A bent old man of forty-seven years old Turgenev entered. On the question of the age of ... literary heroes

Do you think Pushkin did not realize what he was writing here?))) I think that he might not have thought about the exact age of the heroine's mother. And how can we know exactly her age? Maybe this woman got married at 28, like Evpraksia Wulf, with whom Pushkin was friends? Maybe a 50-year-old widower married her, for whom a young woman would no longer go. Or another option. In life, infant mortality was high. Maybe, having married at 23, this woman first gave birth to three sons in 6 years - and all died in infancy ... And at 30 she gave birth to a daughter, and she survived. (I want to say that Pushkin could write simply remembering the girls he knew and their mothers (and not determining the exact age) - but in life ... You never know how it happened in life?)))
When we now use the expression "Balzac age", we constantly forget that we are talking about a woman in her thirties, not in her fifties This is how I always understood "Balzac's age", like Balzac's.))) And the word "nymphet" is also misunderstood, naming, for example, 15-year-olds and older.
klavir The other day I specifically checked that Smerdyakov is the brother of Karamazov, at the beginning of the book there is not a word When did I argue with this?
But there, by the way, you can guess.))) I guessed it myself, I remember.))) "At the fence, in
nettles and burdock, our company saw the sleeping Lizaveta. spree
the gentlemen stopped over her with laughter and began to joke with all possible
uncensored. It suddenly occurred to one barchenka completely
an eccentric question on an impossible topic: "is it possible, they say, although who
whatever it was, to consider such a beast for a woman, at least now, etc. ". All
with proud disgust decided that it was impossible. But Fedor happened in this bunch
Pavlovich, and he immediately jumped out and decided that he could be considered a woman, even
very much, and that there is even something of a special kind of piquant, etc., etc. ... with excessive gaiety, and finally everyone went away with their
Expensive. Subsequently, Fyodor Pavlovich swore an oath that then he, together
left with everyone; maybe that's exactly what happened, no one knows for sure and
never knew, but after five or six months everyone in town was talking to
sincere and extreme indignation that Lizaveta walks pregnant,
they asked and searched: whose sin, who is the offender? Here, suddenly
a strange rumor spread throughout the city that the offender is this very Fedor
Pavlovich .... rumor
She pointed directly at Fyodor Pavlovich and continued to point. ... Baptized and named Paul, and by patronymic
everyone themselves, without a decree, began to call him Fedorovich. Fyodor Pavlovich is not
contradicted nothing and even found it all amusing, although with all his might
continued to renounce everything."

Older women over 70 are commonly referred to as grandmas these days, and this is not a very respectful-sounding synonym for the word "old woman." But in the old days in Rus', the age criteria were somewhat different.

Girls, youths, women

IN XIX century girls got married early, at the age of 15-17. At the age of 20, they were already considered "overstar". At 35, women already had adult children, and sometimes they became grandmothers. By the way, this is reflected in the Russian classics. For example, in Gogol we read: "The door was opened for us by an old woman of about forty." Leo Tolstoy mentions in one of his works about "Princess Marivanna, an old woman of 36 years old."

There is nothing surprising here. Life expectancy in those days was much shorter than now, and not everyone lived to at least forty years. By the way, according to one version, the word "forty" means "term". Approximately so much was originally released to man. And then it depended on the state of health and various circumstances.

In Rus', the status of a woman has always been clearly associated with her age. Yes, young unmarried girls called girls or maidens. young married women called young people. After the birth of a child, a woman became a woman. Of course, this applied only to women of the lower class, peasant women or serfs.

Origin of the word "grandmother"

The very word "baba" has been known since pagan times. It is present in many Slavic as well as Turkic languages, and has always had many meanings. For example, pagan stone idols were called "women".

There is a version that the term "baba" came from Sanskrit. The syllable "ba" means "to live", "to exist", "to be", "always", "now". From the Old Slavonic "baba" is translated as "the gates of life."

