Topic: Three generations of the Golovlev family. Image of Judas.

Target: 1) using the example of images of the Golovlev family, show how the writer reveals the process of spiritual degradation of the individual; 2) develop the ability to analyze the actions of the characters in the work and draw conclusions; 3) cultivate a caring attitude towards family values.

Equipment : presentation, excerpt from the film-play “Gentlemen Golovlevs” (Maly Theater 1978)

Lesson type : lesson-seminar

During the classes:

Organizational stage. The topic and purpose of the lesson -slide 1

Teacher's opening speech. In the previous lesson we talked about the history of the creation of the novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs”. And they learned that the work was published in separate stories, episodes: “Family Court”, “Family Joys”, “In a Family Way”, “Family Results”. All the titles of the chapters are directly connected with the thought of family, and the head of the family, Arina Petrovna, the word “family” never leaves her lips.

Drawing up an associative series for the word “family”. What associations arise about you when you hear this word? (write in notebook)

So what is family? A family is a small group based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are bound by a common life, mutual assistance, and moral and legal responsibility.What do you think is the formula for family happiness? The formula for family happiness is love between spouses + love between parents and children + material well-being...

What is missing from this formula for the Golovlev family? Shchedrin shows the destruction of the Golovlev family, doomed to extinction. What leads the Golovlev family to a tragic outcome? Let's try to figure this out.

And let's begin our work by getting to know the life history of each member of the Golovlev family. Who are these gentlemen? Does this meaning of the word correlate with our heroes?

Arina Petrovna Golovleva(student message) - slide 2. (page 9 text) Students form a cluster, reflecting in it the character traits of the heroine, her life position.

Arina Petrovna: a sovereign mistress, despotic, money-grubbing, rude, accustomed to commanding everyone and everyone, a hypocrite, a hypocrite, an “extra mouth,” a creature alien to everyone, leading a hateful life that no one needs. – slide 3.

In the collection of “weak people” of the Golovlev family, the exception is Arina Petrovna Golovleva. A powerful and energetic woman, she flashed like a “random meteor” against the backdrop of “hopeless troubles,” “foulness,” and the drunken troubles of the Golovlev family. The sovereign mistress of the house, she rules the peasants and household members despotically and uncontrollably. Her whole life is devoted to acquisitions. All her life the word “family” never left her tongue, but in the end it turns out that she never had a family. Her husband, a careless and mischievous man, led an idle life and was completely alien to her. She did not call it anything other than “windmill” and “stringless balalaika.” Children are a burden for her; they “did not affect any aspect of her inner being.” She feeds her orphan granddaughters rotten corned beef and persecutes them with reproaches: hateful, beggars, parasites, insatiable wombs. She tyrannizes the courtyard servants, eats them to death; the family trembles before her. Golovlevo, which Arina Petrovna owns, appears to her son Stepan as a “coffin”. “She will eat me up,” he thinks about his mother... There is no one to say a word to, nowhere to run - she is everywhere, imperious, numb, despising. Rudeness and the habit of commanding are perfectly expressed in her speech, in her desire to give nicknames and offensive nicknames to others. “Speak! don’t wag your tail... saddlebag!” - she orders the mayor. “What am I going to do without my toadstools?” - she worries at the first rumors about the abolition of serfdom. To the mayor, who reports that Stepan Vladimirovich is “not good,” she replies: “He’ll probably catch his breath and outlive you and me!” what will happen to him, the lanky stallion! Coughing! Some people have been coughing for thirty years in a row, and it’s like water off a duck’s back!” Rudeness is combined in her character with hypocrisy and hypocrisy. Fearing bad fame, condemnation from neighbors, she takes her orphaned granddaughters into her house and at the same time says: “God has a lot of mercy... God knows not what bread the orphans will eat, but for me in my old age it is a consolation. God took one daughter and gave two!” And at the same time he writes to his son Porfiry: “As your sister lived dissolutely, so she died, leaving her two puppies on my neck...” The image of Arina Petrovna is a typical image. Such characters inevitably arose and developed in the conditions of the estate economy, the uncontrolled disposal of the lives and property of hundreds and thousands of serfs. Such natures could not adapt to new living conditions. With the abolition of serfdom, the “family stronghold erected by the tireless hands of Arina Petrovna” collapses, and she herself becomes a hanger-on in the house of her youngest son. This change also affected her appearance: “Her head drooped, her back hunched, her eyes dimmed, her gait became sluggish, the impetuosity of her movements disappeared.” The nature of her speech also changes, now becoming flattering and pleading. The former sovereign mistress of a huge estate becomes an “extra mouth,” a creature alien to everyone, leading a hateful life that no one needs. After the performance, check the clusters.

Let's see who Arina Petrovna's family consists of. A story about Vladimir Mikhailych ( student message) – slide 4. (page 10 text) Creating a cluster. Vladimir Mikhailych: careless, slacker, mischievous character, composed “free poetry”, “windmill”, “stringless balalaika” - slide 4

The head of the Golovlev family, Vladimir Mikhailych, was known from a young age for his careless and mischievous character... He led an idle and idle life, most often locked himself in his office, imitating the singing of starlings, roosters, etc. and was engaged in composing so-called “free verses,” which Arina Petrovna did not like and called clowns. He called his wife “witch” and “devil”; his wife called her husband “ windmill” and “stringless balalaika” ... “Being in such a relationship, they enjoyed life together for more than forty years, and it never occurred to either of them that such a life contained anything unnatural.” (Checking clusters)

“Arina Petrovna was a little happier with her children.” She had four children: three sons and a daughter. “She didn’t even like to talk about her eldest son and daughter; she was more or less indifferent to her youngest son and only the middle one, Porfish, she didn’t so much love, but seemed to be afraid of.” A story about Stepan Vladimirych(student message) – slide 6. Cluster: Stepan Vladimirych: Styopka the dunce, Styopka the mischievous jester,took root, a hateful, gifted fellow, an impressionable, intelligent person.

