Grigory Melekhov his life path. Stages of Gregory's life
1892 - 1914
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1892 - end of autumn
Grigory Panteleevich was born on the Tatarsky farm of the Vyoshenskaya village of the Don Army Region into a Cossack family. At the time of his birth, he was the second son and child in the family of a retired senior officer of the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. Older brother Peter was born in 1886
1899 - approximate date
Birth of Evdokia, younger sister of Gregory and Peter
1911 - end of February
Maslenitsa
Grigory takes part in a wall-to-wall fight between married farmsteads and single men on the latter’s side. Neighbor Astakhov felt sorry for Grigory when he ran away and did not beat him to death
1912 - May
Gregory begins trying to get closer to the wife of Astakhov, who is called up for military training
1912 - June
Grigory and Aksinya Astakhova become lovers
1912 - July
Stepan Astakhov returns home. Fight between the Melekhov brothers and Stepan over Aksinya
1912 - August 1 (old style)
Grigory is brought together with his betrothed Natalya Korshunova, their wedding day is set
1912 - early August
Gregory breaks off relations with Aksinya
1912 - September 28 (old style)
Grigory explains to Natalya and tells her that he does not love her and will not live with her as a family
1912 - early October
Grigory accidentally meets Aksinya and they realize that they cannot live without each other
1912 - mid-December
Grigory takes the military oath in the village of Vyoshenskaya. The next day, after a stormy explanation with his father, Grigory leaves his wife and leaves his parents' house. Soon he is hired as an assistant groom to the landowner Listnitsky on the Yagodnoye estate. Natalya goes to live with her parents
1912 - end of December
Grigory, through his friend’s sister, tells Aksinya where he is and offers to leave her husband for him. Aksinya runs away from home
1913 - April 12 (old style)
Palm Sunday
Grigory fell through the ice while crossing the Don; due to a cold, abscesses appeared on his back
1913 - April 19 (old style)
Bright Sunday of Christ
Grigory refuses Natalya’s request to return to her, transmitted through a note. Natalya tries to commit suicide, receives severe wounds and injury, but remains alive
1913 - May
Grigory, at the request of the son of the landowner Listnitsky, receives exemption from military training before being called up for service.
1913 - July
Grigory and Aksinya have a daughter, Tanya.
1913 - end of November
Natalya is recovering from her wounds
1913 - November 26 (old style)
Gregory is called up for military service. Due to the abscesses on his back and the “wildness” of his facial features, Gregory is assigned to the 12th Don Cossack Regiment, and not to the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. The commission rejected Gregory's horse and he had to take his brother's horse into service.
1914 - early January
Gregory arrived in the regiment stationed in the town of Radzivilov, Volyn province on the border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the first days of his service he makes it clear to the sergeant that he will not allow himself to be beaten
1914 - February
The child of Peter and Daria Melekhov dies from illness
1914 - March
Natalya Korshunova went to live with Grigory’s parents
1914 - end of June
Grigory's regiment was redeployed for maneuvers in the Rivne region
1914 - July 21 (old style)
After being transferred by rail, Gregory's regiment marches and at noon crosses the border of Austria-Hungary. In the area of the town of Leszniow, the regiment enters into battle, in which Gregory kills two soldiers of the Austrian army
1914 - end of July, August, beginning of September
Gregory, as part of his regiment, takes part in battles and skirmishes with the Austrian army. At the end of August, the regiment was withdrawn from the battle line for three days for rest and replenishment.
1914 - August 29 (old style)
In the battle near Shevel, the son of the landowner Listnitsky was seriously wounded
1914 - early September
In Yagodnoye, Grigory’s daughter dies of scarlet fever
1914 - September 15 (old style)
In a battle with the Hungarian cavalry near the town of Kamenka-Strumilov, Grigory is wounded in the head and concussed. He loses consciousness and remains surrounded on the battlefield. Some consider him dead and send a notice to his relatives. Waking up at night, Grigory finds the seriously wounded commander of the 9th Dragoon Regiment, and carries him to the location of the Russian units.
