The main idea of ​​lady macbeth of mtsensk district. The path of moral fall of Katerina Izmailova (based on Leskov's essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district")

The writer explores the nature of love-passion, which completely took possession of the human soul. For N. Leskov, the bearer of this passion is a woman, a bourgeois woman, Katerina Izmailova. In her youth, she was married to the merchant Izmailov, whom she never loved. Life in a patriarchal merchant house quickly bored her, she had no children, she began to yearn. And then she fell in love with her clerk Sergei. And love-passion, first awakened in her, completely took possession of her soul, outgrowing the limits set by everyday betrayal: "... she unfolded to the full extent of her awakened nature and became so decisive that it is impossible to calm her down." And this passion leads her to crimes, to death. For the sake of her lover, Katerina Lvovna secretly ruins her father-in-law, husband, little nephew, abandons her own child, who was born to her from Sergei. In the finale, she ends up in hard labor, where her lover betrays her. She clashes with her rival, and both women drown. Love-passion is, according to the writer, a destructive element, not controlled by reason.

At the same time, critics noted in this work a certain conflict between the heroine and the deadening, home-building atmosphere, compared Katerina Izmailova with Ostrovsky's heroine, Katerina Kabanova (the drama "The Thunderstorm"). However, the similarity is only in external, everyday circumstances. By the nature of their character, these heroines are completely different. Katerina Izmailova is a strong nature, she knows how to stand up for herself, much has been given to her by nature. At the same time, there is something bestial in it that does not fit into any norms. There is something animal in her passion itself. And Leskov emphasizes this, framing the love scene of the heroes with sounds from the animal world: “The fat horse sighed languidly outside the stable wall ... a merry pack of dogs swept past without any noise ... a piercing cat duet was heard from the kitchen roof; then there was spitting, an angry snort, and after that two or three cats, breaking off, noisily rolled along the bunch of tesa put to the roof. "

After the terrible crimes of the heroine, the writer showed her terrible torment. “Everything around is horribly ugly: endless dirt, gray sky, depolate wet willows and a crowded crow in their spread-out branches. The wind is moaning, then angry, then howling and roaring. In these hellish, soul-tearing sounds that complete the entire horror of the picture, the advice of the biblical Job's wife is heard: "Curse your birthday and die." Whoever does not want to listen to these words, who does not flatter the thought of death even in a sad situation, but frightens, should try to drown out these howling voices with something more ugly. The common man understands this very well. Then he lets down all his bestial simplicity, begins to be silly, to scoff at himself, at people, at feelings. "

The image of Katerina Lvovna is contrasted in the story with the image of the clerk Sergei. This image introduces the motif of the popular print into the work, which is manifested both in the portrait of the hero ("a young man with a daring, handsome face framed by jet-black curls and a barely piercing beard"), and in the author's description of love scenes ("There were many In the bedroom of Zinovy ​​Borisovich And wine from the mother-in-law's cellar has been drunk, and sweet sweets have been eaten, and kissed on sugar lips, and played with black curls on the soft headboard ”). Against the background of the heroine's strong, all-destroying passion, the image of the clerk and his behavior are perceived by the reader as a vulgar farce.

In the finale, we see: the only thing that remains with the heroine is her love. "She sees Sergei again, and with him the hard labor way blooms with happiness." However, it is on this path that Katerina Lvovna will be disappointed, a moral catastrophe. Her love turns out to be a betrayed, humiliated, trampled girl Sonetka, with whom Sergei starts a new relationship. On her she sees her stockings, "blue woolen stockings with bright arrows" (the very ones that she meekly gave to Sergei). And he perceives it not just as treason, but as an insult, an outrage against love.

The finale of the work again refers us to "The Thunderstorm" by A.N. Ostrovsky. However, we again note a significant difference in the outlook of these heroines. “Katerina Kabanova is a foreign phenomenon in her midst, a ray of light that broke through from the outside and illuminated for a moment all the unattractiveness of the dark kingdom, testifying to the complete doom of this kingdom. The lightning discharge that brought the death of Katerina Izmailova was born in the dark, dense depths of this very environment, ”the researchers noted.

Thus, Leskov's love not only prevents the heroine from living and does not bring her happiness, she pushes her to crimes, ruins her soul.

