Creation of Dubrovsky. Robber story? The creation of the novel "Dubrovsky"
The history of the creation of A.S. Pushkin’s novel “Dubrovsky”
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
A.S. Pushkin. "Dubrovsky". Historical era in the novel. History of creation. Prototypes.
Materials for literature lessons in 6th grade
Literary theory:
Novel(French Roman - narrative) - a large epic work with a branched, developed plot, in which events take place over a considerable period of time and in a wide artistic space.
Plot(French Sujet - subject, content) - the sequence and connection of events in a work of art.
The novel takes place in the 1820s, i.e. during Pushkin's youth. The author writes that he knows well what worries him.
History of the novel
The novel was not completed by the author. A.S. Pushkin worked on it from October 21, 1832 to February 6, 1833. He did not publish the unfinished novel. After the death of the writer, publishers released the novel, giving the title after the surname of the main character - “Dubrovsky”.
Post by P.V. Nashchokina
The novel was based on Nashchokin’s message to Pushkin “about a poor nobleman named Ostrovsky... who had a lawsuit with a neighbor for land. He was forced out of the estate and, left with only the peasants, began to rob first the clerks, and then others.” Nashchokin saw Ostrovsky in prison, and perhaps he himself told his story. Pushkin became extremely interested in Nashchokin’s story and almost immediately began drawing up plans, and soon writing a novel. Initially, the hero appears under the name Ostrovsky, then changed to Andrei Zubrovsky, and finally named Dubrovsky.
Other sources...
It is known that before starting work on the novel, Pushkin visited Boldin and Pskov, where similar cases of the Nizhny Novgorod landowners Dubrovsky, Kryukov, and Muratov were considered. Pushkin heard Pskov legends about the revolt of the peasants of the landowner Dubrovsky, who offered armed resistance to the sent military team and declared that, on Dubrovsky’s orders, they would beat the landowners. Thus, the novel is based on true facts and life circumstances.
Appeal from A.S. Pushkin’s turn to prose was quite natural in the process of development of his creative genius. Pushkin admitted in “Eugene Onegin”: “... Summer is inclined towards harsh prose...”. One of the great prose works of A.S. Pushkin's novel "Dubrovsky". Many researchers of the poet's work point to his incompleteness. However, the incompleteness of a work of art is always relative, “incompleteness does not mean understatement.” When studying the prose of Alexander Sergeevich, it is worth paying special attention to the history of the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky”.
The beginning of the novel
Alexander Sergeevich began work on the novel in 1832. The exact date of the beginning of the creation of the work is known - October 21, since Pushkin himself set the dates in the draft as he wrote the novel. The work remained unfinished; the writer stopped working on it in 1833. The novel received the name “Dubrovsky” when it was published after the death of its great author. There are many theories about the reason why Pushkin interrupted the creation of Dubrovsky. Some researchers of his work believe that he abandons work on the novel because he understands that within the framework of the genre of a Western European novel about a noble robber, he cannot solve the artistic problems of Russian life. It is known that the writer's rough notes contained outlines of the contents of the third volume. (Widowhood of Marya Kirillovna, Dubrovsky’s return to his homeland to reunite with his beloved).Real prototypes of the main character
The work was based on a story that Pushkin heard from his friend about the poor nobleman Ostrovsky, whose estate was seized by a wealthy neighbor who had enormous influence in local society. Ostrovsky was left penniless and was forced to become a robber. Together with his peasants, he robbed rich landowners and officials. Later he was captured and put in prison. It was there that Pushkin’s comrade Nashchokin met him. This story served as the basis for creating the plot line of the novel. This version is supported by the fact that initially in his drafts Pushkin gave the main character the surname Ostrovsky.Second version says that Dubrovsky’s prototype was Lieutenant Muratov, whose story Pushkin learned while in Boldin. The Novospasskoye estate, which belonged to the Muratov family for seventy years, was recognized as the property of Lieutenant Colonel Kryukov, whose father at one time sold it to Muratov’s father. The court made this decision based on the fact that the accused could not provide any papers proving his legal right to own the estate, since they were lost in a fire, and Muratov never filed an appeal against the verdict. The trial lasted for many years and was decided in favor of the influential plaintiff Kryukov.