1914 - September 18 (old style)
Grigory voluntarily leaves the dressing station for his unit. For saving the life of a wounded officer, he is awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree and promoted to clerk*
* - rank in Cossack troops, corresponds to the rank of corporal
1914 - September 21 (old style)
During a raid by an Austrian airplane, Grigory's eye was damaged and he was sent to Moscow for treatment.
1914 - end of September
The son of landowner Listnitsky comes to Yagodnoye on vacation after being wounded. Evgeny Listnitsky and Aksinya become lovers
1914 - end of September, October
Grigory is treated at the eye clinic of Dr. Kiselyov (Moscow, Kolpachny Lane, 1), then a wound opens on his head and he is transferred to a general hospital
1914 - end of October
Influenced by conversations with one of the wounded, Gregory thinks about the reasons for the ongoing war and who benefits from it. He defies the delegation that visited the hospital with members of the imperial family and, after discharge, receives leave to go home
1914 - November 4/5 (old style)
At night, Grigory arrives in Yagodnoye and learns about Aksinya’s betrayal. In the morning he beats Evgeniy and returns to his wife at his parents' house
1914 - end of November
Grigory returns to the regiment after leave
The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.
Methodological techniques: verification homework- adjustment of the plan drawn up by the students, conversation according to the plan.
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Methodological development of a lesson on the topic “The fate of Grigory Melekhov as a path to finding the truth.” Grade 11
The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.
Methodological techniques: checking homework - adjusting the plan drawn up by the students, conversation according to the plan.
During the classes
Teacher's word.
Sholokhov’s heroes are simple, but extraordinary people, and Grigory is not only brave to the point of despair, honest and conscientious, but also truly talented, and not only the hero’s “career” proves this (a cornet from ordinary Cossacks at the head of a division is evidence of considerable abilities, although the Reds have years civil war such cases were not uncommon). This is confirmed by his collapse in life, since Gregory is too deep and complex for the unambiguous choice required by time!
This image attracts the attention of readers with its features of nationality, originality, and sensitivity to the new. But there is also something spontaneous in him, which is inherited from the environment.
Checking homework
Approximate plot plan for “The Fate of Grigory Melekhov”:
Book one
1. Predestination tragic fate(origin).
2. Life in my father's house. Dependence on him (“like dad”).
3. The beginning of love for Aksinya (thunderstorm on the river)
4. Skirmish with Stepan.
5 Matchmaking and marriage. ...
6. Leaving home with Aksinya to become farm laborers for the Listnitskys.
7. Conscription into the army.
8. Murder of an Austrian. Losing a foothold.
9. Wound. News of death received by relatives.
10. Hospital in Moscow. Conversations with Garanzha.
11. Break with Aksinya and return home.
Book two, parts 3-4
12. Etching the truth of Garanji. Going to the front as a “good Cossack.”
13.1915 Rescue of Stepan Astakhov.
14. Hardening of the heart. Chubaty's influence.
15. Premonition of trouble, injury.
16. Gregory and his children, desire for the end of the war.
17. On the side of the Bolsheviks. The influence of Izvarin and Podtelkov.
18. Reminder about Aksinya.
19. Wound. Massacre of prisoners.
20. Infirmary. “Who should I lean against?”
21. Family. "I am for Soviet power."
22. Unsuccessful elections to detachment atamans.
23. Last meeting with Podtelkov.
Book three, part 6
24. Conversation with Peter.
25. Anger towards the Bolsheviks.
26. Quarrel with father over stolen goods.
27. Unauthorized departure home.
28. The Melekhovs have Reds.
29. Dispute with Ivan Alekseevich about “male power.”
30. Drunkenness, thoughts of death.
31. Gregory kills the sailors
32. Conversation with grandfather Grishaka and Natalya.
33. Meeting with Aksinya.
Book four, Part 7:
34. Gregory in the family. Children, Natalya.
35. Gregory's dream.
36. Kudinov about Gregory’s ignorance.
37. Quarrel with Fitzkhalaurov.
38. Family breakdown.
39. The division is disbanded, Gregory is promoted to centurion.
40. Death of wife.
41. Typhoid and recovery.
42. Attempt to board a ship in Novorossiysk.
Part 8:
43. Grigory at Budyonny's.
44. Demobilization, conversation with. Mikhail.
45. Leaving the farm.
46. In Owl's gang, on the island.
47. Leaving the gang.
48. Death of Aksinya.
49. In the forest.
50. Returning home.
Conversation.
