Auditor history. The history of writing Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General

In early 1936, the play premiered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, Gogol continued to make adjustments to the text of the work until 1842, when the final edition was completed.

The Inspector General is a completely innovative play. Gogol created the first social comedy without love line. Khlestakov's courtship of Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna is rather a parody of high feelings. In comedy, there is also not a single positive character. When the writer was reproached for this, he replied that the main positive character of The Government Inspector was laughter.

Unusual and composition play, because it does not have a traditional exposition. From the very first phrase of the Governor begins plot plot. The final silent scene also surprised theater critics a lot. Previously, no one used such a technique in dramaturgy.

The classic confusion with the main character takes on a completely different meaning in Gogol. Khlestakov was not going to pretend to be an auditor, for some time he himself could not understand what was happening. He simply thought that the district authorities were fawning over him only because he was from the capital and fashionably dressed. Osip finally opens his eyes to the dandy, persuading the master to leave before it's too late. Khlestakov does not seek to deceive anyone. Officials are deceived themselves and involve the imaginary auditor in this action.

Plot comedy is built on a closed principle: the play begins with the news of the arrival of the auditor and ends with the same message. Gogol's innovation was also manifested in the fact that there are no secondary storylines in comedy. All characters locked in a dynamic conflict.

An undoubted innovation was himself main character . For the first time he became stupid, empty and insignificant person. The writer characterizes Khlestakov as follows: "without a king in the head". Hero character most fully manifested in the scenes of lies. Khlestakov is so inspired by his own imagination that he cannot stop. He piles up one absurdity after another, he does not even doubt the "truthfulness" of his lies. A player, a spendthrift, a lover of hitting on women and throwing dust in the eyes, a “dummy” - this is the main character of the work.

In the play, Gogol touched upon a large-scale layer of Russian reality: state power, medicine, courts, education, the post office, the police, and the merchant class. The writer raises and ridicules many unsightly features in The Government Inspector modern life. Here, total bribery and neglect of one's duties, embezzlement and servility, vanity and a passion for gossip, envy and false pretense, boasting and stupidity, petty vindictiveness and stupidity ... What is there! The Inspector General is a real mirror of Russian society.

Unusual for a play is the strength of the plot, its spring. This is fear. IN Russia XIX centuries, the audit was carried out by high-ranking officials. Therefore, the arrival of the “auditor” caused such a panic in the county town. Important person from the capital, and even with "secret order", horrified the local bureaucracy. Khlestakov, who in no way resembles an inspector, is easily mistaken for an important person. Anyone passing from St. Petersburg is suspicious. And this one lives for two weeks and does not pay - this is exactly how, according to the inhabitants, a person of high rank should behave.

The first act discusses "sins" of all those gathered and orders are given for "cosmetic" measures. It becomes clear that none of the officials consider themselves guilty and are not going to change anything. Only for a time will clean caps be given to the sick and the streets swept.

In comedy, Gogol created collective image officials. Civil servants of all ranks are perceived as a single organism, since they are close in their desire for money-grubbing, confident in impunity and the correctness of their actions. But each character leads his own party.

Chief here, of course, mayor. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky in service for thirty years. As a grasping person, he does not miss the benefit that floats into his hands. But the city is in complete disarray. The streets are filthy, the prisoners and the sick are disgustingly fed, the policemen are always drunk and loose their hands. The mayor pulls the beards of merchants and celebrates name days twice a year to get more gifts. The money allocated for the construction of the church disappeared.

The appearance of the auditor greatly frightens Anton Antonovich. What if the inspector does not take bribes? Seeing that Khlestakov takes money, the mayor calms down, tries to please the important person by all means. The second time Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is frightened when Khlestakov boasts of his high position. Here he becomes afraid to fall into disfavor. How much money to give?

funny image of Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who passionately loves dog hunting, takes bribes with greyhound puppies, sincerely believing that this "completely different". A complete mess is going on in the waiting room of the court: the watchmen brought geese, "all sorts of rubbish", the assessor is constantly drunk. And Lyapkin-Tyapkin himself cannot understand a simple memorandum. In the city, the judge is considered "freethinker", since he has read several books and always speaks in high-flown, albeit complete nonsense.

Postmaster sincerely wonders why you can not read other people's letters. For him, all life is interesting stories from letters. The postmaster even keeps the correspondence he especially likes and rereads it.

Strawberry's charitable institutions' hospital is also in disarray. Patients do not change underwear, and the German doctor does not understand anything in Russian. Strawberry is a toady and an informer, not averse to throwing mud at his comrades.

A comical pair of city gossips draws attention Bobchinsky And Dobchinsky. To enhance the effect, Gogol makes them similar in appearance and gives the same names, even the names of the characters differ in only one letter. They are completely empty and useless people. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are busy only collecting gossip. Thus, they manage to be in the center of attention and feel their importance.

Starting to write The Inspector General, Gogol promised Pushkin: "I swear it will be funnier than the devil." Nikolai Vasilyevich kept his promise. Nicholas I, after watching the comedy, remarked: “Everyone got it. And me the most."

The idea of ​​writing a comedy came to Gogol while working on another no less famous work"Dead Souls". In correspondence with Pushkin, he asked him to write the plot of a five-act comedy.

It is clear that parallel work on Dead souls influenced the writing of comedy. In his confession, he reported that he had collected in one work all the worst in Russia and all the most injustice that he had ever seen.

It took him about two months to complete his idea, but even after writing and editing the comedy, work on it also continued. long time. The author made big changes to the works after the production at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The premiere took place in 1836. It was even Nicholas I himself - the emperor of Russia. The author was upset with the production, as the audience and actors did not understand the meaning of the author's idea. The actors noticed that some scenes were quite awkward, for example, when Khlestakov was the first to beg for a loan, the actor playing his role thought it would be better if they were the first to offer him money, so the author changed the scene, as well as the first four phenomena were also reworked.

The final version of the comedy was published in 1842. The Inspector General, which was staged on stage and published in print media many times, caused conflicting and ambiguous opinions. Polevoy in a newspaper called "Russian Messenger" wrote about the comedy that it was very ambiguous and criticized the plot for the lack of goals and "bad language".

And Belinsky, unlike Polevoy, praised the comedy and said that there was no best moments because there are no worse ones.

But still, Gogol constantly had the feeling that his comedy was not always understood correctly, so he kept writing articles about how to play correctly and about what the meaning of comedy is right.

The history of the comedy Revizor in detail

Russian literature is rich in names prominent writers who worked at different times. Among them, N.V. Gogol (1809 - 1852) stands out, whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of world literature. Nature generously rewarded him creativity. He proved himself to be an outstanding prose writer, interesting artist, a talented publicist, a wonderful playwright.

N. V. Gogol's play "The Inspector General" was published and first staged on the stage of the Alexandria Theater in the spring of 1836. The writer for many years thought about creating a comedy on the theme of Russian life. In 1832, in a conversation with Sergei Aksakov, he spoke of the desire to "collect everything bad in Russia into one pile" and laugh at all the flaws of Russian life at once. To Aksakov's doubt that there is material in life for writing such a book, N.V. Gogol objected that "comic lies everywhere." One has only to describe it to the Master, "we ourselves will wallow with laughter."

A. S. Pushkin was a benevolent and open person, so other authors often turned to him for advice and support. In October 1835 N.V. Gogol in a letter to him asked to tell interesting story from the life of Russian society. In response, A. S. Pushkin described an incident that happened to their mutual acquaintance. The presented plot was very much liked by N.V. Gogol. He quickly set to work on the creation of the play, which was written in two months. Pushkin's letter referred to the writer and publisher of the magazine " Domestic notes» Pavel Petrovich Svinin, whose figure is interesting because he was constantly mistaken for someone else. Being a gentle and accommodating person, he not only got used to confusion, but did not even resist it and skillfully used it for his own purposes. In St. Petersburg society, tales from his life were retold with laughter from mouth to mouth. So, A. S. Pushkin in his message told how P. P. Svinin in Bessarabia pretended to be some well-known official, but was stopped when he went far and, apparently, he himself believed in his miraculous reincarnation. Feeling that the hour of reckoning was near, he retreated.

