The main theme of the enchanted wanderer. In life there is nothing better than your own experience (based on the works “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Leskov and “The Little Prince” by Saint-Exupery) (School essays)

The search for truth and justice in life

(based on the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov)

HE IS WITH. M. Gorky said this to Leskov: “One of our best writers...» All the efforts of thought, all the passion of the rebellious heartsatelators were striving to “put themselves to the benefit of Russia”these" and "the whole universe." The problem of the ideal, the problem of the positive hero, became especially acute for Leskov from the mid-70s.Turning to the life of the people, Leskov found among ordinary peopletruly heroic individuals, and this allowed him to gain faith inthe future of Russia. He revealed in various circumstances of lifethe characters of Russian people, depicted soberly, but with constant love and sympathy. The search for a unique and original person led the writer to the creation of the “heroic spirit”, bearers of the main qualitieshonors of the Russian folk character: sincere and wholesome, persistently andselflessly bearing the burden of their fate and always ready to standfor the truth. Leskov's heroes, who came from the people's environment, in search ofThe truth is ready for any sacrifice, they courageously face their own failures and sympathize with the suffering of their neighbors. This morally elevates them above the rest of the inert mass, testifies tothe spiritual richness of their nature.

Leskov steadily followed the truth of life, no matter how bitterand she was not scary. The world is full of untruth and evil, it needsrighteous people, knights of the spirit, showing people the way to fight and Senyu... The writer has a strong belief in those fundamental concepts of dignity, justice and truth that always live among the people and againststand for evil and lies. About the innermost humanism of N.S. M. Gorky wrote to Leskov with great sympathy and admiration:

Leskov understood like no one else before him that a person has the right to be comforted and caressed, a person must be able to caress and console.

And to hate evil - one can add in unison with Leskov.

“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a work of a free genre, it is like a kind of compressed epic. This work resembles a tablecloth sewn from many different scraps, because it represents many different episodes. The author did not want to focus attention on the center of events; he wanted the reader to take into account all parts of the work, without jumping from one plot to another. That is why the work is unique in that it does not have a main center or a sharp conclusion, everything happens uniformly and gradually.

Ivan Severyanich Flyagin is the main character of the work, a special, exceptional person, with a strange and unusual fate, “destined for the monastery” from childhood and constantly remembering this, but he cannot overcome the spell of worldly life and part with it.

Leskov's hero, having gone through severe trials, retains the purity and sincerity of his feelings, reaching the point of naivety. He has an undeniable dignity - he coordinates all his affairs only with his own conscience: I did not sell myself for a lot of money, nor will I sell myself for a little.” He is guided by some intuitive moral feeling that has never let him down.

At first glance, Ivan Severyanovich amazes with his originality: “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair, his gray hair was so strangely cast... he was in the full sense a hero.”

Leskov's hero is a man who thinks about his small, modest happiness. And events unfold in such a way as to more clearly reveal the disorder of social life, the impossibility of realizing even modest human desires. Flyagin has come a long way in his long-suffering search for truth, through suffering and sacrifice. The hero's adventures can be compared with Chichikov's adventures in Gogol's Dead Souls. But unlike Chichikov, Flyagin, despite all the trials he had undergone, retained his humanity and the purity of his soul. His ardent love for his homeland and people helped him through the fog of delusion to carry faith in a wonderful person and in the fact that the future belongs to goodness and justice.

So, the path of the eternal search for truth, goodness and justice... This topic is relevant not only for Leskov as a writer, but also as a humanist writer. Archpriest Alexander Men, in the book “Son of Man,” dedicated to Jesus Christ, emphasizes that “... although Jesus often led the life of a traveling preacher, the disciples could not help but feel that he had a certain plan, similar to the far-reaching plan of a commander.”

