IN realistic work Thanks to a deep analysis and psychological authenticity of the depicted reality, its patterns are understood. Realistic generalization results in the creation of literary types in which, based on individual traits reflects what is common to many people.
To discover in life and embody in creativity a new social psychological type- great luck for the artist. The name of a literary type often refers to its “discoverer” (“Turgenev’s girls”, Nekrasov’s “stately Slavic woman”, Gorky’s “tramp”, Ostrovsky’s “tyrants”, Shukshin’s “eccentrics”).
The writer strives to make a snapshot of modern life, focusing social trends in the character's image. Thus, the appearance of the “little man” type in Russian literature of the 1830s – 1840s. announced the beginning of literary democratization. This hero stands on one of the lowest rungs of life's social ladder. He does not show the traits of a romantic “superman” with his complex spiritual world. However, some authors of works about “little people” depict their types from the position of humanism, emphasizing that any person is worthy of compassion and respect (Bashmachkin in “The Overcoat”, Evgeniy in “ Bronze Horseman", Samson Vyrin in "The Station Agent").
In the novel “Eugene Onegin,” A. Pushkin comprehended contemporary Russian reality through the depiction of three socio-psychological types – the “Russian European” Onegin, the idealist-romantic Lensky and the ideal female character – Tatyana Larina. The generalizations made in the image of Eugene Onegin are especially significant. In him Pushkin captured the type “ extra person”, distinctive features which are a high spiritual and intellectual level and opposition to society. This literary type goes back to the romantic rebel hero. This term appeared in literary use after the publication of “The Diary of an Extra Man” by I. Turgenev (1849). In the draft version of the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin,” A. Pushkin himself described the hero of his work as “superfluous”: “Onegin stands as something superfluous.”
Experts have not formed a consensus on the personal composition of the “superfluous heroes” of Russian literature (they are also called “restless”, “strange”). The core of this group is Pushkin's Onegin and Lermontov's Pechorin. V. Belinsky spoke about the spiritual kinship of Pechorin and Onegin: “No, their similarities with each other are much less than the distance between Pechora and Onegin...”. Chatsky is called the forerunner of the “superfluous”. In the hero of A. Griboyedov one can find an “admixture” of another literary type - the “new man”, who is distinguished by his active public position and active character.
“The superfluous man” is the central figure of the literature of the first half of the 19th century V. Typological traits of the “extras” can also be found in the heroes later literature: Bazarov (“Fathers and Sons” by I. Turgenev), Oblomov (novel of the same name by I. Goncharov). The degree of similarity of these heroes with the “extra person” type varies. One of the features of later variations on the theme of “extra” is the combination of the properties of the heroes different types in one character. This mixture indicates a deepening of realism, which seeks to reflect the full complexity social life and the diversity of human characters.
Correlation literary heroes with one type or another allows us to identify the “core” of the personality. The specifics of literature of a certain period are revealed through the types of heroes that attract writers of a given time. Detection of typological features helps to build big picture development of Russian literature.

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Who is a literary character? We devote our article to this issue. In it we will tell you where this name came from, what literary characters and images are, and how to describe them in literature lessons according to your desire or the teacher’s request.

Also from our article you will learn what an “eternal” image is and what images are called eternal.

Literary hero or character. Who is this?

We often hear the concept of “literary character”. But few can explain what we are talking about. And even schoolchildren who have recently returned from a literature lesson often find it difficult to answer the question. What is this mysterious word “character”?

It came to us from ancient Latin (persona, personnage). The meaning is “personality”, “person”, “person”.

So, a literary character is a character. We are mainly talking about prose genres, since images in poetry are usually called “lyrical hero”.

Without characters It is impossible to write a story or a poem, a novel or a story. Otherwise, it will be a meaningless collection of, if not words, then perhaps events. The heroes are people and animals, mythological and fantastic creatures, inanimate objects, for example, Andersen's steadfast tin soldier, historical figures and even entire nations.

Classification of literary heroes

They can confuse any literature connoisseur with their quantity. And it’s especially hard for secondary school students. And especially because they prefer to play their favorite game instead of doing homework. How to classify heroes if a teacher or, even worse, an examiner demands it?

The most win-win option: classify the characters according to their importance in the work. According to this criterion, literary heroes are divided into main and secondary. Without the main character, the work and its plot will be a collection of words. But in case of loss minor characters we will lose a certain branch storyline or expressiveness of events. But overall the work will not suffer.

The second classification option is more limited and is not suitable for all works, but for fairy tales and fantasy genres. This is the division of heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the fairy tale about Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself - positive hero, she evokes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. But the sisters and the evil stepmother are clearly heroes of a completely different type.

