Their images and descriptions. Characteristics of the main characters of the work Mashenka, Nabokov. Their images and descriptions Mashenka analysis briefly

The horrors of the First World War, revolution, Civil War, famine, devastation - these are just some of the reasons that forced hundreds of thousands of people in the “first wave” of Russian emigration to leave their country. Among them was the family of Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov spent most of his life away from his homeland, and this left its mark on his work, on the topics and problems that he covered, on the originality of their disclosure.

The theme of love also sounds unique in V. Nabokov’s novel “Mashenka”, which, among other works, brought real fame to the writer.

The entire novel is imbued with a sad, nostalgic mood. His main character- emigrant Ganin. He misses native land, and all his thoughts and feelings are painted in sad tones. There is emptiness in his soul, he is tormented by the awareness of the meaninglessness of existence and inactivity, life proceeds “in some kind of tasteless idleness, devoid of dreamy hope, which makes idleness charming.” “Lately,” the author reports about him, “he has become lethargic and gloomy... some kind of nut has loosened, he even began to hunch over and he himself admitted... that... he suffers from insomnia- tsey". He would be glad to leave Berlin in search of solace, but he is connected with Lyudmila, to whom he is unable to tell that he no longer loves her. Actually, there was never real love between them. She “slipped very fleetingly once upon a time.” And if earlier Ganin knew how to control his own willpower, then in his current mood his will betrays him, and even the fact that “now everything about Lyudmila was disgusting to him” does not push him to take a decisive step.

The other heroes of the novel are the mathematician Alferov, the poet Podtyagin, the dancers Colin and Gornotsvetov, and Klara, the secretary and hostess of the boarding house Lydia Nikolaevna. They are united by the fact that they are all Russians and all of them, just like Ganin and Lyudmila, are torn from home by the will of fate.

Their attitude towards Russia is not the same. Alferov constantly speaks critically about his homeland. “This is not a Russian mess here,” he exclaims enthusiastically in one of the conversations and calls home country“damned.” He does not believe in its strength, in his opinion, Russia is “kaput”, and all Alferov’s speeches about his homeland are imbued with cold contempt and ridicule. But Ganin and Podtyagin always talk about Russia with a special reverent feeling, they talk about it as the most precious thing in the world.

The difference in attitude towards the homeland determines Ganin’s dislike for Alferov. He doesn't like him appearance, his manners, but the determining factor in their relationship is still the attitude towards Russia. Hostility towards Alferov is also felt in the author’s description. Details such as “a manure-colored beard,” “sparse hair,” “a skinny neck,” “a very horny voice,” of course, cannot arouse sympathy in the reader.

The culminating moment in the development of relations between Ganin and Alferov is the news that Mashenka, ex-lover Ganina is Alferov’s wife. Alferov talked about Mashenka everywhere and everywhere, he did not miss the opportunity to announce her arrival with delight. But Ganin could not even imagine that the wife of the one who “not to cheat is a sin” would be his Mashenka. Alferov admires his wife, tells everyone that she is “charming” to him, but Ganin still considers Alferov unworthy of Mashenka. His pretentious memories of his wife are already beginning to provoke ridicule from those around him. Ganin is bitter that Mashenka, who is almost holy to him, involuntarily becomes the object of these ridicule, along with Alferov. But at the same time, “he felt some kind of exciting pride at the memory that Mashenka gave him, and not her husband, her deep, unique fragrance.”

He decides to run away with her. Having learned about her arrival, Ganin again finds the meaning of life and for the remaining few days he lives in anticipation of the arrival of his beloved. These days he is truly happy. He feels cheerful, rejuvenated and finally finds the strength to break up with Lyudmila.

The description of Ganin's memories of Mashenka is full of lyricism. Plunging into thoughts about the past, he seems to be reliving that hot passion, the very first and most uncontrollable. However, in the last minutes Ga-nin abandons his intention, because he suddenly realizes that the affair with Mashenka is long over, that he lived only in the memory of her, of Russia, where their love blossomed and which is now far away for him and is not available. It was love for Russia, and not love for Mashenka, that so excited his heart: “He always remembered Russia when he saw fast clouds, but now he would have remembered it even without clouds: since last night he had only thought about it.” “What happened that night” simply brought back the past, the irretrievably gone past, upon him. Ganin suddenly realizes that he was “experiencing the memory as reality.”

