Analysis and summary of "What to do?" (Chernyshevsky N. G.)

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

For the first time in a separate book, the most famous work of Chernyshevsky - the novel "What is to be done?" - published in 1867 in Geneva. The initiators of the publication of the book were Russian emigrants, in Russia the novel had by that time been banned by censorship. In 1863, the work was still published in the Sovremennik magazine, but those issues where its individual chapters were printed were soon banned. Summary of "What to do?" Chernyshevsky, the youth of those years passed on to each other by word of mouth, and the novel itself - in handwritten copies, so the work made an indelible impression on them.

Is it possible to do something

The author wrote his sensational novel in the winter of 1862-1863, being in the dungeons of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The dates of writing are December 14–April 4. From January 1863, censors began to work with individual chapters of the manuscript, but, seeing only a love line in the plot,allow the novel to be published. Soon, the deep meaning of the work reaches the officials of Tsarist Russia, the censor is removed from office, but the job is done - a rare youth circle of those years did not discuss the summary of "What is to be done?". Chernyshevsky, with his work, wanted not only to tell the Russians about the "new people", but also to arouse in them a desire to imitate them. And his bold call echoed in the hearts of many of the author's contemporaries.

The youth of the late 19th century turned Chernyshevsky's ideas into a kind of program for their own lives. Stories about numerous noble deeds of those years began to appear so often that for some time they became almost commonplace in everyday life. Many have suddenly realized that they are capable of the Deed.

Having a question and a clear answer to it

The main idea of the work, and it is twice revolutionary in its essence, is the freedom of the individual, regardless of gender. That is why the main character of the novel is a woman, since at that time the supremacy of women did not go beyond their own living room. Looking back at the life of her mother and close acquaintances, Vera Pavlovna early realizes the absolute mistake of inaction, and decides that her life will be based on work: honest, useful, giving the opportunity to exist with dignity. Hence the morality - the freedom of the individual comes from the freedom to perform actions that correspond to both thoughts and possibilities. This is what Chernyshevsky tried to express through the life of Vera Pavlovna. "What to do?" chapter by chapter draws readers a colorful picture of a phasedbuilding "real life". Here Vera Pavlovna leaves her mother and decides to open her own business, now she realizes that only equality between all members of her artel will correspond to her ideals of freedom, now her absolute happiness with Kirsanov depends on Lopukhov’s personal happiness. Individual freedom is interconnected with high moral principles - this is the whole of Chernyshevsky.

Characterization of the author's personality through his characters

Both writers and readers, as well as omniscient critics, there is an opinion that the main characters of the work are a kind of literary copies of their creators. Even if not exact copies, then very close in spirit to the author. Narration of the novel "What to do?" is conducted from the first person, and the author is an acting character. He enters into a conversation with other characters, even argues with them and, like a “voice-over”, explains to both the characters and the readers many points that are incomprehensible to them.

At the same time, the author conveys to the reader doubts about his writing abilities, says that “even he speaks the language poorly”, and certainly there is not a drop of “artistic talent” in him. But for the reader, his doubts are unconvincing, this is also refuted by the novel that Chernyshevsky himself created, What Is To Be Done? Vera Pavlovna and the rest of the characters are so accurately and versatilely written out, endowed with such unique individual qualities that an author who does not have true talent would be unable to create.

New but so different

The heroes of Chernyshevsky, these positive "new people", according to the author, are from the category of unreal, non-existent, into onea wonderful time should by itself firmly enter our lives. To enter, to dissolve in the crowd of ordinary people, to push them out, to regenerate someone, to convince someone, to completely push the rest - unyielding - from the general mass, ridding society of them, like a field from weeds. An artistic utopia, which Chernyshevsky himself was clearly aware of and tried to define through the name, is “What is to be done?”. A special person, according to his deep conviction, is able to radically change the world around him, but how to do this, he must determine for himself.

