This is a story about an old house, within the walls of which an old man lived out his life. He was lonely, because all his comrades had died long ago. In the new neighbor's house there lived a boy who took pity on his lonely grandfather and presented him with a tin soldier...
Fairy tale Old house read
In one street stood an ancient, ancient house, built about three hundred years ago - the year was carved on one of the window cornices, along which intricate carvings curled: tulips and hop shoots; a whole poem was immediately carved out in ancient letters, and in compliance with ancient spelling. On other cornices there were hilarious faces making grimaces. The upper floor of the house formed a large projection above the lower one; under the very roof there was a drainpipe ending in a dragon's head. Rainwater should have flowed out of the dragon's mouth, but it flowed from its belly - the pipe was full of holes.
All the other houses on the street were so new, clean, with large windows and straight, even walls; it was clear from everything that they did not want to have anything to do with the old house and even thought: “How long will he stick around here to the disgrace of the whole street? Because of this ledge, we cannot see what is happening on the street on the other side of it! And what a staircase, what a staircase! Wide, as if in a palace, and high, as if leading to a bell tower! The iron railings resemble the entrance to a grave crypt, and large copper plaques shine on the doors! It’s just indecent!”
Opposite the old house, on the other side of the street, stood the same brand new, clean houses and they thought the same as their brothers; but in one of them a little red-cheeked boy with clear shining eyes was sitting by the window; to him old house I liked it much more than all the other houses in both sunny and moonlight. Looking at the wall of an old house with cracked and crumbling plaster in places, he painted himself the most bizarre pictures of the past, imagined the entire street built up with the same houses with wide staircases, ledges and pointed roofs, saw in front of him soldiers with halberds and drainpipes in the form of dragons and snakes ... Yes, you could still look at the old house! There lived one old man who wore short trousers down to his knees, a caftan with large metal buttons and a wig about which you could immediately say: this is a real wig! In the mornings, an old servant came to the old man, who cleaned everything in the house and carried out the instructions of the old owner; The rest of the day the old man remained alone in the house. Sometimes he went to the window to look at the street and the neighboring houses; the boy sitting by the window nodded his head to the old man and received the same friendly nod in response. This is how they met and became friends, although they never spoke to each other - this did not stop them at all!
Once the boy heard his parents say:
The old man's life is generally not bad, but he is so lonely, poor thing!
The very next Sunday, the boy wrapped something in a piece of paper, went out of the gate and stopped an old man's servant passing by.
Listen! Take this from me to the old gentleman! I have two tin soldiers, so here’s one for him! The old gentleman is so lonely, poor thing!
The servant, apparently delighted, nodded his head and took the soldier to the old house. Then the same servant came to the boy to ask if he would like to visit the old master himself. The parents allowed, and the boy went to visit.
The copper plaques on the staircase railings shone brighter than usual, as if they had been cleaned in anticipation of a guest, and the carved trumpeters - on the doors, after all, there were carved trumpeters looking out from the tulips - seemed to be blowing with all their might, and their cheeks were swelling more than ever. They trumpeted: “Tra-ta-ta-ta! The boy is coming! Tra-ta-ta-ta!” - The doors opened and the boy entered the corridor. All the walls were hung with old portraits of knights in armor and ladies in silk dresses; the knight's armor rattled, and the dresses rustled... Then the boy walked up the stairs, which first went high up, and then down again, and found himself on a rather dilapidated terrace with big holes and wide cracks in the floor, from which green grass and leaves peeked out. The entire terrace, the entire yard, and even the entire wall of the house were covered with greenery, so that the terrace looked like a real garden, but in fact it was only a terrace! There were antique flower pots in the shape of heads with donkey ears; the flowers grew in them as they wanted. In one pot, a carnation was climbing over the edge: its green shoots scattered in all directions, and the carnation seemed to say: “The breeze caresses me, the sun kisses me and promises to give me another flower on Sunday!”
From the terrace the boy was led into a room upholstered in pigskin with gold embossing.
Yes, the gilding will be erased,
The pork skin remains!
the walls spoke.
In the same room there were chairs decorated with carvings with high backs.
Sit down! Sit down! - they invited, and then creaked pitifully. - Oh, what a bone breaker! And we grabbed rheumatism like an old wardrobe. Rheumatism in the back! Oh!
Then the boy entered a room with a large ledge onto the street. The old owner himself was sitting here.
Thanks for the tin soldier, my friend! - he said to the boy. - And thank you for coming to see me!
“Well, well,” or rather, “Whack, whack!” - the room furniture groaned and creaked. Chairs, tables and armchairs simply climbed on top of each other to look at the boy, but there were so many of them that they only got in the way of one another.
On the wall hung a portrait of a charming young lady with a lively, cheerful face, but combed and dressed in ancient fashion: her hair was powdered, and her dress stood up. She didn’t say “so” or “khak,” but looked tenderly at the boy, and he immediately asked the old man:
Where did you get it?
In a junk shop! - he answered. - There are many such portraits, but no one cares about them: no one knows who they were painted from - all these faces died and were buried a long time ago. This lady has not been in the world for fifty years, but I knew her in the old days.
Under the picture hung a bouquet of dried flowers behind glass; They were probably also about fifty years old - they were so old! Large pendulum antique watch swayed back and forth, the needle moved and everything in the room grew older every minute, without noticing it.
