Goncharov's personality; features of the worldview and creativity. Artistic features of the novel "Oblomov" by I. A. Goncharov Basic principles of writing and A. Goncharov

Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov "(1812 - 1891)" already during his lifetime acquired a solid reputation as one of the brightest and most significant representatives of Russian realistic literature. His name was invariably called alongside the names of the leading figures of the literature of the second half of the 19th century, the masters who created the classic Russian novels - I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky.

Goncharov's literary heritage is not extensive. For 45 years of creativity, he published three novels, a book of travel essays "Frigate" Pallas "", several moral stories, critical articles and memoirs... But the writer made a significant contribution to the spiritual life of Russia. Each of his novels attracted the attention of readers, sparked heated discussions and disputes, pointed out the most important problems and phenomena of our time.

Interest in the work of Goncharov, a lively perception of his works, passing from generation to generation of Russian readers, have not dried up these days. Goncharov is one of the most popular and widely read writers of the 19th century.

The beginning of Goncharov's artistic work is associated with his rapprochement with the circle that gathered in the house of N.A. Maikov, famous in the 30s - 40s. artist. Goncharov was the teacher of Maikov's sons. The Maikovs' circle was attended by the poet V. G. Benediktov and the writer I. I. Panaev, the publicist A. P. Zablotsky-Desyatovsky, the co-editor of the Library for Reading V. A. Solonitsyn and the critic S. S. Dudyshkin.

Maikov's sons early declared their literary talents, and in the 40s. Apolaon and Valerian were already the center of the Maykovs' salon. At this time, their house was visited by Grigorovich, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, Ya. P. Polonsky.

Goncharov joined the Maikovs' circle at the end of the 30s. with their own, independently formed literary interests. Having survived a period of passion for romanticism in the early 1930s, when he was a student at Moscow University, Goncharov in the second half of this decade was already very critical of the romantic worldview and literary style. He strove for a strict and consistent assimilation and comprehension of the best examples of Russian and Western literature of the past, translated the prose of Goethe, Schiller, was fond of Kelmann - a researcher and interpreter of ancient art. However, the highest model, the subject of the most careful study for him, was the work of Pushkin. These tastes of Goncharov influenced the sons of Maikov, and through them, the direction of the circle as a whole.

In the stories of Goncharov, placed in the handwritten almanacs of the Maikov circle, - “ Dashing to hurt » ( almanac "Snowdrop" - 1838) and " Lucky mistake » ("Moonlit Nights" - 1839) - there is a conscious desire to follow the traditions of Pushkin's prose. Clear characteristics of the characters, subtle author's irony, accuracy and transparency of the phrase in early works Goncharova are especially noticeable against the background of the prose of the 1930s, which was strongly influenced by A. Marlinsky's ultra-romanticism.

In these works of Goncharov, one can note the impact "Belkin's Tales" by Pushkin... At the same time, in them, as well as in a somewhat later written essay “ Ivan Savich Podzhabrin » -(1842 ) Goncharov assimilates and reinterprets Gogol's experience... A free appeal to the reader, a direct, as if reproducing oral speech, narration, an abundance of lyrical and humorous digressions - in all these features of Goncharov's stories and sketches, the influence of Gogol is reflected ... Goncharov did not hide what literary samples possessed his imagination at that time: he willingly quoted Pushkin and Gogol, prefaced the story "Happy Error" with epigraphs from the works of Griboyedov and Gogol.

A realist writer, Goncharov believed that an artist should be interested in stable forms in life, that the business of a true writer is to create stable types that are composed "of long and many repetitions or moods of phenomena and persons." These principles determined the basis of the Oblomov novel.

Dobrolyubov gave precise characterization Goncharov the artist: "objective talent". In the article "What is Oblomovism?" he noticed three characteristic features of Goncharov's writing style. First of all, this is the absence of didactism: Goncharov does not draw any ready-made conclusions on his behalf, he depicts life as he sees it, and does not indulge in abstract philosophy and moral teaching. The second feature of Goncharov, according to Dobrolyubov, lies in the ability to create a complete image of an object. The writer is not carried away by any one side of it, forgetting about the rest. He "turns the object from all sides, waits for the completion of all the moments of the phenomenon." Finally, Dobrolyubov sees the originality of the writer in a calm, unhurried narration, striving for the greatest possible objectivity.

The writer's artistic talent is also distinguished by depiction, plasticity and detailed descriptions. The picturesqueness of the image allows comparison with the Flemish painting or the everyday sketches of the Russian artist P.A. Fedotov. Such are, for example, in "Oblomov" the descriptions of life on the Vyborg side, in Oblomovka, or the St. Petersburg day of Ilya Ilyich.

In this case, artistic details begin to play a special role. They not only help to create bright, colorful memorable pictures, but also acquire the character of a symbol. Such symbols are Oblomov's shoes and robe, the sofa from which Olga lifts him and to which he returns again, completing his "love poem". But, portraying this "poem", Goncharov uses completely different details. Instead of mundane, everyday objects, poetic details appear: against the background of the poetic image of a lilac bush, the relationship between Oblomov and Olga develops. Their beauty and spirituality is underlined by the beauty of the sounding of the casta diva aria from V. Bellini's opera Norma, which is performed by Olga, endowed with singing talent.

The writer himself emphasized musical beginning in their works. He argued that in "Oblomov" the very feeling of love, in its recessions, rises, unison and counterpoints, develops according to the laws of music, the relations of the heroes are not so much portrayed as played out by the "music of the nerve."

