Russian literature has always been a kind of banner, guiding star for a Russian person. This kind of work, reflecting the social and psychological side of life, allows people to think and reflect on themselves, their behavior, and the people around them. Moreover, good book can in some sense replace loved one, advisor. The book gives us strength for further struggle, instills in us confidence in our abilities, encourages heroism and makes us look at many things that seem to have long ago become familiar with completely different eyes.
In his work Notes of a Hunter, Turgenev shows the reader the real, whole Russia. The author, being a man infinitely in love with his country, invites us to plunge into thoughts about the Russian people, about their place in the world. There are no cruel scenes here, but Turgenev, with all his skill, shows us the everyday life of a serf man, whose fate is deeply unhappy, and the system in which he lives shows us all the inhumanity and inhumanity of those times.
Instead of providing the reader with a dynamic plot and unpredictable moves, the author draws our attention more to the characters themselves, to their habits, manners, and tastes. But you shouldn’t think that there is no plot in the story at all, there is one, but it stands apart. The main character goes on a journey across Russia, or more precisely through a small part of it - the Oryol region. As a result of his voyage, the Narrator meets many people and through this the author paints for us a picture of real Russia and the life of its population.
Turgenev attached particular importance to the arrangement of stories in his work. Thus, we see not an ordinary collection of stories of the same type, but we see a single interconnected work.
Turgenev did not strive to idealize the common people. He saw that he lived in the country huge amount talented, truly gifted people who cannot realize their abilities in any way. They simply do not have the capabilities for this. In the story “Khor and Kalinich” we see that Khor is an intelligent, to some extent even experienced, person. But, unfortunately, he did not know how to write. And here we see Kalinich who knows how to write, but at the same time is a stupid person and devoid of common sense. And these two people, being complete opposites, do not contradict each other, on the contrary, they complement and thereby cause surprise in the Narrator.
The author, being a mature man, knowledgeable in psychology people, acted as an experienced creator of folk stories. We see that the serfdom system oppresses people, and although they are strong, to some extent powerful in their thoughts, they still cannot get rid of the yoke of servility hated by the author. Serfdom for Turgenev is a shame and humiliation for the Russian people. In the fight against this system, according to the author, both peasants and nobles should take part, because such a system contradicts the very essence of the Russian person.
Analysis 2
In Russian literature there are a huge number of examples of works that encourage a person to fight and take action. One of these is the work “Notes of a Hunter” by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. In order to make a complete analysis of this work, you need to consider the life of the writer and understand his motives.
Looking at the bullying of the lordly layer of society against the serfs, the author could not understand: “Why should it be like this and how did it happen?” This question deeply embedded in the heart young guy and was reflected in the story “Notes of a Hunter.”
The title of the work is associated with the writer’s love of hunting. It happened that he disappeared from home for weeks at a time with a gun at the ready. Wandering around his province on foot in search of a worthy trophy, the author could not help but encounter ordinary people - serfs. Who happily shared their problems and hardships, thoughts and desires. This was the impetus for writing the story “Notes of a Hunter.”
In order to understand the main idea of the story, it is worth analyzing at least one of the essays. For example, let’s look at “Khor and Kalinich”. This chapter presents the main features of the psychological behavior of peasants and Russian people in general. The chapter begins with the fact that the writer comes to a familiar gentleman to hunt, where he meets the two main characters - Khorem and Kalinich. Khor is a wealthy peasant, hard-working, inventive and a jack of all trades. He could have redeemed himself from the master long ago, but he is afraid of the unknown, so he remains in serfdom and pays the quitrent, quietly laughing at the master. Kalinich is a wise, talented person, with subtle soul. He has nothing and is always in need, but he can appreciate beauty and understands nature well, for which he is very respected in the area.
The reader is presented with two main characters of the Russian person - sensible and carefree. But the author, like those around these serfs, also finds in them great benefits for society, providing a topic for discussion that serfs are the same people as the lordly class.
Future luminary Russian literature Turgenev was born in the fall of 1818. His family, although they were nobles, did not have much happiness. The father left the family and soon died. The writer was raised by his mother, Varvara Petrovna. Varvara's character was very strict and domineering. She used beatings as punishment for the young dreamer more than once. But, despite this, the woman was very educated and traveled a lot around Europe, instilled in Ivan Sergeevich a love for Russian literature and introduced him to immortal works Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol.
Several interesting essays
- The Fox and the Crane - analysis of a fairy tale
The Russian folk tale “The Fox and the Crane” is perhaps the only work in Russian folklore where the Fox and the Crane were friends. This is a fairy tale not only about such an unusual friendship, but also about friendliness and hospitality.
Almost all writers and poets, being children of their native land, touched upon the theme of their homeland in their work. Everyone did it in their own way. Someone devoted himself entirely to the problems, sorrows and joys of his country
The story “Raspberry Water” was published in the magazine “Sovremennik” No. 2 for 1848. It combines the ideas of two essays, which Turgenev called “Fog” and “Stepushka” in plans. The story was written in Paris in the autumn of 1847.
In the first magazine publication, the story was subject to significant censorship edits. In the 1852 edition of “Notes of a Hunter,” the original text was restored.
Literary direction and genre
The story “Raspberry Water” is realistic and has an anti-serfdom orientation. The reader observes a number of typical images of peasants and landowners. In its descriptiveness, the story is similar to an essay; it does not have a pronounced climax. In its richness of characters and events, the story approaches a novella.
Issues
The main problem of the story is connected with serfdom, which makes both peasants and landowners unhappy in their own way and deprives them not only of their dignity, but also of their humanity.
Plot and composition
The story “Raspberry Water” is part of the series “Notes of a Hunter”, united by the hero-narrator. The title of the story is dedicated to a source, a spring called “Crimson Water,” gushing from a crevice in the Istra River.
The unprecedented August heat that accompanies the heroes throughout the story leads the hunter to the source. The exposition of the story is a summer landscape and a description of the key, near which the narrator meets two old men - Stepushka and Tuman.
Having talked about Stepushka, the hunter comes closer and recognizes another old man, Fog, with whom he recalls the order under the old count. Thus, through a monologue (the narrator’s reasoning about Stepushka) and dialogue (with Tuman), the reader learns about the life of not only these peasants, but also the master Pyotr Ilyich.
The story seems to end with this dialogue. But it is followed by a landscape in which the feeling of heat and stuffiness is even more intense. He plays the role of a kind of interlude, after which a new character is introduced into the action - the peasant Vlas.
From Fog’s dialogue with the approaching Vlas, who had recently lost his son, the reader learns that life with the count’s son, Valerian Petrovich, is even more difficult.
The sad song at the end on the other side of the river matches the mood of the characters. The ending of the story is open; the fate of none of the characters is determined.
