Analysis of the story
Leo Tolstoy "After the ball" (grade 8)

Illustration by V. Kozhevnikova

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy's story "After the ball" is a vivid protest against the unnaturalness of the inner world of a person who does not separate good and evil. This is regret about the impossibility of finding happiness in the world that generates this unnaturalness.

History of creation

The story "After the Ball" was written in 1903, published after the death of the writer in 1911. The story is based on a real event that Tolstoy learned about when he lived with his brothers in Kazan as a student. His brother Sergei Nikolaevich fell in love with the daughter of the local military commander L.P. Koreysha was going to marry her. But after Sergei Nikolaevich saw the cruel punishment commanded by the father of his beloved girl, he experienced a strong shock. He stopped visiting Koreish's house and gave up the idea of \u200b\u200bgetting married. This story so firmly lived in Tolstoy's memory that many years later he described it in the story "After the Ball". The writer pondered the title of the story. There were several options: "A Story about the Ball and Through the Line", "Daughter and Father", etc. As a result, the story was named "After the Ball".

The writer was worried about the problem: the person and the environment, the influence of circumstances on human behavior. Can a person manage himself or the whole thing in the environment and circumstances.

Genre, genre, creative method

"After the Ball" - a prose work; written in the genre of a story, since in the center of the narration is one important event in the life of the hero (shock from what he saw after the ball), and the text is small in volume. It must be said that in his declining years, Tolstoy showed a special interest in the genre of the story.

The story depicts two eras: the 40s of the XIX century, the reign of Nicholas and the time when the story was created. The writer reconstructs the past to show that nothing has changed in the present either. He speaks out against violence and oppression, against inhuman treatment of people. The story "After the Ball", like all the works of JI.H. Tolstoy, is associated with realism in Russian literature.

Subject

Tolstoy reveals in the story one of the bleak aspects of the life of Nicholas Russia - the position of the tsarist soldier: twenty-five years of service, senseless drill, complete powerlessness of soldiers, being held through the ranks as punishment. However, the main problem in the story is connected with moral questions: what forms a person - social conditions or chance. A single incident rapidly changes an individual life (“The whole life changed from one night, or rather morning,” the hero says). In the center of the image in the story is the thought of a person who is capable of throwing off class prejudices at once.

Story composition

Compositional permission is aimed at the possibility of full self-disclosure of the hero: the work is structured like a story within a story. In a frame, the story is told by Ivan Vasilyevich, wise over the years and life experience. This is a wise man, due to the way his fate developed, he changed his mind a lot about the purpose of human existence.

And in central part works again his voice, but still young, rich, thirsty for new impressions and emotions. His whole being is permeated with the delight of the first feeling, love for Varenka. Therefore, the usual provincial ball, from which the story begins, is seen by the hero as something beautiful and amazing: "I was happy and blissful ... I hugged the whole world at that time with my love"

And how beautifully the feeling swirling, like good champagne, the head, so charming is Varenka, graceful and airy. Her regal appearance is enchantingly wonderful, and the accompanying image of pink and white creates a sense of flight.

Varenka's father is also charming, "Colonel with silver epaulettes"... She and her daughter are very similar, and Tolstoy, deliberately using the same details of the portrait, brings these images as close as possible, making them inseparable in the eyes of readers.

Despite the outward lightness of events, some of the details are already preparing the reader for how further events will develop. For example, in the colonel, the narrator is latently irritated by his desire to be like Nicholas the First and a suede glove pulled over his hand during the dance, because the rules require it. The ardent and enthusiastic lover does not realize that there are things that annoy him, but they are clearly understood by a person who has rethought that very evening many times.

Sharp antithesis the second part of Ivan Vasilievich's story sounds. The first encounter with real, unadorned life brutally teaches the lesson to the young man who dreamed of happiness. Climax the story is a description of a cruel execution, this moment becomes a turning point in the fate of the hero. Among the black uniforms, the stripped back of the punished soldier stands out clearly, this spectacle shows all the abomination of life, unstoppable and impossible. The feeling of bitter shame experienced by Ivan Vasilievich for involuntary complicity in this insane cruelty is contrasted with the feelings of the colonel, for whom this execution is quite an ordinary thing.

A terrible sight and the understanding that harmony is unattainable in a world where one person, by law, has the right to torture another, completely change the hero. His whole life is a painful search for the meaning of existence and bitter disappointment, because he is unable to change anything.

Ivan Vasilievich chooses the path non-resistance to violence, his moral choice is to protect his soul from evil.

The nature of the conflict

Basis of the conflict This story is based, on the one hand, in the depiction of the colonel's two-facedness, and on the other, in Ivan Vasilyevich's disappointment.

