Analysis of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls. Questions and tasks

Dead Souls is a poem for the ages. The plasticity of the depicted reality, the comical nature of situations and the artistic skill of N.V. Gogol paint the image of Russia not only of the past, but also of the future. Grotesque satirical reality in harmony with patriotic notes create an unforgettable melody of life that resounds through the centuries.

Collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov goes to distant provinces to buy serfs. However, he is not interested in people, but only the names of the dead. This is necessary to submit the list to the Board of Trustees, which "promises" a lot of money. A nobleman with so many peasants had all the doors open. To implement his plan, he pays visits to the landowners and officials of the city of NN. All of them reveal their selfish disposition, so the hero manages to get what he wants. He also plans a profitable marriage. However, the result is deplorable: the hero is forced to flee, as his plans become well known thanks to the landowner Korobochka.

History of creation

N.V. Gogol considered A.S. Pushkin by his teacher, who “given” a story about the adventures of Chichikov to a grateful student. The poet was sure that only Nikolai Vasilievich, who had a unique talent from God, was able to realize this “idea”.

The writer loved Italy, Rome. In the land of the great Dante, he began work on a book involving a three-part composition in 1835. The poem was supposed to be similar to Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting the hero's immersion in hell, his wanderings in purgatory and the resurrection of his soul in paradise.

The creative process continued for six years. The idea of ​​a grandiose picture, depicting not only "all of Rus'" present, but also the future, revealed "the incalculable riches of the Russian spirit." In February 1837, Pushkin dies, whose “sacred testament” for Gogol is “Dead Souls”: “Not a single line was written without me imagining him before me.” The first volume was completed in the summer of 1841, but did not immediately find its reader. The censors were outraged by The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, and the title was perplexing. I had to make concessions, starting the headline with the intriguing phrase "The Adventures of Chichikov." Therefore, the book was published only in 1842.

Some time later, Gogol writes the second volume, but, dissatisfied with the result, burns it.

The meaning of the name

The title of the work causes conflicting interpretations. The used oxymoron technique gives rise to numerous questions that you want to get answers as soon as possible. The title is symbolic and ambiguous, so the “secret” is not revealed to everyone.

In the literal sense, "dead souls" are representatives of the common people who have gone to another world, but are still listed as their masters. Gradually, the concept is being rethought. The “form” seems to “come to life”: real serfs, with their habits and shortcomings, appear before the reader's eyes.

Characteristics of the main characters

1. Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov - "gentleman of the middle hand." Somewhat cloying manners in dealing with people are not without sophistication. Educated, neat and delicate. “Not handsome, but not bad-looking, not ... fat, nor .... thin…”. Prudent and careful. He collects unnecessary knickknacks in his chest: maybe it will come in handy! Seeking profit in everything. The creation of the worst sides of an enterprising and energetic person of a new type, opposed to landowners and officials. We wrote about it in more detail in the essay "".
2. Manilov - "knight of the void." Blond "sweet" talker "s blue eyes". The poverty of thought, the avoidance of real difficulties, he covers up with a beautiful-hearted phrase. It lacks living aspirations and any interests. His faithful companions are fruitless fantasy and thoughtless chatter.
3. The box is "club-headed". Vulgar, stupid, stingy and stingy nature. She fenced herself off from everything around, shutting herself in her estate - the “box”. Turned into a stupid and greedy woman. Limited, stubborn and unspiritual.
4. Nozdrev is a "historical man". He can easily lie what he pleases and deceive anyone. Empty, absurd. Thinks of himself as a broad kind. However, the actions expose the careless, chaotically weak-willed and at the same time arrogant, shameless "tyrant". Record holder for getting into tricky and ridiculous situations.
5. Sobakevich is a "patriot of the Russian stomach." Outwardly, it resembles a bear: clumsy and indefatigable. Totally incapable of understanding the most elementary things. A special type of "drive" that can quickly adapt to the new requirements of our time. Interested in nothing but housekeeping. we described in the essay of the same name.
6. Plyushkin - "a hole in humanity." A creature of unknown gender. A vivid example of a moral fall that has completely lost its natural appearance. The only character (except Chichikov) who has a biography that "reflects" the gradual process of personality degradation. Complete nothingness. Plyushkin's maniacal hoarding "results" into "cosmic" proportions. And the more this passion seizes him, the less of a person remains in him. We analyzed his image in detail in the essay. .

Genre and composition

Initially, the work was born as an adventurous - picaresque novel. But the breadth of the events described and the historical truthfulness, as if "compressed" among themselves, gave rise to "talk about" the realistic method. Making precise remarks, inserting philosophical discourses, referring to different generations, Gogol saturated "his offspring" with lyrical digressions. One cannot but agree with the opinion that the creation of Nikolai Vasilyevich is a comedy, since it actively uses the techniques of irony, humor and satire, which most fully reflect the absurdity and arbitrariness of the "squadron of flies that dominate Rus'."

The composition is circular: the britzka, which entered the city of NN at the beginning of the story, leaves it after all the vicissitudes that happened to the hero. Episodes are woven into this “ring”, without which the integrity of the poem is violated. The first chapter describes the provincial city NN and local officials. From the second to the sixth chapters, the author introduces readers to the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. Seventh - tenth chapters - satirical image officials, registration of completed transactions. The string of these events ends with a ball, where Nozdrev "narrates" about Chichikov's scam. The reaction of society to his statement is unambiguous - gossip, which, like a snowball, is overgrown with fables that have found refraction, including in the short story ("The Tale of Captain Kopeikin") and the parable (about Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich). The introduction of these episodes makes it possible to emphasize that the fate of the motherland directly depends on the people living in it. It is impossible to look indifferently at the outrages that are happening around. Certain forms of protest are brewing in the country. The eleventh chapter is a biography of the hero forming the plot, explaining what he was guided by when performing this or that act.

The connecting thread of the composition is the image of the road (you can learn more about this by reading the essay “ » ), symbolizing the path that the state “under the modest name of Rus” passes in its development.

Why does Chichikov need dead souls?

Chichikov is not only cunning, but also pragmatic. His sophisticated mind is ready to “make candy” out of nothing. Not having sufficient capital, he, being a good psychologist, having gone through a good life school, mastering the art of “flattering everyone” and fulfilling his father’s precept “save a penny”, starts a great speculation. It consists in a simple deception of "those in power" in order to "warm up their hands", in other words, to help out a huge amount of money, thereby providing themselves and their future family about which Pavel Ivanovich dreamed.

