The hero of L. Andreev’s story “Angel” is a man with a rebellious soul. He cannot calmly accept evil and humiliation and takes revenge on the world for the suppression of his own personality and individuality. Sashka does this in the ways that come to his mind: he beats his comrades, is rude, tears up textbooks. He is trying with all his might to attract attention to himself and force him to be taken into account.
Against the background of a description of Sashka’s life, Andreev shows difficult relationships in his parents' family. Spouses, instead of supporting each other, take out their frustrations on each other. Having married Feoktista Petrovna, Ivan Savich began to drink and became despondent. But once he taught, he was valued and respected. This is evidenced by the fact that the rich Svechnikovs continue to support him with money, although he no longer works for them.
Sashka's attempt to gain freedom led to him being expelled from the gymnasium. And suddenly fate unexpectedly sent him a gift: he was invited to a rich house for a Christmas tree.
Even at a holiday, the hero behaves arrogantly. Bitterness reigns in his soul. “Sashka was gloomy and sad - something bad was happening in his little ulcerated heart. The tree blinded him with its beauty and the loud, insolent shine of countless candles, but it was alien to him, hostile, like the clean, beautiful children who had accumulated around it, and he wanted to push it so that it would fall on those bright heads,” writes L. Andreev. And suddenly Sashka sees on this hated Christmas tree something without which his life was empty - a wax angel. The author does not skimp on artistic details when describing a wax angel, emphasizing its pink hands and dragonfly wings. However, with all this detail, the angel’s facial expression remains elusive. This is not joy or sadness, but some other feeling, for which the author does not find a name for a long time. Sashka, seeing the angel, whispers only one word: “Darling.” The hero asks to give him an angel, and when they try to refuse him, he falls to his knees, forgetting his pride, and begs for a toy. Having received it, the hero is literally transformed. Softness and caution appear in his movements. The angel personifies in the work that wonderful world where there is no abuse, dirt and selfishness, and the soul is pure, joyful and light: “The smell of wax coming from the toy was mixed with an elusive aroma, and it seemed to the deceased person how they touched the angel... dear fingers that he would like to kiss one at a time and for so long, until death closes his lips forever.” This feeling is love, happiness and the desire to live. At the end of the work, Sashka falls asleep happy, while the angel hanging by the stove begins to melt and eventually turns into a shapeless ingot.
“Angel” is dedicated to Alexandra Mikhailovna Veligorskaya, who became the writer’s wife. The work has an autobiographical basis: in childhood, the writer once melted such an angel. Emphasizing the fragility of the image of the wax angel, Andreev thereby shows how illusory the happiness of the humiliated and disadvantaged in this world is. Yes, probably, not only the social plane of perception of reality is important in this regard, but also the universal one: each of us needs love, because only then does a feeling of happiness come to him. But each of us must understand how fragile and fleeting this feeling is. The image of a toy angel also correlates with the image of a guardian angel.
Leonid Andreev is a Russian writer and artist. He did not write many works and lived a short life. But the name of this author stands apart in the history of Russian literature. He doesn't look like anyone else. His prose is amazing and makes you think. I want to re-read the works of this extraordinary author again and again. The life and work of Leonid Andreev is the topic of the article.
Childhood
Leonid Andreev, whose stories are imbued with deep philosophy, was born in Orel on Pushkarnaya Street - the very same street where his characters Geraska and Bergamot lived. In the year when the future writer was born, some financial stability finally reigned in the family of the land surveyor-taxator.
Nikolai Ivanovich Andreev, the father of the prose writer, was distinguished by his strong and decisive character. He was respected by everyone in the area for his extraordinary sense of justice, to which he was faithful, even while in a drunken stupor. Nikolai Ivanovich, like his son later, had a craving for alcohol.
Leonid Andreev inherited his love for creativity from his mother. Anastasia Nikolaevna, although she was an illiterate woman, knew how to compose extraordinary stories and stories, which greatly pleased her offspring.
As a high school student, Leonid demonstrated an extraordinary gift of speech. He often wrote school essays for your friends. He was remarkably able to recreate the style of great writers. But his real passion was drawing. Leonid Andreev, perhaps, would an outstanding artist. But there was nowhere to study painting in Orel at that time. Throughout his life, the writer returned to his hobby from time to time.
Andreev was prompted to write by reading. Serious attitude he developed a passion for the book when he was still a teenager. His life consisted of fights with neighboring gun boys, drawing, and the works of Jules Verne, Charles Dickens and Mine Reid. All this knowledge and impressions ultimately resulted in paper. Such characters as Sashka from the work “Angel”, Geraska and Bergamot were born.
Youth
Andreev's development as a writer was significantly influenced by the works of Schopenhauer. "The World as Will and Representation" long years was for him reference book. The future prose writer was barely seventeen when he made an entry in his diary in which he seemed to promise himself that one day, thanks to his writing, he would destroy established canons, and even morality itself. It was as if he saw himself already in the future - scandalous famous writer, author of The Abyss. After all, Leonid Andreev evoked rather contradictory feelings among his contemporaries. His stories, however, had not yet been created on the day when the legendary entry appeared in his diary, quotes from which the fiction writer’s biographers so often cite.
Andreev Leonid Nikolaevich, whose biography includes several suicide attempts and long-term alcoholic binges, was not able to lead a calm, measured life. In his youth, he suffered from constant love interests. Even then, he was monstrously attracted by two forces: love and death.
