The Bronze Horseman is a brief analysis of the work. A. S. Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman": analysis, theme, excerpt. “The Bronze Horseman”: analysis of the poem

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is a story about the tragic fate of a simple inhabitant of St. Petersburg, who lost his beloved girl during the flood, and with her all his dreams and hopes for his future life.

In The Bronze Horseman, Pushkin raises the theme of the “little man” and the role of Peter I in the fate of Russia. The main conflict of the work is the confrontation between personality and power. For a general overview of the work, we suggest reading online a summary of “The Bronze Horseman,” written by an experienced literature teacher.

Main characters

Eugene- a poor official who dreams of a family, a calm, measured life. He goes crazy, unable to come to terms with the death of his beloved girl during a flood.

Peter I- the image of a monument to the Tsar coming to life in Eugene’s imagination.

Other characters

Parasha- Evgenia’s beloved, who dies during a flood in St. Petersburg.

Preface

Introduction

Peter I once stood on the deserted banks of the Neva, reflecting on the time when the city would be founded here:

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

After a hundred years, in a place where previously there was nothing but “darkness of forests” and swamps, a young city “rose magnificently, proudly.” The “Young City” eclipsed Moscow itself with its beauty, wealth and power. The author confesses his love for the city, “Peter’s creation,” and believes that created by the will of the ruler, it will stand “unshakably like Russia” for many centuries, and the defeated element of the Finnish waves will forget about its former greatness and will not disturb “Peter’s eternal sleep.” .

The narrator begins to tell a story about a difficult time, the memory of which is still fresh.

Part one

Late on a stormy November evening, a hero named Eugene returned home from visiting.

"Our hero
Lives in Kolomna; serves somewhere
He shies away from the nobles and does not bother
Not about deceased relatives,
Not about forgotten antiquities."

Heavy thoughts about poverty, about his life, in which he still has to earn “independence and honor,” do not allow him to sleep. In addition, due to bad weather, the water in the Neva was rising and, most likely, had already washed away the bridges - now Evgeniy will not be able to see his beloved girl Parasha, who lives “near the bay itself,” on the other side, for several days. Evgeniy dreamed about life with Parasha, about their future together and finally fell asleep.

The day that followed was terrible:

“The Neva swelled and roared,
And suddenly, like a wild beast,
She rushed towards the city."

The squares turned into lakes, and “streets flowed into them like wide rivers.” The water destroyed houses and carried away people, fragments of homes, bridges - everything that came along the way.

On a marble lion near one of the new rich houses of the city, Eugene sat motionless amid the general chaos. He did not see or hear either the wind or the rain beating on his face - he was worried about the fate of his beloved. The young man, in despair, incessantly looked to where, “like mountains, waves rose from the indignant depths, a storm howled, debris rushed” - to where Parasha lived with her mother. The hero seemed to see both the unpainted fence and their dilapidated shack.

Evgeny sat, unable to move from his place. There was water everywhere around him, and in front of him was an “idol on a bronze horse” with its back turned to him. The monument to Peter I towered over the raging Neva.

Part two

Finally the water began to subside. Evgeny, “his soul sinking in hope, fear and melancholy,” having hired a carrier, sails to his beloved. Coming ashore, the hero runs to the house where Parasha lived, he cannot believe his eyes, walks again and again around the place where the girl lived, and does not find her at home - he is washed away by the Neva. “Full of gloomy concern,” Evgeny speaks loudly to himself, and then laughs.

The next day came, the Neva calmed down, the city returned to its former life. Residents went to work, trade resumed.

Only Eugene could not bear the death of his beloved; his “confused mind” could not withstand the shock. Busy with gloomy thoughts, he wandered around the city, not returning home. So first a week passed, then a month. The young man slept wherever he could and fed on alms. It happened that children threw stones after him, he was whipped by coachmen, when, without making out the road, he almost fell under the wheels of carts. Internal anxiety consumed him.

