Composition “The meaning of the title The title of the story“ Asya. Why is Turgenev's story called Asya? Features of compositional construction

The story "Asya" was published in 1858 in the magazine "Sovremennik". Turgenev wrote the story in the fall of 1857, while he was in Germany and lived in the city of Sinzig. This fact was reflected in the text: "... twenty years ago I lived in a small German town 3., on the left bank of the Rhine." Thus, the basis for describing the thoughts and feelings of the hero, creating portraits, landscapes, everyday details were fresh impressions, modern characters and furnishings. And although the story represents the memories of the hero-narrator, the events in it are shown both as distant in time and as modern, taking place now. Such a literary technique allows, on the one hand, to directly convey the history of the meeting between the hero and the heroine, and on the other, to look at it from the standpoint of another time, to comprehend.

Of particular importance is the fact that the basis of the plot of "Asi" was the fact of the biography of the writer: Turgenev was worried about the fate of his illegitimate daughter Polina. She was largely the prototype of the main character of the story. However, the writer's personal history received a generalization, that is, Asya, on the one hand, is an individual image, represents a specific person, and on the other, a typical image, representing a girl of a certain fate and psychology.

The hero of the story is a young Russian nobleman who travels around Europe without any special purpose. He is smart, educated, handsome, wealthy and carefree. His meeting with his brother and sister Gagins takes place at that time of the hero's life, when he is just choosing a business to be engaged in. However, the hero does not yet know himself: he must commit an act, make an important choice so that his will and character manifest. Therefore, the meeting with Asya was a test of the hero's vitality, his spiritual maturity. This reflected the social problems of the story, since the hero of the story is a hero of the time, and his ability to act decisively is especially important in an era of changes in Russia.

The story was greeted with enthusiasm by readers, critics and writers. So, N.A. Nekrasov wrote that "Asya" is "the pure gold of poetry", critics spoke of it as the most perfect work of Turgenev. Writer and critic N.G. Chernyshevsky dedicated to the story the article “Russian people on rendez - vous ”, In which, noting the artistic merits of the work, he paid the main attention to the social characteristics of the hero's personality. But, despite different interpretations, the story "Asya" is a wonderful story about an amazing girl and about love.

Plot, love conflict, author's idea

The story "Asya" can be called a love story, since it consistently reflects all the stages of the emergence of this feeling. This story is told by the hero himself, who has aged twenty years, but still deeply worried about his meeting with the most romantic and extraordinary girl. For a complete and subtle description of love, Turgenev resorts to the artistic experience of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin. For example, at the beginning of the story, before meeting Asya, the hero is in love with a young woman and is sad because of her inconstancy. Remember that in the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" Romeo was also in love before meeting Juliet, but when he saw her, he instantly forgets about his former feeling. So the hero-narrator in "Asa" stops thinking about his lady of the heart, as soon as he meets Asya: "... suddenly it came to me that during the evening I never once remembered my cruel beauty ..." Turgenev, following Shakespeare, shows how real feeling displaces shallow love.

The development of relations between the characters can be traced by phrases marking the stages of these relations. So, at the end of the first day of his acquaintance with Asya, the hero remarks: “I felt happy ... But why was I happy? I didn't want anything, I didn't think about anything ... I was happy. " On the second day, thoughts about the girl did not allow him to fall asleep: "... I again thought about this capricious girl with a strained laugh ..." On the third evening, he gets angry with Asya and begins to be jealous of her, suspecting that she is not Gagin's sister: “What a chameleon this girl is! - And, after thinking a little, he added: - But all the same she is not his sister. Further, the story describes the resentment against the brother and sister of the Gagins, and leaving them for three days, and the return, after which everything was clarified and the hero experienced a surge of feelings and hope: "... a thirst for happiness kindled in me." This was the culmination of the relationship between Asya and Mr. N., followed by doubts, the hero's indecision, a mistake and, finally, a sad denouement - parting.

The story has a circular composition: the story of a failed love is framed by the aimless, sluggish life of the hero-narrator. He says this about himself before meeting Asya: “... I lived without looking back, did what I wanted, prospered, in a word. It did not even occur to me then that a person is not a plant ... "After the loss of Asya, the hero, it would seem, at first does not feel sad for long, but then admits:" ... the feeling that Asya aroused in me, that burning, tender, deep feeling , has not happened again.<...>Condemned to the loneliness of a familyless boar, I live out boring years. " The main content of the story is a short moment of the hero's life, a vivid feeling that promises a full, rich life, an opportunity flashed by and limply lost by the hero.

