The meaning of artistic detail in the dictionary of literary terms. Categories of artistic form

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - a recognized master short story. The ability to succinctly express thoughts, which has grown from a school hobby into real serious work with words, has become the main thing distinctive feature Russian classic.

Entering literature as an author short stories- “sketch”, A.P. Chekhov actively collaborated with periodicals(mainly with humorous magazines). The rules of newspaper layout dictated certain restrictions on the number of characters. In works that appeared on the pages of periodicals, the author was required to demonstrate the entire essence of artistic images in the most concise form.

In order to impartially, but at the same time clearly show life as it is, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov resorted to the use of various expressive and visual means. With their help, in just one or two pages of text, he was able to convey the diversity, and often the absurdity, of the real world. The writer’s favorite technique was the use of such an element as artistic detail.

Artistic details of Chekhov in the story “The Death of an Official”

The detail in the work is one of known methods creating a character image. For example, they were actively used by N.V. Gogol to characterize his heroes. Special significance This technique is acquired in works of small volume, where there are no lengthy dialogues, and every word is carefully selected.

What is an artistic detail? This is an expressive detail with the help of which the essence of a person, event or phenomenon is revealed. Most often, it is played by some object of the material world - it can be a thing, an item of clothing, furniture, a home, etc. Often the facial expressions, gestures, and manner of speech of the characters also become artistic details.

What is the role of artistic detail in Chekhov's prose? It is intended to give the reader a complete picture of the character. So, in the story “The Death of an Official” () with the main character, the “wonderful” office worker Ivan Dmitrievich Chervyakov, there was an embarrassment in the theater. The fact is that while watching “The Bells of Corneville” he suddenly sneezed. The author emphasizes the ordinariness of the situation: they say, it doesn’t happen to anyone. To his misfortune, the official notices that he accidentally stained the bald head of the civil general Brizzhalov sitting in front. And although he does not attach any significance to the random episode, from that moment on Chervyakov’s life turns into a nightmare. Fear of high rank forces him to make his deepest apologies during the performance, during intermission, and the next day, for which Chervyakov specially visits the general’s reception room. But assurances that the apology was accepted and that what happened was a mere trifle do not have the desired effect on him. Chervyakov is even going to write a letter to the general, but, on reflection, decides to confess again. With his servility, the official drives Brizzhalov into a frenzy, and he eventually kicks out the intrusive visitor. Tired of the mental torment tormenting him, Chervyakov returns home and dies on his sofa.

In fact, officials who were at the lower levels of the career ladder often became heroes of A.P.’s works. Chekhov. This was due primarily to the fact that this class was extremely inert mass, leading a rather meaningless – and therefore exemplary – life.

In the story “The Death of an Official” there is a noticeable collision of two opposite worlds. On the one hand, in the exposition the author seems to set us up in a bohemian mood: the hero came to the theater and enjoys the performance. On the other hand, the attentive reader is immediately alarmed by a strange detail: Chervyakov, sitting in the second row, watches the opera through binoculars. This interweaving of high impulses with low ones is again demonstrated in a phrase that gives a complete picture of the hero’s way of thinking: “Not my boss, a stranger, but still awkward.” That is, Chervyakov apologizes not so much in accordance with the rules of etiquette, but out of necessity dictated by his official position.

In the same vein, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov describes the wife of an office worker. In the story, her image appears in only three sentences. But isn’t it an indicative detail that the frightened wife calms down immediately as soon as she realizes that Brizzhalov is a “strange” boss?

Moreover, the comparison of the general and the official in their attitude to life suggests differences much deeper than inequality social statuses. Chervyakov’s limitations and narrow views contrast sharply with Brizzhalov’s complacency. However, there is a paradox here. With all Chervyakov’s awareness of his low place on the hierarchical ladder, he, probably without realizing it himself, believes that the general certainly cares about his modest person: “I forgot, but he himself has malice in his eyes...”, “He doesn’t want to talk!” . He’s angry, that means...”, “General, but he can’t understand!..”.

