Gorky's early romantic works. M. Gorky: the originality of romantic works The main character traits of Gorky’s romantic heroes

Proud defiance of fate and daring love of freedom. Heroic character. The romantic hero strives for unfettered freedom, without which there is no true happiness for him and which is more valuable than life itself.

At an early stage of his creative work, the writer turned to romanticism, thanks to which he created a number of vivid literary images. This literary direction allowed the writer not only to create an ideal image, but also to convey the romantic spirit: the Proud Falcon dying in a deep gorge, the daredevil Danko, who lit the road with the torch of his heart

People, Radda with his beautiful voice - all these Gorky heroes are united by the desire for freedom, they are not afraid even of death itself. In Gorky's stories, only freedom is a real value for a person. As an example, he tells a legend about the love of two young gypsies, stronger than the love of freedom.

The ending of the poem is tragic - Loiko kills Rada in front of the entire camp and dies himself. Gorky draws exactly this ending to the poem because neither Loiko nor Rada wanted to lose freedom.

The heroes of the legends told by the Moldavian Izergil also strive for freedom. The heroes of the story - Larra and Danko - are opposed to each other, but they also have common similarities. Strength of character and pride are emphasized in Lara. But good qualities turn into their opposite because she despises people.

Danko also strives for freedom, takes on a difficult mission - to lead people out of the forest. He rips out his heart, thereby lighting the way for them. Gorky's romantic heroes have many positive human qualities - love of freedom, as well as the ability to serve people

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40. Warm, friendly relations connected Maxim Gorky and the famous Ukrainian prose writer Mikhail Kotsyubinsky. As you know, Kotsyubinsky lived for some time in Capri, where he met Gorky. So, he spent the winter of 1911-1912 at Gorky’s villa and wrote there the short stories “Liszt”, “A Birthday Present”, “Horses Are Not Guilty”. Later, Maxim Gorky, recalling his first meeting with the Ukrainian [...]

The work of early Gorky should not be reduced only to romanticism: in the 1890s. he created works that were both romantic and realistic in style (among the latter, for example, the stories “The Beggar Woman,” “Chelkash,” “Konovalov” and many others). Nevertheless, it was precisely the group of romantic stories that was perceived as a kind of calling card of the young writer; it was they that testified to the arrival in literature of a writer who stood out sharply from his predecessors.

First of all, the type of hero was new. Much in Gorky’s heroes made us recall the romantic literary tradition. This is the brightness, exclusivity of their characters, which distinguished them from those around them, and the drama of their relationship with the world of everyday reality, and the fundamental loneliness, rejection, and mystery for others. Gorky's romantics make too stringent demands on the world and the human environment, and in their behavior they are guided by principles that are “crazy” from the point of view of “normal” people.

Two qualities are especially noticeable in Gorky’s romantic heroes: pride and strength, which force them to defy fate and boldly strive for boundless freedom, even if they have to sacrifice their lives for the sake of freedom. It is the problem of freedom that becomes the central problem of the writer’s early stories.

These are the stories “Makar Chudra” and “Old Woman Izergil”. The poeticization of love of freedom itself is a completely traditional feature for the literature of romanticism. The appeal to the conventional forms of legends was not fundamentally new for Russian literature. What is the meaning of the conflict in Gorky’s early romantic stories, what are the specifically Gorky features of its artistic embodiment? The uniqueness of these stories lies in the fact that the source of conflict in them is not the traditional confrontation between “good” and “evil,” but the clash of two positive values. This is the conflict of freedom and love in Makar Chudra - a conflict that can only be resolved tragically. Radda and Loiko Zobar, who love each other, value their freedom so much that they do not allow the thought of voluntary submission to their loved one.

Each of the heroes will never agree to be led: the only role worthy of these heroes is to dominate, even if we are talking about mutual feelings. “Will, Loiko, I love you more than you,” says Radda. The uniqueness of the conflict lies in the complete equality of equally “proud” heroes. Unable to conquer his beloved, Loiko at the same time cannot give up on her. Therefore, he decides to kill - a wild, “crazy” act, although he knows that he is thereby sacrificing his pride and his own life.

The heroine of the story “Old Woman Izergil” behaves in a similar way in the sphere of love: feelings of pity or even regret give way to the desire to remain independent. “I was happy... I never met those I once loved,” she tells her interlocutor. “These are not good meetings, it’s like meeting dead people.” However, the heroes of this story are involved not only and not so much in love conflicts: it is about price, meaning and various options for freedom.

