The novel by Ivan Goncharov "Oblomov" is very instructive.
Oblomov's lifestyle is a continuous routine, and the main character does not even try to break out of it on his own. With the help of this character, the author will prove that laziness and indifference ruin people's lives.
Ivan Goncharov introduces the reader to Ilya Ilyich Oblomov from the very first pages of the novel. A man lies in his own bed with a distant look. He tries to force himself to get up, but the attempts end in vain. Promises to get up an hour later lead to the fact that the day smoothly passes into the evening, and leaving the bed is no longer necessary.
Ilya thinks about the misfortunes that have befallen him. So the man calls the chores associated with the affairs of the estate, inherited from his parents, and the search for a new apartment.
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He gives orders to the old footman Zakhar in bed. Guests who often visited him, the master receives lying down, in an old darned dressing gown.
Oblomov's former colleagues also come. And he does not at all strive to appear from the best side, meeting them cheerful and in excellent health. He always complains about his health to young, handsome men.
Rarely leaves the house. He rejects invitations from acquaintances to attend social events. He justifies the refusal by feeling unwell, barley, drafts and dampness, which is contraindicated for him.
“When I was at home, I almost always lay down, and everything was in the same room.”
His best friend Andrei Ivanovich Stolz compares Oblomov to an animal that constantly resides in a dark lair.
“Have you really prepared yourself for such a life in order to sleep like a mole in a hole?”
Zakhar reports to Andrei that he has long polished the owner's shoes, and the boots are intact.
He wakes up late. Eating and drinking tea in bed. The footman helps him put on his socks. Home shoes are placed near the bed, so that when lowering your legs it is easy to get into them. Oblomov is very lazy. Never pick up after himself. In his room there are mountains of dirty dishes, which are difficult for a man to carry to the kitchen. From childhood in his family it was customary to sleep during the day. Ilya still adheres to a similar routine.
“After dinner, nothing could disturb Oblomov’s sleep. He usually lay on the sofa on his back.
After meeting Olga Ilinskaya, Oblomov changes for the better. He is inspired by new feelings. Love gives him strength, inspires.
“He read several books, wrote letters to the village, changed the headman in his own estate. He didn't have supper, and for two weeks now he doesn't know what it means to lie down during the day. Gets up at seven o'clock. On the face of no sleep, no fatigue, no boredom. He is cheerful, sings.
This state of affairs did not last long. Ilya again begins to captivate the past life. He understands that he will not be able to give Olga the confidence and strength that the girl expects from him.
Soon he marries the widow Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, from whom he rents a room in a house on Vyborgskaya Street. A similar type of woman suits him much more than Ilyinskaya. Agafya is ready to fulfill all his whims, demanding nothing in return.
“Oblomov, noticing the participation of the hostess in his affairs, suggested, in the form of a joke, to take care of his food and save him from the hassle.”
Ilya Ilyich dies at the age of forty. He often compared himself to an old caftan, no longer fit to serve for good. His sedentary lifestyle led to the fact that his health deteriorated so early. A man was given a chance to change his own destiny, but laziness turned out to be stronger.
Goncharov's novel "Oblomov" is a landmark work of literature of the 19th century, affecting both acute social and many philosophical problems, while remaining relevant and interesting to the modern reader. The ideological meaning of the novel "Oblomov" is based on the opposition of an active, new social and personal principle with an outdated, passive and degrading one. In the work, the author reveals these beginnings at several existential levels, therefore, in order to fully understand the meaning of the work, a detailed consideration of each of them is required.
In the novel "Oblomov" Goncharov first introduced the concept of "Oblomovism" as a generalized name for outdated patriarchal-landlord foundations, personal degradation, and life stagnation of a whole social layer of Russian philistinism, unwilling to accept new social trends and norms. The author considered this phenomenon on the example of the protagonist of the novel, Oblomov, whose childhood was spent in the distant Oblomovka, where everyone lived quietly, lazily, interested in little and caring almost nothing. The hero's native village becomes the embodiment of the ideals of the Russian old bourgeois society - a kind of hedonistic idyll, a "preserved paradise" where one does not need to study, work or develop.
