In his work, the famous poet Nikolai Nekrasov repeatedly addressed the problems and sufferings of the simple Russian people.
From childhood, he watched the cruel treatment of serfs on the part of his father, a tyrannical and powerful man. Often inherited from him and his wife, the mother of the poet. These impressions for life were deposited in the memory and soul of Nikolai Alekseevich and became an inexhaustible source for a large number of his works.
In 1845, the young Nekrasov wrote a small poem, "On the Road." It became his literary debut and immediately outlined a theme that will forever remain the main one in his work.
"... You are a poet - and a true poet!"
It was with such enthusiastic words that critic V. Belinsky spoke to Nekrasov when he first heard "On the Road." āHow much sorrow and bile ...ā, - he said so about the poem of the beginning poet in one of the conversations with I. Panayev. Immediately fell in love with the "excellent" work and A. Herzen.
What did Nikolai Nekrasov deserve, whose first collection of "Dreams and Sounds" remained almost unnoticed, so highly appreciated?
Composition and genre
The poem more closely resembles the story of the unhappy life of a young peasant family. The complication is the masterās complaint to the coachman about boredom. He asks to amuse himself with a daredevil song or a tale. āItās not fun for me myself ...ā, - with these words begins the speech of the driver N. N. Nekrasov. On the way, he slowly talks about the fate of his āvillainā wife, who was brought up and lived in a manor house for a long time. Then she was sent to the village, where now she was on the edge of the grave. A sad story elicits a response from the master. "Well ... enough ... I dispersed ... persistent boredom," - these words conclude the work.
So instead of the traditional Yamshchitsky song, to the ringing of bells, a soul-searching monologue of a tormented heart sounds. And his heroes are the victims of serfdom, for centuries existing in Russia.
The main theme of the poem "On the Road"
Nekrasov was always worried about the plight of the oppressed people. He was especially sensitive to the bitter fate of a woman-peasant woman, capable of carrying a lot in her life. In the first serious poem, which was "On the Road", he tells of the unenviable share of a serf girl, whose childhood and youth were spent in a manor house. This was a typical occurrence at the time. Moreover, quite often in this situation were illegitimate children of the landowner. Their carefree and quiet life almost always ended tragically, since for society they always remained serfs. The feelings of the peasants (by birth), who turned out to be toys in the hands of the masters and ended up in an unusual social environment, help to understand the analysis of the poem āOn the Roadā.
Nekrasov about raising a heroine
Pear for many years was a companion for the young lady. Together with her, she studied reading and science, sewing and playing musical instruments - i.e. all that a secular lady was supposed to know and be able to do.
The husband describes her as follows: āshe had an impressive appearanceā and good manners, so one would think that she was a ānaturalā young lady. Even the teacher married to her alone (not just a serf!), But something went wrong there: "I donāt need a hundred servants in the nobility."
For the girl, everything changed in an instant: the young lady got married and left, and the landowner soon died, leaving Grusha an orphan. The young son-in-law who has inherited has counted all the revision ones. Replaced corvee dues. The pear, with which he did not converge, was sent to the village. So N.Nekrasov continues the verse āOn the Roadā and the story about the fate of the heroine.
Village and Marriage
āThe girl howled,ā the coachman says of his wifeās new life. It was hard for her, not accustomed to peasant labor. Any work was a burden - "an inda is sometimes a pity." But the driver did not blame Grusha, he believed that "the gentlemen had destroyed her."
And the girl had no joy in marriage. They married according to their will - the time has come. So nothing pleased her in her new life. When strangers still āhere and thereā, and, left alone, all the tears fell. Thus, the soul of a person who is accustomed to living in completely different conditions, according to different moral laws, gradually perishes - an analysis of the poem āOn the Roadā leads the reader to such gloomy thoughts.
Nekrasov is not limited to describing the difficulties that have arisen in everyday life. He draws attention to one more side of peasant life, which at all does not look like a manor.
The darkness and ignorance of the people
The driver is worried by another in the behavior of his wife. She often looks at some kind of āpatret,ā she reads a book. He teaches his son to read and write, which is not accepted among the peasants - another mission awaits him. And every day, like a little perch, it washes and scratches. Shears, does not give a beat. āShe will destroy her son too,ā such an idea overcomes the coachman.
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The author is worried about something else. An uneducated husband, far from culture and any science, is not able to understand Pear, in which a noble upbringing and a book (a portrait, for example, of a writer) can be awakened to a sensitive soul. N.Nekrasov wants to draw attention of his contemporaries to this. The verse āOn the Roadā shows how clogged a simple man really is. Therefore, Pear cannot find a like-minded person in the new conditions - no one here understands her. As a result, her master, who, perhaps, did not want anything bad, crippled the life of a young girl. Now it is withering day by day, it has become "like a sliver of thin and pale," even walking, as if through force. Apparently, she did not have long to live. āAnd there would be a dashing woman!ā.
The fate of the driver
It is not easy for her husband in this story. Married without consent. He doesnāt understand the pear, although unlike many others, he regretted his wife, didnāt abuse him again, even respected him. Almost did not beat - only in a drunken state. And in the future he is waiting for widowhood and loneliness, which is not easy to demolish a peasant with a small son in his arms. And most importantly, there is no guilt in this whole story - he is the same as all serfs.
Thus, the analysis of the poem āOn the Roadā (Nekrasov wrote in this connection: āNo matter what life is, tragedy!ā) Exposes the moral and social problems of serfdom. After all, the whims of the gentlemen destroyed the life of more than one person.
Means of Expression
The poem "On the Road" is written by a three-legged anapaest. This size, combined with the supposed clatter of hooves, is reminiscent of colloquial folk speech, which brings the coachman's story closer to a song similar to a mournful cry escaping from the depths of the soul. The monologue is made realistic and colorful by a special word order, a combination of paired, cross and ring rhymes, vernacular words and expressions: bait, ali, know-de, patret, etc.
The meaning of the poem
An analysis of the poem āOn the Roadā leads to several conclusions. Nekrasov in it, even earlier I. Turgenev with his "Notes of the hunter", drew the attention of contemporaries to the plight of the people. In the coachmanās monologue, contrasting pictures of the life of the landlords and the serfs dependent on them are clearly emerging. The worst thing here is that the owners treated their slaves as any other thing in the house. It was an open cover for exposing slavery that existed in the country and an open protest against the established order.
A simple but true picture with each new line appears in the work "On the Road" by Nekrasov. The theme stated in the poem - serfdom has neither conscience nor laws - overnight turned the aspiring poet into the best representative of the ānatural schoolā, which will soon become established in Russian literature and criticism.