“White Garments” by V. Dudintsev as an Easter Novel

The research aims to reveal the philosophical and religious founda tions of V. Dudintsev’s novel “White Garments,” which manifests the Easter archetype of Russian literature. The triad “Law — Iniquity — Grace” is imple mented in the text of the novel. Its characters, primarily the scientist Fyodor Ivanovich Dezhkin, advance from the Old Testament Adam to a man redeemed by the sufferings and resurrection of Christ. The novel shows how the submis sive and thorough execution of legalistic attitudes, correlated with both Old Testament images and the image of the grand Inquisitor, which clearly indicates the connection of V. Dudintsev’s work with F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” can lead to a descent into Lawlessness, forcing a person to abandon even blood ties. As a result, a person who enforces the Law begins to imagine himself as a god who knows good and evil and has the right to control the destinies of others. To demonstrate the development of the human soul from a legalistic state to a state of grace, V. Dudintsev uses numerous biblical images (the first man Adam, Abraham, King David, Judith, striking Holofernes), quotations from the New Testament, allusions to the words of Christ about the meaning of His Easter sacrifice for people. The true knowledge of goodness occurs only through a humble willingness to sacrifice oneself, since, according to V. Dudintsev, good is suffering, the fruit of which is true happiness, inaccessible to those who strive only for their own good. In the epilogue of the novel, the Easter worldview is embodied: sacrifice for others allows you to achieve Grace and, ultimately, overcome death.