Each of the heroes of the poem - Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Chichikov - in itself does not represent anything of value. But Gogol managed to give them a generalized character and at the same time create a general picture of contemporary Russia. The title of the poem is symbolic and ambiguous. Dead Souls- these are not only those who ended their earthly existence, not only the peasants who were bought by Chichikov, but also the landowners and provincial officials themselves, with whom the reader meets on the pages of the poem. The words "dead souls" are used in the narrative in many shades and meanings. Prosperously living Sobakevich has more dead soul than the serfs whom he sells to Chichikov and who exist only in memory and on paper, and Chichikov himself - new type a hero, an entrepreneur, who embodied the features of the emerging bourgeoisie.
The chosen plot gave Gogol "complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a multitude of the most diverse characters." The poem has a huge number of characters, all social strata of serf Russia are represented: the acquirer Chichikov, officials provincial city and capitals, representatives of the highest nobility, landowners and serfs. A significant place in the ideological and compositional structure of the work is occupied by lyrical digressions, in which the author touches on the most pressing social issues, and insert episodes, which is typical for the poem as a literary genre.
The composition of "Dead Souls" serves to reveal each of the characters, displayed in the overall picture. The author found an original and surprisingly simple compositional structure, which gave him the widest opportunities for depicting life phenomena, and for connecting the narrative and lyrical beginnings, and for poetizing Russia.
The ratio of parts in "Dead Souls" is strictly thought out and subject to creative design. The first chapter of the poem can be defined as a kind of introduction. The action has not yet begun, and the author only outlines his characters in general terms. In the first chapter, the author introduces us to the peculiarities of the life of the provincial city, with city officials, landowners Manilov, Nozdrev and Sobakevich, as well as with the central character of the work - Chichikov, who begins to make profitable acquaintances and prepares for active actions, and his faithful companions - Petrushka and Selifan. In the same chapter, two peasants are described talking about the wheel of Chichikov's chaise, a young man dressed in a suit "with attempts on fashion", a fidgety tavern servant and other "petty people". And although the action has not yet begun, the reader begins to guess that Chichikov came to the provincial town with some secret intentions, which are revealed later.
The meaning of Chichikov's enterprise was as follows. Once every 10-15 years, the treasury conducted a census of the serf population. Between the censuses (“revision tales”), the landlords had a fixed number of serf (revision) souls (only men were indicated in the census). Naturally, the peasants died, but according to the documents, officially, they were considered alive until the next census. For serfs, the landowners paid tax annually, including for the dead. “Listen, mother,” Chichikov explains to Korobochka, “yes, you only judge well: after all, you are ruined. Pay for him (the deceased) as if he were alive.” Chichikov acquires dead peasants in order to pawn them, as if alive, in the Board of Trustees and receive a decent amount of money.
A few days after arriving in the provincial town, Chichikov goes on a journey: he visits the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin and acquires “dead souls” from them. Showing the criminal combinations of Chichikov, the author creates unforgettable images of the landowners: the empty dreamer Manilov, the stingy Korobochka, the incorrigible liar Nozdrev, the greedy Sobakevich and the degraded Plyushkin. The action takes an unexpected turn when, on his way to Sobakevich, Chichikov ends up at Korobochka.
The sequence of events makes a lot of sense and is dictated by the development of the plot: the writer sought to reveal in his heroes an ever greater loss. human qualities the death of their souls. As Gogol himself said: "My heroes follow one after the other, one more vulgar than the other." So, in Manilov, beginning a series of landowner characters, the human principle has not yet completely died, as evidenced by his “outbursts” for spiritual life, but his aspirations are gradually dying down. The thrifty Korobochka no longer has even a hint of a spiritual life, everything is subordinated to her desire to sell the products of her natural economy at a profit. Nozdrev completely lacks any moral and moral principles. There is very little human left in Sobakevich, and everything animal and cruel is clearly manifested. Plyushkin completes a series of expressive images of landlords - a person on the verge of mental decay. The images of landlords created by Gogol are typical people for their time and environment. They could have become decent individuals, but the fact that they are the owners of serf souls has deprived them of their humanity. For them, serfs are not people, but things.
The image of landlord Rus' replaces the image of the provincial city. The author introduces us to the world of officials dealing with affairs government controlled. City chapters expand the picture noble Russia and the impression of her deadness deepens. Depicting the world of officials, Gogol first shows their funny sides, and then makes the reader think about the laws that reign in this world. All officials passing before the reader's mind turn out to be people without the slightest idea of honor and duty, they are bound by mutual patronage and mutual responsibility. Their life, like the life of the landowners, is meaningless.
The return of Chichikov to the city and the design of the bill of sale fortress is the culmination of the plot. Officials congratulate him on the acquisition of serfs. But Nozdryov and Korobochka reveal the tricks of the "most respectable Pavel Ivanovich", and general merriment gives way to confusion. The denouement is coming: Chichikov hurriedly leaves the city. The picture of Chichikov's exposure is drawn with humor, acquiring a pronounced revealing character. The author, with unconcealed irony, tells about the gossip and rumors that arose in the provincial town in connection with the exposure of the “millionaire”. Overwhelmed by anxiety and panic, officials unwittingly discover their dark illegal deeds.
A special place in the novel is occupied by The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. It is plot-related to the poem and has great importance to reveal the ideological and artistic meaning of the work. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” gave Gogol the opportunity to take the reader to Petersburg, create an image of the city, introduce the theme of 1812 into the narrative and tell the story of the fate of the war hero, Captain Kopeikin, while exposing the bureaucratic arbitrariness and arbitrariness of the authorities, the injustice of the existing system. In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, the author raises the question that luxury turns a person away from morality.
The place of the "Tale ..." is determined by the development of the plot. When ridiculous rumors about Chichikov began to spread around the city, officials, alarmed by the appointment of a new governor and the possibility of their exposure, gathered together to clarify the situation and protect themselves from the inevitable "scolds". The story about Captain Kopeikin is not accidentally conducted on behalf of the postmaster. As head of the postal department, he may have read newspapers and magazines, and could learn a lot about metropolitan life. He liked to "show off" in front of the audience, to throw dust in the eyes of his education. The postmaster tells the story of Captain Kopeikin at the moment of the greatest commotion that engulfed the provincial town. "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" is another confirmation that the feudal system is in decline, and new forces, albeit spontaneously, are already preparing to embark on the path of combating social evil and injustice. The story of Kopeikin, as it were, completes the picture of statehood and shows that arbitrariness reigns not only among officials, but also in the upper strata, up to the minister and the tsar.
In the eleventh chapter, which completes the work, the author shows how Chichikov's enterprise ended, talks about his origin, tells how his character was formed, views on life were developed. Penetrating into the spiritual recesses of his hero, Gogol presents to the reader everything that “eludes and hides from the light”, reveals “innermost thoughts that a person does not entrust to anyone”, and before us is a scoundrel who is rarely visited human feelings.
On the first pages of the poem, the author himself describes him somehow vaguely: "...not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin." Provincial officials and landlords, whose characters are revealed in the following chapters of the poem, characterize Chichikov as "well-intentioned", "efficient", "scientist", "the most amiable and courteous person." Based on this, one gets the impression that we are faced with the personification of the "ideal of a decent person."
The whole plot of the poem is built as an exposure of Chichikov, since the scam with the sale and purchase of "dead souls" is at the center of the story. In the system of images of the poem, Chichikov stands somewhat apart. He plays the role of a landowner, traveling according to his needs, and by origin he is, but he has very little connection with the lord's local life. Each time he appears before us in a new guise and always achieves his goal. In the world of such people, friendship and love are not valued. They are characterized by extraordinary perseverance, will, energy, perseverance, practical calculation and tireless activity, they hide a vile and terrible power.
