Mr. Chernyshevsky what to do problematic. Roman Chernyshevsky "What to do?" Problems, ideological meaning

Lecture 10 ROMAN N.G. CHERNYSHEVSKY "WHAT TO DO?". MAIN PROBLEM

Chernyshevsky's (1828-1889) novel about "new people" (as they are called in its subtitle: "From stories about new people"), which gave rise to a number of related works ( “Stepan Rulev” by N.F. Bazhin, “Before Dawn” by N.F. Blagoveshchensky, “Nikolai Negorev, or the Prosperous Russian” by I.A. Kushchevsky, etc.).

Written in the Peter and Paul Fortress in four months of 1862 and published in the spring of 1863, he struck his contemporaries with the unconventionality of not only his heroes (in this regard, he was forestalled by the narrative dilogy "Petty Bourgeois Happiness" and "Molotov" by N. Pomyalovsky, where not the nobles, but the raznochintsy acted , and Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" with the positivist Bazarov as the main person), how much novelty is the content and literary and fiction decisions that caused diametrically opposite reviews in criticism. While the radical youth of the 1860s read the novel, according to critic A. Skabichevsky, “almost on their knees, with such piety that does not allow the slightest smile on their lips,” and saw in it almost a new Gospel, the same novel was no less unanimously rejected by all the major domestic artists words.

I. Turgenev refuses him not only "art and beauty", but also the very efficiency. I. Goncharov calls the work "talentless", revealing only "shaky beginnings", on which Chernyshevsky "built both his scientific theories and the ghostly building of some new order in the conditions and methods of social life." N.S. Leskov, calling the novel "What is to be done?" “A very bold, very large-scale and, in a certain respect, very useful phenomenon,” he nevertheless concludes: “From the point of view of art, Mr. Chernyshevsky’s novel is below all criticism; he's just ridiculous." Leo Tolstoy parodies both Chernyshevsky himself and his characters in the comedy The Infected Family (1864), and Dostoevsky in Notes from the Underground (1864) subjected to crushing criticism the normative-rationalistic understanding of human nature propagated by the "new people".

For Chernyshevsky himself, his novel was a positive response to the disappointing life outcomes of the heroes of such works of Russian literature as A. Pisemsky's story “Is She Guilty?” (1855), the story of N. Pomyalovsky "Molotov" (1861), and in particular on the tragic worldview of Turgenev, reflected in the fate of Turgenev's "plebeian" Yevgeny Bazarov.

Hence, in particular, the deliberate roll-call of the novel What Is to Be Done? with the novel "Fathers and Sons" in surnames its central characters: Dmitry Lopukhov, obviously, “bred out” of that “burdock”, which, according to Bazarov, will grow out of him, who has died; Alexander Kirsanov is called the same as the owners of the Maryino estate; the anthroponyms "Bazarov" and "Rakhmetov" are drawn together by their Turkic roots. There are also overlaps in biographies characters of Chernyshevsky and Turgenev: Lopukhov and Kirsanov, like Bazarov, studied at the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy, are adherents of natural science knowledge, experimenters and doctors.

Two most important new points are first of all striking when comparing Chernyshevsky's novel with the works of Russian literature that preceded it and with the novels of Turgenev and Goncharov. This is, firstly, the fundamental optimism works. All conflicts, previously unresolved or resolved with results that do not satisfy readers, are in What Is To Be Done? completely allowed. In general, according to Yu.M. Prozorov, Chernyshevsky's "new people" are "programmed as winners", "doomed to happiness".

Another unconventional feature of the novel is internally connected with optimism. We mean the unusually large place that occupied in it abstractly speculative, the actual theoretical component, is generally contraindicated for a fiction work. The matter is not limited to direct and indirect references of the reader to many scientists (Liebig, Newton, Claude Bernard, Virchow, Macaulay, Guizot, Thiers, Gervinus, etc.) or to the works of social utopians (V. Considerant, C. Fourier, R. Owen) and philosophers (Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Feuerbach, Auguste Comte). Chernyshevsky either explains to the reader his "theory of egoism", then reproduces the "theoretical conversation" between Kirsanov and Lopukhov, and in the chapter "Tests of Hamlet" - Lopukhov and Vera

Pavlovna, then talks about labor as “the main element of reality” or about “mystery world history”, about the physiological superiority of the female body over the male, etc. and so on.

And in all these and similar cases, he leaves pictorial and means of expression fiction writer for the abstract "language of philosophy" so much that one day even main character novel - Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya, listening to the talk of her friends about "analogues, identity and anthropologisms", demanded: "Please, gentlemen, something else, so that I can participate in the conversation, or better, let's play."

It is very important to correctly understand the reason for such an extensive speculative component in Chernyshevsky's novel. It would be a mistake, following N. Leskov, to assume that Chernyshevsky is also in What Is To Be Done? remains a publicist, only using the form of a novel in order to spread "the ideas of his school" more widely in this way. No, Chernyshevsky - and this is confirmed by his second novel "Prologue" (written in hard labor in 1867-1871, first published in 1877 in London) - undoubtedly had certain literary abilities, although he was not by kind of talent And worldview artist. He himself considered his “stories about new people” not fictionalized journalism, but a novel, and he had well-known reasons for this.

Theoretical (speculative) component in "What to do?" dictated by the very desire of Chernyshevsky for the first time positively answer those fundamental questions of the Russian and general human being, which were staged by Herzen, Turgenev, Goncharov, and partly by Pomyalovsky, but whose decisions were unacceptable for the Russian public of the 1860s, especially for its radical youth part. Even with sympathy on her part for the heroes of Herzen's novel "Who is to blame?" and Turgenev's novels her idols would not be bad those who know Russia Vladimir Beltov and Dmitry Rudin, who neither preached service to the public debt at the cost of personal happiness Fyodor Lavretsky, not even the "self-made" and tragic Yevgeny Bazarov.

Goncharov's Andrey Stolz would have suited her no more, whose family harmony still smacked of some declarativeness and looked self-sufficing, and therefore egoistic. Egor Molotov, the hero of N. Pomyalovsky's narrative dilogy, who previously thought of the question what to do in order to “not continue the old life handed down by the fathers, but to create one’s own”, but ultimately reconciled with the existing Russian reality on the basis of “honest Chichikovism”, i.e. individualistic worldly comfort and well-being.

The question of how one should act in order to eliminate the primordial contradiction between man and the existing social reality, as well as man and the universe, and what case, which, according to Pomyalovsky, will allow everyone to live “with all their soul, with all the pores of the body”, i.e. become full-blooded and whole, free and creative personality, which naturally combines its own interests (“happiness”) with the interests of “all people together” (Herzen), remained painfully unclear as before.

And, obviously, he needed for his decision a qualitatively different, than the previous ones, holistic concepts of man, his nature, behavioral stimuli and earthly destiny itself.

This is what Chernyshevsky proposes in his novel What Is to Be Done? But in the form of a concept (“idea”), not actually artistic, which the non-artist Chernyshevsky could not do, but as a complex of abstract-speculative ideas, combining the positions of anthropological (Ludwig Feuerbach) and natural science (L. Buechner, K. Focht , J. Moleshotg, K. Bernard) materialism, English utilitarian ethics(Jeremiah Bentham, J. Stuart Mill) and European utopian socialism(V. Consideran, Robert Owen, C. Fourier).

The owners of the named ideological complex in the novel What Is To Be Done? are his positive heroes - Dmitry Lopukhov, Alexander Kirsanov, Dmitry Rakhmetov, Vera Pavlovna and their like-minded people. The true, according to Chernyshevsky, worldview, which they are guided by, not only correctly orients them in private life situations but guarantees a fruitful resolution of the fundamental problems of human existence.

Which ones?

Here is the first and most general of them - the attitude in a person's life freedom and external need(dependencies).

We remember how it looks in Turgenev, for example, in the story "A Trip to Polissya". Man is powerless and helpless before nature, indifferent to him, and the same universe, to which he, as a mortal being, insignificant in time and space, is initially disproportionate. Ultimately, he is not a somewhat equal partner, but only a victim of the “deaf and dumb laws” of the Universe beyond his control, called by the writer either the Unknown or Fate. They carry out their ruthless sentence on a person the more inevitably, the sooner he dares to wish not ordinary, but "immortal happiness." “History deceived,” says, summing up his life, the author-hero of Herzen’s “Past and Thoughts”; "life has deceived" echo him the best of actors Turgenev, bitterly recognizing with this exclamation the irresistible superiority of external necessity over them.

And here is how the named problem is comprehended in that chapter of the novel “What is to be done?” ("The Hamlet Test"), where young Vera Pavlovna and student Dmitry Lopukhov, who have recently met, discuss the book (apparently, Victor Consideran's "Social Destiny"), which Lopukhov delivered to the girl. Note: the resolution of it by these heroes of Chernyshevsky precedes even their recognition of mutual sympathy, which predetermined their imminent marriage.

