The image of a doctor in Russian literature. Doctors in Russian classical literature Truth, truth, where are you

The image of a doctor is not the most popular topic in Russian literary criticism. And although literary critics and culturologists have repeatedly noted the presence of great potential in the study of this issue, nevertheless, in general, the images of doctors in Russian literature are spoken of as “of great importance” without explaining this wording.

We can agree that the image of a doctor is most often one of the most interesting, deep and important, not only because the indicated period of time is rich in works that can serve as examples of the connection between medicine and literature. In 1924, M. Gorky spoke very sarcastically about Russian literature: “Russian literature is the most pessimistic literature in Europe; all our books are written on the same subject: how we suffer.” Thus, it can be said that images of doctors and their relationships with patients, as a rule, are only part of the overall picture of the "total disease of society."

The image of a doctor penetrates into traditional romantic works along with their inherent aesthetics of life as suffering, decline, destruction, torment, which ends only with death. The writers of the Romantic era do not skimp on physiological details to emphasize the break with the tradition of sentimentalism. A peculiar motif of love for death and thirst for death appears. Death is perceived as a cure for all worldly sorrows and diseases. The aesthetics of romanticism include the composition of epitaphs, attendance at funerals, in cemeteries, looking at dead bodies, etc. The motif of hope for a “otherworldly recovery” arises.

In this regard, the image of Dr. Werner from the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", which is partly romantic and partly a realistic hero, is of particular interest. On the one hand, "he is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors," and on the other hand, "the irregularities of his skull would strike any phrenologist with a strange interweaving of opposite inclinations." In this character, it is equally easy to detect both demonic features and his extraordinary humanity and even naivety. For example, Werner was well versed in people, in the properties of their character, but “never knew how to use his knowledge”, “mocked his patients”, but “wept over a dying soldier”. doctor of literary criticism Lermontov Turgenev

In the era of great discoveries in medicine, medical ethics received much less attention. The physicians of this period are most often portrayed in literature as nihilists or materialists disillusioned with human nature. If in the literature of the second half of the 19th century there is a positive image of a doctor, then, according to E. S. Neklyudova, he, as a rule, is eccentric, lonely and unhappy in family life. Dealing with the human body by the nature of his profession, he does not understand the human soul. Helping people to live, he, nevertheless, is deeply disappointed in life. So, in Russian literature, the image of a doctor appears, responsible not only for human health, but also for the meaning of his existence. For example, Dr. Krupov from the story of the same name by A. I. Herzen, who began his career as a doctor, driven by the desire to help people. He believed that the human being is rational and in the likeness of God, but, however, moving from theory to practice, he found that disease and pathology are also part of human nature. By the nature of his profession, dealing mainly with diseases, Krupov comes to the conclusion that the course of history is ruled not by reason, but by madness, that human consciousness is sick, that there is no healthy human brain, just as there is no “pure mathematical pendulum” in nature. . In the novel "Who is to blame?" Krupov already “does not so much heal as reflects on everyday life and arranges the fate of Krucifersky, Beltov and others.” In general, in the whole novel, in contrast to the story "Doctor Krupov", the emphasis is on the social nature of the disease. A. I. Herzen speaks, rather, about the "disease of society", therefore here the profession of Krupov acquires a symbolic meaning.

Another well-known image of a doctor in the second half of the 19th century. - the image of a medical student Bazarov from the novel by I. S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". Bazarov's belonging to doctors does not have such a deeply symbolic meaning as that of Herzen. It should be noted that Bazarov’s profession throughout the novel remains, as it were, on the periphery, his confidence in his own knowledge of life and people comes to the fore, in fact, his complete inability to resolve even his own worldly and worldview contradictions, he knows and understands poorly even in himself, which is why many of his thoughts, feelings, and actions turn out to be so unexpected for him. However, the theme of the connection between diseases and the structure of society is not bypassed in this work. Prone to simplifications, Bazarov says: “Moral illnesses ... from the ugly state of society. Fix society and there will be no disease.” Many of Bazarov's statements sound bold enough, but these are more hints at actions than the activity itself.

In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, L. N. Tolstoy demonstrates how great is the gulf between the patient and the doctor, who understands the disease in a purely materialistic way. “For Ivan Ilyich, only one question was important: is his position dangerous or not? But the doctor ignored him. From the doctor's point of view, this question is idle and not subject to discussion; only the weighing of the probabilities is essential - a wandering kidney, a chronic catarrh, and a disease of the caecum. There was no question about the life of Ivan Ilyich, but there was a dispute between a wandering kidney and a caecum ... ".

The connection between literature and medicine, perhaps, has never manifested itself as fully and diversely as in the work of A.P. Chekhov, on the one hand, absorbing the experience of previous generations, on the other hand, giving it new depth and authenticity. In the story "Ward No. 6", doctor Andrey Efimovich Ragin is broken precisely by the uselessness of medicine in the face of death, the inability of medicine to give people eternal life, which turns all the doctor's efforts into a "tragic delusion", delaying the inevitable. In one of Chekhov's most famous works about a doctor, the story "Ionych", the protagonist is not so much mired in the little things of life as he refuses to understand the meaning of being, if death "puts a limit to life", if "there is nothing in the world but corporality". After realizing the instability of everything beautiful and spiritual, this character begins to lead an earthly, bodily life, gradually acquiring money and real estate. Now he is only interested in the most mundane things. The reason for this is precisely the disappointment in the former values ​​and ideals, the realization of one's own impotence.

Summing up, we can say that in Russian literature the image of a doctor has traveled a long and interesting path from a charlatan to a romantic hero, from a romantic hero to a mundane materialist, and from a materialist to a bearer of morality, a hero who knows the truth, knows everything about life and death, and is responsible for others in the broadest sense.

Essay: "The Image of a Medical Worker in Russian Literature". NAME OF THE AUTHOR: Chistova Anastasia Alexandrovna (supervisor Sanfirova S.V.) City of Naberezhnye Chelny, Naberezhnye Chelny Medical College, specialty "Nursing", group 111, 1st year e-mail: [email protected] "The medical profession is a feat. It requires dedication, purity of soul and purity of thoughts." A. P. Chekhov The symbolism of a medical worker is directly related to the Orthodox spirituality of Russian literature. The doctor in the highest sense is Christ, who casts out the most ferocious ailments with his Word, moreover, he conquers death. Among the parable images of Christ - the shepherd, the builder, the bridegroom, the teacher - the doctor is also noted: "The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick" (Matt., 9, 12). It is this context that gives rise to the utmost exactingness to the "esculapius", and therefore at all times the attitude towards physicians is harsh and critical: one who can only bleed and treat all diseases with soda is too far from the Christian path, if he does not become hostile to it (Christian Gibner - death Christ), but even the ability of the most capable doctor cannot be compared with the miracle of Christ. "What is more important for a medical worker: kindness and sensitivity or professional skills?" We will get the answer to this question by tracing the images of physicians in Russian literature. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin did not much favor the doctors of that time, the poet, as you know, at one time "ran away from Aesculapius, thin, shaved, but alive." In "Eugene Onegin" he has only two lines about doctors, but how much secret meaning and despair about the state of medicine and the professional level of doctors are embedded in them: "Everyone sends Onegin to the doctors, They send him in chorus to the waters ..." And in "Dubrovsky" "a doctor, fortunately not a complete ignoramus" appears only once, but the reader will easily understand with what a sigh of relief the Russian genius wrote these lines, they say, thank God, at least there is hope for someone. In Nikolai Gogol's "Inspector General" we meet the charlatan Christian Gibner and the "Grand Inquisitor" from the Notes of a Madman. Mothers are holy, how terrible it is for a patient to live! It seems that the attitude of writers towards the doctor has reached its bottom. And here, like a beacon in a raging sea of ​​negativity, Mikhail Lermontov brings Werner (A Hero of Our Time) onto the literary stage, and Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace shows how a surgeon leans over a wounded patient after an operation to kiss him. This is how the essence of the profession of a doctor is revealed, close to the foundations and essences of being: birth, life, suffering, compassion, decline, resurrection, torment and torment, and finally, death itself. These motives, of course, capture the personality of everyone, but it is in the doctor that they are concentrated as something due, like fate. That is why, by the way, a bad or false physician is so acutely perceived: he is a charlatan of existence itself, and not only of his profession. A literary hero can be different: in one book he is a warrior who fought for the honor and glory of his people, in another book a pirate seeking adventure in the depths of the sea, and somewhere he is a doctor, yes, yes, a doctor. After all, people simply do not notice what a medical worker feels when he saves a person, what he does for the sake of his recovery. What he is willing to do to save hundreds of lives. Doctors are representatives of one of the most difficult professions. The life of a person is in their hands. Not many people in Russian classical literature took medicine and its setting into the genre: A. Solzhenitsyn "Cancer Ward", A. Chekhov "Ward No. 6", M. Bulgakov "Notes of a Young Doctor", "Morphine", etc. Moreover, many of the most talented writers came to Russian literature from medicine: Chekhov, Veresaev, Bulgakov, etc. Literature and medicine are brought together by the deepest interest in the human personality, since it is precisely an indifferent attitude towards a person that determines a true writer and a true doctor. The profession of a doctor was imprinted on the entire work of Bulgakov. But of particular interest are those works that depict the medical activity of the writer himself and the experiences associated with it, and these are, first of all, "Notes of a Young Doctor" and "Morphine". In these works "there are deep human problems of contact between the doctor and the patient, the difficulty and importance of the first contacts between the doctor and the practitioner, the complexity of his educational role in contact with the sick, suffering, frightened and helpless element of the population." M. A. Bulgakov is an interesting writer, with his own special creative destiny. It is worth noting that initially Bulgakov was engaged in a completely different activity. He studied to be a doctor and worked in the profession for a long time. Therefore, in many of his works there is a medical theme. So, Bulgakov creates a whole cycle of stories and novels, united by the title "Notes of a Young Doctor". They are connected by a single hero-narrator - the young doctor Bomgard. It is through his eyes that we see all the events described. The story "Morphine" shows the gradual transformation of a person into a complete slave of narcotic dope. This is especially scary, because a doctor, a university friend of Dr. Bomgard, Sergey Polyakov, becomes a drug addict. Doctor Polyakov left a warning to all people in his diary. This is the confession of a deeply ill person. The author gives us very reliable material precisely because he uses the diary form of recording. It shows the reverse development of a person, from a normal state to the final enslavement of the soul by drugs. "We see that Anton Pavlovich Chekhov paid great attention to both medical activities and writing, and believed that medical, natural science knowledge helped him avoid many mistakes in writing and helped to deeply reveal the world of feelings and experiences of the heroes of his works. I want to dwell on the story "Ionych", in which the author told the story of a young doctor who came to work in the province, and after years turned into a layman living alone and bored. He hardened and became indifferent to his patients. The image of Ionych is a warning to all young doctors embarking on the path of service people: do not become indifferent, do not harden, do not stop in your professional development, faithfully and disinterestedly serve people. About his first and main profession, Chekhov wrote: "Medicine is as simple and as difficult as life." , we can say that the image of a medical worker in Russian literature is not only one of the most common, but also one of the most deep and filled with the number of those problems and questions that he was called upon to highlight and sharpen. This is a question of the social structure of the state, and questions of religion, morality and ethics. The image of a doctor is often of great importance when the work deals with the basic modes of human existence: care, fear, determination, conscience. This is not surprising, since it is possible to penetrate into the very root of human existence only in such boundary situations, with which the physician often deals: struggle, suffering, death. In Russian literature, the image of a doctor has come a long and interesting way from a charlatan to a romantic hero, from a romantic hero to a mundane materialist, and from a materialist to a bearer of morality, a hero who knows the truth, knows everything about life and death, and is responsible for others in the broadest sense. "Being even an ordinary average person, the physician, nevertheless, by virtue of his very profession, does more good and shows more disinterestedness than other people." V. V. Veresaev

In the text proposed for analysis, Sergei Ivanovich Sivokon raises the problem of a person's devotion to his profession, which is relevant at all times.

Arguing over this problem, the author cites as an example a case from the biography of Samuil Yakovlevich Marashak. Sivokon notes that the poet remained true to his work until the end of his life. Sergei Ivanovich emphasizes that when “doctors fought not even for days, but for hours of life” for Marshak, he found the strength to call the editor-in-chief of the journal to amend the journal. Sivokon focuses our attention on the fact that Marshak could not have done otherwise and let down “a million readers”, because they were waiting for the magazine. This call, according to Boris Polevoy, editor-in-chief, sounded like an order. This indicates that Samuil Yakovlevich was unshakable in his decision to complete the work.

I fully agree with the opinion of the publicist and also believe that a person should be devoted to his profession all his life. If a person has chosen the field of his activity, he must do the work with high quality, in order to inspire other people to do it later.

There are many examples in the literature on this issue. Let us recall the story of A.P. Chekhov “The Jumper”. The main character, Dr. Dymov, has been faithful to his profession all his life. He worked hard to be useful to people. The doctor died a heroic death. Wishing to help a boy with diphtheria, Dymov sucks out diphtheria films through a tube. He didn't have to do it, but he couldn't do otherwise. The boy was saved thanks to Dr. Dymov. This is a vivid example of the fact that a person devoted to his profession, without hesitation, can sacrifice his life for the sake of his duty.

It is impossible not to mention Lidia Mikhailovna from Rasputin's story “French Lessons. Teacher Volodya, having entered his difficult financial situation, wanted to help the student financially. Faced with the boy's pride, the teacher commits a professional crime - she sits down to gamble with him for money and loses for good. Such assistance turns out for Lydia Mikhailovna to be dismissed from school. The boy was no one to the teacher, but she decided to help him. After all, a teacher does not have to only teach at school, he instructs on the path of life, helps students in difficult life situations. That is why Lidia Mikhailovna did this, she could not do otherwise.

In conclusion, I will say once again that when a person has chosen a profession for himself, it is very important to remain devoted to it to the end, because it is then that you can achieve success and truly benefit people.

The image of a doctor in Russian classics

Anikin A.A.

The image of a doctor in Russian literature is a topic that is little touched upon in literary criticism, but its significance for culture is very great. The motives of illness and healing, in literal and symbolic meanings, permeate both folklore, and religion, and any kind of art in any nation, since they "penetrate" life itself. Literature gives an aesthetic, not worldly, but deeply vital cut of being, therefore here we are not talking about professional information proper, here they do not learn any craft, but only understanding, seeing the world: every profession has its own, special angle of view. And we can talk about the artistic, including semantic, meaning of the depicted case. The task of the history of medicine is to show how the appearance of a doctor and his professional qualities are changing. Literature will touch upon this indirectly, only to the extent of reflecting life: what the artist sees in the medical field and what aspects of life are open to the eyes of the doctor.

Literature is also a kind of medicine - spiritual. Poetry has gone far from, perhaps, the first appeals of the word to the cause of healing: in their own way, poetic conspiracies, spells were designed for genuine healing from ailments. Now such a goal is seen only in a symbolic meaning: "Each verse heals the beast's soul" (S. Yesenin). Therefore, in classical literature, we focus on the hero-doctor, and not the author-healer (shaman, medicine man, etc.). And in order to comprehend our topic, its antiquity, which goes back in different variations to the pre-written word, should cause some caution in the analysis. One should not be deceived by light and decisive generalizations, such as what doctors-writers say about medicine, because in general, almost every classic novel contains at least an episodic figure of a doctor. On the other hand, the perspective of the theme suggests unconventional interpretations of familiar works.