Thus, the author wants to convey to the reader the idea that the most important thing for a person is to be sincere and courageous. A person draws life force from love for nature, for another person. The hero realized too late that love is life and it exists now and always: “Tomorrow I will be happy! Happiness has no tomorrow; he does not have yesterday's either; it does not remember the past, does not think about the future; he has a present - and that is not a day, but a moment. "

Images of the main characters

The main heroine of the story, by whose name she is named, is the illegitimate daughter of a columnar nobleman-landowner and a maid-peasant woman. Asya's origin - the main social characteristic of her image - influenced the girl's character, her behavior, inner world, dreams, thoughts, fears, that is, everything that makes up a personality. However, it cannot be said that the origin determined the character of Asi. The qualities underlying this character - honesty, gullibility, the ability to love, impetuosity - only manifest themselves more vividly against this background. That is why Asya is depicted first as a mysterious girl, and then we learn her story from Gagin's story.

In the first chapters of the story, the hero, having met his brother and sister Gagins, is perplexed, seeing how changeable Asya is: now she is marching with a long branch on her shoulder along the road, now she sews decorously, now she is playful and cheerful, now she is thoughtful and sad. The girl does not seem to know who and what she is, as if she wants to understand herself. She needs her place in the world, and she seeks to love and trust the person she has chosen. The unusual nature and fate of Asya is emphasized by comparison with the heroines of Goethe - Gretchen and Dorothea, with Tatiana from Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin", with the legendary Lorelei.

Asya's portrait is expressive: light, thin, but flexible and dexterous, with mysterious light black eyes, black curls, cut like a boy - she fully corresponds to the image of a mobile and restless girl created by the author. Asya's words, expressing the essence of her character, are also remarkable: "Flattery and cowardice are the worst vices." These words reflect Asya's personal conflict, which is based on the feeling of inferiority of her personality in the surrounding noble world. This situation takes on particular acuteness in the changing Russian society of the 1850s.

Asya's older brother is a kind, intelligent, noble person. This is a type of idle Russian master who lives without a special purpose, without passion. Gagin is an amateur artist, he feels nature and beauty well and subtly, but he lacks patience, he cannot work, completely devote himself to painting, and therefore, as the narrator noted, none of his paintings were finished, but “the drawing seemed careless and unfaithful. " This detail also characterizes Gagin as a person who begins to do everything with enthusiasm, but then quickly gets tired, and his will weakens. Perhaps that is why he cannot help the passionate, overwhelmed by doubts, Asya.

Mr. N., the hero-narrator of the story, is a man with many positive qualities: he is delicate, benevolent, sensitive. He has a poetic nature, he is very observant, thinks a lot and gives apt assessments to those around him. Asya fell in love with him for a reason, mistaking him for a person who can understand and protect her in life. But in the hero there is some kind of uncertainty, uncertainty, timidity. Here is how Turgenev describes the incomprehensible fear that seized the hero at the moment of the highest uplift of feelings - the beginning of love: “... I suddenly felt a secret concern in my heart ... I raised my eyes to the sky - but there was no peace in the sky either ... and anxiety grew in me ”. And of course, his reproaches to Asya at the moment of their first and last love meeting are inappropriate and inexplicable. The author in this scene shows how weakness and indecision destroy trust and love, condemning a person to a dreary existence.

Ivan Turgenev not only made a significant contribution to the development of Russian literature within the framework of the existing directions, but also discovered new distinctive features of the national culture. In particular, he created the image of a Turgenev young lady - he revealed the unique character of a Russian girl on the pages of his books. To get acquainted with this person, it is enough to read the story "Asya", where a woman's portrait acquired unique features.

The writer was busy writing this work for several months (from July to November 1857). He wrote hard and slowly, because illness and fatigue were already making themselves felt. Who is the prototype of Asya is not known exactly. Among the versions, the prevailing point of view is that the author described his illegitimate daughter. Also, the image could reflect the fate of his paternal sister (her mother was a peasant woman). Turgenev, from these examples, knew well how a teenager felt in such a situation, and reflected his observations in the story, showing a very delicate social conflict, of which he himself was to blame.

The work "Asya" was completed in 1857 and published in "Sovremennik". The story of the story, told by the author himself, is as follows: once Turgenev in a German town saw an elderly woman who was looking out of a window on the first floor, and the head of a young girl on the floor above. Then he decided to imagine what their fate might be, and embodied these fantasies in the form of a book.

Why is the story called that?

The work got its name in honor of the main character, whose love story is in the center of the author's attention. His main priority was to reveal the ideal female image, which was named "Turgenev's young lady". To see and appreciate a woman, according to the writer, is possible only through the prism of the feelings that she is experiencing. Only in him is its mysterious and incomprehensible nature fully revealed. Therefore, his Asya experiences the shock of his first love and experiences it with the dignity inherent in an adult and mature lady, and not that naive child that she was before meeting N.N.

