Evgenia Safonova,
Petra-Dubravska school,
Samara Region

Written on Nizhny Novgorod land

On the meaning of Pushkin's story "The Undertaker"

Pushkin's prose is widely represented in modern school programs. Along with the textbook "The Captain's Daughter", "Dubrovsky", "The Queen of Spades" are included in the study and "Belkin's Tale". There is no way to dwell in detail on the history of their readership and critical perception, but nevertheless, one cannot but note a very characteristic moment. Even a cursory glance reveals a very peculiar temporal sequence of inclusion of Pushkin's stories in the reader's circle of perception. The most actively studied and studied at school most often are three, and even autonomously taken: "Station Master", "Shot" and "Snowstorm". At the lesson, limiting himself to talking about individual works, voluntarily or involuntarily, the teacher and the entire cycle reduced to their content and meaning, sometimes only mentioning the rest. Sometimes the “Shot” was replaced by another story of the cycle - “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”. As for The Undertaker, it turned out to be the most closed work for school study and, as a result, much less “read”. A serious objective reason for the "rejection" of the fifth story from the study of the entire cycle at school is the difficulty of its perception. More L.N. Tolstoy very accurately noted, while studying with Yasnaya Polyana students, the striking and difficult for direct perception features of The Undertaker they read: “the author’s frivolous attitude to faces”; “comic characteristics”; "understatement".

What to do? Is it possible to talk about the conceptual study of Belkin's Tales, ignoring the story "The Undertaker"? Creating five extremely dissimilar (in terms of subject matter, in style) stories, Pushkin combined them into a cycle, thereby revealing their integrity, closeness in spirit.

The Undertaker was written first (September 9, 1830), thus setting the direction for the entire cycle. As a result, he took the middle place in the cycle, becoming between the Snowstorm and the Stationmaster. Thus, the question arises about the creative logic of the movement of the author's thought, which cannot be comprehended without including the story "The Undertaker" in the school study.

When reading a work, certain images, especially when reading intermittently, usually evoke certain thoughts in the reader - such thoughts are natural and do not kill the emotionality of perception. Let's ask the students to fix the questions that arise in the course of self-acquaintance with the text in the left column of the notebook. And on the right, write down your answer options, if any appeared during further reading. A literary text that is difficult to perceive simply needs such work. The homework system should be built in such a way that the main block is prepared for the lesson, and not after the lesson, so that students learn to ask questions themselves and look for answers in the text, so that the teacher analyzes written works in advance and builds work on the analysis of a work of art on the basis of them in the lesson . Empathy deepens when what students are interested in on their own is further developed in the lesson. Then knowledge becomes necessary for the students themselves and gives rise to new questions.

One student without special training will start a conversation about the main character in the lesson. It’s not scary if, at the same time, you talk about the character as if it were a real person you just met. When revealing the initial perception, a naive-realistic approach is quite justified.

Imagine a literary hero as your friend, the writer introduced you to him, showing him in different circumstances and from different angles. Let's talk about it now: how do you imagine it? How is it unusual or, conversely, common? Why did Pushkin decide to offer readers the image of the undertaker Adrian Prokhorov? What is the secret of this character?

For what purpose, in your opinion, is the hero-undertaker presented by Pushkin? Either to study the representative of this profession, or to have fun, or even to capture the author's own gloomy state of health at the time of writing. What is the mood of the story? What brings a dark note to the beginning of the story?

The leading motive of the narrative is an indication of the gloomy nature of Adrian Prokhorov, his gloom. A gloomy note is also introduced by the character's craft. The epigraph to the story also tunes in on her. In Pushkin, epigraphs always have a special semantic role that organizes the whole. . “Do not we see every day the coffins, the gray hairs of the decrepit universe”- words from Derzhavin's "Waterfall".

Do you think the style of the epigraph correlates with the general style of the story? The lofty, solemn sound of lines from Derzhavin, their cosmic philosophy, on the one hand, and an insignificant farce from the life of a Moscow undertaker, on the other. Contrast or combination?

The contrast seems to be the lofty style of the epigraph against the background of the initial, deliberately reduced phrase about the undertaker's luggage, heaped onto the funeral urns. It is clear that death does not cause special feelings in the hero for a long time. Irony sounds in the description of the sign, “Depicting a portly (!) Cupid (!) ... with the caption: “Here simple and painted coffins are sold and upholstered, they are also rented (!) And old ones (!) Are repaired””. Is all this a clear inconsistency with the epigraph? Maybe the author deliberately puts his “low” hero face to face with the eternal questions of being? After all, they stand not before the elect, but before any mortal. How does a person understand his purpose in life? Does he care about meaning?

Pushkin's humanism is revealed in the fact that any person in the world is a part of the universality and truth of the universe. The author of the story "The Undertaker" offers to see in an ordinary person something more, significant (while not making the hero better, not embellishing the character). Combining the universal scale of death in the epigraph and the everyday, comic story with the "dead" in the story itself, Pushkin establishes a system of relations: life-death, being-life. Pushkin again poses questions to readers. What is the meaning of life? How to achieve happiness, what is it? Is it possible to call the hero an "ordinary" person? What does a “simple” person dream about? Thus, the writer, opening Belkin's world to readers, seems to open the doors, but not to the funeral master's shop, but to Russian life, to the circle of "eternal" questions and problems.

