The story " dog's heart"Bulgakov wrote in 1925. At this time, ideas of improving the human race with the help of advanced scientific achievements were very popular. Bulgakov's hero, the world-famous professor Preobrazhensky, in an attempt to unravel the secret of eternal youth, accidentally makes a discovery that allows surgically turn an animal into a human. However, an experiment to transplant a human pituitary gland into a dog gives a completely unexpected result.
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Main characters
Ball- a stray dog. To some extent a philosopher, not stupid in everyday life, observant and even learned to read signs.
Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov– A ball after an operation to implant a human pituitary gland into the brain, taken from the drunkard and rowdy Klim Chugunkin, who died in a tavern fight.
Professor Philip Preobrazhensky- a medical genius, an elderly intellectual of the old school, extremely dissatisfied with the advent of a new era and hating its hero - the proletarian for his lack of education and unfounded ambitions.
Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental- a young doctor, a student of Preobrazhensky, who deifies his teacher and shares his beliefs.
Shvonder- Chairman of the house committee at Preobrazhensky’s place of residence, bearer and disseminator of the communist ideas so disliked by the professor. He is trying to educate Sharikov in the spirit of these ideas.
Other characters
Zina- Preobrazhensky’s maid, a young impressionable girl. Combines housework duties with nursing duties.
Daria Petrovna- Preobrazhensky's cook, a middle-aged woman.
Young lady typist- Sharikov’s subordinate and failed wife.
Chapter first
The stray dog Sharik freezes to death in a Moscow gateway. Suffering from pain in his side, on which the evil cook splashed boiling water, he ironically and philosophically describes his unhappy life, Moscow life and types of people, of which, in his opinion, the most vile are janitors and doormen. A certain gentleman in a fur coat appears in the dog’s field of vision and feeds him cheap sausage. Sharik faithfully follows him, along the way wondering who his benefactor is, since even the doorman in a rich house, the terror of stray dogs, talks to him obsequiously.
From a conversation with the doorman, the gentleman in a fur coat learns that “tenants have been moved into the third apartment,” and he perceives the news with horror, although his personal living space will not be affected by the upcoming “densification.”
Chapter two
Brought to a rich, warm apartment, Sharik, who decided to make a scandal out of fear, is euthanized with chloroform and treated. After this, the dog, no longer bothered by his side, watches with curiosity as he sees patients. There is an elderly womanizer and an elderly rich lady in love with a handsome young gambler. And everyone wants one thing - rejuvenation. Preobrazhensky is ready to help them - for good money.
In the evening, the professor is visited by members of the house committee, led by Shvonder - they want Preobrazhensky to give away two of his seven rooms in order to “compact”. The professor calls one of his influential patients with a complaint about the arbitrariness and invites him, if so, to undergo surgery with Shvonder, and he himself will leave for Sochi. As they leave, members of the house committee accuse Preobrazhensky of hating the proletariat.
Chapter Three
Over lunch, Preobrazhensky rants about food culture and the proletariat, recommending not reading Soviet newspapers before lunch to avoid digestive problems. He is sincerely perplexed and indignant at how it is possible to stand up for the rights of workers all over the world and steal galoshes at the same time. Hearing a meeting of fellow tenants behind the wall singing revolutionary songs, the professor comes to the conclusion: “If, instead of operating every evening, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be in ruins. If, entering the restroom, I start, excuse the expression, urinating past the toilet and Zina and Daria Petrovna do the same, devastation will begin in the restroom. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. This means that when these baritones shout “beat the destruction!” - I am laughing. I swear to you, I find it funny! This means that each of them must hit himself in the back of the head! .
There is also talk about Sharik’s future, and the intrigue has not yet been revealed, but the pathologists familiar to Bormental promised to immediately inform him about the appearance of a “suitable corpse”, and for now the dog will be observed.
They buy Sharik a status collar, he eats deliciously, and his side is finally healing. The dog is playing pranks, but when the indignant Zina offers to tear him out, the professor strictly forbids this: “You can’t tear anyone up, you can influence a person and an animal only by suggestion.”
As soon as Sharik has settled down in the apartment, suddenly after the phone call there is a rush of running around, the professor demands lunch earlier. Sharik, deprived of food, is locked in the bathroom, after which he is dragged into the examination room and given anesthesia.
Chapter Four
Preobrazhensky and Bormental operate on Sharik. He is implanted with testes and a pituitary gland taken from a fresh human corpse. This should, according to doctors, open new horizons in their research into the mechanism of rejuvenation.
The professor, not without sadness, assumes that the dog will definitely not survive after such an operation, just like those animals that came before him.
Chapter Five
Dr. Bormental's diary is a history of Sharik's illness, which describes the changes occurring in the dog that was operated on and still survived. His hair falls out, the shape of his skull changes, his barking becomes like a human voice, and his bones grow quickly. He utters strange words - it turns out that street dog I learned to read signs, but I read some from the end. The young doctor makes an enthusiastic conclusion - changing the pituitary gland does not give rejuvenation, but complete humanization - and emotionally calls his teacher a genius. However, the professor himself gloomily sits over the medical history of the man whose pituitary gland was transplanted to Sharik.
