Makar Devushkin is the hero of which work. Essay by Makar of a girl’s image and characterization in the novel poor people

Makar Devushkin, main character“Poor people” - a person with a subtle and unique character. A similar character will later appear more than once in other works of Dostoevsky.

A petty official, Devushkin is afraid of the glances of his colleagues at work and does not dare take his eyes off the table. To the object of his love, young Varvara Dobroselova, he writes “What, Varenka, is killing me? It’s not money that’s killing me, but all these everyday anxieties, all these whispers, smiles, jokes.” And again: “...It doesn’t matter to me, even if I walk in the bitter cold without an overcoat and without boots, I will endure and endure everything... but what will people say? Are my enemies, these evil tongues, all that will speak when you go without an overcoat?

Devushkin borrows from Varenka Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” a touching story about how a “little man” similar to him was robbed. After reading the story, Devushkin feels as if his secret had been revealed - he becomes very excited: “After this, you can’t live in peace, in your little corner... so that they don’t sneak into your kennel and spy on you... And why write this? And what is it for? What will one of the readers do to me for this overcoat, or what? Will he buy new boots? No, Varenka, he will read it and demand a continuation. Sometimes you hide, you hide, you hide in something that you didn’t take, you are sometimes afraid to show your nose - no matter where it is, because you tremble at gossip, because out of everything that is in the world, out of everything, they will make a libel for you, and that’s all civil and family life yours is circulating in literature, everything has been published, read, ridiculed, judged!”

Dostoevsky. Poor people. Audiobook

Devushkin is constantly afraid that he is being watched and tracked; he sees enemies everywhere. He is morbidly afraid of people, imagines himself as a victim, and therefore is unable to communicate with others on equal terms.

Consumed by inner heat, completely captivated by his fantasies, Devushkin shuns reality and immerses himself in letters. They give him the opportunity to avoid communication with real people. Only in correspondence can he surrender to the whims of his heart.

“You are very useful to me, Varenka. You have such a beneficial influence... Now I’m thinking about you, and I’m having fun... Sometimes I’ll write you a letter and express all my feelings in it, to which I receive a detailed answer from you.” Makar Devushkin needs Varenka Dobroselova not at all in order to live with her, but only as a listener to his emotional outpourings.

Varenka faints under the weight of his confessions and replies: “What is your strange character, Makar Alekseevich! You take everything too much to heart; this will make you always the most unhappy person.”

This is the strange man Dostoevsky brought out in his first work. The critic V. G. Belinsky, who then lived in St. Petersburg, read the manuscript of “Poor People,” praised the author and gave him a ticket to literary world. Belinsky deserves great credit for recognizing literary talent in an unknown young man.

At the same time, Belinsky sowed the seeds of misinterpretation of all subsequent work of Dostoevsky. Regarding Devushkin, he writes: “The more limited his mind, the narrower and coarser his concepts, the wider and more delicate his heart seems to be; one can say that all his mental abilities moved from his head to his heart.”

This interpretation of Belinsky over the next many years became the main one for readers: “Poor People” is a novel full of sympathy for the poor who have a beautiful soul. This understanding has become immutable.

However, if you try to read “Poor People” with an open mind, it turns out that Dostoevsky’s hero is far from being stupid, but simply a strange man with an inferiority complex. In Devushkin’s character, sensitivity is developed beyond all measure. He is capable of immersing himself headlong in the “play” of his experiences, but delicacy coupled with excessiveness makes him powerless in real life, and fear and dislike for reality form a bizarre, almost funny type.

In Poor People, Dostoevsky discovered a very unusual, even fantastic type.

The Soviet literary historian B. M. Eikhenbaum spoke of Dostoevsky’s characters as “images of realistic fiction” (see his work “About Chekhov”). Young Dostoevsky was initially fascinated by historical dramas Schiller and Pushkin, he tried to imitate them, but, having discovered the “strange man,” he felt deep sympathy and interest in him and wrote a novel - thereby realizing his true literary purpose and the characteristics of his talent. This realistic and, at the same time, fantastic character partly lived within himself. Makar Devushkin Dostoevsky partly wrote himself.

Dostoevsky did not have the talent of a historical writer with a field of vision capable of capturing a wide panorama of events. He also did not have the natural ability to feel and describe people who accomplish great things. Most of his characters are weak, humiliated and sick people. Public opinion most often evaluates such painful, unlucky, powerless people negatively, but Dostoevsky discovered seething feelings, drama, complexity, and emotional richness in their images. Because he himself was in these characters.

