GBOU gymnasium No. 505
Krasnoselsky district
Research
« Mysticism in the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Completed by: Medova Kristina Olegovna
Head: Kryukova Tatyana Viktorovna
2016
Goals and objectives
Goals:
Find out if mysticism is really present in the works of N.V. Gogol?
Tasks
Get acquainted with the biography of the writer, with the works of the writer;
To trace the history of the emergence of mystical motives in the work of N.V. Gogol
To see the role of mystical motives in the writer's work
Plan
Path N.V. Gogol in literature
Folk fiction in "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka".
Introduction. Gogol as the most mysterious figure in Russian literature.
Main part.
2.1 The image of the devil in The Night Before Christmas.
2.2 Fantastic plot in "Terrible Revenge".
2.3 The mystical image of a cat in "May Night or the Drowned Woman" and in "Old World Landowners".
Gogol's passion for mysticism and practical jokes.
The mysterious death of a writer.
Bibliography.
Conclusion
Introduction
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809 - 1852) -one of the most original Russian writers. His books are read all his life, each time in a new way. His word is perceived today as prophetic. Gogol is a man of exceptional, tragic fate, a thinker who sought to unravel the historical fate of Russia.
It is impossible to overestimate the impact that Gogol had on Russian, and indeed on world literature. Dostoevsky, speaking about himself and his literary contemporaries, said that they all came out of Gogol's "Overcoat".
Domestic and foreign theater and cinema have turned and continue to turn to Gogol's work, finding new content in it.
There is no more mysterious figure in Russian literature than this great Russian writer.Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the mystery of Gogol is mysticism in his work.
Problem question:Is mysticism really present in the works of N.V. Gogol?
Tasks:
get acquainted with the biography of the writer, with the works of the writer;
trace the history of the emergence of mystical motives in the work of N.V. Gogol
see the role of mystical motives in the writer's work
Targetwork:
Consider the features of mystical motives in the works of N.V. Gogol.
Comparison of literary mystical images created by N.V. Gogol, with their folklore prototypes, revealing similarities;
Consideration of the features of Gogol's mystical characters;
The study of the reasons for the manifestation of mysticism in the studied works, their value for the plot and ideological content
An objectresearch: the work of N.V. Gogol
Itemresearch: works by N.V. Gogol "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka".
To understand the meaning of mystical motives in the work of N.V. Gogol, it is necessary to trace their connections with the actual folk art, with the objective reality that surrounded the writer, to identify the place of each of the two worlds in the integral system of each of the works under consideration.
In that work mystical motives in the work of N.V. Gogol are studied from three points of view:
From a folklore point of view, that is, mythological and folklore sources used by N.V. Gogol to create works;
From a literary point of view, i.e., the specificity of mystical characters in Gogol's works, their difference from the original folklore prototypes is considered;
In terms of their place in everyday reality, which also finds a place for itself in Gogol's stories.
N. V. Gogol was born in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district, Poltava province. Gogol came from an old Little Russian family; V troubled times In Little Russia, some of his ancestors also molested the Polish gentry. Gogol's grandfather Afanasy Demyanovich Yanovsky (1738-early 19th century). He came from priests, graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy, rose to the rank of second major and, having received hereditary nobility, invented a mystical pedigree for himself, dating back to the mythical Cossack colonel Andre Gogol, who allegedly lived in the middle of the eighteenth century. He wrote in an official paper that "his ancestors, by the name of Gogol, of the Polish nation," although he himself was a real Little Russian, and others considered him the prototype of the hero of the "Old World Landowners." Great-grandfather, Yan Gogol, a pupil of the Kyiv Academy, "having gone to the Russian side", settled in the Poltava region, and the nickname "Gogol - Yanovsky" came from him. Gogol himself, apparently, did not know about the origin of this increase and subsequently rejected it, saying that the Poles invented it.
Very early, his mother began to bring Nikolai to church. She insisted that it is necessary to observe moral purity in the name of salvation. stories about a ladder that angels bring down from heaven, offering their hand to the soul of the deceased. On this ladder are seven measurements; last seventh raises immortal soul man to the seventh heaven, to heavenly abodes. This one will then go through all Gogol's reflections on the fate and calling of a person to spiritual uplift and moral growth, to self-improvement.
Since then, Gogol constantly lived "under the terror of the afterlife retribution."
The boy's imagination was influenced in childhood by the beliefs held by the people in brownies, witches, watermen and mermaids. The mysterious world of folk demonology was absorbed by Gogol's impressionable soul from childhood.
His inner world of Gogol was very complex and contradictory. He never opened up to anyone in his aspirations, plans - everyday and even more so - creative. He liked to mislead friends and. Any successful hoax gave him the greatest joy.
In all the smallest events of life, he saw God's will. A rude shout in the classroom, a bad mark, a runny nose was considered by him as supernatural attention. He was tormented by inexplicable forebodings that forced him to obey the Divine will.
Gogol's inclinations were already fully determined in the Nizhyn gymnasium. There he was called Mysterious Carlo - after one of the characters in Walter Scott's novel "The Black Dwarf".
By the end of his stay at the gymnasium, he dreams of a wide social activities, which, however, he does not see at all in the literary field; no doubt, under the influence of everything around him, he thinks to come forward and benefit society in a service for which in fact he was completely incapable.
At the end of December 1828 Gogol ended up in Petersburg.
Ideas about St. Petersburg have changed to such an extent appearance Nikolai Gogol, that from an untidy schoolboy he turned into a real dandy. Without well-tailored clothes, he could not achieve, as it seemed to him, social prosperity.
Petersburg seemed to him a place where people enjoy all the material and spiritual benefits, but suddenly instead of all this, a dirty, uncomfortable room, worries about how to have a cheaper lunch.
