The images of the peasants in the poem “To whom in Russia it is good to live. Composition “Images of peasants in Nekrasov’s poem “Who should live well in Russia

I. Images of peasants and peasant women in lyrics.
2. Heroes of the poem "To whom in Russia it is good to live."
3. Collective image of the Russian people.

Peasant Russia, the bitter fate of the people, as well as the strength and nobility of the Russian people, their age-old habit of work is one of the main themes in the work of N. A. Nekrasov. In the poems “On the road, “Schoolboy”, “Troika”, “ Railway”,“ The Forgotten Village ”and many others, images of peasants and peasant women appear before us, created by the author with great sympathy and admiration.

He is struck by the beauty of a young peasant girl, the heroine of the poem "Troika", who runs after a troika flying by. But admiration is replaced by reflections on her future bitterness. female lobe, which will quickly destroy this beauty. The heroine is waiting for a bleak life, beatings of her husband, eternal reproaches of her mother-in-law and hard daily work that leaves no room for dreams and aspirations. Even more tragic is the fate of Pear from the poem "On the Road". Brought up at the whim of the master as a young lady, she was married off as a peasant and returned "to the village." But torn from her environment and not accustomed to hard peasant labor, touched by culture, she can no longer return to her former life. There is almost no description of her husband, a coachman, in the poem. But the sympathy with which he tells about the fate of the “villainous wife”, understanding the tragedy of her situation, tells us a lot about himself, his kindness and nobility. In his failed family life he blames not so much his wife as the "masters" who ruined her in vain.

The poet depicts the peasants who once came to the front entrance no less expressively. Their description occupies only one-sixth of the work and is given outwardly sparingly: bent backs, a thin Armenian coat, tanned faces and hands, a cross on the neck and blood on the legs, shod in homemade bast shoes. Apparently, their path to the front entrance was not close, where they were never allowed in, without accepting the meager contribution that they could offer. But if all other visitors, "besiegers" front door on weekdays and holidays are portrayed by the poet with a greater or lesser degree of irony, then he writes about peasants with frank sympathy and respectfully calls them Russian people.

The moral beauty, stamina, courage of the Russian people is sung by Nekrasov in the poem "Frost, Red Nose". The author emphasizes bright personality their heroes: their parents, who suffered a terrible grief - the death of their son-breadwinner, Proclus himself - a mighty hero-worker with large calloused hands. Many generations of readers admired the image of Daria - the "stately Slav", beautiful in all clothes and dexterous in any work. This is a true hymn of the poet to the Russian peasant woman, who is accustomed to earning prosperity with her work, who knows how to work and relax.

The peasants are the main actors and in the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia." Seven "state men from the temporarily liable", as they call themselves, from villages with speaking names(Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neyolovo, Neuro-zhayka), they are trying to solve a difficult question: “who lives freely and cheerfully in Russia?”. Each of them imagines happiness in his own way and calls different people happy: a landowner, a priest, a tsarist minister and the sovereign himself. They are a generalized image of a peasant - stubborn, patient, sometimes quick-tempered, but also ready to stand up for the truth and his convictions. Wanderers are not the only representatives of the people in the poem. We see there many other male and female images. At the fair, the peasants meet Vavila, "who sells goat's shoes to his granddaughter." Leaving for the fair, he promised everyone gifts, but "drunk himself to a penny." Vavila is ready to patiently endure the reproaches of his family, but is tormented by the fact that he will not be able to bring the promised gift to his granddaughter. This man, for whom only a tavern is a joy in a difficult hopeless life, causes the author not condemnation, but rather compassion. Sympathize with the man and those around him. And everyone is ready to help him with bread or work, and only master Pavlusha Veretennikov could help with money. And when he rescued Vavila and bought shoes for him, everyone around was happy as if he gave everyone a ruble. This ability of a Russian person to sincerely rejoice for another adds another important feature in collective image peasant.

