The theme of A.P. Chekhov’s story “Ionych” (1898) is the interaction between man and environment, the impact social norms life on the fate of a private person. Theme "man and environment" found quite often in Russian literature and has a whole set of solutions. A person can aggressively resist the environment (for example, Pechorin from the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”) or resist it with the help of apathetic non-participation (like, for example, Oblomov from the novel of the same name by I.A. Goncharov), a person may want to enter society, but he is inconvenient for the social environment and it rejects him (Chatsky from “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboyedov), a person with the environment can have complex, confusing relationships (see, for example, I.S. Turgenev’s story “Hamlet Shchigrovsky district" from the series "Notes of a Hunter"), a person can feel in complete dependence from the environment (Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin from N.V. Gogol’s story “The Overcoat”, an official from A.P. Chekhov’s story “The Death of an Official”), a person can happily subordinate himself to the environment, that is to the outside world(for example, Andrei Bolkonskaya or, especially, Pierre Bezukhov from Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”).
In Chekhov's story “Ionych,” the environment absorbs a person, suppressing everything individual in him: a certain person, the zemstvo doctor Dmitry Ionych Startsev, became a victim of the vulgar, immobile, philistine environment of the provincial town of S.
"Wednesday is stuck" - Chekhov's characters loved to repeat, helplessly looking around in search of the culprit of their empty, meaningless existence. The same happened to the fate of another hero - a young and capable doctor with the telling surname Startsev, who turned into an overweight Ionych, a grumpy, irritable, lonely man in the street. What happened to him, and how did his environment overcome him?
Issues
In such a short story, Chekhov showed how Ionych changed. He turned out to be a victim of the environment. Kitty refused Ionych's offer to become his wife, the role of lover turned out to be exhausted, but the environment had already infected Ionych with its disease of ghostliness. As a result, Ionych is completely reborn, his recently alive soul dies off . This solution to the theme of man and environment (“the environment is stuck”), however, is not Chekhov’s invention; it appeared in the essays of the authors “ natural school"(V.I. Dal, V.G. Belinsky, etc.), and later it was developed, for example, by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“The Golovlevs”).
Idea
What's new here is thin psychological analysis . Chekhov showed not only the stages and reasons for Ionych’s spiritual rebirth, but also in all possible details how exactly this happened . Boredom turns Ionych into a banal everyman: “ Experience taught him little by little that as long as you play cards with an ordinary person or have a snack with him, then he is peaceful, complacent and not even foolish man, but as soon as you start talking to him about something inedible, for example, about politics or science, he becomes stumped or develops such a philosophy, stupid and evil, that all you can do is wave your hand and walk away.
Genre. Such a radical change in the hero, taking place before the eyes of the reader, which Chekhov showed in the story “Ionych”, is material that is more consistent with the genre of a novel rather than a short story. Instead of depicting one main event in the hero’s life, as is usually the case in the short story genre, here Chekhov shows almost his entire life. However, a novel did not come out of “Ionych”: in the novel, as the hero changes, the attitude of the author (and the reader) towards him changes, and in in this case, in Chekhov’s story “Ionych”, the author’s position remains unchanged. From the very beginning, he is ironic about the hero, does not believe in Startsev’s common sense and independence, then, towards the end of the story, the author’s irony turns out to be justified - Startsev really neglected common sense and succumbed to the influence of the environment to the detriment of independence. However, consideration of the deepest, hidden thoughts and desires of Dmitry Startsev sometimes forced the author and reader to experience, if not sympathy for the hero, then at least sympathy and understanding. In terms of genre, “Ionych” is, of course, a story, but not a “pure” one: it can be defined in the same way as Chekhov characterized the genre of his early story“A Bad Story” (1882) is “something novel-like” (I, 215).
Hero
Chekhov is distinguished, as is known, by a special “Chekhovian” style, the essence of which boils down to the fact that he depicts an object (thing, person, etc.) not in emotional assessment, that is, it does not highlight the main or typical things in a subject, but depicts it as it is in life with all the unexplained contradictions. Exactly because of this reason Chekhov's hero is an average, ordinary person with a whole set of bad habits, dangerous and harmless habits . When creating the image of a hero, Chekhov does not free him from random, atypical, uncharacteristic properties, but leaves everything as in real life. His character may have the habit of wrinkling his cuffs, stroking his chest or head, snapping his fingers, etc. - this does not explain their character in any way, but it gives the images vividness, authenticity, and verisimilitude; Chekhov does not try to bring everything into one point, into one focus, he shows it with an unresolved contradiction. The hero of the story “Ionych” is exactly like this: he, for example, thinks about something completely worthless - “Eh, I shouldn’t get fat” (X, 32).
Context. Let's remember the ending again moral development Ionycha: he became famous, quite rich (“he has an estate and two houses in the city,” X, 40), he “put on weight, became fat, breathes heavily,” “his throat became swollen with fat, his voice changed, became thin and harsh” ( X, 40). Connecting such a context allows us to clarify the idea of Chekhov's story: Ionych experienced not just moral simplification, impoverishment, but a complete degeneration personality, as if the living individuality died out in him, he turned into a dead soul. Thanks to the presence of such a context, it becomes clear that Chekhov shows not an isolated case or even the fate of a generation in the image of Dmitry Startsev, but the absorption of a person by the environment, public opinion, the faceless plural(“everyone”, “people say”, “they don’t do that”), is perhaps a serious problem in the life of Russian people of many generations (at least in the 19th century - from Gogol to Chekhov). The scene in the cemetery is reminiscent of Pushkin’s version of the plot about Don Juan, developed in the “little tragedy” “The Stone Guest”.
Degradation of Ionych
Four years later, Dmitry Ionovich became famous doctor with extensive practice. He continues to despise a society that is hated and irritates with its stupidity and uncouthness. He is glad that he did not marry Catherine, since with age she became an unattractive woman, disappointed with life.
With the acquisition of a fortune, unbeknownst to himself, Startsev gradually lost the intelligence that was previously inherent in him. He completely forgot about the need for spiritual and cultural development. The main goal His life became the accumulation of wealth, building new houses for himself.
From a sweet, intelligent young man, Dmitry Ionovich turned into a rude man, always dissatisfied with his life. Startsev's degradation disgusts people, and they begin to call him rather disrespectfully Ionych.
Because of insufficient level education in society, Ionych not only slipped to his level, but in some ways even began to lag behind him. Startsev did not have the internal strength that would allow him to independently raise his level of cultural development. For him, money replaced books and art.
Taking into account this context, the story “Ionych” is perceived as a larger-scale work, in which we are talking not only about the conflict between a person and the social environment, but about the conflict between a person’s personal aspirations and the incomprehensible power element of life.