Gogol tried to find his vocation in acting, pedagogical work, and in the meantime, the idea of writing was growing stronger in his mind.
Constantly communicating with friends, he did not open up to them in his intentions and did not want to take their advice. None of them knew about his plans to publish Gantz. All this was explained not by his timidity, but by the desire to assume some kind of mystery.
Critics noticed the author's abilities, but considered this work immature; it did not attract readers. Gogol was so shocked by the failure that he bought up all the unsold copies of the book in stores and burned them. This was the beginning of acts of self-immolation, which Gogol repeated more than once and completed with the destruction of the second volume of Dead Souls.
The failure of the poem was also associated with another feature of behavior, which later also turned out to be constant for Gogol: having experienced a shock, he rushed out of Russia to the German seaside city of Lübeck.
In his letters to his mother, he writes about the reasons for his departure, each time coming up with new excuses. First, he explained his departure by the need to treat a severe scrofulous rash that appeared on his face and hands, then he said that God had shown him the way to a foreign land, then by meeting with a woman. As a result, Maria Gogol brought together two stories - about illness and about love passion and concluded that her son had contracted a venereal disease. This conclusion plunged Gogol into horror. Just as the hero of his poem, Gogol, fled to be face to face alone with himself, he fled from himself, from the discord of his lofty dreams with practical life.
Gogol did not stay long in a foreign land. Later, his own prudence made him change his mind and, after a two-month absence, return to St. Petersburg.
Gradually, Gogol begins to be convinced that it is literary work that is his main vocation. Gogol begins to write again, devoting all his leisure time to this work. Until the end of his life, Gogol did not admit to anyone that V. Alov was his pseudonym.
Gogol finds his way and succeeds. Before Gogol opened the door to favorites literary society: he meets V. A. Zhukovsky, P. A. Pletnev, and in May 1831. at a party at the latter's, he was introduced to Pushkin.
Already after his arrival in St. Petersburg, he begins to ask his relatives: to regularly send him information and materials about the customs and mores of "our Little Russians."
Thus, one of the incarnations of Gogol's demon lies in the phenomenon of "immortal human vulgarity." This vulgarity is “beginning and unfinished, which pretends to be beginningless and endless”, it denies God and is identified with universal evil.
As in the previous works of Gogol, great place in the story " Terrible revenge"occupies a fantastic plot. The bloody atrocities of the evil sorcerer-traitor from this story are terrible, but inevitable retribution will overtake him at the appointed hour.
"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"
The first part of "Evenings" was published in September 1831. It included four stories: "Sorochinsky Fair", "Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala", "May Night" and "The Missing Letter". Six months, in early March 1832, appeared and the second part ("The Night Before Christmas", "Terrible Revenge", "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt", "The Enchanted Place").
The world that opened up in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka had little in common with the real reality in which Gogol lived. It was a cheerful, joyful, happy world of a poetic fairy tale
The stories seem to be woven from Ukrainian fairy tales, songs, past.
The story "The Night Before Christmas" begins with the fact that the witch flies out of the chimney on a broomstick and hides the stars in her sleeve, and the devil steals the Moon and, burning himself, hides it in his pocket. The witch is the mother of the blacksmith Vakula, she knows how to "enchant sedate Cossacks to herself." A person not only is not afraid of "evil spirits", he makes her serve himself. The devil, although he came directly from Hell, is not so terrible: riding on the devil, Vakula flies to Petersburg to bring the wayward beauty Oksana the same slippers as the queen herself.
In the early cycles (“Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod”), the devil has real typological features. He has a “narrow, constantly spinning and sniffing everything that comes across, muzzle, ending, like our pigs, with a round snout”, “a sharp and long tail”. This is a petty demon, meaningful in folklore traditions.
Gogol's devil is “an underdeveloped hypostasis of the unclean; a shaking, frail imp; a devil from a breed of small devils that seem to our drunkards "
Fantasy "Petersburg Tales"
In 1836, The Inspector General premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. But soon Gogol again goes abroad. Leaves unexpectedly for his acquaintances and friends. It turned out that Gogol had made the decision to leave even before the premiere of The Inspector General, and this act is not so easy to explain. Gogol had been abroad since 1836. to 1848. He traveled almost all of Western Europe, lived the longest in his beloved Italy - a total of about four and a half years. Gogol moved along mediterranean sea, and before the final return to Russia, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
For a long time he waited in vain, but suddenly he received the image of the Savior from the preacher Innocent. This fulfillment of his desire seemed to him miraculous and was interpreted by him as a command from above to go to Jerusalem and, having cleansed himself with a prayer at the tomb of the Lord, ask God's blessing on the conceived literary work.
In March 1837 Gogol was in Rome. As Gogol said about his beloved Rome: “It seemed to me that I saw my homeland, which I had not been to for several years, but in which only my thoughts lived. But no, it’s not that: not my homeland, but the homeland of my soul, I saw where my soul lived before me, before I was born into the world.
The city made a charming impression on him. The nature of Italy delighted, fascinated him. Under the life-giving rays of the Italian sun, Gogol's health was strengthened, although he never considered himself completely healthy. Friends made fun of his suspiciousness, but back in Petersburg he said quite seriously that the doctors did not understand his illness, that his stomach was not arranged at all like that of all people, and this caused him suffering that others did not understand.
Gogol's passion for practical jokes and hoaxes.
But it was in Rome that the weak body of the poet could not withstand the nervous tension that accompanies the increased creative activity. He caught the strongest swamp fever. An acute, painful illness almost brought him to the grave and left traces for a long time, both on his physical and mental state. Her seizures were accompanied by nervous suffering, weakness, and low spirits.
Gogol with early years he was distinguished by suspiciousness, always attached great importance to his ill health.
