Literary living room

The image of the mother in Russian culture: music, painting, literature.

Presenter 1. (Churkina V.) Sirs and ladies! Ladies and Gentlemen! We welcome you to the opening of the literary lounge of school No. 73.

Since the 20s of the 19th century, Russian culture has experienced an extraordinary rise. The salon culture became particularly flourishing. Among the nobles were the most educated people, owners of extensive libraries, subtle connoisseurs of world philosophical thought, literary and musical creativity. Aristocrats gathered their own kind around them.

The Moscow Governor-General, Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn organized a cultural salon, which was a great success. One of the poets of Pushkin’s circle even lamented:“Why is it so boring at our gatherings, but Golitsyn’s is so fun?..”

P. A. Vyazemsky calls the ability to run a salon “art.” This elegant and subtle form of social life balanced on the brink of seriousness and entertainment, private and public. Here everyone should have felt at ease, but not gone beyond the bounds of social decency. The owners of the salons were usually women, since it was women who could create a cozy, relaxed atmosphere in the salon.

Presenter 2. (Kolesnichenko A.) Today our literary lounge is dedicated to the topic “The image of the mother in Russian culture.”We invite you to participate in a creative laboratory to create the image of a modern mother. In front of you is an easel with whatman paper, pencils, paints, felt-tip pens, markers and your imagination. As the action progresses, you can go to the easel and make your sketches.

Presenter 1. We look with respect and gratitude at a man who reverently pronounces the name of his mother until his gray hair and respectfully protects her old age; and we will execute with contempt the one who, in her bitter old age, turned away from her, refused her a good memory, a piece of food or shelter.

Presenter 2. Should you be born late or early?
At least for this world,
To say the word “MOM” for the first time,

Which is more sacred in the world.

We decided to take these words as an epigraph to our evening dedicated to the most precious person on Earth - MOM!

The song “Mom is the first word” is played (from the film “Mama”)

Presenter 1. In the languages ​​of the world, sequences of sounds ma, mama and the like in many, often completely unrelated languages ​​correspond to the word “mother”.

Rasul Gamzatov (Kirichenko V.)

And in Avar it is affectionately “baba”.
From thousands of words of earth and ocean
This one has a special destiny.

Our lullaby becoming the first word of the year,
It sometimes entered a smoky circle
And on the lips of a soldier in the hour of death
The last call suddenly became.

There are no shadows on this word,
And in silence, probably because
Other words, kneeling
They want to confess to him.

The spring, having rendered a service to the jug,
This word babbles because
What a mountain peak remembers -
She was known as his mother.

And lightning will cut through the cloud again,
And I will hear, following the rain,
How, absorbed into the ground, this word
Raindrops are calling.

I’ll sigh secretly, grieving about something,
And, hiding a tear in the clear light of day:
“Don’t worry,” I tell my mother, “
Everything is fine, my dear.”

Constantly worries about his son
Holy love is a great slave.
In Russian “mama”, in Georgian “nana”,
And in Avar - affectionately “baba”.

Presenter 2. Mother in many world cultures is a symbol of life, holiness, eternity, warmth and love.At all times, she was glorified and sung by artists, poets, and musicians. She was a dream, a smile, a joy...

Presenter 1.

There is a holy and prophetic sign in nature,

Brightly marked for centuries!

The most beautiful of women -

A woman with a child in her arms.

(Sokolov Maxim.) The famous philosopher and theologian Sergius Bulgakov said the following about Raphael’s famous painting “The Sistine Madonna”: “...there is wonderful beauty here, but human beauty, a beautiful young woman, full of charm, beauty and wisdom, is coming with a firm step with a baby in her arms... Femininity, motherhood are beautiful. It cannot be said about this beauty of the Renaissance (the Renaissance era) that it could “save the world,” because it itself needs saving ... "

(Nechaeva Daria) What a blessing it is when mom is nearby. It’s so good when you can turn to her for advice, with any joy or misfortune. It’s not for nothing that there are many good people living among them, kind words about mother. They are passed on from generation to generation. Let's, guys, remember the proverbs about mothers.

1. The bird is happy about spring, and the baby is happy about its mother.

2. There is no sweeter friend than your own mother.

3. When the sun is warm, when mother is good.

4. There is enough affection in a mother’s heart for all children.

(Filonov Alexander) Reverent veneration Holy Mother of God originates from the very first Christians, who also learned to love and honor the Most Pure Mother of Christ, to whom He Himself pointed as their Intercessor and Patroness, when from the Cross He adopted all Christians to Her in the person of the holy Apostle John the Theologian.

(Silko Dmitry) Recognition and veneration of the Mother of God in Rus' is a special phenomenon, this is an image incredibly dear to every Orthodox Christian. “Mother Intercessor!” - we say, calling on Her. We call her the Merciful, the Gracious, the Joy of All Who Sorrow, the Quick to Hear, the Joy and the Consolation. We turn to Her, probably the most sincere and touching prayer: “Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice, blessed Mary, the Lord is with you...”

(Ilyicheva Ekaterina) And this is not surprising, because there was and is not in Rus' a name more reverently pronounced, loved and glorified after the Lord than the Blessed Virgin.Therefore, Russian poets and writers could not help but turn in their work to the image of the Mother of God, and not sing of the One Who is “the most honest Cherub and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim.”

(Ermashova Liana ) Moreover, there is a great affinity between true poetry and prayer. Perhaps poetry in general was once born very long ago from the words of prayer, because rhymed lines, clothed in images and honed into beautiful forms, just soar and ascend to the beyond, just as simple, artless words of prayer with which a loving soul calls out to God and the Most Pure One Virgo.

(Valery Borodkin) Poetry is a quiet miracle that arises in the depths of a true poet and a true reader. What do we read and hear, understand and accept from Afanasy Fet?

A. Fet

Ave Maria - the lamp is quiet,

Four verses are ready in the heart:

Pure maiden, grieving mother,

Your grace has penetrated my soul.

Queen of the sky, not in the blaze of rays

In a quiet dream, appear to her!

Ave Maria - the lamp is quiet,

I whispered all four verses.

Presentation of Hail Mary! (to the music of Schubert Ave Maria!)

Presenter 2. In aristocratic salons, the talents of several generations of Russian poets, writers, writers, composers, historians, artists were forged: Batyushkov, Gnedich, Krylov, Gogol, Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Belinsky, Tolstoy, Tyutchev, Glinka, Bryullov, Kiprensky.

Presenter 1. The image of a mother in Russian poetry has acquired the captivating features of a keeper of the hearth, a hard-working and faithful wife, a defender of her own children and an invariable caretaker for all the disadvantaged, insulted and offended. These qualities of the mother’s soul are reflected and sung in Russian folk tales and folk songs. Russian poets did not ignore this as successors of the traditions of Russian culture.

Presenter 2 The bright image of the poet’s mother runs through Yesenin’s work, growing into a fabulous image of a Russian woman who gave the poet the whole world.

Sergey Yesenin

LETTER TO MOTHER

Are you still alive, my old lady?
I'm alive too. Hello, hello!
Let it flow over your hut
That evening unspeakable light.

They write to me that you, melting with worries,
She was very sad about me,
That you often go on the road
In an old-fashioned, shabby shushun.

And to you in the evening blue darkness
We often see the same thing:
It's like someone is in a tavern fight with me
I stabbed a Finnish knife under my heart.

Nothing, dear! Calm down.
This is just a painful nonsense.
I'm not such a bitter drunkard,
So that I can die without seeing you.

I'm still as gentle
And I only dream about
So that rather from rebellious melancholy
Return to our low house.

I'll be back when the branches spread out
Our white garden looks like spring.
Only you have me already at dawn
Don't be like eight years ago.

Don't wake up what was dreamed of
Don't worry about what didn't come true -
Too early loss and fatigue
I have had the opportunity to experience this in my life.

And don’t teach me to pray. No need!
There is no going back to the old ways anymore.
You alone are my help and joy,
You alone are an unspeakable light to me.

So forget about your worries,
Don't be so sad about me.
Don't go on the road so often
In an old-fashioned, shabby shushun.

The song “Mom is a dear word” is playing.

Presenter 1. Mother... The most dear and close person. She gave us life, gave us a happy childhood. A mother’s heart, eyes, smile are like the sun, shining always and everywhere, warming us with their warmth. She is our best friend, a wise adviser. Mother is our guardian angel. From infancy we remember the most tender, kindest hands of our mother.

A.A. Fadeev Excerpt from the novel “The Young Guard” (Matrosov E.)

Mom mom! I remember your hands from the moment I became aware of myself in the world. Over the summer they were always covered in tan, it never went away in the winter, it was so gentle, even, only a little darker on the veins. Or maybe they were rougher, your hands, because they had so much work to do in life, but they always seemed so tender to me, and I loved kissing them right on the dark veins.

From the very moment I became conscious of myself until last minute when you quietly laid your head on my chest for the last time, walking me away the hard way life, I always remember your hands at work. I remember how they scurried about in the soapy foam, washing my sheets, I remember how you, in a sheepskin coat, in winter, carried buckets, placing a small hand in a mitten on the rocker in front, you yourself were so small and fluffy, like a mitten. I see your fingers with slightly thickened joints on the ABC book, and I repeat after you: “Ba-a-ba, ba-ba.”

