Contents of the collection “Mirgorod”
Outskirts.
S.I. Vasilkovsky “Mirgorod” is a cycle of four stories:
First part: “Old World Landowners”, Taras Bulba”;
Second part: “Viy”, “The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.”
Nikolai Gogol - Mirgorod (collection)
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
OTHER EDITIONS
TARAS BULBA. EDITORIAL OF THE WORLD CITY. 1835
I
“Turn around, son! wow you, how funny you are! What kind of priestly cassock are you wearing? And that’s how everyone goes to academies?”
With these words old Bulba greeted his two sons, who were studying at the Kyiv Bursa and had already arrived at their father’s house.
His sons had just dismounted from their horses. These were two strapping young men, still looking sullenly, like recently graduated seminarians. Their strong, healthy faces were covered with the first fluff of hair that had not yet been touched by a razor. They were very embarrassed by their father’s reception and stood motionless, their eyes cast down to the ground.
“Wait, wait, children,” he continued, turning them: “what long scrolls you have on! [Svitka is the name given to outer clothing among Little Russians. (Approx. Gogol.)] These are the scrolls! Well well well! There have never been such scrolls in the world! Well, both of you run: I’ll see if you get hit?”
“Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, dad!” finally said the eldest of them.
“Ugh, you’re so lush! why not laugh?”
“Yes, yes. Even though you’re my father, if you laugh, then, by God, I’ll beat you!”
“Oh, you are such a son! How is it, dad? said Taras Bulba, stepping back a little in surprise.
“Yes, even dad. I won’t look at anyone for offense and I won’t respect anyone.”
“How do you want to fight me? maybe with your fists?
“Yeah, whatever it is.”
“Well, let’s fist fight!” Bulba said, rolling up his sleeves. And father and son, instead of greeting them after a long absence, began to beat each other excessively.
“What a fool the old man is!” said their pale, thin and kind mother, who stood at the threshold and had not yet had time to hug her beloved children: “By God, he’s stupid! The children came home, didn’t see them for more than a year, and he thought of God knows what: to fight with his fists.”
“Yes, he fights well!” Bulba said, stopping. “By God, it’s good!.. well,” he continued, recovering a little: “I wish I didn’t try. He will be a good Cossack! Well, hello, son! Let's break hands!" And father and son began to kiss. “Good, son! Hit everyone like that, just like he hit me. Don't let anyone down! Still, you're wearing a funny outfit. What kind of rope is this hanging? And you, babybass, why are you standing there and giving up your hands?” he said, turning to the younger one. “Why don’t you, son of a dog, beat me?”
“Here’s something else I came up with!” said the mother, who meanwhile was hugging the youngest: “And it will come to mind! How can a child beat his own father? Moreover, as if before now: a small child, he had traveled so much, he was tired (this child was too twenty years old and exactly a fathom tall), he should now rest and eat something, but he makes him beat!
“Eh, you’re a little bastard, as I see!” Bulba said: “Don’t listen to your mother, son: she is a woman. She doesn't know anything. What kind of tenderness do you like? Your tenderness is an open field and a good horse; here is your tenderness. And you see this saber - this is your mother! This is all the rubbish that they fill you with: the academy, and all those books, primers and philosophy - all this, I know, I don’t give a damn about all this! Bulba added one more word, which, however, the censor did not allow into print and was done well. “I will send you to Zaporozhye this same week. That's where your school is! That’s where you’ll gain some sense!”
“And only for one week to be at home for them?” the thin old woman-mother spoke pitifully, with tears in her eyes. “And they, the poor ones, won’t be able to go for a walk, and they won’t have time to recognize their native home, and I won’t be able to look at them enough!”
“Come on, come on, old woman! Kozak is not in the mood to mess with women. Go quickly and bring us whatever you have to the table. There is no need for donuts, makoviki, honey cakes and other pundiks, but just bring us a whole lamb for the table. Yes, burners, so there are more burners! Not this variety, the one with the inventions: with raisins, rodzinki and other trash, but a pure burner, a real one, such that it hisses like a demon!”
