Not a single Russian city has attracted so much attention from writers of different eras, like St. Petersburg. He became a mystery image, a symbol image, an image-era. Petersburg seems to beckon to itself, attracts the imagination of writers, it is impossible to resist before its charm, sometimes gloomy and mystical. He is presented as a living creature, as the main character, as an unbridled element that brings only death and destruction. Writers have seen and are seeing the same Northern Palmyra. So, the image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin was interpreted differently.
Petersburg through the eyes of A.S. Pushkin
For Alexander Sergeyevich, Petersburg was a stronghold of the autocracy, a hymn to Peter's reforms and a reflection of the essence of the era, its mores, orders and habits. The image of the city is vividly presented in one of the little tragedies - The Bronze Horseman, as well as in The Queen of Spades, Station Warden from the cycle of Belkin's Tale and a number of other works.
In The Bronze Horseman, the image of Petersburg for Pushkin merged with the image of Peter and his political activities. The city became the embodiment of autocracy, it is the city of Peter I, the capital of the Russian state.
However, the image of St. Petersburg reflects not only the greatness and beauty of Peter's activity, but also the defenselessness of ordinary people before its power and inevitability. Like the elements, it engulfs the world and takes lives. So, the life of Eugene and his bride was ruined by the flood.
In tragedy, Pushkin raises the question of Peter's reforms, which, of course, have changed a lot for the better in the country, but, however, did not take into account the interests of each individual person. This contradiction remains unresolved, and the city itself becomes a symbol of this dilemma.
Anthem to Petersburg
The entry of the Bronze Horseman tragedy was significant. It stands out sharply from the background of subsequent chapters of the work with its solemnity, glee and brightness. Often the entry is viewed separately from the whole tragedy and is called the anthem of North Palmyra. It is customary to compare with him the image of Petersburg in the works of Gogol, Dostoevsky and other Russian writers, who often enter into polemics with Pushkin.
Passionate and heartless Petersburg
The "Queen of Spades" by A. S. Pushkin is based on a mystical plot. The main character - Herman - an avid gambler. He is captured by a mad craving to learn the secret of the three cards that the old countess keeps. Pushkin vividly and in detail describes the meaningless and useless life of players who spend all their time on cards. All of high society, from young to old, is susceptible to this disease. The image of St. Petersburg becomes a symbol of the capital, which is immersed in absurdity and mysticism. A city that perverts people, erases identities, disfigures judgments and ideals. Pushkin explains such a destructive effect by social factors. The upper class of this time could not imagine their life without card games; they spent all their time and money on this occupation. Cards are built on a podium of the highest value and importance. There were cases when a nobleman lost his wife.
At the same time, reflections on the role of Fatum, a case in the fate of a person, were in fashion. Such a philosophy was perfectly combined with thriving gambling. This is clearly seen in the example of Herman, who considers the opportunity to learn the secret of cards to be the will of providence, and considers wealth and status in society to be the highest value. This is how Petersburg appears in The Queen of Spades.
A similar image of the capital is painted by Pushkin in the "Station Warden". The representative of St. Petersburg’s high society, Officer Minsky, appears to be a selfish, deceitful, and cruel person. While Vyrin is a poor and defenseless, but moral man, he turns out to be a simple station-keeper, who enters the capital only to return his daughter.
Pushkin especially focuses on the deceit of St. Petersburg. So, a well-dressed young man takes Vyrin’s money. It creates the image of a city where everything is not what it seems, a city with a double bottom.
In these works, the image of Pushkin Petersburg acquires such features as deceit, cruelty, and soullessness.
The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol
Gogol and Pushkin Petersburg have both differences and similarities. Motives of mysticism, soullessness, power and regality will be key in Gogol's image of Northern Palmyra, but they are presented and depicted in a completely different way.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lived in the capital for a long time, which greatly affected his works. The theme of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol is one of the leading ones. He even wrote a cycle of St. Petersburg stories.
Gogol's Petersburg is a fantastic mysterious world full of gloomy mysticism. A world where power and luxury rule, and a small person costs nothing and can disappear without leaving a grain of memory about himself. St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol is a place where people talk to themselves, noses run away from their owners and occupy a prominent place in society, and things come to life.
So, the image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol can be briefly described as a combination of hyperbolizations, grotesque and satire.
Christmas and real Petersburg through the eyes of Gogol
The story "The Night Before Christmas" was one of the first where Gogol's Petersburg appeared. The city appears before the blacksmith Vakula fabulously shining and ringing world. From all sides it is surrounded by light and a lot of sounds, the incredible traffic on the streets is stunning, revived houses seem to be watching him. In the description of the empress’s palace, everything is also unusual and fabulous: paintings, stairs, and locks on the doors; and the inhabitants themselves are dressed in bright fantastic outfits. The city appears in splendor and fabulous beauty.
