In this article we will consider the famous cycle of A. S. Pushkin - "The Tale of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin." We will talk in particular about the images of the main characters and their significance for understanding the entire work.
About the work
The Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin (the main characters will be discussed below) were written by Pushkin in 1830 in the village of Bolshoy Boldino. Everything in the cycle included 5 novels, starting with Shot and ending with The Young Lady Peasant.
The cycle begins with the preface "From the Publisher", the writing of which dates from October-November 1830. For the first time, the entire work was published in 1831.
The main character ("The Tale of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin")
Strictly speaking, it is impossible to determine any one protagonist of all the tales, since in each story he is his own. Nevertheless, there is a character who directly or indirectly unites these stories - this is Ivan Petrovich Belkin himself.
He is a storyteller, landowner of the village of Goryukhin. The reader knows that he was born in 1789, his father was a second major. The village clerk taught him and through him the hero became addicted to writing. From 1815 to 1823 Belkin served in the jaeger regiment. He died of a fever in 1828, not having lived to see the publication of “his” stories.
Pushkin creates this hero using the following set of literary techniques: we learn the life story of Belkin from a letter from a certain “respectable husband” to which the publisher is sent by the closest relative of the deceased Trafilina Maria Alekseevna; the characterization of the hero also includes the epigraph to the entire cycle - the words of mother about her son Mitrofanushka from the comedy "Undergrowth" by Fonvizin.
This simple-minded storytelling hero was created by the author in order to combine the literary world and the real Russian province. It is from Belkin that the reader learns all the stories.
Silvio
Pushkin's main characters are very different from each other. "Belkin's Tale" in this respect is simply full of dissimilar and distinctive heroes. The clearest example is Silvio, the protagonist of the story "Shot". He is 35 years old, he is a duelist officer who is obsessed with revenge.
Belkin is told about him by Colonel I.L.P., he is a storyteller and narrative is being conducted on his behalf. First, the colonel describes his personal impressions of the meeting with Silvio, then he retells the episode from the words of Count R. This way of storytelling gives the reader the opportunity to see the main character through the eyes of different people. Despite the fact that the points of view are different, the very perception of Silvio does not particularly change. His immutability is specially emphasized by Pushkin, as is his desire to seem strange and ambivalent.
Silvio deliberately tries to confuse his actions and disrupts motives. But the more he does it, the easier his character is seen. It is no coincidence that Pushkin emphasizes the hero’s love for novels. It is from here that his frantic desire to take revenge. And the fact that in the end Silvio shoots not at the enemy, but at the picture, does not change the overall situation. The hero remains a restless romantic who no longer has a place in life.
Marya Gavrilovna
Maria Gavrilovna is the main character of Belkin’s novel “Snowstorm”. This story was told to Belkin by the girl K.I.T.
The main character is a 17-year-old pale and slender girl, the daughter of the landowner of the village of Nenaradov, Gavrila Gavrilovich R. Maria Gavrilovna is endowed with a romantic imagination, that is, she perceives life like a literary work. She is a typical lover of French novels and Russian ballads, recently appeared in literature.
The main characters of Belkin’s novel “Snowstorm”, however, like the heroes of other stories and the narrator himself, are infected with a romantic worldview. They are constantly trying to stage a romance in life, but always fail.
So, Maria Gavrilovna is plotting something romantic out of her love. Her parents do not like the army ensign chosen by her. Then the heroine decides to secretly marry him. After that, she sees how the parents will get angry at first, but then they will forgive and call the children to themselves. But something is going wrong. And the day after the escape the heroine renders in her own bed, after which she becomes ill.
Life makes its own adjustments to romantic dreams. A blizzard knocks Vladimir out of the way. And the girl is married to an unknown man. Only in the finale does it become clear who he is. Nevertheless, Pushkin very clearly shows how unviable romantic dreams are.
