Essay Family Thought in Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don. Family thought: Fundamentals of the unity of the Melekhov family

“Saving the family nest is the idea of ​​Natalia Melekhova’s life.”

Natalya Melekhova in M. Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Flows the Don” - drawn by the will of circumstances into a painful rivalry with Aksinya, forced to even insult her, calling her “a walker” - is a truly enlightened-bashful, probably the most angelic creature in the novel.

Natalya appears in the novel as if by chance: as the object of an upcoming matchmaking, wedding. “Natalya... Natalya is a beautiful girl... Very beautiful. Nadys saw her in church,” says Aksinya. The praise is double, even exaggerated, but Aksinya says these words of praise with dry eyes, and a heavy shadow falls from the barn. And in the window where she is looking, there is a yellow night chill.

Sholokhov's world is multi-colored, multi-sounding, and extremely full of complex psychological movements. Sholokhov, the greatest master of characteristic detail, chose almost symbolic epithets that speak of the danger for Natalya: dry, tearless eyes... These dry eyes suggest that someone will not survive in this inevitable struggle.

Gregory in Natalya found a sensitive bearer of great responsibility, found a person for whom love does not know, does not want to know the end, is afraid of even temporary substitution, betrayal, any unreliability. For her there is no discord between consciousness and feeling, there is no devastation from love, even joyful. That is why she seems cold and difficult to Gregory. There is no play of feelings, no love-absorption.

For Natalya, everything is destructive, even Grigory’s involuntary betrayals. At the same time, there is no anger in her, no pleasure from someone else's torment. There is pity... She doesn’t even despise the dissolute Daria, who in the end dealt her the main insulting blow, the unkind pimp, but moves away from her and forgives her.

The old Melekhovs and Korshunovs were the first to feel the bashful tenderness of Natalya’s meek soul. Old Korshunov just doesn’t utter the word “mock” (“Is it possible to do this to a living person?.. Heart, heart... or does he have a wolf’s?”) And Panteley Prokofievich - and he is all in these words, like a house builder ! - literally screams in pain and shame: “She is better than our own!”

And here is the stage of nest construction. Natalya's return to the house of Pantelei Prokofievich, to a house where there is no husband! Naive, inexperienced, believing in the power of a wedding, an oath before the saints, Natalya realizes with amazement that it is she who will have to go through woeful humiliation, that love-martyrdom awaits her. Sholokhov depicts with epic admiration the entire path of Natalya’s return, her difficult decisions, her appeal to her father-in-law.

Returning to the Melekhovs’ house is an awareness of one’s main strength and height: the power of fidelity, nobility, the power of humility. Soon she became inseparable from the House, from her family, especially from her children! Her entire stay in the Melekhov family is a hidden straightening and ascension of the soul, a movement not just towards victory over Aksinya, the birth of true friendship with Dunyashka and Ilnichnaya. Her prayers saved Gregory from Stepan Astakhov’s shots in the back. And as the highest reward - two wonderful children.

But the fight for the house, for the family is still ahead. This is indicative of Natalya’s dialogue with Aksinya (scene in Yagodnoye). Aksinya openly accuses Natalya: “You want to take the child’s father. Apart from Grishka, I have no husband.” The whole conversation is built on the sharp difference between the fierce Aksinya and the meek Natalya, who admits: “Melancholy pushed me”... Aksinya made the child an argument for her claims against Gregory, “disposed” of what God did not give for bargaining... A completely different turn of events followed - the illness and death of the girl , connection with Listnitsky, Gregory’s departure.

Motherhood did not become a guarantee of happiness for Natalia either. She remained an unloved wife... All the more power in the wonderful scene of chapter 8! This is an elegy with some timidity and hesitation in gestures, with silence, an elegy of farewell.

“She was next to him, his wife and mother of Mishatka and Porlyushka. She dressed up for him and washed her face... She sat so pitiful, ugly and yet beautiful, shining with some kind of pure inner beauty. A mighty wave of tenderness flooded Gregory’s heart... He wanted to say something warm and affectionate to her, but he couldn’t find the words and, silently pulling her towards him, kissed her white sloping forehead and mournful eyes.”

It was no coincidence that Natalya’s passing away, even after a relatively peaceful final explanation with Aksinya, cast a darkest shadow over the fate of Grigory and the entire Melekhov household. Sholokhov's heroes (and especially Natalya) sometimes carry out not a trial, but a kind of superjudgment over time, over the people crippled by it.

