It often happens that a high-profile crime that has attracted public attention becomes a source of inspiration for a writer. It is worth adding that detective stories and novels that describe criminal incidents are always popular among readers. In our review of 10 world-famous books, the plot of which is based on crimes from real life.
1. The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Consider the example of Francis Scott Fitzgerald's "great American novel" about the life of Jay Gatsby - a boy from a family of farmers in North Dakota named James "Jimmy" Gats. Jay manages to go “from rags to riches” - from a semi-impoverished farmer from the Midwest to an eccentric rich man living on Long Island. The carefree playboy with endless money is actually a lovestruck conman who made most of his fortune from bootlegging. Gatsby's main partner in working on the black market was the dishonest businessman Meyer Wolfsheim.
It turns out that Meyer Wolfsheim had a real-life prototype - Arnold Rothstein, a wealthy gambler who owned a number of casinos, brothels, and expensive racehorses. Rothstein was ultimately killed while playing cards at the prestigious Park Central Hotel in Manhattan. The Great Gatsby, which is essentially a cautionary tale about the proverbial American dream, was inspired by Rothstein's life and the explosion of get-rich-quick crime during the 1920s.
2. “American Tragedy” Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser, a leading proponent of American naturalism, tells a story similar to The Great Gatsby (also published in 1925) in his novel An American Tragedy. Dreiser's protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, is the lonely son of strict evangelicals who has been conquered by the temptations of the big city. Gradually Griffiths gets used to alcohol and prostitutes. His real downfall, however, comes when he falls in love with Roberta Alden. The girl soon became pregnant, but Clyde had a “more interesting option” - a girl from high society. After this, he decides to kill Roberta. Clyde was eventually arrested, convicted and executed for murder.
Before sitting down to write his ambitious novel, Dreiser learned the story of Chester Gillette, the nephew of a wealthy factory owner who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their four-month-old baby in 1906. Given the stunning similarity of the case, it can be argued that Dreiser practically rewrote the story of 22-year-old Gillette.
3. “The High Window” by Raymond Chandler
The High Window (1942) is considered one of Raymond Chandler's more distinguished novels about detective Philip Marlowe, as well as a classic tale of the abuse of power and money. Marlowe is hired to find the missing rare coin, the Brashers' gold doubloon, but is subsequently faced with intra-family drama that first involves the disappearance of a young singer, Linda Conquest, and then a murder case. As it turned out later, the novel was a retelling of the case of Ned Doheny (one of the richest oilmen in California).
4. “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
One of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "scary" stories, "The Tell-Tale Heart," is a strange description of possession - the nameless narrator killed an old man with whom he lived in the same house, due to the fact that the old man had an "evil eye" with a thorn that led to makes him furious. After killing and dismembering his victim, the narrator hides the body parts under the floorboards inside the old man's house. But gradually he begins to lose his mind because he constantly hears “the old man’s heart beating under the floorboards.” Finally driven mad by the ghostly heartbeat, the narrator surrendered to the police.
A special highlight of The Tell-Tale Heart is that its narrator is one of the earliest and most in-depth depictions of criminal psychology in popular literature. This may be due in part to the fact that Poe was inspired to write the story by a real-life murder that rocked Salem, Massachusetts in 1830. Captain Joseph White, who lived in one of the most luxurious houses in Salem, was beaten to death by an unknown assailant. At the same time, nothing was touched at all in the richly furnished house. As it turned out later, his great-nephew White Joseph Knapp and his brother John, who wanted to receive an inheritance, were guilty of the murder of Captain White.
5. “The Mystery of Marie Roger” by Edgar Allan Poe
In addition to famous horror stories, Edgar Allan Poe also wrote several detective stories about Auguste Dupin, who essentially became the prototype of Sherlock Holmes. In the 1842 story “The Mystery of Marie Roger,” Dupin and his nameless friend (who became the inspiration for Dr. Watson) investigate the unsolved murder of a young Parisian woman. The story actually represents Poe's own thoughts on the sensational murder case of Mary Cecilia Rogers, whose body was found near Sibyl's Cave in Hoboken, New Jersey.
6. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson's posthumously published novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Series) became a bestseller upon its publication in 2005. Since then, millions of books have been sold worldwide, and numerous authors are planning to write a sequel. Larsson, himself a former journalist, was inspired to write the novel by investigating the case of Catherine da Costa, a 28-year-old prostitute and drug addict whose body parts were found scattered throughout Stockholm in the summer of 1984. The girl was initially believed to be the victim of two doctors, one of whom was a forensic pathologist. . The doctors were later acquitted. And the character in the novel, Lisbeth Salander, was based on a real-life rape victim named Lisbeth.
8. "Bloody Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett
When Dashiell Hammett's Bloody Harvest was published in 1929, the detective-adventure genre was dominated by English writers whose novels tended to be accounts of bizarre murder mysteries that took place mostly in private estates. These crimes were investigated by brilliant private detectives. Hammett made the genre of detective fiction adventures more realistic and more cruel.
The action of the novel "Bloody Harvest" takes place in the city of Personville, which is better known as Poisonville because high level crime. An employee of a detective agency arrives in the city, who subsequently learns that Personville is actually ruled by gangs. The plot of the novel is based on the real-life miners' strike in Montana, which lasted from 1912 to 1920, as well as the lynching of union leader Frank Little.
9. Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb
Before the acclaimed film The Night of the Hunter was released in 1955, Davis Grubb's novel of the same name was published in 1953. The novel describes the murders of ex-con Harry Powell, who pretends to be "Reverend Powell" and marries Willa Harper, the wife of a former thief named Ben Harper. In order to obtain the loot from Harper's past robberies, Powell kills Villa and then her children. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, and the character of Harry Powell was based on the real-life serial killer Harry Powers, who operated in West Virginia in the early 1930s.
10. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
« A Clockwork Orange" is without a doubt the saddest book on this list. Novel British writer Anthony Burgess reveals the dark underbelly of England, which is riddled with teenage violence. Alex is the head of a gang in which they speak English-Russian slang. Alex, inspired by the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and drugs dissolved in milk, leads his gang on nightly gang attacks, during which teenagers engage in beatings and even murders. Burgess wrote his novel largely based on the Teddy Boy culture of post-war England.
Continuing the theme of exciting reading. A great way to spend time for those who don't feel like sleeping.
Russian culture of the mid-century is beginning to be attracted by themes of marriage scams - plots that have spread in society thanks to the emergence of enterprising people with character and ambition, but who do not have the ancestral means to make their desires come true. The heroes of Ostrovsky and Pisemsky are not similar in their demands for the world, but are united in their chosen means: in order to improve their financial situation, they do not stop at the irritating pangs of conscience, they struggle for existence, compensating for the inferiority of their social status with hypocrisy. The ethical side of the issue worries the authors only to the extent that all parties to the conflict are punished. There are no obvious victims here; money of one group of characters and seeker activity "profitable place" in life, regardless of whether it is marriage or a new service, are equally immoral. The plot of family-domestic commerce excludes any hint of compassion for the victim; it simply cannot exist where financial conflicts are resolved and the results ultimately satisfy everyone equally.
Ostrovsky immerses the reader in the exotic life of the merchants, commenting on the themes of previous literature with the help of farce. In the play “Poverty is not a Vice,” the problem of fathers and children is completely mediated by monetary relations; images of nobly unhappy brides are accompanied by frank conversations about dowries (“Guilty Without Guilt”). Without much sentimentality and frankly, the characters discuss money problems, all kinds of matchmakers eagerly arrange weddings, seekers of rich hands walk around the living rooms, trade and marriage deals are discussed. Already the titles of the playwright’s works - “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn”, “Bankrupt”, “Mad Money”, “Profitable Place” - indicate a change in the vector cultural development the phenomenon of money, offer a variety of ways to strengthen social position. More radical recommendations are discussed in Shchedrin’s “Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg,” the fourth chapter of which presents a picturesque catalog of enrichment options. Stories about people who have achieved wealth are framed by the dream genre, which allows us to imagine human enterprise without false social modesty and bypassing pathetic assessments: "black-haired" that he prays so earnestly to God before dinner, “he took away his mother’s estate from his own son”, brought candies from Moscow to his other dear aunt, and “Having eaten them, two hours later she gave her soul to God”, third financial fraud with peasant serfs "V at its best arranged", With remained a profit. The author needed the devilish phantasmagoria of sleep in order, avoiding edification, to reveal the universal law of life: “We rob without shame, and if anything upsets us in such financial transactions, it is only failure. The operation was a success - good luck to you, good fellow! It didn’t work out - it’s a waste!”
In “The Diary of a Provincial...” there is a sense of following the trends that occupied the literature of the second half of the 19th century century. Motives already familiar from Goncharov are revealed. For example, in “Ordinary History” the difference between metropolitan and provincial morals is indicated by the attitude towards phenomena given, it would seem, to the full and free possession of man: "You breathe there all year round fresh air,- the elder Aduev edifyingly admonishes the younger, - and here this pleasure costs money - that’s all true! perfect antipodes! In Saltykov-Shchedrin, this theme is played out in the context of the motive of theft, explained as follows: “Obviously, he has already become infected with the St. Petersburg air; he stole without provincial spontaneity, but calculating in advance what his chances of acquittal might be.”.
Criminal extraction of money, theft is introduced into the philosophical system of human society, when people begin to be divided into those who are rich and die, and those who want the right to become an heir, "like two and two are four", capable “sprinkle with poison, suffocate with pillows, hack to death with an axe!”. The author is not inclined to categorically accuse those in need of money; on the contrary, he resorts to comparisons with the animal world in order to somehow clarify the strange feeling experienced by the poor towards the rich: “The cat sees a piece of bacon in the distance, and since the experience of past days proves that she cannot see this piece like her ears, she naturally begins to hate it. But, alas! the motive for this hatred is false. It is not lard that she hates, but the fate that separates her from it... Lard is such a thing that it is impossible not to love it. And so she begins to love him. To love - and at the same time to hate..."
The categorical vocabulary of this pseudo-philosophical passage is very vaguely, but reminiscent of the syllogisms of Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”, the heroes of which are each life event, they strive to elevate a single fact to a generalization that invariably proves the theory of rational egoism. Calculations, figures, commercial calculations, balance sheets are in one way or another confirmed by moral summaries that certify the truth of the total accounting view of a person. Perhaps only Vera Pavlovna’s dreams are free from calculation; they are given over to the contemplation of fantastic events. It can be assumed that the future, as it is seen in the heroine’s dreams, does not know the need for money, but no less convincing is the assumption that Vera Pavlovna in her dreams is taking a break from calculating theory; The good thing about otherness is that in it you can free yourself from the need to save, miser, and count. But it still remains a strange circumstance why the heroine leaves her pragmatic genius, it is enough for her to close her eyes. Shchedrin, as if polemicizing with Chernyshevsky, saturates the plot of the dream with hyper-commercial operations; frees the feelings of the characters from the yoke of public protective morality, allowing them to listen to the financial voice of the soul.
