1. Folklore as a source mystical images in the work of Gogol.
2. Evil spirits in collections of short stories.
3. Mysticism in the story "Portrait".
In dictionaries, you can find several definitions of the concept of "mysticism", but they all agree that this word means beliefs in a different reality inhabited by supernatural beings, as well as the opportunity to communicate with them people. folklore tradition different peoples preserved stories about various creatures of the other world, both kind and bright, benevolent towards people, and evil, hostile to God and people.
In the works of N.V. Gogol, mainly malevolent entities penetrate into the world of people, and their accomplices also act - evil sorcerers and witches. Only occasionally do people meet benevolent creatures from another world. And yet, in the works of the writer, there are much more evil people from another world than good ones. It is possible that such a “distribution of forces” reflected the wary attitude of people towards mysterious world, contact with which can lead to unpredictable consequences.
In the collection "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" mystical motives sound in almost all stories, with the exception of one - "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt." In other stories, the degree of contact between people and the other world is different. In the story " Sorochinskaya Fair» The story of the mysterious red scroll can still be considered a joke, successfully picked up by a young man in love. But the superstitious Cossack Solopy Cherevik has no doubt that the ill-fated red sleeve, on which he now and then stumbles, is nothing but a sleeve from a chopped-up scroll of the devil! However, in this story, it is not the evil spirit itself that acts, but the human belief in its existence, and this “shadow” of evil spirits brings much more benefit than harm. Solopy hesitated, shook himself, but everything turned out well, his daughter and the Cossack Gritsko received Cherevik's consent to the marriage, and he himself successfully sold the goods brought to the fair.
A meeting with a mermaid, a lady who drowned herself because of the harassment of her stepmother, a witch, unexpectedly changes the life of the lad Levko and his beloved Hanna. Mermaid generously rewards young man for helping her find her stepmother. Thanks to the power of the drowned woman, Levko and Hanna finally become husband and wife despite the objections of the young man's father.
In the stories "The Missing Letter", "The Night Before Christmas", "The Enchanted Place" evil spirits are very active and unfriendly towards people. However, she is not so powerful that she cannot be defeated. We can say that the heroes of the stories "The Missing Letter" and "The Enchanted Place" got off lightly. The evil spirits played a joke on them, but they also let them go in peace, each remained with his own. And in the story "The Night Before Christmas", the meeting with the devil for the blacksmith Vakula turned out to be even useful - intimidating the devil, the blacksmith used him as vehicle and fulfilled the order of his capricious lover, brought her the Tsar Tsyn's little boots.
But in the stories "Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" and " Terrible revenge", as well as in the story "Viy", included in another collection, "Mirgorod", evil spirits and their assistants - evil sorcerers are truly terrible. No, not even evil spirits are the worst of all, with the possible exception of the terrible Viy. Much scarier people: the sorcerer Basavryuk and the sorcerer from the story "Terrible Revenge", who killed all his loved ones. And the sinister Viy appears for a reason.
He comes to the witch's body to destroy the person who killed her.
“The devil is not so terrible as he is painted,” says common expression. Indeed, one can agree that in the works of Gogol, evil spirits often do not turn out to be so terrible, if the person himself is not afraid of it. Sometimes she even looks quite comical (remember the devil, planted in a bag by the witch Solokha and beaten by her son Vakula). much scarier and more dangerous man which contributes to the penetration of evil into our world ...
Mystical motifs are also heard in the story "Portrait", included in the collection " Petersburg stories". However, in it they acquire an even deeper philosophical meaning. Talented artist unwittingly becomes the culprit of the fact that evil penetrates into the souls of people. The eyes of the usurer, whose portrait he painted, have an ominous effect on people. However, the artist did not have bad intentions, like those sorcerers who, of their own free will, helped evil spirits to act outrageously. Realizing what he has done, this person feels deep remorse. And the work itself was not a joy to him - he felt something mysterious and terrible in a man who at all costs wanted to be captured on the canvas: “He threw himself at his feet and begged to finish the portrait, saying that from this depends on his fate and existence in the world, that he has already touched his living features with his brush, that if he conveys them correctly, his life will be retained by supernatural power in the portrait, that he will not die completely through that, that he needs to be present in the world. My father was horrified by such words…”.
