Description of Aksinya
A detailed description of Aksinya is nowhere to be found in the novel “Quiet Don”. But, the author focuses the reader’s attention on individual details of her appearance, thanks to which an idea of the heroine’s appearance as a whole is formed.
From the first chapters of the novel, a woman of remarkable beauty appears before us. Full body, steep back, plump shoulders, black curly hair and hands rough from work. This is exactly what a classic Cossack woman from the beginning of the century looks like. This is how Sholokhov saw his heroine.
Aksinya’s deep black eyes and full lips attract special attention. They drive Gregory crazy, and the author talks about them most often. Aksinya’s beauty is wild, alluring, even “shameless,” according to the writer, arousing the envy of her neighbors.
Over time, the heroine's appearance changes. When Aksinya meets Gregory again, she is still beautiful, but the “autumn of life” has already left its mark on her appearance. Silver threads appeared in my hair and my skin darkened. The eyes, burning and shining in youth, now exude fatigue. Sholokhov draws a parallel between a faded lily of the valley and a fading woman mourning her life.
It must be said that every meeting with Gregory is reflected in Aksinya’s appearance. The happiness of owning a lover transforms the heroine, makes her more stately, enlivens her facial features, the whole world seems to her “jubilant and bright.”
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Characteristics of Aksinya
Aksinya was created for love and family happiness. She dreams of a happy marriage and having children. Aksinya lives by traditions that have developed in the farmstead from time immemorial. Submitting to the will of her mother, she gets married, suffers beatings and humiliation from her husband, and does not dare to contradict her mother-in-law. But Aksinya’s flexible disposition is deceptive. Passion and strength sleep in her soul, which awaken along with her feelings for Gregory.
The characterization of Aksinya in “Quiet Don” is ambiguous. On the one hand, a woman is capable of boundless tenderness towards her lover and children. Finds the most kind words for them. She replaces the children's mother after Natalya's death. On the other hand, she has the strength to defend her love. So, Aksinya rebuffs Pantelei Prokofievich, who came to reproach her for her relationship with her son. He openly admits to Stepan his connection with Grigory, without fear of inevitable reprisals. I am ready to leave home and household in order to be close to my lover.
Life without a loved one makes no sense for Aksinya, who is emotional, capable of self-sacrifice and deep devotion. She, despite the danger, follows him everywhere in pursuit of “illusory happiness.” Her words: “I will follow you everywhere, even to death,” turn out to be prophetic. Love gives her the strength to live, but it also leads the heroine to a tragic death.
Aksinya and Grigory Melekhov
Aksinya is a person with a colossal thirst for love. More than anything else, she longs to accept the sincere feelings of another person and give him her unspent feelings. And for this reason, the response to Grigory Melekhov’s passion is the same sizzling passion on her part. The long-awaited feeling of true love turned out to be so strong that the young woman was not afraid to openly tell her husband about her relationship with Grigory, knowing full well that his response would be a severe beating. Aksinya gives a powerful rebuff to Gregory’s father, Pantelei Prokofievich, who tried, as they say, to teach her life and “put her in her place.”
“I’ll follow you everywhere, even to death,” she says to Grigory Melekhov, when their feelings are just emerging. And that's exactly what happens.
The relationship between Aksinya and Gregory is passionate, filled simultaneously with heavenly bliss and the most terrible torments of the underworld. True, there is much less passion, joy and bliss in the lives of two literary characters than torment and trials.
Light periods are very short. This is the beginning of a relationship when passion was seething furiously and you simply didn’t want to think about the future, or rather, you just didn’t think about it. This is life on the Listnitsky estate, the birth of a daughter and, it would seem, the acquisition of long-awaited family happiness. And - closer to the end of the novel - a new meeting with Gregory, hope for happiness, finally found after a very long period of torment and pain. But after each “clearance” there follows a long streak of darkness and hopelessness. First, Gregory, at the insistence of his parents, marries Natalya. After an almost idyll on the Listnitsky estate - another portion of grief - loneliness, the death of her daughter from scarlet fever, the harassment of Yevgeny Listnitsky, which the exhausted woman could not resist. After a new meeting with Grigory, hopes for a family life with him and his children, for whom she sought to replace their mother after Natalya’s death, there is a new separation. And here are plans to move to Kuban, hope. But a stray bullet put an end to Aksinya’s restless and vainly seeking family warmth and comfort.
