The history of creation and analysis of the poem "The Bronze Horseman" by A.S. Pushkin. Historical thought in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" What is the theme of the poem "The Bronze Horseman"

For some reason, some believe that the year when the poem "The Bronze Horseman" was written is 1830. An analysis of biographical information makes it possible to unequivocally state that Pushkin created it in 1833. This is one of the most perfect and striking works of Alexander Sergeevich. The author in this poem convincingly showed all the inconsistency and complexity of the turning point in Russian history. It should be emphasized that the poem occupies a special place in the work of Alexander Sergeevich. The poet in it tried to solve the problem of the relationship between the state and the individual that is relevant at all times. This topic has always been at the center of the author's spiritual quest.

Genre features

According to a tradition that has developed for a long time, a poem is a work that has a lyrical or narrative character. If initially it was rather a historical creation, then for some time the poems began to acquire more and more romantic coloring. It was due to a tradition popular in the Middle Ages. Even later, moral-philosophical, personal issues come to the fore. The lyrical-dramatic aspects begin to intensify. At the same time, the central characters or one character (this is typical for the work of romantic writers) are drawn in the poem as independent personalities. They cease to be snatched by the author from the historical flow. Now these are not just vague figures, as before.

The image of a little man in Russian literature

The little man in Russian literature is one of the cross-cutting themes. Many writers and poets of the 19th century turned to her. A.S. Pushkin was one of the first to touch upon her in his story "The Stationmaster". Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoevsky and many others continued this theme.

What is the image of the little man in Russian literature? This person is small in social terms. He is on one of the lowest levels of the social hierarchy. In addition, the world of his claims and spiritual life is extremely poor, narrow, filled with many prohibitions. Philosophical and historical problems do not exist for this hero. He is in the closed and narrow world of his vital interests.

Eugene is a small person

Consider now the image of a small man in the poem "The Bronze Horseman". Eugene, her hero, is a product of the so-called St. Petersburg period of Russian history. He can be called a little man, since the meaning of Yevgeny's life is to gain bourgeois well-being: family, good place, Houses. The existence of this hero is limited to family concerns. He is characterized by innocence to his past, since he does not yearn for either the forgotten antiquity, or the deceased relatives. These features of Eugene are unacceptable for Pushkin. It is thanks to them that this character is the image of a small man in the poem "The Bronze Horseman". Alexander Sergeevich deliberately does not give detailed description this hero. He does not even have a last name, which suggests that any other person can be put in his place. The figure of Eugene reflected the fate of many such people, whose life fell on the St. Petersburg period of history. However, the image of a little man in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" is not static, it is transformed in the course of the story. We will talk about this below.

View of Peter and Eugene

Eugene in the flood scene sits with his hands clasped in a cross (which seems to be a parallel with Napoleon), but without a hat. Behind him is the Bronze Horseman. These two figures are looking in the same direction. Nevertheless, Peter's view is different from that of Eugene. With the king, he is directed into the depths of centuries. Peter doesn't care about fate ordinary people because it solves mainly historical problems. Eugene, who represents the image of a small man in the poem "The Bronze Horseman", looks at the house of his beloved.

The main difference between Peter and Eugene

The following main difference can be identified by comparing the bronze Peter with this hero. The image of Eugene in A. S. Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" is characterized by the fact that this character has a heart and soul, he has the ability to feel, knows how to worry about the fate of the person he loves. It can be called the antipode of Peter, this idol on a bronze horse. Eugene is able to suffer, dream, grieve. That is, despite the fact that Peter reflects on the fate of the entire state, that is, he is concerned about the improvement of the lives of all people, in an abstract sense (including Eugene, who should become a resident of St. Petersburg in the future), in the eyes of the reader, Eugene, and not the king, becomes more attractive . It is he who awakens in us a living participation.

Flood in the fate of Eugene

For Yevgeny, the flood that occurred in St. Petersburg turns into a tragedy. It makes a real Hero out of this nondescript person. Yevgeny This, of course, brings him closer to the characters of romantic works, since madness - the popular Yevgeny wanders the streets of a city hostile to him, but the rebellious noise of the winds and the Neva is heard in his ears. It is this noise, together with the noise in his own soul, that awakens in Yevgeny what was the main sign of a person for Pushkin - memory. The hero leads to Senate Square the memory of the flood. Here he meets the bronze Peter for the second time. Pushkin splendidly described what a tragically beautiful moment it was in the life of a humble poor official. His thoughts suddenly cleared up. The hero understood what was the cause of both his own misfortunes and all the troubles of the city. Eugene recognized their culprit, the man by whose fateful will the city was founded. Hatred for this ruler of the semi-world was suddenly born in him. Eugene passionately wanted to take revenge on him. The hero is in revolt. He threatens Peter, coming up to him: "Already you!" Let's make a brief analysis of the rebellion scene in the poem "The Bronze Horseman", which will allow us to discover new features in the image of Eugene.

