N. V. Gogol. "Portrait". Problematics and poetics of the story. Her place in the collection "Petersburg Tales". V. G. Belinsky. "About the Russian story and the stories of Mr. Gogol".
As in previous lessons, in order to understand the story, it is necessary to organize preliminary independent work of schoolchildren in compiling comments on the text. Words can be grouped according to semantic nests.
Lexical commentary: okhtenka, scribble, two kopecks, screens, primed canvas, gold coin, tambourine, break the fast, basilisk, harpy, punch, Genoese merchants.
Historical commentary: Shchukin yard, quarter warden, fifteenth line of Vasilyevsky Island, Kolomna, purists, Gostiny Dvor, French revolution.
Cultural commentary: Khozrev-Mirza, Militrisa Kirbityevna, Yeruslan Lazarevich, ate and drank, Thomas and Yerema, Raphael, Guid, Titian, Flemings, antiques from the natural class, Psyche, Leonardo da Vinci, Vasari, manken, plaster torso, Vandiki and Titians , Korrezhd (Korregzhiy), Mars, Korina, Ondine, Aspasia, Mikel-Angel, marshmallows and cupids, philanthropist, Grandisson.
^
Questions and tasks for conversation
What problems does Gogol pose in the story "Portrait"?
Follow the steps of Chartkov's moral decline. What changes are taking place in his attitude to the work of the artist and in his appearance?
How did the features of the aesthetics of romanticism and realism reflect in the image of Chartkov?
Find in the text of the story fragments that depict the struggle between holiness and devilish obsession. Explain their meaning.
Which new turn acquires in the story the theme of the power of money, traditional for Russian literature?
Chartkov paints a portrait of a girl in the form of Psyche (from the words "The next day a bell rang at her door ..." to the words "... the features of the pale girl finally began to emerge more clearly from the appearance of Psyche.") How this fragment reflected the ideological and moral the author's position about true and false in art?
Madness and death of Chartkov (from the words "He stopped and suddenly shook all over ..." until the end of Part I). By what means does Gogol convey psychological condition Chartkov in this fragment?
It is possible to include in the lesson practical work according to the analysis of the episode "The History of the Creation of the Mysterious Portrait" (Part II from the words "My father was a wonderful man in many respects..." to the words "... he retired to a secluded monastery, where he soon took the veil as a monk"). This work can also be a preliminary homework, then reports on its implementation will be heard at the lesson. It is also necessary to find out what symbolic meaning this story.
You can continue the lesson in the form of a mini-conference, consisting of student reports on the topics of individual tasks.
^
Individual tasks
Compare the story "Portrait" with one of the works of Russian and world literature, which shows the destructive power of money for a person ("Gobsek" by Balzac, "Anna on the Neck" by Chekhov, etc.).
Compare Gogol's "Portrait" with O. Wilde's "Portrait of Dorian Gray". What are the similarities and differences between the ideological and aesthetic views of the two writers on the problems of the moral responsibility of the human person?
Compare 2 editions of "Portrait". How has it changed fantastic start in the second edition of the story?
Consider the drawing by V. Vasnetsov "In the artist's studio". Compare his emotional pathos with the final part of the story. In what ways the state of the artist was transferred by V. Vasnetsov.
To summarize what has been learned, a final conversation can be held.
^
Questions and tasks for the final conversation
Compare the life stories of two artists: Chartkov and the author of the portrait. What is the meaning of the two-part composition of the story?
What is the meaning of the violation of real time in the finale of the story?
How did Gogol's thoughts about the relationship between talent and spirituality appear in the story?
How does the text reflect Gogol's religious and mystical ideas about the divine and diabolical essence of art?
Comment on the meaning of the story's ending. Why is the mysterious portrait disappearing?
What philosophical meaning story "Portrait"? What moral lesson does Gogol teach readers?
COMPOSITION
"It's good to wake up before dawn,
How good it is to have dreams at night
It's good that the planet is spinning,
How good it is in the world without war!”
