The story "Biryuk", which we will analyze, begins with a description of a thunderstorm that caught the hunter in the evening in the forest. Details specifying the place and time of the action create an unsettling atmosphere. So far, it's barely felt. But gloomy colors (“lilac cloud”, “gray clouds”) and the movement that began in nature (“a thunderstorm was approaching”, “trees raged”, “drops ... rattled”, “lightning flashed”) strengthen it.

A person appears "at the flash of lightning." His "figure seemed to have grown out of the earth." And this is not just a common expression - it speaks of fusion this person with nature.

With the appearance of a person, anxiety does not go away. Moreover, it is also fed, but not by nature, but by man himself. We perceive people, events and nature through the eyes of a hunter-storyteller, that is, from a distance.

The image of Biryuk in the story

The hunter from the work "Biryuk" by Turgenev saw both the forester himself and his house. This is a "small hut" in which "a light shone dimly." In the "smoky" hut there was not a single bright spot - a "torn sheepskin coat", a "pile of rags" and a torch that could not dispel the darkness. It seems that there are only traces left past life, and she herself went somewhere. Even the presence of children does not remove this feeling.

The appearance of the owner in the hut for some time brightens the atmosphere. The narrator saw a man of "tall stature", who had "mighty muscles", "a courageous face", "small brown eyes looked boldly". A completely recognizable image. Where is he from? In Turgenev's story "Biryuk" there is a hint: "I have rarely seen such a fine fellow." "Well done" is an epic-fairy-tale hero. But then why is he here, in this miserable hut with unfortunate children? A clear discrepancy between the appearance of the hero and the way of his life. It caused the narrator not only surprise, but also interest: "I ... asked his name."

Information about the forester we learn gradually. First people talk about it. Their opinion is known from the forester himself: "My name is Foma ... and nicknamed Biryuk." The narrator also heard something about Biryuk from people. He was "feared like fire", considered incorruptible and more than once "were going to die from the world."

Is this characterization of Biryuk fair? The narrator will have to check it. And what? From a mean conversation, he realized that he saw a right person, honestly fulfilling his duty. “I am doing my job,” Biryuk says about himself. He is also lonely - his wife "ran away with a passer-by tradesman", leaving children to him. In the characterization of the hero, his loneliness is a very significant component. Lonely means deprived of the support of relatives and friends and, most likely, an unhappy person. An ordinary story, but Biryuk himself is not quite ordinary, which will soon be confirmed.

Biryuk and the man

Late in the evening a thief appeared in the forest. The direct duty of the forester is to catch him, which he does.

The man is wet, "in rags", he has "a drunken, wrinkled face ... restless eyes." His portrait is straight - the opposite of the portrait of Biryuk. The forester causes admiration, they want to admire, and the peasant - only pity.

In the images of Biryuk and the peasant, not only physical strength and weakness collided, but also two opposite life positions. Biryuk "does his duty", honors the law, and the peasant, stealing, breaks the law. And that's not all - he also justifies his actions - "hungry", "ruined", "children ..." Both the clerk and Biryuk, who is a "beast", "bloodsucker" are to blame for him. Only he himself is not to blame for anything. And what he drinks is like this - “is it not on your money, murderer ...”

Biryuk's situation is no better: he is "also a bonded man", he also has children, and there is nothing from food "apart from bread ...", he does not even drink tea, but he does not steal either.

So, the conflict revealed the inner essence of the two men. Being socially equal, they are morally absolute antipodes. Therefore, one should not count on the objectivity of the assessment that Biryuk received from the fellow villagers of the thief.

The situation unfolds unexpectedly - Biryuk, contrary to his own convictions and professional duty, releases the thief, once again confirming the ambiguity of his personality. But is the conflict settled by his decision to let the thief go? Of course not. This guy isn't the only one breaking the law. “I know you ... a thief on a thief,” says Biryuk. Therefore, his collisions with them are inevitable: “We’ll get to you, wait a minute,” the thief threatens.

Bad weather of human relations

The whole story takes place against the backdrop of rain. It begins with it - even with a thunderstorm, and ends with it. “Rain, you can’t wait it out ...,” Biryuk says to the hunter and escorts him on the road.

The rain, now intensifying, now subsiding, creates in the story a mood of some kind of inexplicable sadness that permeates the whole story of Biryuk. But the words "rain", "thunderstorm" are used in the story not only in a literal sense, but also in a symbolic sense. Continuous rain is a bad weather in human relations. The sun has gone out of them for a long time, if not forever.