Protest

The inevitability and naturalness of protest is born due to the spiritual evolution of the hero. His transformation is shown artistically convincingly by the author. The protest raises Yevgeny to a new life, tragic, high, which is fraught with inevitable imminent death. He threatens the king with future retribution. The autocrat is terrified of this threat, because he is aware of the great power hidden in this little man, a protester, a rebellion.

At that moment, when Eugene suddenly begins to see clearly, he turns into a Man in his connection with the family. It should be noted that in this passage the hero is never named by name. This makes him somewhat faceless, one of many. Pushkin describes the confrontation between the formidable tsar personifying the autocratic power and the Man who is endowed with memory and has a heart. The promise of retribution and a direct threat are heard in the whispers of the hero who has seen the light. For them, the revived statue, "ignited" with anger, punishes this "poor madman."

Madness Eugene

The reader understands that Yevgeny's protest is a single one, and besides, he pronounces it in a whisper. However, the hero must be punished. It is also symbolic that Eugene is defined as a madman. According to Pushkin, madness is an unequal dispute. From the position common sense the performance of one person against a powerful state power is real madness. But it is "holy", because silent humility brings death.

"The Bronze Horseman" is a philosophical, social poem. Pushkin shows that only a protest can save a person from a moral fall in the conditions of ongoing violence. Alexander Sergeevich emphasizes that resistance, an attempt to be indignant, to give a voice will always be the best way out than resignation to a cruel fate.

Pushkin A. S. The Bronze Horseman, 1833 The method is realistic.

Genre - poem.

History of creation . The poem "The Bronze Horseman" was written in Boldin in the autumn of 1833. In this work, Pushkin describes one of the most terrible floods that occurred in 1824 and brought terrible destruction to the city.

In the work "The Bronze Horseman" there are two main characters: Peter I, who is present in the poem in the form of a reviving statue of the Bronze Horseman, and the petty official Eugene. The development of the conflict between them determines the main idea of the work.

Plot. The work opens with an "Introduction", in which Peter the Great and his "creation" - Petersburg are famous. In the first part, the reader gets acquainted with the main character - an official named Eugene. He lies down, but cannot fall asleep, entertained by thoughts of his situation, that bridges have been removed from the rising river and that this will separate him from his beloved Parasha, who lives on the other side, for two or three days. The thought of Parasha gives rise to dreams of marriage and a future happy and modest life in the family circle, together with a loving and beloved wife and children. Finally, lulled by sweet thoughts, Eugene falls asleep.

However, very soon the weather deteriorates and the whole of St. Petersburg is under water. At this time, on Petrovskaya Square, astride a marble statue of a lion, the motionless Eugene sits. He looks at the opposite bank of the Neva, where his beloved and her mother live in their poor house very close to the water. With his back to him, towering above the elements, "the idol on a bronze horse stands with outstretched hand."

When the water subsides, Evgeny discovers that Parasha and her mother have died and their house is destroyed, and loses his mind. Almost a year later, Eugene vividly recalls the flood. By chance, he ends up at the monument to Peter the Great. Yevgeny threatens the monument in anger, but suddenly it seems to him that the face of the formidable king is turning to him, and anger sparkles in his eyes, and Yevgeny rushes away, hearing the heavy clatter of copper hooves behind him. All night the unfortunate man rushes about the city, and it seems to him that the rider with a heavy stomp is galloping after him everywhere.

P problematics. A brutal clash of historical necessity with the doom of private personal life.

The problem of autocratic power and the disadvantaged people

“Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you lower your hooves?” - a question about the future Russian state.

Several thematic and emotional lines: the apotheosis of Peter and Petersburg, the dramatic narration of Eugene, the author's lyricism.

Intention: a symbolic clash of two polar opposite forces - an ordinary little man and the unlimited powerful force of an autocratic state

Eugene The image of a shining, lively, magnificent city is replaced in the first part of the poem by a picture of a terrible, destructive flood, expressive images of a raging element over which a person has no power. The element sweeps away everything in its path, carrying away fragments of buildings and destroyed bridges, “pale poverty’s belongings” and even coffins “from a washed-out cemetery” in streams of water. Among those whose lives were destroyed by the flood is Eugene, whose peaceful cares the author speaks at the beginning of the first part of the poem. Eugene is an “ordinary man” (“small” man): he has neither money nor ranks, he “serves somewhere” and dreams of making himself a “humble and simple shelter” in order to marry his beloved girl and go through life with her.

The poem does not indicate either the hero's surname or his age, nothing is said about Yevgeny's past, his appearance, character traits. By depriving Yevgeny of individual features, the author turns him into an ordinary, faceless person from the crowd. However, in an extreme, critical situation, Eugene seems to wake up from a dream, and throws off the guise of "insignificance" and opposes the "copper idol".

