From Startsev to Ionych (according to A.P. Chekhov's story "Ionych")

Nov 08 2012

The terrible evil of the necrosis of human souls, immersed in the mire of philistinism, is exposed by Chekhov in the story "Ionych". The Turkin family, reputed to be “the most educated and talented” in the city of S., personifies a world that has lost red blood cells, already doomed to endless repetition of the same thing, like a played gramophone record. The father of the family “all the time spoke in his extraordinary language, worked out by long exercises in wit and, obviously, had long become his habit: Bolshinsky, not bad, humiliated you, thank you.” A ghostly, creepy imitation of humor, its dead skeleton ... Mother, Vera Iosifovna, composing mediocre opuses about what does not happen in life. The daughter, by the will of her parents, was baptized into the petty-bourgeois “Kotik”, playing the piano as if she was trying hard to hammer the keys inside the instrument ... Only sometimes, from somewhere far away, an echo of true life will fly into this false world imitating life. A nightingale will sing in the garden, but it will immediately be forced out by the clatter of knives in the kitchen, foreshadowing a plentiful dinner. Sometimes “Luchinushka” will come from the city garden and remind you of what is not in this family, in the novels of Vera Iosifovna and what happens in life. Not free from ghostly existence and a young guest in the family. Turkinykh Dr. Ionovich Startsev. "Wonderful! perfect!" - the guests exclaim when Kotik finishes rattling the piano, roughly imitating music. "Wonderful! - Startsev will also say, succumbing to the general enthusiasm. - Where did you study music? .. At the conservatory? Alas, for Startsev, everything that happens in the Turkins' house seems to be “fun”, “cordial simplicity”, “culture”. “Not bad,” he remembered, falling asleep, and laughed. Startsev's love for Ekaterina Ivanovna also becomes a sluggish imitation of a lively, young feeling. Her helpless impulses are constantly encountering external and internal resistance. completely deaf to what (*197) woke up in Startsev's soul. “What do you want? - Ekaterina Ivanovna asked dryly, in a businesslike tone. But Startsev is also deaf to her when he sees in the chosen one “something extraordinarily sweet, touching in its simplicity and naive grace.” “Autumn was approaching, and in the old garden it was quiet, sad, and dark leaves lay on the alleys. It was getting dark early.” The motive of withering that accompanies this inferior love is not accidental here. Indeed, even in Startsevo himself, something hard, inert and dull pulls down, to philistine peace, does not allow him to fly on the wings of love. A moment of elation, experienced on a moonlit night in the cemetery near the Demetti monument, is replaced by a feeling of terrible fatigue: “Oh, you shouldn’t put on weight! The anxieties of the first confession are accompanied by reflections of a different nature: “And they must give a lot of dowry.”

There is neither love nor art in the true sense of these words in the story, but there is an abundance of imitation of both. Startsev, who has just received a refusal, goes out into the street and “sighs deeply,” and then lazily stretches and says: “How much trouble, however!” Through capacious details, the story conveys the process of turning Startsev into Ionych, a hardened owner who counts yellow and green pieces of paper, putting them on a current account. At first he walks, then he rides a pair of horses with his own coachman. “Four years have passed. In the city, Startsev already had a lot of practice. Every morning he hurriedly received patients at his place in Dyalizh, then he left for the city patients, he left no longer in a pair, but in a troika with bells, and returned home late at night. He became stout, ill-tempered and reluctant to walk, as he suffered from shortness of breath. And here is the sad ending: “A few more years have passed. Startsev has become even more stout, fat, he breathes heavily and already walks with his head thrown back. When he, chubby, red, rides on a troika with bells, and Panteleimon, also chubby and red, with a fleshy nape, sits on the box, stretching forward straight, exactly wooden hands, and shouts to the oncoming ones “Hold on!”, then the picture is impressive, and it seems that it’s not going

Describe the 4 stages of the degradation of Dr. Startsev! and got the best answer

