The theme of the little man resonates in the works of Russian writers throughout the 19th century. It can also be traced in the story “The Slut” by Chekhov. Analyzing a work in class will help 7th grade students delve deeper into the writer’s intentions, gain analytical reading and conversation-discussion skills, and learn to reason and think logically. All this will help in writing essays and preparing for the Unified State Exam.
Summary
Russian readers could read Chekhov's work "The Slut" in February 1888, when it was published in one of the issues of the humorous magazine "Oskolki". It is not known whether the participants in this story had prototypes, but any girl who was forced to work as a servant or teacher in the house of rich people could have been in the place of the heroine. As M. Gorky subtly noted, no one before Chekhov could so truthfully and accurately depict the “tragedy of the little things in life,” the “shameful and dreary picture” of bourgeois existence .
At the heart of the story is a “cruel lesson”, in other words, a cruel joke played on a defenseless governess. The story begins with the fact that a wealthy owner, confident in his strength and power, invites Yulia Vasilievna, his children’s governess, into his office to give her the required salary for two months. He begins with a reproach that she is so “ceremonious” and won’t ask for it herself. Before giving her the amount due, the owner calculates the expenses allegedly incurred by the governess.
Without listening to the timid excuses of the unfortunate victim, he counts among her waste the time when she had a toothache and the mistress allowed her to rest. In a word, the owner attributed all existing and non-existent sins to the girl’s expenses.
Not daring to object and without making excuses, the frightened Yulia Vasilievna began to thank her for the eleven rubles, which, as a result of calculations, were credited to her instead of the due eighty. The owner, outraged by such sacrificial resignation, admits to the prank and gives the girl a pre-prepared envelope with her full salary.
Essays
In our lives there is often a confrontation between the strong and the weak. It is difficult to eradicate, but you can always try to remain human and not lose your human dignity under any circumstances.
The topic of human dignity has been raised by many writers. Chekhov, who understood the state of the humiliated in the best possible way, manages to reveal the image of a humiliated and scoundrel man especially clearly. As a result, the writer wrote works where sometimes only a slight shadow of the image of humiliated people is visible, and sometimes with all the harshness.
Chekhov Slut essay
One of Chekhov's stories, which reveals pressing problems, was his work The Slut. This was one of his first stories where Chekhov began to raise serious questions and problems. Thus, by creating images of heroes, Chekhov reveals the problem of human dignity, the problem of oppression of the weak by the strong. With his short story, where the owner decided to teach the governess a lesson, paying only eleven rubles instead of eighty, the author shows the reader how important it is to fight timidity and shyness. Yes, in the end the master gave the required eighty rubles, but he might not have done this. We would see how the governess obediently takes her eleven rubles and rejoices at this little. But this would be unfair, and the author points out this problem. It is sometimes important for weak and shy people to show their grin. If this is not done, then they will always be deceived and taken advantage of by their kindness.
We see how much Chekhov is outraged by this behavior of sour and inactive people. This can be clearly seen in his story The Slut, where the author, through the mouth of the employer, exclaims: Why don’t you protest? The owner wanted to teach the governess a lesson, but was this lesson useful? Most likely no. The worst thing is that such scumbags still exist in our time. Life is trying to make them stronger and more decisive, but for most of them, life will not be enough to remember their human dignity. That’s why in the story “The Weasel,” Chekhov also addresses strong people. He wants to convey to them how important it is to take into account weak people, not to take advantage of their indecision, but on the contrary, it is important to support and help them.
Slut: summary
The plot and content of Chekhov's story "The Slut" begins with the fact that the employer invited his children's governess into the office to pay for her work. Her name was Julia. From the text we understand that the girl in the house works for two months and five days, and for her work she was supposed to receive forty rubles a month. However, the employer, with his pressure, constantly corrects the girl’s words, claiming that they agreed on payment of thirty rubles per month, but she has been working for a full two months. This is exactly what he wrote in his notebook. It turns out that he only owes sixty rubles. However, he does not pay them, and continues to keep his count.
The owner takes away holidays and weekends, days when one child was sick, and when the governess had toothache. The girl was only silent, and only the tears in her eyes betrayed her feelings. Having announced that the total amount was forty-one rubles, the employer was in no hurry to pay them. He accounted for every prank of his son, for the fact that the girl did not notice, he claimed that the governess had taken a loan from him. The girl at first tried to deny, but then agreed and only silently listened to the employer’s reasoning.
As a result, the owner counted eleven rubles, which he paid Yulia. The girl took the money with tears in her eyes and thanked her benefactor.
And then we see the owner’s indignation. He asked why she thanked him, because in essence he had robbed her, robbed her. To this Yulia replied that in another place she would not have been paid at all. The employer understands why she was deceived and tries to open her eyes, asking how it is possible to be such a slob and sour. By his example, he only wanted to teach the girl a lesson, and honestly paid her the eighty rubles due. However, looking into the heroine’s face, he understands that the girl did not draw any conclusions from this situation. While giving away the entire amount, the owner thought how easy it is to be strong in this world.
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Main characters
When analyzing Chekhov’s story “The Slut,” it should be emphasized that there are only two heroes in it - the master and the governess . They have different statuses, outlooks on life and characters. The story is told on behalf of the owner. This is a powerful person who knows his strength. The character believes that if he has money and power over his subordinates, then they can be humiliated and lectured. He is proud of his social position.