All his life Christ walked towards his temple: through the fog of misunderstanding, courageously overcoming the difficulties of the purifying path. The temple is an all-shining desert, it is a perfect, highly moral life of a person, a people, humanity. And true religion, as Vladimir Solovyov emphasized, always begins with the preaching of repentance and with an internal change in the repentant. The search for truth and ideal through repentance is also characteristic of Leskov’s hero. Having by nature a calling of some higher power on which life depends, he, diverging in his actions from the norms of society, considered himself to some extent a “sinner.” Breaking, however, the ancient Russian tradition, being the “promised son” (saint), Flyagin comes to serving God not at the beginning of his life, but in its prime.

What episodes does his life consist of?

We see an extraordinary personality and its inconsistency in the fact that withIn the first pages of the story, he accidentally kills a man who meets him on the way, and at the same time, risking his life, saves the life of his brotherRina. The key word of the story is “fool”, which is a certainsemantic bond, reveals the almost childish naivety of the hero,where, in gratitude for the rescue, the count is ready to fulfill any requestthe savior, after a long thought he asks for an accordion. Therefore, the laughing count said: “Well, you really are a fool...” Surprised, notthe reasonable desire of a runaway serf to “show up,” lamentssubsequently the clerk: “You are a fool, a fool: why should you announce yourself...” SoThe prince also expresses the opinion in Flyagin’s mind: “I have a man - IvanGolovan, from the regimental cones, is not very smart, but the golden man is...steadfast and thrifty...”Gentleness, kindness and truthfulness, complete absence of selfishcalculations and looks like stupidity in the mercantile age and are the reason for many turns in the hero’s fate.

When Ivan Severyanovich served as a nanny, which was completely incongruous with his gender and physical appearance, he takes his first steps in mastering the world of someone else's soul. For the first time, the hero experiences compassion and affection, for the first time he deeply penetrates the feelings of the mother of the child entrusted to him: “I began to get used to her terribly, I loved that child.” This attachment determines the action: he understands the suffering of the mother, who is “torn in half” between the repairman and her daughter. And unwittingly finding himself involved in a complex human fate, he makes a decision not in his own favor, but in favor of the suffering person. Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is a man of unpredictable human reactions. The hero’s feelings are nurtured through the test of affection for a defenseless child. There was also a painful ordeal of captivity, where an all-consuming feeling of longing for the Motherland developed, the realization of oneself as a Russian person came: “..wait for night, crawl out quietly to the headquarters so that none of the filthy ones see you... so you pray... that... where are the tears fell, you will see grass in the morning.” Holy Rus', to which the narrator strove, celebrates the return of the prodigal son in a unique way - with whips: “They were flogged by the police and brought to their estate,” the count “ordered... to flog the houses again.”

The test of female beauty evokes in the hero not only pleasure, delight and passion, but something more - shock. The feeling that has arisen is too great to be reduced to earthly possession; it is comparable only to the pleasure of contemplating divine perfection, that saving beauty that reveals a special, highest spiritual value. The writer believes in the transformative power of goodness and beauty, echoing the conviction of F.M. Dostoevsky that “beauty will save the world.” The author discovers an amazing spiritual subtlety in a simple peasant and defends it with the same ardor and passion with which he defends the ability of the Russian person to comprehend the secrets of high art. Seeing the gentlemen’s offense in the fact that Grusha treats the man, Flyagin thinks: “Oh, you, the wolf will eat you! Is it really because you are richer than me that you have more feelings?..” Beauty and talent, according to the author, have a truly magical power of influence. Other people's money, about which Ivan Severyanich had recently cared so much and never forgot for a moment, suddenly acquires a different quality: it is now valued only by the pleasure with which he throws it at the feet of the gypsy woman, and from impersonal banknotes turns into “ white swans” with which you can bestow beauty. Looking into Grusha’s face, Flyagin thinks: “Here it is... where the real beauty is, what nature calls perfection.” The all-conquering influence of female beauty was a harmonizing beginning in the search for the main meaning of the hero’s life - he feels needed by people. The girl's misfortune and captivity resonate in him with new pain. But the most surprising thing is the contradiction. He, a convict imprisoned within the walls of an existing cage, shows sincere pity and compassion for the free young gypsy who finds herself in a golden cage. The theme of the inequality of women in society, raised in Russian literature, is deepened by Leskov with the complete slavery of the girl, whom the rich will come to look at, without hiding the corruption of morals and the presence of evil in their circle. And Ivan Severyanovich’s love puts him before the most painful test in his life: he helps Grushenka die from life, taking on a terrible sin: “Grushenka’s soul is now lost, and it’s my duty to suffer for her and rescue her from hell.”

