The image of Pyotr Grinev in the story “The Captain's Daughter” fascinates with its breadth and versatility. He contrasts with the image of Grinev Sr., Peter's father - a man with an established worldview and a fully formed character. Pyotr Andreevich, on the other hand, is a young sixteen-year-old boy, whose personality is just beginning to develop, is in a state of constant search and movement.
Union of opposite qualities
On the first pages of the story, Petrusha Grinev remains a frivolous and rather careless son of a landowner, an undergrown slacker, dreaming of a simple life full of various worldly pleasures as a metropolitan guard officer. The image of Pyotr Grinev in the story “The Captain's Daughter” shows these features especially clearly in the episode where the young man, during his visit to Simbirsk, meets the hussar officer Zurin. And also in the way he treats Savelich, selflessly devoted to him, how, imitating the adults from his circle, he tries to put him in the place of a serf servant. However, in the same episode, Pushkin also reveals some positive qualities of his hero. Grinev shouts at Savelich, realizing deep down that he is wrong, feeling that he feels sorry for the poor old man. After some time, Peter comes to ask him for forgiveness.
Interweaving of characters
The image of Pyotr Grinev in the story “The Captain's Daughter” combines loving and kind heart the hero's mother, as well as the directness, honesty and courage of his father. The young man was deeply impressed by the latter’s farewell words, in which he called on Peter to faithfully serve the one to whom he swore allegiance, to listen to the words of his superiors, but not to curry favor with them, and not to shirk service. Exactly at parting words Grinev Sr. appears famous proverb“Take care of your dress again, and take care of your honor from a young age.”
Kindness
The next moment when Peter showed best qualities his soul - when he generously donated a hare sheepskin coat to the counselor, not yet knowing what role this incident would play in his entire later life. The hero's kindness was demonstrated repeatedly in other situations. This is the side of Grinev’s personality that allowed him to feel acute pity for the Bashkir who suffered from the tsarist “justice” and rush headlong to the rescue of Savelich, who was captured. And the breadth of Petrusha Grinev’s heart manifested itself especially clearly after his meeting with Mashenka Mironova, which sowed in his soul a feeling in the name of which he was ready to make any sacrifices and face any dangers head-on.
Father's covenants and personality development
Further, the image of Pyotr Grinev in the story “The Captain's Daughter” becomes the personification of loyalty to the behests of his father. We are talking about the events that unfolded directly in Despite everything, Peter did not change himself, his ideas about honor and duty, despite the fact that these concepts were severely limited and distorted by his class and noble prejudices. In the conditions of that harsh school of life to which his father sent him in exchange for free Petersburg, the reader is presented with new Peter Grinev. "The Captain's Daughter" is a story in which a stupid and selfish boy a short time reveals his best traits, and the reader watches how they are tempered and strengthened under the influence of various situations.
A “strong and good shock” produces a grandiose uprising of the peasants in the heart of Grinev. He becomes a strong and confident person, not afraid of obstacles. And this is what allowed Peter, even after his father did not consent to their marriage with Masha Mironova, not to give up and not give up.
Why is the story “The Captain's Daughter” so controversial? Characteristics of Peter Grinev, as well as others characters- these are not just idealized images, clearly differentiated into “good” and “bad” characters. These are real living people, with their own internal conflicts and doubts. For example, Pyotr Grinev himself, by virtue of his noble origin and education cannot support the ideas of the Pugachev uprising. Moreover, the young man actively helps fight the rebels. However, the head of the movement himself aroused sincere and deep sympathy in Peter’s soul, which was explained not only by the fact that the first repeatedly helped him, but also by the fact that Grinev involuntarily developed sympathy for this man from the people - brave, strong, extraordinary and faithful to his ideas.
When starting to analyze the image of Pyotr Grinev, the main character in the family chronicle, we should first of all pay attention to Grinev’s special place in the work. This is not only one of the main characters, but also the “author” of the notes, the narrator. Finally, behind the image of the narrator (the same Grinev in old age, at the beginning of the 19th century), the face of the true author of the “notes”, Pushkin, “shines through.” To some extent, in judgments about life, in the narrator’s relationship to events, a purely Pushkinian perception of reality will appear.