How can one not remember the terrible, deadly look of Viy! Who, really, was this usurer? Gogol does not give a direct answer to this question. The artist who painted the portrait and became a monk in repentance speaks of this to his son: “To this day I cannot understand what he was. strange image from which I wrote the image. It was, for sure, some kind of diabolical phenomenon ... I wrote it with disgust ... ". Yes, the eyes of the usurer depicted in the portrait became a kind of door through which evil entered the world of people: and the artist, who imprudently allowed these doors to remain open, asks his son, if the opportunity arises, to destroy the ominous image, to block the path of evil obsession, crippling human souls and fate. However, evil, having penetrated into the world of people, does not want to leave it: a strange portrait suddenly disappears from the hall where the auction is held, and the son is deprived of the opportunity to fulfill the will of his father. What other troubles will the ominous look do? ..
So, we can summarize all of the above. Gogol's interest in mysticism is undeniable: the writer has repeatedly developed plots in which a significant place is given to evil spirits and her assistants. Gogol also showed various results from the collision of a person with supernatural powers- from a completely harmless joke to terrible tragedy, while emphasizing the role of the human factor in the activities of people from another world.
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fifteenth century
The first literary works that contained elements of the terrible and mystical appeared as early as the 15th century. These include old Russian story « legend about Dracula warlord ”, which was released in the 80s of this century. As notedYa. S. Lurie: legend about Dracula-vampire infiltrated Western Europe not directly from Romania, but through the Old Russian "Tale of Dracula» (80s of the XV century)
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“There was a governor in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, but in our opinion it is the Devil. He was so cruel and wise that, what is his name, such was his life.
"The Tale of Dracula Governor"
Now the genre of literature associated with mysticism is called horror.
nineteenth century
Anthony Pogorelsky « Lafertovskaya poppy plant”Written in 1825 was quite original. It was based on folk beliefs about the connections of people with otherworldly forces that give wealth and power, but lead to the death of a person. However, to demonological beliefs author is ironic.
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A. Pogorelsky, "Lafertovskaya Makovnitsa".
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Of no small importance in the development of the genre was the collection of works Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol « Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka”, published in the autumn of 1831. Of the works included in the book, the work " May night, or drowned woman».
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In 1835 the second book by the same author was published. Mirgorod", a special place in which the story deserves" Viy", which has been more than once filmed, including the basis of the film by the Italian film director Mario Bava « Satan's mask» 1960.
N.V. Gogol "Viy"
"Undertaker"
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A.S. Pushkin "The Undertaker
IN 1841 gothic story is published as a separate book Ghoul» Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. The story introduced into Russian literature the image vampire.
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- Yes, she definitely was Sugrobina a few years ago, but now she is nothing but the most vile ghoul, who is only waiting for an opportunity to get enough of human blood. See how she looks at this poor girl; This is her own granddaughter. Listen to what the old woman says: she praises her and persuades her to come for two weeks to her dacha, to the very dacha you are talking about; but I assure you that it won't be three days before the poor thing dies. Doctors will say it is fever or inflammation in the lungs; but you don't believe them!
A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul"
« Ghoul family
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A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul Family"
"Ghosts"
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I.S. Turgenev "Ghosts"
Normative poetics socialist realism excluded the supernatural from the arsenal of literary means, and the first violations of this prohibition date back to the 60s, when the canon began to erode. At the same time, it was first published Master and Margarita» Mikhail Bulgakov. Individual samples"terrible" are found in Soviet science fiction.
"Master and Margarita"
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Ivan was so struck by the behavior of the cat that he froze motionless at the grocery store on the corner and here for the second time, but much more strongly, was struck by the behavior of the conductor. She, as soon as she saw a cat climbing into a tram, shouted with anger, from which she even trembled:
–
Neither the conductor nor the passengers were struck by the very essence of the matter: not that the cat climbs into the tram, which would be half the trouble, but that he was going to pay!
Conclusion
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The first literary works that contained elements of the terrible and mystical appeared as early as the 15th century. These include the old Russian story "The Tale of Dracula", which was published in the 80s of this century.
"The Tale of Dracula Governor"
“There was a governor in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, but in our opinion it is the Devil. He was so cruel and wise that, what is his name, such was his life."The Tale of Dracula Governor"
In literature, the genre is associated with the supernatural in literally words; has a limited set of themed characters, borrowed, as a rule, from the grassroots mythology of different peoples: vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, demons, etc.