The novel “Mashenka” is a work about love for the homeland. The author reveals the problems of attitude towards the native land, the fate of Russia, the fate of emigrants, the problem of love.

In 1926 the first prose work Nabokov's novel "Mashenka". On this occasion, Niva magazine wrote: “Nabokov, having fun, tirelessly embroiders himself and his destiny in different variations along the canvas of his works. But not only his own, although hardly anyone interested Nabokov more than himself. This is also the fate of the whole human type- Russian intellectual emigrant." Indeed, for Nabokov, life in a foreign land was still quite difficult. The past, in which there were bright feelings, love, a completely different world, became a consolation. Therefore, the novel is based on memories. There is no plot as such, the content unfolds as a stream of consciousness: dialogues of the characters, internal monologues of the main character, descriptions of the scene of action are interspersed.

The main character of the novel, Lev Glebovich Ganin, having found himself in exile, lost some of the most important personality traits. He lives in a boarding house that he does not need and is not interested in, its inhabitants seem pitiful to Ganin, and he himself, like other emigrants, is of no use to anyone. Ganin is sad, sometimes he cannot decide what to do: “should I change my body position, should I get up to go and wash my hands, should I open the window...”. “Twilight obsession” is the definition that the author gives to the state of his hero. Although the novel belongs to the early period of Nabokov’s work and is, perhaps, the most “classical” of all the works he created, the game with the reader characteristic of the writer is also present here. It is unclear what serves as the root cause: either emotional experiences deform outside world, or, on the contrary, ugly reality deadens the soul. There is a feeling that the writer has placed two crooked mirrors in front of each other, the images in which are ugly refracted, doubling and tripling.

The novel “Mashenka” is structured as the hero’s recollection of his former life in Russia, cut short by the revolution and Civil War; The narration is told in third person. In Ganin’s life before emigration there was one thing: important event- his love for Mashenka, who remained in her homeland and was lost with her. But quite unexpectedly, Ganin recognizes his Mashenka in the woman depicted in the photograph, the wife of his neighbor at the Berlin boarding house Alferov. She must come to Berlin, and this expected arrival revives the hero. Ganin’s heavy melancholy passes, his soul is filled with memories of the past: a room in a St. Petersburg house, country estate, three poplars, a barn with a painted window, even the flickering spokes of a bicycle wheel. Ganin again seems to be immersed in the world of Russia, preserving the poetry of “noble nests” and the warmth of family relationships. Many events took place, and the author selects the most significant of them. Ganin perceives the image of Mashenka as “a sign, a call, a question thrown into the sky,” and to this question he suddenly receives a “gemstone, delightful answer.” The meeting with Mashenka should be a miracle, a return to the world in which Ganin could only be happy. Having done everything to prevent his neighbor from meeting his wife, Ganin finds himself at the station. At the moment the train on which she arrived stops, he feels that this meeting is impossible. And he leaves for another station to leave the city.

It would seem that the novel assumes a love triangle situation, and the development of the plot pushes towards this. But Nabokov rejects the traditional ending. Ganin’s deep experiences are much more important to him than the nuances of the characters’ relationships. Ganin’s refusal to meet his beloved has not a psychological, but rather a philosophical motivation. He understands that the meeting is unnecessary, even impossible, not because it entails inevitable psychological problems, but because it is impossible to turn back time. This could lead to submission to the past and, therefore, renunciation of oneself, which is generally impossible for Nabokov’s heroes.

In the novel “Mashenka” Nabokov first addresses themes that will then appear repeatedly in his work. This is the theme of lost Russia, appearing as an image of lost paradise and the happiness of youth, the theme of memory, which simultaneously resists everything destroying time and fails in this futile struggle.

