Analysis of the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Matrenin Dvor"

A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s view of the village of the 50s and 60s is distinguished by its harsh and cruel truth. Therefore, the editor of the magazine “New World” A.T. Tvardovsky insisted on changing the time of action of the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” (1959) from 1956 to 1953. This was an editorial move in the hope of getting Solzhenitsyn’s new work published: the events in the story were transferred to the time before the Khrushchev Thaw. The picture depicted leaves too painful an impression. “The leaves flew around, snow fell - and then melted. They plowed again, sowed again, reaped again. And again the leaves flew away, and again the snow fell. And one revolution. And another revolution. And the whole world turned upside down."

The story is usually based on an incident that reveals the character of the main character. Solzhenitsyn also builds his story on this traditional principle. Fate threw the hero-storyteller to a station with a strange name for Russian places - Torfoprodukt. Here “dense, impenetrable forests stood before and have survived the revolution.” But then they were cut down, reduced to the roots. In the village they no longer baked bread or sold anything edible - the table became meager and poor. Collective farmers “everything goes to the collective farm, right down to the white flies,” and they had to gather hay for their cows from under the snow.

The author reveals the character of the main character of the story, Matryona, through a tragic event - her death. Only after death “the image of Matryona floated before me, as I did not understand her, even living side by side with her.” Throughout the entire story, the author does not give a detailed, specific description of the heroine. Only one portrait detail is constantly emphasized by the author - Matryona’s “radiant”, “kind”, “apologetic” smile. But by the end of the story, the reader imagines the appearance of the heroine. The author’s attitude towards Matryona is felt in the tone of the phrase, the selection of colors: “The frozen window of the entryway, now shortened, was filled with a slightly pink color from the red frosty sun, and this reflection warmed Matryona’s face.” And then - a direct author’s description: “Those people always have good faces, who are in harmony with their conscience.” One remembers Matryona’s smooth, melodious, native Russian speech, beginning with “some low warm purring, like grandmothers in fairy tales.”

The world around Matryona in her darkish hut with a large Russian stove is like a continuation of herself, a part of her life. Everything here is organic and natural: the cockroaches rustling behind the partition, the rustle of which was reminiscent of the “distant sound of the ocean,” and the languid cat, picked up by Matryona out of pity, and the mice, which on the tragic night of Matryona’s death darted about behind the wallpaper as if Matryona herself was “invisibly rushed about and said goodbye to her hut here.” Her favorite ficus trees “filled the owner’s loneliness with a silent but lively crowd.” The same ficus trees that Matryona once saved during a fire, without thinking about the meager wealth she had acquired. The ficus trees froze by the “frightened crowd” that terrible night, and then were taken out of the hut forever...

The author-narrator unfolds the life story of Matryona not immediately, but gradually. She had to endure a lot of grief and injustice in her lifetime: broken love, the death of six children, the loss of her husband in the war, hellish work in the village, severe illness, bitter resentment towards the collective farm, which squeezed all the strength out of her and then wrote her off as unnecessary. , leaving without pension and support. In the fate of Matryona, the tragedy of a rural Russian woman is concentrated - the most expressive, blatant.

But she did not become angry with this world, she retained a good mood, a feeling of joy and pity for others, and a radiant smile still brightens her face. “She had a surefire way to regain her good spirits - work.” And in her old age, Matryona knew no rest: she either grabbed a shovel, then went with a sack into the swamp to cut grass for her dirty white goat, or went with other women to secretly steal peat from the collective farm for winter kindling.

“Matryona was angry with someone invisible,” but she did not hold a grudge against the collective farm. Moreover, according to the very first decree, she went to help the collective farm, without receiving, as before, anything for her work. And she did not refuse help to any distant relative or neighbor, without a shadow of envy later telling the guest about the neighbor’s rich potato harvest. Work was never a burden to her; “Matryona never spared either her labor or her goods.” And everyone around Matryonin shamelessly took advantage of Matryonin’s selflessness.

