"Image of Nilovna"
M. Gorky’s novel “Mother” is one of the most significant works of Russian literature of the early twentieth century. On its pages the Russian revolutionary movement appears before us as a movement of the masses, heroic in their impulse. The novel “Mother” played a huge role in the development of the social thinking of many generations of readers and marked a new milestone in the development of Russian and world culture. It is no coincidence that Gorky’s “Mother” became a reference book for many Russian revolutionaries of that time. At the center of the story is Pavel Vlasov’s mother Pelageya Nilovna.
The work is structured in such a way that Nilovna is a participant or witness to all the events described. If the novel “Mother” is a work about the painful process of overcoming slavish feelings of obedience and fear in people, about the complex transformation of a person from a victim into a fighter, then Nilovna in this regard is the most striking and convincing example. Nilovna's path is complex and contradictory. It was not so easy for a woman who had lived most of her life in submission and fear to free herself from the old. Pelageya Nilovna experienced all the bitterness of the plight of a working man's wife. She is oppressed by poverty, a drunken and rude husband, religiosity, and the realization that “everyone lives like this.” At the beginning of the novel we see a timid, submissive woman, downtrodden by a life of servitude, afraid of people. She teaches her son to escape from people, because they “hate each other.” Nilovna is deeply convinced of this. Having learned that her son was reading forbidden books, she was at first frightened, but then she felt in her heart and then with her mind she understood that her son and his comrades were right. Gorky's heroine unexpectedly finds herself in a different environment, in an environment of people of faith and self-sacrifice, in an environment of devotion to the cause of the future.
Watching Pavel's comrades, Nilovna realized that revolutionaries are the best people on earth, and she fell in love with them as if they were family. At first she is shocked by their lack of faith in God, their sense of ignorance, and their lack of understanding of events, but she overcomes all this with the power of her mother’s love. Nilovna willingly begins to carry out her son’s instructions and is gradually drawn into revolutionary work. After Pavel's arrest, Nilovna carries leaflets to the factory so that the work started by her son does not stop. Gradually, from a dark, downtrodden, silent creature, she turned into a person who knows the truth and confidently brings it to people.
The confidence that she can help in the revolutionary struggle straightens Nilovna’s soul. Her circle of interests and affections was poor. Her interests and behavior were previously limited to everyday concerns. Her love for her only son grew into a great maternal feeling for all fighters for the liberation of the people. Thus, the meaning of the title “Mother” expanded, acquiring the meaning of a symbol. The knowledge that through her actions she brings significant benefits to the revolutionary struggle fills a woman’s heart with pride and is the basis for her sense of self-respect. Not only Nilovna is proud of her son, but Pavel is also proud of his mother, who has become dear to him in spirit. This spiritual community strengthens and fills with deep content the love of mother and son. The process of spiritual enrichment was complex and difficult, but she overcame the difficulties. In Nilovna’s first propaganda speech at the May Day demonstration, her idea of social struggle still coexists with the religious. Gradually her horizons expand. In the village of Nikolskoye, Nilovna skillfully conducts propaganda work with the peasants. After Pavel’s trial, the mother did not succumb to grief; she continued her son’s work. Arrested at the station and beaten by the gendarmes, Nilovna strains her last strength to throw leaflets with Pavel’s speech at the people. A fiery call bursts from her chest: “Gather, people, your strength into a single force.” On Pelageya Nilovna’s new path in the revolutionary movement, everything old and backward is burned out, new thoughts and feelings are born. She is imbued with great love for the world, for people, for the nation.
The writer shows Nilovna’s revival to the struggle for freedom, drawing a type of person from the depths of the people: “It seemed that thousands of lives spoke through her lips.” Great is the merit of Gorky, who in the novel “Mother” created the image of a simple Russian woman from the people, entering the world of the revolutionary liberation struggle, spiritually reborn from an oppressed state. The image of Nilovna is perceived as the personification of the enormous changes that have taken place in the minds of people who have embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle. In the novel, Gorky creates the image of a revolutionary woman, for whom all fighters for truth are her children.