And how convenient it would be to focus only on A.P. Chekhov!.. To use the famous aphorism about "wife-medicine" and "literature-mistress" ... Here the word "for the first time" so beloved by literary critics could appear: for the first time, Chekhov's literature fully reflected the appearance of the domestic physician, his selflessness, his tragedy etc. Then came Veresaev, Bulgakov. Indeed, as if thanks to Chekhov, literature looked at life through the eyes of a doctor, not a patient. But there were doctors-writers even before Chekhov, and it would be more accurate to say: it's not about the biography of the author; in the literature of the 19th century, a rapprochement with medicine was prepared. Isn't that why literature appealed too loudly to healers, constantly complaining either about hemorrhoids, or about catarrhs, or about "a breeze"? Not jokingly, it is clear that not a single profession was perceived as meaningful as the position of a physician. Was it so important whether the hero of literature is a count or a prince, an artilleryman or an infantryman, a chemist or a botanist, an official or even a teacher? Another thing is a doctor, such an image-profession is always not only meaningful, but symbolic. In one of his letters, Chekhov said that he "cannot come to terms with such professions as prisoners, officers, priests" (8, 11, 193). But there are specialties that the writer recognizes as a "genre" (Chekhov's expression), and it is the doctor who always bears such a genre, i.e. increased semantic load, even when it appears in the work fleetingly, in a short episode, in one line. For example, in Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" it is enough for the lines "everyone sends Onegin to the doctors, They send him to the waters in unison", and the flavor of the genre is obvious. Just as in "Dubrovsky", where only once you will meet a "doctor, fortunately not a complete ignoramus": the profession of "teacher" Deforge hardly carries a semantic accent, while in medicine the intonation of the author is clearly embedded, which, as you know, in his time "ran away from Aesculapius, thin, shaved, but alive." The image of a doctor in Gogol is deeply symbolic - from the charlatan Christian Gibner ("The Government Inspector") to the "Grand Inquisitor" in "A Madman's Notes". Werner is important to Lermontov precisely as a doctor. Tolstoy will show how a surgeon, after an operation, kisses a wounded patient on the lips ("War and Peace"), and behind all this is the unconditional presence of the symbolic coloring of the profession: the doctor, by position, is close to the foundations and essences of being: birth, life, suffering, compassion, decline , resurrection, torment and torment, finally, death itself (Compare: "I am convinced of only one thing ... That ... one fine morning I will die" - Werner's words from "A Hero of Our Time"). These motives, of course, capture the personality of everyone, but it is in the doctor that they are concentrated as something due, like fate. That is why, by the way, a bad or false physician is so acutely perceived: he is a charlatan of existence itself, and not only of his profession. The perception of medicine as a purely bodily matter in Russian literature also has a negative connotation. Turgenevsky Bazarov only on the verge of his death realizes that a person is involved in the struggle of spiritual entities: "She denies you, and that's it!" - he will say about death as a protagonist of the life drama, and not about a medical lethal outcome. The symbolism of the doctor is directly related to the Orthodox spirituality of Russian literature. The doctor in the highest sense is Christ, who casts out the most ferocious ailments with his Word, moreover, he conquers death. Among the parable images of Christ - a shepherd, a builder, a bridegroom, a teacher, etc. - the doctor is also noted: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matt. 9:12). It is this context that gives rise to the utmost exactingness to the “esculapius”, and therefore even Chekhov’s attitude towards the doctor is harsh and critical: he who knows only how to bleed and treat all diseases with soda is too far from the Christian path, if he does not become hostile to it (cf. Gogol : Christian Gibner - the death of Christ), but even the ability of the most capable doctor cannot be compared with the miracle of Christ.

A.P. Chekhov, of course, will stand at the center of our topic, but one cannot fail to note several authors who preceded him, at least giving doctors in Russian literature as the leading heroes of their works. And it will be Dr. Krupov from Herzen's works and Turgenev's Bazarov. Of course, Dr. Werner from A Hero of Our Time meant a lot. So, already before Chekhov, a certain tradition arises, so some seemingly purely Chekhovian finds will most likely turn out to be unconscious, but variations of his predecessors. For example, it will be typical for Chekhov to show the hero's choice of one of two paths: either a doctor or a priest ("Belated Flowers", "Ward No. 6", letters), but this motif will already be found in Herzen; Chekhov's hero has long conversations with the mentally ill - and this is also the motive of Herzen's "Injured"; Chekhov will talk about getting used to someone else's pain - Herzen will also say the same ("Our brother is hard to surprise ... We get used to death from a young age, nerves get stronger, dull in hospitals", 1, I, 496, "Doctor, dying and dead"). In a word, the beloved “for the first time” should be used with caution, and we have so far only touched on particulars, and not the very perception of the medical field, for an example.

Lermontovsky Werner, in turn, was clearly a guide for Herzen. A number of scenes in the novel "Who is to blame?" generally echo the "Hero of Our Time", but we note that it is Herzen, perhaps due to his biography (cruel illnesses and death in his family), who is especially attached to the image of a doctor (see: "Who is to blame?", "Doctor Krupov" , "Aphorismata", - associated with the common hero Semyon Krupov, then "For the sake of boredom", "Injured", "Doctor, the dying and the dead" - i.e. all the main works of art, except for "The Thieving Magpie"). Nevertheless, the presence of just an episodic Lermontov doctor is strong everywhere: a gloomy and ironic state, the constant presence of death in thoughts, aversion to worldly worries and even to the family, a sense of being chosen and superior among people, a tense and impenetrable inner world, and finally Werner's black clothes , which is deliberately "exacerbated" by Herzen: his hero is already dressed "in two black frock coats: one all buttoned up, the other all unbuttoned" (1, 8, 448). Let us recall Werner's concise summary: "He is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors, and at the same time a poet, and in earnest - a poet in deed always and often in words, although in his life he did not write two verses. He studied everything living strings of the human heart, as one studies the veins of a corpse, but he never knew how to use his knowledge ... Werner surreptitiously mocked his patients; but ... he wept over a dying soldier ... the irregularities of his skull would have struck a phrenologist with a strange plexus of opposite His small black eyes, always restless, tried to penetrate your thoughts... The youth called him Mephistopheles... it (nickname - A.A.) flattered his pride "(6, 74). As is customary in Pechorin's journal, Werner only confirms this characterization. Moreover, his character is the imprint of the profession, as can be seen from the text, and not just the play of nature. Let us add or emphasize - the inability to use the knowledge of life, unfolding personal destinies, which is emphasized by the usual familylessness of the doctor (“I am incapable of this,” Werner), but often does not exclude the ability to deeply influence women. In a word, there is some demonism in the doctor, but also a hidden humanity, and even naivety in the expectation of good (this can be seen with the participation of Werner in a duel). Spiritual development makes Werner condescendingly treat both a sick person and the possibilities of medicine: a person exaggerates suffering, and medicine gets off with simple means like sour-sulfur baths, or even promises that, they say, it will heal before the wedding (this is how one can understand from Werner's advice).

Herzen generally develops Werner's character, his "genesis". If Chekhov's doctor Ragin from "Ward No. 6" wanted to be a priest, but because of the influence of his father, as if involuntarily became a doctor, then Krupov's choice of a medical field is not coercion, but a passionate dream: born in the family of a deacon, he was supposed to become a minister of the church , but wins - and already contrary to the father - an obscure, but powerful attraction to initially mysterious medicine, that is, as we understand it, the desire for real philanthropy, embodied mercy and healing of one's neighbor wins in a spiritually excited person. But the origin of the character is not accidental: the religious spiritual height passes to the real path, and it is expected that it is medicine that will satisfy spiritual searches, and in dreams it may turn out to be the material reverse side of religion. Not the last role here is played by the unattractive, according to Herzen, church environment, which repels the hero, here people "are struck by an excess of flesh, so that they rather resemble the image and likeness of pancakes than the Lord God" (1, I, 361). However, genuine medicine, not in the dreams of a young man, influences Krupov in its own way: in the medical field, he discovers the "backstage side of life" hidden from many; Krupov is shocked by the revealed pathology of man and even of being itself, youthful faith in the beauty of natural man is replaced by a vision of the disease in everything, the painfulness of consciousness is especially acutely experienced. Again, as would later be in the spirit of Chekhov, Krupov spends everything, even festive time, in a lunatic asylum, and an aversion to life ripens in him. Let us compare Pushkin: the famous testament "morality is in the nature of things", i.e. a person is naturally moral, reasonable, beautiful. For Krupov, man is not "homo sapiens", but "homo insanus" (8.435) or "homo ferus" (1, 177): a crazy man and a wild man. Nevertheless, Krupov speaks more definitely than Werner about his love for this "sick" person: "I love children, but I love people in general" (1, I, 240). Krupov, not only in his profession, but also in everyday life, seeks to heal people, and in Herzen this motive is close to his own pathos of a revolutionary publicist: to heal a sick society. In the story “Doctor Krupov”, Herzen with an obsessive claim presents the essentially shallow and not even witty “ideas” of Krupov, who considers the whole world, the whole history as madness, while the origins of the madness of history are in the always sick human consciousness: for Krupov there is no healthy human brain , just as there is no pure mathematical pendulum in nature (1, 8, 434).

Such a "flight" of Krupo's mournful thought in this story seems unexpected for the readers of the novel "Who is to blame?", where the doctor is shown, in any case, outside world-historical generalizations, which looked more artistically true. There, Herzen showed that in a provincial environment, Krupov turns into a resonant inhabitant: "the inspector (Krupov - A.A.) was a man who became lazy in provincial life, but nevertheless a man" (1, 1, 144). In later works, the image of the doctor begins to claim something grandiose. Thus, Herzen sees the ideal vocation of a doctor in an unusually broad way. But ... broadly in design, not in artistic embodiment, in the outline of a great scheme, and not in the philosophy of a doctor. Here the claims of the revolutionary take precedence over the possibilities of the artist in Herzen. The writer is primarily concerned with the "disease" of society, which is why Krupov is already in the novel "Who is to blame?" He does not heal so much as he thinks about everyday things and arranges the fate of the Kruciferskys, Beltov, and others. His purely medical skills are given remotely, they are precisely "told", but they are not "shown". Thus, the capacious phrase that Krupov "belongs all day to his patients" (1, 1, 176) remains only a phrase for the novel, although, of course, Herzen's doctor is not only not a charlatan, but the most sincere an ascetic of his work - a work, however, which is in the shadow of an artistic design. It is the human and ideological aspects of a doctor that are important to Herzen: without being a charlatan, his hero must reflect Herzen's understanding of the influence of medicine on the doctor's personality. For example, in the episode when Krupov disregarded the requirements of the arrogant nobleman, did not arrive immediately at his capricious call, but ended up taking delivery from the cook, the social, and not actually medical, angle is much more significant.

And here Herzen in the story "For the sake of boredom" speaks of "patriocracy", i.e. about the utopian management of the affairs of society by none other than doctors, ironically calling them "general-headquarters-archiatrs of the medical empire." And, despite the irony, this is a completely “serious” utopia - the “state of doctors”, - after all, the hero of the story rejects irony: “Laugh as much as you like ... But before the advent of the medical kingdom, it’s far away, and you have to treat continuously” (1, 8, 459). The hero of the story is not just a doctor, but a socialist, a humanist by conviction ("I am by profession for treatment, not for murder" 1, 8, 449), as if brought up on the journalism of Herzen himself. As you can see, literature persistently wants the doctor to take up a broader field: he is a potentially wise ruler of this world, he has dreams of an earthly god or a generous king-father of this world. However, the utopian nature of this character in the story "Boredom for the sake of" is obvious, although for the author it is very bright. The hero, on the one hand, often finds himself at a dead end in front of ordinary everyday vicissitudes, on the other hand, he treats the idea of ​​a “medical kingdom” with bitterness: “If people really start to improve, moralists will be the first to remain fools, then who should be corrected?” (1, 8.469). And Titus of Leviathan from "Aphorismata" will even hopefully object to Krupov in the sense that madness will not disappear, will never be cured, and the story ends with a hymn to "great and patronizing madness" (1, 8, 438) ... So, the doctor remains eternal reasoner, and his very practice gives him a quick succession of observations and - sharp, ironic "recipes".

Finally, let us touch on the last feature of Herzen's hero-doctor in this case. The doctor, albeit utopianly, claims to be much, it is the universe (“a real doctor must be a cook, a confessor, and a judge”, 1, 8, 453), and he does not need religion, he is emphatically anti-religious. The idea of ​​the kingdom of God is his spiritual rival, and he treats both the church and religion in every possible way (“The so-called that light, about which, according to my studies in the dissecting room, I had the least chance to make any observations”, 1, 8, 434 ). The point is not at all in the notorious materialism of the doctor's consciousness: he wants to replace all authorities with his career with the most good goal; "Patrocracy" - in a word. In "The Damaged" the hero already talks about the coming overcoming of death (this closest rival for the doctor) precisely thanks to medicine ("people will be treated for death", 1, I, 461). True, the utopian side of Herzen is everywhere associated with self-irony, but this is rather coquetry next to a seemingly such a bold idea. In a word, here, too, with the invasion of the motive of immortality into medicine, Herzen predetermined a lot in Chekhov's hero-doctors and in Turgenev's Bazarov, to which we now turn: the doctor Bazarov will be spiritually broken in the fight against death; Dr. Ragin will turn away from medicine and from life in general, since immortality is unattainable.

The choice of the hero-doctor in the novel "Fathers and Sons" is rather a spirit of the times than an author's creed; Turgenev generally does not have such an excessive passion for and symbolic interpretation of medicine as Herzen: landowners often treat peasants for nothing to do, using their authority according to their position (cf. Lipin in Rudin, Nikolai Kirsanov and others). However, the perception of Bazarov as a doctor is a necessary perspective for understanding the novel as a whole. Moreover, we will have other doctors in the novel, including Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov, which is far from accidental: the doctors are father and son.

In "Fathers and Sons" Turgenev shows how easily the external side of life changes, how the apparent abyss lies between children and their parents, how the new trend of the times seems omnipotent, but sooner or later a person understands that being remains unchanged - not on the surface, but in its essence: a powerful, cruel, and sometimes beautiful eternity breaks an arrogant person who imagines himself a "giant" (Evg. Bazarov's word) ... What is the connection with the medical field? ..

The vital content embedded both in the novel and in the hero-doctor is so capacious that sometimes the hero's profession remains in vain. D. Pisarev's textbook and lengthy article "Bazarov" does not seriously concern the professional field of this hero, as if this is not an artistic, but actually a biographical feature: that's how life has developed. "He will engage in medicine partly to pass the time, partly as a bread and useful craft" - this is the most meaningful quote from the article regarding Bazarov the physician. Meanwhile, Bazarov and the doctor are not so ordinary, and most importantly, this character is in many ways due to medicine; again, the point is not in the superficial materialism of the hero of that time, these influences are much more important and subtle.