She lived poorly, wretchedly, alone - a “lost old woman”, exhausted by work and illness. Relatives almost did not appear in her house, apparently fearing that Matryona would ask them for help. Everyone condemned her in chorus, that she was funny and stupid, that she worked for others for free, that she was always meddling in men’s affairs (after all, she got hit by a train because she wanted to help the men pull their sleighs through the crossing). True, after Matryona’s death, the sisters immediately flocked in, “seized the hut, the goat and the stove, locked her chest, and gutted two hundred funeral rubles from the lining of her coat.” And a friend of half a century, “the only one who sincerely loved Matryona in this village,” who came running in tears with the tragic news, nevertheless, when leaving, took Matryona’s knitted blouse with her so that the sisters would not get it. The sister-in-law, who recognized Matryona’s simplicity and cordiality, spoke about this “with contemptuous regret.” Everyone mercilessly took advantage of Matryona’s kindness and simplicity - and unanimously condemned her for it.

The writer devotes a significant place in the story to the funeral scene. And this is no coincidence. In Matryona’s house, all the relatives and friends in whose surroundings she lived her life gathered for the last time. And it turned out that Matryona was leaving this life, not understood by anyone, not mourned by anyone as a human being. At the funeral dinner they drank a lot, they said loudly, “not about Matryona at all.” According to custom, they sang “Eternal Memory,” but “the voices were hoarse, loud, their faces were drunk, and no one was putting feelings into this eternal memory.”

The death of the heroine is the beginning of decay, the death of the moral foundations that Matryona strengthened with her life. She was the only one in the village who lived in her own world: she arranged her life with work, honesty, kindness and patience, preserving her soul and inner freedom. Popularly wise, sensible, able to appreciate goodness and beauty, smiling and sociable in disposition, Matryona managed to resist evil and violence, preserving her “court,” her world, the special world of the righteous. But Matryona dies - and this world collapses: her house is torn apart log by log, her modest belongings are greedily divided. And there is no one to protect Matryona’s yard, no one even thinks that with Matryona’s departure something very valuable and important, not amenable to division and primitive everyday assessment, is leaving life.

“We all lived next to her and did not understand that she was the very righteous person without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. Not our whole land."

The ending of the story is bitter. The author admits that he, who became related to Matryona, does not pursue any selfish interests, nevertheless did not fully understand her. And only death revealed to him the majestic and tragic image of Matryona. The story is a kind of author's repentance, bitter repentance for the moral blindness of everyone around him, including himself. He bows his head before a man of a selfless soul, absolutely unrequited, defenseless.

Despite the tragedy of the events, the story is written on some very warm, bright, piercing note. It sets the reader up for good feelings and serious thoughts.

The theme of righteousness appears in the works of literary artists from different times. Modern writers did not remain indifferent to it either. A. I. Solzhenitsyn gives his vision of this problem in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is a work that is completely autobiographical and authentic. The story described by Solzhenitsyn took place in the village of Miltsevo, Kuplovsky district, Vladimir region. Matryona Vasilievna Zakharova lived there.

The heroine of Solzhenitsyn's story is modest and inconspicuous. The author gives her a discreet appearance and does not give the reader a detailed portrait of her, but he constantly draws attention to Matryona’s smile, radiant, bright, kind. This is how Solzhenitsyn emphasizes Matryona’s inner beauty, which is much more important to him than external beauty. Matryona's speech is unusual. It is replete with colloquial and outdated words, dialect vocabulary. In addition, the heroine constantly uses words invented by herself (If you don’t know how, if you don’t cook, how will you lose it?”). Thus, the author reveals the idea of ​​​​the national character of Matryona.

The heroine lives “in the wilderness.” Matryona’s house “with four windows in a row on the cold, non-red side, covered with wood chips,” “the wood chips were rotting, the logs of the log house and the gates, once mighty, had turned gray from age, and their cover had thinned out.” The heroine's life is unsettled: mice, cockroaches. She acquired nothing except ficus owls, a goat, a languid cat, and a coat made from an overcoat. Matryona is poor, although she has worked all her life. She even obtained a tiny pension for herself with great difficulty. Nevertheless, the description of the heroine’s life gives a feeling of harmony that fills her poor home. The narrator feels comfortable in her house; the decision to stay with Matryona comes to him immediately. He notes about Matryonin’s courtyard: “.. there was nothing evil in it, there was no lie in it.”

