In the novel "" Goncharov creates two female images, which at one time influenced the main character - and his inner world - in completely different ways. Oblomov has feelings for both women, but they are completely different and dissimilar.
Olga Ilyinskaya is a woman who diligently tried to awaken vitality and activity in Oblomov. She made every effort to save the main character from laziness and constant apathy.
– bright and full of vital activity. She was smart and independent, proud and patient. She appears in Oblomov’s life, like a ray of light that can lead him out of the darkness.
The relationship between Olga and Ilya Ilyich began simply as friendly, but over time developed into love. The woman experiences feelings of love for Oblomov and he reciprocates her feelings. She is interested in the idea of reviving Ilya Ilyich. For her sake, Oblomov does things that are crazy for his nature - he goes to theaters and museums, climbs a hill for his beloved. He forgets about his favorite robe and starts sorting through his clothes. The main character changes before our eyes.
Feelings of love and sympathy change Olga herself. Each time new features of her character are revealed to us. She acted at the behest of her heart, not paying attention to social principles and the rules of public etiquette.
In exchange for her activity, Olga demanded such vibrant activity from Oblomov. But Oblomov was afraid of this. He was unable to break his lazy inner core and the relationship between Olga and Ilya Ilyich ends with farewell.
Another female image was the person of Agafya Pshenitsyna. This image is completely opposite to Olga Ilyinskaya. Agafya is a wonderful housewife; her house is clean and tidy. But spiritually, the woman was not very developed. Agafya Pshenitsyna helped Oblomov run the household, she took care of Ilya Ilyich, did all the work for him, all his instructions. She was close to Oblomov in the nature of her life.
We see in her the image of a caring mother who is busy with the main character. Agafya Matveevna loved Oblomov, but hid her feelings inside. She gave the main character peace, tranquility and silence. This is exactly what he appreciated in such an economic woman.
After marrying Agafya Pshenitsyna, Oblomov’s spiritual development and active life activity again became dull and died inside the protagonist. With her care, the woman completely protected Oblomov from any activity.
Two female images were on the path of the main character. Olga wanted to revive and save Oblomov. But Agafya led his inner world to complete destruction.
The difference between Olga Ilyinskaya and Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna is masterfully depicted by Goncharov, starting with the portrait description: “She was about thirty years old. She was very white and plump in face, so that the blush, it seemed, could not break through her cheeks... Her eyes were grayish-simple, like the whole expression of her face; hands are white, but hard...” The author did not give such a detailed description of Olga’s appearance, as if wanting to emphasize that the main thing about her was not her external qualities.
In the appearance of Agafya Matveevna, the author (and therefore his hero) notes “strong, healthy breasts,” full white arms with round elbows, and a lush figure covered in a dress. “She has a simple but pleasant face,” Oblomov decided condescendingly, “she must be a kind woman!” And indeed, Agafya Matveevna was a kind, warm-hearted, decent woman, she cared so much about Ilya Ilyich that she was ready to sacrifice a lot for him. For example, I took my jewelry to the pawnshop so that the master would not need anything. To Stolz’s question about the promissory note (a fraudulent forgery of her brother and Tarantiev, which Agafya did not know about), she innocently replied that the master did not owe her anything, although she had been feeding him at her own expense for a long time.
However, the author does not put the spiritual qualities of this heroine in the first place, and the narrative is dominated by everyday and physiological details that are important for the main character. These are seductive shoulders, full arms with round elbows, which Oblomov admired “with the same pleasure with which he looked at a hot cheesecake in the morning.” This woman brought peace and tranquility into his soul, and he felt gratitude to her for the amazing atmosphere of comfort, so reminiscent of Oblomov’s familiar and sweet life.
Agafya Matveevna was a hardworking housewife, and she was ready every minute to serve the person she loved with all her heart. It is impossible to imagine her resting, and Oblomov liked her tirelessness. He was also very pleased that they did not demand anything from him, did not bother him with anything, but they cared about him tirelessly. Love and sacrifice are always nearby in the lives of ordinary Russian women, and Agafya Pshenitsyna is one of them. She is neither a noblewoman nor a peasant (“official”), and earns her living by renting out rooms to guests, doing a lot of different work for the tenants and for her family. She has philistine views on relations between men and women, but when she realized that she fell in love with Oblomov, she was ready to make any sacrifice for his sake, caring for him became the meaning of her life.
