He captured the collapse of the centuries-old way of life in his novel “ Quiet Don» M. Sholokhov (the first book was published in 1928, the final chapters of the fourth book - in 1940). We emphasize: this is not just a book about the revolution and civil war, but a work about the fate of the people at turning points historical development, a narrative about the fundamental problems of existence “at the crossroads of the century.” Sholokhov’s novel showed a desire to “embrace everything” and “get to the essence”, to show the situation of the “beginning of time”, the beginning new history. The work is characterized by the scale and depth of its depiction of life. Suffice it to remember that the plot, which began near the Melekhovo kuren on the banks of the Don, gradually expanding, captures into the orbit of the author’s image a farm, a village, a steppe, our own and foreign lands, different cities, a large number of heroes representing all social strata and the most important shades of political views, pictures of the world and fierce battles of the First World War and Civil War. All this, as well as the “folk thought” that determines the writer’s view of what is happening, allows us to speak of Sholokhov’s work as an epic. The author captured the conflict state of the world, showed how the tragic events of history destroyed peaceful life people on earth, the traditional connections of people through kinship, brotherhood, community, and joint work, contrasting them with the irreconcilability of class confrontation. This fault is especially clearly visible in the history of the Melekhov family. Sholokhov shows historical events through the private destinies of specific people, thereby continuing the traditions of Pushkin and Tolstoy. But for the first time, the central hero of the epic novel becomes a simple Cossack, seeking truth not only for himself, but for the entire people. Gregory's path is full of painful doubts, hesitations, mistakes and losses. The author does not hide how much the gray-haired and “dead soul” Grigory at the end of the novel differs from the brutally handsome and dashing Cossack as we met him at the beginning of the story. But never and nowhere does the “charm of a man” who is sincere, honest, passionately wanting to understand what is happening, fail to betray him; nowhere is the hero opposed to his people. Despite open pressure and numerous campaigns against Sholokhov, the author did not lead Grigory to any clear political choice, and did not complete the work with episodes of Melekhov’s service in the Red Army. At the end of the work, the plot circle closes: tired of blood and fighting, without waiting for an amnesty, the hero goes to his home, from which he left for a large and hostile world. He, a simple worker, distracted from his favorite work by the war, is imperiously called to his native land, no matter what, waiting for its owner in the spring. The Father Don, personifying the very soul of the freedom-loving working Cossacks, and Mother Earth are waiting for him. It is symbolic that Gregory throws weapons into the waters of his native river, the same for everyone, thereby expressing his attitude towards the fratricidal and senseless war. And, finally, one more image, symbolizing what gives a person support: the image of a house destroyed by war, but the only one, dear.
Grigory Melekhov is a truly epic hero. His individual fate embodied a whole range of contradictions in people's life at a turning point, longing for truth, blood, pain and love, which no historical explosions can “undo.” In “The Quiet Flow of the Flow”, contrary to the tradition of the revolutionary 20s, class criteria for assessing life recede before the epic breadth and analytical depth of the depiction of time and man, before the polyphony of opinions and feelings, the wisdom of the writer’s philosophical view, affirming the eternal values of human life on earth.
Essay on the topic “The Image of Grigory Melekhov” briefly: characteristics, life story and description of the hero in search of the truth
In Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Don" Grigory Melekhov occupies a central place. He is the most complex Sholokhov hero. This is a truth seeker. He suffered such cruel trials that a person, it would seem, is not able to endure. The life path of Grigory Melekhov is difficult and tortuous: first there was the First World War, then civil, and finally, an attempt to destroy the Cossacks, an uprising and its suppression.
