Practical work. Essay-analysis of the episode “Description of Nevsky Prospekt” from the story by N.V. Gogol "Nevsky Prospekt"

Not a single episode just happens! Remember that everything as a whole “works” to reveal the characters’ characters and the writer’s ideological plan.The episode helps

see (discover) something new in the character’s character, i.e. For example, another feature of the hero is revealed to the reader

understand the relationship of the main character with other characters;

open new directions (thoughts) to comprehend the writer’s ideological plan (we know that the idea of ​​a work is “composed” of several “elements”, and not just one);

see something else that excites, worries, worries the author;

feel the skill of the writer (features of his style): see something new in his language, “get acquainted” with new artistic techniques that were not previously revealed to us (before this episode), etc.

Remember: you have to write an analysis essay, so there should be a short introduction, the main part and a conclusion.

Read the description of Nevsky Prospekt ( from the beginning of the story to the words “... always in German frock coats, walking in a whole crowd and usually arm in arm”), and then analyze this episode according to plan.

Episode analysis plan.

Introduction. For information: “Nevsky Prospekt” was first published in the collection “Arabesques” (1835), which was highly appreciated by V.G. Belinsky's "Nevsky Prospekt" is classified as a cycle of St. Petersburg stories. The writer himself did not combine them into a special cycle. All of them were written at different times, do not have a common narrator or fictional publisher, but entered Russian literature and culture as an artistic whole, as a cycle. This happened because the stories are united by a common theme (the life of St. Petersburg), problems (reflection of social contradictions), the similarity of the main character (“little man”), and the integrity of the author’s position (satirical exposure of the vices of people and society).

Define the boundaries of the episode, give it a title.

Describe the event underlying the episode. (Description of Nevsky Prospekt-center of St. Petersburg).

What role does the description of Nevsky Prospect play at the beginning of the story? Determine the role of the episode in the composition of the story (exposition , beginning, climax, denouement).

Main part:

Name the main participants in the episode and briefly explain who they are.

Analyze the images with which Gogol paints a picture of Nevsky Prospekt. What is the role of visual and expressive means and artistic details here?

Explain the role of artistic time and space in this passage.

How does the episode outline the main problem and conflict of the entire story?

Prove that this description contains features of romanticism and realism. Give examples.

Conclusion. We draw conclusions from the reasoning of the main part:

1. We prove that this episode is an exposition of the story.

2. What is the function of this episode in the entire story?

For information: Analysis of the episode will make it possible to emphasize that St. Petersburg is a city without complete persons, which are replaced by their parts or parts of the body and clothing. Reality is not the way we see it, and at any moment it can turn its reverse side towards us.

Nevsky Prospekt appears as a symbol of the whole of St. Petersburg - a city of contrasts. Therefore, the author describes it at different times of the same day. There are no faces here, there are only remarkable details of appearance - hats, mustaches, sideburns.

Against the background of this description, also using the principle of contrast, the writer reveals the fate of the artist Piskarev and Lieutenant Pirogov. The author raises the problem of the coexistence of beauty and ugliness. Piskarev is a man of art, by origin from the people, his life is serving the beautiful, but he is far from reality and from everything earthly.

Note! The only proof of your rightness and argument for your reasoning can be a literary text. Therefore, any analysis of a literary work must include the use of quotations to the necessary and sufficient extent.

Which “is everything for St. Petersburg.” Gogol gives vivid pictures of this famous street and the public on it at different hours of the day, emphasizing that Nevsky is a place not so much of business as of purely human life of the northern capital. A thoughtful observer can glean many deep psychological impressions from here.

Gogol believes that Nevsky Prospect is most interesting in the evening, when the light of the lamps and the long shadows of passers-by give it a strange, fantastic shade. It is especially loved by young people at this time: young men walking sometimes switch from walking to running in order to look under the hat of a beautiful lady they accidentally meet at a lantern.