It is difficult, and it makes no sense, to deal with the question of in what arguments of Grinev we see the thoughts of the young hero of the novel, in what - real author, but one should be aware of the complexity of Grinev’s image. It would be equally erroneous to identify Grinev’s views with Pushkin’s worldview (it is immeasurably more serious, more progressive, deeper; Grinev is very simple and limited), and to completely ignore in Grinev’s worldview some elements of Pushkin’s views on life (for example, in Grinev’s judgments about people, which he encounters in some judgments about Pugachev, in his assessments of the government camp of the fighting forces).
Let us also note that in the composition of Grinev’s image, from the very beginning of the narrative, the focus is on clarity and simplicity. Wait, a story about interesting and not quite ordinary adventures of youth. Lots of events, few thoughts. Psychology is transmitted through actions and actions. The actions and adventures are told very simply. This is how a grandfather tells his grandson about his experience. This simplicity and artlessness, however, is characteristic of Pushkin’s prose in general. When analyzing Grinev’s image, all this must be taken into account. And do not lose sight of the difference between two points of view on the events depicted: the point of view of the narrator and the point of view of Pushkin. Examples of measures will be indicated below.
Revealing the hero in successively developing life events, in actions, in relationships with people around him, leads us to a plan of analysis:
1) childhood and adolescence, the environment that raised the hero;
2) manifestation of character upon first entry into independent life;
3) attitude towards others during the period of peaceful life in the Belogorsk fortress;
4) a love story for Marya Ivanovna and
5) history of relations with Pugachev (character develops and manifests itself fully and views on life are determined);
6) final generalization: the main personality traits of the hero, the typicality of the image, its place in the composition of the novel.
Speaking about Grinev’s childhood and youth, one should pay attention to the various influences that influenced him and shaped his personality. The father is a retired prime minister, a limited and powerful landowner and head of the family, at the same time he has a strict attitude towards moral issues, instills in his son a high understanding of issues of honor in the noble sense, he considers officer service not a means for establishing a career, but the duty of a nobleman before the state.
His discussions about St. Petersburg, about the promotion of his former comrades, smack of a certain opposition to the order established in areas close to the government and court. All this has an impact on my son. Little is said about Peter Grinev’s mother, but the appearance of a loving and caring woman, meek and gentle, emerges from the little that we learn about her. Its influence will be felt later, when the character of Pyotr Grinev begins to reveal itself.
The Frenchman Beaupré “was a hairdresser in his fatherland”; he was “discharged from Moscow along with a year’s supply of wine and Provençal oil.” The figure is colorful and quite typical, touching on a theme well known to students from “The Minor,” “I’m on Fire,” and “Eugene Onegin.”
A large place in the upbringing of Pyotr Grinev was obviously occupied by the serf uncle Savelich, an honest, intelligent and literate man, but, however, very limited. His image reflects the centuries-old slave position of courtyard servants. These are the people surrounding Pyotr Grinev. Pyotr Grinev’s lifestyle in his parents’ house is typical of a noble urchin: “I lived as a urchin, chasing pigeons and playing leapfrog with the yard boys.” “He’s done running around the girls’ rooms and climbing into dovecotes,” says the father. First steps independent life(episode with 3urine) reveal the traits of a developing personality. Students will easily understand them, remembering Grinev’s behavior. Here is the frivolity and rudeness of the landowner’s son towards the old devoted servant (“I am your master, and you are my servant”): at the same time, in an effort to give back the money, the debt, it would seem, is not very serious - a loss in a billiard game - we see a certain idea of the need to keep one's word, of honesty. Following this is a cordial conversation and peace with Savelich, revealing the warmth and kindness in Grinev.
What does the story about his peaceful life in the Belogorsk fortress give for the development of Grinev’s image? Let us note that the Mironov family suited him perfectly: simplicity, good nature, modesty and unpretentiousness, cordiality and sincerity of relationships - all this cannot but affect Grinev. His mental demands are small, his attitude towards service follows the formula “don’t ask for service; don’t talk yourself out of serving.”
Grinev is of little concern that “in the God-saved fortress there were no inspections, no exercises, no guards and that the only cannon was filled with pebbles and rubbish. But in the subtext, the reader feels the attitude of the author of the novel to what is being described: the task of protecting the outskirts of a huge empire is poorly handled. This is one example of the presence of two angles of view in the depiction of reality. Having nothing better to do, Grinev reads French books taken from Shvabrin (it turns out that Beaupre also came in handy for something).
