Essay on the topic: The path of quest of Grigory Melikhov in the novel Quiet Don, Sholokhov. Stages of Gregory's life. Typical and individual Dependence of Grigory Melekhov on his father
Roman M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" is a novel about the Cossacks during the era of the civil war. The main character of the work, Grigory Melekhov, continues the tradition of Russian classical literature, in which one of the main images is the truth-seeking hero (works by Nekrasov, Leskov, Tolstoy, Gorky).
Grigory Melekhov also strives to find the meaning of life, to understand the whirlwind of historical events, and to find happiness. This simple Cossack was born into a simple and friendly family, where centuries-old traditions are sacred - they work hard and have fun. The basis of the hero's character - love for work, for his native land, respect for elders, justice, decency, kindness - is laid right here, in the family.
Handsome, hard-working, cheerful, Grigory immediately wins the hearts of those around him: he is not afraid of people’s gossip (he almost openly loves the beautiful Aksinya, the wife of the Cossack Stepan), and does not consider it shameful to become a farm laborer in order to maintain a relationship with the woman he loves.
And at the same time, Gregory is a person who tends to hesitate. So, despite his great love for Aksinya, Grigory does not resist his parents and, at their will, marries Natalya Korshunova.
Without fully realizing it, Melekhov strives to exist “in truth.” He is trying to understand, to answer for himself the question “how should one live?” The hero's search is complicated by the era in which he happened to be born - a time of revolutions and wars.
Gregory will experience strong moral hesitations when he finds himself on the fronts of the First World War. The hero went to war, thinking that he knew whose side was right: he needed to defend the fatherland and destroy the enemy. What could be simpler? Melekhov does just that. He fights valiantly, he is brave and selfless, he does not disgrace the Cossack honor. But gradually doubts come to the hero. He begins to see in his opponents the same people with their hopes, weaknesses, fears, joys. Why all this carnage, what will it bring to people?
The hero begins to realize this especially clearly when Melekhov’s fellow countryman Chubaty kills a captured Austrian, a very young boy. The prisoner is trying to establish contact with the Russians, openly smiling at them, trying to please. The Cossacks were pleased with the decision to take him to headquarters for interrogation, but Chubati simply out of love for violence, out of hatred, kills the boy.
For Melekhov, this event becomes a real moral blow. And although he firmly cherishes the Cossack honor and deserves a reward, he understands that he is not created for war. He painfully wants to know the truth in order to find the meaning of his actions. Having fallen under the influence of the Bolshevik Garanji, the hero, like a sponge, absorbs new thoughts, new ideas. He begins to fight for the Reds. But the murder of unarmed prisoners by the Reds pushes him away from them too.
Gregory’s childishly pure soul alienates him from both the Reds and the Whites. The truth is revealed to Melekhov: the truth cannot be on either side. Red and white are politics, class struggle. And where there is a class struggle, blood always flows, people die, children remain orphans. Truth is peaceful work in our native land, family, love.
Gregory is a hesitant, doubting nature. This allows him to search for the truth, not to stop there, and not to be limited by other people’s explanations. Gregory’s position in life is a position “between”: between the traditions of his fathers and his own will, between two loving women - Aksinya and Natalya, between whites and reds. Finally, between the need to fight and the realization of the meaninglessness and uselessness of the massacre (“my hands need to plow, not fight”).
The author himself sympathizes with his hero. In the novel, Sholokhov objectively describes events, talks about the “truth” of both whites and reds. But his sympathies and experiences are on Melekhov’s side. This man happened to live at a time when all moral guidelines were displaced. It was this, as well as the desire to search for the truth, that led the hero to such a tragic ending - the loss of everything he loved: “Why did you, life, cripple me like that?”
The writer emphasizes that the civil war is a tragedy of the entire Russian people. There is no right or wrong in it, because people die, brother goes against brother, father against son.
Thus, Sholokhov in the novel “Quiet Don” made a truth-seeker a person from the people and from the people. The image of Grigory Melekhov becomes the concentration of the historical and ideological conflict of the work, an expression of the tragic searches of the entire Russian people.
