Lyrical digressions in Dead Souls.

At each word of the poem, the reader can say: “Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia!” This Russian spirit is felt in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping strength of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions ...

V. G. Belinsky

I know; If I now open Dead Souls at random, the volume will open as usual at page 231...

"Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Why do you look like that, and why did everything that is in you turn eyes full of expectation on me? space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here, when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him? And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible power reflected in my depths; unnatural power lit up my eyes: Wu! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!" This is a favorite. A hundred times read and re-read. Therefore, the volume always opens itself at page 231...

Why exactly this? Why not something like this: “Oh, a troika! ..” Or: “God, how good you are sometimes, a long, long road!” Or... No, it's still this. Here he is. Gogol, embraced by the "mighty space" of Rus', which was reflected in his depths with "terrible power" ... And what depth did the immortal writer give to words that reflected all his "sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth ...". This is the “incomprehensible connection” between talent and the earth that has nurtured this talent.

“In “Dead Souls”, his subjectivity is felt and tangible everywhere ... which in the artist reveals a person with a warm heart ... which does not allow him, with apathetic indifference, to be alien to the world he paints, but forces him to pass through his soul the living phenomena the outside world, and through that I breathe my soul into them ... The predominance of subjectivity, penetrating and animating with itself the entire poem of Gogol, reaches high lyrical pathos and embraces the soul of the reader with refreshing waves ... ”(V. G. Belinsky).

Reading lyrical digressions (and not only them, but the whole poem) for the first time, without knowing the name of the author, you can say with confidence: "Wrote Russian." What exact expressions, the very construction of phrases, deep and extensive knowledge of the land you are writing about! Truly Russian (smooth, a little sad, rich in the most subtle shades of mood) poetry. You have to be a poet, like Gogol was, to write such a poem in prose! In "Dead Souls" Gogol became "a Russian national poet in the entire space of this word" (V. G. Belinsky).

Poet? Poem? Yes. Poet. And a poem. Gogol did not call his offspring a poem for nothing. Neither in the story, nor in the story, nor in the novel can the author so freely intrude his "I" into the course of the story.

The digressions in Dead Souls are of great value. They are valuable for their high artistic value, the limit of the author's self-expression, and their relevance in a particular context.

Gogol ironically talks about the "fat" and "thin" representatives of the nobility, about "gentlemen of the big hand" and "gentlemen of the middle hand", speaks of the Russian word and Russian song. All this is subtly and skillfully woven into the plot of the work.

Remember the beginning of the sixth chapter? “Before, long ago, in the years of my youth...” Remember: “...O my youth! oh my freshness! And a few pages later: “At one of the buildings, Chichikov soon noticed some figure ... Her dress was completely indefinite, very much like a woman's hood, on her head was a cap worn by village yard women, only one voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for woman". Bah, it's Plushkin! Well, this “hole in humanity” looks miserable against the background of such a lyrical passage!

And between two wonderful digressions ("Rus! Rus! I see you ..." and "What a strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: the road!"), Which at the beginning of the eleventh chapter, sounds like a nightmarish dissonance: "Hold Hold on, fool! Chichikov shouted to Selifan. “Here I am with your broadsword! shouted a courier with a arshin mustache galloping towards. “Don’t you see, goblin tear your soul: government carriage!”

The vulgarity, emptiness, meanness of life are even more clearly outlined against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast is applied by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile features of the heroes of Dead Souls.

Such is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem.

But the most important thing is that many of the author's views on art and relations between people are expressed in lyrical digressions. From these short passages one can take out so much spiritual warmth, so much love for one's native people and everything they have created, so much smart and necessary, as much as you can't take out from some multi-volume novels.

Gogol pulled out on the pages of the book "all the terrible, amazing mire of trifles, the whole depth of everyday characters ...". Gogol, with the strong strength of an inexorable chisel, exposed the dull, vulgar trifles of life prominently and brightly for public viewing and ridiculed them properly.

And here is the road. Such as Gogol draws it:

“A clear day, autumn leaves, cold air ... tighter in a travel overcoat, a hat on our ears, we will snuggle closer and more comfortably to the corner! .. God! how good you are sometimes, distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning man, have I clutched at you, and every time you generously endured me and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt ... ”Honestly, I just want to pack up and go on the road. But now they travel a little differently: by train, by plane, by car. Only the steppes, forests, cities, half-stations, clouds sparkling under the sun would flash before my eyes. Our country is wide, there is something to look at!

“Isn’t it you, Rus, that a lively, unbeaten troika is rushing about? ..” Rus is rushing, always moving for the better. She is already beautiful, Rus', but is there a limit to the best, is there a limit to a human dream? And are we now familiar with this "distance unknown to the earth"? Mostly familiar. But she still has a lot ahead of her, which we will not see.

It is impossible to analyze each lyrical digression separately, it is impossible to evaluate each passage in a short essay: Dead Souls contains a lot of both large and laconic author's digressions, assessments, comments, each of which requires and deserves special attention. Many topics are covered. But the common thing is that from each digression we see one of the traits of a writer dear to our memory, as a result of which we get the opportunity to draw the image of a true humanist, a patriotic writer.

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The book "Dead Souls" by Gogol can rightly be called a poem. This right is given by special poetry, musicality, expressiveness of the language of the work, saturated with such figurative comparisons and metaphors, which can only be found in poetic speech. And most importantly - the constant presence of the author makes this work lyrical-epic.

Lyrical digressions permeate the entire artistic canvas of "Dead Souls". It is lyrical digressions that determine the ideological, compositional and genre originality of Gogol's poem, its poetic beginning, associated with the image of the author. As the plot develops, new lyrical digressions appear, each of which clarifies the thought of the previous one, develops new ideas, and more and more clarifies the author's intention.

It is noteworthy that "dead souls" are saturated with lyrical digressions unevenly. Until the fifth chapter, only minor lyrical insertions come across, and only at the end of this chapter does the author place the first major lyrical digression about "a myriad of churches" and how "the Russian people express themselves strongly." This author's reasoning leads to the following idea: here not only the apt Russian word is glorified, but also God's word, which spiritualizes it. It seems that both the motive of the church, which is found in this chapter for the first time in the poem, and the marked parallel of the folk language and God's word, indicate that it is in the lyrical digressions of the poem that some spiritual instruction of the writer is concentrated.

