The tragic fate of a talented person in the tale is left-handed. The tragic fate of a talented person in the tale “Lefty”

The highest attention to Lefty is ostentatious. He was “washed” in the “national” baths, cut his hair, dressed in a ceremonial caftan taken from a court singer, and taken to London. However, he travels the whole way “without eating,” supporting himself only with Platov’s sour milk. Having publicly kissed Lefty, the sovereign did nothing to protect him from new “surprises.”

The description of the amazing work of Tula masters, which simultaneously elevates them above their overseas rivals and reveals their weakness, reflects Leskov’s alarming thought about Russian backwardness, ignorance, which fetters the great strengths and capabilities of the people, dooming them to a series of defeats and setbacks .

Leskov is far from overestimating the people's capabilities. The result of the inspired work of the Tula masters is fraught with an “insidious” duality: they really manage to create a miracle - to shoe a “nymphosoria”, but a flea savvy “by eye” can no longer “dance.”

“Nymphosoria... does not dance a dance and does not throw out any beliefs, as before.”

Artist N. Kuzmin

The Russian masters, who showed amazing audacity of imagination, did not know “calculation of strength,” and Lefty has to agree with this.

How did the British react to Lefty?

A. TyurinLefty among the English

In contrast to their compatriots, the British show touching, truly human concern for all the “little things” that ensure the well-being of Lefty’s journey.

Russians do not see Lefty as a person worthy of respect; The British are attentive and helpful because they know how to appreciate talented people.
The development of the main intrigue has long been completed, the results of the competition between the talents of the two nations have already been determined, but the writer is still interested not only in the result of this competition - who will win? - but also something else: the position of a talented person in Russia, his personal fate, the extent of the life opportunities allotted to him for the realization of his natural talent.

N. S. Leskov wrote many works about the people. This is one of the first Russian writers to describe a simple Russian peasant with all his characteristic individual traits. At first, contemporaries did not appreciate Leskov’s work, since it seemed incomprehensible to them, but over time, the writer’s contribution to the field of literature became obvious. He worked in different genres, but the tale “Lefty” belongs to the epic genre, in which all the events that take place are closely intertwined with real life.

The hero of the story is a simple, unremarkable worker from Tula, who is entrusted with a very important government order. Outwardly, he does not stand out in any way, except for a birthmark on his cheek and bald patches on his head, formed during hard training. His clothes are careless and poor. However, Lefty has a broad soul and golden hands. He sincerely loves his country, his native land and, having got to foreigners, does not hide his patriotism. In this he is similar to the Don ataman Count Platov, who, upon seeing a European dancing flea, immediately determined that Russian craftsmen could create a more complex mechanism.

At the insistence of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, Platov was sent to Tula in search of the best masters. It was then that he met Lefty, whose skill was legendary. In this tale, much may seem fabulous and at the same time comical, but, of course, much of it is presented as real. Also, the ambiguity of the author’s assessment of the characters is felt. After completing the government order, Lefty becomes a real folk hero. Now the dancing flea, which was once brought from Europe, has been savvy on all legs thanks to his efforts. The sovereign was simply delighted with such an unexpected gift.

It was decided to send the master with his work to England. Since then, Lefty has had a difficult life. He turned from a simple, useless and inconspicuous worker into a person about whom newspapers wrote and to whom everyone's attention was riveted. In England, everyone liked the master. They even tried in every possible way to persuade him to stay there and even looked for a bride. But the proud artisan said that he was better off at home, and that the Russian faith was the most truthful. With longing, he looked at his shores from the deck of the ship and knew that he could not become one of his own in a foreign land.

In the tale, the true arbiters of events aimed at exalting the glory of Russia are Lefty and his comrades - those Tula masters to whose art they entrust the English wonder. It is they who demonstrate by their behavior true dignity, calm firmness of spirit, and a full consciousness of national responsibility. Thinking over the current situation, they judge it, not allowing any overlap of assessments in one direction or another: “... the English nation is also not stupid, but rather cunning, and art in it has a lot of meaning. “We must take on it, they say, after thinking and with God’s blessing.” Such behavior, free from empty vanity, contrasts especially sharply with the pettiness of the motives of the Russian tsars.

