The story of how the good-natured sloth Oblomov lies and sleeps and how neither friendship nor love can awaken and raise him is not God knows what an important story. But it reflected Russian life; in it a living, modern Russian type appears before us, minted with merciless severity and correctness; it expressed a new word for our social development, pronounced clearly and firmly, without despair and without childish hopes, but with a full consciousness of the truth. This word is Oblomovism... N. A. Dobrolyubov. What is Oblomovism?
“In Gorokhovaya Street, in one of the large houses, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov was lying in bed in his apartment in the morning.” This is how I. A. Goncharov’s novel begins, bearing the name of the main character - actually a story about this hero.
I don’t know of another work where one single day of the hero is told in such detail as here - throughout the entire first part. The hero's main activity during the day is lying in bed. The author immediately dots the i’s, telling us: “Ilya Ilyich’s lying down was neither a necessity, like that of a sick person or a person who wants to sleep, nor an accident, like that of someone who is tired, nor a pleasure, like that of a lazy person.” : this was his normal state.”
We see before us a young, healthy man who cannot be taken out either for a joyful walk or on a visit, for whom the service is so burdensome that he abandoned it. Moving to another apartment seems to him an insoluble problem; any business or movement gives way to the need to take off his robe, get dressed, and decide something. Just as his apartment is covered in cobwebs, mired in dust, he himself freezes in the web of doing nothing, life is replaced by existence, half-asleep, the absence of all desires and impulses, except for one and only one, to be left alone. “You’re too lazy to live!” - his childhood friend Stolz will tell him. Even dreams of family life come down to breakfast together, nice conversations and preparations for lunch and dinner. And memories of childhood are reminiscent of a fairy tale about a kingdom plunged into sleep, and even they come to the hero in a dream. Somewhere there, in distant childhood, among the eternal breakfast-lunch-dinner, conversations about food and rest before and after meals, he may have wanted to run, he was drawn to something, but the strict prohibitions of his mother and nanny, greenhouse life did their job. Education passed him by - “He had a whole abyss between science and life, which he did not try to cross.” “His head represented a complex archive of dead affairs, persons, eras, figures, religions, unrelated, political-economic, mathematical or other truths, tasks, provisions, etc. It was a library consisting of only scattered volumes on all parts of knowledge.”
Oblomov left the service not only because he did not want to spend any effort on his career - he simply did not find a place for himself in society, did not feel part of all these Alekseevs, Tarantievs, Stoltzes. He “discovered that the horizon of his activity and life lies within himself.” Of course, it’s easy to delve into yourself without thinking about your career and your daily bread when Oblomovka exists, even with a thief-elder and an ever-decreasing income, but it still exists! Without occupying himself with business concerns, he loved to go into dreams, performing one feat after another in his dreams and not paying attention to the fact that Zakhar, a sleepyhead like him, put different stockings on him and touched his handkerchief somewhere . “Master” is an accurate and succinct answer to the question of what Oblomov is. “Oblomovism” - this is how Stolz characterizes his way of life, or rather, his worldview. And Oblomov is not the only one like this; he himself claims: “Our name is legion.” It's contagious, like an epidemic. This is convenient and pleasing to the government, because such people do not rebel.
Thinking about his life, the hero comes to the conclusion: “For twelve years a light was locked inside me, which was looking for a way out, but only burned its prison, did not break free and died out.” But there was this fire! After all, the eyes lit up in the dream of a feat! After all, there was something of his own, not borrowed from others, in his judgment about people! (By the way, the very word “different” as applied to him, the need to be like everyone else, to do what is accepted, only because it is so accepted, offends him!)