The nascent love for Masha Mironova evokes a desire for poetic pursuits. “My experiences were considerable for those times,” the narrator narrates, and gives an example: Destroying the thought of love, I strive to forget the beautiful... etc. The poems are bad. Pushkin took them from a collection published by neither. Novikov: “New and full meeting Russian songs”, 1780 - 1781, slightly changing some lines. One of the researchers notes: “The poem belongs to those that Pushkin in “The History of the Village of Goryukhin” described as composed by “soldiers, clerks and boyar servants.” As we can see, the hero’s mediocrity is repeatedly noted throughout the narrative. He does not amaze us with either a brilliant mind, or extraordinary aspirations, or strong passions. That's not his appeal.
The quarrel, and then the duel with Shvabrin, speaks of Grinev’s nobility: he stood up for the honor of a girl whose love for himself is still unknown. He was outraged by Shvabrin's vulgarity. Grinev’s love for Masha Mironova reveals what is valuable in his nature, and the vicissitudes of his struggle for happiness help these valuable traits to manifest and strengthen. We will not dwell on the episodes of Grinev’s love story that reveal positive sides his character, thanks to which he attracts the reader's sympathy. Sincerity and directness, the ability to have deep and tender feelings, courage, fidelity in love - these are these traits.
Before the start of the upcoming tests loving hearts, the novel notes how important his feeling was for Grinev. Pugachev’s troops approached the Belogorsk fortress. Dangerous days are coming. It was decided to send Masha Mironov to Orenburg. After a tender farewell before parting, the narrator talks about his state of mind at that time: “I felt a great change in myself: the excitement of my soul was much less painful to me than the despondency in which I had recently been immersed. With the sadness of separation, vague but sweet hopes, an impatient expectation of danger, and feelings of noble ambition merged in me.” The narrator remarks about his state of mind during the long days of separation from his beloved: “The unknown about the fate of Marya Ivanovna tormented me most of all.” When a letter with news about Marya Ivanovna is finally received in besieged Orenburg, the narrator says: “After reading this letter, I almost went crazy.” A touching story is told about the union of lovers: “I grabbed her hand and for a long time could not utter a single word. We were both silent from the fullness of our hearts. Everything was forgotten."
Savelich takes a significant part in the love story of Grinev and Masha Mironova. The essence of this image gradually becomes clear to the reader: a serf servant, devoted to his beloved master, who has absorbed with his mother’s milk a psychology in which there is something slavish and base, Savelich at the same time is not devoid of a sense of human dignity, which is also heard in his letter to his father Grinev, and in all his behavior. Moral servility in him is overcome by natural intelligence and humanity of feelings. Between him and Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, ties develop and strengthen, which are by no means covered by the relationship between servant and master. “You are my friend, Arkhip Savelich,” I told him. - Don’t refuse, be my benefactor... I won’t be calm if Marya Ivanovna goes on the road without you... I rely on you. Father and mother believe you: you will intercede for us, won’t you?” The image of Savelich is ambiguous and complex.
It is useful to remember the old nanny Egorovna from Dubrovsky - Savelich has a lot in common with her character. Marya Ivanovna was sent with Savelich to Grinev’s parents. Now he recalls his duties as an officer: “I ... felt that a duty of honor required my presence in the army of the Empress.” Grinev remains in Zurin’s detachment. Then - arrest and trial, and Grinev understands what charges can be brought against him: “my unauthorized absence from Orenburg” and “my friendly relations with Pugachev.” But he does not feel seriously guilty, and if he does not make excuses. that's just because. that he does not want to “get (Marya Ivanovna’s) name mixed up among the vile reports of villains and bring her herself to a confrontation.” This is Grinev in Pushkin’s novel.
Despite the mistakes of the hero of the novel, which were mentioned above, the reader sees the image of an honest, kind and courageous person, capable of great feeling, true to love and - ultimately - to his duty, but at the same time frivolous in his youth and limited in his views and understanding of the true meaning of those great events in which he was a participant.
