“Station Warden”: summary
One of the saddest works that Alexander Pushkin wrote is “The Station Agent.” The summary of the story will convince you of this: the author managed to tell the reader a complex story without undue tragedy:
Brief retelling of the story: meeting the characters
At the beginning of the story, the narrator who leads the story shares his thoughts with the reader. Who is a stationmaster in his opinion? An unfortunate person on whom travelers take their anger out every now and then.
The narrator recalls how once on the road he got caught in heavy rain and stopped at the station to change clothes and warm up with tea. He was received by the station superintendent Samson Vyrin and his fourteen-year-old daughter, the beautiful Dunya.
While Dunya was setting the table, the narrator looked around. He really liked the atmosphere in the hut:
- the walls were decorated with pictures;
- geraniums bloomed on the windows;
- There was a bright curtain hanging by the bed.
The guest invited the hosts to join the meal. A pleasant conversation ensued; the visitor did not want to leave.
Years later, driving along the same road, the narrator decided to visit old acquaintances. Entering the room, I recognized the familiar interior. True, now he was uncomfortable and neglected. Dunya was not there, and the caretaker was gloomy and taciturn. After drinking some punch, the old man told his guest about the sad incident.
“The Station Agent”: briefly about Dunya’s disappearance
Three years earlier, a young hussar was passing through the station. At first he was in a hurry and angry, but when he noticed Dunya, he decided to stay for dinner. The time came to leave, but the officer’s health suddenly worsened. The doctor confirmed delirium tremens.
After a couple of days the guest felt better and got ready to set off. It was Sunday, and he volunteered to take Dunya to church. The stationmaster had a good opinion of the young man and did not think anything bad, but later he became worried and went after his daughter.
At church, Samson learned that his daughter did not come to the service. The coachman, who was transporting the hussar, later reported that Dunya rode with the master to the next station. Vyrin became nervous and fell ill. He soon found out that Minsky (that was the name of the passing gentleman) was heading to St. Petersburg, and, having recovered from his illness, followed him on foot.
Summary: Stationmaster finds daughter
The caretaker managed to find Minsky. The officer convinced that he would make Dunya happy, gave Samson money and sent him out.
But Vyrin wanted to meet his daughter. Having followed Minsky, I found out where Dunya lived. In the apartment of a three-story building, Samson saw his daughter in luxurious clothes - Dunya became Minsky’s kept woman. Noticing her father, the girl screamed and lost consciousness. The dissatisfied master kicked out the caretaker, who had to return home. For three years he did not hear anything about his daughter.
Still from the film “The Station Agent”: YouTube / Cinema Concern “Mosfilm”
When the narrator again found himself on the same road, there was no station in the same place, and in Samson’s hut there lived a brewer with his wife and son. The boy said that the caretaker died a year ago. According to him, recently a lady came with three children and lay at the grave for a long time.
“The Station Agent”: analysis of the work
Behind the simplicity of the story lies the author's thoughts about the imperfections of society and human relations. A consistent analysis of the work will help you understand the essence of the work:
The history of the story
Pushkin wrote the story “The Station Warden” in 1830, when, before his wedding to Natalya Goncharova, he returned to the family estate of Boldino. Due to a cholera epidemic, he had to stay there for the whole autumn. This time is the most fruitful period in Pushkin’s creative career. He created many works, in particular the cycle “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” (“Belkin’s Tales”). "The Station Agent" is one of them. The series also includes works:
- "Shot";
- "Blizzard";
- "Undertaker";
- "The young lady-peasant."
Ivan Petrovich Belkin is a character invented by the writer, whose name is signed in the stories. The series was published under the name of Pushkin in 1834.
"The Station Agent": characters
Before moving on to the analysis of the author’s ideas embedded in the story, let’s study the main characters:
- Samson Vyrin is a simple-minded and peace-loving person. A hard worker and a loving father, for whom his main joy is his daughter. Samson is very worried about her fate, and from the news of her disappearance he fell ill with a fever. Realizing his lack of rights in front of Minsky, he returns home, where he becomes an alcoholic and dies from boredom.
