The purpose of the lesson: show the logic of the development of the idea of the work.
Methodological techniques: analytical reading of the poem.
During the classes.
I. Checking homework.
Reading and discussion of selected poems.
II. teacher's word
From the earliest poems, Mayakovsky was characterized by excessive lyrical openness, reckless inner openness. There is practically no distance between the specific lyrical "I" of the poet and his lyrical hero. Lyrical experiences are so tense that, no matter what he writes about, a sharp lyrical, individual intonation permeates the fabric of his poetry. Such is his first poem with the enigmatic and shocking title Cloud in Trousers (1915). Mayakovsky himself defined it as a “tetratych”, the meaning of the four parts of which is “down with your love”, “down with your art”, “down with your system”, “down with your religion”.
III. Analytical conversation
What associations reminiscences causes this definition of Mayakovsky?
(The categoricalness of judgments, statements of the lyrical hero is reminiscent of uncompromising, nihilism, rebelliousness Bazarov. Let us recall the subject of disputes between Bazarov and Kirsanov - it practically coincides with what Mayakovsky writes about.)
What image unites the parts of the poem?
(Parts of the poem are connected by the leading image - the lyrical "I".)
How is he portrayed?
(Basic image reception - antithesis . The opposition to the whole society in the prologue of the poem grows to the opposition to the whole universe at the end. This is not just a dispute, it is a daring challenge, so characteristic of early Mayakovsky's work (recall the poems "Nate!", "To you!"):
your thought,
dreaming on a softened brain,
like a fat footman on a greasy couch,
I will tease about the bloodied flap of the heart,
I scoff to my fill, impudent and caustic. ("Cloud in Pants", intro)
Only an unprecedentedly powerful personality can resist everything and everything and not break down. Hence the following approach - hyperbolization image: "The world is overwhelming with the power of the voice, / I go - beautiful, / twenty-two years old"; hyperbole can be combined with the comparison: "like the sky, changing tones." The range of this personality is the poles: "mad" - "impeccably gentle, / not a man, but - a cloud in his pants!" This is the meaning of the title of the poem. This is self-irony, but the main feeling that captured the hero is indicated: “tenderness”. How does it fit in with the rebellious element of the poem?
How is love depicted in the poem?
First part- an extremely frank story about love. The reality of what is happening is deliberately emphasized: "It was, / was in Odessa." Love does not transform, but distorts the “lump” of a person: “They couldn’t recognize me now: / a sinewy hulk / groans, / writhes.” It turns out that this "lump" "wants a lot." “A lot” is actually very simple and human:
After all, it doesn't matter to yourself.
and what is bronze,
and the fact that the heart is a cold piece of iron.
At night I want my ringing
hide in soft
into the feminine.
The love of this "mass" should be "a small, meek darling." Why? The community is exceptional, the second is not. The affectionate neologism “Lubenochek”, reminiscent of a “baby”, emphasizes the power of feeling, touching tenderness. The hero is at the limit of feeling, every minute, hour of waiting for his beloved is torment. And as a result of suffering - the execution: "The twelfth hour has fallen, / like the head of the executed from the chopping block." Nerves are exposed, twitchy. The metaphor is realized “Nerves / big, / small, / many! - / frenzied jump, / and already / the legs give way under the nerves!
Finally, there is a heroine. The conversation is not about love-dislike. The effect on the lyrical hero of the words of his beloved is conveyed by a grinding sound-writing:
You entered
sharp, like "here!",
mucha suede gloves,
said:
"You know -
I'm getting married".
What methods are used to convey the psychological state of the hero?
The psychological state of the hero is conveyed very strongly - through his external calmness: “You see - how calm! / Like the pulse of a dead man”; “And the worst / saw - my face, / when / am I absolutely calm?” Internal suffering, the rupture of the soul are emphasized by transference (anzhanbeman): one must restrain oneself, and therefore speak clearly, slowly, measuredly.
"Fire of the heart" burns the hero: "I'll jump out! I'll jump out! I'll jump out! I'll jump out! / Collapsed. / Do not jump out of the heart! Here the idiom "the heart jumps out of the chest" is turned inside out. The catastrophe that befell the hero is comparable to world catastrophes: “The last cry, - / at least / that I am burning, groan in the centuries!”
What is the logic of the development of the poem in the second part?
The tragedy of love is experienced by the poet. It is logical that The second part- about the relationship between the hero and art. The part begins with a resolute statement of the hero: “I am over everything that has been done, / I put “nihil” (“nothing”, lat.). The hero denies the “tortured”, sluggish art, which is done like this: “before it starts to sing, / they walk for a long time, exhausted from fermentation, / and quietly flounders in the mud of the heart / stupid roach of the imagination.” “Boiling” “some kind of brew out of love and nightingales” is not for him. These "loves" - "nightingales" - are not for the street, which "writhes without a tongue." Bourgeoisism, narrow-mindedness filled the city, crushed living words with their carcasses. The hero shouts, calls to rebel against "having a free supplement / to every double bed": "We ourselves are creators in a burning anthem!" This is the anthem of living life, which is placed above the "I":
I,
golden-eyed,
whose every word
newborn soul,
birthday body,
I tell you:
smallest speck of life
more valuable than all that I will do and have done!