Matryona lived a difficult life. Her fate was affected by the events of the First World War, in which Thaddeus was captured, and the events of the Great Patriotic War, from which her husband did not return. Collectivization was not spared either: the heroine worked on the collective farm all her life, and “not for money, but for sticks.” Even in recent days, her life has not been easy: all day long she has been going through the authorities, trying to get certificates to apply for a pension, she has big problems with peat, her new chairman has cut off her garden, she cannot get a cow because Mowing is not allowed anywhere; it is even impossible to buy a train ticket. It would seem that a person should have long ago become embittered, hardened against the circumstances of life. But no - Matryona does not hold a grudge against people or her lot. Her main qualities are her inability to do evil, love for her neighbor, and the ability to sympathize and have compassion. While still alive, the heroine gives up her upper room for scrapping for Kira, because “Matryona never spared either her labor or her goods.” She finds solace in work and is “dextrous in all work.” The narrator notes: “..she had a sure way to regain her good mood - work.” Matryona gets up every day at four or five in the morning. She digs “carts,” goes for peat, “for berries in the distant forest,” and “every day she had some other task.” At the first call, the heroine comes to the aid of the collective farm, relatives, and neighbors. Moreover, she does not expect or demand remuneration for her work. Work is a pleasure for her. “I was digging, I didn’t want to leave the site,” she says one day. “Matryona returned already enlightened, happy with everything, with her kind smile,” the narrator says about her. Those around her find Matryona’s behavior strange. Today they call her for help, and tomorrow they condemn her for not giving up. They speak of her “cordiality and simplicity” “with contemptuous regret.” The villagers themselves don’t seem to notice Matryona’s problems; they don’t even come to visit her. Even at Matryona’s wake, no one talks about her. Those gathered have one thing on their minds: how to divide her simple property, how to grab a larger piece for themselves. The heroine was lonely during her life, and she remained lonely on that mournful day.

Matryona is contrasted with the other heroes of the story, and with the entire world around her too. Thaddeus, for example, is embittered, inhuman, and selfish. He constantly tortures his family, and on the day of the tragedy he thinks only about how to “save the logs of the upper room from the fire and from the machinations of his mother’s sisters.” Matryona is contrasted with her friend Masha, and her sisters, and her sisters-in-law.

The basis of relationships in the world surrounding the heroine is lies and immorality. Modern society has lost its moral guidelines, and Solzhenitsyn sees its salvation in the hearts of such lonely righteous people as Matryona. She is the same person, “without whom, according to the proverb, a village is not worthwhile.” Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.”

A. Solzhenitsyn is a continuer of Tolstoy’s tradition. In the story “Matryonin’s Dvor” he affirms Tolstoy’s truth that the basis of true greatness is “simplicity, goodness and truth.”

The magazine “New World” published several works by Solzhenitsyn, among them “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The story, according to the writer, is “completely autobiographical and reliable.” It talks about the Russian village, about its inhabitants, about their values, about goodness, justice, sympathy and compassion, work and help - qualities that fit in the righteous man, without whom “the village is not worth it.”

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is a story about the injustice and cruelty of human fate, about the Soviet order of post-Stalin times and about the life of the most ordinary people living far from city life. The narration is told not from the perspective of the main character, but from the perspective of the narrator, Ignatyich, who in the whole story seems to play the role of only an outside observer. What is described in the story dates back to 1956 - three years passed after the death of Stalin, and then the Russian people did not yet know or understand how to live on.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is divided into three parts:

1. The first tells the story of Ignatyich, it begins at the Torfprodukt station. The hero immediately reveals his cards, without making any secret of it: he is a former prisoner, and now works as a teacher at a school, he came there in search of peace and tranquility. In Stalin's time, it was almost impossible for people who had been imprisoned to find a job, and after the death of the leader, many became school teachers (a profession in short supply). Ignatyich stays with an elderly, hardworking woman named Matryona, with whom he finds it easy to communicate and has peace of mind. Her dwelling was poor, the roof sometimes leaked, but this did not mean at all that there was no comfort in it: “Maybe to someone from the village, someone richer, Matryona’s hut did not seem friendly, but for us that autumn and winter it was quite good."
2. The second part tells about Matryona’s youth, when she had to go through a lot. The war took her fiancé Fadey away from her, and she had to marry his brother, who still had children in his arms. Taking pity on him, she became his wife, although she did not love him at all. But three years later, Fadey, whom the woman still loved, suddenly returned. The returning warrior hated her and her brother for their betrayal. But hard life could not kill her kindness and hard work, because it was in work and caring for others that she found solace. Matryona even died while doing business - she helped her lover and her sons drag part of her house across the railroad tracks, which was bequeathed to Kira (his daughter). And this death was caused by Fadey’s greed, avarice and callousness: he decided to take away the inheritance while Matryona was still alive.
3. The third part talks about how the narrator learns about Matryona’s death and describes the funeral and wake. Her relatives are not crying out of grief, but rather because it is customary, and in their heads there are only thoughts about the division of the property of the deceased. Fadey is not at the wake.

