"The houses are new but the prejudices are old" essay. Aphorisms from Woe from Wit: quotes from the main characters of Griboyedov's comedy Woe from Wit Houses are new but the prejudices of old

CRIMES AS OLD AS HUMANITY

"Shooting Stars" increase their score

“Shooting Stars” are increasing their score On the morning of June 29, North Korean aircraft again bombed and stormed the Kimpo airfield. The attack was thwarted by combat air patrol fighters. In a dogfight, F-8°C pilots Lieutenants William Norris and Roy Marsh shot down a La-7 and an Il-10. During the second raid

Too old to get a job?

Too old to get a job? “The idea that we are exhausted at the age of sixty-five... is obviously ridiculous. Why waste a lifetime of life experience?” * * *Do you think you are too old to join a business or get a job? This is wrong.

Our “laziness and lack of curiosity” affected us here too. So what if another Russian genius was born on January 15, 1795? Does modern Russia celebrate him, which still knows almost nothing about his origin or the circumstances of his biography and work? It is no coincidence that when a besotted TV viewer was asked to choose “The Name of Russia,” Griboyedov was named a child prodigy, the author of waltzes, who was killed in Tehran during the uprising. What kind of legends did his name give rise to?

But few people know that his ancestor Jan Grzhibovsky moved from Poland to Russia in the 17th century, giving birth to the Russian Griboedov family. His mother had the same surname as her father as a maiden. And the writer himself hid, but did not deny, the fact that he was the great-nephew of Alexander Radishchev. Brilliantly gifted, knowing many languages ​​since childhood, early becoming a candidate of literary sciences, but continuing his studies at the moral-political and physics-mathematical departments of Moscow University, at the beginning of the War of 1812 Griboyedov was already a young cornet. A talented musician and author of waltzes, the author of brilliant comedies and vaudevilles, many missing poems and poems... and, of course, a duelist (his hand shot during a quadruple duel helped identify his body in Tehran, disfigured by Muslim fanatics) - this is a small part of what is known about the author of the immortal comedy.

However, even academicians find it difficult to understand the personality and fate of the genius, whose friends were both Pyotr Chaadaev and Thaddeus Bulgarin, who combined in his destiny Polish blood and a Georgian wife. In his immortal comedy, Griboyedov combined one more unprecedented property: in it one can hear reflections of tragedy, its main character is a brilliant intellectual, a homesick exile, a romantic in love, in whose “pigeon liver” - like Hamlet’s - lives bile and bitterness, and the mind vitriol and anger shake.

We hear more and more clearly in the nervous bells of the carriage, carrying Chatsky first swiftly to Moscow, and then - even more swiftly - out of it, not only the painful thoughts of the “madman” Chaadaev, but also the groans of the “superfluous” Russian intellectuals from Pushkin to Lermontov, from Onegin to Pechorin. In the masterly comic positions and characters of the most classic of Russian comedies, we can increasingly see the “smoke of the Fatherland,” where “it is impossible to live with intelligence and talent.” The eternal Russian gap between two people, connected by feeling and childhood, but unable to hear this unity: Georgy Tovstonogov understood it exactly, in whose play Sofia-Doronina sobbed in the finale on the chest of Chatsky-Yursky. There is another Russian comedy, “The Cherry Orchard,” marked by tragic reflections accompanied by ominous ball music. I won’t even mention “The Comedy about the Real Trouble for the Moscow State” (“Boris Godunov”).

Apollo Grigoriev saw “Woe from Wit” as a comedy about rudeness. Or a comedy about slavery, servility, which easily tramples the impulses of a free mind. But was Pushkin right when he saw the main mistake of the play in the fact that Chatsky is a “fool” throwing pearls before swine? Perhaps for Griboyedov this is a reason for bitter (tragic) laughter at the inability of these two worlds to hear each other.

This inability resulted in a bloody and tragic side effect for Russia. Spilled in the rivers of “red” and “white” blood, in the eternal “horrors of the civil war” blowing over the epic steppe. It seems that not only the play, but also the fate of Griboyedov itself lay an ominous stroke over the fate of our Fatherland.

