home Audience 4 The evolution of N. Gogol's creativity as a movement from romanticism to realism. Composition "Romantic realism of the early works of N. V. Gogol Romantic traditions in Gogol's prose

The evolution of N. Gogol's creativity as a movement from romanticism to realism. Composition "Romantic realism of the early works of N. V. Gogol Romantic traditions in Gogol's prose

Class: 10

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The purpose of the lesson:

generalize and expand knowledge about several pages of the life and work of the writer;
to deepen knowledge about romanticism and romantic works of N.V. Gogol;
to form a steady interest in Russian literature, the ability to draw independent conclusions.

Lesson type: combined.

Lesson structure:

Teacher's word.
Essay on the life and work of N.V. Gogol (student's message).
Repetition of knowledge about romanticism and its main features.
Conversation on works from the collection "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka".
Conclusion from the conversation.
Computer testing.
Conclusion on the topic of the lesson.
Reflection.
Homework.
Grading a lesson.

Methods and types of educational activities, techniques:

method of creative reading (techniques: conversation, expressive reading; activities: listening, looking at illustrations);
heuristic method (methods: building a system of questions for self-acquisition of knowledge, posing a problematic issue; activities: selection of material from a work of art, retelling with elements of text analysis, episode analysis;
reproductive method (activities: recording basic concepts, testing).

Forms of work: frontal, group, individual.

Equipment: presentation “N.V. Gogol. "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"; N.V. Gogol's collection “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”; computer testing.

During the classes

1. teacher's word (acquaintance with the topic of the lesson, setting goals).

- Today we are talking about, perhaps, one of the most famous and mysterious writers of Russia, whose 200th anniversary we celebrated in 2009 - Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.

The purpose of the lesson:
- to generalize and expand knowledge about several pages of the life and work of the writer;
- to deepen knowledge about romanticism and romantic works of N.V. Gogol;
– to form a steady interest in Russian literature, the ability to draw independent conclusions. ( Slides 1, 2, 3. Students write the topic of the lesson in their notebooks.)
Everyone has their favorite books and writers. For me, one of these writers is Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: perhaps the most unusual and mysterious writer, a man with a tragic fate, passionately in love with Russia until the end of his days, believing in his great destiny, dreaming of dedicating all his work to serving the people and the fatherland. Gogol is one of the most controversial writers of Russian literature. Being once cheerful and cheerful, by the age of forty he turned into a black melancholic, and after all, A.S. Pushkin, having read his stories from “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” in 1831, appreciated that writers with such a sense of humor rarely come into the world.
- What is the unusual and dramatic nature of N.V. Gogol? We will try to answer this question by referring to some pages of his life. By the end of the lesson, try to answer the question: why did the cheerful, life-loving writer turn into a gloomy, black melancholic?
- Let us recall some pages of the life of N.V. Gogol, reflecting the writer's love of life and inconsistency.

2. Implementation of individual homework: a student's report on the life and work of N.V. Gogol.(Slides 4-15).

Teacher: As you can see, the life of N.V. Gogol from the end of the 30s was tragic. But today we are talking about the earliest works of the writer, when Gogol is young, full of strength and creative ideas. These are funny and scary stories told by beekeeper Rudy Panko. The writer puts into his mouth the idea that true poetry is created by the people. In the world of “Evenings…” good triumphs over evil, love triumphs over hate, beautiful triumphs over ugly.

3. Repetition of knowledge about romanticism and its main features.
– Early Gogol is a romantic. Recall what romanticism is, what are the main features of romanticism. (The definition is given in the presentation, Slide 19):

Teacher: What attracts romantics?

(Students' answers.) (Slide 20).

Teacher: We have already met with the works of romanticism. Recall and name the works of romanticism.

Student responses: Early lyrics by M.Yu. Lermontov, his poems “Mtsyri”, “Demon”, ballads by V.A. Zhukovsky "Svetlana", "Lyudmila", etc.

4. Conversation on works from the collection “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”.

Teacher: Gogol, a romantic, knows well that the bright world he painted is a fairy tale, a beautiful dream of the people, embodied far from being as beautiful as it is depicted in the book. In reality, talented people are oppressed, deprived of their freedom. The writer sees his enemies put to shame only in a dream, but not in reality. That is why sad notes burst into the upbeat tone of “Evenings…”.

In each story, Gogol makes one feel that a dark and terrible power of power stands over the people. An example of this is the words:

“... an assessor with a devilishly woven whip, from whom not a single witch in the world can escape, he knows exactly how many pigs every woman has tossing pigs and how many canvases lie ...” (Slide 21).

- And in “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”, each of the officials can “shackle an ordinary person and punish approximately. Let them know what power means. From whom is the head set, if not from the king? (Slide 21).

- These are the real conditions of life of the people. But in “Evenings…” Gogol speaks of this dully, in allusions. While he is creating a poetic fairy tale, taking readers into the world of a beautiful dream, showing that this is how a person's life should be. This is another feature of romanticism: dual world (Slide 22):

Two worlds - a gap between worlds: one world, the best, unearthly, true spiritual kingdom - in the soul of the hero, the other - empirical reality - around him (students write the definition in notebooks).

- The collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” includes several stories.

(Slides 23, 24). Students write down the titles of the stories.

Teacher: You got acquainted with the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” while still in the middle link. Look at the illustrations for the stories from the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, recognize the heroes of N.V. Gogol. (Slides 16, 17, 25-28). (Student answers.)

Our task is to recall the plots of the stories and the features of some of them and consider these stories as romantic works, using their example to consider Gogol's romanticism.

- In groups, you were given the task to read the stories and prepare answers to questions.

Questions of the 1st group:

– Tell us about the idea and history of the creation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.
- On whose behalf the story is told in the stories included in the collection "Evenings ...". Why did N.V. use this technique? Gogol? (Describe Rudy Panka.)
– How does fantasy intertwine with reality in the story “Sorochinsky Fair”?
– What folk legend is reflected in the story “Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala”?

