A dog's heart is the direction of experience and mistakes. Essay based on the story M

Mikhail Bulgakov's story “The Heart of a Dog” can be called prophetic. In it, the author, long before our society abandoned the ideas of the 1917 revolution, showed the dire consequences of human intervention in the natural course of development, be it nature or society. Using the example of the failure of Professor Preobrazhensky’s experiment, M. Bulgakov tried to say in the distant 20s that the country must be returned, if possible, to its former natural state.

Why do we call the experiment of a brilliant professor unsuccessful? From a scientific point of view, this experiment, on the contrary, is very successful. Professor Preobrazhensky performs a unique operation: he transplants a human pituitary gland into a dog from a twenty-eight-year-old man who died a few hours before the operation. This man is Klim Petrovich Chugunkin. Bulgakov gives him a brief but succinct description: “Profession is playing the balalaika in taverns. Small in stature, poorly built. Liver dilated 1 (alcohol). The cause of death was a stab in the heart in a pub.” And what? The creature that emerged as a result of a scientific experiment has the makings of an eternally hungry street dog Sharika is combined with the qualities of the alcoholic and criminal Klim Chugunkin. And it is not surprising that the first words he uttered were swearing, and the first “decent” word was “bourgeois.”

The scientific result was unexpected and unique, but in everyday life it led to the most disastrous consequences. The type who appeared in the house of Professor Preobrazhensky as a result of an operation, “short in stature and unattractive in appearance,” upended the well-functioning life of this house. He behaves defiantly rudely, arrogantly and insolently.

The newly minted Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov puts on patent leather shoes and a tie of a poisonous color, his suit is dirty, unkempt, tasteless. With the help of the house committee Shvonder, he registers in Preobrazhensky’s apartment, demands the “sixteen arshins” of living space allotted to him, and even tries to bring his wife into the house. He believes that he is raising his ideological level: he is reading a book recommended by Shvonder - the correspondence of Engels with Kautsky. And he even makes critical remarks about the correspondence...

From the point of view of Professor Preobrazhensky, all these are pathetic attempts that in no way contribute to Sharikov’s mental and spiritual development. But from the point of view of Shvonder and others like him, Sharikov is quite suitable for the society that they create. Sharikov was even hired at government agency. For him, to become a boss, albeit a small one, means to transform outwardly, to gain power over people. Now he is dressed in a leather jacket and boots, drives a state car, and controls the fate of a girl secretary. His arrogance becomes limitless. All day long, obscene language and balalaika tinkling can be heard in the professor's house; Sharikov comes home drunk, pesters women, breaks and destroys everything around him. It becomes a thunderstorm not only for the inhabitants of the apartment, but also for the residents of the entire house.

Professor Preobrazhensky and Bormental are unsuccessfully trying to instill in him the rules of good manners, develop and educate him. Of the possible cultural events Sharikov only likes the circus, and he calls the theater a counter-revolution. In response to the demands of Preobrazhensky and Bormental to behave culturally at the table, Sharikov ironically notes that this is how people tormented themselves under the tsarist regime.

Thus, we are convinced that the humanoid hybrid Sharikov is more a failure than a success for Professor Preobrazhensky. He himself understands this: “Old donkey... This, doctor, is what happens when a researcher, instead of going parallel and groping with nature, forces the question and lifts the veil: here, get Sharikov and eat him with porridge.” He comes to the conclusion that violent intervention in the nature of man and society leads to catastrophic results. In the story “Heart of a Dog,” the professor corrects his mistake - Sharikov again turns into rtca. He is happy with his fate and with himself. But in real life, such experiments are irreversible, warns Bulgakov.

In his story “Heart of a Dog,” Mikhail Bulgakov says that the revolution that took place in Russia is not the result of natural socio-economic and spiritual development society, but an irresponsible experiment. This is exactly how Bulgakov perceived everything that was happening around and what was called the construction of socialism. The writer protests against attempts to create a new perfect society using revolutionary methods that do not exclude violence. And he was extremely skeptical about educating a new, free person using the same methods. the main idea The writer is that naked progress, devoid of morality, brings death to people.

