In 1841, Gogol, a year before the publication of the first edition of Dead Souls, often re-read Dante, as evidenced by his correspondence with friends. The writer's statement about the Divine Comedy, as a book, "in certain epochs, is sufficient to fill the whole life of a person" belongs to the same period.
Gogol was interested in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Renaissance culture itself much earlier. “In the Middle Ages,” he wrote, “a great transformation of the world took place; they constitute the knot that links the ancient world with the new.” In the same way, Gogol tried to transform (at least in a literary sense) the Russian world. But the attempt was unsuccessful, due to the ungrateful material for transformations.
The tragic fate of the second volume of "Dead Souls" is traditionally perceived as the death of an imperfect creation at the hands of a half-mad author. But, if we take into account the three-part composition of Dante's "Divine Comedy" - "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise", and the image of Chichikov - as the Russian version of Virgil, Dante's guide through the circles of hell, then everything falls into place. In order not to be afraid of either the devil or God, and calmly manage your affairs and concoct deeds, you just need to go through the underworld, besides, Gogol used the method of descending ethical gradation in the poem. With each new landowner visited by Pavel Ivanovich, the decline in the economy and the decline in morals become more and more obvious - this is how the hero “descends” deeper and deeper into Russian reality.
The sketches and individual surviving chapters of volume II are quite consonant with the idea of purgatory itself as a place for temporary imprisonment, and not eternal condemnation. Hence the doubts of the writer, who set fire to his poem, which simply could not have taken place according to the original plan. The second, as well as the third volume - respectively "Purgatory" and "Paradise" - would become a sweet fairy tale, inconsistent, according to Gogol, with the Russian realities of the first half of the 19th century.
What hero could act in the conditions, on the one hand, of bureaucratic and noble arbitrariness, on the other hand, the industrial revolution that began in the first half of the 19th century? Only a hero who possesses a number of new features that were previously not characteristic of either Russian literature or Russia itself - Chichikov.
Why he? Firstly, he knew all the intricacies of legislation like the back of his hand and knew how to turn the law in his direction (buying up dead souls who did not “survive” until the next revision tale and therefore were considered alive). Secondly, he spent more than one year in the service and "first-hand" had information about the work of the clumsy state machine. Thirdly, from childhood, "saved a penny", "very profitable" cashing in on the urgent desires and needs of others.
He saved up for the future life "in all the comforts" - and nothing more. But in the coming economic situation, caused by the abolition of serfdom and the industrial revolution, he fit in very well as an entrepreneur. He was the first to catch the main trend of the time - the decline of the slave-owning system of landowner farming (just look at the devastation at Plyushkin, by the way, the last of the landowners visited by Chichikov). And again, playing on the desires and needs of the landowners, he almost successfully tried to "accumulate a penny." With all his talents, he did not take into account only one thing - the irreparable love of provincials for gossip and rumors. It is boring to live in this world, but here is at least some entertainment for gentlemen and ladies who are simply pleasant and pleasant in all respects.
Such a hero was indeed a novelty for Russian literature. But not for Europe. Back in the second half of the 16th century, the picaresque novel appeared in Spanish literature, a kind of mirror image of the pre-existing chivalric romance with its sublime heroes and epic deeds. Its appearance is also associated with rapid transformations in the production and economic structure of both Spain and other European countries that were switching to bourgeois rails. The new hero fully responded to the times. It was a "knight of his time" - a rogue, an adventurer, brazenly deceiving ordinary people, officials, nobles and the same swindlers.
The origin of rogues is usually unclear (like Chichikov, whose parents "were nobles, but pillar or personal - God knows," and the author does not mention his mother at all). They also do not have outstanding external characteristics (otherwise they would have been quickly revealed). The author describes Pavel Ivanovich in exactly the same way: “not a handsome man, but not of a bad appearance either, neither too fat nor too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but it is not so that he is too young. The motive responsible for the development of the plot also coincides - momentary personal enrichment or "beautiful life" in the future.
