Problems of the story The Enchanted Wanderer. The problem of Russian national character in the work of N.S. Leskova “The Enchanted Wanderer. Love and its truth

Many are familiar with Nikolai Leskov’s work “The Enchanted Wanderer”. Indeed, this story is one of the most famous in Leskov’s work. Let us now make a brief analysis of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer”, look at the history of the work, discuss the main characters and draw conclusions.

So, Leskov wrote the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” in the period from 1872 to 1973. The fact is that the idea appeared during the author’s journey through the waters of Karelia, when he went in 1872 to the island of Valaam, a famous refuge for monks. At the end of that year, the story was almost finished and was even being prepared for publication under the title “Black Earth Telemachus.” But the publishing house refused to publish the work, considering it raw and unfinished. Leskov did not back down, turning for help to the editors of the New World magazine, where the story was accepted and published. Before we directly analyze the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” we will briefly consider the essence of the plot.

Analysis of "The Enchanted Wanderer", the main character

The events of the story take place on Lake Ladoga, where travelers met, whose goal was Valaam. Let's get acquainted with one of them - horseman Ivan Severyanich, who is dressed in a cassock; he told the others that since his youth he has had a wonderful gift, thanks to which he can tame any horse. The interlocutors are interested in listening to the life story of Ivan Severyanych.

The hero of "The Enchanted Wanderer" Ivan Severyanych Flyagin begins the story by saying that his homeland is the Oryol province, he comes from the family of Count K. As a child, he fell terribly in love with horses. Once, for fun, he beat one monk so much that he died, which shows the protagonist’s attitude towards human life, which is important in “The Enchanted Wanderer,” which we are now analyzing. Next, the main character talks about other events in his life - amazing and strange.

It is very interesting to note in general the consistent organization of the story. Why can you define it as a tale? Because Leskov constructed the narrative as oral speech, which imitates an improvisational story. At the same time, not only the manner of the main character-narrator Ivan Flyagin is reproduced, but also the peculiarity of the speech of other characters is reflected.

In total, “The Enchanted Wanderer” has 20 chapters, the first chapter is a kind of exposition or prologue, and other chapters directly tell the story of the life of the main character, and each of them is a complete story. If we talk about the logic of the tale, it is clear that the key role here is played not by the chronological sequence of events, but by the memories and associations of the narrator. The story resembles the canon of life, as some literary scholars say: that is, first we learn about the hero’s childhood years, then his life is consistently described, and we can also see how he struggles with temptations and temptations.

conclusions

The main character in the analysis of "The Enchanted Wanderer" typically represents the people, and his strength, as well as abilities, reflect the qualities inherent in the Russian person. You can see how the hero develops spiritually - initially he is just a dashing, careless and hot guy, but at the end of the story he is an experienced monk who has matured for years. However, his self-improvement became possible only thanks to the trials that were his lot, because without these difficulties and troubles he would not have learned to sacrifice himself and try to atone for his own sins.

In general, thanks to this, albeit brief, analysis of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” it becomes clear what the development of Russian society was like. And Leskov managed to show this in the fate of just one of his main characters.

Note for yourself that the Russian person, according to Leskov, is capable of sacrifice, and not only the strength of a hero is inherent in him, but also the spirit of generosity. In this article we have made a brief analysis of The Enchanted Wanderer, we hope you find it useful.

The talent and creativity of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov in our literature have not yet been combined with the definition of “great”. However, it is enough to open any of his works to find yourself in the grip of an amazing talent. The writer's stories and stories take us back to the 1860s. Leskov traveled all over Russia, knew the people and their needs beyond just stories. He dreamed of the country's constant cultural and economic progress. In his works, he focuses on understanding the peculiarities of national life and the depths of character of the heroes. And Leskov always shows the relationship between the individual and his environment.

In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” the original personality of Ivan Severyanych Flyagin is in the foreground. And already in the titles it is felt that the main motive of the story will be the road. The path that the hero takes is a search for his place among people, his calling, and comprehension of the meaning of life. Each stage of this path is a new step in Flyagin’s moral development. Being from the serfs, at the beginning of his life he judges people on the basis of the experience gained in a closed world. And we see how much the hero has to experience in order to appreciate his freedom and the freedom of relationships with other people.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator, Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, speaks about his journey: “I’ve done a lot, I’ve had the opportunity to be on horses, and under horses, and was in captivity, and fought, and I beat people myself, and I was maimed, so maybe not everyone could bear it.<...>“I’ve been dying all my life, and there’s no way I could die.” On the estate of Count K. he was trained like horses at a stud farm. Ivan was supposed to become a postilion. Here the first stage of his journey ended with the accidental murder of a nun and flight from the estate. The murdered monk promised him, having come in a dream, that “...you will die many times and will never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and will go to the monks.” And all because he is the son promised to God by his mother. Having run away from home, he, by chance, ends up working with a Pole as a nanny for a little girl left by her mother. For the first time, the hero experiences compassion and affection not only for animals, but also for humans. And for the first time he makes a decision not in his favor, but in favor of a suffering person - his mother. “In despair, she screams piteously and, forcibly drawn, although she follows him, she stretches out her eyes and hands here to me and to the child... And now I see and feel how she, as if alive, is torn in half, half towards him, half towards child..." During the 10 years of Tatar captivity, Flyagin felt a blood relationship with “his own,” Russian, national. Flyagin cannot merge with the Tatar way of life, take it seriously and for a long time. Here there are only elementary forms of struggle for existence.