IN Soviet years Leonid Andreev was forgotten. The biography of this writer was not of interest to literary scholars, because his work did not fit into the framework established by the censors. Today his books are again of interest to readers. But even now they cause controversial debate. It is enough just to remember one of the stories written by Leonid Andreev. “Judas Iscariot” - the story of the most terrible scoundrel in the history of Christianity - is presented so unexpectedly that, despite all the talent of the author, it cannot evoke exclusively positive reviews.
Student years
After graduating from high school, Andreev entered the Faculty of Law. But the training had to be interrupted. Unrequited love pushed the future writer to attempt suicide. Having recovered from emotional distress and illness, he again entered the university. This time in Moscow.
During his student years, Leonid Andreev, unlike most of his peers, had little interest in politics. He was not known to participate in prohibited organizations. But I spent a lot of time reading Nietzsche. So much that the death of the German philosopher in 1900 became almost a personal tragedy for him.
Once during the holidays, while staying in Orel, Andreev met a girl. A romance began, which, like the previous one, ended in the betrayal of his beloved. And the young man again tried to commit suicide. This time the attempt was almost successful. This case had Negative consequences. Until the end of his days, Andreev suffered from chronic heart disease, acquired after a suicide attempt.
The beginning of creativity
After passing the state exams, Leonid Andreev found a job as an assistant lawyer. He had to write boring court reports. But even this he did differently from his colleagues. His notes and reports were distinguished by their lively literary language. It was then that Leonid Andreev began his journey in literature.
His works were first published in the magazine “Courier”. Then he begins to write for Moskovsky Vestnik. Leonid Andreev, whose life was spent with youth very violently, was in constant search for himself. His worldview changed, which can be seen by comparing his early and late works. But the topic of Christianity and forgiveness always interested him.
"Bergamot and Geraska"
This story was published in 1898 by order of the Courier. The work was published in the Easter issue. The story tells about two very different people. One of them is a guard, an efficient, but rather stupid person. The other one is Geraska, a mysterious creature. No one knows exactly where and what he lives on. Few of the residents of Pushkarnaya Street, where he lives, have ever seen him sober. Besides, Geraska steals. That’s why he often walks around beaten.
The story takes place on Easter. Bergamot is on duty. He dreams about when the working day will end and he will go home, where his beloved wife and little son. But the holiday is desecrated by the suddenly appeared Geraska: dirty, drunk, insignificant, swearing obscenely. Bergamot should have taken him to the station. But on the bright day of Easter, something happens in his soul. Instead of sending this unfortunate man to jail, the guard takes him to his home and sits him down at the festive table.
This story can be called Andreev's literary debut. It was after the publication of this work that Maxim Gorky turned to him. And a few months later, the author of “Song of the Petrel” asked young writer send to the senior editor of one of the most popular literary magazines of that time " good story" This is how “Petka at the Dacha” was published.
From jurisprudence to literature
At the time when Muscovites read Andreev’s first stories, he was still working in a law office. Last time he acted as a defender in 1900. Soon he made the final decision to take up literary creativity. His last performance fellow lawyers approved. Despite this, Andreev left the practice of law forever.
As you know, a writer needs not only readers, but also critics. Having freed himself from his unloved work, Andreev began to regularly attend literary evenings. He met Bunin, Kuprin and other prose writers. More experienced writers gave advice and sometimes criticized quite severely. All this was necessary for the young prose writer. He completely plunged into the world of literature. And already in 1901 the first collection of his stories was published.
Glory
After the publication of the first book, Leonid Andreev became famous. The collection was reprinted four times. Prominent literary critics left rave reviews. This collection does not include the works that made Leonid Andreev so beloved by modern readers. “Judas Iscariot”, “The Diary of Satan” - all this was much later. Small prose works that glorified the aspiring writer are stories about ordinary people, stories with a simple plot.
Andreev spoke about what he saw in Orel and Moscow. He told readers ordinary stories, but extracted the main thing from them. And, of course, critics appreciated him live literary language. So, what stories are included in the collection?
“Once upon a time,” “Angel,” “Silence,” “Valya,” “Alyosha the Fool,” “Bite” - all these are works that served as the basis for the writing career of the hero of this article. It’s worth talking about each of them in more detail and you can start with an essay that Leonid Andreev wrote for both children and adults.
"Angel"
Leonid Andreev, an analysis of whose work confirms his original thinking, as well as the influence of such philosophers as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, entered literature thanks to works in which the so-called image of the little man, created by Pushkin, plays an important role. The story “Angel” tells the story of a boy from a poor family. About a little man who was destined to grow up too early.
The father of Sashka, the main character of the story, drinks heavily. The mother is not inferior to her husband in this. Sashka is left to his own devices, and therefore behaves like an adult. This boy resembles an angry wolf cub. He is not used to tenderness and attention. Mother is rude. The father is a weak-willed man. U strangers Sasha is even more unsympathetic.
One day he is invited to a Christmas party children's party, where he sees a wonderful toy on the Christmas tree - a wax figurine in the shape of an angel. Some kind of pleasant excitement occurs in Sashka’s soul. He feels that he needs this angel.
The feelings of the boy, who is deprived of the care of his parents and irritates his teachers, are reminiscent of the experiences of Geraska from another work by Andreev. A resident of Pushkarnaya Street suddenly begins to cry during Easter lunch. Why did he suddenly become so sensitive? The fact is that Bergamot’s wife called him by his first and patronymic names. During his long, long-suffering life, no one addressed him in this way. Also, Sashka, seeing a wonderful toy, suddenly softens and stops being rude. His soul seems to be thawing. Sashka brings the angel home, and, together with his father, looks at the Christmas toy for a long time.