Gogol. Nevsky Avenue. Audiobook

During such an activity, the superficial, life-loving lieutenant Pirogov and the subtle, impressionable artist Piskarev met briefly on Nevsky Prospect. Each of them ran after a pretty young girl: Pirogov after a plump blonde, and Piskarev after a brunette in a colorful cloak, whose facial features reminded him of Bianca painted by the great Perugino.

In his story, Gogol initially follows Piskarev along Nevsky Prospekt. To the inspired artist, the brunette in a cloak flashing before him seems like a lovely goddess who flew straight from the sky. Her appearance fascinates Piskarev so much that, despite his characteristic timidity and shyness, he decides to find out the address of the beautiful stranger at all costs. Pushing passers-by aside, the artist flies after her. The lady notices his pursuit, turns around several times - and from her fleeting glances, Piskarev’s heart flutters. A semblance of a smile suddenly appears on her face...

A girl enters the entrance of a brightly lit four-story building. Piskarev, beside himself with passion, follows the beautiful creature and suddenly hears his voice: “Walk carefully!” A lady enters one of the apartments on the fourth floor. Piskarev, who entered there, sees an unexpected picture: several clearly promiscuous women are sitting in different poses, one of the neighboring rooms is ajar, and a rough male voice and female laughter can be heard from it. Piskarev realizes that he has ended up in the home of prostitutes. The lady he was running after along Nevsky Prospekt comes up to him. In the light she seems even more beautiful, she looks only 17 years old. But Piskarev now understands that she is not an angel at all, but a fallen libertine. In mental confusion, he runs out into the street.

Arriving home, Piskarev falls into despair. The contrast between the first, sublime impression of the girl and the picture he saw in the brothel is too strong. The shocked artist sits for a long time with his head in his hands. Soon Piskarev imagines a certain footman coming to his room and taking him to a ball, where the same charming girl suddenly turns out to be a noble aristocrat. She seeks a meeting with him for sublime love, convincing that she does not at all belong to the despicable class among which the artist saw her. But it soon becomes clear: it was just a dream.

Piskarev’s nerves are getting upset. The yawning abyss between the ideal and the bitter reality turns out to be too wide for the subtle creative nature. The artist begins to use opium, which inflames his thoughts even more. He comes up with a plan to snatch his goddess from the nest of depravity. Piskarev decides to go to her, propose to marry him and lead a quiet family life in the midst of the joys of pure mutual affection.

Gogol describes how, after a long search, Piskarev finds that very house. The same women are sitting in a familiar room, and his ideal is also among them. But Piskarev’s simple-minded proposal to marry him and indulge in an honest, working life is met with arrogant, cynical ridicule. “I’m not a laundress or a seamstress,” the one he thought of saving answers him. The ridiculed artist returns home, and after several days of terrible mental torment, he cuts his throat with a razor, not even receiving a decent funeral.

Having told the story of Piskarev, Gogol tells a completely opposite incident that happened to Lieutenant Pirogov. Having parted with the artist on Nevsky Prospekt, the rake Piskarev pursues his own female ideal - a rather frivolous blonde who stops in front of every store, looking at the trinkets in the windows. Gogol informs the reader that Pirogov is one of those lieutenants who have a special gift for entertaining ladies as empty as himself with shallow chatter.

Now Pirogov pursues the blonde he likes to the quarter of German artisans and runs after her into a dirty house. Not at all embarrassed, the assertive lieutenant enters her apartment. In the middle of her sits the blonde’s husband, the German tinsmith Schiller. While drunk, he complains to his friend, the shoemaker Hoffman, about the high cost of snuff (“20 rubles 40 kopecks a month is robbery”). To save on tobacco, Schiller asks Hoffmann to cut off his nose. Hoffmann actually takes Schiller’s friend by the nose, takes out a knife and brings him “in a position as if he wanted to cut a sole.” The brewing tragedy is prevented by the unexpected appearance of Pirogov. Vaguely aware that the lieutenant is probably stalking his wife, Schiller begins to shout at him.

