Poem N.V. Gogol " Dead Souls» was created in the 40s XIX years centuries. He did not work on any of his works, including The Inspector General, with such enthusiasm, with such faith in his vocation as a citizen writer, with which he created Dead Souls. He did not devote as much deep creative thought, hard work and time to any other work as to his poem. In terms of general social orientation, "Dead Souls" are in direct connection with the "Inspector General". Those great social tasks that the writer set himself, creating a social comedy, inspired him in his work on the first volume of the poem-novel.
The essence of your relationship social reality the author of "Dead Souls" vividly revealed in a lyrical digression that opens the seventh chapter of the poem, Gogol compares two writers here. One of them “fumigated human eyes with an intoxicating smoke; he wonderfully flattered them, hiding the sad in life, showing them beautiful person”, the other dared to call out“ all the terrible, amazing mire of trifles that have entangled our lives ... and with the strong power of an inexorable cutter, expose them convexly and brightly that people’s eyes! The fate of such a writer is universal condemnation: “without an answer, without participation, like a familyless traveler, he will be left alone in the middle of the road.” Demonstrating this hard destiny of an advanced realist writer, Gogol had in mind his own literary fate and, in particular, the attitude of society that awaited him when Dead Souls appeared.
The accusatory pathos of Gogol is especially noticeable in the depiction of the world of provincial officials. So much to understand inner world officials gives scene to civil chamber, where Chichikov had to make a bill of sale, draw up and sign papers that made him the owner of four hundred souls. The offices were located in a large three-story stone house, painted white. Wanting to emphasize the "incorruptibility" of the officials working there, Gogol remarks about the house: "... white as chalk, probably to depict the purity of the souls of the positions placed in it." Describing in detail the office rooms and busy officials, Gogol draws big picture desolation: “Neither in the corridors, nor in the rooms, their eyes were struck by cleanliness ... what was dirty remained dirty, not taking on an attractive appearance.” Chichikov and Manilov, passing between the tables, saw everyone busy with their work. Nobody seemed to care about them. And yet, when they turned to two still young officials with the question of where they could make a bill of sale, they received no answer. Only one pointed his finger at the far table in the corner of the room. The old man directed them to Ivan Antonovich. Having received the necessary certificate, Chichikov gives a bribe to an official named Ivan Antonovich "Pitcher Snout" to speed up the case, but the bribe-giving goes on as if imperceptibly: Ivan Antonovich immediately covers the paper with a book, and it disappears without a trace. Finally Chichikov gets to the chairman of the Presence Chamber. He meets Sobakevich, who was here by chance. Chichikov asks to make a bill of sale as soon as possible, since he urgently needs to leave. The dialogue between the characters reveals the features of their inner world and outlook on life. So, the chairman is courtesy itself. Being familiar with Chichikov, he shows attention and courtesy, “Everything will be done, and you don’t give anything to officials, I ask you about this. My friends don't have to pay." However, he does not particularly delve into the essence of the transaction. Sobakevich, who is present during the conversation, speaks of Plyushkin in his usual harsh manner: "The dog, the swindler, starved all people to death."
Knowing the story of Chichikov's purchase of "dead souls", he decides to tickle Chichikov's nerves and says: "Yes, why don't you tell Ivan Grigorievich what exactly you have acquired; and you, Ivan Grigoryevich, why don't you ask what acquisition they made? After all, what a people! just gold. After all, I sold them the coachman Mikheev. The chairman knew that the coachman Mikheev had died, which he told Sobakevich about. But he, not at all embarrassed, says that he did not mean brother Mikheev, who died, but the coachman himself. Further, Sobakevich continues to enumerate the merits of the dead peasants who ended up in Chichikov's papers. When asked by the chairman what he was going to do with the purchased peasants, Chichikov replied that he intended to “take out” the purchased souls to new lands, to the Kherson province. The chairman spoke with great praise about the growth of the grasses there. “Is there enough land?” - he asked. Chichikov assured the chairman that there was enough land and that there was a river and a pond. Chichikov's lies did not seem to surprise Sobakevich at all, in any case, he "was still motionless."