Four stages of life's journey Dmitry Ionovich Startsev, four steps of a staircase leading down.
|
Stages of life, age of the hero |
Events in the life of Startsev |
His inner life and spiritual needs |
Wednesdays. City S. External plan |
|
| I stage. After graduation. Approximately 25 years | Arrival in the city of S., medical zemstvo activity. Meet the Turkin family | He walked, he was poor (he didn’t have his own horses). Understands music (sings Yakovlev's romance to Delvig's poems and Rubinstein's romance to Pushkin's poems). He understands that Vera Iosifovna’s novels and Ekaterina Ivanovna’s piano playing are mediocre. But in the hero’s soul there are already the beginnings of devastation, the dying of the soul: “It was calm in the chairs”; “It was pleasant and comfortable to listen to”; “peaceful thoughts came into my head”; listening to Kotik play “it was so nice, so new”; "guests, well-fed and satisfied." “Interesting”, “not bad” - Startsev’s words in the end | There is a library, a theater, a club, and there are balls. There are smart, interesting, pleasant families - Turkins. Turkin staged performances. My wife wrote novels. The daughter played the piano. All this creates an external impression cultural family | Internal plan of the city S., true face the Turkin family is expressed in the subtext: “missive”; "has no Roman law"; “my husband is jealous, like Othello”; “oh you chick, spoiled girl”; "Bolshino novel"; “I read about things that never happen in life”; “noisy, annoying, but still cultural sounds”; “I squirmed, thank you”; “die, unfortunate one.” Stupidity, vulgarity, lack of spirituality of the family, flat jokes, isolation from the problems of life |
| II stage. In a year. 26 years | Second visit to the Turkins. Startsev’s romance with Kotik: explanation, date at the cemetery, attempt to propose, Ekaterina Ivanovna’s refusal |
Love, suffering. “He said, very worried”; "I beg you"; “she delighted him”; “with her he could talk about literature, about art, about anything,” “he asked with excitement.” |
In the city of S. they read little, “at least close the library.” Once upon a time there was an Italian opera in the city of S. “I read a funny letter from a German manager about how all the denials on the estate had gone bad and shyness had collapsed.” | “I could complain to her about life”; “Where will the novel lead? What will your comrades say when they find out?”; “the moonlight fueled his passion”; “I imagined kisses and hugs”; “It was no longer pieces of marble that were white in front of him, but beautiful bodies; he saw forms that shyly hid in the shade of trees, feeling the warmth, and this languor became painful”; “oh, there’s no need to gain weight” |
| The next day | “And they will probably give a lot of dowry”; “my soul was foggy, but joyful, warm, and at the same time some cold, heavy piece was reasoning in my head”; “They’ll give me a dowry, let’s get things going.” BUT: “I fell in love and was so delighted”; “I suffered”; “tender, joyful, painful feeling”, “my love is limitless”; “Startsev’s heart stopped beating restlessly”; “he was a little ashamed”; “and I felt sorry for my feeling, for this love of mine” |
“I’m walking on the carpet, you’re walking while you’re lying, he’s walking while he’s lying.” | ||
| In 3 days | “He calmed down and healed as before.” “How much trouble, however!” - words in the end | |||
| III stage. In four years. 30 years | He continues to work as a zemstvo doctor and has a practice in the city. Visit to the Turkins. Meeting with Ekaterina Ivanovna | “On the troika with bells”; “he gained weight, grew fat and was reluctant to walk”; “and my Panteley has also gained weight”; “didn’t get close to anyone”; “he avoided talking, but only had a snack and played vint”; “ate in silence”; “everything... was uninteresting, unfair, stupid”; “felt irritated, worried, but remained silent”; “in the evenings, take out pieces of paper obtained through practice from the kamans”; “he remembered his love, his dreams and hopes... and he felt embarrassed.” “He suddenly felt sad and sorry for the past. A fire began to ignite in my soul”; “during the day there is profit, and in the evening there is a club, a society of gamblers, alcoholics, wheezing people, whom I cannot stand”; “I remembered about the papers... and the light in my soul went out”; “it’s good that I didn’t get married then”; “I thought that if the most talented people the whole city is so mediocre, then what should the city be like? - final thoughts | “The inhabitants, with their conversations... irritated him,” “as soon as you talk to him about something inedible, for example, about politics or science, he becomes stumped or gets into such a philosophy, stupid and evil”; “You have to work, that you can’t live without work, then everyone took this as a reproach.” “Vera Iosifovna read a novel, read about things that don’t happen in life.” “Ekaterina Ivanovna played the piano.” BUT: “Ekaterina Ivanovna was worried” |
“The man in the street looked sideways and incredulously”; "the Pole is inflated." “Oh, hello, please.” "Bonjourte." “Sighed in a mannered way”; “You don’t want to look after me.” “I wanted to talk, to complain about life.” “You have no Roman law”; “This is quite perpendicular on your part”; "die, unfortunate one" |
| IV stage. After few years. 35 years | No events | “He has gained weight, is obese, is breathing heavily”; "plump, red"; “Panteleimon, also plump, red, with a fleshy nape”; “it seems that it is not a man who is riding, but a pagan god”; “huge practice”; “an estate and two houses”; “passing through all the rooms, not paying attention to undressed women and children”; “greed has overcome”; “his throat became swollen with fat, his voice changed, became thin and harsh”; “character has become heavy, irritable” | “Playing whist at the club.” “Everything is the same with the Turkins: Vera Iosifovna reads her novels to the guests... And Kotik plays the piano” | “His name is simply Ionych”; “trying their best to please him” |
Chekhov's story "Ionych" is like a sad instructive parable. Everyday circumstances did not break Startsev at all; on the contrary, he happily succumbed to them. The city of S., boring and gray, has received another inhabitant who differs from the others only in that he understands how mediocre the people around him are. But does he have the right to judge them? Chekhov, who extremely rarely expresses his attitude towards the characters, characterizes Ionych very sharply: “... not a man, but a pagan god.” In fact, the hero has little humanity left: nothing makes him happy, he is bored, he is overcome by senseless greed. This is how the living soul leaves a person.
Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
The history of the creation of the story Ionych
The writer began working on “Ionych” in August 1897. The plot of the story “Ionych” is simple - this is the story of the failed marriage of Dmitry Ionych Startsev. In fact, the story is the story of the hero’s entire life, lived meaninglessly. This is a story about how a good person with good inclinations turns into an indifferent ordinary person.
What is central theme story?
Protest against vulgarity, philistinism, spiritual philistinism, self-degeneration of man.
What is the main idea of the work?
It lies in the call “Take care of the person within you!”
What is the composition of the story
The composition of the story is subject to one common goal- show the gradual spiritual impoverishment of the hero and the miserable life of the city. But how can you tell about the life of a hero and an entire city over the course of several pages?
Chekhov achieves this with the following artistic means. Components of the work, such as landscape and dialogue, disappear as the plot develops. Startsev turns into a gloomy, lonely man in the street. Landscape and dialogue are now made unnecessary in the work. You should pay attention to one more interesting compositional feature story. The author almost does not describe the provincial town in which the events unfold. Meanwhile, the reader feels well the stuffy atmosphere of this city.
Chekhov's story by Ionych Elders
Symbolism of the Startsev surname. What does the name of this hero make you think about? What are the views and character of this person?
Chekhov's surnames, as a rule, are “speaking”. In the city of S. he was considered intelligent and hardworking person. The hero is probably healthy, walking gives him pleasure and causes good mood. He is full of strength and cheerful.
Analysis of Chapter 1
So, what is known about Startsev is that he was recently appointed as a zemstvo doctor. In the city of S. he was considered an intelligent and hardworking person. Pay attention to this artistic detail (reading the last sentence of the 3rd paragraph of the story). The hero is probably healthy, walking gives him pleasure and puts him in a good mood. He is full of strength and cheerful. But the author, for some purpose, focuses our attention on such artistic details: “he did not have his own horses.” This note is specifically for the reader ( introductory sentence highlighted in brackets), and the author himself knows what will happen next. To make the reader feel deeper personality Startseva, Chekhov reveals to us not only his inner world, but also, as it were, the very birth of the hero’s thought: “Vera Iosifovna read about how the young, beautiful countess set up schools, hospitals, libraries in her village and how she fell in love with a traveling artist - she read about what never happens in life , and yet it was pleasant, comfortable to listen to, and all such good, calm thoughts came into my head - I didn’t want to get up.”
What assessment do the author and hero give to the content of Vera Iosifovna’s novel? What important detail is highlighted?