But Andreev would not be himself if he ended this story on a bright, optimistic note. Sashka falls asleep and at night the wax angel melts. The author seems to be making it clear that the unfortunate little man will remain so forever. Enlightenment in his life is a temporary phenomenon.
"Lived once"
The merchant Lavrenty Kosheverov was evil, envious person. And even being, as they say, on his deathbed, he did not soften. The hero of the story “Once upon a time” - a merchant, a deacon and a student - are in the hospital. They are terminally ill. But each of them faces death differently.
One is angry at the injustice of life that is leaving him. The other one humbly awaits his death. The third believes that death will bypass him. Andreev depicted the characters of people, how they state of mind changes after the announcement of a terrible diagnosis. The prose writer wrote this story when he was just beginning to live. He had three suicide attempts behind him. But he managed to surprisingly vividly describe the experiences of a man who, suffering from an incurable illness, cries only for the sun, which he will never see again.
The story "Silence" tells the story of the mysterious suicide of a priest's daughter. In "Alyosha the Fool" we are talking about a vague feeling of injustice creeping into a child's soul. No matter who Andreev wrote about, he was always extremely sincere. His stories are so poignant, as if he had lived the life of each of his heroes.
Among the works written by Leonid Andreev, “Kusaka” is one of the few included in school curriculum. The story is dedicated to a dog who lives on the street and has the opportunity to observe human cruelty in its extreme manifestations.
"Abyss"
Andreev supplemented the second edition of the collection with stories in which the influence of Nietzsche was felt. His characters find themselves in a situation that changes their consciousness. It’s as if another person is waking up in them - a terrible person, following his bestial instincts.
The stories “The Abyss”, “Alarm”, “The Wall”, published in 1902, confirmed that Andreev as a writer was fully formed. The works caused controversy and debate. In them, the author spoke about what one should not only remain silent about, but also not want to think about.
“The Abyss” is about a terrible event that happened to young people. A high school student and a student are walking in the evening. Their conversation concerns only lofty topics. Thoughts, it would seem, are also extremely pure. But on the way they meet the dregs of society. These people destroy the atmosphere of purity and romance. And having become a victim of their attack, the student, who not so long ago read poetry and talked about science and art, suddenly turns into a creature for whom instincts are above all.
"The Life of Vasily Fiveysky"
At first creative path critical analysis the modern social world came first for Andreev. But later skepticism became noticeable. The writer became interested in spiritualism, which was fashionable at that time. Reading his works, one gets the impression that he was tormented by constant doubts about his faith.
In the story "Basily of Thebes" he depicted the fate of a righteous man. The hero of this work meekly fulfills his duty. Vasily Fiveysky - priest. But parishioners do not want to listen to his sermons. One after another, tragedies destroy the peace in his home. The son dies, the wife drinks herself to death, then a sick child is born. And Vasily, being a clergyman, suddenly begins to think about whether God sees him, whether he hears his prayers.
"Notes of an Unknown"
Works created by Leonid Andreev at a later stage of his creativity:
- "Judas Iscariot."
- "Satan's Diary"
- "Sashka Zhegulev."
- "He. Notes of an unknown person"
Something dark and incomprehensible is present on the pages of Leonid Andreev’s works. The story “He,” published in 1913, is filled with vague pessimism. Unclear, because as soon as at the end the reader begins to understand that Andreev’s hero is sick, and most of what he describes is imaginary to him.
The hero of this work is a poor student. He gets profitable proposition About work. And then he goes abroad. There he must begin his duties as a teacher. His students are strange children. They play as if under duress, they laugh as if on command. They are like adults playing the role of children. But the main oddity of the house in which the poor student finds himself is a man increasingly looking out the window.
The narration in “Notes of an Unknown” is told in the first person. The author thus shows the internal state of a person who is gradually losing his mind. The man in the window looks at the hero more and more often. Children are becoming more and more unbearable in his eyes. At the conclusion of this work, the teacher dies. What caused his madness remains a mystery.
"Judas Iscariot"
Andreev wrote this story in just two weeks. Maxim Gorky, having read the work, said that it would not be understandable to everyone and would cause a lot of noise. And so it happened.
Andreev's Judas is, of course, an extremely negative hero. But at the same time, very unhappy. The apostles in the story of the Russian writer - ordinary people who are no strangers to such a vice as cowardice. Such an interpretation could not but cause controversy and discontent on the part of deeply religious people. Nevertheless, the book was translated into French, German, English languages, and has been filmed several times by Western and Russian filmmakers.
You should also list other works created by the writer at different stages of his creativity.
- "In the Fog."
- "Signs."
- "Marseillaise".
- "Son of Man"
- "My notes."
- "Red Laughter"
- "The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men."
- "The Yoke of War."
Last years
Leonid Andreev did not accept the revolution. Moreover, he felt extreme hostility towards the Bolshevik government. The writer spent his last years in Finland. Books written in exile are permeated with special pessimism. Among them is “The Diary of Satan,” a story about the Devil, who, finding himself among mortals, was amazed and oppressed by the treachery of ordinary people.
Leonid Andreev, whose books were temporarily forgotten, today again arouses the interest of both literary scholars and readers. He is called a bright representative Silver Age Russian literature. In 1956 at small homeland writer, a museum dedicated to his work was created.
Writer Leonid Andreev died in Finland in 1919 from a heart attack. He was buried in a small Finnish town.
