Turgenev, reviews of which are given in this article, were first published in Russia in 1860. It tells about the emotional experiences of the young protagonist, his first real love, who had to face dramatic and sacrificial relationships between adults.

History of creation

The story “First Love” by Turgenev, reviews can be found in this article, was written by the author in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1860.

As the writer himself admitted, he created the work on the basis of his own emotional experience, as well as events that actually happened in the writer’s family. Turgenev later admitted that he described everything as it was, trying not to embellish anything. One of the main characters was his father. Later, many condemned the writer for such frankness, and especially for the fact that he did not hide the fact that all these were real events and not fiction.

Turgenev himself was firmly convinced that there was nothing wrong with this, since he had nothing to hide from the public.

Plot of the story

Turgenev's story "First Love" received mostly positive reviews. Both from readers and literary critics.

The plot of the story “First Love” by Turgenev, reviews of which are in this article, is the memoirs of an elderly man. At the end of his life, he recalls the very first romantic feeling that visited him in his youth.

At the center of the story is the main character named Vladimir. He is only 16 years old. He lives with his family on his parents' country estate. There he meets the charming 21-year-old Zinaida Alexandrovna Zasekina, a princess who moves in next door. He immediately falls in love with a beautiful girl, who also shows him signs of attention.

There are many obstacles in his way. Firstly, Zinaida is surrounded by a large number of other young people, each of whom strives to achieve her favor. And secondly, his feelings turn out to be non-reciprocal. Zinaida is capricious, has a playful character, she often mocks the hero, ridiculing him for various reasons. For example, for his comparative youth.

The Mystery of Zinaida

The story “First Love” by Turgenev,” reviews of which are given in this article, captivates the reader. Especially when it turns out who was the true object of Zinaida’s love. This is Vladimir’s father, whose name is Pyotr Vasilyevich.

The main character secretly watches the scene of his father's romantic meeting with Zinaida, which, however, ends in a breakup. Pyotr Vasilyevich decides to leave the young girl. However, his wife becomes aware of the husband’s affair. The family leaves the estate.

Soon Pyotr Vasilyevich dies. He is struck by a stroke. At the end of the story, the main character learns that Zinaida married Mr. Dolsky. He is going to see her, but does not have time. Princess Zinaida dies during childbirth.

Prototypes of the story's heroes

As already mentioned, Turgenev’s story “First Love” is based on real events. In reviews of the work you can find direct references to the prototypes of the main characters.

The prototype of Pyotr Vasilyevich is his father, whose name was Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev. His personal life was not entirely successful. He married for convenience to a woman who was much older than him, but wealthier. The writer's mother is Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova. When they got married, she was 28 years old, and Turgenev's father was 22.

Sergei Nikolaevich never felt love and tenderness for his wife. Therefore, after several years of relatively happy family life, he began to openly stare at other women. He succeeded in this; Turgenev’s father was popular with the opposite sex. His most famous mistress, with whom he had the longest relationship, Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya. Shortly after breaking up with her, he died at a relatively young age. He was only 40 years old.

Turgenev's father's mistress

Princess Shakhovskaya became the prototype of Zinaida Alexandrovna in Turgenev’s story “First Love”. You can find reviews of the product in this article. She was a poetess, young Turgenev himself was really in love with her, but she gave preference to his father.

Her fate turned out as described in the story. Soon after breaking up with Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, she married Lev Kharitonovich Vladimirov. Six months later, they had a boy. Shakhovskaya had a hard time giving birth; a week after the birth of the child, she died.

Analysis of the work

In the analysis of the work “First Love” by Turgenev, it is worth noting that the author was best able to depict the emergence of a bright and great feeling that visits every person, as well as the development of love that emerged from a fleeting youthful infatuation.

The author claims that love can give a person a huge range of different feelings. Moreover, they may not always be positive. Love not only gives delight or peace, but can also instill hatred and anger in the soul.

In this work you can follow all the stages of love. The main character first experiences moments of happiness and rapture, then a feeling of black jealousy. And also annoyance and disappointment when it turns out that his main rival is his own father.

Narrative Features

Simplicity of presentation is one of the main advantages of all of Turgenev's prose. The reader does not have to constantly arrange complex facts into a single chain. Instead, the straightforward plot creates an impression of realism and sincerity. All the lines sound very natural, because everything actually happened in the author’s life. For this reason, working on this story gave him such pleasure.

The story “First Love” by Turgenev, the analysis of which is given in this article, is divided into chapters. Each of them contains a specific, completely independent plot. Thanks to this structure, the writer can more easily convey his ideas to the reader and demonstrate the full range of development of the characters’ feelings.