Goncharov also has a special humor, designed not to execute, but, as the writer said, to soften and improve a person, exposing him to "an impolite mirror of his stupidity, ugliness, passions, with all the consequences" so that "knowledge of how to beware of ". In Oblomov, Goncharov's humor manifests itself both in the image of Zakhar's servant, and in the description of Oblomov's occupations, the life of the Vyborg side, and often concerns the image of the main characters. Material from the site

But the most important quality of the work for Goncharov is the special novel poetry. As Belinsky noted, "poetry ... in Mr. Goncharov's talent is the first and only agent." The author of "Oblomov" himself called poetry "the juice of a novel" and noted that "romances ... without poetry are not works of art", and their authors are "not artists", but just more or less gifted everyday writers. In Oblomov, the most important of the “poetic” principles is “graceful love” itself. Poetry is created by a special atmosphere of spring, a description of the park, lilac branches, alternating pictures of sultry summer and autumn rains, and then snow falling asleep at home and streets, which accompany Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya's “love poem”. We can say that poetry "permeates" the entire novel structure of "Oblomov", is its ideological and stylistic core.

This special novel poetry embodies the universal human origin, introduces the work into the circle of eternal themes and images. So in the character of the protagonist of Oblomov's novel, the features of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Cervantes' Don Quixote vary. All this not only gives the novel an amazing unity and integrity, but also determines its enduring, timeless character.

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On this page material on topics:

• three signs of Goncharov's writing style
• the originality of the talent of I.A. goncharov dobrolyubov
• that the type is composed of long repetitions

In terms of his character, Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov is far from similar to the people who were born by the energetic and active 60s of the 19th century. In his biography, there is much that is unusual for this era, in the conditions of the 60s it is a complete paradox. Goncharov did not seem to be touched by the struggle of the parties, did not touch on various currents of stormy social life. He was born on June 6 (18), 1812 in Simbirsk, into a merchant family. After graduating from the Moscow Commercial School, and then the verbal department of the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow University, he soon decided on the bureaucratic service in St. Petersburg and served honestly and impartially for virtually his entire life. A slow and phlegmatic man, Goncharov did not soon acquire literary fame. His first novel " An ordinary story"saw the light when the author was already 35 years old. Goncharov the artist had an unusual gift for that time - calmness and poise. This distinguishes him from the writers of the middle and the second half of the XIX centuries, possessed (* 18) by spiritual impulses, captured by social passions. Dostoevsky is carried away by human suffering and the search for world harmony, Tolstoy - by the thirst for truth and the creation of a new doctrine, Turgenev is intoxicated by the beautiful moments of fast-flowing life. Tension, concentration, impulsiveness are typical properties of the writer's gifts of the second half of the 19th century. And for Goncharov, in the foreground is sobriety, poise, simplicity.

Only once did Goncharov surprise his contemporaries. In 1852, a rumor spread throughout St. Petersburg that this de-Lazy man - an ironic nickname given to him by his friends - was going on a voyage around the world. Nobody believed it, but soon the rumor was confirmed. Goncharov really became a participant travel around the world on the sailing military frigate "Pallada" as the secretary of the head of the expedition, Vice-Admiral E. V. Putyatin. But even during the trip, he retained the habits of a couch potato.

In the Indian Ocean, near the cape Good Hope, the frigate got into a storm: "The storm was classic, in all its form. During the evening, they came after me twice from above, to call to see it. They told how, on the one hand, the moon escaping from the clouds illuminates the sea and the ship, and on the other - lightning plays with an intolerable brilliance. They thought that I would describe this picture. But as there were three or four candidates for my deceased and dry place for a long time, I wanted to stay here until nightfall, but I failed ...

I looked for about five minutes at the lightning, at the darkness and at the waves that were all trying to climb over the side of the ship.

What's the picture? the captain asked me, expecting enthusiasm and praise.

Disgrace, disorder! - I answered, leaving all wet in the cabin to change shoes and linen. "

"And why is it, this wild grand? The sea, for example? God be with him! It only brings sadness to a person: looking at him, you want to cry. The heart is embarrassed by timidity in front of the immense veil of waters ... Mountains and chasms are also not created for amusement. They are formidable and terrible ... they too vividly remind us of our mortal composition and keep in fear and longing for life ... "

Goncharov dear to his heart a plain, blessed by him on eternal life Oblomovka. "The sky there, it seems, on the contrary, is pressing closer to the ground, but not in order to throw arrows stronger than arrows, but only to hug it tighter, with love: it spreads so low overhead, (* 19) like a parent's reliable roof, to save, it seems, the chosen corner from all adversity. " In Goncharov's mistrust of rapid changes and impetuous impulses, a definite literary position asserted itself. Goncharov was not without serious suspicion about the breakdown of all the old foundations of patriarchal Russia, which began in the 1950s and 1960s. In the clash of the patriarchal order with the emerging bourgeois, Goncharov saw not only historical progress, but also the loss of many eternal values. A keen sense of moral losses that lay in wait for mankind on the paths of "machine" civilization, forced him to look with love at the past that Russia was losing. Goncharov did not accept much in this past: stagnation and stagnation, fear of change, lethargy and inaction. But at the same time, old Russia attracted him with the warmth and cordiality of relations between people, respect for national traditions, harmony of mind and heart, feelings and will, spiritual union of man with nature. Is it all doomed to be scrapped? And is it not possible to find a more harmonious path of progress, free from selfishness and self-righteousness, from rationalism and prudence? How to make sure that the new in its development does not deny the old from the start, but organically continues and develops that valuable and good that the old carried in itself? These questions worried Goncharov throughout his life and determined the essence of his artistic talent.

