Analysis of the concept of beauty in the story "Nevsky Prospekt"

2.1 Petersburg as an image of beauty in the story "Nevsky Prospekt"

Petersburg has always inspired and inspired writers. Pushkin admired his beauty; "I love you Peter's creation", as well as many writers of that time. The image of St. Petersburg is ambiguous, usually it appears majestic, beautiful, but cold and sometimes cruel. It was in St. Petersburg that many prominent figures of Russia wanted to go. Petersburg was the concentration of outstanding talents and minds.

How does Gogol relate to the city.

The story begins with a description of Nevsky Prospekt: ​​“There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt, at least in St. Petersburg; for him he is everything. What does not shine this street - the beauty of our capital! I know that none of its pale and bureaucratic inhabitants would exchange for all the benefits of Nevsky Prospekt. Not only someone who is twenty-five years old, has a beautiful mustache and a wonderfully tailored frock coat, but even someone who has white hair popping up on his chin and a head as smooth as a silver dish, and he is delighted with Nevsky Prospekt. And ladies! Oh, Nevsky Prospekt is even more pleasant for ladies. And who doesn't like it? As soon as you ascend Nevsky Prospekt, it already smells of one festivities. Even if you have some necessary, necessary business, but, having ascended it, you will surely forget about every business. Here is the only place where people are shown not out of necessity, where their need and mercantile interest, embracing the whole of St. Petersburg, have not driven them. It seems that the person you meet on Nevsky Prospekt is less selfish than on Morskaya, Gorokhovaya, Liteinaya, Meshchanskaya and other streets, where greed and self-interest and need are expressed in people walking and flying in carriages and droshkys. Nevsky Prospekt is the general communication of St. Petersburg. Here, a resident of the Petersburg or Vyborg part, who for several years has not been to his friend at Sands or at the Moscow outpost, can be sure that he will certainly meet him. No address-calendar and reference place will deliver such true news as Nevsky Prospekt. Almighty Nevsky Prospekt! The only entertainment of the poor in the festivities of St. Petersburg! How cleanly its sidewalks are swept, and, God, how many feet have left their footprints on it! And the clumsy dirty boot of a retired soldier, under the weight of which, it seems, the very granite is cracking, and the miniature, light as smoke, slipper of a young lady, turning her head to the shiny windows of the store, like a sunflower to the sun, and the rattling saber of a hopeful ensign, seeing a sharp scratch on it - everything takes out on it the power of strength or the power of weakness. What a quick phantasmagoria takes place on it in just one day! How many changes he will endure in one day! [N.V. Gogol. Tales. M - 1949. S.3]

Gogol's Petersburg is not just a capital, it is a majestic metropolis with magnificent palaces and streets and the Neva.

Of course, the beauty of the city enchants, because the description of the city, and in particular Nevsky Prospekt, is the third part of the story. One can agree with Fomin O. [Fomin O. Secret symbolism in Nevsky Prospekt. Traditional study // Bronze Age electronic version. http://www.vekovka.h1.ru/bv/bv23/23fomin.htm] about the fact that "compositional articulation", the narrative fabric of "Nevsky Prospekt" is divided into three parts. The first part is actually a description of Nevsky Prospekt, the second is the story of Piskarev's unhappy love for a beautiful stranger, and, finally, the third is Lieutenant Pirogov's "drag" after a stupid German woman. Moreover, the first part, as it were, is split into a prologue and an epilogue, in which the "image of the author" and the notorious landscape are given.

Speaking of "landscape" in relation to the description of the life of Nevsky Prospekt, we still admit a certain inaccuracy. The landscape here in some way develops into a "portrait". Nevsky Prospekt for Gogol is a living creature, essentially hostile to man, but also not without a certain ambivalence. If in Goethe Mephistopheles, wishing harm to a person, brings him good (which, by the way, is partly connected with the medieval comic interpretation of the devil), then in Gogol we can observe the opposite "replacement": Nevsky Prospekt, with its frank positivity, is veiledly negative. The elements on which St. Petersburg's "cosmo-psychologos" is based are water and stone (earth)."

