Dialectic of the soul of Tolstoy

Q.30

ʼʼChildhood, Adolescence, Youthʼʼ

Trilogy ʼʼChildhood. Adolescence. Youthʼʼ is the first published work of Leo Tolstoy. It was it that brought the writer wide fame and recognition as a new, brilliant talent in literature. The extraordinary power of Tolstoy's talent was immediately noticed by Turgenev, who, after reading the first part of the trilogy, wrote: "Here, finally, is Gogol's successor, not at all like him, as it should have been." Indeed, already in his first book, Tolstoy showed all the main features of his talent: deep psychologism, attention to the moral movements of the heroes and, most importantly, the principle of "dialectics of the soul", as N.G. Chernyshevsky called it. The combination of so many striking distinctive features of the writer's style in one work led to the fact that even a century and a half after its publication, the trilogy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youthʼʼ is perceived by the reader as a surprisingly modern work.

Very often, literary critics and simply readers call this book the autobiography of Tolstoy himself. Indeed, many events in the life of the author, his family and friends are reflected in the content of the work. At the same time, Tolstoy's plan was not to tell with historical accuracy about his childhood and adolescence, but to embody the features of the "era of life" of all people in general and each person in particular in the life story of Nikolenka Irteniev. This is confirmed by the words of Tolstoy himself: when the first part of the trilogy entitled The Story of My Childhood was published in the Contemporary, Tolstoy wrote that this title “contradicts the idea of ​​writing”: “Who cares about the story of my childhood ...”

The hero of Tolstoy, Nikolenka Irteniev, is a person from any time. Of course, the historical features of that time, when he lived, leave a certain imprint on his soul and character. But in general, in my opinion, Tolstoy shows the maturation, the formation of the human personality. For this reason, a hero like Nikolenka Irteniev could have lived in ancient Greece, in the Middle Ages, and in the distant future. That's why the trilogy ʼʼChildhood. Adolescence. Youthʼʼ is still relevant in our times.

A person is born, grows, matures, becomes a person. And in general, this process is no different from the one described in his book by Tolstoy. Absolutely, as before, in childhood for all babies, the closest and most beloved people are their relatives. In adolescence or adolescence, love and trust in loved ones begin to be supplanted by such qualities as arrogance, vanity, a thirst for independence; and in youth, real development of personality begins, as described by Tolstoy.

"Dialectics of the Soul" in Leo Tolstoy's "Youth"

The story of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy "Youth" with extraordinary sincerity, depth, trepidation and tenderness conveys the moral quest, awareness of his ʼʼyaʼʼ, dreams, feelings and emotional experiences of Nikolai Irteniev. The narration is in the first person, which brings us even closer to the main character. There is a feeling that it is to you that Nikolenka opens her soul, her inner world, talking about the events taking place in his life, about her thoughts, moods and intentions. "Youth" is written in the form of autobiographical prose. In my opinion, this is what made it easier for Tolstoy to paint a picture of a person's internal movements. After all, Lev Nikolaevich, according to Chernyshevsky, "extremely carefully studied the types of life of the human spirit in itself."

At the beginning of the story, Nikolai explains from what moment the time of youth begins for him. It comes from the time when he himself came up with the idea that "the purpose of man is the desire for moral improvement." Nikolai is 16 years old, he is “reluctantly and reluctantly” preparing to enter the university. His soul is overwhelmed with reflections on the meaning of life, on the future, the purpose of man. He tries to find his place in the surrounding society, to strive to defend his independence. Overcome the "habitual" views, the way of thinking with which you constantly come in contact. `` It seemed to me so easy and natural to break away from all the past, remake, forget everything that was, and start my life with all of her relationships completely again, that the past did not weigh me down, did not bind me ''

Nikolai is at the age when a person most fully feels himself in the world and his unity with him and, at the same time, awareness of his individuality. At the university Irteniev becomes a person of a certain social circle, and his inquisitiveness, inclination to introspection, analysis of people and events becomes even deeper.
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He feels that the aristocrats who are one step higher are also disrespectful and arrogant towards him, as he himself towards people of lower origin. Nikolai gets closer to common students, although he was annoyed by their appearance, manner of communication, mistakes in language, but he ʼʼ foreseen something good in these people, envied that cheerful fellowship, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ united them, felt attracted to them and wanted to get closer to themʼʼ. He comes into conflict with himself, as he is also attracted and lured by the "sticky mores" of a secular lifestyle imposed by an aristocratic society. He begins to be burdened by the realization of his shortcomings: “I am tormented by the pettiness of my life ... I myself am petty, but I still have the strength to despise myself and my life”, I was a coward at first ... - ashamed ... ʼʼ, ʼʼ ... I lied for no reason ... ʼʼ, ʼʼ noticed a lot of vanity behind me in this case.

I consider Nicholas capable of moral development. The very destiny of a person is moral development, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ he set as his goal, his inclination to introspection speaks of his rich inner inclinations, of his desire for self-improvement, truth, goodness and justice. This is evidenced by his disappointment in his comme il faut. “So what was that height” from which I looked at them ... Isn't it all nonsense? - sometimes began to dull to me under the influence of envy of camaraderie and good-natured, young fun, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ I saw in front of me.

