A young man of twenty-six years old is a petty official who has been living for eight years in St. Petersburg in the 1840s, in one of the apartment buildings along the Catherine Canal, in a room with cobwebs and smoky walls. After service, his favorite pastime is walking around the city. He notices passers-by and houses, some of them become his “friends”. However, he has almost no acquaintances among people. He is poor and lonely. With sadness, he watches as the residents of St. Petersburg gather for their dacha. He has nowhere to go. Going out of town, he enjoys the northern spring nature, who looks like a “sick and sick” girl, who for one moment becomes “wonderfully beautiful.”
Returning home at ten in the evening, the hero sees a female figure at the canal grate and hears sobbing. Sympathy prompts him to make an acquaintance, but the girl timidly runs away. A drunk man tries to pester her, and only a “bough stick”, which ends up in the hero’s hand, saves the pretty stranger. They talk to each other. The young man admits that before he knew only “housewives,” but he never spoke to “women” and therefore is very timid. This calms down the fellow traveler. She listens to the story about the “romances” that the guide created in his dreams, about falling in love with ideal fictional images, about the hope of someday meeting in reality a girl worthy of love. But now she’s almost home and wants to say goodbye. The dreamer begs for new meeting. The girl “needs to be here for herself,” and she does not mind the presence of a new acquaintance tomorrow at the same hour in the same place.
Her condition is “friendship”, “but you can’t fall in love.” Like the Dreamer, she needs someone she can trust and ask for advice.
On their second meeting, they decide to listen to each other's "stories". The hero begins. It turns out that he is a “type”: in the “strange corners of St. Petersburg” live “neuter creatures” like him - “dreamers” - whose “life is a mixture of something purely fantastic, ardently ideal and at the same time dull prosaic and ordinary " They are afraid of the company of living people, as they spend long hours among “magical ghosts”, in “ecstatic dreams”, in imaginary “adventures”. “You speak as if you are reading a book,” Nastenka guesses the source of the plots and images of her interlocutor: the works of Hoffmann, Merimee, W. Scott, Pushkin. After intoxicating, “voluptuous” dreams, it can be painful to wake up in “loneliness”, in your “musty, unnecessary life.” The girl feels sorry for her friend, and he himself understands that “such a life is a crime and a sin.” After the “fantastic nights,” he already “has moments of sobering that are terrible.” "Dreams survive", the soul wants " real life" Nastenka promises the Dreamer that now they will be together.
And here is her confession. She is an orphan. Lives with an old blind grandmother in a small house of her own. Until the age of fifteen I studied with a teacher, and two last year sits, “pinned” with a pin to the dress of her grandmother, who otherwise cannot keep track of her. A year ago they had a tenant, a young man of “pleasant appearance.” He gave his young mistress books by V. Scott, Pushkin and other authors. He invited them and their grandmother to the theater. I especially remember the opera " Barber of Seville" When he announced that he was leaving, the poor recluse decided on a desperate act: she gathered her things in a bundle, came to the tenant’s room, sat down and “cryed in three streams.” Fortunately, he understood everything, and most importantly, he managed to fall in love with Nastenka. But he was poor and without a “decent place”, and therefore could not get married right away. They agreed that exactly a year later, having returned from Moscow, where he hoped to “arrange his affairs,” the young man would wait for his bride on a bench near the canal at ten o’clock in the evening. A year has passed. He has been in St. Petersburg for three days already. He is not at the appointed place... Now the hero understands the reason for the girl’s tears on the evening of their acquaintance. Trying to help, he volunteers to deliver her letter for the groom, which he does the next day.
Because of the rain, the third meeting of the heroes occurs only through the night. Nastenka is afraid that the groom will not come again, and cannot hide her excitement from her friend. She dreams feverishly about the future. The hero is sad because he himself loves the girl. And yet the Dreamer has enough selflessness to console and reassure the despondent Nastenka. Touched, the girl compares the groom with a new friend: “Why is he not you?.. He is worse than you, even though I love him more than you.” And he continues to dream: “Why aren’t we all like brothers and brothers? Why the most best person always seems to be hiding something from the other and is silent from him? everyone looks as if he is harsher than he really is...” Gratefully accepting the Dreamer’s sacrifice, Nastenka also shows concern for him: “you are getting better,” “you will fall in love...” “God grant you happiness with her !” In addition, now her friendship is with the hero forever.
