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Artistic role of digressions. The role of lyrical digressions in the poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol - Composition

Artistic role of digressions. The role of lyrical digressions in the poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol - Composition

13.04.2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the beginning of the poem, lyrical digressions are in the nature of the author's statements about his heroes, but as their action unfolds internal theme becomes wider and more multifaceted. Having told about Manilov and Korobochka, the author interrupts the narration in order to make the reader's picture of life clearer. The author's digression, which interrupts the story about Korobochka, contains a comparison with her "sister" from an aristocratic society, who, despite a different appearance, is no different from the local mistress. After visiting Nozdrev, Chichikov meets a beautiful blonde on the road. The description of this meeting ends with a remarkable digression by the author: “Everywhere, wherever in life, whether among its callous, rough-poor and untidy-staining low-lying ranks, or among the monotonously cold and boringly tidy classes of the higher, everywhere at least once will meet on way to a man, a phenomenon unlike anything that he has ever seen before, which at least once awakens in him a feeling unlike those that he is destined to feel all his life. But what is characteristic of many people, what appears “across” to any kind of sadness - all this is completely alien to Chichikov, whose cold discretion is compared here with the direct manifestation of feelings.

The lyrical digression at the end of the fifth chapter has a completely different character. Outwardly, this lyrical digression seems to have little connection with the entire previous development of the action, but it is very important for revealing the main idea of the poem: real Russia- these are not sobakevichi, nostrils and boxes, but the people, the element of the people. In close contact with lyrical statements about the Russian word and popular character there is also the author’s digression, which opens the sixth chapter. The narrative about Plyushkin is interrupted by the author’s angry words, which have a deep generalizing meaning: “And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness, disgust!” Of considerable importance are lyrical statements about creative and life destiny writer in contemporary Gogol society, about two different destinies awaiting a writer who creates "exalted images" and a realist writer, a satirist. This lyrical digression, full of deep thoughts and vivid generalizations, reflected not only the writer's views on art, but also his attitude to the ruling elites of society, to the people. It determines both the writer's ideological path and his assessment of the main social forces. In the chapters devoted to the image of the city, we meet the author's statements about the extreme irritation of ranks and estates - "now we have all the ranks and estates so irritated that everything that is in the printed book, already seems to them a personality: such, apparently, are located in the air.

Gogol ends the description of the general confusion with reflections on human delusions, about the false paths that humanity has often followed in its history - "but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new delusions, which later descendants will also laugh at." I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance.

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Poem "Dead Souls" complex work, in which merciless satire and philosophical reflections of the author about the fate of Russia and its people are intertwined.
A significant place in the poem is occupied by the author's digressions and inserted episodes. In them, N. V. Gogol touches on the most sensitive issues public life Russia.
Let's go after the main character of the poem Chichikov to get acquainted with other characters of the work and read the author's lyrical thoughts that accompany the development of the plot and give the key to understanding the features of "Dead Souls".
AT small town the modest and inconspicuous Mr. Chichikov arrives and first appears in society at a party at the governor's. Pavel Ivanovich gets acquainted with the local nobility and immediately divides it into "thick" and "thin". Here follows the ironic reasoning of Gogol about all representatives of the Russian nobility.
The author does not even raise the question of their education, intelligence. He seems to be hinting that they are all, as if by choice, equally ignorant and stupid, and you can distinguish them only by one sign -