In order to understand the character of the hero and his role in the ideological direction of the story, let's choose the starting point, clearly indicated in the text, character trait of the image-character and try to develop it. Prokhorov's "gloominess" is that artistic detail, without which it is impossible to comprehend the story.

What is the reason for this darkness? How does it show up in the story? What underlies the character of the hero: a merchant's profit (someone else's death as a means of profit), a cynical attitude towards the world and people (calmly drinks tea on coffins placed in the room) or something else?

What could be a joyful event for this person? The move to a new place is long-awaited, but there is not a shadow of joy in the feelings of the hero: “Approaching the yellow house, which had so long seduced his imagination and finally bought by him for a decent sum, the old undertaker felt with surprise that his heart did not rejoice.”

Said as if in passing. But in fact, we have the key to the inner world of the hero. In the manuscript it was originally “pink house”. What associations arise in connection with this color? What did the author want to say by replacing the color? Yellow in the spectrum of Russian culture is believed to tend to express negative-negative meanings. Elegiac memories of the "dilapidated shack" is also a signal; It is no coincidence that Adrian's further reaction is even more difficult to explain: “felt With surprise this is their indifference." Lack of joy is a serious symptom of a person's inner state. But “surprise” at this circumstance is already the beginning of a reaction that could lead to a number of serious changes in attitude to life. Is the stability of life always the key to contentment and success? What is the synonym for the word “stability” here? The immobility, the immutability of life is a kind of non-existence elevated to the absolute. The "gloominess" of the undertaker is not just an attribute of the profession. Next to “gloominess” there is “thoughtfulness” in the text: the hero "gloomy and thoughtful", "as usual ... immersed in sad reflections." There is a certain chain of transitions: gloomy–sullen–frowning–pensive.

What is the reason for the hero's thoughtfulness? What is he dissatisfied with in life?

Let's compare Adrian Prokhorov with other characters in the story. “Merry” Schultz is the antipode of “gloomy” Adrian. Why do we put keywords in quotation marks? How should they be understood in the context of the work?

In the “gloom” of Prokhorov lies dissatisfaction with life, ripening, as we will see later, protest. The following opposition is being created: “gloominess-gaiety” as “thoughtfulness-thoughtlessness in relation to life”. As for the outside, a cheerfully smiling Schultz is sitting at Prokhorov's samovar against the backdrop of coffins leaning against the walls and calmly drinking tea.

In the story there is another named character of the first plan, the function of which, at the initial perception, is not clear to students. This is a watchman - a Chukhonian Yurko. Together with Prokhorov and Schultz, he forms a kind of semantic “triangle”. Is he opposed to the protagonist or, on the contrary, correlated with him? Great events are happening around, the life of the capital city is going on, and Yurko spends his days at his booth. The historical events of Moscow pass by. This exclusion from historical events, from the life of the city - the same immutability, because nothing can change his life: he is always next to his booth, like Adrian next to the coffins.

But how are the characters different? Pushkin has no characters duplicating each other. The heroes, as we said, form a “triangle”, that is, they are all comparable and opposed at the same time. Let us once again pay attention to the fact that Adrian, unlike Yurko, who is satisfied with everything in life, intuitively feels the absurdity of hopelessness, joylessness, and the inferiority of his existence. Therefore, he is gloomy and thoughtful. He has a need to see the perspective of life, its dynamics, which should destroy the immutability of being, that is, designate the meaning and meaning of further existence. In this case, the invitation to the housewarming party of the dead is Prokhorov's "rebellion". “Why is my craft not more honest than others?” - “…is the undertaker the brother of the executioner?..” What are we talking about here? About the dignity of human existence, no less.

The story of what is happening in reality is replaced by an image of what is happening in a dream. But how does it change? Imperceptibly. What is the meaning of the invisibility of such a transition? Why is it necessary for the author that the reader of this work for the first time cannot distinguish reality from sleep until the very end?

The earliest "epigraph" to Boldino's works of 1830 was the poem "Demons". Maybe in it we will find the key to the answer to the question asked?

Are there situations in the poem on the verge of reality and illusion? (“What is there in the field?” - “Who knows them? a stump or a wolf?”; Do they bury a brownie, // Do they marry a witch?) Before us is not just a specific image of a snowstorm, a description of events - we have before us an image of the inner world of a person, where there may be something that real life impossible.

