dowry by Deception, the usurer Salidar says: “Before, they took sevo for fifteen, twenty rubles and more from a hundred percent, and now they are ordered to take only six rubles from a hundred; Isn't this a ruin, but especially for kind people who know how to save money? Such a profit brings the state bank! However, many still take it, who are smarter and do not look at it: if you act according to the Holy Scriptures and according to the decrees in everything, you will never get rich. In The Guardian, this motive is not developed, but replaced by the theme of misappropriation of other people's property, but it is emphasized with particular force in the comedy Likhoimets.
Elements of a pamphlet orientation in the comedy "Guardian" are manifested in the reasoning of Pasquin's servant that "cuckolds cannot wear skufey, but they wear orders"
Z period. In the early 1770s. Sumarokov continues his dramatic work, moreover, in pamphlet terms, despite Catherine's struggle with accusatory comedies. By 1772, 3 of his comedies belong: “Cuckold by Imagination”, “Mother - Daughter's Companion” and “Scumbag”. There is no data confirming their writing in this particular year.
Everything new in Russian comedy that emerged at the turn of the 1760s and 1770s was reflected in Sumarokov's last three comedies.
Here the principle of generalization, which had only just begun to emerge in the comedies of the 1750s and which was not fully developed in his “comedies about the miserly” of the 1760s, became dominant. They also have both pafletism and portraiture, but they no longer play such a major role, but the principle of generalization.
In The Cuckold by Imagination, for the first time in a Russian comedy, the question of the sale of serfs is raised. However, when it comes to the sale of Nisa, Khavronya condemns not the sale of people in general, but the fact that it is a sin to “take so much money for a girl” (d. III, vl. 1). But this feature characterizes only the "wildness" of the landowner.
In Minodora, the heroine of the comedy "Mother is a Daughter's Companion", despite her emphasized pamphlet and portraiture, Sumarokov again seeks to give a generalization. “Edaky ladies are wound up now! - speaks of the servant B a r b a r and s. - So that they don’t eat meat during the posts, they watch it, but in order not to like strangers, they forgot about it, as if robbers: they cut people, and they don’t sip milk on Wednesdays ”(case I I, I in sheet 8)
The pamphlet comedies of Sumarokov, thanks to the principle of generalization applied by him, acquired great social acuteness. In them, he shows both the rural and Moscow nobility from an unattractive side. The “new” promised by Catherine did not justify itself: “Whatever they do now, it will soon deteriorate,” the pessimistic author says through the Fool (I am in fol. 13).
The principle of generalization, already outlined by Sumarokov, finally took shape in his work under the influence of the achievements of comedy in the 1760s and early 1770s. It is possible that Sumarokov, when he wrote "Vzdorshchitsu", knew the early "Undergrowth": both comedies have common elements, for example, the play on words "klob - bug" at rak at the end of the 2nd I in len and I); it is possible that the image of the Fool was inspired by Sumarokov, in addition to everyday observations, by M. I. Verevkin’s comedy “So It Should Be”, in which there is a similar character. In "Cuckold by Imagination" one passage is completely reminiscent of the "tearful comedies" hated by Sumarokov; this is a monologue of N and with s, beginning with the words: “Cry, N and with a! Cry and sob, O dear Nisa!” (d. I, yavl. 18).
Sumarokov's comedies of the early 1770s are thus of considerable interest. In his old age, at the end of his creative activity, Sumarokov created perhaps his best comedies. In any case, with regard to the "Cuckold by Imagination" these words are certainly true. One can only regret that Sumarokov “left Talya” for “his most gracious Melpomene” and, returning in 1774 for the last time to dramatic activity, wrote the tragedy “Mstislav”, which added nothing to his fame, and did not turn yet time for comedy.
Exposing the life of the nobility in his latest comedies, touching on the issue of the sale of serfs along the way, Sumarokov undoubtedly contributed to the penetration into the public consciousness of many, for that time, extremely advanced ideas. For example, just before the start of the Pugachev uprising, such a part of the dialogue between the landowner Burda and the servant Rosemary should have sounded topical (“Vzdorshchitsa”):
R o z m a r i n. Whenever you mutilate a driver, being a horse, it would be lost, because horses are not subject to laws; although people do not all obey the laws.
B u r d a. Yes, horses are whipped without guilt.