Chervyakov’s inability to understand his own thoughts, to listen to the voice of reason and not fear, excessive suspicion, external insecurity and downtroddenness - all this speaks of the character’s passivity, his habit of living according to orders. In his admiration for strongmen of the world Therefore, he cannot in any way go beyond the framework of the position that he has determined for himself. Therefore, before an audience with the general, Chervyakov specially cuts his hair and puts on new uniform– another important feature.

He remains in the same resigned position even after death. In the last sentence of the story, Chekhov brings out the most revealing detail: “Arriving mechanically home, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and... died.” There is a bitter irony here: the hero lived, “mechanically” and according to instructions from above, and died without taking off his uniform. As we can see, the uniform is a symbol of the irresistible sycophancy generated by the bureaucratic environment.

The author also mentions that before his death, “something came off in Chervyakov’s stomach.” Not in the chest, but precisely in the stomach - thus, the torment that the reader witnessed was difficult to call mental. Therefore, the detail in the stories of A.P. Chekhov becomes a comprehensive means of forming not only a social, but also a psychological portrait of a character.

Brief description of the early period of Chekhov's work

Chekhov - master of artistic detail. The early period of his work is an example of laconic presentation. Later, in a letter to his brother Alexander, he derived the now famous formula: “Brevity is the sister of talent,” which can be called distinctive feature all his works. Avoiding a one-sided portrayal of reality, Chekhov in his stories always intertwined the low with the high, and the comic with the dramatic. And in this he was especially helped by the use of artistic detail, since it set the reader in a certain mood and made it possible to form a complete picture of the hero, even within the framework of a short humorous story. Already in the early works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, trends can be traced that will later turn into plays and bring him into the ranks of recognized world classics.

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Let's start with the properties of the depicted world. The depicted world in a work of art means that picture of reality that is conditionally similar to the real world, which the writer draws: people, things, nature, actions, experiences, etc.

In a work of art, a model of the real world is created. This model is unique in the works of each writer; depicted worlds in different works of art extremely diverse and can be more or less similar to the real world.

But in any case, we should remember that before us is an artistic reality created by the writer, which is not identical to the primary reality.

The picture of the depicted world is made up of individual artistic details. By artistic detail we will understand the smallest pictorial or expressive artistic detail: an element of a landscape or portrait, a separate thing, an act, a psychological movement, etc.

Being an element of an artistic whole, a detail in itself is the smallest image, a micro-image. At the same time, the detail almost always forms part of a larger image; it is formed by details, forming “blocks”: for example, the habit of not swinging your arms when walking, dark eyebrows and mustaches when blonde hair, eyes that did not laugh - all these micro-images form a “block” of a larger image - a portrait of Pechorin, which, in turn, merges into an even larger image - a holistic image of a person.

For ease of analysis, artistic details can be divided into several groups. First of all, external and psychological details are highlighted. External details, as you can easily guess from their name, depict to us the external, objective existence of people, their appearance and habitat.

External details, in turn, are divided into portrait, landscape and material. Psychological details depict to us the inner world of a person; these are individual mental movements: thoughts, feelings, experiences, desires, etc.

External and psychological details are not separated by an impassable border. Thus, an external detail becomes psychological if it conveys or expresses certain mental movements (in this case we are talking about psychological portrait) or is included in the course of the hero’s thoughts and experiences (for example, a real ax and the image of this ax in Raskolnikov’s mental life).

According to the nature of the artistic influence, details-details and details-symbols are distinguished. Details act en masse, describing an object or phenomenon from all conceivable sides; a symbolic detail is singular, trying to capture the essence of the phenomenon at once, highlighting the main thing in it.

In this regard, modern literary critic E. Dobin suggests separating details from details, believing that detail is artistically superior to detail. However, this is unlikely to be the case. Both principles of using artistic details are equivalent, each of them is good in its place.

Here, for example, is the use of detail in the description of the interior in Plyushkin’s house: “On the bureau... there was a lot of all sorts of things: a bunch of finely written pieces of paper, covered with a green marble press with an egg on top, some kind of old book bound in leather with a red edge , lemon, all dried up, no more tall hazelnut, a broken arm of a chair, a glass with some kind of liquid and three flies, covered with a letter, a piece of sealing wax, a piece of a rag picked up somewhere, two feathers stained with ink, dried out, as if in consumption, a toothpick, completely yellowed.”