Chapter Six
Doctors are trying to nurture their creation, instill the necessary skills, and educate. Sharik's taste in clothes, his speech and habits unnerve the intelligent Preobrazhensky. There are posters hanging around the apartment prohibiting swearing, spitting, throwing cigarette butts, and gnawing seeds. Sharik himself has a passive-aggressive attitude towards education: “They grabbed the animal, slashed its head with a knife, and now they abhor it.” After talking with the house committee, the former dog confidently uses clerical terms and demands to issue him an identity card. He chooses the name “Poligraf Poligrafovich” for himself, and takes the “hereditary” surname - Sharikov.
The professor expresses a desire to buy any room in the house and evict Poligraf Poligrafovich there, but Shvonder gloatingly refuses him, recalling their ideological conflict. Soon a communal disaster occurs in the professor's apartment: Sharikov chased the cat and caused a flood in the bathroom.
Chapter Seven
Sharikov drinks vodka at dinner, like an experienced alcoholic. Looking at this, the professor sighs incomprehensibly: “Nothing can be done - Klim.” In the evening, Sharikov wants to go to the circus, but when Preobrazhensky offers him a more cultural entertainment - the theater, he refuses, because this is “one counter-revolution.” The professor is going to give Sharikov something to read, at least Robinson, but he is already reading the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, given to him by Shvonder. True, he manages to understand little - except perhaps “take everything and divide it.” Hearing this, the professor invites him to “share” the lost profit from the fact that on the day of the flood the appointment of patients was disrupted - to pay 130 rubles “for the faucet and for the cat,” and orders Zina to burn the book.
Having sent Sharikov, accompanied by Bormental, to the circus, Preobrazhensky looks for a long time at the preserved pituitary gland of the dog Sharik and says: “By God, I think I’ll make up my mind.”
Chapter Eight
A new scandal - Sharikov, waving documents, claims living space in the professor’s apartment. He promises to shoot Shvonder and, in exchange for eviction, threatens Polygraph with deprivation of food. Sharikov quiets down, but not for long - he stole two ducats from the professor’s office, and tried to blame the theft on Zina, got drunk and brought drinking buddies into the house, after whose expulsion Preobrazhensky lost his malachite ashtray, beaver hat and favorite cane.
Over cognac, Bormental confesses his love and respect to Preobrazhensky and offers to personally feed Sharikov arsenic. The professor objects - he, a world-famous scientist, will be able to avoid responsibility for murder, but to the young doctor- hardly. He sadly admits his scientific mistake: “I sat for five years, picking out appendages from brains... And now, the question arises - why? So that one day sweetest dog turn into such scum that your hair stands on end. […] Two criminal records, alcoholism, “divide everything,” a hat and two ducats are missing, a boor and a pig... In a word, the pituitary gland is a closed chamber that defines a given human person. Given!” Meanwhile, the pituitary gland for Sharikov was taken from a certain Klim Chugunkin, a repeat offender, alcoholic and rowdy, who played the balalaika in taverns and was stabbed to death in a drunken brawl. Doctors gloomily imagine what kind of nightmare, given such “heredity,” Sharikov could get out of under the influence of Shvonder.
At night, Daria Petrovna kicks the drunken Polygraph out of the kitchen, Bormenthal promises to make a scandal with him in the morning, but Sharikov disappears, and upon returning, he reports that he has got a job - the head of the department for clearing Moscow of stray animals.
A young lady typist appears in the apartment, whom Sharikov introduces as his bride. They open her eyes to Polygraph’s lies - he is not the commander of the Red Army at all and was not wounded at all in battles with the whites, as he claimed in a conversation with the girl. Sharikov, exposed, threatens the typist with layoffs; Bormental takes the girl under protection and promises to shoot Sharikov.
Chapter Nine
His former patient, an influential man in military uniform, comes to the professor. From his story, Preobrazhensky learns that Sharikov wrote a denunciation against him and Bormental - they allegedly made death threats against Poligraf and Shvonder, made counter-revolutionary speeches, illegally stored weapons, etc. After this, Sharikov is categorically asked to get out of the apartment, but he first becomes stubborn, then becomes impudent, and in the end even pulls out a pistol. The doctors subdue him, disarm him and sedate him with chloroform, after which a ban on anyone entering or leaving the apartment sounds and some activity begins in the examination room.
Chapter Ten (Epilogue)
The police come to the professor’s apartment on a tip from Shvonder. They have a search warrant and, based on the results, an arrest on charges of murdering Sharikov.
However, Preobrazhensky is calm - he says that his laboratory creature suddenly and inexplicably degraded from a human back into a dog, and shows the police and the investigator a strange creature in which the features of Poligraf Poligrafovich are still recognizable.
Dog Sharik, which way reoperation They returned his canine pituitary gland, he remains to live and blissfully in the professor’s apartment, without understanding why he was “slashed all over his head.”
