Josef Schweik is the protagonist of the popular satirical novel by the Czech prose writer Jaroslav Hasek "Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik". This is a fictional character that personifies many of the vices and shortcomings of the most ordinary person. He finds himself in the conditions of the First World War, goes to the front, although he does not fully understand who and why he should fight for.
The author of the novel
Josef Schweik was invented by the Czech satirist Yaroslav Hasek. According to his convictions, he was an anarchist, well-known not only as a writer, but also a journalist, feuilletonist, playwright. He was the commissar of the Red Army.
The author Josef Schweik was born in Prague in 1883. He himself took part in the First World War, was captured. After the war he returned to the Czech Republic, became a famous journalist. He received worldwide recognition thanks to the novel about Joseph Schweik.
History of creation
For the first time, Schweik soldier can be found in Hasek’s short story collection entitled “The Good Soldier Schweik and Other Amazing Stories”, which was published in 1912. The author returned to this hero five years later. In 1917, the story "The Good Soldier Schweik in Captivity" was published in Kiev.
Contemporaries claim that the book became one of the most popular, published in Kiev at that time. True, only a few specimens have survived to this day.
Returning to Prague, Hasek begins to write a great novel about Svejk in six parts. It comes out in parts weekly starting in the spring of 1921. Most publishers considered the hero too vulgar, so Hasek had to publish the first issues at his own expense.
The first part was completed in Prague, the second - in Lipnitsa. After moving to Lipnits, Hasek hires a secretary, who wrote under his dictation every day, from 9 to 12 in the morning and from 15 to 17 hours after lunch. Secretary Stepanek and Hasek's friends note his phenomenal memory, the writer dictated the novel without preliminary notes and sketches, only occasionally using a map and old calendars.
By the end of 1922, the fourth part was begun, but Hasek did not have time to dictate it even until the middle. January 3, 1923 he died.
According to the testimonies of his friends, in the continuation of the novel, Schweik had to go over to the side of the people after the October Revolution and go to the war of liberation in China.
Svejk phenomenon
The brave soldier Josef Schweik is Czech by nationality. He sells stolen and outbred dogs for which he fakes pedigrees. He was once commissed from the army because of dementia, but when the First World War begins, he is called again. As the author notes, "cannon fodder" is necessary .
Svejk is constantly harassed by police bureaucrats, officers play him cards at each other, while he does not lose his cheerfulness, for every occasion in his life he has his own funny story. Throughout the novel, he reluctantly follows the path to the front line.
According to the literary critic S.V. Nikolsky, the prototypes of the brave soldier Schweik were two people: Corporal Josef Schweik and Frantisek Strashlipka - batman of real lieutenant Lukash, company commander Hasek during the First World War.
The image of a brave soldier
Visualized the image of the brave soldier Schweik Joseph Lada. This is a famous Czech artist. Surprisingly, he was blind in one eye after he ran into his father’s knife as a child. Due to this ailment and inability to perceive the depth of the image, according to experts, its unique, unlike anything graphic style has formed.
His work is characterized by laconicism, expressiveness, which he achieves due to simplified lines. Schweik brought him world fame. Joseph Lada made a series of ink illustrations for the novel of the 1924 edition.
What kind of artists Schweik imagine, can be judged by the numerous monuments dedicated to the brave soldier. Monuments to Josef Schweik exist in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Omsk, Samara, Anapa, Odessa, Donetsk, Lviv, Kiev, and in many small Czech settlements.
Summary of the novel
Hasek’s novel tells of a soldier fired due to his stupid behavior.
In the beginning of the work, we see that the political events of 1914 do not leave Schweik indifferent. He vigorously discusses the murder of Franz Ferdinand, sets out his point of view in the drinking establishment "At the Chalice", where a police agent overhears all the conversations.
The talkativeness and unflattering remarks about politics in Austria lead to the fact that Schweik is arrested along with the owner of the institution.
Under arrest
Once in the police, Schweik confesses to all state crimes that you can imagine, he is sent to a madhouse. Then they return to court, but the official, seeing his innocuous face, realizes that he is not guilty of anything.
Schweik returns home, where he discovers his maid in bed with her boyfriend. Having driven the groom out into the street, he begins to go about his business, reassuring the maid, who cannot find a place for herself from shame that nothing terrible happened.
Soon he received a summons for a medical examination for military service. He is tormented by rheumatism, so he asks the owner of the confectionery for a wheelchair, on which he goes to the draft board, brandishing a crutch along the road and singing songs. The news of the strange soldier is published by local newspapers. Doctors, examining him, are convinced that he pretends all illnesses, simply not wanting to go to war. He is sent to a hospital where they are treated with a strict diet.
In the role of batman
Soon, the local feldkurat appoints Schweik as his batman. He is obliged to drag the drunk Katz home in the evenings, lend him money and slowly sell off the furniture that is in their rented apartment.
Then Schweik turns out to be a batman at the new owner, who is not indifferent to women and animals. But for a long time his brave soldier did not stop, he was nevertheless sent to the front.
On the way to the regiment, various adventures take place with him. He stops the train by pressing the stop crane. Because of this, he is sent to the head of the station. After, having received several coins from a stranger, he drinks them, and after that he goes completely in the opposite direction. Although all the passers-by on his way claim that Budejovica is not ahead, he stubbornly steps further.
To identify the soldier, the gendarmes stop him and send him to the lieutenant.
At the front
Schweik becomes the orderly with the company commander Lukas. Together they go to war, they meet an extremely cheerful company in a railway carriage, they spend time with pleasure, telling each other funny stories.
In Budapest, it turns out that their stocks are depleted, then Schweik goes to get provisions. He brings a stolen chicken, for which they, by the will of circumstances, still have to pay. From it they prepare a fragrant and tasty broth.
The situation is clouded by the tense relationship between Schweik and Lieutenant Oak, who ruthlessly and cruelly treat their batman. Schweik, observing this, cannot tolerate and reports everything to the management. Soon he was assigned to find a place to spend the night in the battalion. But the brave soldier, having lost his way, is captured. He is taken for the Russian military. He tries to explain that he was captured by mistake, but the major orders him executed the next morning.
The salvation for him is the letter that comes from his regiment, it refers to the missing Schweik. Only then he is released, he manages to catch up with his fellow soldiers.
Literary scholars note that Hasek’s novel teaches us to find the positive in the most difficult life circumstances, to always remain a sincere and kind person.