Short essay: Dead souls, Plyushkin's image for grade 9
According to Gogol's plan, the poem was conceived in three parts in the manner of Dante's Divine Comedy. "Dead Souls" is "Hell", where all the characters, including the main one, are vicious in their own way. First of all, of course, these are the very notorious landowners who are hierarchically arranged from the lightest vices to one of the worst. “My heroes follow one after another, one more vulgar than the other,” the author himself confirms this idea. And the most lost of them, according to Gogol, is Stepan Plyushkin, a selfish miser, "a hole in the body of mankind", one of the most vivid and memorable images in the poem, described by the author with scrupulous accuracy.
Like other landowners, the description of the character of the hero begins with his estate. In the case of Plyushkin, this is doubly important, since Gogol paints his portrait through the details of the interior. This technique operates on the principle of “what is outside, so is inside”, since, for example, a neat person will look decent himself and keep his household in the same way. But with Plyushkin, everything is exactly the opposite. Chichikov, approaching his village, immediately noticed "some special dilapidation on all the village buildings", and later saw the manor's house itself, which "now seemed even sadder" close up. Such a landscape already suggests the character and social position of the landowner: careless, disorderly and poor. But Plyushkin had a lot of money, souls and supplies, all his poverty comes from within. This is the meanest miser in all of Russian literature, whose name has become a household name. As soon as Chichikov enters the "sad" house, we only become stronger in these thoughts. “He stepped into the dark, wide porch, from which it blew cold, like from a cellar,” the comparison is very revealing, because the cellar has long been called the place where various utensils are stored, which are brought into the house as needed. Plyushkin, on the other hand, sees the need for everything: “It seemed as if the floors were being washed in the house and all the furniture had been piled up here for a while. On one table there was even a broken chair, and next to it was a clock with a stopped pendulum, to which the spider had already attached a web.
Later, Gogol explains that this heap of unnecessary things in the house is caused by the manic gathering of the landowner. Many people have a habit of not throwing away old things or acquiring unnecessary ones in case they “suddenly come in handy”, but here this feature is elevated by the author into a grotesque form. This is not even an attempt to get rich, but a habit of accumulation. The economy became unprofitable precisely because of this trait of Plyushkin's character: hay and bread were not used anywhere, which is why they rotted in the barns, the flour in the cellars had long turned into stone. The landowner did not use what he had accumulated, he simply saved up, this became his meaning of life.
But before that he lived in a completely different way: he was married, had children, a profitable farm. This "wise stinginess" was ordinary frugality. Plyushkin was simply created for business, he knew exactly how to increase wealth, and he liked to do this: “Mills, felters moved, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills worked; everywhere the keen eye of the owner entered into everything and, like an industrious spider, he ran troublesomely, but quickly, along all ends of his economic web.
While Plyushkin was “alive”, his household “lived” as well. His wife died and "Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy." Everything began to crumble, he began to languish. Many break down before difficult circumstances, and not everyone gets the opportunity to start all over again. And the whole fault of Plyushkin lies in the fact that he had a chance to be re-educated, which he neglected. His runaway daughter came to her father, introduced her to her grandchildren, even gave him a new bathrobe, but he rejected her, wrapping herself even more tightly in her spider cocoon. He drags out his miserable existence: he only annoys his peasants with a large quitrent and does not allow them to live in peace. Such people do not think about neighbors, subordinates and other people who depend on them. Plyushkins are indifferent, stingy, stupid people whose existence is absolutely meaningless. Perhaps that is why Gogol puts him on the last step in his hierarchy of vices. All the other landlords, with their "vulgarity", do not bring so much harm, and this "hole" gapes on the body of mankind and only grows larger with time.
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In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" all the characters have the features of collectiveness and typicality. Each of the landowners whom Chichikov visits with his strange request for the sale and purchase of "dead souls" personifies one of the characteristic images of the landowners of Gogol's modernity. Gogol's poem in terms of describing the characters of the landlords is interesting primarily because Nikolai Vasilyevich was a foreigner in relation to the Russian people, Ukrainian society was closer to him, so Gogol was able to notice the specific character traits and behavior of certain types of people.