Composition
In 1904, the story “Red Laughter” was written - a sharply emotional response to the Russo-Japanese War. This, according to the author, is “a daring attempt, sitting in the Georgians, to give psychology real war. However, Andreev did not know war and therefore, despite his extraordinary intuition, he could not give the correct psychology of war. Hence the nervous excitement in the story, sometimes reaching the point of hysterical reflection about the fate of the writer, hence the fragmentation of the narrative. “Red Laughter” is a typical example of expressionism, to which Andreev increasingly gravitated.
The story has two parts, consisting of chapters called fragments. Part I describes the horrors of war, and Part II describes the madness and horror that gripped the rear. The form of “scraps from a found manuscript” allowed the author to naturally, without any visible violation of the logical sequence (the manuscript could be “found” in shreds) highlight only the horrors of war and the madness that gripped people. The story opens with these words: “...madness and horror.” And everything in it is painted in the red color of blood, horror, death.
The writer portrays the war as absolute senselessness. At the front they go crazy because they see horrors, in the rear because they think about them. If they kill there, the heroes of the story think, then it can come here too. War becomes a habit. It is easier for Andreev’s hero to get used to murders than to agree that it is temporary and surmountable. If V. Veresaev, a participant in the Russian-Japanese War, spoke about a saving habit that prevents a person from going wild among murders, then for Andreev the habit of war is nightmarish and can only lead to madness.
Criticism emphasized the one-sidedness of Andreev’s view of the war and the painful psychological breakdown in its description. “Red Laughter,” wrote Veresaev, “is a work great artist-a neurasthenic who painfully and passionately experienced the war through newspaper correspondence about it." But despite all the one-sidedness and the accumulation of nightmarish images that reduce the humanistic pathos of the work, the story played a certain role positive role. Written from the position of pacifism, it condemned any war, but in those conditions it was perceived as a condemnation of a specific war - the Russian-Japanese one, and this coincided with the attitude of the entire democratic Russia towards it.
“Red Laughter” was highly appreciated by Gorky, who considered it “extremely important, timely, strong.” However, the great writer reproached Andreev for contrasting his subjective attitude to the war with the facts. L. Andreev, objecting to Gorky, emphasized that he sought to express, first of all, his attitude and that the theme of the story was not war, but the madness and horror of war. “Finally, my attitude is also a fact, and a very important one,” he wrote2. This dispute reflects not just creative, but ideological positions both writers: Gorky spoke about the objective meaning of facts, Andreev defended the artist’s subjective attitude to facts, which, however, easily led to the loss of social criteria in assessing phenomena, which Andreev observed quite often.
It is undeniable that in Andreev’s story the horrors are exaggerated. However, this is only special welcome depictions of war as an unnatural phenomenon. Russian literature knew a similar depiction of war even before Andreev: “ Sevastopol stories"L. Tolstoy, V. Garshin's story "Four Days", which also focuses on the horrors of war, the death of a person is shown with horrifying naturalistic details and is presented as something meaningless. It is hardly possible to talk about the direct influence of these writers on Andreev, if only because they had a clearer humanistic and social position. However, “Red Laughter” was written largely in this tradition, as well as - later - Mayakovsky’s “War and Peace” (“there are four legs in a rotting carriage for forty people”), war stories Ukrainian writer S. Vasilchenko “On the Golden Losh”, “Chorsh Maki”, “Otruyna Kvitka” and especially “Holy Gomsh”, in which some dependence on Andreev’s expressionist method of depicting war is felt.
1) Features of the genre. Story - epic genre; small form narrative literature; a small work of art depicting a specific event in a person’s life. Work by L.N. Andreev's "Bite" is written in the short story genre. In their works of art L.N. Andreev continues literary tradition writers of the 19th century century - protects the humiliated and insulted.
2) Theme and problems of the story. L.N. Andreev raises in his small prose work“Bite” theme of mercy, compassion. By characterizing the described situation, depicting the life of a dog, the writer makes people think about the consequences of their actions, teaches them humanity and a merciful attitude towards people. Good and evil are two opposite concepts, two extreme positions. Goodness in dictionaries is interpreted as positive, good, moral, worthy imitation, something that does not cause harm to other people. Evil is something bad, immoral, worthy of condemnation. In line with these ethical problems is the story of L. Andreev “Bite”. The writer himself explains his position: “...In the story “Bite” the hero is the dog, for all living things have the same soul, all living things suffer the same sufferings and in great impersonality and equality merge into one before the formidable forces of life.” . L. Andreev’s attitude towards animals is one of the criteria of morality, and the naturalness and sincerity in children’s communication with them contrasts with the spiritual callousness and indifference of adults. The theme of compassion is revealed in the story through descriptions of Kusaka, the changed conditions of her life with the arrival of summer residents in the summer, and the attitude of people towards a homeless creature. Often people offend the most defenseless. For example, in the story “Biteer,” one drunk felt sorry for a dirty and ugly dog, but when it lay down on its back in front of him to be caressed, the drunken man “remembered all the insults inflicted on him by kind people, felt boredom and dull anger and, with a flourish, poked hit her in the side with the toe of a heavy boot.” Kusaka “tumbled absurdly, jumped awkwardly and spun around itself,” and these actions of the dog caused real laughter among the summer residents, but people did not notice the “strange plea” in the dog’s eyes. The comfort of city life is not consistent with the presence of a yard dog, so outwardly good people remain indifferent to future fate Kusaka, left alone in the country. And even high school student Lelya, who loved the dog so much and asked her mother to take her with her, “at the station... remembered that she had not said goodbye to Kusaka.” The howl of a dog, once again deceived, is terrible and terrifying. “And to those who heard this howl, it seemed that the hopeless dark night itself was groaning and striving for light, and they wanted to go to the warmth, to a bright fire, to a loving woman’s heart.” Kusaka's appearance changes depending on whether she feels people's love; at first “dirty and ugly,” then she “changed beyond recognition...” and in the end, “wet, dirty again...” In the pursuit of convenience and material values, people forgot about the most important things: kindness, compassion, mercy. Therefore, the theme of compassion raised in the story “Bite” is relevant. A person must think about the consequences of his actions, protect the disadvantaged, the work of the Russian writer Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev teaches the reader all this. The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery in one of his books said that people are responsible for those they have tamed. Those good people mentioned in L. Andreev’s story “Bite” are unfamiliar with this truth. Their irresponsibility, their inability and unwillingness to take responsibility for those they tamed led to the road leading to evil.