(cluster check – slide 7) Text page 11

Stepan Vladimirych, the eldest son, was known in the family as Styopka the dunce and Styopka the mischievous one. He very early became one of the “hateful” and from childhood played the role of a jester in the house. He was a gifted fellow who accepted impressions too readily and quickly. Of the young Golovlevs, he is the most gifted, impressionable and intelligent person, who received a university education and a candidate’s degree. A capable young man receives a university diploma, but does not want to work, and becomes a hanger-on and beggar for the rich men in the city—his mother’s serfs. Issued to him on account of his inheritance apartment building he went on a spree and joined the militia. But even there it turned out to be unsuitable. All this physically and morally wore him out, making him a man who lives with the feeling that he, like a worm, is about to “die of hunger.” And before him is the only fatal road - to his native, but hateful Golovlevo, to bow to his mother. On this slide we see how the hateful man walks along the Golovlev land, along that hateful land that gave birth to him hateful, nurtured him hateful, released him hateful, and again accepts the hateful man into its bosom. “Stepan Golovlev is not yet forty years old, but in appearance he cannot be given less than fifty. Life has worn him out to such an extent that it has not left on him any sign of a noble son.” Stepan's fate is a half-starved existence, loneliness, complete oblivion (“no one to say a word to, nowhere to run”), lack of at least some faith, mental strength, binge drinking and death.

A story about Anna, the eldest in the family after Stepan. Text page 13. – read.

After Stepan Vladimirovich, the eldest member of the Golovlev family was a daughter, Anna Vladimirovna, about whom Arina Petrovna did not like to talk.

“The fact is that Annushka not only did not live up to her hopes, but instead created a scandal throughout the entire district: in one beautiful night, fled from Golovlev with the cornet Ulanov and married him.

So without parental blessing, just like the dogs got married! - Arina Petrovna complained on this occasion... And Arina Petrovna acted with her daughter just as decisively as with her hateful son: she took it and “threw out a piece of it to her.” She separated her capital of five thousand and the village of Pogorelka of thirty souls with a fall O yu estate, in which there was a draft from all the windows and there was not a single living floorboard. After two years, the young capital lived, and the cornet fled to God knows where, leaving Anna Vladimirovna with two daughters - twins: Anninka and Lyubinka. Then Anna Vladimirovna herself died three months later, and Arina Petrovna, willy-nilly, had to shelter the orphans at home. Which she did, placing the little ones in the outbuilding.”

5) Younger children: Pavel and Porfiry. The story of Paul ( student message )

Text page 15. Cluster: Pavel: “didn’t offend anyone,” “didn’t say a rude word to anyone,” “didn’t look askance at anyone,” was afraid of his mother like fire” (cluster check, slide 8)

The youngest son, Pavel, “even as a boy did not express the slightest inclination to study, or to play, or to be sociable, but he loved to live alone, alienated from people.” Maybe he was kind, but he didn’t do any good to anyone, maybe he wasn’t stupid, but he didn’t do a single smart thing in his whole life. To top it all off, he often snapped at his mother and at the same time feared her like fire. After Arina Petrovna moved to Dubrovino with him, Pavel Vladimirych received her quite tolerably, that is, he undertook to feed and water her and his orphans - his nieces. But Pavel Vladimirych drank. Passion received that terrible development that was supposed to lead to an inevitable end. Having retired to himself, Pavel Vladimirych hated the company of living people and created for himself a special fantastic reality... He drank and remembered. He recalled all the insults and humiliations that he had to endure thanks to Porfiry’s claim to dominance in the house. In particular, he remembered the division of property, counted every penny, compared every piece of land and hated it. In this way, days after days passed, until, finally, Pavel Vladimirych found himself face to face with a mortal illness. During his life, no one paid attention to Pavel Vladimirych, but with his death, everyone felt sorry for him. They recalled that he “didn’t offend anyone,” “didn’t say a rude word to anyone,” “didn’t look askance at anyone.” It is very possible that the comparison with Porphyry was unclearly involved in the worldly assessment of the qualities of the late Paul. How does this person make you feel? Why?

Arina Petrovna’s beloved son is Porfiry Vladimirych Golovlev, whose prototype was M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s brother Dmitry . The story of Porfiria(student message) – slide 9. Text page 14. Cluster: Porfiry Golovlev: Judas, blood drinker, frank boy, hypocrite, idle talker, liar, predator, “well-bred son”, “caring brother”, “child-loving father”. (cluster check – slide 10). This man chose hypocrisy as his weapon. Under the guise of a sweet and sincere person, he achieves his goals and gathers family property around himself. His low soul rejoices at the misfortunes of his brothers and sisters, and when they die, he receives sincere pleasure in the division of property. In relations with his children, he also thinks first of all about money - and his sons cannot stand it. Porfiry never allows himself to say something rude or caustic. He is polite, feignedly sweet and caring, endlessly argues, makes mellifluous speeches, and weaves verbal intrigues. People see his deceit, but succumb to it. Even Arina Petrovna herself cannot resist them. But at the end of the novel, Judas also comes to his downfall. He becomes incapable of anything except idle talk. For whole days he bores everyone with conversations that no one listens to. If the servant turns out to be sensitive to his “verbal language” and nagging, then he tries to run away from the owner. Judushka’s tyranny becomes more and more petty, he also drinks like his late brothers, and for entertainment he spends all day remembering minor insults or minimal miscalculations in the household in order to “sorry” them. Meanwhile, the real economy is not developing and is falling into desolation and decay. At the end of the novel, Judas has a terrible epiphany: “We need to forgive everyone... What... what happened?! Where… is everyone?!” But the family, divided by hatred, coldness and the inability to forgive, is already destroyed.

Fragment from the film-play “The Golovlevs” (Maly Theater 1978) “Judas at the bedside of the dying Paul” (46 minutes) What are your impressions? It seems that Porfiry came to his brother with affection and consolation, tries to cheer him up, kneels down, prays, but in fact he is interested in one question: has his brother made an order regarding the estate? Who will get the capital?

The role of the portrait of Judas in revealing the image:

“His face was bright, tender, breathing humility and joy,” sometimes it “turned pale and took on a threatening expression.”

His eyes “shined”, “exuded a charming poison”, “throwing a noose.”

The gaze "the gaze seemed mysterious."

The secret of the name: Judas is the one who hides a bunch of vices (hypocrisy, meanness, empty talk, ruthlessness, worthlessness) under the guise of virtue.