Composition

... In our very vices and crimes there is a moral Macbeth greatness, and not a petty fraud ...
A.F. Pisemsky-A. N. Ostrovsky. October 6, 1857

In 1865 NS Leskov created the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". This is one of the first significant creations of the writer. The dramatic story of passion and crime of Katerina Izmailova does not leave the reader indifferent.

The heroes appear brightly and vividly before us, the hard peasant way of life and the lazy customs of the Russian hinterland are described with precise strokes. Complex plot material, an abundance of events do not slow down the course of the story, do not make it less tense.

The constant change in the tone of the narrative, from lyrical notes to outright ridicule, epithets and comparisons, the actions and reflection of the feelings of the characters in the landscape, the name given to the main character - all this speaks of the complexity of the author's position.

Mtsensk petty bourgeois Katerina married a rich merchant not out of love, but out of poverty. Leskov says that there is no inclination to crime in her, she does not stand out among her peers: “... Katerina Lvovna had an ardent character, and, living as a girl in poverty, she got used to simplicity and freedom: I would run with buckets to the river yes, swim in a shirt under the pier or sprinkle sunflower husks through the gate of a passer-by ... "

Life in a patriarchal merchant house quickly bored her, she began to yearn, but no one paid attention to her. No matter how she dreamed of motherhood, she had no children.
Her living soul, suffering for six years, finds a new feeling - Katerina fell in love with the clerk Sergei. And she can defend her feeling only in the same ways in which this feeling is threatened by the environment. Simple-minded, cheerful, lively and mocking. She knows how to stand up for herself and deal with any offender. Her "bestial simplicity, unleashed," allows her to indifferently commit murder ...

From a poetically mild description of Katerina's "simplicity" - a sharp transition to a criminal scene, to a rough erotic picture. Cheating on her husband, a series of murders - and not a word about internal doubts, experiences: they are not in the heroine. The writer emphasizes her depravity, shamelessness, lack of conscience in her, blinded by feeling. The lyrical tragedy of the words of the biblical Job's wife, “curse your birthday and die”, and reflections on an ordinary person who does not want to listen to these words, wants to drown them out “with something even more ugly,” is reduced by mockery: “There was a lot in these nights in the bedroom of Zinovy ​​Borisovich and wine from the mother-in-law's cellar was drunk, and sweet sweets were eaten, and kissed on sugar lips, and played with black curls on the soft headboard. Speaking about the lack of spirituality in the relationship between Katerina and Sergei, emphasizing their carnal nature, Leskov portrays the heroine as beautiful on the outside and ugly on the inside. But the duality of the image of Katerina, the comparison of the light bevels of the night landscape and the prosaic details of the situation once again tell us that Leskov's attitude to the heroine is ambiguous. “The moonlight, making its way through the leaves and flowers of the apple tree, scattered in the most bizarre light spots over the face and the whole figure of Katerina Lvovna lying supine ... Golden night! Silence, light, aroma and wholesome, revitalizing warmth ... "And further:" The fat horse sighed languidly outside the stable wall ... a merry flock of dogs swept past without any noise ... a shrill cat duet was heard from the kitchen roof; then there was spitting, an angry snort, and after that two or three cats, breaking off, noisily rolled along the bunch of tesa put to the roof. "

Emphasizing the beauty of nature and reducing the poetry of love with transparent analogies from the animal world, Leskov is ironic, and he has no pity for the heroine. We see this in the episode of the punishment of Sergei and Katerina with whips: “During all this time, for some reason, Sergei aroused much more general sympathy than Katerina Lvovna. Smeared and bloody, he fell, descending from the black scaffold, and Katerina Lvovna got down quietly, trying only so that the thick shirt and the coarse prison retinue did not adhere to her torn back. "

It is scary when there is nothing in a person, complete emptiness: “... for her there was no light, no darkness, no thinness, no good, no boredom, no joys; she did not understand anything, did not love anyone and did not love herself. " The cruel "dark kingdom", rejected by Katerina, corrupted her, subordinated her to the laws of the wolf, and she - the victim - does not evoke sympathy ...

