Features of the novel what to do briefly. The genre uniqueness of the novel “What to do? The novel “What to do?”
Oct 20 2010
The novel “What to do?” has a very clear and rationally thought out compositional structure. According to the observation of A.V. Lunacharsky, the composition of Roma-(*148)na is organized by the dialectically developing author’s thought, moving “across four zones: vulgar people, new people, superior people and dreams.” With the help of such a composition, Chernyshevsky shows his reflections on it, his thinking about it in dynamics, in development, in forward movement from the past through the present to the future. Attention to the process of life itself - characteristic feature artistic thinking of the 60s, typical of the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nekrasov.
Unlike the nobles, Rozalskaya is active and enterprising, although her work takes on perverted forms: everything in it is subordinated to the interests of personal gain, selfish calculation is seen in everything. Even to her daughter, who runs away to Lopukhov against her mother’s will, Marya Aleksevna shouts after her: “She stole!” And yet Chernyshevsky sympathizes with her and introduces her in the chapter “ Word of praise Marya Aleksevna.” Why?
The answer to this question is given in Vera Pavlovna’s second dream. She dreams of a field divided into two sections: on one there are fresh, healthy ears of corn, on the other - stunted seedlings. “Are you interested in knowing,” says Lopukhov, “why wheat so white, pure and tender will be born from one mud, but not from another mud?” It turns out that the first dirt is “real”, because on this piece of field there is movement of water, and any movement is labor. In the second section there is “fantastic” mud, because it is swampy and the water in it has stagnated. The miracle of the birth of new ears of corn is performed by the sun: by illuminating and warming the “real” dirt with its rays, it brings to life strong shoots. But the sun is not omnipotent - nothing will be born from the soil of “fantastic” dirt even with it. “Until recently, they did not know how to restore health to such clearings, but now a remedy has been discovered; this is drainage: excess water runs down the ditches, there remains as much water as needed, and it moves, and the clearing receives reality.” Then Serge appears. “Don't confess, Serge! - says Alexey Petrovich, - we know your story; worries about the unnecessary, thoughts about the unnecessary - this is the soil on which you grew up; this soil is fantastic. Therefore, look at yourself: you are by nature not stupid, and very good, perhaps no worse and no more stupid than us, but what are you good for, what are you useful for?” Vera Pavlovna's dream resembles an extended parable.
Thinking in parables is a characteristic feature of spiritual literature. Let us recall, for example, the Gospel parable about the sower and the seeds, very beloved by Nekrasov. Its echoes are also felt in Chernyshevsky. Here “What to do?” focuses on culture, on the thoughts of democratic readers who have been familiar with spirituality since childhood. Let's decipher its meaning. It is clear that by “real” dirt we mean the bourgeois-philistine strata of society leading a working lifestyle close to the natural needs of human nature. That is why more and more new people are coming out of this class - Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna. The mud is “fantastic” - noble world, where there is no labor, where the normal needs of human nature are perverted. Before this dirt, the sun is powerless, but “drainage” is omnipotent, that is, revolution is such a radical restructuring of society that will force the noble class to work.
Essay text:
Artistic Features novel What to do.
Chernyshevsky's novel is one of the most special works of Russian literature, both in style and in terms of the conditions of creation. This novel was published in 1863, and was written by Chernyshevsky in Peter and Paul Fortress. It is clear what kind of censorship a novel written by a convicted revolutionary had to undergo. This is what determines such a complex style of the work. The author was forced to carefully veil his thoughts, leave many things unsaid, and talk about many things only in hints. And Chernyshevsky solved this problem. The novel was passed by the censors, who did not see its socialist orientation. But what was not understood by the censorship was understood by the advanced part of Russian society, and the novel became reference book youth. In its artistic features, the work differs from everything that was created before and after it. First of all, it should be noted that the novel is revolutionary both in form and content. The theme of struggle, the theme of liberation runs like a red thread through the entire novel, finding its conclusion in last chapter: the triumph of the revolution. In this work we find an amazing combination of critical realism and revolutionary romanticism. No one, either before Chernyshevsky or after him, developed this genre. How brilliant Chernyshevsky must have been to guess the great and bright future of his people, to predict the revolution, during the years of the terrible dominance of reaction. The revolutionary nature of the novel is primarily reflected in the images of the heroes. His heroes are creative people who have moved from words to deeds. They are building the first workshop, where the income goes to the benefit of the workers themselves, among them the professional revolutionary Rakhmetov grew up, who devoted his entire life to serving the people. Chernyshevsky's heroes are living people, but at the same time they show everyone best qualities advanced youth, which should have been developed and improved.