Age and appearance of Plushkin
One of the landowners visited by Chichikov is Plyushkin. Until the moment of personal acquaintance, Chichikov already knew something about this landowner - basically it was information on the subject of his stinginess. Chichikov knew that thanks to this trait, Plyushkin's serfs "die like flies", and those who did not die run away from him.
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In the eyes of Chichikov, Plyushkin became an important candidate - he had the opportunity to buy up a lot of "dead souls".
However, Chichikov was not ready to see Plyushkin's estate and get to know him personally - the picture that opened before him plunged him into bewilderment, Plyushkin himself also did not stand out from the general background.
To his horror, Chichikov realized that the person he took for the housekeeper was in fact not the housekeeper, but the landowner Plyushkin himself. Plyushkin could have been taken for anyone, but not for the richest landowner in the county: he was unreasonably thin, his face was slightly elongated and just as terribly thin as his body. His eyes were small and unusually lively for an old man. The chin was very long. His appearance was complemented by a toothless mouth.
In the work of N.V. Gogol "The Overcoat" the theme of the little man is revealed. We invite you to read its summary.
Plyushkin's clothes were absolutely not like clothes, it could hardly even be called that. Plyushkin paid absolutely no attention to his costume - he was worn out to such an extent that his clothes looked like rags. Plyushkin could well have been mistaken for a tramp.
Natural senile processes were added to this appearance - at the time of the story, Plyushkin was about 60 years old.
The problem of the name and the meaning of the surname
Plyushkin's name is never found in the text, it is likely that this was done intentionally. In this way, Gogol emphasizes Plyushkin's detachment, the callousness of his character and the lack of a humanistic principle in the landowner.
In the text, however, there is a point that can help reveal the name of Plyushkin. The landowner from time to time calls his daughter by her patronymic - Stepanovna, this fact gives the right to say that Plyushkin's name was Stepan.
It is unlikely that the name of this character is chosen as a specific symbol. Translated from Greek, Stepan means “crown, diadem” and indicates a constant attribute of the goddess Hera. It is unlikely that this information was decisive in choosing a name, which cannot be said about the hero's surname.
In Russian, the word "plyushkin" is used to nominate a person who is characterized by stinginess and a mania for accumulating raw materials and material base without any purpose.
Marital status of Plushkin
At the time of the story, Plyushkin is a lonely person leading an ascetic lifestyle. He has been a widow for a long time. Once upon a time, Plyushkin's life was different - his wife brought the meaning of life into Plyushkin's being, she stimulated the appearance of positive qualities in him, contributed to the emergence of humanistic qualities. In their marriage, three children were born - two girls and a boy.
At that time, Plyushkin was not at all like a petty miser. He gladly received guests, was a sociable and open person.
Plyushkin was never a spender, but his stinginess had its reasonable limits. His clothes were not new - he usually wore a frock coat, he was noticeably worn, but he looked very decent, he did not even have a single patch on him.
Reasons for changing character
After the death of his wife, Plyushkin completely succumbed to his grief and apathy. Most likely, he did not have a predisposition to communicate with children, he was little interested and fascinated by the process of education, so the motivation to live and be reborn for the sake of children did not work for him.
In the future, he begins to develop a conflict with older children - as a result, they, tired of constant grumbling and deprivation, leave their father's house without his permission. The daughter marries without Plyushkin's blessing, and the son enters military service. Such liberty became the cause of Plyushkin's anger - he curses his children. The son was categorical towards his father - he completely cut off contact with him. The daughter still did not abandon her father, despite such an attitude towards her relatives, she visits the old man from time to time and brings her children to him. Plyushkin does not like to mess with his grandchildren and takes their meetings extremely cool.
Plyushkin's youngest daughter died as a child.
Thus, Plyushkin was left alone in his large estate.
