A brief image of Matryona Timofeevna. Analysis of the chapter “Peasant Woman. Portrait of Matryona Timofeevna

In many of his works, Nekrasov reflects on the fate of the Russian peasant woman: in the poem “Frost, Red Nose”, the poems “Troika”, “In full swing of the village suffering ...”, “Orina, the soldier’s mother” and many others. In the gallery of remarkable female images, a special place is occupied by the image of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, the heroine of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

Popular rumor brings truth-seeking peasants to the village of Klin, where they hope to meet a happy peasant woman. How much severe suffering befell this “happy” woman! But her entire appearance emanates such beauty and strength that one cannot help but admire her. How reminiscent she is of the type of “stately Slavic woman” about whom Nekrasov wrote with delight in the poem “Frost, Red Nose.”

In trouble, he will not fail, he will save:
Stops a galloping horse
He will enter a burning hut!

Matryona begins her leisurely narrative about her own destiny, this is a story about why people consider her happy. Matryona Timofeevna, according to her, was lucky as a girl:

I was lucky in the girls:
We had a good
Non-drinking family.

The family surrounded their beloved daughter with care and affection. In her seventh year, they began to teach the peasant daughter to work: “she ran after the beetle herself... among the herd, she carried it to her father for breakfast, she tended the ducklings.” And this work was a joy to her. Matryona Timofeevna, having worked hard in the field, washes herself in the bathhouse and is ready to sing and dance:

And a good worker
And the sing-dance huntress
I was young.

But how few bright moments there are in her life! One of them is an engagement to her beloved Philippushka. Matryona did not sleep all night, thinking about her upcoming marriage: she was afraid of “servitude.” And yet love turned out to be stronger than the fear of falling into slavery.

Then there was happiness,
And hardly ever again!

And then, after marriage, she went “from her maiden holiday to hell.” Exhausting work, “mortal grievances,” misfortunes with children, separation from her husband, who was illegally taken as a recruit, and many other adversities - this is Matryona Timofeevna’s bitter life path. She speaks with pain about what is in her:

There is no unbroken bone,
There is no unstretched vein.

I am amazed at the resilience, the courage with which this wonderful woman endured suffering without bowing her proud head. Your heart bleeds when you read the lines of the poem about the inconsolable grief of a mother who lost her first-born son Demushka:

I was rolling around like a ball
I was curled up like a worm,
She called and woke up Demushka
Yes, it was too late to call!..

The mind is ready to be clouded by a terrible misfortune. But enormous spiritual strength helps Matryona Timofeevna survive. She sends angry curses to her enemies, the policeman and the doctor, who are tormenting the “white body” of her son: “Villains! Executioners! Matryona Timofeevna wants to find “their justice, but Savely dissuades her: “God is high, the king is far away... We won’t find the truth.” “Why not, grandfather?” - asks the unfortunate woman. “You are a serf woman!” - and this sounds like a final verdict.

And yet, when a misfortune happens to her second son, she becomes “impudent”: she decisively knocks down the headman of Silantiy, saving Fedotushka from punishment, taking his rod upon herself. Matryona Timofeevna is ready to withstand any test, inhuman torment, in order to defend her children and husband from everyday troubles. What enormous willpower a woman must have to go alone?

The reader recognizes one of the main characters of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - Savely - when he is already an old man who has lived a long and difficult life. The poet paints a colorful portrait of this amazing old man: With a huge gray...

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” N. A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question “who lives happily and freely in Rus'”...

“The burning anxiety that Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov experienced when thinking about the fate of the peasant woman was also reflected in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Everyone knows that the image of a Russian woman is glorified by the poet in many works. On the fate of Matryona...

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the result of the author’s thoughts about the fate of the country and the people. Who can live well in Rus'? - the poem begins with this question. Its plot, like the plot of folk tales, is structured as a journey of old peasants in search of...

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There are many heroes in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”. Some of them pass by. They are mentioned in passing. For others, the author spared no space and time. They are presented in detail and comprehensively.

The image and characterization of Matryona Korchagina in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is one of these characters. Women's happiness is what the wanderers wanted to find in Matryona.

Biography of the main female character

Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina grew up in a family of simple peasants. When she meets the wanderers, she is only 38 years old, but for some reason she calls herself an "old woman." The life of a peasant woman flies by so quickly. God gave the woman children - she has 5 sons. One (firstborn) died. Why are only sons born? Probably this is the belief in the emergence in Rus' of a new generation of heroes, honest and strong like a mother.

According to Matryona, she I was happy only in my father's family. They took care of her, protected her sleep, and did not force her to work. The girl appreciated the care of her family and responded to them with affection and work. Songs at a wedding, lamentations over the bride and the crying of the girl herself are folklore that conveys the reality of life.

