Consider the image of Sharikov from the story “Heart of a Dog.” In this work, Bulgakov does not just talk about the unnatural experiment he conducted. Mikhail Afanasyevich describes a new type of person who appeared not in the laboratory of a scientist, but in Soviet reality in the post-revolutionary years. An allegory of this type is the image of Sharikov in the story “The Heart of a Dog.” The plot of the work is based on the relationship between a major scientist and Sharikov, a man artificially created from a dog.
Assessment of life by the dog Sharik
The first part of this story is based largely on the internal monologue of a stray half-starved dog. He evaluates street life in his own way, gives a description of the characters, morals, and life of Moscow during the NEP era with many teahouses, shops, taverns on Myasnitskaya with clerks who hated dogs. Sharik is able to appreciate affection and kindness, and sympathize. He, oddly enough, understands the social structure of the new country well. Sharik condemns the new masters of life, but knows about Preobrazhensky, an old intellectual from Moscow, that he will not “kick” a hungry dog.
Implementation of the Preobrazhensky experiment
In the life of this dog, a happy accident occurs, in her opinion - a professor takes her to his luxurious apartment. It has everything, even a few “extra rooms”. However, the professor does not need the dog for fun. He wants to carry out a fantastic experiment: after transplanting a certain part, a dog will have to turn into a human. If Preobrazhensky becomes Faust, creating a man in a test tube, then his second father, who gave Sharik his pituitary gland, is Klim Petrovich Chugunkin. Bulgakov very briefly characterizes this man. His profession is playing around taverns on the balalaika. He is poorly built, the liver is dilated as a result of drinking alcohol. Chunugkin died in a pub from a stab in the heart. The creature that emerged after the operation inherited the essence of its second father. Sharikov is aggressive, swaggering, insolent.
Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov
Mikhail Afanasyevich created a vivid image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog”. This hero is devoid of ideas about culture, about how to behave with other people. After some time, a conflict brews between the creation and the creator, Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov, who calls himself a “homunculus,” and Preobrazhensky. The tragedy is that a “man” who has barely learned to walk finds reliable allies in his life. They provide a revolutionary theoretical basis for all his actions. One of them is Shvonder. Sharikov learns from this hero about what privileges he, a proletarian, has in comparison with Preobrazhensky, a professor. In addition, he begins to understand that the scientist who gave him a second life is a class enemy.
Sharikov's behavior
Let’s add a few more touches to the image of Sharikov in Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog.” This hero clearly understands the main credo of the new masters of life: steal, plunder, steal what others have created, and most importantly, strive for equalization. And the dog, once grateful to Preobrazhensky, no longer wants to put up with the fact that the professor settled “alone in seven rooms.” Sharikov brings a paper according to which he should be allocated an area of 16 square meters in the apartment. m. Morality, shame, and conscience are alien to the polygraph. He lacks everything else except anger, hatred, meanness. He's getting looser and looser every day. Polygraph Poligrafovich commits outrages, steals, drinks, and molests women. This is the image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog”.
The finest hour of Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov
The new job becomes for Sharikov his finest hour. A former stray dog makes a dizzying leap. She turns into the head of the department for cleaning Moscow from stray animals. This choice of profession by Sharikov is not surprising: people like them always want to destroy their own. However, Polygraph does not stop there. New details complement the image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog.” A brief description of his further actions is as follows.
The story of the typist, the reverse transformation
Sharikov appears some time later in Preobrazhensky’s apartment with a young girl and says that he is signing with her. This is a typist from his department. Sharikov declares that Bormental will need to be evicted. In the end, it turns out that he deceived this girl and made up many stories about himself. The last thing Sharikov does is inform on Preobrazhensky. The sorcerer-professor from the story that interests us manages to turn a man back into a dog. It’s good that Preobrazhensky realized that nature does not tolerate violence against itself.
