“Red and Black” analysis: theme, idea. “Red and Black” main characters Facts at the heart of the novel Red and Black

Stendhal's novel The Red and the Black is the pinnacle of French realism. There is amazing detail here, and the political, social and psychological realities of the time are described in detail. However, the hero of the novel, Julien Sorel, belongs to the romantic heroes, so his existence in circumstances typical of the era turns into a tragedy.

“Red and Black” is a book whose title has been making readers think and analyze what is behind it for many years. When reading the work, the answer to this question does not become obvious and assumes multiple options, which everyone resolves for themselves. Direct associations appear primarily with the internal state of Julien Sorel, which combined the desire to find oneself, accomplish a feat, become an educated person, but at the same time self-interest, vanity, and the goal of achieving success by any means. The title also indicates the general theme of the work. These two colors: red and black, in their combination symbolize a certain anxiety, a struggle that occurs within people and around them. Red is blood, love, desire, black is base motives, betrayal. In their mixture, these colors give rise to the drama that occurs in the lives of the heroes.

Red and black are the colors of roulette, a symbol of passion, which has become the life force of the main character. He alternately bet on the red (on the help of his mistresses, on his charm, etc.) and on the black (on deceit, meanness, etc.). This idea is prompted by the fatal hobby of the author himself: he was a passionate gambler.

Another interpretation: red is a military uniform, black is a priest’s cassock. The hero rushed between dreams and reality, and this conflict between the desired and the actual destroyed him.

Also, the combination of these colors forms the tragic ending of the ambitious hero: blood on the ground, red and black. The unfortunate young man could do so much, but he could only stain the ground with the blood of his mistress.

In addition, many researchers suggest that the contrasting combination of colors signifies the main conflict of the novel - the choice between honor and death: either shed blood or allow oneself to be denigrated.

What is this book about?

Stendhal tells readers about the life of a young man, Julien Sorel, who gets a job as a tutor in the house of Mr. de Renal and his wife. Throughout the book, the reader observes the internal struggle of this purposeful person, his emotions, actions, mistakes, managing to be indignant and empathize at the same time. The most important line of the novel is the theme of love and jealousy, complex relationships and feelings of people of different ages and different statuses.

The young man’s career took him to the very top and promised many joys, among which he was looking for only one - respect. Ambition pushed him forward, but it also drove him into a dead end, because the opinion of society turned out to be more valuable to him than life.

The image of the main character

Julien Sorel is the son of a carpenter, fluent in Latin, a smart, purposeful and handsome young man. This is a young man who knows what he wants and who is ready to make any sacrifice to achieve his goals. The young man is ambitious and smart, he longs for fame and success, dreaming first of a military career and then of a career as a priest. Many of Julien’s actions are dictated by base motives, a thirst for revenge, a thirst for recognition and worship, but he is not a negative character, but rather a contradictory and complex character placed in difficult life conditions. The image of Sorel contains the character traits of a revolutionary, a gifted commoner who is not ready to put up with his position in society.

The plebeian complex makes the hero ashamed of his origin and look for a way to another social reality. It is this painful conceit that explains his assertiveness: he is sure that he deserves more. It is no coincidence that Napoleon, a native of the people who managed to subjugate dignitaries and nobles, becomes his idol. Sorel firmly believes in his star, and that’s all, and therefore loses faith in God, in love, in people. His unscrupulousness leads to tragedy: trampling on the foundations of society, he, like his idol, finds himself rejected and expelled by him.

Topics and problems

The novel raises many issues. This is the choice of life path, the formation of character, and the conflict between a person and society. To consider any of them, it is important to understand the historical context: the Great French Revolution, Napoleon, the mindset of a whole generation of youth, the Restoration. Stendhal thought in these categories; he was one of those people who personally saw the breakdown of society and were impressed by this spectacle. In addition to global problems that are social in nature and related to the events of the era, the work also describes the complexities of relationships between people, love, jealousy, betrayal - that is, what exists outside of time and is always taken to heart by readers.

The main problem in the novel “Red and Black” is, of course, social injustice. A talented commoner cannot make his way into the ranks, even though he is smarter than the nobility and more capable. This person also does not find himself in his own environment: he is hated even in his family. Inequality is felt by everyone, so a gifted young man is envied and in every possible way prevented from realizing his skills. Such hopelessness pushes him to desperate steps, and the ostentatious virtue of priests and dignitaries only confirms the hero’s intention to go against the moral principles of society. This idea is confirmed by the history of the creation of the novel “Red and Black”: the author found a note in the newspaper about the execution of a young man. It was this brief account of someone else’s grief that inspired him to fill in the missing details and create a realistic novel dedicated to the problem of social inequality. He suggests that the conflict between personality and environment should not be assessed so unambiguously: people do not have the right to take Sorel’s life, because it was they who made him this way.

What is the meaning of the novel?

The story itself contained in the novel is not fiction, but real events that greatly impressed Standhal. That is why the author chose Danton’s phrase “Truth. Bitter truth". It so happened that one day, while reading a newspaper, the writer read about the court case of Antoine Berthe, from whom the image of Sorel was copied. In this regard, the social problems of the work become even more obvious, which characterizes a difficult era and makes us think about it. Then a person was faced with a very acute question of choice: to preserve his spiritual purity in poverty or to go straight ahead and head over heels to success. Although Julien chooses the second, he is also deprived of the opportunity to achieve something, because immorality will never become the basis of happiness. A hypocritical society will willingly close its eyes to her, but only for a certain time, and when it opens, it will immediately isolate itself from the criminal taken by surprise. This means that Sorel’s tragedy is a verdict on unprincipledness and ambition. The real victory of the individual is self-respect, and not the endless search for this respect from the outside. Julien lost because he could not accept himself for who he is.

