Studying the story of N.V. Gogol's "Portrait" in the light of the new program

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - famous writer, whose work is very ambiguous. Prone to mysticism, the author knows how to add some zest to his works, which is remembered and does not leave anyone indifferent. Whatever work you take, everywhere you feel unsaid, unfinished, mysterious. Between the lines you can always read something that conveys the depth of the maestro's soul.

For example, a work that is thoroughly saturated with fatalism, fear of unknown and otherworldly forces is “Portrait” (Gogol). A brief summary of it can convey only the main points of the plot. But only the full version will be able to immerse you in the world of illusion, in the world of a beautiful style and convey the mood that Nikolai Vasilyevich wanted to convey.

"Portrait" (Gogol). Summary

The work begins with a description of the hard fate of a young and talented artist. He has no money at all to pay for housing, no money for food and even for candles. So he sits without work all evenings, envying those who have both orders and popularity. However, with the last money he buys a portrait of an Asian with unusually lively eyes. And then, because of him, he practically sees these eyes Chartkov everywhere: he sees them in reality, he dreams of them every night, they look directly into his soul. But a bill of a thousand chervonets suddenly falls out of the picture. On this, the life of the artist seems to be getting better.

The story "Portrait" (Gogol), summary which is able to interest the reader and encourage reading full version, tells about future fate Chartkov. He is a sought-after artist, but over time he becomes greedy, and his talent degrades. Out of envy, the hero begins to buy up the brilliant works of other painters, which he spends all his fortune on. However, the canvases are brutally destroyed in the end, and the character himself dies, in a delirium remembering all the same eyes of an Asian.

The work "Portrait" (Gogol), the summary of which is difficult to describe in a few sentences, continues with an explanation of all this mysterious history. After Chartkov's death, a portrait of a Chinese man with expertly painted eyes ends up at a St. Petersburg auction. There he is found by a man whose father painted the picture. It turns out that it depicts a usurer, who, however, did not bring good luck to anyone - everyone who took from an Asian from Kolomna cash, died a terrible death, went crazy.

Let's continue with the summary. Gogol called the portrait an image of the spirit of darkness, and the artist painted it from a usurer. But in the process of work, the author is overcome by a painful feeling, and he does not want to continue writing. The Chinese asks to finish the portrait in order to remain "alive" even after death, but he dies without seeing this work. The author wants to burn it, but gives it to a friend at the request. Further, the portrait begins to negatively affect each of its owners. Therefore, the narrator is looking for a picture to stop the flow of evil, but it mysteriously disappears.

"Portrait" (Gogol). Analysis of the story

This story is deep philosophical work, which touches on the topic of the influence of otherworldly forces on human fates. Not only man has power over fate, but also other circumstances, other people and even mysticism. To believe in it or not is up to each reader to decide for himself. Reading the work, you just want to enjoy interesting plot and the melodious language of its creator.

As a writer, he is a very mystical person. And the works, respectively, to match the creator. Unusual, fantastic and mysterious events around the characters often leave readers bewildered. What did the author want to say? What is the point? Let's deal with one of the works of N.V. Gogol "Portrait". First, let's remember what the story is about.

The first part of the story

A young talented artist with the surname Chartkov buys a portrait of an old man in Asian clothes. The work is old and unfinished. The eyes are clearly depicted on it, they seem to be alive. Chartkov dreams of wealth and fame. However, he tries not to waste his talent and writes his works quite skillfully. But at the same time he lives in poverty, Chartkov does not even have enough to pay for the apartment, for which the owner threatens to kick him out.

The artist comes home and falls asleep, he dreams that an old man comes up to him with a bag. In the bag are scrolls with the inscription "1000 chervonny". The old man counts the scrolls, and Chartkov quietly steals one of them. When the artist wakes up in the morning, the owner comes to him in order to collect money for housing. Then the artist finds next to the portrait of the old man a scroll that he stole from him in a dream.