Rakhmetov’s biography helps us understand even better the author’s main idea that representatives of the nobility began to go over to the side of the people, which means the century of oppression will not last long. The portrait plays very small role. For example, the portrait of Lopukhov is not large, but it also emphasizes the courage and originality of the hero’s character. This was a man with beautiful features, with a proud and courageous appearance. But, along with these usual methods of depicting heroes, dialogues, disputes, theoretical reasoning, and letters from heroes achieve great importance. An example is Lopukhov’s conversations with Vera Pavlovna about religion and people’s actions. Numerous dialogues about the reasonable egoism of Lopukhov and Kirsanov. Many more examples can be given, since in most cases the deep thoughts of the author can be felt in all conversations. The letters of the heroes played the same role. The correspondence between Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna helps to better understand the relationship between them. Katya Polozova’s letter gives a vivid idea of Vera Pavlovna’s workshop. But not only the images of the heroes make up the peculiarity of the play. The composition is also unique. The novel is divided into six large chapters, which in turn are divided into small sub-chapters. Each chapter has a title, which represents the theme of the chapter. A special chapter is the last page of the novel, called Change of Scenery. This was done because Chernyshevsky gave her very great importance, since the triumph of revolutionary ideas, the victory of the revolution is shown. The digressions to which the author resorts are also very characteristic of the novel. The most important of these are conversations with an astute reader. In his appearance, Chernyshevsky makes fun of the philistine and stupid public, for whom only poignant scenes are important, and not the essence of the book. He shows this boastful crowd, which smugly talks about literary or scientific things about which it has no understanding. At the same time, the author calls for studying literature, carefully and thoughtfully analyzing the novel. The composition corresponds to the language of the novel. Basically it is a complex language, with a large number all kinds of revolutions, subordinate clauses. An example is the following phrase about Lopukhov and Kirsanov: But they reason differently: you see, medicine is now in such an infancy state that it is not yet necessary to treat, but only to prepare materials for future doctors to be able to treat. The use of such words, as you see, emphasizes the author’s relationship to the speaker. And the use of such words, similar to Old Russian ones, as if in infancy, without filling up, gives the language a heaviness and nationality. But the heroes of the novel are also characterized by accurate short aphorisms: Give people bread, they will learn to read themselves, Zher-va - soft-boiled boots, We have no time to be bored: we have too much to do, I don’t hate my homeland because I love it. What to do differs from other novels in its political character and its journalistic orientation. The novel is the opposite of Turgenev’s fathers and children. This opposition is visible in everything. So, if Bazarov is a gloomy, angry person, then Chernyshevsky’s heroes are cheerful people, confident in their actions. If Turgenev’s novel shows the inconsistency of Bazarov’s views and his death, then in the work What to Do revolutionary ideas triumphed, and the novel ends with a picture of revolution. Chernyshevsky's novel played a huge role in Russian literature and public life. The novel became a textbook of life for all progressive youth. It was perceived as a program of activity in public and personal life. No matter how hard the reactionaries tried to reduce the significance of the work, they were still forced to admit that the novel became the most popular work of Russian literature.
