In 1963, one of the stories of the Russian thinker and humanist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was published. Based on events from the biography of the author. The publication of his books has always caused a huge response not only in the Russian-speaking society, but also among Western readers. But the image of Matryona in the story "Matryona Dvor" is unique. There was nothing like it in rural prose before. That is why this work has taken a special place in Russian literature.
Plot
The story is told from the perspective of the author. A certain teacher and former camper goes in the summer of 1956 at random, wherever his eyes look. His goal is to get lost somewhere in the Russian dense hinterland. Despite the ten years he spent in the camp, the hero of the story still hopes to find a job as a teacher. He succeeds. He settles in the village of Talnovo.
The image of Matryona in the story "Matryona Dvor" begins to take shape even before her appearance. A casual acquaintance helps the protagonist find shelter. After a long and unsuccessful search, he offers to go to Matryona, warning that "she lives in the wilderness and is sick." They are heading towards her.
Matrena's domain
The house is old and rotten. It was built many years ago for a large family, but now only one woman of about sixty lived in it. Without a description of the poor village life, the story "Matryona's Dvor" would not be so penetrating. The image of Matryona - the very heroine of the story - fully corresponds to the atmosphere of desolation that reigned in the hut. Yellow sickly face, tired eyes...
The house is full of mice. Among its inhabitants, in addition to the hostess herself, there are cockroaches and a crooked cat.
The image of Matryona in the story "Matryona Dvor" is the basis of the story. Based on it, the author reveals his spiritual world and depicts the characteristic features of other characters.
From the main character, the narrator learns about her difficult fate. She lost her husband at the front. She has lived all her life in solitude. Later, her guest learns that for many years she has not received a penny: she works not for money, but for sticks.
She was not happy with the tenant, persuaded him for some time to find a house cleaner and more comfortable. But the guest's desire to find a quieter place determined the choice: he stayed with Matryona.
During the time that the teacher lodged with her, the old woman got up before dark, prepared a simple breakfast. And it seemed that a certain meaning appeared in Matryona's life.
peasant image
The image of Matryona in the story "Matryona Dvor" is an amazingly rare combination of disinterestedness and diligence. This woman has been working for half a century, not in order to make good, but out of habit. Because there is no other existence.
It should be said that the fate of the peasantry always attracted Solzhenitsyn, since his ancestors belonged to this class. And he believed that it was hard work, sincerity and generosity that distinguished representatives of this social stratum. Which confirms the sincere, truthful image of Matryona in the story "Matryona Dvor".
Fate
In intimate conversations in the evenings, the hostess tells the tenant the story of her life. Efim's husband died in the war, but before that his brother wooed her. She agreed, was listed as his bride, but during the Second World War he went missing, and she did not wait for him. She married Yefim. But Thaddeus returned.
None of Matryona's children survived. And then she got widowed.
Its end is tragic. She dies because of her naivety and kindness. This event ends the story "Matryona Dvor". The image of the righteous Matryona is sadder because, with all her good qualities, she remains misunderstood by her fellow villagers.
Loneliness
Matryona lived in a big house all her life alone, except for a short female happiness, which was destroyed by the war. And also those years during which she raised her daughter Thaddeus. He married her namesake and they had six children. Matryona asked him to bring up a girl, which he did not refuse. But her adopted daughter left her.
The image of Matryona in A. I. Solzhenitsyn's story "Matryona's Yard" is amazing. Neither eternal poverty, nor resentment, nor all kinds of oppression destroy it. The best way for a woman to return a good mood was work. And after the labors, she became contented, enlightened, with a kind smile.
The Last Righteous
She knew how to rejoice in someone else's happiness. Having not accumulated goodness in her whole life, she did not harden, she retained the ability to sympathize. Not a single hard work in the village was complete without her participation. Despite her illness, she helped other women, harnessed herself to the plow, forgetting about her advanced age and the illness that had tormented her for more than twenty years.
