What is the image of a person in literature. The artistic image in literature. Issues for discussion

The most important category of literature, which determines its essence and specificity, is the artistic image. What is the meaning of this concept? It means a phenomenon that the author creatively recreates in his creation. Image in fiction seems to be the result of the conclusions made by the writer about a process or phenomenon. The peculiarity of this concept is that it not only helps to comprehend reality, but also to create your own fictional world.

Let's try to trace what an artistic image is, its types and means of expression. After all, any writer tries to portray certain phenomena in such a way as to show his vision of life, its tendencies and patterns.

What is an artistic image

Domestic literary criticism borrowed the word "image" from the Kiev church vocabulary. It matters - a face, a cheek, and its figurative meaning is a picture. But it is important for us to analyze what an artistic image is. By it they mean a specific, and sometimes a generalized picture of people's lives, which bears an aesthetic meaning and is created with the help of fiction. An element or part of a literary creation that has an independent life - that is what an artistic image is.

Such an image is called artistic not because it is identical to real objects and phenomena. The author simply transforms reality with the help of his imagination. The task of an artistic image in literature is not just to copy reality, but to convey the most important and essential.

So, Dostoevsky put the words in the mouth of one of his heroes that it is rarely possible to recognize a person from a photograph, because a face does not always speak of the most important character traits. From photographs, Napoleon, for example, seems stupid to some. The task of the writer is to show the most important and specific in the person and character. By creating literary image, the author reflects in words human characters, objects, phenomena in an individual form. By image, literary scholars mean the following:

1. Characters of a work of art, heroes, actors and their characters.
2. The depiction of reality in a concrete form, using verbal images and tropes.

Each image created by the writer bears a special emotionality, originality, associativity and capacity.

Changing the shapes of an artistic image

In the course of how humanity changes, so there are changes in the depiction of reality. There is a difference between what the artistic image was 200 years ago and what it is now. In the era of realism, sentimentalism, romanticism, modernism, the authors portrayed the world in different ways. Reality and fiction, reality and ideal, general and individual, rational and emotional - all this changed in the course of the development of art. In the era of classicism, writers highlighted the struggle between feelings and duty. Often heroes chose duty and sacrificed personal happiness in the name of the public interest. In the era of romanticism, rebellious heroes appeared who rejected society or it.

Realism introduced rational knowledge of the world into literature, taught to identify cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena and objects. Modernism called on writers to learn about the world and man by irrational means: inspiration, intuition, illumination. For realists, man and his relationship with the outside world are at the head of everything. Romantics are interested in the inner world of their heroes.

Readers and listeners can also be called in some way co-creators of literary images, because their perception is important. Ideally, the reader does not just passively stand aside, but passes the image through his own feelings, thoughts and emotions. Readers of different eras discover completely different sides of the artistic image the writer portrayed.

Four kinds of literary images

The artistic image in literature is classified on various grounds. All these classifications only complement each other. If we divide the images into types according to the number of words or signs that create them, then the following images are distinguished:

• Small images as details... An example of an image-detail is the famous Plyushkin pile, a structure in the form of a pile. She very clearly characterizes her hero.
• Interiors and landscapes... Sometimes they are part of a person's image. So, Gogol constantly changes interiors and landscapes, makes them a means of creating characters. The landscape lyrics are very easy for the reader to imagine.
• Characters images. So, in the works of Lermontov, a person with his feelings and thoughts is at the center of events. Characters are also called literary heroes.
• Complex literary systems. An example is the image of Moscow in the lyrics of Tsvetaeva, Russia in the works of Blok, Petersburg in Dostoevsky. An even more complex system is the image of the world.

Classification of images by generic and style specifics

All verbal and artistic creations are usually divided into three types. In this regard, the images can be:

• lyrical;
• epic;
• dramatic.

Every writer has his own style of portraying characters. This gives rise to classifying images into:

• realistic;
• romantic;
• surreal.

All images are created according to a certain system and laws.

Division of literary images by the nature of generalization

Uniqueness and originality are characterized by individual images. They are invented by the imagination of the author himself. Individual images are used by romantics and science fiction writers. In the work of Hugo "Notre Dame Cathedral", readers can see an unusual Quasimodo. Volan is an individual in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita", the Demon in the work of the same name by Lermontov.

The generalizing way, opposite to the individual, is characteristic. It contains the characters and mores that people of a certain era have. Such are the literary heroes of Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, in Ostrovsky's plays, in Galsworthy's Forsyte Sagas.

The highest level of characteristic characters are typical images. They were the most likely for a particular era. It is typical heroes that are most often found in realistic literature XIX century. These are the father of Goriot and Gobsek Balzac, Platon Karataev and Anna Karenina Tolstoy, Madame Bovary Flaubert. Sometimes the creation of an artistic image is intended to capture the socio-historical features of the era, universal human traits. The list of such eternal images you can add Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet, Oblomov, Tartuffe.

Out of the frame of individual characters go images-motives. They are constantly repeated in the theme of the works of some author. As an example, one can cite Yesenin's "village Rus" or Blok's "Beautiful Lady".

Typical images found not only in the literature of individual writers, but also nations, eras, are called topos... Such Russian writers as Gogol, Pushkin, Zoshchenko, Platonov used the topos image in their works " little man".

The universal human image, which is unconsciously transmitted from generation to generation, is called archetype... It includes mythological characters.

Tools for creating an artistic image

Each writer, to the best of his talent, reveals images with the means available to him. Most often, he does this through the behavior of the characters in certain situations, through his relationship with the outside world. Of all the means of the artistic image, an important role is played by speech characteristic heroes. The author can use monologues, dialogues, internal statements of a person. To the events taking place in the book, the writer can give his author's description.

Sometimes readers observe in the works an implicit, hidden meaning, as they say subtext. Is of great importance external characteristic heroes: height, clothing, figure, facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice. It's easier to call it a portrait. A great semantic and emotional load is carried in the works details, giving details . To express the meaning of some phenomenon in subject form, authors use symbols. The idea of ​​the habitat of this or that hero gives a description of the interior situation of the room - interior.

In what order is the literary

character image?

