Characteristics of Matryona in the poem who lives well in Rus'. Characteristics and image of Matryona Timofeevna in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'. Matryona's life before marriage

The next chapter written by Nekrasov is "Peasant Woman"- also seems to be a clear deviation from the scheme outlined in the “Prologue”: the wanderers are again trying to find a happy one among the peasants. As in other chapters, the beginning plays an important role. It, as in “The Last One,” becomes the antithesis of the subsequent narration and allows us to discover new contradictions.” mysterious Rus'" The chapter begins with a description of a landowner's estate being ruined: after the reform, the owners abandoned the estate and the servants to the mercy of fate, and the servants are ruining and destroying beautiful house, once a well-kept garden and park. The funny and tragic aspects of the life of an abandoned servant are closely intertwined in the description. Household servants are a special peasant type. Torn out of their usual environment, they lose the skills of peasant life and the main one among them - the “noble habit of work.” Forgotten by the landowner and unable to feed themselves by labor, they live by stealing and selling the owner’s things, heating the house by breaking gazebos and turned balcony posts. But there are also truly dramatic moments in this description: for example, the story of a singer with a rare in a beautiful voice. The landowners took him out of Little Russia, were going to send him to Italy, but forgot, busy with their troubles.

Against the background of the tragicomic crowd of ragged and hungry courtyard servants, “whining servants,” the “healthy, singing crowd of reapers and reapers” returning from the field seems even more “beautiful.” But even among these stately and beautiful people stands out Matrena Timofeevna , “famous” for the “governor” and the “lucky one.” The story of her life, told by herself, is what occupies central place in the story. Dedicating this chapter to a peasant woman, Nekrasov, it seems, not only wanted to open the soul and heart of a Russian woman to the reader. A woman’s world is a family, and when talking about herself, Matryona Timofeevna talks about those sides folk life, which have so far only been indirectly touched upon in the poem. But they are the ones who determine a woman’s happiness and unhappiness: love, family, everyday life.

Matryona Timofeevna does not recognize herself as happy, just as she does not recognize any of the women as happy. But she knew short-lived happiness in her life. Matryona Timofeevna’s happiness is a girl’s will, parental love and care. Her girlhood life was not carefree and easy: from childhood, from the age of seven, she performed peasant work:

I was lucky in the girls:
We had a good
Non-drinking family.
For father, for mother,
Like Christ in his bosom,
I lived, well done.<...>
And on the seventh for the beetroot
I myself ran into the herd,
I took my father to breakfast,
She was feeding the ducklings.
Then mushrooms and berries,
Then: “Get a rake
Yes, turn up the hay!”
So I got used to it...
And a good worker
And the sing-dance huntress
I was young.

She calls it “happiness” last days girl’s life, when her fate was being decided, when she “bargained” with her future husband - argued with him, “bargained” for her freedom in married life:

- Just stand there, good fellow,
Directly against me<...>
Think, dare:
To live with me - not to repent,
And I don’t have to cry with you...<...>
While we were bargaining,
It must be so I think
Then there was happiness.
And hardly ever again!

Her married life is indeed full of tragic events: the death of a child, a severe flogging, a punishment she voluntarily accepted to save her son, the threat of remaining a soldier. At the same time, Nekrasov shows that the source of Matryona Timofeevna’s misfortunes is not only the “fortress”, the powerless position of a serf woman, but also the powerless position of the youngest daughter-in-law in a large peasant family. The injustice that triumphs in large peasant families, the perception of a person primarily as a worker, the non-recognition of his desires, his “will” - all these problems are revealed by the confessional story of Matryona Timofeevna. A loving wife and mother, she is doomed to an unhappy and powerless life: to please her husband's family and unfair reproaches from the elders in the family. That is why, even having freed herself from serfdom, having become free, she will grieve about the lack of a “will,” and therefore happiness: “The keys to women’s happiness, / From our free will, / Abandoned, lost / From God himself.” And she speaks not only about herself, but about all women.

