Essay by Bolshov in the play His People

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Ostrovsky
Bolshov in the play Our People - We Will Be Numbered!

The hero of Ostrovsky’s play “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!” Samson Bolshov is a typical representative of the Russian bourgeoisie of the 19th century. He rose from the very bottom, traded and acquired wealth. Bolshov became famous in certain circles, but apart from wealth, the hero could not show off anything. He didn't have any ability or talent. His business became successful not because he was able to develop it. Bolshov’s entire merit was that he simply turned out to be at the right time and in the right direction.

Having become rich, Bolshov, unfortunately, was unable to change his inner world. Financial well-being did not hide the lack of intelligence and prudence. A wealthy, ambitious, but uneducated and ill-mannered hero looks ridiculous. In his opinion, money opens any doors for its owner and removes all prohibitions. He is rude and cruel to others, including members of his family, and humiliates and insults close people. The merchant does not listen to his daughter’s objections, imagining himself to be the master of her fate. He wants to arrange her marriage with the clerk because it is part of his plan. He doesn't care about his daughter's happiness. The main thing for him is his own well-being. The hero uses his own daughter as a tool for a financial scam he has invented. At these moments, Bolshov appears before the viewer as a despot, a tyrant. His selfishness and ignorance cloud his reason.

In order not to pay the debt, Bolshov decided to pretend to be bankrupt and transferred the property to the clerk. He thought that he would outsmart everyone by making Lazarus his son-in-law and thus keeping the money in the family. But Bolshov forgot that he had no family for a long time, because he himself destroyed it.

Marriage to the clerk Podkhalyuzin became for Samson’s daughter a deliverance from her father’s tyranny. She showed the same indifference towards her parent that she saw from him. Family ties between them were completely broken. Bolshov became a victim of his own machinations and mistakes. He did not care about the happiness of his own daughter, and she repaid him in kind. In vain he expected salvation from her.

At the end of the play, the hero realized his mistakes. He evokes compassion and pity among the audience, but not among those close to him. Bolshov understands that he deserved his fate. But the past cannot be returned, and you will have to pay for what you have done. The author shows that children are a reflection of their parents. It is useless to demand support, love, nobility from them if you yourself have not shown them these qualities.

Characteristic 2

Bolshov is a person who completely reflects the bourgeoisie of Rus' in the 19th century. This character was initially poor, was in the lower strata of society, and made money by trading. But later he managed to become a popular person in a certain environment, and they began to respect him.

He came to this not through self-development, the development of his business, or any kind of mental abilities. Like many others, Bolshov simply came at the right time and understood the main thing that you need to make money while you can. Bolshov became rich, but his inner world and mental abilities lag significantly behind his financial well-being. He is like an uneducated savage who has some ambitions and aspirations in life. But this only makes it funny, because many of his actions and speeches cause laughter.

Bolshov attributes all his victories and wealth to his own merits. If a person depends on him for something, in this case his family, then these people do not have their say. Bolshov believes that this needs to be done, which means it concerns everyone. B. grew up surrounded by people who could reproach or humiliate him for something, but now he is rich and in his opinion he has power, so now he can reproach or humiliate him. B. does this with great pleasure.

Bolshov believes that he is at the peak and therefore he handed over all the affairs to his chief clerk, and he himself only counts the money. But B. loses confidence in himself, he wants to deceive everyone and declare a false bankruptcy. Bolshov takes such a step because he is very afraid. He thinks that the debtors themselves will deceive him. According to plan B, he has a chance to immediately earn a lot and no longer engage in trading, or do nothing at all, there will be enough money. He even tells his clerk that it is time to rest.

Big has a very modest mindset, in some ways he is even crazy if he believes that this scam is like fate, the end and even the will of God. In this situation, B. is looking for the possibility of support from a loved one. He and his clerk are preparing a very crude scam, while justifying themselves in some way, trying to hide this deception behind words of love. For Bolshov, this scam means only one thing – bankruptcy.

