The young beauty Olga Ivanovna loved to be friends with people of art - artists, readers, singers, artists. Olga tried to surround herself with chosen people. All her close friends were famous or showed brilliant promise. And Olga Ivanovna herself tried herself in almost all the arts.
But her husband, doctor Dymov, was very different from his wife’s friends. He was just starting his medical career and was still earning little. Realizing that the husband is white crow in her circle, Olga herself explained to her friends why she married this simple, very ordinary man. Her father served with Dymov in the same hospital. When his father fell ill, Dymov was on duty at his bedside day and night, showing a lot of self-sacrifice and sincere participation. After his father's death, he proposed to Olga.
After marriage, Olga Ivanovna did not change her usual way of life. In the mornings she played the piano and drew sketches, then went to the dressmaker, to exhibitions and to see famous celebrities. In nothing was her talent reflected so clearly as in her ability to quickly and briefly get along with famous people.
Dymov did not understand music and painting, and did not have time for them. All his life he was passionately involved in natural sciences and medicine.
About once a week, Olga organized “art” parties in their house, where everyone demonstrated their talent to others. Dymov usually did not appear among the guests until half past eleven, but at that hour he came out to everyone from the door to the dining room and invited them to come in for a snack.
Olga was impatiently waiting for spring and summer, when her life was supposed to be made even brighter by trips with friends to a country dacha, walks there, fishing, common small holidays and nightingales.
The hard worker Dymov could not constantly participate in these country amusements. But after two weeks of separation from his wife, he came to her dacha, buying delicious food along the way: caviar, cheese and white fish. At the dacha he saw three unknown men, but Olga did not come right away, but when she arrived, she immediately sent her husband home. The wedding of a local telegraph operator was planned, and Olga had nothing to wear to church. She instructed Dymov to bring her a dress, flowers and gloves. The doctor wanted to go tomorrow, but his wife hurried him - in order to be in time for the celebration, he had to go today! The package of delicacies brought by Dymov was eaten by those three male guests.
Soon Olga sailed with friends on a trip by steamship along the Volga. The majestic views of nature aroused in her even more desire to become a great artist, achieve great fame and have an equally outstanding man next to her. The artist she knew, Ryabovsky, began to seem like such a man to her.
Ryabovsky had just begun to seduce Olga. “And Dymov?” – she asked him. “What do I care about Dymov?” - Ryabovsky answered. Olga decided that for Dymov, a simple and ordinary person, the happiness that he had already received from her was enough - and she gave in to temptation.
At the beginning of September, the summer season came to an end. Olga Ivanovna spent it very cheerfully. The loving Dymov, although he was not rich, dutifully sent his wife the considerable sums that she asked from him in letters. However, Ryabovsky began to mope. Olga guessed that she was already tired of him.
She herself suggested that her lover separate for a while and left her company before the end of the season. Seeing Dymov, who was delighted with her, at home, Olga felt that it was vile and disgusting to hide betrayal from him, but still did not tell him anything.
A little later, Dymov realized that Olga was deceiving him. He did not reproach her, but he was very upset, and in order to be less alone with his wife, he began to take his shy friend, the doctor Korostelev, to dinner with him. Korostelev knew how to play the piano. Dymov asked him to perform something sad.
Ryabovsky became increasingly alienated from Olga. However, there was a rumor that he was preparing a very talented work for the exhibition. Out of vanity, Olga could not completely break with Ryabovsky and tried to keep him near her. Realizing that her husband guessed everything, she told her lover about him: “This man oppresses me with his generosity!”
Devoted to his medicine, Dymov, meanwhile, defended his dissertation and was waiting for a private docent. Olga didn’t even understand what it was.
One day, when Olga came to Ryabovsky, she noticed that in the depths of his workshop another woman was hiding from her. Olga left without saying goodbye. She decided to break up and, returning home, sat down to compose a farewell letter to her lover in a coldly contemptuous tone.
Just at this time, Dymov told her through the door of his office that he had contracted diphtheria in his hospital. He asked his wife not to come to him in order to avoid her illness. For the first time in a long time, Olga felt painfully sorry for him.
Dymov's doctors and comrades began to come and stand guard at his bedside. Olga learned from them: her husband became infected by sucking diphtheria bacilli from one boy through a tube, and his illness was severe.