R o z m a r i n. Other gentlemen whip people without guilt, and they sell them in the same way as they sell horses.
B u r d a. To press between an ignoble person and a horse and there is little difference.
R o z m a r i n. We, madam, are never born either crow-footed or bay-footed, but we still have the same wool as you, and we do not eat hay.
B u r d a. Whatever it is, you are not a noble.
R o z m a r i n. Not noble, not noble! like a name of nobility and a dignity like feathers in the world! It’s like it’s a great title then, when I don’t know how to sit face to face.
(D. I, yavl. 9)
Along with issues of serfdom, Sumarokov, in his last comedies, also touches on the old in his work, but very topical in the early 1770s, the topic of "orders", clerks and their rogues (see "Mother - daughter's partner", d. I I I, yavl 5) .
However, Sumarokov did not take into account all the achievements of young playwrights: the environment in which the action of his new comedies unfolds does not interest him. In "The Bouncer" there are no indications at all where the action takes place, and in the comedy "Mother - Daughter's Companion" this is said very briefly: "Action in Moscow."
Analysis of the comedy "Cuckold by Imagination".
The comedy Cuckold by Imagination (1772) belongs to the period of Sumarokov's mature comedies and is the most outstanding. Here he raised the theme developed in Fonvizin's "Undergrowth" - about the barbaric social practice of the dark reactionary landlord "masses".
The main characters in it are a couple of provincial small estate nobles with characteristic, typical names - Vikul and Khavronya. Limited interests, ignorance, narrow-mindedness characterizes them. With all this, the characters of the comedy are not one-sided. Ridiculing the savagery, the absurdity of these people who talk about "sowing, reaping, chickens," Sumarokov also shows features that evoke sympathy for them. Vikul and Khavronya touch with their mutual affection. They are kind to their pupil, the poor girl of the yard family Floriza.
The absurdity of the life of the main characters is also emphasized by the plot of the comedy. Vikul was jealous of his sixty-year-old Khavronya for the brilliant Count Kassandra, who is in love with Floriza. Vikul reproaches Khavronya for infidelity, believing that she set the horns on him. Here is a short dialogue:
Sow. Fu, dad! How are you not afraid of God? What thoughts came to you in old age; how to say this to people, they will laugh so much! By the way, did you think of that?
Vikul. How not to be afraid that people happen to other people.
Sow. I'm no longer a young woman, so why should you be afraid.
Vikul. Yes, there is a proverb that thunder does not always rumble from a heavenly cloud, but sometimes from a dunghill.
The speech characteristics of the characters help to recreate the appearance and customs of the provincial nobles. Their speech individualization grows out of an unpretentious way of life with its daily village cares and hospitality. These people are characterized by spontaneity in expressing feelings, their language is a vivid example of live colloquial speech. It is full of proverbs and sayings:
Butler. Yes, you don’t overtighten the graph; according to the proverb: Don't fight the strong, don't fight the rich. And with such a rich and noble person, where can we fight?
Vikul. It's amazing, isn't it, my friend? the louse will become more expensive than the casing.
The scene of Khavronya ordering a “ceremonial” dinner and social events is remarkable.
conversations with which Khavronya tries to entertain the count:
And I drank a cup of coffee to the health of your great excellency, but something grumbles on my stomach; Yes, that’s enough, this is from last night: I ate fried roach and scavengers, and ate botvinya, and most of all from peas. And the peas were the lightest; and they served me on a grated plate, and the butter for it was walnut, and not some other.
"Cuckold by Imagination" is an undoubted masterpiece of all Sumarokov's comedic work.
The value of comedy creativity Sumarokov
Creativity Sumarokov - the most important link in the Russian historical and literary process. His achievements were accepted by modern writers, and what he did was included in the treasury of great Russian literature. This continuity was one of the first to be pointed out by A.N. Radishchev, while noting the merit of Lomonosov: “A great husband can give birth to a great husband; and here is your victorious crown. ABOUT! Lomonosov, you produced Sumarokov. (Radishchev A.N. selected works. Moscow - 1952. From 196)
Gukovsky G.A. in his work "Russian Literature of the 18th Century" says that Sumarokov's comedies did not constitute a significant stage in the development of Russian dramaturgy, although they have certain advantages - first of all, the fact that Sumarokov was the first to write comedies in Russia, with the exception of interludes and advanced plays.
