How the old genius appears in the story. Literature lesson. "N.S. Leskov. The story "Old Genius". Did you imagine the heroes of the story

01.08.2019

The plot is based on the story by Nikolai Leskov “ Old genius” lies a situation that is typical, unfortunately, both for Russia of the 19th century and for Russia today. A rich dandy deceived an old woman by not paying her debt, and now her house is being taken away from her. Officials do not protect the old woman, the debtor has too many connections. Although the old woman is right according to the law, an “insurmountable obstacle” arises where you just need to find the debtor and serve him with the court paper.

The composition of N. Leskov’s work “Old Genius” is based on her own stories

To the observer. Artistic techniques are irony and sarcasm, sometimes the effect of tragicomedy is created. The author acts as a narrator in the work, creating his own image of a person who sympathizes with the old woman, gives her some money, but also does not believe that she will achieve the truth.

When the old woman is already completely desperate, a certain Ivan Ivanovich appears, who, for a considerable percentage, undertakes to solve the case in an obviously not very legal way. Which he succeeds in doing.

The idea of N. Leskov’s story “Old Genius” is defenselessness weak person before the people in power in a bureaucratic state. Also the idea of the story is

Leskov’s idea is that if the Law does not protect citizens, the Law is violated. Citizens have to act on their own, and cunning people like the “old genius” have their share of this.

The themes of N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius” are the theme of bureaucracy, the theme of the “little man,” the theme of Christian philanthropy and conscience, as well as the lack of such among those in power.

Images from N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius”:

First of all, the image of the old woman is interesting. This is a believing woman, she does not wish harm on anyone, even her debtor. She is simple-minded and spontaneous. The old woman does not understand the laws by which rich dandies and officials live: “How can he not be given a summons if his fortune is much greater than he owes us?” - she is perplexed.

The image of the “old genius”: this is “ dark personality" One can speak about his genius only with a bit of irony. This is a cunning and experienced man, a former official. He just figured out how to catch swindlers, whom neither the Law nor conscience can influence.

He “pushed the old woman’s offender to the wall” with a public scandal at the station and a report to the police, which prevented the debtor from going abroad with his mistress. The image of Ivan Ivanovich in the story is positive, because only this rascal managed to save the old woman and her family from hunger and cold.

The author creates an ironic aura of mystery over the “mysterious plan of the genius of thought” of Ivan Ivanovich. And the plan turns out to be simple: drag the debtor to the police in any way, put him in an awkward position, so that the police “at the same time” serve a summons.

The image of a dandy is presented little by little in small details. He is a complete egoist, who is not touched by tears or pleas. Money and connections have left nothing of morality in him; he only intends to have fun and live at the expense of others. The only way to influence a dandy is to publicly interfere with his plans. So is his rich mistress, who ran away at the beginning of the fight at the station.

The image of the narrator was mentioned above. The image of the “Serbian fighter”, a hooligan and a drinker, also turns out to be positive in the story. After all, he is the “executor of the plan” to save the old woman. This soldier has his own ideas about justice. Driving to once again to start a fight, he assures the old woman that everything will be “honest and noble.”

Also in the story there is a composite image of officials without names. Leskov very sharply and ironically showed the typical shortcomings of this class. This is uselessness and reluctance to use existing power, or laziness and cowardice to use it, as well as idle talk.

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Analysis of N. Leskov’s story “Old Genius”

The plot of Nikolai Leskov’s story “The Old Genius” is based on a situation that, unfortunately, is typical both for Russia of the 19th century and for Russia today. A rich dandy deceived an old woman by not paying her debt, and now her house is being taken away from her. Officials do not protect the old woman, the debtor has too many connections. Although the old woman is right according to the law, an “insurmountable obstacle” arises where you just need to find the debtor and serve him with the court paper.

Composition of the work by N. Leskov

“Old Genius” is built on the stories she told herself to the observer. Artistic techniques include irony and sarcasm, sometimes creating the effect of tragicomedy. The author acts as a narrator in the work, creating his own image of a person who sympathizes with the old woman, gives her some money, but also does not believe that she will achieve the truth.

The idea of N. Leskov’s story “Old Genius” is the defenselessness of a weak person before people in power in a bureaucratic

state. Also the idea of the story is Leskov’s idea that if the Law does not protect citizens, the Law is violated. Citizens have to act on their own, and cunning people like the “old genius” have their share of this.