Serious thoughts, which the proximity of the grave leads us to, seized him and did not leave him until the end of his life.
Several times he had to endure serious illnesses, which still increased his religious mood; in his circle he found a favorable ground for the development of religious exaltation - he adopted a prophetic tone, self-confidently instructed his friends and, in the end, came to the conclusion that what he had done so far was unworthy of the lofty goal to which he now considered himself called.
“A wonderful creation is being created and is taking place in my soul,” he wrote in 1841, “and now my eyes are full of grateful tears more than once.
This mystical, solemn view of his work was expressed by Gogol to very few of his acquaintances. For the rest, he was the same pleasant, although somewhat silent conversationalist, a subtle observer, a humorous narrator.
.
Writer's death mystery
tragic end Gogol was accelerated by conversations with a fanatical priest, Matvey Konstantinovsky, Gogol's confessor, in recent months writer's life.
Instead of calming and encouraging a suffering person, he pushed him, who was looking for spiritual support, further towards mysticism. This fateful meeting ended the crisis.
In the circle of close friends, he was still cheerful and playful, willingly read his own and other people's works, sang Little Russian songs with his "goat", as he himself called it, and listened with pleasure when they were sung well. By spring, he planned to leave for several months in his native Vasilyevka, in order to strengthen his strength there, and promised his friend Danilevsky to bring a completely finished volume of Dead Souls.
In 1850, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Sheremeteva died, she was a close friend of Gogol, they met on the basis of piety and became very close. This death strengthened in Gogol the desire to reunite with her soul in heaven and hastened his martyrdom.
To the natural sorrow of the loss loved one he was mingled with horror at the open grave. He was seized by that excruciating "fear of death", which he had experienced more than once before.
His tragic death- a kind of suicide, when the writer deliberately starved himself to death, was caused by the realization of the impossibility of reconciling aesthetics and morality.
Three days later, the count again came to Gogol and found him sad.
February 21, he passed away. The news of Gogol's death struck all his friends, who until the last days did not believe in terrible forebodings. His body, as an honorary member of the Moscow University, was transferred to the university church, where it remained until the very funeral.
The funeral was attended by: the Moscow governor-general Zakrevsky, the trustee of the Moscow educational district Nazimov, professors, university students and the mass of the public. The professors carried the coffin out of the church, and the students carried it in their arms all the way to the Danilov Monastery, where it was lowered into the ground next to the grave of a friend, the poet Yazykov.
Conclusion
The very circumstances of Gogol's death give off mystical horror. last page"Wiya". Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - one of the most mysterious, enigmatic Russian writers, a man of deep faith, Orthodox, was no stranger to mysticism and believed that the devil led people behind him, forcing them to commit evil deeds. Well, his compatriots, Ukrainians, lived for centuries according to the principle: “Love God, but don’t anger the devil either.”
Died great writer, and with him, the work that he created for so long, with such love, perished. Was this work the fruit of a fully developed artistic creativity or the embodiment in images of those ideas that are expressed in "Selected places of correspondence with friends" - this is the secret that he took with him to the grave.
“He died a victim of a lack of his nature, and the image of an ascetic burning his compositions is the last that he left from his whole strange, so extraordinary life. “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay,” as if these words are heard from the crackling of a fireplace, into which a brilliant madman throws his brilliant and criminal slander on human nature.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who could not stand it and looked openly at the outrages that were happening around, was buried according to all church canons in the courtyard of the St. Danilevsky Monastery.
Bibliography:
"Nikolay Gogol". Henri Troyat, M., "Eksmo", 2004
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. N.V. Gogol. Lectures - L .: 1962.
The art of detail: observation and analysis: about Gogol's work. / E. Dobin. L.: "Owl. writer".
About the nationality of N.V. Gogol. - Kyiv, ed. Kyiv. University, 1973.
N.V. Gogol and Russian literature of the 19th century: Interuniversity. Sat. scientific tr. - L.: LGGI, 1989. - 131p.
Life and work of N.V. Gogol: Materials for an exhibition in school. and children's bib-ke. - M.: Det.lit., 1980.
Sokolov B.V. Deciphered Gogol. Viy. Taras Bulba. Auditor. Dead Souls. - M.: Yauza, Eksmo, 2007. - 352 p.
The world of 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
A. S. Pushkin perfectly used mystical images to display his inner world 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 the semantic load of his work.
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."
N.V. Gogol.
Usually, at the mention of one or another writer known to us, we have certain associations associated with his work. For example, the name of Dostoevsky evokes in our memory scenes of despair, breakdown, leading the heroes to madness. When we remember Turgenev, we imagine the story of someone's love, ending, as a rule, in separation. As for Gogol, his name is often associated with various mystical stories that both capture and frighten. However, Gogol's talent lies not only in the ability to terrify his readers. Turning to "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", we can often notice the author's irony about folk performances about witches, devils and other otherworldly forces, as, for example, in this case: “The frost increased, and it became so cold at the top that the devil jumped from one hoof to another and blew into his fist, wanting to somehow warm his cold hands. It is not surprising, however, to freeze to death for someone who pushed from morning to morning in hell, where, as you know, it is not as cold as it is in winter with us, and where, putting on a cap and standing in front of the hearth, as if in fact a cook, roasted he sinners with such pleasure, with which a woman usually fries sausage for Christmas.
Introducing us to bright colors stories with witches, ghosts and devils, Gogol enjoys these simple and juicy images. The author reveals to us all the simplicity of Ukrainian folk ideas, while admiring their integrity. “... Everything that you don’t tell them is a laugh. A kind of unbelief spread around the world! Why, - God don’t love me and the Blessed Virgin! you may not even believe it: once you somehow hinted about witches - well? found a daredevil, does not believe in witches!
