The meaning of the title of the comedy "Woe from Wit" by Griboedov

The meaning of the title of the comedy "Woe from Wit" would be tempting to express in one short, concise, biting phrase. But it is hardly possible to do it this way. Let us explain what has been said.

Search for the idea of "Woe from Wit"

The dramaturgy of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov in this play is innovative, multifaceted. Therefore, it is unequivocal to determine which of the heroes of the work (representing the "old age" or presenting the new one) won, and who lost, is impossible.

The play carries a philosophical meaning and therefore favorably differs from the scenes from the classical salon drama of the XIX century. Griboedov in it displayed a full-fledged model of the Russian "half-light."

The name of the comedy "Woe from Wit" is deceptive: although, in the opinion of the author himself, it expresses the idea of the work, but this does not happen. The point is Griboyedov's talent. In fact, he made the work an order of magnitude deeper than he himself could describe it. Explain this idea can only analogy with ... "Silent Don" by Mikhail Sholokhov.

Griboyedov, an artist, is stronger than Griboedov the playwright

We abstract from the difference of the epochs. Another important thing is that Sholokhov, the writer, proved to be stronger than Sholokhov the Communist (who branded Pasternak's shame). Mikhail Alexandrovich did not begin to disclose the "correctness" of the commissars in the "Quiet Don", but he spoke in a heartfelt manner of Grigory Melekhov. And already proceeding from this, the reader saw a true model of an unhealthy society.

Returning to the product of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, we can also rightly say: the author showed an order of magnitude more than he himself said in a simplified model of "25 fools for one clever".

A play without winners and losers

On the pressing issues of the early XIX century, raised in his work by the diplomat Griboyedov, a man who is undoubtedly shrewd, one should look more widely. The civilizational conflict of the old with the new outlines this work meaning. "Woe from Wit" is the scene of a clash of two worldviews: the old, feudal-bureaucratic (the last century), and the new, bourgeois-raznochinsky, born in the minds of future Decembrists after Russia's victory over Napoleon.

Indeed, Alexander Andreevich Chatsky, who expresses sharp and reasonable judgments after coming from Europe, in the course of the play, encounters a wall of misunderstanding of the Moscow aristocratic society.

But for the young man, the most painful thing is that his hopes for a mutual feeling are falling apart with Sofya Pavlovna's young unmarried daughter Famusova. In addition, he "does not develop with a career" and, obviously, will not work out. Do you think he lost completely? Do you think that the word "grief" was written by the author in reference to Chatsky?

Why, and Famusov not be an "ace"!

Representatives of two worlds: Chatsky and Famusov

What author gives the consequences of the conflict description? "Woe from Wit" in the finale contains a scene when Alexander Andreevich withdraws, feeding offense from "offended feelings." However, Pavel Afanasievich Famusov, the manager in the public place, does not look like the winner, the organizer of the "cold as ice" reception of Chatsky in his house. He is also not the victorious party to the conflict. He gets his "million torment". FAMUSOV in the current hierarchy can not "jump higher than the head" in terms of career. He has very average business qualities (he is lazy and does not know how to work with documents). His only hope is to increase the family's capital through the marriage of his daughter with Colonel Sergei Sergeyevich Skalozub. However, this is also problematic. Sophia understands the idiocy of a father-made passion.

"Woe from Wit" - a story about predecessor Russia

Thus, the meaning of the comedy "Woe from Wit" is quite different. This is not the "grief" of Chatsky alone from the underestimation of his views by society. (In the course of the play, a positive hero encounters 25 characters who are apologists of the old bureaucratic society.) This problem should be looked at more broadly.

This is the grief of the entire post-war serfdom of Russia, where the "Chatsky" (future Decembrists) have already understood: it is necessary to change the social matrix of society, destroy the career ladder based on service and flattery, and start developing new projects in society. And society (including aristocratic) continues to live the "old life", resolving its petty mercantile career aspirations, giving birth to the Molchalins.

The meaning of the work

The personality of the author himself is the key, which determines his meaning. "Woe from Wit" - Griboyedov's attempt to publicly, resonantly, to yell at the top of his voice (there is nothing to be done without gross frankness) to the entire Russian society, that there is a problem in its development. The clever diplomat felt not only the pressing issues of the "current day", perhaps he anticipated a coming split in the society (which, as we know from history, led to a brutal reaction during the time of Nicholas I).

Do you think he was heard? Even Pushkin with irony reacted to the image of Chatsky, not understanding it. What can I say next?

"Woe from Wit" - an innovative play

The work makes great bright images. "Woe from Wit" is not only the 26 people who appear on stage. After all, there are also extra-personal characters. Prince Fyodor, a "botanist and chemist", Skalozub's cousin, along with "practicing split and bezvery" professor of the pedagogical institute - potential allies of Chatsky.

It is also worthy of respect that the author tries to convey the meaning of the comedy "Woe from Wit" title, completely "cracking" the old drama. Griboyedov-innovator departed when creating a work from the classicism, his creation is quite realistic. The author creates a full-fledged model of society with 26 real, characteristic characters instead of 5-6 (the usual circle of characters of classicism). In the end, Alexander does not use the classical Alexandrian verse, but passes to the "free iambic".

Instead of concluding

We, talking about the play, finally came to the opportunity to understand the meaning of the comedy "Woe from Wit". Note that characters are not ideal in the work:

• Freethinker, melancholic, "funny little fellow" (according to the review of Pushkin) Chatsky;
• Mercantile father of the family and an official with average abilities of Famusov;
• A dodgy careerist and a deceiver MOLCHALIN;
• A self-satisfied and narrow-minded campaigner-Colonel Skalozub;
• Hesitated between the desire for happiness and capable of the meanness of Sophia;
• Still a decent, but disenfranchised servant of Lisa.

All of them help the reader of the comedy to find in it a profound philosophical overtones.

Define the same in "Woe from Wit" the main thing is the idea of the work. Can we say that Chatsky is smart? Yes and no. He has an understanding of the dynamics of progress, but there is no contact with people. Let's be frank: he is intellectually unable to become a donor of these ideas to society.

Ideus is opposed ideologically by FAMUSOV. Can you say that he is smart? Yes and no. He does not understand that the feudal state is moving towards a catastrophe, struggling to maintain obsolete rules. But is he stupid? Hardly. Most likely, he just lives for today. In addition, he, unlike Chatsky, has a certain social status: the father of the family, lives in harmony with society, that is, he is oriented in people. His home for the closest community of aristocrats is the center of secular life.

Conclusion: each of these characters has a mind. However, their focus is polar opposite. One understands the perspective ways of the development of society and can not realize them. The other, in principle, can (he will, if he wants, find words to convince his "near circle"), but does not consider Chatzky's pro-Western thinking to be true, preferring "patriarchal antiquity."

The problem is that the minds of these two people are aimed at mutual opposition, rather than on the development of society. This is the essence of the idea laid down in the title of the work. True said the classic: "The problem of Russia - fools and roads!"