"Poor Liza" and Other Stories Literary Elements

Russian Sentimental Literature

Moscow and the outlying suburbs, eighteenth century, as a young peasant girl is falling in love with a much older nobleman

The point of view is Liza's although the narration is in the third person

At the start of the story the mood is light and sunny, as it progresses, the mood darkens and becomes melancholy and depressing

Liza is the protagonist, Erast the antagonist

There is conflict at the end of the story between Liza and Erast as she wants to continue their relationship in the same way but he refuses to consider this and pays her to leave him alone

Liza is so devastated by Erast's rejection of her that she drowns herself in the river, believing that she no longer has a reason to live

The lily of the valley flowers foreshadow what happens to Liza; they are a wedding stale but they are also lethally poisonous and this combination foreshadows what happens to Liza when she falls in love

Liza understates her love for Erast to herself at the beginning which is probably because to a degree she is in denial about it and pretending to herself that she is in actuality in love with the shepherd boy

The author alludes to the gloomy quiet of Moscow after the plundering by the Tartars and the Lithuanians

The nature images reflect what is happening in the emotions of Liza. The bright and dainty flowers paint an image of purity and delicacy, the lilies paint a picture of beauty that is a threat. They are also an image of love. The weather also paints images of the turmoil inside Liza

Liza is in love with Erast, a nobleman, but wishes that she was in love with the shepherd boy, who would provide the safe peasant life with which she was familiar. The paradox in Liza is that she has found love but wishes it was with someone else

There is a parallel between the way in which Liza is drawn to the river when she is in love with Erast and they are meeting illicitly there, and the way in which she drowns herself in the same river because she associates it with the death of her relationship

The monastery is an example as it is used instead of saying "the monks and elders" on several occasions at the start of the story

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