Aksinya's fate
Aksinya's fate is tragic from the very beginning. When the heroine was 16 years old, her own father abused her. For this crime, the girl's mother and brother kill him. This event predetermined the future life of the heroine. Aksinya marries Stepan Astakhov, but life with her husband does not work out. After their wedding night, Stepan beats Aksinya, drinks and cheats on her. The heroine hopes that the birth of a child will change their relationship. But the baby soon dies.
Aksinya, like Ostrovsky’s Katerina, needs love. And she finds her in the arms of Grigory Melekhov. The unknown feeling captures the heroine so much that she becomes indifferent to the consequences of this connection. She understands: her husband can kill her, but even possible death cannot keep Aksinya from meeting with Grigory.
Having learned about the upcoming marriage of her lover, the woman tries to forget him. She tries to reconcile with her husband and even performs a “lapel” ritual with the help of a farm healer. But a chance meeting again brings Aksinya and Gregory together. She decides to leave home and, together with her beloved, goes to work at Yagodnoye, the Listnitsky estate.
It would seem that happiness finally smiled on the woman. Her lover lives with her, and they have a daughter. But fate again treated Aksinya cruelly. Gregory goes to the front, and his daughter dies of scarlet fever. The heroine is left alone again. There is no one next to her who would provide her with moral support or comfort her in grief. Despair pushes Aksinya into the arms of Evgeny Listnitsky, who has long shown her signs of attention. Grigory cannot understand the reason that pushed Aksinya to betrayal, and leaves her. The heroine returns to Stepan and gradually fades away, living by inertia next to an unloved person.
Only the acquisition of Gregory brings the woman back to life. She hopes to finally know family happiness. Grigory comes to her with the children, and she tries with all her might to replace Melekhov’s deceased wife, Natalya. But circumstances again separate the lovers and destroy their dreams of a quiet life. Aksinya, hoping for a better life, accepts Grigory’s offer to go to Kuban. But this trip turns out to be the last in the woman’s life. A random bullet ends her life.
Plot
Aksinya was born in a Cossack village located near the Rostov region. The girl became the second child in a poor family. Already at the age of 16, the Cossack woman had a bright appearance and attracted the attention of men.
Illustration for the novel “Quiet Don”
The girl did not hide her long curly hair and sloping shoulders. The beauty's black eyes and plump lips attracted particular attention. Because of her attractiveness, the fate of the Cossack woman went downhill.
Even before her marriage, Aksinya was raped by her own father. Having learned about her husband's act, the mother killed the villain. To hide the shame, the girl was forcibly married to Stepan Astakhov, who could not forgive the beauty for her lack of innocence.
Not loved by her husband, who suffered beatings, Aksinya becomes close to her neighbor, Grigory Melekhov. The girl understands that she is hurting her family and friends, but the beauty is so tired of humiliation that she does not pay attention to the gossip of the Cossacks.
Aksinya Astakhova and Grigory Melekhov
Concerned about the behavior of young people, Grigory's parents marry Natalya Korshunova to the guy. Realizing that marriage, even with an unloved woman, is the best way out, the man breaks off relations with Aksinya. But the feelings that Gregory awakened in the unhappy beauty do not fade away so quickly, so the love affair is soon resumed.
Unfree heroes leave their own families and go off to build a future together. Soon Grigory and Aksinya become parents. The couple has a daughter, Tatyana. But the happy time is interrupted by military training. The beloved is taken to the service, and the beauty is left alone.
Grigory Melekhov
Suddenly, little Tatyana, who occupies all the thoughts of young Aksinya, dies of scarlet fever. Having barely coped with grief, the beauty plunges into an affair with Evgeny Listnitsky. However, no matter how hard the woman tries to forget Gregory, the relationship between man and woman is renewed every time with the same passion.
