The novel "The White Guard" opens with the image of 1918. Exactly in the way of those terrible and majestic days. This year the summer was very sunny, the winter abounded in snow, and two stars stood high in the sky. The house and the city are the two main inanimate characters of the book. The house is replete with family idyll, and the city, one far from perfect day, crosses out its existence with a terrible war.
In his book, the author avoids direct opposition of whites and reds, emphasizing that they are all one, regardless of which camp they belong to. He tries to convey all the horror in the idea of senseless fratricide. With sadness and regret, he sympathizes with both warring parties and does not sympathize with one to the end.
The author brings to the fore the main universal values: home, homeland, family. But not all of his heroes agreed to recognize these values. With terrifying realism, he was able to convey the mental anguish of people and the tragedy of the situation. The novelty of the novel also consisted in the fact that five years after the end of the civil war, he was able to show the officers of the White Guard not in the guise of worst enemy, but as ordinary people, among whom there are both good and bad, smart and erring, honest and mercenary. He showed them from the inside, helped to imbue them with sympathy and understanding.
For example, in Alexei, in Malyshev, in Nai-Tours, he valued fidelity to honor, masculinity and directness. For them, the creed was an unshakable pivot, shaken with the abdication of Nicholas II.
Nai-Tours is a man of honor. He rips off the shoulder straps from the young cadet and covers his retreat with only a machine gun. Nikolka also turns out to be a man of honor. He rushes through the streets under fire, looking for the relatives of Nai-Turs to inform them of his death. And then, at the risk of himself, he steals the body of the murdered commander, removing it from the mountain of frozen corpses, from the basement of the anatomical theater. Malyshev takes a risky step, dismissing the junkers home when he realizes that this battle is lost, and they are still too young and they want to live.
In addition to honor and duty to the fatherland, the author was also concerned about the theme of the afterlife. For some, this faith was persistent and unshakable, for others it was weathered. The most striking example of pure faith in higher powers are Elena's prayers to save the life of her brother. Appeal to the Virgin performs a miracle: Alexey recovers. The semantic culmination of the novel ends with Alexey Turbina's dream about faith in God. He shows that all people are equal before him and sooner or later, someone will have to answer for the shed blood.
The suffering and anguish of the fratricidal war forced Bulgakov to write a novel that is essentially non-religious, but with clear features Christian faith. Although, despite the lack of faith in the Almighty, people did not forget about the true values \u200b\u200bof their lives and continued to sacredly observe them.
Composition
The civil war began on October 25, 1917, when Russia split into two camps: "white" and "red". The bloody tragedy turned people's ideas about morality, honor, dignity, justice. Each of the warring parties proved their understanding of the truth. For many people, choosing a goal has become a vital necessity. "Painful searches" are depicted in M. Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard". The leading theme of this work was the fate of the intelligentsia in the context of the civil war and the surrounding chaos. The Turbin family is a representative of the Russian intelligentsia, which is connected with monarchical Russia by thousands of threads (generic, official, upbringing, oath). The Turbin family is a military family, where the elder brother Alexei is a colonel, the younger Nikolai is a cadet, and sister Elena is married to Colonel Talberg. Turbines are people of honor. They despise lies, self-interest. For them it is true that parole not a single person should violate, because otherwise it will be impossible to live in the world. So spoke the sixteen-year-old Junker Nikolai Turbin. And for people with such beliefs, it was most difficult to enter into a time of deceit and dishonor.
Turbines are forced to decide: how to live, with whom to go, whom and what to protect. At the party at the Turbins, they talk about the same thing. In the house of the Turbins we can find a high culture of life, traditions, human relations. The inhabitants of this house are completely devoid of arrogance and stiffness, hypocrisy and vulgarity. They are hospitable and cordial, condescending to the weaknesses of people, but irreconcilable to everything that is beyond the threshold of decency, honor, justice. Turbines and part of the intelligentsia, about which the novel says: army officers, "hundreds of ensigns and second lieutenants, former students", are swept out of both capitals by a blizzard of revolution. But it is they who take upon themselves the most cruel blows of this blizzard, it is they who "will have to suffer and die." In time, they will realize what an ungrateful role they have taken on. But that will be with time. In the meantime, we are convinced that there is no other way out, that mortal danger hangs over the entire culture, over that eternal thing that has been growing for centuries, over Russia itself. The Turbins have been taught a lesson in history, and, making their choice, they remain with the people and accept the new Russia, they flock under the white banners to fight to the death.
great attention The question of honor and duty was given by Bulgakov in the novel. Why did Aleksey and Nikol-ka Turbins, Nai-Turs, Myshlaevsky, Karas, Shervinsky and other White Guards, cadets, officers, knowing that all their actions would lead to nothing, went to defend Kiev from troops that outnumbered them by several times Petliura? They were forced to do this by an officer's honor. And honor, according to Bulgakov, is something without which it would be impossible to live on earth. Myshlaevsky with forty officers and cadets, in light overcoats and boots, protected the city in the cold. The question of honor and duty is connected with the problem of betrayal and cowardice. At the most critical moments of the position of the whites in Kyiv, these terrible vices manifested themselves in many military men who were at the head of the white army. Bulgakov calls them staff bastards. This is the hetman of Ukraine, and those numerous military men who, at the first danger, “rat-run” left the city, including Talberg, and those who caused soldiers to freeze in the snow near Post. Thalberg is a white officer. He graduated from the university and the military academy. "This is the best thing that should have been in Russia." Yes, “should have…” But “two-layer eyes”, “rat run”, when he takes his feet away from Petliura, leaving his wife and her brothers. "Damn doll, devoid of the slightest notion of honor!" - that's what this Thalberg is. Bulgakov's white junkers are ordinary youths from a certain class environment, who are wrecked with their noble-officer "ideals".
In the "White Guard" events are raging around the Turbinsky house, which, in spite of everything, remains an island of beauty, comfort and peace. In the novel The White Guard, the Turbins' house is compared to a vase that imperceptibly broke and from which all the water slowly leaked out. The home for the writer is Russia, and therefore the process of the death of old Russia during the civil war and the death of the Turbins' house as a result of the death of Russia. Young Turbins, although they are drawn into the whirlpool of these events, retain to the end what is especially dear to the writer: indestructible love of life and love for the beautiful and eternal.
The novel "The White Guard" reflects the events of the civil war of the period 1918-1919. in his hometown of Kyiv. Bulgakov considers these events not from class or political positions, but from purely human ones. Whoever seizes the city - the hetman, the Petliurists or the Bolsheviks - blood inevitably flows, hundreds of people die in agony, while others become even more terribly hardened. Violence breeds more violence. This is what worries the writer the most. He observes the monarchical enthusiasm of his favorite heroes with a sympathetic and ironic smile. Not without a smile, albeit a sad one, the author describes in the finale the Bolshevik sentry, who, falling into a dream, sees a red sparkling firmament, and his soul "is instantly filled with happiness." And he ridicules the loyal moods in the crowd during the parade of the Petliura troops with a direct mockery. Any politics, no matter what ideas it may be involved in, remains deeply alien to Bulgakov. He understood the officers of the "terminal and collapsed regiments" of the old army, "ensigns and second lieutenants, former students ... knocked off the screws of life by war and revolution." He could not condemn them for their hatred of the Bolsheviks - "straight and hot." He understood the peasants no less, with their anger against the Germans, who mocked them, against the hetman, under whom the landlords fell upon them, he also understood their "trembling of hatred at the capture of officers."
Today we are all aware that the civil war was one of the most tragic pages in the history of the country, that the huge losses that both the Reds and the Whites suffered in it are our common losses. Bulgakov viewed the events of this war precisely in this way, striving "to become dispassionately above the Reds and Whites." For the sake of those truths and values that are called eternal, and first of all for the sake of human life itself, which, in the heat of the civil war, almost ceased to be considered a value at all.
"The stubborn image of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country" - this is how Bulgakov himself defines his literary credo. With what sympathy Bulgakov describes the Turbins, Myshla-evsky, Malyshev, Nai-Turs! Each of them is not without sin, but they are people of true decency, honor, courage. And for the sake of these virtues, the writer easily forgives them petty sins. And most of all, he cherishes everything that makes up beauty and joy. human being. In the house of the Turbins, despite the terrible and bloody deeds of 1918, there is comfort, peace, flowers. With particular tenderness, the author describes the human spiritual beauty, the very one that encourages his heroes to forget about themselves when it is necessary to take care of others, and even quite naturally, as a matter of course, to expose themselves to bullets in order to save others, as Nai-Tours does and Turbines are ready to do at any moment, and Myshlaevsky, and Karas.
And one more eternal value, perhaps the greatest, constantly guarded in the novel, is love. “They will have to suffer and die, but in spite of everything, love catches up with almost every one of them: Alexei, and Nikolka, and Elena, and Myshlaevsky with Lariosik - Shervinsky's unsuccessful rivals. And this is wonderful, because life itself is impossible without love, ”the writer seems to say. The author invites the reader, as if from eternity, from the depths, to look at events, at people, at their whole life in this terrible 1918.
Regional scientific and practical conference
research work of students in grades 9-11
based on the work of M. Bulgakov
The motive of honor in the novel "The White Guard"
student 11 "b" class
MOBU Novobureyskaya secondary school №3
Shcherbakova Irina
Research leader:
3) compiling a scale of values.
1.6 Literature analysis
The method involved the study of literary sources, their description and systematization according to the research problem. The main task of the analysis of literary sources is to determine what has previously been done by other researchers on the topic set for development. The few critical materials on the Internet on this topic have been studied.