This disbelief in the possibility of a woman’s happiness is shared by the author. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov excludes from the final text of the chapter the lines about how Matryona Timofeevna’s difficult position in her husband’s family happily changed after returning from the governor’s wife: in the text there is no story that she became the “big woman” in the house, nor that she “conquered” her husband’s “grumpy, abusive” family. All that remains are the lines that the husband’s family, having recognized her participation in saving Philip from the soldiery, “bowed” to her and “apologized” to her. But the chapter ends with a “Woman’s Parable”, asserting the inevitability of bondage-misfortune for a woman even after the abolition of serfdom: “And to our women’s will / There are still no keys!<...>/Yes, they are unlikely to be found...”

Researchers noted Nekrasov’s plan: creating image of Matryona Timofeevna y, he aimed for the widest generalization: her fate becomes a symbol of the fate of every Russian woman. The author carefully and thoughtfully selects episodes of her life, “leading” his heroine along the path that any Russian woman follows: a short, carefree childhood, work skills instilled from childhood, a girl’s will and a long disenfranchised position. married woman, women workers in the field and in the house. Matryona Timofeevna experiences all possible dramatic and tragic situations that befall a peasant woman: humiliation in her husband’s family, beatings of her husband, the death of a child, the harassment of a manager, flogging, and even, albeit briefly, the share of a soldier. “The image of Matryona Timofeevna was created like this,” writes N.N. Skatov, “that she seemed to have experienced everything and been in all the states that a Russian woman could have been in.” Folk songs and laments included in Matryona Timofeevna’s story, most often “replacing” her own words, her own story, further expand the narrative, allowing us to comprehend both the happiness and misfortune of one peasant woman as a story about the fate of a serf woman.

In general, the story of this woman depicts life according to God’s laws, “in a divine way,” as Nekrasov’s heroes say:

<...>I endure and do not complain!
All the power given by God,
I put it to work
All the love for the kids!

And the more terrible and unfair are the misfortunes and humiliations that befell her. "<...>In me / There is no unbroken bone, / There is no unstretched vein, / There is no unspoiled blood.<...>“- this is not a complaint, but a true result of Matryona Timofeevna’s experience. Deep meaning of this life - love for children - Nekrasov is also affirmed with the help of parallels from natural world: the story of Demushka’s death is preceded by a cry about a nightingale, whose chicks burned on a tree lit by a thunderstorm. The chapter telling about the punishment taken to save another son, Philip, from whipping, is called “The She-Wolf.” And here the hungry wolf, ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of the wolf cubs, appears as a parallel to the fate of the peasant woman who lay down under the rod to free her son from punishment.

The central place in the chapter “Peasant Woman” is occupied by the story of Saveliya, the Holy Russian hero. Why is Matryona Timofeevna entrusted with the story about the fate of the Russian peasant, the “hero of Holy Russia,” his life and death? It seems that this is largely because it is important for Nekrasov to show the “hero” Saveliy Korchagin not only in his confrontation with Shalashnikov and the manager Vogel, but also in the family, in everyday life. His large family needed “grandfather” Savely, a pure and holy man, while he had money: “As long as there was money, / They loved my grandfather, they cared for him, / Now they spit in his eyes!” Savely's inner loneliness in the family enhances the drama of his fate and at the same time, like the fate of Matryona Timofeevna, gives the reader the opportunity to learn about the everyday life of the people.

But it is no less important that the “story within a story,” connecting two destinies, shows the relationship between two extraordinary people, who for the author himself were the embodiment of the ideal folk type. It is Matryona Timofeevna’s story about Savelya that allows us to emphasize what brought us together in general different people: not only the powerless position in the Korchagin family, but also a commonality of characters. Matryona Timofeevna, whose whole life is filled only with love, and Savely Korchagin, whom hard life has made “stone”, “fierce than a beast”, are similar in the main thing: their “angry heart”, their understanding of happiness as a “will”, as spiritual independence.

It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna considers Savely lucky. Her words about “grandfather”: “He was also lucky...” are not bitter irony, for in Savely’s life, full of suffering and trials, there was something that Matryona Timofeevna herself values ​​above all else - moral dignity, spiritual freedom. Being a “slave” of the landowner by law, Savely did not know spiritual slavery.

Savely, according to Matryona Timofeevna, called his youth “prosperity,” although he experienced a lot of insults, humiliations, and punishments. Why does he consider the past to be “blessed times”? Yes, because, fenced off by “marsh swamps” and “dense forests” from their landowner Shalashnikov, the residents of Korezhina felt free:

We were only worried
Bears...yes with bears
We managed it easily.
With a knife and a spear
I myself am scarier than the elk,
Along protected paths
I go: “My forest!” - I scream.

