Recently the BBC showed a series based on Tolstoy's War and Peace. In the West, everything is the same as here - there, too, the release of film (television) adaptations sharply increases interest in the literary source. And then Lev Nikolayevich’s masterpiece suddenly became one of the bestsellers, and with it, readers became interested in all of Russian literature. On this wave, the popular literary website Literary Hub published an article “The 10 Russian Literary Heroines You Should Know.” It seemed to me that this was an interesting look from the outside at our classics and I translated the article for my blog. I'm posting it here too. Illustrations taken from the original article.
Attention! The text contains spoilers.
_______________________________________________________
We know that all happy heroines are equally happy, and each unhappy heroine is unhappy in her own way. But the fact is that in Russian literature there is little happy characters. Russian heroines tend to complicate their lives. This is how it should be, because their beauty is like literary characters largely stems from their ability to suffer, from their tragic destinies, from their “Russianness.”
The most important thing to understand about Russian female characters is that their destinies are not stories of overcoming obstacles to achieve “and they lived happily ever after.” Guardians of primordial Russian values, they know that there is more to life than happiness.
1. Tatyana Larina (A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”)
In the beginning there was Tatiana. This is a kind of Eve of Russian literature. And not only because it is chronologically the first, but also because Pushkin occupies a special place in Russian hearts. Almost any Russian is able to recite the poems of the father of Russian literature by heart (and after a few shots of vodka, many will do this). Pushkin's masterpiece, the poem "Eugene Onegin", is the story not only of Onegin, but also of Tatyana, a young innocent girl from the provinces who falls in love with the main character. Unlike Onegin, who is shown as a cynical bon vivant corrupted by fashionable European values, Tatyana embodies the essence and purity of the mysterious Russian soul. Including a tendency towards self-sacrifice and disregard for happiness, which shows her known failure from the man she loves.
2. Anna Karenina (L.N. Tolstoy “Anna Karenina”)
Unlike Pushkin's Tatyana, who resists the temptation to get along with Onegin, Tolstoy's Anna leaves both her husband and son to run away with Vronsky. Like a true dramatic heroine, Anna voluntarily does not right choice, a choice for which she will have to pay. Anna's sin and its source tragic fate not that she left the child, but that, selfishly indulging her sexual and romantic desires, she forgot Tatyana’s lesson of selflessness. If you see light at the end of the tunnel, don't be fooled, it could be a train.
3. Sonya Marmeladova (F.M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”)
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Sonya appears as the antipode of Raskolnikov. A whore and a saint at the same time, Sonya accepts her existence as a path of martyrdom. Having learned about Raskolnikov's crime, she does not push him away, on the contrary, she attracts him to her in order to save his soul. Characteristic here is the famous scene when they read biblical story about the resurrection of Lazarus. Sonya is able to forgive Raskolnikov, because she believes that everyone is equal before God, and God forgives. For a repentant killer, this is a real find.
4. Natalia Rostova (L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)
Natalya is everyone's dream: smart, funny, sincere. But if Pushkin's Tatiana is too good to be true, Natalya seems alive, real. Partly because Tolstoy complemented her image with other qualities: she is capricious, naive, flirtatious and, for the morals of the early 19th century, a little impudent. In War and Peace, Natalya starts out as a charming teenager, exuding joy and vitality. Over the course of the novel, she grows older, learns life lessons, tames her fickle heart, becomes wiser, and her character gains integrity. And this woman, which is generally uncharacteristic of Russian heroines, is still smiling after more than a thousand pages.
5. Irina Prozorova (A.P. Chekhov “Three Sisters”)
At the beginning of Chekhov's play Three Sisters, Irina is the youngest and full of hope. Her older brother and sisters are whiny and capricious, they are tired of life in the provinces, and Irina’s naive soul is filled with optimism. She dreams of returning to Moscow, where, in her opinion, she will find her true love and she will be happy. But as the chance to move to Moscow evaporates, she becomes increasingly aware that she is stuck in the village and losing her spark. Through Irina and her sisters, Chekhov shows us that life is just a series of sad moments, only occasionally punctuated by short bursts of joy. Like Irina, we waste our time on trifles, dreaming of a better future, but gradually we understand the insignificance of our existence.
6. Lisa Kalitina (I.S. Turgenev “The Noble Nest”)
In the novel “The Noble Nest” Turgenev created a model of a Russian heroine. Lisa is young, naive, pure in heart. She is torn between two suitors: a young, handsome, cheerful officer and an old, sad, married man. Guess who she chose? Lisa's choice says a lot about the mysterious Russian soul. She is clearly heading towards suffering. Lisa's choice shows that the desire for sadness and melancholy is no worse than any other option. At the end of the story, Lisa becomes disillusioned with love and goes to a monastery, choosing the path of sacrifice and deprivation. “Happiness is not for me,” she explains her action. “Even when I hoped for happiness, my heart was always heavy.”
7. Margarita (M. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”)
Chronologically last on the list, Bulgakov's Margarita is an extremely strange heroine. At the beginning of the novel, she is an unhappily married woman, then she becomes the Master’s mistress and muse, and then turns into a witch flying on a broomstick. For Master Margarita, this is not only a source of inspiration. She becomes, like Sonya for Raskolnikov, his healer, lover, savior. When the Master finds himself in trouble, Margarita turns to none other than Satan himself for help. Having concluded, like Faust, a contract with the Devil, she is still reunited with her lover, albeit not entirely in this world.
8. Olga Semyonova (A.P. Chekhov “Darling”)
In "Darling" Chekhov tells the story of Olga Semyonova, a loving and gentle soul, common man who is said to live by love. Olga becomes a widow early. Twice. When there is no one nearby to love, she withdraws into the company of a cat. In his review of “Darling,” Tolstoy wrote that, intending to make fun of a narrow-minded woman, Chekhov accidentally created a very likable character. Tolstoy went even further; he condemned Chekhov for his overly harsh attitude towards Olga, calling for her soul to be judged, not her intellect. According to Tolstoy, Olga embodies the ability of Russian women to love unconditionally, a virtue unknown to men.
9. Anna Sergeevna Odintsova (I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”)
In the novel “Fathers and Sons” (often incorrectly translated “Fathers and Sons”), Mrs. Odintsova is a lonely woman of mature age; the sound of her surname in Russian also hints at loneliness. Odintsova is an atypical heroine who has become a kind of pioneer among female literary characters. Unlike other women in the novel, who follow the obligations imposed on them by society, Mrs. Odintsova is childless, she has no mother and no husband (she is a widow). She stubbornly defends her independence, like Pushkin's Tatiana, refusing the only chance to find true love.
10. Nastasya Filippovna (F.M. Dostoevsky “The Idiot”)
The heroine of “The Idiot” Nastasya Filippovna gives an idea of how complex Dostoevsky is. Beauty makes her a victim. Orphaned as a child, Nastasya becomes a kept woman and the mistress of the elderly man who took her in. But every time she tries to escape the clutches of her situation and create her own destiny, she continues to feel humiliated. Guilt casts a fatal shadow on all her decisions. According to tradition, like many other Russian heroines, Nastasya has several fate options, associated mainly with men. And in full accordance with tradition, she is not able to make the right choice. By submitting to fate instead of fighting, the heroine drifts towards her tragic end.
_____________________________________________________
The author of this text is writer and diplomat Guillermo Herades. He worked in Russia for some time, knows Russian literature well, is a fan of Chekhov and the author of the book Back to Moscow. So this look is not entirely outsider. On the other hand, how to write about Russian literary heroines without knowing Russian classics?