1.7 Characteristics of personal contribution to solving the problem
I read the novel "The White Guard" by M. Bulgakov, re-read the works of Russian classical literature:
The story "The Captain's Daughter";
The novel "War and Peace";
The story "Prisoner of the Caucasus";
The story "Duel".
In the course of work on research work was independently created "Scale of Values" of the heroes of the novel "The White Guard".
II. MAIN PART
2.1 In our literature, never fading concepts have always been alive: duty, nobility, responsibility, honor. he liked to emphasize his connection with Russian literature of the 19th century, reliance on the classical tradition. The novel "The White Guard" clearly showed the features of poetics, the fragmentation of the composition and the rearrangement of events in time, the abundance of images that have a symbolic meaning, and the introduction of subtexts from other works into the novel.
What works did the writer rely on when creating the novel "The White Guard"?
Firstly, this is the novel "The Captain's Daughter". Starting with the epigraphs of these two works, then turning to the image of the main character Pyotr Grinev, you feel a common leitmotif - "Take care of honor from an early age." Starting to read the novel by M. Bulgakov, I immediately remembered my favorite Pushkin's hero- Petra Grinev. Going to the service, he received an order from his father: “... serve faithfully to whom you swore; listen to your bosses. Do not chase after their affection; do not ask for service, do not refuse service. "Despite his youth, Grinev firmly learned his father's advice. Reading the story, I followed the formation of character, the trials that befell him. And I saw that the concept of "honor" for Grinev it became the most important thing in life. Even in the face of death, when Pugachev decided his fate, Grinev did not save. "Take care of honor from a young age" is an epigraph to the story "The Captain's Daughter". Each word from this epigraph has a deep meaning. Take care - it means keep, do not lose throughout life. It is impossible to find only one definition for the word "honor". In the Ozhegov dictionary, an explanation is given: "honor: Dignity, high social and moral condition, which causes general respect. Chastity, purity. Respect."
Secondly, the works "War and Peace" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus". The concepts of "honor", "officer honor" are characteristic of Andrei Balkonsky and Zhilin. Having passed severe trials, they did not tarnish the officer's honor, the honor of the uniform.
What is the attitude of the heroes of the novel "The White Guard" to the concept of honor?
2.2 The novel "White Guard" is dedicated to the events of the Civil War. The civil war began on October 25, 1917, when Russia split into two camps: “white” and “red”. The action takes place in 1918 1, p. 23. The bloody tragedy turned people's ideas about morality, honor, dignity, justice. Each of the warring parties proved their understanding of truth and honor. For many people, choosing a goal has become a vital necessity. The “painful search” is depicted in M. Bulgakov's novel The White Guard. The leading theme of this work was the fate of the intelligentsia in the context of the civil war and the surrounding chaos, the loss of moral values.
The novel is preceded by two epigraphs. With an epigraph from Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, Bulgakov emphasized that we are talking about people who were overtaken by the storm of revolution, but who were able to find the right path, maintain courage and sober look the world and your place in it. The second is biblical. Bulgakov introduces us into the zone of eternal time without introducing any historical comparisons into the novel.
The motive of the epigraphs is developed by the epic beginning of the novel: “The year was great and terrible after the birth of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was abundant in summer with the sun, and in winter with snow, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the star of the shepherd Venus and the red trembling Mars. Why does the author refer to these stars and what do Venus and Mars mean?
In ancient Rome, Venus was the goddess of beauty and love. Venus, more than other stars and planets, was visible in the sky in the mornings, when they woke up or vice versa, the lovers were just about to fall asleep.
The ancient Romans called Mars the rather bloodthirsty god of war. And indeed the reddish color of the planet is associated with the blood that people shed in their many military campaigns. In addition, like the mythological god, the planet has 2 satellites that accompany him in battles - Phobos and Deimos - Fear and Horror.
The beginning style is almost biblical. Associations make us remember the eternal Book of Genesis, which in itself materializes the eternal in a peculiar way, as well as the image of the stars in heaven. The specific time of history is, as it were, soldered into the eternal time of being, framed by it. The confrontation of the stars, the natural series of images related to the eternal, at the same time symbolizes the collision of historical time. The beginning of the work, majestic, tragic and poetic, contains the grain of social and philosophical issues related to the opposition of peace and war, life and death, death and immortality, honor and dishonor. The very choice of stars gives to descend from space distance to the world of the Turbins, since it is this world that will resist enmity and madness.
2.3 The events that took place divided people into 2 opposing camps: white and red. But not only the revolution is the reason for such a division, but the person himself chooses what to do in this troubled time. That is why all the heroes of the novel can be divided into 2 groups:
Group 1 - people of honor, honest;
Group 2 - without honor, dishonorable.
I included Aleksey and Nikolka Turbin, Myshlaevsky, Nai-Tours, Shervinsky, Lariosik, Elena to the first camp.
Why did they and other White Guards, junkers, officers, knowing that all their actions would lead to nothing, went to defend Kyiv from Petliura's troops, which outnumbered them by several times? They were forced to do this by an officer's honor. And honor, according to Bulgakov, is something without which it would be impossible to live on earth.
2.4 The life of people of honor is always much harder than the life of dishonorable people. All the Turbins think the same way as Nikolka, who is still very young, seventeen years old, who believes "that not a single person should violate his word of honor, because otherwise it would be impossible to live in the world." And this slightly old-fashioned chivalry is the last pillar of their faith. This is one of the main values in the Turbins' scale of values.
The Turbin family is a representative of the Russian intelligentsia, which is connected with monarchical Russia by thousands of threads (generic, official, upbringing, oath). The Turbin family is a military family, where the elder brother Alexei is a colonel, the younger Nikolai is a cadet, and sister Elena is married to Colonel Talberg. Turbines are people of honor. They despise lies, self-interest. And for people with such beliefs, it was most difficult to enter into a time of deceit and dishonor. Turbines are forced to decide: how to live, with whom to go, whom and what to protect. In the house of the Turbins we can find a high culture of life, traditions, human relations. This is another value in their scale of values. The inhabitants of this house are completely devoid of arrogance and stiffness, hypocrisy and vulgarity. They are hospitable and cordial, condescending to the weaknesses of people, but irreconcilable to everything that is beyond the threshold of decency, honor, justice. Turbines and part of the intelligentsia, about which the novel says: army officers, “hundreds of ensigns and second lieutenants, former students”, are swept out of both capitals by a blizzard of revolution. But it is they who take upon themselves the most cruel blows of this blizzard, it is they who “will have to suffer and die.” In time, they will realize what an ungrateful role they have taken on. But that will be with time. In the meantime, we are convinced that there is no other way out, that mortal danger hangs over the entire culture, over that eternal thing that has been growing for centuries, over Russia itself. The Turbins have been taught a lesson in history, and, making their choice, they remain with the people and accept the new Russia, they flock under the white banners to fight to the death.
In Alexei, in Myshlaevsky, in Nai-Turs and in Nikolka, the author most of all appreciates courageous directness, loyalty to honor. For them, honor is a kind of faith, the core of personal behavior. The officer's honor demanded the protection of the white banner, unreasoning loyalty to the oath, the fatherland and the tsar, and Alexei Turbin is painfully experiencing the collapse of the creed, from under which, with the abdication of Nicholas II, the main support was pulled out. But honor is also loyalty to other people, camaraderie, duty to the younger and the weak. Colonel Malyshev is a man of honor, because he sends the junkers home, realizing the senselessness of resistance: courage and contempt for phrases are needed for such a decision.
Nai-Turs is a man of honor, even a knight of it, because he fights to the end, and when he sees that the case is lost, he rips off the junker, almost a boy, thrown into a bloody mess, shoulder straps and covers his retreat with a machine gun.
A man of honor and Nikolka, because he rushes through the streets of the city, looking for relatives of Nai-Turs, to inform them of his death, and then, risking himself, almost steals the body the deceased commander, extracting it from a mountain of frozen corpses in the basement of the anatomical theater. Where there is honor, there is courage, where dishonor is cowardice.
Much brings the author closer to his main character - the doctor Alexei Turbin, to whom he gave a particle of his biography: both calm courage, and faith in old Russia, faith to the last, until the course of events exhausts her to the end, but most of all - the dream of a peaceful life .
Bulgakov wrote not historical novel, and the socio-psychological canvas with access to philosophical problems: what is the Fatherland, God, man, life, feat, goodness, truth, honor. The dramatic climax is followed by a development of action that is very important for the plot as a whole: whether the characters will recover from the shock; Will the House on Alekseevsky Spusk be preserved? Aleksey Turbin, who was running away from the Petliurists, was wounded and, once in his own home, remained in a borderline state for a long time, in hallucinations or losing his memory. But not a physical illness “finished off” Alexei, but a moral one: “Unpleasant ... oh, unpleasant ... I shot him in vain ... Of course, I take the blame on myself ... I'm a murderer!" (remember the heroes of Tolstoy, who also take the blame). Another thing also tormented me: “There was a world, and now this world has been killed.” Not about life, he remained alive, but about the world Turbin thinks, for the Turbin breed has always carried within itself a conciliar consciousness. What will happen after the end of Petliura? The Reds will come... The thought remains unfinished. And only one moral value remains incorruptible - this is the house, the family, those traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, relationships between family members. The dying mother of the Turbins gives them an order: "Live together ... live." And the children remember and fulfill this order. The House of the Turbins is the Temple of Man, it is the House with capital letter. The Turbin House is not only a symbol noble culture but it is a place of refuge where one can be oneself. All the tragic events outside the House. The defense of such a House can send the Turbins to a camp of any color.
