Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a great Russian writer, prose writer and playwright, critic and publicist. He was born in the Yasnaya Polyana estate near Tula, studied at Kazan University at the Oriental and Faculty of Law, served in the army as a junior officer, participated in the defense of Sevastopol and was awarded for bravery, then retired and devoted his life to literary creativity.
Like many other writers of that time, L.H. Tolstoy began with work in the artistic and documentary genres. But at the same time, his literary debut was the artistic and autobiographical trilogy "Childhood" (1852), "Boyhood" (1854), "Youth" (1857). The craving for memoirs in a young author is a very rare phenomenon. This was reflected in the psychological and creative impact of the works of the authors of the natural school, whom Tolstoy met in his adolescence and youth as the most authoritative examples of modern literature. However, of course, the features of Tolstoy's personality are also significant here. For example, it is significant that from the age of eighteen he stubbornly kept a diary - this indicates an exceptional propensity for self-observation.
The trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" begins, of course, with " Childhood". For the narrator Nikolenka Irtenyev, it takes place in a noble estate, and the main collisions he recalls are connected with the personalities of his father, mother, teacher Karl Ivanych, the local holy fool Grisha, the housekeeper Natalia Savvishna, etc.; with class studies, with "something like the first love "for the girl Katenka, with a childhood friend Seryozha Ivin, with a hunting party described in detail, in the spirit of "physiology", with an equally detailed description of a party in the Moscow parents' house, where the hero dances a quadrille with Sonechka, and after the mazurka reflects that " for the first time in my life I cheated in love and for the first time I experienced the sweetness of this feeling.” The death of the mother, as it were, draws a line under a carefree childhood.
The trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" continues " adolescence". Here the reader meets a similar rural and urban environment, almost all the old characters are preserved here, but the children have become a little older, their view of the world, their circle of interests is changing. The narrator repeatedly notices this in himself, stating, for example, that with his arrival in Moscow, his view of persons and objects has changed. The imperious grandmother forces the father to remove Karl Ivanovich from the children - in her words, "a German peasant ... a stupid peasant." He is replaced by a French tutor, and the hero forever loses another close person. Before leaving, Karl Ivanovich tells Nikolenka the most interesting story of his life, which in the composition of "Adolescence" resembles a false novella.
Among the older friends of brother Volodya, a curious figure appears - "student Prince Nekhlyudov." A person with this surname will repeatedly appear again in the works of L.N. Tolstoy in the future - "The Morning of the Landowner" (1856), "Lucerne" (1857), the novel "Resurrection". In "Morning of the Landowner" and "Lucerne" he is given some lyrical features that clearly testify to his certain autobiography.
It is easy to see that the image of Nekhlyudov already in "Boyhood" from the trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" is given the features of the author's alter ego. The difficulty is that Nikolenka plays this role even before his appearance on the pages of the trilogy, and therefore Nekhlyudov looks after his appearance as a kind of spiritual “double” of the narrator and his spiritual “soul mate”. It is interesting that Nekhlyudov is made older by Tolstoy than Nikolenka, who intellectually matures under his influence.
Friendship with Nekhlyudov moves to the center of the story in the third part of the trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" - " Youth". The hero enters the university, goes to a monastery for confession, falls in love with Nekhlyudov’s sister Varenka, makes social visits on his own and meets Sonechka again (during his visits, a number of persons described in Childhood pass in front of him, thereby Tolstoy the author as would naturally close the compositional "ring" of the trilogy). Father Irteniev remarries, Nikolenka falls in love again, participates in a student revelry and makes new comrades among raznochintsy students. After the first year, the hero fails the exam, he is expelled from the university, he is looking for “pistols with which he could shoot himself” at home, while his family advises him to move to another faculty. In the final on Nikolsnka "I found a moment of remorse and moral outburst."
Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" was a story about the spiritual maturation of a young contemporary. It is not surprising that it was understood and accepted by contemporary readers, who perceived all its collisions with particular sharpness and concreteness. The author brilliantly depicted the real life of the nobility, but at the same time artistically revealed the inner world of a maturing man - a boy, a teenager and then a young man. The documentary nature of the basis of Tolstoy's narrative gave it a special flavor that cannot be achieved in a romance with fictional characters and situations. On the other hand, the young writer showed great skill in artistic generalization, turning the figures of real people into literary characters.
Literary activity of Leo Tolstoy lasted about sixty years. His first appearance in print dates back to 1852, when in the leading magazine of that era, Sovremennik, edited by Nekrasov, appeared story Tolstoy "Childhood". Meanwhile, "Childhood" testified not only to the strength, but also to the maturity of the young writer's talent. It was the work of an established master, it attracted the attention of the mass of readers and literary circles. Soon after the publication of "Childhood" in the press (in the same "Sovremennik"), new works of Tolstoy appeared - "Boyhood", stories about the Caucasus, and then the famous Sevastopol stories. Tolstoy began working on Childhood in January 1851 and finished in July 1852. Between the beginning and the end of work on Childhood, a serious change took place in Tolstoy's life: in April 1851, he left with his older brother Nikolai for the Caucasus, where he served as an officer in the army. A few months later, Tolstoy was enlisted in the military. He was in the army until the autumn of 1855, took an active part in the heroic defense of Sevastopol. Tolstoy's departure to the Caucasus was caused by a deep crisis in his spiritual life. This crisis began in his student years. Tolstoy very early began to notice the negative aspects in the people around him, in himself, in the conditions among which he had to live. Tolstoy thinks about the question of the high purpose of man, he tries to find a real job in life. Studying at the university does not satisfy him, he leaves the university in 1847, after a three-year stay in it, and from Kazan he goes to his estate - Yasnaya Polyana. Here he tries to manage the estate belonging to him, mainly in order to alleviate the situation of the serfs. Nothing comes of these attempts. The peasants do not trust him, his attempts to help them are considered as cunning ploys of the landowner ("Morning of the Landowner"). Tolstoy's worldview was formed as the worldview of a person who sought to understand the deepest processes that took place in contemporary reality. The document testifying to this is the diary of the young Tolstoy. The diary served as a school for the writer, in which his literary skills were formed. In the Caucasus, and then in Sevastopol, in communication with Russian soldiers, Tolstoy's sympathy for the people grew stronger. The beginning of Tolstoy's literary activity coincides with the beginning of a new upsurge in the liberation movement in Russia. The connection with the people, which Tolstoy established at an early stage of his life, served as the starting point for all his creative activity. The problem of the people is the main problem of all Tolstoy's work. Tolstoy's realism was constantly developing throughout his entire career, but with great force and originality it manifested itself already in his earliest works.