And finally the fourth night. The girl finally felt abandoned “inhumanly” and “cruelly.” The dreamer again offers help: go to the offender and force him to “respect” Nastenka’s feelings. However, pride awakens in her: she no longer loves the deceiver and will try to forget him. The “barbaric” act of the tenant sets off moral beauty a friend sitting next to him: “You wouldn’t do that? Wouldn’t you throw someone who would come to you on her own into the eyes of shameless mockery of her weak, stupid heart?” The dreamer no longer has the right to hide the truth that the girl has already guessed: “I love you, Nastenka!” He doesn’t want to “torment” her with his “selfishness” in a bitter moment, but what if his love turns out to be necessary?
And indeed, the answer is: “I don’t love him, because I can only love what is generous, what understands me, what is noble...” If the Dreamer waits until the previous feelings completely subside, then the girl’s gratitude and love will go to him alone. Young people joyfully dream of a future together. At the moment of their farewell, the groom suddenly appears. Screaming and trembling, Nastenka breaks free from the hero’s hands and rushes towards him. Already, it would seem, a fulfilling hope for happiness, for true life leaves the Dreamer. He silently looks after the lovers.
The next morning, the hero receives a letter from the happy girl asking for forgiveness for the involuntary deception and with gratitude for his love, which “cured” her “broken heart.” One of these days she is getting married. But her feelings are contradictory: “Oh God! If only I could love you both at once!” And yet the Dreamer must remain “eternally a friend, brother...”. Again he is alone in a suddenly “old” room. But even fifteen years later he remembers his life with tenderness. short-lived love: “May you be blessed for the minute of bliss and happiness that you gave to another, lonely, grateful heart! A whole minute of bliss! Is this really not enough for even a person’s entire life?..”
Made significant amendments to the text compared to the journal edition. In particular, the following phrase was excluded: “They say that the proximity of punishment produces real repentance in the criminal and sometimes gives rise to remorse in a hardened heart. They say it is an act of fear.” Apparently, after hard labor, the future author of “Notes from the House of the Dead” considered it inappropriate to briefly mention “crime and punishment” in a story that was not at all related to this topic. At the same time, Dostoevsky significantly supplemented the hero’s story by listing his favorite historical and literary images(from the words: “You might ask, what does he dream about?” to the words “...my little angel”). From this new passage it is clear how much the narrator of “White Nights” cares about heroic-romantic themes, which constitutes a sharp contrast with his complete passivity and weakness in real life. Dostoevsky dedicated the story “White Nights,” as well as “Netochka Nezvanova,” to his favorite theme of the dreamer. This topic worried Dostoevsky all his life, and in 1876 he even planned to write the novel “The Dreamer.”
The hero of White Nights is a poor St. Petersburg intellectual, a man of high spiritual culture. He is dear to the writer precisely because in the world of vulgar, philistine interests he feels alien, unadapted. The dreamer himself very accurately characterizes his life as “a mixture of something purely fantastic, ardently ideal and at the same time... dimly prosaic and ordinary, not to say: incredibly vulgar.” Daydreaming is a unique form of protest against vulgarity.
Illustration for F. M. Dostoevsky’s story “White Nights”
In his feuilletons “The Petersburg Chronicle” (1847), Dostoevsky explained daydreaming social conditions; his hero is unable to find an activity that would correspond to the high human ideal: “...How many of us Russians have the means to do our job with love, as it should; because every business requires hunting, requires love in the doer, requires the whole person. How many have finally found their activity? But other activities still require preliminary funds, support, and a person is not inclined to do anything else - he waved his hand, and, lo and behold, the matter fell out of hand. Then, in characters that are greedy for activity, but weak, feminine, tender, little by little what is called dreaminess arises, and the person finally becomes not a person, but some kind of strange creature neuter – a dreamer" Going into a closed fantasy world, Dostoevsky's dreamer dooms himself to complete and tragic loneliness. “...Reality makes a heavy, hostile impression on the dreamer’s heart, and he rushes to hide in his treasured golden corner, which in fact is often dusty, untidy, disorderly, and dirty. Little by little, our prankster begins to shun common interests, and gradually, imperceptibly, his talent for real life begins to dull. Naturally, it begins to seem to him that the pleasures delivered to him by his willful fantasy are fuller, more luxurious, more loving than real life.”