Answer from Mei[guru]
Let us consider the evolution of the character of the protagonist of the story "Ionych", Dmitry Ionych Startsev. There are four stages in the life path of Dr. Startsev, in the disclosure of the content of which Chekhov succinctly demonstrates the gradual impoverishment of the hero's spirit, the weakening of his will, the strength of resistance, the loss of activity, the lively human reaction.
At the first stage, Dmitry Startsev is a young man who has just been appointed by a zemstvo doctor and settled in Dyalizh, not far from the provincial town of S. This is a young man with ideals and a desire for something lofty. He is full of strength, energy ("... Having walked nine miles and then going to bed, he did not feel the slightest fatigue"), he is so passionate about work that he does not even have free time on holidays. He is interested in literature, art, he feels like a stranger among the townsfolk. Dr. Startsev meets the Turkin family, "the most educated and talented" in the city. The way of their house suggests that even the life of the Turkin family is surprisingly monotonous (the same jokes, entertainment, activities), ordinary, typical.
And this -- best family in the city. And if the best people are like that, then what are the rest? Here Chekhov accurately notices the phenomenon of narrow-mindedness on the example of one family. Here the young doctor Startsev plunges into this life. He tries to fight her, is in love with Kitty, full of hope, etc.
But at the second stage, Dmitry Ionych, having made an unsuccessful proposal to Kotik and having been refused, no longer tries to resist the circumstances, he understands what a quagmire he is plunging into, but does not try to do anything; thus, Startsev hides in a "case", fences himself off from the whole world.
He stops walking, suffers from shortness of breath, likes to eat. Rides a pair of horses. He does not yet have close friends, the townsfolk annoy him with their views on life less and less. The doctor's chief pastime, into which "he got involved imperceptibly, little by little," was in the evenings to take out of his pockets the white and green pieces of paper obtained by practice.
Already at the third stage, Startsev moves away from the zemstvo hospital, his attention is absorbed by a large private practice. Now he is getting even fatter, suffering from shortness of breath even more: "He rode out not on a pair of horses, but on a troika with bells."
Finally, at the fourth stage, Dmitry Startsev’s life is completely devastated and impoverished, he is infected with hoarding, he has an estate and two houses in the city, but he does not stop there, he remembers with pleasure about the pieces of paper that he took out of his pockets in the evenings and reverently sorted through them . Startsev worked all his life, but activity devoid of purpose turns out to be disastrous. And we see how, as a result of the loss of meaning, the purpose of life, the personality is destroyed. Gradually, Dr. Startsev turned into Ionych. The journey of life is over...
It can be concluded that Startsev, understanding everything perfectly, did not try to change anything. Chekhov himself blames him for this.
Showing the evolution of Startsev from a young doctor, a lively and emotional person, to an obese plump Ionych, who, on his troika with bells, seems not to be a man, but a "pagan god", A.P. Chekhov thus exposes the environment that affected the main character of the story's pernicious influence, and of himself.
Using the example of Dr. Startsev, the story shows the interaction of a weak and passive character with a spiritually impoverished society and the influence of this society on a person who is not capable of resistance and upholding positive principles in himself.
The ability to show the small in the big, the combination of humor with sarcasm are the main methods by which Chekhov's stories reveal vulgarity and narrow-mindedness that can ruin even smart, educated people ...
In his works, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov appeals to readers not to succumb to the influence of the philistine environment, to resist circumstances, not to betray eternal ideals and love, to preserve the human in themselves.