The image of Grigory Melekhov is central in M. Sholokhov’s epic novel “ Quiet Don" It is impossible to immediately say about it whether it is positive or bad guy. For too long he wandered in search of the truth, his path. Grigory Melekhov appears in the novel primarily as a truth-seeker.
At the beginning of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary farm boy with the usual range of household chores, activities, and entertainment. He lives thoughtlessly, like grass in the steppe, following traditional principles. Even love for Aksinya, which has captured his passionate nature, cannot change anything. He allows his father to marry him, and, as usual, prepares for military service. Everything in his life happens involuntarily, as if without his participation, just as he involuntarily dissects a tiny defenseless duckling while mowing - and shudders at what he has done.
Grigory Melekhov did not come into this world for bloodshed. But harsh life placed a saber in his hardworking hands. Gregory experienced the first shed of human blood as a tragedy. The image of the Austrian he killed later appears to him in a dream, causing mental pain. The experience of war completely turns his life upside down, makes him think, look into himself, listen, and take a closer look at people. Conscious life begins.
The Bolshevik Garanzha, who met Gregory in the hospital, seemed to reveal to him the truth and the prospect of change for the better. “Autonomist” Efim Izvarin and Bolshevik Fyodor Podtelkov played a significant role in shaping the beliefs of Grigory Melekhov. The tragically deceased Fyodor Podtelkov pushed Melekhov away, shedding the blood of unarmed prisoners who believed the promises of the Bolshevik who captured them. The senselessness of this murder and the callousness of the “dictator” stunned the hero. He is also a warrior, he killed a lot, but here not only the laws of humanity are violated, but also the laws of war.
“Honest to the core,” Grigory Melekhov cannot help but see the deception. The Bolsheviks promised that there would be no rich and poor. However, a year has already passed since the “Reds” were in power, and the promised equality is not there: “the platoon leader is in chrome boots, and the Vanyok is in windings.” Grigory is very observant, he tends to think about his observations, and the conclusions from his thoughts are disappointing: “If the gentleman is bad, then the boorish gentleman is a hundred times worse.”
The civil war throws Grigory either into the Budennovsky detachment or into the white formations, but this is no longer thoughtless submission to the way of life or a coincidence of circumstances, but a conscious search for the truth, the path. He sees his home and peaceful work as the main values of life. In war, shedding blood, he dreams of how he will prepare for sowing, and these thoughts make his soul warm.
The Soviet government does not allow the former ataman of the hundred to live peacefully and threatens him with prison or execution. The surplus appropriation system instills in the minds of many Cossacks the desire to “re-conquer the war”, to replace the workers’ government with their own, the Cossack’s. Gangs are forming on the Don. Grigory Melekhov, hiding from persecution by the Soviet regime, ends up in one of them, Fomin’s gang. But bandits have no future. For most Cossacks it is clear: they need to sow, not fight.
Is also drawn to peaceful labor main character novel. The last test, the last tragic loss for him is the death of his beloved woman - Aksinya, who received a bullet on the way, as it seems to them, to freedom and freedom. happy life. Everything died. Gregory's soul is scorched. There remains only the last, but very important thread connecting the hero with life - this is his home. A house, a land waiting for its owner, and a little son - his future, his mark on the earth.
The depth of the contradictions through which the hero went through is revealed with amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity. The versatility and complexity of a person’s inner world is always the focus of M. Sholokhov’s attention. Individual destinies and a broad generalization of the paths and crossroads of the Don Cossacks allow us to see how complex and contradictory life is, how difficult it is to choose the true path.
What is the meaning of Sholokhov when he speaks of Gregory as a “good Cossack”? Why was Grigory Melekhov chosen as the main character?
