The narrator tells about the surroundings of the Sinov Monastery, beautiful at any time of the year. He observes and imagines the monks living in their cells, historical events associated with the monastery.

Here she lived with her old mother in a now collapsed hut not far from the monastery. The house stood near a birch grove in a meadow about 30 years ago. Her father was wealthy, sober and hard-working. When he died, Lisa was 15 years old. After his death, the land was given for rent, the mother grew weaker, yearning for her beloved husband. Lisa wove linen, knitted stockings, picked flowers and berries and sold them in Moscow. Her mother dreamed of marrying off her daughter so she could die in peace.

One spring, seventeen-year-old Lisa went to sell lilies of the valley. The young man wanted to pay a whole ruble for them, but Lisa did not take the ruble, because the flowers cost 5 kopecks. The young man said that he would like her to pick flowers just for him. He asked Liza's address.

Lisa told everything to her mother, who praised the girl for not taking extra money.

The next day Lisa picked lilies of the valley. She waited until the evening, and then threw the flowers into the Moscow River, not wanting to sell them to others.

The next day in the evening Lisa was spinning by the window and singing. Suddenly she pulled back from the window, seeing that same young man. A young man who called himself Erast suggested that his mother buy Liza’s products directly from their home so that Liza would not go into the city. Mother was very happy, because she was always worried when Lisa left. She wishes her daughter the same groom. Lisa is confused.

Erast was a rich nobleman, smart and kind, but weak and flighty. He became disillusioned with secular amusements and sought the naturalness described in idylls. Seeing Lisa, he thought that he had found his ideal.

Lisa slept poorly that night and came to the river bank before dawn. Nature gradually came to life, the shepherd drove his flock. Lisa dreamed of what would happen if Erast was a peasant, a shepherd. Suddenly Erast sailed to her on a boat. He took her hand, kissed her and said that he loved her. Lisa also confessed her love. For two hours they sat on the grass, looking into each other's eyes. Erast promised to love Lisa always. He asked not to say anything to his mother so that she would not think anything bad. Lisa reluctantly agreed.

Lisa and Erast saw each other every evening when Lisa's mother went to bed. Their embrace was chaste. Erast decided to retire from secular amusements for a passionate friendship with the shepherdess (as he called Lisa). He would like to love her all his life like a brother. But did he know his heart?

Erast, at Lisa’s request, often visited her mother and loved to listen to the old woman’s stories about her tender relationship with her husband Ivan.

A few weeks later, Lisa showed up on a date looking sad. A rich groom from a neighboring village wooed her. Mother is upset by Lisa’s refusal. She doesn’t know about the love of her daughter and Erast. Erast promises, after his mother’s death, to take Liza with him and live with her in a village in the forest, because Liza’s peasant origins are not important to him, but her soul is important. Lisa rushed into his arms and lost her virginity.

A thunderstorm began, Lisa was afraid of God's punishment. Erast accompanied her home, promising to love her as before.

On subsequent dates, Erast no longer had enough manifestations of platonic love. He could desire nothing more and could not be proud of his feelings. Lisa lived only for Erast, and he was no longer ready to see her every evening.

One day Erast did not come for 5 days, and then announced that he was going to war with his regiment. He asks the girl not to cry and take care of herself.

The young man leaves money to Lisa’s mother so that Lisa does not sell her work to anyone else in his absence. The old woman wishes the good master a quick return and dreams of inviting him to her daughter’s wedding and making him godfather of her grandchildren.

Saying goodbye at dawn, Lisa and Erast cried. When Erast left, Lisa fainted. Only the thought of her mother prompted her to return home. The girl hid her melancholy from her mother.

Two months later, Lisa went to Moscow to get rose water for her mother. She saw Erast getting out of a magnificent carriage. Lisa rushed to him. Erast took her hand, led her to his office and said that circumstances had changed, he was engaged and asked Lisa to leave him alone. Erast said that he loved Lisa and gave her 100 rubles, asking the servant to escort her from the yard.

Erast was actually in the army, lost his fortune at cards, and upon his return planned to marry an elderly rich widow, who had long been in love with him, in order to improve his affairs. The author cannot justify Erast.

Lisa, finding herself on the street, thought that Erast loved someone else. In confusion, she fainted. When the girl approached the pond where she met Erast, she saw the neighbor’s fifteen-year-old daughter Anyuta. Lisa gave her 10 imperials and asked her to take them to her mother and apologize for Lisa to her, because she had hidden her love for the cruel man who cheated on her. Then Lisa threw herself into the lake. Anyuta called people from the village who pulled Lisa out, but she was already dead.

