In which works does the theme of the little man appear? "Little Man" in Russian literature

04.04.2019

Image " little man» in Russian literature

The very concept of “little man” appears in literature before the type of hero itself takes shape. At first, this was a designation for people of the third estate, which became of interest to writers due to the democratization of literature.

In the 19th century, the image of the “little man” became one of the cross-cutting themes of literature. The concept of “little man” was introduced by V.G. Belinsky in his 1840 article “Woe from Wit.” Originally it meant a “simple” person. With the development of psychologism in Russian literature, this image becomes more complex. psychological picture and becomes the most popular character in democratic works of the second half XIX century.

Literary Encyclopedia:

“Little Man” is a number of diverse characters in Russian literature of the 19th century, united by common characteristics: low position in the social hierarchy, poverty, insecurity, which determines the peculiarities of their psychology and the plot role - victims of social injustice and a soulless state mechanism, often personified in the image "significant person" They are characterized by fear of life, humility, meekness, which, however, can be combined with a feeling of injustice of the existing order of things, with wounded pride and even a short-term rebellious impulse, which, as a rule, does not lead to a change in the current situation. The type of “little man” discovered by A. S. Pushkin (“ Bronze Horseman», « Stationmaster") and N.V. Gogol (“The Overcoat”, “Notes of a Madman”), creatively, and sometimes polemically in relation to tradition, rethought F. M. Dostoevsky (Makar Devushkin, Golyadkin, Marmeladov), A. N. Ostrovsky (Balzaminov, Kuligin), A. P. Chekhov (Chervyakov from “The Death of an Official”, the hero of “Thick and Thin”), M. A. Bulgakov (Korotkov from “The Diaboliad”), M. M. Zoshchenko and other Russian writers 19-20 centuries

“The little man” is a type of hero in literature, most often he is a poor, inconspicuous official occupying a small position, whose fate is tragic.

The theme of the “little man” is a “cross-cutting theme” of Russian literature. The appearance of this image is due to the Russian career ladder of fourteen steps, at the bottom of which petty officials, poorly educated, often single or burdened with families, worthy of human understanding, worked and suffered from poverty, lack of rights and insults, each with their own misfortune.

Little people are not rich, invisible, their fate is tragic, they are defenseless.

Pushkin "Station Warden". Samson Vyrin.

Hard worker. Weak person. He loses his daughter and is taken away by the rich hussar Minsky. Social conflict. Humiliated. Can't stand up for himself. Got drunk. Samson was lost in life.

One of the first to put forward the democratic theme of the “little man” in literature was Pushkin. In “Belkin’s Tales,” completed in 1830, the writer paints not only pictures of the life of the nobility (“The Young Lady-Peasant”), but also draws the readers’ attention to the fate of the “little man.”

The fate of the “little man” is shown here realistically for the first time, without sentimental tearfulness, without romantic exaggeration, shown as the result of certain historical conditions, injustice of social relations.

The plot of “The Station Agent” itself conveys a typical social conflict, a broad generalization of reality is expressed, revealed in an individual case tragic fate ordinary man Samson Vyrin.

There is a small post station somewhere at the crossroads of roads. Here live 14th grade official Samson Vyrin and his daughter Dunya - the only joy that brightens up the difficult life of a caretaker, full of shouts and curses from passers-by. But the hero of the story, Samson Vyrin, is quite happy and calm, he has long adapted to the conditions of service, his beautiful daughter Dunya helps him run a simple household. He dreams of simple human happiness, hoping to babysit his grandchildren and spend his old age with his family. But fate is preparing a difficult test for him. A passing hussar, Minsky, takes Dunya away without thinking about the consequences of his action.

The worst thing is that Dunya left with the hussar of her own free will. Having crossed the threshold of a new one, rich life, she abandoned her father. Samson Vyrin goes to St. Petersburg to “return the lost sheep,” but he is kicked out of Dunya’s house. The hussar "grabbed the old man by the collar with a strong hand and pushed him onto the stairs." Unhappy father! How can he compete with a rich hussar! In the end, he receives several banknotes for his daughter. “Tears welled up in his eyes again, tears of indignation! He squeezed the pieces of paper into a ball, threw them on the ground, stamped them with his heel and walked ... "

Vyrin was no longer able to fight. He “thought, waved his hand and decided to retreat.” Samson, after the loss of his beloved daughter, became lost in life, drank himself to death and died in longing for his daughter, grieving over her possible pitiful fate.

About people like him, Pushkin writes at the beginning of the story: “We will, however, be fair, we will try to enter into their position and, perhaps, we will begin to judge them much more leniently.”

The truth of life, sympathy for the “little man”, insulted at every step by bosses higher in rank and position - this is what we feel when reading the story. Pushkin cares about this “little man” who lives in grief and need. The story, which so realistically depicts the “little man,” is imbued with democracy and humanity.

Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman". Eugene

Evgeniy is a “little man.” The city played fatal role in fate. Loses his fiancée during a flood. All his dreams and hopes for happiness were lost. Lost my mind. In sick madness, the Nightmare challenges the “idol on a bronze horse”: the threat of death under the bronze hooves.

The image of Evgeniy embodies the idea of confrontation common man and states.

“The poor man was not afraid for himself.” "The blood boiled." “A flame ran through my heart,” “It’s for you!” Evgeny’s protest is an instant impulse, but stronger than Samson Vyrin’s.

The image of a shining, lively, lush city is replaced in the first part of the poem by a picture of a terrible, destructive flood, expressive images of a raging element over which man has no control. Among those whose lives were destroyed by the flood is Eugene, whose peaceful concerns the author speaks of at the beginning of the first part of the poem. Evgeny is an “ordinary man” (“little” man): he has neither money nor rank, “serves somewhere” and dreams of setting up a “humble and simple shelter” for himself in order to marry the girl he loves and go through life’s journey with her.

…Our hero

Lives in Kolomna, serves somewhere,

Avoids nobles...

He does not make great plans for the future; he is satisfied with a quiet, inconspicuous life.

What was he thinking about? About,

That he was poor, that he worked hard

He had to deliver

Both independence and honor;

What could God add to him?

Mind and money.

The poem does not indicate the hero's surname or his age; nothing is said about Eugene's past, his appearance, or character traits. Having deprived Evgeny of individual characteristics, the author turns him into an ordinary, typical person from the crowd. However, in an extreme, critical situation, Eugene seems to awaken from a dream, and throws off the guise of a “nonentity” and opposes the “brass idol”. In a state of madness, he threatens the Bronze Horseman, considering the man who built the city on this ruinous place to be the culprit of his misfortune.

Pushkin looks at his heroes from the outside. They do not stand out for their intelligence or their position in society, but they are kind and decent people, and therefore worthy of respect and sympathy.

Conflict

Pushkin for the first time in Russian literature showed all the tragedy and intractability of the conflict between the state and state interests and the interests of the private individual.

Plot-wise, the poem is completed, the hero died, but the central conflict remained and was conveyed to the readers, unresolved in reality itself, the antagonism of the “upper” and “lower”, the autocratic government and the dispossessed people remained. The symbolic victory of the Bronze Horseman over Eugene is a victory of strength, but not of justice.

Gogol “The Overcoat” Akaki Akikievich Bashmachkin

"The Eternal Titular Advisor." Resignedly endures the ridicule of his colleagues, timid and lonely. Poor spiritual life. The author's irony and compassion. The image of a city that is scary for the hero. Social conflict: “little man” and the soulless representative of power “significant person”. The element of fantasy (ghost) is the motive of rebellion and retribution.

Gogol opens to the reader the world of “little people”, officials in his “Petersburg Tales”. The story “The Overcoat” is especially significant for revealing this topic; Gogol had a great influence on the further movement of Russian literature, “echoing” Dostoevsky in the works of its most diverse figures and Shchedrin to Bulgakov and Sholokhov. “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat,” wrote Dostoevsky.

Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin - “eternal titular adviser.” He meekly endures the ridicule of his colleagues, he is timid and lonely. The senseless clerical work killed every living thought in him. His spiritual life is meager. He finds his only pleasure in copying papers. He lovingly wrote out the letters in a clean, even handwriting and completely immersed himself in his work, forgetting the insults caused to him by his colleagues, and the need, and worries about food and comfort. Even at home, he only thought that “God will send something to rewrite tomorrow.”

But the man in this downtrodden official also woke up when the goal of life appeared - a new overcoat. The development of the image is observed in the story. “He somehow became more lively, even stronger in character. Doubt and indecision naturally disappeared from his face and from his actions...” Bashmachkin does not part with his dream for a single day. He thinks about it like another person thinks about love, about family. So he orders himself a new overcoat, “...his existence has somehow become fuller...” The description of the life of Akaki Akakievich is permeated with irony, but there is also pity and sadness in it. Taking us into spiritual world of the hero, describing his feelings, thoughts, dreams, joys and sorrows, the author makes it clear what happiness the acquisition of the overcoat was for Bashmachkin and what a disaster its loss turns into.

Did not have happier person than Akaki Akakievich, when the tailor brought him an overcoat. But his joy was short-lived. When he was returning home at night, he was robbed. And none of those around him takes part in his fate. In vain did Bashmachkin seek help from a “significant person.” He was even accused of rebelling against his superiors and “higher ones.” The upset Akaki Akakievich catches a cold and dies.

In the finale, a small, timid man, driven to despair by the world of the powerful, protests against this world. Dying, he “blasphemes”, utters the most scary words, following the words “Your Excellency.” It was a riot, albeit in a dying delirium.

