Turgenev's novels. The artistic world of Turgenev I.S. Relationship with Pauline Viardot, death of mother

Studying the biography of a writer makes it possible to reveal the richness of the writer’s artistic world and enter his creative laboratory.

During the lessons, it is necessary to create a special emotional and moral atmosphere that evokes empathy and co-reflection with the author and literary characters. Therefore, it is important to think through not only the logic of presentation of the material, but also the very forms of emotional impact on students.

The first lessons are devoted to the biography of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev and a review of his work; the task is given to read stories from the collection “Notes of a Hunter”, the novels “Rudin”, “Fathers and Sons”.

Before reading and discussing the works, at the beginning of studying the section, you can conduct a composition lesson. The task is set to penetrate into the world of man and writer, to understand the relationship with his contemporaries and the genre uniqueness of Turgenev’s work.

In order to imagine the atmosphere of communication between Turgenev’s contemporaries, it is necessary to find not only interesting stories and memories of the writer, but also to present them in a “lightweight” form for oral retelling. Many details of the story and individual expressions have to be changed, so the script does not contain direct quotes everywhere.

Memoirs of contemporaries in a stage performance allow students to delve deeper into the essence of assessments and reflections on the life and work of the writer. Here the “live” speech of contemporaries is heard and their immediate image is created.

Preparation for the lesson:

• Together with the students, a lesson script is drawn up and roles are assigned;
• the task is given to imagine the atmosphere of the meeting and conversation of contemporaries about Turgenev, create an interesting story about him, read lyric poems and prose poems;
• Small groups of students work on the production together with the teacher;
• portraits of I.S. on the board Turgenev, next to a table with books and literature about him, there is a stage area where readers and reciters talk about Turgenev and fragments from the novels “Rudin” and “Fathers and Sons” are staged;
• musical works were selected to accompany the production itself.

Composition lesson script

Teacher. Today we will try to penetrate the world of Turgenev - the man and the writer, reveal his joys and sorrows, and get acquainted with the memories of Turgenev. Let's listen to what his contemporaries are saying: P.A. Kropotkin, Guy de Maupassant, P.V. Annenkov, A. Fet.

One of Turgenev’s favorite musical works is playing - Glinka’s “Waltz-Fantasy”.

Reader 1(P.A. Kropotkin). Turgenev's appearance is well known. He was very handsome: tall, strongly built, with soft gray curls. His eyes shone with intelligence and were not without a humorous sparkle, and his manners were distinguished by that simplicity and lack of affectation that are characteristic of the best Russian writers.

Reader 2(Guy de Maupassant). I saw Ivan Turgenev for the first time at Gustave Flaubert. The door opened. The giant entered. A giant with a silver head, as they would say in a fairy tale. He had long gray hair, thick gray eyebrows and a large gray beard, shimmering with silver, and in this sparkling snowy whiteness - a kind, calm face with slightly large features. Turgenev was tall, broad-shouldered, densely built, but not obese, a real colossus with the movements of a child, timid and cautious.

Reader 1(P.A. Kropotkin). Turgenev’s conversation was especially remarkable. He spoke, as he wrote, in images. Wanting to develop an idea, he explained it with some kind of scene, conveyed in such an artistic form, as if it had been taken from his story.

Reader 2(Guy de Maupassant). Turgenev's voice sounded very soft and a little sluggish... He spoke wonderfully, imparting artistic value and peculiar entertainment to the most insignificant fact, but he was loved not so much for his sublime mind as for some touching naivety and the ability to be surprised at everything.

Reader 3(P.V. Annenkov). After 1850, Turgenev's living room became a gathering place for people from all classes of society. Here met the heroes of secular salons, attracted by his reputation as a fashionable writer, literary figures who were preparing themselves to become leaders of public opinion, famous artists and actresses who were under the irresistible effect of his beautiful figure and high understanding of art...

No one noticed the melancholy shade in Turgenev’s life, and yet he was an unhappy man in his own eyes: he lacked the female love and affection that he had been looking for from an early age. The call and search for the ideal woman helped him create that Olympus, which he populated with noble female creatures, great in their simplicity and in their aspirations. Turgenev himself suffered that he could not defeat the female soul and control it: he could only torment her.

It is remarkable that the real and best qualities of his heart were revealed with the greatest strength in the village. Every time Turgenev left Petersburg, he calmed down. There was no one to shine in front of then, no one to invent scenes for and think about staging them. The village played in his life the very role that was later played by his frequent absences abroad - it determined with precision what he should think and do.

Reader 4(A. Fet). In those days there was an abundance of swamp game, and if Turgenev and I went to his estate Topki, the main goal was to hunt, and not to sort out economic matters. The next day of our arrival, Turgenev, sensing that the peasants would come to him, was painfully tormented by the impending need to go out to their porch.

I watched this scene from the window. Handsome and apparently wealthy peasants surrounded the porch on which Turgenev stood. Some guy asked for more land. Before Ivan Sergeevich had time to promise the land, similar needs arose for everyone, and the matter ended with the distribution of all the master's land. Turgenev’s uncle later said: “Really, gentlemen writers, are you all so stupid? You went to Topki and distributed all the land to the peasants, and now the same Ivan writes to me: “Uncle, how can I sell Topki?” What to sell when all the land remained distributed to the peasants?

Teacher. Communication with men was not in vain for Turgenev. He reflected his observations in the essay “Khor and Kalinich”, published in the Sovremennik magazine. When the magazine issue reached the reader, everyone started talking about the author’s talent. Success prompted Turgenev to continue working on his essays. The book was soon translated into French. There were a lot of enthusiastic responses to it.

Reader 5(J. Sand). What a masterful painting!.. This is a new world into which you allowed us to penetrate: not a single historical monument can reveal Russia better than these images, so well studied by you, and this life, so well seen by you.

Teacher. Many people believe that the life of writers associated with literary work flows calmly and serenely. This does not apply to Turgenev, who had difficult relationships with his “fellow writers.” He did not get along with I.A. Goncharov, broke off relations with N.A. Nekrasov. But one of the facts seems the most surprising in the life of I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy. A quarrel occurred between the two great writers, which separated them for seventeen long years.

Student 1. The quarrel occurred over Turgenev's daughter, Polina. Born from a “slave,” the girl immediately found herself out of place. She was torn away from her mother early. She knew her father little. Although he spared nothing for her, he taught, educated, hired governesses - this was considered a “duty”. All worries about her are not warmed by anything. In essence, he has no use for her.

Little Polina began to be jealous of her father towards Polina Viardot. This annoyed him. Turgenev said about his daughter that she did not like music, poetry, nature, or dogs. In general, he and Polina have little in common.

