The purpose of the lesson: continue to acquaint students with the life and work of M. Gorky.
Lesson objectives: show artistic originality early romantic works of the writer; introduce the early romantic stories "Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra", "On Salt", "The Birth of Man";
Develop analytical and imaginative thinking, memory, speech;
To educate humanism, respect for the human person; to form an aesthetic taste, a culture of reading.
During the classes
I . Organizational stage
II . Update
1. Conversation
How can one explain the pseudonym that A.M. Peshkov, starting to publish his works?
Witness what historical events endXIX- start XXcentury became Gorky? What was the attitude of the writer to these events?
2. "Literary pantry". creative work by repeating the learned "Catch the mistake" (skills critical thinking when solving problems). Mistakes crept into literature questions, find them.
1. Dates of life of writers and doctor A.P. Chekhov 1860-1904 - Yes
2. The trilogy of 1898 "The Man in the Case", "Gooseberries", "About Love" brought fame to Leonid Andreev - No, A.P. Chekhov
3. Who is to blame (or what is to blame) for the fact that young, full of strength and vitality, Dmitry Startsev turns into Danko. - No, in Ionych, the environment has stuck, it is difficult to remain a man, even knowing what he should be.
4. Kuprin's personality in the memoirs of his contemporaries "Young, like a young Bacchus, quiet, slow, stocky, with a bull's neck and strong arms, muscular, pleasant" - Yes.
5. “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world!" - these are lines from the story of I.A. Bunin "Easy breathing". - No, from the story of A.I. Kuprin "Garnet bracelet".
6. Critic Adamovich said about Bunin “With age, he became more beautiful and, as it were, more thoroughbred. Gray hair suited him. Something majestic, Roman senatorial, appeared in his appearance. He was extremely smart." Yes.
7. Olya Meshcherskaya main character story " Dark alleys". – No, “Light Breath”
8. Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of a cabinetmaker. - Yes
9. The creative path of L. Andreev began with the publication in September 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz" of the story "Makar Chudra". - No, M. Gorky
10. The early romantic stories of M. Gorky include "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil", "Song of the Falcon". Yes.
11. In the story "Judas Iscariot" three parts are clearly distinguished: the legend of Larra, Izergil's story about his life and the legend of Danko. - No, in the story "Old Woman Izergil".
12. Died in Finland in 1919 from a heart attack with deep homesickness “No Russia. There is no creativity” Leonid Andreev. - Yes.
13. In 1933 he received Nobel Prize the first Russian poet A.I. Kuprin. - No, I.A. Bunin.
14. “Son of an eagle and a woman. He had no tribe, no mother, no livestock, no wife, and he did not want this” Danko. No, Larra.
15. Maxim Gorky, member of the Imperial Academy, chairman of the First All-Union Congress of Writers, awarded the Order of Lenin. - Yes.
III . Formation of new concepts and methods of action.
3. Teacher's word
You and I know that creative way The writer began with the publication in September 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz" of the story "Makar Chudra". Then a literary pseudonym appeared - Maxim Gorky. In 1895, the story "Old Woman Izergil" was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.
Gorky's early stories are of a romantic nature.
Remember what romanticism is. Name the romantic features of the stories you read.
Romanticism – artistic method, hallmark which is the display and reproduction of life outside the real-concrete connections of a person with the surrounding reality, the image of an exceptional personality, often lonely and not satisfied with the present, striving for a distant ideal and therefore in sharp conflict with society, with people.
At the center of the narrative in Gorky's early works is usually romantic hero- a proud, strong, freedom-loving, lonely person, the destroyer of the sleepy vegetation of the majority. About Loika Zobar, for example, it is said: “You yourself become better with such a person.” The action takes place in an unusual, often exotic setting: in a gypsy camp, in communion with the elements, with the natural world: the sea, mountains, coastal cliffs. Often the action is transferred to legendary times. (Recall the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.)
Distinctive features romantic images of Gorky - proud disobedience to fate and impudent love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroism of character. Romantic hero aspires To unrestricted freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is often dearer to him than life itself.
IN romantic stories the dream of beauty and the writer's observations of contradictions are embodied human soul. Makar Chudra says: “They are funny, those people of yours. They huddled together and crush each other, and there are so many places on earth ... "The old woman Izergil almost echoes him:" And I see that people do not live, but everyone tries on.
For a romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world is formed: principle of romantic duality . The ideal world of the hero is opposed to the real, contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between the romantic and the world around him is a fundamental feature of this literary trend.
These are the heroes of the early romantic stories Gorky. The old gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in a romantic landscape.
Give examples to prove your words.
The hero is surrounded by “cold waves of the wind”, “the darkness of the autumn night”, which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea”.
Let's pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to its breadth, which symbolizes the boundlessness of the hero's freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything.
The main character of the story “Old Woman Izergil” also appears in a romantic landscape: “The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving rise to a strong impulse, fluttered the hair of women into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. It made women strange and fabulous. They moved farther and farther away from us, and the night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully.
Let us pay attention to the detailed metaphorical nature of Gorky's style, to the bright sound writing.
It is in such a landscape - seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful - that Gorky's heroes can realize themselves.
What are the main character traits of Gorky's romantic heroes?
Makar Chudra has in his character the only principle that he considers most valuable: the maximalist desire for freedom.
A distinctive feature of Izergil is her confidence that her whole life was subordinated to love for people, but freedom was above all for her.
The heroes of the legends told by Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil also embody the desire for freedom. Freedom, will is dearer to them than anything in the world.
Radda is the highest, exceptional manifestation of pride that even love for Loiko Zobar cannot break: “I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you. The insoluble contradiction between the two principles in a romantic character - love and pride - is conceived by Makar Chudra as completely natural, and it can only be resolved by death.
The heroes of the legends of the old woman Izergil - Danko and Larra - also embody a single trait: Larra is extreme individualism, Danko is an extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people.
What is the motivation of the characters?
Danko, Radda, Zobar are such in their essence, they are such from the very beginning. Larra is the son of an eagle, embodying the ideal of strength and will. Let's pay attention to the unusualness and sonority of the names of the characters.
