Features of the story: The stationmaster. Analysis of the work "Station Warden" by Pushkin

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is one of the most widely read authors. All our compatriots, young and old, know his name. His works are read everywhere. This is truly a great writer. And perhaps his books are worth studying more deeply. For example, the same “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” are simple only at first glance. Let's consider one of them, namely “The Station Agent” - a story about how important it is to realize in time the importance of people dear to your heart.

In 1830, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin went to Boldino to solve some financial problems. He was about to return, but deadly cholera had spread greatly in Russia at that time, and his return had to be postponed for a long time. This period of development of his talent is called the Boldino autumn. At this time some of the best works, including a cycle of stories called “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin,” consisting of five works, one of which is “The Station Warden.” Its author finished on September 14th.

During his forced imprisonment, Pushkin suffered from separation from another lady of his heart, so his muse was sad and often put him in a sad mood. Perhaps the very atmosphere of autumn – the time of withering and nostalgia – contributed to the creation of “The Station Agent”. Main character faded as quickly as a leaf dropped from a branch.

Genre and direction

Pushkin himself calls his work “stories,” although in essence each of them is little novel. Why did he call them that? Alexander Sergeevich answered: “Stories and novels are read by everyone, everywhere” - that is, he did not see much difference between them, and made a choice in favor of the smaller epic genre, as if pointing to the modest volume of the work.

The separate story “The Station Agent” lays the foundations of realism. A hero is quite real hero, which could have happened at that time in reality. This is the first work in which the theme of the “little man” is raised. It is here that Pushkin first talks about how this unnoticed subject lives.

Composition

The structure of the story “The Station Agent” allows the reader to look at the world through the eyes of the narrator, in whose words the personality of Pushkin himself is hidden.

1. The story begins with a lyrical digression of the writer, where he abstractly talks about the thankless profession of a station superintendent, who is humiliated by his duty. It is in such positions that the characters of little people are formed.
2. The main part consists of conversations between the author and the main character: he arrives and finds out last news about his life. The first visit is an introduction. The second is the main plot twist and climax when he learns about Dunya's fate.
3. Something like an epilogue represents his last visit to the station, when Samson Vyrin was already dead. It reports his daughter's repentance

About what?

The story “The Station Warden” begins with a short digression, where the author talks about what a humiliating position this is. Nobody pays attention to these people, they are “shooed”, sometimes even beaten. No one ever simply says “thank you” to them, but they are often very interesting interlocutors who can tell a lot.

Then the author talks about Samson Vyrin. He holds the position of stationmaster. The narrator ends up at his station by accident. There he meets the caretaker himself and his daughter Dunya (she is 14 years old). The guest notes that the girl is very pretty. A couple of years later, the hero again finds himself at that same station. During this visit we learn the essence of “The Station Agent”. He meets Vyrin again, but his daughter is nowhere to be seen. Later, from the father’s story, it becomes clear that one day a hussar stopped at the station, and due to illness he had to stay there for some time. Dunya constantly looked after him. Soon the guest recovered and began to get ready for the journey. As a farewell, he offered to take his nurse to church, but she never came back. Later, Samson Vyrin learns that the young man was not sick at all, he was pretending to deceive the girl and take her with him to St. Petersburg. The ranger goes to the city on foot and tries to find the deceiving hussar there. Having found him, he asks to return Dunya to him and not disgrace him anymore, but he refuses him. Later, the unfortunate parent finds the house in which the kidnapper is keeping his daughter. He sees her, dressed richly, and admires her. When the heroine raises her head and sees her father, she gets scared and falls on the carpet, and the hussar drives the poor old man away. After that, the caretaker never saw his daughter again.

After some time, the author again finds himself at the station of the good Samson Vyrin. He learns that the station has been disbanded and the poor old man has died. Now a brewer and his wife live in his house, who sends her son to show where the former caretaker is buried. From the boy the narrator learns that some time ago a rich lady with children came to the city. She also asked about Samson, and when she learned that he had died, she cried for a long time, lying on his grave. Dunya repented, but it was too late.