In the image of the hero of Tolstoy, to a large extent, the personality traits of the author himself are reflected. "Childhood", "Boyhood" and "Youth" are therefore usually called autobiographical stories. The very image of Nikolenka Irtenyev is typical. It embodies the features of the best representative of the noble environment, who entered into irreconcilable discord with her. Tolstoy also shows how the environment in which his hero lived negatively affects him, and how the hero tries to resist the environment, to rise above it. The hero of Tolstoy is a man of strong character and outstanding abilities. The story "Childhood", as well as the autobiographical trilogy as a whole, was often called a noble chronicle. Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy was opposed to Gorky's autobiographical works. Some researchers of Gorky's work pointed out that Tolstoy described a "happy childhood" - a childhood that knows no worries and hardships, the childhood of a noble child, and Gorky, according to these researchers, opposes Tolstoy as an artist who described an unhappy childhood. The childhood of Nikolenka Irteniev, described by Tolstoy, is not like the childhood of Alyosha Peshkov, but it is by no means an idyllic, happy childhood. Tolstoy was least of all interested in admiring the contentment with which Nikolenka Irteniev was surrounded. Tolstoy is interested in a completely different side in his hero. The leading, fundamental beginning in the spiritual development of Nikolenka Irtenyev both during childhood, and during adolescence, and during youth is his desire for goodness, for truth, for truth, for love, for beauty. What are the reasons, what is the source of these aspirations of Nikolenka Irtenyev? The initial source of these high spiritual aspirations of Nikolenka Irtenyev is the image of his mother, who personified everything beautiful for him. A simple Russian woman, Natalya Savishna, played a big role in the spiritual development of Nikolenka Irtenyev. In his story, Tolstoy really calls childhood a happy time in human life. But in what sense? What does he mean by childhood happiness? Chapter XV of the story is called "Childhood". It begins with the words:
“Happy, happy, irretrievable time of childhood! How not to love, not to cherish the memories of her? These memories refresh, elevate my soul and serve as a source of the best pleasures for me. At the end of the chapter, Tolstoy again refers to the characterization of childhood as a happy period of human life: “Will that freshness, carelessness, the need for love and the strength of faith that you possess in childhood ever return? What time could be better than when the two best virtues, innocent gaiety and the boundless need for love, were the only motives in life? Tolstoy calls childhood a happy time of human life in the sense that at this time a person is most capable of experiencing love for others and doing good to them. It was only in this limited sense that childhood seemed to Tolstoy the happiest time of his life. In fact, the childhood of Nikolenka Irteniev, described by Tolstoy, was by no means happy. In childhood, Nikolenka Irtenyev experienced a lot of moral suffering, disappointments in the people around him, including those closest to him, disappointments in himself. The story "Childhood" begins with a scene in the children's room, begins with an insignificant, trifling incident. The teacher Karl Ivanovich killed a fly, and the dead fly fell on the head of Nikolenka Irtenyev. Nikolenka begins to think about why Karl Ivanovich did this. Why did Karl Ivanovich kill a fly over his bed? Why did Karl Ivanovich make trouble for him, Nikolenka? Why didn't Karl Ivanovich kill a fly over the bed of Volodya, Nikolenka's brother? Thinking about these questions, Nikolenka Irteniev comes to such a gloomy thought that the purpose of Karl Ivanovich's life is to cause trouble to him, Nikolenka Irteniev; that Karl Ivanovich is an evil, unpleasant person. But a few minutes pass, and Karl Ivanovich comes up to Nikolenka's bed and begins to tickle him. This act of Karl Ivanovich gives Nikolenka new material for reflection. Nikolenka was pleased to be tickled by Karl Ivanovich, and now he thinks that he was extremely unjust, having previously attributed to Karl Ivanovich (when he killed the fly over his head) the most evil intentions. This episode already gives Tolstoy reason to show how complex the spiritual world of man is. An essential feature of Tolstoy's depiction of his hero is that Tolstoy shows how Nikolenka Irtenyev gradually reveals the discrepancy between the outer shell of the world around him and its true content. Nikolenka Irteniev gradually realizes that the people he meets, not excluding the people closest and dearest to him, are in fact not at all what they want to seem. Nikolenka Irteniev notices unnaturalness and falsehood in every person, and this develops in him ruthlessness towards people, as well as towards himself, since he sees the falseness and unnaturalness inherent in people in himself. Noticing this quality in himself, he morally punishes himself. In this regard, chapter XVI - "Poems" is characteristic. The poems were written by Nikolenka on the occasion of her grandmother's birthday. They have a line saying that he loves his grandmother like his own mother. Having discovered this, Nikolenka Irteniev begins to find out how he could write such a line. On the one hand, he sees in these words a kind of betrayal towards his mother, and on the other hand, insincerity towards his grandmother. Nikolenka argues as follows: if this line is sincere, it means that he has ceased to love his mother; and if he loves his mother as before, it means that he has committed falsehood in relation to his grandmother. All the above episodes testify to the spiritual growth of the hero. One expression of this is the development in him of analytical ability. But this same analytical ability, contributing to the enrichment of the spiritual world of the child, destroys in him naivety, an unaccountable faith in everything good and beautiful, which Tolstoy considered the “best gift” of childhood. This is well illustrated in chapter VIII - "Games". Children play, and the game gives them great pleasure. But they get this pleasure to the extent that the game seems to them a real life. As soon as this naive belief is lost, the game ceases to give pleasure to children. The first to express the idea that the game is not real, Volodya is Nikolenka's older brother. Nikolenka understands that Volodya is right, but, nevertheless, Volodya's words upset him deeply. Nikolenka reflects: “If you really judge, then there will be no game. But there won't be a game, so what's left then?..” This last phrase is significant. It testifies that real life (not a game) brought little joy to Nikolenka Irtenyev. Real life for Nikolenka is the life of “big”, that is, adults, people close to him. And now Nikolenka Irteniev lives, as it were, in two worlds - in the world of children, which attracts with its harmony, and in the world of adults, full of mutual distrust. A large place in Tolstoy's story is occupied by the description of the feeling of love for people, and this ability of a child to love others, perhaps, most of all admires Tolstoy. But admiring this feeling of a child, Tolstoy shows how the world of big people, the world of adults of a noble society, destroys this feeling, does not give it the opportunity to develop in all purity and immediacy. Nikolenka Irteniev was attached to the boy Seryozha Ivin. But he really could not say about his affection, this feeling died in him. Nikolenka Irtenyev's attitude towards Ilinka Grapu reveals another trait in his character, again reflecting the bad influence of the "big" world on him. Tolstoy shows that his hero was capable not only of love, but also of cruelty. Nikolenka keeps up with her friends. But then, as always, he feels a sense of shame and remorse. The last chapters of the story, connected with the description of the death of the hero's mother, sum up, as it were, his spiritual and moral development in childhood. In these last chapters, the insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy of secular people are literally scourged. Nikolenka Irtenyev watches how he himself and people close to him survive the death of his mother. He establishes that none of them, with the exception of a simple Russian woman - Natalya Savishna, was completely sincere in expressing his feelings. The father seemed to be shocked by the misfortune, but Nikolenka notes that the father was spectacular, as always. And this he did not like in his father, made him think that his father's grief was not, as he puts it, "quite pure grief." Nikolenka does not fully believe in the sincerity of grandmother's feelings. He cruelly condemns Nikolenka and himself for the fact that for only one minute he was completely absorbed in his grief. The only person in whose sincerity Nikolenka fully and completely believed