In the outskirts of Moscow, not far from the Simonov Monastery, Liza once lived with her old mother. After the death of Liza's father, a fairly wealthy villager, his wife and daughter became poor. The widow became weaker day by day and could not work. Liza alone, not sparing her tender youth and rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvas, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and berries in the summer and selling them in Moscow.

One day in the spring, two years later, I went to Moscow with lilies of the valley. A young, well-dressed man met her on the street. Having learned that he was selling flowers, he offered her a ruble instead of five kopecks, saying that “they are worth a ruble.” But Lisa refused the offered amount. He did not insist, but said that from now on he would always buy flowers from her and would like to pick them just for him.

Arriving home Lisa I told my mother everything, and the next day I picked the best lilies of the valley and came to the city again, but this time I did not meet the young man. Throwing flowers into the river, she returned home with sadness in her soul. The next day in the evening the stranger himself came to her house. As soon as she saw him, Lisa rushed to her mother and excitedly told him who was coming to them. The old woman met the guest, and he seemed to her to be a very kind and pleasant person. Erast—that was the young man’s name—confirmed that he was going to buy flowers from Lisa in the future, and she didn’t have to go into town: he could stop by to see them himself.

Erast was a rather wealthy nobleman, with a fair amount of intelligence and a naturally kind heart, but weak and flighty. He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, and not finding it, he was bored and complained about fate. Immaculate beauty At their first meeting, Liza shocked him: it seemed to him that in her he had found exactly what he had been looking for for a long time.

This was the beginning of their long dates. Every evening they saw each other either on the river bank, or in a birch grove, or under the shade of hundred-year-old oak trees. They hugged, but their hugs were pure and innocent.

Several weeks passed like this. It seemed that nothing could interfere with their happiness. But one evening Lisa came to a date sad. It turned out that the groom, the son of a rich peasant, was wooing her, and my mother wanted her to marry him. Erast, consoling Lisa, said that after his mother’s death he would take her to him and live with her inseparably. But Lisa reminded the young man that he could never be her husband: she was a peasant, and he was of a noble family. You offend me, said Erast, for your friend the most important thing is your soul, a sensitive, innocent soul, you will always be closest to my heart. Lisa threw herself into his arms - and at that hour her integrity had to perish.

The delusion passed in one minute, giving way to surprise and fear. Lisa cried saying goodbye to Erast.

Their dates continued, but how everything changed! Lisa was no longer an angel of purity for Erast; platonic love gave way to feelings that he could not be “proud of” and which were not new to him. Lisa noticed a change in him, and it saddened her.

Once during a date, Erast said Lisa are called up for military service; they will have to part for a while, but he promises to love her and hopes to never part with her upon his return. It is not difficult to imagine how hard it was for Lisa to be separated from her beloved. However, hope did not leave her, and every morning she woke up with the thought of Erast and their happiness upon his return.

About two months passed like this. One day Lisa went to Moscow and on one of the big streets she saw Erast passing by in a magnificent carriage, which stopped near a huge house. Erast came out and was about to go out onto the porch, when he suddenly felt himself in Lisa’s arms. He turned pale, then, without saying a word, led her into the office and locked the door. Circumstances have changed, he announced to the girl, he is engaged.

Before Lisa could come to her senses, he took her out of the office and told the servant to escort her out of the yard.

Finding herself on the street, Lisa walked wherever she looked, unable to believe what she heard. She left the city and wandered for a long time until she suddenly found herself on the shore of a deep pond, under the shadow of ancient oak trees, which several weeks before had been silent witnesses to her delight. This memory shocked Lisa, but after a few minutes she fell into deep thought. Seeing a neighbor's girl walking along the road, she called her, took all the money out of her pocket and gave it to her, asking her to tell her mother, kiss her and ask her to forgive her poor daughter. Then she threw herself into the water, and they could no longer save her.

Liza’s mother, having learned about the terrible death of her daughter, could not withstand the blow and died on the spot. Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. He did not deceive Lisa when he told her that he was going to the army, but, instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost his entire fortune. He had to marry an elderly rich widow who had been in love with him for a long time. Having learned about Liza’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer. Now, perhaps, they have already reconciled.

World of Heroes

Lisa ( Poor Lisa) — main character a story which, along with other works published by Karamzin in the Moscow Journal (Natalia, the Boyar's Daughter, Frol Silin, the Benevolent Man, Liodor, etc.), not only brought literary fame to its author, but produced a complete revolution in the public consciousness of the 18th century. For the first time in the history of Russian prose, Karamzin turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically ordinary features. His words “...even peasant women know how to love” became popular.