What is the role of the fantastic in the poem about demons and in the story about the appearance of the dead? The incomprehensible, unknown in Pushkin does not belong to the outer world, but to the world of the “inner man” and is another key to understanding the nature of the image-character. This fantasy is not fiction as such, but a method of depicting the inner essence, psychology, character of the hero. What is the source of the supposed joy in Hadrian's dream? Adrian is waiting for a "joyful event" - the death of a profitable client, the merchant Tryukhina. But, having come true in a dream, the desire does not bring him joy, but becomes just a household detail, everyday chores. This means that profit and profit are not the defining components in the life of the hero. You should pay attention to one more detail, which also casts doubt on acquisitiveness as the main feature of the character. Not forgetting his own benefit, Adrian, however, does not pace like other merchants on Razgulay near Tryukhina, like a raven that smells a dead body. What for merchants is the joy of gain, for Prokhorov is rather the usual chores of a coffin master.

What is his meeting with dead acquaintances? How does the character feel here? What is the point of talking to the skeleton? What is awakening like? On the one hand, hope and ghostly joy from a profitable order disappear. But they are suddenly replaced by ... a new joy. What is she in? Ghost or real? It is a burst of joy in the light of the sun of living life.

The “gloomy” hero at the beginning of the story becomes “rejoiced” at the end. And this is dynamics. “Oh is it! - said the overjoyed undertaker... Well, if so, let's have some tea call your daughters." A failed funeral does not cause any annoyance or irritation. The result is a bright major splash. Thus, there is a refutation of the initial situation, a denial of the immobility and hopelessness of existence. This means that at the heart of a person's character is not money-grubbing, not a cynical attitude towards the world and people. The hidden dominant of the story is an urgent need for joy. It carries the designation of the obligatory awakening of a person to life, the desire to enjoy, to be a full-fledged participant in life.

Why is this shown by Pushkin in the life story of some undertaker? Pushkin emphasizes that the desire for the joy of life is inherent in any person, that everyone in this world is self-sufficient and worthy of respect. A “small” person in terms of social status is not at all such in terms of spirituality: both Adrian Prokhorov, and Samson Vyrin from The Stationmaster, and other heroes of Pushkin declare their right to ordinary well-being and dignity, understood in a direct, narrower sense - to feel like a man next to the powerful of this world, and more broadly - to be a man in his own eyes.

Will something change in the life of the undertaker from the moment of awakening? Outwardly, perhaps, everything will remain as before, but “internally” the hero is already different. The word “thinking” means the work of thought, the search for the meaning of life. “Thoughtfully”, a person instinctively “anticipates” another, more interesting side of being. Having awakened from a nightmare, the hero feels this new life, he receives - for the first time in many years - the joy of his stay in the world, from communicating with other people.

What unites the story "The Undertaker" with other works of the "Belkin" cycle? Ultimately, this is a question that concludes Pushkin's main conceptual idea - about a person's place in life, about happiness, honor and dignity.

As mentioned above, the next story after The Undertaker was the story The Stationmaster. Comparison of characters and the question: what is the connection between these two stories? - can be homework for the next lesson.

With a variety of topics, the cycle of "Tales" is endowed with a single meaning. Already in the first story of the cycle "The Undertaker" - the idea is affirmed that the life of the smallest person, in some ways even an outcast among fellow artisans, can be given against the background of cosmic existence (an epigraph from Derzhavin). The question of the life and death of a person, the value of life, was raised by Pushkin on a large scale and deeply both in The Shot, and in The Snowstorm, and in The Stationmaster, and in The Young Lady-Peasant Woman.

The 30s of the XIX century became the era of the real flowering of Pushkin's prose. The first completed prose work of Pushkin was Belkin's Tales, in which the writer described the life of representatives of different classes and estates. This cycle had a great influence on the development of Russian literature. We offer for review an analysis of the work according to the plan, which will be useful to students in grade 6 when writing essays on this topic and preparing for a lesson in literature.

Brief analysis

Year of writing- 1830.

History of creation– The cycle was written in the village of Boldino, along with many other works by Pushkin. He took the pseudonym Ivan Belkin to avoid possible problems with censors or literary critics.

Composition- All stories are distinguished by the simplicity of the storyline, the absence of unnecessary details, reticence and intrigue of the plot.

Genre- The story.

Direction- Romanticism (“The Shot”), sentimentalism (“The Stationmaster”, “Snowstorm”, “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”), “The Undertaker” contains elements of a Gothic story.

History of creation

In the autumn of 1830, Alexander Sergeevich spent in the village of Boldino, and due to an outbreak of cholera, he was forced to stay here. Autumn time has always inspired the poet, gave a burst of creative energy. According to him, he always wrote best of all in the autumn in the countryside.

Three months spent by Pushkin in Boldino turned out to be very fruitful: he finished the novel "Eugene Onegin", wrote the poem "The House in Kolomna", several dramatic scenes, more than 30 poems. In the same period, Pushkin wrote a cycle called Belkin's Tales, which included five small works: The Shot, The Snowstorm, The Stationmaster, The Undertaker, The Peasant Young Lady.

The material for the stories was the writer's memoirs, legends, everyday episodes, noticed by him from the life of friends and complete strangers.

The meaning of the name The collection is quite simple - for his first prose work, Pushkin decided to take a pseudonym, choosing for this the image of a non-existent landowner Ivan Petrovich Belkin. Thanks to this decision, Alexander Sergeevich managed to avoid unnecessary trouble with criticism and censorship.

