Stages of Gregory's life. Typical and individual

"Quiet Don" is a work that shows the life of the Don Cossacks in one of the most difficult historical periods in Russia. The realities of the first third of the twentieth century, which turned the whole habitual way of life upside down, like caterpillars drove through the fate of the common people. Through the life path of Grigory Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Sholokhov reveals the main idea of ​​the work, which is to depict the clash of the individual and the historical events that do not depend on him, his wounded fate.

The struggle between duty and feelings

At the beginning of the work, the protagonist is shown as a hardworking guy with a hot temper, which he inherited from his ancestors. Cossack and even Turkish blood flowed in him. Oriental roots endowed Grishka with a bright appearance that could turn the head of more than one Don beauty, and the Cossack stubbornness, in places bordering on stubbornness, ensured the stamina and steadfastness of his character.

On the one hand, he shows respect and love for his parents, on the other hand, he does not listen to their opinion. The first conflict between Grigory and his parents happens because of his love affair with a married neighbor Aksinya. To end the sinful relationship between Aksinya and Grigory, his parents decide to marry him. But their choice in the role of the sweet and meek Natalya Korshunova did not solve the problem, but only exacerbated it. Despite the official marriage, love for his wife did not appear, and for Aksinya, who, tormented by jealousy, was increasingly looking for a meeting with him, only flared up.

Blackmailing his father with his house and property forced the hot and impulsive Grigory in his hearts to leave the farm, his wife, relatives and leave with Aksinya. Because of his act, the proud and adamant Cossack, whose family from time immemorial cultivated their own land and grew their own bread, had to become a mercenary, which made Grigory ashamed and disgusted. But he now had to answer both for Aksinya, who had left her husband because of him, and for the child she was carrying.

War and betrayal of Aksinya

A new misfortune was not long in coming: the war began, and Gregory, who swore allegiance to the sovereign, was forced to leave both the old and the new family and recover at the front. In his absence, Aksinya remained in the master's house. The death of her daughter and news from the front about the death of Grigory crippled the woman's strength, and she was forced to succumb to the onslaught of the centurion Listnitsky.

Coming from the front and learning about Aksinya's betrayal, Grigory returns to his family again. For some period, his wife, relatives and soon appeared twins delight him. But the troubled time on the Don, associated with the Revolution, did not allow them to enjoy family happiness.

Ideological and personal doubts

In the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Grigory Melekhov's path is full of quests, doubts and contradictions both politically and in love. He constantly rushed about, not knowing where the truth was: “Everyone has his own truth, his own furrow. People have always fought for a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life. We must fight those who want to take life, the right to it ... ". He decided to lead the Cossack division and repair the pillars of the advancing Reds. However, the longer the Civil War continued, the more Gregory doubted the correctness of his choice, the more clearly he understood that the Cossacks were waging war with windmills. Nobody was interested in the interests of the Cossacks and their native land.

The same model of behavior is typical in the personal life of the protagonist of the work. Over time, he forgives Aksinya, realizing that he cannot live without her love and takes him to the front. After he sends her home, where she is forced to once again return to her husband. Arriving on a visit, he looks at Natalya with different eyes, appreciating her devotion and loyalty. He was drawn to his wife, and this intimacy culminated in the conception of a third child.

But again the passion for Aksinya took over him. His last betrayal led to the death of his wife. Gregory drowns his remorse and the impossibility of resisting feelings in the war, becoming cruel and merciless: “I got so smeared on someone else's blood that I didn’t have any stings left for anyone. Childhood - and I almost do not regret this one, but I don’t even think about myself. The war took everything out of me. I became terrible myself. Look into my soul, and there is blackness, as in an empty well ... ".

Alien among their own

The loss of loved ones and the retreat sobered Gregory, he understands: you need to be able to save what he has left. He takes Aksinya with him on his retreat, but due to typhus, he is forced to leave her.