K. Lakhostsky
Characteristics of Grinev
4.7 (93.33%) 12 votesCAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER
Grinev Petr Andreevich (Petrusha) — main character last major work Pushkin, a provincial Russian nobleman, on whose behalf (in the form of “notes for the memory of posterity,” compiled in the era of Alexander I about the era of the Pugachev rebellion) the story is told. The historical story “The Captain's Daughter” brings together all the themes of Pushkin’s work of the 1830s. The place of the “ordinary” person in the great historical events, freedom of choice in cruel social circumstances, law and mercy, “family thought” - all this is present in the story and is associated with the image of the main character-narrator.
Initially, Pushkin, as in the unfinished story “Dubrovsky,” was going to put at the center of the story a renegade nobleman who moved from one camp to another (here the real officer of Catherine’s era, Shvanvich, served as his prototype); or a captured officer who flees from Pugachev. There was also a prototype here - a certain Basharin, this is the name that the hero was supposed to bear, later renamed Bulanin, Valuev - and, finally, G. (This name in a different vowel - Granev - is found in the plans for the unfinished "Roman on the Caucasian Waters", 1.831.) This name is also taken from the actual history of the Pugachevism; it was worn by a nobleman who was arrested on suspicion of treason and later acquitted. Thus, the idea of a story about a man who, by the will of Providence, found himself between two warring camps was finally determined; about a nobleman who remains unshakably faithful to his oath, does not separate himself from the class in general and from class ideas about honor in particular - but who at the same time looks at the world with an unbiased mind.
Having closed the plot chain precisely on G. (and “delegating” the role of the renegade nobleman to Shvabrin), Pushkin reproduced the principle of the historical prose of Walter Scott, in whose novels (especially from the “Scottish” cycle - “Waverley”, “Rob Roy”, “Puritans” ) this type of hero occurs constantly - as well as the situation itself: two camps, two truths, one fate. Such is the immediate “literary predecessor” of G., Yuri Miloslavsky from the “Walter Scott” novel of the same name by M. N. Zagoskin (with the huge difference that Miloslavsky is a prince, and not an “ordinary” person). Following Grinev, other characters in “The Captain’s Daughter” acquire Walter Scottian features. The image of the faithful servant G. Savelich (whose name coincides with the name of the “patriotic” coachman, a witness of the Pugachev rebellion in M. N. Zagoskin’s “Walter Scott” novel “Roslavlev”) goes back to Caleb from the novel “Lammermoor Unplaced”; episode, in which Grinev’s fiancée Marya Ivanovna Mironova seeks from Catherine II an acquittal for her lover, repeats the episode with Jenny Gine from “Edinburgh Dungeon” and others.
The genre of “notes for posterity” made it possible to depict the story in a “homely way” - and assumed that the hero’s life would unfold before the reader from childhood, and the hero’s death would remain outside the immediate scope of the story (otherwise there would be no one to write the notes).
G.’s “backstory” is simple: he is the son of Prime Major Andrei Petrovich Grinev, who lives after retirement on a small (300 souls) estate in the Simbirsk province. Petrusha is raised by a serf “uncle”, Savelich, taught by Monsieur Beaupré, a former hairdresser and hunter of Russian liqueur. . Pushkin transparently hints that his father’s early resignation was connected with the palace coup during the time of Anna Ioannovna. Moreover, it was originally intended (and from a plot point of view it would have been much more “beautiful”) to explain the resignation by the events of 1762, Catherine’s coup, but then the chronology would have been completely disrupted. Be that as it may, the hero’s father seems to be “excluded” from history; he cannot realize himself (and therefore gets angry every time he reads the court address-calendar, where his awards and promotions are reported former comrades). This is how Pushkin prepares the reader for the idea that Pyotr Andreevich could have lived a very ordinary life, without revealing the qualities inherent in him, if not for the all-Russian catastrophe of the 1770s. and if not for his father's will. At the age of seventeen, a minor who had been enlisted in the guard as a sergeant even before birth, G. went straight from the nursery to serve - and not in the elite Semyonovsky regiment, but in the provinces. (Another “rejected” version of fate - if G. got to St. Petersburg, by the time of the next palace coup 1801 would have been an officer in the regiment that played a key role in the anti-Pavlovian conspiracy. That is, he would mirror his father’s fate.) First he ends up in Orenburg, then in Belogorsk fortress. That is, where and when in the fall of 1773 the Pugachevites ran wild, a “Russian revolt, senseless and merciless” would break out (G.’s words). (Something similar should have happened to the hero of Pushkin’s unfinished story from another era - the young ensign from “Notes young man”, which in May 1825 was on its way to the Chernigov regiment, where in January 1826 the uprising of the Decembrists of the “Vasilkovskaya Council” broke out.)
