Dostoevsky White Nights Nastenka. "White Nights" characteristics of the heroes

F.M. Dostoevsky wrote the story “White Nights” in the last months of the autumn of 1847; soon, already in 1848, the work was published by the magazine “Domestic Notes”.

Previously, the writer was already interested in the topic of “St. Petersburg dreamers”; in 1847, he wrote several feuilleton articles on this topic, which were included in the large feuilleton “Petersburg Chronicle”. But Dostoevsky published these articles almost anonymously, signing the feuilletons with the letters “F.M.” Later, critics established that part of the material from the feuilleton was included in the story “White Nights” - a description of the life of the heroes, their characteristics.

The story is dedicated to A.N. Pleshcheev, a friend of Dostoevsky's youth, and some critics argue that Pleshcheev became the prototype of the main character. Some, however, object that the image of the main character is the image of the young Dostoevsky himself, and it is no coincidence that the author narrates in the first person, hinting at autobiography.

Analysis of the work

Genre features, composition, content of the story

The writer accompanies the story with two subtitles: “A Sentimental Novel” and “From the Memoirs of a Dreamer.” Both subtitles indicate that the story belongs to a certain genre and literary movement. The first - directly, the second - indirectly, because diary entries, memories, and retrospectives are becoming a common method of presentation in sentimental literature. The writer calls the story a novel, also based on sentimentalist views. For the same reasons main character The story has no name; the author simply calls him “The Dreamer.”

However, in terms of genre, “White Nights” is certainly not sentimentalism in pure form, rather, “sentimental naturalism”, because both the place and the characters are quite real, moreover, deeply social and belong to the category of “little people” glorified by Dostoevsky. But in the story “White Nights” there are traces of utopianism, because the heroes turned out to be too pure, too sterile, too honest in their feelings.

The epigraph to the story was I. Turgenev’s poem “Flower”, lyrical hero who picks a flower growing peacefully in the shade of the trees and pins it to his buttonhole. Turgenev reasons: beautiful flowers do not grow for momentary pleasure (read - people live), but man takes them with an imperious hand, plucks them and condemns them to imminent death(read - seduces, first loves and extols, then leaves). Dostoevsky somewhat reinterprets Turgenev’s statement, making it a question: « …Or was he created in order to stay at least for a moment in the neighborhood of your heart?” That is, Dostoevsky comes to the conclusion that sometimes touching love, walking along the edge of unfulfilled happiness is the whole of life, you can devote yourself to this single memory, as the Dreamer does.

Compositionally, the story consists of 5 chapters, 4 chapters are dedicated to nights in St. Petersburg, the last one is called “Morning”. The construction is symbolic: romantic nights are the stages of the protagonist’s successive falling in love with the main character, stages of his development, and in the end he, morally perfect, stands on the threshold of his morning - epiphany. He has found love, but unrequited, therefore, on the morning of his insight, he gives up his love to another, gets rid of dreams and, experiencing a real feeling, does a real deed.

Morning simultaneously dispels empty hopes and breaks off a series of wonderful meetings; it becomes the beginning and end of the hero’s drama.

Plot of the story

Plot of the story: the young man on whose behalf the story is told came to St. Petersburg 8 years ago. It works, but free time looks at cityscapes and dreams. One day he saves a girl on the embankment who is being pursued by a drunk. The girl tells the Dreamer that she is waiting on the embankment for her lover, who was going to come for her exactly a year ago, having made an appointment for these days. The girl waits for him for several days, but he does not come, and despair begins to overcome her. The dreamer communicates with Nastenka, takes it upon himself to deliver the letter to her lover, and he himself falls in love with the girl. Nastenka also falls in love, and they are even planning to get married, when suddenly the former lover appears again and takes Nastenka away. A cold, dank St. Petersburg morning comes, and the Dreamer feels sobering and devastated.

Main characters

The main character of the story is the Dreamer - the author’s favorite image of a lonely person, completely isolated from outside world and living in a vicious circle of his dreams.

