World literature has a rich arsenal of diverse techniques that help create artistic images. The best characterizes the hero is his portrait. After all, a character is not only a specific personality, but also a generalization. The writer tries to show his character traits and interest the reader in his appearance, fate, and surroundings.
An important means of characterization is the portrait. Very often, authors describe a figure, face, clothes, movements, gestures, manners of characters. Description of appearance can tell a lot about a person. In the article we will try to define what a portrait is in the literature, and give examples of it. We also define the main types of descriptions of man in books.
Let's turn to the theory
What is a portrait in literature? By a portrait of a character is meant an image of his appearance: a figure, face, dress. The visible properties of behavior are added to it: gestures, facial expressions, gait, manner of holding. There are a lot of examples of portraiture in literature. They help the reader to visualize thoughts, feelings, actions, speech, appearance of the actor.
Let's try to define the portrait in the literature. This is a means of artistic expression through which the writer manages to reveal typical character traits of his heroes, as well as convey his ideas through their appearance. This technique helps to reveal the inner world of the character. From the description of a person you can find out his age, nationality, social status, tastes, habits, temperament and even character.
Depending on the genre, the genre of the work, a portrait of a person in literature is also selected. For this, for many years the masters of the word used certain canons and patterns. Until the end of the 18th century, common features prevailed over the individual. But then the transition from abstraction to specificity, feelings, authenticity and originality began to be observed.
The very word "portrait" was borrowed from the French language (portraire). It has the meaning of "reproducing something in hell." The portrait in works of literature and on canvas has differences. They both describe the appearance of a person, but by different means. The writer paints his portraits with a word. Here is an example of a portrait in literature from the story of Vladimir Korolenko "In a bad society":
He was a boy about ten years old, bigger than me, thin and thin, like a reed. He was dressed in a dirty shirt, his hands in his pockets of narrow and short pants. Dark hair was shaggy over black thoughtful eyes.
This portrait of the boy Valik gives an idea not only about his appearance, but also about the life of the hero. The reader imagines a poor boy with a destitute childhood. It is immediately felt that his mother is not caring for him.
The mirror of the soul is the human eye. Writers very often pay attention to them.
From the description of the appearance, one can judge how the author himself relates to his hero: sympathizes, empathizes, or condemns. Affectionate descriptions may contain words with diminutive suffixes.
Artistic Feature
Literature is a verbal art, in it a portrait is used along with other artistic means. The writer also uses the deployment of actions in the plot, describes the thoughts, the mood of the characters, uses the dialogue of the characters, shows the situation. Even in the school curriculum, the concept of an artistic image is introduced, one of the sides of which is the description of appearance.
An artistic portrait has a special visual visualization in literature. Combining with everyday descriptions and landscapes, he brings to the work a special power of visualization. Typical and individual traits may be found in the description. A literary hero is most often depicted as a social, historical person, a representative of a particular social era. It belongs to a certain class, group. With the help of appearances, movements, manners, the social environment is characterized, which the writer generalizes and evaluates.
Sometimes a character's description is scattered throughout the work. If you collect pieces of sketches, you get an integral portrait essay. Here, for example, what portrait of Margarita collected from passages is obtained in Bulgakov’s work “The Master and Margarita”:
... on her black spring coat ...
... his hand in a black glove with a bell ...
... shoes with black suede bows trimmed with steel buckles ...
... a developed strand, her decisive eyes take her ...
... short curly hair ... "" ... hairdressing salon ...
... a black handbag lay next to her on a bench ...
... biting meat with white teeth, Margarita ...
... thin fingers with sharpened nails ...
... Eyebrows plucked around the edges of the thread with tweezers ...
The story of appearance descriptions in works
Portrait characteristics appeared in the works gradually and most often referred to a direct assessment of the author himself. The first portraits in literary works were published in magazines. C. Prayer of St. Bev became the European pioneer of portraiture. At the beginning of the 19th century, he published descriptions of Lafontaine, Boileau, and Cornell in the Revue de Paris magazine.