On the other hand, the widest range of the author's moods is expressed in lyrical digressions. Admiration for the accuracy of the Russian word and the briskness of the Russian mind at the end of Chapter 5 is replaced by a sad and elegiac reflection on the outgoing youth and maturity, about the “loss of living movement” (the beginning of the sixth chapter). At the end of this digression, Gogol directly addresses the reader: “Take with you on the road, emerging from your soft youthful years into severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not raise them later! Terrible, terrible is the coming old age ahead, and gives nothing back and back!

A complex range of feelings is expressed in a lyrical digression at the beginning of the next seventh chapter. Comparing the fates of the two writers, the author bitterly speaks of the moral and aesthetic deafness of the “modern court”, which does not recognize that “glasses looking around the suns and conveying the movements of unnoticed insects are equally wonderful”, that “high enthusiastic laughter is worthy to stand next to the high lyrical movement ".

Here the author proclaims a new ethical system, later supported by the natural school, the ethics of love-hate: love for the bright side of national life, for living souls, implies hatred for the negative sides of life, for dead souls. The author is well aware of what he is dooming himself to, embarking on the path of “denouncing the crowd, its passions and delusions”, persecution and persecution by false patriots, rejection of compatriots, but courageously chooses this path.

Such an ethical system makes the artist perceive literature as a tool for correcting human vices, primarily with the purifying power of laughter, "high, enthusiastic laughter"; the modern court does not understand that this laughter "is worthy to stand next to the lofty lyrical movement and that there is a whole abyss between it and the antics of a farce buffoon."

At the end of this digression, the author’s mood changes dramatically: he becomes an exalted prophet, his gaze opens up a “terrible blizzard of inspiration”, which “rises from the head clothed in holy horror and in the brilliance”, and then his readers “smell in embarrassed awe the majestic thunder of other speeches ".

The author, rooting for Russia, who sees in his literary work the way to improve morals, instruct fellow citizens, eradicate vice, shows us images of living souls, a people that bears a living principle in itself. In a lyrical digression at the beginning of the seventh chapter, the peasants bought by Chichikov from Sobakevich, Korobochka, Plyushkin come to life before our eyes. The author, as if intercepting the inner monologue of his hero, speaks of them as if they were alive, showing the truly living soul of the dead or fugitive peasants.

What appears here is not a generalized image of Russian peasants, but specific people with real features, written out in detail. This is the carpenter Stepan Cork - "a hero who would be fit for the guard", who, perhaps, went all over Rus' "with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders." This is Abakum Fyrov, who walks on the grain pier with barge haulers and merchants, having worked out under "one endless, like Rus', song." The image of Abakum indicates the love of the Russian people for a free, wild life, festivities and fun, despite the forced serf life, hard work.

In the plot of the poem, we see other examples of the people, enslaved, downtrodden and socially humiliated. It is enough to recall the vivid images of Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay with their fuss and confusion, the girl Pelageya, who cannot distinguish where the right is, where the left is, Plyushkin's Proshka and Mavra.

But in lyrical digressions we find the author's dream of the ideal of man, as he can and should be. In the final 11 chapter, the lyric-philosophical meditation on Russia and the vocation of the writer, whose "head was overshadowed by a formidable cloud heavy with coming rains", replaces the panegyric of the road, the hymn to the movement - the source of "wonderful ideas, poetic dreams", "wonderful impressions".

So the two most important themes of the author's reflections - the theme of Russia and the theme of the road - merge in a lyrical digression, which completes the first volume of the poem. "Rus-troika", "all inspired by God", appears in it as a vision of the author, who seeks to understand the meaning of its movement; "Rus, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer."

The image of Russia created in this final lyrical digression, and the author's rhetorical question addressed to her, echoes Pushkin's image of Russia - the "proud horse" - created in the poem "The Bronze Horseman", and with the rhetorical question that sounds there: "And in this horse what a fire! Where are you galloping, proud horse, / And where will you lower your hooves?

Both Pushkin and Gogol passionately desired to understand the meaning and purpose of the historical movement in Russia. Both in The Bronze Horseman and in Dead Souls, the artistic result of the reflections of each of the writers was the image of an uncontrollably rushing country, striving for the future, disobeying its “riders”: the formidable Peter, who “raised Russia on its hind legs”, stopping its spontaneous movement, and "non-smokers", whose immobility contrasts sharply with the "terrifying movement" of the country.

In the high lyrical pathos of the author, whose thoughts are directed to the future, in his reflections on Russia, its path and fate, the most important idea of ​​the entire poem was expressed. The author reminds us of what is hidden behind the “mud of trifles that have entangled our lives” depicted in Volume 1, behind the “cold, fragmented everyday characters that our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring road is teeming with.”

It is not without reason that in the conclusion of Volume 1 he speaks of the “wonderful, beautiful far away” from which he looks at Russia. This is an epic distance that attracts him with its “secret power”, the distance of the “mighty space” of Rus' and the distance of historical time: “What does this immense expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him?

The heroes depicted in the story of Chichikov's "adventures" are devoid of such qualities, they are not heroes, but ordinary people with their weaknesses and vices. In the poetic image of Russia, created by the author in lyrical digressions, there is no place for them: they seem to decrease, disappear, just as "points, icons, inconspicuously stick out among the plains of low cities."

Only the author himself, endowed with the knowledge of true Rus', the "terrible power" and "unnatural power" he received from the Russian land, becomes the only true hero of the 1st volume of the poem. He appears in lyrical digressions as a prophet, bringing the light of knowledge to people: “Who, if not the author, should tell the holy truth?”

But, as it is said, there are no prophets in their own country. The author's voice, sounded from the pages of the lyrical digressions of the poem "Dead Souls", was heard by few of his contemporaries, and even less understood. Gogol later tried to convey his ideas in the artistic and journalistic book "Selected passages from correspondence with friends", and in the "Author's confession", and - most importantly - in subsequent volumes of the poem. But all his attempts to reach the minds and hearts of his contemporaries were in vain. Who knows, maybe only now the time has come to discover the real Gogol's word, and it is up to us to do this.

At each word of the poem, the reader can say: “Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia!” This Russian spirit is felt in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping strength of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions ...

V. G. Belinsky

I know; If I now open Dead Souls at random, the volume will open as usual at page 231...

"Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Why do you look like that, and why did everything that is in you turn eyes full of expectation on me? space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here, when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him? And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible power reflected in my depths; unnatural power lit up my eyes: Wu! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!" This is a favorite. A hundred times read and re-read. Therefore, the volume always opens itself at page 231...

Why exactly this? Why not something like this: “Oh, a troika! ..” Or: “God, how good you are sometimes, a long, long road!” Or... No, it's still this. Here he is. Gogol, embraced by the "mighty space" of Rus', which was reflected in his depths with "terrible power" ... And what depth did the immortal writer give to words that reflected all his "sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth ...". This is the “incomprehensible connection” between talent and the earth that has nurtured this talent.

“In Dead Souls, his subjectivity is felt and tangible everywhere ... which in the artist reveals a person with a warm heart ... which does not allow him, with apathetic indifference, to be alien to the world he paints, but forces him to lead him through his I live my soul phenomena of the external world, and through that inhale into them I live my soul... The predominance of subjectivity, penetrating and animating with itself the entire poem of Gogol, reaches high lyrical pathos and embraces the soul of the reader with refreshing waves ... ”(V. G. Belinsky).

Reading lyrical digressions (and not only them, but the whole poem) for the first time, without knowing the name of the author, you can say with confidence: "Wrote Russian." What exact expressions, the very construction of phrases, deep and extensive knowledge of the land you are writing about! Truly Russian (smooth, a little sad, rich in the most subtle shades of mood) poetry. You have to be a poet, like Gogol was, to write such a poem in prose! In "Dead Souls" Gogol became "a Russian national poet in the entire space of this word" (V. G. Belinsky).

Poet? Poem? Yes. Poet. And a poem. Gogol did not call his offspring a poem for nothing. Neither in the story, nor in the story, nor in the novel can the author so freely intrude his "I" into the course of the story.

The digressions in Dead Souls are of great value. They are valuable for their high artistic value, the limit of the author's self-expression, and their relevance in a particular context.

Gogol ironically talks about the "fat" and "thin" representatives of the nobility, about "gentlemen of the big hand" and "gentlemen of the middle hand", speaks of the Russian word and Russian song. All this is subtly and skillfully woven into the plot of the work.

Remember the beginning of the sixth chapter? “Before, long ago, in the years of my youth...” Remember: “...O my youth! oh my freshness! And a few pages later: “At one of the buildings, Chichikov soon noticed some figure ... Her dress was completely indefinite, very much like a woman's hood, on her head was a cap worn by village yard women, only one voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for woman". Bah, it's Plushkin! Well, this “hole in humanity” looks miserable against the background of such a lyrical passage!

And between two wonderful digressions ("Rus! Rus! I see you ..." and "What a strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: the road!"), Which at the beginning of the eleventh chapter, sounds like a nightmarish dissonance: "Hold Hold on, fool! Chichikov shouted to Selifan. “Here I am with your broadsword! shouted a courier with a arshin mustache galloping towards. “Don’t you see, goblin tear your soul: government carriage!”

The vulgarity, emptiness, meanness of life are even more clearly outlined against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast is applied by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile features of the heroes of Dead Souls.

Such is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem.

But the most important thing is that many of the author's views on art and relations between people are expressed in lyrical digressions. From these short passages one can take out so much spiritual warmth, so much love for one's native people and everything they have created, so much smart and necessary, as much as you can't take out from some multi-volume novels.

Gogol pulled out on the pages of the book "all the terrible, amazing mire of trifles, the whole depth of everyday characters ...". Gogol, with the strong strength of an inexorable chisel, exposed the dull, vulgar trifles of life prominently and brightly for public viewing and ridiculed them properly.

And here is the road. Such as Gogol draws it:

“A clear day, autumn leaves, cold air ... tighter in a travel overcoat, a hat on our ears, we will snuggle closer and more comfortably to the corner! .. God! how good you are sometimes, distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning man, have I clutched at you, and every time you generously endured me and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt ... ”Honestly, I just want to pack up and go on the road. But now they travel a little differently: by train, by plane, by car. Only the steppes, forests, cities, half-stations, clouds sparkling under the sun would flash before my eyes. Our country is wide, there is something to look at!

“Isn’t it you, Rus, that a lively, unbeaten troika is rushing about? ..” Rus is rushing, always moving for the better. She is already beautiful, Rus', but is there a limit to the best, is there a limit to a human dream? And are we now familiar with this "distance unknown to the earth"? Mostly familiar. But she still has a lot ahead of her, which we will not see.

It is impossible to analyze each lyrical digression separately, it is impossible to evaluate each passage in a short essay: Dead Souls contains a lot of both large and laconic author's digressions, assessments, comments, each of which requires and deserves special attention. Many topics are covered. But the common thing is that from each digression we see one of the traits of a writer dear to our memory, as a result of which we get the opportunity to draw the image of a true humanist, a patriotic writer.

The main objectives of the lesson:

"Grade 9 Lesson No. 45 Lyrical digressions in Gogol's poem."

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"LYRICAL DIRECTIONS IN"

LYRICAL DISORDERS IN "DEAD SOULS"

I. Gogol called "Dead Souls" a poem, thereby emphasizing the equality of the lyrical and epic principles: narrative and lyrical digressions (see Belinsky about the pathos of "subjectivity" in the plan "Genre originality of "Dead Souls").

II. Two main types of lyrical digressions in the poem:

1. Digressions related to the epic part, with the task of showing Rus' “from one side”.

1. Digressions associated with the epic part serve as a means of revealing characters and generalizing them.

1) Digressions revealing the images of officials.

A satirical digression about fat and thin typifies the images of officials. The general problem of the poem (death of the soul) corresponds to the antithesis on which this digression is built: it is the physical qualities that are the main ones in a person, determining his fate and behavior.

The men here, as elsewhere, were of two kinds: some thin, who all hung around the ladies; some of them were of such a kind that it was difficult to distinguish them from St. Petersburg ... Another kind of men were fat or the same as Chichikov, i.e. not too thick, but not thin either. These, on the contrary, squinted and backed away from the ladies and looked only around to see if the governor's servant had set up a green table for whist somewhere ... These were honorary officials in the city. Alas! fat people know how to handle their affairs better in this world than thin ones. The thin ones serve more on special assignments or are only registered and wag hither and thither; their existence is somehow too easy, airy and completely unreliable. Fat people never occupy indirect places, but all direct ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they won’t fly off.

