Analysis of the novel "Invitation to the Execution" by V.V. Nabokov
Execution or release? “... And Cincinnatus went among the dust, and fallen things, and trembling canvases, heading in the direction where, judging by the voices, creatures like him stood” - these are the final lines of the novel. Indeed, "Invitation to Execution" ends with the beheading of the protagonist's head. It is no coincidence that Nabokov chooses such a type of execution for his hero as beheading. The thing is that throughout the whole work, we, the readers, see how the author compares his hero with a puppet on strings, a puppet. At first glance, it would be more logical if the hero's path ended in execution by hanging, since such an end to life would serve as a continuation of the image of the "man on a rope." But the author chooses beheading; the whole novel, starting with the title, prepares the reader for the presence of the execution.
What is a head cut? This is the deprivation of a person of every ability to think, create ... Thus, the author seems to free his hero from the need to stay among the people around him. And those around, in turn, are freed from Cincinnatus, who, by the very fact of his existence, makes one doubt the truth and correctness of their being. Perhaps Cincinnatus did not die, but simply disappeared? Or connected with people like him? And the people among whom he lived, were they not like him? Let's try to figure it out.
The similarity of what is happening in the novel with theatrical action is striking: what is worth mentioning is the hero's occupation - the manufacture of "soft dolls" by Russian classic writers for schoolgirls in the workshop. In a certain sense, the numerous characters of the novel: the visitors, the executioner, the jailers are some kind of grotesque dummies, but not the creators themselves, but the heroes invented by them. The names, speech characteristics, appearance of these "parodies" - as Cincinnatus calls them - often refer the reader to some literary text. So, young Emmochka, the daughter of the head of the prison, bears the name of the heroine of the novel by G. Flaubert "Madam Bovary", and Monsieur Pierre is the hero of "War and Peace", although some of his qualities remind the reader of Gogol's Petrushka.
Of course, to see in the "Invitation to the Execution" only a kind of literary quiz means to significantly simplify the meaning of the work. However, the fact that the author, creating his own artistic world, largely uses the techniques of the game is an undoubted fact. When speaking about the game principle in Nabokov's works, it is customary to refer to his own statement, where he draws an analogy between literary writing and the composition of chess problems. A good chess problem, according to the writer himself, necessarily has one correct solution: sometimes it is understandable to a “simple-beginner”, and sometimes it is inaccessible even to an “experienced smart guy”. Nabokov's play is not an end in itself; it often contains the quintessence of the meaning of the work.
The main question that worries critics and readers after the novel is read is whether Cincinnatus survived? As if not (remember the epigraph “Like a madman thinks he is God, so we consider ourselves mortals” and the final lines of the novel), but parks (goddesses of fate) appear at the scaffold. Therefore, critics believe that in this case the author abused his art, that there is no answer to this question, since the question itself cannot be asked. Death is the end of life. Is it possible to call life the state in which the hero lives? Whether he cut off his head or not, does it matter?
Other critics adhere to the point of view that says: the life of Cincinnatus is already death, therefore, after the execution, not a hero, but a “little executioner” is carried away, “like a larva.” one of the parks, personifying death. After the execution, the hero himself begins his real life: he goes to creatures “like him”.
V. V. Nabokov
An invitation to execution
“In accordance with the law, Cincinnatus Ts. was sentenced to death in a whisper.” The unforgivable fault of Cincinnatus is in his “impenetrability”, “opacity” for others, terribly similar (the jailer Rodion now and then turns into the director of the prison, Rodrig Ivanovich, and vice versa; the lawyer and the prosecutor, by law, must be uterine brothers, if it fails pick up - they are made up to look like), "transparent souls for each other." This feature is inherent in Cincinnatus from childhood
(inherited from his father, as his mother, Cecilia C., who came to visit the prison, informs him, frail, curious, in an oilcloth waterproof coat and with an obstetric bag), but for some time he manages to hide his difference from the others. Cincinnatus begins to work, and in the evenings he revels in old books, addicted to the mythical 19th century. Moreover, he is engaged in the manufacture of soft dolls for schoolgirls: “there was a little hairy Pushkin in a bekesh, and a rat-like Gogol in a flowery waistcoat, and an old man Tolstoy, thick-nosed, in a zipun, and many others.” Here, in the workshop, Cincinnatus meets Marfinka, whom he marries when he turns twenty-two and is transferred to kindergarten as a teacher. In the very first year of marriage, Marfinka begins to cheat on him. She will have children, a boy and a girl, not from Cincinnatus. The boy is lame and angry, the obese girl is almost blind. Ironically, both children end up in the care of Cincinnatus (in the garden he is entrusted with “lame, hunchbacked, skewed” children). Cincinnatus ceases to take care of himself, and his "opacity" becomes noticeable to others. So he ends up in prison, in a fortress.
