The main characters of the story are first love. The main characters of the story
Sections: Literature
To succeed as a person,
Be tested by love
For it is in it that the true
The essence and value of any person.
I.S. Turgenev
At home you became acquainted with I.S. Turgenev’s story “First Love”. What are your impressions?
By the way, this work was perceived ambiguously by Ivan Sergeevich’s contemporaries.
In a letter from Louis Viardot to Turgenev, we read a sharp criticism of the story: “My friend, I want to speak frankly to you about your “First Love.”
Frankly, if I were an editor, I would also reject this little novel for the same reasons. I’m afraid that, whether you like it or not, it should be classified in the category of that literature that is rightly called unhealthy...
Who does this new Lady with Camellias choose among her admirers? A married man. But why not at least make him a widower? Why this sad and useless figure of his wife? And who tells this whole scandalous story? His son, oh shame! And he doesn’t do this at the age of 16, but at 40, when his own hair is already turning silver; and he does not find a single word of censure or regret about the pitiful situation of his parents. What, after all this, does talent serve when it spends itself on such a plot?” Louis Viardot
However, Turgenev's friend, writer Gustave Flaubert, evaluates “First Love” differently. In March 1863, he wrote to Turgenev: “...I understood this thing especially well because this is exactly the story that happened to one of my very close friends. All the old romantics... should be grateful to you for this little story that tells them so much about their youth! What a fiery girl this Zinochka is. One of your qualities is the ability to create women. They are ideal and real at the same time. They have an attractive force and are surrounded by radiance. But this whole story, and even the whole book, is illuminated by the following two lines: “I didn’t have any bad feelings against my father. On the contrary: he seemed to have grown up in my eyes.” This, in my opinion, is an amazingly deep thought. Will it be noticed? Don't know. But for me this is the pinnacle.”
In order to figure out who is right in their assessment of the story, let us turn to its analysis.
Do you think every person experiences first love?
Turgenev in his work says no. In the prologue, the author depicts a scene of a night conversation between the owner and two guests who lingered in his house. From the conversation between men, we understand that first love bypasses vulgar and ordinary consciousness. The first guest, Sergei Nikolaevich, says: “I didn’t have a first love... I just started with the second... When I first dragged himself one very pretty young lady... I looked after her as if this was not a new thing to me...”
What word in his speech is alarming?
“Dragged.”
This man not only trivializes the very concept of love; he is trying to cross out the fundamental property of first love - its ability to make a well-known world new.
The story of the first love of the owner of the house looks everyday, mundane, ritualized, insincere, forced: “we were matched, we very soon fell in love with each other and got married without hesitation, in a word, “everything went like clockwork for us.”
And I. S. Turgenev believed that love is a blow. It takes away the whole person without a trace and requires transformation, which is why you remember it for the rest of your life.
Vladimir Petrovich, the second guest, was gifted with first love; he knows what it means for a person in his youth and for his entire subsequent destiny. He is clearly aware of who is in front of him and that he has to defend the very concept of “love”, so he asks for time to write down the story that still lives in him, because one cannot talk about such things in vain...
Turgenev tests many of his heroes with love, because this feeling transforms a person, makes him better. Let us turn to the images of the main characters of the story, gifted with first love.
Students' story about the characters in the work and the teacher's conclusions.
Image of Voldemar.
The story is told from the perspective of the main character, Vladimir Petrovich, a man of about forty. He recalls a story that happened to him, a 16-year-old boy. The prototype of the young hero of the story, according to the writer himself, was himself: “This boy is your humble servant...”
Long, bright, warm days of summer follow each other... Life goes on as usual... without a tutor... walking with a book in hand, galloping on a horse. The boy imagines himself as a knight in a tournament. He doesn’t have a lady of his heart yet, but his whole soul is ready to meet her.
Describe the hero's internal state.
Two polar feelings live in him: sadness and joy. He becomes sad and cries from contemplating the “beauty of the evening” and reading the “singing verse.” But at the same time it was so joyful for him to observe the beautiful world around him that “through tears and through sadness” the feeling of a young, simmering life uncontrollably “appeared.”
