Lyrical digressions- this is one of the stylistic devices, expressed by the author's retreat from the plot of the work. This is an author's reflection that is related to the written, direct or indirect. Digressions can be memories, addresses of the writer to readers. Most often found in lyrical works.

What are they for?

The role of lyrical digressions is important, because they allow you to look at the work from a different angle, to see ideological concept. With the help of them, the author, as it were, “slows down” the development of events in the narrative, which allows the reader to think about important life values.

Lyrical digressions are also an opportunity for the author to communicate directly with readers, as if revealing his thoughts. So people get the feeling that they were able to truly understand the work; the feeling that the writer shared something important with them.

Lyrical digressions are thoughts filled with philosophical sense, which help set readers up for a more serious perception of the work. Or they may reflect civil position author, sound like a call to action. These reflections can also be organically woven into the canvas of the work, because directly related to the story itself.

Types of lyrical digressions

They are divided into several groups:

• author's - they can be written in the form of memoirs or reasoning about values;
• critical and journalistic - the writer “comments” on the work with them, arguing about how it would be better to write his creation;
• conversations on everyday topics - a writer can act in various roles, which may differ depending on his point of view;
• landscape - beautiful abstract descriptions of nature help the reader to better imagine the picture of what is being described;
• on a civil theme - author's statements about important historical events.

Retreats in "Eugene Onegin"

A lyrical digression in the novel is not just a reflection on life, the writer, using this technique, creates the impression that he is a direct participant in the events. Such thoughts have become hallmark novel "Eugene Onegin". Themes of lyrical digressions in this work extensive:

• The love theme is one of the important foundations of the novel itself, and for the author it is a burning one. For a poet, life and love are inseparable.
• Reasoning about freedom - the author's attitude towards it has changed throughout the novel: at the beginning it is only outer side life, and by the end - freedom as a state of mind, independence from public opinion.
• About creativity - thanks to the poet's reflections on the creative component of the novel, the reader gets the feeling that he is a friend for Pushkin who can appreciate his jokes, who can support any small talk.
• Reflections on life are arguments about the meaning, purpose of it, how it changes.
• Nature - the simplicity of the style reflects the simplicity of Russia's nature. Most of these descriptions are given in the perception of Tatyana and the poet himself.
• The spiritual life of Russian society - theatrical performances, literature, art - these are all an integral part of secular people, to whom Eugene Onegin belonged. Therefore, the poet's reasoning on this topic is organically woven into the novel.

Lyrical digressions in "Dead Souls"

Another famous work that uses this stylistic device is the poem " Dead Souls". In these digressions, the writer reflects on Russia, about what awaits her in the future, about distinctive features Russian people. IN " dead souls ah" they can be divided into two groups:

• lyrical digressions of a detailed plan, in which the author talks about Russia and its future;
• characterization of individual features of the Russian people or character traits.

Extended retreats

1. About the power of the Russian word and how talented the Russian people are.
2. A lyrical digression about youth and how the author's perception was in his youth, which opens the sixth chapter.
3. Reasoning about creative destiny writer. In these digressions, the author expresses his views on creativity.
4. About the author's love for Rus' and about its future - this digression in chapter 11 is perhaps the most famous of the entire poem. With the help of the description of the road and the flying troika, pictures of Russian nature are drawn. But the most important question for Gogol, what will happen to Russia in the future, remains unanswered. And such an open ending makes the reader think for himself about the future of the Russian people.

Other digressions in the poem

Shorter reflections allow the reader to better imagine the image of the heroes of the poem, in which one can see the weaknesses of the human character. In "Dead Souls" short lyrical digressions are the author's reflections on human nature, on the reasons for any actions of people. They are organically woven into the poem, making it even more expressive, and immerse the reader in the world of Chichikov and the landowners. These small digressions are not philosophical in nature, but more reasoning on life topics and creativity.

An analysis of the lyrical digression will make it possible to understand why the author introduced it in one place or another in the work. The reader can speculate about how natural and appropriate it is. Also, during a detailed analysis of the digression, it is necessary to determine to which topic it relates. A lyrical digression is an opportunity for the author to become a real participant in the story and communicate with the reader. This technique allows you to understand the full depth of creation, expand the boundaries of the narrative, so that the reader can see how multifaceted a literary creation can be.