Names bought for next to nothing dead peasants were entered in a document that Chichikov could take to the Treasury under the guise of a pledge in order to obtain a loan. He would pawn the serfs like a brooch in a pawnshop, and could re-pawn them all his life, since none of the officials checked the physical condition of people. For this money, the businessman would have bought both real workers and an estate, and would have lived on a grand scale, taking advantage of the favor of the nobles, because the wealth of the landowner was measured by the representatives of the nobility in the number of souls (peasants were then called “souls” in noble slang). In addition, Gogol's hero hoped to win trust in society and profitably marry a rich heiress.

main idea

A hymn to the motherland and people, the hallmark of which is diligence, sounds on the pages of the poem. Masters of golden hands became famous for their inventions, their creativity. The Russian peasant is always "rich in invention." But there are those citizens who hinder the development of the country. These are vicious officials, ignorant and inactive landowners and swindlers like Chichikov. For their own good, the good of Russia and the world, they must take the path of correction, realizing the ugliness of their inner world. To do this, Gogol mercilessly ridicules them throughout the entire first volume, however, in the subsequent parts of the work, the author intended to show the resurrection of the spirit of these people using the protagonist as an example. Perhaps he felt the falsity of subsequent chapters, lost faith that his dream was feasible, so he burned it along with the second part of Dead Souls.

Nevertheless, the author showed that the main wealth of the country is the broad soul of the people. It is no coincidence that this word is placed in the title. The writer believed that the revival of Russia would begin with the revival of human souls, pure, unstained by any sins, selfless. Not just believing in the free future of the country, but making a lot of efforts on this swift road to happiness. "Rus, where are you going?" This question runs like a refrain throughout the book and emphasizes the main thing: the country must live in constant movement towards the best, advanced, progressive. Only on this path "other peoples and states give it way." We wrote a separate essay about the path of Russia: ?

Why did Gogol burn the second volume of Dead Souls?

At some point, the thought of the messiah begins to dominate in the mind of the writer, allowing him to "foresee" the revival of Chichikov and even Plyushkin. The progressive "transformation" of a person into a "dead man" Gogol hopes to reverse. But, faced with reality, the author is deeply disappointed: the heroes and their destinies come out from under the pen far-fetched, lifeless. Did not work out. The impending crisis in worldview became the reason for the destruction of the second book.

In the surviving passages from the second volume, it is clearly seen that the writer depicts Chichikov not in the process of repentance, but in flight to the abyss. He still succeeds in adventures, dresses in a devilish red coat and breaks the law. His exposure does not bode well, because in his reaction the reader will not see a sudden insight or a paint of shame. He does not even believe in the possibility of the existence of such fragments at least ever. Gogol did not want to sacrifice artistic truth even for the sake of realizing his own idea.

Issues

1. Thorns on the way of the development of the Motherland is the main problem in the poem "Dead Souls", which the author was worried about. These include bribery and embezzlement of officials, infantilism and inactivity of the nobility, ignorance and poverty of the peasants. The writer sought to make his contribution to the prosperity of Russia, condemning and ridiculing vices, educating new generations of people. For example, Gogol despised doxology as a cover for the emptiness and idleness of existence. The life of a citizen should be useful for society, and most of the heroes of the poem are frankly harmful.
2. Moral problems. He considers the absence of moral norms among the representatives of the ruling class as the result of their ugly passion for hoarding. The landowners are ready to shake the soul out of the peasant for the sake of profit. Also, the problem of selfishness comes to the fore: the nobles, like officials, think only about their own interests, the homeland for them is an empty weightless word. high society doesn't care about common people just use it for their own purposes.
3. Crisis of humanism. People are sold like animals, lost at cards like things, pawned like jewelry. Slavery is legal and is not considered something immoral or unnatural. Gogol covered the problem of serfdom in Russia globally, showing both sides of the coin: the mentality of a serf, inherent in a serf, and the tyranny of the owner, confident in his superiority. All these are the consequences of the tyranny that pervades relationships in all walks of life. It corrupts people and destroys the country.
4. The humanism of the author is manifested in attention to the "little man", critical exposure of vices state structure. Gogol did not even try to avoid political problems. He described a bureaucracy functioning only on the basis of bribery, nepotism, embezzlement and hypocrisy.
5. Gogol's characters are characterized by the problem of ignorance, moral blindness. Because of it, they do not see their moral squalor and are not able to independently get out of the quagmire of vulgarity that is engulfing them.

What is the originality of the work?

Adventurism, realistic reality, a sense of the presence of the irrational, philosophical discussions about earthly good - all this is closely intertwined, creating an "encyclopedic" picture of the first half 19th century.

Gogol achieves this by using various techniques of satire, humor, visual means, numerous details, richness of vocabulary, features of the composition.

• Symbolism plays an important role. Falling into the mud "predicts" the future exposure of the main character. The spider weaves its webs to capture the next victim. Like an "unpleasant" insect, Chichikov skillfully conducts his "business", "weaving" the landowners and officials with a noble lie. “sounds” like the pathos of the forward movement of Rus' and affirms human self-improvement.
• We observe the heroes through the prism of "comic" situations, apt author's expressions and characteristics given by other characters, sometimes built on the antithesis: "he was a prominent person" - but only "at a glance".
• The vices of the heroes of "Dead Souls" become a continuation of the positive character traits. For example, Plyushkin's monstrous stinginess is a distortion of former frugality and thriftiness.
• In small lyrical "inserts" - the thoughts of the writer, hard thoughts, anxious "I". In them we feel the highest creative message: to help humanity change for the better.
• The fate of people who create works for the people or not for the sake of "those in power" does not leave Gogol indifferent, because in literature he saw a force capable of "re-educating" society and contributing to its civilized development. The social strata of society, their position in relation to everything national: culture, language, traditions - occupy a serious place in the author's digressions. When it comes to Rus' and its future, through the centuries we hear the confident voice of the “prophet”, predicting the future of the Fatherland, which is not easy, but striving towards a bright dream.
• evoke sadness philosophical reflections about the frailty of being, about the bygone youth and impending old age. That is why the gentle “fatherly” appeal to the youth is so natural, on whose energy, diligence and education depends on what “path” the development of Russia will take.
• The language is truly folk. The forms of colloquial, bookish and written-business speech are harmoniously woven into the fabric of the poem. Rhetorical questions and exclamations, the rhythmic construction of individual phrases, the use of Slavicisms, archaisms, sonorous epithets create a certain structure of speech that sounds solemn, excited and sincere, without a shadow of irony. When describing landowners' estates and their owners, vocabulary is used that is characteristic of everyday speech. The image of the bureaucratic world is saturated with the vocabulary of the depicted environment. we described in the essay of the same name.
• The solemnity of comparisons High style in combination with original speech, they create a sublimely ironic style of narration that serves to debunk the base, vulgar world of the owners.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

It should be noted that the episode of the collision of the crews is divided into two micro-themes. One of them is the appearance of a crowd of onlookers and "helpers" from neighboring village, the other - Chichikov's thoughts, caused by a meeting with a young stranger. Both of these themes have both an external, superficial layer, directly related to the characters of the poem, and a deep layer, bringing to the scale of the author's thoughts about Russia and its people.

