Gogol, long and persistently reflecting on the purpose of his creation, came to the conclusion that his goal was to show the whole of Rus' with its inherent contradictory features, the true Russian person in its entirety, with the versatility of national characters and characteristics. The writer wanted to reveal to us all the hidden corners of the Russian soul, eating up the shortcomings and hidden virtues of a Russian person from the inside, surrounded by a daily web of trifles, deeds and events. Gogol, thinking about the future work, begins to feel even missionary power in himself: he is burning with the desire to help his fatherland by awakening the “dead”, sleeping soul of a Russian person with the best medicine - cleansing laughter. The poem was intended as a revealing, saving tool for "dormant" Russia, Gogol believed that it was his duty, his opportunity to be as useful in his writing as any simple civil servant is useful to the fatherland. Nikolai Vasilyevich intended to create a grandiose, all-encompassing work, consisting of three interrelated and following one from the other parts. They symbolized Russia's unique path from "lethargy" to awareness, awakening, purification and rapid moral self-development.
Thus, we can say that the idea of the poem "Dead Souls" was the broadest in its scope of characters, characters, ideas, events and phenomena of complex Russian life.
The poem "Dead Souls" seems contradictory already in terms of the genre of the work designated by the author. After all, as we know from the definition, a poem is a genre of literature that is distinguished by its poetic form. It turns out that Gogol pushes the existing genre boundaries and creates, as we now call it, a prose poem. Why did this happen? The answer lies in yet another contradiction: reflecting on his creation, the writer firmly held on to the idea of creating an incredibly large-scale, universal work, he wanted to liken it, equate it to an epic, drawing an analogy between such huge works as Dante's Divine Comedy and Homer's poems. And the implementation of all these thoughts in prose was possible only thanks to numerous lyrical digressions in the course of the narrative, reminding the reader of the grandeur of the idea, of its further development along an as yet unknown, but great path.
And, finally, one of the main plot and compositional contradictions is the possibility of the very realization of all Gogol's ideas. The writer literally dreamed of creating the strongest work in terms of impact on all readers. In it, he wanted to clearly and accurately show the degradation, stagnation, awakening and setting on the path of the true vicious Russian souls. However, he did not want to simply present to the world the artistic ideal that arose in his head. On the contrary, with all his strength and genius, he tried to draw a living person, as if standing next to us, tangible and really existing. The writer wanted to literally embody a person, to breathe a living spirit into him. And this tragically contradicted the actual implementation: such a task turned out to be not only beyond Gogol's strength, but also beyond the time allotted to the creator himself.
The contradiction in this phrase is obvious: after all, this is a literary oxymoron (the same, for example, “living corpse”, “sad joy”, etc.). But, turning to the poem itself, we discover other meanings.
Firstly, “dead souls” are simply dead serfs, “hunting” for whom is Chichikov’s main task to achieve his personal well-being.
But here, and secondly, another meaning is revealed, which is more important for the ideological component of the work. “Dead souls” are the “rotten”, vicious souls of that landlord and bureaucratic circle in which Chichikov revolves. These souls have forgotten what real life is, full of pure, noble feelings and following human duty. Outwardly, all these people seem to be alive, they talk, walk, eat, etc. But their inner content, spiritual filling is dead, it will either forever sink into oblivion, or with great effort and suffering can be reborn.
Thirdly, there is another hidden meaning of the phrase. It is a religious and philosophical idea. According to Christian teaching, the human soul cannot be dead by definition, it is always alive, only the body can die.
It turns out that Gogol enhances the meaning of rebirth, renewal of the "dirty" soul, likening it to simple human flesh.
Thus, we can say that even such a short and capacious title of the poem helps the writer to convey and reveal a huge number of ideas and themes displayed in the work.
The religious and moral searches of the writer are directly connected with the idea of "Dead Souls". We can say that the whole work is built on religious, moral and philosophical ideas.
Nikolai Vasilyevich sought to show in the poem the rebirth of "sinners" into "righteous ones". He closely connected the moral re-education and self-education of the protagonist with Christian dogma. Indeed, to live in a Christian way is to live according to the divine commandments, in the observance of which the best features of a person are displayed. To believe in the one God, to be respectful, not to envy, not to steal or steal, to be respectful and generally righteous in essence - this is the religious and moral ideal that Gogol wanted to embody in the work. He believed that the transformation of a thoroughly vicious person is still possible with the help of laughter at oneself, purifying suffering, and then acceptance of following the truth. Moreover, the writer believed that such an example of the reincarnation of a Russian person, and soon all of Russia, could serve as a “beacon” for other nations and even for the whole world. It is quite possible that he dreamed of an unattainable ideal - a universal, universal rebirth from the abyss of sins and the establishment of righteousness.
Gogol closely connected his searches with the idea of the poem, literally weaving the entire “canvas” of the work out of these thoughts.
The poem shows the characters of many landowners, describes their way of life, passions, customs. But only two people have a backstory, a story about their past. This is Plyushkin and Chichikov.
