Creating a characterization of Eugene from “The Bronze Horseman” often becomes a problem for schoolchildren. In fact, describing the meaning of the role of the main character of the poem is a simple matter. Well, let's try to describe the image of Eugene from The Bronze Horseman, who occupies leading place in this work.
Analysis of Pushkin's work
Poem " Bronze Horseman» is rightfully considered one of the most best works the great Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The work has a special sound, intonation and even rhythm. All this together creates a wonderful auditory effect that makes an indelible impression on everyone who once heard the poem. Many moments are already included in the ranks of the anthology, because while reading the work, the image of the beautiful and majestic St. Petersburg appears before your eyes.
The poem was created by Alexander Sergeevich in 1833. It is all dedicated to the hero of that time - Peter I. It was the image of Peter the Great that became the Bronze Horseman - a huge monument where the emperor is depicted as a warrior sitting on a horse. This monument is located in St. Petersburg, right on the banks of the Neva.
It must be said right away that Pushkin’s attitude towards the reforms carried out by Peter changed greatly over time. His poem “The Bronze Horseman” initially did not pass the censorship barrier, but was soon allowed to be published. The work is a kind of protest of the poet to the current government, which constantly sets its rules before the people and demands their impeccable implementation.
The plot centers on only two characters - Eugene and the Bronze Horseman - a majestic monument erected in honor of the great reformer. Eugene plays a leading role in the work “The Bronze Horseman” - the monument to the reformer haunts him, which is why main character begins to suffer from paranoia, blaming the monument for all his troubles.
The image of the main character of the work
The image of Eugene in “The Bronze Horseman” consists of two conflicts - between an ordinary citizen of the country and the state itself. The image of the latter is presented in the poem as majestic monument, who “looked at everyone and saw everything.”
Eugene, the hero of the poem, became a separate person, a citizen, who began to hate the monument, blaming only him for all his failures. Melancholic, having some strange visions of his own, cowardly from time to time - this is exactly how the image of the main character is portrayed.
Characteristics of Evgeniy - the main character
Evgeniy appears before the reader as a person who has no special merits. When creating a characterization of Eugene from The Bronze Horseman, it must be said that the author himself does not mention either his place of work, his rank, or any other information about the main character. However, reading the work and seeing his life from the outside, over time we can say that Eugene is a petty official who has neither wealth nor talents.
Speaking about the characterization of Eugene from The Bronze Horseman, it would not be superfluous to mention that the central character had a lover. However, when a natural disaster engulfs the city, a girl who lived and grew up in an ordinary poor family dies. Even then, the main character of The Bronze Horseman, Evgeniy, does not survive his loss. He is upset, sad, but one cannot say that he is heartbroken. Probably, such a reaction can be observed in the young man due to the fact that the elements did not calm down, and Eugene was very frightened by the horror that was happening around: dilapidated houses, huge amount deaths.
The finale of the poem by Alexander Sergeevich
In Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman,” Eugene, whose characterization became the key point of this article, appears as a stranger, an outcast. Having survived all the shocks, the main character looks very bad, he looks like a completely crazy person. The people around him look at the young man with laughter and contempt in their eyes - they are simply not destined to understand all the worries that the main character experiences: the loss of his beloved, dire consequences natural disaster.
But besides all this, the guy begins to become paranoid, as if the monument to Peter I is to blame for all this. The young man begins to think that the monument is pursuing him, mocking him, mocking him. The young man blames the “Bronze Horseman” for everything, naively believing that it was he who brought so much grief to the people of St. Petersburg, taking away innocent lives and the well-being of the entire city. He falls to the monument and whispers all sorts of curses at the “horseman,” not realizing that, after all, the city residents themselves are to blame for some incidents.
Quotes from The Bronze Horseman
Since the work belongs to the creations of Russian classical literature, a huge number of quotes have already entered everyday life. Not everyone knows exactly where the stable expression that is repeated day after day comes from.
Let's see which quotes from The Bronze Horseman are the most famous and widespread.
- “Nature here destined us to open a window to Europe.”
- “Old Moscow has faded.”
- “...Russia was raised on its hind legs.”
- “I love you, Petra’s creation.”
- “And life is nothing, and sleep is empty.”
- “He lives in Kolomna, he serves somewhere.”
- “Show off, city of Petrov, and stand unshakable, like Russia.”
- “An idol stands on a bronze horse with an outstretched hand.”
- "The blood boiled."
- “Water and nothing else!”
- “And so that the rain does not knock on the window so angrily, it is forgotten.”
- “And he wished that the wind would not howl so sadly.”