Everything has changed in my husband's family. There was so much suffering that not every woman could bear it. At night, Matryona shed tears, during the day she spread out like grass, her head was lowered, anger was hidden in her heart, but it was accumulating. The woman understands that everyone lives this way. Philip treats Matryona well. But to distinguish good life cruelty is difficult: he whips his wife until she bleeds, goes to work, leaves alone with the children in a hated family. The girl does not require much attention: a silk scarf and sledding bring her back to cheerful singing.

The calling of a Russian peasant woman is to raise children.. She becomes a real heroine, courageous and strong. Grief follows closely behind. The first son, Demushka, dies. Grandfather Savely could not save him. The authorities are bullying the mother. They torment the child’s body in front of her eyes, images of horror remain in her memory for the rest of her life. Another son gave a sheep to a hungry wolf. Matryona defended the boy by standing in his place for punishment. A mother's love is strong:

“Who can endure it, it’s mothers!”

Korchagina came to her husband’s defense. The pregnant woman went to the governor with a request not to recruit him as a soldier.

Woman's appearance

Nekrasov describes Matryona with love. He recognizes her beauty and amazing attractiveness. Some features for the modern reader are not characteristic of beauty, but this only confirms how attitudes towards appearance have changed over the centuries:

“Poganous” figure;
“wide” back;
“dense” body;
Kholmogory cow.

Most of the characteristics are a manifestation of the author’s tenderness. Beautiful dark hair with gray hair, large expressive eyes with “richest” lush eyelashes, dark skin. Rosy cheeks and clear eyes. What bright epithets do those around her choose for Matryona:

“written kralechka”;
"pour berry";
“good...pretty”;
"white face"
The woman is neat in her clothes: a white cotton shirt, a short embroidered sundress.

Character of Matryona

The main character trait is hard work. Since childhood, Matryona loves work and does not hide from it. She knows how to stack haystacks, shake flax, and thresh on a barn. The woman has a large household, but she doesn’t complain. She gives all the strength she received from God to her work.

Other features of the Russian beauty:

Frankness: telling the wanderers her fate, she does not embellish or hide anything.

Sincerity: the woman does not cheat, she opens her whole destiny from her youth, shares her experiences and “sinful” deeds.

Love of freedom: The desire to be free and free remains in the soul, but the rules of life change the character and force one to be secretive.

Courage: A woman often has to become a “feisty woman.” She is punished, but “arrogance and insubordination” remain.

Loyalty: the wife is devoted to her husband and strives to be honest and faithful in any situation.

Honesty: Matryona herself leads an honest life and teaches her sons to be like that. She asks them not to steal or cheat.

Woman sincerely believes in God. She prays and consoles herself. It becomes easier for her in conversations with the Mother of God.

Matryona's happiness

Wanderers are sent to Korchagina because of her nickname - the governor's wife. It was rare that someone could go from being a simple peasant woman to becoming famous in the area with such a title. But did the nickname bring true happiness? No. The people praised her as lucky, but this is only one incident in Matryona’s life. Courage and perseverance brought her husband back into the family, and life became easier. The children no longer had to go begging around the villages, but one cannot say that Korchagina is happy. Matryona understands this and tries to explain to the men: among the Russians ordinary women there are no happy people, and there cannot be. God himself denied them this - he lost the keys to joy and will. Its wealth is a lake of tears. The trials were supposed to break the peasant woman, her soul was supposed to become callous. Everything is different in the poem. Matryona does not die either spiritually or physically. She continues to believe that the keys are female happiness there will be. She enjoys every day and evokes the admiration of men. She cannot be considered happy, but no one dares to call her unhappy either. She is a real Russian peasant woman, independent, beautiful and strong.

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 something for everyone warm word. 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 Klinu. However, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, a “stately”, beautiful and stern woman, upon hearing the men’s question about her happiness, “became confused and 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 us pay attention to the huge number of 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 conveyed through a folk song. “Drowsy, dormant, unruly!

“- that’s what they call Matryona in the family, and everyone tries to ask 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 will not think of making her life easier. Moreover, he is almost all free time spends his 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 told and always finds a reason to rejoice at the simplest 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 drabness of 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

The Russian peasant woman became the heroine of many poems and poems by Nekrasov. In her image, Nekrasov showed a person of high moral qualities; he glorifies her perseverance in life’s trials, pride, dignity, care for her family and children. Most complete female image was revealed by Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - this is the image of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina.

The “Peasant Woman” part of the poem is the largest in volume, and it is written in the first person: Matryona Timofeevna herself talks about her fate. Matryona Timofeevna, according to her, was lucky as a girl:

I was lucky in the girls:

We had a good

Non-drinking family.

And a good worker

And the sing-dance huntress

I was young.

