Liza and Erast are the central characters in N. M. Karamzin's story "Poor Liza". The history of their relationship is the engine of the plot of the whole work.
Lisa met Erast on the street after the girl was picking flowers for sale. The young man offered Liza a whole ruble, although the price of the flowers was five kopecks. The girl said that she would not take too much from him, so she took the prescribed five kopecks. In response to this, Erast told Liza that he wished that she would now pick flowers only for him. The next day, Erast was waiting for Lisa at her house.
Having met Liza's mother, Erast went home, and poor Liza's heart was already occupied with love for him. Erast also thought about Lisa, believing that it was in her that he found what he had been looking for for so long.
The next morning, Lisa met Erast, and they confessed their love to each other. Erast told the girl that he would always love her. Lisa wanted her mother, from whom the girl never had secrets and secrets, to know everything about their relationship, but Erast dissuaded her.
Now the heroes saw each other every evening and spent wonderful time with each other. However, everything changed after Lisa’s “chastity” was to perish one day. The girl was no longer for Erast the "angel of purity", which had previously delighted his soul. Liza, on the other hand, felt more and more love for Erast.
The lovers stopped seeing each other every day. On the sixth day of separation, Erast met with Lisa to tell her that he was leaving for the war. Erast, telling the girl that he would always love her, promised to return soon. Poor Liza was left alone. For two months the heroes found far from each other.
Once Lisa saw Erast on the street. The girl rushed to her lover, but learned from him that he was going to marry another woman.
Realizing that Erast had betrayed her, Liza threw herself into the river, and no one could save her. Erast, until the end of his days, considered himself a murderer and was truly unhappy.
To understand the reasons for the tragic love between the characters, it is necessary to reveal the images of the central characters. A comparative description of Lisa and Erast allows you to see their similar and different character traits.
Erast is a rich nobleman, Lisa is a poor peasant woman. Already here are the main reasons for the tragic ending of the relationship between the characters. Erast led a scattered secular life, he was looking for pleasure and was bored. Liza worked constantly to support herself and her mother. The heroine herself understood that their paths could not connect, Lisa dreamed that Erast was a simple peasant or shepherd.
The narrator notes that Erast had a good heart, this shows a resemblance to Lisa. However, Erast's heart was kind, but windy. Erast's love for Liza did not last long, and the girl was no longer able to forget her lover. After meeting with Lisa, Erast decided to leave the "big light", but the narrator notes that only for a while. This already suggests that Erast was not serious about relations with Lisa. Initially, he wanted their relationship to be built like a brother-sister relationship. Liza, on the other hand, completely surrendered herself to love for Erast.
Characteristics of Erast.
Sentimentalism is one of the most significant literary movements of the 18th century in Russia, the brightest representative of
which became N.M. Karamzin. Writers - sentimentalists showed interest in depicting ordinary people and ordinary human feelings.
In the words of Karamzin himself, the story "Poor Liza" is "a rather uncomplicated fairy tale." The plot of the story is simple. This is the love story of a poor peasant girl Liza and a rich young nobleman Erast.
Erast is a secular young man "with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy." Public life and secular
he was fed up with pleasure. He was constantly bored and "complained about his fate." Erast "read idyllic novels" and dreamed of
that happy time when people, not burdened by the conventions and rules of civilizations, lived carelessly
in the lap of nature. Thinking only of his own pleasure, he "looked for it in amusements."
With the advent of love in his life, everything changes. Erast falls in love with the pure "daughter of nature" - the peasant woman Lisa. He decided that he "found in Lisa what his heart had been looking for for a long time."
Sensuality is the highest value of sentimentalism
- pushes the characters into each other's arms, gives them a moment of happiness. Painting
pure first love is drawn in the story very touchingly. Erast admires his "shepherdess". “All the brilliant amusements of the great world seemed to him insignificant in comparison with the pleasures with which the passionate friendship of an innocent soul fed his heart.” But when Lisa gives herself to him, the satiated young man begins to grow cold in his feelings for her.
In vain Lisa hopes to regain her lost happiness. Erast goes on a military campaign, loses everything in cards
fortune and eventually marries a wealthy widow.
