Julien Sorel characteristic in Ukrainian. Sorel and Rastignac as heroes of the "career novel
Julien Sorel is the protagonist of Stendhal's novel Red and Black.
The tragedy of Julien Sorel- lies, first of all, in the impossibility of realizing one's ideals in the reality surrounding it. Julien does not feel at home either among the aristocrats, or among the bourgeoisie, or among the clergy, and, moreover, among the peasants.
The image of Julien Sorel "Red and Black"
Julien Sorel is a representative of the generation of the early 20s of the 19th century. He has the traits of a romantic hero: independence, self-esteem, the desire to change fate, the desire to fight and achieve goals. He is a bright personality, everything in him is above the norm: the strength of the mind, will, dreaminess, purposefulness.
Our hero is the carpenter's son. He lives in the small provincial town of Verrieres with his brothers and father and dreams of breaking out of here into the big world. No one in Verrieres understands him. “All the households despised him, and he hated his brothers and father…” The young man raved about military service from early childhood, his idol was Napoleon. After much deliberation, he decides: the only way to achieve something in life and escape from Verrieres is to become a priest. “To break the road for Julien first of all meant to break out of Verrieres; he hated his country. Everything he saw here chilled his imagination.”
And here is the first victory, the first "appearance". Julien is invited to his house as a teacher of children by the mayor of Verrieres, Mr. de Renal. A month later, the children adored the young teacher, the father of the family was imbued with respect for him, and Madame de Renal felt for him something more than simple respect. However, Julien felt like a stranger here: “he only felt hatred and disgust for this high society, where he was admitted only to the edge of the table ...”
Life in the house of Mr. de Renal was filled with hypocrisy, the desire for profit, the struggle for power, intrigue and gossip. “Julien's conscience began to whisper to him: “Here it is - this is dirty wealth, which you can achieve and enjoy, but only in this company. Oh Napoleon! How wonderful your time was! ..” Julien felt alone in this world. Thanks to the patronage of the curé Chelana, Sorel enters the Besancon Theological Seminary. “If Julien is only a hesitant reed, let him perish, but if he is a man of courage, let him make his way,” Abbe Pirard said about him. And Julien began to break through.
He studied diligently, but kept aloof from the seminarians. Very soon I saw that "knowledge here is not worth a penny," because "success in the sciences seems suspicious." Julien understood what was encouraged: hypocrisy, "ascetic piety." No matter how hard the young man tried to pretend to be a fool and a nonentity, he could not please either the seminarians or the seminary authorities - he was too different from the others.
And finally - the first promotion: he was appointed a tutor in the New and Old Testaments. Julien felt the support of Abbé Pirard and was grateful to him for it. And suddenly - an unexpected meeting with the bishop, which decided his fate. Julien moves to Paris, to the house of the Marquis de La Mole and becomes his personal secretary. Another victory. Life begins in the mansion of the Marquis. What does he see? “No flattering comments about Beranger, about opposition newspapers, about Voltaire, about Rousseau, about anything that even slightly smacked of freethinking and politics were allowed in this mansion. The slightest living thought seemed rude.
A new light opened before him. But this new light was the same as the light at Verrieres and Besançon. Everything was based on hypocrisy and profit. Julien accepts all the rules of the game and tries to make a career. A brilliant victory awaited him. But the affair with the daughter of the Marquis Matilda upset all Julien's plans. Matilda, this satiated secular beauty, was attracted to Julien by his intelligence, originality and boundless ambition. But this love was not at all like the bright and bright feeling that connected Julien with Madame de Renal. The love of Matilda and Julien was more like a duel between two ambitious people. But she might well have ended in marriage if not for Madame de Renal's letter, written under the influence of the Jesuit brothers. “How many magnificent plans - and in an instant ... it all crumbles to dust,” Sorel thinks.
Madame de Renal's letter ruined all Julien's plans and put an end to his career. In an effort to take revenge, he commits a reckless act - in the church of Verrieres he shoots Madame de Renal.
JULIEN SOREL
Julien Sorel (fr. Julien Sorel) - the hero of F. Stendhal's novel "Red and Black" (1830). The subtitle of the novel is "Chronicle of the 19th century". Real prototypes - Antoine Berte and Adrien Lafargue. Berte is the son of a rural blacksmith, a pupil of a priest, a teacher in the family of the bourgeois Michou in the town of Brang, near Grenoble. Ms. Michou, Berthe's mistress, upset his marriage to a young girl, after which he tried to shoot her and himself in the church during the service. Both remained alive, but Berthe was tried and sentenced to death, executed (1827). Lafargue is a cabinet maker who killed his mistress out of jealousy, repented and asked for the death penalty (1829).
