From Stray Dog to Experiment

The Heart of a Dog

This central transformation follows Sharik from a wounded street dog into a humanized being whose conduct exposes the limits of scientific creation.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Scalded in the Snow Scalded in the Snow from "The Heart of a Dog". A Wounded Stray Street Survival Sharik suffers a severe scald after a cook throws boiling water on him.

Scalded in the Snow from "The Heart of a Dog". A Wounded Stray Street Survival Sharik suffers a severe scald after a cook throws boiling water on him.

A Wounded Stray Street Survival Sharik suffers a severe scald after a cook throws boiling water on him. Injured and cold, he imagines the hunger and sickness that could finish him. A Chance Encounter A passerby offers him sausage and kindness. Sharik follows the stranger toward warmth, trusting the person who has suddenly made survival possible.

Shelter and Healing Shelter and Healing from "The Heart of a Dog". A New Household Recovery Professor Preobrazhensky brings Sharik into his apartment and treats his wound.

Shelter and Healing from "The Heart of a Dog". A New Household Recovery Professor Preobrazhensky brings Sharik into his apartment and treats his wound.

A New Household Recovery Professor Preobrazhensky brings Sharik into his apartment and treats his wound. Food, heat, and safety replace the street's daily struggle. Dependence Sharik attaches himself to the professor, whose protection gives him comfort and status. The collar soon changes how porters and other dogs respond to him.

The Transplant Operation The Transplant Operation from "The Heart of a Dog". A Radical Intervention The Procedure Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormenthal transplant human testes and a pituitary gland into Sharik.

The Transplant Operation from "The Heart of a Dog". A Radical Intervention The Procedure Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormenthal transplant human testes and a pituitary gland into Sharik.

A Radical Intervention The Procedure Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormenthal transplant human testes and a pituitary gland into Sharik. The operation is dangerous, and the dog nearly dies. Uncertain Outcome The doctors watch for signs of survival, not knowing that the procedure will produce a transformation unlike the rejuvenation they had studied. Sharik's recovery becomes the experiment's first unsettling result.

A Human Form Emerges A Human Form Emerges from "The Heart of a Dog". Speech and Transformation Rapid Change Sharik loses much of his fur, grows, stands upright, and begins speaking.

A Human Form Emerges from "The Heart of a Dog". Speech and Transformation Rapid Change Sharik loses much of his fur, grows, stands upright, and begins speaking.

Speech and Transformation Rapid Change Sharik loses much of his fur, grows, stands upright, and begins speaking. His first words draw on the coarse street language he absorbed as a dog. Scientific Astonishment Doctor Bormenthal records the changes as evidence that the experiment has produced humanization rather than rejuvenation. The creature's language and body advance faster than his judgment.

Creation Becomes a Crisis Creation Becomes a Crisis from "The Heart of a Dog". The Experiment's Cost Social Harm As Poligraph Poligraphovich Sharikov, the former dog becomes violent, dishonest, and dangerous.

Creation Becomes a Crisis from "The Heart of a Dog". The Experiment's Cost Social Harm As Poligraph Poligraphovich Sharikov, the former dog becomes violent, dishonest, and dangerous.

The Experiment's Cost Social Harm As Poligraph Poligraphovich Sharikov, the former dog becomes violent, dishonest, and dangerous. His official position and political connections intensify the threat inside the household. Reversal Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormenthal restore him to canine form. The ending closes the experiment's immediate crisis but leaves its ethical and scientific implications unresolved.

Early in the story, on a winter afternoon

That evening and the following days

December 23, 1924

Late December 1924 to January 1925

Near the ending