The story “After the Ball” is one of latest works Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. He tells about a dramatic event - the punishment of a soldier with gauntlets.
Using the well-known "story within a story" technique, the writer achieves the utmost reliability of the story. We see the event through the eyes of an eyewitness - Ivan Vasilyevich. He is an honest and noble person.
Ivan Vasilievich recalls a case from own life when he sincerely and wholeheartedly fell in love with the girl, but could not forgive her father for cruelty and hypocrisy.
- Love? Love has waned since that day.
A noble and sincere character is revealed before us. Ivan Vasilyevich is young, happy, he strives to live in harmony with the whole world and, above all, with himself. All people appear to him only from the good side. And when he sees the duplicity of the colonel, he is shocked, crushed. Ivan Vasilyevich is faced with such treachery for the first time. The colonel had just danced at the ball with a pleasant smile, was courteous and gallant, and among the soldiers, on the parade ground, Ivan Vasilievich sees the true face of this man: “... he is his strong hand in a suede glove, he beat a frightened short soldier in the face because he did not lower his stick hard enough on the red back of the Tatar ... ”
Ivan Vasilyevich is overwhelmed with shame, as if he himself had done something indecent. He does not undertake to judge the colonel, but only asks himself the question: “Obviously, he knows something that I do not know?” Moral Purity hero, his conscientiousness and organic rejection of evil make Ivan Vasilyevich in the eyes of readers exceptionally decent, honest man. You trust him completely. You begin to look at the world and the people around you through its eyes. And the fact that he did not become a careerist, a bribe taker, but remained a decent person is the most important thing for Tolstoy and readers.
A short story by L. N. Tolstoy raises an important moral problem. This is the work of a great master who managed to show beautiful person, not even suspecting what treasures his soul hides.
The story "After the Ball" is one of the last works of Leo Tolstoy. He tells about a dramatic event - the punishment of a soldier with gauntlets. Using the well-known technique of “a story within a story”, the writer achieves the utmost reliability of the narration....
L. N. Tolstoy heard from his brother one interesting case how Sergey Nikolayevich cheerfully danced a mazurka at the ball with the daughter of a military commander, Varvara, and the next morning he saw how her father ordered the expulsion through the ranks of a man who had fled from the barracks ...
The story “After the Ball” is one of the later works of L. N. Tolstoy, who by that time had written his main novels, which received world fame. The story is based on real event from the life of S. N. Tolstoy - the brother of the writer. In this piece...
according to the story of L. N. Tolstoy "After the Ball") "Every person, no matter how closed or lonely he may be, in a certain way affects the lives of others, just as other people's actions affect his fate. The fate of the protagonist of the story L.. ..
August 20, 1903 Leo Tolstoy wrote wonderful story"After the ball." This is a story about hypocritical and two-faced people. “... Varenka's father was a very handsome, stately, tall and fresh old man. His face was very ruddy, with white, a la Nicolas...
/ / / Ivan Vasilievich at the ball and after the ball (according to Tolstoy's story "After the Ball")
chief actor Leo Tolstoy's story "" is Ivan Vasilyevich. To prove his theory that only chance affects a person's choice, he told one story from his life.
It was at a time when Ivan Vasilyevich was still a young and rather attractive young man. The protagonist studied at one of the provincial universities. And like all students, he was a cheerful, carefree, lively fellow. He lived for his own pleasure, had fun with young ladies and "wondered" with friends. But Ivan Vasilyevich's greatest passion was secular evenings and magnificent balls, because he was an excellent dancer, and his appearance easily made it possible to charm young ladies. At one of these balls, this story happened.
This secular evening was given by one "good-natured old man." He was a military man with the rank of colonel. The evening was really magical: nice music, delicious treats, smiling faces. Everything was conducive to fun and good mood. At that time, Ivan Vasilievich had passionate feelings for Varenka B .. The girl was truly beautiful. Her appearance and regal manner attracted the eyes of others. And the sweet smile of the girl emphasized all this splendor.
All evening Ivan Vasilyevich was only interested in Varenka. They danced all the dances: from the quadrille to the waltz. Main character was really happy. Ivan Vasilyevich's feelings intensified a hundredfold when he saw Varenka dancing with his father. From that moment on, Ivan Vasilyevich began to respect the girl's father even more, because he was ready to give everything for the sake of the happiness of his child. The main character was inspired by his feelings. He was ready to hug and kiss the whole world.