Main characters

Matryona Vasilievna Grigorieva is an elderly woman, a peasant woman, who was released from work on the collective farm due to illness. She was always happy to help people, even strangers. In the episode when the narrator moves into her hut, the author mentions that she never intentionally looked for a lodger, that is, she did not want to make money on this basis, and did not profit even from what she could. Her wealth was pots of ficus trees and an old domestic cat that she took from the street, a goat, as well as mice and cockroaches. Matryona also married her fiancé’s brother out of a desire to help: “Their mother died...they didn’t have enough hands.”

Matryona herself also had six children, but they all died in early childhood, so she later took in Fadey’s youngest daughter, Kira, to raise her. Matryona rose early in the morning, worked until dark, but did not show fatigue or dissatisfaction to anyone: she was kind and responsive to everyone. She was always very afraid of becoming a burden to someone, she did not complain, she was even afraid to call the doctor again. As Kira grew up, Matryona wanted to give her room as a gift, which required dividing the house - during the move, Fadey’s things got stuck in a sled on the railroad tracks, and Matryona got hit by a train. Now there was no one to ask for help, there was no person ready to unselfishly come to the rescue. But the relatives of the deceased kept in mind only the thought of profit, of dividing what was left of the poor peasant woman, already thinking about it at the funeral. Matryona stood out very much from the background of her fellow villagers, and was thus irreplaceable, invisible and the only righteous person.

Narrator, Ignatyich, to some extent, is a prototype of the writer. He served his exile and was acquitted, after which he set out in search of a calm and serene life, he wanted to work as a school teacher. He found refuge with Matryona. Judging by the desire to move away from the bustle of the city, the narrator is not very sociable and loves silence. He worries when a woman takes his padded jacket by mistake, and is confused by the volume of the loudspeaker. The narrator got along with the owner of the house; this shows that he is still not completely antisocial. However, he doesn’t understand people very well: he understood the meaning by which Matryona lived only after she passed away.

Topics and issues

Solzhenitsyn in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” talks about the life of the inhabitants of the Russian village, about the system of relationships between power and people, about the high meaning of selfless work in the kingdom of selfishness and greed.

Of all this, the theme of labor is shown most clearly. Matryona is a person who does not ask for anything in return and is ready to give herself all for the benefit of others. They don’t appreciate her and don’t even try to understand her, but this is a person who experiences tragedy every day: first, the mistakes of her youth and the pain of loss, then frequent illnesses, hard work, not life, but survival. But from all the problems and hardships, Matryona finds solace in work. And, in the end, it is work and overwork that leads her to death. The meaning of Matryona’s life is precisely this, and also care, help, the desire to be needed. Therefore, active love for others is the main theme of the story.

The problem of morality also occupies an important place in the story. Material values ​​in the village are exalted over the human soul and its work, over humanity in general. The secondary characters are simply unable to understand the depth of Matryona’s character: greed and the desire to possess more clouds their eyes and does not allow them to see kindness and sincerity. Fadey lost his son and wife, his son-in-law faces imprisonment, but his thoughts are on how to protect the logs that were not burned.

In addition, the story has a theme of mysticism: the motive of an unidentified righteous man and the problem of cursed things - which were touched by people full of self-interest. Fadey made the upper room of Matryona's hut cursed, undertaking to knock it down.

Idea

The above-mentioned themes and problems in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” are aimed at revealing the depth of the main character’s pure worldview. An ordinary peasant woman serves as an example of the fact that difficulties and losses only strengthen a Russian person, and do not break him. With the death of Matryona, everything that she figuratively built collapses. Her house is torn apart, the remains of her property are divided among themselves, the yard remains empty and ownerless. Therefore, her life looks pitiful, no one realizes the loss. But won't the same thing happen to the palaces and jewels of the powerful? The author demonstrates the frailty of material things and teaches us not to judge others by their wealth and achievements. The true meaning is the moral character, which does not fade even after death, because it remains in the memory of those who saw its light.

Maybe over time the heroes will notice that a very important part of their life is missing: invaluable values. Why reveal global moral problems in such poor settings? And what then is the meaning of the title of the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”? The last words that Matryona was a righteous woman erase the boundaries of her court and expand them to the scale of the whole world, thereby making the problem of morality universal.