To create an artistic image of a person is one of the most important tasks of any author. Here's how you can characterize this or that character:

1. Indicate the place of the character in the system of images of the work.
2. Describe it in terms of social type.
3. Describe the character's appearance, portrait.
4. Name the features of his worldview and worldview, mental interests, abilities and habits. Describe what he does, his life principles and influence on others.
5. Describe the sphere of the hero's feelings, features of internal experiences.
6. Analyze the author's relationship to the character.
7. Reveal the most important character traits of the hero. As the author reveals them, other characters.
8. Analyze the actions of the hero.
9. Name the personality of the character's speech.
10. What is his relationship to nature?

Mega, macro and micro images

Sometimes the text of a literary creation is perceived as a mega-image. It has an independent aesthetic value. Literary critics give it the highest generic and indivisible value.

Macroimages are used to depict life in larger or smaller sections, pictures or parts. The composition of the macro image is made up of small homogeneous images.

The smallest text size is the microimage. It can be in the form of a small segment of the reality depicted by the artist. It could be one phrase word(Winter. Frost. Morning.) Or sentence, paragraph.

Symbol images

A characteristic feature of such images is metaphor. They carry semantic depth. So, the hero Danko from the work of Gorky "Old Woman Izergil" is a symbol of absolute selflessness. He is opposed in the book by another hero - Larra, who is a symbol of selfishness. The writer creates a literary symbolic image for hidden comparison in order to show its figurative meaning. Most often, symbolism is found in lyrical works. It is worth recalling Lermontov's poems "Cliff", "In the wild north it is lonely ...", "Leaf", the poem "Demon", the ballad "Three Palms".

Eternal images

There are images that are unfading, they combine the unity of historical and social elements. Such characters in world literature are called eternal. Immediately come to mind Prometheus, Oedipus, Cassandra. Any intelligent person will add here Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Iskander, Robinson. There are immortal novels, short stories, lyrics, in which new generations of readers discover unprecedented depths.

Artistic images in the lyrics

An unusual look at ordinary things allows you to look at the lyrics. The poet's keen gaze notices the most everyday things that bring happiness. The artistic image in the poem can be the most unexpected. For some it is sky, day, light. Bunin and Yesenin have a birch. The images of a beloved or beloved are endowed with special tenderness. Very often there are images-motives, such as: a woman-mother, wife, bride, beloved.

"Superfluous people" in literature are images characteristic of Russian prose of the mid-nineteenth century. Examples of such characters in works of fiction are the topic of the article.

Who introduced this term?

"Superfluous people" in literature are characters that appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Who exactly introduced this term is unknown. Perhaps Herzen. According to some sources - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. After all, the great Russian poet once said that his Onegin is “an extra person”. One way or another, this image is firmly established in the works of other writers.

Every student who has not even read Goncharov's novel knows about someone like Oblomov. This character is a representative of the outdated landlord world, and therefore cannot adapt in any way to the new one.

Common signs

"Superfluous people" are found in the works of such classics as I. S. Turgenev, M. Yu. Lermontov. Before considering each of the characters that can be attributed to this category, you should highlight common features... "Superfluous people" in literature are contradictory heroes who are in conflict with the society to which they belong. As a rule, they are deprived of both fame and wealth.

Examples of

"Superfluous people" in literature are characters introduced by the author into an environment alien to them. They are moderately educated, but their knowledge is haphazard. The "superfluous person" cannot be a deep thinker or scientist, but he has the "ability to judge", the gift of eloquence. And the main feature of this literary character is a disdainful attitude towards others. As an example, we can recall Pushkin's Onegin, who avoids communication with neighbors.

"Superfluous people" in Russian literature of the 19th century were heroes who could see vices modern society but who do not know how to resist them. They are aware of the problems of the world around them. But, alas, they are too passive to change anything.

Causes of occurrence

The characters referred to in this article began to appear on the pages of the works of Russian writers in the Nikolaev era. In 1825, the Decembrist uprising took place. For the next decades, the government was in fear, but it was at this time that a spirit of freedom, a desire for change, appeared in society. The policy of Nicholas I was rather contradictory.

The tsar introduced reforms designed to make the life of the peasants easier, but at the same time he did everything to strengthen the autocracy. Various circles began to appear, the members of which discussed and criticized the current government. The landowner way of life for many educated people aroused contempt. But the trouble is that the members of various political associations belonged to the society to which they suddenly flared up with hatred.

The reasons for the appearance of "superfluous people" in Russian literature lie in the emergence of a new type of person in society, which was not accepted by society and did not accept it. Such a personality stands out from the general mass, and therefore causes bewilderment and irritation.

As already mentioned, the concept of "extra person" was the first to introduce into literature Pushkin. However, this term is somewhat vague. Characters in conflict with the social environment have been encountered in literature before. The main character of the comedy Griboyedov has features inherent in this type of characters. Is it possible to say that Chatsky is an example “ extra person"? In order to answer this question, you should do brief analysis comedy.

Chatsky

The hero of Griboyedov rejects the inert foundations of the Famusian society. He denounces reverence for rank and blind imitation. This is not ignored by the representatives of Famus society - whip, hryumy, Zagoretsky. As a result, Chatsky is considered strange, if not crazy.

Griboyedov's hero is a representative of an advanced society, which includes people who do not want to put up with reactionary orders and remnants of the past. Thus, it can be said that the topic of “an extra person” was first raised by the author of “Woe from Wit”.

Eugene Onegin

But most literary scholars believe that this particular hero is the first "superfluous person" in the prose and poetry of Russian authors. Onegin is a nobleman, "the heir to all his relatives." He received a very passable education, but does not possess any in-depth knowledge. To write and speak French, to behave at ease in society, to recite a few quotations from the works of ancient authors - this is enough to create a favorable impression in the world.

Onegin is a typical representative of an aristocratic society. He is incapable of "working hard," but he knows how to shine in society. He leads an aimless, idle existence, but this is not his fault. Eugene became what his father was, who gave three balls annually. He lives the way most of the Russian nobility do. However, in contrast to them, at a certain moment begins to experience fatigue and disappointment.

Loneliness

Onegin is an "extra person". He languishes from idleness, tries to occupy himself with useful work. In the society to which he belongs, idleness is the main component of life. Hardly anyone from Onegin's entourage is familiar with his experiences.