The image of Zh.S. - a hero who commits a criminal offense on the basis of love passion and at the same time a crime against religion (since the attempted murder took place in a church), repentant and executed - was used by Stendhal to analyze the ways of social development. Literary type Zh.S. characteristic of French literature of the 19th century. - a young man from the bottom, making a career, relying only on his personal qualities, the hero of an educational novel on the theme of "disillusionment". Typologically Zh.S. akin to the images of romantic heroes - "higher personalities", who proudly despise the world around them. Common literary roots can be observed in the image of an individualist from the “Confession” by J.-J. Rousseau (1770), who declared a person (a noble soul) who is sensitive and capable of introspection as an “exceptional personality” (1 "homme different).
In the image of J.S. Stendhal comprehended the experience of rationalistic philosophy of the 17th-18th centuries, showing that a place in society is obtained at the cost of moral losses. On the one hand, J.S. is the direct heir to the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the three key figures of the beginning of the "bourgeois age" - Tartuffe, Napoleon and Rousseau; on the other hand, the extrapolation of the moral throwing of romantics - his talent, individual energy, intelligence are aimed at achieving a social position.
In the center of the image of Zh.S. is the idea of "alienation", confrontation "against everyone" with the final conclusion about its absolute incompatibility with any way of life. This is an unusual criminal who daily commits crimes to assert himself as a person, defending the "natural right" to equality, education, love, who decides to kill in order to justify himself in the eyes of the woman he loves, who doubted his honesty and devotion, a careerist guided by the idea of his chosenness . The psychological drama of his soul and life is a constant fluctuation between the noble sensitive nature and the Machiavellianism of his sophisticated intellect, between diabolical logic and kind, humane nature.
The phenomenon of Zh.S.'s personality, emancipated not only from age-old social foundations and religious dogmas, but also from all principles, caste or class, reveals the process of the birth of individualistic ethics with its egoism and egocentrism, with its neglect of means in achieving the goals. J.S. fails to kill his noble soul to the end, he tries to live, guided by internal duty and the laws of honor, at the end of his odyssey, having come to the conclusion that the idea of \u200b\u200bestablishing the "nobility of the spirit" through a career in society is wrong, to the conclusion that earthly hell is more terrible than death . He renounces the desire to rise "above all" in the name of an unbridled feeling of love as the only meaning of existence.
The image of Zh.S. had a great influence on the further understanding of the problem of "exceptional personality" in literature and philosophy. Immediately after the release of the novel, critics called Zh.S. "monster", guessing in him the type of the future "plebian with education". J.S. became the classic ancestor of all the lonely conquerors of the world that are failing: Martin Eden of J. London, Clyde Griffith T. Dreiser. Nietzsche has noteworthy references to searches in the author J.S. "missing features" of a philosopher of a new type, who declared the primacy of a "higher personality" of a certain "will to power". However, Zh.S. served as a prototype for heroes experiencing catharsis and repentance. In Russian literature, his successor is F.M. Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov. In the words of Nicolò Chiaromonte (The Paradoxes of History, 1973), “Stendhal teaches us by no means the egocentrism that he proclaimed as his creed. He teaches us to give a merciless assessment of the delusions in which our feelings are guilty, and all sorts of fables with which the world around us is full.
The famous performer of the role of Zh.S. the French film adaptation of the novel featured Gérard Philippe (1954).
Lit.: Fonvieille R. Le veritable Julien Sorel. Paris et Grenoble, 1971; Remizov B.G. Stendhal. L., 1978; Gorky A.M. Foreword
//Vinogradov A.K. Three colors of time. M., 1979; Timasheva O.V. Stendhal. M., 1983; Andrie R. Stendhal, or Masquerade Ball. M., 1985; Esenbayeva R.M. Stendhal and Dostoevsky: typology of the novels "Red and Black" and "Crime and Punishment". Tver, 1991.
L.G.Vyazmitinova
literary heroes. - Academician. 2009 .
See what "JULIEN SOREL" is in other dictionaries:
Julien Sorel- The Soviet Julien Sorel has not yet been written, a man tearing himself out of the social group to which he is assigned, who made education an instrument of his exaltation. ZS 1995 8 113. Yesenin Julien Sorel lived in it. Conqueror. That is, of course... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
- (French Jullien or Julien): Contents 1 Surname 2 Literary characters 3 Other meanings ... Wikipedia
Sorel, Stanislav French inventor of magnesian cement (1867); Sorel, Agnes courtesan of the 15th century; mistress of the French king Charles VII; Sorel, Gustav Belgian painter (1905 1981); Sorel, Georges ... ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Red and black (meanings). Red and Black ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Red and black (meanings). (((Name))) Le Rouge et le Noir ... Wikipedia
Frederic (real name Henri Bayle, 1783 1842) French writer, one of the founders of the French realistic novel of the 19th century. R. in Grenoble in a bourgeois family, almost all of whose members (with the exception of the Voltairian grandfather, who had ... ... Literary Encyclopedia
This term has other meanings, see Red and black (meanings). Red and Black Le Rouge et le noir ... Wikipedia
The birth of the realistic novel. Stendhal- 30s and 40s of the XIX century. in French literature marked by the rise of realism. During this period, the contradictions between the ideals of bourgeois democracy and reality, the development of capitalism, were revealed with particular clarity. Impoverishment… … The World History. Encyclopedia
Red and Black (film, 1976) This term has other meanings, see Red and Black (meanings). Red and black [[File:|200px|Movie poster]] Genre drama Director Sergei Gerasimov ... Wikipedia
Red and black Le Rouge et le Noir Author: Stendhal Original language: French Original published: 1830 Translator: Sergey Bobrov, Maria Bogoslovskaya Publishing house ... Wikipedia
Introduction.
