Meet the hero and heroine. The narrative, in addition to the prologue, includes twenty-two small chapters. Their content does not exceed two or three pages - events and impressions change so quickly, they grow so quickly main character, Volodya. He only recently parted ways with his tutor, who, with his “care” for his pupil, resembles Monsieur Beaupré (“ Captain's daughter"). He, like Petrusha Grinev, turned sixteen years old. In those days, this age was considered a time of choice. life path. True, Volodya was not sent to serve in a distant fortress. The hero of “First Love” is peacefully preparing to enter university. He spends the summer at the dacha with his family. A rich family, outwardly decent, but internally flawed. The young man senses this unhappiness. He knows that between his mother and father there was a loveless marriage, common among the nobility. “My father,” Volodya says about his mother’s life drama, “is still a young and very handsome man, he married her for convenience; she was ten years older than him<…>. She was very afraid of him, but he behaved strictly, coldly, distantly...” But until the time comes, the relationship between the parents is of little interest to the hero. The “wonderful” weather is in harmony with Volodya’s mood, which was possessed, “like spring grass, by the joyful feeling of a young, simmering life.” As always with Turgenev, the mood is revealed through the landscape: “I had a riding horse, I saddled it myself and rode away<…>, I started galloping and imagined myself as a knight at a tournament - how joyfully the wind blew in my ears! - or, turning his face to him, received his shining light and azure into his open soul.”
Volodya's soul is wide open to new impressions. The mood is prepared, and the reader is not surprised when Volodya falls in love with a young neighbor, Princess Zasekina, who has occupied the nearest house with her mother. “The dacha,” explains the narrator, “consisted of a manor house<...>and two low outbuildings.” But the story about meeting a girl is ahead. First, the author considered it necessary to tell who lives in the second outbuilding, which was turned into a factory. He shows how city workers work, boys just like the main character himself: “A dozen thin and disheveled boys in greasy robes with worn-out faces<…>jumped on wooden levers<…>and thus, with the weight of their puny bodies, they squeezed out the motley patterns of the wallpaper.” They have no time for the pleasures of life. A persistent reflection on the fatal guilt of the educated classes before the people is inherent in Turgenev. Wealthy people enjoy the benefits of life and do not notice their well-being. In "Rudin" Turgenev took us to peasant hut. In "First Love" - to the factory.
Only after this does he draw a portrait main character. Zinaida appears as a vision, all the more beautiful because before it young hero indulged in a not very poetic hobby. He went out to shoot crows, and suddenly “he saw a girl in pink dress and a handkerchief." Volodya observed her from the side and therefore the heroine appears to us for the first time as a sketch in profile: “... A slender figure, and slightly disheveled blond hair under a white scarf, and this half-closed smart eye, and these eyelashes, and a tender cheek under them.” Volodya found his neighbor more than one, and also engaged in a strange activity: “Four young men crowded around her, and she took turns slapping them on the forehead<…>gray flowers." A game that portrays childhood in the form of a heroine. And at the same time, one of the main features is revealed: youthful coquetry, the desire to captivate and conquer - “young people so willingly offered their foreheads - and in the movements of the girl<...>there was something so charming, commanding, mocking and sweet.” Volodya will instantly fall into the circle of young men, fascinated by her beauty.
Of course, the twenty-year-old girl looked down on the sixteen-year-old admirer. In a moment of affectionate frankness, Zinaida says: “Listen, I<…>could be your aunt, really; Well, not an aunt, an older sister.” No wonder she “entrusted me with her brother, a twelve-year-old cadet who came on vacation.” The coincidence of names - the boy who arrived was also called Volodya - speaks of Zinaida’s sisterly, protective feelings for both. Trying to analyze his feelings at that time, Vladimir Petrovich also repeats several times: “I was still a child.” In many episodes, Volodya actually shows childishness. Following the cadet, he happily “whistled” into a homemade pipe. To prove his love for the girl, he is ready, at her request, to jump onto the road from a height of “two fathoms.”