"And so he is his unhappy age
Dragged, neither beast nor man,
Neither this nor that, nor the inhabitant of the world,
Not a dead ghost..."

One day at the end of summer, while spending the night near the Neva pier, Evgeny was alarmed by the approaching bad weather. It was raining, the wind was howling, the Neva was seething. Remembering the horror of the flood he experienced, the hero began to wander the streets. He suddenly stopped with fear - he found himself near the house where he had fled from the raging river on the night of Parasha’s death. On the porch of the large new house there were still statues of lions, and nearby Peter stood on a bronze horse. Eugene recognized the place where the “flood played,” and the lions, and the one “by whose fatal will the city was founded under the sea.” It is Petra who considers the culprit of her grief.

Gritting his teeth, clenching his fingers, trembling with overwhelming anger, he looked into Peter’s eyes and whispered with a threat: “Too bad for you!..” And suddenly he rushed away: it seemed to the hero that the king’s face flared up with anger and the rider began to turn in his direction. Eugene ran all night from the imaginary pursuit of Peter - wherever he turned, everywhere he heard the clatter of horse hooves of the revived “Bronze Horseman”.

From then on, whenever Evgeniy found himself near the monument, he humbly lowered his eyes, took off his cap and pressed his hand to his heart, “as if subduing his torment.”

The hero was never able to survive the loss and come to his senses. The dead “madman” Eugene was found in the spring at the threshold of a dilapidated shack, which the flood had carried to a deserted island near the seaside. Here, on the island, he was buried.

Conclusion

By telling the story of Eugene, the author brings us to the conclusion that the contradictions between power and little people do not disappear or be resolved - they are always tragically interconnected. For the first time in Russian literature, Pushkin showed the insolubility between state interests and the interests of the common man. That is why the images of the main characters in the author’s portrayal are ambiguous: we see Peter the reformer and Peter the autocrat, Eugene a petty official and a rebel who was outraged by the actions of the tsar himself.

After reading the retelling of “The Bronze Horseman,” the reader is ready to perceive Pushkin’s unique images and language of the poem.

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In this article, we will try to analyze the pressing issues that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin reveals in his work. Also below will be the history of the creation of the bronze monument built in honor of the poem, and its brief content. “The Bronze Horseman” today is not only the pride of Russia, but also, oddly enough, to this day it is on the list of the best works of world literature.

Problems that Pushkin touches on in his work

The world-famous poem “The Bronze Horseman”, written by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in 1833, carries with it the main problem of the 20th century - the relationship between people and the state. The issues that he reveals in his work affect power and people.

What life circumstances prompted Alexander Sergeevich to write this work?

The brilliant idea to write this poem came to Pushkin only after he became an absentee witness to the St. Petersburg flood on November 7, 1824. This flood was perceived by humanity as a kind of collapse and a step towards the abyss. The emotions that overwhelmed St. Petersburg at those moments could not help but leave their imprint on the imagination of Alexander Sergeevich, and even then the brilliant idea flashed through his head to write a work dedicated to the event that took place. But ironically, the poem was written only nine years later. After the work gained popularity, the world learned its summary. “The Bronze Horseman,” according to many connoisseurs and admirers of the poet’s work, is considered one of his best creations.

Parsing a work into parts

First, it is necessary to determine in the famous poem at least the exposition, the plot, the climax, the denouement, and only then describe the summary. “The Bronze Horseman” includes an expositional part in which the main character Eugene appears, as well as the glorification of the “great thoughts” of Peter the Great and the city of Petrov. The plot can easily be attributed to the description of the flood, the climax is considered to be the news of the death of the bride, but the denouement, in turn, is the madness and death of Eugene.