Peter I Since the second half of the 1820s, Pushkin has been looking for an answer to the question: can autocratic power be reformist and merciful? In this regard, he artistically explores the personality and state activities of the “reformer tsar” Peter I.

The theme of Peter was painful and painful for Pushkin. Throughout his life, he repeatedly changed his attitude towards this epoch-making image for Russian history. For example, in the poem "Poltava" he glorifies the victorious king. At the same time, in Pushkin's notes for the work "The History of Peter I", Peter appears not only as a great statesman and the king-worker, but also as an autocratic despot, tyrant.

The artistic study of the image of Pyotr Pushkin continues in The Bronze Horseman. The poem "The Bronze Horseman" completes the theme of Peter I in the work of A. S. Pushkin. The majestic appearance of the Tsar-Transformer is drawn in the very first, odically solemn, lines of the poem:

On the shore of desert waves

He stood, full of great thoughts,

And looked into the distance.

The author contrasts the monumental figure of the king with the image of a severe and wildlife. The picture, against which the figure of the king appears before us, is bleak. In front of Peter's eyes is a wide-spread, rushing into the distance river; around the forest, "unknown to the rays in the fog of the hidden sun." But the gaze of the ruler is fixed on the future. Russia must establish itself on the shores of the Baltic - this is necessary for the country's prosperity. Confirmation of his historical correctness is the execution of "great thoughts". A hundred years later, at the time when the plot events begin, the "city of Petrov" became the "midnight" (northern) "diva". “Victory banners” wind at the parades, “huge masses are crowded along the banks”, ships “crowd from all over the earth” come to the “rich marinas”.

The picture of St. Petersburg not only contains an answer to Peter's plan, it glorifies the mighty power of Russia. This is a solemn hymn to her glory, beauty, royal power. The impression is created with the help of elevating epithets (“city” - young, magnificent, proud, slender, rich, strict, radiant, unshakable), reinforced by the antithesis with “desert” nature hostile to man and with “poor”, miserable” her “stepson” - little man. If the huts of the Chukhons "blackened ... here and there", the forest was "unknown", sunbeams, and the sun itself is hidden "in the fog", then light becomes the main characteristic of St. Petersburg. (shine, flame, radiance, golden skies, dawn).

Nature itself strives to drive away the night, "spring days" have come for Russia; The odic meaning of the depicted picture is also confirmed by the fivefold repetition in the author's speech of the admiring "I love."

The author's attitude to Peter the Great is ambiguous . On the one hand, at the beginning of the work, Pushkin utters an enthusiastic hymn to the creation of Peter, confesses his love for the “young city”, before the splendor of which “old Moscow faded”. Peter in the poem appears as "Idol on a bronze horse", as "a powerful master of fate".

On the other hand, Peter the Autocrat is presented in the poem not in any specific deeds, but in the symbolic image of the Bronze Horseman as the personification of inhuman statehood. Even in those lines where he admires Peter and Petersburg, an intonation of anxiety is already audible:

O mighty lord of destiny!

Are you not so above the abyss,

At a height, an iron bridle

Raised Russia on its hind legs?

The tsar also appears before Eugene as a “proud idol”. And this idol is opposed by a living person, whose “brow” burns with wild excitement, “embarrassment”, “flame” is felt in the heart, the soul “boils”.

Conflict . The conflict of the "Bronze Horseman" consists in the collision of the individual with the inevitable course of history, in the opposition of the collective, public will (in the person of Peter the Great) and the personal will (in the person of Eugene). How does Pushkin resolve this conflict?

Opinions of critics about which side Pushkin is on differed. Some believed that the poet justified the right of the state to dispose of a person's life and takes the side of Peter, as he understands the need and benefit of his transformations. Others consider Yevgeny's sacrifice unjustified and believe that the author's sympathies are entirely on the side of "poor" Yevgeny.

The third version seems to be the most convincing: Pushkin, for the first time in Russian literature, showed all the tragedy and insolubility of the conflict between the state and state interests and the interests of the private individual.

Pushkin depicts the tragic conflict of two forces (personality and power, man and state), each of which has its own truth, but both of these truths are limited, incomplete. Peter is right as a sovereign, history is behind him and on his side. Eugene is right as an ordinary person, humanity and Christian compassion are behind him and on his side

The plot of the poem is completed, the hero died, but the central conflict remained and was transferred to the readers, not resolved and in reality itself, the antagonism of the “tops” and “bottoms”, the autocratic power and the destitute people remained.

The symbolic victory of the Bronze Horseman over Eugene is a victory of strength, but not of justice. The question remains” “Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you lower your hooves?” It's metaphorically expressed main question for the author, the question of the future of the Russian state.

(Search for an answer) The problem of the people and power, the theme of mercy - in « Captain's daughter» . Even in troubled times it is necessary to preserve honor and mercy.