Turgenev calls Volodya’s premonition “half-conscious, bashful,” as it is associated with the dreams of a young heart about the “ghost of a woman’s love.” The youthful consciousness is focused on the dream of knightly service to the Beautiful Lady. And in this he is a worthy son of his father.
Image of Pyotr Vasilyevich.
The prototype of the hero is the writer’s father, Sergei Nikolaevich, who married Varvara Petrovna (Ivan Sergeevich’s mother) for convenience. Throughout his life, he will retain his inner independence and emphasized coldness in the marital union.
Why exactly after the “sparrow night” does Turgenev talk about Vladimir’s father?
“Sparrow Night” showed that the feeling that Vladimir experiences is real and very serious, his happy dream at dawn is like a calm before the storm of suffering and passions that will fall on the young man, and it is his father who will become the cause of this suffering.
Now a 40-year-old man is talking about his father, but even two decades after his death, he continues to look at him with adoration and admiration. “I loved him, I admired him, he seemed to me a model of a man.” The father’s face is still unforgettable: smart, handsome, bright, unforgettable are those short minutes when he allowed the boy to be next to him. But this did not make his attachment to his father any less.
It is the father who helps his son understand the eternal meaning of love: “Alien I penetrated into yours: you are expanded - and you are violated... and yours I killed."
In the memory of Vladimir Petrovich, his father remained a man of honor. Having married for convenience to a woman “ten years older than him” and being financially dependent on her, he endures a situation unworthy of himself for many years. The only thing that helps him, in forced life circumstances, to remain an internally independent person is his severity, coldness and distance in his relationship with his wife. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which the father could ask her for anything. Nevertheless, twice Pyotr Vasilyevich will have to kneel before his wife, taking care of Zinaida.
When their relationship ceases to be a secret thanks to an anonymous letter from Count Malevsky and a quarrel with cruel words and threats occurs in the house, he finds the spiritual strength to go to his wife and “alone with her” for a long time to talk about something. In an effort to protect the princess from slander, he agrees, apparently, on his wife’s condition to leave the dacha and move to the city. However, the most amazing scene is when, according to Vladimir Petrovich, a few days before his death, his father received a letter from Moscow and “went to ask my mother for something and, they say, even cried, he, my father!”
The father also behaves chivalrously in the situation with the author of the anonymous letter to his wife, Count Malevsky, refusing him to visit his house: “... I have the honor to report to you that if you come to me again, I will throw you out the window. I don’t like your handwriting.”
A handsome, deep, passionate man, he had a decisive influence on the frisky, flirtatious minx princess.
Even when everything is revealed, the boy-knight “did not cry, did not give in to despair,” and most importantly, “did not grumble against his father.” The chivalrous behavior of the father in the following days will not only not give his son a reason for reproaches, but will further confirm the young man in his father's right to love. Significant in this sense is the scene (after his father’s meeting with Zinaida in the city), when he suddenly discovered “how much tenderness and regret could be expressed... by the strict features” of his father, who passionately loved and at the same time grieved over the impossibility of his love.
The image of Zinaida Aleksandrovna Zasekina.
The prototype of Zinaida was the poetess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya, she was a neighbor at the dacha of 15-year-old Turgenev.
Zinaida occupies an intermediate position between childhood and adulthood. She is 21. This is evidenced by her actions, which reek of childishness and thoughtlessness (playing forfeits or ordering Voldemar to jump from the wall). The love of her fans amuses her. She also treats Voldemar as just another admirer, at first not realizing that he has never fallen in love before, that his life experience is even less than her own.
In the second plot scene, a cross-cutting and very important motif of light in solving the image of Zinaida will appear. Light shines through Zinaidina’s “sly smile on slightly parted lips,” and the light illuminates the princess’s quick glance at Vladimir. And “when her eyes, mostly half-squinted, opened to their full size,” the light seemed to spill over the girl’s entire face.
Why does light accompany Turgenev's heroine?
The feeling of emanating light from Zinaida’s gaze and face belongs to a young knight in love, deifying his ideal, who saw a woman-angel in front of him. But at the same time, the light is a sign of special purity, speaking about the inner purity of Zinaida, the purity of her soul, despite all the contradictory behavior of the princess.
