Introduction
. "Little Man" in "Diary of a Madman"
Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is the brightest representative of Gogol's " little man»
Opinion literary critics about the image of the "little man" in the works of N. V. Gogol.
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
The essence of the concept of "little man" refers to literary heroes who "lived" in the era of realism. As a rule, they occupied the lowest rung in the social hierarchy. Such representatives were: a tradesman and a petty official. The image of the "little man" was relevant when democratic literature. He was described by humanist writers.
For the first time, the theme of the "little man" was mentioned by the writer Belinsky, in his 1840 article "Woe from Wit." This topic was also considered in their works by such classics of Russian literature as M.Yu. Lermontov, A.S. Pushkin, A.I. Kuprin, N.V. Gogol, A.S. Griboyedov, A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky, and others. Among the realist writers who described the "little man" in their works, Franz Kafka and his "Castle, revealing the tragic impotence of the little man and his unwillingness to come to terms with fate" can be distinguished. German writer Gerhart Hauptmann also explored this theme in his dramas Before Sunrise and The Lonely. This topic has been relevant at all times, since its task is to reflect everyday life ordinary person with all its sorrows and experiences, as well as troubles and small joys.
"Little Man" is the face of the people. The nature of the image of the “little man” can be described by the following characteristic features: in most cases, this is a poor, unhappy person, offended by his life, who is very often offended by higher ranks. Bottom line for this image is that he is finally disappointed in life and commits insane acts, the result of which is death. This peculiar type a person who feels powerless before life. Sometimes he is able to protest. Each writer saw it differently. There were also similarities. But the writers reflected the tragedy of this role in their own way.
Reasons for choosing the theme of "little man" N.V. Gogol in his works
For the first time, the designation of the term "little man" was presented in the encyclopedia of Russian literature. His interpretation sounds like this: “the designation of rather heterogeneous heroes, united by the fact that they occupy one of the lowest places in the social hierarchy and that this circumstance determines their psychology and social position.” Very often this character was brought opposite character. Usually this is a high-ranking official who had power and money. And then the development of the plot followed the following scenario: A poor “little man” lives for himself, does not touch anyone, is not interested in anything, and then an insight dawns on him that perhaps he did not live correctly. He raises a riot, and then he is immediately stopped or killed.
"Little people" are different in Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin. The difference is manifested in their character, aspiration, protest. But there is one unifying, similar feature - they all fight against injustice, against the imperfection of this world.
When reading a book, the question often pops up Who is a “little man”? And why is he small? The minority of its essence lies in social status. Usually these are people who are hardly noticeable or not noticeable at all. In spiritual terms, a “little man” is considered to be an offended person, put in a certain framework, who is not at all interested in historical and philosophical problems. He lives in a narrow and closed circle of his vital interests. He does not live - he exists.
Russian literature, with its humane attitude to the fate of the common man, could not pass by. A new one is born literary hero, which appears on the pages of many Russian classics.
All the works of N.V. Gogol are saturated with this character. One of the most brightest examples works serve: overcoat And Diary of a Madman - he revealed to readers inner world a simple person, his feelings and experiences.
But these works are not built only on the imagination of the writer. Gogol in real life experienced all these feelings. He went through the so-called school of life. Gogol's soul was wounded upon arrival in St. Petersburg in 1829. A picture of human contradictions and tragic social catastrophes opened before him. He felt the whole tragedy of life in the position of a poor official, the environment of young artists (Gogol at one time attended the drawing classes of the Academy of Arts), as well as the experiences of a poor man who does not have enough money to buy an overcoat. It was thanks to these colors that he painted Petersburg with its outward splendor and wretched soul. The writer described Petersburg as a city with a distorted soul, where talents perish, where vulgarity triumphs, where ... except for the lantern, everything breathes deceit . All the events that happened to its main characters Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin and Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin took place in this terrible and deceitful city. . As a result, Gogol's heroes go crazy or die in an unequal struggle with the cruel conditions of reality.
In his St. Petersburg Stories, he revealed the true side of life in the capital and the life of a poor official. He most clearly showed the possibilities of the "natural school" in the transformation and change of a person's view of the world and the fate of "little people".
In the "Petersburg Notes" of 1836, Gogol puts forward his theory of the significance of art for society, similar elements in it, which are driving springs. He gives birth to a new direction of realism in art. In his work, the writer reveals all the versatility, its movements, the birth of something new in him. The formation of realistic views in the work of N.V. Gogol was established in the second half of the 30s of the XIX century.
The standard of realistic literature was "Petersburg Tales", especially "The Overcoat", which was of great importance for all subsequent literature, creating in it new directions for the development of this genre.