Depicting Oblomov as a "superfluous person", Goncharov, in contrast to Griboedov and Pushkin, in which characters of this type were ahead of society, introduces into the narrative a hero who lags behind society, living in the distant past. An active, active, educated environment oppresses Oblomov - the ideals of Stolz with his work for the sake of work are alien to him, even his beloved Olga is ahead of Ilya Ilyich, approaching everything from a practical side. Stolz, Olga, Tarantiev, Mukhoyarov, and other acquaintances of Oblomov are representatives of a new, "urban" type of personality. They are more practitioners than theoreticians, they do not dream, but do, create something new - someone works honestly, someone deceives.
Goncharov condemns "Oblomovism" with its attraction to the past, laziness, apathy and the complete spiritual withering away of the individual, when a person essentially becomes a "plant" lying on the couch around the clock. However, Goncharov also portrays the images of modern, new people as ambiguous - they do not have the peace of mind and inner poetry that Oblomov had (remember that Stolz only found this peace while relaxing with a friend, and already married Olga is sad for something distant and is afraid to dream justifying himself to her husband).
At the end of the work, Goncharov does not make a definite conclusion who is right - the practitioner Stolz or the dreamer Oblomov. However, the reader understands that it was precisely because of the “Oblomovism”, as a phenomenon of a sharply negative and long-obsolete itself, that Ilya Ilyich “disappeared”. That is why the social meaning of Goncharov's novel "Oblomov" is the need for constant development and movement - both in continuous construction and creation of the surrounding world, and work on the development of one's own personality.
The meaning of the title of the novel "Oblomov" is closely related to the main theme of the work - it was named after the name of the protagonist Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, and is also associated with the social phenomenon described in the novel "Oblomovism". The etymology of the name is interpreted by researchers in different ways. Thus, the most common version is that the word “oblomov” comes from the words “fragment”, “break off”, “break”, denoting the state of mental and social breakdown of the landlord nobility, when it turned out to be in a borderline state between the desire to preserve old traditions and foundations and the need to change according to the requirements of the era, from a person-creator to become a person-practitioner.
In addition, there is a version about the connection of the title with the Old Slavonic root "oblo" - "round", which corresponds to the description of the hero - his "round" appearance and his quiet, calm character "without sharp corners". However, regardless of the interpretation of the title of the work, it points to the central storyline of the novel - the life of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov.
From the plot of the novel Oblomov, the reader from the very beginning will learn many facts about Oblomovka, about what a wonderful place it is, how easy and good it was for the hero there, and how important it is for Oblomov to return there. However, throughout the story, the events do not take us to the village, which makes it truly a mythical, fabulous place. Picturesque nature, gently sloping hills, a calm river, a hut on the edge of a ravine, which the visitor needs to ask to stand "back to the forest, and front to it" in order to enter inside - even in the newspapers there was never a mention of Oblomovka. No passions excited the inhabitants of Oblomovka - they were completely cut off from the world, they spent their life, arranged on constant rituals, in boredom and calm.
Oblomov's childhood passed in love, his parents constantly spoiled Ilya, indulging all his desires. However, the stories of the nanny who read to him about mythical heroes and fairy-tale heroes made a special impression on Oblomov, closely linking his native village with folklore in the memory of the hero. For Ilya Ilyich, Oblomovka is a distant dream, an ideal comparable, perhaps, to the beautiful ladies of medieval knights who sang of wives, whom they sometimes never saw. In addition, the village is also a way to escape from reality, a kind of semi-invented place where the hero can forget about reality and be himself - lazy, apathetic, completely calm and renounced from the outside world.
Oblomov's whole life is connected only with that distant, quiet and harmonious Oblomovka, however, the mythical estate exists only in the hero's memories and dreams - pictures from the past never come to him in a cheerful state, his native village appears before him as a kind of distant vision, unattainable in its own way like any mythical city. Ilya Ilyich opposes in every possible way the real perception of his native Oblomovka - he still does not plan the future estate, he takes a long time to answer the elder’s letter, and in a dream he does not seem to notice the inconvenience of the house - a crooked gate, a sagging roof, a staggering porch, a neglected garden. Yes, and he really doesn’t want to go there - Oblomov is afraid that when he sees a dilapidated, devastated Oblomovka that has nothing to do with his dreams and memories, he will lose his last illusions, which he grasps with all his might and for which he lives.
