Description of the characters in the work "Spring Waters". Analysis of the story by I.S

Ivan Sergeevich Turgeny is a famous Russian writer who gave Russian literature works that have become classics. The story "Spring Waters" refers to the late period of the author's work. The skill of the writer is manifested mainly in the disclosure of the psychological experiences of the characters, their doubts and searches.

The plot is based on the relationship between a Russian intellectual, Dmitry Sanin, and a young Italian beauty, Gemma Roselli. Revealing the characters of his heroes throughout the story, Turgenev leads the reader to the idea of ​​how weakness and lack of will can ruin the most promising life, poison the highest and brightest relationships.

Dmitry Pavlovich Sanin is a typical representative of the Russian intelligentsia, a well-mannered, educated and intelligent person. "Dmitry combined freshness, health and an infinitely gentle character." Throughout the story, he repeatedly demonstrates the nobility of his nature. At the dawn of their acquaintance with Gemma, he saved her brother, which won the attention and gratitude of the beauty. Later, already knowing that Gemma was engaged, he immediately challenged her offender to a duel as soon as he saw that the drunk officer had insulted the girl. Without even hoping for reciprocity, Dmitry acts disinterestedly and nobly, like a true nobleman.

However, the plot unfolds in such a way that both the weakness and the lack of will of the protagonist are clearly manifested. Already engaged to Gemma, whom he sincerely loves, Dmitry enters into a relationship with Marya Nikolaevna Polozova, a rich married woman. Dmitry surrenders without a fight, having submitted to the whims of a rich and frivolous aristocrat. Naturally, Sanin's personal life goes to dust. He feels destroyed, having lost his beloved woman and hope for a happy family life due to his weakness.

The weak-willed character of Sanin is contrasted with the strong and purposeful character of Gemma. It cannot be said that her life developed smoothly from the very beginning. Before meeting Dmitry, the girl was engaged to a man whom she did not love. Relations with Sanin ended in disaster, the girl's feelings were trampled, her pride was humiliated. Nevertheless, Gemma finds the strength to build a new relationship with a worthy person. As a result, her life develops safely and happily.
Thus, through the images of his heroes, Turgenev shows how much the fate of a person depends on his character.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is known to the reader as a master of words, who skillfully revealed any image, whether it be a natural landscape or a person's character. He could retell any story colorfully, truthfully, with a sufficient sense of tact and irony.

Being a mature author, in the late 60s and early 70s of the XIX century, Ivan Sergeevich wrote a number of works from the category of memoirs. The story "Spring Waters", written in 1872, is recognized by writers as the most significant of this period.

She tells about the love story of a weak-willed landowner who, due to his own irrepressibility and stupidity, could not build his own relationship on his own.

The plot is retold by a man who is already 52 years old. This man is a nobleman and landowner named Sanin. The surging memories take him 30 years ago, in the years of his youth. The story itself took place while he was traveling in Germany.

It happened to the main character to be in the small city of Frankfurt, where he really liked it. Dmitry Sanin decided to visit the confectionery, and witnessed the scene where the master's son fainted. His sister, a beautiful girl, was bustling around the boy. Sanin could not but help her in such a situation.

The family of the owner of the confectionery was so grateful to him for his help that they offered to stay with them for a few days. Unexpectedly for himself, the narrator agreed and spent some of the best and most delightful days of his life in the company of pleasant and amiable people.

Gemma had a fiance, with whom the girl herself saw often. Sanin soon became acquainted with him. That same evening they went for a walk and went into a small cafe where German officers were sitting at a nearby table. Suddenly, one of them allowed himself a rude joke in relation to their society, and Sanin, who was not used to enduring such antics, immediately challenged him to a duel. The duel was successful, and none of its participants were injured.

But only this had such a strong effect on the pretty girl herself that Jamie suddenly suddenly decided to drastically change his life. First of all, she forever severed any relationship with her fiancé, explaining that he could not protect her honor and dignity. And Sanin suddenly realized that he himself loved Gemma. This feeling, as it turned out, was not unrequited. The love of young people was so strong that one day they got the idea to get married. Seeing their relationship, the girl's mother calmed down, although she was initially horrified that her daughter broke up with her fiancé. But now the woman even began to think again about the future of her daughter and about Dmitry Sanin as a son-in-law.