Conclusion
In the story “The Heart of a Dog,” Bulgakov, in addition to the philosophical motive of punishment for interfering in the affairs of nature, outlined themes characteristic of it, branding ignorance, cruelty, abuse of power and stupidity. The carriers of these shortcomings for him are the new “masters of life” who want to change the world, but do not have the wisdom and humanism necessary for this. The main idea of the work is “the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads.”
Brief retelling“The Heart of a Dog” chapter by chapter is not enough to fully appreciate the artistic merits of this work, so we recommend that you take the time and read this short story in its entirety. We also advise you to familiarize yourself with the two-part film of the same name by Vladimir Bortko from 1988, which is quite close to the literary original.
Test on the story
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“The Heart of a Dog” is a unique story by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, on which he worked in 1925. This is a fantastic work, where the author emphasizes the inadmissibility of interference in nature: no matter how noble the attempts to make a higher being out of an animal, the opposite, negative result will result. The story also aims to show the wrong side of the post-revolutionary time with its devastation, unbridledness and phony ideas. According to Bulgakov, revolution is nothing more than bloody terror, violence against the individual, and nothing good can come from this, rather the opposite. Its consequences are a global tragedy for humanity.
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Chapter One: Dog Ordeals
The story “The Heart of a Dog” by Mikhail Bulgakov begins in a very unusual way - with the reasoning of a poor dog whose side was scalded by the cook. The dog seems to be thinking about his difficult life, where he was beaten with a boot and “got a brick in the ribs” - and dreams of only one thing: to eat.
The animal does not dare hope for luck, when suddenly... the dog is called to him by a representative gentleman. What a stroke of luck - Sharik, as his unexpected benefactor called him, received a piece of Krakow sausage. And the dog, having satisfied his hunger, went where he called, without looking back, ready to follow the benefactor even to the ends of the world.
Chapter two: new life for Professor Preobrazhensky
Professor Philip Philipovich – that was the name of Sharik’s new owner – brought the dog into a spacious apartment. Seeing the wounded side, he decided to examine the dog, but that was not the case. The dog struggled for a long time and stubbornly, but we still managed to treat the dog with anesthesia. When Sharik woke up, he realized that he was in the same room. The side no longer bothered me. He began to watch with interest how the doctor received patients. The astute dog guessed that the professor’s activities were related to rejuvenation. However, in the evening the professor received a visit from special visitors, Bolshevik activists, who began to make claims, saying that his apartment of seven rooms was too large, and people needed to be moved into it, taking away the observation room and dining room. Shvonder was especially zealous in this. The problem was resolved when Philip Philipovich called some influential official, and he resolved the conflict.
Chapter Three: Dog's Everyday Life in Preobrazhensky's House
“You need to be able to eat,” Preobrazhensky said over dinner. For him, eating was a special ritual. The dog was fed too. They were condescending to what Sharik sometimes did. They were patient. But not for nothing. The dog was needed for an incredible experiment. But they haven’t talked about this yet: they were waiting for the right moment.
During the meal, the household talked about the new Soviet order, which Philip Philipovich did not like at all. After all, before, galoshes weren’t stolen at all, but now they disappear without a trace. And even after the revolution, they began to walk on marble stairs in dirty shoes, which, in the opinion of an intelligent person, is completely unacceptable.
Sharik listened to these conversations and mentally sympathized with the owners. He was quite happy with life, especially since he managed to sneak into the kitchen and receive tidbits from Daria Petrovna there. Sharik felt that he had the right to this hitherto forbidden territory when the collar was put on him. Now he is truly the owner's dog. However, happy life in a dog's body was coming to an end. But Sharik did not know what he would soon experience.
That day, an unusual, even alarming turmoil reigned around Sharik. Everyone was running and fussing, Doctor Bormenthal brought with him a foul-smelling suitcase and rushed with it to the examination room. Sharik decided to eat, but suddenly, out of the blue, he was locked in the bathroom. And then they took me for surgery.
Chapter Four: Unusual Operation
The experiment of transplanting human seminal glands into a dog has begun. The instruments flashed in the hands of the surgeons, they worked very energetically, acted with unusual dexterity: they cut, sewed up, but in the depths of their souls they did not hope for a successful outcome of the operation, being almost sure that the dog would die.
Chapter Five: From Dog to Man
Contrary to the doubts of doctors, the unprecedented experiment was successful: the dog survived. Gradually, Sharik, in front of the amazed eyes of Bormental and Preobrazhensky, began to turn into a man. But the doctor and the professor did not rejoice for long, because along with the miracle they observed, bad things happened: having turned from Sharik into Sharikov, the former dog behaved impudently, was rude to the professor, used profanity, and played bad songs on the balalaika.
Strange habits the former dog haunted Preobrazhensky and Bormental. And they began to look for the reason for this. It soon became clear that the pituitary gland of the twenty-five-year-old former drunkard and rowdy Klim Chugunkin, who was convicted three times for theft and died in a knife fight, was transplanted to Sharik.