Psychologism of Stendhal

Psychologism is a characteristic feature of Standhal's work. It manifests itself in the fact that, along with the story about the actions and deeds of the character and the general picture of the events described, the author, at a higher level of analysis, describes the reasons and motives for the hero’s actions. Thus, the writer balances on the brink between boiling passions and the mind analyzing them, creating the feeling that at the same time when the hero commits an act, he is being continuously monitored. For example, this all-seeing eye shows the reader how Julien carefully hides his sentence from view: little Napoleon, whose veneration has already left its mark on the actions of the hero from the very beginning of his journey. This expressive detail points us to the soul of Sorel - a trembling moth striving for fire. He repeated the fate of Napoleon, winning the desired world, but failing to keep it.

Genre originality of the novel

The novel combines the features of romanticism and realism. This is evidenced by the vital basis of the story, filled with deep and varied feelings and ideas. This is a feature of realism. But the hero is romantic, endowed with specific features. He is in conflict with society, but at the same time he is outstanding, educated and handsome. His loneliness is a proud desire to rise above the crowd; he despises his environment. His intelligence and abilities tragically remain unneeded and unfulfilled. Nature follows in his footsteps, framing the feelings and events in his life with its colors.

The work is often characterized as psychological and social, and it is difficult to disagree with this, since it unusually mixes the events of reality and a detailed assessment of the internal motives of the characters. Throughout the entire novel, the reader can observe a constant correlation between the external world as a whole and the internal world of man, and it remains unclear which of these worlds is the most complex and contradictory.

In 1830, Stendhal completed the novel “Red and Black,” which marked the onset of the writer’s maturity.

The creative history of “Red and Black” has been studied in detail. It is known that the plot of the novel is based on real events related to the court case of a certain Antoine Berthe. Stendhal learned about them while looking through the chronicles of the Grenoble newspaper for December 1827. As it turned out, a young man sentenced to execution, the son of a peasant, who decided to make a career, became a tutor in the family of a local rich man, Mishu, but, caught in a love affair with the mother of his pupils, lost his job. Failures awaited him later. He was expelled from the theological seminary, and then from service in the Parisian aristocratic mansion of de Cardonet, where he was compromised by his relationship with the owner’s daughter and especially by a letter from Madame Mishou. In despair, Berthe returns to Grenoble and shoots Madame Misha, and then attempts to commit suicide.

In addition, the author obviously knew about another crime committed by a certain Lafargue in 1829. Some psychological twists are inspired by the writer’s personal memories: when creating a fictional narrative, Stendhal himself seemed to check its accuracy with documents and his own experience.

But for a writer, private observation is just a starting point: individual events shed light on the era as a whole, and personal experiences helped to understand the soul of a contemporary. "Red and Black" cannot be reduced solely to the historical or autobiographical facts from which it grew.

Real sources only awakened the creative imagination of the artist, who, under their influence, decided to create a novel about the tragic fate of a talented plebeian in Restoration France. As M. Gorky rightly put it, Stendhal “raised a very ordinary criminal offense to the level of a historical and philosophical study of the social system of the bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 19th century.” Stendhal clearly reinterprets the stories that actually happened. So, instead of the petty ambitious man that Berthe was, the heroic and tragic personality of Julien Sorel appears. Facts undergo no less metamorphosis in the plot of the novel, which recreates the typical features of an entire era in the main laws of its historical development. Real events give Stendhal reason to think about such cases as a social phenomenon: young people of low origin often become criminals because their extraordinary abilities, energy, passions and education, received contrary to the traditions of their environment, inevitably lead them to conflict with society and at the same time At the same time they are doomed to the fate of victims.

In his desire to cover all spheres of modern social life, Stendhal is akin to his younger contemporary Balzac, but he realizes this task in his own way. The type of novel he created is distinguished by its chronicle-linear composition, uncharacteristic for Balzac, organized by the biography of the hero. In this, Stendhal gravitates towards the tradition of the 18th century novelists, in particular, Fielding, who was highly revered by him. However, unlike him, the author of “Red and Black” builds the plot not on an adventurous basis, but on the history of the hero’s spiritual life, the formation of his character, presented in a complex and dramatic interaction with the social environment. The plot is driven not by intrigue, but by action transferred into the soul and mind of Julien Sorel, who each time strictly analyzes the situation and himself in it before deciding to take an action that determines the further development of events. Hence the special significance of internal monologues, as if including the reader in the course of thoughts and feelings of the hero.

Logic and clarity, necessary for an artist who plans to capture with mathematical precision the most complex relationships between a person and an era, are the defining principles of Stendhal’s narrative. In the plot of the novel there are no mysteries that become clear only at the end, no side deviations, no references to the past or events that simultaneously took place in different places: it is non-stop, straightforward, dynamic - like a chronicle or memoir, and does not allow any shifts in chronology. Julien is always the focus of the writer's close observation. A continuous chain, composed of scene-episodes, giving meager, pencil-like sketches of morals or laconic portraits of others and extensive analyzes of the internal state, thoughts of the hero, forms a through line of the narrative, which does not linger for a moment, nor does it deviate one step to the side.

This apparent elementaryness of architectonics conceals enormous possibilities for artistic analysis. The author constructs his work in such a way that the reader, who never for a moment ceases to passionately share the torment, hopes, and bitterness of the protagonist, finds himself involved in the exciting process of discovering the most intimate depths of an extraordinary personality, whose life tragedy is the tragedy of the century. “An accurate and penetrating depiction of the human heart” defines the poetics of “Red and Black” as the brightest example of a socio-psychological novel in the 19th century.