Eugene tries to compose at first. But the writer does not come out of it. Then he begins to read with enthusiasm. However, Onegin does not find moral satisfaction in the books either. Then he retires in the house of his deceased uncle, who bequeathed his village to him. Here the young nobleman, it would seem, finds something to do. It makes the life of the peasants easier: it replaces the yarn with an easy quitrent. However, even these good undertakings do not lead to anything.

The type of "superfluous person" in Russian literature appeared in the first third of the nineteenth century. But by the middle of the century, this character acquired new features. Pushkin Onegin is rather passive. He treats others with contempt, is in a blues and cannot get rid of conventions and prejudices, which he himself criticizes. Consider other examples of "extra person" in the literature.

Pechorin

Lermontov's work "A Hero of Our Time" is dedicated to the problems of a person rejected, spiritually not accepted by society. Pechorin, like the Pushkin character, belongs to high society... But he is weary of the mores of an aristocratic society. Pechorin does not enjoy attending balls, dinners, and festive evenings. He is oppressed by the boring and meaningless conversations that are customary to conduct at such events.

The examples of Onegin and Pechorin can be used to supplement the concept of "extra person" in Russian literature. This is a character who, due to some alienation from society, acquires such traits as isolation, selfishness, cynicism and even cruelty.

"Notes of a superfluous person"

And yet, most likely, the author of the concept of "superfluous people" - I. S. Turgenev. Many literary scholars believe that it was he who coined the term. According to them, Onegin and Pechorin were subsequently ranked among the "superfluous people", although they have little in common with the image created by Turgenev. The writer has a story called "Notes of an Extra Man." The hero of this work feels alienated in society. This character calls himself such.

Whether the hero of the novel "Fathers and Sons" is a "superfluous person" is a moot point.

Bazarov

Fathers and Sons depicts a mid-nineteenth-century society. By this time, violent political disputes reached their climax. In these disputes, on one side stood the liberal democrats, and on the other - the revolutionary democrats, the commoners. Both those and others understood that changes were needed. The revolutionary-minded democrats, unlike their opponents, were inclined to rather radical measures.

Political controversy has permeated all areas of life. And, of course, they became the topic of fiction and journalistic works. But there was at that time another phenomenon that interested the writer Turgenev. Namely, nihilism. The adherents of this movement rejected everything that was related to the spiritual.

Bazarov, like Onegin, is a deeply lonely person. This trait is also characteristic of all characters that literary scholars refer to as "superfluous people." But, unlike Pushkin's hero, Bazarov does not spend time in idleness: he is engaged in natural sciences.

The hero of the novel "Fathers and Sons" has successors. He is not considered insane. On the contrary, some heroes try to adopt Bazarov's oddities and skepticism. Nevertheless, Bazarov is lonely, despite the fact that his parents love him, idolize him. He dies, and only at the end of his life he realizes that his ideas were false. There are simple joys in life. There is love and romantic feelings. And all this has a right to exist.

Rudin

In quite often there are "extra people". The action of the novel "Rudin" takes place in the forties. Daria Lasunskaya, one of the heroines of the novel, lives in Moscow, but in the summer she leaves the city, where she organizes musical evenings. Her guests are exceptionally educated people.

One day a certain Rudin appears in the house of Lasunskaya. This person is prone to polemics, extremely ardent, and wins the audience with his wit. The guests and the hostess of the house are enchanted by Rudin's amazing eloquence. Lasunskaya invites him to live in her house.

In order to give a clear description of Rudin, Turgenev talks about facts from his life. This man was born into a poor family, but he never had the desire to earn money, get out of want. At first he lived on the pennies that his mother sent him. Then he lived at the expense of wealthy friends. Even in his youth, Rudin was distinguished by his extraordinary oratory skills. He was a rather educated man, because he spent all his leisure time reading books. But the trouble is that nothing followed his speeches. By the time he met Lasunskaya, he had already become a man, pretty battered by the hardships of life. In addition, he became painfully proud and even vain.

Rudin is “an extra person”. Many years of immersion in the philosophical sphere led to the fact that ordinary emotional experiences seemed to have died out. This Turgenev hero is a born orator, and the only thing he aspired to was to conquer people for himself. But he was too weak, spineless to become a political leader.

Oblomov

So, the "superfluous person" in Russian prose is a disillusioned nobleman. The hero of Goncharov's novel is sometimes referred to as this type of literary hero. But can Oblomov be called "an extra person"? After all, he misses, yearns for his father's house and all that constituted the landlord's life. And he is by no means disappointed in the way of life and traditions characteristic of the representatives of his society.

Who is Oblomov? This is a descendant of a landowner family who is bored with working in an office, and therefore does not get up from his sofa for days. This is generally accepted opinion, but it is not entirely correct. Oblomov could not get used to Petersburg life, because the people around him were completely calculating, heartless personalities. The protagonist of the novel, in contrast to them, is smart, educated and, most importantly, has high spiritual qualities. But why then does he not want to work?

The fact is that Oblomov, like Onegin and Rudin, does not see the point in such work, such a life. These people cannot work only for the sake of material well-being. Each of them requires a high spiritual goal. But it does not exist or it turned out to be untenable. And Onegin, and Rudin, and Oblomov become "superfluous".

Goncharov contrasted the protagonist of his novel with Stolz, a childhood friend. This character initially creates a positive impression on the reader. Stolz is a hardworking, purposeful person. The writer endowed this hero with a German origin for a reason. Goncharov seems to be hinting that only a Russian person can suffer from Oblomovism. And in the last chapters it becomes clear that there is nothing behind Stolz's hard work. This person has no dreams or lofty ideas. He acquires sufficient means of subsistence and stops, not continuing his development.

The influence of the "superfluous person" on others

It is also worth saying a few words about the heroes who surround the "superfluous person". who are discussed in this article are lonely, unhappy. Some of them end their lives too early. In addition, "extra people" bring grief to others. Especially women who had the imprudence to fall in love with them.

Pierre Bezukhov is sometimes considered to be "superfluous people". In the first part of the novel, he is in continuous melancholy, searching for something. He spends a lot of time at parties, buys paintings, reads a lot. Unlike the aforementioned heroes, Bezukhov finds himself, he does not die either physically or morally.

Any phenomenon that has been creatively recreated by the author in an object of art can be called an artistic image. If we mean a literary image, then this phenomenon is reflected in a work of art. A feature of imagery is that it not only reflects reality, but also generalizes it, while simultaneously revealing it in something singular and definite.