In many ways, her faithful assistant Anisya, Zakhara’s wife, with whom the hostess became very friendly, is similar to Agafya Matveevna. They are both very hardworking, they treat work not as an exhausting, difficult duty, but as a familiar and necessary condition of life, which was the complete opposite of the views on work in Oblomovka. Anisya was “an agile woman, about forty-seven years old, with a caring smile... and tenacious, never-tiring hands.” Lazy and grumpy Zakhar, who sometimes spoke threateningly and angrily to his wife, had to admit that “Anisya is smarter than him!” And therefore, all the misunderstandings with the master were resolved by Anisya, who spoke to Oblomov in such a way, chattering nonstop, that he calmed down in bewilderment.
The author notes the mutual sympathy of Agafya Matveevna and Anisya. “If there are sympathies of souls, if kindred hearts sense each other from afar...”, then such an example is the friendship of these women, which also testifies to the kindness and sincerity of Agafya Matveevna. And how can she not appreciate her assistant, if with her appearance everything in the house began to sparkle with cleanliness and everything was in order! So Anisya became a “great helper” in the master’s orders, and Agafya Matveevna found “a place in her heart” for Anisya, who also realized that from now on she, together with the mistress, would participate in the entire life of the house. “The two women understood each other and became inseparable”: they shared secrets in everything that had been introduced into people’s everyday life by observant minds and centuries of experience.
Like all ordinary women, Anisya is not only inquisitive, but also curious, she is interested in the master’s life, but she will not indulge in gossip and is ready at any moment to defend the honor of the owner if anyone dares to say too much.
When Ilya Ilyich married Agafya Matveevna, Anisya finally established her position in Pshenitsyna’s house, and “the mutual attraction of Anisya and the mistress turned into an inextricable connection, into one existence.” “Agafya Matveevna grew up, Anisya spread her arms like an eagle’s wings, and life began to boil and flow like a river.” If this is what is needed for the family, then Anisya won’t even go to bed, as long as everything is decent, as the master wants. And the kitchen became “the palladium of the activities of the great housewife and her worthy assistant,” under whose watchful eye the entire house was located, where her “nimble, all-sweeping hand” was in charge.
The images of women, near whom Oblomov’s quiet life takes place, were not introduced by chance by the author. The reader sees how love has a beneficial effect on the souls of those who are able to love selflessly, who are not afraid of work, and inspired women are ready for much. Their work seems to excite them, and their eyes shine brighter. The images of Agafya Matveevna and Anisya help to see even more clearly the bright opposite against their background, the master Ilya Ilyich, and the destructive impact that laziness and lordship brought up from childhood had on Oblomov. Even Olga’s love did not inspire him to “deeds”; he suffered from the need to make efforts every day, when he had long been tired of just leaving the house. Oblomov did not want and could not work on himself, change himself and his usual way of life. And in Pshenitsyna’s house, a lot reminded him of his childhood in Oblomovka, when you can admire other people’s work, remaining in peace, while feeling care and love.
Agafya Matveevna idolizes the man who changed everything in her destiny, considers him a special, noble and pampered nobleman who bestowed his attention on her. Together with love, the soul of this simple woman blossomed; Agafya Matveevna grew spiritually, causing surprise with her transformation among those who knew her before. Now she is able to defend her right to a happy family life, and her brother and family are forced to move out, and Agafya Matveevna lives in peace and harmony with the person dearest to her. She accepted everything in him (Olga could not do this even at the request of Ilya Ilyich: “accept me as I am”).
Agafya was not irritated by Oblomov’s inactivity, drowsiness, laziness, and she recognized his quiet, calm disposition and his way of life as an ideal. This woman believed that “God put a soul into her life” when Ilya Ilyich appeared in her house. Having married him, she began to understand herself in a new way, since “now she already knew why she lived.” And even after Oblomov’s death, remaining eternally inconsolable, Agafya Matveevna understood that “rays, a quiet light from the seven years that flew by in an instant, spilled over her entire life.”
