↑ Image of Natalia
In the novel, the author’s attitude towards this heroine can be called almost tender, but with a bit of sadness. Through the prism of Natalya's soul, the author depicts the sad fate of women in Russia.
To endure and wait is the main task of a Russian woman, this is the share that is destined for a woman from birth. Natalia is completely filled with light and love, kindness and honesty, tenderness and patience.
But all these qualities turn out to be absolutely unnecessary for her husband Gregory, and the author seems to suggest that men do not know how to appreciate the true beauty and holiness of a woman who devotes her life to them and becomes a wife.
And the destiny of a kind, good, loving woman who will never betray, never complain, never complain or abandon is to wait for even the slightest manifestation of kindness and love from her husband, to live in this expectation for years, to saturate her soul, overflowing with unspent love, with only empty hopes .
Natalya is the embodiment of an unhappy, unloved, unnecessary woman. She is doomed to suffering, because in her unrequited love she dissolves in her husband, as a good wife should, and as a result lives not her own life, but the life of Gregory, but only as an outside observer.
Destiny of a woman
Natalya immediately liked Grigory. She, raised in the family of an old Cossack, hopes for a strong family and reliable relationships. In reality, everything turns out differently. The husband began to cheat, and openly declared that he “didn’t like his wife.” Unable to bear this situation in someone else's family, she returns to her father. Rumors spread around the village about damage to Natalya, the guys say nasty things almost to the woman’s back. An abandoned wife decides to commit suicide. The attempt to commit suicide ended in failure. The neck becomes crooked, the appearance changes, but Natalya is still pretty. The father has not forgiven his daughter, he is proud and does not understand the humiliation before Gregory. The daughter-in-law returns to the Melekhovs' house. The decision to move back to her husband’s family did not come to Natalya right away. Miron Grigorievich shames his daughter and shouts at her. The girl begins to feel like a stranger at home. The woman’s hopes are justified: Gregory comes to the family. The Melekhovs give birth to twins - a boy and a girl. The woman thanks fate for such a gift and devotes herself entirely to the children. Natalya becomes even more beautiful, even Grigory notices how amazingly his wife has blossomed and become prettier. But he does not change his attitude towards her; the Cossack did not give her love and affection. He became kinder, more attentive, the reason was the children. Treason led the woman to death; she goes for an abortion and dies. The power of love and the strength of Natalia’s soul is amazing. Before her death, she asks to convey her forgiveness to her husband. Her last request is that Gregory take pity on the children. Such words sank into the Cossack’s heart, he reproached himself for his actions, but could not do anything with his love for Aksinya.
↑ Natalya and Gregory
From the very beginning, from the very first meeting of Gregory and Natalya, the author hints that the relationship of this couple will be difficult. Natalya fell in love with Gregory at first sight and after the matchmaking sees him off with her eyes filled with love and trembling hope for happiness, while Gregory finds her only “glorious”, glancing over her beautiful figure.
The author emphasizes that Gregory examined the bride like a queen mare before purchasing. Even as a girl, Natalya’s hands were “crushed by work,” which is why the Melekhovs liked her because she was hard-working. Gregory did not choose his wife, not his beloved life partner, but a useful item that could be useful in the household.
Grigory was so indifferent to her that he never lost his temper, hit her, or caressed her from the bottom of his heart. He caressed her out of necessity: indifferently and distantly, because she was a stranger to him, “like this month.” While Natalya with all her soul yearned only for him, Gregory. It was he who was the light in her difficult life, the spark that supported her desire to live.
Grigory left - and Natalya no longer had a place on earth. Her desperate suicide attempt testifies to her sense of self-worth when she is unable to bear the shame of her abandoned wife, but at the same time, she humbly asks Aksinya to give her Grishka. These two extremes, this internal struggle and confusion in Natalya’s soul deeply touch the author and excite the reader. Natalya lives her life suppressing herself.
Her love is sorrow. She tries to sublimate her unrequited feelings for her husband while busy with work and children. She puts all her unspent feminine tenderness, her whole soul into them. And the reader gets the impression that the resigned Natalya has already resigned herself to her unenviable lot as an unloved woman. But no. At the very end of the novel, all the seething passion, all the accumulated grievances explode in her, and she curses Gregory, wishing him death.