Thus, at the ball we see Ivan Vasilyevich as a person who experiences real feelings. His emotions were not fake, he was truly happy.
Inspired by his happiness, Ivan Vasilyevich returns home after the ball. The scenes of the ball are scrolling in his head, he remembers Varenka's sweet smile and her unforgettable dance with her father. I could not fall asleep, Ivan Vasilievich goes for a walk. He just walked through the streets of the city. It seemed that the main character could still hear the rhythms of the dance, he imagined himself at the ball. And everything that surrounded Ivan Vasilyevich shared his wonderful mood.
Suddenly, piercing and cruel music seemed to wake up the protagonist. He found himself near Varenka's house. Before the eyes of Ivan Vasilyevich opened a terrible picture. A Tatar tied to two guns was led through the line of soldiers. It was a deserter. Every soldier the unfortunate passed by beat him on the back with a stick. Varenka's father commanded the soldiers.
Ivan Vasilievich felt sick to look at this picture. He could not bear the suffering of the unfortunate Tartar. His mutilated body no longer looked like human body. The protagonist hurried to go home, and the pleas of the unfortunate for mercy crashed into his head. Sadness and melancholy filled the soul of Ivan Vasilyevich. What he saw kept the main character awake for a long time.
After this incident, Ivan Vasilyevich decided to rethink his life. The main character decided not to connect his life with military service. He did not want to be in the place of the unfortunate Tatar. Attitude towards Varenka's father changed and began to cause disgust. Later, feelings for the girl herself also cooled down.
After the ball, Ivan Vasilievich seemed to have matured. He woke up a sense of pity and conscience, responsibility and humanity.
The story of L.N. Tolstoy "After the Ball".
The story of L.N. Tolstoy's "After the Ball" is a very small work, but extremely deep in meaning. It is based on the reception of contrast, antitheses. The story is divided into two parts, which are sharply opposed to each other.
The first part of the work is a description of the ball. This part is filled with a feeling of light, love, joy, happiness. This is largely due to the fact that the narrator, who tells about all the events, is very much in love. Therefore, at that time he saw everything in the world in iridescent colors.
The ball was held in the house of the provincial leader, a good-natured and hospitable old man. “The ball was wonderful: the hall was beautiful, with choirs, the musicians were the famous serfs of the amateur landowner at that time, the buffet was magnificent and the bottled sea of champagne,” says Ivan Vasilyevich. But the hero-narrator was not drunk on champagne, but on love, because at the ball was his adored Varenka B., an extraordinary beauty: "tall, slender, graceful and majestic, just majestic." Varenka always carried herself unusually upright, throwing her head back a little. This gave her a kind of regal air, "which would have frightened her away, if not for the affectionate, always cheerful smile of her mouth, and her lovely, shining eyes, and her whole sweet, young being."
It was evident that the girl was not indifferent to the narrator. The young people spent the whole evening together: they played and danced. At the end of the evening, Varenka gave Ivan Vasilyevich a feather from her fan. Delight - that's what the hero experienced throughout the ball.
Before dinner, Varenka went to dance with her father, Colonel B., a handsome military man who adores his daughter. Their dance delighted all the guests. They admired this beautiful couple, and at the end of the dance, the guests even applauded father and daughter B. It was clear how the colonel loves his daughter, how he strives to give her all the best. The narrator noticed that Pyotr Vladislavich wears old-style homemade boots in order to be able to take his Varenka out into the world.
The atmosphere of this evening can be characterized by the words of Ivan Vasilyevich himself: “At that time I embraced the whole world with my love. engineer Anisimov. To her father, with his house boots and affectionate, like her smile, I experienced at that time some kind of enthusiastic tender feeling.
The second part of the story, which is of primary importance for disclosure ideological concept works, directly opposite to the first. After a delightful night comes early morning, the first morning of Lent. The narrator walks around the city, the rhythm of the mazurka still sounds in his soul. But suddenly this music is interrupted by another: "hard, bad music." Amid the fog, the narrator sees black people (in contrast to the smart people from the ballroom). They stood in two rows, between them led a man, stripped to the waist. Each of the soldiers had to hit this man as hard as possible. Ivan Vasilievich found out that before his eyes the punishment of the fugitive Tatar was taking place.