Heroes of the story
Stepushka is the most pitiful creature that could have been generated by serfdom. This is a man without a past, who came from nowhere in the village of Shumikhino and lives with the gardener Mitrofan, whom the landowners settled on the site of a manor house that had once burned down.
Only after talking about Stepushka’s life does the author describe his appearance, emphasizing that Stepushka is little man not only figuratively, but also literally: “His face is small, his eyes are yellow, his hair goes all the way to his eyebrows...” The hero’s childish, primitive appearance is complemented by the hero’s speech. Stepushka spoke stutteringly, “as if he was moving pounds with his tongue.”
Stepushka not only was not a servant, did not receive any salary or benefit, but he could not even be considered a human being. Stepushka had no position in society, no connections, no relatives, no one knew about him, he didn’t even have a past. And he was not listed according to the audit, that is, he was a dead soul.
Stepushka lived like an animal in a cage behind the chicken coop, in winter - in the dressing room or in the hayloft. He ate what was served good people. The author compares Stepushka to an ant who bothers only for food. His movements are fussy, he is ready to hide at any moment.
Fog is the nickname of the freedman Mikhail Savelyev, who used to be the butler of Count Pyotr Ilyich. He was a seventy-year-old man with a regular and pleasant face. He spoke slightly through his nose, “good-naturedly and majestically,” did everything slowly, even blew his nose and sniffed tobacco. With pleasure, Tuman talks about different aspects of the life of landowners: about dogs and hound hunting, about the rich lordly techniques, clothing and even the master’s morality. He is dissatisfied with the loss of his position under the master, because at the same time he lost his significance.
The third peasant the narrator meets is Vlas. This is a man of about fifty. His dusty travel clothes and knapsack reveal him as a man who has traveled a long way. Vlas suffered greatly from serfdom. He lost his son and could no longer pay the rent “ninety-five rubles from taxes.” Therefore, he went to Moscow to see the master Valerian Petrovich, the son of Pyotr Ilyich. But the master refused to transfer him to corvee, ordering him to first pay the arrears. Vlas treats life’s injustice as something natural, as if we are talking about something else.
Landowners occupy a special place in the gallery of realistic types of the Russian village. Count Pyotr Ilyich, “a nobleman of the old century,” lived in the village of Troitsky in a huge wooden house on 2 floors. The Count loved to receive guests, enjoying their servility. He convened the entire province and lived in grand style, but having gone bankrupt, he went to St. Petersburg to look for a place for himself and died in oblivion in a hotel.
The reader learns the details of the count's life from the story of his butler. The fog admires the splendor of the master's banquets. As an example kind soul Count Tuman gives an apparently ordinary story: “It used to be that he would beat you - look, you’ve already forgotten.”
Fog considers as wisdom the tyranny of the master, who kicked out the bandmaster from the Germans, who wanted to eat with the gentlemen at the same table, because the musicians (and there were 40 of them, a whole orchestra) already “understand their job.” According to Tuman, the master was ruined by the matreskis (mistresses) who had power over him.
Storyteller - spokesman author's attitude to serfdom. If the men do not understand the full tragedy of their forced existence and justify the masters, then the narrator sincerely sympathizes with the serfs. This is reflected in the details: he calls the peasant “my poor Vlas” and asks Tuman uncomfortable questions about the severity of the late master.
Turgenev condemns the system, from which a person (Styopushka) falls out and ceases to be a person at all.
Stylistic features
The story is poetic and even musical. With the help of psychological parallelism, Turgenev describes the internal state of the characters. The increasing heat corresponds to the heightened emotions of the peasants: the completely indifferent Stepushka, the timidly indignant Fog and the desperate Vlas.
The details in the story are important to psychological characteristics heroes. The fog is embarrassed when the narrator forces him to admit that the current order is better than the previous one, because he misses the “good times.” Vlas laughs and is cheerful, but his face betrays grief from the loss of his son, resentment towards the master: there are tears in his eyes, his lips are twitching, his voice is breaking.
Turgenev's peasants are bright individuals. They even speak differently: Styopushka inarticulately, Tuman correctly and intelligently, maintaining the conversation like a lord, Vlas - briefly, holding back his offense.
Ministry of Education and Science Russian Federation
State educational institution Higher vocational education
Orenburg State Pedagogical University
Faculty of Philology Department of Linguistics and Methods of Teaching the Russian Language
on the topic: Analysis of the collection of stories by I.S. Turgenev “Notes of a Hunter” in the positional aspect
Orenburg 2010
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the work is to study the collection of stories by I. Turgenev “Notes of a Hunter” in a positional aspect. To achieve it, the following tasks were set:
Consider “Notes of a Hunter” from the point of view of the positional use of the image of nature in them;
Analyze each episode with a description of the image of nature;
Establish the location of each episode and its connection with the rest of the stories;
Draw a conclusion about the role of each episode with the image of nature in the collection.
Identify episodes depicting nature, establish their length and localization in the text of each story and in the cycle.
The subject of the study is the image of nature in the collection of stories by I. Turgenev “Notes of a Hunter”.
CHAPTER 1. STUDY OF TEXT COMPOSITION IN THE POSITIONAL ASPECT
The main function of language is the communicative function; language performs this main function through messages - texts formatted through language. A literary text, being a work of art - literature - unlike other texts, does not perform a communicative function in pure form. To satisfy spiritual aesthetic needs, a literary text ignores reality, choosing in it only what is necessary to express a certain idea, an artistic problem. This idea is the main organizing core literary text. Understanding an idea is not always easy, and linguistic analysis can help here - the study of the material form of a literary text, in which it is “encrypted”, encoded artistic idea[Korbut-3; 76].
1.1 The concept of linguistic analysis
Linguistic analysis is a special system of teaching techniques for decomposing a text into its component parts, studying them, comparing, comprehending, and then understanding a literary text in the unity and interconnection of all its elements [Korbut-4; 76].
Linguistic analysis allows us to see organic, constructive connections between courses in literature and the modern Russian language. Two main stages of linguistic analysis: analysis and synthesis. It is better to start with an analysis of the elements, then draw a conclusion about the influence of the elements on the content - synthesis. Linguistic analysis also includes some aspects of other types of analysis. The literary aspect - understanding a literary text as a fact of social thought - can be included at the stage of synthesis. Stylistic aspect - understanding the violation or non-violation of the norms of the literary language modern era and the era corresponding to the time the work was written is necessary at the analysis stage. The most full analysis of a literary text is general philological; such analysis includes all known types of analysis: linguistic, literary, and historical.
In linguistic analysis, a literary work is considered “as a source of impressions for the reader” (Arnold), who experiences certain feelings regardless of the personality of the author or public opinion. Which linguistic units, arranged in what sequence, contribute to the creation of an impression? - these are the main questions that are posed during linguistic analysis [Korbut-4;76].
