Life trajectories of manilov dead souls. The image and characteristics of Manilov in the poem Dead Souls of Gogol essay

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The image of the landowner Manilov, in comparison with most of the landlords described by Gogol, creates the most favorable and positive impression, although it is not so difficult to find his negative features, however, compared with the negative sides of other landowners, this looks like the least of the evils.

Appearance and age of Manilov

The exact age of Manilov is not indicated in the story, but it is known that he was not an old man. The reader's acquaintance with Manilov, quite probably, falls on the period of his prime. His hair was blond and his eyes were blue. Manilov often smiled, sometimes to such an extent that his eyes were hidden and were not visible at all. He also had a habit of squinting.

His clothes were traditional and did not stand out in any way, just like Manilov himself in the context of society.

Personality characteristic

Manilov is a pleasant person. He does not have such a quick-tempered and unbalanced character as most of the landowners described by Gogol.

His benevolence and good nature dispose to himself and create a trusting relationship. At first glance, this state of affairs seems to be very beneficial, but in fact, it also plays a cruel joke with Manilov, turning him into a boring person.

The lack of enthusiasm and a clear position on a particular issue makes it impossible to communicate with him for a long time. Manilov was courteous and amiable. Usually, he smoked a pipe, paying tribute to his habit from the army years. He was not engaged in housekeeping at all - he was too lazy to do it. Manilov often made plans in his dreams to restore and develop his economy and improve his home, but these plans always remained dreams and never reached the plane of real life. The reason for this was the same laziness of the landowner.

Dear readers! We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the poem by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Dead Souls"

Manilov is very upset by the fact that he did not receive a proper education. He does not know how to speak fluently, but he writes very competently and accurately - Chichikov was surprised to see his notes - they did not need to be rewritten, since everything was written clearly, calligraphically and without errors.

Manilov family

If in other respects Manilov can fail, then in relation to the family and his relationship with the family, he is an example to follow. His family consists of a wife and two sons, to some extent, a teacher can be added to these people. In the story, Gogol gives him a significant role, but, apparently, he was perceived by Manilov as a member of the family.

Manilov's wife's name was Lisa, she had been married for eight years. Her husband was very kind to her. Tenderness and love prevailed in their relationship. It was not a game for the public - they really had tender feelings for each other.

Lisa was a beautiful and well-mannered woman, but she did not take care of household chores at all. There was no objective reason for this, except for laziness and her personal unwillingness to delve into the essence of matters. The household, in particular the husband, did not consider this something terrible and calmly treated this state of affairs.

The eldest son of Manilov was called Themistoclus. He was a good boy of 8 years old. According to Manilov himself, the boy was remarkable for his wit and intelligence, unprecedented for his age. The name of the youngest son was no less unusual - Alkid. The youngest son was six. As for the youngest son, the head of the family believes that he is inferior in development to his brother, but, in general, the review of him was also favorable.

Manor and village Manilova

Manilov has a huge potential to become rich and successful. He has a pond, a forest, a village of 200 houses at his disposal, but the laziness of the landowner prevents him from fully developing his economy. It would be more correct to say that Manilov is not engaged in housekeeping at all. The main affairs are managed by the manager, but Manilov very successfully retired and lives a measured life. Even episodic interventions in the course of the process do not arouse his interest.

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He, undoubtedly, agrees with his manager about the need for certain works or actions, but he does it so lazily and vaguely that it is sometimes difficult to determine his true attitude to the subject of discussion.

On the territory of the estate, several flower beds arranged in the English manner and a gazebo stand out noticeably. Flowerbeds, like almost everything on the Manilov estate, are in disrepair - neither the owner nor the hostess pay them due attention.

Since Manilov loves to indulge in dreams and reflections, the gazebo becomes an important element in his life. He can stay there often and for a long time, indulging in fantasies and making mental plans.

Attitude towards peasants

The peasants of Manilov never suffer from the attacks of their landlord; the point here is not only Manilov's calm disposition, but also his laziness. He never delve into the affairs of his peasants, because he is not interested in this issue. At first glance, such an attitude should favorably influence relations in the projection of the landowner-serfs, but this medal has its own unattractive side. Manilov's indifference is manifested in complete indifference to the life of serfs. He is in no way trying to improve their working or living conditions.