In the hero of "Poor People" - the petty official Makar Devushkin - Dostoevsky discovered the secret spiritual world of the humiliated and sick " little man" This novel anticipates all his subsequent works.

Makar Alekseevich Devushkin- one of the two main characters in the novel “Poor People” by the 19th century Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

Image [ | ]

A petty elderly official who has no chance of making a career. Nothing remarkable happens in his life. He lives unnoticed, avoiding human eyes, in a cheap rented apartment on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. As the image unfolds, Devushkin begins to seem like a person with a subtle and unique character. In addition, he represents a model of a hero who will subsequently appear in other works of Dostoevsky.

Judging by the writer's letters and writings, Dostoevsky had little interest in his ancient ancestry. His father "never spoke about his family and did not answer when asked about his origins." From the notes of Fyodor Mikhailovich’s brother, Andrei Dostoevsky, it follows that even the brothers were no longer sure of their grandfather’s patronymic and grandmother’s maiden name. The writer's biographer Lyudmila Saraskina noted that already in Devushkin, the main character of Dostoevsky's first novel, the same attitude towards his ancestry is manifested. The character only knows about his father that his “name, presumably, was Alexey Devushkin; He was “not of the noble rank,” burdened with a family and extremely poor.”

Relation to Varenka[ | ]

In the house opposite there is an apartment in which a young, lonely girl lives, Varvara Dobroselova. Makar Devushkin’s love for Varenka, according to researchers of Dostoevsky’s work, is a lofty and painful feeling. The official limits himself to fatherly care for the girl, who, nevertheless, transforms him. He himself writes about this transformation: “Having recognized you, I began, firstly, to know myself better and began to love you<…>I was alone and as if I was sleeping and not living in the world<…>you illuminated my whole dark life<…>and I found peace of mind."

Every evening Makar Devushkin writes long letters to her, which he tries to convey as discreetly as possible along with sweets and clothes. In his letters, he talks about everything he saw, heard or read, shares his feelings, describes in detail his work, his roommates, and even promises to set a date with the girl. For Devushkin, it becomes necessary to record the progress of his relationships. Varenka is especially necessary for Devushkin as a listener to his most different feelings capable of accumulating and neutralizing these feelings. At the same time, Makar does not plan to marry her, refusing even to visit the girl: “What are you writing, my dear? How can I come to you? My dear, what will people say? After all, if you need to cross the yard, our people will notice, they will start asking questions - rumors will start, gossip will start, they will give the matter a different meaning. No, my angel, I’d rather see you tomorrow at the all-night vigil; it will be more prudent and harmless for both of us.” Epistolary relationships allow the dreamer Devushkin to fully “express passion.” The main thing for him is his own imagination and fantasy, and not reality.

Devushkin is only able to throw out his emotions, confessions, and fantasies on Varenka. At the same time, without these letters, his emotional intensity will reach a dangerous degree, which can lead to insanity. “Well, what will we do without you; What will I, an old man, do then? We don't need you? Not useful? How not useful? No, you, little mother, judge for yourself, how can you not be useful? You are very useful to me, Varenka. You have such a beneficial influence... Now I’m thinking about you, and I’m having fun... Sometimes I’ll write you a letter and express all my feelings in it, to which I receive a detailed answer from you,” he himself writes about this to Varenka.

Attitude to the opinions of others[ | ]

During the service, Devushkin is afraid of the glances of his colleagues and does not dare take his eyes off the table. “What, Varenka, is killing me? It’s not money that’s killing me, but all these everyday anxieties, all these whispers, smiles, jokes,” he writes in one of his letters. Colleagues appear to him as enemies. Devushkin is very concerned about rumors and gossip. He tries on any novel he reads for himself. It always seems to him that he is being watched and tracked, and there are only enemies around him. He develops an acute inferiority complex, fear, suffering, which prevents him from communicating with others on equal terms.

In an effort to hide from reality, Devushkin focuses on letters, as they allow him to avoid communicating with reality. existing people. In one of his letters to Varenka, talking about the fear of being judged by others, Devushkin writes: “... It doesn’t matter to me, even if I walk in the bitter cold without an overcoat and without boots, I will endure and endure everything... but what will people say? Are my enemies, these evil tongues, all that will speak when you go without an overcoat?

Passion for literature[ | ]

Devushkin has a rather poor understanding of literature and is not able to recognize true masterpieces, but he is passionate about literature. In one of his letters he states: “And literature is a good thing, Varenka, very good.<…>Deep stuff!<…>Literature is a picture." In his first letter to Varenka, he uses cliches of sentimental-romantic literature: “I compared you to a bird of heaven, for the joy of people and for the decoration of nature<…>I have one book there<…>so it’s the same thing, everything is described in great detail.” In the next letter he moves on to a “physiological” essay, talking about the apartment in which he lives. Makar Devushkin's penchant for writing influenced the choice of form for the entire work.