The owner does not even realize the immorality of his act. For him, such pranks are par for the course; he doesn’t think that he offends people and humiliates their human dignity. The main character of Chekhov's "The Smash" deliberately did not pay the girl money for her work for two months in order to play out this comical story and anger her. As a result, he himself gets angry for her spinelessness (“How can you be such a slob!”).
Accepting the bullying without complaint and silently submitting to the accusations, the young woman does not even try to be indignant. One thing remains a mystery to the reader: did she draw any conclusions for herself from this cruel lesson.
The owner considers himself a strong person, believing that status and money allow him to do so. But his trouble is that in fact a strong person will never offend or humiliate a weak one.
Essay on the Unified State Exam based on Anton Chekhov’s work “The Slut”
Anton Chekhov in his work “The Slut” raises the eternal theme of the strong and the weak. The world is structured in such a way that the strong always try to pinch the weak, or simply destroy them. A clear definition of this phenomenon was given by Charles Darwin in his work “The Struggle of Species,” in which he notes the desire of the strong to oppress the weak.
In the modern world, such an animal attitude is not recognized in society, because a “strong” and aggressive individual can cause significant harm to a person, both physically and morally. For a similar problem
The narration is told in the first person. The author recounts an incident in the office when a quiet and timid woman, an ordinary “gray mouse,” came to collect her salary. According to the plot, the boss begins to deduct money from the salary for the slightest offense. The poor woman was so confused that she fell into despair and was completely speechless. The cruel “teacher of life” took pity and admitted that he simply wanted to teach her to defend her position and fight for a warm place in the sun.
After the confession, the governess was given her full salary back.
The essay turned out to be quite extraordinary, because
In my opinion, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wanted to show a typical situation in which arrogant people assert themselves at the expense of the weak-willed. When criticizing the governess for her “spinelessness,” we should not forget that she occupies a lower position in society and, in fact, has no say at work, because she can be fired at any time.
Analyzing the behavior of the owner, you involuntarily come to the conclusion that he is an even more pitiful person than the governess, because a strong person will not humiliate and insult a weak one as a “lesson for the future.” Only immoral people do this, unable to understand the complexities of others and, instead of helping them, they try in every possible way to humiliate, insult and adjust the weak personality to themselves.
Thus, the topic revealed by Anton Chekhov has not lost its relevance today. At least once in a lifetime, a person encounters immoral bosses or masters who try to take advantage of their position for their own selfish purposes.
The idea and problems of the work
The main idea of Chekhov's story is that you must always defend your point of view and not allow anyone to offend you. Submission and humility before the offender will introduce even more injustice into social and judicial laws, which rely on the impunity of the powerful.
The meaning of the work “The Slut” is that the writer, with all his love for the humiliated and insulted of this world, condemns the phenomenon of sacrifice, which has begun to spread in Russian literature. The story “The Slut” raises a number of problems for the reader, including:
- Personal slavery is one of the most important problems facing society.
- Social injustice. A woman from the lower classes in 19th-century Russia had the opportunity to get a job, but in case of unfair treatment or problems with payment, she could not protect herself.
- Powerlessness and humility. The humiliation of women arose as a result of the prevailing conditions. This phenomenon became constant for her, she was tired of fighting and reconciled, which led her to spiritual slavery.
- Strength and weakness. The owner in Chekhov's story considers himself strong, since he solves all problems with the help of money. In fact, the governess Yulia Vasilievna, who lacks the character for this, can lay claim to true power.
Chekhov's story shows that a truly strong person is not the one who has a lot of money, but the one who overcomes all the obstacles in his path and goes to the end.
Governess Yulia Vasilievna cannot be called strong, since she cannot even stand up for herself. But she has all the prerequisites to become like that. She just needs to overcome her weakness.
Essay Analysis of the story Chekhov's Weasel
Chekhov's work " The Slut " was published in 1888. These were the writer's first attempts to move from the humorous genre to the field of serious psychological direction.
The everyday incident from the life of a simple governess, Yulia Vladimirovna, presented in the story “The Slut” raises a number of important social and moral issues.
The plot of the story is quite simple and basically has a humorous form, in which the owner of the house where the governess served tries to conduct a hidden psychological experiment on her. He asks Yulia Vladimirovna to come into his office to count the money she has earned.
When starting to count, the owner does his best to find any reason for which he can deduct at least some part from his earnings. He remembers everything: the broken set, the days when Yulia had a toothache, when one of the children was sick, the fact that it was her fault that her son tore his clothes and her daughter’s shoes were stolen. Summing up, it turned out that Yulia would receive only eleven rubles upon release.
The unhappy and timid governess does not find the strength to object and is gratefully glad to accept these pennies. The owner, bewildered by such a submissive disposition, explains to her that you don’t need to tolerate such an attitude towards yourself and be grateful when you are robbed and that you can’t remain such a weak-willed person in the future. Ultimately, completing his psychological experiment, the owner returns the entire amount honestly earned to his children’s governess and gives parting instructions not to show his weakness in the future and to be able to defend personal interests.
The girl's bewilderment makes the owner think deeply. He understands the tragedy of the situation and the hopeless situation of the “little” man, who is forced to accept all the injustice that reigns in society. The governess is completely innocent of her weak character; society is to blame. It is he who allows rich people to mock the needy, who appear in the image of a “weapon”.
In his story, Chekhov challenges social lawlessness and raises the pressing topic of the weak-willed situation in which a “little” person is forced to find himself.