Composition of literary text. From a linguistic point of view, composition is a way of arranging and connecting linguistic units of different levels in an integral linear structure of a literary text. The composition is a harmonious unity of form and content.
B.A. Uspensky proposed to consider the linguistic composition of a literary text as a system of intratextual points of view. The point of view includes the points of view of the author(s), the characters, and sometimes the intended points of view of the readers.
In composition, two types of speech can be distinguished - direct and indirect. Direct speech is formally highlighted with quotation marks (or dashes). Direct speech can also include letters, diary entries, articles from newspapers and magazines; they enhance “authenticity” [Korbut-22;76].
Among the indirect speech of A.Yu. Korbut identifies two main methods of storytelling. Objective narration (objective speech) and subjective narration.
“The compositional units of a literary text,” writes A. Yu. Korbut in his work “Linguistic Analysis of a Literary Text,” “in terms of points of view, are all elements that change the type of narrative: direct speech, writing, dream, document, diary, newspaper material, subjective speech of the author, etc.
Dynamic aspect of composition. The compositional unit of a literary text in the dynamic aspect is the type of speech: narration, description, reasoning in the author’s speech. Most major literary texts are artistic narratives with the inclusion of other types of speech [Korbut-27; 76].
Symmetrological aspect. The next aspect of the composition of a literary text is related to the strong positions of the text, its proportions and types of symmetry in it. Thus, analysis of composition in this aspect allows us to see the manifestation of the laws of symmetry in the linguistic structure of a literary work. The most important manifestation of the laws of symmetry in a literary text is the golden ratio, which is called the harmonic center. The first level of the golden ratio divides the text into two unequal parts by a coefficient of 0.618. This is the golden ratio point, or harmonic center. The harmonic center is a strong position of the text.
The second level of the golden ratio proportion highlights the absolute beginning of the literary text. This is part of the text, including the title, epigraph, if there is one. Its coefficient is 0.146, which is approximately the first 15% of the text. The absolute beginning is also a strong position of the text.
The absolute end is the final strong position of a literary text, calculated by the proportion of 0.944, which is approximately the last 6% of the text. Filmed here psychological stress, the conflict is resolved. In addition to the above-mentioned strong positions, there are proportional boundaries that can be classified as weak positions of the text.
The absolute beginning is the first strong position of the text body, and is graphically highlighted on the left (with a space). The absolute beginning performs an introductory function: it represents time, place, determines the method of narration (or a combination of different methods), contains the plot of events, and represents the most important linguistic elements that will be repeated further. The harmonic center is a strong position that does not have a graphical emphasis and is perceived unconsciously.
The absolute end is a strong position that has a graphical highlight on the right. This strong position includes an eventual outcome. In our case, one story (“Lgov”) has such a strong position.
Strong positions and their functions. A strong position is the most effective point of a literary text, the perception of which combines high degree memorability and readiness to perceive subtext. The origin zone, or origin, includes two strong positions: the title and the absolute origin. The title forms the title zone - a set of elements graphically separate from the rest of the text. The title area includes a subtitle, genre, epigraph [Korbut - 29-34; 76].
The primary compositional feature of a literary text is its linearity - the units from which a literary text is constructed can be arranged in one way: one after the other, in a line. Therefore, the sequence of arrangement of parts, chapters, chapters, paragraphs or stanzas, sentences or lines, words is the most important aspect of a literary text. A literary text lives only during its reading and its first contact with the reader is made through the title (3). The next “step” in the perception of a literary text is the epigraph (if there is one). Epigraph - a quotation (literary or folklore), highlighted with spaces, like a title and subtitle, graphically isolated by shifting to the right. Expresses the main artistic problem the entire work or part of it, thus highlighting the meaningful core of the literary text [Korbut - 34-38; 76].
CHAPTER 2. ANALYSIS OF THE COLLECTION BY I.S. TURGENEV “NOTES OF A HUNTER” FROM A POSITIONAL POINT OF VIEW
“Notes of a Hunter” is a cycle consisting of twenty-five small prose works. In their form these are essays, stories and short stories. The essays (“Khor and Kalinich”, “Ovsyannikov’s Palace”, “Raspberry Water”, “Swan”, “Forest and Steppe”), as a rule, do not have a developed plot, contain a portrait, parallel characteristics of several characters, pictures of everyday life, landscape, sketches of Russian nature. The stories (“My Neighbor Radilov”, “The Office”, “Hamlet of Shchigrovsky District”, etc.) are built on a specific, sometimes very complex plot. The entire cycle is narrated by a hunter who narrates his observations, encounters, and adventures.
In the 40-50s of the 19th century, I. S. Turgenev created a number of small prose works, combined into one collection called “Notes of a Hunter.” Unlike most writers of that time, who portrayed peasants as a faceless gray mass, the author in each essay notes some special feature of peasant life, which is why all the works combined in the collection gave a bright and multifaceted picture of the peasant world. This cycle immediately brought fame to the author. All stories feature the same main character - Pyotr Petrovich. This is a nobleman from the village of Spassky, an avid hunter. It is he who talks about the incidents that happened to him during his campaigns. Moreover, Turgenev endowed him with observation and attention, which helps the narrator more accurately understand various situations and more fully convey them to the reader.
A passionate lover of nature, Turgenev made extensive use of descriptions of nature in “Notes of a Hunter,” which constitute the brightest pages in the history of the Russian literary landscape. Turgenev treated nature as an elemental force living independent life. Turgenev's landscapes are specific and inspired by the experiences of the narrator and characters, they are dynamic and closely related to the action.
To determine what role each episode with a description of nature plays for the entire collection, let us first understand what nature is in the broad, generally accepted sense.
The Free Encyclopedia gives this definition of nature. Nature is the material world of the Universe; in essence, it is the main object of study of science. In everyday life, the word “nature” is often used to mean natural habitat (everything that is not created by man).
V.I. Dal understands this concept as “nature, everything material, the universe, the entire universe, everything visible, subject to the five senses; but more our world, the earth, with everything created on it; is opposed to the Creator... All natural or natural works on earth, three kingdoms (or, with man, four), in their primitive form, are opposed to art, the work of human hands.”
The philosophical dictionary has the following definition of nature. Nature - in in a broad sense- everything that exists, the whole world in the diversity of its forms; used in conjunction with the concepts: matter, universe, Universe. 2) Object of natural science. 3) The totality of natural conditions for the existence of human society; ""second nature"" - the material conditions of his existence created by man. The implementation of metabolism between man and nature is the law regulating social production, the condition of the human life. The cumulative activities of society have an increasingly noticeable impact on nature, which requires the establishment of their harmonious interaction.