Devushkin successively reads the stories “” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, given to him by Varenka. And if the official comes into delight from Pushkin, noting the human fate in the fate of Samson Vyrin, then in Gogol he finds only mockery of himself. Already critics of the 1840s, drawing attention to the historical and genetic connection of “Poor People” with the story “The Overcoat,” noted that the literary prototype of Makar Devushkin was Akaki Akakievich, the main character of the story. And Devushkin himself identifies himself with Gogol’s official. After reading “The Overcoat,” Devushkin becomes very excited, as he tries the story on himself and feels unraveled: “It’s bad, little mother, it’s bad that you put me in such an extreme... How! So after this, you can’t live in peace, in your little corner... so that they don’t sneak into your kennel and spy on you... And why write this? And what is it for? What will one of the readers do to me for this overcoat, or what? Will he buy new boots? No, Varenka, he’ll read it and demand a continuation. Sometimes you hide, you hide, you hide in something that you didn’t take, you are sometimes afraid to show your nose - no matter where it is, because you tremble with gossip, because out of everything that is in the world, out of everything they’ll make a libel for you, and that’s all your civil and family life goes through literature, everything is printed, read, ridiculed, judged! Yes, here you won’t even be able to appear on the street...”

Spiritual breakdown [ | ]

A passion for literature becomes the reason for the official's spiritual breakdown. Reading “The Overcoat” becomes the culminating moment in the depicted segment of the hero’s life. Devushkin started drinking and began to deny all literature. At the same time, the character begins to think more broadly. Notices social contrasts in the reality around him. He sees the problem in the disunity of people. Deduces the community principle: “complete<…>think about yourself alone, live for yourself alone<…>look around, don’t you see something more noble for your worries than your boots!” .

Origin of first and last name[ | ]

The origin and meaning of the name Makar Devushkin was suggested by Dostoevsky himself. In one of his letters to Varvara Dobroselova, his hero writes: “Here, little mother, you see how things went: everything goes to Makar Alekseevich; All they knew how to do was introduce Makar Alekseevich into a proverb in our entire department. Not only did they make a proverb and almost a swear word out of me, they even got to my boots, to my uniform, to my hair, to my figure...” Thus, the name Makar is interpreted by the proverb “All the bad things fall on poor Makar.” Philologist Moses Altman especially emphasized that already in his first novel Dostoevsky used artistic device understanding the name literary hero by comparing it with the identical name from the proverb.

The possible origin of the main character's surname was noticed by the first readers of the work. Makar himself admits in one of his letters: “The poor man... has the same shame that you have, for example, girlish.” Special attention readers and critics were drawn to this recognition, as well as to the diminutives characteristic of the “girlish” style of Devushkin’s letters. Another version of the origin of the hero’s surname is based on the similarity of his style of letters and the style of letters of Dostoevsky’s mother. From here, researchers come to the conclusion that the surname Devushkin can serve as a symbol of maternal origin.

The name of the main character turned out to seamlessly reflect the school of sentimentalism and the school of naturalism, while the surname “Devushkin” relates more to sentimentalism, and the name “Makar” to naturalism.

Identification with the author[ | ]

Critics contemporary to Dostoevsky at first identified the styles and characters of Makar Devushkin and Dostoevsky himself, which irritated the writer: “In our public there is instinct, like in any crowd, but there is no education. They don’t understand how you can write in such a style. They are used to seeing the writer’s face in everything: I didn’t show mine. And they have no idea that Devushkin is speaking, not me, and that Devushkin cannot speak otherwise.”

Before “Poor People,” Dostoevsky was fascinated by the historical dramas of Schiller and Pushkin, but having discovered a “strange” man and feeling deep sympathy and interest for him, he wrote the first novel about him, at the same time realizing his literary destiny. This character lived within himself, so with the help of “Poor People” Dostoevsky wrote himself. An indirect sign of similarity is the fact that Devushkin dreams of becoming a “poet”, and Dostoevsky himself dreams of becoming a “writer”. Indignant at the identification of the character with the author, Dostoevsky wants to say that Makar Devushkin is, in fact, his double, but the writer so skillfully pretended to be Devushkin that the reader did not notice it.