From this moment on, the life of a provincial nobleman merges with the flow of all-Russian history and turns into a magnificent set of accidents and mirror-repeated episodes that make one remember both the poetics of Walter Scott and the laws of constructing Russian history. fairy tale. In an open field, Grinev's wagon is accidentally overtaken by a snowstorm; by chance a black-bearded Cossack stumbles upon her, who leads the lost travelers to housing (this scene is connected with the episode with Yuri, his servant Alexei and the Cossack Kirsha in M. N. Zagoskin’s novel “Yuri Miloslavsky”). By chance, the guide turns out to be the future Pugachev.
The linkage of all subsequent meetings of G. and the turns of his fate is just as random.
Once in the Belogorsk fortress, 40 versts from Orenburg, he falls in love with the daughter of captain Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, eighteen-year-old Masha (in which some features of the heroine of A.P. Kryukov’s story “The Story of My Grandmother”, 1831, the captain’s daughter Nastya Shpagina are repeated) and fights because of her in a duel with Lieutenant Shvabrin; injured; in a letter to his parents, he asks for blessings for his marriage with a dowry-free woman; Having received a strict refusal, he remains in despair. (Naturally, Masha will eventually settle with G.’s parents, and Shvabrin, having gone over to Pugachev’s side, will play a role in the hero’s fate evil genius.) Pugachev, having captured the fortress, accidentally recognizes Savelich, remembers the hare sheepskin coat and half a ruble for vodka, donated to him by Petrusha from the bottom of his heart after the snowstorm - and has mercy on the barchuk a moment before his execution. (Mirror repetition of the episode with the sheepskin coat.) Moreover, he lets him go on all four sides. But, having accidentally learned in Orenburg that Masha, hidden by the Belogorsk priest, is now in the hands of the traitor Shvabrin, G. tries to persuade the general to allocate fifty soldiers to him and give the order to liberate the fortress. Having received a refusal, he goes on his own to Pugachev’s lair. Falls into an ambush and accidentally remains unharmed; accidentally ends up in the hands of Pugachev, precisely at the moment when he is in a good mood, so that the bloodthirsty corporal Beloborodov does not manage to “torture” the nobleman. Pugach is touched by the story about the girl forcibly held by Shvabrin; goes with the hero to Belogorskaya - and, even having learned that Masha is a noblewoman, G.’s bride, does not change her gracious decision. Moreover, he half-jokingly offers to marry them - and is ready to take on the responsibilities of an imprisoned father. (So, by chance, a dream that G. had right after the snowstorm comes true: his father is dying; but it is not his father, but a black-bearded man, from whom for some reason he needs to ask for a blessing and who wants to be imprisoned by his father; an axe; dead bodies; bloody puddles. )
Released by Pugachev, G., Masha, Savelich are ambushed by government troops (a mirror repetition of the episode with the Pugachevites); By chance, the detachment commander turns out to be Za-urin, to whom G., on the way to his duty station, before the snowstorm, lost 100 rubles at billiards. Having sent Masha to her father's estate, G. remains in the detachment; after the capture of the Tatishchevo fortress and the suppression of the rebellion, he was arrested on the denunciation of Shvabrin - and cannot avert accusations of treason from himself, since he does not want to interfere with Masha in the trial. But she goes to St. Petersburg and accidentally runs into the queen while walking in Tsarskoe Selo; accidentally does not recognize her - and innocently tells about everything (a mirror repetition of the episode of G.’s “petition” for Masha before Pugachev). Ekaterina accidentally remembers the heroic death of Captain Mironov (and, perhaps, Mashina’s mother, Vasilisa Egorovna). If not for this, who knows, the empress would have been able to approach the matter so impartially and justify G.? By chance, officer G., released in 1774 and present at the execution of Pugachev, who recognized him in the crowd and nodded (another mirror repetition of the episode with the gallows in Belogorskaya), does not die in numerous wars late XVIII- beginning of the 19th century and composes notes for youth; By chance, these notes fall into the hands of a “publisher”, under whose mask Pushkin himself is hiding.