Conclusion on the work
“The Bronze Horseman” has become an image of all those disagreements that arise between each individual and a huge state. Portraying state power as a monument that everywhere followed his servant - an ordinary citizen, Pushkin touched upon a very important political problem. The people needed freedom, they needed a sip fresh air. However, the government could not give this, because Russian mentality has one peculiarity: the population needs strict control so that there is order in the state.
In his poem, Pushkin also touched upon the problem “ little man", which became the main character - Eugene, who was unable to cope with such a strong element as state control, presented in the work as a natural force. In addition, the attitude of Alexander Sergeevich himself to those innovations that occurred under Peter the Great is clearly expressed here. Pushkin recognized everyone’s opportunity and right to be happy, and meanwhile the government suppressed all rebellions.
Political problems
Despite all the reforms that could help Russian Empire in the formation of a mighty and strong state, there were also those changes that, to some extent, were able to curb the Russian temper. Naturally, each citizen viewed this differently. Pushkin managed to veil his hostility to the new state system in such a way that if you do not analyze the work completely, you can hardly notice the author’s attitude towards the new policy.
The images of “The Bronze Horseman” have a generalized philosophical, allegorical and symbolic character.
When Pushkin writes about the Neva, which “breathes like a horse running back from battle,” the river appears as an element not only natural, but also social. The effects of flooding are socially destructive. Neva manifests herself as a thief, a robber, a villain, that is, not as a natural, but as a human force. The Neva is sometimes sovereign, sometimes revolutionary. Bringing the Neva closer to the rebellious force of popular indignation, the poet uses the image of the besieged Winter Palace (“the palace seemed like a sad island” among the flood).
The Bronze Horseman on a horse is a rider who saddles the elements, controlling it with the help of an iron bridle. Horse - Neva - sovereign power - people - rebellion - all these are links in a metaphorical chain, a cascade of transfers of meaning, “semantic play”, allegorical connections, an extravaganza of semantic content. This small poem is the focus of the “super-dense substance” of meaning. Its small volume is not only the result of a great sense of artistic proportion, but also a sign of the compression of its meaning. Of course, the element of the flood is not directly identical to a popular revolt, but it has a certain artistic and modeling significance: the flood is really similar to popular indignation, and then it is directly connected and echoes with the real people standing along the banks of the Neva in anticipation of the denouement of events:
The people are witnessing God's wrath and awaiting execution.
The image of the water element plays a huge role in the poem “The Bronze Horseman”. The poet described a real flood that happened in St. Petersburg, but managed to see a deep symbolic meaning in it. In the introduction to the poem, Pushkin draws the figure of Peter I, who, with his unyielding will, managed to curb Russia like a zealous horse. The poet calls St. Petersburg the creation of Peter, because the city was built against all odds by the will of the Tsar. However, the natural elements do not obey even kings. Pushkin does not spare bright colors when describing the flood. Both the wind, which drives water back from the Gulf of Finland, and the Neva, which floods the city, appear in the poem as animated beings. The author uses the technique of personification, when nature is endowed with human qualities. The sea element seems to be angry at the people who dared to build a city in such a dangerous place. Alexander I says in the poem that kings cannot cope with God’s elements. Famous monument Peter I, the Bronze Horseman, rises above the waves. The elements cannot do anything with him.
Chapter 3. Petrine transformations in the assessment of Pushkin. Image of Evgeniy. The problem of personality and state in the poem.
Petrine transformations in the assessment of Pushkin. The Bronze Horseman has a firmly established reputation as a mysterious work, and this despite the fact that it has been studied from a variety of angles and it is probably difficult to make a new judgment about the poem or make a new observation that has not already been expressed in one form or another. The mystery of the poem is itself mysterious. There are no unclear places or dark symbols in it. It is not the individual particulars that are mysterious, but the whole, the general idea, the thought of the poet.
Highly appreciating the personality of Peter (“Strong man”, “northern giant”) and the progressiveness of his reforms (Peter introduced European enlightenment, which should have had as its inevitable consequence people’s freedom), Pushkin does not close his eyes to the shadow sides of Peter’s reforms: the disunity of the enlightened, Europeanized parts of the nobility and the people, general slavery and silent obedience (“History suddenly presents his general slavery... all states, indiscriminately fettered, were equal before him with a baton. Everything trembled, everything silently obeyed." And yet the poet is full of historical optimism. It seemed to him that the deprived political freedoms The Russian nobility will replace the third estate, which is absent in Russia, and, despite the cultural disunity with the people, will unite with them in the struggle “against the common evil”, and will be able to win, even without resorting to bloodshed. “The desire for the best unites all conditions” and “firm peaceful unanimity”, and not “a terrible shock” will destroy “inveterate slavery” in Russia and “soon place us along with the enlightened peoples of Europe.” (VIII, 125-127).
