Contents of Ostrovsky's play Late Love. Alexander Ostrovsky
When we arrive?
Abby felt like she had heard this question for the hundredth time. She turned the steering wheel and took a deep breath before answering her son.
In three days we’ll be at grandma’s,” she squeezed out, passing another huge truck ahead.
“I’m not talking about grandma’s house,” the boy objected. - And about the motel. When will we finally get there and be able to swim?
Bathe! Cass yelled from the back seat. - Want to swim.
Abby looked in the rearview mirror at the cheeky five-year-old girl smiling from ear to ear.
Soon, honey. As soon as we get some rest.
“You said we’d take a swim after lunch,” Matt reminded her. At eight years old, he often acted like an adult.
I meant evening. We only had lunch twenty minutes ago. We have to travel another two hundred miles today, or we'll never get to grandma's. Why don't you want to sleep?
He started leafing through his star Wars».
Let the little ones sleep.
“I’m not little,” Cass said. Her shrill voice could wake up every baby in Wyoming. - This is little Chrissy.
Thank God Chrissie slept like the dead. Abby hoped that the baby would sleep in her chair for a couple more hours. The second half of the day was the most difficult period: the children were tired of being stuck in the van all the time, Abby's shoulders were stiff from sitting for a long time behind the wheel and her eyes were starting to water. She lost her sunglasses somewhere in Nebraska.
“Nobody calls you little,” Abby replied. - Look out the window. Maybe you'll see a cow or a windmill.
Cows and windmills at least somehow diversified the desert area. On both sides of the highway stretched an endless plain, occasionally crossed by roads leading to small towns like Wheatland or Glenrock. A map of the western states lay on the floor between the seats, but Wyoming was stained with ketchup spilled by Matt during lunch, and Abby had no idea how many miles were left to the border. Washington State and Grandma seemed out of reach.
Let’s arrange a “quiet hour,” she suggested in a stern voice. You can read, color pictures or play with toys, but only silently, so as not to distract me from the road.
Can you wave to truck drivers? - Matt asked hopefully. Some drivers honked at the sight of children waving their arms.
Not until Chrissy wakes up.
The boy sighed.
Then I'll read it.
Great idea. Abby looked at Cass. Her little eyes were starting to close together. In silence, she will soon fall asleep.
Abby couldn't wait for this day to end. If they're lucky, they'll check into a motel by four o'clock, order pizza by five, and go to bed by eight. “Wyoming,” she thought, “this is some kind of hell.”
* * *
And without any,” Jed announced, saddling his beloved mare. - You're still too young.
“You’re wrong, Uncle Jed,” the young man answered stubbornly. - I'm already an adult. I’ve just finished school a year ago, and I’m doing a man’s job here.
Jed looked at his nephew, holding back his anger.
That's right, you're the man, Ty. A young man. A man who has not yet learned to think for himself.
There's nothing wrong with my head.
Yes, except for the fact that the wind is blowing through it. You don't want to get into trouble with the Jensens. They are nothing but trouble. - He tightened the girth and patted the mare on the neck. - This girl is making ropes out of you, son. So don't flap your ears. You are too young to get married, too young to take on such responsibility. Live for yourself.
You underestimate me. And Trisha too.
Jed glanced at his nephew. He was tall and slender, with the dark hair and brown eyes that had been passed down through the Monroe family for generations. From his father he inherited stubbornness, smiling and balanced character.
You don't know anything about women.
And do you know? - the boy snapped. - Where?
This doesn't concern you. - Jed turned to the mare, hoping that Ty would be smart enough to get down to business. - You have a job, so do it. We also need to check the fence in the southwestern pasture and make sure that everything is in order with irrigation there.
The guy sighed.
Do you want me to do this right now?
Wonderful.
Will you be back for dinner?
Will try.
Jed jumped into the saddle and watched Ty as he walked across the yard towards the house. The stupid boy puts his head in the noose himself. Trisha and Ty had been friends since childhood, although their parents, God knows why, were always at odds. Nineteen years old - no best age for marriage, but Ty cannot be convinced. At least he's got a stake on his head.
Jed watched the young man climb into the truck with his eyebrows knitted together. Ty is looking for trouble, but Jed will do everything he can to protect him from bitter disappointment.
He turned and galloped into the western pasture. This summer is unlikely to be easy.
* * *
What smells? - Matt wrinkled his nose and clicked the air conditioner knob.
It's not working, honey. Open the window.
Terrible stench.
A strange smell was coming from under the dashboard. Abby glanced in the rearview mirror, pulled over to the side of the road, turned off the engine, and pulled the hood release handle. Isn't there smoke coming from there?
Abby told herself it was just dust. Her van can't break down in this godforsaken wilderness. Some time ago she pulled off the highway to wash up and eat some ice cream. And, it seems, she took a wrong turn somewhere, returning to the highway. The dirt road with wormwood growing on the side was completely empty. From strong wind Abby's mouth filled with dust and her eyes watered. The June sun burned mercilessly.
What happened, mom? - asked Cass. - Where are you going?
Check the engine. - A very optimistic statement. Abby could stare at him all day and still wouldn't understand anything. She only knew that smoke was a very bad sign. It's better not to lift the hood to avoid getting burned.
She straightened up and brushed her hair out of her face. Naturally, something broke. In the last year and a half, everything has been going wrong. Why should this time be different?
Matt leaned out of the window.
But can we get to grandma's?
“Of course,” Abby replied, lowering her hands. It could be worse, she reminded herself. An accident, for example. Or the illness of one of the children.
Good question. Do you have a map? - Abby felt like her life was falling apart like a house of cards. One trouble follows another.
Be careful not to step on the snake. - Matt handed her the card through the window.
Abby looked around and scaredly ducked into the passenger seat of the van.
1“Late Love” by A. N. Ostrovsky and “ women's question" in Russia
On Wednesday, November 28, 1873, the hall of the Alexandrinsky Theater was “almost full.” They performed a new, not yet published play by A. N. Ostrovsky, “Late Love.”
The reviewers, the next day or a little later, reported to the public their impressions of the performance and, through it, the play. “Strange”, “extremely paradoxical” - these are the words that newspaper reports about Ostrovsky’s play are full of. It had to be explained, interpreted; almost none of the reviewers outlined the plot of the play, bypassing doubts and their own explanations of what happened in it.
For the first time in his work, Ostrovsky designated the genre of the play, completed in September 1873, as “scenes from the life of the outback,” although he had addressed the outback before. The world of the play is dedicated exclusively to modern reality, and is not associated with historical distance or folklore, like the plays “Comedian of the 17th Century” (1872) and “The Snow Maiden” (1873), which were written nearby in time. “The term “outback,” writes K. N. Derzhavin about the plays “Late Love” and “Labor Bread,” “like the “Zamoskvorechye” that preceded it, should be understood broadly and generally. Both comedies depict the backwoods of life, and not just the life of the outlying streets of Moscow. The playwright no longer turns to the dull, petty and shallow environment not in search of the Balzaminovs, Kryukovs and Epishkins, but in an effort to meet images of good and honest people.”
The main line of Ostrovsky’s moral quest is convincingly outlined by the researcher - indeed, in “Late Love” and in the subsequent “Labor Bread” the playwright finds people who preserve moral values. However, “Late Love” is based on the contradiction of the world of traditional moral values with post-reform reality, with the “new time”. This conflict, which sounded so sharply and decisively for the first time in Ostrovsky’s post-reform drama, will be found in his further work. Time transformed the “outback”: life “according to custom” gave way to life “according to one’s own will.” The events of “Late Love,” despite their apparent insignificance, acquired a polemical meaning. The play fell into the knot of topical problems that were actively discussed in public life 1870s. The personality of the heroine of the play, Lyudmila Margaritova, seemed controversial and strange to contemporaries. Moreover, it is interesting that the strangeness and inconsistency of the play were noted exclusively at the time of its appearance - after twenty years it began to seem that the play was “simple, sweet, unpretentious.”
The main focus of the current problems that the play dealt with was the so-called “women’s question.” The heroine, who robs her own father for the sake of her love, appeared before her contemporaries as an unsolvable mystery. And according to the author, the whole essence of the play lies in the relationship between Lyudmila and her lover Nikolai.
The “Woman Question,” the issue of women's rights, became aggravated in the early 1870s in connection with the rise of the democratic movement in the country and acquired a new character. Specific successes in the fight for higher education(in 1872, Higher Women's Courses were opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg), “a great migration of women from remote backwaters to all those points where there is at least some opportunity to learn something useful,” in the words of the observer of “Otechestvennye Zapiski” N. A. Demert, changes in the life and consciousness of many, many women - all this forced those reflecting on the life of the country to examine pressing problems and clearly assess the processes taking place.
At the end of 1872, a controversy arose between “Notes of the Fatherland” and the weekly newspaper of Prince V.P. Meshchersky “Citizen” - two opposite poles of public life. Meshchersky showed exceptional attention to the “women’s issue”, devoting many articles to it. Depicting the grief of fathers abandoned by their daughters, the collapse of the family, the loss of primordial virtues by Russian women, Meshchersky called on the public to come to their senses and comprehend the real danger of women entering the arena of competition with men. As you know, Meshchersky was nicknamed Prince Dot because he proposed to “put an end to” the reform of Russian life, so as not to increase “trouble and confusion.” "Domestic Notes" took an unwavering position in defense of women's equality and ridiculed Meshchersky's ideas about the mythical "learned women." In January 1873, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin published an article “On the Women's Question” in Otechestvennye Zapiski. His position raised eyebrows among many. “He sympathizes (Shchedrin. - T.M.) women's issue or not? - asked, for example, a critic of “New Time”. In the March issue of the magazine, N. Mikhailovsky provided an explanation of Shchedrin’s article. He argued that Shchedrin's satire was aimed at the feminist hype for "freedom from morality." (Shchedrin’s opinion, usually so unequivocal, had to be clarified!) In his article, Shchedrin argues that women’s rights, especially the right to immorality, should not be written on paper, because from time immemorial this right has been exercised “simply, without any laws.” “Even during the Trojan War, the women’s question had already been resolved, but it was resolved so cleverly that it affected only Menelaus alone. ‹…› All these Phrynes, Laises, Aspasias, Cleopatras - what is this if not a direct solution to the women's question? And they are worried, they demand some kind of explanatory rules, they say: “Write all this for us on a piece of paper.”
The fact that Ostrovsky’s play was published in Otechestvennye zapiski, and the most angry and harsh response to the play appeared in Citizen, seems far from accidental. “Let me take advantage of your venerable, impartial magazine to say a few words about Ostrovsky’s new work,” this is how the anonymous author of “Citizen” ironically begins his review. “Oh, Mr. Ostrovsky! Why didn’t you die before writing “Late Love”! - he exclaims, then bringing down the full weight of his anger on the heroine of the play. - ‹…› What kind of creature is the heroine of “Late Love”, whom the squandered lawyer calls a noble soul, despite the fact that she is a thief with cynicism? ‹…› Is she a nihilist, in the poetic sense of the word, or simply stupid or stupid and unprincipled at the same time? ‹…› Apparently modern, and even completely modern... ‹…› Someone, leaving the theater and getting into a cab, said about the heroine of the play: “That’s a real nihilist!” The expression is apt, although boring..."
