Answer left Guest
Our time is simply overflowing with the Chichikovs." "Chichikov personifies modern businessmen, entrepreneurs who, taking advantage of the disorder in the country, the lack of the slightest control, are trying to benefit from everything that comes their way." "And now the time is convenient, recently there was an epidemic , the people died out, thank God, a lot ... estates are abandoned, they are managed at random, taxes are paid more and more difficult every year. "Referring to this place" Dead Souls ", several ninth-graders wrote that today is the most convenient, favorable time for the current Chichikovs. "Our time is very similar to the time of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol : collapse in the state, political and economic disorder, poverty and misery of the main layers of the state. "" Now in our country the situation is no better than in the time of Chichikov. Taking advantage of the plight of the country, the Chichikovs profit at the expense of other people, thereby finishing off the state. "And therefore, our time is" the time of the rise of the Chichikovs. on other people". Moreover, "now, when abilities and education are little valued, money does a lot." That is why "it is in our time that such people are valued. They know how to please and, most importantly, bosses. "They remember all the same words of Father Chichikov:" And most of all, please teachers and bosses. You will all go into action and get ahead of everyone." One of the main motives that sounds in many works of ninth-graders - Chichikov reflects and expresses not only Gogol's time, but also our time. "If you mentally put Chichikov in the current conditions, then he will not stand out among the same owners and businessmen who flood the Russian market, which is not yet strong, who make a profit through resale and are not a productive force." "Reading and reflecting on the character and behavior of Chichikov, I clearly see the hardships of our time: countless deceptions, scams, frauds and knavery." "Chichikov could pull off such a scam today that his machinations with dead souls would seem like child's play." Moreover. According to many tenth graders, if Chichikov in Gogol's time was a new, unusual phenomenon, then today he is an ordinary and familiar figure. "I think that Chichikov is to some extent a hero of our time." "At the time, he was disgusted and mistrusted by many, but now he would be respected and appreciated." "He lives for money, in order to experience all the joys of life."
The character of Chichikov is somewhere between an exact calculation and a crime. This man of unusually decent appearance is engaged in illegal activities. Chichikov, by and large, steals money from the board of trustees - an organization designed to deal with the problems of socially unprotected citizens. Get Chichikov into the hands of justice - and he is guaranteed hard labor and loss of rights, that is, deprivation of the title of nobility. Following the adventures of Chichikov, you should always remember this. Throughout all eleven chapters of the first volume of "Dead Souls" Pavel Ivanovich, as they say, "walks under the article." And only the complacency and general mental slumber of the people around the economic criminal allow Chichikov to escape punishment for the first time. Chichikov is an excellent entrepreneur. He masterfully completes his transactions, knows how to find the key to each of the business partners. In addition, Pavel Ivanovich brilliantly arranges administrative support for himself, the so-called "roof". Many of the local politicians fall into the scope of his activities. The sellers of dead souls partly understand the illegality of these trading operations, but the temptation to receive money, in fact, makes them Chichikov's accomplices for nothing. Even Gogol's contemporaries noticed that the sale and purchase of dead souls, according to the legislation in force at that time, was impossible. But time has erased these inconsistencies, and we are not without pleasure watching the business activity of Pavel Ivanovich. Probably, many of the readers can envy those simple times when it was so easy to deceive the state - all you need is a good idea, a little money and personal charm, which Chichikov possessed to the fullest. Mentioning the business and human qualities of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, one cannot help but dwell on the modernity of his character. Gogol's contemporaries perceived the protagonist of Dead Souls with ill-concealed disgust. Today Chichikov looks like a quite nice and rather harmless crook. Indeed, Pavel Ivanovich did not hire killers to kill competitors, did not buy the votes of State Duma deputies, did not trade in weapons and drugs, and did not corrupt minors. Today, Chichikov, of course, would have achieved some success in business, but he would never have reached significant heights. Probably, Pavel Ivanovich would lack the cynicism and extreme cruelty that glorified the current officials far beyond the borders of the CIS. Speaking about the character of Pavel Ivanovich, one cannot but say that Gogol intended to make his hero a worthy person.
"Dead Souls" is the main book of N.V. Gogol. Unfortunately, he did not present us with a continuation of this masterpiece. But as he said: “poetry is a pure confession of the soul”, which means that the reader is able to find answers on the pages of the poem.
The work raises many problems, each of them resonates in the main character. Who is the mysterious Chichikov, who broke into the lives of Russian landowners. The author is undoubtedly imbued with love for his hero. From childhood, he notices in him a great mind from a practical side. From early youth, the guy was engaged in "business", never sat idle, tried to build his fortune. But each time he reached the highest point of his dreams, he fell to the bottom with a crash. Is the image of Chichikov relevant today? How many people in our modern society are the prototype of the main character's soul?
Arguing over this issue, I want to draw attention to modern people. With pain in the heart, but we must admit that it has become based on entrepreneurial relationships. Everyone needs something, everyone is looking for ways to get it. In our time, interpersonal relationships began to fade into the background, in their place came profit and stinginess. We can find all this in the literary hero of the poem Dead Souls. The author painted a portrait of a future person, then there were still few like Chichikov, they were just in their infancy. By our time, their number has begun to exceed half, and this really is a problem.
Gogol conceived his hero with the aim of growing in him a highly moral person. It is believed that the changes were to take place throughout all the volumes, and at the end Gogol was supposed to show a completely new hero. But since the continuation of the work was destroyed, we will never know if Chichikov could change.
Gogol did not make his hero only good or bad. He endowed him with such talents as perseverance, striving for a goal, resourcefulness (an idea with dead souls), the ability to find a way out of any existing problem. But to such good qualities, he also adds vices to balance his personality. The vices include - stinginess, greed, lack of strong feelings for anyone. And in fact, for the entire period of the narrative of the poem, the author does not give us the exact question of whether Chichikov is ready to love for real.