Sharikovs in real life
In real life, alas, Sharikovs are much more durable. Arrogant, self-confident, with no doubt that everything is permitted to them, these semi-literate lumpen people have brought our country to a deep crisis. This is not surprising: violence over the course of historical events and disregard for the laws of social development could only give rise to the Sharikovs. The polygraph in the story turned back into a dog. But in life he managed to go a long and, as it seemed to him and was suggested to others, a glorious path. He poisoned people in the 30-50s, just like once stray animals were once in his line of work. He carried suspicion and dog anger throughout his entire life, replacing with them dog loyalty, which had become unnecessary. This hero, having entered rational life, remained at the level of instincts. And he wanted to change the country, the world, the universe in order to make it easier to satisfy these animal instincts. All these ideas are conveyed by the creator of the image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog.”
Human or animal: what distinguishes ballers from other people?
Sharikov is proud of his low origins and his lack of education. In general, he is proud of everything low that is in him, since only this raises him high above those who stand out in mind and spirit. People like Preobrazhensky need to be trampled into the dirt so that Sharikov can rise above them. The Sharikovs outwardly do not differ in any way from other people, but their non-human essence is waiting for the right moment. When it comes, such creatures turn into monsters, waiting for the first opportunity to seize their prey. This is their true face. The Sharikovs are ready to betray their own. For them, everything holy and lofty turns into its opposite when they touch it. The worst thing is that such people managed to achieve considerable power. Having come to her, the non-human strives to dehumanize everyone around him so that it becomes easier to manage the herd. All human feelings are repressed from them
Sharikovs today
It is impossible not to turn to modern times when analyzing the image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog.” A short essay on the work should contain in the final part a few words about today's ballgames. The fact is that after the revolution in our country, all conditions were created for a large number of similar people to arise. The totalitarian system greatly contributes to this. They have penetrated into all areas of public life, and they still live among us. The Sharikovs are able to exist, no matter what. The main threat to humanity today is the heart of a dog along with the human mind. Therefore, the story, written at the beginning of the last century, remains relevant today. It is a warning to future generations. It sometimes seems that Russia has become different during this time. But the way of thinking, the stereotypes, will not change in 10 or 20 years. It will take more than one generation before the Sharikovs disappear from our lives, and people become different, devoid of animal instincts.
So, we looked at the image of Sharikov in the story “Heart of a Dog”. A brief summary of the work will help you get to know this hero better. And after reading the original story, you will discover some details of this image that we have omitted. The image of Sharikov in the story by M.A. Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" is a great artistic achievement of Mikhail Afanasyevich, like the entire work as a whole.
Sharikov Poligraf Poligrafovich is one of the main characters in M. A. Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog.” At the beginning of the story, Sharikov is just a good-natured yard dog, whom Professor Preobrazhensky picks up. He treats the dog's wound and treats him well. Sharik is happy
Life.
“They take care of me,” the dog thought, “a very good person. I know who it is. He is a wizard, magician and magician from a dog’s fairy tale...”
As a result of an experiment on pituitary gland transplantation, Sharikov is born. At first, the professor thought that he had managed to create a human being, but it soon becomes clear that, in fact, he managed to “resurrect” the criminal Klim Chugunkin.
“You stand at the lowest stage of development,” Philip Philipovich shouted down, “you are still just an emerging, mentally weak creature, all your actions are purely bestial...”
Sharikov is immoral
And he is stupid, he has neither honor nor conscience. He is deprived of even the rudiments of morality and nobility. He begins his new life playing the balalaika, drinking and swearing. He harasses women, damages furniture, and causes a flood in the apartment. The dog Sharik turned out to be “such scum that it makes your hair stand on end.” Sharikov receives the support of the authorities in the person of Shvonder, who sees him as a proletarian and a full-fledged member of society. Sharikov probably only had a dislike for cats left from the dog. Shvonder finds him a job he likes - now he runs the cat catching department. But even here Sharikov shows cruelty, which is not characteristic of either animals or people.
Professor Preobrazhensky steadfastly endures the tricks of his ward and at first harbors hope for his re-education. But the dog-man's behavior is getting worse every day. Sharikov crosses all boundaries when he writes a denunciation against the professor and threatens to kill him.
“But who is he? Klim, Klim. Here's the thing: two criminal records, alcoholism, “divide everything,” a hat and two ducats are gone..... A boor and a pig...”