The artist should be interested in sustainable forms in life, not subject to the whims of capricious public winds. The business of a true writer is the creation of stable types, which are composed "of long and many repetitions or layers of phenomena and persons." These layers "become more frequent in the course of time and, finally, set, freeze and become familiar to the observer." Isn't this the secret of the seemingly mysterious slowness of Goncharov the artist? In his entire life, he wrote only three novels, in which he developed and deepened the same conflict between the two ways of Russian life, patriarchal and bourgeois, between the heroes raised by these two ways. Moreover, work on each of the novels took Goncharov at least ten years. He published "An Ordinary History" in 1847, the novel "Oblomov" in 1859, and "The Break" in 1869.

True to his ideal, he is forced to gaze long and intently at life, at its current, rapidly changing forms; I am forced to write up mountains of paper, prepare a mass (* 20) of drafts, before in the changeable stream of Russian life something stable, familiar and repetitive is not revealed to him. "Creativity," asserted Goncharov, "can only appear when life is established; it does not get along with the new, emerging life," because the phenomena that have just arisen are vague and unstable. "They are not yet types, but young months, of which it is not known what will happen, what they will transform into and in what features they will freeze for a more or less long time, so that the artist can treat them as definite and clear, therefore, accessible to creativity images ".

Already Belinsky, in response to the novel "An Ordinary History", noted that in Goncharov's talent the main role plays "the elegance and subtlety of the brush", "fidelity of the drawing", the predominance of the artistic image over the direct author's thought and judgment. But Dobrolyubov gave a classic description of the peculiarities of Goncharov's talent in his article "What is Oblomovism?" He noticed three characteristic features of Goncharov's writing style. There are writers who take the trouble of explaining with the reader themselves and teach and guide throughout the story. Goncharov, on the contrary, trusts the reader and does not give any ready-made conclusions from himself: he depicts life as he sees it as an artist, and does not indulge in abstract philosophy and moral teaching. The second feature of Goncharov is the ability to create a complete image of the subject. The writer is not carried away by any one side of it, forgetting about the rest. He "turns the object from all sides, waits for the completion of all the moments of the phenomenon."

Finally, Dobrolyubov sees the originality of Goncharov as a writer in a calm, unhurried narration, striving for the greatest possible objectivity, for the completeness of a direct depiction of life. These three features taken together allow Dobrolyubov to call Goncharov's talent an objective talent.

Novel "An Ordinary Story"

Goncharov's first novel "An Ordinary History" was published on the pages of the Sovremennik magazine in the March and April issues of 1847. In the center of the novel is a clash of two characters, two philosophies of life, nurtured on the basis of two social structures: the patriarchal, rural (Alexander Aduev) and the bourgeois-business, capital (his uncle Peter Aduev). Alexander Aduyev is a young man who has just graduated from university, full of exalted hopes for eternal love, for poetic success (like most young men, he writes poetry), for the glory of an outstanding public figure... These hopes are calling him from the patriarchal estate of Grachi to Petersburg. Leaving the village, he vows eternal loyalty to his neighbor's girlfriend Sophia, promises friendship to the grave to his university friend Pospelov.

Romantic dreaminess of Alexander Aduev is akin to the hero of Alexander Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" to Vladimir Lensky. But the romanticism of Alexander, unlike Lensky, was not exported from Germany, but grown here, in Russia. Much is nourished by this romanticism. First, the university science in Moscow is far from life. Secondly, youth with its wide horizons calling into the distance, with its emotional impatience and maximalism. Finally, this dreaminess is associated with the Russian province, with the old Russian patriarchal way of life. In Alexander, much comes from the naive gullibility inherent in the provincial. He is ready to see a friend in everyone he meets, he is used to meeting people's eyes, radiating human warmth and sympathy. These dreams of a naive provincial are being severely tested by metropolitan, Petersburg life.

"He went out into the street - a bustle, everyone is running somewhere, busy only with themselves, barely glancing at the passers-by, and then perhaps in order not to bump into each other. He remembered his provincial town, where every meeting, with whom whatever, for some reason it’s interesting ... Whoever you meet - bow and a few words, and with whom you don’t bow, you know who he is, where and why he is going ... , as if all the enemies are among themselves ... He looked at the houses - and it became even more boring for him: these monotonous stone masses, which, like colossal tombs, in a continuous mass stretched one after another, made him sad. "

The provincial believes in good kindred feelings. He thinks that his relatives in the capital will welcome him with open arms, as is customary in a village manor house. They will not know how to receive it, where to plant it, how to treat it. And he "will kiss the owner and the mistress, you will begin to tell them, as if you have known each other for twenty years: everyone will drink some liqueurs, maybe they will sing a song in unison." But even here a lesson awaits the young provincial romantic. "Where! They barely look at him, frown, apologize for their studies; if there is something to do, they appoint such an hour when they don't have lunch or dinner ... The owner backs away from the hugs, looks at the guest in a strange way."