A strong thunderstorm, a storm that clouds the sky at this moment seems to eclipse everything divine in Natalya, that which made her image similar to the image of the Russian Mother of God, and the reader understands that she is a human being, that she is an earthly woman who desperately needs protection and love is by no means God’s, but human. Natalya at this moment ceases to be an icon, but her image only benefits from this. If throughout the novel Natalya is the one who needs to be worshiped, then at this moment she becomes the one who needs to be loved.
Feminine qualities
In the book, Natalya and Aksinya are two opposite types of femininity and sensitivity. It is difficult to understand why the author arranged the images this way. Here you will have to look for reasons in the subtext. Natalya lives without a mother, maybe that’s why she hasn’t developed the traits a girl needs in marriage. Perhaps Gregory is also to blame for this. Comparing two women, he does not help Natalia open up, but immediately abandons his wife in favor of another. There is a line in the novel that suggests another explanation -
“at birth, the mother endowed the girl with indifferent and slow blood.”
Gregory says about his wife that she is “icy.” The lack of passion and slowness of feelings became one of the reasons for Gregory’s betrayals and the Cossack woman’s misfortunes.
Extreme Despair
Embittered due to loneliness and illness, Daria decided to poison Natalya’s happiness and spoke about Grigory’s meetings with Aksinya, which she herself helped arrange. For pregnant Natalya, who had experienced her husband’s infidelities more than once, this was the last straw. Her strength was exhausted. During the years of marriage, what did she see except Grisha’s betrayals or his absence, the pity of her parents and neighbors? A young, beautiful and hard-working girl put her life on the altar of unrequited love. However, this sacrifice was not appreciated.
Natalya, who had endured and remained silent for too long, since she was not only a wife, but also a mother, broke down in an instant. In a conversation with her mother-in-law, she wished her husband death, and then decided to have an abortion, not wanting to give birth to more children to a person who did not need it. Natalya died from blood loss in the morning. The last thoughts of this young woman, who did not have time to see happiness and affection, were about Gregory. In her last words, Natalya admitted that she still loves her husband and forgives him.
Image 4
Almost the brightest and kindest hero in the novel “Quiet Don” is a woman named Natalya. There is no such person with whom she could not get along or become friends. In addition, she is a stately, beautiful and hard-working woman. She has a beloved husband named Grisha, but no matter how hard she tries, he still cannot love her, and this makes her feel very bad and painful. Here she shows all the hatred and pain that she has to endure while living with a husband who does not love her at all. She still finds the strength in herself to continue to live with him and love for two, as few people manage to do. She forgives him everything and responds only with love.
As soon as Natalya saw Gregory, she immediately disappeared and gave him her heart, although her father didn’t like him right away, but how can you argue with a girl who has been in love for a long time. More than anything, Myron wanted his daughter to be happy and live like a cross in her bosom. But he very much doubted that Grigory would love his daughter in return, and he turned out to be right. And he tried with all his might to persuade his daughter not to marry him, but the girl had already decided everything and was not going to change her decision. Suddenly she became stubborn and persistent and said that she would not marry anyone else but him. And then the father decided to listen to his daughter and blessed their marriage.
Grigory’s parents received the girl very well, because she began to help them in everything in the house. When they quarreled with their husband, the parents always took the side of their beloved daughter-in-law, but they always swore at their son. Meanwhile, Grigory runs almost every day to his beloved mistress named Aksinya. She shows everyone that she loves him very much, and he loves her back. But with his wife this is not and will never happen. When Aksinya cheated on him, he, without hesitation, forgave her everything, and they continued dating. When Gregory decides to leave his wife, she tries to keep her husband with her and persuades him in various ways. But talking doesn’t help here, and then she decides to go to Aksinya and convince her not to take her husband away from her. But Aksinya does not agree, because this is the only joy that they are trying to deprive her of.
After this, Natalya tries to commit suicide, but nothing works, and remains crippled forever. She remains to live with Gregory’s parents and wait for him to return home.
After Gregory found out about Aksinya’s betrayal, he returned to his wife, and after some time they had twins.