In our house they say that you are terribly lonely! - said the boy.
ABOUT! I am constantly visited by memories of the past... They bring with them so many familiar faces and images!.. And now you have visited me! No, I'm fine!
And the old man took a book with pictures from the shelf. There were whole processions, outlandish carriages that you can no longer see, soldiers who looked like jacks of clubs, city artisans with flying banners. The tailors had scissors on their banners, supported by two lions, while the shoemakers had not boots, but an eagle with two heads; Shoemakers, after all, make everything in pairs. Yes, that’s how the pictures looked!
The old owner went into another room for jam, apples and nuts. No, in the old house, really, it was so lovely!
And I just can’t bear to stay here! - said tin soldier, standing on the chest. - It’s so empty and sad here. No, who is used to family life, he can’t live here. I have no more strength! The day drags on here endlessly, and the evening is even longer! Here you won’t hear the kind of pleasant, heart-to-heart conversations that your dad and mom used to have among themselves, or the cheerful romp of children like yours! The old master is so lonely! Do you think anyone is kissing him? Is anyone looking at him kindly? Does he have a Christmas tree? Does he receive gifts? Nothing! Is he going to get a coffin!.. No, really, I can’t stand living like this!
Well, well, that's enough! - said the boy. - I think it’s wonderful here; After all, memories come here and bring with them so many familiar faces!
Somehow I haven’t seen them, and they are unfamiliar to me! - answered the tin soldier. - No, I simply can’t stand to stay here!
And it is necessary! - said the boy.
At that moment an old man entered the room with a cheerful smile on his face, and he brought something! And jam, and apples, and nuts! The boy stopped even thinking about the tin soldier.
He returned home cheerful and satisfied. Days passed by; they were still sent to the old house, and from there they received bows, and so the boy went there again to visit.
The carved trumpeters sounded again: “Tra-ta-ta! The boy has arrived! Tra-ta-ta! The knights and ladies in the portraits rattled their armor and rustled their silk dresses, the pigskin spoke, and the old chairs creaked and groaned from rheumatism in the back: “Oh!” In a word, everything was the same as the first time - in the old house, hours and days passed one after the other, without any change.
No, I can't stand it! - said the tin soldier. - I was already crying like tin! It's too sad here! It would be better if they sent me to war and cut off an arm or a leg there! Still, at least there will be a change! My strength is gone!.. Now I know what kind of memories these are that bring with them familiar faces! They visited me too, and believe me, you won’t be happy with them! At least not for long. In the end, I was ready to jump off the chest!.. I saw you and all of yours!.. You all stood in front of me as if alive!.. It was Sunday morning... All of you kids stood in the dining room, so serious, piously folded their hands and sang the morning psalm... Dad and mom stood right there. Suddenly the door opened and your uninvited two-year-old sister Manya entered. And all she has to do is hear music or singing - it doesn’t matter what - and now she starts dancing. So she began to dance, but she couldn’t get in time - you sang so long... She raised one leg, then the other and stretched her neck, but things didn’t go well. None of you even smiled, although it was difficult to resist. I couldn’t help myself, I laughed to myself, and flew off the table! A big lump appeared on my forehead - it hasn’t gone away yet - and it served me right!.. I remember a lot of other things... Everything that I saw, heard and experienced in your family still pops up before my eyes! This is what they are, these memories, and this is what they bring with them!.. Tell me, do you still sing in the morning? Tell me something about little Manya! And my comrade, the tin soldier, how is he doing? What a lucky guy!.. No, no, I just can’t stand it!..
You are a gift! - said the boy. - And must stay here! Don't you understand this?
The old owner appeared with a box in which there were many different curiosities: some boxes, bottles and decks of old cards; You won’t see such large ones, painted with gold, anymore! The old man unlocked for the guest the large drawers of the antique bureau and even the clavichord, on the lid of which a landscape was painted. The instrument made quiet rattling sounds under the owner’s hand, and the old man himself hummed some kind of mournful song.
She once sang this song! - he said, nodding at the portrait bought from a junk dealer, and his eyes sparkled.
I want to go to war! I want to go to war! - the tin soldier suddenly screamed and rushed from the chest.
Where did he go? The old owner himself was looking for him, and the boy was looking for him too - he was nowhere to be found, and that was all.
Well, I'll find him later! - the old man said, but he never found it. The floor was full of cracks, the soldier fell into one of them and lay there as if in an open grave.
In the evening the boy returned home. Time passed; winter has come; the windows were frozen, and the boy had to breathe on them so that at least a small hole through which he could look out into the street would thaw. The snow covered all the curlicues and the inscription on the cornices of the old house and blocked the stairs - the house stood as if uninhabited. Yes, that’s how it was: the old man, his owner, died.
In the evening, a chariot drove up to the old house, they placed a coffin on it and took the old man out of town to the family crypt. No one followed the coffin - all the old man’s friends had died a long time ago. The boy blew a kiss after the coffin.
A few days later, an auction was scheduled for the old house. The boy saw from the window how ancient portraits of knights and ladies, flower pots with long ears, old chairs and cabinets were taken away. One went here, the other went there; The portrait of a lady, bought in a junk shop, returned to the same place, and remained there: no one, after all, knew this lady, no one needed her portrait.
