Someone else's bread is bitter.

Holidays

“Lizaveta Ivanovna was a most unhappy creature. Someone else’s bread is bitter, says Dante, and the steps of someone else’s porch are heavy, and who would know the bitterness of dependence if not the poor pupil of a noble old woman?”

Lisa is the only attractive person in the gallery of heroes of Pushkin's story. She is not only “a hundred times nicer” than secular young ladies, she alone is not devoid of real good human feelings; She is the only one capable of deep, noble and selfless love. Such love is impossible for Herman. Like the old countess, Herman is an egoist. But his ardent nature knew only one passion: money; They had only one dream: to get rich!

Count Tolstoy's story about three cards, the secret of which the Countess allegedly keeps, excited Herman. He sought by any means to find out the secret of the three cards. Only a person with a devastated and distorted soul can calmly contemplate a monstrous plan based on calculated cynicism - to become the lover of a ninety-year-old dying old woman!

It is not passion, not sincere feeling, but only the desire to penetrate the countess’s house that makes Herman seek Lisa’s love. However, from what follows it becomes clear that this was not the passion that Lisa dreamed of; it was still the same passion for money.

Herman is in the Countess's house***. The old woman, who had a glimmer of life inside her, had just died when a gun was pointed at her. But Herman “did not feel remorse at the thought of the dead old woman. However, he was horrified: an irrevocable secret from which he expected enrichment.”

It may not be by chance that Pushkin emphasizes Herman’s external resemblance to Bonoparte. “He has the profile of Napoleon, but the soul of Mephistophil,” says Tolstoy. “He sits on the window, arms folded and frowning menacingly. In this position, he surprisingly resembled a portrait of Napoleon.” These comparisons make a lot of sense if we remember Pushkin’s famous lines:

We all look at Napoleons,

There are millions of two-legged creatures

For us there is only one weapon.

And for Herman, the old Countess and Lisa are only “tools”, a step along which he goes towards the goal he has set for himself.

Doesn’t the element of fantasy introduced into it contradict this deeply realistic basis of the story? Speaking about the “Queen of Spades”, we cannot ignore this problem. We briefly touched on it, pointing out that the legend of the three cards itself grew up in an atmosphere of card excitement. Pushkin, with a spare touch, makes it clear that in reality there is no secret of the countess. In fact, in response to all Herman’s questions and pleas, the Countess utters only one phrase: “It was a joke... I swear to you, it was a joke.” Was the old woman, half-dead from horror, still capable of hiding the unnecessary secret of a sure win?

From Herman’s mental state in the Countess’s bedroom and Lisa’s room it is one step to the vision scene. But even in this fantastic episode, Pushkin emphasizes the realistic basis of the story, prefacing the fifth chapter with an epigraph: “That night the deceased Baroness von V*** appeared to me. She was all in white and said to me: “Hello, Mr. Councilor!”

The story about the appearance of the countess's ghost introduces the reader into the spiritual world of Herman, who has already come close to the level that separates a healthy person from a mentally ill person. This is precisely the artistic meaning of the vision scene.

Everything that has been said about “The Queen of Spades” gives us the right to conclude: this story, like other best works of its author, contains a high ideological concept of embodiments with enormous and deeply realistic artistic power.

“The Queen of Spades” is Pushkin’s first prose work, the success of which was generally recognized in the widest circles and in the press. On April 7, 1834, Pushkin wrote in his diary: “My Queen of Spades is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven and ace.”

How was Pushkin's plan implemented in Tchaikovsky's opera? We need to start here with the history and characteristics of the opera's libretto.

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, brother of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, began writing the libretto “The Queen of Spades” on the recommendation of the director of the imperial theaters A. Vsevolozhsky, for the composer Klenovsky, author of several ballets. For some reason, Klenovsky abandoned the plot of “The Queen of Spades.” In the fall of 1889, Vsevolozhsky advised Pyotr Ilyich to familiarize himself with his brother’s work. P. Tchaikovsky looked, obviously got acquainted with the general plan of the libretto, became interested in it and decided to write the opera “The Queen of Spades” based on the libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky.

When M.I. Tchaikovsky wrote the script to the director of the Imperial Theater, where it was decided to move the action from the time of Alexander I to the end of the reign of Catherine II.