“Prosperity” was not overshadowed by the annual flogging that Shalashnikov inflicted on his peasants, beating out rent with rods. But the peasants are “proud people,” having endured a flogging and pretending to be beggars, they knew how to keep their money and, in turn, “amused” the master who was unable to take the money:

Weak people gave up
And the strong for the patrimony
They stood well.
I also endured
He remained silent and thought:
“No matter how you take it, son of a dog,
But you can’t knock out your whole soul,
Leave something"<...>
But we lived as merchants...

The “happiness” that Savely speaks of, which is, of course, illusory, is a year of free life without a landowner and the ability to “endure”, withstand the flogging and save the money earned. But the peasant could not be given any other “happiness”. And yet, Koryozhina soon lost even such “happiness”: “hard labor” began for the men when Vogel was appointed manager: “He ruined him to the bone!” / And he tore... like Shalashnikov himself!/<...>/ The German has a death grip: / Until he lets him go around the world, / Without leaving, he sucks!”

Savely does not glorify patience as such. Not everything a peasant can and should endure. Savely clearly distinguishes between the ability to “understand” and “tolerate.” To not endure means to succumb to pain, not to bear the pain and to morally submit to the landowner. To endure means to lose dignity and agree to humiliation and injustice. Both of these make a person a “slave”.

But Saveliy Korchagin, like no one else, understands the whole tragedy of eternal patience. With him, an extremely important thought enters the narrative: about the wasted strength of the peasant hero. Savely not only glorifies Russian heroism, but also mourns this hero, humiliated and mutilated:

That's why we endured
That we are heroes.
This is Russian heroism.
Do you think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero?
And his life is not a military one,
And death is not written for him
In battle - what a hero!

The peasantry in his thoughts appears as a fabulous hero, chained and humiliated. This hero is bigger than heaven and earth. A truly cosmic image appears in his words:

Hands are twisted in chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
We walked along it - we broke down.
What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet
It rattles and rolls around
On a chariot of fire...
The hero endures everything!

The hero holds up the sky, but this work costs him great torment: “While there was a terrible craving / He lifted it up, / Yes, he went into the ground up to his chest / With effort! There are no tears running down his face - blood is flowing!” However, is there any point in this great patience? It is no coincidence that Savely is disturbed by the thought of a life gone in vain, strength wasted in vain: “I was lying on the stove; / I lay there, thinking: / Where have you gone, strength? / What were you useful for? / - Under rods, under sticks / She left for little things!” And these bitter words are not only the result own life: this is grief for the ruined people's strength.

But the author’s task is not only to show the tragedy of the Russian hero, whose strength and pride “gone away in small ways.” It is no coincidence that at the end of the story about Savelia the name of Susanin, the peasant hero, appears: the monument to Susanin in the center of Kostroma reminded Matryona Timofeevna of “grandfather”. Saveliy’s ability to preserve freedom of spirit, spiritual independence even in slavery, and not submit to his soul, is also heroism. It is important to emphasize this feature of the comparison. As noted by N.N. Skatov, the monument to Susanin in Matryona Timofeevna’s story does not look like the real one. “A real monument created by sculptor V.M. Demut-Malinovsky, writes the researcher, turned out to be more of a monument to the Tsar than to Ivan Susanin, who was depicted kneeling near the column with the bust of the Tsar. Nekrasov not only kept silent about the fact that the man was on his knees. In comparison with the rebel Savely, the image of the Kostroma peasant Susanin received, for the first time in Russian art, a unique, essentially anti-monarchist interpretation. At the same time, comparison with the hero of Russian history Ivan Susanin put the finishing touch on the monumental figure of the Korezhsky hero, the Holy Russian peasant Savely.”

In the works of N.A. Nekrasov’s many works are dedicated to a simple Russian woman. The fate of the Russian woman always worried Nekrasov. In many of his poems and poems, he talks about her difficult lot. Starting from the early poem “On the Road” and ending with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov talked about “a woman’s share,” about the dedication of the Russian peasant woman, about her spiritual beauty. The poem “In full swing of the village suffering,” written shortly after the reform, gives a true reflection of the inhuman hard work of a young peasant mother:

Share you! - Russian female share!

It couldn't be more difficult to find...