The action of the legends takes place in ancient times - it's like the time that preceded the beginning of history, the era of first creations. Therefore, in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are the blue lights left from Danko's heart, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees, the images of Radda and Loiko Zobar, woven before the narrator's gaze in the darkness of the night.
What is the meaning of opposing Danko and Larra?
Larra is likened to a mighty beast: "He was dexterous, predatory, strong, cruel and did not meet people face to face"; "He had no tribe, no mother, no livestock, no wife, and he didn't want any of that." As the years passed, it turns out that this son of the "eagle and the woman" was deprived of a heart: "Larra wanted to plunge a knife into himself, but" the knife broke - they hit it like a stone. The punishment that befell him is terrible and natural - to be a shadow: "He does not understand either the speech of people, or their actions - nothing." In the image of Larra, an anti-human essence is embodied.
Danko carries an inexhaustible love for those who are “like wolves” who surrounded him, “so that it would be easier for them to grab and kill Danko.” One desire possessed them - to displace from their consciousness the darkness, cruelty, fear of the dark forest, from where "something terrible, dark and cold looked at the walking ones."
Danko's heart caught fire and burned to dispel the darkness not only of the forest, but also of the soul. The rescued people did not pay attention to the “proud heart” that fell nearby, and one “cautious person noticed this and, being afraid of something, stepped on the proud heart with his foot.”
What do you think the "cautious man" was afraid of?
Pay attention to the symbolic parallels: light and darkness, sun and marsh cold, fiery heart and stone flesh.
Selfless service to people is opposed to Larra's individualism and expresses the ideal of the writer himself.
IV . Application. Formation of skills and abilities
4. A creative task for compliance in order to test knowledge of the text of the story "Old Woman Izergil"
“And this young man, rejected, thrown out, laughed after the people who abandoned him, laughed, remaining alone, free, like his father. But his father was not a man. This one was a man." – Larra
"Young handsome man. The beautiful are always bold. He is the best of all, because in his eyes a lot of strength and living fire shone" - Danko
“Time bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched, as if the old woman spoke with her bones "- Old Woman Izergil
“He has already become like a shadow. He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried up his body, blood and bones, and the wind pulverized them. That's what God can do to a man for pride!..." - the legend of Larra
“But one day a thunderstorm struck over the forest, the trees whispered muffledly, menacingly. And then it became so dark in the forest, as if all the nights gathered in it at once, how many there were in the world ... ”- the legend of Danko
“The old woman was dozing. I looked at her and thought: “How many more fairy tales and memories are left in her memory?” - Old Isergil
“Perhaps her beauty can be played on the violin, and even then to the one who knows this violin as his soul knows”; "one magnate saw her and was dumbfounded, he sits and looks, trembling, as if in a flame." – Radda
“Her black eyes were dull. The moon illuminated her dry, chapped lips, her pointed chin with gray hair on it, and her wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. There were black pits in place of her cheeks, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair, escaping from under the red rag that was wrapped around her head. The skin on the face, neck and hands is all cut up with wrinkles, and with every movement one could expect that this dry skin would tear all over, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand before me "- Izergil
“The mustache lay on the shoulders and mingled with the curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is the whole sun. With such a person, you yourself become better. And wise, like an old man, and knowledgeable in everything, and he understood Russian and Magyar letters. - Loiko.
Dates of life: 1860-1904 = A.P. Chekhov
1870-1938 = A.I. Kuprin
1870-1953 = I.A. Bunin
1871-1919 = L.N. Andreev
1868-1936 = M. Gorky
5. Analytical conversation
Features of the composition of Gorky's romantic stories.
- Composition (building artwork) is subordinated to one goal - to most fully reveal the image of the protagonist, who is the spokesman for the author's idea.
How are the images of the characters revealed in the composition?
The composition of "Makar Chudra" and "Old Woman Izergil" is a story within a story. This technique is often found in the literature.
Telling the legends of their people, the heroes of the stories express their ideas about people, about what they consider valuable and important in life. They seem to create a coordinate system by which one can judge them.
play an important role in composition. portrait characteristics. The portrait of Radda is given indirectly. We learn about her extraordinary beauty from the reaction of the people she struck. “Perhaps her beauty can be played on the violin, and even then to the one who knows this violin as his soul knows”; "one tycoon", "saw her and was dumbfounded." The proud Radda rejected both the money and the offer to marry that magnate: “If an eagle entered the nest of her own free will, what would she become?” Pride and beauty are equal in this heroine.
But the portrait of Loiko is drawn in detail: “The mustache lay on the shoulders and mixed with curls, the eyes, like clear stars, burn, and the smile is the whole sun, by golly! It was as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. The image is not just romantic - fabulous.
Talking about the love of Radda and Loiko Zobar, Makar Chudra believes that this is the only way he should perceive life. real man, the only way to preserve their own freedom. The conflict between love and pride is resolved by the death of both - neither one wanted to submit to a loved one.
The image of the narrator is one of the most inconspicuous, he usually remains in the shadows. But the look of this person, traveling around Rus', meeting different people, is very important. The perceiving consciousness (in this case, the hero-narrator) is the most important subject of the image, the criterion of the author's assessment of reality, the means of expressing the author's position. The interested look of the narrator selects the brightest characters, the most significant, from his point of view, episodes and talks about them. This is the author's assessment - admiration for strength, beauty, poetry, pride.
These two legends, as it were, frame the story of the life of the old woman Izergil herself. Condemning Larra, the heroine thinks that her fate is closer to the Danko pole - she is also dedicated to love. But from the stories about herself, the heroine appears rather cruel: she easily forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, left the people she once loved. Her indifference is astounding.
What role does the portrait of the old woman Izergil play in the composition?
The portrait of the heroine is contradictory. From her stories, you can imagine how good she was in her youth.
But the portrait of the old woman is almost disgusting, anti-aesthetic features are deliberately pumped up: “Time has bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched, as if the old woman spoke with bones. She has a toothless mouth, her hands tremble, and her fingers are crooked. “The moon illuminated her dry, chapped lips, a pointed chin with gray hair on it and a wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. There were black pits where her cheeks had been, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair that had fallen out from under the red rag that was wrapped around her head. The skin on the face, neck and arms was cut with wrinkles, and with every movement of the old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would tear all over, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me.