The colonel was a very handsome, stately, tall and fresh old man. Affectionate, unhurried speech emphasized his aristocratic essence and aroused even more admiration. Varenka's father was so sweet and kind that he attracted everyone, including the main character of the story. After the ball in the scene of the soldier's punishment, not a single sweet, good-natured feature remained on the colonel's face. There was nothing left of the person who was at the ball, but a new, formidable and cruel one appeared. Peter Vladislavovich's angry voice alone inspired fear. Ivan Vasilyevich describes the soldier's punishment as follows: "And I saw how he, with his strong hand in a suede glove, beat a frightened, undersized, weak soldier in the face for not lowering his stick strongly enough on the Tatar's red back." Ivan Vasilyevich cannot love just one person, he must certainly love the whole world, understand and accept it as a whole. Therefore, together with his love for Varenka, the hero loves her father and admires him. When he is faced with cruelty and injustice in this world, his whole sense of harmony, the integrity of the world collapses, and he prefers not to love in any way than to love partially. I am not free to change the world, to defeat evil, but I and I alone are free to agree or disagree to participate in this evil - this is the logic of the hero's reasoning. And Ivan Vasilyevich deliberately refuses his love.

Main heroes

The main characters of the story are the young man Ivan Vasilievich, in love with Varenka, and the girl's father, Colonel Pyotr Vladislavovich.

The Colonel, a handsome and strong man of about fifty, an attentive and caring father who wears homemade boots to dress and take out his beloved daughter, the Colonel is sincere both at the ball, when he dances with his beloved daughter, and after the ball, when, without reasoning like a zealous Nikolayevsky campaigner, drives the fugitive soldier through the line. He undoubtedly believes in the need for reprisals against those who have broken the law. It is precisely this sincerity of the colonel in different life situations that most of all baffles Ivan Vasilyevich. How do you understand someone who is sincerely kind in one situation and sincerely angry in another? "Obviously, he knows something that I do not know ... If I knew what he knows, I would understand what I saw, and it would not torment me." Ivan Vasilyevich felt that society was to blame for this contradiction: "If this was done with such confidence and was recognized by all as necessary, then, therefore, they knew something that I did not know."

Idea

Story idea is revealed with the help of a certain system of images and composition. The main characters are Ivan Vasilyevich and the colonel, the father of the girl with whom the narrator was in love, through whose images the main problem is solved. The author shows that society and its structure, and not chance, influence the personality.

In the image of Colonel, Tolstoy exposes the objective social conditions that distort the nature of a person, instilling in him false concepts of duty.

Ideological content is revealed through the image of the evolution of the narrator's inner feeling, his sense of the world. The writer makes one think about the problem of human responsibility for the environment. It is the consciousness of this responsibility for the life of society that Ivan Vasilievich is distinguished. A young man from a wealthy family, impressionable and enthusiastic, faced with terrible injustice, abruptly changed his life path, abandoning any career: "I was so ashamed that, not knowing where to look, as if I had been caught in the most shameful act, I dropped my eyes and hurried to go home."... He devoted his life to helping other people: "Tell me better: no matter how many people are good for nowhere, if you weren't there."

In the story of L.H. Tolstoy everything is in contrast, everything is shown according to the principle of antithesis: a description of a brilliant ball and a terrible punishment on the field; the situation in the first and second parts; graceful charming Varenka and the figure of a Tatar with his terrible, unnatural back; Varenka's father at the ball, who aroused enthusiastic affection in Ivan Vasilyevich, and he was also an evil, formidable old man, demanding that the soldiers obey orders. The study of the general structure of the story becomes a means of revealing its ideological content.

Based on materials from the Goldlit website

Before proceeding directly to the analysis of the story "After the Ball", we will briefly consider the history of its creation. In this article, you will also find compositional features of the work and its plot. The story "After the Ball" was published after the death of Leo Tolstoy in 1911, although he wrote it in 1903. This trend of returned prose was characteristic of that literary period. The story is based on real events. Living with his brothers in Kazan, Tolstoy learned from his brother Sergei the details of his personal life. The brother fell in love with the daughter of a military commander, but seeing the cruelty of her father, he forgot about the marriage and never appeared in their house. This story made a huge lasting impression, and later became the basis of the plot of the story "After the Ball".

Tolstoy thought for a long time about the title of the story. But he named it that way, and this is important in the analysis of "After the Ball", because it was important for Tolstoy to show how a person would behave. after certain circumstances, how it will behave in the new environment.

The genre of the story and its theme

The work "After the Ball" by Tolstoy is a story, because it tells about one event and one main character. One storyline is traced. It was the stories that Tolstoy wrote in the prime of his literary career. But this story describes two eras: the era of the past, i.e. 40s of the XIX century, and the end of the XIX century. The author used this technique in order to show that nothing in the social structure has changed.

When analyzing Tolstoy's After the Ball, it is important to take into account the theme of the work. The main theme of the story is morality. How one case radically changes a person's worldview. The sub-theme is the life of a soldier. A twenty-five-year service, unquestioning, severity of conditions is described.

Other analysis details

The idea in the story is revealed through the system of images. This is Ivan Vasilievich and the colonel. They are a stumbling block. With the help of these images, Tolstoy shows that it is not chance that decides fate, but the consequences of social life and society. All the severity of that time is visible. The story is based on an antithesis. The whole piece is built on contrast. From the beauty of the polished floor to the terrible punishment; the refinement of Varenka and the sullenness of the Tatar; sounds of flute and drum. The image of a father who initially aroused affection, and then turned into an evil old man. This technique vividly showed how life and its perception have changed in Ivan Vasilievich.