Main characters

1. Samson Vyrin is a kind and sociable old man of about 50 who dotes on his daughter. She protects him from beatings and abuse from visitors. When they see her, they always behave calmly and friendly. At the first meeting, Samson seems responsive and timid man who is content with little and lives only with love for his child. He doesn’t need either wealth or fame, as long as his dear Dunyasha is nearby. At the next meeting, he is already a flabby old man who seeks solace in a bottle. His daughter's escape broke his personality. The image of the stationmaster is a textbook example of a small man who is unable to withstand circumstances. He is not outstanding, not strong, not smart, he is just an ordinary person with kind hearted and meek disposition - this is his characteristic. The merit of the author is that he was able to give an interesting description of the most ordinary type, to find in his modest life drama and tragedy.
2. Dunya is a young girl. She leaves her father and leaves with the hussar not out of selfish or unkind motives. The girl loves her parent, but out of naivety she trusts the man. Like any young woman, she is attracted by a great feeling. She follows him, forgetting everything. At the end of the story we see that she is worried about the death of her lonely father, she is ashamed. But what has been done cannot be undone, and now she, already a mother, cries at her parent’s grave, regretting that she did this to him. Years later, Dunya remains the same sweet and caring beauty, whose appearance has not been affected tragic story stationmaster's daughter. All the pain of separation was absorbed by her father, who never saw his grandchildren.

Subject

• In "The Station Agent" he first rises "little man" theme. This is a hero whom no one notices, but who has a big soul. From the author's story we see that he is often scolded for no reason, sometimes even beaten. He is not considered a person, he is the lowest echelon, service staff. But in fact, this resigned old man is infinitely kind. No matter what, he is always ready to offer travelers overnight accommodation and dinner. He allows the hussar, who wanted to beat him and was stopped by Dunya, to stay with him for a few days, calls him a doctor, and feeds him. Even when his daughter betrays him, he is still ready to forgive her everything and accept any of her back.
• Love theme is also revealed in a unique way in the story. First of all, this is the feeling of a parent for a child, which even time, resentment and separation are powerless to shake. Samson loves Dunya recklessly, runs to save her on foot, searches and does not give up, although no one expected such courage from a timid and downtrodden servant. For her sake, he is ready to endure rudeness and beatings, and only after making sure that his daughter had made a choice in favor of wealth, he gave up and thought that she no longer needed her poor father. Another aspect is the passion of the young charmer and the hussar. At first, the reader was worried about the fate of a provincial girl in the city: she really could have been deceived and dishonored. But in the end it turns out that the casual relationship turned into a marriage. Love - main topic in “The Station Agent,” since it was this feeling that became both the cause of all troubles and the antidote to them, which was not delivered in a timely manner.

Issues

Pushkin in his work raises moral problems. Succumbing to a fleeting feeling, not supported by anything, Dunya leaves her father and follows the hussar into the unknown. She allows herself to become his mistress, she knows what she is getting into and still does not stop. Here the ending turns out to be happy, the hussar still takes the girl as his wife, but even in those days this was rare. Nevertheless, even for the sake of the prospect of a marriage union, it was not worth renouncing one family while building another. The girl's fiancé behaved unacceptably rudely; it was he who made her an orphan. They both easily stepped over the little man's grief.