I remember your hands, red from the cold water in the hole where you rinsed the clothes, I remember how imperceptibly your hands could remove a splinter from your finger and how they instantly threaded a needle when you sewed and sang. Because there is nothing in the world that your hands cannot do, that they cannot do!

But most of all, for all eternity, I remembered how gently they stroked your hands, slightly rough and so warm and cool, how they stroked my hair, and neck, and chest, when I lay half-conscious in bed. And, whenever I opened my eyes, you were always next to me, and the night light was burning in the room, and you looked at me with your sunken eyes, as if from the darkness, yourself all quiet and bright, as if in vestments. I kiss your clean, holy hands!

Look around, my friend, and tell me who you have offended in life more than your mother, is it not from me, not from you, not from him, is it not from our failures, mistakes, and is it not from our grief that our mothers turn gray? But the time will come when all this will turn into a painful reproach to the heart at the mother’s grave.

Mom, mom!.. Forgive me, because you are alone, only you in the world can forgive, put your hands on your head, like in childhood, and forgive...

Presenter 2. Mother's love warms us until old age, it inspires us, gives us strength, how to thank our mothersfor their sleepless nights, unshed tears, grief and pain that, voluntarily or unwittingly, we caused them. Nothing can measure a mother's love. Our deepest bow to you, our dear mothers! In honor of you, 10th grade students will perform the Waltz of the Flowers dance.

Dance. Music by P.I. Tchaikovsky "Waltz of the Flowers" (The Nutcracker)

Presenter 1. Do mothers often hear words of gratitude and declarations of love from us? Unfortunately no. Although, we should go up to mom, hug and kiss her, ask her how her day was, find out about her well-being, and just snuggle up to her.

“Honor your father and your mother, may it be good for you, may you live long on earth” - This is God's commandment. This commandment calls us to take care of our mothers.

Rasul Gamzatov TAKE CARE OF YOUR MOTHERS! (Shmul O.)
I sing of what is eternally new.
And although I’m not singing a hymn at all,
But a word born in the soul
Finds its own music.

And, not obeying my will,
It rushes to the stars, it expands around...
Music of joy and pain
It thunders - the orchestra of my soul.

But when I say, like for the first time,
This is the Word-Miracle, the Word-Light, -
Stand up, people!
Fallen, alive!
Arise, children of our turbulent years!

Arise, pines of the centuries-old forest!
Stand up, straighten up, stalks of grass!
Arise, all flowers!.. And arise, mountains,
Lifting the sky on your shoulders!

Everyone stand up and listen while standing
Preserved in all its glory
This word is ancient, holy!
Straighten up! Get up!.. Get up everyone!
As the forests rise with the new dawn,
Like blades of grass rushing upward towards the sun,
Stand up, everyone, when you hear this word,
Because in this word there is life.

This word is a call and a spell,
This word contains the soul of existence.
This is the first spark of consciousness,
Baby's first smile.

May this word always remain
And, breaking through any traffic jam,
Even in a heart of stone it will awaken
A reproach to a muted conscience.

This word will never deceive you,
There is a being hidden in it.
It is the source of everything. There is no end to it.
Get up!.. I pronounce it: “Mother !»

Presenter 2. Each of us has our own mother, everyone’s mothers are different: blue-eyed and green-eyed, blondes and brunettes, tall and short. But for us they are the closest and dearest. We would like to present to you a presentation of our drawings in which we depicted our mothers.

Presentation of drawings by students to the music of Ave, Maria G. Caccini

Presenter 1. But what kind of mother of 2017 turned out to be!

Presenter 2. Sirs and ladies! Ladies and Gentlemen! We thank you for your active participation in our literary lounge. The next topic of our literary living room will be dedicated to the Great Victory. We also invite you to take part in creating drawings, poems, and stories on this topic.

The meaning of the image of the mother in Russian poetry

The image of the mother has long been inherent in Russian poetry and Russian culture as a whole. This theme occupies an important place in both classical and modern poetry. Moreover, the Russian image of the mother is a national cultural symbol that has not lost its high significance from ancient times to the present day. It is characteristic that the image of a mother, growing from the image of a specific person, the poet’s mother, becomes a symbol of the Motherland.

The history of the development of the image of the mother in Russian poetry

The image of the mother in Russian poetry is continuously connected with folklore tradition. Already in folklore works - in wedding and funeral songs - the image of a mother appears. In spiritual verses, this image appears through the image of the Mother of God, especially revered in Rus'.

In the poetry of the 19th century, the theme of the mother is primarily associated with the names of M. Yu. Lermontov and N. A. Nekrasov. In the works of these poets, the image of the mother was given great importance. It can be argued that it is from the work of M. Yu. Lermontov that the image of the mother begins to enter classical poetry. A. S. Pushkin does not have a single poem dedicated to his mother; in the works of M. Yu. Lermontov there are several of them. For example, “Caucasus”, “Angel”.

The theme of the mother is truly deeply and fully represented in the works of N. A. Nekrasov. Many of the poet’s poems are dedicated to the difficult fate of his own mother. Along with such a specific embodiment of this image in the poetry of N.A. Nekrasov also has a generalized image – the folk image of a mother.

In the poetry of the twentieth century, the theme of the mother received its further development. In particular, in the works of such poets as N. Klyuev, A. Blok, S. Yesenin, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Tvardovsky and others. It is worth noting that in the poetry of the second half of the twentieth century the theme of the mother is inextricably linked with with a war theme or a village theme.

The image of the mother is an eternal theme that will never lose its significance. Attitude towards a mother, love for her is the measure that accurately determines the level of cultural development of a society, its moral values ​​and the spiritual world of each of its members.

The image of a mother in the poetry of N. A. Nekrasov (using the example of the poem “Hearing the horrors of war...”)

In world literature, the image of the mother is one of the most revered. Russian prose writers and poets also repeatedly turned to him, but in the literature of the 19th century, the image of the mother received a more complete and touching embodiment in the works of N. A. Nekrasov.

Until the end of his days, N.A. Nekrasov kept in his memory the bright image of his mother. The poet dedicated the poems “Last Songs”, “Knight for an Hour”, and the poem “Mother” to her. He missed her very much while studying at the Yaroslavl gymnasium, and then in St. Petersburg, during the years of difficult independent life, he was warmed by a feeling of deep affection and love for his mother.

ON THE. Nekrasov sympathized with the difficult and difficult life of his mother with her stern husband, a poorly educated army officer who became the despot of the family, and always remembered her with great warmth and tenderness. Warm memories of his mother appeared in the poet’s work in the form of works about the difficult lot of women in Rus'. The idea of ​​motherhood appeared on a larger scale later in such famous works by N. A. Nekrasov as the chapter “Peasant Woman” from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and the poem “Orina, the Soldier’s Mother.”

Thus, the image of the mother becomes one of the main positive heroes of N. A. Nekrasov’s work.

Let us consider in more detail the image of the mother in the works of N. A. Nekrasov using the example of the poem “Hearing the horrors of war...”, dedicated to the Crimean War of 1853 - 1856. This small poem, just 17 lines, succinctly and deeply conveys the meaninglessness of a bloody and merciless war:

Hearing the horrors of war, With each new casualty of the battle...

The poet reflects on what grief the death of a soldier will cause for loved ones, but he sympathizes first of all with the mother who lost her son in the war:

I don't feel sorry for my friend, not my wife, I don't feel sorry for the hero himself... Alas! the wife will be comforted, And the best friend will forget his friend; But somewhere there is one soul - She will remember until the grave!

For a mother, the death of her son is a real tragedy, because she is the one who loves her child sincerely and selflessly; her whole life is filled with inexhaustible love for him, the meaning of her whole life is made up.

Among our hypocritical deeds And all the vulgarity and prose I spied some holy, sincere tears in the world - Those are the tears of poor mothers!

When, over time, everyone forgets about the deceased “hero” - his friends, his wife, his mother, whom the poet compares to a weeping willow, will forever remember and mourn about him.

They cannot forget their children, who died in the bloody field, nor can the weeping willow lift up its drooping branches...

A lot of time has passed since this poem was written, wars have died down, more than one “hero” has died, but, unfortunately, it has still not lost its relevance. And it will not lose as long as mothers lose their sons in war. The image of the mother presented in this work, has become a collective image of all mothers who mourn their sons who have not returned from the battlefields.

The image of a mother in the poetry of S. A. Yesenin (using the example of the poem “Letter to a Mother”)

In Russian poetry of the twentieth century, the theme of the mother is continued in the works of S. A. Yesenin.

Let us turn to his poem “Letter to Mother.” It was written in 1924, during the last period of creativity and almost at the very end of the poet’s life. In many of his works of that time, the theme of the irretrievably gone past is heard, but along with it the theme of the mother also arises. One of these works was the poem “Letter to Mother,” written in the form of an address to her. The entire poetic message is permeated with tenderness and love for the dearest person:

I am still just as gentle and I dream only about that, So that out of rebellious melancholy I can quickly return to our low house.

The poet admires the love and care of a mother who worries about her son, worries about his life and fate. Melancholy and sad forebodings make her feel more and more sad than happy:

They write to me that you, full of anxiety, are very sad about me, that you often go on the road in an old-fashioned, shabby shushun.

