Among all the works that NV Gogol wrote, "Taras Bulba" is the most piercing and heroic.
It reflects not only the life of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, but reveals the characteristics of the people for whom duty to the Motherland determined all life, views, customs, actions.
Let us recall the summary.Taras Bulba meets the sons who returned from school in the seminary. Instead of hugging them, he starts a comic brawl with his eldest son and scoffs at the absurd, from his point of view, clothes of the bursak. Some inattentive readers consider this a manifestation of callousness, an inability to parental love. But this is not so.
The image of Taras Bulba helps to realize thatthe concept of love is changing at different times. Taras did not nezhil sons, did not show affection for his wife. He knew: in difficult times, the husband, the defender, has no right to weakness. Any manifestation of tenderness can weaken the spirit, deprive the forces. Looking ahead, we will say that he was right: it was because of tenderness that his youngest son Andrii died. He could not overcome the craving for affection, the desire to live in love and became a traitor.
Taras kills his son.A terrible, terrible act, but it is also a manifestation of the great fatherly love for his son. The father did not allow his son to become a traitor, he saved him, even at the cost of his life, from a great shame. It's not true that Taras does not regret Andrei. Just pity, like love, can manifest itself in different ways. And there are times when it is better to kill a man than allow him to lose his dignity, to create a great sin, to become a traitor.
The image of Taras Bulba is surprisingly one-piece. Having spent his whole life in the Sich, Taras became an experienced and wise leader, a colonel, selflessly loving the Motherland, who did not spare either herself or their children for her freedom.
The courage and heroism of Taras celebrate everything, but littlewho thinks that he was not only a warrior, but also a wise educator, who by his example showed how to live and die. That is why he brings his sons to Sich, believing that there will be no better science for them. That's why, loving his country and his children, he devoted his whole life to the struggle for liberation. Perhaps that's why he returned behind the receiver, as soon as the Cossacks broke through the Polish army that pursued them. Somewhere in the depths of his heart, he understood: leaving the battlefield, even such a one, could severely undermine the spirit of the Cossacks, or even destroy them altogether: the Poles could catch up with the detachment. By his death he showed that a real patriot knows how to fight, is not afraid to die for the sake of the Motherland, is ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of his comrades.
The image of Taras Bulba perfectly conveys the characters of the best representatives of the Zaporozhye Sich. Let us recall the epithets that Gogol describes the colonel: wise, experienced, valiant.
Devotion to Ukraine is reflected both in its rejection of alien customs, and in its readiness to sacrifice itself and the most expensive that is in life, for the freedom of the Motherland.
The image of Taras Bulba is the brightest not only increativity of Gogol. He stands apart in all the works of Russian and Ukrainian literature, showing an example of perseverance, devotion, a great love for the homeland.