He again begins to seek the truth and finds himself in the Red Army, taking command of a cavalry squadron. However, even participation in hostilities on the side of the Soviets will not wash away Grigory's past, stained by the white movement. He is threatened with execution, about which his sister Dunya warned him. Taking Aksinya, he makes an attempt to escape, during which the woman he loves is killed. Having fought for his land and on the side of the Cossacks and the Reds, he remained a stranger among his own.

The path of Grigory Melekhov's search in the novel is the fate of a simple man who loved his land, but lost everything that he had and appreciated, protecting it for the life of the next generation, which in the final personifies his son Mishatka.

Artwork test

Throughout the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Grigory Melekhov, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, is in search of truth. Unlike his entourage, he is not ready to be a soulless killing machine, to kill his compatriots for someone's interests. Gregory is looking for meaning and justice in the Civil War, in which he had to take part, and, unfortunately, does not find it.

The fate of Grigory Melekhov was largely predetermined by the revolutionary and military events of his time. Before joining the ranks of the White Army, Melekhov could not look at death with a shudder - he was even depressed by the death of a duckling by his hand - but during military operations he has to kill. He is especially bright I remember the scene with the Austrian he killed. He took the life of a person, but for what? Melekhov could not get an answer to this question. Grigory finds simple and obvious answers to the questions that puzzled him from the Bolsheviks.

“Here it is, our beloved power! All are equal!” He, like many of his other compatriots, is tempted by the simple and understandable ideology of the “Reds.” Gregory goes over to the side of the anti-monarchists, he is ready to fight for general equality and happiness, but here he also encounters cruelty and looting that disgust him. A detachment of unarmed prisoners is shot by the "Reds" despite Grigory's attempts to stop this action. When the Bolsheviks begin to create violence in his native land, he becomes their fierce enemy. he cannot choose which side he is on in this war, he cannot choose the lesser of two evils, he rushes about. He says about the whites Koshevoy and Listnitsky: “It was clear to them from the very beginning, but everything is still unclear to me. They both have their own, straight roads, their ends, and since 1917 I have been walking along the forges, like a drunk swinging ... ". Such a neutral position of Gregory does not suit the military bipolar world. Melekhov seems dangerous for both the Bolsheviks and the "whites" .He tries to escape to the Kuban, but on the way his beloved Aksinya is killed. “And Grigory, dying of horror, realized that it was all over, that the worst thing that could have happened in his life had already happened.” The war takes away from Grigory the most precious thing - the "Reds" kill his brother Petro, his beloved Aksinya, his mother and father, daughter Polyushka, legal wife Natalya die. All that remains for him is his son and sister Dunyasha. Grigory lost a lot in the senseless meat grinder of the revolution and civil war. A man like him, a man true to his heart, a seeker of truth, is worthy of happiness. But is there a place in the new world for such a man?

Thus, the Don Hamlet is left by the author shabby and aged, experienced and suffering. Using the example of Melekhov, Sholokhov shows us the cruelty and senselessness of the civil war, the war of brother against brother. that life is multifaceted and complex and that such a division is simply unacceptable.

At the beginning of the story, young Gregory - a real Cossack, a brilliant horseman, hunter, fisherman and hardworking rural worker - is quite happy and carefree. The traditional Cossack commitment to military glory helps him out in the first trials on the bloody battlefields in 1914. Distinguished by exceptional courage, Gregory quickly gets used to bloody battles. However, he is distinguished from his brothers in arms by his sensitivity to any manifestation of cruelty. To any violence against the weak and defenseless, and as events unfold - also a protest against the horrors and absurdities of war. In fact, he spends his whole life in an environment of hatred and fear that is alien to him, becoming hardened and discovering with disgust how all his talent, his entire being goes into the dangerous skill of creating death. He has no time to be at home, in the family, among people who love him.

All this cruelty, dirt, violence made Gregory take a fresh look at life: in the hospital where he was after being wounded, under the influence of revolutionary propaganda, doubts about loyalty to the tsar, fatherland and military duty appear.