Finished on the eve of the July Revolution, the novel, according to Stendhal, “is all trembling with political excitement.” These are no longer sketches of a secular salon, like Armans, but a “chronicle of the 19th century” with all the desire for a universal panorama of the era that follows from this subtitle. The subtitle of the novel, emphasizing the life-like authenticity of what is depicted, also testifies to the expansion of the writer’s object of study. If in "Armance" there were only "scenes from the life of the Parisian salon", then the theater of action in the new novel is France, presented in its main social forces: the court aristocracy (the mansion of de La Mole), the provincial nobility (the house of de Renal), the highest and the middle strata of the clergy (Bishop of Agde, the reverend fathers of the Besançon Theological Seminary, Abbot Chelan), the bourgeoisie (Valno), small entrepreneurs (a friend of the hero Fouquet) and peasants (the Sorel family).

By studying the interaction of these forces, Stendhal creates a picture of the social life of France during the Restoration that is striking in its historical accuracy. With the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, power was once again in the hands of the aristocracy and clergy. However, the most insightful of them understand the precariousness of their positions and the possibility of new revolutionary events. To prevent them, the Marquis de La Mole and other aristocrats are preparing for defense in advance, hoping to call on the troops of foreign powers for help, as in 1815. De Renal, the mayor of Verrieres, is also in constant fear of the outbreak of revolutionary events, ready to go to any expense in order to ensure that his servants “do not kill him if the terror of 1793 is repeated.” Only the bourgeoisie in “Red and Black” does not know fears and fears. Understanding the ever-increasing power of money, she enriches herself in every possible way. Valno, de Renel’s main rival in Verrieres, acts this way. Greedy and dexterous, not shy about the means of achieving his goal, even to the point of robbing the poor people “under his jurisdiction” from the house of contempt, the ignorant and rude Valno stops at nothing to advance to power.

The world of self-interest and profit is opposed by a talented man from the people, Julien Sorel. A provincial town, a seminary, Parisian society - three stages of the hero's biography, emphasized by the composition of the novel, and at the same time an image of the three main social strata of French society - the bourgeoisie, the clergy, the aristocracy. By bringing Julien Sorel, a plebeian, the son of a peasant, into conflict with these three pillars that support the edifice of the Restoration, Stendhal created a book whose drama is not just the drama of one human fate, but the drama of history itself.

The inhabitants of the provincial town of Verrieres, where Sorel comes from, worship one almighty idol - income. This magic word has unlimited power over minds: a Verrierian despises beauty that does not bring profit; he respects a person exactly as much as he is richer than himself. Everyone is in a hurry to make money – sometimes in righteous ways, more often in unrighteous ways: from the jailer begging for “tip”, to the priest fleecing parishioners, from judges and lawyers acting insolently for the sake of an order or a warm place for relatives, to prefectural employees speculating on built-up plots. Having cast aside aristocratic arrogance, provincial nobles extract income from sources that were previously the “privilege” of the bourgeoisie. The mayor of Verrieres, Mr. de Renal, although on occasion he is not averse to boasting about his ancient family, owns a nail factory, personally deals with the peasants, like a real businessman, buys land and houses. Having learned about his wife’s betrayal, he is not so much concerned about family honor as about the money that she brought him as a dowry. However, this settled aristocrat is already being replaced by a bourgeois of a new formation - the arrogant upstart Valno, resourceful, completely devoid of pride, completely shameless in choosing ways to enrich himself - be it robbing the poor from a charity home or clever blackmail. The kingdom of greedy grabbers who sold their souls to the Jesuits, groveling before the royal power as long as it feeds them with handouts - such is the bourgeois province in the eyes of Stendhal.

The Seminary in Besançon is a school where spiritual mentors of this society are trained. Here espionage is considered valor, hypocrisy is considered wisdom, humility is the highest virtue. For the refusal of independent thinking and servile admiration for the authorities of future curates, a reward awaits - a rich parish with a good tithe, with donations of broken birds and pots of butter, with which a well-meaning flock will shower their confessor. Promising heavenly salvation and heavenly bliss on earth, the Jesuits prepare ministers of the church, blind in their obedience, who are called to become the support of the throne and altar.

After training in seminar classes, Sorel, by chance, penetrates into high Parisian society. In aristocratic salons, it is not customary to count the proceeds in public and talk about a hearty dinner, but even here the spirit of slavish obedience reigns, strict adherence to long-established, but lost their meaning, customs. In the eyes of the regulars of the de La Mole mansion, freethinking is dangerous, strength of character is dangerous, disregard for secular decency is dangerous, critical judgment about the church and the king is dangerous; Everything that encroaches on the existing order, traditions illuminated by the authority of prescription is dangerous.

Young aristocrats, drilled by this tyranny of current opinions, are witty, polite, elegant, but extremely empty, worn out like copper pennies, incapable of strong feelings and decisive actions. True, when it comes to preserving the privileges of caste, among the aristocratic mediocrities there are people whose anger and fear of the “plebeians” can be dangerous for the entire nation. At a meeting of ultra-royalist conspirators, which Sorel witnesses, plans are developed for a foreign invasion of France, financed by foreign banks and supported from within by the nobility and the church. The purpose of this invasion is to finally silence the opposition press, eradicate the remnants of “Jacobinism” in the minds of the French, and make all of France well-meaning and submissive. In the episode of the conspiracy, Stendhal, having previously taken the reader through the province, the seminary, and high society, finally exposes the most hidden springs driving the political mechanisms of the Restoration. Selfish groveling before the Jesuits and unbridled money-grubbing in the provinces, the education of an army of priests in the spirit of militant obscurantism as a guarantee of the strength of the regime, invasion from outside as the most convincing means of reprisal against dissenters - this is the picture of modernity that emerges in “Red and Black”.