Bulgakov's world is an apology for the hearth. In letters to his relatives, the writer, tirelessly, repeated: “Praise the hearth!”
says that a person cannot do without a hearth and peace.
While the House is standing, waves of hatred, walking around the City, break against it.
The House of the Turbins withstood the trials sent by the revolution, and the proof of this is the inviolable ideals of Goodness and Beauty, Honor and Duty in their souls.
Fate sends them Lariosik from Zhytomyr, a sweet, kind, unprotected big baby, and their House becomes his House. Will he accept the new one, which was called the armored train "Proletary" with sentries exhausted from military labor? Accept, because they are also brothers, they are not to blame. The red sentry also saw in the half-asleep "an incomprehensible rider in chain mail" - Zhilin from Alexei's dream, for him, a fellow villager from the village of Malyye Chugury, the intellectual Turbin in 1916 bandaged Zhilin's wound as a brother and through him, according to the author, he already "fraternized ” with a sentry from the red “Proletary”. All - white and red - are brothers, and in the war everyone was to blame for each other. And the blue-eyed librarian Rusakov (at the end of the novel), as if from the author, pronounces the words of the Gospel he had just read: “... And I saw a new heaven and new land for the former heaven and the former earth have passed away…”; “The world became in the soul, and in the world he reached the words: ... a tear from my eyes, and there will be no death, there will be no more crying, no crying, no sickness, for the former has passed ...”
Everything honest and pure, like a magnet, is attracted by the House. Here, in this coziness of the House, Myshlaevsky, deadly frozen, comes from the terrible World. A man of honor, like Turbins, he did not leave his post under the city, where in terrible frost forty people waited for a day in the snow, without fires, a shift,
which would never have come if Colonel Nai-Turs, also a man of honor and duty, could not, despite the disgrace that is happening at the headquarters, bring two hundred junkers, perfectly dressed and armed through the efforts of Nai-Turs. Some time will pass, and Nai-Turs, realizing that he and his cadets have been treacherously abandoned by the command, that his guys are destined for the fate of cannon fodder, at the cost own life save his boys. The lines of the Turbins and Nai-Tours will intertwine in the fate of Nikolka, who witnessed the last heroic minutes of the colonel's life. Admired by the feat and humanism of the colonel, Nikolka will do the impossible - he will be able to overcome the seemingly insurmountable in order to give Nai-Turs his last duty - to bury him with dignity and become a close person for the mother and sister of the deceased hero.
The fates of all truly decent people are contained in the world of the Turbins, whether they are the courageous officers Myshlaevsky and Stepanov, or deeply civilian by nature, but not deviating from what befell him in the era of hard times, Alexei Turbin, or even the completely, it would seem, ridiculous Lariosik . But it was Lariosik who managed to quite accurately express the very essence of the House, opposing the era of cruelty and violence. Lariosik spoke about himself, but many could subscribe to these words, “that he suffered a drama, but here, at Elena Vasilyevna’s, his soul comes to life, because this is an absolutely exceptional person Elena Vasilyevna and their apartment is warm and comfortable, and especially creamy curtains on all windows are wonderful, thanks to which you feel cut off from the outside world ... And he, this outside world ... agree for yourself, formidable, bloody and meaningless.
There, outside the windows - the merciless destruction of everything that was valuable in Russia.
Here, behind the curtains, there is an unshakable belief that everything beautiful must be protected and preserved, that it is necessary under any circumstances, that it is feasible.
“... Hours, fortunately, are absolutely immortal, both the Saardam Carpenter and the Dutch tile are immortal, like a wise scan, life-giving and hot in the most difficult time.”
And outside the windows - "the eighteenth year is flying to an end and every day it looks more menacing, bristly." And Aleksey Turbin thinks with anxiety not about his possible death, but about the death of the House: “Walls will fall, an alarmed falcon will fly from a white mitten, the fire will go out in a bronze lamp, and the “Captain’s Daughter” will be burned in the furnace.”
But, perhaps, love and devotion are given the power to protect and save, and the House will be saved?
There is no clear answer to this question in the novel.
The question of honor and duty is connected with the problem of betrayal and cowardice. At the most critical moments of the position of the whites in Kyiv, these terrible vices manifested themselves in many military men who were at the head of the white army. Bulgakov calls them staff bastards.
2.5 To the second group of heroes, people without honor, I included the hetman of Ukraine, and those numerous military men who, at the first danger, “rat-runned” out of the city, including Talberg, and those who, because of which, about The soldiers froze to death. Thalberg is a white officer. He graduated from the university and the military academy. “This is the best thing that should have been in Russia.” Yes, “it must have been...” But he takes his feet away from Petliura, leaving his wife and her brothers. “Damn doll, devoid of the slightest notion of honor!” - that's what this Thalberg is. Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, did not take root in the Turbin family. He is a stranger to them, a man who shamefully fled the City at the first opportunity. Like a rat from a sinking ship. No wonder Nikolka notices that Thalberg is very similar to a rat.
You can’t sit out a hard time, shutting yourself off from him like the landlord Vasilisa is “an engineer and a coward, a bourgeois and unsympathetic”.
It is impossible, under no circumstances should one lose one's conscience and honor, as happened with their downstairs neighbor Vasily Lisovich. Thus, who in 1918 suddenly became Vasilisa in order to avoid unknown and undesirable consequences. Turbins do not like petty-bourgeois isolation, narrow-mindedness, hoarding, isolation from life. No matter what happens, they will not count the coupons, hiding in the dark, like Vasily Lisovich, who only dreams of surviving the storm and not losing the accumulated capital. Turbines meet a formidable time differently. They do not change themselves in anything, they do not change their way of life. Every day, friends gather in their house, who are greeted by light, warmth, and a laid table. Nikolkin's guitar rings with brute force - desperation and defiance even before an impending catastrophe.
2.6 What artistic - figurative means languages help us readers to understand inner world heroes of the novel "White Guard"?
I will dwell on only 2 features: the eyes of the characters in the novel and color.
The eyes of heroes are the mirror of their souls. Let us pay attention to the fact that, as if inadvertently, but constantly draws the reader's attention to the eyes of the characters, both living and dead. He insistently points out the color of the eyes of his heroes. Black eyes with Alexei Turbin, his sister Elena, with Anyuta, who lives in their house, with Nai-Turs and his daughter, blue- at Nikolka, Karas, Vasily Lisovich and Lariosik Surzhansky. The author does not do this by accident. So, Blue eyes Nikolki Turbina become a symbol of the purity of the soul of a seventeen-year-old boy. In the context of the novel, the author contrasts them with the brown eyes of his brother and sister. Dark color the eye of Alexei and Elena emphasizes their age, life experience, which Nikolka still has so little.
Note that, with all the color matching, the eyes of the heroes of the novel "The White Guard" convey different states of people living and dead. Let's compare the lines:
"Nikolkins are blue eyes, planted on the sides of a long bird's nose, looked confused, killed» . “The elder starts to sing along. Eyes are gloomy, but a light is lit in them, in the veins - heat. “Now Nikolkino, then Elenino, then Lariosikov’s faces showed themselves in a haze, leaned over and listened. Eyes everyone has become terribly similar frowning And angry» . “Aleksey is in the dark, and Elena is closer to the window, and it is clear that her eyes are black and frightened» . “A crimson color played on her face and neck, and empty eyes were stained with black hatred» . « mourning eyes Nai-Turs were arranged in such a way that everyone who met with a limping colonel with a worn St. George ribbon on a bad soldier's overcoat listened to Nai-Turs in the most attentive way. “His rough features, perfectly remembered by Dr. Turbin, who personally bandaged Zhilin’s mortal wound, were now unrecognizable, and eyes wahmistra are completely similar to the eyes of Nai-Turs - pure, bottomless, illuminated from within» . “Elena’s chest expanded greatly, and spots appeared on her cheeks, eyes filled with light filled with dry, tearless weeping.<…>Then her crazy eyes saw that the lips on the face, bordered by a golden scarf, were unglued, and eyes became so unseen that fear and drunken joy tore her heart, she sank to the floor and did not rise again.
Comparing the words of the narrator, we can say that the eyes of living heroes reflect the state of darkness, chaos that filled their souls (further on, the narrator calls the soul of Alexei Turbin “gloomy”), and the eyes of the dead, whom Turbin sees in his dream, are pure and bottomless because the souls of these people were cleansed of sins. Confirmation is the words of the narrator: “More than anything in the world, Aleksey Turbin loved women's eyes with a gloomy soul. Ah, the Lord God blinded a toy - female eyes!.. But where are they up to the eyes of the sergeant-major!” . In the next world, the heroes of the novel are reborn and transformed; they do not know the state of chaos of the soul, which is characteristic of all living things. And if we see that Studzinsky - anxiety in the eyes, at Malyshev anxiety in the eyes" , A " cloudy blue eyes Lariosika expressed complete sorrow”, then those who have gone to heaven do not experience these feelings: “Believe the word, Mr. Doctor,” Zhilin the Wahmister hummed in a cello bass, looking straight into the eyes with a blue gaze that warmed the heart» . As you can see, the use of the word with a high stylistic coloring "gaze" in the description of the hero's eyes only emphasizes the fact that the dead who have gone to heaven are above earthly problems. Our assumption can be confirmed by the fact that Colonel Nai-Tours had a premonition of his death, which is why his eyes were “mournful”, but just before her onset, “Nai-Tours spread his arms, shook his fist at the sky, and his eyes filled with light» . The reader, together with Alexei Turbin, sees how " Zhilin's eyes emitted rays, and the features of the face were proudly refined. God, according to Zhilin, has an illumined face, the eyes of the dead are filled with light, and the eyes of Elena, who prays for her brother Alexei, also brighten. Based on the statement we made, it can be assumed that the author did not accidentally choose the blue color of the eyes for Nikolka, which, according to original intention the writer had to die.