1892 - 1914
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1892 - end of autumn
Grigory Panteleevich was born on the Tatarsky farm of the Vyoshenskaya village of the Don Army Region into a Cossack family. At the time of his birth, he was the second son and child in the family of a retired senior officer of the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. Older brother Peter was born in 1886
1899 - approximate date
Birth of Evdokia, younger sister of Gregory and Peter
1911 - end of February
Maslenitsa
Grigory takes part in a wall-to-wall fight between married farmsteads and single men on the latter’s side. Neighbor Astakhov felt sorry for Grigory when he ran away and did not beat him to death
1912 - May
Grigory begins trying to get closer to the wife of Astakhov, who is called up for military training
1912 - June
Grigory and Aksinya Astakhova become lovers
1912 - July
Stepan Astakhov returns home. Fight between the Melekhov brothers and Stepan over Aksinya
1912 - August 1 (old style)
Grigory is brought together with his betrothed Natalya Korshunova, their wedding day is set
1912 - early August
Gregory breaks off relations with Aksinya
1912 - September 28 (old style)
Grigory explains to Natalya and tells her that he does not love her and will not live with her as a family
1912 - early October
Grigory accidentally meets Aksinya and they realize that they cannot live without each other
1912 - mid-December
Grigory takes the military oath in the village of Vyoshenskaya. The next day, after a stormy explanation with his father, Grigory leaves his wife and leaves his parents' house. Soon he is hired as an assistant groom to the landowner Listnitsky on the Yagodnoye estate. Natalya goes to live with her parents
1912 - end of December
Grigory, through his friend’s sister, tells Aksinya where he is and offers to leave her husband for him. Aksinya runs away from home
1913 - April 12 (old style)
Palm Sunday
Grigory fell through the ice while crossing the Don; due to a cold, abscesses appeared on his back
1913 - April 19 (old style)
Bright Sunday of Christ
Grigory refuses Natalya’s request to return to her, transmitted through a note. Natalya tries to commit suicide, receives severe wounds and injury, but remains alive
1913 - May
Grigory, at the request of the son of the landowner Listnitsky, receives exemption from military training before being called up for service.
1913 - July
Grigory and Aksinya have a daughter, Tanya.
1913 - end of November
Natalya is recovering from her wounds
1913 - November 26 (old style)
Gregory is called up for military service. Due to the abscesses on his back and the “wildness” of his facial features, Gregory is assigned to the 12th Don Cossack Regiment, and not to the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. The commission rejected Gregory's horse and he had to take his brother's horse into service.
1914 - early January
Gregory arrived in the regiment stationed in the town of Radzivilov, Volyn province on the border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the first days of his service he makes it clear to the sergeant that he will not allow himself to be beaten
1914 - February
The child of Peter and Daria Melekhov dies from illness
1914 - March
Natalya Korshunova went to live with Grigory’s parents
1914 - end of June
Grigory's regiment was redeployed for maneuvers in the Rivne region
1914 - July 21 (old style)
After being transferred by rail, Gregory's regiment marches and at noon crosses the border of Austria-Hungary. In the area of the town of Leszniow, the regiment enters into battle, in which Gregory kills two soldiers of the Austrian army
1914 - end of July, August, beginning of September
Gregory, as part of his regiment, takes part in battles and skirmishes with the Austrian army. At the end of August, the regiment was withdrawn from the battle line for three days for rest and replenishment.
1914 - August 29 (old style)
In the battle near Shevel, the son of the landowner Listnitsky was seriously wounded
1914 - early September
In Yagodnoye, Grigory’s daughter dies of scarlet fever
1914 - September 15 (old style)
In a battle with the Hungarian cavalry near the town of Kamenka-Strumilov, Grigory is wounded in the head and concussed. He loses consciousness and remains surrounded on the battlefield. Some consider him dead and send a notice to his relatives. Waking up at night, Grigory finds the seriously wounded commander of the 9th Dragoon Regiment, and carries him to the location of the Russian units.
1914 - September 18 (old style)
Grigory voluntarily leaves the dressing station for his unit. For saving the life of a wounded officer, he is awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree and promoted to clerk*
* - rank in the Cossack troops, corresponds to the rank of corporal
1914 - September 21 (old style)
During a raid by an Austrian airplane, Grigory's eye was damaged and he was sent to Moscow for treatment.