The picaresque novel has a satirical, accusatory and didactic beginning, which prevails over the narrative (as in "Dead Souls"). It was to emphasize the connection of his work with the picaresque that Gogol defined his genre as a “poem”, but a poem not lyrical, but satirical. It is not for nothing that Gogol writes in Four Letters to Different Persons About Dead Souls (Selected passages from correspondence with friends): “There is a time when it is impossible to aspire society or even the entire generation to the beautiful until you show the full depth of its real abomination ".
In other words, only such a comprehensive and satirically degrading poem was possible in those days in Russia. Which does not sing of exploits and glory, but draws the dirtiest vices and base desires of people who have lost their true human face in slavery and petty swarming, which has been replaced by a “jug snout”. Hence the name Chichikov - Pavel, like the holy apostle Paul beloved by Gogol, who travels, "instructs and leads to a straight path." But didn't bring it out...
Gogol, according to V. G. Belinsky, "was the first to look boldly and directly at Russian reality." The writer's satire was directed against the "general order of things", and not against individuals, bad executors of the law. The predatory money-grubber Chichikov, the landlords Manilov and Sobakevich, Nozdrev and Plyushkin, the officials of the provincial town from Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" are terrible in their vulgarity. “One could go crazy,” A. I. Herzen wrote, “at the sight of this menagerie of nobles and officials who loiter in the deepest darkness, buying and selling the “dead souls” of peasants.” The image of Chichikov reflects a new phenomenon in Russian life - the birth of the bourgeois. This is a typical hero of the initial capitalist hoarding, a representative of those businessmen who appeared in large numbers in Russia in the 1930s, when the crisis of the feudal system was sharply outlined.
Chichikov is the son of a poor nobleman, who inherited a “dilapidated house with an insignificant land”, which has become a real tradesman in his way of life. All his life he remembered and followed his father’s instructions - most of all, save and save a penny: “You will do everything and break everything with a penny”; to please teachers and bosses, while at the same time blatantly deceiving them in order to get a profitable position. Already in his youth, the hero learned to evaluate people in terms of real benefit for himself, showed resourcefulness, iron restraint and meanness of soul. By petty speculations, he "made increments" to the half, donated by his father. “When he had accumulated money up to five rubles, he sewed up the bag and began to save in another.” A bag of money replaced Chichikov's friendship, honor and conscience.
Deciding on a scam with dead souls, he thinks: “And now the time is convenient. Lost in cards, swirled and squandered, as it should. Chichikov's whole life became a chain of fraudulent machinations and crimes, his slogan was this: "hooked - dragged, broke - do not ask." Chichikov shows tremendous efforts and inexhaustible ingenuity, embarks on any scam if they promise success and promise a cherished penny. The hero understands that capital is becoming the master of life, that all the power is in the box with which he travels around Russia, buying up dead souls from the landowners. Life and the environment taught him that "you can't take the straight road and that the oblique road is more straight ahead."
Ready to deceive and rob the nobles, Chichikov himself is under the spell of the life of the noble class. Imagining himself a Kherson landowner, he sincerely seeks to adapt himself to the nobility psychologically and in everyday life, which finds expression in the appearance and habits of the hero.
Chichikov can be called a gentleman in manners and a bourgeois entrepreneur in his soul. His bourgeois entrepreneurship still appears in the form that characterizes the period of primitive accumulation. Gogol calls Chichikov a scoundrel, a master, an acquirer. The meanness of the hero is that he is ready to cash in on grief, people's illnesses. The author notes that Chichikov seeks to get into those provinces where epidemics and epidemic diseases have passed, since more peasants died there. For the same reason, he is interested in more frequent crop failures and famines. About the acquisition of the hero, the author writes: "Acquisition is the fault of everything, because of it, deeds were made, to which the world gives the name of not very clean."