The first option is presented by the fate of Larra. This is another “proud” person (such a characteristic in the mouth of the narrator is more likely to be praise than a negative assessment). The story of his “crime and punishment” receives an ambiguous interpretation: Izergil refrains from direct assessment, the tone of her story is epically calm. The verdict was entrusted to the nameless “wise man”:

“- Stop! There is punishment. This is a terrible punishment; You wouldn’t invent something like this in a thousand years! His punishment is in himself! Let him go, let him be free. This is his punishment!”

So, Larra’s individualistic freedom, not enlightened by reason, is the freedom of rejection, turning into its opposite - into punishment by eternal loneliness. The opposite “mode” of freedom is revealed in the legend of Danko. With his position “above the crowd,” his proud exclusivity, and finally, his thirst for freedom, at first glance, he resembles Larra. However, the elements of similarity only emphasize the fundamentally different directions of the two “freedoms”. Danko’s freedom is the freedom to take responsibility for the team, the freedom to selflessly serve people, the ability to overcome the instincts of self-preservation and subordinate life to a consciously defined goal. The formula “in life there is always a place for achievement” is an aphoristic definition of this freedom. True, the ending of the story about Danko’s fate is not unambiguous: the people saved by the hero are not at all complimentary attested by Izergil. Admiring the daredevil Danko is complicated here by a note of tragedy.

The central place in the story is occupied by the story of Izergil herself. The framing legends about Larra and Danko are deliberately conventional: their action is devoid of specific chronological or spatial signs, and is attributed to an indefinite deep antiquity. On the contrary, Izergil’s story unfolds against a more or less specific historical background (during the course of the story, well-known historical episodes are mentioned and real place names are used). However, this dose of reality does not change the principles of character development - they remain romantic. The life story of the old woman Izergil is a story of meetings and partings. None of the characters in her story are given a detailed description—the metonymic principle dominates in the characterization of the characters (“a part instead of the whole,” one expressive detail instead of a detailed portrait). Izergil is endowed with character traits that bring her closer to the heroes of legends: pride, rebellion, rebellion.

Like Danko, she lives among people and is capable of heroic deeds for the sake of love. However, her image does not have the integrity that is present in Danko’s image. After all, the series of her love interests and the ease with which she parted with them evokes associations with Danko’s antipode, Larra. For Izergil herself (namely, she is the narrator), these contradictions are invisible; she tends to bring her life closer to the model of behavior that makes up the essence of the final legend. It is no coincidence that, starting with the story of Larra, her story rushes to Danko’s “pole”.

However, in addition to Izergil’s point of view, the story also expresses another point of view, belonging to that young Russian who listens to Izergil, occasionally asking her questions. This persistent character in Gorky’s early prose, sometimes called “passing,” is endowed with some autobiographical features. His age, range of interests, and wanderings around Rus' bring him closer to the biographical Alexei Peshkov, which is why in literary studies the term “autobiographical hero” is often used in relation to him. There is also another version of the terminological designation - “author-narrator”. You can use any of these designations, although from the point of view of terminological rigor, the concept of “image of the narrator” is preferable.

Often, the analysis of Gorky’s romantic stories comes down to talking about conventional romantic heroes. Indeed, the figures of Radda and Loiko Zobar, Larra and Danko are important for understanding Gorky’s position. However, the content of his stories is broader: the romantic plots themselves are not independent, they are included in a larger narrative structure. Both in “Makar Chudra” and in “Old Woman Izergil” the legends are presented as stories of old people who have seen life. The listener of these stories is the narrator. From a quantitative point of view, this image takes up little space in the texts of the stories. But for understanding the author’s position, its significance is very great.

Let us return to the analysis of the central plot of the story “Old Woman Izergil”. This segment of the narrative - the heroine’s life story - is framed in a double frame. The inner frame consists of the legends about Larra and Danko, told by Izergil herself. External - landscape fragments and portrait characteristics of the heroine, communicated to the reader by the narrator himself, and his short remarks. The outer frame determines the spatio-temporal coordinates of the “speech event” itself and shows the narrator’s reaction to the essence of what he heard. Internal - gives an idea of ​​the ethical standards of the world in which Izergil lives. While Izergil’s story is directed towards Danko’s pole, the narrator’s meager statements make important adjustments to the reader’s perception.

