The question of the “primary sources” of a work is of fundamental importance for understanding artistic method the author of “What is to be done?”, its genre and plot-compositional structure. What is the relationship between reality and the creative imagination of the artist-novelist?
What are the relationships between real life younger generation commoners of the sixties and the worldview of the heroes of the novel, their educational practice and the socio-philosophical concept of the author-thinker?
How did the reorientation of genre criteria from a love-intimate novel to a social-philosophical novel take place?
How were the traditional plot solutions of predecessors used and revised, and on what paths was the original genre structure of the new narrative built?
Chernyshevsky believed that in life every minute there are “poetic events” that “in their development and denouement” often have “artistic completeness and completeness,” and “the prototype for a poetic person very often serves as a real person.”
It is no coincidence that actual events and the lives of people he knew aroused in him the need to comprehend them in an artistic diary essay (1848) and in the story “Theory and Practice” of 1849-1850. (events caused by the marriage of V.P. Lobodovsky, Chernyshevsky’s university friend), and the original creativity in the story “Understanding” (on which Chernyshevsky also worked in university years) served as historically existing persons (Louise, Goethe's sister).
IN scientific literature The prototypes of many literary characters from Chernyshevsky’s work have been quite convincingly established: V. A. Obruchev - for Alferyev (from the story of the same name), N. A. Dobrolyubov - for Levitsky, K. D. Kavelin - for Ryazantsev, S. I. Serakovsky - for Sokolovsky, N.A. Milyutin - for Savelov, and N.G. Chernyshevsky himself - for Volgin (the novel “Prologue”).
All researchers of the novel “What is to be done?” they agree that the songs and additional explanations of the “lady in mourning,” especially when performing Walter Scott’s Scottish romance-ballad “The Robber,” reproduce in a disguised form the scene of Chernyshevsky’s explanation with his bride Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva.
“Of course,” he clarifies the artist’s right to fiction, “I had to slightly alter these facts so that they wouldn’t point fingers at the people I’m talking about, that, they say, here she is, whom he renamed Vera Pavlovna, but for real This is her name, and her second husband, whom he transferred to the Medical Academy, is our famous scientist so-and-so, who serves in a different department, precisely in this department.”
Researchers have different points of view on the advisability of studying the prototypes of the heroes of “What is to be done?” For example, Academician M.V. Nechkina believes that “Rakhmetov’s type authorizes researchers to search for all prototypes, especially those indicated by the author himself.”
It should only be noted that the prototype will never be identical artistic image. In particular, despite a number of similar details in the behavior of Rakhmetov and P. A. Bakhmetov, about whom much has already been written, it is by no means possible to put an equal sign between them.
To a certain extent, real sources provide an opportunity to look into the writer’s creative laboratory. In this sense, such a parallel, for example, is curious. Rakhmetov's interest in Newton's commentary on the Apocalypse of St. John" as a "classical source on the issue of mixing madness with intelligence" echoes the work of the "landlord" N.I. Utin on an article on the Apocalypse for " Encyclopedic Dictionary”, published with the participation of P. L. Lavrov, and with a translation of the Bible carried out by V. I. Kelsiev and published in London (1860).
However, there are few such transparent hints about Rakhmetov’s connection with his prototypes in the novel. All data on the similarity of the “special person” with the most prominent figures of the period of the revolutionary situation (N.A. Dobrolyubov, P.D. Ballod, brothers N.A. and A.A. Serno-Solovyevich, etc.) are of a general nature. But even in this case, we can come to the conclusion that when working on the image of Rakhmetov (“I have met so far only eight examples of this breed (including two women)”), the writer artistically summarized the main thing in worldview and psychology, in personal and social practice of friends in the revolutionary underground.
Believing that “the original already has a general meaning in its individuality,” Chernyshevsky saw the writer’s task as understanding “the essence of character in a real person,” to understand “how this person would act and speak in the circumstances among which he would be delivered by the poet,” “to convey it as the poet understands it.”
This was the artistic and transformative function of the novelist, preventing the danger of illustrativeness and naturalism.
It is noteworthy that democratic writers of the 60s and 70s. XIX century, continuing the traditions of Chernyshevsky, they relied in their creative practice on real historical events of their time, artistically transforming them. It is quite likely that N. Bazhin, while working on the story “Stepan Rulev” (1864), became acquainted with the first steps of the revolutionary organization N. A. Ishutin - I. A. Khudyakov (1863-1866).
In any case, one of the characters in his story, Ilya Kudryakov, Stepan Rulev’s “best friend and comrade-in-arms,” resembles the greatest revolutionary figure Ivan Khudyakov (similarity of surnames: Khudyakov - Kudryakov; lameness of both as a result of injury suffered from a horse in childhood; spiritual kinship and a similar method of educational activity of folklorists and booksellers wandering through villages).
I. Kushchevsky in the novel “Nikolai Negorev, or the Prosperous Russian” (1870) responded to the events of the first revolutionary situation, spoke about the activities of the sixties, who organized revolutionary “societies” and “branches” and decided “not to miss the favorable opportunity to announce the decree on the liberation of the peasants” for a popular uprising.
With great warmth, the author writes about a member of this “branch” Andrei Negorev, who distributed brochures and proclamations, who later became a political emigrant, about Overin, who, under the influence of these proclamations, rushed “into the abyss” and led a peasant uprising.
Kushchevsky deliberately brings Overin’s feat closer to the revolutionary activities of Chernyshevsky, when in the description of Overin’s civil execution he historically accurately reproduces the place, circumstances and details of the government abuse of Nikolai Gavrilovich (the bouquet of flowers thrown from the crowd to the “criminal in the pillory” is not forgotten!).