(The author believes that what is described does not happen in life. Startsev also does not believe what Vera Iosifovna reads. But after a difficult day full of hard work, you can listen to anything; it was warm, cozy and you didn’t want to get up.)
How is Ekaterina Ivanovna’s playing the piano presented in the story? What special did you notice? Find a description of this episode in the text and read it aloud.
Conclusion:
We see that in the city of S. there is a boring, monotonous life. In the most “pleasant” family there are mediocre and untalented people. Vera Iosifovna writes novels about what does not happen in life. Ekaterina Ivanovna does not put a drop of true feeling into her playing; it is difficult to imagine that she has at least some relation to music as an art. Ivan Petrovich uses a long-memorized set of witticisms and anecdotes. Startsev had almost the same opinion about Vera Iosifovna’s work, but... in the kitchen there was already a clatter of knives and the smell of fried onions could be heard and I didn’t want to get up. Ekaterina Ivanovna’s playing is noisy, mediocre, but... still these are cultural sounds.
So, Startsev was pleased with the evening spent at the Turkins’, everything was “not bad”, not counting the small compromises with himself, with his tastes, and views on life.
Analysis of Chapter 2
More than a year passed between the events described in the first and second chapters. Time is important here artistic detail.
(Only one thing - the writer’s middle name, which is funny from her point of view. This is not an accidental detail. Chekhov uses it again to show the frivolity of this heroine (it’s not for nothing that she is called Kotik), the inability to see the main thing, the present, both in literature and in life , in the scene of refusal to Dmitry Ionych in chapter 3: “I want to be an artist, I want fame, success, freedom, and you want me to continue living in this city, to continue this empty, useless life, which has become unbearable for me. To become a wife - oh, no, I’m sorry!”.)
Like many writers, A.P. Chekhov tests his heroes with love. It is love that gives Startsev another chance to remain human. Having received the note about the date, Dmitry Ionych did not doubt for a minute that she would not be at the cemetery, that he himself was no longer capable of such nonsense, and then he still took it and went. Chekhov prefaces the story of this romantic date with a magnificent artistic detail: “He already had his own pair of horses and a coachman Panteleimon in a velvet vest.” When Startsev found himself in the cemetery, his soul responded to the beauty of nature, the secrets of existence seemed to be revealed to him, it seemed that he was about to think, imbued with a philosophical mood, over eternal problems life and death...
Chapter 3 Analysis
So, the entire third chapter tells about Startsev’s unsuccessful visit with an official proposal. The reader is already prepared for such an ending. Ready and main character. Find confirmation in the text (after the scene of explanation: “Startsev’s heart has stopped beating restlessly...”, etc.).
Researchers of Chekhov's work noted that such a construction of the story can be considered as a dotted line, which is confirmed by the repetition of artistic details.
Chapter 4 Analysis
As always, the first paragraph is aesthetically rich. The beginning of the chapter is read. Talking further about the Turkins, Chekhov repeats: “But 4 years have passed.”
WhichchangeshappenedVfamilyTurkins? Vera Iosifovna greeted Startsev with an old joke. Kot “no longer had the former freshness and expression of childish naivety - there was something new, timid and guilty in her gaze and manners, as if here, in the Turkins’ house, she no longer felt at home.” Ivan Petrovich and Pava did not change their “repertoire”. And we, following the author, conclude: if the most talented people in the whole city are so mediocre, then what kind of city should it be?
ChangedwhetherattitudeDmitryIonychaTohim? Startsev’s attitude towards the Turkins also became different. One day, driving past their house, he thought that he should stop by, but for some reason he didn’t stop by and never visited the Turkins’ house again.
Chapter 5 Analysis
So, cut off last way to love, nothing delays degradation, the loss of human personality.
Chapter 5 is the result of the entire life of Startsev, the Turkins, the city of S. We read the first paragraph.
Let's remember the beginning of the story. The philistine city of S. and Startsev are two opposite poles. At the end, Startsev is already his own, the same as all the residents. In Dyalizh and in the city they call him simply Ionych. Chekhov leaves no hope for his hero to feel human again. This idea is emphasized by something casually noted by the author: “During the entire time he lived in Dyalizh, love for Kotik was his only joy and, probably, his last.”
At the end of the story from this bright one, human feeling not a trace remains. That's all that can be said about him.
What about the Turkins? Everything is still the same for them. The end of the story, in Chekhov's style, is “not finished.” It's like a piece snatched from life. That’s why the verbs are used here not in the form of the past tense, as in the entire story, but in the form of the present, the so-called abstract: “Walking off to the station, Ivan Petrovich, when the train starts moving, wipes away his tears and shouts:
Goodbye please! “And waves his handkerchief.”
Find in the text of the story unique beacons, milestones by which you can determine the growth of Dr. Startsev’s material prosperity and, at the same time, his moral and spiritual devastation. (To describe the slow lifetime dying of a person within a person, Chekhov uses an original technique - he places peculiar milestones on Startsev’s life path. They go in different directions: life career, the evolution of tastes, the development and ending of his romance with Ekaterina Ivanovna, and finally, the life path of those people who surround Startsev.)
Chekhov's story by Ionych Elders
Conclusion
So, a careful reading of the text convinces us, the readers, that Chekhov’s artistic thought moves in the story from the particular to the general: the fate of Startsev, who turned into Ionych, is a manifestation of general disorder. The writer shows that solving instability and personal problems is impossible without solving public problems. The author masterfully depicts the moral fall of man. And it all started, it would seem, with minor flaws in the character of the hero: the desire for profit in love, insufficient sensitivity to people, irritability, inconsistency in one’s beliefs, inability to defend them, laziness and unwillingness to fight vulgarity.
The soulless life to which Startsev deliberately doomed himself excluded him from the ranks of living people, depriving him of the ability to think and feel. The conclusion follows from the story: if a person is crushed by the force of circumstances and his ability to resist gradually fades away, necrosis occurs. human soul- the most terrible retribution that life pays for opportunism. Protecting yourself from active life turns into a disaster for Startsev: retreating from reality, he grows into evil with his whole existence, comes to those from whom he initially leaves and whom he hates. At the end of the story, the Startsevs and the Turkins are openly placed side by side, equated with each other as people whose lives have equally failed: the idle undertakings of the Turkins are meaningless and immoral, the soulless acquisitiveness of Ionych is immoral and disgusting.
But still, creating the image of Startsev, Chekhov poses the problem of a person’s personal responsibility for his life: after all, the environment that raised and shaped Ionych also brought forward other people, like doctors Kirillov (“Enemies”) and Dymov (“Jumping”). The image of Ionych shows what a person becomes if there is no resistance to vulgarity, laziness, philistinism, and selfishness.
HowIUnderstandcall " Take careVto myselfperson"
Chekhov's stories teach morality and ethics. In some of them A.P. Chekhov poses the problem of the decomposition of personality, of “caseness,” that is, the secrecy of a person. Such stories include “Ionych”, “Man in a Case”, “About Love” and others. Let's look at the plot of one of them, the story "Ionych".
“Ionych” tells the story of doctor Dmitry Ionych Startsev, who arrived in the city of S. Boredom reigns here, a terrible routine, people are sluggish, passive. But Startsev meets the Turkin family, considered the most educated in the city. There he falls in love with the daughter of the Turkins, Vera Iosifovna and Ivan Petrovich, Ekaterina, whom her parents affectionately called Kotik. After some time spent in the circle of the Turkins, he proposed marriage to her, but she rejected him, explaining that she wanted to go to Moscow and become an actress. With this she broke his heart, after which he lost the meaning of life and began to simply exist.