N.V. Gogol's communication with him cannot be called pleasant. Having moved to St. Petersburg, the young writer began to collaborate with a popular magazine published by P. P. Svinin. In 1829, he brought his story "Basavryuk, or Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala" to the magazine. The work was published a year later, but without mentioning the name of the author. In 1830, an article by N.V. Gogol "Poltava" was published in the magazine, telling about his small homeland. The publisher not only distorted part of the author's text and inserted his own judgments there. The most offensive was that he put his name under someone else's work. Of course, any author would be outraged by such an attitude of the publisher. N. V. Gogol reacted to the behavior of P. P. Svinin by publishing the book Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. It included "Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala" as a separate chapter. Sochinite removed all Svinin's corrections and added an introduction about how the sexton Foma Grigoryevich listens to the publication of his story and scolds the publisher. But best of all, N.V. Gogol paid off his offender by creating a brilliant play about a man - a changeling Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, the prototype of which was P.P. Svinin.

Of course, the author of The Inspector General had his own reasons to ridicule the shameless deceiver, but he never hid that the idea of ​​a comedy about an imaginary auditor belongs to A. S. Pushkin and was always grateful to him for this. This work has become one of the best creations of N.V. Gogol. Written almost two hundred years ago, the play does not leave us indifferent today. The Inspector General teaches us to fulfill all duties with dignity and responsibility, so that we are not ashamed of our work; be honest and sincere in relation to people, so that you do not have to hide, fearing exposure; to avoid flattery and kowtowing before anyone.

You can use this text for reader's diary

Gogol. All works

• Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala
• The history of the comedy Revizor
• overcoat

The history of the comedy Revizor. Picture for the story

Reading now

• Summary Lives such a guy Shukshina

  The action of the work takes place in the Altai Territory. The author first describes the beauties of this area, as well as the dangers that arise on the Chuisky tract.

• Summary of Filippo Filumena Marturano

  Events take place in the house where the wealthy businessman Don Domenico lives. When his wife died, he took the girl Filumena from the house of brothel into his house. The girl lives in the walls of his house for a very long time and dreams

• Summary of Steinbeck Winter of Our Anxiety

  The novel tells about the growing atmosphere of social and moral trouble in the United States in the early 60s. At the center of these events is a descendant once rich family Ethan Allen Hawley. He is happily married and has two wonderful children.

• Summary of Shmelev Fear

  Ivan Shmelev's story "Fear" was written in 1937. The story is told from the perspective of a little boy who lives with his mother, two older sisters and an older brother. His father died about a year ago.

• Summary of Wolves Fire God Marranos

  Oorfene Deuce returned to his house in the Blue Country. The eagle Carfax flew into the garden of Oorfene. The eagle cannot return home because he will be killed for rebelling. Oorfene lied to Carfax that he had noble intentions, but no one understood him.

"Comedy" Inspector General ". History of creation".

Lesson Objectives:

To introduce the children to the history of the creation of comedy, to develop students' perception of a literary work.

· Give the basic theoretical concepts. explain nature Gogol's laughter, to instill interest in the works of the writer.

During the classes.

Teacher's word.

Russian we ask! Give us yours!

What are the French and all overseas people to us!

Are we not enough of our people?

Russian characters? Your characters!

Let's ourselves! Give us our rogues...

To their stage! Let all the people see them!

Let them laugh!

Gogol is one of the most read school curriculum writers. In this capacity, he can compete even with Pushkin. Gogol at school is our everything, solid and reliable. For all classes - from 5th to 10th. In all forms - epic, drama and even lyrics. Methodical literature- do not re-read (there are even several books with the same name "Gogol at school").

With all this, Gogol is one of the most unread writers in the school. And here, too, Pushkin's fate: the soul is "in the cherished lyre", "für Wenige", and the crowd continues to beat its senseless path to the idol monument. Isn't Alexander Kushner talking about this school-scale monument:

To be a classic is to stand on the closet
Senseless bust, clavicle bristling.
Oh, Gogol, is this all in a dream, in reality?
So they put a stuffed animal: a snipe, an owl.
You stand instead of a bird.
He wrapped himself in a scarf, he loved to make
Vests, camisoles.
Not just to undress - to swallow a piece
Could not in front of witnesses - naked sculptor
Delivered. Is it nice to be a classic?
To be a classic - in the classroom from the closet look
For schoolchildren; they will remember Gogol
Not a wanderer, not a righteous man, not even a dandy,
Not Gogol, but Gogol's upper third.

A word about life and creativity.

- years of life.

After graduating from the gymnasium - Petersburg, work as a history teacher, clerical official. Acquaintance with writers and artists. Since 1831 Gogol's name is widely known to the Russian reader - the collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" was published.

In 1848 after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem), Gogol returns to his homeland. Most time lives in Moscow, visits St. Petersburg, Odessa, Ukraine. In February, in a house on Nikitsky Boulevard, where he lived with the count, in a state of deep mental crisis, the writer burns a new edition of the second volume of Dead Souls. A few days later, on February 21, he died. The funeral of the writer took place with a huge gathering of people at the cemetery of the St. Danilov Monastery (in 1931, Gogol's remains were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery).

Comedy "Inspector".

It was 1835. Gogol in Petersburg, the city of theaters. Having met with Pushkin, the writer asked: “Do me a favor, give me some funny or unfunny, but purely Russian anecdote ... Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear it will be funnier than the devil.” And the poet told him about how in Nizhny Novgorod he was mistaken for an auditor; He also spoke about how one of his acquaintances pretended to be in Bessarabia (Moldova) an important Petersburg official. The anecdote about the imaginary auditor attracted Gogol so much that he immediately ignited the idea of ​​​​writing The Inspector General, and the comedy was written surprisingly quickly, in two months, by the end of 1835. The person was not accepted for who he really is, the “insignificant” person acted as “significant”. There is confusion behind all this. But error, confusion, is the soul of comedy, the constant source of the funny.

The play was first staged on April 19, 1836. in Petersburg Alexandrinsky theater, and on May 25 at the Moscow Maly Theatre.

On the evening of April 19, 1836, an extraordinary revival reigned on the theater square. Carriages drove up, carriage doors slammed. Boxes and armchairs were filled by the highest St. Petersburg nobility, dignitaries. In the royal box - Nicholas I with his heir, the future Alexander II. Spectators of the democratic circle are crowded in the gallery. There are many acquaintances of Gogol in the theater - V, Zhukovsky, B. Vyazemsky, I. Krylov, M. Glinka and others. Here is what Annenkov says about this first performance of The Inspector General: “Already after the first act, bewilderment was written on all faces. The confusion grows with every act. Everything that happens on the stage passionately captured the hearts of the audience. The general indignation was completed by the fifth act.

The tsar laughed a lot at the performance, apparently wanting to emphasize that the comedy is harmless and should not be taken seriously. He perfectly understood that his anger would be another confirmation of the veracity of Gogol's satire. Publicly expressing royal complacency, he wanted to weaken the public sound of The Inspector General. However, left alone with his retinue, the king could not stand it and said: “Well, what a play! Everyone got it, but I got it more than everyone else.”

Plot Pushkin presented Gogol with comedies. A common anecdote about the imaginary auditor allowed the author of the play to reveal the morals of officials of the Nikolaev time: embezzlement, bribery, ignorance and arbitrariness. Officialdom became power. Throughout the country, feathers creaked, uniforms were wiped, mountains of papers swelled. And behind all this, Rus' lived, suffered, sang and cried.