Chernyshevsky's novel offers two plans for the heroine's existential realization - a rational present and an ideal future. The past is associated with a dark time, not connected with the new reality by the idea of conscious self-comprehension and rationalization of all spheres of individual existence. Vera Pavlovna successfully learned the lessons of the pragmatic worldview that had spread in Russia. The handicraft production she started, reminiscent of the industrial experiments of the West, is deliberately idealized by the author, who provides evidence of the prospects of the enterprise. Only the psychological well-being of female workers who dedicate working and personal time to the rational philosophy of communist labor is unclear. In the novel there are enthusiastic apologies for living together, but even without questioning them, it is difficult to imagine that for anyone, excluding the hostess, the possibility of individual improvisation within the rigid structure of prescribed duties is allowed. IN best case scenario The apprenticeship of female workers can result in the opening of their own business or re-education: this is not at all bad, but it narrows the space for private initiative. At the level of a probable formula, Vera Pavlovna’s experiment is good, but as a reflection of reality, it is utopian and turns the narrative itself more towards a fantastic recommendation “how to honestly make your first million” than to an artistic document of the morals of people who make money.
In portraying merchants and “other financial people,” the dramatic scenes of the play “What is Commerce” by Saltykov-Shchedrin are an example of an attempt to encyclopedically present the history of hoarding in Russia. The characters chosen are domestic merchants, already rich, and a beginner, just dreaming “about the possibility of becoming a “merchant” over time”. Introduction to the text of another hero - "loitering" - allows us to connect Saltykov-Shchedrin’s play with the creative tradition of N.V. Gogol - “a gentleman of suspicious character, engaged in... the composition of morally descriptive articles a la Tryapichkin”. Over tea and a bottle of Tenerife, there is a leisurely conversation about the art of trading, costs and benefits. The merchant plot, unlike the small-scale plot from “What is to be done?”, is unthinkable without an invariable projection of the past onto the present. The future here is vague, it is not written out in happy tones, as it contradicts business patriarchal wisdom: “Happiness is not what you rave about at night, but what you sit and ride on”. Those gathered nostalgically remember the bygone times when they lived “as if in girlhood, they knew no grief”, capital was made by deceiving the peasants, and “in old age, sins were atoned for before God”. Now both morals and habits have changed, everyone, - the merchants complain, - “he strives to snatch his share and make fun of the merchant: the bribes have increased - before it was enough to give him something to drink, but now the official is strutting, he can no longer get drunk, so “let’s, he says, now water the river with shinpan!”.”
Gogol's loitering Tryapichkin listens to a story about how it is profitable for the treasury to supply goods and to deceive the state by covering a successful business with a bribe to the clerk of the police officer, who sold off state grain to the side "for a quarter" described it like this "...what am I, - the merchant Izhburdin admits, - I even marveled at it myself. There is both flood and shallow water here: only there was no enemy invasion.”. IN final scene "lounging" sums up what he heard, assessing the activities of the merchants in emotional terms that ideally express the essence of the issue: “fraud... deceit... bribes... ignorance... stupidity... general disgrace!” IN general outline This is the content of the new “Inspector General,” but there is no one to give its plot to, except perhaps Saltykov-Shchedrin himself. In “The History of One City,” the writer conducts a large-scale revision of the entire Russian Empire, and the chapter “Worship of Mammon and Repentance” pronounces a stinging verdict on those who, already in the consciousness of the end of the 20th century, will personify the sovereign conscience and selfless love for the lofty; those same merchants and those in power who care about the welfare of the people, who built their benevolent image, taking more into account the forgetful descendants and completely ignoring those who are poor from "awareness of one's poverty": “...if a person who has alienated several million rubles in his favor later even becomes a philanthropist and builds a marble palazzo in which he will concentrate all the wonders of science and art, then he still cannot be called skillful public figure, but should only be called a skilled swindler". The writer notes with caustic despair that “these truths were not yet known” in the mythical Foolov, and as for the native Fatherland, it has been persistently proven at all times: “Russia is a vast, abundant and rich state - but some people are stupid, starving to death in an abundant state.”.
Russian thought is faced with the task of determining the place of money in the essential coordinates of social and individual existence; the problem of finding a compromise is long overdue. It is no longer possible to blanketly deny the role of economic factors in the formation of national character. The Slavophiles' poeticization of patriarchal life and morality collides with a reality that is increasingly inclined towards a new type of consciousness, so unpleasantly reminiscent of Western models of self-realization, erected on the philosophy of calculation. Contrasting them as antagonistic ideas of spirituality does not seem very convincing. The idealization of the merchants by early Ostrovsky unexpectedly reveals a frightening set of properties, even more terrible than European pragmatism. The urban theme reveals conflicts initiated by monetary relations that cannot be ignored. But how to portray a portrait of a new national type of merchant, who has undoubted advantages over the classical cultural characters of the beginning of the century, who have long since discredited themselves in public life? The merchant is interesting as a person, attractive in his strong-willed character, but "petty tyrant", - states Ostrovsky, - and "outspoken thief", insists Saltykov-Shchedrin. Literature's search for a new hero is a phenomenon, although spontaneous, but reflecting the need to discover prospects, that goal-setting that acts as a paradigm of national thought, becoming a significant link in the new hierarchy of practical and moral values. Russian literature of the mid-century is fascinated by the merchant, the man who created himself, yesterday's peasant, and now the owner of the business; most importantly, with its authority and the scale of its enterprises it can prove the depravity of the myth about the beautiful little and poor man. Writers sympathize with poverty, but also realize the dead end of its artistic contemplation and analysis, as if anticipating an impending catastrophe in the form of the philosophical objectification of poverty, destroying the classical set of ideas about universals - freedom, duty, evil, etc. With all the love, for example, Leskov for Characters from the people in the writer’s works are no less obvious about their keen interest in the trading people. Shchedrin's invective is somewhat softened by Leskov; he does not look so far as to detect a thieves' nature in future patrons. The author of the novel “Nowhere”, in the position of one of the heroines, steps back from ideological discussions and looks at dramatically complicated issues through the eyes of everyday life, no less truthful than the views of the poets.
One of the scenes of the work represents a domestic discussion about the purpose of women; comes to real-life evidence, stories are told that would have horrified the heroes of the first half of the century and which will be called openly vicious more than once - about the happy marriage of a girl and a general, that “although not old, but in real age”. Discussion "real" love, condemnation of young husbands ( “there’s no use, everyone only thinks about themselves”) is interrupted by frankness "a sentimental forty-year-old housewife", a mother of three daughters, listing practical reasons and doubts regarding their family well-being: “Rich nobles are quite rare these days; officials depend on the place: a profitable place, and good; otherwise there is nothing to eat; scientists receive a small allowance: I decided to give all my daughters to merchants.”.
There is an objection to such a statement: “Only will their inclination be?”, causing a categorical rebuke from the landlady to Russian novels, which, she is sure, instill in readers bad thoughts. Preference is given to French literature, which no longer has such an influence on girlish minds as at the beginning of the century. Zarnitsyn's question: “Who will marry poor people?” does not confuse the mother of many children, who remains true to her principles, but outlines a serious topic of culture: the literary typology proposed artistic model reality, the standard of not always obligatory, but obligatory in the organization of thought and action, created by the novels of Pushkin and Lermontov, exhausts itself, loses its norm-creating orientation. The absence in real life of rich nobles, culturally identical to the classical characters, frees up the space for their existential and mental habitat. This place turns out to be vacant, which is why the model of literary and practical self-identification of the reader is destroyed. The hierarchy of literary types, ways of thinking and embodiment is being destroyed. Type of so-called extra person turns into a cultural relic, loses its resemblance to life; Accordingly, the remaining levels of the system are adjusted. Little man previously interpreted primarily from ethical positions, without balance in the destroyed discredit extra person a figure of balance, acquires a new vital and cultural status; it begins to be perceived in the context not of potential moral goodness, but in the concrete reality of the opposition “poverty - wealth”.
The characters of novels of the second half of the century, if they retain the features of the classical typology, then only as traditional masks of external forms of cultural existence. Money turns into an idea that reveals the viability of the individual, his existential rights. The question of obligations does not arise immediately and is distinguished by the plebeian plot of a petty official and a commoner, whose plot positions boil down to pathetic attempts to survive. The genre of physiological essay reduces the problem of poverty - wealth to a natural-philosophical critique of capital and does not resolve the dilemma itself. The statement seems too superficial: wealth is evil, and poverty requires compassion. Objective economic forces that led society to this state. On the other hand, cultural interest in the psychology of poverty and wealth is intensifying. If earlier both of these hypostases were only defined as a given, now there has been increased attention to the existential nature of the antinomies.
Poverty turns out to be more accessible for artistic research; it is clothed in moral concepts, centered in sovereign ethical categories. An apology is created for the marginal state of a person who deliberately does not compromise with his conscience. This storyline exhausts and peasant images literature. The topic of wealth turns out to be completely squeezed out of the moral continuum of the integrity of the world. Such a situation, based on a radical opposition, cannot long suit a culture interested in forms of contact between two marginal limits. The intra-subjective relationship between honest poverty and vicious wealth begins to be explored, and it is discovered that a convincing paradigm does not always correspond to the true position of people on the conventional axis of ethical coordinates. The moment of unpredictability of the seemingly socially programmed behavior of the heroes is explored by Leskov in the story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. The merchant Zinovy Borisovich, whom the author sympathizes with, is strangled by folk characters - Ekaterina Lvovna and Sergei. They have a poisoned old man and a murdered baby on their conscience. Leskov does not simplify the conflict. The reasons for murder are said to be passion and money. Saturation of intrigue with such unequal concepts elevates the plot to mystical picture, requiring consideration from a different point of view from the ordinary one. Co-creation of two, as if emerging from Nekrasov's poems, heroes leads to total destruction of the world. Exposure-inert people become attached to the idea of passion; it is not just an incentive for feeling or money, but a concentrated image of a new meaning, an ecstatic sphere of application of forces, beyond which the significance of everyday experience is lost, and a feeling of liberation from reflexive patterns of behavior occurs. One reason (money or love) would be enough to illustrate the idea of passion. Leskov deliberately combines both impulses in order to avoid identifying the heroes’ actions with culturally approved plots. The resulting integrity of the unity of aspirations in the metaphysical plane allows us to take money out of the simulation, optional space of individual life activity to the level of a beginning equal in parameters to love, which previously exhausted the content of the idea of passion.
The falsity of this synonymy is revealed only in the bloody methods of achieving the goal, the criminal implementation of plans: the radicalism of the very dream of becoming rich and happy is not questioned. If the heroes had to strangle the villains, there would be many reader justifications for the idea of passion. Leskov's experiment consists of an attempt to endow the heroine with the intention of comprehending an infinitely complete existence, gaining the much-needed freedom. The impracticability of the goal lies in the inversion of moral dominants, an attempt on the unlawful and incomprehensible. Positive experience, if we can talk about a plot oversaturated with murders (we mean, first of all, the philosophical revelation of the monetary plot of Leskov’s text), is contained in an attempt to push the boundaries of equally global emotions, through false forms of self-realization of characters to come to the formulation of the idea of passion as rationalized and in that the same type of chaotic activity, regardless of what it is aimed at - love or money. Equalized concepts exchange their genetic fundamentals and can equally act as a prelude to vice or the existential formation of a person.