Pirogov leaves, but the next day, as if nothing had happened, he appears in Schiller’s workshop, allegedly with the goal of making spurs from him at an expensive price. The German notices that the lieutenant is again trying to pester his wife and even tries to grab her chin, but upon hearing the amount of payment offered by Pirogov, he accepts the order. Having received the spurs, the lieutenant orders a frame for the dagger from Schiller. He does not stop secretly harassing the German's wife. One Sunday, when Schiller goes out to drink beer with friends, Pirogov enters the blonde’s apartment. He first invites her to dance, and then, contrivingly, kisses her.

At this moment the door opens. Drunken Schiller, Hoffmann and carpenter Kunz enter. Seeing the lieutenant kissing his wife, Schiller shouts: “Oh, I don’t want to have horns! I'm German, not horned beef! Take him, my friend Hoffmann, by the collar!” Three stalwart artisans beat Pirogov severely and throw him out of the house. At first he wants to write a complaint against them to the main headquarters or even the State Council, but after eating two puff pastries in a pastry shop, he simply decides not to tell anyone about this unpleasant incident.

The two in no way similar stories of Piskarev and Pirogov are united, however, by the fact that both heroes did not receive what they passionately desired, what “all their strength seemed to be prepared for.” Gogol ends Nevsky Prospekt with a sad reflection on the futility of human hopes. Pirogov's crude vulgarity sharply sets off Piskarev's unearthly idealism in this story. In Nevsky Prospekt they are opposed to each other - but in an imperceptible way they coexist in unity.

This unity of the sublime and the petty, the dramatic and the funny, everyday vulgarity and religious anguish runs through Gogol’s entire work, being expressed for the first time in vivid relief precisely in Nevsky Prospect.

The title of this work suggests that the main image and kind of main participant in the events that Gogol created is Nevsky Prospekt. A brief summary, of course, cannot tell so vividly about this street that it “smells like a party.” So, let's try to remember what this book is about.

Description of Nevsky Prospekt

Let us turn to how N.V. begins. Gogol "Nevsky Prospekt". The summary of this work should begin with a description of this street. The writer's rich language very vividly conveys to us the atmosphere of St. Petersburg at that time. We see people walking along the main street of this city. In the morning on Nevsky you can meet beggars, working people, and officials. At noon, governesses with children appear there, and this avenue can safely be called “pedagogical.” From two to three o'clock you can see a real “parade of ranks” on the avenue. This is a real exhibition of ladies' hats, shoes, shoes, dresses, men's sideburns and mustaches. After four o’clock the avenue becomes empty and comes to life again at dusk, as Gogol writes. The story “Nevsky Prospekt,” the summary of which we are considering, further introduces us to two characters.

Meeting of Pirogov and Piskarev

In the evening, two comrades meet on the avenue. This is how Gogol continues in Nevsky Prospekt. A summary of the book is impossible without a description of these two characters. Pirogov is a narcissistic lieutenant, confident in his success with women. Piskarev, on the contrary, is a shy and timid artist who does not dare to hope for mutual attention from young people. On Nevsky, the lieutenant noticed a charming blonde, and the artist took a liking to the brunette. Then the young people missed each other.

A beautiful stranger

It should be noted that the central work in Gogol’s “Petersburg Tales” cycle is “Nevsky Prospekt”. The summary of this work makes us follow along with Piskarev a beautiful young girl. He just wanted to know where she lived - he didn’t dream of anything else. However, the smile with which the stranger turned to the young man inspired him. And what happened to him when, approaching the house, the young lady motioned for him to follow her!

Disappointment

Piskarev followed the stranger, nourishing the most tender and sublime feelings. A woman opened the door for them. The apartment they entered amazed Piskarev: he realized that he had ended up in a shelter of debauchery. The shocked young man ran away.

Dreams and Dreams

Once at home, Piskarev fell asleep. He had a dream. It is with this episode that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol continues “Nevsky Prospekt”. The summary of this story will further tell us what the young man dreamed.

So, Piskarev saw that the footman had come for him, and, saying that the same lady had sent him, he ordered to follow him. He found himself at a ball in a magnificent mansion. All the ladies were beautiful, but the most brilliant of all, of course, was She. The girl tried to say something to Piskarev, but they were constantly interrupted. He woke up. Life has lost its meaning for the young man. To sleep better, he bought opium. His existence gained meaning only in dreams.