Genre comedy was conceived by Gogol as a genre public comedy touching on the most fundamental issues of the people's, public life. Pushkin's anecdote suited Gogol very well from this point of view. After all, the characters in the story about the alleged auditor are not private people, but officials, representatives of the authorities. The events associated with them inevitably capture many people: both those in power and those who are subject. The anecdote told by Pushkin easily succumbed to such artistic development, in which it became the basis of a truly social comedy.

Gogol wrote in the "Author's Confession": "In The Inspector General, I decided to put together all the bad things in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person, and laugh at everything at once.”

So the comedy was staged. But the few true connoisseurs - educated and honest people - were delighted. The majority did not understand the comedy and reacted to it with hostility.

“Everything is against me…” Gogol complained in a letter to famous actor Shchepkin. “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me.” And a few days later, in a letter to a historian, he bitterly remarks: “And what enlightened people would accept with loud laughter and participation, that very thing revolts the bile of ignorance; and this ignorance is universal…”

After staging The Inspector General on stage, Gogol is full of gloomy thoughts. He was not entirely satisfied with the acting. He is frustrated by the general misunderstanding. In these circumstances it is difficult for him to write, it is difficult to live. He decides to go abroad, to Italy. Reporting this to Pogodin. He writes with pain: “A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far away from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in the fatherland.” But as soon as he leaves the borders of his homeland, the thought of her, great love to her with new force and sharpness arises in him: "Now before me is a foreign land, around me is a foreign land, but in my heart is Rus', not nasty Rus', but only beautiful Rus'."

Literary commentary.

In order to understand the work “The Inspector General”, we will talk about what are the features of a literary work intended for the theater, for staging on stage (this work is called a play).

Features of a literary work intended for the theater, for staging on stage: (plays)

Drama(play) - literary gender. Drama Genres: Tragedy, Comedy and Drama. Comedy- a type of drama in which the action and characters are interpreted in the forms of the funny or imbued with the comic. collision- clash of opposing views, aspirations, interests. remarks- explanations for the directors of the play and actors.

They report which characters are involved in the play, what they are by age, appearance, position (author's remarks are called posters), the scene of action is indicated (a room in a house, a city, nothing), it is indicated what the hero of the play is doing and how he pronounces the words of the role (“looking around”, “to the side”).

The play is divided into parts - actions or acts. Inside the action there can be paintings or scenes. Each arrival or departure of the actor gives rise to a new phenomenon.

2. In the play, the speech of the characters and their actions are recreated in a dialogical and monologue form.

In terms of its volume, the play cannot be large, since it is designed for stage performance (2-4 hours). Therefore, in the plays, events develop quickly, energetically, pushing the actors who are fighting, hidden or overt - the conflict.

The composition of the play.

3. The action in the play develops through the following stages:

exposition- the action of the play, drawing the characters and positions of the characters before the start of the action.

tie- an event from which the active development of the action begins.

climax– moment highest voltage in the play.

denouement- the event that ends the action.

Hanger" href="/text/category/veshalka/" rel="bookmark">hangers Gogol knew: the theater begins with a poster.

Gogol said that “if we want to understand dramatic works and their creator, we must enter into his area, get to know the characters” ...

Let's open the program and, carefully getting acquainted with the actors of the comedy, we will try to guess by the name about the character of the hero.

What did you manage to think about when you got acquainted with the names of the characters?

Demonstration of the creative task: “At the theater poster”.

Make a poster for the play.

· Make a program for the play.

Draw illustrations for the play (any character)

・Parade of Heroes

Mayor.

The mayor, already aged in the service and not a very stupid 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 facial features are rough and hard, like those of anyone who has begun a hard service from the lower ranks. The transition from fear to joy, from baseness to arrogance is quite quick, like a person with a crudely 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.

Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna.

Anna Andreevna, his wife, a provincial coquette, not yet quite old, brought up half on novels and albums, half on chores in her pantry and maidens. Very curious and on occasion shows vanity. Sometimes she takes power over her husband only because he does not find what to answer her; but this power extends only to trifles and consists in reprimands and ridicule. She changes into different dresses 4 times throughout the play.

Maria Antonovna- daughter of Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky (Gorodnichy)

Khlestakov.

Khlestakov, a young man of about 23, thin, thin; somewhat stupid and, as they say, without a king in his head - one of those people who are called empty in the offices. He speaks and acts without any thought. He's unable to stop constant attention for any thought. His speech is abrupt, and words fly out of his mouth quite unexpectedly. The more the person who plays this role shows sincerity and simplicity, the more he will benefit. Dressed in fashion.

Osip.

Osip, the servant, is the way servants of a few older years usually are. He speaks seriously, looks down somewhat, is a reasoner, and likes to read morals to himself for his master. His voice is always almost even, in conversation with the master it takes on a stern, abrupt and even somewhat rude expression. He is smarter than his master, and therefore guesses more quickly, but does not like to talk much, and is silently a rogue. His costume is a gray or blue shabby frock coat.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky,

both short, short, very curious; extremely similar to each other; both with small bellies, both speak in a patter and help tremendously with gestures and hands. Dobchinsky is a little taller and more serious than Bobchinsky, but Bobchinsky is more cheeky and livelier than Dobchinsky.

Lyapkin-Tyapkin,

a judge, a man who has read five or six books, and therefore somewhat freethinking. The hunter is great at guessing, and therefore he gives weight to his every word. The presenter must always keep it. He speaks in a bass voice, with an oblong drawl, wheezing and glanders, like an old clock that hisses first and then strikes.

strawberries,

trustee of charitable institutions, a very fat, clumsy and clumsy man, but with all that, a sly and a rogue. Very helpful and fussy.

Laughter is the only “honest, noble face in comedy”

In the article “Petersburg Stage in 1835-36”, the brilliant satirist said that when creating his comedy, he set himself the goal of “noticing” the common elements of our society, driving its springs. To portray on the stage “tares”, from which there is no life for the good and for which no law is able to follow.

The epigraph: “There is nothing to blame on the mirror, if the face is crooked” characterizes the genre of comedy - socio-political comedy.

“The exposure of negative characters is given in comedy not through a noble face, but through the action of deeds, dialogues of themselves. The negative heroes of Gogol themselves expose themselves in the eyes of the viewer.

But… heroes are exposed not with the help of morality and moralizing, but by ridicule. “Only laughter here strikes a vice” (Gogol).

Homework announcement.

https://pandia.ru/text/77/499/images/image004_10.png" alt="C:\Documents" align="left" width="50" height="79 src=">5. “Человек “пожилых лет”, смотрит вниз, в разговоре с барином принимает грубое выражение”!}

THE CLEVEREST

1. Poltava is located 1430 versts from St. Petersburg and 842 versts from Moscow. 1 verst \u003d 1.067 m. What is the distance from Moscow to Poltava and from Petersburg to Poltava?

2. “However, I just mentioned the county court, and to tell the truth, hardly anyone will look there. This is such an enviable place, God himself patronizes it.” How does the mayor explain this statement?

3. His surname is a synonym for the autocratic police regime in the meaning: a masterful and rude administrator.

4. U “mail” is defined as:
1) “the establishment of an urgent message for sending letters and things”;
2) “place of receiving letters and parcels”.
In the "Inspector" 2 meanings. And what other duties did Shpekin have?

5. What rank was Khlestakov?

6. Who is the mayor?

7. What are charitable institutions?

8. Who is a private bailiff?

9. What does incognito mean?

10. What are over the knee boots?

11. Who wrote the novel "Yuri Miloslavsky"?

12. What kind of dish is “labardan”?

13. Who such and What is bad manners?

Surname __________________ First name _________________ Date _____________

0 "style="border-collapse:collapse;border:none">

Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky - mayor.

