And how insignificant, petty, disgusting
a man could come down!
N.V. Gogol
These words by N.V. Gogol brings together the eternal problems of literature of the 19th century, its innermost dream of a “living” soul, of a moral and spiritual person.
Exercise
Retell the content of the story “Ionych”.
Answer
Dmitry Ionovich Startsev, the hero of the story “Ionych,” was appointed as a doctor at the zemstvo hospital in Dyalizh, not far from the provincial town of S. He is a young man with ideals and a desire for something high. In S. he meets the Turkins family, “the most educated and talented” in the city.
Ivan Petrovich Turkin played in amateur performances, showed tricks, made jokes, Vera Iosifovna wrote novels and stories for herself and read them to guests. Their daughter, Ekaterina Ivanovna, a young pretty girl, whose family name is Kotik, played the piano.
When Dmitry Ivanovich first visited the Turkins, he was fascinated. He fell in love with Catherine. This feeling turned out to be “the only joy and... the last” during his entire life in Dyalizh. For the sake of his love, he is ready, it would seem, to do a lot. But when Kotik refused him, imagining herself to be a brilliant pianist, and left the city, he suffered for only three days. And then everything went as before. Remembering his courtship and lofty reasoning, he only lazily said: “How much trouble, however!” etc.
The story has 4 parts. These are 4 stages of the life path of Dmitry Ionovich Startsev, 4 steps of the ladder leading down.
Chekhov shows the degradation of Ionych’s soul through subtext, through artistic details and intonation.
conclusions
Dmitry Startsev fails and in socially, and in the personal. Startsev is an intelligent person, but in the city of S. the standard of intelligence is the Turkins. At the beginning of the story, Startsev sees the mediocrity of both mother and daughter. He is offended by the flat jokes of the owner of the house. Startsev – nice man, but the money he earns becomes the only ideal of his life. This led to the fact that “greed took over.” Startsev loses the ideals of his youth and does not know how to preserve his love.
Reasons for Startsev's degradation
Questions and tasks
1. How does Startsev feel about the surrounding society? Why does he, understanding the vulgar essence of this society, submit to it? How is this submission expressed? (Startsev is a good person, but he does not know how to feel deeply and complains about life.)
2. Who is to blame for the fact that Dmitry Ionovich Startsev became Ionych? Who is to blame for the fact that love did not take place? Could it have happened?
3. How does the scene in the cemetery reveal Startsev’s character traits? Why is nature shown so romantically here?
4. Prove that Startsev’s life story is consonant with the words of N.V. Gogol: “Human feelings, which were not deep in him anyway, became shallow every minute, and every day something was lost.” (At first, Startsev has only minor shortcomings of the soul: he loves shallowly, is not sensitive enough, complains about life, is irritable. But in the city of S. he comes to complete spiritual degradation, becomes one of the “dead souls.”)
From Chekhov's letter to Orlov: “For now these are students and female students - they are honest, good people, this is our hope, this is the future of Russia, but as soon as students and female students go out on the road on their own, become adults, our hope and the future of Russia turns into smoke, and remains The filter contains only doctors-landowners, unfed officials, and thieving engineers.”.
Conclusion
“Ionych” is a warning story that it is very easy to lose yourself, your soul. Gogol also spoke about this: “Take with you on the journey, leaving the soft youthful years, stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later.”
The story was written in 1898 and is associated with the problems of the development of capitalism and capitalist relations in Russia, when material interest becomes the main priority. A person as a person, a person’s self-worth become unnecessary and fade into the background. The problems of poverty and humiliating poverty are combined with the need to strive to accumulate money, which often gives rise to dependence on it and, as a consequence, leads to lack of spirituality, mental degradation and devastation. The story also raises questions of interaction between a person and his surrounding social environment.
Individual assignments for the next lesson
Messages about plays by A.P. Chekhov according to plan: brief retelling, conflict, features.
