Grigory Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don": characteristics. The tragic fate and spiritual quest of Grigory Melekhov

An essay on the topic “The Image of Grigory Melekhov” briefly: characterization, life story and description of the hero in search of truth

In Sholokhov's epic novel " Quiet Don» Grigory Melekhov takes center stage. He is the most complex Sholokhov hero. This is a seeker of truth. Such cruel tests fell on his lot, which a person, it would seem, is not able to endure. life path Grigory Melekhov is difficult and tortuous: at first there was the First World War, then civil, and, finally, an attempt to destroy the Cossacks, the uprising and its suppression.

The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of a man who has broken away from the people, who has become a renegade. His detachment becomes tragic, because he is a confused person. He went against himself, against millions of workers just like himself.

From his grandfather Prokofy Gregory, he inherited a quick-tempered and independent character, as well as the ability for tender love. The blood of the "Turkish" grandmother appeared in his appearance, in love, on the battlefields and in the ranks. And from his father he inherited a strong temper, and it was precisely because of this that adherence to principles and rebelliousness haunted Grigory from his youth. He fell in love with a married woman Aksinya (this is a turning point in his life) and soon decides to leave with her, despite all the prohibitions of his father and the condemnation of society. The origins of Melekhov's tragedy lie in his rebellious character. This is the predetermination of a tragic fate.

Gregory is a kind, brave and courageous hero who always tries to fight for truth and justice. But the war comes, and it destroys all his ideas about the truth and justice of life. The war appears to the writer and his heroes as a series of losses and terrible deaths: it cripples people from the inside and destroys everything dear and dear. It forces all the heroes to take a fresh look at the problems of duty and justice, to seek the truth and not find it in any of their warring camps. Once at the Reds, Grigory sees the same cruelty and thirst for blood as the Whites. He can not understand why all this? After all, war destroys the well-established life of families, peaceful work, it takes away the last things from people and kills love. Grigory and Pyotr Melekhov, Stepan Astakhov, Koshevoy and other heroes of Sholokhov are unable to understand why this fratricidal massacre is taking place? For whom and for what should people die when they still have a long life ahead of them?

The fate of Grigory Melekhov is a life incinerated by war. The personal relationships of the characters unfold against the background tragic history countries. Gregory will never again be able to forget how he killed the first enemy, an Austrian soldier. He hacked him to death with a saber, it's terrible for him. The moment of murder unrecognizably changed him. The hero has lost his foothold, his kind and fair soul protests, cannot survive such violence against common sense. But war is coming, Melekhov understands that he must continue to kill. Soon his mind changes: he realizes that war kills the best people of his time, that among thousands of deaths one cannot find the truth, Gregory throws down his weapon and returns to his native farm to work on his native land and raise children. At almost 30 years old, the hero is already almost an old man. The path of Melekhov's searches turned out to be an impassable thicket. Sholokhov in his work raises the question of the responsibility of history to the individual. The author sympathizes with his hero Grigory Melekhov, whose life is already broken at such a young age.

As a result of his search, Melekhov is left alone: ​​Aksinya is killed by his recklessness, he is hopelessly far from children, if only because he will bring trouble on them with his closeness. Trying to remain true to himself, he cheats on everyone: the warring parties, women, and ideas. So he was looking in the wrong place in the first place. Thinking only about himself, about his "truth", he did not like and did not serve. At an hour when a weighty man's word was required of him, Gregory could only provide doubts and self-examination. But the war did not need philosophers, and women did not need the love of wisdom. Thus, Melekhov is the result of a transformation of the type " extra person» in the conditions of the most severe historical conflict.

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Grigory Melekhov is one of the central figures in the novel by M.A. Sholokhov "Quiet Don".

Melekhov is a typical Don Cossack peasant of the early 20th century. Its main feature is a deep love for the house and for the work of the farmer. He is also familiar with the concept of military honor: Grigory is a skilled and courageous warrior who earned the rank of officer during the First World War. His image contains the best features of the national Russian character: straightforwardness, openness, lack of class arrogance, deep inner morality and cold calculation.

This is a noble, impulsive nature, with a heightened sense of honor.

Grigory Melekhov - is neither positive nor villain, his image is the concentration of the peasant problem, in which the contradictions characteristic of it between the owner and the working man are clearly visible.