Images from N. Leskov’s story “The Old Genius”:

The image of the “old genius”: this is a “dark personality”. One can speak about his genius only with a bit of irony. This is a cunning and experienced man, a former official. He just figured out how to catch swindlers, whom neither the Law nor conscience can influence. He “pushed the old woman’s offender to the wall” with a public scandal at the station and a report to the police, which prevented the debtor from going abroad with his mistress. The image of Ivan Ivanovich in the story is positive, because only this rascal managed to save the old woman and her family from hunger and Cold.

The image of the narrator was mentioned above. The image of the “Serbian fighter”, a hooligan and a drinker, also turns out to be positive in the story. After all, he is the “executor of the plan” to save the old woman. This soldier has his own ideas about justice. On his way to start a fight once again, he assures the old woman that everything will be “honest and noble.”

Brief Analysis

Year of writing- 1884

History of creation- Nikolai Semenovich was prompted to write the work by the feeling that good and honest things are dying in the world, nobility is no longer in fashion. To show the consequences of this, the author created a laconic story in 1884.

Subject- In the work we can distinguish two central themes – « little man"in a world entangled in networks of deception and righteousness.

Composition- The composition of the story is simple. Plot elements are located in correct sequence. All events are concentrated around the debts of the cheerful dandy and the old landowner.

Genre- Story.

Direction- Realism.

History of creation

N. Leskov wrote “The Old Genius” in 1884. It is known that Nikolai Semenovich always fought against injustice, which is reflected in the analyzed work. For the first time it saw the world on the pages humor magazine“Fragments” in the same 1884. Reviews from contemporaries indicate that critics received the story positively.

Subject

The analyzed work displayed motives traditional for world literature. However, the author managed to present them in the spirit of his time, which gives the plot originality and special flavor.

At the center of the work are two main topics- “little man” in a world entangled in networks of deception; righteousness. These themes allowed us to formulate issues, which remains relevant in our time: selfishness, lack of rights, irresponsibility and impunity, nepotism and cronyism, generosity. Thus, the story reveals both moral and social problems.

Image system unbranched. The main role is played by the old landowner, Ivan Ivanovich, the dandy, minor characters- storyteller and “Serbian fighter”.

At the beginning of the work, it tells how an old landowner lent 15 thousand rubles to her friend’s son several years ago. He was a famous St. Petersburg dandy. The young man is used to living at other people's expense. He was in debt to half of St. Petersburg. The guy is in no hurry to give the money, and the old woman is threatened with poverty.

Fortunately for the heroine, there is a person ready to help her trouble. This is Ivan Ivanovich, a businessman known in the area for his extraordinary intelligence. The man introduced himself to the landowner as a “genius.” The woman’s situation was hopeless, so she trusted the businessman. And he lived up to expectations. The criminal was detained and had to repay the debt.

Meaning of the name begins to unfold in the episode of the old woman’s acquaintance with Ivan Ivanovich. Having read the work to the end, we can conclude that the title not only indicates one of the main characters, but also subtly hints at his positive qualities, which the reader should cultivate in himself.

Idea story - to show what excessive gullibility can lead to, to condemn people who are trying to profit from others.

Main idea: any injustice will be punished sooner or later. To be noble, to help others, this is what the author of the story teaches.

Composition

In “The Old Genius” the analysis should be continued by characterizing the composition. The organization of the story is simple. Plot elements are arranged in the correct sequence. All events are concentrated around the debts of the cheerful dandy and the old landowner. The plot is presented in such a way as to push the reader to the necessary conclusions.

Main characters

Genre

The genre of the work is a story, as evidenced by the following signs: small volume, main role plays storyline old landowners, there are only three main characters. The direction of the story “Old Genius” is realism, since it describes true events.

Writer Nikolai Semenovich Leskov became famous not only because of his writing talent and expressive speech, but also thanks to a deep understanding of the life of the Russian people. Knowledge of needs and problems ordinary people was reflected in all the writer’s works.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov

For example, in the story "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"The author describes the fate of a desperate Russian woman who, for the sake of her love, committed murder. In the story “The Man on the Clock,” the writer talks about how far the moral principles of man and the laws prevailing in society are from each other. Works by N.S. Leskov have different issues, but a number of issues raised in them remain relevant even now. One such problem is bureaucracy. She is the one who occupies leading place in the story "Old Genius".