However, according to another, much more popular hypothesis, the origin of the word “woman” among Russians is the same as that of the words “mother”, “nanny”, “tya”: young children simply tend to double syllables, and “ba” turned into “babu ".

Perhaps this is how the kids called women in the family, older in age, in contrast to their mothers. "Mom" breastfed them, but "woman" did not.

From the word "baba" the word "grandmother" was born. Krylov’s etymological dictionary says: “This common Slavic word is formed from the noun woman (meaning “mother of father or mother”) with the help of a diminutive suffix, but over time it began to be perceived as an independent word denoting kinship.” “An old woman, an old woman,” - this is how the author of another etymological dictionary, Shansky, interprets the meaning of the word.

Who was called "grandmothers" in Rus'?

So, initially, apparently, that was the name of grandmothers, that is, the word denoted the degree of kinship. But later, other older women began to be called that. Moreover, it is unlikely that they began to call them grandmothers from a specific age. Rather, the status of a woman mattered here. Say, if she already had adult children, grandchildren, if the childbearing period ended, then she had the full “right” to be called a “grandmother”.

There is also a theory that a wise, knowledgeable woman could be called a "grandmother". Traditionally in Rus' they called "women" and "grandmothers" healers, soothsayers, midwives. Some even managed to combine all these "duties".

According to the ethnographer Listova in the work “Russian rituals, customs and beliefs associated with the midwife (second half of the 19th - 20s of the 20th century)”, in accordance with the traditions, only women who gave birth, but had already experienced menopause, could play the role of a midwife, not sexually active, preferably widowed. It was believed that in this case there would be no problems with "twisted" children.

How old was Juliet's mother? That's right, 28. Like Mila Kunis.


The mother of Rodion Raskolnikov from the novel "Crime and Punishment" was 42 years old, like Jennifer Aniston.



And 16-year-old Pushkin wrote: "An old man of about 30 entered the room." Old Man Justin Timberlake.



"Alas, Tatyana is not a child, the old woman said, groaning." This was said about the 36-year-old mother of Tatyana Larina, a groaning old woman of Fergie's age.


The "old cardinal" Richelieu at the time of the siege of the fortress of La Rochelle described in the "Three Musketeers" was 42 years old. Why are you smiling, Will? It's about you.


Marya Gavrilovna from Pushkin's Snowstorm was no longer young: "She was in her 20s." Emma Watson is two years older than the elderly Marya Gavrilovna. Just an old maid in a square.


Ivan Susanin at the time of the feat was 32 years old, and he had a 16-year-old daughter of marriageable age. Nothing funny, Jake. And yeah, what kind of old woman are you hugging there?


Tynyanov: "Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was older than all those gathered. He was 34 years old - the age of fading." I don't know what to say about 39 year old Wentworth Miller. How is he even alive?

On the subject of age... literary heroes

The following factoid text has spread over the Internet (VKontakte, classmates and forums):

- The old pawnbroker from Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" was 42 years old.

- Juliet's mother at the time of the events described in the play was 28 years old.

- Marya Gavrilovna from Pushkin's Snowstorm was no longer young. She was 20 years old.

- Balzac age - 30 years.

- Ivan Susanin at the time of the feat was 32 years old (he had a 16-year-old daughter for marriageable age).

- Anna Karenina at the time of her death was 28 years old, Vronsky - 23 years old. The old man - the husband of Anna Karenina - is 48 years old.

- To the old man Cardinal Richelieu at the time described in " Three Musketeers» The siege of the fortress of La Rochelle was 42 years old.

- From the notes of 16-year-old Pushkin: "An old man of about 30 entered the room." It was Karamzin.

- At Tynyanov's, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was older than all those present. He was 34, the age of fading.

So here it is!!! This is all not true! Let's sort it out in order.

- The old pawnbroker from Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" was 42 years old.

