Главная страница
russian   english
<< back

Title of Article

AMBIVALENCE OF THE DREAM IN THE TALE «NEVSKY PROSPECT» BY N.V. GOGOL


Issue
3
Date
2022

Section
PETERSBURG TEXT

Article type
scientific article
UDC
82
Pages
15-24
Keywords
Гоголь, «Невский проспект», мечта, амбивалентность, идеал, Gogol, "Nevsky Prospect", dream, ambivalence, ideal


Authors
Soloveva Anastasiya Dmitrievna
Natsionalnyy issledovatelskiy Nizhegorodskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet im. N.I. Lobachevskogo


Abstract
The article analyzes the phenomenon of the "dream" in the artistic world of the tale "Nevsky Prospect" by N.V. Gogol (the first publication was in 1835). It is reported that this phenomenon in the text has a dual character. On the one hand the dream is main character`s attempt to realize the impossible ideal of unity of beauty and goodness. The character`s dreaming absorbs the romantic content related with the desire to see both aesthetical and ethical perfection because beautiful outside is perceived by Piskarev as evidence of the divine sign on the person, of the fact that the beauty is a gift which must born in souls` the thought about purity and harmony. On the other hand the dream of the young artist Piskarev has a dark side. This phenomenon is an unconscious protest against the Creator, the result of self-deception and rejection of the real world in which each person can choose between virtue and vice freely thus not matching someone else`s expectations including fully justified ones. The character has no power neither to give up his ideal which turned up its lack of vitality in the real world nor to wrestle with evil that`s why he finds the exit in a dream as an alternative reality. In the article ambivalence of the dream in this tale is explained by particularity of the period of Gogol`s spiritual path when he was writing "Nevsky Prospect" (1833-1834). The author wrote the tale when he was under influence both aesthetic-humanistic philosophy which declares unity of aesthetical and moral ideal and religious world view (Christianity) adopted since the childhood. The second one is characterized by negative perception of a dream.

File (in Russian)