Understanding the danger posed by people like Chichikov, Gogol openly ridicules his hero, reveals his insignificance. Gogol's satire becomes a kind of weapon with which the writer exposes Chichikov's "dead soul"; says that such people, despite their tenacious mind and adaptability, are doomed to death. And Gogol's laughter, which helps him expose the world of self-interest, evil and deceit, was suggested to him by the people. It was in the soul of the people that hatred for the oppressors, for the "masters of life" grew and strengthened over the course of many years. And only laughter helped him to survive in a monstrous world, not to lose optimism and love of life.
Essay plan
1. Introduction. Author's intention.
2. The main part. The plot-compositional structure of the poem.
— Two-part composition. Exposition, plot and development of the action in the first part of the poem.
— Chapters describing the landowners and their location.
- "Sideways" and their role in the plot.
— The second part of the poem. Action development, climax, denouement.
- Compositional inserts and lyrical digressions.
— Artistic time and artistic space in the poem.
3. Conclusion. Artistic originality of Gogol's plot.
The plot of the poem by N.V. Gogol was presented to A.S. Pushkin. And the writer found it suitable for his work. “After The Inspector General, I felt, more than ever before, the need for a complete essay, where there would be more than one thing that should be laughed at. I found that the plot of Dead Souls is good for me because it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a lot of the most diverse characters, ”wrote N. V. Gogol. And he brilliantly realized his plan.
Let's try to consider the plot-compositional structure of the poem. First of all, we note that the work is divided into two parts. The first part includes the exposition (description of the provincial town), the plot (Chichkov's arrival), the development of the action (the hero's visit to officials and landlords).
All chapters (2–6) describing Chichikov's visits to the landowners are built according to the same compositional scheme. They include a landscape, a description of the village, an interior, a detailed portrait of the hero, and a dialogue with Chichikov. The order in which the images of the landowners appear in the poem also has a special meaning. Researchers believe that here Gogol implements the principle of "decreasing guilt" of the character. The first to appear in this gallery is Manilov, whose figure is the most lifeless, reminding readers of a frozen statue. Korobochka, Nozdrev and Sobakevich - each of them, in a certain sense, is already "close to life." Plyushkin is the last to appear on the scene. This is the only character, except for Chichikov, whose backstory is revealed to us by the author. But why does Gogol single out this hero? The fact is that "Dead Souls" was conceived by the writer as a great epic, a poem similar to " Divine Comedy» Dante. The first volume was supposed (according to the author) to correspond to "Hell", the second - to "Purgatory", the third - to "Paradise". Gogol planned to tell about the gradual ascent of heroes from lower forms of life to higher ones. Chichikov was considered by him as a hero capable of finding the truth. And along with him, the author planned to make the hero of the third volume and Plyushkin as a character capable of moral revival. That is why Gogol reveals to readers the life story of this hero.
The researchers noted that the first part of the poem is less dynamic. At first glance, all the movement here is Chichikov's trips, his visits to officials and landowners. However, in this part, the “internal movement” is very noticeable, gradually preparing the denouement of the poem. And in this regard, the order in which the hero visits the landlords has another meaning - an increase in the threat to Chichikov's enterprise. The so-called "side passages" in the plot of the poem are connected with this. As A. Bely notes, “the three horses racing Chichikov across Russia are Chichikov's entrepreneurial abilities; one of them - no luck where you need it, why the move of the troika - a side move that raises nonsense ("everything went like a crooked wheel")<…>Chichikov rides sideways: the details of the lateral triple run are an extra detail of the emblem of the crooked path: “You will pass ... so you go to the right”, “I couldn’t remember if I passed two or three turns”; “turned… onto a cross road… thinking little… where the road would lead…”; "turned off the road and dragged along the chosen field ...". Connect the side entrances of the troika with the side passage of Chichikov and road failures (he got in the wrong place), and you will be surprised at the integrity of the reception: he went to Zamanilovka, ended up in Manilovka; went to Sobakevich, got to Korobochka, from Korobochka - again he didn’t get to Sobakevich, but to the tavern and to Nozdryov; from Nozdrev, he got into a fight with the crew of the governor's daughter, because of which a scandal arose later ... ". And the threats to Chichikov really increase as the action develops. So, Manilov simply does not understand the essence of Pavel Ivanovich's proposal, but even he asks: “Will this negotiation be inconsistent with civil decrees and further types of Russia?” Near Korobochka's house, Chichikov falls into the mud. This scene is deeply symbolic. As A. Bely notes, “thunder, swimming in the mud, hitting the fence, a puddle and the light illuminating it - all for a reason; in Korobochka's house and the second bottom of the cherished chest is discovered. Here the hero not only meets a certain resistance in the form of misunderstanding - he himself gives the landowner a paper - "to sue". Trouble awaits Chichikov in Nozdrev's house as well. Pavel Ivanovich not only fails to make a deal, but he is almost beaten. Finally, Sobakevich immediately understood the essence of his proposal and even threatened Chichikov in a certain sense: “Do you need dead souls? .. You know ... this kind of purchase ... is not always permissible, and tell me, or anyone else, - such a person will not have any power of attorney." The last landowner, Plyushkin, does not at all want to accept Chichikov. Then they still manage to agree: Chichikov has to part with the money.
In the second part of "Dead Souls" the action develops rapidly and energetically, many events take place. The second part of the poem includes the development of the action (the signing of the bill of sale, the ball, Chichikov’s infatuation with the governor’s daughter), the extended climax (Nozdrev’s scandalous trick at the ball, his arrival in the city of Korobochki, the spread of rumors about Chichikov). In the second part, Gogol gives us the background of the hero (a belated exposition of the image). Sometimes researchers consider this belated exposition to be Gogol's parody of romantic subjects. The second part of the poem in a certain sense repeats the scheme of the first. Through the narratives of Korobochka, Manilov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Nozdrev, all Chichikov's visits to them are repeated again. The visit of officials is also repeated, but with a much less successful outcome. And this repetition frames the central action of the poem. This is how urban scenes begin and end. However, the compositional ring creates itself main character poems. Gogol's Chichikov arrives in the city of N from nowhere and leaves for nowhere, for infinity. The circle is thus closed.
The poem contains compositional inserts. This is "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin", a parable about Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich, a letter from a stranger addressed to Chichikov. Also, the narrative is full of lyrical digressions, the author's thoughts about Russia, about the Russian people, about life, about the types of writers, about the diversity of human characters, about the Russian language.
We also note the special principle of combining artistic time and artistic space in the poem. "Dead Souls" reminds us painting, the main background of which is the atmosphere of a provincial city, where everything is static, dead. In the background are the estates of the landowners. Life here also seems to freeze. In the foreground, the figure of Chichikov looms. And he already introduces a certain dynamism and energy into the narrative, defining external events and provoking internal movement in the poem.
Thus, in the plot of Gogol, the factor of surprise and obscurity plays an important role. Almost until the end of the first volume, the outcome of the intrigue is not clear to readers. The motives of the hero's scam are not entirely clear. However, in the last chapter, the author seems to bring us closer to unraveling both the intentions and the character of Chichikov. The history of the case, therefore, turns into a history of character. This is the originality of Gogol's plot.
^ The role of inserted stories in the poem "Dead Souls". When residents of the provincial city of NN begin to argue about who the "Kherson landowner" Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is and assume that he is a noble robber or Napoleon Bonaparte, who escaped from St. Helena, the postmaster expresses the opinion that Chichikov " none other than Captain Kopeikin". The postmaster calls the story of this captain a poem in some way, hence we have a "micropoem" in the "macropoem" Dead Souls.
