What changes are taking place in the life of Arina Petrovna. Arina Petrovna's image

"Lord Golovlevs": images, characterization of heroes

In Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlevs, a whole gallery of images of one family, the landowners Golovlevs, is displayed. This family goes to degradation and destruction, it breaks up, and then its members physically disappear into non-existence.

The image of Arina Petrovna: this is the only outstanding person in the Golovlev family. She is the mother and head of the family. “A powerful woman and, moreover, to a great extent gifted with creativity,” characterizes her author. Arina Petrovna manages the household, manages all the affairs of the family. She is cheerful, strong-willed, energetic. But the sense of this is only in the economy. Arina Petrovna suppresses her sons and her husband, who hates her for it. She never loved her husband, she considered him a jester, a weakling, unable to manage the household. “The husband called his wife “witch” and “devil”, the wife called her husband “windmill” and “stringless balalaika”.

In fact, having lived for forty years in a family, Arina Petrovna remains a bachelor who is only interested in money, bills and business conversations. She does not have warm feelings for her husband and children, no sympathy, which is why she punishes loved ones so terribly when they are irresponsible about property or do not obey her.

The image of Stepan Golovlev: this is a "gifted guy" with a mischievous character, with a good memory and learning abilities. However, he was brought up in idleness, all his energy was spent on pranks. After studying, Stepan is unable to make a career as an official in St. Petersburg, since he has neither the ability nor the desire for it. He once again confirms the nickname "Stepka the Stooge", leads a wandering life for a long time. By the age of forty, he is terribly afraid of his mother, who will not support, but, on the contrary, will seize. Stepan comes to the realization that he “cannot do anything”, because he never tried to work, but wanted to get everything for free, snatch a piece from a greedy mother, or someone else. He becomes an inveterate drunkard in Golovlev and dies.

The image of Pavel Golovlev. This is a military man, but also a man suppressed by his mother, colorless. Outwardly, he snaps and is rude to his mother. But inside he is afraid of her and finds fault with her, resisting her influence. “He was a gloomy man, but behind the gloominess there was a lack of deeds - and nothing more.” Having moved to Golovlevo, he entrusts the affairs to his housekeeper - Ulita. Pavel Golovlev himself becomes an inveterate drunkard, consumed by hatred for his brother Judas. They die in this hatred, embittered, with curses and curses.

Image of Judas, Porfiry Golovleva. This man is the quintessence of the Golovlev family. He chose hypocrisy as his weapon. Under the guise of a sweet and sincere person, he achieves his goals, collects tribal property around him. His low soul rejoices at the troubles of his brothers and sisters, and when they die, he takes sincere pleasure in dividing property. In relations with his children, he also thinks about money first of all - and his sons cannot stand it. At the same time, Porfiry never allows himself to say rudeness or causticity. He is polite, feignedly sweet and caring, endlessly reasoning, spreading honeyed speeches, weaving 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 fall. He becomes incapable of anything but idle talk. For days on end, he gets bored with all the conversations that no one listens to. If the servant turns out to be sensitive to his "verbiage" and nit-picking, then he tries to run away from the owner. The tyranny of Yudushka is becoming more and more petty, he also drinks, like the deceased brothers, for entertainment, he remembers petty offenses or minimal miscalculations in the economy all day long in order to “talk” them. Meanwhile, the real economy does not develop, falls into disrepair and decline. At the end of the novel, a terrible insight descends on Judas: “We need to forgive everyone ... What ... what happened?! Where is…everyone?!” But the family, divided by hatred, coldness and the inability to forgive, has already been destroyed.

The image of Anna and the image of Lyuba from the "Gentlemen of the Golovlevs." Yudushka's nieces are representatives of the last generation of the 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 accustomed to moral stamina and firmness in life. Lubinka 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, morally purer, more sincere, disinterested 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."

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Saltykov-Shchedrin in his novel Lord Golovleva displays the image of the imperious landowner Arina Petrovna, who is something like the head of the family. When we recognize this heroine, Arina Petrovna is about 60 years old, she is gray-haired, but still cheerful and is an active leader who keeps the whole family in a tight grip. No one can oppose this tyranny and everyone submits to it.