The climax of the story comes in chapter 12. It describes in detail the whole range of powerful and contradictory feelings that the main character experiences for Princess Zinaida. The reader has a unique opportunity to look into the souls of the characters. Find out how they really feel and how they experience the events that are happening.

Images of heroes

It is also important that almost all the characters in Turgenev’s story are in development. The protagonist's father is presented clearly and contrastingly. At some point, the reader can even sympathize with him, because his life is doomed. He is married to an unloved woman, and all his relationships on the side are doomed.

Throughout the story, the image of the main character, Princess Zinaida, also changes radically. Her image is undergoing a process of evolution. She transforms from the frivolous girl she was at the beginning into a truly loving, strong and independent woman.

It is interesting that in the end she turns out to be not as frivolous as she might have seemed at the very beginning of the story. Closer to the middle of the work, she appears before us in the image of an unhappy girl who is doomed to suffer in this life because of love. She is literally constantly tormented and gnawing from the inside by the thought that her love for a married man has no future. However, she steadfastly and courageously endures all the hardships that befall her. This speaks only of one thing - during her affair with Pyotr Vasilyevich, she turned into a wise woman who knows the value of her feelings.

The main character of the story

In fact, the main character of the story is a real child. Youthful maximalism in him prevails over many rational feelings. For example, he wants to kill his rival, who is preventing him from reuniting with Zinaida Alexandrovna.

However, when he finds out that he has to compete with his own father, all his stormy mood goes away. He forgives everyone around him and looks at the situation in which he finds himself in a completely different way. Agree, the act is very naive and childish in its own way.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian writer, whose work is of interest to readers of many countries and generations.

Fame came to this greatest writer not only thanks to novels and stories. Numerous stories, plays, and prose poems played a major role. He was a very versatile writer.

The author did not chase quantity. It is known that he wrote his works slowly, nurturing the idea for a long time. Despite this, his works regularly appeared on the pages of magazines and as separate books.

Turgenev wrote the famous story “First Love” when he was already 42 years old. In his work, he tried to comprehend the years he had lived and understand his past. Therefore, the entire literary plot is imbued with autobiography.

The history of the creation and conception of the story “First Love”

Turgenev's story with a beautiful and unusual title, “First Love,” was written by the author while he was in the city on the Neva. It is known that the basis for the author’s plot was the events that once happened to the writer himself. And so, being in St. Petersburg from January to March 1860, he took on his new work, the idea of ​​which had long been born in his head.

According to the plot, the author talks about emotional experiences that aroused new feelings in the main character. A small childhood love on the pages of Turgenev's story turns into adult love, filled with tragedy and sacrifice. It is known that almost every hero of this work had prototypes, since this story was written on the basis of the author’s personal emotional experience and the events that once happened in his family.

As the writer himself later admitted, he tried to portray all events as they are, without hiding or embellishing anything.

“The actual incident is described without the slightest embellishment.”

The author believed that there was nothing wrong with him telling the truth, he had nothing to hide, and someone would take his story as a model and this would help avoid many mistakes and tragedies. This Turgenev story was first published in Russia, the year of its publication was 1860.

The plot of Turgenev's story "First Love" is structured as if it were a memoir. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly man who remembers his first love. The author took as the main character of his story a young man, Vladimir, who was barely 16 years old.

In the story, the main character and his family go to relax on a family estate, which is located outside the city. In this rural calm and tranquility, he meets a young and beautiful girl. Zinaida was already 21 years old at that time. But Vladimir is not at all embarrassed by the age difference. This is how the main female character appears in Turgenev’s story - Zinaida Aleksandrovna Zasekina. Of course, she is young and beautiful, so it’s hard not to fall in love. Yes, Vladimir fell in love with Zina, but it turns out that he is not the only one in love. Around a pretty girl there are constantly candidates for her affection.

But the girl’s character turns out to be not the most diligent. Realizing that men really like her, Zina is not averse to sometimes making cruel jokes on them. So she doesn’t like Vladimir at all, but seeing his suffering, she decides to play a little prank on him, showing her capricious and playful disposition. Sometimes Zinaida Alexandrovna makes fun of him in front of everyone because he is too young. But Turgenev’s hero endures all this, because he is deeply in love. And only after some time, Vladimir unexpectedly learns that Zinaida is also very much in love and this object of her love is his father.

One day he witnesses a secret meeting between Zinaida Alexandrova and Pyotr Vasilyevich, his father. From everything he saw and said, he understood that his father had left the girl forever, because the whole family was leaving back to the city from the village. And a week later, Vladimir’s father suddenly has a stroke and dies. Zinaida very soon marries some Mr. Dolsky. Four years later, the young woman dies in childbirth.

