The artistic originality of A. Herzen’s novel “Who is to Blame?” The novel's figurative system. The image of an extra person. Herzen “Who is to blame?”: analysis The main images of the work who is to blame

The problems of Herzen's novel "Who is to Blame?"

The novel "Who is to Blame?" started by Herzen in 1841 in Novgorod. Its first part was completed in Moscow and appeared in 1845 and 1846 in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. It was published in its entirety as a separate publication in 1847 as a supplement to the Sovremennik magazine.

According to Belinsky, the peculiarity of the novel “Who is to Blame?” - the power of thought. “With Iskander,” writes Belinsky, “his thoughts are always ahead, he knows in advance what he is writing and why.”

The first part of the novel characterizes the main characters and outlines the circumstances of their lives in many ways. This part is primarily epic, presenting a chain of biographies of the main characters. novel character compositional serfdom

The plot of the novel is a complex knot of family, everyday, socio-philosophical and political contradictions. It was from Beltov’s arrival in the city that a sharp struggle of ideas and moral principles of the conservative-noble and democratic-raznochinsky camps unfolded. The nobles, sensing in Beltov “a protest, some kind of denunciation of their life, some kind of objection to its entire order,” did not choose him anywhere, “they gave him a ride.” Not satisfied with this, they weaved a vile web of dirty gossip about Beltov and Lyubov Alexandrovna.

Starting from the beginning, the development of the novel’s plot takes on increasing emotional and psychological tension. Relations between supporters of the democratic camp are becoming more complicated. The experiences of Beltov and Krutsiferskaya become the center of the image. The culmination of their relationship, as well as the culmination of the novel as a whole, is a declaration of love, and then a farewell date in the park.

The compositional art of the novel is also expressed in the fact that the individual biographies with which it began gradually merge into an indivisible stream of life.

Despite the apparent fragmentation of the narrative, when the story from the author is replaced by letters from the characters, excerpts from the diary, and biographical digressions, Herzen’s novel is strictly consistent. “This story, despite the fact that it will consist of separate chapters and episodes, has such integrity that a torn page spoils everything,” writes Herzen.

The main organizing principle of the novel is not the intrigue, not the plot situation, but the leading idea - the dependence of people on the circumstances that destroy them. All episodes of the novel are subordinate to this idea; it gives them internal semantic and external integrity.

Herzen shows his heroes in development. To do this, he uses their biographies. According to him, it is in the biography, in the history of a person’s life, in the evolution of his behavior, determined by specific circumstances, that his social essence and original individuality are revealed. Guided by his conviction, Herzen builds the novel in the form of a chain of typical biographies, interconnected by life destinies. In some cases, his chapters are called “Biographies of Their Excellencies”, “Biography of Dmitry Yakovlevich”.

The compositional originality of the novel “Who is to Blame?” lies in the consistent arrangement of his characters, in social contrast and gradation. By arousing the reader's interest, Herzen expands the social sound of the novel and enhances the psychological drama. Having begun in the estate, the action moves to the provincial town, and in episodes from the life of the main characters- to Moscow, St. Petersburg and abroad.

Herzen called history a “ladder of ascension.” First of all, it is the spiritual elevation of the individual above the living conditions of a certain environment. In the novel, a person declares himself only when he is separated from his environment.

The first step of this “ladder” is entered by Krutsifersky, a dreamer and romantic, confident that there is nothing accidental in life. He helps Negrov’s daughter get up, but she rises a step higher and now sees more than he does; Krutsifersky, timid and timid, can no longer take a single step forward. She raises her head and, seeing Beltov there, gives him her hand.

But the fact of the matter is that this meeting did not change anything in their lives, but only increased the severity of reality and exacerbated the feeling of loneliness. Their life was unchanged. Lyuba was the first to feel this; it seemed to her that she and Krutsifersky were lost among the silent expanses.

The novel clearly expresses the author's sympathy for the Russian people. Herzen contrasted the social circles ruling on estates or in bureaucratic institutions with clearly sympathetically portrayed peasants and the democratic intelligentsia. The writer attaches great value to every image of the peasants, even the minor ones. So, under no circumstances did he want to publish his novel if the censorship distorted or discarded the image of Sophie. Herzen managed in his novel to show the implacable hostility of the peasants towards the landowners, as well as their moral superiority over their owners. Lyubonka is especially fascinated by peasant children, in whom she, expressing the views of the author, sees rich inner inclinations: “What glorious faces they have, open and noble!”