Yet the author, who invisibly emerges from both little Volodya and the adult narrator, gradually convinces us of the opposite. The hero experiences a real deep feeling, real experiences: “...The ringing of the bells of the Donskoy Monastery flew in from time to time, calm and sad - and I sat<…>and was filled with some nameless feeling, which contained everything: sadness, joy, anticipation of the future, desire, and fear of life.” Having once met Zinaida, “pale, in bitter sadness<…>, deep fatigue,” Volodya is close to despair: “Every word of hers was cut into my heart. At this moment, it seems, I would willingly give my life, if only she would not grieve.” Touched by his timid worship, Zinaida, partly playfully, partly seriously, “favors” him as her page. This recognition and the gift of a rose takes you back to chivalrous times, the times of knights and beautiful ladies. In Zinaida’s attitude towards her “page” there is a lot that is unsaid, contradictory, and sometimes cruel. To the fair reproach through tears, “...Why did you play with me?...What did you need my love for?” Zinaida responds with a confession: “I’m guilty before you, Volodya... Oh, I’m very guilty...” “She did whatever she wanted with me,” the hero sums up.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian writer, whose work is of interest to readers of many countries and generations.Fame has come to this greatest writer not only thanks to novels and stories. Numerous stories, plays, and prose poems played a major role. He was a very versatile writer.
The author did not chase quantity. It is known that he wrote his works slowly, nurturing the idea for a long time. Despite this, his works regularly appeared on the pages of magazines and separate books.
Turgenev wrote the famous story “First Love” when he was already 42 years old. In his work, he tried to comprehend the years he had lived and understand his past. Therefore all literary plot imbued with autobiography.
The history of the creation and conception of the story “First Love”
Turgenev's story with beautiful and unusual name– “First Love” was written by the author while he was in the city on the Neva. It is known that the basis for the author’s plot was the events that once happened to the writer himself. And so, being in St. Petersburg from January to March 1860, he took on his new work, the idea of which had long been born in his head.
According to the plot, the author talks about emotional experiences that aroused new feelings in the main character. A small childhood love on the pages of Turgenev's story turns into adult love, filled with tragedy and sacrifice. It is known that almost every hero of this work had prototypes, since this story was written on the basis of the author’s personal emotional experience and the events that once happened in his family.
As the writer himself later admitted, he tried to portray all events as they were, without hiding or embellishing anything.
“The actual incident is described without the slightest embellishment.”
The author believed that there was nothing wrong with him telling the truth, he had nothing to hide, and someone would take his story as a model and this would help avoid many mistakes and tragedies. This Turgenev story was first published in Russia, the year of its publication was 1860.
The plot of Turgenev's story "First Love" is structured as if it were a memoir. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly man who remembers his first love. The author took as the main character of his story young man Vladimir, who was barely 16 years old.
In the story, the main character and his family go to relax on a family estate, which is located outside the city. In this village calm and tranquility he meets a young and beautiful girl. Zinaida was already 21 years old at that time. But Vladimir is not at all embarrassed by the age difference. This is how the main character appears in Turgenev's story female character– Zinaida Aleksandrovna Zasekina. Of course, she is young and beautiful, so it’s hard not to fall in love. Yes, Vladimir fell in love with Zina, but it turns out that he is not the only one in love. Around a pretty girl there are constantly candidates for her affection.
But the girl’s character turns out to be not the most diligent. Realizing that men really like her, Zina is not averse to sometimes making cruel jokes on them. So she doesn’t like Vladimir at all, but seeing his suffering, she decides to play a little prank on him, showing her capricious and playful disposition. Sometimes Zinaida Alexandrovna makes fun of him in front of everyone because he is too young. But Turgenev’s hero endures all this, because he is deeply in love. And only after some time, Vladimir unexpectedly learns that Zinaida is also very much in love and this object of her love is his father.
One day he witnesses a secret meeting between Zinaida Alexandrova and Pyotr Vasilyevich, his father. From everything he saw and said, he understood that his father had left the girl forever, because the whole family was leaving back to the city from the village. And a week later, Vladimir’s father suddenly has a stroke and dies. Zinaida very soon marries some Mr. Dolsky. Four years later, the young woman dies in childbirth.
Prototypes of the heroes of Turgenev's story “First Love”
All Turgenev's heroes in his story “First Love” have fictitious names, but according to the memoirs of contemporaries, they all have prototypes. As soon as the story came out, everyone recognized it real people: the writer himself, his mother, father and the girl with whom the author was in love. Let's take a closer look at their prototypes:
♦ Vladimir, Turgenev’s main character, is the author himself, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
♦ Zinaida Alexandrovna - Princess Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya, who was a poetess. It is known that the young author was deeply in love with her, but it soon became clear that she was his father’s mistress. Her fate: wedding and death after childbirth was in reality.
♦ Pyotr Vasilyevich, the father of the main character - Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, who married a woman for convenience. Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was much older than him, and he did not love her at all. Hence his affairs with other women.