Student 2. In the spring of 1861, Tolstoy visited Turgenev. They decided to go to Fet. An argument broke out between Turgenev and Tolstoy in the dining room. It all started with Fet’s wife asking Turgenev about his daughter. He began to praise her new governess, who took care of the girl and forced her to take the poor people’s linen home, mend it, and give it back to the darned ones.

Tolstoy asked ironically:

And do you think this is good?

Of course, this brings the benefactor closer to the urgent need,” Turgenev replied.

In Tolstoy a severe stubbornness arose, associated with disrespect for his interlocutor.

But I think that a dressed-up girl holding dirty rags on her knees is playing an insincere, theatrical scene.

Student 1. His tone was unbearable. Whether Turgenev loved or did not love his daughter is his business. Tolstoy laughed at poor Polina, and at his father. Turgenev could not bear this.

After the exclamation:

I ask you not to talk about this!

And Tolstoy's answer:

Why shouldn’t I say what I am convinced of!

Turgenev shouted in complete rage:

So I will silence you with an insult!

He grabbed his head with his hands and quickly left the room, but a second later he returned and apologized to the hostess.

Student 2. Two of the best Russian writers quarreled for seventeen years, exchanged insulting letters, it almost came to a duel... Because of what? Polina stood between them. Turgenev outwardly turned out to be wrong, but his internal position was much better - he boiled, said unnecessary things and apologized. Tolstoy did not evoke sympathy. He offered Turgenev a duel “with guns” so that it would certainly end properly. But Turgenev agreed to a duel only on European terms. Then Tolstoy wrote him a rude letter, and noted in his diary: “He is a complete scoundrel, but I think that over time I will not be able to stand it and will forgive him.”

Teacher. This strange story happened. Both writers were very worried and regretted what happened...

Turgenev tried his hand at different genres. He wrote the plays “The Freeloader”, “Breakfast at the Leader”, “A Month in the Country”.

The young actress Savina staged “A Month in the Country” in her benefit performance. The performance was a huge success. “Savina was triumphant. She opened the play. She brought Turgenev to the public: the reflection of his glory fell on her too.”

Reader 6(M.G. Savina). The play was performed - and it created a sensation. Soon the writer came to Russia and was greeted enthusiastically. I was invited to see Ivan Sergeev.

I was overcome with such excitement that I almost decided not to go. I remember that something warm, sweet, and familiar was wafted from the entire heroic figure of Turgenev. He was such a handsome, elegant “grandfather” that I immediately got used to it and started talking like an ordinary mortal.

I was in my twenty-fifth year, I had heard so often about my “cuteness” that I was convinced of it myself, but to hear the word “clever” from Turgenev! was happiness. I didn't say anything about his writings! This thought completely poisoned the entire impression. An hour later, Turgenev’s friend appeared and said that Turgenev especially liked that I had not mentioned his works. “It’s so corny and so boring.”

Beethoven's piano sonata sounds.

Teacher. Turgenev's poetic work is little known. Meanwhile, the writer began his literary career with lyrical works. The author himself spoke very reservedly about his poems, believing that he did not have the gift of a poet. But the poems did not leave his contemporaries indifferent. Even Fet once said that he “admired the poems... of Turgenev.” Admiration for nature, a subtle understanding of its essence, a sense of its mystery - all this can be found in the poem “Autumn”.

Reader 7. Poem "Autumn".

How sadly I love autumn.
On a foggy, quiet day I walk
I often go into the forest and sit there -
I look at the white sky
Yes, to the tops of dark pines.
I love, biting a sour leaf,
Lounging with a lazy smile,
Dream of doing whimsical
Yes, listen to the woodpeckers’ thin whistle.
The grass has all withered... cold,
A calm shine is spread over her...
And sadness quiet and free
I surrender with all my soul...
What won't I remember? Which
Will my dreams not visit me?
And the pines bend as if they were alive,
And they make such thoughtful noise...
And, like a flock of huge birds,
Suddenly the wind blows
And in tangled and dark branches
He makes some noise impatiently.

Teacher. In the summer of 1855, in Spassky, Turgenev finished the novel “Rudin,” according to Boris Zaitsev, “a thing in a sense, a debut and brilliant.” Turgenev put a lot of himself into the main character - Rudin. The novel, as expected, was read by friends, advised, praised, and “pointed out the shortcomings.” Now you will see a small scene from this novel: an explanation by Natalya Lasunskaya and Rudin.

Mozart's sonata-fantasy sounds.

Teacher. The writer in his declining years expressed the accumulated observations and thoughts, the joys and sufferings he experienced in a cycle of prose poems. In Russian literature they remain unsurpassed examples of poetic miniatures.

Turgenev's poems were translated into European languages ​​with the help of Pauline Viardot. The writer did not expect that readers would perceive them with interest and sympathy. Some works were set to music.

The title of the prose poem is “We will fight again!” evokes a joyful, cheerful feeling. You immediately imagine the kind smile of a man to whom all living things are dear, you feel the playful affection in his words about the sparrow: “Conqueror - and that’s it!”

Reader 8. Prose poem “We will fight again!”

What an insignificant little thing can sometimes transform the whole person!
Full of thought, I was walking along the high road one day.
Heavy forebodings oppressed my chest; despondency took possession of me.
I raised my head... In front of me, between two rows of tall poplars, the road stretched into the distance like an arrow.
And across it, across this very road, ten steps from me, all gilded by the bright summer sun, a whole family of sparrows was jumping in single file, jumping briskly, funny, arrogantly!
One of them, in particular, kept pushing himself sideways, sideways, with his goiter bulging and chirping impudently, as if the devil were not his brother! Conqueror - and that's it!
Meanwhile, high in the sky a hawk was circling, which, perhaps, was destined to devour this very conqueror.
I looked, laughed, shook myself - and the sad thoughts immediately flew away: I felt courage, daring, a desire for life.
And let my hawk circle above me...
- We'll fight again, damn it!

Teacher. Prose poems are an unusual phenomenon in terms of genre. Lyricism, brevity, and emotionality of the narrative bring them closer to lyric poetry. However, unlike lyric poetry, feelings are expressed in prosaic form. The poem “Enemy and Friend” solves moral and ethical problems - hostile and friendly relations between people, responsibility for the life of another person.

Reader 9. Prose poem "Enemy and Friend".

