The Queen of Spades is a novella written in 1833, by Alexander Pushkin. Widely considered his most successful piece, Pushkin spun a tale of common human greed that leads to betrayal, scandal, and ultimately repentance. Carefully woven in the societal complexities of mid 19th century Russia, Pushkin portrays the main characters to be two sides of the same coin—which is, metaphorically speaking the representation of the death and on going change of opposing Russian social generations. Although both the main characters bear certain obvious characteristics, Hermann’s ridiculous plans of sudden wealth and Lizaveta Ivanovna’s romantic assumptions of being rescued are horrendous avenues of approach in achieving their common goal of setting themselves free from their restraints. These points are strong evidence that preludes into their stark differences which merits thorough…show more content… Born in the last year of the 18th century, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was raised in nobility1. At the turn of the 19th century, Russia was on the verge of an exorbitant change; withstanding multiple reforms such as war, serf revolts, economic reconfigurations, and frequent modifications of hierarchical rule2. As many Russian literary composers did, they committed their art to the environment around them; breathing truth into the idiom, art imitates life. Succumbing to the hypnotic spell of Russian culture, Pushkin did not go unaffected to the alluring charm. Deliberately shown in his narrative, The Queen of Spades, his prime characters can be interpreted as the vivid personification of serfdom (Lizaveta Ivanovna), the genesis of the Russian Industrialisation combined with the exemplar of both native and foreign folklore (Hermann), and lastly the imminent fall of Russian aristocracy (Countess Anna