A. Menshikov
The Pankov family lives in the village of Sloboda: Anatoly Mikhailovich Pankov is the only veteran of the Great Patriotic War and Pankova Olga Pavlovna - veteran pedagogical work. The name of their son is known throughout the country. Pankov Mikhail Anatolyevich bears the high title of Hero Russian Federation. He was born on the twentieth of July, one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two. He graduated from school in the village of Bui. According to the recollections of the teachers of the Buyskaya school, Anatoly was a calm, sympathetic student. After graduating from high school, he worked on a farm. From his father and mother he inherited health, diligence, intelligence and humanity.
He went through all the difficult steps military career. In 1973 he graduated from the Saratov Higher military school VV of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, after which he worked as a commander of a platoon, company, battalion, regiment and division of the Internal Troops. graduated military academy named after M.V. Frunze, and then - the Military Academy of the General Staff. From 1995, he worked as First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. At the same time, from 1995 to 1996, he was the commander of the group of internal troops as part of the group of federal troops in Chechnya. Participated in the first Chechen war. Since 1998, he has been Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Emergency Situations.
After the Basayev and Khattab gangs invaded Dagestan in August 1999, he was appointed commander of the grouping of the Internal Troops in the North Caucasus. He personally led the operations of the troops, including in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan, where the Internal Troops liberated fourteen villages, destroyed three hundred and thirty-seven militants in battle, and captured forty-eight militants. Fourteen mortars were captured, eight anti-aircraft guns, four ammunition depots, and two more depots were destroyed. Since October 1999, he has already fought on the territory Chechen Republic. Until the end of the year, units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs occupied eighty villages in Chechnya and carried out one hundred and thirty-six special operations. In the battle for the liberation of the village of Znamenskoye on October 14, 1999, the command post was attacked by large forces of militants and was surrounded. Anatoly Mikhailovich personally led the battle to repel the attack, in which the fighters forced the enemy to flee. In December 1999 - January 2000, he took part in the storming of Grozny.
For the courage shown in battles and skillful leadership of waxes in the fight against terrorist formations in the North Caucasus, by the Decree of the Acting President of the Russian Federation dated January 11, 2000, Lieutenant General Pankov Mikhail Anatolyevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the award of the medal " Golden Star". In February 2000, Mikhail Anatolyevich Pankov was awarded the rank of Colonel General.
He has the orders "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" of the third degree, "For Military Merit".
Far threw his call of duty. A few years ago he came to his small homeland, visited his native school, met with teachers and students. Small homeland- a piece of our big vast country. Mikhail Anatolyevich - Son with capital letter my father. And the goal of father and son is the same: to protect our homeland. The continuity of generations continues ... We are proud that such heroes live next to us. And as long as there are people like our fellow countrymen on earth, we are not afraid of any enemy.
“Let us win once,
But the war has a bloody trail,
And marking our dates
We do not want new victories.
That was a big price...
Russia does not need a war!”
Petr Davydov
Administration of the municipality "Bichursky district"
MBOU "Poselskaya secondary school"
Composition
"Hero of the Russian Federation - Pankov Mikhail Anatolyevich"
Nomination: Best literary creativity
2015
Attached files
Gogol's story Portrait " divided by two parts. In the first talking about someone young artist Chartkov, who saw a portrait of an old man in some kind of provincial shop, and this painter was hooked by the eyes of the old man, they were so written out that they seemed just alive. With the last money he bought this portrait, and bringing it home, it seemed to him that the old man depicted in the portrait was himself completely alive and was about to get out of the portrait. Meanwhile, Chartkov had dream - get rich and become a fashionable painter. And on the same night, he dreams that the old man crawled out of his portrait, and shows a bag in which there are a lot of bundles of money. The artist discreetly hides one of them. The next morning, he actually finds the money. And after this moment, his business goes uphill, he really becomes fashion artist, but his work loses its individuality, and as a result, the artist loses his talent. One day he is asked to criticize a picture of a young artist, and Chartkov sees the young artist's talent and realizes in horror that traded talent for money. And then he begins to buy up all the paintings of talented artists in order to destroy them. All this time he sees the eyes of the old man. He soon dies, leaving nothing behind.