Let's see who are the main characters of the story "After the Ball":

• Ivan Vasilievich. A pleasant young man in love with Varenka. He reassessed his life and actions, seeing the brutal cruelty. He thought about what humanity is and how to relate to people. After what he saw, he decided that he would never hurt anyone.
• Petr Vladislavovich. A sturdy old man who truly loves his daughter. The man is courteous and gallant at the ball, a kind host, but in the scene with reprisals he appears before the readers in a completely different light.

Plot and composition

We conducted a brief analysis of the story "After the Ball". What is the essence of the plot and composition of the work? A picture of a ball opens before us, at which a well-groomed colonel dances with love and tenderness with his daughter. It was on this evening that Ivan Vasilyevich met Varenka. They dance together, it is impossible to take your eyes off them. In the morning, the main character goes home to his beloved. Passing through the city, he notices that the soldiers are leading the Tatar to the place of punishment. It is a great surprise for him that Varenka's father is in charge of this action. It opens up to him from another, secret side. A cold, angry and insensitive colonel gives instructions on how to beat the guilty one. Seeing his daughter's fiancé, he pretended to be strangers. After what he saw, the young man changes his attitude not only to this family, but also to society as a whole. The duration of the story is one day.

The history of the creation of Tolstoy's work "After the Ball"

The story "After the Ball" was written in 1903, published after the death of the writer in 1911. The story is based on a real event that Tolstoy learned about when he lived with his brothers in Kazan as a student. His brother Sergei Nikolaevich fell in love with the daughter of the local military commander L.P. Koreysha was going to marry her. But after Sergei Nikolaevich saw the cruel punishment commanded by the father of his beloved girl, he experienced a strong shock. He stopped visiting Koreish's house and gave up the idea of \u200b\u200bgetting married. This story so firmly lived in Tolstoy's memory that many years later he described it in the story "After the Ball". The writer pondered the title of the story. There were several options: "A Story about the Ball and Through the Line", "Daughter and Father" and others. As a result, the story was named "After the Ball".
The writer was worried about the problem: the person and the environment, the influence of circumstances on human behavior. Can a person manage himself or the whole thing in the environment and circumstances.
Genre, genre, creative method of the analyzed work
"After the Ball" - a prose work; written in the genre of a story, since in the center of the narration is one important event in the life of the hero (shock from what he saw after the ball) and the text is small in volume. It must be said that in his declining years, Tolstoy showed a special interest in the genre of the story.
The story depicts two eras: the 40s of the XIX century, the reign of Nicholas and the time when the story was created. The writer reconstructs the past to show that nothing has changed in the present either. He speaks out against violence and oppression, against inhuman treatment of people. The story "After the Ball", like all the works of L.N. Tolstoy, is associated with realism in Russian literature.

The subject of the work

Tolstoy reveals in the story "After the Ball" one of the bleak aspects of the life of Nikolayev's Russia - the position of the tsarist soldier: twenty-five years of service, senseless drill, complete lack of rights of soldiers, being held through the ranks as punishment. However, the main problem in the story is connected with moral questions: what forms a person - social conditions or chance. A single incident rapidly changes an individual life (“The whole life changed from one night, or rather morning,” the hero says). In the center of the image in the story is the thought of a person who is capable of throwing off class prejudices at once.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe story is revealed with the help of a certain system of images and composition. The main characters are Ivan Vasilyevich and the colonel, the father of the girl with whom the narrator was in love, through whose images the main problem is solved. The author shows that society and its structure, and not chance, influence the personality.
In the image of Colonel, Tolstoy exposes the objective social conditions that distort the nature of a person, instilling in him false concepts of duty.
Ideological content is revealed through the image of the evolution of the narrator's inner feeling, his sense of the world. The writer makes one think about the problem of human responsibility for the environment. It is the consciousness of this responsibility for the life of society that Ivan Vasilievich is distinguished. A young man from a wealthy family, impressionable and enthusiastic, faced with terrible injustice, he abruptly changed his life path, abandoning any career. "I was so ashamed that, not knowing where to look, as if I had been caught in the most shameful act, I dropped my eyes and hurried to go home." He devoted his life to helping other people: "Tell me better: no matter how many people are good for nothing, if you weren't there."
In the story of L.N. Tolstoy everything is in contrast, everything is shown according to the principle of antithesis: a description of a brilliant ball and a terrible punishment on the field; the situation in the first and second parts; graceful charming Varenka and the figure of a Tatar with his terrible, unnatural back; Varenka's father at the ball, who aroused enthusiastic affection in Ivan Vasilyevich, and he was also an evil, formidable old man, demanding that the soldiers obey orders. The study of the general structure of the story becomes a means of revealing its ideological content.