Yes, Petersburg is a living character, a majestic character, beautiful, but deceptive. Its beauty drives many people crazy, people who come to St. Petersburg are faced not only with its beauty, but also with its cruel essence. They had to endure humiliation and want; the city seemed to suck people into a swamp of lies, vulgarity, stupidity, ostentatious luxury, behind which extreme poverty often hid.

Thus, the beauty of St. Petersburg is deceptive, illusory. All the fuss is tinsel, everything is fake: “Thousands of varieties of hats, dresses, scarves - colorful, light, to which their owners sometimes remain attached for two whole days, will blind anyone on Nevsky Prospekt. It seems as if a whole sea of ​​moths has suddenly risen from the stems and is agitated in a brilliant cloud over the male black beetles. Here you will meet such waists that you have never even dreamed of: thin, narrow waists, no thicker than a bottle neck, when you meet them, you will respectfully step aside so as not to inadvertently push with an impolite elbow; timidity and fear will take possession of your heart, so that somehow, from even your careless breathing, the most charming work of nature and art will not break. And what women's sleeves you will meet on Nevsky Prospekt! Ah, what a delight! They are somewhat like two balloons, so that the lady would suddenly rise into the air if the man did not support her; because it is as easy and pleasant to lift a lady into the air as a glass filled with champagne is brought to the mouth. Nowhere at a mutual meeting do they bow so nobly and naturally as on Nevsky Prospekt. Here you will meet a unique smile, a smile of the height of art, sometimes such that you can melt with pleasure, sometimes such that you suddenly see yourself below the grass and lower your head, sometimes such that you feel yourself higher than the Admiralty Spitz and lift it up. Here you will meet people talking about a concert or about the weather with extraordinary nobility and self-respect. Here you will meet a thousand incomprehensible characters and phenomena. [N.V. Gogol. Tales. M - 1949. P.4] This description sounds ironic overtones. Luxury, falsehood and vanity are shown.

The beauty of Nevsky is distorted, one can agree with Fomin, who wrote the following:

“Water vapors, fogs distort, pervert reality. The element of water, as unconditionally connected with lunar symbolism, gives rise to oneiric fantasies that keep their dead. The “new left” (in this case, by “left” we mean not so much a political orientation as an initial metaphysical attitude), philosopher Gaston Bachelard notes: “... literary suicide is imbued with amazing ease with the imagination of death. It puts in order the images of death "Water is the fatherland of the living nymphs as much as of the dead. She is the true matter of death in the 'highest degree feminine'." Water is an element that accepts and gives rise to ghosts. The most famous "ghost towns" are London and St. Petersburg. The water in Nevsky Prospekt is the "lower waters", the substance of the lower astral world, the world of a multitude of feelings and illusions, while the earth is the bearer of inertia of the rationalistically determined and boredom ("it's boring to live in the world, gentlemen!"). Nevsky Prospekt serves as a carrier of the fantastic. And the fantastic in Gogol, as a rule, is hostile to man. Later, Gogol evolves towards the removal of the carrier of the fantastic (Yu. Mann) and "Nevsky Prospekt" just captures the intermediate stage of this transition. Fantastic is evil, "illusory", nocturnal, watery and tragic. Everyday is human, "real", daytime, earthy and comical. This opposition excludes the Divine as such. Infernal forces and man are opposed.