Those short remarks with which he occasionally interrupts the old woman’s speech, at first glance, are of a purely official, formal nature: they either fill pauses or contain harmless “clarifying” questions. But the very direction of the questions is indicative. The narrator asks about the fate of the “others,” the heroine’s life companions: “Where did the fisherman go?” or “Wait!..Where is the little Turk?” Izergil tends to talk primarily about herself. Her additions, provoked by the narrator, indicate a lack of interest, even indifference, to other people (“The boy? He died, the boy. From homesickness or from love...”).

It is even more important that in the portrait description of the heroine given by the narrator, features are constantly recorded that associatively bring her closer not only to Danko, but also to Larra. Speaking of portraits. Note that both Izergil and the narrator act as “portrait painters” in the story. The latter seems to deliberately use in his descriptions of the old woman certain signs that she endowed with legendary heroes, as if “quoting” her.

The portrait of Izergil is given in some detail in the story (“time has bent her in half, her once black eyes were dull and watery,” “the skin on her neck and arms is all cut up with wrinkles,” etc.). The appearance of the legendary heroes is presented through characteristics taken separately: Danko - “a handsome young man”, “a lot of strength and living fire shone in his eyes”, Larra - “a handsome and strong young man”, “only his eyes were cold and proud.”

The antithetical nature of the legendary heroes is already given by the portrait; however, the appearance of the old woman combines individual features of both. “I was alive, like a ray of sunshine” - a clear parallel with Danko; “dry, cracked lips”, “wrinkled nose, curved like an owl’s beak”, “dry... skin” - details that echo the features of Larra’s appearance (“the sun dried up his body, blood and bones”). The “shadow” motif common in the description of Larra and the old woman Izergil is especially important: Larra, having become a shadow, “lives for thousands of years”; the old woman is “alive, but withered by time, without a body, without blood, with a heart without desires, with eyes without fire, - also almost a shadow.” Loneliness turns out to be the common fate of Larra and the old woman Izergil.

Thus, the narrator does not at all idealize his interlocutor (or, in another story, his interlocutor Makar Chudra). He shows that the consciousness of a “proud” person is anarchic, not enlightened by a clear idea of ​​the price of freedom, and his very love of freedom can take on an individualistic character. That is why the final landscape sketch sets the reader up for concentrated reflection, for the counter-activity of his consciousness. There is no straightforward optimism here, the heroism is muted - the pathos that dominated the final legend: “It was quiet and dark in the steppe. The clouds kept crawling across the sky, slowly, boringly... The sea rustled dully and sadly.” The leading principle of Gorky’s style is not spectacular external depiction, as it might seem if only “legends” came into the reader’s field of view. The internal dominant of his work is conceptuality, tension of thought, although this quality of style in his early work is somewhat “diluted” by stylized folk imagery and a tendency towards external effects.

The appearance of the characters and the details of the landscape background in Gorky's early stories are created by means of romantic hyperbolization: showiness, unusualness, “excessiveness” - the qualities of any Gorky image. The very appearance of the characters is depicted with large, expressive strokes. Gorky does not care about the visual concreteness of the image. It is important for him to decorate, highlight, enlarge the hero, and attract the reader’s attention to him. In a similar way, Gorky's landscape is created, filled with traditional symbolism and imbued with lyricism.

Its stable attributes are the sea, clouds, moon, wind. The landscape is extremely conventional, it serves as a romantic decoration, a kind of screensaver: “...dark blue patches of the sky, decorated with golden specks of stars, sparkled tenderly.” Therefore, by the way, within the same description, the same object can be given contradictory, but equally catchy characteristics. For example, the initial description of the moonlit night in “Old Woman Izergil” contains contradictory color characteristics in one paragraph. At first, the “disc of the moon” is called “blood-red,” but soon the narrator notices that the floating clouds are saturated with the “blue radiance of the moon.”

The steppe and the sea are figurative signs of the endless space that opens up to the narrator in his wanderings across Rus'. The artistic space of a specific story is organized by correlating the boundless world and the “meeting place” of the narrator with the future narrator highlighted in it (the vineyard in “The Old Woman Izergil”, the place by the fire in the story “Makar Chudra”). In the landscape painting, the words “strange”, “fantastic” (“fantasy”), “fabulous” (“fairy tale”) are repeated many times. Fine precision gives way to subjective expressive characteristics. Their function is to present an “other”, “unearthly”, romantic world, and contrast it with the dull reality. Instead of clear outlines, silhouettes or “lace shadow” are given; lighting is based on the play of light and shadow.