1914 - end of September
The son of landowner Listnitsky comes to Yagodnoye on vacation after being wounded. Evgeny Listnitsky and Aksinya become lovers
1914 - end of September, October
Grigory is treated at the eye clinic of Dr. Kiselyov (Moscow, Kolpachny Lane, 1), then a wound opens on his head and he is transferred to a general hospital
1914 - end of October
Influenced by conversations with one of the wounded, Gregory thinks about the reasons for the ongoing war and who benefits from it. He defies the delegation that visited the hospital with members of the imperial family and, after discharge, receives leave to go home
1914 - November 4/5 (old style)
At night, Grigory arrives in Yagodnoye and learns about Aksinya’s betrayal. In the morning he beats Evgeniy and returns to his wife at his parents' house
1914 - end of November
Grigory returns to the regiment after leave
“Quiet Don” is a work that shows the life of the Don Cossacks in one of the most difficult historical periods in Russia. The realities of the first third of the twentieth century, which upended the entire habitual way of life, seemed to travel like caterpillars through the destinies of the common people. Through the life path of Grigory Melekhov in the novel “Quiet Flows the Don”, Sholokhov reveals the main idea of the work, which is to depict the clash of personality and historical events beyond his control, his wounded fate.
The struggle between duty and feelings
At the beginning of the work, the main character is shown as a hardworking guy, distinguished by his ardent disposition, which he inherited from his ancestors. Cossack and even Turkish blood flowed in him. Grishka's eastern roots endowed him with a striking appearance that could turn the heads of more than one Don beauty, and his Cossack tenacity, sometimes bordering on stubbornness, ensured the stamina and steadfastness of his character.
On the one hand, he shows respect and love for his parents, on the other hand, he does not listen to their opinion. The first conflict between Grigory and his parents occurs because of his love affair with his married neighbor Aksinya. To end the sinful relationship between Aksinya and Gregory, his parents decide to marry him. But their choice in the role of the sweet and meek Natalya Korshunova did not solve the problem, but only aggravated it. Despite the official marriage, love for his wife did not appear, and for Aksinya, who, tormented by jealousy, increasingly sought meetings with him, only flared up.
Blackmail from his father with his house and property forced the hot-tempered and impulsive Grigory to leave the farm, his wife, and relatives in his heart and leave with Aksinya. Because of his action, the proud and unyielding Cossack, whose family had cultivated its own land and grown its own grain from time immemorial, had to become a mercenary, which made Gregory feel ashamed and disgusted. But now he had to answer both for Aksinya, who left her husband because of him, and for the child she was carrying.
War and Aksinya's betrayal
A new misfortune was not long in coming: the war began, and Gregory, who swore allegiance to the sovereign, was forced to leave both his old and new family and go to the front. In his absence, Aksinya remained in the manor's house. The death of her daughter and news from the front about the death of Gregory weakened the woman’s strength, and she was forced to succumb to the pressure of the centurion Listnitsky.
Having returned from the front and learning about Aksinya’s betrayal, Grigory returns to his family again. For some period of time, his wife, relatives and soon-to-be twins make him happy. But the troubled times on the Don associated with the Revolution did not allow them to enjoy family happiness.
Ideological and personal doubts
In the novel “Quiet Don”, Grigory Melekhov’s path is full of quests, doubts and contradictions, both politically and in love. He constantly rushed about, not knowing where the truth was: “Everyone has their own truth, their own furrow. People have always fought for a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life. We must fight those who want to take away life and the right to it...” He decided to lead the Cossack division and repair the supports of the advancing Reds. However, the further the Civil War continued, the more Gregory doubted the correctness of his choice, the more clearly he understood that the Cossacks were waging war at windmills. The interests of the Cossacks and their native land were of no interest to anyone.
The same model of behavior is typical in the personal life of the main character of the work. Over time, he forgives Aksinya, realizing that he cannot live without her love and takes her with him to the front. Afterwards he sends her home, where she is forced to once again return to her husband. Arriving on leave, he looks at Natalya with different eyes, appreciating her devotion and fidelity. He was drawn to his wife, and this intimacy culminated in the conception of his third child.
But again his passion for Aksinya got the better of him. His last betrayal led to the death of his wife. Grigory drowns his remorse and the impossibility of resisting his feelings in the war, becoming cruel and merciless: “I was so smeared with other people’s blood that I no longer had any regrets left for anyone. I almost don’t regret my childhood, but I don’t even think about myself. The war took everything out of me. I myself became scary. Look into my soul, and there’s blackness there, like in an empty well...”
