Character and image of Peter 1 in the poem "The Bronze Horseman"

"The Bronze Horseman" is perhaps the most ambiguous work of Pushkin, imbued with deep symbolism. Historians, literary scholars and ordinary readers have been arguing for more than one century, breaking spears, creating and overthrowing theories as to what the poet really wanted to say. Special controversy evokes the image of Peter 1 in the poem The Bronze Horseman.

Contradiction of Peter 1 to Nicholas 1

The work was written during the reign of Nicholas 1, to which Pushkin had great claims regarding the administration of the state: the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, the creation of a secret police, the introduction of total censorship. Therefore, many scientists see the opposition of the great reformer Peter 1 to the reactionary Nicholas 1. Also many researchers of Pushkin's art look through the analogies between the Bronze Horseman and the Old Testament. The floods in Petersburg, especially the devastating flood of 1824, led the author to the idea of a worldwide flood, so in the work The Bronze Horseman, a number of thinkers associate the image of Peter 1 with the image of God (a deity) capable of creating and destroying.

Hail of Petrov

However, even the place of action can not be accurately named. Let's ask the question: "In what city is the action of the Pushkin poem dedicated to the flood of 1824?" The question seems to allow a single answer: of course, it happens in St. Petersburg, because the image of Peter the Great in Pushkin's art is invariably associated with this city. However, as is easy to see, this answer is not so logical: in one line of the poem Petersburg has never been named Petersburg! In the introduction, the descriptive expressions are used: "Peter's creation" and "Petrov's castle", in the first part the name Petrograd ("Above the marred Petrograd ...") and Petropol once (Petripol, like Triton ... ").

It turns out, the city is, but this is not real Petersburg, but a certain mythical city of Peter. Even on this basis the researchers portrayed the image of Peter 1 in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" mythologized. If we consider the entire text of the poem as a whole, Petersburg is mentioned three times in it: once in the subtitle (The Petersburg Story) and twice in prose author's notes. In other words, in this way Pushkin gives us to understand: in spite of the fact that "the incident described in this story is based on truth," the city in which the very action of the poem unfolds is not St. Petersburg. More precisely, not exactly St. Petersburg is in one sense three different cities, each of which is related to one of the characters of the work.

Proud image

The names "Peter Creation" and "Peter's City" correspond with Peter - the only hero of this part of the poem, and in Pushkin Peter appears a kind of deity. It is about depicting his statue, that is, about the earthly embodiment of this deity. For Pushkin, the very appearance of the monument - a direct violation of the commandment "do not make yourself an idol." Actually, this explains the contradictory attitude of the poet to the monument: despite all its greatness, it is terrible, and it is difficult to recognize the words about the proud idol for the compliment.

The official view is that Pushkin was ambivalent about Peter 1 as a state husband. On the one hand, it is great: the reformer, the warrior, the "builder" of St. Petersburg, the creator of the fleet. On the other - a formidable ruler, at times a tyrant and a despot. In the poem "The Bronze Horseman" Pushkin, Peter also interpreted the image in two ways, elevating him to the rank of God and the demiurge at the same time.

On whose side is Pushkin

A favorite debate among culturologists was the question of who Pushkin sympathized with: the all-powerful deified Peter, or the "little man" Eugene, who personified a simple townsman, on whom little depends. In the poem masterpiece "The Bronze Horseman" the description of Peter 1 - the reviving almighty monument - echoes with the description of the state. And Eugene is an average citizen, a cog in a huge state machine. There is a philosophical contradiction: is it permissible for the state in its movement, the desire for development to forgo the lives and destinies of ordinary people for the sake of achieving greatness, a certain high goal? Either every person is an individual, and his personal desires should be taken into account, even to the detriment of the development of the country?

Pushkin did not express his unequivocal opinion either verbally or in verse. His Peter 1 is able to create and destroy. His Eugene is able to love (dear daughter of the widow Parasha), and dissolve in the crowd, in the gloom of the city, becoming a worthless part of the gray mass. And - ultimately - to die. A number of authoritative Pushkin scholars believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle: there is no state without man, but it is impossible to observe the interests of everyone. Perhaps this is what a poetic novel was written about.

Peter 1

The image of Peter does not give rest to culturologists. In Soviet times, dogmas prevented the great reformer from representing a deity, because religion was subjected to oppression. For all, it was a "talking bronze statue", living in the sick imagination of the hero of the story of Eugene. Yes, it is symbolic, but a profound analysis of symbols remained an excuse for the discussions of learned men. Comparing the image of Peter 1 in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" with biblical subjects was fraught.