As conceived by N.V. Gogol, the theme of the poem was to be all of contemporary Russia. First of all, the construction of the poem is distinguished by clarity and clarity: all parts are interconnected by the plot-forming hero Chichikov, who travels with the goal of getting “a million. In the first chapter, expositional, introductory, the author gives a general description of the provincial provincial city and acquaints readers with the main actors poems. The next five chapters are devoted to depicting landowners in their own family and everyday life in their estates. Gogol masterfully reflected in the composition the isolation of the landowners, their isolation from public life(Korobochka had never even heard of Sobakevich and Manilov). The contents of all these five chapters are built one by one. general principle: appearance estates, the state of the economy, the manor house and interior decoration, characterization of the landowner and his relationship with Chichikov. In this way, Gogol draws a whole gallery of landlords, in their totality recreating the general picture of serf society. Behind the portraits of the landowners, written out close-up, in the poem follows satirical image the life of provincial officials, representing the socio-political power of the nobility. Gogol chooses the whole provincial city as the subject of his image, creates collective image provincial bureaucrat. In the process of depicting landlords and officials, the image of the main character of the story, Chichikov, gradually unfolds before readers. Only in the final, eleventh chapter, Gogol reveals his life in all details and finally exposes his hero as a swindler, a civilized scoundrel. His character is shown in development, in collisions with many different obstacles that arise in his path. It is remarkable that all the other characters of Dead Souls appear before the reader psychologically already established, that is, beyond development and internal contradictions (the exception to some extent is Plyushkin, who is given a descriptive background. By the composition of the poem, the writer constantly reminds the presence of the abyss of alienation between common people and ruling classes. As you can see, from chapter to chapter, the themes of lyrical digressions become more and more social significance, and the working people appear before the reader in a steadily increasing progression of their merits (references to the dead and runaway peasants of Sobakevich and Plyushkin). The composition of the poem not only superbly develops the plot, which is based on Chichikov's fantastic adventure, but also allows Gogol to recreate the entire reality of Nicholas Rus' with the help of extra-plot episodes. In the composition of the poem, one should especially emphasize the image of the road passing through the whole work, with the help of which the writer expresses hatred for stagnation and striving forward, an ardent love for his native nature. This image enhances the emotionality and dynamism of the entire poem. Gogol's amazing skill in arranging the plot was reflected in the fact that many of the most diverse introductory episodes and author's digressions, caused by the desire to recreate the reality of that time wider and deeper, are strictly subordinated to the embodiment of certain ideas of the writer. Author's digressions, both about thick and thin, about “the passion of a Russian person to know someone who was at least one rank higher than him”, about “gentlemen big hand and gentlemen of the middle hand”, about the wide typicality of the images of Nozdrev, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, constitute the necessary social background for revealing the main ideas of the poem. In many of the author's digressions, Gogol somehow touched on the metropolitan theme, but in the utmost satirical nakedness this “dangerous” theme sounded in the poem “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” included in the composition, told by the provincial postmaster. In my own way inner meaning, in its idea, this inserted novella is an important element in the ideological and artistic sense Gogol's poem. She gave the author the opportunity to include in the poem the theme of the heroic year 1812 and thereby even more sharply set off the heartlessness and arbitrariness of the supreme power, the cowardice and insignificance of the provincial nobility. In the author's digressions, the lyrical beginning is realized in the poem "Dead Souls". the author of "Dead Souls" appears in it as a lyrical hero. The author shares his creative ideas with the reader. The author talks with the reader about his positive ideal, talks about his attitude towards Chichikov. The author constantly communicates with the reader, and in relation to the reader, irony, hidden under the desire to please, often shows through. This is how Gogol addresses his ladies-readers. The author of the poem tries to predict the attitude of the reader to the main character, to imagine the possible reaction of the reader. The author also acts as a narrator in his lyrical-epic work. Some of his statements connect individual episodes of the poem, play an important compositional role. Other statements of the author connect individual episodes or lyrical digressions with the main narrative. In addition, for an exhaustive understanding of the image of the author in the poem "Dead Souls" it can be said that in the epic part of N.V. Gogol acts as an innovator-realist, and in lyrical poetry - as a romantic poet.

38. Lyrical and satirical in Gogol's Dead Souls. The Baroqueness of the Poem, the Image of Russia in the Poem, Gogol in Criticism.