The word has been found: the heroine is a nihilist, accordingly, undermining the sacred foundations of the family and the nation; the author made her into a genuine heroine and did not condemn her in any way.
The review had the title: “Letter to the Editor.”
The editor of “Citizen” from January 1873 was F. M. Dostoevsky. In 1873, Dostoevsky published various articles, notes and feuilletons in The Citizen. He also touched on the “women’s question,” considering this expression “the most vague and controversial.” “Finally speaking,” writes Dostoevsky in the preface to L. Yu. Kokhnova’s article, “we believe that the women’s question as an issue does not exist in our country at all. It exists only in some vague and for now insatiable need.” In the same note, Dostoevsky calls Shchedrin’s satire “the wittiest.”
Dostoevsky warmly sympathizes with every experience of women in the sphere of work and education. However, like Shchedrin, he believes that these are private tasks, and the question itself consists of solving problems general. In the article “Something about lies” he writes: “In our woman, sincerity, perseverance, seriousness and honor, the search for truth and sacrifice are more and more noticeable; and all this has always been higher in Russian women than in men... ‹...› A woman lies less, many do not even lie at all... ‹...› A woman is more persistent, more patient in business; she is more serious than a man, she wants business for the sake of the business itself, and not just to appear. Can’t we really expect great help from here?”
So, Dostoevsky welcomes the “search for truth and sacrifice,” but fears that on the path of quest the Russian woman might be carried away by nihilistic teachings. He wants women to really receive an education, “and not get confused in empty theories.” Let’s also not forget that it’s only been a year since “Demons” came out. Dostoevsky agrees with the rules that the tireless “Citizen” came up with for female students; among them the following: “The slightest violation of the rules of morality should entail the immediate exclusion of women from the number of students.”
Again we are convinced: what is the real problem associated with the movement women's emancipation No matter what society was doing, the conversation always turned to morality. The reviewer of "Citizen" presents Ostrovsky as a singer of modern female immorality. Dostoevsky, on the pages of the journal he edits, allows this publication, which was also made in the form of a letter to himself personally. The review about Ostrovsky is not a trifle, not worth attention, and the rude tone of the review stands out even against the background of newspaper and magazine polemics of that time.
It remains to be assumed that either Dostoevsky shares the opinion of his reviewer, or is forced to publish the article, even though he does not completely agree with it. The latter is possible only if the author of the article is Prince Meshchersky himself. (The author of the review has not been identified; the article is signed with the letter “K.”) But whoever its author was, his opinion regarding the “women’s question” and rejection of “nihilism” do not at all contradict Dostoevsky’s views.
What happened on November 28, 1873 on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater? To what extent was the theater responsible for the controversy surrounding Late Love?
The premiere took place in Moscow before in St. Petersburg, but it was not a success for the theater and did not cause controversy. The play was considered weak, and the love of a highly moral girl for a scoundrel was considered impossible. Moreover, N. E. Vilde, who played Nikolai, made up himself as an ugly reveler: “Such handsome men, with tousled red hair, with a swollen face, with insolent manners, are liked only by Aspasias of the lowest class.” The Maly Theater consistently mastered the genre side of Ostrovsky's plays, but this time it did not catch its living nerve.
On the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, something essential for the play seemed to be captured, although distorted in the spirit of superficial actualization. The capital's Alexandrinsky Theater was especially associated with the “spite of the day.” According to P. A. Markov, the actors of the Alexandrinsky Theater perfectly mastered the life that popular playwrights V. Dyachenko and V. Krylov portrayed in their plays, and often played Ostrovsky exactly “according to Dyachenko.” On the theater stage at that time there could not be a heroine in a play from modern life that was not somehow related to the “women’s issue.” Everything that was connected with the problems of women's work and education, relationships with parents, and free love attracted the attention of the Alexandria Theater. It was not at all easy to conduct free conversations about the “women’s issue” from the stage - many plays on this topic were prohibited or were performed with difficulty. The theater, which existed in an atmosphere of lively polemics around “current problems,” could not give a deep analysis of the events of the “outback”, however, grasping the motives that were understandable to it.
The performance, given as a benefit performance by F.A. Burdin, was prepared, as usual, hastily, “with two or three rehearsals.” The roles were performed by: Lyudmila - E. P. Struyskaya, Nikolai - A. A. Nilsky, Lebedkina - V. A. Lyadova-Sariotti, Margaritov - F. A. Burdin, Dormedont - N. F. Sazonov. There were shouts of “author! author!"; “The audience reacted to the new play with participation and respect.”
The beneficiary himself was scolded unanimously and in various ways. “Bourdine tries very hard, but he definitely shouldn’t take on pathetic roles”; “His voice is unpleasant, low-pitched and extremely small in volume, his face is lifeless, even his grimaces are monotonous: he opens his mouth and moves his jaws for a while.” It was reported that “during his performance the audience was hissing,” “he fell into excessive pathos and excessive tearfulness.” “Bourdine can play intelligently and even typically until the drama begins, since the expression of all kinds of feelings in him is accompanied by invariable oversalting.” The friendliest critic clarified: “... Seeing Burdin on stage, we always think that he is smart and educated person, in whose playing there is never anything vulgar, but who never flashes a spark of talent.” Sazonov (Dormedont) and Lyadova (Lebedkina) did not cause any displeasure among the audience; the faces in the play are the most complete and defined. “Every gesture, every word of this depressed clerk, starting from the first scene, when he appears in a cap, completely numb from the cold, is filled with truth and warmth”; “Lyadova is lively, cheerful, sweet.” But the main and most complex roles, which required explanation and interpretation, evoked different attitudes.
“What kind of creature is the heroine of Late Love?” - this question from the reviewer of “Citizen” remained a question. By all accounts, Struyskaya played better than usual at the premiere, she was “quite simple,” played “with warmth” and “this time she abandoned her tearfulness.” But critics are more credible, noting that Struyskaya played “as she usually plays in all melodramas,” that is, essentially without delving into the character of the heroine, but outlining only the sequence of fate. No wonder all the critics discussed and explained the character of the heroine - the actress did not do this.
About Nilsky (Nikolai) the word “conscientiously” is mentioned three times in reviews, once - “coldly”, and the result is the following words: “Nilsky did not explain Nikolai’s mental movements, could not “interpret” to the viewer, under the influence of which his idea arose deceive Lebedkina... did he fall in love with Lyudmila or marry her, sacrificing himself.”
So, the theme of Margaritov, the noble and unfortunate lawyer, was ruined on stage by Burdin. Lyadov and Sazonov are good, “true to type,” but these are secondary figures. Struyskaya and Nilsky play the way they play in all modern melodramas, and do not explain anything about their characters. Unexpectedly, this is what interests the viewer. We remember that the Maly Theater was looking for favorite types in Ostrovsky’s play, and Vilde (Nikolai) gave the type of drunkard, drunkard. This spoiled the play, which by its nature was completely different from some of the previous “everyday” ones. genre scenes Ostrovsky. The Alexandria Theater played “Late Love” as a topical play on the “spite of the day,” without explaining anything about the characters of the main characters. But here's what happened. The play, not crushed by the weight of the “genre”, “everyday” interpretation, reached the viewer, made him argue, think: what happened in the Shablovs’ house? The author appeared at one of the regular performances in the theater. Ten years later, Ostrovsky would write sharply about Struyskaya: “She was somehow lifeless, knew nothing, had seen nothing in life, and therefore could not portray any type, any character, and constantly played herself. But she herself was far from an interesting person. ‹…› But there were suppliers for this premiere: partly Dyachenko, and partly Krylov, they wrote plays exactly according to her means. ‹…› I read in the newspapers that the play (“Late Love.” - T.M.) goes well, Struyskaya plays very well, but her role is thankless and there are strange and impossible psychological infidelities in it. I went to see what was going on on stage and what was being portrayed there instead of my play, and this is what I saw: in last act Struyskaya did not reveal any struggle and remained indifferent in the scene between her father and the young man, and in response to her father’s words: “My child, come to me!” - instead of bitter reflection and a short answer: “No, I’ll go to him,” she answered quite cheerfully: “Oh no, dear, kind dad, I’ll go to him.”
The image of Lyudmila in the play, of course, contradicts the lightness and cheerfulness with which Struyskaya portrayed the heroine, and her performance most likely convinced the reviewer of “Citizen” of Lyudmila’s cynicism. But besides Struyskaya’s acting, there was also the objective reality of the play. And the fact that Ostrovsky’s opinion on the “women’s issue” was seen in the heroine, devoid of the obvious attributes of a “hair-cut nihilist”, in a play that does not have any sharp signs of the “spite of the day”, indicates important features"Late Love"
The position of “Citizen” was not exceptional. The critic of "Russian World" also saw in the play "an immeasurable amount of dirt, which the author is trying with all his might to pass off as something valuable and even modestly lofty." The unattractive aspects of the heroine's character (obsessiveness, shamelessness) were noted by critics in other publications.
The “Late Love” controversy was drawn to a close by Otechestvennye zapiski, true to its convictions and unshakably steadfast in defending its comrades. V.S. Kurochkin, without condescending to discuss the personality of Lyudmila Margaritova, simply defends Ostrovsky: “Some newspaper reviewers, interested only in the production of their plays, decide, contrary to facts and common sense, to insinuate that Ostrovsky has written himself out and therefore his plays should not be given at all . But those familiar with our theatrical mores, of course, will agree with me, and I ask the reader to pay special attention to these words: one must be amazed at what Ostrovsky has done and continues to do for the Russian stage; not to mention his talent." These noble words were the necessary emotional point of the dispute, but still did not resolve the issue of “Late Love.” In any case, Ostrovsky’s opinion of his play as “very simple” is difficult to recognize as unconditionally fair. Lyudmila Margaritova is still unusual: she is Ostrovsky’s first heroine who commits a crime. The fact that a crime is being committed is precisely stated in the text:
« Nikolay. To get out of debt, to get rid of shame, there is only one way left for me: to commit a crime. ‹…›
Lyudmila. Don't, don't commit a crime! Oh my God! Oh my God! But if it is necessary, force me, order me... I will do... What crime?
Nikolay. Theft.
Lyudmila. Disgusting, disgusting!
Nikolay. Yes, it’s ugly.”
What is the connection between Lyudmila’s offense and her personality?
According to the remark, Lyudmila is “an elderly girl”, “all her movements are modest and slow.” In the first act, her father says about Lyudmila: “She is a saint... She is meek, sits, works, is silent; there is need all around; after all, she sat through her best years, silently, bending over, and not a single complaint. After all, she wants to live, she must live, and never say a word about herself.” The surname Margaritova echoes the similar “flowery” surname of the heroine of “The Poor Bride” Nezabudkina, a virtuous girl who submits to fate and duty.
However, there is a great difference between the heroines of the plays of 1851 and 1873. Lyudmila's virtuous life beyond the play. The play itself represents a chain of decisive actions by Lyudmila, made by her of her own free will and in the struggle for her happiness. “Love is everything to me, love is my right,” - under this motto there is a “rebellion” of a quiet girl from the Moscow outback. Direct feeling is already based on the consciousness of one’s right to love - that’s what’s new. Lyudmila exercises this right in a situation where everything is hostile to her intentions. Nikolai does not love her, her father does not love Nikolai, and yet Lyudmila manages to unite with her chosen one in marriage. The willfulness of the heroine in Ostrovsky's play leads her to a successful outcome, and for this it was necessary to step over unconditional moral norms.
