How the landscape changes throughout the novel is a bummer. Four pores of love

• Determine the boundaries of the episode yourself;
• Analyze its content: heroes, their actions, author’s thoughts;
• Framing the episode (landscape, lyrical digressions), style features, composition features;
• Identify other episodes that are logically related to what is being analyzed. Find similar themes, motives, and thoughts of the author in them;
• Indicate what role the analyzed episode plays in the ideological space of the entire work, how it helps to understand the author’s concept.

We think that it is best for us to demonstrate this form of work using the example of the analysis of (the role of) an episode in the novel by I.A. Goncharov “Oblomov”. The lesson takes the form of a seminar with preliminary homework.

“Oblomov’s Dream.” The space of the idyll in the novel by I.A. Goncharov "Oblomov"

- Yes, you are a poet, Ilya!

- Yes, a poet in life, because life is poetry...

- This is not life!

- What do you think this is?

Preliminary assignments for students

Know close to the text episodes from the novel: “Oblomov’s Dream” (Part I, Chapter 9), “Dreams of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov” (Part II, Chapter 4), “Vyborg Side” (Part IV, Chapter 9), “Life of the Stoltsevs (Andrey and Olga) in Crimea” (Part IV, Chapter 8).

Episode analysis. Questions and tasks

First group. Idyllic landscape in Oblomov’s dream. What function does it perform?

Second group. Time and space in Oblomov's dream. Correlate the space of Oblomovka with the space of Mr. Kalinov: what is common and different?

Third group. Customs and rituals of Oblomovka. For what purpose did the author talk about them in such detail?

Fourth group. Folklore motives of sleep. Analyze the introduction to Oblomov’s dream. Why don’t paintings of the sea and mountains attract the author? What is the nature of the description of the sea and mountains?

The role of the episode. Questions and tasks

1. Carefully read the episode about Oblomov’s dreams (Part II, Chapter 4). Relate with Oblomov’s dream: what is common and different?

2. Vyborg side (part IV, chapter 9). Oblomov’s life with Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna: what is similar and different from life in Oblomovka?

3. Life of Stolz and Olga in Crimea. Why did they choose this place? Compare Oblomov’s dreams with the relationship between Olga and Stolz.

Teacher's word

The theme of the seminar is “The space of the idyll in the novel by I.A. Goncharov “Oblomov” For the epigraph we took a fragment from the dialogue between Oblomov and Stolz. The purpose of our lesson-seminar: to figure out whether “life is poetry” and Oblomov is a poet in it? Or will we agree with Stolz, who called this life “some kind of Oblomovism”?

Inside our general theme Several microthemes can be distinguished. Let’s call them: “Oblomov’s Dream”, “Ilya Ilyich Oblomov’s Dreams”, “Vyborg Side”, “Life of Stoltsev in Crimea”. Each microtheme has its own semantic space, but connects them single space idyll genre. Let us turn to the concept of “idyll”.

Idyll is one of the genres of bucolic poetry (from the gr. bucolikos - shepherd); in antiquity this is a small poetic work with a description peaceful life shepherds, their simple life, tender love, pipe songs (often using folklore motifs). This life unfolds against the backdrop of an ideal landscape. Its main elements:

- a soft breeze carrying pleasant smells;

— eternal source, cool stream, river, thirst-quenching;

- flowers covering the ground with a wide carpet;

- trees spread out in a wide tent, providing shade;

- birds singing on the branches.

These are the five most stable elements of what is called “a pleasant, delightful place,” “a place of places.”

The ideal landscape is created to saturate and delight everyone human feelings. It is in complete harmony with human nature.

Main features of the idyllic world:

• characteristic ideal landscape;
• the unity of man and nature;
• closed space, indefinite time, sometimes cyclical time (conventional time);
• mythical character;
• lack of plot;
• non-conflict.

I. Sleep episode analysis

1. Idyllic landscape.

A person can live comfortably in Oblomovka; he does not have a feeling of unsettled life, of insecurity in front of the huge world. Nature and man are fused, united, and it seems that the sky, which is capable of protecting the Oblomovites from all external manifestations, “is closer to the earth there,” and this sky spreads over the earth like a home roof. This atmosphere of Oblomovka’s world conveys complete agreement and harmony in this world.