The Dreamer is a 26-year-old resident of St. Petersburg. He is educated, but poor, has certain prospects, but has no worldly desires. He serves somewhere, but does not get along with colleagues and others around him - for example, women. He's not interested in anything household side life, no money, no girls, he is constantly immersed in illusory romantic dreams and during periods of contact with the surrounding world he experiences a painful feeling of alienation to this world. He compares himself to a dirty kitten, not needed by anyone in the world and experiencing reciprocal resentment and enmity. However, he would not be irresponsible if they needed him - after all, people are not disgusting to him, he would be ready to help someone, he is capable of empathy.

The dreamer is a typical “little man” ( social status, inability to act, immobility, invisibility of existence) and “ extra person"(he feels himself like that, despising only himself for his uselessness).

The main character, the 17-year-old girl Nastenka, is contrasted with the Dreamer as an active, acting character. Despite her outward fragility and naivety and young age, she is stronger than the Dreamer in the search for happiness. The writer uses many words with diminutive suffixes - “eyes”, “hands”, “pretty”, emphasizing the childishness and spontaneity of the image, its playfulness, restlessness, like a child. By the habits of a child, by the heart it is - real woman: skillfully uses the help of an adult man, but at the same time, having clearly recognized his sensitive and indecisive nature, stubbornly does not notice his feelings. At a critical moment, however, when it becomes clear that her lover has abandoned her, she quickly orients herself and finally notices these very feelings. At the moment of the appearance of a potential husband, he again looks at the Dreamer’s feelings as friendly participation. However, should we blame the girl for being fickle? In the end, she faithfully waited for her main happiness for a whole year, and there is no insincerity in the fact that she almost went over to the Dreamer - the life of a lonely, fragile girl in a large and hostile St. Petersburg is difficult and dangerous, she needs support and support.

Nastenka writes a letter to the Dreamer, in which she thanks him for participating in her story. Having received the letter, the Dreamer does not feel sad - he sincerely wishes happiness to the girl and, repeating the idea of ​​the epigraph, says that a whole minute of bliss with Nastenka is what is enough for a lifetime.

Dostoevsky's contemporaries saw in the story French utopian ideas, which they were all passionate about. The main thesis of the utopians of the 1840s was the desire for silent feat, sacrifice, and renunciation of love in favor of other people. Dostoevsky was deeply devoted to these ideas, which is why the type of love he describes is so ideal.

At the very beginning of the “sentimental novel,” the author introduces us to the dreamer. On one of the St. Petersburg white nights, the dreamer meets and becomes acquainted with Nastenka. He immediately reveals to her everything about himself, about his seemingly monotonous life. She reciprocates his feelings, and then, without noticing it, the dreamer falls more and more in love with Nastenka. Of course, she understands and feels his love for her. With the help of their relationship, the author reveals to us many themes: the theme of love, hatred, deception, betrayal. And so, when the dreamer and Nastenka
have already confessed their feelings to each other, when the third hero appears, about whom we already know a lot from Nastenka’s stories. She has to make a difficult choice, not only for herself, but also for the other heroes.

It is this moment, from my point of view, that is the most culminating in the entire work. Before this, the dreamer was very happy: he was happy in his novels, which he created in his dreams, and then he met Nastenka. But this happiness, real, turned out to be short-lived. Nastenka still leaves with her former lover, and the dreamer “stood for a long time and looked after them...”. But why didn’t the dreamer think about himself, about his future, about his loneliness, and didn’t even try to do anything so that Nastenka would stay with him? Maybe it's all about him, his character?
Nastenka lived with her blind grandmother. And once, because Nastenka did something naughty, grandma pinned her dress to hers. So Nastenka sat next to her grandmother, but a new tenant appeared. It was him that Nastenka fell in love with. She even went to see him before leaving, but he turned out to be a decent man and did not take her with him, but only promised to come for her exactly a year later.

The story “White Nights” itself is structured in a very interesting way. Here the chapters are called: “Night One”, “Night Two”, etc. There is a lot in the text artistic techniques. The author often uses the technique of parallelism: almost every chapter begins with a description of nature, and we can know in advance how this chapter will end, sadly or cheerfully.