The features of the portrait of Larra, which the old woman herself tells about, bring these heroes closer: “He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried up his body, blood and bones, and the wind sprayed them.” The antiquity of the old woman, her individualism, her stories about people who have gone through their life circle and turned into shadows, the old woman herself “without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire - also almost a shadow” reminds the narrator Larr (recall that Larra also turned into a shadow).
Thus, with the help of the portrait, the images of Izergil and Larra come closer, the essence of the characters and the position of the author himself are revealed.
6. Detailed answer to the question
Students write a detailed answer to the question "Why did people not notice Danko's self-sacrifice?"
7. Creative work to complete the comparison table
The image of LarraThe image of Danko
Origin
son of an eagle and a woman
"one of the people"
Appearance
A young man of twenty, handsome and strong.
The eyes are "cold and proud, like those of the king of birds."
“a handsome young man”, “a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”
Attitude towards people
Arrogance, contempt: "he answered if he wanted, or was silent, and when the oldest tribes came, he spoke to them as to his equals"
Altruism: “He loved people and thought that maybe without him they would die. And now his heart flared with the fire of desire to save them, to bring them to easy way»
deeds
The murder of the daughter of one of the elders, hit her and, when she fell, stood with his foot on her chest, so that her blood splashed from her mouth to the sky
Self-sacrifice: “He tore his chest with his hands and tore out his heart from it and raised it high above his head. It burned as brightly as the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest became silent, illuminated by this torch of great love for people.
8. Viewing an excerpt from the film based on the stories "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil". "The camp goes to the sky"
V . Information stage homework
1. The history of the creation of the play "At the Bottom" (messages by 3 people), pp. 262-266
3. Write out popular expressions from the play "At the Bottom".
VI . Reflection stage
Romanticism as a trend in literature arose in the late 18th - early 19th century, it became most widespread in Europe in the period from 1790 to 1830. The main idea of romanticism was the assertion of a creative personality, and a feature was a violent depiction of emotions. The main representatives of romanticism in Russia were Lermontov, Pushkin and Gorky.
Gorky's romantic mood was prompted by the growing discontent in society and the expectation of change. It was thanks to the protest against “stagnation” that images of heroes began to appear in the writer’s head, capable of saving the people, leading them out of the darkness, showing them the right path. But this path seemed to Gorky to be completely different, different from the usual existence, the author despised everyday life and saw salvation only in freedom from social shackles and conventions, which was reflected in his early stories.
Historically, this period of Gorky's work coincided with the flourishing of revolutionary movements in Russia, the views of which the author clearly sympathized with. He sang the image of a disinterested and honest rebel, embraced not by greedy calculations, but by romantic aspirations to change the world for the better and destroy an unjust system. Also in his works of that time, a craving for freedom and unrealizable ideals was revealed, because the writer had not yet seen the change, but only foresaw them. When the dreams of a new social order took on a real shape, his work was transformed into socialist realism.
Main features
The main feature of romanticism in Gorky's work is a clear division of characters into good and bad, that is, there are no complex personalities, a person has either only good qualities or just bad ones. Such a technique helps the author to show his sympathy more clearly, to single out those people who need to be imitated.
In addition, love for nature can be traced in all of Gorky's romantic works. Nature is always one of the main acting characters, and all romantic moods are transmitted through it. The writer liked to use descriptions of mountains, forests, seas, endowing every particle of the surrounding world with its own character and behavior.
What is revolutionary romanticism?
The early romantic works of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov were based on the ideas of classicism and, in fact, were a direct continuation of it, which did not correspond to progressive and radical moods. thinking people of that period. There were few of them, so romanticism took on classical forms: a conflict between the individual and society, an extra person, yearning for an ideal, etc. However, time passed, and the number of revolutionary-minded citizens increased.
The divergence of literature and popular interests led to a change in romanticism, to the emergence of new ideas and techniques. The main representatives of the new revolutionary romanticism were Pushkin, Gorky and the Decembrist poets, who, first of all, promoted progressive views on the development prospects of Russia. The main theme was folk identity - the possibility of independent existence of peasants, hence the term nationality later appeared. New images began to appear, and the main ones among them were the genius-poet and the hero, capable of saving society from an impending threat at any moment.
Old Isergil
IN this story there is a contrast between two heroes, two types of behavior. The first is Danko - an example of that very hero, the ideal that should save the people. He feels free and happy only when his tribe is free and happy. The young man is filled with love for his people, sacrificial love, which personifies the spirit of the Decembrists, who are ready to die for the welfare of society.
Danko saves his people, but at the same time he dies. The tragedy of this legend is that the tribe forgets its heroes, it is ungrateful, but this is not important for the leader, because the main reward for the feat is the happiness of the people for whom it was performed.
The antagonist is the son of an eagle, Larra, he despised people, despised their life and law, he recognized only freedom, turning into permissiveness. He did not know how to love and limit his desires, as a result, he was expelled from the tribe for violating social principles. Only then did the proud young man realize that he was nobody without the people. When he is alone, no one can admire him, no one needs him. Having shown these two antipodes, Gorky brought everything to one conclusion: the values and interests of the people should always be higher than your values and interests. Freedom lies in freeing people from the oppression of the tyranny of the spirit, ignorance, that darkness that hid behind the forest, unsuitable for the life of the Danko tribe.
It is obvious that the author observes the canon of romanticism: here is the confrontation between the individual and society, here is the longing for the ideal, here is the proud freedom of solitude and extra people. However, the dilemma about freedom was not resolved in favor of the proud and narcissistic loneliness of Larra, this type, sung by Byron (one of the founders of romanticism) and Lermontov, the writer despises. His ideal romantic hero is the one who, being above society, does not renounce it, but helps it even when it persecutes the savior. In this feature, Gorky is very close to the Christian understanding of freedom.
Makar Chudra
In the story "Makar Chudra" freedom is also the main value for the characters. The old gypsy Makar Chudra calls it the main treasure of a person, in it he sees an opportunity to preserve his “I”. Revolutionary romanticism is colorfully manifested precisely in this understanding of freedom: the old man claims that under conditions of tyranny a moral and gifted individual will not develop. So, for the sake of independence, it is worth taking risks, because without it the country will never get better.
