The school curriculum is always attended by classics, including Poor People. The summary is intended for those who, for whatever reason, did not find time to read the work on time before the examination. In the end, it may be such that the moment in life has not yet come when one wants to read Dostoevsky consciously, which is why “Poor People” is offered below - a brief summary of the work.
The main character is the titular adviser Makar Devushkin, 49 years old. Despite the title, he rewrites pennies of paper for one of the departments of St. Petersburg. The hero is optimistic about life: hiding behind a partition in the kitchen of a shared apartment, he describes housing as a “new apartment”. He has to save on everything in order to pay for the accommodation of his distant relative, Varvara Dobroselova, whom Devushkin voluntarily takes care of. He rarely sees her, although he took her up at the age of seventeen.
The short story “Poor People” boils down to writing letters — the only way to communicate between Makar and Varenka. On paper, they pour soul to each other and hope for a brighter future. In order to buy sweets for Vara, Devushkin denies himself lighting and food, explaining this with the only "paternal affection." However, going to Varia will be embarrassed.
Makar describes the poverty in which he lives and which is ashamed. An alarm for him at Varenka is raised by a relative with whom she lives - Anna Fedorovna, the “benefactor” who offered the orphan landowner Bykov. Now Devushkin must save, take out Varenka, who had been unconscious for almost a month after the violence.
In one of the letters, the girl sets out the story of her youth. The former teacher Varenka, whom Dostoevsky described in the novel “Poor People,” Peter, who was once a student, seemed to Vara to be a good man, but his attitude to his father who visited him was surprising. The case was the unbridled drunkenness of the old man, the same petty official for whom the tyrant Bykov gave the beautiful mother of Peter. At the insistence of the same Bykov, the young man was learned and sent to Anna Fedorovna for bread. Here he met Varenka, took up her taste and upbringing.
Alas, misfortune befell the old father: Peter fell ill and died of consumption. His books went to a drunkard who filled their pockets and ran after the wagon with the body of the deceased, sobbing and dropping tomes into the mud. Vara is doubly uneasy - shortly after Peter her mother dies.
By the end of June, Makar had run out of all his savings, and he was forced to move out. An unpleasant incident occurs with a search officer pushing Makar down the stairs. The neighbors chuckle at the role of Varenka in his life.
All attempts to borrow at interest fail. The girl in response tells about her fate, but in the story “Poor People” the summary only conveys the main points: he has been in the service for thirty years, he sits quietly and does not protrude, his only joy now is Varenka. He meets her during a walk and admires every thought that has been put forward for discussion by the book, including Pushkin's “Station Warden”. But the Gogol's “Overcoat” offends the official’s feelings, as if his “linen had been turned inside out.”
The girl’s health is getting worse and she is not able to work anymore. The girls are desperate, and the only incident that somehow corrected his situation was a call to the boss. He became indignant over the appearance of the employee and condescendingly gave him one hundred rubles. The amount was enough to pay for housing, medicine and sweets for Varenka.
At the same time, Bykov comes to the girl to meet, who wants to have legal heirs in order to deprive his nephew of money. Varya agrees - this is her only way to save her name. Makar is overwhelmed with grief, but helps the pupil collect dowry. On the day of the wedding, he confesses to Varenka that he wrote and worked for her alone, so “by what right are human life destroyed”?
This is a summary. “Poor people” - a work that is the standard of creativity of the great Dostoevsky.