was Natalya Savishna. But she just did not belong to the secular circle. It is important to note that the last pages of the story are dedicated specifically to the image of Natalya Savishna. Highly noteworthy is the fact that Nikolenka Irteniev places the image of Natalya Savishna next to the image of his mother. Thus, he admits that Natalya Savishna played the same important role in his life as his mother, and perhaps even more important. The final pages of the story "Childhood" are covered with deep sadness. Nikolenka Irteniev is in the grip of memories of her mother and Natalya Savishna, who had already died by that time. Nikolenka is sure that with their death the brightest pages of his life are gone. On the first pages of the initial part of the Childhood trilogy, we see a little boy, Nikolenka Ignatiev. The description of his life is a scrupulous study of the author of his spiritual content and moral concepts, which change depending on various life situations. The inner world of the child is vividly depicted in the episode when Nikolenka drew the animals he saw on the hunt. He had only blue paints and he painted all the trees and animals in blue. However, when he began to portray hares, his father, who was watching the process, told the boy that blue hares do not exist in nature, as well as blue plants. This was very vulnerable to Kolya and became the first call of disappointment and life's doubts. One day the boy and his friends started playing a game: the children sat down on the ground and began to imagine that they were floating on the sea, waving their arms vigorously, imitating rowing. Nikolenka's older brother, seeing the children's amusements, sarcastically remarked that despite their efforts, they would not budge, since in fact they were not on the water, but in the garden. The children's world of the protagonist, his life perception from such words began to irrevocably collapse. The first cold echoes of adult reason began to abruptly break into the soul-touching immediacy, which is characteristic of every child: you can’t sail on a non-existent ship, there are no blue hares, and the teacher’s ridiculous cap caused no longer imaginary, but real irritation, like Karl Ivanovich himself. However, the author does not condemn Nikolenka, these are the processes that sooner or later come into the life of every maturing child, and fundamentally alienate the enthusiastic world of childhood from him.
In the story "Adolescence", in contrast to "Childhood", which shows a naive balance between the analytical ability of the child and his faith in everything good and beautiful, the analytical ability prevails over faith in the hero. "Adolescence" - story very gloomy, it differs in this respect both from "Childhood" and from "Youth". In the first chapters of "Adolescence" Nikolenka Irteniev, as it were, says goodbye to childhood before entering a new phase of her development. The final farewell to childhood takes place in the chapters dedicated to Karl Ivanovich. Parting with Nikolenka, Karl Ivanovich tells him his story. As a result of all the misadventures that Karl Ivanovich underwent, he became a man not only unhappy, but also alienated from the world. And it is with this side of his character that Karl Ivanovich is close to Nikolenka Irteniev, and this is what makes him interesting. With the help of the story of Karl Ivanovich Tolstoy helps the reader to understand the essence of his hero. Following those chapters in which the story of Karl Ivanych is told, there are chapters: “The Unit”, “Key”, “The Traitor”, “Eclipse”, “Dreams” - chapters that describe the misadventures of Nikolenka Irtenyev himself .. In these chapters Nikolenka sometimes, despite differences in age and position, looks very similar to Karl Ivanovich. And here Nikolenka directly compares his fate with the fate of Karl Ivanovich. The point is to show that already at that time of the spiritual development of Nikolenka Irtenyev, he, like Karl Ivanovich, felt like a person alienated from the world in which he lived. In place of Karl Ivanych, whose appearance corresponded to the spiritual world of Nikolenka Irtenyev, a new tutor comes - the Frenchman Jerome. Jerome for Nikolenka Irtenyev is the embodiment of that world that has already become hated for him, but which, according to his position, he had to respect. It irritated him, made him lonely. And now, after the chapter, which bears such an expressive name - "Hatred" (this chapter is dedicated to Lögbta "y and explains Nikolenka Irtenyev's attitude to the people around him), comes the chapter" Maiden ". This chapter begins like this:" I felt more and more and more lonely, and the main? My pleasures were solitary reflections and observations. "As a result of this loneliness, Nikolenka Irtenyev's attraction to another society, to ordinary people, arises. However, the connection that emerged during this period of Tolstoy's hero with the world of ordinary people is still very fragile. So far, relations these are episodic and accidental. But, nevertheless, during this period, the world of ordinary people was very important for Nikolenka Irtenyev. Tolstoy's hero is shown in motion and development. Complacency and complacency are completely alien to him. Constantly improving and enriching his spiritual world, he enters into an ever deeper discord with the noble environment surrounding him. Tolstoy's autobiographical stories are imbued with the spirit of social criticism and social denunciation of the ruling minority. In Nikolenka Irteniev, those properties are revealed that Tolstoy would later endow with such of his heroes as Pierre Bezukhov (“War and Peace”), Konstantin Levin("Anna Karenina"), Dmitry Nekhlyudov ("Sunday"). This story continues the analysis of the soul of a maturing person. The period of adolescence begins with Nicholas after the death of his mother. His perception of the surrounding world is changing - the understanding comes that the world does not revolve around him alone, that there are many people around who do not care about him. Nikolenka is interested in the lives of other people, he learns about class inequality. Among the dominant traits of Nikolenka are shyness, which brings the hero a lot of suffering, a desire to be loved and introspection. Nikolenka is very complex about her appearance. According to the author, children's egoism - a natural phenomenon, so to speak, as well as a social one - becomes the result of upbringing in aristocratic families. Nikolai's relationship with the adults around him is complicated - his father, tutor. Growing up, he thinks about the meaning of life, about his own destiny. For the author, the process of gradual unlocking of individualistic isolation is very important, both from the moral and from the psychological side. Nikolai strikes up his first true friendship with Dmitry Nekhlyudov. The plot - arrival in Moscow. The climax is the death of the grandmother. The denouement is preparation for entering the university.
The story "Youth" conveys moral quest, awareness of one's "I", dreams, feelings and emotional experiences of Nikolai Irtenyev. At the beginning of the story, Nikolai explains from what moment the time of youth begins for him. It comes from the time when he himself came up with the idea that "the purpose of a person is the desire for moral improvement." Nikolai is 16 years old, he is “reluctantly and reluctantly” preparing to enter the university. His soul is overwhelmed with thoughts about the meaning of life, about the future, the destiny of man. He is trying to find his place in the surrounding society, to strive to defend his independence. To overcome the "habitual" views, the way of thinking with which he constantly comes into contact. Nikolai is at the age when a person most fully feels himself in the world and his unity with it and, at the same time, awareness of his individuality. At the university, Irteniev becomes a person of a certain social circle, and his inquisitiveness, propensity for introspection, analysis of people and events becomes even deeper. He feels that the aristocrats standing one step above him are as disrespectful and arrogant as he himself is towards people of lower origin. Nikolay approaches raznochintsy students, although he was annoyed by their appearance, manner of communication, mistakes in language, but he “felt something good in these people, envied the cheerful camaraderie that united them, felt attracted to them and wanted to get closer with them". He comes into conflict with himself, as he is also attracted and beckoned by the "sticky mores" of a secular lifestyle imposed by aristocratic society. He begins to be burdened by the realization of his shortcomings: “I am tormented by the pettiness of my life ... I myself am petty, but still I have the strength to despise both myself and my life”, “I was a coward at first ... - it’s a shame ...”, “... I talked with everyone and without lied for any reason ... "," noticed in this case a lot of vanity behind him.