(Pay attention to neologisms
Mayakovsky).
The “screaming-lipped Zarathustra” (Nietzschean motifs are generally strong in the early Mayakovsky), speaking of the “sixteenth year” coming “in the crown of thorns of revolutions”, clearly defines his role:
And I am your forerunner!
I - where the pain is, everywhere;
on every drop of tear leakage
crucified himself on the cross.
How do you understand these words?
Here the hero already identifies himself with God himself. He is ready for self-sacrifice: “I’ll pull out my soul, / crush it, / so big! - / and a bloodied lady, like a banner. This is the purpose and purpose of poetry and the poet, worthy of the "mass" of the hero's personality.
How is this goal shown in the third part?
The thought of the poem logically passes to those who are to be led under this “banner”, made from the “trampled soul” of the hero:
From you,
who were wet with love,
from which
in the centuries a tear shed,
I'll leave
sun monocle
I'll put it in a wide-open eye.
All around vulgarity, mediocrity, ugliness. The hero is sure: “Today / it is necessary / with brass knuckles / to cut the world in the skull!” And where are the "geniuses" recognized by mankind? They are destined for such a fate: "I will lead Napoleon on a chain like a pug." This vulgar world must be destroyed at all costs:
Take out, walking, hands from trousers -
take a stone, a knife or a bomb,
and if he has no hands -
come and beat his forehead!
Go hungry
sweaty,
submissive,
sour in the flea mud!
Go!
Mondays and Tuesdays
let's paint with blood for the holidays!
The lyrical hero himself takes on the role of the “thirteenth apostle”. With God, he already easily: "maybe Jesus Christ sniffs / my soul's forget-me-nots." -
How does the lyrical love theme emerge in the fourth movement? How does it change?
From global plans to remake the world, the hero returns to thoughts about his beloved. However, he did not leave these thoughts, they only sublimated in the most powerful creative attempt to challenge the entire universe. The name "Maria" is shouted out repeatedly. This is a prayer for love. And the hero becomes submissive, almost humiliated, “just a man”: “I’m all meat, / I’m all man - I just ask for your body, / as Christians ask -“ our daily bread / give us today. Beloved replaces everything, she is necessary, like "daily bread." The poet speaks of his “word born in torment”: it is “equal in majesty to God.” This, of course, is blasphemy, gradually developing into a rebellion against God.
The rejection of the beloved provokes this revolt of the suffering and desperate hero. At first he is just familiar:
Listen, Lord God!
How are you not bored
In cloudy jelly
Dip your irritated eyes daily?
Then familiarity crosses all boundaries: the hero with God is already on “you”, frankly rude to him:
Shaking your head, curly?
Supis a gray eyebrow?
You think -
this,
behind you, winged one,
knows what love is?
The main accusation against God is not in the wrong arrangement of the world, not in social injustice. The imperfection of the world is, “why didn’t you invent / so that it would be without torment / kiss, kiss, kiss ?!” The hero's despair reaches frenzy, rage, almost madness, he cries out terrible blasphemy, the elements overwhelm him:
I thought you were an almighty god
And you are a half-educated, tiny god.
See I'm bending over
Because of the ankle
I take out a shoe knife.
Winged scoundrels!
Hustle in paradise!
Ruffle your feathers in a frightened shake!
I will open you, smelling of incense
From here to Alaska!
Let me go!
Don't stop me.
And suddenly humbles himself: “Hey, you! / Sky! / Hats off! / I'm coming! (he is already again with the sky on “you”, although pride has not yet been strangled). Nothing listens to the hero: “Deaf. / The Universe sleeps, / laying a huge ear on its paw / with pincers of the stars.
IV. Final word of the teacher
Violently conflicting with the world, the hero discovers his rebellious nature. The inconsistency of the hero, the combination in him of the ultimate "debauchery" and the ultimate tenderness, exacerbate the conflict. The inconsistency that tears the hero apart dooms him to tragic loneliness.
V. Workshop on the poem by V.V. Mayakovsky "A Cloud in Pants"
1. Poet Nikolai Aseev wrote: "A Cloud in Pants" - a mocking name that replaced the original one, forbidden by censorship, and was the first experience of a large topic built on the opposition of existing routines, institutions, institutions to what is replacing them, what is felt in the air, palpable in verse - the coming revolution."
Why, according to Aseev, is the title of the poem “A Cloud in Pants” “mocking”?
What did Aseev mean by "experience of a big topic"?
What is the "opposition of existing routines"? Give examples from the text.
2. V. Mayakovsky said in March 1930: “It (“Cloud in Trousers”) began with a letter in 1913/14 and was first called “The Thirteenth Apostle”. When I came to the censorship with this work, they asked me: “What do you want to go to hard labor?” I said that in no case, that this does not suit me in any way. Then they crossed out six pages to me, including the title. It's a question of where the title came from. I was asked - how can I combine lyrics and a lot of rudeness. Then I said: “Well, I will be, if you want, like a madman, if you want, I will be the most gentle, not a man, but a cloud in my pants.”
Why did the original title of the poem "The Thirteenth Apostle" cause censorship to think about hard labor?
What is the combination of "lyricism and great rudeness" in the poem "A Cloud in Pants"? Give examples from the text.