“Your book,” we hear the voice of Vera Pavlovna, “says: a person acts out of necessity. But there are cases when it seems that from my arbitrariness depends on doing it one way or another. For example: I play and turn the pages of music; I turn them sometimes with my left hand, sometimes with my right. Suppose now I turned over with my right: couldn't I turn over with my left? Doesn't it depend on my arbitrariness? (emphasis mine. - V.N.).“No, Vera Pavlovna,” answers Lopukhov, “if you turn it over without thinking anything about which hand to turn it over with, you turn it over with the hand that is more convenient, there is no arbitrariness; if you thought: “let me turn it over with my right hand,” you will turn it over under the influence of this thought, but this thought did not come from your arbitrariness; she necessary was born from others ... ”(italics mine. - V.N.).

In the article “The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy” (1861), Chernyshevsky, asking what determines which foot a person gets out of bed in the morning, argued that here, too, the matter is decided not by his free desire, but by a combination of objective reasons.

So in human life dependence and necessity dominate, not freedom. As an atheist, Chernyshevsky replaces the religious-Christian free will human materialistic determinism, which has become one of the postulates of positivism. According to him, human behavior, the most vital fate, is a consequence, first of all, of objective conditions and circumstances, biological, historical, social and everyday, of his birth and existence.

However, fully recognizing the power of necessity, the heroes of What Is to Be Done? in their actions are guided only own desires and motives, without recognizing any third-party coercion and violence. The pathos of complete freedom of behavior is imbued, for example, with the following statement by Vera Pavlovna in her conversation with the Frenchwoman Julie: “You call me a dreamer, you ask what I want from life?<...>I want be independent and live in my own way what I myself need, I am ready for that; what I don’t need, don’t want, and don’t want.”<...>“... I only know that I don’t want to succumb to anyone, I want to be free..."(emphasis mine. - V.N.).

From the once-for-all accepted “rule: against the will of a person, nothing should be done for him; freedom is above everything, even life” comes, saving Katya Polozova and Alexander Kirsanov from severe depression. Only his own free will dictates the decisions of Dmitry Lopukhov when he leaves his studies at the Medical and Surgical Academy in order to free Vera Pavlovna from parental captivity, or when, simulating suicide, leaves Russia. The professional revolutionary Rakhmetov never forces himself to do anything.

As we can see, the recognition of the power of necessity does not in the least entail for Chernyshevsky's heroes a renunciation of their freedom. There is no insoluble contradiction between necessity and freedom in their behavior and life. Why?

To answer this question, we must turn to the general philosophical foundations of Chernyshevsky's concept of man and the world. Unlike the idealists Turgenev and Goncharov, Chernyshevsky in his ideological premises is an active follower, as already mentioned, of anthropological materialism, partly shared by a number of French enlighteners of the 18th century, utopian socialists of the 19th century, but raised to a great ideological height by Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) in his works The Essence of Christianity (1841), The Essence of Religion (1853).

In the interpretation of a person (in Greek, a person is anthropos, hence - anthropological) its essence is as follows. Man is not a creation of God (the World Spirit, the Absolute Idea), but of earthly nature, of which his own nature ("organization") is also a part. Formed in the prehistoric period of human existence, it consists of the following basic principles or "elements": by nature, each person, firstly, reasonable(homo sapiens), secondly, a creature active, laborer (homo faber), thirdly, a being public(collective), and not individualistic (social animal est homo or, according to Aristotle, “zoon politicon” - “political animal”), fourthly, he is egoist, those. strives for happiness, which is quite natural.

All these beginnings of generic human nature are directly or indirectly named in the novel What Is To Be Done? that song “da ira” (“it will go”), which at the beginning of the novel is sung by the “young lady” in her dacha on Kamenny Island.

The differences between individual people are determined by the unequal development in them of these generic elements of human nature: someone is more intelligent than active, the other is active and not stupid, but a purely individualist, and so on. A person achieves his “ideal” (or natural norm) if he contains all the named elements in their equally high development and interconnection - complementarity of each with all others, as well as vice versa. In this case, a normal person, or natural, according to Chernyshevsky, is formed - and a genius, for a genius, according to the anthropological "principle", differs from ordinary people only by the fact that human nature in it is in no way and in no way distorted.

The anthropological materialism of Chernyshevsky logically led him to a revolutionary conclusion: in order to preserve human nature in its purity and natural striving for human good, it is necessary to eliminate the social order that is unnatural to man (and those people, class groups by which it is supported). “Remove,” the writer says in the article “The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy, “pernicious circumstances, and the mind of a person will quickly brighten up and his character will be ennobled.”

Anthropological materialism is complemented in Chernyshevsky's worldview by natural-scientific materialism, based on the findings of natural scientists of the 19th century, who, in turn, acquired from the author "What is to be done?" deep optimistic interpretation.

Chernyshevsky was mistaken when, following the so-called "materialistic triumvirate" of German doctors and physiologists Ludwig Büchner, Jacob Moleschott and Karl Vocht, he denied the fundamental qualitative boundary between simple and complex forms of life, man and the plant and animal world of nature on the grounds that they all consist from common chemical elements and are filled with similar chemical processes. And - when he limited the differences between them only by a dissimilar combination of chemical elements and different intensities of chemical processes inherent in man and the animal and plant world of nature.

However, the very idea that man and nature (the universe), as well as the spiritual and bodily-physical aspects of man, are basically one and subject to the same laws, supported the optimistic worldview of the author and the characters of What Is To Be Done?. After all, thanks to her, between the finite man and eternal nature (and at the same time between the spiritual and bodily aspirations and capabilities of the individual), that insurmountable abyss disappeared, which strengthened the tragic worldview of I. Turgenev, which was directly reflected in the stories “A trip to Polesie” and “Enough”.

Let us return to Chernyshevsky's interpretation of the relationship between freedom and necessity and its reflection in the novel What Is To Be Done?.

If the essence of a person is determined by his generic nature, then in order to preserve it, it is enough for him to correctly understand the main components of this nature and accurately fulfill all their commands: to be not just an egoist, but to combine his egoism with considerations of reason and labor (activity), and labor with his social - collective orientation. In other words, a person should obey(to come in into addiction), but not to external forces (Fate, God, an artificially arranged state), but to their own own.

But what is dependence on oneself, if not the same freedom? So the eternal contradiction between freedom and necessity in Chernyshevsky is transformed into their actual identity. After all, as Dmitry Lopukhov notes, "it's easy when the duty is the attraction of one's own nature."

"New people" of the novel "What to do?" First of all, they differ from people "old"(they are represented by the father and mother of Vera Pavlovna, Mikhail Storeshnikov, Jean Solovtsov, the aristocrat Serge, the Frenchwoman Julie, the merchant Polozov), who, being able to resist the bad influence of the ruling society, perfectly understand the principles and requirements of their tribal nature and they are guided in their behavior. They are helped in this by: 1) the natural instinct itself - the voice of nature (strong from birth, for example, with Vera Pavlovna, who very soon felt that her concern for her own independence and happiness was inseparable for her from concern for the freedom and happiness of other women, people generally); 2) knowledge gained from modern thinkers (primarily Ludwig Feuerbach), who explained their true interests to contemporaries.

Following the attitude of freedom and necessity, the central characters of What Is to Be Done? positively resolve the conflict of interests personal(their) and general(strangers), or, according to Turgenev's categories, "happiness" and "duty". Let us recall how attempts to combine the first with the second ended in Turgenev's prose and Goncharov's novel "trilogy".

It is necessary to renounce the thirst for personal happiness, sacrifice it by putting on the “iron chains of duty”, otherwise the pursuit of happiness will only lead to self-deception (as in the case of the hero of Correspondence, who mistook his passion for a sensual Italian dancer for true love ) or drama (as in the case of the heroes of "Asia") - this is Turgenev's conclusion. Hence the cross-cutting motive cross in Turgenev's stories and in the novel "Fathers and Sons". Goncharov, depicting the happy Crimean life of the Stoltsev, speaks of its "harmony", i.e. achieved unity in it of the personal with the general. But it, like the happiness of these heroes, is not devoid of declarativeness.

With Chernyshevsky, none of his "new people" renounce personal happiness. “Man,” wrote the author of “What to do?” in the article "The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy" - he loves himself first of all"; at the heart of human actions, even seemingly disinterested, "is the thought of one's own, personal benefit." The positive characters of his novel also think so. “I don’t love anyone but myself,” Alexander Kirsanov declares without any reservations.