In the seventeenth year, we see Gregory in chaotic and painful attempts to somehow decide in this "troubled time." He searches for political truth in a world of rapidly changing values, guided more often by the external signs of events than by their essence.

At first he fights for the Reds, but the killing of unarmed prisoners by them repels him, and when the Bolsheviks come to his beloved Don, doing robbery and violence, he fights them with cold fury. And again, Gregory's search for truth does not find an answer. They turn into the greatest drama of a man completely lost in the cycle of events.

The deep forces of Gregory's soul repel him from both the Reds and the Whites. “They are all the same!? he says to his childhood friends leaning towards the Bolsheviks.? All of them are a yoke around the neck of the Cossacks! And when he learns about the rebellion of the Cossacks in the upper reaches of the Don against the Red Army, he takes the side of the rebels. Now he can fight for what is dear to him, for what he loved and cherished all his life: “As if there were no days of searching for the truth, searches, transitions and heavy internal struggle behind him. What was there to think about? Why did the soul rush about? in search of a way out, in resolving contradictions? Life seemed mocking, wisely simple. Now it already seemed to him that from eternity there was no such truth in it, under the wing of which anyone could warm up, and embittered to the extreme, he thought: everyone has his own truth, his own furrow. For a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life - people have always fought and will fight as long as the sun shines on them, while warm blood oozes through their veins. We must fight those who want to take life, right for it; you have to fight hard, without swinging,? like in the wall but the intensity of hatred, firmness will give the struggle!

Both a return to the dominance of officers in the event of a victory for the Whites, and the power of the Reds on the Don are unacceptable for Grigory. In the last volume of the novel, demotion as a result of disobedience to a White Guard officer, the death of his wife and the final defeat of the White Army bring Gregory to the last degree of despair. In the end, he joins the cavalry of Budyonny and heroically fights with the Poles, wanting to clear himself of his guilt before the Bolsheviks. But for Gregory there is no salvation in Soviet reality, where even neutrality is considered a crime. With bitter mockery, he tells the former orderly that he envies Koshevoy and the White Guard Litsvitsky: “It was clear to them from the very beginning, but everything is still unclear to me. They both have their own, straight roads, their own ends, and since the seventeenth year I have been walking along the forks, swinging like a drunk ... "

The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of the Russian Cossacks as a whole. The Cossacks never broke their hats to anyone, they lived apart, isolated from the rest of the world, I feel some of my exclusivity, peculiarity and strive to preserve it. Both whites and reds for the majority of ordinary Cossacks are “non-residents” who brought discord and war to the Don land. Whichever side the Cossacks fought on, they want one thing: to return to their native farm, to their wife and children, to plow the land, to run their own household.

One night, under the threat of arrest, and therefore the inevitable execution, Grigory flees from his native farm. After long wanderings, yearning for children and Aksinya, he secretly returns. Aksinya hugs him, presses her face against his wet overcoat, sobs: “Better kill, but don’t leave!”. Having begged his sister to take the children, he and Aksinya flee at night in the hope of getting to the Kuban and starting a new life. Enthusiastic joy fills the soul of this woman at the thought that she is again next to Gregory. But her happiness is short-lived: on the way they are caught by a horse outpost, and they rush into the night, pursued by bullets flying after them. When they find shelter in the ravine, Grigory buries his Aksinya: “With his palms, he diligently pressed wet, yellow clay on the grave mound and knelt near the grave for a long time, bowing his head, gently swaying. Now there was no need for him to rush. It was all over…”

Hiding for weeks in the thicket of the forest, Grigory is experiencing an increasingly strong desire “to be like ... in his native places, to show off at the kids, then he could die ...” He returns to his native farm.

Having touchingly described Grigory's meeting with his son, Sholokhov ends his novel with the words: “Well, that little thing that Grigory dreamed about during sleepless nights has come true. He stood at the gate of his native house, holding his son in his arms. It was all that remained in his life, which still made him related to the earth and to all this huge world shining under the cold sun.

