Essays
Oblomov's novel was first published in 1859. In this work, the author tells a story about Ilya Oblomov, showing the reader his life, during which he turned into a morally dead person, having lost interest in life itself. Of course, all readers, and Oblomov himself, become interested in why he is so passive, lazy, and constantly spends time on the bed, away from joys, fears, news and affairs. Everyone gets the answer in the episode Oblomov’s Dream, about which we are writing our essay.
Essay on Oblomov's dream
Getting to know the hero of Goncharov’s novel, we meet an apathetic character who solves the question “to be or not to be” by answering “not now.”
"But why?" - the reader will ask. “Why does the hero have such a character?” And we get the answer from the episode Oblomov’s Dream, and this dream is of great importance in Goncharov’s novel.
The chapter itself is presented as an inserted episode and has its own completeness and independence. And Oblomov’s dream does not affect the development of the plot itself. However, this chapter is invaluable, as it helps to more clearly outline the character of the main character and understand how he was formed.
Episode: Oblomov's dream
The episode Oblomov's dream takes the reader to Oblomovka. There our hero sees himself in deep childhood, at the age of seven. The boy grows up in a village where peace reigns and which is isolated from the outside world. The course of village life is measured, and the cult of food reigns here, because the main problem in Oblomovka is what to cook for a holiday or for lunch.
And in the midst of all this tranquility lived the energetic, inquisitive, cheerful boy Ilya. He was smart and observant. Such children will definitely achieve success in the future, but only if they are not influenced by Oblomov’s atmosphere. Ilya was unable to resist the prevailing order in the village. He was constantly reminded of the servants who would do everything for him. Everything that the boy planned to do himself was immediately stopped and prohibited. When the time came to get an education, here too parents often left their son at home. After all, it’s more important not to lose weight or get sick, but studying can wait, as well as work.
And Ilya was completely mired in Oblomovism, from where neither his friend Stolz nor his love for Olga could get him out. Therefore, to the question “Oblomov’s dream: a utopia or not,” we will definitely answer that such a life is a real utopia, and it is destructive for the noble class. The result of the influence of Oblomov’s environment is the loss of initiative, independence, the development of apathy, laziness and lack of will. This is how Ilya became, and this is confirmed by quotes from Oblomov’s dream for the essay, which can be found in the text of Goncharov’s novel.
The role of Oblomov's sleep in the novel
As you can see, the role of the Oblomov’s Dream episode in the novel is enormous. Oblomov's dream helps to better understand the hero, understand who he was and how his character developed. It is in this chapter that the environment where he was coddled and groomed was described, preventing his self-development. So, in the end, we got a multi-valued hero who may seem unpleasant due to his constant inaction, but at the same time evokes sympathy because of the touching nature and depth of his soul. It is chapter nine in Oblomov’s novel that is the figurative and semantic key to understanding everything that happens in the novel, and best makes it possible to understand the hero, his views, character and way of life.
Save it to your wall so you don’t lose it!
> Abstracts
“Oblomov’s Dream” is a special chapter of the novel. “Oblomov’s Dream” tells the story of Ilya Ilyich’s childhood and his influence on Oblomov’s character. “Oblomov’s Dream” shows his native village of Oblomovka, his family, and the way of life according to which they lived on Oblomov’s estate. Oblomovka is the name of two villages owned by the Oblomovs. The people in these villages lived the same way as their great-grandfathers lived. They tried to live in isolation, to isolate themselves from the whole world, and were afraid of people from other villages. The people of Oblomovka believed in fairy tales, legends and omens. In Oblomovka there were no thieves, there was no destruction and storms, everything was sleepy and quiet. The whole life of these people was monotonous. The Oblomovites believed that it was a sin to live otherwise. The landowners Oblomovs lived the same way.
Oblomov's father was lazy and apathetic; he sat by the window or walked around the house all day.