Loiko and Radda have the same message. They love each other, but see in marriage only chains and fetters, and not a chance to find peace. As a result, love for freedom, which so far appears in the form of ambition, since the characters cannot properly dispose of it, leads to the death of both characters. Gorky puts individualism above the bonds of marriage, which only lull the creative and mental abilities of a person with everyday worries and petty interests. He understands that it is easier for a loner to sacrifice his life for the sake of freedom, it is easier to find complete harmony with his inner world. After all, the married Danko cannot really tear out the heart.
Chelkash
The main characters of the story are the old drunkard and thief Chelkash and the young village boy Gavrila. One of them was going to go to the “case”, but his partner broke his leg, and this could complicate the whole operation, then an experienced rogue met Gavrila. During their conversation, Gorky paid great attention to the personality of Chelkash, noticed all the little things, described his slightest movement, all the feelings and thoughts that arose in his head. The refined psychologism of the image is a clear adherence to the romantic canon.
Nature also occupies a special place in this work, since Chelkash had a spiritual connection with the sea, and his state of mind often dependent on the sea. The expression of feelings and moods through the states of the surrounding world is again a romantic trait.
We also see how the character of Gavrila changes in the course of the story, and if at the beginning we felt pity and compassion for him, then at the end they turn into disgust. The main idea of the story is that it does not matter how you look and what you do, but what matters is what is in your heart, the most important thing is to always remain a decent person in any business. This idea in itself carries a revolutionary message: how does it matter what the hero does? Does this mean that the killer of a high-ranking person can be a decent person? Does this mean that a terrorist can blow up His Excellency's carriage and at the same time maintain moral purity? Yes, this is precisely the liberty the author deliberately allows: not everything is a vice that society condemns. The revolutionary kills, but his motive is sacred. The writer could not say this directly, so he chose abstract examples and images.
Features of Gorky's romanticism
The main feature of Gorky's romanticism is the image of a hero, a kind of ideal designed to save the people. He does not renounce the people, but rather wants to lead them to the right way. The main values that the writer exalted in his romantic stories are love, freedom, courage and self-sacrifice. Their understanding depends on the revolutionary mood of the author, who writes not only for the thinking intelligentsia, but also for a simple Russian peasant, so the images and plots are not ornate and simple. They have the character of a religious parable and even resemble it in style. For example, the author very clearly shows his attitude to each character, and it is always clear who the author likes and who does not.
Gorky also had nature actor and influenced the characters in the stories. In addition, its individual parts are symbols that must be perceived allegorically.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!as a literary direction.) Romanticism presupposes affirmation exceptional personality serving one on one with the world matching reality in terms of your ideal making exceptional demands on her. The hero is head and shoulders above the people around him, their society is rejected by them. This is the reason for the loneliness so typical of a romantic hero, which is most often thought of by him as a natural state, because people do not understand him and do not accept his ideals. The romantic hero finds an equal beginning only in communion with the elements, with the world of nature.
Remember the romantic works of Pushkin and Lermontov.
Therefore, it plays such a large role in romantic works. scenery, usually devoid of halftones, based on bright colors, expressing the indomitable power of the elements, its beauty and exclusivity. The landscape, thus, is animated and, as it were, emphasizes the eccentricity of the hero's character. Attempts to bring the romantic hero closer to the real world are most often futile: reality does not accept the romantic ideal of the hero due to his exclusivity .
Correlation of characters and circumstances in romanticism. For a romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with real life circumstances is almost unthinkable - this is how the most important feature of the romantic artistic world is formed -principle of romantic duality. Romantic, therefore the ideal world of the hero opposes the real world , contradictory and far from the romantic ideal. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is the main feature of this literary movement.
This is how we see the heroes of Gorky's early romantic stories. Old Gypsy Makar Chudra appears before the reader in a romantic landscape: it is surrounded by " haze of autumn night”, which “shuddered and, timidly moving away, opened for a moment on the left - boundless steppe, on right - endless sea». Pay attention to the animation of the landscape, to the infinity of the sea and the steppe, which, as it were, emphasize hero's freedom, his inability and unwillingness to exchange this freedom for anything. A few lines later, Makar Chudra will state this position directly, talking about a person, from his point of view, not free: “Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe understandable? Does the voice of the sea wave gladden his heart? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that's it!
Against the backdrop of a romantic landscape, the old woman Izergil is also depicted.: « The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving rise to a strong gust, fluttered the women's hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. It made women weird and fabulous . They went farther and farther from us, and the night and fantasies dressed them more and more beautifully.».
It is in this landscape seaside, night, mysterious and beautiful- Makar Chudra and the Old Woman Izergil - the main characters of these stories - can realize themselves. Their consciousness and characters with their sometimes mysterious contradictions become the main subject of the image. . For the sake of these heroes, stories are written, and artistic means, used by the author, he needs in order to show the characters in all their complexity and inconsistency, in order to explain their strength and weakness. Makar Chudra and Izergil, Being in the center of the story, they get the maximum opportunity for self-realization. The writer gives them the right to speak about themselves, freely express their views. legends, told by them, possessing undoubted artistic independence, nevertheless serve, first of all, as a means of revealing the image of the main character, whose name is given to the work .
The legends express the representations of Makar Chudra and the old woman Izergil about the ideal and anti-ideal in man, i.e. represented romantic ideal and anti-ideal . Telling about Danko and Larra, about Radda and Loiko Zobar, Izergil and Chudra talk more about themselves. The author needs these legends so that Izergil and Chudra in the most accessible form for them can express your own views on life. Let's try to determine the main qualities of these characters.
Makar Chudra, like any romantic, carries in his characterthe only beginning which he considers valuable: maximalist desire for freedom . Izergil is sure that her whole life was subordinated to only one thing - love for people. The same single beginning, brought to the maximum extent, is embodied by the heroes of the legends they tell. For Loiko Zobar, the highest value is also freedom, openness and kindness.: « He loved only horses and nothing else, and even then not for long - he would ride and sell, and whoever wants the money, take it. He didn’t have a cherished one - you need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only you would feel good about it". Radda - supreme exceptional display of pride, which cannot be broken even by love for Loiko Zobar: “ I have never loved anyone, Loiko, but I love you. Also, I love freedom! Will, Loiko, I love more than you. ... Bow down at my feet in front of the whole camp and kiss right hand mine - and then I will be your wife».