In the first comedies of Sumarokov there is no real connecting plot. There is no unity of action in them, therefore, there is no true way of life, a way of life. The whole manner in these plays is conditionally grotesque. Everything on the stage is a complete farce.
In the subsequent period of his work, Sumarokov moves on to the type of so-called comedies of characters (find what it is !!!) In each play, one image is in the center of attention, all other characters are created either to shade the central image, or to fiction the plot.
In 1765, V. I. Lukin wrote about Sumarokov's comedies:
“I once read comedies, it is very similar to our old games
living creatures that I was told were made in the same way
laid down and decently in characters sustained and pre
lay them down to novice writers as an example of comic writings.
But against the aspirations of these gentlemen, all readers do not find mentors
in them there is neither a tie, nor a tie, but they find the only thing that
they are unsuccessfully taken from foreign writers, and they, to our shame,
due to the non-property of characters and due to the strange arrangement and interweaving into our language, they are almost dragged by force.
Finally, in the Dramatic Dictionary (1 7 8 7), where sympathetic and sometimes enthusiastic reviews of various plays of the Russian repertoire of the 1750-1780s are often found, all Sumarokov's comedies are only described and not accompanied by any ratings (with the exception of " Dowry by deceit”, about which it is said that this comedy “has been presented many times at Russian theaters and has always been favorably received by the public”). All this testifies that by the end of the 1780s Sumarokov's comedies, both early and later, ceased to be an actual phenomenon of the Russian stage.
In 1766, a great event took place in the history of Russian comedy: Fonvizinsky's Brigadier became known in the capital's circles. In 1772, the first comedies of Catherine II appeared. The last three comedies of Sumarokov belong to the same year. They were most decisively influenced by the discovery made by Fonvizin already in The Brigadier - a new display of life on stage, and it is Russian provincial landowner life in the first place, and a new display of a person with a more complex psychological characteristic and in more clarified specific social conditions. .
All three of Sumarokov's last comedies are more compact in plot.
The undoubted masterpiece of Sumarokov's entire comedy work is his "Cuckold by Imagination", a comedy that, as it were, stands in the way of Fonvizin from "The Brigadier" to "The Undergrowth", despite Sumarokov's lesser comedic talent. The theme of this play was not new, but it was not framed in the way it was done in the French comedy (with Molière's comedy Sganarelle, or the imaginary cuckold, Sumarokov's play has nothing in common). Sumarokov introduces the viewer into the life of a seedy, provincial, poor and uncultured landowner's house. Before us are two elderly people, a husband and wife, Vikul and Khavronya. They are stupid, ignorant; they are backward, wild people, and the comedy should ridicule their backwater barbarism. But at the same time, they are touching in their ridiculous affection for each other. They are a bit old-world landowners. In their house lives a poor noblewoman Floriza, educated and virtuous, but without a dowry. A noble and rich neighbor, Count Cassander, comes to visit them on the way from hunting. Old man Vikul was jealous of the brilliant count for his Khavronya. He is sure that Khavronya put horns on him. In the end, he learns that the Count and Florise fell in love, that the Count will marry Florise; thereby dissipating his jealousy.
The comedy is built primarily on the display of two characters - Vikul and Khavronya; the rest of the faces are traditional and abstract, although there is a psychological pattern in the role of the dowry Florisa, which is very peculiar. But Vikul, and especially Khavronya, are everyday figures, important in the history of Russian comedy. True, in both of these roles, and especially in the role of Khavronya, the influence of the “Brigadier” and, above all, the image of the brigadier, is noticeable. But Sumarokov managed to so learn the lessons of his young rival that he was then able to give something to him for his future great comedy.
In "Cuckold by Imagination" the notes of "Undergrowth" sound. First of all, the very circle of what is depicted is the same life of a poor and wild landlord province; this is the same rough and colorful landowners of a non-capital type. Floriza is in the family of Vikul and Khavronya, like Sofya with the Prostakovs, although Floriza is not offended; In general, these two roles are correlated. Similar to the well-known scene after the fight between Prostakova and her brother, the exit of Vikul and his wife who had just fought (d. 2, y. 6). In the name of Khavronya, the punning of the Skotinins' surname sounds, and the manner of everyday drawing and the very theme in places converge in both comedies.
