Turgenev’s story “Mumu” impressed the whole audience who read it. No one could understand why Gerasim drowned Mumu. To all readers, this picture to this day brings to tears. 155 years have passed since the writing of the story, but once you mention it, this terrible scene pops up in your head. It was noticed that the population who had read Turgenev’s story really worried about the question: “Why did Gerasim drown Mumu?”. Really, why? After all, he loved Gerasim Mumu, she was an indispensable and loyal friend to him! There are a lot of answers and assumptions; we will consider some of them.
The main thing is the plot. The story is read in one breath, everything goes easily and naturally. The reader has a feeling of compassion for Gerasim, who is deprived of fate. But the deaf-mute janitor at the capricious and arrogant lady had a large and responsive heart. And so the main character meets a dog that he begins to love with all his soul. The dog becomes the only true friend of Gerasim. What happens then? Why did Gerasim drown Mumu? According to the story, the lady ordered her servant to get rid of the dog. At first, Mumu is abducted, but she cuts the ropes and returns to the owner, and the second time she is ordered to kill. And none other than Gerasim himself undertakes this assignment. After Gerasim drowned Mumu in the river, he leaves the lady in the village.
Actually, the question arises: "Why did Gerasim drown Mumu?" He could easily have gone with her to the village. Some suspect that this is a life attitude, brought up by the serfdom - in the sense that you do not need to rebel, you must follow the order and live on. Others say that Turgenev walked through life with Oscar Wilde’s phrase “We always kill those we love.” Still others believe that Turgenev himself was an honest, decent man, and if he had been ordered to do something like that, he would have done it without hesitation.
There is a version that Turgenev wrote a story, between the lines of which was embodied a biblical story telling about Abraham and Isaac. This is a story about how God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham is already at an advanced age, realizes that he will not have more children and loves his son Isaac excessively. Despite all this, Abraham and his son go up the mountain so that the father would sacrifice him. The story of Gerasim and Mumu is very similar. Gerasim acts as Abraham, and Mumu as Isaac; the lady is represented in the role of God. One way or another, there are similarities, and you can think about this.
Why Gerasim drowned the Mumu, today both the great philologists and all the readers of Turgenev cannot understand. The work is rather cruel and unfair. Not every adult can withstand such prose, but children even more so. Indeed, in the center of the plot are two friends, and one of them kills the other. Mumu believed Gerasim, she ran away from the thieves to him. The dog would have given his life for his master, but he decided to get rid of it in this way. It is interesting that Gerasim did not care if they punished him or not if he disobeyed. The main thing was to fulfill the order! He did this without even thinking. The deep philosophy of this work will excite more than one generation of readers.