This reincarnation is shown by Turgenev. At the end of the book, we say goodbye to Asya the child and meet Anna Gagina - a sincere, strong woman who knows her worth, who does not agree to compromises: when N.N. he was afraid to surrender to the feeling completely and immediately recognize it, she, overcoming the pain, left him forever. But in memory of the bright time of childhood, when Anna was still Asya, the writer calls his work by this diminutive name.

Genre: Novel or Story?

Of course, Asya is a story. The story is never divided into chapters, and its volume is much less. The segment from the lives of the heroes depicted in the book is smaller than in the novel, but longer than in the smallest form of prose. Turgenev also adhered to this opinion about the genre nature of his creation.

Traditionally, there are more characters and events in the story than in the story. In addition, the subject of the image in it becomes precisely the sequence of episodes in which causal relationships are revealed, which lead the reader to realize the meaning of the final of the work. This also happens in the book "Asya": the characters get to know each other, their communication leads to mutual interest, N.N. learns about the origin of Anna, she confesses her love for him, he is afraid to take her feelings seriously, and in the end all this leads to a breakup. The writer first intrigues us, for example, shows the strange behavior of the heroine, and then explains it through the story of her birth.

What is the work about?

The main character is a young man, on whose behalf the story is told. These are the memories of a mature man about the events of his youth. In "Asa" a middle-aged socialite N.N. recalls a story that happened to him when he was 25 years old. The beginning of his story, where he meets his brother and sister Gagins, is an exposition of the story. Place and time of action - "a small German town Z. not far from the Rhine (river)." The writer is referring to the city of Sinzig in the province of Germany. Turgenev himself traveled there in 1857, at the same time he finished the book. The narrator writes in the past tense, stating that the events described took place 20 years ago. Accordingly, they took place in June 1837 (the month is reported by N.N. himself in the first chapter).

What Turgenev wrote about in "Asa" is familiar to the reader since the time of reading "Eugene Onegin". Asya Gagina is the same young Tatiana, who first fell in love, but did not find reciprocity. It was the poem "Eugene Onegin" that N.N. for the Gagins. Only the heroine in the story does not look like Tatiana. She is very changeable and fickle: now she laughs all day long, now she walks gloomier than a cloud. The reason for this state of mind lies in the difficult story of the girl: she is Gagin's illegitimate sister. In high society, she feels herself a stranger, as if unworthy of the honor that has been given to her. Thoughts about her future position constantly weigh on her, so Anna has a difficult character. But, in the end, she, like Tatyana from Eugene Onegin, decides to confess her love to N.N. a laughingstock. Asya, hearing a reproach instead of a confession, runs away. And N.N. realizes how dear she is to him, and decides the next day to ask for her hand in marriage. But it is already too late, since the next morning he learns that the Gagins have left, leaving him a note:

Goodbye, we will not see you again. I'm not leaving because of pride - no, I can't do otherwise. Yesterday, when I cried in front of you, if you had told me one word, only one word, I would have stayed. You didn't say it. Apparently, it's better this way ... Goodbye forever!

The main characters and their characteristics

The reader's attention is attracted, first of all, by the main characters of the work. It is they who embody the author's intention and are the supporting images on which the narrative is built.