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The novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” created by him in a chamber of the Peter and Paul Fortress in the period from 12/14/1862 to 04/04/1863. in three and a half months. From January to April 1863, the manuscript was transferred in parts to the commission on the writer’s case for censorship. The censor did not find anything reprehensible and allowed publication. The oversight was soon discovered and censor Beketov was removed from office, but the novel was already published in the magazine Sovremennik (1863, No. 3-5). The bans on the magazine's issues led to nothing and the book was distributed throughout the country in samizdat.
In 1905, under Emperor Nicholas II, the ban on publication was lifted, and in 1906 the book was published in a separate edition. The reaction of readers to the novel is interesting; they are divided into two camps. Some supported the author, others considered the novel devoid of artistry.
Analysis of the work
1. Social and political renewal of society through revolution. In the book, due to censorship, the author could not expand on this topic in more detail. It is given in half-hints in the description of Rakhmetov’s life and in the 6th chapter of the novel.
2. Moral and psychological. That a person, with the power of his mind, is able to create in himself new given moral qualities. The author describes the entire process from small (the fight against despotism in the family) to large-scale, that is, revolution.
3. Women's emancipation, norms of family morality. This topic is revealed in the history of Vera's family, in the relationships of three young people before Lopukhov's imaginary suicide, in Vera's first 3 dreams.
4. Future socialist society. This is a dream of a beautiful and bright life, which the author unfolds in Vera Pavlovna’s 4th dream. Here is a vision of lightened labor with the help technical means, i.e. technogenic development of production.
(Chernyshevsky writes a novel in a cell at the Peter and Paul Fortress)
The pathos of the novel is the propaganda of the idea of transforming the world through revolution, preparing minds and waiting for it. Moreover, the desire to actively participate in it. the main objective works - the development and implementation of a new method of revolutionary education, the creation of a textbook on the formation of a new worldview for every thinking person.
Story line
In the novel, it actually covers up the main idea of the work. It’s not for nothing that at first even the censors considered the novel to be nothing more than a love story. The beginning of the work, deliberately entertaining, in the spirit French novels, aimed to confuse censorship and, at the same time, attract the attention of the majority of the reading public. The plot is simple love story, behind which hide social, philosophical and economic problems that time. The Aesopian language of the narrative is thoroughly permeated with the ideas of the coming revolution.
The plot is like this. There is an ordinary girl Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya, whom her selfish mother is trying in every possible way to pass off as a rich man. Trying to avoid this fate, the girl resorts to the help of her friend Dmitry Lopukhov and enters into a fictitious marriage with him. Thus, she gains freedom and leaves her parents' house. In search of income, Vera opens a sewing workshop. This is not an ordinary workshop. There is no hired labor here; female workers have their share of the profits, so they are interested in the prosperity of the enterprise.
Vera and Alexander Kirsanov are mutually in love. To free his imaginary wife from remorse, Lopukhov stages suicide (it is with the description of it that the whole action begins) and leaves for America. There he acquires a new name, Charles Beaumont, becomes an agent of an English company and, fulfilling its assignment, comes to Russia to purchase a stearine plant from the industrialist Polozov. Lopukhov meets Polozov’s daughter Katya at Polozov’s house. They fall in love with each other, the matter ends with a wedding. Now Dmitry appears in front of the Kirsanov family. Friendship between families begins, they settle in the same house. A circle of “new people” forms around them, wanting to arrange their own social life in a new way. Lopukhov-Beaumont's wife Ekaterina Vasilievna also joins the business and sets up a new sewing workshop. This is such a happy ending.
Main characters
The central character of the novel is Vera Rozalskaya. She is especially sociable and belongs to the type of “honest girls” who are not ready to compromise for the sake of a profitable marriage without love. The girl is romantic, but despite this, she is quite modern, with good administrative skills, as they would say today. Therefore, she was able to interest the girls and organize a sewing production and more.