(Grigory Melekhov is an extraordinary person, a bright individuality. He is sincere and honest in his thoughts and actions (especially in relation to Natalya and Aksinya (see episodes: last meeting with Natalya - part 7, chapter 7; Natalya’s death - part 7, chapter 16 -18;death of Aksinya). He has a responsive heart, a developed sense of pity and compassion (duckling in the hayfield, Franya, the execution of Ivan Alekseevich).
Grigory is a person capable of action (leaving Aksinya for Yagodnoye, breaking up with Podtelkov, clashing with Fitzkhalaurov - part 7, chapter 10; decision to return to the farm).
In which episodes is Gregory’s bright, extraordinary personality most fully revealed? The role of internal monologues. Does a person depend on circumstances or make his own destiny?
(He never lied to himself, despite doubts and tossing (see internal monologues - part 6, chapter 21). This is the only character whose thoughts are revealed by the author. War corrupts people and provokes them to commit acts that a person would never normally do did not commit. Gregory had a core that did not allow him to commit meanness even once. A deep attachment to home, to the land is the strongest spiritual movement: “My hands need to work, not fight.”
The hero is constantly in a situation of choice (“I’m looking for a way out myself”). Turning point: dispute and quarrel with Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov, Shtokman. The uncompromising nature of a man who never knew the middle. Tragedyas if transported into the depths of consciousness: “He painfully tried to understand the confusion of thoughts.” This is not political vacillation, but a search for truth. Gregory yearns for the truth, “under the wing of which everyone could warm themselves.” And from his point of view, neither the whites nor the reds have such truth: “There is no truth in life. It is clear that whoever defeats whom will devour him. And I was looking for the bad truth. I was sick at heart, I was swaying back and forth.” These searches turned out to be, as he believes, “in vain and empty.” And this is also his tragedy. A person is placed in inevitable, spontaneous circumstances and already in these circumstances he makes a choice, his destiny.) “What a writer needs most,” said Sholokhov, “he himself needs, is to convey the movement of a person’s soul. I wanted to talk about this charm of a person in Grigory Melekhov...”
Do you think the author of “Quiet Flows the Flow” manages to “convey the movement of the human soul” using the example of the fate of Grigory Melekhov? If so, what do you think is the main direction of this movement? What is its general character? Does the novel's protagonist have what you might call charm? If so, what is its charm? The main problematic of "Quiet Don" is revealed not in the character of one, even the main character, which is Grigory Melekhov, but in the comparison and contrast of many, many characters, throughout figurative system, in the style and language of the work. But the image of Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality, as it were, concentrates the main historical and ideological conflict of the work and thereby unites all the details of the huge picture of the complex and contradictory life of many characters, who are carriers of a certain attitude towards the revolution and the people in a given historical era.
How would you define the main issues of “Quiet Don”? What, in your opinion, allows us to characterize Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality? Can you agree that it is in it that “the main historical and ideological conflict of the work” is concentrated? Literary critic A.I. Khvatov states: “Grigory contained a huge reserve of moral forces necessary for the creative achievements of the emerging new life. No matter what complications and troubles befell him and no matter how painfully what he did under the influence of a wrong decision fell on his soul, Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people.”
What do you think gives a scientist the right to claim that “a huge reserve of moral forces was hidden in Gregory”? What actions do you think support this statement? What about against him? What “wrong decisions” does Sholokhov’s hero make? Is it acceptable, in your opinion, to talk about “wrong decisions” at all? literary hero? Think about this topic. Do you agree that “Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people”? Give examples from the text. “In the plot of the combination of motives, the inescapability of love that Aksinya and Natalya give him, the immensity of Ilyinichna’s maternal suffering, the devoted comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers are artistically effective in revealing the image of Gregory,” especially Prokhor Zykov. Even those with whom his interests intersected dramatically, but to whom his soul was revealed... could not help but feel the power of his charm and generosity.”(A.I. Khvatov).
Do you agree that a special role in revealing the image of Grigory Melekhov is played by the love of Aksinya and Natalya, the suffering of his mother, as well as the comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers? If so, how does this manifest itself in each of these cases?
