Taras Bulba - characteristics of the main character of the story by N.V. Gogol "Taras Bulba"

Appearance

Some character traits of the old Cossack can be seen in his appearance . Taras Bulba was tall and heavy. Everything about him was big - height, limbs, weight. He is an extremely heavy and thick Cossack with large fists and large features. But all this did not spoil his appearance.

Bulba does not exude negativity; strength and power emanate from him. Despite his age, Taras is healthy, like a real hero. The author gave a description of his strength in his work: “Thirty people hung from his hands and feet.” Bulba is so strong that he could withstand 30 soldiers.

The entire body and face of the Cossack are covered with scars and old scars. This suggests that he spent his entire life on campaigns and was never afraid to be the first to fight. But this does not spoil his appearance. On the contrary, the colonel has a powerful and commanding image.

His age is indicated by gray hair and bushy eyebrows. Bulba has a curled mustache and a Cossack forelock. The colonel constantly rode his horse named Devil. This is a large stallion, capable of supporting the weight of a Cossack. Taras often smoked a pipe; it was an integral attribute of him.

Description of the hero

The portrait image of the main character is considered the most controversial in Russian literature. The appearance of the hero allows us to reveal his characteristic features.

Appearance

Taras Bulba is a native Cossack of advanced age who defends the Sich. He was tall, of rather large build and with huge fists (“...extremely heavy and thick...”). His appearance reflected health (“...a healthy blush played on his cheeks...”) and power (“... 30 people hung from his arms and legs...”).

Bulba was covered in scars due to constant battles (“...the scars gave him something commanding…”). This man participated in battles throughout his life and spent it far from home. Fear and anxiety were unknown to him. He always came first.

The story does not say how old Taras is; only his gray hair (“...shaked his gray head…”) and eyebrows speak about his advanced years. He had a curled mustache (“... ran his hand over his mustache...”) and a Cossack forelock.

Attitude to family

Bulba always rode his old faithful horse (“...jumped on his Devil...”) and carried with him a pipe, which was an integral attribute of him.

The main character cannot be described as a good family man. He lives according to Christian traditions, his home is discreet and modest. For him, the family is just a continuation of the family line. Bulba often beats his wife (“...she suffered insults... beatings...”), calls her an old woman (“... stop howling, old woman...”). The head of the family believes that it is not right for a man to sit with a woman, he must fight (“he left her for the saber, for his comrades”) . The main character loves to drink and wreak havoc in the house (“...walk wildly, drink and revel... all this was within his reach...").

He has two sons, whom he brings up in strictness and does not spoil: “How do you like tenderness?... a clean field and a good horse.”

Attitude to family

Taras Bulba cannot be called a good family man. But he has several titles at once - nobleman, lord, landowner . The Cossack is served by servants, and among them he looks for fellow travelers, warriors who will go to war with him.

The colonel does not observe Polish customs, he simply does not accept them. Bulba lives only according to Cossack traditions, he prefers a modest existence, he cannot be bribed by luxury and wealth. Taras is a man of old upbringing. He started a family not because he wanted a wife and children, but for the sake of procreation.

The colonel treats his wife poorly: he often beats her, does not show any affection, and calls her exclusively an old woman. The woman lives in constant fear not only for her life, but also for the fate of her sons.

At home, both relatives and servants obey the words and desires of the Cossack. But he himself does not imagine himself as a settled owner. Bulba does not want to plow the land and sow buckwheat; he prefers to spend all his time in battles. Even in his old age, Taras continues to fight the Poles and teaches his sons to do so.

The Cossack neglects communication with his wife, does not want to raise pets, and housekeeping is alien to him. A poor woman looks after the land and the house, constantly cleaning up the fragments of pots broken by her husband during the riot.

Bulba loves to drink and often after drinking bouts he would destroy the house. The Cossack preferred to drink pure burner, without raisins or other additives. And he walked and caroused no worse than young warriors. But he did not forget about important matters and his homeland.

Military glory

Taras's biography is closely connected with wars and battles. Almost every year he took part in battles. And he spent only a few days with his family, communicating with his wife and sons. His wife did not receive any news from him for several years and was constantly worried about his life.

Bulba had several advantages over other Cossacks:

• experience in military affairs;
• respect of comrades;
• hatred of enemies;
• strategic skills.