Both Natalya and Ilyinichna pass before the reader of “Quiet Don” as heroines, faithful to the end to their mother’s calling, the duty of the guardian of the family. Natalya dies at the moment when she not only abandoned the idea of ​​motherhood, but in an unnaturally evil, vengeful way trampled and destroyed her own idea, the core of her character. Natalya’s interlocutor, a witness to her spiritual crisis, was brilliantly chosen: it was Ilyinichna, a person deeply related to her, Grigory’s mother, who for the first time could not find words to justify her son, to refute Natalya’s rightness. Ilyinichna was only able to convince her daughter-in-law not to curse Grigory, not to wish him death. After Natalya’s death, everyone in the house was surrounded by bitter melancholy from the belated understanding of each other, from the understanding that the family was collapsing.

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“Family Thought” in Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”. Woman as the keeper of family warmth

1. M.A. Sholokhov - singer of the quiet Don

“in this world there is the history of the Don Cossacks, the Russian peasantry... centuries-old traditions of moral principles and labor skills that shaped the national character, the characteristics of the whole country.” E.A. Kostin

“Sholokhov’s family is a visual center through the prism of which the “macrocosm” of national culture is revealed to us.” I.I. Tsypenko

An artist, often stern and restrained, when he talks about his native land, he becomes lyrical and pathetic.

The spring of hidden love for the people of the quiet Don, its customs, songs, games, always flowing in the inner layers of Sholokhov’s narrative, suddenly bursts out... The novel “Quiet Don” is also filled with these feelings.

The heroes living on the pages of the novel are Don Cossacks.

The Cossacks are a special class in Rus', but in the life of any people there are unshakable values ​​that are largely similar: family, land, morality. I propose to touch upon this particular facet of Sholokhov’s novel.

Traditions. Origins. Life Family. National spirit. Referring to these concepts is always necessary. After all, by the life of a family, by the strength of family ties, one can judge the viability of a people.

At the center of Sholokhov’s narrative are several families: the Melekhovs, the Korshunovs, the Mokhovs, the Koshevs, the Listnitskys. This is not accidental: the patterns of the era are revealed not only in historical events, but also in the facts of private life, family relationships, where the power of traditions is especially strong and any break in them gives rise to acute, dramatic conflicts.

Starting with the family was a new brilliant intuitive discovery of the young writer. The author answered the question of who the Cossacks are, what their roots are, what is the basis of their life, why they behave in this or that situation in this or that way and not otherwise. The family is the carrier of what we call culture. Therefore, Sholokhov focuses on different generations of the Melekhov family.

The story about the fate of the Melekhov family begins with a sharp, dramatic beginning, with the story of Prokofy Melekhov, who amazed the farmers with his “outlandish act.” He brought his Turkish wife back from the Turkish war. He loved her in the evenings, when the “dawns were fading,” he carried her in his arms to the top of the mound, “he sat down next to her, and they looked at the steppe for a long time.” And when an angry crowd approached their house, Prokofy with a saber stood up to defend his beloved wife.

The death of a Turkish woman affirms the greatness and tragedy of true love, love that is different, and therefore annoying to others. This love was a challenge to the Cossacks, their way of life, their traditions - hence the tragedy.

From the first pages, proud people with an independent character and capable of great feelings appear. Thus, from the story of Grandfather Gregory, the novel “Quiet Don” enters into something beautiful and at the same time tragic. And for Gregory, love for Aksinya will become a serious test of life.

2. Patriarchy and traditions in the Melekhov family

Family is the basis of folk life in the world of “Quiet Don”. The life circumstances of the Cossack environment are depicted with such thoroughness that they make it possible to recreate the general structure of the family at the beginning of the twentieth century. And the twentieth century threatened to be bloody. Therefore, the eternally unshakable things became more and more valuable: family, land, children.

For the heroes of Quiet Flows the Don, family literally permeates their entire private life. Each individual person was certainly perceived as part of the whole - family, clan. These relationships were an important part of people's life. Kinship became higher than camaraderie, love, business relationships, neighborhood. Moreover, family relationships were taken into account with very great accuracy: “second cousin”, “cousin”, “vodvorki” - some words exist in modern life without much “meaning”. But during the time of the Quiet Don, family closeness was revered very seriously. In the Melekhov family there is great patriarchal power - the omnipotence of the father in the house.

Let the actions be cool, the tone of the elders is decisive and adamant (the younger ones endure this patiently and restrainedly, even the hot and impetuous Grigory), but does Panteley Prokofievich always abuse his power, is assault always unnecessary?

