Full analysis novel "What to do?"
The novel was written from the end of 1862 to April 1863, that is, written in 3.5 months in the 35th year of the author’s life. divided readers into two opposing camps. Supporters of the book were Pisarev, Shchedrin, Plekhanov, Lenin. But artists like , Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Leskov believed that the novel was devoid of true artistry. To answer the question “What to do?” raises and resolves the following burning problems from a revolutionary and socialist position:
1. The socio-political problem of reorganizing society in a revolutionary way, that is, through a physical collision of two worlds. This problem is hinted at in the life story and in the last, 6th chapter “Change of scenery”. Due to censorship, Chernyshevsky was unable to expand on this problem in detail.
2. Moral and psychological. This is a question about the internal restructuring of a person who, in the process of fighting the old with the power of his mind, can cultivate new moral qualities in himself. The author traces this process from its initial forms (the struggle against family despotism) to the preparation for a change of scenery, that is, for revolution. This problem is revealed in relation to Lopukhov and Kirsanov, in the theory of reasonable egoism, as well as in the author’s conversations with readers and heroes. This problem also includes a detailed story about sewing workshops, that is, about the importance of work in people’s lives.
3. The problem of women's emancipation, as well as the norms of new family morality. This moral problem is revealed in the life story of Vera Pavlovna, in the relationships of the participants love triangle(Lopukhov, Vera Pavlovna, ), as well as in the first 3 dreams of Vera Pavlovna.
4. Social-utopian. The problem of the future socialist society. It is unfolded in Vera Pavlovna’s 4th dream as a dream of a beautiful and bright life. This also includes liberation of labor, i.e., technical machinery for production.
The main pathos of the book is the passionate and enthusiastic propaganda of the idea of a revolutionary transformation of the world.
The main desire of the author was the desire to convince the reader that everyone, if they work on themselves, can become a “new person”, the desire to expand the circle of like-minded people. The main task was to develop a new methodology for educating revolutionary consciousness and “honest feelings.” The novel was intended to become a textbook of life for every thinking person. The main mood of the book is acute joyful anticipation revolutionary coup and the desire to take part in it.
What reader is the novel addressed to?
Chernyshevsky was an educator who believed in the struggle of the masses themselves, so the novel is addressed to broad layers of the mixed-democratic intelligentsia, which became the leading force in the liberation movement in Russia in the 60s.
Artistic techniques with which the author conveys his thoughts to the reader:
1st technique: the title of each chapter is given a family-everyday character with a primary interest in love intrigue, which quite accurately conveys the plot plot, but hides the true content. For example, chapter one “The Life of Vera Pavlovna in the Parental Family”, chapter two “First Love and Legal Marriage”, chapter three “Marriage and Second Love”, chapter four “Second Marriage”, etc. These names reek of traditionalism and imperceptibly what is truly new, namely new character relationships between people.
Method 2: using plot inversion - moving 2 introductory chapters from the center to the beginning of the book. The scene of Lopukhov’s mysterious, almost detective-like disappearance distracted the censor’s attention from the true ideological orientation of the novel, i.e., from what the author’s main attention was subsequently paid to.
3rd technique: the use of numerous hints and allegories, called Aesopian speech.
Examples: “golden age”, “ new order" - this is socialism; “work” is revolutionary work; a “special person” is a person of revolutionary convictions; “scene” is life; "change of scenery" - new life after the victory of the revolution; "bride" is a revolution; “bright beauty” is freedom. All these techniques are designed for the intuition and intelligence of the reader.
Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?” contemporaries perceived it ambiguously. Some considered him an “abomination,” others considered him a “charm.” This is due to the complex composition, attempts to hide the main idea behind the dreams of the main character and the love triangle, and, finally, to the peculiarities of the language design. However, the novel had a serious influence on Russian society XIX century. Schoolchildren study it in 10th grade. We offer brief analysis the work “What to do?”, which will help you prepare qualitatively for lessons and for the Unified State Exam.
Brief Analysis
History of creation- N. Chernyshevsky created the novel while he was in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The writer was arrested for radical ideas. The work was conceived as a response to Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons,” so there is a certain similarity between the images of Evgeny Bazarov and Rakhmetov.
Subject– In the work, two main themes can be distinguished - love and life in a new society built on the basis of the laws of labor and equality.
Composition- The structure of the work has its own peculiarities. The through lines of the novel are the life of Vera Pavlovna, the fates of Lopukhov and Kirsanov. Love twists and turns play a major role in these storylines. Vera Pavlovna’s dreams are closely intertwined with reality. With the help of them, the author encrypted socio-political motives.