But these hopes were not destined to come true. Pushkin thought a lot about the failure of the December uprising. In his “Note on National Education,” he wrote that people who shared the way of thinking of the conspirators, “on the one hand, ... saw the insignificance of their plans and means, on the other, the immense power of the government, based on the power of things.” By “the power of things” Pushkin meant the “spirit of the people” and what was missing in Russia public opinion. (“General opinion, not yet existing”). This means that the gap between the Europeanized, enlightened part of the Russian nobility and the people who managed to “keep a beard and a Russian caftan” is not in vain, and “universal slavery”, universal silent obedience is not in vain.
Therefore, the assessment of Peter’s transformations also changes. According to Pushkin, it was Peter who managed to destroy the hereditary nobility as a social force, which played such an important role in the Moscow period of Russian history. And in place of the ancient hereditary nobility, whose main qualities were independence, courage and honor, and whose meaning was to be “powerful defenders” of the people “1a sauvegarde of the hardworking class,” came the bureaucracy. “Despotism surrounds itself with devoted mercenaries and thereby suppresses all opposition and all independence. The heredity of the highest nobility is a guarantee of this independence. The opposite is inevitably associated with tyranny, or rather, with low and flabby despotism.” Hence the conclusion: the end of the nobility in a monarchical state means slavery of the people (VIII, 147-148).
Eugene's image. Complicated image Evgenia. Evgeniy- a poor official, a representative of the capital's petty people, those urban lower classes for whom the flood is just the most terrible thing. And at the same time, the image of Eugene characteristically reflected intense historical and political reflections Pushkin on the topic of the Russian nobility, which found a place in his numerous notes, plans, sketches, and finally, in a number of works of the thirties. Eugene, like the poet himself, comes from that feudal “ancient nobility”, which, as a result of Peter’s centralizing state policy, “fell, in the words of Pushkin, into obscurity”: “impoverished”, “declined”, “formed a kind of third estate " AND poet considers it necessary to bring this to the attention of readers by introducing them to his hero:
We don't need his nickname,
Although in times gone by
Perhaps it shone,
And under the pen of Karamzin
In native legends it sounded;
But now with light and rumor
It's forgotten.
All this determines the complex historical and social generalization that stands behind Eugene’s “rebellion”, which follows immediately after lyrical digression Pushkin. It is not only the poor man of St. Petersburg who is clenching his fist against the Bronze Horseman, whose happiness and life are shattered by the choice of place for new capital, but also a “dark descendant” of a “once noble, boyar family”, an avenger for the insults of their ancestors “humiliated” and “crushed” by Peter. Eugene's "Mutiny" - the main content of his second meeting with the Bronze Horseman - is presented with even greater plastic expressiveness and force than all previous ones. At first, as during the first meeting, Eugene is behind the Bronze Horseman, who now has his back turned to him. Then, after “his thoughts became terribly clear,” Eugene walks around the monument and finds himself face to face with the Bronze Horseman. There, Eugene and the Bronze Horseman were placed next to each other, here - opposite each other. There is a comparison, here there is opposition, conflict.
Around the foot of the idol
The poor madman walked around
And brought wild glances
The face of the ruler of half the world.
His chest felt tight.
The forehead lay against the cold grate,
My eyes became foggy,
A fire ran through my heart,
Blood boiled.
He became gloomy
Before the proud idol
And, clenching my teeth, clenching my fingers,
As if possessed by black power,
“Welcome, miraculous builder!
He whispered, trembling angrily, “Too bad for you!”
The word “uzho” is very expressive both in its stylistic, purely colloquial coloring, and in its semantics (it means “later”, “later” and at the same time is often used as a threat of revenge or punishment).
And Eugene’s “Wow!..” contains extremely significant historical and political content. His character can be judged by the following. The symbolism of horse and rider: the people and the tsar has long been established, found already in Russian journalism of the 16th century (see Krylov’s fable “Horse and Rider”, first published in 1816 and placed in first place in the 1825 edition; see a similar comparison in Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” - in Basmanov’s dialogue with Boris). The same symbolism is directly expressed in Pushkin’s “Russia was raised on its hind legs.” On Falconet's monument to Peter, horse and rider are merged into one. But in Pushkin’s poem a subtle distinction is made between them: in contrast to the “proud” rider, the horse is given the epithet “proud”; about the rider it is said in the past tense: “He raised Russia...”, about the horse - in the present and future: “Where are you galloping...” and “where are you going to drop...” In this regard, the drawing of Falcoket’s monument to Peter, sketched by Pushkin in his drafts, acquires special expressiveness notebooks around the same time. In the picture there is a rock; there is a horse on it; but there is no rider on the horse.
In response to Basmanov’s words:
People are always secretly prone to confusion:
So a greyhound gnaws at its reins
Why? The horseman calmly rules the horse
Tsar Boris answers)
A horse sometimes knocks down its rider.