But Leskov is far from idealizing Russian life. Holy Rus', to which Flyagin so strove, celebrates the return of the prodigal son in a unique way - with whips: “They were flogged by the police and delivered to their estate,” the count “ordered... to flog the house again,” after Father Ilya’s deprivation of communion, the count ordered the steward to flog the narrator again “ in a new way, on the porch, in front of the office, in front of all the people.” Then the count releases Flyagin on quitrent, and a new test begins: a rare horse connoisseur is drawn into that habitual drunkenness that has long become the scourge of Russia. And again an accident turns his life around and gives him a new direction. The narrator is naively convinced that the witchcraft power of the “magnetizer” frees him from bitter misfortune. Flyagin meets the gypsy Grusha and discovers the magical power of female beauty over the human soul. The purity and greatness of his feeling is that it is free from pride and possessiveness; in love and endless admiration for another person, for the hero the line between life for himself and life for another disappears. The promise of the “magnetizer” comes true: “I will give you a new concept in life.” And the hero himself realizes that love for Pear has internally reborn him.

After the death of Grusha, there is a road again, but this road to people, to meeting them on new grounds. The hero’s newfound unity with other people is resolved in the situation of his first meeting with a grief-stricken old man and old woman, whose son is to be taken as a recruit. Flyagin becomes a soldier, exchanging fate and name with a man whom he had never seen: “That’s the end of it, and they took me to another city, and handed me over as a recruit there instead of my son...”; “... began to ask the authorities to send me to the Caucasus, where I could sooner die for my faith.” Fifteen years of service in the Caucasus becomes a new test for the hero. The circumstances of life constantly test the hero’s strength; life does not help him in anything and does not support him in anything. Here he is - the St. George cavalier and officer, “noble”. It seemed that this was a good end, the result of a life full of hardships and hardships, and a new, happy stage was about to begin. And a new stage really begins, but for Leskov everything is far from a happy ending. “Nobility” not only does not contribute to a “career”, but even prevents the opportunity to return to the old coachman’s craft (“they say: you are a noble officer, and you have a military order, you can’t be scolded or hit indecently...”). In order not to die of hunger, Flyagin becomes an artist, in a booth on Admiralteyskaya Square. But from there he is forced to leave. And finally, Ivan Severyanych reaches the monastery.

Flyagin lives not by reason, but by feelings. In the monastery, he tries to overcome his melancholy and his great love for Pear. However, he finds peace not in harsh asceticism, but in love for the Motherland.

This is where the hero’s personal responsibility for the fate of his land and his willingness to die for it are manifested. It is no coincidence that at the end of Flyagin’s story all the main motifs of the story are repeated: constant temptations, obsession with love, captivity and the road. This means that nothing is over yet for the “enchanted wanderer”, that the results of his life have not been summed up and the “thousand lives” allotted to him have not been lived to the end. The reader meets the hero on the road and leaves him again on the road. Not a single image in Leskov’s work achieves such epic monumentality as the image of the “enchanted wanderer.” The traits of this hero - strength, spontaneity, spiritual kindness - mark many of the characters in Leskov's works. This is a kind of solution by the author to the problem of a positive hero.

CONCLUSION

The works of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov are distinguished by their originality and originality. He has his own language, style, his own understanding of the world, the human soul. Leskov pays a lot of attention to human psychology in his works, but if other classics try to understand a person in connection with the time in which he lives, then Leskov draws his heroes separately from time.

The heroes of Leskov’s work differ in their views and destinies, but they have something in common, which, according to Leskov, is characteristic of the Russian people as a whole.

An extremely characteristic technique of Leskov’s artistic prose is his predilection for special words - distortions in the spirit of folk etymology and the creation of mysterious terms for various phenomena. This technique is known mainly from Leskov’s most popular story “Lefty” and has been repeatedly studied as a phenomenon of linguistic style. This is also a technique of literary intrigue, an essential element of the plot structure of his works. “Little words” and “terms”, artificially created in the language of Leskov’s works in a variety of ways (here not only folk etymology, but also the use of local expressions, sometimes nicknames, etc.), also pose riddles for the reader that intrigue the reader at intermediate stages of development plot. Leskov informs the reader of his terms and mysterious definitions, strange nicknames, etc., before he gives the reader the material to understand their meaning, and it is by this that he gives additional interest to the main intrigue.

“The Righteous” by N. S. Leskov brings people fascination with themselves, but they themselves act as if enchanted. Leskov is a creator of legends, a creator of common noun types that not only capture a certain characteristic in the people of his time, but groping for the cross-cutting, cardinal, hidden, underlying, fundamental features of Russian national consciousness and Russian destiny. It is in this dimension that he is now perceived as a national genius.

Stories and novellas written at the time of N. S. Leskov’s artistic maturity give a fairly complete picture of his entire work. They are united by the thought of the fate of Russia. Russia is here multifaceted, in a complex interweaving of contradictions, wretched and abundant, powerful and powerless at the same time. In all manifestations of national life, its trifles and anecdotes, Leskov looks for the core of the whole. And it is found most often in eccentrics and poor people.

The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is Leskov’s most textbook, most emblematic work. This is the embodiment of heroism, breadth, power, freedom and righteousness hidden at the bottom of the soul, the hero of the epic in the best and highest sense of the word. Epicness is embedded in the very basis of the story's design. Folklore paint was introduced into the palette of “The Enchanted Wanderer” from the very beginning - a fact that is not very characteristic of Leskov; usually he does not display national-patriotic emblems, but hides them under neutral names. Of course, “The Enchanted Wanderer” is not a completely neutral title, and the mystical touch in it is sensitively captured at all times.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Anninsky, L. A. Leskovskoe necklace / L. A. Anninsky. - M.: Nauka, 2006. - 342 p.

