The novel by I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov" is a socio-psychological novel depicting the devastating influence of the noble-landlord environment on human personality. "Oblomov" appeared when feudal system more and more revealed its inconsistency. Goncharov worked on this work for many years. The novel was published in 1859 in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski and immediately attracted the attention of readers.

Goncharov, like few others, managed to touch the innermost strings of the "Russian soul" with the artist's pen. The writer created a hero who, oddly enough, embodies the main features of the Russian national character, although in a form not the most attractive, but at the same time causing love and sympathy. Goncharov's merit lies in the fact that he revealed the socio-historical reasons for the emergence of such a character as Oblomov. That is why in the novel an important place is occupied by the image of those conditions and the environment in which the formation of his hero took place.

The writer with amazing depth reproduced the life of a provincial noble estate, the life of the landowners of the middle hand, their psychology, mores, customs, views. In the chapter "Oblomov's Dream", the author draws immobility, lulling the peace and silence of a "peaceful corner". "The annual cycle is being performed there correctly and calmly"; "neither terrible storms nor destruction can be heard in that land"; "life, like a calm river, flowed past them" - such phrases characterize the life of the hero and his environment.

By the age of 32, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov had turned into a "babaka", an apathetic and inert creature, whose life was limited to an apartment on Gorokhovaya Street, a dressing gown made of Persian fabric and lying on a sofa. Such a state kills positive human qualities in Oblomov, of which there are many in him. He is honest, humane, smart. The writer repeatedly emphasizes in it "pigeon meekness." Stolz recalls that once, about ten years ago, he had spiritual ideals. He read Rousseau, Schiller, Goethe, Byron, did mathematics, studied English language, thought about the fate of Russia, wanted to serve the motherland. Stolz reproaches Oblomov: “In the same corner lie your plans to“ serve ”as long as you have strength, because Russia needs hands and heads to develop inexhaustible sources.”

The ideological confrontation between Andrei Ivanovich and Ilya Ilyich is one of the main semantic elements of Oblomov. The last meeting of the two friends mirrors their first meeting in the novel. Their dialogue develops in the following generalized form: Stolz's questions about health, Oblomov's complaints, Stolz's reproaches about the wrong way of life, calls for change. But the outcome of the conversation differs significantly: at the beginning of the novel, Ilya Ilyich succumbs to the persuasion of a friend and goes out into the world, but in the finale he remains in his familiar place.

The German Stolz is "incessantly on the move". His creed is active life position, distrust of the "dream, mysterious, mysterious." The character of Stolz is associated with a new, bourgeois-entrepreneurial reality and embodies the features of a businessman. Andrei Ivanovich is hardworking, intelligent, honest, noble, but he does not work for a lofty goal, but for personal success. To Oblomov's question: "What are you working for?" - he finds nothing to say, except: "For the labor itself, for nothing else." Stolz does not pull on goodie because he is "weak, pale - an idea peeps out of him too nakedly."

It is very important that we actually look at what is happening through the eyes of Stolz. But this character does not represent at all author's position and he does not convince us of everything. In essence, Oblomov is a mystery to the author himself.

The tragedy of Oblomov is not in the absence of general education and not in the desolation of his family estate. The break with Olga Ilyinskaya led to the loss of the content of his life. The best moments of the life of Ilya Ilyich were connected with Olga. This loss leads him to the house of Agafya Pshenitsyna. At the end of the novel, Oblomov "... was a complete and natural reflection of peace, contentment and serene silence."

Energetic Stolz tried to bring Oblomov out of a state of dead rest, to include him in life. Unfortunately, nothing came of this, because Ilya Ilyich had rooted himself too tightly to rest: "I have grown to this pit with a sore spot: try to tear it off - there will be death."

Oblomov understands his spiritual fall, the stronger his emotional drama. “He painfully felt that some good, bright beginning was buried in him, as in a grave, perhaps now dead, or it lies like gold in the bowels of a mountain ... But the treasure is deeply and heavily littered with rubbish, superficial rubbish". Oblomov also understands the reasons for his spiritual death. When Olga asked him: “Why did everything die? .. Who cursed you, Ilya? .. What ruined you?

Perhaps, Goncharov managed to embody positive features in Olga Ilyinskaya. Olga is an independent, strong, resolute nature. It is characterized by the desire for an active and meaningful life. Therefore, having fallen in love with Oblomov, she is imbued with a desire to revive him, save him from the spiritual and moral death. Realizing that Oblomov will not be able to throw off apathy and laziness, she irrevocably breaks with him. The farewell words that Olga addresses to Oblomov speak of her high demands on the one she loves: “You are meek, honest, Ilya; you are gentle ... a dove, you hide your head under your wing - and you don’t want anything more; you I’m ready to coo all my life under the roof ... yes, I’m not like that: that’s not enough for me ... ”It is interesting that Olga becomes Stolz’s wife. But, of course, this marriage does not bring her happiness.