This is where the decomposition of Startsev’s personality begins. He stops enjoying life, joins the very atmosphere of the city, gets fat, and the residents begin to call him simply Ionych.
The example of Dmitry Startsev proves the words of A.P. Chekhov: “Take care of the person in you.” I believe that by adhering to these words, you can protect yourself from the corruption of the soul to which Ionych was subject. The most important thing is to fight for life, not to fall into a passive state environment and never give up.
Posted on Allbest.ru
...Similar documents
A turning point in Chekhov’s work in 1887–1888, a decrease in the role of the anecdotal element in his works. Psychological prose. The story "Ionych" - history meaningless life hero. Life of the Turkin family. Game of high society. The problem of personality degradation.
presentation, added 03/29/2013
High rank person, citizen, artist. The problem of a person’s personal responsibility for his destiny in Chekhov’s stories “Gooseberry” and “Ionych”. Exposing philistinism and Belikovism. Awakening the highest aspirations of the heroes of the story “The Lady with the Dog.”
essay, added 03/26/2008
Brief Analysis A.P. Chekhov's story "Gooseberry", characterization of the image of the main character - landowner Nikolai Ivanovich. The conflict of the story, its main thoughts and ideas. Outstanding quotes from the work "Gooseberry". Chekhov's attitude to Nikolai Ivanovich's dream.
presentation, added 06/03/2013
Literary and lexical analysis works by A.P. Chekhov's "Rothschild's Violin". Assessment of the character system and characteristics of the heroes of this story, the semantics of their names, identification of problems. Comparison later stories A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.
test, added 06/14/2010
Place of the genre short story in a system of prose forms. The problem of periodization of A. Chekhov's creativity. The main characteristic of the writer’s socio-philosophical position. Architectonics and artistic conflict short stories by M. Gorky.
thesis, added 06/02/2017
Study of life and creative activity A.P. Chekhov - a Russian writer, a generally recognized classic of world literature. Reflection of Russian traits national character in the works of Chekhov. The history of the creation of the story "About Love", its summary.
presentation, added 11/24/2014
"Ward No. 6" is one of Chekhov's most fascinating stories. interesting story, which was created by the author to identify any vice in society, its causes and consequences. The life of Doctor Ragin is the story of a man’s worldview struggling with reality.
report, added 04/29/2008
The time of writing the story by A.P. Chekhov's "Lady with a Dog" art world works, main characters and the plot. Inner experiences of heroes. The color palette of the story. Chekhov's use of gestures and seemingly random details.
essay, added 07/06/2011
The end of the 70s of the 19th century is the beginning of the journalistic activity of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Humor and characteristic feature stories and heroes of Antoshi Chekhonte. Analysis of the story "Thick and Thin". Reasons and consequences of A.P.’s trip Chekhov to Sakhalin Island.
abstract, added 07/09/2010
Creative path and the fate of A.P. Chekhov. Periodization of the writer's creativity. The artistic originality of his prose in Russian literature. Continuity of connections in the works of Turgenev and Chekhov. The inclusion of ideological dispute in the structure of Chekhov's story.
Provincial city S. Doctor Dmitry Ionovich Startsev was appointed to serve in this city. The Turkin family, reputed to be cultured and educated, also lives here. Each family member has his own talents: the owner of the family organizes home performances, takes part in them himself, and is considered a great joker and wit. His wife, Vera Iosifovna, is a novelist, and his daughter, Ekaterina Ivanovna, is a pianist. When Turkins invite guests to their house, they “sense” them with their talents. Doctor Startsev visits them. The mistress of the house is reading her incredible novel about an imaginary life. Startsev realizes that the novel is bad, but thinks that listening to it is pleasant. Then Kotik, the daughter of the Turkins, plays virtuoso works on the piano. For better or worse, she's trying really hard. Vera Iosifovna says: to avoid bad influence society, their daughter received home education. During the evening meal, the owner of the house shines with his talents. He comes up with some kind of his own language, distorted Russian, and constantly speaks it. The reception ends with a crowning number. Pavlush's footman in a specially invented pose, in a voice that probably seems appropriate for the phrase: “Die, unfortunate one!” says this.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. Startsev's unsuccessful matchmaking
Turkina Sr. suffers from migraines. Doctors from the city are powerless. Vera Iosifovna turns to Startsev to help her recover. Now the doctor visits the Turkins often and pays a lot of attention to Ekaterina Ivanovna. But she is “all about music.” Startsev is trying to sort things out with Kotik, and she suggests meeting at the cemetery at night. The doctor is waiting at the cemetery, but his beloved does not show up for a date. Dmitry Ionovich decides to propose to Ekaterina Ivanovna and goes to the Turkins’ house the next day. The doctor thinks that the bride will have a good dowry. Perhaps his future father-in-law and mother-in-law will insist that he leave the service. But all these thoughts of Startsev were in vain, Kotik refuses him. She loves not him, but art, and her whole life is now devoted to art. For three days, Dmitry Ionovich finds no relief from mental torment. Then his life returns to normal.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. Four years pass...
Four years later, Doctor Startsev appears to the reader as a fat man with shortness of breath. He doesn't communicate with anyone, he's not interested. Startsev works a lot because... believes that a person cannot live without work. It’s Vera Iosifovna’s birthday, and she invites Startsev to a reception. Katerina Ivanovna also arrives. But the doctor thinks that she has become very ugly, and everything about her irritates him. The evening goes on as always. Vera Iosifovna is reading her crazy novel, Kitty is playing the piano tediously and loudly. Startsev is very glad that the wedding did not take place. He and Kitty are talking alone in the garden. She already realizes that she is a mediocre pianist, and her mother is also a novelist. The doctor complains about a gray, monotonous life. In his thoughts there is no longer any desire for noble deeds, like before. Kitty thinks it's great to help people. At first, something happens in the doctor’s soul from thoughts about his former life, but remembering the amount of money he earns, he drives away ridiculous thoughts. Startsev doesn’t want to have dinner and is getting ready to go home. Finally, the footman shows the same number. Startsev goes home and thinks about how immoral the city is if its best inhabitants are so narrow-minded, untalented, and vulgar. The doctor no longer accepts invitations to the Turkins’ house, although Kotik bombards him with notes.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. A few more years pass...
Several years pass: Startsev becomes very fat, works a lot, has a practice in the city and a large fortune. Ionych - that’s what they call him now. He's still alone. The main thing in his life is money. In the Turkins' house, everything is as always: Ivan Petrovich jokes, Vera Iosifovna torments the guests with novels, and Kotik selflessly plays music.
Chekhov "Ionych". Story Analysis
What main idea does Chekhov want to convey to us with this story? At the beginning of the work, we are presented with the main character, the young doctor Startsev, in whose head noble thoughts about work, sympathy for people, and finally, love are ripening. But, reading the story further, we see that our hero and his wallet are becoming fatter, his thoughts are becoming more and more mercantile. Chekhov shows how the environment can “suck in” a person. He turns into a soulless amoeba, which is no longer interested in anything but money. Ionych cannot, and most likely does not want, to fight the gray reality. The money has done its job: at the end of the story, the doctor is only interested in it.
"Ionych." Chekhov. Analysis
The gray immoral environment in the story is represented by the Turkin family. The author describes all its members very ironically. All their actions, repeated throughout the story, are funny and vulgar. And this the best people in the city. Chekhov's heroes, as always, are very colorful. They make us wonder: am I one of them?
