THE IMAGE OF THE ROAD IN N.V. GOGOL'S POEM "DEAD SOULS"
Roads are difficult, but worse without roads...
The motif of the road in the poem is very multifaceted.
The image of the road is embodied in a direct, non-figurative meaning - this is a flat road along which Chichikov's spring cart gently rides ("The horses stirred and carried, like fluff, a light cart"), then bumpy country roads, or even impassable mud, in which Chichikov falls out , getting to Korobochka (“The dust lying on the road quickly kneaded into mud, and every minute it became harder for the horses to drag the britzka”). The road promises the traveler a variety of surprises: heading towards Sobakevich, Chichikov finds himself at Korobochka, and in front of the coachman Selifan "the roads spread in all directions, like caught crayfish ...".
This motive gets a completely different meaning in the famous lyrical digression of the eleventh chapter: the road with a rushing chaise turns into the path along which Rus' flies, “and, sideways, step aside and give it way to other peoples and states.”
This motif contains the unknown paths of Russian national development: “Rus, where are you going, give me an answer? Doesn’t give an answer”, representing an opposition to the paths of other peoples: “What twisted, deaf, narrow, impassable, drifting roads mankind has chosen ...”. But it cannot be said that these are the very roads on which Chichikov got lost: those roads lead to Russian people, maybe in the backwoods, maybe in a hole where there are no moral principles, but still these roads make up Russia, Russia itself - and there is a big road leading a person into a vast space, absorbing a person, eating him all. Having turned off one road, you find yourself on another, you cannot follow all the paths of Rus', just as you cannot collect the caught crayfish back into the bag. It is symbolic that from the backwoods of Korobochka Chichikov is shown the way by an illiterate girl Pelageya, who does not know where the right is, where the left is. But, having got out of Korobochka, Chichikov gets to Nozdrev - the road does not lead Chichikov to where he wants, but he cannot resist it, although he is making some plans of his own for the future path.
The way of life of the hero is embodied in the image of the road (“but for all that, his road was difficult ...”), and the creative path of the author: “And for a long time it was determined by my wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes ...”
The road is also an assistant to Gogol in creating the composition of the poem, which then looks very rational: the exposition of the plot of the journey is given in the first chapter (Chichikov meets officials and some landowners, receives invitations from them), then five chapters follow, in which the landowners sit, and Chichikov travels from chapter to chapter in his britzka, buying up dead souls.
The main character's chaise is very important. Chichikov is the hero of the journey, and the chaise is his home. This substantive detail, being, undoubtedly, one of the means of creating the image of Chichikov, plays a large plot role: there are many episodes and plot twists in the poem that are motivated just by the britzka. Not only does Chichikov travel in it, that is, thanks to her, the plot of the journey becomes possible; the britzka also motivates the appearance of the characters of Selifan and three horses; thanks to her, she manages to escape from Nozdrev (that is, the chaise rescues Chichikov); The chaise collides with the carriage of the governor's daughter and thus a lyrical motif is introduced, and at the end of the poem Chichikov even appears as the kidnapper of the governor's daughter. The britchka is a living character: she is endowed with her own will and sometimes disobeys Chichikov and Selifan, goes her own way and finally dumps the rider into impassable mud - so the hero, against his will, gets to Korobochka, who greets him with affectionate words: “Oh, father my, but you, like a boar, have mud all over your back and side! Where so deigned to be salted? » In addition, the chaise, as it were, determines the ring composition of the first volume: the poem opens with a conversation between two men about how strong the wheel of the chaise is, and ends with the breakdown of that very wheel, which is why Chichikov has to stay in the city.
In creating the image of the road, not only the road itself plays a role, but also characters, things and events. The road is the main "outline" of the poem. Only all side plots are already sewn on top of it. As long as the road goes, life goes; while life goes on, there is a story about this life.
The theme of Russia and its future has always worried writers and poets. Many of them tried to predict the fate of Russia and explain the situation in the country. So N.V. Gogol reflected in his works the most important features of the era contemporary to the writer - the era of the crisis of serfdom.