As we see, all definitions clarify that nature is everything that is not created by man. For Turgenev, nature is the main element; it subjugates a person and shapes his inner world. The Russian forest, in which “stately aspens babble,” “a mighty oak tree stands like a fighter next to a beautiful linden tree,” and the vast steppe are the main elements that define the national traits of the Russian people in “Notes of a Hunter.” This is completely consistent with the overall tone of the cycle. Nature turns out to be a true salvation for people. If in the first prologue essay the narrator asked to pay attention to the men, then the final story is the author’s lyrical declaration of love for nature, “fur sich,” as he himself jokingly says, saying goodbye to the reader. For Turgenev, nature is the container of everything and everyone. At the same time, all descriptions of nature are divided into two groups: external manifestations of nature (landscape objects, animals, weather and natural elements) and hidden or implicit (human activities related to nature, the influence of nature on the life and livelihoods of the peasant).
It was quite fashionable to call this book a book about nature and about man in nature. Even if the characters are not related to nature, the story about them still cannot be complete without landscapes at least mentioned in passing. It is no coincidence that the collection ends with a poetic hymn to nature, “Forest and Steppe.” Undoubtedly, the main aesthetic link of all short stories is the narrator, “ strange man" And the main thing in it is that the image is given outside of social civilization, as a man of nature, inextricably linked with it. His soul, his spiritual world is filled with nature. And through this natural-aesthetic prism, all the stories he tells are refracted. Turgenev “came to recognize the inclusion human personality into the general flow of world life, towards the recognition of the unity of man and nature.”
Such a unity of the “strange hunter” with nature, such an aesthetic unity of “Notes of a Hunter” through numerous landscapes is reminiscent of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s teaching about “natural man.” Turgenev, following Rousseau, argues that nature created all people equal and only social institutions create the problem social inequality. Social unfreedom distorts the natural essence of man and cripples him morally. The drama of man is, according to Turgenev, that he has fallen out of natural unity. Turgenev considers the problem of “natural man” in a philosophical, universal moral aspect. Falling out of the natural unity of a person makes him either morally ugly or completely unhappy. And Turgenev in “Notes of a Hunter” tries to show how morally beautiful the “natural man” is, connected with nature.
As the “material” for linguistic analysis in our work, we chose the collection of stories “Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev. We study this collection from the perspective of the composition of a literary text.
Almost all of Turgenev's stories contain direct speech and dialogue. A special exception is the story “Forest and Steppe”, in which the author conducts an invisible dialogue with the reader, there is no direct address to any person, there is no formal emphasis on direct speech (quotes), the dialogue does not carry any special semantic load.
Turgenev's entire collection is a subjective narrative, since there is a direct author's assessment of events and characters, the narrating author judges only what is known to him; widespread use of words with a basic emotional-evaluative meaning such as “love”, “ good man“: “As a hunter, visiting the Zhizdra district, I came across a field and met one Kaluga small landowner, Polutykin, a passionate hunter and, therefore, an excellent person” (“Khor and Kalinich”).
A subjective narrative expresses directly the author's point of view, which is often polemical in relation to the reader's point of view. In this sense, Turgenev does not force the reader to think the same way as he does; his unobtrusive narration allows the reader to make his own assessment of the person or events described.
In the collection of stories by I. Turgenev, a synthesis of all three types of speech is observed: “Rich landowners lived in these mansions, and everything was going in its own order, when suddenly, one fine morning, all this grace burned to the ground. The gentlemen moved to another nest; the estate was deserted. The vast ashes turned into a vegetable garden, in some places cluttered with piles of bricks, the remains of the previous foundations. They quickly put together a hut from the surviving logs, covered it with baroque planks, bought ten years ago to build a pavilion in the Gothic style, and settled the gardener Mitrofan with his wife Aksinya and seven children in it. Mitrofan was ordered to deliver greens and vegetables to the master’s table, one and a half hundred miles away; Aksinya was entrusted with the supervision of a Tyrolean cow, bought in Moscow for a lot of money, but, unfortunately, deprived of any ability to reproduce and therefore, since the acquisition, has not given milk; They gave her a crested smoky drake, the only “master’s” bird; the children, due to their young age, were not assigned any positions, which, however, did not in the least prevent them from becoming completely lazy” (“Raspberry Water”); “I looked around. We rode across a wide, plowed plain; Low hills, also plowed, ran down into it with extremely gentle, wave-like rolls; the gaze embraced only some five miles of deserted space; small in the distance birch groves with their rounded-toothed tops, some violated the almost straight line of the sky. Narrow paths stretched across fields, disappeared into hollows, and wound along hillocks” (“Kasyan with the Beautiful Sword”); “Hunting with a gun and a dog is wonderful in itself, f ur sich, as they used to say in the old days; But suppose you were not born a hunter: you still love nature; you, therefore, cannot help but envy our brother...” (“Forest and Steppe”).
The stories in the collection (“My neighbor Radilov,” “Bezhin Meadow,” “Date”) begin with a description of nature. Here the stylistic dominant of the literary text is formed, the time and place of action is presented.
All stories in Turgenev's collection are titled. They can be divided into two groups. The first group includes stories that have a name (or proper names) in their title. These can be names, surnames, nicknames of people, geographical objects (names of villages and cities). This group includes 15 stories: “Khor and Kalinich”, “Ermolai and the Miller’s Wife”, “Raspberry Water”, “My Neighbor Radilov”, “Ovsyannikov’s Homestead”, “Lgov”, “Bezhin Meadow”, “Kasyan from the Beautiful Sword” , "Biryuk", "Swan". “Tatyana Borisovna and her nephew”, “Petr Petrovich Karataev”, “Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district”, “Tchertopkhanov and Nedopyuskin”, “The End of Tchertopkhanov”. From the title it becomes clear where the event will take place or who the story will be about. The second group consists of stories that have common nouns in their titles: “District Doctor”, “The Burmaster”, “The Office”, “Two Landowners”, “Death”, “Singers”, “Date”, “Living Relics”, “Knocking” , "Forest and steppe". Despite the fact that these titles do not directly relate to the person or place of action, it is still not difficult to guess what the story will be about. Being a word, phrase or sentence in the linguistic aspect, the title answers one of the pressing questions of the literary text. Who? What? “Petr Petrovich Karataev”, “Death”; Where? “Lebedyan”, “Bezhin Meadow”, “Office”; What's happening? “Date”, “Knocks”, etc.
Turgenev practically does not use epigraphs in his collection. Can the stories “Living Relics” and “Forest and Steppe” be considered an exception? From the epigraphs you can immediately understand who or what we are talking about:
The native land of long-suffering -
You are the edge of the Russian people!