Having heard the verdict, Cincinnatus tries to find out when the execution is scheduled, but the jailers do not tell him. Cincinnatus is led out to look at the city from the tower of the fortress. Twelve-year-old Emmochka, the daughter of the director of the prison, suddenly seems to Cincinnatus to be an embodied promise of escape ... The PRISONER spends his time looking through magazines. He makes notes, trying to comprehend his own life, his individuality: “I am not simple ... I am the one who lives among you ... Not only my eyes are different, and hearing, and taste, not only smell, like a deer, but touch, like bat, - but the main thing: the gift to combine all this at one point ... "
Another prisoner appears in the fortress, a beardless fat man in his thirties. Neat prisoner's pajamas, morocco shoes, blond, straight-parted hair, wonderful, even teeth whiten between crimson lips.
The meeting with Marfinka promised to Cincinnatus is postponed (according to the law, a meeting is allowed only after a week has passed after the trial). The director of the prison solemnly (a tablecloth and a vase with cheeky peonies on the table) introduces Cincinnatus to his neighbor, Monsieur Pierre. Monsieur Pierre, who visited Cincinnatus in his cell, tries to entertain him with amateur photographs, most of which depict him himself, card tricks, and anecdotes. But Cincinnatus, to the offense and displeasure of Rodrig Ivanovich, is closed and unfriendly.
The next day, not only Marfinka comes to see him, but her whole family (father, twin brothers, grandparents - “so old that they already shone through”, children) and, finally, a young man with an impeccable profile - the current cavalier Marfinka. Furniture, household utensils, separate parts of the walls also arrive. Cincinnatus cannot say a word alone with Marfinka. The father-in-law does not cease to reproach him, the brother-in-law persuades him to repent (“Think how unpleasant it is when they cut your head off”), the young man begs Marfinka to put on a shawl. Then, having collected things (furniture is taken out by porters), everyone leaves.
In anticipation of the execution, Cincinnatus feels even more acutely his dissimilarity to everyone else. In this world, where "substance is tired: time slumbered sweetly," in an imaginary world, perplexed, only an insignificant fraction of Cincinnatus wanders, and his main part is in a completely different place. But even so, his real life is “too translucent”, causing rejection and protest from those around him. Cincinnatus returns to the interrupted reading. The famous novel he is reading is called Quercus (Oak) in Latin and is a biography of a tree. The author tells about those historical events (or shadows of events) that the oak could have witnessed: either this is a dialogue of warriors, or a halt of robbers, or the flight of a nobleman from the royal wrath ... In the intervals between these events, the oak is considered from the point of view of dendrology, ornithology and other sciences , a detailed list of all the monograms on the bark with their interpretation is given. Much attention is paid to the music of the waters, the palette of dawns and the behavior of the weather. This, undoubtedly, is the best of what was created by the time of Cincinnatus, nevertheless it seems to him distant, false, dead.
Exhausted by the expectation of the arrival of the executioner, the expectation of execution, Cincinnatus falls asleep. Suddenly he is awakened by tapping, some scratching sounds, clearly audible in the silence of the night. Judging by the sounds, this is a dig. Till morning Cincinnatus listens to them.
At night the sounds resume, and day after day Monsieur Pierre comes to Cincinnatus with vulgar talk. The yellow wall gives a crack, opens with a roar, and out of the black hole, choking on laughter, crawl out Monsieur Pierre and Rodrig Ivanovich. Monsieur Pierre invites Cincinnatus to visit him, and he, seeing no other possibility, crawls along the aisle ahead of Monsieur Pierre to his cell. Monsieur Pierre expresses his joy at his friendship with Cincinnatus - that was his first task. Then Monsieur Pierre unlocks a large case in the corner with a key, in which there is a wide ax.