Gregory did not have long to enjoy this joy. Obviously, he came back to die. To perish from communist necessity in the person of Mikhail Koshevoy. In a novel full of cruelty, executions and murders, Sholokhov wisely lowers the curtain on this last episode. In the meantime, a whole human life flashed before us, flashing brightly and slowly fading away. The biography of Grigory by Sholokhov is quite voluminous. Gregory lived, in the full sense of the word, when his life idyll was not disturbed in any way.

He loved and was loved, he lived an extraordinary worldly life on his native farm and was satisfied. He always tried to do the right thing, and if not - well, every person has the right to make a mistake. Many moments of Gregory's life in the novel are a kind of "escape" from events that are beyond the power of his mind. The passion of Gregory's searches is most often replaced by a return to himself, to natural life, to his home. But at the same time, it cannot be said that Gregory's life quests have come to a standstill, no. He had true love, and fate did not deprive him of the opportunity to be a happy father. But Gregory was forced to constantly look for a way out of the difficult situations that had arisen. Speaking about the moral choice of Gregory in life, it is impossible to say unequivocally whether his choice was always really the only true and correct one. But he was almost always guided by his own principles and beliefs, trying to find a better share in life, and this desire was not a simple desire to "live the best." It was sincere and affected the interests not only of himself, but also of many people close to him, in particular the woman he loved. Despite the fruitless aspirations in life, Gregory was happy, although for a very short time. But even these short minutes of much-needed happiness were enough. They did not disappear in vain, just as Grigory Melekhov did not live his life in vain. There is no particular fault of Gregory in the way his fate turned out: he did not choose the burden in which to live. But one thing can be said: Melekhov is broken, but not broken, crippled, but not disfigured by the war, like Mitka Korshunov or Fomin. He did not prevaricate, and if he went against his conscience somewhere, then he paid the price for it to the end. And Mishatka, sitting in his father's arms, is the best reward for everything from an unkind fate. M. Sholokhov, like Tolstoy, emphasizes the decisive role of the people in history.

Describing his idea for the image of the protagonist of The Quiet Flows the Don, M. Sholokhov wrote: “I wanted to talk about the charm of a person in Grigory Melekhov, but I didn’t succeed completely.” It did not succeed, as it seems to us, not because of a lack of skill (the writer perfectly understood the scale of the figure he created), but because in him the human spirit rose to the heights of perfection and descended to the depths of despair. The path of Grigory Melekhov to the ideal of true life is a tragic path of gains, mistakes and losses, which was passed by the entire Russian people in the 20th century.

The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.

Methodological techniques: checking homework - correcting the plan drawn up by the students, talking according to the plan.

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Methodical development of a lesson on the topic "The fate of Grigory Melekhov as a way to search for the truth." Grade 11

The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragic fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.

Methodological techniques: checking homework - correcting the plan drawn up by the students, talking according to the plan.

During the classes

Teacher's word.

Sholokhov's heroes are simple, but outstanding people, and Grigory is not only brave to the point of despair, honest and conscientious, but also truly talented, and not only the hero's "career" proves this (a cornet from ordinary Cossacks at the head of a division is evidence of considerable abilities, although the Reds during the Civil War, such cases were not uncommon). This is also confirmed by his life collapse, since Gregory is too deep and complicated for the unambiguous choice required by time!

This image attracts the attention of readers with the features of nationality, originality, sensitivity to the new. But there is also something spontaneous in it, which is inherited from the environment.