Grigory is a native Don Cossack, a grain grower, an ardent patriot of his land, he has no desire for conquest and power, he is a “middle peasant”. This hero does not accept the concept of discipline, the only exception is the discipline that exists in the Cossack military unit where he serves. Being a full Cavalier of St. George in the First World War, he rushes about during the civil war, cannot decide between the fighting parties, until, finally, he comes to the conclusion that the working people are "confused" by "learned people".

He's lost everything, but he can't leave native land and goes to his dear father's house where he finds hope that his life will continue in his son.

Melekhov - type noble hero, which combines military prowess and spiritual subtlety, the ability to deep feelings.

Relations with the beloved woman Aksinya end tragically due to the fact that they cannot be accepted in his environment due to violations of moral principles. As a result, Gregory becomes an outcast. This tragedy is further aggravated by the fact that the hero occupies a low social position, as well as by the influence of the ongoing socio-political upheavals.

In the image of Grigory Melekhov, the features of a man from the people are generalized, acquiring, at the same time, a bright individuality.

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Updated: 2012-12-13

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At the beginning of the novel The Quiet Flows the Don, Grigory is a cheerful, lively, mischievous guy:

"A youthfully round and thin neck, a carefree warehouse of constantly smiling lips"

In the veins of Gregory flows the blood of a Turkish grandmother, whom his grandfather married contrary to the opinion of all the villagers. He also inherited the tough temper of his grandfather and father:

“Gregory walked, holding on to the front chair on which his brother was sitting; frowned. From the lower jaw, obliquely to the cheekbones, trembling, the nodules rolled. Petro knew that this was a sure sign that Grigory was seething and ready for any reckless act.

Human feelings are not subject to social rules. A deafening passion for a married neighbor Aksinya covers the guy with his head:

So extraordinary and obvious was their crazy connection, so frenziedly they burned with one shameless fire, people not ashamed and not hiding, losing weight and blackening their faces in front of their neighbors, that now people were ashamed to look at them when they met for some reason.

Grigory's comrades, who had earlier teased him about his connection with Aksinya, were now silent, converging, and felt awkward and connected in Grigory's company. The women, jealous in their souls, judged Aksinya, gloated in anticipation of Stepan's arrival, languished, consumed by curiosity. At the denouement, their assumptions wove.

“If Grigory went to the zhalmerka Aksinya, pretending to be hiding from people, if the zhalmerka Aksinya lived with Grigory, observing this in relative secrecy, and at the same time would not shy away from others, then this would not be unusual, whipping in the eyes"

At some point, Grigory stops communication, fulfills the will of his father and marries a young girl, Natalya. However, the marriage does not turn out to be happy, the son blames his father for this and again shows his rebellious character, takes Aksinya and leaves his father's farm:

“Grigory pulled by the sleeve the sheepskin coat thrown on the bed, flaring his nostrils, trembling in the same seething anger as his father. One, flavored with Turkish admixture, blood flowed into them, and they were miraculously similar at that moment.

Agile and brave, a born warrior, Gregory gets to the front of the First World War, where he manages to distinguish himself and show his young prowess. Still, because the Cossacks were brought up by real fighters, in the spirit of serving the king. However, it soon becomes clear that war, murders change a person, and not in better side:

“Grigory firmly cherished the Cossack honor, seized the opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, went wild, went disguised to the rear of the Austrians, removed the outposts without blood, jigitirovat the Cossack and felt that the pain over the person that crushed him in the first days of the war had gone forever. His heart hardened, hardened, like a salt marsh in a drought, and just as a salt marsh does not absorb water, so Gregory's heart did not absorb pity. With cold contempt he played with someone else's life and with his own; that's why he was known as brave - he served four St. George's crosses and four medals. At rare parades he stood at the regimental banner, fanned by the powder smoke of many wars; but he knew that he would no longer laugh at him, as before; he knew that his eyes were hollow and his cheekbones were sharp; he knew that it was difficult for him, kissing a child, to openly look into clear eyes; Gregory knew what price he had paid for the full bow of crosses and production.

