The main idea is a dog's heart. Analysis of the work of the dog's heart of Bulgakov's story. The history of the creation of the story "Heart of a Dog"
Analysis of the novel "Heart of a Dog"
The story is based on a great experiment. Everything that happened around and what was called the construction of socialism was perceived by Bulgakov precisely as an experiment - huge in scale and more than dangerous. To attempts to create a new perfect society by revolutionary, i.e. methods that do not exclude violence, he was extremely skeptical about educating a new, free person by the same methods. For him, this was such an interference in the natural course of things, the consequences of which could be disastrous, including for the "experimenters" themselves. The author warns readers about this in his work.
The hero of the story, Professor Preobrazhensky, came to Bulgakov's story from Prechistenka, where the hereditary Moscow intelligentsia had long settled. A recent Muscovite, Bulgakov knew and loved this area. He settled in Obukhov (Chisty) Lane, where "Fatal Eggs" and "Heart of a Dog" were written. Here lived people who were close to him in spirit and culture. Professor N.M. Pokrovsky. But, in essence, it reflected the type of thinking and the best features of that layer of the Russian intelligentsia, which, in Bulgakov's circle, was called "Prechistinka".
Bulgakov considered it his duty to "stubbornly portray the Russian intelligentsia as the best stratum in our country." He respectfully and lovingly treated his hero-scientist, to some extent Professor Preobrazhensky is the embodiment of the outgoing Russian culture, the culture of the spirit, aristocracy.
Professor Preobrazhensky, no longer a young man, lives alone in a beautiful comfortable apartment. the author admires the culture of his life, his appearance - Mikhail Afanasyevich himself loved aristocracy in everything, at one time he even wore a monocle.
The proud and majestic Professor Preobrazhensky, who is so full of old aphorisms, the luminary of Moscow genetics, the ingenious surgeon is engaged in profitable operations to rejuvenate aging ladies and brisk old men: the author's irony is merciless - sarcasm in relation to prosperous Nepmen.
But the professor plans to improve nature itself, he decides to compete with Life itself and create a new person by transplanting a part of the human brain into a dog.
In Bulgakov's story, the theme of Faust sounds in a new way, and it is also tragic, or rather, tragicomic in Bulgakov's way. Only after accomplishment does the scientist realize all the immorality of "scientific" violence against nature and man.
The professor who transforms a dog into a man bears the surname Preobrazhensky. And the action itself takes place on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, by all possible means, the writer points out the unnaturalness of what is happening, that this is anti-creation, a parody of Christmas. And by these signs, we can say that in "Heart of a Dog" the motives of Bulgakov's last and best work - a novel about the devil - are already visible.
The relationship between the scientist and the street dog Sharik-Sharikov forms the basis of the plot outline of the story. Creating the image of Sharik, the author certainly used the literary tradition. And here the author follows his teacher Gogol, his Notes of a Madman, where in one of the chapters a person is shown from a dog's point of view and where it says: "Dogs are smart people." Close to the author is the great German romantic Ernest Hoffmann with his cat Murr and smart talking dogs.
The basis of the story is the internal monologue of Sharik, the eternally hungry, miserable street dog. He is not very stupid, in his own way evaluates the life of the street, life, customs, characters of Moscow during the NEP with its numerous shops, tea houses, taverns on Myasnitskaya "with sawdust on the floor, evil clerks who hate dogs", "where they played the harmonica and smelled like sausages."
The whole chilled, hungry dog, besides scalded, observes the life of the street, makes conclusions: "Janitors of all proletarians are the most vile scum." "The cook comes across different. For example, the late Vlas from Prechistenka. How many lives he saved."
He sympathizes with the poor young lady - a typist, frozen, "running into the doorway in her lover's sergeant stockings." “She doesn’t even have enough for the cinema, they deducted from her in the service, fed rotten meat in the dining room, and the manager stole half of her canteen forty kopecks ...”. In his thoughts - ideas, Sharik contrasts the poor girl with the image of a triumphant boor - the new master of life: "I am now the chairman, and no matter how much I steal, everything goes to the female body, to cancer necks, to Abrau-Durso." "I'm sorry for her, I'm sorry. And I feel even more sorry for myself," complains Sharik.
Seeing Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky, Sharik understands: "he is a man of mental labor ..." "this one will not kick with his foot."
And now Sharik lives in a luxurious professorial apartment. One of the leading, cross-cutting themes of Bulgakov's work begins to sound - the theme of the House as the center of human life. The Bolsheviks destroyed the House as the basis of the family, as the basis of society. To the settled, warm, it seemed, eternally beautiful house of the Turbins ("Days of the Turbins"), the writer contrasts the decaying Zoya's apartment (the comedy "Zoyka's Apartment"), where there is a fierce struggle for living space, for square meters. Maybe that's why in Bulgakov's stories and plays a stable satirical figure is the chairman of the house committee? In "Zoyka's apartment" this is Harness, whose dignity is that he "was not at the university", in "Heart of a Dog" he is called Shvonder, in "Ivan Vasilyevich" - Bunsha, in "The Master and Margarita" - Barefoot. He, the head of the house committee, is the true center of the small world, the center of power and a vulgar, predatory life.
Such a socially aggressive administrator, confident in his permissiveness, is Shvonder, a man in a leather jacket, a black man in the story "Heart of a Dog" by the foreman committee. Accompanied by "comrades", he comes to Professor Preobrazhensky in order to seize "extra" space from him, to take away two rooms. The conflict with uninvited guests becomes acute: "You are a hater of the proletariat!" the woman said proudly. "Yes, I don't like the proletariat," Philipp Philippovich agreed sadly. He does not like lack of culture, dirt, devastation, aggressive rudeness, complacency of the new masters of life. "This is a mirage, smoke, a fiction," - this is how the professor assesses the practice and history of the new owners.
But here the professor performs the main work of his life - a unique operation - an experiment: he transplants the human pituitary gland to the dog Sharik from a 28-year-old man who died a few hours before the operation.
This man - Klim Petrovich Chugunkin, twenty-eight years old, sued three times. "Profession - playing the balalaika in taverns. Small in stature, poorly built. The liver is enlarged (alcohol). The cause of death is a stab in the heart in a pub."
As a result of the most complicated operation, an ugly, primitive creature appeared - non-human, who completely inherited the "proletarian" essence of his "ancestor". The first words he uttered were swearing, the first distinct words: "bourgeois". And then - street words: "do not push!" "Scoundrel", "get off the bandwagon", etc. He was a disgusting "man of small stature and unsympathetic appearance. The hair on his head grew stiff ... The forehead struck with its small height. Almost directly above the black threads of the eyebrows, a thick head brush began." Just as ugly and vulgar, he "dressed up".