Checking homework

Approximate plot plan "The Fate of Grigory Melekhov":

Book one

1. The predetermination of a tragic fate (origin).

2. Life in the father's house. Dependence on him ("like dad").

3. The beginning of love for Aksinya (thunderstorm on the river)

4. Skirmish with Stepan.

5 Matchmaking and marriage. ...

6. Leaving home with Aksinya to work as a laborer with the Listnitskys.

7. Call to the army.

8. Murder of an Austrian. Loss of anchor point.

9. Wounded. The news of death received by relatives.

10. Hospital in Moscow. Conversations with Garanzha.

11. Break with Aksinya and return home.

Book Two, Parts 3-4

12. Etching the truth of Garangi. Leaving for the front as a "good Cossack".

13.1915 Rescue of Stepan Astakhov.

14. Hardening of the heart. Influence of Chubatoy.

15. Premonition of trouble, injury.

16. Gregory and his children, desire for the end of the war.

17. On the side of the Bolsheviks. Influence of Izvarin and Podtelkov.

18. Reminder about Aksinya.

19. Wounded. Massacre of the prisoners.

20. Infirmary. "To whom to lean?"

21. Family. "I am for Soviet power."

22. Unsuccessful elections to detachment atamans.

23. Last meeting with Podtelkov.

Book Three, Part 6

24. Conversation with Peter.

25. Anger towards the Bolsheviks.

26. Quarrel with the father because of the loot.

27. Unauthorized departure home.

28. Red at the Melekhovs.

29. Dispute with Ivan Alekseevich about "male power".

30. Drunkenness, thoughts of death.

31. Gregory kills sailors

32. Conversation with grandfather Grishaka and Natalya.

33. Meeting with Aksinya.

book four, part 7:

34. Gregory in the family. Children, Natalia.

35. Dream of Gregory.

36. Kudinov about Grigory's ignorance.

37. Quarrel with Fitskhalaurov.

38. Breakup of a family.

39. The division is disbanded, Gregory is promoted to centurion.

40. Death of a wife.

41. Typhus and convalescence.

42. An attempt to board the ship in Novorossiysk.

Part 8:

43. Gregory at Budyonny.

44. Demobilization, conversation with. Michael.

45. Leaving the farm.

46. ​​In the gang of Owl, on the island.

47. Leaving the gang.

48. The death of Aksinya.

49. In the forest.

50. Return home.

Conversation.

The image of Grigory Melekhov is central in M. Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Flows the Don". It’s impossible to tell right away if he’s a positive or a negative character. For too long he had wandered in search of the truth, his way. Grigory Melekhov appears in the novel primarily as a truth seeker.

At the beginning of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary farm boy with the usual range of household chores, activities, and entertainment. He lives thoughtlessly, like grass in the steppe, following traditional principles. Even the love for Aksinya, which captured his passionate nature, cannot change anything. He allows his father to marry him, as usual, preparing for military service. Everything in his life happens involuntarily, as if without his participation, as he involuntarily cuts a tiny defenseless duck while mowing - and shuddered at what he had done.

Grigory Melekhov did not come into this world for bloodshed. But the harsh life put a saber into his hardworking hands. As a tragedy, Gregory experienced the first shed human blood. The appearance of the Austrian killed by him then appears to him in a dream, causing mental pain. The experience of the war generally turns his life upside down, makes him think, look into himself, listen, look at people. Conscious life begins.

The Bolshevik Garanzha, who met Grigory in the hospital, seems to reveal to him the truth and the prospect of changes for the better. "Autonomist" Efim Izvarin, the Bolshevik Fedor Podtelkov played a significant role in shaping the beliefs of Grigory Melekhov. The tragically deceased Fyodor Podtelkov pushed Melekhov away, shedding the blood of unarmed prisoners who believed the promises of the Bolshevik who captured them. The senselessness of this murder and the soullessness of the "dictator" stunned the hero. He is also a warrior, he killed a lot, but here not only the laws of humanity are violated, but also the laws of war.

"Honest to the bottom," Grigory Melekhov cannot but see the deception. The Bolsheviks promised that there would be no rich and poor. However, a year has already passed since the “Reds” were in power, and the promised equality is no more like no: “a platoon commander in chrome boots, and “Vanyok” in windings.” Gregory is very observant, he tends to think over his observations, and the conclusions from his thoughts are disappointing: “If the pan is bad, then the boor is a hundred times worse.”

