Preobrazhensky - a professor from the novel "Heart of a Dog": character quotes, image and characteristics of the hero

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Beginning my discussion about Professor Preobrazhensky, the hero of the work "Heart of a Dog", I would like to dwell a little on some facts of the biography of the author - Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich (1891-15-05, Kyiv - 1940-10-03, Moscow), Russian writer, theater playwright and director. All this in order to draw some parallels that will largely unite the author and his imaginary hero.

A little about the author's biography

Bulgakov was born into the family of an associate professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy, but he himself soon became a student of the medical faculty of Kyiv University. In World War I, he worked as a front-line doctor. In the spring of 1918 he returned to Kyiv, where he practiced as a private venereologist. During the civil war of 1919, Bulgakov was a military doctor of the Ukrainian military army, then of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, the Red Cross, the Volunteer Army, etc. Having fallen ill with typhus in 1920, he was treated in Vladikavkaz, and after that he woke up writing talent. To hishe will write to his cousin that, at last, he understood: his job is to write.

Prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky

You can really compare Bulgakov with the prototype of the main character, they have too much in common. However, it is generally accepted that Preobrazhensky (professor) as an image was written off from his uncle Mikhail Afanasyevich, the famous Moscow doctor, gynecologist N. M. Pokrovsky.

In 1926, the OGPU searched the writer's house, and as a result, the manuscripts of The Heart of a Dog and the diary were seized.

This story was dangerous for the writer because it became a satire on the Soviet regime of the 20-30s. The newly minted class of the proletariat is represented here by heroes like the Shvonders and Sharikovs, who are absolutely far from the values of destroyed tsarist Russia.

They are all opposed by Professor Preobrazhensky, whose quotes deserve special attention. This surgeon and scientist, who is the luminary of Russian science, appears for the first time at the moment when in the story the dog, the future Sharikov, dies in the city gateway - hungry and cold, with a burned side. The professor appears at the most painful hours for a dog. The dog's thoughts "voice" Preobrazhensky as a gentleman of culture, with an intelligent beard and mustache, like the French knights.

Experiment

Professor Preobrazhensky's main business is to treat people, look for new ways to achieve longevity and effective means of rejuvenation. Of course, like everyonea scientist, he could not live without experiments. He picks up the dog, and at the same time a plan is born in the doctor's head: he decides to perform a pituitary transplant operation. He does this experiment on a dog in the hope of finding an effective method for gaining a “second youth”. However, the consequences of the operation were unexpected.

For several weeks, the dog, which was given the nickname Sharik, becomes a man and receives documents for the surname Sharikov. Professor Preobrazhensky and his assistant Bormenthal are trying to instill in him worthy and noble human manners. However, their "education" does not bring any visible results.

Transformation into a human

Preobrazhensky expresses his opinion to assistant Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental: it is necessary to understand the whole horror, consisting in the fact that Sharikov no longer has a dog's heart, but a human one, moreover, "the lousiest of all that exists in nature."

Bulgakov created a parody of the socialist revolution, described the clash of two classes, in which Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky is a professor and an intellectual, and the working class is Sharikov and his ilk.

The professor advises Bormental not to read Soviet newspapers before breakfast, and if there are no others, then it's not worth reading at all. And he openly admits: “Yes, I don’t like the proletariat.”

The professor, like a real nobleman, accustomed to luxury, living in a 7-room apartment and every day eating different delicacies such as salmon, eels, turkey, roast beef, and washing it all down with cognac, vodka and wine, suddenly hit into an unexpected situation. In histhe unbridled and impudent Sharikovs and Shvonders burst into a calm and proportionate aristocratic life.

Domkom

Shvonder is a separate instance of the proletarian class, he and his company make up the house committee in the house where Preobrazhensky, an experimental professor, lives. They, however, seriously undertook to fight with him. But that one is also not so simple, Professor Preobrazhensky’s monologue about the devastation in the minds says that he simply hates the proletariat and its interests, and as long as he has the opportunity to devote himself to his favorite business (science), he will be indifferent to petty swindlers and swindlers like Shvonder.

But with his household Sharikov, he enters into a serious struggle. If Shvonder presses purely outwardly, then you can’t just disown Sharikov, because it is he who is the product of his scientific activity and the product of an unsuccessful experiment. Sharikov brings such confusion and devastation to his house that in two weeks the professor experienced more stress than in all his years.

Image

However, the image of Professor Preobrazhensky is very curious. No, he is by no means the embodiment of virtue. He, like any person, has his shortcomings, he is a rather selfish, narcissistic, conceited, but lively and real person. Preobrazhensky became the image of a real intellectual, fighting alone against the devastation that the generation of Sharikovs brings. Isn't this fact worthy of sympathy, respect andsympathy?

Revolution Time

The story "Heart of a Dog" shows the reality of the 20s of the twentieth century. Dirty streets are described, where signs are hung everywhere with promises of a brighter future for people. An even more depressing mood is caused by bad, cold, inclement weather and the homeless image of a dog that, like most Soviet people in a new country under construction, literally survives and is in constant search of warmth and food.

