Tatyana Alekseevna KALGANOVA (1941) - Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Institute for Advanced Studies and Retraining of Public Education Workers of the Moscow Region; author of many works on the methodology of teaching literature at school.

Studying the story of N.V. Gogol "Nevsky Prospekt" in the 10th grade

Working materials for the teacher

From the history of the creation of the story

"Nevsky Prospekt" was first published in the collection "Arabesques" (1835), which was highly appreciated by V.G. Belinsky. Gogol began working on the story during the creation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (around 1831). In his notebook, sketches of "Nevsky Prospekt" were preserved along with draft notes "The Night Before Christmas" and "Portrait".

Gogol's stories "Nevsky Prospekt", "Notes of a Madman", "Portrait" (1835), "The Nose" (1836), "The Overcoat" (1842) belong to the cycle of St. Petersburg stories. The writer himself did not combine them into a special cycle. All of them were written at different times, they do not have a common narrator or fictional publisher, but they entered Russian literature and culture as an artistic whole, as a cycle. This happened because the stories are united by a common theme (the life of St. Petersburg), problems (reflection of social contradictions), the similarity of the main character (“little man”), the integrity of the author’s position (satirical exposure of the vices of people and society).

Theme of the story

The main theme of the story is the life of St. Petersburg and the fate of the “little man” in the big city with its social contrasts, causing discord between ideas about the ideal and reality. Together with the main theme, the themes of people's indifference, the substitution of spirituality for mercantile interests, the venality of love, the harmful effects of drugs on a person are revealed.

The plot and composition of the story

Clarified during the conversation. Sample questions.

What role does the description of Nevsky Prospekt play at the beginning of the story?

What moment is the beginning of the action?

How is the fate of Piskarev?

How is the fate of Pirogov?

What role does the description of Nevsky Prospekt play in the finale of the story?

Gogol combines in the story the image of the general, typical aspects of the life of a big city with the fate of individual heroes. The general picture of the life of St. Petersburg is revealed in the description of Nevsky Prospekt, as well as in the author's generalizations in the course of the story. Thus, the fate of the hero is given in the general movement of the life of the city.

The description of Nevsky Prospekt at the beginning of the story is an exposition. The unexpected exclamation of lieutenant Pirogov, addressed to Piskarev, their dialogue and following the beautiful strangers - the plot of the action with two contrasting outcomes. The story also ends with a description of Nevsky Prospekt and the author's reasoning about it, which is a compositional device containing both a generalization and a conclusion that reveals the idea of ​​the story.

Description of Nevsky Prospekt

Discussed during the conversation. Sample questions.

What role does Nevsky Prospekt play in the life of the city, how does the author feel about it?

How are the social contrasts and disunity of the city's residents shown?

How is the discrepancy between the ostentatious side of the life of the nobility and its true essence revealed? What qualities of people does the author make fun of?

How does the demon motif appear in the description of the evening Nevsky Prospekt at the beginning of the story? How is it continued in the next story?

How are the descriptions of Nevsky Prospekt at the beginning of the story and at the end connected?

The author begins the story with solemnly upbeat phrases about Nevsky Prospekt and notes that this is “universal communication of St. all the best works of man." At the same time, Nevsky Prospekt is a mirror of the capital, which reflects its life, it is the personification of the whole of St. Petersburg with its striking contrasts.

Literary critics believe that the description of Nevsky Prospekt at the beginning of the story is a kind of “physiological” sketch of St. Petersburg. Its image at different times of the day allows the author to characterize the social structure of the city. First of all, he singles out ordinary working people, on whom all life rests, and for them Nevsky Prospekt is not an end, "it only serves as a means."

Ordinary people are opposed to the nobility, for which Nevsky Prospekt is the goal - this is a place where you can show yourself. The story about the “pedagogical” Nevsky Prospekt with “tutors of all nations” and their pupils, as well as about the nobles and officials walking along the avenue, is permeated with irony.

Showing the falsity of Nevsky Prospekt, the wrong side of life hiding behind its front view, its tragic side, exposing the emptiness of the inner world of those walking on it, their hypocrisy, the author uses ironic pathos. This is emphasized by the fact that instead of people, the details of their appearance or clothing act: “Here you will find a wonderful mustache, indescribable with no pen, no brush<...>Thousands of varieties of hats, dresses, scarves<...>Here you will find such waists that even you have never dreamed of.<...>And what kind of long sleeves will you meet.

The description of the prospectus is given in a realistic way, at the same time, the story of the changes on Nevsky Prospekt is preceded by the phrase: “What a quick phantasmagoria is happening on it in just one day.” Illusory, deceitfulness of the evening Nevsky Prospekt is explained not only by twilight, the bizarre light of lanterns and lamps, but also by the action of an unconscious, mysterious force that affects a person: “At this time, some kind of goal is felt, or, better, something similar to a goal that - something extremely unaccountable; everyone's steps accelerate and become generally very uneven. Long shadows flicker along the walls of the pavement and almost reach the Police Bridge with their heads. So the description of Nevsky Prospekt includes fantasy and the motif of a demon.

