Scary Revenge is a short summary for the reader. Encyclopedia of Fairy Tale Heroes: "Terrible Revenge"
Year of publication of the book: 1831
Work " Terrible revenge"Gogol was first published in 1831 in one of the periodicals. The story is included in the popular collection of one of the most called "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka." Based on the work "Terrible Revenge" in 1988, an animated film of the same name was shot.
The story "Terrible revenge" summary
In the story "Terrible Revenge" by Gogol, we can read about the wedding of an old Cossack esaul named Gorobets in Kiev. Gathered at the holiday a large number of people, including the named brother of the Esaul - Danila Burulbash, together with his wife Katerina, who came from the farm. By the end of the noisy celebration, Gorobets brings from home two huge icons of an old design, with which he wants to bless the young for a happy family life... Suddenly, strange screams begin to be heard from the assembled crowd. The fact is that from the sight of the icons one of the Cossacks suddenly turned into an evil sorcerer with a huge hump on his back. The guests believed that such evil spirits could inflict a curse, which would make the life of all those present unhappy. However, holy icons and prayers help the esaul drive out the sorcerer as far as possible.
If in the story "Terrible Revenge" read summary, then we learn that after the wedding celebration came to an end, all the guests began to go home. Danila, together with his wife Katerina, sailed along the Dnieper, thinking about the sorcerer who suddenly appeared. When their boat almost reached the farm, Danila saw a tall and gloomy castle, around which an old cemetery was located. Sailing past him, the Cossacks notice three dead men who break out of the grave with heartbreaking screams, and then suddenly disappear. All this haunts Burulbash also because he is suspicious of Katerina's father, who is visiting him. The old man appeared unexpectedly and looked rather suspicious, was withdrawn and sullen and had little resemblance to real Cossacks.
The next morning, after returning from Kiev, the father of his wife approached Danila and began to elicit why the young people had been at the wedding for so long. The conversation turned to raised tones, and the men began to quarrel among themselves. In a fit of anger, Danila told his father-in-law that he was not a true Christian, since he did not attend church. The skirmish ends with a saber fight and further injury to Burulbash. Watching this whole picture, Katerina cannot hold back her tears. She asks the men to stop fighting and make peace with each other.
In the story "Terrible Revenge", a summary says that on the same night Katerina sees a terrible dream in which her father turns into that sorcerer whom everyone saw at a wedding in Kiev. In a dream, an old man persuades a young girl to leave her family and marry him. The next morning Katerina tells everything to her husband. He is distrustful of the words of his wife, but recalls all his suspicions about his father-in-law. When it's time for dinner, Burulbash notices that the guest is not eating anything on the table. He refuses dumplings and pork, using only some strange liquid that he constantly carries with him. Several hours pass, and Danila sees that a light is on in the old mysterious castle. He takes his comrade with him and goes to the light. On the way, they notice Katerina's father walking in the same direction. The old man swims across the Dnieper and quickly finds himself near the castle. Young Cossacks climb out to the very tall tree and watching the room in which the light is on. It was then in the story "Terrible Revenge" by Gogol, as in the real devilry begins. Through the window, they see how Danil's father-in-law turns into that very sorcerer. The old man casts a spell, after which Katerina's soul appears in the room. She begins to ask the sorcerer why he took the life of her mother and when he will stop his atrocities. After what they saw, Danila and his comrade quickly descend from the tree and head towards the farm.
In the work "Terrible revenge" by Gogol, a summary describes that, having returned home, Burulbash told his wife about everything that happened to him that evening. It turns out that it was this room that Katerina herself saw in her dream. Now the spouses are sure that their guest is not only apostate, but also the same devilry that harms all living things. Enlisting the help of his comrades, Burulbash was able to twist his father-in-law and imprison him in the basement. The man thinks for a long time about how exactly to deal with the sorcerer, and decides to execute the old man tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the villain himself is thinking about how to find a way out of this situation. He notices how Katerina passes by him, and decides to ask his daughter to release him and release him. The girl cannot believe in the words of her father, but he claims that if she gives him will, he will go to the monastery and will atone for all his sins until the end of his life. Katerina gives in to the words of the old man, and lets him out of the basement, after which she immediately faints. As soon as the girl comes to her senses, she realizes that her father has escaped. She does not want to tell anyone that she released him, because she is afraid of the wrath of the Cossacks.