Anthony Pogorelsky
The first science fiction story in Russian literature
A.Pogorelsky
"Lafertovskaya
poppy seed" was written in 1825.
- Father! it’s grandma’s black cat,” answered Masha, forgetting herself and pointing to the guest, who in a strange way turned his head and looked at her touchingly, almost completely closing his eyes.
- You've gone crazy! cried Onufrich with annoyance. - What cat? This is Mr. titular adviser Aristarkh Faleleich Murlykin, who does you the honor and asks for your hand.
A. Pogorelsky, "Lafertovskaya poppy plant".
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Of no small importance in the development of the genre was the collection of works by N.V. Gogol “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, published in the fall of 1831. Of the works included in the book, the work "May Night, or the Drowned Woman" most fully reflects the horror genre.
"- Witch? The old women invented that since that time all the drowned women went out into moonlit night in the pansky garden to bask in the month; and the centurion's daughter became chief over them. One night she saw her stepmother near the pond, attacked her and dragged her screaming into the water. But the witch was found here too: she turned under water into one of the drowned women and through that she got away from the whip of green reed, with which the drowned women wanted to beat her. Trust the grandmothers! They also say that the pannochka gathers drowned women every night and looks into each one’s face one by one, trying to find out which of them is a witch; but still didn't know. »
N.V. Gogol "May night, or a drowned woman"
“Everything was visible, and one could even notice how the sorcerer, sitting in a pot, swept past them like a whirlwind; how the stars, gathered in a heap, played hide and seek; how a whole swarm of spirits swirled aside like a cloud; how the devil, dancing at the moon, took off his hat, seeing a blacksmith galloping on horseback; how a broom flying back flew, on which, apparently, a witch had just gone where she needed ... they met a lot more rubbish.
N.V. Gogol "The Night Before Christmas"
“Suddenly ... in the midst of silence ... the iron lid of the coffin burst with a crack and a dead man rose. It was even scarier than the first time. His teeth banged row upon row terribly, his lips twitched in convulsions, and, screeching wildly, spells rushed. A whirlwind rose through the church, icons fell to the ground, flew from top to bottom broken glass windows. The doors blew off their hinges, and a myriad force of monsters flew into god's church. A terrible noise from the wings and from the scratching of the claws filled the whole church. Everything flew and rushed, looking everywhere for the philosopher.
N.V. Gogol "Viy"
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
"Undertaker"- A.S. Pushkin's story from the cycle "Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin", written in 1830 and published in 1831. Reading this story, we can be convinced that mysticism was not alien to Pushkin.
“The room was full of the dead. The moon through the windows illuminated their yellow and blue faces, sunken mouths, cloudy, half-closed eyes and protruding noses... Adrian recognized with horror in them the people buried by his efforts, and in the guest who entered with him, the brigadier, who was buried during the torrential rain. All of them, ladies and men, surrounded the undertaker with bows and greetings, except for one poor man, recently buried for nothing, who, ashamed and ashamed of his rags, did not approach and stood humbly in the corner. The rest were all decently dressed: the dead in caps and ribbons, the dead officials in uniforms, but with unshaven beards, merchants in festive caftans.
A.S. Pushkin "The Undertaker
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
In 1841, the gothic story "Ghoul" by A.K. Tolstoy was published as a separate book. The story introduced the image of a vampire into Russian literature.
Yes, she was definitely Sugrobina a few years ago, but now she is nothing but the most vile ghoul, who is only waiting for an opportunity to get enough of human blood. See how she looks at this poor girl; This is her own granddaughter. Listen to what the old woman says: she praises her and persuades her to come for two weeks to her dacha, to the very dacha you are talking about; but I assure you that it won't be three days before the poor thing dies. Doctors will say it is fever or inflammation in the lungs; but you don't believe them!
A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul"
« Ghoul family"- a gothic short story by 21-year-old Count A.K. Tolstoy, written by him in 1839 on French also has a mystical character. It was first published in Russian in 1884 in the Russky Vestnik magazine. The story has a subtitle: "An unpublished excerpt from the notes of an unknown person."
