ANALYSIS OF THE THEME OF FAMILY VALUES IN THE NOVEL BY M.A. BULGAKOV "WHITE GUARD"

ANALYSIS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE TURBINE HOUSE IN THE NOVEL “THE WHITE GUARD”

The interior of the Turbins' house appears in Bulgakov's novel on the very first pages and will be reproduced by the author many times throughout the novel. Historical time and the events taking place, great, close in scale to the biblical ones, have already been comprehended by the author in the first sentence of the work: “Great and terrible was the year after the birth of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution.” History is inscribed in this tragic union of the era and world events. ordinary family Turbins, whose existence becomes the focus of all the key problems and characteristic features of the time and is divided by a milestone revolutionary year into 2 stages: BEFORE and AFTER. The death of the head of the family - the mother, the center of the entire former Turbino “cosmos” - also occurred in terrible year, the first “from the beginning of the revolution”: the coincidence of family and historical catastrophes becomes for Bulgakov a great omen of future sad events. And the only protection, “a ship of salvation in a terrible sea of ​​disasters” becomes for the Turbins their home, left to them by their parents as a special spiritual world, an ark that stores the eternal, Eternal values.

Let's look at the first picture of the Turbino house. By drawing it, the author emphasizes antiquity - tradition (the word translated means “transmission”), habitability, the long-established way of life and family relations. The atmosphere of the house is shrouded in childhood impressions, preserved by memory, strengthened by habits that have become part of the character of the Turbin family itself. The center of the interior - and the whole house - is a “blazing hot” tiled stove, a legendary hearth, a “wise rock”, a symbol of comfort and well-being, tranquility and inviolability family traditions. She's the keeper family history: inscriptions different years, made by the children's hands of the little Turbins, and by guests of the house, and by gentlemen in love with Elena - this is an “album”-chronicle, a Book from which you can “read” how the family lived in this house. Warmth, happiness and wise carelessness emanate from these tiles.

From this same home stove a person “dances” in life, Bulgakov believes: what he was taught at home, what he remembered and learned from his parents, in the family, will determine his moral character, his destiny, his purpose.

And the Turbins learn from their home: their life is subordinated to the order that, according to Bulgakov, was given to man from time immemorial by his ancestors; This is how their house is built. Each room has its own purpose: the dining room, the children’s room, the parents’ bedroom, “all seven dusty and full rooms that raised the young Turbins” - these are special microworlds, necessary components big world The family, shown through the eyes of not only the author, who recreated the world of his own childhood in this interior, but also the adult Turbins: “this tile, and the furniture of old red velvet, and beds with shiny cones, the best cabinets in the world with books that smell of mysterious ancient chocolate ..." - all these are his memories and everlasting memory his heroes.

The image of this particular collective hero - the Turbin family, which formerly included the elders, the founders, the creators of the tradition, and is now beheaded, but still living and preserving its world - is interesting to the author. But not so much social status The Turbins (a family of intellectuals) worries the author about their spiritual state, brought up, “grown” within the walls of this house. Not only the material wealth of a wealthy family (“golden cups, silverware”), but also spiritual treasures fill him: “as one often read at ... the tiled square “The Carpenter of Saardam” (a book about Peter I), the historical figures of Alexei Mikhailovich are well known to Turbin, Louis XIV(even if at first the acquaintance took place on the patterns of worn carpets); The characters of Russian literature have become almost like family (“cabinets with books (...), with Natasha Rostova, the Captain’s daughter...”). Pushkin’s “Take care of honor from a young age,” learned by the Turbins from childhood, will be constantly felt in every action of each of them.