This eternal Russian text is sad and dreary. It contains not just bile notes from an insulted and sharp mind. It contains a strange pain of orphanhood, restlessness, exorbitant and senseless pride, echoing with foolishness and eccentric bravado. In it, the Moscow of yesterday, today and metaphysically, frozen between the old and the new, between the West and the East, between tyranny and the liberal idea. It tells the story of a boy who left home in search of freedom, and returned in search of lost love and found neither. So Rimas Tuminas, in a performance at the Sovremennik Theater, discovered this Griboyedov masterpiece, and at the same time the Moscow he described - through his personal experience of a Russian lost in Lithuania and a Lithuanian who was attached to Moscow stoves.

But it seems that the bloodiest reflection on our days is the tragic death of Vazir-Mukhtar in Tehran. This is truly a hero of OUR time, who has won the laurels of a martyr. Torn to pieces by a crowd of fundamentalists, it seems that he was clearly aware of his historical mission - to resist any fundamentalism. It was his coffin, traveling on the road to Tiflis, that Pushkin mourned and, together with tears, wrote his bitter, burning and still largely unread thoughts, “Travels to Arzrum.”

And to this day there is no Griboyedov Museum in Moscow.

“Woe from Wit” appeared before Onegin, Pechorin, outlived them, passed unharmed through the Gogol period, lived these half a century from the time of its appearance and still lives its imperishable life, will survive many more eras and will not lose its vitality.

Ivan Goncharov

Fighter and diplomat

He was a genius not only in literature. Who can compare with the great Alexander Sergeevich in diplomacy? The ambassadorial rank in Persia, which is extremely important for Russia, speaks of the universal recognition of his merits in this area.

Griboedov is not one of those envoys who obligingly scraped before the almighty Shah. He decisively and harshly pursued the Russian line. His briefly formulated credo: “Respect for Russia and its demands - that’s what I need.”

Persia, always unpredictable, having its own opinion on everything, not wanting to put up with Russian domination, our country won the Second Russian-Persian War. And in February 1828, the Turkmanchay Treaty, written with the active participation of Griboedov, came into force, enriching Russia with the Shah’s millions given in gold.

Persia grumbled, and, choosing an excuse, on January 30, 1829, hundreds of fanatics attacked the embassy. I happened to see the place where Griboyedov and a handful of his diplomats gave battle to the fanatics. We took him there with a group of comrades who worked in Iran. Griboyedov met death with weapons in his hands. He shot and killed either 8 or 9 attackers with a saber. The poet, writer, diplomat and duelist was excellent with weapons. In hand-to-hand combat he fought calmly, angrily and, despite his left hand being mutilated during a long-standing duel, he fought off the ever-pressing crowd. His mutilated, desecrated, torn body was dragged through the streets of Tehran.

Griboedov was remembered in 1921, when the Soviet-Iranian Treaty was concluded with the Persians. One of the diplomats of the royal school was not too lazy to look into the Turkmanchay Treaty. And after that, Article 6 appeared, which allowed Soviet Russia to send its troops into a neighboring country if a threat arose to it. Griboedov's foresight was especially useful in 1941. The Germans are near Moscow, and Reza Shah was ready to let Hitler’s divisions pass through his territory to us. And our army entered Persia from the north, occupying Tehran. Thank you, Alexander Sergeevich!

The agreement is still recognized by both parties. True, after the Islamic revolution of 1979, Article 6 quietly disappeared from it. It was unilaterally canceled by the new regime. I wonder if State Councilor A.S. would allow this. Griboyedov?

Nikolay Dolgopolov

Such an apt and accurate description was given to Russian society in the 20s of the 19th century by A. S. Griboyedov through the mouth of his hero Alexander Chatsky.

The comedy “Woe from Wit” was written in 1825, when more than 10 years had passed after the Patriotic War of 1812. Burnt Moscow was being rebuilt; the new sidewalks and houses in the play are praised by both Famusov and the tongue-tied Skalozub. But Chatsky, who returned from abroad, is most concerned not with urban planning, but with how society, the state, and human relations are built.