2. Bakhtin, M. M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. Studies of different years / M. M. Bakhtin. – M.: Artist. lit., 2005. – 523 p.

3. Dykhanova, B. “The Captured Angel” and “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskova / B. Dykhanova. - M.: Artist. literature, 2004. - 375 p.

4. Leskov, A. N. The life of Nikolai Leskov according to his personal, family and non-family records and memories / A. N. Leskov. - Tula: Prospect, 2004. - 543 p.

5. Leskov, N. S. Collected works in twelve volumes. T. 5 / N. S. Leskov. - M.: Pravda, 1989. - 450 p.

6. Nikolaev, P. A. Russian writers. Biobibliographical dictionary. A-L / P. A. Nikolaev. - M.: Education, 2006. - 458 p.

7. Starygina, N. N. Leskov at school / N. N. Starygina. - M.: Humanitarian Publishing Center, 2009. - 433 p.

8. Freidenberg, O. M. Poetics of plot and genre / O. M. Freidenberg. - M.: Labyrinth, 2007. - 448 p.

9. http://www.km.ru/referats

Lyskova N.N.

Outline of a literature lesson on the topic: “The problem of national character in the works of N.S. Leskova (based on program works).

Lesson topic: the problem of national character in the work of N.S. Leskov "The Enchanted Wanderer".

The purpose of the lesson: use the example of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” to show the problem

national character.

Lesson format: lesson-conversation with elements of a lecture.

During the classes.

1. 
   Organizing time.

The story was conceived by the writer after a trip in the summer of 1872 to Lake Ladoga

and a visit to the island of Valaam, on which the monastery was located. This event found

reflected in the theme and language of the story.

Novice- a servant in a monastery preparing to become a monk.

Diocese- an ecclesiastical administrative district subordinate to the bishop.

Hieromonk- monastic rank.

Ryasophorus- a monk or novice wearing a cassock and hood without tonsure.

Repairman- an officer involved in the selection and purchase of horses for the cavalry.

1. 
   Conversation on issues.

1). What philosophy of life does Flyagin affirm in the story about the drinking priest? (In any circumstances, a person is obliged to “make up his mind”, to find something to do. He prays for suicides, in whom he sees poor people who were unable to overcome the “struggles of life.” After all, the Creator himself commanded to “hang around,” and the priest found a way to be useful to people).

2). What other principle of his life philosophy does Flyagin present when telling the story of taming a cannibal horse?

3). As the author of the story states about the connection between the characteristics of the Russian national character and the geographical ones, i.e. natural features of the country? (The endless change of landscapes - from the Caspian Sea to Solovki - merges with the endless richness of manifestations of the nature of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin. The contradictory properties of his character resemble the endless change of landscapes, the description of different types of lifestyles, the thoughts of the peoples of Russia, various events experienced by people, and various actions and judgments in different situations of the hero himself. The breadth of the Russian character, as well as its extremes, are determined by nature itself).

4). What other techniques does the author use to reveal the uniqueness of the Russian national character? (Character is also revealed through a description of the hero’s appearance.

Ivan Flyagin is a hero (“upward hussar-twisted mustache”), but he speaks lazily. He is strong, but soft and calm, dressed in a cassock (humility).

The contrast between energy and lethargy is not accidental. Strength represents only the potential capabilities of character, which in normal times do not make themselves felt, but at a critical moment they manifest themselves; they are the secret of Russia’s power.

The versatility of the hero’s character is manifested through his perception of nature and homeland. He is fascinated by the world: mountains and seas, fields and steppes, fairs and Tatar settlements, gypsy camps and native Russian forest).

5). How does Flyagin convey to his fellow travelers his feeling of homesickness, which he experienced in captivity? (Through rejection of the other side: the steppes for him are monotonous and dead at all times of the year (the “lifeless salt marsh” shines), everything is not pleasing, but annoying: wind, sun, space. “The glistening of salt marshes” is a detail that is repeated in his story, conveying his irritation. He was tired of it there: “I really... wanted to go to Russia.”

Another technique: he remembers his native village, little things, excerpts from his everyday life; Everything there is nice, everything is significant).

7). Where does the hero implement the principles of goodness and justice? (Gives the child to a suffering mother, loses his place: “let them be loved”, joins the recruits instead of the only son of old parents, protects a young actress from a farce theater in St. Petersburg).

8). With what actions does the hero begin his struggle with life? What beginning does the author show in his mind at this stage of life? (Spontaneous-emotional, physical strength and power of nature: prowess, bravery in extreme, dangerous manifestations (he hit an old monk who had fallen asleep too hard with a whip, immediately tamed his horse and saved the count’s family, clashes with a Tatar).

This national trait, according to Leskov: hence the strength of the patriotic impulse, and the source of the tragic extremes of the people’s fate).

9). How are the characters of the Englishman Rarey and Flyagin contrasted in the scene of taming the horse? (He shows English learning and prudence, and Ivan shows “internal cunning” (he breaks the pot on the horse’s head and pours the dough on its eyes and muzzle).

Leskov asserts in the story that the idea of ​​rationality is alien to the Russian national character. Hence the next feature of the Russian person is a fatalistic understanding of his own fate).

