To help the student. An ordinary story What is the work of Goncharov? An ordinary story
Composition
The writer worked on the "Ordinary History" for three years. In an autobiographical article "An Unusual Story" (1875-1878), he wrote: "The novel was conceived in 1844, was written in 1845, and in 1846 I had to finish a few chapters." Goncharov read his "Unusual Story" to Belinsky for several evenings in a row. Belinsky was delighted with the new talent, which performed so brilliantly. Before giving his work “for judgment” to Belinsky, Goncharov read it several times in a friendly literary circle of the Maikovs. Before appearing in print, the novel underwent many corrections and alterations.
Recalling the later 40s, the gloomy period of Nikolaev's reign, when advanced Russian literature played a huge role in the fight against feudal-serf reaction, Goncharov wrote: “Serfdom, corporal punishment, oppression of the authorities, lies of prejudices of social and family life, rudeness, savagery in the masses - that was what stood next in line in the struggle and what the main forces of the Russian intelligentsia of the thirties and forties were focused on. "
"Ordinary History" showed that Goncharov was a writer sensitive to the interests of his time. The work reflects the changes and shifts that took place in the life of feudal Russia in 1830-1840. Calling for the struggle against "all-Russian stagnation", for work for the good of the fatherland, Goncharov passionately sought around him those forces, those people who could carry out the tasks facing Russian life.
The essence of the pseudo-romantic outlook, inherent in a significant part of the idealistically minded, detached from reality, the noble intelligentsia of the 30s, was revealed by Goncharov in the image of the main hero of the novel - Alexander Aduev.
Romantic perception of life, lofty abstract dreams of fame and exploits, of the extraordinary, poetic impulses - who did not go through all this to some extent in his youth, in the "era of youthful excitement." But the merit of Goncharov as an artist is that he showed how these youthful dreams and illusions are perverted and disfigured by the serf-lordly upbringing.
Young Aduev knows about grief and troubles only "by ear" - "life smiles at him from the shroud." Idleness, ignorance of life "prematurely" developed in Aduev "heart inclinations" and excessive daydreaming. Before us is one of those “romantic sloths”, barchuk, who are used to living carelessly at the expense of the labor of others. The young Aduev sees the purpose and happiness of life not in labor and creativity (it seemed strange to him to work), but in “sublime existence”. The Aduevs' estate is dominated by "silence ... stillness ... grace-filled stagnation." But in the estate, he does not find a field for himself. And Aduev leaves "to seek happiness", "to make a career and fortune - to St. Petersburg." All the falsity of Aduev's everyday concepts begins to reveal itself in the novel already in the first clashes of his nephew, a dreamer, spoiled by laziness and lordship, with a practical and intelligent uncle, Peter Ivanovich Aduev. The struggle between uncle and nephew also reflected the then, just beginning breakdown of old concepts and mores - sentimentality, caricature exaggeration of the feeling of friendship and love, poetry of idleness, family and domestic lies of feigned, in essence unprecedented feelings, a waste of time on visits, on unnecessary hospitality etc. In a word, the whole idle, dreamy and affectational side of old morals with the usual impulses of instincts for the high, the great, the graceful, for the effects, with a thirst to express it in loud prose, more painful in verse.
Aduev Sr. at every step mercilessly ridicules the feigned, groundless dreaminess of Aduev Jr.
But the young hero defies moralizing. “Isn't love a thing?” - he replies to his uncle. It is characteristic that after the first failure in love, Aduev Jr. complains "of the boredom of life, the emptiness of the soul." The pages of the novel, dedicated to the description of the hero's love affairs, are the exposure of the selfish, possessive attitude towards a woman, despite all the romantic poses that the hero takes in front of the chosen ones of his heart.
For eight years my uncle was busy with Alexander. In the end, his nephew becomes a businessman, a brilliant career and a profitable marriage of convenience await him. Not a trace remained of the former "heavenly" and "sublime" feelings and dreams. The evolution of the character of Alexander Aduyev, shown in "An Ordinary History", was "ordinary" for a part of the noble youth of that time. Having condemned the romanticist Alexander Aduev, Goncharov contrasted him in the novel with another, undoubtedly more positive in a number of features, but by no means an ideal person - Peter Ivanovich Aduev. The writer, who was not a supporter of the revolutionary transformation of feudal-serf Russia, believed in progress based on the activities of enlightened, energetic and humane people. However, the work reflected not so much these views of the writer as the contradictions that existed in reality, which carried with them the bourgeois - capitalist relations that were replacing the "all-Russian stagnation". While rejecting the romanticism of the Aduev type, the writer, at the same time, felt the inferiority of the philosophy and practice of bourgeois "common sense", the selfishness and inhumanity of the bourgeois morality of the Aduev elders. Pyotr Ivanovich is smart, businesslike and in his own way a "decent person." But he is extremely "indifferent to the person, to his needs, interests."
.. what was the main goal of his work? Was he working for a common human goal, fulfilling a lesson given to him by fate, or only for petty reasons, in order to acquire bureaucratic and monetary value between people, or, finally, so that he would not be bent into an arc of need, circumstances? God knows him. He did not like to talk about lofty goals, he called it nonsense, but he spoke dryly and simply, what to do ”.
Alexander and Peter Ivanovich Aduevs are opposed not only as a provincial nobleman-romantic and a businessman-bourgeois, but also as two psychologically opposite types. “One is ecstatic to the point of extravagance, the other is icy to the point of bitterness,” says Lizaveta Aleksandrovna about her nephew and husband.
Goncharov strove to find an ideal, that is, a normal type of person not in Aduev the elder and not in Aduev the younger, but something else, the third, in the harmony of “mind” and “heart”. A clear hint of this is already contained in the image of Lizaveta Aleksandrovna Adueva, despite the fact that the “century” “stuck” her, according to Belinsky's just remark, Pyotr Ivanovich.
