About the story and Turgenev's first love. The main characters of the story

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.

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 8" Saransk

Public lesson

AND. WITH.Turgenev "First Love". The heroes of the story and their prototypes. Education of feelings.

Teacher: Fedyaeva L.

Saransk 2011

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. The story "First Love". The heroes of the story and their prototypes. Education of feelings.

Lesson objectives:

overview biography (history of family relationships);

analysis of story episodes.

Lesson equipment:

portraits of I.S. Turgenev, his father and mother, drawings by students, a poster with quotes from the works of I.S. Turgenev about love.

My friend, how terrible, how sweet to love!..

A word from the teacher about studying the story by I.S. Turgenev “First Love” by 9th grade students. An appeal to the epigraph, which reflects Turgenev’s ambivalent attitude towards the problem of love.

We pay attention to Turgenev’s quotes about love, which are written on the board or on the poster:

“An alien I has entered into yours... and yours has been killed.”

(I.S. Turgenev “Love.”)

“Love is not even a feeling at all - it is a disease... Usually it takes possession of a person without asking, suddenly, against his will - like cholera or fever...” (“Correspondence”, 1856)

“Love is a chain, and the hardest... At least I have reached this conviction... I bought this conviction at the cost of my life, because I am dying as a slave.” (“Correspondence”, 1856)

“No, in love one person is a slave, and the other is a master...”

(“Correspondence”, 1856)

Output from students, then from teachers.

Conclusion from quotes:

Love seemed to the writer just like nature, spontaneous and

an unconscious force against whose power a person is defenseless. Love, by

Turgenev, is a deadly force that turns a person into a “broken tree” and

doomed to certain death. Love against a person's will takes over his soul,

subjugates him to another person, making him weak and turning him into a slave.

You may be afraid of this feeling as a dark and terrible force, but love in Turgenev’s understanding has its other side - a bright side. And this side of her is presented in “First Love,” which will be discussed in today’s lesson.

“First Love” is “the only thing” that gave pleasure to the writer at the end of his journey, one of his most beloved works. And this is because he did not invent this story: “I did not invent this story; it was given to me entirely by life itself,” “First love is experienced,” Turgenev would write in the year of his death. Thus, sending greetings to his father, whom he endlessly adored, extraordinary, deeply sensual, the one with whom he always dreamed of being close...

Students who received individual assignments talk about I. S. Turgenev’s father and their family relationships.

1 student: Ko At the time of his acquaintance with Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, the twenty-year-old cavalry guard Lieutenant Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev had nothing behind him except 140 serfs in his father’s village, pedigree, coat of arms, knowledge of the language and rare beauty. There is a known case when, after the death of her husband, Varvara Petrovna met abroad with the sovereign German princess, and she, seeing a bracelet with a portrait of Sergei Nikolaevich, said: “You are Turgenev’s wife, I remember him; after the death of the emperor

Alexandra 1, I have never seen anyone more beautiful than your husband.” (The teacher draws the students’ attention to the portrait of S.N. Turgenev).

2nd student: I.S. Turgenev's father belonged to a family in which there were stewards, governors, chiefs of orders, captains - police officers, zealously and faithfully standing in the service of the Fatherland. Sergei Nikolaevich took part in the Battle of Borodino, “bravely crashed into the enemy and struck him with fearlessness.” Strong-willed, with a strong character, well-educated, aristocratic, he was on friendly terms with many famous people of his time - writers M.N. Zagoskin and F.N. Glinka, poet I.I. Dmitriev, playwright A.A. Shakhovsky.

3 student. In 1816, Sergei Nikolaevich appeared in Spassky to buy horses from the Spassky stud farm for the regiment. The meeting with the hostess, ugly, stooped, 6 years older than him, might not have even lingered in the minds of the handsome young man, if not for Varvara Petrovna’s acumen. Fascinated by the unexpected guest, she at the same time understood that she had no chance of reciprocal sympathy. And then Varvara Petrovna, already aware of the lieutenant’s financial situation (Turgenevo was located 18 miles from Spassky), decided to use her main trump card - wealth. Saying goodbye to Sergei Nikolaevich, she invited him to visit Spasskoye again. And sensing the evasiveness in the handsome young man’s answer, she left his sword belt as collateral. They say that old Turgenev on his knees asked his son to agree to marry Lutovinova. (Portrait on the board).

