The main work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is not only in terms of the scale and depth of artistic generalizations. For this author, working on it has become a long process of writing and human self-knowledge. The analysis of "Dead Souls" will be presented in this article.
Gogol noticed after the publication of the first volume that the main subject of his work was not at all ugly landowners and not the province, but a "secret" that was suddenly to be revealed to readers in subsequent volumes.
"The Pale Beginning" of a Grand Design
Searching for a genre, changing the idea, working on the text of the first two volumes, as well as thinking about the third - these are fragments of a grandiose "construction" carried out by Nikolai Vasilyevich only partially. When analyzing "Dead Souls", it should be understood that the first volume is only a part in which the outlines of the whole are outlined. This is the "pale beginning" of labor, according to the definition of the writer himself. No wonder Nikolai Vasilievich compared it with a porch, hastily attached to the "palace" by the provincial architect.
How did the idea for the piece come about?
Features of the composition and plot, the originality of the genre are associated with the deepening and development of the original idea of "Dead Souls". Pushkin stood at the origins of the work. As Nikolai Vasilievich said, the poet advised him to take on a large essay and even suggested a plot from which he himself wanted to create "something like a poem." However, it was not so much the plot itself as the "thought" contained in it that was Pushkin's "hint" to Gogol. The future author of the poem was well aware of the real stories that are based on scams with the so-called "dead souls". In the youthful years of Gogol, one of such cases occurred in Mirgorod.
"Dead Souls" in Gogol's Russia
"Dead souls" - who died, but continued to be listed as alive until the next "revision tale". Only after it they were officially considered dead. It was after the landlords stopped paying for them - a special tax. The peasants that existed on paper could be mortgaged, donated or sold, which scammers sometimes used, seducing the landowners not only with the opportunity to get rid of serfs that did not bring income, but also to get money for them.
The buyer of "dead souls" at the same time became the owner of a very real state. The adventure of the protagonist of the work, Chichikov, is a consequence of the "most inspired thought" that dawned on him - the Board of Trustees will give 200 rubles for each serf.
An adventurous picaresque novel
The basis for the so-called adventurous picaresque novel was given by the "joke" with "dead souls". This type of novel has always been very popular, because it was interesting. Gogol's older contemporaries created works in this genre (V. T. Narezhny, F. V. Bulgarin, and others). Their novels, despite the rather low artistic level, were a great success.
Modification of the genre of adventure-picaresque novel in the process of work
The genre model of the work we are interested in is precisely an adventurous and picaresque novel, as the analysis of "Dead Souls" shows. She, however, greatly changed in the process of the writer's work on this creation. This is evidenced, for example, by the author's designation "poem", which appeared after the general plan and the main idea were corrected by Gogol ("Dead Souls").
Analysis of the work reveals the following interesting features. "All Rus' will appear in it" - Gogol's thesis, which not only emphasized the scale of the idea of "Dead Souls" in comparison with the initial desire "at least from one side" to show Russia, but at the same time meant a radical revision of the genre model chosen earlier. The framework of the traditional adventurous and picaresque novel became tight for Nikolai Vasilyevich, since he could not contain the wealth of the new idea. Chichikov's "odyssey" has become only one of the ways of seeing Russia.
The adventurous picaresque novel, having lost its leading role in Dead Souls, remained at the same time a genre shell for the epic and moralistic tendencies of the poem.
Features of the image of Chichikov
One of the tricks that is used in this genre is the mystery of the origin of the hero. The main character in the first chapters was either a man from the common people or a foundling, and at the end of the work, having overcome life's obstacles, he suddenly turned out to be the son of wealthy parents, received an inheritance. Nikolai Vasilievich resolutely refused such a template.
Analyzing the poem "Dead Souls", it should certainly be noted that Chichikov is a man of the "middle". The author himself says about him that he is "not bad looking", but not handsome, not too thin, but not too fat, not very old and not very young. The life story of this adventurer is hidden from the reader up to the final, eleventh chapter. You will be convinced of this by carefully reading "Dead Souls". Analysis by chapters reveals the fact that the author tells the background only in the eleventh. Deciding to do this, Gogol begins by emphasizing the "vulgarity", the mediocrity of his hero. He writes about how "modest" and "dark" his origins are. Nikolai Vasilievich again rejects extremes in defining his character (not a scoundrel, but not a hero either), but he dwells on Chichikov's main quality - this is an "acquirer", "owner".