Preobrazhensky performs a “reverse” operation and the kind, affectionate dog Sharik returns to the world again. With the words of Professor Preobrazhensky, the author seems to draw a line, a conclusion: “Science does not yet know a way to turn animals into people.” And the real beast was not the dog Sharik, but the soulless and cruel Klim Chugunkin.
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Such a literary hero as Sharikov’s “Heart of a Dog” cannot leave the reader indifferent. His image in the story outrages, shocks, causes a storm of emotions, this is the merit of the author - the genius of artistic expression M. Bulgakov. The creature, which appeared due to human intervention in what Mother Nature commands, serves as a reminder to humanity of its mistakes.
Appearance of Polygraph Sharikov
The author's irony affected not only the semantic component of Sharikov's image, but also his appearance. The creature, which was born as a result of the operation of Professor Philip Preobrazhensky, is a kind of symbiosis of a dog and a person. The animal was transplanted with the pituitary gland and seminal glands of the criminal and drunkard Klim Chugunkin.
The latter died in a fight, which speaks about the lifestyle of a man who became an unwitting participant in the operation. The author emphasizes that the human being into which the dog Sharik turned after the operation looks very much like a dog. His hair, body hair, gaze, habits - everything indicates that the animal is invisibly present in the image of the newly made “citizen”.
Sharikov's too low forehead indicates his low intelligence. Bright, flashy details in clothing are an indicator of bad taste and lack of basic culture in clothing.
The moral character of the hero
Sharikov is a symbol of arrogance, impudence, rudeness, familiarity, illiteracy, laziness. His image is the personification of the lumpen proletariat: that layer of society that very quickly got used to the new political conditions. Relying on fragmentary information, altering phrases from the slogans of the new government, these people “fight” for their rights, pretending to be active and work. In fact, they are parasites and opportunists; the government, which promises unprecedented benefits, attracts stupid, narrow-minded people who are ready to be a blind instrument in the fight for a bright future.
Polygraph Poligrafovich inherits the worst that is in the nature of animals and humans. The dog's loyalty and devotion, his gratitude to the owner - all this disappeared during the first two weeks of Sharikov's life. The character bites, pesters women, and is rude to everyone indiscriminately. The hero's ingratitude, his dissatisfaction with everything, and the lack of minimal culture in communication are infuriating. He begins to demand registration from the professor, and after some time he tries to evict Philip Philipovich. As a result, it comes to the point that Sharikov decides to kill his creator. This moment is very symbolic, endowed with a special meaning. It is here that the motive of the political ideology of the new system is clearly visible.
The fate of Polygraph Sharikov
No matter how hard the professor tried to educate and remake his brainchild, Sharikov turned out to be beyond the influence of convictions and moral teachings. Even violence (or the threat of it from the professor's assistant) has no effect on Sharikov. The hero continues to lead an immoral lifestyle, use foul language, scare residents, and drink. The characters are too intelligent to change anything. Sharikov and others like him understand only brute force, they live according to the principle of existence in the animal world.
The most amazing thing is that after the professor corrects the mistake, the hero comes to an important conclusion. In the creature that resulted from the experiment, all the worst things come from humans; the dog is a kind and noble animal. It turns out that there are people who are worse than dogs - this metaphorical nature is emphasized by the author several times. Fortunately, the professor was able to correct his mistake in time. He has the courage to admit that his philosophy of nonviolence does not always work without fail. Bulgakov hints that the new political system will not be able to repeat the professor’s step. The course of history cannot be stopped, and retribution for interfering with natural processes will inevitably overtake society.
Mikhail Bulgakov's story “The Heart of a Dog,” written in 1925 in Moscow, is a filigree example of sharp satirical fiction of that time. In it, the author reflected his ideas and beliefs about whether a person needs to interfere with the laws of evolution and what this can lead to. The topic touched upon by Bulgakov remains relevant in modern real life and will never cease to disturb the minds of all progressive humanity.