Characteristics. How to write?

Heroes of literary works sometimes (especially in a literature lesson at school) need a detailed description. But how to write it? The option “once upon a time there was such a hero. He is from a fairy tale about this and that” is clearly not suitable if the assessment is important. We will share with you a win-win option for writing a characterization of a literary (and any other) hero. We offer you a plan with brief explanations of what and how to write.

• Introduction. Name the work and the character you will talk about. Here you can add why you want to describe it.
• The place of the hero in the story (novel, story, etc.). Here you can write whether he is major or minor, positive or negative, a person or a mythical or historical figure.
• Appearance. It wouldn’t hurt to include quotes that will show you how attentive reader, and will also add volume to your characterization.
• Character. Everything is clear here.
• Actions and their characteristics in your opinion.
• Conclusions.

That's all. Keep this plan for yourself, and it will come in handy more than once.

Famous literary characters

Although the very concept of a literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, if you tell you the name of the hero, you will most likely remember a lot. This is especially true for famous literary characters, for example, Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, Assol or Cinderella, Alice or Pippi Longstocking.

Such heroes are called famous literary characters. These names are familiar to children and adults from many countries and even continents. Not knowing them is a sign of narrow-mindedness and lack of education. Therefore, if you don’t have time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell you about these characters.

The concept of image in literature

Along with character, you can often hear the concept of “image”. What is this? Same as the hero or not? The answer will be both positive and negative, because a literary character may well be a literary image, but the image itself does not have to be a character.

We often call this or that hero an image, but nature can appear in the same image in a work. And then the topic of the examination paper can be “the image of nature in the story...”. What to do in this case? The answer is in the question itself: if we are talking about nature, you need to characterize its place in the work. Start with a description, add character elements, for example, “the sky was gloomy,” “the sun was mercilessly hot,” “the night was frightening with its darkness,” and the characterization is ready. Well, if you need a description of the hero’s image, then how to write it, see the plan and tips above.

What are the images?

Our next question. Here we will highlight several classifications. Above we looked at one - images of heroes, that is, people/animals/mythical creatures and images of nature, images of peoples and states.

Also, images can be so-called “eternal”. What is an "eternal image"? This concept names a hero created once by an author or folklore. But he was so “characteristic” and special that after years and eras, other authors write their characters from him, perhaps giving them different names, but without changing the essence. Such heroes include the fighter Don Quixote, the hero-lover Don Juan and many others.

Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not become eternal, despite the love of fans. Why? What's better than this funny Don Quixote of Spider-Man, for example? It's difficult to explain this in a nutshell. Only reading the book will give you the answer.

The concept of "closeness" of the hero, or My favorite character

Sometimes the hero of a work or movie becomes so close and loved that we try to imitate him, to be like him. This happens for a reason, and it’s not for nothing that the choice falls on this character. Often a favorite hero becomes an image that somehow resembles ourselves. Perhaps the similarity is in character, or in the experiences of both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation similar to yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. In any case, it's not bad. The main thing is that you imitate only worthy heroes. And there are plenty of them in the literature. We wish you to meet only with good heroes and only imitate positive traits their character.

Type

The concept of "literary type" first appears in Hegel's Aesthetics. In literary theory, “type” and “character” are close, but not interchangeable; "character" reveals more typical features personality, its psychological properties, and “type” is a generalization of certain social phenomena and is associated with typical traits. For example, Maxim Maksimych is a typical Russian soldier, “just a decent person,” as L.N. Tolstoy said about him, while Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin is a type of “suffering egoist,” the embodiment of “the vices of an entire generation in their full development.”

Concept "typing" includes the creation process complete picture world, is the basis of the creative process. Recognizing typification as an internal need and a law of art, writers realize that the typical is not a copy of reality, but an artistic generalization.

In Moliere, Harpagon and Tartuffe are typical characters, but these are not social, but psychological types, illustrating neglect of moral requirements.

If we want to call someone a miser or a hypocrite, we use these proper names as common nouns.

V. G. Belinsky in the article “On the Russian story and the stories of Mr. Gogol” defines the typifying features of a literary hero: “Don’t say: here’s a man with with a huge soul, with ardent passions, with an extensive mind, but a limited mind, who loves his wife to such a fury that he is ready to strangle her with his hands at the slightest suspicion of infidelity - say more simply and briefly: here is Othello!.. Don’t say: here is the official who mean by conviction, malicious with good intentions, criminal in good faith - say: here is Famusov!