The same breadth of the soul of the people is emphasized by the author in the story about Yermila Ilyich, from whom the rich merchant Altynnikov decided to take away the mill. When it was necessary to make a deposit, Yermil turned to the people with a request to help him out. And the hero collected the necessary amount, and exactly a week later he honestly repaid the debt to everyone, and everyone honestly took only as much as they gave, and even an extra ruble remained, which Yermil gave to the blind. It is no coincidence that the peasants unanimously elect him as headman. And he judges everyone honestly, punishes the guilty and does not offend the right and does not take a single extra penny for himself. Only once Yermil, saying modern language, took advantage of his position and tried to save his brother from recruitment by sending another young man instead. But his conscience tormented him, and before the whole world he confessed his untruth and left his post. bright representative folk character steadfast, honest, ironic is also grandfather Savely. A hero with a huge mane, similar to a bear. Matryona Timofeevna tells the wanderers about him, whom the wanderers also ask about happiness. The native son calls grandfather Saveliy “branded, convict”, the family does not like him. Matryona, who has suffered many insults in her husband's family, finds consolation in him. He tells her about the times when there was neither a landowner nor a steward over them, they did not know corvee and did not pay dues. Since there were no roads in their places, except for animal paths. Such a free life continued until “through dense forests and marshy swamps” a German master sent them to them. This German tricked the peasants into making a road and began to rule in a new way, ruining the peasants. They endured for the time being, and once, unable to stand it, they pushed the German into a pit and buried him alive. From the hardships of prison and hard labor that fell on him, Savely became rough and hardened, and only the appearance of the baby Demushka in the family brought him back to life. The hero learned to enjoy life again. It is he who has the hardest time coping with the death of this baby. He did not reproach himself for the murder of the German, but for the death of this baby, for whom he overlooked, he reproaches so that he cannot live among people and goes into the forest.

All the characters depicted by Nekrasov from the people create a single collective image of a hardworking peasant, strong, persistent, long-suffering, full of inner nobility and kindness, ready to help those who need it in difficult times. And although this peasant's life in Russia is not sweet, the poet believes in his great future.

I. Images of peasants and peasant women in lyrics.
2. Heroes of the poem "To whom in Russia it is good to live."
3. Collective image of the Russian people.

Peasant Russia, the bitter fate of the people, as well as the strength and nobility of the Russian people, their age-old habit of work is one of the main themes in the work of N. A. Nekrasov. In the poems “On the road, “Schoolboy”, “Troika”, “Railway”, “Forgotten Village” and many others, images of peasants and peasant women appear before us, created by the author with great sympathy and admiration.

He is struck by the beauty of a young peasant girl, the heroine of the poem "Troika", who runs after a troika flying by. But admiration is replaced by thoughts about her future bitter female fate, which will quickly destroy this beauty. The heroine is waiting for a joyless life, beatings of her husband, eternal reproaches of her mother-in-law and hard daily work that leaves no room for dreams and aspirations. Even more tragic is the fate of Pear from the poem "On the Road". Brought up at the whim of the master as a young lady, she was married off as a peasant and returned "to the village." But torn from her environment and not accustomed to hard peasant labor, having touched culture, she can no longer return to her former life. There is almost no description of her husband, the coachman, in the poem. But the sympathy with which he tells about the fate of the “villainous wife”, understanding the tragedy of her situation, tells us a lot about himself, his kindness and nobility. In his failed family life, he blames not so much his wife as the "masters" who ruined her in vain.

The poet depicts the peasants who once came to the front entrance no less expressively. Their description occupies only one-sixth of the work and is given outwardly sparingly: bent backs, a thin Armenian coat, tanned faces and hands, a cross on the neck and blood on the legs, shod in homemade bast shoes. Apparently, their path to the front entrance was not close, where they were never allowed in, without accepting the meager contribution that they could offer. But if all the other visitors who “besiege” the front entrance on weekdays and holidays are portrayed by the poet with a greater or lesser degree of irony, then he writes about the peasants with frank sympathy and respectfully calls them Russian people.

The moral beauty, stamina, courage of the Russian people is sung by Nekrasov in the poem "Frost, Red Nose". The author emphasizes the bright individuality of his heroes: parents who suffered a terrible grief - the death of their son-breadwinner, Proclus himself - a mighty hero-worker with large calloused hands. Many generations of readers admired the image of Daria - the "stately Slav", beautiful in all clothes and dexterous in any work. This is a true hymn of the poet to the Russian peasant woman, who is accustomed to earning prosperity with her work, who knows how to work and relax.