* What is the first part of the surname "Skvoznik" associated with?
In Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, "Draft is a stream of air blowing through a room through openings located opposite each other."
This suggests that the mayor is characterized by lawlessness, swagger, complete impunity.

Anna Andreevna

His wife

Luka Lukich Khlopov

without first and last name.

Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin

Judge.
The surname reveals the principle of his attitude to official affairs “tap-blunder” and the matter is ready, as well as his spiritual clumsiness, incongruity, slowness, tongue-tied speech.

Artemy Filippovich Strawberry

Trustee of charitable institutions.
The man is cautious, cunning.

Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin

Postmaster.
The surname is formed from the word "spy" - he constantly spies, reading other people's letters, unceremonious in his innocence.

Petr Ivanovich Bobchinsky
Petr Ivanovich Dobchinsky

Urban
Only one letter in the surname has been replaced, they are similar in everything, curious, talkative.

Ivan Alekseevich Khlestakov

“Whip”, “whip - beat, hit with something flexible"

Christian Ivanovich Gibner

County doctor.
The surname is associated with the word "perish".

Stepan Ilyich Ukhovertov

Private bailiff.
The surname is formed by adding two bases "twirl the ear".

Svistunov
Buttons
Derzhimorda

Policemen.
The names themselves speak of the actions of these law enforcement officers.

Gogol's element is laughter, through which he looks at life both in stories and in the poem " Dead Souls", however, in dramatic works("The Inspector General", "Marriage", "Players") the comic nature of Gogol's genius came to light especially fully. In the best comedy "The Inspector General" art world Gogol the comedian appears original, integral, animated by the clear moral position of the author.

Since working on The Inspector General, the writer has thought a lot about the deep spiritual conditioning of laughter. According to Gogol, the "high" laughter of a true writer has nothing in common with the "low" laughter generated by light impressions, quick witticisms, puns, or caricatured grimaces. "High" laughter comes "straight from the soul", its source is the dazzling brilliance of the mind, endowing laughter with ethical and pedagogical functions. The meaning of such laughter is to ridicule the "hidden vice" and maintain "lofty feelings".

In the writings that have become literary companions of the Inspector General (“An excerpt from a letter written by the author after the first presentation of the Inspector General to one writer”, “ Theatrical tour after the presentation of the new comedy”, “Decoupling of the Inspector General”), Gogol, rejecting accusations of the lack of ideas of the comedy, conceived his laughter as “high”, connecting the sharpness of criticism with a high moral task that opened up to the writer and inspired him. Already in The Inspector General, he wanted to appear before the public not only as comic writer but also as a preacher, teacher. The meaning of comedy is that in it Gogol laughs and teaches at the same time. In Theatrical Journey, the playwright emphasized that the only "honest, noble face It is laughter that appears in The Inspector General, and clarified: “... that laughter that all emanates from the bright nature of a person emanates from it because at the bottom of it there is an eternally beating spring of it, which deepens the subject, makes something come out brightly that would have slipped through, without the penetrating power of which the trifle and emptiness of life would not have frightened a person so much.

Comedy in literary work always based on the fact that the writer selects in life itself what is imperfect, low, vicious and contradictory. The writer discovers a “hidden vice” in the discrepancy between the external form and the internal content of life phenomena and events, in the characters and behavior of people. Laughter is the writer's reaction to comic contradictions that objectively exist in reality or created in a literary work. Laughing at social and human shortcomings, the comic writer establishes his own scale of values. In the light of his ideals, the imperfection or depravity of those phenomena and people who seem or pretend to seem to be exemplary, noble or virtuous is revealed. Behind the "high" laughter lies an ideal that allows you to give an accurate assessment of what is depicted. In "high" comedy, the "negative" pole must be balanced by the "positive". The negative is associated with laughter, the positive - with other types of evaluation: indignation, preaching, protection of genuine moral and social values.

In the "accusatory" comedies created by Gogol's predecessors, the presence of a "positive" pole was mandatory. The viewer found him on the stage, the reader - in the text, since among the characters, along with "negative" characters, there were always "positive" characters. The author's position was reflected in their relationships, in the characters' monologues, which directly expressed the author's point of view, and was supported by off-stage characters.

The most famous Russian comedies - "Undergrowth" by D.I. Fonvizin and "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov - have all the signs of a "high" comedy. The "positive" characters in "Undergrowth" are Starodum, Pravdin and Milon. Chatsky is also a character expressing the author's ideals, despite the fact that he is by no means a “perfect model”. Chatsky's moral position is supported by non-stage characters (Skalozub's brother, Prince Fyodor, nephew of Princess Tugoukhovskaya). The presence of "positive" characters clearly indicated to readers what was due and what was deserving of condemnation. Conflicts in the comedies of Gogol's predecessors arose as a result of a clash between vicious people and those who, according to the authors, could be considered an example to follow - honest, fair, truthful people.

The Inspector General is an innovative work, which differs in many respects from comedyography that preceded and is contemporary with Gogol. The main difference is that in comedy there is no "positive" pole, "positive" characters expressing the author's ideas about what officials should be like, there are no reasoning heroes, "mouthpieces" of the author's ideas. The writer's ideals are expressed by other means. In essence, Gogol, having conceived a work that was supposed to have a direct moral impact on the public, abandoned the forms of expression of the author's position traditional for public, "accusatory" comedies.

Spectators and readers cannot find direct author's indications of what “exemplary” officials should be, and there are no hints of the existence of any other moral way of life than the one depicted in the play. It can be said that all Gogol's characters are of the same "color", created from a similar "material", and line up in one chain. The officials depicted in The Inspector General represent one social type - these are people who do not correspond to those " important places' which they occupy. Moreover, none of them ever even thought about the question of what an official should be like, how one should perform his duties.

The “greatness” of “the sins committed by everyone” is different. Indeed, if we compare, for example, the curious postmaster Shpekin with the obliging and fussy trustee of charitable establishments Strawberry, then it is quite obvious that the “sin” of the postmaster is reading other people’s letters (“death loves to know what is new in the world”) - it seems more lighter than the cynicism of an official who, on duty, must take care of the sick and the elderly, but not only does not show official zeal, but is generally devoid of signs of philanthropy (“A simple man: if he dies, then he will die; if he recovers, then he will recover anyway "). As Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin thoughtfully remarked to the mayor’s words that “there is no person who does not have any sins behind him”, “sins are different for sins. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but why bribes? Greyhound puppies. It's a completely different matter." However, the writer is not interested in the scale of the county officials' sins. From his point of view, the life of each of them is fraught with a comic contradiction: between what an official should be and who these people really are. Comic "harmony" is achieved by the fact that there is no character in the play who would not even be ideal, but simply a "normal" official.

Depicting officials, Gogol uses the method of realistic typification: the general, characteristic of all officials, is manifested in the individual. Characters Gogol comedy possess unique human qualities inherent only to them.

The appearance of the mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is unique: he is shown as “a very intelligent person in his own way”, it is not without reason that all district officials, with the exception of the “somewhat free-thinking” judge, are attentive to his remarks about the disorder in the city. He is observant, accurate in his rough opinions and assessments, cunning and prudent, although he seems simple-minded. The mayor is a bribe taker and embezzler, confident in his right to use administrative power for his own interests. But, as he noted, parrying the judge’s attack, “he is firm in faith” and every Sunday he goes to church. The city for him is a family estate, and the colorful policemen Svistunov, Pugovitsyn and Derzhimorda do not so much keep order as they act as servants of the mayor. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, despite his mistake with Khlestakov, is a far-sighted and insightful person who deftly uses the peculiarity of the Russian bureaucracy: since there is no official without sin, it means that anyone, even if he is a governor, even a “metropolitan thing”, can be “buyed” or “deceived ".

