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L.N. Andreev is one of the few writers who subtly felt the movement of life, its rapid impulses and the slightest changes. The writer felt the tragedy especially acutely human existence, which is controlled by mysterious, fatal forces unknown to people. His work is the result of philosophical reflection, an attempt to answer the eternal questions of existence. In Andreev’s works, artistic details acquire special value. At first glance, they seem completely motionless and silent. Behind the smallest details, like light strokes, subtle halftones and hints are hidden. Thus, the writer encourages his reader to independently answer critical issues human life. Therefore, in order to understand Andreev’s works, you need to feel the semantic shades of each word, be able to determine its sound in context. This is what we will now try to do when analyzing the story “ Grand slam".II Conversation on the story "Grand Slam" - What is the peculiarity of the plot and character system?(The plot of the story, at first glance, seems quite simple. However, upon closer examination, you will notice philosophical meaning, which is hidden behind the real everyday basis. The characters in the story are ordinary people. For many years they spend their leisure time playing vint. The author sparingly outlines the features of his heroes and says nothing about the inner world of the characters. The reader will have to guess what the simple plot basis and the laconic depiction of the heroes implies a symbol of the monotony of the flow of life, in the rhythm of which ordinary people live aimlessly).- What is the intonation of the piece? What is her role? ( The intonation of the story is simple, devoid of emotionality, acute drama, and calm. The author impartially describes the leisure time of the players. It's about about ordinary and inconspicuous events. But behind the measured intonation of the narrative, tension is hidden, drama is felt in the subtext. In this calm flow of life, behind the monotony card game people lose their spiritual appearance and individuality).- What can you say about the heroes of the story “Grand Slam”? How are their actions described? (The appearance of the heroes is briefly outlined. Yakov Ivanovich “was a small, dry old man, winter and summer, walking around in a welded frock coat and trousers, silent and stern.” The complete opposite of him is Nikolai Dmitrievich - “fat and hot,” “red-cheeked, smelling fresh air" Evpraksiya Vasilievna and Prokopiy Vasilievich are described in less detail. When describing his brother and sister, Andreev limits himself to only mentioning the facts of their biography. All the heroes have one thing in common - the card game has replaced the diversity of life for them. They are afraid that the established order and artificially created conditions of existence may collapse. The world of these heroes will be hidden within the confines of a deck of cards. Therefore, their actions are very stereotyped. The author succinctly describes the manner of their playing).- Compare the two heroes Nikolai Dmitrievich and Yakov Ivanovich by their behavior at the card table. How do their characters reveal themselves through details?(Yakov Ivanovich never played more than four tricks, his actions are precisely weighed, do not allow the slightest deviation from the order he established. Nikolai Dmitrievich, on the contrary, is presented in the story as a passionate player. Playing cards completely absorbs him. In addition, he dreams of a grand slam , so he constantly displays outbursts of emotion).- How does Andreev describe the cards in the story “Grand Slam”? What is the meaning behind the detailed images of the cards? (It seems that cards and people have switched places: people look like inanimate objects, and cards behave like living beings. The author describes the card suits in detail. As the description becomes more detailed, the cards develop a character, specific model behavior, they become prone to displaying emotions. We can say that the author performs an artistic ritual of bringing the cards to life. The personification of cards can be contrasted with the process of spiritual death of the heroes).- What symbolic subtext is hidden behind the death of Nikolai Dmitrievich? (The death of this hero is natural and inevitable. The entire course of the narrative foreshadows a tragic ending. The absurdity of the dream of a grand slam testifies to the spiritual death of the hero. After which physical death occurs. The absurdity of the situation is enhanced by the fact that his dream has come true. The death of Nikolai Dmitrievich symbolizes the emptiness of many human aspirations and desires, the destructive influence of everyday life, which, like acid, corrodes the personality and makes it colorless).- What is the philosophical meaning of the story?(Many people live in an atmosphere of spiritual vacuum. They forget about compassion, kindness, mercy, intellectual development. There is no keen interest in the world around them in their hearts. By depicting the limited personal space of his heroes, the author covertly expresses his disagreement with this form of existence).