Genre– A novel in which you can notice the features of several genre varieties- utopian novel, socio-political, love and philosophical novels.
Direction– Realism.
History of creation
The writer worked on the analyzed work for several months: from December 1862 to April 1863. At that time he was under arrest in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was imprisoned for his radical views. The novel was conceived as a response to Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons,” so there is a certain similarity between the images of Evgeny Bazarov and Rakhmetov.
While working on the novel, N. Chernyshevsky understood that censorship would not allow it to be published if it noticed an acute political subtext. To deceive the regulatory authorities, the writer resorted to artistic techniques: framed social motives love context, introduced dreams into the plot. He managed to publish his work in Sovremennik, but soon the authorities prohibited not only distributing the novel, but even imitating it. Permission was granted to publish Chernyshevsky’s work “What is to be done?” only in 1905
Subject
The novel displays motifs characteristic of Russian literature of the 19th century century. The writer implemented them in an extraordinary, intricate plot. He presented situations that should push the reader to independent conclusions.
N. Chernyshevsky revealed several topics, among which the following stand out: love, which is nourished by common interests and mutual respect; dreams of a new life. These topics are closely intertwined and determine problems“What to do?”: marriage without love, friendship, equality of men and women, the role of work in human life.
A significant part of the novel is devoted to the life of Vera Pavlovna. The heroine's mother wanted to marry her to a rich man. She considered the owner's son to be a profitable match. The mother did not even think that he was a womanizer with whom her daughter would not find happiness. Verochka was saved from an unsuccessful marriage by medical student Dmitry Lopukhov. A tender feeling arose between the young people and they got married. Vera became the owner of a sewing workshop. However, she did not use hired labor. The heroine made the girls who worked for her co-owners, and they shared the income equally. In the story about Vera Pavlovna’s workshop, the author embodied the idea of equal labor.
The marriage with Lopukhov soon broke up: Verochka fell in love with her husband’s friend, Kirsanov. To untie the love knot, Lopukhov decided to shoot himself. It turns out that he left the note discussed at the beginning of the novel. In the message, he stated that no one was to blame for his death, and Vera Pavlovna calmly married Kirsanov.
The married couple lived happily. Vera Pavlovna was passionate about her favorite activity - sewing workshops; she began to study medicine, and her husband helped her in every possible way. In the descriptions family life These people manifest the idea of equality between men and women. At the end of the novel we learn that Lopukhov is alive. Now he took the surname Beaumont and married Ekaterina Vasilievna Polozova. The Kirsanov and Beaumont families begin to become friends and spread the ideas of a “new” life.
Composition
In “What to do?” the analysis should be supplemented with a characterization of the composition. The peculiarities of the formal and semantic organization of the text allow the author to reveal several topics and veil forbidden motives. At first glance, main role love twists and turns play in the novel. In fact, they are a mask that hides socio-political problems. To reveal the latter, the author used the description of Vera Pavlovna’s dreams.
The components of the plot are placed inconsistently: the author presents the event from the development of actions before the exposition, and only then the plot elements are arranged in a logical chain. Both at the beginning and at the end of the novel the image of Lopukhov appears. This creates a kind of frame.
Main characters
Genre
The genre of the work is a novel, as it contains several storylines, A central problem remains open. The work is characterized by genre syncretism: it intertwines the features of love, philosophical, socio-political novels and utopia. The direction of the work is realism.
Work test
Rating analysis
Average rating: 4.1. Total ratings received: 72.
Composition
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was born into the family of a priest, but in his youth he freed himself from religious ideas, becoming a leading thinker of his time. Chernyshevsky was a utopian socialist. He developed a coherent system of social liberation in Russia. For revolutionary activity, journalistic articles, work in the Sovremennik magazine, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In such unusual conditions, in 1862, the novel “What is to be done?” was written.
Nekrasov published the novel in Sovremennik, after which the magazine was closed and the novel was banned. The work was published a second time only after the first Russian revolution. Meanwhile, the popularity of the “objectionable novel” was enormous. He caused a storm, became the center around which passions boiled. It’s hard for us to imagine, but the novel was copied by hand and distributed in lists. The power of his power over the minds of his young contemporaries knew no bounds. One of the professors at St. Petersburg University wrote: “During the sixteen years of my stay at the university, I have never met a student who had not read the famous essay back in the gymnasium.”