But the terrible crimes committed by Katerina give birth to grievous torment in her. “Everything around is horribly ugly: endless mud, gray sky, deafened wet willows and a crumpled crow in their spread-out branches. The wind is moaning, then angry, then howling and roaring. " And if earlier, during the commission of crimes, Sergei aroused more sympathy in us, since there were doubts and hesitations in him, and a completely understandable and understandable human fear, then during the stage to Siberia the writer becomes more and more disappointed in Sergei and is imbued with sympathy to Katherine. Leskov begins to focus on the experiences of the heroine. He describes what is going on inside, in the heart of Katerina, when Sergei mocks her. Sergei in this episode is disgusting. Other heroes also begin to take pity on Katerina: the soldier Fiona, the prisoner Gordyushka. However, throughout the story, the author continues to call his heroine coldly: "Katerina Lvovna", without removing her guilt for the atrocities, condemning her.

Note that Leskov sees the problem of crime not in an abstract way, but in a criminal meaning. Enlighteners of the 60s argued that the propensity to violence is not a human property, but arises from social relations. Leskov, using the example of his heroine, proves the opposite. His heroes, people of "bestial simplicity" who do not know the insoluble collisions of reason and instincts, perish in the life they have created. And the death of Katerina, not only physical, but also moral, is a confirmation of this.

The author's position in the story is clearly expressed: opposing the bright, ardent, strong Katerina Lvovna, who does not have any criminal inclinations, to the cruel world of the serf family, Leskov leads her along the path of the death of any moral principle.

Other compositions on this work

Leskov's essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is the tragic story of the life of Katerina Lvovna Izmailova. After all, neither the material wealth of the spouse, nor the carefree life made her happy. And perhaps vice versa, these factors became fatal in her future destiny.

Why is the story of a woman tragic? The girl is unhappy in marriage, has no children, and most importantly, she lacks all interest in life. These depressing states of boredom and idleness become chronic and erode from the inside.

And suddenly, in her gray and wretched world, she appears. It is he who brings the girl back to life, forcing her to forget about everything in the world. A man makes her feel desirable by persuading her to treason and betrayal.

It was impossible not to see the changes that had taken place with Katerina. The tigress, still sleeping in the woman, woke up, and she will not miss her! Katerina Lvovna did not put up with the dictatorship of her father-in-law, but did everything to defend her new life. To do this, the girl poured rat poison into the mushrooms to the old man, after which he suddenly died.

Impunity for what she has done pushes a woman to commit a new crime. This time she is not acting alone. Her lover Sergei comes to her aid. Together they hide the body of the murdered Zinovy ​​Borisovich, who secretly came to find his wife with her lover, but instead found his own death.

The life of a merchant's wife and a former clerk becomes even more liberated. Sergei declares that he wants to marry Katerina, but all his thoughts are mercantile. A man is only interested in money and inheritance left by Katerina's late spouse. Thus, Izmailova herself becomes a victim in the hands of an experienced seducer. After all, she ceases to think about what is happening, and acts, guided by animal instincts.

Young people completely forget about morality and decency. They are immersed in debauchery and thoughtless "life-burning". However, their "happiness" does not last long. The arrived nephew of Izmailov - the main contender for the inheritance, makes Sergei talk about the crime again.

If at that moment she had not gone on about him, and would have refused to kill an innocent child, then her fate would certainly have changed. Of course, after the refusal, Sergei would not have stayed with her, but in this way she was given a chance to see his real attitude towards her. The chance was not used ... the woman decides to kill the boy.

This cynicism and cruelty will certainly be punished. After the district finds out about the murder of the child, the murderers will be called to account. The cowardly Sergei will tell about everything, show where the body of Zinovy ​​Borisovich is hidden. Hard labor awaited him, like Katerina.

And only after becoming a prisoner, and having lost all the money, Izmailova had a chance to see the man who so skillfully “played at love”. She realized how much she was mistaken in him when she saw how he began to look after another person.

The author punishes the heroine for what she did. He shows that aggression, lust, and financial interest are not the best companions in a love relationship. Leskov shows how cynical and deceiving is the world where only passion rules, and there is no place for common sense.

Preview:

Mysterious female soul

The destructive power of passion

(based on the essay by N.S. Leskov “Lady Macbeth

Mtsensk district ").

