The provincial town, in which the action of Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" unfolds, is, in the full sense of the word, a "dark kingdom". Only Gogol's "laughter" with a bright beam cuts through the darkness in which the heroes of the comedy grovel. All these people are petty, vulgar, insignificant; not one of them even has a “spark of God” in his soul, they all live an unconscious, animal life. Gogol described the heroes of The Inspector General both as figures of the local administration and as private people, in their family life, in the circle of friends and acquaintances. These are not major criminals, not villains, but petty rogues, cowardly predators who live in eternal anxiety that the day of reckoning will come. (See the characteristics of these heroes through the mouth of Gogol himself in "Remarks for gentlemen of the actors".)
Gogol. Auditor. Performance 1982 Series 1
The Mayor in Gogol's The Government Inspector
In the person of the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Gogol brought out an official who lives by covetousness and embezzlement. Of all his fellow officials, who also live by bribes and extortion, he is the most impudent extortionist. "There has never been such a mayor, the merchants complain to Khlestakov, sir." Demanding gifts for himself and his family, he even celebrates his name day twice a year. This hero of the "Inspector General" not only takes advantage of the townsfolk, abusing the traditional "orders" of life, he also robs the treasury, entering into fraudulent deals with contractors, embezzling the money allocated for the construction of the church. The mitigating circumstance of the mayor's guilt is that he vaguely understands the ugliness of his covetousness and embezzlement. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky justifies himself 1) with a naive exclamation: “if I took something, then without any malice, 2) with a very common argument: “everyone does it.” “There is no person,” he says, who does not have sins behind him. This is how God himself arranged it, and the Voltairians speak against it in vain!”
In relation to the townsfolk, the mayor shows unlimited autocracy and arbitrariness: he gives the soldiers the wrong person, flogs innocent people.
Uneducated and rude in handling (conversation with merchants), this hero of the "Inspector General" is distinguished, however, by a great practical acumen, and this is his pride. The mayor himself says that not a single swindler could fool him, that he himself "hooked them on a whim." He understands the state of affairs more clearly than all other officials, and when those, explaining the reasons for sending an auditor to them, are brought in, God knows where, he, as a practical person, speaks not about the causes, but about the future consequences. The mayor is better than all other officials of the city, he knows how to do his business, because he perfectly understands the human soul, because he is resourceful, knows how to play on human weaknesses, which is why he maneuvers among various virtuous governors and auditors for a long time and with impunity.
Governor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. Artist Y. Korovin
The lack of education of this comedy hero is reflected not only in the lack of polish in manners, but is expressed even more clearly in his superstition, he is very naive, pagan, understands his relationship to God, considering himself a real Christian and a man of exemplary piety (“I am firm in faith” he says). By religion, the mayor understands only rituals, expressed in attending church on holidays, in observing fasts. He stands on the "two-faith" point of view, which admits the possibility of "bribing" his God with sacrifices, like a pood candle.
The bright feature of the mayor must be recognized as his good nature. Considering himself, thanks to the matchmaking of the “inspector” Khlestakov, infinitely above everyone in the city, he is not carried away like his empty wife, remains the same simple person, rudely cordial and simply hospitable.
The mayor's wife and daughter in the "Auditor"
Anna Andreevna, the mayor's wife, a stupid and insignificant woman who retained the manners of a young coquette-dandy until old age, amazes with the endless emptiness of her soul. This heroine of The Inspector General is obsessed with "social life", with clothes, she imagines what else men can like, and competes with her daughter in acquiring suitors and courtship. She lives on the gossip and intrigues of the county town. A frivolous woman, Anna Andreevna easily believes everything. When the mayor's wife decided that she would move to St. Petersburg and play the role of a socialite there, she does not hide her contempt for all her recent friends and acquaintances. This feature, which testifies to her mental baseness, puts her even lower than her husband. (See Anna Andreevna - characterization with quotes.)
The heroes of Gogol's "Inspector General" are the mayor's wife and daughter, Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna. Artist K. Boklevsky
The mayor's daughter, Maria Antonovna, follows in her mother's footsteps, she also loves to dress up, also loves to flirt, but she has not yet been spoiled like her mother by the lies and emptiness of this provincial life and has not yet learned to break down like her mother.