The artistic image not only comprehends reality, but also creates a different world, fictional and transformed. Fiction in this case is necessary to enhance

The generalized meaning of the image. One cannot speak of an image in literature, only as an image of a person.

Striking examples here are the image of Andrei Bolkonsky, Raskolnikov, Tatiana Larina and Eugene Onegin. In this case, the artistic image is a single picture of human life, the center of which is the person's personality, and the main elements are all the events and circumstances of his existence. When a hero enters into a relationship with other heroes, a variety of images arises.

The nature of the artistic image, regardless of its purpose and scope, is multifaceted.

And unique. An image can be called a whole inner world, full of many processes and facets, which fell into the focus of cognition. This is the basis of any kind of creativity, the basis of any knowledge and imagination.

The nature of the image is really extensive - it can be rational and sensual, it can be based on a person's personal experiences, on his imagination, and maybe factual. And the main purpose of the image is a reflection of life. Whatever it appears to a person, and whatever it is, a person always perceives its content through a system of images.

This is the main component of any creative process, because the author simultaneously answers many questions of being and creates new, higher and more important for him. Therefore, the image is spoken of as a reflection of life, because it includes the characteristic and typical, general and individual, objective and subjective.

The artistic image is the soil from which any kind of art, including literature, grows. At the same time, it remains a complex and sometimes incomprehensible phenomenon, because the artistic image in literary work can be unfinished, presented to the reader only as a sketch - and at the same time fulfill its purpose and remain integral, as a reflection of a certain phenomenon.

The relationship of the artistic image with development literary process

Literature, as a cultural phenomenon, has existed for a very long time. And it is quite obvious that its main components have not changed yet. This also applies to the artistic image.

But life itself is changing, literature is constantly being transformed and transformed, as are its cross-cutting images. After all, the artistic image carries a reflection of reality, and the system of images for the literary process is constantly changing.

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Introduction

small man ostrovskiy literature

The concept of "little man" was introduced by Belinsky (article 1840, "Woe from Wit").

"Little man" - who is this? This concept refers to the literary hero of the era of realism, who usually occupies a rather low place in the social hierarchy. A "little man" can be anyone from a petty official to a bourgeoisie or even a poor nobleman. The more democratic literature became, the more relevant the "little man" became.

The appeal to the image of the "little man" was very important even at that time. More than that, this image was relevant, because its task is to show life common man with all his problems, experiences, failures, troubles and even small joys. It's hard work to explain, to show life ordinary people... To convey to the reader all the subtleties of his life, all the depths of his soul. It is difficult, because the "little man" is a representative of the whole nation.

This topic is relevant today, because in our time there are people who have such a shallow soul, behind which you cannot hide any deception or a mask. Such people can be called “little people”. And there are just people who are small only in their status, but great showing us their pure soul, unspoiled by wealth and prosperity, who know how to rejoice, love, suffer, experience, dream, just live and be happy. These are small birds in the endless sky, but they are people who are big in spirit.

The history of the image of the "little man" in world literature and its writers

Many writers raise the topic of the “little man.” And each of them does it in his own way. Someone represents him accurately and clearly, and someone hides his inner world, so that readers can think about his worldview and somewhere in depth, compare with your own. Ask yourself a question. Who am I? Am I a small person?

Samson Vyrin from the story “ Stationmaster"A.S. Pushkin. Pushkin, in the early stages of his work, as one of the first classics who described the image of the "little man", tried to show the high spirituality of the characters. Pushkin also examines the eternal relationship between the "little man" and unlimited power - "Arap of Peter the Great", "Poltava".

Pushkin was characterized by a deep penetration into the character of each hero - the "little man".

The evolution of the little man in Pushkin himself is explained by constant social changes and the variability of life itself. Each era has its own "little man".

But, since the beginning of the 20th century, the image of the "little man" in Russian literature has disappeared, giving way to other heroes.

Pushkin's traditions are continued by Gogol in the story "The Overcoat". “Little man” is a person of low social status and origin, without any abilities, not distinguished by strength of character, but at the same time kind, harmless and does no harm to the people around him. Both Pushkin and Gogol, creating the image of a little man, wanted to remind readers that the most ordinary person is also a person worthy of sympathy, attention and support.

The hero of "The Overcoat" Akaky Akakievich is an official of the lowest class - a person who is constantly teased and mocked. He was so accustomed to his humiliated position that even his speech became incomplete - he could not finish the sentences to the end. And this made him humiliated in front of everyone else, even his equal in class. Akaki Akakievich cannot even defend himself in front of people equal to him, despite the fact that he can resist the state (as Evgeny tried to do).

It was in this way that Gogol showed the circumstances that make people "small"!

Another writer who touched upon the topic of the "little man" was F. M. Dostoevsky. He shows the "little man" as a person more deeply than Pushkin and Gogol, but it is Dostoevsky who writes: we all left Gogol's "Overcoat".

His main goal was to convey all the inner movements of his hero. Feel to experience everything with him, and concludes that "little people" are individuals, and their personal feeling is valued much more than people with a position in society. Dostoevsky's “little man” is vulnerable, one of the values ​​of his life is that others can see him as a spiritually rich person. And your own self-awareness plays a huge role.

In the work "Poor people" F.M. Dostoevsky's main character, the scribe Makar Devushkin, is also a minor official. He was also bullied at work, but this is a completely different person by nature. The ego is concerned with the problems of human dignity, he reflects on his position in society. Makar, having read "The Overcoat", was outraged that Gogol portrayed the official as an insignificant person, because he recognized himself in Akaki Akakievich. He differed from Akaki Akakievich in that he was able to deeply love and feel, which means that he was not insignificant. He is a person, albeit low in his position.

Dostoevsky strove for his character to be aware of a person, a personality in himself.

Makar is a person who knows how to empathize, feel, think and reason, and this is according to Dostoevsky best qualities"Little man".

F.M. Dostoevsky became the author of one of the leading themes - the theme of "humiliated and insulted", "poor people." Dostoevsky emphasizes that every person, whoever he is, no matter how low he stands, always has the right to compassion and sympathy.

