Describe Peter and Eugene. The truth of Eugene and the truth of Peter according to Pushkin's poem The Bronze Horseman

In the poem, Peter the Great is contrasted with a poor official living in Kolomna. Eugene, according to the poet, is a seedy remnant of a once glorious and noble family; he was a descendant of people “who were in the Army, and in the council, and in the voivodeship, and in charge.” As a person brought to a deplorable state by Peter’s table of ranks, Eugene, more than anyone else, could not sympathize with the “miraculous builder” and his reform.

Eugene has completely come to terms with his humble position - “he shies away from the nobles and does not worry about his deceased relatives or about forgotten antiquities.” All of Eugene’s thoughts were focused on petty personal interests. On the eve of the famous flood, he was in a rather gloomy mood; the river was in full swing and threatened to overflow its banks, which is why Eugene had to go two or three days without seeing Parasha, whom he loved and whom he hoped to eventually marry. Evgeniy’s premonitions did not deceive him.

The Neva swelled and roared,

And suddenly, like a wild beast,

Bubbling and swirling like a cauldron, it rushed towards the city.

In the midst of the terrible flood, Evgeniy was occupied exclusively with his love, and was tormented by fears for the fate of his Parasha, who lived “in a dilapidated house, close to the waves, almost at the very bay.” Sitting astride a marble lion, without a hat, terribly pale, surrounded by furious waves, he was indifferent to the “evil disaster” and only dreamed of Parasha.

Meanwhile, the wind died down and the water began to recede. The river was still agitated, but the pavement opened, and Eugene could not resist and, at the risk of death, crossed with a carefree carrier across the still foaming and seething Neva to the other bank.

Freezing with melancholy anticipation, he “runs along a familiar street to familiar places,” but in the place where Parasha lived, he no longer found anything. The furious waves carried away the house in which his dreams and his love lived. Full of gloomy concern, he walked around for a long time, talked loudly to himself, and suddenly, hitting his forehead with his hand, he burst out laughing.

His mind could not bear the ordeal. Since then, deafened by the noise internal anxiety, he wandered silently, full of terrible thoughts. The flood, accompanied by devastation, thousands of suffering and deaths, passed, since it was “covered with crimson” - the cares and generosity of Emperor Alexander the First. Dissatisfaction and murmurs against the “wonderful builder” for choosing such an inconvenient, base and dangerous place, gradually fell silent. Only the poor madman could not calm down.

The following autumn, Evgeniy, who was sleeping near the pier, woke up from the splash of waves. For a while, consciousness awakened in him. Scary picture stormy night reminded him of the past horror. He went wandering and found himself in the square from which he watched the destructive effects of the flood. He recognized the house, in front of the porch of which “guard lions stood with raised paws, as if alive, and right in the dark heights above the fenced rock, an idol with outstretched hand sat on a bronze horse.” The face of Peter the Great breathed with strength and energy. With a powerful hand, he pulled the reins, and the wild horse reared up under him.

Suddenly, all the circumstances under which St. Petersburg was founded are pictured in Eugene’s mind; he remembered whose indomitable will was the cause of his present disaster:
Around the foot of the idol The ruler of half the world appears.
The poor madman walked around and his chest was ashamed.
And brought wild glances
“Good builder, miraculous! —
He whispered, trembling angrily,
Already for you! .."
He became gloomy

Before the proud idol
And, clenching my teeth, clenching my fingers,
As if possessed by black power...

Without finishing his threats, Evgeniy began to run headlong. He realized all the audacity of his actions, reproaches of conscience began to speak in his soul, and it seemed to his confused imagination,
...what a formidable king,
Instantly ignited with anger,
The face quietly turned...
He started to run, and all night it seemed to him as if Peter was chasing him, as if
Stretch out your hand to the heights,

The Bronze Horseman rushes after him
On a loud galloping horse...

From that night on he was ashamed to look at the monument to Peter. When he had to walk across the square, he became worried, lowered his embarrassed eyes and took off his worn cap. Soon Evgeniy was found dead on a small island, on the seashore at the threshold of the destroyed house of Parasha, brought there by the waves, and was buried there.

Thus, Eugene is one of the victims of Peter’s cause - the foundation new capital on the seashore, and Peter the Great was the indirect culprit of his death. Pushkin sympathizes with his hero. The poet feels sorry for this man, all of whose happiness collapsed along with the death of his bride.

Pushkin tenderly describes Eugene’s modest but ardent love, since not everyone is capable of loving like that, not everyone will die of grief on the threshold of the hut in which the girl dear to him once lived.