Russian portraiture began with Karamzin. It was he who published the biography of I. F. Bogdanovich in Vestnik Evropy. Since then, in many Russian magazines there have been special sections called "Biography", where there were portrait essays. After that, the genre of description of appearance moved from magazines to books.
At first, the portraiture was inherent in the genre of literary criticism, but then a new romantic method began to emerge. It included metaphors, comparisons, vibrant epithets. Portrait painting has become very colorful.
How does portrait change in different genres?
Each literary genre and genre has its own artistic methods for portraiture sketches. Naturalist writers tried to show the heroes believable and realistic. By this they revealed deep social contradictions. The hero was shown as a typical representative of his environment with its usual, everyday everyday features without exception and something surprising. A similar description can be observed in Gogol's "Overcoat":
The official cannot be said to be very remarkable, short in stature, somewhat puffy, somewhat reddish, somewhat even blind, with a small bald spot on the forehead, with wrinkles on both sides of the cheeks and complexion called hemorrhoidal.
Science fiction writers, romantics escaped from everyday life and everyday descriptions. Heroes were portrayed as exceptional, unusual. A lot was exaggerated and had the features of fantasy. A similar description is observed in Taras Bulba:
The Bursaks suddenly changed: they appeared, instead of the old soiled boots, morocco red, with silver horseshoes; wide trousers in the Black Sea, with a thousand folds and with collections, were wrapped in a golden frame; long straps, with tassels and other trinkets, were attached to the frame, for the tube. Cossack of scarlet color, cloth bright as fire, girdled a patterned belt; hammered Turkish pistols were retracted by the belt; the saber rattled on the legs. Their faces, still slightly tanned, seemed prettier and whiter; the young black mustache now somehow shaded their whiteness and the healthy, powerful color of youth; they were good under black lamb hats with a gold top.
Portraits by Pushkin and Lermontov
In the first half of the 19th century, a system of genres took shape in Russian painting and literature. Realism began to prevail more and more. There were new techniques for creating artistic images. The description of the appearance helped the writers to create a first impression of the characters, to reveal their inner world.
Pushkin and Lermontov already filled portrait sketches with comparisons, metaphors, and epithets. Both poets have accumulated a beautiful portrait gallery. The development of their portrait image was influenced by new ideas about the significance of the human person. The characters in their works are fictional and genuine.
Descriptions of the characters are in Pushkin's novel "The Captain's Daughter." Masha Mironova was a young girl, both fragile and courageous.
“But where is Masha? Then a girl of about eighteen came in. Chubby, ruddy, with light brown hair, smoothly combed over her ears, which she burned.
One gets the impression of Masha as a shy girl with an easygoing character. Also in the story of Pushkin is a portrait of Shvabrin, a representative of the officers. We see him as a duelist, a traitor who does not have any spiritual convictions:
A young officer of short stature came in with a dark-skinned and perfectly ugly face, but extremely lively.
The historical hero of the novel is Emelyan Pugachev himself. Pushkin draws him simple, fair, "home". From the description it is clear that this is a courageous and quick-witted person from the people and wholly belonging to the people:
He was about forty years old, medium-tall, thin and broad-shouldered. His black beard showed gray hair; living big eyes and ran. His face had an expression rather pleasant, but roguish. Hair was cut in a circle; on it was a tattered Armenian and Tatar bloomers.
It was a beautiful Cossack caftan, sheathed with galunas. A tall sable hat with golden tassels was pulled over his sparkling eyes. His face seemed familiar to me.
Many loved the Pushkin image of Tatyana Larina from the novel "Eugene Onegin." The poet in the work gives, rather, not her appearance, but the inner portrait.
So, she was called Tatyana.
Not the beauty of her sister,
Not the freshness of her rosy
She wouldn’t attract her eyes.
Wild, sad, silent,
How forest doe is fearful
She is in her own family
She seemed a stranger girl.