The plot and composition of "Dead Souls" are determined by the subject of the image - Gogol's desire to comprehend Russian life, the character of a Russian person, the fate of Russia. It's about about a fundamental change in the subject of the image in comparison with the literature of the 20-30s: the artist's attention is transferred from the image of an individual to a portrait of society. In other words, the romantic aspect of the genre content (image privacy personality) is replaced by a moralistic one (a portrait of society at a non-heroic moment of its development). Therefore, Gogol is looking for a plot that would enable the widest possible coverage of reality. Such an opportunity was opened up by the plot of the journey: “Pushkin found that the plot of Dead Souls is good for me because,” Gogol said, “it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a wide variety of characters.” Therefore, the motif of movement, road, path turns out to be the leitmotif of the poem. This motive gets a completely different meaning in the famous lyrical digression of the eleventh chapter: the road with a rushing chaise turns into the path along which Rus' flies, "and, looking askance, step aside and give it way other peoples and states." In this leitmotif are the unknown paths of Russian national development: "Rus, where are you rushing to, give me an answer? Doesn't give an answer", offering an antithesis to the paths of other peoples: "What twisted, deaf, narrow, impassable, drifting far to the side of the road has been chosen by mankind ..." The hero's life path is also embodied in the image of the road ("but for all that, his road was difficult ..."), and creative way author: "And for a long time it was determined for me by the wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange characters..." Not only does Chichikov travel in it, that is, thanks to her, the plot of the journey becomes possible; the britzka also motivates the appearance of the characters of Selifan and horses; thanks to her, one manages to escape from Nozdryov; the chaise collides with the carriage of the governor's daughter and thus introduces a lyrical motif , and at the end of the poem, Chichikov even appears as the kidnapper of the governor's daughter. own will and sometimes he doesn’t listen to Chichikov and Selifan, goes his own way and finally dumps the rider into the impassable mud - so the hero, against his will, gets to Korobochka, who greets him with affectionate words: “Oh, my father, yes, you have something like boar, all the back and side in the mud! Where did you deign to get so greasy? In addition, the chaise, as it were, determines the ring composition of the first volume: the poem opens with a conversation between two peasants about how strong the wheel of the chaise is, and ends with the breakdown of that very wheel, which is why Chichikov has to linger in the city. The plot of the journey gives Gogol the opportunity to create a gallery of images of landowners. At the same time, the composition looks very rational: the exposition of the plot of the journey is given in the first chapter (Chichikova meets officials and some landowners, receives invitations from them), then five chapters follow, in which the landowners "sit", and Chichikov travels from chapter to chapter, buying up the dead souls. Gogol in "Dead Souls", as in "The Inspector General", creates an absurd artistic world in which people lose their human essence, turn into a parody of the possibilities inherent in nature. In an effort to find signs of mortification in the characters, the loss of spirituality (soul), Gogol resorts to the use of subject-household detailing. Each landowner is surrounded by many objects that can characterize him. Details associated with certain characters not only live autonomously, but also "fold" into a kind of motifs. For example, Plyushkin is associated with the motif of desolation, necrosis, degradation, as a result of which a grotesque metaphorical image of "holes in humanity" arises. With Manilov - the motif of oversweetness, creating a kind of parody of the hero of sentimental novels. The position in the gallery of images of landowners also characterizes each of them. It is widely believed that each subsequent landowner is “deader” than the previous one, that is, according to Gogol, “one of my heroes follows the other more vulgar.” But is this what Gogol had in mind? Is Plushkin the worst of all? After all, this is the only hero who has a backstory, only a semblance of life flashed on his face, "suddenly a warm ray glided, not a feeling was expressed, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling." Therefore, one cannot judge Plyushkin as the worst - it's just that the very measure of vulgarity becomes unbearable by the sixth chapter. Yu. Mann considers the sixth chapter to be a turning point. Plyushkin's evolution introduces into the poem the theme of change for the worse. After all, Plyushkin, the only one who was once "alive", appears in the most disgusting guise dead soul. It is with this image that the lyrical digression in the sixth chapter about the fiery youth is connected, who "would have jumped back in horror if they had shown him his own portrait in old age." Therefore, we can call the sixth chapter the climax in the poem: presenting the tragic theme of change for the worse for Gogol, it completes the plot of the journey, because Plyushkin is the last of the landowners whom Chichikov visited. So, the plot of the journey has been exhausted, but there are still five chapters in the poem: therefore, some other plot lies at the heart of the work. Such a plot, from the point of view of Yu. Mann, is a mirage intrigue. Indeed, the purpose of Chichikov's journey is a mirage in the very literally words: he buys "one intangible sound." The plot of the mirage intrigue occurs during a conversation with Manilov, when a strange guest offers the owner a "negotiation". At this moment, the purpose of Chichikov's journey becomes clear. The purchase of the “dead”, which, however, would be listed as alive according to the audit”, is undertaken by the hero to commit fraud on a legal basis: he wants not only to gain weight in society, but also to pledge his strange purchase to the board of trustees, that is, to receive money. In essence, Chichikov's journey is an endless pursuit of a mirage, of emptiness, of people who have passed away, of things that cannot be in the human will. artistic world the mirage begins to materialize, to acquire real features. How more dead buys Chichikov, the more weighty is his purchase: dead souls come to life, become a reality. In fact, why does Sobakevich begin to praise his dead peasants and say complete nonsense: "Another swindler will deceive you, sell you rubbish, not souls; but I have like a vigorous nut, everything is for selection." Does he want to simply deceive Chichikov by describing the merits of the carriage maker Mikheev, the carpenter Stepan Cork, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the brick maker Milushkin? But this is impossible, both are well aware that they simply do not exist and all their qualities are in the past. The point is rather not in deceit, but in Sobakevich's unintentionality: in the same way he will describe the merits of his peasants in the city, after the completion of the purchase fortress, when no deceit is needed anymore: Chichikov dead souls become alive before our eyes, and the landlords speak of them as if they were alive. The purchased peasants "come to life" at the beginning of the seventh chapter, when Chichikov draws up the documents for making a purchase of a fortress, and "a strange, incomprehensible feeling to himself took possession of him." "It seemed as if the men had been alive yesterday." The author, as it were, intercepts internal monologue his hero, tells about the fate of the peasants, in whom all aspects of the Russian folk character were embodied. By the beginning of the seventh chapter, the plot of the journey is exhausted - Chichikov arrives in the city to draw up a bill of sale. This moment, the happy denouement of the plot of the journey, turns out to be the culmination of a mirage intrigue: the mirage, in pursuit of which Chichikov was rushed, materializes legally, the hero becomes a Kherson landowner and forgets that "the souls are not quite real." Emptiness, a fiction bought up by Chichikov, receives a full-fledged legal status! He begins to live his own life, gives rise to many rumors in the city, acquires more and more plausible details. Peasants bought without land, it turns out, are bought to be sent to the Kherson province; there is a river and a pond; celebrating the purchase, they drank to the prosperity of the peasants and their happy resettlement; upon Chichikov's return, Selifan receives some housekeeping orders: "to gather all the newly resettled peasants in order to make a personal roll call to everyone." And at that moment, when the hero himself forgets about the nature of his "negotion", Nozdryov and Korobochka appear in the city, who break Chichikov's crystal mirage. But having broken, the mirage, like a crumbling mirror, forms many fragments, in which its creator, Chichikov, is reflected in a distorted light. In the judgments of the inhabitants of the city, he turns out to be a millionaire, a maker of counterfeit banknotes, a kidnapper of the governor's daughter, Napoleon, who fled from the island, captain Kopeikin. It is in the last four chapters of the poem that the image of the provincial town NN is concretized. In the drafts of the time of work on the first volume, the writer formulated the meaning of this image "The idea of ​​the city that arose before the highest degree Emptiness. Empty talk, gossip that has crossed the limits, how it all arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous in the highest degree. "" The mirage intrigue ends at the moment when all gossip about Chichikov ceases. The death of the prosecutor puts an end to them. All the attention of the townspeople switches to this event. Only after that Chichikov, forgotten, leaves the city. The ideological and compositional role of Chichikov's image is predetermined primarily by the fact that he owns the idea of ​​a scam, for its implementation he is granted the right to freely move around the artistic space of the poem, the author almost never parted with him. It is worth noting especially that, if it were not for Chichikov, there would be neither the plot of the journey, nor the poem itself. But it is not they, not his fate, that are the main subject of Gogol's depiction. It is the specificity of the subject of the image that makes us turn to the genre originality of the work genre nature Gogol's work is complex and not easy to define. The writer himself tried to point out the originality of "Dead Souls", calling his book a poem, but he did not give a decoding of this concept, which makes readers and researchers of Gogol - from the moment the book was published to this day - look for the key to interpreting its genre appearance. Can Dead Souls be considered a novel? When people talk about romance, they usually mean epic work a large art form in which the narrative is centered on destinies individual in her attitude to the surrounding world, on the formation, development of her character and self-consciousness. In the event that the story of the origin, upbringing and attempts of the hero to secure "a life in all contentment, with all the prosperity" would appear at the beginning of the story, the faces and events would unite around the hero, would become connected with his fate, turning " Dead Souls" into a novel, a picaresque type of novel, where the anti-hero goes through a series of successes and failures. But Chichikov's adventures for Gogol are only a way to solve another, main task for him. What was it? Let us return to the definition that Gogol himself gave to Dead Souls. He called his work a poem, just as Pushkin considered "Eugene Onegin" a "novel in verse." Gogol's work can rightly be called a poem. This right is given to him by poetry, musicality, expressiveness of the language, saturated with such figurative comparisons and metaphors, which can only be found in poetic speech. And most importantly - the constant presence of the author, which makes "Dead Souls" a lyrical-epic work. All reality depicted in it passes through the prism of the author's consciousness. In lyrical digressions, Gogol poses and solves literary questions. The peculiar genre structure of "Dead Souls" allows Gogol to depict a picture of the customs of all of Russia, while showing the general, and not the particular, not the life story of one person, but a "diverse bunch" of Russian characters. The lyrical beginning brings these observations to the level of philosophical reflections on the fate of Russia in the family of mankind