2. Time and space of Oblomovka.

An idyllic landscape is inseparable from a specific spatial corner where fathers and grandfathers lived, children and grandchildren will live. The space of Oblomovka is limited, it is not connected with another world. Of course, the Oblomovites knew that eighty miles from them was provincial town, but they rarely went there, they knew about Saratov, and about Moscow, St. Petersburg, “that beyond St. Petersburg the French or Germans lived, and then a dark world began for them, as for the ancients, unknown countries inhabited by monsters, people with two heads , giants; there followed darkness - and, finally, everything ended with that fish that holds the earth on itself.”

None of the residents of Oblomovka strive to leave this world, because there is something alien, hostile, they are completely satisfied with a happy “life-being”, and their world is independent, holistic and complete.

A strictly limited space lives according to its age-old traditions and rituals. Love, birth, marriage, work, death - Oblomovka’s whole life comes down to this circle and is as unchangeable as the change of seasons.

Love in Oblomovka has a completely different character than in real world, it cannot become some kind of revolution in a person’s mental life, it does not oppose other aspects of life. Love-passion is contraindicated in the world of Oblomovites, they “poorly believed... in spiritual anxieties, did not accept the cycle of eternal aspirations somewhere, for something as life; they were afraid, like fire, of being carried away by passions.” An even, calm experience of love is natural for Oblomovites.

3. Customs and rituals of the Oblomovites.

Rituals and rituals occupy a significant place in the life of Oblomovites. “And so the imagination of the sleeping Ilya Ilyich began to... first reveal itself to the three main acts of life that took place both in his family and among relatives and acquaintances: homeland, wedding, funeral. Then a motley procession of cheerful and sad divisions stretched out: christenings, name days, family holidays, fasting, breaking the fast, noisy dinners, family gatherings, greetings, congratulations, official tears and smiles.”

It seems that the whole life of the Oblomovites consists only of rites and ritual holidays. All this testifies to the special consciousness of people - mythical consciousness. What for an ordinary person is considered completely natural, here it is elevated to the rank of mystical existence - Oblomovites look at the world as a sacrament, holiness. From here special treatment by time of day: evening time Especially dangerous, the afternoon sleep time has a powerful force that controls people's lives. Is here and mysterious places- a ravine, for example. When letting Ilyusha go for a walk with the nanny, his mother strictly punished him “not to let him into the ravine, as it was the most terrible place in the neighborhood, which had a bad reputation.”

Oblomovites have a special attitude towards signs: in them the world gives signs to a person, warns him, dictates his will. If a candle goes out on a winter evening, then in response “everyone will perk up: “Unexpected guest!” - someone will certainly say,” and then a very interested discussion of this issue will begin, who could it be, but no one doubts that there will be a guest. The world of Oblomovites is absolutely free from any cause-and-effect relationships that are obvious to analytical mind. The question “why?” - this is not Oblomov’s question. “If they tell them that a haystack was walking across the field, they will not think twice and believe it; If anyone hears a rumor that this is not a ram, but something else, or that such and such Marfa or Stepanida is a witch, they will be afraid of both the ram and Martha: it will not even occur to them to ask why the ram became not a ram, but Martha became a witch, and they will even attack anyone who would think to doubt this.”

The mystical perception of the world leads Oblomovites away from its true knowledge, and therefore from the fight against it, thereby providing the world with some kind of reliability and immutability.

4. The mythical nature of the dream.

The scale of the dream allows you to discern features in it ancient world. Ancient reminiscences are constantly present in the text of the dream. Already at its very beginning we read: “The sky there, it seems... is pressing closer to the earth, but not in order to throw an arrow stronger than an arrow, but perhaps only to hug it tighter, with love... to protect, it seems, the chosen one a corner from all kinds of adversity.” This description exactly rhymes with the myth of the marriage of Earth with Heaven - Gaia with Uranus. From here arises the image of the world, which is entirely enclosed in a loving embrace; it carries within itself the utopia of the “golden age”.