Genre of the work
When creating Dubrovsky, Pushkin turned to the then popular genre of the robber or adventure novel. It was most characteristic of Western European literature, but Pushkin managed to create a work that corresponded to all the subtleties of this direction. A noble robber who evokes sympathy for his fate and hatred for those who pushed him on this path.Conclusion
The novel “Dubrovsky” is based on real stories of people who faced the bias of the judicial system and were unable to resist it.The action of a ruthless and unprincipled judicial-bureaucratic state system and the life of the Russian village with mass folk scenes - all this found its place in “Dubrovsky”.
Several films were made based on this text, and its plot became the basis of a famous opera. At the same time, for many of Pushkin’s contemporaries and the most eminent researchers of his work, this is just an adventurous story; the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” is declared by many to be a delusion, an obvious mistake of the great poet. Is it so?
Russian Robin Hood
Pushkin's genius forced him to set more and more new tasks. The poetry revealed the language that became the basis of great literature and great culture. In prose, in this language - simple, clear, expressive - “Belkin’s Tales” were written, which can hardly be called purely prosaic texts, because in them the place for each word, for each sound is precisely verified in a poetic way.
From "The Young Peasant Lady" to "Dubrovsky"
Although two years after “The Peasant Young Lady”, young people in love from neighboring estates again appear in “Dubrovsky”, they even communicate in a similar way - leaving the necessary message in the hollow of a tree, the history of the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” shows us a new Pushkin. The matured author looks at the world completely differently.
Beginning in the summer of 1831, it became increasingly important for Pushkin to create a different character, where the main content was a captivatingly told story. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” could have begun with the desire to create a Russian replica of the adventure novels that were so popular in Western European literature. But to consider Pushkin’s text only an echo of the novels of Walter Scott or a discussion on the “robber” theme proposed by Schiller is unacceptably banal for the level of Alexander Sergeevich. Perhaps the first motivating thoughts may have had a similar form, but then they became much more significant.
Dubrovsky - Ostrovsky?
It was Ostrovsky who initially planned to name the main character Pushkin. This impression was made on him by the story told by his good Moscow friend P.V. Nashchokin. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” was largely determined by Pushkin’s acquaintance through Nashchokin with the circumstances of the case of the Belarusian landowner Pavel Ostrovsky.
The papers for the ownership of a small village of twenty souls, which was located in the Minsk province, were burned during the Napoleonic invasion. A rich neighbor took advantage of this and seized the village from the impoverished landowner. For some time, he was forced to hire himself as a home teacher, but soon attacks on bailiffs and other officials began in those places. The arrested Ostrovsky, according to some sources, managed to escape by sawing through the chains on the shackles, and his trace was lost. Before us is an almost exact plot of Pushkin's novel.
The case of Lieutenant Muratov
In the second chapter of Dubrovsky, Pushkin places a document that sums up Troekurov’s litigation with his former friend. This verdict seems like an author's work, so impressive are its bureaucratic and ponderous phrases. But it turns out that this is a copy of a document from a court case about the alienation of the estate of Lieutenant Martynov in favor of a neighbor, Colonel Kryukov. Pushkin included a copy of the document in the drafts of the novel, only making pencil edits - changing the real surnames to those with which he endowed the heroes of Dubrovsky.
The drafts indicate the place - Kozlovsky district of the Tambov province, where this story took place. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” is largely based on similar processes that took place in the vast expanses of the empire. The final version of the main character's surname became a decided matter for Pushkin when he became acquainted with similar court cases in where the famous Pushkin estate Boldino was located. Among real people he met a landowner with such an expressive surname. It was this surname that became the title of the unfinished novel when they decided to publish it in a posthumous collected works.
People's revolt
Of course, it is difficult to imagine Pushkin’s work as a blind compilation based on real everyday cases. The story of the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” cannot look like this. Pushkin was also interested in more significant phenomena of social life. How could he pass over in silence the armed uprisings of 1830 in Paris and Lille, the Polish national liberation movement directed against Nicholas I, and even in the contemporary Russian Empire, cholera riots broke out here and there.