This woman never denied anything to her relatives, and her inability to preserve her own "good" led to the fact that she lost her upper room - her only property, not counting the old rotten house. The image of Matryona in the story by A. I. Solzhenitsyn personifies selflessness and virtue, which for some reason did not evoke either respect or response from others.
Thaddeus
The righteous female character is opposed by her failed husband Thaddeus, without whom the system of images would be incomplete. "Matryona Dvor" is a story in which, in addition to the main character, there are other faces. But Thaddeus is a striking contrast to the main character. Returning from the front alive, he did not forgive his fiancee for treason. Although, it should be said that she did not love his brother, but only felt sorry for him. Realizing that it is difficult for his family without a mistress. The death of Matryona at the end of the story is a consequence of the stinginess of Thaddeus and his relatives. Avoiding unnecessary expenses, they decided to move the room faster, but they did not have time, as a result of which Matryona fell under the train. Only the right hand remained intact. But even after the terrible events, Thaddeus looks at her dead body indifferently, indifferently.
There are also many sorrows and disappointments in the fate of Thaddeus, but the difference between the two characters lies in the fact that Matryona was able to save her soul, but he was not. After her death, the only thing he cares about is Matrenino's meager possessions, which he immediately drags into his house. Thaddeus does not come to the wake.
The image of holy Rus', which poets so often sang, dissipates with her departure. A village cannot stand without a righteous person. The image of Matryona, the heroine in Solzhenitsyn's story "Matryona Dvor", is the remnants of a pure Russian soul, which still lives, but already on its last legs. Because righteousness and kindness are less and less valued in Russia.
The story, as already mentioned, is based on real events. Differences are only in the name of the settlement and some details. The heroine was actually called Matryona. She lived in one of the villages of the Vladimir region, where the author spent 1956-1957. It was planned to make a museum in her house in 2011. But Matryona's yard burned down. In 2013, the house-museum was restored.
The work was first published in the literary magazine "New World". Solzhenitsyn's previous story evoked a positive response. The story of the righteous woman gave rise to many disputes and discussions. And yet, critics had to admit that the story was created by a great and truthful artist, able to return the people to their native language and continue the traditions of Russian classical literature.
A. I. Solzhenitsyn's story "Matryonin Dvor" touches upon such topics as the moral and spiritual life of the people, the struggle for survival, the contradiction between the individual and society, the relationship between power and man. "Matryonin Dvor" is written entirely about a simple Russian woman. Despite many events unrelated to her, Matryona is the main character. The plot of the story develops around her.
In the center of Solzhenitsyn's attention is a simple village woman - Matryona Vasilievna, who lives in poverty and has worked all her life on a state farm. Matryona got married before the revolution and from the very first day she took up household chores. Our heroine is a lonely woman who lost her husband at the front and buried six children. Matryona lived alone in a huge house. "Everything was built a long time ago and soundly, for a large family, and now there lived a lonely woman of about sixty." The central theme in this work is the theme of the native home and hearth.
Matryona, despite all the hardships of everyday life, has not lost the ability to respond to someone else's misfortune with her soul and heart. She is the keeper of the hearth, but this is her only mission, which acquires scale and philosophical depth. Matryona is still not perfect, the Soviet ideology penetrates into life, into the heroine's house (signs of this ideology are a poster on the wall and an ever-not-silent radio).
We meet a woman who has experienced a lot in her life and did not even receive a well-deserved pension: “There were many injustices with Matryona: she was sick, but was not considered an invalid; she worked on a collective farm for a quarter of a century, but because it was not at the factory, it was not her pension for herself, but it was possible to seek for her husband, that is, for the loss of a breadwinner. Such injustice reigned at that time in all corners of Russia. A person who does good for his country with his own hands is not valued in the state, he is trampled into the mud. Matrona has earned five such pensions in her entire working life. But they don’t give her a pension, because on the collective farm she received not money, but sticks. And in order to achieve a pension for her husband, you need to spend a lot of time and effort. She collected papers for a very long time, spent time, but all in vain. Matrona remained without a pension. This absurdity of laws is more likely to drive a person into a coffin than to secure his financial position.