Thus, the “little man” in the works of N.V. Gogol was not born by accident. The appearance of this literary hero is a consequence of the ill-treatment of the writers themselves during their first acquaintance with St. Petersburg. He expressed his protest, or rather the cry of the soul, in his works “Notes of a Madman” and “Overcoat”
2. "Little Man" in "Diary of a Madman"
Gogol little man Bashmachkin
Diary of a Madman , one of the most sad stories Petersburg stories . The narrator is - Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin - petty, offended in the service of the department by all the scribe official. The protagonist is a man of noble origin, but poor and unpretentious. From morning to evening he sits in the director's office and, full of greatest respect to the boss, sharpens feathers His Excellency . In his character there is indifference to everything that surrounds him. And his lack of initiative killed him at the root noble origin. Poprishchin believes that the creation of a reputation mainly depends on the position he occupies, on his own " common man» achieve nothing. Everything is ruled by money. Poprishchin has its own legalized concepts, interests, habits and tastes. Your ideas about life. Within this world, he leads a habitual self-satisfied existence, not noticing that his whole life is -. actual abuse of the person and human dignity. He simply exists in this world without noticing how cruel and unfair fate is with him.
One day, the question arises in Poprishchin’s head: “Why am I a title adviser?” and “And why the title one?”. Poprishchin irretrievably loses his sanity and raises a rebellion: an offended human dignity wakes up in him. He thinks about why he is so powerless, why all the best in the world goes not to him, but to the highest officials. His crazy thought transcends the boundaries and his conviction that he is the Spanish king finally established itself in the already clouded mind. At the end of the story, Poprishchin, morally enlightened for a moment, cries out: No, I can't take it anymore. God! What are they doing to me!.. What have I done to them? Why are they torturing me? Blok noticed that in this cry one can hear the cry of Gogol himself.
Thus, Diary of a Madman - is a kind of protest against the unfair laws of the established world, where everything has long been distributed, where the "little man" cannot gain full wealth and happiness. Everything is decided by the highest ranks - up to the foundations of life of a person. Poprishchin is a child and a victim of this world. It is not by chance that Gogol chooses a petty official as the main character; he wanted to convey not only miserable commercial traits this character, but also to convey the tragic feeling of anger and pain for public humiliation, the perversion of all normal properties and concepts in Poprishchin's psychology.
3. Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin - the brightest representative of Gogol's "little man"
Very often in life it happens that the stronger offend the weak. But in the end, it is these heartless and cruel people who are even weaker and more insignificant than their victims. Democritus once said that he who does injustice is more unfortunate than he who suffers unjustly.
Like no one else, Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin knew these feelings. These feelings are directly transmitted to the reader of the story "The Overcoat". Dostoevsky believed that it was from this book that all Russian literature came out.
Why does Dostoevsky single out Gogol as the first to open the world to readers little man ? Dostoevsky believed that Gogol is the creator of the "little man". In the story "The Overcoat" there is only one character, all the rest are just a background.
No, I can't take it anymore! What are they doing to me!.. They don't understand, they don't see, they don't listen to me... Many of the great writers responded to this prayer of the hero of Gogol's story, in their own way comprehended and developed the image little man in your creativity.
Tale overcoat - one of the best in the work of Gogol. In it, the writer appears as a master of detail, a satirist and a humanist. Narrating the life of a petty official, Gogol was able to create an unforgettable vivid image little man with their joys and troubles, difficulties and worries. The protagonist of "The Overcoat" became a victim of the city, poverty and arbitrariness. His name was Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin. He was the eternal titular adviser, over whom all the burdens and burdens of this cruel world hung over. Bashmachkin was a typical representative petty bureaucracy. Everything was typical in him, starting from appearance and ending with spiritual affiliation. Bashmachkin, in fact, was a victim of cruel reality, the feelings of which the writer so wanted to convey to the reader. The writer emphasizes the typicality of Akaky Akakievich: One official, Bashmachkin, served in one department - a timid man, crushed by fate, a downtrodden, dumb creature, resignedly enduring the ridicule of his colleagues . Akaki Akakievich did not answer a single word and acted like as if there was no one in front of him when colleagues put papers on his head . Sheer poverty surrounds the protagonist, but he does not notice this, as he is busy with business. Bashmachkin is not sad about his poverty, because he simply does not know another life.
But main character"Overcoat" behind his impenetrable soul hid the other side. a smirk appeared on Bashmachkin’s face, examining the playful picture in the window: “I stopped with curiosity in front of the illuminated shop window to look at the picture, which depicted some beautiful woman, who threw off her shoe, thus exposing her entire leg ... Akaky Akakievich shook his head and grinned, and then went on his way.
The writer makes it clear that even in the soul of the "little man" there is a secret depth, unknown and untouched by the St. Petersburg outside world.