The entire interior is based on personification: hot tiles, and the lights of Christmas candles, and ancient photographs taken back then “when women wore funny sleeves with bubbles at the shoulders,” and the hero of the children’s book Saardamsky Carpenter, and even beds with shiny bumps seem alive … As in Andersen’s fairy tales, these things live their own special life, accessible only to a child’s understanding, and respond to every call of our inner voice. The author's ability to verbally reproduce the perception of the world that distinguishes a child from an adult is amazing.

special, distinctive feature Bulgakov's author's style is his careful and close attention to details, which makes his style similar to the creative style of his beloved Gogol and is clearly manifested in this interior. The smell of pine needles from the festive tree and “mysterious old chocolate” emanating from books, a bronze lamp under the lampshade (another eternal symbol integrity and eternity of home comfort), “wonderful curls” on Turkish carpets and music, the “native voice” of watches - this is the unique and fragile world that the Turbines will protect from the terrible destructive misfortunes that surged with the waves of the civil war.

An important item in Turbino’s domestic world is the clock: “bronze, with gavotte” - in the mother’s bedroom, “black wall” with a tower strike - in the dining room. The symbolism of watches is one of the most “talking” in world art. In Bulgakov, it takes on new meanings: if in the period before the start of the revolution, clocks playing their music were a sign of habitability, movement, seething life within these walls, now, after the death of their father and mother, their hands are counting down the last hours of a beautiful, but fading former life. But the author does not believe in the possibility of the death of this house. And even in the style of this fragment, in the use of repetitions (the refrain is “beaten with a tower battle” twice), he asserts eternity, the inviolability of both material symbols (a clock and a bronze lamp) and spiritual ones, because “the clock, fortunately, is completely immortal, immortal and the Saardam Carpenter, and the Dutch tile, like a wise rock, life-giving and hot in the most difficult times.” This is the main goal of creating the interior of the Turbins’ house.

Events of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “ White Guard"set during the Russian Civil War, which began in 1917. Fear, chaos and panic reign in the country. In such an environment, a person needs a place where he will feel safe, some small island of kindness and tranquility, an unshakable fortress. House No. 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk is exactly such a place for the Turbin family.

Bulgakov admires this house. Despite the horrors of war, it is always cozy and warm here, an atmosphere of love and goodwill reigns. Alexey, Nikolka and especially Elena, the keeper of the hearth and family comfort, carefully preserve this atmosphere. The central piece in the apartment is a Dutch tiled stove, where a bright, life-giving flame is constantly burning.

The tiles are painted with many illustrations and inscriptions, reflecting everything that worried the members of the Turbin family and their friends in different time 1918. In the corridor the wall clock chimes like a tower, the books in the cabinets smell of “mysterious chocolate”, in the bedroom there is a bronze lamp, always with a lampshade. On the piano - open notes eternal "Faust". On the table in the dining room there is a perfectly starched white tablecloth, festive dinnerware, and fresh flowers. There are cream curtains on the windows, which seem to separate this quiet haven from the outside world. “This is from Elena, who cannot do otherwise, this is from Anyuta, who grew up in the Turbins’ house.” All these things do not represent material value for the heroes, but they are dear to the memories embedded in them.

The Turbin family are people with highly developed morals and moral convictions.

Decency, justice, honor, courage, sincerity, compassion, nobility - all these qualities are unshakable and immutable for them. They despise lies and cowardice, which is why Alexey reproached himself for shaking Thalberg's hand before his flight from the City. Spiritual beauty is the core of the character of these people. In this house they honor and readily fulfill the mother’s behest - to live together. Turbines value what constitutes the beauty and joy of human existence, not in a class sense, but in a universal human understanding. Even during the raging Civil War, books, music, art, love, kindness, and hospitality are still important to them. Time invades this house, ruins the family nest, but despite this, the heroes do not change morally. The doors of the Turbins' house are always open to those who need it, be it family friends, namely Shervinsky, Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky, or distant relatives (Lariosik), or even the Lisovichs, forced to seek help due to a robbery.

For contrast, Bulgakov uses a description of the house of engineer Lisovich, a householder. It is absolutely the opposite of the description of the Turbins’ house: a cool and damp apartment, complete silence, smelling of “mice, mold, grumpy sleepy boredom.” Lisovich himself and his wife are contrasted with Alexei, Elena and Nikolka: for these people there are no concepts of honor, decency, duty, love for the Fatherland; they are cowardly, greedy, secretive and two-faced. The main thing for Vasilisa and Vanda Mikhailovna is their own safety and a comfortable existence.