“... The best and most lasting changes are those that come from the improvement of morals, without any violent upheavals”

Human relationships should be built on respect and mercy

Good is life-giving

The image of the natural element in the poem by A. S. Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman"

The Bronze Horseman is the first urban poem in Russian literature. The theme of the poem is complex and multifaceted. The poem is a kind of reflection of the poet about the fate of Russia, about its path: European, associated with the reforms of Peter, and original Russian. The attitude towards the deeds of Peter and the city that he founded has always been ambiguous. The history of the city was presented in various myths, legends and prophecies. In some myths, Peter was presented as the “father of the Fatherland”, a deity who founded a certain intelligent cosmos, a “glorious city”, a “beloved country”, a stronghold of state and military power. These myths originated in poetry and were officially encouraged. In other myths, Peter was the offspring of Satan, the living Antichrist, and St. Petersburg, founded by him, was a “non-Russian” city, satanic chaos, doomed to inevitable disappearance.

Pushkin created synthetic images of Peter and Petersburg. Both concepts complement each other. The poetic myth about the founding of the city is developed in the introduction, focused on the literary tradition, and the myth about its destruction, flooding - in the first and second parts of the poem.

Two parts of the story depict two rebellions against autocracy: the rebellion of the elements and the rebellion of man. In the finale, both of these rebellions will be defeated: poor Eugene, who until recently desperately threatened the Bronze Horseman, will reconcile himself, the enraged Neva will return to its course.

It is interesting in the poem that the riot of the elements itself is depicted. The Neva, once enslaved, "taken prisoner" by Peter, has not forgotten its "old enmity" and with "vain malice" rises up against the enslaver. The "defeated element" is trying to crush its granite fetters and is attacking the "slender masses of palaces and towers" that arose at the behest of the autocratic Peter. The city turns into a fortress besieged by the Neva.

The Neva River, on which the city lies, outraged and violent:

In the morning over her shores

Crowded crowds of people

Admiring the splashes, the mountains

AND foam of furious waters.

But by the force of the wind from the bay

Blocked Neva

Went back , angry, vehement,

And flooded the islands.

… From the disturbed depth

the waves rose and got angry,

There the storm howled

There were debris...

The story of the flood acquires a folklore-mythological coloring. The enraged Neva is compared now with a frenzied "beast", then with "thieves" climbing through the windows, then with a "villain" who burst into the village "with his ferocious gang." In the poem there is also a mention of a river deity, the violence of the elements is compared with it:

… water suddenly

Flowed into underground cellars,

Channels poured to the gratings,

And Petropolis surfaced like a triton,

Immersed in water up to my waist.

For a moment it seems that the "defeated element" triumphs, that Fate itself is for it: “The people \ Sees God's wrath and awaits execution. \ Alas! everything is dying…”

The rebellion of the elements depicted by Pushkin helps to reveal the ideological and artistic originality of the work. On the one hand, Neva water element- part of the urban landscape. On the other hand, the anger of the elements, its mythological coloring, reminds the reader of the idea of St. Petersburg as a satanic city, non-Russian, doomed to destruction. Another function of the landscape is associated with the image of Eugene, the "little man". The flood destroys Eugene's humble dreams. It turned out to be disastrous not for the city center and its inhabitants, but for the poor who settled on the outskirts. For Eugene, Peter is not "ruler of the half world" but only the culprit of the disasters that befell him, the one “…whose fateful will \ Under the sea the city was founded…”, who did not take into account the fate of small people not protected from disaster.

The surrounding reality turned out to be hostile for the hero, he is defenseless, but Eugene turns out to be worthy not only of sympathy and condolences, but at a certain moment is admired. When Eugene threatens the "proud idol", his image acquires the features of a genuine heroism. At these moments, the miserable, humble inhabitant of Kolomna, who has lost his home, a beggar tramp, dressed in decayed rags, is completely reborn, for the first time strong passions, hatred, desperate determination, the will for revenge flare up in him.

However, the Bronze Horseman achieves his goal: Eugene resigns himself. The second rebellion is defeated, like the first. As after the riot of the Neva, "everything went back to the old order." Eugene again became the most insignificant of the insignificant, and in the spring his corpse, like a corpse

vagabonds, fishermen buried on a deserted island, "for God's sake."

USE Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman"

Read the given fragment of the text and do tasks B1-B7; C1-C2.

Complete tasks B1-B7. Write down your answer in the form of a word, a combination of words, or a sequence of numbers.

Then, on Petrova Square,

Where a new house has risen in the corner,

Where above the elevated porch

With a raised paw, as if alive,

There are two guard lions

On a marble beast,

Without a hat, hands clenched in a cross,

Sitting motionless, terribly pale

Eugene. He was afraid, poor

Not for myself. He didn't hear

As the greedy wave rose,

Washing his soles,

How the rain hit his face

Like the wind, howling violently,

He suddenly ripped off his hat.