The fact is that such personalities as Korobochka, Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev and others are shown brightly, “in all their glory” and very believable, we can fully form our impression of them and predict their future fate. These characters are representatives of the "stagnation" of the human essence, they are what they are, with all their vices and imperfections, and they will not become different.
As for Chichikov and Plyushkin, one of the facets of the great intention of the writer is revealed here. These two heroes, according to the author, are still capable of development, renewal of their souls. Therefore, both Plyushkin and Chichikov have a biography. Gogol wanted to lead the reader along the entire line of their life, to show a complete picture of the formation of their character, and then the transformation and new formation of characters in subsequent volumes. After all, in fact, it is impossible to understand the whole essence of a person until you get acquainted with his whole history, with all his life vicissitudes, and Gogol was well aware of this.
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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Lesson 2 Poem N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls. The idea, the history of creation, the features of the genre and composition, the meaning of the title of the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls.
Goals: To acquaint students with the idea, history of creation, features of the genre and composition,the meaning of the title of the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"; to form the ability to build an answer to a question about a work of art based on theoretical and literary knowledge; improve the skills of analytical work with a prose text; analytic skills;promote the aesthetic and moral education of students; foster a culture of readership.
Equipment : textbook, text of the poem "Dead Souls", portraits of the writer by F.A. Moller (1840,1841), A.A. Ivanov (1841), exhibition of books, illustrative material on the topic of the lesson.
Lesson type: lesson - analysis artwork
Predicted results: students know theoretical and literary definitions of the genre features of the poem, about the idea, the history of creation, the features of the genre and composition, the meaning of the name of the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls., participate in a conversation, develop their own point of view on a work of art in accordance with the author's position and historical era.
During the classes
I. Organizational stage
II. Updating of basic knowledge
Conversation "Remembering what was learned"
What can you say about the work of N.V. Gogol, based on those works with which you are familiar?
What was the name of the beekeeper on whose behalf the story is being told in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka?
In which theater was the comedy "The Inspector General" first staged?
Who owns the words said after the first performance of the "Inspector": "Well, a play! Everyone got it, but I got it the most!”
III. Motivation for learning activities
Not a single work of Russian literature has given rise to such contradictory interpretations as Dead Souls. And in the whirlwind of conjectures, bewilderment, ridicule and outright mockery that arose immediately after the publication of the book (1842) and resulted in a series of fierce discussions in the pages of the Russian press, in secular drawing rooms and literary salons, perhaps the ill-fated the word "poem".
Informing Gogol in the autumn of 1842 about the impression Dead Souls made on Moscow society, K. S. Aksakov wrote: “Some say that Dead Souls is a poem, that they understand the meaning of this title; others see this as a mockery, completely in the spirit of Gogol: here you go, squabble over this word. “Great is the dignity of a work of art when it can elude any one-sided view,” Herzen wrote about Dead Souls.
It must be admitted that clarity on this issue has not been achieved to this day. This work is a feasible contribution to the discussion of the artistic nature of Gogol's work. The word "poem", with which its title begins, partly clarifies the angle from which this work will be considered here, but the book was written, of course, not with the aim of proving that "Dead Souls" is a poem, and not something something else. For this, first of all, the range of those meanings that the word
Gogol consciously built his work on the basis of a long "peer" into it and only a gradual comprehension. “... the book was written for a long time: it is necessary that they give the labor to peer into it for a long time,” he declared in 1843 (XII, 144). And in 1845, he claimed that the subject of Dead Souls was "still a mystery," about which "not a single soul from the readers guessed" (XII, 504). Therefore, taking on Dead Souls, you need to know how to read them. School, head-on, so to speak, reading ignores Gogol's warning, it deals only with what is said in "open text", and therefore the whole depth of the poetic originality of the book is not fully disclosed. On the other hand, the approach to "Dead Souls" as a "book with a secret" opens the way to subjectivism, sometimes leading to anecdotal results. Even such a brilliant study as Andrei Bely's book The Mastery of Gogol, published in 1934 and not free from vulgar sociological simplifications, sins with subjectivism. However, it contains a thesis that seems to be key for the student of Dead Souls:
“To analyze the plot of Dead Souls means: bypassing the fiction of the plot, to feel the little things that have absorbed both the plot and the plot<...>There is no plot without details in Dead Souls: it must be squeezed out of them; it is necessary to study the counterpoint of all the strokes that make up the picture of the first volume. In other words: the main thing in the content of the poem does not coincide with what looks like the main thing in the plot. The latter serves only as an excuse to say something immeasurably more important. But this important thing must be able to recognize in the figurative fabric of the work, where it is hidden under the guise of "trifles".
Let's try to understand the uniqueness of Gogol's creative individuality, let's try to touch one of the most original monuments of Russian and world literature.