For a poor person, the basis in life is honor and respect, but for the heroes of the novel Poor People, this is almost impossible to achieve: “And everyone knows, Varenka, that a poor person is worse than rags and cannot get any respect from anyone, what is do not write".

According to Dostoevsky, the “little man” is aware of himself as “small”: “I am used to it, because I get used to everything, because I am a meek person, because I am a small person; but, nevertheless, what is it all for? ... ". The "little man" is the so-called microcosm, and in this world there are many protests, attempts to escape from a difficult situation. This world is rich in positive qualities and bright feelings, but it is subjected to humiliation and oppression. The "little man" has been thrown out onto the street by life itself. According to Dostoevsky, “little people” are small only in their social position, and their inner world is rich and good.

The main feature of Dostoevsky is philanthropy, attention to the nature of a person, his soul, and not to a person's position on the social ladder. It is the soul that is the main quality by which one must judge a person.

F.M. Dostoevsky wished for a better life for the poor, defenseless, "humiliated and insulted", "little man." But at the same time, pure, noble, kind, disinterested, sincere, honest, thinking, sensitive, spiritually elevated and trying to protest against injustice.

A profound transformation in the attitude of man to life in the 15th and 16th centuries. creates an extensive literature in which the inner life of a person, characters, passions, temperaments are described and reflected. Having arisen from the change in the feeling of life and the way of life, this literature now accompanies this process, it intensifies and deepens attention to the inner life of a person, affects the growing differentiation of individuals and raises the joyful consciousness of people of the natural development rooted in human nature. During the XVI century. this literature is increasing, and in the 17th century. its flow is striking in its breadth. It reaches its peak in the discovery of the great truth about the basic moral law of the will, according to which the will is able to achieve mastery over the passions on its own. This truth was gradually asserted, but only in the 17th century. she acquired her full, dogma-free image. In it, humanity has received an eternal, priceless blessing.

At first, this kind of literature developed among the aging peoples of the empire. Deepening into your experiences - a natural inclination of the spirit in old age - simultaneously manifested itself at the end of the era of the Greeks and Romans in Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Plotinus and early Christian writers. An exploration of your inner life, penetrating into all the convolutions of the soul. This was matched by the increased ability of Tacitus to comprehend in history the characters and passions of people, to penetrate the secrets of the souls of monarchs, their statesmen and courtiers. Meditations, monologues, letters, moral essays became the favorite literary form of this time. And subsequently, such meditations, monologues, conversations of the soul with God form a chain that leads from Augustine through St. Bernard and Franciscan piety to mysticism and the 15th century. The process, in which the will from rejection of God and slavish submission to passions comes, as a result of the desire for a long-term common good, for peace in God, after the Neoplatonists and the Church Fathers, especially after Augustine, increasingly affects the young Germanic-Roman peoples. Deepening into the human soul led them, already within the boundaries of church teaching, to a subtle understanding of the difference between the wills of people and the forms of disclosing the will to live. Back in the XI century. we see piety among the Clunyans in strict monotony and, as it were, formality, reminiscent of the image of Christ in the early Christian or Romanesque style. However, soon under the influence of a number of events, a greater vitality, depth and individuality of the expression of the religious and moral spiritual process appears. This is evidenced by the way the pilgrims in the crusades followed life path Christ in holy places; how the minnesingers gave an intimate, deeply inner color to the life of the soul with God; how great philosophers in monastic robes analyzed will, passions and moral and religious process; like Bernard, Francis of Assisi, the religious genius through the warmth of the heart gave life and movement to church discipline. But their natural growth, the development of their culture, and progress in their social relations had the greatest effect on the depth of life and the individual perception of new peoples. And this was manifested primarily in the fact that independence, based on some kind of inner depth, was better understood and more strongly emphasized in the course of the religious and ethical volitional process. With what subtlety Tauler touches in his sermons for listeners of all classes of emotional experiences and how widespread the sophisticated religious and moral knowledge they allow to conclude. By comparison, today's sermons are crude and sketchy.

To the extent that, starting with the Renaissance, the secularization of this incomparable state began, as it were, the secularization of ecclesiastical goods, literature about man acquired its wealth and its true character.

This immediately catches the eye in the work of the creator of the new literature, Francesca Petrarch (born in 1304). His fame, according to the judgment of the Venetian Senate, was the greatest of all that a moral philosopher and poet had among Christians since time immemorial. In him, according to the definition of the Florentines, the spirit of Virgil and the eloquence of Cicero were embodied in a human form. It was not his sonnets, in which, along with the traditional subtleties of love and cold allegories, he portrayed exciting moments of life in a new way and in a peculiar manner, had this magical influence on his contemporaries. It was also not a consequence of the historical and poetic foresight with which he, studying manuscripts, sometimes freed by him from long oblivion, or staying among the ruins of Rome, where “extraordinary people” once acted, knew how to revive the thoughts and life of his ancestors. And least of all, this charm was in the scientific provisions of his moral philosophy, which he compiled from the works of Cicero, Seneca and Augustine. All this would not have brought him world fame. However, they were constituent parts and the manifestations of that which had this mysterious charm. At the age of 32, right after the event in question, he tells a friend how he climbed My Vanta.

The grandeur of the panorama, the view of the Cévennes, the Gulf of Lyon and the Rhone, lifted his soul. After all, he belonged to those few at that time for whom the feeling of nature in the modern sense became a part of their life. The sun was approaching sunset before the gaze of a lonely traveler. He opened the "Confessions" of Augustine, which, while walking, he often took with him, and read: “And people travel to admire the height of the mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the wide flow of rivers, the vastness of the ocean and the orbits of stars - they do not pay attention to themselves , they are not surprised at themselves. " Petrarch reflected on the fact that for the philosophers of antiquity human soul was most worthy of knowledge and surprise. So on this day, Augustine's Socratic scito te ipsum noli foras ire in te ipsum redi in interior homine habitat veritas touched his own attention to the individual, incomparably alive state of his own soul.