This is how the St. Petersburg business uncle Pyotr Aduev meets the enthusiastic Alexander. At first glance, he compares favorably with his nephew in the absence of immoderate enthusiasm, the ability to soberly and efficiently look at things. But gradually the reader begins to notice in this sobriety the dryness and prudence, the business-like egoism of a wingless man. With some unpleasant, demonic pleasure, Pyotr Aduev "sobering up" the young man. He is ruthless to the young soul, to her beautiful impulses. He uses Alexander's poems for pasting the walls in the office, a talisman with a lock of her hair presented by his beloved Sophia - "a material sign of immaterial relations" - cleverly throws it through the window, instead of poetry he offers a translation of agronomic articles about manure, instead of serious state activity he defines his nephew as an official engaged in correspondence business papers. Under the influence of his uncle, under the influence of the sobering impressions of business, bureaucratic Petersburg, Alexander's romantic illusions are destroyed. Hopes for eternal love are dying. If in the novel with Nadya the hero is still a romantic lover, then in the story with Julia he is already a bored lover, and with Lisa he is simply a seducer. The ideals of eternal friendship are fading. Dreams of the glory of a poet and statesman are shattered: "He still dreamed about projects and racked his brains over what state issue he would be asked to solve, meanwhile he stood and watched." Like my uncle's plant! - he decided at last. - How can one master take a piece of mass, throw it into the car, turn it once, two, three, - you see, a cone, an oval or a semicircle will come out; then he passes it on to another, he dries on fire, the third gilds, the fourth paints, and a cup, or a vase, or a saucer will come out. And then: an outsider will come, submit, bent over, with a pitiful smile, the paper - the master will take it, barely touch it with a pen and give it to another, he will throw it into a mass of thousands of other papers ... And every day, every hour, and today and tomorrow, and for a whole century, the bureaucratic machine works harmoniously, continuously, without rest, as if there are no people - only wheels and springs ... "

Belinsky, in his article "A Look at Russian Literature of 1847," highly appreciating the artistic merits of Goncharov, saw the main pathos of the novel in the debunking of the beautiful-hearted romantic. However, the meaning of the conflict between the nephew and the uncle is deeper. The source of Alexander's misfortunes is not only in his abstract, dreamy life, flying over the top of prose (* 23). The hero's disappointments are no less, if not to a greater extent guilty is the sober, soulless practicality of the life of the capital, which a young and ardent youth faces. In Alexander's romanticism, along with bookish illusions and provincial narrow-mindedness, there is another side: any youth is romantic. His maximalism, his belief in the limitless possibilities of man is also a sign of youth, unchanged in all eras and all times.

Petr Aduev cannot be reproached for dreaminess, in isolation from life, but his character is subjected to no less severe judgment in the novel. This judgment is pronounced through the lips of Peter Aduev's wife, Elizabeth Alexandrovna. She speaks of "unchanging friendship", "eternal love", "sincere outpourings" - about those values ​​that Peter is deprived of and about which Alexander loved to talk. But now these words do not sound ironic. The guilt and misfortune of the uncle is in his disregard for what is most important in life - for spiritual impulses, for integral and harmonious relations between people. And Alexander's trouble is not that he believed in the truth of the lofty goals of life, but that he had lost this faith.

In the epilogue of the novel, the characters are reversed. Pyotr Aduyev realizes the flaw in his life at the moment when Alexander, throwing away all romantic impulses, takes the business and wingless uncle's path. Where is the truth? Probably in the middle: dreaminess, divorced from life, is naive, but business-like, calculating pragmatism is also terrible. Bourgeois prose is deprived of poetry, there is no place in it for high spiritual impulses, there is no place for such values ​​of life as love, friendship, devotion, faith in higher moral motives. Meanwhile, in the true prose of life, as Goncharov understands it, the seeds of high poetry are hidden.

Alexander Aduev has a companion in the novel, a servant Yevsey. What is given to one is not given to another. Alexander is beautifully spiritual, Yevsey is prosaically simple. But their connection in the novel is not limited to the contrast of high poetry and despicable prose. It also reveals something else: the comicism of high poetry that is divorced from life and the hidden poetry of everyday prose. Already at the beginning of the novel, when Alexander swears of "eternal love" to Sophia before leaving for St. Petersburg, his servant Yevsey says goodbye to his beloved, housekeeper Agrafena. "Will someone sit in my place?" - he said, all with a sigh. "Goblin!" - abruptly from - (* 24) she said. "God forbid! If only not Proshka. And someone will play fools with you?" - "Well, at least Proshka, so what's the trouble?" she said angrily. Yevsey got up ... “Mother, Agrafena Ivanovna! blue-gunpowder in the eye! If not for the lordly will, so ... eh! .. "

Many years pass. Bald and disappointed, Alexander, who has lost his romantic hopes in St. Petersburg, returns to the Grachi estate with his servant Yevsey. "Yevsey, girded with a belt, covered in dust, greeted the courtiers; she surrounded him around him. He gave Petersburg gifts: to whom a silver ring, to whom a birch snuffbox. Seeing Agrafena, he stopped as if petrified, and looked at her in silence, with stupid delight She looked at him from the side, from under her brows, but immediately involuntarily changed herself: she laughed with joy, then started to cry, but suddenly turned away and frowned. - she said, - what a fool: and does not greet! "

A stable, unchanging affection exists for the servant of Yevsey and the housekeeper of Agrafena. "Eternal love" in a rough, folk version is already there. Here is given an organic synthesis of poetry and prose of life, lost by the world of masters, in which prose and poetry diverged and became hostile to each other. Exactly folk theme the novel carries with it the promise of the possibility of their synthesis in the future.

