Character history
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a recognized classic of world literature. He wrote famous novels that gave birth to atypical characters and heroes with non-trivial biography. But some of the characters described by the author in his works complement the galaxy of images developed by Dostoevsky’s predecessors. Makar Devushkin is a character who allowed the writer to reveal the theme of the “little man” in his work.
History of creation
The novel "Poor People" was successful. The work brought the young Dostoevsky fame and the status of a talented writer. Critics Grigorovich, Belinsky and Nekrasov commented positively on his work.
Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky
The first novel written in the epistolary genre was published in 1846 in the Petersburg Collection. While working on it, Dostoevsky was inspired by examples from his own life. His family was not rich. My father worked in a hospital where fate brought many crippled souls. As a young man, Dostoevsky heard many stories about hardships and fatal mistakes.
Makar Devushkin, invented by Dostoevsky to be depicted in the novel, had the characteristics of a fantastic character. This is what literary critics dubbed him. Fascinated by the works of Schiller and Pushkin, Dostoevsky spent a long time searching for a suitable image for the hero. Having begun to work with the type of personality that the author called “strange man,” Dostoevsky gradually began to feel sympathy and interest in such personalities. Describing this realistic and at the same time fantastic figure, he sincerely worried about the hero, admitting that in some moments he wrote Devushkin from himself.
Akaki Akakievich
The hero of the novel “Poor People,” Makar Devushkin, is a vivid example of the “little man” whose type Gogol and Pushkin introduced readers to. Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin from “The Overcoat” and Samson Vyrin from “The Station Agent” had similar character traits. Devushkin, unlike Bashmachkin, is obsessed with love not for a thing, but for a person. In this sense, the meaning of the characters' names is important. Their surnames directly indicate priorities.
The plot of the work
Petty official Makar Alekseevich Girls takes care of his distant relative Vara Dobroselova. The titular councilor, having no means of subsistence, nevertheless tries to help the unfortunate orphan by renting housing for her. Despite the fact that Varya and Makar live nearby, they see each other extremely rarely: Devushkin fears for Varya’s reputation. Relatives are forced to content themselves with letters to each other.
From the stories of Varvara Dobroselova herself, one can judge that her childhood was quite happy. The family lived in a village where the father served as manager of the estate of a certain Prince P-go. The move to St. Petersburg was forced: Alexey Dobroselov lost his position as manager. The difficult life in the capital and numerous failures destroyed Varya’s father. Dobroselov’s widow was taken into her house by a distant relative, Anna Fedorovna, who immediately began to “reproach” the new tenants with a piece.
In order to compensate for the material “losses” caused by Varya and her mother, Anna Fedorovna decided to marry the orphan to the rich landowner Bykov. By that time, Dobroselov’s widow had already died, and there was no one to intercede for Varya except Devushkin, who took the orphan from Anna Fedorovna’s house. It was necessary to hide Varvara’s new address from her insidious relative.
Despite all the efforts of Makar, Vara Dobroselova had to marry the rude and cynical Bykov. Devushkin spent all his meager savings and could no longer help his ward.
Composition of the novel
The novel “Poor People” is presented in epistolary form, that is, in the form of correspondence between the characters. The author's choice cannot be called random. Letters are the direct speech of the characters, completely excluding the subjective opinion of the author.
The role of the reader
The reader is entrusted with a difficult task: having “overheard” someone else’s personal conversation, he himself can figure out what is happening and draw a certain conclusion. We can learn the biography of the main characters from them themselves. You will have to draw your own conclusions about the character of the characters.
To help the reader, the author draws parallels, mentioning the well-known stories “The Overcoat” and “The Station Agent.” In Devushkin it is not difficult to recognize the powerless Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin. The choice of the story “The Station Agent” is also not accidental. Samson Vyrin was the same powerless petty official as Bashmachkin. And if Akaky Akakievich’s new overcoat was stolen, Vyrin was deprived of his daughter. By analogy with the two previous literary characters, Makar Devushkin had to lose the only joy of his life - Varya.
