This article is devoted to the work of I.S. Turgenev. It will carefully analyze the motives of the behavior of the main character of the story "Mumu" - the janitor Gerasim. Probably, those who read, but did not have sufficient psychological insight, from school were tormented by the question of why Gerasim drowned Mumu. During the "investigation" the answer will be given.
Gerasim's personality
The mighty dumb Gerasim was uprooted from his native hut in the village and transplanted into the urban soil of Moscow that was alien to him. He was under two meters tall. It had an abundance of natural power. A Moscow lady looked after him and ordered him to be transported from the village to her house. She identified him as a janitor, for he was a noble worker.
No matter how this information may seem to the reader far from answering the question of why Gerasim drowned Mumu, it is very important and has a direct bearing on him. This is the foundation for understanding the inner world of the hero.
Love triangle: Gerasim, Tatiana and Kapiton
The lady was served by one simple girl - Tatiana (she worked as a laundress). The young woman liked Gerasim, although the other servants and the hostess herself understood that such a marriage was hardly possible for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, Gerasim tenderly cherished within himself a timid hope, firstly, for reciprocity, and secondly, that the lady would consent to marriage.
But, unfortunately, the hopes of the protagonist were not destined to come true. The absurd and egocentric lady decided in her own way: the drunkard shoemaker who had beaten off the hands was appointed by the lord's permission to be Tatyana's husband. He himself did not mind, but he was afraid of Gerasim's reaction to this news. Then the lordly servants went for a trick: knowing that the dumb janitor could not stand drunkards, the servants forced Tatyana to go drunk in front of Gerasim. The trick was a success - the janitor himself pushed his sweetheart into Kapiton's arms. True, the lady's experiment did not end well. Her shoemaker drank himself to death even in the hands of a hardworking and, one might say, meek before slavery washerwoman. The days of the unhappy couple passed mournfully in a remote village.
The love triangle is important in the context of answering the question of why Gerasim drowned Mumu, as he reveals the "chemistry" of the janitor's future affection for his dog.
Gerasim and Mumu
When Gerasim suffered from unspent love, he found a dog. She was only three weeks old. The janitor rescued the dog from the water, brought him to his closet, organized a rookery for the dog (it turns out, this is a girl), gave her milk to drink.
In other words, now the love of a simple Russian dumb peasant, unclaimed by a woman, is fully invested in the creature that unexpectedly appeared in his life. He names the dog Mumu.
Final story
The main character's problems arose when the lady, who had not seen the dog before, suddenly discovered it. Mumu has lived with Gerasim as with Christ in her bosom for over a year. The owner was delighted with the dog. She asked to immediately bring her to the master's chambers. When the dog was delivered, it behaved wary and aggressive in unfamiliar surroundings. She did not drink the master's milk, but began to bark at the lady.
Of course, the mistress could not bear such an attitude and ordered the dog to be removed from her property. And so they did. Gerasim was looking for her, looking for her, but never found. But Mumu returned to the owner one day with a gnawed leash around her neck. Gerasim realized that the dog did not run away from him on its own, and began to hide it from prying eyes in his closet, and he took her out into the street only at night. But on one such walking night, a drunk lay down at the fence of the master's estate. Mumu did not like drunkards, like her master, and began hysterically and shrilly barking at the drink. She woke up the whole house, including the lady.
As a result, the dog was ordered to get rid of. The servants took this too literally and decided to take Mumu's life. Gerasim volunteered to move his beloved pet to a better world with his own hand. Then, unable to withstand the mental anguish, the janitor returned (in fact, fled) to his native land - to the village, again becoming an ordinary peasant. At first they were looking for him, and when they found him, the lady said that "she doesn't need such an ungrateful worker for nothing."
Thus, if someone (most likely a schoolboy) decides to write an essay "Why Gerasim Drowned Mumu", he should give an answer to this question in the context of the whole story, so that the author's narrative acquires depth and richness.
Moral of the story
Turgenev specially portrays Gerasim as powerful in order to show, in contrast, his spiritual indecision and timidity, one might say, slavery. The janitor drowned his dog not because he took pity on her: he imagined how she would wander around other people's yards without him in search of food. He killed her, because he could not withstand the lordly order and the pressure of other servants. And when the reader understands the whole essence of Gerasim's inner world, he is shocked by two things: the skill of the writer and the deep tragedy of the narrative. After all, no one bothered Gerasim to escape with the dog, in general, so to speak, to prepare an escape in advance, when he realized that things were bad. But he did not do this, and all because of the servile psychology.
Thus, to the question of why Gerasim drowned Mumu, the answers do not imply variety. The key to understanding the work of I.S. Turgenev - in the slave psychology of the Russian man, which the classic masterfully embodied in the image of a wordless janitor.
(370 words)
It's no secret that society has a strong influence on a person. A similar trend, for example, is at the heart of fashion, when a person sees what others are wearing and repeats after them. We see the same situation when everyone votes for, and those who do not want to remain in the minority repeat after them. The same mechanisms of influence are used by marketers, showing huge crowds of people where they need to lure the public. Thus, society influences a person through the herd instinct, embedded deep in the subconscious: if everyone goes, then I am with them. How exactly this impact is reflected on a particular individual is an open question. The answer can be found in fiction.