The figure of a sinful woman, one way or another “crossing the line,” is the focus of attention in Russian literature of the 1860-1870s. The fate of a woman is an arena for the battle of the cruel forces of life, and a woman in this battle shows more and more will, more and more determination, leading her away from the “primordial” virtues assigned to her. From Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky's "great sinners", Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district, Vera from “The Precipice” to some “Evening Sacrifice” by Boborykin - on all levels of literature there was an awareness of the collapse of traditional morality taking place before our eyes, in comparison with which the issue of women’s labor and education was really not that significant. Ostrovsky, Shchedrin, Dostoevsky understood this, and it was not always understood by ordinary journalists of the 1870s.
Complete independence of decisions and actions, even to the point of crime - this is the path of Lyudmila Margaritova. The awakening of “late love” in a modest girl from the outback is an echo of the turning point in women’s destinies that took place in the 1860-1870s. However, in her new birth, Lyudmila does not break with her previous moral values.
In 1873, dedicated to love and “ spring fairy tale Ostrovsky's "The Snow Maiden", and the autumn sketch "Late Love". But if in “The Snow Maiden” love is a natural element, the highest manifestation of existence in its joy and tragedy, then Lyudmila’s love is like a voluntary debt obligation. “Sacrifice”, “duty”, “service” - this is her language. “I have a remedy in my hands,” says Lyudmila, handing Nikolai the bill stolen from his father, “I must help you... I don’t know any other love, I don’t understand... I’m just doing my duty.” Thus, it is not the call of nature, not blind passion or the whim of self-will that leads Ostrovsky’s heroine to sin, but a new understanding of duty, a new service. Lyudmila is not Dunya Rusakova (“Don’t get into your own sleigh,” 1852), a naive, deceived creature for whom the conflict between father and lover will ultimately be resolved in favor of her father and his worldview. Lyudmila consciously, of her own free will, leaves her father, does not agree with him and sees this as her duty. This selfless sacrifice, the search for a new service, the fulfillment of a new duty brings Lyudmila closer - in tone, so to speak - to the important trends of the women's movement of the 1870s, although Ostrovsky writes about what is happening in “a poor room darkened by time.”
In the play, the cheerful freedom and cheerfulness of the widow Lebedkina, of the traditional type, further emphasizes the stern character of Lyudmila and her love. Lebedkina tempted Nikolai, promising money and her love in exchange for a promissory note, but Lyudmila made this exchange. Such “reversals” of sin and virtue are one of the contradictions and numerous paradoxes of Ostrovsky’s play, which explores moral turmoil post-reform Russia at the "outback" level. The play is built on a chain of deceptions of trust associated with monetary documents, with the desire to “live properly.” The theme of “deception of trust” develops, moreover, not in the merchant environment, where even in 1847 “their people” were not yet known, but in the presence of two servants of the law. Margaritov is an old-style lawyer, Nikolai is a lawyer new formation, and this circumstance is extremely important in analyzing the content of the play that was relevant for 1873. “He studied well with me,” Shablova says about her son, “he graduated from the university course: and, as luck would have it, these new courts started up here! He signed up as an abbot - things went, and they went, and they went, raking in money with a shovel.”
After the judicial reform, the figure of the lawyer became popular both in public life and in art. A lawyer is a completely new type in Russian life, a visible embodiment of the ideas of freedom and democracy. Meanwhile, in the works of great Russian minds, the lawyer often appears in an aura of authorial ridicule and irony (Fetyukovich in Dostoevsky, the lawyer in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina). The moral relativism underlying the profession (to defend regardless of guilt and for money), the dubiousness - for these writers - of the worldly court led to the fact that in their depiction the lawyer turned from a hero of public life into a parody of it.
An ironic intonation is also noticeable in the depiction of Nicholas; his figure is morally flawed. “It’s hard to even understand,” writes a critic of “Son of the Fatherland” regarding Nicholas’s final statements about his nobility, “how a lawyer who has completed a course at the university can say this, who cannot understand that having a stolen document in your pocket does not mean being right. But in the “scenes” everything somehow gets confused and gets in the way...”
Nikolai admits to Lyudmila that he was once “little Jules Favre,” that is, he imagined himself to be a famous French lawyer (later a figure in the Thiers government). The comparison is rather ambiguous; as well as the fraud with monetary documents in which he, a lawyer, gets involved. As a lawyer, Nikolai is on a precarious line - between law and lawlessness. But it is just as unclear human face, oscillating between a parody of a romantic hero and a real character. And at the end of the play, the crystal-honest Margaritov entrusts his affairs to this vague, contradictory hero; Lyudmila loves him.
Lyudmila is not given the opportunity to reap the bitter fruits of her free choice. Researchers of Ostrovsky's work put forward various assumptions about future life Lyudmila and Nikolai, but in the world of the play the results for Lyudmila are favorable. However, the fact that a solid, definite heroine with a strong character entrusts her fate to an uncertain, vague hero looks much more alarming than the natural disappointments and epiphanies of women in Ostrovsky’s subsequent plays, which treat the theme of “vain love”, love for the unworthy (“The Last Victim” ", 1877; "Dowry", 1878; "Slave Women", 1880).
Although the movement of time gave Lyudmila’s character a previously impossible determination, she is connected with the world “ eternal values"; Nikolai, on the other hand, is a perfect child of his time, and only his, there is no support or foundation in him, which is why he is so inclined to try on different roles, to pose. The union of the “eternal” and the “temporary” in “Late Love” is contradictory, paradoxical: if it had satisfied the playwright, he would not have returned to this theme again and again in his further work, solving it anew.
The structure of the play is also paradoxical: it rests on a purely melodramatic backbone, while life and modernity argue in it with established faces and masks, with plot schemes, and erode the strong mainstream of habitual melodramatic ideas. It would hardly have been possible for the theater in 1873 to understand the modernity and complexity of Late Love. To do this, the actors would have to actively reflect on the time in which they lived. Such a task was beyond the capabilities of Struyskaya and Nilsky. But the text of the play reached the viewer, disturbed, and raised questions.
The fate of “Late Love” in the future was not without interest. In 1896, the centenary of female education in Russia was celebrated (it was counted on the initiative of the Empress, who founded the Educational Society in 1796 noble maidens). And in January 1895 and November 1896, two premieres took place, at the Alexandrinsky and Maly theaters, of Ostrovsky’s Late Love.
More than twenty years have passed since the first productions. The “women's question” in the form in which it was resolved in the 1870s ceased to exist. Women's education, as well as women's participation in the social “division of labor,” has ceased to be a controversial or exceptional phenomenon. Has this led to fundamental changes in female psychology?
In one of the feuilletons of the 80s of the 19th century, entitled “Women’s Bread and Women’s Dramas,” A. R. Kugel wrote: “When the women’s movement was in great vogue, “one’s own bread” was seen, among other things, as an antidote to the affectivity of women feelings... - give women the opportunity to live by their labor, and you will see how her romantic delirium will instantly evaporate. They demanded sewing machines and Mr. Rangoff's courses as a precaution against flying from the fifth floor. And so we see that Mr. Rangoff’s courses stand still, and sewing machines are sold on extremely preferential terms, and the flights continue and continue...”
Such evidence - at the level of a newspaper feuilleton - is important because it indicates the divergence, commonness, and typicality of the process. Ostrovsky turned out to be absolutely right in his in-depth and concentrated study of female love, in the creative conviction that it is in love that the most important, fundamental thing happens for a woman. (By the way, the work of Lyudmila Margaritova is precisely related to the notorious “sewing machines”, to sewing, as indicated by her words in the first monologue, which Ostrovsky then excluded from the final text of the play.) Lyudmila is an image, although extremely associated with her time , but having, as it were, two sides. On the one hand, independence of actions, a decisive struggle for one’s happiness, awareness of the right to it, free choice in love make Lyudmila akin to a whole generation of women contemporaries who defended their rights and their freedom right up to last resort- to the dock. But on the other hand, Lyudmila is an ordinary girl in love, showing noble frankness and great passion, even with some affectation of feeling, which Kugel wrote about. This second side of Lyudmila’s image turns out to be more significant for the viewer of 1896.
“Soft mood” is the main tone of the Maly Theater production.
“After the stilted and crackling dramatic novelties, with forced effects, with ideas pulled out by the hair, with colorless or fake language, with bloodless, dull characters - the simple, everyday story of “Late Love,” told by Ostrovsky with such warmth, gentleness and such wonderful language , together both refreshes and warms the viewer.” “There is so much gentle mood in the whole play,” echoes another critic. There is no doubt that this atmosphere was the merit of the Maly Theater. The sharp corners, problems and questions of the play were not so dear now, just as softness and warmth had become dear. “Cracking new products” speculated on superficial ideas and problems for so long that Ostrovsky was approached with the desire to get away from bare theses and artificially constructed images, to live a simple, sincere life, to present to the viewer simple good people with real, non-fictional interests.
M. Ermolova, due to the nature of her talent, could not help but elevate Lyudmila, although without at all glorifying her. It must be said that the modern belief that the distribution of roles is a concept is perfectly suited to the theater of the 19th century. Ermolova in the role of Lyudmila is already a concept. She couldn't help but be right in everything she did. A. Yuzhin saw in Nikolai, first of all, a real character, in which the romantic pose was a kind of ironic self-defense. “Relatively restrained, calm, inclined to be ironic,” the reviewer described him and, expressing doubt that Ostrovsky’s Nikolai is exactly like that, admitted, however: But if we understand Nikolai this way, then Mr. Yuzhin plays him very well. It is clear that before us is in this case namely the interpretation creative interpretation, and not a depiction of superficial signs of a “type,” as in N. Vilde’s time, or an unmastered presentation of the situation, as in A. Nilsky.”
The performance was received sympathetically.
A little earlier, staged by the Alexandrinsky Theater, the play was received coolly. But, ironically, it was precisely the failures of the Alexandrinsky Theater that revealed something significant in Ostrovsky’s Late Love.
In the interpretation of the Maly Theater, Lyudmila did not seem to have committed any crime. On the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater it was still about a crime. “The very crime in the act of this amazing girl acquires a reconciling beauty. ‹…› Great is the destructive power of late love...” There was no soft mood, no simple quiet life. Feeling the harshness and roughness of the play, the actors were looking for some kind of outlet for their feelings. V. Michurina - (Lyudmila) “sounded sharply melodramatic notes”, she “cried with some kind of dry tear”, her love was “feverish, with a painful tinge”. M. Dalsky did not awaken under her influence, but “remained lethargic and tired.” Something sharp, painful, neurasthenic suddenly appeared through the “simple everyday story” and had a real psychological meaning for the late 1890s, when drama and theater came close to complexity modern man, which does not fit into a single social or ethical dimension.
If critics who spoke approvingly of “Late Love” at the Maly Theater still wrote with bewilderment about the main plot point associated with the theft of a bill (“The story of the theft of a document is incredible. It’s unlikely that the “pit” threatening Nikolai could have led Lyudmila to such horror and push her to take such a step as theft, which should completely ruin her father, and maybe even kill him"), then in reviews of “Late Love” in Alexandrinsky Theater There was no such confusion. “Unhappy Lyudmila had to experience the destructive power of late love. ‹…› She had to sacrifice not only her honor, but also the honor of her father.” It still turned out scary, tough, and also in its own way, in keeping with the changing times.