The prisoner, condemned to eternal imprisonment, broke out of prison and began to run headlong... A chase was hot on his heels.
He ran with all his might... His pursuers began to fall behind.
But here in front of him is a river with steep banks, a narrow but deep river... And he doesn’t know how to swim!
A thin rotten board is thrown from one bank to the other. The fugitive had already raised his foot towards her... But it so happened that right there near the river stood: his best friend and his most cruel enemy.
The enemy said nothing and only crossed his arms; but the friend shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Have mercy! What are you doing? Come to your senses, you madman! Don't you see that the board is completely rotten? She will break under your weight - and you will inevitably die!
- But there is no other crossing... but can you hear the chase? - the unfortunate man groaned desperately and stepped on the board.
- I won’t allow it!.. No, I won’t allow you to die! - the zealous friend cried out and snatched the board from under the fugitive’s feet. He instantly fell into the stormy waves and drowned.
The enemy laughed smugly - and walked away; and the friend sat down on the bank and began to cry bitterly for his poor... poor friend!
However, he did not think of blaming himself for his death... not for a moment.
- Didn't listen to me! Didn't listen! - he whispered sadly.
- But by the way! - he said finally. - After all, he had to languish in a terrible prison all his life! At least he's not suffering now! Now he feels better! You know, such a lot has befallen him!
- But it’s still a pity, for humanity!
And the kind soul continued to weep inconsolably for her ill-fated friend.

Teacher. The novel “Fathers and Sons” occupies a special place in Turgenev’s work. This novel caused many different opinions and statements. The word “nihilist” was immediately picked up by thousands of voices. The author of the work experienced painful impressions. He noticed “coldness that reached the point of indignation” in many close people, and received congratulations from enemies. It is difficult to imagine what was going on in the author’s soul. But he explained to readers in the article “About “Fathers and Sons,” noting that “a rather interesting collection of letters and other documents has been compiled.” Watch the scene of Bazarov’s declaration of love from the novel “Fathers and Sons.”

Dvorak's "Melody" sounds.

Teacher. All his life Turgenev strove for happiness, caught love and did not catch up. As we know, love for Pauline Viardot did not bring him happiness.

Reader 10. The last summer in Bougival was terrible both for Turgenev and for Pauline Viardot, who looked after him. And at the hour of his death, when he hardly recognized anyone anymore, he said to the same Polina:

Here is the queen of queens!

So he praised Pauline Viardot, the only woman he loved all his life.

Turgenev died on August 22, 1833. There were no traces of suffering left on his face, but in addition to the beauty that appeared in him in a new way, what was surprising was the expression of what was missing during life: will, strength...

Some time passed, and Pauline Viardot wrote in one of her letters to Ludwig Pietsch that a man who had made up the whole world for her had passed away. An emptiness has formed around, and no one will ever be able to fill it: “Only now I realized what this person meant to me.”

F. Chopin's nocturne sounds.

Literature

1. Zaitsev B.K. Life of Turgenev / Distant. - M., 1991.

2. Pustovoit P.G. Roman I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”: Commentary: Book. for the teacher. - M., 1991.

3. Russian literature: 10th grade. Reader on historical-lit. materials (compiled by I.E. Kaplan, M.G. Pinaev). - M., 1993.

4. Turgenev I.S. Literary and everyday memories. - M., 1987.

5. Shestakova L.L. The poetic heritage of I.S. Turgenev. Triptych “Variations” / Russian language at school. - 1993. - No. 2.

Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter,” which appeared as a separate edition in 1852, anticipated the pathos of Russian literature of the 1860s and a special role in the artistic consciousness of the era of “folk thought.” And the writer’s novels turned into a kind of chronicle of the change of different mental trends in the cultural stratum of Russian society: an idealist-dreamer, an “extra person” of the 30-40s in the novel “Rudin”; the nobleman Lavretsky, striving to merge with the people, in “The Noble Nest”; “new man”, revolutionary commoner - first Dmitry Insarov in “On the Eve”, and then Evgeny Bazarov in “Fathers and Sons”; the era of ideological impassability in “Smoke”; a new wave of social upsurge in the 70s in Novi.

Novels in Turgenev's work represent a special variety (as opposed to stories). Turgenev created a very recognizable type of novel, endowed with stable features characteristic of 5 of his novels. First of all, there is stable composition, in the center always the plot young woman, which is characterized discreet beauty, development(which does not always mean that she is smart and educated), moral strength(she is always stronger than a man). A hero with a horse in a woman’s pocket is a very Turgenev move. In addition, a whole gallery of suitors for her hand, she chooses one and this one is main character novel, at the same time this is the type who most important for Turgenev and For Russia. This hero himself is built on connection of two spheres and two ways of assessing his personality and his actions: one sphere - historical, the other - universal. Turgenev builds the image in such a way that none of this dominates. The hero and heroine, as expected, fall in love with each other, but there is always some obstacle on the way to their happiness that does not give them the opportunity to immediately rush into each other’s arms. As the plot develops, these obstacles are removed, but at the moment when everything seemed to be fine, another fatal obstacle arises, because of which they cannot be together.

Turgenev's first novel "Rudin" scandalous circumstances of creation: the prototype of the main character is Bakunin. In the first version of the novel, which has not reached us, Bakunin was portrayed more satirically. In the image of Rudin, Turgenev portrayed a Hegelian, in the sense that Turgenev represented him... On the one hand, he is an intelligent person, a good speaker, capable of subjugating minds, but at the same time, it was those close to him who felt that there was nothing behind this - behind all the ideas there is no true faith. How to react to his preaching is an important question. And Dostoevsky, in the image of Stavrogin, will portray the hyperbolic Rudin. According to Dostoevsky, we should not trust these ideas. Turgenev has a different position: it doesn’t matter who speaks, what matters is whether you believe with your mind, and even if the person is weak and unable to embody his own words. Turgenev has a secular - European type - consciousness, relying on the independence of a person capable of independently drawing conclusions. Turgenev was concerned with the question of what a noble hero could do in modern conditions, when society was faced with specific practical issues.

At first the novel was called “Nature of Brilliant.” By “genius” Turgenev understood the ability to enlightenment, a versatile mind and broad education, and by “nature” - firmness of will, a keen sense of the urgent needs of social development, and the ability to translate words into deeds. As he worked on the novel, this title ceased to satisfy Turgenev. It turned out that when applied to Rudin, the definition of “genius nature” sounds ironic: he has “genius”, but no “nature”; he has the talent to awaken the minds and hearts of people, but does not have the strength and ability to lead them. Pandalevsky is a ghost man without social, national and family roots. The features of groundlessness in Pandalevsky are absurd, but symbolic in their own way. With his presence in the novel, he highlights the ghostly existence of some of the wealthy nobility.