All "new people" are against sacrifice. Everything they do is done by them for themselves, for reasons of personal benefit, personal gain. Here, for example, Dmitry Lopukhov saves from the "basement", i.e. family prison, Vera Pavlovna, from where the only way is open for her to be sold under the guise of marriage. For the success of this business, he had to give up his career as a scientist, i.e. donate it. But he claims: “And I didn’t think to donate. Never been so stupid as to make sacrifices<...>. Yes, they don’t exist, no one brings them; this is a false concept: the victim is soft-boiled boots. As pleasant as you do"(emphasis mine. - V.N.). Here Kirsanov, who for three years concealed his love for Lopukhov's wife, explains that he acted in this way for his own sake. So Vera Pavlovna, arranging a sewing workshop for herself without personal self-interest, explains to young workers that this answers only personal predilections: “... You know that different people have different predilections<...>, some are addicted to balls, others to dresses and cards, and all such people are even ready to go bankrupt for their addiction, and many are ruined, and no one is surprised at this, that their addictions are dearer to them than money. And I'm addicted to what to do, I'll try with you, and I<...>I’m glad to do it without income for myself.”

Not a single one of Chernyshevsky's positive heroes, unlike Turgenev's or Goncharov's, considers himself to be indebted to anyone. They reject the traditional religious and ethical category of "duty" just as they reject the Christian concept of "sacrifice".

But here's the strange thing: everything that the "new people" do for personal benefit, for selfishness is primarily useful, beneficial to the people around them. Selfishness, their self-love does not oppose duty, but presupposes it and naturally turns around altruism. Why?

It's all about here new ethics heroes of Chernyshevsky. They are not just selfish, but reasonable egoists.

The concept of "reasonable egoism" was taken by Chernyshevsky from the English utilitarian ethics of Jeremiah Bentama (mentioned by Pushkin in "Eugene Onegin" in connection with the remark about the "other" secular lady that "reads Say and Bentham") and John Stuart Mill. Both thinkers addressed this ethical principle to the ruling classes of Britain, recommending to them - in the interests of their own material well-being- share in the form of voluntary philanthropy part of their wealth with the poor, so that they do not want to arrange their violent (revolutionary) redistribution. It is wiser to give away a fraction of one's wealth than, having waited for the uprising of the lower classes, to lose it entirely. "Reasonable egoism" was thus the principle public ethics regulating relations within the whole national society.

Chernyshevsky modifies it, turning it into an ethical norm individual and her individual behavior, and, moreover, endows with reasonable egoism representatives not of the tops of Russian society, but of its raznochinsk-democratic part, to which, with the exception of Rakhmetov, the “new people” from the novel “What is to be done?” belong.

All of them are reasonable egoists in the sense that their egoism is organically connected with the mind and enlightened by it. After all, this, Chernyshevsky believes, is quite natural ( naturally), since human nature itself is by no means exhausted by egoism.

Reason tells a person: you will gain more benefit, happiness for yourself if you fulfill not one of the dictates of your generic nature, but the simultaneous requirements of all its principles in their unity. Then it will turn out that between the desire for benefit and happiness for oneself and for other people, in essence, there is no insurmountable contradiction, or it is generated by an “artificially” organized society. A person who reasonably understands his egoistic motives, i.e. he who has learned to satisfy them in the process of his generally useful work will be truly happy, to the extent that he makes other people happy.

In the article "The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy", which became a kind of theoretical introduction to the novel "What Is to Be Done?", Chernyshevsky referred, substantiating his ethics of rational egoism, to the behavior of a mother, for the sake of her children, denying herself everything, and sometimes going after them to death. But, he said, she does it for herself, for that is her nature. And she is happy with her altruistic act. “I disturbed your composure. I'm leaving the stage. Don't be sorry; i love you both so much happy with his determination, ”Dmitry Lopukhov will write to Vera Pavlovna and Alexander Kirsanov, voluntarily giving freedom to his wife, making sure that she fell in love with his friend and is loved by him.

The well-known discrepancy between their personal benefit (happiness) and the benefit (happiness) of other people can, however, also arise among the positive characters of the novel What Is To Be Done? Vera Pavlovna once found herself in this situation when, after leaving Lopukhov’s suicide (in fact, an imaginary one, which the heroine learns about later) from St. Petersburg, she left fifty workers of her sewing workshop to the mercy of fate, for which she will receive a “suggestion” from Rakhmetov.

According to the novelist, such situations are possible if one of the “new people” miscalculated his benefit, made a proper intellectual mistake. It is necessary, the writer says to his heroes and readers, not to forget that more - whole or part of it, the command of the whole nature of a person or only one of its components. Proceed from the requirements of all nature - the nature of man, and you can always give up less for the sake of greater human satisfaction, neglect your whim in the name of loyalty to yourself as a whole.

Reason also points to the need for a person to preserve his nature of constant labor. After all, labor is its main component next after reason. As it is said in Vera Pavlovna's second dream, work “in anthropological analysis appears as the root form of movement, which gives rise to all other forms: entertainment, recreation, fun, fun; they have no reality without prior labor. And without movement there is no life ... ".

Belief in the morally regenerating and, on the whole, humanizing power of labor accompanied not only Chernyshevsky, but also all the people-loving writers. “The will and labor of man / Marvelous divas create,” says N. Nekrasov in the poem “Grandfather”, bequeathing to his contemporary in another place

Unbridled, wild enmity towards the oppressors And a great power of attorney To disinterested labor (“Song to Eremushka”).

If a person works, his nature is healthy, or at least able to resist the distorting effects of an unnatural social order. In modern Russian society, such is the people (peasantry), whose life is spent in constant and, moreover, generally useful work. For the same reason, the people are that part of the Russian nation in which its human nature is preserved in the greatest purity and fullness. This conviction becomes the main basis not just of sympathy and pity for the people (for, according to Dostoevsky's penetrating remark, pity in itself does not exclude contempt), but a deep reverence for the people and love to him from Chernyshevsky and his "new people".

The possibility of a certain rebirth is not closed to such people as Vera Pavlovna's mother Marya Alekseevna, since in her life there was work, although not tempted by reason and, on the whole, self-serving. Hence the appearance on the pages of "What to do?" "A commendation of Maria Alekseevna" from the author. Public Wednesday(in the novel, for censorship reasons, she is called “dirt”), represented by Vera Pavlova’s mother, also has a chance for recovery and therefore is called “real” by the novelist. Marya Alekseevna herself is a person compared to people natural (normal) "bad", but not " crappy". After all, in Russian the definition bad can mean not only "bad", but, coming from "fool", and - "unreasonable".

On the contrary, the previously named representatives of the ruling classes of Russia - the aristocrat Serge, the officer Storeshnikov, who is looking for a rich dowry Zhan Solovtsov - people, according to the author of the novel, unconditionally crappy, because, having grown up and existing in an environment of eternal idleness (Chernyshevsky calls it "fantastic dirt"), they have hopelessly degraded in their natural principles. This milieu, the novelist makes it clear, however impossible to revive, must be cut off from the national organism by the sword of revolutionary violence.

Thus, the novel justifies the legitimacy of the people's peasant revolution in Russia as a means of saving the living parts of society, the nation and the whole country. "New people" are waiting and preparing it, conducting, like Alexander Kirsanov in particular, propaganda among the "artisans". There is also a professional revolutionary here - Rakhmetov - " special person”, he is also a new, but atheistic messiah.

The fact is that Rakhmetov is a descendant of many generations of well-born and wealthy boyars and nobles, in a word, people, according to Chernyshevsky, who lived at the expense of not their own, but someone else's labor. From this it follows that Rakhmetov inherited from them a very unhealthy nature. But he managed, having discovered for himself the modern doctrine of human nature (he began with the works of L. Feuerbach) and turning his life into a constant generally useful (including, as with the people, physical) labor, not just to improve, but to transform the inherited nature so that he actually identified his interests (good and happiness) with those of the whole people, thus earning great respect from other positive characters of the novel. Rejecting religion as a materialist, in his devotion to the mission of a new enlightener and liberator of the motherland and all mankind, Chernyshevsky compares with the Christian apostles and Christ himself.

Along with peasant revolution author of "What to do?" promotes and peaceful a way of healing (“naturalization”) of that part urban Russian society, which lives by its own labor. This is an organization smart work, those. labor in its unity with other components of human nature: collectivism and reasonable egoism.

Such is collective labor on the basis of common ownership of the means of production, material justice and rational organization, as well as the unity of work and life of workers. His example in the novel is the sewing workshops of Vera Pavlovna and Katya Polozova, organized following the example of the labor associations of the French socialist Victor Considerant (1808-1893). V. Consideran did not confine himself to the theory of fair labor. In the 1850s, he founded the socialist colony "Reunion" ("Unification") in America in the state of Texas, which ceased to exist due to the destruction during the civil war of the North and South.