Elena BELYKH,
Far Eastern College
state university,
Vladivostok
Story by A.P. Chekhov's "Ionych"
Analysis of the episode “In the Cemetery”: place, role, content functions
It is generally accepted that Chekhov’s story “Ionych” is a story about how the hero, succumbing to the influence of the environment, becomes vulgarized and loses his good qualities and becomes a common man. A classic work is a classic, and a classic is a classic, because they never fit into a once and seemingly forever formula. M. Gorky was one of the first to feel that a critic turning to Chekhov’s stories cannot follow the old paths of retelling and “parsing” the text: “It is also impossible to convey the content of Chekhov’s stories because all of them, like expensive and delicate lace, require careful self-treatment and cannot stand the touch of rough hands, which can only crush them...” (1, 689)
The task that faces us is to carefully (very carefully!) read the famous Chekhov story covered with a “textbook gloss” and answer the question: was there a boy? Were there any prerequisites for the transformation of the “early” Startsev into Ionych? What is true and imaginary intelligence? What role does the episode play in the work? the hero's failed date at the cemetery, what is its emotional pathos?
P. Weil and A. Genis, not without reason, consider the story “Ionych” to be a “micro-novel”, because “Chekhov managed to condense the enormous volume of all human life without loss” (2, 178).
Let's reveal story chronotope , that is " interrelation of temporal and spatial relations”(3, 234), or category “composition and plot, which expresses the inextricable connection of time and space” (4, 8).
1. The action takes place in a closed artistic space an ordinary provincial town, embodying all the “boredom and monotony of life” Russian outback: “When visitors come to the provincial town of S. complained to the boredom and monotony of life...” (Hereinafter in quotes from “Ionych” italics are mine. - E.B.). (The first obvious literary association is famous beginning poems by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls”: “At the gates of the hotel of the provincial town of NN...”). It is interesting that the place to which the main character, Doctor Startsev, was appointed as a zemstvo doctor, had a very specific name, which sounded somewhat unusual - Dyalizh.
2. Artistic time in the story. In winter, Dmitry Ionych “was introduced to Ivan Petrovich... an invitation followed”; “in the spring, on a holiday - it was the Ascension,” Startsev went into the city, “had lunch, walked in the garden, then somehow Ivan Petrovich’s invitation came to his mind, and he decided to go to the Turkins, see what kind of people they are " After the first visit, “more than a year has passed,” and here he is again in the Turkins’ house. “Autumn was approaching, and it was quiet in the old garden, sad and dark leaves lay on the alleys.” It was at the end of the summer that Startsev arrived at the request of the ill Vera Iosifovna, “and after that he began to visit the Turkins often, very often.” In such “inconsistency”, the contrast between the life of dying nature and the hero’s emerging love, the attentive reader will feel the beginning of the end love relationship Dmitry Ionych and Kotik. (Literary Association: same principle figurative, psychological parallelism, based on likening internal state human life nature, brilliantly used in the novel “Oblomov” by I. Goncharov, exploring the love story of Ilya Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya.)
Chekhov speaks sparingly about Startsev’s medical practice, but short quotes selected from the text eloquently testify to the irreversible changes that occurred with the young doctor: “... in the hospital there was so many work, and he couldn’t find a free hour. More than a year has passed in labor and loneliness”; “In the city, Startsev already had great practice. Every morning he hastily received patients at home in Dyalizh, then went to the city patients”; “He had one more entertainment...take it out of your pockets in the evenings pieces of paper, obtained by practice”; “In his city huge practice, no time to breathe... He has a lot of trouble, but still he does not give up his zemstvo position, greed prevailed(we hear the indignant, contemptuous voice of the narrator expressing the author’s position. - E.B.), I want to keep up both here and there... When receiving the sick, he usually gets angry, impatiently knocks his stick on the floor and shouts to his unpleasant(again bright assessment detail! - E.B.) voice:
Please answer only questions! Don't talk!
The story is structured according to the laws of the novel genre. It has an exposition, a plot, a climax, a development of action, and an epilogue. “Strikingly, in the short “Ionych” there was even room for the almost obligatory element of a novel - an inserted short story” (2, 180).
Place of this short story - the episode “At the Cemetery” - between the first and second quotes of the description of Dmitry Startsev’s service: “More than a year has passed” since he first visited the Turkins, - and now he is hastily receives patients at the “zemstvo place” and leaves for “paperwork” in the city. Why did such a metamorphosis happen to the doctor? Where is the beginning of the fall of humanity in man? After all, how long did it take for such profound changes to take place?
The episode has its own microplot : the motive for the seemingly illogical, absurd appearance of Dmitry Ionych Startsev in the cemetery is his suddenly flared passion for Kotik. Why did Startsev suddenly decide on such an extravagant act and succumb to obsession? Russian classics more than once tested their heroes for moral integrity and high humanity. Let's remember Onegin, Pechorin, Bazarov... They all passed the test of love. It has long been noted that Chekhov does not have exceptional heroes, extraordinary circumstances on the verge of life and death. Everything is trivial, everyday, desperately ordinary. Gorky wrote about the story “In the Ravine”: “There is nothing in Chekhov’s stories that does not happen in reality. Horrible power his talent lies precisely in the fact that he never invents anything on his own, does not depict “what does not exist in the world”... He never embellishes people... Chekhov wrote a lot of small comedies about people who overlooked life...” (1, 690). Dmitry Ionych Startsev also had a test of love. And it’s no coincidence that the episode of a failed date with Kitty is culmination the whole story highest point tension, a test of the hero, a certain border.
Let us remember how the doctor ended up in the cemetery. After talking with him, Kitty “suddenly” got up from the bench “under the old wide maple tree,” “then awkwardly put a note in his hand and ran into the house and sat down at the piano again.” Startsev read in the note: “Today, at eleven o’clock in the evening, be at the cemetery near the Demetti monument.” His first reaction when he came to his senses was the thoughts that “this is not smart at all,” “for what?” Analyzing this episode, we will trace how the hero’s mental and psychological state changes while waiting for Kitty.
Startsev “ included per episode” with hope. “Everyone has their own oddities,” he thought. - The cat is also strange and - who knows? “Perhaps she’s not joking, she’ll come.” What follows are the words of the narrator: “...and he gave himself up to this weak, empty hope, and it intoxicated him.” If the epithet weak expresses only what it expresses, then empty- this is the author’s knowledge that Kitty will not come, and - deeper - about empty concerns about the spiritual rise of Dmitry Ionych. “ It turns out from the episode” the hero, saying the famous: “Oh, there’s no need to gain weight!”
Exposition episode are the thoughts of the discouraged Startsev. His speech characteristic given in the form improperly direct speech. One gets the impression of the author’s imperceptible penetration into the thoughts of Dmitry Ionych. The exposition takes up one paragraph and provides plenty of food for discussion. Beginning: “It was clear: Kitty was fooling around.” First impersonal offer as part of the complex, it seems, does not give Startsev grounds for unnecessary reasoning about Ekaterina Ivanovna’s stupid idea. The end of the paragraph is: “... A at half past ten all of a sudden took And went to the cemetery." A nasty union A emphasizes the impulsiveness of the decision, particle And reinforces this impression. The word “suddenly” is a “Dostoevsky” word, not a Chekhovian one. These are Dostoevsky’s heroes “suddenly,” unexpectedly making decisions, often contradicting themselves. Nothing, as we see, foreshadowed such an act by Doctor Startsev. (By the way, “suddenly” will appear in the story only four times: the first time - when Kitty “suddenly stood up and went to the house”; the second time - in the finale of the episode “In the Cemetery” - this particular detail will have a symbolic meaning; the third “suddenly” will become the reason for the passionate kiss in the carriage, when “the horses turned sharply into the club gates, and the carriage tilted”; in last time this adverb will appear in the text when, four years later, Startsev, sitting on a bench in the garden with Ekaterina Ivanovna, “suddenly” becomes “sad and sorry for the past.”)