In the story, it seems to me, there is no sharp division into negative and goodies. I don’t blame Nastenka for leaving the dreamer alone with his thoughts again. She did as her heart told her. The dreamer himself doesn’t blame her for this either: “A whole minute of bliss! Is this really not enough for a person’s entire life?..”

But I blame, I perhaps to some extent despise the dreamer. In my opinion, he could have made Nastenka stay with him, and he should have shown at least a little persistence, he had every right to do so. He deserved it, I would say.

Lev Shestov (Russian existentialist philosopher) said that if Dostoevsky's great novels, such as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, The Adolescent and The Brothers Karamazov, had not been published, then perhaps , the writer’s early works would never have reached the reader of the 20th century.

The focus is on “White Nights”: characteristics of Nastenka and other characters. So let's get started.

Main character

A young man of 26 years old is a dreamer. Lives mainly by his own fantasies, in real life rarely peeks out. One day, having nothing better to do, he went wandering around the city, and became so carried away by the walk that he went out of town. There he enjoyed the free natural air. When the hero was returning home late in the evening, he met a young thin girl who for some reason was crying.

The young man did not dare to speak to her right away. Meanwhile, she crossed to the other side of the street. The hero saw that a drunk was about to accost her there. The dreamer heroically saved the girl from trouble. True, there was no assault: it turned out that just the presence of young man next to a beautiful stranger.

The hero overcomes his embarrassment and accompanies the girl home. Along the way he tells her about himself, about his poverty, fantasies, secret hopes. Then the young people reach their destination and say goodbye, agreeing to meet again tomorrow. At this point in the work “White Nights” the characterization of Nastenka is not at all clear to the reader. One thing is clear: this is a young and, apparently, unhappy girl.

Nastenka's story. Characteristics of the main character

All the events of Dostoevsky's work take place on white nights (hence the name) in St. Petersburg. For all the classics, there is enough description of four meetings of heroes. Moreover, the first of them went on as a prelude to the girl’s story, which is the whole point of the work. The question of what is the role of Nastenka’s story in the story “White Nights” will disappear by itself after its description.

"Pinned" girl

Nastya has not left her grandmother’s side in the morning or afternoon for two years now. She almost went blind, and for some unreported offense, a relative literally attached the girl to herself so that she would not do anything else. Nastya is an orphan, her parents died, and she stayed with her grandmother. They have two rooms in the house: they live in one, and the grandmother rents the other - this is their only source of existence, except for the old woman’s pension.

And then a tenant came to see them - a young man. As a result of one awkward episode, he realized that Nastya was fastened to her grandmother with a pin. He took pity on the girl, began giving her books and taking her to the theater. She, of course, fell in love with the benefactor, opened up to him, but he said that he could not marry her yet, since he did not have enough money at the moment for such a responsible step, and he needed to go to Moscow for a year in the near future. If during this time Nastya’s feelings for him do not change, then he will come in exactly a year and marry her.

On the same day when the heroes met, a year or a little more had passed since the agreement, but the young man did not appear at the appointed place, although he was already in the city, which the girl knew well. The reason for Nastenka's tears is revealed to the dreamer. Now it should be clear to the reader what the role of Nastenka’s story is in the story “White Nights”. And if not, then we will helpfully tell him: the entire plot of Dostoevsky’s not very entertaining work is built on it.

But let's move on. Now we are ready to determine the very essence of the main character of the essay. Dostoevsky’s work (“White Nights”) is sentimental. Nastenka’s characterization, oddly enough, is the opposite, devoid of sentimentality. The girl is not too smart, but not too stupid either. She has a taste for literature, or rather, she loves stories. She came across the groom by chance, but she grabbed him like a straw in order to escape from the blind grandmother who was disgusted with her. Probably, as a conscientious girl, she was also tormented by guilt due to the fact that she did not love her elderly relative too much. And, nevertheless, she was on the verge of despair and, perhaps, madness, when the groom suddenly got off the hook, because he personified the way out of life’s captivity. It is precisely this interpretation that the story “White Nights” leads the reader to. Nastenka’s characterization, of course, is not too flattering and sentimental, but it is truthful. Fortunately for the heroine, all is not lost.

