What life experience is behind the flask. The theme of the tragic fate of a talented Russian person in the story by N. S. Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer. Flagin's natural strength

The image of Ivan Flyagin, with apparent simplicity and uncomplicatedness, is ambiguous and complex. Leskov, learning the secrets of the Russian character, seeks the origins of holiness in the deeds of a sinner, depicts a truth seeker who has committed many unrighteous deeds, but suffering, comes to repentance and faith.

For the first time we meet the hero on a steamer sailing to Valaam. He was a Chernorian of heroic status, fifty-three years old, dark-skinned, with thick, graying hair, with a beard and mustache. After talking with fellow travelers, he told the story of his wanderings. He was a serf, his mother died, and his father served as a coachman for the master.

He spent all his childhood at the stable, learned to understand horses well. As a teenager, he is defined as a postilion, helping to manage six horses. Once, when the horses raced, he almost died saving the count's family, and as a reward he asked for an harmonica, which speaks of his disinterestedness and innocence. Somehow, Ivan whipped a monk who had dozed off in a cart and blocked the road with a whip, and he tipped over under the wheels and died. This monk dreamed of Ivan and told that he was a prayed and promised child to God, and therefore he should go to the monastery. All his life he was haunted by this prophecy.

More than once he looked into the eyes of death, but neither earth nor water took him. Many trials fell to his lot. Having escaped with the gypsies from the count's estate, he will wander for many years. He will endure a ten-year captivity with the Gentiles, after escaping he will work as a coneser for the prince, then he will leave as a recruit for the Caucasus, where he will fight for more than fifteen years, he will become an officer and a Knight of St. George. After returning, I had a chance to work as an assistant in the address office and as an actor in a booth. In the end, he goes to the monastery.

Ivan did not have a chance to lead a settled life, to find a house and a family. He is "an inspired vagabond with a baby soul". Christian humility is not inherent in him, because he cannot put up with evil and injustice, but he is a deeply religious person. But he feels that his destiny is not just faith in God, church services are boring for him, he dreams of serving with faith for the fatherland. He has an independent, honest and open nature. Ivan considers himself a terrible sinner, because he is involved in the deaths of three people, suffers and repents; although the monk died due to his negligence, the Tatar accepted death in a fair duel, and pushed Grushenka off a cliff into the river, giving her an oath that he would do this, saving her from a shameful fate. Having gone to the monastery, he wanders as a pilgrim to holy places, atoning for his sins, and becomes a righteous man.

Essay about Ivan Flyagin

“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story by Nikolai Leskov, published by him in 1837. The main attention in the story is given to Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, whose life is described in detail by the author. Leskov was able to present in his story new image, which has no analogues in Russian literature.

Why did Leskov put in his hero the image of the “enchanted wanderer”? He perceives the world like a real miracle. As the main thing actor, he does not have a definite dream in life, which for him is endless. This person is always moving forward along the path of life and sees the challenge of fate in each new test.

It should be noted that Leskov's character took on the appearance of the legendary Ilya Muromets. Flyagin has a gigantic stature, a swarthy face and a truly heroic physique. At first glance, he is not even fifty years old. Ivan Severyanovich does not sit in one place throughout the story. You might think that he is not inclined to trust anyone. But main character later refutes this. And the rescue of Count K. is proof of that. That is exactly what Flyagin did with the prince and a young girl named Grusha.

You can add to the characterization of this person the fact that he is completely devoted to higher powers, for which he received his patronage from them. Flyagin is not vulnerable to death. Death overtook him many times, but he could not die. He thinks that the earth does not want to accept him for the terrible sins that he committed. The hero believes that it was his fault that there were many murders. Ivan Severyanovich has his own vital morality, but he always remains honest with himself and other heroes of the story. Sometimes, he is too simple and naive, good-natured to the depths of his soul and open to everyone with his soul, but when evil comes that he has to deal with, he can even be cruel.

The main driving force of his actions is not a small force from nature. And this makes Flyagin go to recklessness. In his youth, Ivan was not very worried, but later he realizes that he is responsible for this. The author of the work does not hesitate to mention that his character is a person with great inner and physical strength. This lies in his ability in any situation to do the right thing and the right way. Ivan Flyagin is in complete harmony with others and, like a true hero, is always ready to help.

In conclusion, we can say that all the features of the Russian national character in the image of this man on the face. But that doesn't mean he's perfect. He is more inconsistent. Somewhere he is smart and quick-witted, but somewhere vice versa. He can do crazy things, but in the meantime he is drawn to doing good things. So, we can say with confidence: Ivan Severyanovich is the personification of a broad Russian personality, its infinity.

in detail

In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" Ivan Flyagin has a major role.

His image appears before us in the form of a strong Ilya Muromets. Even at the beginning of the story, the Author compares him with this knight. He was tall, strong build with a swarthy face.

Our main character born in the name of a count, his father and mother were serfs and. Mom died while giving birth to Ivan. And my father worked in a stable. The boy spent all his time with horses. And when he more or less grew up he was put to work with his dad. Once they carried the count near the temple. And one father dreamed. And Vanya hit him with a whip.

When Ivan was taking the duke to Voronezh, a large cliff appeared in front of them. . Ivan managed to slow down, and he fell into it. But he miraculously survived. His duke, of course, thanked him. And instead of going to the monastery, Ivan chose an accordion, which he never knew how to play.

Soon Flyagin was sent to crush the stone on the garden paths. But he was tired of everyone laughing at him and he decided to run away and hang himself. As soon as he hung in a noose, someone cut the rope. It turned out to be a gypsy, who then offered Ivan to steal. And so that he would not betray him, he ordered to steal horses from the stables of the count in whom Ivan served. Ivan did it. And when they sold these horses, he received only one ruble. In the end, he went to turn himself in to the police. This speaks of his next quality - honesty. Although he went to steal horses, he later confessed.

Soon Ivan got a job working for the master, his wife left him for the military and abandoned her infant daughter. And Flyagin nursed this girl. It speaks of his love for children.

Once Ivan with the little daughter of the master went to the shore of the bay, the girl had sore legs and the doctor said that they should be buried in a squeak. But on the shore, her mother saw the girl. She asked Ivan to give her the child, but he did not agree. Then the cavalryman-husband of this young lady appeared and wanted to pay money so that they would give the child, but he received nothing but manual work under the eye. The lancer did not raise any money, and this pleased Ivan. Flyagin at first did not want to give the child away, but when he saw the girl's mother stretching out her hands to her, he nevertheless took pity. Suddenly, a gentleman appeared on the beach with a pistol and Ivan had to leave with the cavalryman and the girl's mother.

After they arrived in the city, the lancers said that they could not keep the serfs who had fled. Gave him money and let him go. At that moment, I felt very sorry for Ivan. He had nowhere to go. He wanted to go and turn himself in to the police. But I decided to go to drink tea with bagels. Then I saw how Khan Dzhangar and the king were selling a mare, and people fought for her. After that, a cavalryman entered the battle, but Ivan went to fight instead of him. This speaks of his positive quality - courage. But the fact that he fastened the Tatar with a whip speaks of his ruthlessness. They wanted to take him to prison, but the Tatars took pity on Ivan and took him to their place.

Ivan lived with them for ten years, was a doctor, but when he wanted to run away, the Tatars caught him, cut his heels and put cut horsehair there. Initially, it was very painful for him to walk. And so Ivan lived in this horde for many years. He had two wives and many children. Once the khan ordered him to cure his wife and let Ivan into his yurt, after which he had two more wives.