Cincinnatus climbs back along the dug passage, but suddenly finds himself in a cave, and then through a crack in the rock he climbs out into the wild. He sees a smoky, blue city with windows like burning coals, and hurries down. Emmochka appears from behind the ledge of the wall and leads him along. Through a small door in the wall they enter a darkish corridor and find themselves in the director's apartment, where the family of Rodrigue Ivanovich and Monsieur Pierre are drinking tea at an oval table in the dining room.
As is customary, on the eve of the execution, Monsieur Pierre and Cincinnatus pay a visit to all the chief officials. In honor of them, a magnificent dinner was arranged, illumination was blazing in the garden: the monogram "P" and "C" (not quite, however, released). Monsieur Pierre, as usual, is in the center of attention, while Cincinnatus is silent and distracted.
In the morning, Marfinka comes to Cincinnatus, complaining that it was difficult to get permission ("Of course, I had to make a small concession - in a word, the usual story"). Marfinka tells about a meeting with Cincinnatus's mother, that a neighbor is wooing her, artlessly offering himself to Cincinnatus ("Leave it. What nonsense," says Cincinnatus). Marthe is beckoned by a finger stuck in the half-opened door, she disappears for three-quarters of an hour, and Cincinnatus, during her absence, thinks that not only has he not begun an urgent, important conversation with her, but now he cannot even express this important. Marthe, disappointed by the date, leaves Cincinnatus ("I was ready to give you everything. It was worth trying").
Cincinnatus sits down to write: "This is the dead end of life here - and it is not in its narrow limits to seek salvation." Monsieur Pierre appears and two of her henchmen, in whom it is almost impossible to recognize a lawyer and director of the prison. A bay horse drags a peeling carriage with them down into the city. Having heard about the execution, the public begins to gather. A scarlet platform of the scaffold rises on the square. Cincinnatus, so that no one touches him, has to almost run to the platform. While preparations are going on, he looks around: something has happened to the lighting, the sun is unfavorable, and part of the sky is shaking. One by one, the poplars that line the square are falling down.
Cincinnatus himself takes off his shirt and lies down on the chopping block. He begins to count: “one Cincinnatus was counting, and the other Cincinnatus had already stopped listening to the receding ringing of an unnecessary account, got up and looked around.” The executioner has not quite stopped yet, but a railing is visible through his torso. The audience is completely transparent.
Cincinnatus slowly descends and walks through the unsteady litter. The platform collapses behind him. Reduced many times over, Rodrig unsuccessfully tries to stop Cincinnatus. A woman in a black shawl carries a little executioner in her arms. Everything spreads and falls, and Cincinnatus walks among the dust and fallen things in the direction where, judging by the voices, people like him are standing.
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“In accordance with the law, Cincinnatus Ts. was sentenced to death in a whisper.” The unforgivable fault of Cincinnatus is in his “impenetrability”, “opacity” for others, terribly similar (the jailer Rodion now and then turns into the director of the prison, Rodrig Ivanovich, and vice versa; the lawyer and the prosecutor, by law, must be uterine brothers, if it fails pick up - they are made up to look like), "transparent souls for each other." This feature is inherent in Cincinnatus from childhood (inherited from his father, as his mother, Cecilia Ts., who came to visit the prison, tells him, frail, curious, in an oilcloth water proof and with an obstetric bag), but for some time he manages to hide his difference from the rest . Cincinnatus begins to work, and in the evenings he revels in old books, addicted to the mythical 19th century. Moreover, he is engaged in the manufacture of soft dolls for schoolgirls: “there was a little hairy Pushkin in a bekesh, and a Gogol looking like a rat in a flowery vest, and an old man Tolstoy, plump-nosed, in a zipun, and many others.” Here, in the workshop, Cincinnatus meets Marfinka, whom he marries when he turns twenty-two and is transferred to kindergarten as a teacher. In the very first year of marriage, Marfinka begins to cheat on him. She will have children, a boy and a girl, not from Cincinnatus. The boy is lame and angry, the obese girl is almost blind. Ironically, both children end up in the care of Cincinnatus (in the garden he is entrusted with “lame, hunchbacked, skewed” children). Cincinnatus ceases to take care of himself, and his "opacity" becomes noticeable to others. So he ends up in prison, in a fortress.