The image of the main character, Ganin, is very typical of the work of V. Nabokov. Unsettled, “lost” emigrants constantly appear in his works. The dusty boarding house is unpleasant to Ganin, because it will never replace his homeland. Those living in the boarding house - Ganin, mathematics teacher Alferov, the old Russian poet Podtyagin, Klara, funny dancers - are united by uselessness, some kind of exclusion from life. The question arises: why do they live? Ganin acts in films, selling his shadow. Is it worth living just to “get up and go to the printing house every morning,” as Clara does? Or “look for an engagement”, as dancers look for it? Humiliate yourself, beg for a visa, explaining yourself in bad German, as Podtyagin is forced to do? None of them have a goal that would justify this miserable existence. All of them do not think about the future, do not strive to get settled, improve their lives, living in the daytime. Both the past and the expected future remained in Russia. But admitting this to yourself means telling yourself the truth about yourself. After this, you need to draw some conclusions, but then how to live, how to fill boring days? And life is filled with petty passions, romances, and vanity. “Podtyagin went into the room of the hostess of the boarding house, stroking the affectionate black dachshund, pinching her ears, a wart on her gray muzzle and talking about his old man’s painful illness and that he had been trying for a long time for a visa to Paris, where pins and red wine are very cheap "

Ganin’s connection with Lyudmila does not leave for a second the feeling that we are talking about love. But this is not love: “And yearning and ashamed, he felt how senseless tenderness - the sad warmth remaining where love had once slipped very fleetingly - makes him press without passion to the purple rubber of her yielding lips...” Did Ganin have true love? When he met Mashenka as a boy, he fell in love not with her, but with his dream, the ideal woman he had invented. Mashenka turned out to be unworthy of him. He loved silence, solitude, beauty, and sought harmony. She was frivolous and pulled him into the crowd. And “he felt that these meetings were making him smaller true love" In Nabokov's world, happy love is impossible. It is either connected with betrayal, or the heroes do not even know what love is. Individualistic pathos, fear of subordination to another person, fear of the possibility of his judgment make Nabokov’s heroes forget about her. Often at the heart of the plot of the writer’s works love triangle. But it is impossible to find the intensity of passions, the nobility of feelings in his works; the story looks vulgar and boring.

The novel “Mashenka” is characterized by features that appeared in Nabokov’s subsequent work. This is a play with literary quotes and the construction of a text on elusive and reappearing leitmotifs and images. Here sounds become independent and significant (from nightingale singing, meaning the natural beginning and the past, to the noise of a train and tram, personifying the world of technology and the present), smells, repeating images - trains, trams, light, shadows, comparisons of heroes with birds. Nabokov, speaking about the meetings and partings of the characters, undoubtedly hinted to the reader about the plot of “Eugene Onegin.” Also, an attentive reader can find in the novel images characteristic of the lyrics of A.A. Feta (nightingale and rose), A.A. Blok (dates in a snowstorm, heroine in the snow). At the same time, the heroine, whose name is in the title of the novel, never appeared on its pages, and the reality of her existence sometimes seems doubtful. The game with illusions and reminiscences is ongoing.

Nabokov actively uses traditional techniques for Russian literature. The author turns to Chekhov's characteristic techniques of detailing, saturates the world with smells and colors, like Bunin. This is primarily due to the ghostly image main character. Contemporary critics of Nabokov called Mashenka a “narcissistic novel” and suggested that the author constantly “reflects himself” in his characters, placing at the center of the narrative a personality endowed with remarkable intelligence and capable of strong passion. There is no character development, the plot becomes a stream of consciousness. Many contemporaries did not accept the novel, since it did not have a dynamically developing plot and a happy resolution to the conflict. Nabokov wrote about the “furnished” emigration space in which he and his heroes were henceforth to live. Russia remained in memories and dreams, and this reality had to be taken into account.

The main character of the work is a Russian emigrant living in Berlin in a cheap boarding house. He lived in it for 3 months, but constantly wanted to move out. IN lately he became lethargic and gloomy, but before he was so lively - he walked on his hands, could lift a chair with his teeth - his energy was overflowing.

Alferov, Alexey Ivanovich

Ganin's neighbor at the boarding house, Mashenka's husband. He married her in 1919, and a year later he was forced to leave, leaving her in Russia. Now, four years later, she comes to him, and he simply cannot wait for her. A few days before his arrival, he shows her card to Ganin, and he is horrified to recognize in her his first love, whom he still loves. He decides to intercept her from the train and leave with her, but at the last moment he changes his mind and leaves alone.

