The character of the mayor in Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector"
The mayor - Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsy, is written out quite brightly in the comedy. He is one of the central figures, and it is around him and Khlestakov that the main action develops. The rest of the characters are half sketches. We only know their names and status, otherwise they are people very similar to the mayor, because they are the same field, live in the same county town, where “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” Yes, they are not so important, otherwise they would overshadow all the "splendor" of the figure of the Governor.
We meet with Gogol a lot of "talking" surnames. This technique is everywhere in his works. The Governor was no exception. Let's see what his surname tells about the character. According to Dahl's dictionary, a draftsman is "a cunning, sharp-sighted mind, a shrewd person, a rogue, a rogue, an experienced rogue and a creeper." But this is obvious. From the first lines of the work, we learn that the Governor will never miss what floats into his hands, and does not hesitate to take bribes, even with greyhound puppies. His caution also speaks of vigilance or clairvoyance. In society, this is a decent head of the city, who constantly goes to church, has a prosperous family and stands up for his residents. But let's not forget that a draftsman is also a swindler, and therefore he also oppresses merchants, and squanders government money, and flogs the people. There is also a second part of the name. Let's open Dal again and read that dmukhan is “pomp, pride, arrogance. arrogance, swagger." And, indeed, arrogance and swagger from Anton Antonovich does not hold. How delighted he was when he learned that his daughter was not marrying anyone, but a minister: “I myself, mother, am a decent person. However, really, what do you think, Anna Andreevna, what birds we have become now! What about Anna Andreevna? Fly high, damn it! Wait a minute, now I will put all these hunters to submit petitions and denunciations to the pepper. Here is our mayor.
However, let's see how the author himself describes Anton Antonovich to us in the author's remarks "for the gentlemen of the actors". “The mayor, already aged in the service and a very intelligent person in his own way. Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves very respectably; quite serious; somewhat even a reasoner; speaks neither loudly nor softly, neither more nor less. His every word is significant. His features are rough and hard, like those of anyone who has begun his service from the lower ranks. The transition from fear to joy, from rudeness to arrogance is quite quick, like a person with a roughly developed inclination of the soul. He is dressed, as usual, in his uniform with buttonholes and boots with spurs. His hair is cropped, with grey." Everything is important in these remarks, they allow us to understand how Gogol himself wanted to portray the hero, as opposed to how we, the readers, see him. Just as his last name can tell us a lot about the mayor, so the appearance can add touches to the portrait. A uniform uniform with buttonholes tells us that this is indeed a respectable person who does not like his orders to be discussed. In his town, he is the king and God, respectively, and he must have a proper appearance. But how interesting it is to observe his transformation when meeting with the so-called incognito auditor. The mayor begins to stutter and grovel, and may even give a bribe if he goes for it. But the veneration of rank was in use at that time, however, with the mayor it reaches the highest limit, he experiences such panic fear: “The mayor (trembling). Inexperience, by golly, inexperience. Insufficiency of the state ... If you please, judge for yourself: the state salary is not enough even for tea and sugar. If there were any bribes, then just a little: something on the table and for a couple of dresses. As for the non-commissioned officer's widow, engaged in the merchant class, whom I allegedly flogged, this is slander, by God, slander. This was invented by my villains; this is such a people that they are ready to encroach on my life.
The mayor is also rude, Gogol also tells us about this. Despite the high position he occupies, he is an uneducated person, there are many bad inclinations and vices in his soul, but he does not try to eradicate them, because he believes that this is how it should be. Stupidity and ignorance - these are the features that dominate the character of the Governor. Even his assurances that he serves honestly and impeccably are sewn through with white thread, and lies scream from every window. He does not even have enough intelligence to come up with something plausible in the face of the formidable Khlestakov, although before that he very deliberately warned his officials about the approaching danger: “There the merchants complained to Your Excellency. I assure you with honor, and half of what they say is not. They themselves deceive and measure the people. The non-commissioned officer lied to you that I whipped her; she's lying, by God, she's lying. She carved herself." Such curiosities are found in the county town.
