In 1792, the novel “Poor Liza” was first published in the Moscow Journal. This work caused a lot of positive emotions among the contemporaries of the writer, the youth enthusiastically received it. People specifically searched for the places described in the book and found them, couples in love strolled near the Simonov Monastery, and the pond mentioned by the author, in which the main character drowned, was renamed “Lysine Pond”.
Inconsistency with the story of life
Karamzin introduced much new into
18th-century Russian
literature . “Poor Lisa” (analysis of the work showed that the story is an example of sentimentalism) shocked contemporaries with the sincerity of the feelings of the main characters. The love story between a nobleman and a simple peasant woman, the development of their relationship - all this was new for the end of the XVIII century, so not all readers drew attention to some of the contradictions that Karamzin allowed.
“Poor Lisa” (the analysis of the story was done back in the era of realism) is striking in that all the characters speak in the same language. In real life, this could not be, because the author and nobleman Erast belong to a society with secular education and speak accordingly, but Lisa and her mother are commoners who do not understand sublime phrases. But the writer set himself the goal not to show real life, but to beautifully describe the tragic love story of two people, to achieve compassion from readers.
Denial of submissions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Analysis of Karamzin's “Poor Liza” shows that the writer sought to refute the allegations of the French sentimentalist and thinker Rousseau, who sincerely believed that renouncing man from civilization would make him happier. The thoughts of the main character Erast are fully consistent with the ideas of Jean Jacques. The nobleman has a vivid imagination, well-read, loves romantic and idealistic stories, often mentally transferred to the past, when people were free from conventions, obligations, only did what they walked, they loved and idly spent their days.
After meeting with Lisa, Erast decides to succumb to pure joys and forget about conventions. According to Rousseau, the nobleman was supposed to find happiness in the arms of a simple peasant, but in life everything turns out to be much more complicated than in novels. An analysis of Karamzin's “Poor Liza” shows that Erast was never able to destroy the wall of the estate. The love of two socially unequal people no longer seems pure; over time, the feelings of a young man become cooler.
Sympathy for the heroes
Analysis of "Poor Lisa" by Karamzin shows that the author sympathizes with the main characters. He cannot warn them against mistakes, because the story was told by Erast himself 30 years after the tragic events. Suicide was harshly condemned by the church, but Karamzin is only sad that her beautiful body and soul have died. He does not see anything blasphemous in suicide, and drowning in a pond in general evokes thoughts of pre-romantic literature.
An analysis of Karamzin’s “Poor Liza” suggests that the author completely challenged Rousseau’s judgments, the closeness to nature did not help the protagonist survive the trials that fell to her lot and did not re-educate the protagonist.