Since Taras constantly defended his homeland, he had much more knowledge of military affairs than his comrades. Thanks to this, they respected him and listened to his advice. Bulba hated all the enemies who attacked his homeland. He fought them fiercely, not sparing himself. The colonel was a good strategist, he skillfully fought the battle and directed his soldiers.

Essay Characteristics of Taras Bulba

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is the most famous person in the world of Russian literature, whose creations are revered no less than the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. Having appeared in the St. Petersburg literary circles of St. Petersburg, young Gogol immediately attracted the attention of the great Alexander Sergeevich, already experienced in the literary craft, with his work. Subsequently, Pushkin became a good pen pal with Gogol, and to some extent a mentor. It is believed that it was Alexander Sergeevich who suggested the idea of ​​“The Inspector General” to Nikolai Gogol.

In his works, Gogol raises a large number of important topics, questions of interest that were interesting and exciting not only for him, but also for the entire Russian common people. These are the themes of the Cossacks, serfdom, power, local government, as well as philosophical problems. The work “Taras Bulba” tells the story of the Cossacks, the Cossacks and their fate. The main character reflects the spirit of the entire people. For Gogol, it can be considered that this topic was close, because his ancestors themselves were similar to the Ukrainians on whose territory they lived.

The main character is a man named Taras Bulba. Together with his two sons, he goes to war in order to protect his homeland.

Taras Bulba is an excellent commander and leader of the Cossack army. After all, it is under his leadership that everything proceeds relatively successfully, but victoriously.

The main character has enviable fortitude, as well as determination in considering different decisions. One of the sons is as similar to his dad as possible, but the other is not like that. The second one actually has a sad fate. But he betrayed his homeland for the sake of his beloved girl. After his father found out and understood this, he fell into a rage and rage. More than one of his qualities was revealed here: composure, directness, rudeness, firmness in decision-making. He kills his traitor son, while saying a phrase known to the whole world.

Taras Bulba is not only an excellent leader, but he also bravely goes into battle and never gives up in an irreconcilable war with his enemies. He lacks the concept of defeat and forgiveness of the enemy. He believes that the one who tortures his people must be punished to the fullest extent of the laws and morals, and the soul, and the laws written in symbols.

Strong Character Traits

Although the Cossack belonged to the wealthy class, he never aspired to become rich. All he wanted was military glory. The colonel has a strong character, he stood out among his comrades. Its main advantages:

• education;
• religiosity;
• hard work;
• activity;
• bravery.

Although Bulba is quite educated, he tries to hide it. Kazak believes that books and science are far from the most important thing in life. It is important to be a brave person devoted to his homeland.

Taras is very religious, he honors all Christian traditions. He even created a family in order to observe customs.

A Cossack cannot sit idle for long. Neither age nor his wife and children stop him. The father even forces his sons to go to the Sich and become real warriors. The colonel is very active, he charges those around him with his energy, encourages them to perform heroic deeds. Taras Bulba is very brave, because he is not afraid to engage in battle with enemies.

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Disadvantages of a Cossack

But there are serious shortcomings in the image of Taras Bulba. A brief analysis of his character allows us to understand that the Cossack sacrifices the happiness and peace of his family for the sake of military valor. List of the colonel's character weaknesses:

• excessive severity;
• love of alcohol;
• stubbornness;
• coarseness;
• hot temper;
• ferocity;
• vindictiveness.

Taras is a very strict father, he does not spoil his sons, he even treats them rudely. The Cossack often drinks and then commits outrages. But his comrades also did this, so in those years such behavior was not a significant drawback.

Bulba is very stubborn, he always stands his ground, achieves what he wants at any cost. This is an unyielding man whose appearance was terrifying to his enemies. The Cossack frightened them with his actions. In battle, the colonel showed ferocity and fearlessness.

But the Cossack is very rude to his wife. He often beats her, does not take her opinion into account, and does not even show respect. The colonel has no feelings for his wife; for him she plays the role of mistress and mother of his sons.

Some of Taras Bulba’s actions cause bewilderment and rage. He treated his comrades too rudely, spoke to them worse than to the servants. The Cossack is quite vindictive; he despises people of other nationalities and considers them enemies. The colonel spared no one; he punished everyone with fire or the gallows. Even his comrades complained about such mercilessness.