Mashenka

Alferov's wife and Ganin's first love. She desperately loved Ganin for many years. First, after meeting at the dacha, then in St. Petersburg. When Ganin rejected her, she still continued to love him, wrote letters to him at the front, and tried to maintain a relationship with him. In 1919, she married Alferov, who a year later left her in Russia and went to Europe. With great difficulty she was able to survive for four years and is now going to her husband in Berlin. She does not know that Ganin lives in the same boarding house with him, who planned to intercept her from the train, but never decided.

Podtyagin, Anton Sergeevich

Ganin's boarding house neighbor, former Russian poet, now an old man who has completely lost heart. He is trying to go to France to visit his niece, but he can’t get a visa. Podtyagin often has heart attacks, and he is afraid that he will soon die. Almost finally receiving a visa, he loses his passport and this completely finishes him off. The author leaves him completely broken, lying on the bed after another heart attack.

Clara

Ganin's neighbor at the boarding house, a friend of his mistress Lyudmila. Klara is 26 years old, she is a full-breasted girl who secretly loves Ganin. Even once she noticed Ganin in Alferov’s room, and decided that he wanted to steal money from him, she did not give him away, and even continued to love him. Klara is very unhappy; after Ganin leaves, she cries for a long time.

Lyudmila

Ganin’s mistress, whom he fell out of love immediately after the first night spent with her. He keeps trying to break up with her, but can’t decide to do so. In the end, he makes up his mind and rudely leaves her. She makes some attempts to reconcile, writes him a letter, but he does not answer.

Colin and Gornotsvetov

Ganin's neighbors in the boarding house are dancers living in the same room as a family. They were both short, thin, but with muscular legs. They came to Berlin from the Balkans in search of a place where they could dance. At the end of the work, luck will smile on them and they will find an engagement.

Lidia Nikolaevna Dorn

The owner of the boarding house where all the heroes live. She lived in a marriage with a German for 20 years, but the year before last he died of brain inflammation. She was not at a loss, rented an apartment, furnished it with her own furniture, bought a little more and opened a boarding house for Russians. She herself was a small, strange and quiet old lady. The hostess lived in the smallest room. Erica, the cook, was there to help.

Erica

The cook at the boarding house, a large, red-haired woman.

Kunitsyn

An episodic character, Podtyagin's guest, his former classmate, who also lives in Berlin, but despises the poet. After leaving, he slipped 20 marks into Podtyagin’s hand, which greatly offended him.