The external musicality of speech is also noticeable in the stories: the flow of phrases is leisurely and solemn, replete with various rhythmic repetitions. The romantic “excessiveness” of the style is also manifested in the fact that nouns and verbs are entwined in the stories with “garlands” of adjectives, adverbs, participles - whole series of definitions. This stylistic manner, by the way, was condemned by A.P. Chekhov, who friendly advised the young writer: “...Cross out, where possible, the definitions of nouns and verbs. You have so many definitions that the reader finds it difficult to understand and gets tired.”

In Gorky’s early work, “excessive” colorfulness was closely connected with the young writer’s worldview, with his understanding of true life as a free play of unfettered forces, with the desire to introduce a new, life-affirming tone into literature. Subsequently, M. Gorky's prose style evolved towards greater conciseness of descriptions, asceticism and accuracy of portrait characteristics, and syntactic balance of phrases.

Romanticism as a movement in literature arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and became most widespread in Europe in the period from 1790 to 1830. The main idea of ​​romanticism was the affirmation of a creative personality, and its peculiarity was the violent depiction of emotions. The main representatives of romanticism in Russia were Lermontov, Pushkin and Gorky.

Gorky's romantic mood was prompted by growing discontent in society and the expectation of change. It was thanks to the protest against “stagnation” that images of heroes who were capable of saving the people, leading them out of darkness, and showing them the right path began to appear in the writer’s head. But this path seemed completely different to Gorky, different from his usual existence; the author despised everyday life and saw salvation only in freedom from social shackles and conventions, which was reflected in his early stories.

Historically, this period of Gorky’s work coincided with the flourishing of revolutionary movements in Russia, whose views the author clearly sympathized with. He sang the image of a selfless and honest rebel, consumed not by greedy calculations, but by romantic aspirations to change the world for the better and destroy an unjust system. Also, in his works of that time, a craving for freedom and unrealistic ideals was revealed, because the writer had not yet seen the changes, but only had a presentiment of them. When dreams of a new social system took on real shape, his work transformed into socialist realism.

Main features

The main feature of romanticism in Gorky’s work is a clear division of characters into bad and good, that is, there are no complex personalities, a person has either only good qualities or only bad ones. This technique helps the author more clearly show his sympathy and highlight those people who need to be imitated.

In addition, all of Gorky’s romantic works show a love of nature. Nature is always one of the main characters, and all romantic moods are conveyed through it. The writer loved to use descriptions of mountains, forests, seas, endowing every particle of the surrounding world with its own character and behavior.

What is revolutionary romanticism?

The early romantic works of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov were based on the ideas of classicism and, in fact, were a direct continuation of it, which did not correspond to the sentiments of progressive and radically thinking people of that period. There were few of them, so romanticism acquired classical forms: conflict between the individual and society, an extra person, longing for an ideal, etc. However, time passed, and there were more and more revolutionary-minded citizens.

The divergence of literature and popular interests led to a change in romanticism, to the emergence of new ideas and techniques. The main representatives of the new revolutionary romanticism were Pushkin, Gorky and the Decembrist poets, who, first of all, promoted progressive views on the prospects for the development of Russia. The main theme was folk identity - the possibility of independent existence of peasants, hence the term nationality. New images began to appear, and the main ones among them were the genius poet and hero, capable at any moment of saving society from an impending threat.

Old Isergil

In this story there is a contrast between two characters and two types of behavior. The first is Danko - an example of that very hero, the ideal who must save the people. He feels free and happy only when his tribe is free and happy. The young man is filled with love for his people, sacrificial love, which personifies the spirit of the Decembrists, who were ready to die for the well-being of society.

Danko saves his people, but at the same time dies himself. The tragedy of this legend is that the tribe forgets its heroes, it is ungrateful, but for the leader this is not important, because the main reward for the feat is the happiness of the people for whom it was accomplished.

The antagonist is the son of the eagle, Larra, he despised people, despised their way of life and law, he recognized only freedom, turning into permissiveness. He did not know how to love and limit his desires; as a result, he was expelled from the tribe for violating social foundations. Only then did the proud young man realize that without the people he was nothing. When he is alone, no one can admire him, no one needs him. Having shown these two antipodes, Gorky brought everything to one conclusion: the values ​​and interests of the people should always be higher than your values ​​and interests. Freedom is to free people from the tyranny of the spirit, ignorance, that darkness that hid behind the forest, unsuitable for life for the Danko tribe.