The experiences and actions of the hero are explained, it would seem, by his psychological state, however, they can also be perceived as the actions of a demon: “... The beauty looked around, and it seemed to him as if a slight smile flashed on her lips. He trembled all over and could not believe his eyes.<...>The pavement rushed under him, the carriages with galloping horses seemed to be motionless, the bridge stretched and broke on its arch, the house stood with its roof down, the booth fell towards him, and the sentinel's halberd, together with the golden words of the signboard and the painted scissors, seemed to shine on his very eyelashes. eye. And all this produced one look, one turn of a pretty head. Not hearing, not seeing, not listening, he rushed along the light traces of beautiful legs ... "

Piskarev's fantastic dream can also be explained in two ways: “The unusual diversity of faces led him into complete confusion; it seemed to him that some demon had crumbled the whole world into many different pieces and all these pieces were senselessly, uselessly mixed together.

At the end of the story, the motive of the demon manifests itself openly: according to the author, the source of lies and falsity of the incomprehensible game with the fates of people is the demon: “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospekt!<...>Everything is a lie, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems!<...>He lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt, but most of all, when the night in a condensed mass falls on him 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 in a fake way.

Artist Piskarev

Sample questions for discussion.

Why did Piskarev go after the girl? How does the author convey his feelings?

Who was the girl? Why did Piskarev run away from the “disgusting orphanage”?

How does the girl's appearance change?

Why did Piskarev prefer real life to illusions? Could illusions replace real life for him?

How did Piskarev die, why is he wrong in his crazy act?

Piskarev is a young man, an artist, belongs to the people of art, and this is his unusualness. The author says that he belongs to the "class" of artists, to the "strange class", thus emphasizing the typical nature of the hero.

Like other young artists of St. Petersburg, the author characterizes Piskarev as a poor man, living in a small room, content with what he has, but striving for wealth. This is a “quiet, timid, modest, childishly simple-hearted, who carried a spark of talent in himself, perhaps with time it flared up widely and brightly,” a person. The hero's surname emphasizes his commonness, reminiscent of the type of "little man" in literature.

Piskarev believes in the harmony of goodness and beauty, pure, sincere love, lofty ideals. He followed the stranger only because he saw in her the ideal of beauty and purity, she reminded him of "Perugin's Bianca". But the beautiful stranger turned out to be a prostitute, and Piskarev tragically experiences the collapse of his ideals. The charm of beauty and innocence turned out to be a hoax. The merciless reality destroyed his dreams, and the artist fled from a disgusting orphanage, where he was brought by a seventeen-year-old beauty, whose beauty, which did not have time to fade from depravity, was not combined with a smile full of “some pathetic impudence”, all she said was “ stupid and vulgar<...>as if, together with purity, it leaves the mind of a person.

The author, sharing Piskarev's shocked feeling, writes with bitterness: “... A woman, this beauty of the world, the crown of creation, turned into some strange ambiguous creature, where she, along with the purity of her soul, lost everything feminine and disgustingly appropriated the tricks and impudence of a man and has already ceased to be that weak, that beautiful and so different being from us.”

Piskarev is unable to bear the fact that the beauty of a woman who gives the world a new life can be an object of trade, because this is a desecration of beauty, love and humanity. He was seized by a feeling of “tearing pity”, the author notes and explains: “Indeed, pity never takes possession of us so much as at the sight of beauty touched by the putrid breath of depravity. Even ugliness would be friends with him, but beauty, tender beauty ... it merges in our thoughts with only one purity and purity.

Being in a strong psychological stress, Piskarev has a dream in which his beauty appears as a secular lady, trying to explain her visit to the shelter with her secret. The dream inspired Piskarev with hope, which was destroyed by the cruel and vulgar side of life: “The desired image appeared to him almost every day, always in a position opposite to reality, because his thoughts were completely pure, like the thoughts of a child.” Therefore, he tries artificially, taking the drug, to go into the world of dreams and illusions. However, dreams and illusions cannot replace real life.

The dream of quiet happiness in a village house, of a modest life secured by one's own labor, is rejected by the fallen beauty. “How can you! she interrupted with an expression of some contempt. “I am not a laundress or a seamstress to do work.” Assessing the situation, the author says: “These words expressed the whole low, despicable life, a life full of emptiness and idleness, faithful companions of debauchery.” And then, in the author’s reflections on the beauty, the motive of the demon again arises: “... She was, by some terrible will of the infernal spirit, eager to destroy the harmony of life, thrown with laughter into its abyss.” During the time that the artist did not see the girl, she changed for the worse - sleepless nights of debauchery, drunkenness were reflected on her face.

The poor artist could not survive, in the words of the author, "the eternal strife of dreams with materiality." He could not stand the confrontation with the harsh reality, the drug completely destroyed his psyche, deprived him of the opportunity to do work, to resist fate. Piskarev commits suicide. He is wrong in this crazy act: the Christian religion considers life the greatest blessing, and suicide the greatest sin. Also, from the point of view of secular morality, depriving oneself of life is unacceptable - this is a passive form of resolving life's contradictions, because an active person can always find a way out of the most difficult, seemingly insoluble situations.

Lieutenant Pirogov

Sample questions for discussion.

Why did Pirogov go after the blonde?

Where did Pirogov go after the beauty, who did she turn out to be?

Why is Pirogov courting a married lady?

What is ridiculed in the image of Schiller?

How does the story of Pirogov end?

What is ridiculed in the image of Pirogov, how does the author do it?

What is the point of comparing the images of Piskarev and Pirogov?

About Lieutenant Pirogov, the author says that officers like him make up “some kind of middle class in St. Petersburg”, emphasizing the typical nature of the hero. Talking about these officers, the author, of course, also characterizes Pirogov.