The workshops of Vera Pavlovna earned the praise of another utopian socialist, the founder of the famous spinning mill-commune in New Lanark (Scotland) - Robert Owen (1771-1858).

In detail, with detailed accounting calculations, depicting the activities of an innovative sewing workshop, Chernyshevsky pays special attention to showing how in the process of collective and fairly paid work, its participants morally straighten up and grow spiritually. The topic of the salutary impact of such labor on a person is directly developed in the detailed history of a former prostitute Nastya Kryukova. This is a variation on new way Gospel legend about Christ and the sinner.

Sewing workshops with a communal form of residence of their workers in the novel What Is To Be Done? - this is also a prototype, in the eyes of Chernyshevsky, of a socialist society. After all, socialism was conceived by him as a hostel, arranged in strict accordance with the "anthropological" interpretation of human nature and according to the model of the latter. And therefore, in contrast to the existing "fantastic" Russian order, it seemed to be the most natural ("natural") social system. Workshops are islands of a humanized environment in the vital world of Russia. By multiplying and expanding them, one can gradually transform the whole country.

Another sample future harmonious society became in the novel "What is to be done?" the famous "huge house" from the fourth sleep Vera Pavlovna - with huge mirrors and "metal furniture", as well as technical marvels like a large conveyor in the dining room. Or - " crystal palace” (“Pales cristale”), as by analogy with the huge palace of this name, erected in London to world exhibition 1851, Dostoevsky will ironically refer to him in his Notes from the Underground (1864). An earlier prototype of the "huge house", however, no doubt served as a high-rise phalanstery house from the utopian system of Charles Fourier, although Chernyshevsky modernized it taking into account the achievements of technological progress in recent decades.

In the phalanstery house of Chernyshevsky, collective labor reigns on the basis of public property and with the use of machines that perform heavy work, the rationalization of life, a certain harmony with surrounding nature. Fundamentally new feature this society is the lack of its members suffering, having an ontological status in the Christian concept of human existence. According to Chernyshevsky (formerly L. Feuerbach), there is no suffering in human nature, therefore, there should not be in a society arranged according to its model (suffering, like evil, a person, according to Chernyshevsky, was endowed with an “artificial” social order).

And one more indicative sign distinguishes what is drawn in “What is to be done?” society of the future. Already Herzen, not without admiration for the audacity of the author, noted that the ideal hostel depicted in this novel surprisingly looks like a brothel. The same idea was later expressed in his novel The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov. “Chernyshevsky's Crystal Palace,” writes M. Dunaev, a contemporary figure in our church, “is nothing but a romanticized brothel.”

The fact is that, having completely excluded suffering in the life of future people, the author of “What is to be done?” considered its basis, meaning and goal to be happiness not in the form of a harmonious family (the children of the inhabitants of the "huge house" are brought up not by their parents, but, as in ancient Sparta, by society), but by the mutual physical enjoyment of women and men by each other.

We focused on four problematic aspects of Chernyshevsky's novel: 1) philosophical - this is anthropological and natural-scientific materialism; 2) ethical - it is "reasonable egoism"; 3) socio-political - this is the preaching of the people's peasant revolution and labor on a collectively rational basis; 4) futurological - this is an image of the society of the future. But in "What to do?" there is a fifth aspect, which determined its main storyline. It is an image of love and family of the "new people" and, in particular, the "women's issue".

As the main plot-compositional bond of the novel, its love plot weaves all the other problems of the work together, giving them the concreteness and vitality necessary in fiction. What's new in it?

Love, poetry of the heart were not at all alien to Chernyshevsky, a wonderful family man who passionately and devotedly loved his wife Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva (nee). But in the novel What Is to Be Done? Chernyshevsky, a rationalist in the understanding of man, deprives love of its Turgenev spontaneity (remember: love is “like a thunderstorm”, “cholera or fever”, in a word, elemental force for Turgenev’s heroes). It ceases to be an element beyond human control and loses its inevitable tragedy.

In the novel "What to do?" there is an episode, most likely deliberately compared by Chernyshevsky with the situation in which the hero of Turgenev's "Correspondence" found himself, who fell in love with an Italian dancer. The same thing once happened to Dmitry Lopukhov. But if the hero of Turgenev was never able to overcome his attraction to a woman whom he did not really respect, then Lopukhov’s passion for the visiting dancer who fascinated him after some time, without any drama, was resolved to the mutual pleasure of erotic partners.

Love, according to Chernyshevsky, can and must be controlled by the mind, to go along with it. Such, for example, is Dmitry Lopukhov's feeling for Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya from the very beginning: it is tempted by the hero's observation of the girl's actions, their analysis. There is no blindness here. Furthermore, love drama and an irresolvable erotic collision only then, the author of “Who is to blame?” believes, and arise when the mind of those who love is undeveloped or blundered, fell asleep.

What does it take to make love, as “new people” understand it, be happy? First of all, you need to correctly "calculate" your love needs ("benefits"). For the positive heroes of Chernyshevsky, the goal of their love, as well as the highest satisfaction in it, is the happiness of a loved one. That is what one should always take care of.

And for this, firstly, one must always recognize the right of a loved one to freedom his reciprocal feelings, not allow any violence against him, trust him and respect him. This is how Vera Pavlovna and Dmitry Lopukhov build their relationship; Vera Pavlovna and Alexander Kirsanov; Lopukhov ("Charles Beaumont") and Katya Polozova. Secondly, you need to reinforce the freedom of your feelings for your loved ones and spouses. and material equality (independence) with them, which requires the work of not one man, but also a woman. Positive heroines of "What to do?" voluntarily follow this ethical principle: Vera Pavlovna first arranges and manages a sewing workshop, then studies to be a doctor.

This is the optimistic answer of the author of "What is to be done?" to one of the fundamental universal human issues that confront every person. And he cannot be denied considerable fruitfulness both for the writer's contemporaries and for people of subsequent eras.

At the same time, one cannot fail to see rationalistic narrowness in his decision.

Chernyshevsky's novel is the pinnacle of Russian literary rationalism. This is the guarantee of its special, almost mathematical, internal consistency and attractiveness for people of a rationalistic disposition, especially young people. But this is also the reason for the tangible schematism, abstractness (or, conversely, empirical naturalism) of his characters in comparison with the full-blooded heroes of Turgenev, Goncharov, L. Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.

Following his teachers - Western European theorists (L. Feuerbach, I. Bentham, J. St. Mill, V. Consideran), Chernyshevsky a priori declared the composition of human nature and its “normal” (more precisely, normative) needs (“benefits”) , groundlessly rejecting the religious-Christian concept of man, according to which the principles of both the divine and the devil, both light and dark, and good and evil, live in man, and the outcome of the struggle between them is far from a foregone conclusion. “Man is a mystery,” eighteen-year-old F. Dostoevsky will say, and he will be right.

As a rationalist in his psychological make-up and worldview, Chernyshevsky unjustifiably absolutized the role of reason, human consciousness (and knowledge) in human relations and the improvement of the individual and society, making reason the guarantor of morality and conscience itself. Like Goncharov's Petr Ivanovich Aduev (" ordinary story”), he does not suspect the failure of the mind in the face of the complexity of a real person and social reality. So, first of all, its society of the future is built on rational principles. Meanwhile, as Dostoevsky predicted and the practice of the Soviet society created according to an abstract theory showed, “there is only reason, science and realism (i.e. positivism. - V.N.) can only create an anthill, and not social harmony in which a person could get along. “It is clear and understandable,” Dostoevsky will say elsewhere, “that evil lurks in humanity deeper than socialist doctors suggest, that evil cannot be avoided in any structure of society, that the human soul will remain the same, that abnormality and sin come from it.” itself and that, finally, the laws of the human spirit are still so unknown, so unknown to science, so indefinite and so mysterious that there are not and cannot be any doctors or even judges. final..."

In the novel "What to do?" the young student Lopukhov easily outplays the worldly experienced Marya Alekseevna, and Alexander Kirsanov prevails over the wise practical life, strong-willed father of Katya Polozova. However, in L. Tolstoy's War and Peace, the stupid but cunning manager of the Kyiv estates, Pierre Bezukhov, continually leads his smart, but naive and gullible master by the nose.

In real life, everything is a hundred times more complicated than what and how happens in Chernyshevsky's novel. This will be indicated in his "Cliff", where there is a hidden and direct polemic with "What to do?", Goncharov, in the novel "Nowhere" (1864) - N. Leskov, in "Infected Family" L. Tolstoy and especially Dostoevsky - in Notes from the Underground, and then in five subsequent novels.