What is the libretto of “The Queen of Spades”, in what ways does it deviate from the original source, in what direction does it change Pushkin’s plan?

M. Tchaikovsky's image of Hermann underwent a significant transformation. The fact that Herman, by the will of the libretto, turned from a military engineer into a hussar is an insignificant detail, moreover, it does not manifest itself in action. Another change is much more important. In Pushkin, German is completely dominated by one thought: to get rich! The countess's secret is the path to wealth, and Lisa's love is the path to the countess's secret. Perhaps Pushkin's Herman has some feeling for Lisa, but it is insignificant compared to his passion for money and does not determine anything in his behavior. In M. Tchaikovsky, the accents are shifted: “Herman appears in the hay in a state of mad love,” he writes in the script of his libretto.

Love for Lisa is the passion that completely controls Herman when he appears on stage. This is where the main dramatic conflict should grow.

M. Tchaikovsky puts obstacles on the way to realizing the dream of his hero, turning Lisa from a poor pupil into a close relative, the granddaughter of an old countess: between Herman, an officer with almost no means, and Lisa, a girl from a wealthy aristocratic family, lies a deep chasm of social inequality . In addition, Pushkin’s Liza is free; before meeting German, she has neither a groom nor a lover; M. Tchaikovsky makes her the bride of the rich, noble and handsome Prince Yeletsky.

Only gradually does the thought of Lisa first become intertwined with the thought of the secret of the three cards, and then supplanted by it. The development of this internal struggle is carried out in the libretto very logically and with genuine dramatic acuity.

It is no coincidence that Modest Tchaikovsky makes extensive use of Pushkin’s original text in the fourth scene. It is in the fourth film that M. Tchaikovsky’s Herman comes close to Pushkin’s Herman. Lisa no longer exists for him. The desire for wealth, embodied in the dream of a sure win, has turned from a means into a goal!

The libretto omits the dramatic and scenically noble scene at the tomb. Only a reminder of it is given in the fifth scene, which is very close to the corresponding episode of Pushkin’s story. The meaning of this picture, like Pushkin’s, is the stage embodiment of Herman’s nightmares.

Oh girls, I recently re-read A.S. Pushkin (The Queen of Spades), and so he writes: " Someone else's bread is bitter, says Dante, and the steps of someone else's porch are heavy."And indeed, whoever lives in a dependent position does not have an enviable lot like Lizaveta in the Queen of Spades.

The dependence of a woman in the modern world is the same as in the time of Lizaveta, only modernized.

I recently saw a phrase on a girl’s page (I don’t remember exactly what it sounds like)

It's not scary to lose a guy (meaning if the guy left you), it's scary to become dependent on him!

It’s good that modern girls are thinking about this. And they are trying to get back on their feet.

And here are the current addictions of women of all times:

1. A dependent position when you don’t have your own home, when you rent and rent, and everyone dictates conditions, prohibitions, you can’t have animals, you’re sitting on suitcases (I’m talking about myself).
2. Dependence on a man.
3. Poverty

I recently went to visit a friend who lives with her mother-in-law, they have such a relationship that I felt what the phrase means “The steps of someone else’s house are heavy”... I left them and thought, God, how good it is that I’ll now come home, where there’s no one... (my husband and daughter went for a walk). And I won’t see anyone in the kitchen, and no one will teach me how to live and control me!

And the 2nd option is also difficult - “someone else’s bread is bitter” when you are financially dependent on your husband or live with his parents and share common bread with them (even if you earn your own bread, you still live in someone else’s monastery). Although there are examples when they live well together.

But for example, Koltsov’s poem. How accurately it conveys the mood of the oppressed poor man...

With strangers
Bitter white bread
Hop mash -
Illegible!

Free speeches -
Everything is connected;
Feelings are hot
Dying without response...

From the soul sometimes
Joy will burst forth -
Evil mockery
He'll be poisoned in no time.

And the day is bright and clear
Will become foggy;
Black sadness
The world will get dressed.

And you sit and look
Smiling;
And in your heart you curse
A bitter share!

So, I re-read the classics, the same school curriculum, as if I was looking at it with different eyes, what worldly wisdom you draw from!