Poor peasant girl Lisa is left an orphan early on. She lives in one of the villages near Moscow with her mother - “a sensitive, kind old lady”, from whom she inherits her main talent - the ability to love. To support himself and his mother, L. takes on any job. In the spring she goes to the city to sell flowers. There, in Moscow, L. meets the young nobleman Erast. Tired of the wind social life, Erast falls in love with a spontaneous, innocent girl “with the love of a brother.” It seems so to him. However, soon platonic love turns into sensual. L., “having completely surrendered to him, she only lived and breathed by him.” But gradually L. begins to notice the change taking place in Erast. He explains his cooling off by the fact that he needs to go to war. To improve matters, Erast marries an elderly rich widow. Having learned about this, L. drowns himself in the pond.

Sensitivity - so in the language of the late 18th century. determined the main advantage of Karamzin’s stories, meaning by this the ability to sympathize, to discover the “tenderest feelings” in the “curves of the heart,” as well as the ability to enjoy the contemplation of one’s own emotions. Sensitivity is also the central character trait of L. She trusts the movements of her heart and lives by “tender passions.” Ultimately, it is ardor and ardor that lead to L.’s death, but it is morally justified.

Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the contrast between city and countryside into Russian literature. In Karamzin's story, a village man - a man of nature - finds himself defenseless when he finds himself in an urban space, where laws different from the laws of nature apply. No wonder L.’s mother tells her (thus indirectly predicting everything that will happen later): “My heart is always in the wrong place when you go to the city; I always put a candle in front of the image and pray to the Lord God that he will protect you from all troubles and misfortunes.”

It is no coincidence that the first step on the path to disaster is L.’s insincerity: for the first time she “retreats from herself”, hiding, on Erast’s advice, their love from her mother, to whom she had previously confided all her secrets. Later, it was in relation to his dearly beloved mother that L. would repeat Erast’s worst act. He tries to “pay off” L. and, driving her away, gives her a hundred rubles. But L. does the same, sending his mother, along with the news of his death, the “ten imperials” that Erast gave her. Naturally, L.’s mother needs this money just as much as the heroine herself: “Liza’s mother heard about the terrible death of her daughter, and her blood cooled with horror - her eyes closed forever.”

The tragic outcome of the love between a peasant woman and an officer confirms the rightness of the mother, who warned L. at the very beginning of the story: “You still don’t know how evil people can offend a poor girl.” General rule turns into a specific situation, poor L. herself takes the place of the impersonal poor girl, and the universal plot is transferred to Russian soil and acquires a national flavor.

For the arrangement of characters in the story, it is also important that the narrator learns the story of poor L. directly from Erast and himself often comes to be sad at “Liza’s grave.” The coexistence of the author and the hero in the same narrative space was not familiar to Russian literature before Karamzin. The narrator of “Poor Lisa” is mentally involved in the relationships of the characters. Already the title of the story is based on the connection own name heroine with an epithet characterizing the sympathetic attitude of the narrator towards her, who constantly repeats that he has no power to change the course of events (“Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad true story?”).

“Poor Lisa” is perceived as a story about true events. L. belongs to the characters with “registration”. “...More and more often I am drawn to the walls of the Si... new monastery - the memory of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa,” - this is how the author begins his story. With a gap in the middle of a word, any Muscovite could guess the name of the Simonov Monastery, the first buildings of which date back to the 14th century. (to date, only a few buildings have survived, most of them were blown up in 1930).

The pond, located under the walls of the monastery, was called the Fox Pond, but thanks to Karamzin’s story it was popularly renamed Lizin and became a place of constant pilgrimage for Muscovites. In the minds of the monks of the Simonov Monastery, who zealously guarded the memory of L., she was, first of all, a fallen victim. Essentially, L. was canonized by sentimental culture.

First of all, the same unhappy girls in love, like L. herself, came to cry at the place of Liza’s death. According to eyewitnesses, the bark of the trees growing around the pond was mercilessly cut up by the knives of the “pilgrims.” The inscriptions carved on the trees were both serious (“In these streams, poor Liza passed away her days; / If you are sensitive, passer-by, sigh”), and satirical, hostile to Karamzin and his heroine (the couplet acquired particular fame among such “birch epigrams”: “Erast’s bride perished in these streams. / Drown yourself, girls, there’s plenty of room in the pond.”