Talking about the difficult lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov often embodied in her image high ideas about the spiritual power of the Russian people, about their physical beauty:

There are women in Russian villages

With calm importance of faces,

With beautiful strength in movements,

With the gait, with the look of queens.

In Nekrasov’s works the image of a “majestic Slavic woman” appears, pure of heart, bright mind, strong spirit. This is Daria from the poem “Frost, Red Nose”, and simple girl from Troika. This is Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

The image of Matryona Timofeevna, as it were, completes and unites a group of images of peasant women in Nekrasov’s work. The poem recreates the type of “stately Slavic woman,” a peasant woman from Central Russia, endowed with restrained and austere beauty:

dignified woman,

Wide and dense

About thirty-eight years old.

Beautiful; gray hair

The eyes are large, strict,

The richest eyelashes,

Severe and dark.

The poet trusted her, smart and strong, to tell her about her fate. “Peasant Woman” is the only part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, all written in the first person. Trying to answer the question of truth-seekers about whether she can call herself happy, Matryona Timofeevna tells the story of her life. The voice of Matryona Timofeevna is the voice of the people themselves. That’s why she sings more often than she talks, she sings folk songs. “The Peasant Woman” is the most folklore part of the poem; it is almost entirely built on folk poetic images and motifs. The whole life story of Matryona Timofeevna is a chain of continuous misfortunes and suffering. No wonder she says about herself: “I have a bowed head, I carry an angry heart!” She is convinced: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women.” Why? After all, in this woman’s life there was love, the joy of motherhood, and the respect of others. But with her story, the heroine makes men think about the question of whether this is enough for happiness and whether all those life’s hardships and adversities that befall the Russian peasant woman will outweigh this cup:

For me it is quiet, invisible,

The spiritual storm has passed,

Will you show it?..

For me, grievances are mortal

Gone unpaid

And the whip passed over me!

Matryona Timofeevna tells her story slowly and deliberately. She lived well and freely in parental home. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up with “her maiden will in hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunken father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom the daughter-in-law had to work like a slave. She was, however, lucky with her husband. But Philip only returned from work in the winter, and the rest of the time there was no one to intercede for her except grandfather Savely. Her first-born Demushka becomes a consolation for the peasant woman. But due to Savely’s oversight, the child dies. Matryona Timofeevna witnesses the abuse of her child's body (to find out the cause of death, the authorities perform an autopsy on the child's corpse). For a long time She cannot forgive Savely’s “sin” that he overlooked her Demushka. But Matryona Timofeevna’s trials did not end there. Her second son Fedot is growing up, and then a misfortune happens to him. Her eight-year-old son faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry wolf as a shepherd. Fedot took pity on her, saw how hungry and unhappy she was, and how the wolf cubs in her den were not fed:

He looks up, raising his head,

In my eyes... and suddenly she howled!

In order to save her little son from the punishment that threatened him, Matryona herself lies down under the rod in his place.

But the most difficult trials befall her in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is like a hungry wolf. The recruitment deprives her of her last protector, her husband (he is taken out of turn):

...Hungry

Orphan children are standing

In front of me...Unkind

The family is looking at them

They are noisy in the house

There are pugnacious people on the street,

Gluttons at the table...

And they began to pinch them,

Beat your head...

Shut up, soldier mother!

Matryona Timofeevna decides to ask the governor for intercession. She runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the doorman lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna:

How will I throw myself

At her feet: “Intercede!

By deception, not in God's way

breadwinner and parent

They take it from the kids!”

The governor's wife took pity on Matryona Timofeevna. The heroine returns home with her husband and newborn Liodorushka. This incident secured her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname “governor”.

The further fate of Matryona Timofeevna is also full of troubles: one of her sons has already been taken into the army, “they were burned twice... God visited with anthrax... three times.” The “Woman’s Parable” sums up her tragic story:

The keys to women's happiness,

From our free will

Abandoned, lost

From God himself!

The life story of Matryona Timofeevna showed that the most difficult, unbearable living conditions could not break the peasant woman. Harsh living conditions honed a special female character, proud and independent, accustomed to relying on his own strength everywhere and in everything. Nekrasov endows his heroine not only with beauty, but with great spiritual strength. It is not submission to fate, not dull patience, but pain and anger that are expressed in the words with which she ends the story of her life:

For me, grievances are mortal

Gone unpaid...

