“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story by Leskov, created in the 2nd half of the 19th century. In the center of the work is an image of the life of a simple Russian peasant named Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin. Researchers agree that the image of Ivan Flyagin absorbed the main features of the Russian folk character.

Leskov's story presents a completely new type of hero, incomparable with any other in Russian literature. He has so organically merged with the elements of life that he is not afraid to get entangled in it.

Flyagin - "enchanted wanderer"

The author called Ivan Severyanich Flyagin “an enchanted wanderer.” This hero is “fascinated” by life itself, its fairy tale, its magic. That is why there are no limits for him. The hero perceives the world in which he lives as a real miracle. For him, it is endless, as is his journey in this world. Ivan Flyagin does not have any specific goal in life; for him it is inexhaustible. This hero perceives each new refuge as another discovery on his path, and not just as a change of occupation.

Hero's appearance

The author notes that his character has an external resemblance to Ilya Muromets, the legendary hero of epics. Ivan Severyanovich is distinguished by his enormous height. He has an open, dark face. The hair of this hero is thick, wavy, and lead-colored (his gray hair was cast in this unusual color). Flyagin wears a novice's cassock with a monastic belt, as well as a high black cloth cap. In appearance, the hero can be given a little over fifty years. However, as Leskov notes, he was a hero in the full sense of the word. This is a kind, simple-minded Russian hero.

Frequent changes of places, motive of escape

Despite his easy-going nature, Ivan Severyanovich does not stay anywhere for a long time. It may seem to the reader that the hero is fickle, frivolous, unfaithful both to himself and to others. Is this why Flyagin wanders around the world and cannot find refuge for himself? No, that's not true. The hero has repeatedly proven his loyalty and devotion. For example, he saved Count K.’s family from imminent death. In the same way, the hero Ivan Flyagin showed himself in his relations with Grusha and the prince. The frequent change of places and the motive for the escape of this hero are not explained by the fact that he is dissatisfied with life. On the contrary, he longs to drink it to the full. Ivan Severyanovich is so open to life that it seems to carry him, and the hero only follows its flow with wise humility. However, this should not be understood as a manifestation of passivity and mental weakness. This submission is an unconditional acceptance of fate. The image of Ivan Flyagin is characterized by the fact that the hero is often not aware of his own actions. He relies on intuition, on the wisdom of life, which he trusts in everything.

Invulnerability to death

It can be supplemented by the fact that the hero is honest and open to a higher power, and she rewards and protects him for this. Ivan is invulnerable to death, he is always ready for it. He somehow miraculously manages to save himself from death when he holds the horses on the edge of the abyss. Then the gypsy takes Ivan Flyagin out of the noose. Next, the hero wins a duel with the Tatar, after which he escapes from captivity. During the war, Ivan Severyanovich escapes bullets. He says about himself that he died all his life, but could not die. The hero explains this by his great sins. He believes that neither the water nor the earth want to accept him. On the conscience of Ivan Severyanovich is the death of the monk, the gypsy Grusha and the Tatar. The hero easily abandons his children born from Tatar wives. Ivan Severyanovich is also “tempted by demons.”

"Sins" by Ivan Severyanych

None of the “sinful” actions are the product of hatred, thirst for personal gain or lies. The monk died in an accident. Ivan pinned Savakirei to death in a fair fight. As for the story with Pear, the hero acted according to the dictates of his conscience. He understood that he was committing a crime, murder. Ivan Flyagin realized that the death of this girl was inevitable, so he decided to take the sin upon himself. At the same time, Ivan Severyanovich decides to beg God’s forgiveness in the future. Unhappy Pear tells him that he will still live and pray to God for both her and his soul. She herself asks to kill her so as not to commit suicide.

Naivety and cruelty

Ivan Flyagin has his own morals, his own religion, but in life this hero always remains honest both with himself and with other people. Talking about the events of his life, Ivan Severyanovich does not hide anything. The soul of this hero is open both to random fellow travelers and to God. Ivan Severyanovich is simple and naive as a baby, but during the fight against evil and injustice he can be very decisive and sometimes cruel. For example, he cuts off the tail of the master's cat, punishing her for torturing the bird. For this, Ivan Flyagin himself was severely punished. The hero wants to “die for the people,” and he decides to go to war instead of one young man with whom his parents cannot part.

Natural power of Flyagin

The hero's enormous natural strength is the reason for his actions. This energy prompts Ivan Flyagin to be reckless. The hero accidentally kills a monk who fell asleep on a cart of hay. This happens in excitement, while driving fast. In his youth, Ivan Severyanovich is not very burdened by this sin, but over the years the hero begins to feel that he will someday have to atone for it.

Despite this incident, we see that Flyagin’s speed, agility and heroic strength are not always a destructive force. While still just a child, this hero travels to Voronezh with the Count and Countess. During the trip, the cart almost falls into the abyss.