Against the background of Dunya’s act, the problem of loneliness and the problem of fathers and children develop. From the moment the girl left her father's house, she never visited her father, although she knew in what conditions he lived, she never wrote to him. In pursuit of personal happiness, she completely forgot about the man who loved her, raised her and was ready to forgive literally everything. This still happens today. And in modern world children leave and forget their parents. Having escaped from the nest, they try to “get out into the world”, achieve goals, chase material success and do not remember those who gave them the most important thing - life. Many parents live the same fate as Samson Vyrin, abandoned and forgotten by their children. Of course, after a while, young people remember their family, and it’s good if it turns out it’s not too late to meet them. Dunya didn’t make it to the meeting.

the main idea

The idea of ​​the “Station Agent” is still vital and relevant: even a small person must be treated with respect. You cannot measure people by rank, class or ability to offend others. The hussar, for example, judged those around him by their strength and position, so he caused such grief to his own wife and his own children, depriving them of their father and grandfather. By his behavior he alienated and humiliated the one who could have become his support in family life. Also, the main idea of ​​the work is a call for us to take care of our loved ones and not put off reconciliation until tomorrow. Time is fleeting and can deprive us of the chance to correct our mistakes.

If you look at the meaning of the story “The Station Agent” more globally, we can conclude that Pushkin opposes social inequality, which has become cornerstone relationships between people of that time.

What makes you think?

Pushkin also forces careless children to think about their old people, gives them instructions not to forget their parents and to be grateful to them. Family is the most valuable thing in every person’s life. She is the one who is ready to forgive us everything, accept us in any way, console us and calm us down in difficult times. Parents are the most devoted people. They give us everything and ask for nothing in return except love and a little attention and care on our part.

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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 in total civil officials. 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 talked with different representatives this profession, and he had his own idea of ​​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. 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 concern 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.

“The Station Agent” is the beginning of a new period in the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. If in the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” he tries to hide his attitude towards everyday issues under some humor and a sarcastic attitude towards surrounding problems. And Belkin himself in other stories tries to disguise his sympathetic attitude towards simple and ordinary routine life, but in this story he describes it as it is, without humor or the desire to embellish the current situation.

The author feels deep pity, he is incredibly sorry broken life stationmaster, he experienced a real storm and severe pain at the very end of his existence, so he parted with her on a rather sad note.

For the first time in his work, Pushkin admits notes of serious condemnation towards divine frivolity, which, despite all the contradictions, was quite close and dear to him.

The stationmaster lives a quiet and quiet life, the meaning of which is the daughter Dunya. But at one moment everything collapses, she dies, which completely destroys her usual way of life. He cannot get used to the fact that the center of his existence has disappeared, and now he will have to continue living alone. He meets a hussar who did not want to share his grief with him; he does not try to understand the elderly man, who at that moment needed help and support.

Belkin's stories became the first realistic stories that received wide publicity. The author was able to accurately convey the realism of different life situations that era, a small revolution took place in every person at that time, followed by main author watches from the side. A real revolution takes place in the life of the Station Warden, which ends in tragedy.

He was unable to deal with his own contradiction, deal with what happened and break the situation. He lost his loved one and loved one, now he has no one to share his sorrows and happiness with. Alexander Sergeevich accurately conveys all his inner experiences, suffering and loneliness that he experiences. This is precisely why the reader understands that there will be no successful outcome.

Analysis 2

For every creator, the existence of a common man looks rather strange and slightly alienated. Still, a creative person exists with slightly different experiences and concerns; completely different priorities live in his consciousness.

However, if you look at the works of many Russian writers, they actively touch upon the theme of the so-called little man, that is, a simple person who practically does not think about high things and lives by his simple interests.

This theme in many ways begins with Pushkin’s Station Warden, where the author almost for the first time begins to sympathize ordinary people and sincerely sympathize with the difficult fate of such people. After all, if you look at previous works, the author still places emphasis on secular people, examines how representatives of high society villages and cities and other topics that are not particularly close to the common people.

In The Station Warden, Pushkin shifts the emphasis and we see confirmation of this fact in the description of the hussar Minsky, who is given only in small strokes and does not represent a personality as such. This hero could become the main one if we looked from the other side and played out a story in the work similar to how Pechorin kidnaps Bella. However, here is a representative of a higher class who is far from the needs common people, is given as a kind of destructive and disharmonious element.