Topic

All five works from Pushkin's cycle "Belkin's Tales" are dedicated to one topic- the lives of ordinary people, with their big and small problems, hopes and dreams. This life is beautiful in its simplicity and artlessness, and fully reflects the realities of the surrounding world, infinitely far from the lofty ideals of romanticism.

In small works, the writer skillfully revealed issues the position in society of the “little man” (“The Stationmaster”), morality and social contradictions (“The Shot”), love (“The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”, “Snowstorm”), the desires and aspirations of simple artisans (“The Undertaker”).

It is noteworthy that in all the works the writer refused to divide the heroes into sharply negative and positive characters. He shows each of them from all sides, in all the versatility and ambiguity of characters.

The basic idea cycle is to show without embellishment the life of representatives of various strata of Russian society, from the very bottom to the top. Pushkin does not explain the actions of his heroes, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. Live according to your conscience, do no harm to your neighbors, rejoice in what you have - this is what the Belkin Tale cycle teaches.

Composition

Carrying out an analysis of the works in Belkin's Tales, it should be noted that all of them, despite the variety of topics, have a similar compositional structure.

The writer focuses the reader's attention on key episodes, without tiring secondary storylines, long digressions and overly detailed descriptions.

To general characteristics of all the stories included in the Pushkin cycle, one should attribute, first of all, an element of understatement. The writer, wherever possible, keeps silent, giving the reader the opportunity to connect his own imagination.

There are other similar motifs in the construction of the stories. So, they are united by the change of storytellers, unexpected turns in the fate of the main characters, a change of attention to one or another hero. Such techniques give the works tension, swiftness, keeping the intrigue to the end. At the same time, the stories remain clear and simple in plot.

main characters

Genre

The cycle consists of five stories, following one after another. They are united by internal motives, and perfectly complement one another.

Each story has its own literary direction. So, "The Shot" represents romanticism, "The Young Lady-Peasant", "Snowstorm" and "The Stationmaster" - sentimentalism, and "The Undertaker" - Gothic prose.

Artwork test

Analysis Rating

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 85.

The Belkin Tale cycle was created during the Boldino Autumn period in 1830. This was the period when, due to the onset of cholera, quarantine was announced for entry and exit to St. Petersburg and Pushkin was forced to spend the entire autumn until the end of quarantine at the Boldino estate. The stories were published in 1831. The publication was anonymous, that is, Pushkin attributed authorship to a certain Belkin. The cycle consists of five stories, which, allegedly, were once told to the author by the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. These are the stories: “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”, “The Undertaker”, “The Stationmaster”, “Snowstorm” and “Shot”.

The idea of ​​the cycle is that the author showed all the floors of Russian society, from top to bottom. Here everything is stated concisely and simply, there is not a single superfluous word. Pushkin does not explain the actions of his heroes, much less indulges in lengthy explanations of the motives for their actions. Nevertheless, the reader perfectly understands the motives of the actions of his heroes, with their advantages and disadvantages.

The characters of the stories are not bright individuals, like most of Pushkin's heroes. They are typical representatives of their environment. In the foreground they have a household side. But Pushkin's construction of the story, the development of the plot, the climax and happy denouement keep the reader's interest throughout the story.

Analysis of works

Shot

The plot of the story is quite simple. The hero of the story, Silveo, being a remarkable nature in everything that concerned the hussar daring, hated his no less worthy young rival. It came to a duel, during which his opponent showed such indifference to death that Silveo did not shoot, reserving the right to shoot. For many years he waited for the right opportunity for revenge, until finally he received the news of the marriage of his enemy. Appearing to him with a demand to realize his shot, he received complete satisfaction by humiliating him in front of his wife. In parting, he quite accurately shot at the picture, leaving a hole in it, which served as an occasion for memories.

Main character to lead a personality, of course, strong and outstanding. But, all his virtues fade against the background of his envy of a more successful opponent. Envy, as you know, a man, especially a hussar, does not paint in any way. His dignity fades even more from petty vindictiveness. These qualities are all the more aggravated when he terrifies the count's wife by aiming at him. However, at the last moment, something stops him from killing. I don't think it's that important true reason, more importantly, the person did not kill another person. It is quite possible that at this moment true human feelings woke up in the main character.

Such an ending is characteristic of that Pushkinian spirit, which gives so much spiritual warmth to Belkin's Tales. He convinces the reader without too much pathos to believe in the triumph of "good feelings" over the stupid and useless rules of society. The nobility of Silveo may seem spontaneous, but it is the quality of the soul that originally lived in him.

Blizzard

A kind of play of situations. Fatal and happy accidents, which play an important role in the story. The romantic heroine of the story, Marya Gavrilovna, agrees to a secret marriage with Vladimir, who was rejected by her parents. As a result of a fatal accident, more precisely because of a strong snowstorm, the heroine marries an unknown hussar. Vladimir goes to war with Napoleon and dies. As a result of a chain of happy accidents, the story comes to a happy ending.