Most of the events in the comedy take place in the mayor’s house: it is here that it turns out who is holding “under the heel” of the luminary of the county bureaucracy - wife Anna Andreevna and daughter Marya Antonovna. After all, many of the "sins" of the mayor are the result of their whims. In addition, it is their frivolous relationship with Khlestakov that reinforces the comedy of his position, gives rise to completely ridiculous dreams of a general's rank and service in St. Petersburg. In "Remarks for gentlemen of the actors", preceding the text of the comedy, Gogol indicated that the mayor began "heavy service from the lower ranks." This important detail: after all, the "electricity" of the rank not only exalted Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, but also ruined him, making him a man "with roughly developed inclinations of the soul." Note that this is a comic version of Pushkin's captain Mironov, a straightforward and honest commandant Belogorsk fortress (« Captain's daughter"). The mayor is the exact opposite of Captain Mironov. If in the hero of Pushkin a person is above the rank, then in Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, on the contrary, bureaucratic arrogance kills the human.

Bright personality traits there is in Lyapkin-Tyapkin and in Strawberry. The judge is a county "philosopher" who has "read five or six" books and loves to talk about the creation of the world. 11 rand, from his words, according to the mayor, “the hair just rises on end” - probably not only because he is a “Voltarian”, does not believe in God, allows himself to argue with Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, but also simply because of the absurdity and the absurdity of his "philosophizing". As the wise mayor subtly remarked, "well, otherwise a lot of intelligence is worse than it would not exist at all." The trustee of charitable institutions stands out among other officials with a penchant for flattery and denunciation. Probably not for the first time he did what he did during the "audience" with Khlestakov: violating the mutual responsibility of officials, Zemlyanika said that the postmaster "does absolutely nothing", the judge - "reprehensible behavior", the superintendent of schools - "worse than a Jacobin ". Strawberries, perhaps for real scary man, a werewolf official: he not only starves people in his charitable institutions and does not treat them (“we do not use expensive medicines”), but also destroys human reputations, interfering with truth with lies and slander. Luka Lukich Khlopov, superintendent of schools, is an impenetrably stupid and cowardly person, an example of a learned serf who looks into the mouth of any boss. “God forbid to serve in the scientific part! Khlopov complains. “You are afraid of everything: everyone gets in the way, everyone wants to show that he is also an intelligent person.”

The individualization of comic characters is one of the basic principles of Gogol the comedian. In each of them he finds a comic, "hidden vice", worthy of ridicule. However, regardless of their individual qualities, each official is a variant of "universal evasion" from true service to the tsar and the Fatherland, which should be the duty and honor of a nobleman. At the same time, it must be remembered that the socially typical in the characters of The Inspector General is only a part of their human appearance. Individual shortcomings become a form of manifestation of universal human vices in each Gogol character. The meaning of the depicted characters is much larger than their social position: they represent not only the county bureaucracy or the Russian bureaucracy, but also “a person in general” with his imperfections, who easily forgets about his duties as a citizen of heavenly and earthly citizenship.

Having created one social type of an official (such an official either steals, or takes bribes, or simply does nothing at all), the playwright supplemented it with a moral-psychological typification. Each of the characters has features of a certain moral and psychological type: it is easy to see in the mayor an imperious hypocrite who knows for sure what his benefit is; in Lyapkin-Tyapkin - a "philosopher" - a grumbler who loves to demonstrate his learning, but flaunts only his lazy, clumsy mind; in Strawberry - an earphone and a flatterer, covering up his "sins" with other people's "sins"; in the postmaster, who “treats” officials with a letter from Khlestakov, a curious, lover of peeping through a keyhole ... And of course, the imaginary “auditor” Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov himself is the embodiment of thoughtless lies, an easy attitude to life and widespread human weakness - to ascribe to oneself other people's affairs and other people's glory. This is a “labardan” man, that is, a mixture of stupidity, nonsense and nonsense, which pretend to be taken for intelligence, meaning and order. “I am everywhere, everywhere,” Khlestakov says about himself and is not mistaken: as Gogol noted, “everyone, even for a minute, if not for a few minutes, has been or is being made by Khlestakov, but, naturally, he just does not want to admit it ... ".

All characters are purely comic characters. Gogol does not portray them as some kind of extraordinary people - he is interested in what is found everywhere and what ordinary, everyday life consists of. Many minor characters reinforce the impression that the playwright portrays quite ordinary people, not higher than "ordinary height". The second spectator in "Theatrical Journey" in response to the remark of the First spectator "... Do such people really exist? And meanwhile, they are not exactly villains, ”he remarked:“ Not at all, they are not villains at all. They are exactly what the proverb says: "Not a bad soul, but just a rogue." The situation itself, caused by the self-deception of officials, is exceptional - it stirred them up, tore them out of the usual order of life, only by enlarging, in the words of Gogol, "the vulgarity vulgar person". The officials' self-deception caused a chain reaction in the city, making both the merchants and the locksmith with the non-commissioned officer, offended by the mayor, accomplices in the comic action. A special role in the comedy was played by two characters who are called "city landowners" in the list of actors - the "poster" of the comedy: Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky. Each of them is a simple doubling of the other (their images are created according to the principle: two people - one character). They were the first to report the strange young man they saw at the inn. These insignificant people (“gossipers of the city, damned liars”) caused a commotion with the imaginary “auditor”, purely comical persons who led the county bribe-takers and embezzlers to a tragic denouement.

The comedy in The Government Inspector, unlike the pre-Gogol comedies, is consistent and all-encompassing. Reveal the comic in public environment, in the characters of county officials and landowners, in the imaginary "inspector" Khlestakov - such is the principle of the author of the comedy.

The comic character in The Inspector General is revealed in three comedic situations. The first is a situation of fear caused by the received message about the imminent arrival of an auditor from St. Petersburg, the second is a situation of deafness and blindness of officials who suddenly ceased to understand the meaning of the words that Khlestakov uttered. They misinterpret them, they don't hear or see the obvious. The third situation is the situation of substitution: Khlestakov was mistaken for an auditor, the true auditor was replaced by an imaginary one. All three comedy situations are so closely interconnected that the absence of even one of them could destroy the comic effect of the play.

The main source of the comic in The Inspector General is fear, which literally paralyzes county officials, turning them from imperious tyrants into fussy, ingratiating people, from bribe takers into bribe givers. It is fear that deprives them of their reason, makes them deaf and blind, of course, not literally, but figuratively. They hear what Khlestakov says, how he lies improbably and every now and then “tricks”, but the true meaning of what was said does not reach them: after all, according to officials, in the mouth of a “significant person” even the most impudent and fantastic lie turns into truth. Instead of shaking with laughter, listening to stories about a watermelon "at seven hundred rubles", about "thirty-five thousand one couriers" galloping through the streets of St. Petersburg in order to invite Khlestakov "to manage the department", about how "in one evening" he wrote all the works of Baron Brambeus (O.I. Senkovsky), and the story "Frigate" Nadezhda "" (A.A. Bestuzheva) and even the magazine "Moscow Telegraph", "the mayor and others are shaking with fear", encouraging the intoxicated Khlestakov “to get excited more,” that is, to carry complete nonsense: “I am everywhere, everywhere. I go to the palace every day. Tomorrow they will make me into the field march ... ". Even during the first meeting with Khlestakov, the mayor saw, but did not “recognize” in him a complete insignificance. Both fear and the deafness and blindness caused by it became the soil on which a situation of substitution arose, which determined the “ghostly” nature of the conflict and the comedic plot of The Government Inspector.