The novel “What to do?” written for young reader, on someone who is faced with the problem of choosing a path. The entire content of the book was supposed to indicate to a person entering life how to build his future. Chernyshevsky creates a novel that was called a “textbook of life.” The heroes of the work had to teach them to act correctly and according to their conscience. It is no coincidence that Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna are called “new people” by the writer himself, and the author speaks of Rakhmetov as a “special person.” Let's remember Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin... They are romantics, dreamers - people without goals. All these heroes are not perfect. They have traits that are difficult for us to accept. Chernyshevsky's heroes rarely doubt; they firmly know what they want in life. They work, they are not familiar with idleness and boredom. They do not depend on anyone, because they live by their own labor. Lopukhov and Kirsanov are busy with medicine. Vera Pavlovna opens her workshop. This is a special workshop. Everyone is equal in it. Vera Pavlovna is the owner of the workshop, but all income is distributed among the girls working in it.
“New people” do not confine themselves only to their own business. They have many other interests. They love the theater, read a lot, and travel. These are comprehensively developed individuals.
They also solve their family problems in a new way. The situation that has developed in the Lopukhov family is very traditional. Vera Pavlovna fell in love with Kirsanov. Anna Karenina, having fallen in love with Vronsky, finds herself in a hopeless situation. Tatyana Larina, continuing to love Onegin, decides her fate unambiguously: “... I was given to another; I will be faithful to him forever.” Chernyshevsky's heroes resolve this conflict in a new way. Lopukhov “leaves the stage”, freeing Vera Pavlovna. At the same time, he does not consider that he is sacrificing himself, because he acts according to the theory of “reasonable egoism,” popular among the “new people.” Lopukhov gives himself joy by doing good to people close to him. Mutual understanding and respect reign in the new Kirsanov family. Let us remember the unfortunate Katerina, Ostrovsky’s heroine. The boar's wife forces her daughter-in-law to follow the rule: “let the wife fear her husband.” Vera Pavlovna is not only not afraid of anyone, but independent choice is possible for her life path. She is an emancipated woman, free from conventions and prejudices. She is given equal rights in work and family life.
New family in the novel it is contrasted with the environment of “vulgar people” in which the heroine grew up and from which she left. Suspicion and money-grubbing reign here. Vera Pavlovna's mother is a family despot.
Rakhmetov is also close to the “new people”. This is a man preparing himself for a decisive struggle, for a revolution. It combines features people's hero and a highly educated person. He sacrifices everything for the sake of his goal.
These people dream of common joy and prosperity coming to Earth. Yes, they are utopians; in life it is not always so easy to follow the proposed ideals. But it seems to me that man has always dreamed and will dream of a wonderful society where only good, kind and honest people. Rakhmetov, Lopukhov and Kirsanov were ready to give their lives for this.
The morality of the new people is revolutionary in its depth, inner essence, it completely denies and destroys the officially recognized morality on the foundations of which Chernyshevsky’s contemporary society rests - the morality of sacrifice and duty. Lopukhov says that “a victim is soft-boiled boots.” All actions, all deeds of a person are only truly viable when they are performed not under compulsion, but according to internal attraction, when they are consistent with desires and beliefs. Everything that is done in society under duress, under the pressure of duty, ultimately turns out to be inferior and stillborn. Such, for example, is the noble reform “from above” - the “sacrifice” brought by the upper class to the people.
The morality of new people is liberated creative possibilities human personality, joyfully realizing the true needs of human nature, based, according to Chernyshevsky, on the “instinct of social solidarity.” In accordance with this instinct, Lopukhov enjoys doing science, and Vera Pavlovna enjoys working with people and running sewing workshops on reasonable and fair socialist principles.
New people and fatal love problems for humanity are solving in a new way family relations. Chernyshevsky is convinced that the main source of intimate dramas is inequality between men and women, a woman’s dependence on a man. Emancipation, Chernyshevsky hopes, will significantly change the very nature of love. A woman’s excessive concentration on love feelings will disappear. Her participation on an equal basis with a man in public affairs will remove the drama in love relationships, and at the same time it will destroy the feeling of jealousy as purely selfish in nature.
New people resolve the most dramatic conflict in human relationships, the love triangle, differently, less painfully. Pushkin’s “how God grant your beloved one to be different” becomes for them not an exception, but an everyday norm of life. Lopukhov, having learned about Vera Pavlovna’s love for Kirsanov, voluntarily gives way to his friend, leaving the stage. Moreover, on Lopukhov’s part this is not a sacrifice - but “the most profitable benefit.” Ultimately, having made a “calculation of benefits,” he experiences a joyful feeling of satisfaction from an act that brings happiness not only to Kirsanov and Vera Pavlovna, but also to himself.