Oblomov’s mother was more active than her husband, she watched the servants, walked around the garden with her retinue, and assigned various tasks to the servants. All this was reflected in the character of Ilya Ilyich. Since childhood he was raised like an exotic flower, so he grew slowly and got used to being lazy. His attempts to do something on his own were constantly thwarted. The only time when Oblomov was free and could do whatever he wanted was the time of general sleep. At this time, Oblomov was running around the yard, climbing into the dovecote and gallery, observing and studying various phenomena, and exploring the world around him. If this initial activity had begun to develop, then perhaps Oblomov would have become an active person. But his parents’ prohibitions on doing anything on his own led to the fact that Oblomov later became lazy and apathetic; he could not go to Oblomovka, change apartments, lived in a dusty, unwashed room and was completely dependent on the servant Zakhar.
In Oblomovka, the nanny told Ilya Ilyich fairy tales, which he believed in throughout his life. Fairy tales shaped the poetic character of Russian people. This character manifested itself in his relationship with Olga. For some time he was able to drown out Oblomov’s laziness and apathy, and return Oblomov to an active life. But after a while, due to everyday trifles, the poetic spirit began to weaken again and gave way to Oblomov’s laziness.
The Oblomovs did not like books and believed that reading was not a necessity, but a luxury and entertainment. The Oblomovs also did not like teaching. And so Ilya Ilyich attended school somehow. The Oblomovs found all sorts of excuses not to take Ilya Ilyich to school and because of this they quarreled with teacher Stolz. His son Andrei Stolts became friends with Oblomov, who became his friend for life. At school, Andrei helped Oblomov do his homework, but this developed laziness in Oblomov. Subsequently, Stolz fought long and hard against this laziness, but to no avail. I believe that the role of this episode is to show how Oblomov’s Russian poetic character is formed, the reasons for the appearance of Oblomov’s laziness and apathy, the environment in which Ilya Ilyich was brought up, the emergence of Oblomov’s multifaceted image. Oblomov could not be “lifted from the couch” because Oblomov had money and prosperity from birth and he did not need Stolz’s activities. Oblomov needed a poetic ideal, which Olga Ilyinskaya gave him for a while. But after Oblomov broke off relations with her, he returned to his usual apathy and laziness. With whom he died a few years later.
What role does Oblomov’s dream play in revealing the hero’s character?
The character of the hero of the novel of the same name by Ivan Goncharov, Ilya Oblomov, was dual, therefore the work itself is divided into two parts, which are connected by “Oblomov’s Dream”. “Oblomov’s Dream” is a kind of answer to many questions, in particular, why Oblomov himself is such a person. He not only gives explanations, but also helps to reveal the hero himself, and also says that Oblomov’s essence comes from his homeland, full of maternal care. Oblomovka instilled in the main character many different qualities and had a great influence on both himself and his life. The main punishment for the Oblomovites was work, so Ilya Ilyich also perceived him that way. And although he still inherited a lot of things from the Oblomovites, he was still different from them. Oblomov was interested in many things, he refused the general afternoon nap. However, everything changed with age not in his favor. Perhaps he would not have been so lazy, but, reading the work, we cannot help but notice that this man did not do anything of his own free will, he was forbidden to do something on his own, starting from adolescence. Therefore, over time, he became even more like a typical person of his region. The author of the novel shows us how the hero evolves. He says goodbye to the service, then to the world around him. He has no joys in life except his robe and the sofa. It would seem that there is nothing left to do, if not to read, but this activity tires him and he becomes bored. The reader begins to understand this apathetic state of the main character thanks to the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream.” She reveals Oblomov’s character as widely as possible, showing that he personifies the characteristics of the era. Ilya Ilyich is a hereditary slacker, since he inherited this quality from his parents. His sofa reflects patriarchy; he does not want to decide anything, because to do this he needs to get off the sofa. The hero refuses to move; he is a continuation of Oblomovka.
The chapter that will be discussed plays in the novel by I.A. Goncharov plays an important compositional role. The dream described in it largely explains the character of the main character, his attitude to reality, and helps to understand the origins of Oblomovism - a phenomenon that destroyed a man with a kind heart and an open soul.
So, the hero dreams of Oblomovka of his childhood. It appears to us as a kind of oasis, a kind of island, cut off from the rest of the world. The inhabitants of this paradise do not know the storms of life and feel absolutely protected. In Oblomovka they don’t even know the fear of death: “Everything there promises a peaceful, long-term life until the hair turns yellow and an imperceptible, dream-like death.”