Having heard the verdict, Cincinnatus tries to find out when the execution is scheduled, but the jailers do not tell him. Cincinnatus is led out to look at the city from the tower of the fortress. Twelve-year-old Emmochka, the daughter of the director of the prison, suddenly seems to Cincinnatus to be an embodied promise of escape ... The PRISONER spends his time looking through magazines. He makes notes, trying to comprehend his own life, his individuality: “I am not simple ... I am the one who lives among you ... Not only my eyes are different, and hearing, and taste, not only smell, like a deer, but touch, like bat, - but the main thing: the gift of combining all this at one point ... "
Another prisoner appears in the fortress, a beardless fat man in his thirties. Neat prisoner's pajamas, morocco shoes, blond, straight-parted hair, wonderful, even teeth whiten between crimson lips.
The meeting with Marfinka promised to Cincinnatus is postponed (according to the law, a meeting is allowed only after a week has passed after the trial). The director of the prison solemnly (a tablecloth and a vase with cheeky peonies on the table) introduces Cincinnatus to his neighbor, Monsieur Pierre. Monsieur Pierre, who visited Cincinnatus in his cell, tries to entertain him with amateur photographs, most of which depict him himself, card tricks, and anecdotes. But Cincinnatus, to the offense and displeasure of Rodrig Ivanovich, is closed and unfriendly.
The next day, not only Marfinka comes to see him, but her whole family (father, twin brothers, grandparents - “so old that they already shone through”, children) and, finally, a young man with an impeccable profile - the current cavalier Marfinka.
An invitation to execution
Summary of the novel
“In accordance with the law, Cincinnatus Ts. was sentenced to death in a whisper.” The unforgivable fault of Cincinnatus is in his “impenetrability”, “opacity” for the others, who are terribly similar (the jailer Rodion now and then turns into the director of the prison, Rodrig Ivanovich, and vice versa; the lawyer and the prosecutor, by law, must be half-brothers, if it fails pick up - they are made up to look like), “transparent souls for each other”. This feature is inherent in Cincinnatus
Since childhood (inherited from his father, according to his mother who came to visit the prison, Cecilia Ts., frail, curious, in an oilcloth water proof and with an obstetric bag), but for some time he manages to hide his difference from the others. Cincinnatus begins to work, and in the evenings he revels in old books, addicted to the mythical 19th century. Moreover, he is engaged in the manufacture of soft dolls for schoolgirls: “there was a little hairy Pushkin in a bekesh, and a Gogol looking like a rat in a flowery waistcoat, and an old man Tolstoy, plump-nosed, in a zipun, and many others.” Here, in the workshop, Cincinnatus meets Marfinka, whom he marries when he turns twenty-two and is transferred to kindergarten as a teacher. In the very first year of marriage, Marfinka begins to cheat on him. She will have children, a boy and a girl, not from Cincinnatus. The boy is lame and angry, the obese girl is almost blind. Ironically, both children end up in the care of Cincinnatus (in the garden he is entrusted with “lame, hunchbacked, skewed” children). Cincinnatus ceases to take care of himself, and his "opacity" becomes noticeable to others. So he ends up in prison, in a fortress.
Having heard the verdict, Cincinnatus tries to find out when the execution is scheduled, but the jailers do not tell him. Cincinnatus is led out to look at the city from the tower of the fortress. Twelve-year-old Emmochka, the daughter of the director of the prison, suddenly seems to Cincinnatus to be an embodied promise of escape ... The PRISONER spends his time looking through magazines. He makes notes, trying to comprehend his own life, his individuality: “I am not simple ... I am the one who lives among you ... Not only my eyes are different, and hearing, and taste, not only smell, like a deer, but touch, like bat, - but the main thing: the gift of combining all this at one point ... "
Another prisoner appears in the fortress, a beardless fat man in his thirties. Neat prisoner's pajamas, morocco shoes, blond, straight-parted hair, wonderful, even teeth whiten between crimson lips.
The meeting with Marfinka promised to Cincinnatus is postponed (according to the law, a meeting is allowed only after a week has passed after the trial). The director of the prison solemnly (on the table is a tablecloth and a vase with cheeky peonies) introduces Cincinnatus to his neighbor, Monsieur Pierre. Monsieur Pierre, who visited Cincinnatus in his cell, tries to entertain him with amateur photographs, most of which depict him himself, card tricks, and anecdotes. But Cincinnatus, to the offense and displeasure of Rodrig Ivanovich, is closed and unfriendly.