By the way, he does not even know the number of his serfs, since he does not keep track of them. Some attempts to keep records were made by Manilov - he counted male peasants, but soon there was confusion with this and in the end everything was abandoned. Also, Manilov does not keep track of his "dead souls." Manilov gives Chichikov his dead souls and even bears the costs of their registration.

Manilov's house and office

Everyone in the Manilov estate has a twofold position. The house and, in particular, the study were no exception to the rule. Here, as nowhere else, the inconstancy of the landowner and his family members is better seen.

This is primarily due to matching the unmatched. In Manilov's house, you can see good things, for example, the landowner's sofa was covered with good fabric, but the rest of the furniture was in disrepair and was upholstered with cheap and already well-worn fabric. In some rooms there was no furniture at all and they stood empty. Chichikov was unpleasantly surprised when, during dinner, a very decent lamp and a completely unattractive-looking colleague, who looked like an invalid, stood on the table nearby. However, only the guest noticed this fact - the rest took it for granted.

Manilov's office is not much different from everything else. At first glance, it was quite a nice room, the walls of which were painted in gray-blue tones, but when Chichikov began to carefully examine the furnishings of the office, he could notice that most of all in Manilov's office was tobacco. Tobacco was definitely everywhere - a pile on the table, he generously sprinkled all the documents that were in the office. Also in Manilov's office was a book - the bookmark in it was at the very beginning - page fourteen, but this did not mean at all that Manilov had recently taken up reading it. This book has been lying quietly in this position for the second year.

Thus, Gogol in the story "Dead Souls" portrayed a completely pleasant person, the landowner Manilov, who, for all his shortcomings, stands out noticeably positively against the background of the whole society. He has all the potential to become an exemplary person in all respects, but laziness, which the landowner cannot overcome, becomes a serious obstacle to this.

Characteristics of Manilov in the poem "Dead Souls": description of character and appearance

The poem "Dead Souls" was written by Gogol back in 1842. In the work, the author pays great attention to the description of noblemen and landowners. One of the brightest bright characters is Manilov.

Gogol was able to interestingly correlate the character and surname of the landowner. The surname of the hero can be called speaking, since the landowner constantly dreams and beckons him everywhere. The first acquaintance with Manilov takes place at a party at the governor of the city N. The author presents him as "a very courteous and courteous landowner."

Characteristics of the hero

Manilov appears as a blue-eyed blond in middle age. He is not quite stupid, pleasant, but his appearance is rather sugary, "the pleasantness was too transferred to sugar." There are no outstanding features of this landowner. Gogol emphasized that there were "many of them in the world" and claimed that he was "neither this nor that." Perhaps that is why the character seeks to highlight his children and gives them unusual names - Themistoclus alone is worth something! Yes, and Alkid, his other son, also has an unusual name that distinguishes him from a number of others.

Manilov belonged to the class of wealthy landowners. In the village where Manilov lived, there were about two hundred houses, i.e. over two hundred souls. This is a fairly large number. No one took care of the landowner's household, it goes "by itself". Unlike Sobakevich, he does not force his peasants to work for wear and tear without food and water, but he has not done anything to make their life better, he is indifferent to them. He never goes to the fields, his farm is not interesting to him. Manilov completely trusted the management of his name days to the clerk.

The landowner rarely left Manilovka, he led a rather idle life. It was enough for him to immerse himself in his thoughts and smoke a pipe. This person is dreamy and has many desires and aspirations, but at the same time he is very lazy. Moreover, his dreams are sometimes absurd - for example, to dig an underground passage, which he does not need at all. And the hero does absolutely nothing to make his dream come true, which characterizes him as a lazy and weak-willed person.

Manilov in dealing with people is quite polite, but at the same time neat. In a conversation with Chichikov, he constantly exchanges pleasantries, but does not say any useful information. With other characters, he is no less courteous:

"... said Manilov with a pleasant smile ..." or " ...He smiled enticingly..."