It is not because of the overcoat that the “little man” dies. He becomes a victim of bureaucratic “inhumanity” and “ferocious rudeness,” which, as Gogol argued, lurks under the guise of “refined, educated secularism.” This is the deepest meaning of the story.

The theme of rebellion finds expression in the fantastic image of a ghost that appears on the streets of St. Petersburg after the death of Akaki Akakievich and takes off the overcoats of the offenders.

N.V. Gogol, who in his story “The Overcoat” for the first time shows the spiritual stinginess and squalor of poor people, but also draws attention to the ability of the “little man” to rebel and for this purpose introduces elements of fantasy into his work.

N.V. Gogol deepens the social conflict: the writer showed not only the life of the “little man”, but also his protest against injustice. Even if this “rebellion” is timid, almost fantastic, the hero stands for his rights, against the foundations of the existing order.

Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” Marmeladov

The writer himself noted: “We all came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat.”

Dostoevsky’s novel is imbued with the spirit of Gogol’s “The Overcoat” "Poor people And". This is a story about the fate of the same “little man”, crushed by grief, despair and social lack of rights. The correspondence of the poor official Makar Devushkin with Varenka, who has lost her parents and is being pursued by a pimp, reveals the deep drama of the lives of these people. Makar and Varenka are ready to endure any hardship for each other. Makar, living in extreme need, helps Varya. And Varya, having learned about Makar’s situation, comes to his aid. But the heroes of the novel are defenseless. Their rebellion is a “revolt on their knees.” Nobody can help them. Varya is taken away to certain death, and Makar is left alone with his grief. The lives of two are broken and crippled wonderful people, broken by cruel reality.

Dostoevsky reveals the deep and strong experiences of “little people”.

It is interesting to note that Makar Devushkin reads “The Station Agent” by Pushkin and “The Overcoat” by Gogol. He is sympathetic to Samson Vyrin and hostile to Bashmachkin. Probably because he sees his future in him.

About the fate of the “little man” Semyon Semyonovich Marmeladov was told by F.M. Dostoevsky on the pages of the novel "Crime and Punishment". One after another, the writer reveals to us pictures of hopeless poverty. Dostoevsky chose the dirtiest part of strictly St. Petersburg as the location for the action. Against the backdrop of this landscape, the life of the Marmeladov family unfolds before us.

If in Chekhov the characters are humiliated and do not realize their insignificance, then in Dostoevsky the drunken retired official fully understands his uselessness and uselessness. He is a drunkard, an insignificant person from his point of view, who wants to improve, but cannot. He understands that he has doomed his family, and especially his daughter, to suffering, he worries about this, despises himself, but cannot help himself. “To pity! Why pity me!” Marmeladov suddenly screamed, standing up with his hand outstretched... “Yes! There’s nothing to pity me for! Crucify me on the cross, not pity him! But crucify him, judge, crucify him, and, having crucified him, have pity on him!”

Dostoevsky creates the image of a real fallen man: Marmelad’s annoying sweetness, clumsy florid speech - the property of a beer tribune and a jester at the same time. Awareness of his baseness (“I am a born beast”) only strengthens his bravado. He is disgusting and pathetic at the same time, this drunkard Marmeladov with his florid speech and important bureaucratic bearing.

The mental state of this petty official is much more complex and subtle than that of his literary predecessors - Pushkin's Samson Vyrin and Gogol's Bashmachkin. They do not have the power of self-analysis that Dostoevsky's hero achieved. Marmeladov not only suffers, but also analyzes his state of mind, he, as a doctor, makes a merciless diagnosis of the disease - degradation of his own personality. This is how he confesses in his first meeting with Raskolnikov: “Dear sir, poverty is not a vice, it is the truth. But...poverty is a vice - p. In poverty you still retain all the nobility of your innate feelings, but in poverty no one ever does... for in poverty I am the first to be ready to insult myself.”

A person not only dies from poverty, but understands how spiritually he is becoming empty: he begins to despise himself, but does not see anything around him to cling to that would keep him from the disintegration of his personality. The ending of Marmeladov’s life is tragic: on the street he was run over by a dandy gentleman’s carriage drawn by a pair of horses. Throwing himself at their feet, this man himself found the outcome of his life.

Under the writer's pen, Marmeladov becomes tragically. Marmeladov’s cry - “after all, it is necessary that every person can go somewhere at least” - expresses the final degree of despair of a dehumanized person and reflects the essence of his life drama: there is nowhere to go and no one to go to.