Plushkin's estate
Plyushkin was considered the richest landowner in the county, but Chichikov, who came to his estate, thought it was a joke - Plyushkin's estate was in a dilapidated state - the house had not been renovated for many years. Moss could be seen on the wooden elements of the house, the windows in the house were boarded up - it seemed that no one really lived here.
Plyushkin's house was huge, now it was empty - Plyushkin lived alone in the whole house. Because of its desolation, the house resembled an old castle.
Inside the house was not much different from the outside. Since most of the windows in the house were boarded up, the house was incredibly dark and it was difficult to see anything. The only place where sunlight penetrated was Plyushkin's private rooms.
An incredible mess reigned in Plyushkin's room. It seems that it was never cleaned here - everything was covered in cobwebs and dust. Broken things were scattered all over the place, which Plyushkin did not dare to throw away, because he thought that he might still need them.
Garbage also was not thrown anywhere, but was piled up right there in the room. Plyushkin's desk was no exception - important papers and documents lay mixed with garbage here.
A huge garden grows behind Plyushkin's house. Like everything in the estate, it is in disrepair. No one has cared for the trees for a long time, the garden is overgrown with weeds and small bushes, which are covered with hops, but even in this form the garden is beautiful, it stands out sharply against the background of deserted houses and dilapidated buildings.
Features of Plyushkin's relationship with the serfs
Plyushkin is far from the ideal of a landowner; he behaves rudely and cruelly with his serfs. Sobakevich, talking about his attitude towards serfs, claims that Plyushkin starves his subjects, which significantly increases the death rate among serfs. The appearance of Plyushkin's serfs becomes a confirmation of these words - they are unnecessarily thin, immensely thin.
Not surprisingly, many serfs run away from Plyushkin - life on the run is more attractive.
Sometimes Plyushkin pretends to take care of his serfs - he goes into the kitchen and checks whether they are eating well. However, he does this for a reason - while the control over the quality of food passes, Plyushkin manages to eat heartily. Of course, this trick did not hide from the peasants and became an occasion for discussion.
Plyushkin constantly accuses his serfs of theft and fraud - he believes that the peasants are always trying to rob him. But the situation looks completely different - Plyushkin intimidated his peasants so much that they are afraid to take at least something for themselves without the knowledge of the landowner.
The tragedy of the situation is also created by the fact that Plyushkin's warehouse is bursting with food, almost all of it becomes unusable and then thrown away. Of course, Plyushkin could give the surplus to his serfs, thereby improving living conditions and raising his authority in their eyes, but greed takes over - it is easier for him to throw away unusable things than to do a good deed.
Characteristics of personal qualities
In his old age, Plyushkin became an unpleasant type because of his quarrelsome nature. People began to avoid him, neighbors and friends began to visit less and less often, and then they completely stopped communicating with him.
After the death of his wife, Plyushkin preferred a solitary way of life. He believed that guests are always harmful - instead of doing something really useful, you have to spend time in empty conversations.
By the way, such a position of Plyushkin did not bring the desired results - his estate confidently fell into disrepair until it finally took on the appearance of an abandoned village.
There are only two joys in the life of the old Plyushkin - scandals and the accumulation of finances and raw materials. Sincerely speaking, he gives himself to one and the other with his soul.
Plyushkin surprisingly has the talent to notice any little things and even the most insignificant flaws. In other words, he is overly picky about people. He is unable to express his remarks calmly - basically he shouts and scolds his servants.
Plyushkin is incapable of doing something good. He is a callous and cruel person. He is indifferent to the fate of his children - he lost contact with his son, while his daughter periodically tries to reconcile, but the old man stops these attempts. He believes that they have a selfish goal - the daughter and son-in-law want to get rich at his expense.
Thus, Plyushkin is a most terrible landowner who lives for a definite purpose. In general, he is endowed with negative character traits. The landowner himself does not realize the true results of his actions - he seriously thinks that he is a caring landowner. In fact, he is a tyrant, destroying and destroying the fate of people.