10). How does faith in providence, destiny, fatalism in Flyagin’s story about his life reveal the hero? (Reveals his naivety, simplicity, intellectual underdevelopment, frivolous attitude towards the future, superstition.

This is especially evident in the story about the temptations that haunted Flyagin in the monastery).

eleven). Can we consider that Flyagin explains his fate only by fatalism? (He came to the monastery not according to the monk’s prophecy, but because there was nowhere to go. Faith in fate and a sober, realistic explanation of events coexist in his mind).

12). Find details that indicate the poetic feeling that arose in the hero’s soul for Grushenka. (The money for singing seems like birds to him. He hasn’t seen the pear yet, but he is captivated by the voice (“languorous, languid, like a crimson bell”), he is captivated by the plastic movements in the dance, Ivan is blinded by the beauty of the girl).

13). How do you understand the comparison of Grushenka with a snake and how does it develop in the story? (The psychological subtext is this: she is still hostile to the rich stranger).

14). What complex psychological development does the conflict that arose in connection with the ardent passion of Prince Grusha receive? (Roll call with M.Yu. Lermontov’s story “Bela”). (It is the simple man who turns out to be mentally more subtle, only with him Grusha feels humanly at ease. The prince is petty and insignificant, and he himself realizes this: “You are an artist, you are not like me, a whistler.” The hero goes through the test of love , and this is the tradition of Russian literature... Flyagin is noble, humane, altruistic feelings are accessible to him.

In the story, the prince is also tested by love. Carried away by plans for a profitable marriage, he forgets about Grusha).

15). Find the prince's remarks in a conversation with Evgenia Semyonovna, who was accidentally overheard by Flyagin. How do they reveal the prince’s human essence? (Work with text).

16). How does Flyagin’s artistic talent manifest itself in his attitude towards horses? (He feels admiration, understanding, affection towards them: “it takes wings and like a bird flies and does not stir”, “my soul rushed to her, to this horse, with a native passion”, “to the sky, like birds, they mow ... it seems warm-hearted, and would have flown away, but he had no wings” (about horses from herds), “he was a very proud creature, he humbled himself by behavior... but died in captivity”).

17). What new spiritual facets are revealed to the reader in the scenes telling about the hero’s admiration for the beautiful gypsy? What actions reflect the growth of his moral consciousness? (He does good deeds: he replaces a recruit, fights bravely, receives George, but considers himself a great sinner, looks at his past life in a new way and finds himself under the spell of a new idea - heroic self-sacrifice in the name of people).

1. 
   Lecture. Teacher's word.

(Write in notebook).

“And then in the life of the wanderer there will be the charm of the silence of monastic life, a special “joy of hope,” until he hears a voice from above: “Take up arms!” - and the desire to fight for his people will not come to him in order to protect them from the enemy in a heroic way. “I really want to die for the people,” the hero admits, completing his confession, which is similar to the storyteller’s narrative. This is how the idea of ​​heroic self-sacrifice comes to Flyagin, and his image reaches epic greatness. So the plot of the work flows like a wide river, absorbing the streams of its branches and turning the work not only into a thought about the fate of the individual, but also into a thought about the fate of the Fatherland.”

1. 
   Lesson summary.

Homework: write an essay on the topic: “The problem of national character in N.S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer.”