IV . Work on the topic of the lesson
Practical work with portraits of N.V. Gogol (placed on the board)
Teacher: Let's pay attention to the portraits of N.V. Gogol. What special things did you notice about what properties of the human soul can be said by looking at these portraits? Compare your impressions with the memories of contemporaries about the appearance of N.V. Gogol. (Handout)
Gogol's outward appearance was then completely different and unfavorable for him: a crest on his head, smoothly trimmed temples, shaved mustaches and chin, large and heavily starched collars gave a completely different physiognomy to his face: it seemed to us that there was something Khokhlatsky and roguish in him . In Gogol's dress, there was a noticeable pretension to panache. I remember that he was wearing a motley light waistcoat with a large chain. (S.T. Aksakov. The story of my acquaintance with Gogol)
2. Listening to messages about the idea, history of creation, features of the genre and composition, the meaning of the title of the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls." (Students write theses)
a) The idea, the history of the creation of the poem "Dead Souls".
Each artist has a creation, which he considers the main work of his life, in which he has invested his most cherished, innermost thoughts, all his heart.
For Gogol, “Dead Souls” became such a matter of life. His writing biography lasted 23 years, 17 of them were devoted to work on the poem. Gogol's development proceeded unusually quickly and intensively: only 3-4 years passed between the first cycle of his stories "Evenings on a Farm..." and "Dead Souls".
The beginning of work on the poem dates back to the middle of 1835. On October 7, 1835, the writer informed Pushkin (Gogol owes the idea of the poem to Pushkin, who had long persuaded him to write a great epic work) that 3 chapters had already been written. But the thing did not capture Gogol at that time.
He took up Dead Souls for real after The Inspector General, abroad, in Italy. He rewrites chapters anew, endlessly reworks pages.
The poem was conceived as a work consisting of 3 parts (similar to Dante's Divine Comedy). Heroes, therefore, had to go through hell, purgatory, paradise. These three hypostases corresponded to the three parts of Dead Souls.
The first volume seemed to Gogol "a porch to a palace of unparalleled beauty." The whole meaning of his work is in the words from the 2nd volume: “Where is the one who, in the native language of the Russian soul of our soul, would be able to tell us this almighty word: forward ?., who ... could direct us to a high life ? "With one magical wave" to destroy the terrible obsession, to help Russia "wake up" - these words are often found in Gogol's letters.
He was inspired by the desire to overcome the evil that filled modern life, to transform his heroes, to give readers the path of ascent to good. He hoped that it was possible to raise Russia without bloody upheavals, without breaking the social order, only by the moral perfection of man.
That is why he sought to evoke disgust for vulgarity and worthlessness in Volume 1, and then to show living virtuous people so that they become role models. Then a miracle will happen. But the miracle didn't happen.The second volume did not work out, and Gogol did not approach the third one.
Having started work on the poem, he was convinced that it should play some special role in the fate of Russia and thereby glorify the author. In June 1836, he wrote to Zhukovsky: “If I make this creation the way it needs to be done, then ... what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it! This will be my first decent thing that will bear my name.
Gogol is so carried away by the new composition that everything written earlier seems to him a trifle. (And these are “Evenings on a Farm ...”, “Mirgorod”, “Petersburg Tales” and “Inspector General”.)
b) About the genre of Dead Souls.
The vast artistic experience gained in the process of working on "Evenings ...", "Mirgorod", "Petersburg Tales" and "The Government Inspector", gave him the opportunity to create a brilliant poem.
In a letter to Pushkin from abroad, Gogol said that "the plot stretched out into a long novel." At the same time, another word slips through - “poem”, already in November 1836 he tells Zhukovsky: “Every morning ... I wrote 3 pages into my poem.” In another letter: "The thing ... does not look like a story or a novel, long, long, in several volumes, its name is DEAD SOULS - that's all you need to know about it for the time being." Later, Gogol more and more confidently says that this is a POEM, but not in the traditional sense of the word.
It is known that Gogol developed the theory of new genres in the Educational Book of Literature for Russian Youth. In it, in addition to the epic and the novel as the most important types of narrative literature, he singled out the "smaller kind of epic" (the middle between the novel and the epic).
The main signs of this SMALL EPIC are the depiction of the spiritual world of a private person, the story of his adventures, which make it possible to reveal a picture of the mores of the time, the writer's ability to draw a "statistically grasped picture of the shortcomings, abuses, vices" of the era. This phrase emphasizes the most important feature of the "lesser kind of epic" - accusatory orientation. Subsequently, Gogol insisted that his work was a POEM.
The words of Leo Tolstoy are known: “... every great artist must create his own forms. If the content of a work of art can be infinitely varied, so can their form. And about the “form” of Dead Souls, Tolstoy said: “What is this? Not a novel, not a short story. Something completely original."
Indeed, "Dead Souls" formed a kind of genre structure, previously unknown either in Russian or in world literature.