Prototypes of the heroes of Turgenev's story “First Love”

All Turgenev's heroes in his story “First Love” have fictitious names, but according to the memoirs of contemporaries, they all have prototypes. As soon as the story came out, everyone recognized real people in it: the writer himself, his mother, father and the girl with whom the author was in love. Let's take a closer look at their prototypes:

♦ Vladimir, Turgenev’s main character, is the author himself, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.

♦ Zinaida Alexandrovna - Princess Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya, who was a poetess. It is known that the young author was deeply in love with her, but it soon became clear that she was his father’s mistress. Her fate: wedding and death after childbirth was in reality.

♦ Pyotr Vasilyevich, the father of the main character - Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, who married a woman for convenience. Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was much older than him, and he did not love her at all. Hence his affairs with other women.

It is known that due to the fact that the writer’s father’s marriage was not for love, Sergei Nikolaevich’s novels were frequent. His wife, the writer’s mother, took care of the housework and stood firmly on her feet. Therefore, the couple lived on their own. In the story, the author shows such a married couple, from whose relationship their son, a completely young creature, suffers. The author himself is easily recognizable in it. This whole story takes place at a time when Ivan Turgenev lives in a village in the Moscow region to prepare for exams to enter the university.

The young man is passionately in love, and the girl flirts and jokes with him. Volodya completely forgets about his studies and thinks only about Zinochka. That’s why so much of Turgenev’s story is devoted to describing the experiences and feelings of a young man, which are constantly changing and in some ways even resemble a storm or flash. It is worth noting that Volodya is still happy, although the girl simply laughs at him. But still, anxiety gradually increases, and soon the young man begins to understand that Zina is not so simple: she has a secret life and she is also in love with someone.

Soon, not only the hero, but also the readers begin to guess who Zinaida is in love with. The tone of the entire narrative of Turgenev's story changes greatly and the word "love", which before was stormy and enthusiastic, becomes dark and tragic. The girl’s feelings turn out to be much deeper than those of the main character. And Vladimir understands that this is true love. It’s so different, everyone has their own, which is impossible to understand and explain. And as confirmation of this is the ending of the story, where the hero witnesses the explanation of two people in love who cannot be together.

But Volodya is not offended by them, realizing that this love is real and he has no right to condemn or interfere with such true love. This love is multifaceted, beautiful, complex. The author himself tried to find it all his life.

Composition of Turgenev's story

In its composition, Turgenev's story “First Love” is a rather simple work, but deep and meaningful. It has twenty chapters. The narrative is constructed in the form of memories, so the presentation is sequential and in the first person, since the author is the main character himself, who talks about what happened to him in his youth. Although the name, of course, has been changed: Vladimir Petrovich.

Turgenev's story begins with a short prologue, which shows the background of all these memories and introduces the reader to what they are about to learn. So, Vladimir, being an old man, in one of the companies tells the story of his first and tragic love. He does not want to tell his friends it verbally, as they did, but tells them that he will definitely write this story and read it to them the next time they meet. And he keeps his word. After this comes the story itself.

Detailed analysis of the twelfth chapter of Turgenev's story

The twelfth chapter, which is the culmination of the entire plot, occupies a special place in the entire Turgenev story. It is here, in this chapter, that the hero’s feelings reach their highest intensity. In it, the author describes the feeling that he has never had better in his life. The plot of this chapter allows us to understand a girl who at first seems frivolous and not serious, but it turns out that she is capable of suffering and deep and serious feelings. But only these “illegal” feelings become a real tragedy for her, and, most likely, this pushes her to commit unpredictable and sometimes cruel acts.

The author claimed that what he had to experience at the age of 16 was simply bliss, which, unfortunately, would never be repeated. The writer measured a lot of things in life through love, and therefore he puts his heroes in Turgenev’s story through the test of love. Ivan Sergeevich shows that his heroes must be fulfilled as individuals. Turgenev's psychologism is always secret; he does not give an open description of them, only general hints that helped readers plunge into the depths of sensuality. This chapter contains many experiences of Vladimir, which show his inner world, and this helps to understand the content of the entire work.

With the help of his work, Turgenev was able to relive his youthful excitement and show the reader all the versatility of love.

“I didn’t have a first love,” he finally said, “I just started with the second,” Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev’s story “First Love” practically begins with such a strange and even, at first glance, absurd thought. Of course, this technique is only an additional highlight of the work; these words come from the lips of a minor character who does not appear in the story again. But this phrase can surprise, make you think, or at least get interested. The reader thinks: everyone had their first love. But the writer, enriched by vivid life experience, seems to answer with his story: from everyone who loved.