An endlessly reflective dreamer wants to help the girl and invites her to compose a letter for her betrothed, and he will take it where it should be. Surprisingly, the necessary letter has already been written by the girl, and the hero is given clear instructions to whom exactly it should be given. It cannot be said that Nastya deliberately manipulates the dreamer, exploiting his love; she does it involuntarily and innocently.

The meeting ends with Nastya and the dreamer singing songs. It’s clear why she’s happy, but he, apparently, hopes to serve her and get reciprocal feelings from the girl and, anticipating this event, sings.

Third and fourth nights. The end of the story

We are not interested in the characteristics of the hero. Nastenka (“White Nights” we consider further) also occupies us a lot. All that remains is to tell the story to the end.

Third meeting. The tension is rising. The girl’s friend does not respond to the letter he sent, she is in an extreme state of exaltation (to be honest, the characters do not leave this state for a minute during the entire narrative). The dreamer, on the contrary, became depressed. He realized that his chances of reciprocity were rapidly approaching zero. The girl tries to somehow console him and reassure him of her friendly disposition. Naturally, this does not make it any easier for the dreamer.

Fourth night. The girl has almost plunged into the abyss of despair; the right moment has come for the hero - he confesses his love. They say all sorts of “sweets,” and Nastenka is ready to forget the groom who betrayed her, but then he appears in person, and Nastya, having forgotten about her dreamer friend, rushes into the arms of her old love.

The next day she writes a letter to the dreamer, in which she says that everything is fine with her, and that she and her lover will soon get married. The main character can only remember the adventure that happened to him under the pale light of the white nights, and yearn for lost love. The characteristics of the heroes of the work “White Nights” are ready. We left aside only the groom for the reason that his nature could not be determined in any way. This character is of a purely decorative and instrumental nature in the narrative of the Russian classic.

The Dreamer is the main character of the novel “White Nights”, the narrator. There is a lot of autobiography in the image. Perhaps one of the prototypes is the poet A. N. Pleshcheev (1825 - 1893), some motives of his lyrics are reinterpreted in the hero’s confession. We compare it with Gogol’s Piskarev from the story “Nevsky Prospekt” and many heroes of Western and Russian romantic writers. He is twenty-six years old. He is impressionable, sentimental, sympathetic and kind. He has lived in St. Petersburg for eight years and has no friends or acquaintances. The Dreamer’s only friend is St. Petersburg with its streets and houses, each of which “seems to run ahead of me into the street, looks at me through all the windows and almost says: “Hello; How is your health?

Although at the beginning of the work we find the hero in some melancholy, nevertheless he describes not her, but his happy states, and that is why the image of the hero, unlike most other works of Dostoevsky, is permeated with a bright and light spring feeling. In the rapture of finding an interlocutor and listener - Nastenka - the Dreamer talks about himself so pathetically and literaryly that she even interrupts him, asking him to tell the story, “somehow it’s not so wonderful.” Dreaming is characterized by the hero and the author not only positively. The hero, despite all his rapture, understands that “such a life is a crime and a sin.” He dreams of a real, authentic life, the way ordinary people live - “living in reality” and which is more full-blooded and rich than any ethereal dreams. Meeting Nastenka and falling in love with her opens his soul towards real living life. It's like he's waking up from a long sleep. Having parted with Nastenka, the Dreamer does not cherish his resentment, but only feels gratitude to her “for a minute of bliss and happiness.”