3) Characteristics of the heroes.
Image of Kusaka. In his story “Bite,” Leonid Andreev portrayed a stray dog as the main character, which “belonged to no one.”
Kusaka is a creature that no one needs, has no name, and is lonely. The life of such animals is bleak: “the children threw stones and sticks at her, the adults cheerfully hooted and whistled in a scary, shrill manner.” Fear, alienation and anger - these are the ones the only feelings that the dog experienced. With the onset of spring, the dog’s life changed: kind people who settled in an abandoned dacha, and especially schoolgirl Lelya, caressed the dog: she got a name, they began to feed her and caress her. Kusaka felt that she belonged to people, “her irreconcilable anger was taken away from her.” Kusaka strives for people with all her being, but unlike domestic dogs, “she did not know how to caress,” her movements and jumps were awkward, causing everyone to laugh uncontrollably. Kusaka wanted to please, and only her eyes were full of “strange prayer.” The writer does not write what the dog asks for, but the thoughtful reader understands that at the dacha Kusaka is perceived as a living toy, filling monotonous situations with fun. summer days. Summer residents do not think about the dog’s true feelings. But, in spite of everything, Kusaka is grateful to people, now “there is no need to worry about food, since in certain hour the cook will give her slop and bones.” The dog’s character changed: she became more open, “looked for and asked for affection,” guarded the old dacha with pleasure, and guarded people’s sleep. With the onset of autumn, Kusaka’s life changed again: people gathered to return to the city, where they did not need a yard dog: “We don’t have a yard, and we can’t keep it in our rooms, you understand.” The animal’s state of loss is conveyed by descriptions of the passing summer: “the rain began to fall, then subsided,” “the space between the blackened earth and the sky was full of swirling, fast-moving clouds,” “a ray of sunshine, yellow and anemic,” “the foggy weather became wider and sadder.” autumn distance." In this episode, Kusaka is compared with the fool Ilyusha, at whom people laugh and who is also misunderstood and lonely. Kusaka was again left alone at the dacha. But now the dog’s life is even harder, since she was again abandoned by those people whom she loved and trusted: “the dog howled - evenly, persistently and hopelessly calm.” Characterizing the image of Kusaka, JI.H. Andreev uses various techniques: he describes the feelings and behavior of the animal, compares the state of the dog with pictures of nature, compares the attitude of people towards the weak and defenseless: to the fool Ilyusha and to Kusaka.
4) The role of landscape in the story. Landscape in literature is an image of living and inanimate nature. The psychological function of landscape - the state of nature correlates with feelings and experiences. A special case when nature becomes the protagonist of the work, for example, Andreev’s dog Kusaka. Descriptions of nature play an important role in conveying Kusaka’s mood. When Kusaka is lonely, everything in nature is gloomy; cold, slush, rain; when Kusaka loves and is loved, then there is sun and warmth all around, blossoming apple trees and cherries.
Dramaturgy L.N. Andreeva. Analysis of one of the works of your choice.doc
L.N. Andreev came to dramaturgy, being a famous writer -
prose writer A constant “spirit of quest”, the desire to break away from everyday life and
penetrate into the area of "fundamental questions of the spirit", intransigence to any
oppression and deep sympathy for lonely and homeless people in this
strange world of possessiveness - all this attracted A.M. Gorky in
the work of the one whom he many years later called “the only friend among
writers."
Stories by L.N. Andreev has long been concerned about Russian society. His
entry into literature in the late 90s of the 19th century was with keen interest and
attention was noted by major writers, Andreev’s contemporaries. Already the first
The story "Bargamot and Garaska" attracted the attention of M. Gorky.
In their early works Andreev criticizes callousness and
injustice of the ruling system. Lies and injustice in life, in
organizations of society, in relationships between people, causing suffering
a simple, small person - here main topic many stories by L.
Andreeva. (“Petka at the Dacha”, “First Fee”, etc.) however, already in
In the works of Andreev's early period, pessimistic
notes. More often than not, the hero of his works is unable to
deal with that terrible force, which he encountered and which clearly
hostile to everything bright.
A.M. Gorky wrote about this in 1902 to Andreev: “But - friend!” - be
be angry, be gloomy, but don't be pessimistic. Pessimism - philosophy
overfed... Don't be a pessimist, I beg you... Our motto should be
to be - not - just forward, but forward and higher."
The fate of dramatic works is also very indicative
Andreeva. Before the revolution they were staged on their stages best theaters Russia.
The play “Human Life” was a particularly wild success.
The night after the battle.
The revolution was on the wane. A period of severe reaction began.
"The most shameful decade in the life of the Russian intelligentsia" gave birth to
specific literature and criticism. "They wore a bright imprint
tired and twitchy nervous system, - wrote V. Vorovsky, - chases
for strong, stunning impressions that would balance and drown out
impressions of recent times that have not yet been erased. In opposition to the public
this literature brought the individual to the forefront. In contrast to the good of all -
individual happiness."