Friendship with Dmitry Nekhlyudov plays a huge role in revealing the dialectic of the soul of Nikolai Irteniev. It is thanks to conversations with his friend that a young man begins to understand that growing up is not a simple change in time, but a slow formation of the soul. Their sincere friendship is extremely important as a result of both strict moral requests and high mental rises, ʼʼ when, ascending higher and higher in the field of thought, suddenly you comprehend all the immensity of it ... ʼʼ.

L.N. Tolstoy, using the example of Nikolenka Irteniev, draws not only the influence of the environment, but also repulsion from it, overcoming the habitual, stable. It is expressed not in the form of a conflict, but in the form of a gradual formation of one's own view of the world, a new attitude towards people. Describing in detail the thoughts and feelings of a young person, the writer shows the capabilities of the young hero, the capabilities of a person in his opposition to the environment, his spiritual self-determination.

Nikolai is at the age when a person most fully feels his unity with the world and, at the same time, realizes his individuality. At the university Irteniev becomes a person of a certain social circle, and his inquisitiveness, inclination to introspection, analysis of people and events becomes even deeper.

Dialectics of Tolstoy's soul - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Dialectics of Tolstoy's soul" 2017, 2018.

The term "Dialectics of the Soul" was introduced into Russian literature by N.G. Chernyshevsky. In a review of Tolstoy's early works, Ch. Noted that the writer is most concerned with the psychic process itself, its forms, its laws, that is, the dialectic of the soul.

The dialectic of the soul is a direct image of the "mental process"

The idea of ​​moral improvement - one of the cardinal and most contradictory aspects of Tolstoy's philosophical thought - took shape during the period of his creative development. Later, she received a kind of interpretation and greatly influenced the aesthetic views of the writer. Throughout his life, Tolstoy removed the covers of abstraction from her, but never lost faith in her as the main source of the revival of man and society, the real basis of "human unity". 25 Tolstoy's analysis of this idea was determined by the perception of man as a "microworld" of modern social pathology, accompanied by a tireless study of the phenomena of "current reality" that moved Russia towards the 20th century. "Current day", history and era were the criteria for this analysis. The people are the spiritual guide.

One of the first creative endeavors of Tolstoy bore the title "What is needed for the good of Russia and an outline of Russian customs" (1846). 26 But the first reliably realized (albeit incomplete) sketch was called The History of Yesterday (1851). The transition from the scale, almost "universality" of the task in 1846 to the analysis of a limited time interval of human existence in 1851 was the result of Tolstoy's daily five-year observation of the course of his own internal development, recorded in his diary, the observation of a biased, self-critical, as a result day from an elementary temporal unit of every person's life was transformed into a fact of history.

“I am writing the history of yesterday,” Tolstoy precedes the plot of the sketch. - ... God alone knows how many varied, entertaining impressions and thoughts that excite these impressions, although dark, obscure, but no less understandable to our soul, pass in one day. If it were possible to tell them so that he could easily read himself and others could read me, like myself, a very instructive and entertaining book would come out, and such that there would not be enough ink in the world to write it and print it for the printers. From whatever side you look at the human soul, everywhere you will see infinity and speculations will begin, which have no end, from which nothing comes out and of which I am afraid ”(1, 279).

The story "Childhood" is the initial part of the novel "Four epochs of development", conceived in the summer of 1850. "Childhood", the first era, was completed in the summer of 1852. Work on "Adolescence" (1854) and "Youth" (1857) dragged on, repeatedly was interrupted by other realized plans. "Youth", the fourth era was not written. But the "Notes of a Marker" (1853), and "Morning of the Landowner" (1856), and "Lucerne" (1857), and "Cossacks" (1852-1863) are undoubtedly connected with the problems of "Youth" and are different versions of the hero's quest who crossed the threshold of youth.

The story of childhood unfolds in a plot over the course of two days (this was first noted by B. M. Eikhenbaum). A keen and purposeful interest in every past, present and future day of one's own life, evident in any entry in Tolstoy's diary, begun in 1847, is uniquely refracted in the writer's artistic work. The plot of the "Raid" (with an emphasis on the movement of the time of day) fits into two days, "Cutting of the forest" - a day. "Sevastopol in the month of December" (which grew out of the concept of "Sevastopol day and night") covers the events of one day. "Sevastopol in May" covers the life of two days of the Sevastopol defense. "Sevastopol in August" gives a tragic picture of the last two days of the city's defense. "The Novel of the Russian Landowner" is poured into "The Morning of the Landowner".

Day is conceived by Tolstoy as a kind of unit of the historical movement of mankind, in which the most general and eternal laws of human existence are manifested and revealed, as well as history itself, which is nothing more than a plurality of days. In 1858, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: "... with every new object and circumstance, apart from the conditions of the object itself and the circumstance, I involuntarily seek its place in the eternal and infinite, in history" (48, 10). And almost four decades later, in the mid-90s, Tolstoy will note: “What is time? We are told the measure of movement. But what about the movement? What is one undoubted movement? There is one thing, only one thing: the movement of our soul and the whole world to perfection ”(53, 16-17).

One of the most difficult tasks confronting the young Tolstoy was, as you know, in the "conjugation" of the details of the description with generalizations, extensive philosophical and lyrical digressions. The writer himself defined this task for himself as a problem of combining pettiness and generalization. In the artistic world of Tolstoy in the 50s. The concept of a day is directly related to the solution of this main issue for Tolstoy's philosophy and poetics: a specific temporal unit of the life of an individual, society and humanity appears in Tolstoy as a certain artistic and philosophical form of understanding human life and the movement of history in their unity. Later, in the drafts of War and Peace, Tolstoy declared the need to abandon the “nonexistent immobility in time, from the consciousness that<…>the soul is the same today as it was yesterday and a year ago ”(15, 320), and will put the thesis on“ the movement of the personality in time ”at the basis of the philosophical and historical concept of the novel.