The story “First Love” is a real love story of the writer. Moreover, the story is so tender, touching and real in its inconsistency that it is worth the enormous attention of everyone who wants to experience, together with the main character, the first love of a sixteen-year-old boy and his first steps in learning about adult love, although not his own, but those dear to him.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev did not hide the fact that the story of his story “First Love” was his own story. That the prototype of the main character Vladimir Petrovich is himself, the prototype of Pyotr Vasilyevich is his father, and the prototype of the beautiful Zinaida Alexandrovna is Turgenev’s first love and his father’s mistress, Princess Ekaterina Lvovna Shakhovskaya.

According to the plot of the story, the main character Vladimir Petrovich, a sixteen-year-old young man, fell in love with a charming twenty-one-year-old girl, the daughter of an impoverished princess, Zinaida Alexandrovna, who moved to live in an outbuilding that Vladimir’s family rented out. As it turned out later, Zinaida secretly met with Vladimir’s father, Pyotr Vasilyevich, who married for convenience and did not like Vladimir’s mother. There were mutual feelings between the protagonist's father and Zinaida, but legal marriage, money issues and, perhaps, other life obstacles that are not emphasized in the story could not allow this story to end happily.

Because the writer did not hide this family truth, he was condemned; the public did not want to accept such a real story. Turgenev himself believed that nothing worth hiding could be found in this story:

“The actual incident is described without the slightest embellishment... I portrayed my father. Many people condemned me for this, and especially condemned me for the fact that I never hid it. But I believe that there is nothing bad in this.”

In the work itself, the writer, through the main character, also shows that “there is nothing bad in this.” Moreover, an important feature of the relationship between father, son and their such different loves for the same woman is revealed in the story through the son’s feelings for his father. They did not change after Vladimir learned about the relationship between his father and Zinaida Alexandrovna; on the contrary, he began to respect his father even more:

“My wound was healing slowly; but, in fact, I did not have any bad feelings against my father. On the contrary: he seemed to have still grown in my eyes... Let the psychologists explain this contradiction as best they know.”

Really, explain it however you want. This is there, and the writer does not hide it. His feelings for his father are not an accident, they contain something important: what prejudices, obligations, family ties or chains can we talk about if, along with this, very close, there is true love? Who will be against a sincere passionate feeling, who will dare to condemn it?

On the feminine side of this love story is the image of the young princess Zinaida Alexandrovna. This is a bright and at the same time sinful angel, whose sacrifice and devotion is admirable. Everyone around seems to be in love with the princess. Rich and talented people are ready to marry her. But she loves one and only one, with whom happiness in life together is not destined.

As soon as Zinaida moved into the outbuilding near Vladimir’s house, his young, hot heart, seeking love, could not resist the charms of the beautiful creature. But even after Vladimir learned about the relationship between Zinaida and his father, he not only continues to love her with his special love, but also begins to really understand Zinaida as a human being and even admire her sacrificial feelings:

“One thought never left my head: how could she, a young girl - well, a princess after all - decide to do such an act, knowing that my father was not a free man, and having the opportunity to marry, for example, Belovzorov ? What did she hope for? How were you not afraid to ruin your entire future? Yes, I thought, this is love, this is passion, this is devotion... and I remembered the words of Lushin: it is sweet to sacrifice oneself for others.”

So, thanks to a coincidence of circumstances, Vladimir Petrovich began to understand real adult feelings. But not through his own, first, tender love, but through the mutual strong feelings of his father and this very “first love” of the protagonist.

Rethinking Zinaida Alexandrovna’s relationship with her father and his own experience of love, Vladimir realized that his feelings were just a prelude to something greater and more powerful:

“The last month has made me very old - and my love, with all its worries and sufferings, seemed to me like something so small, and childish, and insignificant in front of that other, unknown something, which I could hardly guess about and which I a scarecrow, like an unfamiliar, beautiful, but menacing face that you try in vain to see in the twilight...”

Vladimir’s father, who found himself in a tragic situation, wrote the following line in his last letter to his son: “My son,” he wrote to me, “fear a woman’s love, fear this happiness, this poison...” But the main character, remembering his first strong feelings that are undoubtedly strongly connected with the images and destinies of Zinaida Alexandrovna and Pyotr Vasilyevich, says:

“And now, when the evening shadows are beginning to creep over my life, what more fresh, more precious things do I have left than the memories of that quickly passing morning spring thunderstorm?”

