“A faithful wife to her husband is not at all a wonder!”

The poem "Count Nulin" is a parody work. Pushkin parted with his romantic illusions and sentimental plots with the help of parody. Pushkin’s poetic quests are connected with this poem.

The poem reworks the historical legend about Sextus Tarquinia and Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, which is the basis for Shakespeare's tragedy. This tragic situation, taken from history, is moved by Pushkin into modern life, where a slap in the face of a rake had no consequences.

Pushkin, thus, tries to rethink history through modernity.

In “Count Nulin” - as in Pushkin’s romantic poems - descriptions occupy a key place. But here they are of a fundamentally different character than in the poems of the southern period. They are not musical, but objective, they are built on the truth of particulars, everything in them is true not by the lofty truth of feelings, but by every little thing, by every individual object. The very language of the descriptions, and the whole poem too, is completely different here; it is not similar to what Pushkin had before: it conveys not the general, but the specific everyday authenticity of the real:

In a night cap, in one handkerchief,

Sleepy-eyed wife

Looking out the window angrily

To the gathering, to the kennel alert...

Here they brought the mine to my husband;

He grabs the withers and the stirrup leg,

He shouts to his wife: don’t wait for me!

And he goes out onto the road...

The hero mistakes hospitality and curiosity out of boredom for flirting and too quickly moves on to action. Having received a decisive rebuff from the hostess, the count is surprised, even discouraged. He absolutely does not understand how to behave in this situation.

With the advent of a new hero, the owner of the estate, the dynamics of the action change. A.S. Pushkin is fluent in the technique of verbal characterization of a hero. The speech of the landowner, who has not yet cooled down from the hunt, the excitement of the chase, is based on fragmentary phrases and inconsistency of questions. It seems that he is not talking, but pronouncing a monologue. This is also a characteristic of the character, a self-satisfied, straightforward and narrow-minded, but kindly and simple-hearted person. The landowner is simple-minded, sees everyone around him as “friends”, he is quite a hospitable and hospitable host:

What bad weather!

At the forge I saw yours

A completely ready crew...

Natasha! There by the garden

We hunted the hare...

Hey, vodka! Count, please try...

However, poetic audacity is felt in the entire atmosphere of the poem “Count Nulin”: in its light and unexpected plot twists, in the paradoxical surprise of its comparisons, in its simultaneously light and strong irony. It is remarkable that even the significant parallel of Nulin with Tarquin, and Natasha with Lucretia, which lived in Pushkin’s consciousness, is played out unexpectedly ironically in the very text of the poem:

To Lucretia Tarquin new

I went ready for anything.

So sometimes the crafty cat

The maid's cutesy minion,

Sneaks after the mouse from the bed...

In “Count Nulin” Pushkin reveals to the reader the unexpected and captivating in its freshness “humor of common sense” - the poetry of “common reason”. With his poem, Pushkin shows the poetic possibilities of realism - and this was the great significance of his poem. Significance both for Pushkin himself and for all Russian literature.

"Bronze Horseman"

The short poem combines history and modernity, the hero’s private life with historical life, reality with myth.

Poem by A.S. Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman” was written in 1833 during the era of the emergence of realism. In this era, literature was accurate, reliable, truthful and life-like, therefore, already from the preface the reader understands that the work is realistic, because Pushkin describes that it is based on real events: “The incident described in this story is based on the truth.” A realistic hero is a generalized image, a typical representative of a specific era. Evgeniy is poor, ordinary, “a man like many.”

In the poem “The Bronze Horseman,” Pushkin conveys the violence of the Neva in all its complexity, which is typical for a realistic work:

The weather became more ferocious

The Neva swelled and roared,

A cauldron bubbling and swirling,

And suddenly, like a beast, going berserk,

She rushed towards the hail.

*flood occurred in 1824

Pushkin uses many epithets, compares the river with a beast and a thief. These means of artistic expression emphasize the emotional tension and tragedy of the disaster being described.

Pushkin also brilliantly and realistically described the day after the flood, when people, having recovered from the disaster, live their lives, go to work, and calculate the damage. Only Evgeniy cannot recover from the shock. He leaves the apartment, lives on the pier, eats what is served, and soon dies.

Historical and philosophical poem

The poem contains two themes: the theme of Peter, the “miraculous builder,” and the theme of the “little” man (this theme has worried P. since the 1820s). The story of the tragic fate of an ordinary resident of St. Petersburg, who suffered during a flood, became the plot basis for historical and philosophical generalizations related to the role of Peter in the modern history of Russia, with the fate of his brainchild - St. Petersburg.

The story about the flood forms the first semantic plan of the poem - historical.

The appearance of Peter1 from the “introduction” to the ending of the poem changes - it loses its human features and becomes more and more impersonal.

The elements pushed Eugene to think about his fate, and the man in him woke up. Is human life really worth nothing? The rebellious element, which destroyed Evgeniy's dreams of happiness, subsided in the city, but overflowed into Evgeniy's soul.

The gap between the interests of the private individual and the state is the central problem of the poem.