With which of the heroes did Grigory Melekhov’s interests “dramatically intersect”? Can you agree that even these heroes reveal the soul of Grigory Melekhov, and they, in turn, were able to “feel the power of his charm and generosity”? Give examples from the text.
The critic V. Kirpotin (1941) reproached Sholokhov's heroes for primitivism, rudeness, and “mental underdevelopment”: “Even the best of them, Grigory, is slow-witted. A thought is an unbearable burden for him.”
Are there any among the heroes of “Quiet Don” who seemed to you rude and primitive, “mentally undeveloped” people? If so, what role do they serve in the novel?Do you agree that Sholokhov’s Grigory Melekhov is a “slow-witted” person, for whom thought is an “unbearable burden”? If yes, give specific examples of the hero’s “slow-mindedness,” his inability, and unwillingness to think. The critic N. Zhdanov noted (1940): “Gregory could have been with the people in their struggle... but he did not stand with the people. And this is his tragedy.”
In your opinion, is it fair to say that Gregory “did not stand with the people”? Are the people only those who are for the Reds?What do you think is the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov? (This question can be left as homework for a detailed written answer.)
Homework.
How do the events that gripped the country compare with the events in Grigory Melekhov’s personal life?
At the beginning of the story, young Gregory - a real Cossack, a brilliant rider, hunter, fisherman and diligent rural worker - is quite happy and carefree. He is a rebel by nature and does not tolerate violence against himself. And now he is almost forcibly married. Grigory and Natalya live outwardly peacefully, but this is only outwardly. He is burdened by his unloved wife, she feels it and suffers in silence. But this could not last long. The rebellion that had been brewing in Gregory’s soul since the wedding day burst out.
Sholokhov endows Grigory with a sensitive soul. It is revealed in the history of his relationships with two women Aksinya and Natalya. His love for Aksinya, full of dramatic moments, is amazing in its strength and depth.
By the time the First World War began, we already see a different Gregory. This is no longer that carefree young man. “Both this one and not that one,” Aksinya thinks the night before Gregory leaves for the army. Already another person, oppressed by painful thoughts, is riding in a soldier's carriage. The traditional Cossack commitment to military duty helps him out in his first trials on the bloody battlefields in 1914. What distinguishes him from his brothers in arms is his sensitivity to all manifestations of cruelty, to any violence against the weak and defenseless... The war forced Gregory to take a new look at life: in the hospital where he is after being wounded, under the influence of revolutionary propaganda, he begins to doubt his loyalty to the Tsar and his fatherland and military duty. During the civil war, Melekhov is at first on the side of the Reds, but their murder of unarmed prisoners repulses him, and when the Bolsheviks come to his beloved Don, committing robberies and violence, he fights them with cold rage. And again Gregory’s search for truth does not find an answer. They turn into the greatest drama of a person completely lost in the cycle of events. “They are all the same,” he says to his childhood friends leaning towards the Bolsheviks, “They are all a yoke on the face of the Cossacks!”
But among the white officers, Grigory feels like a stranger. In the end, he joins Budyonny’s cavalry and heroically fights the Poles, wanting to clear himself of his war before the Bolsheviks. But for Gregory there is no salvation in Soviet reality, where even neutrality is considered a crime. With bitter mockery, he tells the former messenger that he envies Koshevoy and the White Guard Listnitsky: “It was clear to them from the very beginning, but to me everything was still unclear. They both have their own straight roads, their own ends, but since 1917 I have been walking along the Vylyuzhka roads like I’m swaying like a drunken man...”
Under the threat of arrest, and, consequently, imminent execution, Grigory, together with Aksinya, flees from his native farm in the hope of getting to Kuban and starting new life. But their happiness is short-lived. On the way, they are overtaken by a horse outpost, and they rush into the night, pursued by bullets flying after them. Gregory buries his Aksinya. “There was no need for him to rush now. It was all over..."
Talking about moral choice Gregory in life, it is impossible to say for sure whether his choice was always really the only true and correct one. But he was almost always guided by his own principles and beliefs, trying to find a better path in life, and this desire of his was not a simple desire to “live better than everyone else.” It affected the interests not only of himself, but also of many people close to him. Despite his fruitless aspirations in life, Gregory was happy, although not for very long. But these short moments of happiness were enough. They were not lost in vain, just as Grigory Melekhov did not live his life in vain.
