Aphorisms and quotes of Belinsky Vissarion Grigorievich

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

In this article we will get acquainted with the activities of the Russian literary-critical author Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky. His appearance in the world of Russian literary journalism was marked by the beginning of a new era in this field. Belinsky's works had a huge impact on the further development of literary criticism and became a platform for its full development. Writers and philosophers of our time talk about him with admiration. We can also discover something new for ourselves by looking a little into the creative world of this talented critic.

Furious Vissarion

Belinsky Vissarion Grigoryevich is, without exaggeration, a famous and well-known literary critic, philosopher and writer of the 19th century. He was the first to bring the work of a critic to a new level, moving away from the inveterate rules and frameworks. Belinsky began not only to evaluate the literary work, pointing out certain errors, but also began to express his thoughts in writing in the form of an article or note. He put his soul and passion into writing his critical writings. Reading Belinsky's articles, one feels this, because they are saturated with his pulsatingenergy. It was for his purposefulness, adherence to principles, independence, ideology, love for the work in which he was engaged that he was called "Furious Vissarion".

Short biography

Vissarion Belinsky was born on June 1, 1811 in the Finnish city of Sveaborg, in the family of a naval doctor. He spent his childhood in the city of Chembara, Penza province, where his father transferred to work as a county doctor. Childhood was not easy, Vissarion had many unpleasant memories associated with both his father and mother. Somewhere Belinsky probably loved his parents, but he practically did not respect and was even ashamed. After all, they did not pay the necessary attention to their only child at all. The mother did little to raise her son, leaving this occupation to the nannies, and the father was a tyrant, humiliated him, insulted him, often beat him. This left a heavy imprint on Vissarion.

My mother was a gossip hunter; I, an infant, stayed with a nurse, a hired girl; so that I would not disturb her with my cry, she would choke me and beat me. However, I was not nursing: I was born sick at death, I didn’t take my breast and didn’t know it … I sucked a horn, and then, if the milk was sour and rotten, I couldn’t take fresh … My father could not stand me, scolded, humiliated, found fault, beat mercilessly and scolded the areal - eternal memory to him. I was a stranger in the family.

But, despite the difficult life situation, Belinsky began to study literacy and writing at the county school of his city, from which he transferred to the provincial gymnasium. Because she is notfully satisfied him, he dropped out of school, half a year before completing his studies. In 1829, Vissarion entered the philological faculty of Moscow University. There, his status as the creator of Russian literary critical thought begins to take shape. But three years later he was expelled for being too harsh in his criticism of serfdom. Somewhere around this time, he begins writing his first literary criticism.

In 1843, Vissarion Belinsky married Maria Orlova, whom he had known for many years. In marriage, their daughter Olga was born in 1845 (two more of their children died before they reached the age of one). In the same year, Belinsky suffers a serious illness that made itself felt until the end of his life. Even treatment abroad did not bring positive results. As a result, living out the last days of his life in St. Petersburg, on June 7, 1848, Belinsky died from an exacerbated illness.

Quotes from articles by Belinsky

Let's go directly to our main topic. Consider Belinsky's most famous quotes. After all, even if you do not belong to the category of people who are closely connected with philosophy or literary criticism, all the same, reading his articles, you can at least a little, but catch and feel the essence of his deep thoughts.

Finding one's own way, finding one's place - that's all for a person, it means for him to become himself.

In important matters of life, one should always hurry as if everything had to be lost from the loss of one minuteperish.

All love is true and beautiful in its own way, as long as it is in the heart and not in the head.

Patriotism, no matter who it is, is proved not by word, but by deed.

Literary and critical articles by Belinsky

Belinsky's literary-critical activity is divided into three stages. The first stage began in 1834, when he worked for the publication "Telescope" with the writing of the article "Literary Dreams. Elegy in prose. At that time, he spoke with the conviction that literature, in the sense in which Belinsky understood it, did not exist in Russia. It is from this statement that his success in the literary-critical field begins.

Quotes from Belinsky's literary critical articles:

We do not have literature, I repeat this with delight, with pleasure, because in this truth I see the guarantee of our future success… Take a good look at the course of our society, and you will agree that I am right. See how the new generation, disillusioned with the genius and immortality of our literary works, instead of giving out immature creations, greedily indulges in the study of the sciences and draws the living water of enlightenment from the very source. The age of childishness is passing, apparently - and God forbid that it pass sooner. But even more, God grant that everyone will soon lose faith in our literary we alth. Noble poverty is better than dreamy we alth! The time will come - enlightenment will overflow in Russia in a wide stream, the mental physiognomy of the people will become clear - and then ourartists and writers will imprint the Russian spirit on all their works. But now we need learning! learning! learning!…

Elegance of form justifies the fidelity of the idea, and the fidelity of the idea contributes to the elegance of the form.