The images of the landowners are created by describing the village, the manor house and the interior, portrait characteristics, attitude to Chichikov's proposal, describing the very process of buying and selling; Gogol at the same time highlights the leading, main character trait of the character. Chichikov is revealed somewhat differently. There is no display here through the attitude to serfdom, through the description of life. If all the landowners, except Plyushkin, are given statically, then Chichikov is given in development, in the process of becoming. Depicting the landlords, the writer highlights their defining features, while Chichikov is revealed in many ways.
In order to more clearly illuminate the origin and life development of a new type - Chichikov, to comprehend his historical place, the writer dwells in detail on his biography, character and psychology. Gogol shows how his ability to adapt to the situation, to navigate in any situation has developed; depending on the conditions, the manner and tone of Chichikov's conversation changes. Everywhere he fascinates, sometimes arouses admiration and always achieves his goal: “You need to know that Chichikov was the most decent person who ever existed in the world ... He never allowed himself an obscene word in his speech and was always offended if he saw in the words of others lack of due respect for rank or rank ... "
The new hero of the era has many advantages that the local nobles do not have: some education, energy, enterprise, extraordinary dexterity. Chichikov knows how to find an approach to each person, quickly guessing the characteristics of the character of people, accurately determining their strengths and weaknesses; to win over new acquaintances, the guise of good manners helps the hero gain confidence. In a conversation with Manilov, he looks like Manilov, with Korobochka Chichikov "spoke ... with more freedom than with Manilov, and did not stand on ceremony at all."
In a conversation “with the rulers, he very skillfully knew how to flatter everyone. He somehow hinted to the governor in passing that you enter his province like in paradise, the roads are velvet everywhere ... He said something very flattering to the police chief about the city guards ... ” Constantly changing his appearance, Chichikov carefully hides his fraudulent goals from those around him.
Symbolizing the advent of the era of the bourgeois, the era of dexterous, tenacious, energetic people who profess the morality of acquisition, Chichikov demonstrates perseverance, energy, practicality of mind, willpower. Gogol writes: "We must do justice to the irresistible strength of his character." With regard to practical ingenuity and resourcefulness, the hero - the "acquirer" stands out strongly among the representatives of the patriarchal local way of life, in which immobility, inertness and death have firmly built a nest for themselves.
At the same time, Chichikovo also has features in common with the landowners - this is the absence of civic interests, socio-political conservatism. Chichikov worships neither humility nor virtue, but he needs them to achieve his goal. He is prudent, knows how to patiently wait for the right moment. Thirst for profit, the desire to take a commanding position in society do not give him rest. Civil and patriotic feelings are alien to Chichikov, with complete indifference he treats everything that does not concern his personal, selfish interests.
The noble society took the swindler and rogue Chichikov for an outstanding person. Gogol writes that “the word “millionaire” is to blame for everything, not the millionaire himself, but precisely one word; for in one sound of this word, beyond any bag of money, there is something that affects people scoundrels, and people neither this nor that, and good people, in a word, it affects everyone. In Chichikovo, bourgeois features are manifested with such force and truthfulness that contemporaries already saw the broad social significance of this type.
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". Chichikov as a new hero of the era and as an anti-hero.
Objectives: to continue to acquaint students with the content of the poem, to characterize the main character of Chichikov's poem, to form in students the ability to characterize characters, to form the skills to build an answer to a question about a work of art based on theoretical and literary knowledge; improve the skills of analytical work with a prose text; promote the aesthetic and moral education of students; foster a culture of readership.
Equipment: tables, textbook, text of the poem "Dead Souls", handouts, table, illustrative material on the topic of the lesson.
Lesson type: lesson - analysis of a work of art
Predicted results: students know about the system of images of N.V. Gogol
"Dead Souls" are able to characterize the main character Chichikov, analyze the text, retell individual episodes in the form of a description, participate in a conversation, develop their point of view on a work of art in accordance with the author's position and historical era.
