Analysis of the novel by N. Chernyshevsky "What to do"

His novel "What to do?" the famous Russian writer Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky created during the period when he was imprisoned in one of the cells of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The time of writing the novel is from December 14, 1862 to April 4, 1863, that is, the work, which became a masterpiece of Russian literature, was created in just three and a half months. Starting from January 1863 and until the moment of the author's final stay in custody, he handed over the manuscript in parts to the commission that dealt with the writer's case. Here the work was censored, which was approved. Soon the novel was published in the 3rd, as well as 4th and 5th issues of the Sovremennik magazine for 1863. For such an oversight, the censor Beketov lost his position. This was followed by bans on all three issues of the magazine. However, it was already too late. Chernyshevsky's work was distributed throughout the country with the help of "samizdat".

And only in 1905, during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, the ban was lifted. Already in 1906, the book "What to do?" published in a separate edition.

Who are the new heroes?

The reaction to Chernyshevsky's work was mixed. Readers, based on their opinion, were divided into two opposing camps. Some of them believed that the novel is devoid of artistry. The latter fully supported the author.

However, it is worth remembering that before Chernyshevsky, writers created images of “superfluous people”. A striking example of such heroes are Pechorin, Oblomov and Onegin, who, despite their differences, are similar in their "smart uselessness". These people, "pygmies of deed and titans of words", were bifurcated natures, suffering from a constant discord between will and consciousness, deed and thought. In addition, their characteristic feature was moral exhaustion.

This is not how Chernyshevsky presents his heroes. He created images of "new people" who know what they need to desire, and are also able to carry out their own plans. Their thought goes along with the deed. Their consciousness and will are not at odds with each other. Heroes of Chernyshevsky's novel "What to do?" presented as bearers of new morality and creators of new interpersonal relations. They deserve the main attention of the author. No wonder even a summary of the chapters of "What to do?" allows us to see that by the end of the second of them, the author "lets go of the stage" such representatives of the old world - Marya Alekseevna, Storeshnikova, Serge, Julie and some others.

The main problem of the essay

Even the very brief content of “What to do?” gives an idea of ​​the issues that the author raises in his book. And they are the following:

- The need for a socio-political renewal of society, which is possible through a revolution. Due to censorship, Chernyshevsky did not expand on this topic in more detail. He gave it in the form of half-hints when describing the life of one of the main characters - Rakhmetov, as well as in the 6th chapter.

- Psychological and moral problems. Chernyshevsky argues that a person, using the power of his mind, is able to create in himself new moral qualities set by him. At the same time, the author develops this process, describing it from the smallest, in the form of a struggle against despotism in the family, to the most ambitious, which found expression in the revolution.

- Problems of family morality and women's emancipation. The author reveals this topic in the first three dreams of Vera, in the history of her family, as well as in the relations of young people and the imaginary suicide of Lopukhov.

- Dreams of a bright and beautiful life that will come with the creation of a socialist society in the future. Chernyshevsky illuminates this topic thanks to the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna. The reader sees here also the facilitated work, which became possible thanks to the development of technical means.

The main pathos of the novel is the propaganda of the idea of ​​transforming the world by making a revolution, as well as its expectation and preparation of the best minds for this event. At the same time, the idea is expressed of active participation in the upcoming events.

What was Chernyshevsky's main goal? He dreamed of developing and implementing the latest methodology that would allow for the revolutionary education of the masses. His work was supposed to be a kind of textbook, with the help of which every thinking person would begin to form a new worldview.

The entire content of the novel "What to do?" Chernyshevsky is divided into six chapters. Moreover, each of them, except for the last one, is further subdivided into small chapters. In order to emphasize the particular importance of the final events, the author speaks of them separately. To do this, in the content of the novel "What to do?" Chernyshevsky included a one-page chapter titled "Change of scenery".

The beginning of the story

Consider the summary of Chernyshevsky's novel "What is to be done?". Its plot begins with a found note, which was left in one of the rooms of the hotel in St. Petersburg by a strange guest. It happened in 1823, on July 11. The note says that soon its author will be heard on one of the bridges of St. Petersburg - Liteiny. At the same time, the man asked not to look for the guilty. The incident happened the same night. A man shot himself on Liteiny Bridge. The perforated cap that belonged to him was fished out of the water.

The following is a summary of the novel "What to do?" introduces us to a young lady. On the morning when the event described above happened, she is in a dacha located on Kamenny Island. The lady is sewing, singing a bold and lively French ditty, which speaks of a working people whose liberation will require a change of consciousness. This woman's name is Vera Pavlovna. At this moment, the maid brings the lady a letter, after reading which she begins to sob, covering her face with her hands. The young man who entered the room makes attempts to calm her down. However, the woman is inconsolable. She pushes the young man away. At the same time, she says: “His blood is on you! You are in the blood! I'm the only one to blame..."