The Shakespearean allusion noted in the title of the work becomes a thematic exposition of the Russian character. Lady Macbeth's will to power suppresses even hints of other desires; Gerogni's plot focuses on the dominant urge. Katerina Lvovna is trying to change the world of objective laws, and the willpower of her chosen one does little to correct her ideas about morality. Shakespeare's concentrated image implies the revelation of an integral character in the process of devastation of the surrounding world. Everything that interferes with the achievement of the intended goal is physically destroyed, a self-sufficient character displaces those who are not viable from the sphere criminally created to calm the soul, embodied by the idea of passion.
Russian literature has not yet known such a character. The dedication of classical heroines is associated with a one-time action resulting from the impulsiveness of the decision. Katerina Lvovna differs from them in her consistency in realizing her dreams, which undoubtedly indicates the emergence of a new character in culture. The vicious score of self-manifestation indicates spiritual degradation, while simultaneously signifying the ability to claim one's own identity as an unattainable goal. In this regard, the heroine Leskova marks the beginning of a qualitative transformation of the dilapidated literary typology. The general classification paradigm of “rich-poor” is confirmed by the appearance of a character that gives the image scheme a special philosophical scale. The rich no longer appear as opposition to poverty, but are revealed in the thirst for power over circumstances. The merchant plot points to a similar phenomenon, however, a chain of small machinations and compromises opens up the theme of the merchant for social satire, externalizing and exaggerating the global philosophy of acquisition, deception and crime, leading to freedom and the ability to dictate one’s will. The appearance of Leskov's heroine provoked culture into ideological experimentation, unthinkable without an ideological impulse, directly or indirectly based on a pragmatic basis, then displaced by a borderline psychological state beyond the limits of spiritual and practical experience. Within a year, Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” will be published, in which the semantics of the will of a self-aware being will be revealed in the transcendental uncertainty of perspectives (punishment) and the concreteness of the measurement of empirical reality (crime). In terms of the reflexivity of consciousness, Raskolnikov can be likened to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in whom logos triumphs over rationality. “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” expands the interpretative horizon of Raskolnikov’s plot with a naturalistic-pragmatic version of the implementation of a global, individual utopia that extends to the universe.
In Dostoevsky's novel, the presence of textual memory, an integral set of motives outlined by Leskov, is palpable. The tragedy of Katerina Lvovna is in the hypertrophied will, the defeat of Raskolnikov is in the atrophied character, painful self- and worldview. Writers offer two hypostases of the philosophy of action, equally based on the image of money; they are expected, but turn out to be insignificant, since they are replaced by ethical concepts. Russian literature reveals the line that will begin to separate the sphere of absolute subjectivity of the spirit from objectified forms "commercial" self-realization of characters. After the dramatic experience of Katerina Lvovna and Raskolnikov, a new period of mastering the topic of money begins. Now they are offered as a reason for talking about the transtemporal and are not condemned, but are stated as a consequence of some other-existential meaning. On the other hand, the financial plot takes on a new meaning, becoming a symbolic territory that excludes superficial satirical commentary, organically accepting the mythological signs of sacred categories - love, will, power, law, virtue and vice. Money appears in this list of ontological parameters of being as a unit of their measurement, an operational number that creates sums of human and cosmological scales and crushes concrete and empirical nature into negligible quantities.
It should be noted, however, that money in “Lady Macbeth...” and “Crime and Punishment” does not play the main role; it only mediates plot situations and determines them dramatically. Financial side life does not exhaust the activity of the characters, being only the background of the plot world. The philosophy of thoughts and actions of the heroes is unusually flexible, transforming in relation to circumstances. Another type of example human existence presented in Leskov's "Iron Will". The German Hugo Karlovich Pectoralis demonstrates a radical pattern of behavior, elevating money, as well as principles, into a paradigm of self-realization. Constant declarations of the hero's own "iron will" initially they give predictable dividends; The desired amount has finally been collected, great production prospects are opening up: “He set up a factory and at the same time maintained his reputation at every step as a man who rises above circumstances and puts everything on his own everywhere.”. Everything is going well until now « iron will» Germans do not encounter Russians with weakness of will, poverty, kindness, arrogance and carelessness. The position of the antagonist Vasily Safronovich, because of whose reckless unprincipledness the dispute arose, is folklore no wonder: “...we... are Russian people- With heads are bony, fleshy below. It’s not like German sausage, you can chew it all up and there will be something left of us.”.
For a reader accustomed to literary glorification of the businesslike spirit of the Germans, familiar with Goncharov’s Stolz and the students of European economists, preachers of rational egoism - Chernyshevsky’s heroes, it is not difficult to imagine how Pectoralis’s litigation with "bony and fleshy". The German will achieve his goal, that’s why he is a good worker, and stubborn, and a smart engineer, and an expert in the laws. But the situation is not developing in favor of Hugo Karlovich. Leskov, for the first time in Russian literature, describes the plot of the idle life of a worthless person on interest seized from an adamant enemy. Reader expectations not even deceived, the phantasmagoric story destroys the usual stereotypes of culture. Russian "maybe", hope for chance, coupled with the familiar clerk Zhiga, make up a capital of five thousand rubles "lazy, sluggish and careless" Safronych. True, money does not benefit anyone. Leskov's story reveals original, not yet explored trends in the movement of the financial plot. It turns out that pragmatism, strengthened by ambition and will, is not always successful in the art of making money. The purposeful German goes broke, the spineless Safronich ensures that he goes to the tavern every day. Fate decrees that the vast Russian space for financial initiative turns out to be extremely narrowed; it is aimed at a person who does not trust calculation and relies more on the usual course of things. It is no coincidence in this regard that the scene of the discussion between the police chief and Pectoralis about the plan for the new house becomes. The essence of the discussion is whether it is possible to place six windows on a façade of six fathoms, “and in the middle there is a balcony and a door”. The engineer objects: “The scale won’t allow it”. To which he receives the answer: “What scale do we have in our village... I’m telling you, we don’t have scale.”.
The author's irony reveals signs of reality that is not subject to the influence of time; the wretched patriarchal reality does not know the wisdom of capitalist accumulation, it is not trained in Western tricks and trusts desire more than profit and common sense. The conflict between Leskov’s heroes, like the duel between Oblomov and Stolz, ends in a draw, the heroes of Iron Will die, which symbolically indicates their equal uselessness for the Russian "scale". Pectoralis was never able to give up his principles "iron will", too provocative and incomprehensible to others. Safronich, out of the happiness of his free life, drinks himself to death, leaving behind a literary heir - Chekhov's Simeonov-Pishchik, who is constantly under fear of complete ruin, but thanks to another accident, he is improving his financial affairs.
In Leskov's story, the issue of German entrepreneurship is discussed too often for this cultural and historical fact to be confirmed once again. Russian literature of the 70s. XIX century felt the need to say goodbye to the myth of the foreigner-merchant and the overseas founder of large enterprises. The image of the German has exhausted itself and transferred its already considerably weakened potential to domestic merchants and industrialists. The answer to the question why Leskov pits the interests of a businesslike German against a banal man in the street, and not a figure equal to Goncharov’s Stolz, lies in the writer’s attempt to free up literary space to depict the activities of the future Morozovs, Shchukins, Prokhorovs, Khludovs, Alekseevs and hundreds of other enterprising domestic entrepreneurs, acquaintances with Russian "scale" and showing miracles of perseverance and resourcefulness in achieving the goal. The German turns out to be too straightforward to understand all the subtleties of the relations prevailing in the provinces. Here you need a moving mind, ingenuity, worldly cunning, youthful enthusiasm, and not a manifestation of iron will and principles. The author of the story deliberately compares the energy of the self-builder and everyday life mired in entropy: such a striking contrast in Chernyshevsky’s interpretation would turn out to be an ideal sphere for cultivating life for a very effective idea. Such decisions are also necessary for culture; the biased preaching of beautiful and too calculating views one way or another reflects the essence of the worldview of social reality. Tactical literary conflicts cannot exhaust all of its cultural, historical and philosophical content. Leskov's artistic experience belongs to the strategic level of commentary on problems; classification of qualities and properties of people, their unification in a new literary conflict destroys well-known typological models, polemicizes with unconditional thematic myths.
Starting with Leskov, culture no longer solves specific problems of characters’ adaptation to society or the universe, but diagnoses categorical hierarchies of the bodily-spiritual, material-sensory, private-national. The mythology of the Russian character is being revised, painfully familiar themes and images are being revised.
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION AND DISCUSSION
SATIRICAL MASTERY OF M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN
“The History of a City” as a grotesque panorama of Russia:
a) the barracks life of the inhabitants, the despotic rule of Ugryum-Burcheev;
c) a farcical gallery of the powers that be: the semantic entertainment of surnames, the absurdity of innovations, a kaleidoscope of crazy ideas;
d) the conflict between the dead and the ideal: a specific refraction of the Gogol tradition in the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
“Fairy tales” in the context of social and aesthetic issues:
a) an allegorical solution to the question of the relationship between the national and the universal, the author’s understanding of nationality;
b) satirical principles of storytelling: image modeling high degree conventions, deliberate distortion of the real contours of a phenomenon, an allegorical image of an ideal world order;
c) a shift in attention from individual to social psychology of human behavior, travesty of the ordinary and pictorial personification of vice.
Early stories (“Contradictions”, “Entangled Affair”) and philosophical discussions of the 50-60s. 19th century:
a) the theme of social injustice and images of despair;
b) interpretation of Gogol’s motifs.
Turkov A. M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. - M., 1981
Bushmin A. S. The artistic world of Saltykov-Shchedrin. - L., 1987
Prozorov V.V. Saltykov-Shchedrin. - M., 1988
Nikolaev D.P. Shchedrin’s laughter. Essays on satirical poetics. - M., 1988
A radical fight against corruption has begun in Russia. The statement seems ultra-modern, but it was first made in 1845, during the reign of Nicholas I. Since then, the fight against bribery, embezzlement and extortion has only intensified, and Russian literature has acquired plot after plot.
“Here, wife,” said a man’s voice, “how they strive for promotion to ranks, but what have they gained for me, that I serve blamelessly... According to the decrees, it was ordered to reward for honorable service. But the king favors, but the huntsman does not favor. That's how our city treasurer is; already another time, on his recommendation, I was sent to the criminal chamber (they put me on trial.- "Money")…
Do you know why he doesn't love you? For being an exchanger (a fee charged when exchanging or exchanging one money for another.- "Money") you take from everyone, but don’t share with him.
Having overheard this conversation, the hero of Radishchev’s “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” written in the 1780s, finds out in the morning that a juror and his wife spent the night in the same hut with him.