Bulba led his sons into the little room, from which two healthy girls in red monasteries timidly ran out when they saw the arrival of the panicks, who did not like to let anyone down. Everything in the little room was decorated in the taste of that time; and this time concerned the 16th century, when the idea of union was just beginning to emerge. Everything was clean, smeared with clay. The entire wall was covered with sabers and guns. The windows in the little room were small, with round frosted glass, such as are now found only in ancient churches. On the shelves that occupied the corners of the room and were made with squares, there were clay jugs, blue and green flasks, silver goblets, gilded glasses of Venetian, Turkish and Circassian workmanship, which came into Bulba’s room in different ways through third and fourth hands, which was very common in these daring time. Linden benches around the entire room and a huge table in the middle of it, a stove spread across half the room, like a fat Russian merchant's wife, with some kind of roosters painted on the tiles - all these objects were quite familiar to our two fellows, who came home almost every year for the holidays , who came because they did not yet have horses, and because it was not the custom to allow schoolchildren to ride. They only had long forelocks, which could be torn out by any Cossack who carried a weapon. Bulba, only when releasing them, sent them a couple of young stallions from his herd.
“Well, sons, first of all, let’s drink some burners! God bless! Be healthy, sons: both you, Ostap, and you, Andriy! God grant that you will always be lucky in war! So that the Busurmen would be beaten, and the Turks would be beaten, and the Tatars would be beaten; when the Poles begin to do something against our faith, then the Poles too would be beaten. Well, put your glass down; Is the burner good? What's the Latin word for burner? That’s why, son, the Latins were fools: they didn’t even know if there was a burner in the world. What was the name of the guy who wrote Latin verses? I don’t understand reading very well, so I don’t even remember; Horace, I think?”
“Look what a dad!” The eldest son, Ostap, thought to himself: “The dog knows everything, and he’s also pretending.”
“I think, Archimandrite,” continued Bulba, “he didn’t even let you smell the burners. And what, sons, admit it, they whipped you quite a lot with birch and cherry trees on your back and all over, and maybe, since you are already too reasonable, with whips? I think, in addition to Saturdays, they beat you on Wednesdays and Thursdays?”
“There’s nothing to remember, dad,” said Ostap with his usual phlegmatic look: “what happened has already passed.”
“Now we can paint everyone,” said Andriy: “with sabers and copies. Just let him come across a Tatar.”
“Good, son! By God, good! Yes, when that’s the case, then I’ll go with you! By God, I'm going! What the hell should I expect here? What, should I really look after the bread and the pigs? Or fool around with your wife? May she disappear! So that I stay at home for her? I'm a Cossack. I don't want! So what if there is no war? So I’ll go with you to Zaporozhye for a walk. By God, I’m on my way!” And old Bulba little by little got excited and finally became completely angry, got up from the table and, putting on a dignified appearance, stamped his foot. “We’re going tomorrow! Why put it off? What kind of enemy can we watch out for here? What do we need this house for? Why do we need all this? What are these pots for? At the same time, Bulba began to pound and throw pots and flasks. The poor old wife, already accustomed to such actions of her husband, looked sadly, sitting on the bench. She didn't dare say anything; but, having heard about such a terrible decision for her, she could not help but cry; she looked at her children, from whom such a quick separation was threatening - and no one could describe all the silent power of her grief, which seemed to tremble in her eyes and in her convulsively compressed lips. Bulba was terribly stubborn. This was one of those characters that could only have emerged in the rough 15th century, and moreover in the semi-nomadic East of Europe, during the time of the right and wrong concept of lands that had become some kind of controversial, unresolved possession, to which Ukraine then belonged. The eternal need for border protection against three different nations - all this gave a kind of free, broad dimension to the exploits of her sons and fostered stubbornness of spirit. This stubbornness of spirit was imprinted in full force on Taras Bulba. When Batory organized regiments in Little Russia and clothed it with that warlike armor, which at first designated only the inhabitants of the rapids, he was one of the first colonels. But on the