Brief summary of the poem “The Bronze Horseman”, A.S. Pushkin

"Bronze Horseman". Summary" - it would be great if books of this kind existed and would benefit all teenagers in the modern world. But, unfortunately, there are none, and in the 21st century all school material of this kind must be processed by children independently in the shortest possible time. That is why, to simplify this task, we suggest moving smoothly to a brief description of the plot of the poem “The Bronze Horseman.” A summary of the chapters will not be indicated in this section; below we will analyze the main events that occurred in the poem. So, let's begin. At the beginning of the poem, Pushkin tells readers about Peter, who stands on the banks of the Neva and dreams of building a city that will certainly serve the people in the future as a window to the desired Europe. A hundred years later, this idea was destined to come true, and now a beautiful city has risen in place of emptiness. Further in the work we are talking about a petty official named Eugene, who returns home every day and tries to sleep, thinking about his current situation, because once his family did not need help, because the noble family of officials had a good profit, but now it’s the other way around . In addition, his thoughts are constantly filled with his beloved, whose name is Parasha, he dreams of marrying her as quickly as possible and building a strong, inseparable family.

Sweet dreams make him fall asleep, and closer to the morning his sleep is disturbed by the raging Neva, which got out of control, and soon the whole of St. Petersburg was flooded. Many people died, Pushkin compares the river flows with soldiers who destroyed everything in their path. Soon the river returns to its banks, and Evgeniy has a chance to swim to the other side of the city, to his beloved. He runs to the boatman and asks him for help. Once on the other side, the petty official cannot recognize the former places; now they look like ruins and resemble a battlefield strewn with human bodies. Evgeny, having forgotten about everything, hurries to his beloved’s house, but does not find it, realizing that his bride is no longer alive. The official loses his mind, tormenting himself with wild laughter. The next day, when nature returned to its previous state, all the people seemed to have forgotten about what had happened, and only Eugene could not breathe calmly. Over the next years, he will constantly hear the sound of a storm, and he will become a hermit. Only one day, waking up early in the morning, he remembers everything that has happened to him recently and goes out into the street, where he sees a house with monuments at the entrance. Walking around them a little, the poor fellow noticed anger on the face of one of the marble lions and rushed to run away, hearing the incredible clatter of horses behind him. After that, he hid for a long time from an incomprehensible noise in his ears, rushing around the city from side to side. After a while, passers-by saw him take off his cap, thus asking for forgiveness in front of the formidable monument. A little later he was found dead on a small island and immediately “buried for God’s sake.”

Monument "Bronze Horseman"

Below we will dwell on the description of a monument of world significance. The work discussed in this article is famous throughout the world not only for its genius, simplicity, and a certain philosophy of life. In addition, the content of “The Bronze Horseman” is not at all brief. Oddly enough, it is an integral part of St. Petersburg. This is a monument that was erected in the city center and is dedicated to the poem discussed and to Peter the Great. Externally, the bronze block looks like a rock with a charming horseman. The place where the memorial monument is located was chosen due to the fact that the Senate, the symbol of all of Tsarist Russia, is located nearby. The author of this masterpiece is Etienne-Maurice Falconet, a porcelain factory worker who, against the wishes of Catherine II, decided to install his work of art near the Neva. Falcone received a rather modest fee for the work done; other secular sculptors at that time were asking twice as much. During the work, the sculptor received many different proposals regarding the future monument, but Etienne-Maurice was persistent and ultimately erected what he had previously planned. This is what he wrote to I. I. Betsky about this: “Could you imagine that a sculptor chosen to create such a significant monument would be deprived of the ability to think, and that the movements of his hands would be controlled by someone else’s head, and not his own?”

Having analyzed the summary of “The Bronze Horseman” and familiarized yourself with the history of the monument, I propose to talk about interesting things. It turns out that in addition to the fact that the poem was used for sculptural art, the Russian composer R. M. Glier, taking advantage of the events in the work of Alexander Sergeevich, created his own ballet of the same name, a fragment of which became the St. Petersburg anthem.

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” was created by A. S. Pushkin in 1833. This is the last work that was written by the great Russian poet in Boldin. It is written in poetic form, and the two main characters of the work are Eugene and the monument to the emperor. The poem intersects two themes - Emperor Peter and a simple, “insignificant” person. The poem is considered one of the most perfect works of the great Russian poet.