The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of a man who broke away from the people and became 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 hot-tempered and independent character, as well as the ability for tender love. The blood of the “Turkish” grandmother manifested itself in his appearance, in love, on the battlefield and in the ranks. And from his father he inherited a tough disposition, and it was because of this that integrity and rebellion haunted Gregory 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 war comes, and it destroys all his ideas about the truth and justice of life. The war appears to the writer and his characters as a series of losses and terrible deaths: it cripples people from the inside and destroys everything dear and dear to them. It forces all the heroes to take a fresh look at the problems of duty and justice, to look for the truth and not find it in any of their warring camps. Once among the Reds, Gregory sees the same cruelty and thirst for blood as the Whites. He can't understand why all this? After all, war destroys the smooth 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 happening? For whose sake and 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 characters' personal relationships unfold against the backdrop of the country's tragic history. Gregory will never again be able to forget how he killed his first enemy, an Austrian soldier. He cut him down with a saber, it was terrible for him. The moment of murder changed him beyond recognition. The hero has lost his point of support, his kind and fair soul protests, cannot survive such violence against common sense. But the war is on, Melekhov understands that he needs to continue killing. Soon his decision changes: he realizes that war kills the best people of his time, that the truth cannot be found among thousands of deaths, Grigory throws down his weapon and returns to his native farm to work on his native land and raise his children. At almost 30 years old, the hero is almost an old man. The path of Melekhov’s search 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 in such young years.
As a result of his search, Melekhov is left alone: Aksinya is killed by his recklessness, he is hopelessly distant from his children, if only because he will bring disaster on them with his closeness. Trying to remain true to himself, he betrays everyone: the warring parties, women, and ideas. This means that he was initially looking in the wrong place. Thinking only about himself, about his “truth,” he did not love and did not serve. At the hour when a strong man’s word was required from him, Gregory could only provide doubts and soul-searching. But the war did not need philosophers, and women did not need a love of wisdom. Thus, Melekhov is the result of the transformation of the “superfluous man” type in the conditions of a severe historical conflict.
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Grigory Melekhov
GRIGORY MELEKHOV is the hero of M.A. Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don” (1928-1940). Some literary scholars are of the opinion that the true author of “The Quiet Don” is the Don writer Fyodor Dmitrievich Kryukov (1870-1920), whose manuscript was subjected to some revision. Doubts about the authorship have been expressed since the novel's appearance in print. In 1974, in Paris, with a foreword by A. Solzhenitsyn, a book by an anonymous author (pseudonym - D*) “The Stirrups of the Quiet Don” was published. In it, the author tries to substantiate this point of view textologically. In 1978 at International Congress Slavists in Zagreb reported the results research work a group of Scandinavian Slavists led by Professor G. Hoteo: their textual analyzes confirmed the authorship of M.A. Sholokhov (the materials were published in the collection “Quiet Flows the Don,” Lessons on the Novel,” 1979).
The prototype of G.M., according to Sholokhov, is “hump-nosed,” like G.M., a Cossack from the Bazki farm (Veshenskaya village) Kharlampiy Vasilyevich Ermakov, whose fate is in many ways similar to the fate of G.M. Researchers, noting that “the image of G.M. is so typical that in every Don Cossack we can find something of him,” the prototype is considered to be G.M. one of the Drozdov brothers - Alexey, a resident of the Pleshakov farm. In Sholokhov's early works the name Grigory appears - “Shepherd” (1925), “Kolovert” (1925), “Path-Road” (1925). These namesakes G.M. are carriers of the ideology of “new life” and die at the hands of its enemies.
G.M. - the image of a typical representative of the social stratum of Don Cossack peasants at the beginning of the 20th century. The main thing in him is a deep attachment to home and agricultural work. This goes with the concept military honor: G.M. - a brave and skillful warrior who earned the rank of officer during the First World War. He absorbed the best features of the Russian national character: openness, straightforwardness, deep inner morality, lack of class arrogance and cold calculation. This is an impulsive, noble nature with a heightened sense of honor.
After the release of the novel, some critics condescendingly considered the creator of the image G.M. to everyday life writers of a “narrow Cossack theme,” others demanded that G.M. “proletarian consciousness,” while others accused the author of defending “kulak life.” In 1939, V. Hoffenscherer was the first to express the opinion that G.M. - the hero is neither positive nor negative, that in his image the peasant problem with the contradictions characteristic of its bearer between the traits of the owner and the working man was concentrated.