Guillermo does not explain his choice of characters in any way. In my opinion, the absence of Princess Mary or “ poor Lisa"(which, by the way, was written earlier than Pushkin's Tatiana) and Katerina Kabanova (from Ostrosky's The Thunderstorm). It seems to me that these Russian literary heroines are better known among us than Liza Kalitina or Olga Semyonova. However, this is my subjective opinion. Who would you add to this list?
In literary works, images of people, and in some cases their likenesses: humanized animals, plants (“Attalea princeps” by V.M. Garshin) and things (a fairy-tale hut on chicken legs) are invariably present and, as a rule, fall into the spotlight of readers’ attention. . Exist different shapes human presence in literary works. This is the narrator-storyteller, lyrical hero and a character capable of revealing a person with the utmost fullness and breadth.
This term is taken from French and is of Latin origin. The ancient Romans used the word “persona” to designate the mask worn by an actor and, later, the face depicted in a work of art.
The phrases “literary hero” and “character” are now used as synonyms for this term. However, these expressions also carry additional meanings: the word “hero” emphasizes the positive role, brightness, unusualness, and exclusivity of the person portrayed, and the phrase “character”—the fact that the character manifests himself primarily in the performance of actions.
A character is either the fruit of the writer’s pure invention (Gulliver and the Lilliputians by J. Swift; Major Kovalev, who lost his nose, by N.V. Gogol) or the result of conjecture on the appearance of a real-life person (whether historical figures or people biographically close to the writer, or even himself); or, finally, the result of processing and completing already known literary heroes, such as, say, Don Juan or Faust.
Along with literary heroes as human individuals, sometimes group, collective characters turn out to be very significant (the crowd in the square in several scenes of “Boris Godunov” by A. S. Pushkin, testifying to and expressing the people’s opinion).
The character seems to have a dual nature. Firstly, he is the subject of the depicted action, the stimulus for the unfolding of events that make up the plot. It was from this side that V.Ya approached the character sphere. Propp in his worldwide famous work"Morphology of a Fairy Tale" (1928). The scientist spoke about fairy-tale heroes as bearers of certain functions in the plot and emphasized that the persons depicted in fairy tales are significant primarily as factors in the movement of event series. A character as an actor is often designated by the term actant (Latin: acting).
Secondly, and this is perhaps the main thing, the character has an independent significance in the composition of the work, independent of the plot (event series): he acts as a bearer of stable and stable (sometimes, however, undergoing changes) properties, traits, qualities.
Characters are characterized by the actions they perform (almost primarily), as well as forms of behavior and communication (for it is not only what a person does that is significant, but also how he behaves), appearance and close surroundings (in particular - belonging to the hero things), thoughts, feelings, intentions.
And all these manifestations of man in a literary work (as in real life) have a certain resultant - a kind of center, which M.M. Bakhtin called the core of personality, A.A. Ukhtomsky - a dominant determined by a person’s initial intuitions.
The phrase value orientation is widely used to denote the stable core of people’s consciousness and behavior. “There is not a single culture,” wrote E. Fromm, “that could do without a system value orientations or coordinates." The scientist continued, “every individual has these orientations.”
Value orientations (they can also be called life positions) are very heterogeneous and multifaceted. The consciousness and behavior of people can be directed towards religious and moral, strictly moral, cognitive, and aesthetic values. They are also associated with the sphere of instincts, with bodily life and the satisfaction of physical needs, with the desire for fame, authority, and power.
Positions and orientations of both real and fictional writers individuals often take the form of ideas and life programs. These are the “ideological heroes” (M. M. Bakhtin’s term) in romantic and post-romantic literature. But value orientations are often non-rational, immediate, intuitive, determined by the very nature of people and the tradition in which they are rooted. Let us remember Lermontov’s Maxim Maksimych, who did not like “metaphysical debates,” or Tolstoy’s Natasha Rostova, who “did not deign to be smart.”
Heroes of literature different countries and eras are infinitely diverse. At the same time, in the character sphere there is a clear repetition associated with the genre of the work and, more importantly, with the value orientations of the characters. There are a kind of literary “supertypes” - supra-epochal and international.
There are few such supertypes. As noted by M.M. Bakhtin and (following him) E.M. Meletinsky, for many centuries and even millennia, artistic literature has been dominated by an adventurous and heroic person who firmly believes in his own strength, in his initiative, in the ability to achieve his goal.
He reveals his essence in active search and decisive struggle, in adventures and accomplishments, and lives with the idea of its special mission, of its own exclusivity and invulnerability. We find succinct and apt formulas for the life positions of such heroes in a number of literary works. For example: “When you can help yourself, / Why cry out to heaven? / We have been given a choice. Those who dare are right;/ He who is weak in spirit will not achieve his goal./ “Unachievable!” - this is what only he says / Who hesitates, hesitates and waits” (W. Shakespeare. “The end is the crown of the matter.” Translation by M. Donskoy). “Under the hood, I thought about my brave plan, preparing a miracle for the world,” Pushkin’s Grigory Otrepiev tells about himself. And in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” the devil expressed Ivan’s innermost thoughts: “Where I stand, there will immediately be first place.”
Characters belonging to the adventurous-heroic supertype strive for fame, long to be loved, have the will to “eliminate the fabulism of life,” that is, they tend to actively participate in changing situations in life, fight, achieve, and win. An adventurous heroic character is a kind of chosen one or an impostor, whose energy and strength are realized in the desire to achieve some external goals.
The scope of these goals is very wide: from serving the people, society, humanity to selfishly willful and self-affirmation that knows no boundaries, associated with cunning tricks, deception, and sometimes with crimes and atrocities (remember Shakespeare's Macbeth and his wife). The characters of the heroic epic gravitate towards the first “pole”.
Such is the brave and prudent, generous and pious Aeneas in the world-famous poem of Virgil. Faithful to his duty to his native Troy and his historical mission, he, in the words of T. S. Elist, “from his first to his last breath” is a “man of destiny”: not an adventurer, not an intriguer, not a tramp, not a careerist - he fulfills what is destined for him fate, not by force or random decree, and certainly not out of a thirst for glory, but because he subordinated his will to a certain supreme authority great goal" (meaning the founding of Rome).
In a number of other epics, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, the heroic deeds of the characters are combined with their self-will and adventurism (a similar combination in Prometheus, which, however, for many centuries became a symbol of sacrificial service to people).
Much has been said about the essence of the heroic. The concept of adventurism (adventurism) in relation to literature is much less understood. MM. Bakhtin associated the adventurous beginning with the solution of problems dictated by “eternal human nature - self-preservation, the thirst for victory and triumph, the thirst for possession, sensual love.”
In addition to this, we note that adventurism may well be stimulated by a person’s self-sufficiently playful impulses (Kochkarev in N.V. Gogol’s “The Marriage”, Ostap Bender in I. Ilf and V. Petrov), as well as a thirst for power, as in Pushkin’s Grishka Otrepiev and Emelyan Pugacheva.
The adventurous-heroic supertype, embodying the striving for the new, at all costs (i.e., the dynamic, fermenting, exciting beginning of the human world), is represented by verbal and artistic works in various modifications, one not similar to the other.
Firstly, these are the gods of historically early myths and folk-epic heroes inheriting their features from Arjuna (the Indian “Mahabharata”), Achilles, Odysseus, Ilya of Murom to Till Eulenspiegel and Taras Bulba, invariably exalted and poeticized.
In the same row are the central figures of medieval chivalric romances and their similarities in literature last centuries what are detective characters like? science fiction, adventure works for youth, and sometimes “great” literature (remember Ruslan and the young Dubrovsky in Pushkin, the hero of E. Rostand’s play “Cyrano de Bergerac”, Lancelot from “Dragon” by E. Schwartz).