A stranger among his own
The loss of loved ones and the retreat sobered Gregory, he understands: he must be able to preserve what he has left. He takes Aksinya with him on retreat, but because of typhus he is forced to leave her.
He again begins to search for the truth and finds himself in the Red Army, taking command of a cavalry squadron. However, even participation in hostilities on the side of the Soviets will not wash away Grigory’s past, tainted by the white movement. He faces execution, which his sister Dunya warned him about. Taking Aksinya, he attempts to escape, during which the woman he loves is killed. Having fought for his land both on the side of the Cossacks and the Reds, he remained a stranger among his own.
The path of quest of Grigory Melekhov in the novel is the fate of a simple man who loved his land, but lost everything he had and valued, defending it for the life of the next generation, which in the finale is personified by his son Mishatka.
Work test
At the very beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that Grigory loves Aksinya Astakhova, the married neighbor of the Melekhovs. The hero rebels against his family, who condemn him, a married man, for his relationship with Aksinya. He does not obey his father’s will and leaves his native farm together with Aksinya, not wanting to live a double life with his disliked wife Natalya, who then attempts suicide - she cuts her neck with a scythe. Grigory and Aksinya become hired workers for the landowner Listnitsky.
In 1914 - Gregory’s first battle and the first person he killed. Gregory is having a hard time. In war, he receives not only the St. George Cross, but also experience. The events of this period make him think about the life structure of the world.
It would seem that revolutions are made for people like Grigory Melekhov. He joined the Red Army, but he had no greater disappointment in his life than the reality of the red camp, where violence, cruelty and lawlessness reign.
Gregory leaves the Red Army and becomes a participant in the Cossack rebellion as a Cossack officer. But here too there is cruelty and injustice.
He again finds himself with the Reds - in Budyonny's cavalry - and again experiences disappointment. In his vacillations from one political camp to another, Gregory strives to find the truth that is closer to his soul and his people.
Ironically, he ends up in Fomin's gang. Gregory thinks that bandits are free people. But even here he feels like a stranger. Melekhov leaves the gang to pick up Aksinya and flee with her to Kuban. But Aksinya’s death from a random bullet in the steppe deprives Gregory of his last hope for a peaceful life. It is at this moment that he sees in front of him a black sky and a “dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun.” The writer depicts the sun - the symbol of life - as black, emphasizing the troubles of the world. Having joined the deserters, Melekhov lived with them for almost a year, but longing again drove him to his home.
At the end of the novel, Natalya and her parents die, Aksinya dies. Only a son and a younger sister remained, who married a red man. Gregory stands at the gates of his home and holds his son in his arms. The ending is left open: will his simple dream of living as his ancestors lived ever come true: “to plow the land, take care of it”?
Female images in the novel.
Women, into whose lives war breaks into, takes away their husbands, sons, destroys their home and hopes for personal happiness, take on their shoulders an unbearable load of work in the field and at home, but do not bend, but courageously carry this load. The novel presents two main types of Russian women: the mother, the keeper of the hearth (Ilyinichna and Natalya) and the beautiful sinner frantically seeking her happiness (Aksinya and Daria). Two women - Aksinya and Natalya - accompany the main character, they selflessly love him, but are opposite in everything.
Love is a necessary need for Aksinya’s existence. Aksinya’s frenzy in love is emphasized by the description of her “shamelessly greedy, plump lips” and “vicious eyes.” The heroine's backstory is scary: at the age of 16, she was raped by her drunken father and married to Stepan Astakhov, a neighbor of the Melekhovs. Aksinya endured humiliation and beatings from her husband. She had neither children nor relatives. Her desire “to fall out of bitter love throughout her entire life” is understandable, so she fiercely defends her love for Grishka, which has become the meaning of her existence. For her sake, Aksinya is ready for any test. Gradually, almost maternal tenderness appears in her love for Gregory: with the birth of her daughter, her image becomes purer. In separation from Grigory, she becomes attached to his son, and after Ilyinichna’s death she takes care of all Grigory’s children as if they were her own. Her life was cut short by a random steppe bullet when she was happy. She died in Gregory's arms.