G.M. - the central character of a historical epic novel, in which, on a basis as close as possible to documentary, the events that captured Russian Empire at the beginning of XX"Sw., - the first world war, the events of 1917, civil war and victory Soviet power. The behavior of G.M., captured by the flow of these events, dictates the socio-psychological appearance of the environment of which he is a representative. G.M., native Don Cossack, a grain farmer, an ardent patriot of the region, devoid of the desire to conquer and rule, according to the concepts of the time the novel appeared in print, he is a “middle peasant”. As a professional warrior, he is of interest to the warring forces, but pursues only his peasant class goals. The concepts of any discipline other than that which exists in his Cossack military unit are alien to him. Full Knight of St. George in the First World War, during civil war he rushes from one fighting side to the other, eventually coming to the conclusion that the “learned people” have “confused” the working people. Having lost everything, he cannot leave his native land and comes to the only thing dear to him - his father's house, finding hope for the continuation of life in his son.
G.M. personifies the type of noble hero, combining military valor with spiritual subtlety and the ability to feel deeply. The tragedy of his relationship with his beloved woman, Aksinya, lies in his inability to bring their union into agreement with the moral principles accepted among him, which makes him an outcast and separates him from the only way of life acceptable to him. The tragedy of his love is aggravated by his low social status and the ongoing socio-political upheavals. G.M. - main character a great literary work about the fate of a farmer, his life, struggle, psychology. The image of G.M., “a peasant farmer in uniform” (in the words of A. Serafimovich), an image of enormous generalizing power with a clearly expressed, integral, deeply positive individuality of the hero, stood among the most significant in world literature, such as, for example, Andrei Bolkonsky.
Lit.: Dairedzhiev B.L. About "Quiet Don". M., 1962; Kalinin A.V. Time of the Quiet Don. M., 1975; Semanov S.N. "Quiet Don" - literature and history. M., 1977; Kuznetsova N.T., Bashtannik V.S. At the origins of “Quiet Don” // “Quiet Don”: lessons from the novel. Ros-tov-on-Don, 1979; Semanov S.N. In the world of "Quiet Don". M., 1987.
Cossack Grigory Melekhov is one of the central characters of the historical epic novel by Mikhail Sholokhov “Quiet Don”. The storyline of this work is based on his life path, the formation and formation of Melekhov as a person, his love, successes and disappointments, as well as the search for truth and justice.
Difficult life trials befall this simple Don Cossack, because he finds himself in a whirlwind of bloody events of the early twentieth century: the First World War, revolution, civil war in Russia. The millstones of war into which the main character finds himself “grind” and cripple his soul, forever leaving their bloody mark.
Characteristics of the main character
(Pyotr Glebov as Grigory Melekhov, still from the film "Quiet Don", USSR 1958)
Grigory Panteleevich Melekhov is the most ordinary Don Cossack. We first meet him at the age of twenty in his native Tatar village of the Cossack village of Veshenskaya, located on the banks of the Don River. The guy is neither from a rich nor from a poor family, one might say he is average, but he lives in prosperity, he has a younger sister Dunya and an older brother Peter. A quarter Turkish through his grandmother, Melekhov has an attractive and slightly wild appearance: dark skin, a hooked nose, pitch black curly hair, expressive almond-shaped eyes.
At first, Grigory is shown to us as an ordinary guy living on a farm. He has certain household responsibilities and is immersed in his worries and daily activities. He doesn’t particularly worry about his life; he lives as the traditions and customs of the Cossack village dictate. Even the violent passion that flared up between the young Cossack and his married neighbor Aksinya does not change anything in his life. At the insistence of his father, he marries the unloved Natalya Korshunova, and, as is customary among young Cossacks, begins preparations for military service. It turns out that during this period of his quiet and measured life, he weakly and mechanically fulfills what is destined for him, and does not decide anything special in his life.
(Melekhov at war)
However, everything changes when Melekhov finds himself on the battlefields of the First World War. Here he shows himself as a brave and brave warrior, a defender of the Fatherland, for which he receives the well-deserved rank of officer. However, in his soul Melekhov is the most ordinary worker, accustomed to working on the land, taking care of his farm, but war comes and not a shovel, but a gun is placed in his hands, calloused from work, and he is ordered to destroy the enemy. For Gregory, the first killed Austrian came as a real shock, and his death was a tragedy that he experienced again and again. He begins to be tormented by questions about the meaning of the war, why people kill each other and who needs it, what is his personal role in this bloody chaos? So he begins to grow up and live a more conscious life. Little by little his soul hardens and is tempered by difficult trials, but still in its depths he retains both conscience and humanity.
