TYPOLOGУ OF “HUMILIATED AND INSULTED” HEROES IN WORKS BY F.M. DOSTOEVSKY AND V.G. KOROLENKO

Abstract

The article attempts to identify traditions of F.M. Dostoevsky in stories by V.G. Korolenko at the level of typology of “humiliated and insulted” heroes and ways of creating their images. It is determined that some of Korolenko’s “problematic natures” have features of similarity to Dostoevsky’s “downtrodden” people, the characters of both authors are portrayed as quiet, wordless, pitiful, limited, sometimes on the verge of insanity. Close to Dostoevsky’s “little people” with awakening consciousness and self-esteem are such characters of Korolenko as Vasily Sokolinetz, Fyodor Bespriyutny. The heroes playing the role of a jester, seeking to hide behind a mask from the terrible reality, also unite the typology of the people of the “bottom” of both writers. Korolenko’s character system lacks such key types for Dostoevsky’s poetics as the hero-ideologist, the “meek” hero, whose humility is determined by reliance in suffering on God. Both Dostoevsky and Korolenko have people of the “bottom” committing crimes, but their motives are different: Korolenko’s heroes for a piece of bread or saving a life, Dostoevsky’s heroes, above all, for the realization of the idea that has taken possession of their minds. The leading trait of many of Dostoevsky’s characters who found themselves on a social day is pride. To create images of “humiliated and insulted” both writers use some similar images: a damp basement, a dark dungeon, a coffin, in addition, in Dostoevsky’s poetics, the key symbol is the image of the corner, and in Korolenko’s case, the road. The presented material allows us to conclude that the difference in the depiction of the studied category of characters is due to the difference in the views of the writers on the world and on what, in their opinion, can change the life of “poor people”: for Dostoevsky, this is the spiritual growth of a person, his approach to the Christian ideal, for Korolenko, this is a change in the environment.