Dolokhov in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" apologizes to Pierre on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. In moments of danger, in a period of general tragedy, conscience awakens in this tough man. Bezukhov is surprised at this. Dolokhov shows himself as a decent person when he, with other Cossacks and hussars, frees a party of prisoners, where Pierre will also be; when he hardly speaks, seeing Petya lying motionless. Conscience is a moral category, without it it is impossible to imagine a real person.
Questions of conscience and honor are important for Nikolai Rostov. Having lost a lot of money to Dolokhov, he vows to return it to his father, who saved him from dishonor. After a while, Rostov will do the same in relation to his father, when he will inherit and accept all his debts. Could he have acted differently if in his parental home a sense of duty and responsibility for his actions was brought up in him? Conscience is the inner law that does not allow Nikolai Rostov to act immorally.
2) "The Captain's Daughter" (Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin).
Captain Mironov is also an example of loyalty to his duty, honor and conscience. He did not betray the Fatherland and the Empress, but chose to die with dignity, boldly throwing accusations in Pugachev's face that he was a criminal and a treason.
3) "The Master and Margarita" (Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov).
The problem of conscience and moral choice is closely related to the image of Pontius Pilate. Woland begins to tell this story, and the protagonist is not Yeshua Ha-Notsri, but Pilate himself, who executed his defendant.
4) "Quiet Don" (MASholokhov).
Grigory Melekhov during the civil war led the Cossack hundred. He lost this position due to the fact that he did not allow his subordinates to rob prisoners and the population. (In past wars, robbery was common among the Cossack ranks, but it was regulated). This behavior caused discontent not only on the part of his superiors, but also on the part of Panteley Prokofievich, his father, who, taking advantage of his son's opportunities, decided to “profit” from the loot. Pantelei Prokofievich had already done this, having visited his eldest son Petro, and was sure that Grigory would also allow him to rob the Cossacks who sympathized with the "red". Gregory's position in this respect was specific: he took "only edible food and feed for the horse, vaguely fearing to touch someone else's and with disgust for robbery." The robbery of his own Cossacks seemed "especially disgusting" to him, even if they supported the "Reds". “Is yours not enough? You boors! People were shot for such things on the German front, ”he tells his father in his hearts. (Part 6 Ch. 9)
5) "A Hero of Our Time" (Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov)
The fact that for an act committed against the voice of conscience, sooner or later there will be retribution, is confirmed by the fate of Grushnitsky. Wanting to take revenge on Pechorin and humiliate him in the eyes of his acquaintances, Grushnitsky challenges him to a duel, knowing that Pechorin's pistol will not be loaded. A sneaky act in relation to a former friend, to a person. Pechorin accidentally learns about Grushnitsky's plans and, as subsequent events show, prevents his own murder. Without waiting for the conscience to awaken in Grushnitsky and he confesses to his treachery, Pechorin kills him in cold blood.
6) "Oblomov" (Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov).
Mikhey Andreevich Tarantyev with his godfather Ivan Matveyevich Mukhoyarov several times commit illegal acts in relation to Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. Tarantiev, taking advantage of the location and trust of the simple-minded and ignorant of Oblomov's affairs, after having drunk him, forces him to sign a contract for renting housing on conditions that are predatory for Oblomov. Later, he would recommend him as the estate manager of a swindler and a thief Zatertoy, telling about the professional merits of this man. Hoping that Zattery is indeed an intelligent and honest manager, Oblomov will entrust him with the estate. There is something frightening in its validity and timelessness in the words of Mukhoyarov: "Yes, godfather, until the boobies in Russia are extinct, that they sign papers without reading, our brother can live!" (Part 3, Chapter 10). For the third time, Tarantyev and his godfather will oblige Oblomov to pay a non-existent debt according to a loan letter to his landlady. How low a man’s fall must be if he allows himself to profit from the innocence, credulity, and kindness of other people. Mukhoyarov did not even spare his own sister and nephews, forcing them to live almost from hand to mouth, for the sake of their own wealth and well-being.
