And this video made me think - what was it really like? Were these writers actually gamblers, or did they become famous as such through the images in their works? And how common was the game in the creative community at that time?
Below the cut are facts about famous writers and their attitude towards the game.
It is believed that Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky During the period of writing his famous novel “The Gambler,” he lived in Wiesbaden, where the largest casino in all of Germany at that time was located. Regular visits to this casino gave rise to an exciting feeling of excitement in the writer, which, in turn, was a powerful impetus for the writer’s inspiration. Following this weakness, Dostoevsky spent every penny of his money. At that moment, when things were going very badly for the writer, work on the novel had stalled, and gambling debts had become a formidable reality, twenty-year-old Anna Snitkina came to the writer’s aid, despite the difficulties of her character and strange whims, who fell in love with the writer. To maintain the inspired mood of the player-writer, she gradually took all her things to the pawnshop. They say that when Dostoevsky found out about this, he stopped playing. According to other evidence, he himself begged for money from his wife, leaving her to starve. However, some of his debts were paid only thanks to creative fees. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote the following words: "If Russian writers did not play cards, then there would be no Russian literature". But there is another opinion that completely refutes all of the above. The novel "The Gambler", as we know, tells about the passion for roulette. Moreover, its original name was “Rouletenburg”. And it was roulette, not cards, that was his passion. Anna Dostoevskaya says in her memoirs: “Speaking of cards: in the society (mainly literary) where Fyodor Mikhailovich moved, there was no custom of playing cards. During our 14-year life life together My husband played preference only once with my relatives, and despite the fact that he had not picked up cards for more than 10 years, he played excellently, and even beat his partners by several rubles, which made him very embarrassed." And in the light of all that has been said, the statement of Dr. S.D. Yanovsky sounds completely incomprehensible, knowledgeable writer from 1846: “Fyodor Mikhailovich not only did not play cards, but had no idea about any game and hated the game.” Moreover, there was also this unnamed statement: “Dostoevsky once admitted in one of his letters that he experienced orgasm more than once during card gatherings, especially at the moments of a major loss...” I don't want to consider this at all.
One day, a report from one of the gendarmes inspecting the Pushkin, known for his free-spirited views. In his report, a certain P.A. Efremov writes: “In the police list of Moscow card players for 1929, among 93 numbers there is: “1. Count Fyodor Tolstoy is a subtle player and planner. 22. Nashchokin, retired guard officer. Gambler and brawler. Well-known for the cases involving him. 36 Pushkin, a famous banker in Moscow." According to Pushkin's friend, Al. N. Wolf, Pushkin said: "The passion for the game is the strongest of passions." Alexander Pushkin once said to another friend: "I would rather die than not play." Prince Pavel Petrovich Vyazemsky, son famous poet and a passionate player, he once remarked:“Before his death, Pushkin was a child in play and in last days lost in life even to people who, except himself, were beaten by everyone.”. In the spring of 1820, Pushkin “half sold, half lost” a handwritten collection of his poems to Nikita Vsevolozhsky. Following the verses (in a game with staff captain Wielkopolsky), the second chapter of Onegin almost “missed the ace,” and then the fifth.He lost huge sums. With an annual salary of 700 rubles, he could lose several thousand overnight. After his death, he left 60 thousand rubles in debt, at least half of which was gambling debt. This debt was repaid from own funds Emperor Nicholas I...
Passion to card games was a family passion Nekrasov. Nikolai Nekrasov’s grandfather, Sergei Nekrasov, lost almost his entire fortune at cards. Nikolai Nekrasov later joked that fate returned to his grandson three times more than his grandfather lost. "Singer of the People's Sorrow"he did not deny himself anything - he ate sweetly, played, enjoyed all the benefits that the funds allowed him, sometimes obtained in not the most decent ways, because of which friends were often forced to turn away from the writer. During the game, he never lost his composure; what was important to him was not profit, but the opportunity to feel like a winner, to break “blind fortune.” Nekrasov played brilliantly. He even owned a special system, thanks to which the writer won a lot, which allowed him to fully provide for all his needs. This is truly a unique case. When and how Nekrasov won for the first time is unknown, as well as what he bet on - he had nothing. Subsequently, Nekrasov rose so much that he was invited to the prestigious English club, and played not with nameless dubious vagabonds, but with representatives high society of its time. And even when the fees allowed him not to have additional sources of income, Nekrasov continued to play, and this more than once saved his brainchild - the magazine"Contemporary" from bankruptcy and death.