The transaction is completed in the presence of witnesses. Chichikov pays only half of the fee to the treasury, and "the other, in some unknown way, was attributed to some other petitioner." This also affected the "courtesy" of the chairman. After the successful completion of the case, everyone went to dinner at the police chief. The chairman calls the chief of police a miracle worker: “He only has to blink, passing by a fish row or a cellar, so we, you know, will have a bite!”
Analysis of the scene of registration of the bill of sale by Chichikov helps to vividly present the order in public places tsarist Russia. Provincial officials, in essence, are no different from the county officials previously drawn by Gogol in the comedy The Inspector General The same venality and the same arbitrariness reign here as in the county town; bribery flourishes (which is worth one Ivan Antonovich - "jug snout"!), The same ignorance and arbitrariness.
Gogol, with exceptional skill, knew how to connect his heroes with a specific everyday and historical situation. The strength of his portrayal lay in the fact that he took everything from life, from reality, skillfully selecting from a multitude of random facts and phenomena those in which the social tendencies of his time were most clearly manifested. Gogol was great master details, both psychological and everyday.
Describing Chichikov's meeting with Manilov before coming to the government offices, Gogol adds some details to the previously given characterization of Manilov, depicting the "beautiful soul" and emptiness of the hero. The paper containing the list of sold peasants is tied with a pink ribbon, written in a beautiful, ornate handwriting, decorated with a beautiful border. Manilov himself tires Chichikov with his cloying courtesy and courtesy.
An important element in the depiction of the hero in Dead Souls is his portrait. actors poems, to make them memorable, Gogol skillfully recreates the external features of the hero, his gestures, demeanor. Suffice it to recall the portrait of Ivan Antonovich: "... the entire middle of his face protruded forward and went into his nose - in a word, it was that face that is called in the hostel a jug snout." Bright, humorous metaphor, exceptional expressiveness, picturesqueness are hallmarks author's narrative speech in Dead Souls.
Gogol's "Dead Souls" had a powerful impact both on Russian literature and on the development of public consciousness. Effective value for Russian literature, satire, Gogol's realism was unusually deeply and truly revealed by N. Nekrasov's poem - "Blessed is the gentle poet". It has lines that surprisingly resonate with ideas and images digression that opens the seventh chapter:
- Breast fed with hatred
- Mouth armed with satire,
- He walks a thorny path
- With his punishing lyre.
- From all sides they curse him,
- And only seeing his corpse,
- How much he did, they will understand
- And how he loved - hating.
The role of the episode in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls" "Chichikov at Nozdryov"
History of creation:
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol worked on the poem "Dead Souls" abroad. The first volume was published in 1841. The writer planned to write a poem in three parts. His task in this work was to show Rossi with negative side, as he himself said - "from one side."
This poem shows a separate landowner Chichikov, Russian society, Russian people, economy (landlords' economy).
The name "Dead Souls", I think it has double meaning. On the one hand, N.V. Gogol included in the name the souls of the dead peasants, about whom so much is said in the poem. On the other hand, these are the "Dead Souls" of the landlords. The writer showed here all the callousness, the emptiness of the soul, the emptiness of life, all the ignorance of the landowners.
The story about Captain Kopeikin shows the attitude of officials towards common people, the fact that the state does not respect people who gave their health, and in many cases their lives for it; that the state for which they fought in the war of 1812 does not fulfill its promises, does not care about these people.
There are many episodes in this poem. They, I think, can be divided even into groups. One group is the episodes of Chichikov's visits to the landowners. I think this group is the most important in the poem. I want to describe, perhaps even comment on, one episode from this group - this is the episode when Chichikov visits the landowner Nozdryov. The action took place in the fourth chapter.
Chichikov, after visiting Korobochka, stopped by the tavern for lunch and to give the horses a rest. He asked the hostess of the tavern about the landlords, and, as usual, Chichikov began to ask the hostess about the family, about life. When he was talking, eating at the same time, the sound of the wheels of the approaching carriage was heard. Nozdryov and his companion, son-in-law Mezhuev, got out of the britzka.
Then we went to the office. There they had a quarrel because of the unwillingness of our hero to play cards. Before the quarrel, Chichikov offered to buy "dead souls" from Nozdryov. Nozdryov began to set his own conditions, but Chichikov did not accept any of them.
Chichikov was left alone after the conversation.