Natalya is the embodiment of the idea of home, family, and the natural morality of a Russian woman. She is a selfless and affectionate mother, a pure, faithful and devoted woman. She suffers a lot from her love for her husband. She does not want to put up with her husband’s betrayal, she does not want to be unloved - this forces her to commit suicide. The hardest thing for Gregory to survive is that before her death she “forgave him everything,” that she “loved him and remembered him until the last minute.” Upon learning of Natalya's death, Gregory for the first time felt a stabbing pain in his heart and a ringing in his ears. He is tormented by remorse.
The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.
Methodological techniques: checking homework - adjusting the plan drawn up by the students, conversation according to the plan.
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Methodological development of a lesson on the topic “The fate of Grigory Melekhov as a path to finding the truth.” Grade 11
The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.
Methodological techniques: checking homework - adjusting the plan drawn up by the students, conversation according to the plan.
During the classes
Teacher's word.
Sholokhov’s heroes are simple, but extraordinary people, and Grigory is not only brave to the point of despair, honest and conscientious, but also truly talented, and not only the hero’s “career” proves this (a cornet from ordinary Cossacks at the head of a division is evidence of considerable abilities, although such cases were not uncommon among the Reds during the Civil War). This is confirmed by his collapse in life, since Gregory is too deep and complex for the unambiguous choice required by time!
This image attracts the attention of readers with its features of nationality, originality, and sensitivity to the new. But there is also something spontaneous in him, which is inherited from the environment.
Checking homework
Approximate plot plan for “The Fate of Grigory Melekhov”:
Book one
1. Predetermination of a tragic fate (origin).
2. Life in my father's house. Dependence on him (“like dad”).
3. The beginning of love for Aksinya (thunderstorm on the river)
4. Skirmish with Stepan.
5 Matchmaking and marriage. ...
6. Leaving home with Aksinya to become farm laborers for the Listnitskys.
7. Conscription into the army.
8. Murder of an Austrian. Losing a foothold.
9. Wound. News of death received by relatives.
10. Hospital in Moscow. Conversations with Garanzha.
11. Break with Aksinya and return home.
Book two, parts 3-4
12. Etching the truth of Garanji. Going to the front as a “good Cossack.”
13.1915 Rescue of Stepan Astakhov.
14. Hardening of the heart. Chubaty's influence.
15. Premonition of trouble, injury.
16. Gregory and his children, desire for the end of the war.
17. On the side of the Bolsheviks. The influence of Izvarin and Podtelkov.
18. Reminder about Aksinya.
19. Wound. Massacre of prisoners.
20. Infirmary. “Who should I lean against?”
21. Family. "I am for Soviet power."
22. Unsuccessful elections to detachment atamans.
23. Last meeting with Podtelkov.
Book three, part 6
24. Conversation with Peter.
25. Anger towards the Bolsheviks.
26. Quarrel with father over stolen goods.
27. Unauthorized departure home.
28. The Melekhovs have Reds.
29. Dispute with Ivan Alekseevich about “male power.”
30. Drunkenness, thoughts of death.
31. Gregory kills the sailors
32. Conversation with grandfather Grishaka and Natalya.
33. Meeting with Aksinya.
Book four, Part 7:
34. Gregory in the family. Children, Natalya.
35. Gregory's dream.
36. Kudinov about Gregory’s ignorance.
37. Quarrel with Fitzkhalaurov.
38. Family breakdown.
39. The division is disbanded, Gregory is promoted to centurion.
40. Death of wife.
41. Typhoid and recovery.
42. Attempt to board a ship in Novorossiysk.
Part 8:
43. Grigory at Budyonny.
44. Demobilization, conversation with. Mikhail.
45. Leaving the farm.
46. In Owl's gang, on the island.
47. Leaving the gang.
48. Death of Aksinya.
49. In the forest.
50. Returning home.
Conversation.
The image of Grigory Melekhov is central in M. Sholokhov’s epic novel “Quiet Don”. It is impossible to immediately say about him whether he is a positive or negative hero. For too long he wandered in search of the truth, his path. Grigory Melekhov appears in the novel primarily as a truth-seeker.