The schematism of classic images is associated with the intentional intention of the authors to use the example of a particular character to illustrate ethical and aesthetic principles. That is why the image, reduced to a theoretical premise, is marked by maximum typicality. However, an image that bears any one dominant feature, while winning in typicality, often loses in artistry.

The aesthetics of classicism are based on the principles of rationalism. Classicists claim a view of piece of art as a creation consciously created, rationally organized, logically provable. Having put forward the principle of “imitation of nature,” classicists consider compliance with known rules and restrictions to be an indispensable condition. The goal of art is the artistic transformation of nature, the transformation of nature into a beautiful and ennobled aesthetic reality.

The strict hierarchy of genres of classicism also gives rise to the normalization of literary types. Social conflicts appear in the work reflected in the souls of the heroes. The division of characters into positive and negative in classic aesthetics is natural. There should be no intermediate types, since art is charged with the task of correcting vices and glorifying the virtues of an ideal person.

Playwrights of the era of classicism turn to Aristotle, who argued that tragedy “seeks to depict the best people than those currently existing." Heroes classic plays forced to struggle with circumstances that, like in the tragedy of antiquity, cannot be prevented. In the classic version of the conflict, the resolution of the tragic situation now depends not on fate, but on the titanic will of the hero, personifying the ideal of the author.

According to the poetics of the genre, the heroes of the tragedy could be mythological characters, monarchs, generals, persons who determined by their will the fate of many people and even an entire nation. It is they who embody the main requirement - to sacrifice selfish interests in the name of the common good. As a rule, the content of character in a tragedy comes down to one essential trait. It determined the moral and psychological appearance of the hero. Thus, in the tragedies of Sumarokov, Kiy ("Khorev"), Mstislav ("Mstislav") are depicted by the playwright only as monarchs who violated their duty to their subjects; Khorev, Truvor, Vysheslav are like heroes who know how to control their feelings and subordinate them to the dictates of duty. Character in classicism is not depicted on its own, but is given in relation to the opposite property. The conflict between duty and feeling, caused by a dramatic combination of circumstances, made the characters of the heroes of the tragedies similar, and sometimes indistinguishable.

In the works of classicism, especially in comedy, the main character trait of the hero is fixed in his behavior and in his name. For example, the image of Pravdin cannot show at least any flaw, and Svinin cannot show the slightest dignity. Vice or virtue take a specific figurative form in Fonvizin’s comedies: the prude Zhekhvat, the braggart Verkholet.

In the literature of sentimentalism, the emphasis is transferred from the environment to the person, to the sphere of his spiritual life. Preference is given to characters in which “sensitivity” predominates. Sentimentality, according to G. Pospelov’s definition, “is a more complex state, caused mainly by the ideological understanding of a certain inconsistency in the social characters of people. Sensitivity is a personal psychological phenomenon, sentimentality has a general cognitive meaning.” Sentimentality of experience is the ability to recognize in the external insignificance of the lives of other people, and sometimes in one’s own life, something internally significant. This feeling requires the hero’s mental reflection (emotional contemplation, the ability of introspection). A striking example of a sentimental character is Werther Goethe. The title of the novel is symptomatic - "Suffering young Werther". In Goethe's work, suffering is perceived not as a chain of unfortunate events, but as a spiritual experience that can purify the hero's soul and ennoble his feelings. The author did not idealize his hero. After finishing work on the novel, Goethe wrote that he depicted " young man immersed in extravagant dreams" who "perishes... as a result of unhappy passions."

After a century of “thinking” (as Voltaire called the Age of Enlightenment), authors and readers felt that thought, a logically proven idea does not exhaust the potential of the individual: you can put forward a spectacular idea for improving the world, but this is not enough to correct a vicious world. The era of romanticism is coming. In its content, art reflects the rebellious spirit of man. The romantic theory of genius crystallizes in literature. “Genius and villainy are two incompatible things” - this phrase from Pushkin defines the main types of characters in romanticism. Poets discovered the unusual complexity, depth of the spiritual world of man, the inner infinity of the individual.

Intense interest in strong feelings and the secret movements of the soul, towards the mysterious side of the universe, gives rise to a psychologism of images that is exceptional in intensity. The craving for the intuitive encourages writers to imagine heroes in extreme situations and to persistently comprehend the hidden sides of nature. The romantic hero lives by imagination, not reality. Special psychological types are emerging: rebels who oppose a high ideal to a triumphant reality; philistines (“simply good people” living surrounded by everyday life and content with their position. Novalis wrote that this type of people “is not capable of rebellion, will never escape from the kingdom of vulgarity”); villains who tempt man with omnipotence and omniscience; musicians (gifted people capable of penetrating the world of ideas). Many Romantic heroes become literary myths, symbolizing the thirst for knowledge (Faust), uncompromising devotion (Quasimodo) or absolute evil (Cain). In romanticism, as in sentimentalism, the extra-class value of a person is decisive in assessing the character of a literary hero. That is why the authors deliberately weaken the fact of a person’s dependence on circumstances caused by social conflicts. The lack of motivation of character is explained by its predetermination and self-sufficiency. “One but fiery passion” guides the actions of the heroes.