In their circle, they are considered educated people, because they know how to entertain women, they like to talk about literature: “they praise Bulgarin, Pushkin and Grech and speak with contempt and witty barbs about A.A. Orlov”, that is, they put Pushkin and Bulgarin on a par, the author ironically notes. They go to the theater to show themselves. Their life goal is to "curry to the rank of colonel", to achieve a secure position. They usually "marry a merchant's daughter who can play the piano, with a hundred thousand or so cash and a bunch of well-married relatives."

Describing Pirogov, the author talks about his talents, in fact, reveals such features of him as careerism, narrow-mindedness, arrogance, self-confident vulgarity, the desire to imitate what is in vogue among the select public.

Love for Pirogov is just an interesting adventure, an “affair” that can be boasted to friends. The lieutenant, not at all embarrassed, rather vulgarly takes care of the wife of the craftsman Schiller and is sure that "his courtesy and brilliant rank give him the full right to her attention." He does not bother himself with thoughts about life's problems, he strives for pleasures.

Pirogov's honor and dignity were tested by the "section" that Schiller subjected him to. Quickly forgetting his insult, he discovered a complete lack of human dignity: “I spent the evening with pleasure and distinguished myself in the mazurka so much that I delighted not only the ladies, but even the gentlemen.”

The images of Pirogov and Piskarev are associated with opposite moral principles in the characters' characters. The comic image of Pirogov is opposed to the tragic image of Piskarev. “Piskarev and Pirogov - what a contrast! Both of them began on the same day, at the same hour, the persecution of their beauties, and how different were the consequences of these persecutions for both of them! Oh, what meaning is hidden in this contrast! And what effect does this contrast produce!” - wrote V.G. Belinsky.

Schiller, tinsmith

The images of German artisans - tinsmith Schiller, shoemaker Hoffmann, carpenter Kunz - complete the social picture of St. Petersburg. Schiller is the embodiment of commercialism. The accumulation of money is the goal of this artisan's life, therefore, strict calculation, limiting himself in everything, suppressing sincere human feelings determine his behavior. At the same time, jealousy awakens a sense of dignity in Schiller, and he, being in a drunken state, not thinking about the consequences at that moment, along with his friends, whipped Pirogov.

In the draft version, the hero's surname was Palitrin.

This refers to the painting by the artist Perugino (1446-1524), Raphael's teacher.

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The story "Nevsky Prospekt" Gogol wrote in 1833-1834. The work was included in the cycle of the author "Petersburg Tales". As in other stories of the cycle, in Nevsky Prospekt Gogol develops the problem of the "little man", which has become one of the main ones in Russian realistic literature. The composition of the story consists of three parts: a real description of Nevsky Prospekt, the stories of Piskarev and Pirogov, and the author's depiction of a special metaphysical space, the mythological level of perception of Nevsky Prospekt.

Main characters

Piskarev- poor artist, dreamer; was fascinated by a brunette who turned out to be a prostitute.

Pirogov- the lieutenant, "had many talents", loved "everything elegant", he liked to spend time in society; courted the wife of the German Schiller.

Other characters

Schiller- “perfect German”, “tinsmith in Meshchanskaya street”, husband of a blonde.

Hoffman- "a shoemaker from Officer Street", Schiller's friend.

Blonde Schiller's wife

Brunette- a prostitute.

"There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt." "Nevsky Prospekt is the general communication of St. Petersburg." The street is empty early in the morning. Until 12 o'clock "is gradually filled with people who have their own occupations, their worries, their annoyances." After 12, "tutors of all nations" with pupils appear here.

Closer to 2 o'clock - parents of children, and then people who "finished quite important homework." Here you can see everything and everyone. At 3 o'clock the avenue "is covered all over by officials in green uniforms." It has been empty since 4 o'clock. "But as soon as dusk falls on the houses and streets,<…>then Nevsky Prospekt comes to life again and begins to move.

Lieutenant Pirogov and a friend are walking along Nevsky Prospekt. Pirogov liked a certain blonde, while his friend - a brunette, so the young people disperse, rushing after the ladies.

Pirogov's friend, the artist Piskarev, following the brunette, went up to a four-story house and climbed the stairs. They entered the room. Looking around, Piskarev realized that he was in a brothel. The beautiful stranger who captivated the artist was 17 years old. However, when he heard the girl talking - "so stupid, so vulgar", he fled.

After midnight, when Piskarev was about to go to bed, a footman in a rich livery unexpectedly knocked on his door. The guest said that the lady, who had visited the artist a few hours ago, had sent a carriage for him. The footman brought Piskarev to the ball. Among the luxuriously dressed people, the artist notices a beautiful stranger. She tried to tell Piskarev that she really did not belong to "that despicable class of creations", and wanted to reveal some secret, but they were interrupted. Suddenly, the artist woke up in his room and realized that it was only a dream.

From that moment on, Piskarev became obsessed with the beautiful stranger, trying to see her again and again in a dream. The young man began to take opium. The stranger dreamed of him almost every day, in a dream he saw her as his wife. Finally, the artist decided to actually marry the girl.

Piskarev "carefully dressed up" and went to a brothel. The young man was met by "his ideal, his mysterious image". Gathering his courage, Piskarev "began to present her with her terrible situation." The artist said that although he was poor, he was ready to work: he would paint pictures, she would embroider or do other needlework. The girl suddenly interrupted him, saying that she was not a washerwoman or a seamstress to do such work. Piskarev "rushed out, having lost his feelings and thoughts." The young man locked himself in his room and did not let anyone in. When they broke down the door, they found him dead - he committed suicide by cutting his throat. "So he died, a victim of insane passion, poor Piskarev."