The boy saves the owners by stopping the horses, but he himself barely manages to avoid death after falling from a cliff.

The courage and patriotism of the hero

Ivan Flyagin also demonstrates courage during the duel with the Tatar. Once again, because of his reckless daring, the hero finds himself captured by the Tatars. Ivan Severyanovich yearns for his homeland while in captivity. Thus, the characteristics of Ivan Flyagin can be supplemented by his patriotism and love for his homeland.

The secret of Flyagin's optimism

Flyagin is a man endowed with remarkable physical and spiritual strength. This is exactly how Leskov portrays him. Ivan Flyagin is a man for whom nothing is impossible. The secret of his constant optimism, invulnerability and strength lies in the fact that the hero in any, even the most difficult situation, acts exactly as the situation requires. The life of Ivan Flyagin is also interesting because he is in harmony with those around him and is ready at any time to fight the hard times that come his way.

Traits of national character in the image of Flyagin

Leskov reveals to readers the qualities of the national by creating the image of Ivan Flyagin, the “enchanted hero.” This character cannot be called flawless. Rather, it is characterized by inconsistency. A hero can be both kind and merciless. In some situations he is primitive, in others he is cunning. Flyagin can be daring and poetic. Sometimes he does crazy things, but he also does good to people. The image of Ivan Flyagin is the personification of the breadth of Russian nature, its immensity.

Throughout his career, Leskov was interested in the theme of the people. In his works, he repeatedly addresses this topic, revealing the character and soul of the Russian person. At the center of his works are always noble people with unique destinies. Strength, spontaneity, spiritual purity and kindness are the main features of Ivan Severyanich Flyagin, the hero of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” We meet him during the author's travels around Lake Ladoga. The author notes Flyagin’s similarity with the legendary hero of epics Ilya Muromets: “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair: his gray hair was so strangely cast... he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind a Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets...” This is a kind of key to understanding this image. Ivan Flyagin firmly believes in the unshakable power of predestination and all his life he is looking for his place among people, his calling. His life is a search for harmony between originality, the elemental strength of the individual and the demands of life itself, its laws. There is a deep meaning in the wandering itself; the motive of the road becomes the leading one. “You can’t outrun your path,” says Flyagin. Each stage of his life's journey becomes a new step in moral development. The first stage is life in the manor's house. A youthful mischief is alive in him and... in the excitement of driving fast, without meaning to, he kills an old monk who accidentally met him, who fell asleep on a cart of hay. At the same time, young Ivan is not particularly burdened by the misfortune that has occurred, but the murdered monk appears to him every now and then in his dreams and pesters him with his questions, predicting for the hero the trials that he still has to endure. Ivan feels in his soul that someday he will have to atone for this sin, but he brushes aside these thoughts, believing that the time to atone for his sins has not yet come. But at the same time, he is faithful and devoted to his masters. He saves them from imminent death when traveling to Voronezh, when the cart almost falls into the abyss. He does this not for the sake of some personal gain or reward, but because he cannot help but help those who need his help. The second stage is raising a girl. Behind the external rudeness is hidden the enormous kindness inherent in the Russian people. Serving as a nanny, he takes the first steps in mastering the world of his own and others’ souls. For the first time he experiences compassion and affection, for the first time he understands the soul of another person. When he encounters the girl’s mother, two feelings fight within him: the desire to give the child to the mother and a sense of duty. For the first time, he makes a decision not in his favor, but out of mercy and gives the child away. Then fate throws Ivan into captivity among the Tatars for ten years. Here new feelings are revealed to him: longing for his native land and hope for return. Ivan cannot merge with someone else's life or take it seriously. Therefore, he always strives to escape and easily forgets his wives and children. In captivity, he is oppressed not by the wretchedness of his material life, but by the poverty of his impressions. Russian life is incomparably fuller and richer spiritually. “Sultry look, cruel; there is no space; the grass is riotous, the feather grass is white, fluffy, like a silver sea is agitated, and the smell carries on the breeze: it smells like sheep, and the sun pours down, burns, and the steppes, as if life is painful, have no end in sight, and here there is no bottom to the depth of melancholy... You can’t see for yourself you know where, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a monastery or temple will appear in front of you, and you will remember the baptized land and cry.” Memories return Flyagin to holidays and everyday life, to his native nature. And an opportunity presented itself to him to escape. He reached his native land, and Holy Rus', to which he so yearned, met him with whips. Flyagin almost dies from drunkenness, but an accident saves the hero and turns his whole life upside down, giving it a new direction. Thanks to his meeting with the gypsy Grusha, the “wanderer” discovers the “beauty of nature, perfection,” the magical power of talent and feminine beauty over the human soul. This is not passion, but a shock that elevates the human soul. The purity and greatness of his feeling is that it is free from pride and possessiveness. He lives not only for himself, but also for another person. He himself realizes that this love has reborn him. To save the soul of his loved one, he helps Grusha commit suicide by pushing her off a cliff into the river. After the death of a loved one, there is a road again, but this road is to people for the atonement of sin. Ivan becomes a soldier, changing his fate with a man he has never seen, taking pity on the grief-stricken old men, whose son is threatened with conscription. Service in the Caucasus becomes another test for him. After his feat at the crossing, he is forced to talk about himself, to reveal his “former existence and rank.” He himself makes a harsh judgment on himself and his past life, realizing himself as a “great sinner.” Ivan Severyanovich grew spiritually, bearing personal responsibility for his life before God and people. The image of the “enchanted hero” created by the author contains a broad generalization of the people’s character and shows the main idea, the moral meaning of a person’s life - to live for others, giving all of himself, all his strength, talent, opportunities to his neighbors, his people, his land.