M. Bulgakov “Heart of a Dog”

In the foreground « Heart of a Dog» - an experiment by the brilliant medical scientist Preobrazhensky with all the tragicomic results that were unexpected for the professor himself and his assistant Bormental. Having transplanted human seminal glands and the pituitary gland of the brain into a dog for purely scientific purposes, Preobrazhensky, to his amazement, receives from the dog... a human. Homeless Ball, always hungry, offended by everyone and everything, in a matter of days, before the eyes of the professor and his assistant, he turns into homosapiens. And on his own initiative he receives a human name: Sharikov Polygraph Polygraphovich. His habits, however, remain that of a dog. And the professor, willy-nilly, has to take on his upbringing.
Philip Philipovich Preobrazhensky not only an outstanding specialist in his field. He is a man of high culture and independent mind. And he perceives very critically everything that has been happening around him since March 1917 of the year. The views of Philip Philipovich have much in common with the views of Bulgakov. He is also skeptical of the revolutionary process and is also strongly opposed to all violence. Caress is the only way that is possible and necessary in dealing with living beings - rational and unreasonable. “Nothing can be done with terrorism...”
And this conservative professor, who categorically rejects the revolutionary theory and practice of reorganizing the world, suddenly finds himself in the role of a revolutionary. The new system strives to create a new man from the old “human material”. Philip Philipovich, as if competing with him, goes even further: he intends to make a man, and even one of high culture and morality, out of a dog. “With affection, exclusively affection.” And of course, by your own example.
The result is known. Attempts to instill Sharikov elementary cultural skills meet with persistent resistance on his part. And every day Sharikov becomes more impudent, more aggressive and more dangerous.
If the "source material" for sculpting Poligrafovich's polygraph If there was only Sharik, perhaps the professor’s experiment would have been a success. Having settled down in Philip Philipovich's apartment, Sharik, at first, like a recent street child, still commits some hooligan acts. But in the end he turns into a completely well-bred house dog.
But by chance, human organs went to a citizen Sharikov from a criminal. Moreover, a new, Soviet formation, as emphasized in his official characterization, or, more precisely, in Bulgakov’s very poisonous parody of the characterization:
"Klim Grigorievich Chugunkin, 25 years old, single. Non-partisan, sympathetic. Tried 3 times and acquitted: the first time due to lack of evidence, the second time the origin saved, the third time - conditional hard labor for 15 years.”
A “sympathizer” sentenced to hard labor “conditionally” - it is reality itself that intrudes into Preobrazhensky’s experiment.
Is this character really lonely? There is also the chairman of the house committee, Shvonder, in the story. In this case, this “personnel” Bulgakov character has a special character. He even writes articles for the newspaper and reads Engels. And in general he is fighting for revolutionary order and social justice. Residents of the house should enjoy the same benefits. No matter how brilliant the scientist is Professor Preobrazhensky, he has no business occupying seven rooms. He can have dinner in the bedroom, perform operations in the examination room, where he cuts up rabbits. And in general it’s time to equalize it with Sharikov, a man of a completely proletarian appearance.
The professor himself manages to fight off Shvonder this way or that way. But fight off Poligraf Poligrafych he turns out to be unable to. Shvonder already taken over Sharikov patronage and educates, paralyzing all professorial educational efforts, in his own way.
Two weeks after the dog's skin came off Sharikova and he began to walk on two legs, this participant already has a document proving his identity. And the document, according to Shvonder, who knows what he is talking about, is “the most important thing in the world.” In another week or two Sharikov neither more nor less - a co-worker. And not an ordinary person - the head of the department for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals. Meanwhile, his nature is the same as it was - dog-criminal... Just look at his message about his work “in his specialty”: “Yesterday cats were strangled and strangled.”
But what kind of satire is this if, just a few years later, thousands of real ball-carriers were “choking and strangling” in the same way not cats, but people, real workers, who had not been guilty of anything before the revolution?!
Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal, making sure that they were satisfied " sweetest dog turn into such scum that it makes your hair stand on end,” they eventually corrected their mistake.
But those experiments that have been taking place in reality for a long time have not been corrected. In the very first lines of the story a certain Central People's Council Farms. Under the canopy Central Council a normal food canteen is discovered, where employees are fed cabbage soup made from stinking corned beef, where the cook in a dirty cap is a “thief with a copper face.” And the caretaker is also a thief...
And here Sharikov. Not artificial, professorial - natural...: “I am now the chairman and, no matter how much I steal, it’s all about the female body, about cancerous cervixes, about Abrau-Durso. Because I was hungry enough when I was young, that’s enough for me, but there is no afterlife.”
Why not a cross between a hungry dog ​​and a criminal? And this is no longer a special case. Something much more serious. Isn't it the system? The man got hungry and humiliated himself to his heart's content. And suddenly, on you! - position, power over people... Is it easy to resist temptations, of which there are now plenty?..