- "Seagull"
- "Three sisters"
- "Uncle Ivan"
Literature
1. D.N. Murin. Russian literature second half of the 19th century century. Guidelines in the form of lesson planning. Grade 10. M.: SMIO Press, 2002.
2. E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 19th century. M.: Saga; Forum, 2004.
3. Encyclopedia for children. T. 9. Russian literature. Part I. From epics and chronicles to the classics of the 19th century. M.: Avanta+, 1999.
The great Russian realist writer, an exposer of the world of vulgarity, philistinism and philistinism, A.P. Chekhov said his new word in drama and raised the genre of the short story to an unattainable height. The writer always considered the main enemies of man to be lies, hypocrisy, arbitrariness, and the thirst for enrichment. Therefore, he devoted all his work to a decisive struggle against these vices.
The story "Ionych", like many of his other works, became a response to the most pressing and thorny issues modernity. In the story “Ionych” we see a typical picture of the philistine life of a provincial town, in which all visitors were oppressed by boredom and the monotony of existence. However, the dissatisfied were assured that the city was good, there were many nice, intelligent people. And the Turkins were always cited as an example of an interesting and educated family. However, looking at the way of life, inner world and the morals of these characters, we see that in fact they are small, limited, insignificant and vulgar people. Startsev falls under their destructive influence, gradually turning from an intelligent and talented doctor into a layman and money-grubber. At the beginning of the story, Dmitry Ionych Startsev appears before us as a sweet and pleasant young man looking for an interesting company.
He reached out to the Turkins family because he could talk with them about art, about freedom, about the role of work in human life. And outwardly, everything in this family looked attractive and original: the hostess was reading her novel, Turkin repeated his favorite jokes and told anecdotes, and their daughter played the piano. But all this is good, new and original for the first time, but in fact, the Turkins do not go beyond this monotonous and devoid of any meaning pastime.
As the plot develops, we become more and more immersed in the philistine vulgarity of the society into which Chekhov's hero finds himself. The author, step by step, reveals to us the life story of a young talented doctor who chose the wrong path of material enrichment. This choice was the beginning of his spiritual impoverishment.
The main object critical analysis The writer becomes not only the deadening force of vulgarity and philistinism, under the influence of which Doctor Startsev turns into the disgusting Ionych, but also the hero himself. The internal evolution of the hero is clearly revealed in his love for Ekaterina Ivanovna Turkina. Startsev really fell in love with Ekaterina Ivanovna. However, there is no life, no soul in his feeling. The romance of love and its poetry turn out to be completely alien to him. “And is it fitting for him, a zemstvo doctor, an intelligent, respectable man, to sigh and receive notes...”, he reflects.
And we see how his heart hardened, how he grew old spiritually and physically. The hero’s attitude towards work is also indicative. We hear from his lips good and correct speeches“about the fact that you need to work, that you cannot live without work...”. And Ionych himself works constantly, every day. However, his work is not spiritualized" general idea“, he has only one goal - “in the evenings to take out of his pockets the pieces of paper obtained through practice” and periodically take them to the bank.
Chekhov makes it clear that spiritual development the hero stopped and walked in the opposite direction. Ionych has a past, a present, but no future. He travels a lot, but along the same route, gradually returning him to the starting point. His entire existence is now determined only by the thirst for enrichment and accumulation.
He fences himself off both from space and from people. And this leads him to moral death. In just a few years, the hero found himself completely defeated by the philistine vulgarity that he so hated and despised at the beginning. In fact, Startsev does not even resist these disastrous circumstances. He doesn’t fight, doesn’t suffer, doesn’t worry, but simply gives in easily. Losing his human appearance and soul, Ionych ceases to be a good specialist.
So, gradually a person, a personality, a talent dies in Startsev. At the end of the story, even the Turkins, whose mediocrity and limitations the author constantly ridicules, turn out to be spiritually superior to Ionych. In them, despite all the vulgarity and pettiness of their interests, there is still something human left, they at least evoke pity. There was absolutely nothing positive left in Startsev.