The eyes of a person in a novel can tell a lot about the character of the hero. An example of this is the eyes of Viktor Myshlaevsky or Sergei Talberg. Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky appears in the Turbins' house at the moment when all family members are waiting for the return of Elena's husband Sergei Talberg. The author describes in detail the appearance of the lieutenant: “Nikolka helped the figure unravel the ends, the hood of tears, behind the hood was a pancake of an officer's cap with a darkened cockade, and the head of lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky turned out to be over his huge shoulders. This head was very beautiful, strange and sad, and the attractive beauty of an old, real breed and degeneration. Beauty in different colors, bold eyes, in long eyelashes. The nose is aquiline, the lips are proud, the forehead is white and clean, without any special signs. But now, one corner of the mouth is lowered sadly, and the chin is cut obliquely, as if the sculptor who sculpted the noble face had a wild fantasy to bite off a layer of clay and leave a small and irregular female chin to the courageous face. As you can see, he again turns to the classical tradition and draws in detail all the details of the hero's appearance. As a rule, he builds this description according to the principle of narrowing: first he describes the figure of the hero, then he concentrates his attention on his head, and then he highlights the eyes. We can say that on the basis of this principle, most descriptions of the appearance of Bulgakov's heroes are built, because, according to the writer, eyes can tell a lot about people. So, the eyes of Viktor Myshlaevsky speak of his strong, courageous character. And this is absolutely true. Further, we learn that Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky came to the Turbins directly from under the Tavern, where he and other officers stood for a whole day in the cold in the snow, waiting for the arrival of Petliura, while the colonels were warming themselves in first-class cars. He is full of resentment and anger. And here " two-layer The eyes of Sergei Talberg, Elena's husband, speak of his insincerity. They reflect the inner world of the hero and, from the point of view of the narrator, become one of the most important reasons for the break between the spouses: water went through it imperceptibly. Perhaps the main reason for this in two-layer eyes captain of the general staff Sergey Ivanovich Talberg ... ". This person has two faces, and therefore the eyes are “two-layered”: “ In the upper layer is the simple human joy of warmth, light and security. But deeper - clear anxiety... ". The narrator, the reader and all household members cannot fail to notice this. Gradually, anxiety manifests itself in all his actions: “Thalberg is very cold, but he smiles favorably at everyone. And anxiety also affected the favor. Nikolka, sniffling long nose was the first to notice it." "Double-layered eyes" hide very important information: most of the defenders of the City turned out to be traitors who, frightened by Petliura, flee in a hurry. Turbines, unlike Thalberg, do not yet know this, but his eyes tell them and the reader that something bad is bound to happen. This is how it happens. Alexei and Nikolai had long noticed that as soon as conversations about politics began in the house, which put Thalberg in an awkward position, “yellow sparks appeared” in the eyes of their son-in-law, which could only cause contempt. It is this feeling that fills the soul of Nikolka, who listens to the parting words of his son-in-law and tries not to raise his eyebrows out of pride. Analyzing the description of the eyes of Sergei Talberg, we can correlate it with the description of the eyes of the German military, in which fear not only “uniforms shed”, but also “for a few hours faded eyes» . It would also be appropriate here to cite as an example an episode in which it is described how the German major von Schratt, who was about to flee the City, changed his appearance: they bandaged his head “so that only right fox eye Yes, a thin mouth, slightly opening gold and platinum crowns. Such a comparison helps us to conclude: in the novel, the eyes of all traitors, people without honor suggest to the reader that one cannot rely on these people, because for each of them only saving their own life is important.
Further in the text, we see that the author begins to fix the reader's attention on what is happening with Thalberg's eyes: "Thalberg had already kissed his wife, and there was a moment when only one thing pierced his two-story eyes - tenderness." "You take care of Elena," - Talberg's eyes in the first layer looked pleadingly and anxiously. He hesitated looked confused on his pocket watch and said uneasily: "It's time." Thanks to the eyes of the hero, we understand that sincere feelings are not alien to this man, as we also understand that he never loved his wife, that his life and career are very dear to him. That is why he easily agrees that Elena remains to live in the city, where the mysterious and terrible Petlyura is about to descend.
A large number of the emotions of the heroes with the help of the description of their eyes are conveyed in the episode when Colonel Malyshev again gives the order to disband the division before the battle. At first, the reader sees the first reaction of the junkers: “Confused faces flashed by, and as if somewhere in the ranks flashed a few happy eyes... ". Here we can say that among the junkers there were those who were afraid to fight and die in battle, which is why their eyes were happy. The following is a description of the state of the officers who heard this order: “Staff Captain stood out from the officer group Studzinsky, somehow bluish-pale, squinting eyes, took a few steps towards Colonel Malyshev, then looked back on the officers. Myshlaevsky did not look at him, but all the same, at the mustache of Colonel Malyshev, and he looked as if he wanted, as usual, to curse with bad obscene words. carp awkwardly tucked up and blinked his eyes...<…>Studzinsky unexpectedly and inspired looked on a glowing ball above your head, suddenly squinted his eyes on the holster handle and shouted: "Hey, first platoon!" . Studzinsky decides that it is necessary to arrest Colonel Malyshev. In the ranks are those who support it. The colonel shows great restraint and self-control in this situation: “Hush!” shouted the extremely confident voice of the Colonel. True, he twitched his mouth no worse than the ensign himself, true, and his face went red spots, but in his eyes he had more confidence than the entire officer group. And everyone stopped.<…>Silence reigned, and Myshlaevsky sharply alert eyes» . He understands that in such a tense situation, not only Myshlaevsky experienced such a state. The colonel makes a speech, addressing, first of all, Studzinsky and explains that he cannot speak with such a young, inexperienced cast: “At the same time, the colonel pierced Studzinsky with an exceptionally sharp gaze. Sparks of real irritation jumped in the colonel's eyes at Studzinsky. There was silence again." Everyone listened carefully to Malyshev's speech, and to his question: "Whom do you want to protect?" . " Myshlaevsky with sparks of great and warm interest moved out of the group, saluted and said: "The Hetman must be protected, Mr. Colonel." Unexpected (and somewhere even terrible) is the reaction of the cadets and officers who learned about the betrayal in the City: “Yes ... a ... ha,” the mass answered, and its bayonets swayed. And then loud and convulsive cried some cadet in the second line. Staff Captain Studzinsky completely unexpected for the entire division, and probably for himself, strange, not an officer, gestured with gloved hands in the eyes, and the divisional list fell to the floor, and cried. Then, infected by him, many more junkers wept, the ranks immediately fell apart ... ". Tears that roll from the eyes of men convey both resentment, and impotence, and a lack of understanding of why they were betrayed, because they were ready to stand to the end.
Let us turn to the dialogue that is unfolding between Colonel Malyshev and Alexei Turbin. Before accepting Alexei into the regiment, the colonel asks if he is a socialist or not. The author points out that at this point Colonel's eyes slid to the side, and his whole figure, lips and sweet voice expressed the liveliest desire that Dr. Turbin turned out to be precisely a socialist, and not anyone else. - Our division is called that - student, - the colonel smiled sincerely, not showing eyes. Of course, a little sentimental, but I myself, you know, a university student.
Turbin was extremely disappointed and surprised. "Damn ... How did Karas say? .." At that moment, he felt Karas somewhere near his right shoulder and, understood without looking that he intensely wants to make him understand something, but it is impossible to find out what exactly.
“I,” Turbin suddenly thumped, twitching his cheek, “unfortunately, I’m not a socialist, but ... a monarchist.” And even, I must say, I cannot stand the very word "socialist". And of all the socialists, I hate Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky the most.<…>
The colonel's eyes instantly popped up on his face, and some kind of spark and brilliance flickered in them.. He waved his hand, as if to politely close Turbin's mouth, and spoke:
- It is sad.<…>I have an order from above: to avoid staffing with monarchist elements, in view of the fact that the population ... restraint is necessary, you see.<…>
“Yeah? Turbin thought meaningfully, "I'm a fool... but this colonel isn't stupid." Probably a careerist, judging by the physiognomy, but that's nothing.
From the above dialogue, we see that it is only through the expression of the hero's eyes that one can know his true thoughts. Colonel Malyshev avoids asking questions directly, because there are many traitors around, but it is necessary to do this. Aleksey Turbin is helped to understand him correctly by the voice and expression of the colonel's eyes.
Sometimes the author does not describe in detail internal state hero. It is enough for him to point out what is happening with their eyes. Yes, out of rage. eyes burn Alexei Turbin, when he speaks indignantly about the general mobilization announced in the city. Vasily Lisovich, looking at the young and beautiful Yavdokha, starts rolling eyes, fearing that his quarrelsome wife would come out. She controls her husband, therefore, "eye-up", wonders who he's talking to. closes eyes, "like a doomed man, over whom the executioner has already raised a knife", Anyuta, in love with Myshlaevsky and at the same time afraid of him.
