The image of Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin. Petersburg in the "Nevsky Prospect" Gogol

No Russian city attracted so much attention of writers of different epochs, like St. Petersburg. He became the image-riddle, image-symbol, image-era. Petersburg as if beckons to itself, attracts the imagination of writers, before its charm, sometimes gloomy and mystical, it is impossible to resist. He is represented as a living being, as a protagonist, as an unbridled element that carries only death and destruction. Writers have seen and see the Northern Palmyra uneven. So, differently interpreted the image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin.

Petersburg through the eyes of Alexander Pushkin

For Alexander Sergeevich Petersburg was a stronghold of the autocracy, a hymn to Petrine reforms and a reflection of the essence of the era, its mores, customs and habits. Bright image of the city is presented in one of the small tragedies - "The Bronze Horseman", as well as in "The Queen of Spades", "The Station Ranger" from the cycle "The Tale of Belkin" and a number of other works.

In the Bronze Horseman the image of St. Petersburg for Pushkin merged with the image of Peter and his political activities. The city became the embodiment of the autocracy, it is the city of Peter I, the capital of the Russian state.

However, the image of St. Petersburg reflects not only the greatness and beauty of Peter's activities, but also the defenselessness of ordinary people over its power and inevitability. Similar elements, it overwhelms the world and takes lives. Thus, the life of Eugene and his bride was ruined by the flood.

Pushkin raises in the tragedy the question of the reforms of Peter, which, of course, much has changed for the better in the country, but, however, did not take into account the interests of each individual. This contradiction remains unresolved, and the city itself becomes the symbol of this dilemma.

Hymn to Petersburg

The introduction of the tragedy The Bronze Horseman became a sign. It stands out sharply against the background of the subsequent chapters of the work by its solemnity, glee and brightness. Often the introduction is considered separately from the whole tragedy and is called the anthem of the Northern Palmyra. It is customary to compare with him the image of Petersburg in the works of Gogol, Dostoevsky and other Russian writers, who often enter into polemics with Pushkin.

Gambling and soulless Petersburg

The basis of "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin is a mystical plot. The main character is Herman, an inveterate gambler. He is captured by a crazy desire to learn the secret of the three cards that the old Countess keeps. Pushkin brightly and in detail describes the meaningless and useless life of players who spend all their time with cards. All the higher society - from young to old - is subject to this disease. The image of Petersburg becomes a symbol of the capital, which is immersed in absurdity and mysticism. A city that perverts people, erases people, disfigures judgments and ideals. Pushkin explains such a destructive effect by social causes. The upper class of this time did not represent his life without card games, spent all his time and money on this occupation. Cards are elevated to a pedestal of the highest value and importance. There were cases when a nobleman lost his wife.

At the same time, there was a fad about the role of fate, a case in the fate of man. This philosophy was perfectly combined with prosperous gambling. This is clearly seen in the example of Herman, who considers the opportunity to learn the mystery of cards by the will of Providence, and considers the wealth and position in society to be the highest value. This is how St. Petersburg appears in The Queen of Spades.

A similar image of the capital draws Pushkin in the "Stationmaster." The representative of the high society of Petersburg - the officer of Minsk - appears a selfish, deceitful and cruel person. While Vyrin is a poor and defenseless, but a moral person, he turns out to be a simple stationmaster who comes to the capital solely to get his daughter back.

Pushkin especially emphasizes the falsity of Petersburg. So, a decently dressed young man takes Vyrin's money. An image of the city is being created, where everything is not what it seems, cities with a double bottom.

In these works the image of Pushkin's Petersburg acquires such features as lying, cruelty, soullessness.

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol

Petersburg Gogol and Pushkin has both differences and similarities. The motives of mysticism, callousness, power and royalty will be key in the Gogolian image of the Northern Palmyra, but they are filed and depicted in a completely different way.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol spent a long time in the capital, which greatly affected his works. The theme of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol is one of the leading. He even wrote a series of Petersburg stories.

Petersburg Gogol is a fantastic mysterious world, full of gloomy mysticism. A world where power and luxury rule, and a small man does not cost anything and can perish without leaving a grain of memory about himself. Petersburg in the works of Gogol - a place where people talk to themselves, the noses run away from their owners and occupy a prominent place in society, and things come to life.

So, the image of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work can be briefly described as a set of hyperbolization, grotesque and satire.

Christmas and real St. Petersburg through the eyes of Gogol

The story "The Night Before Christmas" was one of the first, where St. Petersburg Gogol appeared. The city appears before the blacksmith Vakula fabulously shining and ringing world. On all sides it is surrounded by light and a lot of sounds, an incredible movement on the streets is staggering, animated houses seem to be watching him. In the description of the palace of the Empress, everything is also unusual and fabulous: paintings, stairs, and locks on the doors; And the inhabitants themselves are dressed in bright, fantastic outfits. The city appears in splendor and fabulous beauty.

