"The Case of Kukotsky": a summary and analysis of the work

Works about doctors always aroused people's interest. No wonder, for, on the one hand, the Aesculpens are the same as we are, and on the other hand, the doctors are magicians and wizards who use only their mind and certain skills, but at the same time create a real miracle of man's healing. The reader is invited to get acquainted with the remarkable man and physician Pavel Alekseevich Kukotsky - the main hero of the book by Ludmila Ulitskaya "Kazus Kukotsky". The summary is given below.

The protagonist of the novel

The time of the beginning of the novel refers to the period of the very dawn of Soviet power. A lot had to be taken care of by the young government, and above all about the health of its people. The main character of the book "The Case of Kukotsky" (a brief summary of it before us) is a doctor Pavel Kukotsky, a very talented person who sincerely loves his patients. Since Kukotsky is a gynecologist, only women were treated by him. He leads the pregnancy, takes delivery, calms fever after miscarriages. His victims die in the hands of clandestine abortions. This person knows everything about women's health, because he sees the dirt of single unheated rooms in which poor uneducated pregnant seamstresses huddle, trying to feed already four offspring, and children, freezing to death due to malnutrition. P.A. Kukotsky also knows such representatives of the fair sex, who do not care about hygiene and their own future destiny.

And, of course, Pavel Alekseevich keeps statistics. It is necessary both for the state and for the doctor himself. Kukotsky not only treats, but also sincerely cares about his charges. In those days people were sent to the colony for abortion, but the doctor understood very well why women decided on such an unseemly act. On the scale of a large country, it was obvious that it was necessary to make up for the losses in human units, but each individual family had its own material possibilities and motives, so it did not always want to go on about the state needs and, regrettably, women cut themselves out of a new, emerging life. And, of course, it was important for Pavel Alekseevich to understand that his deed saved the lives of both patients and her other children (rarely who eliminated their first child), because if she died or went to jail, it is not known what would become of the minors. Nobody ever cared about homeless children, and the children's home is not the place where it was very desirable to get into all the times. That's probably why the doctor never put an "illegal abortion" in the medical record if the woman survived. This diagnosis was made only unhappy, when as a result of a terrible operation without anesthesia, she died.

"The case of Kukotsky" (the summary does not refute this observation in any way) is a novel in whose center a person with a big and ardent heart acts.

Naturally, Kukotsky was an ardent supporter of the legalization of abortions. Using all of his influence among some representatives of the medical elite of the time, he tried his best to obtain permission for abortion in the hospital. In the course were arguments and examples from life, even drugs - creepy, truthful, vivid examples of folk methods of treatment from unwanted pregnancy.

It is easy to understand from our description that Lyudmila Ulitskaya brought out the ideal image of the doctor with her novel. "The case of Kukotsky" (a brief summary leads to this) is a narrative about a real doctor.

History of Elena and Tatiana

In addition to his undoubted professional training, Kukotsky also possessed the gift: he saw the affected organs, the diseases of people through the skin. He himself called it "introspective". The specifics of the work (constant direct contact with women) muffled this ability, but there was also such a girl, the closeness with which it did not interfere. Elena is the wife of Kukotsky, his former patient.

During the Great Patriotic War, the doctor himself removed her uterus, and accepted her child (Tatyana) as her own, and never regretted the absence of her own children. Another doctor took with him and very old helper Helen's family - a former nun Vasilisa. However, during one of the usual family quarrels the couple crossed the line: the wife reprimanded her husband for his desire to legalize abortions, and Pavel Alekseevich reminded Elena that she was barren. Their relationship was then reduced to talking at dinner. As can be seen from the description, the protagonist of the book "The Case of Kukotsky" (the summary of it unfolds gradually before the reader), lacked tolerance and sensitivity in family life.

However, this did not prevent them from taking Tamara's family - the daughter of one of the patients of Pavel Alekseevich (female janitor). She died of an unsuccessful seventh abortion.

Tanya and Toma

The writer consciously opposes to each other two heroines: the beautiful Tanya, whom everyone loves, and ugly and timid to Tom who lives out of pity "on bird rights" from strangers. Tanya was invited to parties for her beauty, Tom - in addition to his sister. Tanya was loved, Tom was tolerated.

Recognized and close to many stories "built" in the book Ulitskaya. "The episode of Kukotsky" (a brief summary is also a bit about this) also about the fact that some people just like it, "for beautiful eyes," while others must still earn love and recognition. Of course, in the long run it only benefits those, others, but does not reduce pain at the moment when you are tolerated and do not even hide it.

Tanya once and for all made a moral choice: she decided not to associate life with biology, as her father advised. There were two main reasons for this: first, the lust for some university professors. They sleep and see how to seduce another fresh freshman; Secondly, the callousness of health workers who are forced to maintain a healthy psyche not to take human grief to heart. In other words, they refer to man as to an animate object, an object (in justification of doctors it is necessary to say that such an attitude is a necessary condition for the treatment of patients). Therefore, the girl once left the doors of the school and gave herself to the first person she met. This was her initiation into the world of bohemia. Tamara studied diligently (she does not have much space in the book), became a biologist, married, earned herself the reputation of continuing the work of Kukotsky. In other words, I lived a little boring, but more correct life than Tanya.

Pregnancy and death of Thani

The same one that everyone liked so much (Tatiana), she herself did not like anyone. When she became pregnant from one of the Goldberg brothers - the twin sons of the associate and like-minded Pavel Alekseevich, then she married by calculation that her husband should not be taken into the army. Being on a long pregnancy, fell in love with musician Sergei. Tanya finally found a man with whom she wanted to live a lifetime. After the birth of his first daughter Zhenya, the heroine wanted a child from a loved one. But the desired pregnancy ended in death from an ordinary illness. Of course, the adoptive father would not tolerate the ailment in any case, but he did not observe the daughter, as Tatiana and her new friend the musician went to the Crimea.

Pavel Alekseevich never changed his temper. Even when he comes to the hospital, where his adopted daughter died, the doctor first of all makes preventive measures to protect other women from the same sad fate that befell his child, and only then gives vent to feelings.

And at this time, Elena closes in herself and slowly goes insane. She sees unusually bright dreams about the past, about the future, about the degeneration and the decision of the fate of the still living. These dreams are devoted to the second part of the book by Ulitskaya. At first glance, they seem to be incoherent delirium. However, behind it is hidden the deep mystery of human beings.

It is precisely the description of such tragic events that fascinates and keeps the reader in constant tension the novel "The Case of Kukotsky", the short contents of the book can not hide the dramatic nature of the phenomena occurring in it.

The final of the book

The book closes with a short story about the fate of all the heroes: the brothers Goldberg, Tamara, musician Sergei, Zhenya. The last character visits his grandmother Elena every week, despite the late gestation period. And all these people are connected with each other by the memory of Pavel Alekseevich and Tanya. This is almost all on the topic of "Kukotsky's Case": a brief summary of the novel. "We have only to share with the reader our final observations.

Why is Ulitskaya's book called so

The fateful incidents (contradictions, discrepancies, paradoxes) of Kukotsky are as follows:

1. The idea of legal abortion became the basis for a break with his wife, but it was the drugs (visual patterns) of this doctor that made some officials think about and eventually adopt the law.

2. A doctor who saved the lives of women and their children, lost his beloved foster daughter from an unsuccessful pregnancy.

3. Finally, Vasilisa, who lived in the house of the famous gynecologist for more than twenty years, suffered from a prolapse of the uterus, but at the same time tolerated and did not say a word, and in general was interested only in her economic duties.