She did not know how to caress
To his father, not to his mother;
The child herself, in a crowd of children
I didn’t want to play and jump
And often all day alone
Sat silently by the window.
This not typical image of a Russian noblewoman fascinates meekness, thoughtfulness, charm and unusualness. For a more vivid perception of the image of Tatyana Pushkin gives a description of the appearance of her sister Olga:
Always modest, always obedient,
Eyes like sky blue
Always like a morning fun.
Smile, linen curls,
How the poet’s life is simple-minded,
Movement, voice, lightweight camp,
Like a kiss of love sweetheart ...
The reader sees Olga Larina as the embodiment of femininity and grace. The image is filled with cheerfulness. The girl brightens the surrounding life and brings affection and warmth to it. With her femininity she conquers Lensky. Only in many ways is the heroine inferior to Tatyana in her emotional world with feelings and thoughts.
Another master of portraiture in Russian literature is Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. He is the author of the first psychological novel "Hero of Our Time". In it, the poet showed a typical young man of the 30s of the XIX century. He had beauty, education, wealth, only there was no satisfaction from life. Pechorin sees no paths for happiness. Here's what it looks like:
... a young man of about twenty-five ...
... he was generally very good and had one of those original physiognomies that women of the world especially like ...
... And it’s ridiculous to think that I am still a boy: my face, although pale, is still fresh; members are flexible and slim; thick curls curl, eyes burn, blood boils ...
... He was of medium height; his slender, thin camp and broad shoulders proved strong build, able to endure all the difficulties of nomadic life and climate change, not defeated either by the depravity of the capital's life, or by mental storms ...
... His skin had some kind of feminine tenderness; blond hair, curling from nature, so picturesquely depicted his pale, noble forehead, on which, only with a long observation, one could notice traces of wrinkles crossing one another and, probably, were indicated much more clearly in moments of anger or anxiety. Despite the light color of his hair, his mustache and eyebrows were black - a sign of breed in a man, like a black mane and black tail in a white horse ...
Descriptions of the appearance of Gogol, Turgenev
In the work of the followers of Pushkin and Lermontov came not detailed characteristics of the appearance, but only some important semantic details. Turgenev in the story "Bezhin Meadow" draws five boys: Fedya, Pavlush, Ilyusha, Kostya, Vanya. The reader gets acquainted in detail with the appearance and clothes of each of them.
The first, oldest of all, Feda, you would have given fourteen years. He was a slender boy, with beautiful and thin, slightly small features, curly blond hair, blond eyes and a constant, half-merry, half-scattered smile. He belonged, by all accounts, to a wealthy family and went out into the field, not out of necessity, but for fun. He was wearing a mottled chintz shirt with a yellow border; a small new Armenian woman, worn in a cap, kept a little on his narrow shoulders; a scallop hung on a blue belt. His boots with low legs were like his boots - not his father's.
The reader learns that the boys were 7 to 14 years old. According to Fed, it is clear that he is from a wealthy peasant family. Pavlush was a poor child:
... He could not flaunt his clothes: all of it consisted of a simple smart shirt and of paid ports ...
Vanya is the youngest with a thin baby voice. This is a quiet and inconspicuous child. The author emphasizes this as follows:
... a brown curly head ...
... fresh face ...
... big silent eyes ...
The hunter watches the boys and gives them a detailed description, highlights the natural talent in them.
We see a very detailed description of the portrait in literature in Turgenev’s novel Asya. The author painted a poetic image of the companion of the Russian hero. The reader sees how the female soul blossoms at the moment of expectation of the chosen one. Turgenev appears before us as a subtle psychologist and an expert on the female heart. He surprisingly gently describes a sublime, gullible, bashful female love. The author draws a touching image of a loving "Turgenev" girl:
... Asya took off her hat; her black hair, cut and combed like a boy’s, fell in large swirls around her neck and ears ...
... we saw Asi's dark head ...
... curls fell into her eyes ...