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is Pushkin’s grandiose philosophical reflection on the progressive course of history. The introduction is compositionally contrasted with two parts in which the plot of the “St. Petersburg story” unfolds. It gives a majestic image of Peter the transformer, carrying out the great national work that many generations have dreamed of - the strengthening of the Russian state on the shores of the Baltic Sea:

From here we will threaten the Swede,

The city will be founded here

To spite an arrogant neighbor

Nature destined us here

Open a window to Europe...

Peter appears here both as the conqueror of nature itself, its elements, and as the embodiment of the victory of culture and civilization over the savagery and backwardness that for centuries reigned “on the shores of desert waves” before him.

Pushkin composed a poetic hymn to the mighty power of the mind, will and creative work of a person capable of such a miracle as the construction of a great and beautiful city, a symbol of a new, transformed Russia, from the “darkness of forests” and “topi blat”.

This is an example of a man who, it seemed, could predict the turn in the course of history and turn Russia into its new direction, could, it turns out, become the “master of fate” not only of his own, but of all of Russia:

O mighty lord of fate!

Aren't you above the abyss?

At a height, in the grip of an iron...

Raised Russia on its hind legs?

Yes, Peter raised Russia on its hind legs, but also on the rack at the same time. Autocrat and tyrant. A man of power, corrupted by this power, using it for great and low. A great man who demeans other people. Herzen wrote: “Peter I is the most complete type of the era or the executioner genius called to life, for whom the state was everything and the person was nothing, he began our hard labor of history, which lasted a century and a half and achieved colossal results.” These words can be used as an epigraph to The Bronze Horseman.

...A hundred years pass, Peter’s brilliant plan has been realized. The appearance of St. Petersburg - “Peter's creation” - Pushkin paints with a feeling of pride and admiration. The lyrical part of the introduction ends with a hymn to Peter and his cause, the inviolability of which is the guarantee of the dignity and greatness of Russia renewed by him:

Show off, city Petrov, and stand

Unshakable, like Russia.

But the sublime pathos of the introduction gives way to the sad story of the subsequent chapters. What did Peter's reforms lead to? Has it become better for an ordinary, poor person? Pushkin tells the life story of a poor official Evgeniy, who is tenderly in love with Parasha.

Eugene’s dreams of family happiness and personal independence are quite legitimate, but, alas, they are not destined to come true. The spontaneous disturbance of nature, opposed to the reasonable will of Peter, brings death to both Parasha and all the poor people.

Pushkin transfers the clash between the elements and the rational activity of Peter to the social and philosophical plane. Eugene is no longer opposed by Peter the reformer, but by the autocratic order that is personified in the bronze statue (“an idol on a bronze horse”). Eugene feels the power of Peter’s despotism, which appeared to him in the image of the Bronze Horseman, a “proud idol.” And he bravely challenges him: “Already you! ..." But the rebellion of a desperate loner is meaningless. Having barely challenged his idol, Evgeniy, horrified by his own audacity, runs away. Broken, crushed, he ends his days pitifully.

But what about the proud horseman, “the ruler of half the world”? All the tension, the whole climax of the poem is in the eerie, mystical picture that followed Eugene’s challenge.

He runs and hears behind him

It's like thunder

Heavy ringing galloping

Along the shaken pavement.

And, illuminated by the pale moon,

Stretching out your hand on high,

The Bronze Horseman rushes after him

On a loud galloping horse.

It turns out that the pitiful cry of the poor madman was enough for the proud idol to lose peace and begin to pursue his victim with satanic zeal.

The poem can be assessed in different ways. Many saw it as a celebration of strong state power, which has the right to neglect the fate of an individual for the sake of the common good. But there is something else in Pushkin’s poem - a hymn to humanism, sympathy for the “little man” who rebelled against the “fatal will.”

The will of Peter, the inconsistency of his actions, is the point of symbolic conjugation of all the plot components of the story about the poor St. Petersburg official - natural, fantastic, historical, mysteriously connected with the fate of post-Petrine Russia.

The greatness of Peter, the progressiveness of his actions turn into the death of a poor man who has the right to happiness. The conflict between the state and the individual is inevitable. The individual always suffers defeat when his interests come into conflict with the autocratic order. Harmony between the individual and the state cannot be achieved on the basis of an unjust social order. This idea of ​​Pushkin is confirmed by the entire tragic history of our country.

The complexity and apparent inconsistency of the composition of the poem lies in the alternation and interweaving of two main themes: the “Petrine” theme, dedicated to the “powerful lord of fate”, the creator of the “young city”, and the theme of the “insignificant hero” - Eugene, with his personal drama generated by the blind elements . These two themes alternate and intertwine, united by the image of the city, which has become a symbol of the new Russia, its greatness and its suffering. The image of St. Petersburg runs through the entire poem - from the first lines of the Introduction, where “on the shore of desert waves” its founder thinks about the great future city, to the final lines about the “small island” on the seaside, where the “insignificant hero”, freed by death from suffering. From the very beginning, St. Petersburg aroused an ambivalent attitude towards itself. Adherents of the reformer tsar saw in the “young city” the embodiment of the new Russia, transformed, in the words of N. M. Yazykov, “by the iron will of Peter,” and in this they found justification for the enormous sacrifices that the Russian people made for the sake of its creation. Supporters of the preservation of Moscow antiquity, Old Believers, peasants, who were driven to build the city and covered the swamps on which it was built with their bones, saw in the new city the creation of the devil, and in its founder - the embodiment of the Antichrist, the enemy and destroyer of the human race. Such a dual attitude towards Peter and his creation remained alive later, changing its forms, but retaining its main features.