Second part talks about the auction at which this painting is sold. Many want to buy it, but one person says that the portrait should go to him, since he has been looking for it for a long time. The person who bought the portrait tells an incredible story. A long time ago there lived in St. Petersburg a certain usurer, who was different from other opportunities to lend any amount of money. But strange feature- everyone who received money from him ended his life sadly. One day the pawnbroker asked the artist, the buyer's father, to portray him. But the longer the artist paints, the more he feels disgust for the old man. When the portrait is painted, the usurer says that he will now live in the portrait, and dies the next evening. Changes are taking place in the artist himself: he begins to envy the talent of the student ... When a friend takes the portrait, peace returns to the artist. It soon turns out that the portrait brought misfortune to a friend, and he sold it. The artist understands how much trouble his creation can bring. Having accepted, tonsured a monk, bequeathed to his son to find and destroy the portrait. He says: Whoever has talent in himself must be the purest of all in soul. People listening to the story turn to the portrait, but it is no longer there - someone managed to steal it. So ends the story of N.V. Gogol Portrait.
. "Portrait" - a story about the fate of the artist And the struggle between good and evil in the human soul . The author uses the traditional motif: money, wealth in exchange for a soul . The story touches on many problems: the struggle between good and evil in the soul of a person, the power of money over a person, but the most important - the problem of the purpose of art (art true and imaginary). In this work we meet three painters: this is a young Chartkov , icon painter and his son.
Chartkov is described in the first part. He appears before us quite talented, but poor and murmuring about his fate. The hero of the story "Portrait" - a young gifted artist Chartkov - is poor. Gogol draws the unpretentious life of the artist, the meager furnishings of his dwelling, the shabby dress. in his character, as the professor of painting, Chartkov's teacher, shrewdly noted, there is impatience, he is inclined to succumb to charms, temptations
In ordinary life, weaknesses take on a different form: “the light is already beginning to pull” on him, a “dandy scarf” is tied around his neck, and a “glossy hat” flaunts on his head. He wants to splurge, flaunt. But for the time being, “he could take power over himself,” until an incident occurred that abruptly turned his fate.
The young artist is offended by the fact that fashionable painters draw a few "pictures" and get big money, while he is forced to live in poverty and obscurity. And suddenly he finds himself in an unprecedented situation: he gets everything he dreams of through a mysterious portrait. He does not immediately succumb to temptation, but first decides to buy mannequins and prints and seriously engage in art. But 22 years and youth spoke in him. Inner voice and the desires of the artist oppose his reason. He rushes to buy unnecessary things, spends money on previously inaccessible pleasures.
Why money turned out to be stronger than the artist's talent That is, Chartkov has a talent and a desire to learn, but another part of his soul longs for instant success and fame. And it is this part that overpowers the first. The reason for this was the devilish money that pushed Chartkov to fame, but for which he had to pay with his talent. As a result, a person morally falls.
The artist, the father of the narrator of the second part, committed a sin by painting a portrait of a usurer. He goes to a monastery and becomes a hermit. Here a man passes the way not from talent for death but from committing sin before ascending to goodness . After spending long years in prayers and fasts, he finally takes up the brush and writes the birth of Jesus. The icon painter instructs his twenty-year-old son, also an artist, who is going on a trip to Italy. This artist B. is as young as Chartkov, but as we see from the description of him at the auction, he was an unfashionably dressed young man who was alien to all social upheavals and who did not care about fashion. He, having received a request from his father to find and destroy the portrait, comes to the auction.
In the story fate of three artists brings together pawnbroker portrait, who mysteriously disappears from the auction at the end. We see in the poem two absolutely different artists whose fates are connected by one portrait. But in the first case, the artist goes from talent to death, and in the second - the path from committing sin to good. Gogol speaks of the artist's responsibility for his creation; the main objective painter - "to awaken good feelings". The author shows the reader what a real artist should be like: “he who has talent in himself must be the purest of all in soul.”