So, the clash occurs suddenly, when Chichikov silently sends curses to Nozdryov, thinking that he could have disappeared from the world in his estate, if not for the appearance of the police captain. Selifan is busy with the same thing, angry that Nozdryov did not give the horses oats, even the horses, and they were not in a good mood. A collision - and a strange coachman, not embarrassed by the presence of ladies in the carriage, scolds Selifan: “Oh, you are such a swindler; because I shouted out loud: turn right, crow! Are you drunk? Selifan, being, according to the author's characterization, a truly Russian person who does not like to admit his mistake, is not inferior to his “colleague”: “Why are you jumping like that? Did he put his eyes in the tavern, or what?” Attempts to free the entangled horses do not lead to success, the scolding of the coachmen, the screech of the whips are heard, but the horses stand still. They stand until the men gathered around them and took an ardent part in breeding horses. A real whirlwind begins: Uncle Mityai, Uncle Minyay and a certain Andryushka take turns sitting on the root, then on the harness, the rest of the men shout out advice in unison and in the end they help only by tormenting both the horses and the coachman, and he drives them away, breeds horses, and the chaise leaves.

The entire episode is accompanied not so much by the author's reasoning as by hints that the collision is not just a fiction needed to amuse the reader. Here the motive of the crowd is connected, in many respects a thoughtless collective action, as if relieving each of its individual participants from responsibility, the motive of boredom that prevails in Russian villages: “... such a spectacle for a peasant is a real blessing, it’s the same as newspapers or a club for a German”, intertwined with the motive some kind of childishness, spontaneity, characteristic of a Russian person.

Our main character was also distracted from his thoughts about Nozdryov, but not so much by the collision itself, but by the fact that in another carriage next to the old woman he saw a young woman with golden hair, with a sweet fresh face. But, as we already know, our hero lacks a romantic component: the age is no longer the same, and the inherent practicality makes him consider any young woman from the point of view of her suitability for the role of wife, not just for him, but in general. Therefore, Chichikov does not stand, "staring senselessly into the distance," and dreaming of meeting a young charmer, but busily remarks to himself: "Glorious grandmother!" And here the author gives Chichikov reflections on the problem, perhaps less relevant for modern girls, but almost the main one for young graduates of boarding houses and institutes of that time. This is the problem of education carried out by mothers and aunts, aimed at the formation of "correct" behavior in the world: "with whom, and how, and how much you need to talk, how to look at." Education, instilling stiffness and leading to the choice of "lies" as a line of life behavior. This topic, the theme of predestined secular fate 19th women c., the theme of the need to comply with the "expressed instructions" and the sole purpose of seeing marriage, are devoted to many stories of that time. And Chichikov himself, despite the fact that the girl is completely unfamiliar to him, considers her not at all as an independent person, but as a “very tasty morsel”, a woman capable of “making ... the happiness of a decent person”, provided that they give her “two hundred thousand dowry."

So at first glance, only a humorous episode leads the reader to important, inescapable topics: to reflection on the features national character, over education, over the attitude of a man to a woman, their roles in society in any period of its historical development.

It is believed that, just like the plot of The Inspector General, the plot of Dead Souls was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. There are two stories associated with the name of Pushkin and comparable to the plot of "Dead Souls". During his stay in Bessarabia (1820-1823), administrative abuses took place in Beidery: deaths were not registered here, and the names of the dead were transferred to other persons, fugitive peasants who flocked here from all over Russia; for this reason, the inhabitants of the town were called the "immortal society". Subsequently, while already in Odessa, Pushkin asked his Bessarabian acquaintance I.P. Liprandi: “Is there anything new in Bendery?” P. I. Bartenev wrote about another case related to Pushkin’s stay in Moscow in the notes to the memoirs of V. A. Sollogub: “In Moscow, Pushkin was on the run with a friend. There was also a certain P. (an old dandy). Pointing to him to Pushkin, a friend told about him how he bought up dead souls, pawned them and got a big profit<…>This was before 1826." Interestingly, this episode evoked a direct artistic reaction from Pushkin himself: “You could make a novel out of this,” he said among other things.

However, there is evidence that Gogol, regardless of Pushkin, had heard a lot about stories with dead souls. According to the story of a distant relative of the writer M. G. Anisimo-Yanovskaya, her uncle, a certain Kharlampy Petrovich Pivinsky, who lived 17 versts from Yanovshchina (another name for the Gogol Vasilievka estate) and was engaged in distillation, was frightened by rumors that such a trade would be allowed only to landowners, possessing no less than fifty souls. Pivinsky (who had only thirty souls) went to Poltava “and he paid a quitrent for his dead peasants, as if for the living ... And since his own, and with the dead, were far from fifty, he scored vodka in a cart and went in the neighbors and bought dead souls from them for this vodka ... ”Anisimo-Yanovskaya claims that“ the whole Mirgorod region knew this story.

Another episode, allegedly also known to Gogol, was reported by his classmate at the Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences P. I. Martos in a letter to P. I. Bartenev: “As for Dead Souls, I can tell the following ... In Nizhyn<…>, at the gymnasium of higher sciences of Prince Bezborodko, there was a certain K‑ach, a Serb; of enormous growth, very handsome, with the longest mustaches, a terrible explorer, - somewhere he bought the land on which he is located - it is said in the deed of sale - 650 souls; the amount of land is not indicated, but the boundaries are definitive. … What happened? This land was a neglected cemetery. This very incident was told to Gogol abroad by Prince N. G. Repnin.

Here it is necessary, however, to make a reservation that Repnin, if he told Gogol this episode, then already abroad, when work on Dead Souls had already begun. But at the same time, it is known that abroad, in the process of writing the poem, Gogol continued to collect material and ask acquaintances about various “incidents” that “could happen when buying dead souls” (letter to V. A. Zhukovsky from Paris on November 12, 1836) . It is possible that he himself knew something about this scam since his high school days, since the said K-ch lived in Nizhyn. K-ch's tricks, moreover, anticipated Gogol's text with gloomy irony: the “explorer” did not indicate a wasteland or another piece of land as the place of residence of his wards, but a cemetery. This can be compared with Chichikov's ambiguous answer to the question of whether he needed an escort to escort the peasants: Chichikov "resolutely refused the escort, saying<…>that the peasants bought by him are of an excellently meek character ... "The similarity with the remark of General Betrishchev in the second volume is even more striking:" To give you dead souls? Yes, for such an invention, I give them to you with land, with housing! Take over the whole cemetery!”

With a completely everyday origin, the very formula “dead souls”, placed in the title of the work, was saturated with both literary and philosophical and religious themes. The actual everyday aspect of this formula was recorded by V. I. Dal in the first edition of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language (1863): Soul"). However, in the religious and philosophical aspect, Gogol's formula was antithetical to the biblical concept of a "living soul" (cf.: "And the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul" - Bible, Genesis , 2, 7). In addition, the oxymoronic expression "dead soul" and its derivatives - "dead life", "living death" - have become widespread in Western European poetry since the Middle Ages; cf. also in the mystery of V. K. Kuchelbeker "Izhora": "To what I could be reasonable, // My dead soul does not believe"). In the poem, the formula "dead soul" - "dead souls" was refracted in many ways by Gogol, acquiring more and more new semantic nuances: dead souls - dead serfs, but also spiritually dead landowners and officials, buying up dead souls as an emblem of the deadness of the living. Ironically, the same formula was subsequently transferred to Gogol himself by V. V. Rozanov, who interpreted Gogol's inherent exaggeration as domination outer dead forms over the inner living content: “He called his main work“ Dead Souls ”and, beyond any foresight, expressed it in this title great secret his work and, of course, himself. He was a brilliant painter of external forms and depicting them, to which he alone was capable, gave by some magic such vitality, almost sculptural quality, that no one noticed how nothing in essence is hidden behind these forms, there is no soul, there is no one who I would wear them."