N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is a work not only about the present and future of Russia, contemporary to the writer, but about the fate of Russia in general, about its place in the world. The author tries to analyze the life of our country in the thirties of the nineteenth century and concludes that the people who are responsible for the fate of Russia are dead souls. This is one of the meanings that the author put into the title of the poem.
Initially, the author's idea was to "show at least one side of all Rus'", but later the idea changed and Gogol wrote: "All Rus' will be reflected in it (in the work)." An important role in understanding the concept of the poem is played by the image of the road, which is associated, first of all, with the composition of Dead Souls. The poem begins with the image of the road: the main character Chichikov arrives in the city of NN - and ends with him: Pavel Ivanovich is forced to leave the provincial town. While in the city, Chichikov makes two circles: first he goes around the officials to testify to them his respect, and then the landowners, in order to directly carry out the scam that he conceived - to buy up dead souls. Thus, the road helps Gogol to show the whole panorama of Rus', both bureaucratic, and landlord, and peasant, and draw the attention of readers to the state of affairs in the country.
Gogol creates the image of a provincial town, displaying in the text of the work a whole string of officials. Chichikov considers it his duty to visit all the "powerful ones". Thus, he makes a small circle around the city, the author once again emphasizes the importance of the image of the road for understanding the meaning of the work. The writer wants to say that Pavel Ivanovich feels like a fish in water among officials. It is no coincidence that those in power take him for their own and immediately invite them to visit. So Chichikov gets to the governor's ball.
Describing officials, Gogol draws the attention of readers that none of them fulfills their direct purpose, that is, they do not care about the fate of Russia. For example, the governor, the main person in the city, arranges balls, takes care of his social position, because he is proud that he has Anna around his neck, and even embroiders tulle. However, nowhere is it said that he is doing something for the well-being of his city. The same can be said about the rest of the authorities. The effect is enhanced by the fact that there are a great many officials in the city.
Of all the types of landowners created by Gogol, there is not a single one for whom one could see the future. The characters presented in the poem are not similar to each other, and at the same time, each of them has individual typical features of the Russian landowner: stinginess, idleness and spiritual emptiness. The most prominent representatives are Sobakevich and Plyushkin. The landowner Sobakevich symbolizes the gloomy serf way of life, he is a cynical and rude person. Everything around him looks like himself: a rich village, an interior, and even a thrush sitting in a cage. Sobakevich is hostile to everything new, he hates the very idea of "enlightenment". The author compares him to a "medium-sized bear", and Chichikov calls Sobakevich a "fist".
Another landowner, Plyushkin, is not so much a comic figure as a tragic one. In the description of his village, the key word is "neglect".
The poem "Dead Souls" is a brilliant satire on feudal Rus'. But fate has no mercy on the One whose noble genius Became the accuser of the crowd, Its passions and delusions. The work of N.V. Gogol is multifaceted and varied. The writer is talented...
Chichikov is the main character of the poem, he is found in all chapters. It was he who came up with the idea of the scam with dead souls, it was he who travels around Russia, meeting with a variety of characters and getting into a variety of situations. Characteristics of Chichikov ...
Every era has its heroes. They determine its face, character, principles, ethical guidelines. With the advent of Dead Souls, a new hero entered Russian literature, unlike his predecessors. The elusive, slippery is felt in the description of his appearance....
The poem "Dead Souls" cannot be imagined without "lyric digressions". They so organically entered the structure of the work that we can no longer imagine it without these magnificent author's monologues. Thanks to "lyrical digressions" we constantly feel ...
A journey through Rus' is impossible without travel impressions. The image of the road in the poem "Dead Souls" is a separate character. Moreover, it is alive, changing, causing passions and suggestive.