Thus, the young Tolstoy's attention to the limited time segment of human life was a natural consequence of the writer's attitude to the world and testified to certain and very important features of his creative method.

From the polemic of Tolstoy with Nekrasov, who arbitrarily changed the title “Childhood” when publishing the story in Sovremennik to “The Story of My Childhood”, it is obvious that the ideological and artistic design of the story was determined by the task of identifying the universal in the particular. Childhood, as an obligatory stage in human development, was studied by Tolstoy with the aim of exposing the positive and maximally effective opportunities lurking in this period of every person's life. The world of feelings, emotions, the element of emotions, the awakening of self-awareness and analysis in a child are not constrained. The bonds of social convention and social predetermination have not yet acquired their rights, although their pressure is already felt by the hero of the story. This tragic motive (the fate of Natalia Savishna, Karl Ivanovich, Ilenka Grap) merges with another, personal (and at the same time universal) - the death of the mother. The chapter "Woe" (at the grave of maman), the penultimate chapter of the story, closes the era of childhood, to which the narrator (and equally the author) turns to as an unconditionally fruitful source of good.

Tolstoy defines the concept of The Four Epochs of Development as “a novel of an intelligent, sensitive and lost person” (46, 151). All parts of the trilogy are united by a single goal - to show the formation of the human personality in direct and ambiguous connections with reality, to investigate the character in its contradictory desire to establish itself in society and to resist it, 27 to reveal in the spiritual development of a child, adolescent, youth the manifestations of concepts that have frozen and inhibit spiritual development, ideas and legalized forms of community, to reveal the source of spiritual self-creation of the individual.

The hero of the trilogy, Nikolenka Irteniev, is given the right to be called a person by analysis, critical knowledge and self-knowledge, the moral and social subject of which expands and deepens with the transition from childhood to adolescence. Both take the hero out of crises to a new level of understanding of the world and give him a sense of the path to other people as a real opportunity. The psychological analysis of Tolstoy, prepared by the artistic achievements of Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov - "dialectics of the soul" (according to the figurative definition of Chernyshevsky) - opened up new opportunities for a person to "acquire" himself.

Tolstoy associated the idea of ​​“uniting people” throughout his entire creative career with the concept of good as the beginning of “connecting” (46, 286; 64, 95, etc.). Since the moral has always been the main form of comprehension of the social for Tolstoy, the writer's concept of “good” included various manifestations of man, which led to the elimination of personal and social disharmony. Already after the release of Childhood, in 1853, Tolstoy wrote: “... it seems to me that the basis of laws should be negative — not true. It is necessary to consider how untruth penetrates into the soul of a person, and having learned its reasons, put obstacles to it. That is, to base laws not on the unifying principles - good, but on the separating principles of evil ”(46, 286).

In an address to the imaginary reader of The Four Epochs of Development, preceding a direct analysis of the “days” that make up the “epochs,” the narrator determines the plot and nature of the analysis of the notes and predetermines the hero's path of introspection. For the narrator, “all the remarkable occasions” in life are only those in which he “had to justify himself before himself” (1, 108). A retrospective look from the present seeks the subtext of those actions of the hero that allow revealing one weakness after another. The study of moral negativism in oneself and others (which goes back in many respects to Rousseau's aesthetics) - the leading theme of Tolstoy's diary - takes on artistic expression. But the theme of the story - childhood - fetters this rationalistic preoccupation.

In the final version, the impulses leading to vanity, pride, laziness, indecision, etc., are imposed on the hero by society and are in conflict with his moral sense. The image of combined, but different and multidirectional aspirations of one moment, the very process of mental life, becomes the main subject of Tolstoy's attention. From the first story, the "dialectic of the soul" will be defined as the most important symptom (and at the same time - a criterion) of a person's movement in time and, thus, will secure its right to an active role in the development of Tolstoy's concept of philosophy of history, since this concept will be based on the idea of ​​" movement of the personality in time ”(15, 320).

Already from "Childhood" it became obvious the importance for Tolstoy of the question of the relationship between human mind and consciousness. In the drafts of the trilogy, the writer returns to this topic many times, trying to solve it both for himself and for the reader in lengthy discourses about people “understanding” and “not understanding”. “I promised to explain to you what I call understanding and non-understanding people<…>None of the qualitative opposite epithets attributed to people, somehow good, evil, stupid, smart, beautiful, bad, proud, humble, I do not know how to apply to people: in my life I have not met either evil, or proud, or good nor a smart person. In humility I always find a suppressed desire for pride, in the cleverest book I find stupidity, in the conversation of the stupidest person I find clever things, etc., etc., but a person who understands and does not understand, these things are so opposite that they can never merge with one another, and it is easy to distinguish between them. Understanding I call that ability that helps us to understand instantly those subtleties in human relationships that cannot be comprehended by the mind. Understanding is not mind, because, although through the mind one can reach the consciousness of the same relationships that understanding cognizes, this consciousness will not be instantaneous, and therefore will not have application. Because of this, there are a lot of smartest people, but they do not understand; one ability does not in the least depend on the other ”(1, 153). This idea is emphasized with particular insistence in the address “To the Readers” of the trilogy: “To be accepted among my chosen readers, I require very little<…>the main thing is that you are an understanding person<…>It is difficult and even to me it seems impossible to divide people into smart, stupid, kind, evil, but understanding and not understanding this is such a sharp line for me that I involuntarily draw between all the people I know.<…>So, my main requirement is understanding ”(1, 208).