Characteristics of Bolshov’s image in the play “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People”

In the person of Bolshov, the playwright created a type very characteristic of the history of the Russian bourgeoisie of the 19th century. “Bolshoe came from the bottom - in his youth he “traded sheep in Balchug; kind people fed us slaps on the back of the head.” But he made it into the people - to wealth and honor in his environment. However, he did not succeed in the process of gradual, organic development of his trading “business,” which determined his own active internal growth, the formation of his character and mental development. Bolshov is one of those who were brought up from the bottom by the spontaneous force of monetary trade turnover, based on greed and trickery, who managed to well master only one rule of life: “the line has come out, well, don’t make a mistake...”. Therefore, his spiritual development is one-sided and ugly. In it, he fell far behind the level of his material success, which determines both the attitude towards him from everyone around him and his self-esteem. Outwardly, he has long become one of the “pillars” in the local trading environment and behaves accordingly, keeping up with others. Internally, he is a savage with the most perverted concepts, feelings and aspirations. This creates the comedy of his actions, his speech, and his entire figure.

Brought up from the lower classes by the power of pure wealth, he ascribes all the power of his wealth to himself personally and therefore considers any of his desires to be a law for all people dependent on him, especially for members of his family. “I wanted to marry my daughter to a clerk, and I’ll stand it on my own, and don’t you dare talk, I don’t want to know anyone,” he shouts to his wife. He has no love for his own daughter, and he is easily ready to sacrifice her fate to selfish calculations. Having grown up among humiliations and reproaches, he sincerely enjoys the fact that he can humiliate and reproach others with impunity, and does this with all the rudeness of an upstart. “And you need to know what hurts! - he grumbles at his lawyer, on whom, due to his illiteracy, he is entirely dependent. “That’s why you are such vile people, some kind of bloodsuckers...” Having achieved wealth through deception and planning even greater deception, he is deeply indignant if anyone else deceives others. Unscrupulous, he expects “shame” and “conscience” from people.

The absence of any creative streak in Bolshov’s activities is reflected in the fact that, having achieved wealth, he lost all interest in his growing “business”, long ago he dumped all worries on the main clerk, and he himself thinks only about accumulation. And the decision to go for false bankruptcy was generated in him not by his spirited enterprise, but by his lack of self-confidence. He does this because “tight times have come,” there are no previous greedy profits, and above all, out of fear that in the impending wave of false bankruptcies, debtors will deceive him by “going bankrupt” earlier, and most importantly, out of a desire to immediately grab a big jackpot and completely withdraw from the matter. “Who can I blame this burden on?” he says to the lawyer. “Yes, my brother, it’s time to rest: we could chill out, lying on our sides, and to hell with all this trade.” The parasitic background of bourgeois predation appears very clearly here.

Due to mental squalor, Bolshov considers this decisive fraud to be something fatal, sees in it “one end” and even “the will of God.” Wanting to rely on a loved one, he demands love from him and assures him that he loves him. “Tell me, Lazarus, in all honesty, do you love me?” he asks. “If I didn’t love you, would I talk to you like that?” And Lazarus, of course, rises to the occasion: “I am now ready to give my whole soul for you...” he says to the owner. Both are preparing a crude deception and both are covering it up with words of love. There is a lot of hypocrisy and even more naivety in this. For Bolshov, malicious bankruptcy is the end of his merchant career, for Podkhalyuzin and Lipochka it is just the beginning.

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Samson Silych Bolshov in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered”

Ostrovsky's play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" is very interesting for the modern reader. In the play, the author, with his characteristic humor, describes the merchant environment with its habits and aspirations. The main characters of the work are both narrow-minded and arrogant, stubborn and short-sighted. Each of the characters in the play deserves close attention.

Samson Silych Bolshov, a merchant, the head of the family, is above all concerned with his financial affairs. He is ignorant and selfish, it was these qualities that played a cruel joke on him. His wife, Agrafena Kondratievna, is a typical merchant's wife. Having received no education, she nevertheless has a very high opinion of herself. Agrafena Kondratyevna leads a surprisingly primitive life. She doesn’t care about anything, doesn’t strive to somehow diversify everyday reality. She lives only with pressing, everyday problems.