He pays off his debts, dresses in decent clothes, moves to new apartment on Nevsky Prospekt and submits an advertisement to the newspaper that he - brilliant artist. Later, he receives a commission to paint a portrait of a young woman and her daughter. The work interests Chartkov, but the customer does not like the veracity of the picture. Then, for the sake of money, Chartkov embellishes her. Now he is completely different from the appearance of the customer, however, she likes it and the artist gets his money. Then Chartkov understands that there is no need to paint pictures exactly - it is enough to portray the client as he wishes, without conveying his true face.

Soon Chartkov becomes fashionable, popular artist, everyone praises his talent, writes about him in articles, for which, in truth, he pays out of his own pocket to brag to his friends and amuse his pride. Now he has lackeys and even students.

Once Chartkov was asked to evaluate one painting in Italy, when he saw it, the artist realized that he had wasted all his talent and, in comparison with this work of art, all his works are mediocrity, and he himself is insignificant.

The young artist goes crazy, destroying all works of art that only come across to his hand. He spends all his wealth buying the most expensive paintings, carefully bringing them to his workshop and “with the fury of a tiger he threw himself at her, tore, tore at her, cut into pieces and trampled under her feet.” At the same time, Chartkov constantly sees the eyes of that old man from the portrait, about which famous artist totally forgot. He goes into a fever. By the end of his torment, the artist could no longer speak clearly, uttering terrible cries. “His corpse was terrible,” Gogol reports, taking into account that Chartkov died of a mental illness, and the corpse was physically terrible.

The second part of the story

The same portrait of an old Asian man was sold at the auction. There was a lot of controversy around him, as so many were going to buy him.

The black-haired artist B., thirty-five years old, told the arguing story that Once upon a time there lived an Asiatic usurer. By old age, they never had children. The pawnbroker himself was known for lending large sums both poor and rich, but everyone who received money from him died strange death. The usurer came to the artist, the father of the artist B., to paint his portrait. The old man said: “I may die soon, I have no children; but I don't want to die completely, I want to live. Can you draw a portrait that looks completely alive?”.

And the father of the artist B. set to work. He tormented himself while writing this work, but he did convey the eyes of the old man through the paper. The day after the work on the eyes was completed, the old pawnbroker died. And the artist who painted the portrait became an envious intriguer.

When his painting was rejected at the competition in favor of his student, the father of the artist B. wanted to burn the portrait, but a friend stopped him, taking the portrait for himself, then resold it, explaining that the portrait prevented him from living in peace and he himself felt as if he was going crazy. The author of the portrait of the usurer was touched by the story of his friend and he decided to go to the monastery. Having learned his story, the monks said that the artist should have painted a picture for the church, but he replied that he was not yet worthy of it. After twelve years of loneliness and monastic rigor, he nevertheless painted the image and, having met with his son, blessed him to destroy the portrait of the usurer so that he would no longer denigrate anyone's thoughts.

While the artist B. told this story to buyers at the auction, the portrait itself disappeared without a trace. Someone considered it stolen, and someone that it evaporated on its own.

Brief analysis of the work

Chartkov's characteristic

The young artist Chartkov is a victim not only of the diabolical influence of the portrait, but also his lack of will. The tragedy of Chartkov is that he himself ruined his talent, exchanging it for money and fame, and when he realized what he had done, it was already too late. Chartkov can be compared with Piskarev, the hero of Nevsky Prospekt. Both are dreamy, both are talented artists who lived in poverty. Deviating from the truth in creativity, Chartkov embarked on the path of self-destruction of himself not only as an artist, but also as a person.

The role of Nevsky Prospekt in the story

This is not the first time that Nevsky Prospekt appears before the reader in the collection “Petersburg Tales”. In any work of N.V. Gogol, which contains a description of Nevsky Prospekt, there is some kind of mysticism. Nevsky Prospekt participates in the works of:

• "Nose"
• "Portrait"

The idea of ​​the story

From the point of view of N.V. Gogol, art is God's gift , which should not touch evil, and the content of the portrait of the usurer is demonic. In this story, Chartkov's talent was ruined by the commercialism of society - money is considered the main charm of life, and true art fades into the background. The father of the artist B., in turn, was able to stop, although his goal was not wealth, but a challenge to his talent. Will he be able or not able to paint a portrait as realistic as the customer requires?