The smile of life lies in the fact that as soon as he stands on his hind limbs, Sharikov is ready to oppress, drive into a corner the "daddy" who gave birth to him - the professor.
And now this humanoid creature demands a residence document from the professor, confident that the house committee will help him in this, which "protects the interests."
- - Whose interests, may I inquire?
- - It is known whose - labor element. Philip Philipovich rolled his eyes.
- Why are you a hard worker?
- - Yes, you know, not Nepman.
From this verbal duel, taking advantage of the professor’s confusion about his origin (“you are, after all, an unexpectedly appeared creature, a laboratory one”), the homunculus emerges victorious and demands that he be given the “hereditary” surname Sharikov, and he chooses a name for himself - Poligraf Poligrafovich. He arranges wild pogroms in the apartment, chases (in his canine essence) after cats, arranges a flood ... All the inhabitants of the professor's apartment are demoralized, there can be no question of any reception of patients.
It should also be noted Shvonder, chairman of the house committee, who bears no less responsibility than a professor for a humanoid monster. Shvonder supported Sharikov's social status, armed him with an ideological phrase, he is his ideologist, his "spiritual shepherd".
The paradox is that, as it is already clear even from the above dialogue, helping a creature with a "dog's heart" to establish itself, he is also digging a hole for himself. Setting Sharikov against the professor, Shvonder does not understand that someone else can easily set Sharikov against Shvonder himself. It is enough for a man with a dog's heart to point out anyone, say that he is an enemy, and Sharikov will humiliate him, destroy him, etc. How reminiscent of the Soviet era and especially the thirties ... And even today this is not uncommon.
Shvonder, the allegorical "black man," supplies Sharikov with "scientific" literature and gives him the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky to "study." An animal-like creature does not approve of either author: "They write, they write ... Congress, some Germans ...", he grumbles. He draws one conclusion: "We must share everything."
Do you know the way? - asked the interested Bormental - Yes, what's the way, - becoming talkative after vodka, Sharikov explained, - it's not a tricky thing. And then what: one settled in seven rooms, he has forty pairs of trousers, and the other hangs around, looking for food in trash boxes.
So the lumpen Sharikov instinctively "smelled" the main credo of the new masters of life, all the Sharikovs: rob, steal, take away everything created, as well as the main principle of the so-called socialist society that was being created - universal leveling, called equality. What this led to is well known.
Sharikov, supported by Shvonder, is becoming more and more unrestrained, hooligans openly: To the words of the exhausted professor that he will find a room for Sharikov to move out, the lumpen answers:
Well, yes, I'm such a fool to move out of here, - Sharikov answered very clearly and showed the dumbfounded professor Shvonder's paper that he was supposed to have a living area of 16 meters in the professor's apartment.
Soon "Sharikov embezzled 2 chervonets in the professor's office, disappeared from the apartment and returned late, completely drunk." He appeared in the Prechistensky apartment not alone, but with two unknown personalities who robbed the professor.
Finest hour for Polygraph Poligrafovich was his "service". Disappearing from the house, he appears before the astonished professor and bormental as a kind of young man, full of dignity and respect for himself, "in a leather jacket from someone else's shoulder, in shabby leather trousers and high English boots. The terrible, incredible smell of cats immediately spread over the entire front "To the dumbfounded professor, he shows a paper stating that Comrade Sharikov is the head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city from stray animals. Of course, Shvonder arranged him there. When asked why he smells so disgusting, the monster replies:
Well, well, it smells ... it is known: in the specialty. Yesterday cats were strangled - strangled ...
So Bulgakov's Sharik made a dizzying leap: from stray dogs to orderlies to clean up the city from stray dogs / and cats, of course /. Well, the persecution of their own is a characteristic feature of all Sharikovs. They destroy their own, as if covering up the traces of their own origin...
Sharikov's next move is an appearance in the Prechistina apartment together with a young girl. "I sign with her, this is our typist. Bormental will have to be evicted ... - Sharikov explained extremely hostilely and gloomily." Of course, the villain deceived the girl, telling stories about himself. He behaved with her so ugly that a grandiose scandal broke out again in the Prechistenka apartment: the professor and his assistant, driven to white heat, began to defend the girl ...
The last, final chord of Sharikov's activity is a denunciation-libel about Professor Preobrazhensky.
It should be noted that it was then, in the thirties, that denunciation became one of the foundations of a "socialist" society, which would be more correctly called totalitarian. Since only a totalitarian regime can be based on a denunciation.
Sharikov is alien to conscience, shame, morality. He has no human qualities except meanness, hatred, malice...
It is good that on the pages of the story the sorcerer-professor managed to reverse the transformation of a monster man into an animal, into a dog. It is good that the professor understood that nature does not tolerate violence against itself. Alas, in real life, the Sharikovs won, they turned out to be tenacious, crawling out of all the cracks. Self-confident, arrogant, confident in their sacred rights to everything, semi-literate lumpen brought our country to the deepest crisis, because the Bolshevik-Shvonder thesis of the "great leap forward of the socialist revolution", mocking disregard for the laws of the development of evolution could only give birth to the Sharikovs.
In the story, Sharikov returned to dogs, but in life he went a long and, as it seemed to him, and others were inspired, a glorious path and in the thirties and fifties he poisoned people, as he once did stray cats and dogs in the line of duty. Throughout his life, he carried dog anger and suspicion, replacing them with dog loyalty that has become unnecessary. Entering into rational life, he remained at the level of instincts and was ready to adapt the whole country, the whole world, the whole universe in order to satisfy these bestial instincts. He is proud of his low origin. He prides himself on his low education. He is proud of everything low, because only this raises him high - above those who are high in spirit, who are high in mind, and therefore must be trampled into the mud so that Sharikov can rise above them. You involuntarily ask yourself the question: how many of them were and are among us? Thousands? Tens, hundreds of thousands?
Outwardly, the balls are no different from people, but they are always among us. Their inhuman nature is just waiting to be revealed. And then the judge, in the interests of his career and the fulfillment of the plan for solving crimes, condemns the innocent, the doctor turns away from the patient, the mother abandons her child, various officials, for whom bribes are already in the order of things, these are politicians who, at the first opportunity to grab a tidbit, drop the mask and show their true nature, ready to betray their own. Everything that is most lofty and holy turns into its opposite, because the non-human has awakened in them and tramples them into the mud. Coming to power, a non-human tries to dehumanize everyone around, because non-humans are easier to control, they have all human feelings replaced by the instinct of self-preservation.