Years of abstract philosophical work have dried up the living springs of the heart and soul in Rudin. The preponderance of the head over the heart is especially obvious in the scene of the love confession. Natalya’s retreating steps have not yet sounded, and Rudin indulges in reflection: “I’m happy,” he said in an undertone. “Yes, I’m happy,” he repeated, as if wanting to convince himself.” In love, Rudin clearly lacks “nature”. The hero does not pass the test, revealing his human and, consequently, social inferiority, his inability to move from words to deeds.

But at the same time, the love affair between Rudin and Natalya is not limited to exposing the social inferiority of the “superfluous person”: there is a deep artistic meaning in the hidden parallel that exists in the novel between the morning of Natalya’s life and Rudin’s joyless morning at the dry Avdyukhin pond.

After a love disaster, Rudin tries to find a worthy business for himself. And this is where it turns out that the “extra person” is guilty not only through his own fault. Of course, not content with little, the romantic enthusiast sets his sights on obviously impossible things: rebuilding the entire teaching system at the gymnasium single-handedly, making the river navigable, regardless of the interests of hundreds of owners of small mills on it. But the tragedy of Rudin the practitioner lies in something else: he is not capable of being Stolz, he does not know how and does not want to adapt and dodge.

Rudin in the novel has an antipode - Lezhnev, affected by the same disease of time, but only in a different version: if Rudin soars in the clouds, then Lezhnev huddles to the ground. Turgenev sympathizes with this hero, recognizes the legitimacy of his practical interests, but does not hide their limitations.

And yet Rudin’s life is not fruitless. In the novel there is a kind of passing of the baton. Rudin’s enthusiastic speeches are eagerly captured by the young commoner Basistov, in whom one senses the young generation of “new people”, the future Dobrolyubovs and Chernyshevskys. Rudin’s preaching bears fruit: “He still sows good seed.” And with his death, despite its apparent senselessness, Rudin defends the high value of the eternal search for truth, the indestructibility of heroic impulses. Rudin cannot be a hero of modern times, but he did everything possible in his position to make these heroes appear. This is the final result of the socio-historical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the “superfluous man”, the cultural nobleman of the era of the 30s - early 40s.

« Noble Nest"(1859 was received warmly, everyone liked it. The pathos is that a person renounces the claims of the Rudinsky scale. Hence the very image of a noble estate is somewhat in the Pushkin spirit. The belief that the noble family ties a person to the land and gives a sense of duty to his country , a duty that is higher than personal passions. Lavretsky is a hero who combines the best qualities of the patriotic and democratically minded part of the liberal nobility. He is not alone in the novel: he is followed by the backstory of an entire noble family. Turgenev introduces it into the novel not only in order to explain the character of the main character. The backstory enlarges the problems of the novel, creates the necessary epic background. We are talking not only about the personal fate of Lavretsky, but about the historical fate of an entire class, the last scion of which is the hero. Revealing the life story of the Lavretsky “nest”, Turgenev sharply criticizes the groundlessness of the nobility, the isolation of this class from their native culture, from Russian roots, from the people. The best pages of the novel are devoted to how the prodigal son regains his lost sense of homeland. Lavretsky’s devastated soul greedily absorbs forgotten impressions: long boundaries overgrown with Chernobyl, wormwood and field ash, fresh steppe bareness and wilderness, long hills, ravines, gray villages, a dilapidated manor house with closed shutters and a crooked porch, a garden with weeds and burdocks. , gooseberries and raspberries.

“The Noble Nest” for the first time embodied the ideal image of Turgenev’s Russia, which constantly lived in his soul and largely determined his value orientation in the era of the 60-70s. This image is recreated in the novel with careful, filial love. He is covertly polemical in relation to the extremes of liberal Westernism and revolutionary maximalism. Turgenev warns: do not rush to reshape Russia in a new way, stop,

shut up, listen. Learn from the Russian plowman to do the historical work of renewal slowly, without fuss and chatter, without rash, rash steps. Matching this majestic, unhurried life, flowing silently, “like water through swamp grasses,” are the best characters of people from the nobility and peasants who grew up on its soil. This is Marfa Timofeevna, an old patriarchal noblewoman, Liza Kalitina’s aunt. The living personification of the homeland, people's Russia, is the central heroine of the novel, Liza Kalitina.

The catastrophe of the love affair between Lisa and Lavretsky is not perceived as a fatal accident. In it the hero sees retribution for neglect of public duty, for the life of his father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, for the past of Lavretsky himself. Lisa also accepts what happened as retribution and decides to go to a monastery, thereby committing a moral feat.

In a letter to I. S. Aksakov in November 1859, Turgenev said this about the concept of the novel "The day before":“My story is based on the idea of ​​the need for consciously heroic natures in order for things to move forward.” The social and everyday plot of the novel has symbolic overtones. Young Elena personifies young Russia “on the eve” of upcoming changes. Who does she need most now: people of science, people of art, honest officials or consciously heroic natures, people of civic achievement? Elena's choice of Insarova gives an unambiguous answer to this question. The artistic description of Insarov's strengths and weaknesses ends with a key episode with two statuettes of the hero, which were sculpted by Shubin. On the first of them, Insarov was presented as a hero, and on the second - as a ram, rising on its hind legs and bowing its horns to strike.

Next to the social plot, partly growing out of it, partly rising above it, the philosophical plot unfolds in the novel. The novel opens with a dispute between Shubin and Bersenev about happiness and duty. “Each of us wants happiness for ourselves,” argues Bersenev, “but is this word: “happiness” that would unite, ignite us both, force us to shake hands with each other? Isn’t it selfish, I want to say, isn’t this a divisive word?” The words unite people: “motherland, science, freedom, justice.” And - love, if it is not “love-pleasure”, but “love-sacrifice”.

The novel “On the Eve” is Turgenev’s weakest novel, it is the most schematic. In Insarov, Turgenev wanted to bring out a type of chela in which there is no discrepancy between words and action. Apparently, by making the main character a Bulgarian, he wanted to say that he does not see such types in Russia. The most interesting is the ending, where the influence of Schopenhauer was felt. It is not for nothing that Venice was chosen: a very beautiful city (for some, the epitome of beauty) and here this terrible, senseless evil is committed. The ideas of Schopenhauer were reflected here: he taught that the world is based on evil, a certain irrational will hostile to man, turning human life into a series of suffering, and the only thing that reconciles us with life is the beauty of this world, which is something like a veil. According to Sh., it is important that this veil, on the one hand, separates us from evil, and on the other, it is an expression of this evil.