In 1926, Nabokov's first prose work was published - the novel Mashenka. On this occasion, Niva magazine wrote: “Nabokov, having fun, tirelessly embroiders himself and his destiny in different variations along the canvas of his works. But not only his own, although hardly anyone interested Nabokov more than himself. This is also the fate of an entire human type - the Russian emigrant intellectual.” Indeed, for Nabokov, life in a foreign land was still quite difficult. The past, in which there were bright feelings, love, a completely different world, became a consolation. Therefore, the novel is based on memories. There is no plot as such, the content unfolds as a stream of consciousness: dialogues of the characters, internal monologues of the main character, descriptions of the scene of action are interspersed. The main character of the novel, Lev Glebovich Ganin, having found himself in exile, has lost some of the most important personality traits. He lives in a boarding house that he does not need and is not interested in, its inhabitants seem pitiful to Ganin, and he himself, like other emigrants, is of no use to anyone. Ganin is sad, sometimes he cannot decide what to do: “should I change my body position, should I get up to go and wash my hands, should I open the window...”. “Twilight obsession” is the definition that the author gives to the state of his hero. Although the novel belongs to the early period of Nabokov’s work and is, perhaps, the most “classical” of all the works he created, the game with the reader characteristic of the writer is also present here. It is unclear what serves as the root cause: either spiritual experiences deform the external world, or, on the contrary, ugly reality deadens the soul. There is a feeling that the writer has placed two crooked mirrors in front of each other, the images in which are ugly refracted, doubling and tripling. The novel “Mashenka” is structured as the hero’s recollection of his former life in Russia, cut short by the revolution and the Civil War; The narration is told in third person. There was one important event in Ganin’s life before emigration - his love for Mashenka, who remained in her homeland and was lost along with her. But quite unexpectedly, Ganin recognizes his Mashenka in the woman depicted in the photograph, the wife of his neighbor at the Berlin boarding house Alferov. She must come to Berlin, and this expected arrival revives the hero. Ganin’s heavy melancholy passes, his soul is filled with memories of the past: a room in a St. Petersburg house, a country estate, three poplars, a barn with a painted window, even the flashing spokes of a bicycle wheel. Ganin again seems to be immersed in the world of Russia, preserving the poetry of “noble nests” and the warmth of family relationships. Many events took place, and the author selects the most significant of them. Ganin perceives the image of Mashenka as “a sign, a call, a question thrown into the sky,” and to this question he suddenly receives a “gemstone, delightful answer.” The meeting with Mashenka should be a miracle, a return to the world in which Ganin could only be happy. Having done everything to prevent his neighbor from meeting his wife, Ganin finds himself at the station. At the moment the train on which she arrived stops, he feels that this meeting is impossible. And he leaves for another station to leave the city. It would seem that the novel assumes a love triangle situation, and the development of the plot pushes towards this. But Nabokov rejects the traditional ending. Ganin’s deep experiences are much more important to him than the nuances of the characters’ relationships. Ganin’s refusal to meet his beloved has not a psychological, but rather a philosophical motivation. He understands that the meeting is unnecessary, even impossible, not because it entails inevitable psychological problems, but because it is impossible to turn back time. This could lead to submission to the past and, therefore, renunciation of oneself, which is generally impossible for Nabokov’s heroes. In the novel “Mashenka,” Nabokov first addresses themes that will then appear repeatedly in his work. This is the theme of lost Russia, acting as an image of a lost paradise and the happiness of youth, the theme of memory, which simultaneously opposes everything destroying time and fails in this futile struggle. The image of the main character, Ganin, is very typical of the work of V. Nabokov. Unsettled, “lost” emigrants constantly appear in his works. The dusty boarding house is unpleasant to Ganin, because it will never replace his homeland. Those living in the boarding house - Ganin, mathematics teacher Alferov, the old Russian poet Podtyagin, Klara, funny dancers - are united by uselessness, some kind of exclusion from life. The question arises: why do they live? Ganin acts in films, selling his shadow. Is it worth living just to “get up and go to the printing house every morning,” as Clara does? Or “look for an engagement”, as dancers look for it? Humiliate yourself, beg for a visa, explaining yourself in bad German, as Podtyagin is forced to do? None of them have a goal that would justify this miserable existence. All of them do not think about the future, do not strive to get settled, improve their lives, living in the daytime. Both the past and the expected future remained in Russia. But admitting this to yourself means telling yourself the truth about yourself. After this, you need to draw some conclusions, but then how to live, how to fill boring days? And life is filled with petty passions, romances, and vanity. “Podtyagin went into the room of the hostess of the boarding house, stroking the affectionate black dachshund, pinching her ears, a wart on her gray muzzle and talking about his old man’s painful illness and that he had been trying for a long time for a visa to Paris, where pins and red wine are very cheap “The connection between Ganin and Lyudmila does not leave for a second the feeling that we are talking about love. But this is not love: “And yearning and ashamed, he felt how senseless tenderness - the sad warmth remaining where love had once slipped very fleetingly - makes him press without passion to the purple rubber of her yielding lips...” Did Ganin have true love? When he met Mashenka as a boy, he fell in love not with her, but with his dream, the ideal woman he had invented. Mashenka turned out to be unworthy of him. He loved silence, solitude, beauty, and sought harmony. She was frivolous and pulled him into the crowd. And “he felt that these meetings were diminishing true love.” In Nabokov's world, happy love is impossible. It is either connected with betrayal, or the heroes do not even know what love is. Individualistic pathos, fear of subordination to another person, fear of the possibility of his judgment make Nabokov’s heroes forget about her. Often the plot of the writer's works is based on a love triangle. But it is impossible to find the intensity of passions, the nobility of feelings in his works, the story looks vulgar and boring. The novel “Mashenka” is characterized by features that appeared in Nabokov’s further work. This is a play with literary quotes and the construction of a text on elusive and reappearing leitmotifs and images. Here sounds become independent and significant (from nightingale singing, meaning the natural beginning and the past, to the noise of a train and tram, personifying the world of technology and the present), smells, repeating images - trains, trams, light, shadows, comparisons of heroes with birds. Nabokov, speaking about the meetings and partings of the characters, undoubtedly hinted to the reader about the plot of “Eugene Onegin.” Also, an attentive reader can find in the novel images characteristic of the lyrics of A.A. Feta (nightingale and rose), A.A. Blok (dates in a snowstorm, heroine in the snow). At the same time, the heroine, whose name is in the title of the novel, never appeared on its pages, and the reality of her existence sometimes seems doubtful. The game with illusions and reminiscences is constantly being played. Nabokov actively uses techniques traditional for Russian literature. The author turns to Chekhov's characteristic techniques of detailing, saturates the world with smells and colors, like Bunin. First of all, this is due to the ghostly image of the main character. Contemporary critics of Nabokov called Mashenka a “narcissistic novel” and suggested that the author constantly “reflects himself” in his characters, placing at the center of the narrative a personality endowed with remarkable intelligence and capable of strong passion. There is no character development, the plot becomes a stream of consciousness. Many contemporaries did not accept the novel, since it did not have a dynamically developing plot and a happy resolution to the conflict. Nabokov wrote about the “furnished” emigration space in which he and his heroes were henceforth to live. Russia remained in memories and dreams, and this reality had to be taken into account.