At the center of romantic aesthetics is a creative subject, a genius who rethinks reality, or a villain who is convinced of the infallibility of his vision of reality. Romanticism professes the cult of individualism, emphasizing not the universal, but the exclusive.

The basis of the literary characterology of realism is the social type. The psychological discoveries of romanticism are supported in realism by a broad social and historical analysis and ideological motivation for the hero’s behavior. The character, as a rule, is determined by circumstances and environment.

In Russian realistic literature types of literary heroes are emerging that have common characterological features, their behavior is determined by similar circumstances, and the disclosure of the image in the text is based on traditional plot collisions and motives. The most striking were the “extra man,” “little man,” and “simple man.”

The literary type of the “extra person” arose as a rethinking of the phenomenon of being chosen romantic hero. The name of the type came into general use after I. S. Turgenev wrote the story “The Diary of an Extra Man.” Previously in the literature there was a concept " a strange man". This was how the character of the hero was determined, capable of abandoning the "norms public life". Lermontov gives this name to one of his dramas. Interest in the “history of the human soul” in the works of A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, A. I. Herzen, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov determined specific characterology of the “superfluous person” type. This extraordinary personality, which is reflected in his appearance and actions; the character tragically realizes the unrealization of his own strengths, deception by fate and unwillingness to change anything. The lack of specific goals causes the hero to flee from circumstances that require decisive action.

Question: “Why did I live, for what purpose was I born?” remains open. A hero of this type is characterized by a contemptuous attitude towards the world, which is explained by knowledge human weaknesses. A sense of moral superiority and deep skepticism characterizes the egocentric personality (“we regard everyone as zeros, and ourselves as ones”), in which the rich are controversially united intellectual abilities and an aversion to “hard work.” Reflection, constant dissatisfaction with oneself and the world, loneliness are explained by the hero’s refusal of sincere friendship, reluctance to lose “hateful freedom”; the desire to share your spiritual experience with someone collides with the conviction that “it is impossible to love forever - for a while it is not worth the effort.” The sad result: spiritual or physical death, not heroic, but senseless death.

The evolution of the image of the “superfluous man” reveals the futility of this literary type, which has already been noted by critics mid-19th V. D.I. Pisarev talks about Onegin’s doom. I. A. Goncharov writes about the weakness of the natures of Pechorin and Onegin. A.V. Druzhinin points to the gradual transformation of the “superfluous person” into the “hospital type”. New “heroes of the century” are emerging, capable of overcoming the weaknesses of their predecessors. The inconsistency of “superfluous people” was shown by Turgenev (Rudin and Lavretsky), Goncharov (Oblomov and Raisky), Chekhov (Laevsky and Ivanov).

The concept of “little man” appears in literature before the type of hero itself takes shape. He was born in the era of sentimentalism. At first, this concept designated representatives of the third estate, who began to interest writers due to the democratization of literature. Many “turned over” stories appeared, where the main character acted as a rogue or a victim. The story of G. I. Chulkov " Pretty cook"on Russian material represents the plot of D. Defoe's novel "Mole Flanders", and the adventures of the adventurer attract the reader no less than Sumarokov's tragedies. Gradually, the rogue heroes are replaced by the suffering heroes of sentimentalism.

N. M. Karamzin in “Poor Liza” embodied the main thesis of sentimentalism about the extra-class value of a person - “even peasant women know how to love.” Classic scheme, which extremely expressively reveals the character of the “little man” in the works of sentimentalism, is practically unchanged: the idyllic pictures of the life of “natural people” are disrupted by the invasion of representatives of a vicious civilization.

A new impetus will be given to this topic by realistic literature. “Belkin’s Tales” by Pushkin, “The Overcoat” by Gogol, “Poor People” by Dostoevsky, Chekhov’s stories will present the type of “little man” in a multifaceted way, artistically formulate the characterological features of the literary type: ordinary appearance, age from thirty to fifty years; limited existential possibilities; the wretchedness of material existence; hero's conflict with high-ranking official or an offender; the collapse of a lifelong dream; spontaneous rebellion of the character; tragic outcome.