« Bronze Horseman"is a work imbued with symbolism. In his creation A.S. Pushkin concluded deep meaning. Not only historians and literary scholars, but also ordinary readers are trying to decipher the poem. The image of Peter 1 is also ambiguous.

Was written by A.S. Pushkin in 1833. It was never published during the poet's lifetime. Nicholas the First opposed the publication of the work because he believed that Peter the Great was wrongfully presented as a tyrant and autocrat. There is a version that Pushkin contrasted the image of the reformer Peter with the reign of Nicholas the First. But in the very image of Peter, the author sees inconsistency; he notes in him both a despot and a great man who played a significant role in the history of the Fatherland.

From the very first lines of the work, readers are presented with the image of a great reformer who commands to “lay a city in spite of an arrogant neighbor” among the harsh region of swamps and lakes. Petersburg, built by Peter the Great, is opposed to Moscow. New town was called upon to bring a change to the established and outdated way of life that Moscow was setting at that time. Pushkin glorifies the built city: “Beautifully the city of Peter and stand unshakably,” according to him, “even old Moscow faded before him.”

The image of Peter 1 is contained in the majestic statue of the Bronze Horseman, who, having flown up a high rock on his bronze horse, rises above his grandiose creation. Pushkin boldly calls him “the lord of Fate,” “the ruler of half the world.” Superhuman power is clearly exaggerated; against its background appears the modest personality of the second hero - Evgeniy, in whom collective image metropolitan citizens. The conqueror of the elements and an ordinary representative of society met on the banks of the Neva, personifying two extremes: exorbitant human power and the image of the capital’s faceless crowd reduced to insignificance. The city, which was created by the will of Peter, has become alien to people, it drains their souls.

Pushkin sympathizes with poor Eugene, amazed by the power of Peter the Great, but the purpose of Peter’s actions is clear to him, his desire to “become a firm foot on the sea”, the elements have humbled themselves under the rule of the autocrat, the capital has been established, there is protection from the sea, Russia is becoming a great power. But at what cost has all this been achieved?

In this confrontation we see a discrepancy between the interests of one person and the goals and objectives of the entire state. Should the will of one individual person taken from the crowd submit to the will of the entire state, is the happiness of each person really connected with the well-being of the entire country? This question was posed by the author. Pushkin himself does not give an exact answer to this; he invites the reader to draw their own conclusions. The truth, as often happens, is in the middle; without a person there is no state, but it is not possible to take into account the interests of each individual person. Perhaps this is the dilemma of the work.

Composition

Before moving on to the analysis of the composition of Pushkin’s artistic and prose works, I will dwell on two of the most complex and at the same time especially meaningful compositions of Pushkin’s poetic works - the construction of the poems “Poltava” and “The Bronze Horseman”. Many contemporary to Pushkin critics (Belinsky, to a certain extent, joined them in his articles on Pushkin) reproached the poet for the lack of unity of action in his “Poltava”; in the fact that within the framework of one work the poet combined, as they imagined, heterogeneous material, usually correlated with various poetic genres - a love, romantic plot and “chanting” of the most important historical events. “An epic poem could not come out of Pushkin’s “Poltava” due to the impossibility of an epic poem in our time, and romantic poem, like Byron’s, also could not come out due to the poet’s desire to merge it with the impossible epic poem.”

However, Belinsky also approached in this case to the assessment of Pushkin’s “Poltava” with the yardstick of the traditional division of poetry into genera and types. Meanwhile, Pushkin, in all his work, as a rule, broke these traditional frameworks. Likewise, from his “Poltava” - one can say this with complete confidence - he in no way intended to create not only a traditional epic poem, but also the new romantic, which he allegedly tried to merge with the epic. The strong points here are two “meetings” between Eugene and the Bronze Horseman - Peter, compositionally confined to precisely calculated places: the first “meeting” - at the end of the first part; the second - at the end of the second.

* Then, on Petrova Square,
* Where a new house has risen in the corner,
* Where above the elevated porch,
* With a raised paw, as if alive,
* There are two guard lions standing,
* Riding a marble beast,
* Without a hat, hands clasped in a cross,
* Sat motionless, terribly pale
* Eugene. He was afraid, poor thing,
*Not for myself. He didn't hear
* How the greedy shaft rose,
* Washing his soles,
* How the rain hit his face,
* Like the wind, howling violently,
* He suddenly tore off his hat.