Grotesque, fantastical beginning is also present in the story "Portrait", which was included in the collections "Arabesques" and "Petersburg Tales" and is considered the most romantic. It raises several problems: moral responsibility of the artist to himself and art, dependence of talent on fashion and money , and devilish essence of art .
An expressive parallel that clarifies Gogol's thought is one episode from the second part. The usurer who came to the artist (the narrator's father) said to him: “Draw a portrait of me. With extraordinary zeal, he set to work, but, having painted the eyes, he could not finish the portrait, feeling "incomprehensible anxiety." Since then, he has changed. One day he began to paint a new canvas. Everyone unanimously predicted his victory in the competition, when “suddenly one of the members present, if I am not mistaken, a spiritual person, made a remark that amazed everyone. “In the picture of the artist, for sure, there is a lot of talent,” he said, “but there is no holiness in the faces; there is even, on the contrary, something demonic in the eyes, as if an impure feeling was leading the hand of the artist. Everyone looked and could not but be convinced of the truth of these words.
The devilish obsession that has taken possession of the soul involuntarily and, as it were, imperceptibly for the artist (and man) himself, penetrates into his works. And no talent can change the blasphemous content. On the contrary, talent fully reveals the meaning of impure motives, although such a meaning may remain unclear to an inexperienced or "bewitched" look. Giftedness in itself says nothing about the humanity or inhumanity of art. Humanity, according to Gogol, is contained in the heart, in the feelings, in the nature of the artist. But as a result, it is difficult to distinguish between the human (in the language of Gogol - Christian, Divine) and inhuman, diabolical, demonic: both can be depicted skillfully and masterfully.
The artist turned into a hater of art, destroying the works of his talented fellows. The demonic (Gogol compares Chartkov's gaze with that of a basilisk, and his with a harpy that poisons everything around, with a demon that hates and despises the world) begins to grow and expand, acquiring fantastic dimensions: the portrait "doubled, quadrupled in his eyes: all the walls seemed to be hung with portraits who fixed their motionless, living eyes on him. The destruction of the personality is completed by illness, fits of rabies and a terrible death.
The fantastic, revealing the terrible power of the demonic principle, serves in Gogol as a warning about the need to preserve spirituality, to take seriously and responsibly the moral virtues and humanistic content of the individual.
So, having begun to paint secular portraits for the sake of money and thus becoming a fashionable artist, Chartkov was filled with malice and envy of everything beautiful and, in fits of madness, began to destroy works of art.
Thus, the social problem of gold, which destroys the artist, is complicated in the story by a proper aesthetic problem: the goals and purpose of the artist. Therefore, Gogol resorts to the technique of “comparative biography”, giving, in contrast to Chartkov’s story, the story of a schema artist who realized the high religious essence of art and instructed his son in the finale: “A hint of a divine, heavenly paradise is concluded for a person in art, and therefore alone it is already above all. And how many times the solemn peace is higher than any worldly excitement, how many times creation is higher than destruction; how many times an angel with pure innocence alone bright soul above all the untold forces and proud passions of Satan, so many times above everything that is in the world, a lofty creation of art. Sacrifice everything to him and love him with all your passion, not with a passion that breathes earthly lust, but with a quiet heavenly passion; without it, a person has no power to rise from the earth and cannot give wonderful sounds of calm. For to calm and reconcile all, a high creation of art descends into the world.
In contrast to the history of Chartkov, the prehistory of the portrait unfolds. With another artist, the same transformations take place: he also felt envy of the student. But, unlike Chartkov, he understood the secret reasons for his fall and freed himself from the power of the portrait. He found the reason in himself, although she came to him from outside along with the usurer who ordered his image. However, the artist accepted the order, as if letting the demonic element into his soul, and, therefore, assumed full responsibility for the rash act.
Probably the success of Pushkin's " Queen of Spades” prompted Gogol to tell his story about a man who was ruined by a thirst for gold. The author called his story "Portrait". Is it because the portrait of the usurer played a fatal role in the fate of his heroes-artists, whose fates are compared in two parts of the story? Or because Gogol wanted to give a portrait modern society And talented person who perishes or is saved in spite of hostile circumstances and humiliating properties of nature? Or is it a portrait of the art and soul of the writer himself, who is trying to escape from the temptation of success and prosperity and purify his soul by high service to art?