The eyes of the heroes of the novel "The White Guard" determine their physical condition. Thus, the reader sees that Elena's eyes turn red from crying which she shed while waiting for her husband. That is why she immediately looks older and uglier. Myshlaevsky's eyes turn red when he wakes up in the Turbins' apartment: "His eyes in red rings - cold, experienced fear, vodka, anger". Next we can see it "painfully fading eyes" at the moment when Myshlaevsky became ill from drinking. The narrator, like a doctor, fixes how they look at this moment: “A wet rag lay on the forehead, drops dripped onto the sheets, inflamed whites of the eyes rolled under swollen eyelids, and bluish shadows lay near the aggravated nose. The eyes of a patient with syphilis Rusakov become "totally glassy" from a large amount of drunk, at the moment when he is spinning on a pole in front of Mikhail Shpolyansky. It becomes terrible for the fate of this man.
Let's summarize the above: firstly, when describing the appearance of his characters, he follows the tradition (in the work, when describing the character's appearance, the emphasis is on a certain detail that correlates with his character or condition); secondly, it is their eyes that are a significant detail of the appearance of Bulgakov's heroes; thirdly, the heroes of the novel "The White Guard" are forced out by this detail of appearance.
Therefore, in the "White Guard" the conceptual function is performed by color epithets formed both with the help of adjectives and with the help of substantiated nouns. 1. Color epithets are used by M. Bulgakov to create portraits of characters based on psychological and physiological observations (traditions of psychological prose of the 19th century). Red and white are usually the dominant colors in literary works when depicting a person. In M. Bulgakov, red makes up half of all mentions in the image human faces and somewhat less white. Color spots capaciously and expressively convey the main character traits of the characters, their emotional state at a certain point in time. The amplitude of the psychological expressiveness of red and Pink colour in the novel. First of all, it should be noted that M. Bulgakov has practically no cases of using red and pink as major, as the colors of healthy, funny people. Most often, the faces of embarrassed and excited heroes are “written” with this paint. So Elena, who is waiting for her husband, “turns pink” with the joy of a quick meeting when the doorbell rings: “- Thank God, here is Sergey,” the elder said joyfully.
This is Talberg, - Nikolka confirmed and ran to open the door. Elena turned pink, got up. Even more often, red appears in the form of angry, angry people. Colonel Malyshev, giving the order to disband the cadets, encounters the objections of Captain Studzinsky. “Mr. Colonel immediately, and very quickly discovered a new property − in the most splendid way be angry. His neck and cheeks turned brown, and his eyes lit up. Malyshev scolds the captain, and he "lights up" with reciprocal resentment and irritation. “Then they both leaned against each other. Samovar paint crawled up Studzinsky's neck and cheeks, and his lips quivered. Red for M. Bulgakov in human form is also a sign of vulgarity, rudeness and bestiality. The orderly of Kozyr-Leshko, colonel of the Petliura army, is disgusting: “But the word swelled up, climbed into the hut along with disgusting red pimples on the face of the orderly< ...>It stank of shag from the owner of red acne, who believed that it was possible to smoke even with Kozyr ... ". The repetition and at the same time the emotional-evaluative epithet "disgusting" "paints" a portrait for us not only with a touch of irony, but with obvious antipathy towards this character.
The ruddy face of one of the robbers of Vasilisa: "The ruddy giant did not say anything, he only looked shyly at Vasilisa and askance, joyfully at the shining galoshes." The ruddy face in this case speaks not so much about the health and strength of the giant, but about his stupidity or idiocy. A similar use of color can be found in For example, in Lizaveta Smerdyashaya from The Brothers Karamazov: “Her twenty-year-old face, healthy, wide and ruddy, was completely idiotic.”
2. With the help of color epithets, Bulgakov “marks” the characters, conveys their essential characteristics. White, when depicting the inhabitants of the Turbinsky apartment, is primarily associated with aristocratic beauty: “... the head of Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky<...>was very beautiful, strange and sad and attractive beauty of old, real breed and degeneration.<...>The nose is hooked, the lips are proud, the forehead is white and clean ... ". The epithet "white", denoting purity and beauty, was widely used in folk songs. With M. Bulgakov, this color is filled with new meanings when depicting human hands. In the canonical text of The White Guard, a frustrated and confused Alexei Turbin comes to Father Alexander for support. Father Alexander says "embarrassingly", and does not even speak, but "mumbles". "Then suddenly put white hand, pulling it out of the dark sleeve of the duckweed, onto a stack of books, and opened the top one, where it had been laid with an embroidered colored bookmark. “Despondency must not be allowed,” he said embarrassingly, but somehow very convincingly. And in the early version, Alexei Turbin, having escaped from the Petliurists, returned home, and at first they waited in the apartment that they would come with a search. But time passed, no one appeared, and everyone began to calm down. M. Bulgakov emphasizes that the feeling of peace comes from Elena’s hands: “A downy shawl hugged Elena, and her white hands lay on the green plain of the table, and Shervinsky, without looking up, looked at them. IN long fingers there was female power and some kind of confidence, reconciliation and calmness. Ever since antiquity White color has a symbolic meaning of "purity", detachment from the worldly, striving for spiritual simplicity. And in the above examples, "white" in the portraits of the father of Alexander and Elena is a symbol of the "highest spiritual simplicity and purity" of the heroes.
In color, Bulgakov conveys the hopelessness and fear of the defenders of the City, especially Nikolka and young cadets: “His junkers [Nikolka], a little pale, but still brave, like their commander, lay down in a chain on a snowy street<...>Their leader was full of such important and significant thoughts that he even became haggard and turned pale. An unusually strong emotional picture is created: the junkers do not realize the seriousness of everything that is happening and even perceive death as a kind of game. But all the more tragic is the white color against a pale background - as a sign of the doom and death of these children.
Obviously antipathetic, immoral and soulless heroes are marked by M. Bulgakov in yellow. These are, first of all, the Lisoviches and the unprincipled, vulgar, vulgar opportunists who flooded the City. These people are repelled by their "greasiness and rottenness": "...at the hetman's tables sat up to two hundred oily partings of people, sparkling with rotten yellow teeth with gold fillings" . In this description, human features are practically lost: before us are no longer people, but partings, boasting of brilliance (of hair and gold). AND yellow this is not just the usual sign of old age or ill health, it is a sign of "moral decay." Isn't that why "yellow sparks" also appear in Thalberg's eyes? In the space of the City, the red color is also negatively perceived. In the House, the predominant meaning of the epithets “red”, “golden” becomes the meaning of participation in the divine light, since the red color is used to create a portrait of Elena - the “core” of the Turbine apartment, the keeper hearth, warmth and comfort. But even in the image of Elena, the redhead has negative symbolism. Elena (“reddish”, like the mythological Helen of Troy) becomes the cause of discord in the family by marrying the careerist Talberg. At the same time, it should be noted that in the early version of the novel, the motive of Elena's betrayal with Shervinsky was more clearly traced. And in the red color lies the semantics of betrayal (Thus, L. Andreev creates the image of Judas in red and yellow tones). In the canonical text, the ambivalent image of Elena gravitates more towards the positive pole (savior, homemaker). Perhaps that is why M. Bulgakov, when creating her portrait, never allows himself to use the yellow color, which the writer associates exclusively with negative emotions. But in the portrait of the “red-bearded janitor”, the artist introduces a yellow tint. Yellow, like black, in the space of the City is associated with deceit and werewolf, and therefore with the image of the “antichrist” (the image of a red-bearded janitor, lyre players in the square). It should be noted that M. Bulgakov's female images are always ambivalent and are associated with the images of the moon (death) and the Virgin (life), therefore the color range of female images is invertible. Most often in portraits of women there are gold, red and black tones. Almost all Bulgakov’s heroines have “black eyes.” In The White Guard, all women, without exception, are black-eyed: “Alexey is in the dark, and Elena is closer to the window, and it is clear that her eyes are black and frightened”; "Black-eyed Anyuta"; "The black eyes of Julia Reiss<...>You can't tell what's in your eyes. It seems to be fright, anxiety, and maybe vice ”; Irina Nai-Tours’ eyes are “extremely large, like black flowers.” All women’s eyes are “extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious (“Ah, the Lord God blinded a toy - women’s eyes! ...”), they attract to themselves, beckon with some kind of mystery . They are both touchingly defenseless and disturbingly vicious.
The most mysterious heroine of the novel - Julia Reiss - is marked with a contrasting combination of colors: at first, Turbin sees "light curls of hair and very black eyes close up", then - "completely indefinite hair, either ashy, pierced by fire, or golden, but coal and black eyebrows eyes" . Already the phonetic proximity of the names "Elena" and "Julia" speaks of the connection of these female images. But if “light colors” (gold, red) still prevail in the portrait of Elena, then black is more often used in the portrait of Yulia. At the same time, like Elena, this woman is the savior of Alexei: “And then I saw her at the very moment of the miracle in the black mossy wall.” The motif of the miracle is repeated. Julia instantly changed everything, as if there was no terrible chase, there was no shootout with the "grays". “The gate, under the hands of a woman in black, stuck to the wall, and the latch slammed shut. The woman's eyes found themselves close to Turbin's. In them he read determination, action and blackness.
A woman for Bulgakov's heroes is the embodiment of vitality, she is endowed with determination and strength of character, she is able to revive to life, save from inevitable death, give comfort and peace, give love. A woman has some kind of original (unconscious, occult) wisdom, at the same time she is associated with otherworldly forces and with the images of the moon. It can be said with good reason that the black color in the novel is selectively distinguishable and is associated for Bulgakov precisely with female ambivalent images.