Plyushkin in the poem "Dead Souls": analysis of the hero, image and characteristics
4.6 (92.73%) 11 votesOne of the most striking characters of Gogol, a literary hero, whose name has long become a household name, a character that is remembered by everyone who read "Dead Souls" - the landowner Stepan Plyushkin. His memorable figure closes the gallery of images of the landlords presented by Gogol in the poem. Plyushkin, who gave his name even to an official disease (Plyushkin's syndrome, or pathological hoarding), is in fact a very rich man who has led a vast economy to complete decline, and a huge number of serfs to poverty and a miserable existence.
This fifth and last companion of Chichikov is a vivid example of how dead the human soul can be. Therefore, the title of the poem is very symbolic: it not only directly indicates that we are talking about "dead souls" - as the dead serfs were called, but also about the miserable, devoid of human qualities, devastated souls of landowners and officials.
Characteristics of the hero
("Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)
The reader's acquaintance with the landowner Plyushkin Gogol begins with a description of the surroundings of the estate. Everything testifies to desolation, insufficient funding and the absence of a firm hand from the owner: dilapidated houses with leaky roofs and windows without glass. The sad landscape is enlivened by the master's garden, although neglected, but described in much more positive colors: clean, tidy, filled with air, with a "correct marble sparkling column." However, Plyushkin's dwelling again inspires melancholy, around desolation, despondency and mountains of useless, but extremely necessary rubbish for the old man.
Being the richest landowner in the province (the number of serfs reached 1000), Plyushkin lived in extreme poverty, eating leftovers and dried breadcrumbs, which did not cause him the slightest discomfort. He was extremely suspicious, everyone around seemed to him insidious and unreliable, even his own children. Only the passion for hoarding was important for Plyushkin, he collected everything on the street that came to hand and dragged it into the house.
("Chichikov at Plushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)
Unlike other characters, Plyushkin's life story is given in full. The author introduces the reader to a young landowner, talking about a good family, a beloved wife and three children. Neighbors even came to the zealous owner in order to learn from him. But the wife died, the eldest daughter ran away with the military, the son joined the army, which his father did not approve of, and the youngest daughter also died. And gradually the respected landowner turned into a man whose whole life is subject to hoarding for the sake of the very process of accumulation. All other human feelings, which were not distinguished even earlier by brightness, died out in him completely.
Interestingly, some professors of psychiatry have mentioned that Gogol very clearly and at the same time artistically described a typical case of senile dementia. Others, for example, psychiatrist Ya.F. Kaplan, deny this possibility, saying that Plyushkin's psychopathological features do not show through to a sufficient degree, and Gogol simply illuminated the state of old age that he met everywhere.
The image of the hero in the work
Stepan Plyushkin himself is described as a creature dressed in unkempt rags, resembling a woman from afar, but the stubble on his face nevertheless made it clear that the main character is a representative of the stronger sex. With the general amorphousness of this figure, the writer draws attention to individual features of the faces: a protruding chin, a hooked nose, no teeth, eyes expressing suspicion.
Gogol - the great master of the word - shows us with bright strokes a gradual, but irreversible change in the human personality. The man, in whose eyes the mind shone in previous years, gradually turns into a miserable miser who has lost all the best feelings and emotions. The main goal of the writer is to show how terrible the coming old age can be, how small human weaknesses can turn into pathological features under certain life circumstances.
If the writer wanted to simply portray a pathological miser, he would not go into the details of his youth, a description of the circumstances that led to the current state. The author himself tells us that Stepan Plyushkin is the future of a fiery youth in old age, that unsightly portrait, seeing which, a young man would jump back in horror.
("Peasants near Plushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)
However, Gogol leaves a small chance for this hero too: when the writer conceived the third volume of the work, he planned to leave Plyushkin - the only one of all the landowners he met Chichikov - in an updated, morally revived form. Describing the appearance of the landowner, Nikolai Vasilyevich singles out the old man's eyes separately: "the little eyes have not yet gone out and ran from under high-growing eyebrows like mice ...". And the eyes, as you know, are the mirror of the human soul. In addition, Plyushkin, who seems to have lost all human feelings, suddenly decides to give Chichikov a gold watch. True, this impulse immediately goes out, and the old man decides to enter the clock in the donation, so that after death at least someone will remember him with a kind word.