It is known that censorship in 1842 forbade Gogol to print " ^ The Tale of Captain Kopeikin ". Thus, on April 1, the censor Nikitenko informed Gogol: Kopeikin's episode turned out to be absolutely impossible to miss - no one's power could protect him from death ...". Gogol, shocked by this message, on April 9 reports N.Ya. Prokopovich: " They threw away a whole episode of Kopeikin from me, which is very necessary for me, even more than they think»; On April 10, he writes to Pletnev: “ The destruction of Kopeikin greatly embarrassed me! This is one of the best places in the poem, and without it, a hole that I can’t patch or sew up with anything.". These statements of the author make it possible to understand what place the writer assigned to "The Tale ...", considering it not an accidental inserted short story that has no connection with the general plot, but an organic part of the poem "Dead Souls".
The central character of the Tale has real, folklore and literary prototypes. The real ones include, firstly, Colonel of the Life Guards Fyodor Orlov, who was injured in the war of 1812 (lost his leg in the battle of Bautzen), and after the hostilities became a robber. The second prototype of Kopeikin is considered the soldier Kopeknikov, who turned to Arakcheev for help, but received nothing from him. Folklore prototype - robber Kopeikin, hero folk songs. These songs in the records of P.V. Kireevsky were well known to N.V. Gogol. (One of them says that the leader of a gang of robbers, the thief Kopeikin, sees prophetic dream: « Get up, brothers are amicable, I had a bad dream. It's like I'm walking on the edge of the sea right foot stumbled, grabbed a brittle tree, a fragile tree, a buckthorn"- remember that Captain Kopeikin lost his leg and arm). The literary prototypes of Kopeikin are Rinaldo Rinaldini (the hero of the novel German writer Vulpius), Pushkin's Dubrovsky, a legless German in N.A. Field "Abadonna".
The censorship did not let The Tale of Captain Kopeikin go to print, since this part of the Dead Souls poem had a sharp satirical focus on the St. It is significant that for the sake of preserving the "Tale ..." Gogol went to weaken its accusatory sound, about which he wrote to Pletnev: " I'd rather change it than lose it altogether. I threw out all the generals, the character of Kopeikin meant more ...».
"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" existed in three editions. The second one, which is now printed in all modern editions, is considered canonical. In 1842, censorship did not let it pass, just as it did not let the version given in the first edition. In the first edition of "The Tale ..." it was said that Kopeikin became the leader of a gang of robbers, the head of a huge detachment (" in a word, my sir, he just has an army ..."). Kopeikin, fearing persecution, goes abroad and writes a letter to the sovereign, where he explains the reasons for his revolutionary actions. The tsar stopped the persecution of Kopeikin's accomplices, formed a "disabled capital". But such a denouement was more politically ambiguous than credible.
Kopeikin's special place among the robbers – popular avengers of the literature of those years was that his revenge was purposefully directed at the bureaucratic state. It is characteristic that Gogol, who is seeking justice, confronts Kopeikin not with petty bureaucratic people, but with the largest representatives of the St. .
At first glance, it may seem that the rapprochement between Chichikov and Captain Kopeikin is absurd, ridiculous. Indeed, if the captain is a cripple, an invalid who lost his leg and arm in battle, then Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov looks completely healthy and very cheerful. However, a hidden connection between these heroes still exists. The very surname of the captain (originally the surname was Pyatkin) is associated with the slogan of Chichikov's life: "Save a penny!" A penny is a sign of gradual, slow accumulation based on patience and diligence. Both Chichikov and Captain Kopeikin do not strive to achieve the goal instantly, they are ready for a long wait, a gradual approach to the desired goal. The goal of the heroes is to receive money from the state. However, Kopeikin wants to receive a legal pension, the money that belongs to him by right. Chichikov, on the other hand, dreams of deceiving the state, with the help of a scam, a cunning trick to lure money from the Board of Trustees. The word "penny" is also associated with reckless prowess, courage (the expression "life is a penny" was in the draft version of the first volume of the poem "Dead Souls"). Captain Kopeikin showed himself in the war with the Napoleonic army as a brave and courageous man. The peculiar courage of Chichikov is his scam, the conceived "business" - buying up dead souls.
However, if the “scoundrel” and acquirer Chichikov is accepted by the high society, in the provincial city of NN they treat him with great respect, even Sobakevich speaks flattering words about him, then the honest and decent captain Kopeikin is not accepted by society: an important general, having learned that Kopeikin " expensive to live in the capital", sends him " to a treasury account". The “little man”, feeling that his life is worth a penny (penny!) The price, decides to rebel: “ When the general says that I should look for means to help myself, - well, he says, I, he says, will find means!". After two months " a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests”, whose chieftain was captain Kopeikin. (Riot Theme " little man”, from which the state turned away, already appears in Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman” in 1833 and sounds especially sharp in Gogol’s story “The Overcoat” and in the tenth chapter of “Dead Souls”).
If the ladies of the city of NN (the lady is simply pleasant and the lady is pleasant in all respects) compare Chichikov with the robber Rinaldo Rinaldini (“ is armed from head to toe, like Rinaldo Rinaldini”), then Kopeikin becomes in reality noble robber.
The theme of the Patriotic War clearly emerges in the story about Kopeikin. This theme not only emphasizes the selfishness and greed of landlords and officials, but also reminds of those high duties that did not exist at all for "significant persons". Precisely because the image of Kopeikin is the image of the defender of the fatherland, he carries a positive, “living” principle, which puts him much higher than any “existents” and acquirers.
The theme of the Patriotic War, closely related to The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, appears in the poem in a different form. Trying to figure out who Chichikov is, provincial officials remember Napoleon. “... they thought about it and, considering this matter, each to himself, found that Chichikov’s face, if he turns and becomes sideways, is very handy for a portrait of Napoleon. The chief of police, who served in the campaign for 12 years and personally saw Napoleon, also could not help confessing that he would in no way be taller than Chichikov and that Napoleon, too, could not be said to be too fat and not so thin ...". In itself, the rapprochement between Chichikov and Napoleon is ironic, but the image of Napoleon appears in the poem not only as an element of comparison, but also has independent meaning. « We all look at Napoleons”, - Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin, emphasizing the desire of his contemporaries, as if fascinated by the unusual fate of the French emperor, to be or seem like this “little great man”.
In the tenth chapter, which includes the story of Kopeikin, Gogol characterizes the violent reaction of various sections of society to rumors about the possibility of a new appearance of Napoleon on the political arena.
[Many have compared Napoleon to the Antichrist. Such a comparison arose due to the announcement of the Holy Synod, which, according to the nominal decree of December 6, 1806, the clergy were obliged to read in churches every Sunday and holiday after the end of the liturgy. In this announcement, Napoleon was called a violent enemy of peace and blessed silence. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, the image of Napoleon was being mythologised. Even the death of Bonaparte did not interrupt the emergence of gossip and rumors about the French emperor. Yes, in France for a long time there was a legend about the flight of Napoleon from Fr. St. Helena. According to him, the exiled emperor was released from custody with the help of a secret organization, and his place was taken by Corporal Francois Ribot, who looked like Bonaparte, who died on about. St. Helena May 5, 1821 In 1840, the tomb of Napoleon was opened, with the help of which it was found that the body of the emperor was not subject to decay, although twenty years had passed since the death of Bonaparte. Some believed that it testifies to the holiness of the emperor, his ability to resurrect, others to his connection with the devilish power, others gave a natural scientific explanation: “In the absence of all the needs of real embalming on the island of St. Helena, the preservation of Napoleon’s body should be attributed to nothing other than dampness grave crypt and dense soldering of coffins that did not let air into them. ] The image of Napoleon in the tenth chapter of "Dead Souls" appears as a reminder of the trials that Russia had to endure (" it must be remembered that all this took place shortly after the glorious expulsion of the French»).