7) "Crime and Punishment" (Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky).
Raskolnikov, who created his theory of “blood on conscience,” calculated everything, checked it “arithmetically”. It is precisely his conscience that prevents him from becoming “Napoleon”. The death of the "useless" old woman causes unexpected consequences in the life of the people around Raskolnikov; therefore, when deciding moral questions, one cannot trust only logic and reason. "The voice of conscience remains at the threshold of Raskolnikov's consciousness for a long time, but it deprives him of the emotional balance of the" ruler ", condemns him to the torments of loneliness and separates him from people" (G. Kurlyandskaya). The struggle between reason, justifying blood, and conscience, protesting against the shed blood, ends for Raskolnikov with the victory of conscience. “There is one law - the moral law,” asserts Dostoevsky. Having understood the truth, the hero returns to the people from whom he was distanced by the crime committed.
Lexical meaning:
1) Conscience is a category of ethics that expresses the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, to determine, from the standpoint of good and evil, the attitude towards his own and other people's actions, the line of behavior. S. makes his assessments as if independently of the practical. interest, however, in reality, in various manifestations of S. of a person reflects the impact on him of concrete. historical., social class. living conditions and upbringing.
2) Conscience is one of the qualities of the human personality (properties of the human intellect), which ensures the preservation of homeostasis (the state of the environment and its position in it) and is conditioned by the ability of the intellect to model its future state and the behavior of other people in relation to the “bearer” of conscience. Conscience is one of the products of education.
3) Conscience - (joint knowledge, to be in charge, to know): a person's ability to realize his duty and responsibility to other people, independently evaluate and control his behavior, be a judge of his own thoughts and actions. "The matter of conscience is the matter of a person, which he leads against himself" (I. Kant). Conscience is a moral sense that allows you to determine the value of your own actions.
4) Conscience - - the concept of moral consciousness, inner conviction of what is good and evil, the consciousness of moral responsibility for their behavior; an expression of the individual's ability to exercise moral self-control on the basis of norms and rules of behavior formulated in a given society, to independently formulate high moral obligations for oneself, demand from oneself to fulfill them and make a self-assessment of the actions performed from the heights of morality and ethics.
Aphorisms:
“The strongest distinction between humans and animals is moral feeling, or conscience. And his dominance is expressed in a short but powerful and extremely expressive word "must". " Charles Darwin
"Honor is an outer conscience, and conscience is an inner honor." And Schopenhauer.
"A clear conscience is not afraid of lies, rumors or gossip." Ovid
"Never act against your conscience, even if the state interests demand it." A. Einstein
"People often take pride in their purity of conscience just because they have a short memory." Leo Tolstoy
"How not to be pleased with my heart when my conscience is calm!" D.I.Fonvizin
"Along with state laws, there are also laws of conscience that make up for the omissions of legislation." G. Fielding.
"You cannot live without conscience and with a great mind." M.Gorky
"Only the one who has clothed himself in the armor of lies, insolence and shamelessness will not flinch before the judgment of his conscience." M. Gorky
- Updated: May 31, 2016
- Author: Mironova Marina Viktorovna
The moral problems associated with sin and repentance have always worried Russian literature. Even A. Pushkin widely staged her in the drama "Boris Godunov". In an era of social turmoil, the protagonist of the work - the future Tsar Boris - goes to the crime, which he commits by someone else's hands. This event is the murder of the son of Ivan the Terrible, the heir to the Russian throne in Uglich. Throughout his subsequent life, Boris Godunov has been trying to justify himself before fate, the people, carrying out various reforms in life, performing a good deed. But all his undertakings are doomed to complete failure. The country is overtaken by hunger, destruction, disease.
