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WHAT TO DO?

From stories about new people

(Novel, 1863)

Vera Pavlovna (Rozalskaya) is the main character. “...A tall, slender girl, rather dark, with black hair - “thick good hair”, with black eyes - “good eyes, even very good”, with a southern type of face - “as if from Little Russia; perhaps more likely even a Caucasian type, nothing, a very beautiful face, only very cold, this is not the southern way; good health…” – this is how V.P. Lopukhov sees him at the moment of meeting him. She grew up in St. Petersburg in a multi-story

house on Gorokhovaya. From the age of twelve he attends a boarding school. Learns to play the piano. Since the age of fourteen he has been covering the whole family. At sixteen she gives lessons at the same boarding school. Cheerful, sociable disposition, loves to dance. She is courted by the owner's son Storeshnikov, who boasts to his friends that V.P. is his mistress. They don’t believe him, and he promises to prove it by bringing V.P. to dinner with friends, but he receives a firm refusal from the heroine. V.P. does not accept his proposal to marry him.

Despite her youth and inexperience, the heroine shows maturity of character. To Julie Le Tellier’s advice to marry Storeshnikov, she replies: “I want to be independent and live my own way; whatever I need myself, I’m ready for; what I don’t need, I don’t want and don’t want... I don’t want to demand anything from anyone, I want not to restrict anyone’s freedom and I want to be free myself.” Nevertheless, V.P. naively believes in the sincerity of Storeshnikov’s love for her, and only Lopukhov manages to open her eyes. The heroine asks him to find her a position as a governess; at first he succeeds, but then they are refused. V.P. even thinks about suicide, life at home becomes so unbearable for her. And then Lopukhov, who fell in love with her, offers her another way out - to marry him fictitiously.

Discussing a plan for living together with Lopukhov, V.P. asks him to treat her as an outsider, as this prevents discourtesy and strengthens family harmony. This is how they live - like brother and sister, in separate rooms, meeting on “neutral territory” for a joint meal or conversation. V.P. organizes a workshop-partnership on new economic principles (profits are distributed among the workers), which becomes the main business of her life. At some point, V.P. understands that, despite the family harmony and excellent relationship with Lopukhov, she does not love him, but loves Kirsanov. She tries to deepen her relationship with her husband, making it more earthly and passionate, but this is only an escape from herself. There is no idyll. In the end, Lopukhov disappears, faking suicide in order to free V.P. for a new alliance. The heroine finds true happiness with Kirsanov.

In the structure of V.P.’s image, as well as the novel as a whole, important place are occupied by dreams. They reflect the spiritual and moral evolution of the heroine. V.P.’s first dream: she is locked in a damp, dark basement, paralyzed, she hears an unfamiliar voice, someone touches her hand, and the illness immediately passes, she sees a girl in a field in whom everything is constantly changing - and her face , and gait, and even nationality. When the heroine asks who she is, the girl replies that she is her fiancé’s bride and, although she has many names, V.P. can call her “love for people.”

V.P.’s second dream: again a field, Lopukhov and Mertsalov are walking along it, and the first explains to the second the difference between pure, that is, real, dirt and rotten, that is, fantastic dirt. Real dirt is the one in which there is movement, life (its signs are labor and efficiency). In rotten mud, accordingly, life and labor are absent. V.P. sees his mother Marya Aleksevna in an environment of poverty, pale and exhausted, but kind, sees herself on the knees of an officer or being hired for a job and being refused. “The bride of her grooms, the sister of her sisters” explains to V.P. that she should be grateful to her mother, because she owes everything to her, and she became evil because of the conditions in which she was forced to live. If the situation changes, then the evil ones will become good.

V.P.’s third dream: the singer Bosio reads her diary with her (although V.P. never kept it). This diary contains the story of her relationship with Lopukhov. Last page V.P. refuses to read in fear, and then her mentor reads it herself. The point is that V.P. doubts the truth of her feelings for Lopukhov: her love for him is rather respect, trust, readiness to act together, friendship, gratitude, but not the love that she needs... V.P. wants to love Lopukhova does not want to offend him, but her heart yearns for Kirsanov.