And as if shading the black figures in this picture even more prominently, Stendhal casts on it the red reflections of memories that continually emerge in the thoughts and conversations of the heroes about past, heroic times in the history of France - about the eras of the Revolution and the Empire. For Stendhal, as for his hero, the past is a poetic myth in which the entire nation, hunted by the white terror of noble gangs and denunciations of the Jesuits, sees proof of its own greatness and future revival. This is how the scale of Stendhal’s historical and philosophical plan is indicated: almost half a century of the fate of France, captured in Balzac’s multi-volume “Human Comedy” as a developing process, receives an extremely compressed expression in the contrasting comparison of eras passing through “Red and Black”, sometimes reaching the sharpness of an artistic pamphlet.

The son of a carpenter, Julien Sorel belongs to the same breed as the titans of action and thought who brought about the revolution of the late 18th century. The talented plebeian absorbed the most important features of his people, awakened to life by the Great French Revolution: unbridled courage and energy, honesty and firmness: spirit, steadfastness in moving towards the goal." He is always and everywhere (be it the de Renal mansion or the Valnod house, the Parisian palace de La Mole or the courtroom of the Verrieres court) remains a man of his class, a representative of the lower class, infringed on its legal rights. Hence the potential revolutionary nature of Stendhal’s hero, created, according to the author, from the same material as the titans of ’93. It is no coincidence that the son of the Marquis de La Mole remarks: “Beware of this energetic young man! If there is a revolution again, he will send us all to the guillotine.” This is how those whom he considers his class enemies—the aristocrats—think about the hero. It is no coincidence that his closeness with the brave Italian carbonari Altamira and his friend the Spanish revolutionary Diego Bustos. It is characteristic that Julien himself feels like a spiritual son of the Revolution and in a conversation with Altamira admits that it is the revolution that is his real element. “Isn’t this the new Danton?” - Mathilde de La Mole thinks about Julien, trying to determine what role her lover can play in the coming revolution.

In the society in which Julien lives, he does not find a place for himself. He is also alien to the environment in which he was born (his father and brothers despise him for his inability to do physical labor and his love of books), he can hardly endure life among the “narrow-minded bigots” in the seminary, in the highest circles he is a “plebeian.” Julien himself is convinced that he must take a place in society determined not by birth, but by “talents”: abilities, intelligence, education, strength of aspirations. “Make way for talents! - Napoleon once proclaimed, whom Julien worships and whose portrait he secretly keeps.

But Julien – “a man of 93” – was too late to be born. The time has passed when success was won through personal courage, assertiveness, and intelligence. The color of time has changed: today, to. To win in the game of life, you need to bet not on “red”, but on “black”. The Restoration offers Sorel to fight for happiness only those weapons that are in use in an era of timelessness: hypocrisy, religious hypocrisy, calculating piety. And the young man, obsessed with the dream of glory, brought up on heroic memories of the revolution and Napoleonic campaigns, tries to adapt to his age, putting on the “uniform of the times” - the cassock of a priest. He adapts to the world of provincial philistines, in the seminary he hides his thoughts behind a feigned mask of humble obedience , pleases his aristocratic patrons in Paris. He turns away from his friends and serves people he despises; an atheist, he pretends to be a saintly admirer of Danton - trying to penetrate the circle of aristocrats; being endowed with a sharp mind, he agrees with fools; plots to turn love into an instrument for ambitious plans. Realizing that “everyone is for himself in this desert of selfishness called life,” he rushed into battle in the hope of winning with the weapons forced upon him.

The social discord between the indignant plebeian and society is not limited to the area of ​​social relations; it finds its continuation in Sorel’s soul, becoming a psychological duality of reason and feeling, cold calculation and impulse of passion. Logical conclusions drawn from observations of the era convince Julien that happiness is wealth and power, and they are achievable only through hypocrisy. A small experience of love overturns all these skillful intricacies of logic. The hero first builds his relationship with Madame de Renal on the model of the book Don Juan and achieves success only when he involuntarily acts contrary to the learned folly. Becoming the lover of the mayor's high-ranking wife is, first of all, a “matter of honor” for him, but the first night date brings him only the awareness of the difficulty overcome and no joyful rapture. And only later, having forgotten about vanity thoughts, casting aside the role of a seducer and completely surrendering to the flow of feelings cleared of ambitious scum, Julien recognizes true happiness. A similar discovery awaits the hero in connection with Matilda.

This is how the double movement of Stendhal’s image emerges: a man goes through life in search of happiness; his penetrating mind explores the world, tearing away the veils of lies everywhere; his inner gaze is turned to the depths of his own soul, where the continuous struggle of natural purity, the noble inclinations of a commoner, against the mirages inspired by the imagination of an ambitious man, is in full swing.

The contradictory combination in Julien’s nature of the plebeian, revolutionary, independent and noble principles with ambitious aspirations leading to the path of hypocrisy, revenge and crime forms the basis of the complex character of the hero. The confrontation between these antagonistic principles determines the internal drama of Julien, “forced to rape his noble nature in order to play the vile role that he imposed on himself” (Roger Vaillant).

The path upward, which takes place in the novel by Julien Sorel, is the path of his loss of his best human qualities. But this is also the way to comprehend the true essence of the world of those in power. Beginning in Verrieres with the discovery of moral uncleanliness, insignificance, greed and cruelty of the provincial pillars of society, it ends in the courtly spheres of Paris, where Julien discovers essentially the same vices, only skillfully covered up and ennobled by luxury, titles, and high-society gloss. By the time the hero has already achieved his goal, becoming Viscount de La Verneuil and the son-in-law of the powerful Marquis, it becomes quite obvious that the game was not worth the candle. The prospect of such happiness cannot satisfy Stendhal's hero. The reason for this is the living soul, preserved in Julien despite all the violence done to her.