- Ghouls are like an infection, - continued the hermit and crossed himself, - how many families in the village have suffered, how many have died out before last person, and you listen to me and spend the night in the monastery, otherwise, even if the ghouls do not eat you in the village, you will still suffer such fear from them that you will turn gray before I call for matins. I,” he continued, “is only a poor monk, but the travelers themselves give so much from their generosity that I can take care of them. I have excellent cheese, raisins such that looking at it - saliva will flow, and several bottles of Tokay - no worse than what the holy patriarch himself deigns to drink.
A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul Family"
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
"Ghosts"- the story of I.S. Turgenev, conceived by the writer in 1855, completed in 1863 and published in 1864.
“Yes, it was her, my night guest. As I approached her, the moon shone again. She seemed all over, as it were, woven from a translucent, milky fog - through her face I could see a branch gently swayed by the wind - only her hair and eyes were slightly blackened, and on one of the fingers of her folded hands a narrow ring shone with pale gold. I stopped in front of her and wanted to speak; but the voice died away in my chest, although I no longer felt any actual fear. Her eyes turned to me: their gaze expressed neither grief nor joy, but some kind of lifeless attention. I waited to see if she would utter a word, but she remained motionless and silent, and kept looking at me with her deathly gaze. I got scared again."
I.S. Turgenev "Ghosts"
Soviet era
The normative poetics of socialist realism excluded the supernatural from the arsenal of literary means, and the first violations of this prohibition date back to the 60s, when the canon began to erode. Separate examples of the "terrible" are found in Soviet science fiction.
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
"Master and Margarita"- a novel by M.A. Bulgakov, work on which began in the late 1920s and continued until the death of the writer. The first complete edition of the book in Russian was published in 1969.
“Ivan was so struck by the behavior of the cat that he froze motionless at the grocery store on the corner and then for the second time, but much more strongly, was struck by the behavior of the conductor. She, as soon as she saw a cat climbing into a tram, shouted with anger, from which she even trembled:
– Cats can't! Not allowed with cats! Shout! Get down, or I'll call the police!
Neither the conductor nor the passengers were struck by the very essence of the matter: not that the cat climbs into the tram, which would be half the trouble, but that he was going to pay!”
M. Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita.
Take a dip in interesting world book, on its pages you can encounter the strange, the unknown, the mystical and even terrible, but breathtaking. Discover these works, expand the list of authors and works that have interested you in mysticism.
Research work
« Mystical images in the works of Russian and foreign writers and their impact on the minds of adolescents
I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………3
II. Main part……………………………………………………………………………….4
1. What is fear?………………………………………………………………………………4
2. Mystical images in the works of Russian writers……………………………..6
3. Mystical works of modern Russian literature and foreign
writers…………………………………………………………………………………………9
III. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….12
IV. Literature………………………………………………………………………………..13
V. Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………….14
I. Introduction
Man has different emotional feelings: fear, fear, joy, sadness, fear and others, the manifestation of which often depends on the influence of external factors. These feelings are an inevitable part of our lives. Constantly changing, they accompany us throughout our lives. One of the most common and challenging the greatest interest is fear. A person tries to overcome, reduce, overpower or curb fear different ways. Some people try not to think about their fears, replacing them with manifestations of positive emotions. Others, on the contrary, seek to learn more about fear by turning to reading literature and watching movies.
Fear is emotional manifestation human feelings, which is studied in psychology for enough deep level. Mystical fears are one of the common, but little-studied types of fear. Mystical fears include the fear of the dark, the fear of being alone, the fear of non-existent monsters, aliens, the evil eye, etc.
In the history of psychology, research on "mystical" fears has usually been done with children or adolescents. In our study, we turned to the search for the relationship between the level of severity of mystical fears and the general creativity modern teenagers, as well as the level of development of their imagination.
aim our study - to determine the influence of mystical images of the works of Russian and foreign literature on teenagers.
Tasks:
· present a description of the emotion of fear according to the Russian language dictionaries ;
reveal literary means creation of mystical images in works and determine how they affect the consciousness of adolescents.
To solve the tasks, we used general scientific methods– observations, analysis, comparison, questionnaire method.
Research hypothesis: in our opinion, mystical images have a different effect on adolescents, depending on the characteristics literary work and their interests.
Object of study: mystical images from the works of Russian and foreign literature of different periods.
II. Main part
1. What is fear?
Every living being experiences fear. As Edmund Burke said, "None of the senses can deprive our brain of reason and action to the extent that fear can." But what is fear?