Another character in the novel is Dmitry Sergeevich Lopukhov, a student at the Medical Academy. Somewhat withdrawn, prefers solitude. He is honest, decent and noble. It was these qualities that prompted him to help Vera in her difficult situation. For her sake, he quits his studies in his last year and begins private practice. Considered the official husband of Vera Pavlovna, he behaves towards her in highest degree decent and noble. The apogee of his nobility is his decision to stage own death, To give loving friend friend Kirsanov and Vera to unite their destinies. Just like Vera, it relates to the formation of new people. Smart, enterprising. This can be judged at least because the English company entrusted him with a very serious matter.
Kirsanov Alexander, husband of Vera Pavlovna, best friend Lopukhova. I am very impressed by his attitude towards his wife. He not only loves her tenderly, but also looks for an activity for her in which she could realize herself. The author feels deep sympathy for him and speaks of him as a brave man who knows how to carry through to the end the work he has taken on. At the same time, he is an honest, deeply decent and noble person. Not knowing about the true relationship between Vera and Lopukhov, having fallen in love with Vera Pavlovna, he disappears from their house for a long time so as not to disturb the peace of the people he loves. Only Lopukhov’s illness forces him to appear to treat his friend. The fictitious husband, understanding the state of the lovers, imitates his death and makes room for Kirsanov next to Vera. Thus, lovers find happiness in family life.
(In the photo, the artist Karnovich-Valois in the role of Rakhmetov, the play "New People")
A close friend of Dmitry and Alexander, revolutionary Rakhmetov - the most significant hero novel, although he is given little space in the novel. In the ideological outline of the narrative, he played a special role and is devoted to a separate digression in chapter 29. An extraordinary man in every way. At the age of 16, he left university for three years and wandered around Russia in search of adventure and character development. This is a person with already formed principles in all spheres of life, material, physical and spiritual. At the same time, he has an ebullient nature. He sees his later life in serving people and prepares for this, tempering his spirit and body. He even refused the woman he loved, because love could limit his actions. He would like to live like most people, but he cannot afford it.
In Russian literature, Rakhmetov became the first practical revolutionary. Opinions about him were completely opposite, from indignation to admiration. This - perfect image revolutionary hero. But today, from the position of knowledge of history, such a person could only evoke sympathy, since we know how accurately history has proven the truth of the words of the Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte: “Revolutions are conceived by heroes, carried out by fools, and scoundrels enjoy their fruits.” Perhaps the voiced opinion does not quite fit into the framework of the image and characteristics of Rakhmetov formed over decades, but this is indeed the case. The above does not in any way detract from Rakhmetov’s quality, because he is a hero of his time.
According to Chernyshevsky, using the example of Vera, Lopukhov and Kirsanov, he wanted to show ordinary people new generation, of which there are thousands. But without the image of Rakhmetov, the reader might have formed a misleading opinion about the main characters of the novel. According to the writer, all people should be like these three heroes, but highest ideal The image that all people should strive for is the image of Rakhmetov. And I completely agree with this.
This new type programmatic socio-political novel. Software because it answers the question of what needs to be done to be useful to the people and country. Journalistic because the author’s position itself is extremely clear, which affirms the artist’s right to conduct a direct conversation with readers. The author in the novel himself is actor, openly promoting their ideas and fighting for the worldview of the masses. This “transparent” position of the author affirms the transformative role of art and is intended to make the book a textbook for life. The journalistic nature of the novel is also manifested in a sharp polemic with the principles of “pure”, i.e.
e. calm, contemplative art. Finally, the journalistic nature of the novel lies in the fact that the author’s main aspiration is the desire to awaken thought. And the novel is socio-political because the main subject artistic image In it, politics appears, the realm of the beautiful and sublime is revolution and socialism, and pathos is revolutionary passion. Features of the composition According to Lunacharsky, “the internal structure of the novel follows four zones: 1st zone - vulgar people, 2nd zone - new people, 3rd zone - higher people, 4th zone - “dreams”, i.e.
e. the main feature of the composition is the novel’s aspiration from the past to the future - to socialism, from personal life- to social struggle, to a “change of scenery,” i.e., to the preparation of a revolution. The second feature is the introduction of detailed backstories for the 4 main characters (Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna), which is a creative dispute between Chernyshevsky and Turgenev, who refused to give Bazarov a backstory, i.e.