4 student. On January 14, 1816, in the Church of the Transfiguration, in the village of Spassky-Lutovinovo, the wedding of Sergei Nikolaevich and Varvara Petrovna took place. By choosing the wedding location, the bride made it clear what the distribution of roles in the future family would be. She is rich and therefore has the right to claim management of all economic affairs and distribution of income. Moreover, the groom had nothing behind him except his pedigree and beauty. Having married Varvara Petrovna for convenience, he could never love her. She loved her husband limitlessly and had a hard time with her husband’s numerous affairs. Some time later, each of the spouses began to live their own lives: he, submitting to his loving nature, she, the imperious mistress of the estate.

5 student. But Sergei Nikolaevich never ignored his sons. He was especially thoughtful and exacting about their education. It was he who decided to send Ivan and Nikolai to the Weidenhammer boarding house, where they stayed until the summer of 1830. Already then seriously ill with cholelithiasis and having gone abroad for an operation in the spring of 1829, Sergei Nikolaevich returned to Russia in the fall of the same year with the sole purpose of deciding the future fate of the boys, their final arrangement.

6th student: The father wrote letters to his boys, “Strict and sympathetic.” He instilled in them high concepts of nobility, decency, the ability to be themselves, and not try to be original. Judging by the father's behavior, it was as if he knew that he would not have long to stay with the children. Therefore, Sergei Nikolaevich strove as much as possible to participate in their growing up and at the same time “at least partially immortalize himself in children.” Being a deep, extraordinary person, he is probably not content with the established role of “catcher of women’s hearts.” But Turgenev’s father is often thought of in exactly this way.

Teacher: We talked about Turgenev’s father because he will also be discussed in the story “First Love.” Let's start analyzing this story. - Name the heroes of the story. Writing in a notebook.

Heroes Prototypes

Vladimir "Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

His father is Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev

His mother Varvara Petrovna

Zinaida Poetess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya (In

Vladimirov's marriage)

Providing portraits by teacher

1) Happiness:

- Premonition of love (reading an episode) Describe the hero’s internal state.

(Two feelings live in him, sadness and joy, but he expects joy and realizes that they are connected with a woman).

Meeting a Girl (Episode Reading)

(Love came, joy and happiness came, he rejoiced like a child, and was afraid that it was a dream).

Comment on the scene - woke up before the morning...

Plot plot

Zinaida at the window (reading the episode). -Why does light accompany Turgenev’s heroine?

(Volodya, a young knight in love, deifying his ideal, sees a woman-angel in front of him. He, like a true knight, bows at her feet, ready to caress every fold of her dress and apron. He is happy again, he experiences a wonderful feeling, it is pure, sublime , he idolizes the girl, knightly dreaming of dying at her feet, covered in blood, saving her from the hands of the enemy, rescuing her from prison). “Give your life so that it doesn’t grieve.”

First kiss (comment) reading. (In a knightly manner, observing court etiquette, he kisses the lady’s hand according to all the rules: he gets down on one knee (two) - the kiss is awkward, but sincere and noble - in the end he is happy again - “But I felt...").

Second kiss (climax)- peak of happiness - reading the episode. ("It seemed to me...")

Conclusion: love gives a person happiness, joy, delight, makes the world around him beautiful, nature, people, etc.

2) Mental pain.

- But our hero in love is both happy and unhappy. For what reasons?

Jealousy (examples of quotes: “I suddenly felt very sad... I tried not to cry... I was jealous of the hussar...". Cold (“Zinaida’s treatment of me completely killed me”).

Jealousy of the one she fell in love with.

- How does the hero feel about his father? (“He seemed to me the model of a man...”).

What advice did the father give to his son?

(“Take what you can, but don’t give in; to belong to yourself is the joke of life.” “Know how to want, and you will be free...” “My son, be afraid of a woman’s love, be afraid of this happiness, this poison ...").

What does Zinaida need?

Who does Zinaida love? - reading the episode “I sent Philip away...”

Denouement.

Has your attitude towards your father changed?

No. (“.. .I didn’t even grumble about my father...” “On the contrary: he seemed to have grown up in my eyes...”

(Again before us is a noble boy - a knight, experiencing pain with dignity

lost love)).

To Zinaida?

No (“... I will love and adore you until the end of my days.”

About both together? - reading.)

(For self-sacrifice, for courage, “she was not afraid to ruin her future”).

The author loved his father and Zinaida, worshiped them, respected their love, considering it a great, unfamiliar, beautiful, unknown ideal, a feeling that could break such smart and strong people, making them cry, although they were waiting for it and were ready to fight it and defeat him, but... The stronger people are, the stronger and more merciless the love, and people are not at all to blame for this.

Both the son, Zinaida, and father experienced their first love (At 40 years old!).