Fear is pure negative emotion, however, it also has some positive aspects: fear - psychological basis survival, fear is an incentive to live and die at the same time, sometimes people die from fear, and sometimes only thanks to it they are saved, fear mobilizes all physical and mental forces in order to survive. Therefore, it is extremely important to "look fear in the face", understand its impact on a person and get rid of outdated stereotypes. Referring to various kinds of dictionaries allows us to identify the semantic components of the concept of fear.
Etymological dictionary Russian language gives the following explanation of the origin of the word fear:
Fear- common Slavic, which has a correspondence in the Germanic and Baltic languages \u200b\u200b(Middle Lithuanian stregti to stiffen, stony and German strecken to pull out) Initially, fear meant numbness, stupefaction.
In this case, it can be assumed that the word fear has undergone changes in the lexical meaning over time: in modern Russian, fear means a lesser degree of fear than it used to mean, and a very strong fear is denoted by the word horror, while initially it meant very strong horror, nightmare , from which the blood runs cold, and the hair on the head stand on end.
Now let's turn to the definition of the word fear in the explanatory dictionary :
Fear- passion, fear, timidity, strong fear, anxious state of mind from fright, from a threatening or imaginary disaster.
In this definition, the word "fear" is interpreted through synonyms passion, fear, timidity, strong fear. The adjective "strong" indicates the intensity of the manifestation of emotion.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language gives the following interpretation lexical meaning fear:
Fear- very strong fear, strong fear.
IN encyclopedic dictionary « General psychology”Under the editorship, we find the following definition: “Fear is an emotion that occurs in situations of threat to the biological or social existence of an individual and is directed to a source of real or imagined danger.”
Summing up, we can say that fear is an anxious state of a person, the power of manifestation of which is associated with the level of development of the imagination.
In the course of our study, we concluded that 70% of respondents are ready to experience fear, turning to literary works in order to awaken new sensations, increase adrenaline levels and create unusual paintings own imagination.
Let's remember our parents sitting in the evening by the fire in a pioneer camp or in a dark room and telling each other the so-called " horror stories» about the Coffin on Wheels, the Black Hand or the Black Piano. How many emotions and tension they caused! But they are still alive in the memory of the older generation.
So, based on the results of our study, we proved that mystical images have a different effect on adolescents, depending on the characteristics of a literary work and their interests. Thus, the hypothesis is proven.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the popularity mystical literature only increases over the years. From mysticism came modern horror literature, a direction in cinema, cultural aesthetics. A huge number of people around the world follow fairy world mystical literature, looking for beauty in darkness and mystery.
IV.Literature
1. Golovin of a practical psychologist. - Minsk: Harvest, 1998-800s.
2. Dal dictionary of the living Great Russian language. – Ed. "ROOSSA", Tver, 2010 - 1000s.
3., Shvedova Dictionary of the Living Russian Language / Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Russian Language .- 4th ed., supplemented.-M.: Azbukovnik, 1999 - 944s.
4. Fingers, N. scary tales Stephen King. Fantasy and reality [Text] / N. Paltsev. - http://kingclub. people. en/wdove/WIN1251/terror. htm1. Bowlby, 1973. - In the book: The Izard of Man. - Moscow State University, Moscow, 1980.
5. Petrovsky lexicon. - M.: PER SE, 2005 - 250s.
6. King Stephen Danse Maccabre. – Warner Books, London, 1993.
7. Shansky etymological dictionary Russian language. Origin of words / , . - 7th ed., M.: Enlightenment, 2000, 995s.
8. Neelova modern literature on children. Access mode: www. imago. spb. ru/soulbody/articles/article8.htm.
9. Psychological courses, psychological trainings, consultations. Access mode: www. imago. spb. en/soulbody/articles/article8.htm
Application
Research results
We conducted a study, the objects of which were students in grades 9-11 of our educational institution and were given various questionnaires. Here are his results.
Questionnaire No. 1
1) Are you attracted to books (movies) that contain mystical paintings Or pictures of fear?
Yes - 73%, no - 15%, have not read yet 12%
2) Do you experience unpleasant feelings, sensations after reading?
Yes - 52%, no - 48%
Questionnaire No. 2
1. Have you been interested in reading works,?
Yes - 74%, no - 26%
2. Did you experience fear while reading these works?
Yes - 4%, no - 96%.