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 in the role of a historical character (he appears in the guise of an “idol” - a statue). Also, nothing is said about the time of his reign.

The era of Peter the Great 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 which the poet looked at the emperor was the flood of November 7, 1824, a “terrible time” that remained in the memory for a long time.

When analyzing “The Bronze Horseman,” it can be noted that the poem is written in iambic tetrameter. In this short work (contains less than 500 poems), the poet combined history and modernity, the private life of the “little man” with the history of the country. “The Bronze Horseman” became 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 the conflict between man and the state system. The central event of the work is the 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 an ordinary person can go crazy with grief, anxiety and worry.

Conventional literary plan

The poem also has a second plan - a conventionally literary one. It also needs to be discussed in the analysis of The Bronze Horseman. The poet sets it with the subtitle “Petersburg Tale.” And Evgeny is the central character of this story. The faces of the rest of the city's residents cannot be distinguished. This is the crowd that floods the streets, drowns; cold and detached residents of the city in the second part of the work. The poet's story about the fate of the main character sets off the historical plan and interacts with it throughout the entire work. At the climax of the poem, when the Horseman chases Eugene, this motif dominates. A mythical hero appears on 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 an analysis of “The Bronze Horseman,” a 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. Since the very moment of the founding of St. Petersburg, the history of the city has 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 emerge, opposite to each other in content. In some, Emperor Peter was presented as the “Father of the Fatherland,” a certain deity who managed to organize the intelligent cosmos and the “kind country.”

These ideas often appeared in poetry (for example, in the odes of Sumarokov and Derzhavin). They were encouraged at the state level. Another tendency tends to present 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 describe the flood.

The image of Peter in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” and the historical outline of the work

The originality of the poem is reflected in the simultaneous interaction of three plans. This is legendary-mythological, historical, and also conventionally literary. Emperor Peter appears on a 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 their specificity: he decided to build a city “to spite an arrogant neighbor” so that Russia could “cut a window to Europe.” A. S. Pushkin emphasizes the historical plan with the words “a hundred years have passed.” And this phrase shrouds the events taking place 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 one 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 flood element, the city and the monument - the “idol”. For example, the poet parallels the emperor’s “great thoughts” with the reflections of the “little man,” Eugene. The legendary emperor thought about how the city would be founded and the interests of the state would be achieved. Evgeniy reflects on the small affairs of the common man. The Emperor's dreams come true; the dreams of the “little man” collapsed along with a natural disaster.

Evgeniy - “little man”

Evgeny is one of the main characters in Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman”. He is burdened by his plight, since he is poor and barely makes ends meet. He pins his hopes for a happy future on the girl Parasha. But his life is tragic - it takes away his only dream. Parasha dies during a flood, and Evgeniy goes crazy.

"The Bronze Horseman": excerpt

To memorize, schoolchildren are often asked to memorize part of a poem. This could be, for example, the following passage:

“I love you, Petra’s creation,
I love your strict, slender appearance,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite..."

A student can use several stanzas to get a higher grade. Learning a passage from “The Bronze Horseman” is a pleasure, because the poem is written in Pushkin’s beautiful language.

The image of the “city of Peter” in the poem

The world of St. 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” it seems to be a new civilization built in the vastness of wild Russia. After St. 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, it comes “from the darkness of the forests.” The poet’s wish to the city sounds alarm - “May the defeated element also be pacified with you...”. The beauty of the city may not last forever - it stands strong, but can be destroyed by the raging elements. For the first time, the image of a raging element appears on the pages of the poem.

Poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin is one of the most perfect creations of the poet. In its style it resembles “Eugene Onegin”, and in its content it is close to both history and mythology. This work reflects the thoughts of A.S. Pushkin about Peter the Great and absorbed various opinions about the reformer.