The lyrical hero fails to reassure his mother in a letter; much is missed, lost or lost. He understands that the past cannot be returned, but for him his mother is the same thread that connects him with the past, carefree, bright and pure. This is where such tender and touching mutual love comes from.

And don’t teach me to pray. No need! There is no going back to the old ways anymore. You alone are my help and joy, You alone are my unspeakable light.

The poetic message addressed to the mother ends with the call of the lyrical hero, which sounds like a heartfelt request, not to be sad, not to worry about your unlucky son. It is noteworthy that in the final lines there is no reassurance, promise, hope that everything will be fine. After all, no matter what, the mother will not stop worrying about her son, loving him sincerely and tenderly.

So forget about your anxiety, Don't be so sad about me. Don't go on the road so often In an old-fashioned, shabby shushun.

The image of a mother in the poetry of A. T. Tvardovsky (using the example of the cycle “In Memory of the Mother”)

The theme of the mother is present throughout the entire work of A. T. Tvardovsky. For example, in such poems different years, like “Mothers”, “Song”, “With one beauty you came to your husband’s house...”, etc. Very often the image of a mother in the poet’s works goes beyond the dedication to one specific person - her own mother - and becomes the image of the Motherland. Thus, the universal image of a mother-woman is depicted in the poems “Son”, “Mother and Son”, “You timidly lift him up...”, especially in works dedicated to war (the poem “House by the Road”).

In 1965, A. T. Tvardovsky created the cycle “In Memory of the Mother.” The cycle consists of four poems dedicated to the mother, which present memories of the mother’s life, and also reflect the poet’s memory of her. The reason for its appearance was the death in 1965 of the poet’s mother, Maria Mitrofanovna. But in the last poem of this cycle, death gives way to life; the poet sees it as a kind of transition.

Water raker carrier, Young guy, Take me to the other side, Side - home...

The mother's song mentioned in the poem, familiar from childhood, tells her whole life. Farewell to your father's house after marriage, parting with your native land and exile to an inhospitable foreign country and a long-awaited return to your homeland.

Tears from my long-ago youth, There is no time for those girlish tears, Like other transports I have seen in my life. As if time had gone far away from the land of its native land. Another river flowed there - Wider than our Dnieper.

In every line of this poem one can feel the depth of experience, the most tender and at the same time sad feelings of the poet. The poem completes the theme of mother in the work of A.T. Tvardovsky, but it paints an ever-living image of a mother - both the poet’s own mother and a generalized image of motherhood.

The image of the mother in works of Russian literature.

Malkova Zumara Sagitovna.

MBOU "Bolshetarkhanskaya Secondary School" of the Tetyushsky municipal district of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Lesson objectives:

• trace how Russian literature, true to its humanistic traditions, depicts the image of a woman-mother
• develop the spiritual and moral world of students, their national identity
• to instill in students a respectful attitude towards women and mothers
• to educate a patriot and citizen aimed at improving the society in which he lives

During the classes:

I. Teacher's opening speech

PRESENTATION “THE PARABLE ABOUT MOM”

Russian literature is great and diverse. Its civil and social resonance and significance are undeniable. You can draw from this great sea constantly - and it will not become shallow forever. It is no coincidence that we publish books about camaraderie and friendship, love and nature, soldier’s courage and the Motherland... And any of these themes has received its full and worthy embodiment in the deep and original works of domestic masters.

But there is another holy page in our literature, dear and close to any unhardened heart - these are the works about mother.

We look with respect and gratitude at a man who reverently pronounces the name of his mother until his gray hair and respectfully protects her old age; and we will execute with contempt the one who, in her bitter old age, turned away from her, refused her a good memory, a piece of food or shelter.

People measure their attitude towards a person by the attitude of a person to his mother.

II. Determining the purpose of the lesson.

SLIDE No. 4 To trace how in Russian literature, true to its humanistic traditions, the image of a woman - a mother - is depicted.

III. The image of a mother in oral folk art

Teacher's word. The image of the mother, already in oral folk art, acquired the captivating features of a keeper of the hearth, a hard-working and faithful wife, a protector of her own children and an invariable caretaker for all the disadvantaged, insulted and offended. These defining qualities of the maternal soul are reflected and sung in Russian folk tales and folk songs.

BULANOVA'S SONG "MOM"

IV. The image of the mother in printed literature

Teacher's word . In printed literature, which known reasons at first was the lot of only representatives of the upper classes, the image of the mother for a long time remained in the shadows. Perhaps the named object was not considered worthy of a high style, or perhaps the reason for this phenomenon is simpler and more natural: after all, then, noble children, as a rule, were taken for education not only by tutors, but also by wet nurses, and children of the noble class, in contrast to children of peasants were artificially removed from their mother and fed with the milk of other women; therefore, there was a dulling of filial feelings, albeit not entirely conscious, which could not ultimately but affect the work of future poets and prose writers.

It is no coincidence that Pushkin did not write a single poem about his mother and so many lovely poetic dedications to his nanny Arina Rodionovna, whom, by the way, the poet often affectionately and carefully called “mummy.”

Mother in the works of the great Russian poet N.A. Nekrasova

Mother... The dearest and closest person. She gave us life, gave us a happy childhood. A mother's heart, like the sun, shines always and everywhere, warming us with its warmth. She is our best friend, a wise adviser. Mother is our guardian angel.

That is why the image of the mother becomes one of the main ones in Russian literature already in the 19th century.

The theme of the mother truly and deeply sounded in the poetry of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Closed and reserved by nature, Nekrasov literally could not find enough vivid words and strong expressions to appreciate the role of his mother in his life. Both young and old, Nekrasov always spoke about his mother with love and admiration. Such an attitude towards her, in addition to the usual sons of affection, undoubtedly stemmed from the consciousness of what he owed her:

And if I easily shake off the years
There are noxious traces from my soul
Having trampled everything reasonable with her feet,
Proud of the ignorance of the environment,
And if I filled my life with struggle
For the ideal of goodness and beauty,
And carries the song composed by me,
Living love has deep features -
Oh, my mother, I am moved by you!
You saved the living soul in me!
(From the poem "Mother")

Question to the class:

How did his mother “save the poet’s soul”?

Student performances (reading and analysis of works).

Student 1 - First of all, being a highly educated woman, she introduced her children to intellectual, in particular literary, interests. In the poem “Mother,” Nekrasov recalls that as a child, thanks to his mother, he became acquainted with the images of Dante and Shakespeare. She taught him love and compassion for those “whose ideal is diminished grief,” that is, for the serfs.

Student 2 - The image of a woman - mother is clearly presented by Nekrasov in many of his works “Rural suffering is in full swing”

The village suffering is in full swing...

Share you! - Russian women's share!

Hardly any more difficult to find.

No wonder you wither before your time,

All-bearing Russian tribe

Long-suffering mother!

The heat is unbearable: the plain is treeless,

Fields, mowing and the expanse of heaven -

The sun is beating down mercilessly.

The poor woman is exhausted,

A column of insects sways above her,

It stings, tickles, buzzes!

Lifting a heavy roe deer,

The woman cut her bare leg -

There is no time to stop the bleeding!

A cry is heard from the neighboring strip,

Baba there - the kerchiefs are disheveled -

We need to rock the baby!

Why did you stand over him in stupor?

Sing him a song about eternal patience,

Sing, patient mother!..

Are there tears, is there sweat above her eyelashes,

Really, it’s hard to say.

In this jug, plugged with a dirty rag,

They will sink - it doesn’t matter!

Here she is with her singed lips

Greedily brings it to the edges...

Are salty tears tasty, dear?

Half and half sour kvass?..

(Beginning 1863)

Nekrasov’s poem “The village suffering is in full swing...” talks about the difficult lot of a Russian woman, mother, and peasant woman. This theme is generally characteristic of Nekrasov’s work; its emergence is explained biographically. The poet grew up in a family where the father was a “domestic tyrant” who tormented his mother. Since childhood, Nekrasov saw the suffering of his beloved women, his mother and sister, whose marriage, by the way, also did not bring her happiness. The poet had a hard time with the death of his mother and blamed his father for it, and a year later his sister died...

"Orina, mother of a soldier"

Student 3 - Poem “Hearing the horrors of war”

The poem “Hearing the horrors of war...”, dedicated to the Crimean War of 1853-1856, sounds strikingly modern. The work is strikingly timely, it reminds the living of the enduring value of life; it seems that only mothers who give life understand its sacred purpose. And the madmen who drag new generations into wars do not want to understand anything. They don't hear the voice of reason. To how many Russian mothers is this poem close and understandable:
A small poem of only 17 lines amazes with the depth of humanism contained in it. The poet’s language is laconic and simple, there are no detailed or complex metaphors, only precise epithets emphasizing the artist’s intention: deeds are “hypocritical”, since they do not lead to the end of wars, only tears are “sincere”, and they are “only” sincere, everything else is a lie . The poet’s conclusion is scary that both his friend and his wife will forget - he also ranks them among the “hypocritical” world.
The poem ends with a comparison, in folklore style, of mothers with a drooping weeping willow. The use of a folklore image gives the work a generalizing meaning: it is not about just the Crimean War - it is about all of them, after which mothers and nature itself weep:

Teacher's word. “Who will protect you?” - the poet addresses in one of his poems.