This is precisely the hero of the story “White Nights”. “I’m a dreamer, I have so little real life,” he admits. It is characteristic that in the story, which represents the memories of the hero himself, only once, in passing, is it said that he serves somewhere. Service, relationships with colleagues, which are the subject of constant and painful thoughts of Dostoevsky’s other heroes - Devushkin, Golyadkin, Prokharchin, are not at all of interest to the hero of White Nights. His dreams bizarrely combine friendship with Hoffman and the heroic role in the capture of Kazan, knightly love and the battle of the Berezina. A dreamer is a poet at heart: it is easy for him to imagine a character stranger just by his face, he even “gets to know” houses, distinguishing them by their “voices.” Colloquial speech the hero is romantically stylized. No wonder Nastenka notices that he speaks “as if he were reading a book.” And the hero himself clearly sees his inconsistency and inferiority. The most precious moments for him were the moments of communion with reality.
F. M. Dostoevsky. White Nights. Audiobook
Unlike Gogol’s dreamer artist Piskarev (“Nevsky Prospekt”), for whom the first collision with life turned out to be disastrous, since reality grossly deceived the dream, Dostoevsky’s hero saw in life itself what is better, higher than dreams. But this discovery did not bring happiness to the hermit with a “weak heart.” His destiny is self-denial and bitter loneliness. In the appearance of the dreamer there are features that bring him closer to Devushkin, although he is at a higher stage of development. These traits - moral purity, gentleness and complete selflessness in love - are characteristic of Dostoevsky’s dearest heroes and, in particular, such an autobiographical hero as the writer Ivan Petrovich in the novel “
CelAnd: teach analytical reading; identify the features of the landscape in the works of Dostoevsky.
Progress of lessons
I. Checking homework (analytical reading).
– How does the hero feel in St. Petersburg?
– What kind of environment surrounds him?
– Under what circumstances did his meeting with Nastenka take place? (Look at the illustration by the artist M. Dobuzhinsky “White Nights”, p. 383.)
– How did the hero behave? Why?
– How does his dialogue with Nastenka characterize the hero?
Teacher. The idea of a person’s loneliness, his restlessness cannot leave the reader indifferent: “I became afraid to be alone... I wandered around the city in deep melancholy,” “It seemed that all of Petersburg was threatening to turn into a desert...” “Scary, empty, lonely... And suddenly...” “Was it really a sin to feel... brotherly compassion?..” (p. 322, textbook). Compassion, the giving of one's self for the benefit of another through love. The desire for this ideal is a moral law, the failure of which causes a person to suffer. The hero thinks about brotherly participation, he himself willingly comes to the aid of the unfortunate girl out of a feeling of “brotherly compassion”; his soul is open to sublime noble aspirations. The writer sympathizes with his hero, but shows his complete helplessness in the face of the prose of life, vulgar reality. Fate gave the dreamer “a whole minute of bliss” - this is how he evaluates his feelings for Nastenka and his short meetings with her. But this minute turned out to be not enough “for the rest of a human life.”
“White Nights” is a work covered in poetry, telling about noble dreamers, which is emphasized by the subtitle: “A sentimental novel. From the memories of a dreamer,” and the epigraph – a line from I. Turgenev’s poem “Flower”:
...Or was he created for this purpose?
To be for a moment
In the neighborhood of your heart?..
The story is structured in the form of memories of the hero, whose speech is romantically stylized and full of literary reminiscences. The boundless sadness of a lonely dreamer, remembering 15 years later the happiest moment of his life, already foreshadows the bitter disappointment of the heroes of the 60s.
II. Work on the topic of the lesson.
1. Statement of the range of issues under consideration.
– What role did the image of the city play in understanding the heroes of White Nights? What is it like, Dostoevsky's Petersburg?
– In the works of which writers was the image of St. Petersburg created? How is Dostoevsky’s narrative different?
In order to identify the features of Dostoevsky’s landscape, let’s carefully read the first paragraph of “The First Night” again.
2. Expressive reading of the text (pages 380–381 of the textbook).
3. Work in groups (with elements of linguistic analysis).
1st group. Write down words and phrases that characterize the hero’s state of mind. What does first-person narration give to a text?