Sections: Literature

The purpose of the lesson. Consider Leskov’s concept of righteousness, find out what ethical principles the writer defines as the most important for a person.

No righteous man is without blemish,

Neither is a sinner without repentance.

"Reckless! What you sow

will not live unless he dies..."

(I Cor. 15.36) Apostle Paul

During the classes

1. Teacher's word

The theme of righteousness has always worried Russian writers of both the 19th and 20th centuries. Leskov looked for such people, although wherever he turned, he was told that all people were sinners. He decided to collect all this and then analyze what here rises above the line of simple morality and therefore “Holy to the Lord.” We turn to the hero of N.S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Ivan Flyagin to decide who he is, a sinner or a righteous man?

When answering questions, try to adhere to the rules of discussion, remember that every point of view has the right to exist if it is reasoned and proven.

Sinner! He breaks God's laws.

What sins does Ivan Flyagin commit?

(At the age of 11, a nun kills, steals horses for gypsies, stole and ran away with his pupil from the master, flogged Savakirei to death; abandoned wives, children; was tempted by wine and female beauty.

The topic of suicide arises - one of the tasks of the devil is to push a person to commit the sin of suicide. Any sin can be forgiven, but “no one can even pray for them (suicides”).

Flyagin tried to hang himself twice.)

What crime becomes a turning point in his life?

(He admits: “I have destroyed many innocent souls in my time.” And of course, this is the death of Grusha.)

How do you feel about this action?

Why do you think it is a turning point?

(“She thinks not about herself, but about what will happen to her soul.” “Grusha’s soul is now lost, and it’s my duty to defend her and rescue her from hell.”)

Now let's pay attention to the epigraph. How do you understand the words of the Apostle Paul?

(Holy is not the one who does not commit sin, but the one who was able to repent, overcome it and find the strength to rise to a new, righteous life..)

Who can we call righteous?

Working with the Explanatory Dictionary

In the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. Ozhegov and N. Shvedova we read: “ Righteous- for believers: a person who lives a righteous life has no sins. Righteous- pious, sinless, conforming to religious standards.

From the dictionary of V.I. Dahl: “A righteous person is someone who lives righteously, acts in everything according to God’s law, a sinless saint who has become famous for his exploits and holy life in ordinary conditions.”

Does this definition suit Ivan Flyagin?

(Of course, this is a kind, hardworking, truthful, honest person.) Examples.

But what is the most important quality of a righteous person?

(He lives by the most important commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The main thing in his actions is empathy, compassion. All his actions are selfless (Petr Serdyukov).

The hero lives in the interests of others, for the sake of others and for others, acts according to the dictates of his heart and does not consider this a sacrifice).

Where does Ivan Flyagin finally end up?

What is his main desire?

(“I really want to die for the people”)

Does Ivan Flyagin, the narrator at the end of the story, look like the guy who restrained the horses and cut off the cat’s tail?

(He is similar and not similar. He has become more responsible for the fate of other people, bears personal responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, is ready to die for it and for his people),

So who is he, Ivan Flyagin - a sinner or a righteous man?

(This is a sinner who repented of his sins, managed to overcome them and found the strength to rise to a new righteous life.

This is the righteous man, without whom, “according to the proverb, the village does not stand.” Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.” (A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor”)

Homework: Draw up a characterization plan for Ivan Flyagin.

Composition

Throughout his career, Leskov was interested in the theme of the people. In his works, he repeatedly addresses this topic, revealing the character and soul of the Russian person. At the center of his works are always noble people with unique destinies. Strength, spontaneity, spiritual purity and kindness are the main features of Ivan Severyanich Flyagin, the hero of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” We meet him during the author's travels around Lake Ladoga. The author notes Flyagin’s similarity with the legendary hero of epics Ilya Muromets: “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair: his gray hair was so strangely cast... he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets..."