39. Evolution lit. Crete of Belinsky's activity. Belinsky reaches the highest point of the synthesis of genres, which, apparently, corresponds, firstly, to the general path of art and literature XIX centuries to erasing genre boundaries and synthesizing genres of realism, and secondly, the flourishing of historicism in criticism, which led to a close combination of literary (that is, historical-literary) and critical aspects, which also blurred genres. Synthesis became all-encompassing, all genre, supra-genre precisely with Belinsky. He writes his first problematic article - and it turns into a review and into a cycle. A year later, Belinsky creates his first major monographic review ("Poems by Vladimir Benediktov") and immediately admits that it involuntarily develops into a problematic article: "... almost every A new book excites such thoughts in me and leads to such reflections that it does not excite in everyone, and that is why my introduction or thoughts a propos almost always make up the main and largest part of my reviews "(I, 359). The main creator of cycles in Russian criticism was Belinsky, who created about ten works of this kind.All his cycles were written cumulatively, almost all (except for "Hamlet") - in a terrible journal rush and urgency, so almost all were rebuilt on the go, while maintaining some contradictions and disproportions. This can already be seen from "Literary dreams. The different scales of the parts of the cycles are very noticeable in their different sizes. As a rule, the ratios are not at all proportional. In such impromptu, shifting proportions and scales, of course, lies the deep charm of Belinsky's articles, which the calculated, calculated articles-drawings are deprived of. Parts of Belinsky's early cycles are very closely interconnected. Let us show this on the example of Literary Dreams. Belinsky's early work is most saturated with "romantic" repetitions (on the other hand, it is weaker in historicism). Then rather quickly, by the "conciliatory" period of 1838-1839, repetitions and leitmotifs will almost disappear, but vector historicism will begin to gain strength and fill the entire text with itself. In the first half of the 1940s, in the light of the intensified rise of "subjectivity" (of both the critic and the writer), relapses of leitmotivity would occasionally flare up. For example, in a series of articles about Pushkin, the concept of "pathos of artistry" will repeatedly vary. Yes, and in itself the creation in the first half of the decade of four cycles, one of them - gigantic, Pushkin (thick book in 34 printed sheet!) is an indirect tribute to Belinsky’s new moods after the “conciliatory” period, to socialist and revolutionary-democratic moods, when, thanks to a significant amount of utopianism, some romantic tendencies: the pathos of a personal beginning, lyricism, poetic tension and elation. (trends that by no means returned criticism to the bosom of anti-historicism; on the contrary, Belinsky's historicism matured every year and by 1845 - 1846 almost completely replaced utopia, and along with it - alas! - and romance).