In general, The Tale of Captain Kopeikin sounds like a reproach to the state, which tolerates acquirers like Pavel Chichikov and does not want to help true heroes thanks to which Russia retained its freedom and independence.
In the last chapter of the first volume of "Dead Souls" is included parable about Kif Mokievich and his son Mokii Kifovich, two "inhabitants" of one separate corner of Russia. In this small laconic parable, the author summarizes the content of the first volume and reduces the diversity of the heroes of the poem to two characters. the author summarizes the contents of the first volume and reduces the diversity of the heroes of the poem to two characters. Kifa Mokievich is shown in the poem as a pseudo-philosopher, seriously thinking about why is the beast born naked, why not like a bird, why doesn't it hatch from an egg?» This “philosophical” question brings to mind the well-known expression about the “lost egg”. Kifa Mokievich is engaged in solving an issue that is not worth a damned egg, and his son, the pseudo-bogatyr Mokiy Kifovich, destroys everything in his path, frightening everyone with his excessive strength " from a yard girl to a yard dog". The image of Mokiy Kifovich goes back to folklore tradition. In one of the draft versions of the parable, where the character is named Ivan Mokievich, Gogol directly indicates the folk poetic source of the image: “ Mokievich's clerk - Lazarevich ...", referring to "The Tale of Yeruslan Lazarevich": " And when Eruslan is ten years old, he will go out into the street: and whoever he takes by the hand, he will tear out his hand, and whoever he takes by the leg, he will break his leg"). Endowed with extraordinary physical strength, Mokiy Kifovich wastes his gift in vain, causing only anxiety to himself and others. The bad thing is not that Kifa Mokievich is a thinker, but his son is a hero, but how exactly they use the properties and qualities given to them by nature.
Growing into a symbol of generalizing meaning, the heroes of Gogol's parable concentrate in themselves the most important, generic features and properties of other characters in the poem. The landowner Manilov is also an empty dreamer, thinking about an underground passage and a bridge across a pond with shops for peasants. Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is also shown as a dreamer, who spends an outstanding practical mind, will in overcoming obstacles, knowledge of people, perseverance in achieving a goal on a "business" that is not worth a damn.
Clumsy Sobakevich, like Mokiy Kifovich, who does not know how to lightly take on anything, already " the first time Chichikov stepped on his foot. About the boot of this " marvelously formed landowner"It is said that he was" of such a gigantic size, to which it is hardly possible to find a corresponding leg anywhere, especially at the present time, when heroes are beginning to appear in Rus'". The prowess and energy of Nozdryov, like Mokiy Kifovich, is wasted, creating only trouble for others.
The grotesquely expressive images of Kifa Mokievich and Mokiy Kifovich help to consider the heroes of the poem from all sides, to understand that they all do not have initially ugly qualities, but their good qualities (cordiality and hospitality, practicality and thrift, valiant prowess and energy) are brought to excess, shown in a perverted, hypertrophied form. In the parable, as well as in the biography of Chichikov (Chapter 11), the question is raised about the incorrectly unfolded possibilities inherent in man, about the reasons for the spiritual "grinding" of society.
The parable notes that if people complained to Kifa Mokievich about his son, the “philosopher” answered: “ ^ Yes, playful, playful, but what to do: it’s too late to fight him, and everyone will accuse me of cruelty ... ". Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, like Kifa Mokievich, strives in any situation to appear outwardly decent. In this episode of the parable, one can see Gogol's attempt to show that Russian false patriots, homegrown philosophers do not want to appease their raging sons, who are tormenting the people, because they are afraid to wash dirty linen in public. The parable eventually turns into a lesson, laughter turns into didactics.
So, the parable about Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich reminds of the aesthetic fundamental principles of human existence and is associated with moral issues throughout the poem, with motifs of the mortification and resurrection of man. The plot function of the parable about the "philosopher" and his son is to stop the event time, reminding readers of the existence of eternal moral values, giving them before the end of the story a clear moral guide. Just as a chance meeting with a “blonde” awakened an unexpected feeling in Chichikov, a meeting with the heroes of the parable who looked out at the end of the poem “ unexpectedly, as if from a window”(Gogol’s love for architectural comparisons manifested itself here too) should encourage the reader, on the one hand, to self-deepening, on the other hand, to deepening into the essence of the depicted characters and circumstances.
^
The image of the city in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls".
Gogol is called a city writer. The city has always been in the center of the author's attention and has repeatedly become his metaphor for the world. Almost every time this was accompanied by some kind of sacred plot, which made it possible to develop the image of the city as a mythologeme. (A mythologeme is a stable and repetitive image of a collective folk fantasy, generally reflecting reality in the form of sensually concrete personifications, animated beings that were thought of by the archaic consciousness as quite real). Seven cities form this mythology. Six of them are real existing cities: these are Petersburg and Moscow, Rome in opposition to Paris, Mirgorod and Jerusalem. But only the type of provincial city that is displayed in The Inspector General and Dead Souls gives grounds to say that Gogol really had a kind of myth of the city. The city for Gogol was not just a social environment against which the action of his works takes place, and not only a source of verbal and figurative material, but also an aesthetic, historiosophical and religious problem.
In many of Gogol's works, the image of either a capital city ("The Nose", "The Overcoat", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Notes of a Madman") or a provincial ("Mirgorod", "Inspector") city arises. In the poem "Dead Souls" both metropolitan and provincial topos are given.
Working on his poem, N.V. Gogol left the following entry in the drafts: The idea of a city that arose to the highest degree. Emptiness. Empty talk. Gossip that has crossed the limits, how it all arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous in the highest degree". The whole city, with all its whirlwind of gossip, is the embodiment of the aimlessness of existence. The author wanted to show the world of idlers and bribe-takers, liars and hypocrites. Idleness is not just the absence of any activity, passivity, but the absence of activity that has a spiritual content.
original name provincial city - Tfuslavl. However, the author decided to remove such a name in order to avoid inappropriate associations (for example, with Yaroslavl). He did not want to show any particular city. The features of many provincial cities of Russia are reflected in the image of the city of NN.
The city has a special chronotope (spatio-temporal continuum) of a "provincial town". Time in it moves very slowly, before the arrival of Chichikov, no events take place in the city.
Gogol's city is consistently hierarchical, in connection with this, one can feel the obsequious attitude of lower officials in relation to higher, richer and more influential ones. The structure of power in the provincial city has the form of a clear pyramid: "citizenship", "merchants", above - officials, landowners, at the head of everything is the governor. The female half, also divided by ranks, is not forgotten either: the governor's family (his wife and beautiful daughter) are the highest, then the wives and daughters of officials, secular ladies of the city of NN. Outside the city - only Chichikov and his servants. The author pays special attention to that layer of people who have power in their hands and are directly involved in management. It is to the city dignitaries (governor, vice-governor, prosecutor, chairman of the chamber, police chief, farmer, head of state-owned factories, inspector of the medical board, city architect) that Chichikov goes on visits, barely appearing in the city.
