Summary of N.V. Gogol's "Carriage"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is ardently loved not only in Russia and Ukraine, but also in Europe. The writer skillfully mixed everyday life and fantasy, created incomparable folk and satirical images of characters, some of which he wrote off from real life. Belinsky and Pushkin admired Gogol.

A little about the history of the creation of "Carriage"

The story "Carriage" by Gogol, a summary of which will be presented in the article, is not included in the cycle "Petersburg Tales" and is printed separately. This is the wrong position of the publisher, because this work, by its content and meaning, should be included in the collection, despite the fact that its action takes place not in St. Petersburg, but in a provincial town.

The story was published in Sovremennik in 1836. The original version, according to which the work was printed in the almanac, was lost and did not reach our times. Gogol completed the text in 1835 and gave the manuscript to Pushkin, who was grateful to the writer.

Shortcontents of "Carriage" by N. V. Gogol

So, what is Gogol's story about? Let us describe in abbreviation the summary of the "Carriage". A small provincial town lives a boring and monotonous life. Well-fed pigs walk imposingly through the streets, fences and houses are painted in sour colors, and the market, uninteresting and not lively with people, makes me sad. The authorities in the city lead a sleepy and lazy lifestyle.

When a regiment of cavalry soldiers led by a general enters the city, the provincial town begins to come to life. But these changes are strange. The cavalrymen behave as if they are no different from the locals: they play cards and drink wine, wear gray overcoats and caps, merging with the local landscape.

The action begins when the general invites the town's aristocrats to a dinner party. They also invited Pythagoras Pythagorovich Chernokutsky. Once he was a cavalryman, but because of a small scandal he had to retire. He successfully married a nice girl with a good dowry, which the former cavalryman spends right and left. Pythagoras buys expensive things for himself in order to fit in with a high-born society and have a status in the eyes of local aristocrats.

When dinner is over, the general shows his pride to the guests - a mare, which is called by the female name Agrafena Ivanovna. The General regrets that he cannot find a carriage for his horse. Hearing the problem, Chernokutsky offered his help, he had long dreamed of pushing his old carriage to someone. Pythagor Pyfagorovich invites the officers and the general the next daystop by his house to dine and look at the goods.

All night Chernokutsky drank and played whist, came home in the morning and completely forgot about the promise he made to the general. The wife puts herself in order before noon, and then, remembering that her husband is still sleeping, wakes him up. And he says that the general will arrive soon for lunch. The wife exclaims in horror that she has nothing to feed the guests - there is no food in the house. Here the general arrives with his retinue. Frightened of shame, Chernokutsky hides in a carriage. The wife tells the general who has appeared that her husband is not at home. The officers and the general wave their hands, saying that we will appreciate the carriage without him. The guests enter the barn. The general sees that the carriage is old and undignified, opens the door and sees Pythagoras Pythagorovich inside the carriage. The ending is obvious: the general slams the door with irritation and leaves with the officers away from Chernokutsky's house.

Image of Pythagoras Pythagorovich Chernokutsky

Having read the summary of Gogol's "Carriage", I would like to briefly dwell on the central character of the story - Pythagoras of Chernokutsky.

At a dinner party at General Pifagor Pifagorovich appears as a real aristocrat who likes to show off. But Gogol paints the image of Chernokutsky in such a way as to reveal his true essence, which consists in boasting and a regular desire to lie in order to appear as a significant person in the society of noble people. And in this irresponsibility, cowardice and swagger, the true face of the hero is revealed.

The stroller he tried to sell to the general turned out to besimple and uninteresting, like its owner himself.

The meaning of the story "Carriage"

The idea of Gogol's story is to depict an immoral and empty person who is trying with all his might to achieve a position in society, to rise above his own moral bar and is incapable of anything else but a lie.

After we learned the summary of Gogol's "Carriage", we can conclude: the story shows what is in Russia, and not only in our country, but throughout the world, such are the people who they do not know how, but want to appear significant in the eyes of superior people, having neither knowledge, nor talent, nor abilities. Such people can only hang noodles on their ears and praise themselves.