Chapter Six: Man is worse than a dog
After conducting the experiment, the professor and doctor got themselves into big trouble. They constantly fought with a human being who attacked cats, tore down pipes, causing a flood in the bathroom, and broke glass in cabinets and cupboards. In addition, a man with a dog’s heart had the audacity to pester the cooks and the maid Zina. But that wasn't the worst thing yet. Recently, the dog became friends with the “tenants” who hated Professor Preobrazhensky, who taught him to defend his rights. In the end, he asked the professor to make human documents. He took the hereditary surname - Sharikov, but came up with the name, according to the ideas of the revolution - Poligraf Poligrafovich. In Preobrazhenskoe and Bormental the former dog saw oppressors.
Chapter Seven: Sharikov’s behavior upsets the professor and doctor
Bormenthal and Preobrazhensky are trying to teach Sharikov good manners, but he is difficult to educate. But he really loves vodka, and for entertainment he loves going to the circus. Having become friends with Shvonder, he very quickly adopted his style of behavior. When Philip Philipovich and his colleague found out that Polygraph could read, they were very surprised. But real amazement and shock was caused by the fact that Sharikov was reading nothing more than the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, given to him by Shvonder. The enraged Preobrazhensky orders Zina to find this book and burn it in the stove. Sharikov's mind is primitive, however, Polygraph does not hesitate to give advice, for example, about the seven rooms of Preobrazhensky: just take everything and divide it - he offers his own option.
Day after day, Sharikov behaves more and more defiantly: in a fit of animal rage, he kills a cat belonging to a neighbor; accosts women on the stairs; he bit one of them when she hit him in the face in response to the fact that he brazenly pinched her, and does many other indecent things that cause inconvenience to the residents of the apartment. Professor Preobrazhensky thinks about new operation- now on the transformation of a person into a dog. But he hasn’t made a final decision yet, although he admits with great regret: greatest discovery, made as a result of a unique operation, can result in harm to others.
Chapter Eight: Sharikov is becoming more and more rowdy
The former dog, and now a man, demands that documents be made for him, and, having received them, he tries to abuse his position: he claims the right to living space in Preobrazhensky’s apartment, to which the angry Philip Philipovich says that he will stop giving him food.
Soon Sharikov does even worse: he steals twenty rubles from the professor’s office and returns in the evening completely drunk, and not alone, but with friends who would also like to spend the night in good conditions. They were threatened that the police would be called, and the drunkards retreated, but valuable things disappeared with them: the professor’s cane, a malachite ashtray and a beaver hat. Polygraph shifts the blame for the chervonets onto Zina.
While the scientists are discussing the situation and deciding what to do now, Daria Petrovna appears at the door, holding the half-naked Sharikov by the collar and reporting that he dared to pester them. An angry Bormenthal promises to take action.
Chapter Nine: Operation Again
The polygraph reports that he has accepted a position in the department of cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals and presents the corresponding paper in this regard.
After some time, a modest-looking girl, a typist, appears in the apartment, and Sharikov reports that this is his fiancee who will live with him. Philip Philipovich calls the young lady into his office and explains Sharikov’s true origins. A typist named Vasnetsova is crying and says that she has very little food. Preobrazhensky borrows her three chervonets.
After the “result of an unsuccessful experiment” begins to write slander against the professor, Preobrazhensky decisively tries to kick him out of the apartment. But that was not the case: Polygraph picks up a revolver and threatens them. Bormenthal quickly finds his bearings and throws Sharikov onto the couch. Scientists, in order to protect themselves and others, are again deciding to perform surgery.
Chapter Ten: Epilogue
Policemen who are investigating the disappearance of Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov cross the threshold of Preobrazhensky’s apartment. In response to the charge of murder, Philip Philipovich asks that Sharik be brought before the investigator. A very strange-looking dog runs out of the door, bald in spots, and fur is growing on it in spots. The dog still talks, but less and less. Surprised law enforcement officers leave Philip Philipovich's home.
Sharik is glad that now he will live with Preobrazhensky all the time. He is no longer a rebel man, but an ordinary dog, and, dozing on the carpet next to the leather sofa, he thinks about his a dog's life. Which, it seems to him, is very good.
“Heart of a Dog” - a summary of the story by M.A. Bulgakov
5 (100%) 3 votesThe action takes place in Moscow in the winter of 1924/25. Professor Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky discovered a way to rejuvenate the body by transplanting glands to people internal secretion animals. In his seven-room apartment in a large house on Prechistenka, he receives patients. The building is undergoing “densification”: new residents, “tenants,” are being moved into the apartments of the previous residents. The chairman of the house committee, Shvonder, comes to Preobrazhensky with a demand to vacate two rooms in his apartment. However, the professor, having called one of his high-ranking patients by phone, receives armor for his apartment, and Shvonder leaves with nothing.