The next day they began to play checkers on the condition: if our hero wins, then his souls, if he loses, then “no, and there is no trial.” The author characterizes Nozdryov as follows: “He was of medium height, a very well-built fellow, with full, pleasant cheeks, teeth as white as snow, and sideburns as black as pitch. He was fresh, like blood with straw; health seemed to spurt from his face.”
Nodrev joined our hero, told about the fair, that he was blown to smithereens there. Then Chichikov, Nozdryov and son-in-law Mezhuev went to Nozdrevaya. After supper, son-in-law Mezhuev left. Chichikov and Nozdryov, as usual, began to “cheat”. Chichikov noticed this and was indignant, after which a quarrel ensued, they began to wave their hands at each other. Nozdryov called his servants Pavlusha and Porfiry and began to shout to them: “Beat him, beat him!” Chichikov turned pale, his soul "went into his heels." And if it weren’t for the police captain, who entered the room to announce to Nozdryov that he was in custody regarding the infliction of personal insult with rods in a drunken state on the landowner Maximov; to be our hero severely crippled. While the captain was announcing the notice to Nozdryov, Chichikov quickly took his hat, went downstairs, got into the britzka and ordered Selifan to drive the horses at full speed.
I think the theme of this episode was to show, characterize the person who played not last role in the life of our hero. In my opinion,
N.V. Gogol also wanted to show with this episode all the “recklessness” of the young landowners, among whom was Nozdryov. Here the writer showed how young landowners like Nozdryov, and in principle, like all landowners, do nothing else, how they “stagger” around balls and fairs, play cards, drink “godlessly”, think only about themselves and how to salt others.
Episode Role :
This episode played big role in the poem, Nozdryov, annoyed by Chichikov during the time when he came to him, betrayed him at the governor's ball. But Chichikov was saved by the fact that everyone knew Nozdryov as a liar, a hypocrite, a bully, so his words were perceived as “nonsense of a madman”, as a joke, as a lie, whatever, but not as the truth.
While reading this episode, my impressions changed from beginning to end. At the beginning of the episode, the actions were not very interesting for me: this is when Chichikov met Nozdryov, as they were driving to his house. Then, little by little, I began to resent Nozdryov's boorish behavior - this is when, after dinner, Chichikov offered to buy "dead souls" from him, and Nozdryov began to wonder why he needed this. All Chichikov's attempts to hang noodles on Nozdryov's ears were stopped by him. Nozdryov said that Chichikov was a big swindler and that if he were his boss, he would hang him on the first tree. While reading, I was outraged by this behavior of Nozdryov in relation to Chichikov, after all, Chichikov is his guest.
Then exciting actions took place, this is when the next day after Chichikov's arrival at Nozdryov's they began to play checkers. I have already made this point. I was worried about the atmosphere that heated up during the game of checkers; things were going to a quarrel, a fight.
There were a lot of events in this episode, but I have impressions about these actions.
First, let's see how the author describes the tavern: “A darkened, narrow, hospitable wooden canopy on carved wooden posts, similar to old church candlesticks; the tavern was something like a Russian hut, somewhat big size, carved patterned cornices made of fresh wood around the windows and under the roof sharply and vividly dazzled its dark walls; jugs of flowers were painted on the shutters; narrow wooden staircase, wide vestibule. The interior of the tavern: a frost-covered samovar, scraped walls, a three-corner cupboard with teapots and cups in the corner, gilded porcelain testicles in front of images hanging on blue and red ribbons, a recently drenched cat, a mirror showing four eyes instead of two, and some kind of face instead of cake; finally, fragrant herbs and carnations stuck in bunches near the images, dried up to such an extent that those who wanted to sniff them only sneezed, and nothing more.
Let's move on to the description of Nozdryov's household: in the house in the middle of the dining room there were wooden goats. There were two mares in the stable, one dappled gray, the other kaurai, a bay stallion, empty stalls; a pond, a water mill, where there was not enough fluff; forge. Nozdryov’s office: “There were no traces of books or paper in it, only sabers and two guns hung.” This suggests that Nozdryov was not interested in anything, did not take care of his household, everything was running.