At the beginning of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary farm boy with the usual range of household chores, activities, and entertainment. He lives thoughtlessly, like grass in the steppe, following traditional principles. Even love for Aksinya, which has captured his passionate nature, cannot change anything. He allows his father to marry him, and, as usual, prepares for military service. Everything in his life happens involuntarily, as if without his participation, just as he involuntarily dissects a tiny defenseless duckling while mowing - and shudders at what he has done.
Grigory Melekhov did not come into this world for bloodshed. But harsh life placed a saber in his hardworking hands. Gregory experienced the first shed of human blood as a tragedy. The image of the Austrian he killed then appears to him in a dream, causing mental pain. The experience of war completely turns his life upside down, makes him think, look into himself, listen, and take a closer look at people. Conscious life begins.
The Bolshevik Garanzha, who met Gregory in the hospital, seemed to reveal to him the truth and the prospect of change for the better. “Autonomist” Efim Izvarin and Bolshevik Fyodor Podtelkov played a significant role in shaping the beliefs of Grigory Melekhov. The tragically deceased Fyodor Podtelkov pushed Melekhov away, shedding the blood of unarmed prisoners who believed the promises of the Bolshevik who captured them. The senselessness of this murder and the callousness of the “dictator” stunned the hero. He is also a warrior, he killed a lot, but here not only the laws of humanity are violated, but also the laws of war.
“Honest to the core,” Grigory Melekhov cannot help but see the deception. The Bolsheviks promised that there would be no rich and poor. However, a year has already passed since the “Reds” were in power, and the promised equality is not there: “the platoon leader is in chrome boots, and the Vanyok is in windings.” Grigory is very observant, he tends to think about his observations, and the conclusions from his thoughts are disappointing: “If the gentleman is bad, then the boorish gentleman is a hundred times worse.”
The civil war throws Grigory either into the Budennovsky detachment or into the white formations, but this is no longer thoughtless submission to the way of life or a coincidence of circumstances, but a conscious search for the truth, the path. He sees his home and peaceful work as the main values of life. In war, shedding blood, he dreams of how he will prepare for sowing, and these thoughts make his soul warm.
The Soviet government does not allow the former ataman of the hundred to live peacefully and threatens him with prison or execution. The surplus appropriation system instills in the minds of many Cossacks the desire to “re-conquer the war”, to replace the workers’ government with their own, the Cossack’s. Gangs are forming on the Don. Grigory Melekhov, hiding from persecution by the Soviet regime, ends up in one of them, Fomin’s gang. But bandits have no future. For most Cossacks it is clear: they need to sow, not fight.
The main character of the novel is also drawn to peaceful labor. The last test, the last tragic loss for him is the death of his beloved woman - Aksinya, who received a bullet on the way, as it seems to them, to a free and happy life. Everything died. Gregory's soul is scorched. There remains only the last, but very important thread connecting the hero with life - this is his home. A house, a land waiting for its owner, and a little son - his future, his mark on the earth.
The depth of the contradictions through which the hero went through is revealed with amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity. The versatility and complexity of a person’s inner world is always the focus of M. Sholokhov’s attention. Individual destinies and a broad generalization of the paths and crossroads of the Don Cossacks allow us to see how complex and contradictory life is, how difficult it is to choose the true path.
What is the meaning of Sholokhov when he speaks of Gregory as a “good Cossack”? Why was Grigory Melekhov chosen as the main character?
(Grigory Melekhov is an extraordinary person, a bright individuality. He is sincere and honest in his thoughts and actions (especially in relation to Natalya and Aksinya (see episodes: last meeting with Natalya - part 7, chapter 7; Natalya’s death - part 7, chapter 16 -18;death of Aksinya). He has a responsive heart, a developed sense of pity and compassion (duckling in the hayfield, Franya, the execution of Ivan Alekseevich).
Grigory is a person capable of action (leaving Aksinya for Yagodnoye, breaking up with Podtelkov, clashing with Fitzkhalaurov - part 7, chapter 10; decision to return to the farm).
In which episodes is Gregory’s bright, extraordinary personality most fully revealed? The role of internal monologues. Does a person depend on circumstances or make his own destiny?
(He never lied to himself, despite doubts and tossing (see internal monologues - part 6, chapter 21). This is the only character whose thoughts are revealed by the author. War corrupts people and provokes them to commit acts that a person would never normally do did not commit. Gregory had a core that did not allow him to commit meanness even once. A deep attachment to home, to the land is a strong spiritual movement: “My hands need to work, not fight.”