Like all the works of L. N. Tolstoy, the trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" was, in fact, the embodiment of a large number of plans and undertakings. The main goal of L. N. Tolstoy is to show the development of a person as a person during his childhood, adolescence and youth, that is, in those periods of life when a person most fully feels himself in the world, his indissolubility with it, and then, when he begins to separate himself from the world and comprehend his environment. , first in the Irtenev estate (“Childhood”), then the world expands significantly (“Boyhood”). In the story “Youth”, the theme of the family, at home, sounds many times more muffled, giving way to the theme of Nikolenka’s relationship with the outside world. It is no coincidence that with the death of the mother, in the first part, the harmony of relations in the family is destroyed, in the second, the grandmother dies, taking with her great moral strength, and in the third, the father remarries a woman whose even smile is always the same. The return of the former family happiness becomes completely impossible. Between the stories there is a logical connection, justified primarily by the logic of the writer: the formation of a person, although it is divided into certain stages, is actually continuous. The first-person narration in the trilogy establishes the connection of the work with the literary traditions of that time. In addition, it psychologically brings the reader closer to the hero. And, finally, such a presentation of events indicates a certain degree of autobiographical work. However, it cannot be said that autobiography was the most convenient way to embody a certain idea in a work, since it was precisely it, judging by the statements of the writer himself, that did not allow the original idea to be realized. L. N. Tolstoy conceived the work as a tetralogy, that is, he wanted to show four stages in the development of the human personality, but the philosophical views of the writer himself at that time did not fit into the framework of the plot. Why still an autobiography? The fact is that, as N. G. Chernyshevsky said, L. N. Tolstoy "exceedingly carefully studied the types of life of the human spirit in himself", which gave him the opportunity to "paint pictures of the internal movements of a person." However, it is important that in the trilogy there are actually two main characters: Nikolenka Irteniev and an adult who remembers his childhood, adolescence, youth. Comparison of the views of a child and an adult individual has always been the object of L. N. Tolstoy. Yes, and the distance in time is simply necessary: L. N. Tolstoy wrote his works about everything that worried him at the moment, which means that in the trilogy there should have been a place for analyzing Russian life in general. Each chapter contains a certain thought, an episode from a person's life. Therefore, the construction within the chapters is subject to internal development, the transfer of the state of the hero. L. N. Tolstoy shows his heroes in those conditions and in those circumstances where their personality can manifest itself most clearly. The hero of the trilogy finds himself in the face of death, and here all the conventions no longer matter. The relationship of the hero with ordinary people is shown, that is, a person is, as it were, tested by the “nationality”. Small but incredibly bright inclusions in the fabric of the narrative are woven moments in which we are talking about something that goes beyond the understanding of the child, which can be known to the hero only from the stories of other people, for example, war. Contact with something unknown, as a rule, turns into almost a tragedy for the child, and memories of such moments come to mind, especially in moments of despair. For example, after a quarrel with St.-Jerome. Nikolenka begins to sincerely consider herself illegitimate, recalling snippets of other people's conversations. L. N. Tolstoy uses such traditional for Russian literature methods of presenting a person’s characteristics as a description of a portrait of a hero, an image of his gesture, manners of behavior, since all these are external manifestations of the inner world. The speech characteristics of the heroes of the trilogy are extremely important. Exquisite French language good for people comme il faut, a mixture of German and broken Russian characterizes Karl Ivanovich. It is also not surprising that the heartfelt story of a German is written in Russian with separate inclusions of German phrases. So, we see that L. N. Tolstoy's trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" is built on a constant comparison of the inner and outer world of a person. The main goal of the writer, of course, was to analyze what constitutes the essence of each person. In "Youth" three days are especially distinguished: the day after entering the university, the day following it, when Nikolenka makes visits, and then he visits the Nekhlyudov family. Nikolenka and Nekhlyudov discover a new moral law. But it turned out to be very difficult to correct all of humanity, because even sincere and persistent attempts self-improvement most often failed. Behind all these lofty concepts, ordinary vanity, narcissism, arrogance often hid. In his youth, Nikolenka constantly plays some role with varying success. Either the role of a lover with an eye on the novels he read, then a philosopher, in the light he was little noticed, and thoughtfulness could mask his failure, then - a great original. it overshadowed his real feelings and thoughts. Nikolenka strives to be loved, tries to please. But no matter how much the hero wants to resemble the people around him, the author shows that this cannot be done because the world is morally alien to him. These people never created moral values and did not try to follow them, all the more they did not suffer from the fact that they could not be realized in life. They, unlike Nikolenka, always used those moral laws that were adopted in their midst and were considered mandatory.
While in military service, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy painfully thought about the war. What is war, does humanity need it? These questions arose before the writer at the very beginning of his literary career and occupied him throughout his life. Tolstoy uncompromisingly condemns the war. “Is it really crowded for people to live in this beautiful world, under this immeasurable starry sky?” In the autumn of 1853, the war between Russia and Turkey began, Tolstoy was allowed to transfer to Sevastopol. Once in the besieged city, Tolstoy was shocked by the heroic spirit of the troops and the population. “The spirit in the troops is beyond any description,” he wrote to his brother Sergei. “In the days of Ancient Greece, there was not so much heroism.” Under the roar of the guns of the fourth bastion, shrouded in powder smoke, L. N. Tolstoy began to write his first story about the heroic defense of the city, “Sevastopol in the month of December”, followed by two others: “Sevastopol in May” and “Sevastopol in August 1855 ". In his stories about the three stages of the Crimean epic, Tolstoy showed the war “not in the correct, beautiful and brilliant order, with music and drumming, with waving banners and prancing generals ... but in its real expression, in blood, in suffering, in death ...” .