Dmitry and Jemmy also thought about a joint future. The young man decided to sell his estate so that there would be money for their joint residence. To do this, he had to go to Wiesbaden, where at that time his friend from the boarding house lived. Polozov was also in Frankfurt at that time, so he should have visited his rich wife.

But Marya Nikolaevna, the wife of a boarding friend, easily began to flirt with Sanin, since she was rich, young, beautiful in appearance and not burdened by moral principles. She was able to easily captivate the hero, and he soon became her lover. When Marya Nikolaevna leaves for Paris, he follows, but it turns out that she does not need him at all, that she has new and interesting lovers. He has no choice but to return back to Russia. His days now seem empty and boring. But soon life takes its course and Sanin forgets about everything.

One day, while sorting out his jewelry box, he finds a small, but such a cute pomegranate cross, which was once given to him by dear Gemma. In a strange way, the gift was able to survive after all the events that happened to the hero. Remembering his former love, he immediately leaves for Frankfurt, where he learns that Gemma, after his departure, got married two years later. She is happy with her husband, lives in New York. She gave birth to five wonderful children. Looking at the photographs, Sanin noticed that one of her adult daughters in the photograph looked as lovely as Jemmy herself many years ago.

The characters of the story

There are a small number of heroes in Turgenev's story. There are main and secondary images that help to reveal this interesting twisted plot of the story "Spring Waters":

♦ Gemma.
♦ Emil.
♦ Döngoff.
♦ Friend of Polozov.
♦ Gemma's mother.

♦ Kluber.

Ivan Turgenev portrays such a psychological type of a nobleman who will be able to reveal the plot in all its details, because we are talking about the personal life of the noble intelligentsia. The reader sees how people get to know each other, fall in love and disperse, but all the characters take part in this boundless love. For example, Sanin, who is already over fifty, recalls his happiness and how it did not work out for him. Dmitry Pavlovich understands perfectly well that he himself was to blame for this.

There are two main female images in Turgenev's story. This is Gemma, whom Dmitry Pavlovich meets by chance, and soon makes her his bride. The girl is pretty and young, dark hair in large curls just flowed down her shoulders. At that time, she was barely nineteen years old, and she was tender and vulnerable. Sanin was attracted by the eyes, which were dark and incredibly beautiful.

A very clear opposite is Marya Nikolaevna, whom the main character meets later. The fatal beauty is the wife of Sanin's friend Polozov. This woman is no different from the rest in her external data, and she is even inferior in her beauty to Jemmy. But she had a great ability, like a snake, to bewitch and bewitch a man, so much so that a man can no longer forget about her. The author appreciates her for her mind and talent, education and originality of nature. Marya Nikolaevna skillfully used words, hitting the target with every word, and even knew how to tell beautifully. It later turned out that she was just playing with men.

Analysis of Turgenev's story

The writer himself claimed that his work is primarily about love. And although the storyline brings together, and then separates the main characters, the first love leaves a pleasant memory in the memory.

The author does not try to disguise love triangles. All events are described by Ivan Turgenev clearly and accurately. And the characteristics of the main characters and landscape sketches captivate the reader, plunging deep into the events of thirty years.

There are no random people in the story at all, and each character has his own specific place. Subtly and psychologically correctly revealed the inner world of the main characters. Secondary characters also perform their literary function, which add additional flavor.

Symbols in Turgenev's story

The symbols that the author uses in his work are interesting. So, Gemma, on a walk with Sanin and her fiancé, meets a German officer. He behaves rudely and for this Sanin challenges him to a duel. In gratitude for the noble deed, Jamie gives him a rose, a flower that was a symbol of pure and sincere love.

After a while, Savin is presented with another gift, which is completely opposed to what he received from a naive girl. Maria Nikolaevna also gives a gift to Dmitry. Only this inanimate object is an iron ring. And after a while, the hero saw the same decoration on the finger of another young man, who, most likely, was also the lover of an immoral woman. This cruel and insensitive gift destroys the fate of the main character. So Sanin becomes a slave of love, weak-willed and soon forgotten. The fatal beauty, having played enough with him, loses all interest and simply leaves him. Love in the life of this person will never come again.