He understands that, besides him, there is no one else to say a word about the sufferer of the Russian land, whose feat is irreplaceable, but great!

Nekrasov traditions in the depiction of the bright image of the mother - a peasant woman in the lyrics of S.A. Yesenina

(During the teacher’s lecture, Yesenin’s poems about his mother are performed by students (by heart))

Nekrasov's traditions are reflected in the poetry of the great Russian poet S. A. Yesenin, who created surprisingly sincere poems about his mother, a peasant woman.

The bright image of the poet’s mother runs through Yesenin’s work. Endowed with individual traits, it grows into a generalized image of a Russian woman, appearing even in the poet’s youthful poems, as a fairy-tale image of one who not only gave the whole world, but also made her happy with the gift of song. This image also takes on the concrete, earthly appearance of a peasant woman busy with everyday affairs: “The mother cannot cope with the grips, she bends low...”

PRESENTATION “LETTER TO MOTHER” Yesenin(read by M. Troshin)

Loyalty, constancy of feeling, heartfelt devotion, inexhaustible patience are generalized and poeticized by Yesenin in the image of his mother. "Oh, my patient mother!" - this exclamation came out of him not by chance: a son brings a lot of worries, but his mother’s heart forgives everything. This is how Yesenin’s frequent motive of his son’s guilt arises. On his trips, he constantly remembers his native village: it is dear to the memory of his youth, but most of all he is drawn there by his mother, who yearns for her son.

The “sweet, kind, old, gentle” mother is seen by the poet “at the parental dinner.” The mother is worried - her son has not been home for a long time. How is he there, in the distance? The son tries to reassure her in letters: “The time will come, dear, dear!” In the meantime, “evening untold light” flows over the mother’s hut. The son, “still just as gentle,” “dreams only about returning to our low house as soon as possible out of rebellious melancholy.” In “Letter to a Mother,” filial feelings are expressed with piercing artistic force: “You alone are my help and joy, you alone are my unspeakable light.”

Yesenin was 19 years old when, with amazing insight, he sang in the poem “Rus” the sadness of maternal expectation - “waiting for gray-haired mothers.”

The sons became soldiers, the tsarist service took them to the bloody fields of the world war. Rarely, rarely do they come from “scribbles, drawn with such difficulty,” but “frail huts”, warmed by a mother’s heart, are still waiting for them. Yesenin can be placed next to Nekrasov, who sang “the tears of poor mothers.”

They will not forget their children,
Those who died in the bloody field,
How not to pick up a weeping willow
Of its drooping branches.

Poem "Requiem" by A.A. Akhmatova.

These lines from the distant 19th century remind us of the bitter cry of the mother, which we hear in Anna Andreevna Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem”. Here it is, the immortality of true poetry, here it is, the enviable length of its existence in time!

The poem has a real basis: Akhmatova spent 17 months (1938 - 1939) in prison queues in connection with the arrest of her son, Lev Gumilyov: he was arrested three times: in 1935, 1938 and 1949.

The poem “Requiem” is a tribute to the memory of those terrible years and to everyone who went through this difficult path with her, to everyone noticed, to all the relatives of the condemned. The poem reflects not only the personal tragic circumstances of the author’s life, but also the grief of all Russian women, those wives, mothers, sisters who stood with her for 17 terrible months in prison lines in Leningrad.

(Excerpts from the poem are performed by masters of artistic expression. Phonochrestomathy. 11th grade)

But this is not the fate of only one mother. And the fate of many mothers in Russia, who stood day after day in front of prisons in numerous queues with parcels for children arrested by the bearers of the regime, the Stalinist regime, the regime of brutal repression.

Mountains bend before this grief,
The great river does not flow
But the prison gates are strong,
And behind them are “convict holes”
And mortal melancholy.

Mother goes through the circles of hell.

The topic of intercession for millions of mothers came from Akhmatova’s lips. The author’s personal experience is drowning in public suffering:

Audio recording, read by Akhmatova:

No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering.

I couldn't do that, but what happened

Let the black cloth cover

And let the lanterns be taken away...

The fate of the mother and son, whose images are correlated with gospel symbolism, runs through the entire poem. Here before us is a simple Russian woman, in whose memory the crying of children, the melting candle at the shrine, the mortal sweat on the brow of a loved one who is being taken away at dawn will forever remain. And she will cry for him just as the Streltsy “wives” once cried under the walls of the Kremlin. Then in the image of the lyrical heroine, the features of Akhmatova herself appear, who does not believe that everything is happening to her - the “mocker,” “the favorite of all friends,” the “Tsarskoye Selo sinner.” Akhmatova fulfilled her duty as a poet with honor - she sang and exalted the suffering of thousands of mothers who became victims of bloody tyranny.

“Requiem” is a universal verdict on an inhuman system that dooms a mother to immeasurable and inconsolable suffering, and her only beloved, her son, to oblivion.

The tragedy of the image of the mother in works about the Great Patriotic War.

Teacher's word

The image of the mother has always carried the features of drama. And he began to look even more tragic against the backdrop of the great and terrible in its cruelty of the past war. Who suffered more than a mother at this time? About this are the books of mothers E. Kosheva “The Tale of a Son”, Kosmodemyanskaya “The Tale of Zoya and Shura”...

Can you really tell me about this?
What years did you live in?
What an immeasurable burden
It fell on women's shoulders!
(M, Isakovsky).

Our mothers not only lost their sons, survived the occupation, worked until exhaustion helping the front, but they themselves died in fascist concentration camps, they were tortured, burned in crematoria ovens.

Question for the class

Why are people, to whom the woman-mother gave life, so cruel to her?

(Answers-speeches, student reflections)

Vasily Grossman's novel “Life and Fate”

In Vasily Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate,” violence appears in different forms, and the writercreates bright, piercing pictures of the threat it poses to life.

A student reads a letter from the mother of physicist Anna Semyonovna Shtrum, written by her on the eve of the death of the inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto. READING A LETTER TO MOTHER

“Vitya, I am sure that my letter will reach you, although I am behind the front line and behind the barbed wire of the Jewish ghetto. I will never receive your answer, I will not be there. I want you to know about my last days, with this thought it’s easier for me to leave this life.

Vitenka, I am finishing my letter and will take it to the ghetto fence and give it to my friend. This letter is not easy to break off, it is my last conversation with you, and, having forwarded the letter, I am finally leaving you, you will never know about my last hours. This is our very last separation. What will I tell you, saying goodbye, before eternal separation? These days, as throughout my life, you have been my joy. At night I remembered you, your children's clothes, your first books, I remembered your first letter, the first day of school, everything, I remembered everything from the first days of your life to the last news from you, the telegram received on June 30. I closed my eyes, and it seemed to me that you shielded me from the impending horror, my friend. And when I remembered what was happening around me, I was glad that you were not near me - let the terrible fate blow you away.

Vitya, I have always been lonely. On sleepless nights I cried with sadness. After all, no one knew this. My consolation was the thought that I would tell you about my life. I’ll tell you why your dad and I separated, why I lived alone for such many years. And I often thought how surprised Vitya would be to learn that his mother made mistakes, was crazy, was jealous, that she was jealous, was like all young people. But my destiny is to end my life alone, without sharing with you. Sometimes it seemed to me that I should not live away from you, I loved you too much, I thought that love gave me the right to be with you in my old age. Sometimes it seemed to me that I shouldn’t live with you, I loved you too much.

Well, enfin... Be always happy with those you love, who surround you, who have become closer to your mother. I'm sorry.

From the street you can hear women crying, police officers cursing, and I look at these pages, and it seems to me that I am protected from scary world, full of suffering.

How can I finish my letter? Where can I get strength, son? Are there human words that can express my love for you? I kiss you, your eyes, your forehead, your hair.

Remember that always on days of happiness and on days of sorrow mother's love with you, no one can kill her.

Vitenka... Here is the last line of my mother’s last letter to you. Live, live, live forever... Mom."

Students’ impressions of what they heard (sample answers)

Student 1 - You can’t read it without shuddering and tears. Horror and a feeling of fear overwhelm me. How could people endure these inhuman trials that befell them? And it’s especially scary and uneasy when the mother, the most sacred creature on earth, feels bad.

Student 3 - A mother is capable of any sacrifice for the sake of her children! Great is the power of mother's love!

Teacher's word

Vasily Grossman's mother died in 1942 at the hands of fascist executioners.

In 1961, 19 years after his mother's death, his son wrote her a letter. It was preserved in the archives of the writer’s widow.

READING MY SON'S LETTER

Dear Mom, I learned about your death in the winter of 1944. I arrived in Berdichev, entered the house where you lived, and understood. That you are not alive. But back on September 8, 1941, I felt in my heart that you were gone.

At night at the front, I had a dream - I entered the room, clearly knowing that it was your room, and saw an empty chair, clearly knowing that you were sleeping in it: the scarf with which you covered your legs was hanging from the chair. I looked at this empty chair for a long time, and when I woke up, I knew that you were no longer on earth.

But I didn’t know what a terrible death you died. I learned about this by asking people who knew about the mass execution that took place on September 15, 1941. I've tried dozens of times, maybe hundreds, to imagine how you died. As you were going to your death, you tried to imagine the person who killed you. He was the last one to see you. I know that you have been thinking about me a lot all this time.