By December 1841, volume 1 of the book was ready for publication and submitted to the Moscow Censorship Committee, where it met with a hostile attitude. Gogol took the book and sent it to St. Petersburg, where, thanks to the efforts of friends, after long delays, demands for an amendment to 36 places and The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, in addition to changing the title, censorship allowed the book to be printed.
The name "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls" was proposed. On May 21, 1842, the poem went out of print.
c) About the history of the 2nd volume.
Why did Gogol burn volume 2? And he did it twice: in 1845 and 1852. It is probably impossible to give an exact answer to this question. One thing is clear - this was not the decision of a madman. A convincing and comprehensive, prophetic word did not work out, as Gogol believed, positive heroes were not given to him because of personal imperfection.
Therefore, he refused not only to continue working, but also from life (he refused to take food, medicine).
d) about the plot.
The core of the plot of "Dead Souls" is Chichikov's adventure. It only seemed incredible, in fact it was reliable in every smallest detail. Reality itself created the conditions for such adventures. Dead peasants, for whom the landowner had to pay tax to the treasury, were a burden for him. Naturally, the landowners dreamed of getting rid of the dead souls. If some of these "souls" were a burden, then others, with the help of fraudulent transactions, sought to benefit. Pledge them to the Board of Trustees at interest. In this way, it was possible to get a cash loan to buy land and become a landowner. This scam was not invented by Gogol, but taken from life.
e) Composition.
The composition of the poem is unusual. The narrative is built as a story of Chichikov's adventures. This made it possible to travel with the hero "all the corners and nooks and crannies of the Russian province." Chichikov is at the center of the plot and all events. The images of the landlords are almost not related to each other compositionally: they do not communicate with each other, each is revealed mainly in his relationship with Chichikov. Nevertheless, the poem cannot be considered as a cycle of short stories. It is enough to put any chapter in the wrong place, and the composition is loosened.
We get to know the city officials more thoroughly after the chapters devoted to the landowners. And this process of personality degradation is completed by Chichikov - dexterous, cunning, dodgy; he seemed to Gogol the most terrible. Here is the meaning of the composition of "Dead Souls" in brief.
But "Dead Souls" is not a novel, but a poem or a novel-poem. This is determined by both the composition and the emotional, lyrical tone of the work. There are no main and secondary characters in the usual sense of these words. The character who speaks a few words plays an equally important role in the structure of the work. In Dead Souls, almost every character is an indispensable hero.
For example, in Chapter 1 we meet two men who begin to talk about whether the wheel of the Chichikov britzka will reach Moscow or Kazan. They don't care about the visitor. He won’t reach Kazan, one argues, but he’ll probably reach Moscow, the other answers.
So, the provincial city is not far from Moscow! But most importantly, the crew of our hero has just entered the city, and the shrewd men are talking about how far they will go from here. The text is filled with such scenes and characters, and this creates a certain emotional atmosphere.
Let the reader not expect adventurous adventures from the heroes, the stories told will be everyday and ordinary.
Already at the beginning of the poem, we feel Gogol's ironic mustache to the reader, who is waiting for a romantic, mysterious beginning.
The narrative begins without the exposition traditional for Russian prose of the 30s and 40s of the 19th century - businesslike and energetic: we don’t know how Chichikov came to the idea of buying dead souls, we don’t know his past life either (about all this in the last, 11th chapter).
Such a narrative was important for Gogol - most of the characters in the poem are static, which means that it was necessary to strengthen the internal dynamics of the plot. (This is an explanation of why the main character's story is given at the end of volume 1.)
f) The meaning of the title of the poem
The title of the work "Dead Souls" is ambiguous. Gogol, as you know, conceived a three-part work by analogy with Dante's Divine Comedy. The first volume is Hell, that is, the abode of dead souls.
Secondly, the plot of the work is connected with this. In the 19th century, dead peasants were called "dead souls". In the poem, Chichikov buys documents for dead peasants, and then sells them to the Board of Trustees. Dead souls in the documents were listed as alive, and Chichikov received a considerable amount for this.
Thirdly, the title emphasizes an acute social problem. The fact is that at that time there were a great many sellers and buyers of dead souls, this was not controlled and not punished by the authorities. The treasury was empty, and enterprising swindlers were making a fortune. The censorship urged Gogol to change the title of the poem to "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls", shifting the focus on Chichikov's personality, and not on an acute social problem.
Perhaps Chichikov's idea will seem strange to some, but it all comes down to the fact that there is no difference between the dead and the living. Both are on sale. Both dead peasants and landowners who agreed to sell documents for a certain fee. A person completely loses his human shape and becomes a commodity, and his whole essence is reduced to a piece of paper, which indicates whether you are alive or not. It turns out that the soul is mortal, which contradicts the main postulate of Christianity. The world becomes soulless, devoid of religion and any moral and ethical guidelines. Such a world is described epic. The lyrical component lies in the description of nature and the spiritual world.
3. Conversation to identify the primary perception of the read work.
Which pages of Dead Souls made you laugh, and which ones made you bitter?