Both the city of NN and its inhabitants are depicted by the author with a great deal of irony. The reader seems to fall into the world of absurdity, sheer absurdity. So, houses in the city of NN were beautiful only " according to provincial architects”, the streets seemed somewhere excessively wide, and somewhere unbearably narrow. The city impresses with its ridiculous signs. On one of them, for example, it is written: And here is the establishment", and on the other -" Foreigner Vasily Fedorov". The city lives on lies. For example, city newspapers lie. They talk about a magnificent garden with " broad-branched trees”, under which you can hide on a hot day, but in reality the vaunted garden consists of “ from thin trees, badly taken, with props below". Where previously there was a painted double-headed eagle, embodying the strength and power of the state, now the inscription “flaunts”: “ drinking house". On the shop that sold caps and caps, there was an image of billiard players drawn with " arms turned back and slanting legs". The very world of the provincial city seems to be “turned inside out”, crooked and oblique.
The city impresses with its facelessness, deadness, neglect. In the hotel of the city, where ridiculous pictures hang, and " for two rubles a day, travelers get a quiet room with cockroaches peeking out like prunes from all corners, and a door to the next room, always lined with a chest of drawers, where a neighbor, silent and calm person interested in knowing all the details of the passing". It seems that in this world there are no clean floors, new things, fresh products. In the hotel, the visitor is served " eternal puff pastry, always ready to serve". The hotel servant is ready to respect a person just because he blows his nose loudly.
Important dignitaries representing the city government do not bother to take care of public affairs and do not think about how to improve the well-being of the inhabitants of the city of NN. For example, the governor, instead of improving roads, embroiders on tulle. Each of the "rulers" considers his public office as a means to live freely and carelessly, without spending any labor. Idleness and idleness reign supreme in this environment. Mikhail Sobakevich gives an exact description of some residents of the city: “ Send now to the prosecutor, he is an idle man and, surely, sits at home: everything is done for him by the lawyer Zolotukha, the foremost grabber in the world. The inspector of the medical board, he is also an idle man and, it is true, at home, if he has not gone somewhere to play cards; Yes, there are many here, who are closer: Trukhachevsky, Begushkin - they all burden the earth for nothing!»
The governor's house is a city in miniature. To emphasize the insignificance and vulgarity of the people who came to the governor's house, the author compares them with flies crawling over a piece of refined sugar on a hot summer day. Among the guests there are thin gentlemen who flirt with ladies and recklessly spend their father's money, and plump ones who were considered "honorary officials" of the city. The purpose of these people is the accumulation of capital, the acquisition of houses and entire villages. Fat gentlemen enjoy universal respect, and Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov dreams of the same life path.
Mutual responsibility reigns in the city. Officials, talking to each other respectfully, (" ^ Dear friend Ilya Ilyich! etc.) only pretend to really appreciate the interlocutor, but at the first opportunity they can deceive, frame or betray him. The inhabitants of the city are extremely ignorant: " who read Karamzin, who read Moskovskie Vedomosti, whoeven and didn't read anything.". Bribery is rampant in the city. In the seventh chapter of the first volume of the poem there is a scene where the design of the bill of sale is shown. Chichikov turns to an experienced serviceman Ivan Antonovich, who " the whole middle of the face protruded forward and went into the nose; this was the face that is called the pitcher snout". He refuses Chichikov's request: " Today you can't. We need to make more inquiries, are there any more prohibitions". And only then, when Chichikov tells Ivan Antonovich that he is ready to pay everyone who should (“ I served myself, I know the matter”), he allows you to go to the chairman Ivan Grigorievich. " Chichikov, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket, placed it in front of Ivan Antonovich, which he did not notice at all and immediately covered it with a book.". It is clear that a quick registration of a bill of sale can be achieved only if bribes are given to everyone "who should."
The chief of police has special power in the provincial city. He is known among his official friends as a real magician and miracle worker. Any of his orders is an immutable law for the inhabitants. Bribes, gifts of wards flow to him like a river. He demanded huge sums of money from the merchants, but he did it so cleverly that they were even grateful to him, believing that “ even though he will take, but he will not betray you in any way».
The postmaster of the city of NN is not engaged in his direct duties, but in playing cards and philosophy, writing out quotations from Jung's treatise Nights. He strives to equip his speech with spectacular words, however, in his monologue, weedy phrases like “ you are my sir”, “some kind of”, “in some way”, “so to speak».
The provincial city of NN exists according to the same laws as the provincial city shown by Gogol in the comedy The Inspector General: the same bribery, the same embezzlement, the same arbitrariness and paperwork. The provincial city in "Dead Souls", as in "The Government Inspector", is essentially a quasi-urban space, cruel, "unfurnished", absurd.
However, in "Dead Souls" the provincial city is not opposed to the capital. When describing the evening in the governor's house, the author emphasizes that the outfits and behavior of "thin" men " could hardly be distinguished from Petersburg, they just as casually sat down to the ladies, spoke the same French and made the ladies laugh just like in Petersburg". Petersburg is also mentioned in the author's reflection on the Russian stomach. The author begins the fourth chapter of the poem with an ironic opposition of gentlemen big hand and gentlemen of the middle class. The gentlemen of the big hand live in the capital and before eating any delicacy (sea spider or oyster) they are forced to put a pill in their mouth, and the gentlemen of the middle hand eat less sophisticated dishes, but in myriad quantities. It is significant that both those and other gentlemen think only about how to fill their stomach.
The image of Petersburg appears in the Tale of Captain Kopeikin, included in the tenth chapter of the poem. The "Northern Capital" is depicted by Gogol as a world of luxury, untold riches brought from different countries. If Pushkin in the novel "Eugene Onegin" and the poem "The Bronze Horseman" portrayed Petersburg as a "window to Europe", then for Gogol Petersburg is a city that was influenced by both the west and the east. It is no coincidence that the postmaster, through whose eyes we see the “northern capital” in the story about Kopeikin, mentions Persia and India. It is also significant to compare the bridges of St. Petersburg with hanging gardens, which were created in Babylon by order of the Assyrian queen Semiramis. Babylon, this ancient city in Mesopostamia, has long been perceived as sinful, whose inhabitants were punished for pride and arrogance (it is no coincidence that in the Apocalypse of John the Theologian it is said: “ Woe to you, Babylon, strong city"). Petersburg is also shown as a cursed, ghostly city, a "Whore of Babylon" or a monster metropolis, a symbol of inhumane civilization. The postmaster points to the demonism of Petersburg: “ bridges hang like a goddamn thing...».
Such a city is trying to get rid of the poor and humble people. Captain Kopeikin, who arrived in St. Petersburg and was shocked by the brilliance and splendor, is so shy that he is ready to rub his hands with soap for two hours before taking up the shining handle of the door of some house, “ and then decide to grab it". In this ghostly world where even the doorman looks like a generalisimo”, no one wants to listen to the hero of the war of 1812, to help him. The ministers, important nobles and generals to whom he addresses are like soulless puppets, capable of saying only: “ Without the monarch's will, I can do nothing". Thanks to people like Captain Kopeikin, Russia remained free, and St. Petersburg retained its splendor, but no one in " northern capital no longer remembers the real heroes.
Only two cities in the world were ideal for Gogol - Jerusalem and Rome, however, he cherished the dream of Russian Rome and Russian Jerusalem, as written in the Petersburg Notes of 1836. "Barracks" Petersburg appeared to Gogol not only as cold, mercantile, faceless, but also as business-like, hard-working, "sharp-footed". Petersburg is a “fallen”, sinful city, which is in the power of devilish forces. But it is the fallen, the sinner who is destined to be transformed, to discern the true path and find the strength to follow it. It is possible that in the third volume of the poem, the city of Petersburg was destined to play in Gogol approximately the same role as Chichikov and Plyushkin in the unwritten finale of Dead Souls.