Manilov was also a noble dreamer, but almost none of his dreams were realized, either an underground tunnel or a bridge across his pond. This person spends a lot of time on new dreams and fantasies, but does nothing to make the dream a reality:

"At home, he spoke very little and for the most part reflected and thought, but what he thought about, too, did God know?."

His laziness is also emphasized by the words about what kind of a landowner and owner he is, and that he never even traveled around his own fields to check them or personally control the fulfillment of his requirements and instructions. Despite the fact that the hero has a rather large household, he pays very little attention to it, letting everything, in fact, take its course.

The image of the hero in the work

("Portrait of Manilov", artist V. Andreev, 1900)

At the beginning of the poem, the landowner seems to the reader to be a rather pleasant and intelligent man, but further along the plot, Mnilov becomes boring and uninteresting. The author even highlights the hero's handwriting when Chichikov speaks of his handwriting in one of the dialogues of the work.

He has no opinion of his own and can only speak common courtesies, being incapable of bold steps and decisions. But, Manilov himself presents himself as well-mannered, educated and noble. By the way, Manilov believed that officials were “the most respectable people,” and he constantly strives to speak with them as politely and culturally as possible.

After reading the poem, we can conclude that the landowner Manilov is not able to think about his life and make difficult decisions on his own. He can do everything only in words, but not in actions. But, at the same time, the landowner is presented as a good family man who truly loves his family - this is an important detail of his image. Therefore, despite the fact that he is lazy a lot, does not keep his word, one cannot say that his soul is dead - he still has the positive qualities of a hero.

Poem N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" was published in 1842. The title of the poem can be understood in two ways. Firstly, the main character, Chichikov, buys dead peasants (dead souls) from the landowners. Secondly, the landlords amaze with the callousness of the soul, each hero is endowed with negative qualities. If we compare dead peasants and living landlords, it turns out that it is the landowners who have "dead souls." Since the image of the road passes throughout the story, the main character travels. One gets the impression that Chichikov is just visiting old friends. Through the eyes of Chichikov, we see the landlords, their villages, houses and families, which plays an important role in revealing the images. Together with the main character, the reader goes from Manilov to Plyushkin. Each landowner is painted in detail and thoroughly. Consider the image of Manilov.

The surname Manilov is a speaker, you can guess that it is formed from the verb to beckon (attract to yourself). In this man, Gogol denounces laziness, fruitless daydreaming, sentimentality, inability to move forward. As they say about him in the poem, "a man is neither one nor the other, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan." Manilov is polite and courteous, the first impression of him is even pleasant, but when you peer into the details and get to know the landowner better, your opinion about him changes. It gets boring with him.

Manilov has a large estate, but he does not take care of his village at all, he does not know how many peasants he has. He is indifferent to the life and fate of the common people, "the economy somehow went by itself." The mismanagement of Manilov is revealed to us even on the way to the estate: everything is lifeless, pitiful, petty. Manilov is impractical and stupid - he takes on the bill of sale and does not understand the benefits of selling dead souls. He allows the peasants to drink instead of working, his clerk does not know his business and, like the landowner, does not know how and does not want to manage the household.

Manilov constantly hovers in the clouds, not wanting to notice what is happening around him: “how nice it would be if you could suddenly lead an underground passage from the house or build a stone bridge across the pond.” It can be seen that dreams remain just dreams, some are replaced by others and will always be so. Manilov lives in a world of fantasies and "projects", the real world is alien and incomprehensible to him, "all these projects ended with only one word." This person quickly gets bored, since he does not have his own opinion, but can only smile cloyingly and say banal phrases. Manilov considers himself well-mannered, educated, noble. However, in his office for two years there is a book with a bookmark on the 14th page, covered with dust, which indicates that Manilov is not interested in new information, he only creates the appearance of an educated person. The delicacy and cordiality of Manilov is expressed in absurd forms: “schi, but from a pure heart”, “May day, name day of the heart”; officials, according to Manilov, are entirely “most respectable” and “most amiable” people. The speech characterizes this character as a person who always flatters, it is not clear whether he really thinks so or just creates an appearance to flatter others so that useful people are around at the right time.