The motif of light reaches its culmination in the portrait description of Zinaida sitting against the background of a window. “She sat with her back to the window, curtained with a white curtain; a ray of sunlight, breaking through this curtain, bathed her fluffy golden hair, her innocent neck, sloping shoulders and tender, calm chest with a soft light.” Enveloped in the window light, emitting light herself, she seemed to be in a cocoon of light, through which “her face seemed even more charming: everything in it was so subtle, smart and sweet.” “The eyelids quietly rose,” and the girl’s tenderly shining eyes seemed to reflect her soul.
With difficulty and tears, Zinaida enters the world of adults. It is in her character to love a strong person, “who would break me himself.” She is waiting for exactly this kind of love, she wants to submit to her chosen one. She is no longer satisfied with flirting with fans, she is “sick of everything,” and she is ready for a big, strong feeling. Voldemar is the first to understand that she truly fell in love.
Why is the work called “First Love”? How do you understand the title of the story?
This is a work about the first love in the life of the main characters of the story. In the phrase “first love” for Voldemar the key word is “first”, for the father it is “love”, and for Zinaida both words are important. The title of the story is ambiguous. “First Love” is not only a story about the first wonderful feeling of a boy who has become a young man. This is a painful last passion for the father and the only, fatal love for Zinaida. Thus, everyone has their own “first love”.
Character system. But is he the only one who finds himself in such a situation? Zinaida is surrounded by seekers admiring her beauty.
“She needed each of the fans,” the narrator says about Zinaida. We can confidently assume: in each, as if in a mirror, some part of her soul is reflected. The desperate hussar Belovzorov was not distinguished by “mental and other virtues.” But he is endearing to his directness, daring, and ability to take risks. Moreover, he is the most suitable match for a noble but poor girl.
The romantic Maidanov “responded to the poetic strings of her soul.” By creating his portrait, the author parodically reduces the features of the romantic poet Lensky: “A tall young man with extremely long black hair (Pushkin’s “And shoulder-length black curls...”), but with “blind eyes.” Sensitive Zinaida “wholeheartedly praised” Maidanov’s poems. But “having listened to his outpourings, she forced him to read Pushkin so that<…>clear the air." Zinaida immeasurably surpasses him in her understanding of beauty. In sad moments, she asks her page to recite “On the Hills of Georgia” by heart. “This is why poetry is good: it tells us what is not there and what is not only better than what is, but even more like the truth...” the girl says thoughtfully. This remark of a subtle connoisseur of the poet is consonant with the words of Gogol, which define Pushkin’s style: “Purity and artlessness have risen<…>to such a high degree that reality itself seems artificial and caricatured before her<…>. Everything is not only the truth, but even better, as it were.”
Among Zinaida, the most profound and original person is undoubtedly Dr. Lushin. Using his example, Turgenev again shows the fatal power of feeling over even the most intelligent and skeptical of people. Obviously, the doctor appeared in her retinue as an observer, in control of his heart. But under the girl's spell he lost weight<...>", nervous irritability replaced in him his former light irony and feigned cynicism." Zinaida, guessing that he “loved her more than anyone,” sometimes treated him cruelly and did not hesitate to test her power “with special malicious pleasure.”
The cult of work, the harsh common language (“hardened”, “our brother is an old bachelor”), the manner of hiding feelings (“laughed more deeply, angrier and shorter”) make him similar to Bazarov in the era of Odintsova’s passion. Like the hero of “Fathers and Sons,” the materialist Lushin tries to logically simply explain his hypnotic infatuation with Zinaida: “...Caprice and independence<…>. These two words exhaust you...” And, like Bazarov, he feels that his words do not contain the whole truth. The fear of the girl’s destructive power forces him to warn young Volodya: “You should study and work while you are young.”<…>. Are you healthy now?.. Is what you feel good for you, okay?” Volodya “he himself realized in his soul that the doctor was right.” But the doctor is not able to carry out his own advice... “I wouldn’t come here myself,” Lushin admits, “if (the doctor clenched his teeth) ... if I weren’t such an eccentric.”