Professor Preobrazhensky and his assistant Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental are having lunch in the professor's dining room. Choral singing comes from somewhere above - it passes general meeting"tenants". The professor is outraged by what is happening in the house: the carpet was stolen from the main staircase, the front door was boarded up and people are now walking through the back door, all the galoshes disappeared from the galosh rack in the entrance at once. “Devastation,” notes Bormental and receives the answer: “If instead of operating, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be in ruins!”
Professor Preobrazhensky picks up a mongrel dog on the street, sick and with tattered fur, brings him home, instructs the housekeeper Zina to feed him and care for him. After a week, a clean and well-fed Sharik becomes an affectionate, charming and beautiful dog.
The professor performs an operation - transplants Sharik with the endocrine glands of Klim Chugunkin, 25 years old, three times convicted of theft, who played the balalaika in taverns, and died from a knife blow. The experiment was a success - the dog does not die, but, on the contrary, gradually turns into a human: he gains height and weight, his hair falls out, he begins to speak. Three weeks later he is already a short man with an unattractive appearance who enthusiastically plays the balalaika, smokes and curses. After some time, he demands from Philip Philipovich that he register him, for which he needs a document, and he has already chosen his first and last name: Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov.
From his previous life as a dog, Sharikov still has a hatred of cats. One day, while chasing a cat that had run into the bathroom, Sharikov latches the lock in the bathroom, accidentally turns off the water tap, and floods the entire apartment with water. The professor is forced to cancel the appointment. The janitor Fyodor, called to fix the tap, embarrassedly asks Philip Philipovich to pay for the window broken by Sharikov: he tried to hug the cook from the seventh apartment, the owner began to chase him away. Sharikov responded by throwing stones at him.
Philip Philipovich, Bormental and Sharikov are having lunch; again and again Bormenthal unsuccessfully teaches Sharikov good manners. To Philip Philipovich’s question about what Sharikov is reading now, he answers: “The correspondence of Engels with Kautsky” - and adds that he does not agree with the description.
them, but in general “everything must be divided,” otherwise “one is settled in seven rooms, and the other is looking for food in trash bins.” The indignant professor announces to Sharikov that he is at the lowest level of development and nevertheless allows himself to give advice on a cosmic scale. The professor orders the harmful book to be thrown into the oven.
A week later, Sharikov presents the professor with a document, from which it follows that he, Sharikov, is a member of the housing association and is entitled to a room in the professor’s apartment. That same evening, in the professor’s office, Sharikov appropriates two chervonets and returns at night completely drunk, accompanied by two unknown men, who left only after calling the police, however, taking with them a malachite ashtray, a cane and Philip Philipovich’s beaver hat.
That same night, in his office, Professor Preobrazhensky talks with Bormenthal. Analyzing what is happening, the scientist comes to despair that he received such scum from the sweetest dog. And the whole horror is that he no longer has a dog’s heart, but a human heart, and the lousiest of all that exist in nature. He is sure that in front of them is Klim Chugunkin with all his thefts and convictions.
One day, upon arriving home, Sharikov presents Philip Philipovich with a certificate, from which it is clear that he, Sharikov, is the head of the department for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals (cats, etc.). A few days later, Sharikov brings home a young lady, with whom, according to him, he is going to marry and live in Preobrazhensky’s apartment. The professor tells the young lady about Sharikov’s past; she sobs, saying that he passed off the scar from the operation as a battle wound.
The next day, one of the professor’s high-ranking patients brings him a denunciation written against him by Sharikov, which mentions Engels being thrown into the oven and the professor’s “counter-revolutionary speeches.” Philip Philipovich invites Sharikov to pack his things and immediately get out of the apartment. In response to this, Sharikov shows the professor a shish with one hand, and with the other takes a revolver out of his pocket... A few minutes later, the pale Bormenthal cuts the bell wire, locks the front door and the back door and hides with the professor in the examination room.
Ten days later, an investigator appears in the apartment with a search warrant and the arrest of Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormental on charges of murdering the head of the cleaning department, Sharikov P.P. “What Sharikov? - asks the professor. “Oh, the dog I operated on!” And he introduces the strangers to a strange-looking dog: in some places bald, in others with patches of growing fur, he comes out to hind legs, then stands on all fours, then again rises to his hind legs and sits in a chair. The investigator faints.
Two months pass. In the evenings, the dog sleeps peacefully on the carpet in the professor’s office, and life in the apartment goes on as usual.
Title of the work: dog's heart
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Year of writing: 1925
Genre: story
Main characters: Professor Preobrazhensky, doctor Bormenthal, Evgraf Sharikov - former dog Ball
Plot
A medical scientist conducts a bold experiment: he transplants the endocrine glands of Klim Chugunkin, a criminal and a slacker, into a dog picked up on the street, in order to determine their functions. The dog does not die, but gradually begins to turn into a person.A few weeks later he is a fully formed person with a disgusting character and terrible habits. He torments the professor by constantly getting into some unpleasant situations: he breaks glass, breaks a faucet, strangles the neighbor's cats, is rude, gets drunk and makes friends with inveterate scoundrels.