In Pushkin's drawing, a proud horse knocked down a proud rider. This, undoubtedly, casts a bright light on Evgeniy’s “Wow!” But Eugene’s exclamation-threat is an insight into the distant future.’ As for Eugene’s “rebellion,” it is still only a rebellion of the “private” against the “general,” and, most importantly, a rebellion in the name of only the “private.” Therefore, Eugene’s “rebellion” is a solitary rebellion, an insane and hopeless protest, not only inevitable, but also legally doomed to failure. And all this is also expressed with extraordinary plasticity, in the bright and lively artistic images of “The Bronze Horseman” - a harmonious echo of the beginning of the poem with its end.
The problem of personality and state in the poem. If we accept the term “masterpieces of Pushkin’s creativity,” then the poem “The Bronze Horseman” undoubtedly belongs to their number. Historical, philosophical, lyrical motifs merged into a single artistic alloy. And the “St. Petersburg story,” as Pushkin defined it by genre, acquired those features of scale that make it possible to classify “The Bronze Horseman” as an “eternal,” priceless monument of poetry that has not been fully solved.
At the center of the poem is the personality of Peter I, the great transformer, whose activities constantly interested the poet, because Peter’s era is one of the major turns in the history of Russia.
The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is Pushkin’s grandiose philosophical reflection on the progressive course of history. The introduction is compositionally contrasted with two parts in which the plot of the “St. Petersburg story” unfolds. It gives a majestic image of Peter the reformer, carrying out the great national work that many generations have dreamed of - the strengthening of the Russian state on the shores of the Baltic Sea:
From here we will threaten the Swede,
The city will be founded here
To spite an arrogant neighbor
Nature destined us here
Open a window to Europe...
Peter appears here both as the conqueror of nature itself, its elements, and as the embodiment of the victory of culture and civilization over the savagery and backwardness that for centuries reigned “on the shores of desert waves” before him.
Pushkin composed a poetic hymn to the mighty power of the mind, will and creative work of a person capable of such a miracle as the construction of a great and beautiful city from the “darkness of forests” and “topi blat”, a symbol of a new, transformed Russia.
This is an example of a man who, it seemed, could predict the turn in the course of history and turn Russia into its new direction, could, it turns out, become the “master of fate” not only of his own, but of all of Russia:
O mighty lord of fate!
Aren't you above the abyss?
At a height, in the grip of an iron...
Raised Russia on its hind legs?
Yes, Peter raised Russia on its hind legs, but also on the rack at the same time. Autocrat and tyrant. A man of power, corrupted by this power, using it for great and low. A great man who demeans other people. Herzen wrote: “Peter I is the most complete type of the era or the executioner genius called to life, for whom the state was everything and the person was nothing, he began our hard labor of history, which lasted a century and a half and achieved colossal results.” These words can be used as an epigraph to The Bronze Horseman.
...A hundred years pass, Peter’s brilliant plan has been realized. The appearance of St. Petersburg - “Peter's creation” - Pushkin paints with a feeling of pride and admiration. The lyrical part of the introduction ends with a hymn to Peter and his cause, the inviolability of which is the guarantee of the dignity and greatness of Russia renewed by him:
Show off, city Petrov, and stand
Unshakable, like Russia.
But the sublime pathos of the introduction gives way to the sad story of the subsequent chapters. What did Peter's reforms lead to? Has it become better for an ordinary, poor person? Pushkin tells the life story of a poor official Evgeniy, who is tenderly in love with Parasha.
Eugene’s dreams of family happiness and personal independence are quite legitimate, but, alas, they are not destined to come true. The spontaneous disturbance of nature, opposed to the reasonable will of Peter, brings death to both Parasha and all the poor people.
Pushkin transfers the clash between the elements and the rational activity of Peter to the social and philosophical plane. Eugene is no longer opposed by Peter the reformer, but by the autocratic order that is personified in the bronze statue (“an idol on a bronze horse”). Eugene feels the power of Peter’s despotism, which appeared to him in the image of the Bronze Horseman, a “proud idol.” And he bravely challenges him: “Already you! ..." But the rebellion of a desperate loner is meaningless. Having barely challenged his idol, Evgeniy, horrified by his own audacity, runs away. Broken, crushed, he ends his days pitifully.
But what about the proud horseman, “the ruler of half the world”? All the tension, the whole climax of the poem is eerie, mystical picture, which followed Eugene’s call.
He runs and hears behind him
It's like thunder
Heavy ringing galloping
Along the shaken pavement.
And, illuminated by the pale moon,
Stretching out your hand on high,
The Bronze Horseman rushes after him
On a loud galloping horse.