Then there was happiness,

And hardly ever again!

There is no unbroken bone,

There is no unstretched vein.

Her story reflected all the everyday hardships of a Russian peasant woman: despotism of family relationships, separation from her husband, eternal humiliation, the suffering of a mother who lost her son, material need: fires, loss of livestock, crop failure. This is how Nekrasov describes the grief of a mother who lost her child:

I was rolling around like a ball

I was curled up like a worm,

She called and woke up Demushka -

Yes, it was too late to call!..

The mind is ready to be clouded by a terrible misfortune. But enormous spiritual strength helps Matryona Timofeevna survive. She sends angry curses to her enemies, the policeman and the doctor, who are tormenting the “white body” of her son: “Villains! Executioners!” Matryona Timofeevna wants to find “their justice, but Savely dissuades her: “God is high, the king is far away... We won’t find the truth.” “Why not, grandfather?” - asks the unfortunate woman. “You are a serf woman!” - and this sounds like a final verdict.

And yet, when a misfortune happens to her second son, she becomes “impudent”: she decisively knocks down the headman of Silantiy, saving Fedotushka from punishment, taking his rod upon herself.

Matryona Timofeevna is ready to withstand any test, inhuman torment, in order to defend her children and husband from everyday troubles. What enormous willpower a woman must have to go alone into the frosty winter night tens of miles to the provincial town in search of the truth. Her love for her husband is boundless, having withstood such a severe test. The governor's wife, amazed by her selfless act, showed “great mercy”:

They sent a messenger to Klin,

The whole truth has been revealed -

Philippushka was saved.

The sense of self-esteem that Matryona Timofeevna developed in her girlhood helps her move majestically through life. This feeling protects her from the arrogant claims of Sitnikov, who seeks to make her his mistress. Anger against her enslavers gathers like a cloud in her soul; she herself speaks about her angry heart to the truth-seekers.

However, these trials cannot break her spirit; she retained her human dignity. True, Matryona Timofeevna also had to come to terms with the force of circumstances created by the social structure of that time, when the “daughter-in-law in the house” was “the last, the last slave,” “intimidated,” “abused.” But she doesn't take things like that for granted. family relationships who humiliate her, demand unquestioning obedience and submission:

I walked with anger in my heart,
And I didn’t say too much
A word to no one.

The image of Matryona Timofeevna is presented in the poem in dynamics, in development. So, for example, in the story with Demushka, at first, in a fit of despair, she is ready to endure everything:

And then I submitted
I bowed at my feet...

But then the inexorability of the “unjust judges”, their cruelty gives rise to a feeling of protest in her soul:

They have no darling in their chests,
They have no conscience in their eyes,
There is no cross on the neck!

The character of the heroine is tempered precisely in these difficult trials. This is a woman of great intelligence and heart, selfless, strong-willed, decisive.

The chapter “Peasant Woman” is almost entirely built on folk poetic images and motifs. Folklore genres are widely used in the characterization of Matryona Timofeevna: songs, laments, lamentations. With their help, the emotional impression is enhanced, they help express pain and melancholy, and show more clearly how bitter Matryona Timofeevna’s life is.

A number of folklore features are observed in her speech: repetitions (“crawls”, “they make noise and run”, “the tree burns and groans, the chicks burn and groan”), constant epithets (“violent head”, “white light”, “fierce grief” ), synonymous expressions, words (“fertilized, groomed”, “how she yapped, how she roared”). When constructing sentences, he often uses exclamatory forms and addresses (“Oh, mother, where are you?”, “Oh, poor young woman!”, “The daughter-in-law is the last in the house, the last slave!”). In her speech there are many sayings and proverbs: “Don’t spit on a hot iron - it will hiss”, “A workhorse eats straw, but an empty dancer eats oats”; often uses diminutive words: “mother”, “pale”, “pebble”.

These features make Matryona Timofeevna’s speech uniquely individual, giving it a special liveliness, specificity, and emotionality. At the same time, the abundance of sayings, songs, and laments testifies to the creative nature of her soul, the wealth and strength of feeling. This is the image of a peasant woman who is not only strong in spirit, but also gifted and talented.

Matryona Timofeevna's story about her life is also a story about the fate of any peasant woman, a long-suffering Russian woman. And the part itself is not named after Matryona Timofeevna, but simply “Peasant Woman”. This emphasizes that the fate of Matryona Timofeevna is not at all an exception to the rule, but the fate of millions of similar Russian peasant women. The parable about “the keys to women’s happiness” also speaks about this. And Matryona Timofeevna concludes her thoughts with a bitter conclusion, addressing the wanderers: “You have not started a business - to look for a happy woman among the women!”