The novel by V. Bervi-Flerovsky “For Life and Death” (1877), in its first part is largely correlated with the social events of the 60s; the title character of this part, Pavlush Skripitsyn, even meets Chernyshevsky himself!
The second part of Flerovsky’s work “Disciples” corresponds to the time and circumstances of the propaganda activities of the “Chaikovites” and “Dolgushinites” in workers’ circles (early 70s), and the third part (“New Religion”) is devoted to the events of “going to the people” 1874— 1875 This novel combines all the key problems that occupied the forefront Russian society over a long period of time (40-70s of the 19th century).
A participant in the revolutionary underground, S. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky captured in his works (“Underground Russia”, 1881; “Andrei Kozhukhov”, 1889, etc.) the mood and circumstances of the heroic struggle against tsarism of his comrades from the era of “going to the people” (Peter Kropotkin , Dmitry Lizogub, Vera Zasulich, Dmitry Klements) and the “People's Will” period (Sofya Perovskaya, Stepan Khalturin, Alexander Mikhailov).
Some researchers of the novel “What is to be done?” believe that Chernyshevsky expanded the circle literary sources, turning to the method of thought experiment adopted in the exact sciences, when “a scientist, based on the data of his theory, creates a model of an experiment that in reality cannot be produced at a given technical level, and thus proves the fundamental correctness of the idea.”
The “Method of Hypothetical Simplification of Situations and Conflicts” is transferred to in this case on the structure of a utopian novel, which “is, as it were, a description of the “mental” implementation of an idea into life.
This experience is “described” as real, and the novel is often perceived by readers as scientific description" The hypothetical research method of Chernyshevsky the novelist is seen primarily in the story of Vera Pavlovna’s organization of a sewing workshop-commune and in the description of socialist society (“Vera Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream”) as a historically already emerged and inevitably growing process of social reorganization.
These observations undoubtedly help clarify the origins of social psychology and the worldview of the characters in the novel. They allow you to concretely imagine the internal “mechanism” of the artistic embodiment of a dream. real people about a bright future.
However, when deciding the relationship between reality and fiction, there is no reason to “translate” Chernyshevsky’s entire novel from a realistic work to the category utopian novels, to reduce the “first cases” of personal and social activity of “new people” who have “historical interest” only to “imitation of experience.”
A work that imitates objectivity and accuracy of description, achieving verisimilitude and fascination in the narrative in the name of proving some author’s postulate, will have nothing in common with realistic art and, at best, will perform an illustrative function.
Contemporaries perceived the novel “What is to be done?” otherwise. Prominent figure in the revolutionary movement of the 60s. N. I. Utin (who later became one of the organizers of the Russian section of the First International) wrote on February 22, 1864 to N. P. Ogarev about Chernyshevsky’s work: “I in no way agree that his goal is fantastic, because he doesn’t even think of talking that everything is possible right now, on the contrary, he shows that you need to go step by step, and then says: this is what will happen at the end of your labors and aspirations, this is how you can live. And therefore, “work and work.”
The principles of the socialist organization of labor associations have already become accessible to the best part of the mixed intelligentsia of the 60s. XIX century The socialist ideal in the worldview of the “sixties” (even in a utopian version!) is reality, not fantasy.
A hypothetical calculation of the profits that each seamstress receives from the workshop, their benefits from living together and a common household - this is the operation of “real”, “living” people who know what to do, in the name of what to live. Therefore, Chernyshevsky writes about workshop-communes as labor associations that actually exist in life.
Were there really sources for a realistic description of Vera Pavlovna’s sewing workshop?
Chernyshevsky, talking about the work of Vera Pavlovna’s workshop, sought to somehow respond to the aspirations of women of the 60s. improve your working conditions. According to statistical data from 1860, it is known that in St. Petersburg “4,713 artisans were content with a salary of 2-3-5 rubles. per month on the master's table and tea. Those who worked at home, living with their husbands or relatives, earned 2-3 rubles a month on gloves and agramant, and even less on stockings.”
The circle of Maria Vasilievna Trubnikova carried out energetic work to improve the lives of women in need. In 1859, he founded the “Society of Cheap Apartments and Other Benefits for Needy Residents” of St. Petersburg. The society first rented apartments for its clients in different parts of the city, but then, with the money raised from the lottery, a large house was bought, into which all the poor were transferred.
“At the same time, the Society had the opportunity to begin fulfilling its cherished desire - the establishment of a school for children and a sewing workshop, where residents could receive and perform work and where outside seamstresses could also come and perform own work on sewing machines provided to them free of charge.
N.V. Stasova worked especially energetically in the workshop, through whose efforts she soon received a large order from the commissariat, which provided her with work for a long time. The school was taught first by members of the community, and then by teachers invited for this purpose.” However, we do not yet see the embodiment of socialist principles in the work of the workshop.
The same memoirs state that M.V. Trubnikova’s circle, having begun its social activities with philanthropy, then “evolved, reflecting the influence of other, often more radical circles, for example, the Chernyshevsky circle (the Land and Freedom society), with which Maria Vasilievna personally was directly connected through her friends, brothers Nikolai and Alexander Serno-Solovievich, and to which she was attracted by her own democratic and anti-monarchical tendencies.”
It is interesting to remember another attempt by M.V. Trubnikova’s circle - to create a “Women’s Labor Society”. Information about him expands our understanding of the era of the 60s. and once again testify to the great difficulties facing enthusiasts of the women's movement.