Pirogov, chasing the blonde, followed her to Meshchanskaya Street - “the street of tobacco and petty shops, German artisans and Chukhon nymphs”, climbed the stairs and entered a large room. Locksmith tools and iron filings indicated that this was the artisan's apartment. The stranger went through the side door, Pirogov behind her. Drunk men were sitting in the room: the tinsmith Schiller and his friend the shoemaker Hoffmann. Hoffmann was going to cut off Schiller's nose, since he did not need a nose, which "goes out three pounds of tobacco a month." The sudden appearance of Pirogov interrupted this process. Outraged, Schiller drove the lieutenant away.

The next day, Pirogov went to Schiller's workshop. He was met by the same blonde. Pirogov said he wanted to order spurs. The blonde called her husband - it turned out to be Schiller himself. The German, not wanting to get involved with the lieutenant, named a high price and long terms, but Pirogov still insisted that he wanted to order from Schiller.

Pirogov began to visit the German often, ostensibly asking when the spurs would be ready, but in fact, to court Schiller's wife. When the spurs were ready, the lieutenant ordered a frame for the dagger. Pirogov's courtship of the blonde resented the phlegmatic Schiller, he tried to figure out how to get rid of the lieutenant. Pirogov, in the circle of officers, was already boasting of an affair with a pretty German woman.

Once Pirogov came to a German woman when Schiller was not at home. But as soon as the lieutenant began to kiss the woman's leg, the German returned, and with him his friends - Hoffmann and Kunz. They were all drunk and immediately attacked Pirogov. After the incident, the lieutenant wanted to immediately go complain about the Germans to the general, but went into the confectionery and "went out in a not so angry position." By 9 o'clock the lieutenant had completely calmed down and went to the evening, where he distinguished himself in the mazurka.

"Oh, don't believe this Nevsky Prospekt!" “He lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt, but most of all when the night in a condensed mass lies on him<…>and when the demon himself lights the lamps only to show everything not in its present form.

Conclusion

In the story "Nevsky Prospekt" Gogol uses the literary technique of duplicity, which, first of all, is used when depicting Nevsky Prospekt: ​​it simultaneously exists in two worlds: in the real and in the unreal, romantic. The image of the two main characters - Piskarev and Pirogov, as well as the stories that happen to them, is also dual. Pirogov treats life simply, superficially, he does not tend to dream and idealize. Piskarev, on the other hand, lives in the world of his dreams, the events he dreamed become for him as if they were part of what really happened.

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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 birth 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.

Petersburg as a symbol of the power of Russia and its unfading glory was sung by the poets of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. A milestone in the development and implementation of the theme of St. Petersburg was the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The huge, multi-valuedly symbolic image of the Russian capital that he created has powerfully entered Russian literature. Never before had Gogol's thought so piercingly and mercilessly denounced the reality of contemporary Russia. The whole cycle of stories was like a cry of indignation against all those who vulgarized her, dehumanized her, made her unbearable. Pushkin's understanding of the Petersburg theme determined its embodiment in the works of great writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was the first to embody in his works the artistic discoveries of Pushkin in the historical, social and philosophical interpretation of the theme of St. Petersburg. Before Pushkin, works about St. Petersburg were descriptive. Pushkin, a realist, created the image of modern Petersburg, explaining its existence, its past and present as the capital of the Russian Empire from the positions of historical and social, political and philosophical. In the first chapter of the novel "Eugene Onegin", Pushkin, perhaps, for the first time in such detail and with such love painted the image of St. Petersburg dear to him and close. With quick strokes he sketched a portrait of the center of the capital. Nevsky Prospekt, Summer Garden, Palace Embankment, Neva, theaters, white nights The charm of "Onegin" Petersburg is achieved both by the deeply lyrical tonality of descriptions and by the light, pastel-transparent colors of the city's portrait. But the main thing in the image of St. Petersburg in the first chapter of the novel is the historically accurately conveyed atmosphere of social life in the late 1810s, the atmosphere of hope, expectation of change, liberty and high spirituality. The image of the northern capital, created by Pushkin in the first chapter of the novel, is the Decembrist Petersburg, Petersburg of high spirituality, a city that helps the new generation generated by the great liberation war to selflessly seek ways to the freedom of Russia, to its salvation from slavery.

Perhaps the most Pushkinian is Gogol's story "Nevsky Prospekt". The poetics of Gogol's story, which gives the reader the key to understanding its deep content, is peculiarly focused in the title. The main street, symbolizing the city of Petrov, was made the hero. Nevsky Prospekt made it possible to accurately write out the social portrait of the capital of the bureaucratic state. Actions either take place or are tied up on the avenue. It is this principle - the exposure of the idea of ​​conflict between a person and a city and the social conflict relations of the inhabitants of the capital - that was first created by Pushkin in his poetic Petersburg story "The Bronze Horseman". Gogol was sensitive to Pushkin's discoveries, possessed a truly wonderful ability to understand and unravel the "secret music" of truth, which he extracted from the poetic image of the ordinary. Gogol also emphasized the function of a large space in the story "Nevsky Prospekt". This was due to the writer's understanding of bureaucracy. Officialdom, according to Gogol, is the main enemy of the nation and people. It is to blame for all the disasters in Russia. It is especially dangerous in the capital

2. Petersburg in the life of Gogol

Nevsky Prospekt is based on the impressions of Gogol's Petersburg life. The writer turned to the big city, and a huge terrible world opened up to him, which destroys the personality, kills it, turns it into a thing. Belinsky wrote: “Plays such as Nevsky Prospekt could have been written not only by a person with great talent and a brilliant outlook on things, but also by a person who, at the same time, knows St. Petersburg firsthand.”