In the spring they began demolishing the old house - this miserable barn had long been an eyesore for everyone - and from the street one could look into the very rooms with wallpaper made of pigskin hanging in tatters; the greenery on the terrace grew even more luxuriant and thickly entwined the fallen beams. Finally, the place was completely cleared.
That's great! - said the neighboring houses.
Instead of the old house, a new one appeared on the street, with large windows and white, smooth walls. In front of it, that is, in the very place where the old house had previously stood, a garden was laid out, and the vines stretched from there to the wall of the neighboring house. The garden was surrounded by an iron grating, and an iron gate led into it. It all looked so elegant that passers-by stopped and looked through the bars. The vines were dotted with dozens of sparrows, which chirped vyingly, but not about the old house - they, after all, could not remember it; So many years have passed since then that the boy managed to become a man. He emerged as a capable man to the delight of his parents. He had just gotten married and moved with his young wife to this new house with a garden. They were both in the garden; the husband watched as his wife planted something she liked in the flowerbed wildflower. Suddenly the young woman screamed:
Ay! What is this?
She pricked herself - something sharp was sticking out of the soft, loose earth. It was - yes, think about it! - the tin soldier, the same one that disappeared from the old man, was lying in the trash and, finally, lay in the ground for many, many years.
The young woman wiped the soldier first with a green leaf and then with her thin handkerchief. How wonderfully he smelled of perfume! The Tin Soldier seemed to have woken up from fainting.
Let me see! - said the young man, laughed and shook his head. - Well, this, of course, is not the same one, but it reminds me of a story from my childhood!
And he told his wife about the old house, about its owner and about the tin soldier, whom he sent to the poor lonely old man. In a word, he told everything as it really happened, and the young woman even shed tears while listening to him.
Or maybe this is the same tin soldier! - she said. - I'll hide it as a keepsake. But be sure to show me the old man’s grave!
I don’t even know where she is! - he answered. - And no one knows! All his friends died before him, no one cared about his grave, but in those days I was still a very little boy.
How terrible it is to be so alone! - she said.
It's terrible to be alone! - said the tin soldier. - But what a joy it is to realize that you have not been forgotten!
It turned out that this was said by a piece of pigskin, which had once been used to upholster the rooms of the old house. All the gilding had come off of him, and he looked more like a dirty lump of earth, but he had his own opinion, and he expressed it:
Yes, the gilding will be erased,
The pork skin remains!
The Tin Soldier, however, did not agree with this.
Summary of A Doll's House
Characters
Lawyer Helmer
Hora, his wife
Doctor Rank
Fru Linne
Private attorney Krogstad
Three young Helmer children
Anna-Maria, their nanny
Helmer's maid
Messenger
ACT ONE
“The Helmers’ apartment. A cozy room, furnished with taste, but inexpensive furniture.” Between the door of the hallway and the study there is a piano, by the window round table, an armchair, a sofa, several armchairs and a rocking chair near the tiled stove. There are engravings on the walls. A shelf with various trinkets, a cabinet with books in luxurious bindings. There is a carpet on the floor...
Winter day. There's fire in the stove."
Nora enters the room humming with bags and bundles. There is a messenger in the hallway who brought the Christmas tree. Nora settles with him, then takes a cookie out of her pocket, eats a few, puts another in her pocket and carefully wipes her lips.
“Where is the lark singing, the squirrel fussing?” — Helmer’s voice is heard from the office. “Did the bird fly to waste money again?” — The man says, leaving the office.
“Torvald, this is the first Christmas when we can not limit ourselves so much. Now you will earn a lot, a lot of money,” Nora replies cheerfully.
Nora happily shows the children gifts for Christmas and takes away the package containing the gift for the man. Helmer also needs to give his wife something, and Nora asks her husband to give her money, and she will buy herself whatever she wants.
Helmer agrees, but asks Nora not to spend everything on the household and buy something for herself. The man is perplexed at how much she spends and often cannot explain where the money went. He considers his wife to be the same spender as her father was. However, today is Christmas good wine already ordered, Dr. Rank will come, and the family will joyfully celebrate the holiday. Nori will no longer have to spend three weeks preparing decorations for the Christmas tree herself, as last year, because Helmer has achieved some success and became the director of a joint-stock bank.
The cheerful conversation of the couple was interrupted by a bell. The maid brings a woman into the room, whom Nora barely recognizes as her old friend Christina.
They haven't seen each other for ten years. Fru Linne was widowed, and her husband left her neither fortune nor children.
The women sat closer to the fire to warm themselves and tell how they lived all this time. Nora began to apologize for not writing to her friend, then she boasted about her life, children, and husband. Of course, there was a time when she also had to earn money through various little things: sewing, knitting, embroidery, copying papers; before the last Christmas holidays, she locked herself in her room for three weeks, writing, and her husband thought that Nora was making decorations for the Christmas tree. But, fortunately, now they are fortunes.
Nora continued to talk about her life, and suddenly she saw Christina’s sad, exhausted eyes. She felt a little ashamed, and she asked her friend to tell her about herself.
Christina married a rich, unloved man in order to be able to help her sick mother and two little brothers. The husband's affairs were precarious. “And when he died, everything died, there was nothing left... She had to survive with small trade, a small school and in general - whatever she had to.” The last three years dragged on for him “like one long, continuous day without rest.” Now the mother has died, the boys have gotten back on their feet, and a terrible emptiness has formed in her soul: there is no one and nothing to live for. That’s why she left the bear corner where she lived and came to the city, dreaming of “getting some kind of permanent service, some clerical work.”