With the advent of a dream - a new overcoat, Bashmachkin is ready for anything: to endure any humiliation and abuse, just to get closer to his dream. The overcoat becomes a kind of symbol of a happy future, a favorite brainchild, for which Akaki Akakievich is ready to work tirelessly. The author is quite serious when he describes the delight of his hero about the realization of a dream: the overcoat is sewn! Bashmachkin was completely happy. But for how long?
And when, finally, his dream came true, evil fate played bad joke with a hero. The robbers removed the overcoat from Bashmachkin. The main character fell into despair. This event prompted a protest in Akaki Akakievich, and he was determined to go with him to the general. But he did not know this attempt, for the first time in his life, would fail. The writer sees the failure of his hero, but he gives him the opportunity to show himself in this unequal battle. However, he cannot do anything, the system of the bureaucratic machine is so well-established that it is simply impossible to break it. The mechanism has been running for a long time. And in the end, Bashmachkin dies, never having achieved justice. He shows us the ending of the story about the dead Akaki Akakievich, who during his lifetime was meek and humble, and after death he pulls off his overcoats not only from the title ones, but also from the court advisers.
The finale of this story is that the existence of such a person as Bashmachkin Akaki Akakievich. in this cruel world, only possible after his death. After his death, Akaki Akakievich becomes a malicious ghost who mercilessly rips off the overcoats from the shoulders of all passers-by. The "Overcoat" tells about the most insignificant and outstanding representative human society. About the most routine events of his life. Who lived for many years without leaving a trace of himself The story had a great influence on the further development of Russian literature: the theme of the “little man” became one of the most important for many years.
IN this work tragic and comic complement each other. Gogol sympathizes with his hero and at the same time laughs at him, seeing in him mental limitations. Akaky Akakievich was an absolutely non-initiative person. For all the years of his service, he did not move up the career ladder. Gogol shows how limited and miserable was the world in which Akaky Akakievich existed, content with squalid housing, a miserable dinner, a worn uniform and an overcoat that was coming apart from old age. Gogol laughs, but he laughs not only at Akaky Akakievich, he laughs at the whole of society.
Akaky Akakievich had his own life credo, which was just as humiliated and insulted as his life as a whole. In copying papers, he "saw some kind of diverse and pleasant world of his own." But it also retained its humanity. Those around him did not accept his timidity and humility and mocked him in every possible way, poured pieces of paper on his head, and Akaky Akakievich could only say: “Leave me, why are you offending me?” And only one "young man was imbued with pity for him." The meaning of the life of the "little man" is a new overcoat. This goal transforms Akaky Akakievich. A new overcoat for him is like a symbol of a new life.
4. The opinion of literary critics about the image of the "little man" in the work of N. V. Gogol
Well-known literary critic Yu.V. Mann, in his article “One of Gogol’s Deepest Creations,” writes: “We, of course, laugh at the limitations of Akaky Akakievich, but at the same time we see his gentleness, we see that he is generally outside the selfish calculations, selfish motives that excite other people . As if before us is a creature not of this world.
And in fact, the soul and thoughts of the protagonist Akaky Akakievich remain unsolved and unknown to the reader. Only his belonging to the "small" people is known. Any high human feelings- not visible. Not smart, not kind, not noble. He's just a biological entity. And you can love and pity him only because he is also a man, “your brother,” as the author teaches.
This was the problem that the fans of N.V. Gogol has been interpreted in different ways. Some believed that Bashmachkin was a good man, just offended by fate. The essence, which consists of a number of virtues for which it must be loved. One of its main virtues is that it is capable of protest. Before his death, the hero of the story “rages”, threatening a “significant person” in delirium: “... he even slandered, uttering terrible words, ... especially since these words followed directly after the word “your excellency”. After his death, Bashmachkin appears in the form of a ghost on the streets of St. Petersburg and tears off the overcoats from "significant persons", accusing the state, its entire bureaucracy of facelessness and indifference.
The opinion of critics and contemporaries of Gogol about Akaky Akakievich diverged. Dostoevsky saw in Overcoats ruthless abuse of a person ; critic Apollon Grigoriev - common love, world love, Christian love , and Chernyshevsky called Bashmachkin complete idiot.
In this work, Gogol touches on the hated world of officials - people without morality and principles. This story made a huge impression on the readers. The writer, as a true humanist, came to the defense of the "little man" - an intimidated, powerless, miserable official. He expressed the most sincere, warmest and most sincere sympathy for the destitute person in the beautiful lines of the final argument about the fate and death of one of the many victims of heartlessness and arbitrariness.
The story "The Overcoat" made a strong impression on contemporaries.
The work "Overcoat" is one of the best works N.V. Gogol to the present day. (V. G. Belinsky, Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. VI. - P. 349), this was the premiere opening of the "little man" to the general public. "A colossal work" called "Overcoat" Herzen.
