For the first time as a separate book, the most famous work of Chernyshevsky is the novel What to Do? - came out in 1867 in Geneva. The initiators of the book were Russian emigrants, in Russia the novel by that time was banned by censorship. In 1863, the work was still published in the journal Sovremennik, but the numbers where its individual chapters were printed were soon banned. Summary of “What to do?” Chernyshevsky's youth of those years passed on to each other by word of mouth, and the novel itself — in handwritten copies, so the work made an indelible impression on them.
Is it possible to do something
The author wrote his sensational novel in the winter of 1862-1863, being in the dungeons of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The dates of writing are December 14 – April 4. Since January 1863, censors begin to work with individual chapters of the manuscript, but, seeing only a love line in the plot, they allow the novel to be published. Soon, the deep meaning of the work reaches the officials of tsarist Russia, the censor is removed from office, but the job is done - a rare youth group of those years did not discuss the summary of “What to do?”. With his work, Chernyshevsky wanted to not only tell the Russians about “new people,” but also arouse in them a desire to imitate them. And his bold appeal echoed in the hearts of many contemporaries of the author.
The youth of the end of the 19th century turned Chernyshevsky's ideas into a kind of program of their own life. Tales of the many noble deeds of those years began to appear so often that for some time they became almost the everyday life routine. Many suddenly realized that they were capable of doing the Act.
The presence of a question and a clear answer to it
The main idea of the work, and it is twice revolutionary in nature, is the freedom of the individual, regardless of gender. That’s why the main character of the novel is a woman, since at that time the leadership of women did not go beyond the boundaries of their own living room. Looking back at the life of her mother and close friends, Vera Pavlovna early realizes the absolute mistake of inaction, and decides that the basis of her life will be work: honest, useful, enabling her to live worthily. Hence morality - individual freedom comes from the freedom to do things that correspond to both thoughts and possibilities. This is what he tried to express through the life of Vera Pavlovna Chernyshevsky. "What to do?" chapter by chapter draws a colorful picture of the phased construction of "real life" to readers. Vera Pavlovna leaves her mother and decides to open her own business, she realizes that only equality between all members of her artel will correspond to her ideals of freedom, and her absolute happiness with Kirsanov depends on Lopukhov’s personal happiness.
Personal freedom is interconnected with high moral principles - this is the whole Chernyshevsky.
Characteristics of the personality of the author through his heroes
Both writers and readers, as well as all-knowing critics, are of the opinion that the main characters of the work are a kind of literary copies of their creators. Even if not exact copies, then they are very similar in spirit to the author. The story of the novel "What to do?" is conducted in the first person, and the author is an acting character. He enters into conversation with other heroes, even argues with them, and, like a “voice-over,” explains to the characters and readers many points that are not clear to them.
At the same time, the author conveys doubts to the reader about his writing abilities, says that “he even speaks poorly in language,” and certainly there is not a drop of “artistic talent” in him. But for the reader his doubts are unconvincing, this also refutes the novel, which Chernyshevsky himself created, "What to do?" Vera Pavlovna and the rest of the characters are so accurately and versatile written out, endowed with such unique individual qualities that an author who does not have true talent would be unable to create.
New but so different
The heroes of Chernyshevsky, these positive "new people", according to the author, from the category of unrealistic, non-existent, at one beautiful time must themselves firmly enter our lives. To enter, to dissolve into the crowd of ordinary people, to press them out, to resurrect someone, to convince someone, and the rest - those who cannot be resisted - to completely push out from the general mass, ridding them of society like a field of weed grass. Artistic utopia, which Chernyshevsky himself clearly understood and tried to define through the name, “What to do?” Special person, in his deep conviction, he is able to radically change the world around him, but how to do this, he must determine for himself.
Chernyshevsky created his novel as opposed to Turgenev's “Fathers and Sons,” his “new people” do not at all resemble the cynical and annoying nihilist Bazarov. The cardinality of these images in the implementation of their main task: the hero of Turgenev wanted around himself from everything old that had survived his own “place to clear”, that is, to destroy, while the characters of Chernyshevsky were more trying to build something, create before they destroy.
The formation of the "new man" in the middle of the XIX century
These two works of the great Russian writers became for the readers and the literary community of the second half of the 19th century a kind of beacon - a ray of light in the dark kingdom. Both Chernyshevsky and Turgenev loudly declared the existence of a “new man”, his need to form a special mood in society, capable of making fundamental changes in the country.
If you re-read and translate the summary of "What to do?" Chernyshevsky in the plane of revolutionary ideas that deeply struck the minds of a certain part of the population of those years, then many allegorical features of the work will become easily explainable. The image of the “bride of her grooms”, seen by Vera Pavlovna in her second dream, is nothing but the “Revolution” - this is the conclusion drawn by writers living in different years, who have studied and analyzed the novel from all sides. The remaining images, which are described in the novel, are marked with allegorical status, regardless of whether they are animated or not.
A bit about the theory of rational egoism
The desire for change, not only for themselves, not only for their loved ones, but for everyone else, runs through the whole novel with a red thread. This is completely different from the theory of calculating one’s own profit, which Turgenev discloses in “Fathers and Sons”. In many respects, Chernyshevsky agrees with his fellow writer, believing that any person not only can, but also must reasonably calculate and determine his individual path to his own happiness. But at the same time, he says that you can enjoy it only surrounded by the same happy people. This is the fundamental difference between the plots of two novels: for Chernyshevsky, the heroes forge prosperity for everyone, for Turgenev, Bazarov creates his own happiness without looking back at those around him. The closer we are through his novel Chernyshevsky.
“What to do?”, The analysis of which we give in our review, is, as a result, much closer to the reader of the Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”.