The heroic image of Taras Bulba

The heroic image of Taras Bulba is to some extent autobiographical, autobiographical spiritually. Taras Bulba encroached on the laws of history, on its objective course, independent of us: he wanted to combine in himself that which inevitably differentiates over time - a father and a teacher. And in both fields there is a catastrophe: for a father there is no greater grief than to see the death of his son; and for a teacher there is no greater grief than the betrayal of a student. Father and teacher are combined in the natural world, in nature: in the world of animals and birds, obviously, there are no schools, and parents teach their young themselves, at their own peril and risk. There is no division among the so-called “wild” peoples, among primitive tribes, among nomadic pastoralists. But civilization requires the separation of family and school, with their mutual complementarity, with their mutual influence and rivalry. And a return to the origins of history in its world is impossible. But how desirable he is! And what if someone tries to return to the origins of the historical existence of mankind and unite, merge within themselves what is broken, father and teacher? This is possible, and it is possible precisely in literature, which allows the artist to think as a single thing that is separated, as a united thing that has disintegrated, and as a whole that is dismembered. And it will be a bold, daring and simple-minded rebellion against civilization and against the existing order of things.

Gogol and serfdom , Gogol and the bourgeois world... Let's not be afraid of such a harsh formulation of the problem: there was it, this problem, there was! Another thing is how she put it. The division of labor in the field of material production is a historical necessity; but how many losses are accompanied in life. A craftsman, a person of universal knowledge and skills, will disappear from life. The toiling Cossacks were such skilled craftsmen, and it’s not for nothing that their figures appear in Gogol’s epic: it is full of bright memories of the unity of the world, in particular, the unity of labor and craft; and her pain is the pain of the loss of unity. The Slavs are disintegrating, and the Poles are fighting with the Russians and Ukrainians; From the enormous historical drama follows the private drama of the disintegration of Taras’s family.

And in the spiritual life of people? Gogol did not know, could not know, the name of the social system emerging in the West and bringing the death of feudalism. But he saw a further division of people, their stratification, rupture, departure from fundamental principles. First of all, there is a separation between the functions of father and teacher. Is it possible to restore their unity by making life some kind of school that knows no boundaries, spilling over the whole world with the Zaporozhye Sich?

"Taras Bulba" is an epic. Epic arises where the idea of ​​harmony, the idea of ​​unity flares up: the unity of fathers and children, nature and man, spirit and flesh. Epic is alien to hesitation and doubt; her word is decisive and categorical. It is not afraid of pathos, it is not afraid of rhetorical pomp in the praise lavished on the world to which it is directed.

Gogol comes to literature when the epic in Russian literature is already fading away. Epic poems of the 18th century, in particular the most notable of them, “Rossiada” by Kheraskov, become the subject of ridicule (not always fair). But Gogol restores the epic, resurrects it. And only he could accomplish such a literary feat; The origins of the feat lie in its originality, in the role that the writer undertook to play in the life of Russia: the role of a universal teacher and father.

Taras Bulba is imbued with didactics. And the essence of didactics is the moral virtue inherent in it: a person takes responsibility for the consequences of what he says; and he himself subjects what is said and told to tests so sophisticated that even the most furious of his opponents could not have imagined. Gogol's epic ideas also go through severe trials. The thought of a father-teacher is tested for strength: the catastrophe that befell Taras - is it a catastrophe of an idea or is it just a catastrophe of a person who could not bear the burden of an idea? In the story of Taras Bulba and his sons, the besieged fortress surrounded by the Cossacks is a ring inscribed in a double ring. The city was besieged by “the Cossacks, stretching their carts in two rows around the entire city.” Andriy breaks this triple circle. And then - death.

Everything agrees that Gogol’s Taras Bulba is an epic. It's right; yes, epic. And here we can only add one thing: we must try to feel how dearly, at what incredible price Gogol paid for his epic. He endowed his favorite Taras with what he himself did not have: two sons. And he took them both away from his beloved hero, forcing Taras to kill one, the traitor, the younger one with his own hand. And Taras, led by the writer, courageously sacrificed his other, eldest son to high patriotic ideals. To experience this in reality, in the plot of the story, is a feat for Taras, and this is precisely an epic feat. But to experience this in the soul is a feat for Gogol as an artist and a person.