But Sharikov finds support in the person of Shvonder, who hates the professor, and he helps him get a job as the head of the cleaning department (they kill stray cats).
A few days later, Sharikov writes a denunciation against the professor to the GPU. It turned out the last straw The doctors have little patience, and they, after desperate resistance and fights, again perform an organ transplant operation. And soon the unpleasant person again turns into an affectionate and obedient dog.
Conclusion (my opinion)
Every scientist is responsible for the results of his activities. Sometimes, in pursuit of a scientific sensation, he does not think about the catastrophic consequences of a bold scientific experiment.The story “Heart of a Dog” was written by Bulgakov in 1925, but due to censorship it was not published during the writer’s lifetime. Although, she was known in literary circles of that time. Bulgakov read “The Heart of a Dog” for the first time at the Nikitsky Subbotniks in the same 1925. The reading took 2 evenings, and the work immediately received admiring reviews from those present.
They noted the courage of the author, the artistry and humor of the story. An agreement has already been concluded with the Moscow Art Theater to stage “Heart of a Dog” on stage. However, after the story was assessed by an OGPU agent who was secretly present at the meetings, it was banned from publication. General public I was able to read “Heart of a Dog” only in 1968. The story was first published in London and only in 1987 became available to residents of the USSR.
Historical background for writing the story
Why was “Heart of a Dog” so harshly criticized by the censors? The story describes the time immediately after the 1917 revolution. This is harsh satirical work, ridiculing the class of “new people” that emerged after the overthrow of tsarism. The bad manners, rudeness, and narrow-mindedness of the ruling class, the proletariat, became the object of the writer’s denunciation and ridicule.
Bulgakov, like many enlightened people of that time, believed that creating a personality by force was a path to nowhere.
A summary of the chapters will help you better understand “Heart of a Dog.” Conventionally, the story can be divided into two parts: the first talks about the dog Sharik, and the second talks about Sharikov, a man created from a dog.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Moscow life is described stray dog Sharika. Let's give a brief summary. “The Heart of a Dog” begins with the dog talking about how, near the dining room, his side was scalded with boiling water: the cook poured hot water and fell on a dog (the reader is not yet informed of its name).
The animal reflects on its fate and says that although it experiences unbearable pain, its spirit is not broken.
Desperate, the dog decided to stay in the gateway to die, he was crying. And then he sees “Mr. Special attention The dog turned his attention to the stranger's eyes. And then, just by appearance, he gives a very accurate portrait of this man: confident, “he won’t kick, but he himself is not afraid of anyone,” a man of mental work. In addition, the stranger smells of hospital and cigar.
The dog smelled the sausage in the man’s pocket and “crawled” after him. Oddly enough, the dog gets a treat and gets a name: Sharik. This is exactly how the stranger began to address him. The dog follows his new friend, who calls him. Finally, they reach the house of Philip Philipovich (we learn the stranger's name from the mouth of the doorman). Sharik's new acquaintance is very polite to the gatekeeper. The dog and Philip Philipovich enter the mezzanine.
Chapter 2. First day in a new apartment
In the second and third chapters, the action of the first part of the story “Heart of a Dog” develops.
The second chapter begins with Sharik's memories of his childhood, how he learned to read and distinguish colors by the names of stores. I remember his first unsuccessful experience, when instead of meat, having mixed it up, the then young dog tasted insulated wire.
The dog and his new acquaintance enter the apartment: Sharik immediately notices the wealth of Philip Philipovich’s house. They are met by a young lady who helps the gentleman take off his outerwear. Then Philip Philipovich notices Sharik’s wound and urgently asks the girl Zina to prepare the operating room. Sharik is against treatment, he dodges, tries to escape, commits a pogrom in the apartment. Zina and Philip Philipovich cannot cope, then another “male personality” comes to their aid. With the help of a “sickening liquid” the dog is pacified - he thinks he is dead.
After some time, Sharik comes to his senses. His sore side was treated and bandaged. The dog hears a conversation between two doctors, where Philip Philipovich knows that only with affection it is possible to change a living being, but in no case with terror, he emphasizes that this applies to animals and people (“red” and “white”) .
Philip Philipovich orders Zina to feed the dog Krakow sausage, and he himself goes to receive visitors, from whose conversations it becomes clear that Philip Philipovich is a professor of medicine. He heals sensitive issues wealthy people who are afraid of publicity.
Sharik dozed off. He woke up only when four young men, all modestly dressed, entered the apartment. It is clear that the professor is not happy with them. It turns out that the young people are the new house management: Shvonder (chairman), Vyazemskaya, Pestrukhin and Sharovkin. They came to notify Philip Philipovich about the possible “densification” of his seven-room apartment. The professor makes a phone call to Pyotr Alexandrovich. From the conversation it follows that this is his very influential patient. Preobrazhensky says that due to the possible reduction of rooms, he will have nowhere to operate. Pyotr Aleksandrovich talks with Shvonder, after which the company of young people, disgraced, leaves.