It suddenly dawned on Olga: not just diphtheria, but she herself would be to blame for the possible death of her husband. She was filled with the feeling that, out of an empty whim, out of self-indulgence, she had smeared herself, with her arms and legs, in something dirty, sticky, from which you could never wash off...
A few days later, Korostelev came to Olga and said that her husband was dying. Always quiet, he now, wringing his hands, spoke about Dymov: “He was an extraordinary man! What hope he showed! This would be the kind of scientist you can’t find nowadays with fire. Kind, pure, loving soul! He worked like an ox, day and night, no one spared him. A future professor, he had to look for an internship and do translations at night in order to pay for these... vile rags! - here Korostelev angrily tore off the sheet on which Olga was sitting.
It suddenly dawned on Olga: it was Dymov who was the most extraordinary and rare person of everyone she knew. Feeling how his fellow doctors treated him, she realized that they all saw him as a future celebrity. The walls of the room, the ceiling, the lamp seemed to wink mockingly at Olga: “I missed it! I missed it!”
She rushed to her husband’s bed and wanted to explain to him that it was a mistake, that all was not lost, that life could still be beautiful and happy, that she would be in awe of him all her life. But Dymov lay motionless in front of her with a dead face and half-open eyes...
On our website you can read the full text of the story “The Jumper”. See also the summary article Chekhov, stories - summary. Summary other works by A.P. Chekhov - see below in the block “More on the topic...”
Why was Levitan going to challenge Chekhov to a duel?
I. Levitan. Left - *Self-portrait*, 1880. In the center - *Portrait of Sofia Petrovna Kuvshinnikova*, 1888. Right - *Portrait of A. Chekhov*, 1890
Famous landscape artist Isaac Levitan and writer Anton Chekhov for a long time were close friends who were united by sincere and trusting relationships. But after the publication of Chekhov’s story “The Jumper,” a scandal suddenly broke out: in the heroes, everyone easily recognized the artist and his beloved, married lady Sofia Kuvshinnikova. All Moscow bohemia discussed the story from real life, Chekhov’s story was called a “libel,” and Levitan was going to challenge his friend to a duel.
On the left is I. Levitan. Self-portrait, 1890s. On the right is A. Stepanov. Portrait of S. P. Kuvshinnikova, late 1880s.
In the 1880s. among Moscow bohemia, the name of Sofia Kuvshinnikova was widely known - she was the hostess of the literary and artistic salon, which was visited by I. Repin, A. Chekhov, M. Ermolova, V. Gilyarovsky, A. Yuzhin and many other famous artists, painters and writers. One day, the young artist Isaac Levitan was brought “to the tower” (the apartment was located under the roof of the fire tower). Despite the more than ten-year age difference, the owner of the salon began a romantic relationship with him.
Left - I. Levitan, photo 1889. Right - S. Kuvshinnikova, 1880s.
Chekhov’s younger brother described Kuvshinnikova as follows: “She was not a particularly beautiful woman, but interesting in her talents. She dressed beautifully, knew how to sew herself an elegant toilet from pieces, and had the happy gift of adding beauty and comfort to even the most dull barn-like home.” O. Knipper-Chekhova agreed: “There was a lot in Kuvshinnikova that could please and captivate. She did not stand out for her beauty, but she was certainly interesting - original, talented, poetic and graceful. One can completely understand why Levitan became interested in her.”
Sofya Kuvshinnikova was married to a police doctor, who was patient and turned a blind eye to her affair with Levitan for a long time. She was an amateur artist, and under the pretext of painting lessons she often went with her teacher to the Volga for sketches. The hero of Chekhov's story, the artist Ryabovsky, also gave lessons to Olga Ivanovna, the wife of Dr. Osip Dymov, they also went to the Volga for sketches, and there was a long romance between them. Many visitors to Kuvshinnikova’s salon recognized themselves in the other characters.
A. Stepanov. Left - *I. Levitan and S. Kuvshinnikova on a walk in Ples*. On the right - *I. Levitan and S. Kuvshinnikova on sketches*, late 1880s.
Chekhov justified himself as best he could: “You can imagine,” he wrote in a letter in 1892, “one of my friends, a 42-year-old lady, recognized herself in the twenty-year-old heroine of my “The Jumper,” and all of Moscow accuses me of libel. The main evidence is external resemblance: the lady paints, her husband is a doctor and she lives with the artist.”