Genre originality of the poem "Dead Souls"

In terms of genre, Dead Souls was conceived as a novel of the "high road". Thus, in in a certain sense they correlated with the famous novel by Cervantes "Don Quixote", which Pushkin also pointed out to Gogol in his time (a parallel on which Gogol later insisted in the "Author's Confession"). As M. Bakhtin wrote, “at the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. Don Quixote set out on the road to meet all of Spain on it, from the convict going to the galleys to the duke. Also, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov "leaves on the road" to meet here, in Gogol's own words, "all Rus'" (from a letter to Pushkin on October 7, 1835). Thus, the genre characterology of Dead Souls as a travel novel is immediately outlined. At the same time, it is also predetermined from the very beginning that this journey will be of a special kind, namely the wandering of a rogue, which additionally adds "Dead Souls" to another genre tradition - a rogue novel, picaresque, widely spread in European literature(anonymous "Life of Lazarillo from Tormes", "Gille Blas" by Lesage, etc.). In Russian literature, the most prominent representative of this genre before "Dead Souls" was the novel by V. T. Narezhny "Russian Zhilblaz, or the Adventures of Prince Gavrila Simonovich Chistyakov."

The linear construction of the novel, which the picaresque assumed (a work whose content is the amusing adventures of a rogue), immediately gave the work an epic character: the author led his hero through “a chain of adventures and changes in order to present at the same time a true picture of everything significant in features and mores of the time he took” (this characterization of the “lesser kind of epic”, given by Gogol already in the mid-40s in the Educational Book of Literature for Russian Youth, was largely applicable to Dead Souls). And yet, the experience of the playwright was not in vain: it was he who made it possible for Gogol to do the almost impossible, to integrate a linear plot, seemingly the most remote from the dramatic principle, into a special “dramatic” whole. Again, according to Gogol’s own definition, the novel “flies like a drama, united by the lively interest of the main characters themselves, in which the characters are entangled and which, with a seething course, makes the characters themselves develop and reveal their characters more strongly and quickly, increasing enthusiasm.” So it is in Dead Souls - their purchase by Chichikov (the main incident), expressed in a plot in a chain of episodes (chapters), for the most part coinciding with the hero’s visit to one or another landowner, unites everyone actors common interest. It is no coincidence that Gogol builds many episodes of the book on parallels and on the repetition of actions, events, and even individual details: the reappearance of Korobochka, Nozdryov, Chichikov's symmetrical visit to various "city dignitaries" at the beginning and end of the book - all this creates the impression of a circular composition. The role of the catalyst of action that fear played in The Government Inspector is now played by gossip - "condensed lies", "the real substratum of the fantastic", where "everyone adds and applies a little, and the lie grows like a snowball, threatening to turn into a snow fall" . The circulation and growth of rumors - a technique inherited by Gogol from another great playwright, Griboyedov, additionally organizes the action, speeds up its pace, leading the action to a swift denouement in the finale: “Like a whirlwind, the hitherto dormant city shot up!”

In fact, the plan of "Dead Souls" was originally conceived by Gogol as a three-part combination of relatively independent, completed works. At the height of Gogol's work on the first volume, Dante begins to occupy him. In the first years of Gogol's life abroad, many factors contributed to this: meetings with V. A. Zhukovsky in Rome in 1838–1839, who at that time was fond of the author of The Divine Comedy; conversations with S.P. Shevyrev and reading his translations from Dante. Directly in the first volume of "Dead Souls" " The Divine Comedy” responded with a parodic reminiscence in the 7th chapter, in the scene of “making a bill of sale”: the wanderer in the afterlife kingdom Chichikov (Dante) with his temporary companion Manilov, with the help of a petty official (Virgil), find themselves on the threshold of the “sanctuary” - the office of the chairman of the civil chamber, where a new guide - "Virgil" leaves Gogol's hero (in the "Divine Comedy" Virgil leaves Dante before his ascension to heavenly Paradise, where he, as a pagan, is forbidden to go).

But, apparently, the main impulse that Gogol received from reading the Divine Comedy was the idea to show the story human soul passing through certain stages - from the state of sinfulness to enlightenment - a story that receives a concrete embodiment in the individual destiny central character. This gave a clearer outline to the three-part plan of "Dead Souls", which now, by analogy with the "Divine Comedy", began to be presented as the ascent of the human soul, passing through three stages on its way: "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise".

This also led to a new genre comprehension of the book, which Gogol originally called a novel and which was now given the genre designation of a poem, which forced the reader to additionally correlate Gogol's book with Dante's, since the designation "sacred poem" (" poema sacra") also appears in Dante himself (“Paradise”, Ode XXV, line 1) and also because in early XIX V. in Russia, the Divine Comedy was steadily associated with the genre of the poem (the poem was called the Divine Comedy, for example, by A.F. Merzlyakov in his “Brief outline of the theory of belles-lettres”; 1822), well known to Gogol. But, in addition to the Dante's association, Gogol's naming of "Dead Souls" as a poem also affected other meanings associated with this concept. First, most often "poem" was defined high degree artistic excellence; this meaning was assigned to this concept in Western European, in particular, German criticism (for example, in F. Schlegel's "Critical Fragments"). In these cases, the concept served not so much as a genre definition as an evaluative definition and could appear regardless of the genre (it was in this vein that Griboyedov wrote about Woe from Wit as a “stage poem”, V. G. Belinsky called Taras Bulba a “poem” ”, and N. I. Nadezhdin called all literature “an episode of a lofty, boundless poem, represented by the original life of the human race”).

However, in Gogol, in this designation, and this should also be borne in mind, there was also an element of polemic. The fact is that in terms of genre, a poem was considered a concept applicable only to poetic works - both small and large forms (“A poem can be called any work written in verse, with imitation of graceful nature,” wrote N. F. Ostolopov in Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Poetry, and in this sense the Divine Comedy more naturally fell under such a classification). In other cases, this concept acquired, as already mentioned, an evaluative meaning. Gogol, on the other hand, used the word "poem" in relation to a large prose form(which would initially be more natural to define as a novel) precisely as a direct designation of the genre, placing it on the title page of the book (graphically, he additionally strengthened the meaning: on the title page created according to his drawing, the word "poem" dominated both the title and the author's surname) . The definition of "Dead Souls" as a poem, writes Yu. V. Mann, came to Gogol along with the realization of their genre uniqueness. This uniqueness consisted, firstly, in that universal task, which overcame the one-sidedness of the comic and even more so satirical perspective of the book (“all Rus' will respond in it”), and, secondly, in its symbolic significance, since the book addressed the fundamental problems purpose of Russia and human existence.