42 Lermontov's skill in creating the image of Pechorin. A novel in criticism. GNV. is a cycle of five stories. The only completed novel by Lermontov was not originally conceived as an integral work. In "Notes of the Fatherland" for 1839, "Bela. From the notes of an officer about the Caucasus" and later "The Fatalist" were published with the note "that M.Yu. Lermontov will soon publish a collection of his stories, both printed and unprinted"; in 1840, "Taman" was printed there, followed by the release of two parts-volumes "A Hero of Our Time". The cyclic nature of the novel is by no means the fruit of Lermontov's creative individuality alone, his creative manner. Let's start with the fact that "A Hero of Our Time" is told by at least three narrators: an unnamed author, who later acts only as the publisher of Pechorin's diary; Maxim Maksimych and, finally, Pechorin himself. Each event in the novel is like a ray of light, twice or even three times refracted through lenses that enhance it. The image of one person seems to be seen through the image of another. The problem of personality is central to the novel. "The Hero of Our Time" is the "story of the human soul", one personality, embodied in its unique individuality the contradictions of the whole historical period. Pechorin is the only one main character. His loneliness in the novel is fundamentally significant. Only separate episodes of Pechorin's biography are covered; in the preface to his journal, an officer-traveler reports a thick notebook "in which he recounts his whole life", but, in essence, the reader already gets an idea of life path hero from childhood to death. This is a story of futile attempts by an outstanding person to realize himself, to find at least some satisfaction, which invariably turns into suffering and losses for him and those around him. Most readers and critics of the newly published novel perceived Pechorin as a completely negative hero. Emperor Nicholas I also showed this level of understanding. Getting acquainted with the first part of the work, he decided that the “hero of our days” would be the unpretentious, honest (and narrow-minded) campaigner Maxim Maksimych. The content of the second part and the assignment of the title formula to Pechorin caused the emperor (in a letter to his wife) to irritated maxims: "Such novels spoil morals and harden character." Lermontov himself, in the preface to the second edition of A Hero of Our Time, stated that Pechorin is "a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development." and is similar and unlike a traditional novel. Each story has its own plot. Closest to the traditional novel is the fourth story - "Princess Mary", but its ending contradicts Western European tradition and on the scale of the entire work, it is in no way a denouement, but implicitly motivates the situation of "Bela", placed in the first place in the general narrative. "Bela", "Taman", "Fatalist" abound in adventures, "Princess Mary" - intrigues: a short work, "A Hero of Our Time", is oversaturated with action. Undoubtedly, important role plays a change of narrators. Maxim Maksimych is too simple to understand Pechorin, he basically sets out external events. The great monologue of Pechorin about his past, transmitted by him, is conditionally (realistic poetics has not yet been developed) motivated: “So he spoke for a long time, and his words stuck in my memory, because for the first time I heard such things from a 25-year-old man, and, God willing, in the last ... "The writer, observing Pechorin with his own eyes, is a man of his circle, he sees and understands much more than the old Caucasian. But he is deprived of direct sympathy for Pechorin. Finally, Pechorin himself fearlessly, without trying to justify anything, talks about himself, analyzes his thoughts and actions. Lermontov came close to discovering a phenomenon later called by Tolstoy the “fluidity” of human character. In the Excerpt, this idea of ​​the elusiveness of a person for others is illustrated by the words: one who thinks to guess someone else’s heart is bitterly mistaken. ”Herzen: The image of Pechorin is one of the worst discoveries of L .A concentrated expression of the features of the post-Decembrist era, when only losses are visible on the surface, and great work is going on inside. Starting from the 19th century, Pechorin strengthened the definition external person. Pechorin captures the tragedy of an already developed developed personality, doomed to live in a country of slaves. One of the merits is an in-depth understanding of the real complexity of human nature. Pechorin's reflection is connected with the goals of life and activity, value orientations. individualism. In an effort to get to the bottom of the human essence, he was the cause of the unhappiness of others, but he himself was no less unhappy from this. free will determines them and follows them. Pechorin himself does not recognize the intervention of a higher will in human affairs. Pechorin creates in himself the only creator of his own destiny, and for this reason he cherishes his freedom as the highest value.

The role of author's digressions in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"

Poem "Dead Souls" - complex work, in which merciless satire and philosophical reflections of the author about the fate of Russia and its people are intertwined.

Let's go after the main character of the poem, Chichikov, to get acquainted with other characters of the work and read the author's lyrical thoughts that accompany the development of the plot and give the key to understanding the features of "Dead Souls".

IN small town the modest and inconspicuous Mr. Chichikov arrives and first appears in society at a party at the governor's. Pavel Ivanovich gets acquainted with the local nobility and immediately divides it into "thick" and "thin". Here follows the ironic reasoning of Gogol about all representatives of the Russian nobility.

The author does not even raise the question of their education, intelligence. He seems to be hinting that they are all, as if by choice, equally ignorant and stupid, and they can be distinguished only by one sign - they are “thick” or “thin”. "Fat" are honorary officials in the city, they know how to do their business better than thin ones.

The thin ones wriggle here and there, their existence is completely unreliable. Fat people, on the other hand, “never occupy indirect places, but all are direct, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they won’t fly off ...”. With these words, the author ridicules the nobility of Russia and the bureaucracy, when positions are far from smart people, but strong fat men who cannot be dislodged.