Meanwhile, not far from the Danila farm, there is a whole camp of Poles. All this time they wait in ambush and plan to attack the land of the Cossacks. Without even suspecting that the enemy is so close, Danila feels a kind of confusion and impending doom. He talks with Katerina, recalling all his battles and victories and asks to take care of their son in case of his death. Suddenly, his servant rushes into the house of Burulbash, who tells about the approach of the enemy. Danila organizes a detachment of Cossacks and goes to the battlefield. Despite being seriously wounded, he enthusiastically fought the enemy. But suddenly an old sorcerer appeared on a nearby hill, killing his son-in-law with a shot. Katerina runs out of the house with tears in her eyes and falls to the body of her dead husband. The situation is saved by Esaul Gorobets, who just came to the rescue.
After the death of his son-in-law, the sorcerer goes to the banks of the Dnieper. There he finds a small dugout and begins to cast his spells. As a result, he sees a man's face, which terrifies the old man and makes him scream with fear.
If we read the story "Terrible revenge" in full, we learn that Katerina arrives in Kiev and tells the esaulu about her terrible dreams, in which the sorcerer asks to marry him, threatening to kill her son. Gorobets promises the widow that he will protect her child with all his might, but the same night the boy is found stabbed to death in his cradle.
Katerina can not stand the double loss and falls into unconsciousness. She wanders recklessly through the woods and sings mournful songs about the Cossacks. The next morning, an unknown young man arrives at the widow's farm, who introduces himself as a friend of the late Danila. He tells her that he made an agreement with Burulbash that he would marry Katerina in the event of the death of her husband. During the conversation, the girl even begins to come to her senses, but immediately realizes that in front of her is not a friend of the murdered husband, but an old sorcerer. Katerina grabs a knife and wants to stab her father, but he manages to quickly disappear.
That evening, something unexpected happened - a complete picture of all the lands, including the majestic Carpathian Mountains, was revealed in Kiev. On top of them stood a rider, whom the sorcerer recognizes. It was this face that appeared to him in the dugout during the casting of spells. Out of horror, the old man quickly grabs the horse and rides off to atone for his sins to the schema-monk. However, he refuses to confess the sorcerer and says that it is impossible to atone for his sins. The villain in a rage kills the schema and tries to escape to the Crimea, but the horse rushes him directly to the rider on the top of the mountain. A strange spirit that appeared to the sorcerer grabs him and throws him into the abyss. Suddenly the dead appear who have outward resemblance with Katerina's father. Furious, they surround the sorcerer and begin to devour him. At that time, one of the dead, who is forced to gnaw on himself, cannot get out of the ground nearby.
The story "Terrible revenge" on the site Top books
Gogol's story "A Terrible Revenge" is still popular in our time, especially thanks to the latest film adaptation of the book. This allowed the story to get into ours, as well as in. And given the fairly stable interest in the work "Terrible Vengeance", we will see her more than once among, although not such high positions.
You can read Gogol's story "A Terrible Revenge" online at the Top Books website.
In 1831, Gogol wrote the story "Terrible Revenge". A summary of the work is given in this article. This creation of the famous author is included in the collection of his stories "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". Reading this work, it can be noted that it has a lot in common with the plot of Gogol's mystical story "Viy": the key figures of the stories are fabulous creatures from ancient folk legends.
N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Introduction
Esaul Gorobets celebrated his son's wedding in Kiev. There were many guests there. Among the visitors was his named brother Danila Burulbash with his beautiful wife Katerina, who was considered an orphan. Her mother died and her father disappeared. When they took it out of the house miraculous icons To bless the young, it turned out that there was a sorcerer among the guests. He betrayed himself by being afraid of holy images and disappeared.