If humanity has achieved much so far, it means that it must achieve even more in the near future. It has already begun to understand that it is humanity: soon it will really want to become humanity.

The second stage was the spiritual crisis that the critic experienced in the late 30s. In many ways, this was influenced by the philosophy of Hegel, which the critic was thoroughly carried away by and fully shared its idea. It was through her perception that he embarked on the path of "reconciliation with reality", which he had previously rejected in every possible way.

The third stage began with Belinsky's move to St. Petersburg. The older the critic became, the more his views on religion and worldview in general changed. He practically became an atheist, for "in the words God and religion I see darkness, gloom, chains and a whip." His ideals are changing somewhat, now it becomes the main thing for him to show creatively in literature the real side of life.

Belinsky's quotes about "A Hero of Our Time"

The appearance of Mikhail Lermontov in Russian literature could not but make a positive impression on Vissarion Belinsky.

A new bright star rose on the horizon of our poetry and immediately turned out to be a star of the first magnitude. We are talking about Lermontov…

In particular, Bellinsky touches on his famous work "A Hero of Our Time", in which the author reveals important topics for critics - a description of the real life of society and the appearance of a "hero of time" in the image that Belinsky imagined, with his own merits and shortcomings.

We must demand from art that it show us reality as it is, because whatever it is, this reality will tell us more, teach us more than all the inventions and teachings of moralists…

The originality and true skill of the writer helped him create one of the most famous works of Russian classical literature. The critic rated Lermontov's novel very positively. He called it "the sad thought of our time".

Pechorin

In his judgments about the main character of "The Hero of Our Time", Pechorin, Belinsky compares him with the no less famous Pushkin's hero Eugene Onegin. He compares these two personalities with each other. And although these two novels are imbued with the same idea - to show the true prose of life, their characters are radically different from each other. It is Pechorin that the critic considers the real "hero of our time." Although Belinsky criticizes the main character for his impartial actions, he still sees in him a person who, in his image, personifies the problems of the current, at that time, society. Although these problems remain relevant to this day. Pechorin understands his problem, tries to find hersolution, fighting his demons. He does not want to accept life as it is, like everyone else. He had a lot of strength, energy and skills that he wasted in vain, trying in every possible way to find a use for them. It was for this that Belinsky highly appreciated Pechorin, unlike other critics.

Belinsky's quotes about Pechorin:

His restless spirit demands movement, activity seeks food, his heart yearns for interest in life. This man has the strength of mind and the power of will.

So - "The Hero of Our Time" - this is the main idea of the novel. In fact, after that the whole novel can be considered an evil irony, because most of the readers will probably exclaim: “What a good hero!” - Why is he so stupid? we dare to ask you.

Everything he could, he did, there was nothing new. This led Pechorin to a split personality, which cannot be denied.

In fact, there are two people in it: the first one acts, the second one looks at the actions of the first and discusses them, or, better to say, condemns them, because they are really worthy of condemnation. The reasons for the bifurcation of nature are the contradiction between the depth of nature and the pity of the actions of the same person.

Aphorisms of Vissarion Belinsky

Belinsky was a master not only of the literary-critical word, but from his pen came out a lot of aphorisms that quickly went to the people. Capacious, sonorous, meaningful expressions fell in love with his readers. Belinsky is quoted, his works are referred to asfuture and current experts in the work of a critic. He was endowed with a sharp mind and the ability to clearly and clearly express his thoughts, therefore it is not surprising that many phrases from his writings became aphorisms. Let's single out a few of them.

Every dignity, every strength is calm - precisely because they are confident in themselves.

Struggle is a condition of life: life dies when the struggle ends.

Many people live without living, but only intending to live.

A woman's dignity can be measured by the man she loves.

Reason is given to man so that he lives wisely, and not just so that he sees that he lives unreasonably.

Who does not go forward, he goes back: there is no standing position.

Follower of Belinsky

Many future critics and publicists at that time were influenced by Belinsky's activities. One of them was Nikolai Dobrolyubov, a literary critic and underground revolutionary. He continued the work begun by Belinsky. During his short life, Dobrolyubov wrote a large number of critical articles that touched on various social, spiritual, moral topics of society. Yaro opposed serfdom and everything connected with it. He was committed to the equality of all people. In his works, he also criticized the Russian education system, which suppressed its "I" in children. Criticized literature and textbooks for children, which published a large number of obviously falsematerials. The critic believed that it was impossible to normally bring up "the personal independence of the child and the spiritual forces of his nature" on them. Belinsky's and Dobrolyubov's quotes are similar in their ideology and desire to change Russian literature, in particular, its critical area, for the better.