The talent and creativity of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov in our literature have not yet been combined with the definition of “great”. However, it is enough to open any of his works to find yourself in the grip of an amazing talent. The writer's stories and stories take us back to the 1860s. traveled all over Russia, knew the people and their needs beyond just stories. He dreamed of the country's constant cultural and economic progress. In his works, he focuses on understanding the peculiarities of national life and the depths of character of the heroes. And Leskov always shows the relationship between the individual and his environment.
In the story, the original personality of Ivan Severyanich Flyagin is in the foreground. And already in the titles it is felt that the main motive of the story will be the road. The path that the hero takes is a search for his place among people, his calling, and comprehension of the meaning of life. Each stage of this path is a new step in Flyagin’s moral development. Being from the serfs, at the beginning of his life he judges people on the basis of the experience gained in a closed world. And we see how much the hero has to experience in order to appreciate his freedom and the freedom of relationships with other people.
At the beginning of the story, the narrator, Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, talks about his journey: “I’ve done a lot, I’ve had the opportunity to be on horses, and under horses, and was in captivity, and fought, and I beat people myself, and I was maimed.” , so maybe not everyone would bear it.<...>“I’ve been dying all my life, and there’s no way I could die.” On the estate of Count K. he was trained like horses at a stud farm. Ivan was supposed to become a postilion. Here the first stage of his journey ended with the accidental murder of a nun and flight from the estate. The murdered monk promised him, having come in a dream, that “...you will die many times and will never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and will go to the monks.” And all because he is the son promised to God by his mother. Having run away from home, he, by chance, ends up working with a Pole as a nanny for a little girl left by her mother. For the first time, the hero experiences compassion and affection not only for animals, but also for humans. And for the first time he makes a decision not in his own favor, but in favor of a suffering person - his mother. “In despair, she screams piteously and, forcibly drawn, although she follows him, she stretches out her eyes and hands here to me and to the child... And now I see and feel how she, as if alive, is torn in half, half towards him, half towards child..." During the 10 years of Tatar captivity, Flyagin felt a blood relationship with “his own,” Russian, national. Flyagin cannot merge with the Tatar way of life, take it seriously and for a long time. Here there are only elementary forms of struggle for existence.
But Leskov is far from idealizing Russian life. Holy Rus', to which Flyagin so strove, celebrates the return of the prodigal son in a unique way - with whips: “They were flogged by the police and delivered to their estate,” the count “ordered... to flog the house again,” after Father Ilya’s deprivation of communion, the count ordered the steward to flog the narrator again “ in a new way, on the porch, in front of the office, in front of all the people.” Then the count releases Flyagin on quitrent, and a new test begins: a rare horse connoisseur is drawn into that habitual drunkenness that has long become the scourge of Russia. And again an accident turns his life around and gives him a new direction. The narrator is naively convinced that the witchcraft power of the “magnetizer” frees him from bitter misfortune. Flyagin meets the gypsy Grusha and discovers the magical power of female beauty over the human soul. The purity and greatness of his feeling is that it is free from pride and possessiveness; in love and endless admiration for another person, for the hero the line between life for himself and life for another disappears. The promise of the “magnetizer” comes true: “I will give you a new concept in life.” And the hero himself realizes that love for Pear has internally reborn him.
After the death of Grusha, there is a road again, but this road to people, to meeting them on new grounds. The hero’s newfound unity with other people is resolved in the situation of his first meeting with a grief-stricken old man and old woman, whose son is to be taken as a recruit. Flyagin becomes a soldier, exchanging fate and name with a man whom he had never seen: “That’s the end of it, and they took me to another city, and handed me over as a recruit there instead of my son...”; “... began to ask the authorities to send me to the Caucasus, where I could sooner die for my faith.” Fifteen years of service in the Caucasus becomes a new test for the hero. The circumstances of life constantly test the hero’s strength; life does not help him in anything and does not support him in anything. Here he is - the St. George cavalier and officer, “noble”. It seemed that this was a good end, the result of a life full of hardships and hardships, and a new, happy stage was about to begin. And a new stage really begins, but for Leskov everything is far from a happy ending. “Nobility” not only does not contribute to a “career”, but even prevents the opportunity to return to the old coachman’s craft (“they say: you are a noble officer, and you have a military order, you can’t be scolded or hit indecently...”). In order not to die of hunger, Flyagin becomes an artist, in a booth on Admiralteyskaya Square. But from there he is forced to leave. And finally, Ivan Severyanych reaches the monastery.
Flyagin lives not by reason, but by feelings. In the monastery, he tries to overcome his melancholy and his great love for Pear. However, he finds peace not in harsh asceticism, but in love for the Motherland:
“Are you really going to go to war yourself?
- What about it, sir? Absolutely, sir: I really want to die for the people.
- How about you: will you go to war in a hood and cassock?
- No with; Then I’ll take off my hood and put on my uniform.”
This is where the hero’s personal responsibility for the fate of his land and his willingness to die for it are manifested. It is no coincidence that at the end of Flyagin’s story all the main motifs of the story are repeated: constant temptations, obsession with love, captivity and the road. This means that nothing is over yet for the “enchanted wanderer”, that the results of his life have not been summed up and the “thousand lives” allotted to him have not been lived to the end. The reader meets the hero on the road and leaves him again on the road. Not a single image in Leskov’s work achieves such epic monumentality as the image of the “enchanted wanderer.” The traits of this hero - strength, spontaneity, spiritual kindness - mark many of the characters in Leskov's works. This is a kind of solution by the author to the problem of a positive hero.

In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” the author attempted a religious interpretation of Russian reality. In the image of Ivan Flyagin, Leskov portrayed a truly Russian character, revealing the basis of the mentality of our people, closely connected with Orthodoxy. He dressed the parable of the prodigal son in modern realities and thereby again raised eternal questions that humanity has been asking for centuries.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov created his story in one breath. The entire work took less than a year. In the summer of 1872, the writer traveled to Lake Ladoga, the very place where the action in The Enchanted Wanderer takes place. It is no coincidence that the author chose these protected areas, because the islands of Valaam and Korelu, the ancient dwellings of monks, are located there. It was on this trip that the idea for the work was born.

By the end of the year, the work was completed and acquired the title “Black Earth Telemacus”. The author included in the title a reference to ancient Greek mythology and a reference to the location of the action. Telemachus is the son of King Odysseus of Ithaca and Penelope, heroes of Homer's poem. He is known for fearlessly setting out to find his missing parent. So Leskov’s character embarked on a long and dangerous journey in search of his destiny. However, the editor of the Russian Messenger M.N. Katkov refused to publish the story, citing the “dampness” of the material and pointing out the discrepancy between the title and content of the book. Flyagin is an apologist for Orthodoxy, and the writer compares him to a pagan. Therefore, the writer changes the title, but transfers the manuscript to another publication, the Russkiy Mir newspaper. There it was published in 1873.

Meaning of the name

If everything is clear with the first version of the name, then the question arises, what is the meaning of the title “Enchanted Wanderer”? Leskov put into it an equally interesting idea. Firstly, it points to the hero’s busy life, his wanderings, both on earth and within his inner world. Throughout his life's journey, he walked towards the realization of his mission on earth, this was his main search - the search for his place in life. Secondly, the adjective indicates Ivan’s ability to appreciate the beauty of the world around him and to be enchanted by it. Thirdly, the writer uses the meaning of “witchcraft”, because often the character acts unconsciously, as if not of his own free will. He is guided by mystical forces, visions and signs of fate, and not by reason.

