Dreams of Vera Pavlovna in the novel “What to do?” (N.G. Chernyshevsky)

First dream

About what? The heroine was imprisoned in the basement, but suddenly freed herself from captivity and found herself in a field where ripe ears of corn were turning yellow. Simultaneously with this transition, Vera’s recovery occurred: she seemed to be suffering from paralysis, but after her release she began to feel better. A woman, “the bride of her groom,” spoke to her; in this image the author depicted love for people. The girl goes for a walk through the streets of the city, helping everyone she meets, because a new friend asked her to let girls out of basements and treat them.

Meaning. This dream means the liberation of Vera from the environment of vulgar and narrow-minded people of the old formation. The dungeon is a symbol of the “dark kingdom”, where darkness is ignorance, and stuffiness is lack of freedom. The heroine’s parents are slaves to conventions and stereotypes; it’s not for nothing that the mother teaches her daughter to seduce a rich man and marry for convenience. In their world, a woman is no longer capable of anything. After leaving her family, Vera is relieved: she no longer has to try to sell herself. If earlier she lived in fear and anger due to the constant pressure of her mother, then after her release, love for humanity truly comes to her. She learns that there are other people on Earth who are not vulgar or stupid. She approaches them on the streets in a dream, experiencing joy. “Love for People” calls itself “the bride of Vera’s groom,” because it is Lopukhov who opens a new world for the heroine. The request to let all the girls out will inspire the heroine to create a sewing workshop.

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Second dream

About what? Lopukhov and Mertsalov go into the field, where they talk about real and fantastic dirt. In the first, a healthy and natural life flows, ears of corn appear, and the second is rotten and false, there is no fertility and essence. During this conversation, the girl sees her mother, mired in poverty and constant worries about food for the family. But at that moment a smile brightened on the exhausted woman’s face. Then Vera sees that she is sitting on the officer’s lap. This vision gives way to a scene where the heroine cannot get a job. An old friend of the girl, Love for People, explains how important it is for Vera to forgive her mother for her anger and cruelty: Marya Alekseevna put her whole life into bringing her family out of poverty, which is why she became bitter at the world for putting her in such difficult conditions.

Meaning . The first two dreams are a reflection of Vera Pavlovna’s relationship with those who belonged to the world of the past. These people can be called vulgar, but the most difficult life circumstances made them so. No matter how hard they try, they can’t get out among people. All their labor can barely feed them, but certainly cannot change their living conditions. The real dirt is the world of these ordinary people, downtrodden by poverty, who, nevertheless, work and bring benefit to society. They can be reborn into kind, responsible and moral citizens, but they must be given the opportunity to live, not survive. Fantastic dirt is the environment of idle, undeservedly blessed gentlemen who are of no use. They care only about unimportant little things, their inner world is cramped and miserable. This situation in society is artificial, therefore there are no natural and truly pure people capable of development in it. Through these stories, Chernyshevsky paints a picture of the social composition of Russian society - the poor and the rich. According to the author, good soil means working life, which is correct. Ears of morality and morality grow on it. What is fantastic is the lack of labor, parasitism.

Essay: Dreams of Vera Pavlovna in the novel “What to Do” (N.G. Chernyshevsky)

(578 words) The main feature of the resonant novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do” is to convey the symbolic meaning of the book through the dreams of the main character. In them, the author allegorically describes not only her life, but also the historical fate of the female sex. To fully understand his plan, it is necessary to analyze Vera Pavlovna’s dreams and understand their meaning.

For the first time, Vera had a dream that someone locked her in a dark basement. Then the situation changes dramatically, and she finds herself in a field. At first it seems to her that her body was paralyzed, but someone touched the girl, and the disease subsided. Vera sees a beautiful girl walking across the field. She looks sometimes like an Englishwoman, sometimes like a Frenchwoman, sometimes like a German, sometimes like a Pole, sometimes like a Russian. Along with the view, the girl’s mood also changes. She introduced herself to Vera as Love for people and said that she was the bride of her suitors. At this point the vision is interrupted. Vera dreams that she is walking through the city and rescuing girls from dark cellars, like the one where she herself was imprisoned. In this dream we see a symbolic reflection of the heroine’s fate: to help girls become independent and work honestly, she organized a workshop. Her painful experiences with domestic violence and forced marriages of convenience helped her realize the needs of society and that she must help girls live freely and virtuously.

