How to use stories and plays content Introduction

The genre specification of "Woe from Wit" is determined primarily by two factors:

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  synthesis of literary and aesthetic trends of the first quarter of the 19th century; new principles of organization of action,
  
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  defining a new ratio: tragic - comic - dramatic, - which is not a simple addition of categories.
  

The genre, as you know, is formed not only by objective, but also by subjective factors, i.e. not only the new political and aesthetic situation coordinates the form-content parameters of an artistic text (in our case, Griboedov's dramatic innovations), but also the specificity of his artistic thinking. The genre definition of "Woe from Wit" as a "comedy" is explained not only by the fact that in Russian theoretical thought of the 20s of the XIX century. the concept of “actual drama” has not yet been approved,
substantiated by V. G. Belinsky in the 40s of the XIX century, but also by the author's position, point of view on the depicted situation and characters. After all, even the most “objectified” genus does not exclude the subjective factor. The comedy "Woe from Wit" appeared when the Decembrist poets constructed a model of a new romantic system, as opposed to the schools of Derzhavin - Batyushkov - Zhukovsky, while, paradoxically, returning to literature the classic civic pathos and at the same time enlightening-sentimental sympathy for the people, which, in turn, inspired the emergence of realistic tendencies. The theories of the French enlighteners of the second half of the 18th century could not help but influence the Russian theater and the dramatic searches of Griboyedov. So, Helvetius, in search of new dramatic forms, wondering why the tragedy now makes only a superficial impression, in the treatise
(with a significant title for us) "On the Mind" (1758) believed that in people today there is no unity of courage and virtue, and on the stage they want to see themselves. Hence the idea of the versatility of character, which does not require classic rectilinear forms. Back in 1738, in the preface to his play The Prodigal Son, Voltaire claimed that he was creating a new genre in which two extremes meet, just as in life: “Here they will see a mixture of serious and funny, comic and tragic, because of the same kind contrasts
We see each other all the time in life." Without rejecting other genres, the great thinker emphasized that all genres are good, except for boring ones, because even a “tearful comedy” can be boring if everything that can cause laughter and a smile is turned off from it. Griboyedov's comedy fits into Voltaire's scheme of a "mixture" of the tragic and the comic - as
in life. But if we talk about the synthesis of these aesthetic categories, then it must be emphasized that Woe from Wit is, of course, not a tragicomedy. There is no comedic intrigue here, as well as the tragic insolubility of the conflict, although there is a correspondence to the Aristotelian idea of a hero - average in moral qualities, but committing an act that leads him from happiness to misfortune by mistake, out of ignorance.
In the comedy of A. S. Griboyedov, we do not find signs of the “tearful drama”, which was the leading genre form in the European theater of the turn of the century, despite the fact that traces of sentimentalism are highlighted in Sofia’s attitude towards Molchalin – an attitude born not without the influence of reading sentimental novels. As for the classic signs, in Woe from Wit, first of all, the classic trinity is violated. The spatial and temporal boundaries here are expanded by mentioning the past, foreign countries, treatment in the Caucasus, St. Petersburg, Saratov, due to the hypothetical future, understood by the reader / viewer, depending on his personal idea. However, Griboedov gives them hyperbolic, parodic features, creating satirical images.
and situations. Satirical - a tribute to classicism, and romanticism, and realism, but not sentimental "tearful drama". ³At the same time, the accidental arrival of Chatsky, the accidental coincidence of his arrival with a ball in the house of Famusov, the accidental fall of Molchalin, in general, the construction of the plot on chance is a tribute to both sentimentalism and romanticism. At the same time, an accident, a mistake, a lack of recognition of the true cause of the cooling. There is no romantic self-deepening, lyrical monologues replacing action, characteristic
for a romantic drama, there is no full-fledged formation and development of character, characteristic of realistic poetics. Remarks in the text are for the most part pointing, emphasizing the direction of the action,
change of events and - rarely - state. The classicist rationalism, the schematism of the character is being replaced by not yet a psychological personality, but a psychologically and socially organized character with individual traits. True, the heroes are still located according to the classic canons at two poles: positive - negative, for (progress) - against. Griboyedov refused
from the exaggerated naturalism, the hypertrophied naturalness of sentimentalism, from its intense sensitivity, while reproducing the rather emotional state of the characters, which determines