The poem became the final work written during the Boldino autumn. At the end of 1833, “The Bronze Horseman” was completed.

At the time of Pushkin, there were two types of people - some idolized Peter the Great, while others attributed to him a relationship with Satan. On this basis, myths were born: in the first case, the reformer was called the Father of the Fatherland, they talked about an unprecedented mind, the creation of a paradise city (Petersburg), in the second, they prophesied the collapse of the city on the Neva, accused Peter the Great of having connections with dark forces, and called him the Antichrist.

The essence of the poem

The poem begins with a description of St. Petersburg, A.S. Pushkin emphasizes the uniqueness of the place for construction. Evgeniy lives in the city - the most ordinary employee, poor, does not want to get rich, it is more important for him to remain an honest and happy family man. Financial well-being is required only to provide for your beloved Parasha. The hero dreams of marriage and children, dreams of meeting old age hand in hand with his beloved girl. But his dreams are not destined to come true. The work describes the flood of 1824. A terrible time, when people died in layers of water, when the Neva raged and swallowed the city with its waves. It is in such a flood that Parasha dies. Evgeny, on the other hand, shows courage during a disaster, does not think about himself, tries to see his beloved’s house in the distance and runs to it. When the storm subsides, the hero hurries to the familiar gate: there is a willow tree, but there is no gate and no house either. This picture broke the young man; he drags doomedly along the streets of the northern capital, leads the life of a wanderer and every day relives the events of that fateful night. During one of these cloudings, he comes across the house in which he used to live and sees a statue of Peter the Great on a horse - the Bronze Horseman. He hates the reformer because he built a city on the water that killed his beloved. But suddenly the rider comes to life and angrily rushes towards the offender. The tramp will later die.

In the poem, the interests of the state and the ordinary person collide. On the one hand, Petrograd was called the northern Rome, on the other, its foundation on the Neva was dangerous for its inhabitants, and the flood of 1824 confirms this. Eugene’s malicious speeches addressed to the reformer ruler are interpreted in different ways: first, it is a rebellion against the autocracy; the second is the revolt of Christianity against paganism; the third is the pathetic murmur of a small person, whose opinion is not compared with the force necessary for changes on a national scale (that is, in order to achieve grandiose goals, something always has to be sacrificed, and the mechanism of collective will will not be stopped by the misfortune of one person).

Genre, verse meter and composition

The genre of The Bronze Horseman is a poem written, like Eugene Onegin, in iambic tetrameter. The composition is quite strange. It has an excessively large introduction, which can generally be considered as a separate independent work. Next are 2 parts, which tell about the main character, the flood and the clash with the Bronze Horseman. There is no epilogue in the poem, or rather, it is not highlighted separately by the poet himself - the last 18 lines are about the island at the seaside and the death of Eugene.

Despite the non-standard structure, the work is perceived as integral. This effect is created by compositional parallelisms. Peter the Great lived 100 years earlier than the main character, but this does not prevent him from creating the feeling of the presence of a reformer ruler. His personality is expressed through the Bronze Horseman monument; but the person of Peter himself appears at the beginning of the poem, in the introduction, when the military and economic significance of St. Petersburg is discussed. A.S. Pushkin also carries the idea of ​​the immortality of the reformer, since even after his death, innovations appeared and the old ones remained in force for a long time, that is, he launched that heavy and clumsy machine of change in Russia.

So, the figure of the ruler appears throughout the entire poem, either in person or in the form of a monument; he is revived by Eugene’s clouded mind. The time interval of the narrative between the introduction and the first part is 100 years, but despite such a sharp jump, the reader does not feel it, since A.S. Pushkin connected the events of 1824 with the so-called “culprit” of the flood, because it was Peter who built the city on the Neva. It is interesting to note that this book on composition is completely uncharacteristic of Pushkin’s style; it is an experiment.

Characteristics of the main characters

1. Evgeniy – we know little about him; lived in Kolomna, served there. He was poor, but had no addiction to money. Despite the complete ordinariness of the hero, and he could easily get lost among thousands of the same gray residents of St. Petersburg, he has a high and bright dream that fully meets the ideals of many people - marrying the girl he loves. He, as Pushkin himself liked to call his characters, is “the hero of a French novel.” But his dreams are not destined to come true, Parasha dies in the flood of 1824, and Evgeniy goes crazy. The poet painted for us a weak and insignificant young man, whose face is instantly lost against the background of the figure of Peter the Great, but even this everyman has his own goal, which in strength and nobility is commensurate with or even surpasses the personality of the Bronze Horseman.
2. Peter the Great - in the introduction his figure is presented as a portrait of the Creator; Pushkin recognizes an incredible mind in the ruler, but emphasizes despotism. First, the poet shows that although the emperor is higher than Eugene, he is not higher than God and the elements, which are not subject to him, but the power of Russia will pass through all adversity and remain unharmed and unshakable. The author has noticed more than once that the reformer was too autocratic and did not pay attention to the troubles of ordinary people who became victims of his global transformations. Probably, opinions on this topic will always differ: on the one hand, tyranny is a bad quality that a ruler should not have, but on the other hand, would such extensive changes be possible if Peter had been softer? Everyone answers this question for themselves.

Topics

The clash between power and the ordinary person is the main theme of the poem “The Bronze Horseman.” In this work A.S. Pushkin reflects on the role of the individual in the fate of the entire state.

The Bronze Horseman personifies Peter the Great, whose reign was close to despotism and tyranny. With his hand, reforms were introduced that completely changed the course of ordinary Russian life. But when a forest is cut down, chips inevitably fly. Can a little man find his happiness when such a lumberjack does not take into account his interests? The poem answers - no. A clash of interests between the authorities and people in this case is inevitable; of course, the latter remain the losers. A.S. Pushkin reflects on the structure of the state in Peter's times and on the fate of an individual hero in it - Eugene, coming to the conclusion that the empire is cruel to people in any case, and whether its greatness is worth such sacrifices is an open question.

The creator also addresses the topic of the tragic loss of a loved one. Evgeniy cannot stand the loneliness and grief of loss and does not find anything to cling to in life if there is no love.

Issues

• In the poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin raises the problem of the individual and the state. Evgeniy comes from the people. He is an ordinary petty official, living from hand to mouth. His soul is full of high feelings for Parasha, with whom he dreams of marrying. The monument to the Bronze Horseman becomes the face of the state. In the oblivion of reason, a young man comes across the house in which he lived before the death of his beloved and before his madness. His gaze stumbles upon the monument, and his sick mind brings the statue to life. Here it is, the inevitable clash between the individual and the state. But the horseman angrily chases after Evgeniy, pursues him. How dare the hero grumble against the emperor?! The reformer thought on a larger scale, considering plans for the future in a full-length dimension, as if from a bird's eye view he looked at his creations, without peering at the people who were overwhelmed by his innovations. The people sometimes suffered from Peter’s decisions, just as they now sometimes suffer from the ruling hand. The monarch built a beautiful city, which during the flood of 1824 became a cemetery for many residents. But he does not take into account the opinions of ordinary people; one gets the feeling that with his thoughts he went far ahead of his time, and even after a hundred years not everyone was able to comprehend his plan. Thus, the individual is in no way protected from the arbitrariness of superiors; her rights are grossly trampled upon with impunity.
• The problem of loneliness also bothered the author. The hero could not bear a day of life without his other half. Pushkin reflects on how vulnerable and vulnerable we still are, how the mind is not strong and subject to suffering.
• The problem of indifference. No one helped the townspeople evacuate, no one corrected the consequences of the storm, and compensation for the families of the victims and social support for the victims were not even dreamed of by officials. The state apparatus showed surprising indifference to the fate of its subjects.