His desperate eyes

Pointed at the edge of one

They were motionless. Like mountains

From the disturbed depth

The waves got up there and got angry,

There the storm howled, there they rushed

The wreckage… God, God! there -

Alas! close to the waves

Near the bay

The fence is unpainted, yes willow

And a dilapidated house: there they are,

Widow and daughter, his Parasha,

His dream... Or in a dream

Does he see it? or all of our

And life is nothing, like an empty dream,

Heaven's mockery of the earth?

And he, as if bewitched,

As if chained to marble

Can't get off! around him

Water and nothing else!

And turned his back on him

In the unshakable height

Over the perturbed Neva

Standing with outstretched hand

Idol on a bronze horse.

IN 1. Specify the genre of the work

AT 2. In which city do the events described in this story take place?

Answer: __________________________________

VZ. In The Bronze Horseman, Pushkin created a generalized artistic image Eugene as a "little man". What term is used to call such images?

Answer: __________________________________

AT 4. In the above fragment, A.S. Pushkin uses a technique based on the repetition of homogeneous consonant sounds. Name it.

… Like mountains

From the disturbed depth

The waves got up there and got angry,

There the storm was angry, there they rushed

Wreckage…

Answer: __________________________________

AT 5. A.S. Pushkin calls Peter I "an idol on a bronze horse." Indicate the trope, which is the replacement of a proper name with a descriptive phrase "

Answer: __________________________________

AT 6. Name the figurative and expressive means of the language, based on the comparison of objects or phenomena.

… or all of our

And life is nothing like an empty dream,

Heaven's mockery of the earth?

Answer: __________________________________

AT 7. The poet in The Bronze Horseman perceives the flood not only as a natural phenomenon, but also as an analogue of life's storms and hardships. What is the name of such a symbolic image, the meaning of which goes beyond the limits of the objective meaning?

Answer: __________________________________

To complete tasks C1 and C2, give a coherent answer to the question in the amount of 5-10 sentences. Rely on the author's position, if necessary, state your point of view. Justify your answer based on the text. Performing task C2, select for comparison two works of different authors (in one of the examples, it is permissible to refer to the work of the author who owns the source text); indicate the titles of the works and the names of the authors; justify your choice and compare the works with the proposed text in the given direction of analysis.

Write down your answers clearly and legibly, following the rules of speech.

C1. What role does the description of various natural phenomena play in this fragment?

(C1. How did the fate of Yevgeny change under the influence of the devastating flood?)

C2. In what works of Russian literature are natural forces involved in the fate of the characters, as in The Bronze Horseman, and in what ways are their roles similar?

As in the poem by A.S. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" is the power of the state opposed to the tragedy of the "little man" Yevgeny?

Use quotes and terms!!!

1. In the introduction, it is necessary to say about the time of writing the work, about the subject or problems of the poem, name the conflict of the work, which is indicated in the topic.

2. In the main part of the essay, we reveal the main conflict of the work.

- The majestic image of Peter in the introduction to the poem. Glorification of the sovereign power of Russia. The historical necessity of the founding of the city.

- The tragedy of the "little man" Eugene.

- A symbolic clash of two polar opposite forces - an ordinary little man and the unlimited powerful force of an autocratic state in the images of the Bronze Horseman and Eugene.

Conflict resolution. The victory of force, but not of justice.

3. In conclusion:

- a specific answer to the question stated in the topic. (How ...? - Symbolically in the images of the flood as an analogue of life's storms and hardships. Symbolically in the images of the Bronze Horseman and the driven, resigned Eugene.

In the second Boldino autumn, Pushkin wrote the poem "The Bronze Horseman", one of the highest and eternal creations of his poetic spirit. The original theme of the poem is the theme of Peter: everything in the poem begins with it. This theme in its historical and moral aspect has long occupied Pushkin. The Stanzas were devoted to a large extent to her. She was to play an important role in the unfinished novel Peter the Great's Moor. She was one of the leading in the poem "Poltava".

With the latter, the Bronze Horseman has especially close points of contact. Written in 1828, Poltava, not only in its final part, but on the whole, was inspired by the thought of Peter. Hence many important features poems - ideological and stylistic. The shadow of the great Peter fell on the whole creation of Pushkin and determined the general coloring of the historical picture; she determined, in particular, the author's attitude to all the heroes of the poem. Consciously or unconsciously, Pushkin judges all the heroes in the name of Peter and passes judgment on them in his own name. This is connected with a certain one-dimensionality and unambiguity in the depiction of heroes, unusual for Pushkin in other cases. Belinsky wrote about this in relation to Mazepa: "... in Mazepa we see one meanness of an intriguer who has grown old in intrigues." Let us recall that Pushkin showed the Pretender in Boris Godunov far from being so unilinear.