Original source:

The old woman stood in front of him silently and looked at him inquiringly. It was a tiny, dry old woman, sixty years old, with sharp and evil eyes, with a small, pointed nose and simple hair. Her blond, slightly graying hair was greasyly oiled. On her thin and long neck, resembling a chicken leg, some kind of flannel rag was draped, and on her shoulders, despite the heat, all the tattered and yellowed fur katsaveyka dangled. The old woman kept coughing and groaning.

- Juliet's mother at the time of the events described in the play was 28 years old.

In fact, even less, but then early marriages were accepted.

Original source:

“Well, think about it. At the Verona nobility
In honor of early marriage. Me too, by the way.
I gave birth to you quite early -
I was younger than you are now."

And a little earlier it says that Juliet is not yet 14 years old:
“She is a child. She's new to the world
And not yet fourteen years.”
- Marya Gavrilovna from Pushkin's Snowstorm was no longer young. She was 20 years old.
Who gave such a definition: "not young"? In the whole story, neither the word "young" nor "not young" is found.
The original source only says the following about age:

“At the end of 1811, in an era memorable to us, the good Gavrila Gavrilovich R ** lived in his estate Nenaradovo. He was famous throughout the district for his hospitality and cordiality; every minute the neighbors went to him to eat, drink, play five kopecks in Boston with his wife, and some in order to look at their daughter, Marya Gavrilovna, slender, pale and seventeen years old girl."

- Balzac age - 30 years. Here is what the omniscient Wikipedia tells us: “Balzac’s age is an expression that became common after the appearance of the novel“ Thirty Years Old Woman ” French writer Honore de Balzac. The heroine of this novel, Vicomtesse d'Aiglemont, was distinguished by her independence, independence of judgment and freedom in expressing her feelings. In the first years after the publication of the novel, this expression was used ironically in relation to women who looked like or aspired to be like the heroine of a Balzac novel. Later this meaning of the term was forgotten. At one time, Ilya Selvinsky wrote: “Balzac sang a thirty-year-old, and I would have a woman under forty ...”

- Ivan Susanin at the time of the feat was 32 years old (he had a 16-year-old daughter in breath).

Again from Wikipedia:
Almost nothing is known about the life of Ivan Susanin. ... Since his wife is not mentioned in any documents or legends, and his daughter Antonida was married and had children, it can be assumed that he was a widower in adulthood.

- To the old man Cardinal Richelieu at the time of the siege of the fortress of La- Rochelle was 42 years old.

The word “old man” never occurs in the novel, and the definition of “old man” is not used in relation to Richelieu either.
Original source:

“A man of medium height, proud, arrogant, with a broad forehead and a piercing gaze, stood by the fireplace. His thin face was further lengthened by a pointed beard, over which a mustache twisted. This man was hardly more than thirty-six or thirty-seven years old, but gray hair was already flashing in his hair and beard. Although he did not have a sword, he still looked like a military man, and the light dust on his boots indicated that he rode that day.

This man was Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, a clever and amiable gentleman, even then weak in body, but supported by an indomitable fortitude ... ”And yes, he really was 42. But they don’t call him an old man.

- From the notes of 16-year-old Pushkin: "An old man of about 30 entered the room." It was Karamzin.
Karamzin was born in 1766, and Pushkin in 1799, that is, when Karamzin was 30 years old, Pushkin was not yet and, as they say now, in the project. At the time when Pushkin was 16, Karamzin was (we believe) about 49.

Perhaps, at the age of 16, Pushkin recalls how Karamzin came to them. Karamzin was 34 at the time of the visit, according to Tynyanov, and Pushkin was 1 year old. He hardly remembered.

- At Tynyanov's, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was older than all those present. He was 34 years old extinction age.

Well, yes, the quote is correct. But… incomplete.
first

16-year-old Pushkin wrote about Karamzin: "An old man of about 30 entered the room." This could be attributed to youthful perception of age. My 15-year-old son told me at my 35: "Dad, when I'm as old as you, I won't need anything either." But here are the words of Y. Tynyanov: “Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was older than all those present. He was thirty-four, the age of fading."