The main character does not have any livestock except for a goat: "All her bellies were - one dirty white goat." She ate mostly one potato: “She walked for water and cooked in three cast irons: one cast iron for me, one for herself, one for a goat. She chose the smallest potatoes from the underground for a goat, for herself a small one, and for me - with a chicken egg " . A good life is not seen when people are sucked into the swamp of poverty. Life is very unfair to Matryona. The bureaucracy, which does not work for a person, together with the state is not at all interested in how people like Matryona live. Crossed out the slogan "Everything for man." Wealth no longer belongs to the people, the people are the serfs of the state. And, in my opinion, it is precisely these problems that Solzhenitsyn touches upon in his story.
The image of Matrena Vasilievna is the embodiment of the best features of a Russian peasant woman. She has a difficult tragic fate. Her "children did not stand: up to three months without living and not being ill with anything, everyone died." Everyone in the village decided that there was damage in it. Matryona does not know happiness in her personal life, but she is not all for herself, but for people. For ten years, working for free, the woman raised Kira as her own, instead of her children. Helping her in everything, not refusing help to anyone, morally she is much higher than her selfish relatives. Life is not easy, "thick with worries" - Solzhenitsyn does not hide this in a single detail.
I believe that Matryona is a victim of events and circumstances. Moral purity, unselfishness, diligence are features that attract us to the image of a simple Russian woman who has lost everything in her life and has not become hardened. In old age, sick, she heals her mental and physical ailments. Labor is happiness, the goal for which she lives. And yet, if you look closely at the way of life of Matryona, you can see that Matryona is a slave of labor, and not a mistress. That is why the fellow villagers, and most of all relatives, shamelessly exploited her, but she dutifully carried her heavy cross. Matryona, as conceived by the author, is the ideal of a Russian woman, the fundamental principle of all being. “All of us,” Solzhenitsyn concludes his story about the life of Matryona, “lived next to her and did not understand that she was the same righteous man, without whom, according to the proverb, there is no village. Not a city. Not our whole land.”
In the work of Solzhenitsyn "Matryona Dvor" the image of the righteous is presented - this is Matryona.
The full name of the main character is Grigoryeva Matrena Vasilievna. The reader learns about her hard life from the words of the narrator - Ignatich.
The main character is about sixty years old, she is friendly and glad to see everyone, she lives in the countryside, so she got used to work from childhood. She lived alone in the house, she had no children. Her loneliness was brightened up by a new guest, now for him she got up early, cooked, took care of him, shared her experiences.
Matryona appeared to be a strong and healthy woman, but at times she had seizures, and her face glowed yellow. When seizures occurred, the heroine could not walk for several days and lay at home, skipping work on the collective farm.
The most expensive for the heroine were her flowers and a cat. She loved her plants very much, looked after them, saved them first of all in a fire.
Matryona loved Thaddeus in her youth, but because of the war they could not be together. She stopped waiting for her lover, married his brother. Thaddeus suddenly returns from the war, marries and starts a family. All Matryona's children have died, she decides to adopt a girl - the daughter of Thaddeus. But she also leaves the heroine.
Matryona often selflessly helped her relatives and neighbors, receiving in return only condemnation, not gratitude. Matrena is a truly bright person, capable of self-sacrifice. Despite her illness, Matryona was ready to help everyone, but only she was not paid a pension, she worked for nothing.
Even during the life of the heroine, Thaddeus began to divide her property, forcing her to give part of the house to his daughter. Matryona dies during the move, no one regrets her death, except for the guest. The villagers called Matrena stupid and did not understand anything in life, they did not appreciate her help and work.