The novel “Mother” is a work created at the turn of two centuries, in a difficult and turbulent time, which was rapidly taking away everything old and giving life to new ideas, new social trends that captured the minds and hearts of people.
The process of a radical change in the social worldview that unfolded in Russian society in this period, the well-known struggle between new materialistic and idealistic philosophical movements that arose at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries - all this could not help but be reflected in the literary works of that era. Gorky's work is no exception here. His works are a response to the events of the time when the very concept of the heroic was changing, when protest against the existing system became the business of every sane person. A completely different question is in what forms this protest was expressed. We must not forget that the raznochinsky period of the liberation movement in Russia was replaced at that time by the proletarian one, which developed mainly under the influence of the theory of Marxism, which, as we know, has very significant costs.
The novel “Mother” reveals a completely clear position of the author in relation to social transformations; the work is imbued with the passion of the struggle for the reconstruction of life, which for a long time gave rise to a very one-sided assessment of it within the framework of Soviet ideology. Behind the “heroic struggle of the new generation of revolutionaries” they did not notice (or did not want to notice) living people, with their internal contradictions, suffering, and moral quests. But it was precisely the inner spiritual world of man that interested the greatest Russian writers, whose works are recognized as classics of world literature. A one-sided approach to this work, imposed by communist ideology, undoubtedly cannot satisfy a person who considers himself a true connoisseur and connoisseur of literature.
It would probably be more appropriate to consider this work by exploring the spiritual world of the heroes. Thus, the best feelings arising in the hearts call people to the service of a high and bright idea. But when this idea overshadows everything else, enslaving a person, it suppresses in his soul the very feelings that prompted him to serve it.
This paradox is tragic. And it manifests itself most clearly in the image of Pavel Vlasov, who until recently was considered as unconditionally positive. But it is here that the “obsession with an idea” manifests itself most strongly, and it is here that this phenomenon takes on its most destructive forms. The desire for a high goal, developing into fanaticism, suppresses in his soul such eternal human feelings as filial love, love for home, for a woman. Cruelly, unfilially, he tells his mother that he is doomed to die for his idea, he does not want to listen to it before the demonstration.
The image of Paul is the image of a man who makes, although not out of malice, unhappy all those to whom he is dear. This is especially evident from his love story. In life, he constantly faces a choice between an idea and a living soul. And he chooses an idea... The image of Pavel Vlasov is tragic. In the soul of this man there was a discord between the deepest, root, vital foundations and the idea, the goal set by him.
A hero who carries a spiritual principle, in whom the best human feelings are strong, is undoubtedly Nilovna. The mighty power of her maternal love keeps Paul from completely plunging into fanatical madness. It was in the image of the mother that faith in a high goal with the richest spiritual world was most organically combined. Here, of course, it is necessary to note Nilovna’s deep and strong connection with the people, which has always been assessed in Russian literature as the wealth of a person’s soul, his closeness to the origins, the roots of national culture.
The idea inspires Nilovna, allows her to rise up and gain faith in herself, but does not develop in her mind into a goal for fanatical service to anything. This does not happen, probably because Nilovna’s connection with folk roots is very strong. Obviously, it is this connection that determines a person’s inner resilience. Let us note that Andrei Nakhodka, Paul’s comrade-in-arms, is much deeper than him spiritually. This image is also close to the people, as evidenced by his attitude towards Nilovna: tenderness, care, affection. Paul doesn't have this. The author shows how dangerous it is for a person to move away from his folk roots when all true spiritual values are lost.
The name of the novel was not chosen by chance by the writer.