In "Nevsky Prospekt" the illusory (for all its negative coloration) is beautiful. This stems from the original romantic setting. But the fear of the illusory and the triumph of Pirogov over Piskarev is an inoculation against romanticism, its overcoming. The euphonically similar surnames of the characters indicate their relationship. Piskarev and Pirogov are "divine twins", endlessly exchanging elements of traditional archetypal functions. This is a world where good does not exist (both in the humanistic and in the Orthodox sense of the word).” [Fomin O. Secret symbols in "Nevsky Prospekt". Traditional study // Bronze Age electronic version. http://www.vekovka.h1.ru/bv/bv23/23fomin.htm]

Beauty is deceptive, beauty is illusory, it attracts and destroys people, destroys the protagonist of the story. It turns out that only rogues, like Pirogov, can survive in this greatness. In the last lines of the story, Gogol says that one cannot trust the beauty of Nevsky: “Oh, do not believe this Nevsky Prospekt! I always wrap my cloak tightly around myself when I walk on it, and try not to look at all at the objects I meet. Everything is a lie, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems! Do you think that this gentleman, who walks around in a well-tailored frock coat, is very rich? Nothing happened: he consists entirely of his frock coat. Do you imagine that these two fat men, who have stopped in front of a church under construction, are judging its architecture? Not at all: they are talking about how strangely two crows sat one against the other. Do you think that this enthusiast, waving his arms, is talking about how his wife threw a ball out of the window at an officer who was completely unknown to him? Not at all, he's talking about Lafayette. You think these ladies are... but trust the ladies least of all. Look less into the windows of shops: the trinkets displayed in them are beautiful, but they smell like a terrible amount of banknotes. But God forbid you look under the ladies' hats! No matter how the beauty’s cloak flutters in the distance, I will never go after her to inquire. Further, for God's sake, further from the lantern! and as soon as possible, pass by. It's still a blessing if you get off with him flooding your smart frock coat with his stinking oil. But apart from the lantern, everything breathes deceit. He lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt, but most of all when the night condenses on him in a condensed mass and separates the white and pale-yellow walls of houses, when the whole city turns into thunder and brilliance, myriads of carriages fall from bridges, postilions shout and jump on horses and when the demon himself lights the lamps only to show everything not in its present form. [N.V. Gogol. Tales. M - 1949. S.3]

Thus, we can say that the concept of beauty in the image of Nevsky Prospekt is unique. Beauty does not save, but destroys. Beauty, which should carry positive motives, carries lies and deceit. In general, Nevsky Prospekt is just a beautiful face of a strange, fantastic, half-mad city.

Many writers who worked in the 19th century turned to the theme of St. Petersburg in their work. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and his "Nevsky Prospekt" are no exception. The analysis of this story is, first of all, the study of the image of this city and how it appears to us in the work. Petersburg is a truly amazing city, because it was built in defiance of all the laws of nature in an extremely short time, and by the will of just one person. For centuries, it has been a symbol of the struggle of contrasts: poverty and prosperity, beauty and ugliness - all these extremes coexisted here in some incomprehensible way.

The image of St. Petersburg in the work of N. V. Gogol

The most outstanding minds of Russia from an early age aspired to St. Petersburg, and it was in this city that they won the status of the best publicists, writers, critics, etc. However, here they came face to face with poverty and humiliation. The city seemed to suck people into a swamp of ostentatious luxury, vulgarity and stupidity. The center and the place where these seemingly incompatible concepts met was the main street of the city - the same Nevsky Prospekt.

An analysis of N. Gogol's story necessarily pays great attention to the image of the city itself, which seems to be endowed with its own soul. This is not just a capital, not just a metropolis with amazingly beautiful streets, majestic palaces and the picturesque Neva. Petersburg, in the author's view, is a kind of revived giant, which has its own unique face, disposition, whims and habits.

Hundreds of people walk along Nevsky Prospekt every day. And they also have different personalities. Gogol separately emphasizes that, despite the fact that at any time of the day you can meet a huge crowd of people on the avenue, there is no sense of unity, some kind of community between them. The only thing that unites all of them is the meeting place. Describing the street, the author says that it creates a feeling as if some kind of demon has crushed the whole world into many tiny fragments and "uselessly, senselessly mixed together."