Chapter 3. The professor’s well-fed life
Let's continue with the summary. “Heart of a Dog” - Chapter 3. It all starts with a rich dinner served to Philip Philipovich and Dr. Bormenthal, his assistant. Something falls from the table to Sharik.
During the afternoon rest, “mournful singing” is heard - a meeting of Bolshevik tenants has begun. Preobrazhensky says that, most likely, the new government will lead this beautiful house into desolation: theft is already evident. Shvonder wears Preobrazhensky's missing galoshes. During a conversation with Bormenthal, the professor utters one of the key phrases that reveals to the reader the story “Heart of a Dog” what the work is about: “Devastation is not in closets, but in heads.” Next, Philip Philipovich reflects on how the uneducated proletariat can accomplish the great things for which it positions itself. He says that nothing will change for the better as long as there is such a dominant class in society, engaged only in choral singing.
Sharik has been living in Preobrazhensky’s apartment for a week now: he eats plenty, the owner pampers him, feeding him during dinners, he is forgiven for his pranks (the torn owl in the professor’s office).
Sharik's favorite place in the house is the kitchen, the kingdom of Daria Petrovna, the cook. The dog considers Preobrazhensky a deity. The only thing that is unpleasant for him to watch is how Philip Philipovich delves into human brains in the evenings.
On that ill-fated day, Sharik was not himself. It happened on Tuesday, when the professor usually does not have an appointment. Philip Philipovich receives a strange phone call, and commotion begins in the house. The professor behaves unnaturally, he is clearly nervous. Gives instructions to close the door and not let anyone in. Sharik is locked in the bathroom - there he is tormented by bad premonitions.
A few hours later the dog is brought into a very bright room, where he recognizes the face of the “priest” as Philip Philipovich. The dog pays attention to the eyes of Bormental and Zina: false, filled with something bad. Sharik is given anesthesia and placed on the operating table.
Chapter 4. Operation
In the fourth chapter, M. Bulgakov puts the climax of the first part. “Heart of a Dog” here undergoes the first of its two semantic peaks - Sharik’s operation.
The dog lies on the operating table, Dr. Bormenthal trims the hair on his stomach, and the professor at this time gives recommendations that all manipulations with internal organs should go away instantly. Preobrazhensky sincerely feels sorry for the animal, but, according to the professor, he has no chance of survival.
After the head and belly of the “ill-fated dog” are shaved, the operation begins: after ripping open the belly, they exchange Sharik’s seminal glands for “some other ones.” Afterwards, the dog almost dies, but a faint life still glimmers in it. Philip Philipovich, penetrating into the depths of the brain, changed the “white lump”. Surprisingly, the dog showed a thread-like pulse. Tired Preobrazhensky does not believe that Sharik will survive.
Chapter 5. Bormenthal's Diary
The summary of the story “Heart of a Dog,” the fifth chapter, is a prologue to the second part of the story. From Dr. Bormenthal's diary we learn that the operation took place on December 23 (Christmas Eve). The gist of it is that Sharik was transplanted with the ovaries and pituitary gland of a 28-year-old man. The purpose of the operation: to trace the effect of the pituitary gland on the human body. Until December 28, periods of improvement alternate with critical moments.
The condition stabilizes on December 29, “suddenly.” Hair loss is noted, further changes occur every day:
- 12/30 barking changes, limbs stretch, and weight gains.
- 31.12 the syllables (“abyr”) are pronounced.
- 01.01 says “Abyrvalg”.
- 02.01 stands on his hind legs, swears.
- 06.01 the tail disappears, says “beer house”.
- 01/07 takes on a strange appearance, becoming like a man. Rumors begin to spread around the city.
- 01/08 they stated that replacing the pituitary gland did not lead to rejuvenation, but to humanization. Sharik is a short man, rude, swearing, calling everyone “bourgeois.” Preobrazhensky is furious.
- 12.01 Bormental assumes that the replacement of the pituitary gland has led to the revitalization of the brain, so Sharik whistles, speaks, swears and reads. The reader also learns that the person from whom the pituitary gland was taken is Klim Chugunkin, an asocial element, convicted three times.
- January 17 marked the complete humanization of Sharik.
Chapter 6. Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov
In the 6th chapter, the reader first gets acquainted in absentia with the person who turned out after Preobrazhensky’s experiment - this is how Bulgakov introduces us to the story. “The Heart of a Dog,” a summary of which is presented in our article, in the sixth chapter experiences the development of the second part of the narrative.
It all starts with the rules that are written on paper by doctors. They say about maintaining good manners when in the house.
Finally, the created man appears before Philip Philipovich: he is “short in stature and unattractive in appearance,” dressed unkemptly, even comically. Their conversation turns into a quarrel. The man behaves arrogantly, speaks unflatteringly about the servants, refuses to observe the rules of decency, and notes of Bolshevism creep into his conversation.
The man asks Philip Philipovich to register him in the apartment, chooses his first name and patronymic (takes it from the calendar). From now on he is Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. It is obvious to Preobrazhensky that the new manager of the house has a great influence on this person.