This is a kind of key to understanding this image. Ivan Flyagin firmly believes in the unshakable power of predestination and all his life he is looking for his place among people, his calling. His life is a search for harmony between originality, the elemental strength of the individual and the demands of life itself, its laws. There is a deep meaning in the wandering itself; the motive of the road becomes the leading one. “You can’t outrun your path,” says Flyagin. Each stage of his life's journey becomes a new step in moral development. The first stage is life in the manor's house. A youthful mischief is alive in him and... in the excitement of driving fast, without meaning to, he kills an old monk who accidentally met him, who fell asleep on a cart of hay.

At the same time, young Ivan is not particularly burdened by the misfortune that has occurred, but the murdered monk appears to him every now and then in his dreams and pesters him with his questions, predicting for the hero the trials that he still has to endure. Ivan feels in his soul that someday he will have to atone for this sin, but he brushes aside these thoughts, believing that the time to atone for his sins has not yet come.

But at the same time, he is faithful and devoted to his masters. He saves them from imminent death when traveling to Voronezh, when the cart almost falls into the abyss. He does this not for the sake of some personal gain or reward, but because he cannot help but help those who need his help.

The second stage is raising a girl. Behind the external rudeness is hidden the enormous kindness inherent in the Russian people. Serving as a nanny, he takes the first steps in mastering the world of his own and others’ souls. For the first time he experiences compassion and affection, for the first time he understands the soul of another person. When he encounters the girl’s mother, two feelings fight within him: the desire to give the child to the mother and a sense of duty. For the first time, he makes a decision not in his favor, but out of mercy and gives the child away. Then fate throws Ivan into captivity among the Tatars for ten years. Here new feelings are revealed to him: longing for his native land and hope for return. Ivan cannot merge with someone else's life or take it seriously. Therefore, he always strives to escape and easily forgets his wives and children. In captivity, he is oppressed not by the wretchedness of his material life, but by the poverty of his impressions. Russian life is incomparably fuller and richer spiritually. “Sultry look, cruel; there is no space; the grass is riotous, the feather grass is white, fluffy, like a silver sea is agitated, and the smell carries on the breeze: it smells like sheep, and the sun pours down, burns, and the steppes, as if life is painful, have no end in sight, and here there is no bottom to the depth of melancholy... You can’t see for yourself you know where, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a monastery or temple will appear in front of you, and you will remember the baptized land and cry.”

Memories return Flyagin to holidays and everyday life, to his native nature. And an opportunity presented itself to him to escape. He reached his native land, and Holy Rus', to which he so yearned, met him with whips. Flyagin almost dies from drunkenness, but an accident saves the hero and turns his whole life upside down, giving it a new direction. Thanks to his meeting with the gypsy Grusha, the “wanderer” discovers the “beauty of nature, perfection,” the magical power of talent and feminine beauty over the human soul. This is not passion, but a shock that elevates the human soul. The purity and greatness of his feeling is that it is free from pride and possessiveness.

He lives not only for himself, but also for another person. He himself realizes that this love has reborn him. To save the soul of his loved one, he helps Grusha commit suicide by pushing her off a cliff into the river. After the death of a loved one, there is a road again, but this road is to people for the atonement of sin. Ivan becomes a soldier, changing his fate with a man he has never seen, taking pity on the grief-stricken old men, whose son is threatened with conscription. Service in the Caucasus becomes another test for him. After his feat at the crossing, he is forced to talk about himself, to reveal his “former existence and rank.” He himself makes a harsh judgment on himself and his past life, realizing himself as a “great sinner.” Ivan Severyanovich grew spiritually, bearing personal responsibility for his life before God and people.

At the end of the story, Ivan Flyagin becomes a monk. But even the monastery will not be a quiet haven for him, the end of his journey. He is ready to go to war, because he “really wants to die for the people.” The image of the “enchanted hero” created by the author contains a broad generalization of the people’s character and shows the main idea, the moral meaning of a person’s life - to live for others, giving all of himself, all his strength, talent, opportunities to his neighbors, his people, his land.