These wonderful images should include not only Lizaveta Alexandrovna, but also Nadenka.
The daughter is a few steps ahead of her mother. She fell in love with Aduyev without asking and hardly hides it from her mother or is silent only for decency, considering for herself the right to dispose of her own inner world and Aduev himself, which, having studied it well, mastered and commands. This is her obedient slave, gentle, spineless kind, promising something, but petty self-centered, simple, ordinary young man, of which there are a bunch of people everywhere. And she would accept him, get married - and everything would go as usual. But the figure of the count appeared, consciously intelligent, dexterous, with brilliance. Nadya saw that Aduev could not stand comparison with him either in mind, or in character, or in upbringing.
She listened to his poetry for a minute. She expected the strength and talent to lie there. But it turned out that he only writes tolerable poetry, but no one knows about them, and even sulks about himself at the count for the fact that this one is simple, smart and behaves with dignity. She went over to the side of the latter: so far this was the conscious step of the Russian girl - a silent emancipation, a protest against the mother's authority, which was helpless for her.
But then this emancipation ended. She was conscious, but did not turn her consciousness into action, stopped in ignorance, since the very moment of the era was the moment of ignorance.
"Ordinary History" immediately put Goncharov in the first row of progressive realist writers. The "Ordinary History" fully reflected the strong and original talent of Goncharov, who was called upon to master the Russian realistic novel.
Other compositions on this work
“The idea of Goncharov was broader. He wanted to strike a blow at modern romanticism in general, but failed to define an ideological center. Instead of romanticism, he ridiculed provincial attempts at romanticism "(based on the novel by Goncharov "An ordinary story" by I.A. Goncharov "Loss of Romantic Illusions" (based on the novel "An Ordinary Story") The Author and His Characters in the Novel "An Ordinary Story" The author and his characters in the novel by I. A. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" The main characters of I. Goncharov's novel "An Ordinary History". The protagonist of I. Goncharov's novel "An Ordinary History" Two philosophies of life in the novel by I. A. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" Uncle and nephew of Adueva in the novel "An Ordinary Story" How to live? The image of Alexander Aduev. Petersburg and the provinces in the novel by I. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" Review of the novel by I. A. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" Reflection of historical changes in Goncharov's novel "An Ordinary History" Why is IA Goncharov's novel called "An Ordinary History"? A novel about the everyday life of ordinary people Russia in the novel "An Ordinary History" by I. A. Goncharov The meaning of the title of the novel by I. Goncharov "An Ordinary History". The meaning of the title of the novel by I. A. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" Comparative characteristics of the main characters of the novel by I. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" Old and new Russia in the novel by I. A. Goncharov "An Ordinary History" An ordinary story of Alexander Aduev Characteristics of the image of Alexander Aduev Comparative characteristics of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov and Alexander Aduev (characterization of the characters in Goncharov's novels) About Goncharov's novel "An Ordinary History" The plot of the novel by Goncharov I. Goncharov "An Ordinary History"The novel was conceived by the author in 1844. The work was first read in the salon of the Maikov family. Goncharov made some adjustments to his novel precisely on the advice of Valerian Maikov. Then the manuscript ended up with M. Yazykov, who was supposed to hand it over to Belinsky at the request of the author himself. However, Yazykov was in no hurry to fulfill the request, as he considered the novel too banal. The manuscript was presented to Belinsky by Nekrasov, who took it from Yazykov. Belinsky planned to publish "An Ordinary History" in the anthology "Leviathan".
However, these plans were never destined to come true. Goncharov received a lucrative offer: he could earn 200 rubles for each page of the manuscript. But Panaev and Nekrasov offered the writer the same amount, and Goncharov sold them his work. It was decided to publish the novel in Sovremennik. The publication took place in 1847. A year later, the novel came out as a separate edition.
Alexander Aduev, the son of a poor landowner, is going to leave his native estate. The young landowner received a decent university education, which he now wants to apply in the service of the fatherland. Alexander leaves his first love Sonechka and his inconsolable mother Anna Pavlovna on the estate, who does not want to part with her only son. Aduev himself also does not want to leave his usual way of life. However, the high goals that he set for himself make him leave his parental home.
Once in the capital, Alexander goes to his uncle. Pyotr Ivanovich has lived in St. Petersburg for many years. After the death of his brother, he stopped communicating with his widow and his nephew. Alexander does not seem to notice that his uncle is not too happy to see him. A young man expects care and protection from a close relative. Pyotr Ivanovich receives a letter from his nephew's mother, who asks to help her son get settled well. The uncle has no choice, and he takes up the active upbringing of his nephew: he rents an apartment for him, gives numerous advice, finds him a place. Pyotr Ivanovich believes that Alexander is too romantic and out of touch with reality. It is necessary to destroy the fictional world in which the young man lives.
2 years have passed. During this time, Alexander was able to achieve success in the service. Uncle is pleased with his nephew. The only thing that upsets Pyotr Ivanovich is the young man's love for Nadya Lyubetskaya. According to the stern uncle, "sweet bliss" can prevent the nephew from further promotion. Nadya also likes Alexander. However, the girl's feelings are not as deep as the feelings of her lover. Count Novinsky is much more interested in Nadenka. Aduev Jr. dreams of a duel with his rival. Pyotr Ivanovich is trying with all his might to dissuade his nephew from a fatal mistake. Uncle never found the right words of comfort. Lizaveta Alexandrovna, the wife of Pyotr Ivanovich, had to intervene. Only the aunt managed to calm down the young man and dissuade him from the duel.