Khlestakov - the main character of "Inspector"
More complex is the image of the protagonist of The Inspector General - Khlestakov. This is an empty idler, an insignificant little official, whose whole meaning of life is to "throw dust in someone's eyes" with his manners, cigars, fashionable suit, separate words ... He constantly boasts to everyone and even to himself. His insignificant, meaningless life is miserable, but Khlestakov himself does not notice this, he is always pleased with himself, always happy. He is especially helped to forget failures by fantasy, which easily takes him away from the limits of reality. In Khlestakov, there is no bitterness of oppressed pride, like the hero of " Notes of a Madman" poprishchina. He has vanity, and he lies with enthusiasm, because this lie helps him to forget his insignificance. Sick pride drove Poprishchin crazy, and the vanity of the empty, frivolous Khlestakov will not bring it to this. The protagonist of The Inspector General is not able to imagine himself a "Spanish king", and therefore he will not fall into a lunatic asylum - at best, he will be beaten for lying, or put in a debt department for debts.
In Khlestakov, Gogol brought out a useless, unnecessary person who cannot even control his thoughts and language: a submissive slave of his imagination, richly endowed with “extraordinary lightness in thoughts”, he lives day after day, not realizing what he is doing and why. That is why Khlestakov can equally easily do evil and good, and he will never be a conscious rogue: he does not invent any plans, but says and does what his frivolous fantasy tells him at the moment. That is why he can immediately propose to both the wife of the mayor and his daughter, with full readiness to marry both, he can borrow money from officials, convinced that he will give them back, he can talk so stupidly that he immediately blurts out and talks to nonsense . (See the full text of Khlestakov's most deceitful monologue.)
Khlestakov. Artist L. Konstantinovsky
The frightened imagination of the frightened officials who were waiting for the auditor created from Khlestakov's "icicle" the one they were waiting for. Psychologically, the mistake of officials is quite understandable; it is expressed by proverbs: “a frightened crow is afraid of a bush”, “fear has large eyes”. This “fright” and “anxiety of conscience” led even the dexterous and intelligent rogue mayor into a fatal mistake for him.
Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin in The Government Inspector
Other officials of the city are small varieties of the type of mayor. Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin is also a dishonest person, which he sincerely does not notice himself, does not do anything, is absurdly stupid and, at the same time, full of conceit only because he has the courage to talk about religious issues with such freedom that the believers' hair stands on end. But in practical matters he is striking in his naivety.
Gogol. Auditor. Performance 1982 Series 2
Trustee of charitable institutions Strawberry
In the person of Strawberry, Gogol brought out not only the embezzler of the state, but also a petty and vile intriguer who wants to turn the leg on his comrades in misfortune. (See Artemy Filippovich Strawberries - a characteristic with quotes.)
Gogol formed the surname of the superintendent of the schools Khlopov from the word "clap", "serf". This is an utterly cowardly person, whose tongue “gets stuck in mud” in the presence of his superiors, and his hands tremble so that Luka Lukich is unable to even light a cigar offered to him by Khlestakov. (See Luka Lukich Khlopov - characterization with quotes.)
Postmaster Shpekin
Postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin - according to Gogol, "a simple-minded person to the point of naivety." Frivolity, he will not yield to Khlestakov himself. Ivan Kuzmich calmly prints out the letters arriving at his post office and reads them, finding more entertainment in this occupation than in reading newspapers. He keeps the letters he especially likes.
It is thanks to these inclinations of Shpekin that the true identity of the "auditor" is revealed to the rest of the officials. Ivan Kuzmich opens and reads Khlestakov's letter to his friend Tryapichkin, from which it is clear that Khlestakov was by no means an important official, but an ordinary young whip and helix. (See Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin - characterization with quotes.)
Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky in The Government Inspector
Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky are the personification of the most hopeless vulgarity. These heroes of The Inspector General are not engaged in any business at all, they are not interested in any religious, philosophical, political issues - even to the extent that is accessible to other comedy characters. Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky collect and spread only small local gossip, which feed their wretched curiosity and fill their idle life. (See Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky - characterization with quotes.)
Khlestakov's servant Osip
In the person of Osip, Gogol brought out the type of an old serf servant, spoiled by the idleness of a lackey's life. This comedy hero tasted the fruits of the civilization of Petersburg life, learned to ride cabs for free, thanks to through gates; he appreciates the "haberdashery treatment" of the capital's petty shops and Apraksin Dvor. Osip despises his master, the frivolous and empty Khlestakov, with all his heart, because he feels immeasurably smarter than him. Unfortunately, his mind is extremely roguish. If his master is cheating out of naivety, then Osip is quite conscious. (Cm.
Data: 20.02.2012 02:03 |Anna Andreevna Skvoznik-Dmukhanovskaya is the mayor's wife, a minor character in Gogol's comedy The Inspector General. The mayor's wife is most interested not in what damage the audit can cause to her husband, but in how the auditor looks. A narrow-minded and fussy woman whose main entertainment is adultery. She flirts even with someone who could be a profitable match for her daughter. When choosing dresses for the reception, she advises her daughter to wear the blue that would be combined with her favorite fawn dress, and it doesn’t matter that the daughter finds blue completely unattractive.