And again, the poet has done everything to make it impossible to smooth out the difference between a person and a monument, to bring them closer to each other, to make each other aesthetically, in our artistic perception, equivalent. Just as the poet gave the image of Peter in the introduction, so here he gives the image of Eugene: he depicts him in an emphatically “statuary” way. At the sight terrible disaster, at the thought of the danger threatening the girl he loved, Eugene, fleeing from the rising and more water on the high porch of an old mansion, sitting astride a marble lion, and he himself seems to be petrified with horror, turning into a statue: “The motionless, terribly pale Eugene sat,” “His desperate gaze was fixed motionless on the edge.” Finally:

* And he seems to be bewitched,
* As if chained to marble,
*Can't get off!

On the contrary, the poet brings the monument to Peter closer to the image of the living Peter (in the introduction to the poem); there he stood over the Neva; It stands in approximately the same place now:

* Above the indignant Neva
* Stands with outstretched hand
* Idol on a bronze horse.

In fact, Peter, of course, is not standing, but sitting on a horse (this is exactly what the poet will say in exactly the same context at the end of the second part: “I was sitting on a bronze horse”); but the verb stands in this case and expresses the greater activity of Peter’s pose compared to Eugene’s pose and at the same time echoes the “he stood” of the introduction. As a result, it’s as if we have before us some kind of unique sculptural ensemble, a sculptural group.

Two people are facing the Neva, which has poured out of its banks, rebelled, and is marching towards the city: in front, almost close to the river, is the motionless Peter on horseback; behind, on the other side of the square, is the motionless Evgeniy “on a marble beast.”

As we see, there is no clash or conflict here yet. For now, this is still just a comparison: on the one hand, the stolons are focusing only on one’s own, “particular”, without thinking about the “general”; on the other hand, an appeal to the “general”, in which the “particular” is simply not noticed, as if “it does not exist.” But the very clarity, the sharpness of such a parallel-contrasting comparison, and especially the pose of the Bronze Horseman just indicated, which ends the entire scene and is full of enormous semantic expressiveness, expression: “with his back turned to him,” prepares in the reader’s mind the pattern of the future conflict, are, as it were, its prerequisites.

At the second, and now direct, face-to-face meeting of Eugene with the Bronze Horseman, this prepared conflict, deeply tragic in its essence, occurs.

* Evgeniy jumped up; remembered vividly
* He is a past horror; hastily
* He got up; went wandering, and suddenly
* Stopped - and around
* Quietly began to move his eyes
* With wild fear on his face.

And at the same time almost complete coincidence With the initial situation, a sudden and bright light flashes in Eugene’s consciousness, immersed in the darkness of madness:

Evgeny shuddered. cleared up

* It has scary thoughts.
* He found out
* And the place where the flood played,
* Where the predatory waves crowded,
* Revolting angrily around him,
* And lions, and the square, and that,
* Who stood motionless
* In the darkness of the copper head,
* The one whose will is fatal
* A city was founded under the sea...

“Thoughts became clearer,” and “terribly” became clearer - this expression is complete deep meaning. Eugene not only learned, but also for the first time understood the cause-and-effect relationship that exists between the catastrophe that befell him and the one whose image stands motionless before him, who founded the city right here, “under the sea,” and as a result was the culprit of his terrible misfortune .

The complex historical dialectic of Peter's transformations is deeply understood and with remarkable artistic power expressed by Pushkin in the contrast between the two Petersburgs, which appears before us in The Bronze Horseman. St. Petersburg - introduction to the poem: “full of beauty and wonder of the land,” with its palaces, towers, gardens, the capital of the Peter the Great Empire, the Russian autocracy; and Petersburg - the poem itself: the city of “poor Eugene”, Petersburg of the outskirts, attics (“the kennel of the fifth dwelling”, that is, the fifth floor, the “attic” was directly called by Pushkin in the rough drafts the dwelling of the future hero), dilapidated houses, huts, “the belongings of the pale poverty." Hence the duality of the image of Peter.

This is great historical figure, “powerful lord of fate,” commanding the elements themselves; and at the same time this is a “terrible”, “formidable king”, “proud idol” of autocracy (about St. Petersburg in the introduction: “He ascended magnificently, proudly”), mercilessly crushing everything that stands in the way, mercilessly pursuing the slightest attempt at protest, even if it comes from the lips of one distraught from comprehension; neck him terrible disaster, resembling the person he destroyed. This historically conditioned unity of contradictions in the appearance and deeds of Peter is expressed in the poet’s famous final formula-address to the Bronze Horseman:

* O mighty lord of fate!
*Aren't you above the abyss?
* At the height, with an iron bridle
* Raised Russia on its hind legs?

“Over the abyss” means he didn’t let you fall into it; but “he reared up” and lifted him up “with an iron bridle.”