The next day, not only Marfinka comes to see him, but her whole family (father, twin brothers, grandparents - “so old that they already showed through”, children) and, finally, a young man with an impeccable profile - the current cavalier Marfinka. Furniture, household utensils, separate parts of the walls also arrive. Cincinnatus cannot say a word alone with Marfinka. The father-in-law does not cease to reproach him, the brother-in-law persuades him to repent (“Think how unpleasant it is when they cut off the head”), the young man begs Marfinka to put on a shawl. Then, having collected things (furniture is taken out by porters), everyone leaves.
In anticipation of the execution, Cincinnatus feels even more acutely his dissimilarity to everyone else. In this world, where “matter is tired: time slumbered sweetly”, only an insignificant part of Cincinnatus wanders in an imaginary world, perplexed, and its main part is located in a completely different place. But even so, his real life is “too translucent”, causing rejection and protest from those around him. Cincinnatus returns to the interrupted reading. The famous novel he is reading is called Quercus (Oak) in Latin and is a biography of a tree. The author tells about those historical events (or shadows of events) that the oak could have witnessed: either this is a dialogue of warriors, or a halt of robbers, or the flight of a nobleman from the royal wrath ... In the intervals between these events, the oak is considered from the point of view of dendrology, ornithology and other sciences , a detailed list of all the monograms on the bark with their interpretation is given. Much attention is paid to the music of the waters, the palette of dawns and the behavior of the weather. This, undoubtedly, is the best of what was created by the time of Cincinnatus, nevertheless it seems to him distant, false, dead.
Exhausted by the expectation of the arrival of the executioner, the expectation of execution, Cincinnatus falls asleep. Suddenly he is awakened by tapping, some scratching sounds, clearly audible in the silence of the night. Judging by the sounds, this is a dig. Till morning Cincinnatus listens to them.
At night the sounds resume, and day after day Monsieur Pierre comes to Cincinnatus with vulgar talk. The yellow wall gives a crack, opens with a roar, and out of the black hole, choking on laughter, crawl out Monsieur Pierre and Rodrig Ivanovich. Monsieur Pierre invites Cincinnatus to visit him, and he, seeing no other possibility, crawls along the passage ahead of Monsieur Pierre to his cell. Monsieur Pierre expresses his joy at his friendship with Cincinnatus - that was his first task. Then Monsieur Pierre unlocks a large case in the corner with a key, in which there is a wide ax.
Cincinnatus climbs back along the dug passage, but suddenly finds himself in a cave, and then through a crack in the rock he climbs out into the wild. He sees a smoky, blue city with windows like burning coals, and hurries down. Emmochka appears from behind the ledge of the wall and leads him along. Through a small door in the wall they enter a darkish corridor and find themselves in the director's apartment, where the family of Rodrigue Ivanovich and Monsieur Pierre are drinking tea at an oval table in the dining room.
As is customary, on the eve of the execution, Monsieur Pierre and Cincinnatus pay a visit to all the chief officials. In honor of them, a magnificent dinner was arranged, illumination was blazing in the garden: the monogram "P" and "C" (not quite, however, released). Monsieur Pierre, as usual, is in the center of attention, while Cincinnatus is silent and distracted.
In the morning, Marfinka comes to Cincinnatus, complaining that it was difficult to get permission ("Of course, I had to make a small concession - in a word, the usual story"). Marfinka tells about a meeting with Cincinnatus's mother, that a neighbor is wooing her, and he artlessly offers himself to Cincinnatus (“Leave it alone. What nonsense,” says Cincinnatus). Marthe is beckoned by a finger stuck in the half-opened door, she disappears for three-quarters of an hour, and Cincinnatus, during her absence, thinks that not only has he not begun an urgent, important conversation with her, but now he cannot even express this important. Marthe, disappointed by the date, leaves Cincinnatus (“I was ready to give you everything. It was worth trying”).
Cincinnatus sits down to write: “This is the dead end of life here, and it is not within its narrow limits to seek salvation.” Monsieur Pierre appears and two of her henchmen, in whom it is almost impossible to recognize a lawyer and director of the prison. A bay horse drags a peeling carriage with them down into the city. Having heard about the execution, the public begins to gather. A scarlet platform of the scaffold rises on the square. Cincinnatus, so that no one touches him, has to almost run to the platform. While preparations are underway, he looks around: something has happened to the lighting, the sun is unfavorable, and part of the sky is shaking. One by one, the poplars that line the square are falling down.
