Description of Ostap (N. Gogol, "Taras Bulba"). Comparative characteristics of Ostap and Andriy

Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" is an ambiguous work. On the one hand, it seems to sing of the unthinkable power of the Russian spirit, on the other hand, it frightens the modern reader with descriptions of ancient atrocities. It remains only to thank fate for the fact that we did not have to live in that harsh time.

All the values ​​of the Cossacks, their means of achieving the goal and way of life look today as utter savagery.

Meeting of the Bulba family

The plot is probably still remembered from school: the old colonel Taras Bulba, having waited for his two sons from the Kyiv Academy, the elder Ostap and the younger Andriy, goes with them to the Zaporozhian Sich, because his attitude to all these “primers and philosophies” skeptical. The old Cossack considers a hot battle and male partnership to be true science.

His sons are both healthy, handsome youths, "over twenty years old." Their disposition is different: Ostap's characterization begins to become clear from the very first page. As soon as he returned home, he enters into a fight with his own father, not allowing him to make fun of himself (the old Bulba seemed ridiculous filial "scrolls"). We must pay tribute to the fact that the colonel was not angry with his eldest son, but quite the opposite: he was delighted and wished to fight with the younger. But this one is molded from a different dough, and the father immediately imprints: “Hey, you’re a mazunchik, as I see it!”.

The personality of young Ostap

Gogol describes the personalities of his heroes in a few, but expressive phrases, and Ostap's characterization is somewhat stingier than others. The man is a straightforward, faithful comrade, who never betrays his accomplices in bursat's undertakings.

The eldest son of Taras is indifferent to teaching - only the threat of being in the monastery servants for twenty years, voiced by his father, forces him to take up science. And then it turns out that his abilities are no worse than those of others, but all the same, Ostap almost never thinks about anything except "war and rampant revelry."

At the same time, kindness is not alien to his heart (albeit with reservations for a “severe and strong” temper and the same era). The eldest son is sorry for the tears of the unfortunate mother, and he leaves the house with his head down sadly.

Cherchez la femme

The second son of Bulba differs from the firstborn: Ostap and Andria are immediately brought to the attention of the reader. The younger brother is not so gloomy in disposition - he is more disposed to science and to all sorts of feelings. Dreaming of feats of arms, he nevertheless thinks about many other things. It is interesting that Andriy showed at the Academy, often being the ringleader of various pranks, and resourcefulness and quickness of mind sometimes saved him from punishment. In this sense, Ostap's characterization is the opposite: he did not strive for leadership, he did not consider it necessary to make excuses. He accepted the well-deserved punishment silently and meekly, which indicates both the absence of cunning and the presence of pride.

The main difference, which the characterization of Andriy and Ostap tells the attentive reader, is the place of a woman in the soul of each of them. If the older brother does not even think about it, then the younger one recognized the need for love early, as soon as he was eighteen.

The attitude of Taras Bulba to the weak half of humanity is more than contemptuous. "The Cossack is not to mess with the women," - such is the peremptory characterization of Taras. Ostap, apparently, his father managed to bring up in the "right" spirit. It didn’t work out with the younger one: while still studying, he meets in Kyiv a “beautiful Polish woman”, the daughter of a visiting governor, and falls mortally in love with her. and lead him to death.

Learning in combat

Arriving in the Sich, the elder Bulba immediately begins to incite the ataman to make a military campaign (so that his sons sniff gunpowder). Having been refused, the old colonel bursts into an angry tirade, the meaning of which is that life without war is meaningless.

In the end, Taras is finally "lucky". A Cossack comes to Kosh with the bad news that throughout Ukraine the Poles are oppressing the Orthodox people, and even the churches now belong to the Jews - in order to serve the service, you have to pay the "Jews". Having killed a few sons of Israel in the vicinity of the Sich, the Cossacks set out on a valiant campaign and come to the fortified city of Dubno, whose inhabitants are ready to fight to the last, but not surrender to the mercy of the Zaporizhian army. It cannot be said that such a position is wrong: the description of the feats of arms of the Cossacks does not at all suggest thoughts about the shown mercy, where there: wherever the brave soldiers passed, they burned, killed, robbed and tortured - these, Gogol repeats, were the customs of that cruel time .