The nature of the conflict

Analysis of the work shows that the basis of the conflict in this story is laid, on the one hand, in the depiction of the colonel's two-facedness, on the other, in the disappointment of Ivan Vasilyevich.
The colonel was a very handsome, stately, tall and fresh old man. Affectionate, unhurried speech emphasized his aristocratic essence and aroused even more admiration. Varenka's father was so sweet and kind that he attracted everyone, including the main character of the story. After the ball in the scene of the soldier's punishment, not a single sweet, good-natured feature remained on the colonel's face. There was nothing left of the person who was at the ball, but a new, formidable and cruel one appeared. Peter Vladislavovich's angry voice alone inspired fear. Ivan Vasilyevich describes the soldier's punishment as follows: "And I saw how he, with his strong hand in a suede glove, beat a frightened, undersized, weak soldier in the face for not lowering his stick strongly enough on the Tatar's red back." Ivan Vasilyevich cannot love just one person, he must certainly love the whole world, understand and accept it as a whole. Therefore, together with his love for Varenka, the hero loves her father and admires him. When he is faced with cruelty and injustice in this world, his whole sense of harmony and integrity of the world collapses, and he prefers not to love in any way than to love partially. I am not free to change the world, to defeat evil, but I and I alone are free to agree or disagree to participate in this evil - this is the logic of the hero's reasoning. And Ivan Vasilyevich deliberately refuses his love.

Main heroes

The main characters of the story are the young man Ivan Vasilievich, in love with Varenka, and the girl's father, Colonel Pyotr Vladislavovich.
The Colonel, a handsome and strong man of about fifty, an attentive and caring father who wears homemade boots to dress and take out his beloved daughter. The colonel is sincere both at the ball, when he dances with his beloved daughter, and after the ball, when, without reasoning, like a zealous Nikolaev campaigner, he drives the fugitive soldier through the line. He undoubtedly believes in the need to deal with those who have broken the law. It is precisely this sincerity of the colonel in different life situations that most of all baffles Ivan Vasilyevich. How do you understand someone who is sincerely kind in one situation and sincerely angry in another? "Obviously, he knows something that I do not know ... If I knew what he knows, I would understand what I saw, and it would not torment me." Ivan Vasilyevich felt that society was to blame for this contradiction: "If this was done with such confidence and was recognized by all as necessary, then, therefore, they knew something that I did not know."
Ivan Vasilievich, a modest and decent young man, shocked by the scene of the beating of soldiers, is not able to understand why this is possible, why there are orders for the protection of which sticks are needed. The shock experienced by Ivan Vasilievich turned his ideas about class morality upside down: he could understand the Tatar's plea for mercy, compassion and anger, sounding in the words of the blacksmith; unconsciously, he shares the highest human laws of morality.

Plot and composition

In the course of analyzing the work, we come to the conclusion that the plot of the story is simple. Ivan Vasilievich, convinced that the environment does not affect a person's way of thinking, but the whole thing is in the case, tells the story of his youthful love for the beautiful Varenka B. At the ball, the hero meets Varenka's father, a very handsome, stately, tall and "fresh old man" with ruddy face and luxurious mustache, colonel. The owners persuade him to dance a mazurka with their daughter. During the dance, the couple attracts everyone's attention. After the mazurka, the father brings Varenka to Ivan Vasilievich, and the young people spend the rest of the evening together.
Ivan Vasilyevich returns home in the morning, but cannot sleep and goes to wander around the city in the direction of Varenka's house. From afar, he hears the sounds of flute and drum, which endlessly repeat the same shrill melody. On the field in front of B.'s house, he sees how some Tatar soldiers are being chased through the formation for escape. The execution is commanded by Varenka's father, handsome, stately Colonel B. Tatarin begs the soldiers to "have mercy", but the colonel strictly monitors that the soldiers do not give him the slightest indulgence. One of the soldiers "smears". B. punches him in the face. Ivan Vasilyevich sees the red, motley, blood-soaked back of the Tatar and is horrified. Noticing Ivan Vasilyevich, B. pretends to be unfamiliar with him and turns away.
Ivan Vasilyevich thinks that the colonel is probably right, since everyone admits that he is acting normally. However, he cannot understand the reasons that forced B. to severely beat the person, and not understanding, decides not to enter the military service. His love is waning. So one incident changed his life and views.
The whole story is the events of one night, about which the hero recalls many years later. The composition of the story is clear and clear, four parts are logically distinguished in it: a large dialogue at the beginning of the story, leading to the story of the ball; ball scene; execution scene and final remark.
“After the ball” is built as “a story within a story”: it begins with the fact that a respectable person who has seen a lot in life and, as the author adds, a sincere and truthful person, Ivan Vasilyevich, in a conversation with friends, asserts that a person’s life is somehow not from the influence of the environment, and because of the chance, and as proof of this, the case, as he himself admits, changed his life. This is actually a story, the heroes of which are Varenka B., her father and Ivan Vasilyevich himself. Thus, from the dialogue between the narrator and his friends at the very beginning of the narrative, we learn that the episode in question was of great importance in a person's life. The form of oral narration gives the events a special realism. The mention of the sincerity of the narrator serves the same purpose. He talks about what happened to him in his youth; a certain "touch of antiquity" is given to this narrative, as is the mention of the fact that Varenka is already old, that "her daughter is married."