What was said in the letter that Vera Pavlovna received? We can learn about this from the presented brief content "What to do?". In his message, the writer indicated that he was leaving the stage.

The appearance of Lopukhov

What further do we learn from the summary of Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? After the events described, a story follows, telling about Vera Pavlovna, about her life, as well as about the reasons that led to such a sad outcome.

The author says that his heroine was born in St. Petersburg. This is where she grew up. The lady's father - Pavel Konstantinovich Vozalsky - was the manager of the house. The mother was engaged in the fact that she gave money on bail. The main goal of Marya Alekseevna (mother of Vera Pavlovna) was the profitable marriage of her daughter. And she did her best to resolve this issue. The evil and narrow-minded Marya Alekseevna invites a music teacher to her daughter. Buys Vera beautiful clothes, goes to the theater with her. Soon, the son of the owner, officer Storeshnikov, pays attention to the swarthy beautiful girl. The young man decides to seduce Vera.

Marya Alekseevna hopes to force Storeshnikov to marry her daughter. To do this, she requires Faith to favor the young man. However, the girl perfectly understands the true intentions of her boyfriend and in every possible way refuses signs of attention. Somehow she even manages to mislead her mother. She pretends to be supportive of the womanizer. But sooner or later the deception will be revealed. This makes the position of Vera Pavlovna in the house simply unbearable. However, everything suddenly resolved, and at the same time in the most unexpected way.

Dmitry Sergeevich Lopukhov appeared in the house. This graduate medical student was invited by Vera's parents to join her brother Fedya as a teacher. At first, young people were very wary of each other. However, then their communication began to flow in conversations about music and books, as well as about a fair direction of thought.

Time has passed. Vera and Dmitry felt sympathy for each other. Lopukhov learns about the plight of the girl and makes attempts to help her. He is looking for a governess job for Verochka. Such work would allow the girl to live separately from her parents.

However, all Lopukhov's efforts were unsuccessful. He could not find such owners who would agree to take in a girl who had run away from home. Then the young man in love takes another step. He leaves his studies and starts translating a textbook and private lessons. This allows him to start getting sufficient funds. At the same time, Dmitry makes an offer to Vera.

First dream

Vera has her first dream. In it, she sees herself emerging from a dark and damp basement and meeting an amazing beauty who calls herself love for people. Vera talks to her and promises to let girls out of such basements who are locked in them, as she was locked.

family well-being

Young people live in a rented apartment, and everything is going well for them. However, the landlady notices oddities in their relationship. Verochka and Dmitry only call each other "darling" and "darling", they sleep in separate rooms, entering them only after knocking, etc. All this is surprising to an outsider. Vera tries to explain to the woman that this is a completely normal relationship between spouses. After all, this is the only way to not get bored with each other.

The young wife runs the household, gives private lessons, reads books. Soon she opens her own sewing workshop, in which the girls are self-employed, but receive part of the income as co-owners.

Second dream

What else do we learn from the summary of Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? In the course of the plot, the author introduces us to the second dream of Vera Pavlovna. In it, she sees a field with ears of corn growing on it. There is also dirt here. And one of them is fantastic, and the second is real.

Real dirt means taking care of what is most needed in life. It was precisely this that Marya Alekseevna was constantly burdened with. On this, ears can be grown. Fantastic dirt is a concern for the unnecessary and superfluous. On such soil, ears of corn will never grow.

The emergence of a new hero

The author shows Kirsanov as a strong-willed and courageous person, capable not only of a decisive act, but also of subtle feelings. Alexander spends time with Vera when Dmitry is busy. Together with his friend's wife, he goes to the opera. However, soon, without explaining any reasons, Kirsanov stops coming to the Lopukhovs, which greatly offends them. What was the real reason for this? Kirsanov's falling in love with a friend's wife.

The young man reappeared in the house when Dmitry fell ill to cure him and help Vera with care. And here the woman realizes that she is in love with Alexander, which is why she is completely confused.

third dream

From the summary of the work "What to do?" we learn that Vera Pavlovna is having a third dream. In it, she reads the pages of her diary with the help of some unknown woman. From it, she learns that she feels only gratitude for her husband. However, at the same time, Vera needs a gentle and quiet feeling, which she does not have for Dmitry.