1. Asya (Anna Gagina)- a typical "Turgenev young lady": she is a wild, but sensitive girl who is capable of true love, but does not accept cowardice and weakness of character. This is how her brother described her: “Self-love developed in her strongly, mistrust too; bad habits took root, simplicity disappeared. She wanted (she herself confessed this to me once) to make the whole world forget her origin; she was ashamed of her mother, and ashamed of her shame, and was proud of her. " She grew up in nature on an estate, studied at a boarding house. At first she was raised by her mother, a maid in her father's house. After her death, the girl was taken to his master. Then the upbringing was continued by his legitimate son, the brother of the main character. Anna is a modest, naive, well-educated person. She has not yet matured, so she plays the fool and plays pranks, not taking life seriously. However, her character changed when she fell in love with N.N .: he became fickle and strange, the girl was sometimes too lively, sometimes sad. Changing images, she unconsciously tried to attract the attention of the gentleman, but her intentions were absolutely sincere. She even fell ill with a fever from a feeling overwhelming her heart. From her further actions and words, we can conclude that she is a strong and strong-willed woman, capable of sacrificing for the sake of honor. Her description was presented by Turgenev himself: “The girl, whom he called his sister, at first glance seemed to me very pretty. There was something of her own, special, in the warehouse of her swarthy, round face, with a small thin nose, almost childish cheeks and black, light eyes. She was gracefully built, but as if not yet fully developed. " The somewhat idealized image of Asya was repeated in the faces of other famous heroines of the writer.
2. N.N.- a storyteller who, 20 years after the event described, takes up a pen to relieve the soul. He can’t forget about his lost love. He appears before us as a selfish and idle rich young man who travels with nothing to do. He is lonely and afraid of his loneliness, because, by his own admission, he loves to be in a crowd and look at people. At the same time, he does not want to get acquainted with the Russians, apparently, he is afraid to disturb his peace. He ironically remarks that "he considered it his duty to indulge in sadness and loneliness for a while." This desire to show himself even in front of himself reveals the weaknesses of nature in him: he is insincere, fake, superficial, seeking an excuse for his idleness in fictitious and contrived suffering. It is impossible not to note his impressionability: thoughts about his homeland angered him, meeting with Anna made him feel happy. The main character is educated and noble, he lives "as he wants", and he is characterized by inconstancy. He understands art, loves nature, but cannot find application for his knowledge and feelings. He likes to analyze people with his mind, but does not feel them with his heart, so he could not understand Asya's behavior for so long. Love for her revealed not the best qualities in him: cowardice, indecision, selfishness.
3. Gagin- Anna's older brother, who takes care of her. This is how the author writes about him: “It was just a Russian soul, truthful, honest, simple, but, unfortunately, a little sluggish, without tenacity and inner heat. Youth did not boil in him like a key; it glowed with a quiet light. He was very sweet and smart, but I could not imagine what would become of him as soon as he matured. " The hero is very kind and helpful. He honored and respected the family, because he fulfilled his father's last will honestly, and he loved his sister like his own. Anna is very dear to him, so he sacrifices friendship for the sake of her peace of mind and leaves N.N., taking the heroine away. In general, he willingly sacrifices his interests for the sake of others, because in order to raise his sister, he retires and leaves his homeland. Other characters in his description always look positive, he finds an excuse for all of them: both the secretive father and the compliant maid, the headstrong Asya.

Minor characters are only mentioned in passing by the narrator. This is a young widow on the waters who rejected the narrator, Gagin's father (a kind, gentle, but unhappy person), his brother, who arranged for his nephew to serve in Petersburg, Asya's mother (Tatyana Vasilievna is a proud and unapproachable woman), Yakov (butler of Gagin the elder) ... The author's description of the heroes makes it possible to understand even deeper the story "Asya" and the realities of the era that became its basis.

Theme

1. Love theme. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev wrote many stories about this. For him, feeling is a test of the heroes' souls: “No, love is one of those passions that breaks our“ I ”, makes us forget about ourselves and our interests,” the writer said. Only a real person can truly love. However, the tragedy is that many people cannot cope with this test, and it takes two for love. When one has not been able to truly love, the other is undeservedly left alone. So it happened in this book: N.N. could not pass the test of love, but although Anna coped with it, she still could not stand the resentment of neglect and left forever.
2. The topic of the superfluous person in the story "Asya" also occupies an important place. The main character cannot find a place for himself in the world. His idle and aimless life abroad is proof of this. He wanders about in search of what is unknown, because he cannot apply his skills and knowledge in the present case. His inconsistency is also manifested in love, because he is afraid of the girl's direct recognition, he is afraid of the strength of her feelings, so he cannot realize in time how dear she is to him.
3. The theme of the family is also raised by the author. Gagin raised Asya as his sister, although he understood the complexity of her situation. Perhaps it was this circumstance that pushed him on a journey where the girl could be distracted and hide from sidelong glances. Turgenev emphasizes the superiority of family values ​​over class prejudices, urging his compatriots to care more about family ties than about the purity of blood.
4. Nostalgia theme. The whole story is imbued with the nostalgic mood of the protagonist, who lives on the memories of the time when he was young and in love.

Problematic

• The problem of moral choice. The hero does not know how to do the right thing: is it worth taking responsibility for such a young and offended creature? Is he ready to say goodbye to single life and tie himself to one single woman? In addition, she had already deprived him of his choice by telling her brother about everything. He was annoyed that the girl took all the initiative, and therefore accused her of being too frank with Gagin. N.N. was confused, and even not experienced enough to unravel the subtle nature of his beloved, so it is not surprising that his choice was wrong.
• Feeling and duty problems. Often these principles are in opposition to each other. Asya loves N.N., but after his hesitations and reproaches, she realizes that he is not sure of his feelings. Debt of honor commands her to leave and not meet with him again, although her heart rebelles and asks to give her beloved one more chance. However, her brother is adamant in matters of honor, so the Gagins leave N.N.
• The problem of extramarital affairs. In the time of Turgenev, almost all nobles had illegitimate children, and this was not considered abnormal. But the writer, although he himself became the father of such a child, draws attention to how bad it is for children whose origins are outside the law. They suffer without guilt for the sins of their parents, suffer from gossip and cannot arrange their future. For example, the author depicts Asya studying at a boarding school, where all the girls treated her with disdain because of her history.
• The problem of adolescence. Asya at the time of the described events is only 17 years old, she has not yet formed as a person, therefore her behavior is so unpredictable and eccentric. It is very difficult for my brother to deal with her, because he does not yet have experience in the parental field. And N.N. could not understand her contradictory and sentimental nature. This is the reason for the tragedy of their relationship.
• The problem of cowardice. N.N. afraid of serious feelings, so she does not say the very cherished word that Asya was waiting for.