And if this is only first love, then what can we say about those moments of happiness that people experience who love each other not with a “flying by” love, but with a love for which they are not afraid to give their lives? Perhaps this is exactly what the love between Turgenev’s father and the young princess was like. And it is precisely this feeling, as opposed to the “morning, spring thunderstorm,” that the writer talks about in his story.

“First Love” is a work of art that can teach you to feel. This is the beauty of form and the truth of life. Not everyone can present their personal story so vividly, interestingly and tastefully. Not everyone will be able to notice the main and secondary things in it, not everyone will find the appropriate nuances, place the right accents and add the necessary “accessories”. Not to mention the fact that not everyone’s life is painted in such bright, contrasting colors. Or maybe not everyone wants to see something in their life that might interest others. In a word, Ivan Sergeevich is a classic of literature, a master of his craft. And his love story, set out in the story, is another proof of this.

Illustration: Nikita Melikhov

Meet the hero and heroine. The narrative, in addition to the prologue, includes twenty-two small chapters. Their content does not exceed two or three pages - events and impressions change so quickly, the main character, Volodya, grows so quickly. He only recently broke up with his tutor, who, with his “care” for his pupil, resembles Monsieur Beaupré (“The Captain’s Daughter”). He, like Petrusha Grinev, turned sixteen years old. In those days, this age was considered the time to choose a life path. True, Volodya was not sent to serve in a distant fortress. The hero of “First Love” is peacefully preparing to enter university. He spends the summer at the dacha with his family. A rich family, outwardly decent, but internally flawed. The young man senses this unhappiness. He knows that between his mother and father there was a loveless marriage, common among the nobility. “My father,” Volodya says about his mother’s life drama, “is still a young and very handsome man, he married her for convenience; she was ten years older than him<…>. She was very afraid of him, but he behaved strictly, coldly, distantly...” But until the time comes, the relationship between the parents is of little interest to the hero. The “wonderful” weather is in harmony with Volodya’s mood, which was possessed, “like spring grass, by the joyful feeling of a young, simmering life.” As always with Turgenev, the mood is revealed through the landscape: “I had a riding horse, I saddled it myself and rode away<…>, I started galloping and imagined myself as a knight at a tournament - how joyfully the wind blew in my ears! - or, turning his face to him, received his shining light and azure into his open soul.”

Volodya's soul is wide open to new impressions. The mood is prepared, and the reader is not surprised when Volodya falls in love with a young neighbor, Princess Zasekina, who has occupied the nearest house with her mother. “The dacha,” explains the narrator, “consisted of a manor house<...>and two low outbuildings." But the story about meeting a girl is ahead. First, the author considered it necessary to tell who lives in the second outbuilding, which was turned into a factory. He shows how city workers work, boys just like the main character himself: “A dozen thin and disheveled boys in greasy robes with worn-out faces<…>jumped on wooden levers<…>and thus, with the weight of their puny bodies, they squeezed out the motley patterns of the wallpaper.” They have no time for the pleasures of life. A persistent reflection on the fatal guilt of the educated classes before the people is inherent in Turgenev. Wealthy people enjoy the benefits of life and do not notice their well-being. In "Rudin" Turgenev took us to a peasant hut. In "First Love" - ​​to the factory.

Only after this does he draw a portrait of the main character. Zinaida appears as a vision, all the more beautiful because before this the young hero indulged in a not very poetic hobby. He went out to shoot crows, and suddenly “he saw a girl in a pink dress and headscarf behind the fence.” Volodya observed her from the side and therefore the heroine appears to us for the first time as a sketch in profile: “... A slender figure, and slightly disheveled blond hair under a white scarf, and this half-closed smart eye, and these eyelashes, and a tender cheek under them.” Volodya found his neighbor more than one, and also engaged in a strange activity: “Four young men crowded around her, and she took turns slapping them on the forehead<…>gray flowers." A game that portrays childhood in the form of a heroine. And at the same time, one of the main features is revealed: youthful coquetry, the desire to captivate and conquer - “young people so willingly offered their foreheads - and in the movements of the girl<...>there was something so charming, commanding, mocking and sweet.” Volodya will instantly fall into the circle of young men, fascinated by her beauty.

Of course, the twenty-year-old girl looked down on the sixteen-year-old admirer. In a moment of affectionate frankness, Zinaida says: “Listen, I<…>could be your aunt, really; Well, not an aunt, an older sister.” No wonder she “entrusted me with her brother, a twelve-year-old cadet who came on vacation.” The coincidence of names - the boy who arrived was also called Volodya - speaks of Zinaida’s sisterly, protective feelings for both. Trying to analyze his feelings at that time, Vladimir Petrovich also repeats several times: “I was still a child.” In many episodes, Volodya actually shows childishness. Following the cadet, he happily “whistled” into a homemade pipe. To prove his love for the girl, he is ready, at her request, to jump onto the road from a height of “two fathoms.”

