Ivanhoe by Walter Scott in the Creative Perception of Ivan Turgenev. Article Two

Based on the story "An Unhappy Girl" (1868), the article elaborates the issue of Ivan Turgenev's artistic perception of Ivanhoe (1819) by Walter Scott. It focuses research attention on the analysis of the dramatic situation of an unhappy love, which the Russian writer creates following the tradition of the English novelist. For Turgenev, "An Unhappy Girl" was the second stage in making his creative dialogue with Walter Scott. In the story "The Jew" (1840), the subject of artistic reflection is the images of a Jewish father and his daughter, placed in the conditions of a socio-historical and moral-psychological crisis. "An Unhappy Girl" is dedicated to a tragedy of a different nature: the love of a Jewish girl Susanna and a young Russian nobleman Michel. This story echoes Rebecca's fate, an important element of which was an unrequited feeling for Ivanhoe. With the help of Scott's material, Turgenev lines up the drama of first love, the motif of Jewish origin, and the tragedy of death (suicide). From this line, the features and omens, images and events that form the epic fullness of Russian life (from the capital to the province and vice versa), the colouring of the national world in moral and philosophical categories develop in different directions. In the centre of the author's comprehension, there is a proud person suffering from humiliation and forced to submit to the circumstances of misfortune. In dialogue with Scott, Turgenev focuses on the moral and psychological basis of human agony. At the stage of planning the story, the writer conceived a parallel of the entire love story in general and the image of Susanna in particular with Ivanhoe. Initially, this parallel had the function of a structural element, as evidenced by the data of the draft autograph. In the first manuscript, Turgenev includes two direct references to Scott in the plot structure of the story. It is important that Turgenev firmly merges the connection of personal experience with the famous literary source through the consciousness of his young characters. Following the example of the English novelist, the Russian writer gradually and delicately reveals the sensual world of Susanna, showing the clash of opposing principles in it: on the one hand, the proud awareness of her dignity and the desire for happiness, and, on the other, the need (demand) for humility. For Rebecca, Scott finds a way out of the prevailing contradiction in full concentration on her own virtue. However, for Turgenev, such a path turns out to be impossible. The writer sees the outcome of Susanna's tragic fate only in her death, and herewith he emphasizes that even death is not able to remove the imprint of suffering.

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