Relations with Aksinya deteriorate:

“I felt cold in the letters…” Returning home, where his little daughter died during his absence, Grigory learns that Aksinya is the mistress of the pan's son. Hitting her with a whip in anger, he returns to his wife, but long years remembering a lost loved one:

“Lying here on the hill, for some reason he remembered that night when he was walking from the Nizhne-Yablonovsky farm to Yagodnoye to Aksinya; with a cutting pain he remembered her too. Memory fashioned vague, time-worn, infinitely dear and alien lines of the face. With a sudden beating heart, he tried to restore it to the way he had seen it in last time, contorted in pain, with a crimson trace of a whip on his cheek, but the memory stubbornly slipped another face, slightly tilted to one side, smiling triumphantly. Here she turns her head, mischievously and lovingly, from below she dazzles with a look of fiery black eyes, something indescribably affectionate, hot whispering viciously greedy red lips, and slowly looks away, turns away, on her swarthy neck there are two large fluffy curls. .. he once loved to kiss them so much ... "

A civil war begins, Grigory takes the side of the Reds, but after the brutal senseless execution of prisoners, he goes over to the side of the White Cossacks, and he is different there:

“It began to seem that the truth no longer exists in the world, and, embittered to the extreme, he thought: everyone has his own truth, his own furrow. For a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life, people have always fought .... We must fight with those who want to take away life, the right to it, we must fight hard, not swaying - like in a wall - and the heat of hatred, firmness will give the fight ... "

Grigory, without leaving his wife, converges with Aksinya too:

"Love! Unforgettable!

Over time, Grigory Melekhov becomes embittered, cruel. The father is angry with him:

"Hero, white officer, true eagle, division commander, honored, all on bumps, and not a single one can be touched.

Gregory himself understands this and says to his wife:

"Ha! Conscience! I forgot about her! What conscience is there when all life has been stolen! You kill people... It is not known why all this porridge... I was so smeared with someone else's blood that I no longer felt sorry for anyone. Childhood - and I almost do not regret this one, but I don’t even think about myself. The war took everything out of me. I became terrible myself. Look into my soul, and there is blackness, as in an empty well ... "

Soon, seeing the death of friends and relatives, Grigory begins to lose interest in the war. He, like other officers, drinks, seeing the stupidity and senselessness of the killings. He is drawn to peaceful work:

“when he imagined how he would prepare harrows, carts for spring, weave a manger out of the red, and when the earth undresses and dries, he will leave for the steppe: holding on to the chapigi with his hands bored with work; will follow the plow, feeling its living beating and jolts; imagining how he would inhale the sweet spirit of young grass and the black soil raised by plowshares, which had not yet lost the insipid aroma of snow dampness, it warmed his soul. I wanted to clean up cattle, throw hay, breathe in the withered smell of sweet clover, wheatgrass, and the spicy smell of manure. I wanted peace and silence - that's why Grigory kept the shy joy in his stern eyes, looking around: at the horses, at his father's steep, sheepskin-covered back. Broke and his fatigue, acquired in the war. I wanted to turn away from everything seething with hatred, hostile and incomprehensible world. There, behind, everything was confused, contradictory. It was difficult to find the right path; like in a swampy gati, the soil clogged up underfoot, the path was crushed, and there was no certainty whether it was going along the right one ... "

This rich image embodied the dashing thoughtless youth of the Cossacks and the wisdom of a life lived, full of suffering and troubles of a terrible time of change.

The image of Grigory Melekhov

Grigory Melekhov by Sholokhov can be safely called the last free man. Free by any human standards.

Sholokhov deliberately did not make Melekhov a Bolshevik, despite the fact that the novel was written in an era when the very idea of ​​the immorality of Bolshevism was blasphemous.

And, nevertheless, the reader sympathizes with Grigory even at the moment when he flees on a cart with a mortally wounded Aksinya from the Red Army. The reader wishes Gregory salvation, not victory for the Bolsheviks.

Gregory is honest, hardworking, fearless, trusting and selfless person, Rebel. His rebelliousness manifests itself even in early youth, when, with gloomy determination, for the sake of love for Aksinya - married woman- goes to break with his family.

He has the determination not to be afraid public opinion, nor the condemnation of the farmers. He does not tolerate ridicule and condescension from the Cossacks. Read to mother and father. He is confident in his feelings, his actions are guided only by love, which seems to Gregory, in spite of everything, the only value in life, and therefore justifies his decisions.

You need to have great courage to live contrary to the opinion of the majority, to live with your head and heart, not to be afraid to remain rejected by the family and society. Only capable of such a real man, just a real fighter. The anger of the father, the contempt of the farmers - Grigory is uneasy. With the same courage, he jumps over the wattle fence to protect his beloved Aksinya from her husband's cast-iron fists.

Melekhov and Aksinya

In relations with Aksinya, Grigory Melekhov is becoming a man. From dashing young guy, with hot Cossack blood, he turns into a faithful and loving male protector.