Unlike Krupov's biography, we do not know how Bazarov came to medicine (although there is a sexton in his family too!); unlike, for example, Zosimov from Crime and Punishment, Bazarov does not value his profession at all, and rather remains an eternal amateur in it. This is a doctor who defiantly laughs at medicine, does not believe in its prescription. Odintsova is surprised at this (“do you yourself say that medicine does not exist for you”), Father Bazarov cannot agree with this (“At least you laugh at medicine, but I’m sure you can give me good advice”), this angers Pavel Kirsanov - in a word, there is an obsessive paradox: the doctor is a nihilist who denies medicine ("We now laugh at medicine in general"). Later we will show, in Chekhov, that there is no place for laughter here for a genuine doctor: dejection at the state of the hospital, the tragedy of the doctor's impotence, delight in achievements and other things, but not laughter. At the same time, not a single hero will recommend himself as a doctor (or doctor) as strongly as Evg. Bazarov. And although the consciousness of this hero is characterized by an inability to resolve both everyday and worldview contradictions, the explanation here is different: the type of doctor is important for Bazarov, the image of a person who influences his neighbor, rebuilds people and who is expected as a savior. Isn't that what a doctor is? However, he wants to be a savior in a wider field (cf .: "After all, he will not achieve the fame that you predict for him in the medical field? - Of course, not in the medical field, although in this respect he will be one of the first scientists" (7, 289): an indicative dialogue between Father Bazarov and Arkady Kirsanov at a time when Yevgeny's life is already measured by only weeks, soon, in his own words, "burdock will grow out of him"). Deprived himself of any intuition in the approach of his death, Bazarov holds himself as an unconditional authority, and medicine here plays the role of a permanent halo around the hero: touching on the depths of life that medicine reveals, Bazarov obviously surpasses the others who do not dare to so easily throw witticisms about the anatomical theater, hemorrhoids, it’s so easy to practice opening corpses (cf. - just lotions used by patients Nik. Kirsanov). The patient’s appeal to the helpless and “same” bodies in all of them also determines the anti-class position typical of a raznochinets: in an illness or anatomist, a man and a pillar nobleman are equal, and the prosector-grandson of a deacon turns into a powerful figure (“after all, I’m a giant,” says Eugene ). From this "gigantomania" - and laughter at a field so necessary for him: medicine itself becomes a kind of rival, which also needs to be destroyed, how to suppress everyone around - from friends to parents.

Is Bazarov good or bad as a doctor? In simple matters, he is a good practitioner, but rather a paramedic (skillfully bandages, tears his teeth), treats the child well ("he ... half joking, half yawning, sat for two hours and helped the child" - cf. Zosimov takes care of Raskolnikov "not jokingly and without yawning", is generally capable of not sleeping at night with a patient, without claiming an excessive reputation: every "medical" step of Bazarov has been turned into a sensation). Nevertheless, he treats medicine more as an entertainment, affecting, however, such sensitive aspects of life. So, with his parents, it was out of boredom that Bazarov began to participate in his father's "practice", as always making fun of medicine and his father. The central episode of his "entertainment" - the autopsy and infection - speaks not only of Bazarov's lack of professionalism, but also symbolically - of a kind of revenge on the part of the ridiculed profession. So is Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov wrong when he says that Bazarov is a charlatan, and not a doctor? ..

Professionally, Bazarov will most likely remain a failed doctor, no matter how they exalt him all around (Vasily Ivanovich will say that "Emperor Napoleon does not have such a doctor"; by the way, this is also a kind of tradition: turning to Napoleon (I or III?) reflects on the doctor, such is Lorrey, the doctor of Napoleon I, at Herzen and in the famous episode of wounding Andrei Bolkonsky at Tolstoy; in the latter case, the recovery, almost miraculous, thanks to the icon, at Prince Andrei contrary to the "Napoleonic" verdict of the doctor). So for Turgenev, vital, and not professional, content is important in the novel. Let's return to how the profession leaves its mark on the character. Neither a chemist nor a botanist can so unequivocally reduce a person to corporality as the failed doctor Bazarov: Marriage? - "We, physiologists, know the relationship between a man and a woman"; Eye beauty? - "Study the anatomy of the eye, what is there mysterious"; Perceptual sensitivity? - "Nerves are dissolved"; Heavy mood? - "I overate raspberries, overheated in the sun, and my tongue is yellow." Life constantly shows that such physiology does not explain anything, but his stubbornness is not just a character trait: reducing everything to physicality, Bazarov always puts himself above the world, only this makes him, like his growth, the notorious "giant". Here, by the way, is the source of Bazarov's unbelief: there is no religion in the body, but the idea of ​​God does not allow one to exalt oneself in a satanic way (remark by Pavel Kirsanov): God is the rival of the Bazarovs.

The idea of ​​a sick society or crazy history is logical and simple for a physician (Krupov). Bazarov loves simplifications, and such an idea could not help but arise in him: "Moral diseases ... from the ugly state of society. Correct society - and there will be no diseases." Therefore, he secretly dreams about the fate of ... Speransky (cf. in the novel "War and Peace"), and not Pirogov or Zakharyin (see below in Chekhov). Bazarov will constantly play the role of a healer and diagnostician of the society (instant diagnoses for the entire Kirsanov family and family, almost everyone he meets), because there are patients or "actors" of the anatomical theater around. Of course, Turgenev shows that Bazarov does not cure anything in society, lives only with hints of activity, but his "physiologism" always introduces something sharp, touching, but this is more a boldness of speech than deed. Bazarov's rude, "non-medical" witticisms ("sometimes stupid and senseless," Turgenev notes) introduce some kind of commonplace piquancy, but this piquancy is akin to swearing: this is how Bazarov's "hemorrhoids" sound at the table in a decent Kirsanov's house.

In the image of Bazarov, this angle is also interesting. His healing is always (until the very scene of his death) directed at another, and not at himself. Bazarov himself did not become his patient, although there are plenty of reasons for this. A condescending remark - "Now the cigar is not tasty, the car is stuck" (7, 125) - does not count. For the rest, Bazarov, with unnatural perseverance, creates his image as an exceptionally healthy person (let's cure society, "another", but not ourselves), healthy both physically and mentally: "than others, but this is not a sin", "that's all, you know , not my part", etc. At the same time, it should be noted that where Bazarov plays "superman", he is uninteresting and monotonous, partly coquettish and deceitful, but the whole color of character is in painful states, when some kind of terrible, unhealthy doom blows from Bazarov; feelings of meaninglessness and emptiness of life embrace him, like no other hero of "Fathers and Sons", not even striving to emphasize his absolute health. And this, by the way, is an important medical symptom - only from that area of ​​​​medicine, which Bazarov practically did not touch: psychiatry. Around Bazarov in literature are heroes-doctors who see in psychiatry, perhaps, the highest medical vocation (Krupov, Zosimov, Chekhov's heroes). Bazarov, on the other hand, is either ignorant of this, or deliberately avoids observations that are dangerous to himself. One day, P.P. Kirsanov is “diagnosed” as an “idiot”: we don’t know if Pavel Petrovich’s neuroses are large here, although Pavel Petrovich’s neuroses are hardly in doubt, but these are precisely neuroses, maybe a slight paranoia. But wouldn't it be more correct to see features of psychopathy in Bazarov himself? However, Turgenev shows that Bazarov perceives himself far from “adequately”, and the gospel motive “doctor, heal yourself” (Lk., 4, 23) is absolutely alien to this “dokhtur” (until we touch on the scenes of his death). The lively artistic character of Bazarov is dotted with features of a neurotic and paranoid: this is not the author's tendency, Turgenev did not force his hero to drink ink or urine, bark like a dog or forget the calendar, but the ground for observations here is the widest, although not entirely related to our topic. We will only name a number of details, since the very moment of the doctor’s address exclusively to the “other”, and not to himself, is important to us, which we will highlight in Bazarov. So, Zosimova, Krupova or Ragin could not help but be alerted not only by Bazarov’s feverish and sometimes incoherent * speeches (like “A Russian person is good only because he has a bad opinion of himself” and for some reason: “It is important that twice two - four, and the rest is all trifles", 7, 207; by the way, and the amusing "falling out" of the link that Bazarov himself is Russian, as he insists nearby). The very plot of the novel rests on nervous restlessness, a kind of mania of avoidance, disappearance from Bazarov: he always runs away somewhere unexpectedly: from the Kirsanovs to the city, from the city to Odintsova, from there to his parents, again to Odintsova, again to the Kirsanovs and again from parents; moreover, he always runs to where his nerves are very restless, and he knows it. For the plot, this is the same as getting up and leaving, without saying a word, from Kukshina, among his favorite champagne, or suddenly disappearing abruptly during a conversation with Odintsova: he "looks angrily and cannot sit still, as if something was tempting him "(7, 255); Bazarov is also covered by other seizures - rabies: in conversations with Odintsova, Pavel Kirsanov; the main scene is a conversation with Arkady at a haystack, when Bazarov seriously scares his friend: "I'll grab you by the throat now ... - The face (Bazarova - A.A.) seemed so ominous, such a serious threat seemed to him in the crooked smile of his lips , in burning eyes ... "Bazarov sees painful dreams, very convenient for a psychoanalyst. Actually, Turgenev, as if feeling this line in Bazarov, ends the novel not just with the death of the hero, but with death in a state of insanity (cf.: "after all, even the unconscious are communed"). Such is the “death dream” about the “red dogs” (“It’s like I’m drunk,” Bazarov will say), but the dream before the duel is no “weaker”, where Odintsova turns out to be Bazarov’s mother, Fenichka is a cat, Pavel Petrovich is a “big forest” ( cf. in a dream about "red dogs" Bazarov is pursued by his father in the form of a hunting dog, and also, obviously, in the forest: "You made a stand over me, like over a black grouse"). Sleep is always difficult for Bazarov, is it not because he so painfully demands that they not look at him when he sleeps * - more than a capricious demand in a conversation with Arkady: what is more here - concern for his greatness (motive - "everyone has a stupid face in a dream", to prevent the collapse of the idol), fear of one's dreams, but the demand is schizophrenic categorically. The state of hysteria, depression, megalomania - all this is scattered in the speeches and actions of Bazarov. Such a vividly described delirium on the eve of death: "The butcher sells meat ... I'm confused ... There is a forest here" is partly the key to Bazarov's neuroses: excitement from the flesh, love for meat (cf. in the text the opposition of bread - meat) and again the forest - just like in dreams. The roots of neuroses lie in childhood impressions. The hero himself is very stingy with stories about himself, his childhood is also not covered by the plot, and all the more significant is Bazarov’s strange (and extremely rare) and not quite clear recollection that in childhood the circle of his perception was closed on an aspen and a pit in the parental estate, which for some reason they seemed to him some kind of talisman. This is a picture of some painful, lonely childhood in the mind of a painfully impressionable child. Considering Bazarov's dreams, the motives of childhood "mother - father - home" are overgrown with soreness, while "forest", apparently, is associated with children's fear, "pit" is also a rather negative image. We repeat once again that it is too early to generalize such material in this chapter, but it is necessary to note its presence in the novel and its connection with the line of Bazarov the doctor.

Note that the proposed characterization of the famous hero, of course, is debatable. In addition, the proposed specific assessment cannot reject the established tradition in the interpretation of "Fathers and Sons". .

In the picture of Bazarov’s death, they rightly see a high sound, this is not only nonsense, but also a powerful attempt to play the role of a “giant” to the end, even when the chimeras erected by the hero are collapsing: he is already wavering in godlessness (an appeal to parental prayer), he is already frank in requests about help and recognition of a woman ("It's royal" - about the arrival of Odintsova: where is the "anatomical theater" or contempt for a woman). Finally, Bazarov passes away precisely as a doctor: he is all focused on the signs of a fatal illness, firmly sees the course of death; Bazarov finally turned like a doctor to himself. There is no laughter at medicine, as well as at their three colleagues, although both the German and the county doctor are shown by Turgenev almost as a caricature, the maximum exertion of the will exactly transforms Bazarov (see also about this in the chapter "An Extra Man"), but he is already defeated . In line with our theme, we can say that this is a belated transformation of the hero; mocked medicine seems to take revenge, as the whole life ridiculed and insulted by Bazarov takes revenge.

So, Turgenev considers the doctor both as a social figure and as a source of deep, sometimes unconscious life impressions that are inaccessible to other heroes. True, it is impossible not to note that not every doctor will turn out to be Bazarov (maybe for this his nature, his psyche is not enough?). Thus, Vasily Bazarov, a doctor fascinated by medicine, who, unlike his son, will pass in the background in the novel; county doctors are a reason for indignation and irony for both Bazarovs; as we said, even Nikolai Kirsanov tried to heal, and on this basis he built a marriage with Fenichka ... In a word, the presence of a "doctor" is an active, rich field of artistic observation.

Now, bypassing a number of secondary characters, let's talk about the doctor in the work of A.P. Chekhov, the main writer of this topic - not only because of his "main" profession (cf. even in the passport O.L. Knipper-Chekhov was called "doctor's wife "): it is in Chekhov's works that we can find a complete picture of the doctor's fate, in its fundamental turns and connections with worldview searches.

It seems to us that Chekhov fully expressed the interaction of existential and Christian motives in the doctor. The connection between medicine and what he called in a letter to E.M. Shavrova the expression "frantic prose" is more obvious: it was about a literary hero-gynecologist, and although this specialty is also not accidental, it seems that we can replace it in the quote simply with the word "doctor ": "Doctors are dealing with frantic prose, which you have not even dreamed of and which you, if you knew it ... would give a smell worse than a dog's" (8, 11, 524). Combining the two fragments, we will single out further: “You have not seen corpses” (ibid.), “I am used to seeing people who will die soon” (AS Suvorin, 8, 11, 229). It should be noted that Chekhov himself not only healed, but also performed forensic autopsies, we would say, got used to the appearance of bodily death, but did not try to treat it dispassionately in Bazarov's way. It is curious that the doctors-colleagues emphasized this in a special way. One zemstvo doctor wrote to a neighboring county near Moscow that "doctor Chekhov is very willing to go to autopsies" (8, 2, 89), suggesting that in such cases he invite his colleague. In this "really desires" something more than a desire to practice ... In 1886, the experience of the death of the mother and sister of the artist Yanov, who were treated by Chekhov, forced him to permanently abandon private practice and (a symbolic detail) remove the sign "Doctor Chekhov" from his house . The medical writer was particularly distressed by the "impotence of medicine" (from a letter about D.V. Grigorovich's attack of illness that occurred in the presence of Chekhov), and, on the contrary, any approximation to the ideal of healing inspired him extraordinarily. Let us recall a characteristic episode in a letter to A.S. Suvorin: “If I had been near Prince Andrei, I would have cured him. It is strange to read that the wound of the prince ... emitted a putrid smell. 531). What an important interweaving of literature, medicine and life itself! Chekhov especially valued in himself the recognized gift of an accurate diagnostician, so in his letters it is repeatedly emphasized: in case of an illness, "I alone turned out to be right."