Nora advised Christina to go somewhere to rest, but she only smiled bitterly: she didn’t have a dad who would give money for the trip. Then Nora agreed to talk to her husband about working for her friend.
“It’s so good, Nora, you take up my business so ardently... Twice as good of you, you know so little about everyday worries and troubles,” Christina answered sadly. She thought that her friend “didn’t experience anything like this difficult life" And indeed, Nora was like a child: cheerful, lively, beautiful, well dressed, a dear “squirrel and lark” for her husband. And suddenly Nora told Christina that she didn’t trust anyone.
When she was expecting her second child, her beloved man Torvald fell seriously ill. The doctor told Nora that he would die if he did not go to Italy for treatment. Nora could not tell her husband about this and tried in every possible way to get out of it: she said that she wanted to go south, “she cried and begged, said that now in her position she had to please her in every possible way, hinted that she could borrow money.” But Torvald said that she had the wind in her head and that it was his duty as a person not to indulge her whims. It was on these days that Nora’s dad died. That’s when she had to do something that a person doesn’t even know about. Perhaps someday, when Torvald no longer likes Nora, as now, when he will no longer be entertained by her “dancing, dressing up, reciting,” she will tell him how she saved his life, how she later saved every penny, how she bought herself a cheap dress . In the meantime, she is happy because she has wonderful children, a beloved husband, and prosperity in the house.
Suddenly the bell rang. The maid led lawyer Krogstad into the room. “Fru Linne, startled and shuddering, turns to the window.”
Nora is also amazed by this visit. Krogstad says he holds a small position in a joint-stock bank and came to personal file in Helmer. He enters the office. Christina asks Nora about the lawyer and learns that he is a widower and has small children.
Torvald's friend, doctor Rank, comes out of the office. He tells the women that Krogstad is very bad person. “His roots are rotten,” he always sniffs, “there’s no smell of moral rot anywhere.” And now he has come to Helmer in his vile deeds.
Suddenly Nora realized that her husband had great influence in the jar, and she laughed merrily. When Torvald came into their room, Nora turned to him with a request to get Christina a job, because she “is an excellent clerk, and she really wants to work in knowledgeable person to learn even more...” Helmer promised to give her a place.
Fru Linne and the doctor Rank say goodbye and Helmer leaves with them, and the nanny Anna-Maria enters the room with the children. Nora rushed to the kids and began to undress them, not forgetting to ask what they saw on the street. Then he starts playing blind man's buff with them. “The game is accompanied by laughter and fun: they hide in this room and in the next one... Complete delight.” No one sees Krogstad appear. He watches the game for a while and then turns to Nora. The woman sends the children to the nanny, promising to continue playing with them later, and turns to a lawyer. She is sure that he has returned for the money that she once borrowed from him. But when the reckoning has not yet arrived, what does he want? The lawyer asks about Mrs. Lynn, and Nora defiantly says that she begged her husband for a place for her friend. But Krogstad seemed to be waiting for these words. He advised Nora to use her influence on her husband so that Helmer would leave him his position and not kick him out of work for the matter, which would not go to court. And this thing was no worse than the one that Nora did. He explained to the confused woman that he knew that she had forged her father’s signature on a promissory note, under which Nora received a large sum for her husband’s treatment.
Nora tried to explain that at that time his father was dying, and therefore she could not give him trouble with her husband’s illness, that she had broken the law from great love to people dear to him. But the lawyer said that “the law is not interested in reasons,” and therefore when he submits this document, he will be convicted according to the law;
When Krogstad went Nora had no time to play with the children.
Helmer came and began asking why Krogstad, whom he had seen at the gate, had come, and Nora started talking about a costume ball, asked her husband to help her choose a suit, and then, by the way, started talking about Krogstad’s affairs. Helmer sternly explained to his wife that he was “guilty of forgery of documents,” either due to poverty or frivolity, but this was a crime. Of course, “sometimes someone who has fallen can rise again morally if they openly admit their guilt and suffer punishment,” but Krogstad got out of it and lied to the last. He does not have the moral right not only to work in a bank, but also to raise his own children, because “children with every breath of air perceive the germs of evil” with the “poisoned lie of the atmosphere of home life.”
Helmer went into his office to work on papers, and Nora, amazed by his words, turning pale with horror, repeated: “Spoil your kids! .. Poison the family! This is not true. Can't be true, never, never in the world"
Act two
Same room. There is a Christmas tree in the corner, without toys, with burnt candles. Nora herself; nervously walks around the room.
The woman looks excitedly at the letter box, which is still empty. She doesn’t want to believe that Krogstad will carry out his threat and tell her husband about her guilt. Nora is preparing for the masquerade. Nanny Anna-Maria helps her, and the women start talking about the act of the maid, who was forced to leave her daughter when she became Nora’s wet nurse. But the daughter did not forget her mother, she wrote to her.
Mrs. Linne comes into the room and begins to help fix the costume for the ball. While sewing, a conversation comes up about Dr. Ranka, and Mrs. Lynn advises Nora to break up with Morning, because she has decided that the doctor is the rich admirer who gives Nora money. Shocked, Nora explains that the doctor was always only a family friend, and she received the money in another way.