Let's return to the initial fragments of the dream. Why does the author reject the elements, the “wildness and grandeur” of the sea? All this does not correspond to the peaceful life of the Oblomovites, the romantic landscape is not in their spirit, it disturbs the heart, it can be dangerous. This element is not from the “golden age”, where everything speaks of an idyllic perception of the world.

The childhood of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. Which internal forces Oblomov faded, which ones developed through his upbringing and education?

Curiosity, active participation in any manifestations of life, a conscious attitude towards life, hard work - all this is lost under the influence of the excessive care of the mother, nanny, and servant.

At the same time, the traits of daydreaming, imagination, poetic perception of life, breadth of soul, good nature, gentleness, and sophistication developed. All these features are the result of the influence of fairy tales, the mysterious perception of life, its mythologization.

Conclusions, generalizations

Oblomov's dream is in the spirit of an idyll. He does not prophesy, does not warn, he is a kind of key to understanding the character of the hero. “Oblomov’s dream - this most magnificent episode that will remain in our literature for eternity - was the first, powerful step towards understanding Oblomov with his Oblomovism,” wrote critic Alexander Vasilyevich Druzhinin.

II. The role of the episode (analytical conversation)

1.At what period of life do we meet Oblomov on Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg? Did he retain the features of Oblomov’s perception of the world?

It is said about St. Petersburg Oblomov that he “was no longer like his father or grandfather. He studied, lived in the world: all this led him to various considerations alien to them<...>The pleasures of lofty thoughts were available to him; he was no stranger to universal human sorrows.”

Ilya Ilyich appears before the reader at the moment when all his attempts at activity failed, when his role in society completely failed and when his life was reduced to lying on the sofa. At the same time, lying on the sofa was accompanied by “the inner volcanic work of an ardent head and a humane heart.” “Oblomov loved to withdraw into himself and live in the world he created.”

2. How could the rebirth of Oblomov, susceptible to life, happen? Let's turn to a fragment of the hero's dream (Part II, Chapter 4). What does the hero dream about?

Almost everything that makes up an idyll has entered the world of dreams. A cozy corner where the poet retires. Solitude does not imply loneliness; the participation of friends is an indispensable attribute of life. “He thought about a small colony of friends who would settle in villages and farms, fifteen or twenty miles around his village, how they would alternately come to visit each other every day, have lunch, dinner, and dance.” The ideal of a wife, on the one hand, is projected onto Olga (“there’s music, Casta diva!”), on the other hand, onto Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna (“In the kitchen, five knives are knocking; a frying pan of mushrooms, cutlets, berries”).

3. Read Pushkin’s friendly message “Town” (1815), K. Batyushkov’s elegy “Dream”. Does the ideal of poets correspond to Oblomov’s life in St. Petersburg?

Oblomov’s created ideal of life is built according to the laws of art and is focused on a certain poetic tradition: a friendly message, an elegy, an idyll, when, like Goethe’s hero Faust, you want to exclaim: “Stop, moment, you are beautiful!”

Friendship, love, art - these are the poet’s few patrons in his solitude, but they fully provide him with happiness, joy and harmony.

4. Can Ilya Ilyich bring his ideal to life? Maybe he will return to Oblomovka?

The desire to bring it to life fails, like any aesthetic experiment with life. Life constantly puts the hero in circumstances that cannot be taken into account by any genre. No genre tradition is able to interpret life according to its own laws, because “life touches you everywhere, it reaches you...”

A dream is a poet’s light staff, with which he always leaves life on one road - “the path of oblivion” (K. Batyushkov).

Ilya Ilyich cannot return to Oblomovka not because the plan for reorganizing the estate is not ready. You cannot return to this world, you can only leave it. The road connecting these two worlds goes only in one direction: from small to large. Oblomov is no longer a man of time, he is a man of history: “He was no longer like his father or grandfather.” Proof of this is “Malaya Oblomovka”, life on the Vyborg side.

5. Find similarities between the Vyborg side and Oblomovka.

It is not difficult to discern in Pshenitsyna’s house features of similarity with the world of childhood and dreams. But at the same time, one feels the crampedness of this world: “skinny gardens”, “courtyard”, “unpaved streets”, “courtyard the size of a room”. There, in Oblomovka, - huge world, where heaven and earth united under the parental roof, here is a world the size of a room. The Vyborg side is the kingdom of everyday life, there is no poetry in it, it is devoid of spirituality. Ilya Ilyich went to the Vyborg side from suffering big world, but at the same time he left his happiness, and ultimately, life itself.