The cycle of essays "Frigate" Pallas "

The result of Goncharov's voyage around the world was the book of essays "The Frigate" Pallas ", in which the clash of the bourgeois and patriarchal world order received further, deepening comprehension. The path of the writer lay through England to its numerous colonies in the Pacific Ocean. From a mature, industrialized modern civilization to a naive the enthusiastic patriarchal youth of mankind with its belief in miracles, with its hopes and fabulous dreams.In the book of essays by Goncharov, the idea of ​​the Russian poet E.A. Boratynsky, artistically embodied in the 1835 poem "The Last Poet", was documented:

The century walks along its iron path,
In the hearts of self-interest, and a common dream
Hour by hour vital and useful
Busy more clearly, shamelessly.
Disappeared in the light of enlightenment
Poetry, childish dreams
And generations are not worried about her,
Devoted to industrial concerns.

The age of maturity of modern bourgeois England is the age of efficiency and smart practicality, the economic development of the substance of the earth. Love relationship to nature was replaced by its merciless conquest, the triumph of factories, plants, machines, smoke and steam. Everything wonderful and mysterious was replaced by the pleasant and useful. The whole day of the Englishman is calculated and scheduled: not a single free minute, not a single extra movement - benefits, benefits and savings in everything.

Life is so programmed that it acts like a machine. "There is no vain screaming, no unnecessary movement, and even little is heard about singing, about jumping, about pranks and between children. It seems that everything is calculated, weighed and evaluated, as if they also take a duty from the voice and facial expressions, like from windows , with wheel tires. " Even an involuntary impulse of the heart - pity, generosity, sympathy - the British try to regulate and control. "It seems that honesty, justice, compassion are mined like coal, so in the statistical tables it is possible, next to the total of steel things, paper fabrics, to show that such and such a law, for that province or colony, has obtained so much justice , or for such a matter added to the public mass of material for the development of silence, softening morals, etc. These virtues are applied where they are needed, and turn like wheels, therefore they are devoid of warmth and charm. "

When Goncharov willingly parted with England - "this world market and a picture of bustle and movement, with the flavor of smoke, coal, steam and soot", in his imagination, in contrast to the mechanical life of an Englishman, the image of a Russian landowner arises. He sees how far in Russia, "in a spacious room on three featherbeds," a man is sleeping, with his head covered from annoying flies. He was woken up more than once by a servant sent from mistress Parashka, a servant in boots with nails entered and exited three times, shaking the floorboards. The sun burned first at the crown of his head, and then at his temple. Finally, under the windows there was no ringing of a mechanical alarm clock, but the loud voice of a village rooster - and the master woke up. The search for Yegorka's servant began: the boot disappeared somewhere and the trousers were lost. (* 26) It turned out that Yegorka was fishing - they sent for him. Yegorka returned with a whole basket of crucians, two hundred crayfish and a reed pipe for the little barchon. He found a boot in the corner, and his trousers hung on the wood, where Yegorka had left them in a hurry, summoned by his comrades to fish. The master slowly drank tea, had breakfast and began to study the calendar in order to find out what saint it is today, whether there are birthday people among the neighbors who should be congratulated. Unhurried, unhurried, completely free, nothing but personal desires, not regulated life! This is how a parallel appears between a stranger and our own, and Goncharov notes: "We have so deeply rooted in our home that, wherever and for how long I go, I will carry the soil of my native Oblomovka on my feet everywhere, and no oceans will wash it away!" The customs of the East speak much more to the heart of the Russian writer. He perceives Asia as a thousand miles outstretched Oblomovka. Especially striking his imagination is the Lyceum Islands: this is an idyll thrown among the endless waters of the Pacific Ocean. Virtuous people live here, eating only vegetables, living patriarchal, "they come out in a crowd to meet travelers, take hands, lead them to their houses and bow down before them the surplus of their fields and gardens ... What is this, where are we? Among the ancient shepherd peoples , in the golden age? " This is a surviving scrap the ancient world as the Bible and Homer portrayed him. And the people here are beautiful, full of dignity and nobility, with developed concepts about religion, about human duties, about virtue. They live as they did two thousand years ago - without change: simple, uncomplicated, primitive. And although such an idyll cannot but bore a person of civilization, for some reason a longing appears in the heart after communicating with her. The dream of the promised land is awakening, the reproach of modern civilization arises: it seems that people can live differently, holy and sinless. Has the modern European and American world with its technical progress gone in that direction? Will humanity lead to bliss by the stubborn violence that it makes over nature and the human soul? But what if progress is possible on a different, more humane basis, not in struggle, but in kinship and union with nature?

Goncharov's questions are far from being naive; their acuteness grows all the more, the more dramatic the consequences of the destructive impact of European civilization on patriarchal world... Goncharov defines the invasion of Shanghai by the British as "the invasion of the red-haired barbarians." Their (* 27) shamelessness "comes to some kind of heroism, as soon as it touches the sale of goods, whatever it may be, even poison!" The cult of profit, calculation, self-interest for the sake of satiety, convenience and comfort ... Doesn't this meager goal, which European progress have inscribed on its banners, humiliate a person? Goncharov asks a person not simple questions. With the development of civilization, they did not soften in the least. On the contrary, at the end of the 20th century they acquired a threatening acuteness. It is quite obvious that technological progress with its predatory attitude to nature has brought humanity to a fatal milestone: either moral self-improvement and a change in technology in communication with nature, or the death of all living things on earth.