Questions of the 2nd group:

– How did the writer's skill manifest itself in describing the Ukrainian night?
- With the help of what language means did Gogol manage to poeticize the May night?
– The legend told by Levko to his beloved Hanna miraculously intertwines with the real life of the heroes and has its continuation. How did Levko manage to get permission to marry Hannah?
(Demonstration of a fragment from the film “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”.)
– What picture of the Russian artist resonates with the episode you watched from the film “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”? Tell us about the history of the painting. (Picture by I.N. Kramskoy “Mermaids”. Slide 18, Annex 2).

Questions of the 3rd group:

- One of the most remarkable works is the story “The Night Before Christmas”, which captures the amazing, special state of the human spirit during these holidays, conveying the national flavor.
How does the fantastic in the story intertwine with the real?
- The boys and girls caroled on the night before Christmas. Do you know the origin of the words “carol”, “carol”?
- Look how people in the old days celebrated Christmas, caroled.
(Demonstration of a fragment from the film “The Night Before Christmas.”)
– In the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” there are not only funny stories bursting with humor, but works that are more serious in content and touch on acute social and political issues. One of these works is the story “Terrible Revenge”.
What real historical events are reflected in the story "Terrible Revenge"?
- In his story, Gogol gives beautiful pictures of the Dnieper. For what purpose did the writer include a description of the Dnieper in the story “Terrible Revenge”?

Questions of the 4th group:

- What is the ideological and thematic content of the story "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt"?
- What is the comic of the story "The Enchanted Place"?
- We examined the plots and some features of the stories from the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. What do you think Gogol's romanticism is based on?
– What explains Gogol's interest in folk customs and legends?

5. Conclusion on the conversation.

- Let's go back to the beginning of our lesson and remember the main features of romanticism.
(Slide 29).
- Prove that the stories from "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" are romantic works.
- As a consolidation and verification of your knowledge, you are offered computer testing.

6. Computer testing(8 minutes) (Annex 1).

(Testing is performed on 4 options.)

7. Conclusion on the topic of the lesson.

Teacher: Today we remembered a few pages from the life of N.V. Gogol, talked about the features of his romantic works. At the beginning of the lesson, I puzzled you with the question: why did the cheerful writer, who created beautiful pictures of Ukrainian life, portrayed the brave, noble, beautiful inhabitants of Dikanka, turn into a gloomy, black melancholic?

Student response: Gogol in "Evenings ..." drew a wonderful fairy tale about what life should be like and what people should be, he believed in his high destiny, in his great mission: with the help of his creativity to fix society, make life better, but reality is rough, ugly . Gogol realized that he would not be able to fix this world, he became withdrawn, tormented himself with religious posts, fell into despondency and, indeed, turned into a black melancholic.

8. Reflection:

- What new did you learn today? (Slide 30).
– How do you see N.V. Gogol after our conversation today?

Teacher: No matter how controversial the work of N.V. Gogol, for us he will remain a great writer, who glorified Russia with his talent, in which he was passionately and ardently in love until the end of his days. For me, he is one of the most significant, beloved writers. I want you to love and understand his work in the same way.

9. Homework. In the next lesson, we will continue to work on the work of N.V. Gogol. You should read the story from the collection “Mirgorod” for the next lesson.

10. Grading a lesson.

Every great artist is a whole world. To enter this world, to feel its versatility and unique beauty means to bring oneself closer to some higher level of spiritual, aesthetic development. The work of every major writer is a precious storehouse of artistic and spiritual, one might say, "human" experience, which is of great importance for the progressive development of society.

Gogol's art arose on the foundation that was erected before him by Pushkin.

Gogol followed the trail laid by Pushkin, but he went his own way. Pushkin revealed the deep contradictions of modern society. But for all that, the world, artistically created by the poet, is full of beauty and harmony, the element of negation is balanced by the element of affirmation. The guise of social vices is combined with the glorification of the power and nobility of the human mind. The artistic world of Gogol is not so universal and comprehensive. His perception of modern life was also different.

Pushkin covered all aspects of Russian life, but already in his time there was a need for a more detailed study of its individual areas. The realism of Gogol, like that of Pushkin, was imbued with the spirit of a fearless analysis of the essence of the social phenomena of our time. But the originality of Gogol's realism consisted in the fact that he combined the breadth of understanding of reality as a whole with a microscopically detailed study of its most hidden nooks and crannies. Gogol depicts his heroes in all the concreteness of their social existence, in all the smallest details of their everyday way of life, their daily existence.

“Why, then, portray poverty, yes poverty, and the imperfection of our life, digging people out of the wilderness, from the remote nooks and crannies of the state?” These opening lines from the second volume of Dead Souls perhaps best reveal the pathos of Gogol's creativity. A significant part of it was focused on depicting poverty and the imperfection of life.

Never before have the contradictions of Russian reality been so exposed as in the 1930s and 1940s. Critical depiction of its deformities and ugliness became the main task of literature. And Gogol sensed this brilliantly. Explaining in the fourth letter concerning "Dead Souls" the reasons for the burning in 1845 of the second volume of the poem, he remarked that it was pointless now "to bring out a few beautiful characters that reveal the high nobility of our breed." And then he writes: “No, there is a time when it is impossible to direct society or even the entire generation towards the beautiful until you show the full depth of its real abomination.”

Enriching realism with the achievements of romanticism, enlightened absolutism, creating in his work a fusion of satire and lyrics of "an analysis of reality and dreams of a wonderful person and the future of the country", he

raised critical realism to a new higher level compared to his world predecessors.