Helmer enters from the hallway with a folder of papers. Nora fawns over him, promises to sing like a lark in all rooms, portray sylphs, dance in the moonlight if he leaves Krogstad his position at the bank, because the lawyer can write disgusting lies about Torvald in the newspapers. But the man reminds Nora that he has always been and remains an impeccable official, and therefore is not afraid of any lies. Moreover, Torvald is shocked that Krogstad says “you” to him, trumping their long-time acquaintance. Without hesitation, Helmer sends an order to the bank to fire the lawyer.
Nora is desperate. She begs her husband to return the letters, but he only smiles condescendingly, touched, as it seems to him, by his wife’s concern for his reputation.
The bell rings in the hallway. Nora goes to open the door. Dr. Rank enters the room. He learned that he was dying of an incurable disease, which his reveler father had given him as an inheritance. Standing on the threshold of eternity, the doctor admits that he loves Nora and is ready to do anything for her. A shocked Nora, who wanted to ask Rank for a favor, reproaches the doctor for this confession, but assures that she will treat him as a family friend.
The maid brought Nora a business card. The doctor noticed the young woman’s concern, but she assured that nothing had happened and asked the guest to keep Torvald in the office.
Rank leaves through one door, and Krogstad enters the second. He says that the pledge sheet is with him, but he will not start legal proceedings against Nora if Helmer creates a new, more powerful one for him. high position and help you get back on your feet. But Nora knows that her husband will not do any of this.
Krogstad understands the woman's condition well. He repeats to her her own thoughts that if exposed, she will be forced to leave her family and home or even commit suicide. But the clever trickster says that then he will no longer have power over her, but over her memory. To prevent this from happening, Helmer must make Krogstad his right hand.
The lawyer goes into the hallway and puts the letter in the box. Nora, in despair, confesses to Fru Linna that she borrowed money from Krogstad, who blackmailed her and now decided to ruin her completely.
Christina says that she once knew Krogstad well, who is ready to do anything for her, and will persuade him to return the letter. In the meantime, Nora begged her husband to put everything aside and not read the letters, because he had to help her remember the dance that she would dance tomorrow. Helmer agrees, sits down at the piano and begins to play. Nora, laughing and shaking her tambourine, dances more passionately than necessary and does not listen to her husband’s instructions. She danced as if it was a matter of life and death. Although this is how it really was.
ACT THREE
Same room. Mrs. Linne is sitting at the table and waiting for Krogstad. Quiet footsteps are heard on the stairs, and the lawyer carefully steps over the threshold.
Kristina and Krogstad are not just old acquaintances. Many years ago, she refused a lawyer and married an old rich man in order to be able to support her sick mother and younger brothers. And now these two looked like people in distress in the sea of \u200b\u200blife and floated out on the wreckage.
Christina was the first to offer to shake hands with each other, because “two, together, being on the wreckage is still safer, better than staying apart, each separately.”
Krogstad could not believe it, because Christina knew his past well. But she wanted “to love someone, take care of someone, replace someone’s mother,” and the lawyer’s children needed a mother. Krogstad was ready to wait for the Helmers, who were now at the ball, and return the letters, but Mrs. Lynn stopped him. She wanted Helmer to find out everything, and “let the unfortunate secret come to light.”
The holiday ended and the Helmers returned home. Torvald was delighted with his wife’s beauty and dance. He loves her, is proud of her and is ready to talk about his feelings again and again. The flow of confessions and compliments is interrupted by Dr. Rank, which also speaks of the next ball, where he will appear in an invisibility suit. He did the research and made sure he lived last days. But, saying goodbye to the spouses, the doctor is not talking about himself. He calls Nora the Minion of Fate, the best among women.
Helmer did not forget the mailbox, which was already completely full. He opened it with his key and saw Dr. Rank's business cards on top. There was a black cross above the name, as if the cards indicated death. Torvald realized that the doctor had said goodbye to them forever, and sighed bitterly. But his gaze lit up with love when he looked at his wife. In delight, he said: “More than once I wished that you were in danger of imminent disaster and that I could risk my life and blood - and all, all for your sake.” Nora pulled away and in a firm voice ordered the man to read the letters.
Helmer did not forget the mailbox, which was already completely full. He opened it with his key and saw Dr. Rank's business cards on top. There was a black cross above the name, as if the cards indicated death. Torvald realized that the doctor had said goodbye to them forever, and sighed bitterly. But his gaze lit up with love when he looked at his wife. In delight, he said: “More than once I wished that you were in danger of imminent disaster and that I could risk my life and blood - and all, all for your sake.” Nora pulled away and in a firm voice ordered the man to read the letters.
Torvald went into the office, and Nora, her gaze wandering around the room, took her husband’s fancy dress and was about to leave the house. Suddenly Helmer appears on the threshold with an open letter in his hand. Nora tries to leave, but he closes the door and begins to walk around the room, saying that for eight years his joy, his pride, his sweet lark “was hypocritical, deceitful... worse, worse... a criminal! Oh, spotless abyss of filth and ugliness! Ugh! Ugh! “Helmer did not allow Nora to say a word and spoke about himself, about his ruined career, destroyed good name. He couldn't come, but being practical about business allowed him to focus on how to handle the matter. Of course, to divert attention, everything in the family should remain as it was before. But Nora can't raise any more children because he doesn't trust her.