Sometimes you think that nature itself puts a woman in a dependent position and this is a natural state. Ancient women were dependent on their primitive hunters, they sat in a cave and kept the hearth... and waited, waited...

In the modern world, many successful women, after the birth of a child, become dependent on their husband for some time, and then it turns out that the husband is on maternity leave!

It turns out that addiction is the fate of most of the representatives of the fair half of humanity?

For example, Leskov wrote about women’s dependent position: “Our women, complaining about their dependent position, strive to improve their lives, to their emancipation under the influence of momentary impressions, without means, without a plan, without deliberate methods, and even then more than words than in deeds."

In general, I have so many questions... how not to get addicted or how to get out of it, or have all life scenarios already been written out by society!? After all, it’s not just a matter of financial situation... although in most cases it’s still there...
“Read the classics. There are answers to all questions,” I remembered the testament of our university literature teacher...

About Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades” and that it would be nice to make a separate post, but somehow it doesn’t work out.
Therefore, I’ll make do with loosely connected extracts:

“Indeed, Lizaveta Ivanovna was a very unhappy creature. Someone else's bread is bitter, says Dante, and the steps of someone else's porch are heavy., and who would know the bitterness of dependence if not the poor pupil of a noble old woman? (A. Pushkin. The Queen of Spades. Chapter two. 1833).

And, as rightly said in the comments, “Someone else’s bread is bitter...” - this is indeed a quote from Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”

And for the first time this quote appeared in Pushkin in January 1825, in sketches of a scene for “Gypsies” (but never included in the printed text of the poem, published in April 1827) - a scene where Aleko pronounces a monologue over his son’s cradle:

No, he will not bend [his knees]
Before the idol of some kind of honor
Will not invent betrayals
Trembling secretly with a thirst for revenge
[Will not experience] m<альчик>my
How [cruel are the penalties]
How stale and bitter is someone else's bread
How hard it is<медленной>[foot]
Climb alien steps.

Tu proverai sì come sa di sale
Lo pane altruì, e com" è duro calle
60 Lo scendere e "l salir per l" altrui scale .

and the corresponding translation of M. Lozinsky “Paradise”, XVII:

55 You will give up everything you want
They strived tenderly; this plague to us
The fastest is to apply the bow of exile.

58 You will know how sad the lips are
Someone else's piece, how difficult it is in a foreign land
Go down and up the steps.

In conclusion:
K. Balmont. Dante (poem 1895).

And you will understand how bitter someone else’s bread is,
How heavy are the steps of other people's houses,
You will rise - in a fight with yourself,
And you will go down - ashamed of your shadow.

P.S.
And in order to somehow close the story with Lizaveta Ivanovna - the poor pupil of a noble old woman, let us open Mr. Turgenev:
“My uncle, Mr. Sipyagin, my mother’s brother, looked after me - I am on his bread, he is my benefactor, and Valentina Mikhailovna is my benefactress - and I cry to them with black ingratitude, because I must have a hard heart - and someone else's bread is bitter- and I don’t know how to endure condescending insults - and I don’t tolerate patronage... and I don’t know how to hide it - and when they constantly prick me with pins, the only reason I don’t scream is because I’m very proud.
While making these fragmentary speeches, Marianne walked faster and faster.”

And it must be said that this poor (but talkative) relative - Marianna Sinetskaya - with her build, as they say, resembled Florentine figurines.

P.S.S.
And Dante’s other people’s bread, by the way, is called not bitter at all, but salty.

With genuine annoyance, like Lisa's pearls, the future princess mentioned the “dresses from the same piece of material” that were sewn for her and her cousin Anna, the daughter of the owner of the house, and which were supposed to make them identical. Not so: “it is difficult to find more different natures.” Not being like Anna Mikhailovna probably meant for Ekaterina Romanovna to assert her own personality. Childhood in someone else's house left an indelible imprint on Dashkova, and throughout her life she showed many traits of an “insufferable freak.”

Lisa’s correspondent from “Roman in Letters” was surprised and reprimanded her friend for her “irritability”: “How can you compare yourself with your students and demoiselles de compagnie? Everyone knows that Holga’s father owed everything to you and that their friendship was as sacred as the closest kinship.” But over the years, past merits ceased to be taken into account by both sides of the hidden conflict: the students and their benefactors.

