What is said in the story, darling. The deep meaning of A. P. Chekhov’s work “Darling”

The story “Darling”, written in 1899, refers to the last period of A.P. Chekhov’s work.

Darling - a faceless slave of her affections? (This is how Gorky perceived the heroine of the story.)

Darling - a fickle, unprincipled creature? (This is how she appears in Lenin’s review.)

Is my darling the embodiment of a woman’s true purpose? (L. Tolstoy saw her like this.)

It is not for nothing that Leo Tolstoy placed the image of Darling next to the images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, with the image of Shakespeare’s Horatio from Hamlet. Tolstoy argued that ridicule was at the heart of the concept of “Darling,” but believed that the story did not turn out the way Chekhov intended it. He considered “Darling” to be a masterpiece, but it turned out as if in addition to or contrary to the author’s intentions, “unconsciously”: what was meant to be ridicule turned out to be praise.

A special feature of the story is the ambiguity of the image of the main character, which makes it possible to diversify the understanding and interpretation of this work. That is why one of Chekhov’s best stories, the story of “life in love,” has caused and continues to cause conflicting opinions and assessments today.

Main subject works - love, which Chekhov contrasts with the value vacuum of society. At the same time, the essence of love, as understood by the main character, lies in the ability to give love, and not to receive.

Possessing the gift of seeing the complex in the simple, Chekhov finds and shows in the everyday life of an ordinary person what constitutes the essence of this person, for which he lives.

Plot and compositional structure of the story

In “Darling” one can clearly see two storylines.“Chain of Hobbies” by Darling paints the image of a frivolous lady who quickly changes her heart’s affections and dissolves in her chosen ones. “Chain of Losses and Bereavements” depicts Olga Semyonovna’s feelings upon the loss of her loved ones.

Four-part composition The story corresponds to the change of four affections of Darling. To construct the narrative, Chekhov uses the technique of repetition: in each of the four parts the situation develops according to the same scenario. Darling understands someone else’s situation, is imbued with sympathy, then love, becoming an “echo” and “shadow” of her lover, then the end of the situation comes. This monotony of actions and the predictability of further developments create a comic effect.

The writer organizes time in the story by alternating repeating scenes and one-time events. The narrative in three parts concerns the heroine’s past, only in the fourth part are verbs of the present tense used.

Chekhov left the ending of the story open: will the situation of loss repeat itself for Darling again? Will she really lose what fills her life and gives it meaning?

System of story images

The main characters of the work are Olga Semyonovna Plemyannikova (Dushechka), Kukin, Pustovalov, a veterinarian, and his son Sasha. Kukin's image has a comic orientation. The images of other characters are not drawn out so brightly.

The greatest attention is paid to the image of the main character. The image of Darling complex and contradictory. The gift of selfless love that the heroine is endowed with is surprisingly intertwined with a complete lack of spiritual interests and an inability to think independently (“she had no opinions”).

IN the first three parts of the image of Darling and has two projections: Chekhov shows touching and sweet in this woman and at the same time making fun of the funny and limited in her . Using the technique of reduction, the writer first gives the opportunity to feel the feelings of the heroine, but at the same time shows the limitations and relativity of these feelings, and this limitation cannot but make the reader smile. Olga completely dissolves in the world of her chosen one, while losing her own individuality. It is no coincidence that the heroine is deprived of her own speech characteristics, but repeats, like an echo, the words of her husbands. With the help of speech details, Chekhov shows the change in Dushechka's vocabulary - conversations on theatrical topics under Kukin are replaced by the use of forestry terms under Pustovalov, and then by conversations about horse diseases under the veterinarian Smirnin.

In the fourth part of the story, the irony disappears. Darling appears before the reader in a new light - the light of maternal love. With the appearance of high school student Sasha in her life, deprived of parental love, maternal love awakens in Olga. “Oh, how she loves him!” All previous feelings seem insignificant, unreal in comparison with this last love. Darling realizes her main gift, which so distinguishes her from the world of ordinary people - the ability for selfless love. A woman finds herself in this feeling. Darling grows from a narrow-minded bourgeois into a truly Chekhovian heroine, evoking understanding and sympathy.

“Darling” - a story about the gift of love, which is not given to everyone, and in such an exceptional condensation is generally rarely found? Yes, this is a story about a person who is capable of loving to the point of self-forgetfulness. And about those funny, amusing and absurd manifestations that this ability takes in reality. First of all, Darling’s chosen ones are funny and insignificant, and she is funny to the extent that she adopts their way of life and vision of the world. The main thing about her is an inexhaustible supply of love.

In art, the power of love is often measured by the willingness to die for a loved one. Olenka is sincerely killed after the death of both Kukin and Pustovalov, and in her lamentations - as a rhetorical figure - she could well have expressed a desire to go with them to another world. But to die for the sake of Kukin or Pustovalov would look truly absurd. And the truth of love for Sasha is confirmed precisely by the readiness to give his life for him - “with joy, with tears of tenderness.” This speaks of the authenticity and involvement of the highest last feeling of Darling.

Darling lives in the same environment, among people of the same type and level as Ionych. Both Ionych and Darling experience the strength of this environment, the impossibility of breaking out of the forms of life behavior imposed on them: he, having tried to resist and resist these forms, she, accepting them voluntarily and joyfully. But these two heroes were depicted by Chekhov in different ways, and the writer embodied different aspects of his idea of the world in them

Artistic originality of the story

The story is written in an artistic style. The artistic construction of the text is based on the alternation of lyrical and comic tonality of the narrative. The originality of the story is manifested in the repetition of diminutive suffixes, the use of repetition throughout the story, and attention to verbal details.

The story “Darling,” written in 1899, belongs to the last period of A.P. Chekhov’s work.

Subject of the work

The main theme of the work is love, which Chekhov contrasts with the value vacuum of society. At the same time, the essence of love, as understood by the main character, lies in the ability to give love, and not to receive.