Helmer's inflammatory tirade was interrupted by a maid who brought a letter from Krogstad, in which he writes that he repents of his actions and will destroy evidence of Nora's crime. Helmer, having read the letter, began to talk again about his love, that he forgives Nora, because she committed a crime out of great love for him. Tomorrow everything will be forgotten, the bird will sing merrily again. But now she will be both wife and child, and he will become his will, his conscience.
Nora slowly took off her husband's fancy dress costume, which she had dressed up in, and calmly turned to Torvald. She recalled that during the eight years of marriage, “we never exchanged serious thoughts about serious things" First her father and then her husband played with her like a doll. She lived with her relatives, like an old man who is fed and clothed, and his job is to entertain and amuse. All big house there was only a doll's house, and Nora was a daughter here, a doll. And the children have already become her dolls. She liked that her husband played and played with her, and the children liked that their mother played and played with them. It turned out that true parenting was beyond Nora’s power, and she decided to leave her family and go to the city where she was born.
Helmer reminded Nora of her duty as a mother and wife, but she quietly replied that she still had a duty to herself. She must become a person, she must check whether the pastor spoke the truth about God, whether those laws are correct according to which “a woman does not have the right to have mercy on her dying old man, does not have the right to save her husband’s life.” She wants to take a closer look at society, at life. While she understands little, she knows for sure that she does not love Torvald, because he turned out to be not who she thought he was. Nora was waiting for a miracle: a person had to stand up for her and take all the blame on himself. And he thought only about his career, which would be destroyed, and his honor, which would be tarnished. However, when the fear passed, Torvald acted as if nothing had happened. It was at this moment that an abyss lay between the spouses.
Torvald was completely at a loss. He promised to change, but Nora said that this could only happen when he no longer had the doll. She gave him hers wedding ring, took his ring and left the house with one small bag.
Helmer falls powerlessly onto a chair and covers his face with his hands. The house became empty without Nora. But he remembers with hope his wife’s words that marriage can be saved by a new miracle - their transformation.
Mikhail Pryaslin came from Moscow and visited his sister Tatyana there. How I visited communism. A two-story dacha, a five-room apartment, a car... I arrived and began to wait for guests from the city, the brothers Peter and Gregory. He showed them his new home: a polished sideboard, a sofa, tulle curtains, a carpet. Workshop, cellar, bathhouse. But they paid little attention to all this, and it is clear why: dear sister Lizaveta was stuck in their heads. Mikhail abandoned his sister after she gave birth to twins. I couldn’t forgive her that very little time had passed since her son’s death.
For Lisa, there are no guests more desirable than her brothers. We sat at the table and went to the cemetery to visit my mother, Vasya, and Stepan Andreyanovich. There Gregory had a seizure. And although Lisa knew that he had epilepsy, her brother’s condition still frightened her. And Peter’s behavior also alarmed me. What are they doing? Fyodor doesn’t get out of prison, Mikhail and Tatyana don’t recognize her, and it turns out that Peter and Grigory are also at odds.
Lisa told her brothers, and they themselves saw that the people in Pekashin had become different. Previously, we worked until we dropped. And now we’ve done our due diligence - off to the hut. The state farm is full of men, full of all kinds of equipment - but things are not going well.
For state farmers - these are the times! — the sale of milk was allowed. In the mornings they stand behind him for an hour or two. But there is no milk, and they are in no hurry to go to work. After all, a cow is hard labor. The current ones won't bother with it. The same Viktor Netesov wants to live like a city. Mikhail decided to reproach him: his father, they say, used to kill himself for the common cause. “At the same time, he killed Valya and his mother,” Victor answered. “And I don’t want to arrange graves for my family, but life.”
During the days of his vacation, Peter walked up and down his sister’s house. If I didn’t know Stepan Andreyanovich alive, I would say that the hero installed him. And Peter decided to rebuild the old Pryaslinsky house. And Grigory became the nanny for Liza’s twins, because Taborsky, the manager, put Liza herself in the calf barn behind the swamp. I walked to the calf barn and was met by a postal bus. And the first to jump off his bandwagon... Yegorsha, from whom I had not heard anything for twenty years -
;spirit.
Yegorsha told his friends: he’s been everywhere, traveled all over Siberia far and wide, and gone through all sorts of women’s things—it’s impossible to count. Pious grandfather Yevsey Moshkin tell him: “You didn’t destroy the girls, Yegory, but yourself. The earth rests on people like Mikhail and Lizaveta Pryaslina!”
“Oh, yes! - Yegorsha became incensed. “Well, let’s see how these very ones on which the earth rests will crawl at my feet.” And he sold the house to Pakha-Rybnadzor. But Liza did not want to sue Yegorsha, Stepan Andreyanovich’s own grandson. Well, the laws - and she lives by the laws of her conscience. At first, Mikhail liked manager Taborsky in a way that rarely does anyone in management like business-like behavior. He saw through it when they began to sow corn. The “queen of the fields” did not grow in Pekashin, and Mikhail said: sow without me. Taborsky tried to reason with him: does it matter why you are paid at the highest rate? From that time on, they started a war with Taborsky. Because Taborsky was catching, but he couldn’t catch it as clever as he was.