"Poor people"
Makar Devushkin is a 47-year-old official with a specific character. This character is also encountered by readers in the novel White Nights. Analyzing the character and actions of the hero, the author carefully described him, anticipating subsequent heroes of the “little man” format.
Makar Devushkin
Why is Makar Devushkin a “little man”? A petty official is afraid of discussions and gossip. He is afraid to take his eyes off the table so as not to cause discontent. He fears that he is being watched and sees non-existent enemies everywhere who wish him harm. Devushkin’s soul contains fear of people, so he instinctively feels like a victim. This is the kind of joke his imagination plays on a man, although those around him are ready to recognize him as an equal. He was even ashamed to smoke in public.
Being in a whirlwind of his own fantasies, Devushkin distances himself from real life. His activity is actively writing letters, allowing him to avoid direct communication with interlocutors and pour out his soul at the same time.
Varvara Dobroselova is a devoted reader and Devushkin’s lover. The man's confessions weigh on the girl. She reproaches him for his complexity of character and his desire to present himself as an offended victim and an unhappy person.
Illustration for the book “Poor People”
Makar Devushkin was a quiet and modest man who devoted 30 years to service. He spent his days doing paperwork and enduring ridicule from his colleagues. Being in distress, a man constantly seems to justify his existence. His poverty is not only financial, but also moral. The hero's internal tragedy gives rise to a complex spiritual state in which Devushkin constantly remains. He experiences fear and humiliation. He is haunted by suspiciousness and bitterness. Periodically, the hero is overcome by severe melancholy.
Makar Devushkin can be called a “little man” also because Devushkin does not find the strength to help his beloved Varenka when she finds herself in a terrible situation. On the verge of starvation, a sick girl does not wait for the support and participation of a man. The hero's infantilism is adjacent to a penchant for philosophy. His appearance is unremarkable. He gravitates toward a calm and measured life, and is distinguished by chastity and selflessness. Love for Varenka allows Devushkin to feel like a human being. A sense of self-esteem involuntarily awakens in him.
Makar Devushkin and Varenka Dobroselova
Makar and Varenka rarely see each other, although he deliberately settled next to her. When taking a girl to the theater and for a walk, a man is wary of rumors and gossip and protects her honor. The characters communicate through letters. A modest official with a boring job shares his emotional experiences with the girl and appears as a gentle, caring person.
The idealist Devushkin tries to protect Varenka from the harsh everyday life. Having learned that Varenka received an unworthy proposal from an officer, Makar tracks him down and stands up for his beloved, but the hero is taken down the stairs.
Love for Varenka is unrequited, and this is the tragedy of Devushkin’s fate. A benefactor and friend in Varenka’s eyes, he is forced to demonstrate fatherly sympathy and promises her everything in his power to keep the girl next to him. His education and upbringing are not enough to participate in his neighbor’s literary meetings, but, fueled by illusions, the hero imagines himself as a future writer, and therefore meticulously evaluates the letters he has written.
Scene from the play "Poor People"
It is no coincidence that Gogol’s work “The Overcoat” is mentioned in the novel. Varenka seems to see a friend in the image of Gogol’s hero and gives Devushkin a book with a hint. Devushkin recognizes himself in Akaki Akakievich. The last letter he wrote was filled with despair.
For Makar Devushkin, Varenka’s marriage is a blow. She neglects the participation of her patron and surrenders herself to the will of Bykov, the man who once dishonored her. The girl’s action seems strange; she can be reproached for selfishness and searching for a profitable option, which Devushkin was not.
Characteristics
The reader focuses on 2 main characters: Varya Dobroselova and Makar Devushkin. Of course, these are positive characters, and for the full disclosure of the images, negative characters, represented by Anna Fedorovna and the landowner Bykov, are also necessary.