are they "thick" or "thin". “Fat” are honorary officials in the city, they know how to do their business better than thin ones.
The thin ones wriggle here and there, their existence is completely unreliable. Fat people never “occupy indirect places, but all direct ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they won’t fly off ...”. With these words, the author ridicules the nobility of Russia and the bureaucracy, when positions are far from smart people, but strong fat men who cannot be dislodged.
And how accurately Gogol describes the ability of Russian people to communicate, depending on what position the interlocutor occupies in society: “It is impossible to count all the shades and subtleties of our appeal!” And then the author continues: “A Frenchman or a German will speak in almost the same voice or the same language with a millionaire and with a petty tobacco dealer. It’s not the same with us: we have such wise men who will speak with a landowner who has two hundred souls in a completely different way than with one who has three hundred of them ... ”.
Thanks to such a simple comparison, the author shows how rich Russian speech can be and what a pity that this wealth is used to express the servility and servility that reign in society.
How the author admires the ability of Russian people to give accurate and accurate characteristics, “like a passport for eternal wear”, when a person “is outlined from head to toe with one line!”. Gogol urges readers to preserve the richness of the national word, which is so "bashful, smart and escaped from under the very heart ...".
At the beginning of the sixth chapter of the poem, the author gives his lyrical reflections about youth. And there seems to be a turning point in his mood. After ironic discussions about “thick” and “thin”, after enthusiastic words about the Russian language, despondency and sadness reappear. How many new and pleasant experience cooked every day, lived at a young age, “everything stopped and amazed ...”. Now, after years, everything is “uncomfortable, not funny, and nothing awakens, as in former years, live movement in the face, laughter and incessant speeches, and indifferent silence are kept by motionless lips. “Oh my youth! O my freshness!” - all this is irretrievably gone, the author sadly notes.
Why does everything alive, open, good die in a person with age? In order not to turn into callous and indifferent people, the author urges us: “Take with you on the road, emerging from your soft youthful years into severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, do not raise them later!”.
Particularly significant, in my opinion, are Gogol's reflections on writers' destinies, on the topics that the authors raise in their work: “Happy is the writer who has never changed the lofty structure of his lyre, has not descended from his peak to his poor, insignificant fellows. ... He hid the sad in life, showing a wonderful person ... ". “But the fate of the writer, who dared to bring out everything that is every minute in front of his eyes, is a completely different fate - all the terrible amazing mire of trifles that have entangled our life, with which our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring road is full ...”, the author continues. “His career is harsh and he will bitterly feel his loneliness,” the writer states.
Thus, the author is trying not only to show writers a convenient path to fame, but also to direct them to thorny path an artist who is not indifferent to the fate of Russia. The future, according to Gogol, still belongs to patriotic writers who care about the fate of the people. And the author hopes that they will also receive well-deserved recognition.
Beautiful are the words of a lyrical digression dedicated to Rus', which the author compares with a troika bird, presents it as “a land that does not like to joke, but has scattered halfway across the world, and go count miles until it fills your eyes ...”. And so Rus is rushing like a “brisk, unhindered troika”, it is not known where, and only “looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give it way”.
These lines have become a favorite for many generations of Russian people. No one else, except Gogol, could so accurately describe all the courage, prowess and all the recklessness that are inherent only in our people.
Answering the question “Why does Gogol introduce so many beautiful lyrical digressions into his poem?”, we can say: the author used this technique to show all the emptiness, pettiness, baseness of the life of various representatives Russian society. Their images against the contrasting background of lyrical digressions look especially petty, absurd and insignificant. These reflections of the author help to expose the bureaucracy and oppose the landowners with a completely different image - the image of Russia, which "flies to its revival."