Somehow the priests came to the Tatars, they wanted them to accept Christianity, but the Tatars refused. And after some time, the main character of the story found one deceased priest in the field, but he did not find the second one. The next time unknown people came to them, they were in bright clothes. These people wanted to buy horses. One evening they set off fireworks and all the horses fled, and the Tatars, in turn, ran to catch them. Ivan understood what scared the horses and Tatars, and repeated the same thing. One fine day, he found earth that corrodes the skin. And he came up with such a plan: to pretend to be sick, and when the earth corroded his feet, horse hair came out, and pus along with it. Then our hero decided to launch the last fireworks and left.

After some time, Ivan went to the Caspian Sea, and then came to Astrakhan. He made money there and drank it away. When he woke up he was in jail. From prison he was sent to his native estate. But father Ilya refused to recognize his confession, since he lived with the Tatars in sins for a very long time. The count, who began to pray to God after the death of his wife, refused to have as a servant those who did not receive communion, gave him his passport and let him go.

When he left the estate, Ivan came to the market. I saw a gypsy trying to sell a bad horse to a simple peasant. Since Ivan was offended by the gypsies, he helped the peasant. After that, he began to walk around the bazaars and help the peasants, advise which horses can be bought and which ones cannot. Soon he became the king of gypsies and horse traders.

Once the prince asked to tell him the secret of how he chooses horses. Ivan began to teach him, but the prince did not understand anything, then he called Ivan to work with him. And they made friends with the prince. In order not to spend extra money, Ivan left them to the prince. But somehow the prince went to the market and ordered to send a mare there, which Ivan really liked, he wanted to drink it hot, but there was no one to leave the money. Then he went to the tavern to drink tea, and saw a peasant there who drank and did not get drunk. Ivan asked then to teach him that way. Then the peasant ordered him to drink a glass after a glass, but before each one to make passes with his hands, and Ivan learned to drink and not get drunk and kept checking whether all the money was in his bosom. By evening, the friends quarreled.

They were kicked out of the tavern, then the beggar led Ivan to a "living place" where there were only gypsies. And now Ivan will see a gypsy who sang songs, Pear called her. Then Ivan gave her all his savings.

When he sobered up, he confessed to the prince that he had spent the entire treasury on one gypsy. After that, he fell ill with alcoholic psychosis. When Ivan recovered, he learned that the prince had spent all the money to redeem Grusha from the crowd. She fell in love with the prince very much, and he began to be burdened by her, taking advantage of her ignorance. Ivan, in turn, was very sorry for her.

Once a gypsy woman suspected that the prince had a mistress and sent Ivan to the city to find out. He went to the prince's former mistress and found out that he wanted to marry Grusha to Ivan. When Flyagin returned from the market, he saw that Pear was nowhere to be found. Then he found a gypsy on the shore, it turned out that the prince locked her in a house in the forest under the protection of the girls, and she ran away from them. She asked to kill the prince's bride, otherwise she would become "the most shameful woman." Ivan could not stand it and threw her off the cliff.

Then Ivan ran away and began to wander around the world until Pear appeared to him and showed him the right path, on which he met two old people. These old people made Ivan new documents according to which he was Peter Serdyukov.

Then he asked me to go to the Caucasus and served there for more than fifteen years. Then he was consecrated to the officers, dismissed. In St. Petersburg, he worked as a "referencer" and earned little, since he got the letter "fita", and there were very few surnames for this letter. And he decided to leave this job. They did not take him as a coachman and he had to go to work as an actor. There he is portraying a demon.

The others asked him if the demon pretending to be a gypsy bothered him? By prayer, he coped with the demon, but small demons began to brain-peck him. Because of them, Ivan killed the monastery cow. For this and other sins he was locked in the cellar, and there he read the newspapers and began to prophesy. Then they took him to the forest and put him in a hut and shut him up there. Then a doctor was called to him and he could not understand the prophet Ivan or the bastard. And the doctor said to let him out.

On the steamer he found himself making his way to the service. At this point, the passengers did not ask him any more about anything.

The image of Ivan Flyagin in the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was at one time honest and correct, and at another time cunning and merciless. I liked Ivan Flyagin because it seems to me that there are more good qualities than the bad ones.

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All episodes of the story are united by the image of the main character - Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, shown as a giant of physical and moral power. “He was a man of enormous stature, with a swarthy, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair: gray cast him so strangely. He was dressed in a novice cassock with a wide monastic belt belt and a tall black cloth cap... This new companion of ours... looked like he was in his early fifties; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-hearted, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in a beautiful picture by Vereshchagin and in a poem by Count A. K. Tolstoy. It seemed that he would not walk in a cassock, but would sit on a "chubar" and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how "dark forest smells of resin and strawberries." The hero performs feats of arms, saves people, goes through the temptation of love. He knows from his own bitter experience serfdom, knows what it is to escape from a fierce master or soldier. Flyagin's actions manifest such traits as boundless courage, courage, pride, stubbornness, breadth of nature, kindness, patience, artistry, etc. The author creates a complex, multifaceted character, basically positive, but far from ideal and not at all unambiguous. The main feature of Flyagin is "the frankness of a simple soul." The narrator likens him to God's baby, to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from others. The hero is characterized by childish naivety in the perception of life, innocence, sincerity, disinterestedness. He is very talented. First of all, in the business in which he was still a boy, becoming a postilion with his master. As far as horses were concerned, he "received a special talent from his nature." His talent is associated with a heightened sense of beauty. Ivan Flyagin subtly feels female beauty, the beauty of nature, words, art - song, dance. His speech is striking in its poetry when he describes what he admires. Like any folk hero, Ivan Severyanovich passionately loves his homeland. This is manifested in the painful longing for his native places, when he is a prisoner in the Tatar steppes, and in the desire to take part in the coming war and die for his native land. Flyagin's last dialogue with the audience sounds solemn. Warmth and subtlety of feeling in heroe coexist with rudeness, pugnacity, drunkenness, narrow-mindedness. Sometimes he shows callousness, indifference: he strikes a Tatar to death in a duel, he does not consider unbaptized children his own and leaves them without regret. Kindness and responsiveness to someone else's grief coexist in him with senseless cruelty: he gives the child to his mother, tearfully imploring him, depriving himself of shelter and food, but at the same time, out of self-indulgence, he pinpoints a sleeping monk to death.

Flyagin's daring and freedom of feelings know no bounds (fight with a Tatar, relations with a grushenka). He surrenders to feeling recklessly and recklessly. Mental impulses, over which he has no control, constantly break his fate. But when the spirit of confrontation dies out in him, he very easily submits to someone else's influence. The sense of human dignity of the hero is in conflict with the consciousness of the serf. But all the same, in Ivan Severyanovich one feels a pure and noble soul.

The name, patronymic and surname of the hero are significant. The name Ivan, so often found in fairy tales, brings him closer to both Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, who go through various trials. In his trials, Ivan Flyagin matures spiritually, morally cleanses. Patronymic Severyanovich translated from Latin means "severe" and reflects a certain side of his character. The surname indicates, on the one hand, a tendency to a spree, but, on the other hand, it recalls the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God. Suffering from the consciousness of his own imperfection, he goes, without bending, towards a feat, striving for heroic service to his homeland, feeling divine blessing over himself. And this movement, this moral transformation constitutes the inner storyline story. The hero believes and seeks. Him life path- this is the way of knowing God and realizing oneself in God.