Reactionary literature reflected the mood of the bourgeoisie, frightened
revolution. Many former fellow travelers of the revolution from the ranks of the bourgeois
funeral service for the intelligentsia revolutionary movement. L. Andreev cannot be attributed to
these renegades. He sincerely and deeply experienced the collapse of the revolution:
“The good thing about a revolution is that it tears off its masks,” he said in 1906
year - and those faces that have now come to light inspire disgust."
But by saying this, he at the same time creates a series of works" ("Darkness",
"Tsar Famine"), in which the writer’s confusion is felt.
A.V. Lunacharsky in the article “L. Andreev “Social Characteristics”
notes: "In better times revolution L. Andreev listened, after
He either mourned the fall or was almost ready to violate her. This
Andreev’s peculiar attitude towards the revolution gave him the opportunity to serve
a very musical and at times majestic echo for her thunder. It gave him
the opportunity to sometimes cry tears over her victims, but this also determined
his profound misunderstanding of the forces of revolution. This did not allow the dawn
revolution to disperse the darkness of primordial and hopeless pessimism in his soul,
this also caused the final gloomy and terrible disaster Andreeva".
The writer sincerely suffers from the awareness of the unsettled world. In one
from the letters he says: “And my whole point is that I do not accept the world as
my mentors and teachers gave it to me, and in the most restless way I give it to him
questions, I pick them apart, I dig them up, I turn them over.”
L. Andreev was capable of rebellion, of indignation at the dark sides
life, but his rebellion was individualistic. The writer is by no means
accidentally liked to emphasize that only “the conviction of one’s exclusivity
should and can serve as a source of creative power." During these years, Andreev
feelings of despair, hopelessness, disbelief in bright beginnings took over
human life. This is explained by the narrowness of Andreev’s ideological positions,
who in his creativity with great artistic power expressed confusion
fear of broad sections of the opposition democratic intelligentsia of
capitalism in the era of its collapse. They do not understand the contradiction of capitalism
could overcome them with a final and irrevocable break with the old
peace, the transition to the position of the proletariat - they were not able to.
During the years of reaction, a unique artistic
The writer's style is angular, sharp, "unaware of halftones and chiaroscuro."
Contrasts of condensed colors, a heap of images, often written
with a bold, sweeping brush, a selection of proposals that mutually reinforce one
another, Andreev achieves exceptional expressiveness, brings his
pathos before highest degree tension, extremely aggravates emotionality.
Throwing away the details, leaving only diagrams, contours, the artist comes
to the creation of hyperbolic images, because primitive poster art
needs on a grandiose scale. It has no other means of influence.
So Andreev appears, as if carved from a granite block, “Someone in
gray", "Anatema".
Rejecting Shakespeare's liveliness of action, its violent conflict,
the writer elevates statics and
abstract intellectualism. Believing that modern life"became
more psychologically,” he convinced that the dramatic value of “events,
living and effective struggle with weapons in hand." Andreev denied
necessity for the theater of action in the form of actions and respect and called for
human essence.
Most of the plays of that time ("The Life of Man", "Anatema", "Tsar-
"Hunger") represent the dramaturgy of abstract ideas. Disbelief in
man, in the strength and power of his mind and will, fear of life, of
fate and fate were imprinted in these plays of his.
For M. Gorky, this “new course” of Andreev was decidedly unacceptable.
He denied Andreev's pessimistic concept of man. In the essay
“Leonid Andreev” wrote: “For me, a person is always a winner, even
mortally wounded, dying... To Andreev, a person appears spiritually
beggar, woven from the irreconcilable contradictions of instinct and intellect, he
forever deprived of the opportunity to achieve any inner harmony. All things
his is “vanity of vanities,” decay and self-deception. And most importantly, he is a slave to death and all
life walks on its chain."
These words largely explain Gorky’s attitude to L. Andreev’s drama
"The Life of a Man", written in 1906. He saw in her the motives of protest
against bourgeois relations, the angry denial of musty bourgeois existence,
but he denied Andreev’s pessimistic concept of man by the most
in a decisive manner.
"The Life of Man" begins new stage in the writer's work. If
Until now Andreev followed Gorky, now with each subsequent
realism.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Andreev wrote in a letter to Chukovsky in 1902, “
who is he, the hero of my works. The only thing that matters to me is that he is a man and
as such bears the same burdens of life.”
Based on this principle, the writer in his drama sets a goal
show the life of Man in general, the life of every person, devoid of signs
eras, countries, social environment. Andreevsky man-scheme, general man,
in everything similar to other people, with inevitable immutability obediently
making the same circle of iron destiny for everyone.
"Someone in gray, called he, walks through the entire play, holding in his hands
a lit candle - a symbol of the fleeting life of Man:
“Here he is - a happy young man, look how brightly the candle burns! Here he is -
happy husband and father. But look how dimly and strangely the candle flickers:
The yellowing flame seems to wrinkle...
Here he is - an old man, sick and weak. The stages of life have already ended, and
a black hole in their place - but the trembling leg still stretches forward.
Bending to the ground, the blue flame spreads powerlessly, trembles and falls,
trembles and falls - and goes out quietly."
Human life proceeds, illuminated by symbolic gray. All
it's gray, gray walls, gray ceiling, gray floor, the light is also gray and
monotonous.