Naturally, the plebeian side of Julien Sorel’s nature cannot peacefully coexist with his intention to make a career as a hypocritical saint. For him, seminary exercises in ascetic piety become a monstrous torture. He has to strain all his spiritual strength so as not to betray mocking contempt for the aristocratic mannequins in the salon of the Marquis de La Mole. “A storm raged in this strange creature almost every day,” notes Stendhal, and the whole story of his hero is the incessant leaps of a hurricane of passions, which breaks up against the inexorable “must” dictated by Sorel’s ambition. It is this constant rebellion of plebeian nature against the dictates of the time that does not allow Sorel to become an ordinary careerist, to find inner peace on the paths of bourgeois business by abandoning the best that is inherent in him.

However, in order for the hero to fully understand this, it took a very strong shock that could knock him out of the rut that had already become familiar. Julien was destined to survive this shock at the moment of the fatal shot at Louise de Renal. In complete confusion of feelings caused by her letter to the Marquis de La Mole, compromising Julien, he, almost without remembering himself, shot at the woman whom he selflessly loved - the only one of all who generously and recklessly gave him real happiness, and now who deceived the holy faith in her, who betrayed her, who dared to interfere with his career.

The fatal shot at Madame de Renal - this spontaneous impulse of a man who suddenly discovered that the only pure being he worshiped had tainted himself with slander - abruptly ends the slow, hidden path of knowledge, the hero of the world and himself. A sharp turn of fate forces Julien, in the face of death, to reconsider all moral values, discard lies,... which I previously accepted as truth, to give free rein to feelings that I had hitherto suppressed. “Because I am now wise, because before I was mad,” this epigraph of one of the final chapters seems to emphasize that Julien has entered a period of philosophical insight that completes all his life’s quests.

“Red and Black” is not so much the story of a careerist, but rather a story about the impossibility of crippling one’s nature in such a way as to become one of one’s own among hoarders and salon nonentities. There is a whole gulf between Sorel and Balzac's ambitious people. Having taken the path of opportunism, Julien did not become an opportunist; he chose the means of “pursuit of happiness” that prevail in society; he did not accept the morality of this society. Julien's hypocrisy itself is a proud challenge to society, accompanied by a refusal to recognize this society's right to respect, and especially its claims to dictate moral principles of behavior to a person. In Sorel’s consciousness, his own code of honor is formed, independent of the prevailing morality, and only to him does he strictly obey. This code forbids building one’s happiness on the grief of one’s neighbor, like the scoundrel Valno, it requires clear thought, incompatible with blindness by false religious prejudices and admiration for ranks, but most importantly, it prescribes courage, energy in achieving goals, hatred of all cowardice and moral flabbiness. both in others and in oneself.

In the story of his hero, the novelist sees, first of all, the plebeian’s breaking of the social and moral shackles that doom him to vegetation. Sorel himself, summing up the results of his life in a speech at the trial, rightfully regards the verdict as class revenge of the ruling elite, who, in his person, punish all rebellious young people from the people.

And therefore, “Red and Black” is, first of all, a tragedy of the incompatibility in a time of timelessness of the dream of personal happiness with serving the noble ideals of citizenship, a tragedy of a heroic character that did not take place due to the fault of the era.

At the same time, the last pages of the novel capture the result of the philosophical thoughts of Stendhal himself. The desire for happiness is inherent in human nature; Guided by logic, this desire creates the prerequisites for a harmonious social order - taught Stendhal’s spiritual mentors, the ideologists of the bourgeois revolution. Stendhal tested this belief with the historical practice of post-revolutionary society, which turned into an evil caricature of the generous promises of the Enlightenment. And through the mouth of his hero he declared that the happiness of an individual is incompatible with the morals of the bourgeois world, in which unjust laws reign, and there is nothing more distant from each other than humanism and the everyday practice of the bourgeois.

In the light of the spiritual renewal that the hero experiences in prison, Julien’s relationship with both women who love him is completely clarified. Matilda is a strong, proud, rational person. She is incredibly bored in the circle of colorless secular “husbands,” who are immensely far from their ancestors, the knights of the feudal freemen of the 16th century. And Matilda’s love for Julien grows out of a vain desire to do something out of the ordinary, to experience a passion that would elevate her to the level of aristocrats of the era of religious wars, poeticized by girlish imagination. In this feeling, what is most dear to her is the heroic pose, the intoxicating consciousness of her difference from others, the proud admiration of her own exclusivity. That is why the story of Julien and Matilda bears the imprint of love-enmity between two ambitious people, based not so much on sincere passion as on a purely rational desire to rise in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. The liberation of Sorel from the ambitious dope quite naturally means the end of this “head”, as Stendhal put it, love.

And then the old feeling awakens again in Julien, which never faded, but barely glimmered somewhere in the depths of his heart, under a pile of superficial, draining mind and soul aspirations to win the unnecessary admiration of fools and nonentities. For the love of the touching in its simplicity, charming, deeply suffering in a vulgar environment, trusting and soft Madame de Renal is a true passion, accessible only to disinterested, pure natures. And in this love “rising from the ashes,” the tormented Julien finally finds the happiness that he has been looking for so painfully and for a long time.

Julien's last days in prison are a time of quiet, peaceful joy, when he, tired of life's battles, listens intensely to the stillness, almost unknown to him, that descended on his wounded soul, and trustingly surrenders to the peaceful flow of time, every day, every moment of which brings the delightful pleasure of peace.