Nastenka - main character novel "White Nights" by Dostoevsky. She is seventeen years old. "Pretty brunette", perky and full of life, simple-minded and insightful. Orphan. She meets the Dreamer on a St. Petersburg street (he saves her from being pursued by an unknown gentleman), listens to his confession, and feels sorry for him. Having become friends with him, she also tells him her life story. She lives with her grandmother, who forces her to be with her all the time. This addiction torments the heroine. Having fallen in love with the lodger, Nastenka decides to leave with him, but he - due to his poverty and instability - cannot marry her yet, but promises that as soon as his circumstances change, he will come for her. Nastenka knows that now this man is again in St. Petersburg, but nevertheless does not make himself known. The dreamer generously helps the heroine write a letter to her lover. They are waiting for an answer, but there is no response. Disappointed Nastenka realizes that now she has no closer and more devoted friend than the Dreamer, and decides to throw in her lot with him. However, her lover unexpectedly appears, and the happy heroine leaves with him, leaving the Dreamer in his former loneliness.

The story "White Nights" is one of early works F. M. Dostoevsky, which is dedicated to the world of “little people”, poor, unadapted to the cruelty of the world, modest but sensual, dreamy and almost always doomed.

Nastenka is one of the “little” heroines, but somewhat atypical for Dostoevsky, since she is active, lively and mobile, devoid of the amorphous nature usual for such heroes, and is inclined to search, to change her life, to seek success. The reader meets Nastenka soon after the main character, the Dreamer, is introduced into the story. A young man notices a beautiful young brunette on one of the bridges in St. Petersburg. A pretty girl in a flirtatious outfit is dissonant with the image of the city, moreover, some annoying gentleman begins to pursue her with a very clear goal, and the Dreamer saves the girl. Nastenka immediately demonstrates to her new acquaintance all her openness, childishness and simplicity - she tells the whole story of her life.

Characteristics of the heroine

(Lyudmila Marchenko as Nastenka in the film "White Nights" 1959)

Nastenka immediately demonstrates to her new acquaintance all her openness, childishness and simplicity - she tells the whole story of her life. An orphan, she was raised by her grandmother after the death of both parents. She didn’t study anything special, although her grandmother hired her a teacher until she was 15, but she has a potential craving for beauty. The girl is restless, playful and at 17 she remains a child. In order not to lose her pupil, the grandmother even pinned her skirt to her own (the punishment followed a certain “misdemeanor”, ​​the details of which Nastenka does not disclose). Just like Samson’s daughter Vyrina in the story “ Stationmaster", forced to be virtually locked within four walls, a young and bored captive, Nastenka accomplishes her woman's destiny- falls in love with his grandmother's lodger and comes to the object of his passion with a ready-made bundle of things in his hands, ready for an instant escape. However, the “tenant” offers Nastenka a year of deferment - during this time he will need to work in Moscow, get a job and accumulate savings. The year is coming to an end - and the girl is patiently waiting for her beloved to come for her.

Thus, Nastenka amazingly combines naivety and strength of character, dreaminess and amazing faith in this dream, tender fragility, supported external beauty(“pretty brunette”, “pretty”, with a ringing laugh, charming) and perseverance.

The image of the heroine in the work

(Oleg Strizhenov - The Dreamer and Lyudmila Marchenko - Nastenka in the film "White Nights" 1959)

In describing the appearance of the heroine, diminutive words prevail - tender, hands, eyes, pretty, hat, mantle. This probably corresponds to the ideals of the author, because Dostoevsky, and after him the Dreamer, cherish and admire this heroine - her touching habits of a child, sensitivity, simplicity.

A factual analysis can reveal some of the girl’s cunning: Nastenka is not so stupid as not to notice the Dreamer’s feelings, but prefers to use his friendly help, correctly recognizing in him a sensitive, sentimental and indecisive nature. In addition, at the moment of providing this friendly assistance, the girl begins to notice that she feels something more than gratitude for the hero, and in fact, her feminine heart tells her to pay attention to the Dreamer as a “backup option” when it seems that her lover has completely abandoned her.

But the author and hero of the work do not blame the girl for changeability, idealizing her. Probably, as the canonical heroine of a “sentimental novel” (this is how Dostoevsky commented on the title of the story), Nastenka should be depicted as ideal - completely pure and gentle, like an angel. Her thoughts remain pure even when in her own farewell letter she writes to the Dreamer: “Oh God! if only I could love you both at once!..” - it really speaks of gratitude, the desire to embrace and warm people who acted kindly towards her with their love.