Sumarokov raised the theme, developed in The Undergrowth, about the barbaric social practice of the dark reactionary landlord "masses" (and right there - Skotinin's pigs).
Sumarokov paints the life of Vikul and Khavronya with rich colors. His victory has to be considered such scenes as, for example, ordering a ceremonial dinner by Khavronya or clumsy "social" conversations with which she tries to entertain the count. In these scenes, as in the dialogues of both spouses, Sumarokov reaches the highest point in his desire to convey everyday speech, bright, lively, quite colloquial, in places close to the warehouse of a folk tale, interspersed with proverbs and sayings. He conveys this speech naturalistically, without crystallizing its forms; he considers it uncultured speech, serving to characterize his landowners as barbarians; but still genuine, real speech sounds in his play; it sounded in his previous comedies, but it is Cuckold by Imagination that is his best prose play in this respect.
Here is an example of a conversation about jealousy:
“Khavronya - Fu, dad! How are you not afraid of God? What thoughts do you have in your old age? How to say this to people, so they will laugh. By the way, did you think of that?
V and k u l - How not to be afraid that people happen to others.
Khavronya - I am no longer a young woman; so why should you be afraid!
Q and k l - Yes, there is a proverb that thunder does not always rumble from a heavenly cloud, but sometimes from a dunghill.
Khavronya - Pip would be on your tongue; what kind of dung do you have?
Floriza - What is it, madam, is it?
Q and k l - Wife, keep it to yourself.
Khavronya - FAQ to yourself? This is shame and rubbish.
V and k l - Do not talk, my treasure, my diamond pebble.
Khavronya - Yes, this is not good, my cherry berry.
V and k u l - Wife, stop it.
Khavronya - Kiss me, strong, mighty hero.
V and k u l - Let's kiss, my sunflower star.
Khavronya - Be more cheerful, and as bright as a new month, but don’t be jealous.
Q and k l - Wife, who is talking about jealousy?
Khavronya - What broke through me! Yes, that’s enough, a horse with four legs, and he stumbles, and I’m an illiterate woman, because I can’t say anything ...
A person thinks a lot about his own person, taking everything to heart. If someone laughs behind his back, then the reason for laughter can only be in him. And if someone kisses his wife's hand, then it's worth talking about a clear betrayal, most likely already happened. And it does not matter if the wife is over sixty. Is there a little hurriedness in it? Twenty-year-old girls did not stand nearby. It is with such an imagination that the nobleman Vikul lives, regardless of anything: neither with time in the yard, nor with a reasonable understanding of what is understood.
Taking over, Vikul does not pay attention to everyday life. Sumarokov did not show a person with strong convictions, presenting to the attention an amorphous character endowed with the ability to be jealous. Vikul does not know how to be proud and show no other feelings, except for doubts about his wife's fidelity. What is happening without him could be shown to the viewer, since the thoughts of the owner of the house are not so important, especially since they do not really represent anything.
The focus is on the impoverished noblewoman Floriza and Vikula's wife's maid Nysa. They are of interest to Count Kassandra, who lives on the neighboring estate, and his huntsman, respectively. There is no conflict of interest between them. Everyone understands what choice he will have. No one interferes with mutual happiness. Weddings will be easily played, it is worth announcing. There is a single misunderstanding that does not affect anything. It's about Vikul's jealousy.
But nothing just happens. Relationships need to be born. Suffice it to say about the intention, as the answer is likely to be positive. Life can make adjustments, it is worth wishing the author of the work. If there were five acts in comedy, then there would be a place for something else. For three actions, it is enough to show interest, inform about it and eliminate a number of misunderstandings that have arisen, after which it is permissible to lower the curtain.
Vikul's jealousy brings an additional feature to the events taking place on the stage. He does not oppose and does not create intrigues, only expressing concern from what seems strange to him. After all, it was not without reason that the wife undertook to restore order at home, prepare festive dishes and look forward to the arrival of the count. In addition, it is known that earlier the wife and the count met in Moscow, where they attended a theater performance together. Moreover, the wife speaks of a positive impression of that meeting. You won't be comforted by such confessions. The wife's assurances of the firmness of her former love will not help to find balance, supposedly she will not exchange her husband even for a prince.