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Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is central character Gogol's poem Dead Souls. The story about him runs through the whole work, and ...
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The views of the "practical man" Chichikov convey the prosaic logic of life. But this vulgar position is constantly refuted by the author's gaze, rising to poetic essence...
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NV Gogol in his poem "Dead Souls" draws a whole gallery of Russian landowners and officials. Those whom the writer called "dead...
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N. V. Gogol is one of the greatest figures in Russian literature. The pinnacle of his work is the poem "Dead Souls". It reflects all the main features of the author's talent.
The most important role in the compositional structure of "Dead Souls" is played by lyrical digressions and inserted episodes, which are characteristic of the poem as a literary genre. In them, Gogol deals with the most pressing Russian social issues. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are contrasted here with the gloomy pictures of Russian life.
At the beginning of the poem, lyrical digressions are in the nature of the author's statements about his heroes, but as the action unfolds, their inner theme becomes broader and more multifaceted.
Having told about Manilov and Korobochka, the author interrupts the narration in order to make the painted picture of life clearer for the reader. The author's digression, which interrupts the story about Korobochka, contains a comparison with her "sister" from an aristocratic society, who, despite a different appearance, is no different from the landlady.
After visiting Nozdrev, Chichikov meets a beautiful blonde on the road. The description of this meeting ends with a remarkable digression from the author: “Everywhere, wherever it is in life, whether among its callous, rough-poor and untidy-staining low-lying ranks, or among the monotonously cold and boringly tidy classes of the higher, everywhere you will at least once meet on way to a man, a phenomenon unlike anything that he has ever seen before, which at least once awakens in him a feeling unlike those that he is destined to feel all his life. But what is characteristic of many people, what appears "across" to any kind of sadness - all this is completely alien to Chichikov, whose cold discretion is compared here with the direct manifestation of feelings.
The lyrical digression at the end of the fifth chapter is of a completely different character. Here the author is no longer talking about the hero, not about the attitude towards him, but about the mighty Russian man, about the talent of the Russian people. Outwardly, this lyrical digression seems to have little to do with the entire previous development of the action, but it is very important for revealing the main idea of the poem: the real Russia is not dogeviches, nostrils and boxes, but the people, the element of the people.
In close contact with the lyrical statements about the Russian word and folk character is the author's digression, which opens the sixth chapter.
The story about Plyushkin is interrupted by the angry words of the author, which have a deep generalizing meaning: “And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness, filth!”
Of considerable importance are lyrical statements about the creative and life fate of the writer in Gogol's contemporary society, about two different destinies awaiting the writer who creates "exalted images" and the realist writer and satirist. This lyrical digression, full of deep thoughts and vivid generalizations, reflected not only the writer's views on art, but also his attitude to the ruling elites of society, to the people. It determines both the writer's ideological path and his assessment of the main social forces.
In the chapters devoted to the image of the city, we come across the author's statements about the extreme irritation of ranks and estates - "now we have all the ranks and estates so irritated that everything that is in the printed book already seems to them a person: this, apparently, is located in the air." Gogol ends the description of the general confusion with reflections on human delusions, on the false paths that mankind has often followed in its history, “but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new delusions, which descendants will also laugh at later.”
The civic pathos of the writer reaches special strength in a lyrical digression - “Rus, Rus! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful far away. Like the lyrical monologue at the beginning of the seventh chapter, this lyrical digression forms a distinct line between two major narrative links - urban scenes and the story of Chichikov's origins. Here, in a broader sense, the theme of Russia appears, in which it was “poor, scattered and uncomfortable,” but where heroes cannot but be born. The author's lyrical statements seem to be interrupted by an intrusion of rough worldly prose. And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible force reflected in my depth; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!
- Hold on, hold on, fool! Chichikov shouted to Selifan.
- Here I am with a broadsword! shouted a courier with a arshin mustache galloping towards him. “And, like a ghost, the trio disappeared with thunder and dust.”
The vulgarity, emptiness, meanness of life are even more clearly outlined against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast is applied by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile features of the heroes of Dead Souls.
Immediately after this, the author shares with the reader the thoughts that the racing troika, the long road, evoke in him. “What a strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word road! and how wonderful she herself is, this road. One after another, Gogol sketches here pictures of Russian nature that appear before the gaze of a traveler racing on fast horses along an autumn road. And in the general mood of the author's monologue, and in the rapidly changing scenes, there is a clear hint at the image of a troika bird, from which this lyrical digression is separated by a large chapter devoted to the adventures of Chichikov.
The story about the protagonist of the poem is completed by the author's statements, which present sharp objections to those who may be shocked by how main character, and the poem as a whole, depicting the "bad", "despicable".
A high sense of patriotism is fanned by the image of Russia, which completes the first volume of the poem, an image that embodies the ideal that lit the way for the artist when depicting a petty, vulgar life.
Such is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem. But the most important thing is that they express many of the author's views on art, relations between people. On the pages of the poem, Gogol wanted not only to denounce, but also to assert his moral ideal, and expressed it in his wonderful lyrical digressions, which reflected all his thoughts and feelings, and above all a great feeling of love for his people and fatherland, the belief that the homeland would break out of the power of the "swamp lights" and return to the true path: the path living soul.