K. Turgenev believed that revolutionary beliefs have no roots in Russian history and in national soil. The third feature is the continuous growth of the movement, in which more and more “new people” are involved, so in the 5th chapter new names appear: Polozov, Nikitin, Mertsalov, Lady in Mourning, etc.
d. This increase in action does not lead to a final denouement, so the novel open ending, because
the story is not over, but only temporarily stopped. Its solution lies in the future. Conclusion: the main law of composition is the law of gradual, leisurely preparation of the reader to perceive the idea of the inevitability of a revolutionary transformation in society.
Let us immediately note that to determine genre nature"What to do?" not so easy. To begin with, in new Russian literature in general, according to the fair remark of Academician D.S. Likhachev, “every work is new genre. The genre is determined by the material works, - form grows out of content. Genre form as something rigid, externally imposed on the work... ceases to exist.” True for all new Russian literature, this observation is doubly true for Chernyshevsky’s novelism - the most important formative factor, the “building material” that ultimately determines the special genre specificity"What to do?". The author of this book cared little about the “purity of the genre” and, mixing heterogeneous stylistic and compositional elements, achieved the desired effect.
Researchers point out that the novel, with its free composition, detective tricks for the “reader in general,” and the lofty idea of overcoming individualism that unites the entire narrative, is a work of fiction, philosophy, and journalism at the same time. To determine the genre “What to do?” V different time were offered different names: socio-philosophical, socio-political, socio-psychological novel; a novel-treatise, a novel-confession, a novel-program, a novel-experiment, a social-utopian novel... Despite the apparent kaleidoscopic nature, each of these definitions characterizes one side of the book. Its author, drawing on the diverse experience of his predecessors, made structural changes to the traditional genres of a love-psychological story, a family novel with a love conflict at the center. Marietta Shaginyan even called it the first “industrial novel” in Russian literature, since it tells about a sewing workshop organized on a cooperative basis, and provides a detailed digital calculation of the financial part of this workshop...
Before us is a political and social-utopian novel, imbued with a spirit of polemics. The novel “What to do?” - an unusual phenomenon for Russian literature of the 19th century century. The work, which has a frankly didactic purpose, in a form as close as possible to the consciousness of the average Russian man in the street, talked about the most complex problems of philosophy, economics, and ethics. The novel introduced the reader to the fundamentals of Feuerbach’s materialist teachings and showed how new, socialist relations between people, substantiated the ideals of Russian revolutionary democracy, gave practical advice on organizing cooperative enterprises, etc.
"What to do?" has become an outright challenge to traditional artistry: the narrative in it is organized by the ideological premise of the author, who believes novel form only the necessary “finishing” of his work. However, it is form , which has a number of undoubted advantages, provided the work with access to a wide readership.
The composition of the work is quite complex. It is characterized by such features as biplane (the first plan is external, family and everyday life, the second is hidden, socio-political), concentricity (with a common ideological and problematic center, the novel is built concentrically: vulgar people, new people, superior people, dreams), cyclicality (creating a picture of the development of action in a spiral), dynamism (the composition is unfolded in time - past, present and future), etc. The author introduces into the text the image of a narrator who actively intervenes in the narrative, talks with the characters, an “insightful reader,” and comments on the characters’ actions. The author's digressions - lyrical ones - are introduced into the text of the novel. Journalistic, philosophical. The narrative begins unusually, with a denouement; the author uses the technique fragmentation storyline, a moment of “mystery” in its development.
System artistic images it is structured in such a way that the reader is presented with two worlds with two centers: one world - noble and bourgeois, the images of its heroes are located around Maria Alekseevna; the other is the world of the common intelligentsia, the so-called “new people”, they are grouped around Vera Pavlovna.