So the father kills his son. And the comparison with school is right here, as usual. True, even in a series of cumbersome Gogol comparisons, unfolding into entire Novellas and parables, it seems out of place in its everyday comedy. Carried away by the battle, Andriy felt a strong hand grab the reins of his horse and saw his father. He “shaked all over and suddenly became pale... So a schoolboy, having carelessly lifted up his comrade and received a blow from him on the forehead with a ruler, flares up like fire, madly jumps out of the shop and chases after his frightened comrade, ready to tear him to pieces, and suddenly bumps into a teacher entering the classroom: the frenzied impulse instantly subsides, and the powerless rage subsides.” And the cumbersome construction, rich in everyday details, depicting something like a small comedy of school morals and unexpectedly reducing a serious battle to the level of a fight between mischievous schoolchildren, is absolutely necessary in the system of images of the epic: it completes the image of Taras as the image of a father-teacher.

Taras Bulba kept his promise: the Cossack family became a school for his sons, and he himself became their teacher; and life seemed to return to its original principles.

• “But Bulba did not know what God was preparing for man tomorrow...”

Brief retelling

Outlook on life

A literary hero differs from other characters in a special worldview. He does not think about himself or his family, but only cares about his homeland. His views on life are special:

• the desire to earn the glory of a brave warrior;
• the desire to make sons like themselves;
• low opinion of women;
• intolerance towards enemies;
• desire to punish all who betray his principles.

Bulba rushed at the enemies ahead of his army and did not spare his life. He wanted to be known as a fearless Cossack, and that’s what happened. The colonel died at the cost of his life saving his comrades. And he raised his sons in the same spirit. According to his plan, both brothers were also supposed to become glorious Cossacks. And he sent them to study only so that his sons would not look worse compared to other warriors.

Taras considered women not equal to men. In his opinion, the wife and wives of his comrades do not understand the principles of life, they exist only to look after the household, prepare food and serve it, give birth and feed children.

Bulba treated his enemies without the slightest sign of pity. He did not divide them by strength or age; he killed everyone who tried to attack his homeland. Even the Cossacks were afraid of his ferocity and intolerance.

A comparative analysis of the character allows us to understand that he simply hates those who betray his principles. Taras didn’t even feel sorry for his own son, didn’t listen to his story. No feelings, in his opinion, should come before love for the homeland.

Conflict with son

Bulba wanted to pass on the values ​​of the Cossacks to his children. He believes that a young man becomes a man only after fighting with his enemies. It is for this reason that the colonel takes the brothers with him to the Sich. The brothers are very different, so Taras Bulba’s attitude towards his sons also differs.

His first-born Ostap is his father’s pride. The young man fully meets all the requirements of a Cossack. The eldest son thinks only about battles and festivities, he has no thoughts about relaxation or starting a family. Ostap gradually becomes more rude and ruthless, he is elected chieftain.

Andrei grew up to be a completely different person. This is a vulnerable and romantic young man. During his studies, he read many books of different genres, and he heard charming music in the crossing of swords. Andrei is still just a child, he constantly thinks about love, but hides his thoughts from his formidable father.

Although the young man also fights bravely on the battlefield, which Taras likes. But during the siege of Dubna he was bored. But a real Cossack, as Bulba said, should not get lost in his thoughts. And the father could not understand how his son dared to fall in love with a Polish woman to such an extent that he went over to the side of the enemy.

Such an act in the eyes of the colonel is shameful and dishonorable. For this, the father punished his son with death. Bulba killed the young man with his own hands. But even when Andrei was dying, he repeated the name of his beloved. Until the very end, he remained true to his principles: the most important thing in life is love.

Ostap involuntarily saw the murder of his brother. But he did not condemn his father, but understood him. And when the young man himself was captured by the Poles and terribly tortured, he did not betray his comrades. He heroically withstood all the torment and died, retaining the title of a brave Cossack. Taras was proud of his son and approved of his behavior.

But Andrei’s death still saddened the colonel. He felt sorry that such a glorious warrior, a brave Cossack, had died. The death of Ostap embittered Bulba and made him even more ferocious. Together with his army, he decided to attack the Poles to take revenge on them for the death of Ostap.