This plot twist expresses the writer’s favorite idea about “little great people” who, standing aloof from historical events, decide the historical destinies of the country. “These are straightforward and reliable people,” Leskov will speak of them with respect and warmth in his later story “The Man on the Clock,” coming closer to L. Tolstoy in his assessment of the democratic masses.

However, this highly respectful attitude of the writer towards the Tula masters does not at all exclude gentle irony towards them in the tale. Leskov is far from idealizing the people's capabilities here; he soberly assesses them. The writer took into account the role of socio-historical circumstances that limit the creative powers of the people, imposing on many Russian inventions the stamp of buffoonish eccentricity or practical incongruity.

From this point of view, for understanding the general meaning of the tale, it is fundamentally important” that the very result of the “relentless”, selfless and inspired work of the Tula masters is fraught with an “insidious” duality of impression: they really manage to create a miracle - to forge a “nymphosoria”. And yet their superiority is not absolute. An eye-savvy flea can no longer “dance.” The “improved” English wonder turns out to be hopelessly broken at the same time.

In the development of the plot, this unfortunate moment for the prestige of Russian invention receives its specific explanation, which is important for understanding the general idea of ​​the tale. As the English rightly judge, the Russian masters, who showed amazing audacity of imagination, obviously did not know “calculation of force,” and Lefty has to agree with this: “There is no doubt about this,” he says, “that we have not gone far enough in the sciences...”

Thus, in the depiction of the amazing work of Tula masters, which simultaneously elevates them above their overseas rivals and reveals their well-known weakness, Leskov’s bitter, alarming thought about Russian ignorance, which cruelly oppresses and fetters great forces, expresses itself, alien to any conciliatory and apologetic tendencies and the capabilities of the people, dooming them to a series of defeats and setbacks.

The question of what a Russian person can do immediately entails other equally important questions in Leskov’s tale: how does this person live, does he, like the English masters, have “absolute circumstances” for the development of his talent, what attitude does he have towards himself? faced by those in power, how his fate turns out.

True, neither the narrator nor Lefty himself, who have become accustomed to a certain order of things that has long been established in Russia (contrasting with the one that Platov and Lefty saw in England), ask themselves these questions, but the writer takes special measures to ensure that they inevitably became inevitable in the minds of his readers.

Telling, for example, with what “ceremony” Platov rode, fulfilling the sovereign’s order, Leskov paints the figures of “whistling” Cossacks, who sit on both sides of the coachman’s beam and throughout the entire journey constantly shower their driver with whip blows “These incentive measures were in effect before It was successful that nowhere could the horses be kept at any station, and a hundred races always jumped past the stopping place.

The narrator himself does not emphasize such details; he speaks about them casually, casually, as if by the way. However, all these “little things” of Russian life included in his narrative - the ingenious cutting of the coachmen, Platov’s rude swearing at the Tula masters, the almost arrest of Lefty, who is being taken to St. Petersburg in the front of Platov’s wagon, the haste of his departure to England - all these are phenomena of one thing order, accumulating in themselves the general spirit of Russian life of Nicholas's times with its unbridled autocracy of some and lawlessness of others, a spirit that inspires the author with the most bitter feeling.

Saturated with the sad details of the death of Lefty, the last chapters of the story even more persistently focus the reader’s attention on the situation of the individual in Russia, where “it’s scary for a person.” A talented master, an artist of his craft, deeply devoted to his fatherland, dies, forgotten by everyone, in the corridor of the Obukhov hospital for the poor, without having time to serve his country with his last advice. This conclusion to the plot, which contains a bitter paradox, enhances the sound of the humanistic theme of the tale - the tragic fate of a talented person in Russia, doomed to waste away a lot of opportunities without worthy use.

The tragic fate of a talented person in the tale “Lefty”

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Thoughts about rejection and even open mockery in Russia of smart, talented, but belonging to the lower class individuals were among the most important topics that worried the writer Nikolai Leskov. In one of his letters, he once noted that a simple, hard-working and at the same time immensely talented man in our country is taken for granted, something that will always be there and something that makes no sense to patronize.

Leskov categorically disagrees with this trend, believing that any person has the right to have normal living and working conditions, and a talented person working at full capacity for the benefit of his homeland has a doubly right to this. His tale “Lefty” is just some kind of proof of the tragic fate of the Russian people and the need for drastic changes.

In the tale, the true defenders of the glory of their homeland are the craftsmen from Tula, who managed to shoe a flea, and who, in a talent competition with the British, were able not only to demonstrate their boundless talent, but also to maintain dignity and a sense of patriotism.