Of course, the spirit of utopia emanates from the pages of the novel. Chernyshevsky has to explain to the reader how Lopukhov’s “reasonable egoism” did not suffer from the decision he made. The writer clearly overestimates the role of the mind in all human actions and actions. Lopukhov's reasoning smacks of rationalism and rationality; the introspection he carries out gives the reader a feeling of some thoughtfulness, implausibility of a person's behavior in the situation in which Lopukhov found himself. Finally, one cannot help but notice that Chernyshevsky makes the decision easier by the fact that Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna do not yet have a real family, no child. Many years later, in the novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy will give a refutation to Chernyshevsky tragic fate the main character, and in “War and Peace” will challenge the excessive enthusiasm of the revolutionary democrats for the ideas of women's emancipation.
N” one way or another, and in the theory of “reasonable egoism” of Chernyshevsky’s heroes there is an undeniable appeal and an obvious rational grain, especially important for the Russian people, who for centuries lived under the strong pressure of autocratic statehood, which restrained initiative and sometimes extinguished the creative impulses of the human personality. The morality of Chernyshevsky’s heroes, in a certain sense, has not lost its relevance in our times, when society’s efforts are aimed at awakening a person from moral apathy and lack of initiative, at overcoming dead formalism.
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I. Introduction
The novel as a leading genre in Russian literature mid-19th V. (Turgenev, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy). Features of the Russian novel: attention to the problem of personality, focus on moral and ethical problems, a broad social background, developed psychologism.
II. Main part
1. All of the listed features are inherent in the novel “What is to be done?” At the center of the novel are images of “new people,” primarily the image of Vera Pavlovna. The author traces the formation and development of Vera Pavlovna's personality, the formation of her self-awareness, the search and acquisition of personal happiness. The main problems of the novel are ideological and moral, related to the establishment of the philosophy and ethics of the “new people”. The novel quite fully presents the social and everyday way of life (especially in the chapters “The Life of Vera Pavlovna in her Parental Family” and “First Love and Legal Marriage”). The characters of the main characters, especially Vera Pavlovna, are revealed by the author through the depiction of them inner world, that is, psychologically.
2. Genre originality of the novel “What is to be done?”:
a) “What should I do?” - first of all social novel, for him the problem of the relationship between the individual and society is extremely important. Outwardly, it is structured as a love novel, but, firstly, in the love story of Vera Pavlovna, it is precisely the connection between personality and living conditions that is emphasized, and secondly, the problem of love itself is for Chernyshevsky part of a broader problem - the position of women in society: what it was like what it is now and what it should and can be;
b) in the novel “What to do?” There are also features of a family-everyday novel: it traces in detail the everyday structure of the family life of the Lopukhovs, Kirsanovs, Beaumonts, right down to the arrangement of rooms, the nature of daily activities, food, etc. This side of life was important to Chernyshevsky because in the problem of women’s emancipation, family life plays a very important role. significant role: only with its change can a woman feel equal and free;
c) Chernyshevsky introduces elements of a utopian novel into his work. Utopia is an image of a happy and devoid of internal contradictions life of people, usually in a more or less distant future. Such a utopian picture is presented by most of Vera Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream, in which Chernyshevsky describes in detail, down to the smallest details (palaces made of glass and aluminum, furniture, dishes, winter gardens, the nature of work and rest), paints a picture of the future happy life humanity. Utopian paintings of this kind are important for Chernyshevsky from two points of view: firstly, they give him the opportunity to express his social and moral ideal in visual form, and secondly, are intended to convince the reader that the new public relations are truly possible and achievable;
d) Chernyshevsky’s novel can also be described as journalistic, since, firstly, it is devoted to pressing problems of our time (“the women’s question”, the formation and development of the common intelligentsia, the problem of restructuring social order in Russia), and secondly, in it the author more than once directly speaks out about these topical problems, addresses the reader with calls, etc.
III. Conclusion
So, genre originality Chernyshevsky's novel is defined as common features Russian novel (psychologism, ideological and moral issues, etc.), and an original combination in one work of genre features inherent different types novel.
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The novel “What to do? "was written in record short term, in less than 4 months, and published in the spring issues of the Sovremennik magazine for 1863. It appeared at the height of the controversy surrounding I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons.” Chernyshevsky conceived his work, which has a very significant subtitle “From Stories about New People,” as a direct response to Turgenev on behalf of “ younger generation" At the same time, in the novel “What to do? “Chernyshevsky’s aesthetic theory found its real embodiment. Therefore, we can assume that a work of art was created, which was supposed to serve as a kind of tool for “remaking” reality.