It is obvious that the author follows the canon of romanticism: here is the confrontation between the individual and society, here is the yearning for an ideal, here is the proud freedom of loneliness and unnecessary people. However, the dilemma about freedom was not resolved in favor of Larra’s proud and narcissistic loneliness; the writer despises this type, glorified by Byron (one of the founders of romanticism) and Lermontov. His ideal romantic hero is one who, being above society, does not renounce it, but helps it even when it persecutes the savior. In this feature, Gorky is very close to the Christian understanding of freedom.

Makar Chudra

In the story “Makar Chudra,” freedom is also the main value for the heroes. The old gypsy Makar Chudra calls her the main treasure of a person; in her he sees an opportunity to preserve his “I”. Revolutionary romanticism is colorfully manifested precisely in this understanding of freedom: the old man claims that under conditions of tyranny a moral and gifted individual will not develop. This means that it is worth taking risks for the sake of independence, because without it the country will never become better.

Loiko and Radda have the same message. They love each other, but see marriage only as chains and shackles, and not as a chance to find peace. As a result, the love of freedom, which so far appears in the form of ambition, since the heroes cannot use it correctly, leads to the death of both characters. Gorky puts individualism above marriage ties, which only lull a person’s creative and mental abilities with everyday worries and petty interests. He understands that it is easier for a loner to sacrifice his life for the sake of freedom, it is easier to find complete harmony with his inner world. After all, married Danko cannot really rip out the heart.

Chelkash

The main characters of the story are the old drunkard and thief Chelkash and the young village boy Gavrila. One of them was going to go on a “deal,” but his partner broke his leg, and this could complicate the whole operation, and that’s when the experienced rogue met Gavrila. During their conversation, Gorky paid great attention to Chelkash’s personality, noticed all the little things, described his slightest movements, all the feelings and thoughts that arose in his head. The refined psychologism of the image is a clear adherence to the romantic canon.

Nature also occupies a special place in this work, since Chelkash had a spiritual connection with the sea, and his mental state often depended on the sea. The expression of feelings and moods through the states of the surrounding world is again a romantic trait.

We also see how Gavrila’s character changes over the course of the story, and if at first we felt pity and compassion for him, then in the end they turn into disgust. The main idea of ​​the story is that it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you do, but what’s in your soul is important, the most important thing is to always remain a decent person in any matter. This thought itself carries a revolutionary message: how does it matter what the hero does? Does this mean that the murderer of a dignitary can also be a decent person? Does this mean that a terrorist can blow up His Excellency’s carriage and at the same time maintain moral purity? Yes, this is exactly the kind of freedom the author deliberately allows: not everything is a vice that society condemns. A revolutionary kills, but his motive is sacred. The writer could not say this directly, so he chose abstract examples and images.

Features of Gorky's romanticism

The main feature of Gorky's romanticism is the image of a hero, a certain ideal designed to save the people. He does not renounce the people, but on the contrary wants to lead them to the right path. The main values ​​that the writer exalted in his romantic stories are love, freedom, courage and self-sacrifice. Their understanding depends on the revolutionary sentiments of the author, who writes not only for the thinking intelligentsia, but also for the ordinary Russian peasant, therefore the images and plots are not ornate and simple. They have the character of a religious parable and are even similar in style. For example, the author very clearly shows his attitude towards each character, and it is always clear who the author likes and who he doesn’t.

Gorky’s nature was also an active character and influenced the heroes of the stories. In addition, its individual parts are symbols that must be perceived allegorically.

Gorky's early work amazes, first of all, with its artistic diversity, unusual for a young writer, and the bold confidence with which he creates works of different colors and poetic intonation. The enormous talent of the artist of the rising class - the proletariat, drawing powerful strength from the “movement of the masses themselves”, was revealed already in the early stages of Maxim Gorky’s literary work.
By acting as a herald of the coming storm, Gorky fell in line with the public mood. In 1920, he wrote: “I began my work as a stirrer of revolutionary sentiment with glory to the madness of the brave.” Exam questions and answers. Literature. 9th and 11th grades. Tutorial. - M.: AST-PRESS, 2000. - P.214. This applies, first of all, to Gorky’s early romantic works. In the 1890s. he wrote the stories “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Khan and His Son”, “Mute”, “Return of the Normans from England”, “Blindness of Love”, fairy tales “The Girl and Death”, “About the Little Fairy and the Young Shepherd” ”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”, “Legend of Marco”, etc. All of them are distinguished by one feature, which can be defined in the words of L. Andreev: “the taste of freedom, something free, broad, bold.” Gorky M. Prose. Dramaturgy. Journalism. - M.: Olimp; LLC "AST Publishing House", 1999. - P.614. In all of them there is a motif of rejection of reality, confrontation with fate, and a daring challenge to the elements. In the center of these works is the figure of a strong, proud, courageous person, not submitting to anyone, unbending. And all these works, like living gems, shimmer with unprecedented colors, spreading a romantic glow around.