However, the happiness that was so difficult for Julien is just his illusion, obtained at too high a price of renunciation from society, from life in general. Having poured out all his rebellious contempt for the bourgeoisie in a speech at the trial, Sorel then renounced rebellion and withdrew himself. The freedom he gained in prison is the freedom to die, essentially a dead end. Only in this way could he decide the fatal question: to live, committing meanness, or to leave the world, maintaining his purity. He had no other solution, because he found himself trapped in timelessness. Stendhal is too sensitive and insightful a mind not to notice how the shadow of the guillotine, which cast a dark stain over the entire dying idyll of his hero, denies the possibility of achieving happiness on the paths along which he leads Julien.

The writer’s thought beats anxiously in a vicious circle and, unable to break it, freezes in a silent, skeptical reproach to his age, despairing of discovering the truth that would become a truer guide for the individual than the wisdom of the vanquished, which proclaims happiness in “kindness and simplicity.” .

Two volumes of The Red and the Black appeared on the shelves of Parisian booksellers in November 1830. Stendhal's hopes for success were not justified: the publication was selling poorly, there was a sense of restraint and some confusion in the statements of critics and even friends, rare friendly reviews indicated that the book was clearly not understood. To the reading public of that time, brought up on the poetry and prose of the romantics, it seemed too “difficult” and unusual. It did not have the generous picturesqueness of historical, ethnographic and archaeological paintings “in the spirit of Walter Scott”, nor the atmosphere of mystery and vague outpourings common in the lyrical confessions of the romantics, nor the melodramatic effects and dizzying turns of intrigue that were stunning in the works of the “Gothic genre”. At the same time, it was precisely this “unconventionality” of the work that testified to the innovation of Stendhal the novelist, who paved new paths for the development of literature. The portrayal of the analyzing intellect, which knows no barriers in its desire to master the truth, to understand society through a close and detailed comprehension of the spiritual life of the individual, marks a break with romantic uncertainty and approximation in the depiction of the “secrets of the heart” and constitutes Stendhal’s most valuable contribution to the treasury of realistic literature. “Red and Black” stands at the origins of the newest socio-psychological novel, just as Balzac’s first realistic stories open the history of social, everyday and morally descriptive prose of the 19th century in France

In the fate of the main character, Julien Sorel, the author reflects the typical patterns of social life in France during the Restoration era.

The time of Napoleon is a time of exploits and achievements, ups and downs. Restoration is an immersion in everyday life, where there is no revenge on the heroes. The writer masterfully recreates the details of the life of the province and the capital, but the main thing is the analysis of the character’s inner world, his psychology.

An admirer of Napoleon, a native of the common people, trying to find a worthy use for his abilities. He would like to dare and fight. But in the new conditions, making our way to the top means being hypocritical, dodging, and adapting. And the worst thing is to betray love.

At the end of the novel, before execution, the hero realizes the insignificance of his ambitious plans. This is how physical death turns into a moral victory for Julien Sorel. He overcomes, first of all, his own delusions. The young idealist and dreamer initially tries to adapt to general cowardice, cynicism and servility, but at the end of his short life he understands how insignificant the world that seemed brilliant to him is.

Red and black are two opposing principles that fight in the hero’s soul. Love and pride, truth and hypocrisy, a desire for tenderness and a thirst for success - this struggle leads young Sorel to collapse.

Such is the time when you have to make your way not with a sword, like Bonaparte, but with pretense.

This is an era that corrupts the soul. The hero is consumed by ambition, he strives to prove to the world that he is “molded from the same dough from which great people are made.” Even more than everyone else, he wants to convince himself of his greatness and high destiny. To do this, he is ready to step over others.

So Mathilde de La Mole for him is, first of all, a rich heiress, an aristocrat, and only then - a young beauty, spiritually superior to her vulgar surroundings.

The kinship of these two natures is evidenced by the disgust characteristic of both of them for their crushing age and longing for past spiritual greatness.

It was not for nothing that the girl chose Queen Margot as her role model, who challenged society and preserved the severed head of her lover de La Mole.

For the daughter of the marquis, Julien is a personality comparable in his originality to Queen Margot’s lover. For her, he is a majestic genius among the surrounding hypocritical nonentities. Boredom has become the chronic disease of the century. There is no inspiring beginning, no field where you can show your best qualities and romantic impulses.

For Matilda, a secret union with her father’s secretary is not only a manifestation of love, it is also a challenge posed to society: “something majestic and daring.” The girl is romantically inclined, she is possessed by a thirst for disobedience to everything generally accepted. Her nature craves passion, something theatrical, elevated, sublime.

Her emphasized arrogance in her interactions with Julien gives way to equally emphasized humility. The proud marquise begins to play the role of a servant of her master, whom she barely noticed when he appeared at her father's house.

Risking her name and overstepping the concept of aristocratic honor, the once “arrogant to the point of insolence” Matilda finds a kind of pleasure in sacrificing her youth, wealth, and title.

Society, after the heroic times of Bonapartism, is plunging into the swamp of rationality, hypocrisy, and opportunism. And only individuals dare to take risks - but they lose: “This was only felt in heroic times.”

Julien Sorel is one of the most complex characters of Stendhal, who pondered him for a long time. The son of a provincial carpenter became the key to understanding the driving forces of modern society and the prospects for its further development. Julien Sorel is the future revolution.

Stendhal consciously and consistently contrasts Julien's outstanding talents and natural nobility with his “ill-fated” ambition. It is clear what objective circumstances determined the crystallization of the militant individualism of the talented plebeian. We are also convinced of how destructive the path that ambition pushed him turned out to be for Julien’s personality.

