Armsmith Levsha is the main character in N. Leskov's story. An interesting tale, which has become the plot of animated and feature films, theatrical performances, conveys the essence of the life of Russian talent.

The image and characteristics of Lefty in the story "Lefty" help to imbue with the events of the history of Russia, to understand how and how a simple Tula gunsmith lived.

Lefty's appearance

The master armourer Lefty remained known to everyone only by his nickname. Nobody knows his real name. The nickname was given for skillful use of the left hand. Even being baptized is more convenient for the master with the left. This ability surprised the British. Overseas engineers did not even imagine that you can become a skilled craftsman, owning not your right hand.

The left-hander suffers from strabismus. This characteristic is even more striking. How did the oblique man manage to forge the smallest details for a miniature flea? What is his visual acuity that he works without any microscopes and complex magnifying devices? Moreover, it performs the thinnest part of the product.

Other special features:

• a speck on the face;
• absence of "hairs" on the temples.

\ "... one oblique Lefty, a birthmark on the cheek, and the hairs on the temples were torn out during training ... \"

The teacher tore for the boy's hair, which means that the guy managed to be not a particularly diligent and diligent student.

The peasant dresses modestly because of poverty:

• worn-out peasant shoes (sparrows);
• kazakin on hooks.

He walks in what he was: in garments, one leg is in a boot, the other is wobbling, and the little hole is old, the hooks are not fastened, they are confused, and the collar is torn; but nothing, not embarrassed.

The guy is not shy about his appearance. I got used to it. In the story, there is no feeling of inconvenience when the boy is changed, that is, the clothes do not mean anything to him. It is scary to read the pages where he is stripped in the hospital and left practically naked on the cold floor. Someone really liked his new suit.

The image of a talent from the hinterland

The left-hander lives in the city of Tula in a small house. A cramped horomina - this is how the narrator characterizes him. The couriers who arrived with Platov tried to enter the hut, but failed. The doors were so strong that they remained standing, having withstood numerous blows of the heroic force. The roof of the house was removed faster, along the log. The tightness is proved by the staleness of the air, which, when the roof was removed, rose so high above the house that there was not enough air for everyone around. The poor peasant loves his parents. When asked to stay in England, the first reason why he refuses new living conditions is his old parents. He affectionately calls his father a darling, and his mother an old woman. Lefty does not have his own family yet, he is not married.

I'm still bachelor.

The character of a hero from the people

Lefty is one of the three most skilled craftsmen in the city of Tula gunsmiths. This means that among all the gunsmiths of the ancient city, only those who are very talented were chosen. It is even difficult to imagine how many real artisans live in the city of arms production. According to the narrator, the entire Russian nation hopes for Lefty and his friends. The task facing the masters is to prove that Russian artisans can do everything better than others, in this story, better than the English.

The craftsmen are hardworking and persistent. They did not give the work before completion, not fearing the wrath of the chieftain, they brought everything to the end.

Special personality traits

The main character has many of his own individual characteristics, but at the same time, his personality traits make Lefty a symbol of the entire Russian people, kind and talented.

Education. The gunsmith was not trained to read and write, not educated, like almost all the peasantry in Russia in those years. His school consisted of two textbooks: "Psalter" and "Half-Dream". Talent lives in a master by nature. He managed to open it.

Cunning. A simple craftsman does not give out ideas that three gunsmiths had about an English craft. He is silent in England, not trusting his thoughts to overseas engineers. Cunning in a good way, without evil and intent.

Faith in God. The masters did not begin their work without the blessing of the higher divine powers. They went to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Gunsmiths hope for themselves and for help from above.

Determination and courage. The master is not afraid to meet the Russian emperor. Do not bother with torn clothes. He knows that, together with his friends, he fulfilled his order, he is ready to answer for the work. He boldly tells the king that they engraved their names on the horseshoes, what his work was.

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The image of Lefty in Leskov's work is quite interesting and unusual. There are very few people like him, and in our time, even more so. Goes with the flow, practically does not change anything, fate develops tragically, but he still enjoys life.

Lefty is a talented Tula gunsmith

When Nikolai Pavlovich, the Russian emperor, ordered to improve the flea brought from England by the previous emperor Alexander Pavlovich, Lefty was doing the hardest work.

He forged the smallest detail that even the human eye cannot see. Of the three masters who performed the operation to improve the flea, he was the most assiduous, resourceful, and talented.

Modest, inconspicuous and ugly

Despite all Lefty's work, many underestimated him. This was usually due to the appearance.

He was inconspicuous, ugly in face, oblique, and even left-handed. Almost no one knew what a huge potential is hidden in this seemingly most ordinary peasant.

But, as I said, people like our hero are not often met.

Dear Readers! We bring to your attention which was written by N. Leskov.

In his place, many would certainly have demanded monetary compensation for moral damage, or a personal workshop, or some other reward for the huge quality work done.

But Lefty was not like that. He calmly floated with the flow. I didn't climb anywhere. Perhaps he even underestimated himself. He did not demand anything at all, although he did not live so luxuriously.

Even on the paws of a flea, he did not sign, but simply made the work twice as difficult as the rest of the masters who forged the flea with him. So none of those who saw the creation of the joint activity of Russian and English masters did not find out that not two masters, but three masters were working on the work of art. And the name of the third remained unknown to the world.