The regularity of existence in Oblomovka is noteworthy. Life here goes in a circle - just as the natural phenomena observed by the Oblomovites repeat from year to year. Time seemed to stand still in Oblomovka.
Oblomovka’s isolation from the rest of the world led to the fact that no news from the outside penetrated into it, and therefore its inhabitants had no one to compare themselves with and they did not think about the meaning of life, they never asked themselves unnecessary questions. Their ideal was that one day should be like another: “today is like yesterday, yesterday is like tomorrow.” The main concern of the inhabitants of Oblomovka was tasty and plentiful food: discussion of dishes for the upcoming lunch was the main event of the day.
In my opinion, Oblomovka, which Ilya Ilyich dreams of, is itself a sleepy kingdom, both in the literal and figurative sense. An afternoon nap in Oblomovka is a picture that makes you remember the fairy tale about the sleeping beauty: everyone falls down where they fell asleep. And this was the only time when the child - he alone was awake among the sleeping adults - could satisfy his curiosity about the world around him.
The sleepy life of the Oblomovites was not disturbed by any incidents. There were no robberies, murders, or other “terrible accidents” here. In the same way, the inhabitants of Oblomovka were not worried about “neither strong passions nor daring enterprises.”
Thus, isolation from the active world, a vegetative existence, a lack of spiritual needs - these are the features of the environment in which the character of the hero was formed. Perhaps life in Oblomovka seems attractive in its own way (Oblomov’s dream is subtly colored by the poetry of childhood), but, of course, such an atmosphere is destructive for the developing soul.
Plunging together with Oblomov into his dream, we trace the hero’s life from the very beginning and see that, as a child, he, like all children, was restless and inquisitive. However, adults extinguished all his impulses, protecting the boy from possible dangers, forming in him a contemptuous attitude towards work for the sake of his daily bread (work in Oblomovka was considered a punishment written in his family), instilling in him a wrong idea of life.
The nanny told little Ilyusha not about heroes or heroes - her fairy tales spoke about a country where “rivers of honey and milk flow, where no one does anything all year round.” In other nanny's fairy tales, terrible ghosts, dead people and werewolves acted, which sowed melancholy and fearfulness in the soul of the impressionable boy in relation to the world around him. So he grew up to be a slow-moving and timid person, although in his young years, like many, he dreamed of an active life.
After reading the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream,” we understand that the characteristic personality traits of the hero: timidity and laziness, impracticality and helplessness in the face of life—have their origins in his childhood. The misfortune that destroyed Oblomov bears the name of his family. Oblomovism is a special state of the soul in which the will is paralyzed and feelings do not find a way out.
“He died, disappeared for nothing,” Stolz summed up his life. A good person has no use for anything in life - what could be more tragic! One can only think that Oblomov’s son is destined for a different fate.
The dream of the protagonist of the novel “Oblomov” can be perceived as both autobiographical, telling about Ilyusha’s childhood and adolescence, and symbolic, explaining what the moral foundations of the hero’s character are and how his fate turned out. In any case, the role of Oblomov’s dream in the context of the entire work is very great: this episode shows how such an unusual character was formed and what are the reasons for the Oblomovism that captured the country.
Each person has his own “roots”. The soft and broad nature of Ilya Ilyich was formed under the direct influence of not only his family, but also Russian nature, which became part of his soul. The Oblomovites knew neither storms nor floods, which brought troubles and suffering. Nature took care of the villagers as if they were their own children: rains and thunderstorms came at certain times. Nothing disturbed the measured life. At first glance, grace and complete harmony reigned. But there was a fly in the ointment in the jar of honey. Comfortable living conditions have left their mark on people: laziness, leisureliness, passivity, and “doing nothing” have become the norm and a way of life.
The inhabitants of Oblomovka did not know the price of time, and, most importantly, of Man. They looked forward to new events, but after hanging out at a wedding or seeing a person off on his last journey, they forgot about him. Apathy is a state from which only something unusual could bring them out. Not every new person could get rid of the effect of a “glassy” soul and re-enter the living world into the hearts of the inhabitants.
