Among the" cross-cutting " images and motifs of Turgenev's poetics, the image of water space is one of the most noticeable. It is often found in the writer's works of various genres, often appearing in episodes that represent dramatic or even tragic moments in the lives of the characters.

The image of the water element varies in individual works, taking on a different appearance. It can be a river, pond, or sea. Water can be calm, calm, or fast-flowing, agitated, stormy, or threatening. It is possible to simply mention a real body of water, on the bank of which the action takes place or one of its moments (for example, the scene of a meeting between Rudin and Natalia on the bank of Avdyukhin Pond). Sometimes the image of a real reservoir, on the bank of which events take place, grows to a symbol in the course of the story. So, in "On the Eve" first describes a walk along the Tsaritsyn pond,

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and then the transformed image of the same pond appears in Elena's symbolic dream. Elena's dream is similar to Aratov's dream in Klara Milich.

This image can be correlated with the general problems of the work; its role can be significant or episodic. Consider how it is modified in some of Turgenev's works.

The problems of the story "Lull" include a picture of the life of the Russian provincial nobility, and the theme of "superfluous man", but for us the dominant theme of the story is important - the theme of love. Marya Pavlovna is a slave of love. It is no accident that she is so fascinated by Pushkin's "Anchar" ("And the poor slave died at the feet of the invincible lord"). Marya Pavlovna, unlike Liza and Elena, is not afraid to love, there is no consciousness of guilt in her, her feeling is direct and not bound by reflection. And the greater the retribution that awaits her.

In "Lull", all events concerning the heroine of the story take place on the bank of a pond. There is no doubt that at the end of the story, associated with the death of the heroine, this image takes on a new, symbolic meaning: "Strange and terrible seemed the movements of them and their shadows in the gloom over the agitated pond, with the uncertain and vague glare of lanterns" (Turgenev I. S. Poln. sobr. soch. i pis: In 28 vols. M. - L., 1960-1968. Vol. VI. P. 152; further only volume and p.);"...The pond splashed and roared, turning black and menacing"(VI, 151).

Considering the "Lull" in the general context of Turgenev's work, we can deepen our understanding of the symbolic meaning of this image. According to Turgenev, love is inseparable from the abyss, it is itself an abyss. The image of the water element, like the metaphor of the abyss, represents here the forces of existence hostile to man, one of which is the deadly force of love.

The image of the water space is associated with the symbolism of the title of the story. The surface of the pond reflects everything around it, the life of people going on on its banks. It is important that the story does not end with the death of the heroine, this catastrophe does not break the picture of "calm". The "surface" of life, like the surface of water after a stone falls into it, is restored, the calm continues after the death of the heroine, nothing indicates the drama that lurks in the depths.

We find similar motives in the "Noble Nest": "The traces of human life die out very soon "(VII, 188).

Some characters in the story seem to be in a dream (Astakhov, Veretyev, who seems to be trying to wake up, but cannot). The lull intoxicates these people, deprives them of spiritual strength. The story ends with a picture of a flat surface of life, like the surface of water.

The secret forces of life lying in wait for a person, hostile to him and having a fatal power over him, for the hero of the story " Veshniye

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waters" is also embodied in the image of a water space: "He did not imagine the sea of life covered with stormy waves, as the poets describe it - no; he imagined this sea calmly smooth, motionless and transparent to the darkest bottom; he himself was sitting in a small, rolling boat - and there, on this dark, muddy bottom, like huge fish, ugly monsters were barely visible all the ills of life, diseases, sorrows, madness, poverty, blindness... " (XI, 8).

The same secret forces in their manifestation are compared to the current that draws the boat, in the "Ghosts":" It was as if I had fallen into an enchanted circle - and an irresistible, though quiet force carried me away, just as, long before the waterfall, the current's urge carries the boat " (IX, 80). In the story " Knock... a knock... knock... " there is a small detail: "Teglev told me that his parents, a few days before their deaths, kept imagining the sound of water" (X, 273). In the story "Bezhin Meadow", which takes place on the bank of a river, everything terrible and mysterious in the minds of peasant children also turns out to be somehow connected with water. In the prose poem "The End of the World", the eschatological abyss turns into an ocean, in the deadly waters of which the last of people find their end.