Gogol was convinced that in the conditions of contemporary Russia, the ideal and beauty of life can be expressed, first of all, through the denial of ugly reality. This was his work, this was the originality of his realism. Artistic features in "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" "Evenings ..." are conceived in the form of a tale, most likely, the sexton Foma Grigorievich. On his behalf, the narration of "Evenings on the Eve of Ivan Kupala", "The Missing Letter", "The Enchanted Place" is being conducted. Departing from this plan, Gogol gives the word to the “pea panich” (“Sorochinsky Fair”, “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”) and other storytellers. The image of the beekeeper Rudy Panko arose just before the publication of "Evenings ..." as their compiler and publisher. All the main storytellers, except for the "pea panich", ridiculed by Rudy Panko for pretentiousness, are representatives of the people, their views. Introducing common people's storytellers, Gogol wanted his "Evenings ..." to be folk in terms of language. The vocabulary and phraseology of these narrators, including Rudy Panko, are wonderful placers of a living folk-vernacular language, full of well-aimed words and phrases, original expressions, proverbs, sayings and proverbs. This is the first time in Russian literature that Ukrainians have spoken in such direct colloquial speech. It was news that attracted readers.

But the tale of the narrators, most of all sustained in the speech of the beekeeper and sexton, does not retain strict sequence and often turns into the "impersonal", more precisely, into the direct voice of the author, experienced in literary speech, excellently mastering the visual means of romanticism. The author's voice takes on a variety of intonations - sympathetic, ironic, sad, etc.

The subjective-lyrical introductions and subsequent digressions from the plot-skaz narration, which belong to the author, are most often sublimely pathetic in nature. Their rhythm is created by speech periods, the alternation of uniformly constructed phrases, beginnings or single words, the repetition of words within sentences, the condensation of exclamatory-interrogative syntagmas, and other techniques. In a number of cases, the lyrical wave that invades the narrative begins to sound like a prose poem: “Do you know the Ukrainian night?” ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman"); “The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather” (“Terrible revenge”). Chernyshevsky drew attention to the lyricism of "Evenings ...", which manifests itself with greater ("May Night") or ("The Lost Letter") force, saying that they make "the strongest impression precisely with their sincerity and warmth."

But the author's voice, with all the diversity of its intonations, does not oppose the voices of the narrators from the people, but merges with them. The combination of the oral-folk tale of the main narrators and the literary speech of the author (often referring to the narrators, as in The Lost Letter, with irony), diversifying the style of "Evenings ...", gives it a bright variegation, spectacular multicolor.

"Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" is inhabited by a mass of characters - evil and kind, ordinary and extraordinary, vulgar and poetic. Before us is a gallery of people who clearly violate the moral laws of the people, spiritually limited, greedy, selfish, most often ruling: popovich (“Sorochinsky Fair”), the fist Korzh (“Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”), the head of Makogonenko (“May Night, or the Drowned Woman"), bogoch Chub, clerk ("The Night Before Christmas").

But, recreating a motley crowd of characters, Gogol makes the center of "Evenings ..." not idle "existents" mired in the mire of money-grubbing, but the working people.

The protagonists of "Evenings ..." are more often depicted in a one-sided exaggeration of their psychological properties, in the sharply emphasized plasticity of their external appearances, in the emotional elation of their speech, coming from the folk song element. At the same time, the external portrait of the character is always in close connection with his internal appearance.

Evenings on a farm near Dikanka ”- the first book by N.V. Gogol, which immediately won success and recognition. A.S. Pushkin wrote: "... Everyone rejoiced at this lively description of a singing and dancing tribe, these fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this cheerfulness, ingenuous and crafty at the same time ...". The author painted kind and attractive images of people from the people, at the same time, the writer's terrible indignation was caused by spiritual emptiness, petty interests, the stupidity of the bourgeoisie and landowners. This work contains a manner inherent only to Gogol - to notice the sad behind the funny, "through the laughter visible to the world ... tears invisible to him." Therefore, in scenes filled with lively humor, sunny laughter, disturbing notes are intertwined every now and then. The author tries to turn the unfair world upside down with the help of devastating satire. The name of the author was not on the book; instead, the title indicated: "Tales published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank." In appearance, a simpleton, but in fact a wise and crafty farmer chuckles at the rulers of power. For example, in The Night Before Christmas, the author, with the help of skillful satire, depicts a world dominated by callousness, self-interest, mental limitations, anger, ill will and lies. So, drawing the image of Solokha, the author ridicules cunning, hypocrisy, the desire to do meanness to people in order to satisfy their interests. She “bowed to everyone”, howled affably with everyone, but she was friendliest of all with the Cossack Chub, who had a lot of linen in his chests, “eight stacks of bread always stood in front of her hut”, there were a lot of different living creatures in the yard, and the garden was densely sown with vegetables , poppy, sunflower and tobacco. And so that her plans would not be destroyed in any way, she built all sorts of intrigues for the blacksmith Vakula, tried to quarrel him with Chub, so that “Vakula would not drive up to his daughter and not have time to clean up everything for himself.” In the story, we also see arrogant generals who obligingly fuss and bow to Potemkin, they "seemed to catch his every word and even the slightest movement, so that now they could fly to carry it out." The author in a satirical manner criticizes such human vices. At the same time, the story also contains good-natured laughter, which we instantly distinguish from caustic, scourging laughter. With the help of humor, the author does not criticize everything in the depicted person or phenomenon, but only certain aspects. Therefore, humor contains not only ridicule, but also the author's sympathy, sympathy. Most often, humor is built on a discrepancy between the external and the internal, for example, when the pan head, the rich Cossack Chub and the clerk want to be important persons, but end up in a comic situation. Reading the story, we laugh heartily at these "important" visitors to Solokha, who fell into one bag, over their heads, who could not restrain their hiccups and coughs and turned out to be exposed. In a humorous form, the author showed the weaknesses and shortcomings inherent in all people, which need to be disposed of, and reflected the problems that are relevant at all times, facing any society.