Possessing the gift of seeing the complex in the simple, Chekhov finds and shows in the everyday life of an ordinary person what constitutes the essence of this person, for which he lives.

Plot and compositional structure of the story

In “Darling” two storylines are clearly visible. “Chain of Hobbies” by Darling paints the image of a frivolous lady who quickly changes her heart’s affections and dissolves in her chosen ones. “Chain of Losses and Bereavements” depicts Olga Semyonovna’s feelings upon the loss of her loved ones.

The four-part composition of the story corresponds to the change of Darling's four affections. To construct the narrative, Chekhov uses the technique of repetition: in each of the four parts the situation develops according to the same scenario. Darling understands someone else’s situation, is imbued with sympathy, then love, becoming an “echo” and “shadow” of her lover, then the end of the situation comes. This monotony of actions and the predictability of further developments create a comic effect.

Chekhov left the ending of the story open: will the situation of loss repeat itself for Darling again? Will she really lose what fills her life and gives it meaning?

System of story images

The greatest attention is paid to the image of the main character. The image of Darling is complex and contradictory. The gift of selfless love that the heroine is endowed with is surprisingly intertwined with a complete lack of spiritual interests and an inability to think independently (“she had no opinions”).

In the first three parts, the image of Darling has two projections: Chekhov shows the touching and sweet in this woman and at the same time makes fun of the funny and limited in her. Using the technique of reduction, the writer first gives the opportunity to feel the feelings of the heroine, but at the same time shows the limitations and relativity of these feelings, and this limitation cannot but make the reader smile. Olga completely dissolves in the world of her chosen one, while losing her own individuality. It is no coincidence that the heroine is deprived of her own speech characteristics, but repeats, like an echo, the words of her husbands. With the help of speech details, Chekhov shows the change in Dushechka’s vocabulary - conversations on theatrical topics under Kukin are replaced by the use of forestry terms under Pustovalov, and then by conversations about horse diseases under the veterinarian Smirnin.

In the fourth part of the story, the irony disappears. Darling appears before the reader in a new light - the light of maternal love. With the appearance of high school student Sasha in her life, deprived of parental love, maternal love awakens in Olga. “Oh, how she loves him!” All previous feelings seem insignificant, unreal in comparison with this last love. Darling realizes her main gift, which so distinguishes her from the world of ordinary people - the ability for selfless love. A woman finds herself in this feeling. Darling grows from a narrow-minded bourgeois into a truly Chekhovian heroine, evoking understanding and sympathy.

Artistic originality of the story

Analysis of the story by A.P. Chekhov's "Ionych"

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote the story “Darling” in 1899. It refers to the late work of the writer. It is noteworthy that Chekhov’s “Darling” immediately caused mixed reviews in literary circles.

The main theme of the work is love. Only for the main character it becomes not just a need, but the meaning of life. Moreover, it is much more important for her not to receive love, but to give it. The comedy of the situation is that every time the story of the heroine’s selfless, deep feelings repeats itself. The composition of the story consists of four parts: according to the number of heartfelt affections in Olenka’s life. Below is a brief summary of this literary creation.

A few words about the main character

Olenka Plemyannikova, the daughter of a retired collegiate assessor, lives in her house with her father. This is a rosy-cheeked young lady with a soft white neck, plump arms, a gentle look and a touching smile.

People around him love a pretty girl. Everyone likes her without exception. When talking to her, you just want to touch her hand and tell her: “Darling!” There is always some kind of affection in Olenka’s soul: at first she was in love with her French teacher, then she began to adore her daddy, and then her aunt, who visited her twice a year. The problem is that these sympathies often replace one another. But Olenka is not bothered by this, nor are the people around her. They are impressed by the girl’s naivety, her gullibility and quiet kindness. This is how Chekhov describes his heroine in the story “Darling”. A brief summary will help you get an idea of the heroine’s personal qualities. Her image is contradictory: on the one hand, she is endowed with the gift of selfless love. Not everyone can dissolve in this way in their soulmate. And this, of course, makes the reader respect the heroine. However, on the other hand, she appears to us as a gullible and flighty person. The complete lack of spiritual interests, the lack of one’s own views and ideas about the world around us - all this evokes ridicule from the reader.

Kukin - Olenka's first affection

In the large house of the Plemyannikovs lives a certain Ivan Petrovich Kukin, the owner and entrepreneur of the Tivoli entertainment garden. Olenka often sees him in the yard. Kukin constantly complains about life. All you can hear from him is: “The public today is wild and ignorant. What does an operetta or extravaganza mean to her? Give her a farce! Nobody is walking. And it rains every evening! But I have to pay rent and salaries to the artists. Total losses. I'm ruined! Olenka is very sorry for him. On the other hand, love for this person awakens in her heart. So what if he is skinny, short in stature and speaks in a shrill voice. In her mind, Kukin is a hero who fights every day with his main enemy - the ignorant public. The heroine's sympathy turns out to be mutual, and soon the young people get married. Now Olenka is working hard at her husband’s theater. She, like him, scolds the audience, talks about the importance of art in a person’s life and gives loans to actors. In winter, things go better for the couple. In the evenings, Olenka gives Ivan Petrovich tea with raspberries and wraps him in warm blankets, wanting to improve her husband’s failing health.

Unfortunately, the happiness of the young people was short-lived: Kukin went to Moscow during Lent to recruit a new troupe and died there suddenly. Having buried her husband, the young lady plunged into deep mourning. True, it did not last long. Chekhov's story “Darling” will tell us what happened next. In the meantime, we see that the heroine, imbued with the thoughts of her husband, becomes his shadow and echo. It was as if her individual qualities did not exist. With the death of her husband, a woman loses the meaning of life.