The insoluble contradiction between the two principles in a romantic character - love and pride - is conceived by Makar Chudra as completely natural, and it can be resolved only in the way it was resolved - by death. . The only character trait in its maximum manifestation is carried by Danko and Larra, about whom the old woman Izergil tells. Danko embodies the extreme degree of self-sacrifice in the name of love for people, Larra - extreme individualism .
Romantic character motivation. Larra's exceptional individualism is due to the fact that he is the son of an eagle, embodying the ideal of strength and will. There is simply no need to talk about the motivation of the characters of Danko, Radda or Zobar - they are such in their essence, such originally .
The action of the legends takes place in chronologically indeterminate antiquity - e then, as it were, the time preceding the beginning of history, the era of first creations . However in the present there are traces directly related to that era - these are the blue lights left from Danko's heart, the shadow of Larra, which Izergil sees ; smoothly and silently circling in the darkness of the night, the handsome Loiko and the proud Radda.
Composition of romantic stories. The composition of the narrative in romantic stories is entirely subordinated to one goal: to most fully show the image of the protagonist, whether it be Izergil or Makar Chudra. Forcing them to tell the legends of their people, the author presents a system of values, their understanding of the ideal and anti-ideal in the human character, shows which personality traits, from the point of view of his heroes, are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, the characters in this way, as it were, set a coordinate system, based on which they themselves can be judged.
So, the romantic legend is the most important means of creating the image of the protagonist. Makar Chudra is absolutely sure that pride and love are two wonderful feelings. brought by the romantics to their highest expression, cannot be reconciled, for compromise is generally unthinkable for the romantic consciousness. TO the conflict between the feeling of love and the feeling of pride that Radda and Loiko Zobar are experiencing can only be resolved by the death of both: a romantic cannot give up either love that knows no boundaries, or absolute pride. But love presupposes humility and the mutual ability to submit to the beloved. This is something that neither Loiko nor Rudda can do.
How does Makar Chudra assess such a position? He believes that this is how he should perceivelife is a real person worthy of imitation, and that only with such a position in life can one preserve one's own freedom. An interesting conclusion that he made a long time ago from the story of Radda and Loiko: “Well, falcon, do you want me to tell you one true story? And you remember her, and, as you remember, you will be a free bird for your life. In other words, a truly free person could only realize himself in love, as the heroes of “they were,” told by Makar Chudra, did it.
But does the author agree with his hero? What is the author's position and what are the artistic means of its expression? To answer this question, we must turn to such an important compositional feature of Gorky's early romantic stories as the presencethe image of the narrator. In fact, this is one of the most inconspicuous images, it almost does not manifest itself in actions. But it is precisely the look of this man, wandering around Russia and meeting on his way many of the most different people is very important for a writer. In the compositional center of any Gorky epic work there will always be a perceiving consciousness - negative, distorting the real picture of life, or positive, filling being with the highest meaning and content. It is this perceiving consciousness that ultimately is the most important subject of the image, the criterion of the author's assessment of reality and the means of expressing the author's position.
In a later cycle of stories "Across Rus'", Gorky will call the hero-narrator not a passer-by, butpassing, emphasizing his indifferent view of reality. Both in the cycle “Across Rus'” and in the early romantic stories, the fate and worldview of the “passing” show the features of Gorky himself, the fate of his hero largely reflected the fate of the writer, who from his youth in his wanderings knew Russia. Therefore, many researchers propose to speak of Gorky's narrator in these stories asautobiographical hero.
It is the intent, interested look of the autobiographical hero that snatches out of the meetings bestowed on him by fate the most interesting and ambiguous characters - they turn out to be the main subject of depiction and research. In them the author sees a manifestation folk character turn of the century, tries to explore its strengths and weaknesses. Author's attitude to them - admiration for their strength and beauty(as in the story "Makar Chudra"), or poetry, a penchant for aesthetic perception of the world(as in "Old Woman Izergil"), but at the same time, disagreement with their position, the ability to see contradictions in their characters. Such a complex relationship is expressed in stories not directly, but indirectly, with the help of a variety of artistic means .
Makar Chudra only skeptically listens to the objection of the autobiographical hero: what, in fact, their disagreement, remains, as it were, behind the scenes of the narrative. But the end of the story, where the narrator, looking into the darkness of the steppe, sees how the handsome gypsy Loiko Zobar and Radda, the daughter of the old soldier Danila, “circled in the darkness of the night smoothly and silently, and the handsome Loiko could not catch up with the proud Radda in any way, ”shows his position. In these words, the author's admiration for their beauty and uncompromisingness, the strength of their feelings, the understanding of the impossibility for the romantic consciousness of a different resolution of the conflict. At the same time, this is the realization of the futility of such an outcome of the case: even after the death of Loiko, in his pursuit, he will not be equal to the proud Radda.
The position of the autobiographical hero in "Old Woman Izergil" is more complexly expressed. Creating the image of the main character, Gorky, using compositional means, gives her the opportunity to present a romantic ideal that expresses the highest degree of love for people (Danko), and an anti-ideal that embodied individualism and contempt for others brought to its apogee (Larra). The ideal and the anti-ideal, the two romantic poles of the narrative, expressed in legends, set the coordinate system within which Izergil herself wants to place herself. The composition of the story is such that two legends, as it were, frame the narrative of her own life, which constitutes the ideological center of the narrative. Unconditionally condemning Larra's individualism, Izergil thinks that her own life and destiny tend more towards the Danko pole, which embodies the highest ideal of love and self-sacrifice. In fact, her life, like Danko's life, was all about love - the heroine is absolutely sure of this. But the reader immediately draws attention to the ease with which she forgot her former love for the sake of a new one, how simply she left her once beloved people. They ceased to exist for her when passion passed.. The narrator is constantly trying to bring her back to the story of those who just occupied her imagination, and whom she had already forgotten:
“Where did the fisherman go? I asked.
— Fisherman? And he... here...<...>
— Wait! .. And where is the little Turk?
— Boy? He's dead boy. From homesickness or from love...»
Her indifference to the once beloved people amazes the narrator: “I left then. And I didn't see him again. I was happy with this: never again met the ones she once loved. These are bad meetings, anyway, as if with the dead » .