The origins of the romantic in Gogol's work

Gogol's main goal is to embody the beauty of the spiritual essence of the people, their dreams of a free and happy life. Following the romantic principle, the writer depicts the life of the Ukrainian peasantry and Cossacks primarily not in its everyday life, everyday life, versatility, but mainly in its festivity, unusualness, exclusivity.

In style, in artistic manner, the romantic principle of representation prevails in "Evenings ...", but with obvious realistic tendencies, winning in "The Tale of Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt".

The poetry of folk life is fanned by Gogol with a burst of high romance. This is the poetry of a folk tale, a legend, in which the atmosphere of pure, ideal human relations prevails. Light easily overcomes darkness, good is always stronger than evil, love triumphs over hatred. Life, recreated in Gogol's stories, was very far from the real contradictions of contemporary reality for the writer. At one time, some researchers even reproached him for this, accusing the author of "Evenings ..." almost in the idealization of the feudal system. But they reproached, of course, in vain. Least of all did Gogol himself imagine that his romantic stories would be used to judge the true conditions of life of a serf. No, another world opened up to his romantic imagination, it was akin to the world of folk poetry - bright and pure, free from any kind of filth.

A reminder of this "real world" is the finale of the "Sorochinsky Fair". Suddenly, the illusion of the fairy tale composed by Gogol collapses. He seems to want to convince the reader that this is just a charming fairy tale created by the writer's imagination. And beyond its borders - a real, difficult life - a source of sadness. This is where the writer’s thoughts about joy as a “beautiful and fickle guest” and the phrases crowning the story are leading: “It’s boring for the abandoned one! And the heart becomes heavy and sad, and there is nothing to help it.

The idea of a cycle of stories about Ukraine arose from N.V. Gogol, apparently, in 1829. By this time, his letters to relatives with a request to report "about the customs of the Little Russians" belong. The information sent to him was recorded by Gogol in the notebook "The Book of All Things" and then used in his stories.
Work on "Evenings" continued for several years. First, the first book of stories appeared, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, published by the beekeeper Rudy Pank,” and then the second part came out.
Gogol's book was highly appreciated by A. S. Pushkin, which influenced the first critical reviews of Evenings. Pushkin wrote to the publisher of Literary Supplements to the Russian Invalid: “I have now read Evenings near Dikanka. They amazed me. Here is real gaiety, sincere, unconstrained, without affectation, without stiffness. And what poetry! What sensitivity! All this is so unusual in our present-day literature that I have not yet come to my senses. I congratulate the public on a truly merry book, and I sincerely wish the author further success. For God's sake,

Take his side if journalists, as usual, attack the indecency of his expressions, his bad taste, etc.
The humor and poetry of Gogol's stories were also noted by Pushkin in a review in Sovremennik of the second edition of Evenings: “Everyone rejoiced at this lively description of a singing and dancing tribe, these fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this cheerfulness, simple-hearted and at the same time crafty. How amazed we were at the Russian book that made us laugh, we who have not laughed since the time of Fonvizin! We were so grateful to the young author that we willingly forgave him the unevenness and irregularity of his style, the incoherence and implausibility of some stories ... "
V. G. Belinsky in his reviews invariably noted the artistry, gaiety and nationality of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. In Literary Dreams, he wrote: “Mr. Gogol, who so cutely pretended to be a beekeeper, belongs to the number of extraordinary talents. Who does not know his "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka"? How much wit, gaiety, poetry and nationality are in them!
In the article “On the Russian story and the stories of Mr. Gogol,” Belinsky again returned to his assessment of “Evenings”: “These were poetic sketches of Little Russia, essays full of life and charm. Everything that nature can have is beautiful, seductive rural life of the common people, everything that the people can have is original, typical, all this glitters with iridescent colors in these first poetic dreams of Mr. Gogol. It was poetry young, fresh, fragrant, luxurious, intoxicating, like a kiss of love.
Having familiarized himself with Arabesques and Mirgorod, Belinsky spoke about realism as a distinctive character of Gogol's work. Belinsky pointed out that krktika incorrectly drew readers' attention only to Gogol's humor, without touching on his realism. He wrote that in Gogol's "Evenings on a Farm", in the stories "Nevsky Prospekt", "Portrait", "Taras Bulba" the funny is mixed with the serious, sad, beautiful and lofty. Comedy is by no means the dominant and outweighing element of Gogol's talent. His talent lies in the amazing fidelity of the depiction of life in its subtly diverse manifestations. You can’t see in Gogol’s creations one comic, one funny ...
The realism of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” was also noted by Belinsky later: “The poet, as it were, admires the originals he created. However, these originals are not his invention, they are not funny because of his whim; the poet is strictly faithful to reality in them. And therefore every person speaks and acts with him in the sphere of his life, his character and the circumstances under the influence of which he is. And none of them is sentenced: the poet is mathematically faithful to reality and often draws comical features, without any pretension to make laugh, but only obeying his instinct, his tact of reality.

Gogol tried to use his main idea about the role of Providence in history to partially justify the First Rome. In his discussion “On the Middle Ages,” he writes about the rise of the Pope in the following way: “I will not talk about abuse and the severity of the shackles of a spiritual despot. Penetrating more into this great event, we will see the amazing wisdom of Providence: if this omnipotent power had not seized everything in its own hands ... - Europe would have crumbled ... ".

In the same 1834, Gogol allowed himself the only sharp attack in his life against Eastern Rome in its initial, subsequent existence: “The Eastern Empire, which very rightly began to be called Greek, and even more justly could be called the empire of eunuchs, comedians, favorites of the stadiums, conspiracies, low murderers and disputing monks ... ”(On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century), - an opinion clearly inspired by Western historiography.