Artistic originality

Tolstoy the artist always took care of "bringing everything to unity" in his work. In the story "After the Ball", such a unifying principle was the contrast. The story is built on the reception of contrast, or antithesis, by showing two diametrically opposite episodes and, in connection with this, a sharp change in the experiences of the narrator. So the contrasting composition of the story and the corresponding language help to reveal the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work, to tear the mask of good nature from the colonel's face, to show his true essence.
Contrast is used by the writer in the choice of language means. So, when describing the portrait of Varenka, white predominates: "white dress", "white kid gloves", "white satin shoes" (this artistic technique is called color painting). This is due to the fact that white is the personification of purity, light, joy, Tolstoy, using this word, emphasizes the feeling of a holiday and conveys the state of mind of the narrator. The musical accompaniment of the story speaks about the holiday in the soul of Ivan Vasilyevich: a cheerful square dance, a gentle smooth waltz, a perky polka, an elegant mazurka create a joyful mood.
In the punishment scene there are other colors and other music: "... I saw ... something big, black and heard the sounds of a flute and a drum coming from there .... it was ... hard, bad music."

The meaning of the work

The significance of the story is enormous. Tolstoy poses broad humanistic problems: why do some live a carefree life, while others drag a beggarly existence? What is justice, honor, dignity? These problems have worried and are worrying more than one generation of Russian society. That is why Tolstoy recalled an incident that happened in his youth and made it the basis of his story.
2008 marked the 180th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Hundreds of books and articles have been written about him, his works are known all over the world, his name is respected in all countries, the heroes of his novels and stories live on screens, on theater stages. His word is heard on radio and television. "Without knowing Tolstoy," wrote M. Gorky, "you cannot consider yourself knowing your country, you cannot consider yourself a cultured person."
Tolstoy's humanism, his penetration into the inner world of man, protest against social injustice do not become obsolete, but live and affect the minds and hearts of people today.
A whole epoch in the development of Russian classical fiction is associated with the name of Tolstoy.
Tolstoy's legacy is of great importance for the formation of the worldview and aesthetic tastes of readers. Acquaintance with his works, full of high humanistic and moral ideals, undoubtedly contributes to spiritual enrichment.
In Russian literature there is no other writer whose work would be as diverse and complex as the work of L.N. Tolstoy. The great writer developed the Russian literary language, enriched literature with new means of depicting life.
The world significance of Tolstoy's work is determined by the formulation of great, exciting socio-political, philosophical and moral problems, the unsurpassed realism of depicting life and high artistic skill.
His works - novels, novellas, short stories, plays are read with unflagging interest by more and more generations of people around the globe. This is evidenced by the fact that the decade from 2000 to 2010 was declared by UNESCO as the decade of L.N. Tolstoy.

It is interesting

The episode describing the punishment of the soldiers had a backstory. It first appeared in an article by L.N. Tolstoy "Nikolai Palkin", written in 1886
The writer learned about the details of the cruel punishment with gauntlets when, together with N.N. Ge Jr. and M.A. Stakhovich walked from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. We stayed for the night with a 9 5-year-old soldier, who told them this story. Although Tolstoy himself never witnessed such a punishment, the story made a huge impression on him. Lev Nikolaevich on the same day made an outline of the article in his notebook.
The article "Nikolai Palkin" is a dialogue between the author and the soldier, which gradually turns into the lyrical hero's reflections on the events of those years.
Each word of Tolstoy has extraordinary expressiveness and capacity. So, in the story there is an extremely significant epithet in its meaning: "a flexible stick of such the highest approved thickness ...". It is included by Tolstoy for a specific purpose - to indicate that despotism and cruelty come from the tsar himself, are determined by the autocratic system. The indication that the thickness of the gauntlets was approved by the king himself is based on documentary evidence.
It is known that Tolstoy was familiar with the note of Nicholas I, in which the tsar prescribed the rite of execution of the Decembrists with all the details. Regarding this note, Tolstoy wrote with indignation that "this is some kind of sophisticated murder."
In his article "Nikolai Palkin" the author mentions a familiar regimental commander, who "the day before with his beautiful daughter danced a mazurka at a ball and left earlier in the morning to order the chasing of a fleeing Tatar soldier to death through the ranks, spotted this soldier to death and returned have dinner with the family. "
This scene represents, as it were, an intermediate stage between the article "Nikolai Palkin" and the story "For what?", Closer to the latter.
The emotional impact of this scene on the reader intensifies from work to work ("Nikolai Palkin" - "After the ball" - "For what?"). Here Tolstoy manages to most vividly convey the feelings, thoughts, experiences of the heroes during the execution, their mental and physical suffering.
We advise you to read
Babaev E.G. Essays on aesthetics and creativity of L.N. Tolstoy. - M., 1981.
Kuzina L.N. Leo Tolstoy's artistic testament. Poetics L.N. Tolstoy late XIX - early XX century. - M., 1993.
L.N. Tolstoy in the memoirs of his contemporaries: In 2 volumes. M .: Fiction, 1978.
Lomunov KN. Leo Tolstoy in the modern world. - M., 1975.
Khrapchenko M.B. L. Tolstoy as an artist. - M., 1975.
Fortunatov N.M. L. Tolstoy's Creative Laboratory: Observations and Reflections. - M., 1983.

"After the ball" analysis of the story - theme, idea, genre, composition and features of the work.

"After the ball" analysis

Year of writing — 1903

Genre - story (in the center of the story is one important event in the life of the hero, and the text is small in volume)

Story topic: Love, beating a soldier - Tatar

main characters: Ivan Vasilievich, Varenka, Petr Vladislavovich

Main problem in the story is connected with moral questions: what forms a person - social conditions or an event.