Panteley Prokofievich marries Grigory, and he does not argue not only out of filial obedience: Grishka disgraced the family with his shameless affair with a married neighbor. By the way, Grishka submitted not only to his father, but also to his mother - it was Ilyinichna who decided to marry Grigory to Natalya and persuaded her husband: “... sharpened him like rust is iron, and in the end she broke his stubbornness.” In short, there was a lot of commanding tone and rudeness - but there was never violence in the patriarchal family.

The rudeness was largely explained by the influence of army barracks morals, but not by patriarchy. Pantelei Prokofievich especially loved the “strong words”. So, more than once he caressed his own wife with the words: “old hag,” “shut up, you fool,” and his loving, devoted wife “rinsed her half”: “What are you doing, you old hook! I was a disgrace at first, but in my old age I went completely crazy.” “Turkish blood” was boiling in Prokofievich, but it was he who was one of the centers that united the family.

Another center of the patriarchal family was religion, the great Christian faith, the family image - the icon in the red corner.

The Cossack family acts as the guardian of the faith in the novel, especially in the person of its elder representatives. The black news about the death of Gregory came in those mournful days when “he was growing old day by day,” when “his memory was weakening and his mind was clouded,” only a conversation with Father Vissarion brought the old man to his senses: “From that day on, he broke himself and spiritually recovered.”

I would especially like to say about divorce. The concept itself did not even exist in the Cossack vocabulary. The family was blessed by God! Marriage was indissoluble, but, like everything earthly, it was not unshakable. Having met Grigory not far from Yagodnoye, where his son had gone with Aksinya, Panteley Prokofievich asks: “And God?” Gregory, who did not believe so sacredly, still remembers Him in his subconscious. It is no coincidence that “thoughts about Aksinya and his wife” suddenly flashed in his head during the oath, when he “walked up to the cross.”

The crisis of faith had a disastrous effect for the whole of Russia, especially for the family: the “double law of self-preservation” ceases to operate, when the family kept the faith, and faith protected the unity of the family.

3. Fundamentals of the unity of the Melekhov family

a) At the beginning of the novel, the Melekhov family is intact and friendly. The strength of this family was in unity, when all important issues were resolved openly, brought to the family court, and discussed directly and thoroughly.

The life of Grigory and Natalya did not work out. The council was started by Pantelei Prokofievich. Everyone performs; even Dunyasha, a teenager. Admitted to the council, listens carefully. Grigory is ashamed, he is rude. But no matter how the meetings end, not a single important event goes unnoticed.

What other advice were there? (The arrival of the Reds: retreat or surrender? Affairs of Dunyasha’s heart. 1919 - Daria’s money.)

Conclusion. In the Melekhov family - all Cossacks - responsible and complex matters were resolved openly, in direct, sometimes impartial, discussion. Extremes were smoothed out and leveled out, harsh passions were calmed down. It was neither paradise nor an idyll, but only a close-knit world of related people, for whom family was above personal aspirations and whims.

b) Whispering in corners was considered reprehensible, because centuries-old experience suggested: where secrets begin, decay and split begin.

If suddenly something evil and hostile penetrated inside the family, how did the Melekhovs solve this problem? Were there secrets in the family? (The Melekhov family also had its secrets, there are three of them in the novel.)

All these secrets concern the family.

1. Panteley Prokofievich immediately guessed about the connection between Grigory and Aksinya: the son got involved with the wife of a person close to them - a neighbor. The old man understands that he cannot avoid the conversation, and early in the morning while fishing with Gregory he begins a conversation.

2. Daria and Natalya are secretive about Daria’s illness. Daria asks her to warn her mother: “let her not tell her father about this, otherwise the old man will get mad and kick me out of the house.”

3. Natalya told only Ilyinichna about the abortion: “Will I live with Grishka or not... but I don’t want to give birth to any more children from him.”

All three conversations are conducted outside the house or yard: on the river, in the garden, on the steppe road. This is a sign of reluctance to dirty the family, which is natural for any living and healthy organism.

(This is an argument for another problem - the problem of openness, trust in relationships between people, family members.) Many of you are now thinking about the questions: is this the case in my family? When did we all get together to talk about something? Do we always listen to our elders, do fathers and mothers listen to our children's voices? What about our secrets? Are they secret?

From Sholokhov's novel we learned how the Cossacks cared about the integrity and health of their family.

4. Female images in Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”

Melechov family female Sholokhov

One of Sholokhov’s techniques in characterizing heroes is comparative analysis. Many of the novel's main characters are revealed through their attitude towards children. Since the bearer of home, family warmth is a woman, the characteristics of the main characters are especially interesting.