(chapterI )

The images of officials and Chichikov are also revealed in digressions:

About the ability to handle:

It must be said that in Rus', if they have not kept pace with foreigners in some other way, then they have far surpassed them in their ability to handle ... we have such wise men who will speak to a landowner who has two hundred souls in a completely different way than to to the one who has three hundred of them, and to the one who has three hundred of them, they will again speak differently from the one who has five hundred of them, and to the one who has five hundred of them, again not like to the one who has there are eight hundred of them - in a word, even ascend to a million, there are all shades.

I ask you to look at him when he is sitting among his subordinates - you just can’t utter a word from fear! pride and nobility, and what does not his face express? just take a brush and draw: Prometheus, decisive Prometheus! He looks out like an eagle, performs smoothly, measuredly. The same eagle, as soon as he left the room and approaches his boss's office, hurries like a partridge with papers under his arm that there is no urine.

(chapter III)

About the millionaire:

The millionaire has the advantage that he can see meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness, not based on any calculations ...

(chapterVIII )

On hypocrisy:

This is what happens on the faces of officials during an inspection by the arrived chief of their places entrusted to the department: after the first fear had already passed, they saw that he liked a lot, and he himself finally deigned to joke, that is, to say a few words with a pleasant smile ...

(chapterVIII )

On the ability to carry on conversations with ladies:

To the greatest regret, it must be noted that people who are sedate and occupy important positions are somehow a little heavy in conversations with ladies; for this, the masters, gentlemen, lieutenants, and no further than the captain's ranks ...

(chapterVIII )

2) A group of lyrical digressions generalizes the characters of the landlords, raises private phenomena into more general phenomena.

MANILOV:

There is a kind of people known by the name: people are so-so, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan, according to the proverb.

(chapterII )

Wife MANILOVA LIZA (about boarding houses):

A good upbringing, as you know, is obtained in boarding schools. And in boarding schools, as you know, three main subjects form the basis of human virtues: the French language, which is necessary for the happiness of family life, the piano, for delivering pleasant moments to the spouse, and, finally, the economic part itself: knitting purses and other surprises. However, there are various improvements and changes in methods, especially at the present time; all this depends more on the prudence and ability of the hostesses themselves. In other boarding schools it happens that first the pianoforte, then the French language, and then the economic part.

(chapterII )

Speaking of the KOROBochka, Gogol uses the technique of several stages of generalization:

1) see the digression about Korobochka-type landowners in the topic “Means of revealing characters in Dead Souls”.

2) comparison of the landowner with "her aristocratic sister":

Maybe you will even begin to think: come on, does Korobochka really stand so low on the endless ladder of human perfection? Is it really so great the abyss separating her from her sister, inaccessibly fenced by the walls of an aristocratic house ...

(chapter III)

3) A very broad generalization is given through seeming alogism:

However, Chichikov was needlessly angry: a different and respectable, and even statesman man, but in reality it turns out to be a perfect Korobochka. Once you’ve hacked something into your head, you can’t overpower him with anything; no matter how you present him with arguments, clear as day, everything bounces off him, like a rubber ball bounces off a wall.

(chapter III)

NOZDREV:

Maybe they will call him a battered character, they will say that now Nozdryov is no longer there. Alas! those who speak thus will be unjust. Nozdryov will not be out of the world for a long time. He is everywhere between us and, perhaps, only walks in a different caftan; but people are frivolously impenetrable, and a man in a different caftan seems to them a different person.

(chapterIV )

Son-in-law of Nozdrev MIZHUEV:

The fair-haired man was one of those people whose character, at first glance, has some sort of stubbornness... And it will always end up with softness in their character, that they will agree precisely to what they rejected, they will call the stupid smart and go dancing like you can’t do it better to someone else’s tune - in a word, they will start with a satin finish, and end with a reptile.

(chapterIV )

SOBAKEVICH:

Were you born like a bear, or did the provincial life, the grain crops, the fuss with the peasants, make you bearish, and through them you became what they call a man - a fist? And unbend one or two fingers to the fist, it will come out even worse. If he tries a little the tops of some science, he will let them know later, having taken a more visible place, to all those who really have learned some kind of science.

(chapterV )

Only PLYUSHKIN is an atypical phenomenon. The lyrical digression in Chapter VI is built on negation, the generalization is given as if by contradiction:

I must say that such a phenomenon rarely comes across in Rus', where everything likes to turn around rather than shrink.

3) In addition, there are digressions on everyday topics that are close to the epic part in pathos and language and also serve as a means of generalization:

About food and stomachs of gentlemen of the middle hand:

The author must confess that he is very envious of the appetite and stomach of such people. For him, all the great gentlemen who live in St. Petersburg and Moscow, who spend their time thinking about what to eat tomorrow and what kind of dinner to compose for the day after tomorrow, mean absolutely nothing ...

(chapterIV )

About scientific reasoning and discoveries:

Our brethren, the intelligent people, as we call ourselves, do almost the same thing, and our learned reasoning serves as proof.

(chapterIX )

On human oddity:

Come on, deal with the man! does not believe in God, but believes that if the bridge of the nose itches, then he will certainly die ...

(chapterX )

It can be seen from the analysis carried out that in Gogol's works we are not dealing with traditional typification, but rather with generalization, universalization of phenomena.

2. Digressions, opposed to the epic part, revealing the positive ideal of the author.

1) Lyrical digressions about Russia (Rus), linking together the themes of the road, the Russian people and the Russian word.

Digression about the aptly said Russian word in Chapter V (see “Folk images, the image of the people, the nationality of“ Dead Souls ”).

About barge haulers (image of the people):

And really, where is Fyrov now? He walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier, having arranged with the merchants. Flowers and ribbons on the hat; round dances, songs, the whole square boils ... and the whole grain arsenal peeps out enormously, until it is all loaded into deep ships-suryak and rushes like a goose along with people to an endless valley. There you will earn enough, barge haulers! and together, as you used to walk and rage, you will set to work and sweat, dragging the strap under one endless song, like Rus'.