The author tells almost the entire biography of this woman and we can imagine how a young and beautiful girl gets married at the age of 20. Further, she places her hopes on her husband, who turns out to be a creative person, but completely mediocre in the sense of managing the estate. The husband does nothing but writes his mediocre poems in the office.

As a result, the woman becomes callous, becomes more hard-hearted and receives consolation and purpose only in increasing wealth. She sees only practical benefit in everything, skillfully begins to manage her estate, does not make friends with her neighbors, but, if possible, buys up the estates of ruined landowners. Thanks to this, over time, she becomes rich and provides for the family.

Nevertheless, Golovleva's practicality turns into stinginess and even excessive. Here it is easy to find something in common with the landowner Plyushkin from Gogol's poem. Golovleva also suffers from the sin of money-grubbing (although, by the way, she is a pious woman) and often keeps spoiled food in cellars, keeps her family half-starved.

Of course, the practicality and even stinginess of this landowner can be explained by external circumstances, but these circumstances eventually distort Golovleva's personality and she does not always behave in an optimal way. She simply accumulates wealth, but does not use her wealth. Sometimes, because of this, food simply spoils stupidly, and other Golovlevs cannot afford anything other than minimal allowances.

Thus, this woman combines both positive and negative qualities. Perhaps we can say about the callousness that she acquired because of the world in which she lived. If Golovleva had been lucky in marriage or she could have gained understanding and sincere love, one of the children, then perhaps she would have been a little softer and more sincere, could have been more sensual and corny kinder.

In the novel, Arina Petrovna only at the end begins to comprehend her own fate herself and gradually goes to the other extreme. She begins to realize the futility of her own efforts, which brought wealth, but not happiness.

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Golovleva Arina Petrovna - wife of V. M. Golovlev. Her prototype was to a large extent the writer’s mother Olga Mikhailovna, whose character traits were reflected in the image of Maria Ivanovna Kroshina in his first story “Contradictions” (1847), later - in Natalia Pavlovna Agamonova (“Yashenka”, 1859) and especially in Maria Petrovna Volovitinova ("Family Happiness", 1863).

Arina Petrovna in the novel "Gentlemen Golovlevs" is a landowner who "single-handedly and uncontrollably" rules her vast estate, the constant increase of which is the main concern of her whole life. And although she claims that she works for the sake of the family, and “the word “family” does not leave her language,” she openly despises her husband, and is indifferent to children. In their early years, Arina Petrovna "out of economy kept the children starving," later she also tried to get rid of them cheaper - in her words: "throw a piece." Daughter Annushka, who had deceived the hope of making her a "gratuitous house secretary and accountant" and fled with a cornet, received Pogorelka - "a village of thirty souls with a fallen estate, in which all the windows blew and there was not a single living floorboard." In a similar way, she “parted ways” with Stepan, who soon, like her sister, died in a complete cast.

Arina Petrovna from the novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” seemed to freeze in the “apathy of authority” and only in rare cases thought: “And for whom am I saving all this abyss! for whom I save! I don’t get enough sleep at night, I don’t eat up a piece ... for whom? The abolition of serfdom plunged her, like most landowners, into confusion and confusion. Porfiry Vladimirovich cleverly managed to take advantage of this. Having crept into her confidence and received a better share during the division of the estate, he then survived "dear friend mother." For a while, she found shelter with her unloved son Pavel, but after his death she was forced to live with her granddaughters, Annushka's daughters, in their "fallen estate".

The transition from the former feverish activity to complete idleness quickly aged her. When the granddaughters left, Arina Petrovna could not stand the loneliness and poverty, she began to visit her son more and more often, and gradually turned into his host. However, simultaneously with physical decline and senile weaknesses, “remnants of feelings”, previously suppressed by the bustle of hoarding, came to life in her. And when she witnessed a stormy scene between Porfiry Vladimirovich and Petenka, whom his father condemned to prison by refusing to pay his card loss, “the results of her own life appeared before her mental eye in all their fullness and nakedness.” The curse that broke out of her at that moment applied, in fact, not only to her son, but also to her own past. Having experienced a terrible shock, Arina Petrovna returned to Pogorelka, fell into complete prostration and soon died. In a letter to Shchedrin (January 1876), I. S. Turgenev admired his ability to "arouse the reader's sympathy for her without softening a single feature of her" and found Shakespearean features in this image. Shchedrin returned to a similar image of the "woman-fist" later in "Poshekhonskaya antiquity" (Anna Pavlovna Zatrapeznaya).