At the very beginning of the novel, when Grigory is only seeking Aksinya, one gets the impression that further fate this woman, whose reputation he ruined with his youthful passion, he does not care at all. He even talks about it to his beloved. “The bitch doesn’t want to - the male won’t jump up,” Grigory says to Aksinya and immediately turns purple at the thought that scalded him like boiling water when he saw tears in the woman’s eyes: “I hit the lying one.”

What Grigory himself at first perceived as ordinary lust turned out to be love that he will carry through his whole life, and this woman will not be his mistress, but will become an unofficial wife. For the sake of Aksinya, Grigory will leave his father, mother, and young wife Natalya. For the sake of Aksinya, he will go to work instead of getting rich on his own farm. Will give preference to someone else's house instead of his own.

Undoubtedly, this madness deserves respect, as it speaks of the incredible honesty of this person. Gregory is incapable of living a lie. He cannot pretend and live as others tell him to. He does not lie to his wife either. He does not lie when he seeks the truth from the "whites" and the "reds". He lives. Gregory lives his own life, he himself weaves the thread of his fate and he does not know how to do it differently.

Melekhov and Natalia

Grigory's relationship with his wife Natalya is saturated with tragedy, like his whole life. He married the one he did not love, and did not hope to love. The tragedy of their relationship is that Grigory could not lie to his wife either. With Natalia, he is cold, he is indifferent. writes that Gregory caressed his young wife as a matter of duty, tried to inflame her with young love zeal, but from her side he met only humility.

And then Grigory remembered Aksinya's frenzied pupils darkened with love, and he understood that he could not live with the icy Natalya. He can't. Yes, I do not love you, Natalya! - Gregory will somehow say something in his hearts and he will immediately understand - no, he really does not love. Subsequently, Gregory will learn to feel sorry for his wife. Especially after her suicide attempt, but she won't be able to love for the rest of her life.

Melekhov and the Civil War

Grigory Melekhov is a truth seeker. That is why in the novel Sholokhov portrayed him as a rushing man. He is honest, and therefore has the right to demand honesty from others. The Bolsheviks promised equality, that there would be no more poor or rich. However, nothing has changed in life. The platoon leader, as before, is in chrome boots, but the Vanyok is still in windings.

Gregory first gets to the whites, then to the reds. But one gets the impression that individualism is alien to both Sholokhov and his hero. The novel was written in an era when being a "renegade" and being on the side of a Cossack business executive was mortally dangerous. Therefore, Sholokhov describes Melekhov's throwing during civil war like the throwing of a lost man.

Gregory does not cause condemnation, but compassion and sympathy. In the novel, Gregory acquires a semblance of peace of mind and moral stability only after a short stay with the "Reds". Sholokhov could not have written otherwise.

The fate of Grigory Melekhov

During the 10 years during which the action of the novel develops, the fate of Grigory Melekhov is full of tragedies. Living in times of war and political change is a test in itself. And to remain human in these times is sometimes an impossible task. It can be said that Grigory, having lost Aksinya, having lost his wife, brother, relatives and friends, managed to preserve his humanity, remained himself, did not change his inherent honesty.

Actors who played Melekhov in the films "Quiet Flows the Don"

In the film adaptation of the novel by Sergei Gerasimov (1957), Pyotr Glebov was approved for the role of Grigory. In the film by Sergei Bondarchuk (1990-91), the role of Grigory went to British actor Rupert Everett. In the new series, based on the book by Sergei Ursulyak, Grigory Melekhov was played by Yevgeny Tkachuk.

In the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" M. A. Sholokhov poetizes folk life, gives a deep analysis of her way of life, the origins of her crisis, which largely affected the fate of the heroes of the novel. The author emphasizes the decisive role of the people in history. According to Sholokhov, it is the people - driving force stories. One of his representatives in the novel is Grigory Melekhov. Undoubtedly, he main character novel.

Gregory is a simple and illiterate Cossack, but his character is complex and multifaceted. The author gives him best features inherent in the people.

At the very beginning of the novel, Sholokhov describes the history of the Melekhov family. The Cossack Prokofy Melekhov returns from the Turkish campaign, brings with him his wife, a Turkish woman. With this begins the "new" history of the Melekh family. Already in it the character of Gregory is laid. It is no coincidence that Grigory is outwardly similar to men of his kind: “... he struck his father: you are half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same drooping kite nose as Bati’s, in slightly slanting cuts blue tonsils of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones covered with brown ruddy skin. Grigory stooped in the same way as his father, even in a smile both had something in common, animalistic. It is he, and not the elder brother Peter, who is the successor of the Melekhov family.