It was something special and completely new. During the period of complete secularism of the church, in the immediate vicinity of the corrupt Avignon, the Italian, who loved his ancestors in the great Roman writers, a poet who was ready to abandon all scholastic intricacies for the sake of a moment of full life, wanted to be a truly genuine person, to live his life fully. The feeling of life and its reflection in poetry was full of his youth, thoughts about himself, about a person and the fate of people - his mature years. In science, what was important for him was that which had to do with man. In his sonnets, in the studies of ancient authors, in letters, philosophical treatises, he only appeared in various aspects to his contemporaries. His moral character, not too significant, did not always correspond to the ideal image of the sage, which he wanted to appear; his Laura, along with his other passions, his cult of friendship along with his selfishness, his contempt for the world along with the harassment of parishes at the papal court in Avignon and elsewhere - all of this is somewhat theatrical. However, what he discovered both one and the other, he was ready to admit to the most secret corners of his heart, he appeared with all the natural changes in feelings at different ages - with the fullness of love in his youth, with a thirst for glory in adulthood and with satiety with the world. even suffering from the perception of the world in old age - that was what delighted his contemporaries. The philosophical seclusion in Vaucluse, with which he liked to date his letters, "in the silence of the night" or "at dawn", was true for him and his time. He wrote the book De vita solitaria; it is full of the joy of peace, freedom and leisure to think and write. Most of all, he longed for the wedding with a laurel wreath on the Capitol, it took place in 1341. And yet the mood when he asked himself the question whether it was better to walk through the fields and forests, to be among the peasants who did not know anything about him poetry. In fame, he enjoyed the reflection of his own personality. He considered the fame recognized by his contemporaries uncomfortable, but he bequeathed amazing records about his life and his personality to “his descendants” in the consciousness of glory and intoxication with glory. With the development of individuality, a thirst for fame arose in him, which later began to take on the harshest forms. He wanted his works to have their own special style, he wanted to be the original philosopher of his time.

True, the influence of his Latin works containing this philosophy of life, especially the works of "De remediis utriusque fortunae" and "De contemptu mundi", spread throughout Europe. These are dialogues. The work "De remediis" consists of two conversations. In the first one talks gaudum, spes, and, in the second, dolor and ratio, just as later in the youthful dialogue of Spinoza reason, love, reason and lust talk. The first conversation teaches us to overcome the danger of the gifts of happiness, the second - the innumerable sufferings of life. The work "De contemptu mundi", written at separate intervals between 1347 and 1353, Petrarch calls "her secret", the secret of her life and soul. In some manuscripts it is entitled "De secreto conflictu curarum suarum."

This is a conversation between Francis and Augustine. For from the "Confessions" of Augustine Petrarch always proceeded in his reflections on himself. And at the end of The Mystery, he disappears into the shadow of Augustine.

In his work "De remediis utriusque fortunae" he described the forces of unhappiness and happiness around us - and he finds it harder to endure the second than the first - sometimes too wordy, but with an infinite depth of feeling of suffering, danger and misanthropy of life.

The solution to the problem of the philosophy of life, which he found in Seneca, especially used in the work of De tranquillitate and in moral letters, he could connect with Augustine in a number of basic features. The soul can free itself from slavish submission to external influences and affects through virtue and attain the tranquillitas animi. However, the Stoic teachings were weakened and supplemented by an appeal to divine help. This half-heartedness will be encountered all the time in the 15th and 16th centuries. in the development of consciousness of human moral autonomy. Their goal - peace of mind, cannot be fully achieved even with divine help. For the former confidence in her was lost. This is how Petrarch's pessimism arises. He says about life: "Its beginning is darkness and oblivion, movement, work, all of it is a mistake." And the work "De contemptu mundi" ends with submission to Augustinism with one proviso: "I live a poor man, but rich and brilliant I would be different." Pessimism, which extends to the field of morality - he defines it by name, world sorrow - is his last word. It is an old monastic disease in a new form. The fact that the book describing this suffering was eagerly read throughout Europe shows how widespread moods were at the end of the Middle Ages, which the Franciscan ideal could not eliminate. For man is not born to reflect on origins, individuality, guilt and the future.

With Petrarch in Italy, the number of moral and philosophical treatises in the spirit of Cicero and Seneca grew. Stoic philosophy prevailed. The Grand Chancellor of the Florentine Republic Salutati (died in 1406 after thirty years in this position) wrote moral and philosophical treatises in the same spirit, quoted Cicero and Seneca, as others - church authorities, and the teachings of the Stoics strengthened his innate firmness of character. Under the influence of Salutati, Leonardo Bruni was formed and became his follower. In a small work on morality, Bruni draws, in the spirit of Cicero, a comparison between Epicurean and Stoic teachings and proves - this is also in the spirit of Cicero - the superiority of Stoicism. We can say that the heroic time of Florence found its expression in the dominance of the Stoic teachings: the feelings of people were the same as in the days when Panetius was considered the highest philosophical authority.

Corruption was rampant in Italy. The old virtu is being supplanted by sensibility and calculation. This is reflected in moral treatises. Poggio (born in 1380) grew up in reverence for Petrarch, whom Salutati loved as a son. In his moral treatises (on the volatility of happiness, on human suffering), he wanted to find a middle way between the rigidity of the Stoics and the Epicureans.

The changed philosophy of life of the great scientist Lorenzo Balla (born in 1407) manifests itself even more decisively. His dialogue "De voluptate" ("On pleasure") caused consternation in his time; in it, it is true, the Stoic and the Epicurean, at a high philosophical level, discuss the highest good in the spirit of Cicero. However, at the beginning of the work, it is sharply and directly declared that the highest good of life consists in pleasure, and all further presentation is devoted to proving this. Balla's ultimately rejecting both the Stoic and Epicurean teachings and affirming the Christian supersensible order of things may be due in part to the hesitations inherent in the time, and in part to a tendency toward adaptability. Poets who are not firm in their convictions easily throw off the mask.

Such sensual enjoyment of life is also the main part of the atmosphere in which Machiavelli lived. Another part of it is the political art of that time. In the person of the humanists, as in the person of the sophists of the time of the Greek enlightenment, a new class emerged that was completely devoted to serving literary and scientific interests, which did not prevent them from taking an interest in the parishes dear to their hearts. In the interaction between them and the politicians of Florence and Venice, in the fusion of both types of activity, Machiavelli was formed. During his retirement, he describes in a letter from 1518 his life in a poor country house near Florence. He talks about how he monitors the deforestation of his forests and bargains, setting the price; how he then walks with the poet's book in his pocket, chatting in a road tavern with passers-by and usually spends the whole day playing backgammon with local butchers, bakers and brick-killers; however, they constantly quarrel. “But as evening falls, I head to my workroom. On the threshold, I throw off my peasant clothes, put on a magnificent outfit and go in proper attire to the courts of the great thinkers of antiquity. Kindly received by them, I enjoy food that is only suitable for me, the one for which I was born. I do not hesitate to talk to them, ask them about the reasons for their actions, and they kindly answer me to my questions. " Political genius and experience allowed Machiavelli to combine his knowledge of the Roman world with the state of Italy at that time, and he gained world fame, influenced Marlowe and Shakespeare, Hobbes and Spinoza, as well as practical politicians. Machiavelli had a new outlook on man.