The society was conceived with broad plans. It should have the right to establish various workshops: sewing, bookbinding, translation offices and publishing children's and scientific books. P. L. Lavrov took part in drawing up its charter in 1863.
Only part of this program was implemented. At the beginning of 1863, it was possible to organize a women's artel or society of translators-publishers, which included 36 people (M. V. Trubnikova, N. V. Stasova, A. N. Engelgardt, N. A. Belozerskaya, M. A. Menzhinskaya , A. P. Filosofova, V. V. Ivasheva, E. A. Stackenschneider, etc.). The bookbinding and binding of books published by the society were carried out by a women's bookbinding artel founded by V. A. Inostrantseva. Illustrations and engravings were also done by women.
Thus, there is every reason to believe that in the story about Vera Pavlovna’s work activity, Chernyshevsky relied on real life facts. There have already been attempts to find new forms of organizing work, organizing everyday life and educating workers.
The description of the revolutionary educational work of Lopukhov, Kirsanov and Mertsalov among the sewing workshop workers has a vital basis. We know about the existence of Sunday schools for adults, organized by “landers”. And yet, actual facts from life were not enough to implement artistic design Chernyshevsky.
In the novel, Vera Pavlovna’s workshop did not resemble an enterprise organized by Trubnikova’s circle. Therefore, the writer wrote in the draft version of the novel: “There is one more feature in the story that I invented: this is a workshop. In fact, Vera Pavlovna was not busy setting up a workshop; and I did not know such workshops as I described: they do not exist in our dear fatherland. She was actually [working on] something like Sunday school<...>not for children, but for adults."
Chernyshevsky had to, to a certain extent, “invent” Vera Pavlovna’s workshop. In this sense, the “hypothetical method of research” of Chernyshevsky the economist was really useful to Chernyshevsky the novelist as an additional, auxiliary way of artistic motivation for Vera Pavlovna’s plan to organize workshops according to the models proposed by “kind and smart people”, who wrote “many books about how to live in the world so that everyone can have a good time.”
However, it should be clarified that in this case the method of thought experiment has already been removed from the author and has become the property of Vera Pavlovna (“These are my thoughts”), a real sign of the intellectual achievements of the “new people.”
Subsequently, the reader of the novel learns that it turned out to be impossible to realize the socialist ideal in a country of autocratic despotism. As we know from the novel, after Kirsanov’s visit to the “enlightened husband” (a representative of the authorities) and conversation with him (XVII section of the fourth chapter), there was “nothing to think about the development of the enterprise, which was just asking to go forward.” The path to a new life in socialist labor associations lies only through revolution.
Chernyshevsky already had a theoretical justification for the difference between the dream of idle fantasy, divorced from reality, and the dream of a bright future, conducive to social progress. In the concept of reality, he included “not only the present, but also the past, as far as it is expressed in action, and the future, as far as it is prepared by the present.” This connection of the future with the present determines the artistic “compatibility” of realism and romanticism in “What is to be done?”
The fate of the works of utopian writers, who were forced to construct the elements of a new society from their own heads, because these elements had not yet emerged clearly for everyone in the bowels of the old society, depended on great theoretical training and the artistic tact of the author, from his ability to correctly reveal the historical patterns of social development.
The danger of “arbitrary regulation of details, and precisely those details, for the prediction and depiction of which reality does not yet provide sufficient data,” lay in wait, according to M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, and the author of “What is to be done?” However, Chernyshevsky largely (as confirmed by the practice of the developed socialist society that has come to fruition in our time) avoided this danger.
As far as it was possible for him, when working on the novel, he used the achievements of science and technology of his time in order to more clearly, artistically recreate the picture of the future (the construction of canals and irrigation systems that had already begun at that time, the discovery of electricity, the use of aluminum in industry and in the home). everyday life, experience in growing fruit in greenhouses, architectural achievements).
However, all this is just a “hint” for the writer, an impetus for recreating a more sublime picture, but without this “hint” it was impossible to achieve concrete emotional perception pictures of the future. For example, such a “hint” of the huge “crystal palace” that Vera Pavlovna sees in her dream was the Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill in England. Chernyshevsky first described the “Paxton Palace” in the August issue of Sovremennik magazine for 1854.
Thus, the utopian pictures in Chernyshevsky’s novel have many of their artistic details rose to reality, and this prevented the danger of abstract schematism. Romantic solemnity, elation in the description of a bright and wonderful future corresponded to the laws of romantic art and their individual manifestation in artistic form dreams.
The latter, in turn, did not allow the reader to forget that he was touching the worldview and the innermost dream real heroine- his contemporary.
Thus, in the complex relationship between historical reality and utopia, the real and the romantic, events from the lives of familiar people and “mental”, “hypothetical” situations and conflicts, the original artistic structure Chernyshevsky's novel, in which the first - realistic - link is the leading one both in its primary sources and in its artistic form.
“Chernyshevsky relies on realism, which stems from knowledge of life and has rich colors,” A.V. Lunacharsky asserted authoritatively. As for the romantic tendencies in fiction about “new people,” they, manifested in an increased craving for “idealization,” arise where “an aesthetically conscious need to make up for the lack of real life material with lyricism and authorial conviction” is acutely felt.
The “first cases” of production activity of the heroes of “What is to be done?”, which have “historical interest”, are noteworthy in another respect. Talking about the organization of a sewing workshop-commune and Lopukhov’s educational activities among workers, Chernyshevsky essentially opened a new plot-organizing center for future novels about “new people.”
