Analysis of an excerpt from the stationmaster. Analysis of the work "The Station Warden" by Pushkin. The story of the prodigal son

History of creation

Boldino autumn in the works of A.S. Pushkin became truly “golden”, since it was at this time that he created many of his works. Among them are “Belkin’s Tales”. In a letter to his friend P. Pletnev, Pushkin wrote: “... I wrote 5 stories in prose, from which Baratynsky laughs and fights.” The chronology of the creation of these stories is as follows: “The Undertaker” was completed on September 9, “The Station Agent” was completed on September 14, “The Young Lady-Peasant” was completed on September 20, after an almost month-long break the last two stories were written: “The Shot” - October 14 and “Blizzard” " - The 20th of October. The cycle of Belkin's Tales was Pushkin's first completed prose creation. The five stories were united by the fictitious person of the author, whom the “publisher” spoke about in the preface. We learn that P.P. Belkin was born “from honest and noble parents in 1798 in the village of Goryukhino.” “He was of average height, had gray eyes, brown hair, a straight nose; his face was white and thin.” “He led a very moderate life, avoided all kinds of excesses; It never happened... to see him drunk..., he had a great inclination towards the female sex, but the modesty in him was truly girlish.” In the autumn of 1828, this sympathetic character “succumbed to a cold fever, which turned into a fever, and died...”.

At the end of October 1831, “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” were published. The preface ended with the words: “Considering it to be our duty to respect the will of our venerable friend the author, we offer him our deepest gratitude for the news he has brought us and we hope that the public will appreciate their sincerity and good nature. A.P.” The epigraph to all the stories, taken from Fonvizin’s “Minor” (Ms. Prostakova: “Then, my father, he is still a hunter of stories.” Skotinin: “Mitrofan for me”), speaks of the nationality and simplicity of Ivan Petrovich. He collected these “simple” stories, and wrote them down from different narrators (“The Caretaker” was told to him by titular adviser A.G.N., “The Shot” by Lieutenant Colonel I.L.P., “The Undertaker” by clerk B.V., “Blizzard” and “Young Lady” by the girl K.I.T.), having processed them according to her own skill and discretion. Thus, Pushkin, as a real author of stories, hides behind a double chain of simple-minded narrators, and this gives him great freedom of narration, creates considerable opportunities for comedy, satire and parody and at the same time allows him to express his attitude to these stories.

With the full name of the real author, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, they were published in 1834. In this series, creating an unforgettable gallery of characters living and acting in the Russian provinces, Pushkin talks about modern Russia with a kind smile and humor. While working on “Belkin’s Tales,” Pushkin outlined one of his main tasks: “We need to give our language more freedom (of course, in accordance with its spirit).” And when the author of the stories was asked who this Belkin was, Pushkin replied: “Whoever he is, stories must be written this way: simply, briefly and clearly.”

The story “The Station Warden” occupies a significant place in the work of A.S. Pushkin and is of great importance for all Russian literature. Almost for the first time, it depicts life’s hardships, pain and suffering of what is called the “little man.” This is where the theme of “the humiliated and insulted” begins in Russian literature, which will introduce you to kind, quiet, suffering heroes and allow you to see not only meekness, but also the greatness of their souls and hearts. The epigraph is taken from a poem by P.A. Vyazemsky’s “Station” (“Collegiate registrar, / Postal station dictator”), Pushkin changed the quote, calling the stationmaster a “collegiate registrar” (the lowest civilian rank in pre-revolutionary Russia), and not a “provincial registrar”, as it was in the original , since this one is of higher rank.

Genre, genre, creative method

“The Stories of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” consists of 5 stories: “The Shot”, “The Blizzard”, “The Undertaker”, “The Station Warden”, “The Young Lady-Peasant”. Each of Belkin's Tales is so small in size that one could call it a story. Pushkin calls them stories. For a realist writer reproducing life, the forms of the story and novel in prose were especially suitable. They attracted Pushkin because of their intelligibility to the widest circles of readers, which was much greater than poetry. “Stories and novels are read by everyone, everywhere,” he noted. Belkin's stories" are, in essence, the beginning of Russian highly artistic realistic prose.