Solution

The situation in which three decent and intelligent people found themselves, at first glance, seems insoluble. But Lopukhov finds a way out. He shoots himself on the Liteiny Bridge. On the day that Vera Pavlovna received this news, Rakhmetov came to see her. This old acquaintance of Lopukhov and Kirsanov, who is called "a special person."

Acquaintance with Rakhmetov

In the summary of the novel “What to do”, the “special person” Rakhmetov is presented by the author as a “higher nature”, which Kirsanov helped to awaken in his time by familiarizing himself with the necessary books. The young man comes from a wealthy family. He sold his estate, and distributed the money he received for it to fellows. Now Rakhmetov adheres to a harsh lifestyle. In part, he was prompted by the reluctance to possess what the common man does not have. In addition, Rakhmetov set as his goal the education of his own character. For example, to test his physical abilities, he decides to sleep on nails. In addition, he does not drink wine and does not make acquaintances with women. In order to get closer to the people, Rakhmetov even walked with barge haulers along the Volga.

What else is said about this hero in Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? The summary makes it clear that Rakhmetov's whole life consists of sacraments that are clearly revolutionary. A young man has many things to do, but they are not all personal. He travels around Europe, but at the same time in three years he is going to Russia, where he will certainly need to be.

It was Rakhmetov who came to Vera Pavlovna after receiving a note from Lopukhov. After his persuasion, she calmed down and even became cheerful. Rakhmetov explains that Vera Pavlovna and Lopukhov had very different personalities. That is why the woman reached out to Kirsanov. Soon Vera Pavlovna left for Novgorod. There she married Kirsanov.

The dissimilarity between the characters of Verochka and Lopukhov is also mentioned in a letter that soon arrived from Berlin. In this message, a medical student who allegedly knew Lopukhov well conveyed Dmitry's words that he began to feel much better after the separation of the spouses, as he always sought solitude. Namely, the sociable Vera Pavlovna did not allow him to do this.

The life of the Kirsanovs

What does the novel What to Do next tell its reader about? Nikolai Chernyshevsky? The summary of the work makes it possible to understand that the love affairs of the young couple settled well to the common pleasure. The lifestyle of the Kirsanovs is not much different from that of the Lopukhov family.

Alexander works hard. As for Vera Pavlovna, she takes baths, eats cream and is already engaged in two sewing workshops. The house, as before, has neutral and common rooms. However, the woman notices that her new husband does not just allow her to lead a lifestyle she likes. He is interested in her affairs and is ready to help in difficult times. In addition, the husband perfectly understands her desire to master some urgent occupation and begins to help her in the study of medicine.

fourth dream

Getting acquainted briefly with Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?, we proceed to continue the plot. It tells us about the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna, in which she sees amazing nature and pictures from the life of women of different millennia.

At first, the image of a slave appears before her. This woman obeys her master. After that, in a dream, Vera sees the Athenians. They begin to bow to the woman, but at the same time they do not recognize her as their equal. Then the following image appears. This is a beautiful lady, for whom the knight is ready to fight in the tournament. However, his love immediately passes after the lady becomes his wife. Then, instead of the face of the goddess, Vera Pavlovna sees her own. It does not differ in perfect features, but at the same time it is illuminated by the radiance of love. And here comes the woman who was in the first dream. She explains to Vera the meaning of equality and shows pictures of the citizens of the future Russia. They all live in a house built of crystal, cast iron and aluminium. In the morning these people work, and in the evening they begin to have fun. The woman explains that this future must be loved and should be strived for.

Completion of the story

How does the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What is to be done?” End with. The author tells his reader that guests often come to the Kirsanovs' house. The Beaumont family soon appears among them. When meeting with Charles Beaumont, Kirsanov recognizes him as Lopukhov. The two families become so close to each other that they decide to continue living in the same house.

Composition

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was born into the family of a priest, but even in his youth he freed himself from religious ideas, becoming the foremost thinker of his time. Chernyshevsky was a utopian socialist. He developed a coherent system of social liberation of Russia. For revolutionary activities, journalistic articles, work in the Sovremennik magazine, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In such unusual conditions, in 1862, the novel What Is to Be Done? was written.

The novel was published by Nekrasov in Sovremennik, after which the magazine was closed, the novel was banned. The work was reprinted only after the first Russian revolution. Meanwhile, the popularity of the “objectionable novel” was enormous. He caused a storm, became the center around which passions boiled. It is difficult for us to imagine this, but the novel was copied by hand, distributed in lists. The power of his power over the minds of young contemporaries knew no bounds. One of the professors of St. Petersburg University wrote: "In the sixteen years of my stay at the university, I have not had a chance to meet a student who would not have read the famous work while still in the gymnasium."