Matryona is pure in soul, she does not blame other people for disrespectful attitude towards her, but on the contrary helps, rejoices in someone else's harvest or someone else's happiness. The main character is a positive hero, this is reflected in her actions and thoughts.
Composition about Matryona
Mastery in depicting the various destinies of people and their characters belongs to the previously banned writer Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn. One of such striking works is the story Matrenin Dvor, written in 1959. He personifies the strength of the spirit and the ability to compassion.
We see a description of the life and life of the village in the post-war period. The main character in the work is the village woman Matryona Grigorievna. All her life she worked at the state farm and was always hardworking. Because of this war, she lost her husband, whom she married before the revolution. And she also lost her children, and this left a huge imprint in her soul and in her heart. In the story, we see her during the narration of Ignatich, when he returns from Kazakhstan and begins to live in Matrena's house. Her trust in the common man is amazing, because she lived in this huge and old house completely alone. Despite this, she tries to maintain comfort, warmth and home. After her death, Ignatich calls her a very dear and kind person, without whom it is difficult to imagine the village. The whole sequence of actions gives the work credibility and truthfulness.
Matryona's life is hard and difficult, but she has not lost faith in people. This village woman never refuses to help anyone. Even if she has urgent business, she will put in the first place the request of the person who turns to her. All her suffering from that modern power makes itself felt in despair, and she, without losing heart, finds joy for her soul in constant work and work. She could grab a shovel and go to the garden to escape from melancholy and despondency. I could grab a basket and go to the forest for mushrooms or berries. She replaced this emptiness in the family with work.
In the second part of the story, Alexander Isaevich tells us about the youth of the heroine. About how she married the brother of her beloved. Here the image of Matryona is contrasted with Thaddeus. He was covered with rage and anger because of the betrayal of his girlfriend. Even after death, Thaddeus' relatives tried to insult Matryona, calling her unscrupulous and careless.
His vision of many of the problems reflected in this work brings its own character and unsurpassed manner of narration to Russian literature. Here you can clearly see the attitude of the authorities to the people, to their problems, as well as the fierce struggle for survival in the cruel conditions of society, as well as the disinterested attitude of Matryona to all those in need.
Some interesting essays
Spring according to the calendar comes in March. But sometimes she is late. And then it snows again. The days are getting longer than in winter. Snow is melting. puddles form
Analyze this passage. Think about what traits of the character and inner world of Matryona are revealed in the work of Matrenin Dvor?
The above fragment reveals the best features of the heroine's nature: her patience, kindness, independence, mental stamina, diligence.
Solzhenitsyn’s Matryona used to rely only on herself, she worked on a collective farm for a quarter of a century, however, the patient never registered her disability, she did not get a pension “for her husband”. But, despite all the hardships and hardships, she did not lose her spiritual sensitivity, the desire to live according to her conscience. A.I. Solzhenitsyn manages to create this image with the help of various artistic means. The appearance of the heroine may be inconspicuous, but an inner light comes from her soul. The author manages to convey this with the help of the epithets “enlightened”, “with a kind smile”. One gets the impression that Matryona is a holy person who lives exclusively according to the laws of morality.
An important means of creating the image of Matryona is also a speech characteristic. The author saturates the heroine’s remarks with dialect words (for example, “flying”), vernacular (“tepericha”, “collections”). In general, these lexical means give Matrena's speech figurativeness, poetry, expressiveness. The words "duel", "kartov", "lubota", sounding from the lips of a simple Russian woman, take on a special meaning. Such word-creation testifies to the heroine's talent, her closeness to folklore traditions, to folk life.
Matrona is a real hard worker. Her whole life is filled with troubles, labors. The heroine does not sit idle for a minute, despite her senile infirmity and illness. She finds solace in work: she digs potatoes, picks berries. And thus restores a good mood. The author's characterization of Matrena includes verbs with the meaning of movement (“went”, “returned”, “digged”).