Now it’s been more than nine years since I’ve written letters to you, I haven’t talked about my life or affairs. And over these nine years, so much has accumulated in my soul. That I decided to write to you, tell you and, of course, complain, since, essentially, no one cares about my sorrows, only you alone cared about them. I will be frank with you... First of all, I want to tell you that over these 9 years I have been able to truly believe that I love you - since my feeling for you has not diminished one iota, I do not forget you, I do not calm down, I am not consoled, time does not heal me.

My dear, 20 years have passed since your death. I love you, I remember you every day of my life, and my grief has been persistent all these 20 years. You are human to me. And your terrible fate is the fate of a person in inhuman times. All my life I have kept the faith that all my good, honest, kind things come from you. Today I re-read several of your letters to me. And today I cried again reading your letters. I cry over the letters - because you are your kindness, purity, your bitter, bitter life, your justice, nobility, your love for me, your care for people, your wonderful mind. I am not afraid of anything, because your love is with me, and because my love is always with me.

And that hot tear shed by the writer for his old mother and for the Jewish people burns our hearts and leaves a scar of memory on them.

V. Final word from the teacher. Summarizing.

Your Mom is always with you: she is in the whisper of leaves when you walk down the street; she is the smell of your recently washed socks or bleached sheets; she is a cool hand on your forehead when you don’t feel well. Your Mom lives inside your laughter. And she is a crystal in every drop of your tear. She is the place where you arrive from Heaven - your first home; and she is the map that you follow with every step you take.

She is your first love and your first sorrow, and nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not place...not even death!

Watching an excerpt from the film “Moms”, 2012.

VI. Homework(differentiated):

1. prepare an expressive reading (by heart) of a poem or prose about a mother
2. essay “I want to tell you about my mother...”
3. essay - essay “Is it easy to be a mother?”
4. monologue "Mother"
5. film script "The Ballad of Mother"

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But nevertheless, the main line of development of the theme of the mother in Blok is determined by the feminine as a special element and philosophical and poetic category, which plays the main organizing role in Blok’s poetry not only in his early period, but throughout his entire creative career. In addition to the lyrical hero, a certain lyrical I, the lyrical You as the object of Blok’s poetry is no less important. Behind this You at all stages of his path stood a heroine, a woman, constantly changing, appearing in different guises, but always performing a certain sacred function of a feminine deity in Blok’s poetic world. Blok’s feminine lyrical You is changeable and multifaceted, and the maternal is present in him, even if it does not dominate. In “Poems about To the beautiful lady“The further path of changes has already been laid, even betrayals and falls of the lyrical You, to which all of Blok’s poetry is addressed. Gradually, democratization and “grounding” of Blok’s female image occurs. We can talk about the same path of “incarnation” of Blok’s heroine as his lyrical hero.

So one of the faces of the feminine deity, to which all of Blok’s poetry is addressed, turns out to be the mysterious face of Rus'. Her image is also not unambiguous - now it is the face of a simple Russian woman in a colored scarf, now it is Rus' with sorcerers and sorcerers, now gypsy Rus', galloping on a horse from the steppe, waving a colorful sleeve out the window, now this is the Rus' of Christ - in rags, against the background autumn landscape.

In the third volume of Blok’s poetic trilogy, the theme of the homeland and the poet’s appeal to the world of objective reality come to the fore. Here the deity of his poetry is revealed in the image of Russia, in the element of the people's soul, in every simple Russian woman. Most often this final stage his poetry is characterized as Blok’s entry onto the path of realism. Realistic tendencies really intensify in the third volume, which contributes to the development of the theme of the homeland and the traditionally associated theme of the mother.

Blok’s image of the homeland incorporates images of the Russian Mother of God, simple, folk heroines, as well as images of Russian nature. The culmination of the development of these images in Blok is in the section of the third volume “Motherland”. Russia itself becomes the feminine image of this division, and this Blok image is rooted in the soil folk culture.

Here another important aspect of Blok’s image of the homeland arises - historical. Almost every poem from the “Motherland” cycle refers to the Russian historical past. The most obvious and original poetic historicism of Blok is in the cycle of five poems “On the Kulikovo Field.” Three aspects of the maternal theme in literature are united here in the images of Rus', the universal mother, for whom there is a mortal battle, in the image of one mother out of thousands of mothers: “And in the distance, in the distance, the stirrup beat, / The mother voiced...” Another, main and highest, the aspect of motherhood is the image of the Mother of God, under whose protection the Russian army was victorious. Here the already rare “You” with a capital letter appears again for Blok, now it refers to Mother of God. And, despite the fact that “You” turns into a new face, and the female image is again fragmented and multiplied, nevertheless, the last poem of the “Motherland” section, apparently, sums up the main themes and motives - the poem “Kite” of 1916 . It is not by chance that it was placed last, and serves as the final one. It seems to be the result of the poet’s path to the image of his homeland. It is significant that here the image of the homeland is already directly correlated with the image of the mother. This poem is a sign, a symbol that absorbs in a compressed form the entire theme of Russia and femininity in Blok. The poem combines its main images and themes: the menacing omen of a kite circling over the mother - a symbol that often accompanies the image of the mother in Blok, and the “Nekrasov” image of a mother with a baby in a hut, raising her son for “obedience” and “the cross.”

It is also significant that in such a capacious work, for the first time, Blok appears in direct speech from his mother, a simple peasant woman. The last rhetorical question: “How long will the mother bear? / How long will the kite circle?” carries the eternal Blok idea of ​​constant return, cyclization of history, and these laconic lines contain the inevitability and doom in the destinies of mothers.

Covering Blok’s creative path as a whole, we can summarize: Blok, associated at the beginning of the century with the search for the ideal feminine principle and elevating the female image in his work to the divine, ultimately through the reduction (even fall), concretization and proseization of the female image and his entire poetic manners comes to the image of the mother precisely in the meaning of the homeland.

The romantic roots of Blok’s poetics, symbolization as its main principle, the gradual appeal to reality, the influence of realistic (Nekrasov) traditions, the decline of vocabulary, the entry of the everyday sphere into poetry, images-characters from the people (along with the lyrical I and You) - all this serves as a stylistic “soil” for Blok’s theme of the mother and ultimately leads to the lyrics of the third volume with the central image of the homeland - the mother. The image of the mother, crowning Blok’s path, already acts as a national symbol and combines the religious and philosophical category of the highest feminine principle and the historiosophical image of the homeland.

Chapter 3. The image of the mother in the poetry of A. Akhmatova

In the third chapter, we explore the work of A. Akhmatova and her image of a mother, actually equal to her lyrical heroine, expressed in the first person, through the mother’s speech. In Akhmatova’s poetry we find three different images of the mother, expressed in the first person and corresponding to three different periods of her creative path. This image originates in the Acmeist period on the basis of increased attention to the external world and concrete reality, declared by the Acmeists, and consistently passes through all stages of Akhmatova’s creative path, reflecting changes in her artistic world and poetics, as well as incorporating historical signs of the time. Akhmatova’s image of the mother is expressed in the first person and is a facet of the image of her lyrical heroine. The lyrical nature of her image of the mother is confirmed by her attraction to psychologism, a reflection of the inner world and consciousness. In lyric poetry, psychologism is expressive: the subject of speech and the object of the image coincide. Undoubtedly, the world depicted by Akhmatova is always an internal, psychological world. At the same time, her poems are distinguished by monologism - a stylistic feature of the lyrics; the works are constructed as a lyrical monologue. In those cases when Akhmatova uses the form of dialogue or the principles of “role lyricism” as defined by B.O. Corman, her “characters” are called upon to express different facets of her lyrical consciousness - this can be seen already in the first poem, “Where, tall, your little gypsy?” (1914). The most significant motif for Akhmatova’s early poetry originates in this poem - we define it by the famous line “I am a bad mother.” This is a repentant motive, a motive of maternal guilt.

As for the repentant motives and the image of an unworthy mother, they are quite stable in the poems of the first period of Akhmatova’s work (for example, in the farewell lines addressed to his son: “I didn’t scold, I didn’t caress,/ I didn’t take him to receive communion...”)

This motif is most clearly revealed in “Lullaby” of 1915. This poem is entirely a direct speech from the mother. But in comparison, for example, with Lermontov’s “Cossack Lullaby,” Akhmatova’s mother does not accompany her son into the world, does not instruct him before the start of life (or does not console him, as in Nekrasov’s “Bayushki-Bai,” before death). Here most of The poem is dedicated to the father, the man, and, first of all, to the mother herself with her bitter sigh: Sleep, my quiet one, sleep, my boy, / I am a bad mother... .

It must be remembered that even in the early Akhmatova period, new, unexpected for the image of her then heroine, civic motives and the high theme of the homeland were woven into her work (“July 1914”, “In Memory of July 19, 1914”, poems of the early 1920s), as if preparing the transition to the next, sharply different periods. The turn from “chamber”, intimate poems about love to high themes and civic pathos is already noticeable in Akhmatova’s early lyrics. An example of this change is “Prayer” of 1915 with its dramatically impressive, even repulsive image of a mother ready to sacrifice her child for the sake of the Motherland.

Already in next period, Akhmatova’s poetry includes a different image of the mother, which we conventionally denote by the quote “three hundredth with transfer” - this is one of thousands of mothers who give their sons to the cross.