Other works on this work

Mysterious Russian soul" in N. Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer Analysis of an episode from N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Analysis of the episode “The Incident with Pear” (N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer”) What is the charm of Ivan Flyagin? (story by N. S. Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”) What is the meaning of the title of N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer”? Female images in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The life path of Ivan Flyagin (based on the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov) Ivan Flyagin - truth-seeker of the Russian land (based on the story by N. S. Leskov “The Enchanted Wanderer”) Ivan Flyagin in Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" Ivan Flyagin is the main character of N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Ivan Flyagin is an image that embodies the features of the Russian national character Who is Ivan Severyanych Flyagin: a sinner or a righteous man? The world of Leskov's images The image of Ivan Flyagin in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The image of Ivan Flyagin in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” Image of Flyagin The Enchanted Wanderer is the most significant hero of N. S. Leskov Why is N. S. Leskov’s story called “The Enchanted Wanderer”? Ivan Flyagin is righteous or sinful Russia in the story by N.S. Leskova "The Enchanted Wanderer" Russian national character in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Russian national character is the purpose of depicting N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Russian character in the stories of N. S. Leskov Freedom and necessity in “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy and “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. S. Leskov The originality of the author's approach to the depiction of the hero in N. Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" The originality of the author’s approach to the portrayal of the hero in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The meaning of the title of N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The meaning of Ivan Flyagin’s wanderings (Based on Leskov’s essay “The Enchanted Wanderer”) Wanderer Leskova Creativity N.S. Leskova (Story "The Enchanted Wanderer") The theme of wandering in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer.” Traditions of folklore and ancient Russian literature in N. S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Analysis of the text of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” What features of the Russian national character are embodied in Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin Genre, plot, composition, image of the main character Characteristics of Ivan Flyagin in Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The life of a Russian sinner in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The meaning of the word “Wanderer” in Leskov’s story of the same name Russian righteous people in the works of N.S. Leskova (at the premiere of “The Enchanted Wanderer”) The plot and problems of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The life vicissitudes of the protagonist of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Traditions of Old Russian literature in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Ivan Severyanych Flyagin is a special, exceptional person with a strange and unusual destiny. Mysteries of Leskov’s tale using the example of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Laws of the artistic world of Leskov Flyagin - characteristics of a literary hero Russian righteous people in the works of N.S. Leskova (at the premiere of “The Enchanted Wanderer”) The image of Ivan Flyagin in N. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The image of Flyagin in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The plot of Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Narrative organization of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The meaning of the title of Nikolai Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” The image of Ivan Flyagin in Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" The hero of Leskov’s story-essay “The Enchanted Wanderer” Ivan Flyagin, truth-seeker of the Russian land The history of the creation of the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Morality and humanism of the Russian person in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Depiction of the Russian national character in the works of N.S. Leskov (using the example of the work “The Enchanted Wanderer”).

All episodes of the story are united by the image of the main character - Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, shown as a giant of physical and moral power. “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair: his streak of gray was so strange. He was dressed in a novice cassock with a wide monastic belt and a high black cloth cap... This new companion of ours... looked like he could be over fifty years old; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful painting by Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A.K. Tolstoy. It seemed that he would not walk around in a cassock, but would sit on his “forelock” and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how “the dark forest smells of resin and strawberries.” The hero performs feats of arms, saves people, and goes through the temptation of love. He knows from his own bitter experience serfdom, he knows what it is to escape from a cruel master or soldier. Flyagin’s actions reveal such traits as boundless courage, courage, pride, stubbornness, breadth of nature, kindness, patience, artistry, etc. The author creates a complex, multifaceted character, positive at its core, but far from ideal and not at all unambiguous. The main feature of Flyagin is the “frankness of a simple soul.” The narrator likens him to God's baby, to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from others. The hero is characterized by a childish naivety of perception of life, innocence, sincerity, and selflessness. He is very talented. First of all, in the business that he was involved in as a boy, becoming a postilion for his master. When it came to horses, he “received a special talent from his nature.” His talent is associated with a heightened sense of beauty. Ivan Flyagin subtly feels female beauty, the beauty of nature, words, art - song, dance. His speech is striking in its poetry when he describes what he admires. Like any national hero, Ivan Severyanovich passionately loves his homeland. This is manifested in a painful longing for his native place, when he is in captivity in the Tatar steppes, and in the desire to take part in the coming war and die for his native land. Flyagin’s last dialogue with the audience sounds solemn. Warmth and subtlety of feeling in a hero coexist with rudeness, pugnacity, drunkenness, and narrow-mindedness. Sometimes he shows callousness and indifference: he beats a Tatar to death in a duel, does not consider unbaptized children as his own and leaves them without regret. Kindness and responsiveness to someone else's grief coexist in him with senseless cruelty: he gives the child to his tearfully pleading mother, depriving himself of shelter and food, but at the same time, out of self-indulgence, he kills a sleeping monk.

Flyagin's daring and freedom of feelings know no bounds (fight with a Tatar, relationship with Sgrushenka). He gives himself over to feelings recklessly and recklessly. Emotional impulses, over which he has no control, constantly break his destiny. But when the spirit of confrontation fades away in him, he very easily submits to the influence of others. The hero's sense of human dignity is in conflict with the consciousness of the serf. But all the same, a pure and noble soul is felt in Ivan Severyanovich.

The hero's first name, patronymic and last name turn out to be significant. The name Ivan, which appears so often in fairy tales, brings him closer to both Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, who go through various trials. In his trials, Ivan Flyagin matures spiritually and becomes morally cleansed. The patronymic Severyanovich translated from Latin means “severe” and reflects a certain side of his character. The surname indicates, on the one hand, a penchant for a wild lifestyle, but, on the other hand, it recalls the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God. Suffering from the consciousness of his own imperfection, he goes, without bending, towards the feat, striving for heroic service to his homeland, feeling the divine blessing above him. And this movement, moral transformation constitutes the internal plot line of the story. The hero believes and searches. His life path is the path of knowing God and realizing oneself in God.

