The most famous work of A. S. Griboedov is the famous comedy "Woe from Wit." The story behind this play is extremely complex. The playwright composed it for several years. How this happened will be discussed in this article.
A bit about the author
The play "Woe from Wit" was written long enough. The story of the comedy was so long thanks to the exceptional employment of A. S. Griboedov. After all, literary work was far from his main occupation. Alexander Sergeevich was an example of an exceptionally gifted person. At eleven years old he became a student at Moscow University. At 13, Griboedov was a candidate in verbal sciences, but did not drop out of school, but graduated from two more prestigious departments: moral, political and physical and mathematical. Griboedov was fluent in ten languages. He wrote music and himself perfectly performed it on the piano. Alexander Sergeyevich was a professional diplomat, he became the first Russian ambassador to Iran and died, defending the interests of his Fatherland.
A perfectionist by nature, Griboedov honed his literary experiments to complete perfection. A thorough stylistic revision was made to Woe from Wit. The history of the creation of the work testifies to this. A detailed story about writing a book will be outlined below. First, we will get acquainted with the summary of the famous play.
The plot of the work
Surely any Russian person knows about the existence of the comedy "Woe from Wit." The history of creation, the plot of the work is known to a much smaller number of our compatriots. So what does Griboedov write about in his comedy? A young man of noble origin (Chatsky), after a long absence, comes to Moscow to see his beloved - Sofia. However, the girl takes it very coldly. She is in love with another person - the secretary of Molchalin. Chatsky is trying to unravel the reason for the indifference of Sofia. In search of an answer to his question, he visits the house of his beloved father, a senior official Famusov, several times. Here he encounters representatives of the Moscow aristocratic society, most of which adheres to conservative views. Frustrated by the coldness of Sofia, Chatsky begins to utter accusatory monologues. Gets literally to all comedy participants. A few dismissive phrases thrown at Molchalin offend Sophia so much that she spreads a rumor that Chatsky is out of his mind. This message is made public. At the end of the comedy, Sofia finds out about Molchalin's meanness, and Chatsky - about the betrayal of her lover. Famusov is told the whole truth about his daughter's meetings with the secretary. He becomes worried about rumors that may go on in the city. Sofia drives Molchalin away. Chatsky desperately leaves Moscow. This is the plot of the famous play.
The idea
The story of the creation of "Woe from Wit" began in the distant 1816. It was then, according to S. N. Begichev, that Griboedov had an approximate plan for comedy. Returning from a trip abroad, Alexander Sergeyevich came to a secular evening and was amazed at how in Russia they worship all foreigners. He immediately gave a fiery accusatory speech, thereby incurring a suspicion of insanity. To take revenge on the near aristocratic society, Griboedov decided to write a comedy. He often went to social events, balls and evenings, where he collected material for his work.
First edition
Work on the text of the comedy probably began in the 1820s. While serving in Tiflis, Griboedov wrote two acts of the play "Woe from Wit." The story of the creation of the work continued in 1823, in Moscow. The author was on vacation, attended social events and gained fresh impressions. This allowed him to unfold some of the comedy scenes barely outlined in Georgia. It was at this time that Chatsky’s fiery monologue, “And who are the judges?” Was created. In the summer of 1823, on the estate of S.N. Begichev completed the fourth and third acts of the work. However, the author did not consider his comedy complete.
Continuation of work
At the end of 1823 and the beginning of 1824, the play “Woe from Wit” underwent significant changes. The story of the creation continued. Griboedov metamorphosed not only the text. The surname of the protagonist also changed: from Chadsky he became Chatsky. And the comedy, called "Woe to the Mind," got its final name. In the summer of 1824 in St. Petersburg, Griboedov carried out an impressive stylistic revision of the first version of the work. He partially changed the first act (Chatsky’s monologue, the dialogue between Lisa and Sofia, the dream of the main character), and also placed in the final part of the comedy an explanation scene between Molchalin and Sofia. In the autumn of 1824, the final version of the play Woe from Wit was written. The story of the creation of the work on this was supposed to end. However, this did not happen.
Lists appear
The comedy immediately had problems with publishing. Censorship did not want to miss the scandalous work. The story of the creation of "Woe from Wit", or rather distribution among the reading public, continued. Hoping for the publication of his creation, Griboedov encouraged the appearance of handwritten versions. The most authoritative of them is the so-called Gendra list (belonging to A. A. Zhandru), which was amended by the hand of Alexander Sergeyevich himself. There was also Bulgarian - a carefully crafted handwritten copy of the play, left by the author in 1828 to V.F. Bulgarin. On the cover page of this list is Griboedov’s inscription: “I entrust my grief to Bulgarin ...” The writer hoped that an influential and enterprising journalist would be able to assist in the publication of “Woe from Wit”. The story of the comedy continued in clerical copies of the work. They sometimes changed depending on the preferences of the public.
First publications
Back in the summer of 1924, Griboedov was trying to print his comedy. However, it was not so easy to get permission to publish Woe from Wit. The story of the play continued in the offices of the censorship department. In December 1924, passages from the third and first parts of the comedy still saw the light of day. They were printed on the pages of the Russian Waist almanac. However, the text was substantially shortened and “softened” by censorship. Hero’s too bold statements were replaced by “harmless” and neutral. So, the well-known phrase “After all, you must depend on others” was corrected to “After all, you need to keep in mind others.” Mention was made of the references to “reigns” and “royal person” from the text of the work. However, even in this form, the publication of the comedy produced the effect of an exploding bomb. Pushkin recalled that the play “Woe from Wit” immediately made Griboedov one of the leading poets of his time.
The fate of the work
During the life of the writer, the full version of the play was never published. The story of the creation of "Woe from Wit" ended, but censorship prevented the spread of comedy among readers. Only in 1831 the full version of the work was released. It was published in German in the city of Revel. In 1833, in Moscow, with numerous censorship notes, the comedy was printed in Russian. Only in 1862 in Russia was the full author's version of the work published. The scientific publication of the comedy was carried out by the famous researcher Piksanov N.K. in 1913. "Woe from Wit" was published in the second volume of the Complete Academic Works of Alexander Sergeyevich Griboedov.
Theater performances
The play “Woe from Wit” turned out to be exceptionally impudent and topical. The story of the creation of the work is complex, but no less interesting is the fate of his productions in the theater. For a long time censorship did not let him through. In 1825, an unsuccessful attempt was made to play a play in St. Petersburg, on the stage of a theater school. For the first time the play "Woe from Wit" was staged in the city of Erivani in 1827. It was performed by amateur actors - officers of the Caucasian corps. A. S. Griboedov was present at the play. In 1831, with many censorship edits and notes, the comedy was played on the stage of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Only in 1860, the productions of "Woe from Wit" began to be carried out without restrictions.
Conclusion
For a very long time you can talk about the play "Woe from Wit." The history of creation, the summary of the work cannot give a complete picture of the genius of this creation. Griboedov created more than a theatrical play. He created a real manifesto in which he expressed his own attitude not only to social and moral problems in modern society, but also to questions about stupidity and mind, "normality" and insanity. Who, if not Alexander Sergeyevich, knew how much grief mental superiority could bring over other people. The comedy written by him tells of the loneliness and despair of an outstanding person, suffocating from a misunderstanding of others. In this sense, contains the tragic implication of "Woe from Wit." The history of creation and the place in the work of this work are special, subject to careful and scrupulous study.