"The Queen of Spades" is a short story written by the Russian writer Pushkin.
The protagonist of the novel, Hermann, is a military engineer who has strong desires but does not dare to indulge himself at all. When he heard the legendary story of his grandmother Countess Anna's "guaranteed winning of three cards" from her gambling friend Tomsky, he was stunned and fascinated.
He wanted to get close to the legendary countess to obtain the secret of the "Three Cards", so he secretly flirted with the countess's adopted daughter, wrote letters to express love, created chance encounters, and finally won the favor of the girl Lisaveta. In response, he took the opportunity to sneak into the Countess's room during a late-night tryst with Lizaveta, and used coercion and inducement when he failed, so that the Countess died of fright.
The countess told Herman the secret of "three cards to win" in a dream: three points, seven points and aces. Hermann won two consecutive nights with three points and seven points, but on the third day he completely lost all his wealth when he mistook the Queen of Spades, and finally lost his mind and became crazy until death.
Creative background
Russian social thought in the early 19th century was influenced by the ideological and cultural transition period from feudalism to capitalism - Enlightenment. The independent status of religion was lost, and the religious world view The meaning as a manifestation of spiritual creative activities has changed, rationalism has developed rapidly, human role and creative ability have been re-recognized, and conditions have been prepared for the human-centered cultural principle.
At the same time, the wind of capital civilization has also brought hedonism. The direct material benefits brought by the development of industrial capital are reflected in the improvement of the quality of life and the enjoyment of material. The product of this combination of hedonism and liberalism is the trend of hedonism, which will inevitably bring chaos to society and even have a serious impact on the social atmosphere.
Pushkin experienced three eras: Paul I, Alexander I and Nicholas I. He witnessed and deeply felt the political, economic and ideological changes in Russian society in the early 19th century, especially the impact of money on people. erosion of thought. "The Queen of Spades" reflects exactly this change in Russian society in the early 19th century. It is the product of the transformation of Russian society in the early 19th century.