It is in this chaos that one of the few intellectuals who survived during a dangerous and difficult time, Preobrazhensky, a professor-aristocrat, appears. Sharikov's character, still in his dog body, assessed him in his own way: that he "eats plentifully and does not steal, will not kick, and is not afraid of anyone, because he is always full."

Two sides

The image of Preobrazhensky is like a ray of light, like an island of stability, satiety and prosperity in the terrible reality of the post-war years. He is actually pleasant. But many do not like a person who, in general, everything is going well, but for whom it is not enough to have seven rooms - he wants another, eighth, to make a library in it.

However, the house committee began an intense fight against the professor and wished to take away his apartment from him. In the end, after all, the proletarians did not manage to harm the professor, and therefore this fact could not but please the reader.

But this is only one side of the medal of Preobrazhensky's life, and if you delve deeper into the essence of the matter, you can see a not very attractive picture. The well-being that Bulgakov's main character, ProfessorPreobrazhensky, it must be said, also did not suddenly fall on his head and was not inherited from we althy relatives. He made his own we alth. And now he serves people who have received power in their hands, because now is their time to enjoy all the benefits.

Parasite

Very interesting things are voiced by one of Preobrazhensky's clients: "No matter how much I steal, everything goes to the female body, Abrau-Durso champagne and cancer necks." But the professor, despite all his high morality, intelligence and sensitivity, does not try to reason with his patient, re-educate or express displeasure. He understands that he needs money to maintain his usual way of life without need: with all the necessary servants in the house, with a table filled with all sorts of dishes like non-Mosselprom sausage or caviar spread on crispy fresh bread.

If you follow the logical path, then Preobrazhensky receives the money stolen by officials and tries to provide them with a long youth. It turns out that Preobrazhensky parasitizes on the theft of the new authorities. Sharikova's thoughts are also interesting: "The apartment is obscene, but how good it is in it!"

Dog Truth

In the work, Professor Preobrazhensky uses a dog's heart for his experiment. Not because of his love for animals, he picks up an exhausted dog to feed or warm, but because he seems to have a brilliant, but monstrous plan for him in his head. And then this operation is described in detail in the book, which causes only unpleasant emotions. As a result of the rejuvenation operation, the professor has a “newborn” person in his hands. That is why it is not in vain that Bulgakov gives a speaking surname and status to his hero - Preobrazhensky, a professor who implants the cerebellum of the recidivist thief Klimka in a dog that has fallen into his hands. It paid off, the professor did not expect such side effects.

Professor Preobrazhensky's phrases contain thoughts about education, which, in his opinion, could make Sharikov a more or less acceptable member of social society. But Sharikov was not given a chance. Preobrazhensky had no children, and he did not master the basics of pedagogy. Perhaps that is why his experiment did not go in the right direction.

And few people pay attention to Sharikov's words that he, like a poor animal, was seized, slashed and now they disdain, and he, by the way, did not give his permission for the operation and can sue. And, most interestingly, no one notices the truth behind his words.

Teacher and educator

Preobrazhensky became the first language teacher for Sharikov, although he understood that teaching to speak does not at all mean becoming a full-fledged person. He wanted to make a highly developed personality out of the beast. After all, the professor himself in the book is a standard of education and high culture and a supporter of the old, pre-revolutionary mores. He very clearly defined his position, speaking about the ensuing devastation and the inability of the proletariat to cope with it. The professor believes that people should first of all be taught the most elementary culture, he is surethat, using brute force, nothing in the world is impossible to achieve. He realizes that he created a creature with a dead soul, and finds the only way out: to do the reverse operation, since his educational methods did not work on Sharikov, because he noted in a conversation with the maid Zina: “You can’t fight anyone … You can act on a person and an animal only by suggestion.

But the skills of demagogy, as it turned out, are learned much easier and faster than the skills of creative activity. And Shvonder succeeds in educating Sharikov. He does not teach him grammar and mathematics, but begins immediately with the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, as a result of which Sharikov, with his low stage of development, despite the complexity of the topic, from which his “head is swollen”, came to the conclusion: “Take everything and share! This idea of social justice was best understood by the people's authorities and the newly minted citizen Sharikov.

Professor Preobrazhensky: "Devastation in the minds"

It should be noted that "Heart of a Dog" from all sides shows all the absurdity and madness of the new structure of society that arose after 1917. Professor Preobrazhensky understood this well. The character's quotes about devastation in their heads are unique. He says that if the doctor, instead of performing operations, starts to sing in chorus, he will be devastated. If he begins to urinate past the toilet, and all his servants do this, then devastation will begin in the restroom. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads.

Famous quotesProfessor Preobrazhensky

In general, the book "Heart of a Dog" is a real quote book. The main and vivid expressions of the professor were described in the text above, but there are a few more that also deserve the attention of the reader and will be interesting for different thoughts.

- “The one who is in no hurry anywhere succeeds everywhere.”

- “Why was the carpet removed from the front stairs? What, does Karl Marx forbid carpets on the stairs?”

- “Humanity itself takes care of this and in the evolutionary order every year stubbornly creates dozens of outstanding geniuses from the mass of all filth, decorating the globe.”

- "What is this devastation of yours? The old woman with the stick? The witch who broke all the windows, put out all the lamps?"