The image of Pelageya Nilovna in M. Gorky’s novel “Mother”
The author's attitude towards Nilovna is obvious. It is no coincidence that she plays a decisive role in the development of the plot of the work. She participates in all the events that occur in the book, the description is often carried out on her behalf. Nilovna does not appear immediately. Her portrait is not immediately given. It is characteristic that the leitmotif accompanying her appearance in the novel is fear. At first it is the fear of a downtrodden person. Later, there was fear that people would not understand the truth and Paul’s ideas. Fear haunts the mother throughout the book, but gradually turns into another feeling - pride in her son. And at the end of the work, there is fear that she will not be worthy of Pavel, and fears for the people who are doing the same thing as her son. Nilovna does not leave her son, she is always there, and what could be more beautiful in life! It is not surprising that it is the feeling of unity with her son that at some point helps her completely overcome her fear. (She immediately felt better and became completely stronger, adding: “Don’t disgrace your son. No one is afraid!”).
The theme of the resurrection of the human soul, the theme of the second birth of man, is connected with the image of the mother in the work. Gorky does not simplify this resurrection. The process of Nilovna’s rebirth is generally complex. Firstly, she is forty years old, and for that time this was already the age at which the “woman’s age” ended. At the beginning of the book, Gorky generally states that “having lived such a life for 50 years, a person died.” Nilovna is an established personality. In addition, she is a religious woman. In the mother’s faith, the writer sees a certain system of views on the world that helps her survive. This is why Nilovna is so afraid of the destruction of her faith in God. It is no coincidence that she asks Pavel and Rybin: “If you leave God to me, how will I live without him?”
By placing at the center of the story a powerless, downtrodden creature who saw nothing in her life except beatings and rudeness, Gorky showed how, in the process of gradual degeneration, the meaning of the word “mother” expands. At first, Nilovna is the source of Pavel’s life, her love is selfish love for her son. Later, Nilovna begins to feel like the mother of Nakhodka, Natasha. At the end of the book, she is the mother of all children: “A warm shadow gently surrounded the woman, warming her heart with a feeling of love for unknown people, and in her imagination they all formed into one huge person.” The following phrase also takes on special meaning: “We are all children of one mother, truth.” The mother does not understand much, but she feels the truth, because this is inherent in her from the very beginning.
Watching Pavel's comrades, Nilovna realized that revolutionaries are the best people on earth, and she fell in love with them as if they were family. At first she is shocked by their lack of faith in God, their sense of ignorance, their lack of understanding of events, but she overcomes all this with the power of her mother’s love. Nilovna willingly begins to carry out her son’s instructions and is gradually drawn into revolutionary work. After Pavel's arrest, Nilovna carries leaflets to the factory so that the work started by his son does not stop. Gradually, from a dark, downtrodden, silent creature, she turned into a person who knows the truth and confidently brings it to people.
The confidence that she can help in the revolutionary struggle straightens Nilovna’s soul. Her circle of interests and affections was poor. Her interests and behavior were previously limited to everyday concerns. Her love for her only son grew into a great maternal feeling for all fighters for the liberation of the people. Thus, the meaning of the title “Mother” expanded, acquiring the meaning of a symbol. The knowledge that through her actions she brings significant benefits to the revolutionary struggle fills a woman’s heart with pride and is the basis for her sense of self-respect. Not only Nilovna is proud of her son, but Pavel is also proud of his mother, who has become dear to him in spirit. This spiritual community strengthens and fills with deep content the love of mother and son. The process of spiritual enrichment was complex and difficult, but she overcame the difficulties. In Nilovna’s first propaganda speech at the May Day demonstration, her idea of social struggle still coexists with the religious. Gradually her horizons expand. In the village of Nikolskoye, Nilovna skillfully conducts propaganda work with the peasants. After Pavel’s trial, the mother did not succumb to grief; she continued her son’s work. Arrested at the station and beaten by the gendarmes, Nilovna strains her last strength to throw leaflets with Pavel’s speech at the people. A fiery call bursts from her chest: “Gather, people, your strength into a single force.” On Pelageya Nilovna’s new path in the revolutionary movement, everything old and backward is burned out, new thoughts and feelings are born. She is imbued with great love for the world, for people, for the nation.