R.s. Zinaida - E. Shakhovskaya, exactly a year after the death of Sergei Nikolaevich, married a certain Vladimirov, and 9 months and 11 days later she died after giving birth. She was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg, not far from the grave of her father I.S. Turgenev. The inscription on the tombstone became the epigraph to our lesson.

Students' conclusions.

D/z: Landscape sketches in the story by I.S. Turgenev (find and read).

“First Love” - a story by I.S. Turgenev. The concept of the work dates back to the late 1850s, work on it was completed in March 1860. The first publication was made in the journal “Library for Reading” for 1860 (No. 3), subsequent ones reproduced this text with minor copyright edits.

Turgenev’s “First Love,” unlike the simultaneously created novels “On the Eve” and “The Noble Nest,” does not pose or resolve acute social issues of the time. The story is distinguished by its intimate sound, as indicated, in particular, by the framing. Three friends, three no longer young people, get together to fulfill a long-standing intention: each must tell the story of their first love. The content of the story, therefore, is addressed not to the sphere of official relations of the “big world”, but to the deeply personal, intimate side of human existence.

Exploring one of the eternal problems of life, Turgenev achieves a truly symbolic generalization of the material. The key to the content lies in the title. The image of “first love” means, on the one hand, the age of human life, namely the transition from childhood to adolescence and approaching the period of maturity (the hero of the story, sixteen-year-old Vladimir, is preparing to enter university and at this moment experiences his first love feeling). On the other hand, this is a universal image of a spiritual state in which the expectation of happiness, the idolization of a loved one, the willingness to sacrifice life for him are coupled with deep sadness, knowledge of the tragic essence of love, and, finally, sad regret about the impracticability of the wonderful hopes of youth. Such a complex sound of the “first love” motif is achieved by combining two points of view in the narrative: young Vladimir, taking his first steps on the path of life, and the same hero a quarter of a century later - forty-year-old Vladimir Petrovich, acutely aware of the approach of old age.

Turgenev's story "First Love" is constructed as a retrospective - but not in the form of an expected oral story, but as a pre-recorded memory (it turns out that it is easier to describe intimate feelings on paper than to talk about them out loud). Distinguishing the time layers of “past” and “present” allows the narrator to transform the long past and show first love as an exceptional event in human life, one and only in the brightness of experiences, in the prayerful mood of the soul. The state of first love has nothing to do with the routine and vulgarity of everyday life. The festive image of first love is made up of the irresistible charm of female beauty, desire for achievement, romantic inspiration (young Vladimir quotes Pushkin, Lermontov, Khomyakov, Schiller), and finally, amazing landscapes woven from color and light that correspond to the feelings of the hero.

One of Turgenev’s most lyrical works, the story “First Love” is autobiographical. While working on the story, forty-two-year-old Turgenev experienced a deep mental breakdown caused by the experience of the approaching threshold of old age. “Life is all in the past,” he wrote to Countess Lambert, “and the present is only precious, like a reflection of the past. Meanwhile, what was so especially good about the past? Hope, the ability to hope - i.e. future". The idea of ​​the tragedy of life, the impracticability of ideals so intensely experienced in youth - this is the result of understanding the past in the story “First Love”.

Composition

I. S. Turgenev’s story “First Love” appeared in 1860. The author especially valued this work, probably because this story is largely autobiographical. It is very closely connected with the life of the writer himself, with the fate of his parents, as well as with beautiful and vivid memories of his first love. As the author himself said, “in my first love I portrayed my father. Many people condemned me for this... My father was handsome... he was very good - real Russian beauty.”

In his work, Turgenev clearly traces the emergence and development of the protagonist’s love. Love is an amazing feeling; it gives a person a whole palette of emotions - from hopeless grief and tragedy to amazing, uplifting joy. The young hero is going through a difficult period - his first love. This feeling changed his whole life. All the feelings of the young man fascinate the reader, making him feel the authenticity of the story told by Turgenev.

With what power the author conveys the violent manifestations of the feelings of a young man who, for the first time in his life, is faced with such a complex and incomprehensible phenomenon as the inability to control his thoughts and feelings. Zinaida's image is also amazing. Throughout the story, her image undergoes a strong metamorphosis; she turns from a frivolous and careless creature into a strong, loving woman. Also, the father’s feelings are shown with great force, dooming him to hopelessness and tragedy. Suffice it to remember how Volodya’s father hits Zinaida’s bare hand with a whip and she kisses the mark left on her hand from the blow.

First love was a serious test for the young man. But, despite the tragedy of the situation, he managed to remain as pure in soul as he was before. This is evidenced by the following lines: “I did not feel any angry feelings towards my father. On the contrary, he, so to speak, has grown even more in my eyes.”

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.