The years of Petersburg life passed. The city struck him with pictures of deep social contradictions and tragic social contrasts. Behind the external brilliance of the capital, the writer more and more clearly distinguished the soullessness and predatory inhumanity of the octopus city, destroying the living souls of small, poor people, inhabitants of attics and basements. And now the capital presented itself no longer as a slender, austere bulk, but as a bunch of “houses thrown one on top of the other, thundering streets, seething commercialism, this ugly bunch of fashions, parades, officials, wild northern nights, brilliance and low colorlessness”2. It was this Petersburg that became the main character of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol's St. Petersburg stories, the cycle of which includes the story "Nevsky Prospekt", first published in "Arabesques" in 1835.

Having chosen the story “Nevsky Prospekt” as the object of our study, we will try to trace how Gogol manages to combine humor and satire in the development of the main theme.

What is the difference between humor and satire? Between humor and satire - a whole range of shades of laughter - a joke, mockery, irony, sarcasm. Humor - friendly laughter, although not toothless, but softer. Satire - scourging, damning laughter, capable of causing more offense than simple humor.

Gogol is a writer whose humorous talent had such a strong influence on all literature that it gave it a completely new direction. He creates humorous fullness by putting words next to him that do not fit lexically. "You see something and expect something corresponding to the word - and suddenly."

3. Nevsky Prospekt - the subject of artistic study by N.V. Gogol.

“There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospekt, at least in St. Petersburg” - with these words of delight the story begins.

The reader from the first words assumes that Gogol madly admires St. Petersburg and its main street, but this is a hoax. Just as Petersburg in its metropolitan meaning is elevated above Russia, Nevsky Prospekt is elevated above Petersburg itself. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol draws this beauty of the main avenue of the cultural capital as a stage platform, on which, according to the sequence, there are walks, and at the same time, inactive faces.

Nevsky Prospekt is “universal communication of St. Petersburg”, connecting everyone with everyone. “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,” - this is how Gogol initially describes Nevsky Prospekt. But the further you continue to read, the more you realize that this is a myth. This idea is reinforced by the author's irony. “How cleanly its sidewalks are swept, and, God, how many feet have left their footprints on it!”. Only the "clumsy dirty boot of a retired soldier" can destroy the blissful purity. The pavement, as an innocent creation of human hands, is constantly subjected to terrible trials: "a miniature light as smoke, a young lady's slipper, and a rattling saber of a hopeful ensign, conducting a sharp scratch on it - everything takes out on it the power of strength or the power of weakness." The restless and many-sided procession along Nevsky Prospekt from dawn to dusk is a kind of carnival procession, with the only important difference being that the carnival interferes with people of different ranks, and the main street of the capital maintains partitions and a distance between them.

The measured circulation of time corresponds to an ordered (regular and bureaucratic) circulation of people. Nevsky Prospekt is shown by Gogol at different hours of the day (in the morning, from twelve o'clock, from three o'clock to noon). For people who appear in the early morning hours and for whom Nevsky Prospekt does not represent a goal, it "serves only as a means." At this time, the main avenue of St. Petersburg is “filled with old women in tattered dresses and coats”, beggars, “Russian peasants hurrying to work, stained with lime”, those who have no time for festivities and who have “their own occupations, their own worries, their annoyances.”

3. 1 How Gogol saw Nevsky Prospekt in the early morning hours.

In the morning, before lunch, noble Petersburg is still sleeping, despite the fact that the beggar and working people (“the right people”) are already getting to work. Thanks to a combination of incompatible words: “noble brush; flying yesterday like a fly, with chocolate" - it becomes clear that Gogol chuckles at the nobles and their empty troubles, and ordinary poor people, in Gogol's understanding, are "the right people." He does not say that the nobles are not the right people, but the reader already independently understands what the author wants to tell him. At the same time, Gogol, resorting to hyperbole, speaks caustically about the "Russian peasants": "in boots stained with lime, which even the Catherine Canal, known for its cleanliness, would not be able to wash." N.V. Gogol calls the common people Russian, but the nobles and high society are not called Russian. It's all about fashion! Fashion for everything French. All of Russia was obsessed with Europe, and Russian traditions were preserved only in simple families. And at a time when the “Russian people” appear on the street, it becomes indecent for ladies to walk down the street, because there, the author slightly ironically, the “Russian people” like to express themselves in such harsh expressions, which they probably “will not hear even in the theater ”, but are the ears of young ladies so ambitious? “At this time, no matter what you put on, no one will notice it”, no one pays attention to anyone.

2. Irony as one of the main artistic techniques in depicting the life of Nevsky Prospekt during the day.

But by twelve o'clock the picture changes, and those who have been since morning disappear. They are replaced by tutors with their pets. At this time, Nevsky Prospekt becomes a pedagogical one. What sciences can be learned here? And again, Gogol is ironic and shows something completely different: tutors with decent solidity explain to their pupils what the signs on the shops are for, and the governesses teach the fidgety girls how much higher the shoulder should be held. They leave the stage at two.