Lefty is one of the Tula masters, whom it was decided to take with him to the sovereign, and then to Europe in order to demonstrate his work. He has accomplished the impossible, but does not become arrogant and accepts the need to meet with the sovereign as a working moment. He comes to the meeting in his old clothes. He did not try to flatter the emperor, did not try to please him, he spoke quietly, calmly and simply, as best he could. Everyone around was amazed at this simplicity, trying to hint at the need to be more helpful. Lefty, of course, understood that the ruler of the country was standing in front of him, but this did not in any way affect the manner of his communication. He treated everyone modestly and respectfully, be it the sovereign or his fellow worker. For Lefty, all people are equal.

Indeed, manners and expensive clothes are insignificant in front of true talent: clothes can wear out, manners can be forgotten in certain situations, but talent will always remain with a person.

Lefty, thanks to his ingenuity and golden hands, reached the emperor and abroad, became a very unhappy person. In fact, his new environment did not understand him at all. And the temporary increased attention to a man is only ostentatious. They washed him in the bathhouse, changed his clothes and took him with them to London. But he spends the entire journey without eating a bite and maintains his strength only with Platov’s sour milk. The Emperor publicly kisses Lefty, but does nothing to make his life better or even truly thank him for what he has done.

In contrast to the Russians, the British show humane care for Lefty and strive to create for him all the conditions for a good trip. Compatriots do not see in the master a person who is worthy of even a drop of respect; for them he is a slave, obliged to do all this. The British invite Lefty to join them, promising decent work and remuneration. But despite this, our master dreams only of Russia, and longs to return home as soon as possible. In your dark closet.

He returned to St. Petersburg in a sick state, as he had been drinking all the way on a bet with the skipper. However, upon arrival, the skipper is sent to the hospital, where he is quickly brought to his senses. O simple man, Lefty drags himself all night with exceptional carelessness from the doors of one hospital to another, and, without receiving proper help, dies. A man who glorified his country, instead of honor and respect, received complete indifference. Left-handed people were not accepted in hospitals because he did not have a document or money.

But Lefty was not mentally broken until the very last minute of his life: he was only worried about how to convey the information that the British did not clean their guns with bricks, and this made them last longer. He turned out to be the only wise man with an open soul, the only patriot of his country among the masses of heartless people who had lost the purity of their souls in the pursuit of fame and material wealth.

The tale of Lefty who shoed a flea became a legend, and Lefty himself became a symbol of the boundless talent of the ordinary Russian person, often oppressed and forgotten.

N.S. Leskov. "Lefty."

3 hours Topic: “The fate of a left-hander”

I . Checking homework.

II . Working with text and analysis.

- How Platov and Nikolai are shownI in chapters 11 and 12?

(The narrator’s sympathies are increasingly inclined towards the tsar: “Nikolai Pavlovich was terribly wonderful and memorable - he forgot nothing.” To Platov’s disbelief, he replies: “I know that my people cannot deceive me.” Platov, however, “cowarded”, “ at least he was not afraid of any enemy in the world," that he would have to answer to the sovereign for the unfulfilled work of the Tula masters. Platov, without understanding it, takes out his anger on the left-hander: "he caught the left-hander by the hair and began to fluff him back and forth so that tufts flew." And nevertheless, the narrator’s respect for Platov remains: “the courtiers... everyone turns away from him, they think: Platov has been caught and now they will drive him out of the palace, - that’s why they could not stand him for his bravery.”)

Reading chapter 13 by role.

- How is a left-handed person depicted? How does he behave with the king and his entourage?

(The left-handed man, as Platov says, was “in a very angry state”: “in shorts, one leg is in a boot, the other is dangling, and the leg is old, the hooks are not fastened, are lost, and the collar is torn.” Let’s pay attention to the diminutive suffixes that enhance impression of a pitiful-looking left-hander. However, he behaves quite confidently, “is not embarrassed,” speaks to the king boldly, “simply,” and not like the courtiers - “with flattery or cunning.” The king is contrasted with the nobles in the spirit of popular ideas about the “good king” , so he listens carefully to the left-hander, talks to him almost as equals, and, realizing what the masters had done, “hugged... and kissed” the unwashed, uncleaned left-hander.)