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov is one of the most interesting writers XX century. His work has caused and continues to cause a lot of controversy and controversial judgments. Therefore, it is quite fascinating to analyze Nabokov. “Mashenka” is not just a novel, but the writer’s first novel, which makes it even more significant and valuable.

Nabokov's works

Vladimir Nabokov represents unsolved mystery and the inexplicable mystery of twentieth-century literature. Some consider him a genius, others do not recognize him at all talented writer. He was born in XIX century in St. Petersburg and died at the end of the last century in Switzerland. He lived most of his life abroad, but his Russian childhood was not forgotten. Nabokov wrote both in his native language and in English, translated his novels, gave lectures on philology.

Many of his texts anticipated the era of modernism, and the style of his works is so original that it has no analogues either in Russian or in foreign literature. The ambiguity and heterogeneity of his creations make it impossible full analysis Nabokov. We are taking “Mashenka” for study not only because it is Vladimir Vladimirovich’s first novel, but also because it is the first work he wrote in exile.

History of creation

So, let's begin the analysis of Nabokov ("Mashenka" is the focus of our attention). The novel was written in 1926 in Berlin. It has many biographical motives, primarily related to longing for the Motherland, the unbearable sadness of an emigrant for a lost home.

In the Niva magazine, immediately after the release of the novel, a review of it was published: “Nabokov embroiders his fate according to the outline of his works... reflects the fate of an entire human type - the Russian emigrant intellectual.” Life abroad was, like for many people who left their home country, difficult. The only thing Nabokov could find solace in was memories of the past, where there was joy, love, home. It was these bright thoughts that formed the basis of the novel.

Before we begin the analysis, let us turn to a retelling of the plot of the novel “Mashenka”. The summary should begin to be described in the spring of 1934 in Berlin. The main character, Ganin Lev Glebovich, lives in a boarding house for Russians, where, in addition to him, live:

• Alferov Alexey Ivanovich (mathematician);
• Podtyagin Anton Sergeevich (old poet),
• “cozy young lady” Klara, in love with Ganin and working as a typist;
• a couple in love - ballet dancers Colin and Gornotsvetov.

Ganin arrived in Berlin a year ago, during which time he changed several jobs: orderly, worker, waiter. He managed to save enough money to leave, but first he needs to part with Lyudmila, with whom he has been in a relationship for three months, which the hero is terribly tired of. But Ganin cannot find a pretext for the breakup. The windows of his room, as luck would have it, overlook railway, and the desire to leave becomes irresistible. In a fit of overwhelming feelings, Lev Glebovich announces to the hostess of the boarding house that he is leaving on Saturday.

First love

A lot of Nabokov’s own feelings and experiences were reflected in the work “Mashenka”. The summary of the novel (especially Ganin’s memories of the past) also proves this.