The novel "What to do?" written for the young reader, for the one who faces the problem of choosing a path. The whole content of the book was to show the person entering into life how to build his future. Chernyshevsky creates a novel, which was called "a textbook of life." The heroes of the work should have been taught to act correctly and in good conscience. Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna are not accidentally called “new people” by the writer himself, but the author speaks of Rakhmetov as a “special person”. Recall Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin ... They are romantics, dreamers - people who do not have a goal. All these characters are not perfect. They have features that we find it difficult to accept. The heroes of Chernyshevsky rarely doubt, they know for sure what they want in life. They work, they are not familiar with idleness and boredom. They do not depend on anyone, because they live by their own labor. Lopukhov and Kirsanov are busy with medicine. Vera Pavlovna opens her workshop. This is a special workshop. Everyone is equal in it. Vera Pavlovna is the mistress of the workshop, but all income is distributed among the girls working in it.

The "new people" are not confined to their own business. They have many other interests. They love the theater, read a lot, travel. These are well-rounded individuals.

In a new way, they solve their family problems. The situation that has developed in the Lopukhov family is very traditional. Vera Pavlovna fell in love with Kirsanov. Anna Karenina, having fallen in love with Vronsky, finds herself in a hopeless situation. Tatyana Larina, continuing to love Onegin, decides her fate unambiguously: “... I am given to another; I will be faithful to him forever. The heroes of Chernyshevsky resolve this conflict in a new way. Lopukhov "leaves the stage", freeing Vera Pavlovna. At the same time, he does not consider that he is sacrificing himself, because he acts according to the theory of "reasonable egoism", popular among the "new people". Lopukhov brings joy to himself by doing good to loved ones. Mutual understanding and respect reign in the new Kirsanov family. Let us remember the unfortunate Katerina, the heroine of Ostrovsky. The boar forces the daughter-in-law to follow the rule: "Let the wife be afraid of her husband." Vera Pavlovna is not only not afraid of anyone, for her an independent choice of a life path is possible. She is an emancipated woman, free from conventions and prejudices. She was granted equality in work and family life.

The new family in the novel is opposed to the environment of "vulgar people" in which the heroine grew up and left. Suspicion and acquisitiveness reign here. Vera Pavlovna's mother is a family despot.

Close to the "new people" and Rakhmetov. This is a man preparing himself for a decisive struggle, for a revolution. It combines the features of a folk hero and a highly educated person. He sacrifices everything for his purpose.

These people dream of common joy and prosperity on Earth. Yes, they are utopians, in life it is not always so easy to follow the proposed ideals. But it seems to me that a person has always dreamed and will dream of a wonderful society where only good, kind and honest people will live. Rakhmetov, Lopukhov and Kirsanov were ready to give their lives for this.

The morality of the new people is revolutionary in its deep, inner essence, it completely denies and destroys the officially recognized morality, on the foundations of which modern Chernyshevsky society is based - the morality of sacrifice and duty. Lopukhov says that "the victim is soft-boiled boots." All actions, all the deeds of a person are only truly viable when they are performed not under compulsion, but out of inner attraction, when they are consistent with desires and beliefs. Everything that is done in society under compulsion, under the pressure of duty, ultimately turns out to be inferior and stillborn. Such, for example, is the noble reform "from above" - ​​the "sacrifice" brought by the upper class to the people.

The morality of new people releases the creative possibilities of the human personality, joyfully realizing the true needs of human nature, based, according to Chernyshevsky, on the “instinct of social solidarity”. In accordance with this instinct, it is pleasant for Lopukhov to engage in science, and Vera Pavlovna is pleased to mess around with people, to start sewing workshops on reasonable and fair socialist principles.

New people solve love problems and problems of family relations fatal for humanity in a new way. Chernyshevsky is convinced that the main source of intimate dramas is the inequality between a man and a woman, the dependence of a woman on a man. Emancipation, Chernyshevsky hopes, will significantly change the very nature of love. Excessive concentration of a woman on love feelings will disappear. Her participation on a par with a man in public affairs will remove the drama in love relationships, and at the same time destroy the feeling of jealousy as purely selfish in nature.

New people differently, less painfully, resolve the most dramatic conflict of a love triangle in human relations. Pushkin's "how, God forbid, you be loved to be different" becomes for them not an exception, but a daily norm of life. Lopukhov, having learned about Vera Pavlovna's love for Kirsanov, voluntarily makes way for his friend, leaving the stage. Moreover, on the part of Lopukhov, this is not a sacrifice - but "the most profitable benefit." Ultimately, having made a "calculation of benefits", he experiences a joyful feeling of satisfaction from an act that brings happiness not only to Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna, but also to himself.