Lefty's particular patriotism

Despite all the hardships that Lefty went through, he never betrayed his homeland. No matter how underestimated he was, he always remained faithful to his beloved country. When he went to England, it can be assumed that he really liked it there. He was offered to stay, promising all vital and comfortable conditions.

He knew that there his work would be appreciated. But Lefty remembered that closer than his native land, there is practically nothing for him, and it doesn't matter what kind of people there will be. The main thing is that at home. I had to refuse. For some, this may be common, but for Lefty it was a huge choice.

Dear Readers! We offer in Nikolai Leskov's story "The Old Genius"

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Lefty dies

On arrival in Russia, something terrible happens. Our hero gets very sick. Dates are so bad that they have to go to the hospital. His name has already been forgotten. What he did, too, have already forgotten. But who he is, everyone has already forgotten. The left-hander was admitted to a hospital for the poor. In the meantime, they carried it on a stretcher, they dropped it, and the guy broke his head. So he died in the hospital. None of those who saw him, none of those who surrounded him, or carried him in a stretcher, did not suspect that before their eyes a great master armourer was dying with whom almost no one could compare. But he still enjoys what he has. This is how the Lefty's life ends tragically.

Russian national character in the work of N.S. Leskov "Lefty"

creative work

3. The Russian national character of Lefty, the hero of the tale by NS Leskov

Leskov does not give a name to his hero, thereby emphasizing the collective meaning and significance of his character. The image of Lefty contains the main features of the Russian national character.

Religiousness

The religiosity of the Russian people is manifested in the episode when Tula craftsmen, including Lefty, before starting work, went to bow to the icon of “Mtsensk Nikola” - the patron saint of trade and military affairs. Also, Lefty's religiosity is “intertwined” with his patriotism. Lefty's faith is one of the reasons he refuses to stay in England. “Because, - he replies, - that our Russian faith is the most correct, and as our righteous fathers believed, the descendants should also believe in the same way.”

Willpower, courage and courage

The left-hander was among three gunsmiths for two weeks, working hard on the outlandish flea. All this time they were locked up, keeping their work in secret. It is here that the strength of the spirit manifests itself, since I had to work in difficult conditions: with closed windows and doors, without rest, so that during work I never leave their “cramped mansion”, in which “from restless work in the air such a sweaty spiral has become that an unaccustomed person could not breathe even once from a fresh fever. "

Patience and resilience

Many times Lefty shows patience and perseverance: when Platov “caught the left-hander by the hair and began to flap back and forth so that tufts flew,” and when Lefty, sailing home from England, despite the bad weather, sits on the deck in order to quickly see the Motherland :

“As we left the buffet for the Mediterranean Sea, so his desire for Russia became such that it was impossible to calm him down. The flooding has become terrible, but the left-hander does not go down into the cabins - he sits under the present, pushed his head down and looks to the fatherland. Many times the British came to a warm place downstairs to call him, but so that he would not be bothered, he even began to shrug. "

Patriotism

While in England, Lefty rejects the lucrative offers of the British: to settle in London, study science, visit factories in practice, get a prestigious job, get married, start a family. (“Stay with us, we will give you a great education, and you will become an amazing master”, “The British called themselves to send money to his parents”, “we will marry you”), as he loves his Motherland, loves her customs, her traditions. Lefty cannot imagine his life outside of Russia. “We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my old man is already an old man, and my parent is an old woman and are accustomed to going to church in her parish,” “but I wish rather to my native place, because otherwise I could get madness. "

Lefty is a true patriot, a patriot at heart, gifted from birth, he is characterized by high morality and religiosity. He went through many trials, but even at the hour of death, he remembers that he must tell the British military secret, ignorance of which negatively affects the combat capability of the Russian army.

· Kindness

Despite his strong affection for his homeland, Lefty refuses the British request to stay very politely, trying not to offend them. He does this in such a way that his refusal not only did not upset the British, but even aroused their respect. And he forgives ataman Platov for his rude treatment of himself. “Although he has an ovechkin's coat, he has a human soul,” says the “English half-skipper” about his Russian comrade.

Hard work and giftedness

One of the main themes in the story is the theme of the creative talent of the Russian person. Talent, according to Leskov, cannot exist independently, it must necessarily be based on the moral, spiritual strength of a person. The plot itself, the very history of this tale tells how Lefty, together with his comrades, was able to “surpass” the English masters without any acquired knowledge, only thanks to giftedness and hard work. Extraordinary, wonderful craftsmanship is the main property of Lefty. He wiped his nose with the "English craftsmen", shod a flea with such small nails that you can't even see it through the strongest "small scope". In the image of Levsha, Leskov argued that the opinion put into the mouth of Emperor Alexander Pavlovich was wrong: foreigners “have such a nature of perfection that as you look, you will no longer argue that we, Russians, are worthless with our meaning”.

The Lefty's own name, like the names of many of the greatest geniuses, is forever lost to posterity, but his adventures can serve as a memory of an era, the general spirit of which was captured accurately and correctly. The image of Lefty, according to the writer, reminds of those times when “the inequality of talents and talents” mattered, and makes us look with sadness at modernity, when, “favoring the rise of earnings, machines do not favor artistic prowess, which sometimes exceeded the measure, inspiring the people fantasy for the composition of such fabulous legends today. "

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