In the characterization of the main character, the author immediately notes that she was brought up on French novels, which is why she is in love. It is possible that she liked Vladimir because she had read novels. This already testifies to the frivolity of her character, as well as to her romanticism. Vladimir does not lag behind Maria at all. Such a romantic. He is inclined to dream of a secret wedding, after which, in his opinion, the parents will be touched and will give them their blessing. His reasoning is somewhat reminiscent of one of Gogol's heroes, Manilov. When circumstances call for action, he is, by and large, incapable of anything.

The author does not hide his ironic attitude towards the characters with their passion for romantic fashion. But when war comes into play, things change. Any war opens the souls of people, leaving only the true. Romantic Vladimir dies heroically, becomes a hero. Burmin, for fun, married to an unknown girl, now looks at it differently and is looking for his unknown wife in order to marry his beloved. The best pages of the story are a description of the blizzard, the main character of the story, who played a fatal role for Vladimir and a happy one for Marya Gavrilovna and Burmin.

Undertaker

Here we find ourselves in an environment of merchants and artisans. The main characters here are the undertaker Adrian Prokhorov, his daughters and friends. Heroes are not preoccupied with romantic fantasies, they firmly walk the earth and solve earthly problems. Such as the upcoming rich funeral of the merchant Tryukhina, which may be intercepted by competitors. The death of a person for such as an undertaker is just an opportunity to earn money. Even in his sleep, he views his dead clients only in terms of their profitability. In the dead who came to visit Adrian, the author vividly reflected the social relations that existed at that time in society.

Pushkin's little man is the progenitor of Gogol's Akaki Bashmachkin. An official who can be beaten by noble passers-by. Confident that his daughter Dunya, stolen by a passing hussar, is abandoned by him, wishes her death. However, the opposite is happening. Hussar Minsky, who turned out to be a worthy man, married Dunya. The father's expectations were not justified, his daughter became rich and noble. However, the sophisticated reader understands that Samson Vyrin still lost his daughter. Vyrin's world and Minsky's world are separated by a huge pit, which he is unable to overcome. Dunya was able to step over it without hesitation only thanks to her blind love for Minsky and female spontaneity.

However, she did not have the courage to go further and step over the rules of the "decent" society in which she found herself. In fact, she abandoned her father. Her subsequent visit to the grave of her father is just an attempt to calm her conscience. If the end had been as Vyrin assumed, then another story would have come out about an unfortunate gullible girl and a scoundrel-seducer, of whom there were many at that time. However, Pushkin is much deeper and more realistic. It would seem that the happy ending of the story leaves a tragic aftertaste.

young lady-peasant

This is the last story in the cycle. In many ways, it resembles a vaudeville story with dressing up. The characters here are also romantic, but their romanticism is born not from French novels, but from their natures. In addition, the romanticism of the heroes is active. They are fighting for their happiness, Alexei is ready to make a sacrifice for the sake of his beloved and give up his father's fortune.

The heroine of the story, Lisa, the daughter of a wealthy gentleman, disguised as a peasant woman, meets Alexei Berestov in the forest and the young people fall in love. Aleksey, sincerely considering Liza-Akulina a peasant, decides to marry her, despising social prejudices. Decent solution for young man, must be admitted. Characterizes him from the best side. Respect for him is especially enhanced when he is ready to give up wealth for the sake of his beloved girl. This characterizes him not only as an honest and noble person, but also a brave one. The masquerade image of Liza helped to reveal the true feelings of the heroes when ordinary Russian people opened up in them.

Undertaker

Lecture number 15.

Let me remind you of the circumstances of writing Boldin's stories. Life in Mikhailovsky turned upside down inner world Pushkin, awakened a Christian in him. Pushkin faced possible death, preparing for a truly dangerous duel with F.I. Tolstoy. Boldin's stories, written in Mikhailovsky, are reflections on life and death, on sin and the salvation of the soul, on truth and honor, but the reflections are so ingeniously subtle, not protruding through the fabric of the narrative, but as if covered with the clothes of ordinary life.

The summary of the story The Undertaker is as follows. Undertaker Adrian Prokhorov moved from one district of Moscow to another and was soon invited, along with his daughters, by a neighbor, a German shoemaker Schulz, to visit the celebration of a silver wedding. Mostly German artisans gathered, they drank to the health of all the guests in turn, then to Moscow and German cities, and, finally, for the health of customers. The turn came to Adrian, and the watchman Yurko, the undertaker's table neighbor, jokingly offered to drink to the health of the undertaker's clients, to the dead. The Germans liked the joke and caused general laughter. Adrian was offended and returned home in a bad mood. Going to bed, despite the lamentations of the servants, he swore that tomorrow he would arrange a feast for his clients, the Orthodox dead. The next day (which turned out to be a dream in reality) they came from the merchant Tryukhina with the news that she had died. Adrian had been waiting for her death for over a year, hoping to make things right with her funeral. After working all day, tired, he returned to the house and found a stranger at the gate. He entered the house, which was full of guests. The guests were his dead clients. One climbed to hug, Adrian pushed him away, he fell and crumbled. The dead were indignant, Adrian lost his presence of mind, fell unconscious. Waking up, he expected an unpleasant conversation about yesterday's events, and did not immediately believe that it was all a dream. The delighted undertaker perked up, ordered tea and called his daughters.