The meaning of the image
The road is found in most of the works of N.V. Gogol. Heroes are striving somewhere, moving, rushing. All of Russia is on this. She is in perpetual motion. In the poem, the image of the road contrasts with the main theme - the death of the soul. How can one stop and lose human qualities with such perpetual motion? The philosophical question forces one to look inside a person. Questions start to come up:
- Does the person himself ride or move along the knurled?
- Is he driving or being driven?
- Does he choose a road, a path, or follow the paths that someone has indicated?
- Questions about one person go to the whole country:
- Where is Rus' going?
- What awaits Russia at the end of the road and where is this end?
In the poem, the meaning of the image is multifaceted: it is the history of Russia, a symbol of the development of the human nation, the personification of different destinies, the difference between the Russian character, the epithet of off-road. The main load on the image is the fate of the Russian people, each of its classes: a peasant, an official, a landowner.
Main character's road
The writer's language, rich in images, helps to present the main character Chichikov. The road characterizes its movement. He rides in a britzka, about the wheel of which the peasants are discussing: will he get there? The wobbly device saves the character from Nozdryov. Compositionally, the wheel, like a circle, closes the poem. The doubts of the peasants about the strength of the wheel on the first pages of the book culminate in their breakdown. The author behind every action hides a deep meaning. The reader has to take a break and think. There are no direct answers. Why does the classic keep Chichikov in the city? Maybe he should stop? Chose a different path? Abandoned an absurd undertaking, seeing all the blasphemy, lack of spirituality that is hidden in it?
The roads of the enterprising swindler are chaotic. He himself does not follow the chaise, entrusting this work to the coachman. The road takes Pavel Ivanovich to such remote places that it is scary to be in them on a broken cart.
Is the landowner bold or reckless? Perhaps this and that. The road does not change the swindler, it absorbs him, making him callous and greedy. It turns out that all people have their own path, their own way of life, their own perception of Russia.
Lyrical digression
The author offers several lyrical digressions, which can be recognized as separate works of art. The digression from the text “On the Road” is one of the most lyrical, it helps to understand the image of the road in Dead Souls. Without it, the topic will be disclosed only superficially. Each word thrills the reader, everything is accurate and real:
- "a tremor went through the limbs";
- "sap of horses";
- “dozing and forgetting and snoring”;
- "The sun is at the top of the sky.
Nature on the road is a friend who becomes an interlocutor. He is sweet, pleasant, knows how to listen, does not distract, does not interfere, but disposes to frankness. How many thoughts flies through the mind of travelers, do not count.
The writer likes silence, loneliness. The radiance of the moon is beautiful, linen scarves hung by hostesses flicker. The rooftops are shining. Behind every word is an image:
- verst with a number;
- cornered neighbor;
- white houses;
- log huts;
- open wasteland.
Even the cold does not scare on the road. It's nice, wonderful, fresh. The night is described in a special way with magic: “what a night is happening in the sky!”, “heavenly forces”. Darkness does not frighten the reader, but fascinates.
The road is the writer's assistant. She endured and saved him when he, "perishing and drowning," clutched at her like "a straw." The road is the writer's muse. On the way, many "wonderful ideas, poetic dreams" were born.
The marvelous impressions of the night distract from the heavy thoughts of the death of the soul of the Russian landowner. It will become much easier to write an essay “The image of the road in the poem“ Dead Souls ”, based on the proposed material.
Artwork test
With the publication of Gogol's satirical works, a critical trend is being strengthened in Russian realistic literature. Gogol's realism is more saturated with accusatory, scourging power - this distinguishes him from his predecessors and contemporaries. Gogol's artistic method was called critical realism. New in Gogol is the sharpening of the main character traits of the hero, the writer's favorite device is hyperbole - an exorbitant exaggeration that enhances the impression. Gogol found that the plot of "Dead Souls", prompted by Pushkin, is good because it gives complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and create a variety of very diverse characters.
In the composition of the poem, one should especially emphasize the image of the road passing through the entire poem, with the help of which the writer expresses hatred for stagnation and striving forward. This image enhances the emotionality and dynamism of the entire poem.