Adriyan Prokhorov
Prokhorov is the protagonist of Belkin’s story “The Undertaker”. He serves in Moscow as an undertaker. His story is told by clerk B.V. Adriyan is a gloomy character, he is not happy with anything, even the fulfillment of the dream of his whole life - moving the family from Basmannaya to his house on Nikitskaya. But this is not surprising, because Prokhorov is tormented by the almost Hamletian question - whether or not to be, being at death, the merchant's wife Tryukhina. And if she dies, they will send him or not, because his new home is very far from the place where the dying woman lives.
In this story, Pushkin's voice is heard most strongly. We hear Pushkin's ridicule in describing the life and thoughts of the protagonist. And it soon becomes clear that Adriyan’s sadness and gloom is not that he constantly sees death, but that he reduces everything in his life to one thing - whether he will benefit from it or not. So, rain for him is only a source of ruin, and man is a potential client. Rebirth helps him in horror, which will catch up with a dream, where former "clients" are to him. Waking up after a nightmare, he realizes that he can now rejoice.
Samson Vyrin
Samson Vyrin is completely different from the rest of the main characters (Belkin's Tale). In his description we do not hear Pushkin's ridicule and irony. This is an unfortunate person, a station warden, an official of the last class, a real martyr. He has a daughter, Dunya, whom the passing hussar took with him to St. Petersburg.
The story that happened to Vyrin is told by the titular adviser A.G. The Stationmaster is a key story in the series, which confirms the mention of this in the introduction. In addition, Vyrin is the most difficult of all the heroes of the work.
The plot of the station ranger's life is very simple. After the death of his wife, Duni falls on the shoulders of the house and the household. Passing hussar Minsky, struck by the beauty of the girl, pretends to be ill to stay longer in the house of Vyrin, and then takes her daughter away. A father goes for his daughter, but this has no result. Minsky first tries to give Vyrin money, and after the appearance of Dunya and her fainting, he expels him up close. The abandoned father drank alone and dies. On his grave to cry comes Dunya in a gilded carriage.
Berestov Alexey Ivanovich
The characters of the “Young Lady Peasant” are subject to romantic dreams, like almost all the main characters. Belkin's Tale is a rather ironic work in this regard. The only exception is the history of the station ranger.
So, Alexey Berestov arrives in his native village of Tugilovo. Here he falls in love with Lisa of Murom, who lives in the neighborhood. The hero’s father, a Russophile and the owner of a cloth factory, hates the neighbor of Murom, a passionate Englishman. Alexey himself also strives for everything European and behaves like a dandy. Pushkin comically describes the enmity of the neighbors, clearly making references to the war of the Scarlet and White Roses and to the enmity of Capulet and Montecca.
Nevertheless, despite Alexey’s Englishness, under his pallor “a healthy blush emerges”, which fully describes his character. Truly Russian people are hiding under the pretense of romance.
Lisa of Murom
Lisa is the 17-year-old daughter of an Englishman, who squandered all his fortune in the capital, and therefore now lives in the village without going anywhere. Makes the district young lady Pushkin out of her heroine. Belkin’s Tales (the main characters we have reviewed) are populated by heroes who later turn into literary characters. So, Lisa is the prototype of the county young lady, and Samson Vyrin is the little man.
Lisa’s knowledge of the life of light is gleaned from books, nevertheless, her feelings are fresh and her emotions are sharp. In addition, the girl is endowed with a strong and clear character. Despite her English upbringing, she feels herself Russian. It is Lisa who finds a way out of the conflict - the children of the warring parents cannot meet and communicate. The girl disguises herself as a peasant, which allows her to see Alexei. The reader sees that the character of Lisa is much stronger than that of her lover. It is thanks to her that they end up together at the end of the story.
conclusions
Thus, Pushkin shows the reader an incredible variety of characters. His main characters are amazing and unlike each other. That’s why Belkin’s Tales was such a great success. The work is much ahead of its time and has many innovative elements.