Henri Bayle (1783-1842) came to literary work through the desire to know himself: in his youth he became interested in the philosophy of the so-called "ideologists" - French philosophers who sought to clarify the concepts and laws of human thinking.
Stendhal's artistic anthropology is based on the opposition of two human types - "French" and "Italian". The French type, burdened with the vices of bourgeois civilization, is distinguished by insincerity, hypocrisy (often forced); the Italian type attracts with its "barbaric" impulsiveness, frankness of desires, romantic lawlessness. The main works of art by Stendhal depict the conflict of the protagonist of the "Italian" type with the "French" way of society that fetters him; criticizing this society from the point of view of romantic ideals, the writer at the same time shrewdly shows the spiritual contradictions of his heroes, their compromises with the external environment; Subsequently, this feature of Stendhal's work forced him to be recognized as a classic of realism of the 19th century.
In 1828, Stendhal came across a purely modern plot. The source was not literary, but real, which corresponded to the interests of Stendhal not only in its social meaning, but also in the extreme drama of events. Here was what he had been looking for for a long time: energy and passion. The historical novel was no longer needed. Now something else is needed: a true image of modernity, and not so much political and social events, but the psychology and state of mind of modern people who, regardless of their own desire, prepare and create the future.
“Young people like Antoine Bertha (one of the prototypes of the protagonist of the novel Red and Black), wrote Stendhal, “if they manage to get a good upbringing, they are forced to work and fight real need, which is why they retain the ability to strong feelings and terrifying energy. At the same time, they have an easily vulnerable ego.” And because ambition is often born from a combination of energy and pride. Once Napoleon combined the same features: a good upbringing, a fervent imagination and extreme poverty.
Main part.
The psychology of Julien Sorel (the protagonist of the novel "Red and Black") and his behavior are explained by the class to which he belongs. This is the psychology created by the French Revolution. He works, reads, develops his mental faculties, carries a gun to defend his honor. Julien Sorel shows bold courage at every step, not expecting danger, but warning it.
So, in France, where reaction prevails, there is no room for talented people from the people. They suffocate and die, as if in prison. Those who are deprived of privileges and wealth must, for self-defense and, even more so, to succeed, adapt. Julien Sorel's behavior is conditioned by the political situation. It binds into a single and inseparable whole the picture of morals, the drama of the experience, the fate of the hero of the novel.
Julien Sorel is one of the most complex characters of Stendhal, who thought about it for a long time. The son of a provincial carpenter became the key to understanding the driving forces of modern society and the prospects for its further development.
Julien Sorel is a young man from the people. Indeed, the son of a peasant who owns a sawmill must work at it, just like his father, brothers. According to his social position, Julien is a worker (but not an employee); he is a stranger in the world of the rich, educated, educated. But even in his family, this talented plebeian with a “strikingly peculiar face” is like an ugly duckling: his father and brothers hate the “puny”, useless, dreamy, impulsive, incomprehensible young man. At nineteen, he looks like a scared boy. And a huge energy lurks and bubbles in it - the power of a clear mind, proud character, unbending will, "violent sensitivity." His soul and imagination are fiery, in his eyes there is a flame. In Julien Sorel, the imagination is subdued by violent ambition. Ambition in itself is not a negative quality. The French word "ambition" means both "ambition" and "thirst for glory", "thirst for honors" and "aspiration", "aspiration"; ambition, - as La Rochefoucauld said, - does not happen with spiritual lethargy, in it - "liveness and ardor of the soul." Ambition makes a person develop his abilities and overcome difficulties. Julien Sorel is like a ship equipped for a long voyage, and the fire of ambition in other social conditions, providing scope for the creative energy of the masses, would help him overcome the most difficult voyage. But now the conditions do not favor Julien, and ambition makes him adapt to someone else's rules of the game: he sees that to achieve success, rigidly selfish behavior, pretense and hypocrisy, militant distrust of people and gaining superiority over them are necessary.