According to the plot of the work, one old woman found herself in a difficult situation. Out of her kindness, trying to help a rich dandy from a noble family with money, she mortgaged her own house. But the dandy did not return the money, and the old woman had to go to St. Petersburg because of the threat of ending up on the street with her sick daughter and little granddaughter. But even there, justice did not triumph, since the representatives of the law did not want to punish the noble man. As a result, only the “Old Genius” was able to solve the problem, although he used a not entirely legal method for this.

The question arises: who is to blame for what happened? Can we blame the old lady for being naive? On the one hand, no. Kindness and compassion are high human qualities, for which there is no way to judge. But on the other hand, the main reason for the old lady’s sympathy for the dandy was the nobility of his origin.

Leskov skillfully ridicules this quality inherent in the Russian people. He understands what it is big problem, which needs to be solved, since similar cases- is far from uncommon. Therefore, both the old woman and the officials, who sincerely sympathize with the victim, but do nothing, fearing the dandy, are to blame for this situation. But the dandy himself is also to blame. Little is known about him: he is a man from a good family, rich, lives in his wife’s house, goes to a club and rents expensive rooms. But the way he treated the landowner is reprehensible. Taking the last piece of bread from an unhappy family, while you yourself have the means, is despicable. Such a person is not sympathetic, but the kind old lady saw something good in him. However, why did he become like this? The answer is simple - society is to blame.

The work says that no one asked him to repay his debts, since this man was overly respected and feared. Perhaps at first the dandy was honest, but then, noticing the attitude of those around him, he forgot about morality and began to live exclusively for himself. Of course, one cannot ignore the character of a person and his personal qualities, but Leskov’s work is satirical, therefore higher value given to factors influencing a person.

A bureaucratic society cannot cope with its tasks. In it, criminal actions are more just than the law. Leskov writes about this at the end of his work. Society either produces people with a subservient mindset, who are in awe of the law and higher ranks, or those who are confident that their actions will go unpunished.

Thus, the main culprit for what happened is a society based on bureaucracy, since it was this that became one of the reasons for the appearance of people like the dandy. And Leskov brilliantly managed to show this.

The story “The Old Genius” was written by Leskov in 1984, published in the magazine “Oskolki” for 1884 (No. 4 and 5) and reprinted in the collection “ Yuletide Stories" Suddenly successful outcome The heroine's deeds and unashamed kindness make the story a typical Christmas one.

Literary direction and genre

Leskov is a writer of a realistic direction. The story is written according to the canons of this genre. The author expresses his attitude towards the characters and events taking place in short period time. The psychology of the characters is important in the story and social reasons their actions.

At the same time, the story is dynamic, which is typical for a short story, it consists of 5 tiny chapters, although it itself takes up 8 pages. The ending of the story is optimistic, completely unexpected and incredible, which also brings it closer to the novel.

Topic and issues

The theme of the story is how honest man can still achieve justice in an unjust state.

The story raises the problem of the imperfection of Russian laws and judicial system, the problem of hypocrisy and resourcefulness of aristocrats and officials, the problem of the “little man”.

Plot and composition

The title of the story is ironic and ambiguous. The epigraph of the French thinker and moralist La Rochefoucauld sets the reader up with a story about an elderly man who solved some problem thanks to his genius. The genius is indeed elderly, but it is not his age that matters. The epithet “old” is used more in the sense of “old as the world,” and the word “genius” is also applicable to a resourceful gentleman who never repays debts. He is the sage for whom “simplicity is enough.” But the reader learns about the meaning inherent in the title at the end of the story.

The story is divided into 5 parts. In the first, an old woman deceived by a high-society dandy goes to St. Petersburg to demand a debt from him. The second reveals the essence of the Russian judicial system and its laws. Despite the quick and favorable decision of the court, no one “dared” to collect from the debtor, who had strong patrons. In the third part, the old woman finds a man who claims that “there is no impossibility in Russia” and undertakes to solve her problem for 500 rubles (a lot of money, because the entire debt was 15 thousand).

The fourth part describes the hesitations of an old woman who learned that her debtor was going abroad for a long time, and who was afraid to give 500 rubles to an unknown genius. The fifth part is the denouement, a story about a clever plan of a genius that made it possible to force the debtor to immediately write a check. The image of a Serbian fighter (that is, a participant in the war between Serbia and Turkey) is a symbol of that directness and simplicity that defeats cunning and resourcefulness.

The last paragraph of the story explains what the author meant by the concept of “old genius”.