This is where the legendary, mythological background comes from, which surrounds and accompanies the entire history of St. Petersburg, starting with the ancient image of an eagle, which, according to an official legend, soared over the head of Peter at the moment when he laid the first stone of the future city on May 16, 1703. “The idea of ​​the “Bronze Horseman” came to Pushkin as a result of the following story, which was conveyed to him by the famous Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky. In 1812, when the danger of invasion threatened St. Petersburg, Tsar Alexander Pavlovich intended to take away the statue of Peter the Great, and State Secretary Molchanov was allocated several thousand rubles for this item. In the reception room of the book. A. N. Golitsyn, a Freemason and spirit seer, got into the habit of going to a certain Major Baturin. He achieved a meeting with the prince (a friend of the Tsarev) and told him that he, Baturin, was haunted by the same dream. He sees himself on Senate Square. Peter's face turns. The horseman rides off his cliff and heads through the streets of St. Petersburg to Kamenny Island, where Alexander Pavlovich then lived. Baturin, drawn by some miraculous force, rushes after him and hears the tramp of copper on the pavement. The horseman enters the courtyard of the Kamenno-Ostrovsky Palace, from which a thoughtful and preoccupied sovereign comes out to meet him. “Young man, what have you brought my Russia to?” Peter the Great says to him. - “But as long as I’m there, my city has nothing to fear!” Then the rider turns back, and the heavy ringing gallop is heard again. Struck by Baturin’s story, Prince Golitsyn, a dreamer himself, conveys the dream to the sovereign, and while many state treasures and institutions are transported into the interior of Russia, the statue of Peter the Great is left alone.” Here, therefore, Peter the Great appears once again as the patron god of the city he created, in the ancient, Greco-Roman manner. Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman” is a work that has no equal not only in his work, but also in all Russian poetry over a century and a half of its history, in terms of artistic perfection, depth of problematics, originality of design and construction. The originality of the poem's concept lies in the combination of the external simplicity of the plot with the depth of its historical and philosophical problems. The plot is based on the fate of one of the St. Petersburg petty officials, an “insignificant hero,” whose life was destroyed by a tragic event in the history of the city - the flood of 1824; hence the subtitle of the poem - “The Petersburg Tale.” As for historical and philosophical issues, they are determined by the image of Peter the Great. In the Introduction to the poem, this is a living image of a great historical figure, the creator of a renewed Russia and the builder of its new capital, who, standing “on the shore of desert waves,” looks into the distance - not only into the wide expanse of the Neva and its banks, but also into the distance of future centuries. For the second time, already a hundred years later, Peter appears in the image of the Falconet monument, moreover, in two “faces”, two hypostases: during a flood - as the patron genius of the city, standing

In unshakable heights

Above the indignant Neva

and protecting his capital from destruction; at the end of the poem - as a “powerful ruler of fate”, “by whose fatal will the city was founded under the sea”, as a “proud idol” and, finally, as a “formidable king”, whose instant anger puts the “insignificant hero” to flight. This monumental image gave the poem its title. Due to the unprecedented condensation of the poem (the shortest of all Pushkin’s poems), every word, every verse of it is unusually weighty and significant, which partly explains the desire of many authors to look in it for allegories, hidden, secondary meaning, some secret that needs to be revealed. But of all such fortune-telling definitions, only one has real significance: the symbolism of the overall structure of the poem, that is, the two-dimensionality of specific images and positions, which, despite their reality, contain a broad and generalizing historical and philosophical meaning. The disclosure of this symbolism should be based on the direct and specific content of the poem’s images, on the analysis of its plot lines and its characters. There are only two main lines. They develop at first independently of one another, then they meet, collide and diverge. This is the line of Peter the Great and the line of the official Eugene. Pushkin's poem begins with an Introduction - a depiction of that historical moment when, in May 1703, the thought of founding a new city, a new capital, in a place where, it would seem, no construction is possible, is born in the mind of Peter. But this idea is justified by the entire subsequent course of the history of the transformed state. And the poet addresses the new city that has emerged in just a hundred years from this “darkness of forests”, from “topi blat”, with words full of love and admiration, despite the fact that in other cases his attitude towards St. Petersburg is ambivalent and skeptical, and he sometimes sees in it a lush city, a poor city, the characteristic features of which are the Spirit of bondage, a slender appearance, the pale green vault of heaven, boredom, cold and granite . The lyrical appeal to the city, “Peter’s creation,” where the word “I love” is repeated five times, ends with a kind of spell in which “the city of Petrov,” as a symbol of the entire renewed state created by the tsar-reformer, is called upon to show off and stand “unshakably, like Russia " But this spell is already a transition from the wonderful history of the “young city” to the recent futile uprising of the “defeated elements” - to the “terrible time”, which is “freshly remembered”, i.e. to the flood of November 7, 1824, which forms the basis of the plot . The figure of Peter then disappears from the poem for a long time, and its second character appears, constituting the antithesis of the first - the “insignificant hero,” the young official Eugene.