Secondly, these are romantically minded rebels and spiritual wanderers in literature XIX-XX centuries - be it Goethe’s Faust, Byron’s Cain, Lermontov’s Demon, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, or (in another, down-to-earth variation) such ideological heroes as Onegin, Pechorin, Beltov, Raskolnikov, Orestes (“The Flies” by J.-P. Sartre).
The named characters (Zarathustra is a significant exception) are, as it were, half-heroes, or even anti-heroes, such as, for example, the central character of Notes from Underground and F.M.’s Stavrogin. Dostoevsky. In the appearance and destinies of the characters of this, so to speak, “demonic” series, the futility of intellectual and other adventurism, devoid of connections with morality and cultural tradition great historical time.
Thirdly, the heroic-adventurous principle is to some extent involved in romantically minded characters who are alien to any demonism, believe that their soul is beautiful, and are eager to realize their rich potential, considering themselves to be some kind of chosen ones and lights. This kind of orientation in the coverage of writers, as a rule, is internally crisis-ridden, full of sad drama, and leads to dead ends and disasters.
According to Hegel, “the new knights are predominantly young men who have to fight their way through the worldly cycle that takes place instead of their ideals.” Such heroes, the German philosopher continues, “consider it a misfortune” that the facts of prosaic reality “cruelly oppose their ideals and the infinite law of the heart”: they believe that “it is necessary to make a hole in this order of things, to change, improve the world, or at least , in spite of him, to create a heavenly corner on earth.”
Characters of this kind (remember Goethe’s Werther, Pushkin’s Lensky, Goncharov’s Aduev Jr., Chekhov's characters) are not heroes in the full sense of the word. Their lofty thoughts and noble impulses turn out to be illusory and futile; romantically inclined characters suffer defeats, suffer, die, or over time come to terms with the “base prose” of existence and become philistines, or even careerists. “Hero,” notes G.K. Kosikov, based on the writing experience of Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, becomes a bearer of ideal and degradation at the same time.”
Thus, the hero of romantic and post-romantic literature (both in his “demonic” and “beautiful” varieties), while maintaining his involvement in the adventurous-heroic supertype (an aura of his own exclusivity, the will to large-scale acquisitions and accomplishments), at the same time appeared as a symptom and evidence of the cultural and historical crisis and even exhaustion of this supertype.
Among the characters belonging to this supertype, fourthly, we find adventurers themselves, even less heroic than those listed above. From the tricksters of early myths, threads stretch to the characters of medieval and Renaissance short stories, as well as adventure novels. The critical reinterpretation of adventurism in the literature of the New Age is significant, most clearly in the works about Don Juan (starting with Tirso de Molina and Moliere).
The images of place-seekers in high society, careerists in the novels of O. de Balzac, Stendhal, Guy de Maupassant. Hermann in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades,” Gogol’s Chichikov, Dostoevsky’s Rakitin and Pyotr Verkhovensky, Tolstoy’s Boris Drubetskoy are in the same row. In other, also very different variations (and far from being apologetic), the type of adventurer is captured in such literary figures of our century as Felix Krul in T. Mann, the famous Ostap Bender of Ilf and Petrov, and the much less popular Komarovsky in Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago.
A completely different, one might say, polar to the adventurous-heroic “supertype” is revealed in medieval hagiographies and those works (including eras close to us) that, to a greater or lesser extent, directly or indirectly, inherit the hagiographic tradition or are akin to it.
This supertype can rightfully be called hagiographic-idyllic. The kinship of hagiographic holiness and idyllic values is clearly evidenced by the famous “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” where “the halo of holiness surrounds not the ascetic monastic life, but the ideal married life in the world and the wise sovereign governance of one’s principality.
Characters of this kind are not involved in any struggle for success. They reside in a reality free from the polarization of successes and failures, victories and defeats, and in times of trials they are able to show perseverance, avoiding temptations and dead ends of despair (which is confirmed by the words about one of Shakespeare’s heroes who suffered injustice: he has the gift of translating “into the meek, clear mood of fate, severity" - "As you like it"). Even being prone to mental reflection, characters of this kind (for example, Leskov’s Savely Tuberozov) continue to reside in a world of axioms and indisputable truths, rather than deep-seated doubts and insoluble problems.
Spiritual fluctuations in their lives are either absent or turn out to be short-term and, most importantly, completely surmountable (remember: Alyosha Karamazov’s “strange and uncertain moment” after the death of Elder Zosima), although these people are prone to repentant moods. Here there are firm attitudes of consciousness and behavior: what is commonly called loyalty to moral principles.
Such characters are rooted in a close reality with its joys and sorrows, communication skills and everyday activities. They are open to the world around them, capable of loving and being friendly to everyone else, ready for the role of “communication and communication workers” (M.M. Prishvin). They, using the terminology of A.A. Ukhtomsky, is characterized by “dominance to another person.”
In Russian literary classics of the 19th-20th centuries. The hagiographic-idyllic supertype is presented very vividly and widely. Here is Tatiana of the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”, and the “group portrait” of the Grinevs and Mironovs in “The Captain’s Daughter”, and Prince Guidon (“The Tale of Tsar Saltan”), who did not need to go far away in search of happiness.
In post-Pushkin literature, this is Maxim Maksimych M.Yu. Lermontov, characters family chronicles of S.T. Aksakova, old-world landowners N.V. Gogol, the characters of “Family Happiness”, Rostov and Levin by L.N. Tolstoy, Prince Myshkin and Makar Ivanovich, Tikhon and Zosima by F.M. Dostoevsky.
One could also name many heroes of A.N. Ostrovsky, I.A. Goncharova, N.A. Nekrasova, I.S. Turgeneva, A.P. Chekhov. In the same row - Turbines at M.A. Bulgakov, the hero and heroine of the story “Fro” by A.P. Platonova, Matryona A.I. Solzhenitsyn, a number of characters in our “village” prose (for example, Ivan Afrikanovich in “A Habitual Business” by V.I. Belov, the hero of the story “Alyosha Beskonvoyny” by V.M. Shukshin).
Turning to the Russian diaspora, let's call the prose of B.K. Zaitsev and I.S. Shmelev (in particular, Gorkin from “The Summer of the Lord” and “Politics”). In the literature of other countries, such persons are deeply significant in Charles Dickens, and in our century - in the tragic novels and stories of W. Faulkner.
The origins of the hagiographic-idyllic supertype are the characters of the ancient Greek myth Philemon and Baucis, who were awarded by the gods for loyalty in love for each other, for kindness and hospitality: their hut turned into a temple, and they themselves were granted longevity and simultaneous death.
From here threads stretch to the idylls of Theocritus, Virgil’s “Bucolics” and “Georgics”, the idyll novel “Daphnis and Chloe” by Long, to Ovid, who directly turned to the myth of Philemon and Baucis, and - after many centuries - to I.V. Goethe (the corresponding episode of the second part of Faust, as well as the poem “Herman and Dorothea”). The origins of the “supertype” under consideration are a myth not about gods, but about people, about the human in man (but not the human-divine, if we resort to vocabulary characteristic of the beginning of the Russian 20th century).
The hagiographic-idyllic supertype was also outlined by the didactic epic of Hesiod. In "Works and Days" Homer's apology for military prowess, booty and glory was rejected, everyday common sense and peaceful peasant labor were praised, good behavior in the family and the moral order, which is based on folk legend and experiences captured in proverbs and fables.