But in the daytime, Nevsky Prospekt, as the author notes, will dazzle any observer with the best works of "nature and art." By this time, having finished household chores, ladies with friends and employees of a foreign collegium, distinguished by the nobility of their knowledge and habits, go for a walk. Gogol laughs at the habits of the nobles, at their stupidity and narrow-mindedness. Through small details, the author conveys to the reader his attitude towards these people. Gogol uses metonymy: "a young lady's slipper as light as smoke", "a dandy frock coat with the best beaver", a man "carrying excellent sideburns", a lady "carrying a pair of pretty eyes". These people may seem strange to us, because by the words "important homework" they mean talking to the doctor about the weather and a small pimple on the nose. They are not endowed with a special mind, and the health of their children and horses is on the same scale. Gogol, laughing at them, ironically remarking: “Fate endowed them with the blessed title of officials on their own behalf. God, what wonderful positions and services there are! How they uplift and delight the soul! But, alas! I did not serve and am deprived of the pleasure of seeing the subtle treatment of my superiors. This pure bureaucratic audience struck with extraordinary nobility and decency. It shows the most attractive surface of people and things. And nothing but this superficial attraction. Therefore, in the motley phantasmagoria of changing pictures, illuminated by daylight, only smart coats and sideburns, mustaches and dresses, sleeves and waists, pretty eyes and hats, legs, smiles and ties flicker. the essence of people and things, hidden under the miniature variegation of the cover thrown over everything. The people in this "exhibition" don't matter. Gogol does not leave a sense of mockery and irony: "Everything is full of decency." It is not without reason that the author revives mustaches and sideburns using the synecdoche technique. It is important for him to show that external beauty, superficial decency - all this is just a colorful mask. The description, not of the people themselves, but of individual parts of clothing, simply shoots out of the general background of the story. Yes, and earlier Nevsky Prospect was colorful and bright, but the detail of describing people through clothes gives such a dazzling and striking idea that without this detail the true essence of a person would not be fully revealed. Gogol compares a woman to a sea of ​​moths that have risen above the male black beetles, and the sleeves of the dresses "are like two balloons." And how the author sneers about the smile, noticing: "a smile, the height of art." She can do whatever she pleases with a person. What about people? How strangely they behave: “when they meet you, they will certainly look at your boots.” Gogol is at a loss as to who these people are. He even dares to suggest that these are shoemakers, but again he deceives the reader by saying that these people "for the most part serve in different departments." It's all a scam and a game.

But three o'clock strikes, the crowd thins out. The street is filled with officials in green uniforms.

By four o'clock, Nevsky Prospekt is empty and "you are unlikely to meet at least one official on it, unless some seamstress from the store, some visiting eccentric, to whom all hours are equal, some Englishwoman, some artel worker - no one else meet you on Nevsky Prospekt. But meet on it those (no matter how many of them there are) who have neither a rank nor the hours allotted to him, which means that you will not meet anyone at all.

3. 3 Nevsky Prospekt at dusk.

Only at dusk, when the eyes can be deceived, but not blinded by either the brilliance of the day, or the darkness or brilliance of the night, the inside of the capital's life, its dark and secret depths, is revealed. When it starts to get dark, young collegiate registrars, provincial and collegiate secretaries walk for a very long time, unlike their old colleagues who sit at home, because "these are married people": in the 19th century, marriage was considered a shortcut, a married person lost his freedom, became a domesticated master who had no opinion of their own. The ostentatious nobility and decency give way to unattractive reality - unchanging passions and dirty vice. Not reflected in the appearance of wealthy people, this baseness and dirt are stains on their souls. The attractive and funny phantasmagoria of the day is finally replaced by the gloomy phantasmagoria of the night.

Reading the description of Nevsky Prospekt and the people changing on it, you do not assume that a whole string of events will be built further. Gogol draws two storylines, two destinies, completely different from each other. There are two characters in the story - lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev. They meet once on Nevsky Prospekt. Gogol constantly opposes two worlds to each other: the world of the nobles (or the middle class) and the poor - the world of Pirogov and Piskarev. After the meeting on Nevsky, everyone went his own way.

4. Compositionally and ideologically - the artistic role of short stories about the fate of lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev.

First, about the first story and about Piskarev. He is a typical artist with a secret world within himself and a vulnerable soul. He has an ideal - beauty. He is passionately in love with beauty. Piskarev is a dreamer, a romantic, his best dreams merged with the image of a stranger. His soul was open to the beautiful and sublime. Nothing earthly prevented indulging in the joys of creativity. An enthusiastic dreamer, he was selflessly devoted to his art. It can be compared with Lensky (A. S. Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin"). They both lived in dreams and could not look at the world through the eyes of a realist. The artist, noticing one of the "wonderful creatures" on Nevsky Prospekt, follows her. Shocked by the appearance of the girl, he created an ideal image in his imagination, which became an object of worship for him. Charming, beautiful, she is like a vision descended from the picture of a great master. One look or smile of the beauty awakened conflicting thoughts, dreams, hopes in the hero’s head, but the beauty turns out to be an inhabitant of a “disgusting brothel”. Piskarev, as a dreamer living outside of reality, confronts the main street with its secular crowd. He does not fit into the framework of time and society that surrounds him. The artist Piskarev was the victim, in the words of Gogol, "the eternal discord between dreams and materiality." This young man "belonged to that class which constitutes a rather strange phenomenon among us and belongs to the citizens of St. Petersburg as much as the person who appears to us in a dream belongs to the essential world." Gogol questions the fact that an artist can live in gloomy, gray, smooth and pale Petersburg. He believes that this is not the right place for creativity. He sees Italy as a saving place. Piskarev, in the eyes of the author, is "shy, timid, but in his soul he carried sparks of feeling, ready to turn into a flame at the right opportunity." And this spark flared up when our artist saw a mysterious stranger on Nevsky. Unfortunately, his feelings were not destined to blaze for long. It was unrequited love that burned him from the inside and killed him. After this meeting, the unfortunate artist plunged into the world of illusions and dreams. The most terrible thing that can happen to a young man happened to him - he lost the desire to create and the taste for life. He did not live, but existed. He was no longer interested in creativity. The painting was abandoned. Waking up in the morning, I waited for the night, did not eat and did not leave the room. In a dream, all his dreams became reality. He no longer understood that the world in which he lives was just his imagination, but he did not want to return to harsh reality. And then one day he didn't come back. His life ended before it even began. On the day of his funeral, there was no one, and no one wept over him, except for "a guard soldier, and that because he drank an extra damask of vodka."