Of course, the spirit of utopia breathes from the pages of the novel. Chernyshevsky has to explain to the reader how Lopukhov's "reasonable egoism" did not suffer from his decision. The writer clearly overestimates the role of reason in all human actions and actions. Lopukhov's reasoning gives off rationalism and rationality, the self-analysis carried out by him makes the reader feel a certain thoughtfulness, implausibility of human behavior in the situation in which Lopukhov found himself. Finally, it is impossible not to notice that Chernyshevsky facilitates the decision by the fact that Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna do not yet have a real family, no child. Many years later, in the novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy would rebut Chernyshevsky with the tragic fate of the main character, and in War and Peace he would challenge the excessive enthusiasm of democratic revolutionaries for the ideas of women's emancipation.

N" one way or another, but in the theory of "reasonable egoism" of Chernyshevsky's heroes there is an undeniable attraction and an obvious rational grain, which is especially important for the Russian people, who for centuries lived under the strong pressure of autocratic statehood, which held back the initiative and sometimes extinguished the creative impulses of the human person. The morality of Chernyshevsky's heroes, in a certain sense, has not lost its relevance in our times, when the efforts of society are aimed at awakening a person from moral apathy and lack of initiative, at overcoming dead formalism.

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It was written partly in response to Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.

Chernyshevsky wrote the novel while in solitary confinement of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, from December 14, 1862 to April 4, 1863. Since January 1863, the manuscript has been handed over in parts to the commission of inquiry on the Chernyshevsky case (the last part was handed over on April 6). The commission, and after it the censors, saw only a love line in the novel and gave permission for publication. The oversight of censorship was soon noticed, the responsible censor Beketov was removed from his post. However, the novel had already been published in the journal Sovremennik (1863, Nos. 3-5). Despite the fact that the issues of Sovremennik, in which the novel What Is to Be Done? were published, were banned, the text of the novel in handwritten copies was distributed throughout the country and caused a lot of imitation.

In 1867, the novel was published as a separate book in Geneva (in Russian) by Russian emigrants, then it was translated into Polish, Serbian, Hungarian, French, English, German, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. In Soviet times also into Finnish and Tajik (Farsi). The influence of Chernyshevsky's novel is felt by Emil Zola ("Lady's happiness"), Strindberg ("Utopias in reality"), the figure of the Bulgarian national revival Lyuben Karvelov ("Is fate to blame", written in Serbian).

What Is to Be Done, like Fathers and Sons, spawned the so-called anti-nihilistic novel. In particular, "On Knives" by Leskov, where the motifs of Chernyshevsky's work are parodied.

The ban on the publication of the novel What Is to Be Done? was removed only in 1905. In 1906, the novel was first published in Russia as a separate edition.

In the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” aluminum is mentioned. In the "naive utopia" of Vera Pavlovna's fourth dream, it is called the metal of the future. Aluminum reached the "big future" by the middle of the 20th century.

The "lady in mourning" that appears at the end of the work is Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya, the writer's wife. At the end of the novel, we are talking about the release of Chernyshevsky from the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was at the time of writing the novel. He did not wait for release: on February 7, 1864, he was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor, followed by a settlement in Siberia.

The main characters with the surname Kirsanov are also found in Ivan Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons", but the researchers refuse to connect the heroes of Chernyshevsky and Turgenev's novels with each other.

F. M. Dostoevsky argues with the ideas of Chernyshevsky, in particular with his thoughts about the future of mankind, in Notes from the Underground, thanks to which the image of the “crystal palace” has become a common motif of world literature of the 20th century.

On July 11, 1856, a note left by a strange guest is found in the room of one of the large St. Petersburg hotels. The note says that its author will soon be heard on the Liteiny Bridge and that no one should be suspected. The circumstances are clarified very soon: at night, a man is shooting at Liteiny Bridge. His shot cap is fished out of the water.

On the same morning, a young lady sits and sews in a dacha on Kamenny Island, singing a lively and bold French song about working people who will be set free by knowledge. Her name is Vera Pavlovna. The maid brings her a letter, after reading which Vera Pavlovna sobs, covering her face with her hands. The young man who entered tries to calm her down, but Vera Pavlovna is inconsolable. She pushes the young man away with the words: “You are in the blood! You have his blood on you! It’s not your fault - I’m alone ... ”The letter received by Vera Pavlovna says that the person who writes it leaves the stage because he loves“ both of you ”too much ...