The unconscious motives and aspirations that determine Oblomov's behavior are a kind of "abyss". In many ways, Oblomov's personality remains unsolved.

N. A. Dobrolyubov in the article "What is Oblomovism?" gave a brilliant and still unsurpassed analysis of the novel. He notes that the social significance of the novel "Oblomov" lies in the fact that it shows Russian life, created the "modern Russian type" and in one word defined the characteristic phenomenon of the nobility-serf reality: "This word is Oblomovism; it serves as a key to unraveling many phenomena of Russian life.

Dobrolyubov showed that the image of Oblomov is a socio-psychological type, embodying the features of a landowner of the pre-reform period. The state of nobility gives rise to moral slavery in him: "... the vile habit of obtaining the satisfaction of his desires not from his own efforts, but from others developed in him apathetic immobility and plunged him into a pitiful state of moral slavery. This slavery is intertwined with Oblomov's nobility, as they mutually penetrate into each other and one is conditioned by the other. The Oblomovs are all those whose words disagree with their deeds, who in words only want the best and are not able to translate their desire into action.

This is the genius of Goncharov, that in his wonderful work he raised one of the most important questions of Russian life. Answering this question means changing life radically for the better.

The novel "Oblomov" was created by I. Goncharov two years before the major changes in the social and political structure of Russia. In 1859, the issue of abolishing serfdom was already acute, as society realized the perniciousness of the existing structures. The hero of the work is a special type local nobility, called "Oblomovism".

Such a definition of the way of life of a best friend is given by Andrey Ivanovich Stolz.

But what is Oblomovism, why was it inherent in educated people? Ilya Ilyich himself is trying to find the answer, wondering: “Why am I like this?”. In the chapter “Oblomov's Dream”, the author shows that inertia and apathy are the result of an upbringing that convinced the hero that any desires will be fulfilled without any effort.

Goncharov talks about Ilya's childhood in his native Oblomovka. Life in the village flows slowly and measuredly, every day is similar to the previous one. Breakfast gives way to lunch, then lazy afternoon naps and long evenings with fairy tales. Nothing interesting happens in Oblomovka. From infancy, the master is taken care of by servants: they dress him, put shoes on, feed him, discouraging any desire for independence from the boy. The provincial landlord life is gradually turning into a lazy hibernation, becoming a way of life.

Thus, Oblomovism is a special lifestyle that has been formed over the course of generations. Stolz's sincere desire to stir up Oblomov, "to awaken to life" is embodied only for a short period. Even love for Olga Ilyinskaya is not capable of making Ilya Ilyich change his habits. A short "awakening" becomes only a spark of activity, which quickly fades away forever.

Oblomov is not ready to defend the right to love with Olga and chooses a comfortable measured life with Agafya Pshenitsyna. The Vyborg side becomes for the hero the embodiment of his beloved Oblomovka. However, doing nothing and lying on the couch does not affect the spiritual qualities of Ilya Ilyich. He has a good disposition, affectionate soul, morality and a subtle understanding of the surrounding reality. It is these qualities that attract the energetic Stolz to him, and the enamored Olga also saw them. At the same time, the hero does not lie aimlessly on the couch for days on end, inner work is going on in his mind. He does not see the point in "work for the sake of work", like his friend Andrei.

In my opinion, the nobility itself provoked the emergence of Oblomovism. This "disease", which has social roots, literally struck the society of the mid-19th century. When a person knows in advance that he will not have to work for food and benefits, he loses the ability to be active.

Updated: 2017-01-24

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1. The plot outline of the novel "Oblomov".
2. Stolz is the antipode of Oblomov.
3. The meaning of the novel by I. L. Goncharov in our time.

The novel by I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov" was completed in 1857, at a time when new eras began to replace the serfdom era. public relations. In Russia, the “third estate”, the bourgeois class, began to emerge. The development of industry dictated a different rhythm of life, but the old semi-feudal relations, "nobility" hampered the development of the new.

These problems worried I. A. Goncharov when he was working on the novel. He was interested in "nobility" from a social and psychological point of view. We are talking about the "lordship of the soul." The plot outline of the work is as follows. In the first part, Ilya Oblomov lies on the couch. In the second part, he falls in love with Olga Ilinskaya. In the third part, Olga realizes that she made a mistake in Oblomov. In the final part, Olga marries Oblomov's friend Andrei Stolz, and Ilya Ilyich marries the mistress of the house in which he rents an apartment. Summary novel fits in a few lines. But the events are not so important. It is important that they are absent. This is a work about the fact that neither love, nor friendship, nor work awaken the protagonist of the novel, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, to vigorous activity.