Reviews of contemporaries and critical controversy around "Dead Souls"

The poem was published in May 1842 under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” (the title was changed under pressure from censorship, for the same reason “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” was also thrown out of the poem). “For a long time we have not had such a movement as now on the occasion of Dead Souls,” wrote one of his contemporaries, recalling the controversy caused by the appearance of the book. Some critics accused Gogol of caricature and slandering reality. Others noted their high artistry and patriotism (the last definition belonged to Belinsky). The controversy reached a particular tension after the appearance of the brochure by K. Aksakov “A few words about Gogol’s poem:“ The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls ””, which developed the idea of ​​resurrection ancient epic in a poem. Behind the idea of ​​epicness and focus on Homer was the assertion of the passionlessness of Gogol's writing, which is generally characteristic of the epic. First of all, Belinsky entered into a polemic with Aksakov. Gogol himself at that time went abroad, to Germany, and then to Rome, entrusting before that the publication of the first collection of his works to N. Ya. Prokopovich (published in 1842).

In Rome, he worked on the second volume of Dead Souls, begun as early as 1840. This work would continue intermittently for almost 12 years, that is, almost until Gogol's death. Contemporaries were looking forward to the continuation of the poem, but instead of it, in 1847, “Selected passages from correspondence with friends” were published in St. Petersburg, the dual purpose of which (as Gogol formulated it for himself) was to explain why the second volume had not yet been written, and prepare readers for its subsequent perception. "Selected places" affirmed the idea of ​​spiritual life-building, the purpose of which would be the creation of an "ideal heavenly state". The latter, however, was tied to the real state bureaucratic machine. Service to the Russian monarch, public service acquired religious significance from Gogol. Another problem posed by the book is the rethinking of the function of fiction, which has ceased to be "educational". Hence the demand for direct didactics and, at the same time, the renunciation of one's past creations.

In the "Preface" to "Selected Places" Gogol explicitly stated that his writings "led almost everyone astray about their real meaning." Actually, Gogol pinned all his hopes for clarifying the true meaning of his work precisely on the second volume of Dead Souls (according to Tarasenkov, Gogol said: “From it everyone could understand even what was unclear in my previous writings”). Another contemporary of Gogol, who in 1848 talked with him about Dead Souls, recalled: “... I ... asked him directly what exactly this poem should end with. He, thoughtfully, expressed difficulty in expressing this in detail. I objected that I only needed to know whether Pavel Ivanovich would come to life properly? Gogol, as if with joy, confirmed that this would certainly happen and that the Tsar himself would directly participate in his revival, and the poem should end with Chichikov's first breath for a true, lasting life. ... And what about Chichikov's other companions in Dead Souls? I asked Gogol: will they also be resurrected? “If they want to,” he replied with a smile. Actually, the very name of the poem ("dead souls") suggested the possibility of the opposite: the existence of "living" souls. The key to this should have been the resurrection of the protagonist for a new "wonderful" life, as well as the emergence of new, compared to the first volume, "positive" characters: exemplary landowners (Costanjoglo and Vasily Platonov), officials, heroes who could be perceived as alter ego the author himself (for example, Murazov) and about which we know from the five surviving chapters of draft editions.

On January 1, 1852, Gogol finally announces that the second volume is "completely finished." At the end of January, Father Matvey, Gogol's spiritual father, arrives in Moscow. The content of their conversations that took place these days remains unknown, but there is indirect evidence that it was Father Matvey who advised Gogol to burn some of the chapters of the poem, citing the harmful influence that they may have on readers. So, on the night of February 11-12, 1852, the white manuscript of the second volume was burned. Subsequently, Andrei Bely called the fate of Gogol " terrible revenge”, comparing Father Matvey with scary rider in the Carpathians: “... the earth made its own Terrible revenge. The face seen by Gogol did not save Gogol: this face became for him "rider in the Carpathians". Gogol ran away from him.

Gogol died on February 21, 1852 - ten days after the burning of the manuscript of the poem. On his tombstone the words of the prophet Jeremiah were carved: "I will laugh at my bitter word."

Basic concepts

Romanticism, realism, fantasy, grotesque, story cycle, comedy, "mirage intrigue", poem as a genre, poem as an evaluative characteristic, small epic, picaresque novel, travel novel, tradition, satire, comic.

Questions and tasks for self-control

1. The originality of Gogol's satire. How do you understand the words of N. A. Nekrasov: “He preached love with a hostile word of denial ...” (poem “On the day of Gogol’s death” - “Blessed is the gentle poet”)? Give examples of Gogol's carnival imagery. What is the role of eschatological motifs in Gogol's artistic world?

2. What is Gogol's idea of ​​the Cosmos? What role do the images of the ladder and the world tree play in this representation? Symbolic images in the works of Gogol and their artistic value. What is the novelty of N. V. Gogol's dramaturgy? Determine the role of the idea of ​​fear in the development of the action of his comedies. How does the content of the idea change from the first phenomenon to the last? How do you understand “mirage intrigue” (a terminological phrase by Yu. V. Mann)? What is the meaning of the "silent" scene in The Inspector General? Why main topic"Marriages" - an illusion?

3. The image of the city in the work of Gogol. Why does the writer not portray Moscow satirically? How does Gogol solve the problem of "man and environment"? The role of the shock motive in Petersburg stories. The theme of the "little man" in the work of Gogol.

4. The symbolic context of the title of the poem "Dead Souls". Indicate three levels of title semantics: what problematics corresponds to each of the levels?

5. What was the inner plot of Selected Places from Correspondence with Friends expressed in? What is the Gogol ideal human personality? What role does Gogol assign to art and religion in the awakening of the soul?

Literature

White A. Gogol's skill. M., 1996.+

Bocharov S. G. On the style of Gogol. In: The Theory of Literary Styles. Typology of stylistic development of modern times. M., 1976.+

Weisskopf Michael. Gogol's story. Morphology. Ideology. Context. M., 1993.

Vinogradov V.V. The evolution of Russian naturalism. Gogol and the "natural" school. Sketches about the style of Gogol. In his book: Selected Works. Poetics of Russian literature. M., 1976.+

Gippius V.V. Gogol's creative path // From Pushkin to Blok. M., L., 1966.+*

Gukovsky GA. Gogol's realism. M., 1959.+

Mann Yu.V. In search of a living soul. M., 1987.+

Mann Yu.V. The audacity of invention. Features of the artistic world of Gogol. M., 1985.+

Mann Yu. M. Poetics of Gogol. M., 1995.+

Mann Yuri. Gogol. Works and Days: 1809–1845. M., 2004

Markovich V. M. Petersburg stories by N. V. Gogol. L., 1989.+

Mashinsky S.I. Artistic world of Gogol. M., 1971.

Nabokov V.V. Nikolay Gogol. New world, 1987, № 4.

Nikolaev D.P. Satire of Gogol. M., 1984.

Pereverzev V. F. Creativity Gogol. In his book: Gogol, Dostoevsky. Research. M., 1982.

Smirnova EA. Gogol's poem Dead Souls. L., 1987.