The first story tells about Sevastopol in December 1854. It was a moment of some weakening and slowing down of hostilities, an interval between the bloody battle of Inkerman and Evpatoria. But if the Russian field army stationed in the vicinity of Sevastopol could rest and recover a little, then the city and its garrison did not know a respite and forgot what the word “peace” means. Soldiers and sailors worked in the snow and pouring rain, half-starved, tormented. Tolstoy talks about a sailor with a severed leg, who is being carried on a stretcher, and he asks to stop to look at the volley of our battery. “Nothing, there are two hundred of us here on the bastion, there will be enough of us for two more days!” Such answers were given by soldiers and sailors, and none of them even suspected how courageous a person, who despises death, must be so simple, calm, businesslike to talk about his own inevitable death tomorrow or the day after tomorrow! Resignedly suffered terrible injuries and the death of a woman, these girlfriends worthy of their husbands.
The second story refers to May 1855, and this story is already marked June 26, 1855. In May, a bloody battle took place between the garrison and almost the entire army besieging the city, which wanted to capture the three advanced fortifications at all costs. Tolstoy does not describe these bloody May and June meetings, but it is clear to the reader of the story from everything that very recently, just recently, very important events took place near the besieged city. Tolstoy shows how soldiers use a short truce to remove and bury the dead. Can the enemies, who have just cut and stabbed each other in a furious hand-to-hand fight, talk so friendly, with such caress, treat each other so kindly and considerately? But here, as elsewhere, Tolstoy is extremely sincere and truthful, he is an eyewitness, he does not need to invent, conjecture, reality is much richer than fantasy.
The third story tells about Sevastopol in August 1855. This is the last, most terrible month of a long siege, continuous, most cruel, non-ceasing bombardments day and night, the month of the fall of Sevastopol. “During lunch, a bomb fell not far from the house where the officers were sitting. The floor and walls trembled as if from an earthquake, and the windows were covered with gunpowder smoke. - You, I think, did not see this in St. Petersburg; and there are often such surprises here,” said the battery commander. “Look, Vlang, where it burst.” The writer shows the heroism of people who are accustomed to everyday shelling. Living a normal life. They do not realize themselves as heroes, but do their duty. Without loud phrases, everyday, these wonderful people make history, sometimes “leaving” into oblivion. Tolstoy shows that only the superiority of Turkey's allies in military equipment and material resources physically broke the fearless Russian heroes.
Exposing the war, the writer affirms the moral greatness and strength of the Russian people, who courageously accepted the retreat of the Russian army from Sevastopol. L. Tolstoy's innovation in the depiction of the war, realism, artistic merits of "Sevastopol Tales" were highly appreciated by contemporaries. In July 1855, at the height of the Crimean War, when the eyes of all of Russia were riveted on the heroic defense of Sevastopol, LN Sevastopol stories began to appear in the Sovremennik magazine. Tolstoy, which were received with particular interest. According to A.V. Druzhinin, “all reading Russia admired “Sevastopol in December”, “Sevastopol in May”, “Sevastopol in August”. Not only the poetic merits of the stories attracted keen attention and keen interest. very important political truths were expressed, exciting social questions were raised.Tolstoy reflected deep social sentiments, and in this, along with their high artistic skill, was the secret of the great impression that Tolstoy's stories made on the advanced layers of Russian society. Truth, deep, sober truth- this is what readers saw and appreciated first of all in the Sevastopol stories. The truth about the patriotic upsurge and heroism of the defenders of Sevastopol, about the courage of the Russian soldiers, about those feelings and moods that were close to the whole of Russian society, and, on the other hand, the truth about the failure of tsarism in the war, about the backwardness of the Nikolaev army, about the deep abyss between the simple a peasant in an overcoat and a noble officer elite. Tolstoy shows Sevastopol and its courageous defenders not in their ceremonial, not in their traditional literary attire, but in their true form - "in blood, in suffering, in death." He tore off its romantic veils from the war and showed it realistically, truthfully, without embellishment. It cannot be said that before Tolstoy no one had shown the war like that. With all the innovation of Tolstoy, he had a predecessor in the depiction of the war, Lermontov. The innovation of Tolstoy's military stories lies in the fact that, drawing the war truthfully, without embellishment, the writer put a living person in the center of his battle scenes, revealed his inner world, motivated actions and deeds by his innermost, deeply hidden thoughts and feelings. At the same time, in the center of Tolstoy's military narratives there is always a man from the people, who decides the fate of the fatherland with his work, his inconspicuous feat, and all other characters are illuminated from the position of that great goal that inspired the people. In Tolstoy's stories, for the first time in Russian and world literature, the traditional battle painting was "humanized", that is, deepened and enriched with truthful descriptions of the subtlest feelings and experiences of a person - a participant in the battle, given through the prism of his consciousness. The war, with all its horrors and greatness, was shown "from the inside", by revealing the inner attitude of its ordinary participants towards it, and the participants themselves were characterized depending on their place in the national struggle - this was the step forward that Tolstoy took in his military stories did compared to its predecessors. In Tolstoy's descriptions of human behavior in war, the first thing that strikes is the exceptionally accurate and sharp observation. Dozens of well-aimed psychological observations on the general properties of soldiers in battle are scattered in the Sevastopol stories. But Tolstoy is not limited to these observations. He seeks to penetrate into the inner world of each of his characters, to capture his individual, unique experiences in a combat situation. And through this individualization, we comprehend the general features of the behavior and experiences of a person in war. Exceptionally diverse psychologization techniques used by Tolstoy. revealing "dialectics of the soul" of his heroes, he shows not only the final results of spiritual movements, but also the very process of inner life. On the first accurate reproduction of internal speech. The author seems to "hear" the secret conversations that people have with themselves, as if "sees" the whole process of the movement of thought and accurately reproduces it in the story. And precisely because the writer penetrates deeply into the souls of his characters, their "inaudible" conversations become their most truthful and convincing characterization. Pushing two characters together, the author "hears" the thoughts of both of them at the same time and transmits them to us. It turns out a kind inner duet, parallel process two interconnected mindsets. But Tolstoy achieves special artistic power in the image dying thoughts their heroes. Revealing to us the inner world of the characters, Tolstoy is not limited to the role of an objective observer of this world. He actively intervenes in the self-observation of the heroes, in their thoughts, reminds us of what they have forgotten, corrects all deviations from the truth that they allow in their thoughts and actions. Such copyright intervention helps a deeper perception of the internal experiences of the characters, reveals their true character. Most often, the method of authorial intervention serves Tolstoy for direct exposure of the character, for "removing the masks". Features of innovation marked and composition of Tolstoy's stories. It is characterized, on the one hand, by a strict selection of life material, the limitation of narration within a certain time and space, and, on the other hand, by an inclination towards a broad, multifaceted depiction of reality, towards the formulation of pressing social problems. The first Sevastopol story, for example, covers events that fit between the morning dawn and evening sunset, that is, the events of one day. And what a huge vital content contained in this story! unique, new and principles of building an image used by the author in Sevastopol stories. Along with the subtlety and truthfulness of psychological characteristics, the writer always strives for a truthful depiction of the actions of his heroes, as well as for a concrete and visual depiction of the environment in which they operate. Tolstoy's heroes, even minor ones, have their own individual face, clear social characteristics, and a peculiar manner of speaking and acting.