Unlike "Boris Godunov", "Poltava" is full of not only historical, but also moralizing pathos. This is a poem, "one-center", in a certain sense, "one-hero". Everything in it, one way or another, is connected with Peter, directed at Peter, everything is checked by him. From a moral point of view, and from a historical point of view, there is only one unconditional positive value in the poem - Peter and everything that is close to him, that serves his cause. With this approach, the opponents of his cause become villains, historically insignificant and flawed. This is exactly what Mazepa is. Everything in it evokes in the reader a repulsion, a feeling of hostility. And even; the love that he inspired in Mary seems strange to the reader and, most importantly, almost completely devoid of poetry.

The third part of the poem, entirely dedicated to Peter, is filled with truly high poetry. This part truly crowns the poem, for Pushkin it is the most important. From the very beginning to the end, and in the description of the Battle of Poltava, and in subsequent pictures and reasoning, it sounds like a high ode to Peter, like praise to Peter and his dales. At the very end of the poem about Peter it is said:

A hundred years have passed - and what is left of these strong, proud men, So full of will of passions? Their generation has passed And with it the bloody trace of Efforts, disasters and victories has disappeared. In the citizenship of the northern power, In its warlike fate, Only you erected, hero of Poltava, A huge monument to yourself.

It is remarkable that these final motifs of "Poltava" ("a hundred years have passed", a monument to Peter) become the main motifs of "The Bronze Horseman". Moreover, The Bronze Horseman begins where Poltava ends: with a lofty ode to Peter and his cause. The theme of Peter in its lofty-odic solution is heard in The Bronze Horseman and further:

“Show off, city of Petrov, and stand as unshakable as Russia, May the conquered elements be pacified with you.”

All this is very similar to Poltava. But this, however, is where the similarities end and the differences begin. And fundamentally important differences. First of all, in The Bronze Horseman there is no plot "one-liner" and "one-hero character", and there is no morality of the author's pathos in it, even if one understands it in the highest sense of the word. In Pushkin's new poem, along with Peter, there is another hero who is opposed to him. This is a small man, a simple official named Eugene:

So, when he got home, Evgeny shook off his overcoat, undressed, and lay down. But for a long time he could not fall asleep In the excitement of various reflections. What did he think about, That he was poor, that by labor He had to deliver And independence and honor; That God could add to him Mind and money. Why are there such idle lucky ones, Mindless sloths, For whom life is much easier!

Eugene is opposed to Peter not only by position, not just as a small person, but also stylistically, by the way he is characterized by the author. If Peter's characteristic is sustained in a high speech style, then the very first characteristic of Eugene - an introductory characteristic - looks linguistically very ordinary and even deliberately reduced. All this determines emotional background on which heroes are perceived. They are not just opposed, they are sharply opposed, they are antipodes.

But in the artistic and ideological and moral sense, they are at the same time equivalent. They embody different areas historical life, but at the same time having the same right to exist, equally legitimate. Moreover, their position as a tall and small hero is not absolute. The little hero, with a certain attitude towards him, with a human point of view on him, turns out to be not at all small, but equally great and, perhaps, even greater and higher than the one who is traditionally called that. With Pushkin's little man, with Yevgeny, in the course of poetic narration, precisely such a reassessment occurs.

The original theme of the poem "The Bronze Horseman"

Historical vantage point chosen by the poet

In the analysis of The Bronze Horseman, it can be mentioned that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin managed to overcome the canons of the genre in his work. In the poem, Peter does not appear as a historical character (he appears in the guise of an "idol" - a statue). Also, nothing is said about the time of his reign.

The Petrine era for the poet himself is a time that did not end with the death of the great ruler. At the same time, A. S. Pushkin refers not to the beginning of this great period in the history of the Russian state, but to its results. One of the historical points, from the height of which the poet looked at the emperor, was the flood of November 7, 1824, the “terrible time”, which remained in memory for a long time.

Analyzing The Bronze Horseman, it can be noted that the poem was written in iambic tetrameter. In this short work (contains less than 500 verses), the poet combined history and modernity, the private life of a "little man" with the history of the country. The Bronze Horseman has become one of the immortal monuments to St. Petersburg and the period of Peter's reign.

The main plan of the poem, theme, main idea

The theme of The Bronze Horseman is a conflict between a person and the state system. The central event of the work is a flood. The story about him forms the first plan of the poem - historical. The flood is one of the main plots of the entire poem. It is also a source of conflict between the individual and the country. The main idea of the work is that a common person may go mad with grief, anxiety, and restlessness.

Conditionally literary plan

There is also a second plan in the poem - conditionally literary. It also needs to be told in the analysis of The Bronze Horseman. The poet sets it with the help of the subtitle "Petersburg Tale". And Eugene is the central character in this story. The faces of the rest of the inhabitants of the city can not be distinguished. This is the crowd that floods the streets, drowning; cold and detached residents of the city in the second part of the work. The poet's story about the fate of the protagonist sets off the historical plan and interacts with him throughout the entire work. At the climax of the poem, when the Horseman is chasing Eugene, this motif dominates. A mythical hero enters the stage - a statue that has come to life. And in this space, the city turns into a fantastic space, losing its real features.