"Under the Mask of Virtue." Three masks of Judas

"THE BLESSED SON": Feigned deference as a way to get a tasty morsel is what it is simplest truth, which sunk into Porfisha’s childish soul, developing more and more in the future, made him a hypocrite and predator. If in childhood Judas received the best pieces at the table for his filial devotion, then later he received the “best part” for this during the division of the estate. He became the owner of Golovlev, took over all his mother’s capital, doomed this once formidable and powerful mistress to abandonment and lonely dying, while remembering Christ through every word and accompanying his vile actions with prayers and pious speeches. He became the ruler of all Golovlev’s wealth.

"CARING BROTHER": The most selfless champion of justice, a peacemaker in words, calling for everything to be resolved “harmoniously and peacefully,” Judas incites civil strife in the family, acting “in a kindred manner,” “divinely,” “according to the law.” He is a hypocrite - an empty talker, covering up his insidious plans against his relatives with feigned affectionate chatter about trifles. At the same time, he does not say what he thinks, he does not say what he acts. The contradiction between the well-intentioned reasoning and the dirty aspirations of Judas is striking. He pretends to be a loving brother and watches with pleasure the deaths of Stepan and Pavel, taking their capital into his hands. The bloodsucker keeps the relatives around him in fear, dominates them, defeats them and brings them death.

"CHILDREN'S LOVING FATHER": Judushka Golovlev was incapable “not only of affection, but also of simple regret.” His moral numbness was so great that without the slightest shudder he doomed each of his three sons to death in turn. The eldest son Vladimir committed suicide by marrying without his father's consent. Peter dies in Siberia, having received no help from his father in paying off his gambling debt. He sends his youngest son, born to a maid, to an orphanage, to which the child most likely never made it. Judas throws the boys into life like puppies into the water, and leaves them to “float out”, not caring about their future fate.

Working with a table which reflects the character traits of Judas, which are not inherent to him, it is just a mask. I suggest you indicate true face the main character of the novel.

Words for reference: selfishness; immorality; cruel and inhumane, absolutely unjust and wrong acts of thought; disregard for the most important Christian commandments; empty-headed; slacker; anger, indifference .

MASK

TRUE FACE

Anger, indifference

Love for others, kindred feelings

“Correct” and “fair” reasoning

cruel and inhumane, absolutely unfair and wrong actions

High moral morals

immorality

Religious, God-fearing person

disregard for the most important Christian commandments

Worker (eternal and tireless)

slacker, empty-headed

Conclusion: Judas is characterized by a tendency to idle talk; he is overcome by the demon of money-grubbing, hoarding, combined with eternal pretense, a passion for torturing his victims. In Judushka one can discern Plyushkin’s monstrous stinginess, Sobakevich’s predatory fight, Korobochka’s pathetic hoarding, Manilov’s sugary idle talk, Nozdryov’s shameless lies, and even Chichikov’s roguish ingenuity. But his main weapon is hypocrisy. He lies endlessly and immediately swears: “I love the truth.” He is vindictive and vindictive, but claims: “I forgive everyone.” Causing harm to everyone around him, he declares: “I wish everyone good.” A belated conscience returned to Porfiry Vladimirovich, and the author proves this with his attitude towards the hero. Towards the end of the novel, he practically does not call him Judas. The hero sincerely understands that with the death of his mother, the last thread connecting him with the outside world is cut off. All his dead relatives pass before his eyes, and human feelings manifest themselves to the last creature from the Golovlev family - Anninka. “You need to forgive me! for everyone... And for yourself... for those who don’t exist!” The author could not allow reconciliation with evil. Evil cannot go unpunished, and the most terrible execution is a belated conscience. That's why this satirical novel has tragic motives. These problems are eternal than more people forgets true values life: goodness, love, mutual assistance, honest work - the more irrevocably further his conscience moves away from him, the more terrible the retribution for the past.

A story about the younger generation of the Golovlev family: Volodenka, Petenka, Anninka, Lyubinka(student messages) – slide 11Judushka’s nieces are representatives of the last generation of Golovlevs. They try to escape from the oppressive atmosphere of the family, at first they succeed. They work, play in the theater and are proud of it. But they were not accustomed to consistent, persistent activity. Nor were they taught moral fortitude or firmness in life. Lyubinka is ruined by her cynicism and prudence, taken from her grandmother, and she herself pushes her sister into the abyss. From actresses, the “Pogorelsky sisters” become kept women, then almost prostitutes. Anninka, more morally purer, more soulful, selfless and kind-hearted, stubbornly clings to life. But she, too, breaks down, and after Lyubinka’s suicide, sick and drinking, she returns to Golovlevo “to die.”

How does the composition of a novel help us understand its ideological content?

Each chapter ends with the death of one of the Golovlevs. “Family Court” - Stepan Vladimirovich dies, “In a related way” - Pavel Vladimirovich and Vladimir Mikhailovich die, “Family Results” - the suicide of Volodya, the son of Porfiry Golovlev, “Niece” - Arina Petrovna and Peter die, last son Porfiria, “Reckoning” - Porfiry Golovlev dies, Lyubinka commits suicide, the last in the Golovlev family, Anninka, agonizes. The ring composition of the novel ends with the fact that Nadezhda Ivanovna Galkina, the daughter of Varvara Mikhailovna’s aunt, was vigilantly watching over the Golovlev estate, and the author speaks about this with pain in his soul, since we can assume that the passion for hoarding will destroy the following heroes.

What impression did this work make on you?

Is the novel relevant today? How?

The problem of human relations posed in the novel is relevant at all times, especially today, when money becomes the main value. People are in such conditions under which they are forced to put conscience, shame and pride in the background in order to survive in this cruel world.

Stage of information about d/z: write an essay“What lessons did you learn by passing through your soul the story of the heroes of the novel “The Golovlevs”?

Among the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, an outstanding place belongs to the socio-psychological novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” (1875-1880). The plot of this novel is based on tragic story of the landowner Golovlev family. Three generations of Golovlevs pass before the readers. In the life of each of them, Shchedrin sees “three characteristic features”: “idleness, unsuitability for any work and hard drinking. The first two brought with them idle talk, dullness, emptiness, the latter was, as it were, a mandatory conclusion to the general turmoil of life.”