It is the peasants who are the main characters in the poem "To whom in Russia it is good to live." Seven “powerful men from the temporarily liable,” as they call themselves, from villages with telling names (Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neyolovo, Neuro-zhayka), are trying to solve a difficult question: “who lives freely and cheerfully in Russia? ". Each of them imagines happiness in his own way and calls different people happy: a landowner, a priest, a tsarist minister and the sovereign himself. They are a generalized image of a peasant - stubborn, patient, sometimes quick-tempered, but also ready to stand up for the truth and his convictions. Wanderers are not the only representatives of the people in the poem. We see many other male and female images there. At the fair, the peasants meet Vavila, "who sells goat's shoes to his granddaughter." Leaving for the fair, he promised everyone gifts, but "drunk himself to a penny." Vavila is ready to patiently endure the reproaches of his family, but is tormented by the fact that he will not be able to bring the promised gift to his granddaughter. This man, for whom only a tavern is a joy in a difficult hopeless life, does not cause condemnation in the author, but rather compassion. Sympathize with the man and those around him. And everyone is ready to help him with bread or work, and only master Pavlusha Veretennikov could help with money. And when he rescued Vavila and bought shoes for him, everyone around was happy as if he gave everyone a ruble. This ability of a Russian person to sincerely rejoice for another adds another important feature to the collective image of a peasant.

The same breadth of the soul of the people is emphasized by the author in the story about Yermila Ilyich, from whom the rich merchant Altynnikov decided to take away the mill. When it was necessary to make a deposit, Yermil turned to the people with a request to help him out. And the hero collected the necessary amount, and exactly a week later he honestly repaid the debt to everyone, and everyone honestly took only as much as they gave, and even an extra ruble remained, which Yermil gave to the blind. It is no coincidence that the peasants unanimously elect him as headman. And he judges everyone honestly, punishes the guilty and does not offend the right and does not take a single extra penny for himself. Only once Yermil, speaking in modern terms, took advantage of his position and tried to save his brother from recruitment by sending another young man instead. But his conscience tormented him, and before the whole world he confessed his untruth and left his post. Grandfather Saveliy is also a bright representative of the staunch, honest, ironic folk character. A hero with a huge mane, similar to a bear. Matryona Timofeevna tells the wanderers about him, whom the wanderers also ask about happiness. The native son calls grandfather Saveliy “branded, convict”, the family does not like him. Matryona, who has suffered many insults in her husband's family, finds consolation in him. He tells her about the times when there was neither a landowner nor a steward over them, they did not know corvee and did not pay dues. Since there were no roads in their places, except for animal paths. Such a free life continued until “through dense forests and marshy swamps” a German master sent them to them. This German tricked the peasants into making a road and began to rule in a new way, ruining the peasants. They endured for the time being, and once, unable to stand it, they pushed the German into a pit and buried him alive. From the hardships of prison and hard labor that fell on him, Savely became rough and hardened, and only the appearance of the baby Demushka in the family brought him back to life. The hero learned to enjoy life again. It is he who has the hardest time coping with the death of this baby. He did not reproach himself for the murder of the German, but for the death of this baby, for whom he overlooked, he reproaches so that he cannot live among people and goes into the forest.

All the characters depicted by Nekrasov from the people create a single collective image of a hardworking peasant, strong, persistent, long-suffering, full of inner nobility and kindness, ready to help those who need it in difficult times. And although this peasant's life in Russia is not sweet, the poet believes in his great future.

The great Russian poet N.A. Nekrasov was born and raised in the countryside, among endless meadows and fields. As a boy, he liked to run away from home to his village friends. Here he met with ordinary working people. Later, becoming a poet, he created a number of truthful works about ordinary poor people, their way of life, speech, and Russian nature.

About them social position even the names of the villages speak: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Neyolovo, Neurozhayko and others. The priest who met him also spoke about their plight: “The peasant himself needs, and he would be glad to give, but there is nothing ...”.

On the one hand, the weather fails: either it rains constantly, or the sun scorches mercilessly, burning the crop. On the other hand, most of the harvest has to be paid in the form of taxes:

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king and lord

The peasants at Nekrasov are great workers:

Not white women are tender,

And we are great people

At work and in the party!

One of these representatives is Yakim Nagoi:

He works to death

Drink half to death!

Yes, and he himself is all like mother earth: a brick face, a wooden hand, hair - sand. So withered his hard peasant work.

Another representative of the "great people" - Ermila Girin is shown as an honest, fair, conscientious man. He is respected among the peasants. The fact that when Yermila turned to the people for help, everyone chipped in and helped out Girin speaks of the great confidence in him of his compatriots. He, in turn, returned everything to the penny. And he gave the remaining unclaimed ruble to the blind man.

While in the service, he tried to help everyone and did not take a penny for it: "It is necessary to have a bad conscience - to soak a penny from a peasant."