It turns out that the pitiful cry of the poor madman was enough for the proud idol to lose peace and begin to pursue his victim with satanic zeal.
The poem can be assessed in different ways. Many saw it as a celebration of strong state power, which has the right to neglect the fate of an individual for the sake of the common good. But there is something else in Pushkin’s poem - a hymn to humanism, sympathy for the “little man” who rebelled against the “fatal will.”
The will of Peter, the inconsistency of his actions, is the point of symbolic conjugation of all the plot components of the story about the poor St. Petersburg official - natural, fantastic, historical, mysteriously connected with the fate of post-Petrine Russia.
The greatness of Peter, the progressiveness of his actions turn into the death of a poor man who has the right to happiness. The conflict between the state and the individual is inevitable. The individual always suffers defeat when his interests come into conflict with the autocratic order. Harmony between the individual and the state cannot be achieved on the basis of an unjust social order. This idea of Pushkin is confirmed by the entire tragic history of our country.
This work revealed a problem that haunted the people of that era, the conflict of the state with each individual person. The image and characterization of Eugene in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” is central, however, in the person of the main character, the author tried to reflect the fate of many people of the “St. Petersburg” period.
Image
Evgeniy's last name is unknown. The author hints that most likely the man’s ancestors belonged to an old boyar family. The young man, despite his noble pedigree, was not rich. The meager salary of an official did not allow him to live in grand style. I didn’t have my own place to live; I had to rent a small room in one of the districts of St. Petersburg, where it was cramped for one, not to mention bringing my wife here.
Evgeniy was not endowed with any special features. A simple, ordinary person who dreams of quiet, family happiness with his beloved.
“I’ll get a place, I’ll entrust our family and the upbringing of our children to Parasha. And we’ll begin to live, and so we’ll both go hand in hand to the grave, and our grandchildren will bury us.”
Characteristic
Evgeniy is ready to work from morning to evening.\"Young and healthy, ready to work day and night...\"
He chose his beloved to match himself. Parasha is a girl from a poor family. Lives with his mother on the outskirts of the city. All dreams young man boil down to creating a family with your beloved, sharing children. However, the dreams were not destined to come true.
Risking his life, he goes by boat to a small house, hoping for a miracle. What he saw shocked him to the core. The house was not there. People close to him drowned. A terrible flood took their lives. The river covered their house with their mother with a huge wave, washing it off the face of the earth.
The tragedy affected Evgeniy’s psyche. He's going crazy.
"Alas, his confused mind could not resist the terrible shocks."
Suffering has eaten away at the soul and heart. I didn't want to go home. No one was waiting there. Evgeniy wandered through the deserted streets, spending the night wherever he had to, eating whatever he could find.
Lonely, unhappy man.
\"And so he dragged out his miserable life, neither beast nor man. Neither this nor that, neither an inhabitant of the world, nor a dead ghost...\"
Staggering aimlessly along the city streets, a man goes out to Senate Square. A monument to Peter I was erected here. At this moment, a feeling of hatred awakens in Evgeniy. It was as if he had seen the light. My head became clear and my thoughts sound.
\"Eugene shuddered. His thoughts became terribly clear...\"
The words addressed to the emperor were full of abuse. It was a real riot. He burned with a thirst for retribution. The imagination ran wild. It seems to him that Peter is dissatisfied with his tirade. He is furious that a small, insignificant person dared to say such things. Eugene's consciousness revives Peter. The Bronze Horseman comes down from his pedestal. The horse is ready to trample the insolent hooves. Evgeniy runs away from his pursuer in fear.
Soon after these events, Evgeniy’s body was found near Parasha’s house, washed ashore by a wave.
The confrontation between a formidable ruler and a person with a heart, capable of loving and worrying is, albeit an absurd attempt to change the situation, but it was, is and will be the best way out than servility and resignation to one’s pitiful fate.
Poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin is one of the most perfect creations of the poet. In its style it resembles “Eugene Onegin”, and in its content it is close to both history and mythology. This work reflects the thoughts of A.S. Pushkin about Peter the Great and absorbed various opinions about the reformer.
The poem became the final work written during the Boldino autumn. At the end of 1833, “The Bronze Horseman” was completed.
At the time of Pushkin, there were two types of people - some idolized Peter the Great, while others attributed to him a relationship with Satan. On this basis, myths were born: in the first case, the reformer was called the Father of the Fatherland, they talked about an unprecedented mind, the creation of a paradise city (Petersburg), in the second, they prophesied the collapse of the city on the Neva, accused Peter the Great of having connections with dark forces, and called him the Antichrist.