Briefly about the plot
As the reader, who never picked up Chernyshevsky’s novel, could already determine, the main character of the work is Vera Pavlovna. Through her life, the formation of her personality, her relationship with others, including men, the author reveals the main idea of his novel. Summary of “What to do?” Chernyshevsky without enumerations of the characteristics of the main characters and the details of their lives can be conveyed in several sentences.
Vera Rozalskaya (aka Vera Pavlovna) lives in a rather well-to-do family, but everyone in her native house disgusts her: her mother with her dubious activities, and friends who think one thing, but say and do something else. Having decided to leave her parents, our heroine tries to find a job, but only a
fictitious marriage with her close-minded Dmitry Lopukhov gives the girl that freedom and the lifestyle she dreams of. Vera Pavlovna creates a sewing workshop with equal rights to her income for all seamstresses - a rather progressive idea for that time. Even her sudden outbreak of love for her husband’s close friend, Alexander Kirsanov, of which she was convinced, caring for a sick Lopukhov with Kirsanov, does not deprive her of sanity and nobility: she does not leave her husband, does not leave the workshop. Seeing the mutual love of his wife and close friend, Lopukhov, staging suicide, frees Vera Pavlovna from all obligations to him. Vera Pavlovna and Kirsanov are getting married and are quite happy with this, and after a few years Lopukhov reappears in their life. But only under a different name and with a new wife. Both families settle in the neighborhood, spend a lot of time together and are quite satisfied with the circumstances that have developed in this way.
Does being determine consciousness?
The formation of Vera Pavlovna’s personality is far from the regularities of the character traits of her peers who grew up and were brought up in conditions similar to her. Despite her youth, lack of experience and connections, the heroine clearly knows what she wants in life. Successfully getting married and becoming an ordinary mother of the family is not for her, especially since by the age of 14 the girl was able to and understood a lot. She sewed beautifully and provided the whole family with clothes, at the age of 16 she began to earn money by giving private lessons in playing the piano. The mother’s desire to marry her is met with a firm refusal and creates her own business - a sewing workshop. About broken stereotypes, about bold actions of a strong nature, the work "What to do?" Chernyshevsky, in his own way, gives an explanation to the well-established assertion that consciousness determines that being in which a person is. It determines, but only as he decides - either following the path chosen by him or not, or finds his own. Vera Pavlovna left the path prepared for her by her mother and the environment in which she lived, and created her own path.
Between the realms of dreams and reality
Defining your path does not mean finding it and following it. Between dreams and their embodiment in reality lies a huge chasm. Someone does not dare to jump over it, but someone collects all his will into a fist and takes a decisive step. So answers the raised problem in his novel Chernyshevsky "What to do?" The analysis of the stages of the formation of the personality of Vera Pavlovna instead of the reader is carried out by the author himself. He guides him through the embodiment of the heroine of her dreams of her own freedom into reality through vigorous activity. Let it be a difficult, but direct and completely passable path. And on it Chernyshevsky not only directs his heroine, but also allows her to achieve what she wants, letting the reader understand that only through activity can one achieve the cherished goal. Unfortunately, the author emphasizes that not everyone chooses this path. Not every.
Reflection of reality through dreams
In a rather unusual form, he wrote his novel “What to do?” Chernyshevsky. The dreams of Faith - there are four of them in the novel - reveal the depth and originality of those thoughts that cause real events in her. In her first dream, she sees herself freed from the basement. This is a kind of symbolism of leaving her own home, where she was destined for an unacceptable fate for her. Through the idea of releasing the girls, like her, Vera Pavlovna creates her own workshop in which each seamstress receives an equal share of her total income.
The second and third dreams explain to the reader through real and fantastic filth, reading Verochka’s diary (which she, by the way, never kept), what thoughts about the existence of different people possess the heroine at different times in her life, what she thinks about her second marriage and about the very necessity of this marriage. Explanation through dreams is a convenient form of presentation of the work chosen by Chernyshevsky. "What to do?" - the content of the novel , reflected through dreams, characters the main characters in dreams - a worthy example of Chernyshevsky’s application of this new form.
Ideals of a brighter future, or the Fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna
If the first three dreams of the heroine reflected her attitude to fait accompli, then her fourth dream is her dream of the future. It is enough to recall it in more detail. So, Vera Pavlovna is dreaming of a completely different world, implausible and beautiful. She sees many happy people living in a wonderful house: luxurious, spacious, surrounded by amazing views, decorated with beating fountains. In it, no one feels disadvantaged, for all - one common joy, one general well-being, in it all are equal.
Such are the dreams of Vera Pavlovna; Chernyshevsky would also like to see reality ("What to do?"). Dreams, and they, as we recall, about the relationship between reality and the world of dreams, reveal not so much the spiritual world of the heroine as the author of the novel itself. And his full realization of the impossibility of creating such a reality, a utopia that cannot be accomplished, but for which it is still necessary to live and work. And this is also the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna.
Utopia and its predictable ending
As everyone knows, his main work is the novel “What to do?” - Nikolai Chernyshevsky wrote while in custody. Deprived of family, society, freedom, seeing reality in dungeons in a completely new way, dreaming of a different reality, the writer set it out on paper, not believing in its implementation. The fact that "new people" are able to change the world, Chernyshevsky did not doubt it. But the fact that not everyone could stand under the power of circumstances, and not everyone would be worthy of a better life, he also understood.
How does the novel end? The idyllic coexistence of two congenial families: the Kirsanovs and Lopukhovy-Byumont. A small world created by active people full of noble thoughts and deeds. Are there many happy communities like these around? Not! Is this not an answer to Chernyshevsky’s dreams of the future? Those who want to create their own prosperous and happy world will create it, those who do not want to will go with the flow.