Such a sharp opposition of the two types of human consciousness came into obvious conflict with Tolstoy's original thought about the possibility of each person's path to other people. Removing this conflict, that is, identifying the possibilities of moving from the sphere of “misunderstanding” to the sphere of “understanding”, will become one of the most essential tasks of Tolstoy - a man and an artist.

In the final edition of the trilogy, detailed judgments about "understanding" and "misunderstanding" are removed. The emphasis is on comparing two artistically embodied "categories" of people. "Understanding" is accompanied by a multi-layered feeling and consciousness - the guarantee of the "dialectic of the soul." Nikolenka Irteniev is endowed with it in full, maman, Dmitry Nekhlyudov, Karl Ivanovich, Sonechka Valakhina and, most importantly, Natalya Savishna, are quite tangible. It is in them that Nikolenka finds the ability to participate in the life of her soul. Associated with them is the active disclosure of falsehood and "untruth" in the formation and self-identification of the hero, the feasible preservation of the "purity of moral feeling" in an atmosphere of corrupting reality.

The process of analyzing Tolstoy's hero at any given moment is all-encompassing (to the extent that is available to his life experience, connected in many respects with the cultural and everyday environment, and is set by the author-narrator). Experiences combined in one mental act - different, sometimes radically different and illogical aspects and tendencies - are born from the material of the past (history), reality, imagination (future) and taken in their totality create the feeling of an "era".

Impressions of the past, reality and imagination are endowed with the ability to act independently. Memories can "wander", unexpectedly "wander into a walking imagination" (46, 81). The imagination can be “worn out”, “upset” and “tired” (1, 48, 72, 85). Reality is capable of “destroying” (1, 85) and bringing consciousness out of the captivity of memory and imagination.

The Dialectic of the Soul largely determined the artistic system of Tolstoy's first works and was almost immediately perceived by the writer's contemporaries as one of the most important features of his talent.

Just about the dialectic of the soul by the example of war and peace

"Dialectics of the Soul" is a constant image of the inner world of the heroes in motion, in development (according to Chernyshevsky).

Psychologism (showing characters in development) allows not only to objectively depict a picture of the spiritual life of the heroes, but also to express the author's moral assessment of the depicted.

Tolstoy's means of psychological depiction:

b) The disclosure of involuntary insincerity, a subconscious desire to see oneself better and to intuitively seek self-justification (for example, Pierre's thoughts about whether or not to go to Anatol Kuragin after he gives Bolkonsky his word not to do this).

c) An internal monologue that creates the impression of "overheard thoughts" (for example, the stream of consciousness of Nikolai Rostov during the hunt and pursuit of a Frenchman; Prince Andrew under the sky of Austerlitz).

d) Dreams, disclosure of subconscious processes (for example, Pierre's dreams).

e) Impressions of the characters from the outside world. Attention is focused not on the object and phenomenon itself, but on how the character perceives them (for example, Natasha's first ball).

f) External details (for example, an oak on the road to Otradnoye, the sky of Austerlitz).

g) The discrepancy between the time at which the action actually took place and the time of the story about it (for example, the internal monologue of Marya Bolkonskaya about why she fell in love with Nikolai Rostov).

According to N. G. Chernyshevsky, Tolstoy was most interested in “the psychic process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectic of the soul, in order to directly depict the psychic process with an expressive, definitive term”. Chernyshevsky noted that Tolstoy's artistic discovery was the image of an internal monologue in the form of a stream of consciousness. Chernyshevsky singles out the general principles of the "dialectic of the soul": a) The depiction of the inner world of a person in constant motion, contradiction and development (Tolstoy: "a person is a fluid substance"); b) Tolstoy's interest in turning points, crisis moments in a person's life; c) Eventfulness (the influence of events in the external world on the inner world of the hero).

Tolstoy is a master of depicting the dialectic of the soul

Introduction - 3

1. Dialectics of the soul in the works of L. N. Tolstoy - 4

2. Dialectics of the writer's soul - 5

Conclusion - 14

Literature - 15

I. Introduction

I chose the theme of the dialectic of the soul in Leo Tolstoy, because, as it seems to me, Lev Nikolaevich, like no one else, shows the development, evolution of man. Throughout the story, many of Tolstoy's characters change, their inner world changes, but the reader himself has to assess whether the death of Anna Karenina was inevitable, whether Andrei Bolkonsky found his path ...

With the light hand of N. G. Chernyshevsky, critics called "the dialectic of the soul" one of the most important features of Leo Tolstoy's works - penetration into the souls of his heroes, empathy with them throughout their development.