Here Gogol needs exactly a lot of details in order to strengthen the impression of the meaningless stinginess, pettiness and wretchedness of the hero’s life.

Detail-detail also creates special persuasiveness in descriptions of the objective world. Complex details are also used to convey complex psychological states, here this principle of using parts is indispensable.

A symbolic detail has its advantages; it is convenient to express the general impression of an object or phenomenon, and with its help the general psychological tone is well captured. A symbolic detail often conveys with great clarity the author’s attitude towards what is depicted - such, for example, is Oblomov’s robe in Goncharov’s novel.

Let us now move on to a specific consideration of the varieties of artistic details.

Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analysis literary work. - M., 1998

Artistic detail

Detail - (from French с1е1а) detail, particularity, trifle.

An artistic detail is one of the means of creating an image, which helps to present the embodied character, picture, object, action, experience in their originality and uniqueness. The detail fixes the reader's attention on what seems to the writer the most important, characteristic in nature, in a person or in the objective world around him. The detail is important and significant as part of the artistic whole. In other words, the meaning and power of detail is that the infinitesimal reveals the whole.

There are the following types of artistic detail, each of which carries a certain semantic and emotional load:

a) verbal detail. For example, by the expression “no matter what happens,” we recognize Belikov, by the address “falcon” - Platon Karataev, by one word “fact” - Semyon Davydov;

b) portrait detail. The hero can be identified by a short upper lip with a mustache (Liza Bolkonskaya) or a small white beautiful hand(Napoleon);

c) object detail: Bazarov’s robe with tassels, Nastya’s book about love in the play “At the Lower Depths”, Polovtsev’s saber - a symbol of a Cossack officer;

d) a psychological detail that expresses an essential feature in the character, behavior, and actions of the hero. Pechorin did not swing his arms while walking, which indicated the secrecy of his nature; the sound of billiard balls changes Gaev’s mood;

e) a landscape detail, with the help of which the color of the situation is created; the gray, leaden sky above Golovlev, the “requiem” landscape in “ Quiet Don", intensifying the inconsolable grief of Grigory Melekhov, who buried Aksinya;

f) detail as a form of artistic generalization (“the case-like” existence of the philistines in the works of Chekhov, the “murlo of the philistine” in the poetry of Mayakovsky).

Special mention should be made of this type of artistic detail, such as the everyday one, which, in essence, is used by all writers. A striking example is “Dead Souls”. It is impossible to tear Gogol's heroes away from their everyday life and surrounding things.

A household detail indicates the furnishings, home, things, furniture, clothing, gastronomic preferences, customs, habits, tastes, inclinations actor. It is noteworthy that in Gogol, an everyday detail never acts as an end in itself; it is given not as a background or decoration, but as an integral part of the image. And this is understandable, because the interests of the heroes of the satirical writer do not go beyond the limits of vulgar materiality; the spiritual world of such heroes is so poor and insignificant that the thing may well express their inner essence; things seem to grow together with their owners.

A household item primarily performs a characterological function, that is, it allows one to get an idea of the moral and psychological properties of the characters in the poem. Thus, in Manilov’s estate we see a manor house standing “alone on the Jurassic, that is, on a hill open to all the winds,” a gazebo with the typically sentimental name “Temple of Solitary Reflection,” “a pond covered with greenery”... These details indicate to the impracticality of the landowner, to the fact that mismanagement and disorder reign on his estate, and the owner himself is only capable of senseless project-making.

Manilov’s character can also be judged by the furnishings of the rooms. “There was always something missing in his house”: there was not enough silk material to upholster all the furniture, and two armchairs “stood covered with just matting”; next to a smart, richly decorated bronze candlestick stood “some kind of simple copper invalid, lame, curled to one side.” This combination of objects of the material world on the manor’s estate is bizarre, absurd, and illogical. In all objects and things one feels some kind of disorder, inconsistency, fragmentation. And the owner himself matches his things: Manilov’s soul is as flawed as the decoration of his home, and the claim to “education,” sophistication, grace, and refinement of taste further enhances the hero’s inner emptiness.