A completely pagan worldview looms before us, in which the cosmos is always fraught with chaos. But these realities, in this case, are also combined with Christianity. Thus, demons no longer represent non-existence, but are endowed with signs of sacral-chaotic beings. Capturing the attitude of a commoner quite accurately, Gogol is sometimes seriously fascinated by him, forgetting about the necessary distance, and then many stories from the cycle of his Ukrainian works become truly terrible. Suddenly, unexpectedly for the writer himself, his folklore witches and ghosts begin to pose some kind of real threat. Chaos draws the heroes into itself so that there is no way out for them. And here we cease to be only observers and connoisseurs folk traditions, but we really dive into them. Yet we do not enter this world as commoners. Gogol reveals it to us with all the complexity of his nature. The writer colors the lives of all these ordinary people in tones that are completely uncharacteristic of them. Drama appears in it: unwillingness to merge with chaos and the inability to resist its pressure. Consider, for example, one of the most famous stories Gogol - "Viy". Here it makes special sense for us to turn, first of all, to Gogol's note on the very title of this work.
“Viy is a colossal creation of the popular imagination. This is the name given by the Little Russians to the head of the dwarfs, whose eyelids go all the way to the ground before his eyes. This whole story is folk tradition. I did not want to change it in anything and I tell it in almost the same simplicity as I heard it. First of all, what worries us here is a clear overestimation of the abilities of the common people, the appropriation of a gigantic creative inclination to them. Speaking in this way about folk tradition, Gogol not only unjustifiably exaggerates its significance, but practically bows before its unpretentious creators. As a result, such an attitude of the writer to all these simple-hearted and at the same time gloomy stories forms in us a complex and not clear feeling for ourselves. In the same "Viy" the story about otherworldly forces and phenomena already ceases to be just admiring the people's naivety. In this work, we are not confronted with the fear that stories about witches and devils can evoke to the peasants who have gathered in the evening. Reading about how the philosopher Homa Brutus says prayers over the body of a witch in an empty church, we begin to feel real fear, which no longer contains anything funny. When the pannochka rises in her coffin and rushes around Khoma, our horror is accompanied by confusion. It becomes obvious to us that Gogol himself in this case takes what is happening seriously. Such a conclusion follows at least from the fact that the story ends with the death of the philosopher. It is no longer the hero of some long-standing story that is now being told by a talkative narrator that is confronting the evil spirit here. No, in this case, the main character dies - the one who was entrusted with the mission to enter into communication with the other world and get out of it unharmed, and who, however, did not cope with this task. But then the author himself did not cope with his task. In many of his other works, he solved it in such a way that he laughed at the Ukrainians who held their breath over another story about a witch. Gogol himself thus distanced himself from what was happening, making it fabulous, unreal.
“No, I prefer our girls and young women; just show yourself before their eyes: “Foma Grigorievich! Foma Grigoryevich! and nuta some kind of insurance cossack! and nute, nute! .. ”- tara-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta, and they will go, and they will go ... Of course, it’s not a pity to tell, but look at what is done to them in bed. After all, I know that everyone is trembling under the covers, as if a fever beats her, and I would be glad to get into my sheepskin coat with my head. Scratch a rat with a pot, somehow touch the poker with your foot - and God forbid! and soul in the heels. And the next day, nothing happened, it is imposed again: tell her a terrible tale, and nothing more. What would it be to tell you? Suddenly it doesn't come to mind. Yes, I will tell you how the witches played the fool with the late grandfather.
Everything here is full of lightness and playfulness. Reading such stories, you seem to become participants in some kind of folk gatherings. The Little Russian works of Gogol set us up in such a way that we are involuntarily fascinated and captivated by them.
As if a cheerful round dance, which you enter first for the sake of inquisitive interest, begins to circle you at a frantic pace, and you can no longer stop. It can be said that the whole cycle of Gogol's Little Russian stories is built on a continuous fluctuation from a fairy tale to "reality", from skepticism to childish gullibility. And in this case, "Viy", of course, becomes the limit of "trust". But what kind of reality does the writer reveal to us in his transcription of this folk tradition?
We see a beautiful lady, who in the eyes of her father is the embodiment of innocence. Her death brings this strong and cheerful person into a state of deep depression and weakness. This is what he says, referring to his already dead daughter: “... But, woe to me, my field cape, my quail, my yasochka, that I will live the rest of my life without fun, wiping away the fractional tears flowing from my old eyes, while my enemy will have fun and secretly laugh at the frail old man . He stopped, and the reason for this was tearing grief, which was resolved by a whole stream of tears. The philosopher was touched by such inconsolable sadness.
Illustration for the deluxe edition of the story "Viy". Artist Eduard Novikov. 2009.
At first glance, this world seems to us something quite familiar and understandable. Even the stories of drunken peasants about how the pannochka “knew with the unclean” and drank “several buckets of blood” could only make us smile and do nothing to disturb our familiar reality. Everyone knows that parents love their children and that drunken men are masters of telling all sorts of tall tales. But simultaneously with this cozy and recognizable world, a parallel world arises, in which some laws unknown to us operate. The beautiful lady turns out to be a witch and turns either into an old woman, or into a dog, or turns blue, like a dead man with burning eyes. Subsequently, however, she always returns to the image of a tender, inexpressibly beautiful girl. Here, it seems to us, it is necessary to place special emphasis on the author's description of her appearance.