And how accurately Gogol describes the ability of Russian people to communicate, depending on what position the interlocutor occupies in society: “It is impossible to count all the shades and subtleties of our appeal!” And then the author continues: “A Frenchman or a German will speak in almost the same voice or the same language with a millionaire and with a petty tobacco dealer. It’s not the same with us: we have such wise men who will speak with a landowner who has two hundred souls in a completely different way than with one who has three hundred of them ... ”.

How the author admires the ability of Russian people to give accurate and accurate characteristics, “like a passport for eternal wear”, when a person “is outlined from head to toe with one line!”. Gogol urges readers to preserve the richness of the national word, which is so "sweeping, smart and escaped from under the very heart ...".

At the beginning of the sixth chapter of the poem, the author gives his lyrical reflections about youth. And there seems to be a turning point in his mood. After ironic discussions about "thick" and "thin", after enthusiastic words about the Russian language, despondency and sadness reappear. How many new and pleasant experiences he prepared every day, lived at a young age, "everything stopped and amazed ...". Now, after years, everything is "uncomfortable, not funny, and nothing awakens, as in former years, live movement in the face, laughter and incessant speeches, and indifferent silence are kept by motionless lips. "Oh my youth! O my freshness! - all this is irrevocably gone, the author sadly notes.

Why does everything alive, open, good die in a person with age? In order not to turn into callous and indifferent people, the author urges us: “Take with you on the road, leaving the soft youthful years into severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, do not raise them later!

Particularly significant, in my opinion, are Gogol's reflections on writers' destinies, on the topics that the authors raise in their work: “Happy is the writer who has never changed the lofty structure of his lyre, has not descended from his peak to his poor, insignificant fellow ... He hid the sad in life, showing a wonderful person ... ". “But the fate of the writer, who dared to bring out everything that is every minute in front of his eyes, is a completely different fate - all the terrible amazing mire of trifles that have entangled our life, with which our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring road is full ...”, the author continues. “His career is harsh and he will bitterly feel his loneliness,” the writer states.

Thus, the author is trying not only to show writers a convenient path to fame, but also to direct them to thorny path an artist who is not indifferent to the fate of Russia. The future, according to Gogol, still belongs to patriotic writers who care about the fate of the people. And the author hopes that they will also receive well-deserved recognition.

Beautiful are the words of a lyrical digression dedicated to Rus', which the author compares with a troika bird, represents it as “a land that does not like to joke, but has spread out halfway across the world, and go count miles until it fills your eyes ... ". And so Rus' rushes like a "brisk, unhindered troika", it is not known where, and only "looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give it way."

These lines have become a favorite for many generations of Russian people. No one else, except Gogol, could so accurately describe all the courage, prowess and all the recklessness that are inherent only in our people.

Answering the question “Why does Gogol introduce so many wonderful lyrical digressions into his poem?”, we can say: the author used this technique to show all the emptiness, pettiness, baseness of life of various representatives of Russian society. Their images against the contrasting background of lyrical digressions look especially petty, absurd and insignificant. These reflections of the author help to expose the bureaucracy and oppose the landlords with a completely different image - the image of Russia, which "flies to its revival."

The role of lyrical digressions in the poem "Dead Souls"

is one of the greatest personalities. The pinnacle of his work is the poem "Dead Souls". It reflects all the main features of the author's talent.

The most important role in compositional structure"Dead Souls" play lyrical digressions and inserted episodes, characteristic of the poem as a literary genre. In them, Gogol deals with the most pressing Russian social issues. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are contrasted here with the gloomy pictures of Russian life.

At the beginning of the poem, lyrical digressions are in the nature of the author's statements about his heroes, but as the action unfolds, their inner theme becomes broader and more multifaceted.

Having told about Manilov and Korobochka, the author interrupts the narration in order to make the painted picture of life clearer for the reader. The author's digression, which interrupts the story about Korobochka, contains a comparison with her "sister" from an aristocratic society, who, despite a different appearance, is no different from the local mistress.

After visiting Nozdrev, Chichikov meets a beautiful blonde on the road. The description of this meeting ends with a remarkable digression by the author: “Everywhere, wherever in life, whether among its callous, rough-poor and untidy-staining low-lying ranks, or among the monotonous-cold and boring-tidy classes of the higher, everywhere at least once will meet on way to a man, a phenomenon unlike anything that he has ever seen before, which at least once awakens in him a feeling unlike those that he is destined to feel all his life. But what is characteristic of many people, what appears “across” to any kind of sadness - all this is completely alien to Chichikov, whose cold discretion is compared here with the direct manifestation of feelings.

The lyrical digression at the end of the fifth chapter is of a completely different character. Here the author is no longer talking about the hero, not about the attitude towards him, but about the mighty Russian man, about the talent of the Russian people. Outwardly, this lyrical digression seems to have little to do with the entire previous development of the action, but it is very important for revealing the main idea of ​​the poem: real Russia- these are not sobakevichi, nostrils and boxes, but the people, the people's element.

In close contact with the lyrical statements about the Russian word and folk character is the author's digression, which opens the sixth chapter.

The story about Plyushkin is interrupted by the angry words of the author, which have a deep generalizing meaning: "And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness, filth!"