By the third act, the spectator fully agrees with the opinion of the butler, who directly tells Vikul about his suspicions: "Ears wither, dear sir." Just think, in his old age, the nobleman decided to beat his forehead at the authorities. You never know to what insanity he lived in the surrounding pastoral. Let the viewer not be sad - all misunderstandings will end immediately, as soon as Count Kasander announces certain intentions, and not regarding Vikul's wife, but Floriza, against which the owner of the house will not object.
Sumarokov wanted to see a smile of appeasement among the visitors of the play staged according to his comedy. A light plot without malicious intent - in order to show the importance of good neighborliness. Seemingly important should be taken more condescendingly. Decisive action will be later, when everything is finally clarified. In any other case, it is better to pretend that nothing is happening. Just think: they laugh behind your back, or someone kissed his wife's hand. There can be a million reasons for that. Therefore, it is better to calm the imagination, directing it to another useful channel, such as writing edifying comedies. Sumarokov did just that.
Additional tags: Sumarokov cuckold by imagination criticism, analysis, reviews, review, book, Alexander Sumarokov, analysis, review, book, content
This might also interest you:
–
Contemporaries put Sumarokov's comedies much lower than his tragedies. These comedies did not constitute a significant stage in the development of Russian drama, although they possessed a number of advantages that make the historian of literature take a closer look at them - and above all because Sumarokov was still the first to write comedies in Russia, with the exception of interludes of a semi-folklore type and advanced plays.
In total, Sumarokov wrote twelve comedies. Chronologically, they are divided into three groups: first there are three plays: "Tresotinius", "An Empty Quarrel" and "Monsters", written in 1750. Then comes a break of no less than fourteen years; from 1764 to 1768 six more comedies were written: "Dowry by deceit" (circa 1764). "Guardian" (1765), "Likhoimets", "Three Brothers Together", "Poisonous", "Narcissus" (all four in 1768). Then - the last three comedies of 1772 - "Cuckold by Imagination", "Mother Daughter's Companion", "Squat". Sumarokov wrote his comedies in impulses, seizing on this genre, which in general is not very close to him, as a strong polemical or satirical weapon, during periods of aggravation of his anger at those around him. He did not work on his comedies long and carefully. This can be seen from their text, and from their dates, and from his own notes; so, in the text of Tresotinius, he made a note: “Conceived on January 12, 1750, completed on January 13, 1750. St. Petersburg.” With the text of "Monsters" - a note: "This comedy was composed in June 1750 at the Primorsky Court."
Sumarokov's first comedies were still firmly connected with those traditions of drama that existed before Sumarokov in Russia and in Russian, and perhaps most of all in Italian theater. In general, Sumarokov's comedies have minimal relevance to the traditions and norms of French classicism throughout his work, and especially in his first group; this does not mean, of course, that they stand outside the bounds of Russian classicism. First of all, even outwardly: in France, comedies in five acts in verse were considered correct, “real” comedy. Of course, Moliere and after him many wrote comedies in prose, but these comedies were considered, from the point of view of classical dogma, to be, so to speak, a lower grade. Another thing is Sumarokov, the canonizer of Russian classicism; all his comedies are written in prose. None of them has the full volume and "correct" arrangement of the composition of the classical comedy of the West in five acts; Sumarokov's eight comedies have only one action each, four - three each. Basically - these are small plays, almost skits, almost interludes. Sumarokov only conditionally endures even unity. The time and place of action fit into the norm, but there is no unity of action, especially in the first plays. Needless to say about the nobility of the tone of the French classical comedy; there is not even a trace of him in Sumarokov's rough, semi-farcical plays.
In the first comedies of Sumarokov, in fact, there is not even any real connecting plot. We will find in them, of course, a rudiment of the plot in the form of a couple in love, who at the end marry; but this vestige of the love theme does not influence the course of the action; Or rather, there is no action in comedy. The comedy is a series of more or less mechanically connected scenes; one after another, comic masks come out to the theater; the actors representing the derided vices, in a dialogue that does not move the action, show the public each of its vices. When the catalog of vices and comic dialogue is exhausted, the play ends. The struggle for the heroine's hand does not unite even a small share of themes and dialogues. Such a construction of the play comes close to the construction of folk "areal" games-interludes or nativity scenes of satirical scenes, and especially parsley comedy. It is characteristic that, in contrast to the tragedies of Sumarokov, in his first comedies, despite their small volume, there are a lot of characters; so, in "Tresotinius", a comedy in one act, there are ten of them, in "Monsters" - eleven.