Mark Twain played and wrote about poker. His collection of short stories, Life on the Mississippi, is a kind of travel journal of the writer. Then, in the 19th century, when poker was banned due to the prosperity of cheating, the game remained relevant thanks to the so-called “river casinos”. In one of the stories from this series, “The Professor's Tale,” Twain talks about swindlers trying to deceive a simpleton peasant, but in the end they themselves are left with nothing. Once Mark Twain went with friends on a yacht cruise in the Caribbean. One of his buddies, Congressman Reed, won 23 times in a row. And then, if the captain announced that he was approaching the next port, he was answered: “We sail on, and don’t stop us from playing!” Mark Twain lived a very long, complex and eventful life. But even until his death in 1910 maintained a cheerful attitude and interest in poker.
Petr Andreevich Vyazemsky was listed in the service in the boundary office, but led social life squandering the inheritance in cards. Lydia Ginzburg writes about this:“Consciously alienated from official, bureaucratic circles, young Vyazemsky leads an absent-minded life, plays cards recklessly, but during this same period strong literary connections were formed that long determined his creative work. path"
What seems out of the ordinary in today’s context is the characterization of Agap Ivanovich, a serf peasant of the Pskov province, who was released by the master “on quitrent” and served as a messenger for the poet Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev: “While working, he usually drank water with sugar and lemon. The mug was the simplest. He generally drank wine reluctantly. He played cards a little, I didn’t see him so played (...)".
loved to play and Afanasy Fet, constantly in a poor financial situation. They say that once during a game, when he bent down to pick up a fallen ten-ruble bill, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, to point out the baseness of such an act, set fire to a hundred-ruble bill from a candle and shone it on him.
Friend Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Aseev, recalled: “It was scary to play cards with Mayakovsky.” Mayakovsky played aggressively, perceiving every loss as a personal drama, and was immediately extremely prone to accusations of cheating against his partners at the card table. He often started a fight, dissatisfied with the outcome of the game.
Probably, as in the case of Dostoevsky, creative person always feeds his inspiration and talent in excitement, no matter what it manifests itself in.
This episode of the novel describes the moment “ peaceful life"in the Rostov family. We see how the youth of this family spend their time. Main actors This episode is Natasha Rostova and her older brother Nikolai.
The writer emphasizes that at first these heroes were in a radically opposite disposition, state of mind. Natasha was full of joy, a feeling of fullness of life. To her in Once again Denisov came, who was caring for the girl. Natasha felt that she liked this dashing hussar: “Here I am!” - she seemed to be saying, responding to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.” All this added joy, happiness, and a sense of the charm of life to the heroine.
Nikolai, on the contrary, was upset - he lost a large amount money into cards, and he saw everything in a pessimistic light. Tolstoy shows that Natasha’s joyful state irritates her brother, he sincerely does not understand her, it is hard for him to look at this young delight: “And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!”
Tolstoy with a big psychological mastery conveys the inner state of his hero. Indeed, when you are at one “pole of feelings”, it is simply impossible to understand and share other emotions, especially those opposite to yours.
This was the situation in the room before the main event – Natasha’s singing. The main point of this episode, its culmination is the impact of the sister’s voice and her singing on Nikolai’s condition. At first he simply absentmindedly noted to himself that his sister's singing had somehow changed. But then... the whole world focused for him on Natasha’s singing. All worries, adversities, sorrows receded back. Moreover, Nikolai suddenly realized the worthlessness, emptiness, and vanity of his worries: “Oh, our stupid life! - Nikolai thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is real...”
And, what is most interesting and important, the hero suddenly realized that he was happy. And his happiness lies in hitting the right note in time with Natasha, strengthening her singing so that it turns out well, so that the melody sounds even more powerful and beautiful.
In this episode, the writer shows us the power of art’s influence on a person, his emotions, and worldview. Art in some close, almost mystical way is connected with human soul. It can instantly make a person happy. Moreover, art can cleanse a person’s soul, his consciousness, show what is false and what is true, and can direct a person’s life in the right direction.
But all this is possible, of course, under two conditions, as it seems to me. Firstly, a work of art must be performed sincerely, truly, “with soul.” Natasha Rostova was capable of this. And her singing is a characteristic of the heroine, her inner world, her nature.