The hero's inner world in this episode:
Let's pay attention to the inner world of our hero in this episode. Here Chichikov at some points did not know what to answer Nozdryov to his annoying questions. It is in such moments when Nozdryov asked him: “Why do you need them (dead souls)?”
In this episode, Chichikov, I think, felt embarrassed because of the boorish behavior of Nozdryov: he was offended by him, since the pride of our hero was affected. After Chichikov quarreled with Nozdryov after dinner because he did not play cards with him, he remained in the most unfavorable mood. The author describes his thoughts and feelings this way: But he scolded himself even more for having spoken to Nozdryov about the matter, acted imprudently, like a child, like a fool: for the matter was not at all of the kind to be entrusted to Nozdryov. Nozdryov is a rubbish man, Nozdryov can lie, add, spread a rumor and the devil knows what gossip, not good, not good. "I'm just a fool," he said to himself.
I think that in this episode Chichikov behaved tolerantly, restrained, despite the boorish behavior of Nozdryov. But this is understandable, because our hero wants to achieve his goal at any cost.
In my opinion, the author wanted to show with this episode that not everything in life is as simple as one would like. That if everything went well with Korobochka, then everything went very abnormally with Nozdryov - in life there are both white and black stripes.
I also think that this episode teaches us that we need to know a person very well, to study him carefully before trusting. After all, what happened with Chichikov: he trusted Nozdryov about the “dead souls”, and Nozdryov betrayed him, telling everyone about this case.
But I repeat, Chichikov was saved by the fact that everyone considers Nozdryov a liar, no one believed him. Such luck may not happen in life.
Poem N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" is an attempt by the author to show the whole life of Russia, to comprehend the character of the Russian people, to determine further ways its development. Sam N.V. Gogol said that the plot of "Dead Souls" is good because "it gives complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a multitude of the most diverse characters." Therefore, such important role in the poem plays the motive of the road, travel. On the hero's journeys, he encounters random encounters (getting lost, he came to Korobochka, unexpectedly met Nozdryov in a tavern), various incidents, sometimes unpleasant (the drunken Selifan overturned the carriage into the mud). An episode from Chapter V - a clash of carriages - happens to the hero on the way to Sobakevich and is also of no small importance for revealing ideological content poems.
Chichikov leaves Nozdryov in a bad mood, agitated by the fear he has experienced. A bad opinion about Nozdryov was formed by Selifan and even by horses who did not receive oats. The travelers' thoughts were interrupted suddenly: a "carriage with six horses" ran over them, and the harness of the two carriages got mixed up. The swearing and swearing of both coachmen was aggravated by the advice of the runaway village peasants on how to disengage the carriages. The horses were bred, but they did not move further and "stood as if rooted to the spot." In an attempt to move them from their place, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay help the coachmen - episodic characters, distinguished by strength and at the same time by extreme stupidity, and until the driver drove them away, it was not possible to make the horses go. These two village peasants are episodic persons, as already mentioned, but they both make up the collective image of the Russian people. Like the girl who does not know where the right is, where the left is, like the drinking Selifan, and the illiterate Petrushka, the stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay are the real characters of the Russian people. Yes, Gogol portrays them in an unattractive light, but this is what artistic skill and objectivity of the author. Not to embellish reality, but to show it as it is - that is the task of an honest artist. And if the Russian people are not only industrious and talented, but also wild, ignorant, prone to drunkenness, then this is not their fault, but their misfortune, for which more responsibility should be borne. educated part society in whose power these peasants are.
Another significant moment of this meeting is the impression made on Chichikov by the passengers of the ill-fated carriage. Two frightened women were sitting in it - an old woman and a young girl, apparently just released from the institute where she was brought up. The girl is pretty, but more than that, she is surprisingly natural. And Chichikov thinks about this, that her main attraction is in this sincerity and immediacy. “She is now like a child, everything in her is simple, she will say what she wants, she will laugh where she wants to laugh.” But it will not remain so: women's upbringing involved memorized gestures, common phrases, cutesy behavior, manners skillfully designed for a certain impression. Mothers and aunts will take up her upbringing, teach hypocrisy, and the girl "finally begins to lie all her life", which is usual for secular society. Chichikov regrets her future, but he would not be Chichikov if he did not consider whose daughter she is and whether she has a good dowry. He is even annoyed with himself why he did not ask who these ladies were, and only the village of Sobakevich, which appeared in the distance, dispelled these thoughts of his. However, this meeting is not at all so accidental: in the future, Chichikov will again meet a beautiful stranger. Not only will she turn out to be the daughter of the governor, - the preference given to her by Chichikov among best ladies, will make an innocent girl the subject of conversation and gossip, will show what the envious ladies of the provincial city are capable of.