Roman "Oblomov"

Since 1847, Goncharov pondered the horizons of a new novel: this thought is also palpable in the essays "Frigate" Pallas ", where he confronts a type of businesslike and practical Englishman with a Russian landowner living in patriarchal Oblomovka. And in" Ordinary History "such a collision moved the plot. It is no coincidence that Goncharov once admitted that in "Ordinary History", "Oblomov" and "Obryv" he sees not three novels, but one. The writer completed work on "Oblomov" in 1858 and published in the first four issues of the journal "Otechestvennye zapiski" for 1859.

Dobrolyubov about the novel... "Oblomov" met with unanimous recognition, but opinions about the meaning of the novel were sharply divided. N. A. Dobrolyubov in his article "What is Oblomovism?" saw in "Oblomov" the crisis and disintegration of the old feudal Russia. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is "our native folk type", symbolizing laziness, inaction and stagnation of the entire serf system of relations. He is the last in a series of "superfluous people" - the Onegins, Pechorins, Beltovs and Rudins. Like his older predecessors, Oblomov is infected with a fundamental contradiction between word and deed, daydreaming and practical worthlessness. But Oblomov has a typical complex " extra person"brought to a paradox, to a logical end, followed by the decay and death of man. Goncharov, according to Dobrolyubov, reveals the roots of Oblomov's inaction more deeply than all his predecessors. The novel reveals the complex relationship between slavery and lordship." nature, - writes Dobrolyubov. - But the vile habit of receiving satisfaction of his desires not from his own efforts, but from others, - developed in him an apathetic immobility and - (* 28) plunged him into a miserable state of moral slavery. This slavery is so intertwined with the lordship of Oblomov, so they mutually penetrate each other and one is conditioned by the other, that it seems that there is not the slightest possibility of drawing some kind of border between them ... He is the slave of his serf Zakhar, and it is difficult to decide which of them more subject to the authority of the other. At least - what Zakhar does not want, that Ilya Ilyich cannot force him to do, and what Zakhar wants, he will do against the will of the master, and the master will submit ... master: Oblomov's complete dependence on him makes it possible for Zakhar to sleep peacefully on his couch. The ideal of Ilya Ilyich's existence - "idleness and peace" - is an equally longed-for dream of Zakhar. Both of them, master and servant, are Oblomovka's children. " As one hut got on the edge of a ravine, it has been hanging there since time immemorial, standing with one half in the air and propped up with three poles. Three or four generations have lived quietly and happily in it. ”Since time immemorial, a gallery has collapsed near the manor house, and the porch has long been going to be repaired, but has not been repaired yet.

"No, Oblomovka is our direct homeland, its owners are our educators, its three hundred Zakharov are always ready for our services," concludes Dobrolyubov. “If I now see a landowner talking about the rights of mankind and the need for personal development, I know from the very first words that this is Oblomov. to the weariness of parades and bold arguments about the uselessness of a quiet step, etc., I have no doubt that he is Oblomov.When I read liberal antics against abuse in magazines and the joy that finally what we have long hoped and desired has been done - I think everyone writes this from Oblomovka. When I find myself in a circle of educated people who ardently sympathize with the needs of mankind and for many years with unabated fervor have been telling all the same (and sometimes new) anecdotes about bribe-takers, about oppression, about iniquities of all kinds - I involuntarily feel that I have been transferred to the old Oblomovka, "writes Dobrolyubov.

Druzhinin about the novel... This is how one point of view on Goncharov's novel Oblomov, on the origins of the protagonist's character, developed and strengthened. But even among the first critical responses a different, opposite assessment of the novel appeared. It belongs to the liberal critic A. V. Druzhinin, who wrote the article Oblomov, a novel by Goncharov. "Druzhinin also believes that the character of Ilya Ilyich reflects the essential aspects of Russian life, that Oblomov was studied and recognized by a whole people, predominantly rich in Oblomovism." But, according to Druzhinin, "it is in vain that many people with overly practical aspirations are trying to despise Oblomov and even call him a snail: all this strict trial of the hero shows one superficial and transient pickiness. Oblomov is kind to all of us and is worth boundless love." "The German writer Riehl said somewhere: woe to that political society where there are no and cannot be honest conservatives; imitating this aphorism, we say: the land where there are no kind and incapable of evil eccentrics like Oblomov is not good." What does Druzhinin see as the advantages of Oblomov and Oblomovism? "Oblomovism is disgusting if it comes from rottenness, hopelessness, corruption and evil stubbornness, but if its root lies simply in the immaturity of society and skeptical hesitation pure soul people in front of the practical disorder that happens in all young countries, then getting angry at her means the same as getting angry at a child whose eyes stick together in the middle of an evening loud conversation of adults ... "Druzhinin's approach to understanding Oblomov and Oblomovism did not become popular in XIX century Dobrolyubov's interpretation of the novel was accepted with enthusiasm by the majority.However, as the perception of "Oblomov" deepened, revealing new facets of its content to the reader, the Druzhinin article began to attract attention.Already in Soviet times, M. M. Prishvin wrote in diary: “Oblomov.” In this novel, Russian laziness is internally glorified and outwardly condemned by the depiction of dead-active people (Olga and Stolz). No “positive” activity in Russia can withstand Oblomov's criticism: his peace conceals a request for value, for such an activity, because of which it would be worth losing peace. This is a kind of Tolstoyan “not doing.” It cannot be otherwise in countries That is, where any activity aimed at improving one's existence is accompanied by a feeling of wrongness, and only an act, in which the personal completely merges with the deed for others, can be opposed to Oblomov's peace. "

Similar information.