GRAND SLAM
(Story, 1902)
Maslennikov Nikolay Dmitrievich - one of the four participants
card game and, accordingly, one of the four heroes of the story
"Grand Slam" dedicated to eternal question"life and death". M.
the only hero endowed not only with a name and patronymic, but also
last name “They played screw three times a week: on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays” - this is how the story begins. Gathered at
“the youngest of the players,” forty-three-year-old Evpraksiya Vasilievna,
who once upon a time loved a student, but “no one knew, and even she,
She seems to have forgotten why she didn’t have to get married.” Paired with her
played by her brother Prokopiy Vasilyevich, who “lost his wife on the second
a year after the wedding and two whole months after that he spent in a hospital
for the mentally ill." M.'s (the oldest) partner was Yakov
Ivanovich, in whom one can see similarities with Chekhov’s “man in
case" - "a small, dry old man who walked in winter and summer
wearing a well-worn frock coat and trousers, silent and stern.” Dissatisfied
distribution of pairs (“ice and fire”, in the words of Pushkin), M.
laments that “he will have to<...>quit dreaming big
trumpless helmet." “This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn.
The decrepit world obediently bore the heavy yoke of endless existence and
sometimes blushed with blood, sometimes shed tears, announcing his path to
space with the groans of the sick, hungry and offended.” Only M.
brought into the carefully fenced off small world “echoes of this
an alarming and alien life.” It seemed strange to others
was considered a “frivolous and incorrigible person.” Some
for a time he even spoke about the Dreyfus affair, but “they answered him with silence.”
“Cards have long since lost in their eyes the meaning of soulless
matter<...>The cards were combined in infinitely different ways, and
this diversity defied either analysis or rules, but it was
time is natural.” It is for M. “grand slam in trump cards”
became the most strong desire and even a dream." Only sometimes a move
card game was disrupted by events from outside: M. disappeared for two or three
weeks, returning, aged and gray, he reported that his
the son was arrested and sent to St. Petersburg. He did not show up at one of the
Saturdays, and everyone was surprised to learn that he had been suffering from chest pain for a long time
a toad."
But no matter how the screw players hid from outside world, he is simple and
he rudely burst into their presence. On the fateful Thursday, November 26, M. smiled
luck. However, barely having time to pronounce the cherished “Grand Slam in
no trumps!”, the lucky one suddenly died from “heart paralysis.” When
Yakov Ivanovich looked at the cards of the deceased, then saw: M. “in his hands
<...>there was a surefire grand slam.” And then Yakov Ivanovich, realizing,
that the deceased would never know about it, got scared and realized “what is
death". However, the momentary shock soon passes, and the heroes
they think not about death, but about life: where to get a fourth player? So
Andreev rethought the famous question in an ironic way
the main character from L. N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”:
“Am I really going to die?” Tolstoy gave Andreeva a “4” for his story.

L. N. Andreev Grand Slam

Grand slam

Four players play “vint” three times a week: Evpraksiya Vasilievna with her brother Prokopiy Vasilievich against Maslennikov and Yakov Ivanovich. Yakov Ivanovich and Maslennikov are completely unsuited to each other as partners: the dry old man Yakov Ivanovich is unusually careful and pedantic, he never takes risks, unlike the hot and enthusiastic Maslennikov. Evenings during the game are extremely monotonous, the players are completely absorbed in the cards, the most lively conversation that occurs between them is the exchange of remarks about the good weather.

“Cards had long ago lost in their eyes the meaning of soulless matter, and each suit, and within a suit each card individually, was strictly individual and lived its own separate life.” However, one day the regular flow of the players’ lives is disrupted: Maslennikov disappears for two weeks. After returning, he reports that his son has been arrested and sent to St. Petersburg. The rest are surprised, since before no one was interested in whether Maslennikov had children.