In Tolstoy's epic War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov falls under the influence of secular youth. He just returned to his homeland, received a huge inheritance, but he feels lonely and a stranger in the world of high society. Therefore, he becomes an easy prey for those who have been in society for a long time and know how to profitably use Pierre's ignorance. He, a kind and moral young man, under the influence of tricks participates in disgusting activities. Then his social circle drives him into marriage with Helen Kuragina. Thus, the court elite nearly ruined the hero's bright and virtuous personality.
In Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons, society, on the contrary, cannot influence the hero. Bazarov goes against him, recognizing all his values as insignificant, and sometimes frankly far-fetched. He himself tries to move it forward with his discoveries, seeing the conservatism and ignorance of Russian society. Thanks to his activities, the stagnant society is enriched with new progressive elements like feminists and nihilists, albeit caricatured characters, but nevertheless carriers of new ideas. With their deliberate, while fruitless protest, they attract people to the problem of female lawlessness and social inequality, and do not aggravate these social cataclysms like idle nobles obsessed with their personal lives. Thus, if society influences the led citizens, then bright, distinctive personalities can themselves influence society.
So, society in many ways forms a person, but someone stops at this and only supplements the inert mass of people who repeat the same thing from century to century, while someone takes the reins into their own hands and influences society themselves. This means that the inevitable influence of society on people is reflected in different ways: someone is taught only to obey, someone is motivated to act independently. Thus, the result in any case depends on ourselves.
Interesting? Keep it on your wall!How should we treat our pets? Are we obligated to take responsibility for their lives? I thought about these questions after reading B. Yemelyanov's text "How I bought a dog." The work raises an important problem of the relationship between humans and animals.
The author, discussing this topic, gives an example from the life of the protagonist. The man, who considered dogs to be faithful friends, decided to buy an adult and trained dog. The writer draws our attention to the worried state of the dog that has lost its former friend: “Tomka lay motionless at the table all day,” thus Emelyanov admires Tomka’s love for his friend. After receiving the telegram, the owner of the dog, without hesitation, immediately went to pick it up. The publicist notes the importance of the hero's awareness that “they don’t sell friends,” thus the prose writer illustrates to us the loyalty of not only pets to humans, but also vice versa. The author leads us to the idea that friendship and devotion between man and animal must be protected.
One cannot but agree with B. Yemelyanov's point of view.
Indeed, there are no barriers to friendship between humans and animals.
The story of I.S. Turgenev "Mumu". The main character took care of his pet, protected, gave him all his tenderness and affection. Mumu became Gerasim's best friend, the closest being he could trust. The forced killing of his dog broke the hero and caused severe mental pain.
Confirmation of this problem can be found in LN Andreev's story "Kusak". The writer shows the irresponsible attitude of people towards the dog. The unfortunate animal lost confidence in others, became embittered and feral, since the previous owners left her in the country and repeatedly offended her. This example shows us the inhuman treatment of animals.
Thus, the problem raised by the prose writer makes each of us think about the importance of a kind attitude of people to pets, because it is not for nothing that there is such a saying: "We are responsible for those we have tamed."
Updated: 2017-06-09
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Useful material on the topic
- The problem of human responsibility to a pet. Why is it necessary to treat a tamed animal responsibly? (according to the text by B. Emelyanov)
In the modern world, human feelings are governed by transient values that eventually lose their significance and relevance: money, clothes, houses, jewelry. There are not so many truly important values that the Universe provides us: faith, love, friendship. The concept of "friendship" is one of the fundamental in the human outlook and in the system of its value orientations. It exists not only between people, but also in the disinterested relationship of man with animals. But why, then, our smaller brothers often become victims of human cruelty? Why do human irresponsibility, deceit and injustice become the sources of the ruthlessness of the world, in which any life is not worth a dime? First of all, those who are gullible and cannot protect themselves from more powerful creatures who call themselves people suffer. But animals are endowed with the same feelings of grief, resentment and loneliness, like humans. They give us much more than we can give in return. They give warmth, affection, gratitude, love, selfless devotion. Showing friendliness, they allow a person to reveal their true feelings and experiences through reciprocity, and such a laconic interlocutor can give us a feeling of closeness of our soul mate, the second “I”. They entrust us with their lives, and we must be responsible for those we tame.
In his story "Mumu", Turgenev tells about the internal collision of the serf Gerasim, who with all his soul was attached to only one creature - a dog. However, he understood that the cruel lady would not give her life, and he would not be able to protect her in any way. For the landowner, he himself is a pitiful little dog, like all serfs for their masters. How can a powerless and weak being help another? It's like demanding protection from Mumu for Gerasim. Realizing his helplessness, the hero realizes that it is better not to torture the animal, betraying it and abandoning it. He feels the burden of responsibility for the fate of a living creature that has so entrusted to him. A dog, an intelligent and empathetic friend, will be more painful if left to fend for itself. She will still die without a master, but in agony. And therefore Gerasim takes this pain upon himself, he kills the dog in order to facilitate its inevitable death. So at least she was not despicably deceived, did not become disillusioned with people and did not faint from hunger and loneliness. Her owner was devoted to her to the end and was ready to make sacrifices for the love of the dog. It is very scary and difficult to live with such a burden on his heart, but Gerasim humbly carries this cross.