Pushkin’s work on the history of the Pugachev War left its mark. What story of the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” - a story about a noble robber who fought with government troops - could do without references to the not forgotten among the people. In the Kistenevskaya Grove, men gather, very similar to those whom Pushkin sent to Pugachev’s army in “The Captain’s Daughter”. Also, we do not see the author’s complete approval of the element of rebellion - in the unfinished “Dubrovsky” a young robber disbands his gang, which seems quite logical.
Bottom line
Even a very brief history of the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” makes the derogatory opinion of the most respected writers about this work of Pushkin untenable. To define it as a failed attempt to make money by creating lightweight fiction requires a very arrogant attitude towards a great name. Alexander Sergeevich, who is trying to reach the level of Zagoskin, Lazhechnikov or Bulgarin (this is how he is presented in Dubrovsky by some critics), is too pitiful a sight to be true.
The novel “Dubrovsky” by A.S. Pushkin is the most famous Russian robber novel, created in the spirit of a genre of literary composition popular in England, France and Germany in the 18th-19th centuries, in the center of which is the image of a noble robber.
The novel is based on the idea of the moral decay of the Russian nobility and its opposition to the common people. Themes of defense of honor, family lawlessness, and peasant revolt are revealed.
History of creation
The novel in 3 parts was begun by Alexander Pushkin (1799 - 1837) after finishing work on the essay "Belkin's Tale" in the fall of 1832.
Pushkin wrote only 2 volumes of the planned three-volume work, the second of which was completed in 1833, that is, work on the novel proceeded quite quickly. The third volume was never started.
The first publication of the work took place 4 years after the poet died in a duel in 1841. Pushkin did not leave the title of the novel in the manuscript and it was prefixed with the title “Dubrovsky” after the name of the main character.
The basis for the work was an incident told to the poet by his comrade Nashchokin. According to the story, the landowner Ostrovsky, ruined by the fault of a high-ranking neighbor, gathered his serfs and created a band of robbers. History interested Pushkin as a realistic basis for prose writing.
Analysis of the work
Main plot
(Illustration by B. M. Kustodiev “Troekurov chooses puppies”)
The landowners Troekurov and Dubrovsky, the father of the main character Vladimir, are neighbors and friends. A number of conflict situations separate friends from each other and Troekurov, taking advantage of his special position, claims rights to his neighbor’s only estate. Dubrovsky is unable to confirm his right to the estate and goes crazy.
Son Vladimir, who arrived from the city, finds his father near death. Soon the elder Dubrovsky dies. Not wanting to put up with injustice, Vladimir burns the estate along with the officials who came to register it in Troyekurov’s name. Together with devoted peasants, he goes into the forest and terrifies the entire area, however, without touching Troekurov’s people.
A French teacher goes to work at the Troyekurovs' house and, thanks to bribery, Dubrovsky takes his place. In the enemy's house, he falls in love with his daughter Masha, who reciprocates his feelings.
Spitsyn recognizes the French teacher as the robber who robbed him. Vladimir has to hide.
At this time, the father gives Masha in marriage to the old prince against his will. Vladimir's attempts to upset the marriage are unsuccessful. After the wedding, Dubrovsky and his gang surround the newlyweds’ carriage and Vladimir frees his beloved. But she refuses to go with him, since she is already married to someone else.
The provincial authorities are trying to surround Dubrovsky's gang. He decides to stop the robbery and, having dismissed the people loyal to him, goes abroad.
Main characters
Vladimir Dubrovsky in Pushkin's works appears as one of the most noble and courageous heroes. He is the only son of his father, a hereditary impoverished nobleman. The young man graduated from the Cadet Corps and is a cornet. At the time of the news about the estate taken away from his father, Vladimir was 23 years old.
After the death of his father, Dubrovsky gathers loyal peasants and becomes a robber. However, his robbery is painted in noble tones. All the victims of the gang are rich people leading an unworthy lifestyle. In this, the image of the main character largely intersects with the image of Robin Hood.
Dubrovsky's goal is revenge for his father and it is aimed at Troekurov. Under the guise of a teacher, Vladimir settles in the landowner's house and establishes good relationships with all family members, and falls in love with his daughter Masha.
An incident in Troekurov’s house speaks about Dubrovsky’s courage and determination. Finding himself jokingly locked in a room with a bear, Dubrovsky does not lose his composure and kills the bear with one shot from a pistol.