Another year has passed. Alexander has already forgotten Nadya. However, not a trace of the former romantic youth remained in him. Aduev Jr. misses and yearns all the time. Uncle and aunt try to distract their nephew in various ways, but nothing helps. The young man himself tries to forget himself in love, but he does not succeed. Alexander is increasingly thinking about returning home. In the end, the young man leaves the capital. Life in the village has not changed, only Sonya, Aduev's first love, without waiting for her lover, got married. Anna Pavlovna is glad that her son returned from St. Petersburg, and believes that life in the capital undermines health.
Fascinating city
But Alexander does not find peace in his father's house either. Barely returning, he is already dreaming of moving to St. Petersburg. After the salons of the capital, the quiet life in the village seems not dynamic and vibrant enough. Nevertheless, the young man does not dare to leave, because he does not want to upset his mother. The death of Anna Pavlovna relieves Aduev Jr. from remorse. He returns to the capital.
Another 4 years have passed. The heroes of the novel have changed a lot. Aunt Lizaveta became indifferent and indifferent. Pyotr Ivanovich also becomes different. From the former cold and calculating businessman, he turns into a loving family man. Pyotr Ivanovich suspects that his wife has serious health problems and wants to resign in order to take his wife away from the capital. Alexander was able to get rid of youthful illusions. Aduev Jr. earns good money, has achieved a high position and is going to marry a wealthy heiress.
Alexander Aduev
Romance and egocentrism are the main character traits of a young man. Alexander is confident in his uniqueness and dreams of conquering the capital. Aduev Jr. dreams of becoming famous in the poetry and writing field and finding true love. Life in the village, according to the young man, is not for such a talented and exalted person as he is.
Alexander's dreams are crumbling one after another. Very soon he realizes that in the capital and without him there are enough mediocre poets and writers. Aduev will not tell the public anything new. True love also disappointed the young romantic. Nadya Lyubetskaya easily throws Alexander in order to prefer a more profitable game to him. The young man comes to the conclusion that the world that lived in his imagination does not actually exist. Thus began the transformation of the romantic into an ordinary cynic and businessman, like Alexander's uncle.
Aduev Jr. realized in time that he was not able to remake reality, force it to be different. However, he can succeed by reconsidering his views and accepting the rules of the game.
Peter Aduev
At the beginning of the novel, Pyotr Ivanovich acts as the antipode of his nephew. The author characterizes this character as a person who is "icy to the point of fierceness." Thanks to his resourcefulness and composure, Uncle Alexander was able to get a good job. Pyotr Ivanovich hates those who are not adapted to life, sentimental and sensitive people. It is with these character traits that he has to fight in his nephew.
Aduev Sr. believes that only one who knows how to control his feelings has the right to be called a person. That is why Pyotr Ivanovich despises in Alexander the tendency to "delight". All the predictions of the experienced uncle came true. His nephew could not become famous either as a poet or as a writer, and the affair with Nadya ended in betrayal.
Uncle and nephew embody in the novel two sides of contemporary Russia to the author. The country was divided into dreamers, who do not bring any practical benefit to their actions, and businessmen, whose activities benefit only themselves. Alexander is a "superfluous person", unfit for the present case and causing a sense of irony even among close relatives. The "superfluous" will not benefit his fatherland, because, in fact, he himself does not know what he wants. Pyotr Ivanovich is overly practical. According to the author, his callousness is as destructive to those around him as the dreaminess of his nephew.
Some critics draw a parallel between "Ordinary History" and "Oblomov", where Oblomov and his friend Stolz are antipodes. The first, being a kind, sincere person, is too passive. The second, like Peter Aduev, is practical to callousness. The title of the novel - "An Ordinary Story" - testifies to the fact that all the events described in the book are taken from life. Goncharov himself admits that the story he told is not unique. The transformation of romantics into cynics happens every day. The "superfluous person" has only 2 ways: to leave this life, like Oblomov, or transform into a soulless machine, like Alexander Aduev.
IA Goncharov is a writer who, like no one else, understood and accepted the changes that had taken place in Russia, when Western trends began to seep into its measured patriarchal way of life. He traveled a lot, so he was familiar with the cultures of various peoples and treated them more than well. The author of "Ordinary History" was aware that the existing system was gradually being destroyed in Russia and that it was being replaced by a new stage of development, more rational and enterprising. ... In it, time is celebrated with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and well-being is celebrated with food supplies. In St. Petersburg, the whole day is scheduled by the clock: service, evening entertainment, consisting of visits or playing cards. Goncharov managed to understand that the Russian city and village are two such different, but at the same time interconnected worlds. The protagonist Alexander Aduev, moving from village to city, moves from one world to another, and the new system of relations turns out to be completely unfamiliar to him. In his estate, Aduev was a landowner, a “young master”, a significant and outstanding figure. And such a life inspires a young and handsome youth that he is exceptional and unique. This romantic inexperience of his, exaggerated selfishness bordering on selfishness, his belief in his chosenness collapses against the background of the Europeanized St. Petersburg way of life. Another main character is Peter Aduev, Alexander's uncle. In his novel, it was very important for Goncharov to show in his image the combination of an ordinary official-bureaucrat and an entrepreneur. At that time it was a very rare phenomenon, but it was in this that the author saw an opportunity to convey the true essence of St. Petersburg and its historical significance. It should be noted that Goncharov did not at all idealize the contemporary path of development of Russia and Russian society in particular. Thus, he did not express sympathy for the hero who represented this very society; thus, he did not express sympathy for the hero who represented this very society. But nevertheless, the novel feels the need for just such a position of the hero. Calling his novel "An Ordinary History", Goncharov, with a certain amount of irony and sadness, stated the fact that any person who initially recognizes only his exclusivity radically changes under the influence of existing moment of factors. Uncle Aduyev, who himself has become accustomed to modern requirements, explains to his nephew the “rules of the game”, without which it is simply impossible to achieve any kind of success in St. Petersburg. At first, Alexander resists, but gradually he is forced to agree that no one is interested in individuality, that one should be like everyone else, and this is the command of a new time for Russia. Subsequently, Alexander loses his best spiritual qualities: innocence, freshness of perception, sincerity, but instead achieves career growth, moving to the upper strata of society, expanding life experience. The hero of Goncharov eventually overcomes the romantic beginning that was present in his soul, and joins real life, which turned out to be rather harsh. Alexander's story is a kind of reflection of the changes that have taken place in Russian society. I. A. Goncharov very accurately noted the progressive importance for Russia of such people as Aduev the uncle. He is honest and firm, loves to do his own thing and says about himself and about people of his type like this: "We belong to a society ... which needs us." The writer showed in the novel the breaking of old relationships and concepts, the emergence of new characters, the consciousness of the need for work, work and knowledge. This novel made readers think about many questions, including moral ones, posed by the Russian reality of that time. VG Belinsky, emphasizing the vital fidelity of the content of "Ordinary History", called the novel "one of the remarkable works of Russian literature."
