4.1
Average rating: 4.1
Total ratings received: 1790.
4.1
Average rating: 4.1
Total ratings received: 1790.
In the story “Ionych,” Chekhov, with his characteristic skill, speaks about the degradation of personality, about the vulgarity of everyday life. The author especially acutely raises the question of the influence of society on an individual person. We invite you to read a brief analysis of the work. This material can be used for work in a literature lesson in grade 10, as well as for preparing for the Unified State Exam.
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Ilyina Galina Sergeevna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 36 years.
Brief Analysis
Before reading this analysis, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with Ionych’s work itself.
Year of writing : 1898
History of creation - Researchers of the writer’s work have come to the conclusion that the original concept of the work underwent significant changes before the author created the final version.
Topic : Personality degradation, the life of urban inhabitants, the strength and weakness of love.
Composition - The story is built like a staircase leading down, and is subordinated to a common goal - to show the gradual spiritual impoverishment of the hero. First, the young ambitious doctor’s acquaintance with the Turkin family, Startsev’s courtship of Ekaterina Ivanovna and the quick ending of a failed love affair, then a new meeting with Katya and the hero’s inability to fall in love, and then we see a cold and calculating hero, incapable of showing emotional impulses.
Genre : story.
Direction - The objective characteristics of the characters, the social problems of society described by Anton Pavlovich, speak of the realistic direction of the story.
Main topics
The main theme of the work “Ionych” is close to all people who have seen enough of the world to really appreciate everything. In the story, Chekhov raises the following topics:
History of creation
The writer’s notes contain evidence that the idea of the story gradually changed. If initially the author wanted to describe one family, the Filimonovs, then later the surname was changed to the Turkins, and the main idea of the story also changed: in the final version, the writer evaluates not the social impoverishment of the family, but the degradation of the protagonist’s personality.
After the publication of this work, criticism was mixed, reviews were both positive and negative. The originality of the description of the hero, who is not an antagonist of society, but a product of decay under the influence of this society, was noted.
Check out what else we have:
for the most rational -
Summary of “Ionych”
for the most sociable -
The main characters of "Ionych"
for the busiest -
Reader's diary "Ionych"
for the coolest -
Read “Ionych” in full
Internal changes
Startsev did not communicate closely with anyone. Even the liberal inhabitants of the town irritated him with their stupidity and viciousness. They listened with irritation to Startsev’s talk about how humanity is moving forward, and objected. And the doctor’s words that every person should work were taken as a personal reproach and they began to get angry. Therefore, Dmitry Ionovich stopped talking, but only remained gloomily silent, and if he sat down at the table, he ate in silence, looking at his plate. So society gradually destroyed Startsev’s desire not only to talk, but also to think about progress.
Subject
To determine the theme of the story “Ionych”, it is necessary to reveal the essence of the title of the story. At first it seems that we are talking about the Turkin family. Later comes the understanding that the main character is Dmitry Ionych Startsev. Throughout the narrative, the degradation of Doctor Startsev is shown, and this is the meaning of the title - the author shows how a respected person, a good doctor, gradually became mired in vulgarity and turned into a money-grubber. This gives the rest of the residents the right to treat him familiarly, with some disdain, to put him on a par with themselves, the gray and faceless inhabitants.
It is the process of personality degradation that is the main theme of the work. Startsev, a young and energetic doctor who loved his profession, who once strived for high ideals, slowly but surely turned into an ordinary resident of the city. The doctor's only desire was to get rich. A good medical practice brought him a stable income. Dr. Startsev invests all his funds in real estate, buying things that correspond to his position and financial condition. Degradation manifested itself not only in a change in his beliefs, but also in his appearance, habits, and behavior.
The hero became rude and irritable, gained weight, and began to experience shortness of breath. The doctor lost interest in public life, there were no feelings left except the thirst for enrichment. Love, the origin of which is shown in the story, ends in failure and disappointment. And Startsev even feels relieved that the relationship did not work out.
Issues – The problem of the state of society as a whole, its morality. This is the lack of education of citizens, their lack of culture and spiritual poverty. Life in the town is boring and dull, according to one routine. Residents spend their time monotonously, each of them lives in their own little world, without setting any global goals and aspirations.
The problem of society's influence on the individual. The lifestyle and views of the residents of the city of S. had a great influence on Startsev: he abandoned medicine as a vocation, turning it only into a means of enrichment. One can draw an unambiguous conclusion: having become like philistine society, Startsev destroyed himself as a person and mixed with the crowd of the same unprincipled and unspiritual types. To what extent does the environment influence the personality and can a person resist it? The author poses this important question in his story.
External changes
Four years later, Doctor Startsev acquired a large practice both in Dyalizh and in the city. He has changed in appearance. The doctor became fat, he began to have shortness of breath, and he no longer walked.
Now Dimitry Ionovich is the owner of the troika with bells. His coachman also changed. He, like his owner, became fat. The doctor loved to play cards. Entertainment such as theater or concerts ceased to interest him.
Composition
Chekhov's story consists of five parts . In the first part, we meet the Turkins family and the main character, Doctor Startsev. The hero still has the ability to distinguish true talent from dullness, and he does not seek to continue the established acquaintance.