The world of the characters in the series under consideration was also preceded by ancient Greek symposia, which gave rise to the tradition of friendly mental conversation. In this regard, the figure of Socrates is important as real personality and as the hero of Plato’s dialogues, where the great thinker of antiquity appears as the initiator and leading participant in peaceful and confidential conversations, often accompanied by friendly smiles. The most striking dialogue in this regard is the Phaedo, about the last hours of the philosopher’s life.
In the formation of the hagiographic-idyllic supertype, the fairy tale also played its role with its interest in what is valuable in the implicit and formless, be it the stepdaughter Cinderella or Ivanushka the Fool, or good wizard, whose features are possessed by the scribe-sage Prospero from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.
Heroes of a hagiographical-idyllic orientation are characterized by non-alienation from reality and involvement in the environment; their behavior is creative in the presence of “kindred attention” to the world (M.M. Prishvin). Apparently, there is reason to talk about a trend in the development of literature: from positive coverage of adventurous-heroic orientations to their critical presentation and to an increasingly clear understanding and figurative embodiment of hagiographic and idyllic values.
This trend, in particular, was reflected with classical clarity in the creative evolution of the speaker. Pushkin (from " Caucasian prisoner" and "Gypsy" to "Belkin's Tales" and "The Captain's Daughter"). It finds justification and explanation in the philosophizing experiments of our century. Thus, the modern German philosopher J. Habermas argues that instrumental action, focused on success, eventually gives way to communicative action aimed at establishing mutual understanding and striving for the unity of people.
Literary characters can appear not only as “bearers” of value orientations, but also as embodiments, of course, negative traits or the focus of trampled, suppressed, failed humanity. The origins of the “negative” supertype, worthy of ridicule and denunciation, passing through the centuries, are the hunchbacked and askew, grumbling and mocking Thersites, the enemy of Achilles and Odysseus, who is described in the Iliad. This is perhaps the first European literature antihero.
This word was introduced into use by F.M. Dostoevsky: “All the traits for an anti-hero are deliberately collected here” (“Notes from the Underground”). Suppressed humanity is embodied in the myth of Sisyphus, doomed to an existence hopelessly painful and meaningless. Here a person has no time for value orientations! Sisyphus as an archetypal figure was considered by A. Camus in his work “The Myth of Sisyphus. An Essay on the Absurd." Named characters ancient greek mythology anticipate much in the literature of later and close eras.
In reality, where there is no place for any human-worthy guidelines and goals, many Russian characters live writers of the XIX in., in particular - N.V. Gogol. Let us remember, for example, the crazy Poprishchin, or Akakiy Akakievich with his greatcoat, or Major Kovalev, who lost his nose.
“The leading Gogol theme,” says S.G. Bocharov, “there was “fragmentation,” historically widely understood as the essence of the entire European modern era, which reached its culmination in the 19th century; the characterization of modern life in all its manifestations as fragmented and fractional extends to man himself.
In Gogol's St. Petersburg stories with the hero-official, a special scale of depiction of a person was established. This scale is such that a person is perceived as a particle and a fractional value (if not “zero,” as the head of the department suggests to Poprishchina).”
The man here, Bocharov continues, speaking about the hero of “The Overcoat,” is “a creature reduced not only to the absolute minimum human existence, values and meanings, but simply to zero of all this”: “Akakiy Akakievich is not just a “little man”. He is, one might say, even “smaller” than a little man, below the most human measure.”
Many characters in “post-Gogol” literature are completely subordinated to lifeless routine, deadened stereotypes of the environment, and are subject to their own selfish motives. They either languish over the monotony and meaninglessness of existence, or they reconcile with it and feel satisfied.
In their world there is present, if not reigns supreme, what Blok called “immense) gray spider-like boredom.” Such is the hero of the story “Ionych” and his numerous similarities in Chekhov, such (in a unique variation) is the atmosphere of a number of Dostoevsky’s works. Let us remember the terrible image that arose in Svidrigailov’s imagination: eternity is like a neglected village bathhouse with spiders.
A person driven (or driven himself) into a dead end of boredom was repeatedly recognized and portrayed by writers as oriented only hedonistically - towards bodily pleasures, as alien to morality, tolerant of evil and prone to its apology.
Baudelaire in Western European literature- Marivaux, Lesage, Prévost, Diderot and de Sade) - hedonism and its flip side, evil) were subjected to careful, varied and impressively bleak analysis.
Speaking about Dostoevsky’s characters as those who preceded the human reality of a number of works of the 20th century. J. Kristeva, not without reason, uses such phrases as “cracked selves”, “split subjects”, bearers of “torn consciousness”.
A person whose value guidelines have been shaken or are completely absent has become an object close attention writers of our century. These are the horrors of F. Kafka, and the theater of the absurd, and images of participants in the mass extermination of people, and the artistic concept of man as a monster, a monstrous creature.
This is (in the most approximate outlines) the character sphere literary work, if you look at it from the perspective of axiology (theory of values).
V.E. Khalizev Theory of literature. 1999
Literary heroes, as a rule, are fiction author. But some of them still have real prototypes who lived at the time of the author, or famous historical figures. We will tell you who these strangers were to a wide circle readers figures.
1. Sherlock Holmes
Even the author himself admitted that Sherlock Holmes has a lot common features with his mentor Joe Bell. On the pages of his autobiography one could read that the writer often recalled his teacher, spoke about his eagle profile, inquisitive mind and amazing intuition. According to him, the doctor could turn any matter into a precise, systematized scientific discipline.
Often Dr. Bell used deductive methods of inquiry. Just by looking at a person alone, he could tell about his habits, his biography, and sometimes even make a diagnosis. After the novel's release Conan Doyle corresponded with the “prototype” of Holmes, and he told him that perhaps this is exactly how his career would have turned out if he had chosen a different path.
2. James Bond
Literary history James Bond began with a series of books that were written by intelligence officer Ian Fleming. The first book in the series, Casino Royale, was published in 1953, a few years after Fleming was assigned to monitor Prince Bernard, who had defected from German service to English intelligence. After much mutual suspicion, the scouts began good friends. Bond took over from Prince Bernard to order a Vodka Martini, adding the legendary “Shaken, not stirred.”
3. Ostap Bender
The man who became the prototype of the great schemer from the “12 chairs” of Ilf and Petrov, at the age of 80, still worked as a conductor on railway on the train from Moscow to Tashkent. Born in Odessa, Ostap Shor was from a young age prone to adventure. He introduced himself either as an artist or as a chess grandmaster, and even acted as a member of one of the anti-Soviet parties.
Only thanks to his remarkable imagination, Ostap Shor managed to return from Moscow to Odessa, where he served in the criminal investigation department and fought against local banditry. This is probably where Ostap Bender’s respectful attitude towards the Criminal Code comes from.
4. Professor Preobrazhensky
Professor Preobrazhensky from the famous Bulgakov novel “ Heart of a Dog"was also real prototype- French surgeon of Russian origin Samuil Abramovich Voronov. This man made a real splash in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century by transplanting monkey glands into humans to rejuvenate the body. The first operations demonstrated a simply amazing effect: elderly patients experienced a resumption of sexual activity, improved memory and vision, ease of movement, and children who were lagging behind mental development, gained mental alertness.
Thousands of people were treated in Voronova, and the doctor himself opened his own monkey nursery on the French Riviera. But very little time passed and the miracle doctor’s patients began to feel worse. Rumors arose that the result of the treatment was just self-hypnosis, and Voronov was called a charlatan.
5. Peter Pan
The boy with the beautiful fairy Tinkerbell was given to the world and to James Barry himself, the author of the written work, by the Davis couple (Arthur and Sylvia). The prototype for Peter Pan was Michael, one of their sons. Fairytale hero received from a real boy not only his age and character, but also nightmares. And the novel itself is a dedication to the author’s brother, David, who died a day before his 14th birthday while ice skating.