Gogol used in The Inspector General all the possibilities of situational comedy available to a comedian. Three main comedy situations, each of which can be found in almost any comedy, in Gogol's play convince the reader with the whole "mass" of the comic that everything that happens on the stage is rigidly determined. “... Comedy should tie itself together, with all its mass, into one big, common knot,” Gogol noted in Theatrical Traveling.

There are many farcical situations in The Inspector General, which show the stupidity and inappropriate fussiness of county officials, as well as the frivolity and carelessness of Khlestakov. These situations are designed for 100% comic effect: they cause laughter, regardless of the meaning of what is happening. For example, feverishly giving the last orders before a trip to Khlestakov, the mayor "instead of a hat wants to put on a paper case." In Apparitions XII-XIV of the fourth act, Khlestakov, who had just declared his love to Marya Antonovna and was kneeling before her, as soon as she left, expelled by her mother, "rushes to her knees" and asks for a hand ... from the mayor's wife, and then, suddenly caught running in, Marya Antonovna, asks "mother" to bless them with Marya Antonovna "constant love." The lightning-fast change of events caused by Khlestakov's unpredictability ends with the transformation of "His Excellency" into a groom.

The comic homogeneity of The Inspector General determines two of the most important features of the work. Firstly, there is no reason to consider Gogol's laughter only "exposing", scourging vices. Gogol saw "cleansing", didactic and preaching functions in "high" laughter. The meaning of laughter for the writer is richer than criticism, denial or scourging: after all, laughing, he not only showed the vices of people and the imperfection of the Russian bureaucracy, but also took the first, most necessary step towards their deliverance.

In Gogol's laughter there is a huge "positive" potential, if only because those whom Gogol laughs at are not humiliated, but, on the contrary, are exalted by his laughter. The comic characters portrayed by the writer are not at all ugly human mutations. For him, these are, first of all, people, with their shortcomings and vices, "black ones", those who especially need the word of truth. They are blinded by power and impunity, they are used to believing that the life they lead is the real life. For Gogol, these are people who have lost their way, blinded, never knowing about their "high" social and human destiny. Can it be explained like this main motive Gogol's laughter in The Inspector General and in the works that followed it, including in " Dead souls”: only when they see themselves in the mirror of laughter, people are able to experience a spiritual shock, to think about new life truths, about the meaning of their “high” earthly and heavenly “citizenship”.

Secondly, Gogol's consistent comedy leads to an almost limitless semantic expansion of comedy. Not individual shortcomings are ridiculed individual people, whose life offends the moral sense of the writer and causes him bitterness and anxiety for the desecrated "title" of a person, but the whole system of relations between people. Gogol's "geography" is not limited to a county town, lost somewhere in the Russian outback. The county town, as the writer himself noted, is a “prefabricated city”, a symbol of Russian and general disorder and delusion. The county town, so absurdly deceived in Khlestakov, is a fragment of a huge mirror, in which, according to the author, one should look at oneself Russian nobility, Russian people in general.

Gogol's laughter is a kind of "magnifying glass", with which you can see in people what they themselves either do not notice or want to hide. IN ordinary life The “curvature” of a person, disguised by a position or rank, is not always obvious. "Mirror" of comedy shows true essence person, makes visible real-life shortcomings. The mirror reflection of life is no worse than life itself, in which people's faces have turned into "crooked faces." This is what the epigraph to The Inspector General reminds of.

The comedy uses Gogol's favorite technique - the synecdoche. Having shown the "visible" part of the world of the Russian bureaucracy, having laughed at the unlucky "fathers" of the county town, the writer pointed to a hypothetical whole, that is, to the shortcomings of the entire Russian bureaucracy and to universal human vices. The self-deception of officials of the county town, due to specific reasons, primarily the natural fear of retribution for what they have done, is part of the general self-deception that makes people worship false idols, forgetting about true life values.

The artistic effect of Gogol's comedy is determined by the fact that the real world "participates" in its creation - Russian reality, Russian people who have forgotten about their duty to the country, about the importance of the place they occupy, the world shown in the "mirror" of laughter, and the ideal world, created by the height of the copyright moral ideal. The author's ideal is expressed not in a head-on collision of "negative" (more precisely, denied) characters with "positive" (ideal, exemplary) characters, but in the entire "mass" of comedy, that is, in its plot, composition, in the variety of meanings contained in each comic character, in every scene of the work.

The originality of the plot and composition of The Inspector General is determined by the nature of the conflict. It is due to the situation of self-deception of officials: they take what they wish for reality. Allegedly recognized, exposed by them official - "incognito" from St. Petersburg - makes them act as if they were a real auditor. The resulting comic contradiction makes the conflict ghostly, non-existent. After all, only if Khlestakov was actually an auditor, the behavior of officials would be quite justified, and the conflict would be a completely ordinary clash of interests between the auditor and the “audited”, whose fate completely depends on their dexterity and ability to “splurge” .

Khlestakov is a mirage that arose because “fear has big eyes”, since it was the fear of being taken by surprise, not having time to hide the “disorder” in the city, that led to the emergence of a comic contradiction, an imaginary conflict. However, Khlestakov's appearance is quite concrete, from the very beginning (the second act) his true essence is clear to the reader or viewer: he is just a petty Petersburg official who lost at cards and therefore got stuck in the backwoods of the county. Only “uncommon lightness in thoughts” helps Khlestakov not to lose heart in absolutely hopeless circumstances, out of habit hoping for “maybe”. He is passing through the city, but it seems to the officials that he came precisely for their sake. As soon as Gogol replaced the real auditor with an imaginary one, the real conflict became also an imaginary conflict, a ghostly one.

The unusualness of the comedy is not so much that Gogol found a completely new plot move, but in the reality of everything that happens. Each of the characters seems to be in its place, conscientiously playing its role. The county town has turned into a kind of stage platform, on which a completely “natural” play is played, striking in its plausibility. The script and the list of actors are known in advance, the only question is how the "actors"-officials will cope with their "roles" in the future "performance".

Indeed, one can evaluate acting skills each of them. The main character, the real "genius" of the county bureaucratic scene, is the mayor Anton Ivanovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, who successfully played his "role" three times in the past ("he deceived three governors"), the rest of the officials - who is better, who is worse - also cope with their roles , although the mayor sometimes has to prompt them, “prompt”, as if reminiscent of the text of the “play”. Almost the entire first act is like a "dress rehearsal" carried out in a hurry. It was immediately followed by an unplanned "performance". After the beginning of the action - the message of the mayor - a very dynamic exposition follows. It presents not only each of the "fathers" of the city, but also the county town itself, which they consider their fiefdom. Officials are convinced of their right to commit lawlessness, take bribes, rob merchants, starve the sick, rob the treasury, read other people's letters. The fussy Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who rushed to the “secret” meeting and alarmed everyone with a message about a strange young man they found in a hotel, hurried to shove the “curtain” open.

The mayor and officials try to “throw dust in the eyes” of an imaginary important person and tremble in front of her, sometimes losing the power of speech, not only out of fear of possible punishment, but also because one must tremble before any superiors (this is determined by the role of “audited”). They give bribes to Khlestakov when he asks for a "favor", because they should be given in this case, while usually they receive bribes. The mayor is kind and helpful, but this is just component his "role" caring "father" of the city. In a word, everything goes like clockwork with the officials.