The first part of the novel is devoted detailed description Oblomov's way of life. The protagonist lies on the couch all day and languidly quarrels with Zakhar (with his servant). “On the walls, near the paintings, a cobweb saturated with dust was molded in the form of festoons; mirrors, instead of reflecting objects, could rather serve ... for writing down on them, in the dust, some notes for memory ... on the table a rare morning, not removed from yesterday's dinner, there was not a plate with a salt shaker and a gnawed Bread crumbs did not lie like a bone ... one would think that no one lives here - everything was so dusty, faded and, in general, was devoid of traces of human presence.

Friends cannot take Oblomov out for a walk: he excuses himself, looking for all sorts of excuses to lie down on the couch at home. Everything that happens around, Ilya Ilyich learns from other people's words, but despite this, his judgments are very reasonable. He is not engaged in housekeeping, his affairs are extremely confused. Oblomov hopes that everything will be resolved by itself and is waiting for the arrival of his friend Andrei Stolz, who will help deal with all the problems.

The writer is trying to understand the reason for the characters of such people as Oblomov and Stolz. We learn about their childhood years, about how and under the influence of what their life views were formed. Oblomov, who grew up surrounded by mothers and nannies, absorbed the idea that it was better and easier not to work. And to receive all the blessings of life at the expense of others. N. A. Dobrolyubov in his article “What is Oblomovism?” said that the character of Oblomov was formed by "Zakhar and 300 more Zakharov." The laziness of the soul, which has ingrained itself in the protagonist of the novel, guides all his actions. When Ilya Ilyich came to the city to apply for a position, he played for time, negligently coped with his duties. After that, he "falls ill" and does not appear in the service. Stolz's attempts to awaken Oblomov also ended unsuccessfully, but even the love for Olga Ilyinskaya that arose in the heart of Ilya Ilyich cannot bring him out of his state of sleep.

The image of Oblomov is opposed to the image of Andrei Stolz. His upbringing was fundamentally different from the upbringing of Ilya Ilyich. The German father taught his son from an early age to be responsible for his own actions. I told him that only hard work, work brings both personal and social well-being. Recall that episode when his father puts him out of the house “into the people”, Andrei turns to rich acquaintances not for help, but as an equal to equals. He earns his own "one hundred thousand income and a two-story stone house." I. A. Goncharov embodied in the image of Stolz his ideal of an active and at the same time rich inwardly person. According to the writer, this symbiosis of German practicality and Russian spirituality should replace the lordly loafers.

I. A. Goncharov saw the danger of "Oblomovism", as it penetrated into Russian life. As noted by N.A. Dobrolyubov, “it has long been noted that all the heroes of the most wonderful Russian stories and novels suffer from the fact that they do not see a goal in life and do not find a decent activity for themselves. As a result, they feel bored and disgusted with any business, in which they are strikingly similar to Oblomov. We are reminded of the characters of Eugene Onegin, Grigory Pechorin. They take on a lot, but achieve nothing worthwhile. They do not know how to love, they do not know what to look for in love and in life. The only difference between them and Oblomov is that Goncharov laid his hero on the sofa, put on an old dressing gown and assigned Zakhar to him, who took care of his master.

In his work, Goncharov, in the form of Oblomov, showed the Russian human type, showed the style of Russian life, one of the characteristic aspects of its reality. The writer raises the image of his hero to the level of a symbol, deriving from him social phenomenon, destructive for a person - "Oblomovism", which stifles any undertakings, the efforts of the individual suppresses the will of a person. So after all, “Oblomovism” is an innate or acquired state of mind? Purchased, of course. After all, a person's life consists in action, in the desire to introduce something new, in the desire to give meaning to one's life, in the end, in an attempt to accelerate the process of development of both one's existence and the development of society. These are the natural needs of people. But all these aspirations and qualities can perish if they are not developed, if you do not work on yourself. And this is not easy, it is a constant process of movement of thought. And although we understand that I. A. Goncharov sincerely pities his hero, sympathizes with him, but the future belongs to such heroes as Andrei Stolz. By the way, the writer himself said that the image of Stolz "is not alive, but just an idea." Nevertheless, the novel "Oblomov" caused and causes a lot of controversy among readers, because the problems that the author solved are topical even in our mobile difficult time.

"In Gorokhovaya Street, in one of the big houses<…>Ilya Ilyich Oblomov was lying in bed in his apartment in the morning, ”so I. A. Goncharov introduces us to the main character of the work, a gentleman a little over 30 years old, who does not know and does not want to know about work. An old, worn dressing gown (sleeping dressing gown) and slippers are his usual attire. These are symbols of laziness and apathy, which run like a red thread through the whole life of the character.