Piskarev imagined that he would marry this girl, and she would leave the terrible path she was on. One day he decided to propose to her. Going to that house, he saw her again and told her about his plan. The response to his words was contempt. Piskarev fled again and did not leave his room for several days. When the door was broken down, they found a young man with his throat cut.

About Pirogov

Gogol's "Nevsky Prospekt" continues with the story about the friend of the unfortunate Piskarev. The summary of this story takes us in the footsteps of the blonde and Pirogov to the house of the tinsmith Schiller, whose wife was the blonde girl. Besides Schiller, there was also the shoemaker Hoffmann in the room. Together they put Pirogov out, but he decided not to give up and, coming the next day, began to flirt with the young woman. She threatened to complain to her husband. Pirogov ordered spurs from Schiller in order to have a reason to appear in this house again. Pirogov’s impudent behavior infuriated the tinsmith. He, in agreement with his wife and friends, decided to teach him a lesson. The blonde invited him to her room, where after a while Schiller and his friends burst in and, having beaten the young man, threw him out.

However, Pirogov was not annoyed for long. Having refreshed himself with pies, the lieutenant began to enjoy life again.

The story “Nevsky Prospekt” was written in 1834. This and the next year were the most fruitful in the writer's life. During this period, he not only created many great works, but also conceived all those that were written subsequently.

One of the famous stories is called Nevsky Prospekt (Gogol), a brief summary and analysis of its main ideas will be offered below.

Young Gogol was quite close to the artistic world of the capital. For three years (1930-1931) he attended courses at the Art Academy, where he studied drawing. He had many familiar painters, including such luminaries as Venetsianov or Bryullov.

Nikolai Gogol studied the world of artists very well, knew what kind of people they were, how they lived.

Two famous works of the writer are dedicated to creative life: “Nevsky Prospekt” and “Portrait”. In them, the author expressed his views, doubts and thoughts about the role, meaning and possibilities of creativity. The image of the creative person in the writer’s works is always the artist, the painter.

Note! It is useful to read the short story Nevsky Prospekt for review if you need to quickly remember any details of the plot.

However, if you read the summary of Nevsky Prospekt, it will not be able to replace the entire work of the great writer. Reading a summary chapter by chapter means not reading the classic work at all.

The story “Nevsky Prospekt” was believed to have been conceived in 1831, and written by October 1934. The work is part of the famous cycle “Petersburg Tales”, which contains works from different years. What unites them is their place of action - St. Petersburg.

Gogol himself did not collect these stories into one cycle. This tradition appeared in literature after the death of the writer. All “Petersburg Tales” are considered to be largely similar in theme. Literary critics find artistic unity in them. This is the story of the creation of the story.

Summary

The narrative begins with a description of Nevsky Prospekt, which contains the whole soul of St. Petersburg. Here you can see many characteristic types of people from all walks of life.

Life never stops here, it only changes at different times of the day.

Gogol describes dignitaries, ladies, men, shop owners, governesses with noble children, artisans, merchants, officials of various ranks, who, as if in a line, walk along Nevsky. Finally, from this entire crowd, the author singles out two people who became the main characters of the story - the young artist Piskarev and his frivolous friend, Lieutenant Pirogov.

Both of them were walking along the evening avenue when women attracted their attention. The lieutenant noticed some “blonde” and immediately followed her, hoping for an easy love affair. The artist’s thoughts and feelings were much more sublime. He saw a young dark-haired girl who seemed to him the ideal of beauty.

In her face he saw something “divine”, “holy”. The artist followed her, without any bad thought, which his pure soul simply could not contain, wanting only to see where such a magnificent beauty could live.

The “lady” noticed the young man, smiled at him, and approaching her house, she motioned for the young man to come inside. The dreamy artist imagined a whole novel. He thought that some mysterious circumstances were forcing the beautiful lady to seek his help and, for sure, she wanted to give him a very important assignment.