The similarity of fate and the inconsistency of the characters of Pirogov and Piskarev

However, as the story progresses, the story “Nevsky Prospekt”, which we are analyzing, includes two whole characters, to whom the author pays close attention. The first is Lieutenant Pirogov, and the second is Piskarev, "a young man in a tailcoat and raincoat." Pirogov is well aware of the laws of the modern world. He knows that life in a majestic city is a lot like playing roulette. But the one who is ready to constantly take risks for the sake of fulfilling his most secret, hopeless and even sometimes absurd dreams will be able to conquer him.

The lieutenant, following his convictions, takes risks. In his loss, he does not see anything unusual or tragic, and, not without the influence of the cool evening Nevsky Prospekt, he quickly copes with the "anger and indignation" that has seized him.

The second hero - Piskarev, the same "young man in a raincoat and tailcoat", is trying to act in the same way as his friend. He, too, fails. But for him, feeling alone and a stranger in the northern capital of the empire, such an event becomes fatal. Timid and shy by nature, the artist, who carried sparks of feeling in his heart all his life, which were always just waiting in the wings to “turn into flames”, literally entrusted his fate to Nevsky Prospekt. Analysis of the work "Nevsky Prospekt" is an analysis of two stories that are similar in appearance, but completely different in their essence. Both heroes risk everything, but Pirogov, for whom everything that happens is a game, essentially loses nothing. For Piskarev, this is life. A person who subtly feels the world is unable to instantly become rude and callous, to stop trusting the world. However, he cannot quickly forget about the disappointment that he experienced through the fault of the famous prospect.

What did Gogol want to show by completing Nevsky Prospekt? The analysis of this story is an analysis of a parallel story about two characters who are opposites of each other in character and attitude. For the reader, such a contrast allows a deeper understanding of the inconsistency of Nevsky Prospekt itself. The comical nature of the situation in which Lieutenant Pirogov finds himself is contrasted with the tragic fate of the poor fellow Piskarev. In the same way, the atmosphere of comic vulgarity, characteristic of Nevsky in the morning, is combined with the tragic evening vulgarity and lies. “... he lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt,” says Gogol.

Conclusion

A tiny light that dances before your eyes, beckons and lures you into dangerous networks - this is how the author seeks to present Nevsky Prospekt to the reader. Analysis of the story makes you think about deeply philosophical questions. For the artist Piskarev, the meeting with Nevsky and its inhabitants becomes fatal, it literally devastates his soul. Before his eyes, the beauty of the world turns into nothing, and the question itself arises: “If all this is a ghostly mirage, then what is real at all?” And the author gives the answer - Nevsky Prospekt itself remains real, in which the eternal mystery is combined with the eternal deception.

Piskarev is one of the main characters in N. V. Gogol's story "Nevsky Prospekt", a modest artist, a friend of Pirogov. This character lives in his little world, from which he rarely goes out into the real world. Gogol emphasizes that he is not at all like Italian artists, hot and proud. Piskarev is rather timid and shy. That spark of talent that is hidden in him is ready to turn into a flame at any convenient moment. Like most of the heroes of the author's Petersburg stories, he is poor and content with little. Even the name of the hero suggests that he belongs to the category of "little man" in literature.

His dreaminess and romanticism are opposed by the complacency of his friend Pirogov. When one day they, walking along Nevsky Prospekt, saw two charming persons, they decided to follow them, each with his own goal. Pirogov followed the blonde, confident that he would get it one way or another. And Piskarev followed the young brunette, succumbing to the need for pure and unselfish love. Learning that his ideal of beauty and purity lives in a brothel, he could not cope with disappointment. The merciless reality destroyed his dreams, and the artist went into himself forever. In an escape from reality, he even began to take opium. In the end, having stopped all communication with the outside world, Piskarev died. So the poor artist, who carried a spark of talent in himself, became a victim of unhappy love.