In the novel, Raskolnikov has compassion for Marmeladov. The meeting with Marmeladov in the tavern, his feverish, delirious confession gave the main character of the novel, Raskolnikov, one of the last proofs of the correctness of the “Napoleonic idea.” But not only Raskolnikov has compassion for Marmeladov. “They’ve already felt sorry for me more than once,” Marmeladov says to Raskolnikov. The good general Ivan Afanasyevich took pity on him and accepted him into service again. But Marmeladov could not stand the test, started drinking again, drank away his entire salary, drank it all away and in return received a tattered tailcoat with a single button. Marmeladov in his behavior reached the point of losing the last human qualities. He is already so humiliated that he does not feel like a human being, but only dreams of being a human among people. Sonya Marmeladova understands this and forgives her father, who is able to help her neighbor and sympathize with someone who so needs compassion

Dostoevsky makes us feel sorry for those unworthy of pity, to feel compassion for those unworthy of compassion. “Compassion is the most important and, perhaps, the only law of human existence,” Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky believed.

Chekhov "Death of an Official", "Thick and Thin"

Later, Chekhov would draw a unique conclusion to the development of the theme; he doubted the virtues traditionally sung by Russian literature - the high moral virtues of the “little man” - a petty official. Voluntary groveling, self-abasement of the “little man” - this is the turn of the theme proposed by A.P. Chekhov. If Chekhov “exposed” something in people, then, first of all, their ability and willingness to be “small”. A person should not, does not dare, make himself “small” - this is Chekhov’s main idea in his interpretation of the theme of the “little man.” Summarizing all that has been said, we can conclude that the theme of the “little man” reveals the most important qualities of Russian literature XIX century - democracy and humanism.

Over time, the “little man,” deprived of his own dignity, “humiliated and insulted,” arouses not only compassion but also condemnation among progressive writers. “You live a boring life, gentlemen,” Chekhov said through his work to the “little man” who had come to terms with his situation. With subtle humor, the writer ridicules the death of Ivan Chervyakov, from whose lips the lackey “Yourness” has never left his lips.

In the same year as “The Death of an Official,” the story “Thick and Thin” appears. Chekhov again speaks out against philistinism, against lackeyness. The collegiate servant Porfiry giggles, “like a Chinese,” bowing obsequiously, upon meeting his ex-friend who has a high rank. The feeling of friendship that connected these two people has been forgotten.

Kuprin “Garnet Bracelet”. Zheltkov

In A.I. Kuprin's " Garnet bracelet“Zheltkov is a “little man.” And again the hero belongs to the lower class. But he loves, and he loves in a way that many of them are not capable of high society. Zheltkov fell in love with the girl and all his later life he loved only her alone. He understood that love is sublime feeling, this is a chance given to him by fate, and it should not be missed. His love is his life, his hope. Zheltkov commits suicide. But after the death of the hero, the woman realizes that no one loved her as much as he did. Kuprin's hero is a man of an extraordinary soul, capable of self-sacrifice, able to truly love, and such a gift is rare. Therefore, the “little man” Zheltkov appears as a figure towering above those around him.

Thus, the theme of the “little man” underwent significant changes in the work of writers. Drawing images of “little people”, writers usually emphasized their weak protest, downtroddenness, which subsequently leads the “little man” to degradation. But each of these heroes has something in life that helps him endure existence: Samson Vyrin has a daughter, the joy of life, Akaky Akakievich has an overcoat, Makar Devushkin and Varenka have their love and care for each other. Having lost this goal, they die, unable to survive the loss.

In conclusion, I would like to say that a person should not be small. In one of his letters to his sister, Chekhov exclaimed: “My God, how rich Russia is in good people!”

In XX century, the theme was developed in the images of the heroes I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, M. Gorky and even at the end XX century, you can find its reflection in the works of V. Shukshin, V. Rasputin and other writers.

A little man is a person of low social status and origin, not gifted with outstanding abilities, not distinguished by strength of character, but at the same time kind, does no harm to anyone, and is harmless. Both Pushkin and Gogol, creating the image of a little man, wanted to remind readers who were accustomed to admiring romantic heroes that the most ordinary person is also a person worthy of sympathy, attention, and support.

Writers also turn to the theme of the little man late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century: A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, L. Andreev, F. Sologub, A. Averchenko, K. Trenev, I. Shmelev, S. Yushkevich. The power of tragedy of little people - “heroes of fetid and dark corners” (A. Grigoriev) - was correctly defined by P. Weil:

The little man from the great Russian literature is so small that it cannot be further reduced. Changes could only go upward. This is what the Western followers of our classical tradition. From our Little Man came the heroes of Kafka, Beckett, Camus, who grew to global proportions […]. Soviet culture threw off Bashmachkin's overcoat - onto the shoulders of the living Little Man, who, of course, did not disappear anywhere, simply disappeared from the ideological surface, died in literature.

The little man, who did not fit into the canons of socialist realism, migrated to the literary underground and began to exist in the everyday satire of M. Zoshchenko, M. Bulgakov, V. Voinovich.