The resurrection of Ostrovsky’s play on the Alexandrinsky stage in 1908 caused a unanimous verdict: lifeless, boring, “you can hardly recognize Ostrovsky among these flat and sour-sweet virtues, annoying common morals and bill of exchange intrigue instead of living passions.”
Ostrovsky's moralism seemed outdated. However, there were also dissenting opinions. A. R. Kugel in 1907, in a review written about one student’s performance of “Late Love,” did not doubt one iota the significance of Ostrovsky’s moralism. But this moralism appears in him as an area of pure obligation, something that the theater is obliged to take into account for its normal development (the theater and, consequently, society). “Is it either that I have completely forgotten the play, or that this play by Ostrovsky is truly outstanding, or, finally, that the spirit, style, essence of Ostrovsky is very suited to a naive, simple, and most importantly, uncomplicated student performance in everything,” but the impression I received was very strong, large and deep. ‹…› In Ostrovsky, I always see that the element of morality occupies, so to speak, the entire proscenium... he does not treat his heroes with ethical indifference. ‹…› So Ostrovsky always hears an inquiring voice: who are you, dear man? is there a cross on the neck or not? ‹…› Let us turn, for example, to “Late Love”. “Good” is firmly established. This is the business honesty of solicitor Margaritov. ‹…› Here is the axis, as always with Ostrovsky, of the ethical order. Everything else is a rotation of characters around the core of ethical unconditionality. ‹…› Here they are both (Nikolai and Lyudmila - T.M.) already on the edge of the abyss and betrayal. But the charm of good, its power, deep, truly Christian faith in the miracle of good in Ostrovsky are such that he does not allow the fall and even a momentary triumph of evil. Good wins: God does not allow... ‹…› Is there another writer in Russian literature who is kinder, less selfish, not at all broken and completely alien to hypocrisy, like Ostrovsky? For me personally, this is a question...”
Where the theater loses connection with Ostrovsky's play, the critic finds it precisely in moralism. Everything fades into the background, fades, loses significance - monetary intrigues, thefts, revolvers and “pits”, the “women’s question” and sewing machines, romantic parodies and affectation of feelings. “There should be, so to speak, a pillar on the stage, and on the pillar there should be an inscription: here is the road to heaven, and there to hell.”
The critic offers the theater of his time the saving “ethical unconditionality” of Ostrovsky. But the theater, which has always been united with society, in the entire history of productions of “Late Love” has not given a single interpretation in the spirit of Kugel - a parable about good and evil. Just as, of course, Ostrovsky did not write such a parable. His "Late Love" - creative result the playwright’s interaction with the complex and unclear processes of the development of Russian society after the reforms of the 1860s. If “ethical unconditionality” is indeed a fundamental feature of Ostrovsky’s work, then the life of society is devoid of it. And if you look at the play precisely from the point of view of social life, it will appear complex and even paradoxical. Much in it resonated with Ostrovsky’s contemporary life; he understood and foresaw much. The sketch about the love of an elderly girl for a dissolute lawyer will remain a kind of monument to the 1870s and the creative development of them by the Ostrovskys.
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Annotation
Scenes from the life of the outback in four acts
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky.
ACT ONE
ACT TWO
ACT THREE
ACT FOUR
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky.
ACT ONE
FACES:
Felitsata Antonovna Shablova, owner of a small wooden house.
Gerasim Porfiryich Margaritov, a lawyer from retired officials, an old man of handsome appearance.
Lyudmila, his daughter, a middle-aged girl. All her movements are modest and slow, she is dressed very cleanly, but without pretension.
Dormedont, younger son Shablova, as a clerk for Margaritov.
Onufriy Potapych Dorodnov, middle-aged merchant.
A poor, darkened room in Shablova’s house. On the right side (away from the audience) are two narrow single-door doors: the closest one is to Lyudmila’s room, and the next one is to Shablova’s room; between the doors there is a tiled mirror of a Dutch oven with a firebox. In the back wall, to the right corner, is the door to Margaritov’s room; on the left is an open door to a dark hallway, in which you can see the beginning of the stairs leading to the mezzanine, where Shablova’s sons are housed. Between the doors is an antique chest of drawers with a glass cabinet for dishes. On the left side there are two small windows, in the wall between them there is an old mirror, on the sides of which there are two dim pictures in paper frames; under the mirror there is a large table of simple wood. Prefabricated furniture: chairs different types and sizes; on the right side, closer to the proscenium, there is an old half-torn Voltaire chair. Autumn twilight, the room is dark.
SCENE ONE
Lyudmila leaves her room, listens and goes to the window.
Then Shablova leaves her room.
Shablova(without seeing Lyudmila). As if someone had knocked on a gate. No, it was my imagination. I have really pricked up my ears. What a weather! In a light coat now... oh-oh! Is my dear son walking somewhere? Oh, children, children - woe is mother! Here is Vaska, what a wandering cat, but he came home.
Lyudmila. Have you come?...Have you really come?
Shablova. Ah, Lyudmila Gerasimovna! I don’t even see you, I’m standing here and fantasizing among myself...
Lyudmila. You say he came?
Shablova. Who are you waiting for?
Lyudmila. I? I'm nobody. I just heard you say “he came.”
Shablova. This is me expressing my thoughts here; It’s going to boil in my head, you know... The weather, they say, is such that even my Vaska came home. He sat down on the bed and purred like that, even choking; I really want to tell him that I’m home, don’t worry. Well, of course, he warmed himself up, ate, and left again. It's a man's business, you can't keep it at home. Yes, here is a beast, and even he understands that he needs to go home - to see how it is supposed to be there; and my son Nikolenka has been missing for days.
Lyudmila. How do you know what's going on with him?
Shablova. Who would know if not me! He doesn’t have any business, he’s just busy.
Lyudmila. He is a lawyer.
Shablova. What abbreviation! There was a time, but it has passed.
Lyudmila. He is busy with some lady's business.
Shablova. Why, mother, lady! Ladies are different. Just wait, I'll tell you everything. He studied well with me and completed his university course; and, as luck would have it, these new courts have started here! He signed up as a lawyer - things went, and went, and went, raking in money with a shovel. From the very fact that he entered the moneyed merchant circle. You know, to live with wolves, howl like a wolf, and he began this very merchant life, that day in a tavern, and night in a club or wherever. Of course: pleasure; he's a hot man. Well, what do they need? Their pockets are thick. And he reigned and reigned, but things went between hands, and he was lazy; and there are countless lawyers here. No matter how much he got confused there, he still spent the money; I lost the acquaintance and again returned to the same poor situation: to my mother, which means that the sterlet fish soup was used for empty cabbage soup. He got into the habit of going to taverns - he had nothing to go to the good ones, so he started hanging around the bad ones. Seeing him in such decline, I began to find him something to do. I want to take him to a lady I know, but he’s shy.
Lyudmila. He must be timid in character.
Shablova. Come on, mother, what a character!
Lyudmila. Yes, there are people of a timid character.
Shablova. Come on, what a character! Does a poor person have character? What other character have you found?
Lyudmila. So what?
Shablova. The poor man has character too! Wonderful, really! The dress is not good, that's all. If a person has no clothes, that’s a timid character; How can he have a pleasant conversation, but he must look around himself to see if there is a flaw somewhere. Take it from us women: why does a good lady have a cheeky conversation in company? Because everything on it is in order: one is fitted to the other, one is neither shorter nor longer than the other, the color is matched to the color, the pattern is matched to the pattern. This is where her soul grows. But our brother is in trouble in high company; It seems better to fall through the ground! It hangs here, briefly here, in another place like a bag, sinuses everywhere. They look at you like you're crazy. Therefore, it is not madams who sew for us, but we ourselves are self-taught; not according to magazines, but as it had to, on a damn wedge. It was also not the Frenchman who sewed for his son, but Vershkokhvatov from behind the Dragomilovskaya outpost. So he thinks about the tailcoat for a year, walks, walks around the cloth, cuts and cuts it; he’ll cut it on one side or the other—well, he’ll cut out a sack, not a tailcoat. But before, too, how money was there, Nikolai was dandy; Well, it’s wild for him in such and such disgrace. I finally persuaded him, and I wasn’t happy either; He’s a proud man, he didn’t want to be worse than others, that’s why she’s a dandy from morning to night, and he ordered a good dress from a dear German on credit.
Lyudmila. Is she young?
Shablova. It's time for a woman. That's the problem. If it were an old woman, she would pay the money.
Lyudmila. And what about her?
Shablova. Woman is light, spoiled, hopes for her beauty. There are always young people around her - she’s used to everyone pleasing her. Another will even consider it a pleasure to help.
Lyudmila. So he bothers for nothing for her?
Shablova. It cannot be said that it was completely free. Yes, he probably would have, but I’ve already taken a hundred and a half from her. So all the money that I took from her for it, I gave it all to the tailor, and here’s your profit! In addition, judge for yourself, every time you go to her, he takes a cab from the stock exchange and keeps him there for half a day. It's worth something! And what does it beat from? Divi... The wind is all in my head.
Lyudmila. Maybe he likes her?
Shablova. But it’s a disgrace for a poor man to court a rich woman and even spend money himself. Well, where should he go: there are such colonels and guardsmen there that you really can’t find words. You look at him and just say: oh, my God! Tea, they’re laughing at ours, and look, she’s laughing too. Therefore, judge for yourself: a sort of colonel will roll up to the porch on a couple with a harness, rattle a spur or saber in front, glance in passing, over his shoulder, in the mirror, shake his head and straight into her living room. Well, but she is a woman, a weak creature, a meager vessel, she will look at him with her eyes, well, as if she’s boiled and done. Where is it?
Lyudmila. So that's what she is like!
Shablova. She only looks like a great lady, but when you look closer, she is quite cowardly. She gets entangled in debts and cupids, so she sends for me to tell her fortunes with cards. You talk and talk to her, but she cries and laughs like a little child.
Lyudmila. How strange! Is it really possible to like such a woman?
Shablova. But Nikolai is proud; I got it into my head that I’ll conquer it, so I’m tormented. Or maybe he was out of pity; therefore it is impossible not to feel sorry for her, poor thing. Her husband was just as confused; They ran around and made debts, they didn’t tell each other. But my husband died, and I had to pay. Yes, if you use your mind, you can still live like this; otherwise she will get confused, dear, head over heels. They say she started giving bills in vain, she signs without knowing what. And what kind of condition it was, if only it were in hand. Why are you in the dark?
Lyudmila. Nothing, it's better that way.
Shablova. Well, let's wait a bit and wait for Nikolai. But someone came; go get a candle. (Leaves.)
Lyudmila(at the door to the hallway). It is you?
Dormedon enters.
PHENOMENA SECOND
Lyudmila, Dormedont, then Shablova.
Dormedont. I'm with.
Lyudmila. And I thought... Yes, however, I’m very glad, otherwise it’s boring alone.
Shablova enters with a candle.
Shablova. Where have you been? After all, I thought that you were at home. You'll feel cold, you'll get sick, look.
Dormedont(warming himself by the stove). I was looking for my brother.
Shablova. Found?
Dormedo...
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Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky.
Late love
ACT ONE
FACES:
Felitsata Antonovna Shablova, owner of a small wooden house.