But, of course, just as there are no only good or only bad people in the world, so book characters cannot be only positive or only negative. Although this can hardly be said about the characters of The Inspector General. But nevertheless, for some reason, we feel sorry for the end of the Governor, who was so cruelly deceived in Khlestakov. In general, it turns out that in comedy there is not a single positive hero, with the exception of Osip, Khlestakov's servant, who, however, is also a drunkard and a rogue. We are sad to see the collapse of the dream of Gorodnichiy, dreaming about blue ribbons and a house in St. Petersburg. Maybe he did not deserve such a fate, maybe his petty sins are not so terrible. But, I think, this punishment is quite fair, because we understand that the Governor will never improve, and it is unlikely that the incident with the auditor will serve as a lesson to him. Yes, and he is upset, first of all, because he did not see a swindler in Khlestakov, he himself is a rogue of rogues. Moreover, it’s a shame that “Look, look, the whole world, all Christianity, everyone, look how foolish the mayor is! Fool him, fool, old scoundrel! (He threatens himself with his fist.) Oh, you thick-nosed one! Icicle, rag mistook for an important person! There he is now flooding the whole road with a bell! Spread history around the world. Not only will you go into a laughingstock - there is a clicker, paper maraca, they will insert you into a comedy. That's what's embarrassing! Chin, the title will not spare, and they will all bare their teeth and clap their hands. What are you laughing at? “You are laughing at yourself!” he pronounces the sacramental at the end.
But indeed, the character of the Governor is a collective portrait of all the officials of that time. He absorbed all the shortcomings: servility, servility, envy, swagger, flattery. This list can be continued for a long time. The mayor becomes a kind of “hero of our time”, which is why he is written out so clearly, why his character is so clearly manifested, especially in crisis situations, and the whole life of the mayor throughout the “Inspector General” is a crisis. And in such crisis situations, Anton Antonovich is not used to, apparently, from a weakness of character. That's why the electric effect at the end. It is doubtful that the mayor will be able to agree with a real official. After all, all his life he deceived the same rogues as himself, and the rules of the game of another world are inaccessible to him. And therefore the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg for Anton Antonovich is like God's punishment. And there is no salvation from this, except to obey. But knowing the nature of the mayor, we can safely say that he will still make an attempt to appease the new auditor, without thinking about the fact that for a bribe “you can go to jail”, he does not see beyond his own nose, and pays for this in the finale: “The mayor in the middle in the form of a pillar, with outstretched arms and a head thrown back. Silent scene... Curtain!
Bibliography
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Fascination, then everyone to one would have gone over to the side of this honest person and would have completely forgotten about those who so frightened them now. "an honest face", which determines the meaning of the comedy. "Laughter" in "The Government Inspector" is imbued with faith in the "bright nature of man", in the spiritual forces of the people,
The parties can see the insignificance and emptiness of their worries. Thus, Gogol clearly shows the contrast between fussy external activity and internal ossification. "The Government Inspector" is a comedy of characters. Gogol's humor is psychological. Laughing at the characters in The Government Inspector, we, in Gogol's words, are laughing not at their "crooked nose, but at their crooked soul." The comic in Gogol is almost entirely devoted to the depiction of types. From here...
Destroyer. Gogol's absurd humor in The Government Inspector carries an explosive force that is terribly dangerous for order and hierarchy. Nicholas I thought that The Inspector General was useful for correcting the shortcomings of the system and said during the performance: "This is not a play, this is a lesson"; in fact, Gogol, with his unbridled laughter, destroys the system itself. Of course, Khlestakov is not a caricature of the tsar, but for officials he is an analogue of the autocrat, ...
Especially frightening and frightening. Khlestakov from the very beginning appears as an insignificant and worthless person. But the mayor will allow himself to speak about this only at the end of the whole story with the imaginary auditor, calling him a “whistle” and a “helicopter.” In the meantime, together with officials, he is trying to find significance in Khlestakov, and in his words and remarks there is a deep meaning. As for Khlestakov, he is not in ...