Daria. Nothing is known about her parents or origin. The heroine herself says at the end of the novel: “I have no one behind me or in front of me.” Daria gave birth to a child. But what do we learn about him - just a “child”. Or, irritated with her baby, the mother says: “Tiss, you filthy child! No sleep, no peace for you." There are a lot of rude words in the novel, but no one addresses children like that. The child died when he was not even one year old.

Aksinya. She gave birth to a child from Stepan, but even here it is noteworthy briefly: “... the child died before reaching a year.” From Gregory she gave birth to Tanya, she became happy and acquired a particularly happy posture. But love for the child was only a continuation of love for Gregory. Be that as it may, the child also dies about one and a half years old. Gregory took the children into her home after Natalya’s death. “They willingly called her mom,” she leaves them and leaves with Grigory.

Motherly love is manifested with special force in the image of Ilyinichna. It was she who raised her children as we see them in the novel; she not only took care of them, but also conveyed to them her worldview. Hence the deep affinity of the young Melekhovs with their mother, and not with their father. Sholokhov himself, bowing before his own mother, more than once noted the similarities between her and Ilyinichna. They know how to fight for their family, and Natalya becomes the continuer of this destiny.

Natalia. Saving the family nest is the idea of ​​​​Natalia Melekhova’s life. Natalya Melekhova in M. Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Flows the Don” - drawn by the will of circumstances into a painful rivalry with Aksinya, forced to even insult her, calling her “a walker” - is a truly enlightened-bashful, probably the most angelic creature in the novel.

Natalya appears in the novel as if by chance: as the object of an upcoming matchmaking, wedding. “Natalya... Natalya is a beautiful girl... Very beautiful. Nadys saw her in church,” says Aksinya. The praise is double, even exaggerated, but Aksinya says these words of praise with dry eyes, and a heavy shadow falls from the barn. And in the window where she is looking, there is a yellow night chill.

Sholokhov's world is multi-colored, multi-sounding, and extremely full of complex psychological movements. Sholokhov, the greatest master of characteristic detail, chose almost symbolic epithets that speak of the danger for Natalya: dry, tearless eyes... These dry eyes suggest that someone will not survive in this inevitable struggle.

Gregory in Natalya found a sensitive bearer of great responsibility, found a person for whom love does not know, does not want to know the end, is afraid of even temporary substitution, betrayal, any unreliability. For her there is no discord between consciousness and feeling, there is no devastation from love, even joyful. That is why she seems cold and difficult to Gregory. There is no play of feelings, no love-absorption.

For Natalya, everything is destructive, even Grigory’s involuntary betrayals. At the same time, there is no anger in her, no pleasure from someone else's torment. There is pity... She doesn’t even despise the dissolute Daria, who in the end dealt her the main insulting blow, the unkind pimp, but moves away from her and forgives her.

The old Melekhovs and Korshunovs were the first to feel the bashful tenderness of Natalya’s meek soul. Old Korshunov just doesn’t utter the word “mock” (“Is it possible to do this to a living person?.. Heart, heart... or does he have a wolf’s?”) And Panteley Prokofievich - and he is all in these words, like a house builder ! - literally screams in pain and shame: “She is better than our own!”

And here is the stage of nest construction. Natalya's return to the house of Pantelei Prokofievich, to a house where there is no husband! Naive, inexperienced, believing in the power of a wedding, an oath before the saints, Natalya realizes with amazement that it is she who will have to go through woeful humiliation, that love-martyrdom awaits her. Sholokhov depicts with epic admiration the entire path of Natalya’s return, her difficult decisions, her appeal to her father-in-law.

Returning to the Melekhovs' house is an awareness of one's main strength and height: the power of fidelity, nobility, the power of humility. Soon she became inseparable from the House, from her family, especially from her children! Her entire stay in the Melekhov family is a hidden straightening and ascension of the soul, a movement not just towards victory over Aksinya, the birth of true friendship with Dunyashka and Ilnichnaya. Her prayers saved Gregory from Stepan Astakhov’s shots in the back. And as the highest reward - two wonderful children.

But the fight for the house, for the family is still ahead. This is indicative of Natalya’s dialogue with Aksinya (scene in Yagodnoye). Aksinya openly accuses Natalya: “You want to take the child’s father. Apart from Grishka, I have no husband.” The whole conversation is built on the sharp difference between the fierce Aksinya and the meek Natalya, who admits: “Melancholy pushed me”... Aksinya made the child an argument for her claims against Gregory, “disposed” of what God did not give for bargaining... A completely different turn of events followed - the illness and death of the girl , connection with Listnitsky, Gregory’s departure.