Agafya Matveevna loved her son Andryusha no less than his father, but wisely decided that Stolz and Olga would do much more to raise him than she did. And at the end of the novel, the author reports her rapprochement with Olga Ilyinskaya, but not only because of their common concern for Andryusha. It turns out that they were “connected by a common sympathy, one memory of the soul of the deceased, pure as crystal.”
So, at first, infinitely distant and different women become closer, thanks to the ability to love strongly and selflessly, although fate and life led them along different paths.
The novel "Oblomov", written by the author, presents the reader with versatile characters. The female images in the work are complete opposites. and Agafya Pshenitsyna are antipodes. Literary critics note Olga’s life position, desire for self-improvement and constant development. The inner beauty of the heroine in the work is contrasted with the bourgeois love for the home and family of Agafya Pshenitsyna.
Agafya received negative reviews from the writer’s contemporaries and the public, who subsequently became acquainted with the novel. Pshenitsyna is close to the main character in spirit, but the sympathies of the audience always turned out to be on the side of Ilyinskaya. At the same time, the image of the second character is no less deep and multifaceted. The illusory happiness and love that he sought to find overtook him in his marriage to Agafya.
Biography and plot
Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna is the widow of an official and the illegitimate wife of the protagonist. The characterization of a character begins with an external description. She looked no more than 30 years old. The figure was distinguished by its fullness and whiteness of skin. The face did not stand out in anything remarkable: the eyebrows were inconspicuous, the eyes were unattractive, the expression did not reflect emotions. Only the woman’s hands betrayed her penchant for work. Until the appearance of Oblomov, her life was monotonous and devoid of bright events. The housewife had no education, talents or interests. The main value was the house, which she maintained immaculately.
Agafya fanatically managed her household affairs, realizing that there would always be work. Her activity prevented anyone from getting bored and wasting time. The character of the heroine and selfless devotion to ideals awakened love in Oblomov. Having become a lodger, Ilya Ilyich demonstrated how he could influence female nature. Laziness did not become an obstacle to the birth of a new love story. Pshenitsyna was transformed. She not only became thoughtful, but also tried in every possible way to please her lover. Oblomov’s clothes were always clean, the table was set in accordance with his wishes, and during moments of Ilya’s illness, Agafya Matveevna did not leave the patient’s bedside.
The author wrote that with the advent of love in Pshenitsyna’s life, the entire household, like an organism, acquired a new meaning of life. The specificity of the image of Agafya Pshenitsyna is that she turns out to be the only decisive and unselfish person among Oblomov’s acquaintances. The heroine is ready to make sacrifices to help out her husband: she pawns jewelry, borrows from the family of her late husband, breaks ties with her brother, who is trying to involve Oblomov in intrigue.
In the union of Pshenitsyna and Oblomov, a son is born. The boy is not like Agafya Matveevna’s other children. He has no place in the family and, realizing this, after Oblomov’s death the child is transferred to foster care.
A woman’s love did not need material reinforcements and did not require changes in Ilya Ilyich’s personality. He was the best man for her. The connection between the characters was built not on fictitious attachments, but on the conscious similarity of characters and worldview.
Goncharov, describing the heroine, presents a dual image. This is a narrow-minded woman without ambitions or interests, whose social circle is servants and merchants. A weak-willed character, ready to live someone else’s life in the absence of his own ideals and ambitions. On the other hand, Pshenitsyna appears as a savior in the situation in which the main character finds himself. This is a quiet housewife, trying to hide her illiteracy, a believing home woman, protecting Oblomov’s peace. Capable of sacrifice, she gives herself completely, showing natural femininity and finding happiness from the opportunity to be close to her loved one.
Relations with Agafya Matveevna become a healing balm for Oblomov after the vicissitudes of his relationship with Ilyinskaya. He receives the long-awaited peace and harmony. He is idolized and loved despite his nature and habits. The character of Pshenitsyna, depending on the reader’s perception of the main character of the work, evokes different feelings. Oblomov the lazy man provokes the appearance of a negative image of Agafya, who panders to his shortcomings. Oblomov, an ordinary man who is not looking for movement and development, is happy with Agafya. For a simple bourgeois existence, Pshenitsyna turns out to be a suitable passion.