The tragic denouement is preceded by the life story of Vera Pavlovna. She spent her childhood in St. Petersburg, in a multi-storey building on Gorokhovaya, between Sadovaya and Semyonovsky bridges. Her father, Pavel Konstantinovich Rozalsky, is the manager of the house, her mother gives money on bail. The only concern of the mother, Marya Alekseevna, in relation to Verochka: to marry her as soon as possible to a rich man. A narrow-minded and evil woman does everything possible for this: she invites a music teacher to her daughter, dresses her up and even takes her to the theater. Soon the beautiful swarthy girl is noticed by the master's son, officer Storeshnikov, and immediately decides to seduce her. Hoping to force Storeshnikov to marry, Marya Alekseevna demands that her daughter be favorable to him, while Verochka refuses this in every possible way, understanding the true intentions of the womanizer. She manages to somehow deceive her mother, pretending that she is luring her boyfriend, but this cannot last long. Vera's position in the house becomes completely unbearable. It is resolved in an unexpected way.

A teacher, a graduate medical student, Dmitry Sergeevich Lopukhov, was invited to Verochka's brother Fedya. At first, young people are wary of each other, but then they begin to talk about books, about music, about a fair way of thinking, and soon they feel affection for each other. Having learned about the plight of the girl, Lopukhov tries to help her. He is looking for a governess position for her, which would give Verochka the opportunity to live separately from her parents. But the search turns out to be unsuccessful: no one wants to take responsibility for the fate of the girl if she runs away from home. Then the student in love finds another way out: shortly before the end of the course, in order to have enough money, he leaves his studies and, taking up private lessons and translating a geography textbook, makes an offer to Verochka. At this time, Verochka has her first dream: she sees herself released from a damp and dark basement and talking with an amazing beauty who calls herself love for people. Verochka promises the beauty that she will always let other girls out of the cellars, locked up just like she was locked up.

Young people rent an apartment, and their life is going well. True, their relationship seems strange to the landlady: "cute" and "cute" sleep in different rooms, enter each other only after knocking, do not show each other undressed, etc. Verochka hardly manages to explain to the hostess that they should be a relationship between spouses if they do not want to annoy each other.

Vera Pavlovna reads books, gives private lessons, and runs the household. Soon she starts her own enterprise - a sewing workshop. The girls work in the workshop self-employed, but are its co-owners and receive their share of the income, like Vera Pavlovna. They not only work together, but spend their free time together: go on picnics, talk. In her second dream, Vera Pavlovna sees a field on which ears of corn grow. She also sees dirt on this field - or rather, two dirt: fantastic and real. The real dirt is taking care of the most necessary things (such that Vera Pavlovna's mother was always burdened), and ears of corn can grow out of it. Fantastic dirt - caring for the superfluous and unnecessary; nothing worthwhile grows out of it.

The Lopukhov spouses often have Dmitry Sergeevich's best friend, his former classmate and spiritually close person to him - Alexander Matveevich Kirsanov. Both of them "chest, without connections, without acquaintances, made their way." Kirsanov is a strong-willed, courageous person, capable of both a decisive act and a subtle feeling. He brightens up the loneliness of Vera Pavlovna with conversations, when Lopukhov is busy, he takes her to the Opera, which they both love. However, soon, without explaining the reasons, Kirsanov ceases to visit his friend, which greatly offends both him and Vera Pavlovna. They do not know the true reason for his "cooling": Kirsanov is in love with his friend's wife. He reappears in the house only when Lopukhov falls ill: Kirsanov is a doctor, he treats Lopukhov and helps Vera Pavlovna take care of him. Vera Pavlovna is in complete turmoil: she feels that she is in love with her husband's friend. She has a third dream. In this dream, Vera Pavlovna, with the help of some unknown woman, reads the pages of her own diary, which says that she feels gratitude for her husband, and not that quiet, tender feeling, the need for which is so great in her.

The situation in which three smart and decent "new people" have fallen into seems insoluble. Finally, Lopukhov finds a way out - a shot on the Liteiny Bridge. On the day this news was received, an old acquaintance of Kirsanov and Lopukhov, Rakhmetov, "a special person" comes to Vera Pavlovna. The “higher nature” was awakened in him at one time by Kirsanov, who introduced the student Rakhmetov to books “that need to be read.” Coming from a wealthy family, Rakhmetov sold the estate, distributed money to his fellows and now leads a harsh lifestyle: partly because he considers it impossible for himself to have what a simple person does not have, partly out of a desire to educate his character. So, one day he decides to sleep on nails to test his physical abilities. He doesn't drink wine, he doesn't touch women. Rakhmetov is often called Nikitushka Lomov - for the fact that he walked along the Volga with barge haulers in order to get closer to the people and gain the love and respect of ordinary people. Rakhmetov's life is shrouded in a veil of mystery of a clearly revolutionary persuasion. He has a lot to do, but none of it is his personal business. He travels around Europe, intending to return to Russia in three years, when he "needs" to be there. This "specimen of a very rare breed" differs from just "honest and kind people" in that it is "the engine of engines, the salt of the salt of the earth."