Motherly love, affection, endless kisses, generosity and the charm of peasant fun sound in unison in a dream. Oblomovka is the native land that raised Ilya Ilyich. Memories of his parents' home are sacred to him; his heart lives on them.
Oblomov resembles the simple-minded Ivanushka from fairy tales: a wise and cautious sloth, suspicious of everything unstable and rushing around. An active life is not for him. Let someone else do this, and you shouldn’t pull him out of his comfort zone. He'd rather just lie down and think. Secular success and vulgar literary activity - could this really be the meaning of life? No. The meaning of Oblomov’s dream is to show that the hero’s inaction is not just laziness. His heart shrinks from the realization of the futility of existence and pushes his mind into a passive protest against modernity. He sees a dream in order to once again relive the carefree time of childhood and those feelings that will help him not to break himself and be true to his moral principles.
Oblomov's dream is not only a dystopia, but also a utopia. Why? Ilya Ilyich seems to be tied to the pillow with silk threads by his dream of the past. In a dream, he draws a naive, defenseless, but attractive idyll. But, finding no way out, it burns the hero from the inside, turning from good into destructive evil.
The dream is a reminder of a lost paradise, which became the artistic and philosophical center of the novel. You cannot live in the past, otherwise a person will put the brakes on his future. You just need to take the best “on the road”, making it a fulcrum, and use it in the future for the benefit of your self-development.
Ilya Ilyich painfully feels that something good and bright lives in him. But it is unknown whether it is destroyed or, like a treasure, lies in the most remote corners of his soul.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!
“Oblomov’s Dream” is a kind of semantic and compositional key to the entire novel. The dream of the inhabitants of Oblomovka, a heroic, powerful dream, is what largely determined Oblomov’s inability to carry out real activities, what prevented the potential of his crystalline, “dove” soul from being realized. The ninth part of Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” begins in a very unique way. The author describes that “blessed corner of the earth” to which Oblomov’s dream takes us. It is said about this corner that “there is nothing grandiose, wild and gloomy” there, that is, there is no sea, mountains, rocks, abysses and dense forests. All this could cause some kind of trouble and inconvenience to the inhabitants of the region. In this corner of paradise, everything is imbued with love, tenderness, and care. I.A. Goncharov claims that if, for example, there was a sea there, peace would be impossible, not like in Oblomovka. There is silence, tranquility, there is no mental anguish that could arise due to the presence of any element. Everything is silent, as if frozen in time, in its development. Everything is created for the convenience of man, so that he does not bother himself with anything. Nature there seems to have made a schedule for itself and strictly follows it. Of course, this chapter is of great importance, it helps to penetrate into Oblomov’s inner world, to get to know him better, to understand his condition. After all, a lot depends on a person’s upbringing, on the environment in which he lived as a child. Here we clearly see that in Oblomovka, parents and in general everyone around them suppressed all of Ilyusha’s aspirations and impulses to do something on his own. At first the boy didn’t like it, but then he got used to being so carefully looked after, surrounded by unlimited love and care, protected from the slightest danger, from work and from worries. Around him, Oblomov sees only “peace and silence,” complete calm and serenity - both in the residents of Oblomovka and in nature itself. In “Oblomov’s Dream,” Oblomovka’s isolation from the outside world is clearly visible. A clear example of this is the case of the man in the ditch, whom the residents of Oblomovka refused to help only because he was not from here. There is a contrast between how people treat each other in this village, with what tenderness and compassion they care for each other, and how indifferent they are to people who live outside their world. The principle by which they act sounds something like this - excessive isolation and fear of everything new. This to a certain extent shaped Oblomov’s position: “Life is enough.” He believes that life “touches” him everywhere, does not allow him to exist peacefully in his little world, the hero cannot understand why this is happening, because in Oblomovka everything is different. This habit, which consists in the fact that life is possible in a state isolated from the outside world, remains with him from childhood for the rest of his life. Throughout his entire existence, he tries to isolate himself from the outside world, from any of its manifestations. It’s not for nothing that I.A. Goncharov describes his main character in such a way that one gets the impression that external life does not exist for Oblomov, as if physically