Many writers who worked in the 19th century addressed the theme of St. Petersburg in their work. Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol and his Nevsky Prospect are no exception. The analysis of this story is, first of all, the study of the image of this city and the way it appears before us in the work. Petersburg is a truly amazing city, because it was built contrary to all the laws of nature in an extremely short time, and by the will of only one person. For centuries, it has been a symbol of the struggle of contrasts: poverty and prosperity, beauty and ugliness - all these extremes somehow inexplicably coexisted here.
The image of St. Petersburg in the work of N. V. Gogol
The most outstanding minds of Russia from an early age sought to Petersburg, and it was in this city that they won the status of the best publicists, writers, critics, etc. However, here they came face to face with need and humiliation. The city seemed to suck people in a swamp of ostentatious luxury, vulgarity and stupidity. The center and the place where these seemingly incompatible concepts met was the main street of the city - the very Nevsky Prospect.
The analysis of the story by N. Gogol necessarily pays much attention to the image of the city itself, which seems to be endowed with its own soul. It is not just a capital, not just a metropolis with amazingly beautiful streets, majestic palaces and the picturesque Neva. According to the author, Petersburg is a kind of revived giant, which has its own unique face, disposition, moods and habits.
Hundreds of people pass daily along Nevsky Prospect. And they are also owners of a wide variety of characters. Gogol separately emphasizes that, despite the fact that at any time of the day on the avenue you can meet a huge crowd of people, there is no feeling of unity, any kind of community between them. The only thing that unites all of them is the meeting place. Describing the street, the author says that it creates the feeling that it was as if some demon had crushed the whole world into many tiny fragments and “mixed it together, to no avail, without meaning”.
The similarity of fate and the inconsistency of the characters Pirogov and Piskaryov
However, as the narration in the story "Nevsky Prospect", the analysis of which we are conducting, includes two whole heroes, to whom the author pays close attention. The first is Lieutenant Pirogov, and the second is Piskarev, "a young man in a tailcoat and cloak." Pirogov is well aware of the laws of the modern world. He knows that life in a stately city is much like a roulette game. But anyone who is willing to constantly take risks for the sake of fulfilling his most secret, hopeless and even sometimes ridiculous dreams will be able to subdue him.
The lieutenant, following his convictions, takes risks. In his loss, he sees nothing unusual or tragic, and, not without the influence of the cool evening Nevsky Prospect, quickly copes with his "anger and indignation."
The second hero, Piskaryov, the same “young man in a coat and tailcoat,” is trying to act like his friend. He also fails. But for him, who feels himself lonely and alien in the northern capital of the empire, such an event becomes fatal. A timid and shy by nature artist, who had been carrying sparks of feelings throughout his life that always waited in the wings to “turn into flame”, he literally entrusted his fate to Nevsky Prospect. Analysis of the work “Nevsky Prospect” is an analysis of two stories that are similar in appearance, but completely different in essence. Both heroes risk everything, but Pirogov, for whom everything that happens is a game, does not lose, in essence, anything. For Piskaryov, this is life. A person who subtly senses the world is unable to instantly become rude and callous, stop trusting the world. However, he cannot quickly forget about the disappointment that he experienced through the fault of the famous avenue.
What did you want to show, completing Nevsky Prospect, Gogol? An analysis of this story is an analysis of a parallel narrative about two characters who are opposites of each other in character and attitude. Such contrast allows the reader to better understand the contradictory nature of Nevsky Prospect itself. The comic nature of the situation in which Lieutenant Pirogov finds himself is opposed to the tragic fate of poor fellow Piskaryov. In the same way, the atmosphere of comic vulgarity, characteristic of Nevsky in the morning, is combined with the tragic evening vulgarity and lies. “... he lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospect,” says Gogol.
Conclusion
A tiny little light that dances before your eyes, attracts you and lures you into dangerous networks - this is how the author seeks to introduce Nevsky Prospect to the reader. Analysis of the story makes you think deeply philosophical issues. For the artist Piskaryov, a meeting with Nevsky and his inhabitants becomes fatal, it literally devastates his soul. Before his eyes, the beauty of the world turns into nothing, and the question itself arises: “If all this is a ghostly mirage, what then is real at all?” And the author gives the answer - Nevsky Prospect itself remains real, in which the eternal mystery is combined with eternal deception.