The novel "The Golovlevs" was written Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1880. In this work, created in the form of a classic novel, the writer develops the theme of family. This question was very relevant at the end of the 19th century. It was actively discussed in the literature. Basically, the family was perceived as the main unit of society. According to L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev, for example, the strength of the state depended on it. Saltykov-Shchedrin thought differently. About the idea of ​​the novel “The Golovlevs,” he wrote: “I turned to the family, to property, to the state and made it clear that there was none of this available...” In his work, the writer decided to show how idleness and the desire for hoarding lead to the destruction of the family .

The novel "The Golovlevs" shows the story of degeneration noble family(“history of the dead”) using the example of three generations of the Golovlev family. Older generation This family is represented by Arina Petrovna - the mother of the family, a cruel landowner and a despotic, powerful woman. “Arina Petrovna is a woman of about sixty, but still vigorous and accustomed to living at her own discretion. She behaves threateningly: she single-handedly and uncontrollably manages the vast Golovlevsky estate, lives solitary, prudently, almost stingily, does not make friends with her neighbors, is kind to local authorities, and demands from her children that they be so obedient to her that they ask questions for every action. yourself: mummy will say something about this.” Everyone is afraid of Arina Petrovna: both neighbors and family. Her frivolous husband, who does not interfere in anything, prefers to do all sorts of stupid things, just so as not to see what his wife is doing. Children, especially those who fall into the “hateful” category, hate a mother who destroys her children. In general, the theme of death and extinction is one of the main themes of the novel. It is intensified by the words of Arina Petrovna, sounding on almost all pages of the novel: “And for whom did I save it! I didn’t get enough sleep at night, I didn’t have enough to eat... for whom?”

In each chapter of the work, one of the Golovlevs dies. The first chapter shows the death of Stepan Golovlev's eldest son. We can say that he died in childhood, when his mother constantly belittled him and made a jester out of the boy, “Stepka the dunce.” Having very good inclinations, the adult Stepan was unable to find his place in life; he became a hangover. “Family Court” shows the return of the eldest son to Golovlevo. Stepan goes there for the Last Judgment, the court of his mother. All he can think about in his head is: “will eat”, “seize”, “coffin”, “crypt”. This is what happens. The mother does not allow her son to visit her. Stepan lives separately, eats leftovers from his mother’s table, does absolutely nothing, just looks for an opportunity to drink and smoke. Such absolute inaction destroys the hero. Eventually Stepan plunges into the “black cloud” and dies.

In the second chapter of the novel - “In a related way” - the Golovlevs’ middle son, Pavel, dies. The author characterizes him as follows: “... he often snapped at his mother and at the same time feared her like fire... he was a gloomy person, but behind his gloominess there was a lack of action - and nothing more.” In Pavel we see the same lack of will, depression and uncertainty, as a result - the same addiction to vodka as in Stepan.

It is interesting that all the Golovlev children die on their estate. This emphasizes, in my opinion, the doom of noble estates, behind whose walls such worthless people as the Golovlevs live.

It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that before his death Pavel sees a “shadow in the corner”, which develops into the figure of his younger brother Porfiry, nicknamed in the family “Judas”, “blood drinker” and “frank boy”. For Paul it brings him closer to death itself.

The image of Judas is the main one in the novel. He became the destroyer of the Golovlev family. Throughout the entire novel, Porfiry Vladimirovich “collects” the Golovlevs’ wealth in his own hands through the death of relatives. This is the meaning of his life. For this sake, the “blood drinker” will not spare anyone: neither her brothers, nor her mother, nor her own son, whom he sends to an orphanage to certain death. Saltykov-Shchedrin conveys the moral decay of the hero through his speech, “verbal pus”, “some kind of itching” that exhausts the whole soul from a person. Judas speaks in diminutive and affectionate words, constantly turning to God: “Well, well, well! calm down, darling! I know that you don’t like to talk about it! Yes, brother, you have always been a bad Christian and now you remain the same. But it wouldn’t be bad, oh, it wouldn’t be bad to think about your soul at such a moment! After all, our soul... oh, how carefully we need to handle it, my friend!” But behind the hypocritical unctuousness lies a calculating and cruel money-grubber, thinking only about his own benefit.

The chapter “Escapee” shows the complete spiritual collapse of Judas. He is on the verge of madness. The hero lives in a fictional world, where he sees himself as the owner of a huge estate, a very influential person. In reality, Porfiry is a pitiful sight - wild, unshaven, in a tattered robe with shreds coming out.

Soon after the moral death of Judas comes physical death. Before this, he experiences an awakening of conscience, like the other Golovlev brothers. Porfiry sees shadows of deceased relatives. The hero feels pity for his niece Anninka and even strokes her on the head, which is simply unheard of for him. Moreover, he feels guilty for the death of his kind - the “human nest”. Judas's conscience begins to torment him. He cannot stand such torture. At night, on the way to his mother’s grave, Porfiry Vladimirovich freezes.

Thus, all members of the Golovlev family die: Arina Petrovna and her husband, their sons and grandchildren. The author's verdict is inexorable: a life devoted to idleness and hoarding is doomed to death.

It should be noted that Saltykov-Shchedrin creates his own image of a noble estate. It differs from the image created in Russian literature of the 19th century. For Saltykov-Shchedrin Noble Nest- this is “the smell of decay, the dead, ruin.” The writer believes that the death of the noble class is inevitable. His destructive lifestyle is detrimental to both society and family.

The novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” is a vicious satire on the noble class. With inexorable truthfulness, Shchedrin paints a picture of the destruction of the noble family, reflecting the decline, decay, and doom of the serf owners. The whole meaning of the Golovlevs’ life lies in acquisitiveness, accumulation of wealth and the fight for this wealth. The suspicion, soulless cruelty, hypocrisy, and mutual hatred reigning in this family are striking. Arina Petrovna's acquisition activities, based on squeezing the last juice out of a man, are carried out under the pretext of increasing the family's wealth, but in fact - only to assert personal power. Even her own children are for her extra mouths that need to be fed, on which part of her fortune needs to be spent. The calm and ruthlessness with which Arina Petrovna watches as her children go bankrupt and die in poverty are amazing. And only at the end of her life did she face a bitter question: for whom did she live?

Arina Petrovna’s despotic power and the children’s financial dependence on their mother’s arbitrariness instilled in them deceit and servility. Porfiry Golovlev was especially distinguished by these qualities, who received the nicknames “Judas” and “blood drinker” from other family members. From childhood, Judas managed to entangle his “dear friend, Mama,” in a web of lies and sycophancy, and during her lifetime he took possession of all the wealth. The son turned out to be worthy of his mother's upbringing.