The provincial town, in which the action of Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" unfolds, is, in the full sense of the word, a "dark kingdom". Only Gogol's "laughter" with a bright beam cuts through the darkness in which the heroes of the comedy grovel. All these people are petty, vulgar, insignificant; not one of them even has a “spark of God” in his soul, they all live an unconscious, animal life. Gogol described the heroes of The Inspector General both as figures of the local administration and as private people, in their family life, in the circle of friends and acquaintances. These are not major criminals, not villains, but petty rogues, cowardly predators who live in eternal anxiety that the day of reckoning will come...
Gogol. Auditor. Performance 1982 Series 1
The Mayor in Gogol's The Government Inspector
In the person of the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Gogol brought out an official who lives by covetousness and embezzlement. Of all his fellow officials, who also live by bribes and extortion, he is the most impudent extortionist. "There has never been such a mayor, the merchants complain to Khlestakov, sir." Demanding gifts for himself and his family, he even celebrates his name day twice a year. This hero of the "Inspector General" not only takes advantage of the townsfolk, abusing the traditional "orders" of life, he also robs the treasury, entering into fraudulent deals with contractors, embezzling the money allocated for the construction of the church. The mitigating circumstance of the mayor's guilt is that he vaguely understands the ugliness of his covetousness and embezzlement. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky justifies himself 1) with a naive exclamation: “if I took something, then without any malice, 2) with a very common argument: “everyone does it.” “There is no person,” he says, who does not have sins behind him. This is how God himself arranged it, and the Voltairians speak against it in vain!”
In relation to the townsfolk, the mayor shows unlimited autocracy and arbitrariness: he gives the soldiers the wrong person, flogs innocent people.
Uneducated and rude in handling (conversation with merchants), this hero of the "Inspector General" is distinguished, however, by a great practical acumen, and this is his pride. The mayor himself says that not a single swindler could fool him, that he himself "hooked them on a whim." He understands the state of affairs more clearly than all other officials, and when those, explaining the reasons for sending an auditor to them, are brought in, God knows where, he, as a practical person, speaks not about the causes, but about the future consequences. The mayor is better than all other officials of the city, he knows how to do his business, because he perfectly understands the human soul, because he is resourceful, knows how to play on human weaknesses, which is why he maneuvers among various virtuous governors and auditors for a long time and with impunity.
Governor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. Artist Y. Korovin
The lack of education of this comedy hero is reflected not only in the lack of polish in manners, but is expressed even more clearly in his superstition, he is very naive, pagan, understands his relationship to God, considering himself a real Christian and a man of exemplary piety (“I am firm in faith” he says). By religion, the mayor understands only rituals, expressed in attending church on holidays, in observing fasts. He stands on the "two-faith" point of view, which admits the possibility of "bribing" his God with sacrifices, like a pood candle.
The bright feature of the mayor must be recognized as his good nature. Considering himself, thanks to the matchmaking of the “inspector” Khlestakov, infinitely above everyone in the city, he is not carried away like his empty wife, remains the same simple person, rudely cordial and simply hospitable.
The mayor's wife and daughter in the "Auditor"
Anna Andreevna, the mayor's wife, a stupid and insignificant woman who retained the manners of a young coquette-dandy until old age, amazes with the endless emptiness of her soul. This heroine of The Inspector General is obsessed with "social life", with clothes, she imagines what else men can like, and competes with her daughter in acquiring suitors and courtship. She lives on the gossip and intrigues of the county town. A frivolous woman, Anna Andreevna easily believes everything. When the mayor's wife decided that she would move to St. Petersburg and play the role of a socialite there, she does not hide her contempt for all her recent friends and acquaintances. This feature, which testifies to her mental baseness, puts her even lower than her husband.
The heroes of Gogol's "Inspector General" are the mayor's wife and daughter, Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna. Artist K. Boklevsky
The mayor's daughter, Maria Antonovna, follows in her mother's footsteps, she also loves to dress up, also loves to flirt, but she has not yet been spoiled like her mother by the lies and emptiness of this provincial life and has not yet learned to break down like her mother.