“Looking and reflecting on his life and becoming more and more settled in it, he finally decided that he had nowhere else to go, nothing to look for, that the ideal of his life had come true, although without poetry, without those rays with which his imagination had once painted him lordly, broad and carefree flow of life...”

From this triad of life “everyday life - ideal - poetry”, only everyday life remains in reality; Oblomov’s ideal is now associated with it - poetry has passed away.

To some extent, the image of Oblomov is reminiscent of the poets K. Batyushkov and A. Delvig, for whom victory over the imperfections of the world by creating an aesthetic utopia is the leading theme. Known tragic fate these poets: Delvig passed away early, Batyushkov became mentally ill.

Oblomov did not experience the pleasures gained in the struggle, he abandoned them in favor of peace in a cozy corner, alien to movement and comprehension of life. Pushkin’s formula “I want to live in order to think and suffer” (“Elegy”, 1830), which really gives the fullness of life and helps to find harmony, turned out to be unacceptable for Oblomov.

6. Ilya Ilyich placed Stolz in his dream - a man to whom much in Oblomov’s world is alien. But, oddly enough, it is Stolz and Olga who embody Oblomov’s dream. Prove it.

The question of the possibility of realizing the idyllic ideal in life is resolved by Goncharov using the example of two heroes - Olga and Stolz. Having settled in Crimea, they constantly control their lives so that it does not turn into Oblomov’s existence. Meanwhile, many features of his ideal were embodied in the Stolts family idyll.

7. Find similarities between Oblomov’s dream world and the Stoltsev’s real life.

The Stoltsy “settled in a quiet corner” - Ilya Ilyich also dreamed of such solitude. And the Stolts still have the same “sheet music, books, piano, elegant furniture.”

Ilya Ilyich dreamed of leaving society, the world, not finding any interests there, seeing only “dead people” there. He wanted to free himself from eternal vanity, passions, greed, gossip, and gossip. The same rejection of the world was revealed in Olga. Ilya Ilyich dreamed of “hugging his wife around the waist, going deeper with her into an endless, dark alley, walking with her... looking for sympathy in nature.” All this came true in the life of the Stoltsevs: “He led her by the waist into the alley again.”

The Stolts managed to avoid passion: “everything they had was harmony and silence.” Love grew stronger and stronger every year. In a word, they reached the “standard of love” that Oblomov dreamed of and which he defined as “an eternal and even flow of feeling.” In the family life of Andrei and Olga, the ideal of their friend was realized; they learned what happiness is in the “present time,” and not in the past or future.

It is significant that Goncharov settled the Stoltsevs in Crimea. The image of the south was extremely important for Russian romantics; it was often associated with the motive of escape, liberation, and overcoming the conflict with reality. The theme of the family idyll, understood in the light of these traditions, is filled with special significance. The Stolts really seem to be free from troubles, grief, and misfortune. But the awareness that there is a world left outside this cozy corner does not leave them. And this is clearly seen in the example of Olga.

Here we are again faced with the fact that finding harmony as a result of leaving the big world for the small one, into the world of complacency, calmness, silence, private autonomy, is impossible. Life gives rise to contradictions and cannot consist of only poetry. In this sense, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is perhaps wrong when he says that “life is poetry.” But the absence of poetry in life inevitably leads to a primitive way of life. Pushkin’s formula of life “I want to live in order to think and suffer” is a real projection of life, in which, sadly, there was no place for Oblomov.