- Dunya is Samson’s daughter, beautiful and thrifty, a good helper. She is a flirt and uses her charm. The ordinary life of a peasant woman disgusts her, so she easily agrees to Minsky’s proposal, although she worries about her father. Having achieved a better position, he comes to the priest’s grave and immediately goes back.
- Minsky is a young, attractive hussar. He knows how to win over, so he quickly wins Samson’s sympathy. Self-confident, thinks only about his own desires. He is not interested in the feelings of others.
Still from the film “The Station Agent”: YouTube / Cinema Concern “Mosfilm”
Problems of the work
In a short story, Pushkin touched on a number of eternal questions and problems that he clearly saw in the society of his time. Many of them are well known to the modern reader:
- Conflict between fathers and children.
The main characters of the story that Pushkin outlined are the station superintendent Samson Vyrin and his daughter Dunya.
The caretaker is a man of old principles: he lives in the village, takes care of his daughter, tries to protect her from any troubles. Dunya is different: she dreams of life in the city and takes the first opportunity to get there. The girl understands that her father will be against her decision, so she silently leaves him. She succumbs to a romantic impulse and does not think about possible dangers. Years later, Dunya returns to her parent, but finds only a grave.
- Conflict of personal interests and morality.
The heroes of the story Dunya and Minsky follow their interests and whims, not caring about the feelings of others. The caretaker's daughter easily abandons her father, leaving him alone with sadness and worries. Knowing about his anxiety, over the years of living in St. Petersburg he has not tried to get in touch.
Officer Minsky is a man from the upper class, accustomed to a rich life and satisfaction of desires. For him, taking a naive young girl from her father and taking her away from the village to make her a kept woman is a common act. The thoughtless actions of Dunya and Minsky lead to a sad outcome - the death of an innocent person. Thus, the author demonstrates how the frivolity of others has a detrimental effect on the personality.
- The problem of social order.
The actions of the characters may cause misunderstanding and outrage in the reader. But Pushkin hints: the current situation is the result not so much of the behavior of the heroes, but of the way of life accepted in society. Class hierarchy, the position of women in society - those are the problems that made this story real for its time.
- Little man theme.
“The Station Agent” is Pushkin’s first work where he touched on this problem. Samson Vyrin is the lowest-ranking employee. Using his example, the writer showed what attitude society has towards such people. They were insulted with impunity, accused, anger or irritation was directed at them, no one took their opinion into account.
The feelings and experiences of people who do not have power and influence did not concern others. With his story, the author emphasizes how absurd this way of life is, because humanity should not depend on rank and class.
"Station Agent": genre
Although Pushkin defined the genre of the work as a story, in terms of the depth of its psychological content it is not inferior to a novel. The author pays attention to the feelings of each character, deliberately emphasizing: there are no good or bad ones among them. All complex individuals with their own experiences, dreams and motives.
“The Station Agent” was created in the tradition of realism: it reliably recreated the way of life of that time, and the characters drawn by the author existed in reality.
The problems of society and the types that Pushkin described are still encountered in our time. This is the skill of a great writer - to see the essence of things and skillfully describe them.
Original article: https://www.nur.kz/family/school/1874586-stancionnyj-smotritel-kratkoe-soderzanie-i-analiz/
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“How long have you re-read Pushkin’s prose?
Make me a friend - read all of Belkin's Tales first. They need to be studied and studied by every writer. I did this the other day and I cannot convey to you the beneficial influence that this reading had on me.” (from a letter from L.N. Tolstoy to P.D. Golokhvastov).
“The Stories of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” consists of 5 stories: “The Shot”, “The Blizzard”, “The Undertaker”, “The Station Warden”, “The Young Lady-Peasant”.
Each of Belkin's Tales is so small in size that one could call it a story.