And then the men at work reported the news: Viktor Netesov and the agronomist wrote a statement against Taborsky to the region. And the authorities came to scratch the manager. Pryaslin now looked at Victor with tenderness: he had revived his faith in man. After all, he thought that in Pekashin people now only think about making money, filling the house with sideboards, placing children and crushing bottles. We waited a week to see what would happen. And finally they found out: Taborsky was removed. And they appointed... Viktor Netesov as the new manager. Well, this one will be in order, it’s not for nothing that they called him the German. A machine, not a person.
Meanwhile, Pakha-Rybnadzor cut down the Stavrovsky house and took away half of it. Egorsha began to approach the village, turned his eyes to the familiar larch tree - and in the sky there was an ugly thing sticking out, the remnant of his grandfather’s house with fresh white ends. Only Pakh didn’t take the horse from the roof. And Liza was inspired to put it in the old Pryaslinskaya hut that Peter had renovated.
When Mikhail found out that Lisa had been crushed by a log and was taken to the district hospital, he immediately rushed there. He blamed himself for everything: he didn’t save either Lisa or his brothers. He walked and suddenly remembered the day when his father went to war.
On an August day in 1972, Vadim Aleksandrovich Glebov, who was preparing to move into a cooperative apartment, went to a furniture store located “near the devil’s horns.” There he had to buy an antique table. To get the desired piece of furniture, you first had to find a certain Efim. Instead, Glebov came across an old friend Levka Shulepnikov (Shulepa), who was almost drunk. Efim was never found. Glebov decided to have a friendly conversation with Shulepnikov, called out to him, but he did not answer.
In the evening, when Glebov told his wife Marina about what had happened during the day, he was more worried not because his old friend did not recognize him, but because there are such unnecessary people as Efim and that now the antique table will go to someone else . Glebov had almost gone to bed when his wife and daughter Margosha entered his office. Marina reported that her daughter was going to marry the artist Tolmachev, who worked as a salesman in a bookstore, in 12 days.
Around one o'clock in the morning the phone rang. Glebov picked up the phone. On the other end of the line was Shulepnikov. He said that he pretended not to recognize Glebov because he was “terribly disgusted” with him. Coming home from work, Levka thought that he had unnecessarily offended an old friend and therefore decided to call. Shulepnikov asked if Glebov remembered his mother. Glebov began to answer, but then the connection was interrupted.
Almost 25 years ago, Vadim Aleksandrovich was a completely different person - he often sat without money, “in appearance he resembled a commoner from the seventies,” he worked as a loader and chopped wood in the yards.
Glebov went to school with Shulepnikov. In the fall of 1947, Levka unexpectedly appeared at the institute, and immediately in his third year. Shulepnikov had a stepfather “who had enormous potential.” Thanks to him, Levka rapidly made his career. At that time, those around him either slavishly served Shulepnikov or were “viciously jealous.”
Glebov was never Levka's slave, even at school. At the institute, many times he could have joined the company that had gathered around Shulepnikov, but did not do so.
When Vadim Glebov was in fifth or sixth grade, in a house on the embankment - a rich one, reminiscent the whole city or even a country,” Levka settled. From birth, Glebov lived in a communal apartment, in a small old two-story house, for the inhabitants of which the huge house on the embankment blocked the sun in the morning. In those years, Vadim developed an “ineradicable illness,” which can be called “suffering from inadequacy.” Glebov was offended that he had to achieve everything through hard work, while Levka, for example, got everything easily. Vadim's father worked as a master chemist at a candy factory. Mother worked as an usher in a run-down movie theater. This gave Glebov an advantage in class, since sometimes he was able to take one friend, or even two, to the cinema for free. He invited only boys whose friendship he was interested in.
First days in new school Shulepnikov behaved arrogantly. His classmates decided to attack him and rip off his pants. Such reprisals were called “ogogo.” Glebov refused to participate at the last moment. Shulepnikov dispersed the attackers by firing into the air from a “foreign scarecrow.” Subsequently, Levka did not surrender those who attacked him. So he turned into a hero. Soon Glebov became friends with him. Vadim’s father advised him to be more careful in communicating with Levka, and to visit his rich apartment less often. He warned that this friendship could lead to trouble. Glebov himself thought so, but still continued to go to the house on the embankment.
Vadim’s mother had a sister, Aunt Polya. One day her husband, Uncle Volodya, a simple-minded and soft-hearted man who worked as a typesetter in a printing house and loved to drink, was accused of “almost sabotage.” Glebov’s mother decided to turn to Levka’s influential stepfather for help. Her father did not agree with her, but she did it her way. When Levka came to Glebov’s for tea, his mother started talking about Uncle Volodya. Shulepnikov agreed to talk about this with his stepfather.
One frosty day, Glebov was visiting Levka. The stepfather came and invited Vadim into the office. He promised to try to help Uncle Volodya, but in return he demanded that the boy name the instigators of the attack on Shulepa, which happened several months ago. Glebov named two classmates - Bear and Manyunya. Vadim counted them bad people, but there was still an unpleasant feeling that he had betrayed someone. As a result, Levka's stepfather was unable to help Uncle Volodya. The bear left Moscow with his parents because they were transferred somewhere for work. Manyunya was kicked out of school because he did not study well.
Seven years have passed. As mentioned above, fate brought Glebov and Shulepnikov together again at the institute. During the war, Glebov’s mother died, his father was wounded in the head, some school friends died, Vadim did not know about the whereabouts of the others, he himself also almost died. Everything turned out better for Levka - Shulepnikov even managed to live in a marriage with an Italian. His mother remarried, and again to an influential man. The previous stepfather was found dead in his car, in a locked garage.