During the classes
I. Organizational stage
II. Updating of basic knowledge
III. Motivation for learning activities
Teacher: In chapter 11 N.V. Gogol writes that Russian literature paid much attention to the “virtuous” hero: “There is no writer who would not ride him, urging him with a whip and everything that came across.” But in reality, scoundrels play an important role in a feudal society . It seems that Gogol's attitude to his hero is extremely clear. Does Chichikov have a future? Who, finally, is in the carriage, harnessed by a troika, which rushes into the distance? Let's go back to the main character. This image is the link between the chapters. What do we know about him?
IV. Work on the topic of the lesson
A) Reading the episode "Chichikov in a tavern"
How did you see P.I. Chichikov?
B) Reading the episode "Meeting of Manilov and Chichikov"
How do you see Chichikov in this episode?
The acquaintance with the feudal lords begins with Manilov, a rather pleasant-looking person. Chichikov is looking for "Zamanilovka", but "the village of Manilovka could lure a few with its location. The master's house stood alone in the southeast, open to all winds ... the slope of the mountain on which it stood was dressed with trimmed turf. On it were scattered in English two or three flower beds with bushes of lilacs and yellow acacias! five or six birch trees in small bunches ... Under two of them there was a gazebo ... with the inscription: "The Temple of Solitary Reflection" ... two women were lying, who, having picked up their dresses picturesquely ... ° whether knees in the pond "dragged ... nonsense". Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov and the readers are presented with a rather pretentious and at the same time pitiful picture. Manilov himself, when meeting with Chichikov, behaves unnecessarily kindly, to the point of being obtrusive. The author says about him that Manilov can be oh-acted like this: " There is a kind of people known by the name: people to themselves, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan ... ”Manilov initially seems like a pleasant and courteous person, but Gogol now and then introduces into the description details that characterize him not from the best side. In the owner's study "there was always some kind of book, bookmarked on the fourteenth page, which he had been constantly reading for two years. "A magnificent detail showing the mental level of the landowner. His aesthetic demands are limited to what he dumps on the windowsill ashes from a pipe, lining up either disorderly heaps, or "building" something fantastic. Manilov is not engaged in farming at all, having entrusted the peasants to a clerk-thief. He himself does not know how many serfs died, nor the clerk who was called in for a report. Manilov is not interested in the essence of Chichikov's case. He cannot understand why Pavel Ivanovich needs dead souls. Chichikov, adjusting to the "elegant style" of the owner, expresses his thoughts ornately, naming the dead - "who in some way ended their existence." Chichikov puzzles Manilov for a moment, but then everything passes: the landowner is not used to thinking, the word of a swindler is enough for him, and Manilov is ready to continue to admire Pavel Ivanovich, for the sake of a "new friend" he will personally rewrite the list of all the dead peasants, decorate it with a silk ribbon. How brightly the character of Manilov is highlighted. He mindlessly does a “dirty” thing, but bandages up the “packaging” with a beautiful ribbon, he is not interested in the essence, but in external beauty. Chichikov’s indistinct phrases are enough for this gullible to calm his conscience, or maybe she didn’t wake up? ! The image of Chichikov is also interesting. He is an excellent psychologist who understands the "nature of Manilov." Pavel Ivanovich, speaking with the landowner, begins to smile in the same unctuous way, to fawn before the Boss, accepting his demeanor. It is important for Chichikov to milk his goal - to collect as many souls of dead peasants as possible who have not passed the revision tale. He has conceived a grand scam and is now heading straight ahead towards his goal. For him, there is no moral barrier that could not be bypassed. Gogol was able to see the emerging class of capitalists and ingeniously depicted some of its types. The writer was the first to see the unsightly "face" of capital and its hall "in all its glory" in the poem "Dead Souls".
2. Analytical conversation
What are the similarities and differences in the characters of Chichikov and each landowner. In what situations does the hero behave like a landowner? How is Chichikov fundamentally different from the landowners?
Thanks to what qualities does Chichikov manage to win the sympathy of the landowners? What is the secret of his charm?
Who is Captain Kopeikin? Do Chichikov's ideal and Captain Kopeikin's concept of capital intersect?
How are the images of landowners and Chichikov related to the title of the work?
Are there living souls in the poem? Who are they?