Ivan Flyagin personifies the Russian national character with all its dark and bright sides, the people's view of the world. It embodies the enormous and unspent potential of the people's strength. His morality is natural, folk morality. Figypa Flyagin takes on a symbolic scale, embodying the breadth, infinity, openness of the Russian soul to the world. The depth and complexity of the character of Ivan Flyagin help to comprehend a variety of artistic techniques used by the author. The main means of creating the image of the hero is speech, which reflects his worldview, character, social status, etc. Flyagin's speech is simple, full of vernacular and dialectisms, there are few metaphors, comparisons, epithets, but they are bright and accurate. The style of the hero's speech is connected with the people's worldview. The image of the hero is also revealed through his attitude to other characters, about which he himself talks. In the tone of the story, in the choice artistic means the character's personality emerges. The landscape also helps to feel the way the character perceives the world. The hero's story about life in the steppe conveys his emotional state, longing for his native places: “No, I want to go home ... longing was done. Especially in the evenings, or even when the weather is good in the middle of the day, it’s hot, it’s quiet in the camp, all the Tatars from the heat fall into the tents ... A sultry look, cruel; space - no edge; herb rampage; the feather grass is white, fluffy, like a silver sea, agitated, and the breeze carries the smell: it smells of sheep, and the sun douses, burns, and the steppe, as if life is painful, no end is foreseen anywhere, and here there is no depth of melancholy of the bottom ... You see yourself you know where, and suddenly a monastery or a temple appears in front of you, and you remember the baptized land and cry.

The image of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin summarizes the remarkable features of people who are energetic, talented by nature, inspired by boundless love for people. It depicts a man from the people in the intricacies of his difficult fate, not broken, even though "he died all his life and could not die in any way."

The kind and simple-minded Russian giant is the main character and the central figure of the story. This man with a childish soul is distinguished by irrepressible fortitude, heroic mischief. He acts at the behest of duty, often on the intuition of feeling and in an accidental outburst of passion. However, all his actions, even the strangest ones, are invariably born from his inherent philanthropy. He strives for truth and beauty through mistakes and bitter repentance, he seeks love and generously gives love to people. When Flyagin sees a person in mortal danger, he simply rushes to his aid. As a boy, he saves the count and countess from death, and he himself almost dies. He also goes instead of the old woman's son for fifteen years to the Caucasus. Behind the outward rudeness and cruelty, Ivan Severyanych hides the enormous kindness inherent in the Russian people. We recognize this trait in him when he becomes a nanny. He really became attached to the girl he was courting. In dealing with her, he is caring and gentle.

The “enchanted wanderer” is a type of “Russian wanderer” (in the words of Dostoevsky). This is Russian nature, requiring development, striving for spiritual perfection. He seeks and cannot find himself. Each new haven of Flyagin is another discovery of life, and not just a change of one or another occupation. The wide soul of the wanderer gets along with absolutely everyone - whether they are wild Kyrgyz or strict Orthodox monks; he is so flexible that he agrees to live according to the laws of those who adopted him: according to the Tatar custom, he is cut to death with Savarikey, according to Muslim custom, he has several wives, takes for granted the cruel “operation” that the Tatars did to him ; in the monastery, he not only does not grumble because, as a punishment, he was locked up for the whole summer in a dark cellar, but he even knows how to find joy in this: “Here the church bells are heard, and comrades visited.” But despite such a accommodating nature, he does not stay anywhere for long. He does not need to humble himself and desire to work in his native field. He is already humble and, by his muzhik rank, is faced with the need to work. But he has no peace. In life, he is not a participant, but only a wanderer. He is so open to life that she carries him, and he follows her course with wise humility. But this is not a consequence of spiritual weakness and passivity, but a complete acceptance of one's fate. Often Flyagin is not aware of his actions, intuitively relying on the wisdom of life, trusting her in everything. And the higher power, before which he is open and honest, rewards him for this and keeps him.

Ivan Severyanych Flyagin lives predominantly not with his mind, but with his heart, and therefore the course of life imperiously carries him along, that is why the circumstances in which he finds himself are so diverse.

Flyagin reacts sharply to insult and injustice. As soon as the manager of the count, the German, punished him for his misconduct with humiliating work, Ivan Severyanych, risking his own life, flees from his native places. Subsequently, he recalls it like this: “They tore me off terribly cruelly, I couldn’t even get up ... but that would be nothing for me, but the last condemnation, to kneel and beat bags ... it already tormented me ... It’s just that my patience was gone ... " The most terrible and unbearable for common man It turns out not to be corporal punishment, but an insult to self-esteem. out of desperation, he runs away from them and goes “to the robbers”.

In The Enchanted Wanderer, for the first time in Lesk's work, the theme of folk heroism is fully developed. the collective semi-fairytale image of Ivan Flyagin appears before us in all its grandeur, nobility of his soul, fearlessness and beauty and merges with the image of the heroic people. Ivan Severyanych's desire to go to war is a desire to suffer alone for all. love for the Motherland, for God, Christian aspirations save Flyagin from death during the nine years of his life with the Tatars. For all this time he could not get used to the steppes. He says: "No, sir, I want to go home ... Longing was becoming." What a great feeling lies in his unpretentious story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: “... There is no bottom to the depths of anguish ... You see, you don’t know where, and suddenly a monastery or a temple is indicated in front of you, and you remember the baptized land and cry.” From the story of Ivan Severyanovich about himself, it is clear that the most difficult of the diverse life situations he experienced were precisely those that most bound his will, doomed him to immobility.

The Orthodox faith is strong in Ivan Flyagin. In the middle of the night in captivity, he "creeped out slowly behind the headquarters ... and began to pray ... so pray that even the snow under his knees would melt and where tears fell - you see grass in the morning."

Flyagin is an unusually gifted person; nothing is impossible for him. The secret of his strength, invulnerability and amazing gift - to always feel joy - lies in the fact that he always does what the circumstances require. He is in harmony with the world when the world is in harmony, and he is ready to fight evil when it stands in his way.

At the end of the story, we understand that, having come to the monastery, Ivan Flyagin does not calm down. He foresees war and is going to go there. He says: “I really want to die for the people.” These words reflect the main property of a Russian person - the readiness to suffer for others, to die for the Motherland. Describing the life of Flyagin, Leskov makes him wander, meet different people and entire nations. Leskov argues that such beauty of the soul is characteristic only of a Russian person, and only a Russian person can manifest it so fully and widely.

The image of Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is the only "through" image that connects all the episodes of the story. As already noted, it has genre-forming features, tk. his "biography" goes back to works with strict normative schemes, namely, to the lives of saints and adventure novels. The author brings Ivan Severyanovich closer not only to the heroes of lives and adventure novels, but also to epic heroes. Here is how the narrator describes Flyagin’s appearance: “This new companion of ours could have been given a little over fifty years old; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-hearted, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful picture of Vereshchegin and in a poem by Count A. K. Tolstoy.4 It seemed that he would not have to walk in a cassock, but would have sat on a "chubar" and rode in bast shoes through the forest and lazily sniffed how "a dark forest smells of tar and strawberries" ". Flyagin's character is multifaceted. Its main feature is "the frankness of a simple soul." The narrator likens Flyagin to "babies", to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from the "reasonable". The author paraphrases the gospel sayings of Christ: "... Jesus said: "... I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid this from the wise and prudent and revealed it to babies" (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 25). Christ allegorically calls people with a pure heart wise and reasonable.