Of course, the discovery of the “little man” type belongs to Pushkin. M. M. Bakhtin noted that Belinsky “overlooked” Samson Vyrin and did not make him the main source of the “little man” theme. The explanation for this may be the successful resolution of the conflict. Dunya is happy, despite logic social relations. Samson Vyrin assumed that his daughter would have to take revenge on the streets, but she quite happily married Minsky. Pushkin deliberately moves away from depicting the social arguments of the tragedy of the unfortunate official and creates a utopian picture of relations between representatives of different social strata, which is not devoid of sentimentality. Be that as it may, the psychology of the “little man” was outlined by Pushkin in all the evidence of his social existence. An equally significant aspect of the topic is the analysis of dramatic family relations. Pushkin's concept becomes the source of subsequent literary generalizations, predetermines the stories of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy about “unhappy families”, conflict situations where “each family is unhappy in its own way.”

The "little man" becomes the dominant type in the "natural school". L.M. Lotman wrote that “the man appeared to the writers” natural school“a cast of a social form that distorts human nature.”

The further evolution of the literary type of the “little man” is associated with a shift in emphasis, according to M. M. Bakhtin, “from Wednesday per person.” Already in the early work "Poor People" F. M. Dostoevsky focuses on spiritual world hero, although dependence on social circumstances still determines the misfortunes of Makar Devushkin. Dobrolyubov, in his article “Downtrodden People,” noted: “In Dostoevsky’s works we find one common feature, more or less noticeable in everything he wrote: this is pain about a person who recognizes himself as unable or, finally, not even entitled to be a human being.” real, complete, an independent person, on their own."

The novel "Poor People" combines two views on the "little man" - Pushkin's and Gogol's; Makar Devushkin, after reading both stories, comes to the conclusion that “we are all Samson Vyrins.” This recognition points to a dramatic discovery - the tragedy is predetermined, there is no way to fight circumstances that are insurmountable. Dostoevsky’s famous phrase: “We all came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat”” - implies not so much apprenticeship as the continuation and development of the theme of mercy, immeasurable love for a person rejected by society.

The world of Akakiy Akakievich is confined to the dream of an overcoat, the world of Makar Devushkin is caring for Varenka. Dostoevsky represents a type of dreamer who is content with little, and all his actions are dictated by the fear of losing the modest gift of fate. Thematic similarity is found between “Poor People” and the story “White Nights”, the hero of which gives himself a derogatory description: “A dreamer is not a person, but, you know, some kind of creature of the neuter kind. He mostly settles somewhere in an inaccessible corner, as if hidden in it even from daylight." Dostoevsky reconsiders the well-known type of romantic hero, who plunges into the world of an ideal dream, despising reality. Dostoevsky's heroes doomedly preach humility in life, which leads them to death.

Another twist on the theme of the little man is associated with the writer’s interest in the theme of drunkenness as an allegory of rebellion against public morality. In the novel "Crime and Punishment" this type of vice is viewed not as a consequence of social evil, but as a manifestation of selfishness and weakness. Oblivion in drunkenness does not save a person who has “nowhere else to go”; it destroys the destinies of loved ones: Sonya Marmeladova is forced to go to the panel, Katerina Ivanovna goes crazy, and, if not for chance, her children would have faced inevitable death.

Chekhov does not express compassion for the “little man,” but shows the real “smallness” of his soul. The story “The Death of an Official” examines the problem of the voluntariness of social obligations undertaken by a person. It is resolved in a grotesque manner. Chervyakov dies not as a “humiliated and insulted” person, but as an official who, out of fear, has lost his natural character.

Chekhov proved with all his creativity that a person should not conform his potentialities to the limits allowed by society. The spiritual needs of the individual must triumph over vulgarity and insignificance: “A person needs not three arshins of land, but the whole Earth“The isolation of “case life,” the writer insists, is harmful.

In the story "The Man in a Case" a frightening image of Belikov, an apologist for protective morality, is created. His entire behavior is permeated with the fear that “something might not happen.” The writer exaggerates the image of a defender of social morality; a black suit, glasses, galoshes, and an umbrella are expressive details of the image that create an expressive portrait of a frightening social phenomenon. Belikov's death may seem to bring relief to people who fear the zealous guardian of morality, but an optimistic solution to a tragic collision is alien to Chekhov. The writer sadly admits that hopes to correct people who differ from Belikov in their lifestyle, but not in their inner self-awareness, are vain. At the end of the story, a symbolic emphasis is placed to make sure that protective ideas remain alive. The scene of Belikov’s funeral is framed in the image of rain, and everyone present opens their umbrellas; this is read as the inevitability of what the fearful teacher actually stood for.