F. Tyutchev. (“Living Relics”).
And little by little it started back
To pull him: to the village, to the dark garden,
Where the linden trees are so huge, so shady,
And the lilies of the valley are so virginally fragrant,
Where are the round willows above the water?
A line of people leaned down from the dam,
Where a fat oak tree grows above a fat cornfield,
Where it smells like hemp and nettles...
There, there, in the wild fields,
Where the earth turns black like velvet,
Where is the rye, wherever you cast your eyes,
Flows quietly in soft waves.
And a heavy yellow ray falls
Because of the transparent, white, round clouds;
It's good there
(From a poem committed to burning) (“Forest and Steppe”).
The entire collection of stories by I. Turgenev can be presented in a table, where you can clearly see how many words are in a single story and in each episode. For convenience, we divided each story into episodes with and without descriptions of nature. The table shows how many episodes there are and what their size is.
linguistic analysis Turgenev's story
Table 1 - Number of words in episodes
TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS WITH NATURE DESCRIPTION WITHOUT NATURE DESCRIPTION NATURE KALINYCH36021. 137 WORDS1. 73 WORDS2. 3 392 YERMOLAI AND THE MILLER31841) 2121) 222) 952) 10343) 263) 3094) 304) 14505) 6 RASPBERRY WATER2 6801) 1301) 1032) 1162) 18253) 507 COUNTY DOCTOR2 96 7MY NEIGHBOR RADILOV2 3101) 1211) 2002) 1222) 1867ONE PALACE OVSYANNIKOV5 161LGOV2 9531 ) 1601) 572) 1092) 17803) 393) 684) 314) 4575) 265) 227BEZHIN LUG5 9391) 3131) 902) 182) 1133) 273) 554) 1204) 885) 565 656) 466) 157) 887) 1338 ) 368) 889) 1889) 294510) 8310) 104811) 10911) 912) 5212) 4913) 8113) 25KASYAN WITH A BEAUTIFUL SWORD5 2831) 1371) 82) 2552) 20323) 713) 124) 2944) 895) 755) 8276) 936 ) 437) 1348BURGMISTER3832OFFICE4410BIRYUK20751) 1161) 412) 1918TWO LANDLORDS2506LEBEDIAN3156T.B. AND HER NEPHEW34691) 1251) 102) 3334DEATH33131) 3201) 2972) 2696SINGERS52031) 1381) 272) 802) 4473) 1013) 644) 284) 8415) 455) ) 706) 4007) 947) 168) 376P.P.KARATAEV4195DATE25891) 5291) 18702) 1672) 24HAMLET SHIGROV.Uyezd7495CHERTOKHANOV AND NEDOPYUSKIN4894THE END OF CHERTOKHANOV9316LIVING MOWERS41201) 381) 1152) 782) 1783) 3702KNOCKING3741FOREST AND S TEP18131) 16521) 1392) 22
But from this table it is impossible to determine where the episodes describing nature are located. For this purpose it is used linear model literary text - a straight line segment divided into proportions with designated strong positions. For each story of the text there is its own linear model [Korbut - 33; 76] (Appendix 1.).
By mathematical calculations we can find the coordinate for any episode. We present the result of these calculations in a table (in electronic form), where each episode is separately numbered and has two values - the beginning and the end, indicated by units. The remaining coordinates that are not related to this episode with a description of nature are indicated by zeros.
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Russian literature is rich in excellent examples of socio-psychological works that make the reader not only think about the meaning of life, but also encourage action, struggle, and heroism.
One of such artistic works is “Notes of a Hunter” by Turgenev, a brief analysis of which we will consider in this article.
The writer's childhood
It is impossible to begin an analysis of the “Notes of a Hunter” series without getting to know its author. And indeed, only by understanding the worldview and thinking of the writer can one truly appreciate his work.
Ivan Sergeevich was born in the fall of 1818 into a family of wealthy nobles. His parents' marriage was not a happy one. The father soon left the family and died, and the children were raised by the mother. The childhood of the future writer cannot be called cloudless.
His mother, due to her upbringing and life circumstances, was a complex woman, but at the same time well-read and enlightened. She often beat her sons, behaved imperiously with the serfs, but at the same time she read a lot, traveled, and appreciated modern Russian literature.
It was Varvara Petrovna who awakened in little Ivan a love for the Russian word and Russian literature. It was she who introduced him to invaluable examples of Russian thinkers - the works of Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov...
The question of serfdom
His serf valet also had considerable influence on young Ivan. In general, Turgenev was very deeply interested in the question of the peasantry. He saw a lot and, more importantly, thought a lot.
The life of serfs was always before the eyes of a child. He spent almost his entire childhood in the village, where he could see how ordinary people were enslaved, how they were mocked, how hard life was for those who are the support and foundation of the state - ordinary workers, villagers, farmers.
Having become independent, Turgenev traveled a lot around his homeland. He observed the peasants, their life and work. It was reflection on the complex life of serfs that prompted Ivan Sergeevich to create his famous work, “Notes of a Hunter,” the analysis of which we will now consider.
Why this name?
The fact is that Turgenev was very fond of hunting, which was his real passion. He could hold the gun in his hands for weeks, if not months, traveling hundreds of kilometers in search of game. Among his acquaintances, Ivan Sergeevich was considered the most famous and successful hunter.
Throughout his life, he walked countless times through the Tula, Oryol, Tambov, Kaluga and Kursk provinces. Thanks to his travels, the writer met ordinary people who accompanied him on hunting trips, served as guides or advisers.
The nobleman Turgenev did not hesitate to communicate closely with poor serfs. He liked to listen to them, ask them questions, observe their behavior. Ivan Sergeevich saw in them his brothers, his fellow citizens, and really wanted other rich and influential people to treat the forced peasants in the same way.
That is why he published a series of stories “Notes of a Hunter,” which we will now analyze. In his own he captured what he saw and heard. For example, as the prototype for the main character of “Notes,” he chose his frequent hunting companion, the peasant Afanasy, whose stories he loved to listen to.
Briefly about the work itself
Before you begin to analyze Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter,” you should take a closer look at the work itself. As an independent artistic essay it was issued in 1852. “Notes” consists of 25 stories or essays, each of which is new story, new acting characters. However, reflecting on the analysis of Turgenev’s stories “Notes of a Hunter,” one can see that all these small essays are united by one theme - the theme of love for Russian nature and the Russian people.
A little about the author's style
The author's unsurpassed original style is striking. He describes events simply and laconically, rarely assessing what is happening, without unnecessary drama and lyrical digressions. But the tragedy of the serfs runs like a red thread through all the lines of the work, in the spirit of true realism.