(chapterVII )

Eh, trio! bird troika, who invented you?.. Isn't that how you, Rus, that brisk, unbeatable troika, are rushing?.. Rus', where are you rushing, give me an answer? Doesn't give an answer. A bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; everything that is on the earth flies past, and other peoples and states squint aside and give it the way.

(chapterXI )

About the road:

How strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: road! how wonderful it is, this road itself: a clear day, autumn leaves, cold air ... tighter in a travel overcoat, a hat over your ears, you will snuggle closer and more comfortably to the corner! .. And the night? heavenly powers! what a night is made in the sky! And the air, and the sky, distant, high, there, in its inaccessible depths, spread out so immensely, sonorously and clearly! ..

(chapterXI )

About Rus' and its heroes:

Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you; the daring divas of nature, crowned with the daring divas of art, will not amuse, will not frighten the eyes ... Everything in you is open, deserted and even; like dots, like badges, your low cities imperceptibly stick out among the plains; nothing will seduce or charm the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song heard and heard incessantly in your ears, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What is in it, in this song?.. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here, when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him? And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible power reflected in my depths; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!..

(chapterXI )

2) Lyrical digressions on philosophical topics, approaching in language to lyrical digressions associated with a positive ideal.

On the contradictions of life:

Whether it's a box, whether it's Manilov, whether it's an economic life or a non-economic one - past them! Otherwise, the world is wonderfully arranged: the cheerful will instantly turn into sadness, if you only stagnate in front of it for a long time; and then God knows what will come into your head.

(chapterIII )

About youth:

Get caught at that time instead of Chichikov by some twenty-year-old youth, whether he is a hussar, whether he is a student, or just just starting a career in life - and God! whatever wakes up, stirs, or speaks in him!..

(chapterV )

The current fiery youth would have jumped aside in horror if they showed him his own portrait in old age. Take with you on your journey, emerging from your soft youthful years into a stern, hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, do not lift them up later! ..

(chapterVI )

About old age:

Terrible, terrible is the coming old age ahead, and gives nothing back and back!

(chapterVI )

III. In addition, there are a number of digressions that reveal the author's views on artistic creativity:

About two types of writers. Based on this digression, Nekrasov's poem "Blessed is the Gentle Poet" (on the death of Gogol) was written.

The digression about the portrait of heroes in the second chapter is connected with the problem of the method. It is built on the antithesis: the romantic hero (portrait) is an ordinary, unremarkable hero.

It is much easier to depict characters of a large size: there, just throw paint with all your hands onto the canvas, black scorching eyes, hanging eyebrows, a forehead cut with a wrinkle, a cloak black or scarlet thrown over your shoulder, and the portrait is ready; but all these gentlemen, of whom there are many in the world, who look very similar to each other, but meanwhile, as you look closely, you will see many of the most elusive features - these gentlemen are terribly difficult for portraits. Here you will have to strain your attention strongly until you force all the subtle, almost invisible features to stand out before you, and in general you will have to deepen your gaze, already sophisticated in the science of probing.

(II chapter)

In a lyrical digression about the language of a work of art, the principle of democratization of the language is declared, the author opposes its artificial "ennoblement".

Guilty! It seems that a word, noticed on the street, has flown from the lips of our hero. What to do? such is the position of a writer in Rus'! However, if a word from the street got into a book, it’s not the writer’s fault, the readers are to blame, and above all the readers of high society: you won’t hear a single decent Russian word from them first, and they will probably endow French, German and English in such quantities, which you don't want.

(chapterVIII )

See also "Women's Images in The Inspector General and Dead Souls".

On choosing a hero:

A virtuous person is still not taken as a hero. And you can even say why not taken. Because it’s time to finally give rest to the poor virtuous person, because the word idly revolves on the lips: virtuous person, because they turned a virtuous person into a workhorse, and there is no writer who would not ride him, goading him with a whip and everything else ; because they have exhausted a virtuous person to the point that now there is not even a shadow of virtue on him, and only ribs and skin instead of a body remain ... because they do not respect a virtuous person. No, it's time to finally hide the scoundrel. So, let's harness the scoundrel!

(chapterXI )

Gogol approves the role of the main character of the anti-hero (see "Genre originality of Dead Souls").

About creative plans, about a positive ideal:

But ... perhaps in this very story, other, hitherto unstrung strings will be felt, the incalculable wealth of the Russian spirit will appear, a husband will pass, endowed with divine valor, or a wonderful Russian maiden, which cannot be found anywhere in the world, with all the wondrous beauty of a woman. souls, all of generous striving and self-sacrifice. And all the virtuous people of other tribes will appear dead before them, just as a book is dead before the living word!.. But why and why talk about what lies ahead? It is indecent for the author, who has long been a husband, brought up by a harsh inner life and the fresh sobriety of solitude, to forget himself like a young man. Everything has its turn, and place, and time!

(chapterXI )

See also about the idea "The plot and composition of "Dead Souls".

And for a long time yet it is determined by my wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes, to survey the whole vastly rushing life, to survey it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to it tears! And the time is still far away when, in a different way, a formidable blizzard of inspiration will rise from a head clothed in holy horror and in the brilliance, and the majestic thunder of other speeches will be felt in a confused trembling ...

(chapterVII )

IV. Unlike Pushkin, Gogol has no autobiographical digressions, except for the poetic “Oh my youth, oh my freshness!”, But it also has a general philosophical character:

Formerly, long ago, in the summers of my youth, in the summers of my irrevocably glimpsed childhood, it was fun for me to drive up to an unfamiliar place for the first time ... Now I indifferently drive up to any unfamiliar village and look indifferently at its vulgar appearance.

(chapterVI )

V. From the point of view of the principle of artistic generalization, the lyrical digressions of "Dead Souls" can be divided into two types:

(chapterII )

Such is Russian person: a strong passion to be conceited with someone who would be at least one rank higher than him ...

(chapterII )

Because Russian man in decisive moments, there is something to be done without going into distant arguments, then, turning to the right, onto the first crossroads, he [Selifan] shouted: “hey you, respected friends!” - and set off at a gallop, thinking little about where the road taken would lead.

(chapterIII )

Here Nozdryov was promised many difficult and strong desires; there were even bad words. What to do? Russian man yes, even in the heart!

(chapterV )

Selifan felt his mistake, but since Russian man does not like to confess to another that he is guilty, then he immediately said, drawing himself up: “Why are you jumping like that? put your eyes in a tavern, or what?