6. Dorian Gray
It's a shame, but main character The novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” significantly spoiled the reputation of its real-life original. John Gray, who in his youth was a protégé and close friend of Oscar Wilde, was handsome, rugged, and had the appearance of a 15-year-old boy. But their happy union came to an end when journalists became aware of their relationship. An angry Gray went to court and obtained an apology from the newspaper's editors, but after that his friendship with Wilde ended. Soon John Gray met Andre Raffalovich, a poet and native of Russia. They converted to Catholicism, and after some time Gray became a priest at St. Patrick's Church in Edinburgh.
7. Alice
The story of Alice in Wonderland began on the day Lewis Carroll walked with the daughters of the rector of Oxford University, Henry Lidell, among whom was Alice Lidell. Carroll came up with the story on the fly at the request of the children, but the next time he did not forget about it, he began to compose a sequel. Two years later, the author presented Alice with a manuscript consisting of four chapters, to which was attached a photograph of Alice herself at the age of seven. It was entitled “A Christmas gift to a dear girl in memory of a summer day.”
8. Karabas-Barabas
As you know, Alexei Tolstoy only planned to present Carlo Collodio’s “Pinocchio” in Russian, but it turned out that he wrote an independent story, in which analogies were clearly drawn with cultural figures of that time. Since Tolstoy had no weakness for Meyerhold’s theater and its biomechanics, it was the director of this theater who got the role of Karabas-Barabas. You can guess the parody even in the name: Karabas is the Marquis of Karabas from Perrault’s fairy tale, and Barabas is from the Italian word for swindler - baraba. But the no less telling role of the leech seller Duremar went to Meyerhold’s assistant, who worked under the pseudonym Voldemar Luscinius.
9. Lolita
According to the memoirs of Brian Boyd, a biographer of Vladimir Nabokov, when the writer was working on his scandalous novel Lolita, he regularly looked through newspaper columns that published reports of murder and violence. His attention was drawn to the sensational story of Sally Horner and Frank LaSalle, which occurred in 1948: a middle-aged man kidnapped 12-year-old Sally Horner and kept her with him for almost 2 years until the police found her in a California hotel. Lasalle, like Nabokov’s hero, passed off the girl as his daughter. Nabokov even briefly mentions this incident in the book in the words of Humbert: “Did I do to Dolly the same thing that Frank LaSalle, a 50-year-old mechanic, did to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in ’48?”
10. Carlson
The story of Carlson’s creation is mythologized and incredible. Literary scholars claim that Hermann Goering became a possible prototype of this funny character. And although Astrid Lindgren’s relatives deny this version, such rumors still exist today.
Astrid Lindgren met Goering in the 1920s when he organized air shows in Sweden. At that time, Goering was just “in the prime of his life,” a famous ace pilot, a man with charisma and a wonderful appetite. The motor behind Carlson’s back is an interpretation of Goering’s flying experience.
Supporters of this version note that for some time Astrid Lindgren was an ardent fan of the National Socialist Party of Sweden. The book about Carlson was published in 1955, so there could be no talk of a direct analogy. However, it is possible that the charismatic image of the young Goering influenced the appearance of the charming Carlson.
11. One-Legged John Silver
Robert Louis Stevenson in the novel “Treasure Island” portrayed his friend Williams Hansley not at all as a critic and poet, which he essentially was, but as a real villain. During his childhood, William suffered from tuberculosis and his leg was amputated at the knee. Before the book appeared on store shelves, Stevenson told a friend: “I have to confess to you, Evil on the surface, but kind at heart, John Silver was copied from you. You're not offended, are you?
12. Winnie the Pooh Bear
According to one version, the world-famous teddy bear got its name in honor of the favorite toy of the writer Milne's son Christopher Robin. However, like all the other characters in the book. But in fact, this name comes from the nickname Winnipeg - that was the name of the bear who lived in the London Zoo from 1915 to 1934. This bear had many child fans, including Christopher Robin.
13. Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise
Despite the fact that the main characters in the book are named Sal and Dean, Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road is purely autobiographical. One can only guess why Kerouac abandoned his name in the most famous book for the beatniks.
14. Daisy Buchanan
In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” its author Francis Scott Fitzgerald deeply and soulfully described Ginevra King, his first love. Their romance lasted from 1915 to 1917. But due to different social statuses they separated, after which Fitzgerald wrote that "poor boys should not even think of marrying rich girls." This phrase was included not only in the book, but also in the film of the same name. Ginevra King became the prototype for Isabel Borge in Beyond Paradise and Judy Jones in Winter Dreams.
Especially for those who like to sit up and read. If you choose these books, you will definitely not be disappointed.
“Turgenev Notes of a Hunter” - Large living room. The hunter is a storyteller. The main house is currently. “Orphans do not remain children for long. Brief historical and literary reference. Contents of "Notes of a Hunter". The cycle of stories as a genre concept (cyclization). I didn't have a mother; my mother was like a stepmother to me. Map of the Oryol region. The main theme and idea of "Notes of a Hunter".
“Bazarov and Kirsanov” - Peasantry. Quarrel between P.P. Kirsanov and E. Bazarov. Fathers and Sons. Test based on the novel by I.S. Turgenev. Text assignment. Bazarov. P.P. Kirsanov. Collection of material on heroes. Attitude towards others. Education. Ideological differences between Bazarov and the elder Kirsanovs. Nihilism. Ideological conflict. Main lines of dispute.
“Biryuk” - Beast; lone wolf; unsociable, gloomy person. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Interior. Find in the text and expressively read the description of the forester’s hut. Portrait. What is the interior? What is a portrait? What do they say in the village about Biryuk? Biryuk. What actions does Biryuk perform? The speech and behavior of the hero. What did you learn about the main character’s character thanks to the portrait?
“I.S. Turgenev “Biryuk”” - Literature lesson. Comprehensive analysis prose text. Quiz. Conflict. Scenery. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Plot and plot. Composition. I. S. Turgenev “Biryuk”. Portrait of a hero. Interior.
“Turgenev's story Asya” - Focus on the future. "Turgenev's Girl" - special female image in the story “Asya” by I.S. Turgenev. Strong character, willingness to sacrifice. A soul that is impossible not to love. The main stages of the life of I.S. Turgenev. Activity and independence in deciding your own destiny. Asya behaves differently from noble girls.
“Asya Turgenev’s lesson” - On whose behalf is the story told? The story "Asya". Did Mr. N.N. like it? new acquaintances? Do you notice a contradiction in the character of the hero? N.A. Nekrasov-I.S. Turgenev I.S. Turgenev-L.N. Tolstoy. Why? This is exactly what Asya is like. Why N.N. ended up in a provincial German town? From the history of the creation of the story.
Lesson #1. HISTORICAL ERA IN N. V. GOGOL’S STORY “TARAS BULBA”
LESSON SUMMARY
Study questions:
Who is the main character of the story? (Taras Bulba)
Who was Taras Bulba by origin? (Cossack)
Who are the Cossacks? (Cossacks are free people who lived in the steppe and did not obey the state and its laws, later service people)
Name the main occupations of the Cossacks. (Cattle breeding, fishing, bee farming)
What were the Cossack settlements like? (They built farms in places protected by natural barriers, or built barriers themselves)
What is the difference between a simple Cossack and a registered one? (A registered Cossack was accepted into service by the government for a salary and was included in a special list - the register) The government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth recognized only registered Cossacks, the rest of the Cossacks - golytba, i.e. the poorest Cossacks, were supposed to be enslaved, so “unauthorized” Cossacks appeared, who chose the islands beyond the Dnieper rapids as their center, and thus the Zaporozhye Sich was formed, a place that was located beyond the rapids of the Dnieper, where there were notches, that is, fallen trees.