But the fact of the matter is that all the “accidents” of the plot are subject to a higher pattern - the pattern free choice personality in the circumstances offered to it by history. These circumstances can develop one way or another, successfully or unsuccessfully; the main thing is not this, but how free a person is from their power. Pugachev, in whose hands is enormous power to decide human destinies, is not free from the element that set it in motion; the Orenburg general, who refuses to send G. to fight for the Belogorsk fortress, is not free from his caution; Shvabrin is not free from his own fear and his own spiritual meanness; G. is free to the end and in everything. For he acts at the behest of his heart, and his heart is freely subordinate to the laws of noble honor, the code of Russian chivalry, and the sense of duty.
These laws are unchanged - even when it is necessary to pay off a huge billiard debt to Zaurin, who played not too honestly; and when you need to thank a random guide with a sheepskin coat and half a dime. And when should Shvabrin be challenged to a duel, having listened to Grinev’s “poems” in honor of Masha and spoke contemptuously about both them and her. And when the Pugachevites lead the hero to execution. And when Pugachev, who has pardoned the hero, extends his hand for a kiss (G., naturally, does not kiss the “villain’s hand”). And when the impostor directly asks the captive whether he recognizes him as sovereign, whether he agrees to serve, whether he promises at least not to fight against him, and the captive three times, directly or indirectly, answers “no.” And when G., once already saved by fate, returns alone to the location of the Pugachevites - to help out his beloved or die with her. And when, arrested by his own government, he does not name Marya Ivanovna.
It is this constant readiness, without risking in vain, to nevertheless pay with his life for his honor and love, that makes the nobleman G. completely free. Just as his serf servant Savelich is freed to the end (albeit in other forms) by personal devotion to G. That is, following the unwritten code of peasant honor, that universal principle that can be inherent in any class and which is essentially religious, - although Savelich is not too “churchy” (and only exclaims every minute “Lord Master”), and G. in the Kazan prison tastes for the first time “the sweetness of prayer poured out from a pure but torn heart.” (Here Pushkin’s contemporary had to not only remember the “eternal source” of the prison theme in European culture- episode of imprisonment heavenly patron G., the Apostle Peter - Acts, 12, 3-11 - but also to identify a paraphrase of the notes of an Italian religious writer and public figure 1820s Silvio Pellico, who in the book “My Dungeons” is Russian. translation, enthusiastically reviewed by Pushkin, 1836, told about how he first turned to God in prayer in an Austrian prison.)
This behavior turns the most simple-minded of the heroes of The Captain's Daughter into the most serious of its characters. This seriousness of Grinev’s image is shaded by the slight grin with which the author describes the “living space” of other heroes. Pugachev reigns in a hut covered with gold paper; the general plans defense against the Pugachevites in an apple orchard insulated with straw; Catherine meets Masha as if “inside” a pastoral: swans, parks, a white dog, “copied” by Pushkin from the famous engraving by the artist Utkin, depicting Catherine in a “homely way”... And only G. and Savelich are surrounded by the open space of fate; they are constantly rushing beyond the fence - whether of the noble Orenburg, or the Pugachev fortress; to a place where they are not protected from circumstances, but are internally free from them. (In this sense, the prison for G. is also an open space.)
It is G. and Savelich together - these two characters, the serf and the nobleman, cannot be separated from each other, as Sancho Panza cannot be separated from Don Quixote. This means that the point of the story is not to “switch” to one of the sides historical conflict. And it’s not about renouncing allegiance to any “authority” (cf. Shvabrin’s image). And it’s not even about “leaving” the narrow limits of class ethics, rising to universal human principles. It’s about discovering what is universal within one’s “camp,” one’s environment, one’s class, one’s tradition—and serving it not out of fear, but out of conscience. This is the guarantee of G.’s utopian hope (and Pushkin, who is prompting him, who rethinks Karamzin’s thesis) that “the best and most lasting changes are those that come from the mere improvement of morals, without any violent upheavals.”
The image of G. (and the “Walter Scott” poetics of chance and mirror-repeated episodes itself) turned out to be extremely important for Russian literary tradition, right up to Yuri Andreevich Zhivago from the novel by B. L. Pasternak.
