People in the story of N.V. Gogol do not seem at all submissive. Being real Cossacks, they are free in the work, ruthless and merciless to the enemies of the motherland, traitors and traitors. All heroes possess intelligence, pride, nobility. They are able to endure any difficulties in the name of their native land.
Description of the protagonist
The image of the main character, Taras Bulba, is endowed not only with parental severity, but also with tenderness. He is the Old Man, both for his blood relatives, sons, and for the Cossacks, who entrusted him with command over himself. Taras Bulba is a cruel, strict and formidable person. Despite this, he is a good family man and a smart, cheerful military leader who knows how to light up people's hearts with a word.
Pictures with a Bulba
This is a hero whose image is captured not only in prose and poetry, but also in paintings. The most famous paintings are:
- "The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan" (I. Repin);
- “Taras Bulba” (E. Kibrik);
- “Taras Bulba” (A. Bubnov);
- “The meeting of Taras Bulba with his sons” (T. Shevchenko).
An interesting story is the creation of the first canvas. The plot was a letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan. It was an insulting response of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, which they wrote to the Ottoman sultan (presumably Mehmed IV) in response to his ultimatum. In it, he demanded to stop attacking the Brilliant Port (Ottoman Empire) and surrender. To this, the Cossacks answered with a crude mockery.
The artist Repin began work on the "Cossacks" back in 1879, in 1887 he completed the first sketch. Historians describe the process as follows:
In search of the most expressive composition, Repin sculpted small figures of Cossacks in various poses from clay and arranged them into groups. Numerous details of the painting - costumes, utensils, old powder flasks, cradles, sabers, Turkish guns with inlay, bandura, baclag, white scroll - everything is written from nature, from genuine historical objects.
Repin worked on the painting for a total of almost fourteen years. He repeatedly changed image options. Finally, the artist stopped working on the canvas in 1893.
Pictures of nature in the story "Taras Bulba"
In his work, N.V. Gogol not only talks about the fearless Ukrainian Cossacks, but also masterfully describes landscapes. The image of the steppe is an image of a beautiful and powerful Motherland. The author describes natural paintings in Taras Bulba with special love:
The further the steppe, the more beautiful it became. Then the whole south, all the space that constitutes the current New Russia, to the Black Sea, was a green, virgin desert. The plow has never passed through the immeasurable waves of wild plants. Only the horses hiding in them, as in a forest, trampled them. Nothing in nature could be better. The entire surface of the earth was represented by a green-gold ocean, over which millions of different colors sprinkled. Through thin, high stalks of grass, blue, blue, and purple hairs passed through; the yellow gorse popped up with its pyramidal top; white porridge with umbrella-shaped caps was speckled on the surface; the entered god knows where the ear of wheat was poured into the thick. Partridges roamed under their thin roots, stretching out their necks. The air was filled with a thousand different bird whistles. Hawks stood motionless in the sky, spreading their wings and motionlessly staring their eyes into the grass. The cry of a moving sideways cloud of wild geese was given to God by the news in which distant lake. A seagull rose from the grass with measured swings and luxuriously bathed in the blue waves of air. There she disappeared above and only flickers with a single black dot. There she flipped her wings and flashed before the sun ...
This description is rich in rich colors and detail, which helps almost instantly imagine the landscape before your eyes. Pictures, following one after another, add up to one animated composition with an amazing combination of sounds of nature. So lyrically expressing this beauty with words could only a truly talented person.
Privileged steppes not only provide aesthetic pleasure, but also contribute to a deeper understanding of the freedom-loving nature of the Cossacks. In the story "Taras Bulba", nature paintings help the reader to better understand the internal state of the characters.