It is known that due to the fact that the writer’s father’s marriage was not for love, Sergei Nikolaevich’s novels were frequent. His wife, the writer’s mother, took care of the housework and stood firmly on her feet. Therefore, the couple lived on their own. In the story the author shows this married couple, from whose relationship their son, a completely young creature, suffers. The author himself is easily recognizable in it. This whole story takes place at a time when Ivan Turgenev lives in a village in the Moscow region to prepare for exams to enter the university.
The young man is passionately in love, and the girl flirts and jokes with him. Volodya completely forgets about his studies and thinks only about Zinochka. That’s why so much of Turgenev’s story is devoted to describing the experiences and feelings of a young man, which are constantly changing and in some ways even resemble a storm or flash. It is worth noting that Volodya is still happy, although the girl simply laughs at him. But still, anxiety gradually increases, and soon the young man begins to understand that Zina is not so simple: she has secret life and she is also in love with someone.
Soon, not only the hero, but also the readers begin to guess who Zinaida is in love with. The tone of the entire narrative of Turgenev's story changes greatly and the word "love", which before was stormy and enthusiastic, becomes dark and tragic. The girl’s feelings turn out to be much deeper than those of the main character. And Vladimir understands that this is what it is real love. It’s so different, everyone has their own, which is impossible to understand and explain. And as confirmation of this is the ending of the story, where the hero witnesses the explanation of two people in love who cannot be together.
But Volodya is not offended by them, realizing that this love is real and he has no right to condemn or interfere with such true love. This love is multifaceted, beautiful, complex. The author himself tried to find it all his life.
Composition of Turgenev's story
In its composition, Turgenev's story “First Love” is a rather simple work, but deep and meaningful. It has twenty chapters. The narrative is constructed in the form of memories, so the presentation is sequential and in the first person, since the author is the main character himself, who talks about what happened to him in his youth. Although the name, of course, has been changed: Vladimir Petrovich.
Turgenev's story begins with a short prologue, which shows the background of all these memories and introduces the reader to what they are about to learn. So, Vladimir, being an old man, in one of the companies tells the story of his first and tragic love. He does not want to tell his friends it verbally, as they did, but tells them that he will definitely write this story and read it to them the next time they meet. And he keeps his word. After this comes the story itself.
Detailed analysis of the twelfth chapter of Turgenev's story
The twelfth chapter, which is the culmination of the entire plot, occupies a special place in the entire Turgenev story. It is here, in this chapter, that the hero’s feelings reach their highest intensity. In it, the author describes the feeling that he has never had better in his life. The plot of this chapter allows us to understand a girl who at first seems frivolous and not serious, but it turns out that she is capable of suffering and deep and serious feelings. But only these “illegal” feelings become a real tragedy for her, and, most likely, this pushes her to commit unpredictable and sometimes cruel acts.
The author claimed that what he had to experience at the age of 16 was simply bliss, which, unfortunately, would never be repeated. The writer measured a lot of things in life through love, and therefore he puts his heroes in Turgenev’s story through the test of love. Ivan Sergeevich shows that his heroes must be fulfilled as individuals. Turgenev's psychologism is always secret; he does not give an open description of them, only general hints that helped readers plunge into the depths of sensuality. In this chapter there are many experiences of Vladimir, which show his inner world, and this helps to understand the content of the entire work.
With the help of his work, Turgenev was able to relive his youthful excitement and show the reader all the versatility of love.
Sections: Literature
To succeed as a person,
Be tested by love
For it is in it that the true
The essence and value of any person.
I.S. Turgenev
At home you became acquainted with I.S. Turgenev’s story “First Love”. What are your impressions?
By the way, this work was perceived ambiguously by Ivan Sergeevich’s contemporaries.
In a letter from Louis Viardot to Turgenev, we read a sharp criticism of the story: “My friend, I want to speak frankly to you about your “First Love.”
Frankly, if I were an editor, I would also reject this little novel and for the same reasons. I’m afraid that, whether you like it or not, it should be classified in the category of that literature that is rightly called unhealthy...
Who does this new Lady with Camellias choose among her admirers? A married man. But why not at least make him a widower? Why this sad and useless figure of his wife? And who tells this whole scandalous story? His son, oh shame! And it’s not at the age of 16 that he does this, but at the age of 40, when his own hair is already turning silver; and he does not find a single word of censure or regret about the pitiful situation of his parents. What, after all this, does talent serve when it spends itself on such a plot?” Louis Viardot
However, Turgenev's friend, writer Gustave Flaubert, evaluates “First Love” differently. In March 1863, he wrote to Turgenev: “...I understood this thing especially well because this is exactly the story that happened to one of my very close friends. All the old romantics... should be grateful to you for this short story, which tells them so much about their youth! What a fiery girl this Zinochka is. One of your qualities is the ability to create women. They are ideal and real at the same time. They have an attractive force and are surrounded by radiance. But this whole story, and even the whole book, is illuminated by the following two lines: “I didn’t have any bad feelings against my father. On the contrary: he seemed to have grown up in my eyes.” This, in my opinion, is an amazingly deep thought. Will it be noticed? Don't know. But for me this is the pinnacle.”