At the same time, Zinaida receives Count Malevsky, a fop and a gossip, “with a smug and ingratiating smile.” Malevsky’s “falseness” is obvious even to the naive Volodya. When asked directly, Zinaida jokes that she “likes mustaches.” But in a moment of spiritual enlightenment, she realizes with horror the features of Malevsky: “How much bad, dark, sinful there is in me.”
As Volodya gets acquainted with the Zasekin family, a feeling of rejection breaks through in the proud princess, which brings her in common with Asya. Zinaida had reason to feel wounded. “Improper upbringing, strange acquaintances and habits, the constant presence of the mother, poverty and disorder in the house...” notes the observant Volodya. Zinaida developed in special conditions, not very similar to the position of a girl in a “lordly, sedate house.” Her family is poor. “They don’t have their own carriage, and the furniture is very empty...” the footman reports. The outbuilding they hired “was so shabby, and small, and low.”
From conversations between his parents, Volodya learns that the marriage of Zinaida’s parents was regarded in the world as a misalliance. Her frivolous father once married a girl from a family of modest social status. However, in terms of character, Madame Zasekina does not in any way resemble the modest Fenechka or the strict Tatyana, Asya’s mother. Zinaida's mother turns out to be a narrow-minded, rude and vulgar bourgeois, the daughter of a clerk. The sensitive young man senses hypocrisy behind her outward cordiality; instead of simplicity, licentiousness. “Too simple,” I thought, looking with involuntary disgust at her (Princess Zasekina’s) entire unprepossessing figure.”
Zinaida’s mother gives Zinaida freedom, rare for a secular girl, and does not prevent her from organizing cheerful gatherings in the house, during one of which “they stole the hat from the clerk at the Iversky Gate from his knees and forced him, as a ransom, to dance...”. "To me<…>“, who grew up in a sedate lordly house, all this noise and din, this unceremonious, almost violent gaiety, these unprecedented relationships with strangers just rushed into my head...” says Volodya. However, Zinaida, like Asya, is burdened by an empty and idle existence; spiritually she is higher than the surrounding society. The princess worriedly complains to Dr. Lushin that her daughter “drinks water with ice” and fears for her health. The following dialogue takes place between Zinaida and the doctor:
What could come of this?
What? You may catch a cold and die.
- <…>Well, that's the way to go!<…>Is life that much fun? Take a look around<…>. Or do you think that I don’t understand this, I don’t feel it? It gives me pleasure to drink water with ice, and you can seriously assure me that such a life is worth it if you don’t risk it for a moment of pleasure - I’m not talking about happiness.”
The conversation about “happiness” did not arise by chance. In her circle of fans, Zinaida doesn’t see a worthy contender: “No, I can’t love people like that, whom I have to look down on. I need someone who would break me himself...” And then he tries to deceive fate: “I won’t fall into anyone’s clutches, no, no!” The writer has shown many times how pointless it is to renounce love. And in this story we observe how the soul of a proud girl is taken over by a real feeling. In response to Lushin’s reproaches, she bitterly retorts: “We’re late.”<…>, dear doctor. Observe poorly<…>, I have no time for whims now...”
The story “First Love” by Turgenev was written in 1860, and in many ways became a reflection of the author’s personal experiences. This is a story about the first, half-childhood love, which had to face adult love, full of drama and sacrifice.
On our website you can read online a summary of “First Love” chapter by chapter, and then take a test to test your knowledge. A brief retelling of the work will be useful for the reading diary and preparation for a literature lesson.
Main characters
Vladimir- a sixteen-year-old boy who had to endure all the joys and troubles of his first love.
Zinaida- A 21-year-old impoverished princess, spoiled by male attention, with whom Vladimir was in love.
Petr Vasilievich- Vladimir’s father, an intelligent, freedom-loving middle-aged man who started an affair with Zinaida.
Other characters
Princess Zasekina- Zinaida’s mother, an unkempt, uneducated woman with bad manners.
Vladimir's mother- a reserved, delicate woman who was much older than her husband.
Malevsky, Lushin, Maidanov, Nirmatsky and Belovzorov- fans of Zinaida.