Lev Glebovich learns from Alferov that his wife, Mashenka, will arrive on Saturday. In the photograph of the mathematician's wife, Ganin recognizes the girl with whom he first fell in love. He is captivated by memories of the past, and he even feels ten years younger. And the next day he tells Lyudmila that he is in love with someone else. Ganin feels freedom and gives himself entirely to his memories.

He is sixteen years old, he is in a summer estate, where he is recovering from typhus. Out of boredom, the young man creates in his thoughts the image of an ideal lover, whom he meets exactly a month later. It was Mashenka - a girl with a “chestnut braid in a black bow”, burning eyes, a dark face and a “moving, burry” voice. She was always cheerful and loved sweets. Once Ganin met her with her friends, and they agreed to go boating, but the next day Mashenka came without her friends. From that time on, young people began to meet near the empty estate.

When they saw each other for the last time on the eve of leaving for St. Petersburg, Ganin noticed that the shutters at one window were slightly open and a face could be seen in the glass. It turned out that the watchman's son was spying on them. Ganin became so angry that he beat him severely.

The next morning the main character left. Mashenka moved to St. Petersburg only in November. Now it has become more difficult for young people to meet - it’s freezing outside, you can’t go out for a long time. The only consolation was the telephone - in the evenings they could talk to each other for hours. And shortly before the New Year, Mashenka’s family moved to Moscow. To his surprise, Ganin felt relief from this.

In the summer they had the opportunity to meet again. The only problem is that this year Mashenka’s father rented a dacha fifty miles from the Ganins’ estate. The young man went to his beloved, but arrived already after dark. She greeted him with the words: “I’m yours, do whatever you want with me.” But there were too many rustles around, it seemed to Ganin that someone was coming, so he quickly left.

Last time they met a year after that on a train and have not seen each other since then. Only exchanged a few letters during the war.

Completion of the novel

As you can see, realistic and very life story Nabokov draws in his novel.

In the morning, Ganin says goodbye to the boarders and goes to the station. There is an hour left until the train arrives. Gradually, thoughts begin to creep into Ganin’s head that his romance with Mashenka ended a long time ago. Without waiting for the woman to arrive, he goes to another station and leaves.

Theme and idea

The analysis of the novel “Mashenka” by Nabokov should begin by defining the theme and idea. It seems that the theme of love in the work comes first and is the leading one, but this is not the case. In fact, the novel is dedicated exclusively to the lost homeland - Russia. All other subthemes and motifs are grouped around this image.

Image of Ganin

The image of the main character was largely copied from Vladimir Nabokov. “Mashenka” (an analysis of Ganin’s feelings and experiences as an emigrant) once again confirms this. In Berlin, no one needs him, and he doesn’t care about anyone either. Lev Glebovich is lonely and unhappy, depressed, his soul has been taken over by hopeless melancholy. He has no desire to fight anything or change anything.

Only memories of Mashenka revive the hero. Thoughts about the past revive his soul and body, illusory happiness warms him, pushes him to action, and gives him hope for the future. But it doesn’t last long. Sitting at the station, waiting for Mashenka, he suddenly realizes that it is impossible to return the past, one can only dream about the lost paradise (Motherland), but it will never be possible to find it again.

Image of Mashenka

It is impossible, when analyzing the story “Mashenka” (Nabokov), not to pay attention to the image of the main character, even if she appears only in Ganin’s dreams. Only the brightest and happiest memories are associated with Mashenka in the work. The image of the girl becomes the personification of forever lost happiness, Russia even before the war and revolution.

The fact that Mashenka, merging with the image of the Motherland, never appears in the novel speaks of the unattainability of paradise (Russia). It appears only in memories and dreams; more is inaccessible to emigrants.

The peculiarity of the end of the novel

Very often in this work, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov plays on deceiving the reader’s expectations: Mashenka (the analysis of her image is presented above) never appears, the supposed love triangle, to which the arrangement of the main characters is pushing, turns out to be nothing, and the ending does not at all correspond to the traditional

The end of the novel is more philosophical than psychological. Nabokov does not allow the characters to meet not because of deep emotional experiences, but because there is no return to the past.

Conclusion

Thus, the originality and certain mystery of the work is confirmed by Nabokov’s analysis. “Mashenka” in this context is not only the author’s first novel, but also a statement of his unusual talent, which only developed in his later works.

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