Pushkin calls them stories. For a realist writer reproducing life, the forms of the story and novel in prose were especially suitable. They attracted Pushkin because of their intelligibility to the widest circles of readers, which was much greater than poetry. “Stories and novels are read by everyone and everywhere,” they are, in essence, the beginning of Russian highly artistic realistic prose. Pushkin took the most typical romantic plots for the story, which may well be repeated in our time. “Belkin's Tales” were conceived by the author as an echo of the genre of romantic literature. In the story “The Shot,” the main character Silvio came from the bygone era of romanticism. This is a handsome, strong, brave man with a solid, passionate character and an exotic non-Russian name, reminiscent of the mysterious and fatal heroes of Byron’s romantic poems. In "Blizzard" French novels and romantic ballads of Zhukovsky are parodied. At the end of the story, a comic confusion with the suitors leads the heroine of the story to a new, hard-won happiness. In the story “The Undertaker,” in which Adrian Prokhorov invites the dead to visit him, Mozart’s opera and the terrible stories of the romantics are parodied. “The Peasant Young Lady” is a small, elegant sitcom with cross-dressing in the French style, set in a Russian noble estate. In the cycle of "Belkin's Tales".
In essence, in terms of its plot, expressiveness, complex, capacious theme and ingenious composition, in terms of the characters themselves, this is already a small, condensed novel that influenced subsequent Russian prose and gave birth to Gogol’s story “The Overcoat.”
SIGNS I was coming to you: vivid dreams swirled behind me in a playful crowd, And the moon on the right side Accompanied my zealous run.
I drove away: other dreams... The soul of the lover was sad; And the month on the left side Accompanied me sadly. This is how we, poets, indulge in eternal dreams in silence; So superstitious signs agree with the feelings of the soul. 1829 [/td]
romance to poems by A. Pushkin, music. Isaac Schwartz's story “The Station Warden” occupies a significant place in the work of A.S. Pushkin and is of great importance for all Russian literature. Almost for the first time, it depicts life’s hardships, pain and suffering of what is called the “little man.” This is where the theme of “the humiliated and insulted” begins in Russian literature, which will introduce you to kind, quiet, suffering heroes and allow you to see not only meekness, but also the greatness of their souls and hearts. The epigraph for the story is taken from a poem by P.A. Vyazemsky “Station”: “Collegiate registrar, Postal station dictator.”
A.S. Pushkin drew the attention of his contemporaries to the position of people who were at the lowest level of the social ladder. The inability to protest and resignation to fate make them defenseless in the face of life's circumstances. This turns out to be the station guard, a fourteenth-grade official, Samson Vyrin, who loved and forgave his runaway daughter... the film “The Station Warden” (dir. Sergei Solovyov, 1972) Nikolai Pastukhov - Samson Vyrin, Marianna Kushnerova - Dunya, Nikita Mikhalkov - Minsky, hussar, Gennady Shumsky - narrator, Ivan Petrovich Belkin.
NB:
The stationmaster's surname is similar to the Vyra station, which Pushkin passed by several times.
In the 19th century, Võru station was the third postal station from St. Petersburg. Pushkin passed through this postal station several times: the Belarusian-Kyiv basilica passed through Vyra to the southern and western provinces of Russia. The theme of the road runs through the poet’s entire work: he spent many years of his life traveling around Russia. Pushkin passed through Vyra in the spring of 1820 on his way to Bessarabia, to the place of his exile. In February 1837, a sleigh that was carrying Pushkin’s body to the Svyatogorsk Monastery passed this post station.
. . Fortunately, the Postal Station itself has been preserved, and
the “Station Warden’s House” is the first museum of the literary hero Pushkin in Russia
, created in 1972. On a striped milepost near the station building. Nearby, a chapel has been restored in honor of the beloved saints of all horsemen and coachmen - Kozma and Damian (Kuzma and Demyan).
https://www.uskazok.ru/2015/09/stancionnyj-smotritel.html https://fb.ru/article/172644/stantsionnyiy-smotrite...isl-povesti-soderjanie-i-geroi
| Categories: | Literature/PUSHKIN |
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Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin stationmaster
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