Olenka is getting married again

When Olenka, as usual, returned home from mass, Vasily Andreich Pustovalov, the forest manager of the merchant Babakaev, was next to her. He walked the woman to the gate and left. Only since then our heroine has not found a place for herself. Soon a matchmaker from Pustovalov appeared in her house. The young people got married and began to live in peace and harmony. Now Olenka talked only about forest lands, about the prices of wood, about the difficulties of its transportation. It seemed to her that she had always been doing this. The Pustovalovs’ house was warm and cozy, and the smell of home-cooked food was delicious. The couple did not go out anywhere, spending the weekend only in each other's company.

When those around her advised her “darling” to go and unwind to the theater, she replied that this was an empty activity not for working people. In the absence of her husband, when he left for the forest, the woman was bored. Her leisure time was sometimes brightened up by the military veterinarian Smirnin. This gentleman in another city left his wife and child, which did not prevent him from spending time in the company of other women. Olenka shamed him and strongly advised him to come to his senses and make peace with his wife. So the quiet family happiness of the “darling” would have lasted for many more years, if not for the tragic death of her husband. Vasily Andreich once caught a cold and died suddenly. Olenka again plunged into deep mourning. What does the author want to draw attention to when describing the heroine’s second affection, what amuses Chekhov here? Darling is a selfless woman, capable of great and deep feelings. The comedy of the situation is that the story of great love to the death is repeated in the heroine’s life. And here it’s the same: complete dissolution in a loved one, echoing his words, quiet family happiness and a tragic ending.

The heroine's new sympathy

Now those around her hardly saw Olenka. Only sometimes could she be found in church or at the vegetable market with the cook. But soon the neighbors already saw a picture in the courtyard of the house: “darling” was sitting at a table in the garden, and Smirnin was drinking tea next to her. Everything became clear from the moment Olenka suddenly told a friend at the post office about the problem of contamination of milk from sick cows and horses. Since then, the young lady has only talked about rinderpest, pearl disease and much more. Olenka and Smirnin tried to keep their relationship secret. However, it became clear to those around her: a new affection had appeared in the woman’s heart. What else will Chekhov tell us about in his story “Darling”? A brief summary of the work allows us to trace the chain of Olenka’s sympathies. The author gives the reader the opportunity to feel the deep feelings of the heroine. And at the same time, using the example of a repetition of the situation, he shows how limited and relative they are. It becomes clear to us how a new feeling arose in the heroine’s heart. This is her third attachment. It seems comical that with her arrival, the woman’s deep mourning instantly disappears.

Olenka is left alone

But Olenka was not happy this time for long. Smirnin was soon assigned to a distant regiment, and he left without inviting his beloved with him. The woman was left alone. Her father died long ago. There were no close people nearby. Dark days have begun for Olenka. She lost weight, looked ugly and aged. When friends saw her, they tried to cross to the other end of the street so as not to meet her. On summer evenings, Olenka sat on the porch, going over all her affections in her memory. But it seemed empty there. It seemed to her that there was no meaning in life. Previously, she could explain everything, talk about everything. Now there was such emptiness in her heart and thoughts, it was so terrible and bitter, as if she had “eaten too much wormwood.” This is how he described the loneliness of the heroine in his Darling lives only when she can give love to a loved one next to her. It would seem that here you need to feel sorry for the heroine, because she is suffering. But the author deliberately belittles Olenka’s feelings even now, ironizing them in the words: “as if she had eaten too much wormwood...”. And rightly so. Next we will see how quickly the pictures in a woman’s life change from complete despondency and sorrow to absolute happiness.

New meaning of the heroine's life

Everything changed in one moment. He returned to the city of Smirnin with his wife and ten-year-old son. Olenka happily invited him and his family to live in her house. She herself moved to the outbuilding. Her life gained new meaning. She walked around happy, giving orders in the yard. This change was not hidden from the eyes of others. Friends noticed that the woman looked younger, prettier, and put on weight. It became clear to everyone: the old “darling” had returned. And this means that there is again a new affection in her heart. Next we will see what captured Chekhov’s darling Olenka. Her last sympathy is an example of selfless tenderness, readiness to die for her child. Probably, every woman in her life should realize this natural need - to give tenderness and warmth to children. The good news is that our heroine has also succeeded as a woman and mother.

Motherly feelings in Olenka's soul

Olenka fell in love with Sashenka, Smirnin’s son, with all her heart. The wife of the former veterinarian left for Kharkov on business, and he himself disappeared somewhere all day long, appearing only late in the evening. The child was alone in the house all day. It seemed to Olenka that he was always hungry, abandoned by his parents. She took the boy to her outhouse. With what tenderness the woman looked at him as she walked him to the gymnasium.

How she spoiled the child, constantly feeding him sweets. With what pleasure I did my homework with Sasha. Now one could only hear from “darling” about studying at the gymnasium, textbooks, teachers, and the like. Olenka blossomed and gained weight. The woman was afraid of one thing - that her beloved Sasha would suddenly be taken away from her. With what fear she listened to the knocking at the gate: what if it came from the boy’s mother, demanding him to come to her? At this unfinished moment, Chekhov ends his work. “Darling,” the analysis and summary of which is given here, is a story about selfless love, which is so rare in our lives, about its sometimes absurd and funny manifestations. The main thing in the heroine is an inexhaustible supply of tenderness and warmth, care and affection. Her chosen ones are ridiculous and insignificant compared to her. She is funny only to the extent that she completely accepts their way of life and their views on reality. Only in her last maternal affection does she become truly beautiful. Many women will probably recognize themselves in this image of her.

We retold and analyzed Chekhov's story “Darling”, and followed how a woman from a small bourgeois woman turns into a real Chekhov heroine.

Russian Psyche. Chekhov "Darling"

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Zoltan HAYNADI

Zoltan HAYNADI (1944) - Doctor of Philology (DSc), head of the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Debrecen (Hungary).