Khlestakov - the main character of "Inspector"
More complex is the image of the protagonist of The Inspector General - Khlestakov. This is an empty idler, an insignificant little official, whose whole meaning of life is to "throw dust in someone's eyes" with his manners, cigars, fashionable suit, separate words ... He constantly boasts to everyone and even to himself. His insignificant, meaningless life is miserable, but Khlestakov himself does not notice this, he is always pleased with himself, always happy. He is especially helped to forget failures by fantasy, which easily takes him away from the limits of reality. In Khlestakov, there is no bitterness of oppressed pride, like Poprishchin, the hero of the Notes of a Madman. He has vanity, and he lies with enthusiasm, because this lie helps him to forget his insignificance. Sick pride drove Poprishchin crazy, and the vanity of the empty, frivolous Khlestakov will not bring it to this. The protagonist of The Inspector General is not able to imagine himself a "Spanish king", and therefore he will not fall into a lunatic asylum - at best, he will be beaten for lying, or put in a debt department for debts.
In Khlestakov, Gogol brought out a useless, unnecessary person who cannot even control his thoughts and language: a submissive slave of his imagination, richly endowed with “extraordinary lightness in thoughts”, he lives day after day, not realizing what he is doing and why. That is why Khlestakov can equally easily do evil and good, and he will never be a conscious rogue: he does not invent any plans, but says and does what his frivolous fantasy tells him at the moment. That is why he can immediately propose to both the wife of the mayor and his daughter, with full readiness to marry both, he can borrow money from officials, convinced that he will give them back, he can talk so stupidly that he immediately blurts out and talks to nonsense .
Khlestakov. Artist L. Konstantinovsky
The frightened imagination of the frightened officials who were waiting for the auditor created from Khlestakov's "icicle" the one they were waiting for. Psychologically, the mistake of officials is quite understandable; it is expressed by proverbs: “a frightened crow is afraid of a bush”, “fear has large eyes”. This “fright” and “anxiety of conscience” led even the dexterous and intelligent rogue mayor into a fatal mistake for him.
Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin in The Government Inspector
Other officials of the city are small varieties of the type of mayor. Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin is also a dishonest person, which he sincerely does not notice himself, does not do anything, is absurdly stupid and, at the same time, full of conceit only because he has the courage to talk about religious issues with such freedom that the believers' hair stands on end. But in practical matters he is striking in his naivety.
Gogol. Auditor. Performance 1982 Series 2
Trustee of charitable institutions Strawberry
In the person of Strawberry, Gogol brought out not only the embezzler of the state, but also a petty and vile intriguer who wants to turn the leg on his comrades in misfortune.
Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky in The Government Inspector
Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky are the personification of the most hopeless vulgarity. These heroes of The Inspector General are not engaged in any business at all, they are not interested in any religious, philosophical, political issues - even to the extent that is accessible to other comedy characters. Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky collect and spread only small local gossip, or feed their wretched curiosity, or fill their idle life ...
He justifies himself with a very common argument pointing to the quantitative side of evil, "sins are different sins!" he says. Taking bribes with greyhound puppies is a trifle, in his opinion; taking large bribes is a crime, he thinks.
The image of the mayor in the comedy "The Government Inspector" stands out noticeably among all the others. A. A. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky (that was his name) remains in the reader's memory for a long time. The plot of the plot begins with a phrase that this particular hero utters. This phrase has already become catchphrase. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, addressing the audience, says that he wants to report unpleasant news. And he utters the famous phrase: "The auditor is coming to us."
The main features of the image of Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky
The author, writing notes for the actors, very clearly and in detail reveals the image of the mayor in the comedy "The Government Inspector". He describes this hero as a serious person, smart in his own way, experienced in various life situations, cunning, a bribe taker, but behaving solidly at the same time. His face has hard features. The description given by the author, as well as the very name of this character, help readers to discover for themselves the image of the mayor in The Inspector General.
External solidity and internal depravity
From the very first pages, it becomes clear to us that, despite the outward solidity, despite the role played by him of an "official in a high rank", this person is completely different from what he is trying to be. The image of the mayor in the "Inspector" as the plot of the work develops more and more clearly emerges. It gradually takes on a final meaning.
Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky in his city is a beneficent head who stands up for its inhabitants. In fact, he is a ruler who allows himself any actions and lawlessness solely for reasons of selfishness and personal gain. However, with all the inflated authority, the mayor in the "Inspector" is an absolutely unrespected person. Neither the townspeople nor his subordinates appreciate him.
Cleaning up the city
The result of his activities is the complete decline of the county town. Not a single service works here honestly. The mayor sees all this, but does not want to do anything. And only the news that the auditor has arrived makes him call on all his subordinates in order to restore order. True, you can limit yourself to only its visibility. The advice that he gives to his subordinates to eliminate various shortcomings in the services indicates that the mayor is a typical bureaucrat. He cares only about the external impression, and this or that service does not bother him.
Let's turn to a specific example. Attention exclusively to the external side of the issue is found in the hero of interest to us, in particular, in the instructions that he gives to the superintendent of the schools, Luka Lukic. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky does not seek to take control of the methodological training of teachers and the content of the lessons, but pays attention only to the outward behavior of teachers, that is, to their "strange acts." Obviously, the mayor visited schools. For example, speaking about one teacher grimacing in the classroom, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky himself makes a grimace, imitating him. About the other, a history teacher, the mayor directly says: "I once listened to him ...".
However, despite the fact that Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky attended the lessons, he was not at all interested in their content. And the mayor knows teachers very superficially. He cannot remember their names. About one, he says that he is the one who "has a fat face", about the other - that he is "a historical part."
The lack of education of the mayor, his attitude to life
The mayor, occupying a fairly high position, is essentially an uneducated person, and at the same time also rude. He has many vices and bad inclinations with which he is not going to fight, since he is sincerely convinced that this is normal. His essence as a person reveals the rule of faith in life, which he received in childhood. The mayor believes that ranks and money are necessary for happiness, and for their acquisition - cringing, embezzlement and bribery.
Mayor as a collective portrait of an official
Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is a collective portrait of an official of his time. His image absorbed many of the shortcomings inherent in a civil servant. Flattery and envy, servility and servility, lies and greed, swagger and pomposity - all these features characterize the image of the mayor in the comedy "The Government Inspector". This list could be continued for a long time.
Perhaps the denouement of the play is a worthy finale for this hero. The characterization of the mayor in the comedy "The Inspector General" is not very flattering in the finale. At the end of the work, he appears as a stupid and fooled person. It was managed by some "visiting rascal from St. Petersburg."
The relevance of the image of the mayor
The image of the mayor in the comedy "The Government Inspector" reveals to us the essence of the bureaucracy of that time. And not only that, because, why hide, all these qualities are inherent in many statesmen of our time. And in this whole story, only the belief that someday on the "virtuous path" of these city dwellers their own "auditor" will definitely appear will please us.
/V.G. Belinsky about Gogol/
The Inspector General is based on the same idea as in Ivan Ivanovich's Quarrel with Ivan Nikiforovich: in both works, the poet expressed the idea of the denial of life, the idea of ghostliness, which, under his artistic chisel, received its objective reality. The difference between them is not in the main idea, but in the moments of life captured by the poet, in the individualities and positions of the characters. In the second work we see an emptiness devoid of all activity; in The Inspector General - a void filled with the activity of petty passions and petty egoism.<...>