He very soon received an answer to his questions. All the characters in the play take turns trying to explain to him, as a loser who has not made a career, the rules of success. Famusov is especially trying. His wisdom is to act “as the fathers did”: to please the one who is higher, for the sake of this it is not a sin and to pretend to be a tumbler jester. It is not personal intelligence and talent that are rewarded - only kinship and connections are important, here only “honor according to father and son”; positions, ranks, awards are distributed to relatives and sycophants. But two talents are enough - “moderation and accuracy,” like Molchalin. In the general desire to “win awards and have fun,” all these gentlemen are circling, trying to jump higher (Skalozub, for example, “aims to become a general”).

Serving the fatherland and benefiting society are empty words for them. A very eloquent scene is where the footman Petrushka writes down all the “things” for the week that the important official Famusov must have time to accomplish: attend a dinner party, a funeral, a christening - and that’s all! This is how service is understood. These are the prejudices by which the Moscow nobility lives.

Three years ago, Chatsky escaped from the need to follow them abroad, and upon returning, he was convinced that “neither years, nor fashion, nor fires would destroy them.” And the most hated of them, and elevated to law, is serfdom, essentially slavery. A man of the serf class can be sold, exchanged for dogs, forced to “click the nightingale” for the lord’s whim. Memories of this from childhood are stored in Chatsky’s memory. Slavery permeates all layers of society: not only the peasants are enslaved, but also the gentlemen are far from free: just as the dumb Molchalin is sure that “one must depend on others,” so the arrogant Famusov lives in fear of “what Princess Marya Aleksevna will say.” Chatsky is intolerable to the spirit of slavery that has penetrated into all aspects of life, including dependence on foreigners who dictate fashion for everything: dress, education, thoughts.

Russian bar-slaves are ready to accept anything, abandoning truly Russian, including their native language. The daredevil Chatsky is ready to fight, he openly argues, judges, accuses. But, seeing how the entire Famus circle cleverly arranges itself in life and is quite content with the existing order of things, subordinate to age-old prejudices, you understand that Chatsky with his tirade “I would be glad to serve, it’s sickening to serve” will not stay long in this society. He has no power to change anything - he can only run, which is what he does.

THE HOUSES ARE NEW, BUT THE PREJUDICES ARE OLD

At home new , But prejudices old .
Rejoice , Not will exterminate
Neither years their , no fashion , neither fires .

Our “laziness and lack of curiosity” affected us here too. So what if another Russian genius was born on January 15, 1795? Does modern Russia celebrate him, which still knows almost nothing about his origin or the circumstances of his biography and work?

Few people know that his ancestor Jan Grzhibovsky moved from Poland to Russia in the 17th century, giving birth to the Russian Griboyedov family. His mother had the same surname as her father as a maiden. And the writer himself hid, but did not deny, the fact that he was the great-nephew of Alexander Radishchev. Brilliantly gifted, knowing many languages ​​since childhood, early becoming a candidate of literary sciences, but continuing his studies at the moral-political and physics-mathematical departments of Moscow University, at the beginning of the War of 1812 Griboyedov was already a young cornet. A talented musician and author of waltzes, the author of brilliant comedies and vaudevilles, many missing poems and poems... and, of course, a duelist (his hand shot during a quadruple duel helped identify his body in Tehran, disfigured by Muslim fanatics) - this is a small part of what is known about the author of the immortal comedy.

However, even academicians find it difficult to understand the personality and fate of the genius, whose friends were both Pyotr Chaadaev and Thaddeus Bulgarin, who combined in his destiny Polish blood and a Georgian wife. In his immortal comedy, Griboyedov combined one more unprecedented property: in it one can hear reflections of tragedy, its main character is a brilliant intellectual, a homesick exile, a romantic in love, in whose “pigeon liver” - like Hamlet’s - lives bile and bitterness, and the mind vitriol and anger shake.