The essay was downloaded from the site Sochinenie1.ru THE WAY FROM STARTSEV TO IONYCH (Based on the story of A.P. Chekhov "Ionych") The story "Ionych" is a story about how a good person with good inclinations turns into a stupid, greedy and indifferent layman. Events take place in the city of S., where in fact nothing remarkable happens. The existence of townspeople is monotonous, boring, mundane. This is the Russian provincial reality late XIX century. How in such circumstances not to lose a person, an intellectual? When meeting Dmitry Ionych Startsev, one can assume that his life is the usual progressive development of the hero from youth to maturity. But in essence, this is the movement of the hero back, his gradual devastation, turning into an indifferent, selfish creature. Four small chapters are turned to the past: Startsev's first steps in the city of S. are described, his feelings for Katerina Ivanovna Turkina - Kotik, the beginning of money-grubbing activities. The story is told in the past tense. The time periods are different: “More than a year has passed”, “Four years have passed”, “Several more years have passed”. Each of these periods also represents different ways of movement of Startsev; "Walked on foot, slowly"; “he already had his own pair of horses”; “I was leaving not on a pair, but on a troika with bells.” The last, fifth chapter is devoted to the present. Now, "when he, plump, red, rides on a troika with bells, it seems that it is not a man who is riding, but a pagan god." Throughout these chapters, the “most talented family” of the Turkins only changes outwardly. Vera Iosifovna, by the end of the story "greatly aged, with white hair." The lackey Pavel (Pava), whom the owner does not get tired of showing to the guests, turned from a fourteen-year-old boy into a mustachioed man. Kitty first lost "the former freshness and expression of childish naivety", and then "visibly aged." But for many years they all lived without changing internally. Almost a symbol of this general immobility is the invariably gallant head of the family, Ivan Petrovich, who utters the same flat jokes. Already in the first scene of meeting the Turkins, their mediocrity is obvious, but Startsev is pleased to look at their entertainment. He does not notice the primitive occupation of the Turkins, repeating: “Great! Amusing." The inner state of a fresh person is clearly in conflict with the unnatural, poseur "intelligence" of a provincial family. In the second chapter, a little over a year later, Startsev becomes even more interested in Kotik. He likes the girl "for her freshness, naivety", although she continues to play the piano mediocrely. It was at this time that the hero experiences the only uplift of feelings in his life: he admires nature, loves people, endows best qualities Katerina Ivanovna. “She seemed to him very smart and developed beyond her years.” The word "seemed" clarifies a lot in the relationship of the main characters. We see Kotik's limitations, the boredom reigning in her house, and we understand that Startsev is mistaken, inventing the image of a girl. However, falling in love with Kotik distinguishes Startsev from boring, ordinary people. The rise of the young man's feelings reaches its limit. Time stretches painfully long for Startsev. With a provincial world, where everyone does not know what to do with themselves, such a "flying" state is incompatible. But then an offer was made and Turkina refused. For another three days, Startsev "did not eat or drink." And then only sometimes he remembered Kotik with a lazy: “How much trouble, however!” True, four years later, when Katerina Ivanovna herself confessed her love to him, a “light” lit up in Startsev’s soul, but immediately went out. And he firmly decided: “It’s good that I didn’t get married then.” These words emphasize the shallowness of the hero's feelings. After Kotik's refusal, the time for the doctor goes completely unnoticed. Years fly by. Startsev is reluctant to walk, suffers from shortness of breath and does not stand out among the townspeople. He gives Turkin the sharpest and fairest assessment: "... if the most talented people in the whole city are so mediocre, then what should the city be like?". Now Startsev consciously opposes himself to society, seeks to isolate himself from any of its influences and live one "entertainment" - to count money. Philistine needs bring him closer to the townsfolk. The rapid rebirth of the hero was prepared by more than a modest spiritual "baggage" of his personality. There was a time when he could tell good music from bad, knew poetry, had noble ideals. But, apparently, they were fragile, shallow, he easily parted with them. Using the example of a literary hero who, in his declining years, completely degraded (his life passes dimly, without impressions, without thought, without love), Chekhov convinces the reader: a person is worthy of being called that only if he fully feels and realizes his human " I". The author encourages us to develop in ourselves the strength of resistance to circumstances, not to betray the bright ideals of youth and love, to keep the Human in ourselves.