“What did they profit me, that I serve blamelessly...” - “A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Alexander Radishchev was perceived by contemporaries as a verdict on a regime based on bribery
The heroine of the work, dated 1813, was in the chicken coop by a judge, “exiled for bribes,” rushes out of there at full speed, but tries to prove to the Marmot he met on the road that she is “tolerating lies in vain.” The Groundhog is reluctant to believe, because he “has often seen” that the Fox’s snout is like a cannon. Krylov in “The Fox and the Woodchuck” formulates the “moral of this fable” as follows:
“Someone sighs like that on the spot,
It’s as if the ruble is on its last life.
...And you look, little by little,
Either he’ll build a house, or he’ll buy a village.”
And finally, the 1820s. The father’s frail estate was taken away by a rich tyrant neighbor. Without any legal basis, the court takes bribes and decides in favor of the strong and rich. The father dies of grief. The son, deprived of his fortune, becomes a robber. Robs and kills people. Remembered school curriculum? Pushkin does not say how many were killed, he only writes that when Dubrovsky’s gang was surrounded by 150 soldiers, the robbers fired back and won. Corruption gives rise to a whole chain of troubles.
Lev Lurie in the book “Petersburgers”, published today. Russian capitalism. The first attempt” states that bribes were taken everywhere in Nikolaev Russia, and embezzlement became a habit: “The chief manager of communications, Count Kleinmichel, stole money intended to order furniture for the burned Winter Palace. The director of the office of the Committee on the Wounded, Politkovsky, before the eyes and with the participation of senior dignitaries, squandered all the money of his committee. Petty Senate officials built stone houses for themselves in the capital and, for a bribe, were ready to acquit a murderer or send an innocent person to hard labor. But the champions of corruption were the quartermasters, who were responsible for supplying the army with food and uniforms. As a result, during the first 25 years of the reign of Nicholas I, 40% of the soldiers of the Russian army died from disease - more than a million people (at the same time, the War Ministry shamelessly lied to the emperor, which improved the soldiers’ allowance nine times).”
Everyone steals!
In Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” written in 1836, all officials steal and take bribes. The mayor “saws” the budget: “... if they ask why a church at a charitable institution, for which the amount was allocated a year ago, was not built, then do not forget to say that it began to be built, but burned down... Otherwise, perhaps someone, having forgotten, he will foolishly say that it never began.” And besides, he imposed tribute on the merchants. “There has never been such a mayor before... He inflicts such insults that it is impossible to describe... What should be on the dresses of his wife and daughter - we do not stand against it. No, you see, all this is not enough for him... he will come to the shop and take whatever he gets. The cloth sees the thing, says: “Eh, dear, this is a good piece of cloth: bring it to me”... And in the thing there will be almost fifty arshins... not to mention what kind of delicacy, all sorts of rubbish takes: such prunes, that... the prisoner won’t eat, but he’ll throw a whole handful in there. His name day happens on Anton, and it seems like you can do everything, he doesn’t need anything; no, give him more: he says, and on Onufry’s name day,” the merchants complain to Khlestakov.
The mayor’s version: the merchants are cheating, therefore the “kickback” is fair: in a contract with the treasury, they “cheat” it by 100 thousand, supplying rotten cloth, and then donate 20 arshins. His “justification” for bribery is the “lack of wealth” (“the government salary is not enough even for tea and sugar”) and the modest size of the bribe (“if there were any bribes, it was very small: something for the table and enough for a couple of dresses” ).
All the officials and merchants of the small town where Khlestakov showed up pay him bribes under the guise of loaning him money. The mayor is the first to respond: “Well, thank God! took the money. Things seem to be going well now. Instead of two hundred and four hundred, I gave him back.” As a result, an impressive amount is collected: “This is three hundred from the judge; this is from the postmaster three hundred, six hundred, seven hundred, eight hundred... What a greasy piece of paper! Eight hundred, nine hundred... Wow! It has exceeded a thousand...” After this calculation, the mayor gives more, and his daughter favors a Persian carpet to make it more convenient for the hero to travel further. Only the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are diligently trying to dodge bribes; between these two they “borrowed” only 65 rubles. Maybe because they had nothing to blame?
Honest official
In Alexander Pushkin’s story “Dubrovsky,” corruption in court gives rise to a whole chain of troubles
33 years pass, and the image of an honest official appears in Russian literature. This is Aleksashka Ryzhov, the police officer county town Soligalich of the Kostroma province is the hero of Leskov’s story “Odnodum” from the cycle “The Righteous”. “The government salary for this fourth position in the state was only ten rubles in banknotes per month, that is, about two rubles eighty-five kopecks according to current accounts.” (We are talking about more ancient times - Ryzhov was born under Catherine II.) The quarterly place, although not very high, “was, however, quite profitable, if only the person occupying it was good at stealing a log of firewood from each cart, a couple of beetroot or a head of cabbage." But the policeman behaves strangely by local standards and is listed as “damaged.”
His task is to “keep the correct weight and the full and shaken measure” at the market, where his mother sold pies, but he did not put his mother in the best place and rejected the offerings of the “cabbage women” who came to bow. Ryzhov does not appear with congratulations to eminent townspeople - because he has nothing to wear, although the former policeman was seen with “a uniform with a collar, and retuses, and boots with a tassel.” He buried his mother modestly; he didn’t even say a prayer. He did not accept gifts either from the mayor - two bags of potatoes, or from the archpriest - two shirtfronts of his own handicraft. The bosses are trying to get him married, because “from a married man... no matter what the rope, he will endure anything, because he will have chicks, and he will also feel sorry for the woman.” Aleksashka marries, but does not change: when his wife took salt from the tax farmer for a tub of milk mushrooms, he beat his wife and gave the milk mushrooms to the tax farmer.
One day, a new governor comes to the city and asks local officials about Ryzhov, who is now “incumbent.” O. mayor": is he moderate about bribes? The mayor reports that he lives only on his salary. According to the governor, “there is no such person in all of Russia.” At a meeting with the mayor himself, Ryzhov does not servile, he is even insolent. To the remark that he has “very strange actions,” he replies: “everyone finds it strange, something that is not characteristic of himself,” admits that he does not respect the authorities - because they are “lazy, greedy and crooked before the throne,” reports that he does not afraid of arrest: “They eat plenty in prison.” And in addition, he invites the governor to learn to live on 10 rubles himself. per month. The governor is impressed by this, and he not only does not punish Ryzhov, but also does the impossible: through his efforts, Ryzhov is awarded “the Vladimir cross conferring nobility - the first Vladimir cross granted to a quarterly.”
From bribery to extortion
The radical fight against corruption at the level of laws in the Russian Empire began in the late reign of Nicholas I with the introduction in 1845 of the “Code on Criminal and Correctional Punishments.
Receiving remuneration for an action without violating the “duty of service” was considered bribery, with violations - extortion, which was divided into three types: illegal exactions under the guise of state taxes, bribes from applicants and extortion. The latter was considered the most serious. A bribe could not be taken either through relatives or acquaintances. Even expressing consent to accept a bribe before the actual transfer was a crime. A bribe could be recognized as receiving a benefit in a veiled form - in the form of a card loss or the purchase of goods at a reduced price. Officials could not enter into any transactions with persons who accepted contracts from the department where they served.
The punishment for bribery was relatively mild: a monetary penalty with or without removal from office. The extortionist could be sent to prison for a period of five to six years, deprived of all “special rights and advantages,” that is, honorary titles, nobility, ranks, insignia, the right to enter the service, enroll in a guild, etc. In the presence of aggravating circumstances the extortionist faced hard labor from six to eight years and deprivation of all rights and wealth. The legislation required that when assigning punishment to a covetous person, ranks and previous merits should not be taken into account.
There was little sense in laying it down. Thus, according to data cited by Lurie, in the 1840-1850s, tax farmers (who won the competition for the monopoly trade in vodka in taverns throughout the province) spent an average of up to 20 thousand rubles per year on bribing provincial officials, while the annual salary of the governor in those days it ranged from 3 to 6 thousand. “In a small town, up to 800 buckets of vodka were supplied in the form of bribes to the mayor, private bailiffs and neighborhood supervisors (local police),” writes Lurie.
During the reign of Nicholas I, the champions of corruption were the quartermasters who were responsible for supplying the army with food and uniforms.
There is also literary evidence that with the publication of the code, practically nothing has changed. In Pisemsky’s novel “People of the Forties,” published in 1869, the main character Pavel Vikhrov, a young landowner exiled to serve “in one of the provinces” for his free-thinking writings, faces bribery. Vikhrov discovers that corruption permeates all relationships between subjects and the state. His first task is to catch red-handed and pacify the schismatic priests. He travels to a remote village together with the “state property attorney.” Vikhrov would be glad not to find any evidence that the priests did not pray according to the Orthodox rite, for he considers persecution on the basis of religion to be wrong, but he has a witness. He, however, is also not averse to drawing up a document about the absence of violations: he tore 10 rubles from the main “seducer of the peasants into schism.” gold for himself and the same amount for Vikhrov, but since he does not take bribes, he kept everything for himself. The next case - “about the murder of his wife by the peasant Ermolaev” - the secretary of the district court calls the case “about the sudden death of the wife of the peasant Ermolaev,” because there is no evidence of murder. Vikhrov’s exhumation of the body shows that the “dead” had a broken skull and chest, one ear was half torn off, and her lungs and heart were damaged. The police officer who led the investigation did not notice any signs of violent death: he bought Ermolaev for 1000 rubles. a rich man for whom he undertook to serve in the army. When Vikhrov goes on another business, the peasants collect 100 rubles for a bribe. Vikhrov not only does not take them, but also demands a receipt stating that he did not take them. It will be useful to him, because honest man inconvenient - they will try to make him out to be a bribe-taker. From the context it is clear that these events take place in 1848, that is, after the adoption of the code.