In order to figure out who is right in their assessment of the story, let us turn to its analysis.
Do you think every person experiences first love?
Turgenev in his work says no. In the prologue, the author depicts a scene of a night conversation between the owner and two guests who lingered in his house. From the conversation between men, we understand that first love bypasses vulgar and ordinary consciousness. The first guest, Sergei Nikolaevich, says: “I didn’t have a first love... I just started with the second... When I first dragged himself one very pretty young lady... I looked after her as if this was not a new thing to me...”
What word in his speech is alarming?
“Dragged.”
This man not only trivializes the very concept of love; he is trying to cross out the fundamental property of first love - its ability to make a well-known world new.
The story of the first love of the owner of the house looks everyday, mundane, ritualized, insincere, forced: “we were matched, we very soon fell in love with each other and got married without hesitation, in a word, “everything went like clockwork for us.”
And I. S. Turgenev believed that love is a blow. It takes away the whole person without a trace and requires transformation, which is why you remember it for the rest of your life.
Vladimir Petrovich, the second guest, was gifted with first love; he knows what it means for a person in his youth and for his entire subsequent destiny. He is clearly aware of who is in front of him and that he has to defend the very concept of “love”, so he asks for time to write down the story that still lives in him, because one cannot talk about such things in vain...
Turgenev tests many of his heroes with love, because this feeling transforms a person, makes him better. Let us turn to the images of the main characters of the story, gifted with first love.
Students' stories about the characters in the work and the teacher's conclusions.
Image of Voldemar.
The story is told from the perspective of the main character, Vladimir Petrovich, a man of about forty. He recalls a story that happened to him, a 16-year-old boy. Prototype young hero The story, according to the writer himself, was inspired by him: “This boy is your humble servant...”
Long, bright, warm days of summer follow each other... Life is going as usual... without a tutor... walking with a book in hand, riding a horse. The boy imagines himself as a knight in a tournament. He doesn’t have a lady of his heart yet, but his whole soul is ready to meet her.
Describe the hero's internal state.
Two polar feelings live in him: sadness and joy. He becomes sad and cries from contemplating the “beauty of the evening” and reading the “singing verse.” But at the same time it’s so joyful to watch him around you beautiful world, that “through tears and through sadness” uncontrollably “appeared... a feeling of young, simmering life.”
Turgenev calls Volodya’s premonition “half-conscious, bashful,” as it is associated with the dreams of a young heart about the “ghost of a woman’s love.” The youthful consciousness is focused on the dream of knightly service to the Beautiful Lady. And in this he worthy son my father.
Image of Pyotr Vasilyevich.
The prototype of the hero is the writer’s father, Sergei Nikolaevich, who married Varvara Petrovna (Ivan Sergeevich’s mother) for convenience. Throughout his life, he will retain his inner independence and emphasized coldness in the marital union.
Why exactly after the “sparrow night” does Turgenev talk about Vladimir’s father?
“Sparrow Night” showed that the feeling that Vladimir experiences is real and very serious, his happy dream at dawn it’s like a calm before the storm of suffering and passion that will fall on the young man, and it is the father who will become the cause of this suffering.
Now a 40-year-old man is talking about his father, but even two decades after his death, he continues to look at him with adoration and admiration. “I loved him, I admired him, he seemed to me a model of a man.” The father’s face is still unforgettable: smart, handsome, bright, unforgettable are those short minutes when he allowed the boy to be next to him. But this did not make his attachment to his father any less.
It is the father who helps his son understand the eternal meaning of love: “Alien I penetrated into yours: you are expanded - and you are violated... and yours I killed."
In the memory of Vladimir Petrovich, his father remained a man of honor. Having married for convenience to a woman “ten years older than him” and being financially dependent on her, he endures a situation unworthy of himself for many years. The only thing that helps him, in forced life circumstances, to remain an internally independent person is his severity, coldness and distance in his relationship with his wife. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which the father could ask her for anything. Nevertheless, twice Pyotr Vasilyevich will have to kneel before his wife, taking care of Zinaida.
