Gogol Symbolism In The Viy

Nikolai Gogol, most known as one of the famous authors who defined Russia’s Golden Age. “Gogol is seen by most critics as the first Russian realist. His biting satire, comic realism, and descriptions of Russian provincials and petty bureaucrats influenced later Russian masters Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” (“Gogol”). One of Gogol’s works includes his famous Russian horror novel called The Viy, published in 1835. “Gogol assures his readers in a footnote, is a creature of Ukrainian folklore, “the chief of the gnomes.” Competent investigators of the matter have branded that footnote a mystification; but they have also recognized the masterful way in which Gogol’s imagination reproduces the effects of authentic folklore.” (Terras 175). In the novel The Viy, Gogol symbolizes prayer most, while exploring the theme of evil spirits. In other words explained by Terras, “This tale of terror deals with the intrusion of nocturnal, supernatural forces into the daylight world of a Ukrainian schoolboy, via symbolically rendered erotic experience; an obscure sense of guilt increases as the

Gogol the artist investigates the nature of the mystical essence in the light of laughter;” (qtd. in Stauffer 24). Gogol recognized the devil and saw this as being real so he included this a part in his novels. He set this as an important part of his stories, hence “evil spirits” as this novel 's theme. Such example added emphasis of his imagination as the narrator consoles that Thomas had drew a circle around him. This action adds imagination to not only the character but the reader. The character in that he believes the witch cannot get at him with a circle draw around him and the reader in that such circle can protect this