N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Development of events
After the wedding, Danila returned home with his young wife. The people said that his father Katerina was an evil sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil. He recently showed up in their family. The young man did not like his father-in-law; quarrels often broke out between them. Rumors circulated around the farm that as soon as Katerina's father showed up, strange things began to happen here: either the crosses swing in the cemetery, or the dead rise from their graves, that their groans are heard at midnight. Not far from the village was the ancestral castle of the sorcerer, where he once lived. Curiosity took Danila, and he decided to go to this devil's lair to see with his own eyes what was happening there. In the evening, climbing a tall oak tree, the young man sees that a light is on in the old castle, that his father-in-law enters there and begins to bewitch. The sorcerer changes his guise and invokes the soul of Katerina's daughter, persuading her to love him. Seeing all this, Danila returns home and tells Katerina about everything. She, in turn, renounces her father. In the morning, the son-in-law accuses his father-in-law of friendship with the Lyakhs who attacked his homeland, but not of witchcraft. For this, Katerina's father is put in prison. Waiting for him the death penalty... He asks his daughter to forgive him and release him. Katerina. Taking pity on his father, he opens the bars and releases the sorcerer to freedom. Meanwhile, Danila goes to war with the Lyakhs and dies there. The sorcerer's bullet overtook him. Katerina is inconsolable, having learned about the death of her husband. She is terribly worried about the life of her little son. But an evil sorcerer also killed him, casting an evil spell. Waking up in the middle of the night, the woman finds the child dead in her bed. 
She goes mad with grief. Since then, the inhabitants of the farm began to see a vision, as if a gigantic rider on a black horse was galloping among the Carpathian mountains. The hero's eyes are closed, he is holding a baby in his hands. And poor Katerina is looking for her father to kill him for all the misfortunes that he caused her. One day a stranger appears to her and persuades her to become his wife. In him, she recognizes a sorcerer and rushes at him with a knife. But the father manages to kill his daughter.
N.V. Gogol "Terrible Revenge" (summary). The ending
The sorcerer flees from these places, where a vision appeared with a rider. He clearly knows who this giant is, and why he showed up here. The old man runs to the old schema to atone for his sins. But he refuses to do this, and the sorcerer kills him. Now, wherever this son of the devil goes, the road leads him to the Carpathians, where a rider with a baby awaits him. He could not hide from this giant. The rider opened his eyes and laughed. The sorcerer died at that hour and fell into the abyss, where the dead drove their teeth into him so that he would suffer. This story of antiquity ends with a song performed by an old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It tells the story of two brothers Peter and Ivan. Ivan once distinguished himself in the war, for which he was generously rewarded. Despite what he shared with his brother, Peter envied him and decided to kill him. He pushed Ivan and his little son into the abyss, and took his goods for himself. 
When the good brother found himself in the Kingdom of Heaven, God allowed his soul to choose the punishment for his murderer. Ivan cursed all the offspring of a blood relative and predicted to him that the last of his kind would be a terrible villain. The soul of the deceased will come from that
light and will cast the terrible sinner into the abyss, where all his dead ancestors will gnaw him. Peter will want to take revenge on his brother, but will not be able to rise from the ground. The Lord was surprised at such a terrible punishment, but ordered it to be so.
This is how Gogol twisted the plot. "Terrible revenge" (a summary of the story is given in this article) - this is one of the less popular works of the master. It is not taught at school in literature lessons. But for us, this story is of folklore interest. It is based on real ancient folk legends. It is not for nothing that in the first edition the work was provided with the subtitle "An old story". This is how N.V. Gogol described it. "Terrible Vengeance" is a story written more than a century and a half ago. But even now we read it with trepidation and interest.
Once in Kiev, Esaul Gorobets celebrated the wedding of his son, at which many people gathered, and among others, the named brother of the Esaul Danilo Burulbash with his young wife, the beautiful Katerina, and a one-year-old son. Only Katherine's old father, who had recently returned after twenty years of absence, did not come with them. Everything was dancing when the captain brought out two wonderful icons to bless the young. Then a sorcerer opened up in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.