What is the role in the poem "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin"?
3. Collective work on the compilation of tables "Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov", "The similarity of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov with other landowners"
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov
Stages of life
He did not have a noble origin, there was no material wealth in the family, everything was gray, dull, painful - "here is a poor picture of his initial childhood, of which he barely retained a pale memory."
Education
a) father's order
b) gaining own experience
He was educated in the classes of the city school, where his father took him and gave the following instruction: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be a fool and don’t hang out, but most of all please teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then, even though you won’t have time in science and God didn’t give you talent, you’ll go all out, you’ll get ahead of everyone. Don't hang out with your comrades, they won't teach you good things; and if it comes to that, then hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion they can be useful to you. Do not treat or treat anyone, but behave better in such a way that you are treated, and most of all, take care and save a penny: this thing is more reliable than anything in the world. A comrade or friend will cheat you and in trouble will be the first to betray you, but a penny will not betray you, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything, you will break everything in the world with a penny.
Managed to build relationships with classmates in such a way that they treated him; managed to raise money by adding them to the fifty left by his father. To save money, I used every opportunity:
- made a bullfinch from wax, painted it and sold it;
- bought edibles on the market, offered hungry classmates from those who were richer;
- trained a mouse, taught it to stand on its hind legs and sold it;
- was the most diligent and disciplined student, able to forestall any desire of the teacher.
Service
a) the beginning of the service
b) continuation of a career
“He got an insignificant place, a salary of thirty or forty rubles a year ...” Thanks to an iron will, the ability to deny himself everything, while maintaining accuracy and pleasant appearance, he managed to stand out among the same “nondescript” employees: “... Chichikov represented in everything the complete opposite and the presence of a face, and the friendliness of his voice, and the complete non-use of any strong drinks.
For promotion, he used the already tried method - pleasing the boss, finding his "weak spot" - the daughter whom he "fell in love" with himself. From that moment on, he became a "person of note."
Service in the commission "for the construction of some state-owned capital structure." He began to allow himself "some excesses": a good cook, good shirts, expensive fabric for suits, the purchase of a pair of horses ...
Soon he again lost his “warm” place. I had to change two or three places. "Got to customs." He turned a risky operation, on which he first enriched himself, and then “got burned” and lost almost everything.
Acquisition of "dead souls"
How did the idea for the acquisition come about?
After Chichikov was expelled from the customs service, he tries to find a new service. "And in anticipation of the best, he was even forced to take up the title of attorney."
The appearance of Chichikov in the provincial town
Applying practical intelligence, courtesy and resourcefulness, Chichikov managed to charm both the provincial town and the estates. Having quickly guessed a person, he knows how to find an approach to everyone. It remains only to marvel at the inexhaustible variety of all "shades and subtleties of his appeal."
“Irresistible strength of character”, “quickness, insight and clairvoyance”, all his ability to charm a person, Chichikov puts into play in order to achieve the desired enrichment.
The similarity of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov with other landowners
omeschik and its distinguishing feature
How this trait manifests itself in the character of Chichikov
Manilov - "sweetness", cloying, uncertainty
All residents of the provincial city recognized Chichikov as a pleasant man in all respects. “In a word, wherever you turn, he was a very decent person. All the officials were pleased with the arrival of the new face. The governor said of him that he was a well-intentioned man; the prosecutor - that he is a good man; the gendarmerie colonel said that he was a learned man, the chairman of the chamber - that he was a knowledgeable and respectable person; police chief - that he is a respectable and amiable person; the wife of the chief of police - that he is the most kind and courteous person. Even Sobakevich himself, who rarely spoke of anyone in a good way ... told her [wife]; “I, my dear, was at the governor’s party, and dined with the police chief, and met the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov: a pleasant person!”
Box - petty stinginess
The famous casket of Chichikov, in which everything is laid out with the same diligent pedantry as in the chest of drawers of Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka.