The first landscape appears before us in “Oblomov’s Dream”. Pictures of nature here are given in the spirit of a poetic idyll. The main function of these landscapes is psychological; we find out in what conditions we grew up main character, how his character was formed, where he spent his childhood. Oblomov’s estate is a “blessed corner”, a “wonderful land”, lost in the outback of Russia. The nature there does not amaze us with luxury and pretentiousness - it is modest and unpretentious. There is no sea there high mountains, rocks and abysses, dense forests. The sky there presses “closer... to the earth..., like a parent’s reliable roof”, “the sun... shines brightly and hotly for about six months...”, the river runs “merrily”: sometimes it “spills into a wide pond, sometimes it “strives like a fast thread”, sometimes it barely "crawls over the stones." The stars there are “friendly” and “friendly” blinking from the sky, the rain “will pour briskly, abundantly, jumping merrily, like the large and hot tears of a suddenly joyful person,” thunderstorms “are not terrible, but only beneficial.”

In the scenes of love between Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya, pictures of nature acquire symbolic meaning. So, a lilac branch becomes a symbol of this emerging feeling. Here they meet on the path. Olga picks a lilac branch and gives it to Ilya. And he responds by noting that he loves lilies of the valley more, since they are closer to nature. Trust and understanding appear in their relationship - Oblomov is happy. And Goncharov compares his condition with a person’s impression of an evening landscape. “Oblomov was in that state when a person had just followed the setting summer sun with his eyes and was enjoying its ruddy traces, without taking his eyes off the dawn, without turning back to where the night came from, thinking only about the return of warmth and light tomorrow.”

When Oblomov begins to have doubts about the truth of Olga’s feelings, this novel seems to him a monstrous mistake. And again the writer compares Ilya’s feelings with natural phenomena. “What wind suddenly blew on Oblomov? What clouds did you make? Autumn paintings nature creates an atmosphere of distance between the characters and each other. They can no longer meet so freely in the forest or parks. And here we note the plot-forming significance of the landscape. Here is one of autumn landscapes: “The leaves have flown around, you can see right through everything; the crows in the trees scream so unpleasantly..." Oblomov invites Olga not to rush into announcing the news of the wedding. When he finally breaks up with her, snow falls and thickly covers the fence, fence, and garden beds. “The snow was falling in flakes and thickly covering the ground.” This landscape is also symbolic. The snow here seems to bury the hero’s possible happiness.

The landscape that paints a picture of the local cemetery at the end of the novel is simple and modest. Here the motif of the lilac branch, which accompanied the hero in climaxes his life. “What happened to Oblomov? Where is he? Where? “In the nearest cemetery, under a modest urn, his body rests between the bushes, in a quiet place. Lilac branches, planted by a friendly hand, doze over the grave, and wormwood smells serenely. It seems that the angel of silence himself is guarding his sleep.” Thus, the pictures of nature in the novel are picturesque and varied. Through them, the author conveys his attitude to life, love, reveals inner world and the mood of the characters.

Essay plan
1. Introduction. The originality of Goncharov the novelist.
2. Main part. Landscape and its functions.
— Basic functions of landscape.
— The nature of the paintings of nature in “Oblomov’s Dream.”
— Correlation between the seasons and the natural rhythm of life.
— Motif of peace.
— Psychological function of landscape in “Oblomov’s Dream.”
— Symbolic natural details in the scenes of the novel by Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya.
— Love and the heroes’ discovery of the secret life of nature.
— Intuitive insight of the heroes.
— Autumn pictures of nature.
— The finale of the characters’ relationship and the characteristic landscape.
— Pictures of nature and their role in the life of Stolz and Olga.
— The final landscape of the novel.
3. Conclusion. The role of landscape in the novel.