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The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was very fond of children and youth. In them, he saw ideal people, not yet spoiled by the vices and troubles of life. This pure, primordial light illuminated the beginning of his famous trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". The protagonist of the trilogy Nikolenka Irteniev wakes up because Karl Ivanovich hit him with a firecracker and a fly fell on his head. This made the boy very angry, and he begins to analyze the behavior of his mentor in an aloof and cold way. Even his dressing gown, cap and tassel seem disgusting to Nikolenka. But Nikolenka is a very kind boy, and his attitude towards his mentor is quickly changing for the better. The irritation of a suddenly awakened person passes, giving way to a more natural state of love and gratitude for the teacher for the boy.
The author himself acts here as a psychologist. He scrupulously examines the behavior of the child at various points in his life. Another episode with Nikolenka is not outwardly connected with the first, but an internal psychological connection is seen. Nikolenka returns from the hunt and decides to draw everything he has seen over the past day. But since he had only blue paint, he very vividly depicted a blue boy riding a blue horse and blue dogs. The boy is in a great mood, he admires his blue creations, but suddenly the thought comes to his mind: are there blue hares? Having asked his father about this and received an affirmative answer, Nikolenka drew a blue hare, but remade it into a blue bush, and made a blue tree out of the bush, then clouds instead of a tree, and so on. All this eventually angered him, and he tore up the drawings. Why was there annoyance this time? After all, at first the boy drew blue dogs, and he liked them. It's simple: when the boy gave himself up to the creative process, without thinking about anything, no questions arose before him, but as soon as he began to explore the creative process, irritation immediately arose. Tolstoy seems to be saying that the immediacy of a living feeling is always more harmonious than a cold, rational attitude to life. Immediacy is inherent in children from birth, but as they grow older, this gift disappears for many people. Tolstoy often refers to the analysis of this moment. For example, when he describes children's games, a similar situation occurs: the children sat on the ground and, imagining that they were sailing on a boat, began to “row”. Only Nikolenka's brother Volodya sat motionless. When they reprimanded him, he said that it was all nonsense and that no matter how much or how little they waved their hands, nothing would change. It seems that Volodya was right, but to agree with him means to spoil the whole game. The chapter ends like this: “If you really judge, then there will be no game. And there will be no game, what will be left then? Indeed, cold reason shows that there are no blue hares, that sitting on the grass and waving your arms you won’t swim away, and Karl Ivanovich’s cap and dressing gown are really not so attractive. But in love, kindness and fantasy there is truth that adorns our lives.
I noticed that Tolstoy's little hero overcomes irritation with the world by his love for the people around him. And these people, with their reciprocal love for Nikolenka, help him overcome various temporary negative emotions, as, for example, in the case of a fly.
After the release of the second part of the trilogy - "Boyhood" N.G. Chernyshevsky wrote: "Extraordinary observation, subtle analysis of spiritual movements, distinctness and poetry in the pictures of nature, elegant simplicity - a distinctive feature of Count Tolstoy's talent."
I got the impression that all six years of the life of Nikolenka Irtenyev passed before my eyes (the reader meets the boy when he is 10 years old, and breaks up when he is 16), but in the trilogy there is no consistent, day by day, description of the life of heroes. This is a story of just a few, but significant episodes.
So, in "Boyhood" the author tells about the saddest days in Nikolenka's life, when he received a unit, was rude to the teacher, opened his father's briefcase and broke the key. Tolstoy tells in detail over six chapters how the hero was punished and how his punishment ended.
In Youth, three days are especially highlighted: the day after entering the university, the day following it, when Nikolenka makes visits, and then his visit to the Nekhlyudov family.
Nikolenka and Nekhlyudov discover a new moral law. But it turned out to be very difficult to correct all of humanity, because even sincere and persistent attempts at self-improvement most often failed. Behind all these lofty concepts, ordinary vanity, narcissism, arrogance often hid.
In my opinion, the last part of the trilogy is more devoted not to the throwing of heroes, but to the author's attempt to prove to himself the possibility of moral perfection.
In his youth, Nikolenka constantly plays some role with varying success. Either the role of a lover with an eye on the novels he read, then a philosopher, since he was little noticed in the world, and thoughtfulness could mask his failure, then a great original. All this pushed into the background his real feelings and thoughts.
Nikolenka strives to be loved, tries to please. But no matter how much the hero wants to resemble the people around him, the author shows that this cannot be done because the world is morally alien to him. These people never created moral values and did not try to follow them, all the more they did not suffer from the fact that they could not be realized in life. They, unlike Nikolenka, always used those moral laws that were accepted in their environment and were considered mandatory.
As a reader, I believe that Nikolenka, for all her failures, will never stop in her moral quest. It is not for nothing that at the end of the trilogy he again sits down to write the rules of life with the conviction that he will never do anything wrong, will not spend a single minute idly and will never change his rules. I understand that this impulse was inherent in the writer himself. Tolstoy either renounced his entire past life, or affirmed the truth that had been revealed to him anew. But for us, he remained a man who constantly strived for moral self-improvement, full of doubts and contradictions, and therefore real.
Grandmother is a countess, one of the most important figures in the trilogy, as if representing the past majestic era (like Prince Ivan Ivanovich). The image of B. is fanned by universal reverence and respect. She knows how to give a word or intonation to understand her attitude towards a person, which for many others is a decisive criterion. The narrator portrays her not so much with the help of static characteristics, but through the description of her interaction with other characters who arrive to congratulate her on her name day, her reactions and words. B. seems to feel his strength and power, his special significance. After the death of her daughter, Nikolenka's mother, she falls into despair. Nikolenka catches her at the moment when she is talking to the deceased as if she were alive. Despite the importance of the old woman, he considers her kind and cheerful, but her love for her grandchildren is especially intensified after the death of their mother. Nevertheless, the narrator compares her with a simple old woman, housekeeper Natalya Savishna, finding that the latter had a greater influence on his worldview.
Valakhina Sonechka is the daughter of an acquaintance of the Irtenevs, Mrs. Valakhina. Nikolenka meets her at her grandmother's birthday party and immediately falls in love. Here is his first impression: “... A wonderful twelve-year-old girl in a short open muslin dress, white pantaloons and tiny black shoes came out of the muffled person. There was a black velvet ribbon on her white neck; the head was all in dark blond curls, which went so well in front to her beautiful swarthy face, and in the back to her bare shoulders ... ”He dances a lot with S., makes her laugh in every possible way and is jealous of other boys. In Youth, Nikolenka, after a long separation, meets again with S., who has grown ugly, but "the lovely bulging eyes and a bright, good-natured cheerful smile were the same." The grown-up Nikolenka, whose feelings require food, is again carried away by it.