The civil war throws Gregory either into the Budennovsky detachment, or into the white formations, but this is no longer thoughtless submission to the way of life or a combination of circumstances, but a conscious search for the truth, the path. His native home and peaceful labor are seen by him as the main values ​​of life. In the war, shedding blood, he dreams of how he will prepare for sowing, and these thoughts make his soul warm.

The Soviet government does not allow the former hundredth ataman to live peacefully, threatens with prison or execution. The food requisition plant instills in the minds of many Cossacks the desire to "re-war", instead of the workers' power to put their own, the Cossacks. Gangs are formed on the Don. Grigory Melekhov, who is hiding from the persecution of the Soviet authorities, falls into one of them, Fomin's gang. But bandits have no future. For the majority of the Cossacks it is clear: it is necessary to sow, and not to fight.

The protagonist of the novel is also drawn to peaceful work. The last test, the last tragic loss for him is the death of his beloved woman - Aksinya, who received a bullet on the way, as it seems to them, to a free and happy life. Everything died. Gregory's soul is scorched. Only the last, but very important thread that connects the hero with life remains - this is his home. The house, the land waiting for the owner, and the little son are his future, his footprint on the earth.

With amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity, the depth of the contradictions through which the hero went through is revealed. The versatility and complexity of the inner world of a person is always in the center of attention of M. Sholokhov. Individual destinies and a broad generalization of the ways and crossroads of the Don Cossacks make it possible to see how complex and contradictory life is, how difficult it is to choose the true path.

What meaning does Sholokhov put in when he speaks of Grigory as a “good Cossack”? Why was Grigory Melekhov chosen as the main character?

(Grigory Melekhov is an extraordinary person, a bright personality. He is sincere and honest in his thoughts and actions (especially in relation to Natalya and Aksinya (see episodes: the last meeting with Natalya - part 7, chapter 7; Natalya's death - part 7, chapter 16 -eighteen;death of Aksinya). He has a sympathetic heart, a developed sense of pity, compassion (duckling in the hayfield, Franya, the execution of Ivan Alekseevich).

Grigory is a man capable of an act (leaving with Aksinya for Yagodnoye, a break with Podtelkov, a clash with Fitskhalaurov - part 7, chapter 10; the decision to return to the farm).

In what episodes is Grigory's bright, outstanding personality most fully revealed? The role of internal monologues. Does a person depend on circumstances or make his own destiny?

(He never lied to himself, despite doubts and throwing (see internal monologues - part 6, chapter 21). This is the only character whose thoughts the author reveals. War corrupts people to commit acts that a person in a normal state would never Grigory had a core that did not allow him to once do meanness. Deep attachment to the house, to the earth - the strongest spiritual movement: "My hands need to work, not fight."

The hero is constantly in a situation of choice (“I myself am looking for a way out”). Fracture: dispute and quarrel with Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov, Shtokman. The uncompromising nature of a man who never knew the middle ground. Tragedyas if transferred to the depths of consciousness: "He painfully tried to sort out the confusion of thoughts." This is not political vacillation, but the search for truth. Gregory longs for the truth, "under whose wing everyone could warm up." And, from his point of view, neither the Whites nor the Reds have such truth: “There is no one truth in life. It can be seen whoever defeats whom, he will devour him. And I was looking for the bad truth. My soul ached, swayed back and forth. ” These searches turned out to be, as he believes, "futile and empty." And this is also his tragedy. A person is placed in inevitable, spontaneous circumstances, and already in these circumstances he makes a choice, his own destiny.) “Most of all, a writer needs,” Sholokhov said, “he himself needs to convey the movement of a person’s soul. I wanted to tell about this charm of a person in Grigory Melekhov ... "