Chapter 1
Sixteen-year-old Volodya was preparing to enter university at his parents’ dacha. He lived in anticipation of something extraordinary and this “was destined to come true soon.” Soon the family of Princess Zasekina moved into the small outbuilding.
Chapter 2
During one of his walks, Volodya saw an unusually attractive blond girl in a company of young people. The stranger struck the young man in the heart and he, feeling “unprecedented excitement,” ran home.
Chapter 3
The next morning, all Volodya’s thoughts were occupied only with how to get to know the object of his passion. The young man was rescued by his mother, who ordered him to “go to the princess and verbally explain to her” so that she would come to visit her.
Chapter 4
Finding himself in the Zasekins’ chambers, Volodya was unpleasantly surprised by the excessive simplicity and untidiness of the decoration and the princess herself. Her daughter Zinochka turned out to be the complete opposite - gentle, graceful, with excellent manners. She admitted that she was five years older than Volodya and asked him to “always tell the truth.” At that moment the young man felt as good as a fish in water. But soon his joy faded when a young hussar appeared at the Zasekin family and presented Zinaida with a kitten - Volodya was jealous for the first time in his life.
Chapters 5-7
Volodya's mother found the princess “a very vulgar woman,” obsessive and selfish. It turned out that she was the daughter of a rich clerk, and married a bankrupt prince, who soon squandered her dowry.
At the reception with Volodya’s parents, Princess Zasekina “didn’t show herself off at all,” while Zinaida “behaved herself very strictly, almost arrogantly, like a real princess.” Saying goodbye, she invited Volodya to come to them in the evening.
Arriving at the appointed hour to the Zasekins, Volodya saw Zinaida surrounded by young people. Among her fans were “Count Malevsky, Doctor Lushin, the poet Maidanov, retired captain Nirmatsky and Belovzorov.” The guests had a lot of fun: they played forfeits, “sang and danced, and represented a gypsy camp.”
Chapter 8
His mother was against Volodya’s communication with his neighbors, whom she considered ill-mannered. She reminded her son that he should “prepare for the exam and study.”
Volodya shared his impressions of Zinaida with his father, an intelligent, interesting man who valued freedom above all else. After a conversation with Volodya, he “ordered to saddle his horse” and went to the Zasekins. In the evening the young man found Zinaida pale and thoughtful.
Chapter 9
Volodya was languishing in love with Zinaida, who by that time was carried away by playing with her fans - “she kept them all on a leash, at her feet.”
One day Volodya found his chosen one in a strange mood. When looking at his face, she noted that he “has the same eyes,” and then admitted that she was disgusted with everything. Volodya realized that Zinaida was in love.
Chapters 10-12
Volodya kept trying to understand who was the lucky guy with whom Zinaida fell in love. Doctor Lushin tried to warn him against frequent visits from the Zasekin family - the choice of house was “painfully unfortunate”, and its atmosphere was destructive for a pure, ardent young man.
Meanwhile, “Zinaida became more and more strange, more and more incomprehensible.” She began to allow herself strange antics, and one day she passionately kissed Volodya.
Chapters 13-15
The young man felt indescribable bliss for a long time after kissing his beloved. One day he noticed how, during a horseback ride, his father enthusiastically whispered something in Zinaida’s ear. For the next week, the girl did not show herself to anyone, saying she was sick. After a while, she told Volodya that “now everything is over,” asked for forgiveness for her previous coldness and offered friendship.
Chapter 16
One day the young princess invited the guests to tell their dreams. When it was her turn, she described her dream. In it she was in the image of a queen, surrounded by fans. Each of them is ready to die for her, but the queen’s heart is given to the only one who is waiting for her near the fountain. “No one knows him,” but the queen is ready to come at his first call and “both stay with him and get lost with him.”
Chapters 17-19
The next day, Malevsky, looking “contemptuously and playfully” at Volodya, hinted that he needed to be constantly nurturing his “queen,” especially at night. The young man realized that Zinaida was leading a double life.
At night in the garden, Volodya noticed his father sneaking around, but did not attach any importance to it. Soon everything fell into place - “a terrible scene occurred between father and mother.” The mother “reproached the father for infidelity, for dating a neighboring young lady,” and in response he lost his temper and left. This “sudden revelation” completely crushed Volodya.