The essence of the poem
The poem begins with a description of St. Petersburg, A.S. Pushkin emphasizes the uniqueness of the place for construction. Evgeniy lives in the city - the most ordinary employee, poor, does not want to get rich, it is more important for him to remain an honest and happy family man. Financial well-being required only to provide for his beloved Parasha. The hero dreams of marriage and children, dreams of meeting old age hand in hand with his beloved girl. But his dreams are not destined to come true. The work describes the flood of 1824. A terrible time, when people died in layers of water, when the Neva raged and swallowed the city with its waves. It is in such a flood that Parasha dies. Evgeny, on the other hand, shows courage during a disaster, does not think about himself, tries to see his beloved’s house in the distance and runs to it. When the storm subsides, the hero hurries to the familiar gate: there is a willow tree, but there is no gate and no house either. This picture broke the young man; he drags doomedly along the streets of the northern capital, leads the life of a wanderer and every day relives the events of that fateful night. During one of these cloudings, he comes across the house in which he used to live and sees a statue of Peter the Great on a horse - the Bronze Horseman. He hates the reformer because he built a city on the water that killed his beloved. But suddenly the rider comes to life and angrily rushes towards the offender. The tramp will later die.
In the poem, the interests of the state and ordinary person. On the one hand, Petrograd was called the northern Rome, on the other, its foundation on the Neva was dangerous for its inhabitants, and the flood of 1824 confirms this. Eugene’s malicious speeches addressed to the reformer ruler are interpreted in different ways: the first is a rebellion against the autocracy; the second is the revolt of Christianity against paganism; the third is the pitiful murmur of a small person, whose opinion is not compared with the force necessary for changes on a national scale (that is, in order to achieve grandiose goals, something always has to be sacrificed, and the mechanism of collective will will not be stopped by the misfortune of one person).
Genre, verse meter and composition
The genre of The Bronze Horseman is a poem written, like Eugene Onegin, in iambic tetrameter. The composition is quite strange. Has an excessively large introduction, which can generally be considered as a separate independent work. Next are 2 parts, which tell about the main character, the flood and the clash with the Bronze Horseman. There is no epilogue in the poem, or rather, it is not highlighted separately by the poet himself - the last 18 lines are about the island at the seaside and the death of Eugene.
Despite the non-standard structure, the work is perceived as integral. This effect create compositional parallelisms. Peter the Great lived 100 years earlier than the main character, but this does not prevent him from creating the feeling of the presence of a reformer ruler. His personality is expressed through the Bronze Horseman monument; but the person of Peter himself appears at the beginning of the poem, in the introduction, when the military and economic significance of St. Petersburg is discussed. A.S. Pushkin also carries the idea of the immortality of the reformer, since even after his death, innovations appeared and the old ones had power for a long time, that is, he launched that heavy and clumsy machine of change in Russia.
So, the figure of the ruler appears throughout the entire poem, either in his own person or in the form of a monument; he is revived by Eugene’s clouded mind. The time interval of the narrative between the introduction and the first part is 100 years, but, despite such a sharp jump, the reader does not feel it, since A.S. Pushkin connected the events of 1824 with the so-called “culprit” of the flood, because it was Peter who built the city on the Neva. It is interesting to note that this book on composition is completely uncharacteristic of Pushkin’s style; it is an experiment.
Characteristics of the main characters
- Evgeniy – we know little about him; lived in Kolomna, served there. He was poor, but had no addiction to money. Despite the complete ordinariness of the hero, and he could easily get lost among thousands of the same gray residents of St. Petersburg, he has a high and bright dream that fully meets the ideals of many people - marrying the girl he loves. He – as Pushkin himself liked to call his characters – “hero French novel" But his dreams are not destined to come true, Parasha dies in the flood of 1824, and Evgeniy goes crazy. The poet painted for us a weak and insignificant young man, whose face is instantly lost against the background of the figure of Peter the Great, but even this everyman has his own goal, which in strength and nobility is commensurate with or even surpasses the personality of the Bronze Horseman.
- Peter the Great - in the introduction his figure is presented as a portrait of the Creator; Pushkin recognizes an incredible mind in the ruler, but emphasizes despotism. First, the poet shows that although the emperor is higher than Eugene, he is not higher than God and the elements, which are not subject to him, but the power of Russia will pass through all adversity and remain unharmed and unshakable. The author noted more than once that the reformer was too autocratic and did not pay attention to troubles ordinary people who became victims of his global transformations. Probably, opinions on this topic will always differ: on the one hand, tyranny is a bad quality that a ruler should not have, but on the other hand, would such extensive changes be possible if Peter had been softer? Everyone answers this question for themselves.
Subjects
The clash between power and the common man - main topic poem "The Bronze Horseman". In this work A.S. Pushkin reflects on the role of the individual in the fate of the entire state.