... Asya continued to sit motionless, picking up her legs under herself and wrapping her head in a muslin scarf; her slender appearance was clearly and beautifully drawn in the clear sky ...
... lowered her long eyelashes ...
... her face, the most volatile face I have ever seen. A few moments later it all turned pale and took a concentrated, almost sad expression ...
... It is folded like a little Raphael Galatea in Farnesin, I whispered ...
... shook her cold fingers ...
A special gallery of literary types was created by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. He pays particular attention to details. With this, Gogol recreated not so much the character of the hero as the social environment. He describes Chichikov from Dead Souls as follows:
... not handsome, but not of a bad appearance, neither too fat nor too thin, one cannot say that he is old, but well, not so that he is too young ...
Gogol shows a typical character. Chichikov very often changes clothes. He is wearing a shirt, a tailcoat, or a Scottish costume. Such a description of the clothes gives the reader the notion that the character is unstable. He constantly changes places, circumstances, appearance. This is a mystery man.
Portrait Master - Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy all his life sought to abandon the descriptive portrait of the hero in literature in favor of the current, revealed in time. Using the dynamism of descriptions, the writer showed the "dialectic of the soul", the inner world of man. Lev Nikolaevich at the same time submits portraits of the characters, in parts, during the development of the plot. The portrait characteristic given to him at the beginning of the work can be supplemented with new details after some period of time.
Tolstoy tried to give a portrait "in public." He emphasized some characteristic features, used tricky details. Such multifunctional subtleties allow you to understand the character of the hero, give an idea of ​​the appearance of the character. Tolstoy carefully selected details: after all, he strove for conciseness. The creative attitude for Tolstoy was the words: "brevity, clarity and simplicity of presentation."
The most famous heroine of Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” is Natasha Rostova. The writer skillfully shows the evolution of Natasha from a young 14-year-old girl to a married woman with many children. Here it is at the beginning of the work:
Fragile, with angular features, thin and generally ugly. Black eyes shine on Natasha’s face and a large, inharmonious mouth stands out. But there is something in Natasha that qualitatively distinguishes her from other girls, sets her against the background of her environment: young Rostova is lively, energetic and inquisitive.
... unable to hold on any longer, she jumped and ran out of the room as soon as her fast legs could carry ...
Young Natasha grew up a real laugh and a cheerful girl.
.. Laugh completely, stop, - Natasha cried. - Shake the whole bed. Awful you look like me, the same laughter ...
... Sometimes she went into her insanely merry mood ...
But what does the heroine look like at the age of 17-20, when she appears at the balls and when Andrei Bolkonsky pays attention to her?
the first time she was in a long dress, at a real ball, she was even happier. They were in white muslin dresses with pink ribbons ... "(at the Yogel Ball on December 31, 1809)
... How sweet she is, kg'assavitsa will be, said Denisov ...
... And how she dances, what a g'ation! - after a pause, he said again ... "(" g'ation "- that is, grace)
... Prince Andrei especially admired her timid grace ...
... looking at this thin, graceful, such a stranger to her, in silk and velvet, brought up by the countess ...
And here is a mature heroine after the death of Prince Andrew:
... Natasha walked in her lilac silk dress with black lace as women can walk, the calmer and grander the more painful and embarrassing she was in her soul. She knew and was not mistaken that she is good ... ... Good, young, and I know that now I’m kind, before I was bad, and now I’m kind, I know ...
... throwing her short, thin braid over her shoulder in front, she began to intertwine it. Thin long familiar fingers quickly, deftly disassembled, wove, tied a braid ...
Being married to Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha has changed a lot both externally and internally.
... Everyone who knew Natasha before marriage was surprised at the change that had occurred in her, as something extraordinary ...
... She, what is called, sank. Natasha did not care about her manners, or the delicacy of her speeches, nor about showing herself to her husband in the most advantageous poses, nor about her toilet ...
... she did not engage in singing, nor in the toilet, nor in deliberation of her words.
... The subject into which Natasha was completely immersed was a family ...
What portraits are found in literature?