The phrase became famous: “We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat. Whether Dostoevsky really said these words is unknown. But whoever said them, it is no accident that they became "winged". A lot of important things "left" from the "Overcoat", from Petersburg stories Gogol.
“The inner fate of the personality is the true theme of Dostoevsky’s first, “bureaucratic” works,” says the young critic V.N. Maykov, successor to V.G. Belinsky in the critical department " Domestic notes". Arguing with Belinsky, he declared: “Both Gogol and Mr. Dostoevsky portray real society. But Gogol is primarily a social poet, while Mr. Dostoevsky is primarily a psychological one. For one, an individual is important as a representative of a well-known society, for another, the society itself is interesting in terms of its influence on the personality of the individual ”(Maikov V.N. Literary criticism. - L., 1985. - p. 180).
Conclusion
In both works, boundaries are violated. Only in the "notes of a madman" are these the boundaries of madness and common sense, and in the "Overcoat" - life and death. Ultimately, we are faced with not a small, but quite a real man. With their real problems, fears and grievances. Therefore, it is impossible to judge the heroes of these works. N.V. Gogol, on the contrary, sought to ensure that the reader felt, and somewhere felt the heaviness and bitterness of the earthly world that the characters in these works experienced.
Reading the works of Gogol, we are presented with a picture of a lonely man in a blue, stained overcoat, lovingly examining the color pictures of shop windows. Long considered this person the splendor of the contents of the shop windows, with melancholy and secret envy. Dreaming that he would become the owner of these things, a person completely forgot about the time and the world in which he is. And only some time later he came to his senses and continued on his way.
Gogol opens before the reader the world of "little people", absolutely unhappy in their existence, and big officials who rule the world and fate, such as the main characters of Gogol's works.
The author connects all these heroes with the city of Petersburg. A city, according to Gogol, with a magnificent view and a vile soul. It is in this city that all unfortunate people live. The central place in the "Petersburg Tales" is occupied by the work "The Overcoat". This is a story about a "little man" who, in the struggle for his dream, experienced all the injustice and cruelty of the world.
The delays of the bureaucracy, the problem of "higher" and "lower" were so obvious that it was impossible not to write about it. The works of N.V. Gogol in Once again prove that in fact we are all small people - just bolts of a large mechanism.
Literature
1.Gogol N.V. "Overcoat" [text] / N.V. Gogol. - M: Vlados, 2011.
2.Gogol N.V. "Notes of a Madman" [text] / N.V. Gogol. - M: Sfera, 2009.
.Grigoriev A.P. Collection of literary critics of our time [Text] / A.P. Grigoriev, V.N. Maikov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. - M:. Book lover, 2009.-2010.
.Manin Yu.V. - The path to the discovery of character [text] / Yu.V. Manin / / Collection of literary criticism. - M: Academy, 2010. - S. 152 -154.
.Sokolov A.G. History of Russian literature late XIX- beginning of the XX century: Proc. -4th ed. additional and revised - M .: Higher. school; Ed. Center Academy, 2000.
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Of the great Russian writers, following Pushkin, Gogol turned to the theme of the little man. In his works, the social motif of opposing a small person with a soul, those in power, intensified. His little man is also par excellence a petty official, whose consciousness is downtrodden and humiliated. Gogol deliberately makes his Akaky Akakievich (the story "The Overcoat") even more downtrodden than it really could be, his circle of interests is extremely miserable and meager, and life aspirations do not extend beyond buying a new overcoat. At first, this hero appears even in a comic light, but very soon this touch of comedy is completely removed, giving way to tragedy. Gogol with great power made it felt that in the life of a small person there is the presence of the soul, the divine principle, which is not seen by indifferent people around. It would seem that an insignificant circumstance - the theft of a new overcoat - becomes a real life tragedy for a small person, and Gogol's skill is that he makes the reader experience this tragedy as his own. In the development of the plot of the story great importance acquires a conflict between Akaky Akakievich and a “significant person”, not even named by name, to whom he goes for help and who arrogantly refuses this help - of course, because the “significant person” is completely indifferent and incomprehensible to the suffering of a petty official, and even bother I don't want myself again. Gogol makes it so that in fact it is the “significant person”, and not the unknown thieves of the overcoat, that becomes the direct cause of the death of Akaky Akakievich. The theme of bureaucratic indifference to a person, the perversion of genuine human relations in a bureaucratic environment is one of the most important in The Overcoat. And in contrast to this indifference, the theme of conscience and shame sounds loudly in the story, which should guide a person in communication with his neighbor, regardless of rank, or external unpretentiousness, and even the comicality of some individual person. One of the lyrical climaxes of the story is the case of a young official who, following the example of others, began to mock Akaky Akakievich and heard in response only the helpless “Why are you offending me?”. This simple phrase had an amazing effect on the young official: “he suddenly stopped, as if pierced, and since then everything seemed to have changed before him and appeared in a different form. Some unnatural force pushed him away from the comrades he met, mistaking them for decent, secular people. And for a long time afterwards, in the midst of the most merry moments, he imagined a short official with a bald spot on his forehead, with his penetrating words: “Leave me, why do you offend me?” - and in these penetrating words other words rang: "I am your brother."