From the multifaceted literary gallery of little people, heroes stand out who strive to gain universal respect through changing their material status or appearance (“Luka Prokhorovich” - 1838, E. Grebenki; “The Overcoat” - 1842, N. Gogol); gripped by fear of life (“Man in a Case” - 1898, A. Chekhov; “Our Man in a Case” - 1989, V. Pietsukha); who, in conditions of overwhelming bureaucratic reality, become ill with mental disorders (“Double” - 1846, F. Dostoevsky; “Diaboliad” - 1924, M. Bulgakov); in whom an internal protest against social contradictions coexists with a painful desire to elevate oneself, to acquire wealth, which ultimately leads them to loss of reason (“Notes of a Madman” - 1834, N. Gogol; “The Double” by F. Dostoevsky); whose fear of superiors leads to madness or death (“Weak Heart” - 1848, F. Dostoevsky, “Death of an Official” - 1883, A. Chekhov); who, fearing to expose themselves to criticism, change their behavior and thoughts (“Chameleon” - 1884, A. Chekhov; “Jolly Oysters” - 1910, A. Averchenko); who can find happiness only in love for a woman (“Senile Sin” - 1861, A. Pisemsky; “Mountains” - 1989, E. Popova) who want to change their lives through the use of magical means (“The Right Medicine” - 1840, E. Combs; “Little Man” - 1905, F. Sologuba); who, due to failures in life, decide to commit suicide (“Senile sin” - A. Pisemsky; “The Story of Sergei Petrovich” - 1900, L. Andreeva)

Notes

Literature

Mazurkiewicz E., Mały człowiek, , t. V, pod red. Andrzeja de Lazari, Łódź 2003, s. 152-154.
Gonczarowa O., Sentymentalism, Idea w Rosji. Leksykon rosyjsko-polsko-angielski, t. V, pod red. Andrzeja de Lazari, Łódź 2003, s. 256-260.
Sakharova E. M., Semibratova I. V., Encyclopedia of Russian life, Moscow 1981.

Links

Erofeev, V. Troubling lessons Little devil
Dmitrievskaya, L.N. A new look at the image of the “little man” in the story by N.V. Gogol’s “The Overcoat” // Russian language, literature, culture at school and university. - Kyiv, No. 4, 2009. P.2-5.
Epstein, M. Little man in a case: Bashmachkin-Belikov syndrome

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Synonyms:

See what “Little Man” is in other dictionaries:

Trifle, fifth spoke in a chariot, small fry, zero, nothing, not a great bird, empty space, nobody, retired goat drummer, small fry, zero without a stick, insignificance, tenth spoke, little ones of this world, small fry, pawn, styutsky, last spoke V… … Synonym dictionary

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"SMALL MAN"- in literature, the designation of rather heterogeneous heroes, united by the fact that they occupy one of the lowest places in the social hierarchy and that this circumstance determines their psychology and social behavior(humiliation combined with a feeling... Literary encyclopedic Dictionary

Razg. Neglect or Iron. An insignificant, socially or intellectually insignificant person. BMS 1998, 618 ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

"Small man"- a generalized name for a person who occupies a low social position and plays an inconspicuous role in the socio-economic structure of the state. This definition, essentially an ideological mythologem, was put into use literary critics… … Fundamentals of spiritual culture (teacher's encyclopedic dictionary)

A number of diverse characters in Russian literature of the 19th century, united by common characteristics: low position in the social hierarchy, poverty, insecurity, which determines the peculiarities of their psychology and the plot role - victims of social... ... Literary encyclopedia

Little Man Tate ... Wikipedia

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- “THE LITTLE MAN IN THE BIG WAR”, USSR, UZBEKFILM, 1989, color, 174 min. Tale of the war years. Cast: Pulat Saidkasymov (see SAIDKASYMOV Pulat), Muhammadzhan Rakhimov (see RAKHIMOV Muhammadzhan), Matlyuba Alimova (see ALIMOVA Matlyuba Farkhatovna), ... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema

Books

Little Man (the story of one child), A. Daudet. Petrograd, 1916. Second edition by V. I. Gubinsky. Owner's binding. Temporary spots. The condition is good. With 65 illustrations. THE LITTLE MAN (later published as...

The image of the “little man” in Russian literature

In the 19th century, the image of the “little man” became one of the cross-cutting themes of literature. The concept of “little man” was introduced by V.G. Belinsky in his 1840 article “Woe from Wit.” Originally it meant a “simple” person. With the development of psychologism in Russian literature, this image acquires a more complex psychological portrait and becomes the most popular character in democratic works of the second half XIX century.