The Bronze Horseman personifies Peter the Great, whose reign was close to despotism and tyranny. With his hand, reforms were introduced that completely changed the course of ordinary Russian life. But when a forest is cut down, chips inevitably fly. Can a little man find his happiness when such a lumberjack does not take into account his interests? The poem answers - no. A clash of interests between the authorities and people in this case is inevitable; of course, the latter remain the losers. A.S. Pushkin reflects on the structure of the state in Peter's times and on the fate of an individual hero in it - Eugene, coming to the conclusion that the empire is cruel to people in any case, and whether its greatness is worth such sacrifices is an open question.
The creator also addresses the theme of tragic loss loved one. Evgeny cannot stand the loneliness and grief of loss and does not find anything to cling to in life if there is no love.
Issues
- In the poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin raises the problem of the individual and the state. Evgeniy comes from the people. He is an ordinary petty official, living from hand to mouth. His soul is full high feelings to Parasha, with whom he dreams of marrying. The monument to the Bronze Horseman becomes the face of the state. In the oblivion of reason, a young man comes across the house in which he lived before the death of his beloved and before his madness. His gaze stumbles upon the monument, and his sick mind brings the statue to life. Here it is, the inevitable clash between the individual and the state. But the horseman angrily chases after Evgeniy, pursues him. How dare the hero grumble against the emperor?! The reformer thought on a larger scale, considering plans for the future in a full-length dimension, as if from a bird's eye view he looked at his creations, without peering at the people who were overwhelmed by his innovations. The people sometimes suffered from Peter’s decisions, just as they sometimes suffer now from ruling hand. The monarch built a beautiful city, which during the flood of 1824 became a cemetery for many residents. But he does not take into account the opinions of ordinary people; one gets the feeling that with his thoughts he went far ahead of his time, and even after a hundred years not everyone was able to comprehend his plan. Thus, the individual is in no way protected from the arbitrariness of superiors; her rights are grossly violated and with impunity.
- The problem of loneliness also bothered the author. The hero could not bear a day of life without his other half. Pushkin reflects on how vulnerable and vulnerable we still are, how the mind is not strong and subject to suffering.
- The problem of indifference. No one helped the townspeople evacuate, no one corrected the consequences of the storm, and compensation for the families of the victims and social support for the victims were not even dreamed of by officials. The state apparatus showed surprising indifference to the fate of its subjects.
The State in the Image of the Bronze Horseman
For the first time we encounter the image of Peter the Great in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” in the introduction. Here the ruler is depicted as the Creator, who conquered the elements and built a city on the water.
The emperor's reforms were disastrous for the ordinary people, since they were aimed only at the nobility. Yes, and she had a hard time: let us remember how Peter forcibly cut the beards of the boyars. But the main victim of the monarch’s ambitions was ordinary working people: it was they who paved the way for the northern capital with hundreds of lives. A city on bones - here it is - the personification of the state machine. It was comfortable for Peter himself and his entourage to live in the innovations, because they saw only one side of the new things - progressive and beneficial, and the fact that the destructive effects and “side effects” of these changes fell on the shoulders of “little” people did not bother anyone. The elite looked at St. Petersburg drowning in the Neva from “high balconies” and did not feel all the sorrows of the city’s watery foundation. Peter perfectly reflects the categorical absolutist state system– there will be reforms, but the people will “live somehow.”
If at first we see the Creator, then closer to the middle of the poem the poet propagates the idea that Peter the Great is not God and it is completely beyond his power to cope with the elements. At the end of the work, we see only a stone likeness of the former, sensational ruler in Russia. Years later, the Bronze Horseman became only a reason for unreasonable worry and fear, but this is only a fleeting feeling of a madman.
What is the meaning of the poem?
Pushkin created a multifaceted and ambiguous work, which must be assessed from the point of view of ideological and thematic content. The meaning of the poem “The Bronze Horseman” lies in the confrontation between Eugene and the Bronze Horseman, the individual and the state, which criticism deciphers in different ways. So, the first meaning is the confrontation between paganism and Christianity. Peter was often awarded the title of Antichrist, and Eugene opposes such thoughts. One more thought: the hero is an everyman, and the reformer is a genius, they live in different worlds and don't understand each other. The author, however, recognizes that both types are needed for the harmonious existence of civilization. The third meaning is that the main character personified the rebellion against autocracy and despotism, which the poet propagated, because he belonged to the Decembrists. He allegorically retold the same helplessness of the uprising in the poem. And another interpretation of the idea is a pathetic and doomed to failure attempt by a “little” man to change and turn the course of the state machine in the other direction.