Even in his first year at the institute, Glebov again began going to the house on the embankment. His former classmate Sonya Ganchuk remained to live there. But the girl was of little interest to Glebov at first. He communicated more with her father, Professor Ganchuk, who taught him. Glebov tried to win the sympathy of the teacher and succeeded in this. Vadim's attitude towards Sonya changed after one of the parties she organized. Then Glebov realized that he could fall in love with Ganchuk’s daughter, but their romance began only two years later.
One day, under New Year the entire “student horde” went to Bruskovo, to the Ganchuks’ dacha. Shulepnikov was also in the company, who had been at the institute for a year at that time. The party ended with a big fight. At dawn, almost everyone hurried to the train. Soon only Sonya and Glebov remained at the dacha. They were in a hurry to put the house in order, as they were waiting for the arrival of the girl’s parents, who ultimately did not arrive that day. In the evening, Sonya gave herself to Glebov. She admitted that she had been in love with him since the sixth grade. Vadim could not say exactly when he fell in love with Sonya. This is how their romance began. Many years later, Glebov believed that it was not true love, but “young bodily possession.”
While Glebov was having an affair with Sonya, “the life of Glebov’s family was at its end.” Vadim’s grandmother, Nila, who supported the house, could barely walk. After the death of his mother, my father grew old and was consumed by illness. In addition, he began to drink. Aunt Polya came to help from time to time. Her husband, Uncle Volodya, who was sent to the north at one time, started new family and left with her for Tashkent. Aunt Paulie got into trouble love relationship with Glebov's father.
In late autumn, when Glebov was actively writing a thesis on Russian journalism of the 1880s, he was called to the training unit. There was the newly appointed Druzyaev, who had previously worked as a military prosecutor and had only been demobilized a year ago. During the conversation between Druzyaev and Glebov, graduate student Shireyko entered the room. He gave a special course on Gorky to Vadim, replacing linguistics teacher Boris Astrug, a student of Ganchuk, who was “dismissed with a bang” about a year ago.
Friends started talking about Professor Ganchuk. He was Glebov’s scientific supervisor. It turned out that the professor included Vadim in the “preliminary list of graduates who will be recommended for graduate school.” Glebov heard about this for the first time. In addition, Druzyaev knew that Vadim was having an affair with Sonya. Glebov was briefly outlined the current situation. No one was against Ganchuk supervising his diploma, so that Vadim married Sonya, so that Ganchuk’s wife remained at the institute to teach in the department of languages. Individually it was all great, but together it was too much. Glebov was required to talk to Ganchuk so that he would refuse the scientific supervision of the diploma and select someone else. Vadim, not seeing the catch and thinking that the educational part was taking care of his successful completion of the diploma, agreed. It seemed to him that the institute was simply afraid of formal troubles.
A few days later, Glebov told Sonya about everything. She advised him to do as he saw fit. At the same time, it turned out that Dorodnov, head educational part, notified Ganchuk’s wife about the need to take exams. Allegedly, further teaching requires a diploma from a Soviet university, but she had a diploma from the University of Vienna. It is interesting that this did not come up before, although Ganchuk’s wife taught for twenty years.
Soon, at one of the Ganchuks’ tea parties, Sonya told her father and mother that she was meeting with Glebov and that Vadim was asked to replace scientific supervisor. After this, Professor Ganchuk explained why intrigues were being woven against him. In particular, due to the fact that he defended Astrug and others who were unfairly humiliated.
On Thursday, Glebov was supposed to compete against Ganchuk. Vadim turned to Shulepnikov for help, hoping that Levka’s stepfather could somehow influence the situation. Glebov really didn’t want to perform; he passionately wanted them to do without him. Shulepnikov reluctantly tried to help by calling graduate student Shireiko, who was clearly playing in the intrigue against Ganchuk important role, but nothing really came of this call. There were two days left until Thursday, and Glebov still had not decided what to do.
The situation has become more complicated. Now Glebov was also forced to speak at the meeting by supporters of Professor Ganchuk, of whom there were many. Early on Thursday morning, Vadim’s grandmother died, which saved him. He didn't have to go anywhere. True, there was also a second meeting. Glebov still performed there. According to Vadim himself, he said something “short, insignificant.” Professor Ganchuk was eventually sent into disgrace, to the regional pedagogical university. He managed to return only a few years later. After the second meeting, Glebov and Levka, who was also speaking, got drunk. In his drunken delirium, Shulepnikov constantly repeated: “We are brutes, bastards...”. That's when his alcoholism began to develop. Even before the second meeting, Glebov broke up with Sonya.
Throughout the entire work there are fragments written by the author, who once lived in a house on the embankment, communicated with Glebov and Shulepnikov as a child, and was in love with Sonya. In the finale, the author found Professor Ganchuk, who at that time was already 86 years old. On the anniversary of Sonya’s death, they went together to her grave. The author and Ganchuk found themselves at the cemetery just before it closed. The gatekeeper did not want to let them in for a long time, until the author recognized Levka Shulepnikov in him. Returning home from work on a trolleybus, the former darling of fate Shulepa passed by a house on the embankment and hoped for a miracle, for another change in life.