Secondly, a person who perceives a work of art must also be pure in soul, sincere, and have light in him. I don’t think that if Helen or Anatol Kuragin listened to Natasha’s singing, something would move or change in their souls. And this affected Nikolai.
And Tolstoy conveys another important thought to us: “You can kill, steal and still be happy...” An ambiguous judgment, especially from the lips of L.N. Tolstoy, known for his religiosity. I think that with the help of this paradox the writer wanted to emphasize the role of art in human life, its power and importance, its ability to outshine everything in the world.
Thus, this episode characterizes Natasha and Nikolai Rostov, their inner world, reveals the skill of Tolstoy the psychologist, and also shows the role of real art in human life.
Dolokhov’s “friendship” with Nikolai Rostov develops approximately according to the same scenario as with Pierre. The initial idealization and “do not spill water” is replaced by envy and a deliberate desire to destroy his life.
(pictured - JJ Field (?) as Dolokhov)
While Dolokhov is staying with his mother, his connection with Rostov is growing stronger. AND Dolokhov appears to him completely different. “Really”, as Rostov mistakenly thinks.
“Dolokhov himself often during his recovery spoke to Rostov such words that could not have been expected from him.
- They consider me an evil person“I know,” he used to say, “so be it.” I don’t want to know anyone except those I love; but whom I love, I love him so much that I will give my life, and I will crush the rest if they stand on the road. I have an adored, unappreciated mother, two or three friends, including you, and I pay attention to the rest only to the extent that they are useful or harmful. And everyone is almost harmful, especially women.”
So, Nikolai is inspired to believe that he is “special,” “one of the very few.” Often a narcissist in the idealization phase contrasts us with “hysterics and materialistic bitches, of whom there are now 95%.” How else can he relate to “bitches”? Like Dolokhov - “pay attention to how useful or harmful they are.” That is, to use.
“Yes, my soul,” he continued, “I have met loving, noble, sublime men...”
(I’ll interrupt Dolokhov, I really want to ask: who are these men? Can you name their last names?)
“...but I have not yet met women, except for corrupt creatures - countesses or cooks, it doesn’t matter. I have not yet encountered that heavenly purity and devotion that I look for in a woman. If I found such a woman, I would give my life for her. And these!.. - He made a contemptuous gesture. - And do you believe me, if I still value life, then I value it only because I still hope to meet such a heavenly being who would revive, purify and exalt me».
This period of communication between Nikolai and Dolokhov can be called Seduction. At this stage, Dolokhov unconsciously idealizes Rostov, gradually envying him as a person with a completely different structure, a happy person. And this envy intensifies when Nikolai brings Dolokhov into his house. He sees joyful, friendly people who treat each other warmly and are natural in expressing their feelings. The special relationship between Nikolai and Sonya cannot hide from the observant gaze of the psychopath, which also becomes the subject of his envy. He unconsciously strives to “become Nikolai” - in order to fall in love with Sonya and become loved by her. But he is not Nikolai...
“Dolokhov, who did not like ladies’ company, began to visit the house often, and the question of who he was traveling for was soon (although no one spoke about it) was resolved so that he was traveling for Sonya. And Sonya, although she would never have dared to say this, knew this and every time, like a redneck, she blushed when Dolokhov appeared. Dolokhov often dined with the Rostovs, never missed a performance where they were present, and attended balls at Yogel’s, where the Rostovs always attended.
He paid preferential attention to Sonya and looked at her with such eyes that not only she could not stand this look without blushing, but also the old countess and Natasha blushed when they noticed this look.”
(everyone who has been idealized by a narcissist knows what kind of look this is)
“It was clear that this strong, strange man was under the irresistible influence exerted on him by this dark, graceful, loving girl.”
And so Dolokhov proposes to Sonya. Note: Narcissists love to seduce the women of their friends. The scenario “you had a loved one, but she became my wife.” The logic is this: an idealized friend, whom the narcissist envies, always chooses “the very best.” This means that his woman becomes an object of idealization and envy of the narcissist. In parallel, there is a latent or even quite conscious desire to destroy someone else’s marriage, union, which causes the narcissist’s envy.
But Sonya refuses Dolokhov. Moreover, he refuses, unwittingly ending up in the narcissist’s most vulnerable spot. She says she loves someone else. Another! This means that someone is better, smarter, more beautiful, more worthy than this fucking Dolokhov. And who this “better” is, Dolokhov can easily find out.