The mysterious hand that feeds city and district doctors is a bribe,” wrote Nikolai Leskov in the article “A few words about police doctors in Russia
Almost documentary evidence that for all categories of bribe takers, side income, so to speak, greatly overlapped the main one, is Leskov’s article “A few words about police doctors in Russia” in 1860. In it, the author assures that the official annual income of a doctor is 200 rubles, but “the mysterious hand that feeds city and district doctors is a bribe,” and “neither trade nor industry, according to the state, is supposed to flourish.” In a city with 75 thousand inhabitants, two city doctors have seven items of permanent income: “1) 4 livestock markets for 40 lockers, 3 rubles each. from the locker - only 480 rubles. silver 2) 6 confectionery shops, 50 rubles each. each - 300 rubles. 3) 40 bakeries, 10 rubles each. each - 400 rubles. 4) Two fairs for a total of 2000 rubles. 5) 300 shops and shops with food supplies and grape wines, 10 rubles each... - 3000 rubles. silver 6) 60 butcher shops, 25 rubles each. each - 1500 rub. and 7) ... the total income from all women who turned lewdness into a craft ... about 5,000 rubles. silver per year. Thus, the entire current annual collection will be equal to 12,680 rubles. silver... and after deduction of 20 percent in favor of influential persons of the medical and civil parts... the net income will be 9510 rubles, that is, 4255 rubles each. on my brother. These incomes are received only for non-interference... all emergency bribes... also amount to a significant figure... Such incomes are: inspection reports, which constitute a sensitive item in a country where there are many holidays spent in drunkenness and fights, forensic autopsies, the import of stale and suspicious products, cattle drives and, finally, recruitment, when such happen to the tears of humanity and to the joy of city and district doctors ... "
“The mysterious hand that feeds city and district doctors is a bribe,” wrote Nikolai Leskov in the article “A few words about police doctors in Russia”
In Leskov's story "Laughter and Sorrow", published in 1871, the action takes place in the 1860s: the main character lives on redemption certificates - interest-bearing papers issued during the reform of 1861. A forbidden text is found in his possession - “Dumas” by Ryleev, and the hero faces arrest. An obsessive acquaintance tries to get rid of this: “... would you like me to get you a certificate that you are in the second half of pregnancy? ...They took forty rubles from my brother at a dressing station in the Crimea in order to attribute a shell shock to his full pension, when not even a mosquito had bitten him... Take the easiest thing, the so-called “treasury remedy”: pretend to be crazy, put on a little melancholy, talk nonsense... Do you agree? ...And I also agree to give you a hundred rubles?” The hero is ready for three hundred, but you can’t do that much: it will “spoil” prices in St. Petersburg, where for three hundred “they will marry you on your own mother and give you a document.”
As a result, the hero ends up in his native province, where he is included in zemstvo life. One of the projects is to build a school in every village. It’s a noble cause, but they want to build at the expense of the peasants and with their hands, but now they cannot be enslaved, and the peasants themselves do not understand the benefits of the teaching. Things are going badly. And then it turns out that there is one administrator in the province who is doing well. He, “an honest and incorruptible man,” “took bribes from schools.” “Society complains about the landowner or neighbors,” and he, before delving into the matter, asks to build a school and then come. Bribery is perceived as the norm, men dutifully “give a bribe,” and “literally the entire area is lined with schools.”
It seemed that if the bribe was destroyed... then rivers of milk and honey would suddenly flow, and truth would be added to them
In real life, 5-6% of officials came under investigation, but it was very rare that things came to charges, and high-ranking officials found themselves under investigation in isolated cases. Apparently, Saltykov-Shchedrin is ironic about this in his satirical essays “Pompadours and Pompadours” (1863-1874): “It is known that at the end of the fifties a very strong persecution was instituted against bribe-takers. The concept of “bribery” was then associated with the idea of some kind of ulcer that supposedly corrodes Russian bureaucracy and serves as a considerable hindrance in the cause of national prosperity. It seemed that if the bribe was destroyed... then rivers of milk and honey would suddenly flow, and truth would be added to them.” The result of the “persecution,” however, was the opposite: society “goes straight from a penny bribe to a thousand, ten thousand,” the boundaries of the bribe “received completely different outlines,” it “finally died, and in its place a “jackpot” was born.” According to Saltykov-Shchedrin, a corrupt official is convenient for the authorities: “for the sake of the opportunity to steal an extra penny,” the bribe-taker is “ready to get along with anyone.” internal politics, believe in any God."
Railway bribe
According to Lurie, in the second half of the 19th century, when railways began to be actively built in Russia, obtaining concessions for this construction became the most bribe-intensive. “Each contractor had a secret or overt high-ranking shareholder lobbying the interests of his “confidant” in the Winter Palace. For the Bashmakov brothers, this is the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count Valuev, and the Empress’s brother, the Duke of Hesse; for Derviz and Mecca, it is the Minister of the Court, Count Adlerberg; for Efimovich, it is the sovereign’s favorite, Princess Dolgorukaya. And although formally the competitions assessed the proposed cost of a mile of railway track, the elaboration of the project, the experience of the engineer and contractors, in fact there was a competition between influential patrons.”
The highest-ranking nobles do not hesitate to take bribes. Addresses the chief of gendarmes, Count Shuvalov Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich with a request to arrange so that at hearings in the cabinet of ministers a certain railway concession would go to a certain person. When asked why His Highness wants to touch on such matters, the prince replies: “...If the committee speaks out in favor of my proteges, then I will receive 200 thousand rubles; Is it possible to neglect such a sum when I’m even in debt.”
Judging by Garin-Mikhailovsky’s story “Engineers,” which takes place during Russian-Turkish War 1877-1878, and half a century later the intendants remained corrupt. For the main character, track engineer Kartashev, who works on the construction of the railway in Bendery, “the most unpleasant thing... was relations with the commissariat.” His uncle explains that the quartermasters need to be “fed and watered as much as they want” and given “kickbacks”: “for each cart, for the corresponding number of days, they will give you a receipt, and in their favor they will keep two rubles from each cart... If you have a receipt for, say, ten thousand rubles, you will sign that you received ten, but you will receive eight.” After all, if “they give a good price, you can separate two rubles, but if you don’t separate them, the whole business will perish.”
Other bribe-takers are also not particularly shy: one engineer, in front of Kartashev, gives a bribe to the police, explaining: “He said that we would build a road, that the police would receive from us, that we would pay him twenty-five rubles a month, and for special incidents separately ..." This is not enough for the policeman: "And when you take reference prices, how will this be considered - special?" I had to disappoint him: “Reference prices are only available from military engineers and in the water and highway departments.”
19th century raiders
At the end of the 19th century, concessions for the construction of railways brought bribe-takers and covetous people many millions of rubles
Photo: Universal Images Group/DIOMEDIA
Corruption was also used for raiding. Mamin-Sibiryak’s novel “Privalov’s Millions” of 1883 tells about the schemes to take over businesses in the mid-19th century using “administrative resources”. The wealthy Ural gold miner, owner of the Shatrovsky factories, Alexander Privalov, after the death of his wife, went on a spree and married the prima donna of a gypsy choir, who did not remain faithful to him for long, and, being exposed, killed her husband. Privalov's son Sergei - the main character - was only eight at that time. The gypsy married her lover, who became the guardian of the young heirs. In five years, he “spent the last capital that remained after Privalov” and “almost put all the factories under the hammer.” But a family friend and honest industrialist Bakharev energetically stands up for the young heirs, and the guardian “is forced to confine himself to pawning non-existent metal in the bank”: “First, a black blank was pawned, then the first redistribution from it and, finally, the finally processed high-quality iron.” This clever combination yielded a whole million, but soon the story was revealed, the organizer of the scam was put on trial.
The debts of the guardian-swindler are transferred to the inheritance of the wards, and the factories are transferred under state guardianship. The business is profitable, but the rogue manager “in one year saddled the factories with a new million-dollar debt.” When the adult Sergei Privalov begins to deal with the factories, these two debts with interest already amount to about four million. The first and most important condition for a successful raider takeover has been ensured - the asset is burdened with debt.
For some time, the factories are managed by Bakharev, they begin to bring in up to 400 thousand rubles. annual income, and then everything goes on as before: at the helm of Polovodov is a manager who thinks only about his own pocket. According to his report, the “dividend” is only 70 thousand, and even these figures are inflated. From them it is necessary to exclude 20 thousand for the sale of metal left after Bakharev, 15 thousand zemstvo tax, which Polovodov did not even think of paying. In total, only 35 thousand remains. Further, Polovodov, as an attorney, is owed 5% of the net income: this will amount to three and a half thousand, and he took as much as ten.
A memorandum to the governor is being drawn up, the authors of which “spared no colors to describe Polovodov’s exploits.” The governor initially turns things around abruptly, and Polovodov is removed. There is hope to bring him to justice for fraud, but the victory does not last long: soon Polovodov is again restored to his powers, and the governor receives Privalov rather dryly: “some skillful clerical hand has already managed to “put the matter” in its own way.” It is worth heroic efforts to once again convince the governor of the need to take measures to protect the interests of the heirs of the factories. “Two weeks of hassle with all sorts of clerical ordeals” lead to a new dismissal of Polovodov from his post, but he manages to take out a large sum from the factories: “he has a bare three hundred thousand in his pocket...”
“In a small town, up to 800 buckets of vodka were supplied in the form of bribes to the mayor, private bailiffs and neighborhood supervisors,” writes Lev Lurie in the book “Petersburgers. Russian capitalism. First attempt"
The situation with the payment of debts is aggravated, but everything would be fixable if the owner himself managed the Shatrovsky factories, because there is no point in him stealing from himself. This, however, is not allowed. The factories are still formally under state guardianship, and the state, by its sole decision, puts them up for competition and sells them to cover the debt. “Some company” bought them, “the factories were sold at the price of the government debt, and the heirs received compensation, it seems, forty thousand...” “The company purchased the factories with an installment plan of thirty-seven years, that is, a little more than for nothing. It seems that this whole company is a front person serving as a cover for a clever bureaucratic scam.”
And all this despite the fact that during the reign of Alexander II (1855-1881), anti-corruption policy was tightened. They began to publish data on the state of property of officials, and it included property registered in the name of their wife. The ban on holding public office also extended to the children of noble officials convicted of corruption. Further - more. At Alexandra III(1881-1894) new prohibitions were introduced for officials, in keeping with the spirit of the times: on membership in the boards of private joint-stock companies, on the official receiving a commission when placing a government loan, etc. The fight against corruption continued...
Methodological development on the topic: Entrepreneur in Russian classics
“The teacher deals with human material, with the youngest and most receptive. Fiction is a rich panorama of types of people...” I believe that we must always remember this and keep up with the times, otherwise we will not achieve the results we expect when preparing for lessons.
For obvious reasons, during the years of Soviet power, the writer’s attitude towards “traders” could not change - for most of the Soviet decades, free enterprise was banned. And, perhaps, largely thanks to the Russian classics (and, of course, individual representatives of the current entrepreneurial class), the majority of Russian citizens still believe that businessmen “have nothing sacred.” And the image of a decent Russian entrepreneur is still waiting for its new classic.
Literature:
Zepalova T.S. Literature and theater lessons \ M. “Enlightenment” 2002
Analysis paths literary work\Teacher's manual. Edited by B.F. Egorova \ M. “Enlightenment” 2001
Literature lesson \ Teacher's manual \ M. "Enlightenment" 2003
Fogelson I.A. Literature teaches \ 10th grade Book for students \
M. "Enlightenment" 1990
Submitting your good work to the knowledge base is easy. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
Theme of money in Russian literature
Introduction
It seems to me that this particular topic is relevant now and has not lost its novelty. Everywhere you look, there is money everywhere. And modern literature is certainly no exception. But how is this burning topic viewed and presented? Money is shown mainly as a means of satisfying needs; in almost every book you can read a hymn to wealth. And not a word, not a word about the moral side of the issue.
Isn’t this the ideological “engine” of literature? Therefore, I came up with the idea to consider and compare what writers of past centuries thought, said and wrote about the problem of enrichment. The object of the study is the works of Russian writers and the aspect in which they view money, how often they mention it, how important in the life of society they consider the problem of enrichment, the influence of money on people’s souls.