Flyagin is distinguished by childish naivete and innocence. Demons in his ideas resemble a large family, in which there are both adults and mischievous children-imps. He believes in the magical power of the amulet - "a band of the holy brave prince Vsevolod-Gabriel from Novgorod." Flyagin understands the experiences of tamed horses. He subtly feels the beauty of nature.

But, at the same time, a certain callousness and narrow-mindedness are also inherent in the soul of an enchanted wanderer (from the point of view of an educated, civilized person). Ivan Severyanovich cold-bloodedly beats a Tatar to death in a duel and cannot understand why the story of this torture horrifies his listeners. Ivan brutally cracks down on the countess's maid's cat, who strangled his beloved pigeons. He does not consider unbaptized children, adopted by Tatar women in Ryn-Sands, as his own and leaves without a shadow of doubt and regret.

Natural kindness coexists in Flyagin's soul with senseless, aimless cruelty. So, he, serving as a nanny with a young child and violating the will of his father, his master-master, gives the child to his mother and her lover, who tearfully begged Ivan, although he knows that this act will deprive him of faithful food and make him wander again in search of food and shelter. . And he, in adolescence, out of pampering, whips a sleeping monk to death with a whip.

Flyagin is reckless in his daring: just like that, disinterestedly, he enters into a competition with the Tatar Savakirey, promising a familiar officer to give a prize - a horse. He surrenders entirely to the passions that take possession of him, embarking on a drunken spree. Struck by the beauty and singing of the gypsy woman Pear, without hesitation, he gives her the huge amount of state money entrusted to him.

Flyagin's nature is both unshakably firm (he piously professes the principle: "I will not give my honor to anyone") and self-willed, malleable, open to the influence of others and even suggestion. Ivan easily assimilates the ideas of the Tatars about the justification for a deadly duel with whips. Until now, not feeling the bewitching beauty of a woman, he - as if under the influence of conversations with a degraded master-magnetizer and the eaten "magic" sugar-"mentor" - is fascinated by the first meeting with Grusha.

Wanderings, wanderings, unique "searches" of Flyagin carry a "worldly" coloring. Even in the monastery, he performs the same service as in the world - a coachman. This motive is significant: Flyagin, changing professions and services, remains himself. He begins his difficult journey as a postilion, a rider on a horse in a team, and in old age returns to the duties of a coachman.

The service of the Leskovsky hero "with horses" is not accidental, it has an implicit, hidden symbolism. The fickle fate of Flyagin is like a fast running horse, and the "strong" hero himself, who endured and endured many hardships in his lifetime, resembles a strong "Bityutsky" horse. Both Flyagin's irascibility and independence are, as it were, compared with the proud horse temper, which was told about by the "enchanted wanderer" in the first chapter of Lesk's work. The taming of horses by Flyagin correlates with the stories of ancient authors (Plutarach and others) about Alexander the Great, who pacified and tamed the horse Bucephalus.

And like the hero of epics, leaving to measure his strength "in the open field", Flyagin is correlated with open, free space: with the road (Ivan Severyanovich's wanderings), with the steppe (ten-year life in the Tatar Ryn-sands), with lake and sea expanse (meeting storyteller with Flyagin on a steamer sailing on Lake Ladoga, a wanderer's pilgrimage to Solovki). The hero wanders, moves in a wide, open space, which is not a geographical concept, but a value category. Space is a visible image of life itself, sending disasters and trials towards the hero-traveler.

In his wanderings and travels, the Leskovsky character reaches the limits, the extreme points of the Russian land: he lives in the Kazakh steppe, fights against the highlanders in the Caucasus, goes to the Solovetsky shrines on the White Sea. Flyagin finds himself on the northern, southern, and southeastern "borders" of European Russia. Ivan Severyanovich did not visit only the western border of Russia. However, Leskov's capital can symbolically designate precisely the western point of Russian space. (Such a perception of Petersburg was characteristic of Russian literature of the 18th century and was recreated in Pushkin's " The Bronze Horseman"). The spatial "scope" of Flyagin's travels is significant: it seems to symbolize5 the breadth, infinity, openness of the Russian people's soul to the world.6 But the breadth of Flyagin's nature, the "Russian hero," is not at all equivalent to righteousness. Leskov repeatedly created images of Russian righteous people in his works, people of exceptional moral purity, noble and kind to the point of selflessness ("Odnodum", "Nemortal Golovan", "Cadet Monastery", etc.). However, Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is not like that. He, as it were, personifies the Russian folk character with all its dark and bright sides and people's view of the world.

The name of Ivan Flyagin is significant. He is like the fabulous Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, going through various trials. From his "stupidity", moral callousness, Ivan in these trials is cured, freed. But moral ideals and the norms of Leskovsky's enchanted wanderer do not coincide with the moral principles of his civilized interlocutors and the author himself. Flyagin's morality is a natural, "common" morality.

It is no coincidence that the patronymic of the Lesk hero is Severyanovich (severus - in Latin: severe). The surname speaks, on the one hand, of a former tendency to drink and spree, on the other hand, it seems to recall the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God.

Flyagin's life path is partly an atonement for his sins: the "youthful" murder of a monk, as well as the murder of Grushenka, left by her lover, Prince, committed at her plea. The dark, egoistic, "animal" force, characteristic of Ivan in his youth, is gradually enlightened, filled with moral self-consciousness. On the slope of his life, Ivan Severyanovich is ready to "die for the people", for others. But as before, the enchanted wanderer does not renounce many deeds that are reprehensible for educated, "civilized" listeners, not finding anything bad in them.

This is not only limited, but also the integrity of the character of the protagonist, devoid of contradictions, internal struggle and introspection,7 which, like the motive for the predestination of his fate, brings Leskov's story closer to the classical, antique heroic epic. B.S. Dykhanova characterizes Flyagin’s ideas about his fate in the following way: “According to the hero’s conviction, his destiny is that he is the son of a “prayer” and “promised”, he is obliged to devote his life to serving God, and the monastery should, it would seem, be perceived as the inevitable end of the path Finding a true calling Listeners repeatedly ask the question of whether predestination has been fulfilled or not, but each time Flyagin evades a direct answer.

"Why are you saying this... as if you're not sure?

- Yes, because how can I say for sure when I can’t even embrace all my vast elapsed vitality?
- What is it from?
“Because, sir, I did a lot of things not even of my own free will.”

Despite the outward inconsistency of Flyagin's answers, he is amazingly accurate here. "The audacity of vocation" is inseparable from one's own will, one's own choice, and the interaction of a person's will with life circumstances independent of it gives rise to that living contradiction that can be explained only by preserving it. In order to understand what his vocation is, Flyagin has to tell his life "from the very beginning." finally, he loses his own name twice (going into the army instead of a peasant recruit, then taking monasticism). Ivan Severyanovich can imagine the unity, the integrity of his life, only by retelling it all, from birth. The motive of predestination gives an internal connection to what happened to Flyagin. this predetermination of the fate of the hero, in subordination and "bewitchment" by some power ruling over him, "not by his own will", which is driven by Flyagin, is the meaning of the title of the story.