Karamzin and his story were certainly mentioned when describing the Simonov Monastery in guidebooks to Moscow and special books and articles. But gradually these references began to have an increasingly ironic character, and already in 1848, in the famous work of M. N. Zagoskin “Moscow and Muscovites” in the chapter “Walk to the Simonov Monastery” not a word was said either about Karamzin or his heroine. As sentimental prose lost the charm of novelty, “Poor Liza” ceased to be perceived as a story about true events, much less as an object of worship, but became in the minds of most readers (a primitive fiction, a curiosity, reflecting the tastes and concepts of a bygone era.

The image of “poor L.” immediately sold out in numerous literary copies of Karamzin’s epigones (cf., for example, “The Unhappy Liza” by Dolgorukov).

But the image of L. and the associated ideal of sensitivity received serious development not in these stories, but in poetry. The invisible presence of “poor L.” palpably in Zhukovsky’s elegy “Rural Cemetery,” published ten years after Karamzin’s story, in 1802, which laid, according to V.S. Solovyov, “the beginning of truly human poetry in Russia.” The very plot of the seduced villager is addressed by three major poet Pushkin's time: E. A. Baratynsky (in the plot poem "Eda", 1826, A. A. Delvig (in the idyll "The End of the Golden Age", 1828) and I. I. Kozlov (in the "Russian story" "Mad", 1830).

In “Belkin’s Tales,” Pushkin twice varies the plot outline of the story about “poor L.”, enhancing its tragic sound in “ Stationmaster” and turning it into a joke in “The Peasant Young Lady.” The connection between “Poor Liza” and “The Queen of Spades,” whose heroine is named Lizaveta Ivanovna, is very complex. Pushkin develops Karamzin’s theme: his “poor Liza” (like “poor Tanya,” the heroine of “Eugene Onegin”) experiences a catastrophe: having lost hope of love, she marries another, quite worthy person. All Pushkin’s heroines, who are in the “force field” of Karamzin’s heroine, are destined for a happy or unhappy life, but life. “To the Origins”, P. I. Tchaikovsky returns Pushkin’s Liza to Karamzin, in whose opera “ Queen of Spades“Liza (no longer Lizaveta Ivanovna) commits suicide by throwing herself into the Winter Canal.

L.'s fate different options its permission was carefully spelled out by F. M. Dostoevsky. In his work, both the word “poor” and the name “Liza” acquire a special status from the very beginning. The most famous among his heroines - namesakes of the Karamzin peasant woman - are Lizaveta ("Crime and Punishment"), Elizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchina ("The Idiot"), blessed Lizaveta and Liza Tushina ("Demons"), and Lizaveta Stinking ("The Brothers Karamazov").

But the Swiss Marie from “The Idiot” and Sonechka Marmeladova from “Crime and Punishment” would also not exist without Liza Karamzin. The Karamzin scheme also forms the basis of the history of the relationship between Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova, the heroes of L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”.

In the 20th century “Poor Liza” has by no means lost its meaning: on the contrary, interest in Karamzin’s story and its heroine has increased. One of the sensational productions of the 1980s. became a theatrical version of “Poor Lisa” at M. Rozovsky’s theater-studio “At the Nikitsky Gate”.

Erast is the hero of the story, a young officer, a nobleman. He seduces a poor peasant girl, Lisa, who lives in one of the villages near Moscow with her old mother. Soon platonic love turns into sensual love, and then cooling follows: which E. explains by the need to go to war. “No, he really was in the army, but instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost almost all his property.” To improve matters, E. marries an elderly rich widow and tries to “pay off” Lisa with one hundred rubles. Unable to survive what happened, Lisa drowns herself in a pond.

The story of their relationship is a story of Lisa's gradual movement from the natural, natural world into the world of E. Under the influence of E. Liza loses that spiritual integrity, which Karamzin lays as the basis for the psychological opposition of his heroes. However, E., in turn, “shifts” towards Lisa: he becomes more sensitive and pays for the unseemly act he committed not with external deprivations (illness, poverty, etc.), but with the pangs of repentance - that is, with internal, mental suffering: “Erast was unhappy until the end of his life. Having learned about Lizina’s fate, he could not console himself and considered himself a murderer...”

Before Karamzin, the plot automatically determined the type of hero, choosing him from a small but clearly classified nomenclature of characters (similar to the set of masks in Italian comedy del arte).

In a traditional plot about the seduction of a poor virgin girl, E. would be an unambiguous, “one-color” villain, another incarnation of Mephistopheles. Karamzin violates the reader’s expectations: both the situation as a whole and the image of E. himself are much more complex than that literary type, to which the hero belongs.