Among other things, the author especially emphasizes one thing and highlights it. This thing carries an increased semantic load, developing into a symbol. In other words, a detail can acquire the meaning of a multi-valued symbol that has psychological, social and philosophical meaning. In Manilov’s office, one sees this expressive detail, like piles of ash, “arranged, not without effort, in very beautiful rows” - a symbol of an empty pastime, covered with a smile, cloying politeness, the embodiment of idleness, the idleness of the hero, giving himself up to fruitless dreams...

For the most part, Gogol's everyday detail is expressed in action. Thus, in the image of things that belonged to Manilov, a certain movement is captured, during which the essential properties of his character are revealed. For example, in response to Chichikov’s strange request to sell dead souls, “Manilov immediately dropped the pipe with the pipe on the floor and, as he opened his mouth, remained with his mouth open for several minutes... Finally, Manilov raised the pipe with the pipe and looked at him from below face... but I couldn’t think of anything else but to release the remaining smoke from my mouth in a very thin stream.” These comic poses of the landowner perfectly demonstrate his narrow-mindedness and mental limitations.

Artistic detail is a way of expressing the author's assessment. The district dreamer Manilov is not capable of any business; idleness became part of his nature; the habit of living at the expense of serfs developed traits of apathy and laziness in his character. The landowner's estate is ruined, decline and desolation are felt everywhere.

The artistic detail complements the internal appearance of the character and the integrity of the revealed picture. It gives the depicted extreme concreteness and at the same time generality, expressing the idea, the main meaning of the hero, the essence of his nature.

It is no secret that to obtain a high score in Part C (essay) of the Unified State Examination in Literature, preparatory work is required, either independently or with a tutor. Often, success depends on the initially correctly chosen strategy for preparing for the exam. Before you start preparing for the Unified State Exam in Literature, you should answer important questions for yourself. How can a tutor systematize topics so that he doesn’t have to start all over again with each new piece? What “pitfalls” are hidden in the wording of the topic? How to plan your work correctly?

One of the time-tested principles preparatory work to the essay is the breakdown of various topics into certain types. If necessary, subgroups can be distinguished within the type. Careful work with one type of topic from different writers (four to six) allows you to better understand the uniqueness of each writer’s work and at the same time learn to work with a similar topic, not be afraid of it and recognize it in any formulation. You should strive to be able to determine the type of topic for Part C and formulate it both orally and in writing. Main task Such preparation is to develop the ability to argue your thoughts and draw conclusions necessary to reveal the topic. Any form of preparation can be chosen: an essay of 1–2 pages, selection of material on a given topic, drawing up an outline for an essay, analysis of a short text, drawing up a quotation portrait of a character, analysis of a scene, even free reflections on a quote from a work...

Experience shows: the more homework a tutor gives for a certain type of topic, the more successful the exam will be. We believe that sometimes it is more useful, instead of writing an essay, to think about one type of topic and develop a plan for constructing several essays that you can use in the exam.

This article will be devoted to one type of topic - “The originality of details...”. During the exam, the topic can be formulated in different ways (“An artistic detail in the lyrics...”, “Psychological details in the novel...”, “The function of a household detail...”, “What does Plyushkin’s garden tell us?”, “No one understood so clearly and subtly, like Anton Chekhov, the tragedy of the little things in life...", etc.), the essence does not change: we got a topic associated with a certain literary concept - an artistic detail.

First of all, let us clarify what we mean by the term “artistic detail”. A detail is a detail that the author has endowed with significant meaning. An artistic detail is one of the means of creating or revealing a character's image. By artistic detail we mean a generic concept, which is divided into many particular ones. An artistic detail can reproduce features of everyday life or furnishings. Details are also used by the author when creating a portrait or landscape (portrait and landscape detail), an action or state (psychological detail), the hero’s speech (speech detail), etc. Often, an artistic detail can be at the same time portrait, everyday, and psychological. Makar Devushkin in Dostoevsky’s “Poor People” invents a special gait so that his holey soles are not visible. The holey sole is a real item; as a thing, it can cause trouble to the owner of the boots - wet feet, colds. But for the attentive reader, a torn sole is a sign whose content is poverty, and poverty is one of the defining symbols of St. Petersburg culture. And Dostoevsky’s hero evaluates himself within the framework of this culture: he suffers not because he is cold, but because he is ashamed. After all, shame is one of the most powerful psychological levers of culture. Thus, we understand that the writer needed this artistic detail in order to visually present and characterize the characters and their environment, the life of St. Petersburg in the 19th century.