3. Color epithets also perform an expressive function in the novel.
Scientists have long noted the connection between color and music, based on emotional impact. The question of the synthesis of sound and color, music and painting was relevant at the beginning of the 20th century. W. Kandinsky was looking for "the singing vibration of high-pitched yellow sounds, the resonance of deep blue, the harsh contrasts of red with airy purple and motionless green, the contrasts of melody, rhythm and counterpoint." M. Bulgakov in the mass scene on Sofiyskaya Square not only creates a multi-colored, motley image of the crowd, but also makes colors sound: contrasting tones “add up to a wild cacophony of sounds”: “Hundreds of heads in the choirs piled one on top of the other, crushing each other ... balustrades between ancient columns painted with black frescoes<...>hundreds of heads, like yellow apples, hung in a tight triple layer<...>A heavy blue-gray veil, creaking, climbed along the rings<...>From the side altar doors, golden chasubles rained down on worn granite slabs.<...>Violet kamilavki climbed from round cardboard<...>Banners bowed at the door like defeated banners, brown faces and mysterious golden words floated, their tails streaked across the floor.< ...>The fat, crimson Tolmashevsky extinguished the liquid wax candle and thrust the tuning fork into his pocket. The choir, in brown to toe-length suits, with golden braids, swaying with bald-haired, like bald heads of trebles, swaying with Adam's apples, horse heads of basses, dripped from dark, gloomy choirs<...>From the chapel floated stichera, tied around, as if from a toothache, heads with bewildered eyes, purple, toy, cardboard hats. Father Arkady,< ...>hoisted above gray checkered scarf a sparkling miter with gems, he swam, seeding with his feet in the stream. A wild mixture of colors develops into a “shouting commotion” and “yelping and humming” of bells: “The little bells yapped, filled, without fret and warehouse, in a row, as if Satan climbed onto the bell tower, the devil himself was in a cassock and, amused, raised a hubbub.” Mentioning about the devil, M. Bulgakov immediately “fills” all the multicolor with black paint: “Golden spots floated in a black mess”; "Into the black slots of the multi-storey bell tower<...>small bells could be seen tossing and screaming like furious dogs on a chain.<...>It melted, released the soul to repentance, and black-black spilled over the cathedral courtyard of the people. And in parallel with this black cloud of people, the "snake" of the Petliura army crawls. Like the people, it is originally multicolored: “... cutting the black river of the people, the blue division went in dense ranks. In blue zhupans, in smushkin, famously wrinkled hats with blue tops, the Galicians walked<...>Behind the first battalion came the blacks in long robes girded with belts and in basins on their heads, and a brown thicket of bayonets climbed into the parade like a prickly cloud.
Gray shabby regiments of Sich Riflemen marched with countless force<...>The eyes of the admiring people were blindingly cut by crumpled, broken hats with blue, green and red hats with gold tassels. M. Bulgakov scrupulously describes the clothes of all branches of the military, but all the colors merge into one "prickly cloud" associated with the apocalyptic dragon. Yes, and the leaders of this cloud are demons on huge horses: “The red mare, squinting with a bloody eye, chewing the mouthpiece, dropping foam, reared up, shaking the six-pound Bolbotun every now and then ...”; “Washing a shot through yellow - black banner, rattling an harmonica, rolled a regiment of black, sharp-witted, on a huge horse, Colonel Kozyr-Leshko” . And under the roar of the hooves of these apocalyptic horses, the “barking” of bells, the “white” city turns into a “black cloud”, rolling into hell. The city is doomed to perish - this idea is also carried out by color symbolism: “Black color is the end of any phenomenon. It is the color of the end, of death."
Thus, color in M. Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard" becomes a necessary technique for conveying the deep meaning of each image and a means of expressing the author's position. The range of colors makes it possible to reveal the connections between various images and scenes of the novel, creating an unusually emotional and tragic painting.
"Dreams play an exceptional role for me," wrote M. Bulgakov. For the author, this is the time to comprehend the essence of life, its inner aspects and movements.
Dreams in Bulgakov's poetics have a variety of meanings. Sleep is a blissful, desired, tea norm, an opportunity to "replay life", to change its catastrophic course. A dream is the revelation of hidden and suppressed aspirations, the realization of a dream of peace and tranquility, which does not add up in any way in reality. Sleep, finally, is an eternal circling around a sore point, about which the heart "dreams."
Most often, dreams in the novel are seen by Alexei Turbin - the image is complex and ambiguous. It is thanks to his dreams that one can appreciate the depth of this image, take a closer look at his understanding. Alexey sees his first dream in the novel after an anxious evening, when, half-frozen, Myshlaevsky gets to them, runs away to Talberg, leaving news of the betrayal of the hetman and the Germans. To the Turbine who fell asleep in the morning comes " vertically challenged a nightmare in trousers and a large-checked shirt" and "mockingly" says to Alexei: "... for a Russian person, honor is just an extra burden." This "nightmare" symbolizes the petty-bourgeois principle and the lack of spiritual life, trampling on moral values - all this is disgusting and it is incomprehensible to the doctor Turbin, so he chases after the "nightmare", but does not catch up with him.Turbin's short and vague dream can be considered prophetic: the new masters of Russia will be like Turbin imagined.
But the disturbing and restless dream is replaced by appeasement, when Colonel Nai-Tours and Warmaster Zhilin begin to dream of Turbin. And it seems to Alexei as if the colonel and the sergeant-major are in paradise. Alexei is seized with unaccountable joy, "while the sergeant-major tells him how the apostle Peter let them into paradise, he himself asks to "get a job as a doctor" in their brigade. and the Bolsheviks, "who are from Perekop." So Turbin's dream turns out to be prophetic: the events of 1920 are dreamed of by Turbin in 1918. For the state, there is no difference between whites and reds, he explains to the sergeant-major: "You are Zhilin, the same - killed in the battlefield."
It is important that the sergeant-major Zhilin, who appeared in a dream Turbine, will dream that, at the very end of the novel, a Red Army soldier guarding the train on a frosty night. At first he appears to him as a rider in chain mail, then as a countryman and neighbor. Wahmister Zhilkin died before the start of the civil war, therefore, he remains brotherly close to both Turbin and the Red Army soldier.
In a prophetic dream, Turbin sees Nai-Turs, who is destined to die heroically in a few days, protecting the backs of his cadets of Petliura's cavalry. Alexei dreams that an unknown cadet on foot appears next to Nai-Turs. "It seems that this cadet will be Nikolka - after all, it is he who remains with Nai at the machine gun, it seems that Zhilin Turbin joyfully wants to inform about this. But, fortunately , Nikolka does not die in the novel, although, running away from the Petliurists, she finds herself on the verge of death.
At the end of the novel, Elena also has a disturbing dream about Nikolka: "He had a guitar in his hands, but his whole neck was covered in blood, and there was a yellow halo with icons on his forehead." Elena wakes up crying, it seems to her that Nikolka will die. This disturbing dream conveys the heavy, restless atmosphere of the novel, which persists even at the end of the novel, when Petlyura leaves the City and it seems that all the bad things have already ended.
An atmosphere of anxiety and confusion also appears in Nikolka's own dream. He dreams of a "network of cobwebs", behind which - "the purest snow, how many lands, plains." But the web is growing, preventing Nikolka from getting out of it. The image of the web, fog is associated in the novel with the chaos and confusion of the first revolutionary years. It is perceived as a symbol of moral stability. And the white color symbolizes purity and truth. Bulgakov also associates with this color his ideas about eternal values: about home, family, homeland, honor. Everything here is imbued with chaos: it comes from the outside and develops from the inside, fills the soul of the hero. The state that the hero experiences, Bulgakov very accurately conveys with the help of the metaphor "a nightmare sat down with its paws on his chest." The dream gives not only the hero, but also the readers an understanding of the meaning of events, how important it is for a person who has tragically lost his way in the historical maelstrom of events to find his own way. helps to foresee subsequent events, connects the author with the hero. We feel his constant presence. It is both in direct utterances (“In an original way, I’m sleeping, I’ll report to you!”), And in emotional syntax (exclamatory sentences in intonation, an ellipsis completes the sentence).
Thus, the dream once again emphasizes the loneliness of the hero, fatigue and weakness, opens up new facets of the character of the hero ... Together with Bulgakov, we come to a fairly simple, but at the same time philosophical thought: despite the tragic events that accompany a turning point, the decisive ones always remain, according to the author, imperishable moral truths.
The chaos and unrest of the terrible years are reflected in a different way in Vasilisa's dream. Vasilisa's interests are mundane, philistine; the chairman of the committee is by nature cowardly and cautious, petty and stingy. But his interests are also human, and although Vasilisa does not have a deep spiritual vein, she, like him, also tends to rejoice and be upset. So in Vasilisa's dream, "dubious, unsteady happiness" is felt: "As if there were no revolution, all this is nonsense and nonsense." He dreamed of a vegetable garden giving a wonderful harvest, he dreamed of "a lovely setting sun." But even this cozy and harmless petty-bourgeois little world can be destroyed by an invasion from outside. In Vasilisa's dream, piglets with sharp fangs appear, which ruin the garden, and then jump on Vasilisa himself. The dream shows that the happiness of a small harmless, shy man, devoid of an understanding of honor, in a vague post-revolutionary time is also under threat, as is the happiness of brave, independent, fearless people.