The only thing that Oblomov causes complete happiness is dreams and illusions. He is afraid of real life, afraid of marriage, which he dreamed of many times, afraid of breaking himself and becoming different. Wrapped up in an old dressing gown and continuing to lie on the bed, he “preserves” himself in a state of “Oblomovism” – in general, the dressing gown in the work is, as it were, part of that mythical world that returns the hero to a state of laziness at extinction.
The meaning of the hero's life in Oblomov's novel comes down to gradual dying - both moral and mental, and physical, for the sake of holding on to his own illusions. The hero does not want to say goodbye to the past so much that he is ready to sacrifice a full life, the opportunity to feel every moment and know every feeling for the sake of mythical ideals and dreams.
In the novel "Oblomov" Goncharov depicted the tragic story of the extinction of a person for whom the illusory past has become more important than the multifaceted and beautiful present - friendship, love, social well-being. The meaning of the work indicates that it is important not to stop in place, indulging yourself with illusions, but to always strive forward, expanding the boundaries of your own “comfort zone”.
Artwork test
Dedicated to the state characteristic of a Russian person. He describes a hero who has fallen into personal stagnation and apathy. The work gave the world the term "Oblomovism" - a derivative from the name of the character of the story. Goncharov created a striking example of 19th century literature. The book turned out to be the pinnacle of the writer's work. The novel is included in the school curriculum of Russian literature and does not lose its relevance, although two centuries have passed since its creation.
"Oblomov" is a landmark work for Russian literature of the XIX century. Its meaning is not always available to schoolchildren who get acquainted with the book at a young age. Adults more deeply consider the idea that the author wanted to convey.
The main character of the work is the landowner Ilya Oblomov, whose lifestyle is incomprehensible to others. Some consider him a philosopher, others - a thinker, others - a lazy person. The author allows the reader to form their own opinion without being categorical about the character.
It is impossible to evaluate the idea of the novel separately from the history of the creation of the work. The basis of the book was the story "Dashing Pain", written by Goncharov several years earlier. Inspiration caught up with the writer at a time when the social and political situation in Russia was tense.
At that time, the image of an apathetic tradesman who was not able to take responsibility for his actions and decisions was typical for the country. Reasoning influenced the idea of the book. The critic wrote about the appearance of the image of the "superfluous person" in the literary works of that time. He described the hero as a freethinker, incapable of serious action, a dreamer, useless for society. The appearance of Oblomov is a visual embodiment of the nobility of those years. The novel describes the changes taking place in the hero. The characterization of Ilya Ilyich is subtly outlined in each of the four chapters.
The protagonist was born into a landowner's family, living according to the traditional aristocratic way of life. The childhood of Ilya Oblomov was spent in the family estate, where life was not very diverse. The parents loved the boy. Affectionate nanny pampered with fairy tales and jokes. Sleep and long sitting at a meal were commonplace for households, and Ilya easily adopted their inclinations. He was taken care of from all sorts of misfortunes, not allowing him to deal with the difficulties that arose.
According to Goncharov, the child grew up apathetic and withdrawn until he turned into a thirty-two-year-old unprincipled man with an attractive appearance. There was no interest in anything and no focus on a particular subject. Serfs provided the hero with income, so he did not need anything. The clerk robbed him, the place of residence gradually fell into disrepair, and the sofa became his permanent location.
The descriptive image of Oblomov includes the bright features of a lazy landowner and is collective. Goncharov's contemporaries tried not to name their sons Ilya if they were the namesakes of their fathers. The common noun that Oblomov's name acquired was diligently avoided.
The satirical description of the appearance of the character becomes a continuation of the string of "superfluous people", which he began and continued. Oblomov is not old, but already flabby. His face is expressionless. Gray eyes do not carry a shadow of thought. He wears an old dressing gown. Goncharov pays attention to the appearance of the character, noting his effeminacy and passivity. The dreamer Oblomov is not ready for action and indulges in laziness. The tragedy of the hero lies in the fact that he has great prospects, but is not able to realize them.
Oblomov is kind and disinterested. He does not have to make any effort, and if such a prospect arises, he is afraid of it and shows uncertainty. He often dreams of the atmosphere of his native estate, evoking a sweet longing for his native places. Periodically, beautiful dreams are dispelled by other heroes of the novel.