Literary Encyclopedia:

“Little Man” is a number of diverse characters in Russian literature of the 19th century, united by common characteristics: low position in the social hierarchy, poverty, insecurity, which determines the peculiarities of their psychology and the plot role - victims of social injustice and a soulless state mechanism, often personified in the image "significant person" They are characterized by fear of life, humility, meekness, which, however, can be combined with a feeling of injustice of the existing order of things, with wounded pride and even a short-term rebellious impulse, which, as a rule, does not lead to a change in the current situation. The type of “little man”, discovered by A. S. Pushkin (“The Bronze Horseman”, “The Station Agent”) and N. V. Gogol (“The Overcoat”, “Notes of a Madman”), is creative and sometimes polemical in relation to tradition , rethought by F. M. Dostoevsky (Makar Devushkin, Golyadkin, Marmeladov), A. N. Ostrovsky (Balzaminov, Kuligin), A. P. Chekhov (Chervyakov from “The Death of an Official,” the hero of “Thick and Thin”), M. A. Bulgakov (Korotkov from “The Diaboliad”), M. M. Zoshchenko and other Russian writers of the 19-20 centuries.

“The little man” is a type of hero in literature, most often he is a poor, inconspicuous official occupying a small position, whose fate is tragic.

Little people are not rich, invisible, their fate is tragic, they are defenseless.

Pushkin "Station Warden". Samson Vyrin.

Hard worker. Weak person. He loses his daughter and is taken away by the rich hussar Minsky. Social conflict. Humiliated. Can't stand up for himself. Got drunk. Samson was lost in life.

The fate of the “little man” is shown here realistically for the first time, without sentimental tearfulness, without romantic exaggeration, shown as a result of certain historical conditions, the injustice of social relations.

The plot of “The Station Agent” itself conveys a typical social conflict and expresses a broad generalization of reality, revealed in the individual case of the tragic fate of an ordinary person, Samson Vyrin.

The worst thing is that Dunya left with the hussar of her own free will. Having crossed the threshold of a new, rich life, she abandoned her father. Samson Vyrin goes to St. Petersburg to “return the lost sheep,” but he is kicked out of Dunya’s house. The hussar "grabbed the old man by the collar with a strong hand and pushed him onto the stairs." Unhappy father! How can he compete with a rich hussar! In the end, he receives several banknotes for his daughter. “Tears welled up in his eyes again, tears of indignation! He squeezed the pieces of paper into a ball, threw them on the ground, stamped them with his heel and walked ... "

Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman". Eugene

Evgeniy is a “little man.” The city played a fatal role in fate. Loses his fiancée during a flood. All his dreams and hopes for happiness were lost. Lost my mind. In sick madness, the Nightmare challenges the “idol on a bronze horse”: the threat of death under the bronze hooves.

The image of Evgeniy embodies the idea of confrontation between the common man and the state.

…Our hero

Lives in Kolomna, serves somewhere,

Avoids nobles...

He does not make great plans for the future; he is satisfied with a quiet, inconspicuous life.

What was he thinking about? About,

That he was poor, that he worked hard

He had to deliver

Both independence and honor;

What could God add to him?

Mind and money.

Conflict

Pushkin for the first time in Russian literature showed all the tragedy and intractability of the conflict between the state and state interests and the interests of the private individual.

Gogol “The Overcoat” Akaki Akikievich Bashmachkin

But the man in this downtrodden official also woke up when the goal of life appeared - a new overcoat. The development of the image is observed in the story. “He somehow became more lively, even stronger in character. Doubt and indecision naturally disappeared from his face and from his actions...” Bashmachkin does not part with his dream for a single day. He thinks about it like another person thinks about love, about family. So he orders himself a new overcoat, “...his existence has somehow become fuller...” The description of the life of Akaki Akakievich is permeated with irony, but there is also pity and sadness in it. Introducing us into the spiritual world of the hero, describing his feelings, thoughts, dreams, joys and sorrows, the author makes it clear what a happiness it was for Bashmachkin to acquire an overcoat and what a disaster its loss turns into.

There was no happier person than Akaki Akakievich when the tailor brought him an overcoat. But his joy was short-lived. When he was returning home at night, he was robbed. And none of those around him takes part in his fate. In vain did Bashmachkin seek help from a “significant person.” He was even accused of rebelling against his superiors and “higher ones.” The upset Akaki Akakievich catches a cold and dies.

In the finale, a small, timid man, driven to despair by the world of the powerful, protests against this world. Dying, he “blasphemes” and utters the most terrible words that follow the words “your excellency.” It was a riot, albeit in a dying delirium.

Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” Marmeladov

The writer himself noted: “We all came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat.”