Makar Devushkin
The image of the “little man” existed before the appearance of the novel “Poor People”. And the author himself does not deny this, drawing a parallel between his work, Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and Pushkin’s “The Station Agent”. It is enough for Dostoevsky to mention these two stories, point out that Makar recognized himself in the main characters, and the reader already understands what the titular adviser Devushkin is like. According to Makar himself, he was unable to move up the career ladder only because he was “meek” and “kind.” To obtain titles you must have an iron grip.
One should not ignore the surname of the main character, which can rightfully be considered telling. Makar is sensitive and vulnerable, like a girl. He completely lacks the brutality characteristic of a man. In Makar’s speech one can often find nouns and adjectives with diminutive suffixes: little mother, boots, dress, quiet. Everything in Devushkin’s appearance testifies to the weakness of his character.
Varya Dobroselova
Like Makar Devushkin, Varya Dobroselova is the bearer of a speaking surname, the characterizing element of which is the word “good”. The main characters of the “positive camp” have the same middle names, and this is not a coincidence. The sameness indicates the similarity of the characters of Varya and Makar, to a kind of common parent of the main characters, despite the fact that they were not the children of the same person named Alexey.
Makar and Varya are kindred spirits. It is very difficult for both to live in this harsh world, mostly due to the excessive softness of their character. Devushkin and Dobroselova were united by the lack of spiritual warmth, which they need, but which they do not receive from others. Two people completely different in age and education find moral support in each other.
There are, however, some differences in the characters of Varya and Makar. Varya, despite her young age, is more practical than her relative. She tries to earn money by sewing on her own, without relying on her patron. Dobroselova agreed to marry an unpleasant but rich man who could save her from poverty. Unlike Makar, who cannot give up his principles for the sake of a more comfortable life, Varya is sure that living in poverty is much worse than with an unloved husband. The author shows hidden strength in his heroine. This strength will certainly help you survive and perhaps even succeed.
Bykov
By the name of the main character it is easy to judge his character: rude, stubborn, daring and strong. Bykov is the “master of life.” He is used to getting what he wants and does not like being denied. From Varya’s letters we can conclude that Bykov does not need a family, as such. The landowner dreams of the birth of a legal heir. After all, if he dies childless, his entire fortune will go to his hated nephew. Varya Dobroselova means nothing to Bykov. Her only mission is to give birth to an heir to the “master of life.” If a girl does not agree to get married, the landowner will quickly find a replacement for her in the person of a rich Moscow merchant's wife.
Bykov does not notice living people around him. The life of each individual person is dear to the landowner to the extent that a given person can be useful to him, Bykov. Even before she becomes the landowner’s legal wife, Varya already becomes his property, his personal property. And Bykov is not used to standing on ceremony with things.
Anna Fedorovna
A distant relative of the Dobroselov family lives a strange and ambiguous life. Varya sees mystery in her activities. Anna Fedorovna is constantly fussing, leaving somewhere several times a day. The woman came to her poor relatives herself and offered to move in with her.
The mask of Christian virtue, of which Anna Feodorovna is so proud, hides a cruel and treacherous soul. Even Bykov admits this. At one time, Anna Fedorovna helped the landowner “cover up his sin” by marrying a woman pregnant with Bykov to the official Zakhar Pokrovsky.
Many researchers of the work of F. M. Dostoevsky believe that some of the heroes of the novel “Poor People” had their prototypes in life. For example, the writer was inspired to create the image of Varya Dobroselova by his sister V. M. Dostoevskaya (by her husband Karepin).
Quotes
The main character of the novel has an inferiority complex, and this is confirmed by quotes from the work. Responding to the ridicule of his comrades and discussions from the outside, Devushkin writes to Varya:
“What, Varenka, is killing me? It’s not money that’s killing me, but all these everyday anxieties, all these whispers, smiles, jokes.”