The purpose of the study: to show the relevance of this topic at the moment, to draw attention to the perspective from which the problems of money were viewed by writers of different centuries. To prove that money was, in a certain sense, social freedom, power, the opportunity to live and love, and until now nothing has changed, and is unlikely to ever change. Each writer and poet sees, understands and depicts this problem in his own way.
But almost everyone agrees that money undoubtedly brings lack of spirituality into people’s lives, disfigures and kills everything human, allows people to forget about morality, and contributes to the emergence of “dead souls.” Money gradually replaces everything for a person: conscience, honesty, decency. Why are these needed? sublime feelings when can everything be bought? Paid - and you are a famous, respected person.
Money (wealth) is one of the “eternal” literary themes. The question of the meaning of money and wealth has a long history. Already Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his “Rhetoric” considered wealth as a good: “In man himself there are spiritual and physical blessings, outside of him - noble birth, friends, wealth, honor...”. The idea of wealth as a good that people strive for developed in Western European literature. For Russian literature another solution is characteristic, connected with that part of the Biblical texts that talks about the sinfulness of wealth, with the idea that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” These ideas are developed in the lives of saints, whose path to holiness often begins with the renunciation of wealth and the distribution of one's property to the poor.
In the Bible, the words gold and silver are constant epithets; precious metals symbolize wealth and beauty. Golden altars, incense burners, censers, vessels, lamps, etc. are often mentioned here. Precious metals are also a symbol of power, of blind worship: Aaron builds a golden calf from gold jewelry donated to him (Exodus 32: 2-6). The image erected by King Nebuchadnezzar, who commanded the nations to worship him, was also made of gold (Dan. 3: 1-7).
The love of money and gold is the source of many human vices. This is also envy (the parable of the winegrower and the workers who grumbled because of unequal pay for work). Finally, this is the betrayal of Judas for 30 pieces of silver.
The theme of money is typical for many works of Russian literature, however, it is difficult to find an artistic work devoted exclusively to the monetary issue. This implies some uncertainty about the role of the topic of money in the artistic world. Naming sums of money is not always perceived as an element of an artistic system. However, in many classical works this theme plays a very significant role. Money, financial condition character is a characteristic of the scope of action no less important than an indication of time and place. The precisely named amounts that the characters have largely determine their way of thinking and the logic of their behavior. In the works of Russian classics, high ideals are affirmed, base interests are rejected and ridiculed. However, in classical literature a variety of judgments are reflected. For example, in “Dowry” by A.N. Ostrovsky, the merchant Knurov, inviting Larisa to go with him to Paris to the fair, convinces: “Don’t be afraid of shame, there will be no condemnation. There are boundaries beyond which condemnation does not cross; I can offer you such enormous content that the most evil critics of other people’s morality will have to shut up and open their mouths in surprise” (D. 4, Rev. 8). In other words: there are no moral limits to big money.
Many works have been written on the topic of money, both foreign and domestic. The topic of money is especially widely covered in the works of Russian classics.
money Fonvizin Pushkin Ostrovsky
1. The theme of money in D. I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor”
IN folklore ideas about the nature of wealth were peculiarly intertwined with the foundations of Christian doctrine. Russian proverbs and sayings clearly express the superiority of spiritual values, there is a firm belief that money is evil, that a person can be happy without money (happiness does not lie in money; there is a lot of money, but little intelligence; money will lead you to a hole). Although, in some proverbs and sayings, the idea pops up that you can’t go anywhere without money (money is not a god, but a protector; money beats a mountain; money is a squabble, but without it it’s bad). In fairy tales about rich and poor people, the conflict between wealth and poverty is always resolved in the same way. Wealth is a vice, a rich person always remains a fool, loses everything, and at the same time, there is some kind of ironic shade. But the paradox lies in the fact that at the end of the fairy tale, the poor heroes receive, then half a kingdom, then suddenly “they will begin to live, prosper, and make good.” This inconsistency is explained by the people's ambiguous attitude towards money and wealth.
The topic of money is also touched upon in the works of Russian writers. In D. I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor,” the motive of money, Sophia’s inheritance (“fifteen thousand annual income”) determines the main intrigue of the comedy. Prostakova, having taken Sophia's estate without permission, destined her to be his brother's bride. Having learned about the inheritance, she changes her plans, which she did not consider necessary to involve Sophia, and wants to marry her son Mitrofanushka to her. The uncle and nephew begin to fight for the rich bride - literally, starting fights, and figuratively - competing in demonstrating their “merits”. The comic scene with the teachers, especially Tsyfirkin’s problems, is connected with money. The motive of money is associated with the comic effect of scenes with teachers, especially Tsyfirkin’s problem:
Tsyfirkin. The three of us found, for example, 300 rubles... We came to the point of dividing it up. Guess why on your brother?
Prostakova. I found the money, don’t share it with anyone... Don’t learn this stupid science.
Tsyfirkin. For studying you give 10 rubles a year... It wouldn’t be a sin to add another 10. How much would it be?
Prostakova. I won't add a penny. There is no money - what to count? There is money - let’s figure it out well without Pafnutich (d. 3, yavl. 7).
Here money is named in its specific, digital expression (in the form of amounts: “three hundred rubles”, “ten rubles”) and in a general sense (“there is money... there is no money”, “I won’t add a penny”, i.e. nothing I won't give it). Numbers, division, multiplication are common arithmetic operations. For honest Tsyfirkin, who takes money only for service, arithmetic is the science of equitable division of money, for Prostakova, who is accustomed, by the right of the strong, to decide everything in her favor, it is about increase. Solution simple tasks Mrs. Prostakova, her attitude towards money becomes a clear example of immorality.
Thus, the characters of the comedy are characterized through their attitude towards money; it reflects their moral essence. If we continue this thought, it turns out that money is synonymous with certain character traits in comedy. “Care-loving” money-hungry Prostakovs and Skotinin are low natures. “Even if you read for five years, you won’t finish reading anything better than ten thousand...” says Skotinin (d. 1, vyal. 7); Prostakov, having learned about Sophia’s money, “became affectionate to the very baseness” (d. 2, val. 2).
The goodies have their own understanding of wealth and the role of money. As it follows in a classic play, in “The Minor” the heroes with speaking surnames Pravdin and Starodum utter educational truths about the benefits of virtue, about the moral nature of man, about the need to fulfill human and civic duty: “Have a heart, have a soul, and you will be a man at all times” (Starodum); “The direct dignity of a person is the soul” (Pravdin, d. 3), etc. But the niece, who is also the heiress, declares:
The pursuit of money by the selfish landowners Prostakovs and Skotinin is the main intrigue of the comedy. The confrontation between the honest and disinterested Pravdin, Starodum and Milon determines the main conflict of the play. Starodum’s aphorisms and maxims reflect the ideal of a fair structure of private and public life, when “ranks,” public recognition and respect (“nobility and respect”) are determined by work and virtues. In an enlightened society, attempts to obtain money through dishonest means should be suppressed by the state, and undeserved wealth is subject to universal condemnation. The very need to repeat these truths during the time of Fonvizin testifies to the discrepancy between what was desired and what was actually realized, and that in life it was the other way around. This reveals the contours of the general conflict outlined in the play, between what is and what should be. A conflict that does not find a definite resolution in life.
2. The power of gold in A. S. Pushkin’s play “The Miserly Knight”
Let's move on to the play by A.S. Pushkin "The Miserly Knight". It was not without reason that Pushkin began to develop this topic in the late 20s. During this era and in Russia, bourgeois elements of everyday life more and more invaded the system of serfdom, new characters of the bourgeois type were developed, and greed for the acquisition and accumulation of money was fostered. "The Miserly Knight" was in this sense a completely modern play in the late 20s."
In Pushkin's play there are two moneylenders: Gide, Albert's lender, and the Baron himself. Here is the traditional idea of the “growth” of money, i.e. about interest as deceiving the poor. For the Baron, money is not masters or servants, but symbols of sovereignty, “crown and barmas”; they are evidence of his royal dignity. “Obey me, my power is strong,” he says to himself. Baron's "power", however, is not a geographical concept, for it extends to the whole world. He conquered the world without leaving his home, not by force of arms or subtle diplomacy, but by completely different means, a different “technique” - coin. She is the guarantor of his independence, his freedom, not only material, but also spiritual, in particular moral.
The Baron's intoxication with gold, the proud consciousness of his own strength and power, is usually interpreted as a figurative expression of potential strength. This interpretation follows from the parallel with the king, from the conditional “As soon as I want”, which creates the impression of a compressed spring - I want, they say, and with a wave of my hand “palaces will be erected,” etc. Everything is so if you don’t notice something comic effect, the fact that the Baron is somewhat funny, like an old man playing with his biceps is funny. The Baron serves gold, money, coin. The Baron's wealth embodies the idea of the power and might of gold. The basis of the main conflict is rooted in the dual nature of wealth: it gives power, but it also enslaves.
As a famous Soviet researcher wrote, in “The Miserly Knight” “... it is no longer the problem of the father’s stinginess, but the much broader problem of gold as the sovereign master of life,” “the gloomy poetry of gold does not characterize only the image of the miser-acquisitive, but expresses power and strength gold as social wealth,” “gold dominates tragedy.” The same researcher noted the influence of gold on the spiritual world and human psyche: “The fact of owning gold, refracted in the consciousness of the old Baron, turns into the idea of the individual strength and power of the owner of the gold himself. The properties of gold are transferred to the personality of its owner.”
The author tries to comprehend the logic of the stingy, the demonic power of money that feeds human pride, the illusory belief that the rich can control everything. In his pride, the rich man forgets that only earthly judgment is subject to money, and it only buys human weaknesses. More precisely, money generates or only provokes the manifestation of human weaknesses (greed), they bring evil. Greed entails madness and loss of wealth, human appearance, and life. The Baron slanderes his son (in the first scene the reader learns that Albert has no criminal intentions), imagines himself omnipotent, “like some kind of demon,” and for this he is punished by sudden and inexplicable death.
Having acquired gold and power over others, a person no longer has power over himself and becomes stingy, which leads to self-destruction. Therefore, power over others is only an illusion, like the proud reflections of the Baron in the basement at the sight of his chests. People around you understand this:
ABOUT! My father has no servants and no friends
He sees them as masters; and he serves them himself.
And how does it serve? Like an Algerian slave, Like a chained dog.
The theme of wealth in Pushkin’s work was highlighted by G. Gukovsky: “He wrote a lot about gold and capital. This theme clearly haunted him, brought forward to him at every step with pictures and new phenomena in the life of Russia.” For many characters in the tragedy, only gold is important; the life of the Baron, the owner of wealth and chests of gold, becomes a hindrance. Both Albert and Gide are interested in the death of the stingy knight, to whom the inherited treasures will sooner or later flow. In this sense, in Pushkin’s tragedy all the characters are selfish, everyone demands money (including the innkeeper). It's the gold that matters, not the person. The judgment of a higher power was not long in coming. The Baron suddenly dies. He could have lived in the world for “ten, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty years,” as Solomon listed, naming the condition - if “God willing.” Didn't give it. This is what happens, before night they will take the Baron’s soul, and the moral of the parable will explain to us why - “this happens to those who accumulate treasure for themselves, and do not become rich in God.”