Chapter 20
It was decided to return to Moscow. Volodya came to say goodbye to Zinaida and tell her that he would “love and adore” her until the end of his days. The touched girl hugged Volodya to her and “kissed” him deeply and passionately.
In Moscow, a young man who experienced a love drama did not soon “get rid of the past, and did not soon get to work.” His mental wound was healing very slowly, but he did not feel anger towards his father. During a frank conversation, Pyotr Vasilyevich gave advice to his son “to live normally and not give in to hobbies.”
Chapter 21
One day Volodya went horseback riding with his father. After a long walk, Pyotr Vasilyevich asked his son to wait a little and disappeared somewhere in an alley. Tired of the long wait, Volodya began to look for his father, and soon found him near a wooden house, in the window of which Zinaida could be seen. A tense conversation took place between them, during which Pyotr Vasilyevich hit Zinaida’s naked hand with a whip, and she only “kissed the red scar on it.” The father immediately “threw the whip aside” and ran into the house to his beloved.
Volodya was shocked by what he saw - he understood what true, “adult” love was, which had nothing to do with his enthusiastic youthful feeling. Six months later, his father died of a stroke, having previously received “a letter from Moscow, which excited him extremely.” Before his death, he warned Volodya against female love.
Chapter 22
After four years, Volodya successfully graduated from the university. He found out that Zinaida got married, but at first it was not easy for her to find a match for herself after her relationship with Pyotr Vasilyevich. Volodya put off meeting his first love until he learned that she “died almost suddenly from childbirth.”
Conclusion
After reading the short retelling of “First Love,” we recommend reading the story in its full version.
Test on the story
Check your memorization of the summary content with the test:
Retelling rating
Average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 686.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian writer, whose work is of interest to readers of many countries and generations.Fame came to this greatest writer not only thanks to novels and stories. Numerous stories, plays, and prose poems played a major role. He was a very versatile writer.
The author did not chase quantity. It is known that he wrote his works slowly, nurturing the idea for a long time. Despite this, his works regularly appeared on the pages of magazines and as separate books.
Turgenev wrote the famous story “First Love” when he was already 42 years old. In his work, he tried to comprehend the years he had lived and understand his past. Therefore, the entire literary plot is imbued with autobiography.
The history of the creation and conception of the story “First Love”
Turgenev's story with a beautiful and unusual title, “First Love,” was written by the author while he was in the city on the Neva. It is known that the basis for the author’s plot was the events that once happened to the writer himself. And so, being in St. Petersburg from January to March 1860, he took on his new work, the idea of which had long been born in his head.
According to the plot, the author talks about emotional experiences that aroused new feelings in the main character. A small childhood love on the pages of Turgenev's story turns into adult love, filled with tragedy and sacrifice. It is known that almost every hero of this work had prototypes, since this story was written on the basis of the author’s personal emotional experience and the events that once happened in his family.
As the writer himself later admitted, he tried to portray all events as they are, without hiding or embellishing anything.
“The actual incident is described without the slightest embellishment.”
The author believed that there was nothing wrong with him telling the truth, he had nothing to hide, and someone would take his story as a model and this would help avoid many mistakes and tragedies. This Turgenev story was first published in Russia, the year of its publication was 1860.
The plot of Turgenev's story "First Love" is structured as if it were a memoir. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly man who remembers his first love. The author took as the main character of his story a young man, Vladimir, who was barely 16 years old.
In the story, the main character and his family go to relax on a family estate, which is located outside the city. In this rural calm and tranquility, he meets a young and beautiful girl. Zinaida was already 21 years old at that time. But Vladimir is not at all embarrassed by the age difference. This is how the main female character appears in Turgenev’s story - Zinaida Aleksandrovna Zasekina. Of course, she is young and beautiful, so it’s hard not to fall in love. Yes, Vladimir fell in love with Zina, but it turns out that he is not the only one in love. Around a pretty girl there are constantly candidates for her affection.