In the image of Krutsifersky, Herzen poses the problem of the “little” man. Krutsifersky, the son of a provincial doctor, by the accidental grace of a philanthropist, graduated from Moscow University, wanted to study science, but need, the inability to exist even with private lessons forced him to go to Negrov for conditioning, and then become a teacher at a provincial gymnasium. This is a modest, kind, prudent person, an enthusiastic admirer of everything beautiful, a passive romantic, an idealist. Dmitry Yakovlevich firmly believed in the ideals hovering above the earth, and explained all the phenomena of life as spiritual, divine beginning. In practical life, this is a helpless child, afraid of everything. The meaning of life became his all-consuming love for Lyubonka, family happiness, which he reveled in. And when this happiness began to waver and collapse, he found himself morally crushed, capable only of praying, crying, being jealous and drinking himself to death. The figure of Krutsifersky acquires a tragic character, determined by his discord with life, his ideological backwardness, and infantilism.

Doctor Krupov and Lyubonka present new level in revealing the type of commoner. Krupov is a materialist. Despite the inert provincial life that muffles all the best impulses, Semyon Ivanovich retained human principles in himself, touching love to people, to children, self-esteem. Defending his independence, he tries to the best of his ability to bring good to people, without considering their ranks, titles and conditions. Incurring the wrath of those in power, disregarding their class prejudices, Krupov goes first of all not to the noble, but to those most in need of treatment. Through Krupov, the author sometimes expresses his own views about the typicality of the Negrov family, about the narrowness of human life, given only to family happiness.

Psychologically, the image of Lyubonka appears more complex. Negrov's illegitimate daughter from a serf peasant woman, she early childhood found herself in conditions of undeserved insults and gross insults. Everyone and everything in the house reminded Lyubov Alexandrovna that she was a young lady “by good deed,” “by grace.” Oppressed and even despised for her “servile” origin, she feels lonely and alien. Feeling insulting injustice towards herself every day, she began to hate untruth and everything that oppresses human freedom. Compassion for the peasants, related to her by blood, and the oppression she experienced, aroused in her ardent sympathy for them. Being constantly under the wind of moral adversity, Lyubonka developed firmness in defending her human rights and intransigence to evil in all its forms. And then Beltov appeared, pointing out, in addition to family, the possibility of other happiness. Lyubov Alexandrovna admits that after meeting him she changed and matured: “How many new questions arose in my soul!.. He opened up to me new world inside me." Beltov’s unusually rich, active nature captivated Lyubov Alexandrovna and awakened her dormant potential. Beltov was amazed at her extraordinary talent: “Those results for which I sacrificed half my life,” he tells Krupov, “were simple, self-evident truths for her.” With the image of Lyubonka, Herzen shows a woman’s rights to equality with a man. Lyubov Alexandrovna found in Beltov a person in tune with her in everything, her true happiness was with him. And on the way to this happiness, in addition to moral and legal norms, public opinion, stands Krutsifersky, begging not to leave him, and their son. Lyubov Alexandrovna knows that she will no longer have happiness with Dmitry Yakovlevich. But, submitting to circumstances, pitying the weak, dying Dmitry Yakovlevich, who pulled her out of Negro oppression, preserving her family for her child, out of a sense of duty she remains with Krutsifersky. Gorky said very correctly about her: “This woman remains with her husband - a weak man, so as not to kill him with betrayal.”

The drama of Beltov, the “superfluous” person, is placed by the author in direct dependence on the social system that then dominated in Russia. Researchers very often saw the cause of Beltov’s tragedy in his abstract humanitarian upbringing. But it would be a mistake to understand Beltov’s image only as a moralizing illustration of the fact that education should be practical. The leading pathos of this image lies elsewhere - in the condemnation of the social conditions that destroyed Beltov. But what prevents this “fiery, active nature” from unfolding for the benefit of society? Undoubtedly, the presence of a large family estate, lack of practical skills, work perseverance, lack of a sober view of the surrounding conditions, but most importantly, social circumstances! Those circumstances are terrible, inhumane, in which noble, bright people, ready for any feats for the sake of common happiness, are unnecessary and unnecessary. The condition of such people is hopelessly painful. Their right-wing, indignant protest turns out to be powerless.

But the social meaning and the progressive educational role of Beltov’s image are not limited to this. His relationship with Lyubov Alexandrovna is an energetic protest against the proprietary norms of marriage and family relations. In the relationship between Beltov and Krutsiferskaya, the writer outlined the ideal of such love that spiritually lifts and grows people, revealing all the abilities inherent in them.

Thus, Herzen’s main goal was to show with his own eyes that the social conditions he depicted were stifling the best people, stifle their aspirations, judging them by the unfair but indisputable court of musty, conservative public opinion, entangling them in networks of prejudice. And this determined their tragedy. Favorable decision for everyone goodies The novel can only be ensured by a radical transformation of reality - this is Herzen’s fundamental thought.

The novel “Who is to Blame?”, distinguished by the complexity of its problems, is polysemantic in its genre-species essence. This is a social, everyday, philosophical, journalistic and psychological novel.