Motherhood did not become a guarantee of happiness for Natalia either. She remained an unloved wife... All the more power in the wonderful scene of chapter 8! This is an elegy with some timidity and hesitation in gestures, with silence, an elegy of farewell.

“She was next to him, his wife and mother of Mishatka and Porlyushka. She dressed up for him and washed her face... She sat so pitiful, ugly and yet beautiful, shining with some kind of pure inner beauty. A mighty wave of tenderness flooded Gregory’s heart... He wanted to say something warm and affectionate to her, but he couldn’t find the words and, silently pulling her towards him, kissed her white sloping forehead and mournful eyes.”

It was no coincidence that Natalya’s passing away, even after a relatively peaceful final explanation with Aksinya, cast a darkest shadow over the fate of Grigory and the entire Melekhov household. Sholokhov's heroes (and especially Natalya) sometimes carry out not a trial, but a kind of superjudgment over time, over the people crippled by it.

Both Natalya and Ilyinichna pass before the reader of “Quiet Don” as heroines, faithful to the end to their mother’s calling, the duty of the guardian of the family. Natalya dies at the moment when she not only abandoned the idea of ​​motherhood, but in an unnaturally evil, vengeful way trampled and destroyed her own idea, the core of her character. Natalya’s interlocutor, a witness to her spiritual crisis, was brilliantly chosen: it was Ilyinichna, a person deeply related to her, Grigory’s mother, who for the first time could not find words to justify her son, to refute Natalya’s rightness. Ilyinichna was only able to convince her daughter-in-law not to curse Grigory, not to wish him death. After Natalya’s death, everyone in the house was surrounded by bitter melancholy from the belated understanding of each other, from the understanding that the family was collapsing.

Conclusion

There is an interesting parallel in the novel: children become the measure of the vitality of the heroines themselves. Without, in essence, children, Daria dies very quickly and like a woman. The absence of children becomes “God’s punishment” for the heroines.

How does Daria end her life? (She has completely become a “beast woman.” From time immemorial, a Cossack woman has been associated with the concepts of “life,” “continuer of the family.” Daria is the only Russian heroine who picks up a military weapon and then kills an unarmed person. That’s why and Daria’s death in the Don is cleansing and terrible.)

What can be said about other heroines in this regard? (Aksinya dies from a bullet, leaving behind no one, “only the black sun.” Natalya leaves the family, cuts herself, curses Gregory, poisons the fetus and ultimately dies.)

What conclusion does Sholokhov lead us to? (The death of a woman is always evil, a disaster, it is the death of a family.)

How strong is Ilyinichna’s motherly love! So great is her desire for everything to be peaceful in the house that her mother even comes to terms with the fact that Mishka Kosheva enters their house as the owner. She sees how Dunyashka reaches out to this man, how Koshevoy tenderly treats her grandson, Mishatka. Children should not be orphans! For Ilyinichna, this becomes the main condition for a new life.

Summarizing

What is the main thing in the sound of the theme of family in Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”?

Family is the stronghold of power. If a family collapses, peaceful life in the country collapses. A woman is the keeper of family unity.

Children are a symbol of the future. This is what the last pages of the novel are about.

What does Grigory dream about on sleepless nights away from home? How does the novel end? (episode of Gregory’s meeting with his son)

Everything is back to normal. We are again in front of the house - the Cossack kuren of the Melekhovs. And Gregory stands at the gates of his home, holding his son in his arms. This is all that remains in his life, what still connects him with the earth and with this whole huge world shining under the cold sun.

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Clan and family are sacred concepts for the Cossacks. It is no coincidence that the novel begins with the prehistory of the Melekhov family, and already in the first chapter the author gives a detailed family portrait. In it, the author emphasizes the features of family resemblance: wheat-colored hair - on the maternal side, a feral expression of almond-shaped eyes, a kite nose - on the paternal side.

As for the family, despite the harsh, sometimes harsh relationships, it is a whole organism. Everyone feels an inextricable connection with her, just as with the farmstead, with the native kuren. Even when love for Aksinya drives Grigory from his native place, he does not see the opportunity to leave the farm: “You are a fool, Aksinya, a fool! You play guitar, but there’s nothing to listen to. Well, where do I go from farming? Again at my service this year. This is no good... I won’t move anywhere from the ground. Here there is a steppe, there is something to breathe, but there?