In your opinion, does the author of The Quiet Flows the Don manage to "transmit the movement of a person's soul" using the example of the fate of Grigory Melekhov? If so, what do you think is the main direction of this movement? What is its general character? Is there something in the image of the protagonist of the novel that you could call charm? If so, what is its charm? The main problem of "The Quiet Flows the Don" is revealed not in the character of one, even if the main character, which is Grigory Melekhov, but in the comparison and opposition of many and many characters, in the entire figurative system, in the style and language of the work. But the image of Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality, as it were, concentrates the main historical and ideological conflict of the work and thereby unites all the details of a huge picture of the complex and contradictory life of many actors who are carriers of a certain attitude towards the revolution and the people in this historical era.

How would you define the main problems of The Quiet Flows the Don? What, in your opinion, allows us to characterize Grigory Melekhov as a typical person? Can you agree that it is in it that “the main historical and ideological conflict of the work” is concentrated? Literary critic A.I. Khvatov states: “In Gregory there was a huge reserve of moral forces necessary in the creative accomplishments of the emerging new life. No matter what complications and troubles fell upon him and no matter how painfully the deed under the influence of a wrong decision fell on his soul, Gregory never looked for motives that would weaken his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people.

What do you think gives the scientist the right to assert that “a huge reserve of moral forces lurked in Gregory”? What actions do you think support this assertion? And against him? What “wrong decisions does the hero of Sholokhov make? Is it permissible, in your opinion, to talk about the “wrong decisions” of a literary hero? Reflect on this topic. Do you agree that "Gregory never looked for motives that weaken his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people"? Give examples from the text. “In the plot, the conjugations of motives are artistically effective in revealing the image of Grigory, the inescapability of love that Aksinya and Natalya give him, the immensity of Ilyinichna’s maternal suffering, the devoted comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers,” especially Prokhor Zykov. Even those with whom his interests intersected dramatically, but to whom his soul was opened ... could not help but feel the power of his charm and generosity.(A.I. Khvatov).

Do you agree that the love of Aksinya and Natalya, the suffering of his mother, as well as the comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers play a special role in revealing the image of Grigory Melekhov? If so, how does it manifest itself in each of these cases?

With which of the characters the interests of Grigory Melekhov "dramatically intersected"? Can you agree that even these heroes reveal the soul of Grigory Melekhov, and they, in turn, were able to “feel the power of his charm and generosity”? Give examples from the text.

Critic V. Kirpotin reproached (1941) Sholokhov's heroes for primitivism, rudeness, "mental underdevelopment": "Even the best of them, Grigory, is slow-witted. Thought for him is an unbearable burden.

Are there among the heroes of "The Quiet Flows the Flows the Don" those who seemed to you to be rude and primitive, "mentally undeveloped" people? If so, what role do they play in the novel?Do you agree that Sholokhov's Grigory Melekhov is a "slow-thinker", for whom thought is this "unbearable burden"? If yes, give concrete examples of the hero's "slow-thinking", his inability, unwillingness to think. Critic N. Zhdanov noted (1940): “Grigory could be with the people in their struggle ... but he did not become with the people. And this is his tragedy.

Is it fair, in your opinion, the statement that Gregory "did not stand with the people", unless the people are only those who are for the Reds?What do you think is the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov? (This question can be left as homework for a detailed written answer.)

Homework.

How do the events that seized the country relate to the events of Grigory Melekhov's personal life?

"Quiet Don" is a work that shows the life of the Don Cossacks in one of the most difficult historical periods in Russia. The realities of the first third of the twentieth century, which turned the whole habitual way of life upside down, like caterpillars drove through the fate of the common people. Through the life path of Grigory Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Sholokhov reveals the main idea of ​​the work, which is to depict the clash of the individual and the historical events that do not depend on him, his wounded fate.