The daughter Olympiada Samsonovna, or Lipochka, is extremely funny. She is poorly brought up, uneducated, and doesn’t even know how to dance properly. But at the same time, she is firmly convinced that she deserves the most profitable groom. Lipochka’s reasoning about her desire to marry a noble man is especially funny and absurd. The clerk Lazar Elizarych Podkhalyuzin, whom Lipochka eventually marries, is selfish, selfish, he does not have the slightest gratitude to the merchant Voltov, to whom Podkhalyuzin, one might say, owes everything. Podkhalyuzin values his own person above all else. And as a result, he achieves what is so important to him.

The remaining characters complement the picture of merchant life drawn by the author. Among the characters there is the lively matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna, and the solicitor Sysoy Psoich Rispozhensky, and the housekeeper Fominishna, and the boy Tishka, who served in the Bolshovs’ house. All the characters in the play are equally primitive; there is not the slightest hint of nobility or desire for the beautiful and sublime in them. The ultimate dream for them is to provide for everyday, everyday needs.

The relationship between “fathers” and “children” in this play is interesting. At the very beginning of the work, the reader gets the opportunity to observe a quarrel between Lipochka and her mother. The daughter does not show the slightest respect. Lipochka simply and frankly states: “That’s why God created you, to complain. You yourself are not very significant to me!”

Lipochka is firmly convinced that she is much more educated and educated than her mother. Of course, such statements from the outside seem especially funny. Lipochka arrogantly says: “...you yourself, to be honest, have not been brought up for anything.” And then she proudly boasts: “And I grew up and looked at the secular tone, and I see that I am much more educated than others. Why should I indulge your nonsense!”

During a quarrel between Lipochka and her mother, they exchange unflattering characteristics for each other. Then, however, they make up. As a result, Agrafena Kondratyevna promises to buy bracelets with emeralds. And on this, complete agreement reigns between them. What could such a scene indicate? Lipochka is completely devoid of such a quality as respect for elders. She is indifferent to her mother and father. Lipochka thinks only of herself. She is petty and stupid Lipochka fully corresponds to the family atmosphere that is depicted in this play.

“Fathers” also treat their “children” with complete indifference. For the merchant Bolshov's daughter is only a means to increase his capital. Initially, he intends to marry his daughter to a rich man. And then, when the merchant comes up with a financial adventure that will allow him to look bankrupt in the eyes of everyone around him, while remaining actually a wealthy person, Podkhalyuzin becomes Lipochka’s fiancé.

In relation to his daughter, the merchant seems like a real tyrant. He keeps Lipochka locked up, then gives her away solely at his own discretion. very confidently declares regarding his daughter: “Whoever I command, he will marry, my child: I want to eat it with porridge, I want to churn butter.” This attitude towards the daughter subsequently produces results. Lipochka becomes the wife of Podha-lyuzin, thanks to this she escapes from the power of her father. And he no longer wants to show his elderly father either pity or compassion. The big one addresses Podkhalyuzin and Lipochka: “Help me out, kids, help me out!” And in response he hears assurances: “Well, dear, we can’t be left with nothing. After all, we are not some kind of philistines.” At the same time, Lipochka reproaches her father: “I lived with you, my dear, until I was twenty, but I never saw the world. Well, will you order me to give you the money and go back to wearing cotton dresses?”

Such statements from “children” speak for themselves. Podkhalyuzin and his wife do not want to help their father out of the debt trap; they are completely indifferent to the fact that the elderly man is in such a deplorable situation.

The play “Our People - Let's Be Numbered” shows a world of unspiritual people, in which everyone lives according to their own laws. And the “children”, growing up, adopt the “fathers’” attitude towards life, so they do not have the slightest doubt about what to do in the future.