Composition
According to the tradition that has developed since ancient times, a poem is a work of a narrative or lyrical nature. If at first she appeared rather historical work, then from a certain moment the poems began to acquire a romantic overtones (which was associated with the tradition of the medieval chivalric romance), and even later - personal, moral and philosophical issues came to the fore, and lyrical and dramatic moments intensified. Along with this, the poem begins to show central characters(or one character, which was typical for the works of romantic writers) as independent individuals, and not just vague figures snatched from the historical stream.
The hero of the poem "The Bronze Horseman" Eugene is a product of the "St. Petersburg" period of Russian history. This is a “little” man, whose meaning of life lies in finding bourgeois happiness: good place, family, home, well-being.
...I'm young and healthy,
Ready to work day and night;
I’ll arrange something for myself
Shelter humble and simple
And in it I will calm Parasha.
And it is precisely the limitation of Evgeny’s existence to a close circle of family concerns, his lack of involvement in his own past (after all, he
Lives in Kolomna and doesn’t bother
Not about deceased relatives,
Not about forgotten antiquities)
are traits unacceptable to Pushkin in Evgeniy, and it is they who make him a “little” person. Pushkin deliberately refuses detailed characteristics Evgeniy, he even deprives him of his last name, emphasizing the possibility of putting anyone in its place, since the image of Evgeniy reflected the fate of many people of the “St. Petersburg” period.
In the flood scene, Eugene sits behind the Bronze Horseman, with his hands clasped in a cross (a parallel with Napoleon), but without a hat. She and the Bronze Horseman are looking in the same direction. However, Peter's gaze is directed back into the depths of centuries (he solves historical problems without caring about the fate of people), and Evgeniy looks at the house of his beloved. And in this comparison of Eugene with the bronze Peter, the main difference is revealed: Eugene has a soul and a heart, he is able to feel and worry about the fate of the person he loves. He is the antipode of the “idol on a bronze horse”, he has what the bronze Peter lacks: a heart and soul, he is capable of sadness, dreaming, torment. Thus, despite the fact that Peter is busy thinking about the fate of the country, that is, essentially in an abstract sense, improving the lives of people (including Evgeny himself as a future resident of St. Petersburg), and Evgeny is passionate about his own, purely personal, everyday interests, in the eyes of the reader it is this little person who becomes more attractive, causes live participation.
The flood, which turned into a tragedy for Eugene, makes him (a nondescript person) a Hero. He goes crazy (which undoubtedly brings his image closer to the image of the hero romantic works, because madness is a frequent attribute romantic hero), wanders through the streets of a city hostile to him, but “the rebellious noise of the Neva and the winds resounded in his ears.” It is the noise of the natural elements, combined with the “noise” in Eugene’s soul, that awakens in the madman what for Pushkin was the main sign of a person - memory; and it is the memory of the flood he experienced that brings him to Senate Square, where for the second time he meets the “idol on a bronze horse.” Through Pushkin's magnificent description we see that this was a tragically beautiful moment in the life of a poor, humble official.
Evgeny shuddered. cleared up
The thoughts in it are scary.
He understood the reason for his misfortunes, the misfortunes of the city, he recognized the culprit, “the one by whose fatal will the city was founded under the sea.” A feeling of hatred for the “ruler of half the world” and a thirst for retribution were born in him. Evgeny starts a riot. Approaching the idol, he threatens him: “To you!..”.
Eugene’s spiritual evolution gives rise to the naturalness and inevitability of protest. Eugene's transformation is artistically convincingly shown. Protest raises him to a new, high, tragic life, fraught with imminent and inevitable death. Evgeniy dares to threaten Peter with future retribution. And this threat is terrible for the autocrat, because he understands what a formidable force is hidden in a protesting person who has started a rebellion.
At the moment when Eugene “sees the light,” he becomes a Man in his generic essence (it should be noted that the hero in this passage is never called Eugene, which makes him to some extent faceless, like everyone, one of everyone). We see the confrontation between the “formidable king,” the personification of autocratic power, and a Man with a heart and endowed with memory. In the whisper of a Man who has regained his sight one can hear a threat and a promise of retribution, for which the revived statue, “instantly burning with anger,” punishes the “poor madman.” At the same time, it is clear that this is an isolated protest, and, moreover, uttered in a “whisper.” The definition of Eugene as a madman is also symbolic. Madness, according to Pushkin, is an unequal dispute. The action of a loner against the powerful power of the autocracy is insane, from the point of view of common sense. But this is “holy” madness, since silent humility is disastrous. Only protest will save a person from moral ruin in conditions of violence.
Pushkin, it seems to us, emphasizes that, despite the conventionality and tragicomic nature of the situation (Eugene, a little man who has nothing, and at the same time has gone crazy, dares to “challenge”, threaten the sovereign - and not the real one, but the bronze one his monument), action, resistance, an attempt to raise a voice, to be indignant has always been and will be a better way out than submission to cruel fate.