first occasion, he quarreled with all the others because the booty acquired from the Tatars by the united Polish and Cossack troops was not equally divided between them and the Polish troops received more advantages. In the meeting of everyone, he laid aside his dignity and said: “When you, gentlemen, colonels, do not know your rights, then let the devil lead you by the nose. And I will recruit my own regiment, and whoever snatches what is mine from me, I will know how to wipe his lips.” Indeed, in a short time, from his own father’s estate, he formed a rather significant detachment, which consisted of farmers and warriors and completely submitted to his wishes. In general, he was a great hunter of raids and riots; he heard with his nose where and in what place the indignation flared up and, out of the blue, he appeared on his horse. “Well, children! what and how? Who should be beaten and for what?” He usually spoke and intervened in the matter. However, first of all, he strictly examined the circumstances, and in this case only pestered when he saw that those who raised the weapon really had the right to raise it, although this right was, in his opinion, only in the following cases: if a neighboring nation stole cattle, or they cut off part of the land, or the commissars imposed heavy duties, or they did not respect the elders and spoke in front of them in their caps, or they laughed at the Orthodox faith - in these cases it was certainly necessary to take up the saber; against the Busurmans, Tatars and Turks, he considered it fair at all times to raise arms, for the glory of God, Christianity and the Cossacks. The situation in Little Russia at that time, not yet consolidated into any system, not even made known, contributed to the existence of many completely separate partisans. He led a very simple life, and he could not be distinguished at all from an ordinary Cossack if his face did not retain some kind of command and even greatness, especially when he decided to defend something. Bulba consoled himself in advance with the thought of how he would now appear with his two sons and say: “Look, what fine fellows I have brought to you!” He thought about how he would take them to Zaporozhye - this military school of the then Ukraine, introduce them to his comrades and see how, before his eyes, they would strive in military science and wine drinking, which he also considered one of the first virtues of a knight. At first he wanted to send them alone, because he considered it necessary to take up the new formation of the regiment, which required his presence. But at the sight of his sons, tall and healthy, his whole military spirit suddenly flared up in him, and he decided to go with them the next day, although the need for this was only stubborn will.
Author's idea
Nikolai Gogol himself conceived Mirgorod as a continuation of his previous book, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. As before, Nikolai Vasilyevich wanted, with the help of his works, to acquaint readers with the life and way of life of Little Russian peasants, Cossacks and small landowners. However, this collection was completely different in its focus and character. Many literary scholars are inclined to believe that “Evenings” is a bright representative of romantic literature, and “Mirgorod” is realistic prose.
And indeed it is. “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” were written in 1829-1832. This was one of the first works of the aspiring writer, who was barely 20 years old. The stories of “Evenings” are full of youthful charm, cheerful enthusiasm and sparkling humor. And although only a few years passed between the creation of these two cycles, for Gogol himself they were very eventful and seriously changed his worldview, which was reflected in the content of the stories.
Analysis of the cycle of stories by N.V. Gogol "Mirgorod"
N.V. Gogol's stories included in Mirgorod were first published in 1835 as a separate edition, and then republished in 1842, included in the second volume of the writer's collected works.
The collection “Mirgorod” is in many ways a continuation of the first collection, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. The writer develops the theme of the life and everyday life of Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks (“Viy”, “Taras Bulba”) and the small nobility (“Old World Landowners”, “The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). Gogol’s style retains the desire for a vivid description of pictures of Ukrainian nature; the reader will find in this collection elements of fantasy, purely Gogol’s slyly ironic humor. The writer, giving “Mirgorod” the subtitle “Tales that serve as a continuation of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” and himself assessed it in the same way.