Oblomov, fearing to be insincere, will not be able to say a routine compliment to the girl he likes, which many would calmly say. But he also does not want to be a burden to her, an obstacle on her life’s path, and will write a sincere letter explaining his action. In his place, someone else would have tried to change his lifestyle or - most likely - would have promised his beloved to change, and then, God willing, he, thinking and caring more about her, told the truth. “He painfully felt that some good, bright beginning was buried in him, as if in a grave, perhaps now dead, or it lay like gold in the depths of a mountain, and it was high time for this gold to be a walking coin. But the treasure is deeply and heavily littered with rubbish and alluvial debris. It was as if someone had stolen and buried in his own soul the treasures brought to him as a gift of peace and life.” Oblomov truly has an “honest, faithful heart”; it will not lie, it will not betray the person who has trusted him, but it is silent when he himself is offended and robbed. You can’t “hide your head under your wing” all your life and want nothing more. You cannot condemn society and not try to confront at least some of its members. You cannot rely all your life on guaranteed daily bread from the estate (by the way, without thinking at all about those who produce it!) and on Zakhar for every trifling matter. You have to go through life yourself, and it’s not at all necessary to apply yourself to it or be like Stolz.
The feeling of being superfluous in society, unlike others, gave rise to the Onegins and Pechorins in Russia, who not only philosophized, but also tried to change something in their lives, to take risks, if only so that it would not be boring. Even with the brightest head and honest heart, without wishing harm to other people, you can live only for yourself. And the egoist, even the one suffering from this, withdraws into himself, creates a kind of cocoon, a wall that fences him off from the outside world. The dirt of worldly vanity, lies, and a wrong understanding of life’s values can stick to this wall. It is this sticky layer that makes the wall stronger, making it impossible to go beyond its limits. And then the fire that burned inside a person consumes itself - and the light goes out. What remains is a shell - a grave.
Thanks to Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, the concept of “Oblomovism” appeared. With this word, the author designated the state in which his main character finds himself - smart, handsome, with a pure soul, who does not want to live the way most of his friends live. At the same time, Oblomov does not have “his own path” - he only dreams, makes unrealistic plans and does nothing at all. Life, youth, love pass him by, and it seems there is no force that would make him get up from the couch.
The debate about what Oblomovism is began immediately after the book was published and continues to this day. The source of these disputes lies, as often happens, in considering the phenomenon of Oblomovism from opposing points of view.
Oblomovism is a social evil
Since the novel was written in the era of transition from serfdom to capitalism, many contemporaries saw Oblomovism as a product of feudal relations, a brake on social development.
Dmitry Pisarev called Oblomovism “submissive, peaceful, smiling apathy,” and Oblomov called it pampered, spoiled, “accustomed to lordship, inaction and complete satisfaction of one’s physical needs.”
The prominent statesman Anatoly Koni even argued that the Oblomovs of his time “with their apathy, fear of any initiative and lazy non-resistance to evil, nullify the glaring issues of life and the needs of the country.”
Oblomovism - the search for higher meaning
However, not all critics limited themselves to such a one-sided interpretation of the concept of “Oblomovism”. Many have tried to consider this phenomenon from a universal human perspective, to see in it something more than pathological laziness conditioned by social conditions. Thus, Goncharov’s contemporary, writer Alexander Druzhinin, argued that “it is impossible to know Oblomov and not love him deeply,” if only because “he is positively incapable of evil deeds.”
Already in Soviet times, Mikhail Prishvin wrote about the novel “Oblomov”: “In this novel, Russian laziness is internally glorified and externally it is condemned by the depiction of dead-active people. No “positive” activity in Russia can withstand Oblomov’s criticism: his peace is hidden in itself a request for the highest value, for an activity for which it would be worth losing peace.”
Modern critics Peter Weil and Alexander Genis agree with him. In their book “Native Speech: Lessons in Fine Literature,” they describe Oblomov as “the only true person in the novel,” who does not want to put on the roles imposed by society, defending his right to remain just a man.