At the same time, in the eyes of the opposition to the dominant Russian society and its philosophical, ethical, aesthetic foundations to the youth of the 1860s, Chernyshevsky's novel became, as was said at the beginning of this lecture, genuine good news. It seemed that all contradictions were resolved, all riddles were solved. It seemed that for the first time a light flashed in the dead ends of Russian life, a way out of its tragedy or vulgarity was opened. It seemed that there was an opportunity for genuine humanization (“perestroika”) of both social circumstances and reality itself.

To do this, Chernyshevsky's contemporaries should: 1) acquire genuine knowledge ("truth") about their human nature and become reasonable egoists"; 2) rationally organize work; 3) with the surgical sword of the revolution, to cut off the "cheesy" people who prevent the humanization of society; 4) on the basis of mutual emotional and erotic freedom, trust and material independence from each other to build relations between the sexes.

Taken together, this would be the salvation for Russia. deed, which Chernyshevsky offered to the Russians and the motive of which runs through his entire novel. Hence his phenomenal success, witnessed by many contemporaries. “About Chernyshevsky’s novel,” wrote N. Leskov, “they talked not in a whisper, not in silence, but at the top of their lungs in the halls, at the entrances, at the table of Mrs. Milbert and in the basement pub of the Shtenbokov passage.” “For Russian youth,” recalled Prince P.A. Kropotkin, - the story was a kind of revelation and turned into a program ... None of the stories of Turgenev, no work of Tolstoy or any other writer had such a wide and deep influence on Russian youth as this story of Chernyshevsky. And here is what Professor P. Tsitovich, a fierce opponent of Chernyshevsky’s novel, says: “In the 16 years of my stay at the university, I have not been able to meet a student who would not have read the famous novel while still in the gymnasium ... In this respect, the works of, for example, Turgenev or Goncharov, do not speaking of Gogol and Pushkin, they are far inferior to the novel What Is to Be Done?

Lesson 95 NOVEL "WHAT TO DO?". PROBLEM, GENRE, COMPOSITION. "OLD WORLD" IN THE IMAGE OF CHERNYSHEVSKY

30.03.2013 34121 0

Lesson 95
The novel "What to do?". problems,
genre, composition. "Old World"
in the image of Chernyshevsky

Goals : introduce students to creative history the novel “What is to be done?”, to talk about the prototypes of the heroes of the novel; give an idea of ​​the problems, genre and composition of the work; to find out what is the attractive force of Chernyshevsky's book for contemporaries, how the novel What Is To Be Done? on Russian literature; name the heroes of the novel, convey the content of the most important episodes, dwell on the writer's depiction of the "old world".

During the classes

I. Conversation on the issue m:

1. Briefly describe the main stages in the life and work of N. G. Chernyshevsky.

2. Can the life and work of the writer be called a feat?

3. What is the significance of Chernyshevsky's dissertation for his time? What is relevant to our day?

II. The story of the teacher (or prepared student).

Creative history of the novel "What to do?".
Prototypes of the novel

Most famous novel Chernyshevsky "What to do?" was written in the solitary confinement of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress for as soon as possible: begun December 14, 1862 and completed April 4, 1863. The manuscript of the novel passed double censorship. First of all, the members of the investigating commission, and then the censor of Sovremennik, got acquainted with the work of Chernyshevsky. To say that the censorship completely “looked through” the novel is not entirely true. Censor O. A. Przhetslavsky directly pointed out that “this work ... turned out to be an apology for the way of thinking and actions of that category of the modern young generation, which is understood as “nihilists and materialists” and who call themselves “new people” . Another censor V. N. Beketov, seeing the seal of the commission on the manuscript, “was trembling” and let it through without reading it, for which he was fired.

The novel "What to do? From stories about new people ”(this is the full name of Chernyshevsky’s work) caused an ambiguous reaction from readers. The progressive youth spoke with admiration of "What is to be done?". Furious opponents of Chernyshevsky were forced to admit the “extraordinary power” of the novel’s impact on young people: “Young people followed Lopukhov and Kirsanov in a crowd, young girls were infected by the example of Vera Pavlovna ... A minority found an ideal for themselves ... in Rakhmetov.” Enemies of Chernyshevsky, seeing the unprecedented success of the novel, demanded a cruel reprisal against the author.

The novel was defended by D. I. Pisarev, V. S. Kurochkin and their journals (“ Russian word"," Iskra "), etc.

About prototypes. Literary scholars believe that the storyline The story of the life of the Chernyshevsky family doctor Petr Ivanovich Bokov is laid down. Bokov was the teacher of Maria Obrucheva, then, in order to free her from the yoke of her parents, he married her, but a few years later M. Obrucheva fell in love with another person - the physiologist I.M. Sechenov. Thus, Bokov became the prototypes of Lopukhov, Obrucheva of Vera Pavlovna, Sechenov of Kirsanov.

In the image of Rakhmetov, the features of Bakhmetyev, a Saratov landowner, who transferred part of his fortune to Herzen for the publication of a journal and revolutionary work, were noticed. (There is an episode in the novel when Rakhmetov, being abroad, transfers money to Feuerbach for the publication of his works). In the image of Rakhmetov, one can also see those character traits that were inherent in Chernyshevsky himself, as well as Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov.

The novel "What to do?" Chernyshevsky dedicated to his wife Olga Sokratovna. In her memoirs, she wrote: "Verochka (Vera Pavlovna) - I, Lopukhov was taken from Bokov."

The image of Vera Pavlovna captures the character traits of Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya and Maria Obrucheva.

III. teacher lecture(summary).

The problems of the novel

In "What to do?" the author proposed the theme of a new public figure (mainly from raznochintsy), discovered by Turgenev in "Fathers and Sons", who replaced the type of "superfluous person". The "nihilism" of E. Bazarov is opposed by the views of the "new people", his loneliness and tragic death - their cohesion and steadfastness. "New people" are the main characters of the novel.

Problems of the novel: the emergence of "new people"; people of the "old world" and their social and moral vices; love and emancipation, love and family, love and revolution (D.N. Murin).

On the composition of the novel. Chernyshevsky's novel is constructed in such a way that life, reality, appears in it in three time dimensions: in the past, present and future. The past is the old world, existing, but already becoming obsolete; the present is the positive beginnings of life that have appeared, the activity of “new people”, the existence of new human relations. The future is already an approaching dream ("The Fourth Dream of Vera Pavlovna"). The composition of the novel conveys movement from the past to the present and future. The author not only dreams of a revolution in Russia, he sincerely believes in its implementation.

About the genre. There is no unanimous opinion on this issue. Yu. M. Prozorov considers "What to do?" Chernyshevsky - socio-ideological novel, Yu. V. Lebedev - philosophical and utopian a novel created according to the laws typical of this genre. The compilers of the bio-bibliographic dictionary "Russian Writers" consider "What to do?" artistic and journalistic novel.

(There is an opinion that Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? is family-domestic, detective, journalistic, intellectual, etc.)

IV. Conversation with students on the content of the novel.

Questions :

1. Name the leading characters, convey the content of memorable episodes.

2. How does Chernyshevsky depict the old world?

3. Why did a prudent mother spend a lot of money on her daughter's education? Were her expectations met?

4. What allows Verochka Rozalskaya to free herself from the oppressive influence of her family and become a “new person”?

6. Show how the image of the "old world" combines Aesopian speech with an open expression copyright to what is shown?

Chernyshevsky showed two social spheres old life: noble and petty-bourgeois.

Representatives of the nobility - the landlord and playboy Storeshnikov, his mother Anna Petrovna, friends and friends of Storeshnikov with names in the French manner - Jean, Serge, Julie. These are people who are not able to work - egoists, "admirers and slaves of their own well-being."

The petty-bourgeois world is represented by the images of Vera Pavlovna's parents. Marya Alekseevna Rozalskaya is an energetic and enterprising woman. But she looks at her daughter and husband “from the angle of income that can be extracted from them” (Yu. M. Prozorov).

The writer condemns Marya Alekseevna for greed, selfishness, callousness and narrow-mindedness, but at the same time he sympathizes with her, believing that life circumstances made her like that. Chernyshevsky introduces the chapter "Eulogy to Marya Alekseevna" into the novel.

Homework.

1. Reading the novel to the end.

2. Students' messages about the main characters: Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna, Rakhmetov.

3. Individual messages (or report) on topics:

1) What is “beautiful” in the life drawn by Chernyshevsky in The Fourth Dream?

2) Reflections on aphorisms (“The future is bright and beautiful”).

3) Vera Pavlovna and her workshops.