However, even then, in Gogol's soul, the intuition of the artist contradicted the views of the scientist. He combined his historical articles and published them in 1835 as part of the collection Arabesques. The three fiction stories included in the same collection, written on behalf of different narrators who did not coincide in their views with Gogol himself, left a special imprint of detachment from the author's personality on the entire book, and therefore on the articles in it. On the whole, various shades of the magical worldview are reproduced, reflected, expressed in Arabesques, and some general “impurity” of the book is emphasized by the number of selected articles: there are 13 of them, and the one that contains an attack against Byzantium is placed precisely in 13th place - before eloquently closing the book "Notes of a Madman".

The unifying underlying basis of all the components of "Arabesques" was pantheism, directing the consciousness of narrators and heroes to self-deification, and in reality - to self-destruction, dissolution in the elements of natural existence. Gogol hinted at this already in the title, which was immediately noticed by the sensitive F.V. Bulgarin, who responded as follows: “Arabesques are called in painting and sculpture fantastic decorations made up of flowers and figures, patterned and wayward. Arabesques were born in the East, and therefore they do not include images of animals and people, which are forbidden to be drawn by the Koran. In this respect, the title of the book is aptly tidied up: for the most part, images without faces» .

The spirit of magical pantheism is imbued not only with the fictional stories of Arabesques, but also with articles where, for example, according to S. Karlinsky, bloody conquerors (Attila and the like) “are regarded as evil magicians who sometimes receive retribution from the hands of medieval popes and saints, depicted by good magicians ". As part of Arabesques, this acts in two ways: on the one hand, most of the articles in the collection are sustained in a magical spirit, and magic tends to see itself everywhere, including in Christianity; on the other hand, Gogol, hiding behind his magically minded narrators, points to signs of a real, from the Orthodox point of view, deviation of Catholicism towards magic.

Wanting to fully comprehend the essence of the First Rome, Gogol strives to Italy, as he once sought to Petersburg. Departing for Europe in July 1836, from March 1837 he begins his life in Rome. Now he completely indulges in the charm of Italian nature and the ancient city and finds himself more than ever far from Russia and Orthodoxy. It is noteworthy that along with sympathy for Catholicism in the letters of 1838-1839, Gogol also reveals a passion for paganism and magic. In April 1838, he writes from Rome to M.P. Balabina: “It seemed to me that I saw my homeland ... the homeland of my soul ... where my soul lived even before me, before I was born into the world.” The non-Christian idea of the pre-existence of souls (internally connected with the pantheistic idea of the reincarnation of souls) is supplemented in the same letter by a general equalization of the merits of Christianity and paganism. The first Rome, according to Gogol, “is already beautiful in that ... that on one half of it the pagan age breathes, on the other the Christian, and both are the biggest two thoughts in the world.” Such an equalization of the merits of essentially different types of spirituality is a sign of magical consciousness. Gogol seems to be trying to turn history back, to return to paganism, and therefore designates his letter not with Christian, but with Roman-pagan chronology: "the year 2588 from the founding of the city." The thought: "... in Rome alone they pray, in other places they show only the appearance that they are praying" - sounds in this letter not only pro-Catholic, but partly in paganism.

Catholic priests in Rome tried to convert Gogol to their faith. Rumors about that reached Russia. When Gogol justifies himself in a letter home on December 22, 1837, his words sound non-Orthodox: "... I will not change the rites of my religion ... Because both our religion and the Catholic one are exactly the same."

At the end of the 1830s, the writer sympathizes with the Catholic hope, learned from Judaism, in the “kingdom of God” (or “paradise”) on earth, which is allegedly possible to arrange by the will and forces of churched humanity. The seed of this "paradise", of course, was the First Rome. On January 10, 1840, Gogol, who returned to Moscow, writes to M.A. Maksimovich: “I can’t wait for spring and it’s time to go to my Rome, my paradise ... God, what a land! what a land of miracles! .

The Italians themselves admit that in Gogol's attitude to their capital, the ability to "love, admire, understand" this "luminous oasis of peace and tranquility" manifested itself. Like no one else among foreign writers, Gogol in the minds of Italians acquired an unparalleled right to speak in the name of Rome. T. Landolfi, having collected dozens of essays on the life of writers from different countries in Rome, called the entire book "Gogol in Rome", although Gogol, like the rest, is given only a few pages.

The turning point in the writer's "Roman" self-awareness, which took place in the autumn of 1840, seems all the more weighty. The external cause was a mysterious dangerous disease that happened in Vienna, shaking the soul and crushing the body. Barely recovering and arriving in Rome, Gogol confessed to M.P. Pogodin: “Neither Rome, nor the sky, nor that which would so enchant me, nothing now has an influence on me. I don't see them, I don't feel them. I would like a road now, but a road in the rain, slush, through forests, through the steppes, to the ends of the world ”-“ even to Kamchatka ”(letter dated October 17, 1840).

Since then, love for the First Rome has been supplanted by an attraction to the Third, to Moscow, so that in December 1840 Gogol wrote to K.S. Aksakov from the capital of Italy: “I send you a kiss, dear Konstantin Sergeevich, for your letter. It boils strongly with Russian feeling and smells of Moscow from it ... Your calls for snow and winter are also not without fascination, and why not get cold sometimes? This is often great. Especially when there is plenty of inner heat and hot feelings. It is noteworthy that this is written by a person, most of all, it seems, who was afraid of frost.

The failure of the Russian-Italian Catholics in converting Gogol to the Latin faith is also noteworthy: since 1839, the writer pointedly opposed their seductions. Many even the most fleeting acquaintances are mentioned in Gogol's Roman letters, but there is "not the slightest hint of such, in any case, close acquaintances of the poet as the young Semenenko and Kaisevich," priests who left Poland, strenuously trying to convert Gogol. This speaks of the writer's initially cautious attitude towards Catholic influences, of the initial internal rejection (despite the fact that in Rome it was very beneficial for him to maintain good relations with Catholics).