What is the meaning of the new title of the poem? How does the poet explain it? Does the name "Cloud in Pants" reflect the nature of the lyrical hero of the work?
3. Poems and poems written in 1915(“Clouds in Pants”, “Flute and Spine”), they said that a major humanist poet and a soulful lyricist had come to literature. In the poem about love, robbed by modern life (“A Cloud in Pants”), the author’s own voice sounds loudly, the facts of his biography acquire a high poetic generalization here ... ”(K. D. Muratova).
What are the "facts ... biography" of V. Mayakovsky, which can be found in his poem?
According to Muratova, in the poem "the voice of the author himself sounds loud", is this true? Justify your answer with examples from the text.
4. K.D. Muratova writes about "A Cloud in Pants": “The great originality of the poem is given by its metaphorical richness, in it almost every line is metaphorical. An example of a materialized metaphor is the line “the fire of the heart” of the poet, which is extinguished by firefighters, or “sick nerves”, which “rush about in a desperate tap dance”, causing the plaster in the lower floor to collapse.
What gives grounds to say that in the poem "almost every line is metaphorical"? Do you agree with the critic's statement?
What do you think is meant by the term "materialized metaphor"? Give examples of such a metaphor in the text of the poem.
5. “In the “Cloud ...” one of the main features is visible Mayakovsky's thinking: the ability to powerful associative contractions are very far from each other in topics, images, plots. What is common between Severyanin, Bismarck and the "carcasses of the meadowsmen"? And what do they have to do with the suffering rejected lover - the “thirteenth apostle”, now offering God to have “girls” in paradise, now threatening him with a knife? (S. Bovin).
What, according to Bovin, is the main feature of "Mayakovsky's thinking"? Find examples of such thinking in the text.
The researcher poses certain questions to the reader regarding Mayakovsky's work. Try to answer them yourself. Are there answers to them in the poem itself?
6. A.A.Mikhailov writes about "A Cloud in Pants": "Blasphemy, aggressive vocabulary, street rudeness and deliberate anti-aestheticism reveal anarchist tendencies, the rebellious element of the poem. And although Mayakovsky, blaspheming, elevates a person, the elements overwhelm him: “Take your hands out of your trousers, walkers, take a stone, a knife or a bomb ...”
What does the critic say about the "anarchist tendencies" and the "rebellious element of the poem"? Do you agree with this?
How, in your opinion, by “blaspheming”, Mayakovsky “elevates a person”? Give examples from the text.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky spent about a year on this poem and endowed his hero with all his character traits. The hero of his poem is lyrical, he knows how to love and wants to be loved. At the very beginning of the work, the hero is waiting for his beloved girl, and time drags on for so long that it seems to him that everything is mocking him. Even the raindrops seem to dance in front of him and make faces, he does not have enough patience, so he wants to see his beloved.
When the long-awaited meeting took place, the hero was not happy about this. A hole forms in his chest, which he calls the pulse of the dead. His beloved Maria, having come to him, told him that she was getting married soon, thereby breaking the young man's heart. The young guy says that he is so afraid to forget the name of the girl, just like the poet is afraid to forget about writing his works. Finally disappointed in love, the young man goes into politics.
And then a whirlwind of described people swirled, ridiculing the authorities, historical figures and a thoughtless crowd that follows no one knows who and where. The young man says that all these miserable and petty people are not capable of love and even have no idea what it is. Each of them confuses love with lust and mixes this concept with dirt. As a result, the young man is disappointed in God and ceases to believe. He says that the Creator did not see his heart wound and did not understand disappointment and could not help him.
The young man does not stop thinking about Mary, he seems to be in agony and screams out loud that he is so hurt and unpleasant to realize that he was abandoned. The young man understands that it is useless and that everything has collapsed, so he wants the revolution to touch everything.
At first, the poem was called "The Thirteenth Apostle", but the name had to be changed, because Mayakovsky did not want to go to hard labor and called the poem "A Cloud in Pants." Where the pants for the writer act as a rough fabric, so he expressed the outward calmness of the hero of his poem. When Maria announced their separation, the young man outwardly remained unperturbed. The cloud in the title personifies the inner world of a young man. Remaining imperturbable outwardly, inside the young man went crazy, he was very bitter and ill. Thus, the cloud is light and weightless that is inside a person.
Mayakovsky wanted to write about the fact that an outwardly strong and self-confident man, having known such a feeling as love, becomes light and weightless like a cloud. Throughout the poem, the young man struggles with himself, either losing faith in God, or not wanting to forget Mary. Mayakovsky described a man who, despite all his outward calm, was very worried inside.
Analysis of the poem Cloud in Mayakovsky's pants with quotes
The poem originally had a different title, The Thirteen Apostles. Mayakovsky saw himself as the thirteenth apostle. But it was not censored. And the name had to be changed. The poet manages to combine the incompatible. Ease, romanticism and everyday aspects of everyday life.
He writes that "there will be not a man, but a cloud in his pants." It was after all that the pants at that time were identified with the strong half of humanity. The women did not wear trousers. The poem closely intertwines the love torment of the protagonist along with politics. Under it, the poet means himself.
And what remains to be done if the beloved girl refused? It is necessary to plunge headlong into work or politics. Love is a golden staircase without a railing and one can fly off from there at any moment. Falling is always so painful.