After meeting Masha, the hero’s main goal changes. For the sake of reuniting with his beloved, Dubrovsky is ready to give up his desire to take revenge on her father.
Masha's refusal to follow Dubrovsky after her wedding to Vereisky, as well as the raid on the gang, force Vladimir to abandon his plans. He nobly lets his people go, not wanting to drag them into trouble. Abandoning his beloved and fleeing abroad testifies to the young man’s submissiveness and unwillingness to go against fate.
The existing drafts for the third volume trace Vladimir's return to Russia and attempts to bring Masha back. In this regard, we can say that the hero does not renounce his love, but only accepts his beloved’s desire to live according to church laws.
(editor's note - Kirila Petrovich - not to be confused with Kirill)
Troyekurov is the main negative character in the novel. A rich and influential landowner knows no bounds in his tyranny; he can lock a guest in a room with a bear as a joke. At the same time, he respects independent people, which includes Vladimir’s father Andrei Gavrilovich. Their friendship comes to an end because of Troekurov’s trifles and pride. Deciding to punish Dubrovsky for his insolence, he appropriates his estate, using his unlimited power and connections.
At the same time, the image of Troekurov is built not only in negative tones. The hero, having cooled down after a quarrel with a friend, regrets his action. In his behavior, Pushkin lays down the scheme of the Russian social structure, in which the nobles felt omnipotent and unpunished.
Troekurov is characterized as a loving father. His youngest son was born out of wedlock, but is raised in the family on equal terms with his eldest daughter Masha.
The pursuit of profit can be seen in the choice of a husband for his beloved daughter Masha. Troekurov knows about his daughter’s reluctance to marry the old man, but organizes the wedding and does not allow his daughter to run away with her beloved Dubrovsky. This is an excellent example of how parents try to arrange the lives of their children against their wishes.
Masha Troekurova at the time of the action is a 17-year-old girl who is brought up in the solitude of a large estate, she is silent and withdrawn into herself. Her main outlet is her father's rich library and French novels. The appearance of a French teacher in the house in the form of Dubrovsky for a romantic young lady develops into love, similar to numerous novels. The truth about the teacher’s personality does not frighten the girl, which speaks of her courage.
It is important to note that Masha is principled. Having married an unwanted husband - an old count - Masha rejects Dubrovsky's offer to run away with him and talks about her duty to her husband.
The work is dramatic in its composition and is based on vivid contrasts:
- friendship and court,
- the meeting of the main character with his native place and the death of his father,
- funeral and fire
- holiday and robbery,
- love and escape
- wedding and battle.
Thus, the composition of the novel is based on the conflict method, that is, the collision of contrasting scenes.
The novel “Dubrovsky” by Pushkin, under the guise of a romantic work, contains a number of deep thoughts of the author about the problems of Russian life and structure.
Year of writing:
1833
Reading time:
Description of the work:
It is interesting that the publishers named the novel in 1841, when its first publication took place, because Pushkin himself in the manuscript, instead of the title, wrote the date of the start of work on the novel “October 21, 1832.”
Read a summary of the novel by Dubrovsky.
A rich and noble gentleman, Kirila Petrovich Troekurov, lives in his Pokrovskoye estate. Knowing his tough temper, all his neighbors are afraid of him, except for the poor landowner Andrei Gavrilovich Dubrovsky, a retired guard lieutenant and former colleague of Troekurov. Both of them are widowers. Dubrovsky has a son, Vladimir, who works in St. Petersburg, and Troekurov has a daughter, Masha, who lives with her father, and Troekurov often talks about his desire to marry his children.
An unexpected disagreement quarrels friends, and Dubrovsky’s proud and independent behavior alienates them from each other even more. The autocratic and all-powerful Troyekurov, in order to take out his irritation, decides to deprive Dubrovsky of his estate and orders the assessor Shabashkin to find a “legal” path to this lawlessness. The court's tricksters fulfill Troekurov's wishes, and Dubrovsky is summoned to the zemstvo judge to decide the case.
At the court hearing, in the presence of the litigants, a decision is read, filled with legal incidents, according to which Dubrovsky's Kistenevka estate becomes the property of Troekurov, and Dubrovsky suffers a fit of insanity.
