The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is ardently loved not only in Russia and Ukraine, but also in Europe. The writer masterly mixed everyday life and science fiction, created incomparable folk and satirical characters, some of which were copied from real life. Beloginsky and Pushkin admired Gogol.
A little about the history of the creation of "Strollers"
Gogol’s short story “The Stroller”, a brief summary of which will be presented in the article, is not included in the St. Petersburg Tales cycle and is published separately. This is the publisher’s wrong position, because this work should be included in the collection in its content and meaning, despite the fact that its action takes place not in St. Petersburg, but in a provincial city.
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 work on the text in 1835 and gave the manuscript to Pushkin, who was grateful to the writer.
Summary of "Strollers" N.V. Gogol
So what is Gogol’s story about? We describe in abbreviation a brief summary of "Strollers". A small provincial town lives a boring and monotonous life. Well-fed pigs walk imposingly through the streets, fences and houses are painted in acidic colors, and a market that is uninteresting and not revitalized by the people is depressing. 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. Cavalrymen behave as if they were no different from local residents: they play cards and drink wine, wear gray overcoats and caps, blending in with the local landscape.
The action begins to happen when the general invites town aristocrats to a dinner party. Pythagoras Pythagorovich Chernokutsky was also invited. Once he was a cavalryman, but because of a little scandal he had to resign. He successfully married a nice girl with a good dowry, which the former cavalryman spends left and right. Pythagoras buys for himself expensive things in order to correspond to a noble society and have a status in the eyes of local aristocrats.
When dinner was over, the general showed the guests his pride - a mare, whose name is female Agrafena Ivanovna. The general regrets that he cannot find the strollers for the horse. Hearing the problem, Chernokutsky offered his help, he had long dreamed of pushing his old stroller to someone. Pythagoras Pythagorovich invites officers and the general the next day to drop 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 the husband is still sleeping, he wakes him up. And he reports that the general will arrive soon for lunch. The wife exclaims in horror that she has nothing to feed the guests - there are no products in the house. Here the general with his retinue arrives. Frightened by shame, Chernokutsky hides in a stroller. The wife tells the general who appears that her husband is not at home. The officers and the general wave their hands, saying that without him we would appreciate a stroller. Guests enter the barn. The general sees that the crew is old and solid, opens the door and sees Pythagoras Pythagorovich inside the carriage. The final is obvious: the general slams the door with irritation and leaves the officers away from Chernokutsky’s house.
The image of Pythagoras Pythagorovich Chernokutsky
Having become acquainted with the brief content of Gogol’s “Strollers”, I want to briefly dwell on the central character of the story - Pythagoras Chernokutsky.
At a dinner party with General Pythagoras Pythagorovich, he appears as a real aristocrat who loves to boast. But Gogol paints the image of Chernokutsky in such a way as to expose his true essence, which consists in boasting and the regular desire to lie, in order to appear in the society of noble people as a significant person. And in this irresponsibility, cowardice and swagger, the true face of the hero is manifested.
The stroller, which he tried to sell to the general, was simple and uninteresting, as well as its owner.
The meaning of the story "Stroller"
The idea of Gogol’s story is to depict an immoral and empty man who is trying by all means to achieve a position in society, to rise above his own moral standard and not capable of anything else but a lie.
After we found out the summary of Gogol’s “Strollers”, we can conclude: the story shows what is in Russia, and not only in our country, but throughout the world, such people who do not know how, but want seem significant in the eyes of higher people, without the knowledge or talent or ability. Such people can only hang noodles on their ears and praise themselves.