The story “Makar Chudra” is a statement of the ideal of personal freedom
The early works of Maxim Gorky center on exceptional characters, strong-willed and proud people who, in the author’s words, have “the sun in their blood.” This metaphor gives rise to a number of images close to it, associated with the motif of fire, sparks, flame, and torch. These heroes have burning hearts. This feature is characteristic not only of Danko, but also of the characters in Gorky’s first story, “Makar Chudra.” Rogover E.S. Russian literature of the twentieth century. To help school graduates and applicants: Study guide. - St. Petersburg: “Paritet”, 2002. - P.131.
The old gypsy Makar Chudra begins his story to the brooding melody of the splashing of the oncoming waves. From the very first lines, the reader is overwhelmed by a feeling of the unusual: the boundless steppe on the left and the endless sea on the right, the old gypsy lying in a beautiful strong pose, the rustling of coastal bushes - all this sets the mood for a conversation about something intimate, the most important. Makar Chudra slowly talks about man’s calling and his role on earth. “A person is a slave as soon as he is born, a slave all his life and that’s it,” argues Makar. Gorky M. Prose. Dramaturgy. Journalism. - M.: Olimp; LLC "AST Publishing House", 1999. - P.18. And he contrasts this with his own: “A man will be born to know what freedom is, the expanse of the steppe, to hear the voice of the sea wave”; “If you live, then you become kings over the whole earth.”
This idea is illustrated by the legend of the love of Loiko Zobar and Rada, who did not become slaves to their feelings. Their images are exceptional and romanticized. Loiko Zobar has “eyes like clear stars, and a smile like the whole sun.” Ibid., p.21. When he sits on a horse, it seems as if he was forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. Zobar's strength and beauty are not inferior to his kindness. “You need his heart, he himself would tear it out of his chest and give it to you, if only it would make you feel good.” Ibid., p.20. The beautiful Rada matches. Makar Chudra calls her an eagle. “You can’t say anything about her in words. Perhaps its beauty could be played on a violin, and even those who know this violin like their soul.”
The proud Rada for a long time rejected the feelings of Loiko Zobar, because will was more valuable to her than love. When she decided to become his wife, she set a condition that Loiko could not fulfill without humiliating himself. An insoluble conflict leads to a tragic ending: the heroes die, but remain free, love and even life are sacrificed to the will. In this story, for the first time, a romantic image of a loving human heart appears: Loiko Zobar, who could tear the heart out of his chest for the happiness of his neighbor, checks whether his beloved has a strong heart and plunges a knife into it. And the same knife, but in the hands of soldier Danila, strikes Zobar’s heart. Love and the thirst for freedom turn out to be evil demons that destroy people's happiness. Together with Makar Chudra, the narrator admires the strength of character of the heroes. And together with him, he cannot answer the question that runs like a leitmotif through the entire story: how to make people happy and what happiness is.
The story “Makar Chudra” formulates two different understandings of happiness. The first is in the words of the “strict man”: “Submit to God, and he will give you everything you ask.” Ibid., p.18. This thesis is immediately debunked: it turns out that God did not even give the “strict man” clothes to cover his naked body. The second thesis is proven by the fate of Loiko Zobar and the Rada: will is more valuable than life, happiness lies in freedom. The romantic worldview of the young Gorky goes back to the famous Pushkin words: “There is no happiness in the world, but there is peace and will...”