Folk character in the work

Solzhenitsyn reasoned in the article “Repentance and Self-Restraint”: “There are such born angels, they seem to be weightless, they seem to glide over this slurry, without drowning in it at all, even if their feet touch its surface? Each of us has met such people, there are not ten of them or a hundred of them in Russia, these are righteous people, we saw them, were surprised (“eccentrics”), took advantage of their goodness, in good moments answered them in kind, they disposed - and immediately immersed again to our doomed depths.”

Matryona is distinguished from the rest by her ability to preserve her humanity and a strong core inside. To those who unscrupulously used her help and kindness, it might seem that she was weak-willed and pliable, but the heroine helped based only on her inner selflessness and moral greatness.

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The author's title of the story is “A village is not worth without a righteous man,” but the editor-in-chief of Novy Mir, where the work was published in 1963 (No. 1), A. Tvardovsky insisted on the title “Matrenin’s Dvor,” which, from the point of view of expression The author’s position is incomparably weaker, since for Solzhenitsyn the main thing was the affirmation of the impossibility of the existence of a life devoid of a moral principle, the personification of which among the people was for him the main character of the story.

The story “Matryona’s Dvor”, which we will analyze, in terms of reproducing the events of reality remains completely authentic: both the life and death of Matryona Vasilievna Zakharova are presented in the work with documentary accuracy; In real life, the action took place in the village of Miltsevo, Vladimir region. Thus, the plot of the story and the images of the characters are not fictitious; one of the characteristic features of Solzhenitsyn’s work is revealed here: the writer gravitates towards real facts, the artistic interpretation of which in his works is carried out in the direction of identifying the philosophical foundations of life, transforming everyday life into being, revealing characters in a new way heroes who explain their actions from a position not of the momentary, vain, but of the eternal.

The image of the railway in Russian literature has a long tradition, and Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matrenin’s Dvor” continues these traditions. Its beginning seems to interest the reader: why at the crossing “for a good six months after that, all the trains slowed down as if to the touch”? Then"? However, further narration removes some of the mystery from the events that almost caused the trains to stop, and it turns out that here, at this crossing, the same Matryona died a terrible death, who during her life was little appreciated by those around her, considered “funny” and “stupid” , and after her death they began to condemn her for being so “wrong.”

The image of the main character of the story “Matryona’s Dvor” is drawn by the author in a highly realistic manner, his Matryona is not embellished at all, she is depicted as the most ordinary Russian woman - but already in the way she “maintains” her hut, the unusual mental makeup of this woman is manifested: “Spacious the hut, and especially the best part near the window, was lined with stools and benches - pots and tubs with ficuses. They filled the loneliness of the hostess with a silent but living crowd," says the author, and the reader sees this world alive - for the hostess - of nature, in which she good and calm. She carefully created this world of hers, in which she found peace of mind, because her life was unusually difficult: “Misunderstood and abandoned even by her husband, who buried six children,” “There were many heaped injustices with Matryona: she was sick, but was not considered disabled; she worked on a collective farm for a quarter of a century, but because she was not at a factory - she was not entitled to a pension for herself, and she could only achieve it for her husband..." - this is what the life of this woman was like.

However, as the author emphasizes, all these life trials did not turn Matryona Vasilyevna into an embittered person, she remained a light-hearted person who knew how to enjoy life, a person who looked at the world openly and joyfully, she retained a “radiant smile”, she learned to find an opportunity to enjoy life in any situation , and, as the author writes, “I noticed: she had a sure way to regain her good mood - work.” Any injustice that spoiled her life was forgotten in the work that transformed her: “And bowing not to the office tables, but to the forest bushes, and having broken her back with the burden, Matryona returned to the hut, already enlightened, satisfied with everything, with her kind smile.” Maybe that’s why she couldn’t refuse anyone who asked (almost demanded...) her help in her work, that she felt joy from work? And neighbors and relatives took advantage of this, and it turned out that Matryona’s hands did not reach her garden - she had to help others, who almost openly despised her for this help: “And even about Matryona’s cordiality and simplicity, which her sister-in-law for admitted to her, she spoke with contemptuous regret."