We hear more and more clearly in the nervous bells of the carriage, carrying Chatsky first rapidly to Moscow, and then - even more rapidly - out of it, not only the painful thoughts of the “madman” Chaadaev, but also the groans of the “superfluous” Russian intellectuals from Pushkin to Lermontov, from Onegin to Pechorin. In the masterly comic positions and characters of the most classic of Russian comedies, we can increasingly see the “smoke of the Fatherland,” where “it is impossible to live with intelligence and talent.”

But was Pushkin right when he saw the main mistake of the play in the fact that Chatsky is a “fool” throwing pearls before swine? Perhaps for Griboyedov this is a reason for bitter (tragic) laughter at the inability of these two worlds to hear each other.

This inability resulted in a bloody and tragic side effect for Russia. Spilled in the rivers of “red” and “white” blood, in the eternal “horrors of the civil war” blowing over the epic steppe. It seems that not only the play, but also the fate of Griboyedov itself lay an ominous stroke over the fate of our Fatherland.

This eternal Russian text is sad and dreary. It contains not just bile notes from an insulted and sharp mind. It contains a strange pain of orphanhood, restlessness, exorbitant and senseless pride, echoing with foolishness and eccentric bravado. In it, the Moscow of yesterday, today and metaphysically, frozen between the old and the new, between the West and the East, between tyranny and the liberal idea.

But it seems that the bloodiest reflection on our days is the tragic death of Vazir-Mukhtar in Tehran. This is truly a hero of OUR time, who has won the laurels of a martyr. Torn to pieces by a crowd of fundamentalists, it seems that he was clearly aware of his historical mission - to resist any fundamentalism. It was his coffin, traveling on the road to Tiflis, that Pushkin mourned and, together with tears, wrote his bitter, burning and still largely unread thoughts, “Travels to Arzrum.”

And to this day there is no Griboyedov Museum in Moscow.

He was a genius not only in literature. Who can compare with the great Alexander Sergeevich in diplomacy? The ambassadorial rank in Persia, which is extremely important for Russia, speaks of the universal recognition of his merits in this area.

Griboedov is not one of those envoys who obligingly scraped before the almighty Shah. He decisively and harshly pursued the Russian line. His briefly formulated credo: “Respect for Russia and its demands - that’s what I need.”

Persia, always unpredictable, having its own opinion on everything, not wanting to put up with Russian domination, our country won the Second Russian-Persian War. And in February 1828, the Turkmanchay Treaty, written with the active participation of Griboedov, came into force, enriching Russia with the Shah’s millions given in gold.

Persia grumbled, and, choosing an excuse, on January 30, 1829, hundreds of fanatics attacked the embassy. I happened to see the place where Griboyedov and a handful of his diplomats gave battle to the fanatics. We took him there with a group of comrades who worked in Iran. Griboyedov met death with weapons in his hands. He shot and killed either 8 or 9 attackers with a saber. The poet, writer, diplomat and duelist was excellent with weapons. In hand-to-hand combat he fought calmly, angrily and, despite his left hand being mutilated during a long-standing duel, he fought off the ever-pressing crowd. His mutilated, desecrated, torn body was dragged through the streets of Tehran.

Griboedov was remembered in 1921, when the Soviet-Iranian Treaty was concluded with the Persians. One of the diplomats of the royal school was not too lazy to look into the Turkmanchay Treaty. And after that, Article 6 appeared, which allowed Soviet Russia to send its troops into a neighboring country if a threat arose to it. Griboedov's foresight was especially useful in 1941. The Germans are near Moscow, and Reza Shah was ready to let Hitler’s divisions pass through his territory to us. And our army entered Persia from the north, occupying Tehran. Thank you, Alexander Sergeevich!

The agreement is still recognized by both parties. True, after the Islamic revolution of 1979, Article 6 quietly disappeared from it. It was unilaterally canceled by the new regime. I wonder if State Councilor A.S. would allow this. Griboyedov?

Nikolay Dolgopolov
Alena crucian /

From the comedy “Woe from Wit” (1824) A. S. Griboedova(1795-1829). Chatsky's words (act. 2, appearance 5):

The houses are new, but the prejudices are old.

Rejoice, they won’t destroy you

Neither their years, nor fashion, nor fires.

Allegorically: about external changes and the unchanged internal essence of something (disapproved).