Small, but very capacious and vital stories of Chekhov, his short stories are not always easy to understand if you do not understand the life position of the writer, who was strict, first of all, with himself. Everyone knows his statement: "Everything should be beautiful in a person: the face, and clothes, and the soul, and thoughts." Less well known is another: "One must be clear mentally, clean morally and neatly physically." And this, in the words of M. Gorky, is an ardent “desire to see people as simple, beautiful and harmonious” and explains Chekhov’s intransigence towards squalor, vulgarity, moral and mental limitations.
Indeed, what is wrong with the fact that a person wants to earn a lot of money, strives for material well-being, like Dr. Startsev? What was wrong if he wanted to serve simultaneously in the Zemstvo and have a big practice in the city? But, reading the story "Ionych", we understand how money can gradually and imperceptibly displace his living soul in a person.
Dmitry Ionych Startsev, the hero of the story "Ionych", was appointed as a doctor in a zemstvo hospital in Dyalizh, nine miles from the provincial city of S. This is a young man with a desire to work, to be useful. He is young, full of energy and “still... has not drunk tears from the cup of life...”
Having met the Turkin family, the most intelligent in the city, according to the inhabitants, he does not feel either the vulgarity or the ambition of the Turkins, because in his thoughts he only has work. "Not bad..." - he remembered, falling asleep, and laughed.
There is a lot of work in the hospital, and Startsev cannot choose the time to attend evenings at the Turkins. However, youth takes its toll: love comes to Ekaterina Ivanovna (Kotik, as she was called in the family). Vera Iosifovna, whom Startsev helped, began to tell everyone what an amazing doctor he was. The start of a career was laid. This is where the moral decline of Startsev begins. It is amazing how subtly Chekhov uses descriptions of nature to characterize a young, full of strength doctor and obese, indifferent to everything in the world, except for bank notes. Love fills him with happiness, music. The entire first chapter is filled with spring freshness, the smell of lilacs. The colors of spring, the sounds of music... Easily and freely he walks nine versts and is ready to go another twenty. But this feeling turned out to be "the only joy and ... the last" for all the time of his life in Dyalizh. For the sake of his love, he is ready, it would seem, for a lot ... But when Kotik refused him, imagining herself a brilliant pianist, and left the city, he suffered ... for only three days. And then everything went on as before. Recalling his wooing and lofty reasoning (“Oh, how little those who have never loved!” know), he only lazily said:
"How much trouble, however!"
The major tone of the first chapter is replaced by the minor tones of the second.
Autumn motifs - sadness, silence, darkness - deepen emotionally, intertwine, grow, merge into one whole and sound like a gentle and thoughtful nocturne: quiet, sad, dark leaves, "it was getting dark early", "it's warm in autumn", " with an autumn smell", "on an autumn night".
This is the beginning of the decline of his youth, the collapse of his faith in his own happiness, cooling off in his work, the first signs of mental laziness. Startsev is losing ground without a fight. His thoughts become gray and prosaic.
Startsev had an ideal, a goal in life - and life smiled at him. The ideal has gone, and Startsev has begun to live by "one bread...". And what happened? The “pagan god” came out, and the man disappeared. Everything is gray, boring, everyday. The past is irretrievably gone.
Several years have passed. What did they bring to Startsev? Big practice in the city, a trio of horses with bells... and shortness of breath. He himself "has gained weight, grown stout, reluctantly walks ...". His constant companion Panteleimon, a kind of double of his master, also gained weight. Startsev's whole being is taken over by the spirit of greedy and senseless money-grubbing, he finally loses the image and likeness of a human. Chekhov showed how Startsev's dreams collapse, how he turns into a layman. Here are the milestones on the path of life that marked Startsev's career success.
"He already had his own pair of horses and the coachman Panteleimon in a velvet waistcoat."
Four years pass - and a new milestone on Startsev's path to a career: “Startsev already had a lot of practice in the city. Every morning he hurriedly received the sick at his place in Dyalizh, then he left for the city patients, he left no longer in a pair, but in a troika with bells.
A few more years - and the last phase of Startsev's rebirth, marked by the last milestone: “Startsev has become even more stout, obese, breathes heavily and is already walking with his head thrown back. When he, chubby, red, rides on a troika with bells ... the picture is impressive, and it seems that it is not a man who is riding, but a pagan god.
This slow intravital dying of a person in a person takes place against the backdrop of an empty philistine life, imperiously drawing everyone into its swamp. Startsev is no longer sorry for youth, love, unfulfilled hopes. “It’s good that I didn’t get married then,” he thinks. Now his work is profit. He only thinks about money.
Startsev shied away from entertainment, but he played vint every evening, and not just played, but enjoyed it. There was also another pleasure - in the evenings, take out pieces of paper from your pocket, count them, save them, then take them to the "Mutual Credit Society" and put them on a current account.
What an abyss of fall! The doctor gladly takes out papers from all his pockets, from which "it smells of perfume and vinegar, and incense, and blubber." Count them and enjoy. Pushkin's baron reads sad stories about people on his doubloons, but for Startsev his papers are mute: he has lost his taste for life.
His name is now simply Ionych. Life path completed.
In his youth, he enjoyed nature, love, longed to meet his beloved. And now? Playing cards, greed. Interest in business gave way to interest in money: "He has a lot of trouble, but still he does not leave the Zemstvo place: greed has overcome, I want to keep up here and there."
Why did Startsev stop loving his job? What was the cause of Startsev's spiritual impoverishment? The author answered all these questions in the epilogue of the novel.
In the fourth chapter, the author judges the society of the city of S. through the mouth of Startsev, and in the fifth chapter (epilogue) he pronounces a sentence on Startsev himself: “he goes to this house without ceremony and, passing through all the rooms, not paying attention to the undressed women and children who they look at him with amazement and fear, poking at all the doors with a stick and saying: “Is this an office? Is this a bedroom? And then what?
And at the same time, he breathes heavily and wipes sweat from his forehead.
Why did Dmitry Startsev turn from a hot young man into an obese, greedy and noisy Ionych? Wednesday is to blame? Yes, life is monotonous, "it passes dully, without impressions, without thoughts." But the doctor himself is also to blame, who lost all the best that was in him, exchanged living feelings for a well-fed, self-satisfied existence. In his soul there was no respect even for the only bright memory - the former love. Chekhov makes this clear with one phrase by Ionych, when he asks again: “Are you talking about which Turkins? Is it about those that the daughter plays the pianos? As if there was no love!
“That's all that can be said about him,” the author ends the sad story of Startsev's life, saying goodbye to his hero forever, but not forgiving him anything.
According to Gorky, "no one understood as clearly and subtly as Anton Chekhov, the tragedy of the little things in life, no one before him knew how to paint people a shameful and dreary picture of their life so mercilessly and truthfully" ...
“When Chekhov dies, the best, impartial, truthful friend of Russia dies, a loving friend who sympathizes with her in everything, and Russia will all tremble with grief and will not forget him for a long time, she will learn to understand life according to his writings for a long time ...” As Gorky said well !