Danilo and his household return at night to the farm by the Dnieper. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer, but the Poles, that they are going to cut off the path to the Cossacks, and thinks about this, sailing past the old sorcerer of the castle and the cemetery with the bones of his grandfathers. However, crosses are staggering in the cemetery and, one more terrible than the other, the dead appear, pulling their bones to the very month. Consoling the awakened son, Pan Danilo reaches the hut. His hut is small, not spacious either for his family or for ten elite fellows. The next morning a quarrel broke out between Danilo and his gloomy, absurd father-in-law. It came to sabers, and then to muskets. Danilo is wounded, but if it were not for the pleas and reproaches of Katerina, who, by the way, remembered her little son, he would have fought further. The Cossacks were reconciled. Soon Katerina tells her husband her vague dream that her father is a terrible sorcerer, and Danilo scolds his father-in-law's Busurman habits, suspecting him of infidelity, but he is more worried about the Poles, about which Gorobets again warned him. After dinner, during which the father-in-law disdains and dumplings, and pork, and a burner, in the evening Danilo leaves to scout around the old sorcerer of the castle. Climbing an oak tree to look out the window, he sees a witchcraft room, well-lit, with wonderful weapons on the walls and flickering bats. The father-in-law, who enters, begins to bewitch, and his whole appearance changes: he is already a sorcerer in filthy Turkish vestments. He summons Katerina's soul, threatens her and demands that Katerina fall in love with him. The soul does not yield, and, shocked by the opening, Danilo returns home, wakes up Katerina and tells her everything. Katerina renounces her apostate father. In Danila's basement, a sorcerer is sitting in iron chains, his demonic castle is burning; not for witchcraft, but for conspiracy with the lyahams, his execution awaits the next day. But, promising to start a righteous life, to retire to the caves, to propitiate God by fasting and prayer, the sorcerer Catherine asks to let him go and thereby save his soul. Fearing her deed, Katerina releases him, but hides the truth from her husband. Sensing his death, saddened Danilo asks his wife to take care of his son.
As foreseen, the Poles are pouring in like an innumerable cloud, setting fire to their huts and stealing cattle. Pan Danilo fights bravely, but the bullet of the sorcerer who appears on the mountain overtakes him. And even though Gorobets is galloping to help, Katerina is inconsolable. Poles are broken, the wonderful Dnieper is raging, and, fearlessly driving a canoe, a sorcerer comes to its ruins. In the dugout he casts spells, but not the soul of Katerina appears to him, but someone uninvited; though he is not terrible, but terrifying. Katerina, living with Gorobets, sees her previous dreams and trembles for her son. Waking up in a hut surrounded by watchful guards, she finds him dead and goes mad. Meanwhile, a gigantic horseman with a baby, on a black horse, gallops from the West. His eyes are closed. He drove into the Carpathians and stopped here.
Mad Katerina is everywhere looking for her father to kill him. A certain guest arrives, asking Danila, mourns him, wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband and, it seems, introduces her to her mind. But when she talks about the fact that Danilo, in case of death, asked him to take Katerina for himself, she recognizes her father and rushes to him with a knife. The sorcerer himself kills his daughter.
Beyond Kiev, "an unheard-of miracle seemed to appear": "it suddenly became visible far to all ends of the world" - the Crimea, and the marsh Sivash, and the Galich land, and the Carpathian mountains with a gigantic horseman on the tops. The sorcerer, who was among the people, flees in fear, for he recognized in the rider an uninvited face that appeared to him during the divination. Night terrors pursue the sorcerer, and he turns to Kiev, to the holy places. There he kills the holy schema monk, who did not undertake to pray for such an unheard-of sinner. Now, wherever he ruled his horse, he moves to the Carpathian Mountains. Then the motionless rider opened his eyes and laughed. And the sorcerer died, and the dead man saw the dead rise up from Kiev, from the Carpathians, from the land of Galich, and was thrown into the abyss by a rider, and the dead sank their teeth into him. Another, higher and more terrible, wanted to rise from the ground and shook it mercilessly, but could not get up.