The landscape helps the writer to tell about the place and time of the depicted events. The role of the road in the work is different: the landscape has a compositional meaning, it is the background against which events take place, it helps to understand and feel the experiences, state of mind and thoughts of the characters. Through the theme of the road, the author expresses his point of view on events, as well as his attitude to nature and heroes.
Gogol captured the world of Russian nature in his work. His landscapes are notable for their artless beauty, vitality, amazing poetic vigilance and observation.
"Dead Souls" begins with an image of city life, with pictures of the city and bureaucratic society. Then there are five chapters describing Chichikov's trips to the landowners, and the action again moves to the city. Thus, five chapters of the poem are devoted to officials, five to landowners, and one almost completely to Chichikov's biographies. All together represents a general picture of all Rus' with a huge number of actors of different positions and conditions, which Gogol snatches out of the general mass and, having shown some new side of life, disappear again.
The road in "Dead Souls" becomes important. The author draws peasant fields, bad forests, miserable pastures, neglected reservoirs, collapsed huts. Drawing a rural landscape, the writer speaks of the peasant ruin more clearly and vividly than long descriptions and reasoning could do.
The novel also contains landscape sketches that have an independent meaning, but are compositionally subordinate to the main idea of the novel. In some cases, the landscape helps the writer emphasize the moods and experiences of his characters. In all these paintings, distinguished by realistic concreteness and poetry, one can feel the writer's love for his native Russian nature and his ability to find the most suitable and accurate words to depict it.
“As soon as the city had gone back, they began to write, according to our custom, nonsense and game on both sides of the road: tussocks, a spruce forest, low liquid bushes of young pines, burnt trunks of old ones, wild heather and similar nonsense ...” Gogol N V. Collected works: In 9 volumes / Comp. text and comments by V. A. Voropaev and V. V. Vinogradov. - M.: Russian book, 1994.
Pictures of Russian nature are often found in Dead Souls. Gogol, like Pushkin, loved Russian fields, forests, and steppes. Belinsky wrote about Pushkin’s landscapes: “Beautiful nature was at hand here, in Rus', on its flat and monotonous steppes, under its eternally gray sky, in its sad villages and its rich and poor cities. What was low for former poets was noble for Pushkin: what was prose for them was poetry for him. / History of Russian literature. - M.: Enlightenment, 1984 ..
Gogol also describes the sad villages, bare, dull, and the landowner's forest along the road, which "darkened with some kind of dull bluish color," and the manor park on the Manilov estate, where "five or six birches in small clumps, in some places raised their small-leaved liquid peaks. But Gogol's main landscape is the views along the sides of the road, flashing before the traveler.
Nature is shown in the same tone with the image of folk life, evokes melancholy and sadness, surprises with immeasurable expanse; she lives with the people, as if sharing their plight.
“... the day was not so clear, not so gloomy, but some kind of light gray color, which happens only on the old uniforms of garrison soldiers, this, however, a peaceful army, but partly drunk on Sundays Gogol N.V. Collected works: In 9 volumes / Comp. text and comments by V. A. Voropaev and V. V. Vinogradov. - M.: Russian book, 1994.
“Gogol develops Pushkin’s principle of connecting combinations of words and phrases that are distant in meaning, but upon unexpected convergence form a contradictory and – at the same time – a single, complex, generalized and at the same time quite specific image of a person, event, “a piece of reality” , - writes about the language of "Dead Souls" V. V. Vinogradov. This adjunctive cohesion of words is achieved by an unmotivated and, as it were, ironically inverted, or illogical, use of connective particles and conjunctions. Such is the addition of the words "partly drunk and peaceful troops" to the main phrase about the weather; or in the description of officials: “their faces were full and round, some even had warts” Aksakov S. T. The story of my acquaintance with Gogol. // Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries. M.: Enlightenment, 1962. - p. 87 - 209.
“What twisted, deaf, narrow, impassable, drifting roads mankind has chosen, striving to reach eternal truth...”