Reading the works of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, you invariably note the originality and bright originality of this writer. His language and style are completely unique and surprisingly harmonize with the plot of a particular work. His works are just as original in content.
Their main theme is the spiritual life of the country and the people. The main thing for the writer is the study of the life of Russia, reflections on its past and future. But, unlike Ostrovsky, Nekrasov and Tolstoy, Leskov focuses on depicting the fate of individual

People.
The heroes of his works are Russians in the full sense of the word. They are real heroes, their fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the whole people.
Such is Ivan Severyanych Flyagin (“The Enchanted Wanderer”). Before us is a story about the life of a simple person, rich in adventures and unusual situations. However, with a more thoughtful reading behind a simple, everyday narrative, one can consider a deep study of the fate of an entire people. Ivan Severyanych is honest and impartial in his judgments about himself. Therefore, the reader has the opportunity to fully evaluate this hero, his positive and negative qualities.
Flyagin had to go through a lot: the lord's wrath, and the Tatar captivity, and unrequited love, and the war. But he comes out of all trials with honor: he does not humiliate himself before the masters, does not submit to adversaries, does not tremble before death, and is always ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of truth. He never and under no circumstances changes his convictions, principles and faith.
Ivan Flyagin is a deeply religious person, and faith helps him to remain himself. After all, he did not accept the Muslim faith in captivity, although this could greatly facilitate his life. Moreover, Ivan tries to escape, fails and escapes again. Why is he doing this? After all, at home he is not waiting better life. Ivan Severyanych's answer is simple: he yearned for his homeland, and it is not worth it for a Russian person to live among the “busurmans”, in captivity. God always lives invisibly in the soul of the “enchanted wanderer”.
And Ivan ends his journey in the monastery as a novice. This is the only place where he finally finds peace and grace, although at first the demons got into the habit of tempting him: at the sight of people in Ivan Severyanych, “the spirit rose”, reminding him of his former troubled life.
Ivan Severyanych follows where his fate drives him, and completely surrenders to the will of chance. He does not have any life planning. And this, Leskov believes, is typical for the entire Russian people. Ivan Flyagin is alien to any selfish act, lies and intrigues. He frankly talks about his adventures, hiding nothing and not brightening up in front of the audience. His, at first glance, disorderly life has a special logic - there is no escape from fate. Ivan Severyanych reproaches himself for not immediately going to the monastery, as promised by his mother, but trying to find a better life, having known only suffering. However, wherever he aspired, wherever he was, he always faced a line that he never dared to cross: he always felt a clear line between righteous and unrighteous, between good and evil, although some of his actions sometimes seem strange. So, he escapes from captivity, leaves his unbaptized children and wives, not at all regretting them, throws the prince’s money at the feet of a gypsy, gives the child entrusted to him to his mother, while taking it away from his father, kills the abandoned and disgraced woman he loves. And what is most striking in the hero is that even in the most difficult situations he does not think about how to act. He is guided by some kind of intuitive moral feeling, which never fails him. Leskov believed that this innate righteousness is an integral feature of the Russian national character.
Inherent in Russian people is the so-called “racial” consciousness, which Ivan Flyagin is fully endowed with. All the actions of the hero are imbued with this consciousness. Being a prisoner of the Tatars, Ivan does not for a moment forget that he is Russian, and with all his heart strives for his homeland, and finally escapes. No one ever told him what to do and how to act. Sometimes his actions, it would seem, are completely illogical: instead of his will, he asks the master for an harmonica, because of some chicks he destroys his prosperous life on the landowner's estate, voluntarily goes into recruits, taking pity on the unfortunate old people, etc. But these actions reveal before the reader that boundless kindness, naivety and purity of the wanderer's soul, which he himself does not even suspect and which helps him to come out of all life's trials with honor. After all, the soul of a Russian person, according to Leskov's deep conviction, is inexhaustible and indestructible.
Then what is the reason for the unfortunate fate of the Russian people? The writer answered this question, revealing the reason tragic fate of his “enchanted wanderer”: the Russian man does not follow the path intended for him by God, but, once lost, he cannot find the way again. Even at the beginning of the story, a monk crushed by horses predicts to Ivan: “... you will die many times and you will never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to black men.” And in these words, the writer embodies the fate of all of Russia and its people, who are destined to endure many sorrows and troubles, until they find their only, righteous path leading to happiness.

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Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" has a number of its own features. A wide system of topics and problems, a dynamic plot, devoid of details, makes this work difficult to perceive - the idea of the work is sometimes lost behind numerous events.

History of creation

Plans to create a story about the life of monks visited Leskov during his trip along Lake Ladoga. During the trip, Leskov had to visit the islands of Valaam and Korel - at that time it was the place of the monks' settlement. The landscapes he saw contributed to the idea of writing a work about the life of these people. By the end of 1872 (almost six months after the trip), the story was written, but its publication was not so fast.
Leskov sent the story to the editors of the Russky Vestnik magazine, whose editor at that time was M. Katkov. Unfortunately, this story seemed to the editorial commission unfinished and they did not publish it.

In August 1873, readers nevertheless saw the story, but already in the Russkiy Mir newspaper. Its title changed and was presented in expanded form: "The Enchanted Wanderer, His Life, Experiences, Opinions and Adventures." A dedication was also added to the story - to Sergei Kushelev - it was in his house that the story was first presented to the general public.

The symbolism of the name

Leskov's story was originally planned to be called "Black Earth Telemak". It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question why such a specific name was chosen. With the first word - "chernozem" everything is quite logical - Leskov planned to emphasize the territorial affiliation of the protagonist and limited his range of action to the area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of chernozem as a typical type of soil. With Telomak, things are somewhat more complicated - in ancient mythology Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. He sets about searching for his father and helps him get rid of his mother's suitors. It is difficult to imagine the similarities between Telemachus and Ivan. However, it is still present and consists in the search. Telemak is looking for his father, and Ivan is looking for his place in the world, which allows him to exist harmoniously, "the charm of life itself."

It is the last concept - "the charm of life" that became the key concept in the second version of the title of the story. Ivan Flyagin spends his whole life wandering - fate and chance do not give him the opportunity to finally settle down.

However, at the same time, Flyagin does not experience extreme dissatisfaction with his fate, he perceives each new turn on the path of life as the will of fate, predestination in life. The actions of the protagonist, which led to significant changes in his life, always occur as if unconsciously, the hero does not think about them and does not plan, they occur spontaneously, as if by the will of witchcraft, a kind of "charm".

According to researchers, there is another episode in the story that allows us to talk about the “enchantment” of the protagonist – even before birth, Ivan’s mother “promised her son to God”, which predetermined his fate.

Heroes

All chapters-stories of The Enchanted Wanderer are united by the personality of Ivan Severyanych Flyagin (Golovin), who tells an unusual story of his life.

The second most important in the story is the image of the gypsy Pear. The girl became the subject of unrequited love Flyagin. unrequited love Pear to the prince did not allow the girl to consider Flyagin's feelings towards her and contributed to her death - Pear asks Flyagin to kill her.

All other characters have generalized character traits - they are represented by typical heroes in their social stratum.

Count and Countess from Oryol Governorate- landowners, to whose possessions Flyagin belonged from birth.
Barin from Nikolaev- a man for whom Flyagin served as a nanny - looked after his little daughter.
The girl's mother- the mother of the girl entrusted to Flyagin, who ran away with a certain officer from her husband.
an officer- A young man in love with the girl's mother. He offers Flyagin money to give them the child. Helps Flyagin financially after his escape from the master.
A person with "magnetism"- a casual acquaintance of Flyagin, who hypnotized him for alcohol intoxication and addiction.
Prince- a landowner whose Flyagin serves as a cones.
Evgenia Semyonovna- mistress of the prince.
gypsies- a generalized image of the gypsy community.
Tatars- generalized image.
Natasha- two wives of Flyagin, who appeared with him during his residence with the Tatars.