For the second time, Vera again dreams of a field; her husband and Mertsalov (the man who married the young people) are walking along it. Lopukhov talks about pure (real) dirt, from which grain grows, but from rotten (fantastic) dirt nothing can grow. The dream is interrupted. Now Vera dreams of her mother, who reproaches her for leaving her family. The woman says that she always took care of the girl, and if she had treated her daughter differently, Vera would not have become so kind. From this dream it follows that many people (like Vera’s mother) become hostages of difficult life circumstances and accept the cruel rules of the game, turning into callous and greedy flatterers who are ready to fawn for profit. This is the “real dirt” that can give birth to normal people in other generations. But "fantasy filth" is sterile because it represents those who are flawed yet have everything to be better. This is a hint to the nobles and representatives of the bourgeoisie who are indifferent to the fate of society.

For the third time, Vera dreams that she is reading her diary. It says that the girl loves her husband because he pulled her out of her past life, but he does not have the tender feeling that the girl so needs. After this, Vera Pavlovna begins to doubt her love for Dmitry and comes to the need to dissolve the marriage. This is an integral part of a woman’s freedom - the right to choose. If there is no longer love between people, no wedding should keep them in a relationship.

For the fourth time, Vera again dreams of the field, it is all strewn with flowering plants, and there is a luxurious palace in it. The faith is represented by three queen goddesses. Astarte is the slave of her husband, Aphrodite is the source of pleasure and “Purity”. Before us is a knight's tournament. The knight fights for the inaccessible lady of his heart, but he will love her only until she becomes his wife and subject. Vera is accompanied by a guide who says that the kingdoms of the three queens have fallen. Kirsanova understands that the new queen is her. The conductor calls her “Equality”. In a dream, Vera looks at a new, different Russia, where people work shoulder to shoulder, they are equal and happy. This is the embodiment of Chernyshevsky’s utopia, where there is no place for the oppression and humiliation of women.

Thus, the meaning and meaning of Vera Pavlovna’s dreams in the novel “What is to be done” lies in depicting the formation of a new type of woman - free, intelligent and independent. First, she finds a calling, then develops a worldview, then establishes family life and, finally, comes to full awareness of herself and harmony with the world around her.

Author: Ekaterina Kosterina

Third dream

About what? Singer Bosio picks up Vera’s diary, which does not exist in reality, and reads it with her. It sets out the details of the heroine’s relationship with Lopukhov. From the last page, which the girl is afraid to open, it becomes clear that she wants, but cannot love her husband. She respects and appreciates him, but their feelings are just friendly affection. Vera loves Kirsanov.

Meaning. In this dream, the heroine comprehends the true nature of her feelings and comes to the conclusion that she must freely dispose of herself, despite the ties of marriage. The main thing is the inclination of the heart, and if it has changed, you need to follow it, and not maintain formal decorum for fear of public censure. This is one of the most important elements of emancipation, which makes a woman a full owner of her body and her soul. She has the right to decide who she wants to be with.

Fourth dream

About what? Faith sees all kinds of goddesses in chronological order: pagan Astarte, ancient Greek Aphrodite, “Purity”, as a reflection of the Mother of God, etc. She is led through the parade of goddesses by a beauty in whom Vera recognizes herself - a liberated and independent ruler of the new time. Also, a kind of Garden of Eden appears in front of her, where work is voluntary, everyone is equal, free, no one forces anyone to do anything.

Meaning. In this dream, the author depicted a future society where the socialist principles of “freedom, equality and fraternity” prevail. All goddesses reflect the social role of women, which changes over time: from an object of pleasure and admiration to a completely logical ending - emancipation, when ladies become full members of society and bearers of diverse social roles. If Aphrodite is just entertainment for men, and Purity is their property and reproductive organ, then Vera herself is an independent, intelligent and developed lady who is equal to the stronger sex, and not humiliated and used by them.

If the first dream represents a symbolic picture: not only the heroine leaves the old world, but all the girls “from the basement” finally break free, then they become emancipated already in the fourth dream - the same symbolic picture. All of humanity is being renewed, the remnants of the past are dying. We understand that the writer believed in the likelihood of a bright future, and that everyone who could see such dreams somehow brought the moment of universal happiness and freedom closer.

Author: Victoria Harutyunyan
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XVI. Vera Pavlovna's fourth dream

And Vera Pavlovna had a dream that:

A familiar voice reaches her - oh, so familiar now! - a voice from a distance, closer, closer, -

And Vera Pavlovna sees that this is so, everything is so...