Thus, the house for Bulgakov is something more than an ordinary home. This is a place that can unite people, protect them from adversity, give the warmth of family traditions, the personification peaceful life and peace. It is home and family that bring goodness and harmony into a person’s spiritual life.

Updated: 2017-07-21

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Composition

Bulgakov is a writer who could cover the most complex and lofty philosophical issues in his works clearly and simply. His novel “The White Guard” tells about the dramatic events unfolding in Kyiv in the winter of 1918-1919. The writer talks about war and peace, about human enmity and beautiful unity - “a family, where only one can hide from the horrors of the surrounding chaos.” Speaking about the historical catastrophe and the death of Russia, he makes the central images of the novel things that are far from so large-scale - the City and the House. The Turbins' house in the novel represents all that past that is now mercilessly destroyed by the winds of revolution. In the center of the work is the Turbin family, left without a mother, the keeper of the hearth. The young Turbins, deafened by the death of their mother, still managed not to get lost in this scary world, were able to remain true to themselves, maintain patriotism, officer honor, camaraderie and brotherhood. Bulgakov draws with great attention the everyday details of this House. Cream curtains, a stove, a clock, all these are components of that world that symbolizes the comfort and strength of life. Bulgakov paints not so much everyday life as being, in the philosophical understanding of the word. He idealizes the everyday norm, family life. The Turbins' house confronts the outside world, in which destruction, horror, inhumanity, and death reign. But the House cannot separate, leave the city, it is part of it, just as the city is part of the earthly space. And at the same time, this earthly space of passions and battles is included in the global context. Outside the windows of the Turbin House there is a merciless destruction of everything that was valuable in Russia. And inside, behind the curtains, the belief remained that everything beautiful must be protected and preserved, that this is necessary under any circumstances. “The clock, fortunately, is completely immortal, the Saardam Carpenter is immortal, and the Dutch tile, like a wise scan, is life-giving and hot in the most difficult times.”

Alexey Turbin thinks with alarm not about his possible death, but about the death of the House: “The walls will fall, the alarmed falcon will fly away from the white mitten, the fire in the bronze lamp will go out, and the Captain’s Daughter will be burned in the oven.” The house is quite real, it is an apartment where the main characters of the novel live and the main action takes place, where many people converge storylines narratives. Life in this goes home as if in defiance of the surrounding unrest, bloodshed, devastation, and bitterness of morals. Everything in the Turbins’ house is beautiful: old red velvet furniture, beds with shiny cones, cream curtains, a bronze lamp with a lampshade, books in chocolate bindings, a piano, flowers, an icon in an ancient frame, a tiled stove, a clock with a gavotte... There is a stove on its surface carries inscriptions and drawings made at different times by family members and friends. Here are humorous messages, words filled with deep meaning, declarations of love, and formidable prophecies - everything that the life of the family was “rich” with at different times. All these are symbols of the sustainability of life. The Turbins' house is depicted in the novel as a fortress that is under siege but never surrenders. His image is given a tall, almost philosophical meaning. According to Alexey Turbin, home is the highest value of existence, for the sake of which a person “fights and, in essence, should not fight for anything else.” To protect “human peace and hearth” - this is what he sees as the only goal that allows him to take up arms. That is why their home attracts close friends and acquaintances. Talberg's sister sends her son, Lariosik, from Zhitomir to them.

Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas - childhood friends of Alexei Turbin - arrive here, as if to a saving pier. Elena, the Turbins’ sister, is the keeper of the traditions of the house, where they will always welcome and help, warm you up and seat you at the table. This world can fall apart overnight, as Petlyura attacks the city and then captures it, but in the Turbin family there is no anger, no unaccountable hostility towards everything indiscriminately. The house, together with its inhabitants, went through this terrible time, when all values ​​and moral foundations collapsed, survived, and again gathers loved ones under its roof. Exactly family values, warmth, love of its inhabitants for each other, spiritual traditions, allowed the House not to collapse during the period of historical disasters. As a result, after the military events, the heroes gather in the house again. And in warm, cozy rooms, dreams take up residence, which, although they remind the heroes of the terrible events that they experienced, are still not scary. The walls of the house protect its inhabitants from all the horrors of life. The theme of saving spiritual, moral and cultural traditions runs through the entire novel, but perhaps most tangibly, “materially” it is embodied in the image of the House, which is extremely dear and important to the author.

Other works on this work

According to researcher I. Zolotussky, more late novel Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" inherited from the novel "The White Guard" the question of light and peace, the theme of the house, the connection between a private person and history and the connection between heaven and earth. In “The White Guard,” the writer showed that the creation of the spiritual world of an individual occurs harmoniously when its source is the home of childhood and youth, the “windows” of which are, as it were, “open” to the history of one’s family and the history of one’s Fatherland. Bulgakov absolutely agreed with Tolstoy that it is home and family that bring goodness, peace and harmony into a person’s spiritual life.

Turbin House is a symbol of life. Despite the understanding of the irrevocability of the past, which has been destroyed to the ground, the Turbins strive to go home, to the family hearth, which remains indestructible. Alexey Turbin comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to fight only for the family hearth, for human peace, which allows the heroes of the novel to exist outside the laws of the social era.

The house in the novel is inhabited dear people. The walls of the house are decorated with portraits of ancestors, and household items are not just things, they are animated and participate in the lives of all family members. This is a “fairy-tale”, “magical”, “chocolate”, “poetic” house, whose inhabitants live interesting life- communicate, dream, think, listen to music, read their favorite books.

The Turbins' house is a clock playing a gavotte, a tiled stove exuding warmth, red velvet furniture, the best cabinets in the world with books that smell of chocolate, and finally, the famous cream curtains... Life, which in our eyes has become a symbol of the strength of being. By poetizing everyday life, the home in all its fragility and defenselessness, Bulgakov’s novel opposes the fundamental homelessness of post-October literature, its rebellion against the home, its striving for distant and great goals, which supposedly alone can save a person from orphanhood and alienation.

But the Turbins’ house is not only a solid way of life, it is also the people inhabiting it, it is a family, it is a certain psychological and cultural make-up that the writer defends. Paying a lot of attention to depicting the life of the Turbins' house, the writer defends eternal values ​​- family, home, homeland. The reader constantly looks at all events through the perception of the residents of the Turbino house. This house is a living being. He lives, breathes, suffers, serves as a reliable refuge not only for the Turbins, but also for their friends: Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Lariosik. And even Vasilisa, who does not accept the Turbins’ laws of life, seeks protection in their house. Elena Turbina, to whom the “bright queen” (mother) transferred her warmth, creates a special cozy world. And when guns rattle alarmingly in the huge City, the Turbins have music and an atmosphere of spiritual closeness and love is felt.

Turbines are not isolated in their own world, do not lose touch with the outside world, and are in the thick of things. And in no situation do they lose the concept of honor. Paintings family life, depicted in the novel, are permeated with the author’s personal impressions and his attitude. Mention in “The White Guard” of the names of Tolstoy and Pushkin, as well as their heroes, with quotes from M. Lermontov, F. Dostoevsky, I. Bunin, D. Merezhkovsky, philosopher S.N. Bulgakov, the images of the Saardam Carpenter, the quiet Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexander the Great appearing on the pages of the novel, the music of great composers sounding on the pages of the novel act as symbols of the cultural structure that shaped the main asset of the characters - their psychological appearance: goodwill, sincerity, integrity, fidelity, the ability to love each other and perform miracles in the name of love, as Elena does, literally resurrecting Alexei.

The inner core of the novel is the author's dream of peace of mind, about peaceful life. Enough to remember prophetic dream(“bright paradise”) by Alexei Turbin, where both whites and reds are equally subject to the highest mercy. In this episode, Alexey Turbin conveys to the reader the author’s view of the dream: in the dream, oblivion comes to the heroes, and hope for redemption arises. And permeated with this hope final chapter novel.