The saturation of a work with artistic details is determined, as a rule, by the author’s desire to achieve an exhaustive completeness of the image. A detail that is especially significant from an artistic point of view often becomes a motif or leitmotif of a work, an allusion or a reminiscence. So, for example, Varlam Shalamov’s story “To the Show” begins with the words: “We played cards at Naumov’s horse-driver.” This phrase immediately helps the reader draw a parallel with the beginning of “ Queen of Spades": "...played cards with the horse guard Narumov." But in addition to the literary parallel, the true meaning of this phrase is given by the terrible contrast of life surrounding Shalamov’s heroes. According to the writer’s intention, the reader must assess the extent of the gap between the horse guard - an officer of one of the most privileged guards regiments - and the horse guard, belonging to the privileged camp aristocracy, where access is denied to “enemies of the people” and which consists of criminals. The difference, which may escape the ignorant reader, between the typical noble surname Narumov and the common people Naumov is also significant. But the most important thing is the terrible difference in character itself card game. Playing cards is one of the everyday details of the work, which particularly sharply reflected the spirit of the era and the author's intention.

Artistic detailing may be necessary or, on the contrary, excessive. For example, a portrait detail in the description of Vera Iosifovna from the story of A.P. Chekhov's “Ionych”: “...Vera Iosifovna, a thin, pretty lady in a pence-nez, wrote stories and novels and willingly read them aloud to her guests.” Vera Iosifovna wears pence-nez, that is, men's glasses; this portrait detail emphasizes the author's ironic attitude towards the heroine's emancipation. Chekhov, speaking about the heroine’s habits, adds “she read aloud to guests” from her novels. Vera Iosifovna’s exaggerated passion for her work is emphasized by the author, as if in mockery of the heroine’s “education and talent.” IN in this example The heroine’s habit of “reading out loud” is a psychological detail that reveals the heroine’s character.

Items belonging to the heroes can be a means of revealing character (Onegin’s office in the estate) and a means social characteristics hero (Sonia Marmeladova’s room); they can correspond to the hero (Manilov’s estate), and even be his doubles (Sobakevich’s things), or they can be opposed to the hero (the room in which Pontius Pilate lives in “The Master and Margarita”). The situation can influence the hero’s psyche, his mood (Raskolnikov’s room). Sometimes the objective world is not depicted (for example, the significant absence of a description of Tatyana Larina’s room). For Pushkin's Tatyana, the significant absence of substantive details is the result of poeticization; the author seems to elevate the heroine above everyday life. Sometimes the importance of subject details is reduced (for example, in “Pechorin’s Journal”), this allows the author to focus the reader’s attention on the inner world of the hero.

When preparing an applicant for Part C, the tutor should remember that the formulation of the topic may not include the term artistic (everyday, object, etc.) detail, but this, nevertheless, should not confuse or distract from the topic.

The tutor must discuss non-standard formulations of the topic in the form of a question or an unexpected detail with the student when preparing for part C, since the purpose of such exercises is to help better remember information and achieve free expression of thoughts. We recommend that both the tutor and the student use some topics from our list:

What do we know about Onegin's uncle? (mini-essay)
The estate and its owner. (essay on “Dead Souls”)
What does Korobochka's clock show? (mini-essay)
The world of communal apartments in the stories of M. Zoshchenko. (composition)
Turbines and their house. (essay on “The White Guard”)

The type of topic we have chosen - “Originality of details...” - is more conveniently divided into two subgroups: originality of details in the works of one author and in the works of different authors. Below is a work plan for each of the subgroups, which explains not what to write, but how to write, what to write about.

I. The originality of details in the works of one author:

What is meant by household item?
The degree of saturation of the work with everyday details.
The nature of household parts.
Systematization of household parts.
The degree of specificity of everyday parts and the functions that the parts perform for the time of creation of the work.