"After the ball" composition:

The peculiarity of the composition is a story within a story.

The basis of the composition is contrast, opposition.

The whole story is the events of one night, about which the hero recalls many years later.

The work is divided into two semantic parts: at the ball and after the ball.

The main part is "After the Ball", despite the fact that it is smaller in volume. That is why the story is called "After the Ball". Thus, the author avoids edifying, imposing his position on the reader, but turns his gaze in the right direction.

These units have their culminations: at 1 o'clock - the performance of the mazurka by the colonel and his daughter Varenka, at 2 o'clock - the punishment of the soldier under the leadership of the same colonel. In their meaning, these episodes are sharply opposed to each other, that is, they are contrasting.

The first and the last parts of the composition are a connecting element of long-past and later events - the story of the main character about an incident that influenced his whole life, the composition method “story within a story” is obtained.

"After the ball" features of the work

The story is built on the reception of contrast, or antithesis, by showing two opposite episodes and, in connection with this, a sharp change in the experiences of the narrator. The writer also uses contrast in the choice of language means. So when describing the portrait of Varenka, white predominates: "white dress", "white kid gloves", "white satin shoes". White is the personification of purity, light, joy. The musical accompaniment of the story speaks of the holiday in the soul of a young man: a cheerful square dance, a gentle smooth waltz, a perky polka, an elegant mazurka create a joyful mood.

In the scene of punishment there are other colors and other music: “... I saw ... something big, black and heard the sounds of a flute and a drum coming from there. It was tough, bad music. "

The meaning of the story "After the Ball" invaluable. The writer posed broad humanistic problems. What is justice, honor, dignity? These problems have worried and are worrying more than one generation of Russian society. That is why Tolstoy recalled an incident that happened in his youth and made it the basis of his story.

The author in the story not only shows evil and good principles in a person, not only condemns cruelty, but also exposes social injustice that distorts the nature of a person, which has false concepts of duty, honor, dignity, and also reveals the true essence of Nicholas Russia .. The writer makes us , readers, to think about the problem of human responsibility for everything that happens.

Topic: Analysis of the composition of a literary work

L.N. Tolstoy "After the Ball"

Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" is his later work, written in 1903, in an era of crisis brewing in the country before the Russian-Japanese war, which Russia shamefully lost, and the first revolution. The defeat showed the failure of the state regime, because the army primarily reflects the situation in the country. Although the story takes place in the 40s of the XIX century, in the Nikolaev era, Tolstoy is not in vain returning to the past, since for him the parallels between the situation in society and in the army in these epochs so different at first glance are obvious. But the "army" problem is not the main one in the story, the main emphasis is placed on moral issues.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, like no one else, was interested in the problem of social evil. Many of his works are distinguished by high pathos. Often, his creations were based on real facts. So it was with the story "After the Ball", which describes an event that Tolstoy heard about when he was young. The main problem of storytelling is what shapes a person - social conditions or chance. The hero of the story is a nobleman of the Nikolaev era, an ordinary person, good, but simple, with little reasoning: “... at that time we did not have any circles at our university, no theories, but we were just young and lived as is typical of youth: learned and had fun. " We see that the narrator was not interested in global questions. He dwells in the world of balls, revelry, falling in love, and does not think about what is happening around in the country in which he lives. This is an ordinary man in the street, although kind and decent, with a good soul.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe story is revealed with the help of a certain system of images and composition. The main characters are Ivan Vasilievich and the colonel, the father of Vary, the girl with whom the narrator was in love. Varya is rather an object, with her “help” a story is tied. But the main problem is solved through the images of her father and the main character. The author shows that, nevertheless, society and its structure, and not chance, influence the personality.

The story is divided into two parts - the ball and after the ball, and the first part is much more voluminous. The first part gives an enthusiastic description of the secular ball. Tolstoy uses the epithets "happy", "magnificent", "shining" to make the reader feel like a real holiday.

The second part, small in volume, carries a large semantic load. It is no coincidence that the story is called "After the Ball". When choosing a title, the author chose the title that emphasizes the importance of the tragic part of the story that happened after the ball.

Unfortunately, the hero, having lived his life, did not understand what happened to him and why? He remained lonely - probably unable to overcome the mistrust of people born that morning. It seems that his life is a vicious circle, from which he never broke away. “These are the kinds of things that happen and from which the whole life of a person changes and is directed,” says the author. We can say that Ivan Vasilyevich lost not only his love for the colonel's daughter, but also his love and respect for the Russian society of that time.

The composition of a work is understood as the location and interconnection of its parts, the order in which events are presented. It is the composition that helps the reader to better understand the author's intention and idea, the thoughts and feelings that inspired him.