In a fit of narcissistic shame, he stops going to the Rostovs. During these days, his hatred for Nikolai flares up, and he decides to take revenge on him. For what? Why? It is unlikely that even the sociopath himself will answer this. By and large, “your only fault is that I want to eat.”
“For two days after this, Rostov did not see Dolokhov with his people and did not find him at home; on the third day he received a note from him. “Since I no longer intend to visit your house for reasons known to you and am going to the army, this evening I am giving my friends a farewell party - come to the English Hotel.”
Of course, Rostov does not expect a dirty trick from a person he considers a friend. Even the fact that Dolokhov secretly built bridges with his girlfriend for some reason does not bother him. Apparently, he rationalizes Dolokhov’s behavior, reasoning something like this: “What’s wrong? This is personal, and he doesn't have to tell me how he feels. Why is he wooing my girlfriend without talking to me? Oh, everything is simple here too! Of course, he doesn’t know that this is my girlfriend, I didn’t tell him anything about Sonya. Otherwise he wouldn't have done this. This is all just a misunderstanding, which we will laugh about today over a fifth bottle of Burgundy!”
While Nikolai is thinking approximately in this spirit, Dolokhov is waiting for him to completely deliberately ruin him. He even assigns himself a symbolic amount to which he will bring the game - 43 thousand. 26 (Dolokhov’s age) +17 (Sonya’s age).
“Dolokhov’s bright, cold gaze met Rostov at the door, as if he had been waiting for him for a long time. Because of his smile, Rostov saw in him the mood of spirit that he had during dinner at the club and in general at those times when, as if bored with everyday life, Dolokhov felt the need to go out with some strange, mostly cruel, act. from her".
Amazingly accurate observation! Nikolai intuitively understands that for Dolokhov, who is suffering from boredom, the moment of “adrenaline rush” has come. Only he still has no idea who is designated as the sacrifice.
«— So you're not afraid to play with me?- Dolokhov repeated, and, as if in order to tell a funny story, he put down the cards, leaned back in his chair and slowly began to tell with a smile: - Yes, gentlemen, I was told that There's a rumor spread in Moscow that I'm a cheater, so I advise you to be careful with me».
A psychopath almost openly warns of danger, but how many people, without getting into trouble, listen to such statements? On the contrary, such words spur us on. How, how, how can you be afraid to play with a friend? After all, this is different! He won't hurt you! And if I refuse, what will he think? That I trust not him, but vile rumors? No, no, with my refusal I will cause him great offense. And I’ll make myself look like a coward.
Only during the game does the monstrous meaning of the “friend’s” act begin to dawn on Rostov. His head is a mess, he, just like Pierre before a challenge to a duel, asks himself questions: for what? What have I done to him other than good?
“And why is he doing this to me?..” Rostov thought and recalled. “After all, he knows,” he said to himself, “what this loss means for me. He can't want my death, can he? After all, he was my friend. After all, I loved him... But it’s not his fault either; What should he do when he is lucky?”
(again an attempt at rationalization)
“And it’s not my fault,” he said to himself. - I didn't do anything wrong. Have I killed someone, insulted someone, wished harm? Why such a terrible misfortune?
Nikolai, not seeing the logic in Dolokhov’s behavior, tries to understand for what sins karma, the Universe, and providence are giving him this cruel “lesson.” The answer, meanwhile, is simple: because. Because you've encountered a psychopath.
“Listen, Rostov,” said Dolokhov, smiling clearly and looking into Nikolai’s eyes, “you know the saying. “Happy in love, unhappy in cards.” Your cousin is in love with you. I know.
"ABOUT! it’s terrible to feel so in the power of this man,” thought Rostov. Rostov understood what blow he would deal to his father and mother by announcing this loss; he understood what happiness it would be to get rid of all this, and he understood that Dolokhov knew that he could save him from this shame and grief, and now he still wanted to play with him, like a cat with a mouse.
“Your cousin...” Dolokhov wanted to say; but Nikolai interrupted him. - My cousin has nothing to do with it, and there is nothing to talk about her! - he shouted furiously.”
Dolokhov and his mother
As we remember, after the duel with Pierre, Nikolai Rostov takes the wounded Dolokhov to Moscow. He sees his friend for the first time “with an enthusiastically tender expression on his face”:
“Rostov was struck by the completely changed and unexpectedly enthusiastic and tender expression on Dolokhov’s face.