Introduction
Ivan Goncharov for the first time in his novel “Oblomov” introduces a new concept for Russian literature “Oblomovism”, which denoted a special social tendency, characteristic, first of all, of the Russian people, concluded in complete lack of will, apathy, constant laziness and excessive daydreaming, when illusions are replaced real life, and the person degrades. The very word “Oblomovshchina” comes from the name of the main character of the work - Oblomov and the name of his native village - Oblomovka, which was the focus of everything that led to the gradual decline of Ilya Ilyich as a person, his complete isolation from the world and final escapism. The depiction of Oblomov and “Oblomovism” in Goncharov’s novel is a reflection of the process of gradual change, the “breaking” of a person who is instilled with unnatural values and desires, which ultimately leads to tragic consequences - the acquisition of a false meaning of life, fear of the real world and the early death of the hero.
Oblomovka and “Oblomovism”
The roots of the appearance of “Oblomovism” in Oblomov lie in the childhood of the hero - Ilya Ilyich grew up in a distant village, literally cut off from the real world and the center of Russia - Oblomovka. The Oblomov estate is located in a picturesque, quiet, tranquil area, where the climate pleased with its moderation and tranquility, where there were no heavy rains, hurricanes or winds, a raging sea or majestic mountains, instead of which there were gentle hills, even the sky “huddles closer to the ground”, “to hug her tighter, with love: it spread out so low above her head, like a parent’s reliable roof, to protect, it seems, the chosen corner from all adversity.”
Everything here promised “a calm, long-term life until the hair turns yellow and an imperceptible, sleep-like death.” Even the seasons followed each other according to the calendar, without destroying the crops with spring snows - everything in Oblomovka went according to its usual way, without changing for decades. In such a semblance of paradise on earth, Oblomov and the Oblomovites developed, protected even by nature from all sorts of hardships, experiences and losses.
People in Oblomovka lived from rite to rite - from birth to wedding and from wedding to funeral. The pacifying nature pacified their disposition, making them quiet, harmless and indifferent to everything: the most terrible atrocities in the village were associated with the theft of peas or carrots, and having once found a dead man from a neighboring village, they decided to forget about it, since the life of other communities did not concern them touched, which means the dead man is not their problem. A similar situation occurred with a letter from a neighboring estate, which described a recipe for beer, but the Oblomovites were afraid to open it right away, fearing bad news that could disturb the usual tranquility of the village. People in Oblomovka did not like work, considering it a duty and trying to get the job done as quickly as possible or even shift it onto the shoulders of someone else. On the estate, all the work was done by the servants, who, as can be seen from the example of Zakhar, were also not the most responsible and hardworking people, but at the same time remained devoted servants of their bar.
The days of the Oblomovka residents passed in calmness and idleness, and the most important event was the choice of dishes for dinner, when everyone offered their own options, and then everyone consulted, approaching the menu with particular seriousness: “caring for food was the first and main concern in life in Oblomovka. After the meal, everyone fell into a sleepy state, sometimes they carried on lazy, meaningless conversations, but more often they were completely silent, gradually falling asleep: “it was some kind of all-consuming, invincible sleep, a true likeness of death,” which little Ilya observed from year to year, gradually adopting parental behavior model and values.
Oblomov's childhood in Oblomovka
As a child, Ilya was an inquisitive, active child who tried in every possible way to understand the world around him. He wanted, like other children, to run through the fields, climb trees, walk where it was forbidden, or, climbing into the hayloft, admire the river and magnificent landscapes from above. Oblomov liked to watch animals and explore the surrounding area. However, overly protective parents, who from infancy surrounded Ilya with constant care and control, forbade the boy to actively interact with the world and study it, instilling in him completely different, “Oblomov” values and behavior patterns: constant laziness, unwillingness to work and study, lack of will and fear of the real. peace.