But at the same time, “Mirgorod” differs significantly from “Evenings”. The second collection of stories indicates that the realistic method of depicting reality prevailed in Gogol’s work. The writer reflects life in typical characters, highlighting in them what is most significant from a socio-psychological point of view. Such are Khoma Brut and the centurion (“Viy”), Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna (“Old World Landowners”), Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich (“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). An expression of the greatness of the national spirit is the image of Taras Bulba from the story of the same name, in which Gogol, with epic breadth, depicted one of the most dramatic periods in the history of the Ukrainian people - the period of the struggle for independence against lordly Poland (see “Taras Bulba”).
Fiction in “Mirgorod” (the story “Viy”) is not an end in itself, but serves as a certain means of expressing life-true circumstances and characters: thus, the evil spirits in the story “Viy” are subordinate to the aristocratic elite of the village and oppose the people.
Gogol’s humor also undergoes changes in Mirgorod. He becomes sharper, sharper, and often turns into satire. It is here that Gogol’s humor begins to sound, according to Belinsky’s correct remark, like “laughter through tears,” testifying to the writer’s deep understanding of the essence of the contradictions of the reality around him. The writer sees that life contrasts are not accidental, but have a social nature. The characters of Mirgorod landowners and officials are the product of a certain way of life. The inhabitants of Mirgorod cannot go beyond this way of life, and this is the tragedy of their situation.
Life experience
It is also impossible not to take into account the fact that Gogol’s own life experience has seriously expanded over the years. He wrote “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” having just arrived from Little Russia to St. Petersburg, which was still filled with the poetry of the Ukrainian land. Having lived in the capital, traveled around the country, and traveled abroad, Nikolai Vasilyevich, of course, took a different look at society, Russia and life in general. In the stories of “Mirgorod” we no longer see a merry storyteller who tells about people’s life through romantic stories, but a serious person wise in life, and whose laughter and tears are the result of a deep understanding of life. Therefore, the boundaries between them are blurred, and we are not always able to accurately distinguish where laughter ends and tears begin, as well as vice versa.
The second story “Taras Bulba”
Here Nikolai Vasilyevich puts the question bluntly: “What is good? What is wrong?" Increased demands have been made on heroes. They have to make a choice between good and evil, patriotism and betrayal. All the heroes - Taras, Ostap, Andriy - have to choose their own fate.
Nikolai Vasilyevich tried to show the life of the Cossacks as it really was.
Patriarchal way of life, campaigns, wars, loyalty to the Fatherland, defense of one’s Orthodox faith. This is not the first time the writer raises the question of how far a person is willing to go for his love. But if, for example, in the stories “May Night, or the Drowned Woman” or “The Night Before Christmas” we were talking about a deal with evil spirits, then in “Taras Bulba” we are talking about a deal with our own conscience. The author contrasts two goals: a great heroic one, in the person of Taras, in the person of Ostap, and a personal selfish one, in the person of Andriy. It must be said that the narrator treated all his characters very harshly. At the end of the work, all the main Gogol characters died.
These deaths also have their opposition. Death for the sake of the Fatherland, for the sake of the happiness of one’s people, is one thing, and the inglorious death of a traitor is quite another.
The writer examined the issue of betrayal from different angles. In the scene of Andriy’s death, both his thoughts and the thoughts of his father are presented. Not everyone knows that in the first edition, Gogol presented Andriy as a vile coward, hiding behind the backs of his comrades, begging his father for mercy.
In the second edition, the writer changed his attitude towards Andriy, his position became ambiguous. Although the Cossack remained a traitor, he is presented as a brave warrior, with an increased threshold of deep sensitivity, which destroyed him. He made his choice in the face of death, does not ask his father for mercy, does not repent, and dies with the name of his beloved Polish woman on his lips.
Plot
Cossack Colonel Taras Bulba meets his sons Ostap and Andriy, who have returned from the Kyiv Academy. He makes fun of them and even starts a small fight with his eldest son, exchanging serious blows with him.