Dostoevsky’s novel is imbued with the spirit of Gogol’s “The Overcoat” "Poor people And". This is a story about the fate of the same “little man”, crushed by grief, despair and social lack of rights. The correspondence of the poor official Makar Devushkin with Varenka, who has lost her parents and is being pursued by a pimp, reveals the deep drama of the lives of these people. Makar and Varenka are ready to endure any hardship for each other. Makar, living in extreme need, helps Varya. And Varya, having learned about Makar’s situation, comes to his aid. But the heroes of the novel are defenseless. Their rebellion is a “revolt on their knees.” Nobody can help them. Varya is taken away to certain death, and Makar is left alone with his grief. The lives of two beautiful people are broken, crippled, shattered by cruel reality.

Dostoevsky reveals the deep and strong experiences of “little people”.

F.M. told about the fate of the “little man” Semyon Semyonovich Marmeladov. Dostoevsky on the pages of the novel "Crime and Punishment". One after another, the writer reveals to us pictures of hopeless poverty. Dostoevsky chose the dirtiest part of strictly St. Petersburg as the location for the action. Against the backdrop of this landscape, the life of the Marmeladov family unfolds before us.

The mental state of this petty official is much more complex and subtle than that of his literary predecessors - Pushkin's Samson Vyrin and Gogol's Bashmachkin. They do not have the power of self-analysis that Dostoevsky's hero achieved. Marmeladov not only suffers, but also analyzes his state of mind; as a doctor, he makes a merciless diagnosis of the disease - the degradation of his own personality. This is how he confesses in his first meeting with Raskolnikov: “Dear sir, poverty is not a vice, it is the truth. But...poverty is a vice - p. In poverty you still retain all the nobility of your innate feelings, but in poverty no one ever does... for in poverty I am the first to be ready to insult myself.”

Under the writer's pen, Marmeladov becomes a tragic figure. Marmeladov’s cry - “after all, it is necessary that every person can go somewhere at least” - expresses the final degree of despair of a dehumanized person and reflects the essence of his life drama: there is nowhere to go and no one to go to.

In the novel, Raskolnikov has compassion for Marmeladov. The meeting with Marmeladov in the tavern, his feverish, delirious confession gave the main character of the novel, Raskolnikov, one of the last proofs of the correctness of the “Napoleonic idea.” But not only Raskolnikov has compassion for Marmeladov. “They’ve already felt sorry for me more than once,” Marmeladov says to Raskolnikov. The good general Ivan Afanasyevich took pity on him and accepted him into service again. But Marmeladov could not stand the test, started drinking again, drank away his entire salary, drank it all away and in return received a tattered tailcoat with a single button. Marmeladov in his behavior reached the point of losing his last human qualities. He is already so humiliated that he does not feel like a human being, but only dreams of being a human among people. Sonya Marmeladova understands this and forgives her father, who is able to help her neighbor and sympathize with someone who so needs compassion

Chekhov "Death of an Official", "Thick and Thin"

In the same year as “The Death of an Official,” the story “Thick and Thin” appears. Chekhov again speaks out against philistinism, against lackeyness. The collegiate servant Porfiry giggles, “like a Chinese,” bowing obsequiously, when he meets his former friend, who has a high rank. The feeling of friendship that connected these two people has been forgotten.

Kuprin “Garnet Bracelet”. Zheltkov

In A.I. Kuprin’s “Garnet Bracelet” Zheltkov is a “little man”. Once again the hero belongs to the lower class. But he loves, and he loves in a way that many in high society are not capable of. Zheltkov fell in love with the girl and throughout his entire life he loved only her alone. He understood that love is a sublime feeling, it is a chance given to him by fate, and it should not be missed. His love is his life, his hope. Zheltkov commits suicide. But after the death of the hero, the woman realizes that no one loved her as much as he did. Kuprin's hero is a man of an extraordinary soul, capable of self-sacrifice, able to truly love, and such a gift is rare. Therefore, the “little man” Zheltkov appears as a figure towering above those around him.

In conclusion, I would like to say that a person should not be small. In one of his letters to his sister, Chekhov exclaimed: “My God, how rich Russia is in good people!”

"Little Man" in literature is designation of rather heterogeneous heroes, united by the fact that they occupy one of the lowest places in the social hierarchy and that this circumstance determines their psychology and social behavior (humiliation combined with a sense of injustice, wounded pride).

Therefore, “The Little Man” often acts in opposition to another character, a high-ranking person, a “significant person” (according to the usage adopted in Russian literature under the influence of “The Overcoat”, 1842, N.V. Gogol), and the development of the plot is built mainly as a story of resentment, insult, misfortune.

"Little Man" has international distribution, and its origins date back to ancient times. The neo-Attic comedy already showed interest in the life of the “Little Man”; The point of view of the “Little Man” was used in Juvenal’s satires, which exposed the moral degradation of those in power. In medieval literature, an example of the implementation of such a point of view is “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik (13th century). One of the first works in European literature, dedicated to the theme of “The Little Man”, is considered to be “The Vicar of Wakefield” (1766) by O. Goldsmith, where the typical plot outline for this theme has already been outlined (persecution of a poor man, seduction of his daughter by a landowner).