Grap Ilinka - the son of a foreigner who once lived with the grandfather of the Irtenevs, owed something to him and considered it his duty
send them I. "A boy of thirteen, thin, tall, pale, with a bird's face and a good-natured submissive expression." They pay attention to him only when they want to laugh at him. This character - a participant in one of the games of the Ivins and Irtenevs - suddenly becomes the object of general mockery, ending with him crying, and his hunted appearance painfully affects everyone. The narrator's recollection of him is associated with remorse and, according to him, is the only dark spot of his childhood.
“How did I not approach him, protect him and comfort him?” he asks himself. Later, I., like the narrator, enters the university. Nikolenka admits that he is so used to looking down on him that he is somewhat unpleasant that he is the same student, and he refuses father I.'s request to allow his son to spend the day with the Irtenevs. From the moment of entering the university, I., however, comes out from under the influence of Nikolenka and keeps up with a constant challenge.
Grisha is a wanderer, holy fool. "A man of about fifty, with a pale oblong face pitted with smallpox, long gray hair and a sparse reddish beard." Very tall. “His voice was rough and hoarse, his movements hurried and uneven, his speech was meaningless and incoherent (he never used pronouns), but the accents were so touching, and his yellow ugly face sometimes took on such an openly sad expression that, listening to him, it was impossible to resist from some mixed feeling of regret, fear and sadness. The main thing known about him is that he goes barefoot in winter and summer, visits monasteries, gives icons to those he loves, and speaks mysterious words that are taken for predictions. To see the pood chains that he wears, the children peep how he undresses before going to bed, they see how selflessly he prays, evoking a feeling of tenderness in the narrator: “Oh, great Christian Grisha! Your faith was so strong that you felt the closeness of God, your love is so great that the words poured out of your mouth by themselves - you did not believe them with your mind ... "
Dubkov - adjutant, friend of Volodya Irtenyev. “... A small wiry brunette, no longer the first youth and a little short-legged, but not bad-looking and always cheerful. He was one of those narrow-minded people who are especially pleasant precisely because of their narrow-mindedness, who are unable to see objects from different angles and who are always carried away. The judgments of these people are one-sided and erroneous, but always sincere and fascinating. A big fan of champagne, trips to women, playing cards and other entertainments.
Epifanova Avdotya Vasilievna - a neighbor of the Irtenevs, then the second wife of Pyotr Aleksandrovich Irtenyev, Nikolenka's father. The narrator notes her passionate, devoted love for her husband, which, however, does not in the least prevent her from loving to dress beautifully and go out into the world. Strange, playful relations are established between her and the young Irtenyevs (with the exception of Lyubochka, who fell in love with her stepmother, who reciprocates her feelings), hiding the absence of any kind of relationship. Nikolenka is surprised at the contrast between that young, healthy, cold, cheerful beauty that E. appears before the guests, and a middle-aged, exhausted, yearning woman, sloppy and bored without guests. It is her slovenliness that robs her of her final respect as a storyteller. About her love for her father, he remarks: “The only purpose of her life was to acquire the love of her husband; but she did, it seemed, on purpose everything that could only be unpleasant for him, and everything with the aim of proving to him the full strength of her love and readiness for self-sacrifice. E.'s relationship with her husband becomes a subject of special attention for the narrator, since the “family thought” already occupies Tolstoy at the time of the creation of the autobiographical trilogy and will be developed in his subsequent writings. He sees that in their relationship, “a feeling of quiet hatred, that restrained disgust for the object of affection, which is expressed by an unconscious desire to do all possible minor moral troubles to this object,” begins to appear.
Zukhin is Nikolenka's comrade at the university. He is eighteen years old. Ardent, receptive, active, riotous nature, full of strength and energy wasted in revelry. Drinks from time to time. The narrator meets him at a meeting of a circle of students who have decided to prepare for exams together. “... A small dense brunette with a somewhat swollen and always glossy, but extremely intelligent, lively and independent face. This expression was especially given to him by a low, but humpbacked forehead above deep black eyes, bristly short hair and a frequent black beard, which always seemed unshaven. He never seemed to think about himself (which I always especially liked in people), but it was clear that his mind was never left without work. He does not respect and does not like science, although they are given to him with extreme ease.
3. - a type of commoner, intelligent, knowing, although not belonging to the category of people comme il faut, which at first causes the narrator "not only a feeling of contempt, but also some personal hatred that I felt for them for not being comme il faut, they seemed to consider me not only equal to themselves, but even good-naturedly patronized me. Despite his irresistible disgust at their untidy appearance and manners, the narrator feels something good in Z. and his comrades and is drawn to them. He is attracted by knowledge, simplicity, honesty, poetry of youth and daring. In addition to the abyss of shades that make up the difference in their understanding of life, Nikolenka cannot get rid of the feeling of inequality between him, a wealthy person, and them, and therefore cannot “enter into even, sincere relations with them.” However, he is gradually drawn into their life and once again discovers for himself that the same 3., for example, judges literature better and more clearly and in general not only is not inferior to him in anything, but even surpasses him, so that the height, with which he, a young aristocrat, looks at Z. and his comrades - Operov, Ikonin and others - is imaginary.
Ivin Seryozha is a relative and peer of the Irtenevs, “a swarthy, curly-haired boy, with an upturned hard nose, very fresh red lips that rarely completely covered the slightly protruding upper row of white teeth, dark blue beautiful eyes and an unusually lively expression on his face. He never smiled, but either looked completely serious, or laughed heartily with his sonorous, distinct and extremely captivating laugh. His original beauty strikes Nikolenka, and he falls in love with him like a child, but he does not find any response in I., although he feels his power over him and unconsciously, but tyrannically uses it in their relationship.
Irteniev Volodya (Vladimir Petrovich) is Nikolenka's older (for a year and several months) brother. The consciousness of his seniority and primacy constantly prompts him to actions that hurt his brother's pride. Even the condescension and grin, with which he often honors his brother, turns out to be a reason for resentment. The narrator characterizes V .: “He was ardent, frank and fickle in his hobbies. Carried away by the most heterogeneous subjects, he indulged in them with all his soul. He emphasizes the "happy, nobly frank character" of V. However, despite occasional and brief disagreements or even quarrels, relations between the brothers remain good. Nikolenka is involuntarily carried away by the same passions as V., but out of pride she tries not to imitate him. With admiration and a feeling of some envy, Nikolenka describes V.'s admission to the university, the general joy in the house on this occasion. V. has new friends - Dubkov and Dmitry Nekhlyudov, with whom he soon disagrees. His favorite pastimes with Dubkov are champagne, balls, cards. V.'s relationship with the girls surprised his brother, because he "did not allow the thought that they could think or feel anything human, and even less allowed the possibility of discussing anything with them."
Irteniev Nikolenka (Nikolai Petrovich) is the main character on whose behalf the story is being told. Nobleman, Count. From a noble aristocratic family. The image is autobiographical. The trilogy shows the process of internal growth and formation of N.'s personality, his relationship with other people and the world, the process of comprehending reality and himself, the search for peace of mind and the meaning of life. N. appears before the reader through his perception of different people with whom one way or another confronts his life.
