Abstract "Portrait" of N. Gogol: a mystical story, exciting hearts

Summary "Portrait" should start with the tragic story of the talented, but very poor artist Chartkov. Namely, from the moment when Chartkov spent the last twenty-hryvnia in a shop in the Shchukinsky yard to acquire the portrait of an old Asian man in a national costume. The attention of the artist was attracted by the fact that against the background of other paintings this seemed extremely realistic, and the eyes of the Asiatic were as if alive. Returning home, Chartkov learns that, as long as he was absent, the landlord came to demand a rent. Naturally, a poor artist almost immediately begins to regret the spontaneous purchase made. The close look of the painted old man gives Chartkov trouble, he even throws a sheet on the canvas.

Dream, embodied in reality

The summary "Portrait" of N. Gogol also should include the following important plot point - a nightmare dream that the artist imagined the same night. In a dream, the old man comes to life with a picture, sits down at Chartkov's bed and starts counting the money he brought in a sack. However, the frightened artist did not lose his head, but instead tried to hide the bundle with the inviting inscription "1000 chervontsi". Nightmare dreams Chartkov one by one, and the next morning he feels totally battered and exhausted. Soon the owner of the apartment returns for a fee. Having learned that the artist does not have money, he suggests that he pay off his works. The owner's attention attracted a new portrait of an Asian. He takes it in his hands to make out better, and at that moment on the floor falls that bundle on which is written "1000 chervontsov."

Unexpected wealth completely changes Chartkov

In the life of Chartkov, global changes are under way. He pays with the owner and begins to rent a luxury apartment on Nevsky, fashionable to dress, take rich customers. Often an artist visits aristocrats' houses, and starts talking about his colleagues with harshness and hints of arrogance. Chartkov's acquaintances are amazed at how quickly he was able to transform himself from a talented novice artist into a mediocre scumper. In the summary of "Portrait" should include the episode, where Chartkov sees in the Academy of Fine Arts the perfect work of one of his former comrades, sent from Italy. At this point, the protagonist realizes how low he fell. He locked himself in his workshop and began to work, but his work was hampered by ignorance of the simplest truths, which he initially neglected. In the heart of Chartkov, envy settles, and all the remaining money he spends on buying up the best works of art, which then severely destroys. A little more time has passed, and Chartkov falls ill with fever, which is joined by consumption, and then dies all alone. Until the last minute of the artist's life, the terrible eyes of the painted old man are being pursued.

The picture continues to live its own life

However, on this note, the summary "Portrait" does not end. An unusual portrait of an Asian with live eyes after a while becomes the center of attention at a single St. Petersburg auction. The cost of the canvas has already increased fourfold, and here B. is addressing the people present - an artist who claims that he has special rights to the picture. B. tells the story of his father.

The story told by Mr. B.

In his story was mentioned a city called Kolomna, as well as one who lived there as usury-Asian. The inhabitants of Kolomna often turned to him, because the conditions offered to him: interest, terms of payment of debt - at first seemed extremely attractive. However, over time, the amount of debt increased several times, and the borrowers were simply in a desperate situation.

However, much more remarkable was the fact that the character of the borrower sooner or later underwent changes. One young man who came to the Asian to lend money for a wedding with a girl whose parents were against their union in view of the financial difficulties of the groom got the desired. The wedding was held. But very soon after that, unexpected qualities emerged in the nature of the newly made spouse: rudeness, aggression, jealousy, intolerance. At some point, he even made an attempt to kill his wife, and in the end he himself laid hands on himself. And this was not the first and not the last sinister story associated with the usurer's name.

Father B. himself had some time to live next door to the moneylender. One day, the Asian asked the artist to portray his portrait, on which he looked "just alive." The master agrees to take up this work, however, the better and better the portrait looks, the more real the eyes of the usurer seem, the more painful and painful the feelings become. He is almost ready to give up work, but the Asian asks the master to finish what he started and assures that on this canvas he will "live after death." These words finally frightened the artist, and he escaped without completing the work on the portrait. The maid gave him an unfinished portrait, and the usurer died a day later. Outlining the brief content of the story "Portrait", it is important to note that the master who worked on the painting felt the change in his character, Father B: he began to feel envy, seeing the success of his pupil, and surreptitiously harming him. Even in other, new works, the eyes of the moneylender always appear.

The artist wants to burn the canvas that broke his fate, but by coincidence, the work is begged for himself by his friend, who soon gives it to his nephew. And he, just like the previous owners, wants to get rid of the terrible portrait. After the artist's son and wife perish, confidence grows in him that the soul of the moneylender has really moved into the picture and through it continues to carry evil into the world. His older son, he sends to study at the Academy of Arts, and he refuses the life of the layman and goes to the monastery, begins to lead a strict and righteous lifestyle. This son was already mentioned B. He visits his father before going to Italy, and he decides to tell him the story of the moneylender. In addition, the old artist asks his son to find a portrait and finally destroy it.

Unexpected ending

Fifteen years of his life, B. spends on finding a canvas. And here he is next to a painting that has broken so many lives. However, at the moment when B. himself and the listeners who surrounded him turn to the side of the picture, it is no longer there. From the crowd one hears a voice: "Stolen." Probably, it really was so.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol left such an uncharacteristic and disturbing mind for us. "Portrait", a very brief summary of which is given in this article, can indeed be called one of the most mysterious and emotionally strong works of the writer.