After the death of Grusha, there is a road again, but this is a road to people; for him, the line between life for himself and life for another disappears. Fifteen years in the Caucasus as a soldier under a false name culminate in Ivan’s feat at the crossing. And after a harsh judgment over himself, over his life, he matures spiritually, and the road of wanderings leads Ivan Severyanovich to the monastery. But even there, the restless Father Ishmael disrupts the usual mechanism of monastic everyday life. He is embraced by the idea of ​​self-sacrifice for the sake of the fatherland in order to find “unanimity” with his country, with all the people. So, the hero is on the road again, he “wants to die for the people.”

So strong is his faith in the power of the human spirit, the source of which is kindness. An enchanted wanderer walking through Rus', who has retained spontaneity and kindness after all the storms of life, carries them into the world. The story ends on a note of new quests, in which the author showed that the defender himself becomes a victim of an unjust social system, because this system is based on the bestial law of the strong. The search for a positive hero led Leskov to criticize the social conditions that impeded the activities of these heroes. Such people live in the world for the sake of good, and not for the sake of their own well-being. They try to correct human souls through the power of their own example, everyday feats in the name of justice. And their path is not easy, their fate is tragic - their fortitude is unshakable: they are ready for sacrifices. Such individuals are not only found among common democrats or thinking intelligentsia - they are in the very thick of the people, and this is the basis of the belief that the future belongs to goodness and justice.

The problem of social conflict by Leskov in his workdoes not go through conflict, but passes through his own suffering andthe hero's torment through righteousness. The author claims that such beautythe soul is characteristic only of the Russian person, and only the Russian person can manifest it so fully and widely. The title of the story itself turns out to be ambiguous. It containsthe nature of the hero, subject to charms, develops its definition, his gooddear soul, generous heart. At the same time, in the name “enchanted” - a soul that has been in the sleep of a soul for a long time, just emerging from itstate, striving for spiritual freedom.

Essay on the fourth direction from FIPI.

“Experience is the best teacher, but tuition is too high”

T.Carlyle
Living life is not a field to cross

A man is walking along a road or along a forest path, in a hurry - he stumbles and falls, gets a bump, gets a graze, a bruise. Out of the blue. Because I was in a hurry. It only hurts him.

A person walks through life, according to fate, in a hurry, does not look around, and stumbles. Out of the blue. Because I was in a hurry, I didn’t think about anything or anyone. Is he in pain? Sometimes yes, more often no. But it hurts those who are close to him, with whom his life’s path crossed. Do we work on ourselves, analyzing mistakes and turning them into bitter experience so that tuition fees are not too high? We all make mistakes, but the main thing in our lives is the understanding that experience, even if sometimes bitter, is truly the best teacher in our lives.

To drink such a bitter cup of mistakes as befell the literary hero N.M. Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, and to come to a righteous life is one of the illustrative examples of how in one person the incompatible is combined, and only time and the intense work of the hero’s thoughts put everything in its place. To him - what is his, to Caesar - to Caesar, to each - his own.