In the novel "Fathers and Sons" the unity of the living forces of national life explodes into social conflict. Arkady, in the eyes of the radical Bazarov, is a weakling, a soft-spoken liberal baric. Bazarov does not want to accept and admit that Arkady’s kind-heartedness and Nikolai Petrovich’s dove-like meekness are also a consequence of the artistic talent of their natures, poetic, dreamy, sensitive to music and poetry. Turgenev considered these qualities to be deeply Russian; he endowed them with Kalinich, Kasyan, Kostya, and the famous singers from the Prytynny tavern. They are as organically connected with the substance of people's life as the impulses of Bazarov's negation. But in “Fathers and Sons” the unity between them disappeared, a tragic discord emerged, affecting not only political and social beliefs, but also enduring cultural values. In the ability of the Russian man to easily break himself, Turgenev now saw not only a great advantage, but also the danger of breaking the connection of times. Therefore, he gave broad national historical coverage to the social struggle of revolutionary democrats with liberals. It was about cultural continuity during the historical succession of one generation to another.

The conflict of the novel “Fathers and Sons” in family spheres, of course, is not limited to family spheres, but its tragic depth is verified by the violation of “family life”, in connections between generations, between opposing social trends. The contradictions went so deep that they touched the natural foundations of existence.

"Smoke" differs in many ways from Turgenev's novels. First of all, it lacks a typical hero around whom the plot is organized. Litvinov is far from his predecessors - Rudin, Lavretsky, Insarov and Bazarov. This is not an outstanding person, who does not pretend to be a public figure of the first magnitude. He strives for modest and quiet economic activity in one of the remote corners of Russia. We meet him abroad, where he improved his agronomic and economic knowledge, preparing to become a competent landowner. This novel touched a lot of people. An extreme Westerner was identified in the person of Potugin; Fet is considered one of the prototypes. “If Russia disappeared from the world map tomorrow, no one would notice,” is Potugin’s most famous maxim. Finally, the novel does not contain a typical Turgenev heroine, capable of deep and strong love, prone to selflessness and self-sacrifice. Irina is corrupted by secular society and deeply unhappy: she despises the life of people in her circle, but at the same time she cannot free herself from it.

The novel is also unusual in its basic tone. Satirical motifs, not very characteristic of Turgenev, play a significant role in it. In the tones of a pamphlet, “Smoke” paints a broad picture of the life of the Russian revolutionary emigration. The author devotes many pages to a satirical depiction of the ruling elite of Russian society in the scene of the generals' picnic in Baden-Baden.

The plot of the novel “Smoke” is also unusual. The satirical pictures that have grown in it, at first glance, are confused by digressions, loosely connected with Litvinov’s storyline. Yes, and Potuginskys

the episodes seem to fall out of the main plot of the novel.

The novel does weaken the cohesive storyline. Several artistic branches run from it in different directions: Gubarev’s circle, the generals’ picnic, the story of Potugin and his “Westernizing” monologues. But this plot looseness is meaningful in its own way. Seemingly going aside, Turgenev achieves a broad coverage of life in the novel. The unity of the book rests not on the plot, but on the internal roll calls of different plot motifs. The key image of “smoke” appears everywhere, an image of life that has lost its meaning.

Only 10 years later the novel comes out "Nove." Here the populists became the central types. An epigraph expresses the main idea best. Nov – uncultivated soil. “The new crop should be lifted not with a shallow plow, but with a deep-reaching plow.” It differs from other novels in that the main character commits suicide. The action of “Novi” dates back to the very beginning of “going to the people.” Turgenev shows that the populist movement did not arise by chance. The peasant reform disappointed expectations; the situation of the people after February 19, 1861 not only did not improve, but sharply worsened. The novel depicts a tragicomic picture of populist revolutionary propaganda led by Nezhdanov. Of course, Nezhdanov is not the only one to blame for the failures of “propaganda” of this kind. Turgenev also shows something else - the darkness of the people in civil and political matters. But one way or another, a blank wall of misunderstanding arises between the revolutionary intelligentsia and the people. And therefore, “going to the people” is portrayed by Turgenev as going through torment, where heavy defeats and bitter disappointments await the Russian revolutionary at every step. Finally, at the center of the novel “New” are not so much the individual fates of individual representatives of the era, but rather the fate of an entire social movement - populism. The breadth of coverage of reality increases, the social resonance of the novel becomes sharper. The love theme no longer occupies a central position in Novi and is not key in revealing Nezhdanov’s character.

“The physiognomy of Russian people of the cultural stratum” changed very quickly in Turgenev’s era - and this introduced a special touch of drama into the writer’s novels, characterized by a rapid start and an unexpected denouement, “tragic, as a rule, endings.” Turgenev's novels are strictly confined to a narrow period of historical time; precise chronology plays a significant role in them. The life of Turgenev's hero is extremely limited compared to the heroes of the novels of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Goncharov. The characters of Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov “reflected a century”; in Rudin, Lavretsky or Bazarov - the mental trends of several years. The life of Turgenev's heroes is like a spark that flashes brightly, but quickly fades. History, in its inexorable movement, measures out a tense, but too short-term fate for them. All Turgenev's novels are subject to the cruel rhythm of the annual natural cycle. The action in them begins, as a rule, in early spring, reaches its climax on the hot days of summer, and ends with the “whistle of the autumn wind” or “in the cloudless silence of the January frosts.” Turgenev shows his heroes in happy moments of maximum growth and flowering of their vitality. But these minutes turn out to be tragic: Rudin dies on the Parisian barricades, during a heroic takeoff, the life of Insarov, and then Bazarov, Nezhdanov, is unexpectedly cut short.

With Turgenev, the poetic image of the companion of the Russian hero, Turgenev's girl - Natalya Lasunskaya, Lisa Kalitina, Elena Stakhova, Marianna - entered not only literature, but also life. The writer depicts in his novels and stories the most flourishing period in a woman’s destiny, when, in anticipation of the chosen one, the female soul blossoms, and all its potential possibilities awaken to temporary triumph.

Together with the image of Turgenev’s girl, the image of “Turgenev’s love” enters into the writer’s work. This feeling is akin to revolution: “... the monotonously correct structure of established life is broken and destroyed in an instant, youth stands on the barricade, its bright banner flutters high, and no matter what awaits it ahead - death or a new life - it is all sends his enthusiastic greetings." All Turgenev's heroes undergo the test of love - a kind of test of viability not only in intimate, but also in public beliefs.

A loving hero is beautiful, spiritually inspired, but the higher he flies on the wings of love, the closer the tragic denouement and fall are. Love, according to Turgenev, is tragic because both weak and strong people are defenseless before its elemental power. Wayward, fatal, uncontrollable, love whimsically disposes of human destiny. This feeling is also tragic because the ideal dream to which a soul in love surrenders cannot be fully realized within the confines of the earthly natural circle.