In every sentence, in every dialogue, one can see the pain and sighs of the common people, burdened with an unbearable burden. Without embellishment or exaggeration, the writer manages to portray to the reader the images of those who are forever imprinted in his memory as true heroes and representatives of the Russian soul. They have ordinary people, also have their own moral principles, also have their own nobility, which is sometimes even higher and better than that of noble nobles.
Below we will examine in detail several essays by the great writer. To understand the depth and importance of the work, it is not enough to consider the analysis of one story from “Notes of a Hunter.” So, ahead of you awaits a detailed, intriguing excursion through the pages of Turgenev’s cycle.
“Khor and Kalinich”
We will begin our analysis of “Notes of a Hunter” with this work. In it, the writer creates two different images that accurately reflect the basic mindset of ordinary people.
And it all started with the fact that the narrator met a small landowner, Mr. Polutykin, and came to him to hunt. On the owner's estate, the main character met two serfs.
It is noteworthy that in his essay, as in many others, Turgenev makes little mention of the nobles. All his attention is focused on the behavior and psychology of the peasants.
So in this story, it is much more interesting for the reader to observe the life of the serfs than the life of their owner.
Khor appears in the work as a wealthy and practical peasant. He lives separately, has a large, well-kept house and family, pays rent, but does not want to buy his freedom. This is the whole primitiveness of the peasant. He is a businessman - a jack of all trades, but he does not see the most valuable thing in his life. He is limited, uneducated, narrow-minded, and at the same time looks down on the master and secretly laughs at him.
Kalinich is Khorya’s bosom friend and at the same time his complete opposite. This guy is romantic and thoughtful, impractical and soft-hearted. He has no family and is in great need. But at the same time, Kalinich has enormous knowledge of nature, for which he is highly valued in the area. He has a keen sense of beauty, is able to reflect and analyze.
Based on reflection on the characters of Khor and Kalinich, one can see what the peasantry of Turgenev’s time was like.
“Singers”
With this essay we will continue the analysis of Turgenev’s stories “Notes of a Hunter”. The plot centers on a competition between two village singers, started in the same peasant tavern. The main characters are described briefly and briefly. Yakov is the 23-year-old son of a captured Turkish woman. Works in a factory, but is known for his creative abilities.
His rival, a rower - a thirty-year-old man, a lively and resourceful tradesman - spoke first. He sang a cheerful song, he sang well, impressively. But he lacked something, although his skill was appreciated.
When Yakov began to sing, tremulously and intermittently, everyone froze. His voice - deep, exciting, sensual, made those present cry. It was amazing how adults, dexterous, cunning and tenacious, truly shed tears under the influence of the worker’s song.
It was clear that Yakov sang with the feeling that he was deeply concerned with the meaning of the rhymed lines.
Of course, those present unanimously came to the conclusion that Yakov won. But the essay did not end there.
In the evening, after the competition, the traveler again saw the “golden voice” of the village. What did Jacob do? He drank, drank self-indulgently, to the point of unconsciousness, losing all human appearance. And together with him, those who a few hours ago had enjoyed his wondrous, soulful voice took part in the revelry.
It was hard for the traveler to look at such an ugly party, when everything that is good in people is ruined - talent, feelings, soul. Analysis of “The Singers” (from “Notes of a Hunter”) shows how poverty and vice can influence even the most subtle and sensitive souls.
"Date"
The action of the essay covers only one dialogue that took place between the arrogant and heartless valet of the lord and the peasant woman Akulina, innocently abandoned by him. A hunter-traveler, dozing off in the shade of dense trees, becomes an accidental witness to the separation of these young people.
Why did the author place this seemingly lyrical and banal story of unrequited love in his “Notes of a Hunter”? Analysis of “Date” shows that in this work deep life questions. And the point is not only that the valet of a rich nobleman played on the feelings of an inexperienced girl, took advantage of her innocence and love, and now indifferently abandons her. No. The topic of the essay is much deeper.
For example, Turgenev shows how much a person can forget himself, seduced by secular tinsel, and break away from his roots, from his brothers, considering himself higher and more significant than those with whom he is equal.
Using the example of the master's valet, it also becomes clear how quickly people adopt the negative qualities of their masters and how easy it is to forget who you really are.
Analysis of “Raspberry Water” from “Notes of a Hunter”
Reflecting on the work makes you think about how serfs relate to their yoke. Not everyone, it turns out, craves freedom, not to fight for their independence.
In the center of the story is the story of one old serf, the butler of a bankrupt master, who with nostalgia recalls the old days when powerless serfs were given up as soldiers for no reason or flogged beyond measure.
However, injustice reigned not only before. Further, Turgenev describes the lordly cruelty and heartlessness, which he persistently exposes throughout the entire cycle.
Vlas is an old peasant who recently buried his son, who died after a serious long-term illness. The old man went to the master and asked him to reduce the rent, but he only got angry and kicked the unfortunate man out. As we see, the life of poor serfs and their circumstances were never of interest to their rich masters. They think only about themselves and about the profit they receive from forced people. What is the price of this quitrent? Behind it stand the life and health of the unfortunate, doomed to eternal enslavement.
"Office"
It is noteworthy that this work exposed not only the enslavement of serfs by landowners, but also the abuse of rich peasants against their fellows. For example, central character works, the chief clerk of the lord named Nikolai Eremeich, does not hesitate to take bribes from his fellow villagers for some indulgences and indulgences.
He uses his power with greed and shamelessness. Abusing his position, Eremeich tries to punish people who are unfit for him or those with whom he has ever quarreled. The behavior of the lady, who could restore justice on her estate, but does not want to think about the lives of her peasants and delve into their personal affairs, is also interesting.
For example, the landowner treats the innocent girl Tatyana unfairly and heartlessly, over whom Nikolai Eremeich and the local paramedic Pavel quarreled. Instead of judging sensibly and finding the culprits, the lady sends Tatyana away, destroying her life and the life of Pavel, who is in love with her.
As we see, not only did the peasants endure and suffer from the oppression of the rich masters, they were also unscrupulously oppressed by their own brothers who received some position at the master’s court. Such suppression of human will shattered destinies and negatively affected people's mentality.
"Death"
This will be the final work, on the basis of which we will analyze “Notes of a Hunter.” The plot centers on short stories and memoirs by the author about how Russian people, mostly peasants, die. They die easily and simply, as if they were performing an unremarkable ritual. There is no fear of death in them, no desire to live and fight, but some kind of genuine indifference to their fate, to their life, to their health.
This can be seen in the example of a man who was burned in a barn and was slowly dying at home. His relatives, and he himself, led daily life, without worrying at all about the dying person and not even trying to prevent death, let alone alleviate the suffering.
Vasily Dmitrievich is another miller by profession, indifferent to his life. He overstrained himself at hard work and suffered a hernia, but did not want to be in the hospital or do anything to improve his condition or alleviate his condition. The man goes home to settle financial matters with his property and dies four days later.