Main thought

The story of the main character is a tragedy of naive first feelings, when a young dreamy person for the first time encounters the cruel realities of life. Conclusions from this collision are the main idea of ​​the story "Asya". The girl went through a test of love, but many of her illusions were shattered in it. In indecision N.N. She read the sentence to herself, which her brother had mentioned earlier in a conversation with a friend: in such a situation she cannot count on a good game. Few will agree to marry her, no matter how beautiful or fun she is. She had seen before that people despise her for her unequal origin, but now the person she loves hesitates and does not dare to bind himself with a word. Anna interpreted this as cowardice, and her dreams crumbled to dust. She learned to be picky about her boyfriends and not trust them with her heart's secrets.

Love in this case opens the adult world to the heroine, literally pulling her out of her blissful childhood. Happiness would not be a lesson for her, but a continuation of a girl's dream, it would not reveal this contradictory character, and Asya's portrait in the gallery of female types of Russian literature was greatly impoverished by the happy ending. In the tragedy, however, she gained the necessary experience and became richer spiritually. As you can see, the meaning of Turgenev's story is also to show how the test of love affects people: some show dignity and fortitude, others - cowardice, tactlessness and indecision.

This story from the mouth of a mature man is so instructive that it leaves no doubt that the hero recalls this episode of his life in order to edify himself and the listener. Now, after so many years, he realizes that he himself has missed the love of his life, that he himself has destroyed this sublime and sincere relationship. The narrator urges the reader to be more attentive and more decisive than himself, not to let his guiding star go away. Thus, the main idea of ​​the work "Asya" is to show how fragile and fleeting happiness is, if it is not recognized in time, and how merciless is love that does not give a second try.

What does the story teach?

Turgenev, showing the idle and empty way of life of his hero, says that the carelessness and purposelessness of existence will make a person unhappy. N.N. in old age, he bitterly complains about himself in his youth, regretting the loss of Asya and the very opportunity to change his fate: "It did not even occur to me then that a man is not a plant and he cannot flourish for a long time." He realizes with bitterness that this "bloom" has not borne fruit. Thus, morality in the story "Asya" reveals to us the true meaning of being - you need to live for the sake of the goal, for the sake of loved ones, for the sake of creativity and creation, no matter how it is expressed, and not for the sake of only oneself. After all, it was egoism and the fear of losing the opportunity to “bloom” that prevented N.N. utter the very cherished word that Anna was waiting for.

Another conclusion that Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev makes in "Asa" is the assertion that one should not be afraid of one's feelings. The heroine gave herself to them completely, burned with her first love, but she learned a lot about life and about the person to whom she wanted to devote her. Now she will be more attentive to people, learn to understand them. Without this cruel experience, she would not have revealed herself as a person, would not have understood herself and her desires. After breaking up with N.N. she realized what the man of her dreams should be like. So do not be afraid of sincere impulses of the soul, you need to give them free rein, and come what may.

Criticism

The reviewers called N.N. a typical literary embodiment of the "superfluous person", and later a new type of heroine was identified - the "Tugenev young lady." Especially carefully the image of the protagonist was investigated by the ideological opponent of Turgenev - Chernyshevsky. He dedicated an ironic article to him entitled “Russian man on rendez-vous. Reflections on reading the story "Asya" ". In it, he condemns not only the moral imperfection of the character, but also the squalor of the entire social group to which he belongs. The idleness and selfishness of the offspring of the nobility ruins real people in them. It is in this that the critic sees the cause of the tragedy. His friend and colleague Dobrolyubov enthusiastically appreciated the story and the author's work on it:

Turgenev ... talks about his heroes as about people close to him, snatches their hot feeling from his chest and with tender sympathy, watches them with painful trepidation, he himself suffers and rejoices along with the faces he created, he himself is carried away by the poetic environment that he loves always surround them ...

The writer himself speaks very warmly of his creation: "I wrote it very hotly, almost in tears ...".

