The 20th century was marked by the era of totalitarianism. During this period, tragic stories were mainly written. The poem "Requiem" can also be attributed to them. It is dedicated primarily to the suffering of all mothers. This poem can be called autobiographical. At the same time, she does not try to describe the drama of one person and becomes a monument for all mothers who experienced the same tragedy.
There is an opinion that maternal love is the strongest and most selfless love. The poem “Requiem” perfectly describes how strong a mother’s love is considered, how difficult and unbearable grief and pain can be. Grief constantly brings people together, and the fact that they experience it together can be considered the height of the spirit.
Anna Akhmatova was best able to convey to the new generation the true sorrow that all the mothers who stood “under the Cross” contained within themselves. It was this famous poetess who was among them in those terrible times. The writing of this difficult poem can be called a purely heroic decision, which in fact is worthy of erecting a memorial. The poetess was able to convey all the feelings, even though this text became a death sentence for herself.
Consequently, “Requiem” is not only the poetess’s experiences of her own tragedy, it is a story about the dramatic events of all mothers of past years, about the tragedy of an entire state. Anna Akhmatova’s personal maternal drama in the poem grew into the general grief of Russian wives and mothers, who managed to experience the misfortune of separation, the pain of suffering and loss, and long months of waiting. From the poem one can understand that maternal pain is tantamount to the pain of death and execution. The brightness and depth of all the poetess’s experiences cannot but excite. This poem, like nothing better, conveys women's suffering during the period of totalitarianism.
The theme of maternal suffering in the poem by A.A. Akhmatova’s “Requiem” occupies the most important place. This is due to the fact that the image of the mother is central in the poem. It is extremely complex. Three hypostases are intertwined in it: the mother is a lyrical heroine (an autobiographical image), the mother is a generalizing image of all mothers, and, finally, the mother is Russia.
In “Dedication” Akhmatova immediately introduces a generalizing image of the Mother. This happens through the use of the pronoun “we” and plural verbs. Towards the end of the poem, from the crowd of mothers awaiting their verdict, the image of one Mother stands out, who is destined to become an exponent of maternal suffering in the poem:
...And immediately tears will flow,
Already separated from everyone...
...But she walks...Wobbles...Alone...
In the “Introduction” the image of Rus' appears. Using the technique of personification, the poetess creates a feeling of Rus' as a living person, a woman who is beaten until she bleeds with boots, crushed under the tires of “black Marus”.
From the first to the tenth part the actual plot of the poem unfolds. First, the son of the lyrical heroine is taken away, and a period of expectations and ordeals begins. The mother's soul is overcome by paradoxical feelings. Part three is noteworthy in this regard:
No, it's not me, it's someone else who is suffering.
I couldn't do that, but what happened
Let the black cloth cover
And let the lanterns be taken away...
Night is a mother’s state of mind. Unconsciousness suddenly gives way to quiet crying, and then a hysterical lament:
I've been screaming for seventeen months,
I'm calling you home
I threw myself at the feet of the executioner,
You are my son and my horror. (V part)
The lungs fly for weeks.
I don’t understand what happened
How do you like going to jail, son?
The white nights looked
How they look again
With the hot eye of a hawk,
About your high cross
And they talk about death (Part VI).
In the seventh part, “The Verdict,” the mother learns about the fate prepared for her son: “And the stone word fell // On my still living chest.” The madness approaching a grief-stricken woman begins with a request for death to come (“To Death”). The mother is ready to accept death in any form, just not to see her son suffer. The apogee of madness comes in the ninth chapter:
Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And drinks fiery wine
And beckons to the black valley.
Amazingly, here we no longer see tears and lamentations. Fossilism and fatigue are the feelings that gripped the lyrical heroine in this part. She seems to have gathered herself and shrunk into a ball, but in this collectedness one can see madness, detachment from the world and reality.
The highest point of the poem is the tenth part, “The Crucifixion.” Akhmatova uses here the biblical motif of the crucifixion of Christ, but looks at everything that happens through the eyes of Mary. In this image of the suffering Mary, the mother-lyrical heroine, and all the mothers of victims of terror, and Rus', humiliated, trampled, forced to watch in silence the murder of their sons, are intertwined. Mary becomes inviolable and holy at the moment she endures the same martyrdom that her son endures on the cross:
Magdalene fought and cried,
The beloved student turned to stone,
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
I would like to call everyone by name,
Yes, the list was taken away, and there is no place to find out.