The history of the Golovlev family testified to the historical pattern of degeneration of the nobility. Mother and son are two links in one chain, the soullessness and despotism of one gives rise to the hypocrisy and cruelty of the second.

When you try to take in with your mind's eye all the infinite number of satirical characters that rise before us from the pages of the works of M.E. Shchedrin, then at first you even get lost: there are so many of them and they are so diverse. One of Shchedrin’s most famous satirical characters is Judushka Golovlev, main character novel "Gentlemen Golovlevs".

What attracted everyone's attention was Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev - a handsome man with soft, insinuating manners and unctuously affectionate speech? What is this satirical image, recognized as a classic immediately after the publication of the novel?

In the very first chapter of the novel, we are faced with a characterization of Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev: “Porfiry Vladimirovich,” writes Shchedrin, “was known in the family under three names: Judas, blood drinker and frank boy. From his infancy, he loved to caress his dear friend, his mother, and steal a kiss. on her shoulder, and sometimes even slightly whisper to her. she was somehow suspicious of these filial ingratiations. And then this gaze fixed intently on her seemed mysterious to her, and then she could not determine for herself what exactly he was exuding: poison or filial piety.” These nicknames immediately reveal the essence of the hero. Porfiry was not Judas, but rather Judas. He was devoid of the scope that distinguished the gloomy figure depicted in the Gospel. Judas did not commit a single major offense in his entire life.

Betrayal is an integral property of his personality. He betrays everyone and always. But both his personality and his actions are so petty, everyday, everyday that they cause not so much indignation as a feeling of disgust and disgust. Judas is a hypocrite, a hypocrite, a dirty talker and an empty talker. Judas is a product of the materialization of rotten fumes from Golovlev’s nest. Having served for more than thirty years in the department, he perfectly mastered the formal, ostentatious efficiency that is so valued by his superiors. Judas rose to the rank of general.

Having retired and settled in Golovlev, he completely surrendered to uncontrolled idleness, which had “all the external forms of assiduous, backbreaking labor.” There was something spider-like in Judas’s grasp, in the way she attacked her victim. Judas, having identified her next victim, begins to circle around her and lull her vigilance with the sticky molasses of verbal pus. Therefore, Judushka’s speech is dominated by diminutive, endearing suffixes and lisping phrases. He almost never says: God, man, butter, bread. In his mouth, the words constantly take on an unctuous, lisping form: god, little man, butter, bread.

Acting as a bloodsucker, he frames his actions as an evil moneylender so that in form they look like an act of Christian beneficence. This is what he always does. He doesn’t need that no one believes in the holiness of his actions. It is important for him that everything is as it should be in form. Judas robbed his own mother and drove her out of the house, but did all this while maintaining the appearance of the most devoted filial piety. In life, Judas is an actor. He constantly plays a role in the comedy he staged, and always the most vile one. Judas is religious, but he is also a hypocrite with God, willingly participating in playing out the ritual side of religion. He knows a lot of common aphorisms, well-worn truisms, with which he protects himself from the need to make decisions that he does not like.

Petenka, a young officer and the only surviving son of Judushka, unexpectedly arrives in Golovlevo. The father decides in advance: if his son came for money, he should refuse. He rehearses the scene of the upcoming conversation, selects aphorisms from which, like impenetrable armor, all reasons bounce off. Having received no help from her father, Petenka dies. When his eldest son, Volodya, shot himself under similar circumstances, Judushka served a memorial service for him. He did the same this time. No remorse, no remorse: he acted according to the law. Judas loves to refer to laws. The law, like God, which never leaves his tongue, is his moral support, or rather, the basis of his immoral philosophy.

The end of Judas is natural. He, who has revered church rituals all his life, dies without repentance. In the dead of night Porfiry went to say goodbye to his mother’s grave, and in the morning they found a frozen corpse covered with wet snow by the road. It turned out that Judas’s conscience was not completely absent, but was only suppressed and forgotten. But it was already too late. He had been sinning for too long for anything to be changed and corrected. With this final touch, testifying to the author’s ability to penetrate into the most hidden depths of human psychology, Saltykov-Shchedrin summed up the gloomy and complicated story degradation of personality in the bourgeois world.

Among the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, an outstanding place belongs to the socio-psychological novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” (1875-1880).

The basis of the plot of this novel is the tragic story of the landowner Golovlev family. Three generations of Golovlevs pass before the readers. In the life of each of them, Shchedrin sees “three characteristic features”: “idleness, unsuitability for any work and hard drinking. The first two brought with them idle talk, dullness, emptiness, the latter was, as it were, a mandatory conclusion to the general turmoil of life.”

The novel opens with the chapter “Family Court.” It contains the plot of the entire novel. Life, living passions and aspirations, energy are still noticeable here. The center of this chapter is Arina Petrovna Golov-leva, formidable to everyone around her, an intelligent landowner-serf, an autocrat in the family and on the farm, physically and morally completely absorbed in the energetic, persistent struggle to increase wealth. Porfiry here is not yet an “escheat” person. His hypocrisy and idle talk cover up a certain practical goal - to deprive brother Stepan of the right to a share in the inheritance.

A strong reproach to Golovlevism is Stepan, his dramatic death, which ends the first chapter of the novel. Of the young Golovlevs, he is the most gifted, impressionable and intelligent person who received a university education. But from childhood, he experienced constant oppression from his mother, and was known as a hateful son-clown, “Styopka the dunce.” As a result, he turned out to be a man with a slavish character, capable of being anyone: a drunkard, even a criminal.

In the next chapter - “Kindly” - the action takes place ten years after the events described in the first chapter. But how the faces and relationships between them have changed! The imperious head of the family, Arina Petrovna, turned into a modest and powerless hanger-on in the house of Pavel Vladimirovich’s youngest son in Dubravin. Judushka - Porfiry took possession of the Golovlevsky estate. He now becomes almost the main figure of the story. As in the first chapter, here too we're talking about about the death of another representative of the young Golovlevs - Pavel Vladimirovich.

Subsequent chapters of the novel tell about the spiritual disintegration of personality and family ties, about “deaths.” The third chapter - “Family Results” - includes a message about the death of Porfiry Golovlev’s son, Vladimir. The same chapter shows the reason for the later death of Judas’s other son, Peter. It tells about the spiritual and physical withering of Arina Petrovna, about the savagery of Judushka himself.