Many critics responded positively to Turgenev's work "Asya" even at the stage of reading the manuscript. I. I. Panaev, for example, wrote to the author about the impression of the editorial board of Sovremennik in the following expressions:

I, the proofreader, and moreover, Chernyshevsky, read the proof-reading. If there are still mistakes, it means that we have done everything we could, and we don't know how to do it better. Annenkov has read the story, and you probably already know his opinion about it. He is delighted

Annenkov was a close friend of Turgenev and his main critic. In a letter to the author, he praises his new work, calling it "a frank step towards nature and poetry."

In a personal letter dated January 16, 1858, E. Ya. Kolbasin (a critic who positively evaluates Turgenev's work) informed the writer: “Now I came from the Tyutchevs, where there was a dispute over Asya. I like too. They find that Asya's face is taut, not alive. I said the opposite, and Annenkov, who arrived in time for the dispute, completely supported me and brilliantly refuted them. "

However, it was not without controversy. The editor-in-chief of the Sovremennik magazine, Nekrasov, suggested changing the scene of the explanation of the main characters, believing that it belittles the image of N.N. too much:

One remark, personally mine, and that is unimportant: in the scene of the meeting at the knees, the hero unexpectedly showed unnecessary rudeness of nature, which you do not expect from him, bursting out with reproaches: they should be softened and diminished, I wanted to, but did not dare, especially since Annenkov against this

As a result, the book was left unchanged, because even Chernyshevsky stood up for it, who, although he did not deny the roughness of the scene, noted that it best reflects the real appearance of the class to which the narrator belongs.

S. S. Dudyshkin, who in the article "Stories and Stories of I. S. Turgenev", published in the "Notes of the Fatherland", opposed the "sick personality of the Russian man of the XIX century" to an honest worker - a bourgeois businessman. He was also extremely worried about the question of the historical fate of "superfluous people", posed by the author of "Asi".

Not everyone liked the story. After its publication, reproaches fell on the writer. For example, the reviewer VP Botkin told Fet: “Not everyone likes“ Asya ”. It seems to me that Asya's face failed - and in general the thing has a prosaically invented look. There is nothing to say about other persons. As a lyricist, Turgenev can only express well what he has experienced ... ". The famous poet, the addressee of the letter, was in solidarity with his friend and recognized the image of the main character as contrived and lifeless.

But most of all critics were indignant at Tolstoy, who assessed the work as follows: “'Asya' of Turgenev, in my opinion, is the weakest thing of all that he wrote” - this remark was contained in a letter to Nekrasov. Lev Nikolaevich linked the book with his friend's personal life. He was unhappy that he arranged for his illegitimate daughter Pauline in France, forever separating her from her own mother. This "hypocritical position" was sharply condemned by the count, he openly accused his colleague of cruelty and improper upbringing of his daughter, also described in the story. This conflict resulted in the authors not communicating for 17 years.

Later, the story was not forgotten and often appeared in the statements of famous public figures of the era. For example, Lenin compared Russian liberals to an indecisive character:

... Just like an ardent Turgenev hero who escaped from Asya, about whom Chernyshevsky wrote: "A Russian man on rendez-vous"

Interesting? Keep it on your wall!

Love story in Turgenev's work. Common motives. As the story strives towards its finale, we are reminded of Rudin again and again. Mr. N.'s answer - "impossible" - in response to Asya's dreams of going with pilgrims, "to live for good reason" - strikingly resembles what Rudin said at the moment of the decisive date ("of course, submit"). The meaning and words of Asina's note almost literally repeat what Natalia said at their last meeting: “I am punished deservedly<…>... Farewell".

In the relatively small narrative space of the story (and therefore larger and more convex), Turgenev shows a similar situation: a girl who is much superior in strength of spirit to a man. Of course, Mr. N. is not Rudin. He has no impulses, ideals that lead to the barricades. He himself characterized himself, speaking of Gagin, whom he liked: “This was a straight Russian soul, truthful, honest, simple, but, unfortunately, a little sluggish, without<…>internal heat ". The name given by Turgenev to his hero can be deciphered traditionally: "N." - unknown. But "N." - can also mean "nobody". A figure without "inner heat", a faceless character.

The real and symbolic meaning of the ending. Mr. N. is in a hurry to catch up with Asya. He takes one last look at the places where he has been through so much. Two pictures appear before his eyes. He again sees the young maid Ganchen: “Her face was pale, but not sad; a young, handsome guy stood next to her and, laughing, was telling her something ... "" And on the other side of the Rhine, "the narrator continues," my little Madonna was still looking sadly out of the dark green of an old ash tree. " This is how Asi's possible paths are symbolically outlined. She could, having grieved, like Ganchen, forget Mr. N. and be happy with another. And she could stay forever with a broken heart, mourning the failed happiness. The author submits the decision to the readers' judgment.