EichenbaumB.M. How the overcoat is made. In his book: On Prose. L., 1969.+

Chapter 5

The Literary Movement of the 1840s. V. G. Belinsky and the "Natural School"

E XIX years V. in the domestic literary movement became a time of breakthrough to new aesthetic horizons, a time of complex interaction between various ideological and artistic systems and types of authorial consciousness with the dominance of the leading trend - the growth of realistic principles in prose and poetry.

Literature is making a rapid evolution in an era not rich in major historical events, but marked by a deepening of social and cultural development. At the turn of the second and third decades of Nikolaev's reign, under the former conditions of serfdom and the persecution of free thought, tremendous spiritual work was being done in society, and social and literary thought was being sharpened. A. I. Herzen called that era the time of “external slavery and internal liberation”. The time has come for a spiritual take-off, heated philosophical, religious, historical and literary discussions. Sometimes they take the form of a sharp ideological and literary struggle.

Disputes between "Westerners" and "Slavophiles"

The question of the past, present and future of Russia, the ways of its development and its role in world history, in the human community divided the educated minority into Slavophiles and Westerners. Their dispute was set by the “Philosophical Letter” by P. Ya. Chaadaev, published in the Moscow journal “Telescope” in 1836, where the author, reflecting on the fate of the West and Russia, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, made negative conclusions about the historical fate Orthodox Russia. Chaadaev's ideas directly "awakened" two opposing social trends: the Slavophiles and the Westerners of the 1940s could with equal right consider him both their mentor and opponent.

Leading ideologists and publicists of Slavophilism in the 40s: poet and philosopher A. S. Khomyakov, critic and publicist I. V. Kireevsky, his brother, P. V. Kireevsky, public figure Yu.F. Samarin, brothers K.S. and I. S. Aksakovs - children of the recognized writer Sergei Aksakov, also famous writers.

Russian Westernism of that time was represented by V. G. Belinsky; A. I. Herzen; his friend and colleague N. P. Ogarev; public figure, professor of Moscow University T. N. Granovsky; V. P. Botkin; P. V. Annenkov, who became the first biographer of Pushkin; writer and journalist I. I. Panaev.

Both Slavophiles and Westerners were true guardians of the Fatherland, they were united by dissatisfaction with the results of the cultural and historical development of Russia, a thirst national identity. Both those and others spoke about the need to abolish serfdom, about civil rights and freedoms. Both those and others were in opposition to the tsarist bureaucracy (but not to the autocracy itself, in relation to which the positions of each of the participants in the movements were different). Slavophiles and Westernizers assessed the period of Moscow Rus and the reforms of Peter I, the bourgeois economic order of Europe and the patriarchal foundations of Russia in different ways. In the field of the discussed problems was the question of the purpose of art, of the artistry and nationality of literature.

Collections of circles of Herzen and Belinsky, literary salons and living rooms of private houses (P. Ya. Chaadaeva, D. N. Sverbeeva, A. P. Elagina and others), editorial offices of magazines (“Moskvityanin”, “Russian conversation”, on the one hand, and “Domestic notes”, “ Sovremennik" - on the other) - a lively polemic of ideological and literary opponents unfolded here, introducing the terms themselves into active speech circulation: Westernism and Slavophilism.

The title of Khomyakov's article "On the Old and the New" is symbolic, which marked the beginning in 1839 of the Slavophile trend as such. In the "former", "old" - in Russian legends and traditions of Orthodoxy and folk morality, which is free from "profit", self-interest, you need to look for the beginning of "true Orthodoxy." “These best instincts of the soul, educated and ennobled by Christianity, these memories of antiquity unknown, but secretly living in us, have produced all the good that we can be proud of.”

Tradition, "the succession of life" is the most necessary basis for its self-preservation, - wrote K. Aksakov. Naturally, therefore, the admiration of the Slavophiles before the centuries-old foundations of the monarchy, the Russian communal system, Christian collective, not individual forms life, up to "self-denial". Sobornost - this is how, since the time of the first Slavophiles, the special quality of Russian, Slavic brotherhood, Orthodox unity has been determined different layers society on the basis of selfless service to the "world", "community", "kind".

In art and literature, the Slavophils valued that which is original, in which the spiritual strength of the people “creates”. For Khomyakov, these were icons and church music, for K. Aksakov and Samarin - the work of N. V. Gogol, A. K. Tolstoy, V. I. Dahl. In "Dead Souls" K. Aksakov saw Homeric epicness - integrity, "strong", "eternal", "positive" principle associated with the Christian ideal. The "Russian art school", according to Khomyakov, was "a matter of life and death in the sense of moral and spiritual activity." The search for an “internal source of national enlightenment” inspired the Slavophiles themselves to their own creative research: they wrote poems and prose, K. Aksakov was the author of an experimental Russian grammar, Kireevsky published the original folklore texts he had collected.

Representatives of Westernism believed that Russia could achieve prosperity only through rapprochement with Europe; in the rapid growth of industry, in the affirmation of the civil rights of the individual, in the ideals of equality, in the development of science, in bourgeois progress, they saw the guarantee of Russia's greatness.

Of fundamental importance for Westerners was the problem of individual freedom, its independent development. Indicative in this sense is the fate of the writer and thinker A. I. Herzen. Being abroad in the late 40s, he sees the hopelessness of the political struggle in Russia and, not wanting to serve the Fatherland “in stocks”, makes a bitter and exceptionally courageous decision at that time: not to return to his homeland. It helped him to overcome civil timidity firm conviction: "in oneself ... respect one's freedom and honor it no less than in one's neighbor, as in the whole people, for only on the freedom of the person can the real will of the people grow." In London, Herzen and Ogarev founded a "free Russian printing house"; the mighty voice of Kolokol, a newspaper published already in the fifties and sixties, excited and enlightened distant compatriots. Herzen died in 1870 abroad, returning to his homeland with a free word. The era of the 1940s is represented in volume by Herzen in his famous book memoirs "The Past and Thoughts" (1852-1867), which is rightfully considered the pinnacle of the writer's work.

Year 2009, the bicentenary of the birth of Nikolai Vasilyevich. Disputes flared up around the name of the writer, the mysterious and mystical master of Russian literature. Ukraine, emphasizing that the Little Russian Sorochintsy, in which Gogol was born, belongs to the Ukrainian lands, declared Gogol a great Ukrainian writer. Russia, in turn, relying on the fact that Gogol wrote in Russian and from his youth until his death he lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow, speaks of Gogol as a great Russian writer.

And while these disputes are going on, in a small office of an ordinary apartment in one of the residential areas of Tbilisi, Georgian Zurab Kartveladze, a doctor with a diploma, a publicist, historian, culturologist, at the behest of the soul, is reading Dead Souls. Outside the window is a vague, incomprehensible time, you need to puzzle over how to live, and he reads a textbook, immortal work Russian classics.

Not just reading, searching. And he finds - traces of his Georgia, Georgian fragments in Gogol's work. And writes about what he found, rejoicing at the opportunity to make his modest contribution to the cultural treasury of the world.