Yet the author, who invisibly emerges from both little Volodya and the adult narrator, gradually convinces us of the opposite. The hero experiences a real deep feeling, real experiences: “...The ringing of the bells of the Donskoy Monastery flew in from time to time, calm and sad - and I sat<…>and was filled with some nameless feeling, which contained everything: sadness, joy, anticipation of the future, desire, and fear of life.” Having once met Zinaida, “pale, in bitter sadness<…>, deep fatigue,” Volodya is close to despair: “Every word of hers was cut into my heart. At this moment, it seems, I would willingly give my life, if only she would not grieve.” Touched by his timid worship, Zinaida, partly playfully, partly seriously, “favors” him as her page. This recognition and the gift of a rose takes you back to chivalrous times, the times of knights and beautiful ladies. In Zinaida’s attitude towards her “page” there is a lot that is unsaid, contradictory, and sometimes cruel. To the fair reproach through tears, “...Why did you play with me?...What did you need my love for?” Zinaida responds with a confession: “I’m guilty before you, Volodya... Oh, I’m very guilty...” “She did whatever she wanted with me,” the hero sums up.

The image of Zinaida in the novel “First Love”

I. S. Turgenev’s story “First Love” appeared in 1860. The author especially valued this work, probably because this story is largely autobiographical. It is very closely connected with the life of the writer himself, with the fate of his parents, as well as with beautiful and vivid memories of his first love.

The plot of the story "First Love" has much in common with "Asya". Both here and there the elderly man talks about his first feeling. Reading “Asya,” we can only guess who Mr. N.’s listeners were. In the introduction of “First Love,” both the characters and the situation are concretized. In his work, Turgenev clearly traces the emergence and development of the protagonist’s love. Love is an amazing feeling; it gives a person a whole palette of emotions - from hopeless grief and tragedy to amazing, uplifting joy.

The narrative, in addition to the prologue, includes twenty-two small chapters. Their content does not exceed two or three pages - events and impressions change so quickly, the main character, Volodya, grows so quickly.

After describing the portrait of the young man, the author draws a portrait of the main character. Zinaida appears as a vision, all the more beautiful because before this the young hero indulged in a not very poetic hobby. He went out to shoot crows, and suddenly “he saw a girl in a pink dress and headscarf behind the fence.” Volodya observed her from the side and therefore the heroine appears to us for the first time as a sketch in profile: “... A slender figure, and slightly disheveled blond hair under a white scarf, and this half-closed smart eye, and these eyelashes, and a tender cheek under them.” Volodya found his neighbor more than one, and also engaged in a strange activity: “Four young men crowded around her, and she took turns slapping them on the forehead<…>gray flowers." A game that portrays childhood in the form of a heroine. And at the same time, one of the main features is revealed: youthful coquetry, the desire to captivate and conquer - “young people so willingly offered their foreheads - and in the movements of the girl<...>there was something so charming, commanding, mocking and sweet.” Volodya will instantly fall into the circle of young men, fascinated by her beauty.

Turgenev focuses not on the beauty of her features, but on their mobility, liveliness, variability, on “cute”, “charming” movements. Therefore, in the description of the portrait there are many verbs: “trembled”, “laughed”, “sparkled”, “rose”. The princess is very lively, relaxed, spontaneous, this is her charm, this is what makes her irresistible and desirable. Together with the girl, we find ourselves in some bright and joyful world, where everything blossoms and enjoys life; it is no coincidence that summer nature becomes the background of the portrait.

The image of Zinaida is the same as her portrait: the girl is always different, she is never the same, everything about her is constantly changing. At dinner with Volodya’s mother (chapter 6) she is cold and prim, it’s difficult to recognize her as yesterday’s anemone; in playful games with her fans (chapter 7) Zinaida seems completely frivolous, but suddenly in chapter 9 we see her suffering, deeply sad , thinking with bitterness about her difficult fate. The absolute freedom of self-expression, of course, delights, but this only confirms that the girl’s character is entirely woven from deep contradictions that torment her; there are many mysteries in it.