Analyzing all of the above about the description of literary characters, we can conclude that they can be:
- Concise, with a minimum of detail. They are laconic, leading to an increasing role of the artistic detail.
- Detailed, richly detailed. Details predominate in them, sometimes even redundant.
- Static A detailed, comprehensive idea of ​​the appearance of the character in them is given at a time and in detail. An example is Plyushkin from Gogol's novel Dead Souls.
- Dynamic. The appearance of the character is detailed, "accumulates" throughout the work. You could follow a similar portrait: this is an image of Natasha Rostova.
- Drawing constant static details: color and facial features, eyes, body features .
- Showing appearance in development. A smile, laughter, gestures, facial expressions, crying, gait, facial expression are depicted.
Psychological portrait in literature
The most common, complex and interesting kind of literary image of a character’s appearance is a psychological portrait. His first brilliant samples appeared in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. The following sketches belong to the psychological appearance of portraits in literature: Herman in The Queen of Spades, Onegin and Tatyana by Pushkin, Pechorin in The Hero of Our Time by Lermontov, Oblomov in the novel by Goncharov, Raskolnikov and other characters of Dostoevsky.
A psychological portrait is called because it reveals the character traits of the heroes. Also, this description shows the psychological state that the hero is experiencing at the moment, how it changes over time. In a psychological portrait, the appearance of the hero is connected with the inner world of the characters. Sometimes in such a portrait description the correspondence of the appearance of the hero to his internal state is emphasized. In another case, the external and internal world are opposed. A hero can be evil and kind, mean and disinterested, a villain and a noble one. The writer in many ways depicts the inner world of the actor:
- he himself describes his appearance and condition;
- shows reviews about it of other persons;
- the hero himself gives a self-portrait.
Bright representatives of foreign psychological prose are Honore de Balzac, Stefan Zweig, Erich Maria Remarque. In addition to Russia, psychological novels were popular in 19th-century France.
The skill of Fedor Dostoevsky
High school students still at school get acquainted with the master of the psychological novel - F. M. Dostoevsky. His most controversial hero is Rodion Raskolnikov from the work Crime and Punishment. The author shows his portrait at different times. The poor student was a handsome young man at the age of 23. He was remembered for a pale face, beautiful dark eyes, dark blond hair. He was tall and slim. Only his clothes looked very poor, so he could be confused with a chimney sweep or ragged man:
he was remarkably handsome, with beautiful dark eyes, dark rus, taller than average, thin and slender ...
... in the subtle features of a young man ...
... Raskolnikov answered ... without lowering his black, sore eyes ...
... some wild energy suddenly sparkled in his sore eyes and in his emaciated pale yellow face ...
Dostoevsky also draws the inner world of Rodion. He was a talented and intelligent person with great potential. Only vanity, arrogance, pride alienated the student from God. Among his negative traits, Dostoevsky draws gloom, gloom, quick temper, isolation, excessive melancholy. However, he was a kind and generous man.
He was very poor and somehow arrogantly proud and uncommunicative; as if something was concealing to himself. It seemed to his other comrades that he looked down on them all, as children, as if he had outstripped them all both in development, knowledge, and convictions, and that he looked at their convictions and interests as something lower. ..
At the beginning of the novel, Rodion is in a state of hypochondria. He sees no other way out, only how to kill the old woman-interest-bearing woman, take her money and start a new life. But mental torment compels him to confess to a crime. He is sent to hard labor in Siberia. There he reads the Gospel and revises his whole life, repents.
... well, so I decided, having taken possession of the old woman’s money, to use it for my first years, without torturing my mother, for providing myself at the university, for the first steps after the university - and to do all this broadly, radically, so that it’s completely arrange a new career and become on a new, independent road to become ... Well ... well, that's all ...
With a psychological portrait of Rodion and his inner state, Dostoevsky is trying to reach out to readers so that they do not act recklessly and are not mistaken. A person should be filled with high morality, genuine faith in God and show love for others.