But the natural honesty, generosity, sensitivity that elevate Julien above the environment, conflict with what ambition dictates to him under the existing conditions. Julien's image is "truthful and modern". The author of the novel boldly, unusually clearly and vividly expressed the historical meaning of the topic, making his hero not a negative character, not a rogue careerist, but a gifted and rebellious plebeian, whom the social system deprived of all rights and thus forced to fight for them, regardless of anything .
But many were embarrassed by the fact that Stendhal consciously and consistently opposes Julien's outstanding talents and natural nobility to his "ill-fated" ambition. It can be seen what objective circumstances caused the crystallization of the militant individualism of a talented plebeian. We are also convinced of how disastrous for Julien's personality the path turned out to be, to which he was driven by ambition.
The hero of Pushkin's The Queen of Spades, Herman, a young ambitious man "with the profile of Napoleon and the soul of Mephistopheles", he, like Julien, "had strong passions and a fiery imagination." But the internal struggle is alien to him. He is prudent, cruel and with all his being is directed towards his goal - the conquest of wealth. He really does not take into account anything and is like a drawn blade.
Julien, perhaps, would have become the same if he himself had not constantly appeared as an obstacle in front of him - his noble, ardent, proud character, his honesty, the need to surrender to direct feelings, passions, forgetting about the need to be prudent and hypocritical. Julien's life is the story of his unsuccessful attempts to fully adapt to social conditions in which base interests triumph. The "spring" of drama in the works of Stendhal, whose heroes are young ambitious people, is entirely that these heroes are "forced to rape their rich nature in order to play the vile role that they have imposed on themselves." These words accurately characterize the drama of the internal action of "Red and Black", which is based on the mental struggle of Julien Sorel. The pathos of the novel lies in the vicissitudes of Julien's tragic combat with himself, in the contradiction between the sublime (Julien's nature) and the base (his tactics dictated by social relations).
Julien was poorly oriented in a new society for him. Everything there was unexpected and incomprehensible, and therefore, considering himself an impeccable hypocrite, he constantly made mistakes. “You are extremely careless and reckless, although it is not immediately noticeable,” Abbé Pirard told him. “And yet, to this day, you have a kind and even generous heart, and a big mind.”
“All the first steps of our hero,” Stendhal writes in his own name, “quite sure that he is acting as carefully as possible, turned out to be, like the choice of confessor, extremely reckless. Deluded by that arrogance that distinguishes men of imagination, he took his intentions for accomplished facts and considered himself an unsurpassed hypocrite. "Alas! This is my only weapon! he thought. “If it were another time, I would earn my bread by deeds that would speak for themselves in the face of the enemy.”
Education was difficult for him, because it required constant self-abasement. So it was in Renal's house, in the seminary, in Parisian secular circles. This was reflected in his attitude towards his beloved women. His contacts and ruptures with Madame de Renal and Mathilde de La Mole testify to the fact that he almost always acted as the moment prompted him, the need to show his personality and rebel against any real or apparent insult. And he understood every personal insult as a social injustice.
Julien's behavior is determined by the idea of nature, which he wanted to imitate, but in a restored monarchy, even with a Charter, this is impossible, so you have to "howl with the wolves" and act as others act. His "war" with society is hidden, and to make a career, from his point of view, means to undermine this artificial society for the sake of another, future and natural one.
Julien Sorel is a synthesis of two, as if directly opposite, directions - philosophical and political of the 19th century. On the one hand, rationalism combined with sensationalism and utilitarianism is a necessary unity, without which neither one nor the other could exist according to the laws of logic. On the other hand, the cult of feeling and Rousseau's naturalism.
He lives as if in two worlds - in the world of pure morality and in the world of rational practicality. These two worlds - nature and civilization - do not interfere with each other, because both together solve the same problem, build a new reality and find the right ways for this.
Julien Sorel strove for happiness. He set as his goal the respect and recognition of secular society, which he penetrated thanks to his diligence and talents. Climbing the ladder of ambition and vanity, he seemed to be approaching a cherished dream, but he experienced happiness only in those hours when, loving Madame de Renal, he was himself.
It was a happy meeting, full of mutual sympathy and sympathy, without rationalistic and class obstacles and partitions, a meeting of two people of nature - such as should be in a society created according to the laws of nature.
Julien's dual worldview manifested itself in relation to the mistress of the house, Renal. Madame de Renal remains for him a representative of the rich class and therefore an enemy, and all his behavior with her was caused by class enmity and a complete misunderstanding of her nature: Madame de Renal completely surrendered to her feelings, but the home teacher acted differently - he always thought about his social position.
"Now to love Madame de Renal for the proud heart of Julien has become something completely unthinkable." At night in the garden, it occurs to him to take possession of her hand - only to laugh at her husband in the dark. He dared to put his hand next to hers. And then a tremor seized him; not realizing what he was doing, he showered passionate kisses on the hand that was extended to him.