“It seems that it is not a person who is riding, but pagan god“- the author says about him, summing up his complete moral degradation. A.P. Chekhov is a wonderful writer of the late second half of the 19th century. He made a huge contribution to great Russian literature with his wonderful stories and plays. All of Chekhov's works are aimed at describing Everyday life of people.
The writer tells us not about specific characters, but about all of them together, showing their everyday problems and boring existence. Anton Pavlovich in his trilogies and plays ridicules the vulgarity of people and philistinism as a social disease.
In the story “Ionych” the author shows us an active man, Doctor Startsev, who came to the provincial town to work. But, as he gets used to the routine of everyday life, he degrades as a person. At first, Startsev liked to go to the house of the Turkins, the most educated family in the city, where Vera Iosifovna talks “about what never happens in life,” and Kotik with his “talent” as a pianist, and Ivan Petrovich with his “non-state” and, hello please “- all this attracted and pleased Startsev at first. After some time, he falls in love with Kitty, but is rejected. Startsev quickly calmed down and it was then that he embarked on the path of complete spiritual decline. He begins to have thoughts about a large dowry, and thoughts like: “Is it fitting for him, a zemstvo doctor, an intelligent, respectable man, to sigh, receive notes, and wander around cemeteries?..
“In general, Startsev became more and more immersed in the vulgar, monotonous life of the provincial town. To more clearly show the fall of the hero, Chekhov depicts Startsev four years later, focusing on his appearance: “He gained weight, grew fat and was reluctant to walk, as he suffered from shortness of breath.” By that time, the hero was no longer interested in those around him; he condescended to them only to play cards.
His favorite pastime was going through the money he received during the day. Even in the city they noticed that Startsev had changed not in better side. We can conclude that existence in such a warm environment can drag down any intelligent, active person, turning him into an ordinary, spiritually devastated creature, and this is exactly what the hero of the story “Ionych” became.
Another, no less attractive and truthful work is “The Cherry Orchard”. In which the author shows the everyday life of people. The play combines good humor and tragedy. Chekhov talks about the extinction of the nobility, depicting Ranevskaya, who throws money, and her brother Gaev, who spent his entire fortune on candy. But, in general, Chekhov great attention spends time in the play, it is central to the comedy.
Ranevskaya, Gaev, Firs - they all live in memories of old times, about how good it was for them then. Accustomed to doing nothing, they cannot even accept Lopakhin’s correct proposal concerning their estate, and the future fate of the cherry orchard depends on them.
In this play, Chekhov also very clearly shows the degradation of individual characters, saying that their age has passed and the time has come for a new generation, with progressive thoughts, smart and active people. Feature A.
P. Chekhov is that he was one of the few who was able to so accurately and vividly depict the everyday existence of people of his time. During his life, the writer wrote many wonderful works that made a huge contribution to Russian literature.
Essay on the topic: Spiritual degradation of personality in A. P. Chekhov’s story “Ionych”
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- The provincial town in Chekhov's works is perceived by me as a kind of collective image. Gray, boring day. He's just as gray and boring...
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- The play "The Seagull" first raised the curtain on mysterious world theater of literature. Chekhov speaks frankly about the problems of modern theater and literature, studying...
- Dmitry Ionovich Startsev, a young zemstvo doctor, comes to the city of S., obsessed with work, with the desire to help people, to do something extraordinary. Job...
Degradation of Dmitry Startsev based on Chekhov's story "Ionych"
In Russian literature, quite often writers touched upon topics that were relevant for any era. Such problems raised by the classics as the concept of good and evil, the search for the meaning of life, the influence of the environment on a person’s personality and others have always been the focus of Russian literature. Chekhov most clearly showed the process of changing the human soul under the influence of the environment and the years lived. Who did not dream in their youth about such lofty ideals as honor, equality, brotherhood, freedom, work for the benefit of society?
But years pass, and a person completely changes internally, wanting only peace and a well-fed, prosperous life. Chekhov was the first to reveal the social causes of this disease in the story “Ionych”.