"Captain's daughter". Pyotr Grinev is a young man of seventeen years old, who early years enrolled in the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, which predetermined life path hero. A minor is a young nobleman who does not have the necessary education, confirmed by an appropriate written certificate from a teacher. Such young men could not enter the civil service or obtain documents confirming the right to marry.
Plot and biography
The narration is told from the perspective of the aged Grinev. The hero retells the turbulent events of the past for his own descendants.
The hero's childhood and youth took place in the Simbirsk province on the estate of his parents. Peter's father is a retired officer, a man of strict character. When my son turned sixteen, he assigned him to military service. Young Peter, according to his father, ran around the maidens and climbed in dovecotes, that is, he spent his life in idleness, was not assigned to work and did not receive a systematic education.
Going to his place of duty, Grinev gets caught in a snowstorm on the way and meets an unknown fugitive Cossack in the steppe, who leads the hero and his old servant Savelich to the inn. In gratitude for the service rendered, the young officer gives the Cossack a hare sheepskin coat. Subsequently it turns out that this Cossack is the leader of the Peasant War. Important here is Grinev’s dream, described in the second chapter of the story. In this dream, Grinev sees the role of Pugachev in his own destiny.
The place where the hero is going to serve is the border Belogorsk fortress. Arriving at the service, the hero sees Masha there, the daughter of the commandant of the fortress, Captain Ivan Mironov, and falls in love with her. Among Peter's colleagues there is another officer who has a love interest in Masha - Alexey Shvabrin. This man challenges the hero to a duel and wounds him. Grinev's father learns about the duel and the reasons that provoked it. However, Masha does not have a dowry, and Peter’s father clearly demonstrates his attitude towards this fact, refusing to approve his son’s marriage.
The situation gets worse when Masha's parents die during the Pugachev uprising. In the fortresses captured by Pugachev's troops, nobles are executed, and the Mironovs become victims of this wave. Masha remains an orphan. When the young officers are given a choice - to go over to the side of the rebels or die, the duelist Shvabrin takes the oath to Pugachev, but Grinev refuses to do so. The hero is about to be executed, but the situation is saved by an old servant who turns to Pugachev, and the leader of the uprising recognizes in Grinev the young man with whom he crossed paths in the winter. This saves the hero's life.
Grinev is not filled with gratitude to Pugachev, who pardoned him, refuses to join the rebel army and leaves for the besieged city of Orenburg, where he continues to fight against Pugachev. Masha Mironova, meanwhile, is forced to remain due to illness in the Belogorsk fortress, where she finds herself at the mercy of the defector Shvabrin, who is going to marry the girl against her will. Masha writes a letter to Grinev, and the hero leaves the service without permission, in fact deserts, in order to save his beloved. The same Pugachev helps the hero resolve this situation on the spot, in the Belogorsk fortress.
Shvabrin denounces Grinev, and the hero again ends up in prison, this time in government prison. Decisive Masha gets to Empress Catherine II herself and tells her that Grinev was slandered, thus achieving the release of the groom.
By the way, the story “The Captain’s Daughter” inspired contemporaries so much that the painter Ivan Miodushevsky in 1861 painted a picture based on Pushkin’s story (as they would now say, “fan art”), which was called “Presenting a letter to Catherine II” and depicted the corresponding moment from the text. The painting is in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Image and characteristics
The hero is shown in the story as a rather colorless and inexpressive person, a person devoid of bright feelings and colors. Some critics were of the opinion that Pushkin created Grinev in such a way as to “shade off” the image and actions of Pugachev, who is depicted in the work as a powerful, colorful figure. At the same time, the actions of the young hero, despite the inexpressiveness of his character, portray him as a person with courage and fidelity to duty.
The hero grew up in a landowner family typical of that time. He was taught science by a Frenchman who pretended to be a teacher, but was actually a hairdresser. As a result of such training, the hero knew basic literacy, “could very sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound dog,” and could speak a little French. Education young Peter The stern father and servant Savelich were engaged, who instilled in the boy the ideas of honor and behavior appropriate for a young nobleman. In such circumstances, the character of young Grinev was formed.