“Ovoye” began with an accident in his youth, poor, joyless, serf: the mischief of a young postilion cost the life of an old monk. It is from this moment, in my opinion, that the life of Flyagin, at that time Golovan, promised to God from birth, will lead him from one misfortune to another, from trial to trial, until his soul is cleansed and brings the hero to the monastery. He will die for a long time and will not die. Ivan got into all sorts of troubles, wherever he served. But he survived! It couldn’t be otherwise, because there is a phrase in the novel that suits the main character perfectly: “You’re a Russian person, aren’t you? The Russian man can handle everything.” Although this was said regarding the hero’s next work, I am inclined to see in these words the fate of people like Flyagin. He had to pay for many of his mistakes: with love, captivity in the Kyrgyz-Kaisak steppes, recruitment - almost his entire life, so that the hero’s soul could be cleansed. We, the readers, see Flyagin at the moment when he is ready, having exchanged his cassock for ammunition, to give his life for the Russian people.

I gave an example when the hero’s life path, which began with mistakes and trials, his bitter experience allowed him to realize his true purpose on earth - to protect the Russian people. But this, unfortunately, does not always happen. If Flyagin’s road is the road upward, to purification, then the life of another hero of remarkable abilities from the novel “The Gloomy River” by V.Ya. Shishkova is the road to hell. And how beautifully it all started! On a grand scale, with the confidence that he, Pyotr Gromov, can handle everything, even the obstinate Siberian river with the untold wealth of its region should lie at his feet. Fortune smiled on the seventeen-year-old boy: to survive in the taiga, thrown there by his father, even with his faithful servant Ibrahim nearby, is not this a miracle?! How similar are some of the circumstances of the two heroes I am talking about: the first was saved by the prayer of his mother, who died during his birth, the second was saved by the shaman-witch Sinilga, she who will not let a single traveler out alive from her dead embrace, and Peter Gromov I regretted it.

How good this seventeen-year-old youth was in his good intentions to develop the taiga riches of Siberia, build factories, launch steamships, and take care of the common people. But the one who says that the little eagle will feather and release its claws will be right; if anyone gets caught in them, it will be in trouble: his grip is iron, dead - he cannot escape. And the one who says: “Having betrayed once will betray more than once.” These two remarks no longer apply to a young man with pure thoughts, but to a rich gold miner who eats sterlet and has fun in the capital, and between these activities he drives his father into a psychiatric hospital, kills his devoted Ibrahim, his beloved woman Anfisa, workers, a wolf... and his soul. The soul cannot cope with such a shock, because a thought is deeply hidden in its powerful body, like a small embryo trying to reach the conscience, but it remains there and dies. The writer tells us about the lack of soul of the merchant with the help of one comparison: sometimes he cries, only his tears are mercury that rolls off the glass. The price for all the atrocities of this predator is high - madness.

These are just isolated examples that confirm the main idea of ​​my argument: a person must learn to analyze his mistakes, at the same time gain experience and be aware of what has been done and how, so that the spring of his own destiny is not eventually stretched to such an extent that he is ready to retaliate man for all his wrong steps.

Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” dates back to 1873. Initially it was called “Black Earth Telemacus”. The image of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin summarizes the remarkable features of energetic, naturally talented people, inspired by boundless love for people. It depicts a man from the people in the intricacies of his difficult fate, not broken, even though “he died all his life and could not die.” In the story, a kaleidoscope of pictures of serf Russia appears, many of which anticipate Leskov’s satirical works of the 80s and 90s.

“The Enchanted Wanderer” was Leskov’s favorite hero; he placed him next to “Lefty”. “The Enchanted Wanderer should be published immediately (by winter) in one volume with “Lefty” under the same general title: “Well done,” he wrote in 1866.