Exercise

Give a portrait and social description of Arina Petrovna Golovleva.

Question

How does Arina Petrovna feel about her husband and children?

Answer

Arina Petrovna, the mistress and head of the family, is a complex nature, rich in her abilities, but spoiled by the unlimited power over her family and those around her. She single-handedly manages the estate, depriving the peasants, turning her husband into a hanger-on, crippling the lives of hateful children "and corrupting" pets.

The writer's mother Olga Mikhailovna Saltykova, who served as a prototype for Arina Petrovna Golovleva, once in her hearts called her son "a wolf hungry to break the ties of kinship." In fact, in this "despicable milieu" the ties of kinship have long since become a fiction, a "ghost", as Shchedrin puts it. Arina Petrovna, whose word "family" does not leave her tongue, is in fact completely indifferent to her husband and children.

Question

What is the economic and family policy of Arina Petrovna?

Answer

She looks at her own children as “extra mouths” that need to be fed, on which part of the fortune needs to be spent, so Arina Petrovna tries to quickly separate the children, throw them a “piece” in the form of some village, in order to consider herself free from any worries about them.

She only breathed freely when she was alone with her accounts and economic enterprises ... Only occasionally did she glimpse the thought that her children had grown up as strangers to her. Reading the insincere, strained letters of her sons, she "tried to guess which of them would be her villain."

She calmly and ruthlessly watches how her children go bankrupt and die in poverty, and only at the end of her life a bitter question arose before her: “And for whom did I store up! I didn’t get enough sleep at night, I didn’t eat a piece ... for whom?

Question

So, in a fantastic pursuit of "acquired" she increased her husband's wealth. For whom and for what?

Answer

Her greedy acquisitive activity is meaningless, fruitless and aimless. Moreover, the passion for enrichment kills human feelings, and growing wealth exacerbates the struggle of family members for a fatter “piece” of inheritance. And all together: the imperiousness of the hostess and mother, the atmosphere of acquisitiveness, contempt for creative work - morally corrupts the souls of children, forms humiliated, slavish natures, ready for lies, deceit, scolding and betrayal.

Question

What shook Arina Petrovna's foundations of life?

Answer

The abolition of serfdom dealt "the first blow to her authority." Knocked down from her usual positions, having met with real life difficulties, she becomes weak and powerless. The more cunning and insidious "favorite" Judas - "swallows" her capital, turning her mother into a modest hanger-on. This is discussed in the chapter "In a related way."

Question

What is the result of the life of Arina Petrovna?

Answer

Having shown all the callousness and cruelty of the heroine at the time of the heyday of her acquisitive activity, the writer then depicted the tragedy of her gradual lonely extinction. There came an awakening of "the remnants of the feelings that glimmered in her", vague remorse, when "the results of her own life appeared before her mental eye in all their fullness and nakedness."

Literature

Andrey Turkov. Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin // Encyclopedia for children "Avanta +". Volume 9. Russian literature. Part one. M., 1999. S. 594–603

K.I. Tyunkin. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in life and work. M.: Russian word, 2001

On the first pages of Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlevs, this woman appears to the reader as an intelligent serf landowner, the head of a large family. Arina Petrovna has a worldly ingenuity, strives to increase her economy at all costs. This energetic and persistent woman behaves rather arbitrarily towards family members. She is feared, hated and reproached for being too rigid. At the end of her life, she feels unhappy and dies all alone, deprived of the love of her family and friends.

At first glance, it may seem that this strong and rather unattractive person is completely unworthy of attention and sympathy. However, it is worth getting a little closer to the situation in which she found herself and which shaped her character, and we will understand that this woman herself, to some extent, became a victim of circumstances.