“I loved you so sincerely, so tenderly,

How God forbid you be loved to be different ... "

A. S. Pushkin

When I began to analyze the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky in detail, I got three shelves. On the one hand, there are the moral relationships of the characters with the outside world and with each other. On the other - economic research. And on the third, secret, shelf - revolutionary activity Rakhmetov. The author wrote to his wife that he conceived "a book ... in the lightest, most popular spirit, in the form of an almost novel, with anecdotes, scenes, witticisms, so that everyone who reads nothing but novels will read it." These lines tell us that Nikolai Gavrilovich preferred literature for the mind. However, in order to increase the readership, he resorted to melodramatic tricks. But even the love genre, thanks to the enlightening gift of the writer, has turned into an entertaining textbook on the education of feelings. It contains pages about the position of women in society, about love and jealousy, about new relationships in the family. The main character of the novel, Vera, later Vera Pavlovna, began to fight for her right to love, while still in the camp of enemies, before meeting “new people”. Her mother wanted to marry her to a rich but worthless man. Faith has done a brave deed when she went against the will of her mother. The first ally of the girl in this struggle was the frivolous Frenchwoman Julie. This image is interesting in that the author does not condemn the fallen woman, but shows that she is freer and in many ways more decent than respectable ladies. I can imagine how shocked Chernyshevsky’s contemporaries were that it was in the mouth of a corrupt woman that he put a fiery appeal: “Die, but don’t give a kiss without love!” Julie herself can no longer love and considers herself unworthy of love. But this does not prevent her from understanding the value of true feelings.

Verochka's acquaintance with Lopukhov was a turning point in her life. In a taciturn student, she found her first like-minded person and true friend. He became her savior, helped her escape from the gloomy basement into bright sunlight. In her first dream, the liberated Vera sets free other girls and meets the so-called “bride of all suitors” for the first time. Who she really is will become clear only in the fourth dream. Vera could not help but fall in love with Lopukhov and was very happy when she married him. The author describes in detail to us what orders were established in the “new” family. Lopukhov praised his wife for something that the former husbands could not even imagine - for independence: “So, so, Verochka! Let everyone protect his independence with all his might from everyone, no matter how much he loves him, no matter how much he believes in him. Chernyshevsky defends the idea, revolutionary at that time, that a woman is no worse than a man and should have equal rights with him in everything.

For several years, Vera and Lopukhov live in complete harmony. But gradually in the soul of our heroine there is a vague feeling that she is missing something. The third dream reveals the cause of this unrest. The feeling that she has for the “cute” is not love at all, but misunderstood gratitude. Not only that, she truly loves her husband's best friend. And Kirsanov loves Vera Pavlovna for many years. It seems to me that in the novel “What is to be done?” it is love that tests the heroes' fidelity to the ideals of the “new” life. And Lopukhov, and Kirsanov, and Verochka pass this test. In their torments, they appear before us not as heroes, but simply as good, decent people. The resolution of this love triangle is very original. “ For the discerning reader It is simply impossible to believe in the existence of such a solution. But the author does not care about the opinion of the layman.

The “special person” Rakhmetov is also subjected to a test of feeling. “I must not love,” he says and makes himself an iron warrior, but love penetrates under his armor and makes him exclaim with pain: “...and I am also not an abstract idea, but a person who would like to live. Oh well, it'll pass." Of course, he is a heroic person, but I feel sorry for him, because a person who stifles love in himself becomes an insensitive machine. Subsequently, he can only talk about feelings, but you should not trust him in these matters. Rakhmetov tells Verochka about jealousy: “In a developed person, she should not be. This distorted feeling ... this is a consequence of looking at a person as my belonging, as a thing. The words are right, but what can know about it harsh warrior? This can only be said by one who loves and overcomes jealousy that is offensive to another.

My favorite character in the novel is Kirsanov. Unlike Rakhmetov, when Kirsanov realizes that he loves his friend's wife, he struggles not with feeling, but with himself. Suffering, but does not disturb the peace of Verochka. Humbles jealousy and the desire for personal happiness for the sake of friendship. It seems to me that the words of A. S. Pushkin, which I took as an epigraph to the essay, can be fully attributed to the love of Alexei Kirsanov.

In the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna, N. G. Chernyshevsky unfolds before the readers a picture of an ideal future. Love takes a big place in it. The whole history of mankind passes before us from the point of view of the evolution of love. Verochka finally learns the name of her guiding star, “sisters of all sisters” and “brides of all suitors”: “... this word is equality ... From it, from equality, and freedom is in me, without which there is no me.” It seems to me that the author wanted to say that without freedom of choice and equality of rights true love cannot exist.

In the final part of the novel, we see Vera Pavlovna, Kirsanov, Lopukhov and his new wife Katya is completely happy in love. The author is happy for his characters: “... few have experienced that the charm that love gives everything should not at all ... be a fleeting phenomenon in a person's life.” The happiness of Love will be eternal, only “you need to have for this pure heart and an honest soul and the current concept of human rights, respect for the freedom of those with whom you live.

In literature lessons, as a rule, they rarely pay attention to Chernyshevsky's work "What to do". This is partly correct: delving into the endless dreams of Vera Pavlovna, analyzing the plot, which serves only as a frame for the main idea of ​​​​the work, trying through the gnashing of teeth to make out the author’s not the most highly artistic and easy language, stumbling over almost every word - classes are long, tedious and not completely justified. From a literary point of view, this is not the best choice to consider. But what an impact this novel had on the development of Russian social thought in the 19th century! After reading it, one can understand how the most progressive thinkers of that time lived.

Nikolai Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for his radical statements against the authorities in force at that time. It was there that his work was born. The history of the novel What Is to Be Done began in December 1862 (it was completed by its author in April 1863). Initially, the writer conceived it as a response to Turgenev's book "Fathers and Sons", where he depicted a man new formation- nihilist Bazarov. Eugene comprehended tragic ending, but in contrast to him, Rakhmetov was created - a more perfect hero of the same mindset, who no longer suffered from Anna Odintsova, but was engaged in business, and very productively.

In order to deceive the vigilant censors and the judicial commission, the author introduces a love triangle into a political utopia, which occupies a large part of the volume of the text. With this trick, he confused the officials, and they gave permission for publication. When the deception was revealed, it was already too late: the novel "What to do" was distributed throughout the country in issues of "Sovremennik" and hand-written copies. The ban did not stop either the distribution of the book or its imitation. It was removed only in 1905, and a year later separate copies were officially released. But for the first time in Russian it was published long before that, in 1867 in Geneva.

It is worth quoting some contemporaries to understand how significant and necessary this book was for the people of that time.

The writer Leskov recalled: “They talked about Chernyshevsky’s novel not in a whisper, not in silence, but at the top of their lungs in the halls, at the entrances, at the table of Mrs. Milbret and in the basement pub of the Shtenbokov passage. They shouted: “disgusting”, “charm”, “abomination”, etc. - all in different tones.

The anarchist Kropotkin spoke enthusiastically about the work:

For the Russian youth of that time, it was a kind of revelation and turned into a program, became a kind of banner

Even Lenin honored her with his praise:

The novel “What is to be done?” plowed me deep. This is the thing that gives a charge for life.

Genre

There is an antithesis in the work: the direction of the novel "What to do" is sociological realism, and the genre is utopia. That is, truth and fiction closely coexist in the book and give rise to a mixture of the present (objectively reflected realities of that time) and the future (the image of Rakhmetov, Vera Pavlovna's dreams). That is why he caused such a resonance in society: people painfully perceived the prospects that Chernyshevsky put forward.

In addition, "What to do" is a philosophical and journalistic novel. He deserved this title thanks to the hidden meanings that the author gradually introduced. He was not even a writer, he simply used a literary form understandable to everyone to spread his political views and express his deep thoughts about a just social order. tomorrow. In his work, it is the journalistic intensity that is obvious, philosophical questions are covered, and the fictional plot serves only as a cover from the close attention of the censors.

What is the novel about?

It's time to tell what the book "What to do?". The action begins with Unknown person committed suicide by shooting himself and falling into a river. It turned out to be someone Dmitry Lopukhov, a progressive-minded young man who was pushed to this desperate act by love and friendship.

The essence of the prehistory of "What to do" is as follows: the main character Vera lives with an ignorant and rude family, where a prudent and cruel mother established her own rules. She wants to marry off her daughter to the rich son of the mistress of the house where her husband works as a manager. A greedy woman does not shun any means, she can even sacrifice her daughter's honor. A moral and proud girl is looking for salvation from a tutor for her brother, student Lopukhov. He is secretly engaged in her enlightenment, pitying her bright head. He also arranges for her to run away from home under the auspices of a fictitious marriage. In fact, young people live like brother and sister, there are no love feelings between them.

"Spouses" are often in a society of like-minded people, where the heroine meets Lopukhov's best friend, Kirsanov. Alexander and Vera are imbued with mutual sympathy, but they cannot be together, as they are afraid to hurt their friend's feelings. Dmitry became attached to his “wife”, discovered in her a multifaceted and strong personality by educating her. A girl, for example, does not want to sit on his neck and wants to arrange her own life by opening a sewing workshop where women in trouble could honestly earn money. With the help of true friends, she realizes her dream, and before us opens a gallery of female images with life stories characterizing a vicious environment where the weaker sex has to fight for survival and defend honor.