Gogol's humanist thought was expressed quite clearly in this episode. In general, it must be said that in interpreting the theme of the little man, Gogol, as it were, leaves for a while his gift of laughter, showing that laughing at a person, even the most insignificant one, is sinful and blasphemous, you should not laugh, but see your brother in him, pity , to be imbued with that invisible tragedy that appears on the surface at first as a reason for laughter, as an anecdote. Such is his interpretation of the little man in the story "Notes of a Madman". The story begins with an extremely funny sayings a mad official who imagines himself to be the Spanish king, and at first this is very funny and absurd. But the end of the story is completely different - tragic.
The theme of the little man was also reflected in Dead Souls. The largest and most significant inserted plot is devoted to this topic - the so-called "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin". Here we meet with the same Gogol motifs, with the initially comical figure of Captain Kopeikin, who, however, is put in tragic circumstances nothing more than bureaucratic indifference. At the same time, Gogol’s understanding of official relations here goes deeper: he no longer shows “excellency” as a stupid and heartless person, on the contrary, he would like to help Kopeikin and sympathize with him, but general order things is such that nothing can be done. The whole point is that the state bureaucratic machine does not care at all about the living specific person She's busy with bigger things. Here, Gogol's beloved idea that a dead bureaucratic form suppresses living life resounds with particular force.
It is noteworthy that Gogol, unlike his predecessors, is trying to show the awakening of the self-consciousness of a small person. True, this awakening is still timid, occurs in addition to the conscious will of the hero and often takes on fantastic, grotesque forms. In madness and megalomania, it is expressed in the Notes of a Madman, in death delirium - in Akaky Akakievich. But after all, it is not by chance that the same Akaky Akakievich, after death, was given the ability to live and take revenge on his tormentors, tearing off their overcoats; it is no coincidence that captain Kopeikin goes to the robbers. All this shows that even the most meek and unresponsive little person can be brought to the point where the courage of despair rises in him. This process of awakening self-consciousness in a small person, captured by Gogol at the very first, initial stage, is very important for the further development of this theme in Russian literature.
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The theme of the "little man" in literature Gogol developed in St. Petersburg stories. The “little man” is not a noble man, but a poor man, insulted by people of higher rank, driven to despair. But it’s not just not a clergyman, but it’s a socio-psychological type, that is, a person who feels his powerlessness in front of life. Sometimes he is able to protest. A life catastrophe always leads to the rebellion of the "little man", but the outcome of the protest is madness, death. (“The Nose”, “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Notes of a Madman”, “Portrait”, “Overcoat”). Petersburg struck Gogol with pictures of profound social contradictions and tragic social catastrophes. According to Gogol, Petersburg is a city where human relations are distorted, vulgarity triumphs, and talents perish. It is in this terrible, crazy city that amazing incidents occur with the official Poprishchin. It is here that poor Akaky Akakievich has no life. Gogol's heroes go crazy or die in an unequal struggle with the cruel conditions of reality. Man and the inhuman conditions of his social existence - main conflict, underlying the Petersburg stories.
Gogol purposefully defended the right to portray the "little man" as an object of literary research.
In the story "The Overcoat" Gogol addresses the world of officials, and his satire becomes harsh and merciless. This short story made a huge impression on the readers. Gogol, following other writers, came to the defense of the "little man" - an intimidated, powerless, miserable official. He expressed the most sincere, warmest and most sincere sympathy for the destitute person in the beautiful lines of the final argument about the fate and death of one of the many victims of heartlessness and arbitrariness.
Gogol's "little man" is limited by his social position, and spiritually limited by it. In fact, the spiritual aspirations of Akaky Akakievich are simple - this is a calm life, no changes. His relatives are favorite letters, his favorite is an overcoat. He doesn't care about his appearance, which is also a reflection of self-esteem in a person.
Gogol says that Akaky Akakievich has no self-consciousness. Bashmachkin has only one feeling in full - fear. The hero of Gogol dies not from humiliation and insult, but from fear, frightened by the “scoldling” of a “significant person”.