On Thursday, November 26, the game takes an unusual turn: Maslennikov is unusually lucky. And in the end he announces the “grand slam”, which he passionately dreamed of playing. for a long time. Stretching out his hand for a purchase, Maslennikov suddenly falls to the floor and dies of cardiac paralysis. The other three are shocked by what happened, they don’t even know where to report the death of their friend. Yakov Ivanovich asks in confusion where to now look for a fourth partner for the game. The mistress of the house, busy with her thoughts, suddenly becomes interested in where Yakov Ivanovich himself lives.

Maslennikov Nikolay Dmitrievich- one of the four participants in the card game and, accordingly, one of the four heroes of the story “Grand Slam”, dedicated to the eternal question of “life and death”. M. is the only hero endowed with not only a first name and patronymic, but also a last name. “They played screw three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays” - this is how the story begins. They gathered with “the youngest of the players,” forty-three-year-old Eupraxia Vasilievna, who once upon a time loved a student, but “nobody knew, and she seemed to have forgotten why she didn’t have to get married.” She was paired with her brother Prokopiy Vasilyevich, who “lost his wife in the second year after their wedding and spent two whole months after that in a mental hospital.” M.’s partner (the oldest) was Yakov Ivanovich, in whom one can see a resemblance to Chekhov’s “man in a case” - “a small, dry old man, winter and summer, who wore a welded frock coat and trousers, silent and stern.” Dissatisfied with the distribution of couples (“ice and fire,” in Pushkin’s words), M. laments “that he will have to<...>give up the dream of a big trumpless helmet.” “This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn. The decrepit world obediently bore the heavy yoke of endless existence and either blushed with blood or shed tears, announcing its path through space with the groans of the sick, hungry and offended.” Only M. brought “echoes of this alarming and alien life” into the carefully fenced-off small world. This seemed strange to others; he was considered a “frivolous and incorrigible person.” For some time he even spoke about the Dreyfus affair, but “he was answered with silence.”

“Cards have long since lost the meaning of soulless matter in their eyes.<...>The cards were combined in an infinite variety, and this variety defied either analysis or rules, but at the same time it was natural.” It was for M. that “a grand slam in no trumps became the strongest desire and even a dream.” Only sometimes the course of the card game was disrupted by events from outside: M. disappeared for two or three weeks, returning, older and grayer, he reported that his son had been arrested and sent to St. Petersburg. He didn’t show up one Saturday either, and everyone was surprised to learn that he had been suffering from “angina pectoris” for a long time.

But no matter how hard the screw players hid from the outside world, he simply and rudely burst into them himself. On the fateful Thursday, November 26, M. luck smiled. However, barely having time to say the cherished “Grand slam in no trumps!”, the lucky one suddenly died from “heart paralysis.” When Yakov Ivanovich looked at the cards of the deceased, he saw: M. “in his hands<...>there was a surefire grand slam.” And then Yakov Ivanovich, realizing that the deceased would never know about it, got scared and realized “what death is.” However, the momentary shock soon passes, and the heroes think not about death, but about life: where to get a fourth player? So Andreev rethought in an ironic vein the famous question of the protagonist from L.N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”: “Am I really going to die?” Tolstoy gave Andreeva a “4” for his story.

T. V. Dmitrenko
Gorlovka

The reasons for human sensitivity from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century are explained, and it turns out that L. Andreev is not a “dark” author who is seen from a pessimistic point of view, but reveals the true essence of the “little” people.

The end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries in the development of Russian social and literature literature artistic life- it's shift time historical eras. By the beginning of the century, Russia had become the center of the world revolutionary movement. The events taking place in the country gained worldwide historical meaning. Fiction expressed the social, ethical and aesthetic ideals of people in revolutionary prose, primarily in the works of L. Andreev. One of the main themes of his work is “tragedy little man", his renunciation of himself and alienation from the world around him.