Of considerable importance are lyrical statements about the creative and life destiny writer in contemporary Gogol society, about two different destinies awaiting a writer who creates "exalted images" and a realist writer, a satirist. This lyrical digression, full of deep thoughts and vivid generalizations, reflected not only the writer's views on art, but also his attitude to the ruling elites of society, to the people. It determines both the writer's ideological path and his assessment of the main social forces.

In the chapters devoted to the image of the city, we come across the author's statements about the extreme irritation of ranks and estates - "now we have all the ranks and estates so irritated that everything that is in the printed book already seems to them a person: it’s obvious that they are located in the air." Gogol ends the description of the general confusion with reflections on human delusions, on the false paths that mankind has often followed in its history - "but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new delusions, which descendants will also laugh at later."

The civic pathos of the writer achieves special strength in a lyrical digression - "Rus, Rus! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful far away." Like the lyrical monologue at the beginning of the seventh chapter, this lyrical digression forms a distinct line between two major narrative links - urban scenes and the story of Chichikov's origins. Here, in a broader sense, the theme of Russia appears, in which it was "poor, scattered and uncomfortable," but where heroes cannot but be born. The author's lyrical statements seem to be interrupted by an intrusion of rough worldly prose. And menacingly embraces me a mighty space, with terrible force reflected in my depth; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!

Hold on, hold on, fool! Chichikov shouted to Selifan.

Here I am with your broadsword! shouted a courier with a arshin mustache galloping towards him. “And like a ghost, the troika disappeared with thunder and dust.”

The vulgarity, emptiness, meanness of life are even more clearly outlined against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast is applied by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile features of the heroes of "Dead Souls".

Immediately after this, the author shares with the reader the thoughts that the racing troika, the long road, evoke in him. "What a strange, and enticing, and bearing, and wonderful in the word road! And how wonderful it is, this road." One after another, Gogol sketches here pictures of Russian nature that appear before the gaze of a traveler racing on fast horses along an autumn road. And in the general mood of the author's monologue, and in the rapidly changing scenes, there is a clear hint at the image of a troika bird, from which this lyrical digression is separated by a large chapter devoted to the adventures of Chichikov.

The image of Russia, which completes the first volume of the poem, is fanned with a high sense of patriotism, an image that embodies the ideal that lit the way for the artist when depicting a petty, vulgar life.

Such is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem. But the most important thing is that they express many of the author's views on art, relations between people. On the pages of the poem, Gogol wanted not only to denounce, but also to affirm his moral ideal, and expressed it in his wonderful lyrical digressions, which reflected all his thoughts and feelings, and above all a great feeling of love for his people and fatherland, the belief that the homeland will break out of the power of the "marsh lights" and return to the true path: the path of a living soul.

Odi et amo. G.V. catullus
(I hate and love. G. W. Catullus)

"Dead Souls", on the one hand, is an epic work, and on the other, a lyrical one, thanks to many author's digressions. Calling "Dead Souls" a poem, Gogol emphasized the substantive significance of these digressions: firstly, they create the image of the author, a thoughtful, observant, humane, witty person, not very happy, but firm in his moral and social convictions; secondly, it was the author's digressions that helped Gogol to express in the first volume his optimistic faith in the future of Russia.

The first one includes biographical memories and reasoning of the author. At the beginning of the sixth chapter, there is a recollection of a happy childhood perception of life: a child, riding in a road carriage, did not notice the dirt and squalor around him, everything was interesting to him, everything was new. Seeing the landowner's house, he began to fantasize about the owner and his family, the dome of the church, the unusual frock coat on a passer-by, and the goods in a roadside shop attracted children's attention. But now the author, an adult, indifferently drives up to an unfamiliar place, looks indifferently at a vulgar picture and exclaims with sadness: “O my youth! O my freshness!

The author's digression from the eleventh chapter sounds sublimely lyrical: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful beautiful far away I see you. The author sees the homeland as a poor, uncomfortable, flat plain, without majestic mountains, waterfalls, thickets of wild roses and warm sea. But, living far from his homeland, in Italy, the author continues to be Russian, the Russian song worries him and grabs his heart, he constantly thinks about the fate of his country: “But what incomprehensibly secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy (...) song heard and heard incessantly in my ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart? Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Another digression contains a confession that the author loves the road: it distracts from bitter thoughts, calms and invigorates at the same time: “God, how good you are sometimes, a long, long road! How many times, like one who is perishing and drowning, have I clutched at you, and each time you generously endured and saved! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt in you! In the chapter on Plyushkin, we encounter the author's indignation about spiritual fall man: “And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness, disgust! Could have changed! (...) Take with you on the road, leaving the soft youthful years in the harsh hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road. Don't pick it up later!" (ch.6).

It is known that Gogol taught history for several years at St. reach the eternal truth, while before him the whole straight path was open” (ch. 10). The descendants laugh at the past mistakes of their ancestors, but they themselves act as unreasonably as their forefathers.

These lyrical digressions alternate with the author's humorous confessions, for example, in envy of the amazing appetite of the “middling gentleman”: “The author must admit that he is very envious of the appetite and stomach of such people. For him, all the gentlemen of a big hand, living in St. Petersburg and Moscow, who spend their time thinking about what to eat tomorrow, mean absolutely nothing. (...) No, these gentlemen never aroused envy in him ”(ch. 4).