he had already died: “If it weren’t for this plate, and not for the just smoked pipe leaning against the bed, or not the owner himself, lying on it, then one would think that no one lives here - everything was so dusty, faded and generally devoid of traces of human presence.” It was obvious that Oblomov was trying to create the same atmosphere as in Oblomovka, since the furniture in the room was placed solely in order to “maintain the appearance of inevitable decency,” and the rest was all created for convenience, take at least a robe and slippers, which were detailed are described by Goncharov in order to show how much easier everything makes life for the owner. In the end, Oblomov still finds his piece of paradise, achieves the long-awaited peace, living with Pshenitsyna, who, as it were, fences him off from external life, just like Oblomov’s parents in childhood, she surrounds him with care, attention, affection, perhaps without realizing it at first. She intuitively understands what he is striving for and provides him with everything necessary for life. Oblomov realized that he had nothing else to strive for: “Looking, reflecting on his life and becoming more and more accustomed to it, he finally decided that he had nowhere else to go, there was nothing to look for, that the ideal of his life had come true.” Thanks to Pshenitsyna, that unconscious fear of life that Oblomov had, again, since childhood, disappeared. A clear confirmation of this can be considered the case described in the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream,” when a letter from an old acquaintance arrives in Oblomovka. The inhabitants of the house did not dare to open it for several days, trying to overcome the feeling of fear. This feeling of fear appeared due to the habit of isolation: people were afraid that their peace and serenity would be disturbed, because news is not only good... As a result of all these fears in childhood, Oblomov was afraid to live. Even when Ilya Ilyich fell in love with Olga and was about to get married, unconscious fear and fear of change made themselves felt. In addition, the constant feeling of being chosen, instilled in Oblomov at home, prevented him from participating in the kind of “competition” that is any life... He was unable to work, because in the service he would have to prove his superiority, and in his relationship with Zakhar Oblomov easily indulged his pride in the fact that he is a “first-born nobleman” and has never once put stockings on his feet himself. From all of the above, it follows that because of fear of life, because of all the restrictions set for him in childhood, Oblomov could not live a full external life. He was also greatly disappointed in his service. He thought that he would live like in a second family, that in the service there would be the same small, cozy world as in Oblomovka. Ilya Ilyich was, as it were, pulled out of hothouse conditions, from the kingdom of sweet sleep, and placed in conditions acceptable for people of Stolz’s type. And when, finally, thanks to Pshenitsyna, he finds himself in familiar conditions, there is, as it were, a connection of times, a connection between his childhood and the current time of his thirty-three-year-old life. The role of “Oblomov’s Dream” in understanding the meaning of the novel is enormous, since the entire conflict of external and internal life, the root of all events lies in Oblomov’s childhood, in the village of Oblomovka.
Preview:
Lesson topic: “Oblomov’s Dream”
The purpose of the lesson: to analyze “Oblomov’s Dream”, identifying those aspects of the life of Oblomov’s followers that influenced the formation of the hero’s dual nature (on the one hand, poetic consciousness, on the other - inactivity, apathy); work on the development of coherent speech of students, expressive reading, education in children of an active life position, a sense of responsibility for their future.
Teacher’s word: Today we have to get acquainted with a very significant chapter in the context of the novel, which is called “Oblomov’s Dream.” In addition, we will find out the compositional features of its use, identify the features of the life of the Oblomovites, which influenced the formation of the character of Ilya Ilyich.
II. Analysis of the work:
—What does the title of the work say?
the name of the main character, included in the title, emphasizes the peculiarity of his place in the poetic world of the work, emphasizing the interest that his life position represents for the author.
— Where is this position, the essence of the hero’s relationship to the world, most fully revealed?
In the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream”
- Let's remember which works we studied earlier contained a dream?
— What do you think is the function of sleep in these works, why do the authors use them?
— Which of the following functions does a dream perform in the work of I.A. Goncharova?
—What is the composition of this chapter?
— How many parts does it consist of (conditionally)? How did you determine this?
("Oblomov's Dream" consists of 4 parts:
— How does this arrangement of parts of the novel’s chapter help us understand the character of the hero?