(chapterV )

The guest and the host drank a glass of vodka each, ate all vast Russia in cities and villages ...

(chapterV )

In Rus' lower societies are very fond of talking about the gossip that occurs in higher societies ...

(chapterIX )

What did this scratching mean? and what does it mean in general?.. Russian people scratching in the back of the head.

(chapterX )

See also digressions about Plyushkin, Sobakevich.

Russia in "Dead Souls" is a special world that lives according to its own laws. Its wide expanses give birth to wide natures.

She [the governor's wife] held by the arm a young girl of sixteen, a fresh blonde with thin, slender features, with a pointed chin, with a charmingly rounded oval face, which an artist would take as a model for the Madonna and which only a rare case comes across in Rus', where everything likes to be in a wide size, everything that is: mountains, and forests, and steppes, and faces, and lips, and legs.

(chapterVIII )

And what Russian does not like to drive fast? Is it his soul, seeking to spin, take a walk, sometimes say: “Damn it all!” - Is it possible for his soul not to love her?

(chapterXI )

2. Through all-Russian, national lies the path to universal.

And in the world annals of mankind there are many whole centuries, which, it would seem, have been crossed out and destroyed as unnecessary. Many errors have taken place in the world, which it would seem that even a child would not do now. What twisted, deaf, narrow, impassable, drifting far in the direction of the road chose humanity, striving to achieve eternal truth, while before him the whole direct path was open, like the path leading to the magnificent temple, assigned to the king in the halls!

(chapterX )

All universal generalizations are connected in one way or another with the plot-forming motif of the road (see "The Plot and Composition of Dead Souls").

VI. Gogol's poem is built on the thematic and stylistic opposition of epic and lyrical principles. Often this antithesis is specially emphasized by Gogol, and he pushes two worlds together:

And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible power reflected in my depths; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!..

"Hold on, hold on, fool!" Chichikov shouted to Selifan. “Here I am with your broadsword! shouted a courier with a arshin mustache galloping towards. “Don’t you see, goblin tear your soul: government carriage!” And, like a ghost, the troika disappeared with thunder and dust.

How strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: road!

(chapterXI )

In general, speaking about the stylistic originality of lyrical digressions, one can note the features of romantic poetics.

Conceptually: in opposition to youth and old age.

See lyrical digressions on philosophical topics.

In artistic means (hyperboles, cosmic images, metaphors). See “Genre originality of Dead Souls”.

God! how good you are sometimes, distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning One, have I clutched at you, and each time you generously carried me out and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt! ..

(chapterXI )

VII. Compositional role of lyrical digressions.

1. Some chapters open with digressions:

Digression about youth in Chapter VI ("Before, long ago, in the summer of my youth...").

A digression about two types of writers in Chapter VII ("Happy is the writer...").

2. Digressions can end the chapter:

About the “aptly spoken Russian word” in Chapter V (“The Russian people express themselves strongly ...”).

About the “scratching at the back of the head” in Chapter X (“What did this scratching mean? And what does it mean anyway?”)

About the “bird troika” at the end of the first volume (“Eh, troika, troika bird, who invented you? ..”).

3. A digression may precede the appearance of a new hero: a digression about youth in Chapter VI precedes the description of Plyushkin's village.

4. Turning points in the plot can also be marked by lyrical digressions:

Describing Chichikov's feelings when meeting with the governor's daughter, the author again reminds the reader of the division of people into thick and thin.

It is impossible to say for sure whether the feeling of love really awakened in our hero - it is even doubtful that gentlemen of this kind, that is, not so thick, but not so thin, were capable of love; but with all that, there was something so strange here, something of a kind that he himself could not explain to himself ...

(chapterVIII )

The author includes arguments about the ability of gentlemen, fat and thin, to entertain ladies in the description of another novel scene: Chichikov's conversation with the governor's daughter at the ball.

People who are sedate and occupy important positions are somehow a little heavy in conversations with ladies; on this master gentlemen lieutenants and no further than captain's ranks ... Here it is noticed so that readers can see why the blonde began to yawn during the stories of our hero.

(chapterVIII )

5. By the end of the poem, the number of lyrical digressions associated with a positive ideal increases, which is explained by Gogol's plan to build "Dead Souls" on the model of Dante's "Divine Comedy" (see "The plot and composition of "Dead Souls").

VIII. The language of lyrical digressions (see “Genre originality of Dead Souls”).

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"RM - Rus (by heart)"

God! how good you are sometimes, distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning man, have I clutched at you, and every time you generously endured me and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt! ..

Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you; daring divas of nature, crowned with daring divas of art, will not amuse, will not frighten the eyes, cities with many-windowed high palaces, grown into cliffs, picture trees and ivy, grown into houses, in noise and in the eternal dust of waterfalls; the head will not tip back to look at the stone blocks piled up endlessly above it and in the heights; they will not flash through the dark arches thrown over one another, entangled in vine branches, ivy and countless millions of wild roses, the eternal lines of shining mountains rushing into the clear silver skies will not flash through them in the distance. Openly deserted and exactly everything in you; like dots, like badges, your low cities imperceptibly stick out among the plains; nothing will seduce or charm the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart? What sounds painfully kiss, and strive to the soul, and curl around my heart? Rus! what do you want from me? what incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Why do you look like that, and why did everything that is in you turn eyes full of expectation on me? space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here, when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him? And menacingly embraces me mighty space, with terrible power reflected in my depths; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!..

How strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: road! and how wonderful she herself is, this road: a clear day, autumn leaves, cold air ... tighter in a travel overcoat, a hat on our ears, we will snuggle closer and more comfortably to the corner! For the last time, a trembling ran through the limbs, and has already been replaced by pleasant warmth. The horses are running...

God! how good you are sometimes, distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning man, have I clutched at you, and every time you generously endured me and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt! ..

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"RM for groups"

1 group.