Startsev is passionate about his work, he is very busy, and the second meeting with the Turkin family occurs after a little over a year. The mistress of the house invited a young doctor, complaining of migraines, and he began to visit them regularly, preferring conversations with Ekaterina Ivanovna.
The young girl is well-read, and Startsev is interested in communicating with her. Startsev decided to propose to her, thinking about a rich dowry. Kitty's stupid idea of a date at the cemetery cooled and sobered up the hero; he felt disappointed and regretted how much extra trouble this story had caused him.
The third part of the story describes how Doctor Startsev became bloated and plump in body, but impoverished in soul. He stopped being interested in art - performances and concerts, finding pleasure in gambling and nightly counting the money that his medical practice brought him.
In the next part of the story we see changes: Doctor Startsev has gained weight, is bloated, thinks only about profit, and is glad that he is not married. He met with Ekaterina Ivanovna a couple more times, but he felt ashamed that he had once proposed to her.
In the finale we see that Doctor Startsev has turned into Ionych. This is no longer a young and ambitious doctor with noble impulses, but a flabby, soulless person, one might say a “dead soul”, seeking pleasure in wealth and morally impoverished. Complacency and unwillingness to change your life is a sign of spiritual degradation.
"Ionych." Analysis of Chekhov's story
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Literary direction.
The story “Ionych” by Chekhov was created in accordance with the principles of realism. “Ionych” is a realistic psychological story that reveals the problems of spiritual degradation of the individual and the influence of the environment on a person.
Genre of the work.
- The story is close to the story.
- Social problems are revealed through the details of everyday life.
- The character of the hero is shown in development
H. Theme and idea (main idea).
- Topic: spiritual degradation of personality.
- Idea: exposing urban inhabitants who only demonstrate their craving for “reasonable, good, eternal”, but in reality they are boring, monotonous, frozen in their development. People who are mentally weak, who cannot and do not want to resist evil, fall under the influence of the vulgarity and commercialism of society.
Plot and composition.
There is nothing unusual in the plot: a man with good inclinations and dreams gradually turns into a gray everyman. Dmitry Ionovich Startsev, a zemstvo doctor, at the beginning of the story is a straightforward and sincere young man. He is friends with the Turkins family, enjoys their home performances, falls in love with the Turkins’ daughter Ekaterina... But there will be no predictable happy ending: Ekaterina refuses Startsev, saying that she will go to study at the conservatory. Four years pass, Startsev again comes to visit the Turkins, and there everything is the same. The same home performance, the same jokes, Ekaterina did not go away to study. Startsev is glad that he did not marry her: now he is only interested in money. More time passes, Startsev becomes fat, in the city they simply call him “Ionych.” His life becomes monotonous and boring.
The beginning
The arrival and acquaintance of the young zemstvo doctor Dmitry Ionych Startsev with the Turkin family, the most educated and talented in the city.
Climax
Startsev's declaration of love to Ekaterina, her refusal.
Developments
The gradual degradation of Doctor Startsev.
Denouement
The doctor’s last explanation with Ekaterina, Startsev’s spiritual and physical decline (rejects the girl, is flabby, has become mercantile and indifferent, loves to count money).
Artistic features.
Reception of repeated descriptions and details (the same scenes in the Turkins’ house, Doctor Startsev and the coachman Panteleimon). The technique of mirroring in the relationship between Startsev and Kotik.
Modern reading of the work and its meaning.
Today's life provides many concrete examples of such degradation. Before this story, we saw how Chekhov condemned parasitism, living at the expense of others, believing that this way of life disfigures the human soul and leads to spiritual death. But in the story “Ionych” the situation is different: a man works without sparing himself, forgetting about rest, but he does all this for the sake of profit. This way of life and thoughts also leads to spiritual death, to the impoverishment of personality.
The story “Ionych” consists of five chapters, and each of them reveals a new stage in the life of a hero named Dmitry Ionych Startsev - in the first chapters and nicknamed Ionych - in the last.
In the last chapter, the author shows us how much Startsev has changed not only externally, but also internally. He has lost all respect for people, he is unceremonious when he walks around a house scheduled for auction, when he shouts at patients and hits the floor with a stick.
Tenth-graders understand well why he bought two houses and is looking at a third. But not everyone can answer the question of whether the work of a doctor and commerce in the form shown through Ionych are compatible, since today’s children do not see the disadvantages in such a union. And Chekhov, back in the 90s of the 19th century, made us think about an active civic position, about a person’s responsibility for his work, profession, place in life and society. Gorky understood this well and wrote to Chekhov: “You are doing a great job with your little stories - arousing in people disgust for this sleepy, half-dead life...” The story “Ionych” is relevant in all respects. The work of a doctor and profit are incompatible concepts.
This should be so, although our life today provides many counter-examples. Hence the indifference that reaches the point of callousness, callousness to the point of cruelty, rudeness to the point of rudeness. In the era of current changes, you can see everything, and the teacher’s task is to ensure that students understand and appreciate not only the hero, not only his principles, but also relate them to what is encountered in life more and more often.
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