Boborykin, V.G. In the foreground of “Heart of a Dog”/V.G. Boborykin//Mikhail Bulgakov.-1991.-P.61-66

The October Revolution not only broke the old foundations of life and changed life, it also gave birth to a new, completely phenomenal type of person. This phenomenon, of course, interested writers, many of them tried to unravel it, and some, such as M. Zoshchenko, N. Erdman, V. Kataev, completely succeeded. The “new” man in the street, the so-called “homo soviticus”, not only adapted to new government, he accepted her as his own, found his place in her. Distinctive features such “homo soviticus” is increased aggressiveness, belief in one’s own infallibility and impunity, peremptory judgments.

M. A. Bulgakov did not ignore this phenomenon either. Being an employee of the newspaper “Gudok” in the early 20s, he, of course, saw enough of such types, and the results of his observations were reflected in satirical stories “ Fatal eggs", "Diaboliad" and "Heart of a Dog".

The main character of the story “The Heart of a Dog,” written in 1925, is professor of medicine Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky, who was dealing with the then fashionable problem of rejuvenating the human body. The surname that Bulgakov gives to his hero is not accidental, because the professor is engaged in eugenics, that is, the science of improving and transforming the biological nature of man.

Preobrazhensky is very talented and dedicated to his work. Not only in Russia, but also in Europe he has no equal in his field. Like any talented scientist, he devotes himself entirely to his work: he sees patients during the day, and in the evening, or even at night, he studies specialized literature and performs experiments. In all other respects, he is a typical intellectual of the old school: he loves to eat well, dress tastefully, watch a premiere at the theater, and chat with his assistant Bormental. Preobrazhensky is not demonstratively interested in politics: the new government irritates him with lack of culture and rudeness, but things do not go further than poisonous grumbling.

Life as usual flows on a well-trodden rail, until one fine day a homeless dog Sharik, brought by the professor himself for an experiment, appears in Professor Preobrazhensky’s apartment. The dog immediately shows his quarrelsome and aggressive character. About the doorman at the entrance, Sharik thinks: “I wish I could bite him on his proletarian calloused foot.” And when he sees a stuffed owl in the professor’s waiting room, he comes to the conclusion: “This owl is rubbish. Impudent. We will explain it."

Preobrazhensky has no idea what kind of monster he brought into the house and what will come of it.

The professor's goal is grandiose: he wants to benefit humanity by giving it eternal youth. As an experiment, he transplants the seminal glands into Sharik, and then the pituitary gland of a deceased person. But rejuvenation does not work - in front of the amazed eyes of Preobrazhensky and Bormental, Sharik gradually turns into a man.

The creation of an artificial person is not a new subject in literature. Many authors turned to him. They created all sorts of monsters on the pages of their works - from Frankenstein to modern “transformers” and “terminators”, using them to solve very real, earthly problems.

So it is for Bulgakov: the plot of the “humanization” of a dog is an allegorical understanding of modernity, the triumph of rudeness, which has taken the form of state policy.

Surprisingly, for the half-man, half-beast Sharik (or Sharikov Poligraf Poligrafovich, as he decided to call himself) a social niche is very quickly found. The chairman of the house management, demagogue and boor Shvonder “takes him under his wing” and becomes his ideological inspirer. Bulgakov does not spare satirical colors to describe Shvonder and the rest of the house management members. These are faceless and sexless creatures, not people, but “labor elements” who, as Preobrazhensky says, have “ruin in their heads.” They spend their days singing revolutionary songs, holding political talks and solving issues of densification. Their main task is to divide everything equally, this is how they understand social justice. They are also trying to “compact” the professor who owns a seven-room apartment. The arguments that all these rooms are necessary for normal life and work are simply beyond their understanding. And if not for a high patron, Professor Preobrazhensky would hardly have been able to defend his apartment.

Before, before the fatal experiment, Philip Philipovich practically did not encounter representatives of the new government, but now he has such a representative at his side. Sharikov’s impudence is not limited to drunkenness, rowdyism, and rudeness; now, under the influence of Shvonder, he begins to claim his rights to living space and is going to start a family, since he considers himself one of the “labor elements”. Reading about this is not so much funny as it is scary. You can’t help but think about how many of these ball-carriers, both in these years and in subsequent decades, will find themselves in power and will not only poison the lives of normal people, but also decide their destinies, determine their internal and foreign policy countries. (Probably, similar thoughts appeared among those who banned Bulgakov’s story for many years).