If a single action does not take place on the stage of Sumarokov's early comedies, then there is no true life, life in them. Like the conventional interlude scene, the stage of Tresotinius or The Monsters or The Empty Quarrel represents a conventional abstract place in which no one lives, but only characters appear to demonstrate their conventionally depicted shortcomings. The whole manner of Sumarokov in these plays is conventionally grotesque. In "Monsters" a comic court session takes place on the stage, and the judges are dressed like foreign judges - in big wigs, but in general they are not judges at all, and the trial itself takes place in a private house, and all this is a complete farce, moreover, behind the ridiculousness of the scene it is impossible to make out how to understand it seriously. Sumarokov loves farcical comedy - fights on stage, funny picks of characters. All this grotesque ludicrousness in him depends to a large extent on the tradition of the Italian comedy of masks.
The very composition of the comic characters of the first Sumarokov comedies is determined mainly by the composition of the stable masks of the Italian folk comedy. These are traditional masks, the centuries-old tradition of which most often goes back to Roman comedy. So, in front of us are: a pedant-scientist (in Tresotinius there are three of them: Tresotinius himself, Xaxoxymenius, Bobembius; in Monsters it is Criticiondius); it is the "doctor" of Italian comedy; he is followed by a boastful warrior, lying about his unheard-of exploits, but in fact a coward (in "Tresotinius" Bramarbas); this is the "captain" of Italian comedy, going back to the "boastful soldier" Pir-gopolinik Plautus. Further - dexterous servants Kimar in Tresotinius and Empty Quarrel, Harlequin in Monsters; this is Harlequin commedia dell "arte; finally - ideal lovers - Clarice and Dorant in Tresotinius, Infimena and Valera in Monsters. The very names of the heroes of his first comedies, not Russian, but conditionally theatrical.
In addition to the tradition of Italian comedy, Sumarokov used in his early comedies the dramaturgy of the Danish classic Golberg, which he knew in German translation (for example, Golberg took his Brambarbas along with his name); it should be noted that Golberg himself depended on the tradition of the same Italian comedy. Something Sumarokov also takes from the French, but not the method, but individual motives, modified from him beyond recognition. So, from Molière ("Learned Women"), he took the name Tresotinius (Moliere's Tresoten), and from Racine the scene in "Monsters" (from "Sutyag").
No matter how conditional the manner of Sumarokov's first comedies was, there were features of Russian topicality in it, enlivening and comprehending it. Thus, the comic masks of the clerk and petimeter introduced by Sumarokov are closely connected with his political and cultural preaching. His clerk in "Tresotinius" (only an outlined image), in "Monsters" the clerk Khabzey and the judges Dodon and Finist are included in the general line of his struggle against the bureaucracy; his petimeters, Frenchmen, secular dandies - Dulizh in "Monsters" and Dulizh in "Empty Quarrel" - are included in the line of his struggle against the court "nobility", against gallomania, for Russian culture, for his native language. Sumarokov's comedies, even the first three of them, are sprinkled with literary and polemical attacks, allusions to Sumarokov himself and his enemies. This applies especially to Tresotinius, whose main character, which gave the comedy its name, is a pamphlet against Trediakovsky, unusually caricatured, but unambiguous. This is characteristic of Sumarokov's entire comic style of this period; his comic masks do not rise to a broad social typology. This can even be said about the role of Fatyuy, a village landowner (“Empty Quarrel”), the most Russian and in everyday terms full-fledged so much that one can guess some features of the future Mitrofan Prostakov in it. Finally, the early comedies of Sumarokov are enlivened by their language, lively, sharp, cheeky in its unadornedness, subjected very little to the sublime vivisection of French classicism.