To identify the meaning of this image, the prose poem "Sea Voyage"is very important. A person and a small animal are drawn to each other, equally defenseless against the hostile nature that appears here in the image of a formidable sea element. "We are all children of the same mother," the author concludes (XIII, 195).

The image of the water space correlates with the natural principle that opposes man, with the elemental forces of existence that are hostile to him, it can be said that it is endowed with a negative potential in relation to man. Meanwhile, the range of its partial values is much wider. In the novel" The Noble Nest " there is an episode of Lavretsky's stay in Vasilyevsky. The hero plunges into the atmosphere of village life, finds himself unexpectedly close to nature, which seems to introduce him into its circle, being a healer of his spiritual wounds, a source of spiritual and physical strength, moral health. This is the moment when the hero finds ground. "That's when I'm at the bottom of the river," Lavretsky thinks again. "And always, at all times, life is quiet and unhurried here," he thinks, " whoever enters its circle, submit: there is no need to worry, there is nothing to stir up; here only luck is for those who make their path slowly, like a ploughman making a furrow with a plow. And what strength all around, what health in this inactive silence!" (... At the same time, in other places on earth, life was boiling, rushing, and thundering; here the same life flowed noiselessly, like water on marsh grasses; and until evening Lavretsky could not tear himself away from the contemplation of this passing, ebbing life; sorrow for the past melted in his soul like spring snow..." (VII, 190).

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The division and juxtaposition of human life and nature outlined in "Trip to Polesie" is also often given by Turgenev through the image of water space. The writer imagines human life going on the surface of a stream, where the current is fast, there are eddies. All the "restless human infection" is on the surface. The bottom of the reservoir is strongly associated with Turgenev with the kingdom of nature, there is balance, silence, which is fraught with great strength. From the bottom of the reservoir, "all the ills of life, diseases, sorrows, madness, poverty, blindness" rise up on a person (XI, 8); "something thundering, terrible rises up from the bottom" (VIII, 161). Natalia, who received a letter from Rudin, felt as if "some dark waves had closed over her head without a splash, and she was sinking, frozen and numb" (VI, 339); Lemm's two sonatas "remained entirely in the basements of music stores; they sank dully and without a trace, as if someone had found them in the night he threw it into the river "(VII, 139). At the bottom of the river there is no free human activity, everything that is created by man is absorbed by the bottom; whoever gets from the surface to the bottom must submit.

On the one hand, nature is hostile to man, on the other - it is the source of his power, and this idea is reflected in the symbolic plan of the works. Turgenev, posing the problem of man and nature, clearly understands its ambiguity and complexity, and the symbolism reveals the dialectic of his position.

To establish the meaning of the river image in the "Noble Nest", let us recall again the "Trip to Polesie" (such a connection was noted by M. O. Gershenzon): "It suddenly seemed to me that I understood the life of nature, understood its undoubted and obvious, although for many still mysterious meaning. Quiet and slow animation, slowness and restraint of sensations and forces, the balance of health in each individual being-this is its very foundation, its life law, this is what it stands on and rests on " (VII, 69, 70). The same idea is found in Turgenev's letter to E. Lambert: "We must learn from nature its correct and calm course, its humility" (Letters. II, 365).

The comparison shows that the theme of nature is again introduced through the image of the river in the "Noble Nest", but here this image is endowed with a positive potential in relation to man. It opens up a different side of the relationship between man and nature - not a tragic confrontation, but harmony. At some moments, Turgenev's hero manages to find this harmony and remove the contradiction. In this sense, the above passage from the "Noble Nest" is the most philosophically rich, but not the only one. We will give examples from "Trip to Polesie", from "Poems in Prose", from "Enough", where the image of the water space also carries positive associations: "But the forest is more monotonous and sadder than the sea (...) The sea threatens and caresses, it plays with all the colors, speaks with all the voices, it

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it reflects the sky, which also exudes eternity, but an eternity that seems alien to us... "(VII, 51); " I saw all around one boundless azure sea, all covered with fine ripples of golden scales, and above my head the same boundless, same azure sea - and on it, triumphant and as if laughing, the gentle sun was rolling down " (XIII, 175); "This endlessly flowing river, this desolation and calm, and joy, and some kind of intoxicating sadness, and the swaying of happiness..." (IX, 116).