Dubrovsky's health is deteriorating, and the old serf woman Yegorovna, who was looking after him, writes a letter to Vladimir Dubrovsky in St. Petersburg notifying him of what happened. Having received the letter, Vladimir Dubrovsky takes his leave and goes home. The dear coachman tells him about the circumstances of the case. At home he finds his father sick and decrepit.
Andrei Gavrilovich Dubrovsky is slowly dying. Troekurov, tormented by his conscience, goes to make peace with Dubrovsky, who is paralyzed at the sight of the enemy. Vladimir orders Troekurov to get out, and at that moment old Dubrovsky dies.
After Dubrovsky’s funeral, judicial officials and the police officer come to Kistenevka to introduce Troekurov into ownership. The peasants refuse to obey and want to deal with the officials. Dubrovsky stops them.
At night, in the house, Dubrovsky finds the blacksmith Arkhip, who has decided to kill the clerks, and dissuades him from this intention. He decides to leave the estate and orders all the people to be taken out to set the house on fire. He sends Arkhip to unlock the doors so that the officials can leave the house, but Arkhip violates the master’s order and locks the door. Dubrovsky sets fire to the house and quickly leaves the yard, and the clerks die in the resulting fire.
Dubrovsky is suspected of arson and murder of officials. Troekurov sends a report to the governor, and a new case begins. But then another event distracts everyone’s attention from Dubrovsky: robbers appeared in the province who robbed all the landowners of the province, but did not touch only Troekurov’s property. Everyone is sure that the leader of the robbers is Dubrovsky.
For his illegitimate son, Sasha Troekurov, orders a French teacher from Moscow, Monsieur Deforge, who is greatly impressed by the beauty of seventeen-year-old Marya Kirilovna Troekurov, but she does not pay any attention to the hired teacher. Deforge is put to the test by being pushed into a room with a hungry bear (a common joke with guests in Troekurov's house). The unperturbed teacher kills the beast. His determination and courage make a great impression on Masha. A friendly rapprochement occurs between them, which becomes a source of love. On the day of the temple holiday, guests come to Troekurov's house. At dinner the conversation turns to Dubrovsky. One of the guests, a landowner named Anton Pafnutich Spitsyn, admits that he once gave false testimony in court against Dubrovsky in favor of Kirila Petrovich. One lady reports that a week ago Dubrovsky dined with her, and tells the story that her clerk, sent to the post office with a letter and 2000 rubles for her son, a guards officer, returned and said that Dubrovsky had robbed him, but was caught lies by a man who came to visit her and identified himself as a former colleague of her late husband. The clerk who was called says that Dubrovsky actually stopped him on the way to the post office, but, after reading the mother’s letter to her son, he did not rob him. The money was found in the clerk's chest. The lady believes that the person who pretended to be her husband’s friend was Dubrovsky himself. But according to her descriptions, she had a man about 35 years old, and Troekurov knows for certain that Dubrovsky is 23 years old. This fact is confirmed by the new police officer who is having lunch with Troekurov.
The holiday in Troyekurov's house ends with a ball, at which the teacher also dances. After dinner, Anton Pafnutich, who has a large sum of money with him, expresses a desire to spend the night in the same room with Deforge, since he already knows about the Frenchman’s courage and hopes for his protection in the event of an attack by robbers. The teacher agrees to Anton Pafnutich's request. At night, the landowner feels like someone is trying to take away his money hidden in a bag on his chest. Opening his eyes, he sees Deforge standing over him with a pistol. The teacher tells Anton Pafnutich that he is Dubrovsky.
How did Dubrovsky get into Troekurov’s house under the guise of a teacher? At the post station he met a Frenchman on his way to see Troyekurov, gave him 10 thousand rubles, and received the teacher’s papers in return. With these documents, he came to Troekurov and settled in a house where everyone loved him and did not suspect who he really was. Finding himself in the same room with a man whom, not without reason, he could consider his enemy, Dubrovsky could not resist the temptation to take revenge. In the morning, Spitsyn leaves Troekurov’s house without saying a word about the night’s incident. Soon the rest of the guests left. Life in Pokrovsky goes on as usual. Marya Kirilovna feels love for Deforge and is annoyed with herself. Deforge treats her respectfully, and this calms her pride. But one day Deforge secretly gives her a note in which he asks for a date. At the appointed time, Masha arrives at the appointed place, and Deforge informs her that he is forced to leave soon, but before that he must tell her something important. Suddenly he reveals to Masha who he really is. Calming the frightened Masha, he says that he has forgiven her father. That it was she who saved Kirila Petrovich, that the house in which Marya Kirilovna lives is sacred to him. During Dubrovsky's confessions, a soft whistle is heard. Dubrovsky asks Masha to give him a promise that in case of misfortune she will resort to his help, and disappears. Returning to the house, Masha finds an alarm there, and her father informs her that Deforge, according to the police officer who arrived, is none other than Dubrovsky. The disappearance of the teacher confirms the truth of these words.