F. Sologub, M. Bulgakov will present in their satirical works already a terrifying type of “petty demon”, where “triumphant vulgarity” will be brought to the level of an image-symbol.

IN modern literary criticism, along with traditional social literary types of realism, attention is paid to psychological types that are not carriers of any ideology, but are important for characterizing the depicted era.

Source type " common man"There was sentimentalism with its concept of the extra-class value of a person. In romantic literature"simple man" personifies "immaculate nature." The Circassian woman in Pushkin ("Prisoner of the Caucasus"), the Georgian woman in Lermontov ("Mtsyri") embody the ideas of harmony of the world and man, which the rebellious hero lost in his soul. In realistic literature, the image of a “common man” reflects the idea of ​​an ordered life based on the laws of patriarchal existence.

N. Strakhov called Pushkin's story "The Captain's Daughter" a family chronicle. Pushkin does not idealize “simple Russian families” who keep “the habits of deep antiquity.” The author also shows the serf character traits of Andrei Petrovich Grinev, and does not hide the cruelty of Captain Mironov, who is ready to torture the Bashkir. But the author’s focus is completely different: in the world of the Grinevs and Mironovs, he finds, first of all, that, speaking about " The captain's daughter", Gogol clearly outlined: "Simple greatness ordinary people"These people are attentive to each other, live according to their conscience, and are true to their sense of duty. They do not crave majestic achievements or personal glory, but are able to act decisively and boldly in extreme circumstances. These Pushkin characters are attractive and strong because they live in the world of Russian traditions and customs, which are basically folk.

From this series of Pushkin's heroes threads stretch to a great variety of characters in subsequent Russian literature. These are Lermontov's Maxim Maksimych, Gogol's old-world landowners, L.N. Tolstoy's Rostovs, Leskov's "righteous people". This type of literary hero is called differently in literary criticism. Since clear social criteria it is impossible to designate, it is rather a psychological type: these images are not carriers of the main idea of ​​the text, the author’s entire attention is not focused on them. An exception is Gogol's story "Old World Landowners". V. E. Khalizev calls characters of this kind “supertypes.” Similar images, according to the researcher, were present in different artistic aesthetics. V. E. Khalizev calls a complex of stable qualities: “This is, first of all, a person’s rootedness in close reality with its joys and sorrows, with communication skills and everyday affairs. Life appears as the maintenance of a certain order and harmony - both in the soul of this particular person, and Around him".

A. Grigoriev called such heroes “humble” and contrasted them with “predatory”, “proud and passionate” characters. Then the concepts of “ordinary person” and “eccentric” appear. M. Bakhtin classified them as “social and everyday heroes”, not endowed with ideological implications. The type of “common man” cannot exhaust its capabilities, since it is a reflection of the world ordinary person, but it will constantly transform depending on priorities aesthetic theories. Thus, in the literature of existentialism this main image was the artist’s challenge to the inhuman world. The heroes of Camus, Kafka, Sartre lose their names, merging with the crowd of indifferent people, becoming “strangers” to others and to themselves.

Type (from the Greek typos - imprint, model, sample). At the beginning of Part 4 of The Idiot, Dostoevsky says that writers try to take “types that are extremely rarely encountered in reality in their entirety, and which are nevertheless almost more real than reality itself.” Types, according to Dostoevsky, “scurry and run in front of us every day, but as if in a somewhat liquefied state,” “the typicality of faces is, as it were, diluted with water.”

The word type produces adjectives that are directly opposite in meaning. Everyone is familiar, for example, with typical, that is, standard, construction. Most often, “typical” is impersonal. On the contrary, typical, typical means the manifestation of the general in the individual, in the characteristic, in the particular. People, wrote Dostoevsky, “even before Gogol knew that these friends were like Podkolesin, but they just didn’t know it yet.

that’s what they’re called.” Indeed, this is basically what we notice in life. for which we know names: those who do not know what a frieze or architrave is in a building almost does not see them. perceives the building only as a whole, in general, without specific features. The artist’s task is to see and name, define life phenomena - to give them certainty, to show the general in the individual. Tatyana Larina is uniquely individual, but it is precisely because of this that she expresses the typically Russian national character of a certain time (at other times, Belinsky interpreted “I am given to another” in the spirit of the “women’s question”, which did not exist for Pushkin) and serves as a prototype of the classical female characters in Russian literature: both Turgenev’s women and Natasha Rostova. and to some extent the heroines of Dostoevsky and Chekhov. Onegin, Pechorin, Beltov, Rudin, Oblomov are unique, but in their characters Dobrolyubov discovered the development of one type - a young noble intellectual in an era of gradual loss of the nobility's leading role in society.