3. The magic of money - gold in the works of N.V. Gogol
Popular ideas about gold (wealth) include N.V. Gogol’s story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala.” Based on the material of Little Russian folklore, Gogol's story develops one of the themes characteristic of the work of European romantics - the theme of selling the soul to the devil. At the instigation of Basavryuk, the “devil man,” and the witch, Petrus must get the treasure, and in order to get the treasure, he must kill an innocent child. So in Gogol's story, gold is a sign of the most expensive, beautiful, desirable - a sign of power, wealth. “Fainted by the damned devilry,” Petrus received gold, for which he paid with his immortal and priceless soul. The motif of gold is directly related to the theme that worried Gogol and other writers in the first third of the 19th century: the sinfulness of wealth, its “unclean” origin, and the detrimental effect on the human soul.
A chest of money is a symbol of wealth that has an unrighteous, “unclean” origin. Gold requires sacrifice and renunciation. As already noted, the one who finds the treasure and suddenly receives wealth is always the one who is most vulnerable, weak, and cannot resist the devilish temptation. The desire to preserve and increase enormous wealth develops into mania and leads to loss of reason. The chest of wealth even goes into the literature of realism, preserving the main features of its “mythological” origin: the disastrous nature of wealth for its owner and those around him. True, it is no longer evil spirits that destroy the rich man, but his own greed.
The story “Portrait” repeats many motifs and elements of the plot scheme of “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”: poverty, lack of wealth to marry the girl he loves; mental weakness of a young man; temptation in the form of “accidental” wealth; outsider moneylender; treasure chests (“his iron chests are full of countless amounts of money, jewelry, diamonds and all kinds of collateral”); loss of reason and death of the main character: “in fits of terrible madness and rage” the lives of those who, one way or another, come into contact with the dark forces of evil are interrupted. In one story, people are tempted by Basavryuk, “the devil in human form” or “the devilish man.” In another, there is a stranger moneylender, in whom the devilish presence is also felt: “No one doubted the presence of evil spirits in this man.” About the dark-skinned moneylender with “unbearable burning eyes,” the artist “could not resist saying: “The devil, the perfect devil!”
Lack of money is the main prerequisite for the emergence of a comic situation in N.V.’s comedy. Gogol "The Inspector General". Each of the characters lacks money: Khlestakov - to travel further (“If I hadn’t gone on a spree in Penza, I would have had enough money to get home,” d. 2). The governor received government money for the construction of a church at a charitable institution, “for which an amount was allocated five years ago”; the merchant “built a bridge and wrote wood for twenty thousand, while he didn’t even have a hundred rubles” (the governor here “helped cheat”). Even the non-commissioned officer's widow is busy because she would like the money “very useful now.” Let us recall that the main sign of Khlestakov’s belonging to the “higher spheres” of bureaucracy was his free handling of money: “He! He doesn’t pay any money and doesn’t go. Who should it be if not him?” (D. 1). This “argument” surrounds the comedy: in the first act, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky make a statement, then in the finale the officials recall their words: ““He came and doesn’t spend money!”... they found an important bird!” (d. 4). Accordingly, the actions of the characters are connected with money, although it is not monetary interest that determines the main intrigue of the play.
The word “money”, as well as the digital expression of the amount of money in comedy, is used very often and has almost no synonyms (except for the word “amount”). But the verbs denoting the characters’ actions with money are exceptionally rich in shades of meaning. Money can be paid or not paid, squandered or held back, tricked, borrowed and promised to be repaid, given as a tip and for donuts, begged, palmed off (give a bribe), swindled, pontificated (win at cards). The arithmetic of the “simply” greedy Khlestakov is comical; in his calculations he is a direct successor of Mrs. Prostakova: “But then you gave 200, i.e. not 200, but 400 - I don’t want to take advantage of your mistake - so, perhaps, now it’s the same amount, so that it’s exactly 800 (takes the money) ... After all, this, they say, is new happiness, when with brand new pieces of paper" ( yavl. 16).
Things are not so simple in the world of officials, where money is counted in hundreds and thousands. A lot changes depending on whether money is used. But since bribery is condemned by law, it is not done so openly. For example, officials are looking for a transparent excuse to hand over money to the “auditor”. The only problem is what to call the money for which they “buy” the auditor. Options that are absurd and funny from the point of view of common sense create a comedic mood. In the third act, money is the main object with which the heroes' manipulations are connected. The officials hand over the money to Khlestakov, sweating with fear, dropping banknotes, shaking out change from the holes, etc. For them, the transfer of money is a material form of concluding certain relationships. Both the givers and the takers pretend that money is only a manifestation of a good attitude, a sign of friendly disposition.
It is impossible not to mention such a work by Gogol as " Dead Souls". The image of stinginess in the poem grows, first as one of the weaknesses, character traits: rude, like Sobakevich, or comical, like Korobochka, until it turns out to be an idea, a way of life, that completely enslaves a person, like Plyushkin. In that acquaintance with the landowners begins with Manilov and ends with Plyushkin (chapter 6.), researchers see a “special logic”, each character plays his own role in main topic poems. In this sense, the image of the “unemployed” Plyushkin is the culmination of the theme of greed in “Dead Souls”. His name remains in the memory of readers as a symbol of this vice. Stinginess, greed, and prudence to varying degrees are characteristic of almost all the main characters in the poem “Dead Souls.” The author speaks with irony about the magic of not only gold and money, but also the words themselves that denote them: “Millionaire” - “in one sound of this word, bypassing every money bag, there is something that affects both scoundrels and neither this nor that affects people, and good people, in a word, it affects everyone” (chapter 6). This one word gives rise to a “disposition to meanness.”
The protagonist of the poem has a special kind of greed. Since childhood, having believed that “you can do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny,” “this thing is more reliable than anything in the world,” Chichikov becomes an acquirer. The desire to get benefits from everywhere, to save, to underpay, to take control of everything that comes into view provokes lies and hypocrisy, “double” accounting and morality for oneself and for others.
5. Marriage scams as a means of enrichment in the comedies of A. N. Ostrovsky
Russian culture of the mid-century is beginning to be attracted by themes of marriage scams - plots that have spread in society thanks to the emergence of enterprising people with character and ambitions, but without the ancestral means to realize their desires. The heroes of Ostrovsky and Pisemsky are not similar in their demands for the world, but are united in their chosen means: in order to improve their financial situation, they do not stop at the irritating pangs of conscience, they struggle for existence, compensating for the inferiority of their social status with hypocrisy. The ethical side of the issue worries the authors only to the extent that all parties to the conflict are punished. There are no obvious victims here; the money of one group of characters and the activity of the seeker of a “profitable place” in life, regardless of whether it is marriage or a new service, are equally immoral. The plot of family-domestic commerce excludes a hint of compassion for the victim; it simply cannot be where financial conflicts are resolved, and the results ultimately suit everyone equally.
A. N. Ostrovsky immerses the reader in the exotic life of the merchants, commenting on the themes of previous literature with the help of farce. In the play “Poverty is not a Vice,” the problem of fathers and children is completely mediated by monetary relations; images of nobly unhappy brides are accompanied by frank conversations about dowries (“Guilty Without Guilt”). Without much sentimentality and frankly, the characters discuss money problems, all kinds of matchmakers eagerly arrange weddings, seekers of rich hands walk around the living rooms, trade and marriage deals are discussed.
Ostrovsky's first comedy "Our people - let's be numbered!" is dedicated to the process of financial fraud - false, “malicious” bankruptcy (its original name was “Bankrupt”). The main idea of the merchant Bolshov is to, having borrowed money, transfer all his real estate (“house and shops”) to the name of a “faithful” person, declare himself poor, and for each ruble borrowed return only twenty-five kopecks (a quarter of the total debt, appropriating the rest). A quick enrichment supposedly will not harm anyone: after all, the merchant’s “creditors are all rich people, what will happen to them!” (D. 1, Rev. 10). This method of making money is illegal, but, as you know, remains popular to this day.
All the characters “work” and go to various tricks for the sake of money, which is the main driving reason for all actions in the comedy. The solicitor “goes around” on small matters and “some days he doesn’t bring home even half a ruble in silver.” The matchmaker gets “where he gets gold, where he gets more - it’s known what he’s worth, depending on the strength of opportunity” (D. 2, Rev. 6), turning to his “employers”, he calls them “silver”, “pearl” , “emerald”, “yakhontovaya”, “diamond”, giving tangibility and concreteness to the “precious” qualities of the merchant Bolshova and her daughter Lipochka.
All the characters in the comedy strive for money, constantly think about it, and count their own and other people’s incomes. Even the errand boy Tishka does his “business”, collecting everything that is lying around: “Half a piece of silver - that’s what Lazar gave today. At the end of the comedy, for the rogue merchant, all salvation is in money: “We need money, Lazarus, money. There's nothing else to fix. Either money or to Siberia.” Money divides the characters into those who serve and those who are served. In the first act, Bolshov “commands” and acts strangely, and Podkhalyuzin ingratiates himself and asks; in the last act, on the contrary, Bolshov, having lost his fortune, asks “For Christ’s sake” from Podkhalyuzin.
The desire for money in comedy is characteristic not only of a rich merchant, but also of poor people (matchmaker, solicitor). Because of greed, they are ready for any unscrupulous actions. Podkhalyuzin understands and uses this feature of weak people, promising each of them two thousand rubles, and a sable fur coat for the matchmaker in addition. Fraudsters hope to get a lot of money not for their work, the low price of which they know, but for services of dubious quality. In the end, both of them receive a payment of “one hundred silver rubles,” but they feel deceived. The desire to get a lot of money at once turns into disappointment and anger.
6. The element of money in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky
In F. M. Dostoevsky's work "Crime and Punishment" all the heroes of the novel, one way or another, are gripped by the element of money, and this element can be expressed in poverty or wealth: Raskolnikov and his relatives, his friend Razumikhin, the Marmeladovs are very poor - they suffer from hunger and cold, are subject to petty passions, gambling, and alcohol. But the landowner Svidrigailov is rich, but his vices are no less, and even greater, than the vices of the poor. Depravity and permissiveness lead him to suicide. Why better life Luzhin, who wants to marry Raskolnikov’s sister Duna, who “... more than anything else in the world loved and valued... his money, obtained through labor and all means: it equaled him with everything that was higher than him...”? Thus, Dostoevsky is trying to emphasize the destructive power of money, which equally kills a person’s spirituality and pushes him onto the path of crime.
The story itself mentions the word “money” countless times in dialogue and descriptions. The author even gives a detailed description of the number of coins that were in Raskolnikov’s pocket. Counting pennies and always depending on money, thinking about it is the main concern of the poor and disadvantaged. Each of the heroes, as well as real people, faces a dilemma: how to survive in a world of poverty and humiliation without sinning or breaking one of the Commandments. The image of an old woman is a collective image of a moneylender who profits from the misfortune of others. Money rules everything in the old woman’s life, and she has more than enough of it; in fact, she doesn’t need it. But she takes even a pittance from her stepsister.