Russian Psyche. Chekhov "Darling"

We call Eros the desire and search for completeness.
(Plato. “Feast”)

And Phrodite instructed her son, Eros, to kindle in Psyche love for the most wretched of wretched men in the world, but the beauty of the girl conquered Eros himself. This theme was fully developed in the novel “Metamorphoses” by the Roman writer Apuleius. The allegory of the path of the Soul, led by love, had a great influence on the art of classicism, baroque and rococo. La Fontaine in the story “The Love of Psyche and Cupid” parodies the Greek myth: the female soul entertains the audience with its mocking stage incarnation. English poets of the 19th century used the story of Cupid and Psyche to formulate their own ideals: “Ode to Psyche” by Keats, “Earthly Paradise” by W. Morris, “Eros and Psyche”, “Testament of Beauty” by R. Bridges. In the 20th century, the novel by the writer of Irish origin S. Lewis “As long as we have a face, a myth retold” and the cycle of poems “Psyche” by the Hungarian poet Sándor Vörös (as well as the film by Gabor Bodi based on this) were a creative reworking and modernization of a frequently encountered in the world literature of topos.

The first among Russian writers to be inspired by this ancient love story was Ippolit Bogdanovich, who created the poetic fairy tale “Darling” in 1783. Bogdanovich did not go too deeply into the depths of ancient mythology: according to the tastes of Empress Catherine the Great, only naughty erotic scenes were conveyed. In the last period of his work, Chekhov created the story “Darling” (1899), which is ranked among the best by Tolstoy and Bunin. The translators worked hard to convey the title of the story. “The Darling” by David Magarshak is hopelessly outdated today, and also connotes the name of dog food. Edouard Parayre simply transcribed the title of Chekhov's story according to the norms of the French language - Douchechtcka. There are two Hungarian translations, neither of which conveys the polysemy of the original name and, in addition, gives it other shades of meaning: Aranyos[Golden - Lanyi Sarolta], Thunderi[Fairy - Goretity Jozsef]. The most successful from many points of view was the attempt to translate Johannes von Gunther into German Seelchen, which will be discussed in this study. It is well known what importance Chekhov attached to titles. He abandoned Maeterlinck's symbolism of mood and contrasted it with the symbolism of characters, the task of which was to explain the allegorical subtext that densely permeates the action. The title “Darling” most deeply conveys the heroine’s manner of spiritual behavior, which shines through in all her actions, gives a special charm to everything she says and does, and captivates everyone who happens to be close to her. The charm and grace of the female soul is concentrated in this pet name equipped with a diminutive suffix, the impact of which on us is much stronger than any proper name. Researchers rightfully draw a parallel with her archetype Psyche, considering Darling to be her earthly celestial counterpart, corresponding to a lower level (Poggioli 1957, Winner 1966, Jackson 1967). Intertextual analysis dispels all doubts regarding this connection.

Darling in Greek Psyche, in Latin anima- substance of the soul: a primitive spiritual symbol, the principle of femininity ( soul in Russian it is feminine, spirit - male). Another meaning of the word psyche- a butterfly, therefore in Greek folklore the soul is depicted in the form of a butterfly. Love is one of the most fundamental principles of human existence, while at the same time the soul is bound to the mortal existence of a butterfly. However, man of archaic times had a more abstract geometric symbol to represent the soul, namely egg or ball(circle,ring), which symbolized completeness, original unity, and the prevailing balance in the universe. The cosmic primordial egg is an indivisible unity that carries within itself the germ of everything that exists. Plato also described the soul as a ball, as the most perfect form of space. We get a personalized version in the legend about androgynes(a man and a woman in one person), telling about an ideal person. Zeus, because of their arrogance towards the gods, divided the spherical creatures inseparable from each other into two halves as punishment: from one they became two, and now the halves are forever looking for the other part that belongs to them. According to Plato's parable, human souls strive to unite with other souls from which they were separated during incarnation. The soul wants to regain its former happiness by reuniting with its other half. According to Platonov anamnesis The human body “remembers” unity from time immemorial, when two were yet one. Love unites again what is divided and damaged due to sexual polarization. Ontologically, love can return to Eros, which connects people with each other: “we call desire and the search for completeness Eros.” Solovyov aptly noted: “...The separation between the male and female elements of the human being is already a state of disintegration and the beginning of death<…>Only a whole person can be immortal” (1990; 178).

“Darling is not a type, but a whole “species,” Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote to the author, “her surname is also connoted with the name Plemyannikova” (Chekhov - 1974–1983; Letters 10/409) . That's right, she - genus having a variety of species. This mother figure and anima equally embody “Mother Russia,” which defines Russian national identity and plays a major role in the Symbolist aesthetics of “eternal femininity” and the earthly variety of Sophia: telluric mother earth. Beginners labial“O” of the name of the heroine Chekhov emphasizes the femininely rounded, oval features of Olenka (Olga, Olya), which is equally confirmed by the external and internal characteristics: “quiet, good-natured, with a meek, soft look, very healthy, full rosy cheeks, soft white neck with dark a mole, a kind, naive smile” and so on (10/103). Various shapes of the ball ( circle, umbrella, mandala) mean perfect balance. Such an archetypal motif in “Three Years” is Yulia Sergeevna’s frayed silk umbrella, under which the lover Laptev sat all night and experienced a deep feeling mandalas: “The umbrella was silk, no longer new, secured with an old elastic band; the handle was simple, white bone, cheap. Laptev opened it above him, and it seemed to him that there was even a smell of happiness around him” (9/15). The umbrella is a solar sign: it symbolizes the sun, the vault of heaven or the crown of the cosmic tree of life. It seems to suggest that under it a person will find refuge, find the meaning of life, and find perfect happiness. A person feels that the symbol of the circle-ball heals the mental split caused by the apocalyptic era: it preserves mental balance if it once comes, or renews it if it is suddenly lost. That's why Tolstoy was depicted in War and Peace Platon (!) Karataev is so balanced and round, like the perfect ball of Empedocles, for whom even death is not a tragedy, but only a drop spilled from a water ball. Softness and roundness are Russian traits (cf. Berdyaev’s article “On the “eternally feminine” in the Russian soul”) . Goncharov saw one of the most typical Russian national traits in Oblomov. The same is evidenced by the semantic explanation ( oblo= thick, round). Stolz's masculine angularity and restless activity differ sharply from Oblomov's feminist softness and his nature as a homebody. Androgyny Oblomov is also manifested in the fact that by himself he is completely happy, he has no need for friendship, love, or work. He doesn't do anything "extra". He even refuses a career, believing that a person can only live a full life if he leaves a job that splits his personality. It does not break, does not crumble itself, retains its integrity and integrity ( entite And integrate). Avoids dissipation, unnecessary waste of energy, and any form of sensory storms that threaten to disrupt the state of balance. Silence and meekness are stronger than any storm because they are a state of balance. However, sphericity symbolizes not only the fullness of life, but also closedness (isolation, confinement), a soul that cannot cross itself (Olenka, Oblomov, Karataev and others).