In life, Man encounters the majestic figure of “Someone in
gray." Even in "The Life of Vasily Fiveysky" (1903) you can meet
this way. True, Andreev gives him a different name. Vasily Fiveysky Blindly
In the corner of the priest's house there was always "Someone in Gray". The story begins
in the words “A stern and mysterious
rock." In "Elezar" this figure is also present: "People feel
obedient slaves of a demanding life and unresponsive servants of a menacing
silent, Nothing. This “Nothing” is “Someone in Gray”.
L. Andreev describes this fantastic figure as follows:
invariably means with a capital letter:
"He is wearing a wide, shapeless gray robe, vaguely outlining
contours of a large body; on the head. His same gray blanket, thick
shadow covering the upper part of the face. His eyes are not visible. What is visible: cheekbones,
nose, steep chin - large and heavy, as if carved from gray
Andreev makes his Rock faceless. He seems to know everything, he is a "reader, with
reading the book of destinies with stern indifference." He is not evil will. He is fate.
He is the whole reason, he has no goals. But Man wants to relate to Him,
as to the great Will. They pray to him. They try to appease him, they try
unravel His psychology. A man, in a moment of rapture with youthful strength, throws to Him
proud challenge, calling it:
"Hey, you, whatever your name is: rock, devil, or life, I throw you
glove, I call you to fight! Coward people bow before you
mysterious power. Your stone face terrifies them, in your silence
they hear the beginning of troubles and terrible fall their. And I am brave and strong, and I call
you for the fight. Let's flash our swords, ring our shields, rain down blows on our heads,
which the earth will tremble! Hey, come out and fight!"
But Man, broken by grief, is ready to recognize his deity in Him. AND
the father’s prayer in scene 4 is proud humility, a groan of the heart to God, in whom
wants, madly wants to believe.
But “Someone in Gray” remains indifferent to challenges, pleas,
curses.
Not a trace remains of Man's former courage. He wasn't afraid before
irresistible force and hoped for victory, was not afraid of defeat and death.
And here is a terrible psychological moment, a moment of moral death
A person, after which death itself is a relieving ending.
Man's favorite son - young, noble - was wounded in the head by a stone from -
around the corner and lies dying. And the strength of Man has already weakened, a long row
misfortunes fell on his gray head, poverty returned again. And so
Now the most terrible of sorrows - the death of his son - stood up as a menacing specter.
At the insistence of a desperate mother, Man also prays to the one whom
challenged to a fight:
"Now I ask on my knees, in the dust, kissing the earth, - give my life back
son. I kiss your land."
When a man finishes his prayer, his wife (the same one who once
warmly whispered to him: “Be bold, my knight” (remarks: “I’m afraid that I won’t
Your prayer was completely humble. There seemed to be pride in her."
The forces of Doom bypassed Man. The intended path has been completed. Black
Death has triumphed. The only thing the playwright allows is
powerless protest against death (moreover, it is not the protest itself that is emphasized, but
his powerlessness. So, Man turns to Him in pitiful anger, with desperate
Where is my squire? -Where is my sword? -Where is my shield? I am disarmed! -
Come to me soon! - Quicker! - Damn you...
The question of the meaning of existence constantly worried the writer. Subjective meaning
the playwright reduces a person to zero already in the very first monologue, which
says "Someone in gray"
"Limited by sight, he will never see the next step,
on which his unsteady foot is already rising, limited by knowledge, he
he will never know what the coming day, the coming hour or minute will bring to him. AND
in blind ignorance, tormented by forebodings, excited by hopes and
fear, he will obediently complete the circle of iron destiny.”
Andreev's man is too passive, too oppressed by social
fate, so that his fate would be truly tragic. He drags through life
“drawn by fate,” both happiness and grief fall on him from around the corner,
suddenly, inexplicably, While a Man dreams of happiness and proudly sends a challenge
fate-happiness is already knocking on their door, everything in life is accidental, - and
happiness and not happiness, both wealth and poverty. Happiness does not depend on
a person's talents, not from his willingness to work, but from the will of Fate.
The play gives two points of view on a person and the meaning of his life:
the objective meaninglessness of this life is clearly contrasted with its
subjective meaning.
It would seem that Rock's victory was predetermined long before birth
Man. (“Coming from the night, he will return to the night and disappear without a trace in
the infinity of time, not thought, not felt, not known by anyone."
For Him, the life of Man is complete nonsense, unconscious to Him.
“Why do they give birth? It’s so painful. Why do they die?
more painful. Yes. They give birth and die. And they give birth again."
The old women laugh. He laughs too. Perishes without a trace in infinity
time Man, in his bright and rich house the frames are knocked out, the wind moves through
all over the house and rustling rubbish, and in the baby's crib "the rats have started their nest and
they bring out the children." So, there is no doubt: “Someone in Gray” and his slaves won
celebrating victory.
Is it so. Let us remember the challenge of Man:
"Rock, Devil or Life." Here is the other extreme. Celebrates too quickly
Man his victory. But isn't Man right? After all, he subsequently fulfilled
everything as he said, adding only his curse to the senseless fate. But
Here death comes to man. She finds him in a dirty pub, where
A person walks to escape oppressive loneliness. And the Man dies with
curse on his lips, dies, not recognizing authority until his last breath
Rock. At first glance it may seem that there are two winners in the play and neither
one defeated. But throughout the course of the play Andreev talks about the uselessness
the lives of Man at the top and bottom of the ladder of human existence.
The hope of finding the meaning of life by transferring one’s hopes turns out to be vain
to live in the memory of posterity.
The conversation between the aged Man and his wife seems to indicate the opposite:
"You said I was a genius."
“I will say the same now, my friend.”