Left - S. Kuvshinnikova, mid-1880s. On the right - I. Levitan, photo 1898
However, the similarity was not only external: excerpts from her letters were quoted almost verbatim, Chekhov’s jumper used Kuvshinnikova’s favorite expressions in her speech, she was just as extravagant and original, although much more frivolous and superficial than her prototype. The writer tried to laugh it off: “My jumping lady is pretty, but Sofya Petrovna is not so beautiful and young.”
Left - I. Levitan, photo 1884. Right - I. Levitan, photo 1890.
Levitan was so angry that he wanted to challenge Chekhov to a duel, but his friends dissuaded him from this rash decision. For several years their communication ceased. Levitan's relationship with Kuvshinnikova was also doomed. The artist enjoyed great success with women, and in 1894 he began a new romance, which also almost ended tragically: confused in his feelings for Anna Turchaninova and her daughter, Levitan tried to commit suicide.
Dymov Osip Stepanych in the story “The Jumper” he is a titular councilor and a doctor; he serves in two hospitals, in one as a supernumerary resident, in the other as a dissector. Dymov is 31 years old; he is tall and broad in the shoulders; distinctive feature His external appearance is a smile, “meek”, “good-natured” and “naive”.
While on duty at the bedside of his senior fellow doctor, who is dying in the hospital, Osip Dymov meets his daughter Olga Ivanovna and marries her. Adoring his wife, whom he touchingly calls “Mom,” the hero unquestioningly fulfills all her whims; works day and night so that she can “amaze” her friends with her outfits; sets the table for guests gathering at her “art” parties; when Olga Ivanovna, suffering from the indifference of her lover Ryabovsky, sobs in bed, Dymov, realizing that he is being deceived, finds the strength to console her.
Insensitive to art, not understanding it, devoid of any artistry and lively emotionality (which makes him of little interest to Olga Ivanovna’s friends), this hero of the story “The Jumper” by Chekhov, as a doctor, turns out to be a remarkable specialist in his field, successfully defends his dissertation, and his friend Doctor Korostelev is convinced that he could soon become a professor. Behind Dymov's external dullness lies an unusual ability for selflessness, for sacrificing oneself for the sake of another. So, in order to save a boy who fell ill with diphtheria, he sucks out diphtheria films from him through a tube, but he himself becomes infected from the patient and dies. In the last minutes of the hero’s life, Doctor Korostelev pronounces a monologue with pathos, in which, proclaiming his comrade “a great extraordinary man,” he transparently hints that he considers his wife Olga Ivanovna to be the real culprit of his untimely death.
Dymova Olga Ivanovna in the story “The Jumper” by Chekhov, she is a young woman who dresses tastefully and fashionably, loves art and herself has artistic abilities: she sings, plays the piano, paints, sculpts and participates in amateur performances. But more than art itself, she is interested in its “priests”: artists, singers, painters, musicians, writers, with whom, if they have proven themselves to be talented, she certainly gets acquainted, seeing them as “extraordinary”, “great” people. Having married the doctor Dymov at the age of 22, who served in the same hospital with her father and soon after his death proposed to her, Olga Ivanovna feels quite happy in her marriage: she is touched by the kindness and simplicity of Dymov and is only a little upset that he “is completely not interested” in art.
After marriage, Olga Ivanovna’s passion for “extraordinary” people does not diminish at all: she organizes parties at her home where people of art “entertain themselves with various arts,” relaxes with them at the dacha, and goes with them on a trip along the Volga by boat. While traveling along the Volga, dreaming of the glory of a great artist and at the same time of meeting a “real great man,” Olga Ivanovna becomes infatuated with one of her companions, the artist Ryabovsky, and becomes his mistress. Upon returning, the heroine, although she feels guilty before her husband, does not find the strength to tell him about what happened and, consoling herself with the fact that he is a “simple, ordinary person,” continues to cheat on him. She remains indifferent to the news that during this time her husband managed to defend his dissertation and that, as a promising scientist, they are going to offer him a private assistant professorship in general pathology.