Plot

Ivan was a late child - his mother could not get pregnant for a long time, but fate was unfair to her - she never managed to experience the happiness of motherhood - the woman died during childbirth. The born child had an unusually large head, for which Golovan was named. Once, due to negligence, Ivan caused the death of a monk and from that moment he learned about a certain prophecy of his life - the deceased monk said in a dream that Ivan would always escape death, but at a critical moment he ended up in a monastery and became a monk.

Dear readers! We suggest that you familiarize yourself with which Nikolai Leskov wrote.

The prediction begins to come true: first, Ivan miraculously remains alive after the cart he drove fell off a cliff, then the gypsies save him from suicide by hanging.

Flyagin decides to join the gypsies - at the request of a new acquaintance, he steals horses from his master. Together with the gypsy, Ivan sells horses in the market, but he does not receive the proper monetary reward for this. Ivan says goodbye to the gypsy and goes to Nikolaev.

Here Ivan enters the service of the master - he takes care of his daughter. After some time, the girl's mother appears and asks to give the child to her. At first, Ivan resists, but at the last moment changes his mind and runs away with the girl's mother and her new husband. Then Ivan gets to the Tatars - Flyagin participates in a duel with a Tatar and defeats his opponent, unfortunately, the Tatar dies, and Ivan was forced to join the Tatars in order to avoid punishment. To prevent Flyagin from running away from them, the Tatars sew chopped horsehair into his heels - after that Ivan could not walk normally - his hair was pricked badly. Ivan was in Tatar captivity twice - both the first and the second time he was given two wives. From the wives of the second “marriage”, Flyagin has children, but this did not bring any changes to Flyagin’s life - Ivan is indifferent to them. After escaping from the Tatars, Ivan serves with the prince. Falling in love with the gypsy Grusha became tragic in Ivan's life - Flyagin experienced the pangs of unrequited love.

Pear, in turn, was unrequitedly in love with the prince, the news of whose wedding caused the girl's emotional breakdown. Grusha is afraid that her actions may cause irreparable harm to the prince and his wife, and therefore asks Flyagin to kill her. After the murder of Gruni, Ivan goes to the army - having escaped from the prince, Flyagin met the old people, whose only son was taken into the army, out of pity for the old people, Ivan pretends to be another person and goes to serve instead of their son. The next point in the life of Flyagin was the monastery - Ivan gets there after his resignation. The officer rank, not supported by proper knowledge, did not allow Ivan to realize himself.

The strange behavior of Flyagin caused the monks to send him to travel to holy places. This is where the story ends. Flyagin himself during the trip expresses the hope of returning to the front.

Structure

The story of Nikolai Leskov is included in the cycle of stories united by the theme of monasticism and religiosity. The structure of the work is as follows: the story consists of 20 chapters. Compositionally, they are divided into exposition and development of action. Traditionally, the first chapter is an exposition. According to the canons of literary criticism, it should be followed by a plot, but this does not happen in Leskov’s story - this is due to the structure of the story itself - the subsequent chapters are fragments from the life of the protagonist, which in essence are completely independent and, moreover, placed in violation of the chronological framework . In fact, these fragments in the structure of the composition are the development of the action.

It is also impossible to single out the climax from these elements - each memory is special, and is associated with a certain turning point in the hero's life - it is unrealistic to determine which event was more significant of them. Some researchers are inclined to believe that the culmination can be attributed to a fragment of a text that tells about the meeting between Flyagin and Grusha - it is at this moment in his life that Flyagin experiences the strongest devastation - he drinks a lot and drunkenly, is actually depressed. The story also lacks a denouement - the hero's journey along Lake Ladoga is another fragment that is likely to lead to new changes in the character's life. All chapters are designed in the form of small logically designed stories, each of which actually has a semantic ending.

Character image features

Leskov's story is indicated by a number of features in the depiction of acting characters.
First of all, it concerns the main character. Ivan Flyagin does not look like a typical monk - his appearance he looks like a hero. Ivan is a tall, broad-shouldered man, physically developed, it seems that he has descended from the pages of epic stories. Ivan has wisdom and the ability to make logical conclusions, but at the same time he tends to act extremely stupidly, recklessly, which often turns out fatally for other characters, and also brings irreparable, negative consequences into his life.

The image of Pear is also not without contradictions and its own characteristics - a typical gypsy woman - passionate and impulsive, and an angel coexist in her. The pear realizes that because of her emotionality, she will not be able to come to terms with unrequited love and will cause tragedy in the life of her lover or his future wife. Classically, she was supposed to follow her emotions, but here her other side of personality appears - Pear is a virtuous person - she prefers to die herself, but not bring misfortune.

The life of any serf is not without the intervention of representatives of the aristocracy. Leskov's story was no exception. The author actively introduces some features in the description of characters of this type. Leskov deliberately creates a negative image of representatives of high society - in the story all landowners are presented as selfish tyrants who mistreat their serfs.

Ivan Flyagin served in the army for 15 years, but very little is said about this period in the story.

The only image of a military man that can be seen in the story is a colonel. In general, the image of this man is typical for a military man “he was brave and liked to pretend to be Suvorov”, but he has another personality that resembles the image of his father. The colonel carefully listens to the story of Flyagin's life, but not only does not take everything that has been said into account, but also convinces Ivan that all this happened only in his fantasies. On the one hand, this seems to be an unreasonable action on the part of the colonel, but at the same time it saves Flyagin from punishment instead of an officer's rank.

The next category of images refers to foreigners - in the story, in addition to Russian people, three nationalities are also depicted - gypsies, Tatars and Poles. All representatives of these nationalities are endowed with exaggeratedly negative qualities - the life of foreigners is presented as immoral, illogical and therefore artificial, devoid of colors of real sincere feelings and emotions. Foreigners (with the exception of Pear) do not have positive character traits - they are always hypocrites and dishonest people.

There are also representatives of monasticism in the story. There is canonicity in the image of these people. They are strict and harsh people, but at the same time sincere and humane. Ivan's atypicality causes bewilderment and concern in them, but at the same time they empathize with him and express concern for his fate.

The idea of the story

The idea of the story is the deep connection of a person with the Motherland and religion. With the help of these attributes, Leskov tries to reveal the peculiarities of the Russian soul and its mental qualities of character. The life of a simple Russian person is closely connected with disappointments and injustice, however, no matter how often and to what extent these troubles occur in a person’s life, a Russian person never loses hope for a miracle - according to Leskov, it is precisely in this optimistic ability that the mystery of the Russian lies. souls.

The author brings readers to the conclusion that without a Motherland and religion, a person cannot fully exist. No matter how many sins there are in a person’s life, sincere repentance allows you to start your life from scratch.

Theme of the story

Leskov's story is filled with a wide system of themes. The questions raised in the work have a diverse expression and are able to comprehensively describe the features and complexities of the life of an ordinary person.

Religion and its influence on human life

Of course, the influence of religion in the time of Flyagin on human life was much stronger - at the present time, other social institutions have taken over part of the responsibilities of the social sphere. At that time, the church was the bearer of morality, taught the interaction of people in society, developed in people positive traits character. Religion at that time also helped people find answers to their questions in the field of science. Some of the information perceived by society at that time could well be perceived as the action of otherworldly mystical power, which made the church even more significant in the eyes of people.

Thus, religion helped a person find the right path on his life path, outline the ideal of a real person and stimulate people's interest in achieving this ideal.

Love and its truth

It seems that Leskov's story was created in order to trace the importance and essentiality of love (in every sense of the word). This is love for the motherland, and love for life, and love for God, and love for the opposite sex. The diversity of Ivan Flyagin's life allowed him to experience love in all its manifestations. Of particular interest to the reader is Flyagin's relationship with the opposite sex.