I.A.Goncharov entered the history of Russian and world literature as one of the remarkable masters realistic novel... The author of "Ordinary History" (1847), "Oblomov" (1859), "Break" (1869) - the largest representative of the second period, or, more precisely, a phase in the Russian evolution of this genre.

The work of I.A. Goncharov Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812 - 1891) during his lifetime acquired a solid reputation as one of the brightest and most significant representatives of the Russian realistic literature... His name was invariably called alongside the names of the leading figures of the literature of the second half of the 19th century, the masters who created the classic Russian novels - I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky. Goncharov's literary heritage is not extensive. For 45 years of creativity, he published three novels, a book of travel essays by Frigate Pallas, several moral stories, critical articles and memoirs. But the writer made a significant contribution to the spiritual life of Russia. Each of his novels attracted the attention of readers, sparked heated discussions and disputes, pointed out the most important problems and phenomena of our time.

As an artist and novelist, IS Turgenev is typologically closest to Goncharov. With him, first of all, he shares in this genre the glory of the most prominent Russian writer of the 50s. It happened, however, that Turgenev seemed to overshadow - especially for the Western European reader - Goncharov the novelist. Among the reasons for this were belated or imperfect translations of the latter into foreign languages. In The Unusual History, written by him in 1875-1876 and 1878, Goncharov even made an attempt to restore his priority in the field of that Russian form of the “epic of modern times” (Belinsky), which replaced Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”, “Our Hero time "Lermontov," To dead souls"Gogol and preceded the novels of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky. However, the artist relied to a much greater extent on the fair trial of the descendants ...

In the last 15-20 years, there has been an undoubted and fast growth interest in the legacy of Goncharov - both in his homeland and abroad. In our country, theater and television performances have been created based on his novels; the screens of many countries went around the film "A few days from the life of Oblomov", based on the novel "Oblomov"; a number of new works have been enriched scientific literature about Goncharov both in our country and in the USA, England, Germany, Syria and other countries. There is every reason to talk about the famous Renaissance of this novelist today.

When, in his old age, Goncharov looked back into his past as a writer, he always talked about his three novels - "An Ordinary History", "Oblomov", "Break" - as a single novel whole: "... I see not three novels, but one. All of them are connected by one common thread, one consistent idea - the transition from one era of Russian life, which I was experiencing, to another - and the reflection of their phenomena in my images, portraits, scenes, small phenomena, etc. "

An ordinary story ".

In the very first published work - the novel "An Ordinary History" - Goncharov was a true novelist: he became one of the creators of the classic Russian novel with its epic breadth, embracing all the diversity, variegation and movement of Russian life, with the drama of human destinies, with a clearly expressed author's ideological and moral pathos.

In the novel, a new way of life - the type of life is represented by Alexander's uncle - Peter Ivanovich Aduev, an official and at the same time a breeder, which makes this figure already unconventional. The plot of the two main parts of the work is a clash of "views on life" (I, 41) of a nephew and an uncle, symbolizing the conflict between two common human philosophies (ways) of being. As a result, this conflict should lead the reader to the solution of the question of how one should live in the modern changed world.

"Oblomov"

In the novel "Oblomov" Goncharov reflected part of the reality of his day, showed the types, images characteristic of that time, investigated the origins and essence of contradictions in Russian society mid XIX v. The author used a number of artistic techniques that contributed to a more complete disclosure of images, themes and ideas of the work.

The psychologism of the novel lies in the fact that the author explores the inner world of all the characters. To do this, he introduces internal monologues - the reasoning of the hero, which he does not say aloud. It is like a dialogue between a person and himself; so, Oblomov before "Sleep ..." thinks about his behavior, about how the other would behave in his place. The monologues show the attitude of the hero to himself and those around him, to life, love, death - to everything; thus, psychology is again investigated.

Artistic techniques used by Goncharov are very diverse. Throughout the novel, there is a reception of artistic detail, detailed and accurate description human appearance, nature, interior decoration of rooms, that is, everything that helps the reader create a complete picture of what is happening. As a literary device, a symbol is also important in a work. Many objects have symbolic meaning, for example Oblomov's robe - a symbol of his everyday life. At the beginning of the novel the main character does not part with a robe; when Olga temporarily “pulls Oblomov out of the swamp” and he comes to life, the robe is forgotten; in the end, "in Pshenitsyna's house, he again finds use, already until the end of Oblomov's life. Other symbols - a branch of lilac (Olga's love), Oblomov's slippers (almost like a dressing gown) and others are also of great importance in the novel.

“Oblomov” is not only a socio-historical work, but also a deeply psychological one: the author has set himself the goal not only to describe and consider, but to investigate the origins, reasons for the formation, features, influence on the surrounding psychology of a certain social type. I.A.Goncharov achieved this by using various artistic means, creating with their help the most suitable form for the content - composition, system of images, genre, style and language of the work.

"Break"

The "era of awakening" was opened for Goncharov by the forties, and in all its complexity and contradictions it is recognized and reflected in "The Break" up to the sixties - until the appearance of the Volokhovs and Tushins, in one sense or another, representatives of the "party of action" (as said in "An Extraordinary Story").