The story “Old Woman Izergil” - awareness of a person’s personality
On the seashore near Akkerman in Bessarabia, the author of the old woman’s legend, Izergil, listens. Everything here is full of atmospheric love: the men are “bronze, with lush black mustaches and thick shoulder-length curls,” the women are “cheerful, flexible, with dark blue eyes, also bronze.” The author's imagination and the night make them irresistibly beautiful. Nature harmonizes with the author’s romantic mood: the foliage sighs and whispers, the wind plays with the silky hair of women.
The old woman Izergil is depicted in contrast: time has bent her in half, a bony body, dull eyes, a creaky voice. Ruthless time takes away beauty and with it love. The old woman Izergil talks about her life, about her lovers: “Her voice crunched, as if the old woman was speaking with bones.” Gorky leads the reader to the idea that love is not eternal, just as man is not eternal. What remains in life for centuries? Gorky put two legends into the mouth of the old woman Izergil: about the eagle’s son Lara, who considered himself the first on earth and wanted happiness only for himself, and about Danko, who gave his heart to people.
The images of Lara and Danko are sharply contrasting, although both of them are brave, strong and proud people. Lara lives according to the laws of the strong, to whom “everything is permitted.” He kills the girl because she did not submit to his will, and steps on her chest with his foot. Lara's cruelty is based on a sense of superiority of a strong individual over the crowd. Gorky debunks popular theories at the end of the 19th century. ideas of the German philosopher Nietzsche. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche argued that people are divided into strong (eagles) and weak (lambs) who are destined to be slaves. Nietzsche's apology for inequality, the idea of ​​the aristocratic superiority of the chosen over all others were subsequently used in the ideology and practice of fascism. Spiridonova L.A. “I came into the world to disagree.”
In the legend of Lara, Gorky shows that a Nietzschean who professes the morality “everything is permitted to the strong” awaits loneliness, which is worse than death. “His punishment is in himself,” says the wisest of people after Lara commits a crime. And Lara, doomed to eternal life and eternal wandering, turns into a black shadow, dried up by the sun and winds. Condemning an egoist who only takes from people without giving anything in return, the old woman Izergil says: “For everything that a person takes, he pays with himself, with his mind and strength, sometimes with his life.”
Danko pays with his life, performing a feat in the name of people's happiness. The blue sparks that flare up at night in the steppe are the sparks of his burning heart, which illuminated the path to freedom. The impenetrable forest, where the giant trees stood like a stone wall, the greedy mouth of the swamp, strong and evil enemies gave birth to fear among people. Then Danko appeared: “What will I do for people,” Danko shouted louder than thunder. And suddenly he tore his chest with his hands and tore out his heart from it and raised it high above his head. It burned as brightly as the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest fell silent, illuminated by this torch of great love for people, and the darkness scattered from its light...”
As we have seen, the poetic metaphor of “giving your heart to your loved one” arose both in the story “Makar Chudra” and in the fairy tale about the little fairy. But here it turns into an expanded poetic image, interpreted literally. Gorky puts a new, high meaning into the erased banal phrase that has accompanied declarations of love for centuries: “to give your hand and heart.” Danko's living human heart became a torch illuminating the path to a new life for humanity. And although the “cautious man” nevertheless stepped on him, the blue sparks in the steppe always remind people of Danko’s feat.
The meaning of the story “Old Woman Izergil” is determined by the phrase “In life there is always a place for exploits.” The daredevil Danko, who “burned his heart for people and died without asking them for anything as a reward for himself,” expresses Gorky’s innermost thought: the happiness and will of one person are unthinkable without the happiness and liberation of the people.