The poem "Dead Souls" is a complex work in which merciless satire and the author's philosophical reflections on the fate of Russia and its people are intertwined.
A significant place in the poem is occupied by the author's digressions and inserted episodes. In them, N.V. Gogol touches on the most pressing issues of Russian public life.
Let's go after the main character of the poem Chichikov to get acquainted with other characters of the work and read the author's lyrical thoughts that accompany the development of the plot and give the key to understanding the features of "Dead Souls".
A modest and inconspicuous Mr. Chichikov arrives in a small town and first appears in society at a party at the governor's. Pavel Ivanovich gets acquainted with the local nobility and immediately divides it into "thick" and "thin". Here follows the ironic reasoning of Gogol about all representatives of the Russian nobility.
The author does not even raise the question of their education, intelligence. He seems to be hinting that they are all, as if by choice, equally ignorant and stupid, and you can distinguish them only by one sign - they are “thick” or “thin”. “Fat” are honorary officials in the city, they know how to do their business better than thin ones.
The thin ones wriggle here and there, their existence is completely unreliable. Fat people never “occupy indirect places, but all direct ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they won’t fly off ...”. With these words, the author ridicules the nobility of Russia and the bureaucracy, when positions are occupied by far from smart people, but by strong fat men who cannot be removed.
And how accurately Gogol describes the ability of Russian people to communicate, depending on what position the interlocutor occupies in society: “It is impossible to count all the shades and subtleties of our appeal!” And then the author continues: “A Frenchman or a German will speak in almost the same voice or the same language with a millionaire and with a petty tobacco dealer. It’s not the same with us: we have such wise men who will speak with a landowner who has two hundred souls in a completely different way than with one who has three hundred of them ... ”.
Thanks to such a simple comparison, the author shows how rich Russian speech can be and what a pity that this wealth is used to express the servility and servility that reign in society.
How the author admires the ability of Russian people to give accurate and accurate characteristics, “like a passport for eternal wear”, when a person “is outlined from head to toe with one line!”. Gogol urges readers to preserve the richness of the national word, which is so "bashful, smart and escaped from under the very heart ...".
At the beginning of the sixth chapter of the poem, the author gives his lyrical reflections on youth. And there seems to be a turning point in his mood. After ironic discussions about “thick” and “thin”, after enthusiastic words about the Russian language, despondency and sadness reappear. How many new and pleasant impressions he prepared every day, lived at a young age, “everything stopped and amazed ...”. Now, after the lapse of years, everything is "uncomfortable, not funny, and nothing awakens, as in previous years, a lively movement in the face, laughter and incessant speeches, and motionless lips keep an indifferent silence." “Oh my youth! O my freshness!” - all this is irretrievably gone, the author sadly notes.
Why does everything alive, open, good die in a person with age? In order not to turn into callous and indifferent people, the author urges us: “Take with you on the road, emerging from your soft youthful years into severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, do not raise them later!”.
Particularly significant, in my opinion, are Gogol's reflections on writers' destinies, on the topics that the authors raise in their work: “Happy is the writer who has never changed the lofty structure of his lyre, has not descended from his peak to his poor, insignificant fellows. ... He hid the sad in life, showing a wonderful person ... ”. “But the fate of the writer, who dared to bring out everything that is every minute in front of his eyes, is a completely different fate - all the terrible amazing mire of trifles that have entangled our life, with which our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring road is full ...”, the author continues. “His career is harsh and he will bitterly feel his loneliness,” the writer states.
Thus, the author is trying not only to show the writers a convenient path to fame, but also to direct them to the thorny path of an artist who is not indifferent to the fate of Russia. The future, according to Gogol, still belongs to patriotic writers who care about the fate of the people. And the author hopes that they will also receive well-deserved recognition.
Beautiful are the words of a lyrical digression dedicated to Rus', which the author compares with a troika bird, presents it as “a land that does not like to joke, but has scattered halfway across the world, and go count miles until it fills your eyes ...”. And so Rus is rushing like a “brisk, unhindered troika”, it is not known where, and only “looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give it way”.
These lines have become a favorite for many generations of Russian people. No one else, except Gogol, could so accurately describe all the courage, prowess and all the recklessness that are inherent only in our people.
Answering the question “Why does Gogol introduce so many beautiful lyrical digressions into his poem?”, we can say: the author used this technique to show all the emptiness, pettiness, baseness of life of various representatives of Russian society. Their images against the contrasting background of lyrical digressions look especially petty, absurd and insignificant. These reflections of the author help to expose the bureaucracy and oppose the landowners with a completely different image - the image of Russia, which "flies to its revival."

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NV Gogol is a great writer of the first half of the 19th century. In his works, he touched upon the problems of oppression of the people, serfdom, and the originality of his work lies in the fact that he was one of the first to show the broadest picture of bureaucratic Russia. Gogol was very worried and Read More ......
NV Gogol conceived the first part of the poem "Dead Souls" as a work that reveals the social vices of society. In this regard, he was looking for a plot not simple fact of life, but one that would make it possible to expose hidden phenomena reality. In this sense Read More ......
At each word of the poem, the reader can say: “Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia!” This Russian spirit is felt in humor, And in irony, and in the expression of the author, And in the sweeping strength of feelings, And in the lyricism of digressions ... V. G. Belinsky I Read More ......
By the end of the poem, the lyrical element almost completely captures the work. The final chapter is replete with author's reasoning. This is where the key to understanding the ideological and compositional features of "Dead Souls" is given. A lyrical digression about human passions suggests that Gogol identifies each chapter of Read More ......
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is the central character of Gogol's poem Dead Souls. The story about him runs through the entire work, and other characters are largely characterized precisely through their relationship with him. What role does the author assign to this character? “Readers should not resent Read More ......
The poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol is full of extra-plot elements. In this work, there are many lyrical digressions and, in addition, there are inserted short stories. They are concentrated at the end of "Dead Souls" and help to reveal the ideological and artistic intent author. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is located in the tenth Read More ......
Drawing in his poem "Dead Souls" a satirical panorama of feudal-bureaucratic Russia, Gogol makes extensive use of his favorite artistic technique - the characterization of a character through a detail. Consider how the writer uses this technique, using the example of the “landowner” chapters of the poem. Manilov makes a favorable impression at first sight Read More ......
At the beginning of work on the poem, N.V. Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: “What a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it.” So Gogol himself defined the scope of his work - all of Rus'. And the writer managed to show in Read More ......

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

Artistic role of digressions. The role of lyrical digressions in the poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol - Composition

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