Word soul with its peculiar specificity - the most frequently found in the dictionary of Russian analytical literature of the 19th century. Under the word soul Russian writers meant different things, but everyone agreed that it is the fulcrum on which a person’s personality is built. Chekhov's method of depicting the soul differs from the way his great predecessors did it: from Tolstoy’s “dialectics of the soul” in the process of its development, from the show final result mental processes in Turgenev, even from Dostoevsky’s emphasis on the disclosure subconscious. The reasons for this lie partly in the peculiarities of the genre, since the novel is designed to show moral psychological problems in their development ( in statu nascendi), and the short story is in epiphanic revival. Chekhov does not agree with the method of psychological depiction of naturalist and decadent writers fin de sieRcle, Fin d'un Millenaire, which reduced Eros to sex, and topos das Ewig-Weibliche sublimated with Sofia. They deepened what could be abstained from, and eliminated what required deepening. Essential information and undetectable intertextual connections in Chekhov are expressed implicitly, often using an essential symbol. Instead of moral justification, a psychological symbol appears. Human destiny and depth of character are condensed into seemingly insignificant details. In the grayness of everyday life of an ordinary person, the writer was able to catch an extremely significant moment that suddenly illuminates the essence, when the essence suddenly flashes in the insignificance of existence. His heroes are shown impartially, devoid of moral condemnation, but there was always a word, gesture or detail that would reveal the essence of their personalities. However, contemporaries did not pay attention to this psychological depth, because Chekhov hid it below the surface.

Critics were perplexed why Chekhov chose the rustic Darling, while in world literature there were already such beautiful female types as Isolde, Beatrice, Juliet, and in Russian literature - Tatyana, Lisa, Natasha, Nastasya Filippovna. Not to mention the symbolists and Solovyov, according to whom the entire process of history and the world is nothing more than the process of the implementation and embodiment of the Eternal Femininity in an infinite variety of forms and degrees. The soul, mired in materiality, was the first to represent biological fertility. At the second stage, the romantic-aesthetic level of Faust’s Helen appears, but still with sexual attitudes. The third level is represented by the Virgin Mary, who raises love (Eros) to the ecstatic heights of spiritual rapture. The fourth type, superior to the sacred immaculate conception Wisdom, is symbolized by Sophia, devoid of all sexuality in the Christian-Gnostic dogma and representing the highest feminine principle, which is expressed in the desire elevating to God, in the heavenly attraction of the soul, in ascendant its direction.

Russian literature is replete with positive female images, which often act as a touchstone for male characters, a kind of mirror in which one can see male negative characteristics, which, however, do not have independent meaning. Women appear in the male “crown around the moon” as satellite or counterpoint. These stories actually tell us about the opinion a man has about a woman. However, Chekhov's story actually tells about the fate of a woman, about the purpose of female existence. He sees the embodiment of the myth of the Russian woman in nature sancta simplicite Darlings. The meaning of love seems to her to be the renunciation of selfishness and isolation, since love transfers the center of personality to another person. The author was not very attracted to the dark aspect anima, an archetypal type of personified fate of a woman, threatening sensuality ( femme fatale), of which there are many examples in world literature: sirens, mermaids, Lorelei, Queen of the Night, Nastasya Filippovna and so on. Chekhov was not satisfied with the idealized female types of Turgenev, who were not only the inspirers of men, but at the same time their judges. The following is said about the female images of the poet of love and beauty: “... All Turgenev’s women and girls are unbearable for their artificiality and, excuse me, falseness. Lisa, Elena are not Russian girls, but some kind of Pythia, broadcasting, replete with claims beyond their rank” (Ehrenburg 1960; 56). For Chekhov, “eternal femininity” is no longer the savior of a man, as it was in the works of poets reflecting romantic reminiscences, in which the tragic conflict ultimately finds its resolution in love, as in “Faust”: “Everything that is fleeting - // Symbol, comparison. // The goal is endless // Here is the achievement. // Here is the commandment // of all Truth. // Eternal femininity // Pulls us towards her” (translation by B. Pasternak).