Questionnaire No. 3
Do you read mystical works?
4. Did you experience fear while reading these works?
Yes - 68%, no -32%.
What feelings and sensations do you experience after reading these works? (See page 11.) Would you like to read these works again?
Yes - 54%, no - 46%.
7. What do you think is the influence of the mystical genre
for teenagers?
Positive - 66%, negative - 25%, difficult to answer - 9%.
World fiction in the general educational process has one of the central places and is the basis for the formation of a person as a person. And mysticism, as one of the realities of the surrounding world, was actively used by the classics of world literature for their work.
Mysticism in the work of Zhukovsky
V. A. Zhukovsky, with his inherent talent, brought an epic beginning to his ballads "Svetlana" and "Forest King" with the help of mysticism. In the ballad "Svetlana", describing the experiences of the heroine through the prism of mysticism, using a dream, as artistic technique, the poet very figuratively leads the reader to the understanding that only faith in God can protect a person from mystical manifestations.
The hero of the ballad "The Forest King", being under the influence of the mystical power of nature, dies from his own fears, which encourages the reader to fight his inner enemy - his fear, and overcoming himself in this struggle, a person finds himself.
Mysticism in Pushkin
Perfectly used mystical images to display his inner world A. S. Pushkin in the poem "Demons". His thoughts about the upcoming marriage, about the cholera that threatens his bride, and about the passion that torments him about this, the poet whimsically fused in "Demons".
Genre diversity of mystical literature
The fact that mysticism and reality are closely intertwined in our world, N.V. Gogol spoke with a peculiar sense of humor in his story "The Night Before Christmas". The very fact of the agreement between the devil and the blacksmith Vakula speaks of the fearlessness of the people, and that the existence of the other world does not scare a person much in the pursuit of happiness.
It is often difficult for a person to determine what is true in his life and what is false. Heroes of the philosophical play-fairy tale by M. Maeterlinck " Blue bird"- these are images-symbols that embody the forces dominating the earth. Tiltil and Mitil, with the help of a magical mystical stone, were able to see the objects and phenomena of life in their true light.
In search of the Blue Bird, which represents happiness, in order to bring it to earth, they needed to know this world. Performing this task, they understand that this world and the souls that inhabit it are inside the people themselves.
Inspiring in a play surrounding a person world, Maeterlinck shows that people need to wake up, look around and discover the incomparable beauty of the world, to know the value human love and kindness, understanding the need to live in peace with their neighbors on earth, imbued with a desire to know the world without exposing it to destruction.
The origins of the mystical in literature can also be traced back to P. Merimee in the Venus of Ill, a short story attributed by critics to mystical romanticism.
P. Merime used as an epigraph: “May the statue be merciful and supportive,” I exclaimed, “being so courageous!” lines from the work of the ancient Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata (125 - c. 180), from chapter 17 of his dialogue "A lover of lies, or Nevers." Undoubtedly, which served as the primary source, for P. Merimee and semantic load his works.
About the hero's attempts to overcome the influence of the mystical Guy de Maupassant in his story "The Eagle" he said about the hero's efforts: "A man feels next to him some kind of secret, inaccessible to his coarse and imperfect feelings, and tries to compensate for their impotence with the tension of the mind."
1. Folklore as a source of mystical images in Gogol's work.
2. Evil spirits in collections of short stories.
3. Mysticism in the story "Portrait".
In dictionaries, you can find several definitions of the concept of "mysticism", but they all agree that this word means beliefs in a different reality inhabited by supernatural beings, as well as in the possibility of people communicating with them. The folklore tradition of different peoples has preserved stories about various creatures of the other world, both good and bright, benevolent towards people, and evil, hostile to God and people.
In the works of N.V. Gogol, mainly malevolent entities penetrate into the world of people, and their accomplices also act - evil sorcerers and witches. Only occasionally do people meet benevolent creatures from another world. And yet, in the works of the writer, there are much more evil people from another world than good ones. It is possible that such a "distribution of forces" reflected the wary attitude of people towards the mysterious world, contact with which can lead to unpredictable consequences.