A similar image of the mother is revealed primarily in “Requiem” (1935-1940). The purpose and main idea of ​​the requiem as a genre is remembrance, preservation from oblivion and mourning, and besides, this is a work for the choir. Akhmatova’s voice here begins to sound on behalf of millions, her image comes closer to the image of a mourner. At the same time, it tells its own, personal pain associated with the real biography of the author: the lyrical experience of the mother forms the basis of the plot of “Requiem”. But constant historical allusions, as well as eternal biblical images, timeless motifs, along with real-life, typical details of those years, expand the private individual grief to national tragedy and convey the eternal nature of the mother's suffering. The heroine herself calls herself “the three hundredth with the transfer,” with this serial number emphasizing the large number of such maternal, women's destinies next to her, around her in the prison line, and her involvement in the general tragedy. But the typical image of a mother, inscribed in socio-historical reality, is here attached to the highest aspect of motherhood - the image of the Mother of God.

The finale of “Requiem” comes into direct parallel with the crucifixion, to the image of the mother at the filial cross, as if the voice of the Mother of God sounded during the time of Stalin’s terror. Thus, Akhmatova’s real-life psychological image of the mother could be expressed on behalf of the mother herself through the image of the Virgin Mary.

“Requiem” is complemented by several passages combined into the “Shards” cycle with an epigraph from Joyce’s “Ulysses”: “You cannot leave your mother an orphan.” All these little poems are almost rough sketches or diary entries, they are so fragmentary, hastily recorded, so the formal side is not important in them, but only the mother’s pain for her son and the memory of the real events of those years are important. These are some notes for the future with the goal of preserving everything that once really existed.

Another poem, written in the late thirties and reflecting the fate and consciousness of the mother in an unexpected form, is “Imitation of the Armenian.” The unusualness of Akhmatova’s imitation is that she herself or her lyrical heroine speaks on behalf of the sheep itself, while her speech is addressed not just to the person who ate the lamb, but to the tyrant, to the Eastern “padishah,” which emphasizes the connection with the real autobiographical situation. Here there is an indication of a modern eastern despot, and a reflection of personal tragedy in the images of the mother-sheep and the lamb-son.

We designated the third stage of changes in Akhmatova’s image of the mother with the quote “My little children!”, which is no longer the self-identification of the lyrical heroine, but is addressed to those children, orphans, and soldier sons to whom her poems from the times of the Great Patriotic War are dedicated. Patriotic War. During this period, the line between the voice of the heroine-mother and the voice of the author of the poems becomes even thinner. During the war years, a new female image appeared in Soviet poetry - the image of a “universal mother,” “mother in general,” who perceived Russian soldiers as her own children, mourning the dead and extending her care to everyone who defends their homeland from the enemy. During the war, Akhmatova’s maternal voice acquired a sound akin to such a generalized image of a mother. Her speech in the first person no longer narrates about herself, only new features of her lyrical heroine are indirectly revealed - through her mother’s attitude towards “children”.

Akhmatova’s images of children “in general” were concretized in the images of Vova and Valya Smirnov, who remained in besieged Leningrad, where one of them died.

Akhmatova’s poems, dedicated to the soldiers who died for their Motherland, are written in the same fragmentary, brief manner, as if snatched from the flow of the main text. In addition to the stylistic features of these small works, the position of the author, the perspective of his view is important: all the poems about children and sons-soldiers during the war were written on behalf of the “universal mother”. This motif is especially felt in the 1944 poem “To the Winners,” where Akhmatova strives to “name everyone by name,” to pronounce the most common Russian names of heroic sons.

In contrast to the definitions “bad mother” and “three-hundredth with transfer,” reflecting the facets of Akhmatova’s image of the mother at different stages of creativity, the latter designation is not self-definition and does not refer to the image of the lyrical heroine Akhmatova. “My little children” is an address to children on behalf of the mother. Thus, during the war, the lyrical heroine’s renunciation of expressing her experiences and the transition to an open monologue on behalf of the mother addressed to her sons are clear. We can conclude that Akhmatova’s final image of her mother, which developed during the war, is close to the image of her homeland as a universal mother and is expressed on her behalf.

Chapter 4. The image of the mother in the poetry of A. Tvardovsky

The fourth chapter presents an analysis of the theme of the mother in the works of A. Tvardovsky as an example of an objective, epic embodiment of the image of the mother. A. Tvardovsky’s theme of mother can be called the third theme in his work - along with the two that he himself singled out: collective farms in early period and war in mature. In Tvardovsky's poetry, the theme of the mother is present from the very beginning to the end of the journey. The image of the mother is central in Tvardovsky’s poetic world and rises from the private - dedications to one’s own mother - to the universal and highest aspect of motherhood in Russian poetry - the image of the motherland.

Despite the extremely scant coverage in the bibliography about Tvardovsky of this side of his work, it is obvious that the most important motives for the poet are memory, native places ( small homeland), filial duty and filial gratitude are connected precisely in the image of the mother, and this connection is a separate theme in his work. At the same time, Tvardovsky’s theme of the mother is based on the entire previous experience of Russian culture; in particular, folk song poetry and the Nekrasov tradition are its historical basis.

More than once noted by critics as a feature art world the poet's lack of love lyrics in Tvardovsky, and on the other hand, the strength of sincerity and insight in the poems dedicated to his mother. Similar poems of the early period (from 1927 to 1940) can be divided into three thematic sections: poems dedicated to the poet’s mother and her fate, poems about a Russian peasant woman (whose generalized image results in the image of the mother, because “ worker" and "mother" - the two main hypostases of a woman in Tvardovsky) and poems of heroic themes, where the image of the mother of the hero son most often appears.

The poem “Mothers” from 1927 is a memory-address to a mother. Her image, from this poem to the end, is connected with the image of his small homeland, nature.

The poem “Song” of 1936 is also built on images of memory, recollection, reminder. An adult son plays a record with a song that he himself does not remember, but this song awakens his mother's memory. As soon as she remembers this song, pictures of the past, of her youth, appear before her. Song, work and motherhood appear here in turn - the main images in poems about mothers.

In 1937, a poem with the title “Mothers” reappeared. The image of the mother here is given through memory, reminders - the poet names specific things that carry the memory of his mother for him. It should be noted that this very short and simple poem contains everything that constitutes the theme of mother for Tvardovsky. It is no coincidence that the memory of the mother comes through such images as nature, work and song. This poem is a rare example in Tvardovsky’s work of “plotless” verse. This is also a rare example of blank verse by Tvardovsky. Tvardovsky, who hated “prettiness” and tricks in poetry, even avoids rhymes and big words in his poem about his mother.

Tvardovsky described the real fate of his mother in the 1935 poem “You came to your husband’s house with one beauty...” The story of one fate takes place against the backdrop of history in general, the plot of private life against the backdrop of the general life of the country. It was not for nothing that Tvardovsky called himself a prose writer: in this poem he consistently tells the story of his mother’s life, without comparisons, metaphors, or vivid rhymes. From the prose writer in him is the fact that the image of a woman, wife and mother, is correctly guessed in his poems as a psychological type, she took place as a character.

In this vein, an objectively existing image of the mother arises, created as if according to the laws of prose, as a character. This is especially noticeable in poems about the mothers of new Soviet heroes (“Sailor”, “Flight”, “Son”, “Mother and Son”, “You timidly lift him up ...”). The best in this series of poems of the 30s is “You will timidly lift him up...” (1936), where a genuine image of the hero’s mother is created, where the mother’s voice sounds simple and natural, not coinciding with the general pathos of the poem.

During the war years, the image of the mother becomes more significant in Tvardovsky’s work, fueled along with other poetic images and themes from a common tragic source. Having previously been closely associated with the images of the small homeland and the earth as soil (“mother-raw-earth”), the image of the mother is now equated with the image of the universal Motherland, the country. Being correlated with the images of simple peasant women, the image of the mother is now connected with Tvardovsky’s female images. Mother's love and a woman's love for a man, which are usually at odds with Tvardovsky, are equalized during the war.

Returning to the problem of love lyrics in Tvardovsky, we note that in the early period, it was partly replaced by the theme of the mother. In addition, due to the epic nature of Tvardovsky’s poetic method, the theme of love was embodied in his work objectively, through one character or another.

During the war, against the backdrop of tragedy, it became possible to show a woman in love with a man and with children. The highest achievement of merging the image of a mother and the image of a woman was Anna Sivtsova in the poem “House by the Road.”

In the post-war, last period of creativity, the image of the mother as a character disappears from Tvardovsky’s works. In Tvardovsky’s late work, the theme of mother is finally combined with the theme of memory. The complete movement of the mother’s image into the realm of memory occurs in the “In Memory of the Mother” cycle, written in 1965. There is no image of the mother here as such, that is, no new features are added to the image already familiar to us; here the mother lives only in the memory of her son, and therefore his feelings and filial grief are revealed more than the image of the mother, which has become incorporeal. This generally corresponds to the change in the late Tvardovsky, the transition from epic to lyric poetry.

The cycle consists of four poems dedicated to the mother, the internal movement of which is from memories and discussions about the life of the mother to the death of the mother and, in the last poem, again to life through memory.