Household parts can be characterized as follows:

the degree of saturation of the space in the work with everyday details (“I clenched my hands under a black veil...”, A. Akhmatova);
combining details into a certain system (System of significant details in “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky);
a detail of an expansive nature (in Zoshchenko’s “Bath”, the narrator’s coat with the only surviving top button indicates that the narrator is a bachelor and rides public transport during rush hour);
contrasting details with each other (the furnishings of Manilov’s office and the furnishings of Sobakevich’s office, the knocking of knives in the kitchen and the singing of a nightingale in the Turkins’ garden in “Ionych”);
repetition of the same detail or a number of similar ones (cases and cases in “The Man in the Case”);
exaggeration of details (the men in “The Wild Landowner” did not have a rod to sweep out their hut);
grotesque details (deformation of objects when depicting Sobakevich’s house);
endowing objects with independent life (Oblomov’s Persian robe becomes almost an active character in the novel; we can trace the evolution of the relationship between Oblomov and his robe);
color, sound, texture, noted when describing details (color detail in Chekhov’s story “The Black Monk”, gray in "The Lady with the Dog");
perspective of the depiction of details (“Cranes” by V. Soloukhin: “Cranes, you probably don’t know, // How many songs have been composed about you, // How much up when you fly, // Looks with misty eyes!”);
the attitude of the author and the characters to the described everyday objects (object-sensory description by N.V. Gogol: “the head is radish down”, “a rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper...”).

The originality of details in the work of one author can be consolidated when preparing the following tasks:

Two eras: Onegin's office and his uncle's office.
The room of the man of the future in Zamyatin’s dystopia “We”.
The role of everyday objects in Akhmatova’s early lyrics.

One of the arts of a professional tutor is the ability to create a complex work with a type of topic. A full-fledged work for part C must necessarily contain an answer to the question of what functions the household parts perform in the work. We will list the most important:

character description (French sentimental novel in the hands of Tatiana);
opening technique inner world hero (pictures of hell in a dilapidated church, stunning Katerina);
means of typification (furnishings of Sobakevich’s house);
means of characterization social status person (Raskolnikov’s room, similar to a coffin or closet);
detail as a sign of a cultural-historical nature (Onegin’s office in Chapter I of the novel);
a detail of an ethnographic nature (the image of an Ossetian sakli in “Bel”);
details designed to evoke certain analogies in the reader (for example, Moscow–Yershalaim);
a detail designed for the emotional perception of the reader (“Farewell to the New Year’s tree” by B.Sh. Okudzhava, “Khodiki” by Yu. Vizbor);
symbolic detail (the dilapidated church in “The Thunderstorm” as a symbol of the collapse of the foundations of the Domostroevsky world, a gift to Anna in I.I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet”);
characteristics of living conditions (life in Matryona’s house from “ Matryona Dvor» A.I. Solzhenitsyn).

As a training exercise, we suggest thinking through a plan for the following topics:

The function of everyday details in the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”.
Functions of household parts in the “Overcoat”.
Researchers called the heroes of the "White Guard" a "commonwealth of people and things." Do you agree with this definition?
In Bunin's poem "The whole sea is like a pearl mirror..." there are more signs, colors and shades than specific items. It is all the more interesting to think about the role of object details, for example, the legs of a seagull. How would you define this role?
What is the role of objective details in Bunin’s poem “The old man sat, obediently and sadly...” (cigar, watch, window - your choice)? (Based on Bunin’s poem “The old man sat, obediently and sadly...”).

II. The originality of details in the works of different authors. For example, an essay on the topic “Household item in the prose of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov and N.V. Gogol" can be written according to the following plan:

What is meant by a household item?
The difference in the author's tasks and the differences in this regard in the selection of household parts.
The nature of household details compared by all authors.
The functions of household items that they perform in the work.

To answer questions C2, C4, the tutor must explain to the student how the literary tradition connected the works, show the similarities and differences in the use of artistic detail in the works of different authors. IN Unified State Exam assignments According to the literature, the wording of tasks C2, C4 may be different:

In what works of Russian literature do we encounter descriptions of everyday life and how does everyday life interact with people in them?
What works of Russian classics contain Christian symbolism (description of cathedrals, church services, Christian holidays) plays an important role, as in the text of the story “Clean Monday”?
What role does artistic detail play in Chekhov's stories? In what works of Russian literature does an artistic detail have the same meaning?