The poet passionately denounces the state machine, the people in power. He naively thinks that this will give him oblivion. But it was not there. In desperation, he turns to God. But he can't help him either. The poet in his hearts calls him "drop-out". Love is not so easy to tear out of the heart and mind. Along with the feelings, that old world collapsed. Now Mayakovsky is ready to accept the revolution.
The poem consists of four parts, which are united by a single plot and meaning. Each part is a separate topic. Even at the beginning, the poet declares that he is an opponent of love, art, order and religion. One part is one negative.
Part one - "Down with love." The girl he loves rejected him. The second part is that literature and creative thought will perish in bourgeois society. But only a revolution can save them. The third and fourth parts are a protest against the order and religion.
The main character, despite the denial of everything and rebellious manners, can still be considered gentle, lyrical. The poet was not afraid to publicly declare: “Down with your system!” And how was he not sent to camps or to Kolyma for such lines? He believes that the revolutionary people, dressed in identical gray overcoats, breeds wars and violence. Brave claim!
The main female character's name is Maria. The poet did not accidentally give her this biblical name. He hints that she rejected him, betrayed him, like Judas, who betrayed Christ. She traded a poor poet for a rich man for a French dress. The poet could dress her only in tobacco smoke. But is it possible to condemn a woman for this? Now a lot of girls are doing it. "With a sweet paradise in a hut, if dear ... attache."
In matters of the heart, as in worldly matters, alas, God is no helper. We must believe only in our own strength - the main idea of the poem. The protest of the poet is a reaction to the environment. And love experiences, perhaps, are generally invented to confuse the censors.
Option with quotes
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky wrote his tetraptych "A Cloud in Pants" at the beginning of the First World War or the Great War, as it is called in Western Europe. But that the cubo-futurists, whose leader Mayakovsky considered himself, that the ego-futurists (Igor Severyanin), that other representatives of poetic bohemia, were little interested in her. They were worried about completely different problems. Bright, very unusual, bearing a clearly expressed revolutionary character, the poem was not published under the original title "The Thirteenth Apostle". For this name, Mayakovsky could again be imprisoned, and the poet chose a name that did not say anything to anyone. But the poem itself is the cry of the poet's soul, or rather four cries. Four shouts "Down with".
In the preface, he directly indicates the concept of the poem. "Down with your love, art, system, religion!" This is what Mayakovsky's hero screams about. The poem begins in lyrical tones, although the hero's first cry is: "Down with your love." We learn about his unrequited feelings for Mary, torment and the search for answers to unsolvable questions. The theme of love is the leading one in the poem. It is present in every part of it in one form or another. "Down with your art" - this is the slogan of the second part of the poem. The author believes that art is being strangled on purpose and only a revolution will give it a new meaning and infinitely expand its horizons (how wrong he was).
At that time, the entire thinking Russian society lived in anticipation of the revolution. Mayakovsky did not stand out in this series either. “Down with your system” is the obligatory opposition of the poet to the entire “rotten” bourgeois society. The poet did not bypass the crisis of religion, which had serious consequences at the beginning of the last century. Many people were engaged in God-seeking, including Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. The revolutionaries, among whom Mayakovsky spent a lot of time, also denied God and God's providence. Therefore, it was impossible to do without the cry of the hero: “Down with your religion”. Moreover, the beloved girl not only betrays the hero, but actually “sells” him. Just like Judas Iscariot.
In general, this poem is the work of the real Vladimir Mayakovsky. His pressure, voice, not a syllable similar to anyone else. Behind the ostentatious nihilism, tender feelings, without any self-interest, open up. The hero of the poem, like its author, did everything for real, including loving and hating. "Community-love" and "Community-hatred" - this is from him and about him.
Analysis of the poem Cloud in pants according to the plan
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"A cloud in pants"
Creativity V.V. Mayakovsky is thematically diverse. In the early period, it is permeated with love experiences. In his mature years, it is dominated by social problems.
Deserved fame was brought by V.V. Mayakovsky's poems "Cloud in Pants", "Flute-Spine", "War and Peace" and "Man". They vividly embodied the stylistic features of the poetics of V.V. Mayakovsky: an abundance of neologisms that are easily and naturally included in the text of the works (“mocking”, “surviving”, “loving”, “December”, etc.), exquisite metaphors (“a bloody flap of the heart”, “the heart is a cold piece of iron "). The titles of the poems themselves are also metaphorical: "A Cloud in Trousers", "Flute-Spine".
It is symbolic that the poem "A Cloud in Trousers" was originally called "The Thirteenth Apostle". This was an attempt to oppose it to traditional religious teaching. It is known that Christ had twelve disciples-apostles. The very word "apostle" means "messenger". According to legend, they were chosen by Christ himself and sent around the world to preach his teachings. The very name "The Thirteenth Apostle" explodes the established religious tradition, indicates that the work claims to be a socially significant fact of reality, and also emphasizes the confessional nature of the poem.
The apostles had great power. They were empowered to perform miracles in the name of Christ. By proclaiming himself the thirteenth apostle, the hero, in fact, declares to the world that he is taking on an important life mission. As can be seen from the further development of the storyline of the work, the mission is to expose the existing social vices and, with the greatest possible spiritual openness, show the world the power of human feelings.