Source: comedy in five acts "The Government Inspector".
Anna Andreevna is impatient and intolerant: preferring that she has the last word, she asks again to no avail, denies the obvious, then on her own behalf pronounces what the interlocutor has already said and finally accuses the interlocutor of stupidity. It is according to this scheme that her every conversation with everyone around her takes place: with her husband, with her daughter, with Dobchinsky and others. However, with the false auditor Khlestakov, she is amiable in a completely different spirit: she assents, flatters and praises.
Parsing the husband's note, sent to warn how exactly it is necessary to prepare for the arrival of her husband with the auditor, he cannot even distinguish its text from the words from the restran account, between the lines of which he hastily wrote a short message. But it doesn’t really matter to her what he wrote there in his note, it’s much more interesting to choose an outfit for a meeting in order to show himself in the best light. Gogol, in his remarks to the gentlemen of the actors, indicates that Anna Andreevna will change four times in the continuation of the play. First of all, she asks Dobchinsky "Tell me, what is he like? Is he old or young?", And the next question is "what is he like: a brunette or a blonde?".
Feeling the taste of power and already imagining herself as a general, who has the richest house in St. Petersburg, Anna Andreevna shows herself from the most negative side, insulting the petitioners who came to her husband: “but it’s not for every small thing to provide patronage.” The petitioners (Korobkin's wife and the guest) in response give an unflattering characterization: "Yes, she has always been like that; I know her: put her at the table, she and her legs ...".
Quotes
Do you hear, run and ask where we went; Yes, ask carefully: what kind of newcomer, - what is he, - do you hear? Peep through the crack and find out everything, and what eyes: black or not, and go back this very minute, do you hear? Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!
Well, Mashenka, we need to go to the toilet now. He is a metropolitan thing: God forbid, something would not make fun of something. It is best for you to wear a blue dress with small frills.
It will be much better for you, because I want to wear fawn; I love fawn very much.
Ah, how good! I love these young people! I'm just out of memory. However, he liked me very much: I noticed that he kept looking at me.
And I didn’t feel any timidity in him at all; I simply saw in him an educated, secular, higher tone person, and I have no need for his ranks.
Do you know what honor Ivan Alexandrovich bestows upon us? He asks for the hand of our daughter.
Vivid life characters are represented by N.V. Gogol in the images of the mayor's wife and daughter. Before us are typical provincial fashionistas, coquettes, coquettes. They are devoid of any aspirations, they do nothing themselves, and all their thoughts are directed to outfits and coquetry.
Behavior and features of Anna Andreevna's speech at the moment of her triumph Petty vanity: “Naturally in St. Petersburg. How can you stay here? Groundless dreams: "... there will be different unprecedented soups to eat." Rudeness towards the guests: "after all, it is not possible to provide patronage to every small fry."
Features of the vocabulary of these characters. Words associated with female coquetry: “drag”, “coy”. Compliments to the guest: "What a nice one." Foreign words for more chic and showing their education: "passage", "declaration". Colloquial words are rare: “I went to dig”, “I won’t get any sense”. The inconsistency of thought and the replacement of the most important concept with vague words: such, such, in some way. External respect for the mother: "you, mother." In speech, an undoubted imitation of the mother.
Female types in The Inspector General occupy a very small corner, being completely episodic figures. But as a great artist, Gogol managed in passing, with one or two brush strokes, to give a complete portrait of these random characters in his comedy. All women of comedy are spiritually no different from their husbands and fathers. They only complete the picture of vulgarity painted by Gogol, being a worthy addition to the male half of society.
« Anna Andreevna- a provincial coquette, not yet quite old, brought up half on novels and albums, half on chores in her pantry and girl's. This is a very frivolous woman. Knowing about the arrival of the auditor, she runs after her husband: “What, have you arrived? Auditor? with a mustache? with what mustache? The excited mayor is not up to her: “After, after mother!” And she, not understanding what a critical moment has come for her husband, gets angry: “After? Here's the news after! I don't want to after... I only have one word: what is he, Colonel? A? (with disdain) left! I will remember this for you!" A new face has arrived, a male - there is something to get excited about. For the county Cleopatra, this is a foretaste of a new flirtation ... The husband left. “In two hours we will know everything,” says the daughter, but for the mother it is an eternity; "In two hours! thank you very much. Here’s a loaned answer’” Anna Andreevna sends her Avdotya: “Run and ask where you’ve gone; Yes, ask carefully: what kind of newcomer, what is he like - do you hear? Peep through the crack and find out everything, and what kind of eyes: black or not! .. Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry…”. Khlestakov writes to Tryapichkin: “I didn’t decide which one to start with, I think first with my mother, because it seems that she is now ready for all services.” And he has every reason to believe so.