In Kiev, he celebrates the wedding of his son, Esaul Gorobets. Guests of honor at the wedding - the brave Cossack chieftain Pan Danilo Burulbash with his wife Katerina. In the midst of noisy merriment, Gorobets takes out and picks up two old icons to bless the young. But screams of horror can be heard from the festive crowd: at the sight of the icons, one of the Cossacks standing among the people suddenly turns into a terrible hunchbacked old man with a long fang in his mouth. Clicking his teeth, the old man disappears. Elderly people say that this old man is a long-known cursed sorcerer, whose appearance always portends misfortune.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter II - Summary
Danilo Burulbash with his Cossacks and his wife Katerina is sailing on a boat along the Dnieper from Kiev, wondering what kind of misfortune the sorcerer who has appeared at the wedding will bring. Not far from the Danila farm, on the other side of the Dnieper, there is a gloomy old castle, and near it there is a cemetery with dilapidated crosses. When the Cossacks swim past them, three dead men suddenly rise from the graves. They shrill shrilly: "It's stuffy to me!" - and disappear again. Heavy thoughts oppress Burulbash more and more. He really does not like the gloomy, stern father of Katerina, who recently came to visit them from a foreign land, who does not at all look like a Cossack in his habits.
Gogol. Terrible revenge. Audiobook
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter III - Summary
The next day, on Pan Danila's farm, Katerina's gloomy, mysterious father begins to rudely question his daughter and son-in-law why they returned home so late yesterday. A quarrel begins to boil between him and Burulbash. Danilo is outraged: why does the father-in-law never go to church? Both Cossacks begin to fight with sabers, and then shoot at each other with muskets. The fight ends with insincere reconciliation only because of Katerina's tearful persuasions.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter IV - Summary
A day later, Katerina tells her husband that she had a dream that the sorcerer who appeared to people in Kiev was her father, and that he was persuading her to marry him. Katerina and Burulbash sit down to dinner, having called their father as well. At dinner, Danila wonders: his father-in-law does not want to eat Christian dumplings, he also disdains pork, like a Muslim or a Jew.
In the evening, Burulbash looks out the window and notices that a window is on fire in a gloomy castle on the other side of the Dnieper. Taking the Cossack Stetsko with him, he goes to the river. Making their way through the thickets of thorns, they suddenly see Katerina's father walking past them in the same direction. He crosses the Dnieper and disappears from sight near the castle.
Terrible revenge. Cartoon based on the story of N. V. Gogol
Stetsko and Burulbash follow him. At the castle wall, Pan Danilo climbs a tall oak tree and sees through the window a witchcraft room, flooded with a mysterious light, with incomprehensible signs on the walls where bats fly. Katerina's father appears in the room - and turns into the very sorcerer who appeared in Kiev.
The sorcerer casts a spell and the soul of his daughter, woven from an air mist, appears before him. Knowing clearly more than Katerina herself, the soul begins to blame her father: why did he kill her mother? why does he continue to do terrible atrocities? The soul falls silent, noticing Burulbash looking out the window. and Pan Danilo quickly descends from the oak tree and returns home.
Gogol "Terrible Revenge". Lithograph by V. Makovsky
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter V - Summary
Burulbash tells Katerina about her night trip, and it turns out that she saw everything that happened in the magic room of the old castle in a dream. Danilo is convinced that his father-in-law is a villain and apostate.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter VI - Summary
By order of Burulbash, the Cossacks throw the sorcerer into a deep basement. A terrible execution awaits him tomorrow. In anguish sits a sorcerer chained in chains and sees: his daughter, Katerina, is walking by. With hot passion, he begins to persuade Katerina to unlock the cellar lock, saying that he is not afraid of execution, but eternal torment in the afterlife for the atrocities committed. The father convinces his daughter that if she releases him, then he will go to the monastery and with heavy asceticism will at least part of his sins. Succumbing to female weakness, Katerina releases her sorcerer father - and faints at the dungeon door.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter VII - Summary
Waking up, Katerina sees that her father has disappeared. No one knows that she herself released it.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter VIII - Summary
Armed Poles gather in the inn near the Burulbash farm. In the midst of drinking, card games and vile dances, they prepare to attack the Cossack land.