Julien himself now did not understand what he felt, and apparently forgot about the reason that made him risk these kisses. The social meaning of his relationship to a woman in love disappears, and long-beginning love comes into its own.
What is civilization? This is what interferes with the natural life of the soul. Julien's thoughts about how he should act, how others treat him, what they think about him - this is all far-fetched, caused by the class structure of society, something that contradicts human nature and the natural perception of reality. The activity of the mind here is a complete mistake, because the mind works in the void, without having a solid foundation under it, without relying on anything. The basis of rational knowledge is a direct sensation, not prepared by any traditions, coming from the depths of the soul. The mind must examine sensations in their entire mass, draw correct conclusions from them, and draw conclusions in general terms.
The history of the relationship between the plebeian conqueror and the aristocratic Matilda, who despises the spineless secular youth, is unparalleled in originality, accuracy and subtlety of the drawing, in the naturalness with which the feelings and actions of the heroes are depicted in the most unusual situations.
Julien was madly in love with Matilda, but never for a moment forgot that she was in the hated camp of his class enemies. Matilda is aware of her superiority over the environment and is ready for "madness" in order to rise above it.
For a long time, Julien can take possession of the heart of a rational and wayward girl only by breaking her pride. To do this, you need to hide your tenderness, freeze passion, prudently apply the tactics of the highly experienced dandy Korazov. Julien rapes himself: again he must not be himself. Finally, Matilda's arrogant pride is broken. She decides to challenge society and become the wife of a plebeian, confident that only he is worthy of her love. But Julien, no longer believing in the constancy of Matilda, is now forced to play a role. And pretending to be happy is impossible.
Just as in his relationship with Madame Renal, Julien was afraid of deceit and contempt on the part of a woman in love with him, and Matilda sometimes felt that he was playing a false game with her. Doubts arose often, "civilization" interfered with the natural development of feelings, and Julien feared that Matilda, along with her brother and admirers, would laugh at him as if they were a rebellious plebeian. Matilda was well aware that he did not believe her. “We just need to catch such a moment when his eyes light up,” she thought, “then he will help me lie.”
Beginning love, growing during the month, walks in the garden, Matilda's sparkling eyes and frank conversations, obviously lasted too long, and love turned into hatred. Left alone with himself, Julien dreamed of revenge. “Yes, she is beautiful,” Julien said, his eyes sparkling like a tiger, “I will take possession of her, and then I will leave. And woe to anyone who tries to detain me!” Thus, false ideas inspired by social traditions and sick pride caused painful thoughts, hatred for the beloved being and killed sound thought. “I admire her beauty, but I fear her mind,” says the epigraph to the chapter entitled “The power of a young girl,” signed with the name Merimee.
Matilda's love began because Julien became an argument in her struggle against modern society, against a false civilization. He was for her a salvation from boredom, from a mechanical salon existence, news of a psychological and philosophical plan. Then he became a model of a new culture built on a different principle - natural, personal and free, as if even a leader in search of a new life and thinking. His hypocrisy was immediately understood as hypocrisy, as a necessity in order to hide a genuine, morally more perfect, but unacceptable worldview for modern society. Matilda understood him as something kindred, and this spiritual unity aroused admiration, real, natural, natural love, which captured her entirely. This love was free. “Julien and I,” Matilda thought, as always, alone with herself, “no contracts, no notaries, anticipating the philistine rite. Everything will be heroic, everything will be left to chance.” And the case here is understood as freedom, the ability to act as required by the thought, the need of the soul, the voice of nature and truth, without violence invented by society.
She is secretly proud of her love, because she sees heroism in this: to love the son of a carpenter, to find in him something worthy of love and to neglect the opinion of the world - who could do such a thing? And she contrasted Julien with her high society admirers and tormented them with insulting comparisons.
But this is a "fight with society." Just like the well-mannered people around her, she wants to win attention, impress and, oddly enough, appeal to the opinion of the high society crowd. The originality that she seeks openly and secretly, her actions, thoughts and passions that flare up when she conquers "an exceptional being who despises all others" - all this is caused by resistance to society, the desire to take risks in order to distinguish oneself from others and rise to heights that no one else reach. And this, of course, is the dictate of society, and not a requirement of nature.
This love for oneself is connected with love for him - at first unaccountable and not very clear. Then, after a long painful analysis of the psychology of this incomprehensible and attractive personality, doubts arise - maybe this is just a pretense in order to marry a rich marquise? And, finally, as if without great reason, the confidence triumphs that it is impossible to live without him, that happiness is not in himself, but in him. This is the victory of natural feeling, pulsing in an alien, hostile society. The threat of losing everything that was planned, everything that she was proud of, made Matilda suffer and even, perhaps, truly love. She seemed to realize that her happiness lay in him. The "inclination" for Julien finally triumphed over pride, "which, since she could remember herself, had reigned supreme in her heart. This arrogant and cold soul was for the first time seized with a fiery feeling.