And, however, the dramatic notes in Turgenev’s work are not the result of fatigue or disappointment in the meaning of life and history. Quite the opposite. They are generated by a passionate love for life, reaching the thirst for immortality, to the desire for human individuality not to fade away, so that the beauty of a phenomenon turns into an eternal, imperishable beauty that remains on earth. Momentary events, living characters and conflicts are revealed in Turgenev’s novels and stories in the face of eternity. The philosophical background enlarges the characters and takes the problems of the works beyond the limits of narrow temporal interests. A tense dialogical relationship is established between the writer’s philosophical reasoning and the direct depiction of the heroes of the time at the culminating moments of their lives. Turgenev loves to close moments for eternity and give timeless interest and meaning to a transitory phenomenon.

The predecessors of Turgenev's social novel in Russian literature were Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" and "Who is to Blame?" Herzen. What are its features? It is small in volume. The action unfolds without long delays or retreats, without complications with side plots, and ends in a short time. Usually it is timed to a precisely defined time. Thus, the plot events in “Fathers and Sons” begin on May 20, 1859, in “On the Eve” - in the summer of 1853, in “Smoke” - on August 10, 1862. The biography of the characters, standing outside the chronological framework of the plot, is woven into the course The narratives are sometimes detailed and detailed (Lavretsky), sometimes brief, fluent and incidental, and the reader learns little about Rudin’s past, and even less about the past of Insarov and Bazarov. In its general constructive form, Turgenev’s novel is like a “series of sketches” that organically merge into a single theme, which is revealed in the image of the central character. The hero of Turgenev's novel, who appears before the reader as a fully formed person, is a typical and best ideological representative of a certain social group (advanced nobility or commoners). He strives to find and implement the depot of his life, to fulfill his social duty. But he always fails. The conditions of Russian socio-political life doom him to failure. Rudin ends his life as a homeless wanderer, dying as an accidental victim of a revolution in a foreign land. Lavretsky, whose best years of his life were “spent on a woman’s love,” resigns himself and calms down. After long wanderings, he arrived at his desolate Vasilievskoye estate and waits for him to be “sobered up by boredom... and prepared to slowly build a depot,” that is, .e. good management. He is still “waiting for something, mourning the past and listening to the surrounding silence... But the outcome of his life has already been summed up. Leaving, flowing away, lonely, useless - this is the elegy of the life of the dying Lavretsky, who did not find an answer for himself what to do in life. But the commoner Insarov, who knows what to do, the “liberator” of his homeland, dies on the way to his chain. In a distant churchyard, Bazarov, a rebellious man with a fiery heart, found his peace. He wanted to “break things,” “get things done,” “mess with people,” but he, the “giant,” only managed to “die decently.”

Many heroes of Turgenev's novels were united by a fiery, genuine love for their homeland. But inevitable failure in life awaited them all. Turgenev's hero is a failure not only in public affairs. He is a loser in love too. The ideological face of Turgenev's hero most often appears in disputes. Turgenev's novels are filled with controversy. Hence the particularly important compositional significance in the novel of dialogue-argument. And this feature is by no means accidental. The Rudins and Lavretskys, people of the forties, grew up among Moscow circles, where the ideological debater was a typical, historically characteristic figure (the nightly dispute between Lavretsky and Mikhalevich, for example, is very typical). With no less acuteness, ideological disputes were conducted, turning into journal polemics, between “fathers” and “sons,” that is, between nobles and commoners. In “Fathers and Sons” they are reflected in the disputes between Kirsanov and Bazarov.

One of the characteristic elements in Turgenev's novel is the landscape. Its compositional role is varied. Sometimes it seems to frame the action, giving an idea only of where and when this action takes place. Sometimes the background of the landscape matches the mood and experience of the hero, “corresponds” to him. Sometimes the landscape is drawn by Turgenev not in consonance, but in contrast with the mood and experience of the hero. The “indescribable charm” of Venice, with “this silvery tenderness of the air, this flying away and close distance, this wondrous consonance of the most graceful outlines and melting colors,” contrasts with what the dying Insarov and Elena, depressed by grief, are experiencing.

Very often Turgenev shows how deeply and powerfully nature acts on his hero, being the source of his moods, feelings, and thoughts. Lavretsky is traveling along a country road in a tarantass to his estate. The picture of an evening day puts Nikolai Petrovich in a dreamy mood, awakens sad memories in him and gives support to the idea that (contrary to Bazarov) “one can sympathize with nature.” “Sympathizing,” Nikolai Petrovich submits to her charm, “favorite poems” are remembered to him, his soul calms down, and he thinks: “How good, my God!” The pacifying power of nature, “speaking” to man, is revealed in the thoughts of Turgenev himself - in the last lines of “Fathers and Sons”. The flowers on Bazarov’s grave “speak” not only of the great, “eternal” peace of “indifferent” nature - “they also speak of eternal reconciliation and endless life.” The lyrical element plays a significant role in Turgenev's novels. Especially the epilogues of his novels - Rudin, The Noble Nest, Fathers and Sons - are imbued with deep lyricism.