The story is named after the protagonist. It accurately indicates his character and place among people. But it turns out that Biryuk has no place. He is alone everywhere. "Their" men call him a "beast" and promise to deal with him. At the master he is "bonded". The loneliness of Biryuk is emphasized by the details: his hut is alone in the middle of the forest, and in the hut he is alone (without his wife) with children. The drama of Biryuk is that, being strong and handsome, courageous and honest, being correct, he would have to live well, as he deserves, but he lives badly. And there is no light in his life.

The main features of the story "Biryuk":

• genre - story;
• narration on behalf of the narrator;
• main character: serf forester;
• plot: one episode from the life of the hero;
• image of nature;
• reflection of the life of a Russian forced man.

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The childhood of I. S. Turgenev passed in the Oryol region. A nobleman by birth, who received an excellent secular upbringing and education, he early witnessed an unfair attitude towards the common people. Throughout his life, the writer was distinguished by an interest in the Russian way of life and sympathy for the peasants.

In 1846, Turgenev spent several summer and autumn months in his native estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. He often went hunting, and on long trips around the neighborhood, fate brought him together with people of different classes and wealth. The results of observations of the life of the local population were stories that appeared in 1847-1851 in the journal Sovremennik. A year later, the author combined them into one book, called "Notes of a Hunter." Among them was a story written in 1848 with the unusual title "Biryuk".

The narration is conducted on behalf of Pyotr Petrovich, a hunter who unites all the stories of the cycle. At first glance, the plot is quite simple. The narrator, returning somehow from a hunt, gets caught in the rain. He meets a forester who offers to wait out the bad weather in his hut. So Pyotr Petrovich becomes a witness difficult life a new friend and his children. Foma Kuzmich leads a secluded life. The peasants living in the district do not like and are even afraid of the formidable forester, and for his unsociableness they gave him the nickname Biryuk.

The summary of the story can be continued with an unexpected incident for the hunter. When the rain subsided a little, the sound of an ax was heard in the forest. Biryuk and the narrator go to the sound, where they find a peasant who has decided to steal, even in such bad weather, obviously not from a good life. He tries to pity the forester with persuasion, talks about a hard life and hopelessness, but he remains adamant. Their conversation continues in the hut, where the desperate peasant suddenly raises his voice and begins to accuse the owner of all the peasant troubles. In the end, the latter does not stand up and releases the offender. Gradually, in the course of the unfolding scene, Biryuk reveals himself to the narrator and reader.

Appearance and behavior of the forester

Biryuk was well built, tall and broad-shouldered. His black-bearded face looked both stern and manly; brown eyes peered boldly out from under broad brows.

All actions and behavior expressed determination and impregnability. His nickname was not accidental either. This word in the southern regions of Russia is called a lone wolf, which Turgenev knew well. Biryuk in the story is an unsociable, stern person. That is how he was perceived by the peasants, on whom he always inspired fear. Biryuk himself explained his steadfastness by a conscientious attitude to work: “you don’t have to eat the master’s bread for free.” He was in the same plight, like most of the people, that's just not used to complaining and hoping for someone.

Hut and family of Foma Kuzmich

A painful impression is made by acquaintance with his housing. It was one room, low, empty and smoky. She did not feel a woman's hand: the hostess ran away with the tradesman, leaving her husband two children. A tattered sheepskin coat hung on the wall, and a pile of rags lay on the floor. The hut smelled of cooled smoke, making it difficult to breathe. Even the torch burned sadly and then went out, then flared up again. The only thing the host could offer the guest was bread, he had nothing else. So sadly and in a beggarly way lived the fearful Biryuk.

The story continues with a description of his children, which completes the gloomy picture. In the middle of the hut hung a cradle with a baby, it was rocked by a girl of about twelve with timid movements and a sad face - her mother left them in the care of her father. The narrator's "heart ached" from what he saw: it is not easy to enter a peasant's hut!

The heroes of the story "Biryuk" in the scene of the theft of the forest

Thomas reveals himself in a new way during a conversation with a desperate peasant. The appearance of the latter eloquently speaks of the hopelessness and complete poverty in which he lived: he is dressed in rags, his beard is disheveled, his face is drunk, and his whole body is incredibly thin. The intruder cut down the tree carefully, apparently hoping that in bad weather the probability of being caught was not so great.

Caught stealing the master's forest, he first begs the forester to let him go, calls him Foma Kuzmich. However, the more the hope that he will be released melts away, the more angry and sharper the words begin to sound. The peasant sees before him a murderer and a beast deliberately humiliating the peasant.