Anger accumulates in the soul of the peasant woman, but faith in intercession remains Mother of God, by the power of prayer. After praying, she goes to the city to the governor to seek the truth. It's her own that saves her mental strength and the will to live. Nekrasov showed in the image of Matryona Timofeevna both a readiness for self-sacrifice when she stood up to defend her son, and strength of character when she did not bow to formidable bosses. The image of Matryona Timofeevna is entirely woven from folk poetry. Lyrical and wedding folk songs and laments have long told about the life of a peasant woman, and Nekrasov drew from this source, creating the image of his beloved heroine.

Written about the people and for the people, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is close to the works of oral folk art. The verse of the poem - Nekrasov's artistic discovery - perfectly conveyed the living speech of the people, their songs, sayings, sayings, which absorbed centuries-old wisdom, sly humor, sadness and joy. The whole poem is true folk piece, and this is its great significance.

In the image of Matryona Timofeevna, Nekrasov embodied the fate of all Russian peasant women. Many folklore elements surround this image; the heroine goes through all the stages typical of a married woman who lives in her husband’s family and is a serf peasant. Matryona's fate is full of troubles and misfortunes, a rare joy, warm human attitude brings a woman back to life and she again becomes cheerful and cheerful, as in her youth.

Matryona's life before marriage

Matryona tells wanderers about her girlhood life, using vocabulary with a diminutive connotation. Father and mother spoiled their daughter, did not force her to work, she did not hear a bad word. Only at that time did the girl get enough sleep and enjoy the affection and care of her family. Later, when she was sent to a foreign village after the wedding, she learned how difficult a woman’s life can be, even if her husband loves and pities her. Matryona describes her fate as follows: “Now there is only wealth: three lakes have been cried with burning tears.” The heroine of the poem strong woman, not only physically (“Kholmogory cow”), but also morally: she experienced a lot of grief, but life did not break her.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” contains the most beautiful folklore traditions, which are introduced directly into the text of the work. It is the chapter describing Matryona’s life that is especially rich in oral folk art.

Appearance of Matryona Timofeevna

The heroine's last name is Korchagina, she lives in the village of Klin. Matryona is 38 years old, she calls herself an old woman, realizing that youth and beauty are lost due to hard work. The author lovingly describes his heroine of the poem: “Beautiful; gray hair, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark. She’s wearing a white shirt, a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder...” The words the author uses are taken from folk songs: “written kralechka”, “pourable berry”, “girlish eyes”, “ruddy face”, “pretty”, “beloved”, “white face”. The beauty of Matryona is the beauty of a Russian woman, strong, strong, hardworking. Describing Matryona at work, the author draws every detail with pleasure: the heroine evokes sincere sympathy from the reader. She is honest, straightforward, patient, caring, smart, savvy and a little sassy.

Characteristics of Matryona, her life philosophy

Matryona Timofeevna has five children, she is ready to give her life for each of them. When trouble happened - youngest son neglected the flock of sheep entrusted to him, she came to the master instead of her son in order to save the child from flogging. The very first son, Dyomushka, died when he was very young; grandfather Savely was assigned to look after him, but then he fell asleep. The child ended up in a pen where there were pigs, they ate him alive. The authorities insisted on an autopsy, accusing Matryona of conspiring with her convict grandfather in the murder of the child. The woman had to endure a monstrous sight that she will never forget. Her husband Philip loves Matryona, but sometimes he still gives up. When he brings her a gift and takes her on a sleigh ride, the heroine feels happy again. She knows that many women have suffered a fate even more difficult than hers: “It’s not the job to look for a happy one among women...”, “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, have been abandoned, lost to God himself!..

" Matryona is frank with strangers; she found her woman’s happiness in children and in work. A stern mother-in-law and the bad attitude of her husband’s relatives led to the accumulation of a lot of pain, resentment and melancholy in her soul: “There is not an unbroken bone in me, no unbroken vein, no unspoiled blood…”

Matryona teaches her children to be honest and not to steal. She is a believing woman: “the more I prayed, the easier it became...” It was faith that helped Matryona survive the most difficult moments in her life.

Our article contains quotes from Matryona Timofeevna that characterize her image most vividly. The material will be useful when analyzing the poem and writing creative works on the topic.