Dimitri feels that he is disturbing his friends and fakes his own suicide so as not to stand in their way. He loves and respects his wife, but understands that she will be happy only with Kirsanov. Naturally, no one knows about his plans, everyone sincerely mourns his death. But according to a number of hints from the author, we understand that Lopukhov calmly went abroad and returned from there in the final, reuniting with his comrades.

A separate semantic line is the company's acquaintance with Rakhmetov, a man of a new formation who embodies the ideal of a revolutionary, according to Chernyshevsky (he came to Vera on the day she received a note about her husband's suicide). It is not the actions of the hero that are revolutionary, but his very essence. The author tells about him in detail, reporting that he sold the estate and led a Spartan lifestyle, just to help his people. In his image, the true meaning of the book is hidden.

Main characters and their characteristics

First of all, the novel is remarkable for its characters, and not for the plot, which was needed to divert the attention of the censors. Chernyshevsky in the work "What to do" draws images strong people, "salts of the earth", smart, resolute, courageous and honest people, on whose shoulders the furious machine of the revolution will later rush at full speed. Such are the images of Kirsanov, Lopukhov, Vera Pavlovna, who are the central characters of the book. All of them are constant participants in the action in the work. But the image of Rakhmetov stands apart above them. In contrast to him and the trinity "Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna", the writer wanted to show the "commonness" of the latter. In the last chapters, he brings clarity and literally chews his intention for the reader:

“At the height at which they stand, all people must stand, all people can stand. Higher natures, which I and you cannot keep up with, my miserable friends, higher natures are not like that. I showed you a light outline of the profile of one of them: you see the wrong features.

1. Rakhmetov- the main character of the novel "What to do?". Already from the middle of the 17th year, he began his transformation into a "special person", before that he was "an ordinary, good, high school student who completed the course." Having managed to appreciate all the “charms” of a free student life, he quickly lost interest in them: he wanted something more, meaningful, and fate brought him together with Kirsanov, who helped him embark on the path of rebirth. He began to voraciously absorb knowledge from various fields, read books “on a binge”, train his physical strength with hard work, gymnastics and lead a Spartan lifestyle to strengthen his will: refuse luxury in clothes, sleep on felt, eat only what ordinary people can afford. For closeness with the people, purposefulness, developed strength among people, he acquired the nickname "Nikitushka Lomov", in honor of the famous barge hauler, who was distinguished by his physical capabilities. In the circle of friends, they began to call him a “rigorist” for the fact that “he adopted original principles in material, moral, and mental life,” and later “they developed into a complete system, which he strictly adhered to.” This is an extremely purposeful and fruitful person who works for the benefit of someone else's happiness and limits his own, I am content with little.
2. Vera Pavlovna- the main character of the novel "What to do", a beautiful swarthy woman with long dark hair. In her family, she felt like a stranger, because her mother tried to profitably marry her off at any cost. Although she was characterized by calmness, poise and thoughtfulness, in this situation she showed cunning, inflexibility and willpower. She pretended to favor courtship, but in fact she was looking for a way out of the trap set by her mother. Under the influence of education and a good environment, she is transformed and becomes much smarter, more interesting and stronger. Even her beauty blossoms, as does her soul. Now we have a new type of self-confident and intellectually developed woman who runs a business and provides for herself. Such is the ideal of a lady, according to Chernyshevsky.
3. Lopukhov Dmitry Sergeevich is a medical student, husband and liberator of the Faith. He is distinguished by composure, a sophisticated mind, cunning, and at the same time responsiveness, kindness, sensitivity. He sacrifices his career to save a stranger, and even limits his freedom for her. He is prudent, pragmatic and restrained, his environment appreciates efficiency and education in him. As you can see, under the influence of love, the hero also becomes a romantic, because again he radically changes his life for the sake of a woman, staging suicide. This act betrays in him a strong strategist who calculates everything in advance.
4. Alexander Matveevich Kirsanov- Vera's lover. He is a kind, intelligent, sympathetic young man, always ready to meet his friends. He resists his feelings for his comrade's wife, does not allow him to destroy their relationship. For example, for a long time ceases to be in their house. The hero cannot betray Lopukhov's trust, both of them "breast, without connections, without acquaintances, made their way." The character is resolute and firm, and this masculinity does not prevent him from having a delicate taste (for example, he loves opera). By the way, it was he who inspired Rakhmetov to the feat of revolutionary self-denial.

The main characters of "What to do" are noble, decent, honest. There are not so many such characters in literature, there is nothing to say about life, but Chernyshevsky goes further and introduces an almost utopian character, thereby showing that decency is far from the limit of personality development, that people have become smaller in their aspirations and goals, that you can be even better, harder, stronger. Everything is known in comparison, and by adding the image of Rakhmetov, the writer raises the level of perception for readers. This is exactly what, in his opinion, a real revolutionary looks like, capable of leading the Kirsanovs and Lopukhovs. They are strong and intelligent, but not mature enough for decisive independent action.

Subject

• Love Theme. Chernyshevsky in the novel "What to do" reveals the favorite motif of writers in a new role. Now the extra link in love triangle self-destructs and sacrifices its interests to the reciprocity of the remaining parties. A person in this utopia controls his feelings to the maximum, sometimes even, it seems, completely refuses them. Lopukhov ignores pride, male pride, a feeling for Vera, just to please his friends and at the same time ensure their happiness without guilt. Such a perception of love is too far from reality, but we take it on account of the author's innovation, who presented the hackneyed topic in such a fresh and original way.
• Strength of will. The hero of the novel "What to do" curbed almost all passions in himself: he refused alcohol, the company of women, stopped wasting time on entertainment, doing only "other people's affairs or nobody's affairs in particular."
• Indifference and responsiveness. If Vera's mother, Marya Aleksevna, was indifferent to the fate of her daughter and thought only about the material side of family life, then an outsider, Lopukhov, without any ulterior motive, sacrifices his bachelor calmness and career for the sake of the girl. So Chernyshevsky draws a line between the old-regime philistines with a petty greedy soul and representatives of the new generation, pure and disinterested in their thoughts.
• Revolution Theme. The need for change is expressed not only in the image of Rakhmetov, but also in the dreams of Vera Pavlovna, where in symbolic visions the meaning of life is revealed to her: it is necessary to bring people out of the dungeon, where they are imprisoned by conventions and a tyrannical regime. The writer considers enlightenment to be the basis of the new free world, it is with him that happy life heroines.
• Enlightenment Theme. The new people in What Is to Be Done are educated and intelligent, and they devote most of their time to learning. But their impulse does not stop there: they try to help others and invest their strength in helping the people in the fight against age-old ignorance.

Issues

Many writers and public figures even after a while mentioned this book. Chernyshevsky understood the spirit of that time and successfully developed these thoughts further, creating a real reminder of a Russian revolutionary. The problems in the novel "What to do" turned out to be painfully relevant and topical: the author touched upon the problem of social and gender inequality, topical political problems and even imperfections of mentality.

• Women's issue. The problems in the novel "What to do" primarily concern women and their social disorder in the realities of tsarist Russia. They have nowhere to go to work, nothing to support themselves without a humiliating marriage of convenience or even more humiliating yellow ticket earnings. The position of a governess is little better: no one will do anything to the owner of the house for harassment if he is a noble person. So Vera would have fallen victim to the lust of an officer if progress in the person of Lopukhov had not saved her. He treated the girl differently, as an equal. This attitude is the key to prosperity and independence of the weaker sex. And the point here is not in frantic feminism, but in the banal opportunity to provide for oneself and the family in case the marriage did not work out or the husband died. The writer complains about the lack of rights and helplessness of women, and not about the underestimated superiority of one sex over the other.
• Crisis of the monarchy. Ever since the uprising on Senate Square in 1825, the ideas of the insolvency of the autocracy had been ripening in the minds of the Decembrists, but the people were not then ready for coups of this magnitude. Subsequently, the thirst for revolution only strengthened and became stronger with each new generation, which could not be said about the monarchy, which fought this dissent as best it could, but, as you know, by 1905 it staggered itself, and in the 17th already voluntarily surrendered its positions Provisional Government.
• The problem of moral choice. Kirsanov runs into her when he realizes his feelings for a friend's wife. Vera constantly feels it, starting with the failed "advantageous marriage" and ending with the relationship with Alexander. Lopukhov also faces a choice: to leave everything as it is, or to do justice? All the characters in What Is to Be Done stand the test and make the perfect decision.
• The problem of poverty. It is the depressing financial situation that leads Vera's mother to moral degradation. Marya Alekseevna cares about "real dirt", that is, she thinks how to survive in a country where she is not considered anything without a title and wealth? Her thoughts are burdened not by excesses, but by worries about daily bread. Constant need reduced her spiritual needs to a minimum, leaving no place or time for them.
• The problem of social inequality. Vera's mother, not sparing her daughter's honor, lures officer Storeshnikov to make him her son-in-law. There was not a drop of dignity left in her, because she was born and lived in a rigid hierarchy, where those who are lower are dumb slaves for those who are higher. She will consider it lucky if the master's son dishonors her daughter, if only he would marry after that. Such an upbringing disgusts Chernyshevsky, and he caustically ridicules him.