The change in consciousness, of course, was reflected in Gogol's artistic work. Moreover, initially, on a whim, feeling the deep foundation of his views and the coming manifestation of this foundation, he expressed his attraction to the First Rome not on his own behalf, but through the detached consciousness of the narrators and heroes. So, if in the "Portrait" (1834-1842) the narrator speaks of "wonderful Rome", and in "Rome" (1838-1842) another narrator develops this image in every possible way, then behind their voices one hears a more restrained judgment of the writer himself, who shows , as, for example, in "Rome" the protagonist and the narrator are carried away by the element of pagan pantheism - it exudes the ruins of ancient Rome and the surrounding nature and drowns the Christian face of the city along with the souls of its inhabitants.

The story "Rome" is dominated by the image of a fading, setting ( Western) of the sun. In its seductive, languorous, beckoning into darkness, ghostly light, souls dissolve with the features of the Roman world, pagan and Christian reflected in them: all these “tombs and arches” and “the most immeasurable dome” of the Church of the Apostle Peter. And then, "when the sun was already hiding ... everywhere the evening established its dark image." In this ghostly half-existence, "luminous flies" hover, like some fallen spirits, flickering with magical fire stolen from the sun. They surround the frenzied human soul, which has forgotten about God and about itself, and among them is “a clumsy winged insect, rushing upright, like a man, known under the name of the devil.”

In the syllable of "Rome" signs of ancient-pagan worship of beauty are stable. The story reveals the chaotic, elemental, pantheistic underlying basis of the outwardly decorous pagan veneration of the "divine" beauty of man and nature. The triumph of chaos over the seemingly bright orderliness of the pagan vision of beauty is emphasized in the story by images of ancient ruins swallowed up by violent nature, the image of sunset light drying up in darkness, and the most confusingly unexpected abruptness of the “excerpt”, given, nevertheless, by Gogol to print.

In "Rome", the young prince felt "some mysterious meaning in the word "eternal Rome"" after he looked at his Italian fatherland from afar, from vain Paris. Meanwhile, Gogol himself, working in Italian Rome on the story of the Roman prince, finally began to understand the Roman, world-sovereign dignity of his own homeland and its ancient capital - Moscow. This understanding was reflected in the first volume of "Dead Souls", completed simultaneously with the story "Rome": "Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you ... But what kind of incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? And menacingly, a mighty space embraces me, reflecting with terrible power in my depths; My eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus'!..” The narrator, who argues in this way, is already extremely close to Gogol himself, and it is no coincidence that he is called the “author”. The first volume of “Dead Souls” ends with a direct proclamation of the unsurpassed sovereign power of Russia: “... the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes a wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking sideways, step aside and give it way to other peoples and states.

Chichikov, who, according to Gogol's plan, was supposed to be reborn in the Orthodox sovereign spirit, already in the first volume touches on the foundations of the corresponding teaching, although not very close to him yet: with great praise about its space, said that even the most ancient Roman monarchy was not so great, and foreigners are rightly surprised ... "

The change in consciousness of Gogol himself is evidenced by his observation made during the arrival of Nicholas I in Rome and immediately told in a letter to A.P. Tolstoy dated 2 January n. Art. 1846: “I will tell you little about the sovereign ... He was called simply by the people everywhere Emperor, without adding: di Russia so that a foreigner might think that this was the rightful sovereign of this land. Gogol wants to see that the Italian people themselves, the “Romans” (as a special indigenous part of this people) confirm the idea that has revived in Russia of the Orthodox Russian state as the only legitimate successor to the “Roman” power.

Returning from abroad to his homeland, Gogol prefers to live in Moscow, and since the end of the 1840s, after traveling to the Holy Places, a desire has been growing in his soul not to leave the Fatherland at all and even not to leave Moscow at all: “No way I would not leave Moscow, which I love so much. And in general, Russia is getting closer and closer to me. In addition to the property of the motherland, there is something in it even higher than the motherland, as if it were the land from where it is closer to the heavenly homeland ”(letter to A.S. Sturdze dated September 15, 1850).

Russia for the mature Gogol is precisely the Third Moscow Rome: not a sweet paradise on earth, but a harsh temporary fortress that protects souls faithful to Christ from visible and invisible enemies and allows you to safely move from a short earthly life to an eternal afterlife with a possible subsequent settlement (if Christ whatever you like) into the Kingdom of God, which is “not of this world.”

An ancient image of such a Christian fortress on earth is a monastery, and Gogol in Selected Places from Correspondence with Friends directly writes: “Your monastery is Russia!” The Christian humility of a Russia-monastery turns into militancy only when there is a threat to the sanctuary of faith: “... or you don’t know what Russia is for a Russian. Remember that when trouble came to her, then monks came out of the monasteries and stood in ranks with others to save her. The blacks of Oslyablya and Peresvet, with the blessing of the abbot himself, took a sword that was contrary to a Christian.

Moscow for the late Gogol is the holiest place in the Russia-monastery, and St. Petersburg is the furthest from holiness: “There will be a freer, more convenient time for our conversations than in dissolute Petersburg”; in Moscow conversations about “truly Russian goodness” “the stronghold of our character is brought up and the mind is illuminated with light” (letter to A.O. Smirnova dated October 14, 1848). Driven by this idea, Gogol in "The denouement of the Inspector General" (1846) puts into the mouth of the "first comic actor" the thought: "... we hear our noble Russian breed ... we hear the order from the Highest to be the best of others!" . In "Bright Sunday", the final chapter of "Selected Places ...", Gogol assures himself and his compatriots that it is in Russia that the purity of ancient Christianity, which was lost everywhere, will be restored sooner, and restored, since in Russia it is most preserved. The essence of Christianity is the belief in the incarnation of Christ God, His death on the cross for the sins of people and the Resurrection from the dead - so that the fallen people will be resurrected. About the Bright Sunday of Christ, Gogol writes: “Why does it still seem to one Russian that this holiday is celebrated as it should be, and is celebrated in this way in his own land? Is it a dream? But why does this dream not come to anyone other than the Russian?.. Such thoughts are not invented. By the inspiration of God, they are born at once in the hearts of many people ... I know for sure that more than one person in Russia ... firmly believes in this and says: “In our country, before any other land, the Bright Sunday of Christ will be celebrated!”