V.P.’s fourth dream: she sees different images female queens, embodiments of love - Astarte, Aphrodite, “Purity”. Finally, she recognizes the fair beauty who guides her through different eras development of humanity, herself - a free woman. A woman who loves and who is loved. “...It’s herself, but a goddess.” V.P. sees the Crystal Palace-Garden, fertile fields, people working happily and also having fun - an image of the future, which is “bright and beautiful.” Her family happiness and her workshop, according to the author, are the prototype of this happy future, its embryo.

Other works on this topic:

1. WHAT TO DO? From stories about new people (Novel, 1863) Rozalskaya Marya Aleksevna is the mother of Vera Pavlovna. A thin, strong, tall lady. Gives money as collateral...
2. Chernyshevsky approaches this type completely differently. His novel “What to do?” in general it is polemical in relation to conservative and liberal-noble literature, and in the interpretation of women's...
3. The image of Vera Pavlovna and its role in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” I. Introduction Vera Pavlovna is the main character of the novel: it is her biography that is consistently traced by the author,...
4. G. N. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?” unique not only in ideological and thematic terms, but also in compositional terms. In this work the writer expressed his ideals of light...
5. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is the creator of a work of a special genre - the artistic and journalistic novel “What is to be done?”. In it, the writer tried to answer the eternal questions of Russian literature. Revealing the plan...
6. WHAT TO DO? From stories about new people (Novel, 1863) Mikhail Ivanovich Storeshnikov is the son of the mistress of the house where Vera Pavlovna’s family lives and whose manager is...

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is the creator of a work of a special genre - the artistic and journalistic novel “What is to be done?” In it, the writer tried to answer the eternal questions of Russian literature. The dreams of the heroine, Vera Pavlovna, contribute to the revelation of the writer’s plan, since the novel, due to censorship reasons, is written in an allegorical form. The writer, in numerous journalistic digressions, explains his views on others, the role of literature in the formation of public opinion.

Through his activities, Chernyshevsky tried to bring closer the construction of a fair, reasonable system, in which every person could develop his abilities, working for himself and for the state. It is not the writer’s fault that over the centuries many have strived for this utopia. Nikolai Gavrilovich gives specific recipes: what needs to be done to become happy and rich, to build a social formation that would be universally acceptable to everyone.

In the heroine's dreams, the author shows the path of a thinking girl to the heights of professionalism. It should be taken into account that the novel was written at a time when there was no system of female education in Russia. Women were assigned a secondary role: keepers of the hearth, educators of children who would be given the opportunity to live in the new world, but mothers, wives, sisters and daughters could not count on a wider circle social activities. Only “crumbs from the master’s table” could a woman pick up.

Chernyshevsky's heroes are new people. They look differently at women and their role in public life. It is no coincidence that Lopukhov gives Vera Pavlovna complete freedom after marriage. He “released her from the basement” of life, now she has the right to choose her own path. She becomes the creator of a women's artel workshop. But soon Vera Pavlovna realizes that this is not the business to which she would like to devote her life. Business in the sewing workshop is well established, it provides a stable income to both the owners and workers who share in the profits, and Vera Pavlovna becomes an assistant to her second husband, doctor Kirsanov. Isn't this a woman's free choice?!

In Vera Pavlovna's dreams, the writer explains or predicts what will follow later in the lives of the heroes or Russia as a whole. Vera Pavlovna's fourth dream is Chernyshevsky's utopian vision of the future fair social order of the country. This is a kind of classic description of the communist structure of the country, towards which Russia subsequently moved over the course of a number of years.

It is not the writer’s fault that his dreams and plans were not allowed to come true. An artist has the right to fiction, and Chernyshevsky won this right with his ascetic activity and life, which he laid on the altar of a wonderful future.

Now, from the height of the 21st century, it is easy to make assessments, judge the past and ancestors, especially since opponents cannot answer. It is easy to blame them for all sins, even their own. But history stores irrefutable evidence that Chernyshevsky subordinated his activities not to self-interest, proprietary interests, career, future glory, but to high service to Russia. He is not so much a great writer as he is selfless and honest man, who managed to live in harmony with himself, and this is not easy and deserves the respect of his descendants.

The first thing that makes you see the essence of the relationship between these people differently and suspect yourself of lack of insight is that Lopukhov leaves the Medical Academy two months before graduation in order, by getting married, to save Verochka Rozalskaya from oppression in her parents’ home. And this is the Lopukhov who reasonably and rationally claims that his actions are always guided by benefit!