Here the water element appears tamed, mastered, close to a person, located to him, as nature happens in the best moments of human life.

Another stable image of Turgenev should also be attributed to the" positive " pole: a joyful, bubbling, fast stream carrying a happy person. This image is found in the story "Spring Waters", where it is introduced through its title and epigraph, and then repeated again: "From the dreary shore of his lonely, single life, he fell into that cheerful, boiling, mighty stream - and he has little grief, and he does not want to know where it will take him and won't he smash it on the rock! (...) These are strong, unstoppable waves! They fly and leap forward - and he flies with them "(XI, 76).

Life is a stream, fast, fun, powerful, and a person in this stream does not reflect, but simply lives, giving himself to life, and is happy with it. It is a moment of harmony, of dissolution in life: "I have already given myself up entirely to the future; I saw nothing around me, as if I were floating on a beautiful, smooth, rushing river, surrounded by fog "(X, 128-129); " I was carried - carried by a wave as wide as the waves of the sea! In my soul, there was silence Above joy and grief... I was barely aware of myself: the whole world belonged to me! " (XIII, 209).

Turgenev portrays such a state of his characters as unstable, temporary. It is always followed by disappointment, bitterness, and disaster. Harmony is only a moment, tragic contradiction is eternal.

The comparison of the flow of life with the flow of water often appears in Turgenev's letters: "I play chess, listen to good music , and float along the current of the river, which is more and more quiet and shallow" (p. IV, 312-313); " We must try in every possible way to stay on the surface-especially in our years, otherwise the stupid wave of everyday life it will flood!" (n. VII, 260); "And so you have to leave the boat of your life to the current of chance - and watch, crossing your arms, where, they say, you are going?" (n.IX, 65); "We will hold our head high until it is overwhelmed by a wave" (n. IX, 424).

His characters also convey this sense of life: "Life was passing away, flowed away, and I just watched as it flowed away. So, it used to happen, when you were a child, you would set up a sandplant on the bank of a stream, and you would bring out a dam, and you would try in every possible way so that the water would not leak out, not break through... But now it has finally broken through, and you will give up all your chores.-

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you, and it will be fun for you to see how all that you have accumulated runs away to the drop... "(X, 137); "And the years went on and on; quickly and noiselessly, like snow-covered waters, Elena's youth flowed, in external inactivity, in internal struggle and anxiety" (VIII, 34).

This idea of the flow of life can be combined with the image of death: "And is it worth grieving, and languishing, and thinking about myself, when all around, on all sides, are those cold waves that will not today or tomorrow take me into the boundless ocean?" (XIII, 203).

The same image appears in the story "First Love", when the hero, after learning about the death of Zinaida, thinks:: "And this is what was resolved, this is what this young, hot, brilliant life was striving for in its haste and excitement!" (IX, 74). In The Ghosts, the stormy sea is described as "death, death, and terror everywhere..." (IX, 87).

The symbolic load of the image of the water space is quite large, it is a symbol of a broad, generalizing meaning. It is deeply connected with the general worldview of the writer, with his philosophical views that form a system in the center of which is the question of the relationship between the human individual and nature as a force external to him, opposing him, and for Turgenev, the forces of nature and social forces are inseparable. These are the combined secret forces of being that the symbol we are considering represents: "This thing-indifferent, domineering, gluttonous, selfish, overwhelming - is life, nature, God; call it what you will" (n.1, 349).

The image of water space in Turgenev's works is a symbol of the "eternal Isis" itself, nature, a kind of Memento mori for his characters. Of all the elements of the natural world, water seems to Turgenev the most hostile to man, the least compatible with his essence, and the most destructive. It is devoid of any spirit, unpredictable and illogical in its manifestations, and senselessly aggressive, like death itself, which, in the writer's view, is its main beginning. She has no face, she is a formless and faceless embodiment of Chaos. It is all-pervading, and it is impossible to resist it, so Turgenev's hero takes a position of passive humility in relation to it. The position of a person in the natural world is always tragic, and even if he briefly forgets, contemplating the deceptively calm face of a reservoir, the terrible element will inevitably remind him of his weakness and insignificance.

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