In everything - in the portrait, in the author's comments - we see a different point of view on the heroine. It is through the eyes of the autobiographical hero that the reader sees Izergil. Her portrait immediately reveals a very significant aesthetic contradiction. . A young girl or a young, full of strength woman should have told about beautiful sensual love. Before us is a deep old woman, in her portrait anti-aesthetic features are deliberately forced: « Time had bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery. Her dry voice sounded strange, it crunched like an old woman spoke with her bones.». « Her raspy voice sounded like it had been murmuring through all the forgotten ages, embodied in her chest as shadows of memories.».
Izergil is sure that her life, filled with love, went completely differently than the life of the individualist Larra, she cannot even imagine anything in common with him, but the look of the autobiographical hero finds this commonality, paradoxically bringing their portraits closer. “He has already become like a shadow — it’s time! He lives for thousands of years, the sun dried up his body, blood and bones, and the wind pulverized them. That's what God can do with a man for pride! .. ”Izergil says about Larra. But almost the same features are seen by the narrator in the ancient old woman Izergil: Ilooked into her face. Her black eyes were still dull, they were not revived by the memory. The moon illuminated her dry, chapped lips, her pointed chin with gray hair on it, and her wrinkled nose, curved like an owl's beak. There were black pits where her cheeks had been, and in one of them lay a strand of ash-gray hair that had fallen out from under the red rag that was wrapped around her head. The skin on the face, neck and arms is all wrinkled, and with every movement of the old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would tear all over, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand in front of me.».
Everything in the image of Izergil reminds the narrator Larra - first of all, of course, her individualism, taken to the extreme, almost approaching Larra's individualism, her antiquity, her stories about people who have long passed their circle of life: “And all of them are only pale shadow, and the one they kissed sits next to me, alive, but withered by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire—also almost a shadow,” remember that Larra turned into a shadow.
The fundamental distance between the position of the heroine and the narrator forms the ideological center of the story and determines its problematics. The romantic position, for all its beauty and loftiness, is denied by the autobiographical hero. He shows its futility and affirms the relevance of a more sober, realistic position.
Indeed, the autobiographical hero is the only realistic image in Gorky's early romantic stories . His realism is manifested in the fact that his character and fate reflected the typical circumstances of Russian life in the 1890s. The development of Russia along the capitalist path led to the fact that millions of people were torn from their places, making up an army of tramps, vagabonds, as if “breaking out” of the old social framework and not finding new strong social ties. Gorky's autobiographical hero belongs precisely to this stratum of people. B. V. Mikhailovsky, a researcher of M. Gorky’s creativity, called such a character "broke out" from the traditional circle of social relations.
For all the drama of this process, it was positive: the horizons and worldview of the people who embarked on a journey through Russia were incomparably deeper and richer than those of previous generations, completely new aspects of national life were opened to them. Russia, as it were, came to know itself through these people. That is why the view of the autobiographical hero is realistic, it is possible for him to realize the limitations of a purely romantic worldview, dooming Makar Chudra to loneliness and leading Izergil to complete exhaustion.
What features of romanticism are reflected in the "Song of the Falcon" (1895, second edition - 1899)? How can you define the genre of this work? What is an allegory? How is conflict embodied? What is the role of the landscape? What are the artistic means of creating images? How is the author's position expressed?
Sergey VOLKOV
“Inscribed” portrait
Talking about the skill of creating a portrait in literary work, do not forget about one of its types, which can be conditionally called “inscribed”. A person is not only “described”, but also “fits in”, is included in a wider background, becoming its constructive part. And at the same time, this background-environment casts its reflection on a person, makes him look different, reveals in his appearance the essential features that are hidden from the eye without such inclusion.
And we find interesting examples of the “inscribed” portrait in the prose of the turn of the century. It is used by M. Gorky in his first story “Makar Chudra”: “A damp wind blew from the sea, spreading across the steppe the thoughtful melody of the splash of a wave running ashore and the rustle of coastal bushes. Occasionally his impulses brought with them shriveled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us shuddered and, timidly moving away, revealed for a moment on the left - the boundless steppe, on the right - the endless sea and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, the old gypsy ... ”The hero of the story is served against the backdrop of nature, powerful, elemental; the position of Makar Chudra in this almost mise-en-scene is interesting - he is exactly in the center, the “boundless” steppe and the “endless” sea are like two wings behind him (the dash sign helps to read this fragment of the text, making pauses-gestures after the words indicating directions: “left”, “right”, “right opposite me”). The next sentence of the story is again symmetrical, but now the focus is on the character. The element surrounding him has already been named and characterized (in the sentence it is “removed” into adverbial phrases), now it is important to emphasize that the hero is not only similar to her, but also higher, stronger than her (the symmetry of the negative particles that accompany the actions of the hero in relation to elements): “ Ignoringattention to the fact that the cold waves of the wind, having opened his chekmen, exposed his hairy chest and beat it mercilessly, he was reclining in beautiful, strong posture, facing me, methodically sipped from his huge pipe ... and ... talked to me, incessantly And without making any movement to protection from sharp wind blows ”(italics hereinafter ours. - S.V.).
Another function is performed by the landscape environment in the description of Princess Vera from " Garnet bracelet» Kuprin. The heroine appears against the backdrop of autumn flowers: “... she walked around the garden and carefully cut flowers with scissors for the dining table. The flower beds were empty and looked disordered. Multi-colored terry carnations were blooming, as well as levkoy - half in flowers, and half in thin green pods, smelling of cabbage, rose bushes still gave - for the third time this summer - buds and roses, but already shredded, rare, as if degenerate. On the other hand, dahlias, peonies and asters bloomed magnificently with their cold, arrogant beauty, spreading an autumnal, grassy, sad smell in the sensitive air. The rest of the flowers, after their luxurious love and excessive motherhood, quietly showered countless seeds of a future life on the ground. The heroine, it seems, is not there yet - we have a description of the flowers that she cuts. Let's take a closer look at it: out of all the flowers, dahlias, peonies and asters are singled out (and again placed in the center of the fragment) - the union “but” opposes them to levkoy and roses that bloom not so “luxuriantly”, “coldly” and “arrogantly”, the word “ the rest” at the beginning of the next sentence again distinguishes them from the series - already on the basis of infertility. All other flowers not only bloomed, but also gave seeds, they were led by the love and joy of motherhood, autumn for them is not only the time of dying, but also the time of the beginning of the “future life”.