What does this person understand by the word “benefit” if he is capable of actions that are clearly illogical precisely from the point of view of everyday convenience? This idea allows us to see the relationships between “new people” - and with their help, Chernyshevsky presents human relationships in the novel - from a different perspective...

You begin to understand that student Lopukhov, leaving the Academy, really acts in accordance with his own benefit. The whole point is that such deeds are beneficial to good and decent person. But it is about Dmitry Lopukhov that Chernyshevsky writes: “These people, like Lopukhov, have magic words that attract every sad, offended creature to them.” It is not difficult to guess that “magic words” are an expression of high properties human soul. Chernyshevsky is sure that the one who truly does good is the one who does not admire himself at this time. This characteristic fits Lopukhov’s personality perfectly.

For Lopukhov, human relationships are not bargaining according to the principle: “You are for me, I am for you,” but a relay race: “You are for me, I am for others.” It is no coincidence that Verochka, without feeling love for Lopukhov, while communicating with him in a friendly manner, immediately perceives this moral principle. Her first dream, in which she frees people from the basement, testifies to this.

Once you feel this main, inherent principle of human relationships, professed by the main characters, you begin to think: maybe it’s not so important how they organize their family life? Specific signs of everyday life change depending on time, but the main thing remains unchanged... For modern man it is important to understand the main thing that determines the relationships of the “new people” in the novel “What is to be done?”

The relationships between people are fully revealed when Alexander Kirsanov appears on stage. In many ways he is similar to Lopukhov. Both of them, according to the author, paved their way through breastfeeding, without connections, without acquaintances. Both put a lot of effort into realizing their abilities. And when an insoluble “love triangle” developed in the relationship between Kirsanov, Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna, both behaved with dignity in a difficult situation.

Kirsanov tried for a long time to give up any relationship with his friend’s wife. But feeling turns out to be stronger than logical constructions, and the heroes of the novel “What is to be done?” We wouldn’t be ourselves if we built our lives only according to the laws of logic, ignoring feelings.

But there are still conditions everyday life, and everyone decides for themselves how to relate their feelings to them. Kirsanov and Vera Pavlovna cannot unite their lives without first going through a divorce procedure that is humiliating for everyone. Realizing this, Lopukhov takes the only possible step: he decides to leave the stage. He does this, obeying the dictates of that very “benefit” that determines for him human relationships in general and his own actions in particular. And for this benefit, if you strive to transform life, dream of a future in which people will be harmonious and spiritually free, then today you need to be not only educated, hardworking and honest, but also happy, relying in this not so much on fate, but on yourself.

Perhaps someone will think that Lopukhov acted wrongly, someone will approve of his action - this already depends on the code of honor of each of us. Lopukhov behaved as he found necessary: ​​he staged a suicide and gave Vera Pavlovna and Kirsanov the opportunity to be together. He goes abroad and returns to St. Petersburg only when the old feeling has passed.

But the most important thing is that human relationships built on such a moral basis do not seem to Chernyshevsky to be anything out of the ordinary. He directly writes about this in the novel: “I bet that until the last sections of this chapter, Vera Pavlovna, Kirsanov, Lopukhov seemed to the majority of the public to be heroes, persons of the highest nature... No, my friends, it is not they who stand too high, but you who stand too low... At the height at which they stand, all people should stand, can stand.”

The main lesson here is given by the heroes novel "What to do?" Political systems change, people's life aspirations change, but the moral principles of human relations remain unchanged at all times. You can be grateful to a writer who reminds you of this.

Publication date 09/18/2017

The image of Vera Pavlovna in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?”

Balakhonova Anastasia Alexandrovna

Hristova Tatyana Yurievna
5th year student of the Pedagogical Institute, Faculty of History and Philology, Belgorod State National research university, Russia, Belgorod

Abstract: The article discusses the feature main character, Vera Pavlovna, in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?”
Key words: N.G. Chernyshevsky, novel, Vera Pavlovna, hero

Balakhonova Anastasia Alexandrovna

Khristova Tatyana Yurievna
5-year student of the Pedagogical Institute of the History and Philology Faculty of Belgorod State National Research University, Russia, Belgorod

Abstract: The article examines the feature of the main character, Vera Pavlovna, in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky "What to do?"
Keywords: N.G. Chernyshevsky, a novel, Vera Pavlovna, a hero

The creative heritage of the writer N.G. Chernyshevsky occupies an important place in Russian literature.