“And I didn’t see them again - I didn’t see Asya<…>... She disappeared for me forever. " Genuine sadness shines through in these words. But the reader's sympathy is partly removed by N. Hero's confession that in those days “I didn’t grieve for her for too long: I even found that fate had disposed well without uniting me with Asya; I consoled myself with the thought that I probably would not be happy with such a wife. " The narrator insists that such thoughts were not the result of fearful selfishness, but of youth: “I was young then - and the future<…>seemed to me boundless. Can't what happened again ... and even better, even more beautiful? .. "

Years later, he exclaims with deep emotion: "No!" True love happens only once: "Not a single eye has replaced those eyes that once looked at me with love, and my heart, which had fallen in my chest, did not respond with such a joyful and sweet sinking!" A short episode in a small German town turned out to be the main event of the whole life of Turgenev's hero: “Condemned to loneliness of a familyless mare, I live out boring years, but I keep, as a shrine, her notes and a dried geranium flower<…>which she once threw to me from the window. "

Turgenev invariably sounded the theme of death next to love. So in this story, the hero, in the face of imminent death, reflects on the fact that “... the hand that gave it to me ( flower) <…>, perhaps, has long been smoldering in the grave. And myself - what happened to me? What's left<…>from those blissful anxious days, from those winged hopes and aspirations? " Human life is quickly coming to an end. Nature is eternal. She hurts and soothes and hurts - remember the finale of "Fathers and Sons." In "Asa" this cherished thought of the writer is expressed as follows: "... The slight evaporation of insignificant grass experiences all the joys and all the sorrows of a person - it experiences the person himself."

The title of the story "Asya" is to a certain extent metonymic. The story tells about a short episode from the life of a young man, about his love, but the author puts in the title not his feelings, but the name of the one with whom he is in love. This technique is close to metonymy: the transfer of a name from one to another, according to the principle of contiguity. (As if, for example, the story "First Love" was called "Zinaida".)

In the story, the inner world of the heroes is given as a part of the "whole world" and in connection with it, their history reflects typical conflicts in the society to which they belong; the short period and the whole life are compared (therefore, in the finale, the moods of the completion of the life of a still not old person sound). As is typical for the story, the image of the whole world is given in a folded form, like a projection. This must be borne in mind to understand the essence of the conflict.

The story does not name the reasons for the hesitation of the protagonist, they are not clear to him. The heroes were torn from their familiar surroundings by the author, temporarily deprived of connections (Asya has only a brother, nothing is known about N.N.'s family), events develop outside society, outside the family. One gets the impression of an accident, the spontaneity of his meeting and parting with Asya, a test of the strength of his feelings. His rejection of her is perceived as a manifestation of indecision and weakness of character.

But in the text of the story there are indications that he acted like the majority of representatives of his circle, respecting generally accepted social norms. Gagin took his sister away from Russia, where everything spoke of her place in society, he believes that they cannot now return home. He also judges soberly about his friend N.N. and his attitude towards Asya. First, in the form of a question, and then, as a statement, the words sound: "... after all, you will not marry Asa." The same thought is in the note: "There are prejudices that I respect; I understand that you cannot marry Asya." Born out of wedlock, Asya occupies an ambiguous position in society and behaves in an unusual way, trying to "make the whole world forget" her origin17. And N. N. himself is sure that "Asya would not have left if her position had not been false." For Turgenev's contemporaries, these hints were apparently enough to understand NN's indecision. The social ambiguity of the girl's position largely determined the dramatic nature of the situation and its sad resolution. The story shows the collision of human feelings with social conventions, the value of which is questionable (Gagin calls them "prejudices").

Mr. N.N. could not overcome the concepts absorbed from childhood. The story’s conflict is predominantly psychological, “intrapersonal”. It is this feature that attracts attention these days. The socio-political problems of the story, relevant for the writer's contemporaries, were revealed in the already mentioned article by Chernyshevsky, who condemned Russian liberalism, as well as in the article by P. V. Annenkov, "The literary type of a weak person. Concerning Turgenev's" Asi " the main and only instrument of progress. At the beginning of the XX century. the opinion was expressed that Annenkov was responsible to a large extent for having misled the public with his opinion about the similarity and kinship of the hero “Asya” with Rudin18.

In the novel, the heroes manifest themselves in personal relationships, in family life. In the center is the "nest", the family, its history. All the backstories of the characters are stories of the clan, family. All the characters are in certain family relationships: fathers, children, aunts, nephews, etc. The biggest sin in this traditional world is to break the established rules. Society is dominated by its own laws, which a person also cannot violate with impunity.

One of these institutions is legal marriage. He is the basis of a happy life for everyone and society as a whole. To Liza's words that "happiness on earth does not depend on us ...", Lavretsky, narrowing the meaning of what was said, replies: "From us, from us, believe me, so long as we do not spoil our own lives. For other people, marriage for love it can be a misfortune, but not for you ... "(Ch. 29).