“A thrill ran through his veins: before him lay a beauty that had ever been on earth. It seemed that facial features had never been formed in such a sharp and at the same time harmonious beauty. She lay as if alive. A beautiful, tender brow, like snow, like silver, seemed to think; eyebrows - night among sunny day, thin, even, proudly rose above the closed eyes, and the eyelashes, which fell like arrows on the cheeks, burned with the heat of secret desires; his lips were rubies, ready to smile... But in them, in the same features, he saw something terribly poignant. He felt that his soul began to somehow painfully whine, as if suddenly, in the midst of a whirlwind of fun and a swirling crowd, someone sang a song about the oppressed people. The rubies of her lips seemed to boil with blood to the very heart. Suddenly something terribly familiar appeared in her face.
The combination of the beautiful and the demonic in the pannochka reminds me of the heroine of Gogol's St. Petersburg novel Nevsky Prospekt. The hero of this work, the artist Piskarev, meets unusually on Nevsky Prospekt beautiful girl, each feature of which tells us about nobility and unconditional belonging to the highest society. Having learned that she turns out to be just a girl of easy virtue, the hero loses all orientation, he cannot connect the disgrace that has opened to him and that beautiful, unique image that the Lord endowed this girl with. The artist suffers, tries to live in dreams in which her beauty is an extension of her soul, and, ultimately, perishes. Here the combination of beauty and ugliness becomes completely hopeless and insoluble. It does this by overcoming the myth. The heroine of the story "Nevsky Prospekt" turns out to be no longer a sacred-cosmic reality, but just a man, a creation of God. God created her beautiful and at the same time free. But her freedom is relative. Yes, she has the opportunity to choose between good and evil, but she must not refuse the image given to her by God, which bears a divine imprint.
“Indeed, pity never seizes us so strongly as at the sight of beauty, touched by the putrefactive breath of depravity. Even ugliness would be friends with him, but beauty, tender beauty ... It merges in our thoughts with only one purity and purity.
It would be interesting to compare these reflections with what Khoma Brut experiences when he looks at the dead lady. Both in the first and in the second case we encounter beauty bordering on ugliness. But the heroine of Nevsky Prospekt combines these two states at the same time, while the pannochka alternates them. At first glance, it might seem that the centurion's daughter has more power over her fortunes. However, in reality, these continuous changes of images completely depersonalize her. Like pagan deities who pass into each other, her true image eludes us all the time.
Illustration for the deluxe edition of the story "Viy". Artist Eduard Novikov. 2009.
In this context, the simultaneous combination in the heroine of Nevsky Prospekt of two opposite states turns out to be more hopeless, since she cannot move from one quality to the opposite, does not have the vagueness that would give her the opportunity to leave one image and completely enter another. . This heroine is limited by her human existence, as a result of which she is "forced" to have her permanent face, which she is not able to change, even with an absolute change in her essence. Her highest achievement could be manifested in conforming to the image given to her. It is not in our power to surpass what God has put in us. Our source is not in us. Our task is only to reveal for ourselves and for others the possibilities hidden in us. Thus, we are left with no other choice. We can become either ourselves or nobody. It is precisely from this that the painful feeling that we experience when looking at a person striving for insignificance and non-existence and keeping the imprint of the Divine on himself comes from. Piskarev feels endless pity for the heroine of the story, discovering in her divine beauty, combined with inner ugliness. As for Homa Brutus, he does not feel anything of the sort. The only feeling Pannochka evokes in him is fear. After all, if the sacred-cosmic closely borders on the sacred-chaotic, then the appearance of the latter will always be expected in the former. Ugliness and ugliness, in this case, cannot lead us into despair, since it contains the rudiments of beauty, harmony and order. The endless transformations of the lady, in fact, do not really bother Homa Brutus. But why, if the centurion's daughter is so beautiful, does not even a hint of falling in love with her arise in him? Khoma is fully aware that the pannochka is involved in some other reality, the laws of which are completely unknown to him. Recall the description of this heroine, which was given above. Looking at this face for a long time is fraught with the danger of reaching something terrible, lurking in the depths of this beauty. When the philosopher first looked at Sotnikov's dead daughter, he saw "a beauty such as has ever been on earth", but after he carefully peered into her features, he "cried out in a voice not his own": "Witch!" " Speaking of appearance, it is important to note that her beauty is absolute, there is no flaw in her. What frightens Homa is beyond beauty. Looking into her face, he feels that the soul begins to "painfully whine."
The sacred in any of its manifestations remains completeness, whether it be sacral-cosmic or sacral-chaotic. So the witch can always take opposite image- become a perfect beauty. But despite all the closeness pagan mythology and the reality that Gogol creates in Viy, these worlds diverge very significantly. It is known that many ideas of the peasants contained a certain synthesis in which Christian motifs were closely intertwined with pagan ones. They still had a sense of the presence of sacral-chaotic reality, but on the whole the accents shifted noticeably. The sacral-chaotic has ceased to carry in itself the rudiments of the sacral-cosmic. There were ideas about witches, devils and many others like them. All these forces were still fraught with a certain threat, they could be conjured, but the spells were no longer magic formulas, but Christian prayers and sign of the cross. Here, the caster no longer commands chaos, deceiving it and using its own powers. He turns out to be stronger due to the fact that he can read a prayer or cross himself. As for the evil spirit, it is not capable of doing anything of the kind and shows, in this case, complete helplessness. The control of evil spirits has ceased to carry the possibility of becoming its prey. An opportunity has opened up to present to chaos what it does not contain. But the dark forces still remained dangerous, the peasants could not understand that evil, in its essence, is non-existence. For them, it still represented some kind of beingness, and not temptation, not imaginary and trouble.
However, if in Viy, as in many other Little Russian works by Gogol, the theme of the “mystical” is built on the reproduction of the mythological ideas of the common people, then in his St. Petersburg cycle it takes a slightly different direction. Let us recall, for example, Gogol's story "Portrait". At first glance, one can find some similarities between the mystical themes of "Wiya" and "Portrait". And here and there, behind the apparent perfection and beauty, another, sinister, demonic world suddenly peeps through, which subsequently claims its rights.