- Well? How do you feel? - asked Rostov.
- Bad! but that's not the point. My friend,” Dolokhov said in a broken voice, “I didn’t mind, but I killed her, I killed her... She won’t stand it.” She won't bear it...
- Who? - asked Rostov.
- My mother. My mother, my angel, my beloved angel, mother.
And Dolokhov began to cry, squeezing Rostov’s hand. When he calmed down somewhat, he explained to Rostov that he lived with his mother, and that if his mother saw him dying, she would not bear it. He begged Rostov to go to her and prepare her. Rostov went ahead to carry out the assignment and, to his great surprise, learned that Dolokhov, this brawler, brute-Dolokhov, lived in Moscow with his old mother and hunchbacked sister and was the most tender son and brother.”
“Nikolai Rostov was sincerely surprised when he saw with what real warmth Dolokhov treated his old mother and sister.”, the schoolboy writes in his essay.
This is why the puzzle doesn't work out! Yes, Dolokhov is cruel and vicious, but how can his reverent tenderness for his mother and sister be included in this picture?.. But it’s all simple: loving your mother and sister is not the same as saying you love your mother and sister.
And now the time has come to debunk the myth about Dolokhov’s love for his mother, and even more so for his sister. Suffice it to say that the sister generally exists in the form of a shadow; she doesn’t even have a name in the novel. Most likely, this is a downtrodden, powerless creature, a “failed” child (not only a girl, but also a hunchback), who is in complete slavery to a narcissistic mother. And the light in the window Fedenka, it seems, grew up as an idol of the family and was brought up in an atmosphere of praise, forgiveness and complete indulgence in any of his whims and caprices.
So, the sister is a shadow. But mother also surfaces only when the wounded Dolokhov is forced to lie down with her. The rest of the time, the fate of these “adored” women is of little interest to Dolokhov.. They simply don’t exist in his life.
You're probably wondering what kind of mother could have raised such a son. Tolstoy puts only one monologue into the mouth of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, but it is very informative:
"Yes, Count, he is too noble and pure in soul“,” she used to say to Rostov, “for our current, corrupted world.” Nobody likes virtue, it hurts everyone's eyes. Well, tell me, Count, is this fair, is this fair on Bezukhov’s part? And Fedya, in his nobility, loved him, and now he never says anything bad about him. In St. Petersburg, these pranks with the police officer, they joked about something, because they did it together? Well, Bezukhov had nothing, but Fedya bore everything on his shoulders!
After all, what did he endure! Suppose they returned it, but how could they not return it? I think there weren’t many brave men and sons of the fatherland like him there. Well, now - this duel. Do these people have feelings, honor? Knowing that he is the only son, challenge him to a duel and shoot so straight! It's good that God had mercy on us.
And for what? Well, who doesn’t have intrigue these days? Well, if he is so jealous, I understand, because he could have made it felt before, otherwise the year went on. And so, he challenged him to a duel, believing that Fedya would not fight because he owed him. What baseness! That's disgusting! I know you understand Fedya, my dear count, that’s why I love you with my soul, believe me. Few people understand him. This is such a high, heavenly soul...»
Well, it’s just lovely what it is. Either the apogee of being gassed by one’s own son, or the crooked, perverse logic of a narcissist. How virtuous and high in soul her Fedya is - and how unscrupulous is Count Bezukhov, who had the audacity not to understand Dolokhov’s antics with his wife! Achotakov, “who doesn’t have intrigue now.”
How can something like this come to mind? to a normal person: “So, he challenged him to a duel, believing that Fedya would not fight because he owed him. What baseness! That's disgusting!"?
It seems to me that old lady Dolokhova has a very crooked brain. Here she is, the narcissistic mother in three to five bright strokes.
(In the following posts I will talk about Dolokhov’s prototypes. Among the contemporaries who inspired Tolstoy, there are three such people).
Anyone who is going to write about Tolstoy is as if warned by the author himself and at the same time directed. How to say “in words” about “War and Peace”? But criticism has to do just that—it has to convey meaning. literary work"in other words". ButThe meaning in the novel is born from the combination of images, episodes, paintings, motifs, and details. This is the “labyrinth of connections” in which, as Tolstoy says, lies the essence of art;The job of criticism is to “guide the reader” in this labyrinth, to find a guiding thread that would lead through the world of the novel, revealing this world to us. But first you need to enter it.