Herzen saw his task not in resolving the issue, but in identifying it correctly. Therefore, he chose a protocol epigraph: “And this case, due to the non-discovery of the guilty, should be handed over to the will of God, and the matter, having been considered unresolved, should be handed over to the archives. Protocol".

Both in theory and in practice, Herzen consistently and purposefully brought journalism and fiction. He is infinitely far from a calm, imperturbable image of reality. Herzen the artist constantly intrudes into the narrative. Before us is not a dispassionate observer, but a lawyer and a prosecutor in one and the same person, for if the writer actively defends and justifies some characters, he exposes and condemns others, without hiding his subjective biases. The author's consciousness in the novel is expressed directly and openly.

The first part of the novel consists mainly of detailed biographies of the characters, which is emphasized even by the names of individual sections: “Biographies of Their Excellencies”, “Biography of Dmitry Yakovlevich”. In the second part, a more consistent plot narrative unfolds with numerous inserted episodes and the author's journalistic digressions. In general, the entire literary text is connected by the unity of the author’s idea and is built primarily on the basis of a clear and consistent development of the author’s thought, which has become the most important structure-forming and style-forming factor. The author's speech occupies a central place in the overall course of the narrative. It is often imbued with irony - sometimes soft and good-natured, sometimes striking and scourging. At the same time, Herzen brilliantly uses the most diverse styles of the Russian language, boldly combining forms of vernacular with scientific terminology, generously introducing literary quotations and foreign words, neologisms, unexpected and therefore immediately attention-grabbing metaphors and comparisons into the text. This creates an idea of the author as an excellent stylist and encyclopedic educated person, possessing a sharp mind and observation, capable of capturing the most diverse shades of the reality he depicts - funny and touching, tragic and insulting human dignity.

Herzen's novel is distinguished by its wide coverage of life in time and space. The biographies of the heroes allowed him to develop the narrative over a large time range, and Beltov’s trips made it possible to describe the noble estate, provincial cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, talk about his impressions abroad. A deep analysis of the uniqueness of Herzen the writer is contained in Belinsky’s article “A Look at Russian Literature of 1847.” The main strength of the author of the novel “Who is to Blame?” the critic saw in the power of thought. “With Iskander (the pseudonym of Alexander Herzen), Belinsky wrote, his thought is always ahead, he knows in advance what he is writing and why; he depicts with amazing fidelity the scene of reality only in order to say his word about it, to carry out judgment.” As the critic deeply notes, “such talents are as natural as purely artistic talents.” Belinsky called Herzen “primarily a poet of humanity”; in this he saw the pathos of the writer’s work, the most important social and literary significance of the novel “Who is to Blame?” The traditions of Herzen’s intellectual novel were picked up and developed by Chernyshevsky, as indicated by the direct roll call of the titles: “Who is to blame?” - "What to do?"

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Belarusian State University

Faculty of Philology

Department of Russian Literature

“Problematics of Herzen’s novel “Who is to Blame?” (problems of love, marriage, education, guilt and innocence). Plot-compositional structure and system of images. Types of heroes of time"

Completed:

2nd year student, 5th group

Specialties "Russian Philology"

Govorunova Valentina Vasilievna

Minsk, 2013

The compositional art of the novel is also expressed in the fact that the individual biographies with which it began gradually merge into an indivisible stream of life.

The compositional originality of the novel “Who is to Blame?” lies in the consistent arrangement of his characters, in social contrast and gradation. By arousing the reader's interest, Herzen expands the social sound of the novel and enhances the psychological drama. Beginning in the estate, the action moves to the provincial city, and in episodes from the life of the main characters - to Moscow, St. Petersburg and abroad.

The novel clearly expresses the author's sympathy for the Russian people. Herzen contrasted the social circles ruling on estates or in bureaucratic institutions with clearly sympathetically portrayed peasants and the democratic intelligentsia. The writer attaches great importance to every image of the peasants, even the minor ones. So, under no circumstances did he want to publish his novel if the censorship distorted or discarded the image of Sophie. Herzen managed in his novel to show the implacable hostility of the peasants towards the landowners, as well as their moral superiority over their owners. Lyubonka is especially fascinated by peasant children, in whom she, expressing the views of the author, sees rich inner inclinations: “What glorious faces they have, open and noble!”