The old warrior is glad that Ostap is ready to stand up for himself. Andriy would have checked, but he was already hugging his mother.
On the occasion of the children's arrival, Bulba throws a feast, and, having become well drunk, declares that she wants to send her sons to the Zaporozhye Sich. And he himself is ready to go on a campaign with them, and he sincerely regrets that there is no war now.
The mother, literally distraught with grief, sits all night next to her sleeping children. She wants the night not to end. After all, perhaps she will not see her sons again.
But then the men set off on a journey. Everyone thinks about their own things. Ostap keeps thinking about his mother, who was so heartbroken saying goodbye to them. Andriy’s thoughts are occupied with a beautiful Polish woman, whom he met in Kyiv, and even once visited her bedroom, having made his way there through a pipe.
As soon as the detachment reaches the Sich, the Cossacks immediately plunge into wild life. The brothers like everything, but the father is not happy. Bulba wants military exploits, but the Koshevoy adheres to a peaceful doctrine.
Not without the participation of Taras, the Cossacks chose a new Koshevoy, who decides to go to war against Poland. The Cossacks strike fear into their enemies, and Ostap and Andriy turn into real warriors.
When trying to take the rich city of Dubna, the Cossacks were rebuffed and decided to keep the city under siege.
One night Andria is found by a Polish maid, with whom the young man is madly in love. Having learned that his beloved is starving along with his whole family, the guy loads a bag with bread and secretly, through an underground passage, goes after the Tatar woman.
Having met his beloved, Andriy, without hesitation, renounces his friends, brother, father, and Fatherland. Now he will cleanse his beloved from his former comrades.
That same night, reinforcements arrive to the Poles. Many Cossacks were either killed in their sleep or captured. But trouble does not come alone - a messenger rushed from Zaporozhye and reported that the Tatars had attacked the Sich. There is no way out, the army is divided. One part returns to the Sich, the second remains to besiege Dubna.
The Poles, having learned about the weakening of the Cossack army, attack. Here in battle the father met his traitor son. Having lured Andriy aside, Bulba executes his son. In the same battle, Ostap is captured, and Taras is very seriously wounded.
A month and a half passed before the elderly Cossack came to his senses. He decides to help his son. With the help of threats, money and the Jew Yankel, the ataman gets to Warsaw. But it’s impossible to buy out Ostap.
An old Cossack faces the execution of his own son, which was very cruel. Ostap steadfastly withstood all the torture, and only before his death did he turn to his father, as if he knew that he could hear him. By responding, Taras gave himself away, but he managed to escape.
Bulba returned with a huge army. The old chieftain's revenge was terrible. He demolished, chopped and burned with fire everything that came in his way. Even our own people were amazed at such rage. He does not agree to any peace offered by the Poles and clergy. He seeks revenge and avenges his son.
During one of the protracted battles, Taras dropped his cradle. He hesitated, and the Poles managed to surround him. The resistance of the old Cossack was suppressed. The enemies chained Bulba to a tree, nailing his hands to be sure.
But even here the chieftain thinks about his army. Seeing everything from an elevated position, he gives clues to the Cossacks and saves them from certain death. And the Cossacks, having escaped the pursuit, talk about their chieftain.
Humor in the collection “Mirgorod”
Separately, it is worth emphasizing that Gogol’s humor in these two cycles differs significantly from one another. In “Mirgorod” he became sharper, often balancing on the verge of satire. Nikolai Vasilyevich sees the contradictions that exist in life more and more clearly. And the reason for these contrasts lies in social problems.
Cossack yard. S.I. Vasilkovsky
Brief information about the work
“Mirgorod” is the name of a collection of stories by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, which is a continuation of the cycle of stories “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. It was first printed in 1835 and published in two volumes, each containing two stories.
The works included in the collection are based on Ukrainian folklore. They describe the morals of small landowners, the life of Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks. A good-natured smile, poisonous irony, heroic pathos - all this organically fit into a wonderful cycle of stories.