The poet calls for erecting a monument to the great Mother in order to never forget the horror and pain that Russian women had to endure during the terrible years of terror.
Akhmatova dedicates her poem to all women and mothers who, suffering, were on the verge of exhaustion of physical and mental strength and lived only in hope. But thanks to their endless love and the torment they endured, life will continue.
A. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem” is a special work. This is a reminder of all those who have gone through unheard of trials, this is an excited confession of the tormented human soul. "Requiem" is a chronicle of the 30s of the twentieth century. Akhmatova was asked if she could describe it. The stranger asked, standing in line in the prison corridor. And Akhmatova answered in the affirmative. She had been approaching the topic of perpetuating her terrible time for a long time, ever since her son was first arrested. It was 1935. And then there were more arrests. What came out of her pen during these years was dictated not only by personal maternal grief - it was the grief of millions, which Akhmatova could not pass by indifferently, otherwise she would not have been Akhmatova...
The poetess, standing in a prison line, writes not only about herself, but about all women and mothers, and speaks of “the numbness inherent in all of us.” The preface to the poem, like the epigraph, is the key that helps to understand that this poem was written, like Mozart’s “Requiem” once upon a time, “to order.” The woman with blue lips asks her for this as the last hope for some kind of triumph of justice and truth. And Akhmatova takes upon herself this “order”, this so difficult duty, without hesitation at all - after all, she will write about everyone, including herself.
Akhmatova's son was taken away from her, but she rose above her own maternal suffering and created a poem about the suffering of the Mother in general: Mary - according to Jesus, Russia - according to the millions of her children who died. The poem shows the unity of all women - all suffering mothers, from the Mother of God, the “streltsy wives,” the wives of the Decembrists to the “cheerful sinners of Tsarskoe Selo.” And feeling in her suffering a participation in the suffering of many, the poetess looks at it as if from the side, from somewhere above, perhaps from the sky:
The quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house.
He walks in with his hat tilted.
Sees the yellow moon shadow.
This woman is sick
This woman is alone.
Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.
Only at the limit, the highest point of suffering, does this cold detachment arise, when one speaks about oneself and one’s grief impartially, calmly, as if in the third person... The motive of the semi-delusional image of the quiet Don prepares another motive, even more terrible - the motive of madness, delirium and complete readiness for death or suicide:
Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And he drinks fiery wine,
And beckons to the black valley.
And I realized that he
I must concede victory
Listening to your
Already like someone else's delirium.
And won't allow anything
I should take it with me
(No matter how you beg him
And no matter how you bother me with prayer)…
At some point of the highest tension of suffering, one can see not only those who are nearby in time, but also all the women-mothers who have ever suffered at the same time. Uniting in suffering, different times look at each other through the eyes of their suffering women. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fourth part of the poem. In it, the “cheerful sinner from Tsarskoye Selo” looks into the eyes of the “three hundredth, with the transmission” - this is already a clash of different women.
s women. And overcoming a temporary rift occurs through the feeling of it in oneself, when indeed a “heart in half” and two halves are at the same time one and the same, and two different women’s lives. So she goes this way - through the circles of hell, lower and lower,
And female figures on the way -
Morozova and I should bow to each other,
To dance with Herod's stepdaughter,
Fly away from Dido's fire with smoke,
To go to the fire with Zhanna again -
Like monuments to suffering. And then - a sharp jerk back to the present, to the prison lines of Leningrad. And everyone finds themselves united in the face of the torture of time. No words can express what happens to a mother whose son is being tortured:
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
It is as taboo as for Lot’s wife to look back. But the poetess looks around, looks, and just as Lot’s wife froze as a pillar of salt, so she also freezes as this monument - a monument to the living, mourning all suffering people... Such is the torment of a mother because of her crucified son - torment equivalent to the torment of dying, but death does not come, a person lives and understands that he must live on... The “stone word” falls on the “living chest”, the soul must petrify, and when “the memory must be completely killed,” then life begins again. And Akhmatova agrees: all this is “necessary.” And how calmly and businesslike it sounds: “I’ll deal with this somehow...” and “I have a lot to do today!” This indicates a kind of transformation into a shadow, transformation into a monument (“the soul has petrified”), and “learning to live again” means learning to live with this... Akhmatova’s “Requiem” is a truly folk work, not only in the sense that it reflected great national tragedy. It is folk, first of all, because it is “woven” from simple, “overheard” words. "Requiem", filled with great poetic expression and civil sound, expressed its time, the suffering soul of the mother, the suffering soul of the people...