Thus, a seemingly insignificant episode that happened on the way with the hero will play a role in further events, and also give the author the opportunity to add some thoughts about in a collective way Russian people, about the nature of women's education in Russia and the role of women in secular society.
Chichikov at Manilov's (the role of the episode in the poem "Dead Souls")
In the poem "Dead Souls" Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol showed the collapse of the old way of life in Russia and the birth of new, capitalist relations. In the image of Chichikov, the writer revealed the character of a swindler, ready for any scam, just to get rich. God did not give Pavel Ivanovich wealth, but he did not deprive him of a quick-witted and inventive mind. We meet him on the pages of the poem, when the hero travels from landowner to landowner, trying to acquire more dead souls in order to get rich through forgery and deceit.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a master of detail, in the poem "Dead Souls" he creates a whole gallery of images of landowners, giving everyone individual traits that belong only to him. The work is, as it were, assembled from separate bright episodes, and together they make up beautiful work included in the treasury of Russian classics.
Important in the chain of episodes is the arrival of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov to the landowner Manilov, this is the very beginning of his big scam. Gogol shows the negligent owner of the estate, busy with meaningless and fruitless dreams, not wanting and not able to arrange his life. "The manor's house stood alone on a jura, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds, whatever it takes to blow; the slope of the mountain on which it stood was dressed with trimmed turf. On it were scattered in English two or three flower beds with lilac bushes and yellow acacias... there was a gazebo with a flat earthen dome, wooden blue columns and the inscription: "Temple of solitary reflection..."
In every way the author emphasizes Manilov's claims to education and culture, but these are only external, superficial features that convince the reader of the opposite. Sons Manilov called ancient Greek names in the Roman manner: Femi Stoclus and Alcides, but meanwhile it is not enough to say that the landowner is not educated. Gogol gives an important detail that replaces many pages of comments. "In his office there was always some book, bookmarked on the fourteenth page, which he had been constantly reading for two years."
Manilov is not engaged in housekeeping at all - he is not interested in it. He loves to dream of building an underground passage or a stone bridge across a pond while sipping his pipe. A slacker and a lazybones, Manilov does not delve into anything, even unusual offer Chichikov about selling dead shower only momentarily puzzled him, but the same landowner cast aside all doubts. His "beautiful soul" does not allow one to doubt the nobility of Pavel Ivanovich. Manilov is not used to bothering his person with unnecessary worries, he immediately shifts them to others.
In the poem "Dead Souls" Gogol shows the perniciousness of serfdom for Russia as a whole. He reveals this problem from all sides. Depicting Manilov as an outwardly pleasant and kind person, Gogol showed that a soft-hearted loafer is no better than a villain, since he entrusts his farm and peasants to just anyone. This practice is also harmful because it corrupts the peasants, accustoming them to idleness; taking an example from the landowner, his serfs also do not want to do anything.
Manilov is also disgusting because he wants to wrap Chichikov's lies and baseness in a beautiful "package", tying up a list of dead souls belonging to him with a silk ribbon. That doesn't make a lie true. No wonder Gogol says about this character that he is "neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan." Frivolous and soulless, Manilov encourages the evil that is happening around, he does not want to see the truth of life.
In my opinion this is one of the best artistic images poems. Gogol did not succeed in this chapter for a long time. Indeed, it is difficult to portray an outwardly pleasant person so that he is so repulsive and unpleasant when examined in detail. The great Gogol succeeded brilliantly.
In the autumn of 1835, Gogol set to work on the poem "Dead Souls", the plot of which was suggested to him by Pushkin. Gogol had long dreamed of writing a novel about Russia, and was very grateful to Pushkin for the idea. “I want to show in this novel at least one ...