Let's return to the doctor's thoughts before his trip to the cemetery. “Who would really seriously think of making a date at night, far outside the city, in a cemetery, when it’s can be easily arranged on the street, in the city garden?” Dmitry Ionych understands the absurdity of Kotik’s proposal. “And is it fitting for him, a zemstvo doctor, smart, respectable person, sigh, receive notes, hang around through cemeteries, doing stupid things that even schoolchildren laugh at now? Where will this novel lead? ? There are two interesting things about this passage.
For the first time, Startsev’s self-assessment is given. Whatever indirect characterization other characters give to the hero, this will be his “absentia” definition (M. Bakhtin’s term). As you can see, Dmitry Ionych has enough a high self-evaluation, which had reason to be from the very beginning of the story. Let us remember: “And Doctor Startsev... was also told that he, as an intelligent person, needed to get to know the Turkins.” This means that the Turkins family is considered intelligent. The bar for an “intelligent person” has certainly been lowered. The words of Chekhov himself from his letter to his brother about educated people - should read: intelligent. “In order to educate yourself and not stand below the level of the environment in which you find yourself, it is not enough to read only Pickwick and memorize a monologue from Faust. This requires continuous day and night work, eternal reading, studying, and will. Every hour is precious here.” We will see in the story the “intelligent” Turkin family and we will judge the level of the “environment” into which Startsev found himself, from the words of the narrator, that is, much earlier than the hero himself.
So, Startsev evaluates the future “enterprise” from the point of view of the average person: “... hang around through cemeteries... Where will this novel lead? What will your comrades say when they find out?? Which of the heroes of Russian literature, standing above the environment, looked back at public opinion? Onegin comes to mind before his duel with Lensky. (“...But the whispers, the laughter of fools...”). The situations are different, but the essence is the same. Although no, not everything is so simple here. Mentally, Onegin still gives an evaluative characterization to representatives of “public opinion.” Chekhov's “hero” “falls short” of a hero. We call it that based on a literary term. “That’s what Startsev thought, wandering around the tables in the club, and at half past ten...” Startsev is not Raskolnikov, who goes “without his own feet” to kill the old pawnbroker, because the decision was made a long time ago. Gives Startsev a chance author, gives you a chance to be alone with yourself, with a world “where there is no life,” a chance to make some important discoveries. That's the exposition of the episode.
Z binding The episode begins with the most important substantive detail involved in the development of the plot: “He already had a couple of horses and a coachman Panteleimon in a velvet vest.” At the beginning of the story, Startsev, having visited the Turkins, “went on foot to his place in Dyalizh.” Now he has a couple of horses and a coachman in a velvet vest. It would seem that what's wrong with this? In the epilogue, Startsev’s movement is described as follows: “When he is plump and red, rides a troika with bells and Panteleimon, also plump and red, with fleshy nape, sitting on the trestle, stretched forward straight, exactly wooden, hands, and shouts to those he meets: “Keep the law!” the picture is impressive, and it seems that it is not a man who is riding, but a pagan god.” There is no irony in this description, it is sarcasm, castigating the complete destruction of the human in man. Panteleimon’s “wooden hands” seem to be continued in detail , characterizing Ionych: he always has a stick in his hands, with which he, coming to the next house “appointed for auction,” “pokes all the doors,” or, “receiving the sick,” “impatiently knocks... on the floor.” We will meet the mirror reflection of the master in the servant in “Oblomov” (Oblomov - Zakhar), in “Fathers and Sons” (Pavel Petrovich - Prokofich). The reflection of the behavior and portrait characteristics of the owners in the servants makes the latter more vulnerable, is a kind of parody of them, and thus the author achieves his goal.
But in the episode of the failed date Startsev is not yet Ionych from the epilogue. The hero “left the horses on the edge of the city, in one of the alleys, and he himself went to the cemetery on foot" “What will your comrades say when they find out?” Perhaps this fear is implied? Probably yes. But still the meaning of this detail not only this. The distance was not close: “He walked through the field for half a mile.” Startsev walked on foot for the last time!
At half past ten he “suddenly went to the cemetery”; at midnight “the clock in the church began to strike”; the next day he will tell Ekaterina Ivanovna that he waited for her “almost until two o’clock”; the narrator will note that the hero “then wandered around for an hour and a half, looking for the lane where he had left his horses.” So, episode chronotope: art space - cemetery, not the most cheerful place on earth, where, in fact, I stayed alive Dmitry Ionych; borders artistic time episodes are approximately four hours long. Whole four hours of “trampling through cemeteries”! Only four hours during which Startsev turned into Ionych. There are hours and even minutes in life when a person remains “naked,” alone with the universe; when two cosmos - macro and micro - converge in an incredible way. (Let us remember Prince Andrew lying on the field of Austerlitz, and the high sky that opened up to him.) A person must appreciate the lucky card dealt to him, must emerge from contact with eternity different, different, renewed. Such a moment came in the life of a zemstvo doctor on the outskirts of the provincial town of S.
Chekhov mastered all the techniques of artistic representation, including various methods of constructing descriptions. The episode "In the Graveyard" is shining example principle psychological parallelism.“The moon was shining. It was quiet, but warm like autumn. In the suburbs, near the slaughterhouses, dogs were howling.” The picture is creepy, and Startsev, as we see, is not a timid person. “The cemetery was marked in the distance by a dark stripe, like a forest or a large garden.”
Garden motif- an important motif in the story “Ionych”, and “the pinnacle image of all Chekhov’s creativity” (2, 187). The garden is an unchanging, eternal setting against the backdrop of which the relationship between Startsev and Ekaterina Ivanovna develops and ends. In the Turkins’ house, “half the windows looked out onto the old shady garden”; “when Vera Iosifovna closed her notebook” with a novel about “what never happens in life”, “in the city garden next door” a choir of songwriters accompanied by an orchestra sang “Luchinushka”, “and this song conveyed something that was not in the novel and what happens in life.” Startsev and Kotik “had a favorite place in the garden: a bench under an old wide maple tree.” This was the time of Dmitry Ionych's passionate love. Four years later, “she looked at him and, apparently, expected him to invite her to go to the garden, but he was silent.” Now Kitty says not “dryly”, as he once did, but excitedly, “nervously”: “For God’s sake, let’s go to the garden.” “They went into the garden and sat down there on a bench under an old maple tree...” The garden is not only a silent witness, but also a participant in the action called “life.” “A garden is a way out of a paradoxical world into an organic world, a transition from a state of anxious anticipation... into eternal active peace” (2, 187).