Features of the symbolism of the material world in the novels "An Ordinary History" and "The Break"
"An Ordinary History" - a novel about the problem of choosing between the material and spiritual components of human existence
Collected works of I.A. Goncharov, who has written many articles, essays, letters, sketches for still unfinished works during his long life, makes up eight very weighty volumes. However, in the history of Russian literature, this writer remained the author of "only" three novels on the "O": "Ordinary history", "Oblomov" and "Break". Goncharov himself believed that any novel is an exhaustive description of life, in which each new work must give a new formula for human existence in comparison with the previous one: people repeated themselves in numerous types under the influence of one or another principle, order, upbringing, so that some permanent and definite way of life would appear and that people of this form would appear in many species or specimens with certain rules and habits. And for this, of course, time is needed. Only that which leaves a noticeable trait in life, that enters, so to speak, into its capital, the future basis, is included in the work of art, which leaves a lasting mark in literature. "
Thus, it turns out that each of the three novels of I.A. Goncharov, presenting their own, "refined" version of the "formula of being" to the reader's judgment, can be perceived as part of a trilogy, and their study, from our point of view, must be united by a common task, by posing a "cross-cutting" question, defining a common theme linking three Goncharov's masterpiece. This theme is the search for the ideal, the norm of life.
In the center of the plot of the writer's debut novel - "An Ordinary Story" - the fate of a young man facing the problem of choosing a life path. The problem of choosing between the material and spiritual components of human existence, the search for their harmonious combination turns out to be relevant for today's "young men pondering life."
Let us ask ourselves a question: where does a young man get such “concepts” with which he looks like a black sheep in Petersburg, what is the history of the formation of his character, his “spiritual biography”.
"Spiritual biography" of Aduev Jr., explaining the character of Alexander and the origins of his worldview, protracted infantilism is associated with the fact that he grew up and was brought up in the countryside, provinces, it was formed by the way that is usually called patriarchal. Uncle calls the village with its nature, with its freedom of morals, simplicity and unpretentiousness of human and social relations "grace-filled stagnation." A special influence on Alexander had a mother, her concern for the happiness of her son, her ingenuous instructions, the very patriarchal atmosphere of her home, indulgence "Sasha" in all his desires. Note that "Alexander was spoiled, but not spoiled by home life." Studying at a provincial university is also significant, where Alexander "studied diligently and a lot," as a result of which he knew "about a dozen sciences and half a dozen ancient and new languages", and also received sublime ideas about the world and people.
So, the Russian provincial way of life has formed a pampered young man, accustomed to "the caresses of the mother, the reverence of the nanny and the entire courtyard," but not spoiled, who considers friendship, love, creativity to be the unshakable foundations of human existence. There is nothing wrong with that. It is fraught with future tragedy that these values in his mind acquire "hyperbolic" scales. The epithets that accompany the nouns "friendship", "love", "talent" in the hero's speech are evidence of this. Friendship is "heroic", love is "eternal." With such an ideological arsenal, the hero sets out to conquer the capital, dreaming of "the benefits that will bring the fatherland."
However, the change from the provincial lifestyle to the metropolitan one (the path chosen by Alexander) can be read in Goncharov's novel as a universal human situation: a young man in search of an application of strength, having matured, leaves his father's house, wishing to realize himself “in a wide space”. This is what he sees as "brilliant Petersburg". But Aduev Jr. even in the capital dreams of living according to the same laws as in the provinces, which, in turn, allows us to say that the hero is hopelessly behind the times, is guided by archaic ideas, thinks like “under Tsar Pea” ( cf. Stolz's words addressed to Ilya Ilyich Oblomov: "You reason like an ancient one").
So, the roots of Alexander Aduev's idyllic worldview seasoned with romanticism are in the past, in the manor house. The environment projects onto the hero its essential traits - both good and bad: selfishness in relation to the mother, to Sophia - Alexander expects loyalty from her, while he calls his feeling "little love", considers it to be something like a rehearsal of the future "Colossal passion." Thus, all the forces of the patriarchal order “work in harmony to turn a person into a spoiled child forever ... The connection between provincial customs and the romantic ideal of human relations clarifies the basis of the bizarre mutual transitions of fine-mindedness and egocentrism that are constantly found in romantic attitudes towards life. Infantilism turns out to be the basis of this peculiar dialectic: romanticism is understood by Goncharov as the position of an adult child who has preserved childhood illusions and childish egoism in the world of "adult" affairs, relationships and responsibilities. Goncharov sees in the romantic life position a purely childish misunderstanding of the real laws of the world, a purely childish ignorance of one's own strengths and capabilities, and, finally, a purely childish desire for the world to be the way you want it. And he consistently motivates all this by the influence of the patriarchal order. " In addition, we note that the image of the Rooks in the "Ordinary History" anticipates the description of the homeland of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. The hero of the next Goncharov's novel asks the question: "Why am I like this?" The answer to it will be the image of Oblomovka. "Blessed Oblomovka" in the lives of both heroes determined the leading features of their psychology. (However - in parentheses - we note that, in comparison with Oblomov, Alexander strikes by the narrowness of interests, poverty of mental activity. The romantic dreams of the hero are read, among other things, as immaturity of the mind, undemanding soul. The author's irony in relation to Aduev Jr. is especially obvious on the first pages of the novel (But, let us note, already in the second chapter, the author "delegates" the role of the ironic to his uncle.)