Even Khlestakov easily enters the role of an important person: he meets officials, accepts petitions, and begins, as befits a "significant person", for no reason to "scold" the owners, forcing them to "shake with fear." Khlestakov is incapable of enjoying power over people, he simply repeats what he himself probably experienced more than once in his St. Petersburg department. An unexpected role transforms Khlestakov, elevating him above everyone, making him a smart, powerful and strong-willed person, and a mayor who really possesses these qualities, again in full accordance with his “role”, for a while turns into a “rag”, “icicle” , complete nothingness. The comic metamorphosis is provoked by the "electricity" of the rank. All the actors - both county officials who have real power, and Khlestakov, the "cog" of the St. Petersburg bureaucratic system - seem to be struck by a powerful discharge of current generated by the Table of Ranks, which replaced a person with a rank. Even an imaginary bureaucratic "value" is capable of leading the movement of generally intelligent people, making obedient puppets out of them.

Readers and viewers of the comedy are well aware that a substitution took place that determined the behavior of officials until the fifth act, before the appearance of the postmaster Shpekin with Khlestakov's letter. The participants in the “performance” are unequal, since Khlestakov almost immediately guessed that he was confused with someone. But the role of "significant person" is so well known to him that he brilliantly coped with it. Officials, fettered both by unfeigned and by the fear set by them according to the "scenario", do not notice the blatant inconsistencies in the behavior of the imaginary auditor.

The Inspector General is an unusual comedy, since comic situations do not exhaust the meaning of what is happening. Three dramatic plots coexist in the play. One of them - a comedic one - was realized in the second, third, fourth and at the beginning of the fifth act: the imaginary (Khlestakov) became a magnitude (auditor) in the eyes of officials. The plot of the comedy plot is not in the first, but in the second act - this is the first conversation between the mayor and Khlestakov, where they are both sincere and both are mistaken. Khlestakov, in the words of an observant mayor, "nondescript, short, it seems like he would have crushed him with a fingernail." However, from the very beginning, the imaginary auditor in the eyes of the frightened "mayor of the local city" turns into a gigantic figure: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky "becomes shy", listening to Khlestakov's "threats" "stretching out and trembling with his whole body." The mayor is sincerely mistaken and behaves as one should behave with the auditor, although he sees that he is a nonentity. Khlestakov enthusiastically “whips”, putting on the appearance of a “significant person”, but at the same time he speaks the real truth (“I am going to the Saratov province, to my own village”). The words of Khlestakov mayor, contrary to common sense, takes for a lie: “Nicely tied a knot! Lies, lies - and it will not break anywhere!

At the end of the fourth act, to the mutual satisfaction of Khlestakov and the officials, who are still unaware of their deceit, the imaginary "auditor" is carried away from the city by the fastest three, but his shadow remains in the fifth act. The mayor himself begins to "whipping", dreaming of a career in St. Petersburg. It seems to him that he received “what a rich prize” - “with what a devil they intermarried!” With the help of his future son-in-law, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky hopes to “hit a big rank, because he is a friend of all ministers and goes to the palace.” The comic contradiction at the beginning of the fifth act reaches its peak.

The culmination of the comedy plot is the scene of the triumph of the mayor, who behaves as if he had already received the rank of general. He became above all, ascended above the county bureaucrats. And the higher he ascends in his dreams, taking what he wishes for reality, the more painful it is for him to fall when the postmaster "in a hurry" brings a printed letter - Khlestakov the writer, a scribbler appears on the stage, and the scribbler of the mayor cannot stand the spirit: for him they are worse than the devil . It is the position of the mayor that is especially comical, but it also has a tragic connotation. The unlucky hero of the comedy himself considers what happened as God's punishment: "Well, truly, if God wants to punish, he will first take away the mind." Add to this: and deprive irony and hearing.

In Khlestakov's letter, everyone finds even more "unpleasant news" than in the letter of Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, read by the mayor at the beginning of the play: the auditor turned out to be imaginary, "helicopter", "icicle", "rag". Reading the letter is the denouement of the comedy. Everything fell into place - the deceived side both laughs and is indignant, fearing publicity and, which is especially insulting, laughter: after all, as the mayor noted, now “you will go into a laughing stock - there will be a clicker, a 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. The mayor is most of all not saddened by his human humiliation, but outraged by the possible insult to his "rank, title." There is a bitter comic connotation in his indignation: a person who has soiled his rank and rank falls upon the “clickers”, “paper-scrapers”, identifying himself with the rank and therefore considering himself closed to criticism.

Laughter in the fifth act becomes universal: after all, every official wants to laugh at others, recognizing the accuracy of Khlestakov's assessments. Laughing at each other, savoring the jabs and slaps given in the letter by the exposed "auditor", the officials laugh at themselves. Laughing scene - laughing auditorium. The famous remark of the mayor - “What are you laughing at? - You are laughing at yourself!.. Oh, you!.. "- addressed both to those present on the stage and to the audience. Only Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky does not laugh: he is the most injured person in this whole story. It seems that with the reading of the letter and the clarification of the truth, the circle has closed, the comedic plot has been exhausted. But after all, the whole first act is not yet a comedy, although there are many comic incongruities in the behavior and words of the participants in the meeting with the mayor, in the appearance of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky and in the hasty gathering of the mayor.

Two other plots - dramatic and tragic - are outlined, but not fully implemented. The first words of the mayor: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you the unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to us”, supplemented by clarifications that this auditor is coming from St. Petersburg (and not from the province), incognito (secretly, without publicity), “ and also with a secret order, ”caused a serious commotion. The task that arose before the county officials is quite serious, but doable: “take precautions”, how to prepare for a meeting with a formidable “incognito”: to cover up, patch up something in the city - maybe it will blow over. The plot of the action is dramatic, vital: the terrible auditor will not fall like snow on his head, the ritual of receiving the auditor and swindling him could be realized. There is no inspector in the first act yet, but there is a plot: the officials woke up from their hibernation, began to fuss. There is no hint of a possible substitution, only the fear that they might not be in time worries officials, especially the mayor: “So you are waiting for the door to open and - walk ...”

So, in the first act, the contours of the future drama are outlined, in which a favorable outcome of the audit could depend only on the officials. The message of the mayor about the letter he received and the possible arrival of the auditor is the basis for the emergence of a dramatic conflict, quite common in any situation associated with the sudden arrival of the authorities. From the second act to the finale of the play, a comedic plot unfolds. In a comedy, as reflected in a mirror real world official bureaucracy. In laughter, this world, shown from the inside, revealed its usual features: falsehood, show-off, hypocrisy, flattery and the omnipotence of the rank. Hurrying to the hotel where the unknown visitor from St. Petersburg was staying, the mayor hurried into the comedic "behind the mirror", into the world of false, but quite plausible ranks and relations between people.

If the action in The Inspector General had ended with the reading of Khlestakov's letter, Gogol would have accurately realized the "thought" of the work suggested to him by Pushkin. But the writer went further, completing the play with “The Last Appearance” and “A Silent Scene”: the finale of “The Inspector General” brought the heroes out of the “mirror room”, in which laughter reigned, reminding them that their self-deception did not allow them to “take precautions”, dulled their vigilance . In the finale, a third plot is planned - a tragic one. The suddenly appeared gendarme announces the arrival of not an imaginary, but a genuine auditor, terrible for officials not with his “incognito”, but with the clarity of the task set before him by the tsar himself. Each word of the gendarme is like a blow of fate, this is a prophecy about the imminent retribution of officials - both for sins and for carelessness: “An official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg demands you to himself this very hour. He stayed at a hotel." The fears of the mayor, expressed in the first act, came true: “That would be nothing, - damned incognito! Suddenly he looks: “Ah, you are here, my dears! And who, say, is the judge here? - Lyapkin-Tyapkin. - “And bring Lyapkin-Tyapkin here! And who is the trustee of charitable institutions? - "Strawberry". - “And bring Strawberries here!” That's bad!" The appearance of the gendarme is the imposition of a new action, the beginning of a tragedy that the author takes out of the scene. A new, serious "play", in which everyone will not be laughing, should, according to Gogol, not be played in the theater, but be accomplished in life itself.

