“He lies all the time, this Nevsky Prospekt...”

The story “Nevsky Prospekt” by Gogol is part of a series of stories that Gogol wrote about St. Petersburg. Each of the stories in this cycle contains its own characteristics and morality, which the reader could comprehend when analyzing the work.

In the story “Nevsky Prospect” the story began with the fact that one day two comrades, Lieutenant Pirogov and the artist Piskarev, walking along Nevsky Prospect, met two charming girls - a blonde and a brunette.

First of all, it is necessary to start with the fact that after following the brunette, Piskarev finds himself in a completely different place than where he expected to be - the brunette led him to an indecent establishment.

Having experienced disappointment that his companion turned out to be a girl of easy virtue, upset Piskarev goes to his home. But, during all the time when he is in solitary thought, Piskarev understands that he has fallen in love. In every dream he sees a beautiful brunette and decides that she needs to be given a chance.

Returning to the girl, Piskarev invites her to marry him and change her profession. However, without hesitating for long, the girl refuses him, since she believes that her craft is quite profitable and brings her pleasure. Disappointed Piskarev runs home. And 4 days later he is found dead in his apartment.

Simultaneously with all the events that happened, Pirogov follows his stranger. Walking her home, he discovers that the blonde has been married for a long time, and her husband is a master tinsmith, Schiller.

Being completely confident that he needs to achieve his love, Pirogov decides to come up with a way to get the fatal blonde. Without thinking twice, Pirogov decides to order from Schiller the results of his work - spurs and a frame for a dagger. So, having received a way to visit his beloved, Pirogov begins to show signs of attention.

The girl is not willing to contact him, but Pirogov begins to behave more and more persistently and even in the presence of her husband, he begins to kiss the girl without any embarrassment. Schiller reacts quite negatively to the lieutenant’s advances, but tolerates the impudent client.

One day Pirogov finds the blonde alone at home and begins to show signs of attention more and more provocatively - having invited her to dance, Pirogov begins to kiss her feet. Having found this picture, arriving home, Schiller and his friend throw Pirogov out of the house. Having begun to make plans for revenge on the German, Pirogov, soon enough forgetting his offense, decides to leave the situation as it is.

Gogol, at the conclusion of his story, advises his readers never to trust Nevsky Prospekt, because everything that can happen there is just a dream and deception.

Analysis of the story allows us to feel the simultaneous similarity and difference in the fate of the characters, who are the complete opposite of each other. Gogol showed us how the fate of people can develop under similar circumstances, but with different worldviews. After all, both Pirogov and Piskarev risk everything for the sake of beautiful strangers.

However, for Pirogov this situation is just a game, and he does not risk anything. But for Piskarev, who was quite receptive and romantic, the current situation was disastrous.

An analysis of Nevsky Prospekt shows the contradictory nature of the destinies that intersected in St. Petersburg. This inconsistency is only enhanced by comic situations and descriptions of St. Petersburg at that time.

Above the story "Nevsky Avenue" Nikolai Gogol began working in 1831, and published it in the collection Arabesques four years later. This work belongs to the cycle of St. Petersburg stories by Gogol, which also included “The Overcoat”, “Portrait”, “Notes of a Madman”, “The Nose”, “The Stroller” and “Rome”. The author captured the features and customs of the Russian capital from various angles. In addition to the satirical exposure of the vices of society, in each work of the St. Petersburg cycle there is a “little man” who desperately fights for the right to a decent life.

“Nevsky Prospekt” consists of three parts. The first part is a real city, well known to every resident of the capital. In the second part, we are presented with a bizarre space of illusions in which two stories develop. Gogol, as if by chance, snatches two young people from the crowd and sends them off on love adventures. The third part of the story is a kind of metaphysical experience of perception of Nevsky Prospect and St. Petersburg as a whole.

The story begins with a description of the main metropolitan highway. Gogol calls Nevsky "universal communication of St. Petersburg". Thousands of people pass here throughout the day, whom the writer watches with interest and draws readers into his thoughts. For Gogol, this avenue is the main character: with his own face, manners, habits, character.

The heroes of the story are Lieutenant Pirogov and the artist Piskarev. They are not friends, because they have completely different worldviews. And Gogol skillfully emphasizes this antagonism: one is a comic character, the other is a tragic figure.