The hero’s father believes that in order to develop a personality, a young man needs to “pull the strap” and smell gunpowder. For this purpose, the father sends the hero not to St. Petersburg, to the guard (which he was looking forward to), but to Orenburg, from where Peter goes to the border Belogorsk fortress - to meet severe trials and unexpected love. The twists and turns of fate and an affair with Masha eventually transform the young, frivolous hero into a mature and responsible man.
Film adaptations
The image of Pyotr Grinev has been embodied on the screen more than once. The last film adaptation of The Captain's Daughter was released in 2005. The animated film, directed by Ekaterina Mikhailova, uses puppets.
In 2000, a historical film called “Russian Revolt” was released based on this story by Pushkin. The role of Grinev is played here by a Polish actor. “The Captain’s Daughter” was filmed abroad. Two films were released in Italy - La figlia del capitano in 1947 and La tempesta (The Tempest) in 1958. Another film called “Volga on Fire” (“Volga en flammes”) was released in France in 1934. It was shot by Russian director Viktor Turzhansky, who emigrated to France after the revolution.
Quotes
“I could not help but marvel at the strange combination of circumstances: a children’s sheepskin coat, given to a tramp, saved me from the noose, and a drunkard, wandering around inns, besieged fortresses and shook the state!”
“God knows you; but whoever you are, you are telling a dangerous joke.”
“God forbid we see a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless!”
“The best and most lasting changes are those that come from the mere improvement of morals, without violent political changes, terrible for humanity.”
“It is our duty to defend the fortress until our last breath.”
In this article we will look at the characterization of Pyotr Grinev, and also, in general, do a short analysis of the Captain’s Daughter.
In Pushkin’s novel The Captain’s Daughter, the narration is told from the perspective of the young nobleman Grinev. Fate favors the main character, thereby the author shows us that life position Petra Grineva is correct.
Already in the title and epigraph of the Captain's Daughter we see main idea novel: despite social division, one can always find commonality between representatives of groups. And if a person lives according to the commandments, looking at everyone as brothers, then people will be able to solve all problems among themselves. This is how Pyotr Grinev found it mutual language with Emelyan Pugachev, who responded kindly to the protagonist’s kindness. In this regard, the characterization of Pyotr Grinev is obvious.
In the beginning, Grinev Sr. sends his son to serve in Orenburg - “smell gunpowder”, “pull the strap”, and already in the development of the action we see the internal contradiction of the hero, who behaves like a gentleman, but he is ashamed of it. This contradiction is resolved during a snowstorm, when a Cossack saves the lost heroes. For help, Pyotr Grinev gives the Cossack a hare sheepskin coat, offers him tea, and calls him brother. And for the fact that the nobleman placed him next to him and did good, the Cossack, who turned out to be Pugachev, responded threefold.
Speaking about the characterization of Pyotr Grinev, it is worth mentioning the following events. Pyotr Grinev falls in love with Captain Mironov's daughter Masha. We also see Shvabrin, who was imprisoned in the fortress for a duel. He makes fun of Masha because she refused him, but this characteristic The heroine collapses when Grinev sees her.
Pyotr Grinev lives by the laws of honor and looks at all people as brothers. In this regard, it is obvious that the characterization of Pyotr Grinev is very favorable and instructive.
Soon Pugachev will attack the fortress. He executes the officers, but has mercy on Pyotr Grinev, remembering him. Main character treats Pugachev as a person, treats him with respect, and therefore receives a friend instead of an enemy. Grinev leaves, but, having received a letter from Masha, whom Shvabrin forcibly wants to make his wife, he returns. And Pugachev again helps Grinev, freeing Masha. Shvabrin’s attempts to prevent this lead to nothing, because Grinev puts himself and Pugachev on an equal footing, involves him in the conversation, offering to resolve the situation together. And the chieftain makes concessions, because he sees a brotherly attitude towards himself. They part and last time They see each other only at Pugachev’s execution.
Thus, fate favors Pyotr Grinev, and not the calculating Shvabrin, because the main character treats everyone like a brother and sees a person in everyone. And with this, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin emphasizes the correct position of Grinev, who did not humiliate himself to save his life, but looked at everyone as equals, and lived according to the laws of honor.
So, the characterization of Pyotr Grinev in Pushkin’s novel The Captain’s Daughter is very favorable, and the reader can draw many useful conclusions.