2nd group. Analyze the construction of sentences. Who is the narrator talking to? What does the author achieve in this way?
3rd group. What details help you understand the life of the city? Try to “decipher” the symbol – the color yellow.
4th group. This part of the text is the hero’s monologue. Appreciate the richness of his speech. How does this monologue characterize him?
5th group. Prove that Dostoevsky contrasts the life of nature with the life of the city. What is the main contrast of St. Petersburg life depicted in the story? Why is the hero of the story “White Nights” endlessly lonely?
Conclusion. The tradition of depicting St. Petersburg comes from Pushkin (“ Bronze Horseman"). But unlike Pushkin, Dostoevsky gravitates towards the essayistic and everyday life side of the image of St. Petersburg (details, topographical accuracy). In addition, Dostoevsky is not only a writer of everyday life, he also depicts a certain spiritual and mystical essence of St. Petersburg, where a person is lonely and unhappy. At the same time, it is emphasized that St. Petersburg is a symbol of Russia, that in this city all Russian incongruities are presented in a concentrated form.
From works early period creativity F.M. I read such stories by Dostoevsky as “The Christmas Tree and the Wedding”, “White Nights”, “Little Hero”, “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree”. And although they constitute only a small part of the total creative heritage Dostoevsky, already from these stories one can judge the ideological and artistic originality works of the great Russian writer.
Dostoevsky pays special attention to the image inner world man, his soul. In his works there is a deep psychological analysis actions and actions of the characters, considering these actions not as activity from the outside, from the outside world, but as a result of intense internal work performed in the soul of every person.
Interest in the spiritual world of the individual is especially clearly reflected in the “sentimental novel” “White Nights”. Later, this tradition develops in the novels “Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Demons”. Dostoevsky can rightly be called the creator special genre psychological novel, in which the human soul is depicted as a battlefield where the fate of the world is decided.
Along with this, it is important for the writer to emphasize the danger of such a sometimes fictitious life, in which a person becomes isolated on his inner experiences, breaking away from outside world. Such a dreamer is depicted by Dostoevsky in White Nights.
On the one hand, before us is a kind, sympathetic, open-hearted young man. On the other hand, this hero is like a snail, which “mostly settles somewhere in an inaccessible corner, as if hiding in it even from the living light, and even if If he gets close to himself, he will grow to his corner..."
In the same work the theme “ little man", typical for the work of Dostoevsky and for all Russian literature of the 19th century century. The writer strives to emphasize that the life of a “little man” is always full of “big” - serious, difficult - problems, his experiences are always complex and multifaceted.
IN early prose Dostoevsky we also see an image of an unjust, cruel, vicious society. This is what his stories “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree”, “Christmas Tree Wedding”, “Poor People” are about. This theme is developed in the writer’s later novel “The Humiliated and Insulted.”
Devoted to Pushkin’s traditions in depicting social vices, Dostoevsky also sees his calling in “burning the hearts of people with a verb.” Upholding the ideals of humanity, spiritual harmony, ideas of the good and the beautiful is an integral feature of the writer’s entire work, the origins of which are already laid in his early stories.
A striking example of this is wonderful story"Little Hero" This is a story about love, human kindness, and responsiveness to the pain of others. Later grew into Prince Myshkin " little hero" will say famous words, which became an aphoristic call: “Beauty will save the world!..”.
Dostoevsky’s individual style is largely due to the special nature of this writer’s realism, the main principle of which is the feeling of a different, higher being in real life. It is no coincidence that F.M. himself Dostoevsky defined his work as “ fantastic realism" If, for example, for L.N. For Tolstoy there are no “dark”, “otherworldly” forces in the surrounding reality, then for F.M. Dostoevsky, these forces are real, constantly present in Everyday life anyone, even the simplest, ordinary person. For a writer, it is not so much the events themselves that are depicted that are important, but rather their metaphysical and psychological essence. This explains the symbolism of the scenes and everyday details in his works.
It is no coincidence that already in “White Nights” St. Petersburg appears before the reader as a special city, filled with vibes otherworldly forces. This is a city where meetings of people are predetermined and mutually conditioned. Such is the meeting of the young dreamer with Nastenka, which influenced the fate of each of the heroes of this “sentimental novel.”