Pushkin took the most typical romantic plots for the story, which may well be repeated in our time. His characters initially find themselves in situations where the word “love” is present. They are already in love or just long for this feeling, but this is where the unfolding and escalation of the plot begins. "Belkin's Tales" were conceived by the author as a parody of the genre of romantic literature. In the story “The Shot,” the main character Silvio came from the bygone era of romanticism. This is a handsome, strong, brave man with a solid, passionate character and an exotic non-Russian name, reminiscent of the mysterious and fatal heroes of Byron’s romantic poems. In "Blizzard" French novels and romantic ballads of Zhukovsky are parodied. At the end of the story, a comic confusion with the suitors leads the heroine of the story to a new, hard-won happiness. In the story “The Undertaker,” in which Adrian Prokhorov invites the dead to visit him, Mozart’s opera and the terrible stories of the romantics are parodied. “The Peasant Young Lady” is a small, elegant sitcom with cross-dressing in the French style, set in a Russian noble estate. But she kindly, funny and witty parodies the famous tragedy - Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

In the cycle of “Belkin’s Tales” the center and peak is “The Station Agent”. The story lays the foundations of realism in Russian literature. In essence, in terms of its plot, expressiveness, complex, capacious theme and shadowy composition, and in terms of the characters themselves, this is already a small, condensed novel that influenced subsequent Russian prose and gave birth to Gogol’s story “The Overcoat.” The people here are depicted as simple, and their story itself would be simple if various everyday circumstances had not interfered with it.

Subjects

In "Belkin's Tales", along with traditional romantic themes from the life of the nobility and estate, Pushkin reveals the theme of human happiness in its broadest sense. Worldly wisdom, rules of everyday behavior, generally accepted morality are enshrined in catechisms and prescriptions, but following them does not always lead to success. It is necessary for fate to give a person happiness, for circumstances to come together successfully. “Belkin's Tales” shows that there are no hopeless situations, one must fight for happiness, and it will be, even if it is impossible.

The story “The Station Agent” is the saddest and most complex work in the cycle. This is a story about the sad fate of Vyrin and the happy fate of his daughter. From the very beginning, the author connects the modest story of Samson Vyrin with the philosophical meaning of the entire cycle. After all, the stationmaster, who does not read books at all, has his own scheme for perceiving life. It is reflected in the pictures “with decent German poetry” that are hung on the walls of his “humble but neat abode.” The narrator describes in detail these pictures depicting the biblical legend of the prodigal son. Samson Vyrin looks at everything that happened to him and his daughter through the prism of these pictures. His life experience suggests that misfortune will happen to his daughter, she will be deceived and abandoned. He is a toy, a little man in the hands of the powerful, who have turned money into the main measure.

Pushkin stated one of the main themes of Russian literature of the 19th century - the theme of the “little man”. The significance of this theme for Pushkin lay not in exposing the downtroddenness of his hero, but in the discovery in the “little man” of a compassionate and sensitive soul, endowed with the gift of responding to someone else’s misfortune and someone else’s pain.

From now on, the theme of the “little man” will be heard constantly in Russian classical literature.

Idea

“There is no idea in any of Belkin’s Tales. You read - sweetly, smoothly, fluently: once you read - everything is forgotten, there is nothing in your memory except adventures. “Belkin’s Tales” are easy to read, because they do not make you think” (“Northern Bee”, 1834, No. 192, August 27).
“True, these stories are entertaining, they cannot be read without pleasure: this comes from the charming style, from the art of storytelling, but they are not artistic creations, but simply fairy tales and fables” (V.G. Belinsky).

“How long has it been since you re-read Pushkin’s prose? Make me a friend - read all of Belkin's Tales first. They need to be studied and studied by every writer. I did this the other day and I cannot convey to you the beneficial influence that this reading had on me” (from a letter from L.N. Tolstoy to P.D. Golokhvastov).

Such an ambiguous perception of Pushkin’s cycle suggests that there is some kind of secret in Belkin’s Tales. In “The Station Agent” it is contained in a small artistic detail - wall paintings telling about the prodigal son, which were a common part of the station environment in the 20-40s. The description of those pictures takes the narrative from a social and everyday level to a philosophical one, allows us to comprehend its content in relation to human experience, and interprets the “eternal plot” about the prodigal son. The story is imbued with the pathos of compassion.

Nature of the conflict

In the story “The Station Agent” there is a humiliated and sad hero, the ending is equally mournful and happy: the death of the station agent, on the one hand, and the happy life of his daughter, on the other. The story is distinguished by the special nature of the conflict: there are no negative characters here who would be negative in everything; there is no direct evil - and at the same time, the grief of a simple person, a stationmaster, does not become any less.

A new type of hero and conflict entailed a different narrative system, the figure of the narrator - the titular adviser A.G.N. He tells the story heard from others, from Vyrin himself and from the “red-haired and crooked” boy. The taking away of Dunya Vyrina by a hussar is the beginning of the drama, followed by a chain of events. From the postal station the action moves to St. Petersburg, from the caretaker’s house to a grave outside the outskirts. The caretaker is unable to influence the course of events, but before bowing to fate, he tries to turn history back, to save Dunya from what seems to the poor father to be the death of his “child”. The hero comprehends what happened and, moreover, goes to his grave from the powerless consciousness of his own guilt and the irreparability of the misfortune.