It is noteworthy that the most striking creative feat of the writer is considered to be his work about “new people” - the novel “What is to be done?”.

At the center of the work of the revolutionary writer is a provincial girl, Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya, who evolves into a mistress of sewing workshops and a doctor (throughout the entire novel).

So, with the help of this heroine, N.G. Chernyshevsky “tells” readers the answer to the question posed in the title of the novel - you need to do everything for the sake of your own happiness, without causing harm to others, try to make other people happy thanks to free and useful work and a kind heart.

It is noteworthy that the poet’s hero is a reflection of the ideals of N.A. Nekrasov and a certain “symbol” of the poet’s worldview with his pronounced civic pathos.

Thus, a sense of citizenship has always been an integral characteristic of both the poet himself and his lyrical works. For example, in the poem “Poet and Citizen” by N.A. Nekrasov wrote about the purpose of the poet-citizen and his “duty” to the country:

You may not be a poet

But you have to be a citizen.

Feature lyrical hero in the poems of N.A. Nekrasov is that he is often identified with the poet himself, but remains an “individuality” - a “mouthpiece of the poet’s ideas”: to be faithful to the fatherland, to serve the people faithfully.

It is interesting that it is the lyrical hero N.A. Nekrasova expresses sympathy for the plight of the masses and calls on them to active methods resistance - to fight.

So, the lyrical hero of N.A.’s poems. Nekrasova is indignant at those who infringe on the rights of ordinary and disadvantaged people (for example, the manager from the poem “Forgotten Village”, the unjust landowner - “Motherland”):

So much the worse would your fate be,

If only you were less patient.

It is important to note that most of N.A.’s poems Nekrasov are distinguished by their writing with a “folk spirit”, conveying the peasant language, life ordinary people, their feelings and experiences, features of speech. The following examples can be given for this group of poems: “The Witch,” “Katerina,” “Green Noise.”

Another thematic link in the creative heritage of N.A. Nekrasov composes intimate lyrics. Her distinctive features are the philosophical, closed and pessimistic nature of the lyrical “I”, the rich sensual sphere of the lyrical hero. This group includes such poems as “To the Demon”, “Long ago rejected by you...”, “How timid you are, how obedient you are...”.

It should be noted that the muse of the Russian poet identified her “suffering” with the sorrows of the common people of Russia:

Not a sound from her chest

Only the whip whistled as it played...

And I said to the Muse: “Look!

Your dear sister! .

In form and content, many lyrical works N.A. Nekrasov are similar to song genres that reflect the “spiritual” side of the common people. These include such works as “Song to Eremushka”, “Song about Free Speech”. Colloquialism and melodiousness are often found in N.A.’s lyrics. Nekrasova.

The final “result” creative activity N.A. Nekrasov's lyric poetry can be considered the poem "Elegy": the importance of dedicating poems to the people.

Thus, Vera Pavlovna, the heroine of the novel “What is to be done?” became a reflection of the ideals of N.G. Chernyshevsky and the “symbol” of the writer’s worldview with its pronounced revolutionary pathos.

1. Boyko, M. Lyrika N.A. Nekrasova / M. Boyko // Fiction. – 1977. – No. 11. – P. 17-23.
2. Nekrasov, N.A. Selected Poems. – [Text] – 1981. – 532 p.
3. Skatov, N.N. “I dedicated the lyre to my people”: About the work of Nekrasov / N.N. Skatov // World of Literature. – 1985. - No. 3. – P. 97-105.

Vera Pavlovna

VERA PAVLOVNA - the heroine of the work by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do? From stories about new people" (1863). The book is structured as a narrative about her life and spiritual development; the fates of other heroes are connected or intersect with her fate. Disgusted by the atmosphere of lies and violence that reigns in the family, resisting her mother’s attempts to marry her to the “trashy” young man Sto-reshnikov, V.P. enters into a marriage (at first fictitious) with medical student Lopukhov, a supporter of socialist ideas. To live together, they develop a whole series of innovations designed to preserve love, mutual respect and complete sovereignty of each party in the family. V.P. organizes a sewing workshop, which gradually becomes the embryo of a commune modeled on the Fourierist phalansteries. Mutual love V.P. and her husband's friend, Kirsanov, ends in an alliance.