Manilov tries to keep up with fashion. He tries to stick to the European way of life. The wife studies French at the boarding school, plays the piano, and the children have strange and difficult to pronounce names - Themistoklus and Alkid. They receive home education, which is typical for wealthy people of that time. But the things surrounding Manilov testify to his unsuitability, isolation from life, indifference to reality: the house is open to all winds, the pond is completely overgrown with duckweed, the gazebo in the garden is called the “Temple of Solitary Reflection”. The seal of dullness, scarcity, uncertainty lies on everything that surrounds Manilov. The situation vividly characterizes the hero himself. Gogol emphasizes the emptiness and insignificance of Manilov. There is nothing negative in it, but there is nothing positive either. Therefore, this hero cannot count on transfiguration and rebirth: there is nothing to be reborn in him. Manilov's world is a world of false idyll, a path to death. No wonder Chichikov's path to the lost Manilovka is depicted as a road to nowhere. It does not have living desires, that force of life that moves a person, makes him perform some actions. In this sense, Manilov is a "dead soul." The image of Manilov personifies a universal phenomenon - "Manilovism", that is, a tendency to create chimeras, pseudo-philosophizing.

The landowner Manilov is one of the central characters in the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Dead Souls". We can say that his last name is speaking - something beckons the hero all the time, he is a dreamer.

For the first time we meet Manilov at the house party of the governor of the city of NN, where he appears before the readers as "a very courteous and courteous landowner." It was Manilov, along with Sobakevich, who first of all attracted the attention of Chichikov.

Manilov is not an elderly man, blond with blue eyes. We can say that he is rather good-looking, pleasant, but at the same time looks too sugary, in his "pleasantness was too sugar transferred."

This landowner does not stand out from the crowd. Gogol says that there are "many of them in the world" and emphasizes that he is "neither this nor that." Perhaps that is why he gives strange names to his children, trying to make them stand out.

Manilov can be considered a wealthy landowner. There are about two hundred houses in his village Manilovka, which means about two hundred or more souls, which is quite a lot. However, the character is not engaged in housekeeping at all, it goes “by itself”. He, unlike Sobakevich, does not exhaust the peasants with work and does not starve them, however, he does not do anything to improve their situation, he treats them indifferently. He does not do housework at all, does not go to the fields, completely entrusting the management to his clerk.

Manilov leads a rather idle life, spends most of his time in Manilovka and smokes a pipe, immersed in reflections and thoughts. This person is dreamy, but lazy. Moreover, his dreams are sometimes absurd, for example, to dig an underground passage, and he does nothing to realize them.

Manilov has been married for more than eight years, but still remains a romantic, making little surprises for his wife. It seems that he is absolutely happy in marriage.

As for his treatment of other characters, we can say that he seeks to please people, behaves ingratiatingly with them. And although at first he seems to be a rather pleasant person, later his interlocutor begins to be overcome by boredom. Despite this, while serving in the army, he left a good impression of himself.

Manilov can be compared with Oblomov, the hero of Goncharov's novel. But, unlike Oblomov, the character of "Dead Souls" is absolutely satisfied with his life and position. From this character came the concept of "Manilovism", which means inaction and a dreamy attitude to life.

Essay 2

The writer emphasizes the image of the landowners and the nobleman in the work.

Manilov is a noble man. At first, you seem to think that he is a nice and good person, then you already start to think about who is standing in front of you, and by the end of the dialogue, you already want to end the conversation with him as soon as possible and get away from him, otherwise you can get close, very bored. Manilov dreams too much, and his dreams are most often unrealizable. Dream and reality are completely different things for him. A man wants, for example, to build a stone bridge across the lake, with retail outlets, or build an underground passage, or build an unrealistically high house from which one could see the capital of Russia. Of course, there is nothing real here.

Manilov does nothing. He likes to sit in his pleasant apartment and constantly think about something, or arrange piles of ash from smoked cigars in the right order.

Manilov is very polite and pedantic with people. When talking with Chichikov, he constantly mixes up his dialogue with beautiful words and courtesies, but cannot express a single necessary or useful information.

He treats everyone well and calmly, he sees only the best in people. In a dialogue with Chichikov, he gives a good characterization to each official, they are all the most respected and most amiable of Manilov. Kindness, responsiveness, benevolence towards people - in general, all this is good, but for this character it all looks bad, negative, because this is not a critical manifestation of people.