The author also shows Matryona as a person in whom the genuine, not flaunted, spiritual values ​​of the Russian people are concentrated: kindness, true love for people, faith in them (despite the unfair treatment towards oneself), a certain holiness - only the holiness of everyday life, in in which it is unusually difficult for a person to maintain a moral principle within himself. It is noteworthy that the author mentions this when speaking about the place of religion in the heroine’s life: “Perhaps she prayed, but not ostentatiously, embarrassed by me or afraid of oppressing me... in the morning on holidays Matryona lit a lamp. She only had sins less than that of her wobbly cat. She was strangling mice..." The following detail noted by the author also speaks about the spiritual beauty of the heroine: "Those people always have good faces, who are in harmony with their conscience... and this reflection warmed their face Matryona."

The heroine of Solzhenitsyn's story "Matrenin's Dvor" dies under the wheels of a train because of someone else's greed, because of her desire to help others, seemingly relatives. However, these “relatives and friends” swoop down like vultures on the poor (if not to say beggarly) “inheritance”, make “accusatory cries against” each other from crying over the body of the murdered woman, trying to show that it was they who loved the deceased most of all and the most for her. they mourn, and at the same time their crying goes beyond the “ritual norms”, “coldly thought-out, primordially established order.” And at the wake, for which “tasteless pies were baked from bad flour,” they argued about who would get what of the deceased’s things, and “it was all about going to court” - the “relatives” were so unyielding. And after the funeral, Matryona’s sister-in-law remembers her for a long time, and “all her reviews about Matryona were disapproving: she was unscrupulous; and she didn’t chase after money; and she wasn’t careful; and she didn’t even keep a pig, for some reason she didn’t like to feed; and stupid, helped strangers for free..." But it is precisely this, in the eyes of the author, that Matryona is contrasted with all the other heroes of the story, who have lost their human appearance in the pursuit of "production" and other blessings of life, who valued only these most notorious blessings in life, who do not understand, that the main thing in a person is the soul, which is the only thing worth bothering about in this life. It is no coincidence that, having learned about the death of Matryona, the author says: “A loved one has been killed.” Native - because he understood life the same way as he himself, although he never spoke about it, maybe simply because he didn’t know such words...

The author admits at the end of the story that while Matryona was alive, he never managed to fully understand her. Tormented by his guilt for the fact that “on the last day I reproached her for wearing a padded jacket,” he tries to understand what was Matryona’s attractiveness as a person, and reviews of her by her relatives reveal to him the true meaning of this person in his own life and the lives of those , who, like himself, was never able to understand her during her lifetime: “We all lived next to her and did not understand that she was that very righteous man, without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. nor the whole land is ours." This recognition characterizes the author as a person capable of admitting his mistakes, which speaks of his spiritual strength and honesty - in contrast to those who during his lifetime used the kindness of Matryona’s soul, and after death despised her for this same kindness...

On the way to publication, Solzhenitsyn's story "Matrenin's Dvor" underwent changes not only in the title. The date of the events described was changed - at the request of the magazine's editors, the year 1953 was indicated, that is, the Stalin era. And the appearance of the story caused a wave of criticism, the author was reproached that he one-sidedly shows the life of a collective farm village, does not take into account the experience of the advanced collective farm neighboring the village where Matryona lives, although it is about its chairman that the writer says at the very beginning: “It was its chairman, Gorshkov, who brought under the root of quite a few hectares of forest and profitably sold it to the Odessa region, thereby raising his collective farm, and receiving himself a Hero of Socialist Labor "... Probably, the pathos of Solzhenitsyn's work, which showed that the "righteous man" left this land, did not suit those who determined the “meaning” of the story, but its author has nothing to do with it: he would be happy to show a different life, but what to do if it is as it is? The writer’s deep concern for the fate of the people, whose “righteous people” live ununderstood and die such a terrible death, is the essence of his moral position, and Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryonin’s Dvor,” which we analyzed, is one of his most significant works, in which this anxiety is felt especially acutely.

A. N. Solzhenitsyn, having returned from exile, worked as a teacher at the Miltsevo school. He lived in the apartment of Matryona Vasilievna Zakharova. All the events described by the author were real. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matrenin’s Dvor” describes the difficult lot of a Russian collective farm village. We offer for your information an analysis of the story according to plan; this information can be used for work in literature lessons in the 9th grade, as well as in preparation for the Unified State Exam.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1959

History of creation– The writer began working on his work, dedicated to the problems of the Russian village, in the summer of 1959 on the coast of Crimea, where he was visiting his friends in exile. Beware of censorship, it was recommended to change the title “A village is not worth it without a righteous man,” and on the advice of Tvardovsky, the writer’s story was called “Matrenin’s Dvor.”