Lesson objectives:

Educational - arouse interest in the writer's work; to intensify the independence of students' research activities; help to reveal the essence of the essay by analyzing the behavior and psychological state of the main character.

Educational -after going through a certain segment of life with the heroine, come to the realization of the measure of responsibility towards oneself and other people.

Developing - develop the skills of creative reading, which deepens the understanding and experience of the events of the story; to awaken in students a desire to express their own opinions on the events set forth in the story.

Lesson design:

Portrait of N.S. Leskov;

A video film based on an essay by N.S. Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District";

Illustrations for the essay by N.S. Leskov by famous artists and performed by students.

Epigraph to the lesson:

Sometimes ... such characters are set,

What ... some of them never

You will not remember without spiritual trepidation.

N. Leskov

Teacher: I will now read you my poem, which is directly related to the topic of this lesson, and you will understand that we have to try to uncover another riddle of the female soul.

The female soul is a mystery, and this conclusion, alas, is not new,

Beats over her for more than a decade

A lot of minds.

And before we tackle it,

Let me remind you:

For many heroines of literature

Love is the basis of life, being.

Here is Marya in a fairy tale. How did she love !?

Has worn out three pairs of iron shoes,

She broke three cast-iron staffs,

She devoured three bread of stone from grief.

And Yaroslavna !? How she sobbed

How did she grieve for Prince Igor !?

Tatyana Larina and her love-duty ...

Let me remind you of the work of this:

“I am writing to you, why dissemble,

But I was given to another and will be faithful to him forever. "

And the incomprehensible Katyusha from The Thunderstorm !?

With such pure and light love

After all, burst out of the gloom of darkness,

Let him pay at an inconceivable price.

Holy women! They gave love

And recklessly, disinterestedly everyone loved,

They walked along the edge of the abyss more than once,

But they did not betray anyone and did not kill anyone.

And there is another woman's love -

That passion-love: she, painful, evil.

It will overstep everything, all laws will be bypassed:

Izmailova Ekaterina Lvovna -

Her love is just that.

We read the essay by N.S. Leskov's "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" and, of course, could not help but notice the strangeness of the title of this work. What is this oddity?

“Lady Macbeth is an association with Shakespeare's tragedy (high literary genre). "Mtsensk district" is a remote Russian province. Why did the author combine concepts from different stylistic layers in one name? (during the conversation it became clear: to expand the scale of what is happening in the essay, that is, such events could unfold in any corner of the world). After understanding the name, the following entry appears on the interactive whiteboard:

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

Deaf Russian tragedy

(high genre of literature) province

Happening in the sketch

The main character of the essay is Izmailova Katerina Lvovna, she will be discussed in the lesson today. You have been studying literature for the sixth year now. They talked about many heroines in class (only a small part of the names I mentioned in my poem). You are accustomed to the type of Russian woman, erected on a pedestal by Pushkin, Turgenev, Nekrasov and suddenly ... a murderer. Maybe this is the author's fiction that a woman for the sake of love-passion can kill four, go to hard labor, commit suicide?

“No,” says the critic Apollo Grigoriev, “Katerina Izmailova is really brilliant, really passionate, and really predatory type who, in nature and in history, has its own justification for its potential and its reality.”

Problem analysis of the essay

Leskov begins his essay with a discussion of strong characters: let us turn to the epigraph. This is a warning: get ready, reader, you will see a terrible drama, a predator in the face of a woman.

Now there will be an artistic retelling-monologue (the story of Katerina Izmailova's marriage), and you think what caused the passion? (It turns out that boredom).

Katerina in "The Thunderstorm" by A.N. Ostrovsky is sublimely light, poetic. And what was Katerina Lvovna like in the "girls"? (“I was passionate in girls. Not even a man could overcome me”). Katerina Lvovna is proud of her strength, but it turned out that the main property of nature is not strength at all, but determination. Read how "Sergei hugged the young mistress", and she "did not even have time to dispose of her vaunted strength." (passion captured her all)

Very good about decisiveness says King Macbeth:

I dare everything that a man dares

And only the beast is capable of more.