In the image of Krutsifersky, Herzen poses the problem of the “little” man. Krutsifersky, the son of a provincial doctor, by the accidental grace of a philanthropist, graduated from Moscow University, wanted to study science, but need, the inability to exist even with private lessons forced him to go to Negrov for conditioning, and then become a teacher at a provincial gymnasium. This is a modest, kind, prudent person, an enthusiastic admirer of everything beautiful, a passive romantic, an idealist. Dmitry Yakovlevich firmly believed in the ideals hovering above the earth, and explained all the phenomena of life with a spiritual, divine principle. In practical life, this is a helpless child, afraid of everything. The meaning of life became his all-consuming love for Lyubonka, family happiness, which he reveled in. And when this happiness began to waver and collapse, he found himself morally crushed, capable only of praying, crying, being jealous and drinking himself to death. The figure of Krutsifersky acquires a tragic character, determined by his discord with life, his ideological backwardness, and infantilism.

Doctor Krupov and Lyubonka represent a new stage in the development of the commoner type. Krupov is a materialist. Despite the inert provincial life that muffles all the best impulses, Semyon Ivanovich retained human principles, a touching love for people, for children, and a sense of self-worth. Defending his independence, he tries to the best of his ability to bring good to people, without considering their ranks, titles and conditions. Incurring the wrath of those in power, disregarding their class prejudices, Krupov goes first of all not to the noble, but to those most in need of treatment. Through Krupov, the author sometimes expresses his own views about the typicality of the Negrov family, about the narrowness of human life, given only to family happiness.

Psychologically, the image of Lyubonka appears more complex. The illegitimate daughter of Negrov from a serf peasant woman, from early childhood she found herself in conditions of undeserved insults and gross insults. Everyone and everything in the house reminded Lyubov Alexandrovna that she was a young lady “by good deed,” “by grace.” Oppressed and even despised for her “servile” origin, she feels lonely and alien. Feeling insulting injustice towards herself every day, she began to hate untruth and everything that oppresses human freedom. Compassion for the peasants, related to her by blood, and the oppression she experienced, aroused in her ardent sympathy for them. Being constantly under the wind of moral adversity, Lyubonka developed firmness in defending her human rights and intransigence to evil in all its forms. And then Beltov appeared, pointing out, in addition to family, the possibility of other happiness. Lyubov Alexandrovna admits that after meeting him she changed and matured: “How many new questions arose in my soul!.. He opened up a new world inside me.” Beltov’s unusually rich, active nature captivated Lyubov Alexandrovna and awakened her dormant potential. Beltov was amazed at her extraordinary talent: “Those results for which I sacrificed half my life,” he tells Krupov, “were simple, self-evident truths for her.” With the image of Lyubonka, Herzen shows a woman’s rights to equality with a man. Lyubov Alexandrovna found in Beltov a person in tune with her in everything, her true happiness was with him. And on the way to this happiness, in addition to moral and legal norms, public opinion, stands Krutsifersky, begging not to leave him, and their son. Lyubov Alexandrovna knows that she will no longer have happiness with Dmitry Yakovlevich. But, submitting to circumstances, pitying the weak, dying Dmitry Yakovlevich, who pulled her out of Negro oppression, preserving her family for her child, out of a sense of duty she remains with Krutsifersky. Gorky said very correctly about her: “This woman remains with her husband - a weak man, so as not to kill him with betrayal.”

Thus, Herzen’s main goal was to show with his own eyes that the social conditions he depicted stifle the best people, stifle their aspirations, judging them by the unfair but indisputable court of musty, conservative public opinion, entangling them in networks of prejudice. And this determined their tragedy. A favorable resolution of the fates of all the positive heroes of the novel can only be ensured by a radical transformation of reality - this is Herzen’s fundamental thought.

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5 Herzen’s novel “Who is to Blame?”

Herzen's novel "Who is to Blame?"

development of psychological realism Novel “Who is to Blame?” consists of two parts, significantly different from each other as regards the image literary heroes. The first part consists of a series of biographies of heroes, a story about their origin, environment and life circumstances. Describing the different sides public life(quite in the spirit of a physiological essay), Herzen discovers and analyzes the facts of interaction between an individual and society in the environment landed nobility. This series of biographies prepares the development storyline, starting in the second part of the novel. From this moment on, the technique of literary psychologization is introduced, so that the biographies of the heroes become more dynamic. The emphasis is on inner world heroes, so the description of their appearance plays only a secondary role. The author resorts to the external only in the case when it can serve as an indicator of the hero’s mental states and is, thus, an addition to his biography; The hero’s interaction with the outside world is manifested primarily at the level of depicting his inner world. The author conducts an “open experiment” on the characters, who are placed in various life circumstances.

So, the strengthening of the psychologization of the internal perspective in the novel leads to going beyond the rigid psychosociological framework of the “natural school”. The title of the novel reflects its social-critical orientation. In fact, we are talking about describing the paradigm of the possibilities for the internal development of an individual within the social framework assigned to him. In this case, the problem of self-awareness and the hero’s gaining independence from society through introspection comes to the fore.