This is how Gogol painted the Sich for us. And I suggest you consider diagram"Organization of the Zaporozhye army." The Zaporizhian Sich was built on the principles of self-government. At the head of the army was the Koshevoy ataman, who was elected to general meeting together with his assistants: a military judge, a clerk and a captain. The army was divided into regiments, headed by colonels, the regiments were divided into hundreds, at the head of each hundred there were centurions, and the hundreds were divided into kurens, led by a kuren ataman. During the campaign (and Gogol confirms this to us), the Koshevoy ataman enjoyed almost unlimited power, but in peacetime he did nothing without advice from the general Rada (council).
Now let’s look at the map-scheme “Location of Kuren villages of the Black Sea Cossack army by the end of the 18th century.” What do we see in the picture? (Sech.)
Where is it? (Islands.) When working with a reproduction, you should draw the children’s attention to the images of the palisade and towers located along the perimeter, kurens located on the territory of the Sich.
Judging by the image, can we say that the Cossacks were engaged in:
craft? (Yes, a craftsman is depicted.)
trade? (Yes, concession stands are shown.)
fought? (Yes, the presence of cannons, rifles, sabers.)
What do you think is shown in the center? (Elections, circle.)
Pay attention to the fragment of the picture where a man is depicted in stocks; he is apparently being punished for something.
Why were the Cossacks punished? (stealing, lying, etc.)
What else do we see in the picture? (Church.)
What can we conclude? (Cossacks– Orthodox.)
Who were the Poles by religion? (Catholics.)
How did the Poles treat the Orthodox? (They were forbidden to pray in the Orthodox Church.)
Besides religious, what other oppression did Ukrainians experience from the Poles?
Historians claim that the events described by Gogol actually took place in the 30s of the 17th century. At this time, Cossack uprisings in Ukraine occurred regularly. The Cossacks demanded not only an increase in the register, that is, the number of Cossack soldiers paid by the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but also an end to the persecution of Orthodox Church. The liberation struggle continued for another 50 years.
What in the story was the most important thing for the Cossacks, the work of their whole life? (War, feats of arms.)
Prove by reading an excerpt from the story that Gogol strictly adhered to historical facts? (An excerpt from the story is read in which the Cossacks who sailed to Sich talk about the plight of the Ukrainians under the yoke of the Poles.)
From this we can conclude that Zaporozhye is a stronghold of Orthodoxy. So it turns out that the Cossacks have to defend their faith, defend their people.
Where did the Cossacks go? (On a campaign against the Poles.)
How did you perform during the hike? (Very cruel.)
Why did they behave this way? (They took revenge for their own.)
Where were you going and why? (They tried to take the city of Dubno.)
Was the trip successful? (No.)
What happened to Taras? (He was wounded, but his comrades saved him.)
How was Taras’s life after recovery? ( He gathered a detachment and again marched against the Poles.)
Who was captured? (Crown Hetman Nikolai Pototsky.)
Why did he leave the Cossack army? (I didn’t believe the promises of the Poles.)
Who is pursuing the army of Taras? (A detachment of Poles led by Potocki.)
To what period liberation struggle Can you relate the event described in the story? (1st stage 1648 – 1649).
How many stages were there in total? Write it down in the table. (2nd stage – 1650 – 1651; 3rd stage – 1652 – 1654).
What is the result of the war? (Ukraine annexed to Russia.)
Zaporizhzhya Sich became one of the main driving forces in the annexation of Ukraine to Russia.
Regret that such people existed, but also faith that such people can and should exist. That is why there is such attention to that troubled era. I agreed with Gogol and artist I. Repin. Repin worked on this painting for more than 13 years and did not love any of his paintings as much as “Cossacks.”
What similarities do you see between Repin’s painting and Gogol’s story in the depiction of the Zaporozhye Cossacks? (The painting, like the story, depicts events of the 16th-17th centuries).
What places in Gogol’s story come to mind when you look at the picture? (A feast in the house of Taras, a drunken Cossack stretched out on the ground, Cossacks under the walls of Dubno teasing the enemy with laughter. And here and there - daring, fearless, cheerful, strong-willed People. Their calling is to perform feats in the name of their homeland. They have a strong sense of camaraderie. Both are “strong as lions”).
Remembering everything that has been said, tell us what associations arise in you when you pronounce the phrase Zaporozhye Sich? (The camaraderie of the Cossacks, their patriotism, the political system in which everyone has equal rights, the peculiar way of life of the Cossacks, a gathering of immoral revelers capable of theft, robbery, high morality, etc.)
The author did not draw the real Sich, but the image of the Sich - the way it was imprinted in popular consciousness. N.V. Gogol creates a poetic picture of Cossack society, showing its cruelty and spontaneity.
Strong and powerful characters are a consequence of the way of life that shaped these characters. The feeling of collectivism makes the heroes of the story “Taras Bulba” strong, because each of them feels the shoulder of the other, they are united by a common idea - a feeling of love for their homeland.
Turning to the past, Gogol created a broad panorama of the history and life of the people. And although there is not a single genuine historical person in the story, the characters of the heroes, events, conflicts, and everyday genre scenes are depicted in such a way that they make you believe in their reality.
Lesson #2.“Damn you, steppes, how good you are!”
LESSON SUMMARY
Problematic question: what would change if there were no description of the steppe?
1 training situation. Description of the steppe.
The teacher or prepared students read by heart excerpts.
Which artistic techniques did the author use when describing the steppe? – give examples (epithets , comparisons, metaphors, evaluative words, personifications…)
2 training situation. People of the steppe.
The steppe is the image of the Motherland. About the steppe from N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place for him to turn around and walk?”
What kind of people, according to Gogol, does the steppe give birth to? ?(Bogatyrs. Rus' is the homeland of heroes).
The steppe is the image of Rus', the image of the Motherland. The steppe, like a mother, is happy for its children - the Cossacks, and gives them strength. Prove it from the text. ( The steppe “took them all into its green embrace,” “Everything that was vague and sleepy in the Cossacks’ souls instantly flew away; their hearts fluttered like birds.”)
Gogol emphasizes: “she accepted them all,” both Ostapa and Andria - they, born by her, are heroes, they must stand up for her - the theme of the feat sounds without weakening - they must serve faithfully their homeland. Gogol gives Andriy a chance - he, like all Cossacks, was born for heroism in the name of the Fatherland. He is a hero, so the path will be like this - after all, everything vague (and for Andriy this is the desire for personal happiness) has flown from his soul and he, together with his father, brother and author, admires the steppe, is ready to defend it.
Lesson conclusion. If there were no description of the steppe, understanding of the significance of the Cossacks’ battle against the enemies of the Fatherland would be lost. Cossacks defend the independence of their Motherland, their personal freedom. They can and must repel their enemies - they are heroes, born worthy of a beautiful, powerful, freedom-loving Fatherland.
Teacher kick-off presentation (Appendix No. 1).
Homework: student group studies.
To characterize a literary hero, you must:
1) Read the work of art carefully.
2) Select episodes from the work that most fully reveal the image of the hero.
3) When re-reading the highlighted episodes, pay attention
- on the appearance of the hero, his gestures, speech, his intonation, manner of speaking;
- on his behavior, relationships with other characters in the work;
- on the situation surrounding the hero, time and place of action;
- on the means by which it is expressed author's attitude to him.
4) Determine your attitude towards the hero: his actions, behavior, views, his moral qualities and life position.
5) Think over a plan for your own statement.