So, medicine for Chekhov is the focus of truth, and the truth about the most essential, about life and death, and the ability to create life in the most literal and, say, miraculous sense. Is it worth looking for a more significant approximation to the ideal of Christ and does it not force us to rethink the already familiar idea of ​​Chekhov as a non-religious person, for whom only love for the bell ringing remains from all religion (see, for example, M. Gromov: 4 , 168 and compare his own consideration that "medicine is perhaps the most atheistic of the natural sciences", 4, 184). In the end, the biography of the artist is created by his works, which do not always coincide with the accessible (and most often completely inaccessible!) for us his worldly appearance.

Chekhov's Christian feelings did not become the subject of broad statements in letters or diary entries, although in a number of cases one can see in equal measure a cooling towards the faith or expressions of faith of the "fathers" (we mean the religiosity of his family), and dissatisfaction with the state of a person who is losing contact with the church. But even in this case Chekhov's artistic world cannot be understood outside of religion. (In parentheses, we note that this turn in the study of Chekhov is already present in modern literary criticism, and we will call the book by I.A. Esaulov "Category of catholicity in Russian literature", 5.) Such works as "Tumbleweeds", "Holy Night" , "Cossack", "Student", "At Christmas time", "Bishop", certainly speak of the depth of Chekhov's religious experience. With our deeper understanding, we see that all of Chekhov's work at first, as it were, does not contradict Christian spirituality, and in the end it is the embodiment of precisely the gospel vision of a person: a person who is mistaken, does not recognize Christ, awaiting revelation and judgment, often weak, vicious and sick. In this sense, the religious disorder of Chekhov himself turns out to be much closer to the gospel revelation than an open sermon on behalf of Christianity or the church. Isn't that why Chekhov so rejected Gogol's Selected Places...? So in the disclosure of the image of the doctor, the presence of Christ, it would seem, is not at all obvious, not given as an open tendency, but this only convinces us of the secrecy of the most important features of the writer's spiritual personality: that which cannot be expressed in the style and language of writing, seeks expressions in artistic imagery.

Let us first turn to the school textbook "Ionych". At the end of the story, Chekhov compares the starets' appearance with the appearance of a pagan god: on a troika, with bells, the red and plump Dr. Ionych and his likeness the coachman Panteleimon ride. With a characteristic dichotomy-polytheism, this comparison shows precisely the anti-Christian character of Startsev, immersed in everything earthly, bodily, both in his appearance, in the consolidation of money, real estate, and in his "huge practice" as a doctor. It would be too rough for an artist to lead his hero from Christ to a pagan god. But that's the point of the story. It would also be untrue for his time to endow Startsev with Orthodox features. The meaning, unlike the plot and character, is created implicitly, by all the details of the context. So, in the beginning of the story, a symbolic date is given - the Feast of the Ascension, when Startsev meets the Turkins. By the way, we note that this is Chekhov's favorite trait, and very significant, to date events according to the church calendar (cf .: Nikolin's day, Easter, name day - both in letters and in literary texts). At this time, "work and loneliness" was the motive of Startsev's ascetic life, and therefore the festive mood was so alive. The scene at the cemetery is especially important in the story, when a deeply spiritualized perception of the world develops in Startsev’s mind, where death turns out to be a step into eternal life: “in every grave one feels the presence of a secret that promises a quiet, beautiful, eternal life” (8, 8, 327). Peace, humility, withered flowers, a starry sky, a church with a striking clock, a monument in the form of a chapel, the image of an angel are obvious details of the transition of life, time from mortal flesh to eternity. And we will note that for Chekhov, eternal life is not only an attribute of religion, but also an ideal of medicine: this is how he talked about I.I. Mechnikov, who allowed the possibility of extending a person’s life up to 200 years (8, 12, 759). Perhaps it is with this side of Chekhov's worldview that the so often repeated motif of a beautiful, distant, but achievable future should be connected: "We will live a long, long series of days, long evenings ... and there beyond the grave ... God will take pity on us and we will see life is bright, beautiful. We will hear the angels, we will see the whole sky in diamonds," sounds in "Uncle Vanya" as if in response to disappointment in the life of the doctor Astrov (8, 9, 332; cf .: "There is nothing for you to do in the world, you have no purpose in life", 328). Medicine infinitely prolongs life, aspiring to eternity - an ideal that belongs equally to religious and scientific consciousness. However, in Startsev’s mind, the image of eternal life passes fleetingly (“At first, Startsev was struck by what he saw now for the first time in his life and which, probably, will no longer be seen”), quickly losing its depth and religious aspiration, and limited to the experiences of the local, earthly existence: "How badly mother nature jokes on a person, how insulting to realize this!" It seems that it is here that the moment of spiritual breakdown in Ionych lies, and not in some fatal influence on him of the ordinary vulgarities of life. Turning away from the images of eternal life, Chekhov's "materialist" doctor plunges especially sharply into the world of the flesh ("beautiful bodies", beautiful women buried in graves, warmth and beauty leaving forever with death), no longer seeing anything beyond this shell of life. Hence - it seemed, unexpected in this episode, Startsev's thought: "Oh, you shouldn't put on weight!"

"Ionych" is a story about how a doctor refuses to feel the meaning of being, if death puts a limit to life, the "beautiful body" becomes decay, but in the world there is nothing but corporality.

Such detachment from the eternal - imagine a hypothetical "Christ" who would not lead to resurrection, but only heal diseases well - leads the Chekhovian doctor to suffering, his own sickness-morbidity, craving for death. True, it will not be superfluous to note that Chekhov has a number of medical heroes who did not join the spiritual abysses at all, even as fleetingly as Startsev, the "abysses" of their field, for whom medicine does not outgrow the form of earnings (and rather unscrupulous: paramedic from "Ward No. 6", "Rural Aesculapius", "Surgery", "Rothschild's Violin", etc.), which often has a satirical connotation: for example, in "The Remedy for Binge" healing without any spiritual abysses uses an excellent medicine - a cruel scuffle to which the human body is so responsive. In a number of works ("Lights", "Seizure", "A Boring Story", "A Work of Art", etc.), the professional side of the medical heroes does not play any symbolic role at all, which only sets off significant images and which, probably, could not but be, given that Chekhov used the image of a doctor 386 times (3, 240). Perhaps, in this amount, which is hardly amenable to exhaustive analysis, Chekhov developed in general all possible variations in the interpretation of the image, so that, naturally, he did not avoid the "neutral" option? How would it be on a par with other professions?.. Let us also note the image of the doctor from "Duel", derived rather due to the parody genre of the story: the presence of a doctor in "A Hero of Our Time" made Samoylenko become a military doctor, and not just a colonel, which seems to be in the series of Startsev , Ragin, Dymova, Astrov with some defiant absurdity, but among the heroes of the "Duel" another physician does not emerge.

Let us return, however, to the works that reflect Chekhov's medical credo. If for Startsev "living life" has gone from his "huge practice" into capital, into real estate, then in "Ward No. 6" medicine, without the support of Christian values, completely deprives a person, a doctor of vitality, and spiritual experience greater than that of Startsev does not allows you to be satisfied with anything ordinary.

Only at first it seems that the hospital produces an "impression of a menagerie" due to backwardness, lack of funds, and the decline of culture. Gradually, the leading motive becomes the lack of faith, Grace, perversion of the spirit. Chekhov will show both the barrenness of materialism and the especially ugly features of a false or incomplete faith. So, for the insane Jew Moiseyka, praying to God means "knocking his chest with his fist and picking at the door with his finger"! Such a picture of insanity could be depicted by Chekhov so convincingly after a deep acquaintance with psychiatry and psychiatric hospitals (see: 8, 12, 168): according to some absolutely incredible associative series, prayer becomes "picking at doors." And Chekhov admitted in a letter to his classmate at the medical faculty, the famous neuropathologist G.I. Rossolimo, that knowledge of medicine gave him accuracy in depicting the disease (8, 12, 356), we note Chekhov’s reproaches to Leo Tolstoy, associated with erroneous ideas about the manifestation of the disease 8, 11, 409).

Turning to God becomes a meaningless habit that accompanies the most godless deeds. Soldier Nikita "calls on God as a witness" and takes beggarly alms from Moiseyka and again sends him to beg. Spiritual emptiness also "hardens" the doctor, as Chekhov put it, and he is no longer "different from the peasant who slaughters rams and calves and does not notice the blood" (8, 7, 127). This will be the relatively young doctor Khobotov, as well as the enterprising, full-fledged practicing paramedic Sergey Sergeevich. In this paramedic, with his significance reminiscent of a senator, Chekhov will note ostentatious piety, love for rituals. The reasoning of the paramedic differs little from the appeals to God of the soldier Nikita, with the name of God, and he and the other only rob their neighbor: "We suffer and endure need because we pray badly to the Lord the merciful. Yes!" (8, 7, 136).

In Ward No. 6, Chekhov shows that a religious feeling cannot be given to modern man easily and without conflict. The doctor Andrei Efimovich Ragin in his very youth was close to the church, devout and intended to enter the theological academy, but the trends of the times prevent religious formation, so Chekhov will indicate in the text the exact date - 1863 - when Ragin, due to ridicule and categorical demands of his father, entered to the Faculty of Medicine, "I never took the veil as a priest." The very combination of two fields - ecclesiastical and medicinal - speaks volumes, including their incompatibility for a person of the 60-80s. Such inharmony is also expressed in Ragin's appearance, which conveys the conflict of spirit and matter: a rough appearance, a riot of flesh ("reminiscent of a corroded, intemperate and tough innkeeper", cf. Ionych) and obvious mental depression. The medical field deepens the split in him, forcing him to abandon the main religious idea - about the immortality of the soul: "- Do you not believe in the immortality of the soul?" the postmaster suddenly asks. "No ... I do not believe and have no reason to believe." The absence of immortality turns the life and profession of a doctor into a tragic delusion ("Life is an unfortunate trap"): why treat, why the brilliant achievements of medicine, if all the same "death comes to him - also against his will." So the spiritual state of the hero destroys not only his personality, but also his professional field, in which Chekhov will deliberately designate achievements, and even his own, "Chekhovian" quality - the talent of a faithful diagnostician.

Everything loses its meaning in the face of death, and already Ragin does not see the difference between a good clinic and a bad one, between home and "ward No. b", freedom and prison. Everything sublime in a person only enhances the impression of the tragic absurdity of life, and medicine does not save, but only deceives people: “Twelve thousand incoming patients were admitted in the reporting year, which means, simply arguing, twelve thousand people were deceived. ... Yes, and why prevent people from dying, if death is the normal and legal end of everyone?" (8, 7, 134). Chekhov also draws a number of episodes saturated with actual church images - service in the church, worship of an icon - and shows that without a conscious, with a touch of philosophy and science, acceptance of the basic religious provisions, ritualism will turn out to be only a temporary calm, after which longing and longing arise with even greater force. doom: "I don't care, even in the pit."

So, as in "Ionych", the consciousness of the physician leads to the depth of the experience of life and death, which does not enrich, but depresses the personality, if the hero leaves the field of a powerful spiritual tradition. Ragin, unlike Startsev, utterly rejects life, neglects matter itself, the flesh of the world, and eventually goes into oblivion.

Next to Startsev and Ragin, Osip Dymov, the hero of the story "The Jumper", may seem like an ideal image of a doctor. Indeed, the first two characters, each in their own way, turn away from medicine. Dymov is completely absorbed in science and practice. Chekhov here also emphasizes the closeness of the doctor to death, designating Dymov's position - dissector. Dymov is an example of medical dedication, he is on duty with the patient for whole days and nights, works without rest, sleeps from 3 to 8, accomplishes something really significant in medical science. Even risks his life; like Bazarov, Chekhov's hero wounds himself during the autopsy, but, and this is symbolic, does not die (this is how the author shows a kind of victory over death). Even Dymov's death will be caused by another, most exalted reason, when he, as if sacrificing himself, cures the child (a very significant opposition - "corpse - child" - at the same time shows that death comes to Dymov from life itself, and not from mortal non-existence) . "Christ and sacrifice" - an analogy suggests itself, but ... Chekhov obviously reduces this image. Dymov turns out to be almost helpless in everything that does not belong to his profession. I would like to recognize his extraordinary meekness, tolerance, gentleness as a moral high, but Chekhov allows this to manifest itself in such comical episodes that he definitely speaks of a different author's assessment (suffice it to recall the episode when "two brunettes and a fat actor ate caviar, cheese and white fish" ,7, 59). Even Dymov's mental suffering is comically conveyed: "Oh, brother! Well, what's up! Play something sad" - and the two doctors uncomfortably sang the song "Show me a monastery where the Russian peasant would not moan." Dymov's indifferent attitude to art is deliberately given: "I have no time to be interested in art." This means that Chekhov expects something more from the doctor than Dymov contains, the author writes with more interest about Ragin's painful and decadent thoughts than about Dymov's spiritual world, moreover, Dymov shows the tragedy precisely in combining the highest qualities with obvious spiritual underdevelopment. The author expects some kind of higher perfection from the doctor: yes, endure, heal and sacrifice himself, like Christ? But then preach like Christ, then again, like Christ, take care of the immortal soul, and not just of the flesh. The context of the story, in Chekhov's way, intimately and impeccably accurately recreates this ideal image of a doctor full of meaning.

It is immediately obvious that, in comparison with Dymov, his wife’s passion for art is contrasting, her exalted and ostentatious passion for any attributes of spirituality, craving for public recognition, and turning to God. Without Dymov's perseverance and some, albeit one-sided, but strength and depth, this looks ugly and vulgar, but, oddly enough, the "jumping girl" makes up for Dymov's one-sidedness: he heals the body, saves for life, but does not heal souls, as if evading Ragin's questions "why live?" - Olga Ivanovna, endowed with an absolutely false consciousness, on the contrary, is all focused on the spiritual. And above all, she is emphatically devout, and not ostentatiously and sincerely in her own way. It is she who is depicted in a state of prayer (an exceptional artistic device), she believes that she is "immortal and will never die", she lives by purely spiritual ideas: beauty, freedom, talent, condemnation, damnation, etc. - this series seems even unexpected for the characterization of Olga Ivanovna, because these ideas are most often extremely perverted, but - they are embedded in this image! Finally, just as Dymov “influences” the patient’s body, Olga Ivanovna imagines that she influences souls: “After all, she thought, he created this under her influence, and in general, thanks to her influence, he changed a lot for the better” (8, 7, 67). It is interesting to compare Dymov and Olga Ivanovna in the episode of the Christian holiday: the second day of the Trinity, Dymov goes to the dacha, incredibly tired after work, with one thought "to have dinner with his wife and fall asleep" (8, 7, 57) - his wife is all passionate about the device the wedding of a certain telegraph operator, in her mind - church, mass, wedding, etc., which unexpectedly gives rise to the question "what will I go to church in?" Nevertheless, we recognize that the features of spirituality are fixed in the mind of Olga Ivanovna, albeit with an invariably false, lightweight connotation. Actually, on the collision of the elements of a healthy body and perverted spirituality, "The Jumper" is built. So, in response to the repentance and suffering of O.I., albeit dark and infrequent, Dymov will calmly say: "What, mother? - Eat hazel grouse. You are hungry, poor thing." Dymov himself will suffer secretly, subtly avoiding exacerbations (for example, "to give O.I. activity, strengthened by strong faith, which Dymov will be deprived of, and only sparing his hero, Chekhov will remove the heading "The Great Man" from the story.