Illustration for Gogol’s book “The Overcoat”
The opinion of others means a lot to him, to which, of his own free will, Devushkin is forced to adapt even in matters of his personal life:
“...It doesn’t matter to me, even if I walk in the bitter cold without an overcoat and without boots, I will endure and endure everything... but what will people say? “My enemies, these evil tongues are all that will speak when you go without your overcoat?”
After reading Gogol's story, Devushkin feels revealed. He understands how shallow his life is, and sympathizes with himself, trying to justify his chosen lifestyle:
“Sometimes you hide, you hide, you hide in what you didn’t take, you are sometimes afraid to show your nose - no matter where it is, because you tremble at gossip, because out of everything that is in the world, out of everything, they will make a libel for you, and that’s it.” your whole civil and family life is based on literature, everything has been printed, read, ridiculed, judged!”
“Vision on the Neva” brings us close to the concept of “Poor People” (see the full text, analysis, history of creation and summary of this story on our website). The story of “a titular heart, honest and pure, and an insulted and sad girl” is the story of Makar Devushkin and Varenka. For his story, Dostoevsky takes the most hackneyed theme of the “natural school” founded by Gogol. In the story “The Overcoat,” Gogol portrays a poor official, the “little man” Akaki Akakievich, stupid, downtrodden and dumb. At the cost of incredible hardships, he collects money to buy a new overcoat. But it is stolen from him, and he dies of despair. The hero of “Poor People,” Makar Devushkin, is also a poor and pitiful official, also a small man; He, too, spends his entire life rewriting papers, is bullied by his colleagues, and scolded by his superiors. Even in appearance, dress, boots, he looks like the hero of “The Overcoat”. Dostoevsky assimilates all Gogol's techniques, strengthening and complicating them, but at the same time the student rebels against the teacher. He is outraged by Gogol's attitude towards his unfortunate hero. Isn’t “The Overcoat” a murderous mockery of the “poor official”? Isn’t Akaki Akakievich a walking automaton, a stupid creature whose highest ideal is a warm overcoat? Dostoevsky, having mastered the technique of Gogol's school, explodes it from the inside. He humanizes a funny hero. In the 1840s, the influence of the French social novel, with its preaching of humanity and social justice ( Balzac , Georges Sand), was spreading in Russian society, and “Poor People” responded with a new mood of the reader. Dostoevsky made a simple but ingenious change in Gogol’s composition: instead of a thing (“Overcoat”) he put a living human face (Varenka) and a miraculous transformation took place. Akakiy Akakievich’s ridiculous selflessness for the sake of buying an overcoat, his asceticism, vulgarized by an unworthy object, turned into Makar Alekseevich’s sublime and touching affection for his Varenka. From Bashmachkin's mania, Dostoevsky made Devushkin's selfless love. (The name Bashmachkin is material, the name Devushkin is personal).
The fight against Gogol takes place on two levels, life and literature. Devushkin, an official, with his life, love, and feat denounces the “slander against man” of the Gogol school; Devushkin is a writer, polemicizes with the writer Gogol. Dostoevsky turns the poor official into a writer, finishing his letters and “forming his own style.”
Makar Alekseevich reads “The Overcoat” and takes everything personally. He is deeply offended by this “pashvil” and complains about it to Varenka: “And why write such a thing? And what is it for?.. But this is a malicious book, Varenka; this is simply implausible, because it cannot happen that there is such an official. No, I’ll complain, Varenka, formally complain.” In all the details of Akaki Akakievich’s life, Devushkin recognizes himself; all the details are copied from life and yet “simply implausible.” This is the verdict on the “natural school”; everything is just like the real thing, but not living, not people, but “dead souls.” Dostoevsky contrasts the spirit of Gogol with the spirit of Pushkin. Devushkin reads Pushkin’s story “The Station Agent” and writes to Varenka: “I have never read such glorious books in my life. You read it - as if you wrote it yourself, as if it were, roughly speaking, my own heart, whatever it is already there, took it, turned it inside out for people, and described everything in detail - that’s how! No, it's natural! Just read it; it's natural! It lives."