Chichikov - "average" person
Thus, there is nothing unusual in this hero - this is the so-called "average" person, in whom Gogol strengthened a trait that is characteristic of many people. Nikolai Vasilyevich sees in his passion for profit, which has replaced everything else, in the pursuit of the ghost of an easy and beautiful life, a manifestation of "human poverty", poverty and spiritual interests - all that many people so carefully hide. Analysis of "Dead Souls" shows that Gogol needed a biography of the hero not so much to reveal the "secret" of his life at the end of the work, but to remind readers that this is not an exceptional person, but quite ordinary. Anyone can discover in himself some "part of Chichikov."
"Positive" heroes of the work
In adventurous picaresque novels, the traditional plot "spring" is the persecution of the main character by malicious, greedy and vicious people. Against their background, the rogue who fought for his own rights seemed almost a "perfect model." As a rule, he was helped by compassionate and virtuous people who naively expressed the ideals of the author.
However, no one pursues Chichikov in the first volume of the work. Also, there are no characters in the novel who could at least to some extent be followers of the writer's point of view. Analyzing the work "Dead Souls", we can notice that only in the second volume "positive" characters appear: the landowner Kostanzhoglo, the farmer Murazov, the governor, who is irreconcilable to the abuses of various officials. But even these characters, unusual for Nikolai Vasilyevich, are very far from novel templates.
What interests Nikolai Vasilyevich in the first place?
Far-fetched, artificial were the plots of many works written in the genre of an adventurous picaresque novel. At the same time, the emphasis was on adventures, the “adventures” of rogue heroes. And Nikolai Vasilievich is not interested in the adventures of the protagonist in themselves, not in their "material" result (Chichikov eventually got his fortune by fraudulent means), but in their moral and social content, which allowed the author to make roguery a "mirror" reflecting modern Russia in Dead Souls. Analysis shows that this is a country of landowners who sell "air" (that is, dead peasants), as well as officials who assist the swindler, instead of hindering him. The plot of this work has a huge semantic potential - various layers of other meanings - symbolic and philosophical - are superimposed on its real basis. It is very interesting to analyze the landowners ("Dead Souls"). Each of the five characters is very symbolic - Nikolai Vasilievich uses the grotesque in their depiction.
Plot slowdown
Gogol deliberately slows down the movement of the plot, accompanying each event with detailed descriptions of the material world in which the characters live, as well as their appearance, reasoning about their not only dynamics, but also significance, the adventurous and picaresque plot loses. Each event of the work causes an "avalanche" of the author's assessments and judgments, details, facts. The action of the novel, contrary to the requirements of this genre, almost completely stops in the last chapters. This can be seen by independently analyzing Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". For the development of the action, only two events of all the others, which occur from the seventh to the eleventh chapter, are important. This is the departure from the city of Chichikov and the execution of the bill of sale.
Requirements for readers
Nikolai Vasilyevich is very demanding of readers - he wants them to penetrate into the very essence of phenomena, and not to slip on their surface, to ponder the hidden meaning of the work "Dead Souls". It should be analyzed very carefully. It is necessary to see behind the "objective" or informative meaning of the author's words not an explicit, but the most important meaning is a symbolic-generalized one. Just as necessary as Pushkin in "Eugene Onegin" is the co-creation of readers by the author of "Dead Souls". It is important to note that the artistic effect of Gogol's prose is created not by what is told or depicted, but by how it is done. You will be convinced of this by once analyzing the work "Dead Souls". The word is a subtle instrument, which Gogol mastered to perfection.
Nikolai Vasilyevich emphasized that the writer, addressing people, must take into account the fear and uncertainty that live in those who commit bad deeds. Both approval and reproach should carry the word "lyrical poet". Reasoning about the dual nature of the phenomena of life is a favorite topic of the author of the work that interests us.
This is a brief analysis ("Dead Souls"). Much can be said about Gogol's work. We have highlighted only the main points. It is also interesting to dwell on the images of the landowners and the author. You can do this yourself, based on our analysis.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most mysterious writers of the 19th century. His life and work is full of mysticism and secrets. Our article will help to qualitatively prepare for a literature lesson, for the exam, test tasks, creative work on the poem. When analyzing Gogol's work "Dead Souls" in the 9th grade, it is important to rely on additional material in order to get acquainted with the history of creation, problems, and figure out what artistic means the author uses. In "Dead Souls" the analysis is specific due to the content scale and compositional features of the work.
Brief analysis
Year of writing– 1835 -1842 The first volume was published in 1842.