The hero is constantly in a situation of choice (“I’m looking for a way out myself”). Turning point: dispute and quarrel with Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov, Shtokman. The uncompromising nature of a man who never knew the middle. Tragedyas if transported into the depths of consciousness: “He painfully tried to understand the confusion of thoughts.” This is not political vacillation, but a search for truth. Gregory yearns for the truth, “under the wing of which everyone could warm themselves.” And from his point of view, neither the whites nor the reds have such truth: “There is no truth in life. It is clear that whoever defeats whom will devour him. And I was looking for the bad truth. I was sick at heart, I was swaying back and forth.” These searches turned out to be, as he believes, “in vain and empty.” And this is also his tragedy. A person is placed in inevitable, spontaneous circumstances and already in these circumstances he makes a choice, his destiny.) “What a writer needs most,” said Sholokhov, “he himself needs, is to convey the movement of a person’s soul. I wanted to talk about this charm of a person in Grigory Melekhov...”
Do you think the author of “Quiet Flows the Flow” manages to “convey the movement of the human soul” using the example of the fate of Grigory Melekhov? If so, what do you think is the main direction of this movement? What is its general character? Does the novel's protagonist have what you might call charm? If so, what is its charm? The main problematic of "Quiet Don" is revealed not in the character of one, even the main character, which is Grigory Melekhov, but in the comparison and contrast of many, many characters, in the entire figurative system, in the style and language of the work. But the image of Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality, as it were, concentrates the main historical and ideological conflict of the work and thereby unites all the details of a huge picture of the complex and contradictory life of many characters who are bearers of a certain attitude towards the revolution and the people in a given historical era.
How would you define the main issues of “Quiet Don”? What, in your opinion, allows us to characterize Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality? Can you agree that it is in it that “the main historical and ideological conflict of the work” is concentrated? Literary critic A.I. Khvatov states: “Grigory contained a huge reserve of moral forces necessary for the creative achievements of the emerging new life. No matter what complications and troubles befell him and no matter how painfully what he did under the influence of a wrong decision fell on his soul, Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people.”
What do you think gives a scientist the right to claim that “a huge reserve of moral forces was hidden in Gregory”? What actions do you think support this statement? And against him? What “wrong decisions” does Sholokhov’s hero make? In your opinion, is it generally acceptable to talk about the “wrong decisions” of a literary hero? Think about this topic. Do you agree that “Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people”? Give examples from the text. “In the plot of the combination of motives, the inescapability of love that Aksinya and Natalya give him, the immensity of Ilyinichna’s maternal suffering, the devoted comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers are artistically effective in revealing the image of Gregory,” especially Prokhor Zykov. Even those with whom his interests intersected dramatically, but to whom his soul was revealed... could not help but feel the power of his charm and generosity.”(A.I. Khvatov).
Do you agree that a special role in revealing the image of Grigory Melekhov is played by the love of Aksinya and Natalya, the suffering of his mother, as well as the comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers? If so, how does this manifest itself in each of these cases?
With which of the heroes did Grigory Melekhov’s interests “dramatically intersect”? Can you agree that even these heroes reveal the soul of Grigory Melekhov, and they, in turn, were able to “feel the power of his charm and generosity”? Give examples from the text.
The critic V. Kirpotin (1941) reproached Sholokhov's heroes for primitivism, rudeness, and “mental underdevelopment”: “Even the best of them, Grigory, is slow-witted. A thought is an unbearable burden for him.”
Are there any among the heroes of “Quiet Don” who seemed to you rude and primitive, “mentally undeveloped” people? If so, what role do they serve in the novel?Do you agree that Sholokhov’s Grigory Melekhov is a “slow-witted” person, for whom thought is an “unbearable burden”? If yes, give specific examples of the hero’s “slow-mindedness,” his inability, and unwillingness to think. The critic N. Zhdanov noted (1940): “Gregory could have been with the people in their struggle... but he did not stand with the people. And this is his tragedy.”
In your opinion, is it fair to say that Gregory “did not stand with the people”? Are the people only those who are for the Reds?What do you think is the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov? (This question can be left as homework for a detailed written answer.)
Homework.
How do the events that gripped the country compare with the events in Grigory Melekhov’s personal life?