This story could not but touch the soul of the reader, it is filled with lyricism, drama and bitter disappointments. It was a shame to realize that the ball at which Piskarev ended up and where he again met a mysterious stranger turned out to be a dream. In an instant, all the dreams and hopes of the young artist collapsed, and the author too. Gogol seems to deliberately give hope for the best and immediately takes it away. He, like fate, plays with his hero. Gogol's attitude to Piskarev is ambivalent. On the one hand, he is deeply sympathetic to the character of this noble dreamer, who indignantly rejects the false and vulgar foundations of the modern world. However, on the other hand, the writer cannot but feel the groundlessness of the romantic ideal of his hero. Gogol saw Piskarev's weakness and infidelity in his life position.

The satirical, accusatory fullness of the story is especially pronounced in the second short story, dedicated to Pirogov. Pirogov is a typical representative of the middle class. He is an officer who has served this rank for many years. He was pleased with his rank, had many talents: “he recited verses from Dmitry Donskoy and Woe from Wit, had his own art of blowing smoke rings, knew how to tell jokes very pleasantly.” Limited and self-confident, successful, prosperous, always in an excellent mood, Pirogov was completely alien to any kind of moral torment. Unlike Piskarev, the lieutenant was completely immersed in St. Petersburg society and was part of it. He was an ordinary participant in the "exhibition". The fate of Pirogov was completely different. Following a young German woman, he discovers her place of residence. He is not even embarrassed by the fact that she is married to a German - an artisan. The girl rejects the impudent courtship of a new acquaintance, but this does not stop him, because this person is not used to rejection. And Pirogov gets his way, after which he is beaten by two Germans (husband and his friend), but he does not consider himself guilty. At first, the lieutenant was indignant, wanted to complain, and then, as the author sarcastically notes, he ate two puff pastries in a pastry shop, calmed down, and even distinguished himself in the mazurka that evening.

Lieutenant Pirogov does not cause any sympathy. Why pity him? He is as mean and mean as most of his class, who only live for entertainment, balls and fleeting romances. Malicious satire does not control his fate, he himself is the culprit of the situation that happened to him. The writer created a very bright human type, which became a common name for many aspects of contemporary social life. His story causes more laughter and indignation than compassion. The whole essence of Pirogov is insignificant and stupid. He is a narcissistic egoist who, for the sake of his whim, practically destroyed someone else's family and at the same time did not feel remorse. His conscience was silent. He himself becomes ridiculous and ridiculous from this story that happened to him. For him, this is just entertainment, an opportunity to diversify his life, and he is happy to again plunge into some new adventure. The image of Pirogov is one of the best artistic creations of Gogol. In terms of strength and depth of generalization, he may be on a par with Khlestakov and Chichikov.

There is an opinion that both stories can be perceived as two independent stories. Maybe Gogol decided to weave two separate stories into one? Outwardly, there is a similarity: both heroes ended up on Nevsky Prospekt, and both got carried away (although each of them understands love in his own way). Only one of them quickly consoled himself with pies in a candy store, and the other committed suicide. Piskarev and Pirogov are two opposite characters. They are connected only by a walk along the Nevsky.

Note that Gogol uses the principle of a speaking surname. Piskarev is represented by a small fish living in the vast ocean, among others unlike him. He is also not noticeable to anyone, almost no one knows him. It can be compared with a small fish - a squeaker. Gogol contrasts the names of Schiller ("a fairly good shoemaker") and Hoffmann with the names of the romantic writer Schiller and the science fiction writer Hoffmann. Pirogov, as the author himself notes, fully justifies his last name. He kills grief by eating a couple of pies. Belinsky will say about him: “Pirogov! he exclaimed. - Saints! Yes, this is a whole beauty, a whole people, a whole nation! ".

"Nevsky Prospekt" connects unconnected - lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev. Two human characters. Two destinies, two completely different views of reality - all this collides in his story Gogol. The characters give a vivid idea of ​​the complexity of life in St. Petersburg, the vigilance and sharpness of the writer's artistic vision. Gogol leads the reader to the conclusion: what a strange city Petersburg is, in which an honest, unprotected talent perishes and impudent, self-satisfied vulgarity thrives!