Aksinya’s beloved is appointed chief of military operations on the Don, Grigory takes the woman with him. Once again, circumstances and their own families separate the lovers. Military operations, in which Grigory Melekhov takes an active part, constantly separates the heroes. Natalya Melekhova does not lose hope of returning her man.
Natalya Melekhova (Daria Ursulyak, TV series “Quiet Don”)
Ultimately, trying to hide from the bandits with whom Grigory unexpectedly connected his life, the man and woman run away to Kuban. But, crossing the steppe, Aksinya receives a bullet wound from her pursuers - employees at the outpost. A woman dies in the arms of her beloved man, the only one who gave the beauty a real, sincere and full of life feeling.
Actresses who played Aksinya
In cinema, the image of Aksinya Astakhova was embodied by Elina Bystritskaya, in the film adaptation by Sergei Gerasimov in 1957, as well as Dolphin Forest in the film version of the novel by Sergei Bondarchuk in 1991-92. In the new film version of the book by Sergei Ursulyak in 2015, the role of Aksinya went to Polina Chernyshova.
Cossack Astakhova Aksinya is one of the main female characters in Sholokhov’s novel about the difficult fate of the people during the change of power.
The image and characterization of Aksinya in the novel “Quiet Don” help to understand how a woman feels, devoted and in love, but, by the will of fate, finds herself the wife of another person.
Aksinya's appearance
Everyone says about Aksinya that she is beautiful. A complete description of his appearance cannot be found. Everything is made up of details, bright and precise. Appearance catches people's eyes, it's hard not to start looking at a woman. Perhaps this is why the author says that Aksyutka’s beauty is destructive and vicious. It changes fate and only introduces complexity and problems. The woman’s beauty is so provocative that her neighbors envy her. Age and pregnancy do not change it.
What I especially like about her appearance:
- lips: “shamelessly greedy, plump”, “cherry”, “viciously greedy”;
- body: “shamelessly inviting”;
- beautiful head position;
- dark face;
- thick black eyebrows;
- steep back;
- poured shoulders.
The curls of curly hair and large fluffy rings falling down the neck add delicate charm. The Cossack woman's eyes are amazing. They blaze with flame and flicker blue. The shine of black eyes is filled with tears, but wet drops do not obscure the depth of feelings. You can feel the author’s tenderness and love for Aksyutka. The Cossack woman even treats gray hair jokingly: she pulls out the gray hairs at her temples and admires her beautiful face already at the end of her life.
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Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Don" was filmed 4 times. But only Sergei Gerasimov’s production is considered a classic. And the images of Grigory Melikhov and Aksinya performed by Pyotr Glebov and Elina Bystritskaya are considered unsurpassed. It is interesting that director Sergei Gerasimov approached the State University of Physical Culture with a proposal to film the novel “Quiet Don” back in 1939. Then he was refused with the wording that “it hardly makes sense to film a novel that, for all its merits, brings to the fore the fate of Grigory Melekhov, a man without a road, essentially doomed by history.”
In 1956, Sergei Gerasimov decided that the time had finally come to implement his creative plan. The director's script was approved by Sholokhov himself and Gerasimov began working on the film. Elina Bystritskaya learned about the start of work on the film adaptation from Alla Larionova and, in her words, “gasped in her heart.” She always admired the great novel by M. A. Sholokhov. His Aksinya aroused keen interest among the actress. “I felt that I could play her in a movie or theater, although even in my wildest dreams I didn’t see any possibilities for this. I read “Quiet Don” a long time ago, when I was about twenty. Then, already at the pedagogical institute, I re-read the novel again and again, but I couldn’t even think that I would have the happiness of playing Aksinya.”
Having learned that S. A. Gerasimov would shoot “Quiet Don”, Bystritskaya was very afraid of being late and immediately called Gerasimov (and she was then in France as part of a delegation of Soviet filmmakers). Gerasimov agreed to meet with her when Elina Bystritskaya returned to Moscow.