Which of the heroes of "Dead Souls" seems harmless to you and who is the most terrible?
Whom did you sympathize with while reading the poem? What questions do you have while reading?
4. Collective work on the compilation of the table “Composition of the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"
“The composition of the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls
| First chapter | "Introduction" to the poem, a sketch of everything that will be developed later by the author (Chichikov's arrival in the provincial city No. No., meeting with officials, preparing the ground for an adventure) |
| Second to sixth chapters | Depiction of the life of Russian landowners |
| seventh to tenth chapters | The image of the provincial city, within its limits, the characteristic of the owner of the estates is completed, but the central place is given to the image of the world of officials. |
| Eleventh chapter | The story of the life of the hero of the poem - Chichikov |
V . Reflection. Summing up the lesson
Generalizing word of the teacher
The vast artistic experience gained in the process of working on "Evenings ...", "Mirgorod", "Petersburg Tales" and "The Government Inspector" made it possible for N.V. Gogol to create a brilliant poem. In a letter to Pushkin because of the
VI . Homework.
2. Prepare citation material for the images of Manilov and Korobochka.
The title of N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" reflects the main idea of the work. If we take the title of the poem literally, then we can see that it contains the essence of Chichikov's scam: Chichikov bought the souls of dead peasants.
But in fact, the title contains a deeper meaning, reflecting the author's intention of the first volume of Dead Souls. There is an opinion that Gogol planned to create "Dead Souls" by analogy with Dante's "Divine Comedy", which consists of three parts: "Hell", "Purgatory", "Paradise". They had to correspond to the three volumes conceived by N.V. Gogol. In the first volume, N.V. Gogol wanted to show the terrible Russian reality, to recreate the "hell" of modern life, in the second and third volumes - the spiritual upsurge of Russia.
In himself, N.V. Gogol saw a writer-preacher who, painting a picture of the revival of Russia, brings it out of the crisis. When publishing Dead Souls, N.V. Gogol himself drew the title page. He drew a carriage, which symbolizes the movement of Russia forward, and around - skulls, which symbolize the dead souls of living people. It was very important for Gogol that the book should come out with this title page.
The world of "Dead Souls" is divided into two worlds: the real world, where the main character is Chichikov, and the ideal world of lyrical digressions, in which the main character is N.V. Gogol himself.
Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, the prosecutor - these are typical representatives of the real world. Throughout the poem, their character does not change: for example, "Nozdryov at thirty-five was the same as at eighteen and twenty." The author constantly emphasizes the callousness and heartlessness of his characters. Sobakevich “didn’t have a soul at all, or he did have one, but not at all where it should, but, like the immortal Koshchei, somewhere beyond the mountains and covered with such a thick shell that everything that didn’t toss and turn at the bottom did not produced absolutely no shock on the surface. All the officials in the city have the same frozen souls without the slightest development. N.V. Gogol describes officials with malicious irony.
At first we see that life in the city is in full swing, but in reality it is just a senseless fuss. In the real world of the poem, a dead soul is a common occurrence. For these people, the soul is just what distinguishes a living person from a dead one. After the prosecutor’s death, everyone guessed that he “had definitely a soul” only when “only a soulless body” remained of him.
The title of the poem is a symbol of the life of the county town N. and the county town K, in turn, symbolizes the whole of Russia. NV Gogol wants to show that Russia is in crisis, that people's souls have turned to stone and died.
In an ideal world, however, there is a living soul of the narrator, and therefore it is N.V. Gogol who can notice all the vileness of the life of a sunken city. In one of the lyrical digressions, the souls of the peasants come to life when Chichikov, reading the list of the dead, resurrects them in his imagination. N.V. Gogol contrasts these living souls of peasant heroes from the ideal world with real peasants, completely stupid and weak, such as, for example, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay.
In the real world of "Dead Souls" there are only two heroes who have a truly living soul, these are Chichikov and Plyushkin.
The image of Plyushkin differs from the images of other residents of the city. In the poem, Gogol highlights the chapter with Plyushkin, it is located exactly in the middle. The chapter begins and ends with lyrical digressions, which has never happened when describing other landowners. This shows that the chapter is really important. It can be said that this chapter is completely out of the general plan. When Chichikov came to other officials to buy dead souls, everything was the same: Chichikov looked at the house, then bought the peasants, dined and left. But the chapter with Plyushkin, as it were, interrupts this monotonous chain. Only one resident of the city, Plyushkin, shows the story of his life, that is, before us is not just a person with a frozen soul, but we see how he reached such a state. Plyushkin's story is the tragedy of his life. Gradually, from each blow of fate, his soul hardened. But did his soul die to the end? At the mention of the name of his comrade, Plyushkin's face "slid some kind of warm ray, expressed not a feeling, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling." This means that something alive remained in Plyushkin, that his soul did not freeze, did not ossify at all. Plyushkin's eyes were also alive. The sixth chapter contains a detailed description of Plyushkin's garden, overgrown, neglected, but still alive. The garden is a kind of metaphor for Plyushkin's soul. Only Plyushkin has two churches on his estate. Of all the landowners, only Plyushkin delivers a diatribe monologue after Chichikov's departure. All this allows us to conclude that Plyushkin's soul has not completely turned to stone.