The State in the Image of the Bronze Horseman

For the first time we encounter the image of Peter the Great in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” in the introduction. Here the ruler is depicted as the Creator, who conquered the elements and built a city on the water.

The emperor's reforms were disastrous for ordinary people, since they were aimed only at the nobility. Yes, and she had a hard time: let us remember how Peter forcibly cut the beards of the boyars. But the main victim of the monarch’s ambitions was ordinary working people: it was they who paved the way for the northern capital with hundreds of lives. A city on bones - here it is - the personification of the state machine. It was comfortable for Peter himself and his entourage to live in the innovations, because they saw only one side of the new things - progressive and beneficial, and the fact that the destructive effects and “side effects” of these changes fell on the shoulders of “little” people did not bother anyone. The elite looked at St. Petersburg drowning in the Neva from “high balconies” and did not feel all the sorrows of the city’s watery foundation. Peter perfectly reflects the categorical absolutist state system - there will be reforms, but the people will “live somehow.”

If at first we see the Creator, then closer to the middle of the poem the poet propagates the idea that Peter the Great is not God and it is completely beyond his power to cope with the elements. At the end of the work we see only a stone likeness of the former, sensational ruler in Russia. Years later, the Bronze Horseman became only a reason for unreasonable worry and fear, but this is only a fleeting feeling of a madman.

What is the meaning of the poem?

Pushkin created a multifaceted and ambiguous work, which must be assessed from the point of view of ideological and thematic content. The meaning of the poem “The Bronze Horseman” lies in the confrontation between Eugene and the Bronze Horseman, the individual and the state, which criticism deciphers in different ways. So, the first meaning is the confrontation between paganism and Christianity. Peter was often awarded the title of Antichrist, and Eugene opposes such thoughts. One more thought: the hero is an everyman, and the reformer is a genius, they live in different worlds and do not understand each other. The author, however, recognizes that both types are needed for the harmonious existence of civilization. The third meaning is that the main character personified the rebellion against autocracy and despotism, which the poet propagated, because he belonged to the Decembrists. He allegorically retold the same helplessness of the uprising in the poem. And another interpretation of the idea is a pathetic and doomed to failure attempt by a “little” man to change and turn the course of the state machine in the other direction.

Small man

This poem can be considered one of the best works of the writer; in it, the poet expressed his thoughts about Peter the Great, as well as various opinions of the people. During the life of Alexander Sergeevich, opinions about the great reformer were extremely contradictory. Some believed that Peter the Great was awarded a great mind, they talked about the creation of an ideal city (St. Petersburg). And others believed that the city on the Neva would fall and called the king the Antichrist.

The essence of the work

The poem shows the struggle between the state and the ordinary person. The main character Eugene, during the flood of 1824, loses his beloved Parasha. Eugene blames Peter the Great for this, since it was he who founded the city on such a troubled river. Eugene made angry speeches against the reformer and their meaning can be deciphered in different ways:

• Like a rebellion against autocracy
• Like the revolt of Christianity against paganism
• How the inability of an ordinary person to influence changes on a national scale

Poem idea

In this work, Alexander Sergeevich examines one of the most pressing problems of that time. This problem lies in the relationship between the individual and society. The question is raised of what to do when state and public opinion differs from the opinion of one person. Is it possible for a person to defend his rights or should he submit to the opinions of others?

Evgeniy acts as a person whose opinion differs from the public. He protested against the king and was punished. Does this mean that Pushkin believes that such people should die and remain silent? But no, the writer believes that such senseless deaths cannot be called normal, but unfortunately we will have to come to terms with this, otherwise the development of the world will stop in place. And yet, the author hopes that someday a time will come where everyone will live in harmony.

The meaning of the work

The poem turned out to be very large-scale and multifaceted. The author put a lot of meaning into it and you can think about it for a long time. Pushkin put a lot of meaning into the struggle between Eugene and Peter the Great (Bronze Horseman). This confrontation can be deciphered in different ways. The three main meanings are discussed above, where the essence of the work was discussed. But there is another option: that the ruler is a genius, and the main character is a simple person. They cannot understand each other and live in the same world. But Pushkin writes that both types of people are necessary.