The heroine, who respects the traditions and laws of society, the family, cannot step over the fatal line and, for the sake of her personal happiness, violate the foundations and duty. In Turgenev's world, even an ideal person cannot, has no right to violate, not fulfill the obligations that society imposes on him. "The rebels and Protestants in Turgenev do not dare to encroach on the universe: they are aware of its non-human control, which gives them some balance." They "humble themselves". As Liza says in "The Noble Nest": "And I can also be unhappy, but then I will have to submit; I do not know how to speak, but if we do not submit ...". The thought that Liza did not agree on can be easily completed: ... then commandments and traditions will be violated, chaos will set in, general misfortune will outweigh the suffering of individuals. There is only one way out - the rejection of the happiness of the heart, "restless" in favor of a quiet, orderly life. In this regard, I recall Pushkin's novel "Dubrovsky" and Tatyana's answer to Onegin in the finale of the novel in verse.

The story of IS Turgenev "Asya" is rather a drama, the drama of this very girl Asya. In her life she meets N.N., a young man who attracts not only her, but who also likes her brother, a very well-read and intelligent young man. Maybe...

At the time of the creation of the story "Asya" (1859), I. S. Turgenev was already considered an author who had a significant impact on public life in Russia. The social significance of Turgenev's work is explained by the fact that the author clothed the gift of seeing in the ordinary ...

Each of us has done things that we later had to regret. It could have been an action or even a word spoken in the heat of the moment. But because of the word, not spoken aloud in time, happiness passed by the protagonist of the story I.S. ...

By genre, this work can be attributed to a story. It is based on a beautiful love story, which, unfortunately, ended in separation. The beginning is an acquaintance with the Gagins. Action development is the relationship between young people. Climax - Explanation ...

Let us first determine the compositional and substantive meaning of this episode, in which the decisive explanation of the heroes takes place, their relations are finally clarified, moreover, the behavior of Mr. N.N. in the dating scene influences both Asya's fate and his own. After parting with Asya after an unsuccessful explanation, Mr. N.N. does not yet know what awaits him in the future, "the loneliness of a familyless mare", he hopes for "tomorrow's happiness", not knowing that "happiness has no tomorrow ... it has a present - and that is not a day, but a moment ". The scene of the date was prepared by all the previous dynamic plot development of the story: the casual acquaintance of the characters, their meetings and conversations. Asya herself sets a date, acting in this case like Pushkin's Tatyana - like her, the first to confess her love to her chosen one. The text of the story contains many reminiscences (mentions) connecting Turgenev's story with Pushkin's novel. They are most noticeable in the scene of Asya reading a slightly modified line from Eugene Onegin:

Where today is the cross and the canopy of the branches

Over my poor mother! She said in an undertone.

Falling in love with Mr. NN, Asya sees in him an unusual, exceptional person, the hero of her lofty dream, while her half-brother Gagin, a more mature and reasonable person, remarks with surprise: “You are a very nice person, but why is she I love you so much - I confess that I do not understand. "

Asya's feelings for Mr. N.N. deep and irresistible, it is “unexpected and as irresistible as a thunderstorm,” according to Gagin. Let's pay attention to the artistic space of the episode. Meeting Mr. N.N. and Asi takes place in a small, rather dark room, in the house of the mayor's widow, Frau Louise.

The closeness and seclusion of the space in which the meeting scene takes place emphasize Asya's secrecy, the depth of her feelings for Mr. N.N. Most of the other character encounters take place in an open natural space. Detailed descriptions of natural objects - mountains, valleys, powerful flow of rivers - symbolize the free, unrestrained development of the heroine's feelings.

It is no coincidence that at the moment of awakening the feeling of love, Asya imagines that she is flying, that she has grown wings. What is the psychological state of the characters participating in the analyzed fragment?

The scene of the meeting most clearly reflects the psychological contradiction, the discrepancy between the psychological rhythms of Mr. N.N. and Asya. The fullness of Asya's feelings, her timidity, bashfulness and resignation to fate are embodied in her laconic remarks, barely audible in the silence of a dark room. On the contrary, Mr. N.N., who took the initiative in the dialogue, is verbose, as if he seeks to hide behind reproaches and loud exclamations his unpreparedness for reciprocal feelings, his inability to surrender to love, which is so slowly ripening in his contemplative nature. Love Mr. N.N. to Asya, obeying the whimsical game of chance or the fatal predetermination of fate, it will flare up later, when nothing can be corrected.

The hero himself admits this: “When I met her in that fateful room, there was still no clear consciousness of my love in me.