One can endlessly talk about the beauty and richness of the Russian language. These arguments are just another reason to get involved in such a conversation. So comparisons.
What is comparison
In fact, this term is ambiguous. This fact is confirmed by the endless examples of comparison that we observe in everyday life. In colloquial speech, it is rather an assimilation of different objects, a statement that they are equal or similar.
In mathematics, the term "comparison" is intertwined with the similar concept of "relationship". Comparing numbers for equality or inequality, we find the difference between them.
Comparison is also called the process of comparing the similarities and differences, disadvantages and advantages of several objects. As examples show, comparisons in such sciences as philosophy, psychology, sociology are a kind of cognitive operations that underlie reasoning about the similarities and differences between the objects under study. With the help of comparisons, various characteristics of these objects or phenomena are revealed.
Comparison in the literature: definition and examples
Stylistic and literary comparisons have a slightly different meaning. This isfigures of speech, stylistic devices in which some phenomena or objects are likened to others according to some common feature. The comparison method can be simple, then certain words are usually present in the turnover. Among them are: “like”, “as if”, “as if”, “exactly”. But there is also an indirect method of comparison: in this case, the comparison is made using a noun in the instrumental case without a preposition. Example: “Onegin lived as an anchorite” (“Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin).
Comparisons and metaphors
Comparisons are inextricably linked with another literary concept, a metaphor - an expression used in a figurative sense. Actually, the metaphor is based on a comparison that is not directly expressed. For example, A. Blok's line "The streams of my poems run" is a typical metaphor (the word "streams" is used in a figurative sense). But the same line is also a comparison: the verses run like streams.
It is interesting to use metaphorical techniques in the case of the so-called negative comparison. Examples of comparison can be easily found in epics. “Not two clouds in the sky converged, two daring knights converged” - this sample of the old Russian epic simultaneously emphasizes the similarity of formidable warriors with dark terrible clouds, and denies their identity, and draws a completely amazing overall picture.
Negative comparisons, more characteristic of folk art and their folklore stylizations, play a special role in the perceptionartistic image. Here is a line from the work of A. Nekrasov: “It’s not the kennel who trumpets the oak tree, the ripped-head cackles - crying, stabbing and chopping firewood, a young widow.” The second part of the expression (Crying …) is self-sufficient in itself, it fully conveys the required meaning. But only the combination of both parts of the sentence allows you to feel all the bitterness, all the tragedy of what happened.
Means of expressive language
Comparisons help to explain concepts or phenomena by comparing them with other objects - sweet like honey, sour like vinegar. But the main goal is by no means to emphasize the characteristic properties of the subject. The main thing is the figurative, most accurate expression of the author's thought, because one of the most powerful means of expressiveness is comparison. Examples from the literature brilliantly illustrate its role in shaping the image that the author needs. Here is a line of creation from M. Yu. Lermontov: "Garun ran faster than a fallow deer, faster than a hare from an eagle." One could simply say: "Harun ran very fast" or "Harun ran at great speed." But, being absolutely true in their essence, such phrases would not achieve even to a small extent the effect that is inherent in Lermontov's lines.
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Features
Paying tribute to comparisons as powerful exponents of the peculiarities of Russian speech, many researchers were amazed at the rationality of these comparisons. It would seem, where does rationality? After all, no one requires special accuracy, literalness from comparisons! But here are dissimilar examples of comparison, strings belonging to differentpeople. “There were fire-faced cannes here, like glasses of bloody wine” (N. Zabolotsky) and “Fate, you look like a market butcher, whose knife is bloodied from tip to handle” (Khakani). Despite the dissimilarity of these expressions, they are distinguished by a common feature. Both phrases tell about completely ordinary things (about red flowers, about a difficult human fate) and, written in a slightly different form, could easily be lost in any text. But the use of comparisons (“glasses of bloody wine”, “butcher's knife”) turned out to be exactly the touch that deliberately added special expressiveness and emotionality to simple words. This is probably why in songs and romantic poems, where the emotional mood is already strong, comparisons are even less common than in a realistic narrative.
