The death of an official - analysis of the work. A.P. Chekhov "Death of an official". Theme, idea, main characters of the work - Essays, Essays, Reports Characteristics of the work death of an official

The history of the creation of Chekhov's work "The Death of an Official"

“... In Russian literature, an amazing mind flashed and disappeared, because after all, only very smart people can invent and say a good absurdity, a good joke, those whose mind “overflows through all the veins,” wrote IA Bunin about Chekhov’s talent. LN Tolstoy said about him: "Chekhov is Pushkin in prose." These words meant the strongest artistic impression that Chekhov's prose left, surprising with its brevity and simplicity.
According to Chekhov, the plot of the story "The Death of an Official" was told to Anton Pavlovich by Begichev. It was simple: a man who carelessly sneezed in the theatre, the next day came to a stranger and began to apologize for causing him trouble in the theater. Funny anecdotal case.
"The Death of an Official" refers to the so-called early stories of the writer. Published in 1883 with the subtitle "The Case". "The Death of an Official", like other stories of the writer, are included by the author in the 1886 collection "Motley Stories". All these works reveal the theme of the "little man".

Genus, genre, creative method of the analyzed work

Before joining Russian literature, A.P. Chekhov, it was believed that the small epic form is a “splinter” of the large (novel) form: “a chapter torn from the novel,” as V.G. Belinsky about the story. The differences between the novel and the story (as the story was called) were determined only by the number of pages. Chekhov, according to L.N. Tolstoy, "created new, completely new ... forms of writing for the whole world ...".
The story "Death of an official" is written in the genre of "sketch". This is a short humorous story, a picture from life, the comedy of which consists in conveying the conversation of the characters. Chekhov raised the scene to the level of great literature. The main thing in the scene is the speech of the characters, plausibly everyday and funny at the same time. An important role is played by the title and the speaking names of the characters.
Thus, the problem of the story "The Death of an Official" is stated in the title itself, which is a combination of opposing concepts. An official is an official, in a uniform buttoned up with all buttons (this also applies to his feelings); he is, as it were, deprived of the living movements of the soul, and suddenly - death, although a sad, but still a purely human property, that an official, such an idea has already developed about him, is contraindicated. Chekhov's work, one can assume in advance, is not a story about the disappearance of human individuality, but about the cessation of the functioning of an official, a kind of soulless mechanism. In the story, it is not so much the person who dies, but his outer shell.
The story as a whole is written within the framework of critical realism. However, in the second half of the story, Chervyakov's behavior goes beyond the limits of everyday plausibility: he is too cowardly, too importunate, this does not happen in life. In the end, Chekhov is quite sharp, open. With this “died”, he takes the story beyond the framework of everyday realism. Therefore, this story is felt as quite humorous: death is perceived as frivolity, conventionality, exposure of a technique, a move. The writer laughs, plays, the very word "death" does not take seriously. In the clash of laughter and death, laughter triumphs. It defines the overall tone of the piece. So the funny in Chekhov turns into accusatory.

Subject

While rethinking the traditional theme of the "little man" dating back to Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and early Dostoevsky, Chekhov at the same time continues and develops the humanistic pathos of this direction in the new conditions. Like Pushkin's The Stationmaster, Gogol's Overcoat, Dostoevsky's Poor People, Chekhov's works are filled with protest against the suppression and distortion of the human personality, which in the new historical conditions is even more merciless and sophisticated. At the same time, in the story, the subject of ridicule is a petty official who is mean and groveling when no one forces him.

The idea of ​​the analyzed work

In Chekhov's story, usually the center of the story is not a character or an idea, but a situation - an unusual incident, an anecdote. Moreover, the case is far from accidental - it highlights certain patterns of life, the essence of character. Chekhov possessed a genius gift for actually noticing such situations in which the characters would be revealed not only with maximum, but with exhaustive completeness, both as social and ethical types, and as people with a psychology peculiar to them, a manner of behavior.
In the story “The Death of an Official”, the writer showed how the petty official Chervyakov, being in a humiliated position, not only does not seek to get out of it, but himself proclaims slavish behavior, which became the subject of ridicule in the story. Chekhov advocated high moral ideals.

Main heroes

An analysis of the work shows that there are two main characters in the story. One of them is a general who plays a secondary role and only reacts to the actions of the hero. The general is deprived of his name and patronymic, and this is natural, because we see him through the eyes of Chervyakov, and he sees only the uniform (this word is often repeated in the text) of an important person. We do not learn anything significant about the general, but it is obvious that he, also in violation of tradition, is more humane than the “humiliated and insulted” Chervyakov. One thing is clear: the characters of the story speak different languages, they have different logic and understanding - a dialogue between them is impossible.
The second character, the official Chervyakov, is the object of ridicule in the story. Traditionally, in Russian literature, this was a "small", poor, "humiliated and insulted" person, arousing sympathy from the reader. Chekhov, with his indestructible sense of freedom, sought to overcome this cliché. He wrote to his brother Alexander in 1885 (already after the creation of the story “The Death of an Official”) about “little” people: “Give up, do me a favor, your oppressed collegiate registrars! Can't you smell with your nose that this topic has already become obsolete and makes you yawn? And where do you find those torments in your Asia that the chinoshi endure in your stories? Truly I tell you, even to read is terrible! It is more realistic now to portray collegiate registrars who do not allow their excellencies to live. The little man Chervyakov here is both ridiculous and pathetic at the same time: ridiculous in his absurd persistence, pathetic because he humiliates himself, renouncing his own human personality, human dignity.