The kind and simple-minded Russian giant is the main character and central figure of the story. This man with a childish soul is distinguished by irrepressible fortitude, heroic mischief and that excess of hobbies that is so alien to the moderation of virtuous bourgeois heroes. He acts at the behest of duty, often on the inspiration of feeling and in a random outburst of passion. However, all his actions, even the strangest ones, are invariably born from his inherent love for humanity. He strives for truth and beauty through mistakes and bitter repentance, he seeks love and generously gives love to people. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is a type of “Russian wanderer” (in the words of Dostoevsky). Of course, Flyagin has nothing in common with the noble “superfluous people” - Aleko, Onegin, whom Dostoevsky had in mind. But he is also searching and cannot find himself. He does not need to humble himself and want to work in his native field. He is already humble and with his peasant rank he is faced with the need to work. But he has no peace. In life he is not a participant, but only a wanderer, “black-earth Telemachus.”

In the story, the life of the main character is a chain of adventures, so diverse that each of them, being an episode of one life, at the same time can constitute a whole life. A postilion for Count K., a runaway serf, a nanny for an infant child, a Tatar prisoner, a soldier for a prince-repairer, a soldier, a Knight of St. George - a retired officer, an “inquirer” in the address desk, an actor in a booth and, finally, a monk in a monastery - and that’s all this is for the duration of one life, not yet completed.

The hero’s name itself turns out to be inconsistent: “Golovan” was a nickname in childhood and youth; “Ivan” - that’s what the Tatars call him) this name here is not so much a proper name as a common noun: “all of them, if an adult Russian person is Ivan, and a woman is Natasha, and they call boys Kolka”); Under the false name of Pyotr Serdyukov, he serves in the Caucasus: having become a soldier for another, he, as it were, inherits his fate and, after the expiration of his term of service, can no longer regain his name. And finally, having become a monk, he is called “Father Ishmael”, nevertheless always remaining himself - the Russian man Ivan Severyanych Flyagin.

In creating this image, Leskov will not forget anything - neither the childish spontaneity, nor the peculiar “artistry” and narrow “patriotism” of the “warrior”. For the first time, a writer’s personality is so multifaceted, so free, so freed to its own will.

In the very wandering of Leskov’s hero there is the deepest meaning; It is on the roads of life that the “enchanted wanderer” comes into contact with other people; these unexpected meetings confront the hero with problems the very existence of which he had not previously suspected.

Ivan Severyanych Flyagin amazes at first glance with his originality: “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair; his gray hair had such a strange cast... he was in the full sense of the word a hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful painting by Vereshchagin and in the poem by Count A.K. Tolstoy. It seemed that he would not walk around in duckweed, but would sit on a “forelock” and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how “the dark forest smells of resin and strawberries.”

The story about the taming of the horse does not seem to be at all connected with the two previous ones, but its ending - the death of the tamed horse - evokes the death of the exiled sexton. Both here and there there is violence against a free being of nature. Both man and animal who have shown disobedience are broken and cannot bear it. The story of Flyagin’s “extensive passing vitality” begins with the story of the taming of the horse, and it is not by chance that this episode is “taken out” of the sequential chain of events. This is like a kind of prologue to the biography of the hero.

According to the hero, his destiny is that he is the “prayed” and “promised” son, and is obliged to devote his life to serving God.

Ivan Severyanich Flyagin lives primarily not with his mind, but with his heart, and therefore the course of life imperiously carries him along, which is why the circumstances in which he finds himself are so varied. The path that the hero of the story goes through is a search for his place among other people, his calling, comprehension of the meaning of his life’s efforts, but not with his mind, but with his whole life and his destiny. Ivan Severyanich Flyagin does not seem to be interested in the questions of human existence, but with his whole life, with its bizarre course, he answers them in his own way.

The theme of “walking through torment” develops regardless of the fact that the hero does not attach much importance to it. Ivan Severyanych's story about his life seems almost implausible precisely because all this befell the lot of one person. “What a drum you are, brother: they beat you and beat you, but they still can’t finish you off,” the doctor tells him, having listened to the whole story.

In Leskov, the hero is deprived of life, robbed by it from the very beginning, but in the process of life itself he multiplies the spiritual wealth that he is endowed with by nature a hundredfold. His exclusivity grows on Russian folk soil and is all the more significant because the hero responds to everything with his own heart, and not with the constructs of his mind. The idea here is opposed to something unconditional that can withstand the most difficult tests.