Gogol sees deliverance from blind passions as a solution to the problems of the main characters, in particular, with the help of the church. After all, if talent is given to a person by God, then the purification of talent from unnecessary passions can also be done with God's help. The main theme this work is the theme of good and evil in art. Gogol believes that the one who is given talent "should be purer in soul than everyone else."

Briefly about the problems posed by the author

N.V. Gogol puts in the "Portrait" the following social problems:

• the role of the artist in society;
• problem true art;
• the theme of immoral choice;
• theme of fate.

It was a summary and brief analysis story "Portrait" online, we hope that this retelling was informative and useful.

Nikolai Vasilyevich liked to fantasize in his stories, to create mystical plot, which can be seen from his famous stories "Viy", "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". But if here the reader has to plunge into the fictional world of a folklore character, then an analysis of Gogol's work "Portrait" shows that the author wanted to transfer science fiction to social phenomena. In this, Nikolai Vasilyevich reminds many foreign writers, in whom the "supernatural" captures the world. In our case, money is evil.

Internal confrontation between wealth and talent

At the beginning of the story, the reader is presented with a young, serving great expectations artist Chartkov. He is poor, therefore he envies the fate of painters who should paint a few pictures in order to bathe in luxury. The young man grumbles at his fate, because he has to live in obscurity and poverty. And here Gogol creates an atypical and completely fantastic situation. An analysis of the work "Portrait" shows the gradual transformation of Chartkov from a talented artist into an envious and greedy person who ruined his talent.

In a shop in Shchukin's yard, the artist finds a mysterious portrait, which, as a result, becomes a source of his enrichment. The picture contains a particle of the diabolical soul of the usurer Petromichaly. At first, Chartkov buys engravings and mannequins with the money received in order to seriously engage in art, but then he succumbs to temptation, acquiring completely useless and unnecessary things for him. It comes to the point that a young man buys up talented paintings by other painters and destroys them at home.

An analysis of Gogol's "Portrait" shows that the desire to have everything at once can kill talent. Chartkov drew beautifully, but even his teacher noticed that he was impatient and kept an eye on fashion trends. The teacher instructs the young artist not to waste his talent on painting portraits for money. But Chartkov wants instant fame and money. An analysis of Gogol's work "Portrait" shows that you have to pay for everything, the painter received wealth, but his brush became colorless, he lost his gift.

Atonement for sins and service to art

N.V. Gogol "Portrait" wrote to contrast completely different tempers people and their views on art. The father of the narrator was the author of the diabolical portrait. This man, as soon as he realized what power the picture had, and what a sin he had committed, immediately went to the monastery to atone for his sins. The writer does not see anything wrong with the fact that evil is depicted with the help of art, but a person must repent of this and not ruin his talent.

An analysis of Gogol's work "Portrait" shows that the icon painter, who spent more than one year in prayer, was able to paint a picture of the birth of Jesus in such a way that all its heroes seem to be alive. Even the abbot was struck by the sanctity of the figures, saying that the painter's brush drove high power. Nikolai Vasilievich, using the example of two people, showed his attitude towards art. Chartkov went from talent to death, and the icon painter - from committing sin to good.

To writing a story "Portrait", in which the element of mysticism also plays an important role. The writer published his work in the collection "Arabesques".

Many critics did not like the work. Belinsky believed that the "Portrait" was unsuccessful attempt where the author's talent began to fall.

After the scandal with the premiere of The Government Inspector, Gogol left for Italy. Under the southern sun and under the influence of the artist Ivanov, Nikolai Vasilyevich revised the story, and then republished it in 1841.

The writer made adjustments to the dialogues, scenes, changed the name of the protagonist. Now he was called Chartkov, not Chertkov, which caused readers to associate with the devil. The finale of the work also became different: the figure of the usurer does not disappear from the picture, but the portrait itself disappears.