At the end of the story, N.V. Gogol again returns to Nevsky Prospekt to tear off his beautiful covers and express all his hatred for the capitalist city with its venality and indifference to everything beautiful and to man. Petersburg in the story is represented by a dual city. Gogol is ironic about St. Petersburg and its inhabitants a lot. He is disgusted by the masks that the city has put on itself. The author wants to rip them off, but people are so used to these masks that they have already lost themselves and their own essence. The writer emphasizes the contradiction of the city between appearance and essence (“everything is not what it seems”). In the story, the strange is intertwined with the everyday, the real with the fantastic, the majestic with the low, the beautiful with the ugly. At the same time, there is a deeply realistic vision of St. Petersburg.

5. Irony and satire as an integral part of the story about the life of Nevsky Prospekt.

Satire in the story is presented in the guise of fate. She laughs at Piskarev, not pitying him, because he is not a hero of his time, and Pirogov is a completely realistic person (if he can be called a person). He lives according to the rules of his time, and Piskarev is an ordinary eccentric, to whom fate is not so favorable. This person is not created for life, he does not know how to survive.

The humor in the story is Petersburg. It looks bright, ambitious, festive, but inside is gray, dirty, boring. In each description of a noble inhabitant there is a share of irony. It is impossible to talk about them without a smile and ridicule.

Drama is life. Everyone has a different attitude towards life. For Piskarev, drama is a disappointment in a loved one, while for Pirogov it is a rejection of his courtship and attention by a pretty German woman. And in whose life was the true drama?

When the story came to the censor, he became furious. To write how shamefully the officer was flogged - and even the lieutenant! - some German craftsmen. This is the overthrow of the very foundations! It is certain that this cannot be printed.

Concerned about the fate of his story, Gogol turned to Pushkin for advice. Pushkin replied with a short note: “I read it with great pleasure. Seems like everything can be missed. It is a pity to release the section: it seems to me that it is necessary for the full effect of the evening mazurka. Perhaps God will endure! With God blessing!". However, God could not bear it, and Gogol had to convey the end of the story, only transparently hinting at the punishment that had befallen Lieutenant Pirogov.

“Fate plays us strangely, strange incidents happen on Nevsky Prospekt!” - Gogol exclaims more than once in this story.

Conclusion

In the story "Nevsky Prospekt" (as, indeed, in other works of art), N.V. Gogol talentedly uses various techniques of the comic and no less talentedly combines the dramatic and the comic.

The work on the topic of this study made it possible to see the features of Gogol's artistic manner, enriched the author of this study with new literary knowledge, new experience in literary analysis.

Two young men - lieutenant Pirogov and artist Piskarev - chase lonely ladies walking along Nevsky Prospekt in the evening. The artist follows the brunette, cherishing the most romantic love at her expense. They reach Foundry and, having risen to the top floor of a brightly lit four-story building, find themselves in a room where there are three more women, by the look of which Piskarev realizes with horror that he has ended up in a brothel. The heavenly appearance of his chosen one in no way corresponds in his mind to either this place or her stupid and vulgar conversation. Piskarev runs out into the street in despair.

Arriving home, he could not calm down for a long time, but only dozed off, as a footman in a rich livery knocks on the door and says that the lady with whom he had just been sent a carriage for him and asks to be at her house immediately. The amazed Piskarev is brought to the ball, where among the dancing ladies, his chosen one is the most beautiful. They talk, but they drag her somewhere, Piskarev searches in vain for her in the rooms and ... wakes up at home. It was a dream!

From now on, he loses peace, wanting to see her at least in a dream. Opium allows him to find the beloved in his dreams. One day his workshop appears to him, he is with a palette in his hands and she, his wife, is nearby. Why not? he thinks, waking up. He will find her and marry her! Piskarev hardly finds the right house, and - lo and behold! - it is she who opens the door for him and kindly informs that, despite two in the afternoon, she just woke up, because she was brought here completely drunk only at seven in the morning. Piskarev tells the seventeen-year-old beauty about the abyss of debauchery in which she is immersed, paints pictures of a happy working family life with him, but she refuses with contempt, she laughs at him! Piskarev rushes out, wanders somewhere, and returning home, locks himself in a room.

A week later, breaking down the door, they find him with his throat cut with a razor. The poor man is buried at the Okhtinsky cemetery, and even his friend Pirogov is not at the funeral, since the lieutenant himself, in turn, fell into history.

Small not a mistake, he, chasing his blonde, gets into the apartment of a certain tinsmith Schiller, who at that moment, being very drunk, asks the drunk shoemaker Hoffmann to cut off his nose with a shoe knife. Lieutenant Pirogov, who prevented them from doing this, stumbles upon rudeness and retreats. But only in order to return the next morning to continue his love affair with the blonde, who turned out to be Schiller's wife. He orders the tinsmith to make himself spurs and, taking the opportunity, continues the siege, arousing, however, jealousy in her husband.

On Sunday, when Schiller is not at home, Pirogov comes to his wife, dances with her, kisses her, and just at that moment Schiller appears with his friend Hoffmann and the carpenter Kunz, also, by the way, a German. Drunken angry artisans grab Lieutenant Pirogov by the arms and legs and do something so rude and impolite to him that the author cannot find words to describe this action. Only Gogol's draft manuscript, which was not passed by the censors at this point, allows us to interrupt our guesses and find out that Pirogov was flogged! In a rage, the lieutenant flies out of the house, promising the tinsmith a whip and Siberia, at least. However, on the way, having gone to a pastry shop, having eaten a couple of pies and reading a newspaper, Pirogov cooled off, and having distinguished himself in the mazurka with friends in the evening, he completely calmed down.