The meaning of the novel

The author created a role model for young people to show how to behave. Chernyshevsky gave Russia the image of Rakhmetov, in which most of the answers to the burning questions “what to do”, “who to be”, “what to strive for” are collected - Lenin saw this and took a number of actions that led to a successful coup, otherwise he would not have spoke highly of the book. That is, the main idea of ​​the novel “What to do” is an enthusiastic hymn to a new type active person who can solve the problems of his people. The writer not only criticized contemporary society, but also suggested ways to solve those problems. conflict situations that tore him apart. In his opinion, it was necessary to do as Rakhmetov did: to abandon egoism and class arrogance, to help ordinary people not only with a word, but with a ruble, to participate in large and global projects that can really change the situation.

A real revolutionary, according to Chernyshevsky, is obliged to live the life that a simple person lives. People in power should not be elevated to a separate elite caste, as is often the case. They are servants of the people who appointed them. Something like this can express the position of the author, which he conveyed to his “special” hero and which he wants to convey to the reader through him. Rakhmetov is the accumulation of all the positive qualities, one might say, of a “superman”, like in Nietzsche. With the help of it, the idea of ​​the novel "What to do" is expressed - bright ideals and a firm determination to defend them.

Nevertheless, Chernyshevsky warns the reader that the path is thorny and "poor in personal joys" of these people, "to which they invite you." These are people who are trying to be reborn from a person into an abstract idea, devoid of personal feelings and passions, without which life is hard and joyless. The writer warns against admiration for such Rakhmetovs, calling them ridiculous and pathetic, because they are trying to embrace the immensity, to exchange a fate full of earthly blessings for duty and unrequited service to society. But meanwhile, the author understands that without them, life would completely lose its taste and “turn sour”. Rakhmetov - no romantic hero, but quite a real man, which the creator considers from different angles.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

NOVEL "WHAT TO DO?". PROBLEMS,
GENRE, COMPOSITION. "OLD WORLD"
IN THE PICTURE OF CHERNYSHEVSKY

Objectives: to introduce students to the creative history of the novel “What is to be done?”, to talk about the prototypes of the heroes of the novel; give an idea of ​​the problems, genre and composition of the work; to find out what is the attractive force of Chernyshevsky's book for contemporaries, how the novel What Is To Be Done? on ; name the heroes of the novel, convey the content major episodes, dwell on the writer's depiction of the "old world".

During the classes

I. Conversation on the questions:

1. Briefly describe the main stages of life and activity.

2. Can the life and work of the writer be called a feat?

3. What is the significance of Chernyshevsky's dissertation for his time? What is relevant to our day?

II. The story of the teacher (or prepared student).

CREATIVE HISTORY OF THE NOVEL "WHAT TO DO?".
PROTOTYPES OF THE NOVEL

Chernyshevsky's most famous novel What Is To Be Done? was written in a solitary cell of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the fortress in the shortest possible time: begun in 1862 and completed in 1863. The manuscript of the novel has passed. First of all, the members of the investigating commission, and then the censor of Sovremennik, got acquainted with the work of Chernyshevsky. To say that the censorship completely “looked through” the novel is not entirely true. Przhetslavsky directly pointed out that “this work ... turned out to be an apology for the way of thinking and actions of that category of the modern young generation, which is understood as “nihilists and materialists” and who call themselves “new people” . Another censor, seeing the commission's seal on the manuscript, "was trembling" and let it through without reading it, for which he was fired.

The novel "What to do? From stories about new people ”(this is the full name of Chernyshevsky’s work) caused an ambiguous reaction from readers. The progressive youth spoke with admiration of "What is to be done?". Furious opponents of Chernyshevsky were forced to recognize the “extraordinary power” of the novel’s impact on young people: “Young people followed Lopukhov and Kirsanov in a crowd, young girls were infected by the example of Vera Pavlovna ... A minority found an ideal for themselves ... in Rakhmetov.” Enemies of Chernyshevsky, seeing the unprecedented success of the novel, demanded a cruel reprisal against the author.

The novel was also defended by their magazines (Russian Word, Iskra), etc.

About prototypes. Literary critics believe that the storyline is based on the life story of the family doctor Chernyshevsky, Pyotr Ivanovich Bokov. Bokov was the teacher of Maria Obrucheva, then, in order to free her from the yoke of her parents, he married her, but a few years later M. Obrucheva fell in love with another person - a physiologist. Thus, Bokov became the prototypes of Lopukhov, Obrucheva of Vera Pavlovna, Sechenov of Kirsanov.

In the image of Rakhmetov, the features of Bakhmetyev, a Saratov landowner, who transferred part of his fortune to Herzen for the publication of a journal and revolutionary work, were noticed. (There is an episode in the novel when Rakhmetov, being abroad, transfers money to Feuerbach for the publication of his works). In the image of Rakhmetov, one can also see those character traits that were inherent in Chernyshevsky himself, as well as Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov.

The novel "What to do?" Chernyshevsky dedicated to his wife Olga Sokratovna. In her memoirs, she wrote: "Verochka (Vera Pavlovna) - I, Lopukhov was taken from Bokov."

The image of Vera Pavlovna captures the character traits of Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya and Maria Obrucheva.

PROBLEMS OF THE NOVEL

In "What to do?" the author proposed the theme of a new public figure (mainly from raznochintsy), discovered by Turgenev in "Fathers and Sons", who replaced the type of "superfluous person". The "nihilism" of E. Bazarov is opposed by the views of the "new people", his loneliness and tragic death - their cohesion and steadfastness. "New people" are the main characters of the novel.

Problems of the novel: the emergence of "new people"; people of the "old world" and their social and moral vices; love and emancipation, love and family, love and revolution ().

On the composition of the novel. Chernyshevsky's novel is constructed in such a way that life, reality, appears in it in three time dimensions: in the past, present and future. The past is the old world, existing, but already becoming obsolete; the present is the positive beginnings of life that have appeared, the activity of “new people”, the existence of new human relations. The future is already an approaching dream ("The Fourth Dream of Vera Pavlovna"). The composition of the novel conveys movement from the past to the present and future. The author not only dreams of a revolution in Russia, he sincerely believes in its implementation.

About the genre. There is no unanimous opinion on this issue. considers "What to do?" Chernyshevsky - a socio-ideological novel - a philosophical-utopian novel created according to the laws typical of this genre. The compilers of the bio-bibliographic dictionary "Russian Writers" consider "What to do?" fiction novel.

(There is an opinion that Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? is family-domestic, detective, journalistic, intellectual, etc.)

IV. Conversation with students on the content of the novel.

1. Name the leading characters, convey the content of memorable episodes.

2. How does Chernyshevsky depict the old world?

3. Why did a prudent mother spend a lot of money on her daughter's education? Were her expectations met?

4. What allows Verochka Rozalskaya to free herself from the oppressive influence of her family and become a “new person”?

6. Show how Aesopian speech is combined in the image of the "old world" with an open expression of the author's attitude to the depicted?

Chernyshevsky showed two social spheres of the old life: noble and petty-bourgeois.

Representatives of the nobility - the landlord and playboy Storeshnikov, his mother Anna Petrovna, friends and friends of Storeshnikov with names in the French manner - Jean, Serge, Julie. These are people who are not able to work - egoists, "admirers and slaves of their own well-being."

The petty-bourgeois world is represented by the images of Vera Pavlovna's parents. Marya Alekseevna Rozalskaya is an energetic and enterprising woman. But she looks at her daughter and husband “from the angle of income that can be extracted from them” ().

The writer condemns Marya Alekseevna for greed, selfishness, callousness and narrow-mindedness, but at the same time he sympathizes with her, believing that life circumstances made her like that. Chernyshevsky introduces the chapter "Eulogy to Marya Alekseevna" into the novel.

Homework.

1. Reading the novel to the end.

2. Students' messages about the main characters: Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna, Rakhmetov.

3. Individual messages (or report) on the topics:

1) What is “beautiful” in the life drawn by Chernyshevsky in The Fourth Dream?

2) Reflections on (“The future is bright and beautiful”).

3) Vera Pavlovna and her workshops.