History of creation- the idea of the plot was suggested to Gogol by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The author has been working on the poem for about 17 years.
Subject- the customs and life of landlords in Rus' in the 30s of the 19th century, a gallery of human vices.
Composition- 11 chapters of the first volume, united by the image of the main character - Chichikov. Several chapters of the second volume that survived and were found and published.
Direction- realism. The poem also has romantic features, but they are secondary.
History of creation
Nikolai Vasilievich wrote his immortal brainchild for about 17 years. He considered this work the most important mission in his life. The history of the creation of "Dead Souls" is full of gaps and mysteries, as well as mystical coincidences. In the process of working on the work, the author fell seriously ill, being on the verge of death, he was suddenly miraculously healed. Gogol took this fact as a sign from above, which gave him a chance to finish his main work.
The idea of "Dead Souls" and the very fact of their existence as a social phenomenon was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. It was Alexander Sergeevich, according to the author, who gave him the idea to write a large-scale work that could reveal the whole essence of the Russian soul. The poem was conceived as a work in three volumes. The first volume (published in 1842) was conceived as a collection of human vices, the second one made it possible for the heroes to realize their mistakes, and in the third volume they change and find the way to a right life.
While in work, the work was corrected many times by the author, its main idea, characters, plot changed, only the essence was preserved: the problematics and plan of the work. Gogol finished the second volume of Dead Souls shortly before his death, but according to some reports, he himself destroyed this book. According to other sources, it was given by the author to Tolstoy or someone close to him, and then lost. There is an opinion that this manuscript is still kept by the descendants of the high society of Gogol's environment and will someday be found. The author did not have time to write the third volume, but there is information about its intended content from reliable sources, the future book, its idea and general characteristics, were discussed in literary circles.
Subject
The meaning of the name“Dead Souls” is twofold: this phenomenon itself is the sale of dead serf souls, rewriting them and transferring them to another owner and the image of people like Plyushkin, Manilov, Sobakevich - their souls are dead, the characters are deeply soulless, vulgar and immoral.
main topic"Dead Souls" - the vices and customs of society, the life of a Russian person in the 1830s of the 19th century. The problems that the author raises in the poem are as old as the world, but they are shown and revealed in the way that is characteristic of a researcher of human characters and souls: subtly and on a grand scale.
Main character- Chichikov buys from the landowners long-dead, but still registered serfs, who he needs only on paper. In this way, he plans to get rich by getting paid for them in the board of trustees. The interaction and cooperation of Chichikov with the same swindlers and charlatans, like himself, becomes the central theme of the poem. The desire to get rich in all possible ways is characteristic not only of Chichikov, but also of many heroes of the poem - this is the disease of the century. What Gogol's poem teaches is between the lines of the book - Russian people are characterized by adventurism and craving for "light bread".
The conclusion is unequivocal: the most correct way is to live according to the laws, in harmony with conscience and heart.
Composition
The poem consists of the complete first volume and several surviving chapters of the second volume. The composition is subordinated to the main goal - to reveal a picture of Russian life, contemporary to the author, to create a gallery of typical characters. The poem consists of 11 chapters, full of lyrical digressions, philosophical reasoning and wonderful descriptions of nature.
All this from time to time breaks through the main plot and gives the work a unique lyricism. The work ends with a colorful lyrical reflection on the future of Russia, its strength and power.
Initially, the book was conceived as a satirical work, this influenced the overall composition. In the first chapter, the author introduces the reader to the inhabitants of the city, with the main character - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. From the second to the sixth chapters, the author gives a portrait description of the landlords, their unique way of life, a kaleidoscope of quirks and customs. The next four chapters describe the life of bureaucracy: bribery, arbitrariness and tyranny, gossip, the way of life of a typical Russian city.
Main characters
Genre
To define the genre of "Dead Souls", you need to turn to history. Gogol himself defined it as a "poem", although the structure and scale of the narrative are close to the story and the novel. A prose work is called a poem because of its lyricism: a large number of lyrical digressions, remarks and comments of the author. It is also worth considering that Gogol drew a parallel between his offspring and Pushkin's poem "Eugene Onegin": the latter is considered a novel in verse, and "Dead Souls" - on the contrary, a poem in prose.
The author emphasizes the equivalence of the epic and lyrical in his work. Critics have a different opinion about the genre features of the poem. For example, V. G. Belinsky called the work a novel and it is customary to reckon with this opinion, since it is quite justified. But according to tradition, Gogol's work is called a poem.