Lives in Kolomna; somewhere he serves, is shy of the nobles and does not worry about deceased relatives, nor about forgotten antiquities.

Eugene is a descendant of an ancient noble family, which became impoverished and fell, obviously after Peter and as a result of his reforms. Pushkin gave the hero of “The Bronze Horseman” such a clearly negative trait as oblivion of his ancestors (“deceased relatives”) and historical antiquity in order to show more clearly and comprehensively his “insignificance”, his belonging to the impersonal, but characteristic of St. Petersburg, mass of small officials. For the same purpose, he made his bride, who bears the democratic, or, more precisely, bourgeois, name of Parasha, the daughter of a poor widow. Evgeniy’s dreams on the night before the flood also bear the stamp of limited thoughts and desires, a limitation that has confused the researchers of The Bronze Horseman more than once. In the further development of the plot of the poem, Eugene’s noble origin is not mentioned at all. Eugene's first meeting with Peter - a monument clad in bronze - takes place one on one during a great national disaster, on a square flooded with raging waves, during the hours of the greatest fury of the flood. But the “Idol with an outstretched hand,” turned with its back to the man who found salvation “on a marble beast astride,” confronts the waves with his chest, motionless and confident in his victory over the elements. And the rebellious Neva, powerless in the fight against him, “fed up with destruction and tired of insolent violence,” retreats, like a “fierce gang” fleeing from a robbed village, “dropping the prey on the way.” But if the “Idol on a Bronze Horse” is a winner over the elements, over the rebellious Neva, then, on the other hand, it should be contrasted in the perception of readers (although this is not directly stated in the poem) by the “late tsar” - Alexander I, who could only , sitting on the balcony of the Winter Palace, looking “in thought, with sorrowful eyes” at the “evil disaster.” Eugene, who found salvation from the waves “on a marble beast”, appears to us here in a new capacity - a Man in the highest sense of the word, who “feared, poor thing, not for himself” and all of whose spiritual forces were directed towards one point - to the old house in the distant Galernaya harbor, where his Parasha and his mother lived. And here for the first time the thought of the injustice of the world appears to him, a tragic and sorrowful question:

And life is nothing like an empty dream, the mockery of the sky above the earth ?...

This ends the first part of the poem: the city has held out, and the waves, having won a temporary victory, retreat. And then Evgeny commits a heroic act, which, it would seem, could not be expected from him - he takes the second step on the path from an impersonal official to a Man: he crosses “over the terrible waves” that threaten death, to Vasilyevsky Island, where he rushes to Galernaya Harbor , to a dilapidated house, the home of his bride. The description of Evgeniy’s desperate run along a “familiar street” “to familiar places” that he “cannot recognize”, so they are mutilated by the flood, turned into a “battlefield”, where bodies are lying around as if after a battle - this description belongs to the most dynamic and imaginative in all of Pushkin's poetry. Unusually expressive, for all its simplicity, is the image of the fate that awaits him

with unknown news, Like with a sealed letter.

The search that follows from scratch, “where their house is,” the perplexed and tragic question “Where is home?” are resolved with one word, but full of deep meaning: He laughed, in which the madness that gripped Eugene is expressed with all its strength. After this, for a long time, almost a whole year (until the time when “the days of summer were turning to autumn”), Evgeniy - “poor, poor Evgeniy” - having lost his human appearance, becomes

neither beast nor man, neither this nor that, nor the inhabitant of the world, nor a dead ghost ...

One seemingly insignificant circumstance brings him out of this inhuman state: an involuntary return to the same place where, on the day of the flood, he spent painful hours “on a marble beast astride”, and, most importantly, to the place where, as then,

right in the dark heights Above the fenced rock, the Idol with outstretched hand sat on a bronze horse.

Here the second meeting of Eugene takes place. This meeting is enough for the madman, who “remembered vividly” the “past horror,” to clear his mind for a few moments and regain both the ability to reason and a hostile feeling, a desire for retribution against the one against whom he attacked in the first meeting, on the day of the flood , began to look at him as the culprit of the disaster - indifferent, standing with his back to him and thereby to the whole people. The revolt against the “idol” represents the highest point of Eugene’s human self-awareness, the culmination of the entire poem, the moment to which all its plot threads seem to be pulled together. Belinsky, who probably knew about the existence in the manuscript of words that were not in print, addressed by Eugene to the monument and containing a threat of future retribution, drew attention to the enormous importance of this moment:

Welcome, miraculous builder! Already for you! -

From Belinsky's time and after these words became known and published, the interpretation of them by one critic or another determined his overall understanding of Pushkin's poem. Without these words, “The Bronze Horseman” lost its meaning, and it is understandable why Pushkin, having become convinced of the impossibility of fulfilling the will of the tsar-censor, that is, to withdraw them, refused to publish the mutilated work. But the image of the antagonist Eugene - that “ruler of half the world” against whom the insane official rebelled, who became a Man in the highest sense of the word, is also of great and deep significance. Nowhere in Pushkin’s work does Peter I appear in such pronounced “two-facedness” as in this scene at the monument. First, this is the “miraculous builder,” the creator of a renewed Russia, bringing the poet (and not Eugene) into sacred awe:

What a thought on the brow! What power is hidden in it! And what fire there is in this horse!