Unlike the first part of the novel, which continues the tradition of the “natural school”, in which the literary hero is presented as the performer of one or another social function assigned to him by a certain social group, the second part pays increased attention to the individual and the problem of his emancipation from the social environment. S. Gurvich-Lischiner, in his study of the narrative structure of the novel, comes to the conclusion that the pronounced polyphonic structure of “Who is to blame?” sends far beyond the scope of the problem of determination of personality by the environment, which was discussed in detail by the “natural school” [Gurvich-Lishchiner 1994:42–52]. Polyphonic construction at the plot level presupposes the ability to consider the hero in his interaction with the outside world, as well as to concentrate attention on the psychological patterns of development of the hero’s inner world. First of all, the patterns of character development are revealed at the level of the dialogically constituted structure of the novel. Refusal of ideas about direct cause-and-effect relationships between a person and his environment opens up new narrative possibilities for literary psychologization. The hero's past and the hero's reflection on the events that happened to him become essential elements of a literary character. In this case, the events of the past turn out to be inextricably linked with the present situation of the hero, which makes it possible to predict his future in the novel.

This new perspective is especially clearly expressed in the image main character novel by Lubonke. The heroine's well-developed character sets her apart from other characters who are presented in a rather formulaic manner. It personifies the ability for intellectual development and at the same time for emotional actions.

From the age of twelve, this head, covered with dark curls, began to work; the range of questions raised in her was not large, completely personal, especially since she could concentrate on them; nothing external or surrounding occupied her; she thought and dreamed, dreamed in order to ease her soul, and thought in order to understand her dreams. Five years passed like this. Five years in a girl’s development is a huge era; thoughtful, secretly fiery, Lyubonka in these five years began to feel and understand things that good people often do not realize until their graves... [Herzen 1954–1966 IV: 47].

This fragment is an example of going beyond the psychological discourse of that time and moving away from literary templates that denied a woman spiritual or mental potential and saw the only opportunity to show the heroine’s mental life in the depiction of “hysterical femininity,” the main features of which were weakness and unreasonableness. Although a woman represents the “weak” part of society, her heightened sensitivity gives her the opportunity to register deviations from the norm in the development of civilization. With the image of Lyubonka, literary psychologization takes on such “typically feminine” traits as nervousness, emotionality, and sometimes even instability as an opposition to the social criterion of “normality.”

Psychologization in the novel reaches its highest point in Lyubonka’s diary entries, in which the aesthetics of the “natural school” is transposed into autobiographical self-reflection. In her diary entries, Lyubonka tries to describe her internal state, establishing the relationship between it and external circumstances (and this introspection is carried out in accordance with psychological laws that are clear to the reader, which significantly increases its significance). The source of the psychological plausibility of such self-analysis is the psychological discourse of that time with its analysis of the internal development of a person and the connections of the biographical narrative with the mental state of the individual.

An analysis of Lyubonka’s diary entries clearly shows that although life circumstances play a decisive role in the development of her character, this development itself should be considered as “individual”, i.e. in the context of the events of the heroine’s life, and in no case as “typical” or generalized. Her character is not a product of her social environment, but the sum of the events of her entire life. It is the result of both “consistent adaptation of world experience” and the dynamic process of her personal development. The main thesis is that the hero’s “I” grows out of his personal history. The hero's consciousness is a self-reflective consciousness that constitutes the narrative process. Lyubonka’s character is constituted both through the author’s external perspective and through autobiographical diary entries. At the same time, the diary entries clearly model the situation of a personal crisis ( love conflict) reflective heroine. “Self-psychologization,” conveyed in the text through a first-person story about the motivation of actions and the development of a problematic situation that develops into a pathological crisis, reaches a high degree of immediacy that would be impossible based on the author’s perspective alone. The development of a love conflict is described mainly by the heroine herself, therefore the “lack” of information given directly by the author is compensated for with the help of a detailed psychological justification. In this context, it is precisely the fundamental crisis that is the impetus for the heroine’s desire to write the text of her life to arise from the initial inclination towards self-reflection. Meeting with the nobleman Beltov, bearing the traits of “ extra person", makes a sharp change in Lyubonka’s previously calmly flowing life and becomes the subject of the heroine’s reflection: “I have changed a lot, matured after meeting Voldemar; his fiery, active nature, constantly busy, touches all inner strings, touches all aspects of existence. How many new questions arose in my soul! How many simple, everyday things, which I had never looked at before, now make me think” [Herzen 1954–1966 IV: 183].

