The life of N. S. Leskov was difficult and painful. Unclear and unappreciated by contemporaries, he received blows from right-wing critics as insufficiently loyal and from leftists, the same N. A. Nekrasov, who could not help but see the depth of the writer’s talent, but did not print it in his Sovremennik. And Leskov, the wizard of the word, wove patterns of Russian speech and lowered his heroes into those abysses in which the heroes of Dostoevsky painfully existed, and then lifted them to heaven, where there was the world of Leo Tolstoy.
He paved the path in our prose that connected these two geniuses. This is especially noticeable when you immerse yourself in the structure of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer”. Ivan Flyagin, whose characteristics will be presented below, either descends to the underworld, then soars to the heights of the spirit.
The appearance of the hero
The enchanted wanderer is presented at Leskov as a typical Russian hero. He is huge, and a long black cassock and a tall cap on his head make it even larger.
Ivan's face is dark, he is over 50. His hair is thick, but with lead gray. By article and power he reminds Ilya of Muromets, a good-natured hero from Russian epics. This is what Ivan Flyagin looks like, the characterization of which will reveal the connection between the external and the internal, his wanderings and the dynamics of his development.
Childhood and the first murder
He grew up in the stable and knew the nature of every horse, knew how to cope with the most restive horse, and this requires not only physical strength, but the strength of mind that the horse will feel and even recognize the owner in the child. And a strong personality grew up, which was morally somewhat undeveloped. The author tells in detail what Ivan Flyagin was at that time. His characterization is given in an episode when, just like that, from the fullness of forces that have nowhere to apply, effortlessly killed an innocent monk. There was only a wave of the whip with which the eleven-year-old boy hit the monk and the horses were carried, and the monk, having fallen, immediately died without repentance.
But the soul of the murdered man appeared to the boy and promised that he would die many times, but still he would go to the monks without disappearing on the roads of life.
Salvation of a noble family
And right next to Leskov, like beads strung, he leads a tale about the exact opposite case, when, again without thinking about anything, Ivan Flyagin saves his life to his masters. His characteristic is courage and daring, about which the foolishly does not even think, but only again acts without any thought.
God led the child, and he saved him from certain death in a deep abyss. These are the abysses that Leskov immediately throws his character into. But from a young age he is completely disinterested. For his feat asked accordion Ivan Flyagin. The characteristics of his subsequent actions, for example, the rejection of big money for the ransom of the girl who made him babysit, will show that he never seeks profit for himself.
Second kill and escape
Quietly, in a fair fight, he killed (as if it was a dispute over who would screw up someone with a whip), as it should be, Tatar Ivan Flyagin. The characteristic of this act shows that the 23-year-old young Ivan has not matured to assess his own actions, but is ready to accept any, even immoral rules of the game that he is offered.
And as a result, he hides from the justice of the Tatars. But in the end - he is captured in a Tatar prison. Ivan will spend ten years with his "saviors of other faiths" and will miss his homeland until he runs away. And he will be led by determination, endurance and willpower.
Love test
On the journey of life, Ivan will meet a beautiful singer, gypsy Grushenka. She is so good in appearance that Ivan is breathtaking from her beauty, but her spiritual world is also rich.
The girl, feeling that Flagin will understand her, tells her uncomplicated eternal girlish grief: her beloved played with her and left her. And she cannot live without him and is afraid that she will either kill him together with his new lover, or she will lay hands on herself. Both that and another frightens her - it is not Christian. And Ivan the Pear asks to take sin into his soul - to kill her. At first Ivan was embarrassed and did not dare, but then the pity for the girl's unrequited torment outweighed all his doubts. The strength of her suffering led to the fact that Ivan Flyagin pushed the Pear into the abyss. The characteristic of this act is the special side of humanity. It’s scary to kill, and the commandment of Christ says: “Thou shalt not kill.” But Ivan, transgressing through her, reaches the highest level of self-sacrifice - he sacrifices his immortal soul to save the soul of a girl. He, while alive, hopes to atone for this sin.
Soldier Care
And here again the case confronts Ivan with another grief. Under a false name, Ivan Severyanych Flyagin leaves for soldiers, for war, for certain death. The characterization of this episode in his life is a continuation of the previous one: compassion and sacrifice lead him to this act. What is the highest? To perish for the fatherland, for the people. But fate keeps him - Ivan has not yet passed all the trials that she is going to send him.
What is a sense of life?
A wanderer, a wanderer, a kalika passer, Ivan is a seeker of truth. For him, the main thing is to find the meaning of life, coupled with poetry. The image and characterization of Ivan Flyagin in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” enables the author to embody the dreaminess inherent in the people themselves. Ivan conveys the spirit of seeking truth. Ivan Flyagin is a miserable man who has experienced so much in his lifetime that it would be enough for a few people. He takes on his soul innumerable sufferings that bring him to a new, higher spiritual orbit, in which life and poetry unite.
Description of Ivan Flyagin as a narrator
The tale of Flyagin-Leskov is deliberately slowed down, as in an epic thoughtful song. But when the forces of events and characters gradually accumulate, then he becomes dynamic, impetuous. In the episode of curbing the horse, which even the Englishman Rarey cannot handle, the narrative is dynamic and sharp. Descriptions of horses are given in such a way that folk songs and epics are recalled. The horse in the 6th chapter is compared with a bird that does not bear its strength.
The image is extremely poetic and merges with the Gogol bird-three. This prose should be read recitation, slowed down, like a poem in prose. And there are a lot of such poems. What is the episode at the end of chapter 7, when the suffering wanderer prays so that the snow melted under his knees, and where the tears were dripping, grass appears in the morning. This is said by the lyric poet - the sufferer. This and other miniatures have the right to separate existence. But inserted by Leskov into a large narrative, they give him the necessary coloring, enriching the reflection.
The plan-characteristic of Ivan Flyagin
When writing an essay, you can be guided by such a brief plan:
- The entry is an enchanted wanderer.
- Character appearance.
- Wandering.
- Charm for life.
- "Sinfulness" of Ivan.
- Unmeasured heroic forces.
- Traits of the Russian character in the hero.
In conclusion, it should be said that N. S. Leskov himself walked the earth as a fascinated traveler, although he saw life in all its multilayered nature. The poetry of life was revealed to N. S. Leskov in contemplation and reflection, in a word. Perhaps the key to the “Enchanted Wanderer” is a poem by F. Tyutchev “Send the Lord their joy ...”. Reread and ponder the way of the wanderer.
The epithet “charmed” increases the sense of poetry of the traveler’s figure. Enchanted, captivating, bewitched, demented, subdued - the range of this spiritual quality is great. For the writer, the charmed wanderer was a characteristic figure of a man who could be entrusted with part of his dreams, make him an exponent of reserved thoughts and aspirations of the people.