Rakhmetov brings Vera Pavlovna a note from Lopukhov, after reading which she becomes calm and even cheerful. In addition, Rakhmetov explains to Vera Pavlovna that the dissimilarity of her character with the character of Lopukhov was too great, which is why she reached out to Kirsanov. Having calmed down after a conversation with Rakhmetov, Vera Pavlovna leaves for Novgorod, where she marries Kirsanov a few weeks later.

The dissimilarity between the characters of Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna is also mentioned in a letter that she soon receives from Berlin. he had a penchant for solitude, which was in no way possible during his life with the sociable Vera Pavlovna. Thus, love affairs are arranged to the general pleasure. The Kirsanov family has approximately the same lifestyle as the Lopukhov family before. Alexander Matveyevich works hard, Vera Pavlovna eats cream, takes baths and is engaged in sewing workshops: she now has two of them. Similarly, there are neutral and non-neutral rooms in the house, and spouses can enter non-neutral rooms only after knocking. But Vera Pavlovna notices that Kirsanov not only allows her to lead the lifestyle that she likes, and is not only ready to lend a shoulder to her in difficult times, but is also keenly interested in her life. He understands her desire to engage in some business, "which cannot be postponed." With the help of Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna begins to study medicine.

Soon she has a fourth dream. Nature in this dream "pours aroma and song, love and bliss into the chest." The poet, whose forehead and thought are illuminated by inspiration, sings a song about the meaning of history. Before Vera Pavlovna are pictures of the life of women in different millennia. First, the slave woman obeys her master among the tents of the nomads, then the Athenians worship the woman, still not recognizing her as their equal. Then the image of a beautiful lady arises, for the sake of which a knight fights in a tournament. But he loves her only until she becomes his wife, that is, a slave. Then Vera Pavlovna sees her own face instead of the face of the goddess. Its features are far from perfect, but it is illuminated by the radiance of love. The great woman, familiar to her from her first dream, explains to Vera Pavlovna what is the meaning of women's equality and freedom. This woman also shows Vera Pavlovna pictures of the future: the citizens of New Russia live in a beautiful house made of cast iron, crystal and aluminum. In the morning they work, in the evening they have fun, and "whoever has not worked out enough, he has not prepared the nerve to feel the fullness of fun." The guidebook explains to Vera Pavlovna that this future should be loved, that one should work for it and transfer from it to the present everything that can be transferred.

The Kirsanovs have a lot of young people, like-minded people: “This type has recently appeared and is quickly spreading.” All these people are decent, hardworking, having unshakable life principles and possessing "cold-blooded practicality." The Beaumont family soon appears among them. Ekaterina Vasilievna Beaumont, nee Polozova, was one of the richest brides in St. Petersburg. Kirsanov once helped her with smart advice: with his help, Polozova figured out that the person she was in love with was not worthy of her. Then Ekaterina Vasilievna marries a man who calls himself an agent of an English firm, Charles Beaumont. He speaks excellent Russian - because he allegedly lived in Russia until the age of twenty. His romance with Polozova develops calmly: both of them are people who "do not rage for no reason." When Beaumont meets Kirsanov, it becomes clear that this person is Lopukhov. The Kirsanov and Beaumont families feel such a spiritual closeness that they soon settle in the same house, receive guests together. Ekaterina Vasilievna also arranges a sewing workshop, and the circle of “new people” is thus becoming wider and wider.

retold

The main characters of Russian classical literature that preceded Chernyshevsky are "superfluous people." Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov, for all their differences, are similar in one thing: all of them, according to Herzen, are “smart useless things”, “titans of word and pygmies of deed”, bifurcated natures, suffering from eternal discord between consciousness and will, thought and deed, - from moral exhaustion. Chernyshevsky's heroes are not like that. His "new people" know what they need to do and know how to carry out their plans, their thought is inseparable from the deed, they do not know the discord between consciousness and will. The heroes of Chernyshevsky are the creators of new relationships between people, the bearers of a new morality. These new people are the focus of the author, they are the main characters of the novel; therefore, by the end of the second chapter of the novel, such representatives of the old world as Marya Alekseevna, Storeshnikov, Julie, Serge, and others are “leaving the stage”.

The novel is divided into six chapters, each of which, with the exception of the last, is in turn divided into chapters. In an effort to emphasize the exceptional importance of the final events, Chernyshevsky talks about them in a specially highlighted one-page chapter titled "A Change of Scenery."