The only dream in the novel that is not explicitly connected with the disturbing atmosphere or the real events described in the novel is Petka Shcheglov's dream. To understand the meaning of this dream, in which Petka sees a "sparkling diamond ball" crumbling in his hands, one should refer to the novel "War and Peace". The interconnection between Petka's and Pierre Bezukhov's dreams is undoubted: Pierre also dreams of a "ball of drops", which represents a model of the universe, human relationships and relationships with man and God. For Pierre, this dream has a great philosophical property, it explains to him the essence of the universe. For the little Petka Shcheglov, the "ball" becomes a source of joy, happy laughter. But is not the main meaning of this dream in the desire for childlike simplicity? The author states: "In a dream, adults, when they need to run, stick to the ground, groan, trying to tear their legs off the quagmire. Children's legs are frisky and free." In such spontaneity, happiness and love, one must look for a way out of terrible events revolutionary storm. But, unfortunately, this is only possible in a dream.
Dreams in the novel "The White Guard" carry a great semantic load. In them, the author in a metamorphic form conveys the feelings of his characters, which are not fully disclosed by them.
CONCLUSION
But the novel The White Guard ends with the words: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, hunger and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our eyes to them? Why?" There are eternal values that do not depend on the outcome of the civil war. Stars are a symbol of such values. It was in serving these eternal values that the writer Mikhail Bulgakov saw his duty.
Read the final lines of the novel. And in the final - again the question. This is the author's proposal to reflect and understand what is eternal and unchanging in our life, as in troubled times stay human..
- What does M. Bulgakov himself think about this?
The written “Scale of Values” compiled by the student is checked
v The main thing in this world is Man, his soul, his thoughts and deeds, his destiny on earth. And it doesn’t matter at all whether you are “red” or “white”, general or private. We are all equal before God...
v Warmth and comfort of the family hearth, inspiring feelings of confidence and security
v Peace protected by cream curtains
v Love as a miracle capable of conquering death
(The content of the "Scale" during the test can be corrected, completed. Moreover
this should in no way affect the final grade of the student's work in the lesson.)
- In conclusion of today's conversation, I want to read an excerpt from a poem written in 1989 by the poetess A. Miller:
... But in chaos, you need to hold on to something,
And the fingers are tired and can unclench.
It would be necessary to hold on to the milestones of the earth,
Which were not washed away by torrential rains,
For a simple routine every second
With a table lamp over a pile of notebooks,
With a clock on the wall singing loudly
For an old photo and a child's hand.
M. Bulgakov is a very outspoken writer. His books are filled with his own experiences. And the soul of a writer is an ocean of wisdom and love. Bulgakov surprisingly subtly and unobtrusively strives to bring the reader closer to the flow of his thoughts, as well as the feelings of his characters. In the novel "The White Guard" the main task for the artist was to show the attitude of the hero, who witnessed the collapse of the old world, the breaking of traditional foundations. It was also very important for the author to show not so much historical events as their moral component.
Solemn last words a novel that expressed the unbearable torment of the writer - a witness to the revolution and in his own way "buried" everyone - both white and red. “The last night has blossomed. In the second half of it, all the heavy blue - the curtain of God, enveloping the world, was covered with stars. It seemed that at an immeasurable height behind this blue canopy at the royal doors they were serving an all-night vigil. Above the Dnieper, from the sinful and bloody and snowy land, the midnight cross of Vladimir rose into the black, gloomy heights.
Turbines managed to preserve their honor from a young age and therefore survived, having lost a lot and paying dearly for mistakes and naivety.
Enlightenment, albeit later, nevertheless came. These are main point and a lesson in the historical novel "The White Guard", which make this book modern and timely.
M. Bulgakov is a very outspoken writer. His books are filled with his own experiences. And the soul of a writer is an ocean of wisdom and love. Bulgakov surprisingly subtly and unobtrusively strives to bring the reader closer to the flow of his thoughts, as well as the feelings of his characters.
I want to believe that they will be reborn former concepts honor, nobility. Then each person will be able to proudly say: "I have the honor."
All the heroes of the "White Guard" have withstood the test of time and suffering. Only Thalberg, in pursuit of success, I lost the most valuable thing in life - friends, love, and the Motherland. Turbines, on the other hand, were able to save their home, save life values, and most importantly, honor, managed to withstand the whirlpool of events that swept Russia. This family, following Bulgakov's thought, is the embodiment of the color of the Russian intelligentsia, that generation of young people who are trying to honestly understand what is happening. This is the guard that made its choice and stayed with its people, found its place in new Russia.
The novel by M. Bulgakov "The White Guard" is a book of path and choice, a book of insight. But the main idea of the author, I think, is in the following words of the novel: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, hunger and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our deeds and bodies will not remain on earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our eyes to them? Why? o And the whole novel is the author's call for peace, justice, truth on earth.
Literature and library science
Vadim Matveev White Guard Bulgakov. Essay. Bulgakov's novel is filled with historical events from beginning to end. 1918 Ukraine declared independence by proclaiming a hetman, in connection with which nationalist sentiments escalated and ordinary Ukrainians immediately
Vadim Matveev
"White Guard" Bulgakov. Essay.
Bulgakov's novel is filled with historical events from beginning to end. 1918 Ukraine declared independence by proclaiming a hetman, in connection with which nationalist sentiments intensified, and ordinary Ukrainians immediately "forgot how to speak Russian, and the hetman forbade the formation of a voluntary army of Russian officers." Petliura played on the muzhik instincts of property and independence and went to war against Kyiv.
The Russian officers turned out to be betrayed by the High Command of Russia, who swore allegiance to the emperor. Absolutely different people who fled from the Bolsheviks flock to the City and bring chaos to it. And the drama unfolds in this city. The bloody tragedy turned people's ideas about morality, honor, dignity, justice. Each of the warring parties proved their understanding of the truth. For many people, choosing a goal has become a vital necessity. The leading theme of this work was the fate of the intelligentsia in the context of the civil war and the surrounding chaos.
The Turbin family is a representative of the Russian intelligentsia, which is connected with monarchist Russia by many threads. The Turbin family is a military family, where the elder brother Alexei is a colonel, the younger Nikolai is a cadet, and sister Elena is married to Colonel Talberg. Turbines are people of honor. They despise lies, self-interest. For them, it is true that “not a single person should break a word of honor, because otherwise it will be impossible to live in the world.” So spoke the sixteen-year-old Junker Nikolai Turbin. And for people with such beliefs, it was most difficult to enter into a time of deceit and dishonor. Turbines are forced to decide: how to live, with whom to go, whom and what to protect. Turbines and part of the intelligentsia take upon themselves the most cruel blows of the revolution, it is they who "will have to suffer and die."
Much attention in the novel is given to the ethical component of all actions. Why did Aleksey and Nikolka Turbins, Nai-Turs, Myshlaevsky, Karas, Shervinsky and other White Guards, cadets, officers, knowing that all their actions would lead to nothing, went to defend Kiev from Petlyura’s troops, which outnumbered them by several times? They were forced to do this by an officer's honor. And honor, according to Bulgakov, is something without which it would be impossible to live on earth. Myshlaevsky with forty officers and cadets, in light overcoats and boots, protected the city in the cold. The question of honor and duty is connected with the problem of betrayal and cowardice. At the most critical moments of the position of the whites in Kyiv, these terrible vices manifested themselves in many military men who were at the head of the white army. Bulgakov calls them "staff bastards." This is the hetman of Ukraine, and those numerous military men who, at the first danger, withdrew from the city, among whom was Talberg. This is the antipode of the Turbins. He is a careerist and opportunist, a coward, a person devoid of moral foundations and moral principles. It doesn't cost him anything to change his beliefs, as long as it is beneficial for his career. In the February Revolution, he was the first to put on a red bow, took part in the arrest of General Petrov. But events quickly flickered, the authorities changed frequently in the city. And Thalberg did not have time to understand them. It seemed to him that the position of the hetman, supported by German bayonets, was solid, but even this, such an unshakable vow, today fell apart like dust.
All the heroes of the White Guard have stood the test of time and suffering. Only Talberg, in pursuit of success and fame, lost the most valuable thing in the life of friends, love, and the Motherland. Turbines, on the other hand, were able to save their home, save life values, and most importantly, they managed to withstand the whirlpool of events that swept Russia. This family, following Bulgakov's thought, is the embodiment of the color of the Russian intelligentsia, that generation of young people who are trying to honestly understand what is happening. This is the guard that made its choice and stayed with its people, found its place in the new Russia. Roman M. Bulgakov"White Guard" - the book of path and choice, the book of insight. And the whole novel is the author's call for peace, justice, truth on earth.
The key problem of the novel will be the attitude of the characters towards Russia. Bulgakov justifies those who were part of a single nation and fought for the ideals of officer honor, opposed the destruction of the Fatherland. He makes it clear to the reader that in a fratricidal war there are no right and wrong, everyone is responsible for the blood of a brother. The writer united by the concept of "White Guard" those who defended the honor of a Russian officer and man, and changed our ideas about those who, until recently, were evilly and derogatoryly called "White Guards", "Counter".
Bulgakov wrote not a historical novel, but a socio-psychological canvas with access to philosophical problems: what is the Fatherland, God, man, life, feat, goodness, truth. All - white and red - are brothers, and in the war everyone was to blame for each other.
I think that it is not external events that convey the course of the revolution and the Civil War, not a change of power, but moral conflicts and contradictions drive the plot"White Guard" . Historical events it is the backdrop against which human destinies are revealed. Bulgakov is interested in the inner world of a person who has fallen into such a cycle of events when it is difficult to keep one's face, when it is difficult to remain oneself. If at the beginning of the novel the characters try to shrug off politics, then by the course of events they are drawn into the very thick of revolutionary clashes. Alexei Turbin, like his friends, is for the monarchy. Everything new that enters their life brings, it seems to him, only bad things. Completely politically undeveloped, he wanted only one peace, the opportunity to live joyfully near his mother, beloved brother and sister. And only at the end of the novel, the Turbins are disappointed in the old and understand that there is no return to it.