Dmitry Startsev, a young, talented doctor, comes to work after graduating from university in the provincial town of S. Dmitry Startsev works in Delazh, which is located nine miles from the city.
Startsev is trying with all his might to be useful people, he is almost never in the city, he devotes all his time to work. Work is the meaning of his life, for the sake of it he is ready to forget about entertainment, so he works a lot without knowing rest. But Chekhov, in some other story, expressed a very correct idea that most often teachers and doctors become stale quite quickly. Monotonous everyday life, filled with endless patients, does not irritate Startsev at first. He is advised, as an educated and intelligent person, to visit the city more often, to join a club where entry was available only to the top of the city, he is introduced to the Turkin family, which, according to local inhabitants, is the most talented and extraordinary.
Chekhov paints this “talent” with small strokes. The flat witticisms of the head of the family Ivan Petrovich, the mediocre acting of daughter Katerina and the far-fetched novels of her mother are understandable to Startsev, but after all, after the hospital, dirty men, it was pleasant and calm to sit in soft chairs and not think about anything. Only a year later, when Skov arrived to them. Startsev visits this hospitable home more and more often. He is in love with the Turkins' daughter, who is called Kotik in the family circle. Dmitry is jealous, can hardly bear separation, is ready to do anything for her, but Kotik only flirts with Startsev, not responding to the passionate feelings of his lover. Startsev understands that it is indecent for him as an adult to wander around cemeteries and receive notes like a yellow-eyed high school student, but nevertheless, he rushes all over the city, looking for a tailcoat in order to propose to Turkina. But even at the end of this short romance, Startsev, perhaps unnoticed by him, is overcome by sober calculation (He thinks: “And they will probably give a lot of dowry”). After the refusal, the doctor does not worry for too long. He was just “a little ashamed” that everything was so stupid and ended.
Previously, in the city Startsev was called “the inflated Pole,” thereby emphasizing that he was a stranger in this city. Startsev rarely talked to anyone at the club, and more often he ate in silence, with his face buried in his plate, because no matter what he talked about, everything was perceived by the townsfolk as a personal insult. When Startsev tried to talk about the benefits of work, everyone felt reproached for this. The inhabitants of the city did absolutely nothing. Day and time were spent on cards, gatherings, and idleness.
Leaving the city of Kotik, Startsev indifferently learns about this loss, remembering only one thing: “How much trouble, however.” From this time on, Dmitry loses interest in work.
He has a huge practice in the city and is paid well for his visits. He's on. in the evenings he likes to count the money he earned during the day. He develops “harmless” passions: playing whist, gluttony, greed, indifference. He no longer has compassion for his neighbors as before, and allows himself to shout at the sick and hit with a stick. In the city they already call him “Ionych” at home, thereby accepting him into their midst. Chekhov, showing the “best” family of the Turkins, seems to lead us, following Startsev, to the conclusion: “If the most talented family is so mediocre and stupid, then what is the whole city like?” Even worse than the Turkins, because in this lovely family there is a touch of at least some intelligence. Startsev did not have a family; he must have created mental comfort for himself simply for pleasure and not knowing what to do with the money, buying real estate.
Chekhov warns us: “Do not succumb to the destructive influence of the environment, do not betray your ideals, take care of the person within you.” The process of Startsev’s spiritual dying is all the more painful because he is fully aware of what a vile swamp he is plunging into, but does not try to fight. Complaining about environment, he makes peace with her. Even memories of love cannot awaken Startsev’s half-sleeping soul. Kotik, having returned, sees Startsev differently, but she wants to get married, so she clings to past bright dreams. Startsev thinks wearily: “It’s good that I didn’t marry her.” He no longer liked the way her dress fit on her, her manners, and absolutely everything about her. The point was that Startsev had long since died, and nothing could bring him out of spiritual hibernation. He is not sorry for youth, love, unfulfilled hopes.