Sumarokov's six comedies of 1764-1768 are noticeably different from the first three, although much in them is the same; the method of conditional representation, the absence of life on the stage, remains basically the same; only in one comedy do the Tigers, their father, mother and daughter Olga, the three Radugin brothers, Yaroslav, Svyatoslav and Izyaslav (“Three Brothers Together”) appear. Meanwhile, the very structure of the plays changed. Sumarokov moves on to the type of so-called comedy of characters. In each play, one image is at the center of his attention, and everything else is needed either to set off the central image, or to falsify the plot, which is still of little importance. So, "Guardian" is a play about a nobleman-usurer, a swindler and a hypocrite Outsider. The same image is the only one in "Likhoimets" under the name of Kashchei, and he is the same in "Dowry by deceit" under the name of Salidar. Poisonous is a comedy about the slanderer Herostratus. "Narcissus" - a comedy about a narcissistic dandy; His name is Narcissus. In addition to these central images, and there are three of them, there are no characters in all Sumarokov's comedies of 1764-1768; all the other characters are goodies, barely lively copybooks. On the contrary, the central characters are drawn carefully, especially the triple image of the Outsider - Kashchei - Salidar. They are furnished with a number of household details of a fairly real type; they are connected with the topic of the day not only by the idea, but also by individual hints. At the same time, the satirical and everyday features that build the character of Kashchei, Chuzhekhvat and others are empirical and not generalized, they do not form a unity of type. These roles are composed of individual particles and do not have an organic character; they do not change throughout the play, they do not live on the stage, although they have a considerable power of sharp caricature. The fact is that Sumarokov, even during this period, was most often a pamphleteer, as he was in Tresotinius. His comedies have a personal address; These are face satires. Kashchei in Likhoimets is Buturlin, a relative of Sumarokov, and a number of details of Kashchei's life are due not to the logic of his character, but to a portrait resemblance to Buturlin. Apparently, both Salidar and the Outsider are the same person. Herostratus in "Poisonous" is the literary and personal enemy of Sumarokov F.A. Emin. Probably, Narcissus is a certain person. From interludes and commedia dell "arte, Sumarokov moved in comedy not to the French classics of the 18th century, but to Fonvizin.
Meanwhile, the very movement of Sumarokov towards the comedy of characters in the mid-1760s was due not so much to his personal evolution as to the influence that he experienced from the emerging Russian comedy repertoire of the 1750s and 1760s. The first three comedies of Sumarokov opened the way. When a permanent theater was organized in 1756, he needed a repertoire, and in particular a comedy one. The director of the theater, Sumarokov, did not write comedies at that time; his students began to work for him, and again I.P. Yelagin. Young people followed Yelagin, again all the pupils of the gentry cadet corps. These are A. Volkov, V. Bibikov, I. Kropotov, A. Nartov, Iv. Chaadaev and others. They mainly translate the comedies of Molière and other French playwrights.
The first original Russian comedy after the Sumarokovskys was a play by M.M. Kheraskov, also a student of Sumarokov and a pupil of the cadet corps, - "Godless"; this is a small play in verse, standing aside from the theatrical and dramatic revival around the St. Petersburg Theater (Kheraskov lived in Moscow since 1755), continuing the line of even not so much intermedia as instructive school dramaturgy. In the early 1760s, two original comedies by A.A. Volkov "Unsuccessful stubbornness" and "Children's love". These are conditional plays of intrigue that have nothing to do with Russian life, and indeed with no real life. By the same time, in the first half of the 1760s, Yelagin attempted to propose a means of bringing the Western comedy repertoire closer to Russian life, namely: "incline" borrowed plays to our morals, i. translate them, somewhat altering them in a Russian way, replacing foreign names with Russian ones, etc. So, Elagin himself translated the comedy “French-Russian” from Golberg, and the young man Fonvizin, who served under him, remade his “Korion” from Soren's play “Sidney”, a comedy in verse. All this revival on the front of Russian comedy and, in particular, the impact of the great French comedies of characters (for example, Detouche) determined the direction of Sumarokov's work as a comedian in 1764-1768.
In 1766, a great event took place in the history of Russian comedy: Fonvizinsky's Brigadier became known in the capital's circles. In 1772, the first comedies of Catherine II appeared. The last three comedies of Sumarokov belong to the same year. They were most decisively influenced by the discovery made by Fonvizin already in The Brigadier - a new display of life on stage, and it is Russian provincial landowner life in the first place, and a new display of a person with a more complex psychological characteristic and in more clarified specific social conditions. . All three of Sumarokov's last comedies are more compact in plot.