Thus, if Stepan Plyushkin had not lost his wife, his life could have turned out quite well, and the onset of old age would not have turned into such a deplorable existence. The image of Plyushkin completes the gallery of portraits of degraded landlords and very accurately describes the lowest level that a person can slide into in his lonely old age.
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✪ Plushkin. In Plyushkin's house
✪ Chichikov at Plushkin's
✪ Plushkin. Deal
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Biography of Plushkin:
In his youth he was married, was the father of two daughters and a son. He was the owner of a rich estate. Reputed to be a thrifty owner:
a neighbor came to him to dine, to listen and learn from him housekeeping and wise stinginess. Everything flowed vividly and took place at a measured pace: mills, felters were moving, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills were working; everywhere the keen eye of the owner entered into everything and, like an industrious spider, he ran troublesomely, but quickly, along all ends of his economic web. Too strong feelings were not reflected in his features, but intelligence was visible in his eyes; his speech was permeated with experience and knowledge of the world, and it was pleasant for the guest to listen to him; the friendly and talkative hostess was famous for her hospitality; two pretty daughters came out to meet them, both blond and fresh as roses; the son ran out, a broken boy, and kissed everyone, paying little attention to whether the guest was happy or not happy about this. All the windows in the house were open, the mezzanine was occupied by the apartment of a French teacher, who had a nice shave and was a great shooter: he always brought black grouse or ducks for dinner, and sometimes only sparrow eggs, from which he ordered himself scrambled eggs, because there are more in the whole house nobody ate it. His compatriot, the mentor of two girls, also lived on the mezzanine. The owner himself appeared at the table in a frock coat, although somewhat worn, but neat, the elbows were in order: there was no patch anywhere. But the good mistress died; part of the keys, and with them minor worries, passed to him. Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy. He could not rely on his eldest daughter Alexandra Stepanovna in everything, and he was right, because Alexandra Stepanovna soon ran away with the staff captain, God knows what cavalry regiment, and married him somewhere hastily in the village church, knowing that her father does not like officers due to a strange prejudice, as if all military gamblers and motishki. Her father sent a curse to her on the road, but did not care to pursue. The house became even more empty. In the owner, stinginess began to be more noticeable, his gray hair sparkled in his coarse hair, her faithful friend, helped her develop even more; the French teacher was released because it was time for his son to serve; Madame was driven away, because she turned out to be not without sin in the abduction of Alexandra Stepanovna; the son, being sent to a provincial town in order to find out in the ward, in the opinion of his father, an essential service, decided instead to join the regiment and wrote to his father already in his own determination, asking for money for uniforms; it is quite natural that he received for this what is called shish in the common people. Finally, the last daughter who remained with him in the house died, and the old man found himself alone the watchman, keeper and owner of his wealth. A solitary life has given nourishing food to stinginess, which, as you know, has a ravenous hunger and the more it devours, the more insatiable it becomes; human feelings, which were already not deep in him, grew shallow every minute, and every day something was lost in this worn-out ruin. If it happened at such a moment, as if on purpose to confirm his opinion about the military, that his son lost at cards; he sent him his father's curse from the bottom of his heart and was never interested in knowing whether he existed in the world or not. Every year the windows in his house pretended to be, finally only two remained.<…>every year more and more of the main parts of the household went out of sight, and his petty glance turned to the pieces of paper and feathers that he collected in his room; he became more uncompromising to the buyers who came to take away his household works; the buyers bargained, bargained, and finally abandoned him altogether, saying that he was a demon and not a man; hay and bread rotted, stacks and haystacks turned into clean manure, even plant cabbage on them, flour in the cellars turned into stone, and it was necessary to chop it, it was terrible to touch the cloth, canvas and household materials: they turned into dust. He himself had already forgotten how much he had, and he only remembered where in his closet there was a decanter with the rest of some kind of tincture, on which he himself made a mark so that no one thieves would drink it, and where the feather lay. or wax. Meanwhile, income was collected on the farm as before: the peasant had to bring the same amount of quitrent, every woman had to pay the same amount of nuts, the weaver had to weave the same amount of linen - all this fell into the pantries, and everything became rotten and torn , and he himself turned at last into some kind of tear in humanity. Alexandra Stepanovna once came a couple of times with her little son, trying to see if she could get something; Evidently, life on the march with the staff captain was not as attractive as it had seemed before the wedding. Plyushkin, however, forgave her and even gave his little granddaughter a button to play with, which was lying on the table, but did not give her any money. Another time, Alexandra Stepanovna came with two little ones and brought him an Easter cake for tea and a new dressing gown, because the father had such a dressing gown, which was not only ashamed to look at, but even ashamed. Plyushkin caressed both grandchildren and, placing them one on his right knee and the other on his left, shook them in exactly the same way as if they were riding horses, took the Easter cake and dressing gown, but gave absolutely nothing to his daughter; with that Alexandra Stepanovna left.