^
Women's images and their role in the poem "Dead Souls".
Gogol began his journey in literature with a fantasy titled "Woman" (1831) and ended his journey with the letter "Woman in the Light" (1846) as part of Selected passages from correspondence with friends. In Russian literature, the first thirds of XIX century, the statement of two opposing ideas about a woman was formed: the ideal, holy virgin mother, the embodiment of divine energy and beauty and the source of evil, sin, a demonic vicious woman, with whose beauty the concept of destruction, death is associated. And in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, and in “Mirgorod”, and in “Petersburg Tales”, women are shown bound by diabolical power.
In the first volume of "Dead Souls" you can see female images of two types. The first is women who embody the idea of demonic emptiness. These are "dead souls", people who are only interested in household sphere life.
These women include, firstly, the wife of Manilov Lisa, who, while studying at a boarding school, studied three subjects that make up " basis of human virtue: French necessary for the happiness of family life; pianoforte, to deliver pleasant moments to the spouse, and, finally, the actual economic part: knitting purses and other surprises". Lisa and her husband have been married for more than eight years, but over this long period their relationship has not changed in any way, as if frozen in a dead center: “ of them, each of them still brought to the other either a piece of an apple, or a candy, or a nut, and said in a touchingly tender voice, expressing perfect love: “Open your mouth, darling, I will put this piece for you”". For their birthdays, they gave each other microscopic gifts like a beaded toothpick case, and they kissed for so long that in the course of this kiss " could easily smoke a small straw cigar". These relationships seem deliberately sentimental, unnatural, inanimate.
Even more unpleasant than Manilov's wife is a collegiate secretary ^ Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka presented to readers in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around his neck ...". All of Box's thoughts centered around incessant accumulation. She was alone from those mothers, small landowners. Which are crying for crop failures, losses, and meanwhile gaining a little money in motley bags placed in drawers of chests of drawers. All the coins are taken into one bag, fifty dollars into another, and quarters into the third, although it looks like there is nothing in the chest of drawers ...". Korobochka's excessive housekeeping reveals her inner insignificance. The landowner tries to benefit from everything, from household trifles to the profitable sale of serfs, whom she, fearing to sell cheap, trades in the same way as honey or lard. The box is very conservative, unable to accept something new (" After all, I have never sold the dead"). It is no coincidence that Chichikov calls her "strong-headed" and "cudgel-headed." These definitions accurately characterize the landowner. The whole world for her is limited to a house and a garden, so she seriously believes that there are only those people that she knows about. When asked by Chichikov if she knows Manilov, Korobochka confidently answers: “ No, I have not heard, there is no such landowner».
Researchers often compare Korobochka with the folklore woman Yaga - bone leg, thus emphasizing the "demonic background" (Weisskopf) of this image. " The whole entourage of Chichikov's appearance at Korobochka remotely resembles this kind of meeting of a traveling hero with the corresponding type of old women living in a small gatehouse somewhere on the outskirts of the forest. Here is the bad weather, which forced the hero to ask her for the night in “dark, bad times”, and the hissing clock that frightened Chichikov (“as if the whole room was filled with snakes”), and a somewhat suspicious complaint (“a leg that is taller than a bone, so here it breaks). Korobochka is not just the owner of the estate, but the "mistress of the forest", "the mistress of all kinds of creatures." “It is the “hostess” in the aforementioned sense that the Box is perceived in the context of the bird kingdom, which represents its abode, already in the rooms decorated with paintings depicting birds, then transferred in innumerable quantities to the courtyard and gardens, where a scarecrow in a cap shows us a fantastic double of the hostess”(A. Tertz "In the shadow of Gogol").
The very name of the heroine - Korobochka - is internally connected with the symbolic box of Chichikov, which the hero opens in the house of the landowner. What is common in this case is the motive of accumulation, which is so characteristic of many of Gogol's works.
Nothing better than Korobochka and Sobakevich's wife ^ Feodulia Ivanovna , whose face resembles a cucumber, and whose hands smell like cucumber pickle. The name of this landowner is mentioned by Gogol already in the first chapter of the poem in the scene of Sobakevich's arrival home. Mikhail Semyonovich, lying down on the bed next to his thin wife, said to her: I, my dear, was at the governor's party, and dined at the chief of police, and got acquainted with the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov: a pleasant man! To which the wife replied: "Hm" - and pushed him with her foot". Feodulia Ivanovna, because of her thinness and stature (she keeps her head straight, “ like a palm tree”) seems to be the antipode of “ healthy and strong» I’ll fuck off Sobakevich.
It is described in detail in the poem and about secular ladies provincial city NN. These women (for example, a lady who is simply pleasant and a lady who is pleasant in all respects) are ready to talk for hours about urban rumors and modern fashion: scallops, lace, ribbons, etc. Gogol gives excellent examples of the false, empty pathos of the speech of secular ladies. One of the brightest forms of this pathos is hot, inspired conversations about the most insignificant object or phenomenon, enthusiastic discussions about trifles: “ What a fun chintz! “The stripes are narrow, narrow, which the human imagination can only imagine. In the Word, incomparably! We can definitely say that there has never been anything like it in the world!».
It was because of the empty chatter and gossip of secular ladies that Chichikov had to hastily leave the provincial city. Residents would not believe either Korobochka, who came to the city to find out how much a dead soul is going now, or the screamer Nozdryov, who burst into the governor’s house with exclamations addressed to Pavel Ivanovich: “ Ah, the Kherson landowner! What? Did you trade a lot of the dead? You don't know, Your Excellency, he sells dead souls!". The main failure of Chichikov was that he, paying too much attention to the daughter of the governor, angered the women of the city of NN.
The second type of women, revealed in the first volume of the poem, is a fatal beauty, fascinated by whom, a man forgets about his mathematically adjusted life plans and scams. The first time Chichikov suffered because of a woman was when he had the imprudence to become interested in the same " woman, fresh and strong, like a vigorous turnip”, as his companion (popovich), with whom they were engaged in the transportation of contraband goods - expensive Brabant lace. Companion wrote a denunciation on Chichikov, " officials were taken to court, confiscated, described everything that they had". The woman with whom the officials were in love went to staff captain Shamsharev.
Fatal for Chichikov is the meeting with the daughter of the governor. The collision of Chichikov's britzka and the governor's carriage allows Chichikov to make a stop in his sinful journey, to pay attention to the girl who embodies beauty and youth. dominant in portrait characteristic The governor's daughter turns out to be the motif of light. The mention of light, brilliance, fire is often present in Gogol when describing beauties (“Viy” - what a terrible, sparkling beauty”; “Overcoat” - “ the lady, like lightning, passed by ..."). Light as " supermaterial, ideal figure"(Vl. Solovyov) in Gogol becomes a kind of ideal hero; " miracle produced by light is one of his favorite effects. For Christian and Baroque mystics, the loss of true light (remember, the day Chichikov arrived at Manilov was “neither clear, nor gloomy, but somehow light gray colors", " greyish"huts of the Manilov peasants, the walls in Manilov's house, painted with" some blue paint like grayish”, “silk scarf pale colors” on Lisa Manilova, etc.) was associated with darkness, dullness, fog, smoke, promising the approach of another, hellish glow, as well as sadness, melancholy, boredom. A beautiful woman, as the very embodiment of light, is revealed to the world in order to rid it of emptiness and dullness.
It is also significant that the author compares the face of the governor's daughter with fresh egg, just laid by a hen. The egg is a symbol of nascent life, a kind of model of the structure of the globe.