Everything in Akaki Akakievich was ordinary: both his appearance and his inner spiritual humiliation. Gogol truthfully portrayed his hero as a victim of unjust activities. In The Overcoat, the tragic and the comic complement each other. The author sympathizes with his hero, and at the same time sees his mental limitations and laughs at him. For the entire time of his stay in the department, Akaki Akakievich did not advance at all through the ranks. Gogol shows how limited and miserable was the world in which Akaky Akakievich existed, content with squalid housing, dinner, a shabby uniform and an overcoat coming apart from old age. Gogol laughs, but he laughs not just at Akaky Akakievich, he laughs at the whole society.
But Akaky Akakievich had his own "poetry of life", which had the same humiliated character as his whole life. In copying papers, he "saw some kind of diverse and pleasant world of his own."
He expressed the most sincere, warmest and most sincere sympathy for the destitute person in the beautiful lines of the final argument about the fate and death of one of the many victims of heartlessness and arbitrariness.
Bashmachkin - "eternal titular adviser." The senseless clerical service killed every living thought in him. His only pleasure was in copying papers. He lovingly drew letters in even handwriting and completely immersed himself in work, forgetting the insults caused to him by his colleagues, and poverty, and worries about daily bread.
But even in this downtrodden official, a man woke up when the goal of life appeared - a new overcoat. “He even became somehow more alive, even firmer in character. He thinks about it, as another person thinks about love, about family. So he orders a new overcoat for himself, and "... his existence has become somehow fuller ...". The description of the life of Akaky Akakievich is permeated with irony, but there is both pity and sadness in it.
The victim of Petersburg, poverty and arbitrariness is Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin - the hero of the story "The Overcoat". “He was what is called the eternal titular adviser. The author does not hide an ironic grin when he describes the limitedness and squalor of his hero. Gogol emphasizes the typicality of Akaky Akakievich: “One official Bashmachkin served in one department - a timid man, crushed by fate, a downtrodden, dumb creature, resignedly enduring the ridicule of his colleagues. Akaky Akakievich "did not answer a single word" and behaved as if "as if there were no one in front of him" when his colleagues "poured papers on his head." And such a person was seized by an all-devouring passion to acquire a new overcoat. At the same time, the power of passion and its object are incommensurable. This is the irony of Gogol: after all, the solution of a simple everyday problem is elevated to a high pedestal. When Akaky Akakiyevich was robbed, in a fit of despair he turned to a "significant person." It is the general's scene that reveals the social tragedy of the "little man" with the greatest force. Gogol emphasizes the social meaning of the conflict, when the wordless and timid Bashmachkin, only in his deathbed delirium, begins to utter the most terrible words. And only the dead Akaki Akakievich is capable of rebellion and revenge. The ghost, in which the poor official was recognized, begins to rip off the overcoats "from all shoulders, without disassembling, rank and rank."
Introducing us into the spiritual world of the hero, describing his feelings, thoughts, dreams, joys and sorrows, the author makes it clear what happiness it was for Bashmachkin to acquire an overcoat and what a disaster its loss turns into. In the finale, a “small” timid person, driven to despair by the world of the strong, protests against this world.
One of the most tragic stories, no doubt - "Notes of a Madman". The hero of the work is Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin, a small official offended by everyone. He is a nobleman, very poor and does not pretend to anything. With a sense of dignity, he sits in the director's office and sharpens feathers "for his excellency", filled with the greatest respect for the director. “All learning, such learning that our brother doesn’t even have an attack ... What importance in the eyes ... Not our brother is a couple!” - speaks about the director Poprishchin. In his opinion, a person's reputation is created by rank. It is the man who is decent who has high rank, position, money, - so says Aksenty Ivanovich. The hero is poor in spirit, his inner world is shallow and miserable; but Gogol did not want to laugh at him, Poprishchin's consciousness is upset, and the question suddenly sinks into his head: "Why am I a titular adviser?" and “why a titular adviser?”. Poprishchin finally loses his mind and raises a rebellion: an offended human dignity wakes up in him. He thinks why he is so powerless, why "what is best in the world, everything goes to either the chamber junkers or the generals." As the madness intensifies in Poprishchina, the feeling human dignity. At the end of the story, he, morally enlightened, cannot stand it: “No, I no longer have the strength to endure. God! what are they doing to me! What did I do to them? Why are they torturing me?" Poprishchin is a product and a victim of this world. The cry of the hero in the finale of the story absorbed all the insults and sufferings of the "little man".
N.V. Gogol revealed in his "Petersburg Tales" and other stories the true side of the life of the capital and the life of officials. critical realism Gogol revealed and helped to develop this theme to the writers of the future like no other.
In "Petersburg Notes" of 1836, Gogol puts forward the idea of a socially saturated art from a realistic position, which notices the common elements of our society, moving its springs. He gives a remarkably deep definition of realistic art, following romanticism, embracing the old and the new with its effective look. Gogol's realism contains the disclosure of the complexity of life, its movement, the birth of the new. A realistic view is affirmed in the work of N.V. Gogol in the second half of the 1930s.