Describing the manic greed of his hero, Gogol reports: ... he still walked every day through the streets of his village, looked under the bridges, under the crossbars and everything that came across to him: an old sole, a woman's rag, an iron nail, a clay shard - he dragged everything to himself and put it in the pile that Chichikov noticed in the corner of the room ... after him there was no need to sweep the street: it happened to a passing officer to lose his spur, this spur instantly went into a well-known heap: if a woman ... forgot a bucket, he dragged the bucket away.
The writer gives the following description of the appearance of his unusual hero: his face was nothing special and looked like other thin old men. Only the chin protruded very far forward, and the attention was drawn to the small eyes that ran like mice from under high eyebrows. Much more remarkable was his attire: no means and efforts could have got to the bottom of what his dressing gown was concocted from: the sleeves and upper floors were so greasy and shiny that they looked like yuft, which is used for boots; behind, instead of two, four floors dangled, from which cotton paper climbed in flakes. There was also something tied around his neck that could not be made out: whether it was a stocking, a garter, or an underbelly, but not a tie.
The meeting of the hero Chichikov with Plyushkin is preceded by a description of the devastated village and the dilapidated family estate of Plyushkin: he noticed some special dilapidation(i.e. Chichikov) on all wooden buildings: the log on the huts was dark and old; many roofs blew through like a sieve: on others there was only a ridge at the top and poles on the sides in the form of ribs ... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were stopped up with a rag or zipun ... Parts of the master's house began to show out ... This strange castle looked like some kind of decrepit invalid, long, unreasonably long... The walls of the house slitted bare stucco bars in places... Of the windows, only two were open, the rest were covered with shutters or even boarded up... Green mold had already covered the fence and the gate. Some revival was brought to this sad picture by the “merry garden” - old, overgrown and decayed, leaving behind the estate somewhere in the field.
When the owner of this whole estate, which has fallen into complete decline, appears, Chichikov initially takes him for an old housekeeper - he was dressed so outlandishly, dirty and poorly: Listen, mother, - he said, leaving the britzka - What is the master? ...
Perception:
According to some researchers of the work of N.V. Gogol, the image of this half-mad landowner-hoarder is the most striking and successful in the description of Chichikov's "business partners" in the poem "Dead Souls" and was of the greatest interest to the writer himself. In literary criticism, this unusual character of N.V. Gogol was perceived as a kind of standard of hoarding, greed and penny. The writer himself is undoubtedly interested in the history of the transformation of this educated and intelligent man in his youth into a walking laughing stock even for his own peasants and into a sick, insidious person who refused to support and participate in the fate of his own daughters, son and grandchildren.