For him, man was a force of nature, living energy. To comprehend the concept of man and society that has developed in Machiavelli, one must, like him, proceed from the vision of his time. The struggle of the pope with the emperor for Italy led to the fact that already in the XIV century. the emperors retained, at best, the supreme power of the suzerain over Italy. The popes could, it is true, prevent the unity of Italy, but they could not establish it. Political power in Italy of the XIV century. belonged to the actual petty rulers, each of whom was armed to the teeth. Many of them were full of irrepressible will to power. They only valued courage and cunning. When the last of the house of Carrara had no more men to defend the walls and gates of the plague-devastated Padua from the Venetians, his servants often heard at night how he cried out to the devil, begging him to be killed. In the XV century. these small local rulers were destroyed or passed over as condottieri to the service of large ones, who rounded up their possessions. In the second half of the 15th century. The Papal States, Venice, Milan and Naples form a system of equilibrium. A decrease in military power, a predominance of political calculation due to the balance of these "large states" and the assistance of small ones, horrendous corruption characterize the time in which Machiavelli lived (he was born in 1469). The catastrophe of the French invasion of 1494 came, Machiavelli survived him while still young, he also survived the power of the Aragonese Fernando in Naples (1458-1494), whose greatest pleasure, besides hunting, was to know that his opponents were staying close to him alive in well-guarded prisons or dead and embalmed in their usual clothes. Machiavelli also survived the reign of his son, "the most cruel, wicked and vicious man who ever existed." In 1496, this ruler in a senseless flight left his land and his son in the power of the French. In Milan, Machiavelli saw the reign of the great politician Lodovico Moro, who boasted that he held war in one hand, in the other world; at audiences, he alienated his beloved subjects from himself, and they had to speak very loudly in order to be heard by them; in his glittering court, boundless immorality reigned. In Rome, Machiavelli saw how the terrible Sixtus IV, using the money received from the sale of spiritual favors and dignities, suppressed all the rulers of Romagna and the robber bands under their protection. Then he saw how Innocent VIII again flooded the papal region with robbers, since for a certain fee it was possible to receive forgiveness for robbery and murder, and the pope and his son shared the money. And finally, he survived the terrible reign of Alexander VI and his son Cesare Borgia, who, with his diabolical genius, ruled over his father and worn about the secularization of the Papal region after his death.

Machiavelli was, like many of his humanist contemporaries, a complete pagan. In the origin of our religion, he did not see anything supernatural and did not believe that with the help of the church in Italy a moral ordering of life, the moral development of a person could be achieved. In the Roman curia, with which he, as an ambassador, became well acquainted, he saw not only the cause of Italy's political misfortune, but also the source of moral corruption. If the curia could be sent to Switzerland, the most religious and warlike country, this experiment would show that papal corruption and intrigue are incapable of resisting either piety or military force. With cold-blooded gaiety, Machiavelli expressed his view of the church in the image of Fra Timoteo in his genius comedy Mandragora. Fra Timoteo cleans images of saints in her church, reads the lives of the church fathers, sentimentally talks about the decline of piety, and at the same time waits with curiosity to see if the violation of marital fidelity prepared with his help will occur, blessing all those involved in this action. But he did not expect anything from the cleansing of the church. He was a conscientious opponent of the Christian religion. It makes us appreciate worldly glory less and therefore makes us softer and softer. The ancients, however, considered this glory to be the highest blessing and were therefore bolder in their actions and sacrifices. Ancient religion in general, she promised bliss only to those who have found brilliance in worldly life, military leaders and rulers of states. Our religion celebrates humble, contemplative, not acting people. The highest good she proclaimed is the recognition of the baseness of everything earthly and contempt for it, while the ancient religion considered the great good of the spirit, physical strength and everything that can make people courageous. Our religion requires strength in order to suffer, not in order to perform a bold deed. Thus, the world became the prey of villains who confidently dominate it, for people, striving to get to heaven, tend to endure their atrocities rather than avenge them. Proceeding from this acute historical assessment of Christianity, we easily come to his view of religion in general. He thinks like the Roman of the time of the Scipios. He defines the meaning of religion by its influence on the state and morals, on the strength of oaths and decency, which the state needs. He notes that a disunited Germany has a religious support. Even more obvious to him is the power of the Roman religion, combined with the state, in which he, following Polybius, sees the main reason for the greatness of the Roman state. But religion was for him only the invention of people. Numa invented the Roman religion in order to rely on its authority for his new institutions. And here we find agreement with Polybius.

He expected moral improvement only from the state. He connects the origin of not good, but moral principles directly or through religion with education carried out by the state, which needs the strength of the oath, conscientiousness and devotion. Even if he recognizes the importance of religion at other stages of development or for other peoples, for the Italians of his days and the future, he, admitting that the justification of a new religiosity by the interests of the state is not excluded, expects the restoration of Italy's greatness only from the monarchy.

From all this, for Machiavelli, a picture or concept of human nature and society is formed, moreover, it was already contained in all this as its basis. Machiavelli was not a taxonomist, but his thinking contains the unity of genius.

His main idea is the uniformity of human nature. We cannot change and must follow what our nature is leaning towards. This is the basis of the possibility of political science, the prediction of the future and the use of history. “Everything in the world has always happened evenly, there was as much good as bad, only in different times it was distributed among countries in different ways. " Valor passes from Assyria to Media and Persia, from there to Rome, and then is distributed among the Saracens, Turks, and Germans. The idea of ​​evolution or the development of humanity is completely alien to Machiavelli. He refers to those who, on the basis of the thesis of the homogeneity of people at all times, prepared in the 16th century the deduction of a system of cultural forms from human nature. And for him the possibility of state administration and political science was based on this idea. His tendency towards generalization contributed to the fact that, due to this homogeneity, he constructed inductions on the basis of historical data of all times, and the first positions that he held were given to him by Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, depending on Polybius Libya and other Roman authors. Machiavelli's favorite dictum was: "This should be taken as a general rule."