The province is opposed by Petersburg as a completely different image, a different lifestyle. In one of the episodes of the novel, the uncle, listening to his nephew, exclaims: “Oh, the province! Oh, Asia! " Oppositions "province - capital", Asia - Europe, East - West, contemplation - activity, idealism - pragmatism, romanticism - realism show the duality of Russian life and existence in the era of the creation of the novel. And this could not but be reflected in the "Ordinary History". The very geography of Russia, its position between East and West, Europe and Asia, contributes to the fact that in Russian culture and social sphere "pro-Western" and "pro-Eastern" sentiments are constantly confronting, and the time when the novel was created is characterized by an exacerbation of the struggle between Westerners and Slavophiles. Thus, each of the heroes of Goncharov's novel offers his own recipe for the world order. We also draw attention to the fact that each of the spheres of life drawn by Goncharov in the novel (just as it will be in Oblomov) receives a figurative expression in words- “signs”, words-symbols: “business”, “all sorts of rubbish”, "Yawned", "career and fortune", "calculated" - uncles. To characterize the nephew's worldview, words such as "yellow flowers", "material signs of immaterial relations", "hugs", "sincere outpourings", "talent" are significant.
The characters often characterize the same objects and phenomena in different ways, for example: "material signs of non-material relations" Aduev Sr. calls "all rubbish", "career and fortune", "business" in the mind of this hero is opposed to "sincere outpourings" and etc.
Why is the nephew's spiritual world completely alien to the uncle? The fact is that from the village Pyotr Ivanovich ended up in Petersburg, where he made his way through the service without tutelage and patronage: “I first served for a whole year without a salary ...”; he worked to achieve comfort and material well-being ("business brings money, and money is comfort") and married only when he realized that he could provide his wife with a comfortable existence, Aduev achieved everything himself and is proud of it. There was in his youth Peter Ivanovich and a romantic infatuation, "the first tender love", evidence of which we find in the finale of the novel: and he "loved<…>, cried<…>over the lake,<…>jealous, raging "and" picking yellow flowers. " However, later he denied himself the right to love and forgot how to feel.
The elder Aduev is brilliantly characterized by the phrase he said after Alexander broke up with Nadya Lyubetskaya: “He laid out the whole theory of love exactly in the palm of his hand, and offered money<…>, and dinner - and tried with wine ", and Alexander" and roars. " These words succinctly and accurately convey the spiritual "structure" of Peter Aduev and betray in Peter Ivanovich a pragmatic, skeptical person, the hero is distinguished by mental blindness and deafness. He is deaf to living life, the life of the soul, he once deliberately abandoned it in the name of "business" and "comfort". The hero loves "with calculation", and is friends, and lives ... Shattering the nephew's dreams of "eternal love" and "heroic friendship", the uncle acts as a tempter, a sort of modern Mephistopheles (the situation of temptation will also be found in Oblomov). How does the uncle "tempt" the nephew? Comfort. Let us also pay attention to what phonetic associations the surname Adueva evokes. Motives of demonism, the "hellish cold" exuded by the uncle, are also found in the novel.
So, we will not find a single common point in the views of our uncle and nephew in the first part of "An Ordinary History". Let us add to this the opinion of the critic and literary critic V.M. Markovich: “At Goncharov<…>two "terrible extremes" collide: "one is ecstatic to the point of extravagance, the other is icy to the point of fierceness." Both points of view are marked by dogmatism and bigotry, both assert themselves aggressively, with a total intolerance of dissent<...>... It is obvious that we are faced with individuals who have formed in a certain way and are unable to change without some fatal losses for them. For each of the heroes, going beyond the limits of his original position means self-destruction and such transformations, which, in essence, are tantamount to the death of one person and the appearance of another. This inevitability is demonstrated by the epilogue, and it is explained by the system of motivations that connects the points of view of the uncle and nephew with the formative influence of the two lifestyles. Goncharov re-opens at the level of everyday life the tragic truth about the "dual world" of Russia, once discovered by the author of "Onegin" in the sphere of spiritual culture. The two structures presented to the reader in the novel of the 40s are precisely two worlds in which people live in different ways and for different reasons. Although their difference is not as deep as the one that separated the worlds of Onegin and Tatiana from each other, we have before us an equally obvious impossibility of convergence and unification of opposites. She motivated the sharpness of the dialogical conflict "Ordinary history".<…>The "new order" and "grace-filled stagnation" do not communicate with each other in any way: according to Herzen's expression (referring, however, to a different situation), "when you move from the old world to the new you cannot take anything with you."