Artwork test
Analysis Rating
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Systematized summary of the poem "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol should start with the fact that this is a work of the famous Ukrainian writer N.V. Gogol, which the author himself called a poem. It was conceived in the form of three volumes, but the author almost completely destroyed the second volume, refuting the saying "manuscripts do not burn." Thus, only a couple of chapters in rough notes survive from the second volume. The third volume was only in Gogol's ideas and there is extremely little information about him. Before you is a summary of Gogol - "Dead Souls".
The plot of the first volume
In the provincial town of N, a former official, and now a schemer, posing as a landowner, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, arrives. Chichikov's first task is to gain confidence in local high-ranking residents. And the scammer deftly copes with this task. Pavel Ivanovich quickly becomes a welcome guest at dinner parties and balls, gaining the trust of others. Chichikov's main goal is to buy up "dead souls", that is, dead peasants, who are still listed as living people on paper, and re-register them as living ones. For what? Everything is simple. Then the "peasants" can be remortgaged and get good money. Why is this for Chichikov, an intelligent and resourceful person? The fact is that the main character has a dream: to become rich. Once he served in the customs, where he went bankrupt, providing smugglers with the opportunity to transport goods for money. Chichikov quarreled with an accomplice and he handed him over to the authorities. In order not to go to jail, he escapes, taking with him a couple of papers, shirts, soap. He was unable to withdraw money from his bank account. However, like any big but fragile business, Chichikov's scam could not bear unaccounted for trifles. on the way of the swindler was the gossip and rake the landowner Nozdrev. Gulyaka hurried to tell the whole city of N about Chichikov's deeds, while adding to everything the kidnapping of the daughter of the governor himself. Pavel Ivanovich instantly got his bearings and left the hospitable city, taking the purchased bills of sale with him. Gogol did not begin to sum up at the end of the first part. Instead, he addresses the reader with a philosophical question: "Isn't he a scoundrel?" Accordingly, each reader gets the opportunity to think about his own soul for a moment, because Chichikov's qualities are in many.
Some heroes of Gogol's "Dead Souls"
It is better not to know the personalities described in this book in absentia. The author was able to do the impossible: he breathed life into. Nevertheless, Gogol's summary of "Dead Souls" cannot do without the characteristics of some of the characters. Since any person is made by the environment, let's take another look at Chichikov and his retinue.
Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich In addition to the details described above, one can note his dapperness and ability to look good even on a long journey. Selifan is Chichikov's short, rude coachman. A connoisseur of the characters of horses and a connoisseur of thoroughbred, tall girls. Petrushka is Chichikov's nosy and lipped footman, a lover of wine and tavern fun. He does not like to wash and smells fragrant with the aromas of an unwashed body in worn clothes from a master's shoulder. Braggart.
Let us include in our summary of Gogol's "Dead Souls" and the inhabitants of the city N, because it was they who helped the author to force Chichikov to demonstrate all his talents. Governor, governor's wife and their daughter; vice governor; police chief; chairman of the chamber; prosecutor; postmaster; the couple of landowners Manilovs with their sons Themistoclus and Alkid; Korobochka Nastasya Petrovna; landowner Nozdrev; landowner Mizhuev; the Sobakevich couple; landowner Stepan Plyushkin; uncles Mityai and Minyay; a pleasant lady in all respects and just a pleasant lady.
Some details of the second volume
Summary of Gogol's "Dead Souls" in the second volume becomes even shorter. The reason is the fragmentary nature of the information and drafts left after the author destroyed the manuscript. The optimal way out is to sketch the second volume in selected faces. Tentetnikov Andrey Ivanovich, or in other words Derpennikov, is a kind of prototype of Oblomov: he wakes up slowly and walks in a dressing gown, rarely receives guests and leaves the house a little. The character is strange. pushes for enmity with almost everyone around. Well-read, educated, ambitious. He once served in the capital, but having quarreled with the boss, he returned to the estate, where he tried to change the life of his own peasants. They, however, did not understand him. Sometimes he draws and tries to write a scientific work.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. The years have not changed the rogue, rather, they have strengthened his talents to ingratiate himself and communicate pleasantly on any topic. He did not leave speculation with "dead souls", but at this time most of the landowners re-laid the papers, so that Chichikov was left with no lot. He bought an estate, and at the end of the second part he gets caught in a scam, for which he almost disappeared in prisons. In the course of the poem, he does a good deed: reconciles Tentetnikov and Betrishchev, which contributes to the wedding of the first with the general's daughter.