Ivan Flyagin personifies the Russian national character with all its dark and light sides, the people's view of the world. It embodies the enormous and untapped potential of people's power. His morality is natural, folk morality. Flyagin's figure acquires a symbolic scale, embodying the breadth, boundlessness, and openness of the Russian soul to the world. The depth and complexity of Ivan Flyagin’s character is helped by the various artistic techniques used by the author. The main means of creating the image of a hero is speech, which reflects his worldview, character, social status, etc. Flyagin’s speech is simple, full of vernacular and dialecticisms, there are few metaphors, comparisons, epithets in it, but they are bright and accurate. The hero's speech style is connected with the people's worldview. The image of the hero is also revealed through his attitude towards other characters about whom he himself talks. The character's personality is revealed in the tone of the narrative and in the choice of artistic means. The landscape also helps to feel the peculiarities of the character’s perception of the world. The hero’s story about life in the steppe conveys his emotional state, longing for his native place: “No, I want to go home... I was feeling homesick. Especially in the evenings, or even when the weather is good in the middle of the day, it’s hot, the camp is quiet, all the Tatars from the heat fall on the tents... A sultry look, cruel; there is no space; grass riot; the feather grass is white, fluffy, like a silver sea, agitated, and the smell carries on the breeze: it smells like a sheep, and the sun pours down, burns, and the steppe, as if a painful life, has no end in sight, and here there is no bottom to the depth of melancholy... You see for yourself you know where, and suddenly in front of you, no matter how you take it, there is a monastery or a temple, and you remember the baptized land and cry.”

The image of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin summarizes the remarkable features of energetic, naturally talented people, inspired by boundless love for people. It depicts a man from the people in the intricacies of his difficult fate, not broken, even though “he died all his life and could not die.”

The kind and simple-minded Russian giant is the main character and central figure of the story. This man with a childlike soul is distinguished by irrepressible fortitude and heroic mischief. He acts at the behest of duty, often on the inspiration of feeling and in a random outburst of passion. However, all his actions, even the strangest ones, are invariably born from his inherent love for humanity. He strives for truth and beauty through mistakes and bitter repentance, he seeks love and generously gives love to people. When Flyagin sees a person in mortal danger, he simply rushes to his aid. Just as a boy, he saves the count and countess from death, but he himself almost dies. He also goes instead of the old woman’s son to the Caucasus for fifteen years. Behind the external rudeness and cruelty, hidden in Ivan Severyanych is the enormous kindness characteristic of the Russian people. We recognize this trait in him when he becomes a nanny. He became truly attached to the girl he was courting. He is caring and gentle in his dealings with her.

“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a type of “Russian wanderer” (in the words of Dostoevsky). This is a Russian nature, requiring development, striving for spiritual perfection. He searches and cannot find himself. Each new refuge of Flyagin is another discovery of life, and not just a change in one activity or another. The broad soul of the wanderer gets along with absolutely everyone - be it wild Kyrgyz or strict Orthodox monks; he is so flexible that he agrees to live according to the laws of those who accepted him: according to Tatar custom, he fights to the death with Savarikei, according to Muslim custom, has several wives, takes for granted the cruel “operation” that the Tatars performed on him ; In the monastery, he not only does not complain about the fact that, as punishment, he was locked in a dark cellar for the whole summer, but he even knows how to find joy in this: “Here you can hear the church bells, and your comrades have visited.” But despite such an accommodating nature, he does not stay anywhere for long. He does not need to humble himself and want to work in his native field. He is already humble and with his peasant rank he is faced with the need to work. But he has no peace. In life he is not a participant, but only a wanderer. He is so open to life that it carries him, and he follows its flow with wise humility. But this is not a consequence of mental weakness and passivity, but a complete acceptance of one’s fate. Often Flyagin is not aware of his actions, intuitively relying on the wisdom of life, trusting it in everything. And the higher power, before which he is open and honest, rewards him for this and protects him.

Ivan Severyanich Flyagin lives primarily not with his mind, but with his heart, and therefore the course of life imperiously carries him along, which is why the circumstances in which he finds himself are so varied.

Flyagin reacts sharply to insult and injustice. As soon as the count's German manager punished him for his offense with humiliating work, Ivan Severyanych, risking his own life, fled from his native place. Subsequently, he recalls it this way: “They tore me terribly cruelly, I couldn’t even get up... but that would have been nothing to me, but the last condemnation to stand on my knees and beat bags... it was already tormenting me... I just ran out of patience...” The most terrible and intolerable thing for an ordinary person is not corporal punishment, but an insult to self-esteem. out of despair, he runs away from them and goes “to the robbers.”