E. is not a “cunning seducer”; he is sincere in his oaths, sincere in his deception. E. is as much the culprit of the tragedy as he is the victim of his “ardent imagination.” Therefore, the author does not consider himself to have the right to pass judgment on E. He stands on a par with his hero - because he converges with him at the “point” of sensitivity. (It is not for nothing that the author acts in the story as a “reteller” of the story that E. told him: “...I met him a year before his death. He himself told me this story and led me to Lisa’s grave...”)

The author forgives the repentant E. Public opinion also acquitted him, as evidenced by the sharp increase in the number of Erasts in the noble “lists” after the publication of “Poor Liza”: children would never be called by the name of a “negative” hero. Many literary characters are increasingly receiving this “exotic” name.

E. begins a long series of heroes in Russian literature, main feature who are weak and unadapted to life and for whom the label of an extra person has been assigned for a long time in literary criticism.

The story “Poor Liza” by Karamzin is based on the story of the unhappy love of a peasant woman for a nobleman. The work, written and published in 1792, influenced further development Russian literature - here for the first time “people acted, the life of the heart and passions was depicted in the midst of ordinary everyday life.” The story has become an example of sentimentalism: the images of the characters in the story and the author’s position are ambiguous, feeling is the highest value, and is revealed first inner world a simple person.

The story “Poor Lisa” is studied in the 9th grade literature course. In order to familiarize yourself with the plot and characters of the work, we suggest reading a summary of “Poor Lisa.”

Main characters

Lisa- a peasant girl who selflessly loves Erast. Mentally rich, open, sensitive nature.

Erast- nobleman. He is kind, but weak in character, unable to think about the consequences of his actions.

Other characters

Narrator– a sentimental person, empathizes with his heroes. He loves “those objects that touch the heart and make you shed tears of tender sorrow.”

Lisa's mother- a simple peasant woman, dreams of a happy marriage for her daughter.

The narrator, on whose behalf the story is told, knows the surroundings of Moscow very well. His favorite place is the mountain where the Simonov Monastery is located. From here you can enjoy an amazingly beautiful view of Moscow.

Next to the monastery, there is an empty shack, crumbling. About thirty years ago, Lisa and her mother lived there. After the death of his father, a wealthy peasant, his wife and daughter lived in poverty. The widow grieved over the death of her husband, became weaker every day and could not work. Lisa, who was only fifteen in the year of her father’s death, “not sparing her rare beauty, worked day and night.” She wove canvas, knitted, picked berries, flowers and sold it all in Moscow.

One day the heroine, as usual, came to the city to sell lilies of the valley. On one of the streets she met a young man of pleasant appearance and offered to buy him flowers. Instead of the five kopecks that Lisa asked for, the young man wanted to give a ruble for “lilies of the valley plucked by the hands of a beautiful girl,” but Lisa did not take the extra money. Then he told the girl that he would always like to be her only buyer. The stranger asked Lisa where she lived, and the girl answered.

Arriving home, Lisa told her mother about the meeting.

The next day, having collected the best lilies of the valley, Lisa went to Moscow, but never met yesterday’s stranger.

In the evening, sitting sadly at the yarn, the girl unexpectedly saw a recent acquaintance under the window (his name was Erast) and was very happy. The old mother told him about her grief and “the sweet qualities” of her daughter. The mother really liked Erast, and she dreamed that Lisa’s groom would be just like that. However, Lisa objected that this was impossible - after all, he was a “master”, and they were peasants.

Erast, a nobleman by birth, “with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty,” thirsted only for entertainment. Lisa's beauty and naturalness amazed him so much that the young man decided: he had found his happiness.

Lise slept restlessly at night - the image of Erast disturbed and excited the imagination. Even before sunrise, the girl went to the bank of the Moscow River and, sitting down on the grass, watched the awakening nature. Suddenly the silence of the morning was broken by the sound of oars, and Lisa saw Erast sailing in a boat.

A moment later, the young man jumped out of the boat, ran up to Lisa, took her hands, kissed her and confessed his love. This confession echoed in the girl’s soul with delightful music - and Erast heard from her that she was loved too. The young man swore eternal love to Lisa.

Since then, Lisa and Erast met every evening, talked about their love, kissed, “their embrace was pure and immaculate.” The girl aroused Erast’s admiration, and all past social fun seemed insignificant. He was sure that he could never harm his beloved “shepherdess.”

At Lisa’s request, Erast often visited her mother, who was always happy about the young man’s arrival.