Work test

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

Not everything is between men
Find the happy one
Let's feel the women!

They point to Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed the Governor, as the lucky one. This is a peasant woman, considered happy among the people. Wanderers find her:

Matrena Timofeevna,
dignified woman,
Wide and tight
About thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray streaked hair,
The eyes are large, strict,
The eyelashes are the richest.
Severe and dark.

She tells them about her life - the life of a simple Russian peasant woman, full of worries, grief and sadness. Matryona says that if she was happy, it was only before marriage. What is this happiness? Here's the thing: We had a good, non-drinking family.
The little girl turned into an adult girl - a hard worker, beautiful face and strict in character. She didn’t stay too long with the girls, she quickly found a groom, and “a stranger on the mountain”, Philip Korchagin. The difficult life of a daughter-in-law in her mother-in-law’s house began for the heroine:

The family was huge
Grumpy... went to hell from the maiden holiday!

Matryona lives in harmony with her husband. He raised his hand to her only once, and then only at the instruction of his mother and sisters.
Matryona's son Demushka was born - the only consolation in the absence of her husband. But she was not happy about him for long: her grumpy mother-in-law sent her to work, saying that grandfather Savely would look after her son. But he neglected his affairs, fell asleep, worn out by the sun, and Demushka was eaten by pigs.
But it didn’t end there; Matryona was not allowed to bury her son. They conducted an investigation, suspecting her of a shameful relationship with her grandfather Savely and the murder of Demushka, slashed the boy’s body and... Having found nothing, they gave it to their mother, distraught with grief. For a very long time Matryona could not move away from this nightmare.
She missed her parents very much, but they did not often spoil her with their visits. Three years flew by like one day. Every year, so are the children. ... There is no time to think, no time to be sad.
In the fourth year, a new grief befell the heroine: her parents died. She still has close people left - Philip and children. But even here fate did not calm down, punishing either her children or her husband. When his son Fedotushka turned eight years old, his father-in-law gave him as a shepherd. One day the shepherd left, and one of the sheep was dragged away by a she-wolf, who, judging by the bloody trail, had just given birth. Fedot took pity on her and gave her back the already dead sheep he had captured. For this, the people in the village decided to flog him. But Matryona stood up for her son, and the landowner passing by decided to let the boy go and punish the mother.
The following describes a difficult, hungry year. On top of that, Philip was taken into the army out of turn. Now Matryona, who has a few days left before giving birth again, along with her children, is not a full-fledged mistress of the house, but a hanger-on. One night she prays fervently in the field and, inspired by some unknown force, hurries to the city to bow to the governor. But he meets only his wife there. Almost another son, Matryona, is born in this woman’s arms. Elena Alexandrovna helped the heroine by returning Philip and becoming the godmother of the child, whom she herself named Liodorushka. This is how Matryona got her nickname - “lucky”.
Matryona Korchagina, who is considered among the people to be the most famous, told the wanderers about all this. happy woman:

I haven't trampled my feet.
Not tied with ropes,
No needles...

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

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

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

Stops a galloping horse
He will enter the burning hut.

Almost every writer has a secret theme that worries him especially strongly and runs through his entire work as a leitmotif. For Nekrasov, the singer of the Russian people, such a topic was the fate of the Russian woman. Simple serf peasant women, proud princesses and even fallen women who sank to the social bottom - the writer had a warm word for each. And all of them, so different at first glance, were united by complete lack of rights and misfortune, which were considered the norm at that time. Against the background of universal serfdom, the fate of a simple woman looks even more terrible, because she is forced to “submit to a slave until the grave” and “be the mother of a slave son” (“Frost, Red Nose”), i.e. she is a slave in a square. “The keys to women’s happiness,” from their “free will,” were lost a long time ago - this is the problem the poet tried to draw attention to. This is how the incredibly bright and strong image of Matryona Timofeevna appears in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov.
The story of Matryona’s fate is set out in the third part of the poem, called “The Peasant Woman.”

Wanderers are led to the woman by a rumor that claims that if any woman can be called lucky, it is exclusively the “governor” from the village of Klin. However, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, a “stately”, beautiful and stern woman, hearing the men’s question about her happiness, “became confused, thoughtful” and did not even want to talk about anything at first. It had already gotten dark, and the moon with the stars had risen into the sky, when Matryona finally decided to “open her whole soul.”