Probably, there is in this strange story N.V. Gogol and social, and moral, and aesthetic meaning, is a reflection on what a person, society, art. Modernity and eternity are intertwined here so inseparably that the life of the Russian capital in the 30s of the 19th century goes back to biblical reflections about good and evil, about their endless struggle in the human soul.
We meet the artist Chartkov at that moment in his life when, with youthful ardor, he loves the heights of the genius of Raphael, Michelangelo, Correggio and despises handicraft fakes that replace art for the layman.
Seeing in the shop a strange portrait of an old man with piercing eyes, Chartkov is ready to pay the last two kopecks for him. Poverty did not take away from him, but perhaps gave him the ability to see the beauty of life and enthusiastically work on his sketches. He reaches for the light and does not want to turn art into an anatomical theater, to expose the “disgusting person” with a knife-brush. He rejects artists whose "nature itself ... seems low, dirty," so that "there is nothing illuminating in it." Chartkov, according to his teacher in painting, is talented, but impatient and prone to worldly pleasures, fuss. But as soon as the money, miraculously falling out of the frame of the portrait, gives Chartkov the opportunity to conduct such a tempting social life and enjoy well-being; wealth and fame, not art, become his idols. Chartkov owes his success to the fact that, by painting a portrait of a secular young lady, who turned out to be bad for him, he was able to rely on selfless work talent - a drawing of Psyche, where the dream of an ideal being was felt, physically felt. But the ideal was not alive, and only by uniting with the impressions of real life did it become attractive, and real life acquired the significance of an ideal. However, Chartkov lied, giving the colorless girl the appearance of Psyche. Flattering for the sake of success, he betrayed the purity of art. And the talent began to leave Chartkov, betrayed him. “Whoever has a talent in himself, he must be purer in soul than anyone else,” the father says to his son in the second part of the story. Gogol writes a story that the artist, like all people, is subject to the temptation of evil, but destroys himself and his talent more terrible and faster than ordinary people. Talent not realized in genuine art, talent, parted with good, becomes destructive for the individual.
Chartkov, who for the sake of success conceded truth to goodness, ceases to feel life in its multicoloredness, variability, and trembling. His portraits console, entertain, "enchant" customers, but do not live, they do not reveal, but close the personality, nature. And despite the fame of a fashionable painter, Chartkov feels that he has nothing to do with real art, capable of elevating, purifying, moving towards the search for a new one ... wonderful picture the artist, who for several years, starving, experiencing deprivation, avoided all pleasures, studied in Italy, shocked Chartkov. But the shock he experienced does not awaken him to a new life, because for this it is necessary to give up the pursuit of wealth and fame, to kill the evil in himself. Chartkov chooses a different path worthy of "insignificance from art": he begins to expel the divine from the world, buy up and cut magnificent canvases, and kill the good. And this path leads him to madness and death.
An artist who has touched evil, painted the usurer's eyes, which "looked demonically crushing", can no longer paint good, his brush is driven by an "impure feeling", and in the picture intended for the temple, "there is no holiness in the faces."
Gogol shows us three stories of different artists. There is a lesson to be learned from every story. They are known to have been endowed with a talent from God. But then God is powerless: everyone disposes of his talent as he wants and as he can. Everyone decides for himself what his talent will serve: good or evil. But, as I have already noticed, villainy and genius are incompatible things. What follows from this? And the fact that if an artist serves evil, then his genius, his talented beginning will certainly perish. Yes, this will help him achieve some goals, but at the same time, it will take away the most sacred from him. Chartkov chose evil. But, realizing this, he did not try to change, like the artist who created the usurer, but continued his “devilish” work - this time he began to destroy the works of those who did not betray their talent for the sake of the “golden god”.
Tolstykh Natalya Anatolyevna 2009THE LESSON IS GOING ON..