The writer in this story denotes the confrontation between the individual and the state: his heroine, trying to defend her rights, faces insurmountable bureaucratic barriers. According to the author, this state is indifferent to the fate of the common man. Talking about how the heroine seeks a pension, the author uses the technique of syntactic parallelism in the narrative: “go again”, “go again for the third day”, “go for the fourth day because ...” So the writer once again emphasizes the heroine’s perseverance in achieving her “ righteous" purpose. The features of Matryona's speech are also transmitted using incomplete sentences, inversion. These syntactic devices help the author to show the emotionality and spontaneity of a village woman.
Matrena reminds us of the heroines of N.A. Nekrasov. Let us recall Matryona Timofeevna from the poem “Who in Russia should live well”. Heroine A.I. Solzhenitsyn resembles her in her pure peasant soul. This is an honest, fair, but poor, unhappy woman; a man of a disinterested soul, absolutely unrequited, humble; righteous, without which, according to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, "the village is not worth it." The writer manages to create such a multifaceted, amazing image of a Russian peasant woman using various artistic means.
Matryona Vasilievna Grigorieva is the central character in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryona’s Yard”. We learn her story from the face of the narrator - Ignatich, who after 10 years of camps accidentally drove into the small village of Talnovo and became his mother's guest.
The poor hut and the good-natured elderly, although exhausted by illnesses, her mistress immediately liked Ignatich.
Matrena is a typical Russian peasant woman who has lived a difficult life. She is about 60 years old, she is single and lives very modestly, having worked hard all her life, she has not saved up any good. And although her hut was large and was built for a large family, it was very poor - for 25 years of work on the collective farm she was not even entitled to a pension, because she worked not for money, but for “sticks” of workdays. During her life, the old woman earned five such pensions, but due to bureaucratic confusion, she remained completely poor.
And in recent years, the woman began to suffer from some kind of illness, which completely deprived her of strength. Sick and tired for the first time sees her and Ignatich:
"... the roundish face of the hostess seemed to me yellow, sick. And from her cloudy eyes one could see that the illness had exhausted her ..."
Regularly tormented by seizures, Matrena still does not go to the paramedic - some kind of innate delicacy, shyness does not allow her to complain and be a burden, even for a village doctor.
But neither illness, nor great need, nor loneliness made her callous. Amazing all-forgiving kindness and humanity are reflected even in her appearance:
"... Those people always have good faces, who are at odds with their conscience ..." the ingenuous face was kind and bright, and the smile was lively.
In his native village, Matryona was treated with misunderstanding and even with disdain. How to understand a person who rushes to help everyone around, but does not take a penny for it ?! But such was the soul of Matryona. Selfless help became a meaning for her, and work - a way to forget all the hardships, a cure for adversity, which always put her on her feet.
"... But her forehead did not remain clouded for long. I noticed: she had a sure way to regain her good mood - work. Immediately she either grabbed a shovel and dug kartov. wicker body - for berries in a distant forest ... ".
Having learned about her unfortunate fate, Ignatich was more surprised not by her childlike kindness and bright naivety, but by the callousness and disgust towards her of those around her. The wretchedness of her housing, the inability to earn money, irritated them, but, nevertheless, no one neglected her disinterestedness and constant desire to be useful.
The unfortunate woman knew neither love, nor family, nor simple female happiness. Having married at the behest of fate for an unloved person, in the end, she realized that he never loved her either. She gave birth and buried six children who were not even three months old. And after the war, she remained completely alone. But nothing could break her, and she remained pure and generous. Do people really need it? The world rests on the righteous, but the world refuses them.
So, wanting to do a good deed, Matrena sacrifices part of her own house, dismantled, in order to build a dwelling for a stranger, which ultimately leads her to an absurd death, but not to the understanding and compassion of others. So the true beauty of her soul, the greatness of her kind heart remain noticeable only to her modest lodger Ignatich.
"... We all lived next to her and did not understand that she is the same righteous man, without whom, according to the proverb, there is no village. Not a city. Not all our land ..."