When their relationship ceases to be a secret thanks to an anonymous letter from Count Malevsky and a quarrel occurs in the house with cruel words and threats, he finds the spiritual strength to go to his wife and “alone with her” to talk for a long time about something. In an effort to protect the princess from slander, he agrees, apparently, on his wife’s condition to leave the dacha and move to the city. However, the most amazing scene is when, according to Vladimir Petrovich, a few days before his death, his father received a letter from Moscow and “went to ask my mother for something and, they say, even cried, he, my father!”
The father also behaves chivalrously in the situation with the author of the anonymous letter to his wife, Count Malevsky, refusing him to visit his house: “... I have the honor to report to you that if you come to me again, I will throw you out the window. I don’t like your handwriting.”
A handsome, deep, passionate man, he had a decisive influence on the frisky, flirtatious minx princess.
Even when everything is revealed, the boy-knight “did not cry, did not give in to despair,” and most importantly, “did not grumble against his father.” The father's chivalrous behavior in the following days will not only not give his son a reason for reproaches, but will further confirm the young man in his father's right to love. Significant in this sense is the scene (after his father’s meeting with Zinaida in the city), when he suddenly discovered “how much tenderness and regret could be expressed... by the strict features” of his father, who passionately loved and at the same time grieved over the impossibility of his love.
The image of Zinaida Aleksandrovna Zasekina.
The prototype of Zinaida was the poetess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya, she was a neighbor at the dacha of 15-year-old Turgenev.
Zinaida occupies an intermediate position between childhood and adulthood. She is 21. This is evidenced by her actions, which reek of childishness and thoughtlessness (playing forfeits or ordering Voldemar to jump from the wall). The love of her fans amuses her. She also treats Voldemar as just another admirer, not realizing at first that he has never fallen in love before, that he life experience even less than her own.
In the second plot scene, a cross-cutting and very important motif of light in solving the image of Zinaida will appear. Light shines through Zinaidina’s “sly smile on slightly parted lips,” and the light illuminates the princess’s quick glance at Vladimir. And “when her eyes, mostly half-squinted, opened to their full size,” the light seemed to spill over the girl’s entire face.
Why does light accompany Turgenev's heroine?
The feeling of emanating light from Zinaida’s gaze and face belongs to a young knight in love, deifying his ideal, who saw before him angel woman. But at the same time, the light is a sign of special purity, speaking about the inner purity of Zinaida, the purity of her soul, despite all the contradictory behavior of the princess.
The motif of light reaches its culmination in the portrait description of Zinaida sitting against the background of a window. “She sat with her back to the window, curtained with a white curtain; a ray of sunlight, breaking through this curtain, bathed her fluffy golden hair, her innocent neck, sloping shoulders and tender, calm chest with a soft light.” Enveloped in the window light, emitting light herself, she seemed to be in a cocoon of light, through which “her face seemed even more charming: everything in it was so subtle, smart and sweet.” “The eyelids quietly rose,” and the girl’s tenderly shining eyes seemed to reflect her soul.
With difficulty and tears, Zinaida enters the world of adults. It is in her character to love a strong person, “who would break me himself.” She is waiting for exactly this kind of love, she wants to submit to her chosen one. She is no longer satisfied with flirting with fans, she is “sick of everything,” and she is ready for a big, strong feeling. Voldemar is the first to understand that she for real fell in love.
Why is the work called “First Love”? How do you understand the title of the story?
This is a work about the first love in the life of the main characters of the story. In the phrase “first love” for Voldemar the key word is “first”, for the father it is “love”, and for Zinaida both words are important. The title of the story is ambiguous. “First Love” is not only a story about the first wonderful feeling of a boy who has become a young man. It's excruciating last passion for his father and the only, fatal love for Zinaida. Thus, everyone has their own “first love”.
I.S. Turgenev had a huge influence not only on literature, but also on the perception of the world among his readers; it is not for nothing that the term “Turgenev girl” became firmly established in the speech of educated people and became common noun for canonical female image V national culture. This author has created many diverse works, but they are united by deep poetry in every word. His “First Love” is also imbued with it.
In 1844 I.S. Turgenev met with French singer Pauline Viardot and fell in love. As it turned out, forever. They quarreled, made up, the writer followed his beloved everywhere. But this love was doomed, and at the same time selfless. It was precisely this feeling that gave rise to a number of lyrical and philosophical stories with tragic love story, among which "First Love", published in 1860. In these works, feeling is a disease that affects a person and deprives him of his will and reason.