In both the hero of “The Overcoat” and the hero of “The Station Agent” Devushkin recognizes himself. But he recoils in horror from the first: this is the resemblance of a dead mask to a living face; joyfully drawn to another: “my own heart.”
Dostoevsky connects Gogol's theme about the little man with the plot of The Station Agent. Samson Vyrin, like Makar Devushkin, is a kind and simple person with a warm heart. One has a passionate attachment to his daughter, the other has selfless love for an orphan relative. In both stories the seducer appears. Vyrin wants to save his Dunya, explains to the seducer and is “pushed onto the stairs.” Devushkin goes to the officer who insulted Varenka, and he is also “pushed out.” Having lost Dunya, Vyrin becomes an alcoholic and dies; Devushkin, in his powerlessness to help Varenka, indulges in “debauchery”; he will hardly survive separation from her. This is how both Pushkin and Dostoevsky construct a story about the tragic love of a “warm heart.” Its heroes are not the medieval knights of a romantic novel, but modest, inconspicuous people - a minor official or a stationmaster. The tragedy is transferred to the inner world. “Poor People” is the story of the hero’s mental life, his love, suffering and death. Dostoevsky studied the art of psychological storytelling from Pushkin.
The young author is making a bold revolution in literature. He connects Gogol's genre with Karamzin's genre. Makar Devushkin turns from a “dumb official” into a sentimental lover. The result is a spectacular contrast between the hero’s homely appearance and his sensitive soul. An elderly official in a shabby uniform and patched boots keeps a book of sensitive poems and dreams of becoming a “writer of literature and literature.” “Well, for example, let’s suppose,” he writes to Varenka, that suddenly, out of the blue, a book would be published under the title “Poems of Makar Devushkin”! Well, what would you say then, my angel?” The hero himself emphasizes the comedy of this contrast: “Well, what would happen then when everyone found out that the writer Devushkin had patched boots? Some kind of contessa duchesse would find out, what would she say, my dear?”
The sentimental little man loves flowers, birds, idyllic pictures of nature, a serene and peaceful life. Everything touches him, delights him, and brings him into a state of tenderness. “Our window has been opened,” he writes to Varenka, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the air breathes spring aromas and all nature is coming to life.” He dreams “quite pleasantly” and compares Varenka “to a bird of heaven, created for the joy of people and for the decoration of nature.” Varenka good-naturedly makes fun of the excessive sensitivity of her venerable friend. The ashamed dreamer repents of his impulse: “It’s a shame that I wrote to you so figuratively and stupidly... What was there to ride on Pegasus... I shouldn’t go into cupid and equivocation in my old age with a tuft of hair.”
The novel is built on such upswings of sensitive lyricism and breakdowns into wretched everyday life. Dostoevsky brilliantly solved his problem. What could be more original than the idea of endowing the hero of The Overcoat, Akaki Akakievich, with the sensitive soul of Grandison or Saint-Preux? But this does not exhaust the artistic significance of the story. The author widened its scope, introducing into it the social pathos of the French novel; Devushkin’s modest love story for Varenka grew into a picture of social evil and social injustice. The contrast between the two literary styles, sentimentalism and naturalism, is deepened by another contrast - between wealth and poverty. Under the pen of Dostoevsky, the psychological story takes on the character of a social novel. It was this side of “Poor People” that the critic Belinsky noticed, and it was this that made Dostoevsky’s work a resounding success.