Gerasim Porfiryich Margaritov, lawyer from retired officials, an old man of handsome appearance.
Lyudmila, his daughter, a middle-aged girl. All her movements are modest and slow, she is dressed very cleanly, but without pretensions..
Dormedont, Shablova's youngest son, Margaritov's clerk.
Onufriy Potapych Dorodnov, middle aged merchant.
A poor, darkened room in Shablova’s house. On the right side (away from the audience) are two narrow single-door doors: the closest one is to Lyudmila’s room, and the next one is to Shablova’s room; between the doors there is a tiled mirror of a Dutch oven with a firebox. In the back wall, to the right corner, is the door to Margaritov’s room; on the left is an open door to a dark hallway, in which you can see the beginning of the stairs leading to the mezzanine, where Shablova’s sons are housed. Between the doors is an antique chest of drawers with a glass cabinet for dishes. On the left side there are two small windows, in the wall between them there is an old mirror, on the sides of which there are two dim pictures in paper frames; under the mirror there is a large table of simple wood. Prefabricated furniture: chairs of different types and sizes; on the right side, closer to the proscenium, there is an old half-torn Voltaire chair. Autumn twilight, the room is dark.
SCENE ONE
Lyudmila leaves her room, listens and goes to the window.
Then Shablova leaves her room.
Shablova(without seeing Lyudmila). As if someone had knocked on a gate. No, it was my imagination. I have really pricked up my ears. What a weather! In a light coat now... oh-oh! Is my dear son walking somewhere? Oh, children, children - woe is mother! Here is Vaska, what a wandering cat, but he came home.
Lyudmila. Have you come?...Have you really come?
Shablova. Ah, Lyudmila Gerasimovna! I don’t even see you, I’m standing here and fantasizing among myself...
Lyudmila. You say he came?
Shablova. Who are you waiting for?
Lyudmila. I? I'm nobody. I just heard you say “he came.”
Shablova. This is me expressing my thoughts here; It’s going to boil in my head, you know... The weather, they say, is such that even my Vaska came home. He sat down on the bed and purred like that, even choking; I really want to tell him that I’m home, don’t worry. Well, of course, he warmed himself up, ate, and left again. It's a man's business, you can't keep it at home. Yes, here is a beast, and even he understands that he needs to go home - to see how it is supposed to be there; and my son Nikolenka has been missing for days.
Lyudmila. How do you know what's going on with him?
Shablova. Who would know if not me! He doesn’t have any business, he’s just busy.
Lyudmila. He is a lawyer.
Shablova. What abbreviation! There was a time, but it has passed.
Lyudmila. He is busy with some lady's business.
Shablova. Why, mother, lady! Ladies are different. Just wait, I'll tell you everything. He studied well with me and completed his university course; and, as luck would have it, these new courts have started here! He signed up as a lawyer - things went, and went, and went, raking in money with a shovel. From the very fact that he entered the moneyed merchant circle. You know, to live with wolves, howl like a wolf, and he began this very merchant life, that day in a tavern, and night in a club or wherever. Of course: pleasure; he's a hot man. Well, what do they need? Their pockets are thick. And he reigned and reigned, but things went between hands, and he was lazy; and there are countless lawyers here. No matter how much he got confused there, he still spent the money; I lost the acquaintance and again returned to the same poor situation: to my mother, which means that the sterlet fish soup was used for empty cabbage soup. He got into the habit of going to taverns - he had nothing to go to the good ones, so he started hanging around the bad ones. Seeing him in such decline, I began to find him something to do. I want to take him to a lady I know, but he’s shy.
Lyudmila. He must be timid in character.
Shablova. Come on, mother, what a character!
Lyudmila. Yes, there are people of a timid character.
Shablova. Come on, what a character! Does a poor person have character? What other character have you found?
Lyudmila. So what?
Shablova. The poor man has character too! Wonderful, really! The dress is not good, that's all. If a person has no clothes, that’s a timid character; How can he have a pleasant conversation, but he must look around himself to see if there is a flaw somewhere. Take it from us women: why does a good lady have a cheeky conversation in company? Because everything on it is in order: one is fitted to the other, one is neither shorter nor longer than the other, the color is matched to the color, the pattern is matched to the pattern. This is where her soul grows. But our brother is in trouble in high company; It seems better to fall through the ground! It hangs here, briefly here, in another place like a bag, sinuses everywhere. They look at you like you're crazy. Therefore, it is not madams who sew for us, but we ourselves are self-taught; not according to magazines, but as it had to, on a damn wedge. It was also not the Frenchman who sewed for his son, but Vershkokhvatov from behind the Dragomilovskaya outpost. So he thinks about the tailcoat for a year, walks, walks around the cloth, cuts and cuts it; he’ll cut it on one side or the other—well, he’ll cut out a sack, not a tailcoat. But before, too, how money was there, Nikolai was dandy; Well, it’s wild for him in such and such disgrace. I finally persuaded him, and I wasn’t happy either; He’s a proud man, he didn’t want to be worse than others, that’s why she’s a dandy from morning to night, and he ordered a good dress from a dear German on credit.
Lyudmila. Is she young?
Shablova. It's time for a woman. That's the problem. If it were an old woman, she would pay the money.
Lyudmila. And what about her?
Shablova. The woman is light, spoiled, and relies on her beauty. There are always young people around her - she’s used to everyone pleasing her. Another will even consider it a pleasure to help.
Lyudmila. So he bothers for nothing for her?
Shablova. It cannot be said that it was completely free. Yes, he probably would have, but I’ve already taken a hundred and a half from her. So all the money that I took from her for it, I gave it all to the tailor, and here’s your profit! In addition, judge for yourself, every time you go to her, he takes a cab from the stock exchange and keeps him there for half a day. It's worth something! And what does it beat from? Divi... The wind is all in my head.
Lyudmila. Maybe he likes her?
Shablova. But it’s a disgrace for a poor man to court a rich woman and even spend money himself. Well, where should he go: there are such colonels and guardsmen there that you really can’t find words. You look at him and just say: oh, my God! Tea, they’re laughing at ours, and look, she’s laughing too. Therefore, judge for yourself: a sort of colonel will roll up to the porch on a couple with a harness, rattle a spur or saber in front, glance in passing, over his shoulder, in the mirror, shake his head and straight into her living room. Well, but she is a woman, a weak creature, a meager vessel, she will look at him with her eyes, well, as if she’s boiled and done. Where is it?
Lyudmila. So that's what she is like!
Shablova. She only looks like a great lady, but when you look closer, she is quite cowardly. She gets entangled in debts and cupids, so she sends for me to tell her fortunes with cards. You talk and talk to her, but she cries and laughs like a little child.
Lyudmila. How strange! Is it really possible to like such a woman?
Shablova. But Nikolai is proud; I got it into my head that I’ll conquer it, so I’m tormented. Or maybe he was out of pity; therefore it is impossible not to feel sorry for her, poor thing. Her husband was just as confused; They ran around and made debts, they didn’t tell each other. But my husband died, and I had to pay. Yes, if you use your mind, you can still live like this; otherwise she will get confused, dear, head over heels. They say she started giving bills in vain, she signs without knowing what. And what kind of condition it was, if only it were in hand. Why are you in the dark?
Lyudmila. Nothing, it's better that way.
Shablova. Well, let's wait a bit and wait for Nikolai. But someone came; go get a candle. (Leaves.)
Lyudmila(at the door to the hallway). It is you?
Dormedon enters.
PHENOMENA SECOND
Lyudmila, Dormedont, then Shablova.
Dormedont. I'm with.
Lyudmila. And I thought... Yes, however, I’m very glad, otherwise it’s boring alone.
Shablova enters with a candle.
Shablova. Where have you been? After all, I thought that you were at home. You'll feel cold, you'll get sick, look.
Dormedont(warming himself by the stove). I was looking for my brother.
Shablova. Found?
Dormedont. Found.
Shablova. Where is he?
Dormedont. Everything is there.
Shablova. Another day at the tavern! Please tell me what it looks like!
Dormedont. He plays billiards.
Shablova. Why didn't you take him home?
Dormedont. He called, but he didn’t come. Go, he says, tell mommy that I’m an adult, so she doesn’t worry. Home, he says, when I feel like it, I’ll find the way without you; I don’t need escorts, I’m not drunk. I already cried in front of him. “Brother, I say, remember home! What a miner you are! People are looking for work, but you yourself are running away from business. Today, I say, two shopkeepers came to write a petition to the magistrate, but you are not at home. This way you will scare everyone away." - “I don’t like collecting pennies,” he says. But here I have last ruble begged. Well, I gave it away - my brother, after all.
Shablova. Are you cold?
Dormedont. Not good. I'm all for the house, but he's not. If I ever chop wood, so what’s the importance! Now I put on a robe, went to chop, and even exercise. Isn’t that right, Lyudmila Gerasimovna?
Lyudmila. Do you love your brother?
Dormedont. How come...
Lyudmila. Well, love it more! (Gives Dormedon his hand.) You are kind, good man. I'll go get work. (Leaves.)
Shablova(following Lyudmila). Come, let's get bored together. (To Dormedon.) Look, you're so cold, you still can't get warm.
Dormedont. No, mummy, nothing; It’s just that there was no possession in the middle finger, but now it’s gone. Now I'm all about writing. (Sits down at the table and sorts out the papers.)
Shablova. I'll lay out the cards for now. (Takes cards out of his pocket.)
Dormedont. Mama, don’t you notice anything in me?
Shablova. No. And what?
Dormedont. But, Mama, I’m in love.
Shablova. Well, then, to your health.
Dormedont. Yes, Mom, seriously.
Shablova. I believe it's not a joke.
Dormedont. What jokes! Tell your fortune!
Shablova. Let's guess! Come on, old and small, pour from empty to empty.
Dormedont. Don't laugh, mummy: she loves me.
Shablova. Eh, Dormedosha! You are not the kind of man that women love. Only a woman can love you.
Dormedont. Which one?
Shablova. Mother. For a mother, the worse the child, the sweeter it is.
Dormedont. Well, mummy, what's wrong with me? I am for home...
Shablova. But I know who you're talking about.
Dormedont. After all, how can you not know, you’re already alone. But now I came, rushed to the door, said: “Is that you?”
Shablova. Did you rush? Look! But she wasn't waiting for you. Isn't it your brother?
Dormedont. It’s impossible, Mama, have mercy.
Shablova. Well look! But it looks like it’s happening!
Dormedont. Me, mummy, me! Now, if only I had the courage, and the time to find out, so that I could open my whole soul just right. Act?
Shablova. Take action!
Dormedont. And what about the cards, Mama? What are they telling me?
Shablova. There's some confusion, I can't figure it out. There, it seems, the merchant is getting ready to go home; go tell him to shine the light. (Leaves.)
Dorodnov and Margaritov come out.
PHENOMENA THIRD
Dormedont, Dorodnov and Margaritov.
Margaritov. But you and I are old friends.
Dorodnov. Still would! How many years. Gerasim Porfiryich, you know what? Let's have a drink now. Now I am a coachman for Bauer...
Margaritov. No, no, don't ask!
Dorodnov. How strange are you, brother! Now I suddenly have a fantasy; should you respect?
Margaritov. This fantasy comes to you often. Are you talking about business... Tomorrow we need to see a broker...
Dorodnov. What about the matter! I'm on you like stone wall. You see, I haven't forgotten you; that's where I found it.