The following summer, Prince Vereisky returns from foreign lands to his estate Arbatov, located 30 versts from Pokrovsky. He pays a visit to Troekurov, and Masha amazes him with her beauty. Troekurov and his daughter pay a return visit. Vereisky gives them a wonderful reception.
Masha sits in her room and embroiders. A hand reaches out through the open window and places a letter on her hoop, but at this time Masha is called to her father. She hides the letter and goes. She finds Vereisky at her father’s, and Kirila Petrovich informs her that the prince is wooing her. Masha freezes in surprise and turns pale, but her father does not pay attention to her tears.
In her room, Masha thinks with horror about marriage to Vereisky and believes that it is better to marry Dubrovsky. Suddenly she remembers the letter and finds only one phrase in it: “In the evening at 10 o’clock in the same place.”
During a night date, Dubrovsky persuades Masha to resort to his protection. Masha hopes to touch her father's heart with pleas and requests. But if he turns out to be inexorable and forces her to marry, she invites Dubrovsky to come for her and promises to become his wife. In parting, Dubrovsky gives Masha a ring and says that if trouble happens, she will only have to lower the ring into the hollow of the specified tree, then he will know what to do.
The wedding is being prepared, and Masha decides to take action. She writes a letter to Vereisky, begging him to refuse her hand. But this gives the opposite result. Having learned about Masha's letter, Kirila Petrovich is furious and schedules the wedding for the next day. Masha tearfully asks him not to marry her to Vereisky, but Kirila Petrovich is inexorable, and then Masha declares that she will resort to Dubrovsky’s defense. Having locked Masha, Kirila Petrovich leaves, ordering not to let her out of the room.
Sasha comes to the aid of Marya Kirilovna. Masha instructs him to take the ring to the hollow. Sasha carries out her instructions, but some ragged boy who sees this tries to take possession of the ring. A fight breaks out between the boys, the gardener comes to Sasha’s aid, and the boy is taken to the manor’s yard. Suddenly they meet Kirila Petrovich, and Sasha, under threats, tells him about the assignment that his sister gave him. Kirila Petrovich guesses about Masha’s relationship with Dubrovsky. He orders the caught boy to be locked up and sends for the police officer. The police officer and Troekurov agree on something and release the boy. He runs to Kistenevka, and from there secretly makes his way into the Kistenevka grove.
Preparations for the wedding are underway in Troyekurov's house. Masha is taken to church, where her groom is waiting for her. The wedding begins. Masha's hopes for Dubrovsky's appearance evaporate. The young people are traveling to Arbatovo, when suddenly on a country road the carriage is surrounded by armed people, and a man in a half mask opens the doors. He tells Masha that she is free. Hearing that it is Dubrovsky, the prince shoots and wounds him. They seize the prince and intend to kill him, but Dubrovsky does not order them to touch him. Dubrovsky again tells Masha that she is free, but Masha replies that it is too late. Due to pain and excitement, Dubrovsky loses consciousness, and his accomplices take him away.
In the forest there is a military fortification of a bandit gang, behind a small rampart there are several huts. An old woman comes out of one hut and asks the guard, who is singing a robber's song, to shut up, because the master is sleeping. Dubrovsky lies in the hut. Suddenly there is alarm in the camp. The robbers under the command of Dubrovsky occupy places assigned to each. The guards who came running reported that there were soldiers in the forest. A battle ensues, in which victory is on the side of the robbers. A few days later, Dubrovsky gathers his associates and announces his intention to leave them. Dubrovsky disappears. Rumor has it that he fled abroad.
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