Evgeniy throws out his challenge, his threat. In an instant, the “formidable king,” two-faced and contradictory, about the duality of which Pushkin has written more than once since a long time ago, turns his “inflamed with anger” face to the Man who rebelled against him and, striking him with fear, puts him to flight and pursues him all night. Eugene here is a Man, in the highest sense of the word, representing many, many of the same “insignificant heroes” who died or suffered from the brilliant, but ruthless thought of the “builder”. Having rebelled against the “powerful lord of fate,” the insignificant madman became equal to him. And the “proud idol” felt the strength of his opponent - not physical, of course, but spiritual, and even more dangerous.) Pushkin was a staunch opponent of the despotic and inhuman forms of Russian autocracy established by Peter the Great. Therefore, in his eyes, the uprising of Eugene (albeit powerless) is historically natural, but the anger against the rebel from the “power of half the world” is also natural, and this anger humiliates him, revealing his second face - the face of a despot.

And life is nothing like an empty dream,
The mockery of the sky above the earth.
A. Pushkin

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin more than once turned to the image of Peter G and St. Petersburg, closely connected with him. The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is a kind of hymn to the city and its founder, but at the same time it is a condemnation of Peter I for building the capital in a ruined place. Here Pushkin takes the position of a “little man” who judges his surroundings from the point of view of his own benefit, his own vision of the world.
The introduction to the poem gives a majestic image of Peter I and the magnificent city: And he thought:

From here we will threaten the Swede.
The city will be founded here
To spite an arrogant neighbor.
Nature destined us here
Open a window to Europe.
Stand with a firm foot by the sea.
Here on new waves
All flags will visit us...

Pushkin loves the northern capital with its European layout, the powerful and indomitable Neva. This city is beautiful, and the poet declares his love for it:

I love you, Petra's creation,
I love your strict, slender appearance,
The Neva is a sovereign current. Its coastal granite.

The introduction sounds solemn and majestic, but at the end the author seems to accidentally throw out a phrase that alarms readers, creates a certain intrigue, interest and at the same time warns:

It was a terrible time
The memory of her is fresh...
About her, my friends, for you
I'll start my story.

The main character of the poem, a petty official named Eugene, reflecting on life, would like to be smarter and richer, like “slow-minded sloths.” The hero dreams of happiness, he is not averse to getting married:

But well, I'm young and healthy.
Ready to work day and night;
I’ll arrange something for myself
Shelter humble and simple
And in it I will calm Parasha.

Evgeniy realistically assesses his capabilities. He needs little from life: peace and family happiness. Simple thoughts, but so much worldly wisdom in them. The hero's thoughts are interrupted by anxiety about bad weather. Bad forebodings oppress Evgeniy. Describing the flood, the poet resorts to expressive vocabulary, an abundance of verbs, sharp and chopped phrases appear. He used the same method when describing the Battle of Poltava in the poem “Poltava”. This perfectly conveys the dynamics of quickly changing action.
Describing the stormy Neva, Pushkin uses inversion (reverse word order), fragmentary, inconsistent phrases, creating the atmosphere of those days, the panicky state of people, sometimes using military vocabulary:

Siege! attack! evil waves.
Like thieves, they climb into windows. Chelny
From a running start the windows are smashed by the stern...
...and Petropol surfaced...

It’s a beautiful poetic comparison, but there’s so much drama behind it, broken destinies and lives:

People
He sees God's wrath and awaits execution.
Alas! everything perishes: shelter and food!
Where will I get it?

In the narration, the sympathetic voice of the author is clearly heard; he is not an outside observer of the raging elements, but a participant in dramatic events, truthfully telling about his experiences. We meet again with Eugene, sitting on a marble lion, afraid to even think what could have happened to his beloved Parasha, who lives near the bay:

But now, having had enough of destruction
And I got tired of insolent violence,
Neva was drawn back.
Admiring your indignation.

As soon as the subdued elements allowed, Eugene rushed to his beloved’s house and found nothing. Everything was demolished and destroyed by the waves. Unable to bear what he saw, the hero goes crazy:

Alas! his confused mind
Against terrible shocks
I couldn't resist.

Now Evgeniy lives in his own world, unknown to people, eking out a miserable existence. Our hero wanders aimlessly through the city, alien to his suffering and loss. The hero briefly remembers the terrible grief that befell him. He blames “the hero sitting on a horse” for everything. The author's words replace the chaotic thoughts and feelings of a madman. The poet asks on behalf of all Russians:

O mighty lord of fate!
Aren't you right above the abyss?
At a height, with an iron bridle, he raised Russia on his hind legs?