Despite the fact that the stories are grouped, they can be read separately, since thematically they are very independent.
Passion for history
It is also important that the writer’s artistic thinking in this collection is deeply historical. Gogol had long been passionate about historical science; it began at the Nizhyn gymnasium, continued at the Patriotic Institute, where the writer served as a teacher for more than four years, and finally reached its apogee in 1834. In July of this year N.V. Gogol was enrolled as a history teacher at St. Petersburg University and plunged headlong into lectures on the history of the Middle Ages. Thus, the writer sought, through his works of art, to reveal to readers the historical context of the events he described. In this sense, Nikolai Gogol’s stories are still of significant value today, because from the pages of his books we learn “firsthand” about the life and way of life of the Ukrainian people.
Gogol’s cycle “Mirgorod”: problematics, poetics (two stories of your choice).
Mirgorod - a collection positioned by Gogol as a continuation of “Evenings on a Farm”, published in 1835, includes 4 stories: “Old World Landowners”, “Taras Bulba”, “Viy” and “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan” Nikiforovich." The very name of the city contains an ironic meaning: Mirgorod is both an ordinary provincial city and a special, closed world. Gogol moves from a rather positive realistic-folk-romantic worldview in “Evenings” (where a kind of idyll is depicted, a friendly - with some exceptions - symbiosis of the people and the “heads”, the nobles) to a negative-realistic description of landowner life. There is no longer room for romance and beauty in the depiction of the life and morals of the world's landowners. The life of people here is entangled in a web of petty interests. There is no lofty romantic dream, no song, no inspiration in this life. Here is the kingdom of self-interest and vulgarity.
In comparison with “Evenings...” the composition of Gogol’s second collection of prose is more the antithesis of the everyday story “Old World Landowners” - the heroic epic “Taras Bulba”. The morally descriptive, permeated with the author’s irony, “The Tale ...” about the two Ivans is contrasted with the “folk legend” - the story “Viy”, close in style to the works of the first collection. The author's point of view is expressed in the composition of the collection, in the complex interaction of romantic and realistic principles of depicting heroes.
All stories are permeated with the author’s thoughts about the polar possibilities of the human spirit. Gogol is convinced that a person can live according to the high laws of duty, which unites people into “companionship,” but can lead a meaningless, empty existence. It takes him into the cramped world of an estate or city house, to petty worries and slavish dependence on things. In people's lives, the writer discovered opposite principles: spiritual and physical, social and natural.
In “Mirg.” G. parted with the image of the simple-minded narrator and coloring. Contradictory to modern times. From cheerful and romantic couples and maidens, inspired and poetic descriptions of Ukrainian nature, G. moved on to depicting the prose of life. This book sharply expresses the writer’s critical attitude towards the musty way of life of old-world landowners and the vulgarity of Mirgorod “beings”.
The pettiness and vulgarity of provincial landowner life, the absence in it of any truly human feelings and qualities are shown by Gogol through the means of a comic-panegyric narrative, especially clearly exposing the spiritual insignificance of the representatives of the bureaucratic and noble world.
Evolution of storytelling style (from comic to dramatic).
"Taras Bulba"
Inclusion as a form of love for the homeland, all-consuming, passionate. G. In the heroic past he finds an example - but in modern times people have become smaller. Contrast, connection impossible dreams and reality. In that world they fight for the faith of Christ, for honor and freedom, here they quarrel over a brown pig and a gun that won’t shoot. The steppes of “Taras Bulba” are adjacent to the streets of Mirgorod, where two drivers cannot pass each other and where on hot days pigs bathe in the mud.