Betrishchev. Landowner, general, neighbor of Tentetnikov. A kind of Roman patrician: mustachioed, important and stately. Petty tyrant. He has a kind heart and a habit of making fun of others.
Ulinka. The same daughter of the general, who became the wife of Tentetnikov in the course of the poem. Lively, active, noble and very beautiful. Although little is known about the character of the girl, Gogol's affection for her is noticeable, and she became the heroine of the third volume, which says a lot. And many others.
You can go on, but why? The main points have already been described. We can only advise you to read the entire poem written by N.V. Gogol. "Dead Souls", a summary of which was presented in the article, does not contain a description of the third volume, since it was not written, so we can only assume. There is evidence that Tentetnikov and his wife end up in Siberia, most likely into exile. Chichikov turns out to be in the same region. Everything else is rumors and lies, having little real facts under them.
What everyone should know about the immortal work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Text: Sergey Volkov, Evgenia Vovchenko
Photo: artists Lesha Frey/metronews.ru and Mikhail Kheifets/plakat-msh
"Dead Souls" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was read by everyone. Whether entirely or not is another question. In the meantime, Chichikov's adventures are an obligatory part of the school curriculum, and schoolchildren patiently seek out lyrical digressions, carefully analyze the life of landowners with such telling surnames: Korobochka, Manilov, Nozdrev, they are trying to delve into the meaning of the now catchphrase “Rus, where are you rushing to? Give an answer…".
But how many re-read Gogol after school? Are you ready to return to this mysterious work and look at it with your adult eyes, and not with the eyes of a school teacher who is usually taken at his word. But sometimes you really want to show off your erudition among friends, showing yourself to be an educated and well-read person. Just for such people, the project “Yes to reading” was invented, where in a few hours of intensive lectures you can fill in your gaps in the literature. The lecturer of the project, a teacher of Russian language and literature, offers his own set of facts that everyone needs to know about the immortal "Dead Souls".10 facts about "Dead Souls"
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It is believed that the plot of the work was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. Most likely, he grew out of Pletnev about his imminent marriage and about his dowry, formed after the pledge of 200 souls.
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The first volume was written abroad. As noted, “It’s scary to say that you not only love your country more from afar, but you see it better and understand it better. Remember that our great genius
). It's hard for him at home. “Everything, even the very air, torments and suffocates me,” he says. In the summer of 1842, he again leaves Russia, this time for six years. At the end of the same year, he prepares the complete collection of his works for publication. This date closes the last literary period of his life. For the remaining ten years, he slowly and steadily moves away from literature.
Gogol. Dead Souls. Lecturer - Dmitry Bak
In The Author's Confession, Gogol reports that Pushkin advised him to write a great novel and gave him a plot: some clever rogue is buying up serfs who have already died, but who are still alive according to the papers; then pawns them in a pawnshop and in this way acquires a large capital. Gogol began to write without a definite plan, carried away by the opportunity to travel with his hero throughout Russia, portraying many funny faces and funny phenomena.
Initially, Dead Souls seemed to him an adventure novel like Don Quixote by Cervantes or Gil Blas by Lesage. But under the influence of the spiritual break that occurred in him while working on this work, the nature of the novel gradually began to change. From an adventurous story, "Dead Souls" turn into a huge poem in three volumes, into the Russian "Divine Comedy", the first part of which should correspond to "Hell", the second - to "Purgatory" and the third - to "Paradise". First - the dark phenomena of Russian life, vulgar, stupid, vicious "dead souls". Then the gradual onset of dawn: in fragments of the unfinished second volume, there are already “virtuous” faces: the ideal owner Kostanzhoglo, the ideal girl Ulenka, the wise old man Murazov, who preaches about the “improvement of spiritual property”. Finally, in the conceived but not written third volume, there is a complete triumph of light.
Gogol ardently believed in the spiritual beauty of Russia, in the moral treasures of the Russian people - and he was tormented by the reproaches of critics who claimed that he was capable of depicting only base and ugly things. How he longed to glorify his homeland. But his tragedy lay in the fact that he would have been given a great satirical talent, a brilliant ability to notice everything funny and vulgar in life and a complete inability to create “ideal images” - Meanwhile, he looked at his work as a religious and public service, he wanted not to entertain and amuse the reader, but to teach him and turn to God. From this internal conflict, Gogol died, never finishing his poem.