So exactly, why do we need to know the details of the mayor's life before the start of the comedy? It is clear even without the fact that in childhood he was a student with copper money, played money, ran through the streets, and as he began to enter into the mind, he received lessons from his father in worldly wisdom, that is, in the art of heating hands and burying ends in water . Deprived in his youth of any religious, moral and social education, he inherited from his father and from the world around him the following rule of faith and life: in life one must be happy, and this requires money and ranks, and to acquire them - bribery, embezzlement , servility and subservience to the authorities, nobility and wealth, breaking and bestial rudeness to the lower ones. Simple philosophy! But note that in him this is not debauchery, but his moral development, his highest concept of his objective duties: he is a husband, therefore, he is obliged to decently support his wife; he is the father, therefore, he must give a good dowry for his daughter, in order to provide her with a good batch and, thereby arranging her well-being, to fulfill the sacred duty of a father. He knows that his means to achieve this goal are sinful before God, but he knows this abstractly, with his head, and not with his heart, and he justifies himself with the simple rule of all vulgar people: "I'm not the first, I'm not the last, everyone does it." This practical rule of life is so deeply rooted in him that it has become a rule of morality; he would consider himself an upstart, a self-loving arrogant, if, at least forgetting, he behaved honestly during the week.<...>
Our mayor was not naturally brisk, and therefore "everyone does it" was too sufficient an argument to calm his calloused conscience; this argument was joined by another, even stronger for a rough and low soul: "wife, children, state salaries do not melt for tea and sugar." Here's the whole Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky before the start of the comedy.<...>The end of the "Inspector General" was again made by the poet not arbitrarily, but due to the most reasonable necessity: he wanted to show us Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky in everything as he is, and we saw him in everything as he is. But here lies another, no less important and profound reason, which emerges from the essence of the play.<...>
“Fear has big eyes,” says a wise Russian proverb: is it any wonder that a stupid boy, a tavern dandy who squandered on the road, was mistaken by the mayor for an auditor? Deep idea! Not terrible reality, but a phantom, a phantom, or, better, a shadow from the fear of a guilty conscience, should have punished the man of ghosts. Gogol's mayor is not a caricature, not a comic farce, not an exaggerated reality, and at the same time not at all a fool, but, in his own way, a very, very smart person who is very real in his field, knows how to deftly get down to business - to steal and ends bury it in the water, slip a bribe and appease a person who is dangerous to him. His attacks on Khlestakov, in the second act, are an example of podiatic diplomacy.
So, the end of the comedy must take place where the mayor finds out that he has been punished by a ghost and that he still has to be punished by reality, or at least new troubles and losses in order to evade punishment from reality. And that is why the arrival of the gendarme with the news of the arrival of a true inspector perfectly ends the play and communicates to it all the fullness and all the independence of a special, self-contained world.<...>
Many find the mistake of the mayor, who mistook Khlestakov for an auditor, as a terrible stretch and farce, especially since the mayor is a man, in his own way, very smart, that is, a rogue of the first category. A strange opinion, or, rather, a strange blindness that does not allow seeing the obvious! The reason for this lies in the fact that each person has two views - the physical, to which only external evidence is available, and the spiritual, penetrating internal evidence, as a necessity arising from the essence of the idea. That's when a person has only physical sight, and he looks with it at the inner evidence, then it is natural that the mistake of the mayor seems to him a stretch and a farce.
Imagine a thief-official such as you know the venerable Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky: in his dream he saw two extraordinary rats, which he had never seen before - black, unnatural size - they came, sniffed and went away. The importance of this dream for subsequent events has already been very correctly noticed by someone. In fact, turn all your attention to him: they reveal the chain of ghosts that make up the reality of the comedy. For a person with such an education as our mayor, dreams are the mystical side of life, and the more incoherent and meaningless they are, the greater and most mysterious meaning for him. If, after this dream, nothing important had happened, he might have forgotten it; but, as if on purpose, the next day he receives a notification from a friend that "an official has left, incognito, from Petersburg with a secret order to revise everything in the province related to civil administration." Dream in hand! Superstition further intimidates an already frightened conscience; conscience reinforces superstition.