Essay on the topic “The Image of Grigory Melekhov” briefly: characteristics, life story and description of the hero in search of the truth
In Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Don" Grigory Melekhov occupies a central place. He is the most complex Sholokhov hero. This is a truth seeker. He suffered such cruel trials that a person, it would seem, is not able to endure. The life path of Grigory Melekhov is difficult and tortuous: first there was the First World War, then the civil war, and, finally, an attempt to destroy the Cossacks, an uprising and its suppression.
The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of a man who broke away from the people and became a renegade. His detachment becomes tragic, because he is a confused person. He went against himself, against millions of workers just like himself.
From his grandfather Prokofy Gregory, he inherited a hot-tempered and independent character, as well as the ability for tender love. The blood of the “Turkish” grandmother manifested itself in his appearance, in love, on the battlefield and in the ranks. And from his father he inherited a tough disposition, and it was because of this that integrity and rebellion haunted Gregory from his youth. He fell in love with a married woman Aksinya (this is a turning point in his life) and soon decides to leave with her, despite all the prohibitions of his father and the condemnation of society. The origins of Melekhov's tragedy lie in his rebellious character. This is the predetermination of a tragic fate.
Gregory is a kind, brave and courageous hero who always tries to fight for truth and justice. But war comes, and it destroys all his ideas about the truth and justice of life. The war appears to the writer and his characters as a series of losses and terrible deaths: it cripples people from the inside and destroys everything dear and dear to them. It forces all the heroes to take a fresh look at the problems of duty and justice, to look for the truth and not find it in any of their warring camps. Once among the Reds, Gregory sees the same cruelty and thirst for blood as the Whites. He can't understand why all this? After all, war destroys the smooth life of families, peaceful work, it takes away the last things from people and kills love. Grigory and Pyotr Melekhov, Stepan Astakhov, Koshevoy and other heroes of Sholokhov are unable to understand why this fratricidal massacre is happening? For whose sake and what should people die when they still have a long life ahead of them?
The fate of Grigory Melekhov is a life incinerated by war. The personal relationships of the characters unfold against the background tragic story countries. Gregory will never again be able to forget how he killed his first enemy, an Austrian soldier. He cut him down with a saber, it was terrible for him. The moment of murder changed him beyond recognition. The hero has lost his point of support, his kind and fair soul protests, cannot survive such violence against common sense. But the war is on, Melekhov understands that he needs to continue killing. Soon his decision changes: he realizes that war kills the best people of his time, that the truth cannot be found among thousands of deaths, Grigory throws down his weapon and returns to his native farm to work for native land and raise children. At almost 30 years old, the hero is almost an old man. The path of Melekhov’s search turned out to be an impassable thicket. Sholokhov in his work raises the question of the responsibility of history to the individual. The author sympathizes with his hero Grigory Melekhov, whose life is already broken in such young years.
As a result of his search, Melekhov is left alone: Aksinya is killed by his recklessness, he is hopelessly distant from his children, if only because he will bring disaster on them with his closeness. Trying to remain true to himself, he betrays everyone: the warring parties, women, and ideas. This means that he was initially looking in the wrong place. Thinking only about himself, about his “truth,” he did not love and did not serve. At the hour when a strong man’s word was required from him, Gregory could only provide doubts and soul-searching. But the war did not need philosophers, and women did not need a love of wisdom. Thus, Melekhov is the result of a transformation like “ extra person"in conditions of the most severe historical conflict.
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Lesson plan.
- History of the Melekhov family. Already in the history of the family, the character of Gregory is laid down.
- Portrait characteristics Gregory in comparison with his brother Peter (it was Gregory, and not Peter, who was the successor of the line of “Turks” - the Melekhovs.)
- Attitude to work (house, Listnitsky estate Yagodnoye, longing for the land, eight returns home: an ever-increasing craving for home, thriftiness.