How bright and beautiful the first part of the story is, how terrible and disgusting the second is. If the melody of the mazurka can be considered the leitmotif of the first part, then the entire second part is accompanied by the "unpleasant, shrill melody" of the drum and flute. It seems to me that the contrast between the wonderful dance of Colonel B. and his daughter at the ball is the terrible scene of the punishment of the poor Tatar, where one of the main characters is also the colonel. Only now he does not rest next to his beloved Varenka, but performs his official duties.
The description of the colonel, in general, has not changed. We see the same ruddy face, gray whiskers. The intonations with which this hero was described have changed, the attitude of the narrator and readers towards this brave campaigner has changed.
In contrast to the portrait of Varenka, a lovely young girl, affectionate and majestic at the same time, a description of the fugitive Tatar is given: “When the procession passed the place where I stood, I caught a glimpse of the back of the punished between the rows. , unnatural, that I did not believe that it was the body of a man."
The movement of the Tatar along the line of soldiers is opposed to the description of the dance in the first part. If at the ball the dance of the father with his daughter delighted everyone, then here the movements of the captured fugitive resembled a terrible puppet dance, the movements of puppets, terrifying.
In addition, if in the first part Colonel B. brought his daughter to the narrator, handing her over to a caring gentleman, then in the second part, Pyotr Vladislavich, seeing the narrator, turned away from him as from a stranger.
The picture he saw struck Ivan Vasilyevich to the depths of his soul. The shock was so deep that the narrator decided never to serve anywhere, just not to commit such monstrous deeds. The scene of the punishment of the fugitive Tatar becomes even more terrible, given that it took place on the first day of Lent. After the pagan Shrovetide, described in the first part, the most important Christian fast comes, when a person must forget everything worldly and turn to his soul. But it is at this time that the narrator becomes a witness to the greatest crime of man - a crime in relation to himself, to his soul.
Leading artistic device in Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" is the technique of contrast. In this work, two parts of the story are contrasted: the scene of the ball and the scene of punishment; heroes and their actions are contrasted. In addition, moods, emotions, musical leitmotifs works.
Mind and feelings
The story "After the Ball" was written in 1903 and refers to late works L. N. Tolstoy. In it, the author retold the story he heard from his brother Sergei Nikolaevich. When he was a young student in Kazan, he was in love with a girl named Varvara. It is about them that the writer is talking in his work “After the Ball”, but the name of the narrator is Ivan Vasilyevich. We learn from him that he witnessed two different events that radically changed his attitude towards the people around him.
In the first part, the action takes place during the provincial ball, to which Ivan Vasilyevich, like many other respected people of the city, was invited. There he hoped all the time to be close to Varenka, with whom he was madly in love. The girl was really beautiful, slim and graceful. Almost all the time she danced with the narrator, but one dance, at the request of the hosts of the ball, she walked with her father, the eminent Colonel Peter Vladislavovich.
All those present were amazed. This family made the best impression. Even Ivan Vasilyevich was imbued with the colonel
sincere affection. Everything changed when he saw another scene, after the ball. Returning home, the narrator could not fall asleep in any way and decided to take a walk around the city at night. What he saw at Varenka's house shocked him to the core. A crowd passed by, urging on one deserter. By order of the colonel, the poor man was severely beaten.
After that, the mind took up over the feelings of Ivan Vasilyevich. Not only did he change his mind about entering any service, he decided never to see Varenka again. Because after this incident, every time, looking at her beautiful face, he remembered the cruelty and duplicity of her father. The narrator tried to understand the root of the colonel's cruelty, perhaps to find some justification for this, but could not.
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Composition
The story of L. N. Tolstoy "After the Ball" refers to the later works of the writer. It was written in 1903, but is based on the memories of Tolstoy's youth. The writer learned about the story described in the story when he was a student at Kazan University. Probably, this incident struck him so much that he remembered it all his life and, in the end, embodied it in his work.
Compositionally, "After the Ball" is a story-remembrance, a story about a case from youth that shook the hero-narrator to the core. The narrator, Ivan Vasilyevich, is already an elderly man, respected and loved by everyone. We learn that he never served anywhere, but he helped many people to get on their feet, to find themselves.