In “The Enchanted Wanderer”, for the first time in Leskov’s work, the theme of folk heroism is fully developed. the collective semi-fairy-tale image of Ivan Flyagin appears before us in all his greatness, nobility of his soul, fearlessness and beauty and merges with the image of the heroic people. Ivan Severyanich’s desire to go to war is the desire to suffer one for all. love for the Motherland, for God, and Christian desire save Flyagin from death during his nine years of life among the Tatars. During all this time he was never able to get used to the steppes. He says: “No, sir, I want to go home... I feel sad.” What a great feeling is contained in his simple story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: “...There is no bottom to the depths of melancholy... You look, you don’t know where, and suddenly, no matter how much a monastery or a temple appears in front of you, you remember the baptized land and cry.” From Ivan Severyanovich’s story about himself, it is clear that the most difficult of the diverse life situations he experienced were precisely those that most bound his will and doomed him to immobility.

The Orthodox faith is strong in Ivan Flyagin. In the middle of the night in captivity, he “crawled out slowly behind the headquarters... and began to pray... so praying that even the snow under his knees would melt and where the tears fell, you could see the grass in the morning.”

Flyagin is an unusually gifted person; nothing is impossible for him. The secret of his strength, invulnerability and amazing gift - to always feel joy - lies in the fact that he always acts as circumstances require. He is in harmony with the world when the world is harmonious, and he is ready to fight evil when it stands in his way.

At the end of the story, we understand that, having arrived at the monastery, Ivan Flyagin does not calm down. He foresees war and is going to go there. He says: “I really want to die for the people.” These words reflect the main quality of the Russian person - the willingness to suffer for others, to die for the Motherland. Describing Flyagin's life, Leskov makes him wander, meet different people and entire nations. Leskov claims that such beauty of the soul is characteristic only of the Russian person and only the Russian person can demonstrate it so fully and widely.

The image of Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is the only “through” image that connects all the episodes of the story. As already noted, it has genre-forming features, because his “biography” goes back to works with strict normative schemes, namely the lives of saints and adventure novels. The author brings Ivan Severyanovich closer not only to the heroes of lives and adventure novels, but also to epic heroes. This is how the narrator describes Flyagin’s appearance: “This new companion of ours looked like he could have been over fifty years old; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in Vereshchegin’s wonderful painting and in the poem by Count A.K. Tolstoy.4 It seemed that he would not walk in a cassock, but would sit on his “forelock” and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how “the dark forest smells of resin and strawberries.” Flyagin's character is multifaceted. Its main feature is “the frankness of a simple soul.” The narrator likens Flyagin to “babies,” to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from the “reasonable.” The author paraphrases the gospel sayings of Christ: “... Jesus said: “... I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes”” (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 25). Christ allegorically calls people with a pure heart wise and reasonable.

Flyagin is distinguished by his childish naivety and simplicity. Demons in his ideas resemble a large family, in which there are both adults and mischievous demon children. He believes in the magical power of the amulet - “a tight belt from the holy brave prince Vsevolod-Gabriel from Novgorod.” Flyagin understands the experiences of tamed horses. He subtly senses the beauty of nature.

But, at the same time, the soul of the enchanted wanderer is also characterized by some callousness and limitations (from the point of view of an educated, civilized person). Ivan Severyanovich coldly beats a Tatar to death in a duel and cannot understand why the story of this torture horrifies his listeners. Ivan brutally deals with the Countess's maid's cat, who strangled his beloved pigeons. He does not consider unbaptized children from Tatar wives in Ryn-Sands to be his own and leaves without a shadow of doubt and regret.

Natural kindness coexists in Flyagin’s soul with senseless, aimless cruelty. So, he, serving as a nanny for a young child and violating the will of his father, his master, gives the child to Ivan’s tearfully begging mother and her lover, although he knows that this act will deprive him of faithful food and force him to wander again in search of food and shelter . And he, in adolescence, out of self-indulgence, whips a sleeping monk to death.

Flyagin is reckless in his daring: just like that, disinterestedly, he enters into a competition with the Tatar Savakirei, promising an officer he knows to give a prize - a horse. He completely surrenders to the passions that take possession of him, embarking on a drunken spree. Struck by the beauty and singing of the gypsy Grusha, without hesitation, he gives her the huge sum of government money entrusted to him.

Flyagin’s nature is both unshakably firm (he sacredly professes the principle: “I will not give my honor to anyone”) and willful, pliable, open to the influence of others and even suggestion. Ivan easily assimilates the Tatars’ ideas about the justification of a mortal duel with whips. Hitherto not feeling the bewitching beauty of a woman, he - as if under the influence of conversations with a degenerate gentleman-magnetizer and the eaten "magic" sugar - "mentor" - finds himself enchanted by his first meeting with Grusha.

Flyagin’s wanderings, wanderings, and peculiar “quests” carry a “worldly” overtones. Even in the monastery he performs the same service as in the world - coachman. This motive is significant: Flyagin, changing professions and services, remains himself. He begins his difficult journey as a postilion, a rider of a horse in a harness, and in old age returns to the duties of a coachman.