The poem "A cloud in pants" is sometimes called the poet's manifesto. This is an emotionally charged piece. Its ideological meaning was defined by the author himself as four cries of "dine": down with your love, art, system, religion. The lyrical hero overthrows love based on the search for profit and comfort. He opposes the cutesy poetry for aesthetes that flooded the poetry salons of the time. The author believes that the bourgeois system is not historically progressive and will not bring happiness to mankind.
Compositionally, the poem is defined as a tetraptych: it has a small introduction and a four-part division. The desire to show the exclusivity and originality of the lyrical hero sounds in all chapters of the poem. One of them mentions a yellow jacket, in which "the soul is wrapped up from examinations." It is known that V.V. Mayakovsky in life liked to wear a yellow jacket. Having become acquainted with the poem, the reader understands that such a gesture is caused not only and not so much by the desire to stand out, but by an attempt to cover up something very vulnerable and painful in the soul behind the outer shell of a desperate challenge:
It's good when in a yellow jacket
the soul is wrapped up from inspections!
The landscape in the poem is either gothically sublime (“In the glass, the gray raindrops fell off, the grimace was huge, as if the chimeras of Notre Dame Cathedral were howling”), then romantic (“What do I care about Faust, an extravaganza of rockets gliding with Mephistopheles in the heavenly parquet!”), then expressionistically shocking (“The muzzle of all pedestrians was sucked, and in the carriages an athlete was polished behind a fat athlete: people were caught, having eaten through and oozing through the cracks, lard flowed down like a muddy river from the carriages, along with a sucked-up bun, the zhevot of old cutlets”),
The lyrical hero has a strongly preaching, prophetic beginning:
Where people's eyes break off stubby,
head of hungry hordes
in the crown of thorns revolutions
the sixteenth year is coming.
The mixture of styles, eras, cultural and historical realities is replaced in the poem as in a kaleidoscope. The plot is not a sequential development of events, but is built according to the associative principle: fragmentation, uncertainty, understatement - all these features most successfully reflect the nature of the rebellious and crisis era of the beginning of the century.
The lyrical hero of the poet is experiencing a love tragedy. The heroine's name is Maria. The plot of the poem gravitates toward biblical generalization, and such a religiously significant name for the heroine was not chosen by chance. The hero and the heroine are contrasting in everything: he is a huge, clumsy individualist, she is a fragile, little daughter of her society.
The poem was written in 1914-1915, and echoes of the anti-war verses of this time sound in it:
Your body
I will cherish and love
like a soldier
shattered by war
unnecessary,
nobody's
saves his only leg.
The poem belittles the feeling of future changes. The final image of the sleeping Universe, likened to a giant guard dog, is symbolic. It seems that she is about to wake up from her sleep.
"A Cloud in Pants" is a bright, shocking and very frank poem by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. This is the very first major work of the author, on which he worked for a whole year. The work is of a sharp revolutionary nature and may interest the reader with only one ambiguous title. The poet put his whole soul into its creation and endowed the lyrical hero with features that are also inherent in himself.
At the beginning of the work, Mayakovsky describes how painfully the hero awaits his beloved, he is so looking forward to this meeting that even, “the legs give way under the nerves!”. His thoughts do not obey him, and he is unable to control himself, it begins to seem to him that even the raindrops are grimacing, as if they are mocking him. An uncontrollable intensity of emotions rages inside him, time flows unthinkably long, so long that he stops feeling it, and he just wants to scream.
The twelfth hour has fallen
like the head of the executed from the chopping block
The long-awaited meeting with his beloved fleetingly devastates his heart, because the hero learns that Mary will soon get married. In one moment, the girl was able to put out the majestic fire of emotions in his chest. Outwardly, it seems that he does not feel anything, but a hole has formed in his soul, he calls it the "pulse of the dead"
The young man in love does not want to forget Mary, he says that he is afraid to forget her name, just as a poet is afraid to forget a word equal in majesty to God. So he is disappointed in love and turns to politics.
Further, historical figures, the political system and the mediocre driven crowd are ridiculed, the hero is convinced that all these miserable little people do not know how to truly love, they confuse love with dirt and lust. He wants to forget himself in the wrath of reproof, but he steps on the sick anyway.
In the end, the lyrical hero is disappointed in God, the Creator is powerless for him, even he cannot understand him, see how his heart bleeds, how despair, disappointment and loneliness overtake him.
I thought you were an almighty god, and you are a half-educated, tiny god
But the thoughts of Mary still continue to poison his consciousness, he screams about his love, although he already understands that this is in vain, since along with his feelings, all the foundations of his worldview that hold him back have collapsed. The hero dreams of a revolution in all spheres of life and is ready to devote himself to the restructuring of all living things.
The meaning of the name
Mayakovsky gave the name "Cloud in Pants" to the poem after the censorship did not pass the original one. At first, the work had the name "The Thirteenth Apostle", but, not wanting to end up in hard labor, the author changed it. “A cloud in pants” is a combination of lightness and romance with rudeness and everyday aspects of life, the poet brilliantly combined incompatible characters and images.