The struggle between duty and feelings

At the beginning of the work, the protagonist is shown as a hardworking guy with a hot temper, which he inherited from his ancestors. Cossack and even Turkish blood flowed in him. Oriental roots endowed Grishka with a bright appearance that could turn the head of more than one Don beauty, and the Cossack stubbornness, in places bordering on stubbornness, ensured the stamina and steadfastness of his character.

On the one hand, he shows respect and love for his parents, on the other hand, he does not listen to their opinion. The first conflict between Grigory and his parents happens because of his love affair with a married neighbor Aksinya. To end the sinful relationship between Aksinya and Grigory, his parents decide to marry him. But their choice in the role of the sweet and meek Natalya Korshunova did not solve the problem, but only exacerbated it. Despite the official marriage, love for his wife did not appear, and for Aksinya, who, tormented by jealousy, was increasingly looking for a meeting with him, only flared up.

Blackmailing his father with his house and property forced the hot and impulsive Grigory in his hearts to leave the farm, his wife, relatives and leave with Aksinya. Because of his act, the proud and adamant Cossack, whose family from time immemorial cultivated their own land and grew their own bread, had to become a mercenary, which made Grigory ashamed and disgusted. But he now had to answer both for Aksinya, who had left her husband because of him, and for the child she was carrying.

War and betrayal of Aksinya

A new misfortune was not long in coming: the war began, and Gregory, who swore allegiance to the sovereign, was forced to leave both the old and the new family and recover at the front. In his absence, Aksinya remained in the master's house. The death of her daughter and news from the front about the death of Grigory crippled the woman's strength, and she was forced to succumb to the onslaught of the centurion Listnitsky.

Coming from the front and learning about Aksinya's betrayal, Grigory returns to his family again. For some period, his wife, relatives and soon appeared twins delight him. But the troubled time on the Don, associated with the Revolution, did not allow them to enjoy family happiness.

Ideological and personal doubts

In the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Grigory Melekhov's path is full of quests, doubts and contradictions both politically and in love. He constantly rushed about, not knowing where the truth was: “Everyone has his own truth, his own furrow. People have always fought for a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life. We must fight those who want to take life, the right to it ... ". He decided to lead the Cossack division and repair the pillars of the advancing Reds. However, the longer the Civil War continued, the more Gregory doubted the correctness of his choice, the more clearly he understood that the Cossacks were waging war with windmills. Nobody was interested in the interests of the Cossacks and their native land.

The same model of behavior is typical in the personal life of the protagonist of the work. Over time, he forgives Aksinya, realizing that he cannot live without her love and takes him to the front. After he sends her home, where she is forced to once again return to her husband. Arriving on a visit, he looks at Natalya with different eyes, appreciating her devotion and loyalty. He was drawn to his wife, and this intimacy culminated in the conception of a third child.

But again the passion for Aksinya took over him. His last betrayal led to the death of his wife. Gregory drowns his remorse and the impossibility of resisting feelings in the war, becoming cruel and merciless: “I got so smeared on someone else's blood that I didn’t have any stings left for anyone. Childhood - and I almost do not regret this one, but I don’t even think about myself. The war took everything out of me. I became terrible myself. Look into my soul, and there is blackness, as in an empty well ... ".

Alien among their own

The loss of loved ones and the retreat sobered Gregory, he understands: you need to be able to save what he has left. He takes Aksinya with him on his retreat, but due to typhus, he is forced to leave her.

He again begins to seek the truth and finds himself in the Red Army, taking command of a cavalry squadron. However, even participation in hostilities on the side of the Soviets will not wash away Grigory's past, stained by the white movement. He is threatened with execution, about which his sister Dunya warned him. Taking Aksinya, he makes an attempt to escape, during which the woman he loves is killed. Having fought for his land and on the side of the Cossacks and the Reds, he remained a stranger among his own.

The path of Grigory Melekhov's search in the novel is the fate of a simple man who loved his land, but lost everything that he had and appreciated, protecting it for the life of the next generation, which in the final personifies his son Mishatka.

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