I. Turgenev introduces a completely unpredictable denouement into the story. Biryuk suddenly grabs the intruder by the sash and pushes him out the door. We can assume what was going on in his soul during the entire scene: compassion and pity come into conflict with a sense of duty and responsibility for the task assigned. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Foma knew from his own experience how hard the life of a peasant is. To Pyotr Petrovich's surprise, he only waves his hand.

Description of nature in the story

Turgenev has always been famous as a master of landscape sketches. They are also present in the work "Biryuk".

The story begins with a description of an ever-increasing and expanding thunderstorm. And then, completely unexpectedly for Pyotr Petrovich, Foma Kuzmich appears from the forest, dark and wet, who feels at home here. He easily pulls the frightened horse from its place and, keeping calm, leads it to the hut. Turgenev's landscape is a reflection of the essence of the protagonist: Biryuk leads life as gloomy and gloomy as this forest in bad weather.

The summary of the work needs to be supplemented with one more point. When the sky begins to clear up a little, there is hope that the rain will end soon. Like this scene, the reader suddenly discovers that the impregnable Biryuk is capable of good deeds and simple human sympathy. However, this “slightly” remains - an unbearable life has made the hero the way the local peasants see him. And this cannot be changed overnight and at the request of a few people. Both the narrator and the readers come to such unhappy thoughts.

Meaning of the story

The cycle "Notes of a Hunter" includes works that reveal the image of ordinary peasants in different ways. In some stories, the author draws attention to their spiritual breadth and wealth, in others he shows how talented they can be, in the third he describes their meager life ... In this way, different sides of the character of a peasant are revealed.

Lawlessness and the miserable existence of the Russian people in the era of serfdom - this is the main theme of the story "Biryuk". And this is the main merit of Turgenev the writer - to draw public attention to the tragic situation of the main breadwinner of the entire Russian land.

"Notes of a Hunter" appeared in print as separate stories and essays at the turn of the 40s and 50s of the 19th century. The impetus for starting work on the cycle was a request addressed to Turgenev in the fall of 1846 to provide material for the first issue of the updated Sovremennik magazine.

So the first essay "Khor and Kalinich" appeared. I.S. Turgenev wrote almost all subsequent stories and essays of the Hunter’s Notes abroad: he left in 1847 and stayed there for three and a half years.

Let's remember what a story is.

A story is a small epic work that tells about one or more events in a person's life.

Prove that Biryuk is a story.

This is a small piece. Here we are talking about Biryuk, about his life, meeting with a peasant. There are few actors in the work ...

The story "Biryuk" was created in 1847, and was published in 1848.

Creating this work, as well as the entire cycle of "Notes of a Hunter", Turgenev relied on his own impressions of the life of peasants in the Oryol province. One of the former serfs of I.S. Turgenev, and later a village teacher A.I. Zamyatin recalled: “My grandmother and mother told me that almost all the faces mentioned in the Hunter’s Notes are not fictional, but written off from living people, even their real names: there was Ermolai ... there was Biryuk, who was killed in the forest by his own peasants ... "

- Guys, how many stories did the writer include in the "Hunter's Notes" cycle? (Children remember that there are 25 of them.)

- "Notes of a hunter" is a kind of chronicle of the Russian serf village. The stories are close in subject matter and ideological content. They expose the ugly phenomena of serfdom.

Creating a picture of Russian reality, Turgenev in his "Notes of a Hunter" used a peculiar technique: he brought into action a storyteller-hunter. Why do you think?

Thanks to this, the reader can, together with the hunter, observant, intelligent and knowledgeable person, walk through the native fields of the writer, visit villages and villages with him. He appreciates beauty and truth. His presence does not constrain anyone and often goes unnoticed. The image of a hunter helps us to understand reality more deeply, to understand what is happening, to evaluate what he saw, to understand the soul of the people. Pictures of nature prepare the reader's acquaintance with the main character of the story - Biryuk.

Biryuk appears unexpectedly, the author immediately notes his tall figure and sonorous voice. Despite the fact that the first appearance of Biryuk is accompanied by a certain romantic halo (white lightning lit up the forester from head to toe”, “I raised my head and in the light of lightning I saw a small hut ...”). In the life of the hero that we learn about, there is nothing
romantic, on the contrary, it is ordinary and even tragic.

Find a description of the forester's hut.

“The forester's hut consisted of one room, smoky, low and empty, without beds and partitions. A tattered sheepskin coat hung on the wall. A single-barreled gun lay on the bench, a pile of rags lay in the corner; two large pots stood near the stove. The torch burned on the table, sadly flashing and dying out. In the very middle of the hut hung a cradle, tied to the end of a long pole. The girl put out the lantern, sat down on a tiny bench, and began right hand swing the cradle, straighten the torch with the left. I looked around - my heart ached: it’s not fun to enter a peasant’s hut at night.