The writer shows Nilovna’s revival to the struggle for freedom, drawing a type of person from the depths of the people: “It seemed that thousands of lives spoke through her lips.” Great is the merit of Gorky, who in the novel “Mother” created the image of a simple Russian woman from the people, entering the world of the revolutionary liberation struggle, spiritually reborn from an oppressed state. The image of Nilovna is perceived as the personification of the enormous changes that have taken place in the minds of people who have embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle.
In the novel, M. Gorky created the image of a revolutionary woman, for whom all fighters for the common truth are her children. “Mother”, who conveys to them the slogan of her life: “Do not leave your children on a lonely path!” After her dream, Pelageya is completely freed from her old faith. And we no longer doubt that Pelageya Nilovna will help her children survive, give them the necessary strength to fight, and support them in the most difficult moment, because she is a real mother!
Similar works: Gorky’s realistic portrayal of the bottom of society (based on the play “At the Bottom”) Philosophical debate about man in the drama “At the Bottom” The problem of true and false humanism. (Based on the play “At the Depths” by M. Gorky) More works: Gorky’s early romanticism What is the meaning of life? (based on the story by M. Gorky “The Old Woman Izergil”) We recommend: The image of the merchants in the story by M. Gorky “Foma Gordeev” Chelkash and Gavrila (based on the story by M. Gorky “Chelkash”) at the bottom"»>
M. Gorky’s novel “Mother” is one of the most significant works of Russian literature of the early twentieth century. On the pages of the novel, first of all, we see the Russian revolutionary movement as a movement of the masses, heroic in their impulse. “Mother” played a huge role in the development of the social thinking of many generations of readers and marked a new milestone in the development of Russian and world culture. It is no coincidence that Gorky’s “Mother” became a reference book for many Russian revolutionaries of that time. At the center of the story is Pavel Vlasov’s mother Pelageya Nilovna.
The work is structured in such a way that Nilovna is a participant or witness to all the events described. If the novel “Mother” is a work about the painful process of overcoming slavish feelings of obedience and fear in people, about the complex transformation of a person from a victim into a fighter, then Nilovna in this regard is the most striking and convincing example. Nilovna's path is complex and contradictory. It was not so easy for a woman who had lived most of her life in submission and fear to free herself from the old. Pelageya Nilovna experienced all the bitterness of the plight of a working man's wife. She is oppressed by poverty, a drunken and rude husband, religiosity, and the realization that “everyone lives like this.” At the beginning of the novel we see a timid, submissive woman, downtrodden by a life of servitude, afraid of people. She teaches her son to escape from people, because they “hate each other.” Nilovna is deeply convinced of this. Having learned that her son was reading forbidden books, she was at first frightened, but then she felt in her heart and then with her mind she understood that her son and his comrades were right. Gorky's heroine unexpectedly finds herself in a different environment, in an environment of people of faith and self-sacrifice, in an environment of devotion to the cause of the future.
The author's attitude towards Nilovna is obvious. It is no coincidence that she plays a decisive role in the development of the plot of the work. She participates in all the events that occur in the book, the description is often carried out on her behalf. Nilovna does not appear immediately. Her portrait is not immediately given. It is characteristic that the leitmotif accompanying her appearance in the novel is fear. At first it is the fear of a downtrodden person. Later, there was fear that people would not understand the truth and Paul’s ideas. Fear haunts the mother throughout the book, but gradually turns into another feeling - pride in her son. And at the end of the work, there is fear that she will not be worthy of Pavel, and fears for the people who are doing the same thing as her son. Nilovna does not leave her son, she is always there, and what could be more beautiful in life! It is not surprising that it is the feeling of unity with her son that at some point helps her completely overcome her fear. (She immediately felt better and became completely stronger, adding: “Don’t disgrace your son. No one is afraid!”).