Nozdrev - narcissism
Desire and ability to please everyone; to feel favored by everyone - this is the need and necessity for Chichikov: “Our hero answered everyone and everyone and felt some kind of extraordinary dexterity: he bowed to the right and left, as usual, somewhat to one side; but completely free, so that he charmed everyone ... "
Sobakevich - rude stinginess and cynicism
Even Nozdryov notes that in Chichikovo there is “... no straightforwardness, no sincerity! Perfect Sobakevich.
Plushkin - picking up unnecessary things and storing them carefully
During the inspection of the city, N “... tore off the poster nailed to the post so that, when he came home, to read it well,” and then the hero “... folded it neatly and put it in his chest, where he used to put everything that came across."
The character of Chichikov is multifaceted, the hero turns out to be a mirror of the landowner he meets, because he has the same qualities that form the basis of the characters of the landowners.
4. Mini-discussion
Can Chichikov be called a hero of his time?
Why can't Chichikov's activity be creative?
Under what conditions could such a person appear?
How interesting is such a character to the modern reader?
V. Reflection. Summing up the lesson
Generalizing word of the teacher
Chichikov is the hero of a great, classic work created by a genius, a hero who embodied the result of the author's observations and reflections on life, people, and their actions. An image that has absorbed typical features, and therefore has long gone beyond the framework of the work itself. His name has become a household name for people - nosy careerists, sycophants, money-grubbers, outwardly "pretty", "decent and worthy". Moreover, other readers' assessment of Chichikov is not so unambiguous. Comprehension of this image is possible only with a painstaking, careful analysis of not only the work itself, but also a huge array of critical literature, and the subsequent life of the image in Russian literature and culture as a whole.
VI. Homework
Creative task: Write an essay-reasoning on the statement “And one more reason ... prevented Gogol from entering the realm of the novel: Gogol passed the female character in all its depths” Do you agree with this statement?
As you know, evolution is driven by small mutations. The new organism differs from the previous ones, it is somewhat more developed, more adaptable, but it also goes beyond the usual for this time. Only then the norm is fixed, becomes habitual until the time when the new "mutant" does not move evolutionary progress further forward.
Society is also driven by its "mutants" - individuals who capture the essence of the new era better than others. On the practical side, Chichikov is just such a person who captures his own era, becomes, as it were, above time, he is dynamic and changing.
The figures of the landlords, in turn, are static, they only personify something. Also, if you look outside of Gogol's symbolism, but only on the practical side, the Landlords represent a frozen way of life, which will later be replaced by enterprising bourgeois, of which Chichikov is a bright forerunner.
He understands and, as it were, reads the figure of each landowner, selects the optimal “keys” of communication for everyone. By the way, Ostap Bender, a character who also soared above his time and became evidence of a new era, will have a similar property in the future. Just like Bender, Chichikov is a dreamer, despite his penchant for mundane forms such as hoarding money, saving and prestige.
Of course, in many ways the main character of "Dead Souls" is a harbinger of the degradation of society, the next stage of the fall and the path to the Apocalypse. No wonder Gogol rhymes with him various eschatological motifs and figures of Napoleon and even the Antichrist.
Based on the historical canvas, Chichikov really portends a new era. He is exactly the type that will further supplant the landlords and replace the usual way of life. Like Lopakhin, he acts completely original for his time and adheres to his personal, strange for most ideals.
If the landowners are absurd and vicious in comparison with him, but at the same time sincere and more humane, then Chichikov does not have much humane, he only thinks about practical benefits. Such an ideology is somewhat characteristic of Western society, it can even be called a kind of embodiment of the American dream. Therefore, it is in many ways an alien element, as well as the era that comes with it.
Chichikov's composition as a new hero of the era
According to Belinsky, Gogol described the real Russian reality through Chichikov. The image of the hero reflected the entry of the bourgeoisie into Russian life. Chichikov is an ordinary character in the original capitalist union. Chichikov was born into the family of a poor nobleman. After the death of his father, the hero inherited a dilapidated house and a small piece of land. All his life he followed the instructions of his father. The elder Chichikov said that the son should take care of and collect everything to the last penny.