But the hero lives on, gets richer, and suddenly remembers the betrayal that he committed in his life. This pain from a bad and ignoble deed will always live in him. And he will always think about Jamie, who experienced pain through his fault. It is no coincidence that memories flooded over the main character when he found a pomegranate cross - Gemma's gift.

Critical review and evaluation of the story

Critics differently evaluated the new work of Ivan Turgenev. Some spoke disapprovingly of him, believing that the author showed in the plot the most unattractive sides of the characters of Russian origin. Foreigners are quite another matter. In his portrayal, they are honest and noble.

But some critics were still delighted with the plot of this Turgenev story. How the general color is reflected and accents are placed, what qualities the characters are endowed with. When Annenkov read Turgenev's manuscript, he wrote his opinion about it:

“The thing came out brilliant in color, in an enticing fit of all the details to the plot and in facial expressions.”

Ivan Sergeevich wanted to show that the first love, even if it is unhappy and deceived, remains in the memory for life. First love is a bright memory that does not fade over the years. The author succeeded in all this.

He occupies an honorable place in Russian literature, primarily due to his works of large form. Six well-known novels and several stories give reason to any critic to consider Turgenev a brilliant prose writer. The themes of the works are very diverse: these are works about "superfluous" people, about serfdom, about love. In the late 1860s - early 70s, Turgenev wrote a number of stories representing memories of the distant past. The "first sign" was the story "Asya", which opened a galaxy of heroes - weak-willed people, intellectual nobles who lost their love due to their weak character and indecision.

The story was written in 1872 and published in 1873. "Spring Waters", largely repeating the plot of previous works. Russian landowner Dmitry Sanin, living abroad, recalls his past love for Gemma Roselli, the daughter of the owner of the confectionery, where the hero went to drink lemonade during his walk around Frankfurt. He was then young, 22 years old, squandering the fortune of a distant relative, traveling around Europe.

Dmitry Pavlovich Sanin is a typical Russian nobleman, an educated and intelligent person: "Dmitry combined freshness, health and an infinitely gentle character". In the process of developing the plot of the story, the hero demonstrates nobility several times. And if at the beginning of the development of events Dmitry showed courage and honor, for example, by helping Gemma's younger brother or by challenging a drunken officer who insulted the honor of his beloved girl to a duel, then by the end of the novel he shows surprising weakness of character.

Fate decreed that, late for the stagecoach to Berlin and left without money, Sanin ended up in the family of an Italian confectioner, managed to work behind the counter and even fell in love with the owner's daughter. He was struck by the perfect beauty of the young Italian woman, especially by the ivory complexion. And she also laughed unusually: she had "cute, incessant, quiet laughter with little amusing squeals". But the girl was engaged to a wealthy German, Karl Klüber, a marriage with whom could save the unenviable position of the Roselli family.

And although Frau Lenore convincingly asks Sanin to persuade Gemma to marry a wealthy German, Dmitry himself falls in love with the girl. On the eve of the duel, she gives Sanin "the rose he won the day before". He is shocked, he understands that the girl is not indifferent, and now he is tormented by the knowledge that he can be killed in a duel. His act seems to him stupid and senseless. But faith in the love of a young beauty gives confidence that everything will end well (this is how everything happens).

Love transforms the hero: he confesses in a letter to Gemma that he loves her, and a day later an explanation takes place. True, Gemma's mother, Frau Lenore, takes the news of the new groom unexpectedly for both: she bursts into tears, like a Russian peasant woman over the coffin of her husband or son. After sobbing for an hour, she nevertheless listens to Sanin's arguments that he is ready to sell his small estate in the Tula province in order to invest this money in the development of a confectionery and save the Roselli family from final ruin. Frau Lenore gradually calms down, asks about Russian laws and even asks to bring her from Russia "Astrakhan lambs on a mantilla". She is embarrassed that they are of different faiths: Sanin is a Christian, and Gemma is a Catholic, but the girl, left alone with her beloved, tears off a pomegranate cross from her neck and gives him as a token of love.