A comparison of Pshenitsyna and Ilyinskaya shows that the first is a character demonstrating Christian love. When wondering why it was not the brave Olga, but the quiet Agafya, who turned out to be closer to Oblomov, it is easy to get the answer:
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
Tortured by needs, Oblomov’s essence felt comfortable in bliss and adoration. The hero, incapable of fighting, turned out to be inclined to a simple way of existence.
Actresses
The role of Agafya Matveevna in films was performed by diverse artists. In the 1965 film of the same name, the role of Oblomov’s last love was played by Tamara Aleshina. The main role in the actress’s career was the character of the film “Heavenly Slug” - Masha Svetlova. The performer's appearance was conducive to her appointment to the role. Director Alexander Belinsky relied on the dramatic talent of the theater artist, thanks to which the image turned out to be deep and authentic.
Tamara Aleshina as Pshenitsyna In 1966, Italian film director Claudio Fino released a project called OBLOMOV. The role of Agafya Pshenitsyna went to Pina Chei. The artist is known for playing the leading female roles in projects based on classical literature.
In 1972, Soviet directors Oscar Remez and Galina Kholopova began filming the novel. The image of Agafya Pshenitsyna was embodied by Marina Kuznetsova.
The actresses who played the role of Oblomov's named wife were distinguished by pleasant but typical facial features. This matched the description of the heroine in the novel. The subtle nuance of the director's plan emphasized Goncharov's idea that for Oblomov, Pshenitsyna was not a simple housewife. She was more of a guardian angel who took responsibility for someone else's life and well-being.
- Agafya Pshenitsyna is not a random character in the novel. Its prototype is the image invented by the author to depict Oblomov’s mother. Avdotya Matveevna, like Agafya, has an Old Russian name and a similar patronymic. A believer and kind woman personified caring for her son and home.
- Despite the desire to interpret Pshenitsyna’s character as negative, it is noteworthy that he is described in the traditions of Russian beauty. A plump woman who takes care of the family hearth is a symbol of the fertility of the Russian land and everything that attracts Oblomov in his native country.
- The system of images in the novel is curious: two men and two women opposed to each other find happiness based on the similarity of characters. Educated intellectuals find each other, guided by ambitions and aspirations. Their happiness seems feigned and incomplete. At the same time, ordinary people find peace and harmony in a family where respect for each other reigns.
Agafya Matveevna Pshenitsyna, nee Mukhoyarova, is a character in Ivan Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov”. The wife of the main character - Ilya Ilyich Oblomov - and the mother of his little son Andryusha.
The woman was the sister of the official-schemer Ivan Mukhoyarov. Before her marriage to Oblomov, Agafya was the widow of another official, which is why she bore the surname Pshenitsyn at the time of her meeting with Oblomov.
Characteristics of the heroine
Agafya Matveevna was hardworking and constantly tried to please her lover, and then her husband. She liked to repeat that “there is always work.” She did not allow herself to relax: “And it used to be that everything was boiling in her hands! From morning to evening she flies like that!”
The heroine sought to create comfort in the house and protect her loved one from unnecessary efforts. And first, my acquaintance and then my husband, Ilya Ilyich, appreciated Pshenitsyna’s hard work: “You are a wonderful housewife!”
However, Agafya was not distinguished by erudition and high intelligence. She barely knew how to read and write: “She only found it difficult because she had to write a lot... she signed crookedly, askew and large...” This can be explained by the fact that the woman did not like to read. Let us remember her negative answer to the question: “Are you reading anything?” In addition, she practically never went to the theater and was not interested in culture.
(Ilya Oblomov meets his future wife Agafya Matveevna)
The simplicity and ingenuousness of this woman is emphasized even by her surname from her first marriage - Pshenitsyna. Ilya Oblomov’s wife was trusting. She could sign a letter, completely “without suspecting what it is and why she is signing.”
Despite this, the lady tried to engage in a unique business - selling chickens. Apparently, enterprise still united her with her brother. Although Pshenitsyna, unlike him, worked honestly and got up early in the morning: “she goes to bed and no gun will wake her up before six o’clock.”