The most significant works of Russian literature of the 19th century are distinguished by the formulation of the most important social, philosophical, and ethical questions of their time. The wealth of issues is one of the main qualities characteristic of works of Russian classical literature. This quality is clearly manifested in their titles, which often express in a conditional, generalized form the essence of the problems raised. A special group consists of titles containing antitheses: “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Wolves and Sheep”. This includes “Fathers and Sons” by I. S. Turgenev. This is the writer's most famous novel. What is he talking about? Why does it still retain its value for us? To understand the work, it is important to understand the meaning of its title. It's not as easy as it might seem. The title of the novel does not contain a direct explanation. Rather, it represents the task assigned to the readers. Finding its solution means joining those ideas that were embodied in artistic form in Turgenev’s novel.
When focusing on the title, it is necessary to take into account its role and place in the artistic system that any literary work represents. As you know, the latter has three sides: subject, verbal and compositional. The main elements of the objective world of the work are the characters considered within the framework of the plot. The title is often associated with these elements. The most important aspect of a literary work - its speech structure - is also manifested in the title, which represents a verbal construction that not only indicates the subject, but also reflects the author’s choice of the most appropriate words. In addition, the title, being the absolute beginning of the text, has an important compositional function, uniting all the elements of the artistic system. Their above-mentioned connection with the title emphasizes the special role of the latter and outlines those directions in line with which it is advisable to analyze the title of the novel “Fathers and Sons.”
The introduction pointed to a group of titles of works by Russian classics, to which “Fathers and Sons” adjoins. A closer look allows us to highlight a certain feature in the title in question in comparison with the aforementioned novels by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment” as titles contain a contrast and comparison of abstract concepts. “Fathers and Sons” contains an indication of the characters and their arrangement, and generally represents the system of characters in the novel. In the mind of the reader, enriched by everyday experience, fathers and children are imagined as an inseparable and often conflicting pair. This is another feature when comparing it, for example, with “Wolves and Sheep” by A. N. Ostrovsky. What kind of conflict is set by the very title of the novel? The change of generations, the displacement of the old by the new is a manifestation of a universal pattern of life. Turgenev's novel is hardly a simple illustration of this idea, brilliantly expressed by Pushkin in the second chapter of Eugene Onegin: Alas! on the reins of life/Instant harvest of a generation,/According to the secret will of providence,/Rise, mature and fall;/Others follow them...
Turgenev focuses on the features of a specific manifestation of a general pattern. In this regard, the novel turned out to be very topical. In another way, we can say that modern life material was interpreted by Turgenev from the standpoint of universal human concepts. This position of the writer predetermined the presence of a second, deep layer of the novel’s content, in which “eternal” themes are put forward. The modern-everyday and the eternal collide in the novel, creating its multidimensionality, making the picture of reality more complex, more vital. It is no coincidence that the novel begins with the exact date (May 20, 1859), and ends with Turgenev’s heartfelt words about “eternal reconciliation and endless life...”. It should be noted that this understanding of the novel contradicts the widespread view of D.I. Pisarev, who focused on the level of ideological conflict between the younger and older generations. The critic tried to solve the problem of “fathers and sons” practically, exploring “how, like Turgenev, the ideas and aspirations stirring in our young generation affect a person...” For Pisarev, Turgenev is “one of the best people of the last generation.” It is amazing that the critic does not leave the author the right to be the main exponent of the ideas of his novel. His “opinions and judgments,” “expressed in inimitably vivid images, will provide only materials for characterizing the past generation in the person of one of its best representatives.” Pisarev saw the “deduced phenomena of life” as very close to himself, so close that “all of our young generation with their aspirations and ideas can recognize themselves in the characters of this novel.” It was this closeness that turned out to be the main factor influencing the opinion of the author of a critical analysis of the novel in 1862. It is no coincidence that the analysis is named after the main character, in which, according to the critic, the whole meaning of the novel was concentrated:
“Today’s young people get carried away and go to extremes, but the passions themselves reveal fresh strength and an incorruptible mind; this strength and this mind... will lead young people onto the straight path and support them in life.” Therefore, a critic could write the following words: “When a person like Bazarov died... then is it worth following the fate of people like Arkady, Nikolai Petrovich, Sitnikov?” Meanwhile, in our opinion, the fate of the named heroes is directly related to the general meaning of the novel, the key to which is contained in its title. Let us not blame Pisarev for narrowing, in our opinion, the meaning of the novel and, accordingly, the meaning of its title. The depth of Turgenev's work was revealed from a certain historical distance. It is possible that new touches will be added in the future! to understanding “Fathers and Sons.” At the plot level, the title “Fathers and Sons” sets the theme of the relationship between two generations of the thinking part of Russian society in the 60s of the 19th century. This was the time of the emergence of a new social force in Russia - the heterogeneous intelligentsia. The noble class ceased to reign supreme in society. Turgenev captured the social conflict of his time, the conflict between the nobles and the “third” estate, which actively entered the historical arena. The main representatives of the named social forces in the novel are Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov and Evgeny Bazarov. Turgenev emphasizes Bazarov's democracy and Kirsanov's aristocracy even with small, but very characteristic details. Let's compare the descriptions of the characters in the same situation: shaking hands. Getting acquainted with Bazarov, Nikolai Petrovich squeezes “his naked red hand, which he did not immediately give to him.” And here is another description: Pavel Petrovich took his beautiful hand with long pink nails from the pocket of his trousers - a hand that seemed even more beautiful from the snowy whiteness of the sleeve, fastened with a single large opal, and gave it to his nephew. "The difference in the clothes of the heroes and their attitude is fundamental. to her. Bazarov says: “Just order my suitcase to be stolen there and this clothes.” Bazarov’s “clothes” is “a long robe with tassels.” It is no coincidence that at the same “instant” Pavel Petrovich appears, “dressed in a dark English suit, a fashionable low tie and patent leather ankle boots." Let's think about how we can comprehend the contrast of heroes in clothing. It is clear that behind Bazarov's carelessness stands his "nihilism", and behind Kirsanov's sophistication - his "principles". However, we must not forget that we are dealing with people different ages, different generations. Each generation has its own fashion, including clothing. Fathers and sons must be different from each other. External difference is only a sign of internal difference. Without it there will be no development. Time does not stand still. The son repeats his father at a new level; this can be seen in the example of Arkady and Nikolai Petrovich. However, the main question is what the new generation brings. I would like to believe that history is moving along the path of progress. But aren't there possible costs? All this is “embedded” in the concept of “fathers and sons,” which, in relation to Turgenev’s novel, cannot be reduced to a clear opposition of “fathers” (liberal nobles) and “children” (democrats). Political conflict may be the main conflict of Turgenev's time, but not of Turgenev's novel. The collision of the main characters reveals the deepest difference in their entire worldview, and it cannot be sharply isolated in each generation. In this environment, the new raises an alarm and attracts intense attention in order to figure out what is being denied and what is being offered in return. And here the “childish” trait of Bazarov manifests itself, for whom it is easier to deny than to create. “Fathers” turn out to be, as it should be, wiser in some ways than “children,” until the latter, in turn, became fathers. The “Fathers” do not deny either Raphael or Pushkin; they themselves embody a certain life experience. He receives new coverage when Bazarov repeats the situation of Pavel Petrovich. At the same time, a new life, a new environment “sets aside” people like the Kirsanov brothers. Nikolai Petrovich himself agrees that “our song is finished.” However, the “children,” displacing the “fathers,” themselves find themselves powerless in the face of time. Bazarov is acutely aware of this in the scene where he says: “... and the part of time that I manage to live is so insignificant before eternity, where I was not and will not be...” The problem of “fathers and sons” receives a philosophical generalization in Turgenev’s novel .
What does the title of the novel represent in verbal terms? The expression “fathers” and “children” in the context of the novel is ambiguous. Bazarov and Arkady's fathers are participants in the plot. Direct family ties of other characters are mentioned. However, the title of the novel is metaphorical. By “fathers” we can understand the entire older generation, which is being replaced by younger ones - “children”. It is important to note the imagery of the name. The thought contained in it would be difficult to express using abstract concepts, for example: “Old and new.” How many different semantic nuances are not included here! The title of Turgenev's novel has an important organizing function. The theme of “fathers” and “sons” literally permeates the entire narrative. Already at the very beginning, Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov appears to readers both as a father waiting for his son, “who, like himself once, received the title of candidate,” and as the son of a “combat general of 1812.” In the tenth chapter, he recalls how he once told his mother that “you, they say, cannot understand me; We supposedly belong to two different generations.” “Now it’s our turn...” continues Nikolai Petrovich. In the stories of the heroes, oppositions between generations are constantly outlined. So, Bazarov says about his parents: “I think: it’s good for my parents to live in the world! The father is busy at sixty years old,<...>and my mother feels good: her day is so crammed with all sorts of activities, oohs and aahs, that she has no time to come to her senses, and I...” Nikolai Petrovich’s reflections are especially significant in the eleventh chapter, when he clearly realized his separation from his son. “Brother says we are right,” he thought, “and,<...>It seems to me that they are further from the truth than we are, and at the same time I feel that behind them there is something that we do not have, some kind of advantage over us... Youth? No: not just youth.”
In Turgenev's novel there is a motif of change. “Transformations are necessary...” thinks Arkady, driving up to the estate with his father. “Before there were Hegelists, and now there are nihilists,” exclaims Pavel Petrovich. The motive for change is also heard in the epilogue. Bazarov found himself cut out from life. His traveling companion Arkady became a father himself and followed the path of his father. However, he achieves better results on the farm, and the “farm” is already generating quite a significant income. Apparently, Arkady still has something “new”. But somehow it becomes awkward, remembering his friendship with Bazarov. Is it a coincidence that Nikolai Petrovich remembers Pushkin’s poems at the very beginning? What are they about? How sad your appearance is to me,/Spring! Spring!/Or with lively nature/We bring together with a confused thought/We are the withering of our years,/For which there is no revival?
The finitude of human life and the infinity of reality - and the novel, which is a document of its era, reminds us of this.
How can we summarize all of the above? What, finally, is the meaning of the title of the novel? “Fathers and Sons” is a symbol of ever-renewing life. The novel “Fathers and Sons” is about life, as it appeared before Turgenev, and as he understood it.