We open War and Peace and look at the familiar text. Perhaps, bypassing the preliminary “general words”, try to enter directly through the text into the world of connections of Tolstoy’s novel? Perhaps this or that page, this or that episode will introduce us more accurately and directly into the book, into its internal connections, than preliminary general considerations?
Here on the page we have opened is one of the “peaceful”, “family” pictures, so memorable to everyone who knows “War and Peace”. Nikolai Rostov returns home after a major loss to Dolokhov. He promised to pay...
tomorrow, he gave his word of honor and is horrified by the impossibility of keeping it.
In his state, it is strange for Nikolai to see the usual peaceful comfort: “They have everything the same. They don't know anything! Where should I go? Natasha is going to sing, this is incomprehensible and irritates him: why can she be happy, a bullet in the forehead, and not sing. It was as if not two hours, but an eternity had passed since Nikolai, Natasha and everyone else were together in the theater, before he went to Dolokhov. Then, as usual, he was in his own atmosphere, among close people; now he is separated from them by the misfortune that happened to him, and through this misfortune he perceives his familiar surroundings. As at every step in Tolstoy, in this scene we are struck by the authenticity with which psychological condition, familiar to any of us: when a strong experience, great joy or great misfortune, creates a distance between us and the things around us and makes us see them in a new way.
But psychological fidelity is not an end in itself for an artist. These pages were not written for her alone; striking us and capturing our attention, she leads us, together with Nikolai Rostov, to discovery. Nikolai hears his sister’s voice, and suddenly something unexpected happens to him: “Suddenly the whole world focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos... Eh, our stupid life! - thought Nikolai. “All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is - real...”
The requirements of honor are everything for Rostov, they, in general, determine his whole life, but at this moment, hearing Natasha, he acutely feels their convention, they seem nonsense: the third trembled, and something better was touched in Rostov’s soul. “And this something was independent of everything in the world and above everything in the world. What losses are there, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!.. It’s all nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy..."
Nikolai, who had just been the most unhappy person, experiences a moment of complete happiness. “Rostov has not experienced such pleasure from music for a long time as on this day” - and this despite the depressed state; But by the way, is it true that “despite”? Is it precisely because the balance has been lost, the usual system of attitude towards life, its usual norm, has been shaken? Tolstoy in War and Peace, as a rule, presents events and pictures in the perception of one of the characters, using his “subjective prism.” So it is here: we “hear” Natasha’s singing together with Nikolai Rostov. And is it not because of such persuasiveness and strength that we see the significance and importance of present- the power of music, the charm of a young voice, in which there is “ignorance of one’s strengths” and “an unprocessed velvet” - that these impressions are refracted in the shocked consciousness of Nikolai? For him, in the catastrophic vision that visited him in these moments, the values of life took on a different relationship than always. Nikolai has musicality and poetry, and these “Rostov” qualities are usually well combined in him, coexist peacefully with an unconditional commitment to “noble honor” and all the general rules of behavior accepted in his social circle. He is a tightly regulated person, and his musicality in no way undermines in him the foundations on which his life stands. “He understands and feels everything a little,” it was said about Nikolai in the initial sketches of the characters’ characteristics under the heading “Poetic [poetic].”
But now he doesn’t feel “little by little.” The experience of music at this moment is not a pleasant pleasure, but an ecstasy in which delight and despair are mixed. Rostov sees music in its power, which Tolstoy himself knew and felt like few others. Music gives pleasure, but in return it wants something from a person, demands life decision, developing for this purpose energy in him beyond the usual.
Due to his misfortune, Nikolai is disinhibited from perceptionthismusic. Patriarchal harmony is broken in him,he is at odds with the ordinary Rostov, with what for him is the meaning of life. The importance and obligatory nature of caste regulations suddenly disappears in the flood of desperately happy feelings that wash over him and lift him above himself: “Oh, our life is stupid!” What has always been unconditional feels relative and insignificant, but the real unconditional falls away from various imaginaries.The present opens through discord, through crisis.
This moment of acute and bright joy is very dramatic for Nikolai: it is against the backdrop of the shock that turned him upside down, she came out of this shock, she would not have existed without him.