Explores various layers of Russian society: peasants, landowners, clergy. The fate of the Russian peasant woman becomes a special topic, because she turns out to be even more difficult than the fate of the other peasants. “It’s not a matter between women / To look for a happy one,” Matryona Timofeevna, the head of “Peasant Woman,” directly answers the wanderers who turned to her. But a peasant woman, enslaved by both serfdom and the despotism of her husband’s family, worries Nekrasov more.

This type was most fully revealed by Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” in the image of Matryona Korchagina. The bitter lot of a peasant woman, eternally humiliated by poverty, working too hard and not seeing, evokes deep sympathy in the poet’s soul, but at the same time, he notes in her character human dignity, pride, and unshakable moral purity. The image of Matryona Timofeevna is presented in the poem in dynamics, in development.

The heroine had a happy, carefree early life, and from the age of five she began to be introduced to feasible work: “she took her father to breakfast, she tended ducklings,” “raked hay,” etc. Moreover, she got caught good husband. Matryona did not have to, like many other peasant women, live with a “hateful” person and endure beatings. Matryona and her husband lived in love and harmony. It was this harmony in the family that helped the heroine endure troubles and misfortunes. Philip was a stove maker and constantly went to work in St. Petersburg. Matryona had a hard time with the constant separations. She had to adapt to life in someone else's family. young beautiful woman in the absence of a husband-intercessor, he was pursued by the master's steward. The heroine did not find support from any of her relatives, except for her hundred-year-old grandfather Savely.

The character of Matryona Timofeevna is tempered precisely in difficult trials. This is an intelligent, selfless, strong-willed, decisive woman. This is the image of a peasant woman who is not only strong in spirit, but also gifted and talented. Matryona about her life is a story about the fate of any peasant woman, a long-suffering Russian woman. The chapter itself is not named after her, but “Peasant Woman”. This emphasizes that Matryona’s fate is not an exception to the rule, but a typical fate of millions of Russian peasant women. The best spiritual qualities - willpower, the ability to love, loyalty - make Matryona similar to the heroines of the poem “Russian Women”. Matryona Timofeevna's long story about her (still quite prosperous and extremely lucky!) fate is both an ode to the beauty of the soul of a Russian peasant woman and an indictment of those who doomed her to terrible torment.

Like Yermil Girin, Matryona is known throughout the area. But in the poem she talks about her life herself, and only seven wanderers listen to her. The veracity of the story is emphasized by the request of the wanderers: “Give us your soul!” And the heroine of the chapter herself promises: “I won’t hide anything.”

Matryona Timofeevna’s extraordinary creative talent allows her not only to store folklore in her memory, but also to update it. The story is replete with elements of folklore works dedicated to the bitter lot of a woman: songs, proverbs, sayings, laments, lamentations.

Songs play a special role in describing the life of a Russian woman (it is no coincidence that the second chapter of this part of the poem is called “Songs”). Nekrasov depicts the life of a peasant woman in its entirety, from childhood to the moment when she meets the seekers of a happy man. There are several moments in Matryona Timofeevna’s life when those feelings that could lead her to decisive action are about to spill out. The first time is when, contrary to her pleas, the doctors begin an autopsy of Demushka’s body. But the police officer then orders the mother to be tied up. The second is when the headman decides to punish her son Fedotushka, who took pity on the hungry she-wolf.

The master decides to forgive the child, but punish the “impudent woman” herself. And Nekrasov shows a very important trait strong-willed character heroine: she lies down proudly. under the rod, without stooping to ask for forgiveness, he endures the pain and shame of public punishment. And only the next day she cried out her grief over the river. The only time when Matryona Timofeevna decides to fight for her happiness is when her husband is taken into the army. She turns with a frantic prayer to the Mother of God, and this prayer apparently gives her strength: Matryona Timofeevna finds the courage to turn to the governor’s wife, who not only helps the peasant woman, but also becomes the godmother of her child. After this incident, Matryona begins to be called happy. This, it turns out, is the happiness of a peasant woman: not becoming a soldier, finding the strength to remain silent and endure and raise children.

The keys to female happiness, - From our free will, Abandoned, lost... - this is the sad result of Matryona Timofeevna’s conversation with seven wanderers. Outward appearance, warmth, intelligence, and the fame of a lucky woman make it possible to talk about Matryona Timofeevna as a unique, exceptional person.

By depicting the fate of Matryona Timofeevna, the author makes deep generalizations: Russian women live in constant work, the joys and sorrows of motherhood, in the struggle for family, for home. The theme of women's lot in the poem merges with the theme of the homeland. The female characters of Nekrasov's heroines speak of the strength, purity and incorruptibility of the common people. The inhuman living conditions against which these images emerge indicate an urgent need for changes in the order, style and way of life in the villages and cities of old-regime Russia.

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