Heroes and images

The main character is an old landowner, whose qualities - kindness and simplicity - became the reason why she was deceived by a high-society dandy.

The old lady is gullible and judges the dandy by the fact that he belongs to one of the best names. A brilliant career awaits him, he has big income and a good salary. The old woman acts generously, mortgaging the house and giving 15 thousand to help the St. Petersburg gentleman in the name of an old friendship with her mother.

The old woman is the widow of an official of rank 14 (the lowest in Russia). She owned a small house and had a crippled daughter and granddaughter in her arms. The old woman is determined and persistent, achieves a successful court decision and continues her troubles.

The old woman does not doubt for a second the victory of goodness and justice and is not satisfied with the consolation that others who were deceived will also not see their money. She is simple-minded in the biblical sense, she wants it to be good for herself and everyone else. For a long time, the old woman does not believe that her debtor, whose condition makes it easy to repay the debt, simply does not want to pay, because “he is tired, but he is a good person.”

The old woman, by nature, is not inclined to adventure, but unwittingly finds herself drawn into a bad story, so that she is even brought to justice for disturbing the order in a public place. And yet the heroine is not as simple as she seems. She bribes the servants in the offender's house and knows about all his plans. It was thanks to this that the incident at the station became possible.

The heroine takes decisive action and trusts the genius only after the situation becomes hopeless: the old woman’s house goes on sale, and the debtor and the rich lady go abroad, perhaps forever. She trusts genius and her intuition, without being able to explain to the narrator why.

Perhaps the old woman believes both the dandy and the genius because the narrator herself characterizes her as "a woman of beautiful honesty".

The high society dandy is a typical representative of the St. Petersburg aristocracy. Losing money and borrowing without intending to give it back is a common thing for such a person. He is inaccessible to the law, because no one will dare to take a receipt from him for the delivery of the paper. The reason for everything is the kinship or quality of this gentleman.

The gentleman does not repay the debt simply because he is not used to paying. This is how Leskov explains the nature of the wealth of the Russian aristocracy. But the gentleman is also dangerous for own benefactor, because it can cause trouble to someone who will bother him very much.

The master is hated by the authorities, by his creditors, and by his own wife. He lives in fear of creditors, “constantly looking around at everyone.” He is forced to repay his debt to the old lady, “to free yourself from obligations not to leave”.

Old genius - "ancient official", "desperate doc" having "rank of 14 sheepskins", who undertook to hand over the paper to the debtor for 500 rubles.

He has no recommendations that he neglects. The old woman turns to his help out of despair. However, a genius knows his worth, asks for "brilliant thoughts in your forehead" 200 rubles, but 300 promises "executive hero", who can serve 3 months in prison for execution.

The old genius takes on only impossible tasks, his pay is modest (in comparison with the 3 thousand that the old woman promised others). He loves his job and pesters the old lady himself.

The image of the narrator reflects the author's attitude to the events taking place. The narrator tries to be objective when telling the story of the old woman. He questions the impossibility of fair punishment for the debtor, which is reflected in the words: “I don’t know for sure about the strength and significance of these connections”, “I also don’t know how to tell you exactly”.

The narrator is a soft and impractical person. He himself does not know how to conduct business, so he cannot give advice to the old woman, but only sympathizes. He gives her the missing one and a half hundred rubles, without even hoping to get them back, thinking only about helping his neighbor.

The story does not indicate which authorities the old woman contacted. The author names officials "questioned". They blame the old woman herself: “Why did you know such people”, “why did you give him money”. Russian law is on the side of the nosy gentleman. The house is not his, but his wife’s, who also complained about him to the court. The authorities unanimously claim that they do not protect him, that they do not feel sorry for him and they dream of punishing the cunning man.

Artistic originality

The language of the story is laconic and precise, even the tropes are not a means of decorating speech, but a means of accurately expressing thoughts. For example, the old woman, having received 150 rubles from the narrator, “sailed off to her desperate businessman.” The narrator accurately describes the movements of the determined woman.

The speech of the heroes and the narrator is replete with proverbs and aphorisms: “No matter what grandmother told him a fortune and offered everything to his mercy”; “Those who have a lot never have enough, but never have enough”; “He’s a good gentleman, but he’s bad at paying”; “There is no impossibility in Russia”; “Whoever does not have faith has nothing to do with him”; “Now 500 rubles on the table, and tomorrow your soul will be free”.