FM Dostoevsky posed the problem of sin and repentance especially sharply in his work. This theme is colored in his tragic tones, and the tragedy unfolds in everyday life, on the subject level. But he depicts this life far from the way other writers-realists did - the whole universe thickens before the reader.
In the novels of this writer, there is a conflict between a strong personality and his conscience. The sin that his characters commit is closely related to the idea that took possession of the character.
This is especially evident in the novel "Crime and Punishment". The plot, the conflict of the work is outlined by the author already in the title. The punishment for a committed sin is inevitable, inevitable, this is the law of life. Moreover, the most terrible punishment of the hero is expressed in his moral torment, in his repentance.
Repentance in Dostoevsky's heroes is often embodied in motives of madness or suicide. An example of this is fever, oppression, Raskolnikov's illness and Svidrigailov's suicide. If the hero remains alive, he begins a new life - and each time through hard labor (Raskolnikov, Rogozhin, Mitya Karamazov).
The problem of moral sin and repentance was raised not only by FM Dostoevsky, but also by ME Saltykov-Shchedrin. If Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" commits a crime not only against his conscience, but also punishable by law, then the protagonist of the novel "Lord Golovlevs" Judushka slowly, purposefully, imperceptibly leads to the destruction of the entire Golovlev family.
This novel - a family chronicle can rightly be called a history of deaths. First, the eldest son Stepka the dunce dies tragically in his own house, followed by Porfiry's younger brother, Pashka the Tikhonya, Anna Petrovna's daughter Lyubinka commits suicide, all the children of Judushka - elder Vladimir and little Petenka - die. The "head of the house" Arina Petrovna also dies in misfortune.
Judas is directly responsible for the death of every family member. With his savage speeches, meanness, he deceived, brought the closest people to the edge solely for the sake of monetary gain, in order to get his mother's estate. At the end of his dissolute vile life, there is a small chance for the revival of the family - the birth of Petenka's son. But Judas orders his mother to kill the unborn child. At the end of the novel, the writer shows the awakening of the hero's conscience, but this awakening does not lead to a moral revival of the personality. Enlightenment comes sooner or later for everyone, but it came to Judas too late, when nothing can be changed.
Thus, the theme of sin and repentance runs through the works of many Russian writers. They paid great attention to the upbringing of moral feelings in a person. Retribution inevitably comes to criminals in different forms: terrible visions, dreams, illnesses, death. The feeling of shame can revive a person to a new life free from torment. But often this feeling comes to the heroes too late. It is noteworthy that at one time T. Mann called Russian literature "holy" precisely for its attention to the problems of conscience, sin, retribution and repentance of man.
Self-awareness and remorse
Many people on the path of life have to meet with those people who later become their friends. However, friendship can be real and imaginary.
The problem with the text is that a person must remain extremely honest in all situations, including in friendly relations.
The commentary to the text is as follows. If one of the friends has committed a nasty deed, then the second, initiated into his secret, becomes his accomplice, provided that he conceals the immoral act of his so-called friend, does not condemn, and does not make it public.
What is the position of the author? Firstly, people of high moral standards, with a clear conscience, united by friendly ties, will not do deliberately dishonorable, evil deeds. If both of them or one of them commit an offense, then their task is to get out of this situation with dignity: to accept the punishment they deserve and not try to “get out of the water”. Honestly admitting what they have done, experiencing shame and the severity of guilt is not an easy act, but only after going through all this, people are morally cleansed and vow not to repeat mistakes.
I confirm the correctness of the author's position with the following first example. Prince Gorchakov, a man with a sharp mind, was not a friend, he was a contemporary of Pushkin. The poem "Gabrieliad", written in 1821, had scandalous fame. The authorship was attributed to Pushkin, and he, years later, in 1828, was severely questioned by the authorities and even by the tsar himself. According to the version, Pushkin was frightened of the punishment and at first said: the author of the work is Prince Gorchakov, who by that time was no longer alive. However, there is evidence that later Pushkin admitted that he was the author of the poem. He stated this confession in a letter to the king and was forgiven by him. At the same time, it is known that the poet himself all his life felt a sense of guilt for the mistakes and cowardice shown.