How could Pushkin come up with the idea of ​​such, at first glance, not quite an ordinary story? Suppose, on one of his visits to Moscow ...

Alexander Sergeevich is driving along Bolshaya Nikitskaya in a carriage, absently peering at the wet facades of houses, the bright letters of the inscriptions over small shops, and suddenly his attention is attracted by a strange faded sign, as if brought from poor suburbs. Pushkin is reading. The words on it are so unfamiliar that they cannot but cling to the common sense of an attentive observer and collide with him. For all that, with stale colors and some ordinary practicality, the sign seems to insist that it is not intended to shock passers-by, but solves the utilitarian task of attracting a client. Here is her text: “Here simple and painted coffins are sold and upholstered, old ones are also rented and repaired.” How can coffins be rented? Can the user of the coffin, like an ordinary living person who rented a carriage or a dress, after a time when the need has disappeared, can calmly return him to the shop? Who is the madman who could come up with such a thing, and even put it in front of everyone, not noticing his insanity? What kind of life does he have, and what kind of thoughts, what does he think about and how does he live?

The artist's imagination gradually reproduces the life of the owner of the sign hanging over the gate of the shop, his move from a shack on the outskirts to a new area, acquaintance with shopkeeper neighbors. Pushkin presents their conversations. Here the shoemaker Schultz came to invite a neighbor to his wedding anniversary and starts talking about the most important thing, about the craft, complains about the difficulties, not at all embarrassed by some strangeness of the undertaker's customers, praises the neighbor's craft, comparing it with his own: does not live.” Undertaker Adrian objected to him, complaining about poor customers who rely on goods without payment: “... however, if a living person has nothing to buy a boot, then don’t be angry, he walks barefoot; but the beggarly dead man takes his coffin for nothing. Shopkeepers do not seem to notice a significant difference between buyers: some are still alive, while others should already be indifferent to both the service and the quality of the goods. But is the entrepreneur interested in such an insignificant property of the buyer as whether he is alive or dead, if both the living and the dead are equally capable of making a purchase? The size of the foot and the wallet in the pocket are important for the shoemaker. For an undertaker, there is nothing interesting in a living person at all, except for the body. Yes, and the body, while it is in slavery to the soul and obeys it in everything, cannot become either its friend or client. Adrian himself became like his clients in everything. Communicating with the dead as if they were alive, and with the living as if they were dead, he was always gloomy and thoughtful, breaking his silence only to trade for an exaggerated price for goods or to scold his daughters. Accustomed to living like this, he once painted a sign, not at all amused or joking, and did not see anything strange in it.

The writer, as we see, did not have to make great efforts to recreate from a few words on the board the whole unpretentious life of a shopkeeper. But he simply did not want to leave his hero in such a pitiful state! Can a dead man like him become aware of himself as a dead man and wake up, rise to life? This question was undoubtedly interesting and important to Pushkin. And so, he sends Adrian to a noisy party at the neighbor Schultz. They drank a lot and noisily, and, finally, when they raised their glasses to the health of the clients, Yurkov, the watchman, shouted merrily: “What is it? Drink, father, for the health of your dead.” Yurko's unexpected joke for a moment revealed to Adrian the peculiarity of his craft and some strangeness of his clients. How can he drink to the health of his clients if they are dead? What a laugh? Adrian did not like the merry cackle of the Germans, he considered himself offended. And in fact, “why is my trade more dishonest than others!” - he reasoned, - Is there such a big difference between my clients and theirs? Although it exists, it is not at all significant to put them to shame! Adrian felt the unfairness of the Germans laughing at his "Orthodox" clientele: for all the other guests, did it really matter whether their clients were alive or dead? Adrian felt that no, he didn't. By chance, the circumstances turned out so that the Germans served the living: these “basurmans” in an Orthodox country could not prepare the “Orthodox dead” for the funeral - so they took up other crafts!

Reasoning about the signboard gradually leads us, following the writer, to a sadder picture than the mental or worldview problem of one small shopkeeper. This insanity imperceptible to everyone - the habit of communicating not with a living person, but with its useful side, when it turns out to be brought to the point of absurdity, suddenly surprises. And when such a mental disorder is not so clearly manifested, it does not cause the slightest bewilderment in anyone. Somehow, in the hustle and bustle of life, it is not noticed that a certain attribute, most often money, inherent in both the living and the dead, replaces the whole person in communication. This is the essence of business communication, to which the whole life of people is now reduced. Customers, customers who are smiled at and drunk to at parties, may be dead, or puppets, or whatever. The main thing is that they need boots, for example, or, say, buns or beer.