Lesson #3. Creation of characterizations of the heroes of N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba”.
LESSON SUMMARY
The first stage of the lesson is challenge (activation).
Guys, we continue to work on N.V.’s story. Gogol "Taras Bulba" and today's lesson we will start with Yes-no games. It will help us determine how well we know the heroes of N.V. Gogol’s story.
"Not really". This technique puts students in active position, teaches
- connect disparate facts into a single picture;
- systematize existing information;
- listen and hear comrades.
I thought of the name of one of the characters in the story and wrote it on the back of the board (this is the name of one of the main characters, whose image the students will work on). You must try to get to know the hero by asking questions that I can only answer with “yes”, “no”, “yes and no”.
Sample questions students (asked until the hero is recognized):
- Is this the main character of the story?
- Is he a man or a woman?
- Are he characterized by heroic deeds?
- Were you in love?
- He has a brother?
- At the end of the story he dies?
- Did the hero take part in the siege of the city?
- Was he an ataman?
Let's see if you could guess the hero? (At this point, you should recognize and praise students who asked accurate questions, as well as comment on questions that cannot be answered within the game.)
Did we get a complete description of the hero? (Of course not).
Then let's try to determine the purpose of our lesson. (The guys formulate a goal: to compose full description main characters of the story, and the topic of the lesson is written down).
The second stage of the lesson is comprehension (active search activity).
("Attractive Goal" Technique) We need to try to collect, systematize and summarize information about the main characters. And also bring the results of your research to the attention of the class.
The teachers are divided into 3 groups (the division occurs depending on the level of preparedness, the individuality of the children, etc.) The first group works on creating the image of Taras Bulba, the second - Ostap, the third - Andria. Each group receives an assignment (Appendix 1) and text material (Appendix 2), designed in the form of ancient manuscripts.
Reception of the Scientific Research Laboratory (scientific research laboratory). There are guys in the group
- research, select, supplement and systematize literary material (Appendix 2);
- process the result: discuss the plan for the report, choose the form of presentation of speakers who will present the results to the class.
At the end group work Speakers of the groups present the results of their work, followed by a presentation by the Academic Council (it analyzes the results and evaluates the work of the groups).
Student works (Appendix No. 2-4).
The third stage of the lesson is reflection.
So, you and I, guys, tried together to create the characteristics of the main characters of N.V. Gogol’s work, conducting an interesting and important research work. And now I ask you to express your attitude towards your favorite characters in the story with the help of Sinkwine.
The Cinquain technique allows you to make your own position public and compare it with the opinions of others.
In the first line, the topic is named in one word (usually a noun).
The second is a description of the topic in two words (usually adjectives).
The third line is a description of the action within this topic in three words (verbs).
The fourth line is a four-word phrase showing the attitude towards the topic.
The fifth line is a one-word synonym that repeats the essence of the topic. For example, Taras Bulba
Great, mighty
Struggling, overcoming, suffering
All of Zaporozhye can be proud of him
Giant
write creative work on the topic “What new facets of the hero’s character did I discover in class.”
Appendix No. 1.
Group assignment
1. Select only those fragments of the manuscript that relate to your hero and add your own characteristics.
2. Arrange them to form a cohesive characterization.
3. Process the result and discuss it.
4. Select the most competent archivist who will report the result of the work.
Appendix No. 2
There was one of the indigenous, old colonels: he was all about scolding anxiety and was distinguished by the brutal directness of his character.
He was stubborn and scary. This was one of those characters that could only have emerged in the difficult 15th century on a semi-nomadic corner of Europe.
All immersed in the charming music of bullets and swords. He did not know what it meant to think about, or calculate, or measure in advance his own and others’ strengths. He saw frenzied bliss and rapture in battle: something feast-like was ripening in his mind in those moments when a man’s head flares up, everything flashes and gets in the way in his eyes, heads fly, horses fall to the ground with thunder, and he rushes like a drunken man the whistle of bullets, in the gleam of sabers, and strikes everyone, and does not hear the ones inflicted.
Ahead of the others rushed the bravest and most beautiful knight of all; black hair was flying from under his copper cap; an expensive scarf, sewn by the hands of the first beauty, curled around his hand.
He endured torment and torture like a giant. Neither a scream nor a groan was heard even when they began to break the bones on his arms and legs, when their terrible grunting was heard among the dead crowd by distant spectators, when the panyans turned their eyes away
his own - nothing resembling a groan escaped his lips; his face did not tremble.
Are there really such fires and torments and such strength in the world that would overpower the Russian force!
I had feelings that were somewhat more lively and somehow more developed. He studied more willingly and without the tension with which he usually accepts difficult and a strong character. He was more inventive than his brother: more often he was the leader of a rather dangerous enterprise and sometimes, with the help of his inventive mind, he knew how to evade punishment.
It seemed that the path of battle and the difficult knowledge of carrying out military affairs were written in the family. Never at a loss or embarrassed by any incident, with a composure almost unnatural for a twenty-two-year-old, in an instant he could measure all the danger and the entire state of affairs, could immediately find a way to evade it, but evade it in order to then it’s better to overcome it. Already experienced confidence now began to signify his movements, and the inclinations of the future leader could not help but be noticeable in them. His body breathed with strength, and his knightly qualities had already acquired the broad strength of a lion.
Like an ear of grain cut with a sickle, like a young lamb sensing a deadly iron under its heart, he hung his head and fell onto the grass without saying a single word.
I started my career by running in my first year. They returned him, flogged him terribly and put him in front of a book. Four times he buried his primer in the ground, and four times, having torn it inhumanely, they bought him a new one. But without a doubt, he would have repeated the fifth if his father had not solemnly promised him to keep him in the monastery service for twenty years and had not sworn in advance that he would not see Zaporozhye forever if he did not learn all the sciences at the academy.
However, he noticeably became gloomy and sad. Three heavy wrinkles appeared on his forehead and never left him again. He now looked around him: everything was new in the Sich, all his old comrades had died. Not one of those who stood for a just cause, for faith and brotherhood.
He loved the simple life of the Cossacks and quarreled with those of his comrades who were inclined to the Warsaw side, calling them flakes of the Polish lords. Always restless, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy. He arbitrarily entered villages where they only complained about the harassment of tenants and the increase in new duties on smoke. He himself carried out reprisals against them with his Cossacks and made it a rule that in three cases one should always take up the saber, namely: when the commissars did not respect the elders in any way and stood in front of them in their caps, when they mocked Orthodoxy and did not honor the customs of their ancestors and, finally, when the enemies were the Busurmans and the Turks, against whom he considered in any case permissible to raise arms for the glory of Christianity.
He was also seething with a thirst for achievement, but along with it his soul was accessible to other feelings. The need for love flared up vividly in him when he passed eighteen years of age; the woman began to appear more often in his hot dreams; He, listening to philosophical debates, saw her every minute, fresh, black-eyed, tender: her sparkling, elastic breasts, her tender, beautiful, all naked hand constantly flashed before him: her very dress, clinging around her virgin and at the same time powerful limbs, breathed in his dreams with some inexpressible voluptuousness. He carefully hid these movements of his passionate youthful soul from his comrades, because in that age it was shameful and dishonorable for a Cossack to think about a woman and love without having tasted battle.
The first duty and first honor of a Cossack is to maintain partnership. No matter how long I live, I have never heard, gentlemen-brothers, of a Cossack abandoning in trouble or somehow selling his comrade. Both of them are our comrades - less of them or more of them - it doesn’t matter, they’re all comrades, they’re all dear to us.