- The image of Gregory at war as the embodiment of the author's concept of war (debt, coercion, senseless cruelty, destruction). Gregory never fought with his Cossacks, and Melekhov’s participation in the internecine fratricidal war is never described.
- Typical and individual in the image of Gregory. (why does Melekhov return home without waiting for the amnesty?)
- Points of view of writers and critics on the image of Grigory Melekhov
I
In criticism, debates about the essence of the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov still continue.
At first there was an opinion that this is the tragedy of the renegade.
He, they say, went against the people and therefore lost all human traits, became a lone wolf, a beast.
Refutation: the renegade does not evoke sympathy, but they cried over the fate of Melekhov. And Melekhov did not become a beast, did not lose the ability to feel, suffer, and did not lose the desire to live.
Others explained Melekhov's tragedy as a delusion.
Here it was true that Gregory, according to this theory, carried within himself the traits of the Russian national character, the Russian peasantry. They further said that he was half owner, half hard worker. /quote Lenin about the peasant (article about L. Tolstoy))
So Gregory hesitates, but in the end he gets lost. Therefore, he must be condemned and pitied.
But! Gregory is confused not because he is the owner, but because in each of the warring parties does not find absolute moral truth, which he strives for with the maximalism inherent in Russian people.
1) From the first pages Gregory is depicted in everyday creative peasant life:
- Fishing
- With a horse at a watering hole
- In love,
- Scenes of peasant labor
C: “His feet confidently trampled the ground”
Melekhov is merged with the world, is part of it.
But in Gregory, the personal principle, Russian moral maximalism with its desire to get to the essence, without stopping halfway, and not to put up with any violations of the natural course of life, is unusually clearly manifested.
2) He is sincere and honest in his thoughts and actions.(this is especially evident in relations with Natasha and Aksinya:
- The last meeting of Gregory with Natalya (Part VII Chapter 7)
- The death of Natalya and related experiences (Part VII Ch. 16-18)
- Death of Aksinya (Part VIII Chapter 17)
3) Gregory characterized by an acute emotional reaction to everything that happens, him responsive on the impressions of life heart. It has developed feeling of pity, compassion, This can be judged by the following lines:
- While making hay, Grigory accidentally cut off ********* (Part I Chapter 9)
- Episode with Franya part 2 chapter 11
- Vanity with the murdered Austrian (Part 3, Chapter 10)
- Reaction to the news of Kotlyarov’s execution (Part VI)
4) Staying always honest, morally independent and upright in character, Gregory showed himself to be a person capable of action.
- Fight with Stepan Astakhov over Aksinya (Part I Ch. 12)
- Leaving Aksinya for Yagodnoye (Part 2 Ch. 11-12)
- Collision with the sergeant (Part 3, Chapter 11)
- Breakup with Podtelkov (Part 3, Chapter 12)
- Collision with General Fitzhalaurav (Part VII Chapter 10)
- The decision, without waiting for an amnesty, to return to the farm (Part VIII, Chapter 18).
5) Captivates the sincerity of his motives– he did not lie to himself anywhere, in his doubts and tossing. His internal monologues convince us of this (Part VI Ch. 21,28)
Gregory is the only character who given the right to monologues- “thoughts” that reveal his spiritual origin.
6) It is impossible to “obey dogmatic rules” They forced Grigory to abandon the farm, the land, and go with Aksinya to the Listnitsky estate with a koshokh.
There, Sholokhov shows , social life disrupted the course of natural life. There, for the first time, the hero broke away from the earth, from his origins.
“An easy, well-fed life,” spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, and looked older than his years.”
7) But too much the people's beginning is strong in Gregory so as not to be preserved in his soul. As soon as Melekhov found himself on his own land during the hunt, all the excitement disappeared, and an eternal, main feeling trembled in his soul.
8) This abyss, fueled by man’s desire for regret and the destructive tendencies of the era, widened and deepened during the First World War. (true to duty - active in battles - rewards)
But! The more he delves into military action, the more he is drawn to the ground, to work. He dreams of the steppe. His heart is with his beloved and distant woman. And his soul is gnawing at his conscience: “... it’s difficult to kiss a child, to open and look into his eyes.”