“No matter how we get bogged down in everyday and essential things,” I thought then, “there will always be something that is higher than hourly needs. Something is OVER. Above profit, above material, above politics, above the national.” "Above", not having cash equivalent having only the value of knowledge, the value of novelty, the value of intellectual elegance and enduring beauty.

Site host Petr Zgonnikov

Zurab Kartveladze. About the Georgian episodes in Gogol's "Dead Souls"

In Gogol's famous work Dead Souls, there are two episodes from which it follows that Gogol was well aware of some subtle details of Georgian reality. But Gogol has never been to Georgia. In his youth, Nikolai Vasilyevich lived in Ukraine, then, all his adulthood- in Russia. But then where, from whom could he have this knowledge?

Let's look at the first snippet first. It has the following, very interesting description:

"... Our hero (Chichikov - Z.K.), sitting better on Georgian rug ( highlighted by me - Z.K. ) put a leather pillow behind his back.

Why did Gogol remember the Georgian rug when he sat down his hero? After all, at that time, as today, few people knew about the existence of Georgian carpets and rugs. If we talk about carpets that have a good reputation outside of Asia Minor, then everyone knows what then, what now, carpets are Persian and Turkish, but not Georgian at all. But then why does Gogol emphasize that the carpet was precisely Georgian?

To assert the Georgian origin of the rug, the writer had to have a good knowledge of the everyday culture of Georgia. Only a person who was well versed in the essence of Christian symbols and ornaments (they are not on Muslim carpets) and in the aesthetic and ethno-linguistic features of ties, flourishes and carpet patterns.

Let us leave this question for now and pass on to the second Georgian episode discovered by Gogol.

Describing those present at the governor's ball, Gogol writes:

"The galloping flew in all directions: the postmaster, the police captain, the lady with the blue feather, the lady with the white feather, Georgian prince Chipkhaikhilidzev (highlighted by me - Z.K.) , an official from St. Petersburg, an official from Moscow, the Frenchman Kuku, Perkhunovsky, Berebendovsky - everything got up and away we go.

When it comes to surnames in "Dead Souls", it is necessary to take into account the following remark of Nikolai Vasilyevich himself:

"It is dangerous to name a fictitious surname. Whatever name you think up, it will certainly be found in some corner of our state, the blessing is great, someone who wears it will certainly be angry not with his stomach, but with death ..." Therefore, all of the above surnames are potentially fictitious by the author.

And in fact, the Georgians do not have the surname Chipkhaikhilidze (v). This surname is clearly artificial, invented by Gogol for artistic purposes. One might think that the writer constructed this surname by slightly modifying the surnames of the Georgian princes Chavchavadze, Chalaganidze, Chkheidze, known in those days in Russia ... However, these surnames do not fit either the consonance or other parameters of proximity to the surname invented by Gogol.

But, mindful of the characters of the caricatured faces present at the ball, and in order for the Georgian prince to fit exactly into the appropriate company (given the writer’s wide gastronomic knowledge), we see that when divided into syllables, the surname Chipkhaikhilidze almost repeats the name of the famous Georgian dish chakhokhbili - "CHIPKHAIKHILI" and "CHAKHOKHBILI".

Giving the Georgian prince, his hero, a “gastronomic” surname, Gogol, together with other characteristics (making him a worthy representative of his own kind at the ball), paints a portrait of a frequenter of feasts, a glutton.

These episodes no doubt indicate that Gogol was well aware of the life, ethnic and cultural characteristics of the Georgian people.

From what sources?

The writer had a close friendship with the family of Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy. The wife of the Count, Princess Anna Georgievna Bagrationi-Gruzinskaya, was the great-granddaughter of Bakar, the son of the Georgian king Vakhtang VI.

Between Gogol and the married couple of Tolstoys, the warmest and closest relations developed. In one of his letters to Anna Georgievna, Gogol wrote: “I loved you sincerely, I loved you like a sister,

firstly, for your kindness, and secondly, for your sincere desire to do what is pleasing to God, to serve Him, to love Him, and to obey Him...”

Nikolai Vasilievich spent the last years of his life in the Tolstoy house on Nikitsky Boulevard in Moscow. The husband and wife, true believers, gave their friend two rooms on the first floor, surrounded the writer with care and attention.

“... here Gogol was looked after like a child, giving him complete freedom in everything,” the poet Nikolai Berg wrote in his memoirs. “He did not care about anything. Lunch, breakfast, tea, dinner were served where he ordered. His underwear was washed and put into chests of drawers by invisible spirits, unless they were also put on him by invisible spirits.In addition to the numerous servants at home, his own man, from Little Russia, named Semyon, served him in his rooms, a very young, meek and extremely devoted fellow. The silence in the wing was unusual.

The Tolstoy family had historical relics associated with Georgia, in particular, the house church, where, among other icons, there was an image of All the Saints of the Georgian Church. Nizhny Novgorod province. There, for almost half a century, the Cross of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia, was kept. In 1801, Prince George of Gruzinsky presented the cross to Emperor Alexander the First, who ordered that this greatest shrine for Georgians be returned to Georgia (the cross is now in the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi).

In the Tolstoy house, of course, there were talks about Georgia, its history and culture, language and traditions, and Gogol, who lived in their house, no doubt took part in them. Indirect evidence of the writer's interest in the Caucasian (Georgian) theme can be one of the letters of Count A.P. Tolstoy to Gogol from Paris, dated August 5 (new style), 1847, in which he describes the state of affairs in the Caucasus.

Thus, we can safely assume that Princess Anna Georgievna of Georgia (Bagrationi) and her father, Prince George of Georgia (Bagrationi), were exactly the source from which Gogol drew his knowledge of Georgia and Georgian reality.

Zurab Kartveladze (Tbilisi)

Peter Zgonnikov.Anna and Alexander Tolstoy were in a spiritual marriage

While preparing an article by Zurab Kartveladze for publication, I wanted to learn more about the Tolstoy couple. And I came to a very puzzling discovery: Princess Anna Bagrationi and Alexander Tolstoy were blood relatives! Princess Anna Georgievna was a great-granddaughteroh Bakar, son of the Georgian king Vakhtang VI, Count Alexander Tolstoy - great-grandson of George, another son of Tsar Vakhtang VI.

Four cousins ​​brother and sister!

And how could one not be puzzled if Christian morality categorically forbids marriages between blood relatives up to the 8th generation, and Anna Georgievna and Alexander Petrovich were believers.

So much so that Alexander Petrovich wore chains under his clothes *, rigorously, to the smallest detail, observed fasts and even refused vegetable oil for weeks. He generously did good, and did it out of the demands of the soul, without trumpeting about his deeds, on the contrary, setting, first of all, the strictest condition: that the name of the donor should not be disclosed.

Anna Georgievna was no less religious. She preferred spiritual literature to secular literature, her reference book was “Words and Speeches of the Right Reverend Jacob, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas”, sermons from which Gogol, who lived in recent years with the Tolstoy spouses, read her daily sermons. She was extremely strict with herself, avoided excesses, strictly observed church and Christian regulations, shunned society, for which she received the name "eccentric".