What does this description tell you? (The description of the situation in the hut, “smoky, low and empty,” speaks of poverty. But amid this poverty, the life of the hero’s young children glimmers. The bleak picture evokes Biryuk’s sincere sympathy from readers.)

— What does Biryuk look like? What does the writer emphasize in his portrait? (High stature, powerful muscles, a black curly beard, a stern manly face, wide eyebrows and small brown eyes.)

- Let's turn to the portrait of Biryuk. “I looked at him. Rarely have I seen such a young man. He was tall, broad-shouldered and well built. His mighty muscles protruded from under his wet zamashka shirt. A black curly beard half covered his stern and courageous face; small brown eyes boldly looked out from under the fused wide eyebrows ... "

How did this portrait express the narrator's attitude towards Biryuk? (It can be seen that he likes Biryuk with his build, strength, handsome, courageous face, bold look, strong character, as evidenced by unibrows. He calls him a fine fellow.)

How do men talk about him? Children give examples from the text: “he won’t let the bundles be dragged away”, “... it will come like snow on his head”, - he is strong .. and dexterous like a demon ... And nothing can take him: neither wine nor money; does not take any bait."

- Why is the hero called Biryuk? Why does he act like this with men? His name is Biryuk because he is lonely and gloomy.
- Turgenev emphasizes that the forester is formidable and adamant, not because he is a stranger to his brother - a peasant, he is a man of duty and considers himself obliged to protect the economy entrusted to him: “I do my job ... I don’t have to eat the master’s bread for nothing.”

- He was entrusted with the protection of the forest, and he guards the forest of the owner, like a soldier on duty.

Find and read the description of Biryuk's collision with the peasant. What is the reason for the conflict between the peasant and Biryuk? Against what background are events unfolding? How do the peasant and Biryuk change in the climactic scene? What feelings do the forester evoke in the author and in us, the readers?

The picture of a thunderstorm prepares the central episode of the story: a clash between Biryuk and a thief he has caught. We read the description of Biryuk's collision with the peasants and find out the reasons for the conflict between the peasant and Biryuk.

What characters are in conflict? Between Biryuk and the peasant who stole the forest.

Children must understand that the scene of the struggle - first physical, then moral - not only reveals the views, feelings, aspirations of the characters, but also deepens their images. Author
emphasizes that physically the peasant clearly loses to Biryuk during their fight in the forest, but in the future, by strength of character, inner dignity, they become
equal to each other. Turgenev, creating the image of a peasant, captured the features of an impoverished peasant, exhausted by a half-starved existence.

Let's read the description of the peasant: “By the light of the lantern, I could see his drunken, wrinkled face, hanging yellow eyebrows, restless eyes ...” But it is precisely such a peasant who turns from plea to threats.

Reading by roles of a conversation between a peasant and Biryuk.

- How does Turgenev show that the external appearance and internal state of the peasant is changing? Let's go back to the text.

At first, the peasant is silent, then “in a deaf and broken voice”, referring to the forester by name and patronymic - Foma Kuzmich, asks to be released, but when the bowl of his patience is overflowing, “the peasant suddenly straightened up. His eyes lit up, and a blush appeared on his face. The man's voice became "fierce". The speech became different: instead of abrupt phrases: “Let go ... clerk ... ruined, how ... let go!” - sounded clear and formidable words: “What about me? Everything is one - to disappear; Where can I go without a horse? Knock - one end; that from hunger, that so - everything is one. Get lost everything."

The story "Biryuk" is one of the few stories in the "Notes of a Hunter" in which the issue of peasant protest is raised. But due to censorship restrictions, Turgenev could not directly portray the protest of the peasants against serfdom. Therefore, the anger of a desperate peasant is directed not at the landowner for whom he works, but at his servant-serf, guarding the owner's good. However, this anger, which has become an expression of protest, does not lose strength and meaning from this.

For the peasant, the personification of the power of serfdom is not the landowner, but Biryuk, endowed by the landowner with the right to protect the forest from robbery. The image of Biryuk in the climactic scene deepens psychologically, he appears before us as a tragic image: in his soul there is a struggle between feelings and principles. An honest man, with all his rightness, he also feels the rightness of a peasant whom poverty has brought to the manor's forest: “Honestly, from hunger ... children squeak, you know. Cool, just the way it is."