Once having stumbled and sent another recruit instead of his brother, Jirin suffers mentally to the point that he is ready to take his own life.

In general, the image of Girin is tragic. Wanderers learn that he is in prison for helping a rebellious village.

Equally bleak is the fate of the peasant woman. In the image of Matrena Timofeevna, the author shows the stamina and endurance of a Russian woman.

The fate of Matrena includes hard work, on a par with men, and family relationships, and the death of her first child. But she bears all the blows of fate without a murmur. And when it comes to her loved ones, she stands up for them. It turns out that among women there are no happy ones:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

Abandoned, lost, with God himself!

Supports Matryona Timofeevna only Savely. This is an old man who was once a holy Russian hero, but who spent his strength on hard work and hard labor:

Where are you, power, gone?

What were you good for?

Under rods, under sticks

Gone little by little!

Savely has weakened physically, but his faith in a better future is alive. He constantly repeats: “Branded, but not a slave!”

It turns out that Savely was sent to hard labor for burying alive the German Vogel, who was disgusted with the peasants by mercilessly mocking them and oppressing them.

Nekrasov calls Savely "a hero of the Holy Russian":

And it bends, but does not break,

Doesn't break, doesn't fall...

At Prince Peremetyev's

I was a favorite slave.

Prince Utyatin's footman Ipat admires his master.

About these peasant slaves, Nekrasov says this:

People of the servile rank

Real dogs sometimes.

The more severe the punishment

So dear to them, gentlemen.

In fact, the psychology of slavery has so ingrained itself into their souls that it has completely killed their human dignity.

Thus, the peasants of Nekrasov are heterogeneous, like any society of people. But for the most part they are honest, hardworking, striving for freedom, and therefore, fortunately, representatives of the peasantry.

It is no coincidence that the poem ends with a song about Russia, in which one can hear the hope for the enlightenment of the Russian people:

The army rises innumerable,

N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” was created over a period of more than ten years (1863-1876). The main problem that interested the poet was the position of the Russian peasant under serfdom and after “liberation”. About the essence of the royal manifesto, N. A. Nekrasov speaks in the words of the people: “You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us.” Paintings folk life written with epic breadth, and this gives the right to call the poem an encyclopedia of Russian life of that time.

Drawing numerous images of peasants, various characters, the author divides the heroes, as it were, into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we get acquainted with the peasants-truth-seekers. They live in villages with characteristic names: v Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. The purpose of their journey is to find happy person in Russia. Traveling, peasants meet with different people. After listening to a story about his “happiness”, having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants say:

You are past them, the landowners!

We know them!

Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the "noble" word, they need the "Christian word":

Give me a Christian word!

Noble with a scolding,

With a push and with a poke,

That is unsuitable for us.

Truth seekers are hardworking, always striving to help others. Hearing from a peasant woman that there are not enough working hands to remove the bread in time, the peasants offer:

And what are we, godfather?

Come on sickles! All seven

How will we become tomorrow - by evening

We will harvest all your rye!

Just as willingly, they help the peasants of the Illiterate province mow the grass.

Most fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not reproach their masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position.

Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain.

The chest is sunken; like a depressed

Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth

Bends like cracks

On dry land...

Reading the description of the appearance of a peasant, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece of land, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him:

You work alone

And a little work is over,

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king and lord!

All my long life Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, “like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland.” But still, he finds the strength in himself to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his house with pictures, loves a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in a latrine trade. And his voice is the voice of the most advanced peasants: . Every peasant has

Soul that black cloud -

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there,

Pour bloody rain...

FROM the poet has great sympathy for his hero Yermil Girin, the village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants,

At seven years of a worldly penny

Didn't squeeze under the nail

At the age of seven, he did not touch the right one,

Didn't let the guilty

I didn't bend my heart...

Only once did Yermil act out of conscience, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought by "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness."

The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, show exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not being afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants when "the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled." Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests.

next and most vivid image in this row is Saveliy, the hero of the Holy Russian, a fighter for the cause of the people. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel bullying from the landowner Shalashnikov and his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the German Vogel alive in the ground. "Twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, he retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he says about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger:

...Our axes

They lay - for the time being!

He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "dead ... lost."

Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom.