Pirogov- an arrogant and self-confident careerist, for whom the main thing in life is to curry favor and achieve a secure position in society. For this, he is ready to profitably marry an unloved woman and cross many moral obstacles. Pirogov is arrogant towards those who are lower in rank and blindly imitates everything that is in fashion among the select public. The lieutenant does not think about problems; he strives to get only pleasure from life. Pirogov takes care of the naive Piskarev like a lord, accustoming him to a life filled with emptiness and idleness.

A completely different artist Piskarev. He is a naive romantic, subtle and vulnerable. “Shy, timid, but in his soul he carried sparks of feeling that were ready to turn into flames”- this is how Gogol characterizes his hero. Piskarev sees a Muse in every woman, and therefore admires and idolizes them.

Once, while walking along Nevsky Prospect, the friends met charming strangers and set off on an adventurous adventure: the artist followed the brunette, immediately falling in love with her, and the lieutenant chose the blonde, counting on a fleeting affair.

The artist’s chosen one turned out to be a girl from a brothel, whose “heavenly appearance” hid a vulgar and stupid nature. But the invented image haunts the young talent. In order to see the girl at least in a dream, Piskarev begins to take opium. Following the dictates of his heart, the artist again finds his beauty and offers her an honest and simple life, but she only laughs in response. Piskarev is shocked and crushed. He locks himself in his room, where a week later he is found with his throat cut. “So perished, a victim of insane passion, poor Piskarev, quiet, timid, modest, childishly simple-minded, who carried within himself a spark of talent that, perhaps, would have flared up widely and brightly over time.”, - Gogol laments.

Pirogov’s friend did not even come to the funeral, because at that time he was going through his own adventures. His lady love turned out to be the wife of the German tinsmith Schiller. The self-confident lieutenant sought the beauty’s favor for quite a long time. When the desired goal was close, Schiller and his friends caught the couple in the act. The unfortunate womanizer was severely punished and thrown out onto the street. Pirogov furiously showered the tinsmith and his friends with curses and threatened Siberia. But then I went to the pastry shop, ate some pies and read the newspaper, calmed down and simply forgot about the unpleasant incident.

This is how these stories ended differently: the talented and promising Piskarev became a victim of insane passion, and the cynic and careerist Pirogov escaped with a slight fright. Two different adventures are united by a lost ending: the heroes never got what they wanted. “for which all their forces seemed to be prepared”.

You can’t trust Nevsky Prospekt, because there is complete deception there. Nikolai Gogol makes such a disappointing conclusion, warning the reader about the seamy side of a beautiful life and its hidden treachery. The writer's sad reflections on the unrealizability of human hopes complete this unusual story.

In Nevsky Prospect, Gogol first tried to combine the funny and the tragic, the high and the base, the holy and the vulgar. In the future, this expressive artistic technique will become the main one in his work.

• “Nevsky Prospekt”, a summary of Gogol’s story
• “Portrait”, analysis of Gogol’s story, essay

Analysis of the concept of beauty in the story “Nevsky Prospekt”

2.1 St. Petersburg as an image of beauty in the story "Nevsky Prospekt"

St. Petersburg has always inspired and inspired writers. Pushkin admired his beauty; “I love you Peter’s creation”, as well as many writers of that time. The image of St. Petersburg is ambiguous; it usually appears majestic, beautiful, but cold and sometimes cruel. It was in St. Petersburg that many prominent figures of Russia wanted to go. It was St. Petersburg that was the concentration of outstanding talents and minds.

How does Gogol feel about the city?