The story is called so also because the author indicates the ending already in the title, as if fulfilling destiny. The mother predicted the future for her son, promising it to God even before birth. Since then, the spell of fate has dominated over him, aimed at fulfilling his destiny. The wanderer does not travel independently, but under the influence of predestination.

Composition

The structure of the book is nothing more than a modernized composition of skaz (a folklore work that implies an oral improvised story with certain genre features). Within the framework of a tale, there is always a prologue and exposition, which we also see in “The Enchanted Wanderer,” in the scene on the ship where the travelers get to know each other. This is followed by the narrator's memories, each of which has its own plot outline. Flyagin narrates the tale of his life in the style that is characteristic of people of his class; moreover, he even conveys the speech characteristics of other people who are the heroes of his stories.

There are a total of 20 chapters in the story, each of which follows without obeying the chronology of events. The narrator arranges them at his own discretion, based on the hero’s random associations. Thus, the author emphasizes that Flyagin lived his entire life as spontaneously as he talks about it. Everything that happened to him was a series of interconnected accidents, just like his narrative - a string of stories connected by vague memories.

It was not by chance that Leskov added the book to the cycle of legends about Russian righteous people, because his work was written according to the canons of the life - a religious genre based on the biography of a saint. The composition of “The Enchanted Wanderer” confirms this: first we learn about the hero’s special childhood, filled with signs of fate and signs from above. Then his life is described, filled with allegorical meaning. The culmination is the battle with temptation and demons. In the finale, God helps the righteous man to survive.

What is the story about?

Two travelers talk on deck about a suicidal sexton and meet a monk who is traveling to holy places to escape temptation. People become interested in the life of this “hero,” and he willingly shares his story with them. This biography is the essence of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” The hero comes from serf peasantry and served as a coachman. His mother could hardly bear the child and in her prayers promised God that the child would serve him if born. She herself died in childbirth. But the son did not want to go to the monastery, although he was haunted by visions calling on him to fulfill his promise. While Ivan was stubborn, many troubles happened to him. He became the culprit in the death of the monk, who he dreamed of and foreshadowed several “deaths” before Flyagin came to the monastery. But this forecast did not make the young man, who wanted to live for himself, think twice.

First, he almost died in an accident, then he lost his master’s favor and sinned by stealing the owner’s horses. For his sin, he really didn’t receive anything, so he made false documents and hired himself as a nanny for a Pole. But even there he did not stay long, again violating the master’s will. Then, in a fight for a horse, he accidentally killed a man, and to avoid prison he went to live with the Tatars. There he worked as a doctor. The Tatars did not want to let him go, so they forcibly captured him, although there he started a family and children. Later, the newcomers brought fireworks, with which the hero scared off the Tatars and ran away. By the grace of the gendarmes, he, like a runaway peasant, ended up on his native estate, from where he was expelled as a sinner. Then he lived for three years with the prince, whom he helped choose good horses for the army. One evening he decided to get drunk and squandered government money on the gypsy Grusha. The prince fell in love with her and bought her, but later he stopped loving her and drove her away. She asked the hero to take pity on her and kill her, he pushed her into the water. Then he went to war instead of the only son of poor peasants, accomplished a feat, acquired the rank of officer, retired, but could not settle in a peaceful life, so he came to the monastery, where he really liked it. This is what the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is written about.

The main characters and their characteristics

The story is rich in characters from various classes and even nationalities. The images of the heroes in the work “The Enchanted Wanderer” are as multifaceted as their motley, heterogeneous composition.

1. Ivan Flyagin- the main character of the book. He is 53 years old. This is a gray-haired old man of enormous stature with a dark, open face. This is how Leskov describes him: “He was a hero in the full sense of the word, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the wonderful painting by Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A.K. Tolstoy.” This is a kind, naive and simple-minded person, possessing extraordinary physical strength and courage, but devoid of bragging and swagger. He is frank and sincere. Despite his low origins, he has dignity and pride. This is how he speaks about his honesty: “Only I have not sold myself, either for big money or for little, and I will not sell.” In captivity, Ivan does not betray his homeland, since his heart belongs to Russia, he is a patriot. However, even with all his positive qualities, the man committed many stupid, random actions that cost the lives of other people. This is how the writer showed the inconsistency of the Russian national character. Maybe that’s why the character’s life story is complex and eventful: he was a prisoner of the Tatars for 10 years (from the age of 23). After some time, he entered the army and served in the Caucasus for 15 years. For his feat, he earned an award (St. George's Cross) and the rank of officer. Thus, the hero acquires the status of a nobleman. At the age of 50, he entered a monastery and received the name Father Ishmael. But even at a church service, a wanderer seeking the truth does not find peace: demons come to him, he acquires the gift of prophecy. The exorcism of demons did not produce results, and he was released from the monastery to travel to holy places in the hope that this would help him.
2. Pear– a passionate and deep nature, captivating everyone with her languid beauty. At the same time, her heart is faithful only to the prince, which reveals her strength of character, devotion and honor. The heroine is so proud and adamant that she asks to kill herself, because she does not want to interfere with the happiness of her treacherous lover, but she is also unable to belong to another. Exceptional virtue contrasts in her with the demonic charm that destroys men. Even Flyagin commits a dishonorable act for her sake. The woman, combining positive and negative forces, after death takes the form of either an angel or a demon: she either protects Ivan from bullets, or confuses his peace in the monastery. Thus, the author emphasizes the duality of female nature, in which mother and temptress, wife and mistress, vice and holiness coexist.
3. Characters noble origins are presented in a caricatured, negative way. Thus, the owner of Flyagin appears to the reader as a tyrant and a hard-hearted person who does not feel sorry for the serfs. The prince is a frivolous and selfish scoundrel, ready to sell himself for a rich dowry. Leskov also notes that nobility itself does not provide privileges. In this hierarchical society, only money and connections give them, which is why the hero cannot get a job as an officer. This is an important characteristic of the noble class.
4. Gentiles and foreigners also has a peculiar characteristic. For example, the Tatars live as they please, they have several wives, many children, but there is no real family, and, therefore, no real love either. It is no coincidence that the hero does not even remember his children who remained there; no feelings arise between them. The author demonstratively characterizes not individuals, but the people as a whole, in order to emphasize the lack of individuality in them, which is not possible without a single culture, social institutions - everything that the Orthodox faith gives to Russians. The writer got it both from the gypsies, dishonest and thieving people, and from the Poles, whose morality is cracking. Getting acquainted with the life and customs of other peoples, the enchanted wanderer understands that he is different, he is not on the same path with them. It is also significant that he does not have relationships with women of other nationalities.
5. Spiritual Characters stern, but not indifferent to Ivan’s fate. They became a real family for him, a brotherhood that cares about him. Of course, they don't immediately accept it. For example, Father Ilya refused to confess to a runaway peasant after a vicious life among the Tatars, but this severity was justified by the fact that the hero was not ready for initiation and still had to undergo worldly trials.