For her frivolity, the heroine is severely punished by fate: on the day when she is finally convinced that Ryabovsky does not love her and is cheating on her with another woman, Dymov falls ill with diphtheria and dies a day later. Feeling sincere and deep pity for the dying man and shame for her “disgusting” life, Olga Ivanovna only now understands that her husband was the real “great” man she was looking for. However, the thought that flashed through her mind that she had “missed” another celebrity shows that the degree of her insight is actually small - due to her own superficiality. The title of the story indicates this.
A. Chekhov's hero is most often an ordinary person. Under the dispassionate presentation, both the author’s sympathy for the working person and his aversion to satiety, betrayal, and selfishness are distinguished.
The image of a worker is also present in the story “The Jumper”. Doctor Dymov is spiritual, strong man, but at the same time soft and kind. In the simplicity and timid delicacy of the hero, will, determination, and devotion to ideals are hidden.
For his own wife, surrounded by celebrities, he was too insignificant and ordinary. Only after the death of Dymov, who was infected with diphtheria while saving a child, does she learn about the true greatness of her husband. His friends told him what an extraordinary and gifted scientist he was. In his midst, he was truly great, but she did not notice his moral strength, did not appreciate his love, care and willingness to sacrifice himself for her whims. Now she only regrets her own short-sightedness. She was mistaken, she did not notice in time that the modest Dymov was a greater figure than her entire creative environment.
It was not only because of diphtheria that the hero’s young life came to an end. His wife took diphtheria as an accomplice. She was always looking for outstanding people, but did not notice the person living with her. Not recognizing the beauty and strength of Dymova, she skipped the main thing.
In Dymov they guess characteristic features many scientists. The author admires their character, everyday heroism, exceptional modesty, and perseverance.
The novel by Olga Ivanovna and the artist examines the theme of ordinary and outstanding personalities. In the performance of the jumper, only in the midst of the extraordinary can greatness be found. It seems to her that great man must rise above uninteresting little people. The very betrayal of her husband is her contempt for ordinary things. As a result, the heroine, striving to leap to greatness, becomes a satirical image.
The writer always finds his favorite characters among ordinary people. Behind each of them one sees not an independent personality, but an entire living environment. Behind Dymov, the reader feels a huge army of workers.
This story tells us about the life of ordinary people, and mainly one wonderful person who suffered from his kindness and naivety. About an incredibly talented man who loved his woman very much, a woman who did not deserve his love.
Osip Stepanovich Dymov - this is the name of the main character, about whom we will talk today. He is thirty-two years old, married to a young, twenty-two-year-old Olga Ivanovna, he is a nobleman, has medical education, works in two hospitals as a doctor. He had a cute face with a goatee, he was tall and a little broad in the shoulders, he had a wide forehead and thick, jet-black eyebrows. His appearance combined courage, severity and tenderness. He had a very childish, kind, naive smile. He himself is a very generous person who always wanted to help everyone. He is smart, noble and, it seemed, not at all suitable for the aristocratic society of evil kites.
Everyone thinks Osip Stepanovich Dymov wonderful person, with incredible spiritual organization, I consider him rare and irreplaceable, everyone thought so, except for his wife, Olga Ivanovna did not see anything remarkable in her husband, she considered him an ordinary, naive, stupid person who was completely unadapted to life. Because Dymov was not one of the “stupid wrappers”, such as Olga was interested in, she constantly lied to him, cheated on him behind his back, and lived a riotous life. Olga loved fashion and art, although she knew nothing at all about them, she simply followed the crowd so as not to seem like an outcast, she was too stupid to have her own opinion.
Osip Stepanovich works extremely hard, tirelessly, in order to please his wife and satisfy her desires. Dymov loves his wife so much that he ignores all her hysterics and continues to do whatever she wants, without receiving any reciprocity in return. He is ready to forgive her all her misdeeds, just so that she remains close to him, but “Jumping” Olga does not appreciate this at all, she deeply does not care about her husband and his desires. I realized what a unique and inimitable man her husband, Osip Stepanovich Dymov, was, Olga Ivanovna too late, when he died from rare disease, which he most likely picked up while working in a hospital.
In the image of Osip Stepanovich lies a modest and intelligent man who chose the wrong life path, who was completely absorbed by Soviet society.
Porfiry Petrovich is one of the central characters of the wonderful novel “Crime and Punishment”. He works as an investigator at the site where there was a terrible crime of the murder of an old pawnbroker and her sister.