Margaritov(shakes his hand). Thank you, thank you! Yes, this is where fate has brought me. You a kind person, you found me; and others abandoned, abandoned to be a victim of poverty. There are almost no serious things to do, I get by with a few things; and I love big appeal cases, so that there is something to think about and work on. But in old age there is nothing to do, they began to run around; It's boring without work.
Dorodnov. It wouldn’t be boring at all, but come on, tea, come and be hungry.
Margaritov. Yes, yes, and hungry.
Dorodnov. Cheer up, Gerasim Porfiryich! Maybe with mine light hand... As you know, try your best!
Margaritov. What kind of requests! I know my stuff.
Dorodnov. Come by tomorrow evening. Don’t be afraid, I won’t force you, I’ll treat you lightly.
Margaritov. Okay, okay, I'll come in.
Dorodnov. Well, then, it’s a pleasant time.
Margaritov. Oh, wait, wait! forgot. Wait a bit!
Dorodnov. What else?
Margaritov. I forgot to give you a receipt indicating what documents I received from you.
Dorodnov. Here's another! No need.
Margaritov. No, order.
Dorodnov. No need, weirdo. I believe.
Margaritov. I won't let you out without it.
Dorodnov. And why only these proclamations?
Margaritov. God is free in life and death. Of course, they won’t disappear from me, I’ve become careful now...
Dorodnov. But what happened?
Margaritov. Was. This is what happened to me. When my name was still thundering throughout Moscow, I had a dime a dozen of other people’s affairs and documents. All this is in order, in cabinets, in boxes, under numbers; Only, out of my own stupidity, did I previously have trust in people; It happened that you would send a clerk: get it, they say, there’s something in such and such a box; well, he carries it. And the clerk stole one document from me and sold it to the debtor.
Dorodnov. How big is the document?
Margaritov. Twenty thousand.
Dorodnov. Wow! Well, what are you doing?
Margaritov(with a sigh). Paid.
Dorodnov. Did you pay everything?
Margaritov(wiping away tears). All.
Dorodnov. How did you get away with it?
Margaritov. I gave away all my labor money, sold the house, sold everything that could be sold.
Dorodnov. Is that how you fell into decline?
Margaritov. Yes.
Dorodnov. Did you suffer unnecessarily?
Margaritov. Yes.
Dorodnov. Wasn't it easy?
Margaritov. Well, I already know what it was like for me. Do you believe? There is no money, no money from work, no nest, no nest, my wife was already ill, and then she died - she couldn’t bear it, she lost her trust, (whisper) I wanted to kill myself.
Dorodnov. What you! Our place is sacred! Are you crazy, or what?
Margaritov. You'll be crazy. So one evening, melancholy gnaws at me, I walk around the room, looking for where to hang a noose...
Dorodnov. Look, God bless you!
Margaritov. Yes, I looked into the corner, there was a crib there, my daughter was sleeping, she was two years old at the time. I think who will be left with her? A? Do you understand?
Dorodnov. How can you not understand, head!
Margaritov. Who will be left with her, huh? Yes, I’m looking at her, I’m looking at this angel, I can’t leave my place; and in my soul there seemed to be some warmth pouring out, all the opposing thoughts seemed to begin to make peace with each other, to calm down and settle into their places.
Dorodnov. And this, it turns out, is arbitrary.
Margaritov. Listen, listen! And since then I have been praying to her as my savior. After all, if it weren’t for her, oh, brother!
Dorodnov. Yes, it definitely happens; God save everyone!
Margaritov. So... What did I start talking about? Yes, so since then I’ve been careful, I lock it with a key, and my daughter has the key. She has everything, money and everything. She's a saint.
Dorodnov. Well, why are you saying such words?
Margaritov. I'm sorry, what! You do not believe? Holy, I tell you. She is meek, sits, works, is silent; there is need all around; after all, she sat through her best years in silence, bending over, and not a single complaint. After all, she wants to live, she must live, and never says a word about herself. He’ll earn an extra ruble, and you’ll see, it’ll be a present for your father, a surprise. After all, there are no such things... Where are they?
Dorodnov. I would like to get married.
Margaritov. Yes, with what, you wonderful man, with what?
Dorodnov. Well, God willing, you will do something for me worth two hundred thousand, so then...
Margaritov. Well, just wait, I’ll give you a receipt now...
Dorodnov. Okay, I'll wait.
SCENE FOUR
Dorodnov and Dormedont.
Dorodnov(sits down). There are all sorts of things in the world, everything is different, everyone has their own, and everyone should take care of themselves. And you can’t help but feel sorry for others, and you can’t feel sorry for everyone; because suddenly a sin might happen to you, so you need to save pity for yourself. (Looks at Dormedont.) Scribble, scribble! Should I talk to you?
Dormedont. What, sir?
Dorodnov. You... how are you?... Popisukhin, come closer here!
Dormedont. You would be more polite if you don’t know the person.
Dorodnov. Oh, sorry, your honor! And you live without complaints, you will be fuller. Come here, I'll give you some money.
Dormedont(approaching). For what?
Dorodnov(gives three rubles). Yes, you live well.
Dormedont. I humbly thank you, sir. (Bows.)
Dorodnov(ruffles Dormedont's hair). Oh, you shaggy, not our country!
Dormedont. Completeness! what do you?
Dorodnov. And what, dear friend, won’t this same lawyer falsify the documents if you believe him?
Dormedont. How is it possible that you!
Dorodnov. I would give it to a good one, but they are very arrogant, they should call him sir, and it’s expensive. So if you notice any falsity, run to me now, this way and that, they say.
Dormedont. Yes you! Be at peace.
Dorodnov. Well, go ahead and write!
Dormedont. Yes, I'm done, sir.
Dorodnov. Only you don’t give a damn to the lawyer! Do you get a lot of salary?
Dormedont. Ten rubles a month.
Dorodnov. Well, that's okay, okay. You also need to eat something. Everyone owes their labors; therefore, look: is it a bird or something...
Margaritov enters, Dormedont leaves.
SCENE FIFTH
Margaritov and Dorodnov.
Margaritov(giving the receipt). Here, hide it!
Dorodnov(hides the receipt). What kind of little clerk is this?
Margaritov. Well, clerk? Nothing. He's stupid, but he's a good guy.
Dorodnov. Dodger, I see big hands. Keep your eyes peeled for him.
Margaritov. Well, don't talk idle!
Dorodnov. Take a look, I advise you. Well, the guests will sit, sit, and then go. (Wants to go.) Wait! I forgot about that. I still have a document at home, this is an individual article; I don’t interfere with him and those. I should at least leave him at that time; Yes, let me, I think, I’ll get some advice on what to do with him, it’s still a pity.
Margaritov. What's the matter?
Dorodnov. I inherited this very document from my uncle, along with all the papers that I brought to you. Yes, he's kind of dubious. Well, I think he got so much already, there’s nothing to regret about it, no matter what you get from him, everything is fine, otherwise even if he disappears.
Margaritov. Who is the document for?
Dorodnov. For a woman. There is only one widow here, her nickname is Lebedkina. Confused woman.
Margaritov. Does she have anything?
Dorodnov. How not to be! I've squandered it, but I'm still able to pay.
Margaritov. So let's get it.
Dorodnov. You can get it if you scare it.
Margaritov. How?
Dorodnov. The document was issued with the guarantee of her husband, they didn’t really believe her, but the guarantee was fake. The husband was in paralysis, without any movement, when she issued the document.
Margaritov. So scare.
Dorodnov. It follows; Only a thorough merchant should get involved with a woman, as I understand it, morality. I’ll tell you, you can do it on your own behalf, as you wish, so that I don’t get confused.
Margaritov. Well, then consider that this money is in your pocket.
Dorodnov. Get at least half!
Margaritov. I'll get everything.
Dorodnov. You won't regret it, then?
Margaritov. Why feel sorry for the rogues!
Dorodnov. The resourceful little woman wouldn’t entangle you in your old age; speaks - you will melt.
Margaritov. Well, here's another! Interpret here! Here's my hand to you, that in two days you have all the money.
Dorodnov. So, get this article out of your head. Tomorrow I will give you the document. Well, you can’t talk through everything, we’ll leave something for tomorrow; and now, in my opinion, if you don’t drink, it’s time to sleep. Goodbye!
Margaritov. Someone shine a light there! (Leaves With merchant in the hall.)
Margaritov, Shablova and Dormedont return from the hallway. Lyudmila leaves her room.
SCENE SIX
Margaritov, Shablova, Lyudmila and Dormedont.
Shablova. Would you like some dinner?
Margaritov. Have dinner if you want, I won’t have dinner. Lyudmilochka, I’ll be sitting for a long time today, you go to sleep, don’t wait for me. (Walks around the room.)
Lyudmila. I myself want to sit longer today and work. (Template.) Will you have dinner now, won’t you wait for anyone?
Shablova. Yes, we should wait.
Lyudmila. Well, then I'll sit with you.
Dormedont. Is there really a businessman for me, Gerasim Porfiryich, for company?
Margaritov. Wait, it will matter to you too. Lyudmila, I have work to do, work to do again. Fortune smiles; lucky, luck fell, luck fell.
Lyudmila. I'm so happy for you, dad!
Margaritov. For me? I don’t need anything, Lyudmila; I live for you, my child, for you alone.
Lyudmila. And I am for you, dad.
Margaritov. Enough! God willing, we will have contentment; in our craft, if you’re lucky, you’ll soon get rich – so you’ll live for yourself, and how you’ll live!
Lyudmila. I don't know how to live for myself; The only happiness is when you live for others.
Margaritov. Don’t say that, my child, don’t belittle yourself; you make Me Feel sad. I know my guilt, I ruined your youth, well, I want to correct my guilt. Do not offend your father, do not refuse in advance the happiness that he wishes for you. Well, goodbye! (Kisses Lyudmila on the head.) Guardian angel above you!
Lyudmila. And above you, dad.
Margaritov goes to his room.
Shablova. This is something nice to see, but I have sons...
Dormedont. Mommy, is it me? Am I not giving you peace, am I not a caretaker for the home?
Shablova. That’s right, but there’s not much to expect from you. But my brother is smart, yes... and there’s no better way to say it! Tortured my mother! Handle him like some kind of cripple. (Listens.) Well, it’s knocking, we didn’t wait long. Go tell them to let them in and lock the gates. (Leaves.)
Lyudmila comes to the window.
SCENE SEVEN
Lyudmila and Dormedont.
Dormedont(About myself). Shouldn't we start now? (Lyudmila.) Lyudmila Gerasimovna, how do you understand your brother?
Lyudmila. I don't know him at all.
Dormedont. However, by his actions?
Lyudmila. According to what?
Dormedont. Against mommy.
Lyudmila. What did he do against her?
Dormedont. And he sits in the tavern.
Lyudmila. Maybe he's having fun there.
Dormedont. Not much is fun. That's how I would go.
Lyudmila. Why aren't you coming?
Dormedont. No, sir, I don’t have those rules. For me, home is better, sir.
Lyudmila. Completeness! What's good here! Well, there’s nothing to say about us; but for a man, especially a young one...
Dormedont. Yes, sir, when he doesn’t feel it.
Lyudmila. What do you feel?
Dormedont. Yes I am, yes I am...
Shablova enters with a note in her hands.