There were other cases. For example, an old friend of the main character from university. Sick with consumption, living with strangers out of mercy, he does not think about his bitter fate, is not afraid of death, but lives with the memories inspired by his comrade, and listens with enthusiasm to his stories. Ten days later he dies in agony.
Why did Turgenev describe these incidents in his “Notes of a Hunter”? Analysis of “Death” shows that the writer himself is perplexed where such indifference comes from. Most likely, this is a consequence of centuries-old serfdom, absorbed by unfortunate people with mother's milk, which became the second (if not the first and only) of their being. Their constant hard work, their difficult living conditions dull all other feelings and experiences in them.
Criticism and censorship
How did Turgenev's contemporaries react to his collection of stories? Many literary critics At that time, they noted that almost all the works included in the cycle have subtle psychologism and realism, revealing to readers the true soul of the Russian peasant.
On the other hand, some critics believed that Turgenev's stories were written in an idealistic style, that they were far-fetched and banal, and therefore were of no value.
How did the censorship react? Prince Lvov, who allowed the collection of essays to be published, was punished by the emperor personally for such a decision. Further publishing of “Notes of a Hunter” was prohibited.
Why did the authorities react to the work this way? Turgenev was charged with the fact that he poeticized the serfs, making them the main characters of his stories, revealing their souls and thoughts. The writer also earned the tsar’s disapproval for exposing the oppression of the common people and proving that serfs would have lived better in freedom.
As we see, the writer had great courage and love for the common people, since he was not afraid to displease the emperor. This is evidenced by the analysis of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” given in this article.
Here is a complete picture of Russia, illuminated by the author’s loving, poetic attitude towards his native land, reflections on the present and future of its talented people. There are no scenes of torture, but it is the everyday pictures of serf life that testify to the anti-human essence of the entire social system. In this work, the author does not offer us bright plot moves with active action, but great attention pays attention to the portrait characteristics, manners, habits and tastes of the characters. Although the overall plot is still present. The narrator makes a voyage across Russia, but its geography is very limited - this is the Oryol region. He meets various types of people along the way, as a result of which a picture of Russian life emerges. Turgenev attached great value arrangement of stories in the book. This is how not a simple selection of thematically homogeneous stories appears, but a single work of art, within which the patterns of figurative interconnection of essays operate. “Notes of a Hunter” opens with two thematic “phrases”, each of which includes three stories. First, variations on a folk theme are given - “Khor and Kalinich”, “Ermolai and the miller’s wife”, “Raspberry water”. The next three stories develop the theme of the ruined nobility - “The District Doctor”, “My Neighbor Radimov”, “Ovsyanikov’s Homesteader”. The following stories: “Lgov”, “Bezhin Meadow”, “Kasyan with a Beautiful Sword” - again develop the theme of the people, but in them the motives of the decaying harmful influence of serfdom on the souls of people appear and sound more and more persistently, this is especially felt in the essay “Lgov” "
In the stories “The Burmister”, “The Office” and “Biryuk” the theme of the nobility is continued, but in a sharply updated version. In “Burmistra,” for example, a type of landowner of a new formation is presented, and the image of a lord’s servant is also given here. The “Office” gives curious results of the transfer of old noble business habits to new forms of public institutions and new types of office servants from the peasants. The essay “Biryuk” describes a strange, mysterious man, personifying the powerful elemental forces that still unconsciously roam in the soul of the Russian person.
In the next eight stories, thematic phrases are mixed, and a kind of thematic diffusion occurs. However, at the very end of the cycle, the elegiac note of the two stories about the nobleman Tchertopkhanov gives way to folk theme in the essays “Living Relics” and “Knocking”.
“Notes of a Hunter” depicts provincial Russia, but one can feel the deadening pressure of those spheres of life that gravitate over the Russian province and dictate their terms and laws to it.
The first story in this series is called “Khor and Kalinich.” The author-narrator meets the landowner Polutykin, a passionate hunter, who invites him to his estate, where he introduces him to his peasants, whom he values quite highly. The first character is Khor, whose image is based on a certain type, quite common among the people. Khor was well acquainted with the practical side of the matter; common sense was visible in his actions and work. He is in the position of a serf, although he has the opportunity to pay off his master.
His friend Kalinich is his complete opposite. He once had a wife, but now lives alone. Hunting became the meaning of his life, giving him the opportunity to contact nature.
The characters look at life differently, perceive different situations, even their manners are completely opposite.
The author does not idealize the peasants. Turgenev saw in popular types people of common sense, whose tragedy lies in the fact that they cannot realize their talents and capabilities. Khor saw a lot, knew and understood the psychology of human relationships well. “While talking with Khorem, for the first time I heard the simple, intelligent speech of a Russian peasant.” But Khor could not read, and Kalinich could, but he was devoid of common sense. These opposites in real life do not contradict each other, but complement and thereby find a common language. Here the author acted as a mature master of folk storytelling, here the peculiar feudal pathos of the entire book was determined, depicting strong, courageous, bright folk characters, the existence of which turned serfdom into the shame and humiliation of Russia , V social phenomenon, incompatible with the national dignity of the Russian person. In the essay “Khor and Kalinich,” the character of the landowner Polutykin is sketched out only with light strokes, his passion for French cuisine is briefly reported, and also mention is made of the lord’s office. But this element is by no means accidental. In the essay “The Office” similar French predilections are presented in the image of the landowner Foam, and the destructive consequences of this element are shown in the story “The Burmister”.
This work mercilessly exposes the destructive economic consequences the so-called civilizing activities of the elite. Their way of farming undermines the foundations of the peasant’s work on the land. The essay “Two Landowners,” for example, talks about economic activity one important St. Petersburg dignitary who decided to sow all his fields with poppy seeds, “since it costs more than rye, so it is more profitable to sow it.” The activities of this dignitary echo the management of the land of the landowner Pantelei Eremeevich Tchertopkhanov, who began to rebuild peasant huts according to the new plan. In addition, he ordered all his subjects to be numbered and each one had his number sewn on his collar. In such atrocities of a provincial landowner, other actions of an all-Russian, state scale are visible. Here the author hints at the activities of Arakcheev, the organizer of peasant military settlements.
Gradually, the book develops an artistic idea about the absurdity of the centuries-old serfdom. For example, in the story “Ovsyanikov’s Homesteader,” the story of the transformation of the illiterate French drummer Lejeune into a music teacher, tutor, and then into a Russian nobleman is given.
In "Notes of a Hunter" there are stories that gravitate towards satire, as they contain an anti-serfdom theme. For example, the story “Lgov” talks about a peasant nicknamed Suchok, who during his life served his masters as a coachman, fisherman, cook, actor in the home theater, and bartender Anton, although his real name was Kuzma. Having several names and nicknames, the personality turned out to be completely impersonal.