Domostroy

The name of a monument of Russian literature of the 16th century. - a set of everyday rules, advice and instructions, formed on the basis of a worldview developed under the influence of the Orthodox Church. This book, in its sixty-odd chapters, taught the Russian people “how to believe,” “how to honor the Tsar,” “how to live with wives and children and household members,” as well as how to run a household, maintain a house, and prepare supplies for winter, etc., etc.

According to Domostroy, the husband must be the sole head of the family and master of his wife; the book teaches when and how a husband can beat his wife. In this sense, the words “domostroy” and “domostroy order” have become common nouns.

Allegorically: old, patriarchal way of life (disapproved, ironic).

Don Juan

The hero of an ancient Spanish legend, a seeker of love adventures.

This image became popular and household name after the production of the opera “Don Giovanni” by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), who wrote it to the text of Lorenzo de Ponte. The latter used the play “The Seductress of Seville” (1630) as a primary source. Tirso de Molina (1572-1648).

The plot about the tireless lover Don Juan, his passion for the widow Donna Anna and the unexpected arrival of her late husband-commander was used by more than a hundred authors of world literature - Moliere, Byron, Pushkin, A.K. Tolstoy and others.

A common noun for a red tape person who spends his life in love affairs (ironic). In this meaning, the name is written together, with a lowercase letter - “Don Juan”.

see also Lovelace And Casanova.

Don Quixote

The main character of the novel "Don Quixote" (the full author's title of the novel "The Glorious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha", 1615) by a Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra(1547-1616). The first Russian translation of the novel was published (1769) under the title “The Unheard-of Wizard, or The Amazing and Extraordinary Adventures of the Errant Knight Don Quixote.”

Don Quixote is a poor Spanish nobleman, an old eccentric dreamer who, having read chivalric novels, imagined himself as a knight errant and set off to defend the unjustly wronged, fight villains and giants, perform glorious deeds in the name of his beautiful lady - Dulcinea of ​​Toboso (in reality - a simple peasant women of Aldonsa). Naturally, clashes with reality end sadly for Don Quixote, and his squire, the peasant Sancho Panza, calls his master “a knight of a sad image.”

The name has its own derivatives - “quixotic” and “quixotic”. This verb was introduced into Russian literature by G. R. Derzhavin. In his ode “Felitsa” (1782) there are the words:

Keeping customs, rituals,

Don't be quixotic about yourself.

This Derzhavin verb is derived from “Don Quixote” - an archaic pronunciation and spelling of the name of the hero Cervantes.

Allegorically: a noble eccentric trying to act in accordance with his convictions, without taking into account reality (jokingly ironic).

The road of life

In 1941 - 1942 this was the name of the road on the ice of Lake Ladoga, which connected Leningrad, blocked by German troops, with the “Mainland”, i.e. the rear. Food and ammunition were delivered to the city along this road, and women, children and the wounded were also taken out of the city along it.

Allegorically: a vital or only road somewhere.

Road to the temple

From the film “Repentance” (1987) by Soviet Georgian director Tengiz Evgenievich Abuladze(1924-1994), filmed by him according to his own script.

The expression was formed on the basis of several lines from the film: “Does this road lead to the temple?”, “Why this road if it does not lead to the temple?”

Allegorically: the road to the realization of ideals; the path to truth, the path to a pure, spiritual life.

The roads we choose

From English: Roads We Take.

Title of a story (1910) by an American writer O.Henry(pseudonym of William Sidney Porter, 1862-1910).

Allegorically: 1. Everyone has their own path, their own path in life. 2. About the choice of path, profession, model of behavior in life.

Better half

see Better Half.

Draconian measures (laws)

First legislator of the Athenian Republic Dragon(VII century BC) became famous for its extremely harsh laws. He provided for the death penalty even for relatively harmless offenses, for example, for stealing vegetables from a neighbor's garden. These regulations were so severe that many of Draco’s contemporaries said that he wrote his laws only in blood.

Allegorically: decrees, decisions, laws and penalties, the severity of which is inconsistent with common sense (disapproved).