“No matter how damaged and dusty the portrait was,” we read from Gogol, “but when he managed to clean the dust from his face, he saw traces of work high artist. The portrait, it seemed, was not finished; but the power of the brush was striking. The eyes were most extraordinary of all: it seemed that the artist used all the power of the brush and all his diligent care in them. They simply looked, looked even from the portrait itself, as if destroying its harmony with their strange liveliness. When he brought the portrait to the door, his eyes looked even stronger. They made almost the same impression on the people. The woman, who had stopped behind him, cried out: "Looks, looks," and backed away. He felt some unpleasant, incomprehensible feeling to himself and put the portrait on the ground.
If we compare the sensations of Homa Brut when looking at the dead lady and the artist Chartkov, the hero of the story "Portrait", then something in common will immediately be revealed. Both of them experience a similar feeling, which in the first case is designated as “painful”, and in the second as “unpleasant and incomprehensible”. It may not be entirely correct to put the picture and the body of a deceased person in the same row, but in this case there is one point that allows us to do this. When we look at a dead person, we can no longer expect him to look back. The one who was someone became something, turned into an object for us. As for the portrait, it could never be a subject for us. He only hints to us that the person depicted here exists or existed in the past. peering into portrait image, we can only record what the artist managed to capture. The real person, who once posed for the master, remains inaccessible to us.
Illustration for the deluxe edition of the story "Viy". Artist Eduard Novikov. 2009.
Thus, both in the first and in the second case, we have before us a kind of inanimate reality, which, nevertheless, points us to the soul. What happens when the traces of personality suddenly come together and give rise to someone real, alive, breathing? Where has the soul been until now? Where did she come from? Here an excerpt from a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky comes to mind:
They knock. Who's there? - Maria, -
Open the door: - Who's there? -
No answer. live
This is not how they come to us.
So, visitors to Khoma and the artist Chartkov do not belong to the category of the living. But if we turn to the appearances of the saints, who are also, in fact, dead, we will see that they visit us in a completely different way. Their excommunication from another world and the appearance in ours is necessary solely for our benefit. They bring peace and tranquility to the heart. And our reaction, in this case, can only be awe and reverence, followed by joy. Gogol's mystical characters give us nothing of the kind. They appear in order to destroy someone's life, bring grief and discord into it. Moreover, they do not come for us, as the saints do, but for themselves. They themselves lack something in themselves, and they want to take it away, steal it from us. This moment is another proof that the story "Viy" has a lot of Christian motives. For some reason Pannochka needed the life of Khoma Brutus. If she didn't get it, she would be exhausted. It would be difficult for her to continue her dark existence. Sotnikov's daughter did not like any of Khoma's friends. The latter turned out to be the most courageous, firm in faith and strong in spirit. Here there is something to feast on evil spirits. After all, it does not have its own resources, but is only emptiness, non-existence, feeding itself with the living juices of God's world.
The same can be said about the old man emerging from the portrait and destroying the lives of all those who distinguished themselves with special nobility and talent. However, if "Viy", according to Gogol, is a reproduction of folk tales, then in the "Portrait" there can be no hint of folklore. In the first case, the writer could be justified by the fact that the element of the common people suddenly carried away and captured him. But the mysticism of the "Portrait" can no longer be explained in this way. The characters of Little Russian works treat witches as something completely ordinary, without which their world would be incomplete. “I already know all this. After all, in Kyiv all the women who sit in the market are all witches.
The St. Petersburg artist perceives the appearance of guests from the other world in a completely different way. The main difference, it seems to us, is that in Little Russian stories and short stories, the appearance of evil spirits to someone corresponds to the general spirit, while in St. Petersburg works something similar can happen in the lives of only some people, for the rest everything it remains unrealistic. Let us remember the enthusiastic ladies and respectable gentlemen who came to the artist Chartkov after he became famous. All these representatives of high society could not even guess at what price he managed to become famous. They lived in their beautiful world subject to restraint, order and grace. How did this world, clear as day, intertwine in the soul of the artist with something dark, nasty, unreasonable. The mysterious appearance of the old man destroyed only his life and did not affect those around him in any way. Although at the end of the story there are Mystic stories, told by the inhabitants of Kolomna, where, at one time, a mysterious old man lived. But all this has to do with the past, the appeal to which only increases the darkness, and makes for us the nature of this phenomenon even more strange and incomprehensible. Having learned about the origin and fate of the person who now came to life in the portrait, we soon realize that after the death of the artist who was ruined by him, someone else will become his victim.