The episode is built on both likeness and contrast between nature and man. Startsev entered a surreal “world, unlike anything else, a world where the moonlight is so good and soft.” In just one and a half pages, Chekhov, who considered brevity one of the main principles of his poetics, set a kind of “record”: six (!) times he spoke about the moon and moonlight. A narrative detail - the moon - reigns throughout the entire artistic space of the cemetery-forest, cemetery-garden. The static description of the moonlit night slows down the action and interrupts the development of events. We see the landscape through the eyes of Startsev, a landscape in the description of which two colors dominate: white and black. The yellow sand of the alleys further emphasizes the pouring light. “A fence of white stone and a gate appeared... In the moonlight, on the gate one could read: “The hour is coming at the same time...” (I remember: abandon hope, everyone who enters here. - E.B.) Startsev entered the gate, and the first thing he saw were white crosses and monuments on both sides of the wide alley and black shadows from them and from the poplars; and all around you could see white and black in the distance, and sleepy trees bent their branches over the white. It seemed that it was brighter here than in the field...” The end of this rather long paragraph is magnificent. The hero succumbed for a short time to the magic of the cemetery atmosphere, felt the solemnity of the moment, and was imbued with the “mood” of the place. The thrice repeated “no” (“where there is no life, there is no and no”) persistently evokes the idea of the frailty of human existence, the insignificance of vanity and sets one in a high mood; “...but in every dark poplar, in every grave, the presence of a secret is felt, promising a quiet, beautiful, eternal life.” The syntactic triad that completes the phrase is built on the principle of gradation. Each subsequent epithet enhances the impression of the previous one - to eternity, to infinity. The garden “changes without changing. Submitting to the cyclical laws of nature, being born and dying, he conquers death” (2, 187). The phrase that ends the paragraph is the last high feeling that Startsev experienced in life: “From the slabs and withered flowers, along with the autumn smell of leaves, there emanates forgiveness, sadness and peace.” These words are filled with symbolic content. Gravestones are the result, the finale of human life, something that has no continuation, something that is forever. Life after death can only exist in the memory of the living. The autumn smell of leaves and wilted flowers speak of the proximity and inevitability of death. Syntactic triad “forgiveness, sadness, peace” evokes a literary association: a description of the rural cemetery where Evgeny Bazarov is buried. “Like almost all of our cemeteries, it looks sad...” Many generations of critics and readers have struggled with the author’s words that conclude the novel: “Oh no! No matter how passionate, sinful, rebellious the heart may be hidden in the grave, the flowers growing on it serenely look at us with their innocent eyes: they tell us not only about eternal peace, about that great peace of “indifferent” nature; they also talk about eternal reconciliation and endless life...” Hidden Quote from Pushkin’s philosophical lyrics, the author’s deep affection for his hero, sounding in the finale of “Fathers and Sons,” makes us think about the questions of existence.
Let's go back to Chekhov's story. “There is silence all around; in deep humility the stars looked from the sky...” Startsev at the cemetery was “inappropriate,” as were his steps, breaking the silence. The hero was brought back to reality by the chiming of the clock, “and he imagined himself dead, buried here forever.” Everything alive, thirsting for love, was indignant in him: “... it seemed to him that someone was looking at him, and for a minute he thought that this was not peace or silence, but a deep melancholy of non-existence, suppressed despair...” Startsev does not rise above himself, does not make a discovery. “Chekhov’s man is an unfulfilled man” with “an unfulfilled life” (2.180).
Moonlight had a unique influence on Startsev’s thoughts: it seemed to “fuel passion in him,” the doctor “waited passionately and imagined kisses and hugs”; “...how many women and girls are buried here, in these graves, who were beautiful, charming, who loved, who burned with passion at night, surrendering to affection. How, in essence, Mother Nature plays bad jokes on man, how offensive it is to realize this!” Conveying the flow of thoughts of the hero using improperly direct speech, Chekhov brings it to the point of tension, to the climax; “...he wanted to scream that he wanted it, that he was waiting for love at all costs; in front of him turned white no longer pieces of marble, but beautiful bodies, he saw forms that shyly hid in the shade of trees, felt warmth, and this languor became painful...” The highest tension of Startsev’s “spiritual suffering” in the cemetery is a passionate languor, a thirst for love, love carnal, physical...
The director of the scene “In the Cemetery” - moonlight - gives his hero the opportunity to become a participant in the action, to see something that “probably will never happen again.” And the moon prepares the denouement episode: “And it was as if the curtain had fallen, the moon went under the clouds, and suddenly everything went dark all around.” Kotik's joke led Startsev to the cemetery, where he experienced unique, most important feelings and feelings in your life. And there, in the cemetery, Startsev’s formation as a person, as a person, ended. The author is no longer interested in it. All subsequent actions of the hero are said somehow in passing: “Startsev barely found the gate - it was already dark, like an autumn night - then he wandered for an hour and a half, looking for the lane where he left his horses.
“I’m tired, I can barely stand on my feet,” he told Panteleimon.”
The whole episode is a romantic picture with a reduced, vulgar ending: “And, sitting down with pleasure in the carriage, he thought: “Oh, I shouldn’t get fat!”” This is an episode of the hero’s failed date with himself.
How deep were Startsev’s feelings? Both during his first visit to the Turkins and later, Kotik “admired him with her freshness, the naive expression of her eyes and cheeks.” “Naive expression... cheeks”? We understand that this detail of Kotik’s portrait sounds ironic, but the irony does not come from Startsev, through whose perception the girl’s appearance is given. This is a slight irony of the author. But the hero is in love, and therefore deserves leniency. He admires “the way the dress sat on her, he saw something unusually sweet, touching with its simplicity and naive grace.” The speech characteristics of Dmitry Ionych, his own direct speech, strongly resembles the speech of a hero-lover in vaudeville: “For God’s sake, I beg you, don’t torment me, let’s go to the garden!”; “I haven’t seen you for a whole week... and if you only knew what suffering this is!”; “I want terribly, I crave your voice. Speak”; “Stay with me for at least five minutes! I conjure you!”
Were they interested in each other? “She seemed to him very smart and developed beyond her years.” In general, in many of Chekhov’s works the key words are “seems”, “seemed” and others. They can play a role introductory structures- words and sentences, or can be included, as in this case, as part of the predicate. “She seemed smart...” A significant detail that characterizes both the lover Startsev and his beloved. And yet, “with her he could talk about literature, about art, about anything, he could complain about life, about people...”
Let's turn over three sheets. “But four years have passed. One quiet, warm morning a letter was brought to the hospital. Vera Iosifovna... asked him to definitely come to her and ease her suffering. At the bottom there was a note: “I also join my mother’s request. TO."". Seeing her, Startsev noted that she had changed in appearance, had become prettier, the main thing was that “it was already Ekaterina Ivanovna, and not Kotik...” The situation repeated itself exactly the opposite. (I remember, in the words of Y. Lotman, the “formula of the Russian novel” “Eugene Onegin”.) But how reduced the situation is, how pathetic and then terrible Chekhov’s hero is in the finale! If Kotik became Ekaterina Ivanovna, then Dmitry Ionych is simply Ionych. How does he perceive her now? “And now he liked her... but something was already preventing him from feeling as before.” And then the narrator, using a three-time negative verb, conveys Startsev’s growing irritation: “He didn’t like her paleness... he didn’t like her dress, the chair in which she was sitting, he didn’t like something in the past, when he almost married her.” . Moreover, when he “remembered his love, dreams and hopes... he felt embarrassed.” But the desire to talk to Ekaterina Ivanovna still arose. But about what? “...I already wanted to say, complain about life”.
Four years later, having met not with Kotik, but with Ekaterina Ivanovna, sitting on the once beloved bench in dark garden, “he remembered everything that had happened, all the smallest details, how he wandered through the cemetery, how later in the morning, tired, he returned to his home, and he suddenly felt sad and sorry for the past. And a fire lit up in my soul.”
We remember that Kotick made a date “near the Demetti monument.” It is no coincidence that the narrator devotes a whole paragraph in the meeting episode to the certificate of origin of the monument “in the form of a chapel, with an angel at the top” and its description: “...once upon a time there was an Italian opera passing through S., one of the singers died, and she was buried and erected this monument. No one in the city remembered her anymore, but lamp above the entrance reflected Moonlight And, it seemed, was burning" IN soul Startseva a few years later, remembering that night “the fire has lit up”. Just as the moon, which had gone under the clouds, extinguished the lamp, so the light “went out in my soul” when “Startsev remembered the pieces of paper that he took out of his pockets in the evenings with such pleasure.” This objective detail - “pieces of paper obtained by practice... which smelled of perfume, and vinegar, and incense, and blubber” - evokes in memory and with lust the Stingy Knight from A. Pushkin’s “little tragedy” admiring his gold in the cellars , and the unforgettable Chichikov, sorting through the contents of a box with a double bottom.