And deceived in the best hopes and feelings, Liza forgets her soul ”- throws herself into the pond near the Si ... new monastery. Erast
is also punished for his decision to leave Lisa: he will forever reproach himself for her death. "He could not be consoled and honored himself
killer." Their meeting, "reconciliation" is possible only in heaven.
Of course, the gulf between a rich nobleman and a poor villager
very large, but Liza in the story is least of all like a peasant woman, rather like a sweet socialite young lady, brought up on
sentimental novels.
There were many works similar to this story. For example: “The Queen of Spades”, “The Stationmaster”, “The Young Lady is a Peasant Woman”. These are the works of A.S. Pushkin; "Sunday" L.T. Tolstoy. But it is precisely in this story that the refined psychologism of Russian artistic prose, recognized throughout the world, is born.
END THE ESSAY IS WRITTEN BY I. S. GLOTOV ON "5"
N.M. Karamzin wrote an extremely touching and dramatic story about a simple and at the same time age-old situation: she loves, but he does not. But before answering the question of what is the characterization of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa", you need to at least refresh the plot of the work at least a little.
Lisa is an orphan. Left without a father, she is forced to go to work: selling flowers in the city. The girl is very young and naive. On one of her “working days”, Liza saw a young man (Erast) in the city who bought flowers from her, paying 20 times more than they cost. Erast said at the same time that these hands should collect flowers only for him. However, he didn't show up the next day. Liza was upset (like all young girls, she was very greedy for compliments). But the next day, Erast himself visited Lisa at her home and even talked to her mother. The young man seemed very pleasant and polite to the old mother.
And so it went on for some time. Erast reveled in the virginity and purity of Lisa, and she (a peasant girl of the 19th century) was simply stunned by the courtship of a young handsome nobleman.
The turning point in the relationship came when Lisa spoke about her possible imminent marriage. She was upset and depressed, but Erast reassured her and painted her future and said that the sky above them would be in diamonds.
Liza cheered up a little - she believed Erast and, on a wave of relief, gave him her innocence. As expected, the nature of the meetings has changed. Now Erast again and again took possession of the girl, using her without a twinge of conscience for his own needs. Then both Liza and the relationship with her bored Erast, and he decided to escape from all this burden to the army, where he did not serve the Fatherland, but quickly squandered his fortune.
Returning from the army, Erast, of course, did not say a word to Liza about this, she herself somehow saw him on the street in a carriage. She rushed to him, but after a not very pleasant conversation that happened between them, the former lover put Lisa out the door, putting money in.
Lisa, out of such grief, went and drowned herself in the pond. The old mother followed her in as soon as she learned about the death of her daughter, she immediately had a stroke, and she died.
Now we are ready to answer the question of what is the characteristic of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa".
Lisa was actually a child, despite the fact that she had to go to work early as her father died. But she did not have time to learn how to live properly. The girl's inexperience attracted a young superficial nobleman who sees the goal of his life in pleasure. In this row is poor Liza with her admiration. Erast was very flattered by the attitude of such a young and such a fresh girl, and she was naive to the extreme. Took the attitude of a young rake at face value, and it was all a game of boredom really. Who knows, maybe even Lisa secretly hoped for the position of a mistress over time. Of her other qualities of character, it is worth noting kindness and spontaneity.
Perhaps we have not described all the facets of the personality of the main character, but it seems that there is enough information here so that the characterization of Lisa from the story "Poor Lisa" is understandable and covers the very essence of her being.
The second main character of the story - Erast - is a typical aesthetic and hedonist. He lives only to enjoy. He has a mind. He could be brilliantly educated, but instead the young master just burns his life, and Lisa is entertainment for him. While she was pure and immaculate, the girl was interested in Erast, how the ornithologist was fascinated by the species of birds he had recently discovered, but when Lisa surrendered to Erast, she became the same as everyone else, which means that he got bored, and he, driven by a thirst for pleasure, moved on without really thinking about the consequences of his vile behavior.
Although the behavior of a young person becomes unethical only through the prism of certain moral values. If a person is unprincipled (which was Erast), then he cannot even feel the share of baseness that is contained in his actions.