For tasks C2, C4, a small answer of 15 sentences will be sufficient. But the answer must include two or three examples.

Many years before his death, in house number 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk, the tiled stove in the dining room warmed and raised little Elena, Alexey the elder and very tiny Nikolka. As I often read “The Carpenter of Saardam” near the blazing hot tiled square, the clock played the gavotte, and always at the end of December there was the smell of pine needles, and multi-colored paraffin burned on the green branches. In response, the bronze ones, with gavotte, which stand in the bedroom of the mother, and now Elenka, beat the black wall towers in the dining room. My father bought them a long time ago, when women wore funny sleeves with bubbles at the shoulders. Such sleeves disappeared, time flashed like a spark, the father-professor died, everyone grew up, but the clock remained the same and chimed like a tower. Everyone is so used to them that if they somehow miraculously disappeared from the wall, it would be sad, as if a native voice had died and nothing would happen. empty space you won't shut up. But the clock, fortunately, is completely immortal, the Saardam Carpenter is immortal, and the Dutch tile, like a wise rock, is life-giving and hot in the most difficult times.

Here is this tile, and the furniture of old red velvet, and beds with shiny cones, worn carpets, variegated and crimson, with a falcon on the hand of Alexei Mikhailovich, with Louis XIV basking on the shore of a silk lake in garden of paradise, Turkish carpets with wonderful curls on the eastern field that little Nikolka imagined in the delirium of scarlet fever, a bronze lamp under a lampshade, the best cabinets in the world with books that smell of mysterious ancient chocolate, with Natasha Rostova, the Captain’s Daughter, gilded cups, silver, portraits, curtains , - all seven dusty and full rooms who raised the young Turbins, all this is the mother at the very difficult time left it to the children and, already out of breath and weakening, clinging to Elena’s crying hand, she said:

Together... live together.

But how to live? How to live?

M. Bulgakov.

"White Guard".

This text asks you to complete two tasks:

C1. Researchers called the house of the White Guard heroes “a community of people and things.” Do you agree with this definition? Give reasons for your answer.
C2. In what other works of Russian literature do we encounter descriptions of everyday life and how in them does everyday life interact with humans? Support your answer with examples.

The specificity of both questions is that they are closely related, which makes the task of the teacher preparing for the Unified State Exam easier. Thus, when answering the questions proposed in these tasks, students can remember that the depiction of everyday life often helps to characterize the person around whom this everyday life is built (a typical example is the first chapter of Onegin). The relationship between man and everyday life is different. Everyday life can absorb a person or be hostile to him. This happens, for example, in Gogol’s “ Dead souls", in Chekhov's "Gooseberry". Everyday life can emphasize the special warmth of a person, as if extending to the surrounding things - let’s remember Gogol’s “Old World Landowners” or Oblomovka. Everyday life may be absent (reduced to a minimum), and thereby emphasize the inhumanity of life (depiction of the camp by Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov).

War may be declared on everyday life (“On rubbish”, Mayakovsky). The image of the Turbins’ house is constructed differently: before us is truly a “commonwealth of people and things.” Things and the habit of them do not make Bulgakov’s heroes philistines; on the other hand, things, from a long life next to people, seem to become alive. They carry the memory of the past, warm, heal, feed, raise, educate. These are the Turbins' stove with tiles, clocks, books; The images of lampshades and cream curtains are filled with symbolic meaning in the novel. Things in Bulgakov's world are spiritualized.

It is they who create beauty and comfort at home and become symbols of the eternal: “The clock, fortunately, is completely immortal, the Saardam carpenter is immortal, and the Dutch tile, like a wise rock, is life-giving and hot in the most difficult times.” Let us remind you that quoting the text when answering the exam is welcome.

A topic such as artistic detail, which is infinitely broad, presupposes a creative attitude to the literary heritage. In this article we were able to highlight only some aspects of this broad and very interesting topic. We hope that our recommendations will help both high school students in preparing for the literature exam, and teachers in preparing for classes.