Sewing workshops, Sunday schools, educational readings for workers, and savings and loan banks were strongholds of propaganda activity for the raznochintsy revolutionaries and, naturally, were reflected in literature, laying solid foundations for a new plot and compositional structure of the work (N. Bazhin, “Stepan Rulev,” “The Story of One partnership"; I. Omulevsky, "Step by step"; K. Stanyukovich, "No outcome"; P. Zasodimsky, "Chronicle of the village of Smurin", etc.).
In Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” for the first time in literature the idea was realized artistic image socialist labor association, the head of collective production from among the common intelligentsia is shown, ways of increasing general culture and the political consciousness of the “common people” through Sunday schools. Chernyshevsky foresaw the need to study the experience of the revolutionary labor movement in the West (the trip abroad of Rakhmetov and Lopukhov).
In N. Bazhin’s story “Stepan Rulev” the influence of the novel “What is to be done?” is reinforced by impressions of the efforts of the Ishutin residents to set up a plant on an artisanal basis. The meaning of the main “enterprise” of Rulev and Walter is precisely the preparation of an artisanal plant in the Urals.
The works of I. Omulevsky “Step by Step” (1870) and K. Stanyukovich “No Exodus” (1873) continue to artistically develop the theme of propaganda among workers through Sunday schools, introducing the difficulties of the legal activities of these schools. Svetlov, the first of the “new people” in democratic literature, had to become acquainted with a spontaneous strike of workers and exert a still timid influence on its development within legal limits. G. Uspensky noticed in the worker Mikhail Ivanovich a stable tendency towards rebellion, towards protest against “squeezing” (“Ravage”, 1869).
In an upswing social movement at the turn of the 60-70s, the organization of the Russian section of the First International and the activities of the Great Propaganda Society in workers' circles, the populist propagandists themselves demanded that writers reflect the contacts of Russian revolutionaries with the workers' movement Western Europe(V. Troshchansky, “Ideals of our public figures”).
M. Kovalsky welcomes Svetlov’s activities. L. Shchegolev develops a plan literary work from the life of workers, A. Obodovskaya writes a story about the fate of a freedom-loving village boy who went through a school of social education at a factory (“Neustrashimko”). However, the creative embodiment of the working theme in literature was complicated by the underdevelopment of the proletarian movement in Russia.
In the early 70s. The artistic development of the “labor question” and the connections of Russian “enlightenment” with the revolutionary West was complicated by Bakunin-Nechaev propaganda, adventurism and the dictatorship of anarchists. S. Smirnova’s (Sazonova) novel “The Salt of the Earth” (1872) crossed the contradictory trends of the early 70s: on the one hand, for the first time in literature, the colorful image of the worker-agitator Levka Trezvov was recreated, combining the strength and skill of a hammer worker with talent a revolutionary propagandist who clearly explains to workers the need for social solidarity in the struggle for their rights; on the other hand, the image of Levka reflected the weaknesses of Nechaevism (demagoguery and ambition, “the desire to play a role,” adherence to the rule: “the end justifies the means”).
In the same novel, the idea of a socialist-type industrial association is replaced by propaganda for the Lassallean plan for creating a credit and industrial partnership under the patronage of the authorities.
In the second half of the 70s - early 80s. There is a noticeable tendency in the literature to rethink the work of the “new people” with workers. In 1877, Bervi-Flerovsky turns to the early 70s. and the activities of agitators from the Great Propaganda Society in workers’ “cells” (“For Life and Death”).
In the second part of Bervy's novel, artistic characteristics are introduced different types workers who went to the school of political education from Ispot and Anna Semyonovna, attention is drawn to the emergence of class-conscious workers with “a deeper and keener understanding of science than most educated young men” who are interested in the life and struggle of the working class abroad.
To the events of the early 70s. addressed in the novel “Two Brothers” (1880) by K. Stanyukovich. The hero of this novel, Mirzoev, has connections with Russian political emigration and gives lectures to workers.
Along with the populist interest in peasant revolts, Russian literature of the period of the second revolutionary situation showed attention to unrest among the workers (N. Zlatovratsky, “Golden Hearts,” 1877; A. Osipovich-Novodvorsky, “History,” 1882; O. Shapir, “One of many", 1879). Forest worker Abramov led a revolt of workers at a sugar factory; a technician at the Utyuzhinsky plant, Nezhinsky, who studied the experience of the proletarian movement in the West, systematically leads the workers’ struggle for their rights at four factories.
Not all works are shown here democratic literature, recreating the artistic chronicle of the labor movement and the role of the various intelligentsia in it.
However, the material presented is sufficient to convince oneself of the historical and literary prospects artistic discoveries author of “What to do?” when describing the organizational activities of “new people” in work collectives of a new type, which turned from a “thought experiment” of a semi-utopian nature into the real practice of propaganda work of the democratic intelligentsia in workers’ circles at the dawn of the proletarian movement in Russia. This is how the formation took place in realistic literature new plot-organizing trends originating in Chernyshevsky’s first novel.
(It is noteworthy that in Chernyshevsky’s last (unfinished) novel “Reflections of Radiance,” written in Siberian exile (1879-1883), a story is introduced about Aurora Vasilievna’s organization of a labor gardening association and a factory on a collective basis).
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
“What to do?”: ideology, poetics, problems of artistry.
The enormous captivating power of the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky was that he convinced of the truth of the progressive in life, convinced that a bright socialist future was possible. He answered the most main question era: what should people do who do not want to live in the old way, who strive to bring closer the beautiful historical tomorrow of their homeland and all humanity?