This lyrical digression about the “world chronicle of mankind”, about delusions and the search for the path to truth, belongs to the few manifestations of conservative Christian thinking that had mastered Gogol by the time the last edition of Dead Souls was created. It first appeared in a manuscript begun in 1840 and completed in early 1841, and was stylistically revised several times, and Gogol did not change the main idea, seeking only its better expression and poetic language.
But the high pathos of tone, the solemn vocabulary of biblical and Slavonicisms (“temple”, “halls”, “meaning descending from heaven”, “piercing finger”, etc.) along with the artistic imagery of the picture “illuminated by the sun and illuminated by lights all night” wide and luxurious path and “curved, deaf, narrow ... roads”, along which the erring mankind wandered, made it possible to make the broadest generalization in the understanding of the whole world history, the “chronicles of mankind” Lotman Yu.M., In the school of the poetic word: Pushkin, Lermontov , Gogol. - M.: Enlightenment, 1988 ..
"Rus! Rus! I see you, I see you from my wonderful beautiful far away ... "
Gogol wrote almost the entire first volume of Dead Souls abroad, among the beautiful nature of Switzerland and Italy, among the noisy life of Paris. From there, he saw Russia even more clearly with its hard and sad life.
Thoughts about Russia aroused Gogol's emotional excitement and poured out in lyrical digressions.
Gogol highly valued the writer's ability for lyricism, seeing in it the necessary quality of poetic talent. Gogol saw the spring of lyricism not in "gentle", but in "thick and strong strings ... of Russian nature" and defined "the highest state of lyricism" as "a firm rise in the light of reason, the supreme triumph of spiritual sobriety." Thus, for Gogol, in a lyrical digression, first of all, thought, an idea, and not a feeling, was important, as was accepted by the poetics of past trends, which defined lyricism as an expression of feelings reaching delight.
Written by the beginning of 1841, a lyrical appeal to Russia reveals the idea of the writer's civic duty to his homeland. In order to create a special language for the final pages of the first volume, Gogol struggled for a long time, carried out complex work, which shows that changes in vocabulary and grammatical structure were associated with changes in the ideological content of the digression.
The first version of the appeal to Russia: “Rus! Rus! I see you..." - was this:
“Oh, you, my Rus' ... my tambourine, rampant, libertine, wonderful, God kiss you, holy land! How can an infinite thought not be born in you when you yourself are without end? Is it not possible to turn around in your wide space? Is it possible that a hero should not be here when there is a place where he can walk? Where did so much of God's light unfold? My bottomless, depth and breadth you are mine! What moves me, what speaks in me with unheard-of speeches when I plunge my eyes into these immovable, unshakable seas, into these steppes that have lost their end?
Wow!... how menacingly and powerfully the majestic space surrounds me! what a broad strength and manner was enclosed in me! How mighty thoughts carry me! Holy powers! to what distance, to what sparkling, unfamiliar land? What am I? - Oh, Rus'! Smirnova-Chikina E.S. N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". - L: Education, 1974. - p.-174-175.
This uncoordinated language did not satisfy Gogol. He removed vernacular, part of the song sayings, added a description of the song as an expression of the strength and poetry of the people, as the voice of Russia. The number of Slavonicisms and ancient words increased, “crowned with daring divas of art” appeared, “... a menacing cloud overshadowed, heavy with coming rains”, “nothing will seduce and charm the eye” and, finally, church-biblicalism “which prophesies this vast expanse ". Expanse in Gogol was associated not only with the vast size of the territory of Russia, but also with the endless roads that "dotted" this expanse.
“What a strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: the road!”
Gogol loved the road, long trips, fast driving, changing impressions. One of the charming lyrical digressions was dedicated by Gogol to the road. Gogol traveled a lot on steamboats, trains, horses, "on the bed", pit troikas and stagecoaches. He saw Western Europe, Asia Minor, was passing through Greece and Turkey, traveled a lot in Russia.