He is the antagonist of Ilya Oblomov. Friendship between men began in childhood. The antipode of the dreamer, who has German roots, Stolz avoids idleness and is used to working. He criticizes the lifestyle preferred by Oblomov. Stolz knows that the first attempts of a friend to realize themselves in a career ended in failure.
Having moved to St. Petersburg as a young man, Ilya tried to serve in the office, but things were not going well, and he preferred inaction. Stolz is an ardent opponent of passivity and tries to be active, although he understands that his work is not intended for lofty goals.
She became a woman who managed to awaken Oblomov from idleness. The love that settled in the heart of the hero helped to leave the usual sofa, forget about drowsiness and apathy. A golden heart, sincerity and breadth of soul attracted the attention of Olga Ilyinskaya.
She valued Ilya's imagination and fantasy, and at the same time tried to assert herself through caring for a person who had cut himself off from the world. The girl was inspired by the ability to influence Oblomov and understood that their relationship would not continue. The indecision of Ilya Ilyich caused the collapse of this union.
Fleeting obstacles are perceived by Oblomov as invincible obstacles. He is not able to adapt and adjust to the social framework. Inventing his own cozy world, he moves away from reality, where he has no place.
Closure became the path to the emergence of simple happiness in life, and it was brought by a woman who was constantly nearby. rented the apartment where the hero lived. After breaking up with Olga Ilyinskaya, he found solace in the attention of Agafya. A thirty-year-old woman fell in love with a tenant, and the feelings did not require changes in character or lifestyle.
Having united the farms, little by little they began to show confidence in each other and healed soul to soul. Pshenitsyna did not demand anything from her husband. She was content with her virtues and ignored her faults. In marriage, the son Andryusha was born, the only consolation of Agafya after the death of Oblomov.
Despite laziness, Oblomov shows himself to be an educated and sensitive person, a deep person with a pure heart and good thoughts. He justifies inaction with the words:
“…Some people have nothing else to do but to speak. There is a calling."
Internally, Oblomov is strong to commit an act. The main step towards changes in his life is love for Ilyinskaya. For her sake, he is capable of feats, one of which is saying goodbye to his favorite bathrobe and sofa. It is quite possible that an object that could interest the hero so strongly was simply not found. And since there is no interest, why forget about the conveniences? So he criticizes light:
“... There is no business of their own, they scattered in all directions, did not go to anything. Under this comprehensiveness lies emptiness, lack of sympathy for everything! .. "
Oblomov in Goncharov's novel appears at the same time as a lazy person with a negative connotation and an exalted character with a poetic talent. In his words, there are subtle turns and expressions that are alien to the hard worker Stolz. His graceful phrases beckon Ilinskaya and turn Agafya's head. Oblomov's world, woven from dreams and dreams, is built on the melody of poetry, love for comfort and harmony, peace of mind and goodness:
"... Memories - or the greatest poetry, when they are memories of living happiness, or - burning pain, when they touch dried wounds."
The pinnacle of creativity of the talented Russian prose writer and critic of the 19th century Ivan Goncharov was the novel Oblomov, published in 1859 in the journal Domestic Notes. His epic scale of the artistic study of the life of the Russian nobility in the mid-nineteenth century allowed this work to occupy one of the central places in Russian literature.
The protagonist of the novel is Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, a young (32-33 years old) Russian nobleman, idly and carefree living on his estate. He has a pleasant appearance, the main feature of which is softness in all his features and the main expression of his soul.
His favorite activity is to lie listlessly on the couch and waste time in empty thoughts and dreamy reflections. Moreover, the complete absence of any actions is his conscious choice, because once he had a position in the department and was waiting for promotion on the career ladder. But then he got bored with it and left everything, making his ideal a carefree life filled with sleepy peace and tranquility, as in childhood.
(Old faithful servant Zakhar)
Oblomov is distinguished by sincerity, gentleness and kindness, he did not even lose such a valuable moral quality as conscience. He is far from evil or bad deeds, but at the same time it is impossible to confidently say that he is a positive hero. Goncharov painted the reader a terrible picture of Oblomov's spiritual desolation and his moral decay. The old and faithful servant Zakhar is a mirror reflection of the character of his young master. He is just as lazy and sloppy, devoted to the depths of his soul to his master and also shares with him the philosophy of his life.