The plot and composition of the work

In Chekhov's story, one of the participants in the events turns out to be a petty official, the other a general. The surname of the official - Chervyakov - speaks for itself, emphasizing the humility of the executor Ivan Dmitrievich (the official in charge of economic affairs and supervision of external order in the office). This initial situation gives rise to the traditional conflict. The general barked at a small, defenseless, dependent man - and killed him. At Chekhov, the general really shouted at the official, as a result of which: “Something came off in Chervyakov’s stomach. Seeing nothing, hearing nothing, he backed away to the door, went out into the street and trudged along... Arriving home mechanically, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and... died.
Thus, it appears as if the usual plot scheme. However, there are also significant shifts. To begin with, the general barked at his visitor only when he brought him with more and more visits, more and more explanations, and all on the same topic, to complete exhaustion, and then to frenzy.
He does not look like a pathetic, dependent person and official. After all, he bothers the general with his apologies not because he depends on him. Not at all. He apologizes, so to speak, for reasons of principle, believing that respect for persons is the sacred foundation of social life, and he is deeply discouraged that his apologies are not accepted. When the general once again waved him off, remarking: "Yes, you're just laughing, sir! .." - Chervyakov was seriously angry. "What kind of jokes are there? thought Chervyakov. “There are no jokes here! General, but cannot understand!” Thus, Chervyakov is fundamentally different from his previous literary counterparts. It is in Chervyakov's worldview that an unexpected, comic turn of the traditional theme and plot scheme lies. It turns out that Chervyakov does not die of fright at all. The drama of a man lies in the fact that he could not endure the violation of the principles that are sacred to him, and not by anyone else, but by a radiant person, a general. Chervyakov could not bear this. So a harmless anecdote develops under Chekhov's pen into a satire on the prevailing mores and customs.

Artistic originality of the analyzed work

In the history of Russian literature A.P. Chekhov entered as a master of the small genre. The formation of a satirical story is associated with the name of the writer, the defining features of which were laconicism and aphorism.
The very title "Death of an official" contains the main idea works: the opposition of rank and man, the unity of the comic and the tragic. The content of the story makes a strong artistic impression due to its brevity and simplicity. It is known that Chekhov adhered to the idea: "to write with talent - that is, briefly." The small volume of the work, its extreme brevity determine the special dynamism of the story. This special dynamism is contained in verbs and their forms. It is through the verbal vocabulary that the plot develops, and the characterization of the characters is also given; although, of course, the writer uses other artistic techniques.
In the story, the characters have speaking surnames: Chervyakov and Brizzhalov. The official Chervyakov serves as an executor. The meaning of this word has been discussed above. The second meaning of this word (it is marked in dictionaries as obsolete) is the following: executor - the one who carried out the execution, that is, the punishment, or led it. Today, this meaning is perceived as the main one, since the former one (a junior official in the office) has already been forgotten. The phrase executor Chervyakov was also chosen according to the principle of comic contrast characteristic of Chekhov: an executor (that is, one who carries out punishment) and suddenly a funny surname ... Chervyakov.
According to the writer, literary work"should give not only a thought, but also a sound ... a sound impression." In the story, this is literally a sound impression - “But suddenly his face frowned, his eyes rolled up, his breathing stopped ... he took the binoculars away from his eyes, bent down and ... apchhi !!! I sneezed, as you can see, ”causes a comic effect.
AT little story lengthy descriptions, internal monologues are impossible, and therefore the artistic detail comes to the fore. It is the details that carry a huge semantic load in Chekhov. Literally one phrase can say everything about a person. In the last phrase of the story “Death of an official”, the author gives a practical explanation for everything: the official, “having mechanically come home, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and ... died.” The uniform, this bureaucratic uniform, as if rooted to him. Fear of a higher rank killed a man.
In the story "The Death of an Official", the author's position is not clearly expressed. One gets the impression of Chekhov's objectivity, indifference to what is happening. The narrator does not evaluate the actions of the hero. He ridicules them, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