“I am a scientist... I am one of those thinkers who adhere to a scientific point of view,” Chernyshevsky once remarked. From this point of view, that of a “scientist” and not an artist, he proposed in his novel a model of an ideal way of life. It’s as if he doesn’t bother searching for an original plot, but almost directly borrows it from George Sand. Although, under the pen of Chernyshevsky, the events in the novel acquired sufficient complexity.
A certain young lady from the capital does not want to marry a rich man and is ready to go against the will of her mother. The girl is saved from a hated marriage by medical student Lopukhov, the teacher of her younger brother. But he saves her in a rather original way: first he “develops her” by giving her relevant books to read, and then he marries her in a fictitious marriage. At the heart of them life together- freedom, equality and independence of spouses, manifested in everything: in the way of home, in housekeeping, in the activities of spouses. So, Lopukhov serves as a manager at the factory, and Vera Pavlovna creates a sewing workshop “in partnership” with female workers and arranges a housing commune for them. Here the plot does sharp turn: main character falls in love with best friend her husband, physician Kirsanov. Kirsanov, in turn, “saves” the prostitute Nastya Kryukova, who soon dies of consumption. Realizing that he was standing in the way of two loving people, Lopukhov “leaves the stage.” All “obstacles” are removed, Kirsanov and Vera Pavlovna are legally married. As the action progresses, it becomes clear that Lopukhov's suicide was imaginary, the hero left for America, and in the end he appears again, but under the name of Beaumont. Returning to Russia, he marries a wealthy noblewoman, Katya Polozova, whom Kirsanov saved from death. Two happy couples they start a common household and continue to live in complete harmony with each other.
However, readers were attracted to the novel not by the original twists and turns of the plot or any other artistic merits: they saw something else in it - a specific program for their activities. While democratically minded youth accepted the novel as a guide to action, official circles saw it as a threat to the existing social order. The censor who evaluated the novel after it was published (you can write about how it was published stand-alone novel) wrote: “...what a perversion of the idea of marriage... destroys both the idea of family and the foundations of citizenship, both of which are directly contrary to the fundamental principles of religion, morality and public order" However, the censor did not notice the main thing: the author did not so much destroy as create a new model of behavior, a new model of the economy, a new model of life.
Talking about the structure of Vera Pavlovna's workshops, he embodied a completely different relationship between the owner and workers, who are equal in their rights. In Chernyshevsky’s description, life in the workshop and the commune with her looks so attractive that similar communities immediately arose in St. Petersburg. They did not last long: their members were not ready to organize their lives on new moral principles, which, by the way, are also discussed a lot in the work. These “new beginnings” can be interpreted as a new morality for new people, as a new faith. Their life, thoughts and feelings, their relationships with each other absolutely do not coincide with those forms that developed in the “old world” and were generated by inequality, the lack of “reasonable” principles in social and family relations. And new people - Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna, Mertsalovs - strive to overcome these old forms and build their lives differently. It is based on work, respect for each other’s freedom and feelings, true equality between man and woman, that is, what, according to the author, is natural for human nature, because it is reasonable.
In the book, under the pen of Chernyshevsky, the famous theory of “reasonable egoism” is born, the theory of the benefits that a person derives for himself by committing good deeds. But this theory is accessible only to “developed natures,” which is why so much space is devoted in the novel to “development,” i.e., education, the formation of a new personality, in Chernyshevsky’s terminology, “coming out of the basement.” And the attentive reader will see the ways of this “exit”. Follow them - and you will become a different person, and a different world will open up to you. And if you engage in self-education, then new horizons will open up for you and you will repeat Rakhmetov’s path, you will become special person. Here is a secret, albeit utopian program, embodied in a literary text.
Chernyshevsky believed that the path to a bright and wonderful future lies through revolution. Thus, to the question posed in the title of the novel: “What to do?”, the reader received an extremely direct and clear answer: “Move to a new faith, become a new person, transform the world around you, “make a revolution.” This idea was embodied in the novel, as one of Dostoevsky’s heroes would later say, “seductively clearly.”
A bright, wonderful future is achievable and close, so close that the main character Vera Pavlovna even dreams about it. “How will people live? “- thinks Vera Pavlovna, and the “bright bride” opens up tempting prospects for her. So, the reader is in a society of the future, where work “at pleasure” reigns, where work is pleasure, where a person is in harmony with the world, with himself, with other people, with nature. But this is only the second part of the dream, and the first is a kind of journey “through” the history of mankind. But everywhere Vera Pavlovna’s eyes see pictures of love. It turns out that this is a dream not only about the future, but also about love. Once again, social and moral issues are connected in the novel.