The story begins with a description of Nevsky Prospect: “There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospect, at least in St. Petersburg; for him he is everything. Why does this street not shine - the beauty of our capital! I know that not one of its pale and bureaucratic residents would trade Nevsky Prospect for all the benefits. Not only those who are twenty-five years old, have a beautiful mustache and a wonderfully tailored frock coat, but even those who have white hairs popping out on their chin and whose head is smooth as a silver dish, are delighted with Nevsky Prospect. And the ladies! Oh, ladies enjoy Nevsky Prospect even more. And who doesn’t like it? As soon as you step onto Nevsky Prospekt, it already smells like a festivities. Even if you had some necessary, necessary work to do, once you get to it, you will probably forget about any work. Here is the only place where people are shown not out of necessity, where they have not been driven by necessity and the mercantile interest that embraces the whole of St. Petersburg. It seems that a person met on Nevsky Prospect is less selfish than in Morskaya, Gorokhovaya, Liteinaya, Meshchanskaya and other streets, where greed and self-interest and need are expressed in those walking and flying in carriages and droshky. Nevsky Prospekt is the universal communication of St. Petersburg. Here, a resident of the St. Petersburg or Vyborg part, who has not visited his friend on Peski or at the Moscow outpost for several years, can be sure that he will certainly meet him. No address calendar or reference place will deliver such reliable news as Nevsky Prospekt. Almighty Nevsky Prospekt! The only entertainment of the poor during the St. Petersburg festivities! How clean its sidewalks are swept, and, God, how many feet have left their traces on it! And the clumsy dirty boot of a retired soldier, under the weight of which the very granite seems to crack, and the miniature, light as smoke, shoe of a young lady, turning her head to the shining windows of the store, like a sunflower to the sun, and the rattling saber of a hopeful ensign, conducting there is a sharp scratch on it - everything takes out on it the power of strength or the power of weakness. What a rapid phantasmagoria takes place on it in just one day! How many changes will he endure in one day!” [N.V.Gogol. Stories. M - 1949. P.3]

Gogol's Petersburg is not just a capital, it is a majestic metropolis with magnificent palaces and streets and the Neva.

Of course, the beauty of the city is enchanting, because the third part of the story is devoted to the description of the city, and in particular Nevsky Prospect. We can agree with O. Fomin [O. Fomin. Secret symbolism in Nevsky Prospekt. Traditional sketch // Bronze Age electronic version. http://www.vekovka.h1.ru/bv/bv23/23fomin.htm] that the “compositional division”, the narrative fabric of “Nevsky Prospekt” falls into three parts. The first part is the actual description of Nevsky Prospect, the second is the story of Piskarev’s unhappy love for a beautiful stranger, and, finally, the third is the “dragging” of Lieutenant Pirogov for a stupid German woman. Moreover, the first part seems to split into a prologue and an epilogue, in which the “image of the author” and the notorious landscape are given.

When we say “landscape” in relation to the description of life on Nevsky Prospekt, we still admit a certain inaccuracy. The landscape here in some way develops into a “portrait”. Nevsky Prospekt for Gogol is a living being, essentially hostile to man, but also not devoid of a certain ambivalence. If in Goethe Mephistopheles, wishing evil to a person, brings him good (which, by the way, is partly connected with the medieval comic interpretation of the devil), then in Gogol we can observe the opposite “substitution”: Nevsky Prospect, while openly positive, is covertly negative. The elements on which the “cosmopsychology” of St. Petersburg is based are water and stone (earth).”

Yes, Petersburg is a living character, a majestic, beautiful, but deceptive character. Its beauty drives many people crazy; people who come to St. Petersburg are faced not only with its beauty, but also with its cruel essence. They had to endure humiliation and poverty; the city seemed to suck people into a swamp of lies, vulgarity, stupidity, ostentatious luxury, behind which extreme poverty was often hidden.

Thus, the beauty of St. Petersburg is deceptive and illusory. All the vanity is tinsel, everything is unreal: “Thousands of varieties of hats, dresses, scarves, colorful, light, to which sometimes the affection of their owners remains for two whole days, will blind anyone on Nevsky Prospect. It seems as if a whole sea of ​​moths has suddenly risen from the stems and is agitated in a brilliant cloud over the black male beetles. Here you will meet such waists as you have never even dreamed of: thin, narrow waists, no thicker than the neck of a bottle, when you meet them, you will respectfully step aside, so as not to somehow carelessly push with an impolite elbow; timidity and fear will take possession of your heart, lest somehow even your careless breathing break the most beautiful work of nature and art. And what kind of ladies' sleeves you will see on Nevsky Prospekt! Oh, how lovely! They are somewhat similar to two balloons, so that the lady would suddenly rise into the air if the man did not support her; because it is as easy and pleasant to lift a lady into the air as a glass filled with champagne is brought to your mouth. Nowhere do people bow as nobly and naturally when they meet each other as on Nevsky Prospekt. Here you will meet the only smile, a smile that is the height of art, sometimes such that you can melt with pleasure, sometimes such that you suddenly see yourself lower than the grass and lower your head, sometimes such that you feel taller than the Admiralty Spitz and raise it up. Here you will find people talking about a concert or the weather with extraordinary nobility and self-esteem. Here you will meet a thousand incomprehensible characters and phenomena.” [N.V.Gogol. Stories. M - 1949. P.4] This description has an ironic subtext. Luxury, falsehood and vanity are shown.