Today there are no landowners or serfs. No one can be forced to kill or abandon an animal. However, the principles of humanism, laid down by Turgenev, apparently remain in the school bench for many. People become adults, their souls grow stale, they even drown a person with pleasure, what can we say about a dog. The bright feelings that this story awakens in readers, and the fundamental values of kindness, love, responsibility for many are empty words and pitiful sentiments. Homeless animals are still multiplying around, and outrageous scandals related to the cruel treatment of our younger brothers still occur. But these "Saratov knackers" (defendants in a high-profile criminal case of abuse of animals) also went to school, they also read Turgenev. Why are they so irresponsible? Probably because they did not feel the humanistic message that the author passed on to his descendants. They leafed through the book and did not think about anything. I believe that in order to stay with them, every person needs to re-read Russian classical literature from time to time and gradually discover its new facets, because with age we all change and begin to understand better and think more broadly. Otherwise, Mumu's tragedy will repeat itself more than once.
Interesting? Keep it on your wall!Ivan Turgenev wrote the story "Mumu", reflecting in it his experiences and concerns about the fate of Russia and the future of the country. And this is completely understandable, because in order to write a work, its author must be somehow impressed and spiritualized, then these feelings can be clearly expressed on paper. It is known that Ivan Turgenev, as a true patriot, pondered a lot about what awaited the country, and the events in Russia at that time were far from the most joyful for the people.
Analyzing Turgenev's "Mumu" and discussing the image of Gerasim, we will clearly see that the author built the plot around the problem of serfdom, which was very relevant in that era. We read about Turgenev's challenge to serfdom. Indeed, the action of the story "Mumu", the analysis of which must certainly be done in order to fully understand Turgenev's idea, takes place in the village of Russia, but all this prompts one to deeply reflect and draw important conclusions about the character of the Russian person and his soul.
The image of Gerasim in Turgenev's story "Mumu"
The image of Gerasim appears before the readers of the story "Mumu". Excellent qualities are revealed in this image. Turgenev shows kindness, strength, hard work and compassion. Gerasim possesses all these qualities, and his example shows how Turgenev would like to see a Russian person. For example, Gerasim has considerable physical strength, he wants and can work hard, the matter is in his hands.
Also Gerasim is neat and clean. He works as a janitor and takes responsibility for his duties, because thanks to him, the master's yard is always clean and tidy. Analyzing Turgenev's "Mumu", it is impossible to ignore the image of Gerasim. The author shows his somewhat reclusive nature, since Gerasim is unsociable, and even the door of his closet always has a lock. But this formidable look does not correspond to the kindness of his heart and generosity, because Gerasim is open-minded and knows how to sympathize. Therefore, it is clear: you cannot judge the inner qualities of a person by appearance.
What else can be seen in the image of Gerasim when analyzing "Mumu"? He was respected by the whole household, which was deserved - Gerasim worked hard, as if following the orders of the hostess, while not losing his sense of self-respect. The protagonist of the story, Gerasim, did not become happy, because he is a simple village man, and city life is built in a completely different way and flows according to its own laws. The city does not feel at one with nature. So Gerasim, having got into the city, understands that he is bypassed. Having fallen in love with Tatiana, he is deeply unhappy that she becomes the wife of another.
Puppy in the life of the protagonist "Mumu"
At a difficult moment in life, when the main character is especially sad and painful in his soul, a ray of light is suddenly seen. The image of Gerasim continues to unfold before the reader, and the analysis of "Mumu" is supplemented with an important detail - here it is, the hope for happy moments, a little cute puppy. Gerasim rescues the puppy and they become attached to each other. The puppy's name is Mumu, and the dog is always with his great friend. At night, Mumu guards, and in the morning he wakes up the owner.
It seems that life is filled with meaning and becomes more joyful, but the lady becomes aware of the puppy. Deciding to subdue Mumu, she experiences a strange disappointment - the puppy does not obey her, but the lady is not used to ordering twice. Can love be ordered? But that's another question.
The lady, accustomed to seeing how her instructions are executed at the same minute and meekly, cannot bear the disobedience of the little creature, and she orders to remove the dog out of sight. Gerasim, whose image is well revealed here, decides that Mumu can be hidden in his closet, especially since no one goes to him, but the puppy reveals himself with his barking. Then Gerasim realizes that he has no choice but to resort to drastic measures, and he kills the puppy, who has become his only friend. We will answer the question “Why Gerasim drowned Mumu?” Serfs are "dumb", they cannot claim their rights, they simply submit to the regime, but in the soul of such a person there is a hope that someday his oppression will come to an end.
We strongly recommend that you read the full version of the work, or at least for informational purposes, a summary of the story. We hope you found this article useful, in which we showed an analysis of Turgenev's "Mumu" and the image of Gerasim.