"Terrible Vengeance", chapter IX - summary
Pan Danilo sits at the table and, in a sad foreboding of imminent death, tells Katerina about his former Cossack exploits. A servant who rushed in informs him about the approach of many Poles. At the head of his Cossacks, Burulbash rides on horseback and fights heroically with cruel enemies. In the middle of the battle, Katerina's father appears on a nearby hill, shoots his son-in-law with a musket and kills him. Katerina, who has run out of the house, with sobs falls on her husband's body, and the Poles are put to flight by the Esaul Gorobets who has come to the rescue.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter X - Summary
Gogol gives in the X chapter of "Terrible revenge" the famous poetic description of the Dnieper in calm weather and in a storm. In the middle of a storm, in a secluded place, a sorcerer moors to the shore in a boat. Descending into a secret dugout among charred stumps, he begins to cast spells. A white cloud is thickening in front of him, and a man's face, familiar to the sorcerer, is clearly shown in it. Seeing him, the villain turns white as a sheet, and screams in a wild voice.
"Terrible Vengeance", chapter XI - summary
Katerina in Kiev tells the esaul Gorobets about her new terrible dreams. The father again appeared in them to his daughter, demanded to marry him and threatened in case of refusal to kill her baby-son from Danila. Gorobets promises to protect Katerina, but the same night her child is found stabbed to death in the cradle.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter XII - Summary
High Carpathian Mountains are located between Poland, Hungary and Little Russia. At night, a sleeping knight of enormous height rides along the tops of the mountains, holding the reins of a horse in his hand, on which a baby-page gallops behind him - also in a dream ...
"Terrible Vengeance", chapter XIII - summary
Katerina, half having lost her mind, wanders through the dense oak forests, singing plaintive songs about the killed Cossacks. Early in the morning, a stately young guest comes to her farm, saying that he is an old military comrade-in-arms of the fallen Pan Danila. Their friendship was allegedly so strong that Burulbash even bequeathed to him to marry Katerina, if she remains a widow. Katerina looks at the newcomer - and suddenly realizes that this is her father. She throws herself at him with a knife, but he disappears from view.
"Terrible Vengeance", Chapter XIV - summary
Behind Kiev, the people marvel at the miracle: a wide, majestic picture of the countries and lands neighboring Ukraine opens up in the sky. Among them are the Carpathian Mountains, and on them - a rider with closed eyes. The sorcerer also sees this picture and recognizes the face of the knight: it was it that appeared to him during the recent sorcery in a dugout near the Dnieper. The hair on the sorcerer's head stands on end in horror. Shouting as if in a frenzy, he jumps on his horse and rushes in a whirlwind to Kiev, to the holy places.
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter XV - Summary
The sorcerer bursts into the cave to the Kiev schema and asks to pray for his sinful, lost soul. The schemnik unfolds his book, but he sees that the holy letters in it are filled with blood, which means that the sinner does not and will not be forgiven. The sorcerer kills the schema, again mounts his horse and tries to get to the Tatars in the Crimea, but the horse, against his will, drives him straight to the Carpathian mountains. Near them the mountain clouds are cleared at once, and a huge horseman appears before the sorcerer in terrible grandeur. Laughing, he grabs the cursed wizard with his hand, from which he immediately dies. From Kiev to the Carpathians, the dead, similar in face to the sorcerer, rise from the graves. The rider, laughing again, throws the body of Katerina's father into the abyss. The dead also jump there, starting to gnaw the corpse of the sorcerer with their teeth. And one of the most terrible dead man tossing and turning heavily in the ground, but due to its enormous stature, cannot rise out of it.
Gogol "Terrible Revenge". Lithograph by I. Kramskoy
Terrible Vengeance, Chapter XVI - Summary
In the final, XVI chapter of "Terrible revenge", Gogol explains the essence of the sorcerer's sin. In the city of Glukhov, a blind bandura player tells people a legend about how two Cossack friends, Ivan and Petro, lived in the old days. For a long time they were inseparable, like brothers, until Ivan caught one glorious Turkish pasha by order of King Stefan Batory. Ivan shared half of the salary received for this with Peter, but he, with black envy, envied the feat accomplished by him best friend... I hated Petro Ivan and once on a mountain road pushed him into the abyss together with his baby son. Ivan managed to grab onto the branch and, with his son over his shoulders, began to climb up, but Petro, not taking pity on the pleas of his friend, pushed them both back with his lance.
The Heavenly Tsar asked Ivan's soul what kind of flour she herself would have appointed Judas-Petro. And Ivan asked that God would curse the whole family of Petro. Let the last in this family be such a villain that his grandfathers and great-grandfathers tossed and turned in their graves because of his sins, while Petro endured the greatest torment: he ate the earth, unable to rise from it.