If Matilda's love reached insanity, then Julien became reasonable and cold. And when Matilda, in order to save him from a possible attempt on his life, said: “Farewell! Run!", Julien did not understand anything and was offended: "How inevitably it happens that even in their best moments these people always manage to hurt me with something!" He looked at her with cold eyes, and she burst into tears, which had never happened before.
Having received huge lands from the marquis, Julien became ambitious, as Stendhal says. He thought about his son, and this, obviously, also affected his new passion - ambition: this is his creation, his heir, and this will create a position for him in the world, and maybe in the state. His "victory" turned him into a different person. “My romance ended in the end, and I owe it only to myself. I managed to make this monstrous proud woman fall in love with me, ”he thought, looking at Matilda,“ her father cannot live without her, and she without me ... ”His soul reveled, he hardly responded to Matilda’s ardent tenderness. He was gloomy and silent. And Matilda began to fear him. “Something vague crept into her feeling for Julien, something like horror. This callous soul has known in her love everything that is only possible for a human being, cherished among the excesses of civilization that Paris admires.
Upon learning that they wanted to make him the illegitimate son of some high-ranking de La Verne, Julien became cold and arrogant, as he assumed that he was really the illegitimate son of a great man. He only thought about fame and his son. When he became a regimental lieutenant and hoped to be promoted to colonel soon, he became proud of something that had irritated him before. He forgot about justice, about natural duty and lost everything human. He stopped thinking about the revolution.
Conclusion.
Among the many assumptions about the meaning of the novel "Red and Black" one can find a version according to which Stendhal disguised two feelings under the secret colors, raging and possessing the spirit of Julien Sorel. Passion - a spiritual impulse, moral thirst, unbridled, unaccountable attraction, and ambition - a thirst for rank, fame, recognition, action not based on moral convictions in pursuit of a goal - these two feelings fought in Julien, and each had the right to own his soul. The author divided the hero into two parts, into two Juliens: passionate and ambitious. And both of them achieved their goals: Julien, prone to natural feelings, with an open mind, achieved the love of Madame de Renal and was happy; on another occasion, ambition and composure helped Julien win Matilda and position in the world. But Julien did not become happy from this.
Bibliography.
Reizov B.G. "Stendhal: Artistic Creation". "Fiction". L., 1978
Stendhal "Red and Black" "Is it true". M., 1959
Timasheva O.V. Stendhal. M. 1983
Fried J. "Stendhal: an essay on life and work." "Fiction". M., 1967
Esenbayeva R.M. Stendhal and Dostoevsky: typology of the novels "Red and Black" and "Crime and Punishment". Tver, 1991
The leading character traits of Julien Sorel and the main stages in the formation of his personality
The main character of Stendhal's novel "Red and Black" is Julien Sorel, who, despite his low origin, made a brilliant career in a socially closed and even caste French society, having traveled in a short time from the provincial Ver "єra to Paris, from the sawmills of the old Sorel to the guards regiment, from the social lower classes to the upper strata of society.However, having achieved almost everything that was what he dreamed about with his wild imagination, he ended this path not with a triumph, but with a guillotine.What do we know about this outstanding, controversial and tragic personality?
Stendhal wrote that young men like Julien Sorel, if they are lucky enough to get a good education, are forced to work and overcome real poverty, and therefore retain the capacity for strong feelings and amazing energy. However, this energy was not needed by the old caste society, which was occupied with its own interests: either restoring the once extremely high social status of the nobles in society (this is another meaning of the concept of the “Restoration era”), or enrichment.
From the first acquaintance, the author emphasizes the contrast between Julien's physical weakness and inner strength: “He was a fragile, short young man of eighteen or nineteen years old, with irregular, but delicate features and an aquiline nose. Big black eyes, which in moments of calm sparkled with thought and fire, now burned with fierce hatred. Dark brown hair grew so low that it almost covered his forehead, and when he became angry, his face took on an unpleasant expression ... A flexible and slender figure testified more to dexterity than to strength. From childhood, his extremely pale and thoughtful face evoked a premonition in his father that his son would not last long in this world, and if he survived, he would be a burden on the family. However, pallor and frailty, which are not associated with male strength, were only an external delusion. After all, under them were hidden passions and illusions of such strength and strength that someone would be very surprised if they could look into his soul: “Who would have thought that this young, almost girlish face, so pale and meek, concealed an unshakable determination to endure any torment, just to make his way.