The main character, in turn, is the embodiment of simple everyday happiness. Samson Vyrin is not a stupid or narrow-minded person, yes, he does not and will not accomplish feats, he is accustomed to comfort, but in a sense, he is the salt of the earth, it is on such people that the world rests. At the same time, Minsky here is almost the complete antipode of happiness, he pursues only personal interests and ultimately creates a tragedy not only for the caretaker, but also for Dunya.

Most likely, she will never forgive herself for such a separation from a man who lived only for her. Minsky feels an obvious competitor in Vyrin and that is why he kicks him out of his house so much, he understands how attached Dunya is to him. In essence, he buys his happiness, although happiness cannot be bought.

As a result, in fact, Minsky only buys unhappiness; he makes two people unhappy who were previously happy. Of course, he can give Duna well-being and some kind of family comfort, but will she be as calm as she was calm at the station, daily observing identical pictures on the walls, a colorful bed curtain and pots of balsam? Will this heroine discover something new for herself besides secular society, which in reality is deeply unhappy?

In this work, Pushkin, although not openly, quite clearly sympathizes with the main character and is sad about his broken fate. He sees the negative side of the hussar's willfulness and his sensuality. He also sees some beauty and true happiness in the simple and uncomplicated life of a little person.

Essence, meaning and idea

The work belongs to the period of the poet’s work, called the Boldino Autumn, and in terms of its genre orientation it is a story written in the style of sentimentalism and realism, included in the author’s prose collection entitled “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin.”

The main theme of the work is reflection on the problems of little people who find themselves in a disadvantaged position. In addition to this topic, the author examines moral issues in the story, human love, which are relevant in the modern world.

The compositional structure of the story consists of three components, the first of which is a lyrical digression by the author, the second part is presented in the form of conversations between the narrator and the main character, where the storyline goes through its development and culmination, and in the third part it is described in the form of an epilogue.

The author presents the key character of the story as a fifty-year-old man, Samson Vyrin, distinguished by his kindness and sociability, boundless love for his only daughter Dunyasha. A man is characterized by cordiality, responsiveness, a meek and open soul.

The girl is the second main character of the work and is portrayed as a caring daughter, protecting the old man from the claims of the guests, who, however, is carried away by a visiting military officer and leaves her father alone. As a result of the departure of his beloved daughter, Samson sinks, washing his grief down with alcohol, and subsequently dies without waiting for Dunyasha to return.

The semantic load of the work lies in revealing the image of a little man, unable to withstand the life circumstances that have broken his weak, stupid, but kind and meek personality.

In this regard, the author reflects on moral issues in the relationship between parents and children, emphasizing the need to remember the person who made it possible to feel the taste for life, as well as experience the best human feelings in the form of love, motherhood, personal happiness.

The ending of the story is presented by the author as sad and melancholy, but the narrative content is filled with hope for changes in the human heart that can overcome selfishness and indifference in loved ones. This is demonstrated in the scene of the girl’s awareness of the impossibility of returning to this life a dear and devoted person and deep human repentance.

The work is one of the most powerful stories included in the writer’s prose collection.

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The worst month for birds is fierce February. Winter is at war with the coming spring, having no desire to give in, and our small friends suffer from this.

The plot of the story “The Station Agent” is based on an incident from ordinary life. For the reader, the situation is simple and recognizable: a postal station located in the wilderness, monotonous, tiresome bustle, endless passing people. Pushkin chooses as an epigraph a humorous poetic statement from his friend, the poet Prince P.A. Vyazemsky:

College Registrar,

Postal station dictator.

However, this epigraph emphasizes the serious tone of the story, expressing deep sympathy for the fate of the station superintendent, an official of the lowest - fourteenth - class Samson Vyrin. The plot intrigue of the story is that a passing hussar takes with him Vyrin’s only daughter, the light and meaning of his entire joyless life - Dunya. This incident was very ordinary, not standing out in any way from the number of countless misfortunes that await a person. However, the purpose of the story is different: not to capture one of them, but to show the fate of the father and daughter in the conditions of changing times.