Other works on this work

For some reason, some believe that the year when the poem “The Bronze Horseman” was written is 1830. Analysis biographical information allows us to unequivocally state that Pushkin created it in 1833. This is one of the most perfect and striking works of Alexander Sergeevich. The author in this poem convincingly showed all the inconsistency and complexity of the turning point era national history. It must be emphasized that the poem occupies a special place in the work of Alexander Sergeevich. The poet in it tried to solve the problem of the relationship between the state and the individual, which is relevant at all times. This topic has always been at the center of the author’s spiritual quest.

Features of the genre

According to a long-standing tradition, a poem is a work that is lyrical or narrative in nature. If initially it was more of a historical creation, then for some time now the poems began to acquire more and more romantic overtones. This was due to the tradition of what was popular in the Middle Ages. Even later, moral, philosophical, personal issues come to the fore. The lyrical-dramatic aspects begin to intensify. At the same time, the poem outlines central characters or one character (this is typical for the work of romantic writers) as independent individuals. They cease to be snatched by the author from the historical stream. Now these are not just blurry figures, as before.

The image of a little man in Russian literature

Little man in Russian literature- one of the cross-cutting topics. Many writers and poets of the 19th century turned to her. A. S. Pushkin touched on it one of the first in his story " Stationmaster". Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoevsky and many others continued this theme.

What is the image little man in Russian literature? This man is small socially. He is at one of the lowest levels of the social hierarchy. In addition, the world of his claims and spiritual life is extremely poor, narrow, and filled with many prohibitions. Philosophical and historical problems does not exist for this hero. He is in a closed and narrow world of his vital interests.

Evgeniy is a little man

Let us now consider the image of the little man in the poem “The Bronze Horseman”. Eugene, its hero, is a product of the so-called St. Petersburg period of Russian history. He can be called a little man, since the meaning of Evgeniy’s life is to achieve bourgeois well-being: family, good place, Houses. The existence of this hero is limited by the circle of family concerns. He is characterized by non-involvement in his past, since he does not yearn for forgotten antiquity or for deceased relatives. These traits of Evgeniy are unacceptable for Pushkin. It is thanks to them that this character represents the image of a little man in the poem “The Bronze Horseman”. Alexander Sergeevich deliberately does not give detailed description this hero. He doesn’t even have a last name, which means that any other person can be put in his place. The figure of Eugene reflected the fate of many similar people, whose life fell on the St. Petersburg period of history. However, the image of the little man in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” is not static; it transforms as the narrative progresses. We'll talk about this below.

The view of Peter and Evgeniy

In the flood scene, Eugene sits with his hands clasped in a cross (which seems to parallel Napoleon), but without a hat. Behind him is the Bronze Horseman. These two figures are facing the same direction. Nevertheless, Peter’s view differs from Eugene’s view. For the king, it is directed into the depths of centuries. Peter doesn't care about fate ordinary people, since it mainly decides historical tasks. Eugene, representing the image of a little man in the poem “The Bronze Horseman,” looks at the house of his beloved.

The main difference between Peter and Evgeniy

The following main difference can be identified by comparing bronze Peter with this hero. The image of Evgeny in A. S. Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman” is characterized by the fact that this character has a heart and soul, he has the ability to feel, and knows how to worry about the fate of the person he loves. He can be called the antipode of Peter, this idol on a bronze horse. Evgeniy is capable of suffering, dreaming, and sadness. That is, despite the fact that Peter reflects on the fate of the entire state, that is, is concerned with the improvement of the lives of all people, in an abstract sense (including Eugene, who in the future should become a resident of St. Petersburg), in the eyes of the reader Eugene, and not the tsar, becomes more attractive . It is he who awakens living participation in us.

Flood in the fate of Evgeniy

For Evgeny, the flood that happened in St. Petersburg turns into a tragedy. It makes a real Hero out of this ordinary-looking person. Evgeny This certainly brings him closer to the characters romantic works, because madness is popular, Eugene wanders the streets of a city hostile to him, but the rebellious noise of the winds and the Neva is heard in his ears. It is this noise, together with the noise in his own soul, that awakens in Evgeniy what was the main sign of a person for Pushkin - memory. The hero leads to Senate Square namely the memory of the flood. Here he meets the bronze Peter for the second time. Pushkin perfectly described what a tragically beautiful moment it was in the life of a humble, poor official. His thoughts suddenly became clearer. The hero understood the reason for both his own misfortunes and all the troubles of the city. Eugene recognized their culprit, the man by whose fatal will the city was founded. Hatred for this ruler of half the world was suddenly born in him. Evgeniy passionately wanted to take revenge on him. The hero starts a rebellion. He threatens Peter, approaching him: “Too bad for you!” Let's carry out brief analysis scenes of rebellion in the poem "The Bronze Horseman", which will allow us to discover new features in the image of Eugene.