The young people continued dating. One day Lisa came to her beloved in tears. It turned out that the son of a rich peasant wants to marry her, and Lisa’s mother is happy about this, because she does not know that her daughter has a “dear friend.”

Erast said that he values ​​​​the happiness of his beloved, and after the death of his mother they will live together, “like in paradise.” After such words, Lisa threw herself into the arms of Erast - “and at this hour integrity had to perish,” the heroes became close.

They still met, says the author, but “how everything has changed!” Platonic love gave way to feelings that were not new to Erast. Lisa, for her beloved, “only lived and breathed.” Erast began to come less often, and one day he did not appear for several days, and when he finally came for a date, he said that he had to say goodbye for a while - there was a war going on, he was in the service, and his regiment was setting out on a campaign. On the day of parting, saying goodbye to Erast, Lisa “said goodbye to her soul.” They both cried.

The days of separation were filled with bitterness and melancholy for Lisa. Almost two months passed, the girl went to Moscow to get rose water for her mother. Walking down the street, she noticed a rich carriage and saw Erast in it. At the gate of the house where the carriage entered, Lisa approached Erast and hugged him. He was cold, explained to Lisa that he was engaged, - life circumstances force him to marry. He asked to forget about him, said that he loved Lisa and loves her, wishes her well. Having put one hundred rubles in the girl’s pocket, he ordered the servant to “escort her from the yard.”

Erast really was at war, but did not fight, but lost his fortune at cards. To improve matters, the young man decided to marry a rich widow who had long been in love with him.

"I'm dead!" – this was the only thing Lisa could think, walking wherever she looked after meeting her beloved. She woke up, finding herself on the shore of a pond, where she and Erast often saw each other. Memories of a happy time “shook her soul.” Seeing the neighbor’s daughter Anyuta, the girl gave her money and her apologies for her mother. She herself threw herself into the waters of the pond and drowned. The mother, unable to bear the death of her beloved daughter, died. Erast, who learned about Lisa’s death, blamed himself for her death; he never found happiness in life. Shortly before Erast's death, the narrator met him, and he told him his story.

Conclusion

In his work, Karamzin proclaimed a timeless idea - any person, regardless of origin and position in society, is worthy of love, respect and compassion. This humanistic position of the author deserves attention in modern life.

A brief retelling of “Poor Lisa” is only the first step towards getting to know the story. Full text will allow you to comprehend the depth of the author’s intention and appreciate the beauty and brevity of the language of the work.

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The surroundings of Moscow are described. Not far from the monastery wall there is a hut in which Lisa and her mother lived thirty years ago. Her father was “a fairly prosperous villager, because he loved work, plowed the land well and always led a sober life.” But he died. His widow and daughter could not cultivate the land themselves and were forced to rent it out for little money. Lisa, “not sparing her tender youth, worked day and night - weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold them in Moscow.”

"Poor Lisa." Painting by artist O. Kiprensky. 1827

Two years have passed since my father's death. Lisa came to sell lilies of the valley in Moscow. On the street she met a young, pleasant-looking man. It was Erast - “a fairly rich nobleman, with a fair amount of intelligence and a kind heart, but weak and flighty. He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, but often did not find it: he was bored and complained about his fate.” Erast offered the girl a ruble for the flowers, but she only took five kopecks. Then the young man asked her not to sell flowers to anyone except him, and found out where she lived. Lisa told her mother about this meeting. The old woman approved of the fact that her daughter did not take extra money: “It is better to feed yourself by your own labors and not take anything for nothing. You don’t know yet, my friend, how evil people can offend a poor girl!”

The next day, Lisa picked up lilies of the valley again and went into town with them. Many people wanted to buy flowers from her, but the girl refused to sell them. She herself looked for Erast, but did not meet him. She threw the flowers into the Moscow River with the words: “So no one can own you!”

The next evening, Erast came to visit Lisa at her house. It seemed to him that in this girl he had found exactly what his heart had long been looking for and what his soul had long been striving for. They began to meet often. Lisa regretted that her lover was not born a simple peasant or shepherd. At first, Erast dreamed of always living happily with Lisa, like brother and sister. All the brilliant amusements of the great world seemed insignificant to him in comparison with the pleasures with which the passionate friendship of an innocent soul nourished his heart. With disgust he thought about the contemptuous voluptuousness with which his feelings had previously reveled. “I will live with Liza, like brother and sister,” he thought, “I will not use her love for evil and I will always be happy!” But gradually platonic love gave way to other feelings. One evening, Lisa told Erast that her mother wanted to marry her to the son of a rich peasant. “She threw herself into his arms, and at that very hour her integrity was destined to perish.” Their dates continued, but now everything has changed. “For Erast, Lisa was no longer that angel of purity that previously inflamed his imagination and delighted his soul.” They didn't meet for five days. Then Erast appeared and said that his regiment, where he was serving, was going to war.