A surprisingly significant situation for our topic is created by Chekhov in the story "The Princess": the doctor Mikhail Ivanovich is in the walls of the monastery, where he has a permanent practice. Such a rapprochement between a doctor and a clergyman is also reminiscent of the numerous representations of Chekhov himself in the image of a monk (see: 2, 236), letters with schema names of himself (up to "Saint Anthony"), frequent visits to monasteries (cf. in his father's diary: Anton " was in the Desert of David, laboring in fasting and labors", 2, 474). And as a physician, the hero of the "Princess" is presented impeccably: "the doctor of medicine, a student of Moscow University, has earned the love of everyone for a hundred miles around" (8, 6, 261), but he is assigned the expected role of accuser and preacher. At the same time, we note in him the features of a churched person, an Orthodox: invocations to the name of God, unconditional respect for the church and its servants, direct participation in the life of the monastery and a pronounced rapprochement with the monks (cf .: "together with the monks at the porch was and doctor", 8, 6, 264), the defense of Orthodoxy and the denunciation of anti-Orthodox trends (spiritualism) - it seemed, all the qualities that Dymov lacked, and in general a rare fullness of personality. But here we note once again that Chekhov does not depict the very grace of spirit and faith, but the current reality of an evangelical person who is mistaken even when there are all the attributes of being right (cf. the ministers of the Sanhedrin). So is Mikhail Ivanovich: in his moral denunciations of the princess, not only sincerity is visible, but even rightness, there is knowledge of people, the ability to clearly expose, judge, correct vices, as well as diseases of the body. But - at the same time, Chekhov emphasizes the cruelty, gracelessness of M.I. her ears were pounding, and it still seemed to her that the doctor was pounding her on the head with his hat" (8, 6, 261). The doctor's denunciations turn into a kind of frenzy, an intoxication with moral torment: "Go away!" she said in weeping voices, raising her hands to shield her head from the doctor's hat. "Go away!" - And how do you treat your employees! - continued indignant doctor ... "(8, 6, 261). Only a perfect fit of his victim will suddenly make the doctor suddenly stop: “I succumbed to an evil feeling and forgot myself. Is this not good? , and as furious as Mikhail Ivanovich. M.I. he completely repents of his cruelty (“A bad, vengeful feeling”), and the princess, who was so cruelly denounced by him, in the end remained completely unshaken by his speeches (“How happy I am!” she whispered, closing her eyes. “How happy I am!”). So, in addition to the weakness and wrongness of M.I., Chekhov also emphasizes the futility of his sermon. Later, in the story "The Gooseberry", Chekhov will give the role of an accuser, and even calling for everything high (remember the image of a "man with a hammer"), although a doctor, but a veterinary doctor - I.I. Chimshe-Himalayan, whose pathos also leaves his listeners indifferent. As you can see, the ideal of a doctor becomes truly unattainable! But this would be the wrong opinion.

The ideal of a doctor will turn out to be much simpler, more accessible, closer to the ground, to the ordinary. The doctor will not assume the unbearable role of Christ, but will approach him, as if, to the best of human strength, healing both the body and the soul of his neighbor. It turns out that Chekhov's high demands on the doctor will be completely satisfied with the plot of the story "A case from practice."

Again, the color of this story is associated with the Orthodox way of life: the trip of the doctor Korolyov to the patient takes place on the eve of the holiday, when everything is set to "rest and, perhaps, pray" (8, 8, 339). In the story, everything is extremely ordinary: there is no bright search, there is no pointed plot (like betrayal in the family, love, an unfair act, etc.), there is not even a fatal patient (cf. - a terminally ill child in "The Jumper", "Enemies", "Tife"). On the contrary, the patient "everything is in order, the nerves spree." The motifs of the general disorder of being, factory monotony, people and relationships mutilated by capital, are sketched only in a distant background, but this is all the usual earthly circle, and Chekhov clearly reduces the social pathos of Korolev's observations, translating it with one stroke into the eternal layers of religious metaphysics - a remark that would become in another style with the most pathetic gesture: "the main thing for whom everything is done here is the devil" (8, 8, 346). Chekhov recognizes who is the "prince of this world", and leads his hero away from a direct fight with the devil - to sympathy, compassion for his neighbor, whom the doctor will treat as a at himself, equal in the common destiny of mankind, without towering over his suffering "patient". So, the "patient" Koroleva will say: "I wanted to talk not with the doctor, but with a loved one" (8, 8, 348), which in the semantic context of the story sounds exactly like the motive of the merger in the doctor of the physician and, say, "the closest" from relatives (it is no coincidence that a contrasting alienation to each other in the family and in the Lyalikovs' house is shown, and the doctor makes up for this disorder). Korolev heals the soul not by denunciation and is not even ready to preach ("How can I say it? - Korolev pondered. - And is it necessary to speak?"), but sympathy and hope for future happiness (an analogue of immortality), expressed, as the author emphasizes, "in a roundabout way (8, 8, 349), lead not so much to the resolution of the hardships of life, but to general peace, spiritual humility and at the same time to spiritual mobility, growth: the Queen’s “roundabout words” were a clear boon for Lisa, who finally looked “better celebratory,” and “she seemed to want to tell him something especially important.” Thus, according to Chekhov, the deepest healing of the soul is even inexpressible in words. The enlightened state of man and the world determines the festive finale of the story: "It was heard how the larks sang, how they rang in the church." The upliftment of the spirit also changes the gloomy picture of life: “Korolev no longer remembered either the workers, or the pile buildings, or the devil” (8, 8, 350), and is this not a real victory over the “prince of this world”, the only possible, by Chekhov? More than this tense and enlightened state, the doctor is not given to achieve, here is the highest step of approaching the "zemstvo" - earthly doctor to the ideal of healing Christ.

We do not undertake to unravel the secret of the artist's personal fate, but, perhaps, the pairing of medicine with literature, so characteristic of Chekhov, was a kind of service to Christ: the treatment of the body, the treatment of the soul.

Indeed, even after Chekhov, professional doctors come to literature - up to our contemporaries. But Chekhov will be a kind of completion of the development of the theme in line with Russian classics, saturated with the spirit of Orthodoxy. In other times - "other songs". In this understanding, the path leading from the atheist Krupov to Chekhov's ideal of the healer Christ is the path to the final and at the same time higher, overcoming contradictions and temptations, interpretation of the image of the doctor in the spirit of the Russian tradition.

Bibliography

1 Herzen A.I. Works in 9 vols. M., 1955.

2 Gitovich N.I. Chronicle of life and creativity of A.P. Chekhov. M., 1955.

3 Gromov M.P. Book about Chekhov. M., 1989.

4 Gromov M.P. Chekhov. Series "ZhZL". M., 1993.

6 Lermontov M.Yu. Complete collection. compositions. T. 4. M., 1948.

7 Turgenev I.S. Collected works in 12 vols. T. 3. M., 1953.

8 Chekhov A.P. Collected works in 12 vols. M., 1956.

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://www.portal-slovo.ru/ were used.

Library
materials

STATE BUDGET EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

INITIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL LYCEUM №13

MOSCOW REGION

Conference

"The Image of a Doctor in Russian Literature"

in the academic discipline "Literature"

(To the Day of the medical worker)

group 1345 by profession 080110.02 "Controller of a savings bank"

teacher Kapin Artem Vitalievich

date: 19.06.2015

Ramenskoye

Teacher's word:

"The profession of a doctor is a feat. It requires dedication,

purity of spirit and purity of thought.

A. P. Chekhov

A literary hero can be a count or a prince, a worker or a peasant, a botanist or a teacher - all this will not play an important role, but if he is a doctor, then this is another matter. The profession of a doctor is not only meaningful, but also symbolic. A doctor by position is inextricably linked with our entire essence: birth, life, suffering, resurrection, and finally, death itself - the doctor is always there.

The image of a doctor in Russian literature is a little touched upon topic, although a very interesting one. It is no coincidence that I chose it for today's topic. But I want to consider not just the image of a doctor, but a doctor through the eyes of a doctor, because on June 21, 2015 our country celebrates the day of a medical worker. To see the literary world from a special point of view, which is inherent in every profession, and especially observant and scrupulous physicians.

The most famous writer who turned to his profession is Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. The first profession is widely reflected in such remarkable writers as Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev and Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. In their works, they told us about the strengths and weaknesses of medicine, showed the medical environment, doctors who used their noble profession for profit, and those who lived among the people, took his needs to heart, gave him their knowledge and strength. On the example of some of their works, where much attention is paid to the hero-doctor, we will try to consider the image of representatives of this profession.

I want to trace whether the fictional character is related to the author, did the creators pass on part of their biography, any qualities to the characters? What features are characteristic of Chekhov's, Bulgakov's or Versaev's doctors? Do they reflect the true views, attitude to life and profession of the writers themselves? What ideal of a doctor was created by writers-physicians? I will try to get answers to all these questions. Our students will help me with this, who will present you such works by Chekhov as "The Jumper" (Dymov), "Ionych" (Startsev), "Ward No. 6" (Ragin), Bulgakov's works: "Notes of a Young Doctor" and "Morphine" (Bomgard), "Heart of a Dog" (Preobrazhensky) - and, finally, "Without a Road" (Chekanov) and "Notes of a Doctor" by Veresaev. In addition to the works themselves, I will need biographies of writers, memoirs of their contemporaries, critical articles on the work of the authors.

Block IAnton Pavlovich Chekhov

"Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.

When I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov entered the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1879. Why did Chekhov choose medicine? The future writer himself does not remember, but in his brief autobiography, transmitted by G. I. Rossolimo, he writes that he never regretted his choice.

In his student years, Chekhov diligently studied medicine, attended lectures and practical classes with pleasure, successfully passed exams and at the same time worked a lot in humorous magazines. Already in his student years, A.P. Chekhov arranged for himself an "internship" and received patients at the Chikinskaya hospital, located two kilometers from Voskresensk.

In November 1884, Chekhov received a certificate that he was approved by the university council with the rank of district doctor. Soon a plaque with the inscription "Dr. A.P. Chekhov" appeared on the door of his apartment.

Anton Pavlovich began his practical medical activity in the Chikinsky Zemstvo hospital, which he knew, for some time he was in charge of the Zvenigorod hospital . During the period of his medical activity in Voskresensk and Zvenigorod, and then in Babkin, Anton Pavlovich closely observed the life of the local population - peasants, district intelligentsia, landowners. Acquaintance with new people, interesting stories from the life of patients paved the way for literary activity. The writer drew plots for the stories "The Fugitive", "Surgery", "Dead Body", "Siren", "Daughter of Albion", "Burbot", "Witch". Chekhov's close acquaintance with zemstvo doctors made it possible for Chekhov, the writer, to reflect their life in a number of remarkable works - in the stories Enemies, Trouble, Princess, in the play Uncle Vanya.

In 1890 Chekhov went to Sakhalin Island. On this trip and in his work on the island, the best features of Chekhov - a writer, a doctor, a citizen - were reflected. Since 1892, Chekhov has been living on his estate in Melikhovo, where he establishes a regular reception of patients.

Anton Pavlovich devoted almost his entire life to practical medicine. Even as a famous writer, Chekhov continued to be a medical practitioner.

Did medicine interfere with Chekhov the writer? Both hindered and helped. I interfered because it took precious time and energy from writing. But medicine helped Chekhov, enriched him with a scientific understanding of human psychology and the intimate aspects of his inner world.

Knowledge of medicine had a great influence on Chekhov's work. Many of his works touch upon issues of medicine, he creates a whole gallery of images of doctors.

Chekhov the artist with great depth revealed the psychology of his heroes, their feelings and experiences, with such scientific probability showed the psychopathology of a person that it bordered on the accuracy of a clinical description. However, the image of a sick and healthy psyche was never an end in itself for Chekhov: it gave him material for artistic creativity and great social generalizations, for the merciless exposure of the ugly phenomena of contemporary reality ("Seizure", "Chamber", "Duel", "Black Monk" , play "Ivanov").

1.2 There is something in it

In the story "The Jumper", written by Chekhov in 1891, the husband of the main character is the doctor Osip Stepanovich Dymov. And even though he is not the main character of the work, his image is a bright link in the chain of Chekhov's characters-doctors, and as Olga Ivanovna, the character's wife, noted, "there is something in him."

Each guest who visited the doctor's house "was somehow remarkable and a little known", each "showed brilliant promises", his wife, no less talented artist and singer, was simply sure of this. One Dymov, a poor doctor, despite his bright appearance, "seemed to be a stranger, superfluous and small" in this extraordinary company. He could not keep up a conversation with these people and did not try to do so. Dymov did not understand landscapes and operas, because "all his life he was engaged in natural sciences and medicine", he had no time to be interested in "arts". Dedicated to his work, a real doctor treated patients for a penny, risking his life.

But with his character, traits characteristic of doctors, many of his colleagues liked him, brought his wife "to tenderness and delight." He was simple and good-natured, had common sense, intelligence and nobility. He was a good and loving husband, but Olga Ivanovna did not appreciate this, could not appreciate it, because despite her "talents", she was an empty jumper, looking for originality and fun. "For him, a simple and ordinary person, the happiness that he has already received is enough," thought Olga Ivanovna.

It seemed that the wife's obvious dislike, her reckless behavior and actions, which many knew about, would have angered any spouse long ago, unsettled, strangled with jealousy. But not Dymov. He sat in the office at night, worked, healed. He still "happily looked his wife straight in the eye", smiling guiltily, remaining devoted and caring. That's where the patience and endurance of the doctor showed up.

“A silent, resigned, incomprehensible creature, impersonal by its meekness, spineless, weak from excessive kindness” - this is one side of Dymov, obvious to all his wife’s acquaintances, in whose company he was some kind of old thorn that has already taken root, but still remained foreign. For colleagues, especially for a friend of Korostelev, he was a loss for science, "a great, extraordinary person", a talent, "a kind, pure, loving soul", a young scientist who did not spare himself.

1.3 Getting old, getting fat, falling down

“It is necessary to describe a life that is even, smooth, as it really is,” Chekhov believed, so his plots are a story from the life of an ordinary person, whose fate the writer gazed at. The story "Ionych" plunges readers headlong into the everyday life of the city of S., the Turkin family and the protagonist of the work - Dr. Dmitry Startsev.

The first impression when meeting with the doctor is very pleasant. And it is unmistakable. At the beginning of the story, Dmitry Ionych is "an extraordinary, amazing doctor", a wonderful person who loves to live and work. His industriousness also attracts: Dmitry Ionych always "had a lot of work in the hospital, and he could not choose a free hour"; and his habit of walking, walking in the garden. Everything was interesting for him, new, pleasant, he "could talk about literature, about art, about anything." And most importantly, in my opinion, the hero could think, evaluate what was happening, dream. All this was…

Once he had a free minute, and "he decided to go to the Turkins, to see what kind of people they were." The Turkins are the "most educated and talented" family in town. The head of the family - Ivan Petrovich - "all the time spoke in his unusual language, worked out by long exercises in wit and, obviously, had long become his habit"; his wife Vera Iosifovna "wrote stories and novels and willingly read them aloud", "read about what never happens in life"; and their daughter "Ekaterina Ivanovna sat down and struck the keys with both hands." And it was the most talented family! Not surprisingly, the rest of the city's residents considered it their duty to visit this intelligent family, where "art" is combined with the clatter of knives on the table and the smell of fried onions. You can imagine what the rest of society was like without talent!