Tolstoy used the antithesis technique, which is visible at different levels. Leo Tolstoy's story "After the Ball" is compositionally divided into two parts, completely different in mood. The first is dedicated to the description of the ball - bright, cheerful, unforgettable. The protagonist of the story is young and handsome, in love and enjoys the favor of the adorable girl Varenka. Light and joyful feelings overwhelm the young man, making the first part of the story festive and wonderful. The second part of the story, both in terms of events and in mood, constitutes an absolute contrast to the first. The scene of the terrible punishment of the soldier tremendously shocked the young man, in whose soul there was no room for evil and violence, cruelty. Reality, harsh reality burst into the young man's dreams, sweeping away joy and happiness. It turned out that tragedy, misfortune, injustice exist next to the holiday and fun. The deep shock from what he saw aroused disgust in the young man, but not a feeling of protest. Perplexed, he thought that he did not know or did not understand something that gave the right to one person, albeit one with power, to mock, beat and insult other people in a lower position.

The composition of the story gives the reader the opportunity to feel all the horror, all the injustice of what is happening, precisely because it is shown after a delightful, full of love and joy ball. By arranging events in this order, L.N. Tolstoy helped us better and deeper understand the idea and meaning of the story.

The story is told in the first person. There are two storytellers in the story: Ivan Vasilievich, the main character, and the one who introduces us to Ivan Vasilievich. Before us is a story in a story. Such a ring composition allows bringing together, and therefore, juxtaposing two eras.

Let's turn to the beginning of the story.

“- You say that a person cannot understand by himself what is good, what is bad ...

So the respected Ivan Vasilyevich spoke after the conversation between us ... "

We understand that there are two storytellers in the work. One leads the story from the author. Another by this author is designated both as a participant in the events and as a narrator - this is Ivan Vasilyevich.

The story begins immediately, suddenly, without an expanded exposure.

An exposition is an introductory part of a literary or musical work, containing motives that develop in the future.

The story ends immediately without any conclusions or teachings. The main thing has been said, there is nothing to add.

Before us is an excerpt, a fragment from life, a conversation about the role of social conditions in changing the views and behavior of a person, about whether these conditions are omnipotent or there is something else that allows a person to see.

"After the Ball" is a work that can be called a story within a story, since Ivan Vasilyevich's story about the events at the ball and after the ball arose in the course of a conversation between old friends. They are trying to decide "what is good and what is bad." Ivan Vasilievich offers episodes from his life that can help solve this issue. The conversation of friends - the frame of the story - is the beginning and ending of this work. The frame (framing) of the story is also an important part in order to understand how much the participants in the conversation are concerned about moral issues.

After the ball

Color spectrum

We see only white, pink and silver colors - a light, festive scale.

The ball is wonderful, the hall is wonderful, the buffet is magnificent, the musicians are famous.

The colors darken sharply

accompanied by black color and “something so colorful, wet, red, unnatural”, which turned into the back of the beaten person.

Sounds

The mazurka motive sounds almost continuous

An unpleasant, screeching melody is heard. On the parade ground "drums were beating and flutes were whistling." These sounds woke up the alarm

Description of Varenka's father

Varenka's father is handsome, stately, tall, fresh, with a white mustache, white sideburns, shining eyes, a joyful smile, wide breasts, strong shoulders and long slender legs.

The colonel is still the same. But now with a bloodied, tortured victim of execution, his beauty and military bearing looks almost blasphemous

The mood of the protagonist

Ivan Vasilievich is satisfied, happy, blessed, kind, looks at the dancers with enthusiastic emotion, tender feeling.

In the ball scene, the hero of the story perceives everything around him “with enthusiastic affection” (he is in love), he was infinitely “happy”, and his happiness “grew and grew”.

He is captured by the holiday atmosphere, the closeness of his beloved girl, a sense of his own youth and beauty.

Ivan Vasilyevich is experiencing an almost physical melancholy that reaches the point of nausea. The feeling of happiness is replaced by the feeling of horror. The ominous regularity, soullessness, duration and horror of the ongoing L.N.T. conveys the repetition of the same words: "all the same blows fell from both sides on the stumbling, writhing man, and the drums still beat and the flute whistled, and still the tall, stately figure of the colonel moved with a firm step next to the punished." (something mechanical sounds in the rhythm of the words - almost not a human colonel)

Contrasts and shapes

LOVELY VARENKA

She is in a white dress, in white gloves in white shoes, she has "a radiant, flushed face with dimples and gentle sweet eyes."

PUNISHABLE

“A man stripped to the waist, tied to the guns of two soldiers. His back - "something motley, wet, red, unnatural", tugging with his whole body, slapping his feet through the melted snow, moved towards me, then overturned back - and then the non-commissioned officers leading him behind the guns pushed him forward, then falling in front - and then the non-commissioned officers: pulled him back. " "The stumbling writhing man." "Face wrinkled with suffering."

Contrast as a technique helps to reveal the ideological content of the story.

Tolstoy contrasts two parts of the story with each other and uses contrasting colors in the description. The contrasting image of the characters, their psychological state, the environment in which they live, allows the writer to reveal the essence of their characters and at the same time to reveal the idea of \u200b\u200bsocial contradictions in Russia. The contrast helps to reveal the idea of \u200b\u200bthe coexistence of two worlds.

“At the ball” and “On the parade ground” are different scenes, and the contrast between them is quite natural, if not for one “but” ... The same person participates in them. The execution on the parade ground was led by Varenka's father, Colonel B. Blinded by love, Ivan Vasilyevich had seen him ideal before, so the shock from what was happening on the parade ground was strongest. “My heart was almost physical, reaching the point of nausea, longing ...” And it was also very “ashamed”.