Examples of comparisons in Russian
Russian language is considered one of the most difficult. And at the same time, the creations of Russian classics in the world are recognized as the most striking, original, talented. It seems that there is an inextricable link between these facts. The difficulty of learning a language lies in the considerable number of features, possibilities, and rules present in it. But this also opens up a huge scope for a talented writer who has managed to master cunning tricks. The Russian language is indeed very rich: it has truly limitless possibilities that allow you to turn an ordinary word into a vivid visual image, make it sound in a new way, so that it remains in your memory forever. Poetic works are especially conducive to this. “Our life in old age is a worn out robe: it’s both shameful to wear it, andsorry to leave. This line by P. Vyazemsky is an excellent example of the use of comparisons in literary work.
About the work of A. S. Pushkin
The great poet was a recognized genius in mastering the most complex literary techniques. The comparisons used in his poems and poems are striking in their unexpectedness and at the same time accuracy, accuracy.
“His beaver collar is silvered with frosty dust” is a line from the poem “Eugene Onegin”. Only a few words, but a capital boulevard, covered with snow, and a young dandy going to the ball emerge before my eyes. And then there is the episode at the ball: “He came in: and the cork hit the ceiling, the fault of the comet splashed current.” If Pushkin had written that the lackey had uncorked a bottle of champagne, he would not have deviated from the truth. But would this picture of extraordinary, festive, sparkling fun then emerge so clearly?
And this is already from the poem "The Bronze Horseman": "And before the younger capital, old Moscow faded, like a porphyry-bearing widow before the new queen." Is it possible to convey more precisely that atmosphere of a certain patriarchy and even abandonment that reigned in Moscow after the city of Petra was named the capital of Russia? “Let the Finnish waves forget their enmity and captivity!” - this is about how the waters of the Neva were chained in granite. Yes, probably, this could have been stated without comparisons, but would the pictures drawn by the author appear so clearly before the eyes?
And more about Russian poetry
There are enough wonderful examples of the use of comparative images andin the work of other Russian poets. Amazing comparisons in Bunin's poem "Childhood" accurately convey the atmosphere of a hot summer day, the feeling of a child who enjoys the sun and the aromas of the forest. The author's sand is silk, the tree trunk is a giant, and the sun-drenched summer forest itself is solar chambers.
![], comparisons in Yesenin's poem with good morning](https://i.vogueindustry.com/images/018/image-52075-6-j.webp "], comparisons in Yesenin's poem with good morning")
No less remarkable, although completely different examples are found in the works of other Russian masters of the word. Comparisons in Yesenin's poem "Good morning!" open the summer dawn to the reader. Golden stars are dozing, instead of river water there is a mirror of the backwater, there are green earrings on the birch trees, silver dews are burning, and nettles are dressed in bright mother-of-pearl. In fact, the whole poem is one big comparison. And how beautiful!
One can talk about comparisons in the work of S. Yesenin for a long time - before that they are all bright, imaginative and at the same time dissimilar. If in the work "Good morning" the atmosphere is light, joyful, pleasant, then when reading the poem "The Black Man" there is a feeling of heaviness, even catastrophe (it is not for nothing that it is considered a kind of author's requiem). And this atmosphere of hopelessness is also formed thanks to unusually accurate comparisons!
"The Black Man" is a tragically peculiar poem. A certain black man who appeared either in a dream or in the author's feverish delirium. Yesenin is trying to understand what kind of vision this is. And then a whole series of brilliant comparisons: “Just like a grove in September, alcohol showers brains”, “My head flaps its ears like a bird’s wings, its legs loom on its neckmore unbearable”, “In December in that country the snow is pure to the devil, and blizzards start merry spinning wheels.” You read these lines and see everything: a bright frosty winter, and great human despair.
Conclusion
You can express your thoughts in different ways. But for some, these are faded and dull phrases, or even completely incoherent babble, while for others, luxurious flowery pictures. Comparisons and other artistic techniques make it possible to achieve figurative speech, both written and oral. And do not neglect this we alth.