ON THE. Tolstykh
"THE WHO HAS INCLUDED TALENT IN HIMSELF, THE CLEANER SHOULD BE A SOUL"
STUDYING POVESTIN.V. GOGOL "PORTRAIT." IN 8TH CLASS
The literature program for the 8th grade, compiled by A. Kutuzov, takes N.V. Gogol's "Portrait" two hours. Ego is one of the key works in which the author expresses his innermost thoughts, but, unfortunately, quite often the attention of eighth-graders is focused only on the fantastic plot and entertaining plot. That is why serious and deep work with the text is necessary, analytical reading should be the leader in these lessons.
First lesson. "Fame cannot give pleasure to the one who stole it and did not deserve it." (The fate of the artist Chartkov).
At the beginning of the lesson, general information about the work: the story was written in 1835 and was included in the collection "Arabesques". Later, in 1842,
N.V. Gogol returns to it, makes changes, and its second edition appears. These seven years of work on the story reflected the author's intense thoughts about the artist's destiny and the extent of his responsibility for his talent.
At the first lesson, we draw students' attention to the two-part composition of the story and work on the first part. Asking questions about its content, we gradually build an idea of the main character - the artist Chartkov ( portrait characteristic, environment, lifestyle). At this stage of the lesson, students cope well with tasks, attract text, draw the right conclusions: creative person, talented artist Chartkov lives in a poor area, suffers need, material deprivation. Where does this lead? He is forced to think not about creativity, but about how to pay off his debts and what to eat tomorrow. The constant lack of money limits his freedom.
How does Chartkov become rich?
In an absolutely fantastic way, he receives a thousand chervonets. (Here it is enough to confine oneself to a simple retelling of the episode by one of the students).
How does the hero dispose of the received wealth?
"Hot youth" wants "to get everything from life", and Chartkov spends money on fashionable clothes, Tasty food, moves to new apartment on Nevsky Prospekt ... It is unlikely that such behavior young man deserves categorical condemnation. But there is great temptation in the availability of so much that money can buy. And so
Natalya Anatolyevna Tolsty1x - teacher of Russian language and literature! MOU SOSH No. 163 (Yekaterinburg).
it already seems to Chartkov that you can buy everything, even fame, without applying special efforts. Why work, experience the throes of creativity, dreaming of fame? After all, it is the subject of purchase and sale.
How does Chartkov become famous?
For money, a custom-made article “On the extraordinary talents of Chartkov” appears in a “walking newspaper”. Reading an article in class helps students feel that artistic technique, as the author's irony, without which it is impossible to imagine Gogol. Irony is permeated with praise to the artist who took out " happy ticket from the lottery. And now Chartkov is on a par with another "fashionable" artist named Zero.
What is further fate hero?
He loses the wonderful vision of the artist, painting becomes a craft for him, it ceases to be a miracle. And now, instead of human soul he sees "only uniforms, but a corset, and a tailcoat." For money, he fulfills any desire of the customer: "Whoever wanted Mars, he thrust Mars in the face, who aimed at Byron, he gave him Byron's position and turn."
Thanks to what does Chartkov's enlightenment occur? Did it save him?
Thanks to the painting, brought from Italy, "it became clear even to the uninitiated what an immeasurable gulf exists between creation and a simple copy from nature." Chartkov also understood this, but the insight was too late. “The attacks of rage and insanity began to appear more often. it all turned into the most terrible disease.” Rabies, madness - this is retribution for the betrayal of one's talent. “He began to buy up all the best that only art produced. Having bought the picture at a high price, he carefully brought it into his room and, with the fury of a tiger, rushed at it, tore it, tore it, cut it into pieces and trampled it underfoot, accompanying it with laughter of pleasure. The innumerable riches he had accumulated provided him with every means to satisfy this infernal desire. He untied all his golden bags and opened the chests. Never has a monster of ignorance destroyed so many beautiful works how many this ferocious avenger has exterminated. This is what he spent his wealth on.
Who is to blame for such a tragic outcome?