The image of the governor's daughter appears as a "fleeting vision", a mirage, a beautiful ghost: " a pretty head with thin features and a thin waist disappeared, like something like a vision».
The daughter of the governor is opposed to the rest of the heroines of the poem: Everywhere, wherever in life, whether among its callous, rough-poor and unpleasantly molding low-lying ranks or among the monotonously cold and boringly tidy classes of the higher, everywhere at least once on the way a person will meet a phenomenon that is not like everything that what had he seen so far that would at least once awaken in him a feeling unlike those he was destined to feel all his life". Chichikov did not instantly feel insane love for the young beauty, but her sudden appearance made Pavel Ivanovich think and reflect on her fate. Even more strong impression the beauty of the one made on him when he met her at the governor's and learned about her financial situation.
After meeting with the governor's daughter at the ball, the shocked Chiichikov looked like a man who " he tried to remember that he had forgotten Everything seemed to be with him, but meanwhile some unknown spirit whispered in his ears that he had forgotten something". In the poem, the theme of Platonic reminiscence arises, which was already present in Lermontov's poem " From under the mysterious cold half-mask". The ability to love revealed by Chichikov psychologically points to the possibility of the hero's spiritual transformation.
COMPOSITION
The role of the episode in the poem by N.V. Gogol
"Dead Souls"
"Chichikov at Nozdryov"
History of creation :
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol worked on the poem "Dead Souls" abroad. The first volume was published in 1841. The writer planned to write a poem in three parts. His task in this work was to show Rossi from the negative side, as he himself said - “from one side”.
This poem shows a separate landowner Chichikov, Russian society, Russian people, economy (landlords' economy).
The title "Dead Souls" has a double meaning, I think. On the one hand, N.V. Gogol included in the name the souls of the dead peasants, about whom so much is said in the poem. On the other hand, these are the "Dead Souls" of the landowners. The writer showed here all the callousness, the emptiness of the soul, the emptiness of life, all the ignorance of the landowners.
The story about Captain Kopeikin shows the attitude of officials towards the common people, that the state does not respect people who gave their health, and in many cases their lives for it; that the state for which they fought in the war of 1812 does not fulfill its promises, does not care about these people.
There are many episodes in this poem. They, I think, can be divided even into groups. One group is the episodes of Chichikov's visits to the landowners. I think this group is the most important in the poem. I want to describe, perhaps even comment on, one episode from this group - this is the episode when Chichikov visits the landowner Nozdryov. The action took place in the fourth chapter.
Chichikov, after visiting Korobochka, stopped by the tavern for lunch and to give the horses a rest. He asked the hostess of the tavern about the landlords, and, as usual, Chichikov began to ask the hostess about the family, about life. When he was talking, eating at the same time, the sound of the wheels of the approaching carriage was heard. Nozdryov and his companion, son-in-law Mezhuev, got out of the britzka.
Then we went to the office. There they had a quarrel because of the unwillingness of our hero to play cards. Before the quarrel, Chichikov offered to buy "dead souls" from Nozdryov. Nozdryov began to set his own conditions, but Chichikov did not accept any of them.
Chichikov was left alone after the conversation.
The next day they began to play checkers on the condition: if our hero wins, then his souls, if he loses, then “no, and there is no trial.” The author characterizes Nozdryov as follows: “He was of medium height, a very well-built fellow, with full, pleasant cheeks, teeth as white as snow, and whiskers black as pitch. He was fresh, like blood with straw; health seemed to spurt from his face.”
Nodrev joined our hero, told about the fair, that he was blown to smithereens there. Then Chichikov, Nozdryov and son-in-law Mezhuev went to Nozdrevaya. After supper, son-in-law Mezhuev left. Chichikov and Nozdryov, as usual, began to “cheat”. Chichikov noticed this and was indignant, after which a quarrel ensued, they began to wave their hands at each other. Nozdryov called his servants Pavlusha and Porfiry and began to shout to them: “Beat him, beat him!” Chichikov turned pale, his soul "went into his heels." And if it weren’t for the police captain, who entered the room to announce to Nozdryov that he was in custody regarding the infliction of personal insult with rods in a drunken state on the landowner Maximov; to be our hero severely crippled. While the captain was announcing the notice to Nozdryov, Chichikov quickly took his hat, went downstairs, got into the britzka and ordered Selifan to drive the horses at full speed.
I think the theme of this episode was to show, to characterize a person who played an important role in the life of our hero. In my opinion,
N.V. Gogol also wanted to show with this episode all the “recklessness” of the young landowners, among whom was Nozdryov. Here the writer showed how young landowners like Nozdryov, and in principle, like all landowners, do nothing else, how they “stagger” around balls and fairs, play cards, drink “godlessly”, think only about themselves and how to salt others.
Episode Role :
This episode played a big role in the poem, Nozdryov, annoyed by Chichikov during the time when he came to him, betrayed him at the governor's ball. But Chichikov was saved by the fact that everyone knew Nozdryov as a liar, a hypocrite, a bully, so his words were perceived as “nonsense of a madman”, as a joke, as a lie, whatever, but not as the truth.
While reading this episode, my impressions changed from beginning to end. At the beginning of the episode, the actions were not very interesting for me: this is when Chichikov met Nozdryov, as they were driving to his house. Then, little by little, I began to resent Nozdryov's boorish behavior - this is when, after dinner, Chichikov offered to buy "dead souls" from him, and Nozdryov began to wonder why he needed this. All Chichikov's attempts to hang noodles on Nozdryov's ears were stopped by him. Nozdryov said that Chichikov was a big swindler and that if he were his boss, he would hang him on the first tree. While reading, I was outraged by this behavior of Nozdryov in relation to Chichikov, after all, Chichikov is his guest.
There were a lot of events in this episode, but I have impressions about these actions.
Artistic details :
First, let's see how the author describes the tavern: “A darkened, narrow, hospitable wooden canopy on carved wooden posts, similar to old church candlesticks; the tavern was something like a Russian hut, somewhat on a large scale, carved patterned cornices of fresh wood around the windows and under the roof brightly and vividly dazzled its dark walls; jugs of flowers were painted on the shutters; narrow wooden staircase, wide vestibule. The interior of the tavern: a frost-covered samovar, scraped walls, a three-corner cupboard with teapots and cups in the corner, gilded porcelain testicles in front of images hanging on blue and red ribbons, a recently drenched cat, a mirror showing four eyes instead of two, and some kind of face instead of cake; finally, fragrant herbs and carnations stuck in bunches near the images, dried up to such an extent that those who wanted to sniff them only sneezed, and nothing more.
Let's move on to the description of Nozdryov's household: in the house in the middle of the dining room there were wooden goats. There were two mares in the stable, one dappled gray, the other kaurai, a bay stallion, empty stalls; a pond, a water mill, where there was not enough fluff; forge. Nozdryov’s office: “There were no traces of books or paper in it, only sabers and two guns hung.” This suggests that Nozdryov was not interested in anything, did not take care of his household, everything was running.
The hero's inner world in this episode:
Let's pay attention to the inner world of our hero in this episode. Here Chichikov at some points did not know what to answer Nozdryov to his annoying questions. It is in such moments when Nozdryov asked him: “Why do you need them (dead souls)?”