"Petersburg Tales", especially "The Overcoat", were of great importance for all subsequent literature, the establishment in it of the social-humanistic trend and the natural school. Creativity N.V. Gogol greatly enriched Russian literature.
So obvious were the delays of the bureaucracy, the problem of “higher” and “lower”, that it was impossible not to write about it. exclaims Gogol, as if in surprise. But even more surprising is the ability of Gogol himself to reveal with such depth the essence of the social contradictions of the life of a huge city in short description only one street - Nevsky Prospekt.
After "Petersburg Tales" Gogol does not leave the theme of the relationship between the "little man" and the bureaucratic world of the capital. This theme constantly lives in every work, he never misses an opportunity not to say two or three caustic words about her.
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A poem from Pushkin about love.
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"Overcoat".
The main idea of the "Overcoat" is very sublime. It can be said with certainty that this small work, in terms of the depth of the idea, stands above everything written by Gogol. In "The Overcoat" he does not expose anyone. Gogol speaks here with an evangelical sermon of love for one's neighbors; he in the image of a hero draws a “poor in spirit”, a “small” person, “insignificant”, inconspicuous and claims that this creature is worthy and human love and even respect. It was difficult to put forward such a "bold" idea at a time when the average public was still under the influence of the spectacular heroes of Marlinsky and his imitators, and all the more credit to Gogol that he decided to say his word in defense of the hero "humiliated and insulted", not even afraid put him on a pedestal.
The little man from The Overcoat - Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, a low-ranking official, offended by fate and people, not endowed with any abilities other than the ability to beautifully rewrite papers (see his description in the text of the work), is represented by Gogol as a man who not only conscientiously, but even lovingly doing his job. This business, copying papers, is the whole meaning and only joy of his lonely, half-starved life, he dreams of nothing else, strives for nothing, and is incapable of anything else. When the hero of the "Overcoat" in the form of an increase was given independent work, he was unable to fulfill it and asked to be left in correspondence. This consciousness of his spiritual impotence bribes the viewer, disposes him in favor of the modest Bashmachkin.
Gogol "Overcoat". Illustration by P. Fedorov
But Gogol in his story demands respect for this man, who, in words gospel parable, "one talent" was given, and this "talent" was not buried by him in the ground. Bashmachkin, according to Gogol, is superior to gifted officials who occupy prominent positions, but carelessly perform their duties.
But not only respect for Bashmachkin, as a modest and honest worker, Gogol demands in his story, he demands love for him as a "man". This is the high moral idea of the Overcoat.
Not hoping that modern readers will be able to understand this work and understand its “idea”, Gogol himself reveals it, depicting the state of mind of one sensitive young man who, thanks to a meeting with the “little man” Bashmachkin, understood the great feeling of Christian love for others. Selfish and frivolous young people, in bureaucratic uniforms, loved to make fun of the ridiculous and meek old man. The hero of The Overcoat dutifully endured everything, only occasionally repeating in a pathetic voice: “Leave me! Why do you offend me?" And Gogol continues:
“And there was something strange about the words and the voice with which they were spoken. There was something in him that bowed to pity, that one young man, who, following the example of others, had allowed himself to laugh at him, suddenly stopped, as if pierced, and since then, as if everything had changed in front of him and seemed in a different way. Some unnatural force pushed him away from the comrades he met, mistaking them for decent, secular people. And for a long time afterwards, in the midst of the most merry moments, he would imagine a short official, with a bald head on his forehead, with his penetrating words: "Leave me! Why do you offend me?" And in these penetrating words other words rang out: "I am your brother!" And the poor young man covered himself with his hand, and later on he shuddered many times in his lifetime, seeing how much inhumanity is in a person, how much ferocious rudeness is hidden in refined, educated secularism and, God! even in that person whom the world recognizes as noble and honest!”
The little man Bashmachkin lived inconspicuously and died just as unknown, forgotten ... His life was not rich in impressions. That is why the biggest events in her were the terrifying realization that he needed to buy a new overcoat, joyful dreams about this overcoat, his delight when the overcoat was on his shoulders, and, finally, his torment when this overcoat was stolen from him and when it turned out to be impossible to find it ... All these various feelings associated with an overcoat, a hurricane burst into his existence and crushed him into a short time. The hero of The Overcoat died from the same insignificant cause as the Gogol old-world landowners, and this happened for the same reason: his life was too empty, and therefore every chance grew to gigantic proportions in this empty life. What for another person living full life would be an unpleasant, but secondary circumstance, then for Bashmachkin it became the only content life.