Yet Pushkin's Peter 1 is a bronze statue or a deity? In one of the Soviet publications, Pushkin's poems to the line "Idol on the Bronze Horse" contain the following commentary of Pushkin's classic Pushkin studies: "The idol in Pushkin's language means" statue. "Meanwhile, Pushkin scholars noted that when the word" idol "is used by Pushkin in Literally, and not figuratively, it almost always means a statue of God.This circumstance can be traced in many verses: "The poet and the crowd", "To the nobleman", "Vesuvius of the dawn opened ..." etc. Even Emperor Nicholas 1, Manuscript, noted this circumstance TVO and wrote in the margin of the highest number of comments December 14 1833 Pushkin made an entry in a diary, which complained that the emperor returned poem with comments:. "The word" idol "is not missed highest censorship".

Biblical motifs

The echo of the images of Peter and the Bronze Horseman with biblical images literally hovers in the air. This is indicated by the revered Pushkin scholars Brodotskaya, Arkhangelsk, Tarkhov, Shcheglov and others. The poet, referring to the rider as an idol and idol, directly points to the biblical heroes. It is noticed that the image of Peter is constantly associated with Pushkin's idea of a mighty force close to God and the elements.

Not only the image of Peter 1 in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" is associated with a biblical character. Eugene is also a direct analog of another Old Testament character - Job. His wrathful words, addressed to "I Wish the World" (the bronze horseman), correspond to Job's grumbling against God, and the menacing pursuit of the revived horseman resembles the phenomenon of "God in the Storm" in the Book of Job.

But if Peter is an Old Testament God, and the statue of Falcone is a pagan sculpture replacing it, the flood of 1824 is a biblical flood. At least, so bold conclusions make many experts.

The penalty for sins

There is another characteristic of Peter. "The Bronze Horseman" would not be a great work if it could be deciphered so easily. Researchers have noticed that the rider stands on the side of the irresistible force of nature as a force that punishes Eugene for sins. He himself is terrible. It is surrounded by darkness, it contains a huge and, according to the logic of Pushkin's description, an ungainly force that raised Russia.

According to the figure of the Bronze Horseman in the poem, the image of his historical action is determined, the essence of which is violence, inexorability, inhumanity of unprecedented proportions in the name of realizing his grandiose plans through suffering and sacrifice. It is in the brass rider that the cause of the death of his world, the irreconcilable hostility between stone and water, is concluded, which is unexpectedly indicated in the final of the introduction after the utopian picture of the majestic, beautiful, blessed city associated with Russia.

Pushkin as a prophet

Rethinking the work, the thought comes that for bad deeds a payment will come. That is, the bronze Peter resembles the horsemen of the Apocalypse, who commit retribution. Perhaps Pushkin hinted to Tsar Nicholas 1 about the inevitability of punishment, that "having sown the wind, reap a whirlwind."

Historians call the uprising of the Decembrists a harbinger of the revolutions of 1917. Nicholas 1 brutally suppressed dissent: some of the Decembrists were hanged, some survived the life of convicts in Siberia. However, the social processes that led to the insurrection were not taken into account by the authorities. The conflict of contradictions has ripened, and after half a century it turned into the fall of tsarism. In this light, Pushkin appears as a prophet, foretold the indomitable people's element, which flooded the "city of Petrov", and Peter himself in copper form committed retribution.

Conclusion

The poem "The Bronze Horseman" is not at all simple. The image of Peter is extremely contradictory, the plot at first glance is simple and understandable, but the text is filled with explicit and hidden symbols. It is no accident that the work was severely subjected to censorship and was not immediately published.

The poem has two main lines of its development, related to the fate of the city of Petra and the fate of Eugene. In ancient myths, there are many descriptions of how the Gods destroy cities, lands, people are often punished for bad behavior. Here and in the "Petersburg story" can be traced Pushkin transformation of this scheme: Peter, personifying the demiurge, conceives the construction of the city solely for the sake of the public good. In the transfiguration of nature, in the conclusion of the Neva River, an analogy with the transformation of the state is traced in stone, with the direction of vital processes in the state channel.

However, in the figurative-event system of the poem it is shown how and why creation turns into a catastrophe. And this is connected with the essence of the brass rider, which is depicted by Pushkin, first of all, in the episode of Eugene's insight, flowing into the scene of his pursuit of an animated statue. The city, erected on a piece of land selected from nature, was ultimately flooded with "conquered elements".

Was Pushkin a prophet? What incentive motivations made him write such a complex contradictory creation? What did he want to tell the readers? The generations of the Pushkinists, literary critics, historians, philosophers will still debate this. But what is important is another thing: what a concrete reader will take from the poem, the very cog, without which the state machine will slip.