1. Dialectics of the soul in Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The writer L.N. Tolstoy depicts the inner world of this or that person, the hero of his work, in his own way. Opening the "dialectic of the soul", Tolstoy goes to a new understanding of human character. With its help, delving into the details of the mental state of a person, he notices in him experiences and feelings that are not subject to anyone else. Lev Nikolaevich, like no one before him, gave examples of artistic depiction of moving, developing events and "fluid", complex, contradictory, living human characters. Unlike many other writers, Tolstoy does not give full, exhaustive characteristics of the characters at the beginning of the work. The image of the hero, his portrait and, most importantly, character, are given by the writer in motion, are gradually formed from traits and signs that appear in how the hero acts, what he talks about and thinks about, what impression he makes on those around him. Tolstoy was fascinated by the depiction of the very process of the spiritual life of the heroes, the demonstration of the "dialectic of the soul." The artistic images created by Tolstoy are striking in their vitality. Tolstoy's predecessors, depicting the inner world of a person, as a rule, used words that accurately call emotional experience: "excitement", "remorse", "anger", "contempt", "anger". Tolstoy was dissatisfied with this: “To speak about a person: he is an original, kind, intelligent, stupid, consistent, etc. - words that do not give any idea about a person, but have a claim to describe a person, while often only confusing ". Tolstoy is not limited to precise definitions of certain mental states. It goes further and deeper. He "directs the microscope" to the secrets of the human soul and captures with the image the very process of the origin and formation of feelings even before it has matured and acquired completeness. He paints a picture of mental life, showing the approximation and inaccuracy of any ready-made definitions. He implants in his characters his ideas about the world around him. As we read his works, we become their heroes, worry about their fate and what is happening, we look forward to the outcome of the events described. All this speaks of the great talent of the great writer. It seems to me that it is much easier for him to convey this or that emotional mood of a person than for an artist. He has a rich Russian language at his disposal, which he uses as widely as a brilliant artist uses a palette of paints to paint portraits. But in order to understand all the silent feelings that the painter puts into his creation, not only attention is required, but also some mutual understanding.

2. Dialectics of the writer's soul

The secrets of Leo Tolstoy's work are largely understood if we study the biography of the greatest prose writer. The dialectic of Tolstoy's soul is torment, the passage through internal contradictions, this is a constant striving for perfection. But we also see the simplification of a person who grows up and then grows old. Simplification in the highest, Christian sense. If the young Tolstoy takes large-scale material, the problems of life and death, the problems of history, then towards old age he increasingly writes children's stories, the heroes of which are peasant children. And these lectures are unobtrusive, but wise and kind. A person who proudly tore off a cross in childhood preaches Christian values ​​towards old age.

The diary that Tolstoy kept from 1847 until the end of his life was his first literary school - a school of scrupulous self-study, the capture of the secret movements of the soul, the severity of moral rules prescribed to oneself. Tolstoy's characteristic autobiography also comes from the diary.

Tolstoy considered two years of solitary life in the Caucasus to be unusually significant for his spiritual development. The story "Childhood" written here - the first printed work of Tolstoy - together with the later stories "Adolescence" (1852-54) and "Youth" (1855-57), was included in the vast concept of the autobiographical novel "Four epochs of development", the last part of which - “Youth” was never written. In the first stories, Tolstoy, as it were, transferred the realistic principles of the natural school of the 40s. - objectivity, accuracy and detail of descriptions - in the field of research of psychology, the inner world of a child, a teenager, then a young man. He claims to be a researcher of human nature, who wants to understand the secret laws by which consciousness moves. Already in "Childhood" Nikolenka Irteniev learns to pursue every shadow of falsehood, insincerity in feelings (his own and someone else's). In the next stories of the trilogy, the hero's dissatisfaction with himself, reflection and introspection, a vague feeling of acute contradictions in life, a thirst for moral improvement are growing. The psychology of the child for Tolstoy is the first reason for the study of the "natural man", alien to class privileges.

In 1851-53, Tolstoy took part in military operations in the Caucasus (first as a volunteer, then as an artillery officer), and in 1854 he was sent to the Danube army. Soon after the start of the Crimean War, at his personal request, he was transferred to Sevastopol (in the besieged city, he fights on the famous 4th bastion). Army life and episodes of the war gave Tolstoy material for the stories "The Raid" (1853), "The felling of the forest" (1853-55), as well as for the artistic essays "Sevastopol in the month of December", "Sevastopol in May", "Sevastopol in August 1855 years "(all published in" Contemporary "in 1855-56). These essays, traditionally called "Sevastopol Stories", boldly combined document, reportage and storytelling; they made a huge impression on Russian society. The war appeared in them as an ugly bloody massacre, contrary to human nature. The concluding words of one of the essays, that his only hero is the truth, became the motto of all further literary activities of the writer. Trying to determine the originality of this truth, N. G. Chernyshevsky insightfully pointed out two characteristic features of Tolstoy's talent - "dialectics of the soul" as a special form of psychological analysis and "immediate purity of moral feeling" (Complete Works, vol. 3, 1947, p. 423 , 428).

In 1855, Tolstoy arrived in St. Petersburg, became close with the staff of Sovremennik, met N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov, Chernyshevsky and others. The years 1856-59 were marked by Tolstoy's attempts to find himself in an unfamiliar environment, get accustomed to the circle of professionals, assert their creative position; it is - and the time for searches, trial, error, creative experiments. In the story "The Morning of the Landowner" (1856, a fragment of the unrealized "Novel of the Russian Landowner"), Chernyshevsky first noted the author's "peasant" view of things. Written under the influence of the circle of A. V. Druzhinin, the story "Albert" (1857-58) expressed the idea of ​​"chosenness", the sacred fire put into the artist from above. In the story Lucerne (1857), inspired by the impressions of his first trip to Western Europe (1857), Tolstoy's public temperament, violently attacking bourgeois hypocrisy, heartlessness, social injustice, foreshadows the author of Resurrection and later publicistic treatises. The novel "Family Happiness" (1858-59) was intended to show the collapse of the ideal of a secluded "happy world". At the end of the novel, the future Tolstoyan concept of a woman's family duty, her virtue and self-sacrifice in marriage was born. The novel, published in MN Katkov's "Russky Vestnik" (which marked Tolstoy's departure from "Sovremennik"), had no noticeable success among readers.