The young romantic did not believe his happiness; with all his soul he longed to serve this ideal of beauty, to carry out any of her commands. So the artist went up to the fourth floor, followed his “lady” into one of the apartments and, looking around, realized with horror that he was in a brothel.

This discovery had a very painful effect on the pure, modest young man. After all, beauty for him was an object of religious worship, the appearance of God on earth.

But before his eyes there was "beauty touched by the corruptive breath of debauchery".

The artist felt something mystical here: “by some terrible will of a hellish spirit, eager to destroy the harmony of life, she was thrown with laughter into this terrible abyss.”

Then the beauty turned to him and started talking about something. The voice was “gentle”, “melodic”, but the words were terrifying in their stupidity and vulgarity. It was beyond anyone's strength! The artist rushed to run as fast as he could.

Returning home, he could not sleep for a long time from shock, and finally, well after midnight, he began to doze off. Suddenly someone knocked on the door. It turned out to be a richly dressed footman. He reported that he had come from a lady whom the artist had seen a few hours ago.

The lady sent a carriage for him and asks him to visit her. The young man was very happy. This means that his beauty is a noble lady and cannot work in that terrible house. There's some kind of secret here! He willingly got into the carriage.

So the artist Piskarev ended up in a palace with “marble columns”, where a ball was celebrated. The halls were crowded with people. The young man was somewhat lost from the noise, unfamiliar faces and surrounding luxury. He leaned against a column and began to look at the crowd.

Many gorgeous ladies passed by, but one of them especially stood out for her elegance of attire and beauty. With difficulty squeezing through the crowd, the artist approached the beauty, wanting to get a good look at her. Finding himself face to face with her, he suddenly realized that this queen of the ball was the same girl he had seen the day before.

The lady also recognized the artist and called him to the other end of the hall where they could talk. And so they met there. The beauty was explaining something to him, talking about some mysterious circumstances that caused her to end up in that terrible house yesterday.

But what kind of secret there was, the artist did not have time to find out; their conversation was interrupted by an unknown elderly man, and the beauty was forced to step away for a minute.

The artist was impatient to continue the conversation, unable to wait, he went to look for his lady. Piskarev walked from room to room for a long time, but did not find her anywhere. Finally, tired, I leaned against the wall... and woke up.

Reality again appeared before him as it was. But he couldn't come to terms with it. The sleep was much better! And he began to live only in dreams, and in order to stay awake as little as possible, he began to take opium. Now the meaning of his existence was to induce dreams again and again.

To see that embodiment of ideal beauty again, to understand that in fact she does not work in a brothel at all, this is simply impossible! The reason for everything is complex, mysterious circumstances...

Waking up he thought: “It would be better if you didn’t exist at all! She would not have lived in the world, but would have been the creation of an inspired artist!”

One day he dreamed that this girl became his wife. He was completely happy. And when I woke up, I thought: “What if this beauty can still be saved?” What if he really marries her and pulls her out of the abyss of depravity? With this thought, the artist again came to the brothel.

The door was opened by the same girl, still as beautiful, although now looking somewhat sleepy and pale. The artist revealed his feelings to the beauty, offered to marry him and start a new working life with him - he would paint pictures, she would do some handicraft.

But it turned out that the girl was not at all delighted with his proposal. Debauchery did not bother her at all; on the contrary, she liked the fact that she could laze around, drink, and sleep until two o’clock.

The noble life of poverty and labor did not attract the girl. The artist realized that her soul was already completely devastated. The last straw was the vulgar jokes of the beauty’s friend who was present at this conversation.

The artist ran out of the house and wandered around the city all day, not knowing where he was going. His mind became clouded. Finally, he returned to his room and locked himself in. A week later, they sensed something was wrong in the house and broke down the door. The artist Piskarev lay on the floor with his throat cut, and a razor lay next to him.

Immediately after this tragedy comes a comedy - the story of a friend of the deceased artist, the same lieutenant Pirogov, who fell in love with some blonde. As it turned out, this was the wife of a German tinsmith whose name was Schiller.