In the leisurely narration of Leskov’s heroes, visible features of the recent past emerged and the figures of real people emerged. Therefore, “The Enchanted Wanderer” unfolds before the reader the main theme of Leskov’s work - the theme of the formation of man, the painful torment of his spirit in the struggle of passions and prudence, in the hero’s difficult self-knowledge. Behind the incident, the chance, the life of the individual emerged in these works.

The writer’s keen interest in national culture, his subtle sense of all shades of national life made it possible to create a unique artistic world and develop an original, artistic, inimitable “Leskovsky” way of depiction. Leskov knew how to depict the life of the people, fused together with the people's worldview, deeply rooted in national history. Leskov believed and was able to show that the people are capable of deeply “understanding the public benefit and serving it without pressure, and, moreover, serving with exemplary self-sacrifice even in such terrible historical moments when the salvation of the fatherland seemed impossible.” Deep faith in the great power of the people and love for the people gave him the opportunity to see and comprehend the “inspiration” of people’s characters. In “The Enchanted Wanderer”, for the first time in Leskov’s work, the theme of folk heroism is fully developed. Despite many unsightly features realistically noted by the author, the collective semi-fairy-tale image of Ivan Flyagin appears before us in all the greatness, nobility of his soul, fearlessness and beauty and merges with the image of the heroic people. “I really want to die for the people,” says the enchanted wanderer. The “black earth Telemachus” deeply feels his involvement in his native land. What a great feeling is contained in his simple story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: “...There is no bottom to the depths of melancholy...You look, you don’t know where, and suddenly, no matter how much a monastery or a temple appears in front of you, you remember the baptized land and cry.”

In “The Enchanted Wanderer” Leskov speaks of the “good Russian hero”, of the “kind simplicity”, of the “kind soul”, of the “kind and strict life”. The life of the described heroes is full of wild, evil and cruel impulses, but in the hidden source of all human actions and thoughts rests kindness - unearthly, ideal, mystical. It does not reveal itself among people in its pure form, because kindness is a state of the soul that has come into contact with the deity.

Leskov always compares those heroes who are closest to his heart with the heroes of epics and fairy tales. N. Pleshchunov makes the following conclusion, discussing the “Enchanted Wanderer”: “... a guess arises that this “Enchanted Wanderer” is the people under the yoke of serfdom, seeking, waiting for the hour of their deliverance.” Not only the heroes of “The Enchanted Wanderer,” but also many other images of the writer were “icons,” but not in the sense that they were essentially religious, but in the fact that their most significant features were reflected by the writer “statically,” “traditionally.” , in the spirit of religious genres, genres of folklore and ancient Russian literature: lives and parables, legends and traditions, tales, anecdotes and fairy tales.

The hero of the story is called an enchanted wanderer - and in this name the whole worldview of the writer appears. Charm is a wise and benevolent fate, which, like the miraculous icon in the “Sealed Angel,” itself presents various temptations to a person. Even in moments of rebellion against her, she slowly and imperceptibly cultivates divine self-denial in a person, preparing a decisive turning point in his consciousness. Every life event casts some kind of shadow into the soul, preparing in it sorrowful doubts, quiet sadness about the vanity of life.

The religious perception of the world and the tendency to superstition correspond to the level of consciousness of the majority of Leskov’s heroes and are determined by the traditions and ideas about the world around them that weigh on them. However, under the cover of the religious thoughts and reasoning of his characters, the writer was able to see a completely worldly, everyday attitude to life and even (which is especially significant) was able to be critical of official religion and the church. Therefore, the work “The Enchanted Wanderer” has not lost its deep meaning to this day.