Different destinies, combining and echoing with others, participate in the creation of a monumental image of the serfdom, which has a disastrous effect on the life of the nation.
This image complements and enhances nature. A lifeless landscape runs like a red thread throughout the book. For the first time he appears in the essay “Khor and Kalinich”, where the Oryol village located next to the ravine is mentioned. In the story “Singers,” the village of Kolotovka is dissected by a terrible ravine right in the middle of the street. In the essay “Bezhin Meadow,” a lost hunter experiences a “terrible feeling” when he finds himself in a hollow that looks like a cauldron with shallow glasses. The image of a terrible place cursed by people appears repeatedly in the story. Landscapes of this kind concentrate centuries-old folk troubles and hardships associated with Russian serfdom.
(function(w, d, n, s, t) ( w[n] = w[n] || ; w[n].push(function() ( Ya.Direct.insertInto(86107, "yandex_ad", ( stat_id: 3, site_charset: "utf-8", ad_format: "direct", font_size: 1, type: "horizontal", limit: 3, title_font_size: 1, site_bg_color: "FFFFFF", header_bg_color: "FFFFFF", title_color: "295485", url_color: "666666", all_color: "295485", text_color: "000000", hover_color: "CC0000" )); t = d.documentElement.firstChild; s = d.createElement("script" ); s.type = "text/javascript"; s.src = "http://an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.setAttribute("async", "true"); (s, t.firstChild))(window, document, "yandex_context_callbacks"); This work is devoid of patriarchal beauty, since it touches on the all-Russian social conflict, and also two national images of the world collide and argue with each other, two Russias - the official, deadening life, and the folk-peasant, living and poetic. In addition, all the heroes gravitate towards two different poles - dead or alive. Nature also plays an active role in creating a holistic image of living Russia. The best heroes This work is not just depicted against the backdrop of nature, but also acts as its continuation. In this way, the book achieves a poetic sense of the mutual connection of all living things: man, river, forest, steppe. The soul of this unity is the personality of the author, fused with the life of the people, with the deep layers of Russian culture. Nature here is not indifferent to man; on the contrary, she is very strict in her relations with him, since she takes revenge on him for being too unceremonious and rational intrusion into her secrets, as well as for being excessively bold and self-confident with her. Feature national character is revealed in the story “Death”, which lists tragic stories about the death of the contractor Maxim, the peasant, the miller Vasil, the commoner-intellectual Avenir Sokoloumov, and the old landowner. But all these stories are united by one common motif: in the face of death, heart strings appear in a Russian person. All Russian people “die amazingly,” because in the hour of the last test they think not about themselves, but about others, about loved ones. This is the source of their courage and mental endurance.
There is a lot that attracts the writer in Russian life, but there is also a lot that repels him. However, there is one quality in it that the author places very highly - it is democracy, friendliness, a living talent for mutual understanding, which was not exterminated from the people's environment, but, on the contrary, was sharpened by the centuries of serfdom, the severe trials of Russian history.
There is another leitmotif in “Notes of a Hunter” - the musical talent of the Russian people, which was first stated in “The Choir and Kalinich”. Kalinich sings, and the businesslike Khor sings along with him. The song unites even such opposite natures in a general mood. The song is the beginning that brings people together in the joys and sorrows of life.
In the essay "Raspberry Water" the characters have common features: They are all losers. And at the end of the essay, on the other side, an unfamiliar singer began to sing a sad song, which brings people together, since through individual destinies it leads to an all-Russian fate and thereby makes the heroes related to each other.
In the story “Kasyan from the Beautiful Sword,” a mournful chant is heard among the fields, which calls for a journey, away from the land where untruth and evil reign, to the promised land, where all people live in contentment and justice.
Jacob’s song from the story “The Singers” calls the heroes to the same country. Here, not only Jacob’s singing is poeticized, but also the spiritual connection that his song establishes in characters very different in position and origin. Yakov sang, but the souls of the people around him sang along with him. The entire Prytynny tavern lives by song.
But Turgenev is a realist writer, so he will show how such an impulse is replaced by mental depression. What follows is a drunken evening, where Yakov and the whole world in the tavern become completely different.
The collection contains stories imbued with special lyricism. For example, “Bezhin Meadow” is sharply different in elegance from other short stories in this cycle. The author pays a lot of attention here to the elements of nature. Towards evening, the traveler lost his way and decided to choose a place to stay for the night. He comes out to a fire burning near the river, near which peasant children are sitting, grazing their horses. The hunter witnesses their conversation. He is delighted with the folk stories with which he became acquainted. Kostya’s story about Gavril, a suburban carpenter who encountered a mermaid, is interesting. He went to meet her, but inner strength stopped him, he laid down the cross, after which she stopped laughing and began to cry, saying: “You will kill yourself until the end of your days.” Here satanic power is defeated by the sign of the cross, but it is capable of introducing sadness into a person.
“Notes of a Hunter” ends with the essay “Forest and Steppe.” There are no heroes here, but there is a subtle lyrical description of the natural elements, the beauty of nature and human existence in it. These two opposites do not crowd or interfere, but mutually complement each other. Both the forest and the steppe delight the traveler; he likes them at the same time. Man must also fit harmoniously into nature. The essay is imbued with a life-affirming optimistic mood, since all this is important for the healthy existence of people.
Thus, the central conflict of this book is complex and deep. Undoubtedly, social antagonisms are depicted here quite sharply. Of course, the burden of serfdom falls primarily on the shoulders of the peasant, because it is he who has to endure physical torture, hunger, poverty and spiritual humiliation. However, Turgenev looks at serfdom from a broader, national point of view, as a phenomenon painful at the same time for both the master and the peasant. He sharply condemns the cruel serf owners and sympathizes with those nobles who themselves were victims of the serfdom yoke. It is no coincidence that the singing of Yakov the Turk evokes a “heavy tear” from the eyes of the Wild Master.
In Turgenev, not only peasants are endowed with nationally Russian traits; Some landowners who escaped the corrupting influence of serfdom are also Russian by nature. Pyotr Petrovich Karataev is no less a Russian person than the peasants. National traits character are also emphasized in the moral character of Tchertopkhanov. He is a landowner, but not a serf owner. Such is Tatyana Borisovna, a patriarchal landowner, but at the same time a simple creature, with a “straightforward, pure heart.”
The author sees the living forces of the nation in both the peasant and noble environment. Admiring the poetic talent or, conversely, the efficiency of the Russian person, the writer comes to the conclusion that serfdom is contrary to national dignity, and all living Russia, not only peasant, but also noble, must take part in the fight against it.