Such reflections could not but lead Pushkin to a bleak conclusion about the prevalence of the phenomenon. There is no doubt that recalling the balls and receptions that he regularly attended, and from which he almost always left unbearable melancholy and bad mood, Pushkin found a kind of undertaker and his clients among the inhabitants of high society. Perhaps that is why the next plot twist of the story is the grotesque scene of the high society reception of the dead in the new "palace" of Adrian. Russian literature reached such a satirical intensity again only in the works of Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin, and later with M. Bulgakov.

This turn begins like this. The next day after the German's feast, the merchant's wife Tryukhina seemed to have died. As long as her soul was in the world, no one needed the merchant Tryukhina and was not interested. She just died, and now: “The police were already standing at the gates of the deceased, and the merchants were walking around like crows, smelling the dead body. Relatives, neighbors and household crowded around her. As the reader will later learn, Adrian dreamed of Tryukhina's death. But the arrival of the guests and the social event itself in the house of the undertaker is described by Pushkin with such realism that it is perceived not as a dream, but as a real event. By the way, Tryukhina was absent from the reception, as, apparently, she was extremely busy with the funeral service and other chores before her burial. The dream was very real, to such an extent that when he woke up, Adrian did not immediately believe that everything was happening not in reality. Here Adrian would think about his life. Absolutely supernatural events, according to Pushkin’s plan, could somehow shake him up and turn his inner gaze to the world of the living, return him to the meaning of life, to love, ideals, at least hint that he is still alive and could spend the rest of his days with benefit for your soul. But artistic honesty does not allow the story to end in such a way - such an end would be untrue. The verdict is clear. In a well-known gospel parable, a rich man, who spent his life caring for his flesh, after death asks Abraham to send the deceased Lazarus to his brothers so that they can see, believe and repent. But he received the answer that if anyone rises from the dead, they will not believe. Adrian, in his supernatural dream, lives and acts in the same way as he would live if all this happened for real. Also, readers who were not informed about the dream were unlikely to see an artistic stretch in the fact that communication with the already real dead, not denounced as living flesh as before, but already quite frankly dead, only confused Adrian a little. Just enough to breathe a sigh of relief when it turned out that everything was a dream. And he calmly continued on his way as a still living citizen of the kingdom of the dead.

The idea of ​​the story echoes the one that, as you know, Pushkin gave Gogol, and Gogol turned it into a novel. Dead Souls. Buying and pawning dead peasants comes naturally to The Undertaker characters.

In September 1830, Pushkin arrived at his father's estate in Boldino. Here he finished the last chapters of Onegin, wrote several scenes and tragedies, about thirty poems and "five prose stories", which he reported in a letter to Pletnev. "Tales of Belkin" (his first creation in prose) Pushkin wrote with pleasure and enthusiasm, "experiencing joy from inspiration." In the stories created in September-October, one could feel the maturity of the talent, the strength and inner freedom of the writer. This quality of the works was immediately noted by his contemporaries. Pushkin wrote that Baratynsky "neighed and fought" while reading them, and Kuchelbecker admitted that he laughed "from a good heart" and wished their author knew that his works "dispelled the blues of his unfortunate friend."

"Five stories"

Even not the deepest analysis of Belkin's Tales will allow us to notice that the author, with a smile and good humor, spoke about post-Decembrist Russia and ordinary people, their hopes, disappointments, suffering, everyday petty tragedies and comic adventures. Pushkin refused authorship and gave it to Ivan Petrovich Belkin, a retired officer, a meek, kind young man. Interested in belles-lettres at his leisure, Belkin collected these “simple” stories from various storytellers and processed them at his own discretion. Thus, the real author of these stories is hidden behind a double chain of narrators, which gives him the freedom of narration, the opportunity for satire and parody, and allows him to express his attitude towards them.

A full analysis of Belkin's Tales shows that the stories included in the cycle are very entertaining. But not all of them are funny. The Belkin cycle includes five works. They are all different types, none of these stories is similar to the other. Some of these stories are serious and sad. So, “The Stationmaster” is a serious and a little sad story, “Snowstorm” and “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman” are partly playful, in “The Undertaker” there is also an irony that affects typical Russian reality, and “Shot” is a romantic short story with a sharp plot and an unexpected ending. Let's talk about these stories in more detail.

"Shot"

Judging by the date of October 14, 1830, indicated by the author, this story was written one of the last in the Belkin Tale cycle. We begin our analysis of The Shot with the plot and compositional features of the work. Initially, the work consisted of one chapter and contained the life impressions of the author himself, up to autobiographical realities (Pushkin's duel with officer Zubov). The epigraph of the story "Shot" refers the reader to the work of Marlinsky "Shot at the bivouac", which contains the motif of "delayed shot". Having finished the work on October 12, the author attributed that the ending was lost. Only 2 days later Pushkin added the second chapter, repeating the composition of the first. Both chapters are built on the principle of a "mysterious novel".