Chernyshevsky created his novel in opposition to Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons", his "new people" are not at all like the cynical and irritating nihilist Bazarov. The cardinality of these images is in the fulfillment of their main task: the hero of Turgenev wanted around him to “clear a place”, that is, to destroy, from everything old that had outlived its own, while Chernyshevsky’s characters tried more to build something, create something, before destroying it.

The formation of the "new man" in the middle of the 19th century

These two works of great Russian writers became for readers and the near-literary public of the second half of the 19th century a kind of beacon - a ray of light in the dark kingdom. Both Chernyshevsky and Turgenev loudly declared the existence of a "new man", his need to form a special mood in society, capable of making fundamental changes in the country.

If you reread and translate the summary of "What to do?" Chernyshevsky inthe plane of revolutionary ideas that deeply struck the minds of a separate part of the population of those years, then many of the allegorical features of the work will become easily explainable. The image of the “bride of her suitors”, seen by Vera Pavlovna in her second dream, is nothing but “Revolution” - this is the conclusion made by writers who lived in different years, who studied and analyzed the novel from all sides. Allegoricalness marks the rest of the images about which the story is told in the novel, regardless of whether they are animated or not.

A little about the theory of reasonable egoism

The desire for change not only for yourself, not only for your loved ones, but for everyone else runs like a red thread through the whole novel. This is completely different from the theory of calculating one's own benefit, which Turgenev reveals in Fathers and Sons. In many respects, Chernyshevsky agrees with his fellow writer, believing that any person not only can, but must reasonably calculate and determine his individual path to his own happiness. But at the same time, he says that you can enjoy it only surrounded by the same happy people. This is the fundamental difference between the plots of the two novels: in Chernyshevsky, the heroes forge well-being for everyone, in Turgenev, Bazarov creates his own happiness without regard to others. The closer Chernyshevsky is to us through his novel.

"What is to be done?", the analysis of which we give in our review, as a result is much closer to the reader of Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons".

Story Brief

As the reader has already been able to determine, neverwho did not take Chernyshevsky's novel in his hands, the main character of the work is Vera Pavlovna. Through her life, the formation of her personality, her relationships with others, including men, the author reveals the main idea of his novel. Summary of "What to do?" Chernyshevsky without listing the characteristics of the main characters and the details of their lives can be conveyed in a few sentences.

Vera Rozalskaya (aka Vera Pavlovna) lives in a rather we althy family, but everything in her home disgusts her: her mother with her dubious activities, and acquaintances who think one thing, but say and do something completely different. Having decided to leave her parents, our heroine tries to find a job, but only a fictitious marriage with Dmitry Lopukhov, who is close to her in spirit, gives the girl the freedom and the lifestyle that she dreams of. Vera Pavlovna creates a sewing workshop with equal rights to her income for all seamstresses - a rather progressive undertaking for that time. Even her suddenly flared love for her husband's close friend Alexander Kirsanov, which she became convinced of while caring for the sick Lopukhov together with Kirsanov, does not deprive her of sanity and nobility: she does not leave her husband, she does not leave the workshop. Seeing the mutual love of his wife and close friend, Lopukhov, staging suicide, frees Vera Pavlovna from any obligations to him. Vera Pavlovna and Kirsanov get married and are quite happy with it, and a few years later Lopukhov appears again in their lives. But only under a different name and with a new wife. Both families settle in the neighborhood, quitethey spend a lot of time together and are quite satisfied with the circumstances that have developed in this way.

Being determines consciousness?