The field shines with a golden tint; the field is covered with flowers, hundreds, thousands of flowers unfold on the bushes encircling the field, the forest rising behind the bushes turns green and whispers, and it is all full of flowers; the aroma comes from the fields, from the meadows, from the bushes, from the flowers filling the forest; birds flutter along the branches, and thousands of voices rush from the branches along with the aroma; and behind the fields, behind the meadows, behind the bushes, the forest, again one can see the same fields shining with gold, meadows covered with flowers, bushes covered with flowers to the distant mountains covered with forest, illuminated by the sun, and above their peaks here and here, there and here, bright, silvery, golden, purple, transparent clouds with their tints slightly shade the bright azure of the horizon; The sun has risen, nature rejoices and pleases, pours light and warmth, aroma and song, love and no love into the chest, a song of joy and tenderness, love and goodness pours from the chest - “O earth! oh bliss! O love! oh love, golden, beautiful, like the morning clouds over the tops of those mountains!”

- Do you know me now? Do you know that I'm good? But you don’t know, none of you yet know me in all my beauty. Look what happened, what now, what will happen. Listen and watch:

At the foot of the mountain, on the outskirts of the forest, among the flowering bushes of high, dense alleys, a palace was erected.

- Let's go there.

They are walking and flying.

A luxurious feast. Wine foams in glasses; the eyes of the feasters shine. Noise and whispers under the noise, laughter and secretly shaking hands, and sometimes sneaking an inaudible kiss. - “Song! A song! There is no fun without a song!” And the poet stands up. His brow and thought are illuminated with inspiration, nature tells him its secrets, history reveals its meaning to him, and the life of millennia flashes through his song in a series of pictures.

1

The words of the poet sound and a picture appears.

Tents of nomads. Sheep, horses, and camels graze around the tents. In the distance is a forest of olive and fig trees. Even further, further, on the edge of the horizon to the northwest, a double ridge of high mountains. The tops of the mountains are covered with snow, their slopes are covered with cedars. But these shepherds are slimmer than cedars, slimmer than the palm trees of their wives, and their life is carefree in lazy bliss: they have one thing - love, all their days pass, day after day, in caresses and songs of love.

“No,” says the bright beauty, “this is not about me.” I wasn't there then. This woman was a slave. Where there is no equality, there is no me. That queen's name was Astarte. Here she is.

Luxury woman. There are heavy gold bracelets on her arms and legs; a heavy necklace of pearls and corals set in gold around her neck. Her hair is moistened with myrrh. Voluptuousness and servility in her face, voluptuousness and meaninglessness in her eyes.

“Obey your master; delight his laziness during the intervals of raids; you must love him because he bought you, and if you don’t love him, he will kill you,” she says to the woman lying in the dust before her.

“You see that it’s not me,” says the beauty.

2

The inspired words of the poet sound again. A new picture emerges.

City. In the distance to the north and east are mountains; in the distance in the east and south, nearby in the west is the sea. Wonderful city. The houses in it are not large and not luxurious on the outside. But how many wonderful temples it has! Especially on the hill, where a staircase leads with a gate of amazing grandeur and beauty: the entire hill is occupied by temples and public buildings, each one of which would now be enough to increase the beauty and glory of the most magnificent of capitals. There are thousands of statues in these temples and throughout the city - statues, of which one would be enough to make the museum where it stood the first museum of the whole world. And how beautiful are the people crowding in the squares, on the streets: each of these young men, each of these young women and girls could serve as a model for a statue. An active, lively, cheerful people, a people whose whole life is bright and graceful. These houses, not luxurious on the outside, show what a wealth of grace and high ability to enjoy on the inside: every piece of furniture and utensils can be admired. And all these people, so beautiful, so able to understand beauty, live for love, to serve beauty. Here is an exile returning to the city that overthrew his power: he returns to rule - everyone knows this. Why is not a single hand raised against him? She rides with him in a chariot, showing him to the people, asking the people to accept him, telling the people that she is his patron, a woman of wonderful beauty even among these beauties - and, bowing before her beauty, the people give power over themselves to Pisistratus, her favorite. Here is the court; judges are gloomy old men: people can get carried away, they don’t know passion. The Areopagus is famous for its merciless severity and implacable impartiality: gods and goddesses came to submit their affairs to his decision. And now a woman must appear before him, whom everyone considers guilty of terrible crimes: she must die, the destroyer of Athens, each of the judges has already decided this in his soul; Aspasia appears before them, this accused one, and they all fall to the ground in front of her and say: “You cannot be judged, you are too beautiful!” Isn't this the kingdom of beauty? Isn't this the kingdom of love?