Only at the very beginning, life was kind to her, Matryona recalls. Her own mother and father took care of her daughter, called her “kasatushka”, cared for her and cherished her. Let's pay attention to huge amount words with diminutive suffixes: pozdnehonko, sunshine, crust, etc., characteristic of oral folk art. Here the influence of Russian folklore on Nekrasov’s poem is noticeable - in folk songs, as a rule, the time of carefree girlhood is sung, sharply contrasting with the subsequent difficult life in her husband’s family. The author uses this plot to construct the image of Matryona and transfers almost verbatim from the songs the description of the girl’s life with her parents. Part of the folklore is introduced directly into the text. These are wedding songs, lamentation over the bride and the song of the bride herself, as well as detailed description matchmaking ritual.

No matter how hard Matryona tried to extend her free life, she was still married off to a man, also a stranger, not from her native village. Soon the girl, along with her husband Philip, leaves home and goes to an unfamiliar land, to a large and inhospitable family. There she ends up in hell “from the maiden holi”, which is also transmitted through folk song. “Drowsy, dormant, unruly!

“- this is what Matryona is called in the family, and everyone tries to give her more work. There is no hope for the husband’s intercession: even though they are the same age, and Philip treats his wife well, he still sometimes beats him (“the whip whistled, blood sprayed”) and does not think of making her life easier. In addition, he spends almost all his free time earning money, and Matryona “has no one to love.”

In this part of the poem, Matryona’s extraordinary character and inner spiritual fortitude become clearly visible. Another would have despaired long ago, but she does everything as she’s told and always finds a reason to rejoice the most. simple things. The husband returned, “brought a silk handkerchief / And took me for a ride on a sleigh” - and Matryona sang joyfully, as she used to sing in her parents’ house.

The only happiness of a peasant woman is in her children. So the heroine Nekrasov has her first-born son, whom she cannot stop looking at: “How written Demushka was!” The author very convincingly shows: it is the children who do not allow the peasant woman to become embittered and who maintain her truly angelic patience. The great calling - to raise and protect her children - lifts Matryona above the gray everyday life. The image of a woman turns into a heroic one.

But the peasant woman is not destined to enjoy her happiness for long: she must continue working, and the child, left in the care of the old man, dies due to a tragic accident. The death of a child at that time was not a rare event; this misfortune often befell the family. But it’s harder for Matryona than the others - not only is this her first-born, but the authorities who came from the city decide that it was the mother herself, in collusion with the former convict grandfather Savely, who killed her son. No matter how much Matryona cries, she has to be present at the autopsy of Demushka - he was “sprayed”, and this terrible picture is forever imprinted in her mother’s memory.

The characterization of Matryona Timofeevna would not be complete without one more important detail - her willingness to sacrifice herself for others. Her children are what remains most sacred for the peasant woman: “Just don’t touch the children! I stood for them like a mountain...” Indicative in this regard is the episode when Matryona takes upon herself the punishment of her son. He, being a shepherd, lost a sheep, and he had to be whipped for it. But the mother threw herself at the landowner’s feet, and he “mercifully” forgave the teenager, ordering the “impudent woman” to be whipped in return. For the sake of her children, Matryona is ready to go even against God. When a wanderer comes to the village with a strange demand not to breastfeed children on Wednesdays and Fridays, the woman turns out to be the only one who did not listen to her. “Whoever endures, so mothers” - these words of Matryona express the entire depth of her maternal love.

Another key characteristic of a peasant woman is her determination. Submissive and compliant, she knows when to fight for her happiness. So, it is Matryona, from the whole huge family, who decides to stand up for her husband when he is taken into the army and, falling at the feet of the governor’s wife, brings him home. For this act she receives the highest reward - popular respect. This is where her nickname “governor” came from. Now her family loves her, and the village considers her lucky. But the adversity and “spiritual storm” that passed through Matryona’s life do not give her the opportunity to describe herself as happy.

A decisive, selfless, simple and sincere woman and mother, one of the many Russian peasant women - this is how the reader appears before the reader “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Matryona Korchagin.

I will help 10th grade students describe the image of Matryona Korchagina and her characteristics in the poem before writing an essay on the topic “The image of Matryona Timofeevna in “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.”

Work test