After its publication, the story caused a lot of speculation and controversial judgments, because it was distinguished by the bright and memorable characters of the main characters, an extraordinary plot in which fantasy was closely intertwined with reality, as well as an undisguised, sharp criticism of Soviet power. This work was very popular among dissidents in the 60s, and after its reissue in the 90s it was generally recognized as prophetic. In the story “Heart of a Dog,” the tragedy of the Russian people is clearly visible, which is divided into two warring camps (red and white) and in this confrontation only one must win. In his story, Bulgakov reveals to readers the essence of the new victors - proletarian revolutionaries, and shows that they cannot create anything good and worthy.
History of creation
This story is the final part of a previously written cycle of satirical stories by Mikhail Bulgakov of the 20s, such as “The Diaboliad” and “Fatal Eggs”. Bulgakov began writing the story “Heart of a Dog” in January 1925 and finished it in March of the same year; it was originally intended for publication in the Nedra magazine, but was not censored. And all of its contents were known to Moscow literature lovers, because Bulgakov read it in March 1925 at the Nikitsky Subbotnik (literary circle), later it was copied by hand (the so-called “samizdat”) and thus distributed to the masses. In the USSR, the story “Heart of a Dog” was first published in 1987 (6th issue of the Znamya magazine).
Analysis of the work
Story line
The basis for the development of the plot in the story is the story of the unsuccessful experiment of Professor Preobrazhensky, who decided to turn the homeless mongrel Sharik into a human. To do this, he transplants the pituitary gland of an alcoholic, parasite and rowdy Klim Chugunkin, the operation is successful and a completely “new man” is born - Poligraph Poligrafovich Sharikov, who, according to the author’s idea, is a collective image of the new Soviet proletarian. The “new man” is distinguished by a rude, arrogant and deceitful character, a boorish manner of behavior, a very unpleasant, repulsive appearance, and the intelligent and well-mannered professor often has conflicts with him. Sharikov, in order to register in the professor’s apartment (to which he believes he has every right), enlists the support of a like-minded and ideological teacher, the chairman of the Shvonder house committee, and even finds himself a job: he catches stray cats. Driven to the extreme by all the antics of the newly minted Polygraph Sharikov (the last straw was the denunciation of Preobrazhensky himself), the professor decides to return everything as it was and turns Sharikov back into a dog.
Main characters
The main characters of the story “Heart of a Dog” are typical representatives of Moscow society of that time (the thirties of the twentieth century).
One of the main characters at the center of the story is Professor Preobrazhensky, a famous world-famous scientist, a respected person in society who adheres to democratic views. He deals with the issues of rejuvenating the human body through animal organ transplants, and strives to help people without causing them any harm. The professor is depicted as a respectable and self-confident person, having a certain weight in society and accustomed to living in luxury and prosperity (he has a large house with servants, among his clients are former nobles and representatives of the highest revolutionary leadership).
Being a cultured person and possessing an independent and critical mind, Preobrazhensky openly opposes Soviet power, calling the Bolsheviks who came to power “idlers” and “idlers”; he is firmly convinced that it is necessary to fight devastation not with terror and violence, but with culture, and believes that the only way to communicate with living beings is through affection.
Having conducted an experiment on the stray dog Sharik and turned him into a human, and even tried to instill in him basic cultural and moral skills, Professor Preobrazhensky undergoes a complete fiasco. He admits that his “new man” turned out to be completely useless, does not lend himself to education and learns only bad things (Sharikov’s main conclusion after studying Soviet propaganda literature is that everything needs to be divided, and doing this by the method of robbery and violence). The scientist understands that one cannot interfere with the laws of nature, because such experiments do not lead to anything good.
The professor's young assistant, Dr. Bormenthal, is a very decent and devoted person to his teacher (the professor at one time took part in the fate of a poor and hungry student, and he responded with devotion and gratitude). When Sharikov reached the limit, having written a denunciation of the professor and stole a pistol, he wanted to use it, it was Bormental who showed fortitude and toughness of character, deciding to turn him back into a dog, while the professor was still hesitating.
Describing these two doctors, old and young, from the positive side, emphasizing their nobility and self-esteem, Bulgakov sees in their descriptions himself and his relatives, doctors, who in many situations would have acted in exactly the same way.