Describe the 4 stages of the degradation of Dr. Startsev! and got the best answer

Answer from Mei[guru]
Let us consider the evolution of the character of the protagonist of the story "Ionych", Dmitry Ionych Startsev. There are four stages in the life path of Dr. Startsev, in the disclosure of the content of which Chekhov succinctly demonstrates the gradual impoverishment of the hero's spirit, the weakening of his will, the strength of resistance, the loss of activity, the lively human reaction.
At the first stage, Dmitry Startsev is a young man who has just been appointed by a zemstvo doctor and settled in Dyalizh, not far from the provincial town of S. This is a young man with ideals and a desire for something lofty. He is full of strength, energy ("... Having walked nine miles and then going to bed, he did not feel the slightest fatigue"), he is so passionate about work that he does not even have free time on holidays. He is interested in literature, art, he feels like a stranger among the townsfolk. Dr. Startsev meets the Turkin family, "the most educated and talented" in the city. The way of their house suggests that even the life of the Turkin family is surprisingly monotonous (the same jokes, entertainment, activities), ordinary, typical.
And this is the best family in town. And if the best people are like that, then what are the rest? Here Chekhov accurately notices the phenomenon of narrow-mindedness on the example of one family. Here the young doctor Startsev plunges into this life. He tries to fight her, is in love with Kitty, full of hope, etc.
But at the second stage, Dmitry Ionych, having made an unsuccessful proposal to Kotik and having been refused, no longer tries to resist the circumstances, he understands what a quagmire he is plunging into, but does not try to do anything; thus, Startsev hides in a "case", fences himself off from the whole world.
He stops walking, suffers from shortness of breath, likes to eat. Rides a pair of horses. He does not yet have close friends, the townsfolk annoy him with their views on life less and less. The doctor's chief pastime, into which "he got involved imperceptibly, little by little," was in the evenings to take out of his pockets the white and green pieces of paper obtained by practice.
Already at the third stage, Startsev moves away from the zemstvo hospital, his attention is absorbed by a large private practice. Now he is getting even fatter, suffering from shortness of breath even more: "He rode out not on a pair of horses, but on a troika with bells."
Finally, at the fourth stage, Dmitry Startsev’s life is completely devastated and impoverished, he is infected with hoarding, he has an estate and two houses in the city, but he does not stop there, he remembers with pleasure about the pieces of paper that he took out of his pockets in the evenings and reverently sorted through them . Startsev worked all his life, but activity devoid of purpose turns out to be disastrous. And we see how, as a result of the loss of meaning, the purpose of life, the personality is destroyed. Gradually, Dr. Startsev turned into Ionych. The journey of life is over...
It can be concluded that Startsev, understanding everything perfectly, did not try to change anything. Chekhov himself blames him for this.
Showing the evolution of Startsev from a young doctor, a lively and emotional person, to an obese plump Ionych, who, on his troika with bells, seems not to be a man, but a "pagan god", A.P. Chekhov thus exposes the environment that affected the main character of the story's pernicious influence, and of himself.
Using the example of Dr. Startsev, the story shows the interaction of a weak and passive character with a spiritually impoverished society and the influence of this society on a person who is not capable of resistance and upholding positive principles in himself.
The ability to show the small in the big, the combination of humor with sarcasm are the main methods by which Chekhov's stories reveal vulgarity and narrow-mindedness that can ruin even smart, educated people ...
In his works, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov appeals to readers not to succumb to the influence of the philistine environment, to resist circumstances, not to betray eternal ideals and love, to preserve the human in themselves.

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