In the first volume of "Dead Souls" Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a man of very decent appearance and a notorious rogue, arrives in a provincial town, charms the governor, police chief, prosecutor and the entire provincial society, meets with the largest landowners and then visits their estates. We get acquainted with the "types" of landowners, depicted so vividly, with such vitality that their names have long become common nouns. Sweet to cloying Manilov, who gave his sons the names of Themistoclus and Alkid and touchingly whispering to his wife: “Open up, darling, your mouth, I’ll put this piece to you.” Cudgel-headed, stingy hostess Korobochka, mortally frightened by the fact that she cheapened dead souls. Nozdrev, a fine fellow with rosy cheeks and jet-black sideburns, a reveler, a liar, a braggart, a cheater and a brawler, always selling something, changing, buying. Sobakevich, looking like "a medium-sized bear", fisted and cunning, the fist is the owner, bargaining for pennies on every dead soul and slipping the woman "Elizaveta Sparrow" instead of a peasant to Chichikov. The miser Plyushkin, in a dressing gown resembling a woman's bonnet, with four floors dangling from the back, a landowner who robs his own peasants and lives in some kind of dusty junk warehouse; Chichikov himself, seized with a passion for profit, commits fraud and meanness for the sake of a dream of a rich life; his footman Petrushka, who carries around a special smell and reads for the sake of the pleasant process of reading, and the coachman Selifan, who philosophizes in a drunken state and bitterly reproaches his treacherous horses. All these figures, implausible, almost caricatured, are full of their own, terrible life.
Gogol's fantasy, which creates living people, takes little account of reality. He has a special "fantastic realism", this is not plausibility, but the complete persuasiveness and independence of artistic fiction. It would be absurd to judge Nikolaev Russia by Dead Souls. Gogol's world is governed by its own laws, and his masks seem more alive than real people.
When the author of "Dead Souls" read the first chapters of the poem to Pushkin, he first laughed, then "began to gradually become more and more gloomy, and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over, he said in a voice of anguish: “God, how sad is our Russia.” “It amazed me,” adds Gogol. “Pushkin, who knew Russia so well, did not notice that all this was a caricature and my own invention.”
The first volume of "Dead Souls" ends with Chichikov's hasty departure from the provincial town, thanks to Nozdryov and Korobochka, rumors spread there about his purchase of dead souls. The city is engulfed in a whirlwind of gossip. Chichikov is considered a robber, spy, captain Kopeikin and even Napoleon.
In the surviving chapters of the second volume, Chichikov's wanderings continue; new “types” appear: the fat glutton Pyotr Petrovich Petukh, the gallant warrior General Betrishchev, the lazy and dreamy “bobak” and “sky smoker” Tentetnikov. The author's humor noticeably weakens, his creative powers decrease. The artist is often overshadowed by a moralist-preacher. Dissatisfied with his work, Gogol burned the second volume before his death.
The verbal fabric of "Dead Souls" is extraordinarily complex. Gogol mocks the romantic "beauties of the style" and strives for accuracy and detailed recording of real facts. He counts all the buttons on the dress of his heroes, all the pimples on their faces. He will miss nothing - not a single gesture, not a single grimace, not a single wink or cough. In this deliberate solemnity of the depiction of trifles, in this pathos of exaltation of insignificance, there is his merciless irony. Gogol destroys his heroes with laughter: Chichikov puts on his tailcoat of "lingonberry color with a spark" - and the stigma of vulgarity is forever placed on his image. Irony and "natural painting" turn people into mannequins, forever repeating all the same mechanical gestures; life Is mortified and divided into countless senseless trifles. Truly a terrible realm of "dead souls"!
And suddenly, unexpectedly, a fresh wind flies into this musty and stuffy world. The mocking prose writer gives way to the enthusiastic poet; interrupted pedantically - a detailed description of vulgar faces and wretched things and spills a stream of inspirational lyrics. The author tenderly recalls his youth, speaks excitedly about the great appointment of the writer, and with frenzied love stretches out his hands to his homeland. Against the backdrop of cold mockery and evil satire, these lyrical ups and downs amaze with their fiery poetry.
Chichikov, in his britzka, left the city of NN, sadly and dejectedly stretched along the sides of the road “versts, stationmasters, wells, wagon trains, gray villages with samovars, small towns, pockmarked barriers, bridges being repaired, boundless fields ...”. This enumeration is reminiscent not so much of a description of the landscape as of an inventory of some miserable junk ... and suddenly Gogol turns to Russia:
"Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you! .. Openly - deserted and even 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 heard and heard incessantly in your ears, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries 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? . 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 it not possible for a hero to be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk around? 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!.."