While Flyagin's feelings towards his Tatar wives are natural - since they arose as a "necessity", the feelings for the gypsy Grusha are regrettable - like any other manifestation of unrequited love.

Ivan is captivated by the girl, but the hope of finding happiness between Flyagin and Grusha is fading just as quickly as Grusha's love for the prince ignites.

paternal feelings

During his stay with the Tatars, Ivan is "given" wives - these are women with whom Ivan did not experience family feelings. In the “family” children are born with these women, but the man does not feel kinship with them and, as a result, he does not have parental feelings towards them. Ivan explains this by the fact that his children were not of the Christian faith. At that time, the influence of religion on a person was more significant than today, so this could cause alienation. Similar motifs appear repeatedly in the literature. So, for example, in the poem of the Ukrainian literary figure T.G. Shevchenko "Haidamaki" the main character does not prevent the death of his children, because they were of a "different" faith, while the man does not feel remorse or regret. Based on such motives, Ivan Flyagin's attitude towards his children looks quite humane.

Understanding the Motherland and its meaning for a person

Fate decreed that Ivan Flyagin had a chance to learn about the peculiarities of the life of different peoples. First of all, of course, these were the features of the life of the Russian people - from childhood, Ivan knew about the complexities of the relationship between the social elements of the Russian people, mental features that also cause certain difficulties. However, not only this is an integral part of the Russian person - the peculiarities of nature and the relationship of man with it, folklore aiming at the perception of the beauty of life, became the reason for Flyagin's special attachment to his people.

Faced with a community of gypsies, Flyagin clearly understands that "such a life is not for him" - the traditions of these people and their moral principles too unlike those that Flyagin used to be guided by.

Life among the Tatars also did not attract Ivan - there is no doubt that the life of these people was not absolutely immoral or unattractive, but Flyagin did not manage to feel "at home" - the image of his native land was constantly in his thoughts. Perhaps this is due to the fact that his stay with other nationalities was violent - Ivan got into this society not because he experienced spiritual kinship, but because the circumstances were such.

Issues

Deviating from the traditions of the genre, Leskov makes an increased emphasis on the problems of his work. Like the theme, the problematic of the story also has a developed structure. Patriotism and the place of a person in society still remain the key concept, however, these concepts are overgrown with new symbolic elements.

Social inequality

No matter how sad it may sound, the problem of social inequality has always been relevant and has been repeatedly understood by artists. Aristocratic origin has always been highly valued in society and actually opened any door, bypassing the intellectual and moral criteria. At the same time, an intellectually developed personality with high morality, but of a simple origin (peasant) has always remained on the sidelines of fate.

The unspoken law of "social equality" often became the cause of the unhappy life of not only serfs, but also aristocrats, who could be happy in marriage with a person of simple origin, but were unable to overcome the demands of society.

In most cases, members of aristocratic backgrounds did not consider peasants to be human beings—they could sell them, force them to do overwork leading to injury, beat them, and generally worry more about their animals than about serfs.

Nostalgia for the Motherland

In a modern multicultural society, the problem of nostalgia for the Motherland is not so relevant - modern means of scientific and technological progress can minimize this feeling. However, in the modern world of Leskov, the awareness of oneself as a unit of the nationality and the bearer of its mental qualities is more thorough - in the mind of a person, an image of the native land, national symbols and traditions, close and dear to him, is deposited. Denying these attributes makes a person unhappy.

Patriotism

The problem of patriotism is closely connected with the problem of nostalgia for the Motherland. In the story, Leskov reflects on whether it is important to recognize oneself as a representative of a certain nationality and how important it is. The author raises the question of why people are ready to perform feats in the name of the Motherland and why they do not stop loving their Motherland, despite the existing problems in the system of their state.

This problem is revealed not only with the help of the image of Ivan Flyagin, but also with the help of representatives of other nationalities who, in contact with other cultures, remain true to their people.

missionary

In fact, every religion is faced with the problem of missionary work, especially at the stage of its formation - adherents of the faith often went to preach the foundations of their religious vision among other believers. Despite the peaceful way of enlightenment and conversion to their religion, many nationalities were hostile towards such people - using the example of Christian missionaries and their attitude towards the Tatars, Leskov sums up: some peoples can be converted to their faith only by force, acting with the help of fear and cruelty.

Comparison of lay and monastic life

The destiny of Ivan Flyagin's life created a favorable environment for comparing secular and monastic life. While the life of the laity flows as usual, in fact guided only by civil and moral laws. The life of a monk is full of hardships. Ivan's fate developed in such a way that he was able to experience both worldly life and monastic life. However, neither the first nor the second allowed him to find rest. Ivan always experiences some kind of internal dissatisfaction, his life has always been full of suffering, and he has become so accustomed to this state of affairs that he no longer recognizes himself outside of these feelings. Suffering has become a necessary condition for his life, the calm and everyday life of a monastic life drives him crazy and "populates his consciousness with demons."

The predestination of human destiny

The Problem of Predestination human destiny in the story is considered in a broad and narrow expression. A narrow expression is represented by the life situation of Ivan Flyagin - his mother, even before birth, promised a child to God, but Ivan's lack of education prevented the realization of this postulate.

In a broad sense, the predestination of life is shown in the tragic position of serfs in society - the peasants at that time could become free people, having received the appropriate document, but even, it would seem, such a positive event did not bring them happiness - without education and the ability to behave in society at the level for the aristocracy, such a will was just Filka's letter, since the former serfs had no opportunity to settle down in the world of "free people".

The problem of education

Among the peasants, the problem of education was one of the weightiest. The point here was not only the acquisition of general knowledge and elementary knowledge in the field of grammar and arithmetic. In fact, all the serfs did not understand the basics of ethics, did not know how to logically build their speech within the framework of rhetoric, and therefore were absolute ignoramuses in every sense, which greatly aggravated their situation.

Justice

Life is often devoid of justice. Prejudice in most cases becomes an integral companion of the common man. From time to time, a person interacts with injustice and gains his own life experience. In addition, Leskov raises the question of the existence of justice in general - no matter how difficult Flyagin's life path is and no matter how many dishonest people he meets, Ivan still subconsciously believes that there is justice in the world.

Relationship between "The Enchanted Wanderer" and "The Parable of the Prodigal Son"

Leskov's story is essentially an allusion to the parable of the prodigal son. Ivan was originally promised to God - and the house of God was supposed to become his home, but Flyagin leaves this destiny, this is accompanied by a series of events that defy logic and common sense, Ivan goes further and further into the labyrinths of worldly life. However, the same combination of circumstances brings Ivan back to his house - after receiving the officer rank, Flyagin's life became much more difficult - they did not want to take him to simple work, and he could not do the work that he needed by rank, due to his lack of education. Disillusioned with acting, Flyagin ends up in a monastery.

Thus, Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" departs from the classical story in many moments - the variety of problems and topics allows us to consider life in all its complexities and surprises. The author in the work avoids typicality - all elements of the story are endowed with individual, atypical qualities. However, it should be noted that Leskov artificially depicts images of foreigners and aristocrats with the help of grotesque and hyperbole, containing a negative message. Thus, an advantageous accentualization of the idea of the work is achieved.

Leskov's story, published in 1873, presents an unusual image of Ivan Flyagin, a Russian wanderer, whose biography is given by himself in the manner of an oral folk tale in a colloquial, but surprisingly poetic language.