"Human" motives in the description of flowers prepare the characterization of the heroine herself. On the same page we read: “... Vera went to her mother, beauty Englishwoman, her highly flexible figure, gentle, but cold And proud face…” The definitions we have identified link in the mind of the reader Vera, who has no children, and the passion for her husband has long since passed, with beautiful, but barren flowers. She is not just among them - it seems that she is alone from them. So the image of the heroine, who entered the time of her autumn, is again built into a wider landscape context, which enriches this image with additional meanings.
Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov, 1868-1936) is one of the most significant figures in the world culture of our century and at the same time one of the most complex and controversial. In the last decade, attempts have been made to "throw Gorky off the ship of modernity." However, let's not forget that at the beginning of the century they tried to do the same with Pushkin and Tolstoy...
Perhaps only Gorky managed to reflect in his work the history, life and culture of Russia in the first third of the 20th century on a truly epic scale.
Early work A.M. Gorky is marked by the influence of romanticism. In the legacy of any writer, something can be liked and something not. One will leave you indifferent, and the other will delight. And this is all the more true for the huge and diverse work of A.M. Gorky. His early works - romantic songs and legends - leave the impression of contact with real talent. The characters in these stories are beautiful. And not only outwardly - they refuse the miserable fate of serving things and money, their life has a high meaning. Heroes early works A.M. Gorky are courageous and selfless (“The Song of the Falcon”, the legend of Danko), they glorify activity, the ability to act (images of the Falcon, Petrel, Danko). One of the most striking early works of A.M. Gorky is the story "Old Woman Izergil" (1894). The story was written using the writer's favorite form of framing: the legend of Larra, the story of Izergil's life, the legend of Danko. The three parts of the story are united by the main idea - the desire to identify true value human personality.
In 1895 Gorky wrote his "Song of the Falcon". In the contrasting images of the Uzh and the Falcon, two forms of life are embodied: rotting and burning. In order to more clearly show the courage of the fighter, the author contrasts the Falcon with the adapting Uzh, whose soul rots in bourgeois complacency. Gorky delivers a merciless verdict on philistine-philistine well-being: "Born to crawl, he cannot fly." In this work, Gorky sings the song "to the madness of the brave", asserting it as "the wisdom of life."
Gorky believed that with the organization of a “healthy working people - democracy”, a special spiritual culture would be established, under which “life would become joy, music; labor is pleasure. That is why at the beginning of the 20th century the writer's confessions about the happiness of "living on earth" are very frequent, where " new life in the new century."
Such a romanticized feeling of the era was expressed by the "Song of the Petrel" (1901). In this work, a person who overthrows a stagnant world was revealed by romantic means. All manifestations of feelings dear to the author are concentrated in the image of the “proud bird”: courage, strength, fiery passion, confidence in victory over a meager and boring life. The petrel combines truly unprecedented abilities: soar up, "pierce" the darkness, call for a storm and enjoy it, see the sun behind the clouds. And the storm itself is like their realization.
Everywhere and always A.M. Gorky strove for the revival of the given foundations of human existence by nature. In Gorky's early romantic works, the awakening of the human soul is laid down and captured - the most beautiful thing that the writer has always worshiped.
Born March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of 11 he became an orphan and lived with relatives in Kazan until 1888. He tried many professions: he was a cook on a steamer, worked in an icon-painting workshop, a foreman. In 1888 he left Kazan for the village of Krasnovidovo, where he was engaged in the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. Maxim Gorky's first story, Makar Chudra, was published in 1892 in the newspaper Kavkaz. In 1898, the collection Essays and Stories was published, and a year later his first novel, Foma Gordeev, was published. In 1901, Gorky was expelled from Nizhny Novgorod to Arzamas Durnov A.N. Gorky, which we do not know. // Literary newspaper, 1993, March 10 (No. 10). .
A little later, the writer's collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater began. The theater staged the plays "At the Bottom" (1902), "Petty Bourgeois" (1901) and others. The poem "Man" (1903), the plays "Summer Residents" (1904), "Children of the Sun" (1905), "Two Barbarians" (1905) belong to the same period. Gorky becomes an active member of the Moscow Literary Environment, takes part in the creation of collections of the Knowledge Society. In 1905, Gorky was arrested and immediately after his release, he went abroad. From 1906 to 1913 Gorky lived in Capri. In 1907, the novel "Mother" by Mironov R.M. was published in America. Maksim Gorky. His personality and works. - M., 2003 ..
The plays “The Last” (1908), “Vassa Zheleznova” (1910), the stories “Summer” (1909) and “The Town of Okurov” (1909), the novel “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1911) are created in Capri. In 1913, Gorky returned to Russia, and in 1915 he began publishing the Chronicle magazine. After the revolution, he worked at the publishing house "World Literature".
In 1921 Gorky went abroad again. In the early 1920s, he completed the trilogy "Childhood", "In People" and "My Universities", wrote the novel "The Artamonov Case", and began work on the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin". In 1931 Gorky returned to the USSR. He died on June 18, 1936 in the village of Gorki.
At the end of the 90s, the reader was amazed by the appearance of three volumes of Essays and Stories by a new writer, M. Gorky. "Great and original talent" - such was the general judgment about the new writer and his books Veselov G.D.
The growing discontent in society and the expectation of decisive changes caused an increase in romantic tendencies in literature. These tendencies were especially clearly reflected in the work of the young Gorky, in such stories as "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra", in revolutionary songs. The heroes of these stories are people "with the sun in their blood", strong, proud, beautiful. These heroes are Gorky's dream. Such a hero was supposed to "strengthen a person's will to live, arouse in him a rebellion against reality, against any oppression of it."
Central way The romantic works of Gorky's early period is the image of a hero who is ready for a feat in the name of the good of the people. Of great importance in the disclosure of this image is the story "Old Woman Izergil", written in 1895. In the image of Danko, Gorky put a humanistic idea of a man who devotes all his strength to serving the people.