In this episode, Chichikov, I think, felt embarrassed because of the boorish behavior of Nozdryov: he was offended by him, since the pride of our hero was affected. After Chichikov quarreled with Nozdryov after dinner because he did not play cards with him, he remained in the most unfavorable mood. The author describes his thoughts and feelings in this way: “He was internally annoyed with himself for having stopped by and wasted his time. But he scolded himself even more for having spoken to Nozdryov about the matter, acted imprudently, like a child, like a fool: for the matter was not at all of the kind to be entrusted to Nozdryov. Nozdryov - man - rubbish, Nozdryov can lie, add, dissolve the rumor and the devil knows what gossip, not good, not good. "I'm just a fool," he said to himself.
I think that in this episode Chichikov behaved tolerantly, restrained, despite the boorish behavior of Nozdryov. But this is understandable, because our hero wants to achieve his goal at any cost.
In my opinion, the author wanted to show with this episode that not everything in life is as simple as one would like. That if everything went well with Korobochka, then everything went very abnormally with Nozdryov - in life there are both white and black stripes.
I also think that this episode teaches us that we need to know a person very well, to study him carefully before trusting. After all, what happened with Chichikov: he trusted Nozdryov about the “dead souls”, and Nozdryov betrayed him, telling everyone about this case.
But I repeat, Chichikov was saved by the fact that everyone considers Nozdryov a liar, no one believed him. Such luck may not happen in life.
As conceived by N.V. Gogol, the theme of the poem was to be all of contemporary Russia. By the conflict of the first volume of Dead Souls, the writer took two types of contradictions inherent in Russian society in the first half of the 19th century: between the imaginary content and the actual insignificance of the ruling strata of society and between the spiritual forces of the people and their enslavers.
Indeed, "Dead Souls" can be called an encyclopedic study of all the pressing problems of that time: the state of the landowners' households, the moral character of the landlord and bureaucratic nobility, their relationship with the people, the fate of the people and the motherland. “... What a huge, what an original story! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it,” Gogol wrote to Zhukovsky about his poem. Naturally, such a multifaceted plot determined a peculiar composition.
First of all, the construction of the poem is distinguished by clarity and clarity: all parts are interconnected by the plot-forming hero Chichikov, who travels with the goal of getting a “million”. This is an energetic businessman looking for profitable connections, entering into numerous acquaintances, which allows the writer to depict reality in all its facets, to capture socio-economic, family-household, moral-legal and cultural-moral relations in feudal Russia.
In the first chapter, expositional, introductory, the author gives general characteristics provincial provincial city and introduces readers to the main actors poems.
The next five chapters are devoted to the depiction of landlords in their own family life, in their estates. Gogol skillfully reflected in the composition the isolation of the landowners, their isolation from public life (Korobochka had not even heard of Sobakevich and Manilov). The contents of all these five chapters are built one by one. general principle: the appearance of the estate, the state of the economy, the manor house and its interior decoration, characterization of the landowner and his relationship with Chichikov. In this way, Gogol draws a whole gallery of landlords, in their totality recreating the general picture of serf society.
The satirical orientation of the poem is manifested in the very sequence of presentation of the landowners, starting with Manilov and ending with Plyushkin, who has already "turned into a hole in humanity." Gogol showed the terrible degradation of the human soul, the spiritual and moral fall of the self-interested feudal lord.
But the most vividly realistic manner and satirical pathos of the writer manifested itself in the creation of images of Russian landowners. Gogol highlights the moral and psychological essence of the hero, his negative traits and typical signs, such as, for example, the beautiful-hearted daydreaming and complete misunderstanding of life in Manilov; impudent lies and bluntness in Nozdryov; kulaks and misanthropy in Sobakevich, etc.
The breadth of generalization of images is organically combined with their clearly marked individuality, vital tangibility, which is achieved through an exaggerated concretization of their typical features, a sharp outline of moral features and their individualization by sharpening techniques is reinforced by the outline of the appearance of the characters.
Close-up portraits of landlords are followed in the poem by a satirical depiction of the life of provincial officials, which is a socio-political
power of the nobility. It is remarkable that Gogol chooses the entire provincial city as the subject of his image, creates a collective image of a provincial bureaucrat.
In the process of depicting landowners and officials, the image of the main character of the story, Chichikov, gradually unfolds before readers. Only in the final, eleventh chapter, Gogol reveals his life in all details and finally exposes his hero as a clever bourgeois predator, a swindler, a civilized scoundrel. This approach is due to the author's desire to more fully expose Chichikov as a socio-political type, expressing a new, still maturing, but already quite viable and quite strong phenomenon - capital. That is why his character is shown in development, in collisions with many different obstacles that arise in his path. It is remarkable that all the other characters of "Dead Souls" appear before the reader psychologically already established, that is, without development and internal contradictions(An exception to some extent is Plyushkin, who is given a descriptive background). Such a static character emphasizes the stagnation of life and the whole way of life of the landowners and helps to focus on the features of their characters.
Through the whole poem Gogol in parallel storylines landowners, officials and Chichikov continuously conducts another one - related to the image of the people. With the composition of the poem, the writer all the time persistently reminds of the presence of an abyss of alienation between the common people and the ruling classes.
Throughout the poem, the affirmation of the people as a positive hero merges with the glorification of the motherland, with the author's expression of his patriotic and civil judgments. These judgments are scattered throughout the work in the form of heartfelt lyrical digressions. So, in the 5th chapter, Gogol glorifies "the lively and lively Russian mind", his extraordinary ability for verbal expressiveness. In the 6th chapter, he makes an impassioned appeal to the reader to preserve truly human feelings in himself until the end of his life. In the 7th chapter in question about the role of writers, about their various “destinies”. The 8th shows the disunity of the provincial nobility and the people. The last, 11th chapter, ends with an enthusiastic hymn to the Motherland, to its wonderful future.
As can be seen from chapter to chapter, the themes of lyrical digressions become more and more social significance, and the working people appear before the reader in a steadily increasing progression of their merits (references to the dead and runaway peasants of Sobakevich and Plyushkin).
Thus, Gogol achieves in the composition of the poem that continuously increasing tension, which, together with the increasing drama of the action, makes Dead Souls exceptionally entertaining.
In the composition of the poem, one should especially emphasize the image of the road passing through the whole work, with the help of which the writer expresses hatred for stagnation and striving forward, ardent love for native nature. This image enhances the emotionality and dynamism of the entire poem.
Gogol's amazing skill in arranging the plot was reflected in the fact that many of the most diverse introductory episodes and author's digressions, caused by the desire to recreate the reality of that time wider and deeper, are strictly subordinated to the embodiment of certain ideas of the writer. Such authorial digressions as about thick and thin, about “the passion of a Russian person to know someone who was at least one rank higher than him”, about “gentlemen of a big hand and gentlemen of an average hand”, about the wide typicality of the images of Nozdrev, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, constitute the necessary social background for the disclosure of the main ideas of the poem. In many of the author's digressions, Gogol somehow touched on the metropolitan theme, but in the utmost satirical nakedness this "dangerous" theme sounded in the poem "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" included in the composition, told by the provincial postmaster. In my own way inner meaning, in its idea, this inserted novella is an important element in the ideological and artistic sense Gogol's poem. She gave the author the opportunity to include in the poem the theme of the heroic year 1812 and thereby even more sharply set off the heartlessness and arbitrariness of the supreme power, the cowardice and insignificance of the provincial nobility. The Tale of Captain Kopeikin briefly distracts the reader from the musty world of the Plyushkins and officials of the provincial town, but this change of impressions creates a certain artistic effect and helps to more clearly understand the idea of the work, its satirical orientation.
The composition of the poem not only superbly develops the plot, which is based on Chichikov's fantastic adventure, but also allows Gogol to recreate the entire reality of Nicholas Rus' with the help of extra-plot episodes. All of the above convincingly proves that the composition of the poem is different a high degree artistic skill.