The service of Leskov’s hero “with horses” is not accidental; it has an implicit, hidden symbolism. Flyagin’s changeable fate is like the fast running of a horse, and the “two-stranded” hero himself, who has withstood and endured many hardships in his lifetime, resembles a strong “Bityutsky” horse. Both Flyagin’s temper and independence are, as it were, compared with the proud horse’s temper, which the “enchanted wanderer” told about in the first chapter of Leskov’s work. The taming of horses by Flyagin correlates with the stories of ancient authors (Plutarach and others) about Alexander the Great, who pacified and tamed the horse Bucephalus.

And like the hero of epics who goes out to measure his strength “in an open field,” Flyagin is correlated with open, free space: with the road (the wanderings of Ivan Severyanovich), with the steppe (ten-year life in the Tatar Ryn-sands), with lake and sea space (meeting the narrator with Flyagin on a ship sailing on Lake Ladoga, a pilgrim’s pilgrimage to Solovki). The hero wanders, moves in a wide, open space, which is not a geographical concept, but a value category. Space is a visible image of life itself, sending disasters and trials towards the hero-traveler.

In his wanderings and travels, Leskov’s character reaches the limits, the extreme points of the Russian land: he lives in the Kazakh steppe, fights against the mountaineers in the Caucasus, goes to the Solovetsky shrines on the White Sea. Flyagin finds himself on the northern, southern, and southeastern “borders” of European Russia. Ivan Severyanovich did not visit only the western border of Russia. However, Leskov’s capital may symbolically designate precisely the western point of Russian space. (Such a perception of St. Petersburg was characteristic of Russian literature of the 18th century and was recreated in Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman”). The spatial “scope” of Flyagin’s travels is significant: it symbolizes5 the breadth, boundlessness, and openness of the Russian people’s soul to the world.6 But the breadth of Flyagin’s nature, the “Russian hero,” is not at all equivalent to righteousness. Leskov repeatedly created in his works images of Russian righteous people, people of exceptional moral purity, noble and kind to the point of selflessness (“Odnodum”, “Immortal Golovan”, “Cadet Monastery”, etc.). However, Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is not like that. He seems to personify the Russian folk character with all its dark and light sides and the people's view of the world.

The name Ivan Flyagin is significant. He is similar to the fairy-tale Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, going through various trials. During these trials, Ivan is cured and freed from his “stupidity” and moral callousness. But the moral ideals and norms of Leskov’s enchanted wanderer do not coincide with the moral principles of his civilized interlocutors and the author himself. Flyagin's morality is a natural, “common” morality.

It is no coincidence that the patronymic of Leskov’s hero is Severyanovich (severus - in Latin: stern). The surname speaks, on the one hand, of a former penchant for drinking and carousing, on the other hand, it seems to recall the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God.

Flyagin’s life path partly represents atonement for his sins: the “youthful” murder of a monk, as well as the murder of Grushenka, abandoned by her lover-prince, committed at her request. The dark, egoistic, “animal” force characteristic of Ivan in his youth gradually becomes enlightened and filled with moral self-awareness. In his declining years, Ivan Severyanovich is ready to “die for the people,” for others. But the enchanted wanderer still does not renounce many actions that are reprehensible for educated, “civilized” listeners, not finding anything bad in them.

This is not only limited, but also the integrity of the character of the protagonist, devoid of contradictions, internal struggle and introspection,7 which, like the motive of the predetermination of his fate, brings Leskov’s story closer to the classical, ancient heroic epic. B.S. Dykhanova characterizes Flyagin’s ideas about his fate in the following way: “According to the hero’s conviction, his destiny is that he is a “prayed” and “promised” son, is obliged to devote his life to serving God, and the monastery should, it would seem, be perceived as the inevitable end of the road , finding a true calling. Listeners repeatedly ask the question of whether predestination has been fulfilled or not, but each time Flyagin avoids a direct answer.

“Why are you saying this... as if you’re not really saying it?

• - Yes, because how can I say for sure when I can’t even embrace all my vast flowing vitality?
• - What is this from?
• “Because, sir, I did a lot of things not even of my own free will.”

Despite the apparent inconsistency of Flyagin’s answers, he is amazingly accurate here. “The audacity of calling” is inseparable from one’s own will, one’s own choice, and the interaction of a person’s will with life circumstances independent of it gives rise to that living contradiction, which can only be explained by preserving it. In order to understand what his calling is, Flyagin has to tell his life “from the very beginning.”8 Flyagin’s life is bizarre, “mosaic”, it seems to fall apart into several independent “biographies”: the hero changes his occupation many times, finally, he is twice deprived of his own name (by becoming a soldier instead of a peasant recruit, then by taking monasticism). Ivan Severyanovich can imagine the unity, the integrity of his life, only by recounting it all, from his very birth. This predetermination of the hero’s fate, in subordination and “bewitchment” by some force ruling over him, “not by his own will”, which Flyagin is driven by, is the meaning of the title of the story.