Cincinnatus himself takes off his shirt and lies down on the chopping block. He begins to count: “one Cincinnatus was counting, and the other Cincinnatus had already stopped listening to the receding ringing of an unnecessary account, got up and looked around.” The executioner has not quite stopped yet, but a railing is visible through his torso. The audience is completely transparent.
Cincinnatus slowly descends and walks through the unsteady litter. The platform collapses behind him. Reduced many times over, Rodrig unsuccessfully tries to stop Cincinnatus. A woman in a black shawl carries a little executioner in her arms. Everything spreads and falls, and Cincinnatus walks among the dust and fallen things in the direction where, judging by the voices, people like him are standing.
You are now reading: Summary Invitation to execution - Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich
“In accordance with the law, Cincinnatus Ts. was sentenced to death in a whisper.” The unforgivable fault of Cincinnatus is in his “impenetrability”, “opacity” for others, terribly similar (the jailer Rodion now and then turns into the director of the prison, Rodrig Ivanovich, and vice versa; the lawyer and the prosecutor, by law, must be uterine brothers, if it fails pick up - they are made up to look like), "transparent souls for each other." This feature is inherent in Cincinnatus from childhood (inherited from his father, as his mother, Cecilia Ts., who came to visit the prison, tells him, frail, curious, in an oilcloth water proof and with an obstetric bag), but for some time he manages to hide his difference from the rest . Cincinnatus begins to work, and in the evenings he revels in old books, addicted to the mythical 19th century. Moreover, he is engaged in the manufacture of soft dolls for schoolgirls: “there was a little hairy Pushkin in a bekesh, and a rat-like Gogol in a flowery waistcoat, and an old man Tolstoy, thick-nosed, in a zipun, and many others.” Here, in the workshop, Cincinnatus meets Marfinka, whom he marries when he turns twenty-two and is transferred to kindergarten as a teacher. In the very first year of marriage, Marfinka begins to cheat on him. She will have children, a boy and a girl, not from Cincinnatus. The boy is lame and angry, the obese girl is almost blind. Ironically, both children end up in the care of Cincinnatus (in the garden he is entrusted with “lame, hunchbacked, skewed” children). Cincinnatus ceases to take care of himself, and his "opacity" becomes noticeable to others. So he ends up in prison, in a fortress. Having heard the verdict, Cincinnatus tries to find out when the execution is scheduled, but the jailers do not tell him. Cincinnatus is led out to look at the city from the tower of the fortress. Twelve-year-old Emmochka, daughter of the director of the prison, suddenly seems to Cincinnatus to be an embodied promise of escape... the prisoner spends his time looking through magazines. He makes notes, trying to comprehend his own life, his individuality: “I am not simple ... I am the one who lives among you ... Not only my eyes are different, and hearing, and taste, - not only the sense of smell, like a deer, but touch, like a bat, but the main thing: the gift to combine all this at one point ... ”Another prisoner, a beardless fat man of about thirty, appears in the fortress. Neat prisoner's pajamas, morocco shoes, blond, straight-parted hair, wonderful, even teeth whiten between crimson lips. The meeting with Marfinka promised to Cincinnatus is postponed (according to the law, a meeting is allowed only after a week has passed after the trial). The director of the prison solemnly (a tablecloth and a vase with cheeky peonies on the table) introduces Cincinnatus to his neighbor, Monsieur Pierre. Monsieur Pierre, who visited Cincinnatus in his cell, tries to entertain him with amateur photographs, most of which depict him himself, card tricks, and anecdotes. But Cincinnatus, to the offense and displeasure of Rodrig Ivanovich, is closed and unfriendly. The next day, not only Marfinka comes to see him, but her whole family (father, twin brothers, grandparents - “so old that they already showed through”, children) and, finally, a young man with an impeccable profile - the current cavalier Marfinka. Furniture, household utensils, separate parts of the walls also arrive. Cincinnatus cannot say a word alone with Marfinka. The father-in-law does not cease to reproach him, the brother-in-law persuades him to repent (“Think how unpleasant it is when they cut your head off”), the young man begs Marfinka to put on a shawl. Then, having collected things (furniture is taken out by porters), everyone leaves. In anticipation of the execution, Cincinnatus feels even more acutely his dissimilarity to everyone else. In this world, where "substance is tired: time slumbered sweetly," in an imaginary world, perplexed, only an insignificant fraction of Cincinnatus wanders, and his main part is in a