The second hero of the real world who has a living soul is Chichikov. His name is Paul, and this is the name of the apostle who experienced a spiritual upheaval. So Chichikov in the second volume was supposed to become an apostle, to revive the souls of people, to guide them on the true path. And already in the first volume there is a hint of this. Gogol trusts Chichikov to tell about the former heroes and by this, as it were, resurrect the peasants.
The ideal world of "Dead Souls", which appears before readers in lyrical digressions, is the exact opposite of the real world. In an ideal world, there are not and cannot be dead souls, since there are no manilovs, dogs, prosecutors. For the world of lyrical digressions, the soul is immortal, since it is the embodiment of the divine principle of man.
Thus, in the first volume of "Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol depicts all the negative aspects of Russian reality. The writer reveals to people that their souls have become dead, and, pointing out the vices of people, thereby returns their souls to life.
The title of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is ambiguous. Undoubtedly, the influence on the poem of the Divine Comedy by Dante. The name "Dead Souls" ideologically echoes the name of the first part of Dante's poem - "Hell".
The very plot of the work is connected with the “dead souls”: Chichikov buys up the “souls” of the dead peasants in order, having issued a bill of sale, to pledge the purchased peasants already as living ones to the board of trustees and receive a tidy sum for them.
The concept of "dead soul" is associated with the social orientation of the work. Chichikov's idea is ordinary and fantastic at the same time. It is common because the purchase of peasants was an everyday affair, but fantastic, because those who, according to Chichikov, "left one sound that is not tangible by the senses, are sold and bought." No one is outraged by this deal, the most incredulous are only mildly surprised. “Never before has it happened to sell ... the dead. I would have given up the living ones, here in the third year to the archpriest of two girls, one hundred rubles each, ”says Korobochka. In reality, a person becomes a commodity, where paper replaces people.
Gradually, the content of the concept of "dead soul" also changes. Abakum Dyrov, Stepan Probka, Mikhey the carriage maker and other deceased peasants bought by Chichikov are not perceived as "dead souls": they are shown as bright, original, talented people. This cannot be attributed to their owners, who turn out to be "dead souls" in the true sense of the word.
But "dead souls" are not only landowners and officials: they are "irrequitedly dead inhabitants", terrible "by the motionless cold of their souls and the barren desert of their hearts." Any person can turn into Manilov and Sobakevich if "an insignificant passion for something small" grows in him, forcing him to "forget great and holy duties and see the great and holy in insignificant trinkets." “Nozdryov will not be out of the world for a long time. He is everywhere between us and, perhaps, only walks in a different caftan. It is no coincidence that the portrait of each landowner is accompanied by a psychological commentary that reveals its universal meaning. In the eleventh chapter, Gogol invites the reader not only to laugh at Chichikov and other characters, but “to deepen this heavy inquiry into his own soul: “Isn’t there some part of Chichikov in me too?” Thus, the title of the poem is very capacious and multifaceted.
For the "ideal" world, the soul is immortal, for it is the embodiment of the divine principle in man.
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Pushkin and Dostoevsky stood at the origins of a peculiar trend in the depiction of space and time: the combination within a work of art of concrete and abstract spaces, their mutual "flow" and interaction. At the same time, a specific place of action is given a symbolic meaning and a high degree of generalization. In this case, the concrete space becomes a universal model.
This is what happens in Dead Souls, when the real troika, on which Chichikov was riding, suddenly turns into an abstract troika, which becomes a symbol of Russia on its way to perfection.
10. Analyze one of the episodes of the poem "Dead Souls" ("Chichikov at Sobakevich", "Chichikov at Plyushkin", "Chichikov at Korobochka")
Chichikov at Korobochka
Chichikov's appearance at Korobochka takes place at night, and Chichikov does not even have time to properly look around. However, Gogol enters with the author's remark and popularly explains what kind of landowner Korobochka was. He immediately characterizes her as tight-fisted and over-thrifty, constantly complaining about everything, but slowly stuffing “colorful bags” with money and keeping old trash “just in case”, which will never be presented due to her extreme caution and, as a result, will pass to someone spiritually. testament. The author deliberately brings together such incompatible words: "spiritual testament" and "old coat", showing his ironic attitude towards this type of people.
In connection with Chichikov's request, Korobochka asked herself the main question - how not to sell too cheap. Interestingly, such an object as a dead person is easily accepted by her as a commodity, and her persistence and doubts about the "unusual enterprise" is mostly a desire to gain more. It combines a mask and a real face. A real person may be surprised to hear about Chichikov's proposal, and the mask will immediately take advantage of this surprise and wrap it up for practical use - as she understands it.