“Little man” is not only a low rank, lack of high social status, but also loss in life, fear of it, loss of interest and purpose. Pushkin was the first to draw the attention of readers to the fact that, despite his low origins, a person still remains a person and he has all the same feelings and passions as people of high society. The story “The Station Warden” teaches you to respect and love a person, teaches you the ability to sympathize, and makes you think that the world in which the station guards live is not structured in the best way.

Main characters

The author-narrator speaks sympathetically about the “real martyrs of the fourteenth class,” station guards accused by travelers of all sins. In fact, their life is a real hard labor: “The traveler takes out all the frustration accumulated during a boring ride on the caretaker. The weather is unbearable, the road is bad, the driver is stubborn, the horses don’t carry - and the caretaker is to blame... You can easily guess that I have friends from the venerable class of caretakers.” This story was written in memory of one of them.

The main character in the story “The Station Agent” is Samson Vyrin, a man about 50 years old. The caretaker was born around 1766, into a peasant family. The end of the 18th century, when Vyrin was 20-25 years old, was the time of Suvorov’s wars and campaigns. As is known from history, Suvorov developed initiative among his subordinates, encouraged soldiers and non-commissioned officers, promoting them in their careers, cultivating camaraderie in them, and demanding literacy and intelligence. A peasant man under the command of Suvorov could rise to the rank of non-commissioned officer, receiving this rank for faithful service and personal bravery. Samson Vyrin could have been just such a person and most likely served in the Izmailovsky regiment. The text says that, having arrived in St. Petersburg in search of his daughter, he stops at the Izmailovsky regiment, in the house of a retired non-commissioned officer, his old colleague.

It can be assumed that around 1880 he retired and received the position of stationmaster and the rank of collegiate registrar. This position provided a small but constant salary. He got married and soon had a daughter. But the wife died, and the daughter was joy and consolation to the father.

Since childhood, she had to shoulder all women's work on her fragile shoulders. Vyrin himself, as he is presented at the beginning of the story, is “fresh and cheerful,” sociable and not embittered, despite the fact that undeserved insults rained down on his head. Just a few years later, driving along the same road, the author, stopping for the night with Samson Vyrin, did not recognize him: from “fresh and vigorous” he turned into an abandoned, flabby old man, whose only consolation was a bottle. And it’s all about the daughter: without asking for parental consent, Dunya - his life and hope, for whose benefit he lived and worked - fled with a passing hussar. The act of his daughter broke Samson; he could not bear the fact that his dear child, his Dunya, whom he protected as best he could from all dangers, could do this to him and, what is even worse, to herself - she became not a wife, but a mistress.

Pushkin sympathizes with his hero and deeply respects him: a man of the lower class, who grew up in poverty and hard work, has not forgotten what decency, conscience and honor are. Moreover, he places these qualities above material wealth. Poverty for Samson is nothing compared to the emptiness of his soul. It is not for nothing that the author introduces such a detail into the story as pictures depicting the story of the prodigal son on the wall in Vyrin’s house. Like the father of the prodigal son, Samson was ready to forgive. But Dunya did not return. My father’s suffering was aggravated by the fact that he knew very well how such stories often end: “There are a lot of them in St. Petersburg, young fools, today in satin and velvet, and tomorrow, you’ll see, sweeping the street along with the tavern’s nakedness. When you sometimes think that Dunya, perhaps, is disappearing right away, you will inevitably sin and wish for her grave...” An attempt to find her daughter in huge St. Petersburg ended in nothing. This is where the stationmaster gave up - he completely drank and died some time later, without waiting for his daughter. Pushkin created in his Samson Vyrin an amazingly capacious, truthful image of a simple, small man and showed all his rights to the title and dignity of a person.

Dunya in the story is shown as a jack of all trades. No one could cook dinner better than her, clean the house, or serve a passer-by. And her father, looking at her agility and beauty, could not get enough of it. At the same time, this is a young coquette who knows her strength, entering into conversation with a visitor without timidity, “like a girl who has seen the light.” Belkin sees Dunya for the first time in the story when she is fourteen years old - an age at which it is too early to think about fate. Dunya knows nothing about this intention of the visiting hussar Minsky. But, breaking away from her father, she chooses her female happiness, even if it may be short-lived. She chooses another world, unknown, dangerous, but at least she will live in it. It’s hard to blame her for choosing life over vegetation; she took a risk and won. Dunya comes to her father only when everything she could only dream of has come true, although Pushkin does not say a word about her marriage. But six horses, three children, and a nurse indicate a successful ending to the story. Of course, Dunya herself considers herself to blame for her father’s death, but the reader will probably forgive her, just as Ivan Petrovich Belkin forgives.