It is surprising that Startsev, who was clearly different from the narrow-minded, jaded guests, also liked the "talented" family. "Great! excellent!" - the guests exclaim when Kotik finishes rattling the piano, roughly imitating music. “Great!” Startsev will also say, succumbing to the general enthusiasm. “Where did you study music? .. At the conservatory?” Alas, for Startsev, everything that happens in the Turkins' house seems like "fun", "cordial simplicity", "culture". "Not bad," he remembered, falling asleep, and laughed.

Is it possible that Startsev will become the same? Artificial, similarity to a spiritually developed person? The hope for the salvation of the soul, the lifeline in the sea of ​​philistinism seems to be the hero's falling in love. If he can still feel something sublime, then all is not lost. But, unfortunately, Startsev's love is just an imitation. Either he is visited by prudent thoughts: “And they must give a lot of dowry”, then someone direct, honest, but hard and sharp inside him does not allow him to “break away” from the ground: “Stop before it’s too late! Is she to you? She is spoiled, capricious, sleeps until two o'clock..." - "Well, well. - "... her relatives will force you to quit the Zemstvo service..." - "... They will give you a dowry, we will set things up."

There is neither real art nor sincere love in the story. Receiving a refusal from Kotik, the young doctor says with a sigh: "How much trouble, however!"

From that moment on, a complete necrosis of the soul occurs, Startsev drowns in the swamp of everyday life. Four years later, he still retains his individuality, the features of a real person. “Startsev already had a large practice in the city. Every morning he hastily received patients in his Dyalizh, then he left for the city patients, he left not on a pair, but on a troika with bells and returned home late at night” - these are the features of a real doctor. Everyone seems stupid to him, but he still continues to go to the evenings, not getting close to anyone and not communicating. Startsev's only hobby - "in the evenings, taking out pieces of paper obtained by practice" from his pockets - repels readers, crosses out the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdisinterested service to medicine.

The meeting of the already middle-aged doctor and Ekaterina Ivanovna looks very interesting. There was some rethinking of the life of the heroine, she realized that she was not so talented, and she saw the real activity of a zemstvo doctor as noble: "What a happiness it is to be a zemstvo doctor, to help the sufferers, to serve the people." Almost Ionych is sharply opposed to her, in whose soul a “light lit up”, and then went out. "How are we doing here? Yes, nothing. We are getting old, we are getting fat, we are sinking. Day and night - a day goes by, life passes dully, without impressions, without thoughts."

A few more years passed. “Startsev has become even more stout, obese, breathes heavily and is already walking with his head thrown back.” It is no coincidence that the inhabitants of the city, through the lips of Chekhov, call him Ionych, "a pagan god." "He has a lot of trouble, but still he does not leave the Zemstvo place; greed has overcome, I want to keep up here and there."

Formerly interesting, inspired by life, cheerful young Dmitry Startsev turned into a sharp, irritable, impatient Ionych, who lives "boringly, nothing interests him." And already kind, soft and simple Turkins do not seem so terrible against his background.

1.4 Life is an annoying trap

“There is a small outbuilding in the hospital yard, surrounded by a whole forest of thistles, nettles and wild hemp ...” - this is how Chekhov opens the new world of old Russia to us, gradually immersing us in the life of ward No. 6.

The story "Ward No. 6" introduces us to mentally ill people, with their "way of existence" in the Zemstvo hospital. "First from the door, a tall, thin tradesman", followed by the Jew Moiseika, the only one who is allowed to leave the outbuilding, a paralytic, "an immobile, gluttonous and unclean animal" and "Ivan Dmitrich Gromov, a man of about thirty-three, from the noble, a former bailiff and provincial secretary, suffers from persecution mania." Slowly and monotonously, days and years dragged on here, surrounded by medical indifference and tyranny on the part of the "naive, positive and stupid" watchman Nikita.

Somehow "a rumor was spread that ward No. 6 was allegedly visited by a doctor<…>Andrey Efimych Ragin is a wonderful person in his own way. "From the very beginning of the story, this hero seems to be foreign in the medical environment. Firstly, this is his appearance: the rough appearance of an innkeeper and an old worn frock coat. Secondly, Andrei Efimych is a doctor not calling, and by the will of his father, he himself dreamed of becoming a priest.Even the fact that he could not determine his fate of his own free will speaks of his indecision, some indifference to himself.Thirdly, his disappointment in medicine.If in at first, Ragin worked hard, operated, received crowds of patients, then everything “got bored with him with its monotony and obvious uselessness.” Fourth, which is rather decisive, indifference to patients. sickness and physical impurity;<…>Nikita beats the sick and that Moiseyka walks around the city every day and collects alms, "but remained not only indifferent to everything that was happening, but even justified himself. He simply lacks the character and faith to change everything, anyway people die sooner or later, all this "impurity" will disappear by itself, time is to blame for everything, now if he was born at a different moment ...

His whole miserable life would have dragged on gray and monotonous, and he would have died one day over a mug of beer, only a meeting with Gromov interrupted Ragin's sleep, made him plunge into reality for several days. On one of the spring evenings, Andrey Yefimitch, passing by ward No. 6, heard: "... Gentlemen, congratulations, the doctor honors us with his visit! Damned reptile!" This was said by Ivan Gromov, the only person in the ward who retained his mind, who wanted to get out to freedom. His further reflections interested the doctor, reasoning about life became a "spoon of honey" for Ragin.

Gromov sharply contrasts Ragin with his active life position, correct understanding of reality, and thirst for life. They talk about the future, and about modern society, and about human suffering. These "hospital" conversations increasingly incline the reader to the side of the "madman" rather than the doctor. What is the true characterization of Ragin made by Gromov: "In your entire life, no one has touched you with a finger<…>you are a lazy, loose person and therefore tried to arrange your life in such a way that nothing bothered you and did not move you<…>In a word, you have not seen life, you do not know it at all, but you are only theoretically familiar with reality.<…>A convenient philosophy: there is nothing to do, and the conscience is clear, and you feel like a sage."

The result of philosophizing with the patient was the conclusion of Ragin in the ward number 6. What happened? Has the doctor gone mad? No, he simply opened his eyes for a moment to everything that was happening, and conversations with a patient, which would seem completely natural to real doctors, were a sign of ill health. The hero of the work dies at the hands of Nikita. But is it worth blaming anyone for the death of Andrei Yefimitch, except for himself? He himself "dug" this hole with his indifference, with his passivity, helpless reflections on life, which he did not understand. "I was indifferent, I reasoned cheerfully and sensibly, but as soon as life touched me rudely, I lost heart<…>How could it be that for more than twenty years he did not know and did not want to know this? He did not know, had no idea about pain, which means he was not to blame, but his conscience, as intractable and rude as Nikita, made him go cold from the back of his head to his toes.

Chekhov, with great realistic skill, painted pictures of the life of the town, the hospital, and ward No. 6. Knowledge of medicine, and primarily psychiatry, helped the writer to depict in detail the mental world of a person. The story attracts with its truthfulness, naturalness, emotionality. Anton Pavlovich pointed out the vices of society and their unresolved nature. But the hope that "better times will come" and "truth will triumph" remains. "God help you, friends!" .

1.5 The doctor through the eyes of Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov created a whole gallery of doctors, of course, that his own knowledge and love for the profession helped him in this. There are also many patients whose diseases are described by a prose writer with just a few strokes, without scientific terminology.

Chekhov's doctors are most often simple, kind, even gentle people. They do not differ in talents in everyday life, they rather remain in the shadows than they are the center of the company. Their life goes smoothly, without any adventures, funny stories, troubles. They are not tightly entangled in family ties: their love either passed by, turning its back; or the hero still managed to get married, but married life does not bring him happiness.

But if the personal life of the heroes-doctors is unsuccessful, then in their professional activities they achieve some success, although this is only in their youth. While doctors begin their practice, they are full of enthusiasm, energy, they like their work, they are sure that they are needed by society. But already in adulthood, love for the profession passes, and there is no longer such a pace, diligence in work. And the attitude towards patients is already cold, growing into indifference, which is perhaps the most terrible thing for a doctor who saves lives. Only the "chosen ones", such as Dr. Dymov, can continue to work despite external pressure. And not just to work, but to work at night, disinterestedly, patiently, with interest. Perhaps it was these characters that were close to Chekhov, who did not spare himself, treated the poor, did charity work and was an active figure.

However, Chekhov's doctors do not follow the path of the writer, they do not have prototypes. Anton Pavlovich uses knowledge of human psychopathology, many years of analysis of people who have lost their mental balance. That is why the inner world of doctors and patients is depicted with exceptional realism, and his heroes die first internally, and only then from illness or physical violence.

The language of Chekhov's works is accessible, understandable, but at the same time beautiful and is the result of a deep life experience. Here is Maxim Gorky's opinion about Chekhov's style: “... the only artist of our time who has mastered the art of writing to the highest degree so that words are cramped and thoughts spacious. He does not say anything new, but what he says comes out of him amazingly convincing and simple, terribly simple and clear, irrefutably true...” [4] .

Natural science thinking and literary talent organically combined in the writer, which allowed him to better understand human psychology and correctly depict the spiritual world of his characters. Medicine for Chekhov is the focus of truth, and the truth about the most essential, about life and death, the ability to create life.

Block II Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev

"My dream was to become a writer;

and for this it seemed necessary

knowledge of the biological side of man.

2.1 You need to work in life - an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, a worker

A contemporary of Chekhov, the writer Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev, in 1888, already a candidate of historical sciences, entered the Medical Faculty of Dorpat University. Here, in Dorpat, far from the revolutionary centers, the future writer spent six years doing science and literary work. In his "Memoirs" Veresaev explains the desire to study medicine with the desire to become a writer, and the writer, in his opinion, should know a person well, both in a healthy state and during an illness.

Veresaev once said: “Writing is a difficult and confusing business. A writer should not observe life, but live in life, observing it not from the outside, but from the inside.”<…>An aspiring writer, if he respects his talent and cherishes it, should not "live" on literature<…>You need to work in life - an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, a worker.

Okay, so when do you write? - you ask.
- When? After work. On rest days. In a month of vacation, I will answer.
How much will you write then?
- And it's good that a little. Everything that will be written then will be full-fledged, it is necessary ... [ 5 ] "

In his works, he spoke about the strengths and weaknesses of medicine, showed the medical environment, doctors who used their noble profession for profit, and those who lived among the people, took his needs to heart, gave him their knowledge and strength. Like Chekhov, Veresaev tells about gloomy pictures of the national disaster - famine, crop failures, epidemics. In this atmosphere saturated with grief and despair, the work of doctors was especially hard. The doctor Veresaev never forgot to remind the reader how much a person is dependent on his biological fundamental principle. It seemed to Veresaev that the biological instinct sometimes conquers everything in a person, even the class instinct. By nature, a person is still too imperfect, and therefore is not ready to build a society of people - brothers in the near future.

The writer gravitated toward autobiography, to the depiction of a fact experienced, seen or reported by someone. There are two paths to truth in art: the generalization of numerous facts in a fictitious image and the choice to depict some real fact, however, containing a broad typical meaning. Both paths are quite clearly represented in the history of literature, both are natural and justified. Veresaev's talent was closer to the second one [6,28].

2.2 Truth, truth, where are you?

"I entered the "big" literature with the story "Without a Road" ... " These are the words from the autobiography of Vikenty Veresaev, written in his declining years. "Without a Road" is a story about what has been experienced and rethought. This is a rebuke to a generation whose "horror and curse" is that "it has nothing." The story is written in the form of a confession - a diary covering 44 days of the life of a young doctor Dmitry Chekanov, who failed to realize his dreams of serving the people.

Veresaev rejected the populist program of creating a society of people - brothers. But he had nothing to offer in return. The phrase from the diary: "Truth, truth, where are you?" - became the main question of Veresaev's life in the early 90s. With this thought he lived in Dorpat, this thought did not leave him in Tula, where he came to practice medicine in 1894; with this thought he went to St. Petersburg in the same year, where he got a job as a supernumerary intern at the Botkin hospital.

On June 20, 1892, Dmitry Chekanov arrives in the village of Kasatkino, where he has not been for 3 years. His relatives live here. The hero of the story "Without a Road" is going through a severe ideological crisis. Populist illusions were shattered, he was disgusted with artificial "high" words: "duty to the people", "idea", "deed" - "... these words cut the ear like the squeal of glass under a sharp awl.

The young man does not see anything bright in life, he does not know where to "apply" himself. Everything seems boring, so ordinary and unnecessary. Chekanov lost faith in himself, faith in the people, in the possibility of a radical change in life. Dmitry does not feel himself capable of fighting, although he cannot refuse to think about social topics, but he does not know the ways of a new struggle, and does not look for them. "My God, how hard it is! To live - and not see anything ahead; wander in the dark, bitterly reproach yourself for not having a strong mind that would lead you to the road - as if you are to blame for this. Meanwhile time goes by..."

For help, his cousin Natasha turns to the young doctor, she wants to find herself, her way, the meaning of life, she walked, "passionately asking for bread." But disappointment awaits her, a "stone", because the hero himself does not know his own path, does not see his future. “You want,” he says to Natasha, “so that I hand you a banner and say:“ Here is a banner for you, fight and die for it. ”I read more than you, saw life more, but with me the same thing as with you: I don't know - that's the whole torment... I told her that I'm not the only one, that the entire present generation is going through the same thing as me, he has nothing - that's the whole horror and damnation. guiding star, it perishes invisibly, irrevocably.

The only thing that Chekanova managed to save was a sense of shame for her privileged position in society. Let him not know the way, but he has a strong desire to sacrifice himself and justify his existence, which paves the way to the truth. At the first news of the cholera epidemic, Chekanov leaves the cozy nest of relatives to work in the provincial town of Slesarsk.

The second part of the diary begins, in which there is no longer room for political reflection and introspection. Real life is shown here - an ugly picture of peasant life, to which the upper strata are indifferent: "The people eat clay and straw, they die in the hundreds from scurvy and starvation typhus. A society that lives by the labor of this people... , got off with trifles, just to lull his conscience: danced for the benefit of the dying, ate for the benefit of the hungry, donated some half a percent of the salary.

It is in this "outback" that Chekanov finds the meaning of life, manifests himself as a real doctor. I had to work a lot: all night long in the barracks, receptions at home, childbirth, I slept for three hours. At first, the young doctor is a little lost among the common people, cannot find a common language with them, and new patients do not trust intelligent doctors and do not accept help from them. Every day the situation becomes more and more difficult: people die from merciless cholera, there is not enough working personnel, and the worst thing is that strength and energy leave. "It was hard and unpleasant in my soul: how everything is unsettled, disorganized!"; "Drowning and suffocating in a mass of little things that you can't do anything about; it's a pity you don't feel able to say, 'Er, is this my fault? I did what I could! ";" Dozens of people are dying all around, death itself looks into your face - and you are completely indifferent to all this: why are they afraid to die?