A. Reasoning about thick and thin (Chapter 1)

The men here, as elsewhere, were of two kinds: some thin, who kept hovering around the ladies; some of them were of such a kind that it was difficult to distinguish them from St. in French and made the ladies laugh just like in St. Petersburg. Another kind of men were fat or the same as Chichikov, that is, not so fat, but not thin either. These, on the contrary, squinted and backed away from the ladies and looked only around to see if the governor's servant had set up a green table for whist somewhere. Their faces were full and round, some even had warts, some were pockmarked; they didn’t wear their hair on their heads either in tufts, or curls, or in the manner of the devil take me, as the French say; their hair was either cut low or sleek, and their features were more rounded and strong. These were honorary officials in the city. Alas! fat people know how to handle their affairs better in this world than thin ones. The thin ones serve more on special assignments or are only registered and wag hither and thither; their existence is somehow too easy, airy and completely unreliable. Fat people never occupy indirect places, but all straight, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they won’t fly off. They do not like external brilliance; on them the tailcoat is not so cleverly tailored as on thin ones, but in the caskets there is the grace of God. At the age of three, a thin man does not have a single soul left that is not pawned in a pawnshop; the fat one calmly, lo and behold, a house appeared somewhere at the end of the city, bought in the name of his wife, then another house at the other end, then a village near the city, then a village with all the land. Finally, the fat one, having served God and the sovereign, having earned universal respect, leaves the service, moves over and becomes a landowner, a glorious Russian master, a hospitable man, and lives, and lives well. And after him, again, thin heirs lower, according to Russian custom, on courier all their father's goods.

B. Task: Are there similar thoughts, reasonings in the text of the story “Thick and Thin” by A.P. Chekhov and in this passage? Confirm the similarity with the text of the story "Thick and thin" or explain in your own way.

Two friends met at the station of the Nikolaev railway: one fat, the other thin. The fat man had just dined at the station, and his oiled lips were shiny like ripe cherries. He smelled of sherry and fleur-d "orange. Slim had just left the car and was loaded with suitcases, bundles and cardboard. He smelled of ham and coffee grounds. A thin woman with a long chin peeked out from behind him - his wife, and a tall, narrow-eyed schoolboy is his son.

Well, how are you, friend? the fat man asked, looking enthusiastically at his friend. “Where do you serve?” Reached the ranks?

I serve, my dear! I have been a collegiate assessor for the second year and I have Stanislav. The salary is bad ... well, God bless him! My wife gives music lessons, I privately make cigarette cases from wood. Excellent cigarette cases! I sell for a ruble. If someone takes ten pieces or more, you understand, a concession. Let's get some fun. I served, you know, in the department, and now I have been transferred here as a clerk in the same department ... I will serve here. Well, how are you? Probably already civilian? BUT?

No, my dear, raise it higher, - said the fat one. - I have already risen to the secret ... I have two stars.

The thin one suddenly turned pale, petrified, but soon his face twisted in all directions with the broadest smile; it seemed as if sparks were falling from his face and eyes. He himself shrank, hunched over, narrowed... His suitcases, bundles and cartons shrank, grimaced... His wife's long chin became even longer; Nathanael stretched out in front and buttoned all the buttons of his uniform ...

I, Your Excellency... Very pleased, sir! A friend, one might say, of childhood, and suddenly turned out to be such grandees, sir! Hee hee s.

Well, it's full! the fat man grimaced. “What is that tone for? You and I are childhood friends - and what is this veneration for!

Excuse me ... What are you ... - the thin one chuckled, shrinking even more. - Your Excellency's gracious attention ... sort of like life-giving moisture ...

2 group.

Formerly, long ago, in the summers of my youth, in the summers of my irrevocably glimpsed childhood, it was fun for me to drive up for the first time to an unfamiliar place: it doesn’t matter whether it was a village, a poor provincial town, or a village, a suburb, the children’s curious look. Every structure, everything that bore only the imprint of some noticeable feature, everything stopped me and amazed me. Is it a stone, state-owned house, of well-known architecture with half false windows, all alone sticking out among a hewn log heap of one-story philistine, philistine houses, is it a round, regular dome, all upholstered in sheet white iron, elevated above a new church, whitened like snow, a market whether it was a district dandy, caught in the middle of the city—nothing escaped my fresh, subtle attention, and, sticking my nose out of my camping cart, I looked at the hitherto unseen cut of some frock coat, and at wooden boxes with nails, with gray, yellowing in the distance, with raisins and soap, flickering from the door of a vegetable shop along with cans of dried Moscow sweets, he looked at an infantry officer walking aside, brought in God knows what province, to county boredom, and at a merchant who flickered in Siberia on racing droshky, and mentally carried away behind them into their poor life. District official, pass by - I was already wondering where he was going, whether to visit some of his brothers in the evening or straight to his house, so that after sitting for half an hour on the porch, before dusk had yet fallen, sit down to an early supper with mother, wife, wife's sister and the whole family, and what will be discussed with them at a time when a yard girl in monks or a boy in a thick jacket, after soup, brings a tallow candle in a durable home candlestick. Approaching the village of some landowner, I looked curiously at a tall, narrow wooden bell tower or a wide, dark wooden old church. From afar, through the greenery of the trees, the red roof and white chimneys of the landowner's house flashed temptingly to me, and I waited impatiently until the gardens that protected it would part on both sides and he would show himself all with his own, then, alas! not at all a vulgar appearance, and from it I tried to guess who the landowner himself was, whether he was fat, and whether he had sons or as many as six daughters with ringing girlish laughter, games and the eternal beauty of the little sister, and whether they were black-eyed, and whether they were merry he himself is either gloomy, like September in the last days, looks at the calendar and talks about rye and wheat, boring for youth.

Now I indifferently drive up to any unfamiliar village and look indifferently at its vulgar appearance; my chilled gaze is uncomfortable, it’s not funny to me, and what in previous years would have awakened a lively movement in the face, laughter and incessant speeches, now slips by, and my motionless lips keep an indifferent silence. O my youth! oh my freshness!

B. Task: Are there similar thoughts, reasonings in the text of S. Yesenin's poem and in this passage? Confirm the similarity with the text of the poem or explain in your own way.

Fill out the answer in the Technological map.