Yes, St. Petersburg is beautiful, but at what a high price it was given to the people! We know from history how many generations of peasants it took to build it! And now he stands magnificent and cold to human suffering. A city that has become a symbol of a renewed Russia, striving to stand worthily alongside European capitals. It was a success. But the life of ordinary people inhabiting this city is hard and difficult. They suffer and suffer, cry and die, and Pushkin, as a true humanist artist, could not remain indifferent to their suffering.

Lesson objectives:

1. Educational. Continue acquaintance with the work of A.S. Pushkin, consider the image of Peter I.
2. Developmental. Improve poetry analysis skills. Introduce a new concept - metonymy.
3. Educational. Promote patriotic education.

Decor:

1. Paintings by artists (the image of Peter I in painting and sculpture).
2. Epigraph. “It is not only possible, but also necessary to be proud of the glory of your ancestors.” (A.S. Pushkin)
3. Dictionary.

Lyrics are a type of fiction that reflects life through a person’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

A poem is a large work of poetry with a detailed plot. The poem depicts outstanding events of the past and present, famous heroes.

Metonymy is a comparison of phenomena by similarity, when a phenomenon or object is denoted using other concepts or words.

Parallelism is a type of repetition, a compositional technique that emphasizes the connection between several elements of a work of art, analogy, and the bringing together of phenomena by similarity.

During the classes.

I. Teacher's opening speech.

Announcement of the topic, lesson objectives, epigraph.

As you can see, we turn again and again to the history of our Motherland. The entire design suggests that we will continue our acquaintance with the era of Peter I, Peter the Great. Writers and artists can create portraits in different ways.

How did artists and sculptors see Peter?

(The screening of the video film “Portraits of Peter I” is accompanied by a story by the director, actor Nikita Mikhalkov).

This image is depicted in the monument of the famous sculptor Falconet “The Bronze Horseman”. And the works of A.S. became a kind of monument to the deeds, the image of Perth I. Pushkin. He has his own vision of this image.

And what attracts the poet A.S. Pushkin in the image of Peter?

Why does he repeatedly turn to the era of Peter I?

How to explain his interest in this person?

(A.S. Pushkin, as a true artist, considered it necessary to resurrect the past centuries, turning to history. And Peter I attracted him as a person, in him the poet saw a transformer of Russia, a reformer, an outstanding statesman who thought about the fate of Russia, “Russia reared up." A.S. Pushkin wrote: "Russia entered Europe like a deflated ship, with the sound of an ax and cannons. But the wars undertaken by Peter the Great were beneficial and fruitful. The success of the people's transformation was a consequence of the Battle of Poltava, and the European enlightenment has landed on the shores of the conquered Neva.”)

We have already seen the attitude of A.S. Pushkin to Peter in the poem “Poltava”, with an excerpt from which we became acquainted.

How is Peter I shown in the poem? At what historical moment did the poet capture the sovereign?

(1709. Battle of Poltava. Peter I is a commander, a patriot of his Fatherland, a decisive, impetuous, ideal military leader, opposed to Charles XII. This is a national historical feat. This is a great deed for the benefit of Russia. Peter I acted in the name of the interests of peace and unity within country and its strengthening as a great power. The victory over Sweden ended the struggle of the Russian people for Russia's access to the sea, the struggle for the strengthening of the Russian state. Peter is a hero. He is characterized by beauty, strength, greatness, power. “And he rushed in front of the regiments, mighty and joyful as battle...").

Today we turn again to the era of Peter and will see it from the other side at the time of the construction of St. Petersburg. Let's get in touch with this time, once again see the immortality of Peter's deeds and understand its significance in the history of Russia.

1. And it all started like this... (Video excerpt from the feature film “Peter the Great”).

This is an opinion about Peter the Great, left in history. A.S. expressed his opinion about this man. Pushkin in the poem “The Bronze Horseman”.

1. Reading a passage.

Let's set the task: how will we see Peter?

III. Analysis of the work.

1. The poem “The Bronze Horseman” was written in 1833 during the Boldino autumn, the most fruitful time of Pushkin’s year.

2. By genre it is a poem, i.e. a lyric-epic work.

What is a poem? What are its characteristic features?

(A poem is one of the genres of lyric-epic works. The poem has a plot, events, which are typical for an epic work, and an open expression by the author of his feelings, his attitude to the events described, as in a lyrical work).

Since we are getting acquainted with the introduction to the poem, and not with the entire poem, there is no plot as such.

3. Let us dwell on the features of the lyrical work.

What feelings does the poet have towards Peter I and his actions?

(Admiration, admiration, pride for him, for his deeds, what he did for the state).

What genre is the introduction close to? (Ode is a poem of an enthusiastic nature (solemn, glorifying) in honor of a person or event) The introduction is written in the tradition of the Lomonosov ode in a high syllable. The text contains Slavicisms (otsel, grad, decrepit, full), techniques of oratory (imperative intonation, solemnity, sound organization of speech). The genre of introduction chosen by the poet emphasizes in the image of Peter his statesmanship and patriotism.