The second group includes author's digressions about literary work. This is, first of all, a comparison of romantic and satirical writers at the beginning of the seventh chapter: “Happy is the writer who, past boring, nasty characters (...), approaches characters that show the high dignity of a person who, from the great pool of daily revolving images, has chosen only a few exceptions. (...) He fumigated people's eyes with an intoxicating smoke, he miraculously flattered them, hiding the sadness in life, showing them a wonderful person. Everyone applauds such a writer, he is declared a genius, he is sincerely loved by the public. “But such is not the fate of the other fate of the writer, who dared to bring out everything that is every minute before his eyes and that indifferent eyes do not see - all the terrible, amazing mire of trifles that have entangled our life, the whole depth of cold, fragmented, everyday characters.” They will not recognize this writer, they will deny him a good heart, and a sensitive soul, and even talent, his work will be called "antics of a farce buffoon." Severe is his field, and he will bitterly feel his loneliness. Despite all the moral gravity of such a life, lack of money, the author chooses precisely hard way satirist: “And for a long time it was determined for me by a wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes, to look around life through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to it tears.” In the eleventh chapter, as if continuing the discussion about the satirical writer, the author explains that he deliberately did not take the heroes of the poem " virtuous person": "Because it's time to finally give rest to the poor virtuous person (...), because they turned a virtuous person into a horse, and there is no writer who would not ride him, urging him with a whip and everything. (...) No, it's time to finally hide the scoundrel. The author explains his attitude to the image of Chichikov: “That he is not a hero, full of perfections and virtues, is evident. How is he? So, a scoundrel? Why a scoundrel, why be so strict with others? (...) It is most fair to call him: the owner, the acquirer.

Remarkable is the argument of the author from the eighth chapter about the guardians of the purity of the Russian language, who resolutely demand literature written in the most strict, purified (without street rudeness), noble language. But these guardians themselves use French, and German, and English, and you won’t hear a single decent Russian word from them first. The author reserves the freedom to use the Russian language as he sees fit, although this may not please strict readers from high society.

The third group includes author's digressions about Russia and the Russian character. Despite the sad pictures of landlord life and bureaucratic bustle in the provincial town, despite the scoundrel of the protagonist, Dead Souls expresses not hopeless despair, but ardent faith in the future of Russia. This semantic effect in the first volume is achieved thanks to the author's digressions.

In Russia, at the same time ironically and seriously, the author remarks, if they have not kept up with Europe in anything else, then they have far surpassed it in the ability to communicate: “It is impossible to count all the shades and subtleties of our appeal. With us, a landowner who has two hundred souls will be spoken differently to the owner of three hundred souls, and in a completely different way with someone who has five hundred souls. (...) In a word, ascend to a million, and there will always be shades ”(ch. 3). For the author, it is obvious that the Russian nation has a language that is part of the Russian character and testifies to the deep mind, observation of the people. German, English, French good in their own way, “but there is no word that would be so bold, smart, so bursting out from under the very heart, so seething and vibrant, like the aptly said Russian word” (ch. 5). The Russian people express themselves strongly, “and if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and offspring, he will drag him with him to the service, and to retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world” (ch. 5).

Behind scary world landlord Russia, the author feels the living soul of the people. The poem speaks enthusiastically of folk prowess, courage, skill, love for free life. Chichikov thinks about this when he reads the list of bought peasants (ch. 11): the carpenter Stepan Cork with an ax went all over the province, the miracle shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov was the pride of the German teacher, the cab driver Grigory You won’t get there visited all the fairs with merchants, Abacum Fyrov preferred hard labor as a barge hauler to Plyushkin's slave life.

The author's most significant reflection on Russia was, of course, the picture of the bird-troika, which concludes the first volume of the poem: in it the author captured the rapid movement of Rus', which he compares with the troika: behind” (ch. 11). The writer expressed his hope that Russia would still rise to greatness and glory: “The bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, step aside and give it the way other peoples and states ”(ibid.).

So, the author's digressions are extremely important for the ideological content of the poem. They create a semantic implication, without which the poem does not exist as an integral work. Strictly speaking, the whole poem is imbued with lyricism (author's attitude), which V. G. Belinsky considered its great merit. Gogol wrote his work not as a calm contemplative, but as a patriot of Russia, firmly believing in its great future and therefore passionately hating everything that hindered its development (movement towards the truth). Already in the most merciless satire on the nobility-serf society, a critical author's attitude to heroes and events, but for Gogol such, one might say indirect, manifestation of the author's position seemed insufficient, and he introduces author's digressions into the poem, directly revealing his thoughts and feelings. Same artistic technique- lyrical digressions - takes place in the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".

Gogol showed a deep spiritual crisis of the Russian state, but at the same time he felt that behind the dead souls of the owners of life, the living soul of the people “peeps through”. "Dead Souls", noted A.I. Herzen, "an amazing book, a bitter reproach to modern Russia, but not hopeless." Faith in the future is born just from the author's lyrical reflections. From reflections on the Russian word, on the love of freedom and talent of the Russian people, on the fate of Russia, a second image of the motherland is created, the image of a living country that has preserved its soul even under the rule of the dead-hearted manilovs, dogs, etc. thinking about own life and about his writing mission, the author in lyrical digressions himself demonstrates the character Russian man not bent under any circumstances.