“No,” says the bright beauty, “I wasn’t there then.” They worshiped woman, but did not recognize her as their equal. They worshiped her, but only as a source of pleasure; they had not yet recognized her as human dignity! Where there is no respect for a woman as a person, I am not there. That queen's name was Aphrodite. Here she is.

This queen does not wear any jewelry - she is so beautiful that her admirers did not want her to have clothes, her marvelous forms should not be hidden from their admiring eyes.

What does she say to a woman almost as beautiful as herself throwing incense on her altar?

“Be a source of pleasure for a man. He is your master. You live not for yourself, but for him.”

And in her eyes there is only the bliss of physical pleasure. Her posture is proud, there is pride in her face, but pride only in her physical beauty. And what kind of life was the woman doomed to during her kingdom? The man locked the woman in the gynecium so that no one except him, the master, could enjoy the beauty that belonged to him. She had no freedom. They had other women who called themselves free, but they sold the pleasure of their beauty, they sold their freedom. No, and they had no freedom. This queen was a half-slave. Where there is no freedom, there is no happiness, there is no me.

3

The poet's words are heard again. A new picture emerges.

Arena in front of the castle. All around is an amphitheater with a brilliant crowd of spectators. Knights in the arena. Above the arena, on the balcony of the castle, a girl is sitting. There is a scarf in her hand. Whoever wins will receive a scarf and a kiss on her hand. Knights fight to the death. Toggenburg won. “Knight, I love you like a sister. Don't ask for any other love. My heart doesn’t beat when you come, and it doesn’t beat when you leave.” “My fate is decided,” he says and sails to Palestine. The glory of his exploits spreads throughout Christianity. But he cannot live without seeing the queen of his soul. He returns, he did not find oblivion in battles. “Don’t knock, knight: she’s in the monastery.” He builds himself a hut, from the windows of which, invisible to her, he can see her when she opens the window of her cell in the morning. And his whole life is to wait until she appears at the window, beautiful as the sun; he has no other life than to see the queen of his soul, and he had no other life until the life in him dried up; and when the life extinguished in him, he sat at the window of his hut and thought only one thing: will I see her again?

“This is not about me at all,” says the bright beauty. “He loved her until he touched her.” When she became his wife, she became his subject; she had to tremble him; he locked it; he stopped loving her. He hunted, he went to war, he feasted with his comrades, he raped his vassals - his wife was abandoned, locked up, despised. The woman whom the man touched, the man no longer loved then. No, I wasn't there then. That queen was called “Purity.” Here she is.

Modest, meek, gentle, beautiful - more beautiful than Astarte, more beautiful than Aphrodite herself, but thoughtful, sad, mourning. People kneel before her and wreaths of roses are presented to her. She says: “My soul is sad until the sorrow of death. The sword pierced my heart. You too grieve. You are unhappy. The earth is a valley of tears."

“No, no, I wasn’t there then,” says the bright beauty.

4

No, those queens were not like me. All of them still continue to reign, but their kingdoms are falling. With the birth of each of them, the kingdom of the former began to fall. And I was born only when the kingdom of the last of them began to fall. And since I was born, their kingdoms began to fall quickly, quickly, and they will fall completely - of them, the next one could not replace the previous ones, and they remained with her. I replace everyone, they will disappear, I alone will remain to reign over the whole world. But they should have reigned before me; without their kingdoms mine could not come.

People were like animals. They ceased to be animals when a man began to appreciate beauty in a woman. But a woman is weaker than a man in strength; and the man was rude. Everything was decided then by force. The man appropriated the woman, whose beauty he began to appreciate. She became his property, his thing. This is the kingdom of Ashtoreth.

When he became more developed, he began to appreciate her beauty more than before, and bowed before her beauty. But her consciousness was not yet developed. He appreciated only beauty in her. She could only think what she heard from him. He said that only he was a man, she was not a man, and she still saw in herself only a beautiful jewel that belonged to him - she did not consider herself a man. This is the kingdom of Aphrodite.