In the first of them, the main character Silvio keeps a secret. In the second chapter, the author introduces new characters - the count and his wife, but the reader is waiting for the resolution of the secret and he is not left feeling that there is some kind of connection between completely different people - the count and Silvio. The mystery is revealed in the Count's insert story. Thus, the short story turns out to be compositionally complex: two different episodes, and inside each there is an additional story. The second prehistory continues the first. This construction of the work expands the temporal boundaries and creates plot tension. Further analysis of Belkin's Tales shows that the virtuoso construction of the story "The Shot" from different angles revealed the appearance of the protagonist. Despite the fact that there are few characters, the work seems "densely populated" because it depicts different social worlds.

"Blizzard"

The next work of "Belkin's Tales", the analysis of which we will begin with plot and compositional features, is the story "Snowstorm". The plot is based on a curious incident - the unforeseen marriage of a young military man to a provincial girl. For him, this is a fun adventure, for a girl - the collapse of the first love. The two storylines converge at the end of the work. The story begins with a small exposition, which describes the life of one estate. A poor warrant officer appears, who cannot count on the hand of the daughter of the owner of the estate. They correspond for a long time and decide to get married in secret. On the way, the ensign got into a snowstorm and got to the church only in the morning. Meanwhile, the hussar Burmin, who was passing by, decided to play a joke and, introducing himself as the groom of a girl who was very ill at that time and noticed the “substitution” of the groom only after the wedding, got married to her and left to serve.

For several years, the girl rejects all suitors and then a handsome colonel appears. Marya Gavrilovna liked him, but he could not marry her. He has a wife, but he does not know her name or the name of the estate where she lives. Burmin tells an amazing story about how a few years ago he joked with an unfamiliar girl. Marya Gavrilovna's exclamation "So it was you!" speaks of a happy ending to this story. The story can be conditionally divided into two parts: "Maria Gavrilovna and Vladimir", "Maria Gavrilovna and Burmin". Each has its own "highlight". The beauty of the construction of this story once again emphasizes the genius of its author, who unmistakably found a formula that could express his intention. Irony permeates the whole story, as does the next work of Belkin's Tales - The Undertaker, an analysis of which is presented below.

"Undertaker"

The plot of the story resembles romantic works, but it tells far from romantic things, but about typical Russian reality. Compositionally, the story "The Undertaker" is divided into two parts. The first tells about the move of the protagonist and his acquaintance with the neighbors. The second tells about the dreams of the undertaker, where he is visited by the dead deceived by him. The main character is saved only by awakening. The work ends the same as it begins - family chores. In the strangest of the five stories, the author talks about the fear of death.

Maybe that's why the main character is gloomy because coffins are placed in his house. The silver wedding celebration even offers a toast to the health of the dead. Isn't the undertaker living at their expense? He is so grateful to them that he even invites them to a feast in his sleep. When meeting with his first dead man, who has already turned into a skeleton, the undertaker goes numb with horror and his legs give way. After all, even he deceived him, passing off a pine coffin for an oak one. As the analysis of Belkin's Tales shows, Pushkin in this work shows what shocks a person needs to go through in order to stop living by deceit. As V. Gippius noted, the "charm" of this work is not only in the "sober" truth, "but also in the sober irony."

In the cycle, the work “The Stationmaster” stands somewhat apart. The story is close in its poetics to sentimentalism. This is evidenced by the character of the hero and the unusual ending, both mournful and happy. But the theme of the little man, which the author raises, distinguishes the work from traditional sentimental stories. Here, although there is no direct evil, the grief of the protagonist does not become less from this. On the contrary, it takes on a tragic character. There are no negative characters here, they are all good in their own way - the caretaker, and Dunya, and the hussars. But that didn't stop the disaster from happening.

By its nature, the work is not accusatory, but epic. It shows a deep philosophical view the author on the life and wisdom of a great artist. Throughout the work, the reader unfolds the tragedy of a man who does not bow to fate and tries to save his daughter. Unable to change or influence the course of events, the old caretaker descends into the grave from the realization of his own impotence. And the happy ending of the story (after all, Dunya is doing well) further emphasizes the tragedy that has played out before the reader. In the last "forgive" of the daughter are pain, remorse and suffering.

"Young lady-peasant"

The story is based on the romantic relationship between Alexei and Lisa. They are the children of landlords who are at enmity with each other, but then reconciled. There is no trace of romantic poetics in the story. Everything is simple here - heroes, love, and the atmosphere of village life. "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman" is an easy, cheerful story with a happy ending. It is built on a real-life basis. Meanwhile, this playful Christmas story quite serious in its own right. The protagonist of the work is ready to step over the social prejudices imposed by his title of nobility and marry a peasant woman. Their exposure and denial is the main idea of ​​the work.

Concluding the analysis of Belkin's Tales, it should be noted that they became a turning point in the history of fiction. The main feature of these works is the simplicity and brevity of presentation. The author avoids unnecessary embellishments and does not explain the actions of his characters. But the brilliant Pushkin always guesses how this or that character should act (due to social skills or individual qualities). Therefore, the reader feels the truth and sees real people.