"No, you're wrong. The creatures of genius survive this crappy old
a piece of cloth called the body. I'm still alive..."
But his wife reminds him of the best house he built and asks:
“Is there a more beautiful, deeper building in the whole city?”
To which the Man replies:
"Only one thing upsets me: why did people forget me so quickly? They
"We could remember a little longer."
And upon learning that some artist is interested in his building, he exclaims:
"This is very important. It means that my thought is transmitted to other people,
and let them forget me, she will live."
But this dim hope of living a little longer in people's memory is not
manages to be realized. This offspring, in the person of the son, perishes from the empty
accidents.
"Andreev took average conditions for his hero, he chose him among
intelligent proletariat... Such a life includes precisely
the largest number of thoughtful elements of life,” writes A.V. Lunacharsky
V " Critical studies". Wealth and poverty of Man are relative. In
youth The man was poor, but it was still a time of happiness.
In adulthood, the Man was rich. But Andreev satirically describes
this is wealth. The man and his wife seem dull, stiff,
as if money and things had pushed the Man in his house somewhere into the background.
If a person is unhappy, falling back into poverty, then the reason for this
misfortune is not poverty, but the illness and death of a son. Wealth doesn't change anything
during the drama of life, says Andreev. In reality, wealth is not
as it appears in dreams. The rich man's house is not at all like
The Norwegian binge he dreamed about:
“Below is a fiord, and above is a castle on a sharp mountain.” But here's the wealth
came: "The best hall in the vast house of Man. It is tall, large,
room. There is some kind of irregularity in the relationship of the parts... The hall
gives a strange, somewhat irritating impression."
Wealth is something that comes from outside. "How rich" but no beauty
and comfort, and they were in a pink room.
The playwright failed in his main intention - to show
human life in general. Andreev managed to dry his Man to such
degree that he has lost concrete, individual features, but to abstract
to the limit, to create a generalized image of a person outside of classes, outside of time
the playwright couldn't.
“In the person of man,” wrote V. Vorovsky, “life is summarized here
the average bourgeois intellectual of our time. Andreev, drawing life
man simply threw away the entire enormous life of the working strata -
peasants, workers, small townspeople. It is not surprising that the resultant
person passed through the line of a wealthy intellectual. There is a tragedy of life
the tragedy of an intellectual who lagged behind the advanced, democratic classes
a society that stubbornly refuses to serve the masters of life.”
Trying to talk about a person in general, living outside of time, the author
the same time speaks of a car, electricity, i.e. gives real
determination of time.
A person generally must speak a certain language in general. But Andreev Often
strays from this inexpressive, schematic language, saturating it
emotions. This results in a very motley picture.
So, what was only outlined in the works of L. Andreev of the period
revolution of 1905, found its full expression in “Human Life”. Already in
it outlines the pattern of many subsequent dramas, where only two actors act
hero: Man and Rock. In the combat of these heroes, Rock invariably wins.
Human life is fatally doomed, its path is predetermined by fate, "Life
Man" is a typical drama of ideas in which the characters are turned into
puppets.
Characterizing characters in it, the playwright writes
"Faces are like masks with exorbitantly enlarged or reduced
parts: nosed and completely noseless, eyes wildly bulging, almost popping out
out of their orbits and narrowed to barely visible cracks and points; Adam's apples and tiny ones
chins."
There are no living, real people in conventional paintings. Abstract
figures - a Man, his Wife, faceless Guests, Relatives, sinister old women.
All Man's friends are the same:
"Noble faces, open high foreheads, honest eyes, they speak
proudly, sticking out his chest. Everyone has white roses in their buttonholes."
The enemies of Man are also the same:
"They all have cunning, vile faces, long monkey arms. They go
restlessly hiding from each other. There are yellow roses in the buttonholes."
All these walking dummies pronounce the same colorless, tiresome
monotonous words that have lost their original charm.
Criticism gave negative characterization drama.
A. M. Gorky saw in the play motives of protest against the bourgeois
relations, an angry denial of musty bourgeois existence, but Andreev’s
he rejected the pessimistic concept of man in the most decisive manner.
life, and what exists is too conditional, not real. The man therefore came out
very insignificant, lower and weaker than it really is, little
interesting. In general, you exposed your man too much, moving him away from
reality, and thereby deprived him of tragedy, flesh, blood, the Man who
speaks so magnificently to Him, can't live such an empty life like him
lives with you - his existence is more tragic, the number of dramas in his life
The cry of pain and despair, hopelessness and mortal melancholy sounded in the works
Andreeva of those years. Former call: “To the stars” in the story “Darkness” (1907)
gives way to another call:
“Let’s turn off the lights and let’s all climb into the darkness! Those who can see, let’s gouge out our eyes.” This
was the tragedy of a great artist, far from the revolutionary proletariat and
therefore, lost in the darkness of the night that came after the battles of 1905.
Conclusion
L. Andreev was a deeply tragic figure; he sought to put
acute social and philosophical topics that worried society. But for these patients
and he could not find the right answers to pressing questions.
Andreev’s entire play “The Life of a Man” is permeated with the thought of death.
Andreev's man is in an eternal search for any illusions that
would justify his life. He wants to see what is missing in his life and
without which everything around is so empty, as if there is no one around. But illusions are only
illusions. Man's faith in immortality is collapsing, because... not only himself, but also
his son is killed.
And the whole play is permeated with the idea of the meaninglessness of humanity.
existence. And although Andreev was not a real, consistent critic
bourgeois world, nevertheless, with his play he inflicted many wounds on it as
critic of many of its ugliness and disgrace.