“All this is nonsense... but here it is - real...” Memory places next to another episode, other pages of the book - the reflections of Pierre Bezukhov, when he heads to the Borodino field with the intention of participating in the battle. At the same time, Pierre experiences “a pleasant feeling of awareness that everything that constitutes people’s happiness, the comforts of life, wealth, even life itself, is nonsense that is pleasant to discard in comparison with something... With what, Pierre could not imagine give an account, and didn’t even try to make it clear to myself...”
Is it a coincidence that the similarity of expressions in which Nikolai and Pierre clarify their condition? The situations in which both find themselves seem to be incommensurable in importance: an everyday episode and a moment of decisive tension of the forces of the entire people in the terrible year of 1812.
But this incommensurability actually does not exist for Tolstoy. For him, objects and episodes in the novel are not distributed according to their degree of significance depending on whether they depict domestic life or historical event. In War and Peace, Tolstoy debunked history, separated from the simple life of people, and the entire artificial hierarchy of historical and private life as phenomena of higher and lower rank. In Tolstoy, who refutes the habit of evaluating things by rank, instilled in people by official society, family and historical scenes are fundamentally commensurate and equivalent in their significance, and the division itself is still very external, although it suggests itself.
"Life meanwhile real life people with their own essential interests of health, illness, work, leisure, with their interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, proceeded, as always, independently and beyond political affinity or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte, and beyond all possible transformations."
There is, according to Tolstoy, a single life of people, its simple and general content, a situation that is fundamental to it, which can be revealed just as deeply in an everyday and family event as in an event that is called historical.The episodes of War and Peace are connected among themselves primarily not by the unity of action, in which the same characters participate, as in an ordinary novel; these connections are secondary in nature and are themselves determined by another, more hidden, internal connection. From the point of view of the poetics of the novel, the action in War and Peace is very unfocused and uncollected. It diverges in different directions, develops in parallel lines; internal connection, constituting the “basis of cohesion”, lies in the situation, the main situations human life, which Tolstoy reveals in its most varied manifestations and events.
This deep situation emerges both in Nikolai’s state when he hears his sister’s voice in shock, and in Pierre’s state on the eve of Borodin. Therefore, the similarity of the expressions themselves in their inner speech is not at all a coincidence.
From the very beginning of the war of 1812, Pierre was full of foreboding of an impending menacing and at the same time saving catastrophe. He eagerly looks for its signs and with all the strength of his soul calls on this terrible thundercloud, which should “ripe, break out and lead him out of that enchanted, insignificant world of Moscow habits in which he felt captive, and lead him to great feat and great happiness " Pierre, dragging out the life of a “retired chamberlain, good-naturedly living out his days in Moscow,” drawn into it at a moment of spiritual impasse “by the force of the situation, society, breed,” Pierre thirsts disasters like changes in this whole life in which he came to hopelessly lost. The impending terrible event must cut the vital knot in which his personal existence is entangled. Horror and expectation of happiness are combined for Pierre in the premonition of liberation: it should not come, but break out.
Freedom combined with catastrophe, a great crisis—this is the situation in “War and Peace.” And in order to express this situation, Tolstoy needed the year 1812. But it was not purely historical interest that led the writer to an event half a century ago: Tolstoy needed to understand and express his modernity, his highest degree catastrophic and crisis era that opened 60s, when the novel was written.
Municipal state educational institution
Sergeevskaya average comprehensive school
Podgorensky municipal district of Voronezh region
Outline of an integrated lesson in the Russian language and
literature on the topic
“Analysis of the episode “Nikolai Rostov after losing at cards to Dolokhov” from the novel by L.N. Tolstoy’s “Vona and the World” - an essay-argument on this passage in Unified State Exam format»
Audience: 10th grade students
The lesson was developed by I.A. Bednyakova,
teacher of Russian language and literature
first qualification category.
School address:
Podgorensky district,
With. Sergeevka, st. Yesenina, 34
2013
The purpose of the lesson:
Activating students' knowledge about reasoning texts and analysis;
Continue developing the ability to create a coherent written statement of a given type of speech on a specific topic;
Continue work on developing the skill of semantic text analysis: formulation of the problem posed by the author of the text read; a comment; determining the author’s position in relation to this problem; making arguments; conclusion.
Continue preparing for the state (final) certification (Part C of the Unified State Examination).
Lesson objectives:
Teach and learn:
- determine the topic and problems of the text and formulate them;
Identify the most significant (leading) problems of the text;
Comment on the problem posed;
State your own position using two arguments.