The beauty of Nevsky is distorted, one can agree with Fomin, who wrote the following:

“Water vapors and fogs distort and pervert reality. The element of water, as certainly associated with lunar symbolism, gives rise to oneiric phantasms that preserve their dead. “New Left” (in this case, by “left” we mean not so much a political orientation as an initial metaphysical attitude) philosopher Gaston Bachelard notes: “...literary suicide is imbued with amazing ease by the imagination of death. It brings into order the images of death "Water is the fatherland of living nymphs as much as of the dead. It is the true matter of death in the “highest degree feminine." Water is an element that receives and gives birth to ghosts. The most famous "ghost cities" are London and St. Petersburg. Water in “Nevsky Prospekt” is “lower waters,” the substance of the lower astral world, the world of plurality of feelings and illusions, while the earth is the bearer of the inertia of the rationalistically defined and boredom (“it’s boring to live in the world, gentlemen!”). Nevsky Prospect serves as a carrier of the fantastic. And Gogol’s fantastic, as a rule, is hostile to man. Later, Gogol evolves to remove the medium of the fantastic (Yu. Mann) and “Nevsky Prospekt” just captures the intermediate stage of this transition. The fantastic is evil, “illusory,” nocturnal, aquatic and tragic. The everyday is human, "real", day-to-day, earthly and comic. This opposition excludes the Divine as such. Infernal forces and man are contrasted.

In Nevsky Prospekt the illusory (for all its negative connotations) is beautiful. This stems from the original romantic attitude. But the fear of the illusory and the triumph of Pirogov over Piskarev is an inoculation against romanticism, its overcoming. The euphonically similar surnames of the characters indicate their certain relationship. Piskarev and Pirogov are “divine twins”, endlessly exchanging elements of traditional archetypal functions. This is a world where good does not exist (both in the humanistic and Orthodox understanding of the word).” [Fomin O. Secret symbolism in Nevsky Prospekt. Traditional sketch // Bronze Age electronic version. http://www.vekovka.h1.ru/bv/bv23/23fomin.htm]

Beauty is deceptive, beauty is illusory, it attracts and destroys people, it destroys the main character of the story. It turns out that only scoundrels like Pirogov can survive in this greatness. In the last lines of the story, Gogol says that one cannot trust the beauty of Nevsky: “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect! I always wrap myself tightly in my cloak when I walk along it, and try not to look at all the objects I meet. Everything is a deception, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems! Do you think that this gentleman, who walks around in a well-tailored frock coat, is very rich? Nothing happened: he consists entirely of his frock coat. Do you imagine that these two fat men, stopping in front of a church under construction, are judging its architecture? Not at all: they talk about how strangely two crows sat opposite each other. Do you think that this enthusiast, waving his arms, is talking about how his wife threw a ball out of the window at an officer completely unfamiliar to him? Not at all, he's talking about Lafayette. You think that these ladies... but trust the ladies least of all. Look less into store windows: the trinkets displayed in them are beautiful, but they smell like an awful lot of banknotes. But God forbid you look under the ladies’ hats! No matter how the beauty’s cloak flutters in the distance, I will never follow her to be curious. Further, for God's sake, further from the lantern! and quickly, as quickly as possible, pass by. It will be a blessing if you get away with him pouring his stinking oil all over your smart frock coat. But except for the lantern, everything breathes deception. He lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospekt, but most of all when the night falls like a condensed mass on him and separates the white and fawn walls of the houses, when the whole city turns into thunder and brilliance, myriads of carriages fall from the bridges, postilions scream and jump on horses and when the demon himself lights the lamps just to show everything not in its real form.” [N.V.Gogol. Stories. M - 1949. P.3]

Thus, we can say that the concept of beauty in the image of Nevsky Prospect is unique. Beauty does not save, but destroys. Beauty, which should carry positive motives, carries lies and deception. In general, Nevsky Prospekt is just a beautiful face of a strange, fantastic, half-crazy city.