The second example, proving the correctness of the author's position, can be cited from the story "Sotnikov" by Vasil Bykov. The partisan Rybak in captivity betrays Sotnikov, sent to the Germans on a mission with him, and commits a terrible crime, knocking out a bench from under his feet during the execution. Subsequently, the traitor punishes himself: without enduring the pangs of conscience, he dies.
Conclusion. People are honest, with a clear conscience, live according to the laws of goodness and truth. If, for some reason, they commit an immoral act, then they themselves make the most severe sentence.
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- Text to the composition of S. Lvov;
The problem of our guilt before loved ones, the problem of repentance
The writing
Why are young people so eager to leave their home, family, loved ones? After all, then they, like the prodigal son from the gospel parable, often repent of their deeds. The problem of guilt before loved ones and the problem of repentance are posed in the text of S. Lvov.
This problem belongs to the category of "eternal". It is relevant for all ages and times. That is why the author wants to reflect on this, to point out to the readers its importance.
S. Lvov tells us about the fate of the famous German artist A. Durer. In his youth, he left his home, left his family, wife and parents, leaving for Italy. A plague epidemic was just beginning in Nyurberg. Telling about this story, the author reveals the feelings of parents left behind by their children: “Who hasn’t happened for months, or even years, to wait for news from the brainchild that left his father’s home! How many people are familiar with sleepless nights when you mentally imagine your child as hungry, undressed, shoeless, sick, and the thought that you are powerless to help him, feed, dress, caress, pierces the heart with helplessness and horror. It was after this trip that Dürer created his famous engraving "The Prodigal Son". And in the features of her hero, we notice a tangible similarity with the artist himself. Durer, obviously, experienced the same acute feeling of longing and remorse about which A.S. Pushkin. And this feeling is familiar to each of us. However, "you cannot turn back time." Therefore, we must be kinder, more attentive, more tolerant in relationships with loved ones. This is exactly the author's position in this passage.
S. Lvov's text is very figurative, bright, expressive. He uses a variety of tropes, rhetorical figures: epithets ("with great joy", "impatient thirst for youth"), metaphor ("thought pierces the heart with helplessness and horror"), a question-and-answer form of presentation ("Could Durer experience a feeling of repentance in Italy, that he left his homeland, leaving his relatives in danger? He could and probably even experienced ").
I fully share the position of S. Lvov. The feeling of belated remorse is familiar to all of us. Therefore, we must reflect on what our family means to us. K.G. writes about the daughter's feeling of guilt before her deceased mother. Paustovsky in the story "Telegram". The main character of the story, Nastya, lives a bright, eventful, interesting life. She works in the Union of Artists, tries to help people, restore justice - arranges an exhibition for one of the talented sculptors. At the same time, Nastya remains indifferent to the fate of her own mother, who lives far from her. She doesn't even have time to come to her funeral. In the finale, Paustovsky's heroine cries bitterly, suddenly realizing that she has lost. Nastya's behavior is both cruel and immoral. According to the writer, vanity and petty worries should not absorb a person. All ostentatious kindness and care are worthless if we are indifferent to our loved ones.
A belated feeling of remorse is also present in the hero of V. Astafiev's autobiographical story "The Last Bow". Like the prodigal son in the parable, his hero left his home long ago. And then his grandmother died, left in his native village. But they did not let him go from work for this funeral. And the grandmother who raised and brought up the boy was everything for him, “everything that is dear in this world”. “I had not yet realized the enormity of the loss that befell me,” writes V. Astafyev. - If it happened now, I would crawl from the Urals to Siberia to close my grandmother's eyes, to give her the last bow. And lives in the heart of wine. Oppressive, quiet, eternal.<...> I have no words that could convey all my love for my grandmother, would justify me in front of her. "
Thus, the family, according to S. Lvov, is our small homeland. Therefore, we will appreciate every minute spent with loved ones, we will love and cherish them.