Above the story "Nevsky Prospect" Nikolai Gogol began working in 1831 and published it in the collection Arabesques four years later. This work belongs to the cycle of Gogol's St. Petersburg stories, which also included "The Overcoat", "Portrait", "Notes of a Madman", "The Nose", "Carriage" and "Rome". The author captures the features and customs of the Russian capital from various angles. In addition to the satirical exposure of the vices of society, in each work of the St. Petersburg cycle there is a “little man” who desperately fights for the right to a decent life.

"Nevsky Prospekt" consists of three parts. The first part is a real city, well known to every resident of the capital. In the second part, we are presented with a bizarre space of illusions in which two stories develop. Gogol, as if by chance, snatches two young people from the crowd and sends them on love adventures. The third part of the story is a kind of metaphysical experience of perceiving Nevsky Prospekt and St. Petersburg as a whole.

The story begins with a description of the main metropolitan highway. Gogol calls Nevsky "universal communication of St. Petersburg". Thousands of people pass here during the day, followed by the writer with interest and involving readers in his thoughts. For Gogol, this prospectus is the main acting character: with his own face, manners, habits, character.

The heroes of the story are lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev. They are not friends, because they are completely different in worldview. And Gogol skillfully emphasizes this antagonism: one is a comic character, the other is a tragic figure.

Pirogov- an impudent and self-confident careerist, for whom the main thing in life is to curry favor, to achieve a secure position in society. For this, he is ready to profitably marry an unloved woman, to step over many moral obstacles. Pirogov arrogantly treats those who are lower in rank, and blindly imitates everything that is in fashion among the select public. The lieutenant does not think about problems, he seeks to receive only pleasure from life. Pirogov takes care of the naive Piskarev in a lordly way, accustoming him to a life filled with emptiness and idleness.

A completely different artist Piskarev. He is a naive romantic, subtle and vulnerable. “Shy, timid, but in his soul he carried sparks of feeling, ready to turn into a flame”, - this is how Gogol characterizes his hero. In every woman, Piskarev sees the Muse, therefore he admires and idolizes them.

Once, while walking along Nevsky Prospekt, friends met charming strangers and embarked on an adventurous adventure: the artist followed the brunette, immediately falling in love with her, and the lieutenant chose the blonde, counting on a fleeting affair.

The chosen one of the artist turned out to be a girl from a brothel, behind whose "heavenly appearance" a vulgar and stupid nature was hidden. But the invented image does not give rest to the young talent. To see the girl at least in a dream, Piskarev begins to take opium. Following the dictates of his heart, the artist again finds his beauty and offers her an honest and simple life, but she only laughs in response. Piskarev is shocked and crushed. He locks himself in his room, where a week later he is found with his throat slit. “So he died, a victim of insane passion, poor Piskarev, quiet, timid, modest, childishly simple-hearted, carrying a spark of talent in himself, perhaps with time it would flare up widely and brightly”, - Gogol laments.

Friend Pirogov did not even come to the funeral, because at that time he was going through his adventures. His lady of the heart turned out to be the wife of the German tinsmith Schiller. The self-confident lieutenant long enough sought the location of the beauty. When the longed-for goal was close, Schiller and his friends caught a couple on a hot one. The unfortunate womanizer was severely punished and thrown out into the street. Pirogov furiously showered curses on the tinsmith and his friends and threatened Siberia. But then he went to the confectionery, having eaten pies and read the newspaper, calmed down and simply forgot about the unpleasant incident.

This is how these stories ended in different ways: the talented and promising Piskarev fell victim to insane passion, and the cynic and careerist Pirogov escaped with a slight fright. Two different adventures are united by a lost ending: the heroes never got what they "for which, it seemed, all their forces were prepared".

Nevsky Prospekt cannot be trusted, because there is complete deceit. Such a disappointing conclusion is made by Nikolai Gogol, warning the reader about the wrong side of a beautiful life and its hidden deceit. The sad thoughts of the writer about the unfulfillment of human hopes complete this unusual story.

In Nevsky Prospekt, Gogol for the first time tried to combine the funny and the tragic, the high and the low, the holy and the vulgar. In the future, this expressive artistic technique will become the main one in his work.