The story consists of two parts. Central to each of them is the image of the artist. Gogol shows two destinies, two talents with a different worldview, with an opposite understanding of the tasks of painting. The hero of the first part is the young artist Chartkov. He shows great promise, but does not have the funds to buy canvas, paints, or even food. However, Chartkov, with the last money, decided to buy a portrait of an old Asian man, shocked by his "live" eyes.

In the second part of the work, we learn the history of the fatal picture. One day a usurer came to the icon painter (he is known to us as the father of the artist B.) and asked him to paint a portrait. The artist agreed to an unusual order, because the appearance of the old man made a great impression on him.

A portrait tempts every master. Chartkov, having found the money hidden in the frame, first wants to spend it on new studio, brushes and paints to perfect your talent. But instead he acquires unnecessary things, fashionable clothes visits restaurants. Subconsciously Chartkov envied life before fashion artists, wanted wealth, fame. And this desire has now triumphed over the desire for creative growth. It was the thirst for fame that made Chartkov order a laudatory article about himself.

At first, the young painter seeks to follow the truth of life, looking not just for a portrait resemblance, but tries to transfer the soul of a person, his character, to the canvas. But gradually he turns into an artisan, indulging the tastes of the crowd, losing his divine spark.

Chartkov became famous and rich. He is praised by the public famous people offered to teach in art academy. He already looks down on young painters, teaches them. Only seeing a new one, for real talented painting, Chartkov understands that he ruined his talent.

The temptation of the artist's father B. was of a different kind. In the demonic usurer he was attracted by the opportunity to create a portrait evil spirits. It was a challenge to talent. The artist felt that he was doing wrong, but professional interest forced him to continue working. Fortunately, unlike Chartkov, the icon painter was able to stop in time. By a tremendous effort of will, he managed to get rid of the influence of the portrait, to purify his soul. He bequeathed to his son to find and destroy the fatal painting.

The final part of the story does not add optimism. Chartkov went crazy and died, having destroyed before that a large number of their good work. But the terrible portrait could not be burned. He was kidnapped and may have begun to tempt a new victim.

The opposition between the two destinies of talented artists is natural. Gogol wanted to show that only by renouncing worldly goods, from vanity secular life the artist can create real paintings, not handicraft canvases. No wonder the icon painter finds salvation from the influence of the portrait in the monastery walls.

During the period of work on the story, Gogol was at a creative crossroads. From romanticism early works he approached realism, but had not yet fully comprehended the possibilities of a new direction for himself. In the story "Portrait" the writer is looking for an answer to the question: can art be extremely accurate, mirror life? Or should it represent reality artistic means, influencing the thoughts and feelings of people, to educate them? After all, the artist in the second part of the story came too close to reality, made the eyes of the usurer alive and let evil into this world.

The author is responsible for his creation. Gogol emphasizes: only with pure thoughts, with good heart you can create a real masterpiece that can elevate the soul, illuminate it with light and joy.

• "Portrait", a summary of the parts of Gogol's story
• "Dead Souls", analysis of Gogol's work

The story "Portrait" tells about an artist who sold his gift for money - he sold his soul to the devil. Here, if we mean works of art, Gogol most fully expressed his views on art. The penetration of evil forces into the artist's soul also distorts his art, because it should be not just the ability to create beauty, but a feat of difficult comprehension of the spiritual depth of life. It is important that Chartkov was seduced by an object of art - an unusual portrait with lively eyes. The mystery of the portrait disturbs the author and prompts reflection on the nature of art, on the difference between creation and copy in it. The liveliness of the image of the copyist artist who painted the portrait of the usurer, for Gogol, is not just superficial art, but a demonic reflection of world evil. Such art often seduces the soul of the viewer, infects with sinful feelings. It is not for nothing that the old man's lively, unkind eyes look from the portrait.

The author tells that the pious painter, who painted a strange portrait with lively eyes, suddenly changed his character for no reason: he became vain and envious. But the same seemingly inexplicable facts happen in everyday life. “There, an honest, sober person became a drunkard, there a merchant clerk robbed his master; there a cab driver, who had been driving honestly for several years, stabbed a rider for a penny.