In the fourth chapter - “Niece” - Arina Petrovna and Peter, the son of Judas, die. In the fifth chapter - “Illegal family joys” - there is no physical death, but Judushka kills the maternal feeling in Evprakseyushka.

In the climactic sixth chapter - “Escapee” - we are talking about the spiritual death of Judas, and in the seventh comes his physical death(here we talk about Lyubinka’s suicide, about Anninka’s death agony).

The life of the youngest, third generation of Golovlevs turned out to be especially short-lived. The fate of the sisters Lyubinka and Anninka is indicative. They escaped from their cursed nest, dreaming of serving high art. But the sisters were not prepared for the harsh struggle of life for the sake of high goals. The disgusting, cynical provincial environment absorbed and destroyed them.

The most tenacious among the Golovlevs turns out to be the most disgusting, the most inhumane of them - Judushka, “a pious dirty tricker”, “a stinking ulcer”, “a blood drinker”.

Shchedrin not only predicts the death of Judas, he also sees his strength, the source of his vitality. Judas is a nonentity, but this empty-hearted man oppresses, torments and torments, kills, dispossesses, destroys. It is he who is the direct or indirect cause of the endless “deaths” in the Golovlevsky house.

In the first chapters of the novel, Judas is in a state of binge of hypocritical idle talk. It is the most characteristic feature of Porfiry’s nature. With his unctuous, deceitful words, he torments the victim, mocks human personality, above religion and morality, the sanctity of family ties.

In the following chapters, Judas acquires new features. He plunges into the soul-devastating world of trifles and trifles. But everything died out around Judushka. He was left alone and fell silent. Idle talk and idle talk lost their meaning: there was no one to lull and deceive, tyrannize and kill. And Judas begins a binge of lonely idle thoughts, misanthropic landowner dreams. In his delusional fantasy, he loved to “torture, ruin, dispossess, “suck blood.”

The hero comes to a break with reality, with real life. Judas becomes an escheat, a terrible dust, a living dead. But he wanted complete deafness, which would completely abolish any idea of ​​life and throw him into the void. This is where the need for a drunken binge arises. But in final chapter Shchedrin shows how a wild, driven and forgotten conscience awoke in Judushka. She illuminated to him all the horror of his treacherous life, all the hopelessness and doom of his situation. An agony of repentance set in, mental turmoil arose, acute feeling his guilt before people, a feeling appeared that everything around him was hostilely opposing him, and then the idea of ​​the need for “violent self-destruction”, suicide, matured.

In the tragic denouement of the novel, Shchedrin’s humanism in understanding the social nature of man was most clearly revealed, the confidence was expressed that even in the most disgusting and degraded person, it is possible to awaken conscience and shame, to realize the emptiness, injustice and futility of one’s life.

The image of Judushka Golovlev has become a global type of traitor, liar and hypocrite.

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin knew Russia perfectly. The truth of his powerful words awakened and formed the self-awareness of readers, calling them to fight. The writer did not know the real ways to the happiness of the people. But his intense search prepared the way for the future.

Shchedrin called Lord Golovleva's novel episodes from the life of one family. Each chapter is a complete story about a family event. And they appeared in print gradually, as independent essays. The idea of ​​a single novel did not arise immediately. However, this complete work, which is based on the story of the collapse of a family and the death of all its members. Each chapter tells about the death of one of the representatives of the Golovlev family, about death, since, in fact, murders are being committed before our eyes. The history of the dead shows that there is no family at all, that family ties are only an appearance, only a form, that all members of the Golovlev family hate each other and wait for the death of loved ones in order to become their heirs. This is an escheat, that is, a race doomed to extinction.

Shchedrin names three characteristic features: idleness, unsuitability for any work and binge drinking. The first two led to idle talk, dullness and emptiness, the latter was, as it were, a mandatory conclusion to the general turmoil of life. Chapter Family Labor is the beginning of the whole novel; life, living passions and aspirations, energy are still noticeable here. But the basis of all this is zoological egoism, selfishness of owners, animal morals, soulless individualism. In the center of this chapter, Arina Petrovna Golovleva, formidable to everyone around her, is an intelligent landowner-serf, an autocrat in the family and on the farm, physically and morally completely absorbed in the energetic, persistent struggle to increase wealth. Porfiry here is not yet an escapist person. He is known in the family under three names: Judas, the bloodsucker, the outspoken boy.

Judas is a hypocrite not out of evil selfish calculation, but rather by nature. From childhood, he obediently and deeply internalized the unwritten principle of life: to be like everyone else, to act as is customary, in order to protect himself from criticism good people. This was no longer an outright hypocrisy, but a mechanical adherence to a code created by the tradition of hypocrisy.

His hypocrisy is senseless, unconscious, without a banner, as Shchedrin said, without a far-reaching goal. This is truly hypocrisy over trifles, which has become second nature to him. His idle talk covers up a certain practical goal of depriving his brother Stepan of the right to a share in the inheritance.

The entire existence of the landowner's nest is unnatural and meaningless, from the point of view of truly human interests, hostile creative life, creative work, morality, something dark and destructive lurks in the depths of this empty life. The reproach of Golovlevism is Stepan, whose dramatic death ends the first chapter of the novel. Of the young Golovlevs, he is the most gifted, impressionable and intelligent person who received a university education. But from childhood, the boy experienced constant oppression from his mother, and was known as a hateful son-clown, Styopka the dunce.

As a result, he turned out to be a man with a slavish character, capable of being anyone: a drunkard and even a criminal. Stepan's student life was also difficult. The absence of a working life, the voluntary buffoonery of rich students, and then the empty departmental service in St. Petersburg, resignation, revelry, and finally, an unsuccessful attempt to escape in the militia, physically and morally wore him out, turned him into a person who lives with the feeling that he, like a worm, is here... he'll die of hunger.

And before him remained the only fatal road to his native, but hateful Golovlevo, where complete loneliness, despair, hard drinking, and death awaited him. Of the entire second generation of the family, Stepan turned out to be the most unstable, the most lifeless. In the next chapter, Kindred takes place ten years after the events described in the first chapter. But how the characters and the relationships between them have changed! The imperious head of the family, Arina Petrovna, turned into a modest and powerless hanger-on in the house of her youngest son, Pavel Vladimirovich, in Dubrovnik.

