"Biryuk": a summary. "Notes of a hunter: Biryuk", Turgenev I.S.

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

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

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

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

Appearance and behavior of the forester

Biryuk was well built, tall and broad-shouldered. His black-bearded face looked both stern and manly; brown eyes peered boldly out from under broad brows. All actions and behavior expressed determination and impregnability. His nickname was not accidental either. This word in the southern regions of Russia is called a lone wolf, which Turgenev knew well. Biryuk in the story is an unsociable, stern person. That is how he was perceived by the peasants, on whom he always inspired fear. Biryuk himself explained his steadfastness by a conscientious attitude to work: “you don’t have to eat the master’s bread for free.” He was in the same difficult situation as most of the people, but he was not used to complaining and hoping for someone.

Hut and family of Foma Kuzmich

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

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

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

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

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

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

Description of nature in the story

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

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

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

Meaning of the story

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

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