Picturesque style - characteristic Goncharov the novelist. His descriptions - portraits, interiors, landscapes - are detailed, thorough, detailed. And in this the writer’s style is close to N.V.’s style. Gogol. Let's try to analyze the landscapes in the novel by I.A. Goncharova.
The functions of the landscape in the work are different. This is both the background against which the action takes place and the characterization state of mind the hero, and a unique framing of the plot, and the creation of a special atmosphere of the story.
The first landscape appears before us in “Oblomov’s Dream”. Pictures of nature here are given in the spirit of a poetic idyll. The main function of these landscapes is psychological; we learn in what conditions the main character grew up, how his character was formed, where he spent his childhood. Oblomov’s estate is a “blessed corner”, a “wonderful land”, lost in the outback of Russia. The nature there does not amaze us with luxury and pretentiousness - it is modest and unpretentious. There is no sea, high mountains, rocks and abysses, dense forests. The sky there presses “closer... to the earth..., like a parent’s reliable roof”, “the sun... shines brightly and hotly for about six months...”, the river runs “merrily”: sometimes it “spills into a wide pond, sometimes it “strives like a fast thread”, sometimes it barely "crawls over the stones." The stars there are “friendly” and “friendly” blinking from the sky, the rain “will pour briskly, abundantly, jumping merrily, like the large and hot tears of a suddenly joyful person,” thunderstorms “are not terrible, but only beneficial.”
The seasons in this region are correlated with peasant labor, with natural rhythm human life. “According to the calendar, spring will come in March, dirty streams will run from the hills, the earth will thaw and smoke with warm steam; the peasant will take off his sheepskin coat, go out into the air in his shirt and, covering his eyes with his hand, admire the sun for a long time, shrugging his shoulders with pleasure; then he will pull a cart turned upside down... or inspect and kick a plow lying idly under a canopy, preparing for ordinary work.” Everything in this natural cycle is reasonable and harmonious. Winter “does not tease with unexpected thaws and does not bend in three arcs with unheard-of frosts ...”, but in February “the soft breeze of the approaching spring is already felt in the air.” But summer is especially wonderful in this region. “There you need to look for fresh, dry air, filled - not with lemon or laurel, but simply with the smell of wormwood, pine and bird cherry; look there clear days, slightly burning, but not scorching rays of the sun and almost three months of cloudless skies.”
Peace, tranquility, deep silence lie in the fields, quietly and sleepily in villages scattered not far from each other. On the master's estate everyone is immersed in deep dream after a varied, hearty lunch. Life flows lazily and slowly. The same silence and calm reign there in human morals. The range of people's concerns does not go beyond simple everyday life and its rituals: christenings, name days, weddings, funerals. Time in Oblomovka is counted “according to holidays, seasons, various family and home occasions.” The land there is “fertile”: Oblomov’s people don’t have to work hard, they endure the work “as punishment.”
It was in this region that the hero spent his childhood, and here for many years winter evenings he listened to the nanny's tales, epics, horror stories. In this atmosphere of the unhurried flow of life, his character was formed. Little Ilyusha loves nature: he wants to run into the meadows or to the bottom of a ravine and play snowballs with the boys. He is curious and observant: he notices that the shadow is ten times larger than Antipas himself, and the shadow of his horse covered the entire meadow. The child wants to explore the world, “rush and redo everything yourself,” but his parents pamper and cherish him, “like an exotic flower in a greenhouse.” Thus, those seeking manifestations of power turn inward, decline and wither. And gradually the hero absorbs this unhurried rhythm of life, its lazy, measured atmosphere. And he gradually becomes the Oblomov we see in St. Petersburg. However, you should not think that this phrase carries only a negative connotation. And Oblomov’s “dovey tenderness”, and moral ideals him - all this was also shaped by the same life. So the landscape here has psychological function: it is one of the components that shapes the character of the hero.
In the love scenes between Oblomov and Olga Ilyinskaya, pictures of nature acquire symbolic meaning. So, a lilac branch becomes a symbol of this emerging feeling. Here they meet on the path. Olga picks a lilac branch and gives it to Ilya. And he responds by noting that he loves lilies of the valley more, since they are closer to nature. And Oblomov involuntarily asks for forgiveness for the confession that escaped him, attributing his feelings to the effect of music. Olga is upset and discouraged. She drops a lilac branch to the ground. Ilya Ilyich picks it up and on the next date (for lunch with the Ilyinskys) comes with this branch. Then they meet in the park, and Oblomov notices that Olga is embroidering the same lilac branch. Then they talk, and hope for happiness appears in Ilya’s soul. He confesses to Olga that “the color of life has fallen.” And she again plucks a branch of lilac and gives it to him, denoting with it the “color of life” and her annoyance. Trust and understanding appear in their relationship - Oblomov is happy. And compares his condition with a person’s impression of an evening landscape. “Oblomov was in that state when a person had just followed the setting summer sun with his eyes and was enjoying its ruddy traces, without taking his eyes off the dawn, without turning back to where the night came from, thinking only about the return of warmth and light tomorrow.”