Until the 19th century typicality usually turned out to be universal: a specific person embodied, according to writers, common features the entire human race. In the realism of modern times, the general character is colored by signs of class, estate, social environment and era, and previously this coloring was not at all recognized as significant. From the point of view of typification, it was not so important that Hamlet was a prince, and Lear was a king, and even the king of the ancient Briggs, who did not own either objects of material culture or the concepts of Shakespearean heroes (the high gender was important only in terms of genre: for the hero of the tragedy supposed to be noble). That is why it was later possible to see Lady Macbeth in Mtsensk, Hamlet in Shchigrovsky district, and King Lear in the steppe estate of Oryol region.

“Universalist” characters often revealed extreme forms of typification: either a desire for the “typical” - various rigid roles, or a passion for the exclusivity of the hero with his special beauty, strength, nobility, etc. One did not reject the other, the opposites converged. After all, if the hero was distinguished almost exclusively by nobility (the noble characters of the mannerists and classicists) or, conversely, by only stinginess (philistines) and hypocrisy (monks), then this exceptional, exaggerated trait formed the supposedly “typical” images of ideal lovers , misers and bigots. However, such identification of the “typical” and the individual did not always lead to depersonalizing standardization. In modern French the miser is called the Harpagon - after the personal name of Moliere’s character. Artistic individuality may consist precisely in the absence of human individuality. You can’t confuse Shchedrin’s Brudasty with anyone, his “I’ll ruin him!” and “I will not tolerate it!”, although these two threats exhaust almost all of his personality. This means that here we are dealing with the typical, and not with the “typical” - anti-artistic. For dramatic, satirical, allegorical, fairy-tale and fantasy works, this form of typification is even the most convenient. For example, in plays that should be compact, there is no need for other conventions - long speeches by minor characters that clarify the situation and characters of the main ones; they are already clear without detailed backstories. In satire, a similar typification leads to a sharpening of the image, in allegorical fables and fairy tales it creates an extremely clear conflict: again, there is no need to describe every time a timid person and a strong, evil and treacherous person - everyone knows what the relationship is between a hare and a wolf. So Shchedrin wrote fairy tales not because he was smart, but because censorship was stupid.

The strange, surprising, and illogical can also be typical. In Dead Souls, Chichikov was mistaken for Napoleon in disguise. Fantastic fabrication? No. P. Vyazemsky said that after the war of 1812, a portrait of Napoleon hung at one of the post stations. To the question: “Why are you keeping this scoundrel on the wall? “And then,” the caretaker answers, “so that if he comes to the station under a false name and asks for horses on someone else’s track, he will be detained by the force of the sign...” Russian reality itself was so rich in alogisms and absurdities that the typical the writer could find absurdity literally on the road.

Of course, pre-realistic images, and in the 19th-20th centuries. and modernist literature is in greater danger of losing its typicality. But “universalism” also has a great advantage - the direct manifestation in the character of the hero of the most important universal human properties, which sometimes leads to the creation of so-called eternal images. In the literature of the 19th-20th centuries, whose great achievement lies in its socio-historical specificity, the individual, taken on his own, outside the problematics of the whole work, embodies the universal only to the extent that it is inherent in a certain social stratum in a certain historical period. That's why latest literature does not give rise to such global types, capable of breaking away from “their” work and existing independently of it, such as Faust, Hamlet. Don Quixote, Don Juan, Baron Munchausen. More precisely, they appear, but on a different scale, in completely different functions - in works of non-historical, “universalist”, in their fundamentals, children's literature (Buratino, Cipollino, Dunno...). Great literature in this regard has moved far from its childhood and adolescence, but any progress, as we know, is accompanied by losses.

The means of creating a typical image are also different. There are many writers’ statements, including Gogol, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Gorky, that for this it is necessary to observe in the lives of many people who are somewhat similar to each other. According to Goncharov, in general only something massive can be typical, and what is actually just emerging is atypical. Turgenev believed otherwise, taking into account the perspective of the development of life phenomena. He always accurately grasped the barely emerging but viable sprouts of the new. Turgenev, Dostoevsky. Leskov often created typical images, starting from one specific prototype. There is a lot of individual and uniqueness in their heroes, which did not give rise to supporters of the typical as a mass character to reproach these writers for the atypicality of their heroes, for deviating from realism. But Chernyshevsky considered the most fruitful typification through deep penetration into the essence of a single bright character. And his predecessor Belinsky recognized both possibilities.