Chekhov wrote a story new form a serious social illness that Russian literature has long studied. The name of this disease is spiritual degradation of personality. -As an experienced doctor, Startsev could diagnose himself: personality collapse as a result of loss life ideals. Chekhov, understanding the tragedy of petty reality, repeated more than once in his stories: “There is nothing more sad, more offensive than the vulgarity of human existence.”
Chekhov was highly appreciated not only by his contemporaries, but also by writers of the twentieth century. Alexey Tolstoy said: “Chekhov is Pushkin in prose.” And I think it’s hard to disagree with this statement.
The artistic discoveries of Chekhov, a master of storytelling, amazed his contemporaries. Leo Tolstoy gave a very high rating to Chekhov. “What an excellent language!... None of us: neither Dostoevsky, nor Turgenev, nor Goncharov, nor I could write like that,” Leo Tolstoy asserted.
(based on the story “Ionych” by A.P. Chekhov)
The temple is still doing a little work.
But my hands fell
And in a flock, diagonally
Smells and sounds go away.
B. Akhmadulina
Chekhov tends to show heroes as already formed people, without saying anything about their past - about the ways and difficulties of formation and development. But just as one can judge its age and living conditions by looking at the cut of an adult tree, so one can see his past in a person.
Doctor Startsev is hardworking, smart, and full of hope. This means that in the past he thought a lot, worked, communicated with smart and kind people, graduated from some higher education course educational institution, where many thoughts and ideas hovered. The beginning of his work as a zemstvo doctor is promising: he is passionate about his work, works hard and willingly, he is healthy mentally and physically, he is happy with the knowledge of this health. But he's young. And this energy is the fruit of youth. Who among the people was not happy in his youth at least for a moment, who did not laugh while falling asleep! This is not merit or dignity - it is a pattern. A new age is always a reassessment of values. Unfortunately, only a few are given the opportunity to preserve its gifts after the passing of youth. And the most priceless of them is interest in life. And those people who are able to live fully until the end of their days are divided, in my opinion, into two categories.
Some are those in whom a certain unquenchable torch is lit. In any conditions - whether in society or alone - they will always relentlessly strive for something, look for something. Others need to constantly draw strength from someone; in solitude, their supply is depleted, the fire goes out. Startsev belongs to the latter. He still lives, still acts, but subconsciously feels the depletion of his supply. And that’s why he’s looking for support. Chekhov subtly shows the unconsciousness of this attraction. Startsev “somehow came by itself... the invitation came to mind.” Later, he will consider Kotik’s offer to visit the cemetery at night stupid and unconditionally decide not to go. And in the evening he “suddenly took it and went to the cemetery.” This apparent suddenness is prepared internally. A visit to the cemetery is Startsev’s last impulse towards another person, the last flash of his soul. If Kotik had come, Startsev’s reserve would have been replenished for a while, but she’s not there - “they lowered the curtain,” the fire went out, “suddenly everything went dark all around.” One phrase explains the entire instant revolution in Startsev’s soul. He will live for a long time, but here, at the gates of the cemetery, is the beginning of his agony.
And the next day, Startsev, by inertia, goes to propose, sees the same Turkins, hears the same “goodbye, please,” but he himself is no longer the same - and the scenery changed in the play (“When we change, the world changes”).
He knows that any disease can be treated at an early stage, otherwise it may be too late. That’s why he so carefully describes everything that aggravates the disease: the constant stupidity of the Turkins (the “foreignness” of the surname alone is worth it), and Ekaterina Ivanovna’s theatrical refusal.
Diagnosis: “Startsev’s heart has stopped beating restlessly.” This is the next stage of the death of the soul. Chekhov chose the most painful death for his hero - gradual, slow and inevitable. Here comes Kitty. It would seem that salvation is possible. But it’s too late, the disease is progressing, and medicine is no longer effective. What could be more terrible than the fate of a patient who knows that he is doomed? And Startsev knows: “How are we doing here? “No way,” he tells Kotik. True, Kitty revives him for a moment. “He remembered everything that happened. A fire began to ignite in my soul.” But this is the “recovery” of a consumptive patient before death. He immediately remembered the symptoms of the disease - “about the pieces of paper that he took out of his pockets with such pleasure in the evenings, and the light in his soul went out.”