Chekhov's gaze settled on Darling because he saw how his era was plunging into an ever-increasing value vacuum, in which a person loses his soul and turns into a faceless mannequin. The loss of values in a society brought to the point of automatism occurs along with the decline of love. Soulless, robot-like creatures are contrasted with an apology for active love, as an answer to the question of human existence. Such love encourages a person to regain his soul. Darling sees the essence of love not in the fact that she is loved: love must be given, not received. Chekhov returns to the traditional interpretation of the concept of eternal femininity, which gives his heroines a conjugal, maternal role, making them keepers of the hearth. The attributes of this are tenderness, warmth, sensitivity, the ability to empathize with the feelings and thoughts of another person, and the feeling of being in his place. The writer subtly analyzes the problem of the connection between female and male consciousness, making one feel that the male consciousness is prone to predatory aggression, while the female consciousness, although passive, subordinate to the male and less rational, is much richer in terms of feelings and emotions. The souls of the male characters in the story are burdened with thoughts and worries of the day, while Olenka’s soul, on the contrary, is naked to its final essence. In the interests of the most contrasting effect, according to the laws of counterpoint, the characters are simplified and compressed. The story could be subtitled “Life in Love” or “Love in Life.” Love makes the heroine capable of outgrowing herself, turning into an archetype: “She constantly loved someone and could not live without it. She used to love her daddy<…>loved my aunt<…>and even earlier, when I was in high school, I loved my French teacher” (10/103). It is not the object of love that is important, the point is that the heart always belongs and is turned to someone. First, the girl married the thin, yellow-faced Kukin, an entrepreneur and owner of a nondescript pleasure garden. She sat at the box office window, sold tickets and repeated to herself her husband’s thoughts that the most important thing in the world was the theater, but the public only needed a low-grade spectacle, a farce, and so on. Kukin's surname sounds comical (kukish - a fig with butter), just as his illness and telegram about death are comical. Instead of a word funeral it says hohorons, what is associated with the verb laugh. No less funny is the surname and character of Dushechka’s second husband, Pustovalov, manager of a timber warehouse, who “looked more like a landowner than a merchant.” The same are the grumpy veterinarian and his son, a high school student in a large cap, “but the soul of “Darling” is not funny, but holy, amazing, with its ability to surrender with all its being to the one it loves<…>but love is no less holy, whether its subject will be Kukin, or Spinoza, Pascal, Schiller, and whether its subjects will change as quickly as in “Darling,” or will the subject be the same throughout life,” Tolstoy wrote and continued his thought as follows: “This same thing happened to the real poet-artist Chekhov when he wrote this charming story “Darling”<…>He, like Balaam, intended to curse, but the god of poetry forbade him and ordered him to bless, and he blessed and involuntarily clothed this sweet creature with such a wonderful light<…>This story is so beautiful because it came out unconsciously” (Tolstoy. 1978–1985; 15/316–318).

Tolstoy drew attention to inconsistency and duality ( ironic exaltation) the narrator's position, although he was biased towards Chekhov's heroine. He emphasized the majestic rather than the funny features of Darling. In contrast to the unambiguous references of his early works, in his mature era of creativity this double meaning was characteristic of Chekhov, diffusion polysemy. He wanted to say No, and this was expressed in Yes. He knew how to elevate what he sought to disgrace. Voltage ( discretion) arises from the fact that he makes an attempt to overcome this dualism, an attempt to synthesize opposites that are far from each other. This is not the evil sarcasm of the mind, but the irony of the heart full of love, awakening sympathy in the reader. Some researchers of Chekhov’s work call this feature “internal irony” (Polotskaya 1969, 441), others call it “saturation of adversarial intonation” (Chicherin 1968, 316). Duality lies in the discrepancy between the external intonation and the internal, hidden content of the word. Accents are made in places that are not at all expected.

Olenka actually selflessly loves those men whom fate accidentally sent her, but the narrator’s irony is manifested through automatic repeatability this love. Because we think love is stable and constant, not subject to the influence of time, an eternal feeling and cannot constantly change its subject. The excess of value here is accompanied by a certain deficit. In today's terminology, we would say that her emotional level (EQ = emotional quotiens) is very high, and her private intelligence (IQ) is low. Darling’s life is controlled not by reason, but by feelings, or, to use Tolstoy’s favorite expression, not by the “mind of the mind,” but by the “mind of the heart.” Feelings, like reason, have their own logic, grammar, and vocabulary. Darling identifies herself to such an extent with her beloved beings that she adopts not only their way of thinking, but also the words in which this is expressed. She falls in love not only with men, but also with their professions. The feeling of love means for her the dissolution of her own personality in the person of her beloved, the abandonment of her manner of speaking. Her thoughts first float around theater, rehearsals, musicians playing And critics. Having become the wife of a lumber yard manager, she already scolds the theater as a useless pastime. Now her interests are transferred to beams, round timber, planks, shelevka, nameless, lath, carriage, slab. Later, cohabiting with the regimental veterinarian, she talks about plague on cattle, about pearl disease, about urban slaughterhouses. And in the end, when she takes care of raising the veterinarian’s son, her speeches are limited to the fact that “nowadays it’s difficult for children to study in a gymnasium, but that still a classical education is better than a real one” (10/111). Darling does not have her own vocabulary, “and most importantly, and worst of all, she no longer had any opinions” (10/109). The narrator's irony is manifested in the fact that along with the outer side of things and phenomena, their underside is also shown: Olenka does not have her own life, she completely gives herself and her soul to the life of another. She suppresses her desire to satisfy the demands of others. Not having the independent status of a subject, she - for this reason - was deprived of her unique manner of speaking, which is tantamount to surrendering her own being.

Darling did not give birth to any of the men. The highest degree of synthesis of the opposite poles of man and woman was not achieved by the appearance of a third personality - a common child. Chekhov deprived her of motherhood, of true maternal love, aimed exclusively at her own child. We find a possible explanation for this in Solovyov, who justifies only that type of love that is not aimed at creating a child: “Romeo and Juliet, like most passionate lovers, died without giving birth to anyone<...>The correct poetic sense of reality forced Ovid and Gogol to deprive Philemon and Baucis, Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna of offspring” (1990, 141–142). In the articles “On the Meaning of Love” and “Plato’s Life Drama,” Soloviev in a unique way reinterprets the words of Diotima when he writes that the goal of Eros is not the creation of a third person, but an ideal partner who could really be loved.