Is it a beast or a man? (Animal simplicity in man). Confirm with the text Leskov's mention of the animal nature of man. ("Just how rats in the barn, father-in-law died - ch. 15; Zinovy ​​Borisych, how beast bit Sergey's throat - ch. 8; Katerina Lvovna rushed to Sonetka like a strong pike on a soft-finned roach "- Ch.15).

Let's try during the lesson to schematically depict on an interactive board the movement of Katerina Lvovna, first along the human road, and then her gradual fall onto the animal path. (Human road:lives, misses; covered with passion; cheating on her husband).

Katerina Lvovna is still a person, but, however, with a base vice - treason to her husband. The spouse is away, and how does the wife live without him now? (“There was a lot on those nights in Zinovy ​​Borisych’s bedroom and wine from the mother-in-law's cellar was drunk, and sweet sweets were eaten, and they kissed the mouth of the sugar mistress, and played with black curls on the soft headboard”).

(Near the blackboard hang 10 commandments of God, during the lesson we will constantly refer to them).

One of the laws of God has been violated. Which? (Do not commit adultery) Prove with the text that passion began to outgrow the limits of treason. (“Katerina Lvovna was already unbearable to survive without Sergei for an extra hour. She suddenly turned to the full extent of her awakened nature and became decisive that you cannot calm her down ”).

From her passion, Katerina Lvovna loses her mind, gradually the bestial principle prevails in her. (“She is now ready for Sergei into fire, water, dungeon and cross. He made her fall in love with him to the point that there was no measure of her devotion to him.She was mad with her happiness, her blood was boiling, and she could no longer listen to anything ”). Another commandment of God has been violated (Do not make yourself an idol).

But happiness can be different. There is righteous happiness, and there is sinful happiness. The righteous will not step over anyone, but the sinner will step over everything.

And she "stepped over". The first murder of the father-in-law (listening and watching an excerpt from Dmitry Shostakovich's opera "Katerina Izmailova").

FRAGMENT FROM THE OPERA OF DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH "KATERINA IZMAILOVA"

Boris Timofeevich:

I got hungry. Is there anything left of your supper? Well, who am I talking to !?

Katerina:

The fungi remained.

Boris Timofeevich:

This case. Give the fungi here.

Sergei was locked in the pantry. Here are the keys. Go to the mill, find Zinovy ​​Borisovich. Tell him to return home as soon as possible. Say: the sin happened at home.

Katerina:

I poured the poison. The old man will die of rat poison.

Boris Timofeevich:

Fungi. Tasty. You are a craftswoman, Katerina, to cook fungi. Go get dressed. Wait, it burns me inside. Water! Bring it!

Katerina:

I won't bring it!

Boris Timofeevich:

What, what did you say? Dare you?

Katerina: - I dare! Boris Timofeevich:- You dare !? Katerina: - I dare!

Boris Timofeevich:

Dare you? What happened with me?

Katerina:

So they ate the mushrooms at night. Many, having eaten them, die.

Boris Timofeevich:

Call the priest, Katerinushka dear, call the priest. Maybe my death really comes? It burns, it burns, it burns like a fire. I have lived a lot, sinned a lot. Booty here! Booty here! God! God! Such a pain! Such a pain!

Katerina:

Do not scream!

Pop:

Wonderful thoughts come before death. Boris Timofeevich said that he was dying like a rat. Only this cannot be: the rat dies, and the person introduces himself. However, the funeral service does not interfere with the service: "Now you release your master's servant ..."

About the death of a person in passing. This is scary. Three commandments of God have been violated at once:Thou shalt not kill, Honor thy father and thy mother, Do not lie.By the murder of her father-in-law, Katerina Izmailova left the human road - we reflect this in the diagram).

Katerina Lvovna “stepped over” and the second time, with the same calmness, she killed her husband (we read “murder of the husband” by roles).

According to the Bible, the law of marriage is "Two are one flesh." And Katerina Lvovna crushed this flesh with her own hands - calmly, even with daring pride in her irresistibility (we reflect this in the diagram).

Let's read the epigraph to the story: "Sing the first song, blushing." How was he understood? (this is only the first song "murder", blushing, singing "commit", and then it will go on by itself).