It is characteristic that Korobochka's overthrift and her many fears make her do irrational acts, and if Chichikov had not had time to figure out her character and had not promised her to buy other, ordinary goods for the treasury in the future, she would never have sold her soul.
Any novelty causes unconscious fear in such people.
Chichikov at Sobakevich's
“Sobakevich reacted quite practically to the request of Chichikov. The nature of the "fist" was reflected in the way he led the bargain. At first he asked for an unthinkable price (“one hundred rubles apiece”), then slowly, with great reluctance, he began to slow down, but in such a way that he nevertheless received more from Chichikov than any other (“Two and a half tore off for a dead soul, damn fist !").
However, Sobakevich's attitude to the strange enterprise is not limited to practicality. He is the only landowner who sees specific people behind the names of the dead, who speaks of them with an undisguised feeling of admiration: “Milushkin, bricklayer! could put the stove in any house. Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: what pierces with an awl, then boots, and thanks to boots ... And Eremey Sorokoplyokhin! Yes, this peasant alone will stand for everyone, he traded in Moscow, he brought one quitrent for five hundred rubles. What a people! No reminders by Chichikov that "after all, these are all dead people" can not bring Sobakevich back to reality: He continues to talk about the dead as if they were alive. At first, you might think that he is trying to confuse the buyer, he is inflating the price of the goods, he is cheating, he is playing. However, Sobakevich enters this game with all his feelings. He is really pleased to remember Milushkin or Telyatnikov (as a kulak master, he appreciates their skill). The line between the real and the illusory is blurred: with his "dead" Sobakevich is ready to beat the "living" - "... which of these people who are now considered living? What are these people? flies, not people.
12. Consider illustrations for Gogol's works. Which of them seem to you especially close to the author's description of the portraits of heroes?
An excellent illustrator of "Dead Souls" was the artist P. Boklevsky.
13. Why was Gogol unable to complete Dead Souls? Give a detailed answer-reasoning.
The poem "Dead Souls" was closely connected with Gogol's religious and moral quest (on this see the answer to the 4th question).
The first time Gogol, in a state of sharp exacerbation of his illness, burned the manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls in the summer of 1845. Gogol admitted that he himself set fire to "five years of work, carried out with such painful tension, where every line was shocked, where there was a lot of what made up my best thoughts and occupied my soul."
Gogol believed that the second volume was a failure, but in order for him to clearly see what this book should be, it is necessary to burn what has already been written so that there is not a single clue and hope to repeat what has already been done:
“As soon as the flames carried away the last pages of my book, its content suddenly rose again in a purified and bright form, like a phoenix from a fire.”
This was followed by another five years of hard work. And on the first day of 1852, Gogol informs his friends that the second volume is "completely finished."
But in the last days of January, menacing symptoms began to appear in Gogol's moral disposition and health. The death of his long-time good friend E. M. Khomyakova made a depressing impression on him, and Gogol was seized by the fear of death.
Soon Archpriest Matvey Konstantinovsky arrived in Moscow, who had a great influence on Gogol and persuaded him to strictly and rigorously fulfill the gospel covenants (as he understood them). Matvey Konstantinovsky inspired Gogol with the idea of destroying some of the chapters of the poem, allegedly due to their inaccuracy (the archpriest especially did not like the chapters where he himself was taken out) and believed that the poem could have a harmful effect on readers. Gogol might have considered that the second volume remained unconvincing. That he did not cope with the main task of his life.
Gogol's condition deteriorated sharply: he has incomprehensible stomach pains, weakness, apathy, and a complete disgust for food.
On February 7, Gogol confesses and takes communion, burns the manuscript on the night of February 11-12, and dies on the morning of February 21.
1. What is the overall intent of Dead Souls?
Gogol, thinking long and hard about the purpose of his creation, came to the conclusion that his goal was to show the whole of Rus' with its inherent contradictory features, the true Russian person in its entirety, with the versatility of national characters and characteristics. The writer wanted to reveal to us all the hidden corners of the Russian soul, eating up the shortcomings and hidden virtues of a Russian person from the inside, surrounded by a daily web of trifles, deeds and events. Gogol, thinking about his future work, begins to feel even missionary power in himself: he burns with a desire to help his fatherland by awakening the “dead”, asleep soul of a Russian person with the best medicine - cleansing laughter. The poem was intended as a revealing, saving tool for "dormant" Russia, Gogol believed that it was his duty, his opportunity to be as useful in his writing as any ordinary civil servant is useful to the fatherland. Nikolai Vasilyevich intended to create a grandiose, comprehensive work, consisting of three interrelated and following one from the other parts. They symbolized Russia's unique path from "lethargy" to awareness, awakening, purification and rapid moral self-development.
Thus, we can say that the idea of the poem "Dead Souls" was the broadest in its scope of characters, characters, ideas, events and phenomena of complex Russian life.