In the Russian colloquial language and in the literary tradition, the name "Plyushkin" has become a household name for petty, stingy people, seized with a passion for hoarding unnecessary, and sometimes completely useless things. His behavior, described in the poem by N.V. Gogol, is the most typical manifestation of such a mental illness (mental disorder) as pathological hoarding. In foreign medical literature, a special term has even been introduced - “
Plushkin's image First of all, dilapidation and devastation are striking on the Plyushkin estate. According to Gogol's description, Plyushkin's estate takes on an ominous character, goosebumps involuntarily run down the back. When I read chapter 6, I had the feeling that some kind of disaster had happened at Plyushkin's estate. Desolation, the spirit of death is emphasized by Gogol, and about Plyushkin's room: "It was impossible to say that a living being lived in this room ...". The picture of the “extinct place” is completed by the “castle-giant”, hanging on the main gate, usually “tightly locked”. What can be said about the Landowner Plyushkin? To begin with, even Chichikov, who was a good psychologist, could not distinguish the gender of "some figure", which turned out to be Plyushkin. Plyushkin's story is very sad. “But there was a time when he was a thrifty owner! He was married and a family man, ”the author begins the story of Plyushkin with these words. “Everything flowed lively and took place at a measured pace.” But due to the death of the mistress, Plyushkin became meaner, more suspicious. And so, gradually, relatives and relatives left his house for various reasons. “Lonely life has given nourishing food for stinginess, which, as you know, has a wolfish hunger and the more it devours, the more insatiable it becomes. All the good feelings of Plyushkin were replaced by stinginess, devastation and suspicion. Because of his constant petty theft from his own subjects, almost all the peasants turned their backs on him. Plyushkin had food reserves for more than 2 of his estate, but he kept them under lock and key anyway. All these food supplies have rotted. Even when Chichikov, according to Plyushkin, Practical gives him money just like that, and for the big stingy Plyushkin this should be just a sensation of happiness, he cannot even rejoice well. There was no joy on his face, just a gleam. This shows us Plyushkin's "Dead Soul", because even the tongue does not dare to call it alive.
The image of Chichikov
Each chapter expands our understanding of Chichikov’s capabilities and leads to the idea of his amazing variability: with Manilov he is cloyingly kind, with Korobochka he is petty, persistent and rude, with Nozdryov he is assertive and cowardly, with Sobakevich he bargains cunningly and relentlessly, Plyushkin conquers with his "generosity". In Chichikov's character there is Manilov's love for the phrase, for the "noble" gesture, and the petty stinginess of Korobochka, and the narcissism of Nozdryov, and the rude stinginess, the cold cynicism of Sobakevich, and the hoarding of Plyushkin. It is easy for Chichikov to be a mirror of any of these interlocutors, because he has all the qualities that form the basis of their characters. And this "versatility" of Chichikov, his kinship with the "dead souls of the landowners" makes it possible to make him the main character of the poem. The characterization of Chichikov is given by the author in the first chapter. His portrait is given very vaguely: “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but it is not so that he is too young either. Gogol pays more attention to his manners: he made an excellent impression on all the guests at the governor's party, showed himself to be an experienced socialite, keeping up the conversation on a variety of topics, skillfully flattered the governor, police chief, officials and made the most flattering opinion about himself. Gogol himself tells us that he did not take a “virtuous person” as a hero, he immediately stipulates that his hero is a scoundrel. "Dark and modest is the origin of our hero." The author tells us that his parents were nobles, but pillar or personal - God knows. Chichikov's face did not resemble his parents. As a child, he had no friend or comrade. His father was ill, and the windows of the little “gorenkoka” did not open either in winter or summer. Gogol says about Chichikov: “At the beginning, life looked at him somehow sourly and uncomfortably, through some kind of cloudy, snow-covered window ...” “But in life everything changes quickly and vividly ...” Father brought Pavel to the city and instructed him to go to classes. Of the money that his father gave him, he did not spend a penny, but rather made an increment to them. He learned to speculate from childhood. After leaving the school, he immediately set to work and service. With the help of speculation, he was able to get a promotion from the boss. After the arrival of a new boss, Chichikov moved to another city and began to serve at the customs, which was his dream. “From the instructions he got, by the way, one thing: to petition for the placement of several hundred peasants in the board of trustees.” And then the idea came to his mind to turn one little business, which is discussed in the poem.