My work is dedicated to, in my opinion, current topic of our time - the topic of mothers and motherhood. In this work, I would like to analyze the current situation in Russia through the prism of myths, tales, literary monuments and works of art, which in one way or another affect the problems of motherhood. I will try to evaluate the changes that have occurred over the centuries in relation to motherhood. After all, it’s no longer news to anyone that now even the very concept of “motherhood” is treated completely differently than, say, in the 19th century or even in the 50s of the 20th century. The change in priorities is so rapid that it becomes scary, what will happen next? That’s why I chose this topic among many, many other interesting and deep topics.

The Image of the Mother in Orthodoxy. Icons.

The image of a woman-mother is glorified in numerous works of literature and art, reverently embodied in wondrous icons. I would like to dwell on the latter in more detail, since for me this topic is closer than all the others. The history of Orthodoxy and Christianity goes back more than two thousand years, so it is not surprising that its cultural heritage is so rich. One could list monuments of literature, architecture and icon painting for a very long time, but this is not necessary now.

Based on the specifics of the work, I immediately identified a specific area of ​​research for myself – the icons of the Mother of God. Believers know how huge the number of images of the Mother of God is, in some of them She is alone, but in most icons she is holding the Child Christ in her arms. Orthodox Christians know such icons as the Sovereign, Iveron, Inexhaustible Chalice, Pochaev, Joy of All Who Sorrow, Tikhvin, Kazan and many, many others, miraculous, with their own history and list of miracles. For example, we can recall Catholic images of the Virgin Mary. These are the Sistine Madonna, Raphael's Madonna and other masterpieces of the great masters of the Middle Ages. There is one significant similarity between para-Orthodox icons and Catholic paintings - in all of them the Virgin Mary is depicted with her Son.

Thus, the Mother of God becomes one of the most sacred symbols for believers - a symbol of high, sacrificial motherhood. After all, all mothers know how difficult and painful it is to learn about any failure or illness of their children. But few people know how difficult it is to live with the knowledge of the entire future terrible fate of their child. And the Mother of God knew the whole fate of her Son from his very birth. Therefore, perhaps, the very image of a mother is so sacred for all people that since ancient times her work in raising children has been equated with a feat.

The image of the Mother in the mythology of the Slavs and other peoples.

All peoples of the world have always had a place for female deities in the religious picture of the world, and they have always stood separately from male gods. The patron goddesses of the hearth, land, and fertility were greatly respected by all ancient peoples.

The original archetype of birth, the beginning of life, the creation of Nature subconsciously led to the worship of Mother Earth, who gives everything for people’s lives. Therefore, the ancient Slavs identified not one god - Heaven, as one might think, but two - Heaven and Earth. They generally considered Earth and Heaven to be two living beings, and even more so, a married couple, whose love gave birth to all life on earth. The God of heaven, the Father of all things, is called Svarog. What did the Slavs call the great Goddess of the Earth? Some scientists believe that her name is Makosh. Others, no less authoritative, argue with them. But I will proceed from the fact that the name of the Earth goddess is still Makosh. The interpretation of the name Makosh itself is very interesting. And if “ma” is clear to everyone - mom, mother, then what is “cat”? It’s not entirely clear, if you don’t remember some words, this is, for example, a wallet where wealth is stored, a shed where the living wealth of the peasant is driven - sheep, the leader of the Cossacks is called koshev, fate, lot were also called kosh, and also a large basket for vegetables and fruit. And if you add all these meanings into a semantic chain, then it turns out: Makosh is the Mistress of Life, the Giver of the Harvest, the Universal Mother. In one word – Earth.

We still call the Earth Mother. Only we treat her not nearly as respectfully as good children should. The pagans treated her with the greatest love, and all the legends say that the Earth paid them the same. It is not for nothing that both the Slavs and the Greeks have a myth about a hero who cannot be defeated, since the Earth itself helps him. On the tenth of May they celebrated the “name day of the Earth”: on this day it could not be disturbed - plowing, digging. The earth witnessed the solemn oaths; at the same time, they touched it with the palm of their hand, or they took out a piece of turf and placed it on their head, mystically making a lie impossible: it was believed that the Earth would not bear a deceiver. In Rus' they said: “Don’t lie - the Earth hears,” “Love as the Earth loves.” And now sometimes, when we take an oath, we demand: “Eat the earth!” And what is the custom of taking a handful of native land to a foreign land worth!

By the Upper Paleolithic era - 40-50 thousand years BC. e. include the first archaeological finds in the form of stone figurines of female deities. During the Neolithic period - 10-12 thousand years BC. e. Numerous images of the Mother Goddess are already appearing as a reflection various forces nature. Among the ancient Sumerians, this is the goddess of love Ishtar, associated with the morning star Venus, who has many epithets - the Lady of the Gods, the Queen of Kings, who was worshiped throughout the Mediterranean, was also considered the Mother of the Gods, the keeper of secret knowledge. The Egyptian goddess Isis was endowed with the same qualities. The ancient Persians, who accepted the teachings of Zoroaster, worshiped the Goddess of purity and purity, Anahita.

Slavic and Indian mythology have common Indo-Aryan roots, and this is especially noticeable in the culture national costume, where images of the goddess with palms outstretched forward are often found - a gesture of protection. It is not for nothing that in Ukraine one of the names of the goddess is Bereginya. On costumes this image is found in the form of stylized embroidery patterns and is called “Mokosh”. The goddess Mokosh among the Slavs is a spinner who spins endless yarn - the all-pervading energy of the universe. Archetypal ideas about the Goddess-spinner were preserved among the Sami, Finns, Lithuanians, and other peoples of the North.

One of the earliest images of the World Tree in Rus' from the time of Hyperborea is a petroglyph Lake Onega. The drawing combines two universal symbols - the World Tree and the Swan sitting on it. Swan is ancient symbol The Goddess giving birth to the Cosmic Egg is the third cosmic symbol. Let's remember the Russians folk tales or Pushkin’s fairy tales “On the sea-ocean, on the island of Buyan, a green oak grows”, “At Lukomorye there is a green oak”, the Swan Princess, the egg where Koshchei’s source of life is kept, etc.

All the mysterious Eleusinian mysteries among the Athenians were associated with the cult of the Earth, collecting fruits, storing seeds, the art of agriculture and growing crops. This merged into a single sacred sacrament, personified by the Mother in Birth, who gives continuation to the family and preserves it. The Slavs also had gods responsible for the prosperity and offspring of all living things in nature and the multiplication of the human race. These are Rod and Rozhanitsy, mentioned in ancient Russian literature. The clan sent the souls of people to Earth from heaven when children were born. They usually talk about the Mother Goddesses in plural. Ancient manuscripts speak briefly about them, only mentioning bread, honey and “cheese” (previously this word meant cottage cheese), which were sacrificed to them. Due to the paucity of this information, some researchers of past years were accustomed to seeing in Rozhanitsy numerous, faceless female Deities who helped in various women’s concerns and work, as well as in the birth of children. However, modern scientists, having processed a large amount of archaeological, ethnographic, linguistic material, turning to information concerning neighboring peoples, came to the conclusion that there were two Rozhanits: Mother and Daughter.

The Slavs associated the Mother in Childbirth with the period of summer fertility, when the harvest ripens, becomes heavier, and becomes full. This is fully consistent with the image of mature motherhood: artists usually depict the fruitful Autumn as a middle-aged woman, kind and plump. This is a respectable mistress of the house, the mother of a large family. The ancient Slavs gave her the name Lada, which has many meanings. They all have to do with establishing order: “Getting along,” “getting along,” and so on. The order in this case was thought of primarily as a family one: “LADA”, “LADO” - an affectionate address to a beloved spouse, husband or wife. "LADINS" - wedding conspiracy. But Lada’s sphere of activity is by no means limited to the home. Some researchers recognize the Great Lada as the mother of the twelve months into which the year is divided. But the months, as we know, are associated with the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, which, according to astrological science, influence human destiny! Thus, for example, Scorpio and Sagittarius are the property of not only foreign (non-Slavic) culture, as we are accustomed to believe. And Lada appears before us not just as the Goddess of summer, home comfort and motherhood, she is also connected with the universal cosmic law! So the Slavic religious cult was not so primitive.

Lada also had a daughter, a Goddess named Lelya, the youngest Rozhanitsa. Let’s think about it: it’s not for nothing that a child’s cradle is often called a “cradle”; a tender, caring attitude towards a child is conveyed by the word “cherish.” A stork that supposedly brings children is called “leleka” in Ukrainian. And the child himself is sometimes affectionately called “lilya” even now. This is how the Slavic Lelya was born - the Goddess of tremulous spring sprouts, the first flowers, and young femininity. The Slavs believed that it was Lelya who took care of the barely hatched seedlings - the future harvest. Lelya-Vesna was solemnly “called out” - they invited her to visit, they went out to meet her with gifts and refreshments. And before that, they asked Lada’s Mother for permission: would she let her daughter go?

The holiday of Rozhanitsa was celebrated in the spring - April 22-23. On this day, sacrifices were made with vegetable and dairy products, which were solemnly, with prayers, eaten at a sacred feast, and then bonfires were burned all night long: a huge one, in honor of Lada, and around it twelve smaller ones - according to the number of months of the year. According to tradition, it was a women's and girls' holiday. Guys, men looked at him from afar. So, having examined the pagan cults of some peoples, I concluded that the very concept of Woman - Mother was present among all peoples, moreover, in very similar forms and images, which also speaks of the common roots of all beliefs and myths in general.