Much in "What to do?" was astonishing in its unexpectedness. His plot was extraordinary. Under the pen of Chernyshevsky, the seemingly everyday story of the liberation of the daughter of a petty St. Petersburg official from domestic captivity resulted in a stormy, intense story of a Russian woman’s struggle for the freedom of her personality, for civil equality. Vera Pavlovna achieves material independence in a truly unheard of and previously unseen way. She runs a sewing workshop and here she develops an active, purposeful, and proactive character.
This storyline is intertwined with another, showing the new woman’s achievement of even more significant life goals - achieving spiritual, moral and social independence. In her relationships with Lopukhov and Kirsanov, the heroine finds love and happiness in their truly human high sense. Finally, a third storyline appears in the narrative - Rakhmetov's, which, it seems, only externally intersects with the first two. In fact, it is not a side episode, not an “insert” or a branch from the main plot, but its real skeleton. “A special person” appears at the most intense moment in the narrative, when Vera Pavlovna tragically experiences Lopukhov’s imaginary suicide, punishes herself for loving Kirsanov and intends to radically change her life, parting with the workshop, in essence, retreating, betraying her ideals. With intelligent, sympathetic advice, Rakhmetov helps Vera Pavlovna find the right path. And the denouement of the novel is connected with Rakhmetov’s life fate.
A very important character in the novel, the chapter “A Special Person” is dedicated to him. He himself comes from a noble rich family, but leads an ascetic lifestyle. Chernyshevsky brings to the stage the titanic hero Rakhmetov, whom he himself recognizes as extraordinary and calls him a special person. Rakhmetov does not participate in the action of the novel. There are very few people like him: neither science nor family happiness satisfies them; they love all people, suffer from any injustice that occurs, experience great grief in their own souls - the pitiful existence of millions of people and devote themselves to healing this illness with all their fervor. Rakhmetov became in the novel a true example of a comprehensively developed person who broke with his class and found in life common people, in the struggle for his happiness, his ideal, his goal. Rakhmetov, through his harsh lifestyle, cultivated the physical endurance and spiritual fortitude necessary for future trials. Confidence in the correctness of his political ideals, the joy of fighting for the happiness of the people strengthened the spirit and strength of a fighter in him. Rakhmetov understood that the struggle for new world it will be life or death, and therefore he prepared himself for it in advance. The composition “What to do?” is also unusual. Before Chernyshevsky’s novel, there were no works of such complex construction in Russian literature. The novel begins with a scene “torn out” from the middle - the climax: suicide on the bridge, mysterious disappearance one of the main characters works. Despite the central character of the novel, literary tradition a modest place is allocated in the story, just one chapter. And on top of that, the narrative is continually interrupted by extraneous episodes, theoretical conversations, and dreams. A.V. Lunacharsky, who wrote in Soviet era better job about Chernyshevsky’s fiction, noted: the author of “What is to be done?” used deeply thought-out compositional techniques.
And the story ends with a well-encrypted episode that occupies one incomplete page in the novel, which the author without hesitation called the chapter “Change of Scenery.” And it is no coincidence that the victory of the revolution was predicted here, for which the novel was written.
NOVEL “WHAT TO DO?” ISSUES,
GENRE, COMPOSITION. "OLD WORLD"
IN THE IMAGE OF CHERNYSHEVSKY
Objectives: to introduce students to creative history the novel “What is to be done?”, talk about the prototypes of the novel’s heroes; give an idea of the subject matter, genre and composition of the work; find out what the attractive power of Chernyshevsky’s book was for his contemporaries, how the novel “What is to be done?” on Russian literature; name the heroes of the novel, convey the content of the most important episodes, dwell on the writer’s depiction of the “old world”.
If the truth is holy
The world does not know how to find a road -
Honor the madman who inspires
A golden dream for humanity!
V. Kurochkin (translation from Beranger) 1862
There is nothing higher than a man, there is nothing higher than a woman (N.G. Chernyshevsky)
Lesson progress
Situation for girls: you have been married for more than 3 years, “how quietly and actively these years passed, how full they were of peace, and joy, and all the best.” (Ch. 3, V) You are happy, it seems that nothing can darken your relationship with your husband. One day your husband brings his old friend, a fellow university student, to the house. And from that moment on, he often visits you. After about six months, you realize that the feelings you had for your husband are anything but love. But love has awakened only now, and besides, it is mutual. How will you try to get out of this situation?
Girls offer different things: leave with your loved one (isn’t it cruel to your husband?), end all relationships with your husband’s friend (betray love?). There was also this option: hiding from her husband, having an affair with his friend, like Varvara Kabanova from “The Thunderstorm” by A.N. Ostrovsky (well, very modern!).
The young men, after listening to the “confessions of their wives,” answer the question: what will you do if you find yourself in this situation? The guys’ answers are interesting, but in my lessons nothing close to what the hero of the novel did was heard. This is what we talk about next.
This is exactly the problem that the heroes of N.G. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?” faced. How did you do it? loving husband? He guesses everything, does not wait for explanations and tells his wife that he is going to Moscow for a while. He himself, without leaving the city, rented a hotel room, and at night “at half past two o’clock... in the middle of the Liteiny Bridge a fire flashed and a shot was heard. The guards rushed to the shot, a few passers-by came running - there was no one and nothing at the place where the shot was heard. This means he didn’t shoot, but shot himself. There were hunters to dive, after a while they brought in hooks, they even brought some kind of fishing net, they dived, groped, caught, caught fifty large chips, but the bodies were not found or caught. And how to find it? - the night is dark." (I, “Fool”) On the morning of the same day, his wife receives a letter with the following content: “I embarrassed your calm. I'm leaving the stage. Don’t be sorry, I love you both so much that I am very happy with my determination. Farewell." (II, “The First Consequence of a Stupid Case”)
How do you evaluate this action?