About two months passed. One day Lisa came to Moscow for rose water, which her mother used to treat her eyes. On one of the big streets she met a magnificent carriage, in which she saw Erast. Lisa rushed to Erast, but his carriage drove past and turned into the courtyard. Erast came out and was about to go to the porch of the huge house, when he suddenly felt himself in Lisa’s arms. Without answering her exclamations, he led her into his office and told her that he was getting married, so she needed to forget him. He put one hundred rubles in Liza’s pocket and ordered the servant to escort the girl out of the yard.

It turned out that Erast played cards during the war, spending almost all his fortune on it, and now he was forced to marry an elderly rich widow who had long been in love with him.

Shocked, Lisa walked without making out the way, and finally went out of the city, to the shore of the pond. On the road she met Anyuta, the daughter of a neighbor. Lisa gave her money for her mother and asked her to tell her that she had been deceived by a cruel man with whom she was in love. After these words, Lisa threw herself into the water. Anyuta rushed to call people for help, but it was too late. The girl was pulled out dead. Lisa's mother died of grief.

The 18th century, which glorified many wonderful people, including the writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Towards the end of this century, he published his most famous creation - the story “Poor Lisa”. It was this that brought him great fame and enormous popularity among readers. The book is based on two characters: the poor girl Lisa and the nobleman Erast, who appear during the course of the plot in their attitude to love.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin made a huge contribution to the cultural development of the fatherland at the end of the 18th century. After numerous trips to Germany, England, France and Switzerland, the prose writer returns to Russia, and while relaxing at his dacha famous traveler Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov In the 1790s, he took on a new literary experiment. The local surroundings near the Simonov Monastery greatly influenced the idea of ​​the work “Poor Liza,” which he nurtured during his travels. Nature was of great importance to Karamzin; he truly loved it and often exchanged the bustle of the city for forests and fields, where he read his favorite books and immersed himself in thought.

Genre and direction

“Poor Liza” is the first Russian psychological story that contains the moral disagreement of people of different classes. Lisa’s feelings are clear and understandable to the reader: for a simple bourgeois woman, happiness is love, so she loves blindly and naively. Erast’s feelings, on the contrary, are more confused, because he himself cannot understand them. At first, the young man simply wants to fall in love, just like in the novels he read, but it soon becomes clear that he is not capable of living with love. City life, full of luxury and passions, had a huge impact on the hero, and he discovers carnal attraction, which completely destroys spiritual love.

Karamzin is an innovator; he can rightfully be called the founder of Russian sentimentalism. Readers received the work with admiration, since society had been wanting something like this for a long time. The public was exhausted by the moral teachings of the classicist trend, the basis of which is the worship of reason and duty. Sentimentalism demonstrates the emotional experiences, feelings and emotions of the characters.

About what?

According to the writer, this story is “a very simple fairy tale.” Indeed, the plot of the work is simple to the point of genius. It begins and ends with a sketch of the area of ​​the Simonov Monastery, which evokes in the narrator’s memory thoughts about the tragic turn in the fate of poor Lisa. This is a love story between a poor provincial woman and a wealthy young man from a privileged class. The lovers' acquaintance began with the fact that Lisa was selling lilies of the valley collected in the forest, and Erast, wanting to start a conversation with the girl he liked, decided to buy flowers from her. He was captivated by Lisa's natural beauty and kindness, and they began dating. However, the young man soon became fed up with the charm of his passion and found a more profitable match. The heroine, unable to withstand the blow, drowned herself. Her lover regretted this all his life.

Their images are ambiguous; first of all, the world of simple things is revealed natural man, unspoiled by city bustle and greed. Karamzin described everything in such detail and picturesquely that readers believed in this story and fell in love with his heroine.