Protest

The inevitability and naturalness of protest is born thanks to the spiritual evolution of the hero. His transformation is shown artistically convincingly by the author. The protest raises Evgeniy to a new life, tragic, lofty, which conceals the inevitable near death. He threatens the king with future retribution. The autocrat is afraid of this threat, because he realizes enormous power, hidden in this little man, a protester, a rebel.

The moment Eugene suddenly begins to see clearly, he turns into a Man in his connection with his family. It should be noted that in this passage the hero is never mentioned by name. This makes him, to a certain extent, faceless, one of many. Pushkin describes the confrontation between the formidable Tsar, who personifies autocratic power, and a Man who is endowed with memory and has a heart. The promise of retribution and a direct threat are heard in the whisper of the hero who has regained his sight. For them, the revived statue, “burning” with anger, punishes this “poor madman.”

Eugene's madness

The reader understands that Eugene’s protest is isolated, and besides, he pronounces it in a whisper. Nevertheless, the hero must be punished. It is also symbolic that Eugene is defined as a madman. According to Pushkin, madness is an unequal debate. From the position common sense one man against the powerful state power- real madness. But it is “holy”, since silent humility brings death.

"The Bronze Horseman" is a philosophical, social poem. Pushkin shows that only protest can save an individual from moral decline in the context of ongoing violence. Alexander Sergeevich emphasizes that resistance, an attempt to be indignant, to raise a voice will always be a better way out than submission to cruel fate.

The image of Peter the Great in the poem by A.S. Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman".

In The Bronze Horseman, the traits of power and autocracy in the image of Peter are taken to the extreme. In the introduction the king is portrayed as far-sighted statesman: Pushkin cites Peter’s reasoning why a new capital should be built. These are military goals (“From here we will threaten the Swede”), state political considerations (“Cut a window into Europe”), and trade interests (“All flags will come to visit us”). At the same time, Peter does not seem to pay attention to the fact that a fisherman is sailing along the river in a canoe, that “here and there” poor huts are turning black; For him, the banks of the Neva are still deserted, he is carried away by a great dream and does not see “little people.” Further in the introduction there is a description of the beautiful city, which was built on marshy swamps, on the low banks of the Neva and became the beauty and pride of Russia, a symbol of the power of the country, which even submits to nature. So, Peter is presented in the introduction as a true creative genius.

Already in the first part of the poem, where the revolt of the elements is shown, Peter turns into a “proud idol.” The Bronze Horseman is depicted as a higher being. Peter’s descendant, Alexander the First, humbly declares in the poem: “Tsars cannot cope with God’s elements,” and Peter on his bronze horse rises above the elements, and the waves that rise around the monument like mountains cannot do anything with him:

Over the indignant Neva
Stands with outstretched hand
Idol on a bronze horse.

In the second part, which describes the rebellion of man, the Bronze Horseman is called the lord of Fate, who, with his fatal will guides the life of an entire people. St. Petersburg, this beautiful city, was built “under the sea.” In other words, when Peter chose a place for the new capital, he thought about the greatness and wealth of the state, but not about the ordinary people who would live in this city. Because of the great-power plans of the tsar, Eugene’s happiness and life collapsed. Therefore, the mad Eugene reproaches the Bronze Horseman and even threatens him with his fist: a protest against the violence of someone else’s will over his fate is born in the soul of the madman.

Peter in the poem becomes a symbol of the soulless Russian state, trampling on the rights of the “little man”. The statue in Eugene’s sick imagination comes to life, the Bronze Horseman rushes, “illuminated by the pale moon,” and becomes the Pale Horseman on the Pale Horse, that is biblically of death. This is what Pushkin comes to when thinking about the great creator new Russia. The Bronze Horseman pacifies and intimidates the rebellious “little man.” Just as the Neva water after the flood subsided back into the river bed, so in state life everything quickly returned to the “previous order”: the rebellion of a crazy loner did not change anything in society, and Evgeniy died far from people, on the threshold of the very house where he dreamed of finding happiness.

“The Bronze Horseman” presents the final evolution of the image of Peter in Pushkin’s work: human traits in Peter are completely absent, the author calls him “an idol on a bronze horse” - neither the angry elements nor human troubles touch him. The Emperor appears as a symbol of the Russian bureaucratic state, alien to the interests of ordinary people and serving only itself.

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