This image is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters. Matrena Timofeevna goes through many trials. She lived freely and cheerfully in her parents' house, and after marriage she had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of her husband's relatives, in the fights of her husband. She found joy only in work and in children. She had a hard time with the death of her son Demushka, a year of hunger, and begging. But in difficult times, she showed firmness and perseverance: she fussed about the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, she even went to the governor himself. She stood up for Fedotushka when they wanted to punish him with rods. Recalcitrant, resolute, she is always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely. Having told wanderers about her hard life, she says that “it’s not de-lo to look for a happy woman among women.” In a chapter entitled "A Woman's Parable", a Yankee peasant speaks of the female lot:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

Abandonedlost

God himself.

But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobroskponov's songs:

You are still in the family as long as a slave,

But the mother is already a free son!

Nekrasov, with a special feeling, created images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors was expressed. However, the poet could not help but turn to dark sides peasant life. The poem depicts peasants who have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter "Happy", the truth-seekers meet with a courtyard man who considers himself happy because he was Prince Peremetiev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his daughter, along with the young lady, “learned both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the baseness of his lackey position. The courtyard of Prince Utyatin, Ipat, did not even believe that the “freedom” was declared to the peasants:

And I am the Utyatin princes

Serf - and the whole tight tale!

From childhood to old age, the master in every possible way mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: ... redeemed

Me, the last slave,

In the winter in the hole!

Yes, how wonderful!

Two holes:

In one he will lower in the net,

In another moment it will pull out -

And bring vodka.

Ipat could not forget the master's "favors": the fact that after swimming in the hole the prince "brings vodka", he will plant him "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."

A submissive slave is also "an exemplary slave - faithful Jacob." He served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... seemed to blow with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and pleased the master until his very old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “fooled”: first he “drank the dead”, and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.

With indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors people's cause, as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain."

To characterize the yard peasants, deprived of a sense of their own dignity, the poet finds contemptuous words: slave, serf, dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization:

People of the servile rank -

Real dogs sometimes:

The more severe the punishment

So dear to them, gentlemen.

By creating different types peasants, Ne-krasov claims: there are no happy ones among them, the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and deprived of shelter, only the forms of oppression have changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest. And therefore the poet believes that a good life will come in Russia in the future:

More Russian people

No limits set:

Before him is a wide path.

Introduction

Starting work on the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Nekrasov dreamed of creating a large-scale work that would reflect all the knowledge about the peasants he had accumulated over his life. FROM early childhood before the eyes of the poet passed "the spectacle of the disasters of the people", and the first childhood impressions prompted him to further study the way of life. peasant life. Hard work, human grief, and at the same time - the enormous spiritual strength of the people - all this was noticed by Nekrasov's attentive gaze. And it is precisely because of this that in the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, the images of the peasants look so reliable, as if the poet personally knew his heroes. It is logical that the poem, in which the main character is the people, has a large number of peasant images, but it is worth looking at them more closely - and we will be struck by the diversity and liveliness of these characters.

The image of the main characters-wanderers

The first peasants the reader meets are the truth-seekers who argued about who lives well in Russia. For the poem, it is not so much their individual images that are important, but the whole idea that they express - without them, the plot of the work would simply fall apart. And, nevertheless, Nekrasov endows each of them with a name, a native village (the names of the villages are already eloquent in themselves: Gorelovo, Zaplatovo ...) and certain traits of character and appearance: Luka is an inveterate debater, Pahom is an old man. And the views of the peasants, despite the integrity of their image, are different, each does not deviate from his views until the fight. On the whole, the image of these peasants is a group image, and therefore the most basic features, characteristic of almost any peasant, stand out in it. This is extreme poverty, stubbornness and curiosity, the desire to find the truth. Note that describing the peasants dear to his heart, Nekrasov still does not embellish their images. He also shows vices, mainly general drunkenness.

The peasant theme in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” is not the only one - during their journey, the peasants will meet both the landowner and the priest, they will hear about the life of different classes - merchants, nobles, clergy. But all other images in one way or another serve to more fully reveal the main theme of the poem: the life of peasants in Russia immediately after the reform.

Several mass scenes are introduced into the poem - a fair, a feast, a road along which many people are walking. Here Nekrasov portrays the peasantry as a single entity that thinks the same way, speaks unanimously and even sighs at the same time. But at the same time, the images of the peasants depicted in the work can be divided into two large groups: honest working people who value their freedom and peasant slaves. In the first group, Yakim Nagoi, Ermil Girin, Trofim and Agap are especially distinguished.