Here the plot itself is based on a romantic struggle for independence. The Cossacks themselves are insanely romantic in their freedom, daring, love of freedom, restlessness, rebellion, almost like Schiller’s robbers. The Zaporozhye Sich arose from people who were looking for freedom, trying to free themselves from feudal oppression. Only here the highest ideals of patriotism, love for the homeland, the concept of duty, love for their son, who proudly endured execution, are still mixed in. Gogol depicts a truly popular movement , in which he goes further than the Decembrist poets with civic romanticism. This is a nation that has risen to take revenge for the derision of rights, insult to shrines, the faith of their ancestors, for the atrocities of their lords, for oppression and everything, everything, everything. Also taken from folklore . The confrontation between the pretentious gentry and the mighty brave Cossacks. Titanic images of Taras and Ostap. The most striking thing: the execution of Ostap, he and all the Cossacks went to it with some quiet pride. Taras killed his own son when he found out that he was a traitor, withstood the execution of his second son and answered his call that he was here, and when they tied him to a tree with chains and nailed his hands with nails (Prometheus straight), he shouted how to leave and continued give instructions. The antithesis of the heroic past and petty, wingless modernity (that’s why in Mirgorod there are Taras Bulba stories about landowners). In the description of the Sich and battle scenes there is elation and exaggeration , but this does not violate the truth of life. The opposition of freedom, the will of man to the fatal shackles in which he was in reality, and the purely romantic exaltation of music and poetry, in which man seems to find himself, embodying his freedom-loving essence. Romanticism is manifested in both landscape and portraiture, and especially in the depiction of love passion. The features of romanticism are intertwined with realism here.
The plot of the collection “Mirgorod”
"Old World Landowners"
Pyotr Boklevsky (1816-1897) Illustration for the story “Old World Landowners” by N. Gogol, 1887
The first of the four works in the collection was the story “Old World Landowners.” Here Nikolai Vasilyevich paints before us a picture of a marital idyll. The central characters of the story are the Tovstogub spouses - Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna. The author introduces them to the reader as good-natured, hospitable and simple people. Since the couple has no children, all their attention and mutual care are directed towards each other. However, life is not eternal, and the day comes when Pulcheria Ivanovna leaves this mortal world. But even before her death, she continues to think about her beloved husband, giving instructions to the servants about him. After his wife left, Afanasy Ivanovich was able to live only five years - without a faithful girlfriend, life became dreary and meaningless for him.
"Taras Bulba"
Taras Bulba is a respected Cossack colonel, raised two sons, and enjoys great authority. Both sons - Ostap and Andriy - completed their studies at the military academy and returned home. Taras Bulba decides to go with his sons to the Zaporozhye Sich. The mother finds it difficult to accept the new separation from her beloved boys, apparently intuitively feeling that she will never see any of them again. Shortly before leaving, the younger Andriy meets a young Polish woman with whom he falls madly in love. In the Sich, Bulba sees a bleak picture of the land being seized by the Poles and rouses his fellow believers on a campaign.
Taras Bulba and his sons Andrey and Ostap. Artist A. Gerasimov *** Source of this material: https://www.literaturus.ru/2015/09/harakteristika-taras-bulba-vneshnost-harakter-gogol.html
The Cossacks are besieging the city, in which, by coincidence, lives a young lady, her beloved Andria. One day, a girl sends a maid to a young Cossack to ask him for some bread for her dying mother. Andriy hands over a bag of bread, meets his beloved and renounces his brother, father and Motherland. Having learned about this, Taras Bulba sees no other way out than to kill his traitorous son. And he carries out his decision. A little later, the Poles receive reinforcements, they attack the Cossacks, Taras Bulba and his eldest son Ostap, along with many other Cossacks, are captured and executed. But Bulba, even before his death, is confident that the Russian lands will unite and avenge all the dead co-religionists.
"Viy"
The central character of the story is a student at the Kyiv seminary, Khoma Brut. During the holidays, he decided to earn extra money by tutoring, but on his way back home, he got a little lost and, in order not to spend the night in an open field, asked to spend the night in one of the farms. They made him a bed in a barn, where at night, unexpectedly for the young student, the old woman-hostess appeared and assigned him to spend the night. The old woman turned out to be a witch - she jumped on Khoma and chased him through the fields all night; he survived by force. The student intensively read prayers against evil spirits and finally saw that by morning the witch’s spell had weakened. He threw off the evil spirit and began to beat her with a log. And suddenly he saw that the old woman had turned into a young lady - the daughter of the owner of the farm.