In the book Selected passages from correspondence with friends, Gogol said what, in his opinion, art should be. Its purpose is to serve as an "invisible step towards Christianity." According to Gogol, literature should fulfill the same task as the writings of spiritual writers - to enlighten the soul, to lead it to perfection. This is the only justification for art for him. And the higher his view of art became, the more demanding he treated himself as a writer.

One joke conveyed the level and interests of secular society. The artist, with great interest and still not lost talent, began to paint a portrait. He conveyed to the canvas all the shades of a young face, did not miss a certain yellowness and a barely noticeable blue shadow under the eyes. But mother didn't like it. She objected that it could only be today, and usually the face is striking in its special freshness. Having corrected the shortcomings, the artist noted with chagrin that the individuality of nature had also disappeared. Still wishing to express what he noticed in the girl, Chartkov transfers all this to his old sketch of Psyche. Ladies, on the other hand, are delighted with the "surprise" that the artist came up with the idea of ​​depicting her "in the form of Psyche." Unable to convince the ladies, Chartkov gives the portrait of Psyche. Society admired the new talent, Chartkov was showered with orders. But this was far from what makes it possible for a painter to develop. And over time, Chartkov becomes fashionable, but, alas, an empty painter. The reason for this, of course, was the purchased portrait with its devilish charms. But through a fantastic plot, the author shows what fame and fortune can do to a person. It is not necessary to buy a magical portrait to become a slave.

On the pedestal, which was previously occupied by painting, perched a passion for gold. Gold became everything for Chartkov. It would have filled his life completely, if not for one event. The Academy of Arts invited the famous Chartkov to evaluate a painting by a Russian artist brought from Italy. The picture he saw so impressed the celebrity that he could not even express the prepared disparaging judgment. The painting was so beautiful that it stirred up the stale past in him. Tears choked him, and without saying a word, he ran out of the hall. The sudden illumination of a ruined life blinded him. Realizing that he will never return the killed talent, the bygone youth, Chartkov becomes terrible monster. With ominous greed, he begins to buy up all worthy works of art and destroy them. This becomes his main passion and his only occupation. As a result, the insane and sick artist dies in a terrible fever, where everywhere he sees a portrait of an old man. Everywhere they look at him scary eyes from a portrait...

But another hero, who is mentioned only in the second part of the story, does otherwise. This young artist meets very unusual person, a moneylender who asks to paint his portrait. The rumors about the moneylender are very mysterious. Everyone who contacted him was sure to get into trouble. But the artist nevertheless undertakes to paint a portrait. The resemblance to the original is striking, the eyes seem to be looking from the portrait. And now, having painted the usurer, the artist realizes that he will no longer be able to paint pure images. "He realizes that he has depicted the devil. After that, he goes to a monastery forever to cleanse himself. As a gray-haired old man, he achieves enlightenment and, taking up a brush, is already able to paint saints. Nevertheless, the story does not end optimistically. Gogol allows the portrait to continue its fateful journey , warning that no one is immune from evil.

In the "Portrait" you can find a reflection of the spiritual life of Gogol. The artist who created the portrait of the usurer decides to leave the world and becomes a monk. Having prepared himself in the monastery with the ascetic life of a hermit, he returns to creativity and creates a picture that amazed everyone who saw it with high spirituality, as it were, emanating from it. At the end of the story, the monk-artist instructs his son: “Save the purity of your soul. Whoever has a talent in himself, he must be purer than all in soul. Much will be forgiven to another, but he will not be forgiven.

Here Gogol, as it were, outlined the program of his life. In the mid-1840s, he had the intention to leave the literary field and go to the monastery. But these monastic aspirations (which were no secret to Gogol's school friends), apparently, did not imply a final rejection of creativity, but, as it were, implied a return to it in a new capacity. The path to great art, Gogol believed, lies through the spiritual feat of the artist. One must die for the world in order to be recreated internally, and then return to creativity.