Apparently, the life of Ivan Vasilievich was filled with bright events, which he gladly shares with young people. The author notes one special manner of the narrator: “... Ivan Vasilievich had such a manner of responding to his own thoughts arising from the conversation and, on the occasion of these thoughts, telling episodes from his life. Often he completely forgot the reason for which he was telling, being carried away by the story, especially since he told it very sincerely and truthfully.
So, the narrator tells us about one morning that turned his whole life upside down. It happened in the 40s of the 19th century. The narrator was then studying at a provincial university. He lived enjoying his youth. Ivan Vasilievich compares those times with his contemporary era. Like all older people, some disapproval of "today's" youth, their way of life and thought slips through his words. It seems to me that the words of the author himself are heard here. Tolstoy is not satisfied with the fact that young people do not enjoy life, which should be characteristic of them, but creates various political circles, is fond of newfangled theories, often dangerous to the mind and even life.
Ivan Vasilievich enjoyed his youth, strength, beauty and wealth. Besides, he was in love. This feeling accompanied the hero constantly. But, at the moment he describes, the narrator was experiencing his own strong feeling. Yes, and no wonder: the object of his love was Varenka B., a rare beauty and clever. At this time, on the last day of Shrovetide, the narrator went to the ball to the provincial marshal, where Varenka was also. Ivan Vasilyevich was immensely happy. The whole evening he enjoyed, without departing a single step from the object of his love. Happiness, delight, love for the whole world overwhelmed the enthusiastic young man.
At this ball, the narrator first saw Varenka's father, Colonel B. He seemed to Ivan Vasilyevich a kind, decent man, madly in love with his daughter, ready to sacrifice anything for Varenka. The dance of the father with his daughter delighted not only the narrator, but also all the guests at the ball. At the end of the dance, Colonel B. and his Varenka were all applauded. The narrator was very pleased when Pyotr Vladislavich himself brought his daughter to him for the next dance.
Ivan Vasilievich says this about his state of mind at the ball: “At that time I embraced the whole world with my love. I loved the hostess in the feronniere, with her Elizabethan bust, and her husband, and her guests, and her lackeys, and even the engineer Anisimov, who was sulking at me. To her father, with his house boots and affectionate, similar to her smile, I experienced at that time some kind of enthusiastic tender feeling.
After the ball, the hero returned home, but emotional stress, excitement, joy did not give him the opportunity to sleep peacefully. The narrator decided to wander around the city, to calm down a bit. In the early morning of the first day of Great Lent, Ivan Vasilyevich walks around the city. Everything that he sees seems to him touching and beautiful. A cheerful melody of a mazurka sounds in my head. But ... at this time, the narrator comes across a terrifying scene. He becomes a witness to how a fugitive Tatar is being punished. The sight was very scary. And it was even more terrible because Varenka's father, the same Colonel B, was in charge of all this. He ruthlessly watched the scene of execution, without showing any emotions. And all this happened on the first day of Lent!
The first feeling that overwhelmed the narrator was shame: “I was so ashamed that, not knowing where to look, it was as if I had been caught in the very shameful act I lowered my eyes and hurried to go home. Everything he saw stood before Ivan Vasilyevich’s eyes: “... meanwhile, my heart was almost physical, reaching nausea, longing, such that I stopped several times, and it seemed to me that I was about to vomit with all the horror that entered me from this spectacle.
The narrator tries to understand the reason for such cruelty of the colonel. Maybe he knows something that the hero does not know, and therefore behaves so ruthlessly? But, no matter how much Ivan Vasilyevich suffered, he could not unravel this mystery.
The result of such a terrible morning was that the narrator decided never to serve anywhere, so that, God forbid, he would not become a participant in a terrible crime, similar to the one he saw that morning on the parade ground.
It seems to me that in this work the image of the narrator is very close to the author, his inner world, his outlook on life. Ivan Vasilievich - subtly feeling, emotional and deeply moral person. In my opinion, his psychological picture in his youth, largely copied from Tolstoy himself, his feelings and reactions are similar to the feelings and reactions of the writer. Therefore, the narrator is deeply sympathetic to L. N. Tolstoy, in his mouth he puts his thoughts about the soul, God, man.