The psychology of Julien Sorel (the main character of the novel) and his behavior are explained by the class to which he belongs. This is the psychology created by the French Revolution. He works, reads, develops his mental abilities, carries a gun to defend his honor. Julien Sorel shows daring courage at every step, not expecting danger, but preventing it.

The main character of Stendhal's novel “The Red and the Black”

Stendhal had long been confident that the revolution would be made by young people from disadvantaged sections of society who received an education and learned to think. He knew very well that the revolution of the 18th century was made by such young people - both its supporters and enemies spoke about this.

Julien Sorel is a young man of the people. K. Liprandi wrote down from the novel words that characterize Julien in social terms: “son of a peasant”, “young peasant”, “son of a worker”, “young worker”, “son of a carpenter”, “poor carpenter”. In fact, the son of a peasant who owns a sawmill must work at it, just like his father and brothers. By his social status, Julien is a worker (but not hired); he is a stranger in the world of the rich, well-mannered, educated. But even in his family, this talented plebeian with a “strikingly unique face” is like an ugly duckling: his father and brothers hate the “frail”, useless, dreamy, impetuous, incomprehensible young man. At nineteen he looks like a scared boy. And enormous energy lurks and bubbles within him - the power of a clear mind, proud character, unbending will, “fierce sensitivity.” His soul and imagination are fiery, and there is flame in his eyes.

The through-and-through action of the ambitious Julien Sorel was typical of the era. Claude Liprandi notes that many pamphleteers, historians, journalists, and political publicists wrote with indignation during the Restoration years about careerism, the brutal struggle for a place in the sun, as “the abomination of the century.” The hero of “Red and Black,” reminds K. Liprandi, “is characteristic of his time,” “deeply truthful.” And the writers of Stendhal’s era saw that Julien’s image was “truthful and modern.” But many were confused by the fact that the author of the novel boldly, unusually clearly and vividly expressed the historical meaning of the topic, making his hero not a negative character, not a sneaky careerist, but a gifted and rebellious plebeian, whom the social system deprived of all rights and thus forced to fight for them , regardless of anything.

Stendhal(real name Henri Beyle, 1783-1842) belonged to the first stage of French realism. His work is a direct link between the Enlightenment and realism of the 19th century. He began publishing in 1815, when he lived in Italy as a retired officer of Napoleonic army, and in the twenties, returning to France, he published treatises “On Love” (1822), “Racine and Shakespeare” (1823-1825). ), in which he advocated “true romanticism,” that is, realism. Stendhal is a unique example of a writer who developed a creative laboratory even before the creation of his main novels, which followed in the thirties: "Red and Black" (1830), "Red and White, or Lucien Leuven" (1837) - unfinished and not published during his lifetime, “The Parma Monastery” (1839). These novels were so ahead of their time that they were not appreciated by their contemporaries, and history has fully confirmed the correctness of Stendhal, who believed that recognition would come to him only in the twentieth century.

The history of realism of the 19th century begins with the publication immediately after the July Revolution of 1830 novel "Red and Black". The subtitle of the novel is “Chronicle of the 19th Century,” and this is a “chronicle” primarily in the sense of the principles of organizing the narrative, which develops rapidly, without flashback scenes, and with an almost complete absence of descriptions. In addition to the fact that, like a medieval chronicle, Stendhal focuses only on the most important events in the lives of his heroes, the term “chronicle” also emphasizes the documentary basis of the novel. The author borrowed the plot from reality. French newspapers in the twenties widely reported the scandalous trials of young men of low birth who tried to enter society by marrying rich brides. Thus, the son of a peasant, Antoine Berthe, became the teacher of the children of the wealthy Mr. Misha and fell in love with Madame Misha; he soon had to leave this place, and in another house he managed to become the groom of a nobleman's daughter. When the bride's father asked for recommendations from his former owners, Madame Mishou wrote a letter, the consequence of which was the expulsion of Berthe, for which he shot his former lover in the church. A similar story happened with the cabinetmaker Lafargue. Although Stendhal, of course, does not paint portraits of these ill-fated young people in his hero, the plot of the novel typifies the events of reality.

The epigraph to the novel is the words of the figure of the French Revolution, J. Danton: “The truth, the bitter truth.” With this epigraph, Stendhal emphasizes a new, previously unprecedented degree of truthfulness, impartiality of his work, and the connection of its problematics with the revolutionary era.

The beginning of “The Red and the Black” is very indicative of a realistic novel of the 19th century. Stendhal seems to be in no hurry to introduce the reader into the thick of the events depicted, to immediately introduce him to the heroes of the novel. Slowly, gradually, the author weaves the basis of a realistic narrative, combining well-known geographical and economic facts with fictional ones. The town of Verrieres, where the action of the novel begins, is not on the map of France, but Stendhal’s convincingness is irresistible. On the very first page, the author depicts the beauty of the surrounding places, to which the inhabitants of Verrieres, plagued by the atmosphere of petty profiteering, are blind. Never before has the subject of fiction been a description of industrial production; Stendhal names the sources of income for the residents of the town: sawmills, the production of popular fabrics, “Mulhouse heels” and a nail factory owned by the mayor, Mr. de Renal. Verrier’s entire life is guided by one principle - “to generate income,” and in this town the main character of the novel, Julien Sorel, seems a stranger to everyone.

Julien Sorel, the son of a carpenter, begins to climb the social ladder: first he becomes a tutor in the house of M. de Renal, then a seminarian, then the secretary of the powerful Marquis de la Mole and, finally, his daughter's fiancé, the brilliant guards officer M. de La Vernet - these are the stages of Julien’s rapid career, ending with a tragic end, his execution.