Love sharpens all the feelings of the heroes. Both Ilya Ilyich and Olga become especially sensitive to natural phenomena, life opens up to them with its new, unknown sides. Thus, Oblomov notes that, despite the external silence and peace, in nature everything is boiling, moving, fussing. “Meanwhile, in the grass everything was moving, crawling, fussing. There are ants running in different directions so fussily and fussily, colliding, scattering, hurrying... Here is a bumblebee buzzing near a flower and crawling into its cup; there are flies in a heap near a leaking drop of juice on a crack in a linden tree; here is a bird somewhere in the thicket that has been repeating the same sound for a long time, maybe calling another. Here are two butterflies, spinning around each other in the air, rushing headlong, as if in a waltz, around tree trunks. The grass smells strong; an incessant crackling sound comes from it...” In the same way, Olga discovers a hitherto unnoticed secret life nature. “There are the same trees in the forest, but their noise has a special meaning: a living harmony reigned between them and her. The birds don’t just chatter and chirp, but they all say something to each other; and everything speaks around her, everything corresponds to her mood; the flower blooms, and she hears as if his breathing.”
When Oblomov begins to have doubts about the truth of Olga’s feelings, this novel seems to him a monstrous mistake. And again the writer compares Ilya’s feelings with natural phenomena. “What wind suddenly blew on Oblomov? What clouds did you make?<…>He must have had dinner or lay on his back, and the poetic mood gave way to some kind of horror. It often happens in the summer to fall asleep on a quiet, cloudless evening, with twinkling stars, and think how nice the field will be tomorrow in the morning light colors! How fun it is to go deep into the thicket of the forest and hide from the heat!.. And suddenly you wake up from the sound of rain, from sad gray clouds; cold, damp...” Oblomov’s experiences may be far-fetched; he still loves Olga, but subconsciously begins to realize the impossibility of this union and to foresee the end of the relationship. And Olga begins to understand the same thing with her unmistakable feminine intuition. She notices that “the lilacs... have moved away, disappeared!” Love ends with summer.
Autumn pictures of nature create an atmosphere of distance between the characters and each other. They can no longer meet so freely in the forest or parks. And here we note the plot-forming significance of the landscape. Here is one of the autumn landscapes: “The leaves have flown around, you can see right through everything; the crows in the trees scream so unpleasantly..." Oblomov invites Olga not to rush into announcing the news of the wedding. When he finally breaks up with her, snow falls and thickly covers the fence, fence, and garden beds. “The snow was falling in flakes and thickly covering the ground.” This landscape is also symbolic. The snow here seems to bury the hero’s possible happiness.
At the end of the novel, the author paints pictures of southern nature, depicting the life of Olga and Stolz in Crimea. These landscapes deepen the character of the characters, but at the same time they are presented in contrast with “Oblomov’s Dream” in the novel. If the sketches of nature in “Oblomov’s Dream” were detailed and sometimes poetic, the author seemed to be happy to dwell on characteristic phenomena, details, then in the finale Goncharov is limited to only describing the impressions of the heroes. “They often plunged into silent wonder at the ever-new and brilliant beauty of nature. Their sensitive souls could not get used to this beauty: the earth, the sky, the sea - everything awakened their feelings... They did not greet the morning with indifference; could not stupidly plunge into the darkness of a warm, starry, southern night. They were awakened by the eternal movement of thought, the eternal irritation of the soul and the need to think together, feel, speak!..” We see the sensitivity of these heroes to the beauty of nature, but is their life the writer’s ideal? The author avoids an open answer.
The landscape that paints a picture of the local cemetery at the end of the novel is simple and modest. Here the motif of the lilac branch, which accompanied the hero at the climactic moments of his life, appears again. “What happened to Oblomov? Where is he? Where? “In the nearest cemetery, under a modest urn, his body rests between the bushes, in a quiet place. Lilac branches, planted by a friendly hand, doze over the grave, and wormwood smells serenely. It seems that the angel of silence himself is guarding his sleep.”
Thus, the pictures of nature in the novel are picturesque and varied. Through them, the author conveys his attitude to life, love, reveals the inner world and mood of the characters.