And now Katerina Lvovna lives "reigning" (with a child in her womb), everything seems to have happened according to the ideal (I remember. I wanted to "give birth to a child for fun"). This ideal logically clashes with other lofty Christian ideals: do not commit adultery, do not kill. But the soul of Katerina Izmailova is empty, there is only animal passion, however, wonderful dreams began to disturb her. (Let's remember these dreams. In the first dream, the cat is just a cat, and in the second dream, a cat that looks like Boris Timofeich killed (read by a student)).

It turns out that it is not so easy to “sing a song”. Something inside constantly reminds of this. Although according to Shakespeare: "Sleep, death of earthly worries, Balm of a sick soul" - but it does not get any easier. So dreams symbolic (the definition of the symbol is written on the board: Symbol - what serves as a conventional sign of a concept, phenomenon, idea:dove - a symbol of peace; anchor - a symbol of hope). Could it be that conscience awakens in the young merchant's wife? (Not yet).

So how does Katerina Lvovna live now, having killed her father-in-law and husband? (two students show a staging of the episode "Sergei and Katerina Lvovna about the capital they got," the scene ends with the words: "the boy is sick").

With a request to take care of the sick boy, the grandmother turns to Katerina Lvovna, symbolically her words are heard: “Work hard, Katerinushka, - you yourself are a heavy man, mother, you yourself are waiting for God's judgment; work hard ").

How did Katerina Lvovna “work hard”? (Killed Fedya).

Before the next murder, Leskov will draw a very important symbolic detail. Which one? (“Katerina Lvovna suddenly turned pale, her own child suddenly turned under her heart, and she felt cold in her chest”). Is this a coincidence? (No, nature itself, female nature warns her against a planned crime). But no: “He who started with evil will be bogged down in it.” (Shakespeare)) Unlike the first two murders, retribution came immediately. Why? (A pure, angelic, sinless soul is ruined.)

Further, two students, who worked with illustrations by Ilya Glazunov, present two portraits and compare them: the dying portrait of Fedya and the portrait of the young Tsarevich Dmitry killed. Are these two portraits an eternal reproach for what they have done before God?

But Katerina Izmailova did not even mention God. What is it? Maybe in Mtsensk all the people are atheists, they don't know how to put a cross on themselves? ("Our people are devout, zealous towards the Church of God ..."). The commandment of God has been violated:Give the Sabbath day to God.

Three times the highest moral law has been violated, the commandment of God - do not kill, for the highest value on earth is human life. That is why the depth of the moral downfall of Katerina and Sergei is so great. (Scheme: Katerina Izmailova is now firmly on the animal path and will move along it).

There are two forces - two fatal forces,

All their lives they have us at hand,

From lullabies to the grave

One is Death, the other is Human Judgment. (F. Tyutchev)

So, the human judgment, the earthly judgment was accomplished. Did he make a special impression on Katerina Lvovna? (“When her child was handed to her, she just said: Well, him at all! (Scheme)“ For her there was no light, no darkness, no bad, no good, no boredom, no joys; she did not understand anything, did not love anyone and did not love herself. She was looking forward only to the performance of the party on the road, where she again hoped to see her Seryozhechka, and forgot to think about the child ... she sees Sergei again, and with him her hard labor is blooming with happiness "- diagram).

So what can the escaping on freedom passion who does not know moral restrictions. They will turn into their opposite -conclusion, hatred... And what will happen to the most passionate nature, who finds herself in the grip of the "freedom" of crime? (She will inevitably die.)

Once Yevgeny Yevtushenko said very rightly: "Next to the Statue of Liberty, I would put the statue of Responsibility."

And now Katerina Izmailova is in hard labor. Has hard labor changed her? (Yes, this is no longer a cold-blooded killer, but a loving rejected woman). Feel sorry for her? (But why? (She is a victim, a rejected, but she still loves, even more. “She wanted to say to herself: I don’t love him, and felt that she loved even more ardently, even more”). The more reckless her love, the more frank and cynical Sergei's abuse of her and her feelings. (give some examples)

The abyss of the moral fall of the former clerk is so terrible that even seasoned convicts are trying to convince him (a scene played by the students).