Maria Antonovna still allows himself to doubt the veracity of Khlestakov’s words when he pretends to be the author of Yuri Miloslavsky, and Anna Andreevna herself slips this lie on him with her question: “So, is Yuri Miloslavsky your work?” And when the drunken Khlestakov explains that there are two novels under this title, she, without a single doubt, remarks: “Well, it’s true, I read yours. How well written! “Oh, how pleasant! she exclaims when Khlestakov is taken to bed. “But what a subtle treatment! Receptions and all that ... Oh, how good! I love these young people! I'm just out of memory...". And all this is about a drunken And empty-headed St. Petersburg boy. Then there is a dispute between mother and daughter about who he looked at more and who he liked more ... “Listen, Osip, which eyes do your master like best?” they ask the footman. After a short time, Anna Andreevna herself comes to Khlestakov's room. The latter asks for her hand. Anna Andreevna weakly objects: "But let me tell you: I'm in a way ... I'm married." It's "in a way" - great.
Flirting is what fills Anna Andreevna's spiritual life. No wonder she guesses on the cards: all her thoughts lie in the field of jacks of all stripes. Flirting, and, of course, toilets. “She changes into different dresses four times throughout the play,” says Gogol. And the action continues for a day and a half ... These main character traits of Anna Andreevna determine her whole life, all facets of her life.
Frivolous Anna Andreevna and as a wife. She is not at all interested in her husband's affairs. She lives only for her little interests. She is the same as her mother. She does not at all hide from her daughter all her weaknesses. She disputes Marya Antonovna's caretakers, and even her fiancé. She would like her daughter to dress inappropriately, so that none of the men would look at her daughter. Characteristic in this regard is the scene of mother and daughter consulting about the toilet, so that they would not be ridiculed by some “metropolitan thing”.
“This scene and this dispute,” says Belinsky, “definitively and sharply outline the essence, characters and mutual relations of mother and daughter ... In this short, as if slightly and carelessly thrown scene, you see the past, present and future, the whole story of two women meanwhile, it all consists of a dispute about dress, and all, as if in passing and inadvertently, escaped from the poet's pen. Like all coquettes, and not young at that, Anna Andreevna has a very high opinion of herself, considers herself an aristocrat, looks down on all the ladies. The mayor, in anticipation of the coming generalship, good-naturedly promises to provide patronage in St. Petersburg to Korobkin's son: "I am ready for my part, ready to try." But Anna Andreevna stops him: “After all, it’s not for every small fry to patronize” ...
Marya Antonovna is a cocoon from which, over time, the same moth as Anna Andreevna should develop. She is no longer so curious, she would have been able to wait two hours, she would not have sent a servant to peep through the crack, what kind of eyes the auditor has. She is younger, and therefore more inexperienced, more restrained, and perhaps even purer than her mother. But she herself comes to the young man's room, which pushes him to take a decisive step ...
The main image of the comedy is the image of a county town. Gogol called it "prefabricated" and "soulful", apparently meaning that it contains all types of the urban population, shows their character traits and social behavior ("prefabricated city"), draws attention to the sins and weaknesses of people ("soulful city ").
The comedy's character system reflects the social structure of the city. It is headed by the mayor - Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. He is endowed with all powers of authority and is responsible for everything that happens in the city. Hence the three characteristics that outline this image: power (status), guilt (irresponsibility), fear (expectation of punishment). The following are four images of officials representing the management of the city: the judiciary in the person of judge Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin, postal and telegraph communications - the postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin, education is in charge of the superintendent of schools Luka Lukich Khlopov, social services are headed by the trustee of charitable institutions Artemy Filippovich Zemlyanika . Three officials, with the exception of Shpekin, are shown together with the departments they manage. So, Lyapkin-Tyapkin is presented with an eternally tipsy assessor, watchmen and visitors to the court. The education system is also depicted in detail: Khlopov, teachers, students. The charitable establishments are characterized by the order prevailing in the hospital, the image of Strawberry and the sinister figure of the doctor Gibner. To show the continuity and inviolability of the criminal bureaucratic power in the city, Gogol introduces characters who do not take part in the action - retired officials Lyulyukov, Rastakovsky and Korobkin. The support and protection of the authorities are police officers Svistunov, Pugovitsyn and Derzhimorda, headed by a private bailiff Ukhovertov.