However, Sholokhov does not idealize the life of the Don Cossacks. In the first book of the novel one can easily see a huge number of examples of not just severity, but true cruelty and moral depravity of the Cossacks. This is also the episode when an enraged crowd of farmers mercilessly deals with the wife of Prokofy Melekhov, when Aksinya’s fifty-year-old father rapes his daughter, for which his wife and son beat him to death. This is also when Stepan Astakhov “deliberately and terribly” beats his young wife the day after the wedding, and then again, returning from military training, “woos” her with his boots in front of the indifferently grinning Alyoshka Shamil.

The character of Grigory Melekhov and his duty to his family is clearly revealed in his relationships with Aksinya and Natalya in the scenes of the first book. Genuinely and deeply loving Aksinya, he does not worry about his beloved. When, nine days before Stepan’s return from the camps, Aksinya, tremblingly feeling the inevitability of the danger looming over her, desperately turns to her lover: “What am I, Grisha, going to do?” - he answers: “How can I know.” If in his relationship with Aksinya Grigory submits only to reckless passion, then by marrying Natalya, he, on the contrary, fulfills his duty to his family, without listening to the voice of his heart. He thinks about the torment he is condemning both himself and his loved ones to, although already at the moment of the wedding “indifference shackled Gregory” and his wife’s lips seemed “tasteless” to him.

The novel covers a period of ten years. The heroes experience the most tragic and significant events of the first half of the twentieth century: revolutions, civil war, riots and uprisings - events that determined the fate of the Cossacks, the fate of Grigory Melekhov and his family, his home, which was his stronghold throughout all this time, because it is about family , he thought about his native kuren on the battlefield. But the defeat of the White Cossack movement inevitably leads to the collapse of Gregory’s family; this fall is logically natural. In the third book, the author again turns to the theme of family and home, but their images are dark and sad. Sholokhov depicts the destruction of the Melekhov family.

The death of Peter, which forever remained an unhealed wound in the souls of loved ones. Pantelei Prokofievich's loss of his dominant position in the house. The tragedy and death of Daria, shameless and dissolute, breaking the centuries-old foundations of the Cossack family with the cynicism of her behavior and only before her death, with bitterness, she comprehended the entire bleakness of her “beautiful” life. The death of Natalya, after which old man Melekhov says with a sigh: “Our kuren has fallen in love with death.” Dunyashka's separation from her family, her alienation, turning into a clear rebellion against parental authority. The destruction of the farm during shelling, when “the war, from which Panteley Prokofievich was running, itself came to his yard.” The death of the owner of the house “in retreat”, on someone else’s Stavropol land. The death of Ilyinichna, who was left alone and never received her beloved son. The arrival of Mishka Koshevoy at Mishka’s house, which can hardly be called the beginning of a new life for the Melekhov kuren, if only because from the first days of his family life Mishka loses interest in the household, believing that the time has not yet come to lay down his arms. The death of Porlyusica, which the reader learns about on the last page. All these are stages of the gradual collapse of what at the beginning of the novel seemed unshakable. The words once uttered by Pantelei Prokofievich to Grigory are noteworthy: “Everything collapsed equally for everyone.” And although we are talking only about fallen fences, these words also have a broader meaning: the destruction of the House, the Family affected not only the Melekhovs - this is a common fate, a common drama of the entire Cossacks.

The narrative in "Quiet Don" is constructed as a depiction of the life of family nests. This novel is often compared to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” but, despite their compositional similarity, there is a clear and fundamental difference: if Tolstoy’s heroes, having gone through severe trials, come to the creation of a Family, then the heroes of “Quiet Don” experience its collapse, which emphasizes with particular force the dramatic nature of the time depicted by Sholokhov.

In the novel "Quiet Don" M. Sholokhov with great skill showed the tragic moments in the revolution and civil war and in a completely new way, relying on historical materials, his own experience, reproduced the true picture of Don life, its evolution. "Quiet Don" is called an epic tragedy. And not only because the tragic character is placed in the center - Grigory Melekhov, but also because the novel is permeated from beginning to end by tragic motives. This is a tragedy both for those who did not realize the meaning of the revolution and opposed it, and for those who succumbed to deception. This is the tragedy of many Cossacks drawn into the Veshensky uprising in 1919, the tragedy of the defenders of the revolution dying for the people's cause.

The tragedies of the heroes unfold against the backdrop of turning-point events for our country - the old world was completely destroyed by the revolution, it is being replaced by a new social system. All this led to a qualitatively new solution to such “eternal” issues as man and history, war and peace, personality and the masses. For Sholokhov, a person is the most valuable thing on our planet, and the most important thing that helps shape a person’s soul is, first of all, his family, the house in which he was born, grew up, where he will always be waited and loved and where he will definitely return.

“Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farm,” - this is how the novel begins, and throughout the entire narrative Sholokhov talks about the representatives of this family. The life of the inhabitants of the house appears from the pages of the epic in an interweaving of contradictions and struggle. The entire Melekhov family found itself at the crossroads of major historical events and bloody clashes. The revolution and civil war bring drastic changes to the established family and everyday life of the Melekhovs: the usual family ties are destroyed, new morals and ethics are born. Sholokhov with great skill managed to reveal the inner world of a man from the people, to recreate the Russian national character of the revolutionary era. A line of defense passes through the Melekhovs’ yard; it is occupied either by Reds or Whites, but the father’s house forever remains the place where the closest people live, always ready to receive and warm.

At the beginning of the story, the author introduces the reader to the head of the family, Pantelei Prokofievich: “Pantelei Prokofievich began to stoop down the slope of the sliding years: he spread out in width, slightly stooped, but still looked like a well-built old man. He was bone-dry, lame (in his youth he broke his leg at an imperial horse-racing show), wore a silver crescent-shaped earring in his left ear, his raven beard and hair did not fade into old age, and in anger he reached the point of unconsciousness...” Panteley Prokofievich - a true Cossack, brought up in the traditions of valor and honor. He raised his children using the same traditions, sometimes showing traits of a tough character. The head of the Melekhov family does not tolerate disobedience, but at heart he is kind and sensitive. He is a skillful and hardworking owner, he knows how to manage the household efficiently, and he works from dawn to dusk. He, and even more so his son Gregory, bears the reflection of the noble and proud nature of his grandfather Prokofy, who once challenged the patriarchal mores of the Tatarsky farm.

Despite the intra-family split, Panteley Prokofievich tries to unite the pieces of the old way of life into one whole, if only for the sake of his grandchildren and children. More than once he voluntarily leaves the front and returns home to his native land, which was the basis of his life. With inexplicable force she beckoned him to her, just as she beckoned all the Cossacks, tired of the intense and senseless war. Panteley Prokofievich dies in a foreign land, far from his home, to which he gave all his strength and endless love, and this is the tragedy of a man from whom time has taken away the most precious things - family and shelter.

The father passed on the same all-consuming love for his home to his sons. His eldest, already married son Petro resembled his mother: big, snub-nosed, with wild, wheat-colored hair, brown eyes, and the youngest, Gregory, took after his father - “Gregory was just as stooped as his father, even in his smile they both had something in common, bestial." Grigory, like his father, loves his house, where Panteley Prokofievich forced him to nurse his horse, loves his wedge of land behind the farm, which he plowed with his own hands.

With great skill, M. Sholokhov portrayed the complex character of Grigory Melekhov - an integral, strong and honest personality. He never sought his own benefit and did not succumb to the temptation of profit and career. Mistaken, Gregory shed a lot of blood from those who affirmed new life on earth. But he realized his guilt and sought to atone for it by honest and faithful service to the new government.

The hero's path to the truth is thorny and complicated. At the beginning of the epic, he is an eighteen-year-old guy - cheerful, strong, handsome. The author comprehensively reveals the image of the main character - here is the code of Cossack honor, and intense peasant labor, and daring in folk games and festivities, and familiarization with the rich Cossack folklore, and the feeling of first love. From generation to generation, cultivated courage and bravery, nobility and generosity towards enemies, contempt for cowardice and cowardice determined Gregory’s behavior in all life circumstances. During the troubled days of revolutionary events, he makes many mistakes. But on the path of searching for truth, the Cossack is sometimes unable to comprehend the iron logic of the revolution, its internal laws.

Grigory Melekhov is a proud, freedom-loving person and at the same time a truth-seeking philosopher. For him, the greatness and inevitability of the revolution must be revealed and proven by the entire subsequent course of life. Melekhov dreams of a system of life in which a person would be rewarded according to the measure of his intelligence, work and talent.

The women of the Melekhov family - Ilyinichna, Dunyashka, Natalya and Daria - are completely different, but they are united by sublime moral beauty. The image of old Ilyinichna personifies the difficult lot of a Cossack woman, her high moral qualities. Pantelei Melekhov’s wife, Vasilisa Ilyinichna, is a native Cossack of the Verkhnedonsky region. Life was not sweet to her lot. It was she who suffered most from her husband’s hot temper, but patience and endurance helped her save her family. She grew old early and suffered from illnesses, but despite this she remained a caring, energetic housewife.