The significance of the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna is especially great. In it, in allegorical form, in the change of pictures, the past, present and future of mankind are drawn. In the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna, the revolution appears again, "the sister of her sisters, the bride of her suitors." She talks about equality, fraternity, freedom, that "there is nothing higher than a man, there is nothing higher than a woman," she talks about how people's lives will be arranged and what a person will become under socialism.

A characteristic feature of the novel is the frequent digressions of the author, appeals to the characters, conversations with an insightful reader. The significance of this imaginary character is very great in the novel. In his person, the philistine part of the public is ridiculed and exposed, inert and stupid, looking for sharp scenes and piquant situations in novels, constantly talking about “artism and not understanding anything in true art. An astute reader is one who “smugly talks about literary or learned things in which he doesn’t understand a single thing, and talks not because he is really interested in them, but in order to flaunt his mind (which he did not happen to get from nature ), his lofty aspirations (of which there are as many in him as in the chair on which he sits) and his education (of which there is as much in him as in a parrot).

Mocking and mocking this character, Chernyshevsky thereby turned to the reader-friend, for whom he had great respect, and demanded from him a thoughtful, close, truly penetrating attitude to the story of "new people".

The introduction of the image of an insightful reader into the novel was explained by the need to draw the attention of the reading public to what, under censorship conditions, Chernyshevsky could not speak openly and directly.

To answer the question "What to do?" Chernyshevsky raises and resolves from a revolutionary and socialist position the following burning problems:

1. The socio-political problem of the reorganization of society in a revolutionary way, that is, through the physical collision of two worlds. This problem is hinted at in the story of Rakhmetov's life and in the last, 6th chapter, "A Change of Scenery". Because of censorship, Chernyshevsky was unable to develop this problem in detail.

2. Moral and psychological. This is a question about the internal restructuring of a person who, in the process of fighting the old, with the power of his mind, can cultivate new moral qualities in himself. The author traces this process from its initial forms (the struggle against family despotism) to preparations for a change of scenery, i.e., for a revolution. This problem is revealed in relation to Lopukhov and Kirsanov, in the theory of rational egoism, as well as in the author's conversations with readers and characters. This problem also includes a detailed story about sewing workshops, that is, about the significance of labor in people's lives.

3. The problem of the emancipation of women, as well as the norms of the new family morality. This moral problem is revealed in the life story of Vera Pavlovna, in the relationship of the participants in the love triangle (Lopukhov, Vera Pavlovna, Kirsanov), as well as in the first 3 dreams of Vera Pavlovna.

4. Socio-utopian. The problem of the future socialist society. It is developed in the 4th dream of Vera Pavlovna as a dream of a beautiful and bright life. This also includes the theme of the liberation of labor, that is, the technical machinery of production.

The main pathos of the book is passionate enthusiastic propaganda of the idea of ​​revolutionary transformation of the world.

The main desire of the author was the desire to convince the reader that everyone, subject to work on himself, can become a “new person”, the desire to expand the circle of his like-minded people. The main task was to develop a new methodology for educating revolutionary consciousness and "honest feelings". The novel was intended to become a textbook of life for every thinking person. The main mood of the book is an acute joyful expectation of a revolutionary upheaval and a thirst to take part in it.

What reader is the novel addressed to?

Chernyshevsky was an educator who believed in the struggle of the masses themselves, so the novel is addressed to the broad strata of the raznochintsy-democratic intelligentsia, which in the 60s became the leading force in the liberation movement in Russia.

Artistic techniques with which the author conveys his thoughts to the reader:

1 method: the title of each chapter is given a family character with a predominant interest in a love affair, which quite accurately conveys the plot plot, but hides the true content. For example, chapter one “Vera Pavlovna’s life in the parental family”, chapter two “First love and legal marriage”, chapter three “Marriage and second love”, chapter four “Second marriage”, etc. From these names it breathes traditional and imperceptibly what is really new, namely the new character of human relations.

2nd technique: the use of plot inversion - the movement of 2 introductory chapters from the center to the beginning of the book. The scene of the mysterious, almost detective disappearance of Lopukhov diverted the attention of censors from the true ideological orientation of the novel, that is, from what the author's main attention was later paid to.

3rd technique: the use of numerous hints and allegories, called Aesopian speech.

Examples: "golden age", "new order" - this is socialism; "deed" is revolutionary work; a "special person" is a person of revolutionary convictions; "scene" is life; "change of scenery" - a new life after the victory of the revolution; "bride" is a revolution; "bright beauty" is freedom. All these techniques are designed for the intuition and intelligence of the reader.