The absolute opposites of these two positive heroes are people of modern times: the former dog Sharik himself, who became Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov, the chairman of the house committee Shvonder and other “tenants”.
Shvonder is a typical example of a member of the new society who fully and completely supports Soviet power. Hating the professor as a class enemy of the revolution and planning to get part of the professor’s living space, he uses Sharikov for this, telling him about the rights to the apartment, giving him documents and pushing him to write a denunciation against Preobrazhensky. Himself, being a narrow-minded and uneducated person, Shvonder gives in and hesitates in conversations with the professor, and this makes him hate him even more and makes every effort to annoy him as much as possible.
Sharikov, whose donor was a bright average representative of the Soviet thirties of the last century, an alcoholic without a specific job, three times convicted lumpen-proletariat Klim Chugunkin, twenty-five years old, is distinguished by his absurd and arrogant character. Like all ordinary people, he wants to become one of the people, but he doesn’t want to learn anything or put any effort into it. He likes to be an ignorant slob, fight, swear, spit on the floor and constantly run into scandals. However, without learning anything good, he absorbs the bad like a sponge: he quickly learns to write denunciations, finds a job he “likes” - killing cats, the eternal enemies of the canine race. Moreover, by showing how mercilessly he deals with stray cats, the author makes it clear that Sharikov will do the same with any person who comes between him and his goal.
The gradually increasing aggression, impudence and impunity of Sharikov are specially shown by the author so that the reader understands how terrible and dangerous this “Sharikovism”, emerging in the 20s of the last century, as a new social phenomenon of the post-revolutionary time, is. Such Sharikovs, found all over the Soviet society, especially those in power, pose a real threat to society, especially to intelligent, intelligent and cultured people, whom they hate fiercely and try to destroy in every possible way. Which, by the way, happened later, when during Stalin’s repressions the color of the Russian intelligentsia and military elite was destroyed, as Bulgakov predicted.
Features of compositional construction
The story “The Heart of a Dog” combines several literary genres; in accordance with the plot of the storyline, it can be classified as a fantastic adventure in the image and likeness of “The Island of Dr. Moreau” by H.G. Wells, which also describes an experiment on breeding a human-animal hybrid. From this side, the story can be attributed to the science fiction genre that was actively developing at that time, the prominent representatives of which were Alexei Tolstoy and Alexander Belyaev. However, under the surface layer of science-adventure fiction, in fact, there turns out to be a sharp satirical parody, allegorically showing the monstrosity and failure of that large-scale experiment called “socialism”, which was carried out by the Soviet government on the territory of Russia, trying to use terror and violence to create a “new man” born from revolutionary explosion and propagation of Marxist ideology. Bulgakov very clearly demonstrated what will come of this in his story.
The composition of the story consists of such traditional parts as the beginning - the professor sees a stray dog and decides to bring him home, the climax (several points can be highlighted here) - the operation, the visit of the house committee members to the professor, Sharikov writing a denunciation against Preobrazhensky, his threats with the use of weapons, the professor's decision to turn Sharikov back into a dog, the denouement - the reverse operation, Shvonder's visit to the professor with the police, the final part - the establishment of peace and tranquility in the professor's apartment: the scientist goes about his business, the dog Sharik is quite happy with his dog's life.
Despite all the fantastic and incredible nature of the events described in the story, the author’s use of various techniques of grotesque and allegory, this work, thanks to the use of descriptions of specific signs of that time (city landscapes, various locales, life and appearance of the characters), is distinguished by its unique verisimilitude.
The events taking place in the story are described on the eve of Christmas and it is not for nothing that the professor is called Preobrazhensky, and his experiment is a real “anti-Christmas”, a kind of “anti-creation”. In a story based on allegory and fantastic fiction, the author wanted to show not only the importance of the scientist’s responsibility for his experiment, but also the inability to see the consequences of his actions, the huge difference between the natural development of evolution and revolutionary intervention in the course of life. The story shows the author's clear vision of the changes that took place in Russia after the revolution and the beginning of the construction of a new socialist system; all these changes for Bulgakov were nothing more than an experiment on people, large-scale, dangerous and having catastrophic consequences.