The image of Natalia is filled with high lyricism - a woman of high moral purity and feeling. Strong in character, Natalya put up with the position of an unloved wife for a long time and still hoped for a better life. She curses and loves Gregory endlessly. Even if not for long, she still found her feminine happiness. Thanks to patience and faith, Natalya managed to restore the family, restore harmony and love. She gave birth to twins: a son and a daughter, and turned out to be as loving, devoted and caring a mother as she was a wife. This beautiful woman is the embodiment of the dramatic fate of a strong, beautiful, selflessly loving nature, ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of a high feeling, even her own life. Natalya's strength of spirit and captivating moral purity are revealed with unprecedented depth in the last days of her life. Despite all the evil that Gregory caused her, she finds the strength to forgive him.

The brightest representative of the family is Dunyashka. Nature endowed her with the same hot and strong character as Gregory. And this was especially clearly manifested in her desire to defend her happiness at any cost. Despite the discontent and threats of loved ones, she, with her characteristic tenacity, defends her right to love. Even Ilyinichna, for whom Koshevoy forever remained a “murderer,” the killer of her son, understands that nothing will change her daughter’s relationship with Mikhail. And if she fell in love with him, then nothing could tear this feeling out of her heart, just as nothing could change Gregory’s feelings for Aksinya.

The last pages of the novel return readers to where the work began - to “family thought.” The friendly Melekhov family suddenly broke up. The death of Peter, the death of Daria, the loss of Pantelei Prokofievich's dominant position in the family, the death of Natalya, Dunyashka's departure from the family, the destruction of the farm during the offensive of the Red Guards, the death of the head of the family in retreat and the departure of Ilyinichna to another world, the arrival of Mishka Koshevoy in the house, the death of Porlyushka - all these are stages of the collapse of what at the beginning of the novel seemed unshakable. The words once said by Pantelei Prokofievich to Grigory are noteworthy: “Everything collapsed equally for everyone.” And although we are talking only about fallen fences, these words take on a broader meaning. The destruction of the family, and therefore the home, affected not only the Melekhovs - this is a common tragedy, the fate of the Cossacks. The Korshunov, Koshev, and Mokhov families die in the novel. The centuries-old foundations of human life are crumbling.

The narrative in "Quiet Don", as in Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace", is based on the image of family nests. But if Tolstoy’s heroes, having gone through severe trials, come to create a family, then Sholokhov’s heroes painfully experience its collapse, which especially strongly emphasizes the tragedy of the era depicted in the novel. Talking about the collapse of the Melekhov family, Sholokhov poses for us, descendants, the task of reviving the family and confidently convinces us that there is always something to start with. In Gregory’s tormented soul, many life values ​​lost their meaning, and only the feeling of family and homeland remained ineradicable. It is no coincidence that Sholokhov ends the story with a touching meeting between father and son. The Melekhov family has broken up, but Grigory will be able to create a hearth where the flame of love, warmth and mutual understanding will always glimmer, which will never go out. And despite the tragedy of the novel, which reflected the events of one of the most cruel periods in the history of our country, the reader remains to live with hope in this huge world shining under the cold sun.

Family plays a very important role in the life of every person. After all, these are not only people who support, protect and love us, but also a home where we are always eagerly awaited. The family is a reliable protection from any troubles and adversity. It gives warmth, comfort and confidence in a bright future.

In the novel “Quiet Don” M. A. Sholokhov raises one of the eternal problems - the problem of family values ​​and their influence on the fate of an individual and the history of an entire country.

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In the life of every nation there are undeniable values ​​- land, morality, family, they were especially strongly strengthened in the life of the Cossacks. Therefore, family is the basis of folk life in the novel.

Kinship ties and family are of great importance to the Cossacks. Therefore, it is natural for the novel to begin, where the author talks about the history of the Melekhov family. Family traits that are passed on from generation to generation are clearly visible here. This emphasizes the connection that exists between the characters. But gradually war invades these relations. The beginning of the 20th century becomes a terrible test for the entire Cossacks. The people are going through difficult events: revolution, civil war, uprisings. And of course, they determine the fate of all heroes. The father passed on the same all-consuming love for his home to his son. On the battlefield, Grigory Melekhov’s thoughts were directed towards his home, which awaits his return.

The defeat of the white army was the end of the white movement, and at the same time the end of the family way of life, the end of the Melekhov family. In Gregory’s tormented heart, many values ​​lost their meaning, and only a reverent attitude towards family and the Motherland remained unchanged. It is no coincidence that M. A. Sholokhov ends the novel with a meeting between father and son. Thus, it gives hope for the hero to create a warm family hearth that will never fade.

Updated: 2018-11-27

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