The heroine's husband, who learned about her love affair, experiences this deeply; his reaction to his wife's betrayal is apathy and disappointment. Lyubonka's memories of her former love for him do not allow her to think about breaking up with her husband. At the same time, the moral laws of “healthy” normality distort the perspective life together with Beltov. In this aspect, Lyubonka can perceive her current situation only as “sick”; her conflict results in self-contempt due to weakness of will and the “misdemeanor” she committed; the heroine does not see a constructive way out of the current situation. It is absolutely clear to her that an attempt to free herself from social norms can lead to isolation; the prospect of finding happiness in a love affair with Beltov is too uncertain.

But why do all the heroes of this novel fail, despite the initially promising possibilities of their own “liberation”? None of the novel's biographies can serve as an example of a successful life, despite the fact that the social conditions in the author's depiction do not predetermine the development of the characters, and therefore cannot hinder it. The heroes of the novel also do not suffer from a lack of introspection, however, their self-reflection is not followed by actions; they are marked by an inability to take the “last step.” The reason for this phenomenon is not easy to determine unambiguously. The title of the novel suggests that the main question posed by the writer is the question of guilt (which would mark the moral aspects of the characters’ behavior in their personal conflicts). However, the peculiarities of the construction of the novel and the strategy for constructing the consciousness of the characters refute the hypothesis of the author’s “moral monopoly,” therefore, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question about the causes of the social and personal conflicts depicted in the novel. As a result, it becomes clear that the assumption that the novel develops the issue of guilt is erroneous and leads in the wrong direction. Thus, the author deviates from the ideological principles of the “natural school”, which require identifying (and naming) the culprit of social ills.

Herzen sought to show the impossibility of a one-sided explanation of the social and personal problems of the heroes. The author does not offer clear answers and at the same time refuses typification in favor of procedural structures. In this novel, every social situation, every dialogic connection between individual characters turns out to be problematic.

Depicting the mental development of the hero and human relationships in all their diversity, Herzen sheds new light on the problem of the status of literature and reality. Reality is depicted using the technique of literary psychologization, which is close and understandable to the reader. The author acts as a psychologist, establishing the character of the characters, their mental and moral state and connecting all this with the “mental” state of society. The text does not pretend, however, to directly reflect reality by filling the novel with a lot of factual material that constitutes this reality. The author shows reality as it appears to the eyes of an individual. Social reality is presented in the novel only through the prism of the heroes’ consciousness.

Psychologization becomes the main technique of Herzen's poetics. Literature turns into an experimental field for exploring the possibilities of development of an individual personality under certain conditions; the verisimilitude of the image is achieved through a dynamic depiction of the psyche of the acting characters. This dynamic appears as a result of the inclusion in literary discourse of segments of anthropological knowledge containing certain connotative connections that would be impossible to establish outside the framework of literary work. The relationship between literature and society becomes new uniform. At the level of pragmatics, new relationships are established between the text, the reader and the author, in which knowledge of the context plays a large role. The position, which calls on the reader to determine for himself the culprit of social disorder, is relativized with the help of the structural composition of the novel. The reader must realize that reality is too complex to be clear-cut. The question of the relationship between morality, science and social norms is posed in a new way. The literary psychogram complicates the functioning of unambiguous connotative connections and replaces them with polysemy at the level of pragmatics. At the same time, the reader must connect the moral dilemma of guilt with the reader's life situation. But what is a person’s position in relation to reality? Knowledge of reality and knowledge of the connection between it and an individual personality is stimulated by “processing” “external” history into one’s own history. Image real person is now read not from his opposition to reality, but from the process of its cognition, viewed through the prism of psychology and in constant development. The task of man is to gradually assimilate and process reality. Human character is understood, therefore, as dynamic, in constant development and interaction with the outside world. Literary treatment of all this is possible, however, only if the possibility of going beyond the subjective and objectifying the mental development of the individual is allowed.

We can thus observe two stages in the development of psychological realism from the poetics of medicine. The initial stage is the introduction into literature of the “natural school” of “medical realism”, using psychology as a functional and organizational model for postulating statements in the field of anthropology and sociology. Interest in the problem of the relationship between the individual and society is directed in its further development to the inner world of man. Dostoevsky in the novel “Poor People” develops the problem of the relationship between the individual and society at the psychological level and shows the process of introducing social norms into the internal structures of the hero’s psyche. Psychology is not a tool for expressing the ideological beliefs of the author; it is more appropriate to talk here about its aestheticization. Herzen in the novel “Who is to Blame?” depicts a paradigm of the possibilities of internal development of the individual within the social framework assigned to it. In this case, the problem of self-awareness and the hero’s gaining independence from society through introspection comes to the fore.