Of course, both methods have a right to exist. However, the second of them is still to some extent based on the first. It’s not for nothing that they argue about Bazarov’s prototypes. This is the doctor Dmitriev, as the writer himself testified, but also Dobrolyubov, and in general known to Turgenev revolutionary democrats. It is impossible to even select a bright type in life without having a “point of reference,” an initial idea of ​​the typical as widespread or spreading. The writer is a humanist in the sense that, by getting to know a person, he recognizes and in many ways already knows people and society in advance. After all, this is the essence of artistic typification, the recreation of the general in the individual.

Literature socialist realism began precisely with the “anticipated” types. V. Borovsky considered the image of Nilovna atypical, reflecting a then rare phenomenon. Gorky saw the future. “There aren’t enough of you after all!” - Sergeant Kvach says to Sintsov in “Enemies”. “There will be a lot... wait!” - he answers. But many more heroes Soviet literature 1920-30s They were by no means mass heroes. This is Korchagin: if everyone or the majority in his time had been Korchagins, his personal fate would not have been so heroic and dramatic. In modern literature, “ordinary” people receive great attention, even when we're talking about about war: modern heroes military prose They no longer mow down enemies like grass. Works appear about people who could not directly participate in the transformation of social reality and were not at all of interest to writers before, for example, about village old women (V. Astafiev, V. Belov, V. Rasputin). Let us remember the words of A.N. Tolstoy about his reluctance to end “Peter the Great” with the end of Peter’s reign: “I don’t want the people in it to grow old. What am I going to do with them, the old ones?” But Peter died at 53...

Typification is a broader concept than type, typical character. Characters, circumstances, relationships, connections between characters and circumstances are typical. It is sometimes argued that typification also covers plot, artistic expression, genre, etc. If typical characters, and sometimes typical circumstances, were characteristic of “universalist” literature, then the typical connection between them - social determinism - is recreated only by realistic art.

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Updated: 2015-10-23

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A literary archetype represents recurring motifs, plots, and images of the main characters in literary works.

Archetypes in literature

Archetypes may undergo changes, but they are united by one integral ethical core. Literary archetypes are classified into cross-cutting images, eternal heroes, and symbolic images (sea, stone, thunderstorm).

“Through images”: Don Juan, Don Quixote, Hamlet

Cross-cutting images are artistic literary images, which were created at a certain historical era, but managed to remain in the cultural memory of humanity. Cross-cutting images are characterized by a kind of travel in time and space, since they have that semantic stability that will be important for any generation of readers.

The brightest through images in literature are Don Juan, Don Quixote and Hamlet. Image Hamlet associated with the fragmentation of the world caused by the transitional state of culture. Danish prince represents a contradiction between essence and phenomenon; this literary hero contains the whole drama of split consciousness.

That is why many writers very often turn to the image of Hamlet, who, by the dictates of fate, had to create at turning points for society, in particular at the turn of the century.

In the image Don Quixote the whole tragedy of human idealism is captured: the desire to become a hero in a pragmatic world. The image of Don Quixote, created at the beginning of the 17th century, continued its literary march in the works of Dostoevsky and Dickens.

No less famous cross-cutting hero, Don Juan, has become a symbol of a person who, while searching for a dream, loses his morality.

A female seducer, he insensitively broke the hearts of his lovers after he did not discover his feminine ideal in their faces. The image of Don Juan turned out to be so archetypal that it was included in more than 150 literary works.

Types of literary heroes: Bashmachkin, Khlestakov, Pechorin, Onegin

Types of literary heroes are a reflection spiritual development society. The birth of one or another type of literary hero may be due to social order, that is, the need of society to see a hero with a certain set of personal qualities, or on the initiative of the writer himself.

Often, types of literary heroes acquire names that most accurately characterize their qualities, for example: “an extra person,” “nihilist,” “little man,” “tramp.”

A striking example of the “little man” type is Gogol’s Bashmachkin. The author clearly shows the meager and uninteresting inner world of the protagonist, as well as his gray everyday life. However, Gogol still emphasizes that even such a flawed, defenseless creature deserves the respect of society.

The main character of "A Hero of Our Time" Pechorin and the hero novel of the same name A. S. Pushkin Evgeny Onegin belongs to the type of “superfluous person”. Young nobles, to whom all the blessings of social life were open, realized their disdain for external gloss, alienation from the idle aristocratic life.

Gogol’s hero Khlestakov, a young man who, despite his pleasant appearance, was considered an ignoramus, comes into confrontation with Eugene Onegin and Pechorin. What became alien to Onegin and Pechorin, for Khlestakov is the main achievement of life.