As you know, he bought dead souls for the sake of a “business”, which was supposed to bring him big profits. He needed money more than ever, because he dreamed of marrying a stately and rich girl. Again, we see that in such a heart matter as love and marriage, he is looking for profit. He does not care who this girl will be, how she will behave. The last refusal hurt him very much, because he really liked that girl. But the small capital did not impress her parents, so he receives a nasty rejection.
Is this image relevant today? From all of the above, I conclude that it is in fact relevant. Gogol created the image of a man who will exist after several centuries. There are people who are just as ready to please their boss, as Chichikov did. We cannot call him negative heroes, because for Gogol the positive qualities that his hero possessed seemed to him a window into the future. More to the point, this image has become a more frequent and powerful phenomenon in our society. This is not the norm, and what is relevant is not always correct, it is worth remembering!
In Gogol's "Dead Souls" (just like, for example, in "The Inspector General" or "Marriage") there are no positive characters. However, the main character of the work, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, involuntarily evokes sympathy from the reader. At first, not only the character, but even the appearance of Pavel Ivanovich remains a mystery to the reader. Gogol describes him as either fat or thin, not handsome, but not bad-looking either. However, Chichikov's indomitable energy cannot but draw attention to him.True, it soon becomes clear that Pavel Ivanovich's energy is aimed at. Its goal is to buy for nothing or get dead souls that are still considered alive before the census. In the future, Chichikov plans to pledge them to the treasury and, as a result of the transaction, receive a lot of money.
Chichikov and the 21st century
At the time of Gogol, Chichikov, no doubt, was stigmatized as an unambiguously negative character, following the path of vice and crime. However, it becomes clear to people of the 21st century that Pavel Ivanovich is a man ahead of his time. To understand how modern Chichikov is today, it is enough to recall the numerous financial pyramids, all kinds, offering inexperienced beginners to acquire a certain technique with which they will immediately start earning several thousand a day.In fact, all this is the same trade in emptiness that Chichikov is so actively involved in. Trading real goods is too troublesome. However, selling "emptiness" is not so easy. At a minimum, you need to give it emotional content, and this requires knowledge of human psychology.
Pavel Ivanovich shows himself to be an excellent psychologist. He brilliantly manages to find an approach to each of the greedy and rather cunning landowners, forcing them to act according to the scenario he invented. At the same time, vaguely realizing that the deal he proposed is illegal and possibly of a criminal nature, the landowners do not extradite Chichikov, but go towards him in everything. Gogol makes it clear to the reader that Chichikov is the future. In Russia, scammers will not be transferred as long as there are those who support their activities, responding with tacit consent to their dubious undertakings.
To people of the 21st century, Chichikov seems to be either a completely harmless swindler, or even a talented entrepreneur. Unfortunately, nowadays being Chichikov is becoming more and more profitable.
The Chichikovs in the Modern World
It would seem how a work written in the 19th century can reflect on modern reality, dictate morality and note the shortcomings of the political system and public life in general. Nevertheless, there are works whose authors accurately point to problems that were, are and will be relevant. Vivid examples are "Woe from Wit" by A. S. Griboyedov, "Undergrowth" by D. I. Fonvizin, "A Hero of Our Time" by M. Yu. Lermontov. In each of these books, there is a background, serious or satirical, behind the plot.
The undoubted master of satire was Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Taking ordinary people typical of that time as heroes, he places them in conditions where their most important shortcomings are manifested. So in the "Inspector" he shows how high-ranking officials of the county town grovel before the "superior" ranks and do not shun bribery. In "Dead Souls" landlord life is denounced, the extinction of the economy and the disappearance of basic human feelings among the landlords themselves are noted. Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin and, of course, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov himself are the clearest examples of those very “dead souls” that the author is trying to tell us about, albeit covertly.
Chichikov is a man who is more than a century and a half, or even two, ahead of his time, a guest from the future. An excellent entrepreneur, he masterfully completes his transactions, knows how to find the key to each of his business partners. Sellers of dead souls partly understand the illegality of these trades, but the temptation to get money for virtually nothing makes them partners in crime. And only complacency and general mental slumber of the people around allow Chichikov to avoid punishment.
Is Chichikov a hero of that time, or does his image pass from generation to generation, from century to century? I think that it is impossible to argue with the fact that this person, his way of thinking is inherent in many people, and in the 21st century they are called entrepreneurs, bankers, officials, bureaucrats, politicians. Any businessman who builds a plan for his work, "having brains" is a typical Chichikov, because business is a thought process.
As an example, we can take the joint-stock company "MMM" by Sergei Mavrodi, in which millions of people invested money, from which a financial pyramid was formed. A brilliant idea, perfectly realized, especially for those who are at the highest level. Moreover, it would seem that for the lower layers of the pyramid it should have been obvious that they would no longer be able to enrich themselves, but only bring profit to the upper layers. But human greed, which knows no limits, pushes them to invest money. Here is the prototype of the landowners who, without understanding the matter, and without trying to penetrate into it, think only about how to get a big profit. As for Mavrodi, this is a real Chichikov of our time, deftly circling around his finger and forcing him to believe a businessman.
The dead souls themselves can be compared to money not backed by precious metals - they have no value and lead to sad consequences, similar to the situation in the United States.
TThus, it has become profitable in the world to be not Korobochka, not Sobakevich, but precisely Chichikov, who skillfully wins over people and takes advantage of their ignorance. History, as you know, moves in a spiral and everything always repeats itself. Time passes, but the ruling elite, rotten and worthless, does not change. In Russia "Chichikovshchina" forever!
| Created 21 Sep 2013 | |||||||||