There is usually someone in the classroom who shouts, “Fool!”
Apparently, that night you were in the crowd on the bridge. We open the first chapter of the novel and read its title. Yes, "Fool". Guys, what do you think the novel will be about?
Students offer options: about love, about a love triangle, or maybe this detective story?
Most famous novel Chernyshevsky “What to do?” was written in the solitary confinement of Alekseevsky Ravelin Peter and Paul Fortress in the shortest possible time: started on December 14, 1862 and completed on April 4, 1863. The novel's manuscript was double censored. First of all, members of the investigative commission, and then the censor of Sovremennik, became acquainted with Chernyshevsky’s work. To say that the censors completely “overlooked” the novel is not entirely true. Censor O. A. Przhetslavsky directly pointed out that “this work... turned out to be an apology for the way of thinking and actions of that category of the modern young generation, which is understood under the name “nihilists and materialists” and who call themselves “new people”. Another censor, V.N. Beketov, seeing the commission’s seal on the manuscript, was “imbued with awe” and let it pass without reading, for which he was fired.
The novel “What to do? From stories about new people” (this is the full title of Chernyshevsky’s work) caused a mixed reaction from readers. Progressive youth spoke with admiration about “What is to be done?” Fierce opponents of Chernyshevsky were forced to admit the “extraordinary power” of the novel’s impact on young people: “Young people followed Lopukhov and Kirsanov in a crowd, young girls became infected with the example of Vera Pavlovna... The minority found their ideal... in Rakhmetov.” Chernyshevsky's enemies, seeing the unprecedented success of the novel, demanded cruel reprisals against the author.
D. I. Pisarev, V. S. Kurochkin and their magazines spoke in defense of the novel (“ Russian word", "Iskra"), etc.
About prototypes. Literary scholars believe that the basis storyline based on the life story of the Chernyshevsky family doctor Pyotr Ivanovich Bokov. Bokov was the teacher of Maria Obrucheva, then, in order to free her from the oppression of her parents, he married her, but a few years later M. Obrucheva fell in love with another person - the scientist-physiologist I.M. Sechenov. Thus, the prototypes of Lopukhov were Bokov, Vera Pavlovna - Obruchev, Kirsanov - Sechenov.
In the image of Rakhmetov, features of Bakhmetyev, a Saratov landowner, who transferred part of his fortune to Herzen for the publication of a magazine and revolutionary work, are seen. (There is an episode in the novel when Rakhmetov, while abroad, transfers money to Feuerbach for the publication of his works). In the image of Rakhmetov one can also see those character traits that were inherent in Chernyshevsky himself, as well as Dobrolyubov and Nekrasov.
The novel “What to do?” Chernyshevsky dedicated to his wife Olga Sokratovna. In her memoirs, she wrote: “Verochka (Vera Pavlovna) - I, Lopukhov was taken from Bokov.”
The image of Vera Pavlovna captures the character traits of Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya and Maria Obrucheva.
III. Teacher lecture(summary).
PROBLEMS OF THE NOVEL
In "What to do?" the author proposed the theme of a new theme discovered by Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons” public figure(mainly from commoners), who changed the type " extra person" E. Bazarov’s “nihilism” is opposed by the views of “new people”, his loneliness and tragic death - by their cohesion and resilience. “New people” are the main characters of the novel.
Problems of the novel: the emergence of “new people”; people of the “old world” and their social and moral vices; love and emancipation, love and family, love and revolution (D.N. Murin).
About the composition of the novel. Chernyshevsky's novel is structured in such a way that life, reality, appears in it in three time dimensions: in the past, present and future. Past - old world, existing, but already becoming obsolete; the present is the emerging positive principles of life, the activities of “new people”, the existence of new human relationships. The future is an approaching dream (“Vera Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream”). The composition of the novel conveys movement from past to present and future. The author not only dreams of a revolution in Russia, he sincerely believes in its implementation.
About the genre. There is no unanimous opinion on this issue. Yu. M. Prozorov considers “What to do?” Chernyshevsky - socio-ideological novel, Yu. V. Lebedev – philosophical-utopian a novel created according to the laws typical of this genre. The compilers of the bio-bibliographic dictionary “Russian Writers” consider “What to do?” artistic and journalistic novel.
(There is an opinion that Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” is family, detective, journalistic, intellectual, etc.)
“I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly,
How may God grant you, beloved, to be different...”