A person who seeks only pleasure in life is superficial by definition. He is incapable of deep feelings. And, of course, he is an opportunist, which proves Erast's marriage for the sake of money with an already middle-aged widow.
At first glance, it seems that Lisa and Erast are like day and night, or good and evil. Accordingly, the characterization of Liza from the story "Poor Liza" and the characterization of Erast are deliberately opposed by the author of the story, but this is not entirely true.
If the image of Liza is good, then neither the world nor people need such good. It is simply not viable. Nevertheless, on the whole, a well-written (albeit slightly sentimental) story "Poor Lisa". The characteristic of Lisa, which can exhaustively define her, is naivety, reaching the point of stupidity. But this is not her fault, because we are talking about a peasant girl of the 19th century.
Erast is also not evil in its purest form. For evil, strength of character is needed, and the young nobleman is not endowed with it, to his regret. Erast is just an infantile boy running from responsibility. It is completely empty and empty. His behavior is disgusting, but it is difficult to call him evil, and even more so the embodiment of evil. This is all that the story "Poor Lisa" revealed to us. Erast's characterization is more than exhaustive.
Lisa and Erast are contrasted in Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa" as two worlds: the life-holiday of rich aristocrats and the unpretentious everyday life of peasant workers. Karamzin deliberately opposes the characters to each other in everything. Lisa, a poor peasant woman, is capable of lofty and self-sacrificing love; the author's enthusiastic assessment is given to the depth of feelings and Liza's mother, day and night mourning the death of her husband (“For even peasant women know how to love!”).
When Liza gave all of herself to Erast, suspecting nothing, her soul was so pure and pure, innocent! Who does she blame for what happened? Only yourself. She calls herself a criminal. Which of the two is more than guilty? Erast, since such relationships with women were not new for him, because he did not deny himself anything. He had to take care of Lisa's reputation: after all, at that time such relationships were reprehensible for a girl.
After this fatal intimacy, everything changed: Liza only lived and breathed for him, "obeying his will", and Erast began to come on dates less often, and once "for five days in a row she did not see him and was in great anxiety." Erast is no longer afraid of losing Liza's love, he is sure that Lisa will always be waiting for him. Was Erast really absent for five days only because he was preparing to go to war? So, Lisa now occupies not the most important place in his life? Meetings with her are pleasant to him, but he also finds other pleasures. Erast behaves insincerely, falsely, draws, tries to seem better, more noble than he really is.
Going to war, when parting with Liza, he says that he cannot help but go, since this will be the greatest dishonor for him, he talks about honor, about serving the fatherland. But in fact, "instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost all his possessions." And here is the face of an aristocrat: in love - a coward and a traitor, in relation to the fatherland - irresponsible and unreliable. But after all, Lisa fell in love with him for something! Indeed, there is a lot of good in Erast, the author himself says about him: "a rich nobleman, with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and windy." What influenced the emergence of weakness and windiness in his character?
Consider the lifestyle of the characters. In what conditions do they live, what do they do? We read about Lisa at the beginning of the story: “she worked day and night”, was responsible for her mother, tried to console her in grief, “to calm her mother, she tried to hide the sadness of her heart and seem calm and cheerful”, she was afraid to upset, excite her, even in while meeting with Erast, she thought about her mother. And Erast “was a distracted life, thought only about his pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements ... he was bored and complained about his fate.” Both in love and in lifestyle, Lisa and Erast are completely different people. What is their most important difference?
Karamzin leads the reader to understand this: they belong to different classes, which means that moral values are not the same for them. Let's think about the question: why did Erast leave Lisa? Didn't he dream of "living inseparably with her, in the village and in the dense forests, as in paradise"? Even having lost the estate in cards, Erast did not die of hunger, and, in addition to the estate, he probably still had wealth. What is the meaning of life for Erast? In money. For him, they matter the most. And in Karamzin's story, the theme of money runs through the entire plot. The acquaintance of Lisa and Erast began with the fact that Lisa was selling a bouquet of flowers, and Erast, wanting to make an acquaintance with a pretty girl, decided to buy lilies of the valley from her, offering a ruble instead of five kopecks.