Reading chapter 14 by role.

- How was the left-hander rewarded for his amazing skill?

(“Platov gave him a hundred rubles and said: “Forgive me, brother, that I tore you by the hair.” Let us remember that Tsar Alexander I gave the British a million rubles for a flea. Lefty was sent to the British to show him the work and what kind of work we have there are masters in Tula." Note that the left-hander's relationship with Platov is improving - he even sent his "kislyarka" along the road.)

- Tell us about the adventures of a left-hander in England.

(Retelling of chapters 15 and 16 - 2-3 people.)

Why do the British try to get lefties drunk? How did he surprise foreigners? What struck him about the English masters?

(The British want to find out the secret of the Tula masters. They can’t believe that the left-hander doesn’t even know arithmetic. They invite the left-hander to stay: “we will give you more education.” The left-hander agrees to stay, they take him around the factories and show him everything. The left-hander “pays most attention paid attention to... how old (guns) are in what form." The British cannot understand what is so surprising to a left-handed person.)

- Why did the left-hander get bored in England and rush home?

(Lefty examines old guns and unravels the secret of English weapons. We find out what is the matter only at the end of the tale. Just before his death, Lefty orders to tell the sovereign, “that the English don’t clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean ours either, otherwise ... they are not suitable for shooting.")

- What qualities of a left-hander are manifested in these episodes?

(Patriotism, devotion to one’s work, one’s homeland, ardent love for it, hard work, ingenuity, self-esteem, amazing talent and at the same time amazing ignorance.)

- Why did the English “half-skipper” bet with a left-hander?

(He wanted to find out what secret the left-hander was bringing to Russia, and therefore decided to get him drunk. So until St. Petersburg, no one could outdrink anyone.)

- What was the fate of the bet participants after arriving in St. Petersburg?

(The Englishman was brought to the embassy house, a doctor and a pharmacist were called to him, they treated him and looked after him. Left-hander, who did not have a “tugament”, was taken to the police station, “to the quarter”, “dumped on the floor”, searched , took away watches and money, dragged them around hospitals and finally brought them to the “common people’s Obukhvin hospital, where everyone of an unknown class is accepted to die.”)

- Why were the dying words of the left-hander not conveyed to the sovereign?

(The Minister of War, Count Chernyshev, is shown as a self-confident and distant person. According to the narrator, it was he who did not listen to the left-hander’s dying order and because of this Russia was defeated in the Crimean campaign.)

- Who is to blame for the terrible fate of the left-hander?

(Irresponsible people representing power are to blame, arrogant and ungrateful, but able to appreciate talent. The master of genius was essentially killed. He was not seduced by the offers of the British, but sought to return to his beloved homeland, where death awaited him.)

- What impression did Leskov’s story leave on you?

(Despite the fact that the tale ends tragically - the left-hander dies in a hospital for the poor, its general pathos is optimistic, expresses pride in the talents with which the Russian land is rich, in the patriotism of the people. This idea is also in the last chapter of the story.)

- How does the last chapter, 20, differ from the rest? What is the main idea of ​​this chapter?

(This is an epilogue. It differs from the skaz in style: this is the author’s speech, his remark about the theme of the skaz. The author regrets those glorious times when such masters as Lefty worked. He expresses the conviction that machines only destroy “artistic prowess” , and appreciates the fact that current employees remember the old days “with pride and love”,)

III . Description of illustrations and oral drawing

Let's look at the drawings of N. Kuzmin and Kukryniksy, depicting a left-hander.

- How did the artists see left-handedness? What is your idea of ​​a left-hander?

(In Kuzmin’s drawing, the left-hander is depicted as he examines the “English flea” and wonders how the English can be surpassed. The drawing conveys the sharpness of the left-hander, his tenacious mind. In the Kukryniksy’s drawings, the left-hander is shown as pathetic, evoking sympathy. He is lost among the brilliant courtiers, and “ Obukhvinskaya Hospital" looks completely helpless - he is being dragged like a bag of bones by a mighty policeman. These drawings have rather an accusatory pathos.)

We listen to variants of the image of a left-handed person - 3-4 people.

So, the drawings convey the author’s main thoughts: on the one hand, pride in the talent and patriotism of the Russian people, on the other, a bitter feeling from their humiliation and lack of rights, irresponsible and criminal attitude towards them on the part of the authorities.