A detailed study of this problem from a modern and objective point of view is very relevant, as this makes it possible to more fully see and analyze the “picture of the world and perception” of that time. Quite a lot of literary scholars and critics - L. A. Jesuitova, V. I. Bezzubov, Yu. V. Babicheva and many others - studied the problems of L. Andreev’s creativity. But the problem of mortification of the soul, as well as death, was not explored in the author’s work, and therefore the appeal to this issue is relevant for modern literary criticism.

The purpose of this article is to analyze and, as a consequence, prove the death of the soul of the “little man” in connection with his self-denial of himself and the world. As already mentioned, Andreev is one of those writers who was worried about the fate of ordinary people who lived at a turning point. Andreev's creativity had a pronounced anti-bourgeois and anti-bourgeois character. The author associated the spiritual poverty of the “small” person with the disunity of people, with their indifference to great life countries. Man increasingly turned into “a faceless unit of equally faceless multitudes.” Andreev is looking for the reasons for this terrifying impersonality and comes to the conclusion that alienation and spiritual poverty of a person are generated not only by social inequality, but also by material need. The author believed that this was a consequence of abnormality modern society generally.

The story “The Grand Slam” (1899) testifies to the disunity and soullessness of quite “prosperous” people, whose highest pleasure was playing vint at all times of the year. One of the heroes, Maslennikov, in order to start at least some conversation, from time to time read out the weather forecast or told what was happening in the world, to which he always received the same dry answer - “read it already” or there was no answer at all. Already from this, at first glance, insignificant detail, it is clear that the so-called “friends” had practically nothing in common except playing screw. Lack of interest in each other's personal opinions and in what was happening around them gradually turned them into soulless, degrading individuals.

The heroes of the story, three men and one woman, lived in their own world, Where main role played cards that became the meaning of their insignificant existence. Each character, of course, has a name, but the heroes are so faceless that the author begins to call them the equally faceless “they”. “They played screw three times a week,” “And they sat down to play.” Andreev presents the heroes as a “gray mass”, from which absolutely no one stood out. They played three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and Sunday, which was very convenient for playing, “had to be left to all sorts of accidents: the arrival of strangers and the theater.” The author calls those people who sometimes visited the main characters “outsiders” not because they really were, but because the main characters only experienced alienation towards each other. The game lasted for six years, during which the players had to not only know each other well, but also become best friends. But it so happened that after so many years they still knew nothing about each other. They only knew that the mistress of the house, Eupraxia Vasilievna, had an affair with a student in her youth. But why she didn’t marry him, even she didn’t remember.

The only one female image The author portrays the story not just as an old maid, but as an impersonal character. A woman who did not remember the reason for her unmarriage after the only affair in her life cannot pretend that at least someone would consider her a worthy subject of society. Real woman, like no one else, will remember every minute spent with a loved one, and, of course, will never forget the reasons for the breakup. The heroine is spiritually empty, but the lack of spiritual values ​​does not bother her at all. A life lived aimlessly does not seem empty to her, because there is a game of screw, where she merges with cards that fill her spiritual emptiness. Even when Nikolai Dmitrievich, one of the players, was late, he always apologized and said: “There are so many people walking on the boulevard. So they go, so they go.” . The heroine, as the mistress of the house, considered herself “obliged not to notice the oddities of her guests.” Her response was always the same: “Yes, probably - the weather is good. But shouldn’t we start?” . She didn't even know what the weather was like. Her assumption that she was good came down to the fact that, according to one of the players, there were a lot of people walking on the street. The reluctance to simply go outside once again proves her spiritual emptiness.

Evpraksiya Vasilievna, like her brother, does not need money, but she does not understand games not for money, and therefore, winning any insignificant amount, “she put this money separately, in a piggy bank, and it seemed to her much more important and dearer than those large credit cards that she had to pay for an expensive apartment and issue for housekeeping.” Andreev emphasizes that winning for the mistress of the house has become the meaning of life (just like the overcoat for Gogol’s Bashmachkin).