But the girl’s character turns out to be not the most diligent. Realizing that men really like her, Zina is not averse to sometimes making cruel jokes on them. So she doesn’t like Vladimir at all, but seeing his suffering, she decides to play a little prank on him, showing her capricious and playful disposition. Sometimes Zinaida Alexandrovna makes fun of him in front of everyone because he is too young. But Turgenev’s hero endures all this, because he is deeply in love. And only after some time, Vladimir unexpectedly learns that Zinaida is also very much in love and this object of her love is his father.
One day he witnesses a secret meeting between Zinaida Alexandrova and Pyotr Vasilyevich, his father. From everything he saw and said, he understood that his father had left the girl forever, because the whole family was leaving back to the city from the village. And a week later, Vladimir’s father suddenly has a stroke and dies. Zinaida very soon marries some Mr. Dolsky. Four years later, the young woman dies in childbirth.
Prototypes of the heroes of Turgenev's story “First Love”
All Turgenev's heroes in his story “First Love” have fictitious names, but according to the memoirs of contemporaries, they all have prototypes. As soon as the story came out, everyone recognized real people in it: the writer himself, his mother, father and the girl with whom the author was in love. Let's take a closer look at their prototypes:
♦ Vladimir, Turgenev’s main character, is the author himself, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
♦ Zinaida Alexandrovna - Princess Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya, who was a poetess. It is known that the young author was deeply in love with her, but it soon became clear that she was his father’s mistress. Her fate: wedding and death after childbirth was in reality.
♦ Pyotr Vasilyevich, the father of the main character - Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, who married a woman for convenience. Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was much older than him, and he did not love her at all. Hence his affairs with other women.
It is known that due to the fact that the writer’s father’s marriage was not for love, Sergei Nikolaevich’s novels were frequent. His wife, the writer’s mother, took care of the housework and stood firmly on her feet. Therefore, the couple lived on their own. In the story, the author shows such a married couple, from whose relationship their son, a completely young creature, suffers. The author himself is easily recognizable in it. This whole story takes place at a time when Ivan Turgenev lives in a village in the Moscow region to prepare for exams to enter the university.
The young man is passionately in love, and the girl flirts and jokes with him. Volodya completely forgets about his studies and thinks only about Zinochka. That’s why so much of Turgenev’s story is devoted to describing the experiences and feelings of a young man, which are constantly changing and in some ways even resemble a storm or flash. It is worth noting that Volodya is still happy, although the girl simply laughs at him. But still, anxiety gradually increases, and soon the young man begins to understand that Zina is not so simple: she has a secret life and she is also in love with someone.
Soon, not only the hero, but also the readers begin to guess who Zinaida is in love with. The tone of the entire narrative of Turgenev's story changes greatly and the word "love", which before was stormy and enthusiastic, becomes dark and tragic. The girl’s feelings turn out to be much deeper than those of the main character. And Vladimir understands that this is true love. It’s so different, everyone has their own, which is impossible to understand and explain. And as confirmation of this is the ending of the story, where the hero witnesses the explanation of two people in love who cannot be together.
But Volodya is not offended by them, realizing that this love is real and he has no right to condemn or interfere with such true love. This love is multifaceted, beautiful, complex. The author himself tried to find it all his life.
Composition of Turgenev's story
In its composition, Turgenev's story “First Love” is a rather simple work, but deep and meaningful. It has twenty chapters. The narrative is constructed in the form of memories, so the presentation is sequential and in the first person, since the author is the main character himself, who talks about what happened to him in his youth. Although the name, of course, has been changed: Vladimir Petrovich.
Turgenev's story begins with a short prologue, which shows the background of all these memories and introduces the reader to what they are about to learn. So, Vladimir, being an old man, in one of the companies tells the story of his first and tragic love. He does not want to tell his friends it verbally, as they did, but tells them that he will definitely write this story and read it to them the next time they meet. And he keeps his word. After this comes the story itself.
Detailed analysis of the twelfth chapter of Turgenev's story
The twelfth chapter, which is the culmination of the entire plot, occupies a special place in the entire Turgenev story. It is here, in this chapter, that the hero’s feelings reach their highest intensity. In it, the author describes the feeling that he has never had better in his life. The plot of this chapter allows us to understand a girl who at first seems frivolous and not serious, but it turns out that she is capable of suffering and deep and serious feelings. But only these “illegal” feelings become a real tragedy for her, and, most likely, this pushes her to commit unpredictable and sometimes cruel acts.