A. S. Pushkin
When I began to analyze in detail the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky in terms of content, I ended up with three shelves. On one side are the moral relationships of the heroes with the outside world and among themselves. On the other - economic research. And on the third, secret shelf - revolutionary activity Rakhmetova. The author wrote to his wife that he conceived “a book... in the lightest, most popular spirit, in the form of almost a novel, with anecdotes, scenes, witticisms, so that it would be read by everyone who reads nothing but novels.” These lines tell us that Nikolai Gavrilovich preferred literature for the mind. However, in order to increase his readership, he resorted to melodramatic tricks. But even the love genre, thanks to the writer’s educational gift, has turned into an entertaining textbook on the education of feelings. It contains pages about the position of women in society, about love and jealousy, about new relationships in the family. Main character In the novel, Verochka, later Vera Pavlovna, began the fight for her right to love, while still in the camp of enemies, before meeting “new people.” Her mother wanted to marry her to a rich but worthless man. Vera committed a brave act when she went against her mother's will. The girl's first ally in this fight was the frivolous Frenchwoman Julie. This image is interesting because the author does not condemn the fallen woman, but shows that she is freer and in many ways more decent than respectable ladies. I can imagine how shocked Chernyshevsky’s contemporaries were that it was in the mouth of a corrupt woman that he put a fiery appeal: “Die, but don’t give a kiss without love!” Julie herself can no longer love and considers herself unworthy of love. But this does not prevent her from understanding the value of true feelings.
Verochka's acquaintance with Lopukhov became a turning point in her fate. In the taciturn student she found her first like-minded person and true friend. He became her savior, helped her escape from the dark basement into the bright sunlight. In her first dream, the liberated Vera releases other girls and for the first time meets the so-called “bride of all suitors.” Who she really is will become clear only in the fourth dream. Verochka could not help but fall in love with Lopukhov and was very happy when she married him. The author describes to us in detail what order has been established in the “new” family. Lopukhov praised his wife for something that her previous husbands could not even imagine - for her independence: “So, so, Verochka! Let everyone protect his independence with all his might from everyone, no matter how much he loves him, no matter how much he believes in him.” Chernyshevsky defends the idea, revolutionary at that time, that a woman is no worse than a man and should have equal rights with him in everything.
For several years, Vera and Lopukhov live in complete harmony. But gradually in our heroine’s soul a vague feeling appears that she is missing something. The third dream reveals the reason for this anxiety. The feeling she feels for “darling” is not love at all, but misunderstood gratitude. Moreover, she truly loves her husband's best friend. And Kirsanov has loved Vera Pavlovna for many years. It seems to me that in the novel “What is to be done?” It is love that tests the heroes’ loyalty to the ideals of the “new” life. And Lopukhov, and Kirsanov, and Verochka pass this test. In their torment, they appear before us not as heroes, but simply as good, decent people. Resolving this love triangle very original. It is simply impossible for the “astute reader” to believe that such a solution exists. But the author does not care about the opinion of the average person.
“It is also subjected to the test of feeling.” special person" Rakhmetov. “I shouldn’t love,” he says and makes himself an iron warrior, but love penetrates under his armor and makes him exclaim with pain: “...and I, too, am not an abstract idea, but a person who would like to live. Well, it’s okay, it will pass.” Of course he heroic personality, but I feel sorry for him, because a person who stifles love in himself becomes an insensitive machine. Subsequently, he can only talk about feelings, but you should not trust him in these matters. Rakhmetov tells Verochka about jealousy: “She shouldn’t be in a developed person. This distorted feeling... is a consequence of looking at a person as my belonging, as a thing.” The words are correct, but what can a stern warrior know about this? Only one who loves and overcomes jealousy that is offensive to another can speak about this.
My favorite hero in the novel is Kirsanov. Unlike Rakhmetov, when Kirsanov realizes that he loves his friend’s wife, he fights not with feeling, but with himself. He suffers, but does not disturb Verochka’s peace. He humbles his jealousy and desire for personal happiness for the sake of friendship. It seems to me that the words of A.S. Pushkin, which I took as the epigraph to the essay, can be completely attributed to the love of Alexei Kirsanov.
In Vera Pavlovna’s fourth dream, N.G. Chernyshevsky unfolds before his readers a picture of an ideal future. Love occupies a big place in it. The entire history of mankind passes before us from the point of view of the evolution of love. Verochka finally learns the name of her guiding star, “sister of all sisters” and “bride of all grooms”: “... this word is equality... From it, from equality, there is freedom in me, without which there is no me.” It seems to me that the author wanted to say that without freedom of choice and equality of rights true love cannot exist.
In the final part of the novel we see Vera Pavlovna, Kirsanov, Lopukhov and his new wife Katya completely happy in love. The author is happy for his heroes: “... few have experienced that the charm that love gives to everything should not at all... be a fleeting phenomenon in a person’s life.” The happiness of Love will be eternal, only “for this you need to have a pure heart and an honest soul and a modern understanding of human rights, respect for the freedom of the one with whom you live.”
Lesson 95 NOVEL “WHAT TO DO?” PROBLEMS, GENRE, COMPOSITION. “THE OLD WORLD” IN THE IMAGE OF CHERNYSHEVSKY
30.03.2013 34122 0Lesson
95
The novel “What to do?” Problems
genre, composition. "Old World"
in the image of Chernyshevsky
Goals : introduce students to the creative history of the novel “What is to be done?”, talk about the prototypes of the novel’s heroes; give an idea of the subject matter, genre and composition of the work; find out what the attractive power of Chernyshevsky’s book was for his contemporaries, how the novel “What is to be done?” on Russian literature; name the heroes of the novel, convey the content of the most important episodes, dwell on the writer’s depiction of the “old world”.
Lesson progress
I. Conversation on the issue m:
1. Briefly describe the main stages of the life and work of N. G. Chernyshevsky.
2. Can the life and work of a writer be called a feat?
3. What is the significance of Chernyshevsky’s dissertation for his time? What is relevant in it for our days?
II. Story by a teacher (or a trained student).
The creative history of the novel “What is to be done?”