Sanin is sure that the stars favor him, because literally the next day he meets his "an old boarding comrade" Ippolit Polozov, who offers to sell the estate to his wife Marya Nikolaevna. Sanin hastily leaves for Wiesbaden, where he meets Polozov's wife, a beautiful young lady. "in diamonds on the arms and around the neck". Sanin was slightly shocked by her cheeky behavior, but decided "to indulge the whims of this rich lady" just to sell the estate for a good price. But left alone, he recalls with bewilderment the vicious appearance of Marya Nikolaevna: her “not that Russian, not that gypsy flowering female body”, "grey predatory eyes", "serpentine braids"; “and he could not get rid of her image, could not help but hear her voice, not remember her speeches, could not help but feel a special smell, thin, fresh and piercing, which emanated from her clothes”.

This woman attracts Sanin with her business acumen: asking about the estate, she skillfully asks questions that reveal her "commercial and administrative ability". The hero feels as if he is in an exam, which he fails miserably. Polozova asks him to stay for two days to make a final decision, and Sanin is captured by this domineering beautiful woman. The hero is delighted with the eccentricity of Marya Nikolaevna: she is not only a business woman, she is a connoisseur of real art, an excellent rider. It is in the forest during a horseback ride that this woman, accustomed to victories over men, finally seduces the young man, leaving him no choice. He follows her to Paris as a weak-willed victim, not knowing that this is not just a whim of a rich and depraved woman, this is a cruel bet that she made with her husband: she assured that she would seduce his school friend, who was about to marry, in just two days .

Many contemporaries saw image of Marya Nikolaevna Polozova "fatal passion" Turgenev himself - the singer Pauline Viardot, who, according to the testimony of the writer's friends, simply bewitched him, which is why he never found happiness, basking all his life near someone else's family hearth (Viardot was married to Louis Viardot, a French writer, critic, theater figure, and was not going to get divorced, because she owed him her solo career).

witchcraft motif there is also in the "Spring Waters". Polozova asks Sanin if he believes in "dry", and the hero agrees that he feels weak-willed. Yes, and the name of the heroine Polozov - from the "snake", that is, a huge snake, which for a Christian is associated with temptation. After the "fall" comes retribution - the hero is left alone. After 30 years, living out the boring days of his life, the hero remembers his first love - Gemma. Once again in Frankfurt, he learns with bitterness that the girl married an American, went with him to New York and is happily married (they have five children).

The story "Spring Waters", like many other works of Turgenev, is about first love, as a rule, unhappy, but it is she who remains the brightest memory on the slope of every person's life.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgeny is a famous Russian writer who gave Russian literature works that have become classics. The story "Spring Waters" refers to the late period of the author's work. The skill of the writer is manifested mainly in the disclosure of the psychological experiences of the characters, their doubts and searches.

The plot is based on the relationship between a Russian intellectual, Dmitry Sanin, and a young Italian beauty, Gemma Roselli. Revealing the characters of his heroes throughout the story, Turgenev leads the reader to the idea of ​​how weakness and lack of will can ruin the most promising life, poison the highest and brightest relationships.

Dmitry Pavlovich Sanin is a typical representative of the Russian intelligentsia, a well-mannered, educated and intelligent person. “Dmitry combined freshness, health and an infinitely gentle character.” Throughout the story, he repeatedly demonstrates the nobility of his nature. At the dawn of their acquaintance with Gemma, he saved her brother, which won the attention and gratitude of the beauty. Later, already knowing that Gemma was engaged,

he immediately challenged her offender to a duel as soon as he saw that the drunken officer had insulted the girl. Without even hoping for reciprocity, Dmitry acts disinterestedly and nobly, like a true nobleman.

However, the plot unfolds in such a way that both the weakness and the lack of will of the protagonist are clearly manifested. Already engaged to Gemma, whom he sincerely loves, Dmitry enters into a relationship with Marya Nikolaevna Polozova, a rich married woman. Dmitry surrenders without a fight, having submitted to the whims of a rich and frivolous aristocrat. Naturally, Sanin's personal life goes to dust. He feels destroyed, having lost his beloved woman and hope for a happy family life due to his weakness.