Having married, Arina Petrovna discovered that her husband was distinguished by a frivolous and careless character. He was prone to idleness and idleness. He closed himself in his office and was engaged in composing the so-called “free poems”. This empty man, of course, did not even think of doing housework and somehow supporting his family. The estate, which Arina Petrovna received as a dowry, did not give such an income that she could live comfortably on it. In order not to be completely ruined, pretty soon Arina Petrovna had to take over the management of all economic affairs.

Golovlev, who married solely in order to find a faithful listener for his poems, soon became disillusioned with his wife, since the role assigned by her husband did not suit her at all. Constant disagreements led to the fact that the spouses practically stopped communicating with each other. He hated this woman, but she limited herself to “complete and contemptuous indifference to her jester husband.” This relationship lasted for more than forty years.

Having not found happiness in family life, Arina Petrovna directed all her energy to “rounding off” her estate. She had nowhere to wait for help, since her husband did not care at all not only about his own well-being, but also about the well-being of his children. It should be noted that such activities only aggravated Arina Petrovna's dominance and obstinacy.

She “with amazing patience and vigilance watched over distant and nearby villages” and, in the event of the ruin of the owners, quickly bought them up. In the end, she achieved enviable results, having managed to significantly expand her possessions. Sometimes, as a result of road adventures, Arina Petrovna fell ill, sometimes she had to hit the road while pregnant. However, nothing could stop this woman. Of course, to some extent she was driven by the desire to get rich, but it should be noted that for the most part Arina Petrovna wanted to secure a future for her children. She never indulged in idleness and idleness, luxury and recklessness, although she soon enough had the means for this. She lived, as before, modestly, spending a minimum of money on herself. Although money gave her a certain independence, it did not bring her happiness. Often she was seized by doubts about whether she was managing her life correctly, for which she tormented herself so much.

The children, for the sake of which she reduced her life exclusively to the increase of wealth, did not justify her hopes, did not become a support for her, did not bring her long-awaited happiness. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the constant concern for the prosperity of the economy made her too independent. This “bachelor nature” saw them as a burden, although in her own way she still loved them. Arina Petrovna had nine children, of whom only four survived: Stepan, Anna, Porfiry and Pavel. Of course, the fact that none of her children did not take place as a person, there is a share of her guilt. Arina Petrovna, both because of her temperament and because of her eternal employment, could not devote enough time to them, was unable to give the children warmth and love. However, this can also be justified: loaded with worries and not seeing support in her husband, she withdrew into herself, stopped noticing everything that did not directly concern her economic activities.

Despite the fact that the eldest son grew up as a dissolute young man, unsuitable for any serious occupation and constantly making fun of his mother, she allocated him a fairly decent inheritance. Arina Petrovna did not ignore her daughter, who had run away with a cornet, also allocating her a separate village. Therefore, it would be difficult to reproach her with excessive stinginess. In addition, she divided the remaining fortune between the other two brothers, Porfiry and Paul, leaving practically nothing for herself. All this proves that the efforts to increase one's fortune stemmed more than anything from the desire to make the life of their children comfortable, rather than for personal gain.

With age, Arina Petrovna became less despotic and strict. Perhaps this allowed her to have a closer relationship with her grandchildren than with her children. She sheltered two orphans left by her daughter. If at first she treated them rather coldly and fed them, as one of the orphans reproaches her, with “sour milk”, then later her heart softened. When the girls left their native nest in search of a better life, she protects them in front of Yudushka and regularly manages their household. She has a good relationship with the sons of Porfiry.

Gradually, Arina Petrovna comes to the realization that the life she has lived is completely meaningless. True, enlightenment comes too late. She is no longer that domineering, full of strength and energy woman, but an old woman who barely makes ends meet and lives thanks to the fact that her granddaughters allowed her to manage her small village. Arina Petrovna refuses to meet with her son, locks herself in her estate and dies quietly. Her insight is painful but fleeting. She could not forgive either herself or Judas for the extinction of the Golovlev family.