According to the author, V.P. “one of the first women whose life was settled well.” At the beginning of the novel, she is characterized as an “ordinary girl” who received an “ordinary upbringing” and strives for happiness for herself and for others. However, the system of “doubles” of V.P. shows that her image contains a complex generalization.

“Doubles” by V.P. form a unique hierarchical system: the fate of each of them, in accordance with the views of Chernyshevsky (“under certain circumstances he becomes good, under others he becomes evil”, article “Anthropological principle in philosophy”), represents possible implementation fate of V.P. in other circumstances. Her life could have turned out like that of the courtesan Julie, a “bad” and at the same time “honest” woman: V.P.’s second dream depicts such a possibility. At the center of this hierarchy is the image of Katya Polozova, “symmetrical” to the image of V.P. and occupying the place of the main figure of the narrative in the penultimate chapter of the novel. V.P. - brunette (in Chernyshevsky’s characterology - a sign of expansiveness), Katya - blonde (a sign of poise); V.P. saved from her disgusting marriage with Lopukhov, Katya - from her recklessly desired marriage with Kirsanov; ultimately the husband of V.P. Kirsanov becomes Katya’s husband - the “resurrected” Lopukhov-Beaumont; Katya, following the example of V.P. organizes a sewing workshop; Each of the heroines gives birth to a son. Both families live together, embodying the harmony of the future commune, so that there is even a kind of mutual exchange of character traits: Katya turns out to be more passionate, and V.P. - more calm. The hierarchy of “doubles” is crowned by the woman from V.P.’s dreams. (“your groom’s bride”), who in the first dream constantly changes her appearance, and in the fourth finally takes on the appearance of V.P. herself. (“Yes, Vera Pavlovna saw: it was herself... but a goddess, illuminated by the radiance of love”).

The search for a prototype of the heroine also led to the conclusion about the broad typical generalization of the image. The author himself noted in letters that he endowed V.P. traits of his wife, O.S. Chernyshevskaya, to whom the novel is dedicated. The reverse impact of V.P.’s image was also enormous. on society. Fictitious marriages for the purpose of saving girls from bad families were almost a duty of honor for progressive youth; Often such marriages developed into real ones. Since the early 1860s in higher educational institutions, especially of a natural science nature, women appear; with the release of the novel their number increases. Finally, in the year the book was published, the “Women’s Labor Society” was created, and the novel itself “caused many attempts to set up sewing workshops on a new basis,” recalled E.N. Vodovozova, a contemporary of the events. Almost all of these attempts ended in failure.

The plot of the novel is based on traditional literary conflicts, receiving a new resolution. The motive of the seduction of a simple girl by a man of high society (Emilia Galotti Lessinga, Liza Karamzina) is parodically echoed in Storeshnikov's courtship. However, the denouement of this plot coincides with the plot of another: a meeting between an educated girl, dissatisfied with the life around her, and a man who rises above his social environment. In Russian literature, such a situation was usually resolved by the spiritual failure of the hero, the recognition of his failure in life (hence the whole gallery of “superfluous people”). It was this topic that was devoted to Chernyshevsky’s article “Russian man at rendez-vous” (18S8), who connected the hero’s love helplessness with social helplessness. Finally, the next conflict - the most traditional and deep - stems from the struggle between duty to the husband and feelings for another person. In the era of classicism, the beginning of a tragic plot lay here. In the era of Enlightenment sentimentalism, in the “New Heloise” and “Confessions” by J.-J. Rousseau, the tripartite relationship was recognized as naturally arising from the pluralistic nature of love. In the era of romanticism, in the novels of J. Sand, the emphasis was on the principle of “freedom of the heart” and the right of a woman to change her husband. The difference between Chernyshevsky’s heroes is that they are united not only general principles, but also socially significant matters: a worthy resolution of this conflict thus becomes a social factor.

Dreams of V.P. provide the genre unity of the book at key plot points. The dream was one of essential elements utopian literary tradition; such, in particular, is the dream in the chapter “Spasskaya Polest” of “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev. Symbolism of dreams V.P. lends itself to both concrete materialistic and spiritual-visionary reading, and V.P. herself V art world The novel stands on a par with the prophet Daniel and the apostle John the Theologian, whose prophecies are the results of visions and whose names are present in the book. The very name “V.P.” also turns out to be symbolic (in the Epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, in particular, it says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”; 11:1).