Criticism [ | ]

A researcher of Dostoevsky's work, Kennosuke Nakamura, having attempted an unbiased reading of the novel, comes to the conclusion that the main character is a strange person with an inferiority complex. Makar Devushkin’s imagination and sensitivity are unusually developed, so he is unable to communicate with other people and expresses his thoughts in letters. His inherent excessive delicacy and fear of reality also make him completely powerless in real life, forming a strange and funny type. In the hero of “Poor People,” Dostoevsky discovered the secret spiritual world of a humiliated and sick person, and this novel anticipates all subsequent works of the author.

Influence on further creativity[ | ]

Makar Devushkin served as the literary prototype of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, the main character of the story “

MAKAR DEVUSHKIN is the hero of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Poor People” (1845), a titular councilor, 47 years old, copying papers for a small salary in one of the St. Petersburg departments. He has just moved to a “mainstream” house near Fontanka, where he huddles behind a partition in a shared kitchen with a “rotten, pungently sweet smell” in which “siskins are dying.” In the same yard M.D. rents a more comfortable and expensive apartment for his distant relative Varenka, a 17-year-old orphan, for whom there is no one else to stand up for her. Living nearby, they rarely see each other, so as not to cause gossip. They draw warmth and sympathy from almost daily correspondence with each other. M.D. happy, having found heartfelt affection. Denying himself food and clothes, he saves money on flowers and sweets for his “angel.” “Smirnenky”, “quiet” and “kind”, M.D. - the subject of constant ridicule from others. The only joy is Varenka: “It’s as if God blessed me with a house and a family!” She sends M.D. stories by Pushkin and Gogol; " Stationmaster"exalts him in his own eyes, "The Overcoat" offends him by publishing the pitiful details of his own life. Finally, M.D. luck smiles: summoned for a “scolding” to the general for a mistake in a paper, he received the sympathy of “His Excellency” and received 100 rubles from him personally. This is salvation: paid for the apartment, board, clothes. M.D. depressed by the boss’s generosity and reproaches himself for his recent “liberal” thoughts. Understanding how overwhelming it is for M.D. material concerns about herself, Varya agrees to marry the rude and cruel Bykov and goes to his estate. In the last letter from M.D. to her - a cry of despair: “I worked, and wrote papers, and walked, and walked... all because you... here, on the contrary, lived nearby.” In other works of the 1840s. Dostoevsky paints the “little man” in a slightly different way, emphasizing his moral inferiority (Goayadkin, Prokharchin, etc.), and in the 1850s, even ugliness (Opiskin). Since the 1860s this type becomes secondary for the writer, giving way to the central place to the extraordinary intellectual hero. The first artistic performance of Dostoevsky is connected with the novel “Poor People”: in April 1846, at a literary concert in the house of the famous Slavophiles Samarins, M.S. Shchepkin read one of the “letters” of M.D.

Lit.: Belinsky V.G. “Petersburg collection” // Belinsky V.G. Complete collected works M., 1953-1959. T.9; Grigoriev A.A. “Poor people” // Finnish Bulletin, 1846. No. 9. Dept.U; Maikov V.N. Something about Russian literature in 1846 // Maikov V.N.

Literary criticism. L., 1885; Tseytlin A.G. The Tale of Dostoevsky's Poor Official (On the History of a Plot). M., 1923; Vinogradov V.V. The evolution of Russian naturalism. Gogol and Dostoevsky. L., 1929; Bakhtin M.M. Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics. M., 1979; Bocharov S.G. The transition from Gogol to Dostoevsky // Bocharov S.G. ABOUT art worlds. M., 1985.