N.V. Gogol has many works that we love for his subtle humor. Grotesque, absurd, satire - all this is intertwined, comes to the fore, makes the reader mock the ugly reality. For example, who wouldn’t smile at the scene when Solokha hides her lovers in bags in “The Night Before Christmas”? And the attempts of petty officials to hide all their offenses before a fake auditor in the play of the same name? But “Nevsky Prospekt” is a work of a completely different kind. There are no comic effects or human stupidity to amuse us. Just something ominous, depressing, hopeless.

The story was published as part of the collection “Arabesques” (1835). Traditionally, it is classified as part of the “Petersburg Tales” cycle, but it is important to note that the author himself never united his works in this way. “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Nose”, “Portrait” and other works from this cycle are simply united by a common theme, but they were all written at different times. Why did these works so successfully form a single set? Gogol points out human vices, but he is no longer laughing; Residents of the capital are spoiled by the city, and those who still retain moral foundations and moral principles cannot join the St. Petersburg whirlpool of vanities. So it turns out that true happiness remains unattainable for all city residents.

What is the story about?

“Nevsky Prospekt” is a story not rich in events. The whole plot can be contained in a few sentences: Lieutenant Pirogov and the painter Piskarev notice two girls on Nevsky Prospect, each of them follows the one who, by their standards, is prettier. The artist follows a seventeen-year-old girl, who becomes for him the personification of all that is most beautiful on earth, but, as it turns out, the stranger works in a brothel. The main character cannot come to terms with reality - it begins to come to him in a dream, Piskarev’s subconscious is trying to justify it. This turns into madness, he decides to marry a public woman, and the same one responds to his proposal with caustic ridicule. As the reader learns later, the young man commits suicide.

Pirogov turns out to be a little more fortunate - his blonde does not work in the brothel, but is married to the German Schiller. The fact that the hero’s passion is married does not confuse him at all, so he continues his obsessive courtship. But at one point the jealous husband finds the lieutenant at home and drives him away in disgrace. At first, Pirogov feels insulted and wants to complain to the general, but then abandons this idea.

Main themes and issues

In such an uneventful work, Gogol touches on several relevant topics at once, which are revealed through the example of the main characters.

1. The main theme, perhaps, is the incompatibility of dreams and reality - an excellent illustration of this is the fate of Piskarev. The hero was ruined by his romantic character, which Gogol’s contemporaries loved to portray in idyllic tones. Their proud and pale young man reveled in his difference from others, his internal conflict, and was unhappy at the same time, but somehow beautiful and elegant. But Nikolai Vasilyevich’s romanticism suffers a deafening collapse; he seems to be protesting against the idealization of pompous images and plunging them into the seething boiling water of reality. As a result, romantic heroes are doomed to an early death if they do not find a way to cope with the influx of feelings. Even the artist’s surname is telling – Piskarev. He seems to be “squeaking” from helplessness in a huge and hostile world. His inability to adapt to life is a problem for many creative people.
2. But the author also warns us against petty-bourgeois extremes in the image of Pirogov. Everything about him is like water off a duck's back: no burdens sink into his soul. The hero was publicly disgraced, he lost his “beloved”, his reputation was dealt an unprecedented blow, but he doesn’t care, he is too frivolous, cowardly and vulgar. Unlike his friend, he will never dare to take a bold and desperate act, his thoughts are extremely simple and vulgar, he is only concerned about his physical condition, and he does not harbor any special illusions about the world. This is how the author touches on the topic of spiritual impoverishment. Before us is Pirogov - in this case, his name speaks of the limitations of his horizons and character, his focus on the physical side of existence. His image focuses on the problem of lack of spirituality and moral decline.
3. In addition, Gogol talks about the loneliness of man - after all, no one comes to the artist’s funeral, not even his “friend” the lieutenant. It turns out that proud loneliness becomes an indirect cause of Piskarev’s death: no one helped him cope with his spiritual crisis. Loneliness in a big city goes beyond the theme: no one cares about each other, people cease to be valuable. This is a problem on a global scale, not just St. Petersburg.
4. The theme of morality is revealed through the example of a beautiful stranger from a brothel. An outwardly blooming woman turns out to be an internally vicious and callous lady of the demimonde. Appearance is deceptive; it cannot fully characterize a person. Likewise, the artist’s illusions are untenable and empty. He was unable to penetrate into the depths of things, to understand the essence of existence, and the contrast of beauty and ugliness stuns him.
5. Of course, there was a theme of love. It appears as a fateful, fateful meeting that brought passion, confusion and death. Bulgakov characterized this kind of wonderful feeling as “a killer from around the corner.” This happened with the artist, who met his killer in the form of a priestess of love. Here it is appropriate to mention the theme of rock, which was the subject of the narrator’s thoughts.