He is alien to practical affairs and economic production: his mansion is located in the Jura, it is blown by all the winds, and the lake is overgrown with grass, the village is very poor.

Household affairs went without control, he never visited the fields and did not know how many men he had died.

Characteristics of Manilov in the poem "Dead Souls"

The images, written out with the utmost accuracy by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in his immortal poem "Dead Souls", almost all went to the people, and many of their names became common nouns. When meeting with a greedy person, we will certainly notice in his address: “What a Plushkin!”. Speaking of a person who is pleasant in all respects, but too pleasant, so that this pleasantness makes him sick, we, of course, immediately recall the landowner Manilov, whom the protagonist of the work, Chichikov, met.

So what is he, this same Manilov? Yes, indeed, in the first minute you only think about him, how sweet and pleasant he is, and already in the third minute, as the author of the work himself says, you will feel mortal boredom. Manilov - neither this nor that. He does not show interest either in his estate, which he is building "on the seven winds", or in the economy, or in his poor peasants, whom he does not even know the exact account of. Manilov indulges in illusory dreams that will never come true.

It seems that Manilov loves to read, but his book has been bookmarked on the same page for several years. The landowner speaks of all his acquaintances in superlatives. His governor is "most amiable", the vice-governor is "nice", and the chief of police is "very pleasant". On the one hand, what is wrong with the fact that Manilov speaks exceptionally well of people, does not criticize anyone, but on the other hand, the author makes us understand that his words are not entirely sincere. He is cunning, and, perhaps, subconsciously, with such flattering characteristics, he wants to please people who have considerable weight in the province, which means they can be useful to him in some way.

So he cannot understand Chichikov, who came to him with an offer to buy dead souls. Instead, he continues to dream. For example, about how nice it would be for him and Chichikov to live on the banks of some river. Even the worldly-wise Chichikov, who is not very scrupulous in choosing people, is even disgusted to communicate with such a type, who has only ephemeral illusions and spiritual emptiness inside. And a kind of pleasantness that bothers literally after a few minutes of communication with Manilov.

Accurate, ingenious description by Gogol of the heroes of his poem "Dead Souls" allows us to present each of them in the brightest colors. And to understand who and what is. Different in character, appearance, the landowners whom Chichikov meets are similar in one thing: they are vicious people who think only about their own benefit and self-interest.

Image of Manilov

N. V. Gogol wrote the poem "Dead Souls" in 1842. In this poem, he tried to describe the whole of Rus'. The main character is a swindler Chichikov. He comes to the city of NN and gets acquainted with the nobility in the city in order to redeem the "dead souls" of the peasants from them. The very first of the nobility, N.V. Gogol introduces us to the landowner Manilov. On behalf of Chichikov, the author begins to describe the first hero to us.

The surname Manilov is interestingly played up by Gogol. She portrays laziness and daydreaming. So who is he, Manilov, and how does the author characterize him?

Manilov is a very sentimental, real landowner, the first merchant of dead souls. When Chichikov comes to him, the landowner shows all his character.

Firstly, Manilov's indifference emphasizes the fact that a drunken clerk is constantly involved in his affairs. Secondly, generality of judgments and complete indifference to small details are the main features of Manilov's character.

He constantly dreams, but his dreams mostly do not correspond to reality. For example, he dreamed of building an underground tunnel and a bridge across his pond, but ended up doing nothing.

At first, the landowner seems to us rather pleasant and intelligent, but then the reader realizes how boring it is with this person, since he completely has no opinion and can only speak ordinary and pleasant phrases. Manilov believes that he is well brought up, educated and noble. But the author showed that in his office for two years there was a book with a bookmark in the same place. In a conversation with Chichikov, he shows generosity and courtesy. When Manilov clings to every topic, his thoughts take him to various brilliant plans and dreams.

Manilov has a strange delight; also, according to Manilov, officials are "most respectable people."

This hero cannot think about his life and make his own decisions. Everything in his life is replaced by verbiage. But still, Manilov is a good family man who sincerely loves his family, and joyfully welcomes any guest.