Complete lack of information about personal life each other leads to the fact that after the death of one of them it turned out that the heroes did not even know his address. And with great surprise they learned about the existence of an adult son, as well as about Maslennikov’s illness with angina pectoris, only on the eve of his sudden death. Already modern critics and writers have come to the conclusion that Andreev in this story is talking not only about the vulgar life of vulgar people, “but also about those fatal forces that cruelly and mockingly control human destiny" And only for one moment, one of the players after Maslennikov’s death thought: “A man lived fruitlessly and in vain, all his life he cherished the dream of playing in a grand slam. And his partner cried with pity for the one who could never find out about the fulfillment of his dream, and with pity for himself, for everyone, since the same “terribly and senselessly cruel” would happen to them and to everyone.” The hero cried and regretted not about the person with whom he had played for many years in a row, but only about the fact that Maslennikov was so close to winning, his cherished dream, but never found out about the grand slam. And the question immediately arises: what would have happened if Maslennikov had remained alive and learned about the realization of his cherished dream? Would his life have changed in any way? Would spiritual values ​​change? Of course not. Winning would in no way affect the hero's meaningless existence. Like six years in a row before, they would continue to play and waste the most priceless thing - life.

The most striking symbol of “that fatal force that controls the heroes” were cards. Andreev points out that “cards have long since lost the meaning of soulless matter in the eyes of the heroes, and each suit, and within the suit each card individually, was strictly individual and lived its own separate life.” It becomes clear that it was the cards that “lived”, not the players. It was the players who turned into soulless matter, and the cards guided their lives, became the rulers and stewards of their destinies, and most importantly, the meaning of their empty lives. “The suits were loved and unloved, happy and unhappy. The cards were combined in an infinite variety, and this variety defied either analysis or rules, but at the same time it was natural. And this pattern contained the life of the cards, which was different from the lives of the people who played them. People wanted and got their way from them, and the cards did their own thing, as if they had their own will, their own tastes, likes and whims.

All suits came to Nikolai Dmitrievich equally, and not one stayed for long, and all the cards looked like hotel guests who come and go, indifferent to the place where they had to spend several days. Sometimes, for several evenings in a row, only twos and threes would come to see him and at the same time they had an impudent and mocking look.” According to the author, it is not the heroes who have a soul, but the cards. The players were faceless, and who cares what the main characters look like. After all, gradually and imperceptibly the cards become the main images of the story, and the players turn into the suits that they did not like so much. Maslennikov was sure that he was unable to get a grand slam only because “the cards know about his desire and deliberately do not go to him in order to annoy him.” Having such power over a person, the cards represent a certain vector that moves only in the direction in which it is convenient for them.

“And he pretended that he was completely indifferent to what kind of game he would have, and tried not to reveal the buy-in for a long time. Very rarely did he manage to deceive the cards in this way; They usually guessed, and when he opened the purchase, three sixes laughed from there and the king of spades, whom they had dragged for company, smiled gloomily.” Symbolic are these three sixes, which, according to Christian tradition, are the number of Satan. And the king of spades, as the owner of everything unclean, is the opponent against whom Maslennikov played. The story captures the religious meaning and a clear indication that the heroes were most likely atheists, which is primarily indicated by the playing of cards, which is not allowed by the church.

Maslennikov was blind to all the signs that the cards “gave” to him. “Only Nikolai Dmitrievich could not come to terms with the whimsical rights of the cards, their mockery and inconstancy. Going to bed, he thought about how he would play a grand slam with no trumps... then one ace comes and another. But when, full of hope, he sat down to play, the damned sixes again bared their wide white teeth.” These constant three sixes clearly indicated the danger that threatened Maslennikov, they were somehow trying to “protect” him, but how can an unbeliever pay attention to such trifles, and why, if the goal is set and must be achieved in any way.