Each official of the Russian Orthodox state, according to Gogol, must at the same time be “an honest official of God’s great state” (Decoupling “”), which is displayed and preexisting on earth with its threshold - in the form of Russian: “We will together prove to the whole world that in the Russian land everything everything, from small to large, strives to serve the same, Whom everything should serve, everything on the whole earth, rushes there ... up, to the Supreme eternal beauty! , - expresses the "first comic actor" thoughts close to Gogol himself. Russia must show the erring world an example of sovereign worship.

IN<«Авторской исповеди»>Gogol sums up his sovereign teaching: “So, after many years and labors, and experiments, and reflections ... I came to what I already thought about during my childhood: that the purpose of a person is to serve and our whole life is a service. It is only necessary not to forget that a place in an earthly state was taken in order to serve the Heavenly Sovereign in it and therefore keep His law in mind. Only by serving in this way can one please everyone: the sovereign, and the people, and one's land. This is one of the possible definitions of the Orthodox-"Roman" symphony of Church and State. The Church and the service to God carried out through her is the content of state life, and the state is the fence of the Church as the people of God.

In the chapter “Selected Places…” “A few words about our Church and clergy”, Gogol reminds his compatriots and all mankind of the true essence of Orthodoxy and the role of Russia in its development: “This Church, which, like a chaste virgin, has survived alone from the time of the apostles in an its original purity, this Church, which ... alone is able to solve all the knots of perplexity and our questions, which can work an unheard-of miracle in the sight of all Europe, forcing us to enter into their legitimate boundaries and boundaries and, without changing nothing in the state, to give Russia the power to amaze the whole world with the harmonious harmony of the same organism with which it has hitherto frightened - and this Church is unknown to us! And this Church, created for life, we still have not introduced into our lives!” .

The focus of church life is worship, liturgy, and Gogol, reflecting on “our liturgy” ( . raise, angelic invisibly dorinosima chinmi, hallelujah!”): “The ancient Romans had the custom of bringing the newly elected emperor to the people, accompanied by legions of troops, on a shield under the fall of many spears bent over him. This song was composed by the emperor himself, who fell to the dust with all his earthly majesty before the majesty of the King of all, carried by spears by cherubim and legions of heavenly powers: in the original times, the emperors themselves humbly stood in the ranks of servants when carrying out the Holy Bread ... At the sight of the King of all, carried in a humble form The lamb, lying on a diskos, as if on a shield, surrounded by instruments of earthly suffering, as if by spears of countless invisible hosts and officials, all bow down their heads and pray with the words of the robber who cried out to Him on the cross: “Remember me, Lord, when you come to His kingdom."

Composition

The romanticism of “Evenings…” is, first of all, a manifestation of a deep interest in the peculiarities of the national mentality, spirituality and originality of Ukrainian history, national artistic thinking, drawing the original characters of individuals, which determined the Christian-philosophical concept of human existence. The mystical romanticism of Gogol, from the origins of which the fantastic realism of many writers of the 20th century (O.Dovzhenko, G.Bulgakov, Ch.Aitmatov, Garciamarques) will be determined in the future, crossed out the idyllic ideas about Ukraine that had developed in literature by that time.

Gogol's attention will focus on socio-ethical, spiritual, historical problems that will not leave the writer until the end of his life: this is the intervention of evil spirits in the fate of a person, who often makes it helplessly tragic, brings the seduced sinner a cruel retribution for the perfect step over, for excessive gullibility and the temptation of curiosity, the desire to equip earthly life with ghostly luxuries, often obtained on the blood and grief of others.

The story of Basavryuk, associated with evil spirits (namely, the “evil spirit”, which insidiously harms a person, leading to the death of the soul, shows excessive attention to the author), known in “Evenings ...” under the title “Evening on the Eve of Yvan Kupala”. The work, built on a mythological plot, conveys the romantically tragic story of the farmhand Peter Bezrodny, handsome and helpless, hopelessly, it would seem, in love with the daughter of a wealthy Cossack Korzh Sidorka. The girl responds to the young man in return (the love of a poor farm laborer for daughters from wealthy families was often a leading theme in folklore, with time T. Shevchenko will turn to her in his poems, Marko Vovchok in “Folk Stories”, etc.), but they cannot connect destinies, and Sidorka's father drives Peter away.

The catcher of the wandered soul appears quickly - Basavryuk, connected with the devilish evil spirits, who offers the young man to find the treasure on the night of Ivan Kupala, when the fern is in bloom. Further, a mystically terrible scene crosses on blood: in order to receive a treasure covered with a dream with golden gold pieces, Petro, at the behest of an old witch, is forced to bring it in, than over the head of an innocent child, who turned out to be Sidorka's six-year-old brother Ivan stolen by gypsies. It was this boy who transmitted the tearful frank stories of Peter's older sister.

Yesterday's laborer becomes rich, acquiring a treasure in the blood, but loses the memory of that ominous night. Life with Sidorka, wealth does not bring happiness. Petro suffers from forgotten and unsolved secrets - the secrets of torment and confusion. Lost in search of happiness, the sinner learns the cause of his mental illness in the old sorceress, who turned out to be that ill-fated witch who once turned the boy over the cross.

The denouement is tragic and philosophically metaphorical: both the house, and all property, and treasure ooze blood, going to dust, since a person cannot create well-being in compromise with the devil, nevertheless, on the suffering and grief of others (the idea of rational evil, so inspired by Goethe's "Faust" and interpreted by the brilliant German poet as an excuse, never brought good in life: by the way, the real doctor Faustus, an alchemist and occultist-sorcerer, was found in a ditch lying prostrate, with a knife in his back).