The weak-willed character of Sanin is contrasted with the strong and purposeful character of Gemma. It cannot be said that her life developed smoothly from the very beginning. Before meeting Dmitry, the girl was engaged to a man whom she did not love. Relations with Sanin ended in disaster, the girl's feelings were trampled, her pride was humiliated. Nevertheless, Gemma finds the strength to build a new relationship with a worthy person. As a result, her life develops safely and happily.
Thus, through the images of his heroes, Turgenev shows how much the fate of a person depends on his character.

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Gemma in the story "Spring Waters" - an Italian girl who fell in love with the main character, Sanin. Gemma is an extraordinary beauty, as if descended from the canvases of the Renaissance masters. In her appearance, the ideal of harmony was embodied, which in the minds of the people of the Turgenev generation was associated precisely with Italy.

Beauty combines in Italian with innate artistry and the power of passion. The spirit of freedom also lives in it, equally opposed to both political despotism (Gemma is a “stubborn republican”) and measured and prudent bourgeoisism. The romantic nature of the heroine is manifested in the love story that makes up the first part of the story: the girl refuses her fiancé, the rich merchant Kluber, and falls in love with Sanin, who saved her brother and fought a duel for her honor. Gemma's love is surrounded by a halo of symbolic meaning: in it, according to Turgenev, the "last" secrets of life and beauty are revealed. All the more striking is Sanin's rejection of the happiness that has befallen him. The heroine is having a hard time with his betrayal. But then, as Sanin finds out, she embarks on the path of an ordinary (and, moreover, quite worthy) existence - she leaves for America, gets married and prospers.

Polozova Maria Nikolaevna- a woman who destroyed the love of Sanin and Gemma in Turgenev's story "Spring Waters". She is extremely selfish, often rude and coldly calculating, but for all that she is brightly outstanding. Polozova is a person of a new formation, the daughter of a wealthy illiterate peasant, who received a good education and won a strong position in society, there is nothing in her of the psychology of an upstart: the heroine flaunts her plebeianism, although she despises the environment from which she came out, as, indeed, your new environment.

She knows human weaknesses and knows how to use them. Its goal is complete freedom for itself and power over other people. The sensuality of Marya Nikolaevna Polozova is marked by a touch of a kind of demonism: she seeks to enslave men, destroying their faith in ideal love and the possibility of happiness. There are deep reasons for this in her own destiny. “Having suffered” from slavery, she makes others slaves; never once in her life becoming the object of true love, she deprives such love of happier women. This is how she intrudes into the ideal romance of Gemma and Sanin. This is a kind of revenge on the whole world, which distinguished romantic heroes. But in Turgenev's story "Spring Waters" Polozova is not sublime; the halo of "half-beast and demigod" that surrounded her at climaxes eventually disappears, replaced by mere animal features ("A hawk that claws a captured bird has such eyes").

Sanin Dmitry Pavlovich- the main character of the story "Spring Waters" by Turgenev, a young Russian landowner who travels around Europe for his own entertainment. Suddenly, he becomes the protagonist of two diametrically opposed love stories. First, he experiences a high pure love for Gemma, and then, almost without any transition, a blind and base passion for Polozova, which manages to completely enslave him. Having fallen in love with Gemma, Sanin behaves like a noble person, becoming Polozova's slave - like a man without honor and conscience. He suffers, realizing the enormity of his betrayal, the baseness of all his behavior, but this does not change anything. The contrast is very sharp, the more significant is the fact that in both situations the behavior of the hero Turgenev explains the same reason - his weak will. The hero each time succumbs to the intervention of chance, obeys circumstances, feelings, the will of other people: whatever their impact, such is he (in a situation of ideal love, he is noble, in a situation of base passion, disgusting). In Sanin's weak will there is some resemblance to the psychology of Turgenev's "superfluous people." But the similarity only accentuates the difference. The weakness of the will, which determines the behavior of this hero, does not receive a specific social explanation (as happened in the stories about "superfluous people"). This enlarges the scale of generalization: the ability at any moment to move from noble idealism to unrestrained fall, immorality is interpreted by the author as a feature of the national character, an expression of the “Russian essence”.