The image of Yermil Girin in Nekrasov’s poem “Who lives in Russia well” is one of the most colorful, since in this character the author embodied his vision of the best features in the Russian people: honesty, directness, selflessness and love of truth. At the same time, Nekrasov described his hero very believably, putting a story about him in the mouth of the peasants, who tell wanderers about him. It is not for nothing that the poet passes the narrative about him to strangers, thus trying to emphasize the truthfulness of the story.
general characteristics
The image of Yermil Girin is very symbolic in a philosophical sense. The whole essence of the poem is the search by the seven wanderers of a happy person in Russia. And in the chapter “Happy,” the author, through the mouth of the common people, talks about people who, according to the peasants, in their moral and moral qualities deserve to be known to everyone. But before talking about the heroes, it is necessary to note some facts about the creation and writing of the poem. Nekrasov began to write his, perhaps, the most famous work in the first half of the 1860s, although, perhaps, he began to make sketches earlier. The creation of the text and its publication lasted for several years and continued until the death of the author. At first he wanted to write eight parts, but due to the disease, he reduced the number of parts, and the final version included four parts.
Features
The image of Yermil Girin embodies the general intention of the author - the creation of a wide panorama of folk life in Russia. In a conventionally fabulous form, Nekrasov tells of the journey of seven wanderers who are looking for a truly happy person throughout the country. A characteristic feature of this work is that it has become a real epic canvas of the folk life of Russia. The poet tried to cover the main spheres of public and social life, to show the layers of the population and for this he selects representatives of various social layers as heroes, each of whom presents his story to the wanderers and tells about his disasters and problems. The author, for good reason, took such a path, since it was in this way that the narrative received particular convincingness and truthfulness. He himself, as it were, deliberately detached himself from the narrative and acts only as an observer, leaving his heroes to tell about themselves.
Heroes
The images of Yakim Nagoy and Yermil Girin occupy one of the central places in the narration for several reasons. Firstly, these are ordinary people from the people, ordinary peasants. Secondly, they are mentioned in the “Happy” chapter, which immediately distinguishes them from the rest of the characters, since the name of the chapter suggests that it is those who are sought by the wanderers during their trip to Russia. Thirdly, they do not tell about themselves, but the reader learns about them from the words of the villagers who knew them well. Thus, the author follows a folk tradition, according to which the rumor about a good and good person spreads throughout the earth, the whole world learns about him and his life becomes known to very many people.
Characters
The image of Yermil Girin is distinguished by the greater truthfulness and expressiveness that it is told to strangers by the whole world. What features distinguish peasants in his characterization? First of all, truthfulness: Yermil is an honest man who never used his position for his own benefit. Working as a clerk, he always helped the peasants, did not take bribes, acted in their interests. For this, everyone in the village loved and respected him, chose a burmist.
When he urgently needed money to redeem the mill, he appealed to all the people for help, and all those present at the fair helped him: everyone, people not even familiar to him, gave money to redeem the mill. It is in this episode that the image of Yermil Girin is most clearly revealed. Briefly about him in connection with this episode we can say the following: he is a truly folk spirit man, and therefore peasants help him with the whole world. And only once did he abuse his power: he sent to the recruits instead of his brother the son of a poor peasant. However, being naturally conscientious and truthful, he repented of his deed, resigned, repented to all the people. So, the image of Yermila Girin, which is briefly described in this section, is one of the most striking in the poem.
Yakim Nagoy is also a simple peasant, whose whole life goes in hard physical labor. He drinks a lot, and at first glance it seems that he is a finished man. However, Yakim is a man with a rich inner world. He has a sense of beauty: for example, he buys beautiful pictures, which became his only consolation, so that during a fire he saves them. So, in his poem, Nekrasov convincingly showed the images of ordinary peasants, each of whom is touching and sympathetic to the reader.