Whatever a religious man of the common people looks at, everything acquires a wonderful meaning for him. He sees God in phenomena - and these phenomena seem to him like one air chain that connects him with the last refuge of the spirit. As he makes his way through life, he sheds the light of his infant faith on it, without doubting that the road leads him to God. This idea runs through Leskov’s entire story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” His details are striking in their originality, and in places, through the thick colors of everyday description, one can feel the writer’s nature, with its varied, obvious and secret passions.

A deep sense of moral beauty, alien to corrupting indifference, “overwhelms the spirit” of Leskov’s righteous people. The native environment imparts, through its living example, not only inspired impulses, but a “stern and sober mood” to their “healthy soul living in a healthy and strong body.”

Leskov loved all of Russia as it is. He perceived it as an old fairy tale. This is a fairy tale about an enchanted hero. He depicted Rus', holy and sinful, wrong and righteous. Before us is an amazing country of amazing people. Where else can you find such righteous people, craftsmen, and eccentrics? But all of her was frozen in enchantment, frozen in her unexpressed beauty and holiness, and she had nowhere to put herself. She has daring, she has scope, she has great talent, but everything is dormant, everything is fettered, everything is enchanted.

“Enchanted Rus'” is a conventional, literary term. This is a cumulative image recreated by the artist in his work, incorporating some aspects of historical reality. These are the hidden great forces that Leskov saw in his people. This is an “old tale” about him.

Bibliography:

A. Volynsky “N.S. Leskov”;

V. Yu. Troitsky “Writer of the Russian Land”, “Leskov – Artist”;

L. Krupchanov “Thirst for Light”;

G. Gunn “The Enchanted Rus' of Nikolai Leskov.”

B. Dykhanov “The Sealed Angel” and “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov.”

Who among us did not study at school the work of such a writer as Nikolai Semenovich Leskov? “The Enchanted Wanderer” (a summary, analysis and history of creation will be discussed in this article) is the writer’s most famous work. This is what we will talk about next.

History of creation

The story was written in 1872 - 1873.

In the summer of 1872, Leskov traveled along Lake Ladoga through Karelia to the Valaam Islands, where monks lived. On the way, he got the idea to write a story about a wanderer. By the end of the year, the work was completed and proposed for publication. It was called “Black Earth Telemacus”. However, Leskov was refused publication because the work seemed damp to the publishers.

Then the writer took his creation to the Russkim Mir magazine, where it was published under the title “The Enchanted Wanderer, His Life, Experience, Opinions and Adventures.”

Before presenting Leskov’s analysis (“The Enchanted Wanderer”), let us turn to a brief summary of the work.

Summary. Meet the main character

The location is Lake Ladoga. Here travelers meet on their way to the islands of Valaam. It is from this moment that it will be possible to begin the analysis of Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer,” since here the writer gets acquainted with the main character of the work.

So, one of the travelers, horseman Ivan Severyanych, a novice dressed in a cassock, talks about how, from childhood, God endowed him with the wonderful gift of taming horses. The companions ask the hero to tell Ivan Severyanych about his life.

It is this story that is the beginning of the main narrative, because in its structure Leskov’s work is a story within a story.

The main character was born into the family of a servant of Count K. Since childhood, he became addicted to horses, but one day, for the sake of laughter, he beat a monk to death. Ivan Severyanych begins to dream about the murdered man and says that he was promised to God, and that he will die many times and will never die until real death comes and the hero goes to the Chernetsy.

Soon Ivan Severyanych had a fight with his owners and decided to leave, taking a horse and a rope. On the way, the thought of suicide came to him, but the rope with which he decided to hang himself was cut by a gypsy. The hero's wanderings continue, leading him to those places where the Tatars drive their horses.

Tatar captivity

An analysis of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by Leskov briefly gives us an idea of ​​what the hero is like. Already from the episode with the monk it is clear that he does not value human life highly. But it soon becomes clear that the horse is much more valuable to him than any person.