From the very first pages, Gregory is depicted in everyday peasant life. He, like everyone else on the farm, goes fishing, leads horses to water, falls in love, goes to games, participates in scenes of peasant labor. The character of the hero is clearly revealed in the episode of the meadow mowing. Gregory discovers love for all living things, a keen sense of someone else's pain, the ability to compassion. He is painfully sorry for the duckling accidentally cut with a scythe, he looks at him "with a sudden feeling of acute pity."

Gregory feels nature very well, he is vitally connected with it. “Good, oh, good! ..” he thinks, deftly handling the scythe.

Gregory is a man strong passions, decisive deeds and actions. Numerous scenes with Aksinya speak eloquently about this. Despite his father's slander, during haymaking, at midnight, he still goes in the direction where Aksinya is. Cruelly punished by Panteley Prokofievich and not afraid of his threats, he still goes to Aksinya from the night and returns only at dawn. In Gregory, already here a desire is manifested in everything to reach the end, not to stop halfway through. Marrying an unloved woman could not make him give up himself, from a natural, sincere feeling. He only slightly reassured his father, who sternly proclaimed to him: “Do not mischief with your neighbor! Do not fear your father! Don't drag around, doggie! ”, But no more than that. Gregory loves passionately and does not tolerate ridicule. Even Peter does not forgive the joke on his feelings and grabs the pitchfork. "You are an idiot! Damn crazy! Here, the ardent Circassian has degenerated into a batin breed! exclaims Peter, frightened to death.

Gregory is always honest and sincere. “I don’t love you, Natashka, don’t be angry,” he frankly says to his wife.

At first, Grigory protests against fleeing from the farm with Aksinya, but innate stubbornness and the impossibility of submission still forced him to leave the household, go with his beloved to Listnitsky's estate. Gregory is hired as a groom. But such a life is in isolation from native nest not by him. “Easy well-fed life spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, looked older than his years,” says the author.

Gregory contains a huge inner strength. A vivid evidence of this is the episode of the beating of Listnitsky Jr. by him. Despite the position of Listnitsky, Grigory does not intend to forgive him insults: “Having intercepted the whip, he beat the whip in the face, on the hands, not allowing the centurion to come to his senses.” Melehov is not afraid of punishment for his deed. He treats Aksinya sternly too: when he left, he never looked back. Gregory has a deep sense of self-worth. It is his strength, and she is able to influence other people, regardless of their rank and position. In a duel with a sergeant-major at a watering place, Gregory undoubtedly wins, not allowing the senior in rank to hit himself.

The hero is ready to stand up not only for his own, but also for someone else's dignity. He was the only one of all who stood up for Franya, who was abused by the Cossacks. Being powerless against evil, he "for the first time in a long period of time almost cried."

The First World War picked up the fate of Gregory and twisted it in a whirlwind of turbulent historical events. Grigory, like a true Cossack, gives himself over to the battle. He is determined and bold. Easily captures three Germans, deftly beats off the battery from the enemy, saves the officer. Evidence of his courage George crosses and medals, officer rank.

Melekhov is generous. In battle, he extends a helping hand to his rival Stepan Astakhov, who dreams of killing him. Gregory is shown as a courageous, skillful warrior. But still, killing a person deeply contradicts his humane nature, his life values: “Well, well, I cut down a person in vain and I’m sick through him, a bastard, with my soul,” he says to brother Peter, “... I’m tired of my soul .. It was as if I had been under millstones, they crushed me and spit me out.

Gregory quickly begins to experience incredible fatigue and disappointment. At first, he fights fearlessly and without thinking that sheds his own and other people's blood. But war and life confront Melekhov with many people who have fundamentally different views on the world, on what is happening in it. Communication with them makes the hero think about the war and the life he lives.

Chubaty bears the truth "Cut the man boldly." He easily talks about human death, about the possibility and right to deprive a person of life. Grigory listens attentively to him and understands: such an inhuman position is unacceptable for him, alien.

Garanja sowed the seeds of doubt in Melekhov's soul. He suddenly doubted the previously unshakable values, such as the king and the Cossack military duty. “The tsar is a drunkard, the queen is a whore, the lord's pennies from the war are an increase, and on our necks ..” Garanzha cynically declares. He makes Gregory think about many things. These doubts laid the foundation for Gregory's tragic path to the truth. The hero makes desperate attempts to find the truth and the meaning of life.

The character of Grigory Melekhov is a truly amazing character, truly a folk character.