(Each part is a series of vivid episodes from Oblomov’s childhood, completely different in theme, but connected by a common idea, the task of the writer: to show the origins of the hero’s character; how nature, the way of life of the family, views on life and education influenced the formation of the character of the main character.)
— By what means is the idyllic image of Oblomovka created? (Work on the text based on homework.)
1. We note the use of oral folk art in creating the image of Oblomovka:
a) a special spatio-temporal organization characteristic of Russian fairy tales; the isolation of Oblomovka from the rest of the world, the perception of the rest of the space by the Oblomovites as alien and fantastic;
b) the presence of one’s own magical power (sleep) and one’s own law in this world (idleness);
2. Reflection of the ancient idea of the “golden age” in the life of Oblomovites (in this work we rely on the knowledge that students of the special course “World Artistic Culture” received):
a) calmness, absence of bad inclinations among Oblomovites;
b) spiritual generosity;
b) a world of eternal warmth, sun (winter, thanks to supplies and a warm stove, is perceived as an extended summer);
— What image is central in the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream”, uniting all its fragments?
— What additional reading does the image of Oblomovka receive in the context of the struggle of ideas of the mid-19th century in Russia, which was discussed in class?
Oblomovka in this context is perceived as an idyllic model of patriarchal Russia.
- However, does the ideal of the hero coincide with the ideal of the author?
Positive moments of Oblomov’s life
Negative aspects of Oblomov’s life
1. The unity of people with nature, nature is anthropomorphic, people have no fear of it.
2. The unity of people with each other, the love of parents for Ilya.
1. Fencing off Oblomovka from the outside world, even the fear of Oblomovka before it (the story with the ravine, the gallery; there is no calendar in Oblomovka; fear of writing).
2. There is no place for evil in Oblomovka; the greatest evil is “theft of peas from vegetable gardens.”
1. Student report “Daily routine of Oblomovets.” It shows that life is a mechanical repetition of eating and sleeping (equal to death), empty evenings and fruitless conversations.
Option 2
“Oblomov’s Dream” is not just a chapter in Goncharov’s novel, but an independent work within a work. In this episode, the writer tried to analyze Oblomov’s childhood and youth in order to understand the essence of his soul, the reason why he is like this.
Oblomov remembers his childhood with tenderness, affection, and great love. He reverently remembers landscapes, interiors, images of loved ones.
In “The Dream” the reader observes Oblomov as a child. Here, in little Ilyusha, you can see features that are no longer present in the adult Oblomov. For example, curiosity. Little Oblomov often has a desire to play with the village boys and take a walk. He often asks questions to which he does not receive complete answers. That is, in this way the author shows that every child in childhood is curious, inquisitive, active and mischievous. But not everyone manages to maintain these qualities into adulthood. What prevented Oblomov from being as active and energetic as in childhood?
The whole of Oblomovka is permeated with an atmosphere of laziness and idleness. The author tenderly describes the traditional afternoon nap, when it was as if all of Oblomovka froze for a while. And even Ilyusha, who wanted to take a walk at this time, was forced to go to bed and indulge in sweet sleep. The writer also describes peasants who, like the owners, did not work, but rested all the time. Ilya Oblomov, being in such an environment, could not grow up differently. The child does not yet have the willpower to resist evil. He does what his parents do.
Essay about Oblomov's Dream
Ilya Ilyich Oblomov remained in the memory of readers as a completely apathetic type of hero. He solves the eternal question “to be or not to be” with the answer: “Not now.” This character is often drawn by Goncharov in an ironic way and brings a kind smile to the reader.
But sometimes Ilya Ilyich appears as an almost tragic figure, complex and contradictory. Inconsistency becomes the main sign of the hero’s national identity. He is Russian, and that says it all.
Oblomov’s character is the result of the influence of all the life around him. There is one episode in the novel that perfectly proves this statement - the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream”.
The dream genre is often used by authors to reveal the inner world of a character. But Goncharov uses it not only for this; the main thing for the writer is to show the origins of the hero’s character. In this chapter, the author gives a detailed description of Oblomov’s childhood. Goncharov shows that Oblomov’s laziness is an acquired quality, not an innate one.