Raskolnikov's character is ambiguous, as is his fate. Goodness and faith still glimmer in him, he is able to respond and help others, which at least for a moment restores hope to him. The power of money is destructive, but subjective and a person can fight it if he has the desire and will.
“Yesterday I gave all the money you sent me... to his wife... for the funeral. Now a widow, a consumptive, pitiful woman... three little orphans, hungry... the house is empty... and there is another daughter... Maybe you would give it yourself, if only you could see... I, however, I had no right, I confess, especially knowing how you yourself got this money. To help, you must first have the right to do so...” Raskolnikov himself constantly needs money. As soon as he receives a certain amount, he immediately distributes it. The text of the novel carefully describes each act of Raskolnikov's mercy. But it is precisely without money, and even the small ghost of its power and destructive power, in hard labor in an atmosphere of deprivation and suffering that Raskolnikov still repents and turns to eternal values that can heal his soul. He is helped by the love of Sonya, who, like him, escaped from the elements of money.
Leaving the power of money makes the protagonist free from his deceptive, inhumane theories. The meaning of his life is love, faith and honest work, thanks to which he may not become rich, but he will be able not to die of hunger and live with the woman he loves.
The experiences of the characters, the constant threat of true poverty hanging over them, create an atmosphere of tension and drama in the story “Poor People”. The actions of the characters, one way or another, are connected with money, they sell, buy, pay, receive, ask for a loan. Devushkin takes his salary in advance, unsuccessfully tries to borrow money, and unexpectedly receives a hundred rubles from the general. Varvara sends Makar fifty kopecks, thirty kopecks in silver, Gorshkov asks “at least some ten kopecks”, “at least ten kopecks”; Ratazyaev “asks for seven thousand” for his “creativity”, etc. The feeling of hopelessness is caused by the characters’ experiences associated with material losses: a new uniform has been sold, an old tailcoat is next, boots are torn, buttons come off, rubles and kopecks change hands. Every “kopeck piece” matters.
Fleeing from the last poverty and nakedness, Varvara and Makar are separated in spite of their feelings. Poor people, almost destitute Makar and Varvara, having improved their financial affairs, at the end of the story remain “poor,” i.e. unhappy and pathetic.
The main event of A.P. Chekhov's play “The Cherry Orchard”, around which the action is built, is the sale of the estate. “On the twenty-second of August the cherry orchard will be sold. Think about it!.. Think!..” repeats Lopakhin. Love line(Anya and Trofimov) are clearly on the periphery of the main action, barely outlined. The action is given tension by the bidding, the auction - the forced sale of Ranevskaya's name day. The event seems catastrophic and incredible for its participants. From the very beginning of the play, the current situation is described as extremely difficult and unexpected. Anya tells Varya that Lyubov Andreevna no longer has anything, “she has already sold her dacha... there is nothing left. I don’t have a penny left either.” The feeling of extreme poverty is intensified: it is said several times that “people have nothing to eat.” There is no question of the possibility of paying interest: “Where is it,” Varya answers hopelessly. Gaev says that there are “essentially none” to save the estate. We are actually talking about the complete collapse of the family name.
The motif of small money - its eternal shortage, borrowing, winning, repaying debt, begging - sounds in every scene of the play, like a comic one - is present already at the early stage of the implementation of the plan. As well as the motive of lack of money. Trades, interest, bills, loans, mortgages - all this is directly related to the main action and main conflict of the play.
Money in the play is a thing that unites the characters: money passes from hand to hand, it is borrowed, given, given, offered, received (like Petya - for translation). This is one of the main threads from which the fabric of comedy is woven. Money in the artistic world of the play “belittles” the characters and discredits each of them. Varya is stinginess personified; her characterization as a housekeeper logically completes the image. Gaev is infantile, “they say he spent his entire fortune on candy,” Ranevskaya’s husband “got into debt and died from champagne.” Lopakhin, who counts and increases his fortune, will soon be a millionaire - he works with money, does not arouse sympathy, despite his loyalty to his lady, or his always open wallet for her, or his hard work, which he talks about in detail. Trofimov proudly refuses financial assistance, which Lopakhin good-naturedly offers him: “Give me at least 200,000, I won’t take it. free man. And everything that you all value so highly, poor and rich, does not have the slightest power over me, just like fluff that floats through the air. I can do without you, I can pass by you, I am strong and proud."
The play shows an interesting psychological phenomenon: the attractiveness of lightness, grace, beauty, generosity and, conversely, the repulsive impression that heavy things produce; (responsible), prudent, rational attitude towards life. Direct, gentle, hardworking Lopakhin is unpleasant (unfortunately tactless). Ranevskaya, selfish, easily appropriating other people’s money (loans from Lopakhin, money from the “Yaroslavl grandmother”), abandoning loved ones to the mercy of fate, evokes sympathy, sympathy and even pity for those who, through her fault, were left without everything (Gaev, Varya, Anya, Firs ). We can say that the play shows charm visible to the world and selfishness invisible to the world, bordering on cruelty.
7. Money is an illusion of reality in the stories of A. P. Chekhov
The theme of money in the stories of A.P. Chekhov not only helps to create the illusion of the reality of what is happening: in objective world In stories, all things have a “plausible” price, the characters have a corresponding income. In many cases, the amount of money that is directly or indirectly discussed (be it 200 rubles from the story “In the Shelter for the Sick and Elderly” or 75,000 in the story of the same name) turns out to be a measure of humiliation, moral failure, moral degradation.
The situations shown by Chekhov in the considered and many other stories of the 1880s are based on the multidirectional interests of the main characters. Moreover, if one side in its actions, hopes and expectations is based on considerations of family affection, responsibility and family well-being, then the other is guided only by considerations of personal gain. The moment of an unexpected collision of two different ways of thinking, the realization of commercialism in a specific action or word constitutes central event in the plot of stories, their climax. Chekhov's heroes they try to profit from everything, even from adultery, as in the story “The Station Master”. The motive of money in Chekhov's stories plays a major role in creating a situation of embarrassment, disappointment and despair.
Conclusion
Money - this topic is relevant now and has not lost its novelty. Everywhere you look, there is money everywhere. And modern literature is certainly no exception. But how is this burning topic viewed and presented? Money is shown mainly as a means of satisfying needs; in almost every book you can read a hymn to wealth. And not a word, not a word about the moral side of the issue. Isn’t this the ideological “engine” of literature? Each writer and poet sees, understands and depicts this problem in his own way. But almost everyone agrees that money undoubtedly brings lack of spirituality into people’s lives, disfigures and kills everything human, allows people to forget about morality, and contributes to the emergence of “dead souls.” Money gradually replaces everything for a person: conscience, honesty, decency. Why are these sublime feelings needed when everything can be bought? Paid - and you are a famous, respected person.
In my opinion, the test of money, power or fame can be put on a par with the test of love and friendship. After all, a person in such situations manifests himself very brightly, often something that was dormant until the “test” came to light is revealed in him. And, unfortunately, only a few pass through trials with honor, without destroying their souls, without soiling their conscience. In a world whose idol is the “golden calf,” the preservation of the human soul is perhaps one of the most important tasks. But how to solve this problem? Unfortunately, there is no answer to this question yet. So, to summarize, I would like to note the important role of money in the society of past centuries, as well as the present century, which means that this topic occupies a special place. It is impossible to imagine life without money, which is proven in the works not only of the classics discussed here, but also of many other authors. Thus, I believe that the topic of money in literature, both past and modern, given the peculiarities of the national character, is worth paying more attention to.
Bibliography
1. N.V. Gogol. Dead souls. - M., 1985.
2. F. M. Dostoevsky. T. 5. Leningrad "SCIENCE"., 1989.
3. G. I. Romanova. The motive of money in Russian literature. "Flint": "Science". - M., 2006.
4. Commentary by S. Bondi to “The Miserly Knight” in the book: A.S. Pushkin. Dramas (reading book with commentary). - M. 1985.
5. Dostoevsky F.M. Crime and punishment. - M.: Eksmo, 2006.
6. A. S. Pushkin. Selected works. Detgiz. - M., 1959.
7. A. Ostrovsky. Dramaturgy. AST-OLIMP. - M., 1998.
8. A. I. Chekhov. Novels and stories. " Russian language". - M., 1980.
9. Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. M., 2000.
10. Belinsky V. G. Complete. Collection Op. T. 11.
Posted on Allbest.ru
...Similar documents
Money in comedies by D.I. Fonvizina. The power of gold in the play by A.S. Pushkin "The Miserly Knight". The magic of gold in the works of N.V. Gogol. Money as a reality of life in the novel by A.I. Goncharov "Ordinary History". Attitude to wealth in the works of I.S. Turgenev.
course work, added 12/12/2010
"Nedorosl" as the first Russian socio-political comedy. Satirical image the world of the Prostakovs and Skotinins in Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” Images of Prostakovs and Taras Skotinin. Characteristics of the image of Mitrofanushka in Fonvizin’s comedy.
abstract, added 05/28/2010
Features of the image of the “little man” in the literature of the era of realism. The history of this phenomenon in world literature and its popularity in the works of writers: Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky. The spiritual world of the hero in the works of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky.
report, added 04/16/2014
Art system and the content of the novel "Crime and Punishment". Problems of money and social justice. Fighting the destructive power of money and choosing life priorities. The collapse of the theory of “fair” distribution of goods based on violence.
abstract, added 02/17/2009
General characteristics, definition of the features of tradition and innovation in the system of characters in D.I.’s comedy. Fonvizin "Minor". Analysis and significance of images of everyday heroes, taking into account the methods of their creation: Prostakovs, Skotinin, Mitrofan and other minor ones.
course work, added 05/04/2010
Petersburg theme in Russian literature. Petersburg through the eyes of the heroes A.S. Pushkin ("Eugene Onegin", "The Bronze Horseman", "The Queen of Spades" and "The Station Agent"). A cycle of St. Petersburg stories by N.V. Gogol ("The Night Before Christmas", "The Inspector General", Dead Souls).
presentation, added 10/22/2015
The essence and features of revealing the theme of the “little man” in works of classical Russian literature, approaches and methods of this process. Representation of the character and psychology of the “little man” in the works of Gogol and Chekhov, distinctive features.
test, added 12/23/2011
Consideration of the problems of man and society in works of Russian literature of the 19th century: in Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit", in the works of Nekrasov, in the poetry and prose of Lermontov, Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment", Ostrovsky's tragedy "The Thunderstorm".
abstract, added 12/29/2011
Consideration of dreams and visions as the most important artistic devices that help the author to fully convey his thoughts to the reader. Words-symbols in the description of dreams. The role of dreams in the works of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky and Goncharov.
presentation, added 05/11/2012
The history of the creation of Fonvizin's comedy "The Minor". Consideration of the scene with the tailor Trishka. Familiarization with internal qualities, the needs and desires of the main characters. The problem of educating a true citizen; search for the most valuable in society and man.