Tolstoy depicted this situation in “War and Peace” in relation to Boris Drubetsky. “The elderly lady bore the name of Princess Drubetskaya, one of the best families in Russia, but she was poor, had long since left the world and had lost her previous connections. She has now come to secure a placement in the guard for her only son...

Listen, prince,” she said, “I... never reminded you of my father’s friendship for you. But now, I conjure you by God, do this for my son...

But influence in the world is capital that must be protected so that it does not disappear. Prince Vasily knew this, and once he realized that if he began to ask for everyone who asked him, then soon he would not be able to ask for himself, he rarely used his influence. In the case of Princess Drubetskaya, however, he felt... something like a reproach of conscience. She reminded him of the truth: he owed his first steps in the service to her father... This last consideration shook him.”

From the point of view of the ancient morality of patriarchal noble families, where they did not consider their own and other people’s children - as long as there was enough space at the table - Lisa from “A Novel in Letters” should have said “thank you” and lived peacefully in the warm world of kinship and affinity. But the new era brought a feeling of discomfort to him. The feeling of gratitude became heavy, almost unbearable for proud hearts. And it seemed easier for them not to see their benefactors than to return the old with new good. So, Drubetskoy, having risen to the position of Bennigsen’s adjutant, refused Nikolai Rostov, who specially came to him in Tilsit to ask for Captain Denisov. Even worse, the very meeting with the son of yesterday’s patrons caused Boris annoyance.

In 1833, Pushkin conveyed the character of Lisa from “The Novel in Letters” to Lizaveta Ivanovna in “The Queen of Spades”; even some of the turns of phrase when describing them are similar. “Lizaveta Ivanovna was a very unhappy creature. Someone else’s bread is bitter, says Dante, and the steps of someone else’s porch are heavy, and who would know the bitterness of dependence if not the poor pupil of a noble old woman?.. Lizaveta Ivanovna was a domestic martyr. She spilled tea and was reprimanded for wasting too much sugar; she read novels aloud, and was to blame for all the author’s mistakes; she accompanied the countess on her walks, and was responsible for the weather and the pavement. She was given a salary that was never paid; and yet they demanded that she dress like everyone else, that is, like very few others. In the world she played the most pathetic role. Everyone knew her, and no one noticed; at balls she danced only when there was a lack of vis-a-vis, and the ladies took her arm every time they needed to go to the restroom to fix something in their outfit. She was proud, keenly aware of her position, and looked around her, eagerly awaiting a deliverer; but the young people, calculating in their flighty vanity, did not deign to pay her attention, although Lizaveta Ivanovna was a hundred times sweeter than the arrogant and cold brides around whom they hovered.”

Note that both times Pushkin made female pupils his heroines. The author seemed to forgive them for their dependence, because a woman is already dependent from birth. To depict a man in such a position meant to destroy him as a true hero. But the feelings themselves were the same for both sexes.

It is not for nothing that Tolstoy leaves Boris without describing the movements of his soul. The gaze of other characters glides over him as if over a polished surface, and notices only the external manifestations of unpleasant qualities. The young man himself is closed, not letting outsiders in. The author even mentions “glasses with blue lenses,” which are definitely worn on Drubetsky’s eyes. He is in every sense Not-hero. And it was not only his character that made him this way, but also the pupil’s wounded pride.

In contrast to this cold character, Chatsky is hot. But they both went through the same test of addiction, and both are not ready for gratitude. The latter quality was clearly in short supply among the students. Pamphleteers reproached G. A. Potemkin for his ingratitude towards his old patron uncle. Which is debatable, since at the moment it is impossible to determine where the future His Serene Highness was brought up: among the Zagryazhskys, who later benefited him, or among the “forgotten” Kislovskys.

Previous dependence humiliated young people and often served as a catalyst for strong ambition, which was clearly manifested in Chatsky. Hence, it is humanly understandable for Alexander Andreevich to want to offend Famusov, to criticize his age “without mercy,” and not to agree with any of Pavel Afanasyevich’s opinions. In essence, this is the youth overcoming past authority. He can defend himself only by breaking the previous pattern. This is how people aged 14–16 argue with their parents. But at Chatsky’s age, such behavior is already childish. If it is also typical for thirty-year-olds, then we will have to admit that an entire generation was late to a responsible age.