The main characters and their characteristics

  1. The main character of the story is Lisa, a poor village girl. IN early age she lost her father and was forced to become a breadwinner for her family, agreeing to any job. The hardworking provincial woman is very naive and sensitive, she sees in people only good features and lives by his emotions, following the call of his heart. She looks after her mother day and night. And even when the heroine decides to take a fatal act, she still does not forget about her family and leaves her money. Lisa’s main talent is the gift of love, because for the sake of her loved ones she is ready to do anything.
  2. Lisa's mother is a kind and wise old woman. She experienced the death of her husband Ivan very hard, as she loved him devotedly and lived happily with him for many years. The only joy was her daughter, whom she sought to marry to a worthy and wealthy man. The character of the heroine is internally whole, but a little bookish and idealized.
  3. Erast is a rich nobleman. He leads a riotous lifestyle, thinking only about fun. He is smart, but very fickle, spoiled and weak-willed. Without thinking that Lisa is from a different class, he fell in love with her, but still he is unable to overcome all the difficulties of this unequal love. Erast cannot be called a negative hero, because he admits his guilt. He read and was inspired by novels, was dreamy, looking at the world with rose-colored glasses. Therefore, his real love did not withstand such a test.

    4. Subjects

  • The main theme in sentimental literature is the sincere feelings of a person in a collision with indifference real world. Karamzin was one of the first to decide to write about the spiritual happiness and suffering of ordinary people. He reflected in his work the transition from a civil theme, which was common during the Enlightenment, to a personal one, in which the main subject of interest is the spiritual world of the individual. Thus, the author, having described in depth the inner world of the characters together with their feelings and experiences, began to develop such a literary device as psychologism.
  • Theme of love. Love in “Poor Liza” is a test that tests the characters’ strength and loyalty to their word. Lisa completely surrendered to this feeling; the author exalts and idealizes her for this ability. She is the embodiment of the feminine ideal, the one who completely dissolves in the adoration of her beloved and is faithful to him until her last breath. But Erast did not pass the test and turned out to be a cowardly and pathetic person, incapable of self-sacrifice in the name of something more important than material wealth.
  • Contrast between city and countryside. The author gives preference to rural areas, it is there that natural, sincere and good people who know no temptation. But in big cities they acquire vices: envy, greed, selfishness. For Erast, his position in society was more valuable than love; he was fed up with it, because he was not capable of experiencing a strong and deep feeling. Lisa could not live after this betrayal: if love died, she follows her, because she cannot imagine her future without her.

    • Problem

    Karamzin in his work “Poor Liza” touches on various problems: social and moral. The problems of the story are based on opposition. The main characters vary both in quality of life and in character. Lisa is a pure, honest and naive girl from the lower class, and Erast is a spoiled, weak-willed, thinking only about his own pleasures, young man belonging to the nobility. Lisa, having fallen in love with him, cannot go a day without thinking about him, Erast, on the contrary, began to move away as soon as he received what he wanted from her.

    The result of such fleeting moments of happiness for Lisa and Erast is the death of the girl, after which the young man cannot stop blaming himself for this tragedy and remains unhappy for the rest of his life. The author showed how class inequality led to an unhappy ending and served as a reason for tragedy, as well as what responsibility a person bears for those who trusted him.

    the main idea

    The plot is not the most important thing in this story. The emotions and feelings that awaken during reading deserve more attention. The narrator himself plays a huge role, because he talks with sadness and compassion about the life of a poor rural girl. For Russian literature, the image of an empathic narrator who knows how to empathize emotional state heroes turned out to be a revelation. Any dramatic moment makes his heart bleed and also sincerely shed tears. Thus, main idea The story “Poor Liza” is that you should not be afraid of your feelings, love, worry, and sympathize to the fullest. Only then will a person be able to overcome immorality, cruelty and selfishness. The author starts with himself, because he, a nobleman, describes the sins of his own class, and gives sympathy to a simple village girl, calling on people of his position to become more humane. The inhabitants of poor huts sometimes outshine the gentlemen from ancient estates with their virtue. This is Karamzin’s main idea.

    The author's attitude towards the main character of the story also became an innovation in Russian literature. So Karamzin does not blame Erast when Lisa dies, he demonstrates the social conditions that caused the tragic event. Big city influenced the young man, destroying his moral principles and making him depraved. Lisa grew up in the village, her naivety and simplicity played a cruel joke on her. The writer also demonstrates that not only Lisa, but also Erast was subjected to the hardships of fate, becoming a victim of sad circumstances. The hero experiences feelings of guilt throughout his life, never becoming truly happy.

    What does it teach?

    The reader has the opportunity to learn something from the mistakes of others. The clash of love and selfishness is a hot topic, since everyone has experienced unrequited feelings at least once in their life, or experienced betrayal loved one. Analyzing Karamzin's story, we gain important life lessons, become more humane and more responsive to each other. The creations of the era of sentimentalism have a single property: they help people to enrich themselves mentally, and also cultivate in us the best humane and moral qualities.

    The story “Poor Lisa” gained popularity among readers. This work teaches a person to be more responsive towards other people, as well as the ability to be compassionate.

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