One of the main storylines in the novel, which perfectly reveals the character of the protagonist, is Oblomov's love relationship with Olga Ilyinskaya. Romantic feelings for this young and sweet lady that suddenly flared up in Oblomov's heart arouse in him an interest in spiritual life, he begins to be interested in art and the mental demands of his time. Thus, there is a ray of hope that Oblomov can return to a normal human life. Love reveals in him new, previously unknown traits of his character, inspires and inspires a new life.
But in the end, the feeling of love for this pure and highly moral girl becomes a bright, but very short-term flash in the measured and monotonous life of the couch potato master. Illusions are dispelled very quickly, from the fact that they can be together, they are too unlike Olga, he can never become the one she wants to see next to her. There is a natural breakdown in relations. In the process of choosing between romantic dates and a serene sleepy state in which he lived most of his conscious life, Oblomov chooses the usual and favorite option for him to do nothing. And only in the house of Agafya Pshenitsina, surrounded by such usual care and an idle, carefree life, he finds his ideal refuge, where his life ends quietly and imperceptibly.
After its release, the novel received close attention from critics and readers alike. By the name of the protagonist of this work (at the initiative of the famous literary critic Dobrolyubov), the whole concept of "Oblomovism" appeared, which later acquired a wide historical significance. It is described as a real disease of modern Russian society, when young and full of strength people of noble birth are busy with reflection and apathy, they are afraid to change anything in their lives and prefer lazy and idle vegetative life instead of action and struggle for their happiness.
According to Dobrolyubov, the image of Oblomov is a symbol of serf society in Russia in the 19th century. The origins of his "disease" lie precisely in the serf system, in the technical backwardness of the economy, in the process of exploitation and humiliation of forced peasant slaves. Goncharov revealed to the readers the whole path of the formation of Oblomov's character and his complete moral degradation, which applies not only to one individual representative of the nobility, but to the entire nation as a whole. Oblomov's path, sadly, is the path of the majority of people who do not have a specific goal in life and are absolutely useless for society.
Even such noble and lofty feelings as friendship and love could not break this vicious circle of laziness and idleness, so one can only sympathize with Oblomov that he did not find the strength to cast off the shackles of sleep and live a new, full life.
The work of Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov "Oblomov" was written many years ago, but the problems raised in it remain relevant today. The main character of the novel has always aroused great interest in the reader. What is the meaning of Oblomov's life, who is he and was he really a lazy person?
From the very beginning of the work, Ilya Ilyich appears before the reader in a completely absurd situation. He spends every day in his room. Deprived of any impression. Nothing new happens in his life, there is nothing that would fill it with some kind of meaning. One day is like another. Absolutely not carried away and not interested in anything, this person, one might say, resembles a plant.
The only occupation of Ilya Ilyich is a comfortable and serene lying on the sofa. Since childhood, he was used to the fact that he was constantly taken care of. He never thought about how to ensure his own existence. Always lived on everything ready. There was no such incident that would disturb his serene state. It's just convenient for him to live.
And this constant lying on the couch is not caused by some incurable disease or psychological disorder. No! The terrible thing is that this is the natural state of the main character of the novel. The meaning of Oblomov's life lies in the soft upholstery of the sofa and a comfortable Persian dressing gown. Every person from time to time tends to think about the purpose of their own existence. The time comes, and many, looking back, begin to argue: "What have I done useful, why do I live at all?"
Of course, not everyone can move mountains, do some heroic deed, but anyone can make their own life interesting and full of impressions. No one has ever been made happy by inaction. Perhaps only up to a certain point. But this does not apply to Ilya Ilyich. Oblomov, whose life story is described in the novel of the same name by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov, is not burdened by his inaction. Everything suits him.
The character of Ilya Ilyich can already be judged from some lines in which the author describes the room where Oblomov lived. Of course, the decoration of the room did not look poor. She was beautifully furnished. And yet there was no coziness or comfort in it. The paintings that hung on the walls of the room were framed with spider web patterns. Mirrors, designed to reflect oneself in them, could be used instead of writing paper.
The whole room was covered in dust and dirt. Somewhere there was an accidentally thrown thing lying around, which will lie there until it is needed again. On the table - uncleaned dishes, crumbs and leftovers from yesterday's meal. All this does not cause a feeling of comfort. But Ilya Ilyich does not notice this. Cobwebs, dust, dirt and uncleaned dishes are natural companions of his daily reclining on the sofa.