Pushkin called his story “The Station Warden,” wanting to emphasize that its main character is Samson Vyrin and that the idea of ​​the story is connected primarily with him. The image of Samson Vyrin opens the theme of the “little man” in Russian classical literature, later developed by Pushkin himself in the poem “ Bronze Horseman"(1833) and continued by N.V. Gogol, first of all, in the story “The Overcoat” (1842). The theme of the “little man” received in Russian literature further development in prose by I.S. Turgenev and F.M. Dostoevsky, gradually replacing the literature of the nobility and creating the basis for works about the hero - a representative of the general population, the “man of the majority”. Therefore, the author, describing on the first pages of the story the low social status hero, calls to pay close attention to him as a person. This gives rise to an ironic reasoning about “what would happen to us if, instead of the generally convenient rule of rank, another was introduced into use, for example: honor the mind of the mind?” What disputes would arise!..”

The name of the hero - Samson Vyrin - was compiled by the author in order to express his attitude towards the personality and character of this person. Combination of heroic biblical name Samson, who accomplished outstanding feats, and the ordinary, inexpressive surname Vyrin, expresses the author’s idea that, despite the hero’s low origins, he is characterized by high, noble feelings. He loves his daughter selflessly, while caring only about her well-being. It also retains pride and dignity. Let us remember what his natural reaction was when the hussar slipped money into his sleeve cuff, as if paying off the old man.

The events of the story “The Station Agent” by Pushkin do not occur before the reader’s eyes; he learns them from the narrator, who acts both as a storyteller and as the hero of the work. The exposition, or prologue, of the work includes two parts: the narrator’s reasoning about the fate of the station guards, allowing the writer to use it to characterize the time, the state of the roads, morals, and to represent a specific place of action. Three times the hero-narrator comes to the station, which was located on a “road now destroyed,” as does the memory of the people who once lived there. Thus, the story itself about the main events consists of three parts, like a triptych - a three-part picturesque picture. The first part is an introduction to the inhabitants of the postal station, a picture of a peaceful, unclouded life; second - sad story the old man about the misfortune that befell him, and about the fate that befell Duna; the third part conveys a picture of a rural cemetery, which serves as an epilogue. This composition gives the story a philosophical character.

The seasons play an important role in the story “The Station Agent”. This is how the story about the events begins: “In 1816, in the month of May, I happened to pass through the *** province...” This is how the narrative is introduced, as if the beginning of life is being depicted. The description of the weather also corresponds to this; everything around is full of strength and energy: “The day was hot. Three miles from the station it began to drizzle, and a minute later the pouring rain soaked me to the last thread.” And here is the last visit of the hero-narrator, the end of the story: “It happened in the fall. Gray clouds covered the sky; a cold wind blew from the reaped fields, carrying away red and yellow leaves from the trees oncoming.” This landscape sketch symbolizes past life, dying. So the epilogue becomes a philosophical commentary on the story.

The content of the story “The Station Agent” correlates with the parable of the Prodigal Son. The narrator sees pictures depicting this plot on the walls of Vyrin’s room. The story of the prodigal son from the Bible tells us about the eternal situation in the life of a person who leaves without blessing parents' house, makes mistakes, pays for them and returns to his father's house. Pushkin describes this story with light humor, but the humor serves not to express a mocking attitude, but to focus attention on the necessary points. For example, “...a respectable old man in a cap and dressing gown releases a restless young man, who hastily accepts his blessing and a bag of money.” In this scene, Pushkin draws the reader’s eye to two circumstances: the young man “hastily” accepts everything from his father, because he is in a hurry to start an independent and cheerful life, and the young man with equal haste accepts “a blessing and a bag of money,” as if they were of equal value for a person. Thus, the whole story is built on a wise and eternal story about human life, the irreversible flow of time and the inevitability of change.