Many critics agree in one opinion that none of the writers before Andreev refined their lines and colors so much, none of them took on such a thin shell, did not merge so much to the point of losing the distinction between their inner world and its external expression, as in Andreev's creativity. In “Grand Slam,” as in Andreev’s other stories, one cannot help but notice the extreme laconicism in the reproduction of the characters’ backgrounds, as well as the absence of detailed, detailed, objectively neutral images of social reality.

At the beginning of the story, the author prefers to introduce the reader to the feelings, moods and experiences of his hero, as well as how those around him treat him, and only then, and even then not always, gives details of his character. appearance and some touches of his biography. Inner world the character, which is often autobiographical, is as important to the author as life itself is to him. Exactly personal traits a person is able to convey his essence down to the smallest detail. And for Andreev it doesn’t matter at all whether the hero is wealthy or poor as a church mouse, but what matters is what he lives and breathes - love or the thirst for revenge for betrayal or injustice; forgiveness or condemnation.

Andreev’s closest friend and critic, Maxim Gorky, after reading “The Grand Slam”, noticed that the author in his story “sought to compare life and death.” In this “comparison” one cannot help but see a parallel with L. N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (the hero of which, by the way, devoted all his leisure time to playing cards and took it more than seriously). The life of Andreev’s heroes is just as “ordinary” and “terrible” as the life of Tolstoy’s character, and death for them is an event that forces them to take a new, broader and more meaningful look at themselves and everything around them. But Andreev, in this story of his, does not consider it necessary to go into detail describing the personal and business biography of his characters. He strives to convey the course of the heroes’ lives and their more than indifferent attitude towards everything that had nothing to do with the game in one phrase. It is repeated several times in the work and, undoubtedly, is a kind of key to understanding general plan artist: “This is how they played summer and winter, spring and autumn. The decrepit world obediently bore the heavy yoke of endless existence and either blushed with blood or shed tears, announcing its path through space with the groans of the sick, hungry and offended.”

Already in his first stories, Andreev began to develop the theme of fate and fatal circumstances in the fate of man in more detail and depth than his predecessors. In the analyzed “Grand Slam”, this is everything that is associated with the “visible” manifestations of mysterious and mystical fatality in the life-game of the heroes. Sensitive to new trends in literature, V. G. Korolenko wrote in 1904: “Already in some of the previous stories young author a slight breath of mysticism is felt: just remember the excellent story “Grand Slam”, imbued with deep humor, in which, however, in a random game of card combinations, it seems as if someone’s mysterious consciousness, mocking and evil, is felt.”

This "mysterious consciousness" which governs " random game card combinations” is especially emphasized in the story. Andreev thereby wants to say that blind chance reigns in a person’s life, that his fate is controlled by “someone’s mysterious” will, which cannot be ignored, and the logic and illogicality of the manifestation of which cannot be foreseen, understood and explained. Despite the ominous signs of “someone’s mysterious” will, Maslennikov persistently strives to realize his dream. And in this endeavor, he challenges, albeit very timidly, fate, that fatal combination of circumstances that will lead him to death a few moments before this dream becomes a reality. Unlike Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich, Maslennikov is not even aware of his imminent death. Otherwise, he, like Ivan Ilyich, might have turned to a higher power, to Him, with a protesting question: “Why did you do all this?”

The peculiarity of the story is the lack of plot dynamics. Here everything is focused at one point, reduced to the description of one simplest “action” that is repeated from year to year - a card game, harmless, trifling entertainment, in relation to which everything else turns out to be just

Background. And this “background” is life itself, dully rustling outside the window, distant, alien, and only occasionally bursting in here. The center of the composition is the recording of the environment in which the game takes place, the attitude of its participants, the heroes of the story, to it, as to some kind of serious, absorbing activity, even some kind of solemn ritual: “. The room was filled with the necessary silence for studying... And they began. The tall room, which destroyed the sound with its upholstered furniture and curtains, became completely deaf. The maid moved silently along the fluffy carpet.” .