Realizing perfectly well that each of the "eras" of Russian life depicted in his novels is also an epoch in the history of society, Goncharov focuses his attention on one side that is most important for him - on the awakening of consciousness, the awakening of feelings - "the restoration of the human in man." as Dostoevsky would say. Goncharov's romantic art is built on a deep penetration into the psychology of consciousness, the psychology of feelings - love, passion. The supreme task of art, the writer considered the image of "the man himself, his psychological side". “I do not pretend to have fulfilled this supreme task of art, but I confess that it was, first of all, included in my views” (“Intentions ...”). In "An Unusual History" this "supreme task" is concretized: "... into the soul of a passionate, nervous, impressionable organism<а такими «организмами» были герои Гончаров может проникать, и то без полного успеха, только необыкновенно тонкий психологический и философский анализ!»

The three central types of the "awakening" epoch were embodied in three characters, three "faces" of the "Cliff". This is Grandma, Raisky ("artist"), Vera. Around these three persons, three "organisms" the whole complex structure of the novel took shape - the plot (s), the composition. They are, first of all, and are the purpose of such a psychological and philosophical analysis. Explaining the "intentions, tasks and ideas" of "The Break", Goncharov named two main tasks of the novel. The first is an image of the play of passions, the second is an analysis, in the person of Raisky, of the artist's nature, its manifestations in art and life, "with the predominance of the power of creative imagination over all the organic forces of human nature."

The image of an artist (painter or poet) is one of the dominant images of the literature of the first decades of the 19th century, mainly romantic ("Nevsky Prospect" and "Portrait" by Gogol, "Painter" by Nik. Polevoy, "artistic" short stories by V.F. Odoevsky, etc. .).

Artistic features. A realist writer, Goncharov believed that an artist should be interested in stable forms in life, that the business of a true writer is to create stable types that are composed “of long and many repetitions or moods of phenomena and persons”; These principles and determined the basis of the novel "Oblomov";

Dobrolyubov gave an accurate description of Goncharov as an artist: “objective talent”; In the article “What is Oblomovism?”; he noticed three characteristic features of Goncharov's writing style. First of all it is

lack of didacticism: Goncharov does not draw any ready-made conclusions on his own behalf, he depicts life as he sees it, and does not embark on abstract philosophy and moral teaching. The second feature of Goncharov, according to Dobrolyubov, is the ability to create a complete image of an object. The writer is not carried away by any one side of it, forgetting about the rest. He “turns the object from all sides, waits for the completion of all the moments of the phenomenon”; Finally, Dobrolyubov sees the originality of the writer in a calm, unhurried narration, striving for the greatest possible objectivity.

Artistic talent

the writer is also distinguished by his visual, plasticity and detailed descriptions. The picturesqueness of the image allows comparison with Flemish painting or everyday sketches of the Russian artist P.A.Fedotov. Such are, for example, in “Oblomov”; descriptions of life on the Vyborg side, in Oblomovka, or the St. Petersburg day of Ilya Ilyich.

In this case, artistic details begin to play a special role. They not only help to create bright, colorful memorable pictures, but also acquire the character of a symbol. Such symbols are Oblomov's shoes and robe, the sofa from which Olga lifts him and to which he returns again, completing his “love poem”; But, depicting this "poem"; Goncharov uses completely different details. Instead of mundane, everyday objects, poetic details appear: against the background of the poetic image of a lilac bush, relations between Oblomov and Olga develop. Their beauty and spirituality is emphasized by the beauty of the sound of the casta diva aria from V. Bellini's opera Norma, which is performed by Olga, endowed with singing talent.

The writer himself emphasized the musical principle in his works. He claimed that in “Oblomov”; the feeling of love itself, in its downs, ups, unison and counterpoints, develops according to the laws of music, the relations of the heroes are not so much portrayed as played out by the “music of the nerve”;

Goncharov also has a special humor, designed not to execute, but, as the writer said, to soften and improve a person, exposing him to “an impolite mirror of his stupidity, ugliness, passions, with all the consequences”; so that “knowledge of how beware ”;. In “Oblomov”; Goncharov's humor manifests itself both in the depiction of Zakhar's servant, and in the description of the Oblomovites' occupations, the life of the Vyborg side, and often concerns the depiction of the main characters.

But the most important quality of the work for Goncharov is the special novel poetry. As Belinsky noted, “poetry ... in Mr. Goncharov’s talent is the first and only agent”; The author of “Oblomov” himself; called poetry "the juice of the novel"; and noted that “novels ... without poetry are not works of art”; and their authors are “not artists”; but just more or less gifted everyday writers. In “Oblomov”; the most important of the "poetic"; began to act itself "graceful love"; Poeticism is created by the special atmosphere of spring, the description of the park, lilac branches, alternating pictures of sultry summer and autumn rains, and then the snow falling asleep at home and streets, which accompany the "love poem"; Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya. We can say that poetry "pervades"; the whole novel structure of "Oblomov" ;, is its ideological and stylistic core.

This special novel poetry embodies the universal principle, introduces the work into the circle of eternal themes and images. So in the character of the protagonist of Oblomov's novel, the features of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Cervantes' Don Quixote vary. All this not only gives the novel an amazing unity and integrity, but also determines its enduring, timeless character.

Glossary:

• Lilac bush
• features of Goncharov-artist
• Oblomov's genre features briefly
• features of goncharov-artist composition
• prepare a report on the features of Gonyaarov the artist

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