The book was written in January-March 1860. The plot collision was based on real story the writer's family: a love triangle between the young writer, his father and Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya. The author noted that he had nothing to hide, and as for the condemnation of Turgenev’s frankness by his acquaintances, he did not care.
Genre: short story or story?
The story is short in volume prose work, having a unique storyline, one conflict and reflecting a separate episode in the lives of the heroes. Tale – epic genre, standing in volume between a novel and a short story, has a more complex and branched plot, and the conflict is a chain of episodes.
“First Love” can be called a story, since there are several main characters (usually one or two in a story). The work does not depict a single episode, but a chain of events connected by the development of a love conflict. Also genre feature A story can be called a story within a story. The narrator, who is also the main character, recalls episodes of his youth, so the introduction talks about the situation that led the narrator to memories: he and his friends were talking about the topic of first love, and his story turned out to be the most entertaining.
What is the work about?
In the company of friends, the narrator recalls his youth, his first love. As a 16-year-old boy, Vladimir was fascinated by his dacha neighbor, 21-year-old Zinaida. The girl enjoyed the attention of young people, but did not take anyone seriously, but spent evenings with them in fun and games. The heroine laughed at all her admirers, including Vladimir, and did not take life seriously at all. But once…
The main character noticed a change in his beloved, and soon it dawned on him: she fell in love! But who is he, the opponent? The truth turned out to be terrible, this is the father of the main character, Pyotr Vasilyevich, who married his mother for convenience, treats both her and his son with disdain. Pyotr Vasilyevich is not interested in the scandal, so love ends quickly. Soon he dies of a stroke, Zinaida gets married and also dies in childbirth.
The main characters and their characteristics
The description of the characters in the story “First Love” is dramatic and in itself gives rise to a conflict of interest. In a family where there is no harmony, love was perceived by men as a means to forget themselves, or to feel needed. However, in pursuit of personal happiness, they did not delve into the hidden depths of Zinaida’s personality, and did not discern her essence. She poured out all the heat of her heart into an ice vessel and destroyed herself. Thus, the main characters of the work became victims of their own blindness, inspired by passion.
- Vladimir- A 16-year-old nobleman, still under family care, but striving for independence and adulthood. He is overwhelmed by dreams of love, happiness, harmony, he idealizes all feelings, especially love. However, for the main character himself, love became a tragedy. Vladimir forgot about everything, was ready to constantly be at Zinaida’s feet, was absorbed only in her. And after the dramatic denouement, he mentally aged, all his dreams of a brilliant future were shattered, and only the ghost of unfulfilled love remained.
- Zinaida– 21-year-old impoverished princess. She was in a hurry and longed to live, as if sensing that there would not be much time left. The main character of the story “First Love” could not calm down all her inner passion; despite the large selection of men, there was no loved one around. And she chose the most unsuitable one, for the sake of whom she disdained all prohibitions and decency, and for him she was just another entertainment. She got married in a hurry to hide the shame, died giving birth to a child from an unloved... So a life ended, full of only one, also unfulfilled love.
- Petr Vasilievich- the father of the main character. He married a woman who was 10 years older for money, ruled and pushed her around. He showered his son with cold contempt. The family was completely unnecessary in his life; it still did not give him satisfaction. But the young neighbor, having loved him with all her heart, briefly gave him a taste for life. However, he could not leave his wife, it would be unprofitable, and there would be a scandal too. That's why the hero simply abandoned his mistress to the mercy of fate.
Subject
- The main theme of the story is Love. It's different here. And the self-humiliating feeling of Vladimir’s mother towards her husband: the woman is ready to do anything just not to lose her husband, she is afraid of him, afraid to admit to herself that he does not love her. And Vladimir’s hopeless, sacrificial love: he agrees to any role in order to be close to Zinaida, even a page, even a jester. And Zinaida herself has a passionate obsession: for the sake of Pyotr Vasilyevich, she becomes the same slave as his son before her. And love by chance for the protagonist’s father: women liked him, the neighbor was a new hobby, an easy affair.
- The result of love becomes the following theme - loneliness. And Vladimir, and Zinaida, and Pyotr Vasilyevich are broken by this love triangle. After the tragic ending, no one remained the same, they all found themselves alone forever, they died morally, and then the failed lovers died physically.
- Family theme. Of particular importance in the work is the unfavorable climate in home Main character. It was he who made him beg for love. The complexes received from the cold rejection of his father were expressed in his attitude towards Zinaida. This slavish worship destroyed his chances of success.