Deprived of the need to fight for his desires, receiving everything he wants at the first request, Oblomov became accustomed to idleness. He did not need to decide or do anything on his own - there were always parents nearby who “knew better” what their son needed, or servants who were ready to bring him any food, help him get dressed or clean his chambers. Ilya was raised as an exotic “indoor flower,” protected with all their might from the outside world and hidden in Oblomovka’s peaceful nest. His parents did not even demand academic success from their son, since they did not consider science to be something truly important and useful; they often left him at home on holidays or in bad weather. That is why studying at school, and then at the institute, became for Oblomov something like an instruction from his parents, and not the implementation of his own will. During the classes, Ilya Ilyich was bored; he did not understand how the knowledge gained could be applied in later life, in particular, in Oblomovka.
The destructive influence of fairy tales on Oblomov’s life
In the novel, Ilya Ilyich appears as a very sensitive, dreamy person who knows how to see beauty and subtly experience any manifestations of the outside world. In many ways, the formation of these qualities in the hero was influenced by Oblomov’s picturesque nature and fairy tales that his nanny told the boy. Myths and legends carried Oblomov into a completely different world - a fantastic, beautiful and full of miracles: “He involuntarily dreams of Militris Kirbityevna; everything pulls him in that direction, where they only know that they are walking, where there are no worries and sorrows; he always has the disposition to lie on the stove, walk around in a ready-made, unearned dress and eat at the expense of the good sorceress.” Even in adulthood, realizing that “rivers of milk” do not exist, Ilya Ilyich “is sometimes unconsciously sad, why is a fairy tale not life, and why is life not a fairy tale.” That is why in Oblomov, that sense of abandonment of a person in a terrifying and frightening world, instilled with fairy tales, continued to live in Oblomov, where you need to blindly make your way forward, neither seeing a goal nor a road, from which only a true miracle can save you.
The fabulous, magical world of legends and myths becomes an alternative reality for Oblomov, and already in adulthood he himself invents a fairy tale about a future life in the paradise Oblomovka, about endless calm family happiness, prosperity and tranquility. However, the tragedy of Ilya Ilyich does not even lie in total escapism, fear of society, unwillingness to do anything and fight for his happiness, and not the understanding that he has already replaced real life with an illusory one. Before his death, for Oblomov, his dreams are more real and important than his son, wife, friend and people around him, even more important than himself, because in his dreams everything is in order with his health, he is full of strength and energy. However, Goncharov himself in the novel briefly gives the reader one of the explanations for this substitution: “or maybe sleep, the eternal silence of a sluggish life and the absence of movement and any real fears, adventures and dangers forced a person to create another, unrealizable one among the natural world, and to look for revelry and fun for the idle imagination or the solution to ordinary combinations of circumstances and causes of a phenomenon outside the phenomenon itself,” emphasizing that life itself should be a continuous striving forward, and not an endless sleep in the “comfort zone.”
Conclusion
The concept of “Oblomovism” in the novel “Oblomov” is introduced by Goncharov not as a single characteristic of the life motives and characteristics of the protagonist’s nature, but as a typical and especially attractive phenomenon for Russian society - the archetype of Emelya the Fool, lying on the stove and waiting for his finest hour. According to the author himself, this is “an evil and insidious satire on our great-grandfathers, and maybe even on ourselves” - a fairy tale that everyone wants to believe in, but which has nothing to do with reality, where in order to achieve heights it is necessary to rise from ovens and work, work on yourself. Using Oblomov as an example, Goncharov showed how a sensitive, dreamy person can be detrimentally affected by excessive care and guardianship, protection from stress and loss, leading to complete disappointment in real life and its replacement with illusions.
The characteristics of the concept of “Oblomovism”, the history of its appearance and the connection with the main character of the novel will be useful to 10th graders while preparing an essay on the topic “Oblomov and “Oblomovism” in the novel “Oblomov”.
Work test
I. A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” was published in 1859, at a time when the issue of abolition of serfdom was extremely acute in the country, when Russian society was already fully aware of the destructiveness of the existing order. A deep knowledge of life and the accuracy of social analysis of characters allowed the writer to find a surprisingly correct definition of the way of Russian life of that time - “Oblomovism”.