Judushka took possession of the Golovlevsky estate. He now becomes almost the main figure of the story. As in the first chapter, here we also talk about the death of another representative of the young Golovlevs, Pavel Vladimirovich. Shchedrin shows that the initial cause of his premature death was his native but disastrous estate. He was not a hateful son, but he was forgotten, they did not pay attention to him, considering him a fool.

Paul fell in love with life apart, in embittered alienation from people; he had no inclinations or interests; he became the living personification of a person devoid of any actions. Then fruitless formal military service, retirement and lonely life in Dubrovnik, idleness, apathy towards life, towards family ties, even towards property, and finally, some senseless and fantastic bitterness destroyed, dehumanized Paul, led him to binge drinking and physical death. Subsequent chapters of the novel also tell about the spiritual disintegration of personality and family ties, about deaths.

Along with this, in Family Summary, the author undertakes to explain to us how his hero differs from the common type of conscious hypocrites: Judas is simply a man devoid of any moral standard and who does not know any other truth than that which is listed in the ABCs. He was ignorant without boundaries, a litigator, a liar, an empty talker and, to top it all off, he was afraid of the devil. All this negative qualities, which by no means can provide solid material for real hypocrisy. The author reveals his view of Porfiry Golovlev with great clarity: Judas is not just a hypocrite, but a dirty tricker, a liar and an empty talker. Porfiry Vladimirych is characterized by complete moral ossification - this is the main diagnosis of the satirical writer.

This is one of the clues to the acquisitive zeal of Shchedrin’s hero. But this, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, is the source of a terrible tragedy for a person and his loved ones. The death of Porfiry Golovlev's son Vladimir is not accidental in this chapter. It is told here about the spiritual and physical decline of Arina Petrovna, about the savagery of Judushka himself.

The fate of the sisters Lyubinka and Anninka is indicative. They escaped from their cursed nest, dreaming of an independent, honest working life, of serving high art. But the sisters, who were formed in the hateful Golovlev nest and received an operetta education at the institute, were not prepared for the harsh struggle of life for the sake of lofty goals.

The disgusting, cynical provincial environment absorbed and destroyed them. The most tenacious among the Golovlevs turns out to be the most disgusting, the most inhuman of them, Judas, a pious dirty tricker, a stinking ulcer, a “blood drinker.” Shchedrin not only predicts the death of Porfiry.

The writer does not at all want to say that Judas is just a nonentity who will be easily eliminated by the progressive development of an ever-renewing life that does not tolerate deadness. Shchedrin also sees the strength of the Judas, the sources of their special vitality. Yes, Golovlev is a nonentity, but this empty-headed man oppresses, torments and torments, kills, dispossesses, destroys. It is he who is the direct or indirect cause of the endless death toll in the Golovlevsky house. Repeatedly the writer emphasizes in his novel that the immense despotism of Arina Petrovna and the uterine, death-bringing hypocrisy of Judushka did not receive a rebuff and found favorable soil for their free triumph. This is what kept Porfiry in life. His strength lies in resourcefulness, in the far-sighted cunning of a predator.

How he, the serf-owner, deftly adapts to the spirit of the times, to new ways of getting rich! Most wild landowner of old times merges in him with the world-eating fist. And this is the strength of Judas.

Finally, he has powerful allies in the form of law, religion and prevailing customs. Judas looks at them as his faithful servants. For him, religion is not an inner conviction, but a ritual convenient for deception and curbing. And the law for him is a bridling, punishing force, serving only the strong and oppressing the weak. Family relationships are also just a formality. There is nothing true in them high feeling, no warm participation. They serve the same oppression and deception.

Shchedrin called the novel "The Golovlevs" "episodes from the life of one family." Each chapter is a complete story about a family event. And they appeared in print gradually, as independent essays. The idea of ​​a single novel did not arise immediately. Nevertheless, this is a holistic work, based on the story of the collapse of a family and the death of all its members. Each chapter tells about the death of one of the representatives of the Golovlev family, about “death,” since, in fact, murders are being committed before our eyes. “The History of the Dead” testifies to the fact that there is no family at all, that family ties are only an appearance, only a form, that all members of the Golovlev family hate each other and wait for the death of loved ones in order to become their heirs. This is an “escheat”, that is, a race doomed to extinction.

Shchedrin names “three characteristic traits”: “idleness, unsuitability for any work and hard drinking. The first two led to idle talk, dullness and empty-mindedness, the latter was, as it were, a mandatory conclusion of the general turmoil in life.”

The chapter “Family Labor” is the beginning of the entire novel - life, living passions and aspirations, energy are still noticeable here.

But the basis of all this is zoological egoism, selfishness of owners, animal morals, soulless individualism. In the center of this chapter is Arina Petrovna Golovleva, formidable to everyone around her, an intelligent landowner-serf, an autocrat in the family and on the farm, physically and morally completely absorbed in the energetic, persistent struggle to increase wealth. Porfiry here is not yet an “escheat” person. He is known in the family under three names: Judushka, “blood drinker”, “frank boy”. Judas is a hypocrite not out of evil selfish calculation, but rather by nature. From childhood, he obediently and deeply internalized the unwritten principle of life: to be like everyone else, to act as is customary, in order to “protect himself from the criticism of good people.” This was no longer outright hypocrisy, but a mechanical adherence to the “code created by the tradition of hypocrisy.” His hypocrisy is meaningless, unconscious, without a “banner,” as Shchedrin said, without a far-reaching goal. This is truly hypocrisy over trifles, which has become second nature to him.

His idle talk covers up a certain practical goal - to deprive brother Stepan of the right to a share in the inheritance. The entire existence of the landowner's nest is unnatural and meaningless, from the point of view of truly human interests, hostile to creative life, creative work, morality; something dark and destructive lurks in the depths of this empty life. The reproach of Golovlevism is Stepan, whose dramatic death ends the first chapter of the novel. Of the young Golovlevs, he is the most gifted, impressionable and intelligent person who received a university education. But from childhood, the boy experienced constant oppression from his mother, and was known as a hateful son-clown, “Styopka the dunce.” As a result, he turned out to be a man with a slavish character, capable of being anyone: a drunkard and even a criminal. Stepan's student life was also difficult. The absence of a working life, voluntary buffoonery among rich students, and then an empty departmental service in St. Petersburg, resignation, revelry, and finally an unsuccessful attempt to escape in the militia, physically and morally wore him out, turned him into a person who lives with the feeling that he is like a worm. -He'll die of hunger. And the only fatal road left before him was to his native, but hateful Golovlevo, where complete loneliness, despair, hard drinking, and death awaited him. Of the entire second generation of the family, Stepan turned out to be the most unstable, the most lifeless.