Positive images of peasants

Yakim Nagoi - typical representative the poorest peasantry, and himself similar to "mother earth", to "a layer cut off by a plow".

All his life he works "to death", but at the same time remains a beggar. His sad story: he once lived in St. Petersburg, but started a lawsuit with a merchant, ended up in prison because of her and returned from there "like a peeled Velcro" - nothing surprises listeners. There were many such destinies in Russia at that time ... Despite hard work, Yakim has enough strength to stand up for his compatriots: yes, there are many drunken men, but there are more sober ones, they are all great people "in work and in revelry." Love for the truth, for honest work, the dream of transforming life (“there should be thunder”) - these are the main components of the image of Yakim.

Trofim and Agap complement Yakim in some way, each of them has one main character trait. In the image of Trofim, Nekrasov shows the infinite strength and patience of the Russian people - Trofim once demolished fourteen pounds, and then returned home barely alive. Agap is a lover of truth. He is the only one who refuses to participate in the performance for Prince Utyatin: “The possession of peasant souls is over!”. When they force him, he dies in the morning: it is easier for a peasant to die than to bend back under the yoke of serfdom.

Ermil Girin is endowed by the author with intelligence and incorruptible honesty, for which he is chosen as burgomaster. He "didn't twist his soul," but once having strayed from the right way, could not live not in truth, before the whole world brought repentance. But honesty and love for their compatriots do not bring happiness to the peasants: the image of Yermila is tragic. At the time of the story, he is sitting in prison: this is how his help to the rebellious village turned out.

Images of Matryona and Savely

The life of the peasants in Nekrasov's poem would not have been fully depicted without the image of a Russian woman. To reveal the "women's share", which "woe is not life!" the author chose the image of Matrena Timofeevna. “Beautiful, strict and swarthy,” she tells in detail the story of her life, in which she was happy only then, how she lived with her parents in the “girls hall”. After that, hard work began, along with men, work, nit-picking relatives, and the death of the firstborn mangled the fate. Under this story, Nekrasov singled out a whole part in the poem, nine chapters - much more than the stories of the rest of the peasants occupy. This well conveys his special attitude, love for a Russian woman. Matryona impresses with her strength and stamina. She bears all the blows of fate without a murmur, but at the same time she knows how to stand up for her loved ones: she lies down under the rod instead of her son and saves her husband from the soldiers. The image of Matryona in the poem merges with the image folk soul- long-suffering and long-suffering, which is why the speech of a woman is so rich in songs. These songs are often the only way to pour out your longing...

Another curious image adjoins the image of Matrena Timofeevna - the image of the Russian hero, Savely. Living out his life in the family of Matrona (“he lived a hundred and seven years”), Savely thinks more than once: “Where are you, strength, gone? What were you good for?" The strength was all gone under rods and sticks, wasted during overwork on the German and wasted away in hard labor. In the image of Saveliy is shown tragic fate Russian peasantry, heroes by nature, leading a life completely unsuitable for them. Despite all the hardships of life, Savely did not become embittered, he is wise and affectionate with the disenfranchised (the only one in the family protects Matryona). Shown in his image is the deep religiosity of the Russian people, who were looking for help in faith.

The image of the peasant-serfs

Another type of peasants depicted in the poem are serfs. The years of serfdom have crippled the souls of some people who are accustomed to crawling and can no longer imagine their lives without the power of the landowner over themselves. Nekrasov shows this on the examples of the images of the serfs Ipat and Yakov, as well as the headman Klim. Jacob is the image of a faithful serf. He spent his whole life fulfilling the whims of his master: “Jakov had only joy: / To groom, protect, appease the master.” However, one cannot live with the master “ladok” - as a reward for the exemplary service of Yakov, the master gives his nephew as a recruit. It was then that Jacob's eyes were opened, and he decided to take revenge on his offender. Klim becomes the boss thanks to the grace of Prince Utyatin. A bad owner and a lazy worker, he, singled out by a master, flourishes from a sense of self-importance: “Proud pig: scratched / O master's porch!”. Using the example of the headman, Klima Nekrasov shows how terrible yesterday's serf who got into the bosses is one of the most disgusting human types. But it is difficult to lead an honest peasant heart - and in the village Klim is sincerely despised, not afraid.

So from various images peasants “To whom it is good to live in Russia” a complete picture of the people as a huge force is emerging, which is already beginning to gradually rise up and realize its power.

Artwork test