In our country, after the revolution, all conditions were created for the appearance of a huge number of Sharikovs with dog hearts. The totalitarian system is very conducive to this. Probably due to the fact that these monsters have penetrated into all areas of life, that they are among us now, Russia is going through hard times now. The Sharikovs, with their truly canine vitality, no matter what, will go everywhere over the heads of others.
The heart of a dog in union with the human mind is the main threat of our time. That is why the story, written at the beginning of the century, remains relevant today, serving as a warning to future generations. Today is so close to yesterday... At first glance, it seems that outwardly everything has changed, that the country has become different. But the consciousness, stereotypes, way of thinking of people will not change either in ten or twenty years - more than one generation will pass before the Sharikovs disappear from our lives, before people become different, before the vices described by Bulgakov in his immortal work disappear . How I want to believe that this time will come!
Such are the gloomy reflections on the consequences (on the one hand, possible, on the other, accomplished) of the interaction of three forces: apolitical science, aggressive social rudeness, and spiritual authority reduced to the level of a house committee.
"Heart of a Dog" was written at the beginning of 1925. It was supposed to be published in the Nedra almanac, but censorship banned publication. The story was finished in March, and Bulgakov read it at the literary meeting of Nikitsky Subbotniks. The Moscow public became interested in the work. It was distributed in samizdat. It was first published in London and Frankfurt in 1968, in Znamya magazine No. 6 in 1987.
In the 20s. were very popular medical experiments on the rejuvenation of the human body. Bulgakov, as a doctor, was familiar with these natural science experiments. The prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky was Bulgakov's uncle, N.M. Pokrovsky, a gynecologist. He lived on Prechistenka, where the events of the story unfold.
Genre features
The satirical story "Heart of a Dog" combines various genre elements. The plot of the story resembles fantastic adventure literature in the tradition of G. Wells. The subtitle of the story "The Monstrous Story" testifies to the parodic coloring of the fantastic plot.
The science-adventure genre is the outer cover for satirical overtones and topical metaphor.
The story is close to dystopia due to its social satire. This is a warning about the consequences of a historical experiment that must be stopped, everything must return to normal.
Issues
The most important problem of the story is social: it is the comprehension of the events of the revolution, which made it possible to rule the world by balls and shvonders. Another problem is awareness of the limits of human capabilities. Preobrazhensky, imagining himself a god (he is literally worshiped by households), goes against nature, turning a dog into a man. Realizing that “any woman can give birth to Spinoza at any time”, Preobrazhensky repents of his experiment, which saves his life. He understands the fallacy of eugenics, the science of improving the human race.
The problem of the danger of intrusion into human nature and social processes is raised.
Plot and composition
The sci-fi story describes how Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky decides to experiment on transplanting the pituitary gland and ovaries of the “semi-proletarian” Klim Chugunkin to a dog. As a result of this experiment, the monstrous Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov appeared, the embodiment and quintessence of the victorious proletariat class. The existence of Sharikov brought a lot of problems to the family of Philip Philippovich, and, in the end, endangered the normal life and freedom of the professor. Then Preobrazhensky decided on a reverse experiment, transplanting the pituitary gland of a dog to Sharikov.
The ending of the story is open: this time, Preobrazhensky was able to prove to the new proletarian authorities that he was not involved in the “murder” of Polygraph Poligrafovich, but how long will his already far from calm life last?
The story consists of 9 parts and an epilogue. The first part is written on behalf of the dog Sharik, who suffers from the harsh winter of St. Petersburg from the cold and a wound on his scalded side. In the second part, the dog becomes an observer of everything that happens in Preobrazhensky's apartment: the reception of patients in the "obscene apartment", the professor's opposition to the new house management headed by Shvonder, Philip Philipovich's fearless admission that he does not like the proletariat. For the dog, Preobrazhensky turns into the likeness of a deity.
The third part tells about the ordinary life of Philip Philipovich: breakfast, conversations about politics and devastation. This part is polyphonic, it contains the voices of both the professor and the “bitten” one (Bormental’s assistant from the glasses of Sharik who bit him), and Sharik himself, talking about his lucky ticket and Preobrazhensky as a magician from a dog’s fairy tale.
In the fourth part, Sharik meets the rest of the inhabitants of the house: the cook Darya and the servant Zina, whom the men treat very gallantly, and Sharik mentally calls Zina Zinka, and quarrels with Daria Petrovna, she calls him a homeless pickpocket and threatens with a poker. In the middle of the fourth part, Sharik's story breaks off because he is undergoing an operation.
The operation is described in detail, Philip Philipovich is terrible, he is called a robber, like a murderer who cuts, pulls out, destroys. At the end of the operation, he is compared to a well-fed vampire. This is the author's point of view, it is a continuation of Sharik's thoughts.
The fifth, central and climactic chapter is the diary of Dr. Bormenthal. It begins in a strictly scientific style, which gradually turns into a colloquial one, with emotionally charged words. The case history ends with Bormenthal's conclusion that "we have a new organism in front of us, and we need to observe it first."
The following chapters 6-9 are the history of Sharikov's short life. He learns the world, destroying it and living the probable fate of the murdered Klim Chugunkin. Already in chapter 7, the professor has an idea to decide on a new operation. Sharikov's behavior becomes unbearable: hooliganism, drunkenness, theft, molestation of women. The last straw was Shvonder's denunciation from the words of Sharikov to all the inhabitants of the apartment.
The epilogue, describing the events 10 days after Bormental's fight with Sharikov, shows Sharikov almost turning into a dog again. The next episode is the reasoning of the dog Sharik in March (about 2 months have passed) about how lucky he was.
Metaphorical overtones
The professor has a telling last name. He transforms the dog into a "new man". This happens between December 23rd and January 7th, between Catholic and Orthodox Christmas. It turns out that the transformation takes place in some kind of temporary void between the same date in different styles. A polygraph (multi-writing) is the embodiment of the devil, a “replicated” person.
Apartment on Prechistenka (from the definition of the Mother of God) of 7 rooms (7 days of creation). She is the embodiment of divine order amid the surrounding chaos and devastation. A star looks out of the window of the apartment from the darkness (chaos), watching the monstrous transformation. The professor is called a deity and a priest. He is a priest.
Heroes of the story
Professor Preobrazhensky- a scientist, a value of world importance. However, he is a successful doctor. But his merits do not prevent the new government from frightening the professor with a seal, prescribing Sharikov and threatening arrest. The professor has an inappropriate background - his father is a cathedral archpriest.
Preobrazhensky is quick-tempered, but kind. He sheltered Bormenthal in the department when he was a half-starved student. He is a noble person, not going to leave a colleague in the event of a disaster.
Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental- the son of a forensic investigator from Vilna. He is the first student of the Preobrazhensky school, loving his teacher and devoted to him.