- Conclusion: First Love inspires us to be brave in expressing our emotions. There is no need to be afraid of love, because the most unrequited affection is the most beautiful memory. It is better to experience happiness for a moment than to be unhappy all your life because you chose peace over mental anguish.
- Moral: everyone gets what they deserve. Zinaida played with men - and now she is a pawn in the hands of Pyotr Vasilyevich. He himself married for convenience, rejected his neighbor - died of a stroke, “burnt out.” But Vladimir, despite the tragedy, received the brightest memory in his life, and at the same time his conscience is calm, because he did not injure anyone and sincerely gave all of himself to tender affection.
Issues
Moral problems are revealed in the work in several aspects. Firstly, does Zinaida’s life, the crowd of fans around her, with whom she plays like pawns, deserve understanding? Secondly, can forbidden love, which violates all moral standards, be happy? The plot development of events answers these questions negatively: the main character is punished for her disdain for her admirers by the disregard of her loved one, and their relationship inevitably leads to a break. And indirectly led to the death of both. However, the reader sympathizes with Zinaida, she is full of thirst for life, and this evokes involuntary sympathy. In addition, she is capable of deep feelings that evoke respect.
The problem of power in love is most fully expressed in the relationship between Zinaida and Pyotr Vasilyevich. The girl dominated her past gentlemen and felt very cheerful. But true love came, and with it suffering. And even suffering from a loved one is sweet. And no power is needed. Pyotr Vasilyevich hit her with a whip, and she gently brought the reddened place to her lips, because this is a mark from him.
Idea
The main idea of the story is the all-consuming power of love. Whatever it is, happy or tragic, it is like a fever that suddenly seizes and does not let go, and if it goes away, it leaves devastation. Love is powerful and sometimes destructive, but this feeling is wonderful, you cannot live without it. You can only exist. The main character remembered his youthful emotions forever; his first love revealed to him the meaning and beauty of existence, even if distorted by suffering.
And the writer himself was unhappy in love, and his hero too, but even the most tragic passion is the best discovery in human life, because for the sake of those minutes when you are in seventh heaven with happiness, it is worth enduring the bitterness of loss. In suffering, people purify themselves and reveal new facets of their soul. Taking into account the autobiographical nature of the story, we can say that the author, without his fatal and sad muse, as well as the pain caused by her, would not have been able to penetrate so deeply into the essence of romantic relationships. The main idea of “First Love” would be far from it, but it must be suffered and learned through own experience, since only those who experienced it will write convincingly about the tragedy of love.
What does the story teach?
The moral lessons in Turgenev's story consist of several points:
“First Love” is over 150 years old. However, this work does not lose its relevance. How many people have had their hearts broken by their first feelings forever! But, nevertheless, everyone carefully stores these emotions in their souls. And the beauty with which this book is written makes you re-read it many times.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!Turgenev, reviews of which are given in this article, were first published in Russia in 1860. It tells about the emotional experiences of the young protagonist, his first real love, who had to face dramatic and sacrificial relationships between adults.
History of creation
The story “First Love” by Turgenev, reviews can be found in this article, was written by the author in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1860.
As the writer himself admitted, he created the work on the basis of his own emotional experience, as well as events that actually happened in the writer’s family. Turgenev later admitted that he described everything as it was, trying not to embellish anything. One of the main characters was his father. Later, many condemned the writer for such frankness, and especially for the fact that he did not hide the fact that all these were real events and not fiction.
Turgenev himself was firmly convinced that there was nothing wrong with this, since he had nothing to hide from the public.
Plot of the story
Turgenev's story "First Love" received mostly positive reviews. Both from readers and literary critics.
The plot of the story “First Love” by Turgenev, reviews of which are in this article, is the memoirs of an elderly man. At the end of his life, he recalls the very first romantic feeling that visited him in his youth.
At the center of the story is the main character named Vladimir. He is only 16 years old. He lives with his family on his parents' country estate. There he meets the charming 21-year-old Zinaida Alexandrovna Zasekina, a princess who moves in next door. He immediately falls in love with beautiful girl, who, moreover, herself shows him signs of attention.
There are many obstacles in his way. Firstly, Zinaida is surrounded a large number of other young people, each of whom strives to achieve her favor. And secondly, his feelings turn out to be non-reciprocal. Zinaida is capricious, has a playful character, she often mocks the hero, ridiculing him for his various reasons. For example, for his comparative youth.