But a few days later, when volunteers, ordinary hard workers, come to the barracks and begin to take care of the sick for free, when Chekanov realizes that he is saving dozens of lives, his own mood changes. And it was as if the spring, on which all the negativity was wound, suddenly shook and rang with all the notes of optimism. “It’s fun to live! The work is in full swing, everything is going smoothly, there are no clues anywhere. I finally managed to pick up a detachment of the desired composition, and I can rely on this dozen semi-literate craftsmen and men, as on myself, it’s hard to wish for the best assistants.<…>Not to mention Stepan Bondarev: looking at him, I often wonder where this most ordinary-looking guy has so much soft, purely feminine care and tenderness for the sick.

In response to Chekanov’s desire to help people, his reliability, hard work, desire to stand on the same level with these people, many recognize him as a friend and savior: “Honestly, Dmitry Vasilyevich, I fell in love with you so much! simple, you are equal with everyone," admits Vasily Gorlov. But there are also those who do not want to recognize "strangers", who accuse doctors of all mortal sins only because they will never be on a par with the working people, and there are also quite a few of them: cholera is gone." The doctor himself understands this very well, in his diary he writes: "But can I say that they trust me? If my advice is followed, then the performer is deeply convinced of their complete futility."

The work, which brought the doctor into close contact with his patients, showed him how many good people and how much still unexploited spiritual strength lurks in the Russian people. Chekanov begins to understand the need for a stubborn struggle for the liberation of the people, but he himself does not know how to achieve this. The tragic death of the hero shows the great gulf that has formed between the downtrodden and uncultured people and the property-owning intellectuals. “Five weeks of working among them, proving at every step my readiness to help and serve them, I could not achieve simple trust on their part; I forced them to believe in myself, but a glass of vodka was enough for everything to disappear and the usual elemental feeling to wake up.” A drunken crowd of artisans is beating up the "cholera doctor". Despite this, the end of the story can be called optimistic, because Chekanov becomes "light and joyful in his soul. Often tears of boundless happiness rise to his throat." He is sure that "there is no need to despair, you need to work hard and hard, you need to look for a way, because there is an awful lot of work," and he tells the rest, just as young, seeking, "roadless", about this. For him, as a doctor, the interests of the patient became paramount. He died in his post.

In the story "Without a Road" Veresaev, as it were, summed up his own ideological searches. A new stage in the Russian liberation movement convinced him of the correctness of the Marxist doctrine. “In the summer of 1896,” Veresaev wrote in his autobiography, “the famous June strike of weavers broke out, striking everyone with its large number, consistency and organization. Many who were not convinced by the theory, it convinced, including myself. There was a sense of a huge, strong new force, confidently entering the arena of Russian history. I joined the literary circle of Marxists" [7,3].

2.3 What is this game of blind man's buff for, what is the deception of a society that thinks we have some kind of "medical science"?

A significant place in the work of Veresaev is occupied by the work that brought him fame - "Doctor's Notes" (1901). Having worked on the book for eight years, having collected and studied a huge amount of material for this, Veresaev frankly and emotionally, directly and boldly revealed many secrets of the medical profession to readers. The author writes about his expectations and impressions, the first steps and trials on the way to mastering a difficult profession.

The range of issues considered by the writer is really wide: starting with the relationship between a doctor and a patient, a person's dependence on medicine, reflecting on the topic of experiments and risks in medicine, and ending with the life of people in the village and paying for treatment.

The hero of the work is "an ordinary average doctor, with an average mind and average knowledge." Veresaev does not allow us to read the notes of an experienced professor, this is useless, because together with him we must "get confused in contradictions", solve issues that need to be resolved. That is why a recent student appears on the pages of the Doctor's Notes, who did not have time to become a "man of the profession" and for whom "those impressions to which you involuntarily get used to over time are still bright and strong." Already from the first chapters of the book, we observe a young thinker, a deeply thinking person who draws us into his own thoughts.

The first thing the hero makes us think about is health. How relative and fragile everything is, if yesterday you could still run healthy on damp grass, today you can lie bedridden. And no one is immune from this. And what is health anyway? Are there many of us healthy on Earth? "A normal person is a sick person; a healthy person is only a happy ugliness, a sharp deviation from the norm," the young doctor concludes. Health is the most important thing, everything else revolves around it, "nothing is scary with it, no trials; to lose it means to lose everything; without it there is no freedom, no independence, a person becomes a slave to the people around him and the situation; it is the highest and most necessary good".

The hero also thinks about medicine, about its good purpose to heal and resurrect; but there is another side of the coin - another medicine "weak, powerless, mistaken and deceitful, undertaking to treat diseases that it cannot determine, diligently identifying diseases that it obviously cannot cure."

The path of becoming a multifaceted medicine is winding, and only those who are not afraid to take risks, gain experience through their own mistakes and experiments, sometimes even on people, go through it. But can a doctor risk the lives of others? Who gave him the right to dangerous experiments? The doctor must acquire the skill to easily cope with the tasks and at any time to provide assistance to the patient. But theoretical knowledge at the institute is only a foundation that cannot be useful without practice. There will always be the first patient, there will always be fear of the unknown. "Our successes go through mountains of corpses," Billroth confesses sadly in a private letter. You need to learn without being afraid to make mistakes. Only in this way, risking and making mistakes, renouncing delusions, "medicine has obtained most of what it is now rightfully proud of. If there were no risk, there would be no progress; this is evidenced by the entire history of medical science." If everyone uses only what has been tested, then medicine will perish, and it will be pointless to try to treat.

It is interesting to observe how the hero sees his profession, with what feelings he goes to master it. Naive ideas that a doctor is someone who has passed the medical faculty are destroyed over time. The young practitioner even considers leaving the profession so as not to remain in the role of an impostor. He understands that learning "the art of medicine is as impossible as learning poetry or art." The profession of a doctor is not an action according to a template or the execution of instructions, but an art that requires "novelty and ignorance" in relation to the patient, continuous and intense search and work on oneself. The hero of the "Doctor's Notes" still finds the strength to honestly bear this burden. And he carries it with deep faith in his work, despite the frequent impotence, danger and ignorance of medicine. Can he not believe if it makes it possible to save people, because "the disease is cured not only by medicines and prescriptions, but also by the soul of the patient himself; his cheerful and believing soul is a tremendous force in the fight against the disease."

Veresaev is not only not afraid to reveal to the reader all the difficulties of the profession, but deliberately with each chapter more and more opens the curtain in front of us. "The sword of Damocles "accident" hanging over his head" keeps the doctor in constant nervous tension. Unfair treatment of doctors by society, which has grown into distrust. Treatment-interfering shyness of patients : “how many diseases women start because of this shame, how many obstacles it puts for the doctor in making a diagnosis and in treating”; but at the same time, this shame is the cause of women's suffering. The hero of the work comes to another pessimistic conclusion - "medicine is the science of treating only rich and free people." The poor have neither money nor free time for treatment, they are constantly working to somehow live. They will gratefully take the medicine, listen carefully to the doctor and follow the recommendations, but they will not be able to change their habits and lifestyle, this is not in their power. A whole chapter is devoted to payment for medical work, which offends and causes complications in relations with the patient. "Freedom" should underlie the lofty activity of every doctor, "payment is only a sad necessity," tying hands.

Veresaev's thoughts about a person's dependence on medicine are unusual, somewhat insightful, even a little frightening. Medicine makes people weak, helpless. We are afraid to go through the dew, and we won’t be able to sleep on bare ground, and we won’t walk much on foot, everything is dangerous for us, everything portends new diseases. And only connection with nature can save. “When accepting the benefits of culture, one cannot break the closest connection with nature; while developing in one’s body new positive properties given to us by the conditions of cultural existence, it is necessary at the same time to preserve our old positive properties; they are obtained at too heavy a price, and it is too easy to lose them” .

"Doctor's Notes" shows us the evolution of a young doctor, doubts with each new thought move to an understanding of science, to its acceptance, to a mature and responsible attitude towards patients. “My attitude towards medicine has changed dramatically. Starting to study it, I expected everything from it; seeing that medicine cannot do everything, I concluded that it cannot do anything; now I saw how much it can still do, and this "much" filled me with confidence and respect for science, which I so recently despised to the depths of my soul" - this is an important confession of a future doctor who will not be afraid of difficulties, experiments and responsibility. The hero boldly goes forward, studying not only the narrow sphere of his profession, but also the "colossal circle of sciences" that come into contact with medicine.

The hero of the "Doctor's Notes" also comes to another important thought: to the realization of oneself "part of one huge, inseparable whole, that only in the fate and success of this whole we can see our personal destiny and success."

2.4 Veresaevsky type of doctor

The realist of the Turgenev school, Vikenty Veresaev, dreamed of becoming a writer already when he entered the medical faculty. He believed that medicine is the only way to writing, only this science will allow you to study human biology, its strengths and weaknesses, to get close to people of different strata and ways. It was the profession of a doctor that helped him to listen sensitively to the voice of life, not remaining indifferent to human problems, made him observe, reflect, let everything that happens through him .

In the image of his characters, the author introduced a lot of personal, experienced, but only what was obligatory and typical. Almost each of his heroes is an intellectual, a highly moral person, devoted to social ideals. However, he is a rationalist, as a result of which he is lonely and cut off from people.

Let's take a closer look at Versaev's doctors. They are young, recently graduated from university, people. A long and winding path to medicine opens before them, but from the very beginning, like Veresaev himself once, they are seized by panic. How practically inexperienced and unskilled they are brought into life by the medical school! Because of this, they feel lost, afraid to start working, they are thinking about leaving the profession. Every step they take is haunted by failure, misdiagnosis and treatment, and death. But only through such mistakes, the doctor Veresaeva comes to the conclusion that you need to learn a lot and work on yourself for a long time and hard. Fate rewards young doctors for believing in their own work and diligence, and now success awaits them in the medical profession.

Struggle is a characteristic feature of Versaev doctors. The struggle with life and circumstances, the struggle with oneself, first of all. This struggle comes to misunderstanding and rejection of science and life, but then develops into awareness and complete dissolution in society, in one's own business, in oneself.

In his works about doctors, the writer touches on many important issues. His heroes are thinkers, which is why they are interested in the connection between medicine and man, the relationship between a doctor and a patient, they are passionately concerned about the life of the village, the peasants. They are Narodniks, suffering from the death of the village, from the lack of freedom and poverty of the simple peasant, who works until the last minute of his life. Veresaevsky doctor strives to help these people, calls everyone to community service, but sometimes their enthusiasm leads to their own death. But the awareness of oneself as part of the whole, the inextricable connection with the mass and the impotence of the loner remain fundamental in their lives.

Veresaev is a thoughtful, observant and truthful writer who has chosen the life and psychology of the intelligentsia as the main theme of his works. What he describes is close and dear to him, which is why each of his creations is imbued with frankness, and the language of his works is lively and simple. His talent is hard work on himself, eternal struggle, rejection and dissolution.

Block III Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov

"You'll see, I'll be a writer."

3.1 Doctor with honors

In 1909, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov entered the Kiev University at the Faculty of Medicine. In 1915, at the height of the war, when Kyiv began to turn into a front-line city, the military department turned to the administration of Kyiv University with a request to prepare a list of students who wanted to serve in the army. And Bulgakov was among the first who decided to voluntarily go to the front.

After graduating from the university in 1916 with the title of "doctor with honors", he immediately began to work in the Red Cross hospital in Pechersk. “I had to work a lot: Mikhail very often was on duty at night, in the morning he came physically and mentally broken, literally fell on the bed, slept for a couple of hours, and in the afternoon again the hospital, the operating room, and so almost every day ... But Mikhail loved his work, treated it with all responsibility and, despite fatigue, was in the operating room for as long as he considered necessary. In the last days of September 1916, Bulgakov and his wife arrived in the village of Nikolskoye, where events would unfold, which would later be reflected in his works.

"In 1918, he arrived in Kyiv as a venereologist. And there he continued to work in this specialty - not for long." To arrange a normal peaceful life in those years is not possible. Since the beginning of 1919, power in Kyiv has been constantly changing, and each new government mobilizes Bulgakov as a military doctor in his army.

As a military doctor, he ends up in Vladikavkaz, where he falls ill with typhus. When the city is occupied by the Reds, Mikhail Afanasyevich hides his involvement in medicine, begins to cooperate with local newspapers, and Bulgakov the writer appears instead of the doctor Bulgakov. He will no longer return to the professional occupation of medicine.

The profession of a doctor was imprinted on the entire work of Bulgakov. But of particular interest are those works that depict the medical activity of the writer himself and the experiences associated with it, and these are, first of all, "Notes of a Young Doctor" and "Morphine". In these works "there are deep human problems of the doctor's contact with the patient, the difficulty and importance of the first contacts of the doctor-practitioner, the complexity of his educational role in contact with the sick, suffering, frightened and helpless element of the population" .

3.2 You doctor are so youthful

"Notes of a young doctor" - a cycle consisting of stories, and.

IN"Notes of a young doctor" reflects many genuine cases of Bulgakov's medical activity during his work in the zemstvo hospital in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province. Many of the operations performed were reflected in the work: amputation of the thigh ("Towel with a rooster"), turning the fetus on a leg ("Baptism by turning"), tracheotomy ("Steel throat") and more.

The hero of the stories, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bomgard, is a twenty-three-year-old doctor, yesterday's student, who was assigned to the remote village of Gorelovo. Here he begins to panic: "What am I going to do? Huh? What a frivolous person I am! It was necessary to abandon this site." But there is no way out, he is the only surgeon, a person with a higher education in this outback.

The young doctor had not yet had time to get comfortable, to buy glasses to look more personable and experienced, as workdays had already begun. And immediately - amputation. Anyone would be confused, would wish a quick death to the girl, so as not to torment either her or himself, as, however, the young man did. Fortunately, someone else lived in it, who sternly ordered: "Camphores." Only "common sense, spurred on by the unusualness of the situation" worked for him. And here no glasses can overshadow the talent, courage and confidence of the surgeon during the operation. "And in everyone - both Demyan Lukich and Pelageya Ivanovna - I noticed respect and surprise in the eyes."

In a completely unusual environment for him, Bomgard began to do his difficult work as his inner feeling, his medical conscience, dictated to him. Medical debt - that's what determines his attitude towards patients. He treats them with a truly human feeling. He deeply pities the suffering person and ardently wants to help him, no matter what it costs him personally. He pities the little choking Lidka ("Steel Throat"), and the girl who got into the pulp ("Towel with a Rooster"), and the woman in labor who did not reach the hospital and gives birth in the bushes near the river, and stupid women who speak about their illnesses in incomprehensible words ("Missing Eye").

The young doctor is not afraid to say how difficult it is for him to admit his mistakes. This is where introspection, sincere repentance, and remorse occur. And the thoughts in the final story of the "Missing Eye" series only prove that Bomgard will turn out to be a real doctor: "No. Never, even falling asleep, I will proudly mutter that you will not surprise me. No. And a year has passed, another year will pass and will be as rich in surprises as the first ... So, you need to dutifully study.