Want to -
I will be mad from meat
— and like the sky, changing tones —
want to -I will be impeccably gentle,
not a man, but a cloud in his pants!A strong and self-confident man under the influence of painful emotions and a hot feeling of love in an instant becomes soft and weightless, light and shapeless. Outwardly, he is still stern and calm, Mayakovsky compares these qualities inherent in the male sex with rough pants. The cloud that they wear is a reflection of the inner world of the lyrical hero, who is in limbo. He is gentle and sensitive, he does not have the strength to change what is happening around.
Composition and genre
The genre of the work "A cloud in pants" we have long identified and made sure that this is a poem. But it will also be important to know that it has the shape of a tetraptych.
A tetraptych is a work of art that contains 4 parts, united by one plot and semantic line.The poem consists of a preface, in which the author lays the main ideological idea of the work, and four parts. Each of the parts indicates the main topics that will be discussed. The main idea is the so-called four cries of the hero: "Down with your love, art, system, religion!" - this is the slogan the author places in the preface. The beginning of the poem is very lyrical, it tells us about the emotional experiences of the hero, it is from there that we learn about his real feelings for Mary.
In the second part of the poem, we will talk about poetry and creativity, which is dying in bourgeois society, but the author believes that after the revolution, poets will be able to save art.
In the third and fourth parts, Mayakovsky expresses his protest to the entire old system, he finds it precisely the cause of all human troubles.The image of a lyrical hero
The hero in the poem "A Cloud in Pants" is full of real feelings and experiences of the author himself. Mayakovsky allows him to adopt many of his features, it turns out that the poet is trying to express his own “I” in this way. The narrator is presented to us as romantic and sensitive, tender and vulnerable, but at the same time he is a strong man who has his own personal and confident position. The image is built on a certain contrast that characterizes him as a bright and emotional person who is not going to tolerate human insignificance, he will stubbornly shout and fight for happiness and a better future not only for himself, but also for others. He intends to lead them after him, staining their hearts with the blood of his heart, which aches for the fate of the fatherland.
But his image cannot be called exclusively rebellious, because he is also driven by passionate feelings for his beloved girl, for life, he is experiencing a huge internal explosion that hurts him to the core. This means that the hero knows how to truly love, and loves like no one else from his environment.
Characteristics of the main characters
There are not so many acting heroes in the poem "A Cloud in Pants", they are unique, the images of some of them can even be called dual. Mayakovsky calls the lyrical heroine Maria for a reason. In the fourth chapter, there is an unobtrusive comparison of her image with the biblical images of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, that is, the name of the narrator's beloved personifies divine, unearthly love. But the girl rejects the hero, she makes his soul suffer, scream and pray for love, and, in fact, betrays him, sells him like Judas. For her, money plays an important role, she understands that the hero will not be able to give her wealth, therefore, she changes real feelings for material goods.
Nothing if yet
you instead of the chic of Parisian dresses
dressed in tobacco smokeThis feature of the representation of the image also applies to the image of God in the poem. At the very beginning, the hero asks him for help, he considers him majestic, able to give him the right to mutual love. But it turns out that the heavens betray him, the hero is disappointed in their strength. The Creator is no longer as powerful and omnipotent as before.
Religious allusions
Probably, ironically over biblical names and heroes, the author expresses his anti-clerical protest, which was characteristic of him. In his love experiences, he skillfully introduces the political trends of the new time, showing the futility of hopes for heavenly powers. Alas, the poet says, let's be realistic: in matters of the heart, and in any other matter, God is not our helper, and all the stories about him are fairy tales. For example, Mayakovsky uses the biblical name Maria, but does not speak about the feat of the mother and beloved of Christ, not about devotion, not about grief, but turns our established associations upside down. Now Maria is a corrupt girl who is ready to sell her lover for a French dress. Such is the essence of a fatal and vicious woman in life, and the author does not believe in the correction of Magdalene on the pages of the book.
Subject
- Of course, the first and most important theme of Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" is the theme of love, unrequited and painful. It directly intersects with other topics that the author considers in the work: loneliness, the rejection of morality and politics, and even atheism. The lyrical hero suffers from unrequited love, and these torments lead him to renounce his own thoughts and beliefs.
- In the third part of the poem, the topic of disagreement with the political system is raised, the hero literally shouts "Down with your system!". The narrator keenly feels how a mass of gray and very similar people gives rise to wars and violence with their own hands, but he is opposed to this world, in his mind there is a struggle with everything that surrounds him.
- The crisis of religion at the beginning of the 20th century also took its place of honor in the lyrics of the Russian modernist. He ironically reduces the image of God, reduces his fictitious power to the point of absurdity. The hero now believes only in his own strength and is not going to humble himself.
- The poet also raises the topic of art, declaring his aesthetic position: he wants to become the voice of the street, and not the elites with their roses and nightingales. There are more important problems in the new century. He glorifies the people and their proletarian essence, but he refuses to recognize the classics (Homer, Goethe) as authority: their time has passed. “I know that the nail in my boot is more nightmarish than Goethe's fantasy” - the author wants to say that the pressing, real problems of hard workers from the streets are much more important than abstract philosophical questions. He will describe them.
- The theme of the revolution cannot go unnoticed, the author calls himself its forerunner. He "crucified himself on the cross" in order to purify the soul with the blood of suffering and take it in his hands as a banner. He intends to do the same with the readers of the poem, so that they meet the revolution with purified thoughts.