Dunya and Minsky, the internal motives of their actions, thoughts and experiences, are described throughout the entire story by the narrator, the coachman, the father, and the red-haired boy from the outside. Maybe that’s why the images of Dunya and Minsky are given somewhat schematically. Minsky is noble and rich, he served in the Caucasus, the rank of captain is not small, and if he is in the guard, then he is already high, equal to an army lieutenant colonel. The kind and cheerful hussar fell in love with the simple-minded caretaker.

Many of the actions of the heroes of the story are incomprehensible today, but for Pushkin’s contemporaries they were natural. So, Minsky, having fallen in love with Dunya, did not marry her. He could do this not only because he was a rake and a frivolous person, but also for a number of objective reasons. Firstly, in order to get married, an officer needed permission from his commander; marriage often meant resignation. Secondly, Minsky could depend on his parents, who would hardly have liked a marriage with a dowry-free and non-noblewoman Dunya. It takes time to resolve at least these two problems. Although in the final Minsky was able to do it.

Plot and composition

Russian writers have repeatedly turned to the compositional structure of Belkin's Tales, consisting of five separate stories. F.M. wrote about his idea to write a novel with a similar composition in one of his letters. Dostoevsky: “The stories are completely separate from one another, so they can even be sold separately. I believe Pushkin was thinking about a similar form of the novel: five stories (the number of "Belkin's Tales"), sold separately. Pushkin’s stories are indeed separate in all respects: there is no cross-cutting character (in contrast to the five stories of Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time”); no general content. But there is a general method of mystery, “detective”, that lies at the basis of each story. Pushkin's stories are united, firstly, by the figure of the narrator - Belkin; secondly, by the fact that they are all told. The storytelling was, I suppose, the artistic device for which the entire text was conceived. The narration as common to all stories simultaneously allowed them to be read (and sold) separately. Pushkin thought about a work that, being whole as a whole, would be whole in every part. I call this form, using the experience of subsequent Russian prose, a cycle novel.”

The stories were written by Pushkin in the same chronological order, but he arranged them not according to the time of writing, but based on compositional calculation, alternating stories with “unfavorable” and “prosperous” endings. This composition imparted to the entire cycle, despite the presence of deeply dramatic provisions in it, a general optimistic orientation.

Pushkin builds the story “The Station Agent” on the development of two destinies and characters - father and daughter. Station warden Samson Vyrin is an old, honored (three medals on faded ribbons) retired soldier, a kind and honest person, but rude and simple-minded, located at the very bottom of the table of ranks, on the lowest rung of the social ladder. He is not only a simple, but a small man, whom every passing nobleman can insult, shout, or hit, although his lower rank of 14th class still gave him the right to personal nobility. But all the guests were met, calmed down and given tea by his beautiful and lively daughter Dunya. But this family idyll could not continue forever and, at first glance, ended badly, because the caretaker and his daughter had different destinies. A passing young handsome hussar, Minsky, fell in love with Dunya, cleverly feigned illness, achieved mutual feelings and, as befits a hussar, took away a crying but not resisting girl in a troika to St. Petersburg.

The little man of the 14th grade did not reconcile himself with such insult and loss; he went to St. Petersburg to save his daughter, whom, as Vyrin, not without reason, believed, the insidious seducer would soon abandon and drive out into the street. And his very reproachful appearance was important for the further development of this story, for the fate of his Dunya. But it turned out that the story is more complicated than the caretaker imagined. The captain fell in love with his daughter and, moreover, turned out to be a conscientious, honest man; he blushed with shame at the unexpected appearance of the father he had deceived. And the beautiful Dunya responded to the kidnapper with a strong, sincere feeling. The old man gradually drank himself to death from grief, melancholy and loneliness, and despite the moralizing pictures about the prodigal son, the daughter never came to visit him, disappeared, and was not at her father’s funeral. The rural cemetery was visited by a beautiful lady with three little dogs and a black pug in a luxurious carriage. She silently lay down on her father’s grave and “lay there for a long time.” This is a folk custom of the last farewell and remembrance, the last “farewell.” This is the greatness of human suffering and repentance.

Artistic originality

In "Belkin's Tales" all the features of the poetics and stylistics of Pushkin's fiction were clearly revealed. Pushkin appears in them as an excellent short story writer, to whom a touching story, a short story with a sharp plot and twists and turns, and a realistic sketch of morals and everyday life are equally accessible. The artistic requirements for prose, which were formulated by Pushkin in the early 20s, he now implements in his own creative practice. Nothing unnecessary, only one thing necessary in the narrative, accuracy in definitions, conciseness and conciseness of style.

