The works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol have always been filled with magic, secrets and riddles, so children in schools not only read them with a bang, but were even beaten up with school performances. And although the meaning of these plays sometimes becomes clear only to adults, the essence of understanding good and evil does not change.
Evenings on a farm near Dikanka is a collection of short short stories written by Gogol in 1829-1831. World masterpieces appeared very quickly, literally in 2 years. A series of these stories is presented as a story of different people in the same house of a fellow villager (beekeeper). Communication in the villages in those days happened just like that: there were no TVs, so people arranged “gatherings” every evening, where they shared what they heard, and sometimes supplemented by their imagination.
Dikanka is a small settlement in Ukraine. The events taking place there date back to the first half of the 19th century. By the way, from this series of stories we learn the true face of Ukrainians: hospitable, kind, original, cheerful, appreciating moral qualities and always coming to the rescue.
Christmas Eve
In total, the collection contains 8 stories, but the most interesting and exciting was “Christmas Eve Night”. It was filmed more than once, New Year’s musicals were staged on the basis of it, thematic songs were recorded. And lovers of real Ukrainian literature are ready to re-read this story every year on the eve of the New Year holidays.
For children, “Christmas Eve” turned out to be a real fairy tale, especially for girls. It contains all the experiences of a young girl Oksana, who is in love with a young guy Vakula, but cannot immediately agree to a marriage proposal. She needs to test his feelings for strength, so she asks him an impossible task – to get the queen’s boots for her. The guy is not lost and optimistically takes on the achievement of the goal. When Oksana finds out that for this he even saddled the devil himself, she begins to reproach herself for being too demanding and biased. The story ends with a happy ending – the boots are brought, everyone is happy and healthy.
The story shows that Oksana differs from her fiancé in a more reliable financial condition. The imbalance of the financial situation in a duet with love makes Vakula fulfill the wishes of the bride unconditionally.
Good vs Evil
Interesting stories would have remained fiction if not for their main essence: good must always triumph over evil! This is what happens in each of Gogol’s 8 stories “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. Evil in Nikolai Vasilievich is chained in the images of devils, sorcerers or witches, with whom positive (kind and strong) characters easily deal with or, at least, neutralize them.
Having studied all the characters and actions from “Evening on a Farm near Dikanka”, you can consider many complex moral situations and draw conclusions from them about how to act. The stories prompt the reader to desire to live in truth, to have the strength to be responsible for their actions, to accept with pride the punishments of fate, trials or even gifts.