The author's main task in the novel is to show how a person gradually dies in a person, how unadapted a landowner is to life, not accustomed to doing anything. The main qualities of the kind, sweet Ilya Ilyich Oblomov are his inertia, apathy, and aversion to any activity. True to the traditions of realism, I. A. Goncharov shows that these qualities were the result of Oblomov’s upbringing; they were born from the confidence that any of his desires would be fulfilled and no effort needed to be made for this. Oblomov is a nobleman, he does not have to work for a piece of bread - hundreds of Zakharov serfs work for him on the estate and completely ensure his existence. This means that he can lie on the couch all day long, not because he is tired, but because “this was his normal state.” He almost merged with his soft, comfortable robe and long, wide shoes, which he masterfully slipped into the first time, as soon as he dangled his feet from the sofa.
In his youth, Oblomov “was full of all sorts of aspirations, hopes, he expected a lot from fate and himself, he was always preparing for some field, for some role.” But time passed, and Ilya Ilyich kept getting ready, preparing to start a new life, but did not advance a single step towards any goal. In Moscow he received a good education, but his head “was like a library, consisting of only knowledge scattered in parts.” Entering the service, which had previously seemed to him in the form of some kind of family occupation, he did not even imagine that life would immediately be divided into two halves for him, one of which would consist of work and boredom, which for him were synonymous, and the other - from peace and peaceful fun. He realized that “it would take at least an earthquake to prevent a healthy person from coming to work,” and therefore he soon resigned, then stopped going out into the world and completely shut himself up in his room. If Oblomov recognizes some kind of work, it is only the work of the soul, since dozens of generations of his ancestors “endured labor as a punishment imposed on our forefathers, but they could not love, and where there was a chance, they always got rid of it, finding it possible and due."
There were moments in Oblomov’s life when he thought about the reasons that prompted him to lead such a life, when he asked himself the question: “Why am I like this?” In the climactic chapter of the novel “Oblomov’s Dream,” the writer answers this question. He creates a picture of provincial landowner life and shows how lazy hibernation gradually becomes the normal state of a person.
In a dream, Oblomov is transported to his parents’ estate Oblomovka, “to a blessed corner of the earth,” where there is “no sea, no high mountains, rocks, abysses, no dense forests - there is nothing grandiose, wild and gloomy.” An idyllic picture appears before us, a series of beautiful landscapes. “The annual circle is performed there correctly and calmly. Deep silence lies in the fields. Silence and peace of life also reign in the morals of the people in that region,” writes I. A. Goncharov. Oblomov sees himself as a little boy, striving to look into the unknown, ask more questions and get answers. But only caring for food becomes the first and main concern of life in Oblomovka. And the rest of the time is occupied by “some kind of all-consuming, invincible dream,” which I. A. Goncharov makes a symbol characterizing people like Oblomov, and which he calls “the true likeness of death.” From childhood, Ilya was accustomed to the fact that he did not have to do anything, that for any job there was “Vaska, Vanka, Zakharka,” and at some point he himself realized that it was “much calmer” this way. And therefore, all those “seeking manifestations of strength” in Ilyusha “turned inward and sank, withering away.” Such a life deprived the hero of the novel of any initiative and gradually turned him into a slave of his position, his habits, and even a slave of his servant Zakhar.
In his article “What is Oblomovism?” N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “Oblomov is not a stupid apathetic figure without aspirations and feelings, but a person who is also looking for something in life, thinking about something.” He is endowed with many positive qualities, and he is not stupid. There is a sad truth in his judgments - also a consequence of Russian life. What are all these Sudbinskys, Volkins, Penkovs striving for? Indeed, is it worth getting up from the couch for the sake of the petty fuss that his former comrades are busy with?