In depicting the tragedy of poverty, the young writer finds his own personal style. Here his apprenticeship ends, and for the first time we hear the voice of the author of Crime and Punishment. Makar Devushkin films a corner in the kitchen, behind a partition. “Imagine roughly,” he writes, a long corridor, completely dark and unclean. On his right hand there will be a blank wall, and on his left all the doors, and doors, like rooms, and in them there is one room in each; they live in one and in twos and threes... The back staircase is damp, dirty, the steps are broken, and the walls are so greasy that your hand sticks when you lean on them. On every landing there are broken chests, chairs and cabinets, rags hung, broken windows; the basins are filled with all kinds of evil spirits, with dirt, with rubbish, with eggshells and with fish bladders. The smell is bad."
Life is depicted with such sharp features. But Devushkin’s physical suffering, life from hand to mouth, in a poor kitchen, going to work in holey boots, mechanical copying of papers, is nothing compared to the mental torment to which poverty condemns. Powerlessness to help Varenka when she is threatened with starvation, when she is sick and offended by evil people, this is what drives the meek and quiet Makar Alekseevich to despair and rebellion. He owes his mistress, sold his dress, he is ashamed to appear in the department; he is driven out of his apartment, his colleagues mock him and call him a rat. Varenka is exhausted from backbreaking work, and everything could be arranged if she could get a little money. The best pages of the story include Devushkin’s dreams of a loan, his hopes and plans, a visit to a moneylender, failure, despair and “debauchery.”
Poverty is Devushkin’s personal tragedy; but the whole of St. Petersburg, with its streets, alleys and slums, expresses the same idea. Houses, embankments and bridges scream poverty. Devushkin wanders around the city. “There were a lot of people walking along the embankment,” he says, and the people, as if on purpose, had such terrible, despondent faces, drunken men, snub-nosed Chukhonka women in boots and bare hair, boys, some mechanic’s apprentice in a striped robe, , stunted, with a face bathed in smoked oil, with a castle in his hand; a retired soldier a fathom tall... On the bridges there are women sitting with wet gingerbread and rotten apples and all such dirty, wet women!” Here is an organ grinder: he works to the best of his ability and bows to no one; “he’s a beggar, a beggar, it’s true, he’s still the same beggar, but he’s a noble beggar”; here is a boy of about ten years old, sick, stunted, in only a shirt and barefoot, listening to music with his mouth open, and in his hands is a note: “Everything is known: they say, my benefactors, the mother of the children is dying, three children are starving, so you are for us now Help". Here is a man standing at the fence, saying: “Give me a penny, master, for Christ’s sake!” Yes, in such an abrupt, rough voice that I shuddered from some terrible feeling ... "
Devushkin not only experiences poverty as his personal and human tragedy, but also analyzes it as a special mental state.
Poverty means defenselessness, intimidation, humiliation; it deprives a person of dignity, turns him into a “rag”. The poor man withdraws into his shame and pride, hardens his heart, becomes suspicious and “demanding.” “Poor people are capricious,” writes Devushkin, he, a poor man, is demanding; He also looks at the light of God differently and looks askance at every passerby, looks around him with a confused gaze, and listens to every word - they say, is it what they are saying about him; what do they say, why is he so unsightly... Yes, if you forgive me, Varenka, a rude word, then I’ll tell you that the poor man has the same shame in this regard as you, for example, a girlish one.”
The “meek” and “quiet” Devushkin begins to rebel. “Liberal” thoughts creep into his head. He asks someone: why are some happy and rich, while others are poor and unhappy? Why such injustice? “Why does it all happen like this, that a good person is in desolation? But it happens that Ivan the Fool often gets happiness. You, they say, Ivanushka the Fool, rummage through your grandfather’s bags, drink, eat, have fun, and you, so-and-so, just lick your lips.” And having asked the question, he is immediately frightened by it: “I know, I know, mother, it’s not good to think this, this is free-thinking...” “It’s a sin, mother, it’s a sin to think like that, but here sin inevitably creeps into the soul.”... The author stops his humble hero; the role of a freethinker is inappropriate for the figure of a poor “department rat.” And yet, Devushkin is Dostoevsky’s first “rebel.” He mutters in fear about what Raskolnikov will later say loudly and impudently.