But when the brilliance of Petersburg life sparkles before us, it is difficult for us to believe that this dark semi-pagan reality is capable of penetrating there. There are gaps between these two worlds. In order to pass through them, you need to be in a state close to death, experience a very strong need and a feeling of hopelessness. Secular Petersburg life is completely permeated with form. She can't get out of her own rhythm. Element, hopelessness and uncertainty - conditions completely alien to her. But if someone belonging to the top of Petersburg society suddenly finds himself in difficulty and trouble, all the above feelings enter his heart, thus breaking his connection with this impeccable world. It is at such moments that the “damned” old man appears and takes his victim into some kind of gloomy, shapeless reality, returning from which the person becomes completely unrecognizable. People known for all their honesty and talent become evil, deceitful, mediocre and soon die. If we draw a parallel with the story "Viy", we will see that there the evil spirit acts in a completely different way. Let us recall that the pannochka chose as her victim the most healthy and prosperous character from all that we met in this work. Both the first and the second representative of otherworldly reality need living juices to continue their existence. However, the witch did not need to drive Khoma Brutus into despair in order to destroy him. Attention should be paid to the difference between the victim of the pannochka and those heroes who turned out to be connected with the old man. Homa was whole and simple in nature. He was not characterized by acute experiences, he was not familiar with the experience of contradictions, ups and downs. He does not come to the witch himself, he is forced to do so by people with whom he has no right to argue. Reading prayers at the coffin of the dead lady for three nights, Khoma, of course, feels fear. But such unrest cannot break his spirit. Despite all her sinister image, the witch is not able to penetrate the soul of the philosopher. Her victory is external. She seeks only his physical death. Khoma's soul is unaffected by these dark forces. But in this case, the question arises of what the witch needed from this hero; his soul or his life? In the Christian understanding, the enemy of the human race preys only on the soul, everything else has no value for him. If he achieves that a person dies, he will not receive anything, since the martyrs who suffered for the sake of the truth of God go straight to their Creator. Why, then, did the daughter of the centurion need this strong-willed Human? We must not forget that the characters of the story "Viy" are the heroes of folk legend, in which there is no place for complex poetic natures. Evil spirits this world does not need a soul entangled in its contradictions. The witch feels the need for a whole, like a ripe fruit, a person from whom you can drink fresh blood. However, in resolving this issue, we could take a different path. Khoma was the cause, albeit deceptive, but to some extent real, of her death. He brought down the course of the other world, intervened in the laws to which it is subject, and for this he had to be killed. Something has shifted in the sacred world, a certain balance has been disturbed, which can now be restored only by the death of the one who violated it. Having achieved the death of Khoma, the pannochka leaves the stage. Its further appearance is not expected. It is somewhere, but the doors to another world are closed for us.
We find a completely different arrangement of accents in the "Portrait". Having ruined the life and soul of the artist, the old man does not calm down. The end of the story clearly tells us that there will be many more victims. Why is this otherworldly guest not satisfied with the troubles and death of those unfortunates who come to him. He needs more and more new lives. Only in this way can he prolong his existence. Moreover, a cheerful, not prone to discouragement person like Khoma would never become his prey. Despair is the way an old man can get into someone's heart. He would never be satisfied with just physical death. He bites into the very soul and does not lag behind it until the person dies. No matter how terrible this story of Gogol turns out to be, but compared to Viy, Christianity is present here to a much greater extent. At the end of the work, we come across the image of a pious artist who found the strength to resist devilish power old man and even took the monastic vows. Moreover, this same artist painted the ill-fated portrait in his time. So, if the one who came into closest contact with the dark soul of the usurer managed to resist its onslaught, then it means that the world from which the old man appears is not so strong. The person from the portrait comes to people in moments of despair and anguish, when it is difficult for them to make a decision. Christians treat such moments as a test. Evil cannot so easily penetrate a person's soul. This requires a state of weakness and confusion. Then the mysterious character of the St. Petersburg story of Gogol looks into the hearts of the heroes and seeks profit there. Without this food, he will die. Before his death, he begged the artist to finish his portrait, in which he, according to him own words will continue to live.
Illustration (fragment) for the deluxe edition of the story "Viy". Artist Eduard Novikov. 2009.
If we remember the lady, we will see that in this sense she turns out to be more independent. After Khoma's death, she retires to some world of her own and never returns from there. The old man cannot go anywhere, because in this case he will simply disappear. The centurion's daughter comes to us from the otherworldly reality, where she comes from, although she needs a profane world. As for the old man, the reality in which he lives cannot be defined in any way. He is in an endless insufficiency, in a kind of nothingness that constantly needs to be filled with something.
Considering all of the above, we could safely say that in his story "Portrait" Gogol to some extent breaks out of the myth and approaches the Christian understanding of the nature of evil. However, one cannot but admit that there is some kind of bewitching power in the old man. Practically in any work of Gogol, this dark, inviting world breaks through from somewhere, which tries to dissolve everything in its nonsense. Is it not he who declares himself in works breathing such absurdity as the story "The Nose" or such horror and hopelessness as "Notes of a Madman". Gogol all the time feels the presence of this dark reality, seeking to plunge everything into chaos and formlessness. Sometimes it seems to us that just about - and the gloomy shadows will melt, but they thicken again.
In his work, Gogol confronts us with the problem of evil, which in his works turns out to be complex, unsolved, and all the time oscillates between Christian and pagan coloring. The pathos of the author is not the very fact of the presence of evil in the world, but the ability to resist it. However, the soul of the writer, who has so deeply absorbed the mythology of folk legends, cannot so easily abandon its alluring forms and flirts with them all the time, as if not at all aware of the danger lurking behind this game.
Magazine "Beginning" №20, 2009
Gogol N.V. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. Mirgorod. M., 1982. S. 91.
There. S. 36.
There. With. 336.
There. S. 355.
There. S. 76.
Ibid S. 356.
Gogol N.V. Tales. Dramatic works. Leningrad, 1983. S. 14.
Gogol N.V. Tales. Dramatic works. Leningrad, 1983, p. 62.
Tarkovsky A.A. Favorites. Smolensk, 2000, p. 174.
Gogol N.V. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. Mirgorod. M., 1982. S. 373.
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 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 life. Constantly changing, they accompany us throughout our lives. One of the most common and most interesting 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 an 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 a purely negative emotion, but it also has some positive aspects: fear is 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 its 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 of the lexical meaning of 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 pictures of their 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 of mystical literature has only increased over the years. From mysticism came modern horror literature, a direction in cinema, cultural aesthetics. A huge number of people around the world follow the fabulous world of 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 of 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. Shan etymological dictionary of the 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 of grades 9-11 of our educational institution, and various questionnaires were offered to them. Here are his results.
Questionnaire No. 1
1) Are you attracted to books (movies) that contain mystical pictures 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%.