Her three plots begin with messages: a dramatic one - with a message from the mayor, a comic one - with a message from Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, a tragic one - with a message from a gendarme. But only the comic ghost plot is fully developed. In a dramatic plot that remained unrealized, Gogol discovered comic potential, demonstrating not only the absurdity of the behavior of fooled officials, but also the absurdity of the action itself, in which the roles are pre-scheduled: both the auditor and the auditees diligently throw dust in each other's eyes. The possibility of embodying the author's ideal is outlined in the finale of the comedy: the last and most important emphasis is made by Gogol on the inevitability of punishment.

The play ends with the "petrification" scene. This is a sudden stop of the action, which from that moment could turn from a comedy, ending with the exposure of Khlestakov, into a tragedy. Everything happened suddenly, suddenly. The worst happened: the officials were no longer hypothetical, but real danger. "Silent scene" - the moment of truth for officials. They are made to “petrify” by a terrible guess about imminent retribution. Gogol the moralist asserts in the finale of The Inspector General the idea of ​​the inevitability of the trial of bribe-takers and embezzlers of public funds who have forgotten their official and human duty. This court, according to the writer, should be carried out by personal command, that is, by the will of the king himself.

In the finale of the comedy “Undergrowth” by D.I. Fovizina, Starodum says, pointing to Mitrofanushka: “Here they are, malevolence worthy fruits!" In Gogol's comedy there is no one who even remotely resembled Starodum. The “silent scene” is the pointing finger of the author himself, this is the “moral” of the play, expressed not by the words of the “positive” hero, but by means of composition. The gendarme is a messenger from that ideal world created by Gogol's imagination. In this world, the monarch not only punishes, but also corrects his subjects, wants not only to teach them a lesson, but also to teach them. The pointing finger of Gogol the moralist is also turned towards the emperor, not without reason that Nicholas I remarked, leaving the box after the performance on April 19, 1836: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, but I - more than anyone! ” Gogol did not flatter the emperor. Directly pointing out where retribution should come from, the writer, in essence, "taunted" him, confident in his right to preach, teach and instruct, including the king himself. Already in 1835, when the first edition of the comedy was being created, Gogol was firmly convinced that his laughter was laughter inspired by high moral ideal, and not the laughter of a scoff or an indifferent critic of social and human vices.

Gogol's belief in the triumph of justice, in the moral effect of his play can be assessed as a kind of social and moral utopia generated by his enlightening illusions. But if it were not for these illusions, there would be no "Inspector General". In it, the comic and laughter turned out to be in the foreground, but behind them stands Gogol's belief that evil is punishable, and the punishment itself is carried out in the name of liberating people from the ghostly power of the rank, from the "bestial", in the name of their spiritual enlightenment. “Having seen his shortcomings and errors, a person suddenly becomes higher than himself,” the writer emphasized. “There is no evil that cannot be corrected, but you need to see what exactly the evil consists of.” The arrival of the auditor is not a “duty” event at all. The inspector is important not as a specific character, but as a symbol. It is, as it were, the hand of an autocrat, just and merciless to iniquities, reaching out to the backwaters of the county.

In The Denouement of The Inspector General, written in 1846, Gogol emphasized the possibility of a broader interpretation of the comedy's finale. The inspector is “our awakened conscience”, sent “by the Nominal Supreme Command”, by the will of God, reminding a person of his “high heavenly citizenship”: “Whatever you say, but the inspector who is waiting for us at the door of the coffin is terrible. As if you don't know who this auditor is? What to pretend? This auditor is our awakened conscience, which will make us suddenly and at once look with all eyes at ourselves. Nothing will hide before this auditor. ... Suddenly it will open before you, in you, such a monster that a hair will rise from horror. Of course, this interpretation is only one of the possible interpretations of the comedy's symbolically ambiguous finale, which, according to the author's intention, should affect both the mind and the soul of viewers and readers.

The history of the creation of Gogol's "Inspector General" begins in the 1830s. During this period, the author worked on the poem "Dead Souls", and in the process of prescribing the exaggerated features of Russian reality, he had the idea to display these features in a comedy; "the hand trembles to write ... a comedy." Earlier, Gogol had already made a successful debut in this genre with the play "Marriage", in which the author's characteristic comic tricks, and the realistic orientation inherent in subsequent works. In 1835, he wrote to Pushkin: "Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil."

The plot suggested by Pushkin

The story proposed by Pushkin to Gogol as a plot actually happened to the publisher of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia: in one of the county towns he was mistaken for a government official. There was a similar case with Pushkin himself: he was mistaken for an auditor in Nizhny Novgorod, where he went to collect material on the Pugachev rebellion. In a word, it was the same “purely Russian anecdote” that Gogol needed to realize his plan.

Work on the play took only two months - October and November 1835. In January 1836, the author read the finished comedy at the evening at V. Zhukovsky in the presence of many famous writers, including Pushkin, who suggested the idea. Almost everyone present was delighted with the play. However, the history of the "Inspector" was still far from over.

“In The Inspector General, I decided to put together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person, and at one time laugh at everything” - this is how Gogol spoke about his play; it was precisely such a purpose that he saw for her - a merciless mockery, purifying satire, a tool to combat the abominations and injustices that reign in society. However, almost no one, even among his fellow writers, saw in The Inspector General anything more than a solid, high-quality "situation comedy". The play was allowed to be staged far from immediately, and only after V. Zhukovsky personally had to convince the emperor of the trustworthiness of the comedy.

The first premiere of "The Inspector"

The first edition of the play premiered in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Gogol was disappointed with the production: the actors either did not understand the satirical direction of the comedy, or were afraid to act in accordance with it; the performance turned out to be too vaudeville, primitive comic. Only I.I. Sosnitsky, who played the role of the Governor, managed to convey the author's intention, bring into the image satirical notes. However, performed even in such a form, very far from the author's desire, the comedy caused a stormy and ambiguous reaction. The “tops” of society, denounced by Gogol, nevertheless felt ridicule; the comedy was declared "an impossibility, a slander and a farce"; according to unconfirmed reports, Nicholas I himself, who was present at the premiere, said: “Well, what a play!

Everyone got it, but I got it the most.” Even if these words were not actually said, it well reflects how the public perceived Gogol's bold creation.

And, nevertheless, the autocrat liked the play: the risky comedy was allowed for further productions. Taking into account his own observations of the game, as well as the comments of the actors, the author repeatedly made changes to the text; creation of the play "Inspector General" by Gogol in its final version continued for many years after the first production. The last edition of the play dates back to 1842 - this is the version that is known to the modern reader.

Author's commentary on comedy

The long and difficult history of the creation of the comedy The Inspector General is inseparable from Gogol's numerous articles and comments on his play. The misunderstanding of the idea by the public and the actors forced him to write again and again in an attempt to clarify his idea: in 1842, after staging the comedy in its final edition, he publishes “Forewarning for those who would like to play the “Inspector General” properly, then “Theatrical tour after the presentation of the new comedy", later, in 1856 - "The denouement of the Inspector General".

Conclusion

As you can see, the history of the creation of the play "The Inspector General" indicates that the writing of this work was not so easy for the author, taking away a lot of both his strength and time. And, nevertheless, comedy has found its connoisseurs among enlightened and thinking people. The Government Inspector received very high marks from many leading critics; so, V. Belinsky writes in his article: “There are no best scenes in The Inspector General, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, like necessary parts, artistically forming a single whole ...” . A similar opinion was shared by many other representatives of an enlightened society, despite the stream of criticism against the comedy and the author himself. To date, the play "The Inspector General" occupies a well-deserved place among the masterpieces of Russian classical literature and is a brilliant example of social satire.

Artwork test