He is completely different in The Examiner. This is no longer fabulous, but a real image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol. The city becomes a real pragmatic place where the main thing in a person is welfare.
In the comedy, two characters tell about Petersburg - Khlestakov and his servant Osip. Through the eyes of Khlestakov, the reader sees a city ruled by an official and luxury ball. The ultimate dream of a petty official who wants to flatter or rise to the rank of field marshal. Therefore, Khlestakov sees himself as a rich man with a high rank, whom they fear and respect. For Osip, Petersburg is completely different. This is the city through the eyes of a servant, in which there is no luxury, but there are all kinds of entertainments: riding in a cab, a theater, dancing dogs. And he likes the politeness of people in conversation most of all in this city. Petersburg Osipa is much more real and soulful than Khlestakov’s inventions.
Petersburg "Dead Souls"
Throughout the entire writing career, the attitude of Nikolai Vasilievich to Northern Palmyra changed. But, even gradually transforming, the image of Petersburg in the works of Gogol retained its main features. Dead Souls are the clearest illustration of these changes.
In each chapter of the poem, Gogol mentions St. Petersburg, not forgetting to say something sharp about him. So, as soon as Chichikov drives up to the tavern, the author ironically mentions the oddities of the nutrition of the St. Petersburg masters. Or take, say, a
governor's ball. Gogol notes that many of those gathered here are very similar to the capital's inhabitants. The poetic remarks of the author about the high ranks of St. Petersburg with awards and a noble appearance, from which one can only expect the meanest muck, are often found on the pages of the poem.
As already noted, the theme of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol is a key one. And in “Dead Souls” it manifested itself in the brightest way in the story of Captain Kopeikin. This is a story about a war hero of 1812, a disabled person who comes to Petersburg in the hope of royal mercy. However, they refuse him help. The city appears before us as a dignified and soulless stronghold of the power of the sovereign, where there is no place for the poor and the afflicted. Moreover, he is unjust, cruel and merciless to a little man.
St. Petersburg in Dead Souls is a city on the bones, a ghost of a real city. Things and people in him are equally alive. It is like the center of the earth where the whole world is assembled. The authorities here have the right to dispose of people as they please. Here one cannot find truth and protection, only the cold brilliance of luxury and the indifference and callousness of officials.
Petersburg Tales
The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol was formed largely on the basis of the impressions that the writer received during his stay in the capital. It was then that he wrote a series of short stories (Nevsky Prospect, Nose, Portrait, Overcoat, Notes of a Madman), which made up the St. Petersburg Tales series. These works are connected by a number of communities, such as:
- The ideological pathos, concluded in the depiction of the power of money, which corrupts people, and the denunciation of a social system full of lies and injustice.
- Issues reflecting the destructiveness and impunity of the power of money and ranks.
- The protagonist of all the works is the “little man”.
St. Petersburg in the stories of Gogol is a city with social contradictions and social problems.
Walk along the Nevsky Prospect
The main street and the symbol of St. Petersburg is Nevsky Prospect, which reflects the whole essence of Northern Palmyra. They are literally inseparable from each other. You can perfectly trace how the image of the main street and the image of St. Petersburg are connected in Gogol’s work according to the novel “Nevsky Prospect”. What will be discussed below.
Petersburg in Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect is depicted as drowning in luxury and brilliance of lights, exulting and beautiful. But behind this lies the indifference, composure and emptiness that most characterize the true Nevsky Prospect. Gogol continues to endow the image of Petersburg with the same illusory and deceitful traits as Pushkin. Finally, the two great writers agreed on the same opinion. Here St. Petersburg Gogol and Pushkin becomes incredibly similar. Pushkin’s motives from the Station Warden continue to live in Nevsky Prospekt.
False, vicious and envious people inhabit Nevsky Prospect. Gogol draws the image of Petersburg as a picture in a picture. Under the upper layer of bright, variegated and alluring colors, the dark dark tones of the unsightly and soulless city are hidden.
Fantastic and semi-crazy appears the image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol. Nevsky Prospect serves as a mask, the mask that this city puts on to further confuse and deceive its inhabitants.
Nevsky Prospect serves as a prelude, a prologue to the whole cycle. The work depicts the external side of St. Petersburg, and its essence will appear in subsequent stories.