He was a strong Cossack, he served as chieftain at sea more than once and suffered a lot of all sorts of troubles. The Turks seized them near Trapezont and took them all as slaves onto the galleys, took them hand and foot in iron chains, did not give them millet for whole weeks and gave them nasty things to drink. sea water. The poor slaves endured and endured everything, just so as not to change their Orthodox faith. The ataman could not bear it, trampled the holy law with his feet, wrapped a nasty turban around the sinful head, entered into the power of attorney of the pasha, became the housekeeper on the ship and the eldest over all the slaves.
He was always considered one of the best comrades. He rarely led others in daring enterprises - to rob someone else's garden or vegetable garden, but he was always one of the first to come under the banner of an enterprising student, and never, under any circumstances, betrayed his comrades; no whips or rods could force him to do this. He was harsh towards motives other than war and riotous revelry; at least I never thought about anything else. He was straightforward with his peers. He had kindness in a form in which it could only exist with such a character and at that time. He was spiritually touched by the tears of the poor mother, and this alone embarrassed him and made him lower his head thoughtfully.
Even now, distant and close peoples sense: their king will rise from the Russian land, and they will not submit to him!..
Homework:
An expressive reading of Taras's speech about partnership.
The motive of the road appears in the story. For what? It is possible to trace life path, the origins of heroism and betrayal. What do the heroes leave behind and where do they go? A road divided into two parts. You can draw it orally.
Keywords: patriotism, patriot.
LESSON SUMMARY
- My motherland! Our ancestors loved their homeland, and patriotic consciousness was developed in medieval Rus' many centuries earlier than in European peoples. In the story “Taras Bulba” the motives of patriotism and ardent love for the motherland are also in the spotlight. It is not for nothing that V.G. Belinsky called this work “A Poem about love for the homeland, about hatred of invaders.”
How do you understand the words “patriotism” and “patriot”? (Patriotism is devotion and love for one’s Fatherland, for one’s people. A patriot is a person imbued with patriotism).
- Frontal conversation:
Can we call the heroes of the story patriots? (Yes).
Name them. (Taras Bulba, Ostap, Koshevoy, Bovdyug and others).
Why? (They gave their lives for their Motherland, they fought for the freedom of their people, they rushed to each other’s aid during the battle).
Isn’t this what Taras is talking about about camaraderie? Let's read it. (It is about love for comrades, for the Russian land, for the homeland that Taras is talking about).
Can Taras Bulba be called a patriot? Why? (Taras is a great patriot, folk hero, p.h...)
And what sons did he raise for the Motherland, what sons did he give to her? This is what we will talk about in class.
How did Taras raise his sons? (Strictly, he was demanding. Until the age of 12, children lived with their parents, leading a free life. Then they were sent to study at the Bursa. They studied at the Bursa for 8 years).
The sons were raised the same, but Ostap died as a hero, and his father was proud of him, and Andriy accepted death from his father. Why are we talking about the death of Andriy and the death of Ostap? (Death can occur under different circumstances; the word itself carries a touch of everyday life. Death presupposes extraordinary circumstances, often associated with heroism and feat).
What do you see as the reasons for Ostap’s heroic act and Andriy’s betrayal?
Every action committed by a person characterizes him and reinforces some qualities. In youth, a person can “make himself” by demonstrating willpower. Character development occurs.
Home is the first thing a person has. This is sacred. Ask yourself: are you honoring native home, his traditions, parents. As a child, a person dreams. What he dreams about is what he will carry with him into his future life.
The book “Taras Bulba” is a life textbook for young people. And the main moral question that Gogol thinks about is how to grow up as a worthy person, capable of performing a feat in the name of the Motherland at the decisive moment. Gogol gives readers clues. It is no coincidence that he traces the lives of the brothers, shows their home, life in the bursa. One will come to heroism, the other to betrayal. And the origins of heroism and betrayal are already laid in the childhood and youth of the heroes. Gogol emphasizes this.
So this is our task. Find Gogol's clues, determine the origins of heroism and betrayal. This is the problematic question of the lesson.
1 training situation. Road.
Checking your work: Defense of your oral and written work.
Approximately: Taras left the graves of friends, a house, a wife, a village, a vast expanse of steppe; going somewhere - to the battle for the faith of Christ - in front of the temple (and behind the temple too), the Dnieper, weapons, horses, comrades, enemies - Tatars, Poles, Turks.
Ostap - childhood, games, home, temple, mother, friends, meadows, steppes are behind; ahead are horses, weapons, father, Dnieper, comrades, enemies.
Andriy - behind is a beautiful Polish girl; in front everything is the same as my brother’s, but shrouded in haze.
Conclusion: What's the difference between brothers? Gogol shows us? In relation to the mother. Both brothers were embarrassed by the separation. But Ostap continued to think about his mother. And Andriy remembered the Polish girl.
This was the first test of the authenticity of feelings, the authenticity of love for the mother, and therefore for the Fatherland.
2 training situation. In bursa.
In groups, analyze the life of the brothers in the bursa. Find contrasting characteristics to fill out the table. Note that Gogol emphasizes that each of them has merits.
3 training situation. The story with the Polish woman
Andriy is brave. He was not afraid: he climbed up to the Polish woman through the pipe. Carefully re-read the text and prove that Gogol does not cite this episode in order to show Andriy’s courage. And for what?
Andriy is dexterous, daring, but gives in to impulse, is not able to think about his actions, so he was confused in front of the Pole, became a toy in her hands, an object of amusement.
Conclusions from the lesson:
“Heroism is a special form of human behavior, when a person takes upon himself the solution of some big task, takes upon himself and O greater responsibility than under normal conditions when he has to act in particularly difficult conditions. Heroism always leads to exploits, that is, to actions that require a person to exert the utmost effort of will and strength” (T.V. Zvers) A feat is, 90%, a readiness for it.
Which brother is ready for the feat? And who is capable of betrayal?
Think about which character traits predominate in you: from the right or from the left column:
| Ostap | Andriy |
|
| 1 | Love for the Fatherland, for home, for mother | Love for a woman comes first - a personal feeling. |
| 2 | (Overcomes reluctance to learn, laziness) Willpower, patience, ability to overcome difficulties | (Study without stress, easily) Doesn't overcome difficulties |
| 3 | (Never betrays his comrades) | The ability to dodge, to evade responsibility, means to let one of your comrades down |
| 4 | Straightforwardness | Stealth |
| 5 | Considered one of the best comrades | Moving away from friends |
| 6 | Coolness | Recklessness. Hotness, impatience, irascibility. |
- Do we have the right to call Andriy a traitor? Is it bad that he took pity on the hungry and brought bread? Is it bad that he took pity on the girl he loved who was starving? Is it bad that he protects his love? Is it possible to call a person a traitor because he loves not a Ukrainian woman, but a Polish woman? (No).
But what does the word “patriot” mean? (This is a person who selflessly loves his homeland).
– How did Andriy abandon his Motherland? (Ostap loved his homeland, and Andriy loved a woman).
- This is what makes him a traitor. So, what problem does the author address in his story? (Through the images of Ostap and Andriy, the author raises the problem of heroism and betrayal).
- What is the author's attitude towards the brothers? (Ostap’s path is the path of faithful service to the Motherland, fulfilling a sacred duty to it. The image of Andriy was created by Gogol as a contrast to the image of Ostap. With the scene of the execution of a son killed by the hand of his own father, Gogol affirms the idea of God’s punishment for betrayal, for treason).
- So what is the idea of the piece? (Patriotism is active love for one’s land).
- Who else could you call patriots from history and literature?
Reflection.
Continue the sentence: “I believe that the characteristics of the Russian character are...”
What is your opinion on how to grow up to be a worthy person, capable of performing a feat in the name of the Motherland at the decisive moment?