The motive of the passing time is one of the most important in the novel (“Two weeks have passed ...”, “About two years have passed ...”, “A year has passed since the scenes and incidents described in the last chapter of the first part ...”, “Four years after the second arrival of Alexander to Petersburg ... "). During the eight years spent in St. Petersburg, Alexander gained the experience of living in the capital, served, experienced three love interests, became disillusioned and lost faith. The test of love is a traditional means of characterizing a hero in Russian literature. Love for Aduev Jr. became not only a source of disappointment, but also the steps of his moral evolution. The development of Alexander's love relationship with the three women depicted in the novel is nothing more than milestones on his path to healing from a romantic "illness" - idealizing reality in the spirit of a patriarchal idyll. Note that, according to the author himself, in the first part of the novel, the reader is faced with the type of romantic-dreamer, “the whole idle, dreamy and affectative side of old morals with the usual impulses of youth - towards the high, the great, the graceful, towards the effects, with a thirst to express this in crackling prose, most of all in poetry. " The typification of the phenomena of reality is a feature of the works of the "natural school", and the female figures of the novel, first of all, Nadenka Lyubetskaya, are also a reflection of the phenomena of the time: “Nadenka, the girl, the object of love of Aduyev, is also a reflection of her time. She is no longer an unconditionally submissive daughter to the will of any parents.<…>... She fell in love with Aduev without asking and hardly hides this from her mother or keeps silent only for decency, considering herself the right to dispose of her inner world in her own way.<…>... She only got enough to see that young Aduev was not a force, that he repeats everything that she saw a thousand times in all the other young men with whom she danced, flirted a little. She listened to his poetry for a minute. Writing poetry was then a diploma for the intelligentsia. She expected the strength and talent to lie there. But it turned out that he only writes tolerable poetry, but no one knows about them, and even sulks about himself at the count for the fact that this one is simple, smart and behaves with dignity. She went over to the side of the latter: so far this was the conscious step of the Russian girl - a silent emancipation, a protest against the mother's authority, which was helpless for her. But then this emancipation ended. She was conscious, but did not turn her consciousness into action, stopped in ignorance, since the very moment of the era was the moment of ignorance.<…>Indeed, the Russian girl did not know how to act consciously and rationally in this or that case. She felt only vaguely that it was time and time for her to protest against her parents giving her in marriage, and she could only, unconsciously, of course, like Nadya, declare this protest, rejecting one and moving feelings to the other.
Here I left Nadenka. I no longer needed her as a type ...<…>... Many people asked me what happened to her next?<…>... Look in "Oblomov" - Olga is the transformed Nadenka of the next era. " This last remark of Goncharov is an indirect confirmation of the fact that the main female type has not yet been drawn, that the author's appeal to him is still ahead.
Let's go back to the hero. How does the character's behavior and feelings differ in each of the three love stories described in The Ordinary Story? The “nerve” of Alexander's experiences and feelings at the moment of each of these hobbies can be summed up in the most capacious way with the words: “holy feelings” - “boredom” - “temptation”.
Alexander perceives the outcome of relations with Nadya as a catastrophe, a tragedy, curses her and his rival, the count, is ready to die of despair. A year later, "true sadness passed," but the hero "was sorry to part with her." Goncharov further remarks with subtle irony: “He somehow liked to play the role of a sufferer. He was quiet, important, foggy, like a man who, according to him, withstood the blow of fate. "
Love for Yulia, which gave Alexander the hope for the resurrection of the soul, gradually, over time, turns under the pen of Goncharov almost into a farce: "They continued to systematically revel in bliss." This feeling, devoid of poetry, died out by itself, and the reason for its loss was not the corrosive skepticism of the uncle, not the betrayal of his beloved, but habit, boredom. It is here on the pages of the novel that the words "yawned" and "yawned" are being repeated more and more often.
And finally, the intrigue with Lisa. There is no longer even a speech about "eternal love", but there are "slender waist", "leg", "luxurious shoulders", "curl" drawn by the hero's obliging imagination. (One involuntarily recalls another romantic - "poor Lensky", to Onegin's question "Why is Olga your frisky?" ... “He is disappointed” - this is Uncle Alexander's verdict. "Boredom" drives the hero to the village, he leaves the capital for a year and a half to reappear before the reader "four years after the second arrival<…>to St. Petersburg "in a new capacity - a successful official and a groom
What caused Alexander's mental crisis? "Who is guilty?"
Destructive, in the hero's opinion, were primarily his uncle's “lessons”: “Exactly, uncle, you have nothing to be surprised about<…>you helped a lot of circumstances to make me what I am now<…>... You explained it to me<…>the theory of love, deceptions, cheating, chills<…>... I knew it all before I started to love<…>... Friendship you rejected, you called it a habit<…>... I loved people<…>... And you showed me what they are worth. Instead of guiding my heart in affection, you taught me not to feel, but to disassemble, examine and beware of people: I examined them - and fell out of love! "
Alexander names among the "culprits" of his drama and St. Petersburg with its "new order", where he did not get the opportunity to realize his dreams and plans, where he "lost trust in happiness and life and grew old in soul." Had Aduev Jr. stayed in the village, he, according to his own statement, could have avoided disappointment and would have been happy.
It would seem that the point of view of a nephew who realized that the path he had chosen was associated with the inevitable loss of ideal, harmony, dreams, and who received a harsh life lesson in Petersburg, can be read as close to the author's. At least in the letters of the hero from the village, according to V.M. Markovich, "the author's voice is heard and the author's idea of life emerges, equal to the truth for the reader." The reader is already ready to accept the version that the “new order” has a detrimental effect on the destinies of romantically inclined young people, preventing them from realizing their ideal aspirations, but Goncharov does not allow this reader's impression to gain a foothold.
Uncle, speaking about Alexander's inability to correct "development", blames patriarchal upbringing, noting: "he would get used to<…>, yes, he had already been badly spoiled in the village by his aunt and yellow flowers. " From his point of view, it was precisely the atmosphere of "grace-filled stagnation" that nourished the hero's soul that did not allow his nephew to become "on a par with the century."
And, finally, at some point, an accusation against Alexander himself sounds from the lips of Lizaveta Aleksandrovna: “Pyotr Ivanovich! Yes, he's a lot to blame!<…>... But you had the right not to listen to him ... and you would be happy in marriage ... "" Which of the versions is supported by the author's objective narration and the objective development of the plot? " Yes - in one way or another - everything! Each of the motivations has a right to exist.