9) The revolution returned Melekhov to the land, with his beloved, to his family, and children. And he wholeheartedly sided with the new system . But the same revolution his cruelty towards the Cossacks, his injustice towards prisoners, and towards Gregory himself pushed again him on the warpath.
Fatigue and embitterment lead the hero to cruelty - Melekhov’s murder of sailors (it was after this that Grigory will wander around the earth in “monstrous enlightenment,” realizing that he has gone far from what he was born for and what he fought for.
“Life is going wrong, and maybe I’m to blame for this,” he admitted.
10) Having stood up with all his inherent energy for the interests of the workers and therefore became one of the leaders of the Veshensky uprising, Gregory is convinced that it did not bring the expected results: the Cossacks suffer from the white movement just as they suffered from the red ones before. (peace did not come to the Don, but the same nobles who despised the ordinary Cossack, the Cossack peasant, returned.
11) But Gregory the feeling of national exclusivity is alien: Grigory has deep respect for the Englishman, a mechanic with work problems.
Melekhov prefaces his refusal to evacuate overseas with a statement about Russia: “No matter what the mother is, she is dearer than a stranger!”
12) And salvation for Melekhov again - a return to the land, to Aksinya, and children . Violence disgusts him. (he releases relatives of the Red Cossacks from prison) drives a horse to save Ivan Alekseevich and Mishka Koshevoy.)
13) Moving on to the reds in the last years of the civil war, Gregory became , according to Prokhor Zykov, “fun and smooth " But it is also important that the roles Melekhova did not fight with his own , but was on the Polish front.
In Part VIII, Gregory’s ideal is outlined: “ He was going home to eventually get to work, live with the children, with Aksinya...”
But his dream was not destined to come true. Mikhail Koshevoy ( representative revolutionary violence) provoked Gregory to run away from home, from children, Aksinya .
15) He is forced to hide in the villages, join Fomin's gang.
The lack of a way out (and his thirst for life did not allow him to go to execution) pushes him to an obvious wrong.
16) All that Grigory has left by the end of the novel are children, mother earth (Sholokhov emphasizes three times that Grigory’s chest pain is cured by lying on the “damp earth”) and love for Aksinya. But even this little remains with the death of the beloved woman.
“The black sky and the dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun” (this characterizes the strength of Gregory’s feelings and the degree of sensation or loss).
“Everything was taken from him, everything was destroyed by merciless death. Only the children remained, but he himself still frantically clung to the ground, as if, in fact, his broken life was of some value to him and to others.”
In this craving for life there is no personal salvation for Grigory Melekhov, but there is an affirmation of the ideal of life.
At the end of the novel, when life is reborn, Grigory threw his rifle, revolver, cartridges into the water, and wiped his hands “ He crossed the Don across the blue March ice and walked briskly towards the house. He stood at the gates of his home, holding his son in his arms...”
Critics' opinions on the ending.
Critics argued for a long time about the future fate of Melekhov. Soviet literary scholars argued that Melekhov would join socialist life. Western critics say the venerable Cossack will be arrested the next day and then executed.
Sholokhov left the possibility of both paths open with an open ending. This is not of fundamental importance, because at the end of the novel, what constitutes essence humanistic philosophy of the main character of the novel, humanity inXX century: ““under the cold sun” the vast world shines, life continues, embodied in the symbolic picture of a child in the arms of his father.(the image of a child as a symbol of eternal life was already present in many of Sholokhov’s “Don Stories”; “The Fate of a Man” also ends with it.
Conclusion
The path of Grigory Melekhov to the ideal of true life - this is a tragic path gains, mistakes and losses that the entire Russian people went through in the 20th century.
“Grigory Melekhov is an integral person in a tragically torn time.” (E. Tamarchenko)
- Portrait, character of Aksinya. (Part 1 Ch. 3,4,12)
The origin and development of love between Aksinya and Gregory. (Part 1, Chapter 3, Part 2, Chapter 10) - Dunyasha Melekhova (part 1 chapter 3,4,9)
- Daria Melekhova. The drama of fate.
- Ilyinichna's maternal love.
- Natalia's tragedy.
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