Bernard Shaw warned: "Fear the man whose God is in heaven" How do you understand these words? (God is conscience, an inner judge. There is no such God in the soul - a man is terrible. Such was Katerina Lvovna before the hard labor. Sergei remained this way. And the heroine has changed. What is now more interested in Leskov: the passionate nature or the soul of a rejected woman? (Of course, the soul ) Shakespeare in his tragedy about Lady Macbeth will say: “She is sick not in body, but in soul.” Is it possible to say so about Katerina Izmailova? An appeal to the symbolism of landscape scenes will help to answer this question.

Option 1 "Golden Night" (paradise)

Option 2 "The most bleak picture" (hell)

As Leskov showsawakening feelings of guilt ( scheme) in Katherine? (... a hum and a groan could be heard from the opening and flapping shafts. And then suddenly from one broken shaft the blue head of Boris Timofeich appeared to her, from the other her husband looked out and swayed, embracing Fedya with his drooping head. Katerina Lvovnawants to remember a prayer(diagram) and moves her lips ... Katerina Izmailova has a sick soul. The limit of her own suffering and torment awakens glimpses of moral consciousness in Leskov's heroine, who had never known either a sense of guilt or a sense of remorse. “Katerina Lvovna trembled, hands once or twice, unknownly, reached out into space and fell again. And suddenly she grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw herself overboard with her. Let's turn to the diagram. So what was it? A failed jump to people or assertion of oneself in an animal quality? At home, you must answer the question in writing: Is Katerina Izmailova an animal or a man?

SCHEME

Passion lives, misses

Cheating on her husband

HUMAN

1 murder of father-in-law

1__________________

2 husband's murder

Stretched out her hands

3 murder of Fedya

Wants to remember a prayer

BEAST awakening feelings of guilt

abandonment of the child hard labor blooms

Happiness

1 Unsuccessful jump to people? Beast or Man?

2. Asserting yourself in an animal quality?

The work was originally a sketch from a series of female portraits conceived at the end of 1864. In a letter to N.N. Strakhov, an employee and critic of the Epoch magazine, on December 7, 1864, N. Leskov writes: Volga) area. I propose to write twelve such essays ... "

For the rest of the essays, the idea of ​​writing remained unfulfilled.

As for "Lady Macbeth ...", then from the essay, according to the original idea of ​​the "local" character, this work, when it was created, grew into an artistic masterpiece of world significance.

Katerina Izmailova is a "reluctant villain", and not according to subjective data, a murderer not by birth, but by the circumstances of the life around her.

Finding herself a slave to her own feelings, Katerina consistently overcomes a number of obstacles, each of which seems to her to be the last on the path to complete liberation and happiness. The perseverance with which the heroine tries to subjugate the circumstances to her will testifies to the originality and strength of her character. She does not stop at anything, goes to the end in her terrible and, most importantly, useless struggle and dies only after completely exhausting the remarkable supply of spiritual and vital forces released to her by nature.

Leskov's light self-irony, expressed in the title of the story, seems to indicate the transfer of Shakespeare's character into a "lower" social sphere.

At the same time, self-irony is a purely Leskov trait of social satire, deliberately used by the writer, giving it an original coloring within the framework of the Gogol trend of Russian literature.

P. 6. Pikhtyor - a large wicker basket with a bell for carrying hay and other fodder for livestock.

P. 13. The quitrent steward - the headman of the peasants, appointed by the landowner to collect the quitrent.

P. 25. The Yasman Falcon is a daring fellow.

S. 28. Kisa - leather tightening bag, purse.

P. 32. Paterikon - a collection of the lives of the reverend fathers.

P. 36. Throne - the patronal, or temple, holiday - the day of remembrance of the event or "saint" in whose name this temple was built.

Forshlag (German) - a small melodic figure (of one or several sounds), decorating a melody, trill. P. 41. Local - general.

P. 47. Job is a biblical righteous man who resignedly endured the trials sent down to him by God.

"Outside the window in the shadows flickers ..." - not quite accurately conveyed an excerpt from the poem "Challenge" by Ya. P. Polonsky, in the original - not "hollow", but "cloak".

Sources:

• Leskov N. S. Stories and stories / Comp. and note. L. M. Krupchanova. - M .: Mosk. worker, 1981.- 463 p.

annotation: The book includes: "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", "The Enchanted Wanderer", "Lefty", "Stupid Artist" and other works by NS Leskov.