Stendhal not only describes the appearance, but gives a psychological portrait of the hero, that is, shed light on his psychology, his inner world. In this portrait, signs of romanticism are still noticeable, with his beloved lonely mournful hero, "an extra person." This happens, for example, in the description of the appearance of Tatyana Larina, the heroine of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" by A. Pushkin, written approximately simultaneously with the work of Stendhal: / as if in a completely alien ”(translated by M. Rylsky). Didn't Julien feel the same way? With this feature, he also resembles the "byronichnyh" heroes or the same Pechorin. Perhaps Stendhal experienced this inertia of the romantic cultural tradition by calling himself a romantic.
The book has long been considered a symbol not only of knowledge, but also of a certain educational and social status of the one who reads it. Isn't that why even the presence of it in someone's hands extremely irritates illiterate people? At one time, the father of the Ukrainian boy Oleksu Rozum, seeing a book in his hands, began chasing him with an ax, they say, you don’t have to be too literate. Oleksa then left home and after long wanderings and wanderings finally became (and not least thanks to a good education, reading the same books) the famous Count Razumovsky, a favorite of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Stendhal in the novel "Red and Black" seemed to write off this episode of Ukrainian history "from nature". Julien's father, seeing his son with a book, knocked it out of his hands.
For the fact that Julien was too different from his physically strong and hardy brothers and was perceived by his family members as a "white crow" or for some other reason, "all the household despised him, and he hated his brothers and father." The author constantly emphasizes this: "All the beauty of the mountainous environs of Ver" єra was poisoned for Julien by the envy of the brothers and the presence of the eternally dissatisfied despot father.
When Julien became the tutor of Monsieur de Renal's children, the attitude of the brothers towards him worsened even more. Perhaps this was a manifestation of class hatred, a certain envy that he had achieved a better position in society: “Julien, repeating prayers, walked alone in the grove. Even from afar, he saw two of his brothers who were walking along the path to him; he could not avoid meeting them. The beautiful black suit, Julien's extremely neat appearance and his frank disdain for the brothers aroused such fierce hatred in them that they beat him half to death and left unconscious and bloodied.
Another catalyst for hatred for Julien was his love of reading, because the book "was for him the only teacher of life and an object of admiration, in it he found joy, inspiration, and consolation in moments of despondency." This could not be understood by his illiterate brothers and his father, who rudely called his younger son names and got angry when he saw that Julien, instead of watching the lumber mill, read: “He called Julien several times, but in vain. The boy was so deep in the book that concentration, even more than the rumble of a saw, prevented him from hearing the loud voice of his parents. Finally, in spite of his years, the old man deftly jumped up onto the sawn log, and from there onto the beam. With a strong blow, he knocked the book out of Julien's hands, and it flew into the stream; from the second crushing blow to the back of the head, Julien lost his balance. He almost fell from a height of twelve or fifteen feet into the arms of the machine, which would have crushed him, but his father caught him in the air with his left hand.
However, note that the unique memory and love of the book, reading, which so irritated his father and brothers, helped Julien make a dizzying career. Feeling that his success in life would depend on the level of education, he did the almost impossible, first by learning the Bible by heart, and not in French, but in Latin: “In addition to a fiery soul, Julien had an amazing memory, which, however, often happens at fools. In order to captivate the heart of the old abbot Shelan, on whom, as he well knew, his future depended, the young man memorized the entire New Testament ... ”And the young careerist was not mistaken, he thoroughly prepared for the exams that he had to take.
Frederic Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri Marie Bayle) substantiated the main principles and program for the formation of realism and brilliantly embodied them in his works. Largely based on the experience of the Romantics, who were deeply interested in history, realist writers saw their task in depicting the social relations of modernity, the life and customs of the Restoration and the July Monarchy.
In 1830, Stendhal finished the novel Red and Black, in which p. analyzes the thoughts and actions of a man of a critical era, his contradictory life views and aspirations with the subtlest shades. "Red and Black" is the brightest example of a socio-psychological novel in world realistic literature of the 19th century.
The plot of the novel is based on real events. A young man was sentenced to death, the son of a peasant, who decided to make a career and became a tutor in the family of a local rich man, but, caught in a love affair with the owner's wife - the mother of his pupils, lost his place. Then the young man was expelled from the theological seminary, then from the service in a Parisian aristocratic mansion, where he was compromised by the relationship with the owner's daughter, and soon tried to commit suicide. Julien Sorel is the son of a carpenter from the French province. The young hero of Stendhal, who witnessed the defeat of the French army at Waterloo, was destined to learn the harsh truth of the war and part with his illusions. Julien Sorel entered an independent life after the fall of Napoleon, during the restoration of the Bourbons. Under Napoleon, a gifted young man from the people would perhaps have made a military career, but now the only way to reach the top of society was to graduate from a theological seminary and become a priest.