The Mystery of Zinaida
The story “First Love” by Turgenev,” reviews of which are given in this article, captivates the reader. Especially when it turns out who was the true object of Zinaida’s love. This is Vladimir’s father, whose name is Pyotr Vasilyevich.
The main character secretly watches the scene of his father's romantic meeting with Zinaida, which, however, ends in a break. Pyotr Vasilyevich decides to leave the young girl. However, his wife becomes aware of the husband’s affair. The family leaves the estate.
Soon Pyotr Vasilyevich dies. He is struck by a stroke. At the end of the story, the main character learns that Zinaida married Mr. Dolsky. He is going to see her, but does not have time. Princess Zinaida dies during childbirth.
Prototypes of the story's heroes
As already mentioned, Turgenev’s story “First Love” is based on real events. In reviews of the work one can find direct references to the prototypes of the main characters.
The prototype of Pyotr Vasilyevich is his father, whose name was Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev. His personal life was not entirely successful. He married for convenience to a woman who was much older than him, but wealthier. The writer's mother is Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova. When they got married, she was 28 years old, and Turgenev's father was 22.
Sergei Nikolaevich never felt love and tenderness for his wife. Therefore, after several years of relatively happy family life began to openly stare at other women. He succeeded in this; Turgenev’s father was popular with the opposite sex. His most famous mistress, with whom he had the longest relationship, Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya. Shortly after breaking up with her, he died at a relatively young age. He was only 40 years old.
Turgenev's father's mistress
Princess Shakhovskaya became the prototype of Zinaida Alexandrovna in Turgenev’s story “First Love”. You can find reviews of the product in this article. She was a poetess, young Turgenev himself was really in love with her, but she gave preference to his father.
Her fate turned out as described in the story. Soon after breaking up with Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, she married Lev Kharitonovich Vladimirov. Six months later, they had a boy. Shakhovskaya had a hard time giving birth; a week after the birth of the child, she died.
Analysis of the work
In the analysis of the work “First Love” by Turgenev, it is worth noting that the author was best able to depict the emergence of a bright and great feeling that visits every person, as well as the development of love that emerged from a fleeting youthful infatuation.
The author claims that love can give a person a huge range of different feelings. Moreover, they may not always be positive. Love not only gives delight or peace, but can also instill hatred and anger in the soul.
IN this work you can follow all the stages of love. The main character first experiences moments of happiness and rapture, then a feeling of black jealousy. And also annoyance and disappointment when it turns out that his main rival is his own father.
Narrative Features
Simplicity of presentation is one of the main advantages of all of Turgenev's prose. The reader does not have to constantly arrange complex facts into a single chain. Instead, the straightforward plot creates an impression of realism and sincerity. All the lines sound very natural, because everything actually happened in the author’s life. For this reason, working on this story gave him such pleasure.
The story “First Love” by Turgenev, the analysis of which is given in this article, is divided into chapters. Each of them contains a specific, completely independent plot. Thanks to this structure, the writer can more easily convey his ideas to the reader and demonstrate the full range of development of the characters’ feelings.
The climax of the story comes in chapter 12. It describes in detail the whole range of powerful and contradictory feelings that the main character experiences for Princess Zinaida. The reader has a unique opportunity to look into the souls of the characters. Find out how they really feel and how they experience the events that are happening.
Images of heroes
It is also important that almost all the characters in Turgenev’s story are in development. The protagonist's father is presented clearly and contrastingly. At some point, the reader can even sympathize with him, because his life is doomed. He is married to an unloved woman, and all his relationships on the side are doomed.
Throughout the story, the image of the main character, Princess Zinaida, also changes radically. Her image is undergoing a process of evolution. She transforms from the frivolous girl she was at the beginning into a truly loving, strong and independent woman.
It is interesting that in the end she turns out to be not as frivolous as she might have seemed at the very beginning of the story. Closer to the middle of the work, she appears before us in the image of an unhappy girl who is doomed to suffer in this life because of love. Literally from the inside, she is constantly tormented and gnawing by the thought that her love for married man there is no future. However, she steadfastly and courageously endures all the hardships that befall her. This speaks only of one thing - during her affair with Pyotr Vasilyevich, she turned into a wise woman who knows the value of her feelings.
The main character of the story
In fact, the main character of the story is a real child. Youthful maximalism in him prevails over many rational feelings. For example, he wants to kill his rival, who is preventing him from reuniting with Zinaida Alexandrovna.
However, when he finds out that he has to compete with his own father, all his stormy mood goes away. He forgives everyone around him and looks at the situation in which he finds himself in a completely different way. Agree, the act is very naive and childish in its own way.