Gifted with the talent of a great satirist in drawing contemporaries disfigured by devilry, a society actually deformed by sin, in separate stories from “Evening ...” (“Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, “Terrible Revenge”) Gogol is deeply tragic in reproducing the struggle between good and evil, the devil’s attempts to captivate the soul of a person.

Unlike Goethe, who in Faust to some extent embodied the idea of fear of the power of an invisible enemy and therefore reworked the tragic ending of the story of the alchemist and warlock from folk legends, apparently calming not so much the reader as himself, the young Gogol his romance and mysticism focuses on the terrible danger of demonism, which obviously, aggressively, covertly insidiously harms at all stages of human history, embodying, as a rule, the anti-national, predatory aspirations of alien, anti-Orthodox worlds (in the writer's works, evil spirits are associated with infidels, Catholics, Jews, etc.).

It is characteristic that in the “Terrible Revenge” (almost the strongest story of the cycle, which outlines the author’s mystical fantasy in comprehending good and evil on the tablets of the Cossack history of the struggle for faith, family, national Christian values), the author, perhaps, has not yet reached the Orthodox understanding of the Highest - God's Judgment, since God appears in him as the executor of aspiration, vindictive and sadistic, the Cossack Ivan, who became a victim of his own brother Peter, seduced by wealth and envy. And the Supreme Judge, who embodies love and mercy, is able to forgive even the greatest sinners, however... if they rest, they realize their temptation to break in: so was the thief forgiven by Christ, crucified on the right side, the thief who recognized God's truth.

In Terrible Revenge, there is no repentance of sinners (they are involved in the tenth generation of the damned generation and seem to be programmed for sin: often playing imaginary repentance with an insidious purpose, these messengers of hell, by deceit of the gullible, bring another, even more disaster), therefore the representative of the last damned generation is the father Catherine (she appears in the work as a zealous Christian, a faithful wife and mother) in essence, and deprived of the right to choose between good and evil: even the hermit is forbidden to pray for him ...

The sorcerer from the accursed family disappeared for a long time in foreign Busurman lands and turns to his once abandoned daughter (he once treacherously killed her mother) to Ukraine to bring misfortune to the family, the people, and the Cossacks, the defender of the faith and the Fatherland. He hates and seeks to get rid of his son-in-law Danila, a real defender of faith and honor, inclines his daughter Catherine through a soul called in a dream by witchcraft spells to the unloved, and this is one of the biggest crimes. The sorcerer, by an insidious deceit, causes the mercy of his own daughter to himself (she releases the criminal from prison) and leads the enemies to Ukraine.

The Cossacks, led by Danil Burulbash, courageously defend themselves, who still vilely and dishonorably kills the sorcerer-in-law with a shot. Over time, the unrepentant sinner, unable to achieve the love of his own daughter by deceit, slaughters both her little child and herself. And then he will be thrown down by a powerful horseman, as a performer of the Highest Providence, into the abyss ...

Actually, the insidious sorcerer in the “Terrible Revenge” is a certain measure of the personification of the hostile native Christian land, clan and people of forces, the embodiment of the diabolical idea of betrayal, the origins of which are directly hidden in an explicit way of mercantilism and envy. Gogol rejects Goethe's optimism in the interpretation of evil, which can be used, beyond the assertions of the German classic, and for the good. Basavryuk from “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, the father of the sorcerer from “Terrible Revenge”, various evil spirits in insulting witches, characterists from other stories bring misfortunes under the guise of good intentions. Even the devil, saddled by Vukol, fulfills the will of the blacksmith only out of coercion (in hagiographic retellings, there are tales about how the holidays could force the unclean to transfer them to other places; by the way, the bursak Foma Brutus proves panna the witch to death, although later, tempted by curiosity, she dies and myself).

He wants to force the holy elder to call for mercy for himself God the sorcerer in the “Terrible Revenge”, but, committing another blood feud, he himself collapses, since he is not capable of saving the soul by his own repentance. And it is characteristic that much later, not without the influence of Gogol, combining mythological-legendary motifs with specific historical conflicts, the Ukrainian writer Oleksiy Storozhenko created the story (unfinished) “Mark the Damned” - actually an adventurous tale about the great sinner Mark, who committed a terrible crime: he lived with his own sister, who gave birth to a child from him, then killed his own mother, a sister with a child, for which he was forced to carry the heads of close people behind his shoulder as a difficult burden - the burden was lightened when the sinner did good deeds, primarily protecting his native land from the Polish-gentry enslavers. So the hero of the adventurous story Storozhenko mitigates his past sins by valor in honor of his homeland, bearing the burden of a kind of Ukrainian “Eternal Jew”. Gogol's sorcerer from "Terrible Revenge" is always in solidarity with the enslavers, whom he brings to his native land, being associated with anti-national, anti-Christian forces.

It is characteristic that in the "Terrible Revenge", covered with a romantic halo of holiness, there are real uncompromising patriots of Ukraine. This is the Cossack leader-winner Danil Burulbash, his faithful jura Stetsko, brother captain Sparrow. They oppose the satanic destructive power of evil that enveloped the native land: Gogol always associates patriotism with the defense of the Orthodox faith from alien expansion.

Other writings on this work

Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka Historical, everyday and moral element in "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" Mysticism in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" by N. V. Gogol My first reading of Gogol Folk character in "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" The image of Oksana in the story of N.V. Gogol "The Night Before Christmas" ("Evenings on a farm near Dikanka") Analysis of Gogol's works "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" Romance of Ukrainian fairy tales and legends Romance of Ukrainian fairy tales and legends in the works of N. V. Gogol (Based on the book "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka")