Composition
Real character traits are also revealed in the image of Solokha, a calculating and cunning woman who deftly manages her many admirers. Solokha “was so able to charm the most sedate Cossacks (who, by the way, it doesn’t hurt to note, had little need for beauty) that both the head and the clerk Osip Nikiforovich (of course, if the clerk was not at home), and Chub, came to her. and Kazak Kasyan. And, to my credit, she knew how to skillfully deal with them. It never occurred to any of them that he had a rival... Perhaps these very cunning and cleverness of hers were the reason that here and there the old women began to talk, especially when they were drinking too much at a merry gathering somewhere, that Solokha was definitely witch".
The image of the old womanizer Cossack Chub, a short-sighted man, slow-witted and at the same time stubborn and self-confident, is filled with wonderful humor. The image of the clerk, busy in search of earthly pleasures, acting as one of the “respectable” competitors in the line of Solokha’s admirers, is also very expressive.
A characteristic feature of “The Night Before Christmas” is that, along with images taken from the people’s environment, the capital’s elite are shown here, and real historical figures are drawn next to fantasy. The inclusion of paintings depicting St. Petersburg in the story undoubtedly contains a certain comparison of them with scenes and images of folk life. Vakula was most struck by the abundance of “lordship” in St. Petersburg. “He saw so many gentlemen in cloth-covered fur coats that he didn’t know whose hat to take off. “My God, how much gentility there is here!” thought the blacksmith. “I think that everyone who walks down the street in a fur coat is either an assessor or an assessor!” and those who ride in such wonderful chaises with glass, when they are not mayors, are probably commissars, and maybe even more.” In the original edition of “The Night Before Christmas,” Vakula’s impression of St. Petersburg was expressed somewhat more sharply: “and a friend saw in the cloth-covered tubes that he did not know whose hat to take off. “Oh my God! How much (bureaucratic) lordship is here,” thought the blacksmith.”
Gogol also retains an ironic tone when describing the court nobility, emphasizing the combination of arrogance and servility, arrogance and cowardly ingratiation, which is characteristic of noble persons. “A minute later, a rather stout man in a hetman’s uniform and yellow boots walked in, accompanied by a mute sleeping man. His hair was disheveled, one eye was slightly crooked, his face depicted some kind of arrogant majesty, and in all his movements the habit of command was visible. All the generals, who were walking quite arrogantly in golden uniforms, began to fuss and with low bows, seemed to catch his word and even the slightest movement in order to now fly to carry it out.”
Potemkin is depicted in “The Night Before Christmas” as a powerful and cunning dignitary, a crafty courtier. Having given “instructions” to the Cossacks in advance about how and what to say at the Tsarina’s reception, he vigilantly monitors the execution of his “director’s” plan. The story contains a clear indication that the arrival of the Cossacks in the capital is associated with the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich and the former Cossack liberties. This gives the image of Potemkin, as well as the image of Catherine II, a far from “benign” appearance. At the same time, it is obvious that the writer did not seek to paint a portrait of Catherine II in an accusatory spirit.
The comparison of pictures of folk life and pictures of dignitary Petersburg in “The Night Before Christmas” is not widely developed, and yet it is very significant as an expression of the general orientation of “Evenings.” Here we see the development of those ideas that were expressed on behalf of Rudoy Panka in his “preface” to “Evenings,” when the “publisher” of the stories compared the life of the people with the life and life of the nobility.
In “The Night Before Christmas,” as well as in other stories, Gogol made extensive use of folk legends and tales. In comparison with “May Night” and “Sorochinskaya Fair”, fantasy in “The Night Before Christmas” is presented more widely. And at the same time, here its “reduction” is carried out with greater expressiveness and force, its unique “everyday life” is unfolded. Switched to the “everyday” plane, shown in a humorous light, science fiction loses its outlines of the unusual, scary and incomprehensible, becoming something funny and amusing. Fantastic figures and images appear in “The Night Before Christmas” as carriers of petty everyday passions and aspirations. “Only one night remained for him (the devil) to wander in this world; but even that night he was looking for something to take out his anger on the blacksmith. And for this purpose he decided to steal the month... Thus, as soon as the devil hid his month in his pocket, suddenly it became so dark all over the world that not everyone could find the way to the tavern, not only to the clerk. The witch, suddenly seeing herself in the darkness, screamed. Then the devil, coming up like a little demon, grabbed her sex, her hand and began to whisper in her ear the same thing that is usually whispered to the entire female race.”
Other works on this work
Christmas Eve Characteristics of the image of Vakula the blacksmith The combination of the real and the fairy-tale in N. V. Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas” (2) What I liked about the story “The Night Before Christmas” LOVE WORKS WONDERS (based on N.V. Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas”)Introduction. General description of the story, main idea.
“The Night Before Christmas” is Gogol’s outstanding story, it has been filmed many times and is sincerely loved by domestic readers. Part of the cycle of stories “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. Incredible fantastic events and lively language of description make the story bright and eye-catching. It is literally filled with folklore, folk tales and legends.
The ideological meaning of the work can be most fully understood by analyzing Gogol's views. At that time, he thought more and more about the greatness of democracy over the blind patriarchal way of contemporary Russia. It was fueled by progressive trends in the field of literature and science. The life of the landowners, their slow-wittedness and adherence to old ideals irritated Gogol, and he over and over again ridiculed their pitiful way of life and primitive thinking.
It is very important that in “The Night Before Christmas” good triumphs over evil, and light prevails over darkness. Vakula is brave and generous, he is not a coward and does not fold his hands in the face of difficulties. It was precisely this way, similar to the brave epic heroes, that Gogol wanted to see his contemporaries. However, the reality differed sharply from his idealized ideas.
The author tries to prove, using the example of Vakula, that only by doing good deeds and leading a righteous lifestyle can one become a happy person. The power of money and the violation of religious values will lead a person to the very bottom, making him an immoral, rotting person, doomed to a joyless existence.
The entire description is permeated with the author's deep humor. Just remember with what mocking irony he describes the empress’s court circle. Gogol portrays the inhabitants of the St. Petersburg Palace as ingratiating and servile people, looking into the mouths of their superiors.
History of creation
The book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” was published in 1831, at the same time “The Night Before Christmas” was written. Gogol’s stories in the cycle were born quickly and easily. It is not known for certain when Gogol began working on the story, and when the idea of creating it first came to him. There is evidence that he put his first words on paper a year before the book was published. Chronologically, the events described in the story fall on a period of approximately 50 years earlier than real time, namely the reign of Catherine II and the last deputation of the Cossacks.
Analysis of the work
Main plot. Features of the compositional structure.
(Illustration by Alexander Pavlovich Bubnov for N.V. Gogol “The Night Before Christmas”)
The plot is tied to the adventures of the main character - the blacksmith Vakula and his love for the eccentric beauty Oksana. The conversation between the young people serves as the beginning of the story; the first beauty immediately promises Vakula marriage in exchange for the royal shoes. The girl is not at all going to fulfill her word; she laughs at the young man, realizing that he will not be able to fulfill her instructions. But, according to the peculiarities of the construction of the fairy tale genre, Vakula manages to fulfill the beauty’s desire, and the devil helps him in this. Vakula's flight to St. Petersburg to receive the Empress is the climax of the story. The denouement is the wedding of the young people and the reconciliation of Vakula with the father of the bride, with whom they had a broken relationship.
In terms of genre, the story gravitates more towards the fairy-tale type of composition. According to the laws of a fairy tale, we can see a happy ending at the end of the story. In addition, many heroes originate precisely from the origins of ancient Russian legends; we observe the magic and power of dark forces over the world of ordinary people.
Images of the main characters
Blacksmith Vakula
The main characters are real characters, village residents. Blacksmith Vakula is a real Ukrainian man, hot-tempered, but at the same time extremely decent and honest. He is a hard worker, a good son to his parents and will certainly make an excellent husband and father. He is simple from the point of view of mental organization, does not have his head in the clouds and has an open, rather kind disposition. He achieves everything thanks to his strength of character and unbending spirit.
Black-eyed Oksana is the main beauty and an enviable bride. She is proud and arrogant, due to her youth she has a hot temperament, is frivolous and flighty. Oksana is constantly surrounded by male attention, loved by her father, tries to dress in the most elegant dresses and endlessly admires her own reflection in the mirror. When she found out that the boys had declared her the first beauty, she began to behave appropriately, constantly annoying everyone with her whims. But young suitors are only amused by this behavior, and they continue to run after the girl in a crowd.
In addition to the main characters of the story, many equally striking secondary characters are described. Vakula’s mother, the witch Solokha, who also appeared in “Sorochinskaya Fair”, is a widow. Attractive in appearance, a flirtatious lady, playing tricks with the devil. Despite the fact that she personifies a dark force, her image is described very attractively and does not repel the reader at all. Just like Oksana, Solokha has a lot of admirers, including the ironically depicted sexton.
Conclusion
Immediately after its publication, the story was recognized as unusually poetic and exciting. Gogol so skillfully conveys all the flavor of the Ukrainian village that the reader seems to be able to stay there himself and immerse himself in this magical world while reading the book. Gogol draws all his ideas from folk legends: the devil who stole the month, the witch flying on a broom, and so on. With his characteristic artistic style, he reworks images in his own poetic way, making them unique and bright. Real events are intertwined with fairy tales so closely that the thin line between them is completely lost - this is another feature of Gogol’s literary genius, which permeates all of his work and gives it its characteristic features.
Gogol's work, his stories and novels filled with the deepest meaning are considered exemplary not only in domestic but also in world literature. He so captured the minds and souls of his readers, managed to find such deep strings of the human soul that his work is deservedly considered ascetic.
The work “The Night Before Christmas” is largely based on the writer’s favorite Ukrainian folklore; in this story, the daily life of the people of Ukraine, their customs, beliefs, and traditions dedicated to the Christmas holiday are clearly visible.
The main character of the story, the young, sincere and cheerful blacksmith Vakula, has long dreamed of marrying the daughter of Oksana, a respected peasant in the village Chuba. As the guy himself says, this girl is the whole world for him, she is both his mother and his father, and absolutely everything that he values in the world.
Oksana is still very young, she has not yet turned seventeen years old, but both in her native village and beyond everyone does not stop talking about her extraordinary beauty, which inevitably develops in the girl such qualities as extreme selfishness, narcissism, arrogance in relation to to others.
The author mentions that local young people are trying in every possible way to court her, but the overly proud and inaccessible beauty sharply pushes everyone away, not seeing in these young men anyone who would truly be worthy of her.
Chub's daughter often stands in front of the mirror for hours, admiring her own attractiveness and looking at herself. The girl has no doubt at all that, having gotten married, she will do her future husband great honor and he will subsequently begin to pamper her in every way and admire her appearance from the bottom of his heart.
For a long time, arrogant Oksana simply does not notice the loving eyes of the blacksmith Vakula, constantly fixed on her. The girl perceives the guy’s offer to become his wife with open ridicule; she is not going to agree at all, absolutely not considering an ordinary village youth to be a suitable match for herself.
Wanting to play a joke on the guy, Oksana demands to deliver to her those booties that the Empress herself wears, only in this case she will immediately marry Vakula. It doesn’t even occur to the girl that the groom she rejected will decide to at least try to fulfill her condition; she almost immediately forgets about her words.
The blacksmith himself, having heard Oksana’s order, concludes that the spoiled beauty does not love him at all, but only mocks him and his feelings for her without hesitation. Vakula is already ready to abandon his daughter Chub, convincing himself that there are many other pretty and kind-hearted girls in the village, while Oksana only loves to dress up and will never be able to become a good housewife. However, the young man is unable to forget this girl; her cheerful laughter constantly rings in his ears.
At the same time, Oksana, having heard that Vakula is supposedly no longer alive, unexpectedly cannot sleep throughout the night, and by the morning she realizes that she is truly in love with this young man, although she had previously demonstrated to him your contempt. After all, despite all her selfishness and pride, Oksana remains an ordinary rural girl of this time, who imagines herself in the future as a wife and mother, conscientiously doing household chores.
The next day, standing in the church, she experiences a wide range of feelings, including sadness, anxiety, and hope that the blacksmith is actually alive. When Vakula approaches her again, Oksana lowers her eyes in embarrassment, and everyone admits that the recognized village beauty has never been so pretty before.
The girl is firmly convinced that she has finally met her destiny and true love, and readers of many generations do not remain indifferent to her beauty and charm, which is especially evident in the final scenes of the story.
Oksana is the main character of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas”. Oksana is the most beautiful girl not only in Dikanka, where boys run after her in crowds, but also in the nearby villages. The girl perfectly understands her beauty and origin - her father is a rich Cossack, so she uses her beauty to increase her self-esteem, but she herself does not feel anything for any boy, but is only amused by their attention.
Oksana loves to look in the mirror and admire herself: her snub nose, black eyes, beautiful eyebrows and tight braid. With each such process, she kept dreaming about how a good hubby would admire her as much as she did.
The girl was endowed with a very complex character: she loved only herself, treated others selfishly, seemed very arrogant, proud and unapproachable. All the boys who looked after her, one way or another, stopped doing this, because they did not achieve any reciprocity, Oksanka only stroked her pride thanks to them.
The blacksmith Vakula, to whom the girl initially did not give any attention, could not help but fall in love with Oksana and treated him as coldly as she did with the other guys, even grinning at times. Only Vakula did not give up, he did not stop loving and caring for Oksana, he walked towards his goal, towards his love. In her capriciousness before Christmas, Oksanka tells Vakula to bring her the slippers that the queen wears. Of course, this was nonsense that no one would take seriously. But not Vakula, he loved the girl so much that he decided to go for the slippers.
At the end of the story, we see Oksana in completely different tones: instead of pride and arrogance, embarrassment and sincere joy awaken in her for the fact that Vakula returned safe and sound, and with little shoes to boot. Of course, after such a feat, the girl agrees to marry Vakula, and she herself understands that she loves him, because after his disappearance she was very worried and worried, which means that she does not care what will happen to him. blacksmith.
Different conclusions can be drawn from this story, but I realized for myself that even behind the mask of a capricious and spoiled young lady, there can be hidden the sweet face of a modest and well-mannered girl who, like any other young beauty, wants love.
Option 2
Oksana is one of the centers of the story, around which events develop and revolve. After all, if this capricious beauty had not wanted to show everyone her power over the blacksmith Vakula, the holiday would have passed without particularly stormy events. Indeed, the daughter of the rich Cossack Chuba was amazingly beautiful. Her fresh, expressive face with clearly defined eyebrows and shiny black eyes, full lips, rosy cheeks... She's good! But how spoiled and arrogant she is: “if she walked around not in a blanket and a spare tire, but in some kind of hood, she would have scattered all her girls.” All she had to worry about was looking in the mirror and trying on new clothes... A rich Cossack loved his daughter, who grew up without a mother, and spoiled her with outfits and jewelry. The guys followed her in droves, but they couldn’t stand the beauty’s whims and looked for girls who were more merciful and accommodating.
And now Oksana is spinning in front of the mirror, admiring herself, and cannot take her eyes off. And then Vakula came. He confesses his love, and Oksana mocks him, saying that she has more fun with her friends. Then the girlfriends came running. In front of them, Oksana mockingly said to Vakula: “If you bring the slippers that the queen wears... I’ll marry you right now!” The distressed Vakula said goodbye to the guys, telling everyone that he would never see them again in this world, advised the flighty beauty to look for another groom and left. With the help of Patsyuk, a local healer and sorcerer, Vakula managed to catch the devil and force him to go to the royal palace.
Somewhat later, rumors spread throughout the village that the blacksmith had either hanged himself or drowned himself out of grief. By nightfall the whole village was discussing the news. All night the beauty could not sleep, she turned from side to side. And it’s not that she grieved for the blacksmith, but felt sorry for her poor self. Where will she find another devoted groom who would tolerate her whims and fulfill any desires? Moreover, he was strong, handsome and had considerable artistic abilities. She thought all night, scolding herself for her coldness. And I realized that I fell in love. And when the blacksmith did not appear in the village in the morning, she could not even pray in the church, but only grieved and cried. And all the villagers noticed that the church service was going wrong - as if something was missing... And the singers sing awkwardly, but it was better with the blacksmith. Everyone was wondering: where did Vakula go?
When the blacksmith came after mass to ask Chub for permission to marry his daughter, Oksana was not herself with joy. And it was not the slippers that she needed, but the blacksmith himself. She looked at him with love and “never before has she been so wonderfully beautiful.” From under the mask of a narcissistic, indifferent beauty, an ordinary, kind and affectionate girl finally appeared.
Essay about Oksana
“The Night Before Christmas” is a real Christmas fairy tale, kind and cheerful, based on Ukrainian folklore. The story describes a festive night in a small farm, with all the folk customs and traditions.
The respected wealthy Cossack Chub lives in the farmstead. He has an only daughter, Oksana, a young girl of seventeen years old. She is very attractive, and her beauty is talked about far beyond the borders of her native village. All these stories about her appearance led to Oksana turning into a narcissistic, selfish and arrogant proud woman.
She constantly spins in front of the mirror, admiring her beauty. The girl is sure that her future husband should consider her choice an honor, and will simply be obliged to pamper her in every possible way, indulge her whims, and constantly admire her beauty. The capricious girl believes that in her native Dikanka there is no boy worthy of her favor.
The blacksmith Vakula, the son of the local witch Solokha, is in love with Oksana. He has long dreamed of his capricious daughter Chub becoming his wife. For the sake of this narcissistic beauty, the blacksmith is ready to go to hell. But the unapproachable proud woman only mocks him and only allows him to admire her beauty from afar. Mocking the blacksmith in the presence of her girlfriends, Oksana invites him to get her slippers worthy of a queen. The girl promises to marry Vakula if he fulfills her crazy wish. The blacksmith's pride awakens, and he is ready to throw the obstinate girl out of his head, but then the devil falls into his hands, and a real opportunity arises to fulfill the stupid request of the whimsical beauty. Riding the line, Vakula goes straight to the queen's palace. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading in the village that the blacksmith has committed suicide.
Having learned about this, Oksana suddenly realizes that Vakula is the only guy who truly loved her and was ready to do anything for her, even endure her whims. The girl feels sorry for the blacksmith, she is very worried and regrets what happened, and understands that she also loves him. When Vakula returns safe and sound, happy Oksana, out of embarrassment, turns into a real beauty, a simple girl in love. Having finally understood and appreciated real human feelings, Oksana forgot her arrogance and arrogance, married Vakula, and turned out to be a good wife and caring mother.
All the images in the story “The Night Before Christmas” are distinguished by their originality and richness in the description of their character and life qualities. So Gogol endowed the Cossack Chuba with a difficult character, characteristic of many rich people of that time.
Cossack Chub is a rich widower who has an adult daughter Oksana. He is ready to do anything for his beloved daughter. She has a lot of outfits, her father does not refuse her anything. But he wants to marry Oksana to a rich, suitable groom, so he quarrels with Vakula so that he does not become such a contender. This is Chub's boasting, his greed for wealth. He cannot even imagine that Oksana could fall in love with a poor man.
Chub has an obstinate character. He does everything contrary to what he is advised to do. Take the case when he and his godfather were on their way to visit the clerk in the dark, and the Devil stole the month and in the pitch darkness Chub asked the godfather if he needed to go, and when the godfather advised him to stay at home, Chub did the opposite, if only it wasn’t like that, as he was advised. In all situations, he wanted to have supremacy, so that everyone would do as he said.
Chub is no stranger to having fun while visiting with people like him. He loves to be honored. But his self-confidence knows no bounds. For example, when he came to visit Solokha, he could not admit that she was not treating him alone, that he might have rivals. After all, according to his concept, no one is his equal.
But when he finds out about Solokha’s treachery, he is very annoyed and worries about what happened. He just can’t believe that this woman he liked can have love affairs with someone else. Complete disappointment and surprise haunts him.
Despite all Chub's wealth and self-confidence, he is actually a coward and is afraid of everything. But in the village they don’t like him. The common people don't like arrogant people like him.
Gogol presents this character with such subtle humor that when reading the story, one can only laugh at Chub and not at all feel disgusted with him.
And at the end of the story, Chub was surprised at the arrival of the blacksmith, and then he was even more amazed, “when Vakula untied his scarf and put in front of him a brand new hat and belt, the likes of which had never been seen in the village...”. This is where his trait of greed and calculation manifests itself. Chub realized that Vakula had become rich and, having forgiven him everything, agreed to marry his Oksana to the blacksmith. And he was also pleased that Vakula fell at his feet and begged for forgiveness. But of course, the proud blacksmith submitted to him.
These were the individual character traits of Chub that were characteristic of many village residents in those days, and the author described them with humor.
Essay Characteristics of Chub in Gogol's story
All works of N.V. Gogol are filled with magic and bright events. For me, the most magical and most fabulous work is “The Night Before Christmas or Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” For me it is associated with childhood, vacations and New Year's holidays.
All the characters are simply extraordinary: the witch Salokha, the hardworking blacksmith Vakula, who is so unlike her, and the beautiful maiden Oksana, and her strict father Chub, and Patsyuk, a lover of flying dumplings, and, of course, the devil who stole the month. We watch as a plot unfolds in front of us about folk legends and beliefs, for example, that on Christmas night the devil (evil spirits) appears among people and becomes stronger and can do dirty tricks. According to the plot, the devil gets along with the witch Solokha, and they steal the month with the stars from the sky, thus trying to disrupt the holiday and prevent people from visiting each other, fearing the darkness that has come due to the absence of the moon and stars.
Today we will tell a story about the strict Chub. The author makes fun of the shortcomings and vices of the heroes. The image of the old womanizer Chub in the story is shrouded in humor, and he is presented as a narrow-minded man, slow-witted, but at the same time stubborn.
Chub is a rich Cossack who has a daughter, Oksana, the most beautiful girl in the village. His daughter is spoiled by attention and prosperity. In the village she is considered the first beauty.
Chub is quite wealthy and, as he thinks, a respected Cossack, suffering from arrogance. He does not want his daughter Oksana to date the blacksmith Vakula, whom he considers not rich enough for his daughter. Chub believes that he will find a much better and more profitable match for his daughter, which is why he prevents their communication. He refuses to see the love of two young people, sincerely believing that money is much more important in life. The Cossack himself does not deny himself pleasures, attends festivals, goes to the witch Solokha, not suspecting that he is not the only suitor who will ultimately, like Chub himself, end up in the bag. Moving through the pages of the book, we see the true image of Chub, a cowardly and insignificant person. The villagers don't like Chub because he oppresses them. His moral qualities are not what a respected Cossack should have.
The whole story radiates with the bright atmosphere of Christmas. The great writer, N.V. Gogol described the Christmas customs of the people so colorfully and in detail that, reading his work, we seem to go back in time and ourselves become characters in the unfolding events. The story “The Night Before Christmas” makes it possible to better learn the folk traditions of the holiday and participate in them in absentia, sympathizing with your favorite characters.
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