In the final lines of the novel, the writer addresses the idea of ​​the “eternal Home”: “Everything will pass, suffering, torment, blood, hunger and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on the earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our gaze to them? Why?" These words contain the writer’s call to remember that the spiritual “home” of every person belongs to eternity, which means that our life, which is only a moment, is unique and valuable in itself, and the life of each person has its own hidden meaning.

Read also.

The novel is based on M.A. Bulgakov’s “The White Guard,” written in 1925, was based on real events of a tragic time: Civil War in Ukraine. Much is autobiographical here: The city is beloved Kyiv, the address is House No. 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk (in fact, the Bulgakovs lived in house 13 on Andreevsky Spusk, where the M.A. Bulgakov Museum is now). The atmosphere of the Turbin family, large and friendly, but going through difficult times, is also autobiographical.

Turbines love their home, cozy and warm. Its entire environment seems to be inspired by the memories associated with it. The tiled stove in the dining room is a symbol of the warmth of the hearth - “it warmed and raised little Elenka, older Alexey and very tiny Nikolka.” “The Carpenter of Saardam” was read near the blazing heat of the stove, “the grease played for hours, and always at the end of December there was a smell of pine needles, and multi-colored paraffin burned on the green branches.” Things are valuable not in themselves, but because of what is associated with them: a watch - a memory of a deceased father, “the best cabinets in the world with books that smell of mysterious ancient chocolate”, speak of spiritual world growing children, a bronze lamp under the lampshade gives an idea of ​​the warmth and comfort of the evening twilight." Terrible trials also affected the Turbin family - the mother died, who bequeathed to the children to live together. And the destruction of time could not but affect their usual life: the mother's festive service went to everyone day, a meager treat for tea. The tiled stove is covered with “historical records” and drawings on topical topics: the revolution, the offensive of Yetliura, the expression of political sympathies and antipathies. “It’s alarming in the City, foggy, bad...” And although the tablecloth “is still there. white and starchy,” because Elena cannot do otherwise, and the flowers affirm “the beauty and strength of life,” one feels that the former comfort is fragile and fragile, that at any moment an insidious enemy “could break the beautiful snowy City and trample the fragments of peace with his heels.”

It is difficult for children without their mother; they involuntarily feel the possibility of the collapse of their usual good world. “The walls will fall, the alarmed falcon will fly away from the white mitten, the fire in the bronze lamp will go out, and “ Captain's daughter"will be burned in the oven." Turbines value their home; they preserve its traditions and the relationships that have developed in the family. Here the brothers love and take care of their sister, for her sake they agree to tolerate her husband, whom they themselves do not like, and they console Elena when she is worried about her husband. Friends are always welcome here: how the frostbitten Myshlaevsky comes to the Turbins’ home after an unsuccessful defense on the outskirts of the City, and he is truly received as a welcome guest. Shervinsky, who is caring for Elena, and Karas, Myshlaevsky’s gymnasium friend and colleague, come here. Lariosik, who came from Zhitomir, at first doesn’t understand why he likes it so much in the Turbins’ home, but he likes it here so much that he feels like his soul “comes to life.” External world behind the cream curtains is “dirty, bloody and senseless,” and “wounded souls seek peace perishably behind such cream curtains.” This explanation by Lariosik clearly proves that all the Turbins’ friends value in their home, first of all, the warmth of friendly relations, an atmosphere of trust, mutual assistance, and the cordiality of the owners. Even Vasilisa, the apartment owner, greedy and cowardly, in a moment of danger comes to the Turbins for protection and support.

So, the Turbins’ house is not just a dwelling, “my fortress”, which Vasilisa dreams of, having been robbed in own apartment. This is not just the comfort and warmth of home - it is a special atmosphere of love and mutual understanding. In a cruel and disturbing world, this is an island of goodness, a reliable place, protected from dangers, where you can believe that everything will finally be good and happy.