↑ Meeting with Gregory
Natalya had just turned seventeen years old, she was slender, beautiful, hard-working, “she took it from everyone: in the fields, at home.” She was considered an enviable bride on the farm, and “even in the past, matchmakers from afar, from the Tsutskana River, rich beyond belief, Old Believers-Cossacks came to visit the meat-eater... but Natalya did not like the suitors, the matchmakers’ bread and salt was wasted.” Miron Grigorievich loved his eldest daughter, so he “didn’t press her with choice.”
She immediately liked Grigory, at the very first viewing, although her father opposed this marriage and directly spoke about the groom’s notoriety (“a slut, a womanizer, he runs around in pathetic circles”), Natalya firmly stood her ground. “I don’t need others, my friend...” Natalya blushed and shed tears.
- I won’t go, don’t let them match you. Otherwise, take the crap to the Ust-Medveditsky Monastery...”
With all her inexperienced girlish tenderness, Natalya reaches out to Grigory, falling in love with him immediately and for the rest of her life. Shy, reserved in character, she does not know how to show her feelings. Embarrassed and timid, she gives Gregory the groom an embroidered pouch (“blushing, looking at Gregory with loving eyes, she thrust a soft lump of cloth that melted the warmth of her girlish breasts into his hand”) when Gregory “hesitantly pulled her towards him, wanted to kiss her,” She timidly leaned away: “Ashamed.”
Seeing off the groom, “Natalya opened the gate, looked after her from under her palm... “Eleven days left,” Natalya calculated in her mind and sighed and laughed.” Natalya believed trustingly and selflessly. in your girlish happiness: your loved one, family, children are nearby.
Introduction
The narrative in the novel “Quiet Don” is constructed by the author along three parallel storylines. The plot of Grigory Melekhov’s personal life is given one of the most important places in the work. The conflict lies in a love triangle. This problem has more than once become the basis of literary works. However, it has been vital at all times, and it is still relevant today. Using the example of a love triangle, in which one of the leading roles is played by the character of Natalya, in the novel “Quiet Don” Sholokhov solves the problem of choosing between duty and feeling.
Essay 5
The epic novel “Quiet Don” is the best work of the Russian writer of the 20th century M. A. Sholokhov. For his work, which he worked on for twelve years, Sholokhov received a worthy reward - the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Like many writers, Sholokhov raises in his work many themes that concern humanity: love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, courage and fear. The author describes many people and events, including real ones, that befell the Russian people in the first quarter of the last century. This includes World War I, revolutions and civil war.
Among the many characters, including girls, the description of whose lives is given considerable attention, the heroine of the novel, Natalya Korshunova, stands out. She appears to the reader as a kind, hard-working, faithful girl. She enters the Melekhov family as the wife of Grigory Melekhov, with whom she falls in love at first sight. Unfortunately, Melekhov himself does not feel this way for the girl. Marrying her was a forced measure at the will of her father, the head of the Melekhov family. Gregory himself views his wife as a horse at the market. It is important for him that she has good qualities as a person and a woman.
The elder Melekhovs fell in love with their daughter-in-law for her modesty, decency and interest in work. They always sided with Natalya when her unfaithful husband returned to his mistress Aksinya again and again.
Natalya herself suffered greatly from Gregory’s dislike. But being a proud nature, she did not show it. Only once did she decide to leave the Melekhovs’ house and commit suicide because of yet another betrayal by her husband. But fortunately, this was not possible.
After this incident, the elder Melekhovs surrounded Natalya with even greater care and warmth. Soon the girl had children, and she blossomed. Often, due to excessive guardianship over the kids, Natalya did not have time to take proper care of herself, but this did not spoil her. On the contrary, the fire in her soul made the girl shine. Giving all of herself to her children and family, she was happy until Aksinya and new difficulties stood in her way again.
Natalia's calling is to be a homemaker. She was unlucky only in that her husband did not love her. This is what killed her. Having once again learned about pregnancy, due to her pride, Natalya decides to get rid of the child of her unfaithful husband. Unfortunately, this desire leads the girl to death. And Gregory, who was left without a wife, blames himself for this misfortune. In his own way, he was attached to Natalya, respected and valued her feelings, and especially loved her as the mother of his children.
Sholokhov put into Natalya the image of a woman who sacrifices herself for the good of her family and children. She is not loved, but she loves. And, despite how hard it is for her to feel the cold from her beloved man, she does not lose heart, finding happiness in children and caring for them.