On the advice of his father, Chichikov was ready for deceit, pleasing and flattery for the sake of wealth and power. From an early age, he learned to evaluate and use the people around him for his own benefit. He showed resourcefulness in any situation and iron restraint for his own benefit. Due to speculation, Chichikov increased the small capital received as an inheritance. After accumulating 5 rubles, Chichikov made a second bag to accumulate more. Money replaced the hero's conscience, friendship and honor. To accumulate more, the hero decided to pull off a scam with dead souls. The whole life of the young hero consisted of a chain of fraudulent scams and crimes.
The hero shows ingenuity and with effort turns any scam to increase his pennies. Chichikov realized that a person's life is controlled by money. He began to travel all over Russia and buy dead souls.
Chichikov was attracted to the life of wealthy nobles. For the sake of a rich life, he was ready for deceit and theft. He tried to adapt to noble life. Chichikov became a gentleman with good manners and an entrepreneur. His entrepreneurial abilities were expressed during the first formation. The meanness of Chichikov is expressed in the fact that he uses any opportunity and is ready to cash in on the grief of other people. The hero sought to get into the provinces, in which a large number of peasants died. The death of people hung from hunger and lack of harvest.
Chichikov was a versatile person. He knew how to adapt to any situation and always knew how to orient himself according to the circumstances. The hero knew how to charm and arouse admiration in any interlocutor. In his speech, Chichikov did not use obscene words or insults. Chichikov, as a hero of modern times, was educated and energetic, as well as dexterous. Due to his qualities, he found an approach to any person.
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- Gogol's poem, which became very popular. It was not only read and read with pleasure, but also filmed more than once. Many phrases have become winged, and the characters have become symbolic. In the work we get acquainted with the hero Chichikov. Let's analyze Chichikov in an essay based on the work Dead Souls and figure out who he is: is he a new hero of the era or its anti-hero.
Already at the beginning, the author introduces us to the portrait characteristics of Chichikov. Chichikov was neither old nor young, outwardly not handsome, but not bad-looking either. He is neither fat nor thin. In a word, an average person who is not alien to the desire for profit, and who wants a beautiful life. If in other works the heroes are superfluous people of the era where they live, then Chichikov fits into the era very well. Fits into a life where people live who are not materially poor, but they are spiritually poor. Among them, the hero does not stand out and appears before us as an ordinary person of his time.
Chichikov a new hero or an anti-hero?
Is Chichikov a new hero of his time? Without a doubt. But he is not only a hero, but also an anti-hero.
Reading the work, we see the birth of a new generation with worthy qualities, only a generation was brought up according to old views. So people like Chichikov were born. They try to enrich themselves by any means, look ahead and go towards the goal, however, due to their spiritual emptiness, they cannot soberly assess what is happening. Therefore, their mind is dominated by the intoxication of gain. People are starting to burn out. But as soon as they lose everything, the heroes sober up. People of the new era cannot be guided by the mind, soul and heart at the same time. They are captured by their passions, unable to simply live. Greed usually takes over and the souls of people simply become dead, like the souls of Manilov, Plyushkin, Sobakevich and other characters.
Why is Chichikov an antihero? Reading the work, we see the spiritual degradation of people. Yes, Chichikov does not harm spiritually, in society, the necrosis of souls naturally occurs, since the experienced orders are difficult to eradicate. But the hero harms himself, because he goes through life with morality: you will do everything and win everything in the world with money. At the same time, Chichikov finds an excuse for himself, because everyone does this. Having such principles, our hero himself mortifies his soul. No, you cannot call him a criminal of his age, he is only one of those who represent a new generation. He is not a complete miser who only thinks about money. He also dreams of a family, and we cannot condemn him for his desire to live better and in abundance, because we ourselves strive for this. That's just another question. Is it possible to build your well-being with the help of lies, hypocrisy, deceit without harming your spiritual world? I think this is a rhetorical question that does not need an answer.