"Idol" and understanding of St. Petersburg

In the analysis of The Bronze Horseman, the student may mention that the Bronze Horseman is one of the most unusual images in all of Russian literature. Awakened by the words of the protagonist, he ceases to be an ordinary idol and turns into a formidable king. From the very moment of the founding of St. Petersburg, the history of the city received different interpretations. In myths and legends, it was considered not an ordinary city, but the embodiment of completely mysterious and incomprehensible forces. Depending on who held the post of king, these forces were understood as beneficent or as hostile, anti-people.

Emperor Peter I

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, two large categories of myths began to take shape, opposite each other in their content. In some, Emperor Peter appeared as the "father of the Fatherland", a kind of deity who managed to organize a reasonable cosmos and a "dear country".

These ideas often appeared in poetry (for example, in the odes of Sumarokov and Derzhavin). They were encouraged at the state level. Another trend tends to represent Peter as a "living Antichrist", and Petersburg as a "non-Russian city". The first category of myths characterized the founding of the city as the beginning of a "golden era" for Russia; the second predicted the imminent destruction of the state.

Combining the two approaches

Alexander Sergeevich in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" was able to create a synthetic image of St. Petersburg and the emperor. In his work, those images that exclude each other in their meaning complement each other. The poem begins with a description of the poetic myth about the founding of the city, and the myth of destruction is reflected in the first and second parts of the work, which describes the flood.

The image of Peter in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" and the historical plan of the work

The originality of the poem is reflected in the simultaneous interaction of three planes. It is legendary-mythological, historical, and also conventionally literary. Emperor Peter appears on the legendary mythological plane, because he is not a historical character. He is the nameless hero of the legend, the builder and founder of the new city, the executor of the highest will.

But Peter's thoughts are distinguished by concreteness: he decided to build a city "for the evil of an arrogant neighbor" so that Russia could "cut a window into Europe." A. S. Pushkin emphasizes the historical plan with the words "a hundred years have passed." And this phrase envelops the ongoing events in the haze of time. The emergence of the "young city" is likened by the poet to a miracle. In the place where there should be a description of the process of building the city, the reader sees a dash. The story itself begins in 1803 (on this day, the “city of Peter” turned a hundred years old).

Parallels in the work

In Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman, the reader discovers many semantic and compositional parallels drawn by the poet. They are based on the relationships that have been established between the fictional character of the work, the elements of the flood, the city and the monument - the "idol". For example, the poet parallels the “great thoughts” of the emperor with the reflections of the “little man”, Eugene. The legendary emperor thought about how the city would be founded, the fulfillment of the interests of the state would be achieved. Eugene, on the other hand, reflects on the small deeds of a simple person. The emperor's dreams come true; the dreams of the "little man" collapsed along with a natural disaster.

Eugene - "little man"

Eugene is one of the main characters in Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman. He is burdened by his plight, as he is poor and barely makes ends meet. He connects his hopes for a happy future with the girl Parasha. But his life is tragic - it takes away his only dream. Parasha dies during a flood, and Eugene goes crazy.

"The Bronze Horseman": excerpt

To learn by heart, schoolchildren are often asked to learn part of the poem. It could be, for example, the following passage:

"I love you, Peter's creation,
I love your strict, slender look,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite ... ".

A student can have several stanzas to get a higher grade. Learning an excerpt from The Bronze Horseman is a pleasure, because the poem is written in the beautiful Pushkin language.

The image of the "city of Peter" in the poem

The world of Petersburg appears in the poem as a closed space. The city exists according to the laws that are adopted in it. In the poem "The Bronze Horseman" he seems to be a new civilization built on the expanses of wild Russia. After Petersburg appears, the “Moscow period” in history becomes a thing of the past.

The city is full of many internal contradictions. The great Russian poet emphasizes the duality of St. Petersburg: on the one hand, it “rises magnificently”, but on the other hand, it comes “from the darkness of the forests”. In the poet's wish to the city, anxiety sounds - "May the conquered element be reconciled with you ...". The beauty of the city may not be eternal - it stands firmly, but it can be destroyed by the raging elements. For the first time, the image of a raging element appears on the pages of the poem.

SUBJECT:

Poem "The Bronze Horseman". Petersburg story.

Target:

Comprehension of the ideological and artistic originality of the poem.

To reveal the confrontation between the Bronze Horseman and Eugene in the poem;

Develop the skills of analytical work with a literary text,

the ability to analyze the thoughts and feelings of not only the author of the work, but also his own;

Show students the enduring value of the poem and A.S. Pushkin's interest in the historical past of Russia

The poem "The Bronze Horseman" was written in October 1833 in Boldino, but could not immediately be published due to censorship reasons. It was published only a year after the death of the poet V. A. Zhukovsky with some corrections. It was published in full by P. V. Annenkov in 1857.