Pirogov followed the blond German woman all the way to her house, from where she was rudely kicked out by her drunken husband. However, the lieutenant did not give up. He went to the tinsmith the next day and ordered spurs for himself so that he would have an excuse to visit his house. Then he needed a sheath for his dagger.

All this time, Pirogov secretly tried to flirt with the master’s wife, but she did not respond to his advances. Finally, the lieutenant came on Sunday, when the German tinsmith was not at home, and began pestering his wife, despite her indignation and screams.

Just then the husband came with his fellow craftsmen. They were all drunk. Pirogov was flogged and thrown out the door.

The lieutenant was extremely indignant at such an insult to his noble honor and wanted to complain about the German to all courts in the country, right up to the sovereign himself.

However, after visiting a pastry shop, reading a newspaper, walking along Nevsky, going to see friends for the evening, I completely calmed down and forgot everything unpleasant.

Brief Analysis

In the story “Nevsky Prospekt” several semantic layers can be distinguished: philosophical, social, psychological.

Here are the main ideas of this work:

1. First of all, it should be said about the social themes of the story. The work begins and ends with a description of St. Petersburg, or rather its main street - Nevsky Prospekt. This is a city of contrasts, wealth and poverty. This is a city of deceit, where “nothing is what it seems.”
2. Gogol's description of St. Petersburg can be called “ironic pathos” in style. This is how Gogol depicts the life of this city, externally magnificent, internally vulgar and empty.
3. Then the writer stops at two heroes, as if randomly choosing them from the crowd. One of them, an artist, in spirit is the complete opposite of the world in which he lives.
4. « This young man belonged to that class, which constitutes a rather strange phenomenon among us and belongs just as much to the citizens of St. Petersburg as the person who appears to us in a dream belongs to the essential world“- this is the characteristic given by Gogol to his hero. Piskarev is a romantic, a pure-hearted dreamer, completely alien to any vulgarity and dirt. His story is the tragedy of an idealist who failed to come to terms with the ugly reality.
5. The other hero, unlike the artist, fits perfectly into the life around him. If the first is “not of this world,” the second is completely a child of his world. If the first dies, unable to bear the encounter with vulgarity, the second gets along well with it.
6. The story of the lieutenant’s adventures follows immediately after the artist’s tragedy and therefore seems absurd and inappropriate. So Gogol even more clearly emphasized the paradoxical, unreasonable nature of real life, where farce is mixed with genuine tragedy, the sublime with the stupid and empty.

Note! The deep philosophical idea of ​​the work Nevsky Prospekt is the duality and tragedy of beauty and love in our world.

Here the story “Nevsky Prospekt” echoes three other works of Gogol - “Viem”, “Taras Bulba” and “Notes of a Madman”, each of which covers the issue from a special angle.

In Nevsky Prospekt the idea is formulated most clearly. Beauty, as the hero-artist, and with him Gogol himself, believes, has a divine nature; it is, in essence, a manifestation of the heavenly on earth.

In the real world, everything is perverted and is in the grip of evil.

Beauty is doomed to destruction itself and destroys others:

• in the story she pushes the hero to betray his homeland,
• in “Notes of a Madman” - drives you to madness,
• in the work “Viy” the ambiguity of beauty is embodied in the demonic image of the lady-witch.

In “Nevsky Prospekt” this issue is examined, first of all, in the light of creativity, through the eyes of a “servant of beauty.” That is, in essence, we are talking about the relationship between art and reality. The main character, sensing all the wrongness and perversity of reality, completely abandons it in favor of a fictional ideal.

However, escaping from reality does not save the artist and turns out to be impossible. Still, in the end, he makes a desperate attempt to bring reality closer to his dream and, as a result, dies.

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Let's sum it up

Whether Gogol, when he wrote Nevsky Prospekt, agreed with his hero, the artist Piskarev, in everything is difficult to say. At least he himself completely found a way to reconcile art with reality, since he became a great Russian realist writer.

In the poem “Dead Souls” Nikolai Gogol brilliantly depicted the life around him in all its ugliness, but this was a late stage of his work.

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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.