Comparing Startsev’s behavior, speech and thoughts before and after the “inserted short story,” we see that it is on these two pages of text that the most important thing is shown - what explains to us the transformation of Dmitry Ionych into Ionych. (It is precisely this patronymic, which has become a common noun, that Chekhov included in the title of the story.)
Of particular note is the theme of music, which plays a rather significant role in the narrative: after hearing Kotik play the piano for the first time, Startsev “pictured to himself how stones were falling from a high mountain, falling and falling, and he wanted them to stop falling as soon as possible. .. After the winter spent in Dyalizh, among the sick and the peasants, sitting in the living room... listening to these noisy, annoying, but still cultural sounds, - it was so nice, so new...” Then there are congratulations from the “amazed” guests at “such music.” And here is the famous: “Wonderful! - said And Startsev.” We remember, this is only the first chapter, this is only exposition and plot. Startsev’s spiritual and physical appearance had not yet changed in any way. The shortest artistic detail - the coordinating conjunction and - makes the reader think: is the “early” Dmitry Ionych much different from the average person? Could he initially resist the environment? The Russian intellectual is weak, weak in spirit, living by his own labor and reaching out for satiety, comfort, for soft, deep armchairs in which “it was calm,” “pleasant, comfortable, and all such good, calm thoughts came to mind...”, intellectual , with pleasure complaining(this word, as we see, is one of the key words in the story).
And a year later, the lover Startsev listens to “long, tedious exercises on the piano.” After the proposal that Dmitry Ionych finally made to Ekaterina Ivanovna, she unexpectedly rejects him: “... you know, most of all in life I love art, I madly love, adore music, I dedicated my whole life to it...” The heroine’s speech sounds pompous, just like Startsev’s own speech at the moment of confession. They both seem to be acting in some kind of play and take their acting seriously. And yet, it is young Kotik who speaks for the first time, although it sounds naive, about the unbearable vulgarity of life: “...and you want me to continue living in this city, to continue this empty(this epithet again! - E.B.), a useless life that became unbearable for me. To become a wife - oh no, sorry! A person must strive for a higher, brilliant goal...” We will not hear such words from Startsev’s lips. (Dissatisfaction with existence, a dream of a different, meaningful, creative life are the leitmotif of all of Chekhov’s late works, especially his plays.) We know how the heroine’s search for “fame, success, freedom” ended. And four years later, “Ekaterina Ivanovna played the piano noisily and for a long time, and when she finished, they thanked her for a long time and admired her.” Sincere insincerity, the “rituality” of the admiration of the same guests, the vulgarity of the situation and the spiritual squalor of the “most educated and talented” family lead Startsev to think about the mediocrity of the Turkins. In the form of Startsev’s short internal monologue, we hear the author’s merciless voice: “It’s not the one who doesn’t know how to write stories that is mediocre, but the one who writes them and doesn’t know how to hide it.” After Kotik’s noisy game, Startsev thought: “It’s good that I didn’t marry her.” The last chord is the words about “if the most talented people in the whole city are so untalented, then what kind of city should it be.” Later, but an insight that does not essentially change anything. The “musical” theme ends in the epilogue: “And when, at some table next door, the topic of the Turkins comes up, he asks:
Which Turkins are you talking about? About the ones where your daughter plays the piano?”
An expressive action detail: the ending is open, not completed. The verbs are used in the present tense: “when... the conversation comes... he asks,” suggesting endless repetition. Vulgar environment, vulgar hero.
Chekhov’s heroes “invariably - and inevitably - do not grow into themselves... These are not just “little people” who poured into Russian literature long before Chekhov. Makar Devushkin is torn apart by Shakespearean passions, Akakiy Bashmachkin elevates the overcoat to a cosmic symbol. Doctor Startsev has neither passions nor symbols, since he did not recognize them in himself. The inertia of his life knows no contradictions and opposition, because it is natural and rooted in the deepest self-ignorance. Compared to Startsev, Oblomov is a titan of will, and no one would think of calling him Ilyich, as he was Ionych” (2, 180). “In essence, each of his characters is an embryo of surrealism. In it, like in a nuclear charge, the absurdity of everyday existence is condensed” (ibid., 182). Thus, the analysis of a small episode of Dr. Startsev’s failed meeting highlighted the problems artistic originality not only the story of A.P. Chekhov, but also the main themes of his work, connected together the heroes and literary situations of Russian classics.
Literature
1. Reader on literary criticism for schoolchildren and applicants / Compilation, comments by L.A. Sugai. M.: Ripol-Classic, 2000.
2. Weil P., Genis A. Native speech. Lessons in fine literature. M.: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 1991.
3. Bakhtin M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M., 1975.
4. Grigorai I.V., Panchenko T.F., Lelaus V.V. The doctrine of a work of art. Far Eastern University Publishing House, 2000.
The main theme of A.P. Chekhov’s work “Ionych” is the peculiarities of the interaction between the human individual and his environment, as well as the power of influence of social norms on an individual person.
This topic has been encountered quite often in Russian literature; it is raised in “Heroes of Our Time” by Lermontov, “Oblomov” by Goncharov, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov.
However, unlike his predecessors, A.P. Chekhov sees this topic from a slightly different angle, and develops his own version of a way out of the current crisis in relations between society and man.
Image of Ionych
The main character of the work is Dmitry Ionych Startsev, a young doctor who is assigned to work in the town of Dyalizhe. Startsev fully meets all the canons of education and intelligence: he is practical, very taciturn, courteous in society, and has a good knowledge of literature and history.
Our hero represents a sharp contrast from the environment in which he found himself. The majority of the town's residents were poorly educated. The most cultured family, according to the townspeople, were the Turkins. Vera Turkina wrote novels, her husband Ivan Petrovich joked excellently, and her daughter Ekaterina played the piano professionally.
However, at the first acquaintance with the family, Startsev discovers that none of them truly possesses either talent or proper education. Dmitry Ionovich develops sympathy for Catherine, which later develops into true love.
It is the fear of offending the feelings of his beloved that does not allow the main character to boldly express his opinion about the narrow-mindedness, stupidity and arrogance of her parents. Dmitry Ionovich dares to ask Katya to marry him, but unexpectedly receives an unjustified refusal.
It got huge mental trauma for a young doctor, because he considered himself much more intelligent and educated than his entire family taken together. Having harbored a deep grudge, as a sign of protest, Startsev completely stops close communication with both the Turkins and the rest of the town’s residents.
Degradation of Ionych
Four years later, Dmitry Ionovich became a famous doctor with extensive practice. He continues to despise a society that is hated and irritates with its stupidity and uncouthness. He is glad that he did not marry Catherine, since with age she became an unattractive woman, disappointed with life.
With the acquisition of a fortune, unbeknownst to himself, Startsev gradually lost the intelligence that was previously inherent in him. He completely forgot about the need for spiritual and cultural development. The main goal of his life was to accumulate wealth and build new houses for himself.
From a sweet, intelligent young man, Dmitry Ionovich turned into a rude man, always dissatisfied with his life. Startsev's degradation disgusts people, and they begin to call him rather disrespectfully Ionych.