The scene on the parade ground is the denouement of the action. Ivan Vasilievich for a short period of time (from evening to morning) went from blinding to epiphany. Having seen, he realized that in the world of people there is an appearance and essence, and they are far from always in harmony. In the case of the colonel, this was exactly the case. At the ball he is "pink and white." It turned out that this was an appearance, but on the parade ground its essence was manifested.

The Colonel is sincere about his daughter and the other participants in the ball. In relation to people of a certain circle, he is nice and kind, and there he is really handsome. He is an attentive, caring father (wears homemade boots to dress and take out his beloved daughter.) And Varenka loves him and is proud of him "with pride and joy, both for himself and for him, looks at the admiring spectators."

In the scene on the parade ground, such qualities of his nature are manifested: arrogance and disdain for people of the lower class. He is an old campaigner, accustomed to obeying those above and giving orders to those below. He is an adherent of order and law. He is sincerely convinced: everything should be according to the law: if a soldier escapes, he must go through the line, must be punished. The punishment system was not invented by him: he simply does not take the trouble to think about it. Maybe somewhere in the depths of his soul, while doing his duty, as he understands it, some kind of human feeling is stirring (it's not for nothing that he, probably ashamed, pretends not to recognize Ivan Vasilyevich, and hastily turns away).

And this does not diminish his guilt. This only explains the motives of his actions. He believes in the need to deal with those who have broken the law. And he considers it his duty to punish the "little soldier" for insufficient effort in punishing a fugitive Tatar. "Pounds him in the face for a weak blow."

Did the narrator understand the reasons for the contradiction in the character of the colonel? He is sincerely kind (at the ball), he is sincerely angry (at the parade ground). And this sincerity of the colonel in different life situations most of all confuses Ivan Vasilyevich. “Obviously he knows something that I don’t know. If I knew what he knows, I would understand what I saw, and it would not torment me, ”Ivan Vasilyevich reflected. And he vaguely comes to the conclusion that society is to blame for this alogism of life (alogism is absurdity). The hero never got to the root. He only guesses that the matter is in some social reasons.

Although Tolstoy expanded the description of the execution and at the same time emphasized the contrast in the appearance of the colonel at the ball and after the ball, nevertheless, the events that took place at the ball are drawn in more detail and more complete.

The contrast between these two parts of the story is obvious and the power of the description of the execution still suppresses the bright and joyful colors of the ball.

If such regret remained in the text of the story, then the character of Ivan Vasilyevich would have changed greatly. In this case, he would have come to terms with the contrast in the colonel's behavior. From a person with a sensitive conscience and the ability for extraordinary solutions, he would turn into someone who humbly follows the usual standards.

This is what the author tried to emphasize when working on the text.

Tolstoy, being the bearer of the humanistic idea, not only exposes the colonel's cruelty, but also shows the ugliness of social conditions that distort the concepts of duty, humanity, and distort human nature. The author leads us to the idea that the fun, well-being, and the idle life of some people are based on lawlessness, oppression, and the violation of the human dignity of others.

In contrast, the state of the main character in these two scenes can be expressed by the words: “I hugged the whole world with my love at that time” - and after the ball: “I was ashamed to such an extent ... from this sight. "

"I was ashamed to such an extent ..." - says Ivan Vasilievich. He goes home, and "his heart was almost physical, reaching the point of nausea, melancholy." Repeatedly repeated words that speak of the close attention of the involuntary witness of punishment to what is happening, make the reader also penetrate into the essence of what is happening, to understand the feelings of the hero.

A young man from a wealthy family, hot, impressionable, even enthusiastic, he, for the first time in his life faced with terrible injustice, abruptly changed his life path, abandoned any career and devoted his energies to helping other people.

For Ivan Vasilyevich, civil service was associated with a source of injustice. He would feel guilty all the time without guilt.

If you can't change anything, then at least don't participate in the creation of evil. Outside the public service, the hero also brought benefit to society: “We know how bad you are. Tell me better: no matter how many people are good, if you weren't there. " That is, the main character is aware of his personal moral responsibility for everything that happens.

The love of Ivan Vasilyevich for Varenka also collapsed. A person should not be indifferent to the life of those who are close and “distant”. He should feel personally responsible for everything that happens in the world. And he parted with Varenka because he could not live and love as before (the emotional shock was too great).

Lev Nikolaevich could not, by virtue of his character and convictions, stay away from the fight against social evil. He believed that his time was full of "those horrors, the same tortures, which for the next generations will be just as amazing in their cruelty and absurdity."

"Three hundred thousand people in prison and prison companies ... die physically and morally."

Lev Nikolaevich was tormented all his life by the thought of the lack of rights of the Russian soldier. Back in 1855, he was working on a project to reform the army, where he opposed the barbaric punishment with gauntlets.

Now let's get back to the question of composition. Evening and morning, that is, the symbols are opposed: the evening cloudes, distorts the author's vision of life (everything seems beautiful to him). Morning unwittingly rips off the veil of night charm, the veil from the eyes of the hero. And he opens up another side of life.