Detail (from fr. detail)- detail, particularity, trifle.

There are the following types of artistic detail, each of which carries a certain semantic and emotional load:

A) verbal detail. For example, by the expression “no matter what happens” we recognize Belikov, by the address “falcon” we recognize Platon Karataev, by one word “fact” we recognize Semyon Davydov;
b) portrait detail. The hero can be identified by his short upper lip with a mustache (Liza Bolkonskaya) or his white, small, beautiful hand (Napoleon);
V) subject detail: Bazarov's robe with tassels, Nastya's book about love in the play "At the Lower Depths", Polovtsev's saber - a symbol of a Cossack officer;
G) psychological detail, expressing an essential feature in the character, behavior, and actions of the hero. Pechorin did not swing his arms when walking, which testified to the secrecy of his nature; the sound of billiard balls changes Gaev’s mood;
d) landscape detail, with the help of which the color of the environment is created; the gray, leaden sky above Golovlev, the “requiem” landscape in “Quiet Don”, intensifying the inconsolable grief of Grigory Melekhov, who buried Aksinya;
e) detail as a form of artistic generalization(the “case” existence of the bourgeoisie in the works of Chekhov, the “murlo of the bourgeoisie” in the poetry of Mayakovsky).

Special mention should be made of this type of artistic detail, such as household, which, in essence, is used by all writers. A striking example is “Dead Souls”. It is impossible to tear Gogol's heroes away from their everyday life and surrounding things.

A household detail indicates the furnishings, home, things, furniture, clothing, gastronomic preferences, customs, habits, tastes, and inclinations of the character. It is noteworthy that in Gogol, an everyday detail never acts as an end in itself; it is given not as a background or decoration, but as an integral part of the image. And this is understandable, because the interests of the heroes of the satirical writer do not go beyond the limits of vulgar materiality; the spiritual world of such heroes is so poor and insignificant that the thing may well express their inner essence; things seem to grow together with their owners.

A household item primarily performs a characterological function, i.e. allows you to get an idea of the moral and psychological properties of the heroes of the poem. Thus, in the Manilov estate we see a manor house standing “alone on the south side, that is, on a hill open to all the winds”, a gazebo with the typically sentimental name “Temple of Solitary Reflection”, “a pond covered with greenery”... These the details indicate the impracticality of the landowner, the fact that mismanagement and disorder reign on his estate, and the owner himself is only capable of meaningless project-making.

Manilov’s character can also be judged by the furnishings of the rooms. “There was always something missing in his house”: there was not enough silk material to upholster all the furniture, and two armchairs “stood covered with simply matting”; next to a smart, richly decorated bronze candlestick stood “some kind of simple copper invalid, lame, curled up to the side.” This combination of objects of the material world on the manor’s estate is bizarre, absurd, and illogical. In all objects and things one feels some kind of disorder, inconsistency, fragmentation. And the owner himself matches his things: Manilov’s soul is as flawed as the decoration of his home, and the claim to “education,” sophistication, grace, and refinement of taste further enhances the hero’s inner emptiness.

Among other things, the author especially emphasizes one thing and highlights it. This thing carries an increased semantic load, developing into a symbol. In other words, a detail can acquire the meaning of a multi-valued symbol that has psychological, social and philosophical meaning. In Manilov’s office, one can see such an expressive detail as piles of ash, “arranged, not without effort, in very beautiful rows” - a symbol of an idle pastime, covered with a smile, cloying politeness, the embodiment of idleness, the idleness of a hero surrendering to fruitless dreams...

For the most part, Gogol's everyday detail is expressed in action. Thus, in the image of things that belonged to Manilov, a certain movement is captured, during which the essential properties of his character are revealed. For example, in response to Chichikov’s strange request to sell dead souls, “Manilov immediately dropped the pipe with the pipe on the floor and, as he opened his mouth, remained with his mouth open for several minutes... Finally, Manilov raised the pipe with the pipe and looked at him from below face... but I couldn’t think of anything else except to release the remaining smoke from my mouth in a very thin stream.” These comic poses of the landowner perfectly demonstrate his narrow-mindedness and mental limitations.