In this work, the genre of which Pushkin defined as Petersburg story , comprehension continues personalities of Peter I as a sovereign and a person, his role in the formation and development of Russia. It is no coincidence that Pushkin refers to the image of Peter, who in his interpretation becomes a kind of a symbol of self-willed, autocratic power. Against all odds, Peter builds Petersburg on the swamps in order to "from here to threaten the Swede". This act appears in the poem the highest manifestation autocratic will of the ruler, who "raised" the whole of Russia.

Appeal to the theme of Peter I, the city he created, which became a "window to Europe", took place against the backdrop of heated discussions about the ways of the country's development. Opponents of the emperor's activities, his reforms believed that by building new town, who played a decisive role in accelerating the Europeanization of Russia, strengthening its political and military power, Peter did not take into account the natural, natural conditions of the area on which St. Petersburg was built. These natural conditions included swampiness, as well as the propensity of the Neva to floods. Petersburg was opposed to the capital city of Moscow, which was created not by the will and project of one person, even if endowed with great power, but by Divine Providence. The flood that occurred in St. Petersburg in the early 1820s and caused great loss of life was regarded as the revenge of natural forces for the violence committed. That was one point of view.

Composition of the poem . The poem raises a number of philosophical, social and moral problems. Their decision is subject to a clear composition. In two main parts, the main poem conflict: natural elements, state power and interests of an individual. Pictures of the St. Petersburg disaster are conveyed dynamically, visibly.

Pushkin loves Petersburg, admires its beauties and the genius of architects, but nevertheless God's punishment has been on the city for centuries for that primordial autocracy, which was expressed by Peter in the foundation of the city on a place unsuitable for this. And floods are just a punishment, a kind of “curse” that weighs on the inhabitants of the capital, a reminder to the inhabitants of Babylon of the crime that they once committed against God.

Plot The main part of the poem is built around the fate of an ordinary, ordinary person - Eugene and his bride Parasha, whose hopes for simple family happiness are collapsing as a result of a natural disaster.

Conflict The poem reaches its climax in the scene of the collision of the insane Yevgeny, who has lost the most precious thing in his life, with a monument to the creator of St. Petersburg - the Bronze Horseman. It is him, the “miraculous builder”, as he calls with malicious irony “an idol on a bronze horse”, that Eugene considers the culprit of his misfortune.

The image of Eugene is the image of that very “man of the crowd” who is not yet ready to accept freedom, who has not suffered it in his heart, that is, the image of an ordinary layman. The "Bronze Horseman" is a part of a person's soul, his "second self", which does not disappear by itself. In the words of Chekhov, a person must every day “squeeze a slave out of himself drop by drop”, perform tireless spiritual work (compare with the idea developed by Gogol in The Overcoat, that that man was created for a high purpose and cannot live a dream about acquiring an overcoat, only in this case he deserves the high name Man). It is these ideas that would subsequently be embodied in the work of Dostoevsky, who "from the inside" will describe the rebellion of the "little man" - the fruitless rebellion of the "poor in spirit."

Idea : « With God's element, kings cannot co-rule ". Power suppresses the personality of an individual, his interests, but is not able to resist the elements and protect himself from it. The rebellious elements returned part of the city - the "small island" - to its original state. The natural element is terrible and is able to avenge its defeat not only to the winner, but also to his descendants. The victims of the rebellious Neva were the townspeople, especially the poor inhabitants of the islands.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CHECK .

The author's position in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" caused various interpretations in criticism and literary criticism. Some, referring to V. G. Belinsky, believed that A. S. Pushkin, in the image of Peter I, justifies the tragic right of the state to dispose of a person’s private life (B. M. Engelhardt, G. A. Gukovsky, JI. P. Grossman). Others (V. Ya. Bryusov, A. V. Makedonov, M. P. Eremin and others), finding a humanistic concept in the poem, believe that the poet is completely on the side of poor Eugene. And finally, S. M. Bondi, E. A. Maimin see in The Bronze Horseman "the tragic insolubility of the conflict", according to which A. S. Pushkin presents history itself to choose between the "truths" of the Horseman and Yevgeny. Which of these interpretations do you prefer and why? Determine your point of view on the position of the author.

Genre features

The image of a little man in Russian literature

Eugene is a small person

View of Peter and Eugene

The main difference between Peter and Eugene

Flood in the fate of Eugene

Protest

Madness Eugene

Other essays on the topic:

Historical vantage point chosen by the poet

The main plan of the poem, theme, main idea

Conditionally literary plan

"Idol" and understanding of St. Petersburg

Emperor Peter I

Combining the two approaches

The image of Peter in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" and the historical plan of the work

Parallels in the work

Eugene - "little man"

"The Bronze Horseman": excerpt

The image of the "city of Peter" in the poem