The description of Zinaida testifies to her romance and youth; Vladimir sees a girl among the greenery, in the garden - this reveals Zina’s connection with nature, the harmony of her image. Everything about her is good, and Vladimir is ready to give everything so that “those fingers will slap him on the forehead.” Fans are crowding around the girl, who is not yet familiar to the main character - it is clear that Turgenev seems to see her as a mystery, and he, perhaps, would submit to her will. Some time after meeting, Vladimir falls in love with Zinaida. The young man’s feeling is obvious: he is trying to stand out from the mass of fans in front of her, fulfilling many of her desires, which Zinaida unconsciously expresses; in the end, this is only his first love, and “what’s in the soul is on the face.”

Zinaida occupies an intermediate position between childhood and adulthood. She is 21. This is evidenced by her actions, which reek of childishness and thoughtlessness (playing forfeits or ordering Voldemar to jump from the wall). The love of her fans amuses her. She also treats Voldemar as just another admirer, at first not realizing that he has never fallen in love before, that his life experience is even less than her own.

Of course, the twenty-year-old girl looked down on the sixteen-year-old admirer. In a moment of affectionate frankness, Zinaida says: “Listen, I<…>could be your aunt, really; Well, not an aunt, an older sister.” No wonder she “entrusted me with her brother, a twelve-year-old cadet who came on vacation.” The coincidence of names - the boy who arrived was also called Volodya - speaks of Zinaida’s sisterly, protective feelings for both. Trying to analyze his feelings at that time, Vladimir Petrovich also repeats several times: “I was still a child.” In many episodes, Volodya actually shows childishness. Following the cadet, he happily “whistled” into a homemade pipe. To prove his love for the girl, he is ready, at her request, to jump onto the road from a height of “two fathoms.” Touched by his timid worship, Zinaida, partly playfully, partly seriously, “favors” him as her page. This recognition and the gift of a rose takes you back to chivalrous times, the times of knights and beautiful ladies. In Zinaida’s attitude towards her “page” there is a lot that is unsaid, contradictory, and sometimes cruel. To the fair reproach through tears, “...Why did you play with me?...What did you need my love for?” Zinaida responds with a confession: “I’m guilty before you, Volodya... Oh, I’m very guilty...” “She did whatever she wanted with me,” the hero sums up.

Zinaida sees this love; she is torn between Vladimir and his father, who is also infatuated with her. Turgenev emphasizes Zina’s ability to understand other people’s experiences, her prudence. She carefully weighs the situation before coming to a decision: to become the mistress of a married man, destroying his family, or to love his son, still a boy? Turgenev also conveys the torment before the choice, emphasizing her humanity and sincerity. “Everything disgusts me,” she whispered, “I would go to the ends of the world, I can’t bear it, I can’t cope.... And what awaits me ahead! .. Oh, it’s hard for me.... my God, how hard it is! ”

Zinaida, despite seeming more frivolous, is capable of suffering and serious feelings. She suffers from the “illegitimacy” of her feelings, this pushes her to unpredictable actions. This is the type of “Turgenev girl” - childishness, childish habits with the power of love and the feeling of an adult girl.

In the second plot scene, a cross-cutting and very important motif of light in solving the image of Zinaida will appear. Light shines through Zinaidina’s “sly smile on slightly parted lips,” and the light illuminates the princess’s quick glance at Vladimir. And “when her eyes, mostly half-squinted, opened to their full size,” the light seemed to spill over the girl’s entire face.

The feeling of emanating light from Zinaida’s gaze and face belongs to a young knight in love, deifying his ideal, who saw a woman-angel in front of him. But at the same time, the light is a sign of special purity, speaking about the inner purity of Zinaida, the purity of her soul, despite all the contradictory behavior of the princess.

The motif of light reaches its culmination in the portrait description of Zinaida sitting against the background of a window. “She sat with her back to the window, curtained with a white curtain; a ray of sunlight, breaking through this curtain, bathed her fluffy golden hair, her innocent neck, sloping shoulders and tender, calm chest with a soft light.” Enveloped in the window light, emitting light herself, she seemed to be in a cocoon of light, through which “her face seemed even more charming: everything in it was so subtle, smart and sweet.” “The eyelids quietly rose,” and the girl’s tenderly shining eyes seemed to reflect her soul.

With difficulty and tears, Zinaida enters the world of adults. It is in her character to love a strong person, “who would break me himself.” She is waiting for exactly this kind of love, she wants to submit to her chosen one. She is no longer satisfied with flirting with fans, she is “sick of everything,” and she is ready for a big, strong feeling. Voldemar is the first to understand that she truly fell in love.