Pay special attention to the words "incognito" and "with a secret order." Petersburg is a mysterious country for our mayor, a fantastic world whose forms he cannot and cannot imagine. Innovations in the legal sphere, threatening a criminal court and exile for bribery and embezzlement, further aggravate the fantastic side of St. Petersburg for him. He is already asking his imagination how the auditor will arrive, what he will pretend to be and what bullets he will cast in order to find out the truth. Rumors follow from an honest company about this subject. The dog judge, who takes bribes with greyhound puppies and therefore is not afraid of the court, who has read five or six books in his lifetime and is therefore somewhat free-thinking, finds a reason for sending an auditor worthy of his profundity and erudition, saying that "Russia wants to wage war, and Therefore, the Ministry sends an official on purpose to find out if there is treason anywhere.” The mayor understood the absurdity of this assumption and answered: “Where is our county town? you won't get there." Therefore, he gives advice to his colleagues to be more careful and be ready for the arrival of the auditor; arms himself against the thought of sins, that is, bribes, saying that "there is no man who does not have some sins behind him," that "it is already so arranged by God himself" and that "the Voltairians speak against it in vain"; there is a small squabble with the judge about the meaning of the bribes; continuation of advice; grumbling against the accursed incognito. “Suddenly he looks: ah! you are here, my dears! And who, they say, is the judge here? - Tyapkin-Lyapkin. - And bring Tyapkin-Lyapkin here! And who is the trustee of charitable institutions? - Strawberries. - And bring Strawberries here! !"...
In fact, it's bad! A naive postmaster enters, who likes to print other people's letters in the hope of finding in them "different sorts of passages ... instructive even ... better than in Moskovskie Vedomosti". find out if it contains any report or just correspondence. "What depth in the image! Do you think that the phrase "or just correspondence" is nonsense or a farce on the part of the poet: no, this is the inability of the mayor to express himself, how soon he leaves the native spheres of his life. And such is the language of all the characters in the comedy! The naive postmaster, not understanding what the matter is, says that he does it anyway. - to the postmaster, - it’s good in life, ”and seeing that you won’t take much with him in a blunt way, he bluntly asks him to deliver any news to him, and simply delay the complaint or report. The judge treats him with a little dog, but he answers that he now not up to dogs and hares: “All I can hear in my ears is that incognito is cursed; so you expect the doors to suddenly open and come in ... "
The character of the mayor in Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector"
The mayor - Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsy, is written out quite brightly in the comedy. He is one of the central figures, and it is around him and Khlestakov that the main action develops. The rest of the characters are half sketches. We only know their names and status, otherwise they are people very similar to the mayor, because they are the same field, live in the same county town, where “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” Yes, they are not so important, otherwise they would overshadow all the "splendor" of the figure of the Governor.
We meet with Gogol a lot of "talking" surnames. This technique is everywhere in his works. The Governor was no exception. Let's see what his surname tells about the character. According to Dahl's dictionary, a draftsman is "a cunning, sharp-sighted mind, a shrewd person, a rogue, a rogue, an experienced rogue and a creeper." But this is obvious. From the first lines of the work, we learn that the Governor will never miss what floats into his hands, and does not hesitate to take bribes, even with greyhound puppies. His caution also speaks of vigilance or clairvoyance. In society, this is a decent head of the city, who constantly goes to church, has a prosperous family and stands up for his residents. But let's not forget that a draftsman is also a swindler, and therefore he also oppresses merchants, and squanders government money, and flogs the people. There is also a second part of the name. Let's open Dal again and read that dmukhan is “pomp, pride, arrogance. arrogance, swagger." And, indeed, arrogance and swagger from Anton Antonovich does not hold. How delighted he was when he learned that his daughter was not marrying anyone, but a minister: “I myself, mother, am a decent person. However, really, what do you think, Anna Andreevna, what birds we have become now! What about Anna Andreevna? Fly high, damn it! Wait a minute, now I will put all these hunters to submit petitions and denunciations to the pepper. Here is our mayor.
However, let's see how the author himself describes Anton Antonovich to us in the author's remarks "for the gentlemen of the actors". “The mayor, already aged in the service and a very intelligent person in his own way. Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves very respectably; quite serious; somewhat even a reasoner; speaks neither loudly nor softly, neither more nor less. His every word is significant. His features are rough and hard, like those of anyone who has begun his service from the lower ranks. The transition from fear to joy, from rudeness to arrogance is quite quick, like a person with a roughly developed inclination of the soul. He is dressed, as usual, in his uniform with buttonholes and boots with spurs. His hair is cropped, with grey." Everything is important in these remarks, they allow us to understand how Gogol himself wanted to portray the hero, as opposed to how we, the readers, see him. Just as his last name can tell us a lot about the mayor, so the appearance can add touches to the portrait. A uniform uniform with buttonholes tells us that this is indeed a respectable person who does not like his orders to be discussed. In his town, he is the king and God, respectively, and he must have a proper appearance. But how interesting it is to observe his transformation when meeting with the so-called incognito auditor. The mayor begins to stutter and grovel, and may even give a bribe if he goes for it. But the veneration of rank was in use at that time, however, with the mayor it reaches the highest limit, he experiences such panic fear: “The mayor (trembling). Inexperience, by golly, inexperience. Insufficiency of the state ... If you please, judge for yourself: the state salary is not enough even for tea and sugar. If there were any bribes, then just a little: something on the table and for a couple of dresses. As for the non-commissioned officer's widow, engaged in the merchant class, whom I allegedly flogged, this is slander, by God, slander. This was invented by my villains; this is such a people that they are ready to encroach on my life.