Only by taking all this into account can one comprehend the ideas of Machiavelli about man and society. He is the first representative of the Romanesque peoples who defended the imperial idea of ​​the Roman world under the new conditions. And he is much greater than his pupil Hobbes, who is now so overvalued, because he, a contemporary of Borge, an Italian by blood, looking at Rome, represented on the soil of Italy, where the will to rule in the Roman republic, in the empire, in the papacy always reigned. this idea of ​​domination in its original strength.

On the soil of humanism in Italy in this era, everything grew and bloomed with the magnificent color of a new spring. Machiavelli's contemporaries were Leonardo (born 1452) and Michelangelo (born 1475). Rafael Santi (born in 1483) lived at the same time, he died before him; his other contemporary and rival in the creation of comedies was Ariosto (born 1474), and the great historian Guicciardini (born 1482) was his contemporary. In 1492 Columbus sailed from Europe. The Italian Renaissance found ways to penetrate all the cultural countries of Europe. The next humanist after Petrarch, who gained infinite fame, was the Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus (born in 1466). Around 1520, early German and Dutch humanism reached their zenith. In the second half of the XVI century. France became the head of the humanist movement. Here the Renaissance takes the form of the formation of a large aristocratic society in the most powerful monarchy. In France, for the first time, it embraced the living forces of society, all the realities of a legal, political and aesthetic nature. Under these conditions, a deep understanding of Roman law arises, an understanding of history and poetics that surpasses the Italians, leading national poetry. The historical consciousness of the most powerful Romanesque nation permeates its famous statesmen, lawyers and clergymen, the understanding of their ancestors in Rome. There is no longer any trace of the roomy atmosphere of German humanism. A great spiritual movement emanated from Francis I, his confessor Peter of Castellan and adviser Büde, as a result of which, in 1520, along with the old university, the College de France was created, which carried out the ideas of the modern era. During further development Peter Ramus, Tournebus, Lambinus, Muretus appear, both Scaliger, Cuiyatius and Donellus, historical works de Tu; even the theologies of Calvin and Beza were humanistically tinged. These are the circumstances in which the new writer expressed his opinion about the person, which attracted the attention of the whole world.

Montaigne writes in a light, engaging storytelling manner; in his randomly arranged works, written in beautiful naive language, jokes and serious reflections, stories about himself, anecdotes, quotes from ancient authors, deep original insights follow each other. Each phrase is colored with joy. In one case, he refuses to consider himself a philosopher, but in a number of other places his naive consciousness of the importance of his non-methodical, but also not constrained by any metaphysical dogma, methods of induction in the analysis of man is reflected.

The humanist movement in Italy spanned cities, courtyards, and the upper classes. The precondition for its unhindered development was the nature of the papacy under Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo X. And the Counter-Reformation proved that it did not penetrate the depth and breadth of the nation. Slowly, carefully, embracing the peoples in their last depths, a reformation movement arose among the Germanic peoples in the north of Europe; by freeing them from the Roman priesthood, it created the external conditions for an independent scientific movement; the transfer of the legal basis of dogmas to religious morality made possible the development of critical theology and, in the course of its development, turned the moral and religious autonomy of the individual into the basis of spiritual life.

In Italy, the Christian ascetic ideal of life gave way to a naturally developing, perfect personality according to its inclinations. Here, in the 15th century, the concept of uomo universale arose. It appears in the autobiography of Leon Battista Alberti, in the vivid personality traits of Leonardo da Vinci. These people are completely dependent on themselves and strive to give free completeness to the natural essence. An ideal close to this is portrayed by Rabelais in his description of the monastic partnership in Gargantua.

In England, Thomas More, in his ideal picture of society, in Utopia (1516), also pointed out that the basic tenets of religion, immortality and faith in God, should be based on reason and serve as conditions for happiness and life together people: the laws of nature are the essence and laws. The one who gives faith in Christ; true religiosity does not consist in following the requirements of religion, but in the conscientious performance of daily duties.

And in Germany, where humanism exerts its influence, in the life of significant strong personalities enters the increased consciousness of their selfhood, developed everywhere under the influence of the moral greatness of the ancients. Already in the middle of the 15th century, Gregory Heimburgsky, “the most learned and eloquent of the Germans,” as his teacher Aeneas Sylvius said, felt in his influential activities a closeness to ancient authors due to their inherent sense of life and life ideal. They intensified his immediate joy in activities in the world. He opposed the dominance of the Roman Church to the independence of man in faith.

Summing up, it should be noted: first, under the onslaught of new ideas, the soil of the old Empire shudders to the north to the Netherlands, to the south to Switzerland. Of course, just as the ideas of the French Enlightenment were not the cause of the Revolution, the preaching and work of Luther and Zwingli did not lead to the Peasant War and the Anabaptist uprisings. In both cases, the revolutionary forces were awakened by intolerable oppression. In both cases, however, new ideas gave the movement a higher right and paved the way for it. In the first case, the struggle for spiritual independence prevailed, which the laity waged with the clergy. In the second - the struggle for political freedom, which the people waged with the princes and the nobility. In both cases, countless violations of existing law have been committed with reference to these leading ideas. The Reformation cannot be considered either simply responsible or simply justified for the acts of violence that were committed on its behalf, and for the clashes that took place in its ranks. In addition, in these revolutionary events, not only the bad properties of human nature acted, which always manifest themselves where the usual rules of doing business are violated, where civil life is interrupted by extraordinary circumstances, people who have been expelled wander from city to city, lose their right to exist, as here are fugitive monks and priests who have lost their parishes. In the very principles of the new gospel, sufficient grounds were laid for the disturbance of order. These principles admitted to completely different interpretations. In Augsburg they were understood differently than in Basel, in Zurich differently than in Strasbourg. And everywhere there was a struggle for the innumerable shades of these principles, primarily in the imperial cities. They gave rise to boundless expectations, but they did not contain, as we have seen, a sufficient firm principle to create within firm boundaries the expected transformation of society.