Ball appears as a fully rational, reasoning being. He even jokes: "A collar is like a briefcase." But Sharik is the very creature in whose mind a crazy thought appears to rise "from rags to riches": "I am a master's dog, an intelligent creature." However, he almost does not sin against the truth. Unlike Sharikov, he is grateful to Preobrazhensky. And the professor operates with a firm hand, ruthlessly kills Sharik, and having killed, regrets: "It's a pity for the dog, he was affectionate, but cunning."
At Sharikova nothing remains of Sharik but hatred for cats, love for the kitchen. His portrait is described in detail first by Bormental in his diary: he is a short man with a small head. Subsequently, the reader learns that the hero's appearance is unsympathetic, his hair is coarse, his forehead is low, his face is unshaven.
His jacket and striped trousers are torn and dirty, a poisonous sky tie and lacquer boots with white leggings complete the suit. Sharikov is dressed in accordance with his own notions of chic. Like Klim Chugunkin, whose pituitary gland was transplanted to him, Sharikov plays the balalaika professionally. From Klim, he inherited a love for vodka.
The name and patronymic Sharikov chooses according to the calendar, the surname takes "hereditary".
The main character trait of Sharikov is arrogance and ingratitude. He behaves like a savage, and about normal behavior he says: "You are torturing yourself, as under the tsarist regime."
Sharikov receives a "proletarian education" from Shvonder. Bormental calls Sharikov a man with a dog's heart, but Preobrazhensky corrects him: Sharikov has just a human heart, but the worst possible person.
Sharikov is even making a career in his own sense: he enters the position of head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals and is going to sign with the typist.
Stylistic features
The story is full of aphorisms expressed by different characters: “Do not read Soviet newspapers before dinner”, “Devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads”, “You can’t fight anyone! One can act on a person or an animal only by suggestion ”(Preobrazhensky),“ Happiness is not in galoshes ”,“ And what is will? So, smoke, a mirage, a fiction, the delirium of these ill-fated democrats ... ”(Sharik),“ A document is the most important thing in the world ”(Shvonder),“ I am not a master, gentlemen are all in Paris ”(Sharikov).
For Professor Preobrazhensky, there are certain symbols of normal life, which in themselves do not provide this life, but testify to it: a golosh stand in the front door, carpets on the stairs, steam heating, electricity.
Society of the 20s characterized in the story with the help of irony, parody, grotesque.
Analysis of the story by M.A. Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog"
The story "Heart of a Dog", written in 1925, M.A. Bulgakov never saw printed. It talked about the unpredictable consequences of scientific discoveries, about the fact that an experiment that runs ahead and deals with inadequate human consciousness is dangerous.
In the foreground in the story is the experiment of the brilliant medical scientist Preobrazhensky with all the tragic results unexpected for the professor himself and his assistant Bormental. Having transplanted human seminal glands and the pituitary gland of the brain into a dog for purely scientific purposes, Preobrazhensky, to his amazement, receives a man from a dog. Homeless Sharik, forever hungry, offended by everyone who is not lazy, turns into a man in a matter of days. And already on his own initiative he receives the human name Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. His habits remain doglike, and the professor has to deal with his upbringing. The medical-biological experiment turns into a moral-psychological experiment.
Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky is not only an outstanding specialist in his field. He is a man of high culture and an independent mind, and is very critical of everything that has been going on around him since March 1917. “Why, when this whole story began, did everyone start walking in dirty galoshes and felt boots up the marble stairs? .. Why did they remove the carpet from the front stairs? .. Why the hell did they remove the flowers from the landings?”
“Devastation,” Bormental objects to him.
"No," retorts the professor. - What is your devastation? .. This is what: if I, instead of operating every evening, start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be devastated. If, on entering the lavatory, I begin, pardon the expression, to urinate past the toilet bowl, and Zina and Darya Petrovna do the same, devastation will begin in the lavatory. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. So, when these baritones shout “beat the devastation!” - I laugh ... This means that each of them must beat himself on the back of the head! And now, when he hatches all sorts of hallucinations out of himself and starts cleaning the sheds - his direct business - the devastation will disappear by itself.
The views of Filipp Filippovich have much in common with the views of Bulgakov himself. He is also skeptical about the revolutionary process, which, in his opinion, gives rise to "hallucinations" that prevent people from doing their own thing. And just as resolutely opposes any violence. Weasel is the only way that is possible and necessary in dealing with living beings - rational and unreasonable. “Terror can't do anything... They think in vain that terror will help them. No-sir, no-sir, it won't help, no matter what it is: white, red or even brown. Terror completely paralyzes the nervous system.
And this conservative professor, who categorically rejects the revolutionary theory and practice of reorganizing the world, suddenly finds himself in the role of a revolutionary.
The new system strives to create a new man from the old "human material". Philipp Philippovich, as if competing with him, goes even further: he intends to make a man, and even a high culture and morality, out of a dog. "A caress, an exceptional caress." And, of course, by your own example.
The result is known. Attempts to instill elementary cultural skills in Sharikov are met with persistent and ever-increasing resistance:
“... Everything is like in a parade ... a napkin - there, a tie - here, yes, “excuse me”, yes, “please, merci”, but so that for real, it’s not. You are torturing yourself, as under the tsarist regime.”
Every day Sharikov becomes bolder, more aggressive and more dangerous.
If only Sharik had been the "source material" for modeling Polygraph Poligrafovich, perhaps the professor's experiment would have succeeded. Having taken root in the apartment of Philip Philippovich, Sharik at first still commits some hooligan acts. But in the end it turns into a well-mannered house dog.
An amazing thing, the author ironically, is a dog collar. When they put him on Sharik for the first time and took him for a walk on a leash, he "walked like a prisoner, burning with shame." But very soon I realized “what a collar means in life. Furious envy was read in the eyes of all the dogs he met... At Dead Lane, some lanky mongrel with a chopped off tail barked at him as a "master's bastard" and "six".
“A collar is like a briefcase,” Sharik himself mentally sharpens. And before the operation, he already sums up almost a philosophical basis for his new, officially servile position: “No, where, you won’t leave here for any will, why lie ... I’m a master’s dog, an intelligent being, I tasted a better life. And what is will? So, smoke, a mirage, a fiction ... The nonsense of these malicious democrats ... "
But by chance, Sharik got the human organs from the criminal. “Klim Grigoryevich Chugunkin, 25 years old, single. Nonpartisan, sympathetic. Tried 3 times and acquitted: the first time due to lack of evidence, the second time the origin saved, the third time - suspended hard labor for 15 years.
The "sympathizer", sentenced to hard labor "conditionally" - this is reality itself invading Preobrazhensky's experiment.