Gravitation towards the folk theme, a broad epic, matured in Tolstoy already in the story "The Cossacks" (1853-63). In the Caucasus, among the stately nature and simple, pure-hearted people, the hero of the story is more fully aware of the falseness of secular society and renounces the lies in which he lived before. A criterion for the truth of social behavior for Tolstoy. becomes nature and the consciousness of a person close to nature, almost merging with it.

Dissatisfied with his work, disappointed in secular and literary circles, Tolstoy at the turn of the 60s. decided to leave literature and settle in the village. In 1859-1862, he devoted a lot of energy to the school for peasant children he founded in Yasnaya Polyana, studied the setting of pedagogical work in Russia and abroad (travel 1860-61), published the pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana (1862), preaching a free, devoid of strict programmaticity and government discipline, the system of education and upbringing.

In 1862, T. married Sofya Andreevna Bers (1844-1919) and began to live patriarchal and secluded in his estate as the head of a large and growing family. During the years of the peasant reform, Tolstoy performed the duties of the world mediator of the Krapivensky district, resolving disputes between landowners and peasants, as a rule, in favor of the latter. In his worldview at this time, loyalty to the spirit of the old tribal aristocracy, far from the court and living in the concepts of class honor, and democratic aspirations are fancifully combined. The "conscientious nobility", as it were, is giving a hand to the peasant over the head of the bourgeoisie, bureaucracy and urban philistinism.

An aristocrat in education and family tradition, Tolstoy found a way out of the spiritual crisis of the late 50s. in rapprochement with the people, their interests, needs. The whole logic of ideological and creative searches of the writer of the early 60s. - the desire to depict folk characters (the story "Polikushka", 1861-63), the epic tone of the story ("Cossacks"), attempts to turn to history to understand modernity (the beginning of the novel "The Decembrists", 1860-61, published 1884) - led him to the concept of the epic novel War and Peace.

60s - the heyday of the artistic genius of Tolstoy Behind were the "years of study" and "years of wanderings." Living a settled, measured life, he found himself in intense, concentrated spiritual creativity. The original paths mastered by Tolstoy, for all his apparent literary loneliness, led to a new rise in national culture.

War and Peace (1863-69, published in 1865) became a unique phenomenon in Russian and world literature, combining the depth and intimacy of a psychological novel with the sweep and multifaceted character of an epic fresco. With his novel, the writer responded to the pressing desire of the literature of the 60s. to understand the course of historical development, the role of the people in the decisive epochs of national life. The appeal to a special state of popular consciousness in the heroic time of 1812, when people from different strata of the population united in resistance to foreign invasion, created the basis for an epic. In turn, the poetry of the national community found support in the utopian view of the writer, who lovingly recreated the life of the local nobility of the beginning of the century. Tolstoy sees alienation from his people at a time of formidable trials as the main vice of the "ghostly" life of the St. Petersburg court and secular society. And, on the contrary, the patriotism of the Rostovs appears to be part of the general element of people's life. The novel permeates the most important thought-feeling of the artist, organizing his plot. The first stage of a person's awareness of himself as a person is his release from the bonds of class, caste, circle (this is how Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov stand out and move away from the court circle, the Scherer salon). The second stage is the merging of personal consciousness with the huge impersonal world, with the people's truth, enriching it and dissolving oneself in it. For all the contradictory spiritual searches of Bolkonsky and Bezukhov, the main result in the movement of their destinies remains the overcoming of egoism and class isolation: from proud singularity, subjectivity, the heroes come to the consciousness of their involvement in other people, the people (Levin will follow a similar path, Nekhlyudov - the heroes of Tolstoy's later works). The author of War and Peace sees national Russian features in the “hidden warmth of patriotism,” in disgust for ostentatious heroism, in a calm faith in justice, in modest dignity and courage (images of ordinary soldiers, Timokhin, captain Tushin). The folk wisdom of Kutuzov appears even brighter in comparison with the decorative grandeur of Napoleon, whose appearance is satirically reduced. For all the artistic freedom in depicting historical figures, Tolstoy does not put them at the center of his epic. He tends to recognize the objective driving forces of history that shape the fate of a people and a nation. The war between Russia and Napoleon's troops is depicted as a nationwide war. The Russians, according to Tolstoy, raised the "cudgel of the people's war", which "nailed the French until the entire invasion was killed."

The completeness and plasticity of the image, the ramification and intersection of destinies, incomparable pictures of Russian nature are the features of the epic style of War and Peace. The notions of fate, fate, characteristic of the classical epic, are replaced by Tolstoy with the notion of life in its spontaneous flow and flood. Tolstoy rejects the traditional notion of a "hero." His hero in the novel seems to be life itself (private and general, "swarm"), its unhurried course, its joys and sorrows, victories and failures, its simple and eternal moments (birth, love, death), the triumph of its constant renewal. Thought, psychology, no less than "life" in its actions and achievements, occupy the author of the novel. A complex internal struggle, unexpected disappointments and discoveries, new comprehensions of thought and new doubts - this is what invariably accompanies the searches of Tolstoy's heroes. The author creates the illusion of a continuously flowing mental process, the "core" of which is the striving for truth, for justice, making its way through the inertia of life, the customs of the environment, the mood of the minute.