Julien's life is filled with both bright external events and moral and psychological adventures. In terms of personality, he is close to a romantic hero: he is endowed with enormous energy, phenomenal abilities, proud character, iron will, and ardent imagination. In any society, Julien turns out to be superior to everyone around him. In him there is a romantically extreme development of all traits and qualities, but he is not depicted as a romantic hero. This concentration of natural abilities in the image of Julien is explained by everyday, historical and political circumstances. Stendhal, unlike the Romantics, has a purely analytical approach to feelings, and in the character of Julien he shows what enormous energy was released in the “lower” classes by the French Revolution: “he was made of the same material as the titans of '93.” All the other characters look at him as a potential revolutionary: Madame de Renal begs him not to leave her children in the event of a revolution, Mathilde’s feelings are awakened by the question “isn’t this Danton,” and she dreams of playing the role of Madame Danton under Julien the coming revolution. And Julien himself feels these forces within himself, his idol is Napoleon, the son of the revolution, the embodiment of his ambitious dreams. But the novel takes place in Restoration France; For a man with Julien's background, the possibilities of a career as a Napoleonic marshal are closed, and, acutely aware of the discrepancy between his abilities and his position, he decides to make his way to the top at any cost. He believes that alone against the entire hostile world he will achieve a high position in society.

Ambition becomes Julien's guiding passion; ambition itself is a quality in which liveliness and ardor of the soul are manifested, but the hero is placed in such conditions that ambition pushes him to low actions. Despising his surroundings, he forces himself to act to please them, does everything that the powers that be expect from him: in the seminary, he, an unbeliever, pretends to be pious; at the Marquis de la Mole, he, a republican, carries out the orders of the ultra-monarchical party. Day after day, he kills honesty and generosity in himself and cultivates those qualities that are necessary to succeed in his world - selfishness, hypocrisy, distrust of people, the ability to subordinate them to his interests. This is the main contradiction in the image of the hero and the main psychological conflict of the novel - the struggle of natural nobility with traits determined by time, with what ambition dictates to him in existing conditions.

Ambition pushes him onto the path of hypocrisy and meanness; Julien chooses Tartuffe as his teacher. Like Tartuffe, he says out loud only what he does not believe in, and forbids himself to express his true thoughts. He consistently eradicates everything that is best and sublime in himself, and betrays himself at every step.

This is how he is in love. He enters into a relationship with Madame de Renal solely for ambitious reasons, in order to prove to himself the possibility of victory over the aristocrat. At first, he interprets this feeling in the terminology of a military engagement, a battle, and does not immediately begin to respond to Louise’s sincere feeling. In the story of Madame de Renal, Stendhal gives an illustration of his concept of true passion; For a short time, true passion conquers Julien. But this sublime passion has no power in the mansion de la Mole, where in the story of Julien and Mathilde Stendhal describes love-vanity. Here, for both lovers, love comes from the head, it is built on calculation, and their relationship is built on hurting each other’s pride as deeply as possible and thereby tying each other to themselves more tightly.

As Julien successfully makes his career, he rises higher and higher on the social ladder, his soul becomes more and more callous. When an unfavorable letter written by Madame de Renal at the behest of her confessor makes it impossible for him to marry Mathilde, he rides in a cold rage to Verrieres and, in the church, shoots the woman who ruined his career.

This sacrilegious shot in the church restores Julien's ability to morally judge himself. In the Besançon prison he experiences spiritual cleansing, enlightenment, and a return to himself. His love for Madame de Renal flares up in him with renewed vigor, and the time on the eve of his execution, when during his meetings with her he remembers their love, is the calmest and happiest time of his life. Julien essentially gives up his life himself, challenging his accusers at the trial. He does not try to justify himself, he now directly expresses his views: he is being judged as a plebeian who dared to rebel against the established social order, and after such a political statement, all Matilda’s efforts aimed at saving Julien are in vain. Julien behaves courageously during the trial and calmly accepts the death sentence: the life that is possible for him as Matilda’s husband has lost all attractiveness for him, he has already fully proven his capabilities to himself and has come to recognize his own boundaries. Death for him is both an atonement for his own guilt, and a refusal to further participate in the battle of ambitions, a recognition of his irreconcilability with the laws of this world.

The story of Julien Sorel could only have taken place in Restoration France; the specifics of his collision with his society and time are entirely determined by the era. Politics permeates the entire concept, all scenes of the novel. In "The Red and the Black" there are three main settings - the house of M. de Renal, the Besançon seminary and the Parisian mansion of the Marquis de la Mole. This is the circle of the provincial bourgeoisie, the Catholic Church and the clan nobility - three social forces that formed the support of the Restoration regime. If Julien had acted in only one of them, the picture of French society during the Restoration would have been incomplete. "Red and Black" absorbs the entire social space of France during the Restoration; The stages of the hero's career take him through all the main social strata and give the author the opportunity to outline a panorama of society.

However, it would be wrong to emphasize Stendhal's interest in the social order as a whole. As he wrote in his diary: “One thing is important to me - the picture of the human heart. Outside of this, I am zero.” Stendhal's main artistic interest and his main strength lie in the field of psychology, and for the three central characters of the novel - Julien, Madame de Renal and Mathilde de la Mole - the author uses a special technique for creating images: combining the author's point of view on events and characters with the image the same things through the perception of the heroes. Penetration into the thoughts and feelings of the characters brings them closer to the reader, and the author corrects their perception, giving the reader the ability to rise above the characters. This authorial position is called the position of the “omniscient author,” in which the author takes the reader everywhere and shows him all the recesses of the souls of his characters.

If Stendhal tells the career of an exceptional hero, who failed precisely because of his exceptionalism, then Balzac’s contribution to the “novel of career” is in addressing more typical cases, in a more universal formulation of the problem.