MAKAR DEVUSHKIN is the hero of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor People” (1845), a titular councilor, 47 years old, copying papers for a small salary in one of the St. Petersburg departments. He has just moved to a “maintained” house near Fontanka, where he huddles behind a partition in a shared kitchen with a “rotten, pungently sweet smell” in which “siskins are dying.” In the same courtyard, M.D. rents a more comfortable and expensive apartment for his distant relative Varenka, a 17-year-old orphan, for whom there is no one else to stand up for her. Living nearby, they rarely see each other, so as not to cause gossip. They draw warmth and sympathy from almost daily correspondence with each other. M.D. is happy, having found heartfelt affection. Denying himself food and clothes, he saves money on flowers and sweets for his “angel.” “Smirnenky”, “quiet” and “kind”, M.D. is the subject of constant ridicule from others. The only joy is Varenka: “It’s as if God blessed me with a house and a family!” She sends M.D. stories by Pushkin and Gogol; “The Station Agent” elevates him in his own eyes, “The Overcoat” offends him by publishing the pitiful details of his own life. Finally, luck smiles on M.D.: summoned for a “scolding” to the general for an error in a paper, he received the sympathy of “His Excellency” and received 100 rubles from him personally. This is salvation: paid for the apartment, board, clothes. M.D. is depressed by the boss’s generosity and reproaches himself for his recent “liberal” thoughts. Realizing that M.D.’s material worries about himself are too much for him, Varya agrees to marry the rude and cruel Bykov and goes to his estate. In M.D.’s last letter to her there is a cry of despair: “I worked, and wrote papers, and walked, and walked... all because you... here, on the contrary, lived nearby.” In other works of the 1840s. Dostoevsky paints the “little man” somewhat differently, emphasizing his moral inferiority (Goayadkin, Prokharchin, etc.), and in the 1850s, even ugliness (Opiskin). Since the 1860s this type becomes secondary for the writer, giving way to the central place to the extraordinary intellectual hero. The first artistic performance of Dostoevsky is connected with the novel “Poor People”: in April 1846, at a literary concert in the house of the famous Slavophiles Samarins, M. S. Shchepkin read one of M. D.’s “letters.”

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Devushkin Makar Alekseevich is the main character of the novel “Poor People” by Dostoevsky, an elderly official. Small person type. The hero’s closest literary predecessors are Gogol’s “little people” Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin from “The Overcoat” and Poprishchin from “Notes of a Madman”, Samson Vyrin from Pushkin’s “The Station Agent”. The image of Devushkin, continuing the Gogol line of depicting a little man, is also partly polemical in relation to him. If Gogol’s hero is obsessed with the desire to acquire an overcoat, a thing, then Dostoevsky’s hero is animated by disinterested love for a living person (the surname “Bashmachkin” is material, “Devushkin” is personal. K. Mochulsky).

Kind, meek, and quiet, Makar Devushkin has been in the service for thirty years; he has been rewriting papers all his life, being subjected to ridicule and bullying from his colleagues and neighbors. He lives in terrible poverty, from hand to mouth. He is forced to constantly justify his existence. Poverty is not only a social, but also a personal tragedy for Devushkin. It gives rise to a special mental state, which the hero himself recognizes as a feeling of defenselessness, intimidation, humiliation and, as a result, bitterness and suspiciousness. From time to time he is overcome by melancholy from constant self-abasement. Makar Devushkin is powerless to help Varenka Dobroselova when she is threatened with starvation, when she is sick and offended by evil people. From time to time, protest arises within him. In the end, he begins to ask “liberal” questions: why are some happy and rich, while others are poor and unhappy? Why such injustice?

The hero's homely appearance contrasts with his warm heart, responsive and impressionable soul. He loves flowers, birds, idyllic pictures of nature, a serene and peaceful life. Everything delights and touches him. He deeply, chastely and selflessly loves Varenka, whom he selflessly helps from his meager means. Thanks to this love, he feels like a human being, consciousness awakens in him self-esteem. He deliberately settles close to her so that he can see her window. However, Devushkin tries to hide their relationship, chastely fearing possible ridicule and gossip. They meet rarely and far from home (Devushkin takes her for walks and to the theater), and the rest of the time they exchange letters. In them, he, a lonely and withdrawn man, who lived very secluded before meeting her, shares with his beloved all the bitter and joyful events of his life, touchingly takes care of her, reproaches her for tiring herself with work, calls her affectionate names: “ little mother”, “little baby”. An idealist and dreamer, Makar Devushkin from Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor People” tries to protect Varenka from the rough and dirty attacks of life. He tracks down the officer who came to Varenka with an “undignified proposal”, comes to his house to explain himself - and as a result is thrown down the stairs.

Devushkin's drama lies not only in his poverty, but also in unrequited love to Varenka, who values ​​him as a friend and benefactor, but nothing more. He hides his love under fatherly affection, comes up with various excuses to keep Varenka, promises that he will do everything so that she does not have worries. He understands that he is poorly educated and longs for something high, enthusiastically takes part in the literary meetings of his neighbor, the writer Ratazyaev, and even dreams of becoming a “writer of literature and literature.” Devushkin cares about the style of his messages. He reads Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” which is given to him by Varenka, who is concerned about completing his education, recognizes his life in all the details of Akaki Akakievich’s life, and nevertheless considers the image “implausible,” and calls the story “a libel” and “an empty example of everyday, vile everyday life." In contrast to Gogol’s story “The Station Agent,” Pushkin is to the liking of Makar, in it he recognizes his “own heart, whatever it may already be there.” In his last farewell letter Varenka sounds deep suffering and despair.