Among the characters Gogol's poem"Dead Souls" Chichikov occupies a special place. Being the central (in terms of plot and composition) figure of the poem, this hero, right up to the last chapter of the first volume, remains a mystery to everyone - not only to officials ...
Every era has its heroes. They determine its face, character, principles, ethical guidelines. With the advent of "Dead Souls" in Russian literature entered new hero not like its predecessors. The elusive, slippery is felt in the description of his appearance....
Work plan: 1. Introduction 2. Main part 2.1. Plushkin's estate 2.2. Feelings and emotions of Plyushkin, their manifestation 2.3. Plyushkin's path to complete degradation 2.4. The influence of loved ones on the fate of the protagonist 2.5. Appearance ...
“Covetousness takes away from people
most cherished feelings - love for
Fatherland, family love, love for
virtue and purity."
Sallust
Every artist has a work that he considers the main work of his life - a work in which he has invested his most cherished, innermost thoughts, all his heart.
Such a main work of Gogol's life was the poem "Dead Souls". It is in this work that art world writer. He followed the trail laid by L.S. Pushkin, but went his own way. Gogol's realism, like Pushkin's, was imbued with the spirit of fearless analysis. social phenomena modernity. But the peculiarity of Gogol's realism lies in the fact that the writer's ideal is, as it were, separated from the depiction of reality. Never before have the tragic contradictions of Russia's reality been so exposed as in the 1930s and 1940s. More recently, a huge semi-Asian country, frozen in despotism, in serfdom, experienced two great upheavals for it - the Pugachev uprising and 1812. They awakened the social and national identity in Russia. That is why ideal and reality are sharply separated in Gogol's work. The writer was convinced that in the conditions of contemporary Russia, the ideal and beauty of life can be expressed only through the denial of ugly reality. It was in the poem "Dead Souls" that the mighty power of Gogol's realism was most fully manifested. First of all, it is in the pathos of a fearless analysis of reality. Gogol not only portrayed evil, he tried to explain where it comes from, what gives rise to it.
The study of the material, material and everyday basis of life, its invisible features and the impoverished characters arising from it, firmly confident in their dignity and right, was Gogol's discovery in the history of Russian literature.
The artistic structure of "Dead Souls" is very peculiar. The plot consists of three externally closed, but internally very interconnected links: landowners, city officials and Chichikov's biography.
Almost all of these characters in "Dead Souls" are perceived by the reader as if double vision: we see them, firstly, as they, confident in themselves, in the truth of their life and the right to it, seem to themselves, and, secondly, as they, correlated with the ideal of the writer, are in fact. This contrast between the imaginary significance of the hero and his true insignificance, between seeming nobility and genuine baseness, is the source of deep comic and satire. Such is the gallery of portraits of landowners. However, perhaps the most bright episode, where this contrast between the living and the dead and the mortification of the living takes on an almost grotesque expression - this, of course, is an acquaintance with the landowner Plyushkin.
The episode of Chichikov's meeting with this "memorable" hero introduces something new into the typological differences between the characters in Dead Souls. This new thing that we feel in Plyushkin can be briefly conveyed by the word "development". This hero is given by Gogol in time and in change. Change - and change for the worse - gives rise to a minor dramatic tone of the sixth, critical chapter of the poem.
It is with this episode that the author's position gradually and imperceptibly enters the poem - an elegy of passing youth and life. Everything that is best in a person - his "youth", his "freshness", is irretrievably wasted on the roads of life. First, this theme is developed in relation to the image of the author. Then we see this in the description of Plyushkin's house. “This strange castle looked like some kind of decrepit invalid, long, unreasonably long.” Then this nostalgic motif can be traced in the picture of a neglected garden. “The old, vast garden stretching behind the house, overlooking the village and then disappearing into the field, overgrown and decayed, it seemed that alone refreshed this vast village and alone was quite picturesque in its picturesque desolation.” However, Gogol here complicates the topic: the garden is neglected, but beautiful, like everything in nature, as opposed to human vegetation and withering. This is how the story of Plyushkin's tragic changes is prepared, and the landscape becomes calling card hero.
Reading the lines devoted to the description of the Plushkin estate, you understand the features of Gogol's satire, which is often colored with irony. She rarely hits on the forehead, backhanded. The writer's laughter seems good-natured, but he spares no one.