The meaning of the work

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is one of the greatest Russian classical writers. He is known as a master of realistic storytelling. The writer himself said this: "Fiction is called fiction because it paints life as it really is." The truth of life attracted him above all. The main theme of Chekhov's work (like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky) was inner world person. But the artistic methods, artistic techniques that the writers used in their work are different. Chekhov is rightfully considered the master of the short story, the miniature short story. Over many years of work in humorous magazines, Chekhov honed the skill of the storyteller, and learned to contain maximum content in a small volume.
After the appearance of the story "The Death of an Official", many critics said that Chekhov had composed some kind of absurd story that had nothing to do with life. The situation, indeed, is brought to the point of absurdity by the writer, but this is precisely what makes it possible to better see the absurdities of life itself, in which servility, servility, deification of the authorities and panic fear of him reign. According to M.P. Chekhov, the brother of the writer, a real incident occurred at the Bolshoi Theater, close to the one described, but it is not clear whether it was known to Chekhov. Something else is known: in January 1882, Chekhov received a letter from his Taganrog acquaintance A.V. Petrov, which said: “On the eve of Christmas ... our postmaster (the most famous monster and pedant) threatened one official (senior sorter KD. Shchetinsky) to put him on trial, it seems, for violation of discipline, in a word, for personal insult; and he foolishly, after trying to ask for forgiveness, left the office and in the city garden ... a few hours before matins and hanged himself ... ". In other words, Chekhov succeeded in recreating a typical, albeit absurd, situation.
“Russian critics have written that neither Chekhov's style, nor the choice of words, nor anything else testifies to the particular thoroughness of writing that Gogol, Flaubert, or Henry James were obsessed with. His vocabulary is poor, word combinations are banal; a juicy verb, a greenhouse adjective, a mint-creamy epithet, entered on a silver tray - all this is alien to him. He was not a verbal virtuoso, like Gogol; his Muse was dressed in an everyday dress. Therefore, it is good to cite Chekhov as an example of the fact that one can be an impeccable artist without exceptional brilliance of verbal technique, without exceptional concern for the graceful curves of sentences. When Turgenev starts talking about the landscape, one can see how preoccupied he is with the ironing of the trouser folds of his phrase; Crossing his legs, he stealthily glances at the color of his socks. Chekhov is indifferent to this - not because these details are of no importance, for writers of a certain type they are natural and very important - but Chekhov does not care because, by his nature, he was alien to any verbal ingenuity. Even a slight grammatical error or a newspaper stamp did not bother him at all. The magic of his art lies in the fact that, despite his tolerance for mistakes that a brilliant novice would easily avoid, despite his readiness to be content with the first word he met, Chekhov was able to convey a sense of beauty that was completely inaccessible to many writers who thought they knew for certain that such a luxurious, magnificent prose. He achieves this by illuminating all the words with the same dim light, giving them the same gray tint - the middle one between the color of a dilapidated hedge and an overhanging cloud. A variety of intonations, the flickering of charming irony, a truly artistic stinginess of characteristics, the colorfulness of details, the fading of human life - all these purely Chekhovian features are flooded and surrounded by a rainbow-vague verbal haze ”(V.V. Nabokov).

It is interesting

It is difficult to find in the work of A.P. Chekhov's work, which would not have been filmed or staged on the stage of the theater. The filmography of Chekhov's books begins its report from the time of silent films. The name of the famous director Yakov Protazanov (1881-1945) is associated with the production of the first feature films based on Chekhov's stories. It was the so-called Chekhov film almanac. The release of the Chekhov film almanac was timed to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the great artist of the word.
A.P. Chekhov was one of the director's favorite writers, and Protazanov willingly took up the film adaptation of his stories. We settled on three small short stories: "Chameleon", "The Death of an Official" and "Anna on the Neck", built on acute plot situations and, with all the genre differences, united by the unity of the ideological and thematic content: a protest against the moral ugliness generated by servility, toadying, cringing. This content prompted the name of the almanac - "Ranks and People" (1929).
While working on film scripts, Protazanov and O. Leonidov were aware that in silent cinema it is impossible to achieve an adequate translation of the figurative structure and intonation of Chekhov's works into the language of the screen. Therefore, in some places they had to make changes to the fabric of stories: some of the dialogue was replaced by action; the genre nature of "Death of an Official" underwent a transformation (from a humorous short story turned into a tragicomic grotesque); moved the accents in the plot "Anna on the neck". But the inner truth of Chekhov and the main images-characters of the stories being filmed were preserved.
For the main roles, Protazanov attracted first-class actors, just like him, in love with Chekhov's work: I. Moskvin (Chervyakov in "The Death of an Official" and Ochumelov in "Chameleon"), M. Tarkhanova (Modest Alekseevich in "Anna on the Neck") , V. Popov (Khryu-kin - in "Chameleon"), N. Stanitsyn and A. Petrovsky (Artynov and the governor in "Anna on the Neck").
Remarkable literary material and an excellent cast made it possible for Protazanov to create an interesting, unusual film work that recreated the figurative world of Chekhov's masterpieces.
(According to the book by NA Lebedev "Essays on the history of cinema of the USSR. Silent cinema")

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