The theme of the “Little Man” was consistently developed in Russian literature of the 19th century, especially after “The Station Agent” (1830) by A.S. Pushkin. One of the first cases of the use of the concept is found in V. G. Belinsky’s article “Woe from Wit” (1840), with a clear description of the entire opposition: “Become our mayor<из «Ревизора» Гоголя>general - and when he lives in county town, woe to the little man... then the comedy could turn out to be a tragedy for the “little man”....”

In the 1830-50s, the theme of “The Little Man” was developed in Russian literature mainly in line with the story about a poor official; evolution took place central character, rethinking the motives of his behavior. If the object of Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin’s aspirations is a thing, an overcoat, then in the works natural school(Ya.P.Butkov, A.N.Maikov and others) demonstratively brought to the fore the hero’s attachment to his daughter, bride, lover, the discrepancy between his official (work) and home life was emphasized, primary attention was paid to the motives of honor, pride, “ ambition."

This process reached its culmination point in “Poor People” (1846) by F.M. Dostoevsky, which was emphasized by the polemical repulsion of the main character of the story from Gogol’s Bashmachkin. In the literature of the second half of the 19th century, the theme of the “Little Man” continued to develop in the works of Dostoevsky, A.N. Ostrovsky, E. Zola, A. Daudet, and among verists (see Verism). At the origins of the theme in modern literature stands Svejk (J. Hasek. The adventures of the good soldier Svejk during the World War, 1921-23), whose naivety and “idiocy” are the flip side of wisdom that protects him from the omnipotence of militarism and bureaucracy.

The theme of depicting a “little man” is not new in Russian literature. At one time the problem of man was given great attention N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov and others. The first writer who opened the world of “little people” to us was N.M. Karamzin. The greatest influence on subsequent literature was made by his story “ Poor Lisa" The author laid the foundation for a huge series of works about “little people” and took the first step into this previously unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such writers of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.

A.S. Pushkin was the next writer whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages, St. Petersburg and Moscow opened up not only from a luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor houses. For the first time, Russian literature so piercingly and clearly showed the distortion of personality by an environment hostile to it. Samson Vyrin (“Station Warden”) and Evgeny (“Bronze Horseman”) precisely represent the petty bureaucracy of that time. But A.S. Pushkin points us to a “little man” whom we must notice.

Lermontov explored this topic even more deeply than Pushkin. Naive charm folk character recreated by the poet in the image of Maxim Maksimych. Lermontov's heroes, his “little people,” are different from all the previous ones. These are no longer passive people like Pushkin, and not illusory people like Karamzin, these are people in whose souls the ground is already ready for a cry of protest to the world in which they live.

N.V. Gogol purposefully defended the right to depict the “little man” as an object of literary research. In N.V. Gogol, a person is entirely limited by his social status. Akakiy Akakievich gives the impression of a man not only downtrodden and pathetic, but also completely stupid. He certainly has feelings, but they are small and boil down to the joy of owning an overcoat. And only one feeling is huge in him - fear. According to Gogol, the system of social structure is to blame for this, and his “little man” dies not from humiliation and insult, but more from fear.

For F. M. Dostoevsky, the “little man” is, first of all, a personality that is certainly deeper than Samson Vyrin or Akaki Akakievich. F. M. Dostoevsky calls his novel “Poor People.” The author invites us to feel, experience everything together with the hero and brings us to the idea that “little people” are not only individuals in the full sense of the word, but their sense of personality, their ambition is much greater even than that of people with a position in society. “Little people” are the most vulnerable, and what is scary for them is that everyone else will not see their spiritually rich nature. Makar Devushkin considers his help to Varenka to be some kind of charity, thereby showing that he is not a limited poor man, thinking only about collecting and withholding money. He, of course, does not suspect that this help is driven not by the desire to stand out, but by love. But this once again proves to us main idea Dostoevsky - the “little man” is capable of high, deep feelings. We find a continuation of the theme of the “little man” in F. M. Dostoevsky’s first big problem novel, “Crime and Punishment.” The most important and new thing, in comparison with other writers who explored this topic, is the ability of the downtrodden man Dostoevsky to look into himself, the ability of introspection and appropriate actions. The writer subjects the characters to detailed self-analysis; no other writer, in essays and stories that sympathetically depicted the life and customs of the urban poor, had such leisurely and concentrated psychological insight and depth of depiction of the character of the characters.

The theme of the “little man” is revealed especially clearly in the works of A.P. Chekhov. Exploring the psychology of his heroes, Chekhov discovers a new psychological type- a serf by nature, a creature by the soul and spiritual needs of a reptile. Such, for example, is Chervyakov, who finds true pleasure in humiliation. The reasons for the humiliation of the “little man,” according to Chekhov, are himself.