It should also be noted that Gogol's "Overcoat" is organically connected with the Russian novel of the 18th and early XIX centuries. Gogol had predecessors in Russian literature who also portrayed little people. Among the works of Chulkov there is a story "A Bitter Fate", in which an official is deduced - the prototype of Bashmachkin. The same insignificant petty existence of the hero, the same sympathetic, humane attitude of the author towards him. And sentimentalism brought with it the preaching of love for the little man, and Karamzin made a great discovery in his Poor Liza: “peasant women can feel too.” Behind his “Flor Silin, the virtuous peasant”, images of various little people became favorite in our literature, in whose hearts the authors revealed high feelings of love for people, for their homeland, for their duty. Pushkin in Masha Mironova and her parents revealed in the hearts of rustic Russian people the whole world elevated feelings. In a word, this humane, noble attention to those little people, by whom the crowd indifferently passes, has become a tradition of Russian literature, and therefore Gogol's "Overcoat" is organically connected with all previous Russian fiction. Gogol said in "The Overcoat" a "new word" only in the sense that he found the sublime in the "funny", "miserable" and managed to embody his idea as artistically as his predecessor in the 18th century, Chulkov, failed to do.
Gogol "Overcoat". audiobook
Gogol's story is of great importance for subsequent Russian literature. “We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat!” - said Dostoevsky, and, indeed, many of his stories, stories, the most humane in mood, respond to the influence of Gogol. All the first works of Dostoevsky ("Poor people", "Humiliated and insulted"), all this is the development of Gogol's humane ideas, embodied in his "Overcoat". Foreign criticism notes that one of the most characteristic features Russian literature must recognize the tendency to preach compassion for the fallen brother, or in general for the unfortunate, offended by fate and people. This is indeed our literary tradition, and in the history of the strengthening and development of love for the “little man”, the touching “Overcoat” by Gogol occupies the most prominent place.
Well-known literary critic Yu.V. Mann, in his article “One of Gogol’s Deepest Creations,” writes: “We, of course, laugh at the limitations of Akaky Akakievich, but at the same time we see his gentleness, we see that he is generally outside the selfish calculations, selfish motives that excite other people . As if before us is a creature not of this world.
And in fact, the soul and thoughts of the protagonist Akaky Akakievich remain unsolved and unknown to the reader. Only his belonging to the "small" people is known. There are no high human feelings. Not smart, not kind, not noble. He's just a biological entity. And you can love and pity him only because he is also a man, “your brother,” as the author teaches.
This was the problem that the fans of N.V. Gogol has been interpreted in different ways. Some believed that Bashmachkin was a good person, just offended by fate. The essence, which consists of a number of virtues for which it must be loved. One of its main virtues is that it is capable of protest. Before his death, the hero of the story “rages”, threatening a “significant person” in delirium: “... he even slandered, uttering terrible words, ... especially since these words followed directly after the word “your excellency”. After his death, Bashmachkin appears in the form of a ghost on the streets of St. Petersburg and tears off the overcoats from "significant persons", accusing the state, its entire bureaucracy of facelessness and indifference.
The opinion of critics and contemporaries of Gogol about Akaky Akakievich diverged. Dostoevsky saw in The Overcoat "a ruthless mockery of man"; critic Apollon Grigoriev - "common, worldly, Christian love," and Chernyshevsky called Bashmachkin "a complete idiot."
In this work, Gogol touches on the hated world of officials - people without morality and principles. This story made a huge impression on the readers. The writer, as a true humanist, came to the defense of the "little man" - an intimidated, powerless, pitiful official. He expressed the most sincere, warmest and most sincere sympathy for the destitute person in the beautiful lines of the final argument about the fate and death of one of the many victims of heartlessness and arbitrariness.
The story "The Overcoat" made a strong impression on contemporaries.
The work "Overcoat" is one of the best works of N.V. Gogol to the present day. (V. G. Belinsky, Poln. sobr. soch., Vol. VI. - P. 349), this was the premiere opening of the "little man" to the general public. "A colossal work" called "Overcoat" Herzen.
The phrase became famous: “We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat. Whether Dostoevsky really said these words is unknown. But whoever said them, it is no accident that they became "winged". A lot of important things “left” from The Overcoat, from Gogol's St. Petersburg stories.
“The inner fate of the personality is the true theme of Dostoevsky’s first, “bureaucratic” works,” says the young critic V.N. Maykov, successor to V.G. Belinsky in the critical section of Otechestvennye Zapiski. Arguing with Belinsky, he declared: “Both Gogol and Mr. Dostoevsky portray real society. But Gogol is primarily a social poet, while Mr. Dostoevsky is primarily a psychological one. For one, an individual is important as a representative of a well-known society, for another, the society itself is interesting in terms of its influence on the personality of the individual ”(Maikov V.N. Literary criticism. - L., 1985. - p. 180).