For some eighth graders, the answer to this
the question seems obvious: mysterious portrait. After all, the artist Chartkov thinks so: “As he remembered his whole strange story, as he remembered that in some way he, this strange portrait,
was the reason for his transformation, that the treasure of money he received in such a miraculous way gave birth in him to all the vain impulses that ruined his talent - almost rage was ready to burst into his soul. He immediately ordered the hateful portrait to be taken away. Chartkov hated the portrait, but not himself. Involuntarily, an analogy arises with Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (the novel was read by students to the lesson extracurricular reading). Trying to destroy the portrait, in which Dorian's beautiful face becomes more terrible and uglier with every disgusting act of his, the hero kills himself. In Wilde's novel, the portrait personifies conscience. In Gogol's story, the portrait is given a different role - the role of a tempter testing a person: can he resist, can he save his soul? Is the portrait the reason for everything? Isn't the artist himself to blame for the failure of his creative destiny the way he dreamed in his youth? According to Gogol, the hero could not stand the test of wealth and lost his talent, exchanging it for comfort, pleasure and bought glory. Unable to resist the temptation, he betrayed the talent with which he was gifted, and the retribution for betrayal is late repentance, when nothing can be corrected, and madness from the realization of the irreparable deed.
Lesson two. "Talent is the most precious gift of God... Whoever has talent in himself, he must be purer than all in soul." (The theme of the vocation of the artist and the role of art in the story of N.V. Gogol "Portrait").
The second part of the story turns out to be much more difficult for eighth graders in terms of perception, understanding and interpretation. Here one cannot do without the comments of the teacher, who should lead the students to comprehend the idea of a work of art.
So, who is depicted in the portrait?
This question does not cause difficulties, but special attention should be paid to the remark characterizing the usurer depicted in the portrait: “The devil, the perfect devil!” Is this parallel coincidental? Both the one and the other are capable of capturing a person completely.
Why does a usurer approach an artist with a request to paint his portrait?
The usurer explains this by his unwillingness to “die completely”, by the fact that “he needs to be present in the world”, that is, to maintain his former power over people. Doesn't this mean that he truly believes in magical power art capable of giving immortality?
How is the portrait going?
While painting a portrait of a usurer, the artist "felt some painful, anxious feeling, incomprehensible to himself", "painted it with disgust, did not feel at that time any love for his work." He tells his son: “Forcibly I wanted to conquer myself and soullessly, drowning out everything, to be true to nature. It was not a creation of art, and therefore the feelings that embrace everyone when looking at it are already rebellious feelings, disturbing feelings - not
feelings of the artist, for the artist breathes peace even in anxiety. “Such a strange aversion, such an incomprehensible burden” revived in his soul, that “he became frightened,” he threw the cysts and flatly refused to finish the work. But it is not possible to get rid of the portrait: “in the morning he received a portrait from the usurer, which was brought to him by some woman, the only creature who was in his services, who immediately announced that the owner did not want the portrait, did not give anything for him and sends back." The artist's intention to "cut him to pieces and burn him" was thwarted by friends who accidentally came to visit. No, it is not so easy to destroy what already exists, to which the painter gave life. The portrait begins to live its own life, it “walks from hand to hand and dispels lingering impressions, giving rise in the artist a feeling of envy, gloomy hatred for his brother, an evil thirst for persecution and oppression.”
How does the future fate of the artist develop?
“Perceptible change in character”, envy of a student, participation and defeat in a painting competition “for a newly built rich church”, deaths of loved ones, monasticism, hermitage.
What role did the portrait of the usurer play in the life of the artist?