“Yes, I’m a gentleman and I don’t know how to do anything!” - says Oblomov about himself.

N. A. Dobrolyubov understood "Oblomovism" as something social, "a sign of the times." In his understanding, the image of Oblomov is a strictly minted type of Russian person, "spoiled" by the opportunity to shift all responsibility onto other people's shoulders. From the critic's point of view, "Oblomovism" is an allegory of serfdom.

(A still from N. Mikhalkov's film A Few Days in the Life of II Oblomov. Ilya Oblomov - Oleg Tabakov)

Where did "Oblomovism" come from? The reader learns about this from the chapter "Oblomov's Dream", which tells about Ilyusha's childhood. The life of a serf estate is divided into two worlds: a lazy, amorphous aristocratic world, where there is nothing more important than delicious food and a strong, sweep-like sleep, and a peasant one, filled with labor aimed at solving the household problems of the masters. We see a world ossified, closed in traditions and customs that do not encourage living aspirations and, moreover, labor. And why, if there is "Zakhar and even 300 Zakharov"?

Moving away from Dobrolyubov's concept of serfdom, one can see in the "Oblomovism" a phenomenon that is often encountered today. Fear of being sent to a "big life", persistently nurtured by parents in offspring, life "on the knurled" and beaten by generations path of following traditions and foundations. Excessive guardianship from work and the creation of a social vacuum ruin the slightest manifestations of curiosity and the urge to independence: "Seeking manifestations of strength turned inward and drooped, withering."

Oblomov's whole life is a desire to plunge into a utopia, where everything is easy and there is no need to make decisions. Ilya Ilyich does not want to leave the house, he is always immersed in dreams about rebuilding the estate, but dreams remain dreams, and Oblomov’s world is still limited to a sofa, because “a fairy tale is not life, and life is not a fairy tale.”

"Oblomovism" is contrition, "primitive laziness", time spent in dreams and empty dreams. The time that is created for action.

No external force can awaken even a single spark in Ilya Ilyich. The desire of Andrei Stolz to bring him back to life collapsed under a heap of fears, foundations and the notorious shabby robe, which enveloped not only the body, but also the mind, the soul of Oblomov. Olga's aspirations to return Ilya to society did not come true either. Decadence consumed his essence.

("The same Oblomov - yesterday and today")

Everything that captures a person infected with "Oblomovism" is doomed. Everything around him perishes, because there is no fire inside, no desire to live, and not drag out existence, lying on the couch and hiding from any "external stimuli".

The last refuge of Ilya Ilyich was the house of Agafya Pshenitsina, where he found echoes of his "cradle" - Oblomovka, to which all his nature aspired.

Thanks to Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov, the concept of "Oblomovism" appeared. With this word, the author designated the state in which he is main character- smart, handsome, with a pure soul, not wanting to live the way most of his friends live. At the same time, Oblomov does not have “his own path” - he only dreams, makes unrealistic plans and at the same time does nothing at all. Life, youth, love pass him by, and it seems that there is no such force that would make him get up from the couch.

Disputes about what Oblomovism is began immediately after the publication of the book and do not stop to this day. The source of these disputes lies, as often happens, in considering the phenomenon of Oblomovism from opposite points of view.

Oblomovism is a social evil

Since the novel was written in the era of transition from serfdom to capitalism, many contemporaries saw Oblomovism as a product of feudal relations, a brake on social development.

Dmitry Pisarev called Oblomovism "submissive, peaceful, smiling apathy", and Oblomov - pampered, spoiled, "accustomed to lordship, inactivity and complete satisfaction of his physical needs."

A prominent statesman Anatoly Koni even claimed that the Oblomovs of his time "with their apathy, fear of any initiative and lazy non-resistance to evil nullify the flagrant questions of life and the needs of the country."

Oblomovism - the search for a higher meaning

However, not all critics limited themselves to such a one-sided interpretation of the concept of "Oblomovism". Many tried to consider this phenomenon from a universal standpoint, to see in it something more than pathological laziness due to social conditions. Thus, a contemporary of Goncharov, writer Alexander Druzhinin, argued that "it is impossible to know Oblomov and not love him deeply," if only because "he is positively incapable of evil deeds."

Already in Soviet times, Mikhail Prishvin wrote about the novel "Oblomov": "In this novel, Russian laziness is internally glorified and outwardly it is condemned by the image of deadly active people. No "positive" activity in Russia can withstand Oblomov's criticism: his peace is fraught with a request for the highest value, for such an activity, because of which it would be worth losing peace.

Modern critics Pyotr Vail and Alexander Genis are in solidarity with him. In their book "Native Speech: Lessons of Fine Literature" they describe Oblomov as "the only true person in the novel" who does not want to put on the roles imposed by society, defending his right to remain just a person.