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From the book Works of the Russian period. Prose. Literary criticism. Volume 3 author Gomolitsky Lev Nikolaevich

"Who is to blame?" In 1845–1846 Herzen publishes the novel “Who is to Blame?”, written in a new, “natural” key and in ideological and stylistic terms obviously adjacent to the Gogol accusatory tradition. The latter, however, receives a sharp philosophical

From the book Russian Cross: Literature and the Reader at the Beginning of a New Century author Ivanova Natalya Borisovna

French Revolution 1848 Spiritual crisis Herzen In 1847, Herzen traveled abroad, and in February 1848 he became an eyewitness to the events french revolution, which overthrew the constitutional-monarchical regime of the “bourgeois king” Louis Philippe and proclaimed France

From the book History of the Russian Novel. Volume 2 author

4.Everyone is to blame 21. Truly everyone is to blame before everyone and for everything.22. Do not let the sin of people in your work confuse you, do not be afraid that the ban is your work and will not allow it to be accomplished, do not say: “sin is strong, wickedness is strong, the bad environment is strong, and we are alone and powerless, it will wipe out

From the book History of the Russian Novel. Volume 1 author Philology Team of authors --

Whoever didn’t hide, it’s not my fault. Following Kutuzov’s tactics, Muscovites left the city. And on May 5th I was inspired to stop by Pushkinskaya. Along Tverskaya there is a shower of ten sprinklers, confused passers-by are fleeing through the gateways and hiding in the alleys. There was another one waiting on the Internet

From the book No Fiddler Needed author Basinsky Pavel Valerievich

CHAPTER IX. A NOVEL FROM PEOPLE'S LIFE. ETHNOGRAPHICAL NOVEL (L.M. Lotman) 1The question of whether a novel is possible, the hero of which is a representative of the working people, and what should be the typological characteristics of such a work, arose before the leaders of the Russian

From the book Russian Literature and Medicine: Body, Prescriptions, Social Practice [Collection of Articles] author Borisova Irina

CHAPTER I. “WHO IS TO GUILTY?” (N.I. Prutskov) 1 One of the most brilliant pages in the history of the novel in the West was written by the enlighteners of the 18th century. Preparing minds “for the approaching revolution,” the enlighteners of the 18th century saturated the European novel with bold encyclopedic, revolutionary

From the book Russian Paranoid Novel [Fyodor Sologub, Andrei Bely, Vladimir Nabokov] author Skonechnaya Olga

In memory of Herzen On April 6, 2012, Russia did not celebrate the bicentenary of the great Russian writer, publicist, philosopher, and political figure Alexander Herzen. I did not make a mistake. We did not celebrate this anniversary. Some exhibitions were organized, they were kindly invited to Russia

From the author's book

5 Herzen’s novel “Who is to Blame?” development of psychological realism Novel “Who is to Blame?” consists of two parts, significantly different from each other with regard to the depiction of literary heroes. The first part consists of a series of biographies of heroes, stories about their

From the author's book

The paranoid novel of Andrei Bely and the “tragedy novel” In his response to “Petersburg” Vyach. Ivanov complains about the “too frequent abuse of Dostoevsky’s external techniques while being unable to master his style and penetrate into the essence of things through his sacred ways.”

However, it contains great content. It outgrows the family and everyday conflict within the framework of the plot action: the characters get to know each other, meet, argue, fall in love, realize the need to separate, and at the same time points to the general processes of Russian life, comprehends the circumstances of the formation of characters, explains the reasons why the heroes of the novel are unhappy... Describing the actions and thoughts of his characters during those six to seven months while Beltov was in the provincial city, Herzen turns to the past in many digressions, goes to the origins of events, and depicts the impressions of the childhood years of the life of the main characters. The digressions also reveal the social meaning of social relations in Russia and explain the ideological and moral quests of the heroes.

Herzen himself noted the main compositional feature of the novel: it is structured as a combination of many essays, biographies and digressions with reflections on Russia. This construction of the novel allowed him to create an unusually broad picture of Russian life over many decades. It was created by an artist whose main strength, according to Belinsky, is the power of his thoughts and his research approach to what is depicted. Herzen, describing people and events, analyzes them, penetrates deeply into the essence of what is happening and finds a vivid, precise detail to express his conclusions.

Herzen's narrative requires a lot of attention. Individual details serve to express larger generalizations. You have to think about them - and then the image acquires, as it were, an additional meaning: the reader, through hints or indirect remarks of the author, seems to be directly saying something unspoken or completing a barely outlined picture. For example, Beltov, who had just arrived in the provincial town, noticed something that must have seemed strange and even wild to him: “An exhausted worker with a yoke on her shoulder, barefoot and exhausted, climbed up the mountain on black ice, gasping and stopping; a fat and friendly-looking priest, in a homely cassock, sat in front of the gate and looked at her.” The reader guesses: the city is located on a steep bank, there is no trace of running water, barefoot workers, turned into draft power, spend their health giving water to “fat and friendly priests.”