Still from the movie "Viy"
Khoma, discouraged by everything that had happened, decided not to engage in tutoring anymore, but to return to his seminary and study the word of God throughout the holidays. However, a few days later, the rector of the seminary himself ordered Khoma to go to the farm and read prayers over the young lady, who was dying. However, despite all the student’s precautions, the evil spirits turned out to be stronger, and he died.
Gogol N.V.Viy. (1901)
Gogol is called the main mystic of Russian literature of the 19th century. But it is worth saying that the writer used fantastic elements not so much to scare the reader, but rather to reveal the ugly truth of life through fiction: in the story, evil spirits obey those who rule the village. These forces are brought out as opposition to the common people.
“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”
Two landowners, connected by many years of friendship and communication, quarrel. The reason for the quarrel is a rusty gun, which, in fact, is unnecessary and unimportant for both. But it has quarreled old comrades, who begin to take petty revenge on each other. The case comes to court, where former friends do not mince words, intending to sue each other. However, the court cannot decide on a decision, and this litigation lasts for many years. And both sides are incredibly tired of it, but none of the landowners finds the strength to stop it.
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The first story “Old World Landowners”
The narrator, without any irony, compares his main characters, the old men Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, with the heroes of ancient myth - Philemon and Baucis, who became famous for the fact that, as a gift for services rendered to the gods, they asked for death on the same day.
The gods not only awarded Philemon and Baucis with long life and death on the same day, but also after their joint departure from human life, they gave them the life of trees with one common root.
Gogol chose such figurative comparisons in order to maximally express the affection of old people for each other, that idyll of relationships that can survive decades. The love world of elderly spouses is a haven of idyllic relationships that evokes tears of tenderness.
The story of the two old men was misunderstood by many, including critics. Readers decided that the writer exposes the life of the landowners, showing how empty and tasteless landowners live.
In fact, the author revealed two whole topics. Firstly, it showed the confrontation between the Old World and the lower Little Russians, those who remained to live in the provinces, observing long-standing principles, and those who went to St. Petersburg to develop a new capitalist society. The time had come for new reforms, the villages were falling apart. After all, after the death of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, their distant relative, handing over the estate into trusteeship, observed complete collapse.
Secondly, the theme of love is revealed, in which there is no place for vice. That love about which they say: “Until the grave.” It is not for nothing that the narrator introduces an episode with a young man burning with passion. This character either shoots himself - he is treated, or throws himself under a carriage - he is treated, and, in the end, he finds solace in a new love. The old generation, which has not thought about any passions for a long time, forms a single inextricable whole.
Plot
The secluded life of an elderly childless couple, Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, in a remote village of Little Russia, is occupied with worries about a small house and all kinds of supplies.
These old people do not notice that they are being robbed by the clerk and lackeys. But they have enough of everything. These are generous, kind people. Pulcheria Ivanovna guesses her husband’s wishes, and Afanasy Ivanovich makes fun of her and “scares” her. This is true harmony of two loving hearts.
A harbinger of trouble is the disappearance of the owner's cat, which, having appeared, disappeared again three days later, forever. The old lady says that this is a harbinger of death. But before she dies, the lady orders the housekeeper Yavdokha to watch and look after her husband. Soon Pulcheria Ivanovna really dies.
For the elderly master, this is such a blow that he cannot console himself. Time passes, but the melancholy does not leave Afanasy Ivanovich. He sees his wife in all objects, tries to pronounce her name and the tears do not dry on his face.
One day, after five years, he hears the voice of his wife and perks up, because it is Pulcheria Ivanovna calling him. This is an opportunity to be close to her again... His wish to be buried next to his wife was fulfilled.