Detailed literature analysis

The work is a poetic combination of historical and social issues, carrying a certain philosophical meaning.

The compositional structure of the poem is built in the form of a significant introductory part, intended as a separate work, as well as the following two chapters, which tell about the events occurring with the main character of the poem, Eugene. A distinctive feature of the composition of the work is its non-standard construction, expressed in the absence of a traditional epilogue, but at the same time, with the help of compositional parallelisms, creating an impression of the integrity of the poem.

The genre literary direction of the poem is realism, which consists in describing actual historical events, using artistic means of expression in the form of personifications and allegories.

As a poetic meter, the poet chooses iambic tetrameter, which, when describing the images of Emperor Peter and the St. Petersburg capital, sounds pathetic, majestic, powerful, while in the depiction of the main character, Eugene, it becomes ordinary language expressing the essence of a little man.

The main theme of the poem is the relationship between a little man and an omnipotent government, which results in the death of an ordinary citizen who cannot cope with the state machine. The title of the poem is closely related to the theme of the work, demonstrating the power of the state, characterized by indifference to the problems of small people who suffer from autocratic power.

The main characters of the poem are Eugene, depicted in the image of an ordinary Russian man, quite poor, but having bright and lofty dreams of starting a family with his beloved girl, as well as the figure of Peter the Great, whose image is revealed by the poet throughout the narrative of the work, emphasizing not only his extraordinary abilities and excellent intelligence, but despotic characteristics of a tyrant and ruler. The image of Peter is demonstrated by the author not only as a versatile and multifaceted personality capable of reforming the foundations of state, but also as a great autocrat who does not pay attention to the mental and physical suffering of his own common people, who is presented in the poem using the example of the tragic fate of Eugene.

The storyline of the work confronts the main characters of the poem, revealing numerous problems of modern society in the form of contradictions between the state and the individual, as well as problems of indifference and loneliness, illustrated by the inclusion in the content of the work of a description of a city flood that claimed the lives of many people, including the beloved of the protagonist.

Option 3

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” is recognized as the best work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. At the same time, there were quite contradictory opinions about Peter during the author’s life: some considered him a great ruler, others that he was a charlatan and a swindler, and that the city on the Neva would soon be destroyed.

At the center of events is the confrontation between the state and the common man. Evgeniy lost his only love, Parasha, due to the flood that occurred last year. The young man is sure that Peter is to blame for what happened.

Pushkin raises the question of what to do when state opinion differs from public opinion. Is it worth standing up for your own rights and fighting? Or should he humble himself and submit to the opinions of others?

Eugene was punished for trying to rebel against the Tsar's opinion. The author is not against people who defend their point of view, he is against stupid deaths, but at the same time he does not reproach the power of the state.

Realism becomes the genre direction of the work; it consists in describing events that actually occurred in history. The author also uses personifications and allegories that emphasize the reality of what is happening.

The poem is written in iambic four feet. It helps to convey the pathos of speech and sublimity over the people, when Emperor Peter speaks, his words sound powerful and majestic. But when the words come from Eugene’s words, they seem completely ordinary and simple, they emphasize his insignificance compared to a large state.

The theme of the work is the difficult relationship between man and power, which can be considered virtually omnipotent. The result is the death of an ordinary citizen who could not cope with the cruel machine of state power. The enormous power of the state is not able to pay attention to the individual, his feelings and attitude to life.

The storyline becomes a clash of the characters of the main characters, it tries to reveal various problems of modern society. The problems of indifference and cruelty that virtually every person faces, it’s just that everyone decides to deal with the difficulties that arise differently.

Looking at these words, you might think that these are completely different things. But in life it often happens that completely incompatible things happen together. And kindness and cruelty are no exception. So why do such different things come together?