Belief in "eternal love", contrary to the "sad predictions" of his uncle, does not leave Alexander during Nadya's infatuation, but love for Yulia leaves the hero's heart on its own, because Petr Ivanovich does not interfere in the relationship between his nephew and Yulia Tafaeva at all.
Life in the village, where Alexander dreamed of future "heroic friendship" and "eternal love", also left its mark on the character of the hero: he prepared himself for them and was unable to accept life as it appeared to him in "cold, shiny" Petersburg.
And, finally, Lizaveta Aleksandrovna was right in her own way when she blamed Alexander Aduev for the collapse of youthful ideals and hopes: he could not listen to the “sad predictions of the elder Aduev, live“ with his own mind ”, resist circumstances.
But in addition to these motivations, embedded in the structure of the novel, there is at least one more, so to speak, "over-objective" - the growing up of the hero, the transition from a tender, "pink" age to maturity. Pushkin's lines can be attributed to Alexander Aduev almost without corrections:
Blessed is the one who was young from a young age, Blessed is the one who matured in time, Who gradually knew how to endure the cold With the years ... But it's sad to think that in vain Was our youth given, That they cheated on her all the hour, That she deceived us; That our best desires, That our fresh dreams Decayed in quick succession, Like rotten leaves in autumn ...
If Alexander matured "in time", retained "the best desires" and "fresh dreams" - the universal laws of the transition from age to age would have taken place in his life less painfully, their consequences would have been less catastrophic. Goncharov's hero lacked wisdom and patience, and here Pushkin comes to mind again:
Will I preserve contempt for fate, Will I carry towards it The inflexibility and patience Of my proud youth?
This is perhaps the main question in the life of every young man. And Russian literature has put him before readers more than once. Here is a fragment of the "Plyushkin's" chapter of "Dead Souls": "... anything can happen to a person. The current fiery youth would have jumped back in horror if they had shown him his own portrait in old age. Take away with you on the way, leaving the mild youthful years in the harsh hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, do not pick them up later! "
The finale of The Ordinary Story caused a lot of controversy. Let us recall the opinion of V.G. Belinsky: “... we do not recognize the hero of the novel in the epilogue: this face is completely fake, unnatural.<…>Such romantics are never made by positive people. The author would rather have the right to force his hero to stall in the village game in apathy and laziness than to force him to profitably serve in Petersburg and marry a large dowry.<…>... The novel's denouement, invented by the author, spoils the impression of this entire beautiful work, because it is unnatural and false. "
The epilogue of the novel is all the more unexpected for those who are ready to join the critic's opinion. Here, the narrative makes a completely unpredictable "somersault": Aduev Sr., for whom the main value was "business", is convinced from his own experience that his life credo has failed, that inattention on his part has ruined his young wife. Now Peter Ivanovich appears before us disappointed and unhappy. And yesterday's romantic turned into a vulgar and careerist, "in a word, he did the job." But this is not the end of The Ordinary Story yet.
Final scene. The two characters in this scene are like twins. Before us is again that Pyotr Ivanovich, whom we saw at the beginning of the novel, and the new Alexander, who acquired the features of an uncle, who became a more rationalist and pragmatist than Aduev Sr. himself. So Goncharov does not allow neither one nor the other life position to be fixed in the reader's mind, leaving the ending open. Hence - the threads to the new novel, to "Oblomov".
What is the "ordinariness" of the story told by Goncharov? “Real Russian society, as Goncharov is convinced in the course of his artistic research, offers people only extremes: either a departure from reality, or its complete submission to the latest fetishes.<…>... Considering this cruel logic, Alexander's final metamorphosis is natural and logical. As Goncharov later sadly stated, “between reality and the ideal lies<…>the abyss, through which the bridge has not yet been found, but it will hardly be built when "".
Thus, we have the right to speak about the unity of the concrete historical and the universal in the "Ordinary History". And, despite the "closedness", "implicitness" of the author's position in the novel as a whole, despite the external impartiality of the narration, we catch in the novel a hint of the result of the author's study of the situation. The main question of the novel (and of Russian life in the 1940s as a whole): "How can a person live?" - that is, the question about the "norm", about the ideal and reality, about the correlation of the material and spiritual components of human existence. According to V.A. Nedzvetsky, "it is impossible not to see that the very relationship of personality and reality in the broad sense of this concept is ultimately transformed by the author of" Ordinary History "into the relationship between the ideal and life as such." And this is a timeless question, an eternal question, and in the first novel of Goncharov it is only posed. This is the result of Goncharov's first novel and the beginning of a new one.
Writers explore life in two ways - mental, starting with reflections on the phenomena of life, and artistic, the essence of which is the comprehension of the same phenomena not with the mind (or, rather, not only with the mind), but with their entire human essence, or, as they say, intuitively.
Intellectual knowledge of life leads the author to a logical presentation of the material studied by him, artistic - to the expression of the essence of the same phenomena through a system of artistic images. The fiction writer, as it were, gives a picture of life, but not just a copy from it, but transformed into a new artistic reality, which is why the phenomena that interested the author and illuminated by the bright light of his genius or talent appear before us especially visible, and sometimes visible through and through.
It is assumed that a true writer gives us life only in the form of an artistic representation of it. But in reality there are not so many such “pure” authors, and perhaps there are none at all. More often than not, a writer is both an artist and a thinker.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov has long been considered one of the most objective Russian writers, that is, a writer in whose works personal sympathies or antipathies are not exhibited as a measure of certain life values. He gives artistic pictures of life objectively, as if "heeding good and evil indifferently," leaving the reader himself, with his own mind, to administer the court and pass judgment.