I think that Manilov is a pleasant and intelligent person, but as a person he is very boring. It seems to me that despite the fact that he is inactive, lazy and unkempt, his soul cannot be called dead. He loves his family and is proud of them. This means that a particle of the soul still remains in it, although somewhere very deep. And N.V. Gogol showed us a lazy and empty person, who can still be corrected. The author showed us how sickening it is to be lazy and inactive. A person loses his purpose in life, he simply gives himself up to unnecessary dreams. Therefore, you should never be limited to empty chatter, but try to make your dreams come true.

War is the most terrible, most terrible word in the world. From one of his pronunciations, goosebumps run and becomes uncomfortable.

The landowner Manilov is a bright hero in the gallery of characters in Gogol's poem. A direct characterization of Manilov from "Dead Souls" takes the author only one paragraph, but the house, furnishings and dialogues of the hero with Chichikov draw every trait of the character and nature of the landowner with unsurpassed skill.

Manilov's appearance

When describing Manilov, the author uses a number of proverbs and skillfully veiled irony. Very delicately, he talks about the appearance of the hero, hinting that the character is "nothing" both externally and internally - "neither fish nor meat." Facial features are pleasant, he himself is a “prominent” person: blond, blue-eyed, smiling. Manilov is dressed soundly, gives the impression of a noble person with pleasant features. Hospitality, transient into mania, is another of the qualities that are characteristic of the owner. Gogol honestly says that at the beginning of meeting such a person, one gets the impression that he is “extremely pleasant”, later the sweetness of speeches and overkill in the desire to please takes over, after some time the interlocutor thinks “hell knows what” and tries to escape, not to die of boredom.

The nature of the landowner

About the nature of the character, we learn more from the first lines “God alone could tell what Manilov’s character was”. This man could not find himself in anything (and did not look for it). The author does not give Manilov a name, unlike other characters, making it clear that his image is typical, generalized and completely impersonal. If someone had a penchant for arguing, was carried away by card games, hunting, or something else, then Manilov did not know how to do anything well, and had absolutely no inclination for anything.

The landowner could not formulate a single topic on which he would like to have conversations, only something sublime, abstract, which is impossible to express and designate in words. The author's way of characterizing the character through his speech very harmoniously reveals Manilov's inner world, excessive manners and sweetness of expressions go into the background. Laziness, a monotonous way of life, morbid daydreaming have turned him into an empty, inactive type who can compete in the ability to spend his life with any tavern reveler. The result is the same: chairs will stand for years and wait for new upholstery, the pond will turn into a swamp, and the arbor for reflection will be overgrown with thistles. The inability to create, manage, make decisions led to the fact that Manilov, a kind and enlightened owner, is daily robbed by his employees. The peasants lie to the landowner, get drunk and laugh at him. Domestic and yard workers steal in broad daylight, sleep until noon, work just as much as their master.

Life position

Like any limited person, Manilov falls into a complete stupor when he meets something new. Interest in "cases" is limited to the fact that he cares about the legality of any operations. This happened when Pavel Ivanovich offered him a deal. How profitable it is, the landowner does not think, this is too low a topic for such an exalted subtle nature as he is. Our character happily gives dead souls to Chichikov, verbally believes the guest about the legality of such an operation, rejoices because he has given pleasure to the interlocutor.

The attitude of the owner of the estate towards others is so monotonous that the ability to understand people is out of the question. The entire elite that governs the city together with relatives, wives and children, in his opinion, are "the most pleasant people." About whom you don’t ask: “the noblest”, “the most worthy”, “the most decent”. Manilov is sincerely happy because he knows such wonderful people, admires their education, intelligence and talents.

In fact, provincial officials are thieves, swindlers, drunkards and revelers, but the illusory world in which our hero exists does not allow such concepts. The landowner does not see beyond his own nose, lives on other people's beliefs and opinions. The main problem of “Manilovism” is that the happiness of such people is unshakable, they are not interested in or upset by anything, they exist in a separate reality and are quite satisfied with such a spiritually impoverished life.

In our article, briefly with quotations, a description and analysis of the image of the landowner Manilov is given. this material will be useful in preparing for the lesson, writing essays, test papers.

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