Outstanding people of the past who survived parental abuse and became famous

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There is a popular opinion that the toughness and severity of parents helps children to reach the heights of skill and go down in history. There is another opinion - as if it is impossible to become an outstanding artist, poet and writer without overcoming real difficulties and resistance of the environment. As an example, biographies of several celebrities of the past are usually given, for example, six people on our list.

Karl Bryullov: deaf from blows, but became a famous artist

Karl was the son of the French painter Paul Brullot, who had made a career in Russia, and his German wife Maria Schroeder. From his son, Brullo Sr. set out to make not just an artist, not without orders, but an outstanding artist. And in the end he did - everyone, having seen several paintings by Bryullov, will confidently declare that he has known them since childhood. Karl Pavlovich was able to go down in history.

True, Paul Brullot's pedagogical methods were not distinguished by sophistication. Early in the morning he lifted his son almost with kicks out of bed; while the boy could not cope with the morning lesson, he was not allowed to eat; finally, Paul simply bludgeoned Karl for every mistake in drawing or painting technique. Karl was half deaf from one of the blows: the eardrum burst. Even for an artist, a person of no physical labor, fists do not look like cotton fists.

In addition to recognition and orders, Bryullov became famous among his contemporaries for outbursts of anger, alcoholism and bestial relations with women. Probably, along with excellent technique, these features came from a difficult childhood. Was it possible to achieve good technique without bullying a parent?

When the self-taught artist Pavel Fedotov once came to Bryullov, Karl Pavlovich received him more than coolly and said that Fedotov would not be a real artist: "Painting, music and circus art must be learned from childhood, or even better, inherit this art." But after a few years Fedotov became famous as a painter, author of a number of satirical paintings on the plot, and Bryullov had to applaud him along with everyone. But no one beat Fedotov for the sake of technology, he just worked because he liked to work … Probably, Bryullov was bitter to realize this.

The Bronte sisters: nothing beautiful, nothing expensive, nothing tasty

The father of the classic English writers Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, an Irish-born pastor, was a very harsh educator. He could have been balanced by a loving mother, but she died of an illness when the girls were still toddlers. Pastor Bronte made sure that no excessive tenderness or splendor would seduce the souls of the girls. Once one got wet boots; since the pastor did not buy more than one pair per person, the aunt had to get out of the closet a gift from her relatives, the same children's shoes, but beautifully decorated. Just so that the girl has something to wear while hers are drying. Seeing this toy of pride, the pastor immediately destroyed the “too luxurious” shoes.

Girls were not allowed to have anything too beautiful, except for books or what they would draw themselves, and they were not allowed to leave gifts, which relatives sometimes pampered orphans with. When his father was angry, he also destroyed quite modest furnishings. In addition, from day to day the girls ate one potato: there were no other vegetables in the harsh climate of Northern England, and the meat that could diversify the diet, the father considered another thing that corrupts the child's soul pride. It was possible to eat normally only outside the home. Of course, children were flogged - it was a common occurrence.

True, the father encouraged the literary experiences of children, playing at home theater, publishing a newspaper about an invented country, philosophical conversations, so that the girls had opportunities for personal growth, and they were not even too limited. But Ann and Charlotte grew up very frail, and Emily was also very nervous, prone to panic attacks. Ann suffered from gastritis. Charlotte married a tyrant of the household. All three sisters were too weak to fight the tuberculosis brought home by their brother, and all three died early. However, they went down in history, however, the main book of at least one of them, Emily, could only shock and enrage her father - this is a violent exposure of domestic violence, it is done with or without poking, and a longing for a good, accepting, loving family. bred in the image of the Lintons, who were not in the least spoiled by the rich furnishings and good clothes.

If you look at the biographies of other famous foreign writers, such as the legendary Georges Sand, the dreamy Tove Jansson, the mischievous Astrid Lindgren and the same classic writer as Brontë, Jane Austen, you can see that they achieved their fame without the hardships specially created by their parents in childhood. Quite the opposite: they were given a lot of freedom, and their hobbies were welcomed by the family.

Anton Chekhov: checkmate and jaws

Anton Pavlovich turned pale all his life, telling some facts about his childhood. His father, Pavel Yegorovich, ran a grocery store. He brought up children severely and, apparently, according to his idea, comprehensively. They were required to keep up with the gymnasium, in the evening - at work in the shop, on weekends - in the church choir. At home they were forced to pray for the affairs of the family and the health of the parents for a long time. To keep the children in time, two simple methods were used: beatings and swearing. The fact that Anton was beaten with a ruler at school and put on his knees in a corner was pleasant to his father: they discipline him. Lack of sleep (with such and such a load) affected the sons' quick wits, their quickness, but Pavel Yegorovich coped with this with the same obscenities and teeth.

Chekhov grew up a famous writer and a good doctor, and also a misanthrope who had been trying to become a humanist all his life, and also a man who felt a deep disgust for everything connected with religion, and also a man who, despite the love of friends and glory, was persecuted by painful memories, poisoning life, and who suffered from depressive conditions. Unlike, for example, Teffi, who was often compared to Chekhov. Teffi grew up in a loving family, her funny stories about childhood, where the writer herself and her no less famous poet-sister are shown at once in the image of the girl Lisa, are full of light and family love.

Karl Larsson: sunny house, dark attic

The singer of the legendary Solar House interior designer Karin Larsson, the equally legendary Karl Olof Larsson, her husband, had little good to say about his childhood. His father drank a lot and opened his hands at every opportunity. Mother once had to literally run away from him and begging, closing in on multi-family apartments, in which Karl watched day after day all the same scenes of violence, only now with neighbors. Perhaps it was the difficulties he experienced that made him look for light and happiness in any little things around, which made him famous as an artist. Perhaps it was the constant contemplation of violence that made him such a gentle husband and father. But all his life Karl Larsson suffered from depression and kept afloat only through the efforts of his wife Karin.

Unfortunately, Karl remained a very vulnerable person all his life. Every time he got nervous, he got wild headaches. One of the attacks of pain ended in a stroke. Did he have to go through the hell of his childhood to become a famous artist? Other famous Scandinavian painters, like Kai Nielsen and Jon Bauer, lived in friendly, loving, supportive families, and the childhood of one of the main Scandinavian writers Selma Lagerlöf was also full of special care and attention, because she was paralyzed as a child after polio. They developed, studied and worked, and did not overcome, but achieved no less. A good reason to think: if the result is the same, is it necessary to achieve it at the cost of bullying, destruction of family warmth and future depression?

Hitler convinced her to make Nazi films, and she helped the Jews: Asta Nielsen, the world's first film actress, grew up in a loving family and became a wonderful person and a movie legend. Another example to think about.