And God agreed, when the highest measure of villainy of the last of the family of Peter is fulfilled, to commit terrible revenge : raise Ivan and his murdered son from the coffin to a high mountain, bring a sorcerer to him, so that the innocent murdered man can throw the villain into a deep abyss. And the grandfathers and great-grandfathers, coming out of the graves, will torment him in this abyss with their teeth - except for Petro himself, who in the ground can only gnaw himself ...
"Wonderful Dnieper in calm weather ...". All of us at school were forced to memorize this passage from Gogol. However, not everyone remembers which work he is from. Let's not torment the reader and say that this is an excerpt from the story "Terrible Vengeance". "The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather ..." - these words begin chapter 10 of this work. It is about him that we will talk today.
The story of interest to us in 1831 was created by Gogol. "Terrible revenge", the summary of which interests us, is included in the collection, which the author called "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka". The piece begins as follows.
Danila's wedding
In Kiev, once the esaul Gorobets celebrated the wedding of his son. A multitude of people gathered for it, including Danilo Burulbash, the host's named brother, with Katerina, his young wife, and their little son. Only Katerina's father, an old man who recently returned home after a 20-year absence, did not come to the wedding. When the owner brought out 2 icons to bless the young, everyone danced. A sorcerer suddenly appeared in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.
Homecoming
Along the Dnieper at night Danilo returns to the farm with his household and relatives. Katerina is scared, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer. He is afraid of the Poles, who, perhaps, will cut off their path to the Cossacks. All his thoughts are occupied with this as they pass the old sorcerer's castle and then float past the cemetery. Meanwhile, crosses are loose in the cemetery. The scary dead appear from the graves. They stretch their bony hands to the moon.
Danila's quarrel with his father-in-law
Finally, the newlyweds with their relatives return home, but the hut cannot accommodate a large family. Danilo and his absurd, gloomy father-in-law quarrel in the morning, it has come to muskets and sabers. Danilo from Gogol's story was wounded, only the plea of Katerina, who mentioned her little son, kept him from continuing the fight, and the Cossacks made peace.
Who is Katerina's father actually?
Katerina soon told her husband her dream. She dreamed that her father was that terrible sorcerer. Danila does not like his father-in-law's foreign habits; he suspects him of infidelity. However, we note, describing the plot of the story, that her spouse is most worried about the Poles at this time, about whom Gorobets again warns.
In the evening, Danilo goes on reconnaissance to the castle of the sorcerer. He climbs an oak tree, looks out the window and sees a room lit by some unknown reason. Terrible things are described further by Gogol ("Terrible revenge"). Their summary is as follows. The father-in-law appears and begins to conjure. Here his appearance changes, he turns into a sorcerer, dressed in Turkish clothes. Father-in-law summons Katherine's soul. He demands that the girl love him, threatens in case of disobedience. However, Katerina's soul refuses this. Danilo is shocked by what he saw. He returns to his home, wakes up his wife and tells her everything. The girl renounces the sorcerer-father.
Fatal mistake
In Danila's basement, his father-in-law is sitting in iron chains. The sorcerer's castle is on fire, and tomorrow he will be executed. However, not for witchcraft, but for conspiracy with the Lyakhs. The sorcerer persuades with promises to reform and deceive Katherine to release him in order to be able to save his soul. The girl lets him go, and hides the truth from her husband, realizing that she has done irreparable. Danilo has a presentiment of imminent death. He asks Katerina to take care of his son.
The grief that befell Katherine
As expected, a large army of Poles attacked the farm. Poles steal cattle, set fire to huts. Danilo fights bravely, but he is overtaken by the bullet of a sorcerer who appears suddenly. Gorobets, who came to the rescue, cannot comfort Katerina. Poles are broken, a sorcerer is sailing along the Dnieper to the ruins of the castle. He casts spells in the dugout, someone terrible appears at his call. Katerina lives with Gorobets, sees her former bad dreams and is afraid for his son. The girl wakes up to find out that her child has died. The mind of the heroine, who was created by Gogol ("Terrible Vengeance"), cannot withstand all this. The summary of the work continues with the girl becoming insane.