Other Petersburg Stories: Nose, Overcoat, Portrait
Gogol in the story “Nose” depicts an absurd situation - his nose escapes from Major Kovalev, which was considered the hero’s only distinguishing feature, as he was with a pimple. Using grotesque, hyperbole and science fiction, Gogol portrays and ridicules the power of ranks and reverence. The writer critically depicts his contemporary life in all its absurdity and absurdity.
Moreover, the nose not only ran away from the owner, but also turned into a state adviser and began to walk around St. Petersburg. And Kovalev was forced to bow to him, since his rank was lower, and in the world of the major regalia everything is decided. The conclusion from this story was that the capital's most important thing is the nose, and without it they become nothing, an empty place. But the latter, dressed in a uniform, can become more important than his master.
The life of a Petersburg official is thus portrayed as aimless, empty, and illusory.
Petersburg "The Overcoat" is a city where the existence of a person directly depends on his financial and social situation. A city where there are two worlds: the first, filled with bright lights, where top officials live, and the second, where slops can be poured on the head of a passing one, where "little people" live, whose existence ends imperceptibly, and life goes on in poverty and fear. Gogol took his hero from this second world. Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, a representative of "little people", is a poor servile man who dreams of only one thing - a new overcoat. And in order to order it, he is forced to save on everything: starting from soles and ending with candles and food.
Akaky Akakievich is a spiritually poor person. His only occupation in life is service, and his cherished dream is a new overcoat. But Gogol portrays this unfortunate official in such a way that he evokes compassion, pity and sympathy. And this harmless man who has never touched anyone tragically dies.
And at the time of their death in the heart of the "little man" a desire is born to rebel against such a world order. Against a social mechanism that grinds people. This little slaughtered person gives Gogol the ability to protest and resist the injustice and ruthlessness of reality.
In the story “Portrait”, the theme of creativity sounds in tune with the theme of madness. Petersburg here appears as a monster, mutilating the souls of people. So, having achieved what he wants - to get rich and do only drawing, the main character, Chartkov, is stupefied by the power of gold. He becomes a famous artist, his wealth grows, but his talent decreases in proportion to it.
Realizing that he has irretrievably lost his abilities, Chartkov spends his fortune on destroying objects of art. Gradually, more and more madness engulfs him, in the end he dies in agony and delirium.
Dostoevsky - the successor of the Gogol tradition
The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Dostoevsky is almost the same. Fyodor Mikhailovich continued to portray the city indifferent to the suffering of others, full of madness and crazy, grinding the unprotected "little people".
Dostoevsky enriched the Gogol tradition of describing Petersburg. And on the basis created by the predecessors, he created his myth about the city. He managed to learn most about the destructive power of St. Petersburg, which affects the psyche of its inhabitants.
Gogol's grotesque and fantastic nature of St. Petersburg was manifested in the work of Dostoevsky through the visions and dreams of the main characters, through the mysticism of events. Due to this incredible coincidence, the realism of the writer was called "mystical."
Dostoevsky also refers to the images of "little people." But if it was typical for Gogol to ironically and even portray the tragedy satirically, Fyodor Mikhailovich focuses precisely on the sufferings of the heroes, on their fates. Such are all members of the Marmeladov family, and such is Raskolnikov himself in Crime and Punishment. In this novel, the city becomes one of the main characters of the story. And this St. Petersburg depicted by Dostoevsky is close to St. Petersburg Akaky Akakievich.
In the works of Dostoevsky there is only a dark gloomy part of the city, no longer covered by Gogol and Pushkin lights and paints. The writer examines the stench and dirt of his back streets, irregular broken corners of rooms, and the dust of bridges. All this puts pressure on a person, drives him crazy, cripples.
conclusions
The image of St. Petersburg in the works of Gogol and Pushkin, therefore, has many similarities and serious differences.
Petersburg in the works of Gogol is volatile and deceptive. The brightness of the lights in it is combined with the soullessness of its inhabitants. Petersburg is best represented in Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect. All the main motives, such as the duality of the St. Petersburg world, its madness, deceitfulness, destructive effect on its inhabitants, mysticism and illusory, are reflected in this story.
Pushkin Petersburg embodies the spirit of the Petrine era. The city combines both the greatness of Peter's deeds and all their horror - it is not in vain that it is built on bones and swamps. Pushkin creates an integral image where two principles merge together. Gogol’s Petersburg is not like that; the city seems to be doubled. Its beauty and splendor is only a lying mask, under which lies the true essence - gloomy, dark, insane and destructive.
For Pushkin and Gogol it was characteristic, creating the image of Petersburg, to choose the main character as a "little man" who is unable to resist the city, its structure and its laws. He dies powerlessly, broken and trampled.
Dostoevsky developed and enriched Gogol's traditions, creating his own unique image of Petersburg. A city capable of only destroying human life and human reason.
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