The theme of maternal suffering in Akhmatova’s poem Requiem
A. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem” is a special work. This is a reminder of all those who have gone through unheard of trials, this is an excited confession of the tormented human soul. "Requiem" is a chronicle of the 30s of the twentieth century. Akhmatova was asked if she could describe it. The stranger asked, standing in line in the prison corridor. And Akhmatova answered in the affirmative. She had been approaching the topic of perpetuating her terrible time for a long time, ever since her son was first arrested. It was 1935. And then there were more arrests. What came out of her pen during these years was dictated not only by personal maternal grief - it was the grief of millions, which Akhmatova could not pass by indifferently, otherwise she would not have been Akhmatova...
The poetess, standing in a prison line, writes not only about herself, but about all women-mothers, and speaks of “the numbness inherent in all of us.” The preface to the poem, like the epigraph, is the key that helps to understand that this poem was written, like Mozart’s “Requiem” once upon a time, “to order.” The woman with blue lips asks her for this as the last hope for some kind of triumph of justice and truth. And Akhmatova takes upon herself this “order”, this so difficult duty, without hesitation at all - after all, she will write about everyone, including herself.
Akhmatova's son was taken away from her, but she rose above her own maternal suffering and created a poem about the suffering of the Mother in general: Mary - according to Jesus, Russia - according to the millions of her children who died. The poem shows the unity of all women - all suffering mothers, from the Mother of God, the “streltsy wives,” the wives of the Decembrists to the “cheerful sinners of Tsarskoe Selo.” And feeling in her suffering a participation in the suffering of many, the poetess looks at it as if from the side, from somewhere above, perhaps from the sky:
The quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house.
He walks in with his hat tilted.
Sees the yellow moon shadow.
This woman is sick
This woman is alone.
Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.
Only at the limit, the highest point of suffering, does this cold detachment arise, when one speaks about oneself and one’s grief impartially, calmly, as if in the third person... The motive of the semi-delusional image of the quiet Don prepares another motive, even more terrible - the motive of madness, delirium and complete readiness for death or suicide:
Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And he drinks fiery wine,
And beckons to the black valley.
And I realized that he
I must concede victory
Listening to your
Already like someone else's delirium.
And won't allow anything
I should take it with me
(No matter how you beg him
And no matter how you bother me with prayer)…
At some point of the highest tension of suffering, one can see not only those who are nearby in time, but also all the women-mothers who have ever suffered at the same time. Uniting in suffering, different times look at each other through the eyes of their suffering women. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fourth part of the poem. In it, the “cheerful sinner from Tsarskoye Selo” looks into the eyes of the “three hundredth, with the transmission” - this is already a clash of different women. And overcoming a temporary rift occurs through the feeling of it in oneself, when indeed a “heart in half” and two halves are at the same time one and the same, and two different women’s lives. So she goes this way - through the circles of hell, lower and lower,
And female figures on the way -
I should bow with Morozova,
To dance with Herod's stepdaughter,
Fly away from Dido's fire with smoke,
To go to the fire with Zhanna again -
Like monuments to suffering. And then - a sharp jerk back to the present, to the prison lines of Leningrad. And everyone finds themselves united in the face of the torture of time. No words can express what happens to a mother whose son is being tortured:
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
It is as taboo as for Lot’s wife to look back. But the poetess looks around, looks, and just as Lot’s wife froze as a pillar of salt, so she also freezes as this monument - a monument to the living, mourning all suffering people... Such is the torment of a mother because of her crucified son - torment equivalent to the torment of dying, but death does not come, a person lives and understands that he must live on... The “stone word” falls on the “living chest”, the soul must petrify, and when “the memory must be completely killed,” then life begins again. And Akhmatova agrees: all this is “necessary.” And how calmly and businesslike it sounds: “I’ll deal with this somehow...” and “I have a lot to do today!” This indicates a kind of transformation into a shadow, transformation into a monument (“the soul has petrified”), and “learning to live again” means learning to live with this... Akhmatova’s “Requiem” is a truly folk work, not only in the sense that it reflected great national tragedy. It is folk, first of all, because it is “woven” from simple, “overheard” words. "Requiem", filled with great poetic expression and civil sound, expressed its time, the suffering soul of the mother, the suffering soul of the people...
A. Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem” is a special work. This is a reminder of all those who have gone through unheard of trials, this is an excited confession of the tormented human soul. "Requiem" is a chronicle of the 30s of the twentieth century. Akhmatova was asked if she could describe it. The stranger asked, standing in line in the prison corridor. And Akhmatova answered in the affirmative. She had been approaching the topic of perpetuating her terrible time for a long time, ever since her son was first arrested. It was 1935. And then there were more arrests. What came out of her pen during these years was dictated not only by personal maternal grief - it was the grief of millions, which Akhmatova could not pass by indifferently, otherwise she would not have been Akhmatova...
The poetess, standing in a prison line, writes not only about herself, but about all women-mothers, and speaks of “the numbness inherent in all of us.” The preface to the poem, like the epigraph, is the key that helps to understand that this poem was written, like Mozart’s “Requiem” once upon a time, “to order.” The woman with blue lips asks her for this as the last hope for some kind of triumph of justice and truth. And Akhmatova takes upon herself this “order”, this so difficult duty, without hesitation at all - after all, she will write about everyone, including herself.
Akhmatova's son was taken away from her, but she rose above her own maternal suffering and created a poem about the suffering of the Mother in general: Mary - according to Jesus, Russia - according to the millions of her children who died. The poem shows the unity of all women - all suffering mothers, from the Mother of God, the “streltsy wives,” the wives of the Decembrists to the “cheerful sinners of Tsarskoe Selo.” And feeling in her suffering a participation in the suffering of many, the poetess looks at it as if from the side, from somewhere above, perhaps from the sky:
The quiet Don flows quietly,
The yellow moon enters the house.
He walks in with his hat tilted.
Sees the yellow moon shadow.
This woman is sick
This woman is alone.
Husband in the grave, son in prison,
Pray for me.
Only at the limit, the highest point of suffering, does this cold detachment arise, when one speaks about oneself and one’s grief impartially, calmly, as if in the third person... The motive of the semi-delusional image of the quiet Don prepares another motive, even more terrible - the motive of madness, delirium and complete readiness for death or suicide:
Madness is already on the wing
Half of my soul was covered,
And he drinks fiery wine,
And beckons to the black valley.
And I realized that he
I must concede victory
Listening to your
Already like someone else's delirium.
And won't allow anything
I should take it with me
(No matter how you beg him
And no matter how you bother me with prayer)…
At some point of the highest tension of suffering, one can see not only those who are nearby in time, but also all the women-mothers who have ever suffered at the same time. Uniting in suffering, different times look at each other through the eyes of their suffering women. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fourth part of the poem. In it, the “cheerful sinner from Tsarskoye Selo” looks into the eyes of the “three hundredth, with the transmission” - this is already a clash of different women. And overcoming a temporary rift occurs through the feeling of it in oneself, when indeed a “heart in half” and two halves are at the same time one and the same, and two different women’s lives. So she goes this way - through the circles of hell, lower and lower,
and female figures on the way -
Morozova and I should bow to each other,
To dance with Herod's stepdaughter,
Fly away from Dido's fire with smoke,
To go to the fire with Zhanna again -
as monuments to suffering. And then - a sharp jerk back to the present, to the prison lines of Leningrad. And everyone finds themselves united in the face of the torture of time. No words can express what happens to a mother whose son is being tortured:
And where Mother stood silently,
So no one dared to look.
It is as taboo as for Lot’s wife to look back. But the poetess looks around, looks, and just as Lot’s wife froze as a pillar of salt, so she also freezes as this monument - a monument to the living, mourning all suffering people... Such is the torment of a mother because of her crucified son - torment equivalent to the torment of dying, but death does not come, a person lives and understands that he must live on... The “stone word” falls on the “living chest”, the soul must petrify, and when “the memory must be completely killed,” then life begins again. And Akhmatova agrees: all this is “necessary.” And how calmly and businesslike it sounds: “I’ll deal with this somehow...” and “I have a lot to do today!” This indicates a kind of transformation into a shadow, transformation into a monument (“the soul has petrified”), and “learning to live again” means learning to live with this... Akhmatova’s “Requiem” is a truly folk work, not only in the sense that it reflected great national tragedy. It is folk, first of all, because it is “woven” from simple, “overheard” words. "Requiem", filled with great poetic expression and civil sound, expressed its time, the suffering soul of the mother, the suffering soul of the people...
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