In the collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, mystical motifs are heard in almost all stories, with the exception of one - Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt. In other stories, the degree of contact between people and the other world is different. In the story “Sorochinsky Fair”, the story about the mysterious red scroll can still be considered a joke, successfully picked up by a young man in love. But the superstitious Cossack Solopy Cherevik has no doubt that the ill-fated red sleeve, on which he now and then stumbles, is nothing but a sleeve from a chopped-up scroll of the devil! However, in this story, it is not the evil spirit itself that acts, but the human belief in its existence, and this “shadow” of evil spirits brings much more benefit than harm. Solopy hesitated, shook himself, but everything turned out well, his daughter and the Cossack Gritsko received Cherevik's consent to the marriage, and he himself successfully sold the goods brought to the fair.
A meeting with a mermaid, a lady who drowned herself because of the harassment of her stepmother, a witch, unexpectedly changes the life of the lad Levko and his beloved Hanna. The mermaid generously rewards the young man for helping her find her stepmother. Thanks to the power of the drowned woman, Levko and Hanna finally become husband and wife despite the objections of the young man's father.
In the stories "The Missing Letter", "The Night Before Christmas", "The Enchanted Place" evil spirits are very active and unfriendly towards people. However, she is not so powerful that she cannot be defeated. We can say that the heroes of the stories "The Missing Letter" and "The Enchanted Place" got off lightly. The evil spirits played a joke on them, but they also let them go in peace, each remained with his own. And in the story “The Night Before Christmas”, the meeting with the devil for the blacksmith Vakula turned out to be even useful - having frightened the devil, the blacksmith used him as a vehicle and fulfilled the order of his capricious lover, brought her Tsarina-tsyna cherevichki.
But in the stories "Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" and "Terrible Revenge", as well as in the story "Viy", included in another collection, "Mirgorod", evil spirits and their assistants - evil sorcerers are truly terrible. No, not even evil spirits are the worst of all, with the possible exception of the terrible Viy. People are much more terrible: the sorcerer Basavryuk and the sorcerer from the story "Terrible Revenge", who killed all his loved ones. And the sinister Viy appears for a reason.
He comes to the witch's body to destroy the person who killed her.
“The devil is not as scary as he is painted,” says the common expression. Indeed, one can agree that in the works of Gogol, evil spirits often do not turn out to be so terrible, if the person himself is not afraid of it. Sometimes she even looks quite comical (remember the devil, planted in a bag by the witch Solokha and beaten by her son Vakula). Much scarier and more dangerous is a person who contributes to the penetration of evil into our world...
Mystical motifs are also heard in the story "Portrait", included in the collection "Petersburg Tales". However, in it they acquire an even deeper philosophical meaning. A talented artist unwittingly becomes the culprit of the fact that evil penetrates into the souls of people. The eyes of the usurer, whose portrait he painted, have an ominous effect on people. However, the artist did not have bad intentions, like those sorcerers who, of their own free will, helped evil spirits to act outrageously. Realizing what he has done, this person feels deep remorse. And the work itself was not a joy to him - he felt something mysterious and terrible in a man who at all costs wanted to be captured on the canvas: “He threw himself at his feet and begged to finish the portrait, saying that from this depends on his fate and existence in the world, that he has already touched his living features with his brush, that if he conveys them correctly, his life will be retained by supernatural power in the portrait, that he will not die completely through that, that he needs to be present in the world. My father was horrified by such words…”.
How can one not remember the terrible, deadly look of Viy! Who, really, was this usurer? Gogol does not give a direct answer to this question. The artist, who painted the portrait and became a monk in repentance, tells his son about it this way: “To this day I cannot understand that there was that strange image from which I painted the image. It was, for sure, some kind of diabolical phenomenon ... I wrote it with disgust ... ". Yes, the eyes of the usurer depicted in the portrait became a kind of door through which evil entered the world of people: and the artist, who imprudently allowed these doors to remain open, asks his son, if the opportunity arises, to destroy the ominous image, block the path to the evil delusion that cripples human souls and fate. However, evil, having penetrated into the world of people, does not want to leave it: a strange portrait suddenly disappears from the hall where the auction is held, and the son is deprived of the opportunity to fulfill the will of his father. What other troubles will the ominous look do? ..
So, we can summarize all of the above. Gogol's interest in mysticism is undeniable: the writer has repeatedly developed plots in which a significant place is given to evil spirits and their assistants. Gogol also showed various results from a human encounter with supernatural forces - from a completely harmless joke to a terrible tragedy, while emphasizing the role of the human factor in the activities of people from another world.