2. Italic: He; epithet “full of high thoughts.”

Already in stanza 1, find folklore traditions in the depiction of the greatness and power of a historical figure.

(A.S. Pushkin uses epic methods of depicting a historical figure: a broad view of the world “strengthens” the hero’s personality - “he is full of great thoughts.” Peter is given against the backdrop of a vast space that has to be conquered and transformed!

4. Highlighting the semantic parts of the work.

(Stanzas are parts; they can be visually distinguished).

1. Peter’s plan to create a city on the banks of the Neva.

2. The result of Peter’s activities after 100 years - “Peter’s creation”

3. Attitude of A.S. Pushkin to the city of St. Petersburg.

I topic.

Why did Peter I plan the transformation?

(This is a historical necessity).

What needs to be done in the interests of the state?

(It is necessary to conquer nature in order to build a city - to conquer everything for the sake of state goals).

• “from now on we will threaten the Swede,”
• “here the city will be founded”,
• “to open a window to Europe” in order to bring Russia out of centuries-old isolation and elevate its role on the world stage,
• “to stand firm with your foot by the sea”,
• “all the flags will come to visit us.”

We remember that the banks of the Neva, the area where St. Petersburg was later founded - the original Russian lands - in the time of Peter belonged to Sweden, and the Russian people fought for them, for the right to have access to the sea. It was here, on the banks of the Neva by the sea, that, according to Peter, it was necessary to found a city and a fortress in order to protect Russia from attacks by the Swedes, in order to gain a foothold at the outlet to the sea “to spite the arrogant neighbor” - Sweden, which did not want Russia to have it.

? How do you understand the meaning of the expression:

Nature destined us here
Open a window to Europe...

Peter I thought that the founding of a city at the mouth of the Neva would provide an opportunity to establish trade and cultural ties with Europe. Pay attention to expressiveness metaphors

“Cut a window to Europe.”

? What is the meaning of the lines:

Here on new waves
All flags will be visiting us.

With the founding of a city by the sea, when Russia’s ties with the whole world are strengthened, ships from all countries will sail to the shores of the Neva. Here the word “flags” is used instead of the words “ships of different countries”. This kind of expression, when a part is called instead of the whole (a flag instead of a ship) or a singular number instead of a plural (“From here on we will threaten the Swede”) are called metonymy.

To at to see the result of Peter’s activities, one must imagine What it was and What became.

This is the method parallelism(a compositional device that emphasizes the connection between phenomena by similarity).

What did the poet want to say by painting these 2 pictures?

(All has changed in 100 years! Human a determined, strong person can overcome anything. The power of his creativity is limitless! Through the efforts of the people, a magnificent city was created in a desert, swampy area).

What is the attitude of A.S. Pushkin to the city of St. Petersburg?

Why does the poet love his city?

The poet loves the city for its “strict, slender appearance.” St. Petersburg was built like a new city according to a strict plan: straight and wide streets radiating or intersecting at right angles, beautiful buildings in the spirit of ancient Greek or Roman architecture.

The poet loves the “Neva sovereign current,” that is, the powerful, strong, majestic current of a mighty river.

The poet is fascinated by the “cast iron fence pattern.” The city was already famous at that time for its artistic latticework of gardens and bridges.

The poet loves white nights, they dispose him to be thoughtful: this is “transparent twilight”, “moonless brilliance”, when the poet wants to create, to go into his creative thoughts.

For Pushkin, St. Petersburg is the personification of statehood.

5. Conflict in a literary work.

The plan of Peter I was realized at the cost of violence against nature and people. The introduction to the poem is intended to lead to an understanding of the main conflict - history and personality.

Conflict is a clash, a struggle, on which the development of the plot is built.

What conflicts were the students able to identify?

1. Conflict – man and nature. (Peter I won because his goals were common, state, historical. The victory of man over the elements, a victory that raised a magnificent capital from the “topi blat”. Man must conquer nature, but nature will take revenge - flood).

2. Conflict – the interests of the common man and the interests of the state collided. The image of Peter here is a symbol of state power, a symbol of the country’s movement forward. Petersburg was built by the power of Peter I at the cost of enormous sacrifices, but this was necessary to resolve state issues. The fate of the hero of the poem Eugene, who became a victim of a natural disaster in a city that is a symbol of the country’s power, is tragic. But this is still a historical necessity, and such transformations were not within the power of every king.

For what actions did Peter I go down in history?

His brainchild is the city of St. Petersburg, which is already more than 300 years old! This is a living monument, “beauty and wonder.”

IV. Lesson summary.

As shown by A.S. Pushkin Peter I in this passage?

From what other side did the poet reveal Peter I to us?

The poem “Stanzas” (1826) contains lines about Peter I.

Now an academician, now a hero,
Either a sailor or a carpenter,
He is an all-encompassing soul
The eternal worker was on the throne.

Do you agree with Pushkin?

Peter is a hero, a navigator, an eternal worker on the throne.

Peter is the pride of Russia, the glory of Russia.

And how right Pushkin was when he said: “It is not only possible, but also necessary to be proud of the glory of your ancestors.”

