THE IMAGE OF THE VERST PILLAR IN THE CREATIVE WORK OF T. SHEVCHENKO

Abstract

In T. Shevchenko’s creative work the image of the verst pillar is found on the canvas “Kateryna” (1842) and in the novels “Captain” (1855) and “The Walk with Pleasure and not without Morality” (1855–1856). The image of the verst path is also availble in the poem "If you had to...” (1849) and in the poem “Isaiah. Chapter 35 (Imitation)” (1859). The image of the verst does not belong to the frequently used ones, but rather is on the sidelines of the artist’s image system, given the loneliness of its use. Among the images of the Ukrainian world, it could not occupy a decisive place, because for real Ukraine – Shevchenko’s Ukraine – such pillars are inauthentic and unnatural. On the canvas “Kateryna” the micro-image of the verst pillar along with the macro-image of the officer are signs of “the world of Moscow-imperial evil” (V. Ivanyshyn), which harms the Ukrainian young ladies and the people in general. Using the expressive possibilities of fine art, the artist writes this world as dark as a contrast to the Ukrainian world, which is depicted as sunny. In the novel “The Walk with Pleasure and Not Without Morality”, written in exile, T. Shevchenko, recalling the versts, uses “the Aesopian language”. To a greater extent, he has to speak with the hints: instead of benefiting, the versts disorient Ukrainians and cause damage to their property. From here comes the uselessness and inexpediency of the versts on Ukrainian roads – wherever they run: either in the steppe or in the woods. Speaking of the nature, we pay attention that T. Shevchenko speaks seriously and sublimely. There is no place for jokes and irony. On the contrary, the conversation about the versts acquires an outwardly frivolous, humorous connotation, which shows the author’s internal rejection of these imperial signs: the versts in the steppe are close; the same ones in the middle of the forest are “Herod’s versts” – as if Satan lays them under the crew. At the same time, the dry stumps, through which the axes break in the same way as through the versts, are “set by God”. In the poetic works of T. Shevchenko “If you had to... ” and “Isaiah. Chapter 35 (Imitation)” the verst path is interpreted as slavery. The image of the verst paths in the last verse acquires universal significance, acting as a symbol of slavery in general, rather than only Ukrainian one.