• "Nevsky Prospekt", a summary of Gogol's story
• "Portrait", analysis of Gogol's story, composition

The name of this work suggests that the main image and a kind of main participant in the events that Gogol created is Nevsky Prospekt. The summary, of course, will not be able to tell so vividly about this street that it “smells like a walk”. So, let's try to remember what this book is about.

Description of Nevsky Prospekt

Let us turn to how N.V. Gogol "Nevsky Prospekt". The summary of this work should begin with a description of this street. The rich language of the writer very vividly conveys to us the atmosphere of St. Petersburg of that time. We see people walking along the main street of this city. In the morning on Nevsky you can meet beggars, working people, officials. At noon, governesses with children appear there, and this avenue can be safely called “pedagogical”. From two to three o'clock on the avenue you can see a real "parade of ranks". This is a real exhibition of ladies' hats, shoes, shoes, dresses, men's sideburns and mustaches. After four o'clock the avenue is empty and comes to life again with the onset of twilight, as Gogol writes. The story "Nevsky Prospekt", a summary of which we are considering, introduces us further to two characters.

Meeting of Pirogov and Piskarev

In the evening, two comrades meet on the avenue. So Gogol continues Nevsky Prospekt. A summary of the book is impossible without a description of these two characters. Pirogov is a narcissistic lieutenant, confident in his success with women. Piskarev, on the contrary, is a shy and timid artist who does not dare to hope for mutual attention from young people. On Nevsky, the lieutenant drew attention to a charming blonde, and the brunette liked the artist. Further, the young people missed each other.

A beautiful stranger

It should be noted that the central work in the cycle "Petersburg Tales" by Gogol is "Nevsky Prospekt". The summary of this work makes us follow along with Piskarev for a beautiful young girl. He only wanted to know where she lived - he dreamed of nothing else. However, the smile with which the stranger turned to the young man inspired him. And what happened to him when, going up to the house, the young lady with a gesture ordered him to follow her!

Disappointment

Piskarev followed the stranger, having the most tender and lofty feelings. The door was opened by a woman. The apartment they entered struck Piskarev: he realized that he was in a shelter of debauchery. The shocked young man ran away.

Dreams and Dreams

Once at home, Piskarev fell asleep. He had a dream. It is with this episode that Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol continues Nevsky Prospekt. The summary of this story will further tell us what the young man dreamed about.

So, Piskarev saw that a footman had come for him, and, saying that the same lady had sent him, he ordered to follow him. He was at a ball in a magnificent mansion. All the ladies were beautiful, but the most brilliant of all, of course, was She. The girl tried to say something to Piskarev, but they were constantly interfered with. He woke up. Life has lost its meaning for the young man. To sleep better, he bought opium. His existence only made sense in dreams.

Piskarev imagined that he would marry this girl, and she would go off the terrible path she was on. One day he decided to propose to her. Going to that house, he saw her again and told her about his plan. The response to his words was contempt. Piskarev fled again and did not leave his room for several days. When the door was forced open, they found a young man with his throat cut.

About Pirogov

The story about the friend of the unfortunate Piskarev continues Gogol's "Nevsky Prospekt". The summary of this story sends us in the footsteps of the blonde and Pirogov to the house of the tinsmith Schiller, whose wife was the fair-haired girl. In addition to Schiller, there was also the shoemaker Hoffmann in the room. Together they put Pirogov, but he decided not to give up and, having come the next day, began to flirt with a young woman. She threatened to complain to her husband. Pirogov ordered spurs from Schiller in order to have a reason to appear in this house again. The impudent behavior of Pirogov brought the tinsmith out of himself. He, having agreed with his wife and friends, decided to teach him a lesson. The blonde invited him to her room, where after a while Schiller burst in with his friends and, having beaten the young man, put him out.

However, Pirogov was not annoyed for long. Having refreshed himself with pies, the lieutenant began to enjoy life again.