The author claimed that what he had to experience at the age of 16 was simply bliss, which, unfortunately, would never be repeated. The writer measured a lot of things in life through love, and therefore he puts his heroes in Turgenev’s story through the test of love. Ivan Sergeevich shows that his heroes must be fulfilled as individuals. Turgenev's psychologism is always secret; he does not give an open description of them, only general hints that helped readers plunge into the depths of sensuality. This chapter contains many experiences of Vladimir, which show his inner world, and this helps to understand the content of the entire work.
With the help of his work, Turgenev was able to relive his youthful excitement and show the reader all the versatility of love.
The story “First Love” by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev tells about the emotional experiences of a young hero, whose childhood feelings have grown into an almost insoluble problem of adult life and relationships. The work also touches on the theme of the relationship between father and son.
History of creation
The story was written and published in 1860, in St. Petersburg. The work is based on the real emotional experience of the writer, so a clear parallel can be drawn between his biography and the events of the story, where Volodya or Vladimir Petrovich is Ivan Sergeevich himself.
In particular, in his work Turgenev fully described his father. He became the prototype for the character of Pyotr Vasilyevich. As for Zinaida Alexandrovna herself, the prototype for her character was the first love of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, who was also his father’s mistress.
Due to such frankness and the transfer of the lives of real people onto the pages of the story, the public met it rather ambiguously. Many condemned Turgenev for his excessive frankness. Although the writer himself has admitted more than once that he sees nothing wrong with such a description.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
The composition of the story is structured as Volodya’s memory of his youth, namely, his first almost childish, but serious love. Vladimir Petrovich is a 16-year-old boy, the main character of the work, who comes to a country family estate with his father and other relatives. Here he meets a girl of incredible beauty - Zinaida Alexandrovna, with whom he falls irrevocably in love.
Zinaida loves to flirt and has a very capricious disposition. Therefore, he allows himself to accept advances from other young people, besides Volodya, without making any choice in favor of any one, specific candidate for the role of his official suitor.
Volodya’s feelings do not cause her to reciprocate; sometimes the girl allows herself to mock him, ridiculing their age difference. Later, the main character learns that the object of Zinaida Alexandrovna’s desire was his own father. Stealthily spying on the development of their relationship, Vladimir understands that Pyotr Vasilyevich does not have any serious intentions towards Zinaida and plans to leave her soon. Having fulfilled his plan, Peter leaves the country house, after which he suddenly dies for everyone. At this point, Vladimir ends his communication with Zinaida. After a while, however, he learns that she got married and then died suddenly during childbirth.
Main characters
Vladimir Petrovich is the main character of the story, a 16-year-old boy who moves to a country estate with his family. The prototype of the character is Ivan Sergeevich himself.
Pyotr Vasilyevich is the father of the main character, who married Vladimir’s mother because of her rich inheritance, who, among other things, was much older than himself. The character was based on a real person, the father of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
Zinaida Aleksandrovna is a young 21-year-old girl living next door. He has a very frivolous disposition. He has an arrogant and capricious character. Thanks to her beauty, she is not deprived of the constant attention of suitors, including from Vladimir Petrovich and Pyotr Vasilyevich. The prototype of the character is considered to be Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya.
The autobiographical work “First Love” is directly related to the life of Ivan Sergeevich, describes his relationship with his parents, mainly with his father. The simple plot and ease of presentation, for which Turgenev is so famous, helps the reader to quickly immerse himself in the very essence of what is happening around him, and most importantly, to believe in sincerity and experience with the author his entire emotional experience, from peace and delight to real hatred. After all, from love to hate there is only one step. It is this process that the story mainly illustrates.
The work demonstrates exactly how the relationship between Volodya and Zinaida changes, and also illustrates all the changes between son and father when it comes to love for the same woman.
The turning point in the protagonist’s growing up emotionally could not be better described by Ivan Sergeevich, because his real life experience is taken as the basis.