Characteristics of the main characters

1. The central role in the story is given to the artist Piskarev. He is a true creator, hungry and honest. Income is not as important to him as the creative process itself. He tends to dream, and therefore idealize. He honors and respects beauty; in his mind, what is beautiful should not be vicious. And it was these qualities that played a cruel joke on him. A non-mercantile, non-spoiled person could not come to terms with the cruel realities of St. Petersburg, where a young girl, without regret or repentance, condemns herself to the role of a prostitute, and is not at all ashamed of her position, but enjoys it. Such a turn of events could only harm such a pure and dreamy young man as Piskarev. If Pirogov had found himself in such a situation, he would not have been embarrassed at all. The painter refuses to accept the fact that a beautiful creature can be immoral and corrupt, so he tries with all his might to justify her - in his dreams she is either a noble lady or a simple village girl. So he becomes dependent on the world of dreams - over and over again it is more difficult for him to face reality. The hero was never able to accept reality, so the only way out for him was death - so the artist commits suicide.
2. A stranger from Nevsky played an important role in Piskarev’s fate. The reader does not have the opportunity to get acquainted with her inner world, but her image is written quite accurately - this girl combines an absolutely angelic appearance and a completely unangelic soul. She calmly, and even proudly, regards her work in a brothel; she considers the role of a poor man’s wife more shameful, rather than the fate of a kept woman. This contrast of appearance and soul - beautiful and disgusting - becomes deadly for the pure and dreamy Piskarev. She is a person who has adapted to life in St. Petersburg, whatever it may be, he is her complete opposite.
3. His friend, Lieutenant Pirogov, also turns out to be the complete opposite of Piskarev. He is not at all dreamy, but, on the contrary, quite rational. It is important to him what position he occupies in society, which is why he loves to boast of his rank, even if it is low for now. He can transgress the boundaries of morality and morality - for example, the presence of a woman’s husband does not stop him at all, but, on the contrary, provokes him. He is selfish and selfish, but cowardly - after all, in the end, he does not even dare to tell the general about the insult inflicted on him - from the German Schiller for molesting his wife.

Gogol contrasts Pirogov, a stranger from Nevsky, with Piskarev - so he clearly shows for what people Petersburg is suitable, and who absolutely cannot survive there. The dreamy and highly moral artist could not come to terms with the simple discrepancy between dreams and reality, but the official absolutely calmly accepted the insults and beatings, and then went on a spree with his officer friends. This is how the author expresses his opinion regarding the big city - this is a city for thick-skinned people, spoiled, callous and materialistic people, like the stranger and the Pirogov, and not for the artists Piskarevs.

Image of Nevsky Prospekt

Nevsky Prospekt personifies the entire capital as a whole. The author does not immediately reveal his attitude to the city to the reader. The book begins with the sentence: “There is nothing better than Nevsky Prospect, at least in St. Petersburg; for him he is everything.” In the course of subsequent events, the reader understands that the street is not so simple, that it was partly she who fooled the gullible Piskarev around her finger. The beautiful road that the narrator describes in the introduction is, in fact, just a beautiful shell of a vicious city. She seems to be participating in “deception”; it is the city itself that is deceiving Piskunov; as if it was because of the avenue that the artist decides to pursue the stranger. Something mystical, enigmatic and mysterious appears in his image. “Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect!<…>Everything is a deception, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems!” - this is how Gogol summarizes at the end of the story.

Idea in Nevsky Prospekt

As mentioned in previous paragraphs, the writer questioned the utopian idealization of the fate of the romantic hero. In fact, such a refined nature cannot get used to the collapse of hopes and illusions. She either loses her sophistication, becoming an analogue of the girl from Nevsky, or dies. Many artists, precisely because of this pattern, do not live long, but bourgeois people, vicious women and ordinary dandies live long and relatively calm lives. The writer wanted to bring this truth of life to our attention.