In the spirit of the tradition created by Russian writers, I. A. Goncharov subjects his hero to the greatest test - the test of love. A feeling for Olga Ilyinskaya, a girl of enormous spiritual strength, could resurrect Oblomov. But I. A. Goncharov is a realist, and he cannot show a happy ending to the novel. “Why did everything die? Who cursed you, Ilya? What ruined you? - Olga bitterly tries to understand. And the writer gives the answer to these questions, absolutely precisely defining the name of this evil - Oblomovism. And Ilya Ilyich was not the only one to become her victim. “Our name is legion!” - he says to Stolz. And indeed, almost all the heroes of the novel were amazed by “Oblomovism” and became its victims: Zakhar, Agafya Pshenitsyna, Stolz, and Olga.
The greatest merit of I. A. Goncharov is that he surprisingly accurately depicted the disease that struck Russian society in the mid-19th century, which N. A. Dobrolyubov characterized as “the inability to actively want something,” and pointed out the social causes of this phenomenon.
“In Gorokhovaya Street, in one of the large houses<…>Ilya Ilyich Oblomov was lying in bed in the morning in his apartment,” this is how I. A. Goncharov introduces us to the main character of the work, a gentleman a little over 30 years old, who does not know and does not want to know about work. An old, worn dressing gown (sleeping robe) and slippers are his usual attire. These are symbols of laziness and apathy, running like a red thread through the character’s entire life.
“Yes, I’m a master and I don’t know how to do anything!” - Oblomov says about himself.
N.A. Dobrolyubov understood “Oblomovism” as something social, “a sign of the times.” In his understanding, the image of Oblomov is a strictly defined type of Russian person, “spoiled” by the opportunity to shift all responsibility onto the shoulders of others. From the point of view of the critic, “Oblomovism” is an allegory of serfdom.
(Still from N. Mikhalkov's film "A few days in the life of I.I. Oblomov." Ilya Oblomov - Oleg Tabakov)
Where did “Oblomovism” come from? The reader learns about this from the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream,” which tells about Ilyusha’s childhood. The life of a serf estate is divided into two worlds: the lazy, amorphous lordly one, where there is nothing more important than tasty food and sound, like sleep, and the peasant world - filled with labor aimed at solving the everyday problems of the masters. We see a world that is ossified, closed in traditions and customs that do not encourage living aspiration and, especially, work. Why, if there is “Zakhar and 300 more Zakharovs”?
Moving away from Dobrolyubov’s concept of serfdom, one can see in “Oblomovism” a phenomenon that is often encountered in our days. Fear of going into the “big life”, persistently cultivated by parents in their offspring, life “following the well-trodden” path trodden by generations of following traditions and foundations. Excessive care from work and the creation of a social vacuum destroy the slightest manifestations of curiosity and the desire for independence: “Those seeking manifestations of strength turned inward and withered away.”
Oblomov's whole life is a desire to plunge into a utopia, where everything is easy and there is no need to make decisions. Ilya Ilyich does not want to leave the house, he is constantly immersed in dreams about rebuilding the estate, but dreams remain dreams, and Oblomov’s world is still limited to the sofa, because “a fairy tale is not life, and life is not a fairy tale.”
“Oblomovism” is contrition, “primitive laziness,” time spent in dreams and empty reveries. The time that is created for action.
No external force can awaken even one spark in Ilya Ilyich. Andrei Stolts’s desire to bring him back to life collapsed under the heap of fears, foundations and the notorious worn-out robe, which enveloped not only the body, but also the mind and soul of Oblomov. Olga’s aspirations to return Ilya to society did not come true either. Decadence consumed his essence.
("The same Oblomov - yesterday and today")
Everything that captures a person infected with Oblomovism is doomed. Everything around him is dying, because there is no fire inside, no desire to live, and not drag out existence, lying on the sofa and hiding from any “external stimuli.”
The last refuge of Ilya Ilyich was the house of Agafya Pshenitsina, where he found echoes of his “cradle” - Oblomovka, to which all his nature strove.