The formidable elements of the revolution do not spare either the convinced Bolshevik leader or the doubting intellectual. It brings blood, grief and death. Violence breeds more violence and bitterness of people.
It is worth saying that Bulgakov considered the ongoing events from a universal point of view, although his heroes are not at all shy of politics. Here are the defenders of the monarchy, participants white movement, and Petliurists, and anarchists, and communists. But, despite what ideas they profess, who seized power in the city, blood is still shed, people are dying, human life is depreciating. The time has come when it was necessary to determine one's life and civic position.
Thus, one can safely outline the political positions of the heroes of the novel. The political expediency of actions is explained, first of all, by their ethical ideals. Turbines love their home, the monarchy and Tsarist Russia. They cannot imagine how to live without it. This motivates them to take actions that can somehow affect the political situation. Life in a series of constant political upheavals makes the family and their friends look differently at their inner moral and ethical values.
An indicative moment occurs when Alexey and Nikolka Turbines argue with Elena about "debt". "I have to" - constantly sounds from the lips of men. But what should? To whom should? Few people understand this. Elena tries to convince them that no one owes anything at such times. Except, to yourself. It is duty to oneself that drives the "white guard" in these times.
The "White Guard" describes the main sociocultural features era. A bright line traces the themes of the romanticization of the white movement, general anger and hatred, a tormenting state of uncertainty and the question of an unknown future. The political process begins to be influenced by the masses, which are led by an ideology or a popular idea. Someone sincerely believes in a bright future and acts decisively for the sake of their native country, someone manages to find their personal benefit in this chaos. There are so many political actors that power becomes like a toy that everyone wants to play with. Here are the Germans, and Petlyura, and whites, and reds. Everyone is ready for the most terrible measures to seize or hold on to power. Moral issues in such a situation go by the wayside. But still, the Turbin family is trying to preserve their spiritual values, but at the same time I don’t understand how it is worth living right. After all, moral standards change every day. Every day someone imposes their values that are alien to others. It imposes by force. It is in the epoch of national upheavals that the most important and most painful question arises for an ordinary person to prefer the personal-moral or to give in to the public political?!
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M.A. Bulgakov twice, in two different works, recalls how his work on the novel The White Guard (1925) began. In Theatrical Novel, Maksudov says: “It was born at night, when I woke up after a sad dream. I dreamed of my hometown, snow, winter, civil ... In a dream, a soundless blizzard passed in front of me, and then an old piano appeared and near it people who were no longer in the world. And in the story “The Secret Friend” there are other details: “I pulled my barracks lamp to the table as far as possible and put on a pink paper cap over its green cap, which made the paper come to life. On it I wrote the words: "And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds." Then he began to write, not yet knowing well what would come of it. I remember that I really wanted to convey how good it is when it's warm at home, the clock that strikes towers in the dining room, sleepy slumber in bed, books and frost ... ”The first pages of the novel were written with such a mood.
But his idea was nurtured for more than one year. In both epigraphs to the "White Guard": from "The Captain's Daughter" ("howled, a snowstorm began") and from the Apocalypse ("... the dead were judged ...") - there are no riddles for the reader. They are directly related to the plot. And the blizzard really rages on the pages - sometimes the most natural, sometimes allegorical (“It has long been the beginning of revenge from the north, and sweeping, and sweeping”). And the trial of those "who are no longer in the world", and in essence - over the Russian intelligentsia, goes throughout the novel. The author himself speaks on it from the first lines. Serves as a witness. Far from being impartial, but honest and objective, not missing the virtues of the "defendants", nor the weaknesses, shortcomings and mistakes.
The novel opens with a majestic image of 1918. Not a date, not a designation of the time of action - just an image. “The year was great and terrible after the birth of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was abundant in summer with the sun, and in winter with snow, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd's star - evening Venus and red, trembling Mars. House and City are the two main inanimate characters of the book. However, not completely inanimate. The Turbin House on Alekseevsky Spusk, depicted with all the features of a family idyll crossed out by war, lives, breathes, suffers like a living being.
It’s as if you feel the heat from the tiles of the stove when it’s cold outside, you hear the tower clock in the dining room, the strumming of the guitar and the familiar sweet voices of Nikolka, Elena, Alexei, their noisy, cheerful guests ... And the City is immensely beautiful on its hills even in winter, snow-covered and flooded with electricity in the evenings. The Eternal City, tormented by shelling, street fighting, disgraced by crowds of soldiers, temporary workers who seized its squares and streets. It was impossible to write a novel without a broad conscious view, what was called a worldview, and Bulgakov showed that he had it.
The author avoids in his book, at least in the part that has been completed, a direct confrontation between Reds and Whites. On the pages of the novel, whites are at war with the Petliurists. But the writer is occupied with a broader humanistic thought - or, rather, a thought-feeling: the horror of fratricidal war. With sadness and regret, he observes the desperate struggle of several warring elements and does not sympathize with any of them to the end. Bulgakov defended in the novel Eternal values: home, country, family. And he remained a realist in his narration - he did not spare either the Petliurists, or the Germans, or the Whites, and he did not say a word of untruth about the Reds, placing them, as it were, behind the curtain of the picture. The provoking novelty of Bulgakov's novel was that five years after the end of the civil war, when the pain and heat of mutual hatred had not yet subsided, he dared to show the officers of the White Guard not in the poster guise of the "enemy", but as ordinary - good and bad, suffering and erring, smart and limited - people, showed them from the inside, and the best in this environment - with obvious sympathy.
In Alexei, in Myshlaevsky, in Nai-Turs and in Nikolka, the author most of all appreciates courageous directness, loyalty to honor. For them, honor is a kind of faith, the core of personal behavior. The officer's honor demanded the protection of the white banner, unreasoning loyalty to the oath, the fatherland and the tsar, and Alexei Turbin is painfully experiencing the collapse of the creed, from under which, with the abdication of Nicholas II, the main support was pulled out. But honor is also loyalty to other people, camaraderie, duty to the younger and the weak. Colonel Malyshev is a man of honor, because he sends the junkers home, realizing the senselessness of resistance: courage and contempt for phrases are needed for such a decision.
Nai-Turs is a man of honor, even a knight of it, because he fights to the end, and when he sees that the case is lost, he rips off the junker, almost a boy, thrown into a bloody mess, shoulder straps and covers his retreat with a machine gun. A man of honor and Nikolka, because he rushes through the streets of the city, looking for relatives of Nai-Turs in order to inform them of his death, and then, at the risk of himself, almost steals the body of the deceased commander, removing him from the mountain of frozen corpses in the basement of the anatomical theater . Where there is honor, there is courage, where dishonor is cowardice.
The reader will remember Thalberg, with his "patented smile", stuffing his travel suitcase. He is a stranger in the Turbin family. People tend to err, sometimes tragically err, to doubt, to seek, to come to new faith. But a man of honor makes this way out of inner conviction, usually with pain, with anguish, parting with what he worshiped. For a person deprived of the concept of honor, such changes are easy: he, like Thalberg, simply changes the bow on the lapel of his coat, adapting to changed circumstances.
The author of The White Guard was also worried about another question: the bond of the old "peaceful life", in addition to autocracy, was Orthodoxy, faith in God and the afterlife - for some sincere, for some weathered and remaining only as fidelity to rituals. In Bulgakov's first novel, there is no break with traditional awareness, but there is no sense of loyalty to it either. Elena's lively, fervent prayer for the salvation of her brother, addressed to the Mother of God, performs a miracle: Alexei recovers.
Before Elena's inner gaze, there appears the one whom the author will later call Yeshua Ha-Nozri - "completely resurrected, and gracious, and barefoot." A light transparent vision anticipates the later novel with its visibility: glass light heavenly dome, some unprecedented red-yellow sand blocks, olive trees ... ”- a landscape of ancient Judea. Much brings the author closer to his main character - the doctor Alexei Turbin, to whom he gave a particle of his biography: both calm courage, and faith in old Russia, faith to the last, until the course of events exhausts her to the end, but most of all - the dream of a peaceful life .
The semantic climax of the novel lies in prophetic dream Alexey Turbin. “I have neither profit nor loss from your faith,” God simply argues in a peasant way, “appearing” to Wahmister Zhilin. - One believes, the other does not believe, but the actions ... you all have the same: now each other by the throat ... "Both whites, and reds, and those that fell at Perekop are equally subject to the highest mercy:" .. .all of you are the same for me - killed in the battlefield. The author of the novel did not pretend to be a religious person: both hell and heaven for him are most likely "so ... a human dream." But Elena says in her home prayer that "we are all guilty of blood." And the writer was tormented by the question of who would pay for the blood shed in vain.
The suffering and anguish of the fratricidal war, the consciousness of the justice of what he called "the clumsy wrath of the peasants", and at the same time the pain of trampling on old human values led Bulgakov to create his own unusual ethics - essentially non-religious, but retaining the features of a Christian moral tradition. The motive of eternity, which arose in the first lines of the novel, in one of the epigraphs, in the form of a great and terrible year, rises in the finale. The biblical words about doomsday: "And every one was judged according to his works, and whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." “... The cross turned into a threatening sharp sword. But he's not terrible. All will pass.
Suffering, torment, blood, hunger and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our eyes to them? Why?"