Life throws him from one extreme to another; in the civil war he fights either on the side of the whites, or joins the Budennovsky detachment, or joins bandit formations. He no longer just goes with the flow, but confidently and consciously seeks his path in life. Distinguished by his sharp mind and observation, the “honest to the core” Melekhov immediately sees the deception and empty promises of the Bolsheviks, the bestial cruelty of the bandits and cannot in any way understand the “truth” of the officer-nobles. Only one thing matters to him in this crazy chaos of a fratricidal war, this is his father's house and his usual, peaceful work in his native land.
(Evgeny Tkachuk plays Grigory Melekhov, still from the film "Quiet Don", Russia 2015)
As a result, he escapes from Fomin’s disgusted gang and dreams of returning home and living a quiet life with Aksinya, without killing anyone, but simply working on his land. It is precisely for her that he is ready to shed the last drop of blood, to kill anyone who encroaches on her. This is how the war once changed an ordinary hard worker, who keenly felt the beauty of the surrounding nature and sincerely felt sorry for the duckling he accidentally killed.
On the way home, a huge emotional shock awaits him: Aksinya dies from a bullet, his love collapses, his hope for a happy and free life dies. Crushed and unhappy, he finally reaches the threshold of his home, where he is met by his surviving son and the land, waiting for its owner.
The image of the hero in the work
(Gregory with his son)
The whole truth of that terrible and bloody time in the history of the Cossack Don was shown by the outstanding Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in the image of a simple Cossack Grigory Melekhov. All his contradictions, complex spiritual tossings and experiences are described by the author with amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity.
It is impossible to say unequivocally that Melekhov is a negative or a positive hero. Sometimes his actions are terrible, and sometimes they are noble and generous. A simple Cossack and hard worker, accustomed to work from morning to night, he becomes a hostage of those bloody historical events, which the entire Russian people experienced. The war broke and maimed him, took away his closest and dearest people, forced him to do terrible things, but he did not break and managed to retain in himself those particles of goodness and light that were once in him. In the end he realizes that the most main value for a person this is his family, home and native land, and weapons, murder and death cause only disgust and horror in him.
The image of Melekhov, a simple “peasant farmer in uniform,” embodies the long-suffering fate of the entire simple Russian people, and his difficult life path is a path of struggle, quest, tragic mistakes and bitter experience, and finally knowledge of the truth and oneself.
Sholokhov created a whole gallery of images in his novel “Quiet Don”. The heroes of the novel have become extraordinary characters in world literature.
The most controversial and attractive hero of the book is Grigory Melekhov. In the image of the hero, the author personified individual character traits common man. Melekhov is the most ordinary Cossack who was born into a wealthy family. From early childhood, the hero lives a peasant life. There is a love for nature, pity for all living things. In addition, Gregory is very honest and sincere with everyone. After growing up, he falls in love with Aksinya and forever keeps love in his heart. Aksinya was married. Despite her marriage, Gregory did not try to hide his feelings. Melekhov married Natalya and admitted to her that he did not love her.
The hero stood out as an economical, brave and hard-working guy. Finding himself in the center of the war, the young Cossack behaved like a persistent and brave fighter. He was smart, fearless and determined, and at the same time proud. He always acted with honor and adhered to the principles he learned as a child.
Melekhov joined the ranks of the red revolutionaries. However, upon learning that the revolutionaries supported violence and cruelty, Gregory was greatly disappointed. Before his eyes, the Red Army killed all unarmed prisoners and shot all Cossacks, plundered Cossack villages and raped women.
During the battles, the hero constantly saw the ruthlessness and cruelty of the white and red revolutionaries. Therefore, class hatred seemed meaningless to him. In his soul he wanted peace, love and simple work. Gregory did not know how to understand the contradictions of society. He took everything that happened to heart, and therefore often changed camps. The hero did not know how to understand his thoughts and began to obey the will of other people.
Melekhov did not want to betray his principles and himself and therefore became an outcast in the revolutionary camps. To learn the truth, he joined the ranks of white revolutionaries. He became a stranger to everyone and constantly experienced loneliness.