As soon as she found herself in Moscow, she immediately called Sergei Apollinarievich, reminded her of herself, and he said: “Come. Grigory Melekhov is already sitting here with me...” Bystritskaya rushed to the Ukraine Hotel (where he lived). “Come in,” he invited. And he introduced her to an actor who was visiting him, who was completely different from the Grigory Melekhov that the actress had imagined. After some time, Gerasimov said: “Well, here’s a book for you, read the excerpt...” “Sergei Apollinaryevich,” Bystritskaya pleaded, “I’ve just come from Paris, I’m afraid my French impressions will not give me the opportunity to reliably reproduce this scene. I need to re-read the book, remember it, imagine how it all was..."
There was a lot of competition for the role of Aksinya. Nonna Mordyukova, a graduate of the course taught by Gerasimov, also dreamed of this role, and Aksinya was her diploma role. Moreover, Gerasimov rated Mordyukova’s performance as “excellent.” Therefore, when she found out that her teacher was going to film “Quiet Don,” she had no shadow of a doubt that he would invite her to play the role of Aksinya. Bystritskaya came from Vilnius to Moscow several times for test shooting. The trials lasted six months. Sergei Gerasimov later said that M. A. Sholokhov selected her for the role of Aksinya: “We rejected dozens of candidates, not finding in any of them the character traits of Grigory’s beloved, her unique beauty. Finally, on Sholokhov’s advice, we settled on Elina Bystritskaya.”
There was hard work ahead. It started literally the next day... At the very first meeting, Gerasimov told the actors: “We are starting work on “Quiet Don.” You will have to become different people." The male actors were warned to “prepare” their hands - they should become like the hands of people working on the land. He gave the same advice to actresses.
Literally a few days later, an amateur Cossack choir of pensioners, whose youth fell on the times of the “Quiet Don”, arrived from the Dichensky farm, fourteen kilometers from the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky.
Elderly Cossacks and Cossack women quickly understood what was required of them and turned out to be good mentors. “I remember I was patronized by one woman, very large, broad-shouldered, with kind eyes. – Bystritskaya recalled. “I listened to the intonation of her speech, watched how she walked, what gestures and facial expressions she used to accompany her speech. It turned out, for example, that there is a whole art to carrying water in buckets so that it does not splash and so that the Cossacks you meet enjoy it. Grandma Ulya taught me this: “And you carry it with your hips... Carry it with your hips, with your hips...” At first I could not understand how buckets of water could be carried with “hips” if they were on a yoke. And Grandma Ulya gave me “director’s” instructions: “You understand, the enta doesn’t just have to carry water, but so that Grishka likes it...”
“I had to become a Cossack woman at all costs - a woman who deals with land, water, who is blown by the winds and burned by the sun, and who works a lot and hard, remaining loved and desired. I danced with the Cossacks, sang with them and, in the end, fit into their circle, just as one fits into the landscape.
In those years, I was a thin, flexible girl - all actresses watch their figure. I carefully “polished” my figure - I can’t eat, I can’t do that... But Aksinya was completely different - a strong, mature woman, whose becoming was shaped not by diet, but by work, a very active lifestyle, steppe expanses, her environment, in which fearless people were valued , strong people. Cossack women are wives, girlfriends, lovers of born warriors, and “young ladies” on the Don were not in price ... "
“I, of course, knew and remembered that our “Quiet Don” was the second attempt to film the novel by M.A. Sholokhov. Aksinya was played by the magnificent Emma Tsesarskaya, Grigory - Andrei Abrikosov. Central to this film was the love drama of Aksinya and Gregory. Emma Tsesarskaya played Aksinya wonderfully! I remember her amazing smile... At one of the official receptions we accidentally ended up together: Mikhail Alexandrovich, Emma Vladimirovna and me. It seemed to me that Tsesarskaya looked at me with slight sadness: I was young, and her time was running out. And I didn’t yet know that from now on, for the rest of my life, I would be Aksinya in the eyes of many people...”
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