"Belkin's Tales" are distinguished by their extreme economy of artistic means. From the very first lines, Pushkin introduces the reader to his heroes and introduces him to the circle of events. The depiction of the characters' characters is just as sparse and no less expressive. The author hardly gives an external portrait of the heroes, and almost does not dwell on their emotional experiences. At the same time, the appearance of each of the characters emerges with remarkable relief and clarity from his actions and speeches. “The writer must continually study this treasure,” Leo Tolstoy advised a literary friend about “Belkin’s Tales.”

Meaning of the work

In the development of Russian artistic prose, a huge role belongs to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Here he had almost no predecessors. Prose literary language was also at a much lower level compared to poetry. Therefore, Pushkin was faced with a particularly important and very difficult task of processing the very material of this area of ​​​​verbal art. Among Belkin's Tales, The Station Warden was of exceptional importance for the further development of Russian literature. A very truthful image of a caretaker, warmed by the author’s sympathy, opens the gallery of “poor people” created by subsequent Russian writers, humiliated and insulted by the social relations of the then reality, which were most difficult for the common man.

The first writer who opened the world of “little people”* to the reader was N.M. Karamzin. Karamzin’s word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" had the greatest influence on subsequent literature. The author laid the foundation for a huge series of works about “little people” and took the first step into this previously unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such writers of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.

A.S. Pushkin was the next writer whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages, St. Petersburg and Moscow opened up not only from a luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor houses. For the first time, Russian literature so poignantly and clearly showed the distortion of personality by an environment hostile to it. Pushkin's artistic discovery was aimed at the future; it paved the way for Russian literature into the still unknown.

The story “The Station Warden,” written by A. S. Pushkin, belongs to the cycle. This small work, which shows the whole life of a simple person - a stationmaster and his daughter, was written in September 1830, and the beginning of its narrative dates back to 1816. realistic in its content. Pushkin laid the foundations of creative realism with some of his works

The essence of the conflict lies in the fact that people who are at a higher social level, or who have money, ruin the fate of those who are not protected in front of their superiors.

Narratives:

• Ivan Belkin, acting as narrator,
• Samson Vyrin, caretaker,
• Dunya, his daughter.

Supporting characters:

• Hussar Minsky,
• The doctor who treated Minsky at the station
• The red-haired boy who told about the lady’s arrival at the grave of Samson Vyrin.

The main character of this work remains a small man - a stationmaster. It is no coincidence that the epigraph is dedicated specifically to a person of this profession - “Collegiate registrar, Postal station dictator.” In Tsarist Russia there were ranks not only in military service, but also in civilian service. There were 14 civil ranks in total. The Collegiate Registrar is the most recent.

The author of the story, Ivan Belkin, arrived at the postal station, where he had to change horses and move on. He has to travel a lot around Russia, he communicated with various representatives of this profession, and he formed his own idea about their service. The narrator sympathizes with the caretakers.

When he arrived at the station, it was pouring rain, which managed to soak the author to the skin. He decided to stay here to change clothes and warm up. He was struck by the extraordinary beauty of the caretaker's daughter. The girl boiled the samovar and prepared tea, over which Ivan Belkin began talking with the caretaker. The old man was proud of his daughter, who looked after the station premises and helped her father deal with people passing by.

The next time Ivan Belkin came to this station 3-4 years later. He didn’t find Dunya anymore. He was struck by how much Samson Vyrin had aged. The old man did not want to talk about his daughter, but the punch offered by the author of the story loosened the caretaker’s tongue and he told Belkin his sad story.

One day a hussar was passing through the station. When he saw a girl, he fell in love with her at first sight, pretended to be sick and lay in bed at the station for three days. Dunya looked after him. When he was about to leave, the hussar invited Dunya to drive to the church, and he himself took the girl to St. Petersburg. One day the caretaker got ready and went to St. Petersburg on foot. He found his daughter, but the hussar did not allow the old man to meet Dunya. The caretaker returned to the station, but lost heart greatly and began to drink. The once cozy and neat station has acquired a careless appearance.

A few years later this station was closed. Having visited these places, Belkin decided to visit the old caretaker, learned about his death, and that Dunya, the “beautiful lady,” visited her father’s grave and cried for a long time on it. She gave money to the priest for a memorial service and donated a silver nickel to the boy who accompanied her to the cemetery.

Inspecting the station premises on his first visit, Belkin draws attention to a series of pictures “The Return of the Prodigal Son” hanging on the wall. This biblical theme is only partly consonant with subsequent events. The prodigal daughter returns, being a beautiful lady, the mother of charming sons, but she does not find her father alive.