3 group

A. Lyrical digression about Rus' and the road (chapter 11)

And what Russian does not like to drive fast? Is it his soul, seeking to spin, take a walk, sometimes say: "Damn it all!" -- should his soul not love her? Is it not to love her when something enthusiastic and wonderful is heard in her? It seems that an unknown force has taken you on a wing to itself, and you yourself are flying, and everything is flying: miles are flying, merchants are flying towards them on the framing of their wagons, a forest is flying on both sides with dark formations of firs and pines, with a clumsy knock and a crow's cry, flying the whole road leads nowhere in the vanishing distance, and something terrible is contained in this quick flickering, where the vanishing object does not have time to appear, only the sky above the head, and light clouds, and the piercing moon alone seem to be motionless. Eh, trio! bird troika, who invented you? to know that you could only be born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but spread out like a smooth smooth halfway across the world, and go and count miles until it fills your eyes. And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not captured by an iron screw, but hastily alive, with one ax and a chisel, a smart Yaroslavl peasant equipped and assembled you. The coachman is not in German boots: a beard and mittens, and the devil knows what he sits on; but he got up, and swung, and dragged on the song - the horses whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed up in one smooth circle, only the road trembled and the stopped pedestrian screamed in fright! and there she rushed, rushed, rushed !.. And you can already see in the distance how something is dusting and drilling through the air.

Isn't that how you, Rus', that brisk, unbeatable troika, are rushing about? The road smokes under you, the bridges rumble, everything lags behind and is left behind. The contemplator, struck by God's miracle, stopped: is it not lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power lies in these horses unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what horses! Are whirlwinds sitting in your manes? Does a sensitive ear burn in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once strained their copper breasts and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into only elongated lines flying through the air, and rushes, all inspired by God !.. Rus', where are you going, give me an answer? Doesn't give an answer. A bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; everything that is on the earth flies past, and other peoples and states squint aside and give it the way.

B. Task: Are there similar thoughts, reasonings in the text of A. Blok's poem "Russia" and in this passage? Confirm the similarity with the text of the poem or explain in your own way.

Fill out the answer in the Technological map.

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"Worksheet"

Fill the table:

Theme of L.O.	Examples from the text
About thick and thin
About education in Russia
On the subtlety of treatment
About the gentlemen of the "middle hand"
About apt Russian word
About youth and youth
About the fate of the writer in Russia	Lyrical digressions in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls" Lyrical digressions - deviation from direct plot in a literary work Lyrical digressions give the poem scale, breadth and depth of coverage of problems, symbolism 1 chapter About thick and thin Chapter 2 About education in Russia Chapter 3 On the subtlety of treatment The theme of lyrical digressions in the poem Chapter 4 About the gentlemen of the "middle hand" Chapter 5 About apt Russian word Chapter 6 About youth and youth The theme of lyrical digressions in the poem Chapter 7 About the fate of the writer in Russia Chapter 8 About city people Chapter 9 About Russian peasants The theme of lyrical digressions in the poem Chapter 11 About Russia The role of lyrical digressions in the poem Lyrical digressions in the poem: enter the image of the author; give the narrative breadth, depth, inclusiveness, lyricism; help to characterize the different sides of Rus' I wish all of you more than once in your life to plunge into a beautiful, bewitching world, whose name is GOGOL I. Prologue An outlandish dream... As if in the realm of shadows, above the entrance to which an inextinguishable lamp with the inscription "Dead Souls" is flickering, the joker-Satan opened the doors. The dead kingdom stirred and an endless string stretched out of it. Manilov in a fur coat on large bears, Nozdryov in someone else's carriage, Derzhimorda on the fire pipe, Selifan, Parsley, Fetinya... And he was the last to move - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov in the famous to his chaise. And the whole gang moved to the Soviet Rus' and then amazing things happened in it incidents. And which ones follow points.

The appearance in the poem "Dead Souls" of numerous lyrical digressions is due, not least, to the unusual genre solution of this whole work, in which there are elements and which the author himself called "a poem", despite the absence of poetic stanzas in it.

We can find in the poem not a simple narrative based on the plot of the Chichikov adventure, but a real “song” about the country, in which he invested his innermost aspirations, reflections, experiences.

Such lyrical digressions, first of all:

• open to the reader the image of the author of "Dead Souls"
• expand the time frame of the poem
• fill the content of the work with subjective reasoning of the author

It can be assumed that Gogol borrowed a similar tradition of "author's accompaniment" of the plot from, continuing the genre mixing that appeared in the poem "Eugene Onegin". However, Gogol's authorial digressions also had their own features that distinguish them from Pushkin's.

Analysis of Gogol's lyrical places in the poem

Image of the author

In "Dead Souls" the author presents almost his own philosophy of creativity, when civil service is defined as its main purpose. Gogol, unlike other classics, is frankly alien to the problems of "pure art" and deliberately wants to become a teacher, a preacher for contemporary and subsequent readers. This desire not only distinguishes him among the writers of the 19th century, but also makes him an exceptional creator of all our literature.

Therefore, the image of the author in these digressions appears as a figure of a person with a huge and personally suffered experience, who shares with us his deliberate and well-founded position. His life experience is entirely connected with the country, Gogol even directly refers to Russia on the pages of the poem:

"Rus! What incomprehensible bond lurks between us?

Topics of author's statements

In the monologues of Gogol the teacher and moralizer, themes are raised:

• Philosophical problems of the meaning of existence
• Ideas of patriotism - and
• Image of Russia
• spiritual quest
• Tasks and goals of literature
• Creative freedoms, etc.

In his lyrical passages, Gogol confidently sings a hymn to realism, which can stir up the necessary feelings among his readers.

However, if A. Pushkin allowed equality with his reader and could communicate with him almost on an equal footing, giving the latter his own right to draw a conclusion, then Nikolai Vasilievich, on the contrary, was initially focused on forming the necessary reaction and conclusions from the reader. He knows exactly what exactly should arise in the minds of the readers and confidently develops it, returning them to the idea of ​​correction, liberation from vices, and the resurrection of pure souls.

Lyrical digressions as a song about Russia

Gogol creates a large canvas of reality, in which the image of his country Russia is presented in volume and expressiveness. Rus' in Gogol's lyrical digressions is everything - both St. Petersburg, and the provincial city, and Moscow, and the road itself, along which the chaise rides, and the “troika bird” of the future rushes. We can say that the road itself becomes the philosophical focus of "Dead Souls", its hero is a traveler. But the author himself looks at contemporary Rus' as if from a beautiful distance, which he longs for her, seeing her "wonderful and sparkling."

And even though at the current stage in his Russia everything is “poor and bad,” Gogol believes that later on his “troika bird” will open up a great future, when other states and peoples will give it the way forward, shunning its flight.