Sharikov’s career is developing successfully: on the recommendation of Shvonder, he is accepted into the public service as the head of the department in the MKH for catching stray cats (a suitable occupation for former dog!). Sharikov flaunts himself in a leather coat, like a real commissar, gives orders to the maid in a metallic voice and, following Shvonder, professes the principle of equalization: “But what about: one settled in seven rooms, he has forty pairs of pants, and the other hangs around in the trash bins looking for food." Moreover, Sharikov writes a denunciation against his benefactor.

The professor realizes his mistake too late: this half-man, half-animal, scoundrel and boor has already thoroughly established himself in this life and has completely fit into the new society. An unbearable situation is developing, from which Bormental is the first to propose a way out - they should destroy the monster they created with their own hands.

“Crime has matured and fallen like a stone...”

The professor and his assistant become accomplices in the crime, but they are criminals “by necessity.” Since the change in Sharikov’s social status, the conflict between Preobrazhensky and Sharikov has gone beyond the home. And the professor decides on another operation - he returns Sharikov to his original state.

It would seem that M. Bulgakov’s story ends happily: Sharik in his natural form is quietly dozing in the corner of the living room and normal life the apartment has been restored. However, Shvonder, members of the house management and many other polygraph polygraph specialists, against whom medicine is powerless, remained outside the apartment.

The results of the local experiment could easily be annulled; the price paid for a social experiment unprecedented in history, carried out on the scale of an entire country, turned out to be exorbitant for Russia and the Russian people.

The problematics of "Heart of a Dog" allow us to fully explore the essence of the work of the famous Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov. The story was written in 1925. Let’s try to figure it out together why it is considered one of the key works of Russian literature of the early 20th century.

Daring story

Everyone who came across this work was imbued with the problems of “The Heart of a Dog.” His original name was "Heart of a Dog. A Monstrous Story." But then the author decided that the second part only made the title heavier.

The first listeners of the story were friends and acquaintances of Bulgakov, who gathered at the Nikitin subbotnik. The story made a great impression. Everyone was animatedly discussing her, noting her audacity. The problems of the story "Heart of a Dog" have become one of the most discussed topics in the coming months among the capital's educated society. As a result, rumors about her reached law enforcement. Bulgakov's house was searched and the manuscript was confiscated. It was never published during his lifetime, being published only during the years of perestroika.

And this is understandable. After all, it reflected the main problems of Soviet society, which appeared almost immediately after the victory October revolution. After all, in essence, Bulgakov compared power to a dog that turns into a selfish and vile person.

By analyzing the issues of “Heart of a Dog,” one can study what the cultural and historical situation was like in Russia after the story reflects all the troubles that had to be faced. to the Soviet people in the first half of the 20s.

At the center of the story is a scientific experiment carried out by He transplants a human pituitary gland into a dog. The results exceed all expectations. In a few days the dog turns into a human.

This work became Bulgakov's response to the events taking place in the country. The scientific experiment he depicts is a vivid and accurate picture of the proletarian revolution and its consequences.

In the story, the author poses many important questions to the reader. How does revolution relate to evolution, what is the nature of the new government and the future of the intelligentsia? But Bulgakov is not limited to general political topics. He is also concerned about the problem of old and new morality and ethics. It is important for him to find out which of them is more humane.

Contrasting layers of society

The problematic of Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog" largely lies in the opposition of different strata of society, the gap between which was felt especially acutely in those days. The intelligentsia is personified by the professor, luminary of science, Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky. The representative of the “new” man born of the revolution is the house manager Shvonder, and later Sharikov, who is influenced by the speeches of his new friend and communist propaganda literature.

Preobrazhensky's assistant, Doctor Bormental, calls him a creator, but the author himself clearly has a different opinion. He is not ready to admire the professor.

Laws of evolution

The main claim is that Preobrazhensky encroached on the basic laws of evolution and tried on the role of God. He creates a person with his own hands, conducting, in essence, a monstrous experiment. Here Bulgakov makes a reference to his original title.