Beltov also noticed (a visiting person has a fresh look) that the provincial city is strangely deserted: only officials, policemen, and landowners come across him on the streets. The reader cannot help but wonder: where is the rest of the population? After all, noble elections should not take place in a deserted city! The impression is as if everyone fled or hid when danger approached. Or as if a horde of conquerors drove the working people away and imprisoned them somewhere.

In the silence of the cemetery no voices can be heard. Only in the evening came the “thick, lingering sound of a bell” - as a funeral accompaniment to Beltov’s fading hopes, as a harbinger of impending misfortune, as a promise of a tragic denouement of the novel... After this, Herzen concluded: “Poor victim of a century full of doubt, you will not find peace in NN ! And this conclusion is, in essence, a new preview of what is about to happen, and at the same time a new impetus for reflection: it directly promises failure to Beltov’s undertakings and calls him a victim of the century, connecting his tossing and searching with the general contradictions of the spiritual life of those years.

Irony is one of the most effective means in Herzen's artistic system. Ironic remarks, clarifications and definitions when describing characters make the reader either an evil or a sad smile. Negroes, for example, “were taught day and night by the words and hands of the coachman.” It’s funny to imagine a general teaching a coachman the art of driving horses, but it’s sad to think that his verbal instructions are, apparently, always accompanied by punches.

Lyubonka in the Negrovs' house withdraws into silent alienation, so as not to aggravate the falsity of her position as a “ward”; Glafira Lvovna, who considers herself her benefactor, is unpleasant, and “she called her an icy Englishwoman, although the Andalusian properties of the general’s wife were also subject to great doubt,” Herzen ironically notes. The allusion to Carmen should be considered implied from her contrasting herself with Lyubonka: “an icy Englishwoman” is some kind of flaw that Glafira Lvovna does not notice in herself. But it’s funny to imagine this fat, doughy lady - “a baobab among women,” as Herzen casually noted - in the role of an ardent Spaniard. And at the same time, it’s sad to imagine the powerless Lyubonka in complete dependence on her “benefactor.”

Officials provincial town They justify their spontaneous hatred of Beltov by the fact that he “read harmful little books at a time when they were studying useful maps.” The irony here lies in the absurdity of contrasting a useful activity with wasting time.

The prudent and prudent Doctor Krupov is characterized by the following detail: “Krupov pulled out of his pocket something between a wallet and a suitcase.” Well, what was the pocket that contained such a wallet, where business papers are stored, “resting in the company of crooked scissors, lancets and probes”? The reader will ask himself this question and smile. But it won't be an evil or mocking smile. It’s another matter when Herzen endowed one of the passing figures with eyes of “garbage color”: this caustic epithet expresses not the color of the eyes, but the essence of the soul, from the bottom of which all the vices of human nature rise.

Krupov more than once makes the reader smile, but it is always mixed with anxious anticipation or acute sadness. So, he builds a complex “multi-layered” one when he paints a picture of the future for Dmitry Krutsifersky family life with Lyubonka: he no longer points to poverty, but to the dissimilarity of characters. “Your bride is not a match for you, so what do you want - these eyes, this complexion, this trepidation that sometimes runs across her face - she is a tiger cub who does not yet know her strength; and you - what are you? You are the bride; you, brother, are German; you will be a wife - well, is that suitable?

Here Lyubonka Negrova and Krutsifersky are simultaneously characterized along with their parents, who are accustomed to suffer, humble themselves and obey. And at the same time, Krupov defined himself - with his dark irony and soberness of view, turning into hopeless pessimism.

Krupov judges and prophesies with comical self-confidence. However, he really foresaw the fate of the young people he loved. Krupov knew Russian reality too well: personal things are impossible for a person in a society doomed to suffering. It took a truly miraculous confluence of circumstances for the Krutsiferskys, to isolate themselves from environment, could live in peace, prosperity and not suffer at the sight of other people’s misfortunes. But Doctor Krupov did not believe in miracles, and that is why he promised a tragic ending with such confidence at the beginning of the novel.

The character embodied in the image of Krupov interested Herzen as an expression of one of the most original types of Russian life. Herzen met people who were strong, of extraordinary courage and internally free. They had suffered so much themselves and had seen enough of the suffering of others that nothing could scare them anymore. For the most part, everyday “prudence” was not characteristic of them. Herzen recalled about one of these people - a factory doctor in Perm - in Past and Thoughts: “All his activities turned to persecuting officials with sarcasms. He laughed at them in their eyes, he said the most offensive things to their faces with grimaces and antics... He made a social position for himself with his attacks and forced a spineless society to endure the rods with which he whipped them without rest.”

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The artistic originality of A. Herzen’s novel “Who is to Blame?” The novel's figurative system. The image of an extra person. Herzen “Who is to blame?”: analysis The main images of the work who is to blame

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