The novel also reflected the obvious contradictions of Tolstoy's thought, his distrust of theoretical knowledge, the idealization of the patriarchal reason, which is especially evident in the artistic type of Platon Karataev. The philosophical arguments of the author about freedom and necessity, about the driving forces of the historical process are marked by the features of fatalism. T. considers the concept of freedom as an instinctive force of life, not subject to reason. But in the very attempt to explain the processes of life, taking into account the dialectical relationship between freedom and necessity, summarizing the manifestation (direction) of the will of countless individuals, Tolstoy stands incomparably higher than contemporary bourgeois historians (such as A. Thiers), who often considered the "free" actions of an outstanding personality to be the main the spring of the movement of history.

In the early 70s. the writer is again captured by pedagogical interests; he wrote "ABC" (1871-72) and later "New alphabet" (1874-75), for which he composes original stories and transcriptions of fairy tales and fables, which constituted four "Russian books for reading". For a while, Tolstoy returned to teaching at the Yasnaya Polyana school. However, symptoms of a mental crisis soon begin to appear. With the weak power of the traditional church faith over Tolstoy, from a young age undermined by skepticism in him, his hope for personal immortality threatened to collapse. The acute sensation of the symptoms of a social turning point in the 70s, associated with Russia's transition to the bourgeois path of development, intensified the crisis of Tolstoy's moral and philosophical worldview

The spirit of mournful meditation, a bleak look at modernity emanates from many pages of Tolstoy's central work of the 70s. - the novel "Anna Karenina" (1873-77, published 1876-77). Like the novels of I. S. Turgenev and F. M. Dostoevsky, written at the same time, "Anna Karenina" is an acutely problematic work, saturated with signs of the times, up to the newspaper "spite of the day." Tolstoy was increasingly losing hope for the possibility of reconciling the interests of the peasantry and the "conscientious" nobility. Disappointment in the bourgeois reforms of the 60s, which did not bring the expected social peace, tranquility and prosperity, T. perceived as proof of the futility of drastic changes in general. He watches with dismay how the remnants of the patriarchal order are crumbling under the onslaught of bourgeois progress, how morals are falling, family foundations are weakening, the aristocracy is degenerating, how impractical eccentrics Oblonskys sell their ancestral forests and lands to the Ryabinin moneybags for cheap. Tolstoy's historical optimism is shaken, but with all the more force he seeks support and the last refuge in patriarchal morals, in the family. All attempts by Konstantin Levin, who is looking for the meaning of life, to understand the foundations of the economy and social structure lead him to a dead end, and the only undoubted benefit after all crises of personal feelings remain family happiness and the naive faith of the old peasant Fokanych, who “lives by his soul, remembers God” ...

Conclusion

It seems to me that in this work I was able to show that the characters of the books, their development, their contradictions and internal struggle are imprinted by the "dialectic of the soul" of the author himself - Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

LN Tolstoy writes "speaking" literary works, conveying this or that idea in a simpler and more accessible language to us. His techniques are different, Tolstoy has a special approach to each character. But whatever the way of conveying the mood, emotional experiences, love and hate of the created characters or landscape, the essence remains the same: the author is able to convey to us something without which, perhaps, life would be incomplete.

Literature

B. I. Bursov, L. N. Tolstoy. Seminary, L., 1963

Gromov, Pavel. "On the style of Leo Tolstoy" Dialectics of the soul "" in "War and Peace". Publisher: L .: Fiction. 1977 year

Tolstoy L.N .. Complete works, v. 1-90 (anniversary edition), M. - L., 1928-58

Dialectics souls... - a writer of everyday life and masters subtle psychological analysis. ... Korolenko is characteristically realistic image folk life, attention ...

Dialectics of the transition period from nowhere to nowhere

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PELEVIN DIALECTICS TRANSITIONAL ... features of earthly existence shower transformed after death ... not just thick and repulsive thick- he ... I could watch for hours Images Saint Sebastian, and ... to the puppet masters the sword was greatness ...

A.S. Pushkin and the problem of drama in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century

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Did not have. Chernyshevsky ignored dialectics historical development, opposing ... the first and recognizes Ostrovsky exclusively master Images Russian way of life: "... always, how ... to come to soul precisely those scenes in which L. Tolstoy goes beyond ...

M. M. Dunaev Faith in the crucible of doubts Orthodoxy and Russian literature in the 17th xx centuries

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What Chernyshevsky called at Tolstoy "dialectic souls"), and already breaking those ... Tolstoy- in the story "Cossacks" (1863). In "Cossacks" Tolstoy- finally formed master, ... especially loved the barefoot in image Gorky. It is democratic criticism ...

The dialectic of the soul is in literature a means that allows one to see in an expanded form the development of a character. The author, who knows how to describe the outside world through the experiences and reflections of the heroes, has achieved real professionalism.

The dialectic of the soul is all about the character

Dialectics is a philosophical concept that means changes through the interaction of 2 principles that are opposite to each other. If we talk about literary heroes, then their development as individuals is a key moment in any work. Either in a story, or in a poem. Since it is the inner world of the hero that touches the reader, makes the latter sympathize with the fictional character or censure him.