The undoubted masterpiece of Sumarokov's entire comedy work is his "Cuckold by Imagination", a comedy that, as it were, stands in the way of Fonvizin from "The Brigadier" to "The Undergrowth", despite Sumarokov's lesser comedic talent. The theme of this play was not new, but it was not framed in the way it was done in the French comedy (with Molière's comedy Sganarelle, or the imaginary cuckold, Sumarokov's play has nothing in common). Sumarokov introduces the viewer into the life of a seedy, provincial, poor and uncultured landowner's house. Before us are two elderly people, a husband and wife, Vikul and Khavronya. They are stupid, ignorant; they are backward, wild people, and the comedy should ridicule their backwater barbarism. But at the same time, they are touching in their ridiculous affection for each other. They are a bit old-world landowners. In their house lives a poor noblewoman Floriza, educated and virtuous, but without a dowry. A noble and rich neighbor, Count Cassander, comes to visit them on the way from hunting. Old man Vikul was jealous of the brilliant count for his Khavronya. He is sure that Khavronya put horns on him. In the end, he learns that the Count and Florise fell in love, that the Count will marry Florise; thereby dissipating his jealousy.
The comedy is built primarily on the display of two characters - Vikul and Khavronya; the rest of the faces are traditional and abstract, although there is a psychological pattern in the role of the dowry Florisa, which is very peculiar. But Vikul, and especially Khavronya, are everyday figures, important in the history of Russian comedy. True, in both of these roles, and especially in the role of Khavronya, the influence of the “Brigadier” and, above all, the image of the brigadier, is noticeable. But Sumarokov managed to so learn the lessons of his young rival that he was then able to give something to him for his future great comedy.
In "Cuckold by Imagination" the notes of "Undergrowth" sound. First of all, the very circle of what is depicted is the same life of a poor and wild landlord province; this is the same rough and colorful language of landowners of a non-capital type. Floriza is in the family of Vikul and Khavronya, like Sofya with the Prostakovs, although Floriza is not offended; In general, these two roles are correlated. Similar to the well-known scene after the fight between Prostakova and her brother, the exit of Vikul and his wife who had just fought (d. 2, y. 6). In the name of Khavronya, the punning of the Skotinins' surname sounds, and the manner of everyday drawing and the very theme in places converge in both comedies.
Sumarokov raised the theme, developed in The Undergrowth, about the barbaric social practice of the dark reactionary landlord "masses" (and right there - Skotinin's pigs).
Sumarokov paints the life of Vikul and Khavronya with rich colors. His victory has to be considered such scenes as, for example, ordering a ceremonial dinner by Khavronya or clumsy "social" conversations with which she tries to entertain the count. In these scenes, as in the dialogues of both spouses, Sumarokov reaches the highest point in his desire to convey everyday speech, bright, lively, quite colloquial, in places close to the warehouse of a folk tale, interspersed with proverbs and sayings. He conveys this speech naturalistically, without crystallizing its forms; he considers it uncultured speech, serving to characterize his landowners as barbarians; but still genuine, real speech sounds in his play; it sounded in his previous comedies, but it is Cuckold by Imagination that is his best prose play in this respect.
Here is an example of a conversation about jealousy:
“Khavronya - Fu, dad! How are you not afraid of God? What thoughts do you have in your old age? How to say this to people, so they will laugh. By the way, did you think of that?
Vikul - How not to be afraid that people happen to others.
Khavronya - I am no longer a young woman; so why should you be afraid!
Vikul - Yes, there is a proverb that thunder does not always rumble from a heavenly cloud, but sometimes from a dunghill.
Khavronya - Pip would be on your tongue; what kind of dung do you have?
Floriza - What is it, madam, is it?
Vikul - Wife, keep it to yourself.
Khavronya - FAQ to yourself? This is shame and rubbish.
Vikul - Don't talk, my treasure, my diamond pebble.
Khavronya - Yes, this is not good, my cherry berry.
Vikul - Wife, stop it.
Khavronya - Kiss me, strong, mighty hero.
Vikul - Let's kiss, my sunflower star.
Khavronya - Be more cheerful, and as bright as a new month, but don’t be jealous.
Vikul - Wife, who is talking about jealousy?
Khavronya - What broke through me! Yes, that’s enough, a horse with four legs, and even he stumbles, and I’m an illiterate woman, because I can’t say anything ...