The road had a calming effect on Gogol, awakened his creative powers, was the need of the artist, giving him the necessary impressions, setting him in a highly poetic mood. “My head and thoughts are better on the road ... My heart hears that God will help me to do everything on the road for which the tools and forces in me have hitherto matured,” Gogol wrote about the significance of the road for his work Citation. Quoted from: Smirnova-Chikina E.S. N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". - L: Education, 1974. - p.-178.
The image of the “road”, including the autobiographical features reflected in this digression, was closely connected with the general idea of the poem and served as a symbol of movement, a symbol of human life, moral perfection, a symbol of the life of a person who is “for the time being on the road and at the station, and not at home.” ".
In Chapter X of Dead Souls, Gogol showed the "world chronicle of mankind", constant deviations from the "straight path", the search for it, "illuminated by the sun and illuminated by lights all night", accompanied by the invariable question: "where is the way out? where is the road?
The digression about the road is also connected with the image of Chichikov on the road, wandering through the back streets of life in pursuit of the base goal of enrichment. According to Gogol's plan, Chichikov, without realizing it, is already moving along the path to the straight road of life. Therefore, the image of the road, movement (“horses are racing”) is preceded by the biography of Chichikov, the hero of the poem, the awakening of each individual and all great Russia to a new beautiful life, which Gogol constantly dreamed of.
The digression text is a complex linguistic fusion. In it, along with Church Slavonicisms (“heavenly forces”, “god”, “perishing”, “cross of the rural church”, etc.), there are words of foreign origin: “appetite”, “figure”, “poetic dreams”, and next to it there are also ordinary, colloquial expressions: “you will snuggle closer and more comfortably”, “sap”, “snoring”, “alone alone”, “a light is dawning”, etc.
Concreteness, realism and accuracy in the description of the road continue Pushkin's traditions of purity and artlessness. Such are the poetically simple expressions: "clear day", "autumn leaves", "cold air"... "The horses are racing"... "Five stations ran back, the moon; unknown city "... This simple speech is complicated by enthusiastic lyrical exclamations that convey the author's personal feelings: after all, he tells the reader about his love for the road:
“What a glorious cold! What a wonderful, again embracing dream!”
The inclusion of these exclamations gives the character of originality and novelty to the discourse of the digression about the road.
A peculiar feature is the introduction of measured speech, which is a contamination of poetic meters. For example, “what a strange and alluring and carrying road in the word” is a combination of iambs and dactyls; or the line "God! How good you are, sometimes a distant, distant road! How many times, like a perishing and drowning man, I clutched at you, and every time you generously carried me out and saved me ”- they represent almost correct choreic prose. This harmonization of the text enhances the artistic and emotional impact of the digression.
"Oh, threesome! trio bird, who invented you?
The symphony of lyrical digressions, "appeals", "angry praises" of Chapter XI ends with a solemn chord-appeal to the soul of the Russian people, who love fast forward movement, riding a flying troika bird.
The symbol of the road and progress familiar to Gogol, now addressed to all the people, to all of Rus', evoked in the writer's soul a lyrical delight of love for the motherland, a sense of pride in her and confidence in the greatness of her future destinies.
The lyrical ending of "Dead Souls" with likening Russia to a trinity bird, written for the second edition (1841), was reworked very slightly. The corrections concerned the clarification of the meaning of sentences, grammatical and intonational structure. The question is introduced - “is it not to love her”, emphasizing a new meaning: “is it his soul ... not to love (fast driving)” - an emphasis on the special character of the Russian person; “why not love her” - the emphasis on the word “her”, which defines a fast ride, an enthusiastic and wonderful movement forward. The triple at the end of the poem is the logical conclusion of its entire content.
When the great Russian writer was overcome by life's hardships and painful experiences, he wanted only one thing - to leave, hide, change the situation. What he did every time when another collapse of creative plans was planned. Road adventures and impressions that Nikolai Gogol received during his trips helped him to dissipate, find inner harmony and get rid of the blues. Perhaps it was these moods that reflected the image of the road in the poem Dead Souls.