Prototypes of the novel
Chernyshevsky’s most famous novel “What is to be done?” was written in the solitary confinement cell of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress in the shortest possible time: started on December 14, 1862 and completed on April 4, 1863. The novel's manuscript was double censored. First of all, members of the investigative commission, and then the censor of Sovremennik, became acquainted with Chernyshevsky’s work. To say that the censors completely “overlooked” the novel is not entirely true. Censor O. A. Przhetslavsky directly pointed out that “this work... turned out to be an apology for the way of thinking and actions of that category of the modern young generation, which is understood under the name “nihilists and materialists” and who call themselves “new people”. Another censor, V.N. Beketov, seeing the commission’s seal on the manuscript, was “imbued with awe” and let it pass without reading, for which he was fired.
The novel “What to do? From stories about new people” (this is the full title of Chernyshevsky’s work) caused a mixed reaction from readers. Progressive youth spoke with admiration about “What is to be done?” Fierce opponents of Chernyshevsky were forced to admit the “extraordinary power” of the novel’s impact on young people: “Young people followed Lopukhov and Kirsanov in a crowd, young girls became infected with the example of Vera Pavlovna... The minority found their ideal... in Rakhmetov.” Chernyshevsky's enemies, seeing the unprecedented success of the novel, demanded cruel reprisals against the author.
D. I. Pisarev, V. S. Kurochkin and their magazines (“Russian Word”, “Iskra”) and others spoke in defense of the novel.
About prototypes. Literary scholars believe that the plotline is based on the life story of the Chernyshevsky family doctor, Pyotr Ivanovich Bokov. Bokov was the teacher of Maria Obrucheva, then, in order to free her from the oppression of her parents, he married her, but a few years later M. Obrucheva fell in love with another person - the scientist-physiologist I.M. Sechenov. Thus, the prototypes of Lopukhov were Bokov, Vera Pavlovna - Obruchev, Kirsanov - Sechenov.
In the image of Rakhmetov, features of Bakhmetyev, a Saratov landowner, who transferred part of his fortune to Herzen for the publication of a magazine and revolutionary work, are seen. (There is an episode in the novel when Rakhmetov, while abroad, transfers money to Feuerbach for the publication of his works). In the image of Rakhmetov one can also see those character traits that were inherent in Chernyshevsky himself, as well as Dobrolyubov and Nekrasov.
The novel “What to do?” Chernyshevsky dedicated to his wife Olga Sokratovna. In her memoirs, she wrote: “Verochka (Vera Pavlovna) - I, Lopukhov was taken from Bokov.”
The image of Vera Pavlovna captures the character traits of Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya and Maria Obrucheva.
III. Teacher lecture(summary).
Problems of the novel
In "What to do?" the author proposed the theme of a new public figure (mainly from commoners), discovered by Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons,” who replaced the type of “superfluous person.” E. Bazarov’s “nihilism” is opposed by the views of “new people”, his loneliness and tragic death - by their cohesion and resilience. “New people” are the main characters of the novel.
Problems of the novel: the emergence of “new people”; people of the “old world” and their social and moral vices; love and emancipation, love and family, love and revolution (D.N. Murin).
About the composition of the novel. Chernyshevsky's novel is structured in such a way that life, reality, appears in it in three time dimensions: in the past, present and future. The past is the old world, existing, but already becoming obsolete; the present is the emerging positive principles of life, the activities of “new people”, the existence of new human relationships. The future is an approaching dream (“Vera Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream”). The composition of the novel conveys movement from past to present and future. The author not only dreams of a revolution in Russia, he sincerely believes in its implementation.
About the genre. There is no unanimous opinion on this issue. Yu. M. Prozorov considers “What to do?” Chernyshevsky - socio-ideological novel, Yu. V. Lebedev – philosophical-utopian a novel created according to the laws typical of this genre. The compilers of the bio-bibliographic dictionary “Russian Writers” consider “What to do?” artistic and journalistic novel.
(There is an opinion that Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” is family, detective, journalistic, intellectual, etc.)
IV. Conversation with students on the content of the novel.
Questions :
1. Name the leading characters, convey the content of memorable episodes.
2. How does Chernyshevsky depict the old world?
3. Why did the prudent mother spend a lot of money on her daughter’s education? Were her expectations met?
4. What allows Verochka Rozalskaya to free herself from the oppressive influence of her family and become a “new person”?
6. Show how Aesop’s speech is combined in the depiction of the “old world” with an open expression of the author’s attitude towards what is depicted?
Chernyshevsky showed two social spheres of old life: noble and bourgeois.
Representatives of the nobility - the homeowner and playmaker Storeshnikov, his mother Anna Petrovna, Storeshnikov's friends with names in the French style - Jean, Serge, Julie. These are people who are not capable of work - egoists, “fans and slaves of their own well-being.”
The bourgeois world is represented by the images of Vera Pavlovna’s parents. Marya Alekseevna Rozalskaya is an energetic and enterprising woman. But she looks at her daughter and husband “from the angle of the income that can be extracted from them” (Yu. M. Prozorov).
The writer condemns Marya Alekseevna for greed, selfishness, callousness and narrow-mindedness, but at the same time sympathizes with her, believing that life circumstances made her like this. Chernyshevsky introduces the chapter “ Word of praise Marya Alekseevna."
Homework.
1. Read the novel to the end.
2. Messages from students about the main characters: Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna, Rakhmetov.
3. Individual messages (or report) on topics:
1) What is “beautiful” in the life depicted by Chernyshevsky in “The Fourth Dream”?
2) Reflections on aphorisms (“The future is bright and beautiful”).
3) Vera Pavlovna and her workshops.