As we remember from the literature course, there is a hero and a narrator in the work. And the latter is an individual with his own personal views.

The main character of the work and the plot are closely interconnected. To push events in the fictional world in the right direction, you need to change the mindset and state of mind of the character. Then the development of external events will be natural. Therefore, a novice writer is obliged to study the methods by which the stages of development go through, or, conversely, the stages of personality degradation.

The meaning of dialectics in the novel

The concept of the dialectic of the soul was introduced by the literary theorist Nikolai Chernyshevsky. This is how he defined Leo Tolstoy's inherent ability to explain character through the dynamics of the plot. Through the inner state of your hero, which changes from one scene to another, you can see how versatile the personality of the person described is. Both positive and negative characters in a wide variety of genres of literature must develop. The reader is not interested in static characters that cannot change.

The negative hero can evoke sympathy with a sudden change in thinking, realizing his actions in the past, or the strong hero breaks down internally. The writer must reveal all this dynamics of contradictions as much as possible.

Dialectics in the epic "War and Peace"

Tolstoy brilliantly conveyed the war of 1812 through the thoughts and experiences of his heroes. It is through the experiences of Andrei, Natasha Rostova, Nikolai and Pierre that the deep contradiction between the joys of life and the losses of war is revealed.

For Lev Nikolaevich it was extremely important to reveal the depth of a person in a work. He distinguished in a person his true moral essence, all that superficial that brings secular society into the character of a person. The dialectic of the soul in the novel "War and Peace" occupies an almost central place. The description of nature, the sky over Austerlitz and military negotiations - everything is revealed to the reader through the prism of the states of mind of the characters.

Examples of development through contradictions

What is the dialectic of the soul? Examples can be found on the pages of the volumes Andrei Bolkonsky went through the most profound development. Tolstoy led his hero through losses and disappointments, so that the reader could see how gradually a proud young man became a mature man, wise in military and worldly experience.

The writer wanted the reader to see how contradictory thoughts and feelings can be in one person, and how he deals with it. Spiritual throwing of the heroes, the dialectic of the soul in the novel "War and Peace" leads to significant transformations of the inner psychology of the heroes.

At first, Bolkonsky is shown to us as a vain person. But after going through a wound, experiencing a mental crisis, the hero becomes more human, gentle and peaceful inside.

Both Countess Marya and Nikolai Rostov go through internal fractures. Each of the heroes finds their own new destiny. But Prince Andrew is looking for happiness in inner peace, his last test was fatal. He accepts after another wound of God, confesses and dies.

Tolstoy deliberately places his heroes in difficult situations that fundamentally change their thoughts and spiritual aspirations. For example, Pierre Bezukhov. When he is captured, his personality changes beyond recognition. In the conditions of captivity, he communicates with the common people, revises his personal discretion and gets home as a spiritually stronger, morally purer person.

Tolstoy Trilogy

In the trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", the writer tries to show the difficult path that must be passed in order to become a real person. Hero Irteniev slowly, step by step, goes through all the stages of growing up and socialization. Analysis of his personality, comparisons and spiritual searches - all this revolves in a chaotic stream in the soul of the hero, forcing him to suffer and learn about life.

In the story "Youth" Tolstoy largely described his experiences. Dialectics as a method is as accurate as possible here. And the writer emphasizes that without constant internal struggle, a person will not become either moral or great.

The novel "Anna Karenina"

In the most dramatic novel, Tolstoy also uses the method of the dialectic of the soul. This is also a very powerful work that reveals the human moral world. In Anna Karenina, the heroine's personality is shown very deeply. The entire tense situation that confronts her with a choice - husband, position or love - responds in her with a gigantic moral crisis. The aristocratic environment drives her out, conscience and the desire for happiness outside of marriage split her. It is an internal crisis that breaks the heroine. It is not a dialectical development that takes place here, but a dialectical fall, breakdown and despair in life.

Vronsky is also undergoing a kind of moral restructuring. Tolstoy paid less attention to revealing the character of Count Vronsky. Before meeting Anna, this hero is completely satisfied with his high position and success in society. But love changes his still youthful outlook on life. It is destroyed from within because of love, becomes devastated, although true love should inspire, and not sink the soul to the bottom.

Tolstoy's methods of dialectics

Thanks to several well-thought-out methods, Tolstoy manages to make the inner world of his heroes so colorful, deep, multifaceted that they seem to be real people. The writer reveals these worlds through internal monologues, dreams, reflections.

The pages from the diaries in War and Peace are very important for the plot. For example, Countess Marya's diary tells us a lot. Pierre also keeps a diary when he is fond of Masonic ideas. Moreover, all reflections are not divorced from the reality surrounding the character. Tolstoy creates harmony between the inner and outer world of the hero.

Conclusion

The dialectic of the soul is the main method of revealing the inner world of the heroes in all the works of Leo Tolstoy. It is in such fatal internal crises that the true essence of the character is revealed, and the writer hints that it is in the disclosure of this essence that he sees the meaning of existence.

Both in huge novels and in the story "Youth", Tolstoy flawlessly draws us the images of his heroes through descriptions of their own experiences, through the inner and innermost. Leo Tolstoy was a good psychologist, able to show in dynamics all the "layers" of the soul through his heroes.