The mayor is also rude, Gogol also tells us about this. Despite the high position he occupies, he is an uneducated person, there are many bad inclinations and vices in his soul, but he does not try to eradicate them, because he believes that this is how it should be. Stupidity and ignorance - these are the features that dominate the character of the Governor. Even his assurances that he serves honestly and impeccably are sewn through with white thread, and lies scream from every window. He does not even have enough intelligence to come up with something plausible in the face of the formidable Khlestakov, although before that he very deliberately warned his officials about the approaching danger: “There the merchants complained to Your Excellency. I assure you with honor, and half of what they say is not. They themselves deceive and measure the people. The non-commissioned officer lied to you that I whipped her; she's lying, by God, she's lying. She carved herself." Such curiosities are found in the county town.
But, of course, just as there are no only good or only bad people in the world, so book characters cannot be only positive or only negative. Although this can hardly be said about the characters of The Inspector General. But nevertheless, for some reason, we feel sorry for the end of the Governor, who was so cruelly deceived in Khlestakov. In general, it turns out that in comedy there is not a single positive hero, with the exception of Osip, Khlestakov's servant, who, however, is also a drunkard and a rogue. We are sad to see the collapse of the dream of Gorodnichiy, dreaming about blue ribbons and a house in St. Petersburg. Maybe he did not deserve such a fate, maybe his petty sins are not so terrible. But, I think, this punishment is quite fair, because we understand that the Governor will never improve, and it is unlikely that the incident with the auditor will serve as a lesson to him. Yes, and he is upset, first of all, because he did not see a swindler in Khlestakov, he himself is a rogue of rogues. Moreover, it’s a shame that “Look, look, the whole world, all Christianity, everyone, look how foolish the mayor is! Fool him, fool, old scoundrel! (He threatens himself with his fist.) Oh, you thick-nosed one! Icicle, rag mistook for an important person! There he is now flooding the whole road with a bell! Spread history around the world. Not only will you go into a laughingstock - there is a clicker, paper maraca, they will insert you into a comedy. That's what's embarrassing! Chin, the title will not spare, and they will all bare their teeth and clap their hands. What are you laughing at? “You are laughing at yourself!” he pronounces the sacramental at the end.
But indeed, the character of the Governor is a collective portrait of all the officials of that time. He absorbed all the shortcomings: servility, servility, envy, swagger, flattery. This list can be continued for a long time. The mayor becomes a kind of “hero of our time”, which is why he is written out so clearly, why his character is so clearly manifested, especially in crisis situations, and the whole life of the mayor throughout the “Inspector General” is a crisis. And in such crisis situations, Anton Antonovich is not used to, apparently, from a weakness of character. That's why the electric effect at the end. It is doubtful that the mayor will be able to agree with a real official. After all, all his life he deceived the same rogues as himself, and the rules of the game of another world are inaccessible to him. And therefore the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg for Anton Antonovich is like God's punishment. And there is no salvation from this, except to obey. But knowing the nature of the mayor, we can safely say that he will still make an attempt to appease the new auditor, without thinking about the fact that for a bribe “you can go to jail”, he does not see beyond his own nose, and pays for this in the finale: “The mayor in the middle in the form of a pillar, with outstretched arms and a head thrown back. Silent scene... Curtain!