But then the consciousness began to awaken in her that she, too, was a human being. What grief must have enveloped her even at the faintest thought of her human dignity! After all, she was not yet recognized as a person. The man did not yet want to have her as a friend other than his slave. And she said: I don’t want to be your friend! Then his passion for her forced him to beg and humble himself, and he forgot that he did not consider her a person, and he loved her, the inaccessible, inviolable, immaculate virgin. But as soon as she believed his plea, as soon as he touched her - woe to her! She was in his hands, these hands were stronger than her hands, and he was rude, and he turned her into his slave and despised her. Woe to her! This is the sorrowful kingdom of the maiden.

But centuries passed; my sister, do you know her? - the one who began to appear to you before me was doing her job. She was always there, she was before everyone else, she was just like people were, and she always worked tirelessly. Her work was hard, her success was slow, but she worked and worked, and success grew. The man became wiser, the woman more and more firmly recognized herself as an equal person - and the time came, I was born.

It was recently, oh, it was very recently. Do you know who was the first to feel that I was born and tell others this? Rousseau said this in La Nouvelle Heloise. In it, people heard about me for the first time from him.

And since then my kingdom has been growing. I am not the queen of many yet. But it is growing quickly, and you already foresee the time when I will reign over all the earth. Only then will people fully feel how good I am. Now those who recognize my authority cannot yet obey my entire will. They are surrounded by a mass hostile to all my will. The mass would have tormented them, would have poisoned their lives, if they knew and carried out my entire will. But I need happiness, I don’t want any suffering, and I tell them: don’t do what they would torture you for; know my will now only as much as you can know it without harming yourself.

- But can I know all of you?

- Yes you can. Your situation is very fortunate. You have nothing to fear. You can do what you want. And if you know my entire will, my will will not want anything harmful from you: you do not need to desire, you will not desire anything for which those who do not know me would torment you. You are now quite happy with what you have; You don’t think and won’t think about anything else, about anyone else. I can open up to you all.

- Tell me who you are, you named me the previous queens, you have never called yourself to me before.

- Do you want me to identify myself? Look at me, listen to me.

5

- Look at me, listen to me. Do you recognize my voice? Do you recognize my face? Have you seen my face?

Yes, she had not yet seen her face, had not seen her at all. How did she think she saw her? It’s been a year now, since she talks to him, since he looks at her, kisses her, she sees her so often, this bright beauty, and the beauty does not hide from her, just as she does not hide from him, she everything appears to her.

- No, I didn’t see you, I didn’t see your face; you appeared to me, I saw you, but you were surrounded by radiance, I could not see you, I only saw that you were the most beautiful of all. Your voice, I hear it, but I only hear that your voice is the most beautiful of all.

- Look, for you, for this moment, I reduce the radiance of my halo, and my voice sounds to you for this moment without the charm that I always give to it; for a minute I cease to be a queen for you. Did you see, did you hear? Did you find out? Enough, I am a queen again, and already a queen forever.

She is again surrounded by all the splendor of her radiance, and again her voice is inexpressibly intoxicating. But for a minute, when she ceased to be a queen in order to let herself be recognized, was this really so? Did Vera Pavlovna really see this face, did she really hear this voice?

“Yes,” says the queen, “you wanted to know who I am, you found out.” You wanted to know my name, I have no name separate from the one that I am, my name is her name; you saw who I am. There is nothing higher than a man, there is nothing higher than a woman. I am who I am, who loves, who is loved.

Yes, Vera Pavlovna saw: it was herself, it was herself, but a goddess. The face of the goddess is her own face, this is her living face, the features of which are so far from perfect, more beautiful than which she sees every day more than one face; this is her face, illuminated by the radiance of love, more beautiful than all the ideals bequeathed to us by the sculptors of antiquity and the great painters of the great century of painting, yes, it is she herself, but illuminated by the radiance of love, she, more beautiful than which there are hundreds of faces in St. Petersburg, so poor in beauty, she is more beautiful Aphrodite of the Louvre, more beautiful than hitherto known beauties.

- You see yourself in the mirror as you are on your own, without me. In me you see yourself as the one who loves you sees you. For him, I merge with you. For him, there is no one more beautiful than you; for him, all ideals fade before you. Is not it?

So, oh, so!

How nature sparkles around me, How the sun glows, How the meadow laughs. — Translation by S. Zayaitsky.

Oh peace, oh sun, oh light, oh laughter! Love, love Oh golden shine, Like a bright cloud Above that height! — Translation by S. Zayaitsky.

How joyfully the cup flows from hand to hand, How clear are the eyes of those feasting! — Translation by S. Shevyrev.