completely different place. But even so, his real life is “too translucent”, causing rejection and protest from those around him. Cincinnatus returns to the interrupted reading. The famous novel that he is reading has the Latin name "Quercus" ("Oak") and is a biography of a tree. The author tells about those historical events (or shadows of events) that the oak could have witnessed: either this is a dialogue of warriors, or a halt of robbers, or the flight of a nobleman from the royal wrath ... In the intervals between these events, the oak is considered from the point of view of dendrology, ornithology and other sciences, a detailed list of all the monograms on the bark with their interpretation is given. Much attention is paid to the music of the waters, the palette of dawns and the behavior of the weather. This, undoubtedly, is the best of what was created by the time of Cincinnatus, nevertheless it seems to him distant, false, dead. Exhausted by the expectation of the arrival of the executioner, the expectation of execution, Cincinnatus falls asleep. Suddenly he is awakened by tapping, some scratching sounds, clearly audible in the silence of the night. Judging by the sounds, this is a dig. Till morning Cincinnatus listens to them. At night the sounds resume, and day after day Monsieur Pierre comes to Cincinnatus with vulgar talk. The yellow wall gives a crack, opens with a roar, and out of the black hole, choking on laughter, crawl out Monsieur Pierre and Rodrig Ivanovich. Monsieur Pierre invites Cincinnatus to visit him, and he, seeing no other possibility, crawls along the passage ahead of Monsieur Pierre to his cell. Monsieur Pierre expresses his joy at his friendship with Cincinnatus - that was his first task. Then Monsieur Pierre unlocks a large case in the corner with a key, in which there is a wide ax. Cincinnatus climbs back along the dug passage, but suddenly finds himself in a cave, and then through a crack in the rock he climbs out into the wild. He sees a smoky, blue city with windows like burning coals, and hurries down. Emmochka appears from behind the ledge of the wall and leads him along. Through a small door in the wall they enter a darkish corridor and find themselves in the director's apartment, where the family of Rodrigue Ivanovich and Monsieur Pierre are drinking tea at an oval table in the dining room. As is customary, on the eve of the execution, Monsieur Pierre and Cincinnatus pay a visit to all the chief officials. In honor of them, a magnificent dinner was arranged, illumination was blazing in the garden: the monogram "P" and "C" (not quite, however, released). Monsieur Pierre, as usual, is in the center of attention, while Cincinnatus is silent and distracted. In the morning, Marfinka comes to Cincinnatus, complaining that it was difficult to get permission ("Of course, I had to make a small concession - in a word, the usual story"). Marfinka tells about a meeting with Cincinnatus's mother, that a neighbor is wooing her, artlessly offering himself to Cincinnatus ("Leave it. What nonsense," says Cincinnatus). Marthe is beckoned by a finger stuck in the half-opened door, she disappears for three-quarters of an hour, and Cincinnatus, during her absence, thinks that not only has he not begun an urgent, important conversation with her, but now he cannot even express this important. Marthe, disappointed by the date, leaves Cincinnatus ("I was ready to give you everything. It was worth trying"). Cincinnatus sits down to write: "This is the dead end of life here - and it is not in its narrow limits to seek salvation." Appears Monsieur Pierre and two of his assistants, in whom it is almost impossible to recognize a lawyer and director of the prison. A bay horse drags a peeling carriage with them down into the city. Having heard about the execution, the public begins to gather. A scarlet platform of the scaffold rises on the square. Cincinnatus, so that no one would touch him, had to almost run to the platform. While preparations are underway, he looks around: something has happened to the lighting, the sun is unfavorable, and part of the sky is shaking. One by one, the poplars that line the square are falling down. Cincinnatus himself takes off his shirt and lies down on the chopping block. He begins to count: “one Cincinnatus was counting, and the other Cincinnatus had already stopped listening to the receding ringing of an unnecessary account, got up and looked around.” The executioner has not quite stopped yet, but a railing is visible through his torso. The audience is completely transparent. Cincinnatus slowly descends and walks through the unsteady litter. The platform collapses behind him. Reduced many times over, Rodrig unsuccessfully tries to stop Cincinnatus. A woman in a black shawl carries a little executioner in her arms. Everything spreads and falls, and Cincinnatus walks among the dust and fallen things in the direction where, judging by the voices, people like him are standing.