Today, they are quite seriously discussing whether adolescence ends only by the age of 30. Will anyone turn their tongues to say about the 42-year-old Mrs. N - the president of a bank that gave a loan at a good interest: "The old woman"? The external and internal boundaries of old age on the map of life have dramatically changed and continue to change.

Currently, one fifth of the population of the most developed regions is made up of people aged 60 years and older, and by 2050, according to forecasts, their proportion will increase to a third.

This not only becomes an economic problem, but also seriously affects the age structure of employment, intergenerational relations, and the socio-cultural landscape. The use of the potential of old age attracts more and more attention of researchers, which goes far beyond just gerontology and geriatrics, as it was until recently.

It is essentially impossible to give a single definition of old age, to derive some general formula for it.

Chronological old age. The ancient Greeks considered the age of old age from 43 to 63 years, in Ancient Rome- from 60 years old. According to the current criteria of the World Health Organization, this age is from 75 to 89 years. It is preceded by old age - from 60 to 74 years. It is followed by the age of longevity.

Physiological old age- "The final period of life, characterized by a limitation of the adaptive capabilities of the body and morphological changes in various organs and systems." The word "man" in such definitions is not necessary - they are equally suitable for animals. Physiological aging is associated with the concept of old age as a disease that can be prevented and treated. Old and new ideas of slowing down aging and extending life up to 200–300 years go back to him.

social old age- final period human life, the conditional boundary of which with a period of maturity is associated with the departure of a person from direct participation in the productive life of society. Its age limits vary widely depending on culture, time, social order, etc.

Psychological old age does not coincide with its other facets. “The tragedy is not that we are getting old, but that we remain young,” said Viktor Shklovsky. “It’s scary when you’re eighteen inside, when you admire beautiful music, poetry, painting, and it’s time for you, you haven’t done anything, but you’re just starting to live!” - Faina Ranevskaya echoes him and adds: “Old age is just disgusting. I believe that this is the ignorance of God when he allows you to live to old age. In the broad sense of the word, psychological old age is how the above-mentioned aspects manifest themselves in the behavior and experiences of a person. There are at least three aspects to this.

It’s scary when you’re eighteen inside, when you admire beautiful music, poetry, painting, and it’s time for you, you haven’t done anything, but you’re just starting to live!
Faina Ranevskaya

First associated with age-related changes in the psyche - from minor to pathological - and goes far beyond the topic of this essay. The only thing I would like to note is that the contribution of the individual here is much greater than the actual age.

Second focuses on the psychological processing of everything that age brings with it, or, in other words, on adaptation to old age, coping with it. Many authors have tried to typologize the psychology of old age. I will only mention the adaptation strategies identified by D. Bromley:

1. Constructive- the attitude towards old age is positive, it is experienced, I would say, like an Indian summer with a harvest festival. It is a strategy for a well-integrated, mature, self-reliant person to accept age and enjoy life despite its finiteness.

2. Dependent- a generally positive perception of old age, but with a tendency to expect others to help in providing life and mental support. Optimism is combined with impracticality.

3. Defensive- emphasized independence, the need to be in action, the desire to work as long as possible, regrets about the past youth. Those who follow this strategy do not like to share problems, tend to stick to habits, etc., directly and indirectly insisting that they are “okay” and cope with life on their own. It even shows up in the family.

4. Hostile- old age, retirement are not accepted, the future is colored by the fear of helplessness, death. The tension is discharged through increased activity and at the same time distrust, suspicion, aggressiveness, blaming others for their failures, hostility towards young people, anger at the whole world.

5. Self-hating- the same fear of old age, but aggression is directed at oneself. These people devalue their supposedly wrong and poorly lived life, perceive themselves as victims of circumstances and fate, are passive, often depressive. There is no rebellion against old age, no envy of the young, death is seen as deliverance from suffering.

Although everyone associates with living people when they are introduced to these strategies, these are only strategies, types of adaptation, and not types of people in whose life different strategies can be combined and changed.