- It can be seen that in each of the parts of the poem the leading theme is love, but it is supplemented by other thoughts. First, the lyrical hero is disappointed in his beloved, then in the art around him, after that he loses faith in power and, finally, in religion. Thus, the main theme of the poem "A Cloud in Pants" is still disappointment. The poet is tired of his environment and protests against it, criticizing all spheres of life. Perhaps the love line was generally invented to avert the eyes of the censors.
What is the meaning of the work?
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky calls on the destitute and poor people to stubbornly and persistently demand and achieve their happiness right here and now. He is ready to sing and support the protest, renouncing bourgeois classical poetry. The author completely rejects the old foundations that cannot allow a person to live with dignity and freedom, he opposes the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie, anticipates the onset of the revolution and is ready to carry its ideas to the masses. The feelings and experiences of the lyrical hero are comparable to the experiences of the people, and they are all summarized in one image. Love, art, the political system and religion must be completely different, the poet does not accept what is happening now (it happened then), he is sure that the proletarians are degrading and humiliating before life through the fault of wrong art, false religion and unjust state regime. However, Mayakovsky does not lose faith and hope for a brighter future, he is a supporter of a revolution in all spheres and directions. The author is convinced that if you ruthlessly destroy the wretched old, you can create a bright and perfect new one.
The originality of the poem
We manage to trace the originality and originality of the poem "A Cloud in Pants" from the very beginning, when we find out what it is called. Few people can immediately and absolutely accurately guess what will be discussed without reading the text, but simply by looking at its title. Of course, this betrays a certain elegance to the work and distinguishes it from others, we can say that it itself draws attention to itself.
The size and composition of the poem were not typical for Russian literature. The famous "ladder" was invented in Italy by the founder of futurism, Filippo Marinetti. He also developed the ideological and thematic content of the new trend, its manifesto and aesthetic principles. It is known that Mayakovsky was an ardent admirer of his talent, so he adopted his literary style. However, Marinetti was more of a theorist than a practitioner, and it was the Russian poet who managed to bring his ideas to perfection. Thus, in the poem "A Cloud in Pants" the author embodied the revolutionary spirit of modernism and opened a new page in Russian art, using a new meter, innovative rhythm, and many occasionalisms. We have a whole .
Also, unusual and unexpected for Mayakovsky's contemporaries and for us, is how the author speaks about God and religion. Few people could have dared at that time to speak about it in such a way, calling the Creator a “dropout” and a “tiny god.”
Initially, the poem came out with losses, the censor removed several pages from it. Only in Moscow at the beginning of 1918, "A Cloud in Pants" was completely restored and released under Mayakovsky's own publishing house, and at the very beginning he indicated that the first title "The Thirteenth Apostle" was crossed out by censorship, but he would not return it. Such an adventurous story of creation also gives the work of revolutionary romance.
Issues
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- In the poem "A Cloud in Pants" the main problem is the suffering of the people in the world created by the capitalists. Mayakovsky throughout the work is surprised at the lifestyle of his contemporaries. All images seem low and faceless against the background of the lyrical hero. Those feelings that boil in him confidently generalize the acuteness of the social conflict.
- Also in the poem there is a problem of struggle with personal inner experiences. The torment of the soul is associated with unrealizable lyrical dreams, a clash of tenderness that was brought up in the heart, and a miserable, unfair reality, where no one puts tenderness in a penny. In a second, the hero loses his last hope for mutual feelings, and this is nothing but complete devastation, which means inner death.
- Against the backdrop of such acute experiences, new, no less exciting problems arise. The catastrophe that happened to the hero pushes him to think about the problem of the immorality of society and subsequently he rejects morality.
- The problem of fake art also worries him. Creators do not care how their works will affect people, they care about canons and grace. The poet cannot understand the hypocritical rules; questions about the poet's destiny torment and torment him. He finds a solution in complete frankness, "only solid lips" remain from him.
- The author also does not disregard political stagnation. An unjust government, fixated only on its own profit, cannot be useful for society, cannot serve its development.
- And, of course, he is concerned about the problem of a religious persuasion. He believes that the fairy tale about God only stupefies the people, leads them to regress, but does not help them at all on the path to self-improvement and development.
Everything in the poem was stunning: from the title to the last line. It was originally called "The Thirteenth Apostle". According to the Gospel, Christ had twelve disciples - apostles, preachers of the faith. Mayakovsky declares himself the thirteenth apostle, proclaiming to the world a new truth, revising the prevailing ideas about good and evil. The "Catechism" of Mayakovsky's world outlook is expressed in "four cries of four parts": "Down with your love", "Down with your art", "Down with your system", "Down with your religion". K.I. tried to explain the nihilistic pathos of the work. Chukovsky, who wrote: "Mayakovsky entered literature as a nihilist and a cynic, with some ominous hole in his soul."
The poem opens with a prologue, giving a semantic and emotional key with which you can enter the complex world of the work. In the introduction, the author declares his rejection of the aestheticization of reality, the idealization of feelings in the spirit of decadent literature. Mayakovsky's task is to expose the beauty of aesthetic poetry, its impotence and satiety, to oppose to it the tragedy of true feeling.