The formation of Vera Pavlovna's personality is far from the regularity of the character traits of those of her peers who grew up and were brought up in conditions similar to her. Despite her youth, lack of experience and connections, the heroine clearly knows what she wants in life. Successfully marrying and becoming an ordinary mother of a family is not for her, especially since by the age of 14 the girl knew and understood a lot. She sewed beautifully and provided the whole family with clothes, at the age of 16 she began to earn money by giving private piano lessons. The desire of the mother to marry her meets with a firm refusal and creates her own business - a sewing workshop. About broken stereotypes, about bold deeds of a strong character, the work “What is to be done?”. Chernyshevsky, in his own way, explains the well-established assertion that consciousness determines the being in which a person is. He defines, but only in the way he decides for himself - either by following a path not chosen by him, or he finds his own. Vera Pavlovna left the path prepared for her by her mother and the environment in which she lived, and created her own path.

Between realms of dreams and reality

Determining your path does not mean finding it and following it. There is a huge gap between dreams and their realization. Someone does not dare to jump over it, and someone gathers all his will into a fist and takes a decisive step. This is how Chernyshevsky answers the problem raised in his novel What Is To Be Done? AnalysisThe stages of the formation of the personality of Vera Pavlovna are carried out by the author himself instead of the reader. He leads him through the embodiment of the heroine of her dreams of her own freedom in reality through vigorous activity. Let this be a difficult, but direct and quite passable path. And according to him, Chernyshevsky not only directs his heroine, but also allows her to achieve what she wants, letting the reader understand that only activity can achieve the cherished goal. Unfortunately, the author emphasizes that not everyone chooses this path. Not everyone.

Reflection of reality through dreams

In a rather unusual form, he wrote his novel What Is To Be Done? Chernyshevsky. Vera's dreams - there are four of them in the novel - reveal the depth and originality of those thoughts that real events evoke in her. In her first dream, she sees herself freed from the basement. This is a kind of symbolism of leaving her own home, where she was destined for an unacceptable fate for her. Through the idea of freeing girls like her, Vera Pavlovna creates her own workshop, in which each seamstress receives an equal share of her total income.

The second and third dreams explain to the reader through real and fantastic dirt, reading Verochka's diary (which, by the way, she never kept) what thoughts about the existence of various people seize the heroine at different periods of her life, what she thinks about his second marriage and the very necessity of this marriage. Explanation through dreams is a convenient form of presentation of the work, which Chernyshevsky chose. "Whatdo?" - the content of the novel,reflected through dreams, the characters of the main characters in dreams - a worthy example of Chernyshevsky's application of this new form.

Ideals of a Bright Future, or Vera Pavlovna's Fourth Dream

If the first three dreams of the heroine reflected her attitude to the fait accompli, then her fourth dream - dreams of the future. It suffices to recall it in more detail. So, Vera Pavlovna dreams of a completely different world, improbable and beautiful. She sees many happy people living in a wonderful house: luxurious, spacious, surrounded by amazing views, decorated with gushing fountains. No one feels disadvantaged in it, everyone has one common joy, one common well-being, everyone is equal in it.

Such are Vera Pavlovna's dreams, Chernyshevsky would like to see reality like this ("What to do?"). Dreams, and they, as we remember, are about the relationship between reality and the world of dreams, reveal not so much the spiritual world of the heroine as the author of the novel himself. And his full awareness of the impossibility of creating such a reality, a utopia that will not come true, but for which it is still necessary to live and work. And this is also the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna.

Utopia and its predictable ending

As everyone knows, his main work is the novel What Is To Be Done? - Nikolai Chernyshevsky wrote while in prison. Deprived of family, society, freedom, seeing reality in the dungeons in a completely new way, dreaming of a different reality, the writer put it on paper, not believing in it himself.implementation. Chernyshevsky had no doubt that the "new people" were capable of changing the world. But the fact that not everyone will stand under the power of circumstances, and not everyone will be worthy of a better life - he also understood this.

How does the novel end? The idyllic coexistence of two congenial families: the Kirsanovs and the Lopukhovs-Beaumonts. A small world created by active people full of nobility of thoughts and deeds. Are there many such happy communities around? Not! Is this not an answer to Chernyshevsky's dreams of the future? Those who want to create their own prosperous and happy world will create it, those who do not want to will go with the flow.