So, the hero ends up with the Tatars, who have a custom of fighting for horses: two people sit opposite each other and beat each other with whips; whoever holds out longer wins. Ivan Severyanych sees a wonderful horse, enters the battle and beats the enemy to death. The Tatars catch him and “bristle” him so that he does not escape. The hero serves them, moving at a crawl.

Two people come to the Tatars and use fireworks to intimidate them with their “fire god.” The main character finds the visitors' belongings, scares them away with Tatar fireworks and heals his legs with a potion.

Position of coneser

Ivan Severyanych finds himself alone in the steppe. The analysis of Leskov (“The Enchanted Wanderer”) shows the strength of character of the protagonist. Alone, Ivan Severyanich manages to get to Astrakhan. From there he is sent to his hometown, where he gets a job with his former owner to look after the horses. He spreads rumors about him as a wizard, since the hero unmistakably identifies good horses.

The prince finds out about this, and takes Ivan Severyanich to join him as a coneser. Now the hero chooses horses for a new owner. But one day he gets very drunk and in one of the taverns he meets the gypsy Grushenka. It turns out that she is the prince’s mistress.

Grushenka

Leskov’s analysis (“The Enchanted Wanderer”) cannot be imagined without the episode of Grushenka’s death. It turns out that the prince planned to get married, and sent his unwanted mistress to a bee in the forest. However, the girl escaped from the guards and came to Ivan Severyanich. Grushenka asks him, to whom she sincerely became attached and fell in love, to drown her, because she has no other choice. The hero fulfills the girl’s request, wanting to save her from torment. He is left alone with a heavy heart and begins to think about death. Soon a way out is found, Ivan Severyanych decides to go to war in order to hasten his death.

This episode showed not so much the hero’s cruelty as his penchant for strange mercy. After all, he saved Grushenka from suffering, tripling his torment.

However, in war he does not find death. On the contrary, he is promoted to officer, awarded the Order of St. George and given his resignation.

Returning from the war, Ivan Severyanych finds work in the address desk as a clerk. But the service does not go well, and then the hero becomes an artist. However, our hero could not find a place for himself here either. And without performing a single performance, he leaves the theater, deciding to go to the monastery.

Denouement

The decision to go to the monastery turns out to be correct, which is confirmed by the analysis. Leskov’s “The Enchanted Wanderer” (briefly summarized here) is a work with a pronounced religious theme. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is in the monastery that Ivan Severyanych finds peace, leaving his spiritual burdens behind. Although sometimes he sees “demons,” he manages to drive them away with prayers. Although not always. Once, in a fit, he killed a cow, which he mistook for the devil’s weapon. For this he was put in a cellar by the monks, where the gift of prophecy was revealed to him.

Now Ivan Severyanych goes to Slovakia on a pilgrimage to the elders Savvaty and Zosima. Having finished his story, the hero falls into calm concentration and feels a mysterious spirit that is open only to babies.

Leskov's analysis: “The Enchanted Wanderer”

The value of the main character of the work is that he is a typical representative of the people. And in his strength and abilities the essence of the entire Russian nation is revealed.

Interesting, in this regard, is the evolution of the hero, his spiritual development. If at the beginning we see a reckless and carefree dashing guy, then at the end of the story we see a wise monk. But this huge path of self-improvement would have been impossible without the trials that befell the hero. It was they who prompted Ivan to self-sacrifice and the desire to atone for his sins.

This is the hero of the story that Leskov wrote. “The Enchanted Wanderer” (analysis of the work also indicates this) is the story of the spiritual development of the entire Russian people using the example of one character. Leskov, as it were, confirmed with his work the idea that great heroes will always be born on Russian soil, who are capable not only of exploits, but also of self-sacrifice.

Bibliography:

A. Volynsky “N.S. Leskov”;

V. Yu. Troitsky “Writer of the Russian Land”, “Leskov – Artist”;

L. Krupchanov “Thirst for Light”;

G. Gunn “The Enchanted Rus' of Nikolai Leskov.”

B. Dykhanov “The Sealed Angel” and “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov.”