by children, bouts of hunger, and other demoralizing attacks by the city,Evgeny is demoralized to the point that he exists as neither beast nor man-/ notthis, nor that - not really living/ nor yet a ghost.(Pushkin 127) Life continued inthis such way until a fateful night when Evgeny began to stare with aninsensately/ wild look of terror on his face(Pushkin 128) at the bronze statue ofthe citys founder. After Evgenys life comes unraveled, he curses the bronze statue of Peterfor building the city near the Neva river in the wake of danger. The statue of Peter the Great, in Pushkins The Bronze Horseman, representsboth the city of Petersburg and its founder, has a supernatural, unfathomablepower. The statue also becomes an incarnation of some spirit ordemon(Jakobson 5) and an enduring symbol of both the majestic power andthe impersonal coldness of the new capital.(Billington 232) In his suddenmadness Evgeny clairvoyantly perceives that the real culprit is the guardian ofthe city.(Jakobson 7) After Evgeny is through with his threats and curses, the statue comes tolife. The animated statue leaves his block and pursues Evgeny.(Jakobson 7)Evgeny attempts to flee the mounted Tsar, but hears behind him, loud as guns/or thunderclaps reverberation,/ ponderous hooves,(Pushkin 129) behind himchasing after him. This pursuit continues throughout the night: Evgeny runningfrom the figure one arm stretched of the Bronze Rider,/ after him clatters theBronze Horse.(Pushkin 129) Wherever Evgeny goes following him is theincessant sound of the galloping Tsar. Evgeny days and nights following thepersonification of the statue, become entrenched with loneliness and even moreso, fear. And from then on, if [Evgeny] was chancing at any time to cross that square,a look of wild distress came glancingacross his features; he would there press hand to heart, in tearing hurry,as if to chase away a worry. Pushkin 129Eventually Evgeny perishes at the shores of the Neva, th...