It can be assumed that Dunya had enough intelligence and a little feminine cunning to force the hussar Minsky to marry her, but she did not immediately become his wife. By the time Samson Vyrin came to St. Petersburg, she was still the hussar’s kept woman and did not live in his house. Minsky rented an apartment for the girl. The father’s anxiety was not groundless; it was based on life experience. Not every poor girl, especially one taken away in this way, manages to become a wife and society lady. Perhaps if Samson Vyrin could have assumed that his daughter was happy, he himself would not have allowed himself to lose heart.

Pushkin’s story “The Station Warden” was written in 1830 and was included in the cycle “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin.” The leading theme of the work is the theme of the “little man”, represented by the image of the station guard Samson Vyrin. The story belongs to the literary movement of sentimentalism.

A concise presentation of “The Station Agent” will be of interest to 7th grade students, as well as to anyone interested in classical Russian literature. On our website you can read a summary of “The Station Agent” online.

Main characters

Narrator- an official who “traveled Russia for twenty years in a row”, the story is narrated on his behalf.

Samson Vyrin- a man of about fifty, a station superintendent “from the venerable class of caretakers,” Dunya’s father.

Other heroes

Avdotya Samsonovna (Dunya)- daughter Vyrina, a very beautiful girl, at the beginning of the story she is about 14 years old - a “little coquette” with big blue eyes.

Captain Minsky- a young hussar who took Dunya away by deception.

Brewer's son- the boy who showed the narrator where Vyrin’s grave is located.

The story begins with the narrator's thoughts about the fate of the stationmasters: “What is a stationmaster? A real martyr of the fourteenth class, protected by his rank only from beatings, and even then not always.” At the same time, according to the narrator’s observations, “the caretakers are generally peaceful people, helpful by nature.”

In May 1816, the narrator was passing through the *** province. The man was caught in the pouring rain and stopped at the station to change clothes and drink tea. The caretaker's daughter, Dunya, set the table, striking the narrator with her beauty.

While the owners were busy, the narrator looked around the room - there were pictures on the walls depicting the story of the prodigal son. The narrator, the caretaker and Dunya drank tea, chatting pleasantly “as if they had known each other for centuries.” When leaving, the narrator kissed Dunya in the entryway with her permission.

A few years later the narrator visited this station again. Entering the house, he was struck by the carelessness and dilapidation of the furnishings. The caretaker himself, Samson Vyrin, has grown very old and gray. At first the old man did not want to answer questions about his daughter, but after two glasses of punch he began to talk.

Vyrin said that three years ago a young hussar came to visit them. At first the visitor was very angry that he was not served horses, but when he saw Dunya, he softened. After dinner, the young man allegedly became ill. Having bribed a doctor called the next day, the hussar spent a couple of days at the station. On Sunday, the young man recovered and, leaving, offered to give the girl a ride to church. Vyrin released his daughter with the hussar.

“Not even half an hour had passed” when the caretaker began to worry and went to the church himself. From a sexton acquaintance, Vyrin learned that Dunya was not at mass. In the evening, the coachman carrying the officer arrived and said that Dunya had gone with the hussar to the next station. The old man realized that the hussar’s illness was feigned. From grief, Vyrin “fell ill with a severe fever.”

“Having barely recovered from his illness,” the caretaker took a leave of absence and went on foot to look for his daughter. From Minsky's journey, Samson knew that the hussar was on his way to St. Petersburg. Having found out the address of the captain in St. Petersburg, Vyrin comes to him and in a trembling voice asks to give him his daughter. Minsky replied that he asked Samson for forgiveness, but he would not give Dunya to him - “she will be happy, I give you my word of honor.” Having finished speaking, the hussar sent the caretaker outside, slipping several banknotes down his sleeve.

Seeing the money, Vyrin burst into tears and threw it away. A couple of days later, while walking along Liteinaya, Vyrin noticed Minsky. Having found out from his coachman where Dunya lived, the caretaker hurried to his daughter’s apartment. Entering the rooms, Samson found luxuriously dressed Dunya and Minsky there. Seeing her father, the girl fainted. The angry Minsky “grabbed the old man by the collar with a strong hand and pushed him onto the stairs.” Two days later Virin went back to the station. For the third year now, he knows nothing about her and is afraid that her fate is the same as the fate of other “young fools.”

After some time, the narrator again passed through those places. Where the station used to be, the brewer’s family now lived, and Vyrin, having become an alcoholic, “died about a year ago.” The narrator asked to be escorted to Samson's grave. The boy, the son of a brewer, told him on the way that in the summer a “beautiful lady” came here “with three little barchats”, who, having come to the caretaker’s grave, “lay down here and lay there for a long time.”

Conclusion

In the story « Stationmaster" A. S. Pushkin outlined the special nature of the conflict, which differs from the sentimentalism depicted in traditional works - the conflict of choice between Vyrin’s personal happiness (father’s happiness) and the happiness of his daughter. The author emphasized the moral superiority of the caretaker (“little man”) over the other characters, depicting an example of the selfless love of a parent for his child.