At the same time, the presentation of the events of the hero's life, his biography resembles the canons of the life genre.

The image and characteristics of Ivan Flyagin in the story "The Enchanted Wanderer"

In the work, the image of the protagonist, with external unpretentiousness and simplicity, is ambiguous and complex. The author, studying the deep layers of the Russian soul, seeks holiness in the deeds of a sinner, shows an impatient truth-seeker who makes many mistakes, but, suffering and comprehending what he has done, comes to the path of repentance and true faith.

Key words that reveal the image of Ivan Flyagin: a deeply religious person, a disinterested and ingenuous nature, independence and openness, self-esteem, exceptional physical and spiritual strength, an expert in his field.

Portrait, characteristics and description of the main character

He was remarkable in appearance: of a heroic stature, dark-skinned, with thick, curly hair with gray hair, a gray mustache twisted like a hussar, dressed in a monastic robe. The author compares his appearance with the ingenuous, kind Russian hero Ilya Muromets from the painting by Vereshchagin. The hero was in his fifty-third year, and in the world his name was Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin.

Ivan's life

For the first time we meet the hero on a steamer sailing along Lake Ladoga to Valaam. Talking with fellow travelers, he tells the story of his difficult life. The short but frank confession of this handsome black-bearer captivates the listeners.

By origin, the hero belonged to a serf rank, his mother died early, and his father served as a coachman at the stable, where the boy is also assigned. Once he saved the count's family from death, risking his life. Having miraculously survived, the boy asks for an harmonica as a reward.

Somehow, for fun, Ivan whipped a monk who was dozing in a cart with a whip so as not to block the road, and he, awake, fell under the wheels and died. This monk appeared to him in a dream and announced to Ivan that for his mother he was not only a long-awaited and prayerful son, but also promised to God, therefore he needed to go to the monastery.

All his life this prophecy haunted him in unexpected situations. More than once he looked into the eyes of death, but neither earth nor water took him.

For mocking a cat that ate his pigeons, he was given a severe punishment: to crush stones for garden paths. Unable to endure bullying and hardships, he decides to commit suicide. But the gypsies save his life, persuading him to steal horses and leave with him for a free life. And Ivan decided on this, before that it was painful for him. The gypsy deceived and shortchanged, and Ivan, having straightened his fake documents for a pectoral cross, goes into the service of a nanny to the master, who was abandoned by his wife.

There, the hero became attached to the girl, fed her with goat's milk, on the advice of the doctor, began to carry her to the shore of the estuary and bury her sore legs in the sand. The inconsolable mother found the child, and, having told Ivan her story, she began to beg to give her daughter to her. But Ivan was inexorable, reproached her for violating her Christian duty. When her roommate offers the hero a thousand rubles, he, saying that he has never been sold, squeamishly spits on the money, throws it at the soldier's feet and fights with him. But, seeing the owner running with a gun, he gives the child himself and runs away with the one he had just beaten.

Left without documents and money, he again gets into trouble. At the horse auction, he sees how the Tatars fight for horses, hammering each other with whips, and wants to try his hand too. In the duel for the horse, which was his only a minute, he survived, but his opponent dies. The Tatars hide him and take him away, saving him from the police. So Flyagin is captured by the Gentiles, but a plan to escape ripens in his mind and one day he manages to carry out his plan.

Returning to his homeland, he helps the peasants to buy horses at fairs. And then, thanks to the rumor, the prince takes him to serve. Life has come calm and well-fed, only sometimes it breaks into spree from melancholy. And on the last exit, fate brings the gypsy Grushenka, who conquered him, and Flyagin, as if spellbound, threw all the money he had at her feet. The prince, having learned about Pear, carried away by her beauty and singing, brings her to the estate.

Ivan sincerely became attached to this extraordinary girl, took care of her. But when the impoverished prince decided to leave his bored beloved for the sake of a profitable marriage, Ivan, pitying Grusha, distraught with grief and jealousy, who begged to save her from a shameful share, pushes him off the cliff into the river.

Tormented by what he had done, looking for his own death, he leaves instead of another recruit to fight in the Caucasus, where he stayed for more than fifteen years. For faithful service and bravery, he was awarded the St. George Cross and granted an officer rank. Having received a letter of recommendation from the colonel, he gets a job in the capital as an assistant at the address desk, but the work is not for him: boring, penniless. And they no longer take him as a coachman, his noble position does not allow riders to scold or hit him. He settled down in a booth, where they did not disdain his nobility, to play a demon. But he didn’t stay there either, he got into a fight, protecting the young actress from harassment.

Again, left without shelter and food, he decided to go to the monastery. Taking the name Ishmael, he performed his obedience in the monastery stable, which he was very pleased with, because it was not necessary to attend all the services in the church. But his believing soul toils that it’s not for him to serve in the temple, he can’t even put a candle normally, he will drop the whole candlestick. And then he killed a cow, accidentally mistaking it for a demon.

More than once he was punished for his negligence. And he began to prophesy war in order to stand up for the fatherland with faith. Tired of this wonderful monk, the abbot sends him on a pilgrimage to Solovki. Here on the way to the pilgrimage, the enchanted wanderer meets his grateful listeners, whom he told about the stages of his worldly journey.

Professions in the life of Ivan Flyagin

In childhood, a boy is identified as a postilion to help manage six horses, sitting on one of the first. After escaping from the count's estate with gypsies, he serves as a nanny. In captivity of the Tatars, he treats people and horses. Returning from captivity, he helps to choose horses at fairs, then works as a horseman in the service of the prince.

After the death of Grushenka, he leaves for the Caucasus under a false name, where he serves for fifteen years as a soldier and, for his courage, he is promoted to officer. Returning from the war, he gets a job at the address office as a referee. He tried to become a coachman, but they did not take him because of his officer's rank. Due to lack of money, he goes to the actors, but he is kicked out for a fight. And then he goes to the monastery.

Why Flyagin is called a wanderer

All his life Ivan wandered, he did not have a chance to lead a settled way of life, to find a family and a home.

He is an "inspired vagabond" with an infant soul, whom no one drives, he himself runs in search of happiness.

But all his wanderings were aimless, only having gone to the monastery, he becomes a pilgrim, travels on a pilgrimage to holy places.

What ridiculous things does Flyagin do?

All his actions are dictated by spiritual impulses. Without hesitation, he often does ridiculous things. That runs away with the officer with whom he first fought, without giving up the child. When demons seem to him, he drops candles in the church, accidentally kills a cow while awake.

How long did Flyagin spend in captivity

Ivan falls into a long ten-year captivity to the steppe nomads-Tatars. So that he does not run away, horse bristles are sewn into his cut heels, thus making him crippled. But they call him a friend, give wives to take care of him.

But he toils that he is not married, that his children are not baptized, he is eager to return to his homeland. Having seized the moment when only old people, women and children remained on the roam, he runs away.

Is it possible to call Ivan Flyagin a righteous man

Ivan himself considers himself a terrible sinner, repents for the lives he has ruined. But the deaths that he caused were without malicious intent: the monk died by accident, due to his own negligence, the Tatar died in a fair duel, Grushenka was saved from a terrible fate at her request. Will repentance be given to the prince who crippled the lives of others, Grushenka's father who sold his daughter, to the Tatars who killed the missionaries?

Ivan is strong in his faith in moral principles, but he is not given Christian humility, it is difficult to put up with injustice. He is fascinated by life, but having resisted temptations, endured the trials of fate, he finds comfort in righteous faith and service. By expiating his sins, he becomes righteous.