Mind and passion

So, Dubno does not give up, but its inhabitants are in a difficult situation: there is no food in the city, the surrounding villages are plundered, and the Cossacks are located in front of the walls, intending to keep the siege until hunger does what weapons could not.

In the course of the battles, it becomes completely clear what the eldest son of Taras is - Ostap Bulba: the characteristic given to him by his father is the most flattering: "In time there will be a good colonel, and even such that he will shut up the dad!" The eldest of the brothers, despite his rather young age (he is twenty-two), manifests himself as a person created to "perform military affairs." He is brave, cold-blooded, prudent in battle, able to sensibly assess his position and the strength of the enemy. His mind is busy with victory - and he finds a way to achieve what he wants, even temporarily retreating.

Immediately, the difference between the brothers is finally determined: the characterization of Andriy and Ostap does not contradict what is already known about them, on the contrary, it is supplemented with new facts.

The youngest son of Taras sees "frantic bliss and ecstasy" in the battle. He is not inclined to preliminary assessments or reflections: this nature is rather passionate and sensual than calm and reasonable. Sometimes, with one onslaught of desperate courage, he manages to accomplish the impossible, and then the father approves of his son, still giving preference to the elder: “And this is a good ... warrior! Not Ostap, but a kind, kind warrior as well!

Andriy's betrayal

Under the besieged city, the Cossacks toil from boredom, drink, play tricks. The Zaporizhzhya discipline described by Gogol would have terrified a military specialist: the entire camp is asleep, and only Andriy wanders the steppe with a constricted heart - it cannot be otherwise, he foresees his fate. And indeed: here is someone's ghostly figure stealing. Amazed, he recognizes the maid of his Kyiv acquaintance: a Tatar woman, having got out of the besieged city by an underground passage, came to ask Andriy for bread for her lady.

The behavior of the characters in the course of subsequent events is consistent with the personality of each of them. We can say that Ostap, Andria is complete - it remains only to understand how spiritual qualities can determine fate.

The youngest member of the family, sensual and seeking pleasure, loses his head. Going to a beautiful Polish woman with bread, Andriy forgets his duty and his homeland. “My fatherland is you!”, he says to his beloved, and remains in the besieged city, going over to the side of the enemy.

The news of his son's betrayal, brought by the Jew Yankel, hurts Taras painfully. In vain attempts to console him: the old colonel remembered that "the power of a weak woman is great ... that Andriy's nature is malleable from this side."

Death of sons

Nevertheless, the awareness of filial weakness does not induce Bulba to forgive - he is stubborn, cruel and ruthless in his principles: having lured the youngest offspring into the forest during the battle, the father kills his son with words that have long become winged: “I gave birth to you, I I'll kill you!"

Having lost one son, the father gives all his love and pride to another. Brutally cut in battle, surviving by a miracle, he goes to Warsaw itself to try to rescue Ostap from captivity - but, unfortunately, this cannot be done. The father did not even have a chance to see his son (not least because of the irascibility of Taras himself, who could not endure the insults of the guard, whom Yankel, whom we know, also tried to bribe with flattering speeches).

Having abandoned hope, old Bulba is present on the square where the prisoners are being executed, and the characterization of Ostap given earlier is again confirmed. Under torture, he does not make a sound, so as not to give the “heretics” Poles the pleasure of hearing the groans of the Cossacks. His soul trembled only once, during the most cruel torment, and then, succumbing to weakness (probably the only time in his short life), Ostap shouted in mental anguish: “Father! Where are you! Do you hear?!" And Bulba, standing among the onlookers, answered his beloved son: “I hear!”.