It is in the novel "Ordinary History" that Goncharov, through the lips of a journalist, expounds this idea in its purest form: "... a writer only, firstly, will write efficiently when he is not under the influence of personal passion and passion. He must survey life and people in general with a calm and bright look, otherwise he will express only his own I am that nobody cares about. " And in the article “Better late than never” Goncharov notes: “… I will first say about myself that I belong to the last category, that is, I am most fond of (as Belinsky noted about me)“ with my ability to draw ”.
And in his first novel, Goncharov painted a picture of Russian life in a small village estate and in St. Petersburg in the 1840s. Of course, Goncharov could not give a complete picture of life in the countryside and in St. Petersburg, just as no other author can do this, because life is always more diverse than any of its depictions. Let's see if the picture depicted turned out to be objective, as the author wanted it, or some side considerations made this picture subjective.
The dramatic content of the novel is the kind of duel waged by its two main characters: the young man Alexander Aduyev and his uncle Pyotr Ivanovich. The duel is exciting, dynamic, in which success falls to the lot of one or the other side. The fight for the right to live life according to your ideals. And the ideals of the uncle and nephew are directly opposite.
Young Alexander comes to St. Petersburg directly from the warm motherly embrace, dressed from head to toe in armor of high and noble spiritual impulses, he comes to the capital not out of idle curiosity, but in order to enter into a decisive battle with everything soulless, calculating, vile. “I was attracted by some irresistible desire, a thirst for noble activity,” exclaims this naive idealist. And he did not challenge anyone to fight, but the whole world of evil. A sort of little homebrew quixotic! And after all, he also read and listened to all sorts of noble nonsense.
Goncharov's subtle irony, with which he describes at the beginning of the novel his young hero - his departure from home, his oath of eternal love to Sonechka and his friend Pospelov, his first timid steps in Petersburg - it is this very mocking look of Goncharov at his young hero that makes the image Aduev Jr. dear to our hearts, but already predetermines the outcome of the struggle between his nephew and uncle. Authors do not treat true heroes capable of great deeds with irony.
And here is the opposite side: a resident of the capital, the owner of a glass and porcelain factory, an official for special assignments, a man of sober mind and practical sense, thirty-nine-year-old Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev is the second hero of the novel. Goncharov endows him with humor, and even sarcasm, but he himself does not treat this brainchild with irony, which makes us assume: here he is, the true hero of the novel, here is the one to whom the author invites us to take an alignment.
These two characters, which interested the Gonchars, were the brightest types of their time. The ancestor of the first was Vladimir Lensky, the second - Eugene Onegin himself, albeit in a greatly transformed form. I will note here in parentheses that Onegin's coldness, his experience suffer exactly the same collapse as the experience and significance of the life of Pyotr Ivanovich Aduev.
Still vaguely sensing the integrity of his novel, Goncharov writes: “... in the meeting of a soft, spoiled by laziness and lordship, a dreamer-nephew with a practical uncle, he expressed a hint of a tune that had just begun to play out in the most brisk center - in St. Petersburg. This motive is a faint flickering of the consciousness of the need for work, a real, not routine, but a living thing in the fight against all-Russian stagnation. "
Goncharov really wants to take this particular person of "living business" as his model, and not only to himself, but also to offer him to the reader's attention precisely as a model.
With what splendor the dialogues between uncle and nephew are written! How calmly, confidently, categorically uncle smashes his hot nephew, but not armed with a terrible weapon of logic and experience! And every critical phrase is deadly, irresistible. Irresistible because he speaks the truth. Heavy, sometimes even offensive and merciless, but precisely the truth.
Here he makes fun of the "material signs ... of non-material relations" - a ring and a lock, presented by Sonechka at parting to her beloved Sasha who is leaving for the capital. “And you were carrying this one fifteen hundred miles away? .. It would be better if you brought another bag of dried raspberries,” his uncle advises and throws symbols of eternal love, invaluable for Alexander, out the window. Alexander's uncle's words and actions seem wild and cold. Can he forget his Sonechka? Never!..
Alas, my uncle was right. Very little time passed, and Alexander falls in love with Nadya Lyubetskaya, falls in love with all the ardor of youth, with his characteristic passion, unaccountably, thoughtlessly! .. Sonechka is completely forgotten. Not only will he never even remember her, but he will also forget her name. Love for Nadya will fill Alexander entirely! .. There will be no end to his radiant happiness. What business can there be, which my uncle is talking about, what kind of work, when, one might say, day and night disappears outside the city at the Lyubetskys! Ah, this uncle, he has only business on his mind. Insensitive! .. How his tongue turns to say that Nadenka, his Nadenka, this deity, this perfection, can cheat him. “She will cheat! This angel, this personified sincerity ... ”- exclaims young Alexander. “Still, she’s a woman, and she will probably deceive,” the uncle replies. Oh, those sober, ruthless mind and experience. Hard! .. But the truth: Nadya deceived. She fell in love with the count, and Alexander is dismissed. All life immediately turned black. And my uncle keeps repeating: I warned you! ..
Alexander collapses decisively in all respects - in love, in friendship, in impulses for creativity, in work. Everything, absolutely everything that his teachers and books taught, everything turned out to be nonsense and with a slight crunch shattered under the iron tread of sober reason and practical deeds. In the most intense scene of the novel, when Alexander is driven to despair, drank, sank, his will is atrophied, his interest in life has disappeared completely, his uncle retorts the last babble of his nephew's excuse: “What I demanded from you - I didn’t make it all up”. “Who is it? - Asked Lizaveta Alexandrovna (wife of Peter Ivanych - V.R.). - Century.
This is where the main motivation behind the behavior of Pyotr Ivanych Aduev was revealed. Command of the century! The century demanded! “Look,” he calls out, “at today's youth: what a fine fellow! How everything boils with mental activity, energy, how cleverly and easily they deal with all this nonsense, which in your old language is called anxiety, suffering ... and the devil knows what else! "