She invades along another line - in the person of the chairman of the house committee, Shvonder. This "cadre" Bulgakov's character in this case has a special role. He even writes articles for the newspaper, reads Engels. In general, he is fighting for revolutionary order and social justice. Residents of the house should enjoy the same benefits. No matter how brilliant a scientist Professor Preobrazhensky is, there is no reason for him to occupy seven rooms. He can dine in the bedroom, perform operations in the examination room, where he cuts rabbits. And in general, it's time to equate him with Sharikov, a man of a completely proletarian appearance.
The professor himself manages to fight off Shvonder. But he is no longer able to beat off Sharikov. Shvonder has already taken over that patronage and is educating him in his own way. What happens to Sharikov in the story, as with the help of Shvonder he becomes, so to speak, a conscious participant in the revolutionary process, in 1925 looked like a vicious satire on the process itself and on its participants. Two weeks after the dog skin came off and he began to walk on two legs, this participant already has a document proving his identity. And the document, according to Schwonder, who knows what he's talking about, is "the most important thing in the world." A week or two later, Sharikov becomes a co-worker. And not an ordinary one - the head of the sub-department of cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals. Meanwhile, his nature is the same as it was - dog-criminal. What is one of his messages about his work "in the specialty": "Yesterday cats were strangled, strangled."
However, Polygraph Poligrafovich is no longer satisfied with cats ... “Well, all right,” he suddenly said angrily, “you will remember me. Tomorrow I'll arrange for you to make redundancies." This is for that typist girl who, believing that he is a hero of the civil war and a great person in general, is ready to sign him. And the professor is a cookie. And “at the address of the dangerous Bormenthal” - a revolver.
The story with Sharikov ends happily: having returned the dog to its original state, the professor, refreshed and as cheerful as ever, goes about his direct business, the “dearest dog” - his: lies on the carpet by the sofa and indulges in sweet reflections. But Bulgakov left the ending of the story open.
With the Heart of a Dog, Bulgakov's cycle of satirical novels and short stories ended. He never wrote any more.
Bulgakov's legendary work "Heart of a Dog" is studied at literature lessons in grade 9. Its fantastic content reflects very real historical events. In The Heart of a Dog, analysis according to plan involves a detailed analysis of all the artistic aspects of the work. It is this information that is presented in our article, including the analysis of the work, criticism, problems, compositional structure and history of creation.
Brief analysis
Year of writing The story was written in 1925.
History of creation- the work is created quickly - in three months, diverges in samizdat, however, it was published at home only in 1986 during the period of perestroika.
Topic- rejection of violent intervention in history, political changes in society, the theme of human nature, its nature.
Composition- a ring composition based on the image of the main character.
Genre- socio-philosophical satirical story.
Direction- satire, fantasy (as a way of presenting a literary text).
History of creation
Bulgakov's work was written in 1925. In just three months, a brilliant work was born, which later gained a legendary future and nationwide fame.
It was being prepared for publication in the Nedra magazine. After reading the text, the editor-in-chief, of course, refused to publish such a book openly hostile to the existing political system. In 1926, the author's apartment was searched and the manuscript of The Heart of a Dog was confiscated. The original title of the book was “Dog's Happiness. A monstrous story, ”later it received a modern name, which is associated with lines from the book of A. V. Laifert.
The very idea of the plot, according to researchers of Mikhail Bulgakov's work, was borrowed by the author from the science fiction writer G. Wells. Bulgakov's plot becomes an almost veiled parody of government circles and their policies. The writer twice read his story, for the first time - at the literary meeting "Nikitinsky Subbotniks".
After the next performance, the audience was delighted, with the exception of a few communist writers. During the life of the author, his work was not published, largely due to the disgraced content, but there was another reason. “Heart of a Dog” was first published abroad, which automatically “sentenced” the text to persecution at home. Therefore, only in 1986, 60 years later, it appeared on the pages of the Zvezda magazine. Despite the disgrace, Bulgakov hoped to publish the text during his lifetime, it was rewritten, copied, passed on by the writer's friends and acquaintances, admiring the boldness and originality of the images.
Topic
The writer raises problem the ideology and politics of Bolshevism, the lack of education of those who got to power, the impossibility of forcibly changing the order in history. The results of the revolution are deplorable, it, like the operation of Professor Preobrazhensky, led to completely unexpected consequences, revealed the most terrible diseases of society.
Topic human nature, nature, characters are also affected by the author. It gives a semi-transparent hint that the person feels too powerful, but unable to control the fruits of their actions.
Briefly about issues works: a violent change in the social system and way of life will inevitably lead to disastrous results, the “experiment” will be unsuccessful.
Idea Bulgakov's story is quite transparent: any artificial intervention in nature, society, history, politics, and other areas will not lead to positive changes. The author adheres to a healthy conservatism.
The basic idea The story says the following: an uneducated, immature “people” like the “Sharikovs” cannot be given power, they are morally immature, such an experiment will turn into a disaster for society and history. The conclusion about the artistic goals of the author from the standpoint of the political system and politics of the 20-30s will be too narrow, so both ideas have the right to life.
The meaning of the name works is that not all people have normal, spiritually “healthy” hearts from birth. There are people on earth who live the life of Sharikov, they have dog (bad, evil) hearts from birth.
Composition
The story has a circular composition, which can be traced by following the content of the work.
The story begins with a description of a dog that soon becomes a man; ends where it began: Sharikov is operated on and again takes on the appearance of a contented animal.
A feature of the composition is Bormenthal's diary entries about the results of the experiment, about the patient's rebirth, about his achievements and degradation. Thus, the history of Sharikov's "life" was documented by the professor's assistant. A striking key moment of the composition is Sharikov's acquaintance with Shvonder, who has a decisive influence on the formation of the personality of a newly-made citizen.
There are two main characters in the center of the story: Professor Preobrazhensky and Polygraph Sharikov, they play a plot-forming role. In the plot of the work, the author’s technique is interesting, when life is shown through the eyes of the dog Sharik, his “dog-like” thoughts about the weather, about people and his own life are a reflection of the little that is needed for a calm existence. The culmination of the story is the rebirth of the Polygraph, his moral and spiritual decay, the highest manifestation of which was the plan to kill the professor. In the denouement, Bormetal and Philip Philipovich return the experimental subject to its original form, thereby correcting their mistake. This moment is very symbolic, as it determines what the story teaches: some things can be corrected if you admit your mistake.
main characters
Genre
The genre “Heart of a Dog” is usually referred to as a story. In fact, it is a social or political satire. The interweaving of sharp satire with philosophical reflections on the future after the revolution gives the right to call the work a socio-philosophical satirical story with elements of fantasy.