This story is included in Turgenev's cycle of works "Notes of a Hunter". In order to better reveal the topic “Characteristics of a biryuk”, you need to know the plot well, and it is tied to the fact that a hunter, lost in the forest, is suddenly overtaken by a thunderstorm. To wait out the bad weather, he hid under a large bush. But then the local forester Foma Kuzmich picked him up and took him to his home. There, the hunter saw the wretched refuge of his savior, and at the same time he had two children: a 12-year-old girl and a baby in a cradle. There was no wife in the house, she ran away from him with another, leaving him children.

Turgenev, "Biryuk": characteristics of the biryuk

This gloomy forester people called the biryuk. He had a broad figure and a face that betrayed no emotion. When the rain stopped, they went outside. And then the sound of an ax was heard, the forester immediately realized where it was coming from, and soon dragged a wet peasant who begged for mercy. The hunter immediately took pity on the poor peasant and was ready to pay for him, but the stern biryuk himself let him go.

As you can see, the characterization of a biryuk is not easy, Turgenev shows a hero, although a beggar, but who knows his duty well, whom “neither wine nor money” can be taken in any way. He understands a man-thief who is trying to somehow get out of "starvation". And here the hero's conflict between a sense of duty and compassion for a poor person is shown, and yet he decided in favor of compassion. Foma Kuzmich is a solid and strong personality, but tragic, because he has his own views on life, but sometimes he, a principled person, has to give them up.

Characteristics of a biryuk

The author points out that in mid-nineteenth centuries, the majority of the peasant people treated theft as something natural and ordinary. Of course, serious social problems led to this phenomenon: lack of education, poverty and immorality.

But it is the biryuk that is unlike most of these people, although he is the same beggar as everyone else. His hut consisted of one little room, low and empty. But still he does not steal, although if he did, he could afford a better house.

Duty and Compassion

The characteristic of a biryuk says that he himself does not steal, and does not give to others, because he understands perfectly well that if everyone does this, it will only get worse.

He is confident in this and therefore firm in his decision. But, as the essay describes, his principles sometimes compete with feelings of pity and compassion, and he will have this hesitation all his life. After all, he understands the one who, out of his hopelessness, goes to steal.

Composition on the topic "Characteristics of Biryuk"

The work was done by a student of 7 "B" class Alexander Balashov

The main character of the story I.S. Turgenev "Biryuk" is the forester Foma. Thomas is a very interesting and unusual person. With what admiration and pride the author describes his hero: “He was tall, broad-shouldered and well-built. His mighty muscles bulged out from under the wet sash of his shirt. Biryuk had a "masculine face" and "small brown eyes" that "looked boldly from under wide unibrows."

The author is struck by the wretchedness of the forester’s hut, which consisted of “one room, smoky, low and empty, without curtains ...”, everything here speaks of a beggarly existence - and “a torn sheepskin coat on the wall”, and “a pile of rags in the corner; two large pots that stood near the stove ... ". Turgenev himself sums up the description: “I looked around - my heart ached in me: it’s not fun to enter a peasant’s hut at night.”

The forester's wife ran away with a passing tradesman and abandoned her two children; maybe that's why the forester was so stern and silent. Biryuk, that is, a gloomy and lonely man, Foma was nicknamed by the surrounding peasants, who were afraid of him like fire. They said that he was “strong and dexterous like a demon…”, “he won’t let a bunch of brushwood be dragged away” from the forest, “at whatever time… he will come like snow on his head” and do not expect mercy. Biryuk is “a master of his craft”, whom you can’t take with anything, “neither wine nor money.” However, for all his sorrows and troubles, Biryuk retained kindness and mercy in his heart. He secretly sympathized with his “wards”, but work is work, and the demand for stolen goods will first of all be from himself. But this does not prevent him from doing good deeds, releasing the most desperate without punishment, but only pretty scaring.

The tragedy of Biryuk was based on the understanding that it is not at all from a good life that peasants go to steal wood. Often a feeling of pity and compassion prevails over his principles. So, in the story, Biryuk caught a peasant cutting down a forest. He was dressed in torn rags, all wet, with a disheveled beard. The man asked to be released, or at least to give the horse back, because the children were at home, they had nothing to feed them. To all persuasions, the forester kept repeating one thing: "Don't go stealing." In the end, Foma Kuzmich grabbed the thief by the scruff of the neck and pushed him out the door, saying: "Go to hell with your horse." With these rude words, he seems to cover up his generous act. Thus the forester constantly oscillates between principles and a sense of compassion. The author wants to show that this gloomy, unsociable person actually has a kind, generous heart.

Describing the forced people, destitute and oppressed, Turgenev especially emphasizes that even in such conditions he was able to preserve his living soul, the ability to empathize and respond with his whole being to kindness and affection. Even this life does not kill humanity in people - that's what is most important.