It is also not surprising that the most common word in the works of early Dostoevsky is the word “suddenly”, under the influence of which an apparently simple and understandable reality turns into complex and mysterious interweavings of human relationships, experiences and feelings, everyday events are fraught with something extraordinary, mysterious. This word indicates the significance of what is happening and reflects the author’s view of this or that statement or action of the characters.
The composition and plot of most of Dostoevsky's works, starting with his early stories, are built on strict timing of events. The time component is an important part of the plot. For example, the composition of White Nights is strictly limited to four nights and one morning.
Thus we see that the basics artistic method The writer’s ideas were laid down in his early works, and Dostoevsky remained faithful to these traditions in his subsequent work. One of the first in Russian classical literature he turned to the ideals of goodness and beauty. Problems human soul and issues of spirituality in society as a whole.
Dostoevsky's early stories teach us to understand life in its various manifestations, to find in it true values, distinguishing good from evil and resisting misanthropic ideas, see true happiness in spiritual harmony and love for people.
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Let's start with the fact that Dostoevsky immediately indicated by the title of the work that the events take place in St. Petersburg, and in addition, this title is a kind of symbol of the fantastic and unrealistic nature of the action. But in addition to the title itself, the story has two subtitles: “A Sentimental Novel” and “From the Memoirs of a Dreamer.” They also tell us a lot. Firstly, what is the genre and story line, secondly, that the narration will be in the first person. True, the question immediately arises: if a dreamer shares his memories, should he be completely believed? Let's continue the analysis of the story "White Nights" by Dostoevsky.
The main character of the story - who is he?
Why did the author decide to build a first-person story here? Thus, Dostoevsky gives the story a certain character - we see a confession, or reflections in an autobiographical slant. It is not for nothing that many critics agree that the image of the main character resembles the author himself, who is still young. Although there is a version that the prototype of the hero of the story was a close friend of Dostoevsky, and he wrote not about himself at all, but about the poet A. Pleshcheev.
It is important to note that the main character does not have a name. Yes, it is not named in any way, and with this technique the author strengthened the connection with himself or his friend. In fact, from many of his works it is clear that Dostoevsky constantly thought about the image of a dreamer, and his plans even included the idea of sitting down to write a novel, completely devoting himself to this topic.
Analysis of the work "White Nights" implies a description of the main character. He is well educated, he has a lot of strength and he is young, but by nature he is completely timid. This is a lonely dreamer. He dreams of romance, and these thoughts take him away from reality. The dreamer does not think about everyday affairs and worries, performing them only out of habit, but in general he is a stranger in his environment, and the world around him is also completely alien.
In order to depersonalize his hero, Dostoevsky does not even write in detail what service he is in and what he basically does. He is not rich in friends, he has never had a girlfriend. All this serves as a reason for ridicule and exclusion of people from him. And it seems to the dreamer himself that he is just a rumpled, dirty kitten, offended by everyone around him, and he expects meanness from anyone.
Let's now talk a little about Nastenka, the girl whom the author contrasts with our dreamer. She is a sophisticated and romantic beauty, a kindred spirit. However, despite this, Nastenka is naive and even childish. Her feelings are sincere and heartfelt, she wants to defend her happiness, even if she has to take her lover and run away with him, using for these purposes someone she accidentally met. But the girl actually needs support herself.
Other details of the White Nights analysis
The composition of the story "White Nights" is traditional. The text has five chapters, and only one is called “Morning”, while the rest are called “Night”. The romance of the white nights radically changed the dreamer’s thinking and feelings. When he met Nastenka and fell in love with her, he was saved from unrealistic dreams and felt that his life was filled with reality. Main character loves the girl purely and disinterestedly, he is even ready to make sacrifices for the sake of this love.
As an epilogue to the story, Dostoevsky uses the last chapter entitled “Morning”. The epilogue is dramatic and radiates hope. Here comes a rainy gray morning, and all the good things come to an end. The beautiful white nights are behind, and loneliness is again next to the dreamer, but here’s what is important in the analysis of the work “White Nights”: the hero is not offended or disappointed. He forgave the girl and blessed her.
One of Dostoevsky's most poetic stories "White Nights" is a beautiful utopia and a dream that if a person is honest and selfless, he can become happy. And what a romantic atmosphere was created thanks to the fantastic white nights of St. Petersburg!