Artwork test
Analysis Rating
Average rating: 4.7. Total ratings received: 1746.
Introduction
The topic of my research was born from an observation made while reading the story "Heart of a Dog" by M.A. Bulgakov.
Creativity M.A. Bulgakov is widely known in Russia. He wrote such works as The Master and Margarita, Heart of a Dog, Crimson Island, The Adventures of Chichikov, Fatal Eggs, Notes of a Young Doctor, Diaboliad, etc.
An outstanding creation of M. Bulgakov was the story "Heart of a Dog". Written in 1925, it was not published during the life of the writer. In 1926, his apartment was searched and the manuscript of the story "The Heart of a Dog" was confiscated. It was published only in 1987.
The story raises the question of the social restructuring that took place in those years, shows Bulgakov's attitude towards it.
I drew attention to the fact that in the story there are many times the words "full", "hungry", "eat", "food". I believe that the topic of food occupies a special place - Sharik's thoughts about food, we listen to Professor Preobrazhensky's speech on how to eat, we go to his sumptuous dinners, we see the kitchen - "the main branch of paradise", the kingdom and its queen Daria Petrovna .
The relevance of the work: For us, modern readers, it is important to know the history of our homeland, the way of life, culture and customs of those people who lived in the past. This is where writers help us. One of them is M.A. Bulgakov. He belongs to the number of "returned" writers. With the help of his works, truthful and sincere, we recreate a complete picture of the life of Russia in the last century.
Objective: To study the theme of food as a reflection of the life and customs of the inhabitants of Moscow in the 20s of the last century in the story "Heart of a Dog".
Tasks:
1. View critical literature about the story "Heart of a Dog".
2. Compile a dictionary of the names of dishes used at the beginning of the 20th century
Object of study: the artistic world of the story "Heart of a Dog"
Subject of study: the theme of food in the story "Heart of a Dog"
dog heart bulgakov food
The story "Heart of a Dog" and its analysis
The protagonist of the story, Professor Preobrazhensky, conducting a medical experiment, transplants the organ of the "proletarian" Chugunkin, who died in a drunken brawl, into a stray dog. Unexpectedly for the surgeon, the dog turns into a man, and this man is an exact repetition of the deceased lumpen. If Sharik, as the professor called the dog, is kind, intelligent and grateful to the new owner for the shelter, then miraculously revived Chugunkin is militantly ignorant, vulgar and impudent. Convinced of this, the professor carries out the reverse operation, and the good-natured dog reappears in his cozy apartment.
The story was connected with the reality of the 1920s by many threads. It shows pictures of the NEP, the dominance of the bourgeoisie, traces of recent devastation, the widespread use of advertising, the everyday disorder of Muscovites, the housing crisis of that time, the practice of forced compaction, the bureaucratic passions of the house committees, the omnipotence of the RAPP, the selfless devotion of scientists and their scientific experiments of those years.
The theme of the story is a man as a social being, over whom a totalitarian society and the state are carrying out a grandiose inhuman experiment, embodying the brilliant ideas of their theoretic leaders with cold cruelty.
The professor's risky surgical experiment is a nod to the "daring social experiment" taking place in Russia. Bulgakov is not inclined to see "the people" as an ideal being. He is convinced that only the difficult and long path of enlightening the masses, the path of evolution, not revolution, can lead to a real improvement in the life of the country.
The good intentions of Preobrazhensky turn into a tragedy. He comes to the conclusion that violent intervention in the nature of man and society leads to catastrophic, sad results. In life, such experiments are irreversible. And Bulgakov managed to warn about this at the very beginning of those destructive transformations that began in our country in 1917.
The author of "Heart of a Dog", a doctor and surgeon by profession, was an attentive reader of the scientific journals of the time, where much was said about "rejuvenation", amazing organ transplants in the name of "improving the human race." So Bulgakov's fantasy, with all the brilliance of the author's artistic gift, is quite scientific.
Sharik is not only cunning, but affectionate and gluttonous. He is smart and observant. Sharik's extended internal monologue includes numerous apt observations of the dog over the life of the then Moscow, its way of life and customs, the social stratification of its population into "comrades" and "masters". The author makes the dog cute, gives him bright memories of his early youth at the Preobrazhenskaya Zastava. A wandering dog is socially literate, kind, not without wit ("a collar is like a briefcase").
Sharik has reduced, profanity, he speaks street language - to dig, eat, eat, creature, mug, grymza, get drunk, die, which gives us an idea of what the standard of living was in those days.
Proud and majestic Professor Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky, a pillar of genetics and eugenics, who planned to move from profitable operations to rejuvenate aging ladies and lively old men to a decisive improvement of the human race, is perceived as a higher being, a great priest only by Sharik. Nevertheless, the inquisitiveness of his mind, his scientific search, the life of the human spirit, his honesty are opposed to historical confusion, immorality and depravity. Preobrazhensky is an opponent of any crime and instructs his assistant, Dr. Bormental: "Live to old age with clean hands."
He is arrogant, selfish and inconsistent (rejecting violence, Preobrazhensky threatens to kill Shvonder, which contradicts professorial humanism and admits it over nature). Therefore, here the author uses satire.
Sharikov is the most primitive creature, which is characterized by rudeness, impudence, spitefulness and aggressiveness. He is the same thief and drunkard as his ancestor Chugunkin. He is completely devoid of conscience, sense of duty, shame, culture. And the funny thing is that yesterday's dog, and now Sharikov, gets the position of head of the subdepartment for cleaning the city from stray animals.
In the social sphere, he quickly finds his own kind, finds a mentor in the person of Shvonder and his company, and becomes the object of his educational influence. Shvonder and his team feed their ward with slogans and ideological tricks (Shvonder even lets Sharikov read the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, which Preobrazhensky eventually burns). Sharikov quickly assimilates his rights and privileges, class hatred, rob and seize someone else's.
In those days, it was the illiterate Sharikovs who turned out to be ideally suited for life, it was they who form the new bureaucracy, become obedient cogs in the administrative mechanisms, and exercise power. Without Sharikov and others like him in Russia, under the guise of "socialism", mass dispossession of kulaks, organized denunciations, extrajudicial executions, torture of people in camps and prisons would have been impossible, which required a huge executive apparatus, consisting of demi-humans with a "dog heart".
Bulgakov's story, funny and scary at the same time, surprisingly organically combined the description of everyday life, fantasy and satire, written in an easy, clear and simple language. Bulgakov ridicule and dog devotion, and Sharikov's black ingratitude, dense ignorance, trying to master the commanding heights in all spheres of life. The author draws attention to the revolutionary violence in the country, which was undertaken in relation to the former foundations of being, to the nature of man and his psyche, formed in certain social and domestic conditions of life, in relation to culture. You can't turn everything upside down. It is unacceptable to give immeasurable rights, privileges and power to those who are ignorant. There is no need for cooks to offer to run the state, and statesmen to sweep the street or cook in the kitchen. Everyone must do their job.