Valuing only money, he believes that he will bring something pleasant to the poor girl he likes. From the same motives, Erast expressed a desire to pay ten times more for Liza's work than
she was worth it. For the sake of money, he plays cards in the army. For the sake of money, he marries without love an elderly rich widow. And in the episode of the last parting with Lisa, he gives her a hundred rubles, puts them in her pocket, as if paying off her for the sake of his well-being, for the sake of the opportunity to have a lot of money.
He traded love for money. And he sold himself for money. How does Lisa feel about money? If for Erast money is a source of pleasure, entertainment, then for Lisa they are a means of subsistence, but not an end in itself. She firmly learned the lessons of her mother, who taught: "... it is better to feed on your own labors and not take anything for nothing." How much dignity and nobility in these simple, poor people, crushed by need, but not losing their pride!
What is the meaning of life for Lisa? The meaning of her life is love, self-giving. Before meeting with Erast - this is love for the mother, caring for her, then - reckless love for "dear friend". Lisa will never trade love for money. This is evidenced by the act of the girl when she refuses the buyers, saying that the flowers are unsaleable, hoping that a beautiful master will come for them again, and at the end of the day, without waiting for Erast, she throws them into the river with the words: “No one owns you !" But she could help out for them the money that she and her sick mother needed so much. For Lisa, flowers are a symbol of love, because it was with a bouquet of lilies of the valley that her acquaintance with Erast began.
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Characteristics of Erast from the story Poor Liza according to plan
1. General characteristics. Erast is the main male character in N. M. Karamzin's story "Poor Liza". This is a rich young nobleman who played a fatal role in the fate of a simple peasant girl.
The main distinguishing qualities of Erast are carelessness and windiness. All the pleasures and entertainments of high society bored him for a long time. Erast's desire to fly away in dreams from the sinful world testifies to his vivid imagination and good heart, but this excessive daydreaming turns into big troubles.
2. Appearance. Erast is a "well-dressed, pleasant-looking man" with a "kind face". Attractive appearance combined with youth create the most favorable impression about him.
3. Erast duality. Up to a certain point, Erast's attitude towards Lisa was very chaste. The young man, long before meeting the girl, created in his imagination a beautiful image of a sweet and naive "shepherdess", which compares favorably with the women around him. A romantic dream came true in Lisa.
Frequent meetings, innocent hugs and kisses at first for Erast did not go beyond the boundaries of the created dream. He sincerely thinks: "I will live with Lisa, like brother and sister." The pleasure of simply communicating with a naive and trusting girl really awakened the best spiritual qualities in a young man.
Due to his characteristic carelessness, Erast does not even think about what this "holy" novel will lead to. It is very significant that the thought of the impossibility of mutual happiness is the first to come to Liza: "... you cannot be my husband!. I am a peasant woman." Erast prefers not to look into the future. Having read novels, he is confident that fate itself will find a happy way out for them.
The idyll instantly stopped after the loss of innocence by Lisa. Erast woke up from his dreams and "suddenly" realized that the continuation of a close relationship had no prospects. Meetings between lovers are becoming less and less common and become a burden for the nobleman. The call for service becomes real for Erast, and not an illusory way out of a delicate situation. Perhaps the young man had not yet thought about a complete break with Lisa, but separation gave him the opportunity to soberly assess the situation.
The negative side of Erast is clearly revealed in the "campaign". Instead of shedding blood for the country, Lisa's lover squanders his fortune in cards. The threat of complete ruin makes him finally say goodbye to his former illusions. The former dreamer is forced to submit to the harsh laws of life and, in order to avoid disgrace, marry a rich widow of his circle. It turns out that Erast is also a coward.
Returning home, he avoids meeting Lisa, although he could try to explain his hopeless situation to her. A chance meeting with a girl who continued to believe and wait makes him turn pale. The former affectionate attitude is replaced by frank rudeness, when Erast puts money in Lisa's pocket and escorts her out of the house.
4. Remorse. The author significantly softens the image of the forged seducer, dooming him to suffering from guilt for Liza's death. For the rest of his life, Erast was unhappy. These torments become for him a well-deserved punishment. The narrator hopes that Erast managed to earn forgiveness from Lisa in the afterlife.