Other segments of the city's population are represented primarily by urban landowners Petr Ivanovich Bobchinsky and Petr Ivanovich Dobchinsky. And by matching names, and by the same behavior, you can immediately understand that we have traditional “paired characters” who, in the plot of a comedy, will perform a common function for two. The absurdity of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky is already indicated in their status: landlords who live in the city and turn into gossips from idleness.
The images of merchants are not outlined as clearly as the images of officials. The merchant Abdulin, the obvious leader and author of a note to Khlestakov, is partly distinguished. This note exhaustively characterizes the social essence of the merchant class: “To his noble lord of finance from the merchant Abdulin ...” This appeal has two features: Abdulin does not know what rank or title to use, therefore, just in case, he mixes them all. And the expression "master of finance" reflects the hierarchy of values of the merchant - in his eyes, at the very top of the social ladder is the one who is in charge of finance.
The merchants are followed by another category of the population - the bourgeoisie, represented by the locksmith Poshlepkina and the wife of a non-commissioned officer. In these images, two sins are personified: anger and money-grubbing. The locksmith is rightly indignant that the mayor gave her husband out of the line to the soldiers, but she curses the innocent relatives of the mayor. The wife of a non-commissioned officer is not worried about the insult inflicted on her, the humiliation of female dignity, but about what benefit she can derive from the "happiness" that has befallen her.
The images of servants complete the gallery of characters. It may seem that they are the same and do not deserve special attention, but this is not so. The comedy depicts three social categories of servants: the city tavern servant - impudent and somewhat cheeky; a servant in the mayor's house - Mishka, helpful, but knowing his own worth; and Khlestakov’s personal servant, Osip, a type of lord’s servant, a sharp-witted peasant, but already corrupted by the life of the capital, a lackey, repeating the master in everything.
Separately, there are images of the mayor's wife Anna Andreevna and daughter Marya Antonovna. The caustic and accurate portraits of a provincial lady and young lady show a sad picture of the vain limitations of their life, the scarcity of ideas, and moral narrowness. The plot role of these heroines is also great, because due to the absence of a real love conflict in the comedy, these images serve to create a parody - in the scenes of Khlestakov's alternating courtship of either his daughter or his mother. However, the mayor's family is still at the top of the social position in the city. Ladies of lower rank, such as Khlopov's wife or Korobkin's wife, are forced to be envious and gossiping.
The image of Khlestakov, of course, stands apart in comedy due to its plot and ideological role. Khlestakov is a pivotal figure in the plot, since without him the “mirage” situation would have been impossible. In addition, he not only passively takes the position of an imaginary auditor, but with incredible success plays along with the delusion of the townspeople, which, due to his stupidity, he does not even suspect. In ideological terms, Khlestakov serves as a kind of temptation for the city, because the most ridiculous ideas of the townspeople about St. Petersburg in the person of Khlestakov are fully confirmed. Therefore, the townspeople, primarily officials, behave openly and sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of lawlessness and malevolence. Khlestakov does not deliberately deceive anyone, he is generally not capable of any deliberate action, because, in his own words, he has “unusual lightness in thoughts”, that is, emptiness. Khlestakov has nothing of his own, so he behaves like this and does what is expected of him. This is the reason for his inspired lies in the mayor's house. He was a kind of "scourge" for the townspeople, with which they whipped themselves.
Finally, the most important image of the comedy The Inspector General is the auditor himself, who unites the entire play. From the first phrase of the comedy, it appears as an assumption, an expectation, a certain idea, and must appear incognito. Then, instead of a real auditor, a deceit, a mirage, a "inspector" penetrates the city. At the beginning of the fifth act, the inspector seemingly disappears to appear in the last line of the comedy as a harsh reality, like the truth that struck the officials in a silent scene. In parallel with the image of the auditor, the image of St. Petersburg develops in the comedy. Petersburg first causes fear and absurd conjectures in officials, then it manifests itself as a mirage through the image of Khlestakov, and after Khlestakov's courtship to the mayor's daughter, it becomes unreasonably close to the residents of city N. At the end of the play, after the announcement of the arrival of a real auditor, the image of St. Petersburg becomes hostile and discouraging.
Let us listen to the remark of Gogol himself about another character in the comedy The Inspector General: “It is strange: I am sorry that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play. Yes, there was one honest, noble face that acted in it throughout its entire duration. That honest, noble face was laughter. There are no positive characters in comedy, laughter does not appear on the stage between the characters, it exists in the very atmosphere of comedy - laughter is born in the heart of the viewer and awakens noble indignation in him.