SCENE EIGHTH
Lyudmila, Dormedont and Shablova.
Dormedont(About myself). They got in the way!
Shablova wipes away her tears.
Lyudmila. What's wrong with you?
Shablova. Yes, this is my child...
Lyudmila(with fear). What's happened?
Shablova(giving a note). Here he sent it with a boy from the tavern.
Lyudmila. Can I read it?
Shablova. Read it!
Lyudmila(is reading).“Mommy, don’t wait for me, I’m playing too hard. I have an unpleasant situation - I lose; I got involved to play with a player who is much stronger than me. He seems to honest man, he needs to give money, but I don’t have money; That's why I can't stop playing games and get more and more addicted. If you want to save me from shame and insults, send me thirty rubles by messenger. If only you knew how much I suffer for such an insignificant amount!”
Shablova. Please say “insignificant”! Work it out, go ahead!
Lyudmila. “For speed, I sent the boy in a cab; I’m waiting and counting the minutes... If you don’t have it, find it somewhere and borrow it! Spare no money, spare me! Don't ruin me out of cheap calculations! Either money, or you won't see me again. Send the money in a sealed envelope. My loving son Nikolai."
Shablova. Good love, nothing to say!
Lyudmila. What do you want to do?
Shablova. What to do? Where can I get it? I only have ten rubles, and even then they’ve been put aside for provisions.
Lyudmila. But you have to send it.
Shablova. Lost, you see! Who forced him to play? I would stay at home, things would be better that way.
Lyudmila. It's too late to talk about this now.
Shablova. Divi would really need it! And then he lost, the extreme is small.
Lyudmila. No, it's big. You heard him write: “You won’t see me again.”
Shablova. Well, then, my fathers, I won’t be torn apart because of him. Tyrant, tormentor! What a punishment! And for what, for what? Didn’t I love him...
Lyudmila. Let me! Why all this talk? Only time passes, and he waits there, suffering, poor thing.
Shablova. He is suffering, such a barbarian! Take a piece of paper, Dormedosha, and write to him: why did you think that your mother would send you money? You should carry it into the house yourself, and not drag it out of the house.
Lyudmila. Wait! This is impossible, it’s inhumane! Give me the envelope! Just write it down! (Takes out a fifty-ruble note from his purse. Dormedont writes on the envelope.)
Shablova. What are you, what are you! Fifty rubles!
Lyudmila. Now there is no place to change, and no time.
Shablova. And aren't you the last ones yet?
Lyudmila. This is exactly the case when the latter are sent. (Takes the envelope from Dormedont, puts the money in and seals it.)
Shablova. After all, he won’t bring change; Now how long will you have to live with me for this money?
Lyudmila. Not at all, you will get yours. I’m not giving this money to you, I’ll take him into account.
Shablova. Yes, you are a heavenly angel! Oh, my God! Where are these people born? Well, I would...
Lyudmila. Bring it, bring it! He's waiting, counting the minutes.
Shablova. Dormedosha, go to dinner, you are welcome too; I'm now...
Lyudmila. I won't.
Shablova. Dormedosha, go! There are such virtuous people in the world. (Leaves.)
Dormedont(About myself). Now it must be just right... (Lyudmila.) How do you feel about our family...
Lyudmila(thoughtfully). What do you?
Dormedont. What a location, I say...
Lyudmila. Yes Yes.
Dormedont. Of course, not everyone...
Shablova behind the scenes: “Go, or something, I’m waiting!”
Wait, mommy. Of course, I say, not everyone can feel...
Lyudmila(thoughtful). I don't understand.
Dormedont. You are here for my brother, but I feel it. Can he...
Lyudmila(giving hand). Good night! (Leaves.)
Shablova behind the scenes: “Go ahead! How long will we have to wait?
Dormedont. Eh, mummy! This may be my whole destiny, but you are in the way! (Looks around.) She's gone. Well, another time; it seems that things are going well.
UDC 82: 09 O-77
T.V. Chaikina
PLAY BY A.N. OSTROVSKY “LATE LOVE”: SPECIFICS OF THE GENRE
When interpreting Ostrovsky's plays, it is necessary to take into account their genre designations. “Scenes from the life of the outback” “Late Love” shows a separate episode from the life of the characters, which reflects the life, customs, and value systems of the inhabitants of the Moscow outskirts. Four scenes following each other are plot-related, the events are extremely concentrated in time and space.
Keywords: genre, scenes, critical assessments, key episodes, everyday atmosphere, spiritual environment, love affair, stage directions, dialogues, monologues, chronotope.
A.L. Stein rightly emphasized that
A.N. Ostrovsky was a great master of the Russian genre, and his art is everyday, genre. Following the title of each of his plays, the author gave a genre subtitle, clearly indicating the features dramatic action, as well as image space. One of the most common genres in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy was scenes. Already in 1850, the scenes “Morning” appeared young man" In 1858 - “scenes from village life""The pupil", then "scenes from Moscow life" "Hard days" (1863), "The Abyss" (1866), "Not everything is Maslenitsa for the cat" (1871).
In 1873, in “Notes of the Fatherland,” Ostrovsky published “scenes from the life of the outback,” “Late Love,” and in 1874, “Labor Bread” with the same genre subtitle. In these plays, the playwright reflected the contradictions of life in the 70s of the 19th century. “The Moscow that was captured in “Bankrupt” and “The Poor Bride” has gone, disappeared, and when he wanted to remember it in some new play of his, to look into its former corners that were miraculously preserved, he had to, as if apologizing, note every time: “Scenes from the life of the outback”^ ...> The style of life, her whole appearance, was different,” noted
B.Ya. Lakshin.
Ostrovsky's new approach to recreating life caused contradictory and sometimes hostile judgments in criticism. Thus, the position of the reviewer of the newspaper “Grazhdanin”, who had his own stereotypes in the perception of Ostrovsky, was irreconcilable. He is clearly trying satirically to convey the content of the play and characterize its characters. The critic’s reflections are sometimes filled with sarcasm: he calls Lyudmila, the main character of the play, “a thief with cynicism”
and “nihilist”; Shablova's sons - Cain and Abel, emphasizing the honesty and kindness of one and the dissipation of the other. The critic explains the weakness of the play by the fact that “Late Love,” in his opinion, was originally conceived by the playwright as a parody of some kind of comedy. In conclusion, the reviewer of “Citizen” bluntly states: “Is it really all that we just saw that was Ostrovsky’s play? But where is his talent, where are his rich types, where is at least a trace of some kind of struggle, where is at least something similar to Ostrovsky? . What kind of fight did the reviewer want to see? Obviously, the one that the playwright N.A. Dobrolyubov noted: the clash of “two parties - older and younger, rich and poor, willful and irresponsible.”
The reviewer of the Odessa Bulletin, S.G., did not see the originality of Ostrovsky’s new play. Her-tse-Vinigradsky, V.P. Burenin, critic of the St. Petersburg Gazette, as well as V.G. Avseenko, who categorically pointed out the playwright’s connection with the traditions of Gogol in an effort to portray a “low-lying, rough environment.”
An exception to the general chorus of voices was a note in the St. Petersburg Gazette dated November 30, 1873, the author of which pointed out a number of advantages of Ostrovsky’s new play. According to the reviewer, the first two acts of the play are especially good, since “the action is lively, all the faces are masterfully outlined, and, as always with Mr. Ostrovsky, the conversation is replete with successful, apt, typical expressions.” Strength“Late Love”, a critic of St. Petersburg Vedomosti, considers the originality of the characters, pointing out that the best faces in the play are “the old woman Shablova, the simpleton son of her and Lebyadkin, especially the latter.” A word-sensitive reviewer
© T.V. Chaikina, 2009
notices the uniqueness of the characters’ speech, in which “the most cynical things” are expressed, albeit naively, but at the same time cleverly and uniquely. Thus, he believes that “among the most successful touches are the words of the old woman Shablova: “What kind of character does a poor man have? Can a poor man have character?.. His dress is bad - that’s why he’s shy. Otherwise - character!” ".
The author of the review does not at all seek to compare the scenes of “Late Love” with the “major plays” of the playwright, understanding that this work belongs to a new stage of Ostrovsky’s work, when there is not only a rethinking of some dramatic principles and the author’s approaches to the image way of life, pictures of everyday life, characters, but also cardinal changes are planned in life itself, and, as a consequence of this, the space of action also changes. Following the “pictures” and “scenes of Moscow life,” “scenes from the life of the outback” appear. Moreover, in the draft autograph there was a clarification, which the playwright later abandoned (“scenes from the life of the Moscow backwoods”) [OR IRLI, f. 218, op. 1, units hr. 30, l. 4], thereby strengthening the typicality of the characters and the dramatic situation.
The critical thought of the playwright’s time was not yet ready to admit that Ostrovsky in the 1870s began to write no worse, but differently, “mastering new facts of the drama of life and new forms of its embodiment.” There were also minor attempts to interpret “Late Love” based on the characteristics of its genre. Only later, when “scenes from the life of the outback” “Labor Bread” appeared, the reviewer of “Moskovskie Vedomosti” Outsider would be one of the first to pay attention to the genre designations: “What does this mean? what is a scene, a picture in dramatic arts? The same as an etude, sketch, studio in painting. By designating his latest plays this way, Mr. Ostrovsky, as it were, warns the viewer or reader not to expect from him a work that is complete, fully thought out and completed, but to treat it with the undemandingness with which one looks at a sketch, at experience.”
In 1876, while working on the play “Truth is good, but happiness is better,” conceived as “scenes,” Ostrovsky himself, in a letter to F.A. Burdinu noted: “... this is not a comedy, but scenes from Moscow
what kind of life, and I don’t give them much importance.” By the way, E.G. Kholodov also believed that by calling plays “scenes” (or “pictures” close to them), “the playwright not only evaded the exact genre definition(comedy, drama), but also seemed to make an agreement with the public (and with critics) that this time he was not offering a full-fledged play, but just “scenes” that do not pretend to have any special integrity and plot harmony.” But still, to believe that the scenes are plays are insignificant, unfinished, it would be a mistake: in them to a greater extent Ostrovsky’s creative freedom is manifested, the skill of the author is not burdened by strict adherence to the laws of comedy and tragedy. Repeatedly creating scenes throughout his creative path, the playwright significantly enriched ideas about this genre and introduced something new into the genre thinking of his time. If the early scenes of Ostrovsky's "Morning of a Young Man", showing a typical morning of a Russian "philistine in the nobility", rather resemble a plotless everyday sketch, then later works, designated scenes, are plays with a developed plot structure, with a clearly defined intrigue; The author’s detailed approach to depicting pictures of everyday life and the accuracy of his everyday observations remain unchanged. Before the action begins, Ostrovsky always outlines the environment, the everyday atmosphere, within the framework of which the plot begins to develop.
The play “Late Love” opens with an extensive and voluminous remark, recreating in detail the way of life of the characters: “A poor room, darkened by time, in Shablova’s house. On the right side (away from the audience) are two narrow single-door doors: the closest one is to Lyudmila’s room, and the next one is to Shablova’s room; between the doors there is a tiled mirror of a Dutch oven with a firebox. In the back wall, to the right corner, is the door to Margaritov’s room; on the left is an open door to a dark hallway, in which you can see the beginning of the stairs leading to the mezzanine, where Shablova’s sons are housed. Between the doors is an antique chest of drawers with a glass cabinet for dishes. On the left side there are two small windows, in the wall between them there is an old mirror, on the sides of which there are two dim pictures in paper frames; under the mirror there is a large table of simple wood. Prefabricated furniture: chairs of different types and sizes; on the right side, closer to the proscenium,
digging up a half-torn Voltaire chair. Autumn twilight, the room is dark." The location of the action remains unchanged throughout the course of the play - the playwright has extremely concentrated the events in time and space.