In this sense, not only the image of the heroine and her fate are characteristic, but also the image and fate of Volodya’s father, Pyotr Vasilyevich. He, like Zinaida, is far from an ordinary person. In an effort to emphasize the significance of his personality, the writer even surrounds it with an aura of some mystery. He draws attention to Pyotr Vasilyevich’s characteristic lust for power, his despotic egoism. But Pyotr Vasilyevich, this strong and unusual person in his own way, also does not find his happiness, wasting his strength and abilities in vain.

At first one can guess about Pyotr Vasilyevich’s deep feelings only from these indirect evidence, but they are more eloquent than words of love. Why has he looked younger, why is his gait so light, why is he drawn to talk to a girl, bending low towards her? Why do the princess’s eyes rise so slowly? There is only one answer: they love and hide their criminal love, but the internal state of the heroes, their emotional experiences are revealed by an external gesture, movement that makes a lot clear. This is a feature of Turgenev’s psychologism. (Psychologism is a depiction of the inner, hidden life of the human soul).

Of course, I remember the scene of the heroes’ spied meeting in a house by the river, in which the always calm and ironic Pyotr Vasilyevich loses his composure and hits Zinaida’s hand with a whip (chapter 21). The blow with the whip is an external manifestation of the internal state of Volodya's father. The writer does not tell us anything about the hero’s feelings that boil in the depths of his soul, but through this gesture we guess about them: a blow to the hand is something more than an expression of anger at Zinaida, who does not want to obey his decision. This is the hero’s protest against the circumstances of his life, which mercilessly separate him from the only one he loves; there is despair and pain in him.

The girl’s reaction is striking: “Zinaida shuddered, silently looked at her father and, slowly raising her hand to her lips, kissed the red scar on it.” A gesture filled with selflessness awakens repentance in the soul of the old egoist: “The father threw the whip aside and, hastily running up the steps of the porch, burst into the house...” Most likely, this day became a turning point in the life of Pyotr Vasilich and in his attitude towards people: “ He thought and lowered his head<…>. And then I saw for the first and almost the last time how much tenderness and regret his stern features could express.”

Before us is a new Zinaida, “with an indescribable imprint of devotion, sadness, love and some kind of despair.” This face, the dark, sad dress speaks of how difficult the life of a girl who sacrificed everything for her first love is.

At the end of the story, Turgenev again touches on the theme of time, again recalling how irreparably terrible it is to delay in love. Mr. N. could not catch up with Asya. Vladimir Petrovich was lucky enough to hear about Zinaida “about four years” later. The princess managed to arrange her life, despite secular gossip. This is how one can understand Maidanov’s polite omissions, from whose lips Vladimir learned about the further fate of Zinaida, now Mrs. Dolskaya. They can meet and meet the past. Moreover, she “has become even prettier” and, according to a friend, “will be glad” to see her former admirer.

“Old memories stirred up in me,” says Vladimir Petrovich, “I promised myself the next day to visit my former “passion.” The frivolous word “passion”, which Vladimir Petrovich used when speaking about his first love, instills anxiety in the reader. And indeed, the hero is not in a hurry: “But some things came up; a week passed, then another..." But fate does not want to wait: "...When I finally went to the Demuth hotel and asked Mrs. Dolskaya, I found out that she died almost suddenly four days ago<…>" “It was as if something pushed me into my heart,” says the hero. “The thought that I could have seen her and did not see her and will never see her - this bitter thought sank into me with all the force of an irresistible reproach.

It is also interesting why Turgenev called his heroine the name “Zinaida,” which was so unusual in those days. Having considered its meaning, it becomes clear that this name characterizes a girl like no other.

Zinaida (Greek) - born of Zeus (in Greek mythology, Zeus is the supreme deity); from the family of Zeus.

The name Zinaida means divine; belonging to Zeus, i.e. God's; from the family of Zeus; born of Zeus. A bright, light, cheerful and strong name. It sounds internal strength and concentration, demandingness and serious penetration. This name gives the impression of being armed and invulnerable, like knightly armor.

By mental make-up, Zinaida is a leader. But, when necessary, she will submit to a man. This woman with a constant desire for primacy, as they say, has character. A restless and always dissatisfied soul.

Zinaida is the “empress” in the company. In the sea of ​​life - like a fish in water. She is determined and even reckless. She will not compromise her interests, but she is not capable of vile acts. And if he makes a scandal, it’s over trifles and quickly cools down. She knows everyone's responsibility to society, to themselves.

Zinaida is somewhat cold, but men always pay attention to her. It fools their minds.

“Of all my female types,” Turgenev once said, “I am most pleased with Zinaida in “First Love.” In her I was able to present a real, living person: a coquette by nature, but a really attractive coquette.”