Like her second husband, Agafya Matveevna was a homebody and did not like moving. “We were born here, we lived here for a century, we must die here...” she used to say about her estate. Ilya Ilyich previously treated his native Oblomovka in approximately the same way. He could hardly force himself to go even to meet his friend Andrei Stolts.
Moreover, the author noted that it was Oblomov who truly fell in love with Pshenitsyna for the first time. Apparently, she did not experience such feelings for her late first husband and father of her two eldest children: “Without loving, she lived to be thirty years old, and then suddenly it seemed to come over her.”
The image of the heroine in the work
Agafya Matfeevna is a thirty-year-old impoverished aristocrat. I. A. Goncharov describes the heroine as follows: “She was very white and plump in face. She had almost no eyebrows at all... Her eyes were grayish-simple, like her whole facial expression; her hands were white, but hard, with large knots protruding outward blue veins."
Tough, worn-out hands emphasize the character’s love of work. Being plump means that the lady did not care about appearance. A simple Russian woman appeared before us. It was precisely this, caring and economical, not too smart, that attracted Oblomov.
(Agafya Petrovna, Ilya Oblomov and son Andrei, named after Andrei Stolts in the novel)
The image of Agafya Matveevna, it would seem, is absolutely positive. A caring wife, an affectionate mother, an excellent housewife and simply a kind and hardworking woman. However, the writer still emphasizes: her love turned out to be destructive for Ilya Oblomov. To avoid a second stroke (apoplexy), Pshenitsyna’s husband needed to move, get up from his favorite sofa. However, his wife did not allow him to make any efforts. She cared about the absolute comfort of her beloved man. And this was precisely what became the tragic mistake of a loving wife. The apoplexy struck again, and Ilya Ilyich still died.
However, the author still gives hope that Pshenitsyna realized her mistake. After all, it was not without reason that she gave her son to be raised by Ilyinskaya and Stolz. The mother wanted the child to see the example of other people and a different life. She wished that Andryusha, unlike his late father, would learn to leave his comfort zone and go towards his dream.
After all, Oblomov lost his once beloved Olga Ilyinskaya precisely because of his own laziness. And Ilya Ilyich himself realized this. Perhaps this is why his little son Andrei was the namesake of his active friend Stolz... Therefore, Pshenitsyna, entrusting the child to the friends of her late husband, did the right thing. She knew that he would approve of her decision...
Pshenitsyna Agafya Matveevna
OBLOMOV
Novel (1849-1857, published 1859)
Pshenitsyna Agafya Matveevna is the widow of an official, left with two children, the sister of Ivan Matveevich Mukhoyarov, Tarantiev’s godfather. It is Tarantiev who settles Oblomov, who is forced to look for a new apartment, in P.’s house on the Vyborg side. “She was about thirty years old. She was very white and full in the face, so that the blush, it seemed, could not break through her cheeks. She had almost no eyebrows at all, but in their place there were two slightly swollen, shiny stripes with sparse blond hair. The eyes are grayish-simple, like the whole facial expression; the hands are white, but hard, with large knots of blue veins protruding outward.”
P. is taciturn and is used to living without thinking about anything: “Her face took on a practical and caring expression, even dullness disappeared when she started talking about a subject familiar to her. To every question that did not relate to some positive goal known to her, she answered with a grin and silence.” And her grin was nothing more than a form that covered up ignorance of the subject: not knowing what she should do, accustomed to the fact that “brother” decides everything, only in skillfully managing the house did P. achieve perfection. Everything else passed by the undeveloped mind for years and decades.
Almost immediately after Oblomov moves to the Vyborg side, P. begins to arouse a certain interest in Ilya Ilyich, which can be regarded as purely erotic (the round white elbows of the hostess constantly attract Oblomov’s attention). But the answer awaits at the end of the novel, when, shortly before his death, Ilya Ilyich has a dream where his mother, pointing to P., whispers: “Militrisa Kirbitevna.” She names the name of his dream, inspired by Ilya Ilyich’s nanny’s fairy tales in early childhood.