Domostroy. Attitude towards a woman-mother in the Middle Ages.

Gender relations in Russia were, of course, greatly influenced by the ideology of Christianity. A kind of regulatory basis for the relationship between a man and a woman was “Domostroy,” which ordered a woman to obey her husband (father, brother) in everything. “Domostroy” lists in detail the responsibilities of women, which are based on tireless work in the family, and obedience to the husband, father, owner, and the responsibility of mothers for their children and housekeeping. But along with this, there is also a chapter that instructs the husband to honor his wife, instruct her and love her.

“If God gives a good wife, better than a precious stone; such a one will not abandon the benefit, she will always arrange a good life for her husband. If a husband is blessed with a good wife, the number of days of his life will double, a good wife will delight her husband and fill his years with peace; Let a good wife be a reward for those who fear God, for a wife makes her husband more virtuous: firstly, having fulfilled God’s commandment, to be blessed by God, and secondly, to be glorified by people. A kind wife, and hardworking, and silent - a crown to her husband, if the husband has found his good wife - she only takes good things out of his house; blessed is the husband of such a wife and they will live their years in good peace. For a good wife, praise and honor to the husband.”

Domostroy drew a sharper line between men and women, and, accordingly, the attitude towards mothers changed. But one cannot think that it has sharply worsened: it has become a little different, requiring more strict adherence to certain Christian norms and rules. Mother and wife had to treat their husband with respect and their children with severity, raising them in piety. Some people think that with the advent of Christianity, the position of women worsened compared to the era of paganism. I don’t think so: there have always been domestic tyrants, no rules stopped them, so with the advent of the “Domostroy” era, such husbands simply found, so to speak, a compelling justification for their behavior. And yet, a woman has always been the mistress of the house, the keeper of the hearth and virtue in the family, a faithful helper and friend to her husband.

This attitude towards women has left its mark in Russian folklore: “God help the single man, and the mistress will help the married man,” “The family is at war, the lonely man grieves,” “Husband and wife are one soul.” There was a strict division of the roles of men and women, which developed over centuries. This is especially evident in work. The wife's activities do not extend beyond the family. The husband’s activities, on the contrary, are not limited to the family: he - public figure, and through him the family participates in the life of society. The woman was in charge, as they say, of the keys to the whole house, keeping records of hay, straw, and flour. All livestock and all domestic animals, except horses, were under the supervision of a woman. Under her vigilant supervision was everything related to feeding the family, taking care of linen and clothing repairs, weaving, baths, etc.

The owner, the head of the house and family, was, first of all, a mediator in the relations of the farmstead and land society, in the relations of the family with the authorities. He was in charge of the main agricultural work, plowing, sowing, as well as construction, logging and firewood. Together with his adult sons, he bore the entire physical burden of peasant labor on his shoulders.

Only when there was great need did a woman, usually a widow, take up an ax, and a man (also most often a widower) sat down with a milk pan under the cow.

From childhood, boys were taught male wisdom, and girls - female wisdom. There was no patriarchal pedantry in the relationships between boys and girls. From adolescence, acquaintances and hobbies changed, young people seemed to “get used to” each other, looking for a mate according to their soul and character. Evidence of spiritual freedom and mental looseness in the relationships of young people is the many love songs and ditties in which women's side does not look passive and dependent at all. Parents and elders were not strict with the behavior of young people, but only before the wedding. But even before marriage, freedom of relationships did not at all mean sexual freedom. There were very clear boundaries of what was permitted, and they were violated very rarely. Both sides, male and female, tried to maintain chastity.

But still, a woman was perceived as an “addition” to a man, and not as an independent, full-fledged person. The existing family was strictly patriarchal.

The image of a woman-mother in Russian literature of the 19th century.

After the 17th century, attitudes towards women and mothers in society gradually changed, with other values ​​and priorities coming to the fore. This can be seen in the number and themes of works by writers of that time. Very few write about mothers, praising their hard work; most of those who write talk about the severity and complexity of a mother’s life, about her difficult fate. This is, for example, Nekrasov. The images of Arina, the soldier’s mother, Matryona Timofeevna from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” glorified the difficult fate of the Russian peasant woman. Sergei Yesenin dedicated touching lines of poetry to his mother. In Maxim Gorky’s novel “Mother,” Pelageya Nilovna becomes an assistant to her Bolshevik son, and consciousness awakens in her.

But Leo Tolstoy thought about this topic most of all in his novel War and Peace. His Natasha Rostova is the image of motherhood that has been absent from Russian literature for so long. Natasha passionately dreams of a husband and children. Also in early youth she felt how unequal the rights and opportunities of women in her circle were compared to the opportunities and rights of men, how narrowly a woman’s life was squeezed. Only in the family, taking part in her husband’s activities, raising children, can she find an application for her strengths. This is her calling, in this she sees her life’s duty, a feat, and with all her soul she strives to fulfill it.

In the person of Pierre Bezukhov, fate gave her the person who was the only one who could understand and appreciate her. At the end of the novel, fate gives her what she always considered herself destined for - a husband, family, children. This is happiness, and it, like love for Pierre, absorbs her completely. It couldn't be any other way. It always seems strange to me when, after reading War and Peace, someone says that Natasha in the epilogue of the novel, immersed in caring for children, in diapers and feeding, jealous of her husband, giving up singing, is a completely different Natasha. But in fact, Natasha was always the same, or rather, her essence was the same - tender, honest, thirsty for the feat of love. We part with our beloved heroine in 1820 on the eve of Nikolai's day, the name day of Nikolai Rostov. The whole family is assembled, everyone is alive, healthy, happy and relatively young. All is well that ends well? But nothing ends even for these people - and, most importantly, the contradiction of life, its struggle, does not end with these characters. The contradiction and struggle are resolved not by the outcome (any of which is always only partial and temporary), not by the plot ending, not by the denouement of the novel. Although in the epilogue there are marriages and families, Tolstoy was still right when he declared that he was unable to set certain “boundaries” to the development of action and his “fictional persons” with this classic literary denouement. Marriages in the finale of “War and Peace”, if there is a definite result of the relationship between individuals, then this result is inconclusive and conditional; it did not destroy the “interest of the narrative” in Tolstoy’s book. This emphasizes the relativity of the outcome itself in the process of life and the idea of ​​the outcome as an attitude to life, a point of view on it. The epilogue rounds off and immediately refutes any kind of rounding off of life - of an individual person, or even more so of universal life.

The current state of affairs.

Significant changes in the status of women occurred in many countries of the world already in the 20th century, largely under the influence of the Great October Revolution. Among the first decrees of the Soviet government were those issued in December 1917: the Decree on civil marriage, children and keeping books, as well as the Decree on divorce. These decrees abolished the laws in force before the revolution that placed women in an unequal position with men in the family, in relation to children, in rights to property, in divorce, and even in choosing a place of residence. After the October Revolution, women in Russia for the first time acquired the right to freely choose a profession and receive an education. Equality of women with men in political, civil rights was enshrined in the first Soviet constitution. And now, when the participation of women in the socio-political life of developed countries has become a common phenomenon, it is worth remembering that Soviet Russia found itself in the top five countries in the world that granted women the right to vote and be elected to the country's representative bodies. At different stages of development of the Country of Soviets, specific issues related to the participation of women in state and public life, the protection of motherhood and childhood, labor activity women, increasing their general educational and professional level, and others were solved primarily as state tasks.

By the 1920s, the Soviet government was faced with complex socio-demographic and socio-medical problems (disorganization of family and marriage relations, an increase in the number unwanted pregnancies and abortions, the spread of prostitution, etc.). Unable to cope with them in a civilized way, the authorities turned to repressive measures (recriminalization of homosexuality, restriction of freedom of divorce, ban on abortion). The ideological justification for this policy was Bolshevik sexophobia (“we don’t have sex”). But the goal - strengthening the family and increasing the birth rate - was not achieved. The constitutional establishment of equal rights for women and men was a social achievement of socialism. Unfortunately, in this area, as in other areas of social, political and social life, between the human rights proclaimed in the Constitution of the USSR and their implementation, between word and deed, there was a very significant gap that grew over time. As for the issue of equal rights for men and women, stagnation and lack of progress have actually even led to a certain rollback.

Gender relations found themselves, like other areas of human life, under the control of the state.

The sexual revolution occurred in Russia much later than in other countries - in the early 1990s. In the 90s, and even today in Russia, there was a “striking inequality of chances for women”, a “clear imbalance” in the social positions and opportunities of men and women. It is impossible not to notice that in the late 90s, just as in the late 80s, it was considered “bad form” to talk about the social needs of women, about their political needs and career aspirations. But, as we see, women are moving further and further in “conquering living space.” Thus, the further development of relations between men and women presupposes recognition by society of their equality, equivalence and equal rights.

Although one cannot help but see how low the Mother’s authority has fallen, how people feel about the very thought of a second, not to mention a third, child. I, like many caring people, hope that with changes in demographic policy, the very attitude towards mothers will change. A shift is already noticeable, very weak, but a shift. I think with great hope of a time when people will respect mothers no less than, say, the president or famous actors.