The next chapter, "Kindly," takes place ten years after the events described in the first chapter. But how the characters and the relationships between them have changed! The imperious head of the family, Arina Petrovna, turned into a modest and powerless hanger-on in the house of her youngest son, Pavel Vladimirovich, in Dubrovnik. Judushka took possession of the Golovlevsky estate. He now becomes almost the main figure of the story. As in the first chapter, here we also talk about the death of another representative of the young Golovlevs - Pavel Vladimirovich.

Shchedrin shows that the initial cause of his premature death was his native but disastrous estate. He was not a hateful son, but he was forgotten, they did not pay attention to him, considering him a fool. Paul fell in love with life apart, in embittered alienation from people; he had no inclinations or interests; he became the living personification of a man “devoid of any actions.” Then fruitless formal military service, retirement and lonely life in Dubrovnik, idleness, apathy towards life, towards family ties, even towards property, and finally, some senseless and fantastic bitterness destroyed, dehumanized Paul, led him to binge drinking and physical death.

Subsequent chapters of the novel also tell about the spiritual disintegration of personality and family ties, about “deaths.” Along with this, in “Family Results” the author undertakes to explain to us what is the difference between his hero and the common type of conscious hypocrites: Judas is “simply a man, devoid of any moral standard and who does not know any other truth than that which is listed in the ABCs. he was ignorant without boundaries, a litigator, a liar, an empty talker, and, to top it all off, he was afraid of the devil. All these are negative qualities that by no means can provide solid material for real hypocrisy.”

The author reveals his view of Porfiry Golovlev with great clarity: Judas is not just a hypocrite, but a dirty tricker, a liar and an empty talker. Porfiry Vladimirych is characterized by complete moral ossification - this is the main diagnosis of the satirical writer. This is one of the clues to the acquisitive zeal of Shchedrin’s hero. But this, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, is the source of a terrible tragedy for a person and his loved ones. The death of Porfiry Golovlev’s son, Vladimir, is not accidental in this chapter. It is told here about the spiritual and physical decline of Arina Petrovna, about the savagery of Judushka himself. In the fourth chapter - "Niece" - Arina Petrovna and Peter, the son of Judas, die. In the fifth chapter - “Illegal Family Joys” - there is no physical death, but Judushka kills maternal feelings in Evprakseyushka. In the climactic sixth chapter - “Escaped” - we are talking about the spiritual death of Judas, and in the seventh - his physical death occurs (here we talk about Lyubinka’s suicide, about Anninka’s death agony).

The most tenacious among the Golovlevs turns out to be the most disgusting, the most inhumane of them - Judas, a “devout dirty tricker”, “a stinking ulcer”, “a blood drinker”. Shchedrin not only predicts the death of Porfiry. The writer does not at all want to say that Judas is just a nonentity who will be easily eliminated by the progressive development of an ever-renewing life that does not tolerate deadness. Shchedrin also sees the strength of the Judas, the sources of their special vitality. Yes, Golovlev is a nonentity, but this empty-headed man oppresses, torments and torments, kills, dispossesses, destroys. It is he who is the direct or indirect cause of the endless “wights” in the Golovlevsky house.

Repeatedly the writer emphasizes in his novel that the immense despotism of Arina Petrovna and the “uterine”, death-bringing hypocrisy of Judas did not receive a rebuff and found favorable soil for their free triumph. This is what “kept” Porfiry in life. His strength lies in resourcefulness, in the far-sighted cunning of a predator. How he, the serf-owner, deftly adapts to the “spirit of the times”, to new ways of getting rich! The wildest landowner of old times merges in him with the world-eating fist. And this is the strength of Judas. Finally, he has powerful allies in the form of law, religion and prevailing customs. Judas looks at them as his faithful servants. For him, religion is not an inner conviction, but a ritual convenient for deception and curbing. And the law for him is a bridling, punishing force, serving only the strong and oppressing the weak. Family relationships are also just a formality. There is neither true high feeling nor ardent participation in them. They serve the same oppression and deception. Judas put everything at the service of his empty, stinking nature, in the service of oppression, torment, and destruction. He is truly worse than any robber, although formally he did not kill anyone, carrying out his predatory deeds “according to the law.”

The dehumanization of Judas is depicted by Shchedrin as a long psychological process with certain stages. In the first chapters of the novel, starting especially with the chapter “In a related way,” he is distinguished by his hypocritical idle talk, which is the most characteristic feature of Judushka’s Jesuitically deceitful and malicious, vilely treacherous nature, a means in his insidious struggle with those around him. With his unctuous, deceitful words, the hero torments the victim, mocks the human person, religion and morality, and the sanctity of family ties. When everything around him died out, Porfiry was left alone and fell silent. Idle talk and idle talk lost their meaning - there was no one to lull and deceive, tyrannize and kill. The hero comes to a break with reality, real life. Judas becomes an “escheat” person, dust, a living dead. But he wanted complete “stunning,” which would completely abolish any idea of ​​life and throw him into the void. This is where the need for binge drinking arose. Judas, following this path, could have ended the way his brothers ended. But in the final chapter, “Reckoning,” Shchedrin shows how a wild, driven and forgotten conscience awoke in him. She illuminated for him all the horror of his vile and treacherous life, all the hopelessness and doom of his situation. The agony of remorse and mental turmoil set in, an acute feeling of guilt in front of people arose, a feeling appeared that everything around him was hostilely opposing him, and then the idea of ​​the need for “violent self-destruction” and suicide matured. None of the Golovlevs paid for their lives like this.

In the tragic denouement of the novel, Shchedrin’s humanism in understanding human nature was most clearly revealed, the writer’s confidence was expressed that even in the most disgusting and degraded person it is possible to awaken conscience and shame, to realize the emptiness, injustice and futility of his life.