Subject

• In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” the main theme is righteousness. The book makes you think that a righteous person is not one who does not sin, but one who sincerely repents of his sins and wants to atone for them at the cost of self-denial. Ivan sought the truth, stumbled, made mistakes, suffered, but God, as we know from the parable of the Prodigal Son, values ​​more the one who returned home after long wanderings in search of the truth, and not the one who did not leave and accepted everything on faith. The hero is righteous in the sense that he took everything for granted, did not resist fate, walked without losing his dignity and without complaining about the heavy burden. In his search for the truth, he did not turn towards profit or passion, and in the end he came to true harmony with himself. He realized that his highest destiny was to suffer for the people, “to die for the faith,” that is, to become something greater than himself. A great meaning appeared in his life - service to his homeland, faith and people.
• The theme of love is revealed in Flyagin’s relationship with the Tatars and Grusha. It is obvious that the author cannot imagine this feeling without unanimity, conditioned by one faith, culture, and paradigm of thinking. Although the hero was blessed with wives, he could not love them even after the birth of their children together. Pear also did not become his beloved woman, because he was captivated by only the outer shell, which he immediately wanted to buy, throwing government money at the feet of the beauty. Thus, all the hero’s feelings turned not to an earthly woman, but to abstract images of the homeland, faith and people.
• The theme of patriotism. Ivan more than once wanted to die for the people, and at the end of the work he was already preparing for future wars. In addition, his love for his homeland was embodied in a reverent longing for his fatherland in a foreign land, where he lived in comfort and prosperity.
• Faith. The Orthodox faith, which permeates the entire work, had a huge influence on the hero. It manifested itself both in form and in content, because the book resembles the life of a saint, both compositionally and in ideological and thematic terms. Leskov considers Orthodoxy to be a factor determining many properties of the Russian national character.

Problems

The rich range of issues in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” includes social, spiritual, moral and ethical problems of the individual and the whole people.

• Search for the truth. In an effort to find his place in life, the hero stumbles upon obstacles and does not overcome all of them with dignity. Sins that become a means to overcome the path become a heavy burden on the conscience, because he does not withstand some tests and makes a mistake in choosing the direction. However, without mistakes there is no experience that led him to the realization of his own belonging to the spiritual brotherhood. Without trials, he would not have suffered his truth, which is never given easily. However, the price for revelation is invariably high: Ivan became a kind of martyr and experienced real spiritual torment.
• Social inequality. The plight of the serfs is becoming a problem of gigantic proportions. The author not only depicts the sad fate of Flyagin, whom the master brought to injury by sending him to the quarry, but also certain fragments of the life of other ordinary people. The fate of the old people, who almost lost their only breadwinner, who was recruited, is bitter. The death of the hero’s mother is terrible, because she died in agony without medical care or any help at all. The treatment of serfs was worse than that of animals. For example, horses worried the master more than people.
• Ignorance. Ivan could have realized his mission faster, but no one was involved in his education. He, like his entire class, did not have a chance to go out into the world, even after acquiring freedom. This restlessness is demonstrated by the example of Flyagin’s attempt to settle in the city even in the presence of the nobility. Even with this privilege, he could not find a place for himself in society, since not a single recommendation can replace upbringing, education and manners, which were not learned in the stable or in the quarry. That is, even a free peasant became a victim of his slave origin.
• Temptation. Any righteous person suffers from the scourge of demonic power. If we translate this allegorical term into everyday language, it turns out that the enchanted wanderer was struggling with his dark sides - selfishness, desire for carnal pleasures, etc. It’s not for nothing that he sees Pear in the image of the tempter. The desire he once felt for her haunted him in his righteous life. Perhaps he, accustomed to wandering, could not become an ordinary monk and come to terms with a routine existence, and he clothed this craving for active action and new searches in the form of a “demon.” Flyagin is an eternal wanderer who is not satisfied with passive service - he needs torment, feat, his own Golgotha, where he will ascend for the people.
• Homesickness. The hero suffered and languished in captivity in an inexplicable desire to return home, which was stronger than the fear of death, stronger than the thirst for the comfort with which he was surrounded. Because of his escape, he experienced real torture - horsehair was sewn into his feet, so he could not escape during all these 10 years of captivity.
• The problem of faith. In passing, the author told how Orthodox missionaries died trying to baptize the Tatars.