A wonderful story by L.N. Andreev called “Angel.” It was first presented and read by readers in a Moscow newspaper called Courier in 1899. The direction of the daily publications was closest to democratic politics
Stepan – main character Bazhov's tale "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain". He was a serf and worked at the Krasnogrsky mines in Gumeshki
The forest is a living miracle of nature. Trees not only decorate the earth, but also bring great benefit. It is very pleasant to walk through the forest at any time of the year, but do not forget that the forest is the home of many animals.
The genre of village prose has a big difference from existing genres in Russian literature. For example, in foreign literature this type of genre is practically absent. Huge number there are works of this genre in Russian literature
It happens that a person approaches life playfully, superficially. He does not burden himself with serious thoughts about his own destiny, about the interests of the people around him. However, frivolity does not always have a happy outcome.
Chekhov came up with the idea for the story “The Jumper” in August 1891. The story was originally called "The Great Man". In the second edition, the author focused on family relationships and changed the title of the work to what we know today. The story is based on a real-life love triangle: police doctor Dmitry Pavlovich Kuvshinnikov and his wife Sofya Petrovna, who was interested in various arts. But the main character, Osip Dymov, had a completely different prototype - Illarion Ivanovich Dubrovo, a famous Moscow doctor. In May 11883, they turned to a famous doctor for help: the seventeen-year-old daughter of nobleman Kuroedov suffered from diphtheria. To help the patient, Dubrovo used the method described in the story. As a result of an act of self-sacrifice, the doctor died 6 days later.
Not only Dymov had a prototype. The artist Ryabovsky has much in common with Chekhov’s friend, the artist Isaac Levitan. Despite the writer’s efforts to disguise this relationship, Levitan was recognized and ridiculed by society, after which a quarrel occurred between him and Anton Pavlovich.
“The Jumper” refers to the mature period of Chekhov’s work. At this time, the writer was actively developing the direction of realism in his work. The most characteristic features for the author in this direction are clarity, simplicity in the expression of thoughts, as well as philosophy and rich problematics.
Some researchers define the genre of Chekhov's stories after the 90s as satirical stories or short stories. “The Jumper,” despite its apparent simplicity, has a rather complex poetics. The essence of the story is such that the reader remains immersed in the work for a long time after reading, trying to decipher the obvious and hidden meanings. This impact refers “The Jumper” to the genre of parable, and the dynamism and eventfulness of the story makes it similar to an anecdote in its original understanding.
The young bohemian Olga Ivanovna marries the aspiring doctor Osip Dymov. The girl’s friends predict a great future for her in various arts, family life goes its own way. In the spring, Olga Ivanovna went to the dacha. There she begins an affair with an old friend, artist Ryabovsky. Upon returning, the unfaithful wife does not dare to talk about her betrayal, but those around her, including her husband, guess about it.
Dymov tries to spend as little time at home as possible, achieves great success in science, but becomes infected with diphtheria. After a short illness, the Doctor dies, Olga Ivanovna is left alone.
The main themes and problems in the story are presented in pairs in opposition to each other.
The main idea of “The Jumper” is expressed in the ability to appreciate what you have. It is no coincidence that the title of the story echoes the famous fable “Dragonfly” by I. A. Krylov. The main character was constantly chasing “celebrities”, but realized too late what a great man was next to her.
Olga Ivanovna dreamed of fame in art, probably dreamed of connecting her life with an artist or musician. She considered marriage to Osip, who loved her passionately, a kind of indulgence, also a kind of self-sacrifice. Olga was unable to look at her husband differently while he was alive - the realization came to the heroine too late. This is the tragedy and the meaning of the story.
The work teaches one of the most important skills needed in life - the ability to build relationships with people. Using the example of the main characters, the author shows the need for respect and mutual understanding. Chekhov's conclusion is based on his many years of life observations of his environment.
Through this work, Chekhov says that each of us needs support. If Osip felt that he was not alone and that he had someone to live for, would he then risk his life? The fatal illness appears in the story as the ideal solution to all the Dymov family troubles. The scientific efforts of the protagonist are determined not only by talent and interest, but also by the desire to attract the attention of his wife, who is so passionate about creative life. If Olga could share with her husband the joy of his success, then the story would have had a completely different ending and would have resembled a family idyll. The moral of the work is this: it is necessary to create harmonious relationships in the family, where each person supports and appreciates their relatives.
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