A brief retelling of “The Station Agent” is intended to quickly familiarize yourself with the plot of the work, therefore, for a better understanding of the story, we advise you to read it in its entirety.

Test on the story

After reading the story, try taking the test:

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 5482.

Pushkin's story "The Station Agent" is one of the saddest works from the cycle of "Belkin's Stories", ending with a tragic ending. A thoughtful analysis of the work shows that the dramatic separation of relatives that occurred is an inevitable problem of class differences, and the main idea of ​​the story is the spiritual discrepancy between father and daughter. We invite you to familiarize yourself with a brief analysis of Pushkin’s story according to plan. The material can be used in preparation for a literature lesson in 7th grade.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1830

History of creation– The story was created in the Boldino autumn, this period became the most fruitful for the writer.

Subject– From this work, the theme of disadvantaged people begins to be revealed in Russian literature.

Composition– The composition of the story is built in accordance with generally accepted literary canons, gradually the action reaches a climax and moves on to a denouement.

Genre- A story.

Direction– Sentimentalism and realism.

History of creation

In the year he wrote “The Station Warden,” Pushkin urgently needed to resolve his financial issues, for which he went to the family estate. In 1830, a cholera epidemic began, which delayed the writer for the whole autumn. Pushkin himself believed that this would be a boring and long pastime, but suddenly inspiration came to the writer, and he began writing “Belkin’s Tales.” This is how the story of the creation of “The Station Agent” happened, which was ready by mid-September. The time of the “Boldino autumn” was truly golden for the author, the stories came out of his pen one after another, and the very next year they were published. Under the author's real name, Belkin's Tales were republished in 1834.

Subject

Having carried out an analysis of the work in “The Station Agent”, the multifaceted thematic content of this short story becomes clear.

The main characters of the story- father and daughter, and the eternal theme of fathers and sons runs throughout the entire story. The father, a man of the old school, loves his daughter very much, the goal of his life is to protect her from all the hardships of life. Daughter Dunya, unlike her father, already thinks differently, in a new way. She wants to destroy the existing stereotypes and break free from the gray, everyday village life into a big city sparkling with bright lights. Her crazy idea suddenly comes true, and she easily leaves her father, leaving with the first candidate who comes across to own her.

In Dunya's escape from her father's house, the theme of romantic passion slips through. Dunya understands that the caretaker will be against such a decision, but, in pursuit of happiness, the girl does not even try to resist Minsky’s act, and meekly follows him.

In Pushkin's story, in addition to the main love theme, the author touched upon other problems of society that existed at that time. Theme "little man" concerns the difficult situation of small employees who are considered servants and are treated accordingly. In this relation to such employees is the meaning of the title of the story, which generalizes all the “little people” with a common fate and a difficult lot.

The story reveals deeply problems moral relations, the psychology of each of the characters, their point of view, and what the essence of existence is for each of them is revealed. In pursuit of her illusory happiness, Dunya puts her personal interests first and forgets about her own father, who is ready to do anything for the sake of his beloved daughter. Minsky has a completely different psychology. This is a rich man who is not used to denying himself anything, and taking his young daughter away from her father’s house is just another of his whims. The conclusion suggests itself that each person acts depending on his desires, and it is good if these desires are subordinated to reason, because otherwise, they lead to a dramatic outcome.

The theme of “The Station Agent” is multifaceted, and many of the problems covered in this story are still relevant. What Pushkin’s work teaches still happens everywhere, and a person’s life depends only on himself.

Composition

The events of the story are presented from the point of view of an outside observer who learned about this story from its participants and witnesses.

The narrative begins with a description of the profession of station employees and the disdainful attitude towards them. Next, the story moves on to the main part, in which the narrator meets the main characters, Samson Vyrin, and his daughter Dunya.

Arriving at the same station for the second time, the narrator learns from old man Vyrin about the fate of his daughter. Using various artistic means, in this case popular prints depicting the return of the prodigal son, the writer masterfully conveys all the pain and despair of an elderly man, all his thoughts and suffering, a man who was abandoned by his beloved daughter.

The third visit of the narrator is the epilogue of this story, which ended in a tragic denouement. Samson Vyrin could not survive his daughter’s betrayal; anxiety about her fate and constant worries had too strong an effect on the caretaker. He started drinking and soon died before his daughter returned. Dunya came, cried at her father’s grave, and left again.

Main characters

Genre

The writer himself calls his work a story, although each creation from the famous cycle “Belkin’s Tale” can be classified as a short novel, so deep is their psychological content. In the sentimental story “The Station Agent,” the main motives of realism are clearly visible, the main character looks so believable, who could have met in reality.