Working on a portrait, the artist feels how a "demonic feeling of envy" takes possession of him. All the figures in the painting, painted for the church, “have no holiness in their faces; even, there is something demonic in the eyes, as if an impure feeling was leading the artist's hand. This means that not only the artist created a portrait, but the portrait also created an artist. Creating a portrait in a state of complete discord with himself, the artist took sin into his soul, and a sinner cannot paint a saint. Even in the monastery, where the painter “astounded all the brethren by the severity of his life, vigilant observance of all the monastic rules,” the demand of the abbot “was written main image in the church,” he refuses, explaining that “he is not worthy of taking up cysts, that it is defiled, that by labor and great sacrifices he must first cleanse his soul.” Without dumping his own guilt on anyone for having become an instrument of evil, the artist comes to understand the need for repentance. And that's why at the end of the story, the reader is presented with a "beautiful, almost divine old man." (Here you can compare the portraits of two artists: the elder monk and Chartkov before his death. “The look of the basilisk”, “the monster of ignorance, “fierce avengers”, “ scary demon”,“ like a harpy ”,“ hellish intention ”- this is far from a complete set of figurative and expressive means that help to understand author's attitude to Chartkov. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of work on the story, Gogol's hero wore speaking surname Chertkov).
How the composition of the story helps to understand main idea works?
At the very beginning of work on the story, we already noted that it consists of two parts, which are connected by mysterious properties and the history of
creepy portrait. But this is clearly not enough to explain the writer's intention. The two parts of the story are not just and not just a story about a portrait, this is, first of all, an antithesis, an opposition life positions two artists who could not resist the temptation. One of them, Chartkov, was not devoid of talent and in his youth showed great promise: “Young Chartkov was an artist with a talent who prophesied a lot: flashes and moments of his cysts evoked observation-bodily, consideration, a strong impulse to get closer to nature.” deep meaning the words of the professor are filled with words, who warned Chartkov more than once: “... You have a lot of talent; it will be a sin if you destroy him.” And the artist worked to complete self-forgetfulness: "At times he could forget everything, mistaking them for cysts, and broke away from her only as from a beautiful interrupted dream." But he became an ally of the devil, succumbing to the temptation: "Kazalosa, he personified ... a terrible demon." He was unable to save his soul, and art without a soul ceases to be art. Gogoly writes about his hero: "Gold made him a passion, an ideal, fear, pleasure, a whole." But the whole and the passion of a real artist can only be art. The spiritual death of the hero preceded the physical death. Another painter, who is narrated in the second part of the story, following the lead of the devil and realizing the sins of his act, commits spiritual feat, which allowed him to turn to the gospel story of the Nativity of Jesus. So, according to the author, a person can stumble, succumbing to temptation, because he is weak, but this is not the worst crime. A person decides for himself whether he will serve good or evil, and this decision is not given to anyone easily. A special measure of responsibility lies with the artist, who must bring light, goodness, harmony into the world, and not destroy them. At the end of the story, the artist instructs his son: “Esta's talent is the most precious gift of God - do not destroy it. A hint of a divine, heavenly paradise is concluded for a person in the
art, and for that alone it is already above all. And how many times the solemn peace is higher than any worldly agitation, how many times the created ones are higher than the destruction. - a hundred times higher than anything
the best in the world, the highest created art. Sacrifice everything to him and love him with all your passion... He who has a talent in himself must be purer in soul than anyone else. Much will be forgiven to another, but he will not be forgiven. A person who left the house in bright festive clothes costs just a single spot of dirt splashed from under the wheel. And already the scales of the people surrounded him, and pointed at him with a finger, and talked about his slovenliness, while the same people did not notice the many spots on other passers-by, dressed in everyday clothes. For on everyday clothes you do not notice spots. The mission of an artist in this world is akin to a divine mission, since real art heals the soul. Religious service to art is a moral feat.
The stories of N.V. Gogol provides rich material for reflection. The author seems to tempt the reader: hasn't something important slipped away from him, hasn't he only seen what lies on the surface? Of course, this is true, but the life and reading experience of 8th grade students is not yet so great for them to fully realize all the complexities and depth of this writer. The main conversation about Gogol is yet to come. Our task was to create a situation in the lesson of the need to refer to the text when answering questions, the solution of which is vital for both classic writers and today's readers.
Homework. Written answers to the question in the form of an essay-reasoning (optional):
1. At the end of the first edition of the story, the terrible portrait of the usurer disappears before everyone's eyes. In the second edition, the portrait is stolen. What is the meaning of such an ending?
2. What, in your opinion, is the role of art in the modern world?