How good you are, long road!
This enthusiastic exclamation includes a well-known philosophical and lyrical digression in the novel about the adventures of an adventurer, a buyer of dead souls. The author refers to the road as to a living being: “How many times have I, the perishing one, clutched at you, and each time you generously saved me!”
The writer used to think about his future creations on the road. It was on the way, to the sound of hooves and the ringing of bells, that his characters took shape. During the ride, he suddenly began to hear their speeches, to peer into the expressions on their faces. He witnessed the actions of his heroes and comprehended their inner world. Depicting the image of the road in the poem "Dead Souls", the author pays tribute to his inspirer, saying the following words: "How many wonderful ideas and poetic dreams were born in you!"
A chapter written on the road
But so that the road pictures and the corresponding moods do not leave him and disappear from his memory, the writer could interrupt his journey and sit down to write a whole fragment of the work. Thus was born the first chapter of the poem "Dead Souls". In correspondence with one of his friends, the writer told how one day, traveling through Italian cities, he accidentally wandered into a noisy tavern. And such an irresistible desire to write seized him that he sat down at the table and wrote a whole chapter of the novel. It is no coincidence that the image of the road in the poem "Dead Souls" is the key.
Compositional technique
It so happened that the road became a favorite in the work of Gogol. The heroes of his works certainly go somewhere, and something happens to them on the way. The image of the road in the poem "Dead Souls" is a compositional technique characteristic of the entire work of the Russian writer.
In the novel, travel and travel became the main motives. They are the core of the composition. The image of the road in "Dead Souls" declared itself in full force. It is multifaceted and carries an important semantic load. The road is both the main character and a difficult path in the history of Russia. This image serves as a symbol of development and of all mankind. And the image of the road in the work we are considering is the fate of the Russian people. What awaits Russia? What path is for her? Gogol's contemporaries asked similar questions. The author of "Dead Souls" tried to give answers to them with the help of his rich figurative language.
Chichikov road
Looking in the dictionary, you will find that the word "road" is almost an absolute synonym for the word "way". The difference lies only in subtle, barely perceptible shades. The path has a general abstract meaning. The road is more specific. In the description of Chichikov's Travels, the author uses the objective meaning. The road in "Dead Souls" is a polysemantic word. But in relation to the active character, it has a specific meaning, used to indicate the distance that he overcomes and thereby approaches more and more towards his goal. It should be said that Chichikov experienced pleasant moments before each trip. Such sensations are familiar to those whose usual activities are not related to roads and crossings. The author emphasizes that the upcoming trip inspires the hero-adventurer. He sees that the road is hard and bumpy, but he is ready to overcome it, like other obstacles on his life path.
life roads
The work contains a lot of lyrical and philosophical reasoning. This is the peculiarity of Gogol's artistic method. The theme of the road in "Dead Souls" is used by the author to convey his thoughts about a person as a separate person and about humanity as a whole. Speaking on philosophical topics, he uses various adjectives: narrow, deaf, twisted, impassable, drifting far to the side. All this is about the road that humanity once chose in search of eternal truth.
Roads of Russia
The roads in the poem "Dead Souls" are associated with the image of a trinity bird. The chaise is a substantive detail that complements it. It also performs plot functions. There are many episodes in the poem in which the action is motivated precisely by a chaise rushing along Russian roads. Thanks to her, for example, Chichikov manages to escape from Nozdryov. The chaise also creates the ring structure of the first volume. At the beginning, the men argue about the strength of her wheel, at the end this part breaks down, as a result of which the hero has to linger.
The roads along which Chichikov travels are chaotic in nature. They can suddenly lead to a backwater, to a hole where people live, devoid of any moral principles. But still, these are the roads of Rus', which in itself is a great path that absorbs a person, leading him to no one knows where.
The road in the plot composition of the poem is the core, the main canvas. And characters, things, and events play a role in creating her image. Life goes on as long as the road goes on. And the author will tell his story along the way.