A paradigm shift is emerging in Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century, when the traditional ideal of the family is replaced by the ideal new person, for whom Eros is a means of spiritual rebirth, and not procreation. It is enough to look at the new type of asexual heroes of Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, to recall the projects of virtual and real resurrection of the dead (Gogol, Nikolai Fedorov), which call for a person to abandon the instinct of procreation in the name of a higher idea and turn sexual energy into spiritual energy. In all this one can feel the influence of the Enlightenment, according to whose philosophy l'ame n'a pas de sexe(the soul has no gender). Even Tolstoy, the prophet of creative generation, towards the end of his life rejected sensual and earthly love for the sake of self-improvement and beneficent love: “The desire of the soul is: to do good to others. The attraction of the flesh is: personal good. In the mysterious connection of soul and body lies the solution to conflicting aspirations” (1928–1959/46, 140). However, a child is necessary for the instinctive nature of a woman, even if he is not her own, but whom she can love as if she were her own. A child is a symbol of true values and experiences. That is why at the end of the story the motif of an “orphan” abandoned by his parents, but at the same time caressed, appears at the end of the story. His image resembles the child-god Eros accompanying Psyche. The hidden allusion hints at their interdependence since time immemorial. Eros - in addition to passionate love - also means unconditional love devoid of sensuality.

In the first half of the story one of his faces is shown, at the end - another. In this part, Chekhov's irony will completely evaporate and turn into an apology. Small, plump, with clear blue eyes and dimples on his cheeks, Sasha awakens maternal thinking and a feeling of active love in Darling. She feels that she has again found the meaning and purpose of life in selfless love for others, accessible only to souls of a higher order. “Oh, how she loves him! Of her previous attachments, not a single one was so deep; never before had her soul been subjugated so selflessly, unselfishly and with such joy as now, when the maternal feeling flared up in her more and more. For this boy, a stranger to her, for his dimples, for his cap, she would give her whole life, she would give it with joy, with tears of tenderness. Why? And who knows - why?” (10/113). Love is the soul of the world ( anima mundi). In essence this is the one principle of unity, on which the world stands, the true essence of all things: that which creates and supports life completely removes the shackles singularity, driven like a wedge between things and people. ( Nota bene: Darling calls the boy “darling,” and a dove in Christian iconography is the embodiment of the Holy Spirit.) At the same time as the boy, a black cat named Bryska appears in the story, which, however, is not an erotic symbol, but a sign of blessing, protection and motherhood. “When she gives birth to whelps, please give us one kitten” (10/111). It is no coincidence that while preparing for lessons they read about island, surrounded on all sides by sea water. “The prototype of the child-God organically includes endless water, like a mother’s womb, her womb” (Kerenyi. 2003, 362). Island is a complex symbol: on the one hand, it is a guaranteed refuge (the island of the happy), on the other, it is a symbol of isolation and loneliness (damned, naked island): “- An island is a part of existence...” she repeated, and this was her first opinion, which she expressed with confidence after so many years of silence and emptiness in her thoughts. And she already had her opinions...” (10/111). Darling is Echo, who has lost her own speech and can only repeat the endings of the words she hears. Using the example of the fate of Darling, Chekhov seems to be showing us a timeless moral parable. Starting from the time of girlhood, the work shows with obvious sympathy the path of the heroine, passing through two marriages and a civil marriage, right up to complete widowhood and old age. Her fate reflects not only the fullness of life, but also the hopelessness of a woman and a man to find their true half, their tragic isolation, the reason for which lies in the common structure of their existence, regardless of gender. We can understand its deepest meaning only if we are able to reveal the motivational system of archetypal mythologies in the depths of the structure of a specific text. Psyche, ball, butterfly, cat, child, island, Echo and the like, reduce them to proto-forms and proto-myths, which universalize for the perceiving reader the reuniting power of the charm of the female soul and love. Archetypal symbols fuse together the one-time and temporary nature of the story with the long past and the eternity of life.

Chekhov's story can be perceived as inverted, inverted model mythologems of Psyche: the female soul ( anima) waits passively animus-a, and if she appears, he unites with her, thereby achieving a state of perfection. In passive anticipation, Olenka hopes from the outside for something that will make her happy. If there is no life around her, her inner world becomes empty and interest in life disappears. She is suddenly overcome by a feeling of loneliness, abandonment and loss. External isolation is replaced by internal emptiness. Increasing loneliness, the loss of favorite objects and things, and advancing old age oppress her more and more. Her sensory reactions and spiritual world are in close connection with the events of the external world. The plot of the story plays a secondary role and is subordinated to the analysis of the heroine’s soul. The atmosphere surrounding it and individual isolated phenomena turn out to be more important than the action itself. Chekhov does not feel inclined to ornament and decorate life; his narrator creates a “plot rich in feelings” in such a way that he uses mainly “means outside the senses” (Elena Tager). What is characteristic of his works created after 1895 is that they return to the “hidden” evaluative behavior of the narrator, in contrast to the works of the second period, in which the hero’s point of view dominates. In the last period of creativity, the writer makes an attempt to combine the point of view of the narrator and the hero by depicting the latter’s spiritual world. His works are polysemic in nature: the world based on universal moral norms is being replaced by a world based on multiple meanings, which makes it possible to interpret the internal content in different ways. This is the “adogmatic model” of Chekhov’s world (Chudakov. 1971, 160). Many readers saw in Chekhov's story an excessive praise of the female soul, with the exception of feminists who criticize the writer for a conservative view of a woman, limiting her circle of interests exclusively to the role of protecting the family hearth. They even questioned its psychological reliability, to which Chekhov responded with the words of Tolstoy: “You can invent anything you want, but you cannot invent psychology” (Chekhov. 1912–1916, 5/482).

The harmonious structure of the composition makes it possible to simultaneously depict multiple realities: frailty and eternity, imperfection and impeccability, comic ridiculousness and sublime majesty. The perceiving consciousness oscillates between these sensory and value layers: between character and fate, accidental and necessary, intimate and social spheres. Congruence the true and created worlds is not at all accidental, since it is precisely this approach of the narrator that is able to connect randomness and integrity, chaotic chaos and the cosmic structure of human existence, in which the contradiction between the particular and the universal, aesthetics and ethics, sign and meaning is resolved.