At the beginning of the novel, the educator of the children of the mayor of the city of Verrieres, Mr. de Renal, Julien, was obsessed with ambitious plans, deliberately imitating the hypocritical Molière Tartuffe. Julien wants to "come out into the people", to establish himself in society, to take one of the first places in it, but on the condition that this society recognizes in him a full-fledged personality, an outstanding, talented, gifted, intelligent, strong person. He does not want to give up these qualities, to refuse them. But an agreement between Sorel and society is possible only on the condition that Julien fully submits to the mores and laws of this society. Julien is doubly a stranger in the world of Renal and La Molay: both as a person from the social lower classes, and as a highly gifted person who does not want to remain in the world of mediocrity.
After going through a series of trials, he realized that careerism could not be combined with the lofty human impulses that lived in his soul. Thrown into prison for an attempt on the life of Madame de Renal, Julien realizes that he is being judged not so much for a really committed crime, but for the fact that he dared to cross the line that separates him from high society, tried to enter the world to which he belongs. has no birthright. For this attempt, the jury must pass a death sentence on him. "You see in front of you a commoner who rebelled against his low lot ... This is my crime, gentlemen," he declares to his judges. "Gentlemen," he says, "I have no honor to belong to your class. In my face you see a peasant who rebelled against the baseness of his lot ... But even if I were guilty, it's all the same. I see before me people not inclined to heed the feeling of compassion ... and who want to punish in me and once and for all frighten a whole class of young people who were born in the lower classes .... had the good fortune to receive a good education and dare to join what the rich proudly call society.
In the image of Julien Sorel, Stendhal captured the most significant character traits of a young man of the early 19th century, who absorbed the most important features of his people, awakened to life by the Great French Revolution: unbridled courage and energy, honesty and firmness of spirit, steadfastness in moving towards the goal. But the hero always everywhere remains a man of his class, a representative of the lower, infringed class, therefore Julien is a revolutionary, and his class enemies, the aristocrats, agree with this. revolutionary Diego Bustos.
In his soul there is a constant intense struggle, the desire for a career and revolutionary ideas, cold calculation and bright romantic feelings come into conflict.
Julien, standing on the top of a cliff and watching the flight of a hawk, envies the soaring of a bird, wants to be like her, rising above the world around her. Napoleon, whose example, in the words of Stendhal, "has given rise to insane and, of course, unfortunate ambition in France," is Julien's ideal. But insane ambition - the most important feature of Julien - takes him to the camp opposite to the camp of the revolutionaries. He longs for glory and dreams of freedom for all, but the former overpowers him. Julien builds daring plans to achieve fame, relying and not doubting his own will, energy and talent.
But Julien Sorel lives in the years of the Restoration, and at this time such people are dangerous, their energy is destructive, because it is fraught with the possibility of new social upheavals and storms, and therefore Julien cannot make a worthy career in a direct and honest way. The basis of the complex nature of the hero is a contradictory combination of a revolutionary, independent and noble beginning with ambitious aspirations, leading to the path of hypocrisy, revenge and crime. According to Roger Vaillant, Julien "is forced to violate his noble nature in order to play the vile role that he has imposed on himself." The path upward of Julien Sorel is the path of losing his best human qualities and the path of comprehending the real essence of those in power.
When the hero had already reached the goal and became Viscount de Verneuil, it became clear that the game was not worth the candle. Such happiness could not satisfy the hero, because the living soul, despite the violence against it, was still preserved in Julien. The experience morally enlightens and elevates the hero, cleanses him of the vices instilled by society. Julien sees the illusory nature of his ambitious aspirations for a career, with which he recently associated ideas of happiness, and therefore, while awaiting execution, refuses the help of the powers that be, who can rescue him from prison and return him to his former life. The clash with society ends with the moral victory of the hero. Love plays a significant and decisive role in the fate of Julien Sorel. With Louise de Renal, the hero took off the mask with which he usually appeared in society, and allowed himself to be himself. The image of Matilda is Julien's ambitious ideal, in her name he is ready to make a deal with his conscience. Before Matilda, Julien appeared as an outstanding, proud, energetic person, capable of great, daring and cruel deeds.
At the trial before his death, Julien gives the last, decisive open battle to his class enemy. Tearing off the masks of hypocritical philanthropy and decency from his judges, he throws in their faces the formidable truth: his fault is not that he shot at Madame de Renal, but that he dared to be indignant at social injustice and rebel against his miserable fate.
Overcoming ambition and the victory of real feelings in Julien's soul lead him to death. Such an ending is indicative: Stendhal could not decide what awaits the hero, who realized the failure of his theory, how he should rebuild his life, overcoming delusions, but remaining in bourgeois society, and therefore Julien refuses to try to save himself. Life seems to him unnecessary, aimless, he no longer values it and prefers death on the guillotine.