Subject– The main theme of this work is the life and everyday life of the Russian hinterland, the problems of relations between the common man and the authorities, and moral problems.

Composition– The narration is told on behalf of the narrator, as if through the eyes of an outside observer. The features of the composition allow us to understand the very essence of the story, where the heroes will come to the realization that the meaning of life is not only (and not so much) in enrichment, material values, but in moral values, and this problem is universal, and not a single village.

Genre– The genre of the work is defined as “monumental story.”

Direction– Realism.

History of creation

The writer’s story is autobiographical; after exile, he actually taught in the village of Miltsevo, which is named Talnovo in the story, and rented a room from Matryona Vasilievna Zakharova. In his short story, the writer depicted not only the fate of one hero, but also the entire epoch-making idea of ​​​​the formation of the country, all its problems and moral principles.

Myself meaning of the name“Matrenin’s yard” is a reflection of the main idea of ​​the work, where the boundaries of her yard are expanded to the scale of the whole country, and the idea of ​​morality turns into universal human problems. From this we can conclude that the history of the creation of “Matryona’s Yard” does not include a separate village, but the history of the creation of a new outlook on life and on the power that governs the people.

Subject

Having carried out an analysis of the work in Matryona's Dvor, it is necessary to determine main topic story, to find out what the autobiographical essay teaches not only the author himself, but, by and large, the whole country.

The life and work of the Russian people, their relationship with the authorities are deeply covered. A person works all his life, losing his personal life and interests in his work. Your health, in the end, without getting anything. Using the example of Matryona, it is shown that she worked all her life without any official documents about her work, and did not even earn a pension.

All the last months of its existence were spent collecting various pieces of paper, and the red tape and bureaucracy of the authorities also led to the fact that one had to go and get the same piece of paper more than once. Indifferent people sitting at desks in offices can easily put the wrong seal, signature, stamp; they do not care about people’s problems. So Matryona, in order to achieve a pension, goes through all the authorities more than once, somehow achieving a result.

The villagers think only about their own enrichment; for them there are no moral values. Thaddeus Mironovich, her husband's brother, forced Matryona during her lifetime to give the promised part of the house to her adopted daughter, Kira. Matryona agreed, and when, out of greed, two sleighs were hooked up to one tractor, the cart was hit by a train, and Matryona died along with her nephew and the tractor driver. Human greed is above all, that same evening, her only friend, Aunt Masha, came to her house to pick up the thing promised to her before Matryona’s sisters stole it.

And Thaddeus Mironovich, who also had a coffin with his late son in his house, still managed to remove the logs abandoned at the crossing before the funeral, and did not even come to pay tribute to the memory of the woman who died a terrible death because of his irrepressible greed. Matryona’s sisters, first of all, took her funeral money and began to divide the remains of the house, crying over their sister’s coffin not out of grief and sympathy, but because that’s how it was supposed to be.

In fact, humanly speaking, no one felt sorry for Matryona. Greed and greed blinded the eyes of fellow villagers, and people will never understand Matryona that with her spiritual development the woman stands at an unattainable height from them. She is a true righteous woman.

Composition

The events of that time are described from the perspective of an outsider, a tenant who lived in Matryona’s house.

Narrator starts his story from the time he was looking for a job as a teacher, trying to find a remote village to live in. As fate would have it, he ended up in the village where Matryona lived and settled down with her.

In the second part, the narrator describes the difficult fate of Matryona, who has not seen happiness since his youth. Her life was hard, with daily labors and worries. She had to bury all of her six children who were born. Matryona endured a lot of torment and grief, but did not become embittered, and her soul did not harden. She is still hardworking and selfless, friendly and peaceful. She never judges anyone, treats everyone evenly and kindly, and still works in her yard. She died trying to help her relatives move their own part of the house.

In the third part, the narrator describes the events after Matryona’s death, the same callousness of people, the woman’s relatives and friends, who, after the woman’s death, flew like crows into the remains of her yard, trying to quickly steal and plunder everything, condemning Matryona for her righteous life.

Main characters

Genre

The publication of Matryona's Court caused a lot of controversy among Soviet critics. Tvardovsky wrote in his notes that Solzhenitsyn is the only writer who expresses his opinion without regard to the authorities and the opinions of critics.

Everyone clearly came to the conclusion that the writer’s work belongs to "monumental story", so in a high spiritual genre a description of a simple Russian woman is given, personifying universal human values.

Work test

Rating analysis

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