Tolstoy thought over this trilogy very carefully. It was important for him to express his thoughts about Russian life, Russian society, and literature. Therefore, in these works everything is very important, there is nothing unnecessary - Tolstoy thought through every detail, every scene, every word. Its task is to show the development of a person's personality, the formation of his character, beliefs. We see the main character, Nikolenka Irtenyev, at different periods of his life. This is childhood, adolescence and youth. Tolstoy chose these periods because they are the most important in a person's life. In childhood, the child is aware of his connection with the family and the world, he is very sincere and naive; in adolescence, the world expands, new acquaintances occur, a person learns to interact with other people; in youth there is an awareness of oneself as a unique personality, separation from the surrounding world. Nikolenka also goes through all these stages.
The writer constructed the scene of action in such a way that it coincided with his main idea. The action of the first book takes place in the Irtenevs' estate - the boy's home; in the second book the hero visits many other places; finally, in the third book, the hero's relationship with the outside world comes to the fore. And here the theme of the family is very important.
The theme of the family is the leading theme of the trilogy. It is the connection with the family, with the house that strongly affects the main character. Tolstoy deliberately shows in each part some sad event in the Irtenev family: in the first part, Nikolenka's mother dies, and this destroys harmony; in the second part, the grandmother, who was Nikolenka's support, dies; in the third part, the stepmother appears, the new wife of the father. So gradually, but inevitably, Nikolenka enters the world of adult relationships. I think he is getting angry.
The story in the trilogy is told in the first person. But this is not written by Nikolenka himself, but by the already adult Nikolai Irtenyev, who recalls his childhood. In Tolstoy's time, all memoirs were written in the first person. In addition, the story in the first person brings the author and the hero closer together, so the trilogy can be called autobiographical. In many ways, in this book, Tolstoy writes about himself, about the maturation of his soul. After the release of the entire trilogy, the writer admitted that he had departed from his initial plan.
In the trilogy, six years from the life of Irtenev pass before us, but they are not described day by day. Tolstoy shows the most important moments of the boy's fate. Each chapter carries an idea. They follow each other so as to convey the development of the hero, his emotions and feelings. Tolstoy chooses circumstances in such a way that they show the character of the hero brightly and strongly. So, Nikolenka finds herself in the face of death, and here conventions do not matter.
Tolstoy characterizes his heroes through a description of their appearance, manners, behavior, because this is how the inner world of heroes is manifested. Even a foreign language serves to characterize the hero: aristocrats speak French, the teacher Karl Ivanovich speaks broken Russian and German, ordinary people speak Russian.
All this allowed L.N. Tolstoy to analyze the psychology of the child and adolescent. In the trilogy, the inner world of a person and the external environment are constantly compared. Tolstoy brilliantly reveals
Like all the works of Leo Tolstoy, the trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth” was, in fact, the embodiment of a large number of plans and undertakings. In the course of working on the work, the writer carefully honed every phrase, every plot combination, tried to subordinate all artistic means to a clear adherence to the general idea. Everything is important in the text of Tolstoy's works, there are no trifles. Each word is not used by chance, each episode is thought out.
The main goal of L.N. Tolstoy is to show the development of a person as a person during his childhood, adolescence and youth, that is, during those periods of life when a person most fully feels himself in the world, his indissolubility with him, and then, when separation of himself begins from the world and understanding of its environment. Separate stories make up a trilogy, but the action in them takes place according to the idea, first in the Irtenevs' estate (“Childhood”), then the world expands significantly (“Boyhood”). In the story “Youth”, the theme of the family, at home, sounds many times more muffled, giving way to the theme of Nikolenka’s relationship with the outside world. It is no coincidence that with the death of the mother, in the first part, the harmony of relations in the family is destroyed, in the second, the grandmother dies, taking with her great moral strength, and in the third, the father remarries a woman whose even smile is always the same. The return of the former family happiness becomes completely impossible. Between the stories there is a logical connection, justified primarily by the logic of the writer: the formation of a person, although it is divided into certain stages, is actually continuous.
The first-person narration in the trilogy establishes the connection of the work with the literary traditions of that time. In addition, it psychologically brings the reader closer to the hero. And, finally, such a presentation of events indicates a certain degree of autobiographical work. However, it cannot be said that autobiography was the most convenient way to embody a certain idea in a work, since it was precisely it, judging by the statements of the writer himself, that did not allow the original idea to be realized. L.N. Tolstoy conceived the work as a tetralogy, that is, he wanted to show four stages in the development of the human personality, but the philosophical views of the writer himself at that time did not fit into the framework of the plot. Why still an autobiography? The fact is that, as N.G. Chernyshevsky said, L.N. Tolstoy “exceedingly carefully studied the types of life of the human spirit in himself”, which made it possible for him “to paint pictures of the internal movements of a person”. However, it is important that in the trilogy there are actually two main characters: Nikolenka Irteniev and an adult who remembers his childhood, adolescence, youth. Comparison of the views of a child and an adult individual has always been the object of LN Tolstoy's interests. Yes, and the distance in time is simply necessary: L.N. Tolstoy wrote his works about everything that worried him at the moment, which means that in the trilogy there should have been a place for analyzing Russian life in general.
Each chapter contains a certain thought, an episode from a person's life. Therefore, the construction within the chapters is subject to internal development, the transfer of the state of the hero. Long Tolstoyan phrases, layer by layer, level by level, build a tower of human sensations and experiences. L.N. Tolstoy shows his heroes in those conditions and in those circumstances where their personality can manifest itself most clearly. The hero of the trilogy finds himself in the face of death, and here all the conventions no longer matter. The relationship of the hero with ordinary people is shown, that is, a person is, as it were, tested by the “nationality”. Small but incredibly bright inclusions in the fabric of the narrative are woven moments in which we are talking about something that goes beyond the understanding of the child, which can be known to the hero only from the stories of other people, for example, war. Contact with something unknown, as a rule, turns into almost a tragedy for the child, and memories of such moments come to mind, especially in moments of despair. For example, after a quarrel with St.-Jerome. Nikolenka begins to sincerely consider herself illegitimate, recalling snippets of other people's conversations.
Of course, L.N. Tolstoy masterfully uses such traditional for Russian literature methods of presenting a person’s characteristics as a description of a portrait of a hero, an image of his gesture, behavior, since all these are external manifestations of the inner world. The speech characteristics of the heroes of the trilogy are extremely important. Refined French is good for people comme il faut, a mixture of German and broken Russian characterizes Karl Ivanovich. It is also not surprising that the heartfelt story of a German is written in Russian with separate inclusions of German phrases.
So, we see that LN Tolstoy's trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth” is built on a constant comparison of the inner and outer world of a person. The main goal of the writer, of course, was to analyze what constitutes the essence of each person. And in the skill of carrying out such an analysis, in my opinion, Leo Tolstoy knows no equal.