“Song of the Falcon” - a hymn to action in the name of freedom and light
“The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life,” Gorky states in “Song of the Falcon.” The main technique by which this thesis is affirmed is a dialogue between two different “truths”, two worldviews, two contrasting images - the Falcon and the Snake. The writer used the same technique in other stories. The free shepherd is the antipode of the blind Mole, the egoist Lara is opposed to the altruist Danko. In “The Song of the Falcon,” a hero and a tradesman appear before the reader. Smug Already convinced of the inviolability of the old order. He feels great in the dark gorge: “warm and damp.” The sky for him is an empty place, and the Falcon, dreaming of flying into the sky, is a real madman. With poisonous irony, Already claims that the beauty of flying is in the fall.
In the soul of the Falcon lives an insane thirst for freedom and light. By his death, he confirms the rightness of the feat in the name of freedom.
The death of the Falcon is at the same time a complete debunking of the “wise” Snake. In “Song of the Falcon” there is a direct echo with the legend of Danko: blue sparks of a burning heart flash in the darkness of the night, forever reminding people of Danko. The death of the Falcon also brings him immortality: “And drops of your hot blood, like sparks, will flare up in the darkness of life and will ignite many brave hearts with an insane thirst for freedom and light!”
From work to work in Gorky’s early work, the theme of heroism grows and crystallizes. Loiko Zobar, Rada, the little fairy commit crazy things in the name of love. Their actions are extraordinary, but this is not yet a feat. The girl, who comes into conflict with the king, boldly defeats Fear, Fate and Death (“The Girl and Death”). Her courage is also the madness of the brave, although it is aimed at protecting personal happiness. Lara's courage and audacity lead to a crime, for he, like Pushkin's Aleko, “only wants freedom for himself.” And only Danko and Sokol, by their death, affirm the immortality of the feat. So the problem of the will and happiness of an individual person fades into the background, replaced by the problem of happiness for all humanity. “The Madness of the Brave” brings moral satisfaction to the daredevils themselves: “I go to burn as brightly as possible and to illuminate the darkness of life more deeply. And death for me is my reward! - declares Gorky's Man. Spiridonova L.A. “I came into the world to disagree.” Gorky's early romantic works awakened the consciousness of the inferiority of life, unfair and ugly, and gave birth to the dream of heroes rebelling against the orders established over centuries.
The revolutionary romantic idea also determined the artistic originality of Gorky's works: a pathetic sublime style, a romantic plot, the genre of fairy tales, legends, songs, allegories, and a conventionally symbolic background of action. In Gorky's stories it is easy to detect the exceptional character, setting, and language characteristic of romanticism. But at the same time, they contain features characteristic only of Gorky: a contrasting comparison of the hero and the tradesman, the Man and the slave. The action of the work, as a rule, is organized around a dialogue of ideas; the romantic frame of the story creates a background against which the author’s thought appears prominently. Sometimes such a frame is a landscape - a romantic description of the sea, steppe, thunderstorm. Sometimes - a harmonious harmony of the sounds of a song. The importance of sound images in Gorky’s romantic works is difficult to overestimate: the melody of the violin sounds in the story of the love of Loiko Zobar and Rada, the whistle of the free wind and the breath of a thunderstorm - in the tale of the little fairy, “wonderful music of revelation” - in the “Song of the Falcon”, a menacing roar storms - in “Song of the Petrel”. The harmony of sounds complements the harmony of allegorical images. The image of an eagle as a symbol of a strong personality arises when characterizing heroes who have Nietzschean traits: the eagle Rada, free as an eagle, the shepherd, the son of the eagle Lara. The image of the Falcon is associated with the idea of ​​an altruistic hero. Makar Chudra calls a falcon a storyteller who dreams of making all people happy. Finally, the Petrel symbolizes the movement of the masses themselves, the image of future retribution.
Gorky generously uses folklore motifs and images, adapts Moldavian, Wallachian, and Hutsul legends that he overheard while wandering around Rus'. The language of Gorky's romantic works is flowery and patterned, melodiously sonorous.

Conclusion
The early work of Maxim Gorky is notable for its different styles, noted by L. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko. The work of young Gorky was influenced by many writers: A.S. Pushkin, Pomyalovsky, G. Uspensky, N.S. Leskova, M.Yu. Lermontov, Byron, Schiller.
The writer turned to both the realistic and romantic movements of art, which in some cases existed independently, but were often whimsically mixed. However, at first, Gorky’s works were dominated by the romantic style, standing out sharply for their brightness.
Indeed, features of romanticism predominate in Gorky's early stories. First of all, because they depict a romantic situation of confrontation between a strong man (Danko, Lara, Sokol) and the world around him, as well as the problem of man as an individual in general. The action of the stories and legends is transferred to fantastic conditions (“He stood between the boundless steppe and the endless sea”). The world of the works is sharply divided into light and darkness, and these differences are important when assessing the characters: after Lara there remains a shadow, after Danko - sparks.
The gap between the heroic past and the pitiful, colorless life in the present, between the “should” and the “existent”, between the great “dream” and the “gray era” was the soil on which the romanticism of early Gorky was born.
All the heroes of Gorky's early works are morally emotional and experience mental trauma, choosing between love and freedom, but they still choose the latter, bypassing love and preferring only freedom.
People of this type, as the writer foresaw, can turn out to be great in extreme situations, in days of disasters, wars, revolutions, but they are most often unviable in the normal course of human life. Today, the problems posed by the writer M. Gorky in his early work are perceived as relevant and pressing for solving the issues of our time.
Gorky, who openly declared at the end of the 19th century his faith in man, in his mind, in his creative, transformative capabilities, continues to arouse interest among readers to this day.