He is completely different in the "Inspector". This is no longer a fairy tale, but a real image of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work. The city becomes a real pragmatic place, where the main thing in a person is well-being.

In a comedy about St. Petersburg, tell two characters - Khlestakov and his servant Osip. Through the eyes of Khlestakov, the reader sees a city where ranks are ruled by ranks and luxury. The limit of the dreams of a petty official wishing to have a meal or to be promoted to a field marshal. Therefore Khlestakov sees himself as a rich man with a high rank, who is feared and respected. For Osip Petersburg is completely different. This city is the eyes of a servant, in which there is no luxury, but there are all kinds of entertainment: horse-drawn carriage, theater, dancing dogs. And he likes most of all in this city the politeness of people in conversation. Petersburg Osip is much more real and soulful than Khlestakov's fabrications.

Petersburg "Dead Souls"

Throughout the writer's way, the attitude of Nikolai Vasilievich to North Palmira changed. But, even gradually transforming, retained its main features of the image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol. "Dead Souls" are the clearest illustration of these changes.

In each chapter of the poem, Gogol mentions Petersburg, not forgetting to say about him any sharpness. So, as soon as Chichikov approaches the tavern, the author ironically mentions the strangeness of the food of the St. Petersburg masters. Or let's take, say, a gubernatorial ball. Gogol notes that many of those gathered here are very similar to the capital's inhabitants. On the pages of the poem, there is often a snide comment of the author about the high ranks of Petersburg with awards and noble appearance, which can only be expected from the most disgusting muck.

As already noted, the theme of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work is key. And in the "Dead Souls" it was most clearly manifested in the story of Captain Kopeykin. This is a story about the hero of the war of 1812, an invalid who comes to St. Petersburg in the hope of a monarchy mercy. However, he is refused assistance. The city appears before us a stately and soulless stronghold of the sovereign's power, where there is no place for the poor and the suffering. Moreover, to a small man he is unjust, cruel and merciless.

Petersburg in the "Dead Souls" - a city on the bones, the ghost of a real city. Things and people in it are equally alive. He is like the center of the earth, where the whole world is assembled. The authorities here have the right to dispose of people as they please. Here there is no truth and protection, only a cold splendor of luxury and indifference and callousness of officials.

"Petersburg Stories"

The image of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work was largely based on the impressions that the writer received while living in the capital. It was then that he wrote a series of stories (Nevsky Prospekt, Nos, Portrait, The Overcoat, Notes of a Madman), which compiled the series The Petersburg Stories. These works are connected by a number of commonalities, such as:

• Ideological pathos, encased in the image of the power of money, which corrupts people, and denunciation of a social system full of lies and injustice.
• A problem reflecting the perniciousness and impunity of the power of money and ranks.
• The main character of all works is "a little man".

Petersburg in Gogol's stories is a city with social contradictions and social problems.

A walk along Nevsky Prospekt

The main street and symbol of St. Petersburg is Nevsky Prospekt, which reflects the whole essence of the Northern Palmyra. They are literally inseparable from each other. It is perfectly possible to trace how the image of the main street and the image of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work on the story "Nevsky Prospekt" are related. What will be discussed later.

Petersburg in Nevsky Prospekt Gogol is portrayed as drowning in luxury and splendor of lights, exultant and beautiful. But behind this are the indifference, coolness and emptiness that most characterize the true Nevsky Prospekt. Gogol's image of St. Petersburg continues to be endowed with the same illusory and deceptive features as Pushkin. Finally, two great writers came together in a single opinion. Here St. Petersburg Gogol and Pushkin becomes incredibly similar. Pushkin's motives from the "Stationmaster" continue to live in Nevsky Prospekt.

False, wicked and envious people inhabit Nevsky Prospekt. Gogol depicts the image of St. Petersburg as a painting in the painting. Under the top layer of bright, motley and tempting colors, dark dark tones of an unsightly and soulless city hide.

The image of St. Petersburg in Gogol's work appears fantastic and half-mad. Nevsky Prospekt serves as a mask, the mask that the city wears to further confuse and deceive its residents.

"Nevsky Prospect" serves as a prelude, a prologue to the whole cycle. The work depicts the external side of Petersburg, and its essence will manifest itself in subsequent stories.

Other Petersburg Stories: Nose, Overcoat, Portrait

Gogol in the story "The Nose" depicts an absurd situation - from Major Kovalev his nose runs, which was considered the only distinctive feature of the hero, as he was with a pimple. Using the grotesque, hyperbole and fiction, Gogol depicts and ridicules the authority of ranks and veneration. The writer critically depicts his contemporary life in all its absurdity and absurdity.