Shvonder in the professor's office. Sharikov is registered in the apartment (the ID is written by the professor under the dictation of the house committee). Shvonder considers himself a winner; he calls on Sharikov to register for military service. The polygraph refuses.
Left alone with Bormenthal afterwards, Preobrazhensky admits that he is very tired of this situation. They are interrupted by noise in the apartment. It turned out that a cat had run in, and Sharikov was still hunting for them. Having locked himself with the hated creature in the bathroom, he causes a flood in the apartment by breaking the tap. Because of this, the professor has to cancel appointments with patients.
After eliminating the flood, Preobrazhensky learns that he still needs to pay for the glass Sharikov broke. Polygraph's impudence reaches its limit: not only does he not apologize to the professor for the complete mess, but he also behaves impudently after learning that Preobrazhensky paid money for the glass.
Chapter 7. Attempts at education
Let's continue with the summary. “The Heart of a Dog” in the 7th chapter tells about the attempts of Doctor Bormental and the professor to instill decent manners in Sharikov.
The chapter begins with lunch. Sharikov is taught proper table manners and is denied drinks. However, he still drinks a glass of vodka. Philip Philipovich comes to the conclusion that Klim Chugunkin is visible more and more clearly.
Sharikov is offered to attend an evening performance at the theater. He refuses under the pretext that this is “one counter-revolution.” Sharikov chooses to go to the circus.
It's about reading. The polygraph admits that he is reading the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, which Shvonder gave him. Sharikov even tries to reflect on what he read. He says that everything should be divided, including Preobrazhensky’s apartment. To this, the professor asks to pay his penalty for the flood caused the day before. After all, 39 patients were refused.
Philip Philipovich calls on Sharikov, instead of “giving advice on a cosmic scale and cosmic stupidity,” to listen and heed what people with a university education teach him.
After lunch, Ivan Arnoldovich and Sharikov leave for the circus, having first made sure that there are no cats in the program.
Left alone, Preobrazhensky reflects on his experiment. He almost decided to return Sharikov to his dog form by replacing the dog’s pituitary gland.
Chapter 8. “The New Man”
For six days after the flood incident, life went on as usual. However, after delivering the documents to Sharikov, he demands that Preobrazhensky give him a room. The professor notes that this is “Shvonder’s work.” In contrast to Sharikov’s words, Philip Philipovich says that he will leave him without food. This pacified Polygraph.
Late in the evening, after a clash with Sharikov, Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal talk for a long time in the office. We are talking about the latest antics of the man they created: how he showed up at the house with two drunken friends and accused Zina of theft.
Ivan Arnoldovich proposes to do the terrible thing: eliminate Sharikov. Preobrazhensky is strongly against it. He may get out of such a story due to his fame, but Bormental will definitely be arrested.
Further, Preobrazhensky admits that in his opinion the experiment was a failure, and not because they succeeded “ new person" - Sharikov. Yes, he agrees that in terms of theory, experiment has no equal, but there is no practical value. And they ended up with a creature with a human heart “the lousiest of all.”
The conversation is interrupted by Daria Petrovna, she brought Sharikov to the doctors. He pestered Zina. Bormental tries to kill him, Philip Philipovich stops the attempt.
Chapter 9. Climax and denouement
Chapter 9 is the culmination and denouement of the story. Let's continue with the summary. "Heart of a Dog" is coming to an end - this is the last chapter.
Everyone is concerned about Sharikov's disappearance. He left home, taking the documents. On the third day the Polygraph appears.
It turns out that, under the patronage of Shvonder, Sharikov received the position of head of the “food department for cleaning the city from stray animals.” Bormenthal forces Polygraph to apologize to Zina and Daria Petrovna.
Two days later, Sharikov brings a woman home, declaring that she will live with him and the wedding will soon take place. After a conversation with Preobrazhensky, she leaves, saying that Polygraph is a scoundrel. He threatens to fire the woman (she works as a typist in his department), but Bormenthal threatens, and Sharikov refuses his plans.
A few days later, Preobrazhensky learns from his patient that Sharikov had filed a denunciation against him.
Upon returning home, Polygraph is invited to the professor's procedural room. Preobrazhensky tells Sharikov to take his personal belongings and move out. Polygraph does not agree, he takes out a revolver. Bormental disarms Sharikov, strangles him and puts him on the couch. Having locked the doors and cut the lock, he returns to the operating room.
Chapter 10. Epilogue of the story
Ten days have passed since the incident. The criminal police, accompanied by Shvonder, appear at Preobrazhensky’s apartment. They intend to search and arrest the professor. The police believe that Sharikov was killed. Preobrazhensky says that there is no Sharikov, there is an operated dog named Sharik. Yes, he spoke, but that does not mean that the dog was a person.
Visitors see a dog with a scar on its forehead. He turns to a representative of the authorities, who loses consciousness. The visitors leave the apartment.
In the last scene we see Sharik lying in the professor’s office and reflecting on how lucky he was to meet such a person as Philip Philipovich.
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