The main feature of Chekhov’s nature is a keen instinct for the pain of others, the innate wisdom of a high and kind soul. To understand his views and thoughts, you need to peer into the depths of his works, listen to the sounding voices of the heroes of his work. The writer is interested in ordinary people, in whom he tries to find what makes them filled with high spirituality.

In the eighties of the nineteenth century, Chekhov began to publish in the influential newspaper “New Time”, owned by A.S. Suvorin. It becomes possible to sign stories with your real name. Since 1887, almost all of the writer’s works have been published by Suvorin. From these books Russia recognized Chekhov.

Speaking about the prototype of Darling, we can say with confidence that this is a generalized symbol, a certain general character property - the ancestral origin.

I received L.N.’s story with delight. Tolstoy.

Genre, direction

Chekhov continues the best traditions of classical realism, which is intertwined with the techniques of high naturalism.

The writer also comes into contact with symbolism, looking for modern forms of depicting reality in it.

“Darling” is a short story, the musicality of its sound allows us to speak of its intimacy. The narration is accompanied by a slight irony that hides a mocking smile.

The essence

The focus is on the ordinary life of Olga Semyonovna Plemyannikova. There is no plot intrigue.

The story highlights two plot lines, both connected with Olenka’s story: on the one hand, “the chain of the heroine’s hobbies,” on the other, “the chain of losses and bereavements.” Darling loves all three husbands selflessly. She does not demand anything in return for her love. One simply cannot live without passion. Take this feeling away from her, and life will lose all meaning.

All husbands leave this earth. She sincerely mourns them.

True love comes to Darling only when the boy Sasha appears in her destiny.

The main characters and their characteristics

The characters and souls of Chekhov's heroes are not immediately revealed. The author teaches us not to rush into making definitive assessments of his characters.

Olga Semyonovna Plemyannikova- “a quiet, good-natured, compassionate young lady.” Everything about her appearance was “soft”: both her eyes and her white neck. But the calling card was a “kind, naive smile.” A loving person, in whose fate three heartfelt attachments appear one after another: entrepreneur Ivan Kukin, timber warehouse manager Vasily Andreich Pustovalov, veterinarian Vladimir Platonich Smirnin. Olenka becomes their “shadow”, “woman-echo”. Deprived of her own opinion, she always repeats what her husbands say. Loving without looking back, Darling cannot imagine her life alone. Vanechka, Vasechka, then Volodechka. She called everyone “darling.” Left completely alone, she is lost, not a single thought is born in her mind. Emptiness and the unknown of the future become constant companions of life. And only the appearance in her life of a ten-year-old boy Sasha, Smirnin’s son, “gives” Olga Semyonovna love that captures her whole soul. The general character trait can be defined by the general word “femininity”; it expresses the entire image of Darling.
Ivan Kukin. The characterization of the hero is based on an antithesis: he runs the Tivoli pleasure garden, but constantly complains about life. His appearance is nondescript: skinny, he speaks with a twisted mouth. A yellow complexion is a sign of physical ill health and a grumpy character. Unhappy man. Constantly falling rain is a symbol of a hostage in a situation despairing of his fate.
Vasily Andreich Pustovalov- Plemyannikova's neighbor. “Sedate voice”, “dark beard”. A completely forgettable personality. He doesn't like any entertainment. The life together with Olenka is visible through the details: “they both smelled good,” “they returned side by side.”
Vladimir Platonich Smirnin- young man, veterinarian. He separated from his wife because he hated her, but he regularly sent money to support his son.

Topics and issues

The fate of a woman in society always worried Anton Pavlovich. He dedicated unforgettable pages of his work to her, creating the image of a “Chekhov woman”,
The main theme of the story is love. Love for relatives, love for a man and motherly love. The theme of love is the main one in Darling’s life. Her feelings are quiet, sad. The story is about the Russian woman’s ability to selflessness in order to continue and preserve life.
But are the characters in the story completely free in their behavior and judgment? The hardest thing is the question of real human freedom, about overcoming your dependence on loving people.
The problem of happiness. Can a person who lives only for the good and happiness of his family and friends be called happy? Is it really necessary to provide them with “happiness” according to some kind of norm? The author tries to answer these questions with his usual delicacy.
The philosophical problem of the value of life. A person has obligations to it and to its preservation. There is no need to destroy it.
The conflict between everyday meaningless life and personality, which must “kill the slave within” and begin to live consciously. The heroine will have to throw off the sleepy numbness of passivity and take responsibility for someone else's fate.

Meaning

The writer usually does not give consoling answers. Not everything in life is clear to him. But there are values in prose that the master is confident in. What is love? First of all, it is a feeling that allows a person to reveal the potential of his soul. Loving does not mean copying your other half, blindly repeating her thoughts, completely depriving yourself of freedom of choice. Love gives a person invisible energy, which allows him to share with his beloved all the hardships of life and overcome the difficulties encountered along the way. Where there is no true love, life is not completely real - this is the main idea of the writer.

A woman is not only a loving and caring wife. She is the mother who gives the world a child, the continuer of the human race. Chekhov's love is a deeply Christian feeling, hence his idea - to give Darling feelings that elevate her, and not enslave her in routine.

True love is possible only in the family world. Mother's love allows you to go through the path of learning life again with your child.

What does it teach?

Chekhov confronts the reader with the need to choose the answer to the question himself. The main idea is contained in the scene of the “geography lesson”: “An island is a part of the land,” repeats Olenka. “Islands” are human destinies, “land” is our vast world, which consists of family “islands.” After all, only there can you experience the highest fullness of life and find yourself.

The writer teaches that every professed truth is limited. Life in the diversity of its manifestations turns out to be “wiser”. The writer wanted a person not to close himself off from her, but to be able to live every moment she gave.