The image of P. never aroused particular interest among critics of the novel: a rude, primitive nature, which they were accustomed to looking at only through the eyes of Stolz, as a terrible woman, symbolizing the depth of Ilya Ilyich’s fall. But it is no coincidence that Goncharov gives this simple woman a name close to the name of his beloved mother - Avdotya Matveevna Goncharova, a merchant widow who for many years lived in the same house with Goncharov’s godfather, nobleman N. N. Tregubov, who raised her sons and gave them education.
P. is in constant motion, unlike Oblomov, realizing that “there is always work” and that it is the true content of life, and not at all a punishment, as was believed in Oblomovka. Her constantly flashing elbows attract Oblomov’s attention not only with her beauty, but also with the heroine’s activity, which he is not fully aware of. Outwardly, P. is perceived as a kind of perpetuum mobile, without thought, without a glimmer of feeling, the “brother” calls her nothing more than “cow” or “horse,” seeing in his sister only free labor. “Even if you hit her, even if you hug her, she’s all grinning like a horse at oats,” he says about her to godfather Tarantiev, preparing, on the latter’s advice, to track down P.’s relationship with Oblomov and demand money from Ilya Ilyich “for dishonor.”
Gradually, as Oblomov realizes that he has nowhere else to strive, that it was here, in a house on the Vyborg side, that he found the desired way of life for his native Oblomovka, a serious internal change occurs in the fate of P. herself. She finds the meaning of her existence in the constant work of arranging and caring for the house, and in the chores around the house. Something unknown to her before began to awaken in P.: anxiety, glimpses of reflection. In other words - love, more and more deep, pure, sincere, unable to express itself in words, but manifested in what P. knows and can do well: in caring for Oblomov’s table and clothes, in prayers for his health, in sitting at night at the bedside of the sick Ilya Ilyich. “Her entire household... received a new, living meaning: the peace and comfort of Ilya Ilyich. Before she saw this as a duty, now it has become her pleasure. She began to live in her own full and varied way... It was as if she suddenly switched to another faith and began to profess it, not discussing what kind of faith it was, what dogmas it contained, but blindly obeying its laws.”
For P. Oblomov is a person from another world: she has never seen such people before. Knowing that ladies and gentlemen lived somewhere, she perceived their life in much the same way as Oblomov listened to the fairy tale about Militris Kirbityevna in childhood. The meeting with Oblomov served as an impulse for rebirth, but the culprit of this process “did not understand how deeply this meaning had taken root and what an unexpected victory he had achieved over the mistress’s heart... And P.’s feeling, so normal, natural, disinterested, remained a secret to Oblomov, for those around her and for herself.”
Oblomov “was getting closer to Agafya Matveevna - as if he was moving towards a fire, from which it becomes warmer and warmer, but which cannot be loved.” P. is the only absolutely unselfish and decisive person around Oblomov. Without delving into any complications, she does what is necessary at the moment: she pawns her own pearls and silver, is ready to borrow money from the relatives of her late husband, just so that Oblomov does not feel lacking in anything. When the intrigues of Mukhoyarov and Tarantiev reach their peak, P. decisively renounces both his “brother” and his “godfather”.
Having devoted herself to caring for Oblomov, P. lives as fully and variedly as she has never lived before, and her chosen one begins to feel as if in his native Oblomovka: “... he quietly and gradually fit into the simple and wide coffin of the rest of his existence, made with their own hands, like the desert elders who, turning away from life, dig their own grave.”
P. and Oblomov have a son. Understanding the difference between this child and the children from his first husband, P., after the death of Ilya Ilyich, meekly gives him up to be raised by the Stolts. Oblomov's death brings a new color to P.'s existence - she is the widow of a landowner, a master, for which her “brother” and his wife constantly reproach her. And although P.’s lifestyle has not changed in any way (she still serves the Mukhoyarov family), the thought constantly pulsates in her that “her life was lost and shone, that God put his soul into her life and took it out again... Now she knew why she lived and that she had not lived in vain... Rays, a quiet light from the seven years that had flown by in an instant, spilled over her whole life, and she had nothing more to desire, nowhere to go.”