Outlines of the story "Nevsky Prospect" appeared when N.V. Gogol worked on "The Night Before Christmas" in 1831. At this time, the writer lived in St. Petersburg and did not serve in various government departments for long. Personal impressions affected the accuracy of the description of the landscape and life of St. Petersburg.
Ode to Nevsky Prospect
At the beginning of the story, the author gives a subtle accurate description of the main street of the city. In her description, both the lyric poet and the satirist are already visible at the same time. Composing the hymn to street life, and it is described right by the clock, ironically and poetically, the writer tells who, when and in what mood walks or runs along the beautiful avenue - the main artery of the capital.
Here, it smells like a walk. Tutors and governesses take their pets for walks, a little later couples and those lucky people whose service ends at two in the afternoon walk. Later, at three o'clock, at all seasons of the year it blooms, like in spring, with green uniforms, which are mostly in a hurry and run around hungry, without looking at signboards and shops, and in the evenings, at dusk, young people stroll here in search of adventure.
A brief retelling begins with this description of the center of the capital. Nevsky Prospekt becomes temporarily the protagonist in the story, along which two friends walk in the evening - Piskarev and Pirogov.
Artist Piskarev
They both noticed two beautiful girls and decided to get to know each other. But as the girls went in different directions, the young people dispersed, catching up with the young beauties. This is how the action begins.
We continue the brief retelling. Nevsky Prospect led the artist Piskarev for a very beautiful, as it seemed to him, unearthly brunette. Piskarev - by nature, a man is very delicate and timid, but N.V. Gogol generalizes this image. He gives a portrait not of a specific artist, but of a person belonging to a particular social group. These are all the poor artists of St. Petersburg - they are kind, gentle, shy, drink tea with each other and talk slowly, sitting in a small room.
While Piskarev follows the girl, he wants to see only one thing - where she lives. But she beckoned him along, and the artist ended up in a house of tolerance. This is an unexpected horror for the artist’s tender heart; he runs away in horror to his home. So the short retelling continues. Nevsky Prospect, with its temptations, will destroy an artist unsuitable for life. At home he had an amazing dream that the girl invited him to a ball. And then he will dream about her continuously until he comes to the idea that he needs to marry the girl and pull her in this way from the abyss into which she fell. But the beauty is not required. She does not want to live a quiet, half-miserable life.
We will resume a brief retelling. Nevsky Prospect brings Piskarev home. He locks himself and his neighbors do not see him. Finally, the door of his room was hacked, and everyone saw that he had committed suicide.
He was quietly buried in the Okhta cemetery. Unadapted to real life, he could not cope with it.
Lieutenant Pies
This is a completely different social type, shown by N.V. Gogol, arrogant and unprincipled. This lovelace began to pursue the blonde he liked. In this part, "Nevsky Prospekt" is a tale of a smug and impudent Nikolaev military. Lieutenant Pirogov enters the house of the German tinman Schiller, to whom his friend Hoffman is going to cut off his nose. Schiller calculated the money that goes into tobacco and decided it was cheaper to live without a nose. Both friends are completely drunk, but sober up when they see a stranger in themselves. Pirogov, to explain how he got here, says he wants to order new spurs. But, peeking almost every day, she can’t find the blonde who she’s attracted to in any way. Finally, he finds out when the husband is not at home, and calmly comes to court the pretty wife of the tinsmith. He persuades her to dance with him, hoping that everything will go on by itself further.
But in the midst of dancing, the husband returns with his friends and interrupts this fun, which the hostess herself does not like at all. They flogged, so it stands in the first edition of the story, a lieutenant, and in the second it is said about this vaguely, and kicked him out. At first Pirogov wanted to run away complaining at least to the general, even to the tsar, but, on reflection, decided to throw the insult out of his head. So continues the "Nevsky Prospect", the story of N. V. Gogol. The lieutenant completely calms down by going to the pastry shop and eating puff pastries. In the evening in the company he was already dancing, and everyone admired him.
Conclusion
Such is the story "Nevsky Prospect." The heroes, Piskarev and Pirogov, are very different, and shown by N.V. Gogol extremely brightly. If the artist evokes sympathy, then the self-confident and completely unscrupulous lieutenant is disgust. This is a very short story - "Nevsky Prospect" (Gogol). The content is what the author himself summed up: everything is a lie and an empty dream, the devil himself shows "everything is not in its present form."