Third aspect- personal development. According to E. Erickson, in old age the conflict "integrity - hopelessness" is resolved. Its unfavorable resolution is despair due to a failed, unfinished life, irretrievably missed opportunities; favorable - wisdom, calm preparation for leaving (5th vs. 1st strategy according to D. Bromley).

Youth, taking into account how the resolution of earlier developmental conflicts met with life, resolved the conflict of intimacy and loneliness: the ability to share one's life with another without fear of losing oneself and going into loneliness, in essence, the ability and inability to love.

Maturity- resolution of the conflict "productivity - stagnation": a sense of belonging, caring for others vs. self-absorption. The course of resolving the conflict of old age is seriously affected by the resolution of conflicts of previous stages of development. But she is capable of such breakthroughs in personal development that not all youth can do.

Numbers are numbers, but where is the threshold, crossing which, a person can tell himself that he is entering it?

In the language of essentia, speaking, where physical aging reaches a certain critical mass and meets with a critical narrowing of the field of employment and social demand. In today's Western (information technology) societies, retirement by age is considered the social threshold for old age, but someone leaves for it at the decreed age, and someone does not leave at all.

In the language of existentia, old age is when a person feels old and builds his behavior and life based on this feeling. In itself, this does not determine the quality of the experience of old age: it develops in its meeting with individual life experience, the changing place of old age in social systems, socio- and ethno-cultural portraits of old age and stereotypes of attitudes towards it among the generation of children, etc. But one way or another, in old age, the main facts of existence converge and are presented in a condensed form - “the inevitability of death for each of us and those we love; freedom to make our life the way we want; our existential loneliness and, finally, the absence of any unconditional and self-evident meaning of life” (I. Yalom).

About 10-12 years ago, I had to advise a person who applied about a relationship with his friend: “I am torn between the desire to help him, that I understand! - not in my abilities, and resentment. His friend is a talented scientist from those who are respectfully called self-made-man, who made his way in life and science with his own forehead, direct, demanding and categorical, a kind of romantic of uncompromisingness, by no means devoid of one-sidedness and fraught with conflicts. At first, this helps him and brings him to a fairly high official level, where his habituality increasingly conflicts with the flexibility required at his post in administrative and human relations, leading him to conflicts and periodic depressions with a pronounced psychosomatic component. At 60, he is faced with a choice between the humiliating transition under the supervision of one of his subordinates and retirement, feels cornered, chooses the second and plunges into depression, closing in a vicious circle with now really medical problems.

Everything that he previously wanted to do and write, but did not have time to do, now, when there is time for this, remains undone and unwritten. He expressed his attitude in a letter to my client, with whom he had been associated for more than forty years: “... since I have been silent, I have been offended and annoyed by everyone and everything. It has become my worldview, I don’t share it with anyone, I just explode from time to time. I hate people, everyone is an enemy. With regard to you, anger exploded in me, you are so subtle and humane, but ... ”- a tirade breaking relations in the spirit of M. Zoshchenko's stories followed. It was clear that this was a kind of call for help, the possibilities of the client's response to which we discussed. Further fate These people and their relationship are unknown to me, but the phrase of my client: “He is so afraid of death that he himself lies in the grave during his lifetime,” remained in my memory.

No less bright is the perception of old age by Mikhail Prishvin: “Here is happiness - to live to an advanced age and not bow down, even when your back bends, to no one, to anything, not to deviate and strive upward, increasing the annual circles in your wood.” And in another place: “I now rely not on the number of years, but on the quality of my days. Cherish every day of your life." In his last autumn (in the 81st year), he gives a brilliant metaphor for his perception of old age: “Autumn in the village is so good that you feel how quickly and terribly life passes by, but you yourself are sitting somewhere on a stump, facing the dawn , and you lose nothing - everything remains with you.

As soon as old age is already given to us, it is our freedom to suffer from it or enjoy it.