This story is the first work to introduce the theme of “little people” in Russian literature. Pushkin reliably describes the life and everyday life of such people, necessary but invisible. People who can be insulted and humiliated with impunity, without thinking at all that these are living people who have a heart and soul, who, like everyone else, can feel and suffer.

Work test

Rating Analysis

Average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 873.

History of creation

The work “The Station Warden” is included in A. S. Pushkin’s cycle “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin.” Thanks to the author's dating, the exact date of completion of work on the second story is known - September 14, 1830.

Meaning of the name

The stationmaster is the main character of the story, holding the rank of collegiate registrar - the lowest class (14th) in the Table of Ranks.

The main theme of the work is the unfortunate fate of the poor official

The story begins with a lengthy digression by the author, in which he reflects on the true situation of numerous Russian station keepers. The epigraph contains a statement from Prince Vyazemsky: “Collegiate registrar,” postal station dictator.” Pushkin rightly refutes this mocking statement.

The author judges on the basis of his many years of experience traveling across the vast Russian expanses. He knows that the stationmaster's power is very ephemeral. Every passing person considers him his enemy and the culprit of the delay. In the absence of other people, travelers take out all the anger accumulated over the long journey on the “fourteenth class martyr.” Despite his low, but still official bureaucratic status, the caretaker can even be beaten by an influential person.

The author concludes that there is a completely wrong impression regarding station guards. For the most part, these are “peaceful people, naturally helpful... modest in their claims... and not too money-loving.” Communicating on duty with a variety of travelers, on-site station guards accumulate vast life experience and become very interesting interlocutors.

A striking example of the unenviable fate of station keepers is the sad story of one of the author’s acquaintances, Samson Vyrin. During the first meeting, he made a very pleasant impression on the narrator: “a man of about fifty, fresh and cheerful”.

The author is clearly disingenuous. He liked Samson’s faithful assistant, his young daughter Dunya, much more than the owner. The girl reminds the caretaker of his deceased wife not only by her appearance, but also by her ability to work. The author finds it difficult to part with his hospitable family, leaving behind the best memories of her.

The next time the author managed to visit this station was only a few years later. He has a presentiment that these years could not pass without a trace for the happy father and daughter, but the reality turned out to be much harsher than his assumptions.

The once strong and energetic Samson turned into a decrepit old man, gloomy and taciturn. The caretaker now lived alone. Only after the offered glass did he tell the author his sad story.

Dunya grew up and became an indispensable assistant in Vyrin’s house. Her blossoming beauty and skillful manners calmed the most formidable passers-by, who instantly changed their anger to mercy at the sight of the caretaker’s daughter.

Samson was happy and overlooked the impending danger. One of the next travelers (Captain Minsky) paid special attention to Dunya. Pretending to be sick, he spent three days at the station and during this time managed to conquer the simple-minded beauty with flattering speeches. When leaving, Minsky persuaded Dunya to take a ride with him to the church as a farewell. The girl never returned home.

The despair of the poor stationmaster was unbearable. He became seriously ill and after recovery decided to return his daughter at any cost. Samson managed to find Minsky in St. Petersburg. However, at the first meeting, the captain tried to cynically pay off with money; during the second, he rudely kicked the grief-stricken father out of the house with the words: “...why are you following me everywhere like a robber? …Go away!". Samson resigned himself to fate and returned home. For three years now he has not known anything about his daughter and is afraid that Minsky, having played to his heart’s content, abandoned Dunya and doomed her to poverty.

Issues

Pushkin raises the problem of the “little man”. Samson Vyrin is absolutely defenseless. He is constantly subject to threats and insults from every higher official, that is, from anyone passing through.

The only joy in life for Samson is his beloved daughter, but it turns out that he can be deprived of this joy with impunity. In essence, Minsky simply stole a naive girl from her father. He is not afraid of consequences, because nobility and wealth will turn the law in his favor. Samson doesn’t even try to complain: all his troubles will be in vain.

The ending of the story is relatively favorable. Dunya broke her father's hearts and will regret it for the rest of her life. But at the same time, she still became Minsky’s legal wife. In reality, sooner or later the captain would have abandoned the provincial girl, and she would have suffered the fate of a fallen city woman.

Composition

The short story consists of four parts: the author's introduction and a description of his three visits to the *** station. During these visits, a complete picture emerges of the unfortunate fate of Samson Vyrin and his daughter.

What the author teaches

Pushkin draws the reader's attention to people deprived of fate. Samson is not just a defenseless petty official. First of all, this is a living person who experiences his joys and sufferings. Minsky's callous attitude becomes the main reason for the stationmaster's premature death.