Gorky's work initial stage bears a strong imprint of a new literary trend - the so-called revolutionary romanticism. Philosophical ideas young talented writer, the passion, emotionality of his prose, the new approach to man differed sharply both from naturalistic prose, which had gone into petty everyday realism and chose the hopeless boredom of human existence as a theme, and from the aesthetic approach to literature and life, which saw value only in "refined » emotions, characters and words.
For youth, there are two most important components of life, two vectors of existence. This is love and freedom. In Gorky's stories "Makar Chudra" and "Old Woman Izergil" love and freedom become the theme of the stories told by the main characters. Gorky's plot find - that old age tells about youth and love - allows us to give a perspective, the point of view of a young person who lives by love and sacrifices everything for it, and a person who has lived his life, who has seen a lot and is able to understand what is really important, what remains at the end of a long journey.
The heroes of the two parables told by the old woman Izergil are the complete opposite. Danko is an example of love-self-sacrifice, love-bestowal. He cannot live, separating himself from his tribe, people, he feels unhappy and not free if the people are not free and unhappy. Pure sacrificial love and the desire for achievement were characteristic of romantic revolutionaries who dreamed of dying for universal ideals, could not imagine life without sacrifice, did not hope and did not want to live to old age. Danko gives the heart that lights the way for people.
This is a fairly simple symbol: only a pure heart full of love and altruism can become a beacon, and only a selfless sacrifice will help free the people. The tragedy of the parable is that people forget about those who sacrificed themselves for them. They are ungrateful, but well aware of this, Danko does not think about the meaning of his dedication, does not expect recognition, rewards. Gorky polemicizes with the official church concept of merit, in which a person does good deeds, knowing in advance that he will be rewarded. The writer gives an opposite example: the reward for a feat is the feat itself and the happiness of the people for whose sake it is accomplished.
The son of an eagle is the exact opposite of Danko. Larra is single. He is proud and narcissistic, he sincerely considers himself superior, better than other people. It causes disgust, but also pity. After all, Larra does not deceive anyone, he does not pretend that he is able to love. Unfortunately, there are many such people, although their essence is not so clearly manifested in real life. For them, love, interest come down only to possession. If it cannot be possessed, it must be destroyed. After killing the girl, Larra, with cynical frankness, says that he did it because he could not own her. And he adds that, in his opinion, people only pretend that they love and observe moral standards. After all, nature gave them only their body as property, and they own both animals and things.
Larra is cunning and can talk, but this is a hoax. He overlooks the fact that a person always pays for the possession of money, labor, time, but ultimately a life lived this way and not otherwise. Therefore, the so-called truth of Larra becomes the reason for his rejection. The tribe expels the apostate, saying: you despise us, you are superior - well, live alone if we are unworthy of you. But loneliness becomes an endless torture. Larra understands that his whole philosophy was only a pose, that even in order to consider himself superior to others and be proud of himself, others are still needed. You cannot admire yourself alone, and we all depend on the assessment and recognition from society.
The romanticism of Gorky's early stories, his heroic ideals are always close and understandable to youth, they will be loved and will inspire more and more generations of readers to search for truth and heroism.
The early works (1892-1899) of M. Gorky are fanned with a romantic mood. These are "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil", "Song of the Falcon". It cannot be unequivocally stated that the author’s early stories were created only within the framework of romanticism: Gorky also created realistic works at the same time - “Emelyan Pilyai”, “My Companion”, “Konovalov”, “Spouses Orlovs”, “Malva”, etc. Romanticism M. Gorky is, first of all, the atmosphere - night, ancient traditions and legends, incredible love stories and colorful characters. The main concepts of the author's romantic works are "freedom", "independence", "struggle", which corresponded to the revolutionary spirit of the times: " Only he is worthy of life and freedom, who every day goes to fight for them."(Goethe).
Romantic stories are born from the desire to oppose the tired, measured, monotonous reality with its spiritual poverty and degradation, the ups of human fantasy, feat, the desire "for freedom, for the light", the thirst for realization in the world, the passion for recognition. Gorky heroes stand above everyday life and everyday life. They are not satisfied with the "average", they strive for the high, the eternal.
The center of the story "Makar Chudra" is the clash of two strong and independent characters - Radda and Loiko Zobar. Both yearn for love, but it's a different kind of love - love-passion, love-fire, love-beauty And love is freedom, love is independence simultaneously. The heroes' thirst for freedom reaches the extreme: heroes are able to pay for their insubordination with their own lives. The love of freedom and beauty of the characters are poeticized by the author, raised to the ideal. The tragic legend about Radda and Loiko is told by Makar Chudra, who contrasts them modern man: “They are funny, those your people. They huddle together and crush each other, and there are so many places on earth.
From conflict between characters M. Gorky in the story "Old Woman Izergil" goes on to conflict "hero-society". This conflict is deeper, psychologically and socially sharpened. From the numerous legends and stories told by the Old Woman, images of Larra are born - the son of a woman and an eagle, Danko - "the best of all", etc. Larra, for his selfishness and desire to rule over people, was punished with freedom and the inability to end his life earlier than it was destined: " That's how the man was struck for pride!". Danko, at the cost of his life, tried to bring his fellow tribesmen to freedom and light: “ It burned so brightly. Like the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest fell silent, lit by this torch of great love for people.". But Danko's sacrifice went unnoticed: due to fatigue, people refused to continue their journey. The story of Izergil itself, which serves as a link between the two legends, is full of dedication and feat, which the author emphasizes the presence of the heroic in man. 
It is noteworthy that in his stories Gorky brings the private to the global level. So, in Makar Chudra, the proud figures of Radda and Loiko turned into clouds, where the second tries, but cannot overtake the first. In "Old Woman Izergil" the sparks of Danko's heart turned into " blue sparks of the steppe that appear before a thunderstorm.
"The Song of the Falcon" depicts a clash of two truths - the truth of the Falcon, " happiness of battle", and the truth of Uzh:" Fly or crawl, the end is known: everyone will fall into the ground, everything will be dust". Despite the measured and thoughtful position of Uzh, the author is on the side of the “fighting” Falcon: “ The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life».
Despite the use of Gorky's works in revolutionary propaganda, their meaning is deeper: these stories are philosophical reflection author about human nature in man.
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