According to the OGPU, "Heart of a Dog" was also read in the literary circle "Green Lamp" and in the poetic association "Knot", which gathered at P.N. Zaitsev. Andrei Bely, Boris Pasternak, Sofia Parnok, Alexander Romm, Vladimir Lugovskoy and other poets appeared in The Knot. Here Bulgakov met a young philologist A.V. Chicherin: “Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, very thin, surprisingly ordinary (in comparison with Bely or Pasternak!), also came to the Knot community and read Fatal Eggs, Heart of a Dog. Without fireworks. Quite simply. But I think that almost Gogol could envy such a reading, such a game.
"M.Ya. Schneider - Aesopian language is a thing that has long been familiar: it is the result of a special [montage] of reality. The shortcomings of the story are excessive efforts in order to understand the development of the plot. We must accept the implausible plot. From the point of view of playing with the plot, this is the first a literary work that dares to be itself. It's time to realize the attitude to what happened. Written in a completely clean and clear Russian language. Inventing what is happening, the artist made a mistake: in vain he did not resort to everyday comedy, which he once was " Inspector". The strength of the author is significant. He is above his task.
I.N. Rozanov - A very talented work, a very angry satire.
Yu.N. Potekhin - We do not know how to approach living writers. For a year and a half, M.A. managed to ignore. Fiction M.A. organically soldered with sharp everyday grotesque. This fantasy works with extraordinary power and persuasiveness. Sharikov's presence in everyday life will be felt by many.
L.S. Ginzburg - Notes that M.A. has long been noted.
V.M. Volkenstein - Our criticism has always been symbolic. There is a lot of play in this piece. Criticism quickly draws conclusions - it is better to refrain from them. This thing gives me: we have people like Professor Preobrazhensky, there are Sharikovs, and many [others]. It's already a lot.
B. Nick. Zhavoronkov - This is a very bright literary phenomenon. From a public point of view - who is the hero of the work - Sharikov or Preobrazhensky? Preobrazhensky is a brilliant tradesman. An intellectual [who] took part in the revolution, and then was afraid of his rebirth. Satire is aimed precisely at this kind of intellectuals.
M.Ya. Schneider - I did not mean the flat Aesopian language - the author's personal dictionary immediately went under the Aesopian language. If only it were character development in action - not stage [style].
V. Yaroshenko is not a political satire, but a public one. She ridicules manners. The author owns the language and the plot."
Thoughts of professional writers are interesting enough in themselves, although understandable timidity is palpable in them, caused by the very nature and direction of Bulgakov's satire and the possible consequences of their participation in the discussion of "Heart of a Dog". The writers were not afraid in vain: among them, naturally, was an informer of the GPU, who compiled a much more detailed report on the meeting.
Here is what he reported to the Lubyanka: "The whole thing is written in hostile tones, breathing endless contempt for Sovstroy. Bulgakov definitely hates and despises the entire Sovstroy, denies all its achievements. There is a faithful, strict and vigilant guardian of the Soviet power, this is Glavlit, and if my opinion does not differ from his, then this book will not see the light of day.But let me note the fact that this book (1 part of it) has already been read to an audience of 48 people, of which 90% are writers themselves.Therefore, its role, its main the deed has already been done, even if it is not allowed by Glavlit: it has already infected the writer's minds of listeners and will sharpen their pens. "
The theme of food as a reflection of the life of Moscow in the twenties of the last century
The scene of the story "Heart of a Dog" is Moscow, the time is 1924. The basis of the story is the internal monologue of Sharik, the eternally hungry, miserable street dog. He is very intelligent, in his own way evaluates the life of the street, life, customs, characters of Moscow during the NEP.
Representatives of the "old" Moscow, that is, the nobles, in the story are Preobrazhensky, the cook of Counts Tolstoy Vlas, Daria Petrovna, Zina, Dr. Bormental, the sugar manufacturer Bazarov, the bourgeois Sablin. They are opposed by the images of Shvonder and his team, consisting of Vyazemskaya, Pestrukhin and Zharovkin, Sharikov, a proletarian cook.
In the story "Heart of a Dog" a special place is occupied by the theme of food. Sharik's thoughts begin with her.
Actually, the dog Sharik was first christened by a passer-by young lady, the second time Professor Preobrazhensky called him that. In this apparent discrepancy between the nickname and appearance of the dog, the irony of the author is visible. In fact, what kind of Sharik is he? After all, "Sharik is a round, well-fed, stupid, eats oatmeal, the son of noble parents, and he is shaggy, lanky and torn, a fried hat, a homeless dog."
Sharik loves delicious food. Living on the street, he goes hungry for months; they treat him badly: once he was even scalded with boiling water. The culprit of the incident is a certain cook of the canteen of normal food for employees of the Central Council of the National Economy, whom the dog calls "The scoundrel in a dirty cap", "The thief with a copper head", "What a reptile, and also a proletarian!" At the same time, Sharik recalls the former lordly cook of the Counts Tolstoy, Vlas, who gave the dogs a bone, and on it an eighth of meat. Sharik is grateful to him for saving the lives of many dogs: "God rest his soul for being a real person, the lordly cook of Counts Tolstoy..."
The author's satire is also expressed in the names of institutions: Sharik also complains about the canteen of normal food. It's called - NORMAL FOOD. From the name, it becomes clear that the food there is poor, poor-quality food is served: "... soup is cooked from stinky corned beef, and those poor things do not know anything", "This is corned beef, this is corned beef! And when will it all end?" You can find the names of those enterprises where food was sold and bought in pre-revolutionary times: Okhotny Ryad, Slavyansky Bazaar.
"This one eats plentifully and does not steal. This one will not kick with his foot, but he himself is not afraid of anyone, and is not afraid because he is always full ..." - this is Sharik's opinion about Preobrazhensky in the first minutes of meeting him. It seems that he internally sympathizes with the professor, and after he gives him a piece of sausage, Sharik begins to consider Preobrazhensky an excellent person, with a broad soul, a benefactor of stray dogs.
He learns to read by various names of shops, enterprises where food is sold: he recognizes the letter "M" on green-blue signs with the inscription "M. S. P. O. Meat trade", "A" he learned in "Glavryba", and then the letter "B" from there; further on, Sharik learned to read the words "Gastronomy", "Wine", and where it smells of sausages and plays the harmonica - "Do not use indecent words and do not give tea."