V. Homework.

1. Excerpt by heart.
2. How does the poet convey his attitude towards the city on the Neva?

What artistic media does he use? (Write them out).

If the term “masterpieces of Pushkin’s creativity” is acceptable, then the poem “The Bronze Horseman” undoubtedly belongs to their number. Historical, philosophical, lyrical motifs merged into a single artistic alloy. And the “St. Petersburg story,” as Pushkin defined it by genre, acquired those features of scale that make it possible to classify “The Bronze Horseman” as an “eternal,” priceless monument of poetry that has not been fully solved.

At the center of the poem is the personality of Peter I, the great transformer, whose activities constantly interested the poet, because

That the era of Peter the Great was one of the major turns in the history of Russia.

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is Pushkin’s grandiose philosophical reflection on the progressive course of history. The introduction is compositionally contrasted with two parts in which the plot of the “St. Petersburg story” unfolds. It gives a majestic image of Peter the transformer, carrying out the great national work that many generations have dreamed of - the strengthening of the Russian state on the shores of the Baltic Sea:

From here we will threaten the Swede,

The city will be founded here

To spite an arrogant neighbor

Nature destined us here

Open a window to Europe...

Peter appears here both as the conqueror of nature itself, its elements, and as the embodiment of the victory of culture and civilization over the savagery and backwardness that for centuries reigned “on the shores of desert waves” before him.

Pushkin composed a poetic hymn to the mighty power of the mind, will and creative work of a person capable of such a miracle as the construction of a great and beautiful city, a symbol of a new, transformed Russia, from the “darkness of forests” and “topi blat”.

This is an example of a man who, it seemed, could predict the turn in the course of history and turn Russia into its new direction, could, it turns out, become the “master of fate” not only of his own, but of all of Russia:

O mighty lord of fate!

Aren't you above the abyss?

At a height, in the grip of an iron...

Raised Russia on its hind legs?

Yes, Peter raised Russia on its hind legs, but also on the rack at the same time. Autocrat and tyrant. A man of power, corrupted by this power, using it for great and low. A great man who demeans other people. Herzen wrote: “Peter I is the most complete type of the era or the executioner genius called to life, for whom the state was everything and the person was nothing, he began our hard labor of history, which lasted a century and a half and achieved colossal results.” These words can be used as an epigraph to The Bronze Horseman.

...A hundred years pass, Peter’s brilliant plan has been realized. The appearance of St. Petersburg - “Peter's creation” - Pushkin paints with a feeling of pride and admiration. The lyrical part of the introduction ends with a hymn to Peter and his cause, the inviolability of which is the guarantee of the dignity and greatness of Russia renewed by him:

Show off, city Petrov, and stand

Unshakable, like Russia.

But the sublime pathos of the introduction gives way to the sad story of the subsequent chapters. What did Peter's reforms lead to? Has it become better for an ordinary, poor person? Pushkin tells the life story of a poor official Evgeniy, who is tenderly in love with Parasha.

Eugene’s dreams of family happiness and personal independence are quite legitimate, but, alas, they are not destined to come true. The spontaneous disturbance of nature, opposed to the reasonable will of Peter, brings death to both Parasha and all the poor people.

Pushkin transfers the clash between the elements and the rational activity of Peter to the social and philosophical plane. Eugene is no longer opposed by Peter the reformer, but by the autocratic order that is personified in the bronze statue (“an idol on a bronze horse”). Eugene feels the power of Peter’s despotism, which appeared to him in the image of the Bronze Horseman, a “proud idol.” And he bravely challenges him: “Already you! ..." But the rebellion of a desperate loner is meaningless. Having barely challenged his idol, Evgeniy, horrified by his own audacity, runs away. Broken, crushed, he ends his days pitifully.

But what about the proud horseman, “the ruler of half the world”? All the tension, the whole climax of the poem is in the eerie, mystical picture that followed Eugene’s challenge.

He runs and hears behind him

It's like thunder

Heavy ringing galloping

Along the shaken pavement.

And, illuminated by the pale moon,

Stretching out your hand on high,

The Bronze Horseman rushes after him

On a loud galloping horse.

It turns out that the pitiful cry of the poor madman was enough for the proud idol to lose peace and begin to pursue his victim with satanic zeal.

The poem can be assessed in different ways. Many saw it as a celebration of strong state power, which has the right to neglect the fate of an individual for the sake of the common good. But there is something else in Pushkin’s poem - a hymn to humanism, sympathy for the “little man” who rebelled against the “fatal will.”

The will of Peter, the inconsistency of his actions, is the point of symbolic conjugation of all the plot components of the story about the poor St. Petersburg official - natural, fantastic, historical, mysteriously connected with the fate of post-Petrine Russia.

The greatness of Peter, the progressiveness of his actions turn into the death of a poor man who has the right to happiness. The conflict between the state and the individual is inevitable. The individual always suffers defeat when his interests come into conflict with the autocratic order. Harmony between the individual and the state cannot be achieved on the basis of an unjust social order. This idea of ​​Pushkin is confirmed by the entire tragic history of our country.