Text to the composition
While working on a book about the artist Albrecht Durer, I learned that he, soon after he got married, left his native Nuremberg for Italy. He left unexpectedly. Hastily. Leaving home and parents. He left just when the plague broke out in Nuremberg.
Many biographers of Dürer have tried to explain this trip to Italy. And they couldn't. And I tried. And he couldn't either. How can you explain? But it seems to me that the boundless acuteness of remorse that permeates his engraving "The Prodigal Son", created shortly after this trip, explains something.
I will not be able to describe this engraving and the thoughts that it evokes in me, otherwise than I did in my book "Albrecht Durer". Here is this description with some abbreviations. Among the Gospel parables, the parable of the prodigal son turned out to be especially understandable and close to many people. He impatiently demanded from his father his part of the inheritance, "went to a far side and there squandered his property, living dissolutely." Having gone broke, he learned hunger and hard work. Repented, he returned to his father, and he received him with great joy.
For centuries, this story has worried people not only with its allegorical, but also direct meaning. It is intelligible to everyone who has children and who knows how they are torn, growing up from under the parental home, how unreasonable, in the opinion of parents, they dispose of their barely acquired freedom, wasting if not money, then time and health. Who hasn’t happened for months, or even years, to wait for news from the brainchild that left his father’s home! How many people are familiar with sleepless nights when you mentally imagine your child as hungry, undressed, unclothed, sick, and the thought that you are powerless to help him, feed, dress, caress, pierces the heart with helplessness and horror. Who does not understand the happiness of the unexpected return of your flesh and blood, when past grievances seem absurd, when nothing is a pity for the returning one, if only he would live longer in his father's house, and most importantly, if only he was happy. But after all, the impatient thirst for youth to live its own life, free from parental care and guidance, the trials that fell to the lot of those who went on a journey along the path of life, the bitterness of regrets about the lost, the acuteness of repentance, when it seems - everything is ready to endure, everything, anything, just to return to their own people, great happiness to cross their own threshold and find everyone alive - all these feelings are also close and understandable to people. Everyone, before becoming a father, was a son.
Looking at Dürer's engraving, we notice with amazement that in the face of the prodigal son there is a tangible resemblance to the artist himself, as he depicted himself in some self-portraits. The prodigal son has the same curly shoulder-length hair and the same, unexpected for a swineherd farmhand, fluffy sleeves of a thin shirt. Could Dürer experience in Italy a feeling of remorse that he had left his homeland, leaving his family in danger? I could and probably even experienced it. But it seems to me that the similarity between the prodigal son and Durer in this picture means something deeper. The artist, obsessed with his creativity, hastens to learn as much as possible about life and experience it. This desire is familiar not only to artists. The person whom it has possessed involuntarily moves away from family and friends, sometimes for a while, sometimes - forever. Immersed in his searches, busy with his own business, he does not spare himself, but it happens that he does not spare his relatives, unwillingly, he becomes cruel towards the closest people. While he is uplifted, while the work is going well, he does not notice this alienation. But the work went on with difficulty or failed, and the strength ran out. Previously, he could hardly wait for the morning to continue what he had begun, now he wakes up in anguish before the coming day. Everything that has been done seems to be worthless, everything that has to be done is overwhelming. Memories of real and imaginary wines in front of loved ones are crowded in my head, thoughts of money that I thoughtlessly spent, of the time I wasted in vain, of promises that I made but did not fulfill, of hopes that I did not meet. The heart burns with unbearable melancholy, hands clench in despair, the face distorts with a grimace of pain, and it takes on the expression captured in the engraving "Prodigal Son". It could be called both "Repentance" and "Remorse." In order to portray this state in this way, one must at least once experience the feeling about which Pushkin speaks.