Here you can hardly hear human speech or conversations: they are distracting! Nikolai Andreevich, who loves to talk about the weather, is known in this company as a “frivolous and incorrigible person.” Everything outside the game is almost unknown to the reader, and this, of course, is a deliberate and consistently emphasized technique by the author. Without saying anything about their service, about their position in society, about their families, with the exception of brief information about the owners of the apartment (single brother and sister, widower and spinster), remarks that arise in the same direct connection with the game, motivating the choice of the players’ gathering place.

Peculiar in the story artistic time and the ways in which it is introduced into the narrative. The deaf, quiet room depicted here seems impenetrable to time, to disturbances from the outside. But time big world One day he finally breaks through here: he will remind the heroes of himself with the Dreyfus affair. The most expressive thing is how it happens. “At one time, Maslennikov greatly worried his partners. Every time he came, he began to say one or two phrases about Dreyfus. Yakov Ivanovich was the first to come to his senses and pointed to the table: “But isn’t it time?” . Talk about Dreyfus

Just a preface to the main event, the screw. And there is no movement, no changes in life characters“Grand Slam” during their long meetings, or changes are not noticed here. The disappearance of one of the players from sight worries them only as the absence of a partner. Nikolai Dmitrievich disappeared: it turned out that his son had been arrested. “Everyone was surprised, because they didn’t know that Maslennikov had a son, maybe he ever talked about it, but everyone forgot about it.”

In all this, of course, there is a considerable amount of ironic convention. The very denouement of the story (the death of one of the characters from joy because of a lucky card that fell to his lot) and the epilogue that follows it (no one knows where the deceased lived), which brings to the point of absurdity the key point of the story - the impenetrability of people to each other , fictions of communication. But behind all this there is a deadly authenticity of life. The characters themselves, the individualities, barely outlined here, are revealed, as if they all come to life in the same game, and differ from each other in the manner of playing (one, Yakov Ivanovich, is overly cautious and pedantic; the other, Nikolai Dmitrievich, is hasty, hot, and is prone to risk; the third - Evpraksiya Vasilievna - is indecisive; the fourth - Prokopy Vasilyevich - is skeptical and gloomy).

Everything that is outside the game is closed by the author to the reader, not without reason, and we believe that people like Andreev’s heroes, in fact, can be livelier, more animated, and more interesting than anything else at the card table. This is the terrible irony of the hero’s fate: his life has been reduced, reduced to a minimum, reached the “point”, reduced to one insignificant, mechanical, soulless occupation. In a similar art world the characters, the personalities of the characters are almost indistinguishable, invisible to us, because they are not even open to each other. It is no coincidence that in the depiction of the characters in “Grand Slam” there appears a certain (seemingly strange when depicting a close circle of people) namelessness: “old man”, “Eupraxia Vasilievna’s brother”, etc.

Without investing himself, his soul into anything around him, a person becomes alienated from the world, from common life, from people, even from those with whom he seems to be communicating long years. This real process, characteristic of a society dominated by capital that divides people, is acutely captured in the images of the Grand Slam. There are quite a lot of prospects for studying the motif of play and rock in Russian literature, as well as the traditions and innovations of L. Andreev in revealing the symbolism of his “ short prose" Of course, the study of this problem is not limited to this article, and therefore this problem will be studied further within the framework of the dissertation research.

Bibliographical messages

1. Andreev L. N. Tales and stories: In 2 volumes - M., 1971. - T. 2.

2. Achatova A.V. The originality of the genre of L. Andreev’s story in the early 1900s. - Tashkent, 1977.

3. Jesuitova L. A. Creativity of L. Andreev. - L., 1976.

4. Moskovkina I. I. Prose by L. Andreev. Genre system, poetics, artistic method. - Kh., 1994.