Often, Ilya Ilyich reproaches his own servant, whose name is Zakhar, for the carelessness. But he seemed to have adjusted to the character of the owner, and perhaps he himself was initially not far from him, quite calmly reacting to the untidiness of the dwelling. According to his reasoning, there is no point in cleaning the room from dust, since it still accumulates there again. So what is the meaning of Oblomov's life? A man who can't even force his own servant to put things in order. He cannot even manage his own life, and the existence of those around him is generally beyond his control.
Of course, sometimes he dreams of doing something for his village. He is trying to come up with some plans, again - lying on the couch, in order to rebuild the village life. But this person is already so divorced from reality that all the dreams he built remain theirs. Plans are such that their implementation is almost impossible. All of them have some kind of monstrous scope that has nothing to do with reality. But the meaning of life in the work of "Oblomov" is not revealed only in the description of one character.
There is another hero in the work, who is trying to awaken Ilya Ilyich from his lazy state. Andrey Stolz is a person filled with seething energy and liveliness of mind. Whatever Andrei undertakes, he succeeds in everything, and he enjoys everything. He does not even think about why he does this or that thing. According to the character himself, he works for the sake of work.
What is the difference between the meaning of life of Oblomov and Stolz? Andrei never lies, like Ilya Ilyich, idle. He is always busy with something, he has a huge circle of friends with interesting people. Stolz never sits in one place. He is constantly on the road, meeting new places and people. Nevertheless, he does not forget about Ilya Ilyich.
Oblomov's monologue about the meaning of life, his judgments about it, are completely opposite to the opinion of Stolz, who becomes the only one who was able to lift Ilya from a soft sofa. Moreover, Andrei even tried to return his friend to an active life. To do this, he resorts to some kind of trick. Introduces him to Olga Ilyinskaya. Realizing that pleasant communication with a beautiful woman, perhaps, will quickly awaken in Ilya Ilyich a taste for a life more diverse than existence in his room.
How does Oblomov change under the influence of Stolz? His life story is now connected with the beautiful Olga. It even awakens tender feelings for this woman. He is trying to change, to adapt to the world in which Ilyinskaya and Stolz live. But his long lying on the couch does not pass without a trace. The meaning of Oblomov's life, associated with his uncomfortable room, was very deeply rooted in him. Some time passes, and he begins to be burdened by relations with Olga. And, of course, their breakup became inevitable.
The only dream of Ilya Ilyich is the desire to find peace. He does not need the seething energy of everyday life. The world in which he is closed, with its small space, seems to him much more pleasant and comfortable. And the life that his friend Stolz leads does not attract him. It requires fuss and movement, and this is unusual for Oblomov's character. Finally, all the seething energy of Andrei, which constantly runs into Ilya's indifference, has dried up.
Ilya Ilyich finds his consolation in the house of a widow whose last name is Pshenitsyna. Having married her, Oblomov completely stopped worrying about life and gradually fell into moral hibernation. Now he is back in his favorite robe. Lying on the couch again. Oblomov leads him to a slow extinction. The last time Andrei visits his friend is already under the vigilant eye of Pshenitsyna. He sees how his friend sank, and makes one last attempt to pull him out of the pool. But it makes no sense.
Revealing the meaning of Oblomov's life and death, it is necessary to mention that Ilya Ilyich is still not a negative character in this work. There are in his image and quite bright positive features. He is an extremely hospitable and hospitable host. Despite the constant lying on the couch, Ilya Ilyich is a very educated person, he appreciates art.
In relations with Olga, he does not show rudeness or intolerance, he is gallant and courteous. His very rich, but ruined by excessive care since childhood. At first, you might think that Ilya Ilyich is infinitely happy, but this is just an illusion. A dream that replaced the real state.
Oblomov, who turned into a tragedy, seems to be pleased with his position. And yet he understands the futility of his existence. Moments of awareness of his own inaction come to him. After all, Ilya Stolz forbade Olga to go to him, he did not want her to see the process of his decomposition. An educated person cannot fail to understand how empty and monotonous his life is. Only laziness does not allow changing it and making it bright and varied.