What happened in Turgenev’s life at the time when the essays and stories of “Notes of a Hunter” were created one after another? Why did he live abroad for three and a half years? “Only at your feet can I breathe” - this line from Turgenev’s letter to Pauline Viardot, the brilliant singer with whom fate brought him together on November 1, 1843 in St. Petersburg during a tour of the Italian Opera and left him with her forever, contains the answer to the questions posed . In 1847, Turgenev left Russia also because he could no longer imagine himself without this woman (“Where you are, there I will be”). He lived his entire life in this delightful and inexplicable dependence.

While in Europe, Turgenev learned about the death of V. Belinsky. Here he became close to A. Herzen. Both had a hard time surviving the events of the June days in France in 1848, when the revolutionary labor movement was crushed.

Upon returning home, Turgenev has a final break with his mother. Soon Varvara Petrovna will die, not giving in to her sons in anything, but not blaming them either.

And in 1852, Gogol died in Moscow, about whom Turgenev would write a posthumous article. It will not be published in the capital due to a censorship ban. And then it will appear in a Moscow newspaper, as a result of which Turgenev will be arrested. However, the true reasons for the arrest, of course, were different, among them friendship with Bakunin, Herzen, the events of 1848 seen by the writer, and the anti-serfdom “Notes of a Hunter.”

Having released Turgenev from arrest a month later, the authorities would send him to Spasskoye without the right to leave the Oryol province. Here he will write “Mumu” ​​and “Inn”. Here the literary “physiognomy” of Turgenev the prose writer, Turgenev the novelist, will finally appear.

The history of Turgenev’s novel begins with “Rudin,” conceived during the period of his forced stay in Spassky and completed there in 1855.

The atmosphere of Turgenev's novel. “Rudina” was immediately perceived as a public, social novel, although Turgenev retained the traditional family and everyday basis in it. And yet, the defining thing in the novel was, according to the writer, the reflection of “the state of modern society.”

It was highly characteristic of Turgenev to sharpen his attention to the “current moment.” For this reason, his novels began to be called an artistic chronicle of modern social life.

Turgenev’s novels included the atmosphere of a “critical”, “transitional” time, as the author himself defined it - a time of ideological disagreements, disputes about the people, about the fate of the nobility, its historical role in the life of Russian society, about the development of the country. It was a time of uncertain prospects and wavering hopes.

Turgenev, on the other hand, belonged to that type of artist who thinks hopefully, explains how one can live, predicts the development of bright social types and the movement towards highly human relations. It is no coincidence that in Turgenev’s novel a hero of purpose appears, striving to establish the highest meaning of earthly human existence.

Heroes of Turgenev's novel. Time in the novel. The center of Turgenev's novels becomes a person belonging to the Russian people of the cultural stratum - educated, enlightened nobles. Therefore, Turgenev’s novel is also called personal. And since he was an artistic “portrait of the era,” the hero of the novel, as part of this portrait, also embodied the most characteristic features of his time and his class. Such a hero is Dmitry Rudin, who can be regarded as a type of “extra people”.

In the writer’s work, the problem of the “superfluous man” will occupy a fairly large place (“Diary of an extra man,” “Correspondence,” “Quiet,” “Two Friends,” “Hamlet of Shchigrovsky District”). No matter how harshly Turgenev wrote about the character of the “superfluous man,” the main pathos of the novel was the glorification of Rudin’s unquenchable enthusiasm and perseverance in achieving the goal, unchanging loyalty to himself. In this regard, Turgenev’s “hero of the goal” is not only a specific historical type, but also embodies eternal literary types. Isn’t Don Quixote discernible in Rudin, the eternal wanderer, who carries faith in the ideal throughout his entire life like a candle? Is it in Rudin, tormented by the thought of his own insolvency (“...was I really not good for anything...”), of forced inaction (“Words, all words! There were no deeds!”), experiencing the tragedy of alienation and loneliness , Hamlet is not visible - the first reflective hero in world literature?

The presence in Turgenev's type of hero of two meaningful levels - concrete historical and timeless - determines, accordingly, the presence in his novels of two temporal dimensions - historical and eternal, existential.

In the field of historical time are the immediate events and characters of the novel in their past and present. Time, associated with universal norms and values ​​of human life (good, truth, death, nature, love, art, beauty...), brings the content to the existential level and allows us to judge Turgenev’s novel as moral and philosophical.

1 Reflection is the tendency to analyze one’s experiences.