The life of the noble intelligentsia is shown to us by Preobrazhensky's way of life, his luxurious house, his habits. He eats crayfish, roast beef, sturgeon, turkey, veal chops, minced mare with garlic and pepper. During the week Sharik spends at Preobrazhensky's house, he eats as much as during a month and a half of hungry street life. A pile of scraps is bought for him every day for 18 kopecks. at the Smolensk market, he eats for six.
Preobrazhensky attaches great importance to food. At dinner, he gives a speech about how to eat: "Food, Ivan Arnoldovich, is a tricky thing. ... You need not only to know what to eat, but also when and how. If you care about your digestion, do not talk about Bolshevism at dinner and about medicine."
To eat is not to eat, but to receive aesthetic and gastronomic pleasure. It is against culture, tradition, and therefore a whole series of rules and prohibitions that Sharikov will rebel at dinner in the second part of the story.
Philipp Philippovich speaks rather for himself. He talks aloud, speaking sharply about the dangers of reading newspapers, which disrupt digestion. To prove this, he made thirty observations. It turned out that patients who did not read newspapers felt good, while those who read Pravda lost weight, they developed reduced knee jerks, poor appetite, and a depressed state of mind.
The professor can afford to be a gourmet, he teaches Bormental the art of eating, so that it is not just a necessity, but a pleasure. This is already an occasion to talk about Soviet vodka. Bormenthal notes that the "newly blessed" is very decent. Thirty degrees." Philipp Philippovich objects: “Vodka should be at forty degrees, not thirty,” then he prophetically adds: “they can splash anything there.”
All these sarcastic remarks, seemingly trifles, actually create a complete picture of life in Moscow in the twenties.
Lunch at Preobrazhensky's is luxurious, as befits a rich man's dinner, in the dining room there is an atmosphere of purity, harmony and refined taste: "On plates painted with paradise flowers with a black wide border lay thin slices of salmon, pickled eels. tears and in a silver tub covered with snow - caviar. Between the plates - a few thin glasses and three crystal decanters with multi-colored vodkas. All these items were placed on a small marble table, snugly sitting next to the huge carved oak of the sideboard, which belched out beams of glass and silver light. In the middle of the room, a table as heavy as a tomb is covered with a white tablecloth, and on it are two cutlery, napkins rolled up in the form of papal tiaras, and three dark bottles.
You can find the following lines: "Having gained strength after a hearty dinner, he (Preobrazhensky) thundered, like an ancient prophet, and his head sparkled with silver." Again, the author's irony is visible here: it is easy to be a prophet on a full stomach!
The kitchen is the holy of holies, the kingdom of the cook Darya Petrovna, "the main branch of paradise," as Sharik calls it. The kitchen has a tiled stove, white curtains, golden pots. Every day everything is noisy there, shoots and flames rage. Sharik believes that "The whole apartment was not worth even two spans of Darya's kingdom."
The queen of all this splendor is Daria Petrovna. Her whole appearance testifies to the heat emanating from the kitchen, prosperity, satiety, which the atmosphere of the house is full of: "Daria Petrovna's face burned with eternal fiery torment and unquenched passion in crimson pillars. hair on the back of the head - twenty-two fake diamonds glowed.
In the description of the kitchen, such means of artistic expression were used as metaphors (metaphors of the second type), in which the verbs were used: "the flame shot and raged", "the oven crackled", "the kitchen rumbled with smells, bubbling and hissing"; epithets: "oven", "gold pans".
It becomes interesting, what is the process of cooking in this "paradise"? It is described in this way: “With a sharp and narrow knife, she cut off the heads and legs of helpless hazel grouses, then, like a furious executioner, she tore off the flesh from the bones, tore out the insides from the chickens, skewered something in a meat grinder. From a bowl of milk, Darya Petrovna pulled out pieces of soaked rolls, mixed them on a board with meat gruel, poured it all over with cream, sprinkled with salt and molded cutlets on the board. The stove buzzed like a fire, and in the pan it grumbled, bubbling and jumping. The damper jumped back with thunder, revealing a terrible hell. , poured ... "
Metaphors are used here, again with the use of verbs: "the damper jumped back, revealed hell"; epithets: "sharp and narrow knife", "helpless grouse", "furious executioner", "terrible hell"; comparisons: "like a furious executioner, the flesh was ripped off the bones", "there was a buzzing in the stove, like on fire."
The main technique of the author in the story is the antithesis. For example, there is a motive of satiety and an opposite motive of hunger: a street dog, Sharik, is malnourished, and sometimes does not eat at all, and having settled in Preobrazhensky's house, he eats the same food as representatives of the highest intelligentsia: roast beef, for breakfast - oatmeal.
The problem of the "new man" and the structure of the "new society" was one of the central problems of the literature of the 1920s.
The dog’s reflections on food are one means of expressing the author’s position, his attitude towards the proletariat: for example, Sharik was scalded with boiling water by a proletarian cook, whom the dog scornfully and contemptuously calls a “cap”, “a thief with a copper head”, and the cook of Counts Tolstoy, Vlas, on the contrary , was generous to stray dogs, gave them a bone, saved many lives; the differences between the life of the "old" and the life of the "new" Moscow are shown - this is the luxurious apartment of Preobrazhensky and the street life of Sharik, Shvonder and his team.
Thus, the central problem of the story "Heart of a Dog" is the image of the state of culture, life and customs of man and the world in a difficult transitional era, an era of general devastation.
Preobrazhensky sees Moscow through the eyes of a hereditary intellectual. He is outraged that carpets had to be removed from the stairs, because people in dirty galoshes began to walk along these stairs. But the most important thing is that he does not understand why everyone in Moscow is talking about devastation, and at the same time they are only singing revolutionary songs and looking at how to do bad things to those who live better. He does not like lack of culture, dirt, devastation, aggressive rudeness, complacency of the new masters of life. And the professor is most worried about the collapse of culture, which manifests itself in everyday life (the history of the Kalabukhov house), in work and leading to devastation. Ruin - in the minds that when everyone goes about their business, "the ruin will disappear by itself."
"This is a mirage, smoke, a fiction" - this is how the professor assesses the new Moscow. In connection with the professor, one of the leading, cross-cutting themes of Bulgakov's work begins to sound in the story - the theme of the House as the center of human life. The Bolsheviks destroyed the House as the basis of the family, as the basis of society, everywhere there is a fierce struggle for housing, for square meters. Maybe that's why in Bulgakov's stories and plays a stable satirical figure is the chairman of the house committee? He, the head of the house committee, is the true center of the small world, the center of power and the past, predatory life. Such an administrator, confident in his permissiveness, is Shvonder, a man in a leather jacket, a black man in the story "Heart of a Dog".