How could Alexander Petrovich and Anna Georgievna, people of such strict Christian convictions, agree to a blood marriage contrary to their faith?Contemporaries asked this question.

In her youth, Anna Georgievna experienced a severe mental shock.

A girl of rare beauty, one of the most enviable brides of her time, she fell in love with a peasant youth, the son of a peasant Andrei Medvedev. The father did everything to separate the lovers - and achieved his goal. (And nowadays, a rare girl in the Caucasus will go against the will of her father, what can we say about that time).

The lovers were forced to reconcile themselves, but they vowed to renounce secular life and devote themselves to monasticism. Andrey, having become a monk, eventually became rector of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra (in 1998 he was canonized as a saint, as

locally venerated saint). Anna went to the monastery, but, according to one version, she did not have time to take the tonsure, her father almost took her home by force. Others write that she remained in the monastery, but suffered so much that the abbess, taking pity on the unfortunate woman, advised her father to take the girl home.

At home, Anna led a secluded life, spending time in fasting and prayer. She probably would have ended her earthly days alone, if her father had not interfered in her fate again. Years passed, the prince grew old and began to fear that with his death his daughter would be left completely alone, without male help and guardianship. He tried to marry her - she objected. The prince insisted, expressed dissatisfaction, and Anna surrendered herself to the will of her father, rather, I think, in order to free him from torment and anxiety.

At the age of 35, she marries ... with her brother in the fourth generation. The choice cannot be called accidental: Anna marries, firstly, for a brother, for a man whom she has known for decades (that is, she could have married a long time ago, but did not marry), secondly, for a deeply religious person, and thirdly, contrary to the absolute religious taboo.

But it comes out.

This paradoxical step can have one, it seems to me, explanation: there was no marriage in its usual sense. It was a marriage union, concluded for the sake of calming the restless father and to comply with the accepted norms of the social environment.

Anna agreed to such a marriage out of necessity, Alexander - out of compassion for her sister, who was suffering, with a failed, broken fate.They could reconcile their spiritual values ​​with the requirements of life and society in one way: by excluding from the sphere of their cohabitation physical layer communication.

That this was so, I have little doubt.Contemporaries who knew Anna Georgievna and Alexander Petrovich well guessed the formal nature of their marriage. It is no coincidence that the maid of honor of the Imperial Court Smirnova-Rosset, recalling Anna Georgievna, wrote: “For 35 years she married A.P. Tolstoy. He obeyed his eccentric and lived with her Like a brother…".

"Like a brother" is my emphasis.

P.S. To what Zurab Kartveladze wrote above, it is probably worth adding that Gogol’s knowledge of the nuances of Georgian reality was influenced not only by Anna Georgievna Gruzinskaya, a descendant of the Georgian royal family of Bagrationi (and, possibly, her father), but also by Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy, the same descendant royal family of Bagrationi, like Anna.

Peter Zgonnikov, website host

* Chains - different kind iron chains, stripes, rings worn by Christian ascetics on their naked bodies to humble the flesh.

Photos via Google

Chichikov at Manilov's (the role of the episode in the poem "Dead Souls")

In the poem "Dead Souls" Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol showed the collapse of the old way of life in Russia and the birth of new, capitalist relations. In the image of Chichikov, the writer revealed the character of a swindler, ready for any scam, just to get rich. God did not give Pavel Ivanovich wealth, but he did not deprive him of a quick-witted and inventive mind. We meet him on the pages of the poem, when the hero travels from landowner to landowner, trying to acquire more dead souls in order to get rich through forgery and deceit.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a master of detail, in the poem "Dead Souls" he creates a whole gallery of images of landowners, giving everyone individual traits that belong only to him. The work, as it were, is assembled from individual bright episodes, and all together they make up a wonderful work that has entered the treasury of Russian classics.

Important in the chain of episodes is the arrival of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov to the landowner Manilov, this is the very beginning of his big scam. Gogol shows the negligent owner of the estate, busy with meaningless and fruitless dreams, not wanting and not able to arrange his life. "The manor's house stood alone on a jura, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds, whichever one wants to blow; the slope of the mountain on which he stood was dressed with trimmed turf. On it were scattered in English two or three flower beds with lilac bushes and yellow acacias... there was a gazebo with a flat earthen dome, wooden blue columns and the inscription: "Temple of solitary reflection..."
In every way the author emphasizes Manilov's claims to education and culture, but these are only external, superficial features that convince the reader of the opposite. Manilov called his sons ancient Greek names in the Roman manner: Femi stoclus and Alkid, and meanwhile it is not enough to say that the landowner is not educated. Gogol gives important detail, which replaces many comment pages. "In his office there was always some book, bookmarked on the fourteenth page, which he had been constantly reading for two years."

Manilov is not engaged in housekeeping at all - he is not interested in it. He loves to dream of building an underground passage or a stone bridge across a pond while sipping his pipe. An idler and lazy man, Manilov does not delve into anything, even Chichikov's unusual offer to sell dead souls puzzled him for a moment, but the same landowner cast aside all doubts. His "beautiful soul" does not allow one to doubt the nobility of Pavel Ivanovich. Manilov is not used to bothering his person with unnecessary worries, he immediately shifts them to others.

In the poem "Dead Souls" Gogol shows the perniciousness of serfdom for Russia as a whole. He reveals this problem from all sides. Depicting Manilov as an outwardly pleasant and kind person, Gogol showed that a soft-hearted loafer is no better than a villain, since he entrusts his farm and peasants to just anyone. This practice is also harmful because it corrupts the peasants, accustoming them to idleness; taking an example from the landowner, his serfs also do not want to do anything.

Manilov is also disgusting because he wants to wrap Chichikov's lies and baseness in a beautiful "package", tying up a list of dead souls belonging to him with a silk ribbon. That doesn't make a lie true. No wonder Gogol says about this character that he is "neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan." Frivolous and soulless, Manilov encourages the evil that is happening around, he does not want to see the truth of life.

In my opinion, this is one of the best artistic images of the poem. Gogol did not succeed in this chapter for a long time. Indeed, it is difficult to portray an outwardly pleasant person so that he is so repulsive and unpleasant when examined in detail. The great Gogol succeeded brilliantly.

In the autumn of 1835, Gogol set to work on the poem "Dead Souls", the plot of which was suggested to him by Pushkin. Gogol had long dreamed of writing a novel about Russia, and was very grateful to Pushkin for the idea. “I want to show in this novel at least one ...

Among the characters Gogol's poem"Dead Souls" Chichikov occupies a special place. Being the central (in terms of plot and composition) figure of the poem, this hero, right up to the last chapter of the first volume, remains a mystery to everyone - not only to officials ...

Every era has its heroes. They determine its face, character, principles, ethical guidelines. With the advent of "Dead Souls" in Russian literature entered new hero not like its predecessors. The elusive, slippery is felt in the description of his appearance....

Work plan: 1. Introduction 2. Main part 2.1. Plushkin's estate 2.2. Feelings and emotions of Plyushkin, their manifestation 2.3. Plyushkin's path to complete degradation 2.4. The influence of loved ones on the fate of the protagonist 2.5. Appearance ...