2. What conflicting principles of plot and composition formed the basis of the poem?
The poem "Dead Souls" seems contradictory already in terms of the genre of the work designated by the author. After all, as we know from the definition, a poem is a genre of literature that is distinguished by its poetic form. It turns out that Gogol pushes the existing genre boundaries and creates, as we now call it, a poem in prose. Why did this happen? The answer lies in yet another contradiction: reflecting on his creation, the writer firmly held on to the idea of creating an incredibly large-scale, universal work, wanted to liken it, equate it to an epic, drawing an analogy between such huge works as Dante's Divine Comedy and Homer's poems. And the implementation of all these thoughts in prose was possible only thanks to numerous lyrical digressions in the course of the narrative, reminding the reader of the grandeur of the idea, of its further development along an as yet unknown, but great path.
And, finally, one of the main plot and compositional contradictions is the possibility of the very realization of all Gogol's ideas. The writer literally dreamed of creating the strongest work in terms of impact on all readers. In it, he wanted to clearly and accurately show the degradation, stagnation, awakening and setting on the path of the true vicious Russian souls. However, he did not want to simply present to the world the artistic ideal that arose in his head. On the contrary, with all his strength and genius, he tried to draw a living person, as if standing next to us, tangible and really existing. The writer wanted to literally embody a person, to breathe a living spirit into him. And this tragically contradicted the actual implementation: such a task turned out to be not only beyond Gogol's strength, but also beyond the time allotted to the creator himself.
3. Is there a contradiction in the combination "dead souls"? What meaning does this combination hide?
The contradiction in this phrase is obvious: after all, this is a literary oxymoron (the same, for example, “living corpse”, “sad joy”, etc.). But, turning to the poem itself, we discover other meanings.
Firstly, "dead souls" are simply dead serfs, the "hunt" for which is the main task of Chichikov to achieve his personal well-being.
But here, and secondly, another meaning is revealed, which is more important for the ideological component of the work. "Dead souls" are the "rotten", vicious souls of that landlord and bureaucratic circle in which Chichikov rotates. These souls have forgotten what real life is, full of pure, noble feelings and following human duty. Outwardly, all these people seem to be alive, they talk, walk, eat, etc. But their inner content, spiritual filling is dead, it will either forever sink into oblivion, or with great effort and suffering it can be reborn.
Thirdly, there is another hidden meaning of the phrase. It is a religious and philosophical idea. According to Christian teaching, the human soul cannot be dead by definition, it is always alive, only the body can die.
It turns out that Gogol enhances the meaning of rebirth, renewal of the "dirty" soul, likening it to simple human flesh.
Thus, we can say that even such a short and capacious title of the poem helps the writer to convey and reveal a huge number of ideas and topics displayed in the work.
4. How is the idea of "Dead Souls" connected with Gogol's religious and moral quest?
The religious and moral searches of the writer are directly related to the idea of "Dead Souls". We can say that the whole work is built on religious, moral and philosophical ideas.
Nikolai Vasilyevich sought to show in the poem the rebirth of "sinners" into "righteous ones". He closely connected the moral re-education and self-education of the protagonist with Christian dogma. Indeed, to live in a Christian way is to live according to the divine commandments, in the observance of which the best features of a person are displayed. To believe in the one God, to be respectful, not to envy, not to steal or steal, to be respectful and generally righteous in essence - this is the religious and moral ideal that Gogol wanted to embody in the work. He believed that the transformation of a thoroughly vicious person is still possible with the help of laughter at oneself, purifying suffering, and then accepting following the truth. Moreover, the writer believed that such an example of the reincarnation of a Russian person, and soon all of Russia, could serve as a "beacon" for other nations and even for the whole world. It is quite possible that he dreamed of an unattainable ideal - a universal, universal rebirth from the abyss of sins and the establishment of righteousness.
Gogol closely connected his searches with the idea of the poem, literally weaving the entire “canvas” of the work out of these thoughts.
5. Why do some characters in the poem have biographies and others do not?
The poem shows the characters of many landowners, describes their way of life, passions, customs. But only two people have a backstory, a story about their past. This is Plyushkin and Chichikov.
The fact is that such personalities as Korobochka, Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdryov and others are shown brightly, “in all their glory” and very believable, we can fully form our impression of them and predict their future fate. These characters are representatives of the "stagnation" of the human essence, they are what they are, with all their vices and imperfections, and they will not become different.
As for Chichikov and Plyushkin, one of the facets of the great intention of the writer is revealed here. These two heroes, according to the author, are still capable of development, renewal of their souls. Therefore, both Plyushkin and Chichikov have a biography. Gogol wanted to lead the reader along the entire line of their life, to show a complete picture of the formation of their character, and then the transformation and new formation of characters in subsequent volumes. After all, in fact, it is impossible to understand the whole essence of a person until you get acquainted with his whole history, with all his life vicissitudes, and Gogol was well aware of this.
Based on the foregoing, it is obvious that the writer built any detail of his narrative not by chance, but according to certain principles that help to realize his plan most fully.