main idea

Before us comes the soul of a simple Russian peasant, which is illogical, and sometimes even frivolous in its actions and deeds, and the worst thing is that it is unpredictable. The actions of the hero are impossible to explain, because the inner world of this seemingly commoner is a labyrinth in which one can get lost. But no matter what happens, there is always a light that will lead you to the right path. This light for the people is faith, unshakable faith in the salvation of the soul, even if life has darkened it with falls. Thus, the main idea in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” is that every person can become a righteous person, you just need to let God into your heart by repenting of evil deeds. Nikolai Leskov, like no other writer, was able to understand and express the Russian spirit, which A.S. spoke about allegorically and vaguely. Pushkin. The writer sees in a simple peasant, who embodied the entire Russian people, a faith that many deny. Despite this apparent denial, the Russian people do not stop believing. His soul is always open to miracles and salvation. She searches to the last for something holy, incomprehensible, spiritual in her existence.

The ideological and artistic originality of the book lies in the fact that it transfers the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son to the author’s contemporary realities and shows that Christian morality knows no time, it is relevant in every century. Ivan also became angry at the usual way of things and left his father’s house, only his home from the very beginning was the church, so his return to his native estate did not bring him peace. He left God, indulging in sinful amusements (alcohol, mortal combat, theft) and getting deeper and deeper into the quagmire of depravity. His path was a heap of accidents, in which N.S. Leskov showed how empty and absurd life is without faith, how aimless its course is, which always takes a person to the wrong place where he would like to be. As a result, like his biblical prototype, the hero returns to his roots, to the monastery that his mother bequeathed to him. The meaning of the work “The Enchanted Wanderer” lies in finding the meaning of existence, which calls Flyagin to selfless service to his people, to self-denial for the sake of a higher goal. Ivan could not do anything more ambitious and correct than this dedication to all of humanity. This is his righteousness, this is his happiness.

Criticism

Critics' opinions about Leskov's story, as always, were divided due to the ideological differences of the reviewers. They expressed their thoughts depending on the magazine in which they published, because the editorial policy of the media of those years was subordinated to a certain focus of the publication, its main idea. There were Westerners, Slavophiles, Pochvenniks, Tolstoyans, etc. Some of them, of course, liked “The Enchanted Wanderer” because their views were justified in the book, while others categorically disagreed with the author’s worldview and what he called the “Russian spirit.” For example, in the magazine “Russian Wealth”, critic N.K. Mikhailovsky expressed his approval of the writer.

In terms of the richness of the plot, this is perhaps the most remarkable of Leskov’s works, but what is especially striking in it is the absence of any center, so that, strictly speaking, there is no plot in it, but there is a whole series of plots strung together like beads on a thread, and each bead is on its own and can be very conveniently taken out, replaced with another, or you can string as many more beads as you like on the same thread.

A critic from the magazine “Russian Thought” responded equally enthusiastically to the book:

Truly wonderful, capable of touching the hardest soul, a collection of lofty examples of virtues with which the Russian land is strong and thanks to which “the city stands”...

N. A. Lyubimov, one of the publishers of the Russian Messenger, on the contrary, refused to print the manuscript and justified the refusal to publish by saying that “the whole thing seems to him more like raw material for making figures, now very vague, than a crafted description of something in the reality of what is possible and what is happening.” This remark was eloquently answered by B. M. Markevich, who was the first listener of this book and saw what a good impression it made on the public. He considered the work to be something “highly poetic.” He especially liked the descriptions of the steppe. In his message to Lyubimov, he wrote the following lines: “His interest is maintained equally all the time, and when the story ends, it becomes a pity that it is over. It seems to me that there is no better praise for a work of art.”

In the newspaper "Warsaw Diary" the reviewer emphasized that the work is close to folklore tradition and has truly folk origin. The hero, in his opinion, has phenomenal, typically Russian endurance. He talks about his troubles in a detached manner, as if about the misfortunes of others:

Physically, the hero of the story is the brother of Ilya Muromets: he endures such torture from the nomads, such an environment and living conditions that he is not inferior to any hero of antiquity. In the moral world of the hero, that complacency prevails, which is so characteristic of the Russian common man, due to which he shares the last crust of bread with his enemy, and in war, after the battle, he gives help to the wounded enemy along with his own.

Reviewer R. Disterlo wrote about the peculiarities of the Russian mentality, depicted in the image of Ivan Flyagin. He emphasized that Leskov managed to understand and portray the simple-minded and submissive nature of our people. Ivan, in his opinion, was not responsible for his actions, his life seemed to have been given to him from above, and he resigned himself to it as with the weight of a cross. L.A. Annensky also described the enchanted wanderer: “Leskov’s heroes are inspired, enchanted, mysterious, intoxicated, foggy, crazy people, although according to their internal self-esteem they are always “innocent”, always righteous.”

The literary critic Menshikov spoke about the artistic originality of Leskov’s prose, emphasizing, along with the originality, the shortcomings of the writer’s style:

His style is irregular, but rich and even suffers from the vice of wealth: satiety.

You cannot demand from paintings what you demand. This is a genre, and a genre must be judged by one standard: is it skillful or not? What directions should we take here? In this way it will turn into a yoke for art and strangle it, just as a bull is crushed by a rope tied to a wheel.