Death of Katherine
Katerina, distraught, searches everywhere for her father, yearning for his death. A stranger arrives, who asks for Danila and then mourns him. He wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband. It seems that the mind is returning to the girl. However, when he says that Danilo asked him to take her to him after his death, Katerina recognizes her father in a stranger and throws herself at him with a knife. But the sorcerer is ahead of her. He kills his own daughter.
The further fate of the sorcerer
There is an unexpected miracle beyond Kiev. The whole earth is illuminated, all its ends are visible. A huge rider appears in the Carpathian Mountains. The sorcerer flees from Gogol's story in fear. He recognizes in the rider the uninvited giant who appeared during the divination. Nightmares haunt the sorcerer. He flees to the holy places of Kiev and kills an old man there, who refused to pray for him. Wherever the sorcerer goes, his path lies to the Carpathian Mountains. The rider suddenly opens his eyes. He's laughing. The sorcerer dies instantly. He sees already dead that all the dead from Galich, Carpathians and Kiev have stretched out their bony hands to him. The rider threw a sorcerer at them, and they sank their teeth into him.
Old song
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol ends the story with an old song. It tells about King Stepan, who fought with the Turks, as well as about the Cossack brothers Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish pasha and shared the tsar's reward with his brother. However, Peter threw his brother out of envy into the abyss along with his baby son, and then took all the goods for himself. When Peter died, God allowed Ivan to choose an execution for his brother. Ivan cursed his offspring, saying that a terrible villain would be in last family brother. Ivan will appear on horseback from the failure when the time comes for the death of the villain. He will throw him into the abyss, and all his ancestors will be drawn to gnaw this villain. Only Peter will not be able to rise and will gnaw himself in impotent rage. God was surprised at the cruelty of this execution, but agreed with Ivan.
This is how the work that Gogol created ("Terrible Revenge") ends. We have outlined a summary of its main events. We now turn to the analysis of this story.
The meaning of the work
Perhaps the most significant of the Evenings series for Gogol and Russian literature in general is Terrible Revenge. This is a historical tale. Its action is timed to the 1st half of the 17th century, when Ukraine fought against Turkey and the Commonwealth for national independence. In particular, Danilo Burulbash, the hero of the work, recalls how he participated in military campaigns led by hetman Konashevich. At the same time, this story was also legendary and fantastic in nature. It touched upon the magical themes of the separation of the soul from the body, the execution of the villain in offspring, the apocalyptic horseman, etc.
Two epic levels of work, two traditions
Andrei Bely, a symbolist poet, at the beginning of the 20th century put forward the thesis that Katerina's father and the sorcerer are not identical. This became the starting point for subsequent observations of the poetics of this story. In "Terrible revenge", it would seem, you can find 2 epic levels: legendary and real, in which there is a conflict between the father and husband of Katerina. At the second level, that is, in the legend, there is the supernatural. Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich at the same time skillfully masks the border between them, so one world sometimes seems to be a natural continuation of the other. The sorcerer for the reader is Katerina's father. At the same time, he is the legendary projection of his father. Being in a quarrel with his son-in-law, he acquires more and more features of a terrible sorcerer, since everything that does not correspond to the principles established in the patriarchal community is considered as the intrigues of the devil. This tale arose, like other works by Gogol from "Evenings", at the intersection of two traditions: national-Ukrainian and Western-romantic (mainly German). The author in it mixed with elements of modern narration features folk tradition... The personal attitude of the author to what is happening, discovered in the work, is in the mainstream of romanticism.
The discovery made by the Symbolists
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Symbolists discovered autobiography, which Gogol's works from "Evenings" and, in particular, "Terrible Revenge" have. VV Rozanov for the first time saw the projection of the author himself in the figure of the sorcerer. Andrei Bely (his portrait is presented above) compared Nikolai Vasilyevich with a sorcerer who runs away from a "rider in the Carpathians". He likened the author's love for Russia to the love for Katerina of the sorcerer from the story "Terrible Vengeance". The main characters of her, with this look, have symbolic meaning, are symbolic images.