The playwright did not invent many of the plots for his comedies, but took them directly from life. His experience of serving in Moscow courts, where property disputes, cases of false bankruptcies, and conflicts over inheritance were considered, was useful. Ostrovsky, it seems, simply transferred all this to the pages of his plays. One of these comedies, taken from the very thick of merchant life, was the comedy “Bankrupt,” which the playwright wrote at the very end of the 40s of the 19th century. It was published in the magazine "Moskvityanin" in 1850 with the title "Our people - let's be numbered!" and brought the young author well-deserved fame.

The plot of the comedy is based on a case of fraud that was very common in the last century among merchants: a wealthy merchant, Samson Silych Bolshov, borrowed a fairly large amount of money from other merchants, not wanting to return it, and declared bankruptcy. And he transferred all his property to the name of a “faithful man” - clerk Lazar Podkhalyuzin, to whom, for greater confidence and peace of mind, he gives his daughter Lipochka, Olympiada Samsonovna, in marriage.

The insolvent debtor Bolshov is sent to prison (debt pit), but Samson Silych is confident that his daughter and son-in-law will contribute a small amount of money for him from the property received and he will be released. However, events do not develop at all the way Bolshov would like: Lipochka and Podkhalyuzin did not pay a penny, and poor Bolshov is forced to go to prison.

It would seem that there is nothing interesting or entertaining in this plot: one swindler deceived another swindler. But the comedy is interesting not because of its complex plot, but because of the truth of life, which, it seems to me, forms the basis of all Ostrovsky’s works. With what accuracy and realism all the characters of the comedy are drawn! Let's take Bolshov, for example. This is a rude, ignorant man, a real tyrant. He was used to commanding everyone and being in charge of everything. Samson Silych orders his daughter to marry Podkhalyuzin, completely disregarding her wishes: “An important matter! I can’t dance to her tune in my old age. For whom I command, he will go for him. My brainchild: I want to eat it with porridge, I want to churn butter...” Bolshov himself started from the bottom, “trading in sheep”; As a child, he was generously rewarded with “jabs” and “slaps on the head,” but now he saved up money, became a merchant and is already scolding and urging everyone on. Of course, the harsh “school of life” educated him in his own way: he became rude, resourceful, and even became a swindler. But at the end of the play, he also evokes some sympathy, because he was cruelly betrayed by his own daughter and deceived by “his” man - Podkhalyuzin, whom he trusted so much!

Podkhalyuzin is an even bigger swindler than Bolshov. He managed not only to deceive the owner, but also to win the favor of Lipochka, who at first did not want to marry him. It’s like a “new” Bolshov, even more cynical and arrogant, more in line with the mores of the new time - the time of profit. But there is one more character in the play who is inextricably linked with the previous ones. This is the boy Tishka. He is still serving as a “gofer,” but little by little, little by little, he is beginning to collect his capital, and over time, obviously, he will become the “new” Podkhalyuzin.

Particularly interesting in comedy, it seems to me, is the image of Lipochka. She dreams of a “noble” groom and does not want to marry some “merchant”; Give her a groom “not with a snub nose, but he must be dark-haired; Well, of course, he should be dressed like a magazine...” She doesn’t look like the merchant women of old; she wants to add nobility to her father’s money. How reminiscent of Moliere’s comedy “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”! however, the cunning Podkhalyuzin easily convinced her that with her father’s money and his resourcefulness they could live even better than the “nobles.” Lipochka, like Podkhalyuzin, does not evoke the slightest sympathy in us.

All the characters in the play, both main and secondary (matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna, housekeeper Fominichna and others) are depicted satirically.
At the beginning of his work, Ostrovsky immediately declared himself as a satirist writer, a successor to the tradition of D. I. Fonvizin, A. S. Griboyedov, N. V. Gogol. And the playwright’s subsequent works only strengthened and expanded his fame. Need to download an essay? Click and save - “Samson Silych Bolshov in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” And the finished essay appeared in my bookmarks.