Scenes are characterized by the author's interest in an individual, therefore plays of this genre are often based on several episodes from the life of the main character, plot-related and undoubtedly important for the hero, determining his future fate. At the center of the play “Late Love” is the love story of an elderly girl, Lyudmila, modest and virtuous. Already in the 1st scene of the first act, she appears on stage waiting for her beloved Nikolai with the words: “Have you come?.. Have you come?” . The heroine’s interlocutor, Felitsata Antonovna Shablova, Nikolai’s mother and “mistress of a small wooden house,” tells Lyudmila in detail about her son: “He studied well with me, he completed his university course; and, as luck would have it, these new courts have started here! He signed up as a lawyer - things went, and went, and went, raking in money with a shovel. From the very fact that he entered the moneyed merchant circle. You know, to live with wolves, howl like a wolf, and he began this very merchant life, that day in a tavern, and night in a club or wherever. Of course: pleasure; he's a hot man. Well, what do they need? Their pockets are thick. And he reigned and reigned, but things went between hands, and he was lazy; and there are countless lawyers here. No matter how much he got confused there, he still spent the money; I lost the acquaintance and again returned to the same poor situation: to my mother, which means that the sterlet fish soup was used for empty cabbage soup. He got into the habit of going to taverns - he had nothing to go to the good ones, so he started hanging around the bad ones.” Her father, Gerasim Porfirich Margaritov, “a lawyer from retired officials, an old man of handsome appearance,” will tell about the fate of Lyudmila herself: “Saint, I’m telling you. She is meek, sits, works, is silent; there is need all around; after all, she sat through her best years in silence, bending over, and not a single complaint. After all, she wants to live, she must live, and never says a word about herself. He’ll earn an extra ruble, and you’ll see, it’ll be a present for your father, a surprise. After all, there are no such things... Where are they? .
It is noteworthy that, despite the love conflict clearly expressed at the beginning of the play, Ostrovsky is in no hurry to dynamically develop
intrigue. The first phenomenon sets the general tone of the entire play: it represents only conversations between the characters, revealing their everyday worries and spiritual thoughts. However, already in these voluminous dialogues, leisurely conversations, some dynamics in the development of the love affair are noticeable: in them the author of “Late Love” contains not only information about the main characters, but also shows the relationships of the characters, involving new people in the plot of the play characters posing new problems.
It is characteristic that some researchers considered Ostrovsky’s late drama the embodiment of the structural logic of European comedy-intrigue, the drama of which is expressed precisely in the entanglement of complex circumstances within the framework of a multidimensional love conflict. However, the plot twists and turns of “Late Love” (financial scam, the relationship between Nikolai and Lebyadkina, etc.), the abundance of various circumstances that are not directly related to the development of the main love line, constitute only the external outline of the dramatic action, which is rather dictated genre features scenes Ostrovsky's skill lies in the fact that in individual scenes he depicts in detail and multifaceted the everyday, spiritual environment in which the main characters live, but the main line associated with the relationship between Lyudmila and Nikolai remains the only and most significant. The playwright himself wrote to his friend and artist F.A. Burdin about the careful work on the play, about the meticulous development of the love intrigue: “It cannot be said that I wrote this comedy hastily, I spent a whole month thinking about the script and stage effects and very carefully finishing the scenes of Nikolai and Lyudmila.”
If the first act represents Lyudmila’s anticipation of a meeting with her lover, then the second act is the meeting itself, where the heroine confesses her feelings, tells Nikolai about her life, about her past: “I lived my youth without love, with only the need to love, I behave modestly, I don’t impose myself on anyone; I, perhaps, with heartache, even gave up the dream of being loved.<...>Is it fair to awaken my feelings again? Your only one hint of love again raised both dreams and hopes in my soul, awakened both the thirst for love and the readiness for self-sacrifice... After all, this is late, perhaps the last love; you know what she's capable of... and you
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joke about her." Such memories, the heroes’ return to the past in conversations, explanations and confessions of a narrative-epic nature, undoubtedly slow down the pace of action, expanding its boundaries.
It was important for the author to show the specifics of the characters’ way of life in the next (second) act of the play. The main means of representation here are no longer the author’s remarks, but self-statement monologues, evaluative monologues, dialogues that are not only informative, but also contain elements of reasoning and analysis. So, already in the first appearance, Margaritov, leaving on his official business, warns his daughter: “Here, Lyudmilochka, the side is hungry, the people live from day to day; whatever they snatch, they are satisfied. A drowning man, they say, clutches at straws; Well, the starving man is because he is lying ill. Here everything will be stolen and everything will be sold, and clever people take advantage of this.<.>When you see a rich, well-dressed man come or visit here, know that he did not come for a good deed - he is looking for corrupt honor or conscience.” Lyudmila also believes that rich people “don’t go to the outback to get good things.” Having learned about the upcoming visit of Lebyadkina, a rich widow, to her house, Shablova is also surprised: “Come up with more ideas! Such a lady will go to our chicken coop.”
Ostrovsky begins the third act with vivid everyday signs, where Shablova’s first line - “the samovar has all boiled away” - adds a special flavor. The author continues to develop no less vividly love conflict, during which the heroes find themselves in difficult situation. The position of Nikolai, irrevocably entangled in the financial scam of Lebyadkina and the merchant Dorodnov, is hopeless; the position of Lyudmila is no less dramatic, giving her last money to her lover and ultimately betraying her own father, handing Nikolai a loan letter from Lebyadkina for his salvation. However, Ostrovsky did not seek to develop the action towards tragedy.
Actor Burdin, in a letter to Ostrovsky, accurately noted that the playwright “set the course of the play at the end of the 3rd act so that the viewer predicts the denouement in advance.” For Ostrovsky's scenes, this feature in the development of intrigue was typical. The ending of “The Pupil” (1859) is not unexpected, where patriarchal
the rows skillfully outlined by the author initially lead the action to the debunking of the heroine’s hopes; the denouement in “Labor Bread” (1874) does not look unexpected, where a girl living an independent working life has the right to choose her own groom, etc. The denouement in the fourth act of “Late Love” is a logical outcome in the relationship between Lyudmila and Nikolai. Ostrovsky showed that “readiness for self-sacrifice can change the person in whose name it is committed.” And Nikolai promises to give up his idle life and start working.
It is especially significant that in “Late Love” the denouement of the love affair does not at all coincide with the real end of the action. In a letter to Burdin dated October 29, 1873, Ostrovsky noted: “You still find a mistake in the fact that after the end of the play there is a conversation about cards; Yes, have mercy, for God’s sake, this is an ordinary, centuries-old classical technique, you will find it in both the Spaniards and Shakespeare.” This technique is a characteristic feature of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy, which allows similar transitions from pathos to comedy. In addition, the characters’ conversations after the resolution of the intrigue continue to recreate the heroes’ lives in a continuous flow, and due to the absence of final remarks, they add some understatement to the action. It is known that Ostrovsky himself considered such incompleteness of the play’s action an important genre feature of the scenes: “They may object to us that we have few completely finished artistic dramatic works. And where are there many of them? Let us only point out the everyday trend in drama that is emerging in our country, expressed in essays, paintings and scenes from folk life, the direction is fresh, completely devoid of routine and stiltedness and in highest degree efficient."
Thus, “scenes from the life of the outback” “Late love” is a separate stage in life main character plays, dramatic and, at the same time, the most important in her fate. The play consists of four key episodes, plot-related, sequentially revealing the story of the heroine's late love. Slowly developing love line, refusing a complicated plot, depriving the action of unexpected turns and denouement, constantly resorting to accurate and detailed everyday sketches, Ostrovsky forms the aesthetics of scenes - an independent and specific dramatic genre.
1. Ostrovsky A.N. Full collection cit.: In 12 vols. -M., 1973-1980.
2. A.N. Ostrovsky and F.A. Burdin. Unpublished letters. - M.; Pg., 1923.
3. Babicheva Yu.V. Ostrovsky on the eve of the “new drama” // A.N. Ostrovsky, A.P. Chekhov and the literary process of the 19th-20th centuries. - M., 2003.
4. Dobrolyubov N.A. Literary criticism: In 2 volumes. T. 2. - L., 1984.
5. Zhuravleva A.I. Ostrovsky is a comedian. - M., 1981.
6. Critical literature about the works of A.N. Ostrovsky / Comp. N. Denisyuk Vol. 3, 4. - M., 1906.
7. Lakshin V.Ya. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. - M., 2004.
8. Milovzorova M.A. On the peculiarities of intrigue in the late comedies of A.N. Ostrovsky // Shchelykovsky readings 2002.: Sat. articles. - Kostroma, 2003.
10. Farkova E.Yu. Virtue and vice in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky “Late Love” // Spiritual and moral foundations of Russian literature: collection. scientific articles in 2 parts. Part 1. - Kostroma, 2007.
11. Kholodov E.G. Ostrovsky A.N. in 1873-1877 // Ostrovsky A.N. Full collection cit.: In 12 volumes. T. 4. - M., 1975.
12. Chernets L.V. Plot and plot in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky // Shchelykov Readings 2007: Sat. articles. - Kostroma, 2007.
13. Stein A.L. Master of Russian drama: Sketches about the work of Ostrovsky. - M., 1973.
UDC 82.512.145.09 Sh 17
Z.M. Shaidullina
EMOTIONALLY-EXPRESSIVE PHRASES IN DISCOVERING THE CREATIVE WORLD OF NUR AKHMADIEV
This article reveals the originality creative world famous Tatar poet Nur Akhmadiev through a number of key concepts.
The artistic world of the poet:
a) psychological state lyrical hero;
c) emotionally expressive phrases.
Expressive coloring of words in lyrical works differs from the expression of the same words in non-figurative speech. In a lyrical context, vocabulary receives additional semantic shades that enrich its expressive coloring and help to reveal through the psychological state of the lyrical hero inner world poet.
The poetic creativity of Nur Akhmadiev has been little studied in Tatar literary criticism. This article examines only one side of the author’s poetic skill. That is, the features of expression of emotionally - expressive phrases in his artistic world.
Emotional meanings in a literary work are divided into types. Each of them is considered separately and plays important role in revealing the author's artistic world. One of these is emotional meaning, which is given in only one sentence, despite this it reveals the poet’s emotions completely. This emotional meaning is also a semantic component of the microtheme. In pro-
In the works of Nur Akhmadiev, emotional phrases are widely used, allowing, with the help of heroes - characters, to more fully show the artistic world of the author. These emotional phrases are distinguished by their brightness and rich, deep meaning. For example, one of the excerpts from the poem “Ketu kitkende”. Ketunets ktulere, Ketu kichen kaytyr ele, Tik... gomer ugulere.
(Ketu kitkende)
The herd goes to pasture, But the herd will return in the evening, Only... life passes.
(our translation)
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© Z.M. Shaidullina, 2009