Tragedy and bitter irony, optimism and the “cry” of a deceived soul are intertwined in the poem. The theme of the city infected with vice is developed by the tragedian in farcical images: "men stale like a hospital, and women tattered like a proverb."
"A Cloud in Pants" is a complex interweaving of numerous themes and images, where violent denial is combined with frenzy by glorifying suffering and sacrifice, intimate sincerity is enhanced by the motive of rebellion. The lyrical hero preaches and denounces from the height of the moral superiority of a rebellious person, convinced of the inevitability of the implementation of the humanistic ideal. Protesting against social humiliation and mutilation, Mayakovsky defends the idea of human honor, embodies her prayer to her beloved. In this cry of despair and helplessness, the intimacy of the lyrical confession is emphasized by appropriate pictorial means: I will cherish and love your body, like a soldier chopped off by the war, unnecessary, no one, takes care of his only leg.
In depicting the world of the “well-fed”, the author actively uses the technique of hyperbole and contrast, contrasting “huge love” and vulgar “lovers” with the utmost clarity. Mayakovsky is an opponent of "sleeping lyrics", behind the fine facade of which hides the ugliness of possessive passion and the buying and selling of people. He defends the poetry of "high torment", expresses the feelings of a suffering person. The lyrical hero becomes the voice of the "street thousand", oppressed by life and deprived of language: ... the street writhes without a language - it has nothing to shout and talk with ...
Mayakovsky's protest against bourgeois art is expressed in the accusation of a culture that has lost its connection with people, enslaved by bourgeois morality. The denial of the falsity of lyrical poetry, carried away by the depiction of petty-bourgeois experiences, is poured into the program of the new art, into the demand for the ministers of the new muses to revise the laws of the disease-infected world: How dare you call a poet and, little grey, chirp like a quail! Today it is necessary to knuckle dust the world in the skull!
Mayakovsky feels himself a harbinger of future changes, proclaims his poetry as the banner of rebellion, he is ready to “bite into the sides” of the world, to avenge a desecrated life.
The highest manifestation of the position of the lyrical hero is the motive of self-sacrifice: ... I will pull out your soul, trample on it, so big! - and a bloody lady, like a banner.
Revealing the fourth theme of the poem "Down with your religion", the poet opposes church dogmas. It even sounds like a challenge to God. The theme of theomachism receives a new interpretation from Mayakovsky, which differs from the traditions of the previous culture. This artistic decision is conditioned by the task to overcome the symbolic interpretation of religious images, to debunk the church concept of humility, to achieve the rehabilitation of a person born for freedom:
Hey you! Sky!
Take off your hat! I'm coming! Deaf.
The universe sleeps, putting a huge ear on the paw with pincers of the stars.
In the kiss of hands
lips,
In body trembling
close to me
Red color
my republics
Same
should burn.
V. Mayakovsky was "the color of the best people, the engine of engines, the salt of the salt of the earth." People are proud of his name, they are even proud that he lived on our planet and was a part of humanity. Yes, you can't help but be proud of them! You can love Mayakovsky or not, understand his ideas or be their opponent. But what is really worthy of respect - the depth of feeling, constancy, devotion to the idea - is invariably present in his poems.
The main problem of human education is the problem of faith, ideals, shrines, the problem of morality. In solving it, the main word belongs to life itself, the realities of our everyday life. How unexpectedly, sincerely, the words sound as if addressed to us:
Maybe caps,
maybe hats,
Can
and put on gloves.
But no
in the world
finer clothes,
Than the bronze of muscles
and skin freshness
Tenderness, hatred, love, longing and pain - the whole gamut of strong human feelings is presented by Mayakovsky in their most vivid manifestation.
The most close to me in his work is love lyrics. She has reached such sensual peaks that she lacks the usual words for expression - they seem too gray and colorless. And giant words appear: “mass-love”, “love”. He can't feel small. Mayakovsky is a giant weeping with “tear” seas, for whom the ocean is small and the sky seems tiny. A poet of irreducible extremes. In some verses the words “shout”:
... I will pull out my soul,
trample on.
To big! -
and bloody ladies, like a banner ....
And suddenly, from a loud cry, it turns into a whisper filled with despair:
Give me at least
spread the last tenderness
your outgoing step.
Mayakovsky for me is a person who looks at the world and sees it differently from me. And that's what interests me. The poet attracts with his originality, dissimilarity with others, the delightful world of unexpected fantasies:
And you
nocturne play
could
on the drainpipe flute?
Mayakovsky's poems are a reflection of his soul. In them, he reveals his feelings, thoughts. Indeed, Mayakovsky gave "his sonorous power as a poet" to the people and the revolution. Truly, VV Mayakovsky is a poet and a fighter. His topical, angry, boiling, bile-splattering satire, unfortunately, is still relevant today.
It should be noted that Mayakovsky is a poet who looked farthest into the future and “paid” attention to his descendants:
Dear
fellow descendants!
swarming
in today's
petrified city..,
our days studying the darkness,
You,
Maybe,
ask about me too.
And the poet turned out to be right: his poems, having passed through the prism of time, did not depreciate, and his “sonorous power of a poet” still reminds people what place the work of the poet and citizen V.V. Mayakovsky still occupies in the literary heritage.