The episode "Chichikov at Plyushkin" reveals one more feature in the construction of the system of images. All landowners before Plyushkin have no past. Ho is not like Plyushkin. “But there was a time when he was only a thrifty owner! he was married and a family man, and a neighbor came to dine with him, listen and learn from him housekeeping and wise stinginess ... Too strong feelings were not reflected in the features of his face, but the mind was visible in the eyes; his speech was permeated with experience and knowledge of the world, and it was pleasant for the guest to listen to him ... "
At first, Plyushkin is a person of a completely different mental organization. The core of the image will develop later. In the early Plyushkin, there are only possibilities for his future vice ("wise stinginess"). It is with the main character of our episode that for the first time the poem includes a biography and character history. For what?
The biography of Stepan Plyushkin not only reveals the real origins of his all-consuming passion (accumulation), it reflects the deepest degradation a person can reach in certain social conditions.
But the more the thirst for accumulation took possession of Plyushkin, the more insignificant his life, he himself, became.
The spiritual impoverishment of a person, his moral decline cause the author's feelings of bitterness and sorrow. It is in this episode that perhaps the greatest measure of the extinction of the human is shown. The greatest because Plyushkin was not always the same as he appears before us in the sixth chapter.
It is impossible not to mention such a revealing detail of the portrait of the hero of our episode as the eyes, the description of the eyes. The fact is that the eyes are the most vivid embodiment of spirituality. And here again the contrast between the living and the dead, the necrosis of the living is indicated precisely by the description of the eyes. It is said about Plyushkin's eyes: “... the small eyes have not yet gone out and run from under high-growing eyebrows, like mice, when, sticking out their pointed muzzles from dark holes, pricking up their ears and blinking their mustaches, they look out for a cat or a naughty lurking somewhere boy, and they sniff the very air suspiciously.
Truly great Gogol and in psychological characteristics their characters. Let's pay attention: he shows Plyushkin's stinginess in action and, what is especially remarkable, not in how he was stingy, but in how he "became generous". “Put down the samovar, you hear, but take the key and give it to Mavra to go to the pantry: there is a cracker from the Easter cake on the shelf, which Alexandra Stepanovna brought to serve it with tea! let him scrape it with a belt ... "
The complexity of the inner world of a person, the combination of light and shadows in it is realized as in the fabric of everything. artwork, as well as in the episode under consideration.
So, Plyushkin, having heard the name of his school friend, manifests himself from an unexpected side. “And on this wooden face a kind of warm ray suddenly glided, but a feeling was expressed, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling, a phenomenon similar to unexpected appearance on the surface of the waters of a drowning man ... "Ho this is only a minute.
For a moment the hero, as it were, ceased to be Plyushkin, in order to later become him again, and this time finally, irrevocably, forever.
Terrible stinginess created an impassable abyss between Plyushkin and his children. And in relation to them, he does not have any feelings, and for them he does not want to make any, further, the most insignificant sacrifices.
Plyushkin's hoarding turns into its own opposite, leading to the wildest, senseless destruction of values created by human labor. Hoarding and plunder, accumulation and destruction - all this is inseparable from each other, all this merges into a single process of his life.
This episode not only completes the gallery of landlord dead souls. Plyushkin among them is the most ominous symptom of an incurable deadly disease with which he is infected. feudal system, decay limit human personality in general, "a hole in humanity." That is why it seemed important to Gogol to reveal this character in development, to show how Plyushkin became Plyushkin.
This is probably why everything in this episode is strict and simple. This is prose in its full development and flourishing. How many native Russian words are here, which Gogol salted with Ukrainian humor: “... every tree is sewn, chiselled, lathed and wicker: barrels, crosses, tubs, lagoons, jugs with stigmas and without stigmas, brothers, baskets, mykolniki ... »
And the epithet, and metaphor, and comparison, and the entire vocabulary of this episode, as well as images, are in two plans. In terms of a socially sharp critical novel full to the brim with everyday squabbles and trifles, and in terms of a poem, dreamy and philosophical. The revelation of the poem was yet to come.
And gloomy, and gray, and ordinary, and vulgar - everything, even thrown into the pit, is lifted high by the flowing and sonorous prose of Gogol, the prose of a true poem.