In life, Mikhail Bulgakov was sharply observant, impetuous, resourceful and courageous, he had an outstanding memory. These qualities define him as a good doctor, they helped him in his medical work. He made diagnoses quickly, he knew how to immediately grasp the characteristic features of the disease; rarely wrong. Courage helped him decide on difficult operations. So in the stories there is no idealization of reality, and the harsh rural reality is given here without any embellishment.

"Notes of a Young Doctor" were oriented towards "Notes of a Doctor" (1901) by Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev, with whom Bulgakov later became friends and even co-authored the play "Alexander Pushkin". Bulgakov's young doctor is different from Versaev's. He, unlike the hero of "Doctor's Notes", practically does not know failures.
For the author of The Doctor's Notes, "the only way out is in the consciousness that we are only a small part of one huge, inseparable whole, that only in the fate and success of this whole can we see both our personal destiny and success." For the author and protagonist of Notes of a Young Doctor, his own professional success is important, and he thinks of the struggle in unity with fellow doctors.

3.3 Happiness is like health: when it is there, you do not notice it

From September 20, 1917 to February 1918, Mikhail Bulgakov continued to serve in the zemstvo city hospital of Vyazma in the same Smolensk province, it was this period that was reflected in the story "Morphine", where the main part - the diary of Dr. Polyakov - is also associated with experience in Nikolsky.

This story can be regarded as a continuation of the Notes of a Young Doctor, but at the same time it has its own special core and moral meaning. The main character, the same Dr. Bomgard, receives a letter from a friend at the university, Dr. Polyakov, asking for help. Already a twenty-seven-year-old pediatrician decided to go, but at night they brought him terrible news: "the doctor shot himself" and almost the corpse of Polyakov.

This is followed by the history of the suicide of the suicide, written down by him in a "common notebook in a black oilcloth" and handed over to Bomgard. It is interesting to note that Bulgakov wrote the overwhelming majority of his works in such common oilcloth notebooks, although they were of different colors. Dozens of notebooks have absorbed the novels "The Master and Margarita", "The Life of Monsieur de Molière", "Notes of a Dead Man", the plays "Adam and Eve", "The Cabal of the Hypocrites" and more. Most often, notebooks contain not only the text of the work, but also materials for it (extracts, outlines, bibliography, drawings, diagrams, tables).

The effect of morphine on the doctor Polyakov is described in detail: “first minute: sensation of a touch on the neck. This touch becomes warm and expands. In the second minute, a cold wave suddenly passes under the stomach<…>This is the highest point of manifestation of a person's spiritual strength, "etc. False feelings of calmness and delight," double dreams ", hallucinations, fits of anger - all this is the effect of the drug. Recognition of himself as a morphine addict comes to Polyakov only two months after the first injection, but this does not save the doctor, the disease consumes the hero with his head.And now, a year later: "It would be shameful to prolong one's life even for a minute. This one, no, you can't. The medicine is at my fingertips<…>I do not owe anything to anyone. I only lost myself. And Anna."

"Morphine" is an autobiographical story, almost a medical history of the writer himself. It tells how Bulgakov himself defeated an insidious and monstrous disease. This alone can put him in the ranks of outstanding personalities capable of overcoming the seemingly insurmountable. The writer understood this much more clearly than his closest relatives, who tried by any means to hide something that did not need to be hidden. Having decided to publish Morphine, Bulgakov took a very responsible step. Mikhail Bulgakov did not think about himself (he had already won a victory over himself), but about those unfortunate people who might be destined to taste poison and who are unlikely to be able to overcome a terrible illness. With his story, he sought to warn those who might embark on this disastrous path.

It is important to note that Bulgakov became a morphine addict not out of his own whim or curiosity, but by a combination of tragic circumstances when he, a young doctor, saved the life of a dying child. Here is how T. Lappa, the first wife of the writer, recalls this: “Somehow, when we lived in Nikolskoye, they brought a boy with diphtheria. Mikhail examined him and decided to suck the films with a tube. Then he decided to inject himself with an anti-diphtheria serum. He began to have a terrible itch that did not stop for a long time, and Mikhail asked him to give him morphine. After taking morphine, he felt better, and, fearing a repetition of the itch, asked to repeat the injection. get used to morphine ... ".

Thanks to the poignant truth, the story "Morphine" carries such a charge of instructive power, which has not yet been in Russian fiction.

3.4 Science does not yet know a way to turn animals into people

Literally in one breath, in three months (January-March 1925), Bulgakov wrote the story "Heart of a Dog". The result was something unheard of, bold, daring. This story is distinguished by its many thoughts and a clear author's idea: the revolution that has taken place in Russia is not the result of the natural socio-economic and spiritual development of society, but an irresponsible and premature experiment; which requires a return to the previous state.

This idea is realized allegorically - the transformation of an unpretentious, good-natured dog into an insignificant and aggressive humanoid creature. It is clear that the author of The Heart of a Dog, a physician and surgeon by profession, was an attentive reader of the scientific journals of the time, where much was said about "rejuvenation," amazing organ transplants in the name of "improving the human race."

The prototype of the main character - a professor of the old school - was Mikhail Bulgakov's uncle, a gynecologist known throughout Moscow, Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky. The writer’s first wife, Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa, recalled: “As soon as I started reading, I immediately guessed that it was him. Mikhail was very offended for this. He had a dog at one time, a Doberman Pinscher ". But Bulgakov's angry professor has gone very far from his real prototype.

The first impression made by Professor Preobrazhensky is positive. He is a good doctor, known far beyond Moscow: "You are the first not only in Moscow, but also in London and Oxford!" Bormenthal admits. It is no coincidence that so many respected people come to the doctor and say with admiration: "You are a magician and a sorcerer, professor!" His noble, as it seems at the beginning of the story, act also evokes sympathy: Preobrazhensky picks up a beaten mongrel from the street. Yes, and the opposition of him, a representative of the virtuous Russian intelligentsia, with the proletariat, the actions of the new authorities plays an important role. His statements are a striking force, with the help of which the new social system, which has unnaturally arisen in Russia, is crushed: . Both the human and professional qualities of Preobrazhensky (as well as his assistant Bormental) cannot but arouse sympathy.

But those who ingenuously or sincerely attribute Professor Preobrazhensky to the purely positive heroes of the work, suffering from the scoundrel Sharikov, general rudeness and the disorder of the new life, it is worth hearing the words from Bulgakov's later play "Adam and Eve" about clean old professors: "In fact, , the old men are indifferent to any idea, with the exception of one thing - that the housekeeper serves coffee on time ... I'm afraid of ideas! Each of them is good in itself, but only until the moment when the old professor does not equip it technically .. .".

The first vice is revealed very quickly - it is greed. Preobrazhensky is not like selfless doctors who work to help their neighbor, to alleviate the suffering of people. Preobrazhensky works for money, or for scientific fame and prestige. “He could earn money right at the rallies, a first-class businessman. However, he apparently doesn’t peck chickens anyway,” notes the observant Sharik.

On all the pages of the book, one can observe another negative feature of the professor - rude and harsh treatment of the servants, Bormental, and those around him. This, of course, repels, shows the despotic side of the "master", his careless attitude towards people who do not belong to the intelligentsia. True, Preobrazhensky is quick-witted, which makes him close his eyes to this trait of his.

A more significant vice is his snobbery. This is manifested in the desire to stand out from the rest of the tenants of the house ("I live and work in seven rooms alone and would like to have an eighth<…>My apartment is free, and the conversation is over"), in demonstrating his indispensability, when he begins to call influential people and threaten that he will no longer work. "... cold appetizers and soup are eaten only by the landowners who have not been cut down by the Bolsheviks"?

But the worst thing, in my opinion, is that the professor is cruel and insensitive, not cold-blooded, as a surgeon should be, but inhumane. He decides to perform the operation not just on a dog from the street, but on his pet, to which he is accustomed. Moreover, he is aware, even almost sure, that the dog is likely to die. “If I start bleeding there, we’ll lose time and lose the dog. However, there’s no chance for him anyway. You know, I feel sorry for him. Imagine, I’m used to him<…>Here, damn it. Don't die. Well, it's still going to die."

How does the story end? The "Creator", who sought to change nature itself and outwit life, creates an informer, an alcoholic and a demagogue, who sat on his neck and turned the life of an already unfortunate professor into an ordinary Soviet hell. And then he personally kills the person he created, only because he interferes with his peace of mind and claims to be living space. "The former imperious and energetic Philipp Philippovich has recovered greatly in the last week" (after a reverse operation).

Mikhail Bulgakov, in the scene of the operation on Sharik, showed Russia, on which an experiment was performed - an operation with an unknown result. He was one of the first to see that the ignorant, drugged part of the people can be easily used as an instrument of violence in the interests of one or another political group.

The writer's satire struggles with destructive power, disunity and evil, highlights and burns out the ugliness of socialist life and the "new" human psychology, affirms the "old" positive values: genuine culture, honesty, steadfastness, dignity. The story about Sharik, despite all the censorship bans and silence for half a century, lived in our literature for eighty years and had a hidden influence on its development. Well, the well-known fact that Bulgakov’s brilliant story is not outdated, is read by everyone today, has become the property of cinema, theater and television, speaks of her unfading artistry and deep creative understanding of man and our difficult existence.

3.5 How Bulgakov sees the doctor

Mikhail Bulgakov is one of the greatest prose writers of the twentieth century, who made a contribution to world literature, and at the same time a wonderful doctor who saved the lives of many of his patients. Thanks to the knowledge of medicine and immersion in the medical profession, Bulgakov portrayed doctors in his works in a special manner.

His doctors are different from each other, but, perhaps, they have a lot in common. The hero doctor is a young specialist who recently graduated from the institute, or a well-known professor who has been practicing for a long time. The first - goes to the distribution in a remote village and immediately begins to panic, because he is unsure of his knowledge, during training he watched only operations from afar. But meanwhile, the knowledge of the young doctor is excellent, and his hands themselves do all the necessary work. The second type of doctor has been working, operating, experimenting for a long time, he is talented and self-confident. Bulgakov's doctors deserve the respect of others due to their work, diligence, they are trusted because they have saved more than one life.

Bulgakov's doctors will never reveal the secret of their patient, they have a well-developed medical conscience and a sense of duty, and they are also quite humane, though sometimes they can deviate from principles if the case requires it. Yes, they are very faithful to their medical practice and medicine when they understand its importance and necessity. Medicine reciprocates them: the doctors created by the writer are practically not mistaken, and they hardly know the accident.

When Bulgakov's doctor does not know something, he does not despair, the craving for new knowledge grows among young doctors every day, and experienced professors do not stop there - they go through experiments.

In my opinion, the author in his works sympathizes with young doctors, rather than long-worn specialists. This is also evidenced by the connection with his own biography, though many of his characters find their prototypes in real life, but he gives a part of himself to recent students. Why? Because they have just entered the world of medicine, they are pure and disinterested, they work in the wilderness, in terrible conditions, but with a lofty goal: to help the sick. Growing up and aging, Bulgakov's doctors acquire many bad qualities, they live in full prosperity and work more for themselves, in their own name. That is why their images are often satirical, and their fantastic experiments become dangerous and unsuccessful. By this, the writer emphasizes that doing science and immoral acts are incompatible things, the doctor must be pure both in his deeds and in his thoughts.

Like a real artist, Bulgakov describes operations in minute detail, listing bright details meticulously, like a real doctor. The reader literally sees everything that happens, hears the smells and breath of the patient, feels the tension and concentration of the surgeon.

The writer did not accept the literature that depicted the suffering of abstract, unreal heroes, passing at the same time past life itself. Humanism was the only center around which the rest of the problems of literature gathered. And the true humanism of the master 's works is especially close to us today .

Writer-satirist, science fiction writer, psychologist, master of unusually beautiful language, humanist-philosopher, Bulgakov is very popular among thinking readers. He teaches us to suffer and experience, to love and be disgusted, to believe and wait, that is, to truly feel and live.

Closing of the conference

"Being even an ordinary average person, a doctor

nevertheless, by virtue of his profession, he does more

kindness and shows more unselfishness than other people."

V. V. Veresaev

Literature and medicine met in the works of medical writers, as poetry and prose united in Lermontov, as ice and fire converged in Pushkin. It would seem that incompatible things, but they are harmoniously woven into the dense canvas of Russian literature.

A.P. became truly talented masters of thought and language, who managed to tell about doctors in literary works. Chekhov, V.A. Veresaev and M.A. Bulgakov. These writers were professional doctors, had higher medical education. It was medicine that helped them to study the psychology and state of mind of a person, to feel the life of their future characters, to convey a part of themselves. Only writers who are doctors can look directly at the hero-doctor.

Each of these writers depicted the "world" of doctors in his own way, each understood this profession in his own way.

Chekhov did not create a self-portrait, he simply put himself in the place of the created character. He paid great attention to the inner state of the hero, his ability to fight the outside world and resist time. The Chekhov doctor is a kind, simple person, hardworking and sympathetic, but at the same time soft and supple, so he is often defeated by circumstances, surroundings, time. Chekhov's style is realism, brevity, but at the same time a clinical description of the state of mind and illnesses, capacious content, understandable, but not dry language.

The gallery of zemstvo doctors was brought out in his works by Veresaev, who was close to thoughts about the people and the peasant masses. The works about doctors are based on the situations experienced by the writer himself, the thoughts and feelings of the author are very clearly traced. The doctor created by Veresaev is a deep thinker, hard worker, selflessly and disinterestedly serving the people, living with the thought of Platon Karataev about the unity of the whole world. His doctors stumble, but continue to go and believe in their work, to bring the good of society, because they have a highly developed civic sense. As a real observer and truth-seeker, Veresaev gravitated not to the developing plot, but to the deep reflections of the characters, which merge with the writer's own thoughts.

The central place among all Bulgakov's characters is occupied by the image of a doctor. His young doctors repeat the fate of the writer himself, and experienced specialists are a satirical parody of what is happening in the country. Bulgakov's doctor is certainly talented and successful, he is constantly fighting with himself, with his fear of the unknown, of difficulties. His doctor is not afraid to try, to discover something new, to experiment. For their courage and humanism (for what is the core of Bulgakov's positive doctors), fate rewards them. Bulgakov skillfully combined reality and fantasy, colorful and lively language and medical terms, positive and negative characters.

If you try to combine all the best qualities of doctors that writers tell us about, you will get an ideal image of a doctor, a doctor to whom we are not afraid to entrust our lives. This is a humane and sympathetic person, a deep thinker who is not afraid of obstacles and the unknown.

Thanks to the work we have done today, we all learned many interesting facts from the life of writers, got acquainted with previously unknown works and rediscovered previously read ones. The work turned out to be fascinating, it made me think deeply about the fate of the writers and their characters, to find the special style of each writer-doctor. It's good that medicine has given us such good thinkers, and literature has made real creators out of them.

Used materials

Gitovich N.I. Chronicle of the life and work of A.P. Chekhov. M., 1955.

Gromov M.P. Book about Chekhov. M., 1989.

1. Anikin A. The image of a doctor in Russian classics

2. http://apchekhov.ru/books

3. http://az.lib.ru/w/weresaew_w_w

4. Owls. Encyclopedia, 1989 - a series of biographical dictionaries.

Fokht - Babushkin Yu. On the work of V.V. Veresaev // Introductory article.

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