Write a conclusion.
Materials and equipment:
computer, multimedia installation, video fragment from S. Bondarchuk’s film “War and Peace”, video camera; handouts (texts of an excerpt from the novel “War and Peace”, assessment sheets.
During the classes
1. Introduction, goal setting.
Purpose of today's lesson
Continue preparing to write an essay-argument in the Unified State Exam format based on the proposed text.
The result of the lesson will be essay-reasoning on moral and ethical topic based on the text read - an excerpt from the novel
L. Tolstoy “War and Peace”
2. Watching the video clip “Nikolai Rostov after losing to Dolokhov at cards.”
Identifying problems as you watch. Students write down problems on sheets of paper.
3. Independent reading of the text and identifying problems (working in pencil):
1) It was not difficult to say “tomorrow” and maintain a tone of decency, but to come home alone, see your sisters, brother, mother, father, confess and ask for money to which you have no right after your word of honor, was terrible.
2) We haven’t slept at home yet. 3) The youth of the Rostov house, returning from the theater, having had dinner, sat at the clavichord. 4) As soon as Nikolai entered the hall, he was overwhelmed by that loving, poetic atmosphere that reigned this winter in their house and which now, after Dolokhov’s proposal and Iogel’s ball, seemed to thicken even more, like the air before a thunderstorm, over Sonya and Natasha ...
5) Natasha was going to sing. 6) Denisov looked at her with enthusiastic eyes.
7) Nikolai began to walk back and forth around the room.
8) “And now I want to make her sing! 9)What can she sing? 10) And there’s nothing fun here,” thought Nikolai.
11) Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
12) “Oh my God, I’m dishonest, I dead person. 13) A bullet in the forehead is the only thing left to do, not to sing, he thought. - Leave? but where? 14) It doesn’t matter, let them sing!”
15) Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their glances.
16) This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. 17) She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before, but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. 18)“Not processed, but beautiful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. 19) But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. 20) At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything and only enjoyed this raw voice, and only wanted to hear it again. 21) In her voice there was that virginity, pristineness, that ignorance of one’s own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
22) “What is this? - Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. - What happened to her? How does she sing these days? - he thought. 23) And suddenly the whole world focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two, three... one, two... three... one... Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two three... one. Oh, our life is stupid! - Nikolai thought. - All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is - real... Well, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother!.. How will she take this si... Did she take it? God bless. - And he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second as a third high note. - My God! how good! Did I really take it? how happy!” - he thought.
24) Oh, how this third trembled and how something better that was in Rostov’s soul was touched. 25)And this something was independent of everything in the world and above everything in the world. 26) What losses are there, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!.. 27) It’s all nonsense! 28) You can kill, steal and still be happy...
4. Text analysis. Preparing to write an essay. Frontal work.
1) What do you think the text is about? What is its theme?
About the condition of Nikolai Rostov after losing at cards.
2) Name the main issues raised in the text.
Problems:
The severity of the guilt from the crime;
Conscience;
Remorse;
Frivolity and cowardice;
A healing atmosphere in the family;
True and false values;
Salvation of the soul through familiarization with beauty;
The role of music in human life;
The influence of art on human life;
Love, kindness, understanding are the main ones family values;
What can save a person from a fatal step;
The inevitability of retribution for frivolity;
Male honor;
Words of honor for a man.
4. Let's remember the algorithm for executing part C:
Identify, formulate and comment on one of the problems of the text (main or particular).
Formulate own attitude to the problem posed.
Select arguments that support your own position (at least two).
Write a conclusion.
5. Based on your reading and life experience, express your own opinion on the issue. What arguments can you give?
6. Work on essays in groups.
Choose a problem and write an argumentative essay.
Problems should not be repeated.
Additional task:
Group 1 will formulate the problem in the form of a narrative sentence.
Group 2 – in the form of a question.
Group 3 – uses a figure for introduction - the nominative of the topic.
Group 4 – in the form of a series of interrogative sentences.
7. Public speech by students from working groups with the presentation of a finished essay.
8. Essay evaluation:
- the teacher checks the essay with red paste and displays it on the screen using a video camera and a multimedia projector;
- students from other groups put points on special sheets in accordance with the criteria K1-K12.
9. Summing up the lesson.
1. Final word teachers.
2. Grading students.
3. Reflection.
10. Homework: write an essay-argument on a problem that was not covered during the lesson based on the text read.