The theme of the resurrection of the human soul, the theme of the second birth of man, is connected with the image of the mother in the work. Gorky does not simplify this resurrection. The process of Nilovna’s rebirth is generally complex. Firstly, she is forty years old, and for that time this was already the age at which the “woman’s age” ended. At the beginning of the book, Gorky generally states that “having lived such a life for 50 years, a person died.” Nilovna is an established personality. In addition, she is a religious woman. In the mother’s faith, the writer sees a certain system of views on the world that helps her survive. This is why Nilovna is so afraid of the destruction of her faith in God. It is no coincidence that she asks Pavel and Rybin: “If you leave God to me, how will I live without him?”
By placing at the center of the story a powerless, downtrodden creature who saw nothing in her life except beatings and rudeness, Gorky showed how, in the process of gradual degeneration, the meaning of the word “mother” expands. At first, Nilovna is the source of Pavel’s life, her love is selfish love for her son. Later, Nilovna begins to feel like the mother of Nakhodka, Natasha. At the end of the book, she is the mother of all children: “A warm shadow gently surrounded the woman, warming her heart with a feeling of love for unknown people, and in her imagination they all formed into one huge person.” The following phrase also takes on special meaning: “We are all children of one mother, truth.” The mother does not understand much, but she feels the truth, because this is inherent in her from the very beginning.
Watching Pavel's comrades, Nilovna realized that revolutionaries are the best people on earth, and she fell in love with them as if they were family. At first she is shocked by their lack of faith in God, their sense of ignorance, their lack of understanding of events, but she overcomes all this with the power of her mother’s love. Nilovna willingly begins to carry out her son’s instructions and is gradually drawn into revolutionary work. After Pavel's arrest, Nilovna carries leaflets to the factory so that the work started by her son does not stop. Gradually, from a dark, downtrodden, silent creature, she turned into a person who knows the truth and confidently brings it to people.
The confidence that she can help in the revolutionary struggle straightens Nilovna’s soul. Her circle of interests and affections was poor. Her interests and behavior were previously limited to everyday concerns. Her love for her only son grew into a great maternal feeling for all fighters for the liberation of the people. Thus, the meaning of the title “Mother” expanded, acquiring the meaning of a symbol. The knowledge that through her actions she brings significant benefits to the revolutionary struggle fills a woman’s heart with pride and is the basis for her sense of self-respect. Not only Nilovna is proud of her son, but Pavel is also proud of his mother, who has become dear to him in spirit. This spiritual community strengthens and fills with deep content the love of mother and son. The process of spiritual enrichment was complex and difficult, but she overcame the difficulties. In Nilovna’s first propaganda speech at the May Day demonstration, her idea of social struggle still coexists with the religious. Gradually her horizons expand. In the village of Nikolskoye, Nilovna skillfully conducts propaganda work with the peasants. After Pavel’s trial, the mother did not succumb to grief; she continued her son’s work. Arrested at the station and beaten by the gendarmes, Nilovna strains her last strength to throw leaflets with Pavel’s speech at the people. A fiery call bursts from her chest: “Gather, people, your strength into a single force.” On Pelageya Nilovna’s new path in the revolutionary movement, everything old and backward is burned out, new thoughts and feelings are born. She is imbued with great love for the world, for people, for the nation.
The writer shows Nilovna’s revival to the struggle for freedom, drawing a type of person from the depths of the people: “It seemed that thousands of lives spoke through her lips.” Great is the merit of Gorky, who in the novel “Mother” created the image of a simple Russian woman from the people, entering the world of the revolutionary liberation struggle, spiritually reborn from an oppressed state. The image of Nilovna is perceived as the personification of the enormous changes that have taken place in the minds of people who have embarked on the path of revolutionary struggle.
In the novel, M. Gorky created the image of a revolutionary woman, for whom all fighters for the common truth are her children. “Mother”, who conveys to them the slogan of her life: “Do not leave your children on a lonely path!” After her dream, Pelageya is completely freed from her old faith. And we no longer doubt that Pelageya Nilovna will help her children survive, give them the necessary strength to fight, and support them in the most difficult moment, because she is a real mother!