PROFESSOR OF IMMORTALITY
Mystical works of Russian writers
ALEXEY NIKOLAEVICH APUKHTIN1840–1893
Famous Russian poet. Author of a number of popular romances. From an old noble family. As a child, I received a wonderful home education. He began writing poetry at the age of ten. All his life he bowed to the poetry of A. S. Pushkin. In 1852 he entered the Imperial School of Law. Studied brilliantly. He began to appear in print in 1854, that is, from the age of 14. After graduating from the College, he served first in the Ministry of Justice, and then in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I have been very sick in recent years.
Apukhtin began to write prose only at the end of his life - in the early 90s of the XIX century. Moreover, he did not make any attempts to publish his stories, although Pavlik Dolsky's Diary and From the Archives of Countess D. differ in undoubted literary merits and are of great interest in our time.
The story "Between Death and Life" was written in 1892. main idea story - "there is no death, there is one endless life", and the human soul, repeatedly returning to earth, by divine will, inhabits a new body chosen by the Lord God himself.
Alexey Apukhtin
BETWEEN DEATH AND LIFE
C'est un samedi, a six
heures du matin, que je suis mort.
It was eight o'clock in the evening when the doctor put his ear to my heart, raised a small mirror to my lips, and, turning to my wife, said solemnly and quietly:
- Everything is over.
By these words, I guessed that I had died.
In fact, I died much earlier. For more than a thousand hours I lay motionless and could not utter a word, but occasionally I still continued to breathe. Throughout my illness, it seemed to me that I was chained with innumerable chains to some blank wall that tormented me. Little by little, the wall let me go, the suffering lessened, the chains loosened and broke. During the last two days I was held by some kind of narrow ribbon; now it broke off, and I felt a lightness that I had never experienced in my life.
An unimaginable turmoil began around me. My large office, into which I was transferred from the beginning of my illness, was filled with people who all at once whispered, started talking, and sobbed. The old housekeeper Yudishna even began to cry out in a voice that was not her own. My wife fell on my chest with a loud cry; she cried so much during my illness that I wondered where her tears still come from. Of all the voices, the senile, rattling voice of my valet Savely stood out. Even in my childhood, he was assigned to me by an uncle and did not leave me all my life, but now he was already so old that he lived almost without work. In the morning he gave me a dressing gown and shoes, and then all day long he drank birch for health and quarreled with the rest of the servants. My death did not upset him so much as hardened him, and at the same time gave him unprecedented importance. I heard how he ordered someone to go for my brother, reproached someone and ordered something.
My eyes were closed, but I saw and heard everything that was happening around me.
My brother came in, focused and haughty as ever. My wife could not stand him, but she threw herself on his neck, and her sobs doubled.
“Enough, Zoya, stop it, because you won’t help with tears,” the brother said in an impassive and as if learned tone, “save yourself for the children, believe that he is better there.”
He pulled himself out of her arms with difficulty and sat her down on the couch.
- We must immediately make some orders ... Will you let me help you, Zoya?
“Ah, Andre, for God's sake, manage everything… How can I think of anything?
She began to cry again, and her brother sat down at his desk and called Semyon, the young, efficient barman, over to him.
- You will send this announcement to New Time, and then you will send for the undertaker; yes, you need to ask him if he knows a good psalmist?
“Your Excellency,” Semyon answered, bending down, “there is nothing to send for the undertaker, there are four of them here in the morning crowding at the entrance. Already we drove them, drove them, - they don’t go, and that’s all. Would you like to call them here?
No, I'll go up the stairs.
And the brother read aloud the announcement he had written:
- “Princess Zoya Borisovna Trubchevskaya announces with heartfelt regret the death of her husband, Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich Trubchevsky, which followed on February 20, at 8 pm, after a difficult and prolonged illness. Memorial services at 2 pm and 9 pm. Do you need anything else, Zoya?
- Yes, of course, nothing. But why did you write this terrible word: "regret"? Je ne puis pas souffrir ce mot. Mettez: With deep sorrow.
Brother corrected.
- I'm sending it to Novoye Vremya. Is that enough?
- Yes, of course, enough. You can also in the "Journal de S.-Pe (ters-bourg)".
- Okay, I'll write in French.
- All the same, they will transfer there.
Brother left. My wife came up to me, sank down on an armchair that was standing near the bed, and looked at me for a long time with some kind of pleading, questioning look. In this silent look, I read much more love and grief than in sobs and cries. She recalled our common life, in which there were many all sorts of worries and storms. Now she blamed herself for everything and thought about what she should have done then. She was so thoughtful that she did not notice my brother, who had returned with the undertaker and had been standing by her side for several minutes, not wanting to disturb her thoughts. Seeing the undertaker, she screamed wildly and fainted. They took her to the bedroom.
“Be calm, Your Excellency,” said the undertaker, taking my measurements as unceremoniously as the tailors once did, “we have everything in store: both the cover and the chandeliers. After an hour, they can be transferred to the hall. And as for the coffin, do not hesitate to doubt: the deceased coffin will be such that even a living person can lie down in it.
The office started to fill up again. The governess brought the children.
Sonya threw herself at me and sobbed just like a mother, but little Kolya stubbornly stubbornly refused to come up to me and roared with fear. Nastasya, his wife's favorite maid, who married the bartender Semyon last year and was in last period pregnancy. She crossed herself in a sweeping way, she kept wanting to kneel, but her stomach got in the way, and she sobbed lazily.
“Listen, Nastya,” Semyon told her quietly, “do not bend down, no matter what happens. It would be better for you to go to your place: you prayed, and that's enough.
How can I not pray for him? - answered Nastasya in a slightly singsong voice and deliberately loudly so that everyone could hear her. - It was not a man, but an angel of God. Even today, just before my death, he remembered me and ordered that Sofya Frantsevna be inseparably with me.