The great Russian realist writer, an exposer of the world of vulgarity, philistinism and philistinism, A.P. Chekhov said his new word in drama and raised the genre of the short story to an unattainable height. The writer always considered the main enemies of man to be lies, hypocrisy, arbitrariness, and the thirst for enrichment. Therefore, he devoted all his work to a decisive struggle against these vices. The story “Ionych,” like many of his other works, became a response to the most pressing and pressing issues of our time.In the story “Ionych” we see a typical picture of the philistine life of a provincial town, in which all visitors were oppressed by boredom and the monotony of existence. However, the dissatisfied were assured that the city was good, there were many nice, intelligent people. And the Turkins were always cited as an example of an interesting and educated family. However, looking at the lifestyle, inner world and morals of these characters, we see that in fact they are small, limited, insignificant and vulgar people. Startsev falls under their destructive influence, gradually turning from an intelligent and talented doctor into a layman and money-grubber.
At the beginning of the story, Dmitry Ionych Startsev appears before us as a sweet and pleasant young man looking for an interesting company. He reached out to the Turkins family because he could talk with them about art, about freedom, about the role of work in human life. And outwardly, everything in this family looked attractive and original: the hostess was reading her novel, Turkin repeated his favorite jokes and told anecdotes, and their daughter played the piano. But all this is good, new and original for the first time, but in fact, the Turkins do not go beyond this monotonous and devoid of any meaning pastime.
As the plot develops, we become more and more immersed in the philistine vulgarity of the society into which Chekhov's hero finds himself. The author, step by step, reveals to us the life story of a young talented doctor who chose the wrong path of material enrichment. This choice was the beginning of his spiritual impoverishment. The main object of the writer’s critical analysis is not only the deadening force of vulgarity and philistinism, under the influence of which Doctor Startsev turns into the disgusting Ionych, but also the hero himself.
The internal evolution of the hero is clearly revealed in his love for Ekaterina Ivanovna Turkina. Startsev really fell in love with Ekaterina Ivanovna. However, there is no life, no soul in his feeling. The romance of love and its poetry turn out to be completely alien to him. “And is it fitting for him, a zemstvo doctor, an intelligent, respectable man, to sigh and receive notes...” he reflects. And we see how his heart hardened, how he grew old spiritually and physically.
The hero’s attitude towards work is also indicative. We hear from his lips good and correct speeches “about the need to work, that one cannot live without work...”. And Ionych himself works constantly, every day. However, his work is not inspired by a “general idea”; he has only one goal - “in the evenings to take out of his pockets the pieces of paper obtained through practice” and periodically take them to the bank.
Chekhov clearly makes it clear that the hero’s spiritual development has stopped and gone in the opposite direction. Ionych has a past, a present, but no future. He travels a lot, but along the same route, gradually returning him to his original
Point. His entire existence is now determined only by the thirst for enrichment and accumulation. He fences himself off both from space and from people. And this leads him to moral death. In just a few years, the hero found himself completely defeated by the philistine vulgarity that he so hated and despised at the beginning. In fact, Startsev does not even resist these disastrous circumstances. He doesn’t fight, doesn’t suffer, doesn’t worry, but simply gives in easily. Losing his human appearance and soul, Ionych ceases to be a good specialist.
So, gradually a person, a personality, a talent dies in Startsev. At the end of the story, even the Turkins, whose mediocrity and limitations the author constantly ridicules, turn out to be spiritually superior to Ionych. In them, despite all the vulgarity and pettiness of their interests, there is still something human left, they at least evoke pity. There was absolutely nothing positive left in Startsev. “It seems that it is not a man who is riding, but a pagan god,” the author says about him, summing up his complete moral degradation.