After some time, he attempted to escape with Aksinya. But on the way, a misfortune happened to his beloved, which led to her death. Together with a strong and brave fighter, Gregory turned into a grief-stricken man who will suffer for the rest of his life.
By the end of the work, Melekhov completely abandoned weapons and war. He returned to his native lands because he could not accept the cruelty of the mortal world.
Option 2
Mikhail Sholokhov wrote an interesting epic novel, Quiet Don. A simple, life-like story about ordinary people who are destined to experience more than just difficulties. Life is difficult, and this is what the author of Quiet Don wanted to show us.
Quiet Don is about ordinary people, one of them was Grigory Melekhov. Gregory's fate is intertwined with many life events. He is the man who has been searching for the truth all his life. He seeks justice, honesty, he wants to know the answers to many life questions. Grigory Melekhov is a contradictory personality, certain people condemn him, and many praise him, nevertheless he is a man, and a man is constantly changing.
It was difficult for him to cope with the realization that he had killed a man. He never imagined that the time would come when he would have to kill. He was looking for the truth, but did not find it either surrounded by whites or surrounded by reds during the Civil War. Thus, we can say that he was not for a certain side, he searched, but never found those who were right in honor...
He was very often unlucky in life. He faced difficulties along the way, but always overcame them. It was difficult, but he managed. Grigory Melekhov got along with many people, he was surrounded by many of his friends. Mikhail Koshevoy can be considered Grigory’s best friend, but it was him best friend kills his brother Gregory. Is it possible to consider Mikhail a friend after this?
But the main interweaving in the epic novel was the love story of Grigory Melekhov. He was a free man and no girl could rein him in. But he was popular among the girls. He had 2 life partners, Aksinya and Natalya. Grigory's parents forced him to marry Natalya, but he could have refused, but did not do so. He claimed, and everyone knew anyway, that he didn’t love Natalya. They still had two children.
Gregory had a lover - Aksinya. She was the inspiration for him. In their relationship there was passion, love, mutual attraction. This was a real relationship, but Grigory still could not decide who he needed to be with - his wife Natalya or his mistress Aksinya. Grigory even delivered Aksinya’s child. They worked in the field, and Aksinya, who was pregnant, also helped. But suddenly contractions begin. He took her into the cart and headed to the village, but didn’t have time to get there and had to deliver the baby himself.
Grigory Melekhov is a controversial character with a very difficult fate, but I personally respect him because he never betrayed his principles. He always strived to achieve truth and justice.
Essay Image and characteristics of Melekhov
In one of Sholokhov's most famous novels, the author, having revealed one of the problems - the relationship between the individual and the people, with special artistic skill showed the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov's life path. The character and beliefs of the hero differ significantly from Peter. The writer, highlighting 19-year-old Grishka from the Melekhov family, shows his amazing attractiveness. Appearance What sets Gregory apart is not what class he belongs to, but his unique character.
As a teenager, he was a hardworking guy with a keen sense of his native nature. Sholokhov’s remarkable abilities, directness and openness are constantly noted. He opposes the hard-heartedness of his villagers, stands up for Aksinya because of her husband’s terrible treatment of her, and is contemptuous of the act of Daria, who kills Kotlyarov without a twinge of conscience.
Gregory sympathizes with those who are always courageous and maintain their dignity in the most dangerous life situations. He always condemned cowardice and weak-willedness and different stages he held on to his quests steadfastly. Gregory's patriotism is especially clearly shown. So, for example, he cannot see the presence of British troops on the Don and speaks disapprovingly of them. Along with the positive qualities of a gifted person, a willful character was discovered early on. As a hard worker, he is drawn to better and new trends, however, his interest in possessiveness draws him back and confuses him in choosing the right path. He hesitates for a long time between two political camps and searches for his own path in the revolution.
The main character cannot figure out his personal relationships either. He is drawn to Natalya by a possessive streak, home comfort, children. Aksinya is close to him with her ardent love and love of freedom. This position of Gregory between two women is explained by the desire to reconcile his love for Aksinya with family traditions. The author showed in the image of Gregory features characteristic of the middle peasants. He showed his views and moods that distinguished the small owner. The tragedy of his fate was manifested in the fact that he was completely lost in his quest, spoke out against historical events, against the people of which he was a native.