However, the meaning of the story “Nevsky Prospekt” goes far beyond the problem of life in a vicious city - Gogol pays more attention to the coexistence of reality and dreams, truth and deception. To reveal this idea, the author uses the image of Nevsky Prospekt - this is how he shows the reader that everything can hide a lie, turn out to be not what it seems and what you want to believe. The same idea is continued by the image of the stranger. Her appearance also does not correspond to her internal content. People dream about what they cannot get from the world around them, but they begin to dream about it, having become infected with what the deceptive appearance shows, be it the appearance of a city or a person. And, as the fate of Piskarev shows, the discrepancy between reality and the world of illusions can bring destruction to the life and character of an individual.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Many writers who worked in the 19th century turned to the theme of St. Petersburg in their work. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and his “Nevsky Prospekt” are no exception. Analysis of this story is, first of all, a study of the image of this city and how it appears to us in the work. St. Petersburg is a truly amazing city, because it was built in defiance of all the laws of nature in an extremely short period of time, and by the will of just one person. For centuries, it has been a symbol of the struggle of contrasts: poverty and prosperity, beauty and ugliness - all these extremes coexisted here in some incomprehensible way.

The image of St. Petersburg in the work of N. V. Gogol

The most outstanding minds of Russia from an early age strove to St. 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 poverty and humiliation. The city seemed to be sucking people into a swamp of ostentatious luxury, vulgarity and stupidity. The center and place where these seemingly incompatible concepts met was the main street of the city - the same Nevsky Prospekt.

An analysis of N. Gogol's story necessarily pays great attention to the image of the city itself, which seems to be endowed with its own soul. This is not just a capital, not just a metropolis with amazingly beautiful streets, majestic palaces and the picturesque Neva. Petersburg, in the author's view, is a kind of animated giant, which has its own unique face, character, whims and habits.

Hundreds of people walk along Nevsky Prospekt every day. And they also have very different characters. Gogol separately emphasizes that, despite the fact that at any time of the day you can meet a huge crowd of people on the avenue, there is no feeling of unity or any community between them. The only thing that unites them all is the meeting place. Describing the street, the author says that it creates a feeling as if some demon had crushed the whole world into many tiny fragments and “meantlessly, senselessly mixed it together.”

The similarity of destinies and the contradictory characters of Pirogov and Piskarev

However, as the story progresses, the story “Nevsky Prospekt,” which we are analyzing, includes two characters 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 majestic city is in many ways like playing roulette. But the one who is ready to constantly take risks in order to fulfill his most secret, hopeless and even sometimes absurd dreams will be able to conquer him.

The lieutenant, following his convictions, takes risks. He does not see anything unusual or tragic in his loss and, not without the influence of the cool evening Nevsky Prospect, quickly copes with the “anger and indignation” that has overwhelmed him.

The second hero, Piskarev, the same “young man in a cloak and tails,” is trying to act the same way as his friend. He too fails. But for him, feeling lonely and alien in the northern capital of the empire, such an event becomes fatal. Timid and shy by nature, the artist, who all his life carried sparks of feeling in his heart, which were always just waiting in the wings to “turn into flame,” literally entrusted his fate to Nevsky Prospekt. Analysis of the work “Nevsky Prospekt” is an analysis of two similar in appearance, but completely different in essence stories. Both heroes risk everything, but Pirogov, for whom everything that happens is a game, essentially loses nothing. For Piskarev, this is life. A person who subtly senses the world is unable to instantly become rude and callous and stop trusting the world. However, he cannot quickly forget about the disappointment that he experienced due to the fault of the famous avenue.

What did Gogol want to show when completing Nevsky Prospekt? The analysis of this story is an analysis of a parallel narrative about two characters who are opposites of each other in character and attitude. For the reader, such a contrast allows a deeper understanding of the inconsistency of Nevsky Prospect itself. The comical nature of the situation in which Lieutenant Pirogov finds himself is contrasted with the tragic fate of poor fellow Piskarev. In the same way, the atmosphere of comic vulgarity, characteristic of Nevsky in the morning, is combined with tragic evening vulgarity and lies. “...he lies at all times, this Nevsky Prospect,” says Gogol.

Conclusion

A tiny light that dances before your eyes, beckons you and lures you into a dangerous net - this is exactly how the author strives to present Nevsky Prospekt to the reader. Analysis of the story makes you think about deeply philosophical questions. For the artist Piskarev, the meeting with Nevsky and its 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 in this case 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.