And the nose did not just run away from the owner, but also turned into a state councilor and began to walk around Petersburg. And Kovalev was forced to bow to him, since his rank was lower, and in the world of the major regalia everything is decided. The conclusion from this story was that the capital person has the most important thing - the nose, and without him they become nothing, an empty place. But the latter, dressed in a uniform, can become more important than his master.

The life of a St. Petersburg official is thus portrayed as aimless, empty and illusory.

Petersburg "Overcoats" is a city where human existence directly depends on its financial and social status. A city where there are two worlds: the first, filled with bright lights, where the highest officials live, and the second, where slops can be poured on the head of the passing, where the "little people" live, whose existence is broken imperceptibly, and life proceeds in poverty and fear. From this second world took his hero Gogol. Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, a representative of "little people", is a poor servile man, dreaming only about one - about a new overcoat. And to order it, he has to save on everything: from the tips and ending with candles and food.

Akaky Akakievich is spiritually poor man. His only occupation in life is service, and his cherished dream is a new overcoat. But Gogol depicts this unfortunate official so that he causes compassion, pity and sympathy. And this innocuous, never touching anyone, tragically perishes.

And at the time of his death in the heart of the "little man" a desire to rebel against such a world order is born. Against a social mechanism that grinds people. This little hammered man gives Gogol the ability to protest and resist the injustice and ruthlessness of the surrounding reality.

In the story "Portrait" sounds a theme of creativity, consonant with the theme of insanity. Petersburg here appears as a monster, crippling the souls of people. So, having achieved the desired - to get rich and do only drawing, the main character, Chartkov, turns out to be drugged by the power of gold. He becomes a well-known artist, his wealth grows, but talent decreases in proportion to him.

Realizing that irretrievably lost his ability, Chartkov spends his fortune on destroying art objects. Gradually, he becomes more and more insane, at the end he dies in agony and delirium.

Dostoevsky is the successor of Gogol's tradition

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Dostoevsky is almost the same. Fyodor Mikhailovich continued to portray the city as indifferent to alien suffering, full of insanity and maddening, grinding unprotected "little people".

Dostoevsky enriched Gogol's tradition of describing Petersburg. And created a predecessor based on his myth about the city. He managed to learn more about the destructive power of Petersburg, which affects the psyche of its inhabitants.

Gogol's grotesque and fantastic Petersburg were manifested in Dostoevsky's works through the visions and dreams of the main characters, through the mysticism of events. Due to this incredibility of coincidences, the realism of the writer was called "mystical."

Dostoevsky also refers to the images of "little people". But if it was typical for Gogol to be ironic and depict even the tragedy in a satirical way, Fyodor Mikhailovich focuses on the sufferings of the heroes, on their fates. Such are all the members of the Marmeladov family, so is Raskolnikov himself in "Crime and Punishment." In this novel the city becomes one of the main characters of the narrative. And this Petersburg depicted by Dostoevsky is close to St. Petersburg Akaky Akakievich.

In the works of Dostoevsky there remains only a dark, gloomy part of the city, no longer covered by Gogol's and Pushkin's lights and colors. The writer examines the stench and dirt of his backstreets, irregular broken corners of rooms, the dust of the pavement. All this puts pressure on a person, drives him crazy, cripples him.

conclusions

The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin, thus, has many similar features, as well as serious differences.

Petersburg in the works of Gogol is changeable and deceptive. The brightness of the lights in it is combined with the soullessness of its inhabitants. Petersburg was best represented in Gogol's Nevsky Prospekt. In this story, all the main motives, such as the duality of the Petersburg world, its insanity, falsity, destructive effect on its inhabitants, mysticism and illusory have found reflection.

Pushkinsky Petersburg embodies the spirit of the Petrine era. The city combines both the greatness of Peter's deeds, and all their horror - not in vain, it is built on bones and swamps. Pushkin creates a whole image, where the two merge into one. It's not like St. Petersburg Gogol, the city seems to double. Its beauty and splendor is only a false mask, under which lies the true essence - gloomy, dark, insane and pernicious.

For Pushkin and Gogol it was characteristic, creating the image of Petersburg, to choose the main character of the "little man" who is unable to resist the city, its structure and its laws. He is powerless to perish, broken and trampled.

Dostoevsky developed and enriched Gogol's traditions, creating his unique and unique image of Petersburg. The city, capable only of destroying human life and human reason.

The image of Petersburg remained and remains attractive for Russian writers. Thus, classical traditions were continued in their work by A. Akhmatova, A. Blok, A. Bely. And for sure the city on the Neva will continue to attract as many mysteries and mysteries as it will exist.