pathos of the play. It can be assumed that, while translating French comedy plots, “tearful drama”, Griboyedov realized that sentimentalist “naturalness”, with apparent reality, turns into conventions, clichés of “abstract psychologism”.
The genre of Woe from Wit is determined, among other things, by the irony of the author, the same author in whom Pushkin saw the only intelligent person in comedy. And when Chatsky pathetically cries out: "And who are the judges? ..", and when he convinces himself: "Let one of us, from young people ...", and when again he convinces himself that Sophia cannot prefer him, such a progressive , that "black-haired, on the legs of cranes", the author listens to him, as if weighing the appropriateness of the hero's increased emotionality. And this “listening” fills the dramatic text with a lyrical beginning. P. A. Vyazemsky, 40 years after his first, above-mentioned article, arguing that “Woe from Wit” is “a satire, not a drama”, noted the frank presence of the author in the play, where “maybe the painter himself stands out more, than the faces he portrays"
Assessing the comedy, Belinsky wrote with admiration: “What a deadly power of sarcasm, what caustic irony, what pathos in the lyrical outpourings of irritated feeling; how many aspects so subtly noticed in society; what typical characters, what language, what verse - energetic, concise, lightning-fast, purely Russian! Is it any wonder that Griboedov's poems turned into sayings and proverbs and spread among educated people, to all ends of the Russian land! Is it any wonder that “Woe from Wit” was already memorized in manuscript by the whole of Russia!”
“Woe from Wit”, like no other work of Russian literature, is replete with such complete, proverbial, short and precise formulas. The very title of the comedy sounds like a proverb. Even the technique used by Griboyedov of endowing characters with surnames “with meaning” comes not only from the literary tradition, but also from the folk custom of “baptizing” a person with a nickname that reflects either a creature or some noticeable feature of his character. As in folk proverbs, Griboedov's sayings are contained in extremely compressed, concise forms of one-line or couplet, less often - quatrain. However, in "Woe from Wit" there is another line of action, essentially much more significant. The main core of the comedy is the struggle that Chatsky leads from the moment he appears on the stage in the first act, until the last monologue in the final scene. Delving into the peculiarities of this struggle. One can more clearly understand how different Chatsky is from the heroes of other works, in which the clash of an intelligent, honest and truthful hero with the people around him has already been shown. Griboyedov brilliantly showed his contemporaries that, even if classical unities are observed, a play can be deeply realistic, vital, and truthful. At the same time, Griboedov, Belinsky points out, rejected "artificial love, reasoners, razluchnikov and all the vulgar, worn-out mechanism of the old drama." Unlike the classic comedy, in which vice was always punished at the end and virtue was rewarded, the reader does not find the usual moralizing ending in Griboyedov. So, abandoning everything that hindered the development of Russian dramaturgy, the writer at the same time preserved and developed the realistic elements of the classic theater of the 18th century.
“The writer creates a new poetics - the poetics of realism in Russian literature. It has long been established that Griboedov used for realistic purposes, some features of classic comedy, but to talk about the unification of two poetics that have developed on the basis of different artistic methods - classicism and realism, one of the founders of which in Russian dramaturgy was Griboedov, this means forcing the reader to assume some kind of eclecticism in the artistic system of the great comedy. However, this system is integral and unified and is conditioned by Griboyedov's aesthetic views, which were based not on classicism, but, like the tragedy of Pushkin the realist, on the experience of Shakespeare.
The idea of the comedy "Woe from Wit" arose, according to some sources, as early as 1816. Griboyedov made an accusatory speech at one of the social events. He did not like the slavish admiration of Russians for foreigners. Then Alexander Sergeevich was jokingly called crazy. After this incident, the writer had a plan for a future comedy. But he began to write works only in 1820, while in the service in the city of Tiflis. The first two actions were completed by early 1922. Griboyedov finished writing the last parts of the play during the holidays in Moscow. Here he "breathed the air" of the secular living room and received additional material for creativity. The first edition of Woe from Wit was completed in 1823. However, already in 1824 the original version of the play underwent a thorough stylistic revision. In the future, censorship worked hard on the work. As a result, the author's version of the work was published only in 1862. During the life of Alexander Sergeevich, the comedy was distributed in the form of handwritten copies - lists. It evoked a lively response in literary circles. A detailed analysis of "Woe from Wit" will show how innovative this work was for its time.