It is worth noting that Bulgakov perceived everything that was happening in the country then as an experiment. Moreover, the experiment is grandiose in scale and at the same time dangerous. The main thing that the author denies Preobrazhensky is the moral right of the creator. After all, having endowed a kind stray dog ​​with human habits, Preobrazhensky made Sharikov the embodiment of everything terrible that was in people. Did the professor have the right to do this? This question can characterize the problems of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog.”

References to fiction

Bulgakov's story intertwines many genres. But the most obvious are the references to science fiction. They are the key artistic feature of the work. As a result, realism is brought to the point of complete absurdity.

One of the author's main theses is the impossibility of forcibly reorganizing society. Especially something so drastic. History shows that in many ways he was right. The mistakes made by the Bolsheviks today form the basis of history textbooks devoted to that period.

Sharik, who has become human, personifies the average character of that era. The main thing in his life is class hatred of his enemies. That is, the proletarians cannot stand the bourgeoisie. Over time, this hatred spreads to the rich, and then to educated people and ordinary intellectuals. It turns out that the basis of the new world is connected to everything old. It is obvious that a world based on hatred had no future.

Slaves in power

Bulgakov is trying to convey his position - slaves are in power. That's what "Heart of a Dog" is about. The problem is that they received the right to govern before at least a minimal education and understanding of culture. The darkest instincts awaken in such people, as in Sharikov. Humanity turns out to be powerless before them.

Among the artistic features of this work, it is necessary to note numerous associations and references to domestic and foreign classics. The key to the work can be obtained by analyzing the exposition of the story.

The elements that we encounter in the beginning of “Heart of a Dog” (blizzard, winter cold, stray dog) refer us to Blok’s poem “The Twelve.”

An important role is played by such an insignificant detail as a collar. In Blok, a bourgeois hides his nose in his collar, and in Bulgakov, it is by his collar that a homeless dog determines Preobrazhensky’s status, realizing that in front of him is a benefactor, and not a hungry proletarian.

In general, we can conclude that “Heart of a Dog” is Bulgakov’s outstanding work, which plays a key role both in his work and in all Russian literature. First of all, according to the ideological plan. But it is also worthy of high praise artistic features, and the issues that are raised in the story.

How disgusting Sharikov. He received all the features of the person whose pituitary gland was transplanted - that is, Klima Chugunkika- a rude man, a drunkard, a rowdy, killed in a drunken brawl.

Sharikov rude, arrogant, arrogant, feels like the master of life, because he belongs to representatives of the common people who are in power, feels support from representatives of the authorities. He quickly got used to this environment in order to benefit from literally everything.

His main goal is to become one of the people, to achieve the desired position. He is not going to do this, changing morally, developing, self-improving. He doesn't need knowledge. He believes that it is enough to put on a tie of a poisonous color and patent leather shoes - and you already have a presentable appearance, although the whole suit is dirty and unkempt. And the book that Shvonder recommends him to read, the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, according to the author, will not help him become smarter.

And the worst thing is that he achieves his goal: with the help of the manager Shvonder, he registers in Peobrazhensky’s apartment, even tries to bring his wife into the house, finds a job (and even if it’s dirty, he catches stray dogs, but even here he’s a small boss).

Sharikov, having received the position, was transformed, becoming like all representatives of power. Now he also has a leather jacket, as a symbol of belonging to power. He drives a company car.

So it doesn't matter what kind of person is moral. The main thing is that he is a proletariat, therefore the authorities and the law are on his side. This is exactly what the author criticizes, showing the chaos that was characteristic of the country during the reign of Stalin.

When power is in the hands of people like Sharikov, life becomes scary. There was no peace in Preobrazhensky's house: swearing, drinking, strumming the balalaika, pestering women. So the professor’s good intentions ended in a nightmare, which he himself began to correct.

Another hero does not inspire respect either - Shvonder. Chosen as the head of the house committee, he tries to conscientiously fulfill his duties. This is a public figure, one of the “comrades”. He hates class enemies, which, in his opinion, are Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal, talks with the professor with "calm gloating ". And when Philip Philipovich involuntarily lost his temper, “blue joy spread across Shvonder’s face.”

Summarizing, it should be noted that a person must remain a person, no matter what position he holds, no matter what activity he devotes himself to. At home, at work, in relationships with people, especially with those who surround a person, there must be basic moral laws. Only then can we hope for positive transformations in society as a whole.

Moral laws are unshakable, and their violation can lead to dire consequences. Everyone is responsible for their own affairs, for all the results of their activities.

Readers of the story come to these conclusions.