Today in class we met Gogol and his Dead Souls. It turns out N.V. wrote for seventeen years, not only Gogol’s book Dead souls It was supposed to be three volumes, but the author manages to publish only the first volume in full format. The second volume was written, but for his own reasons Gogol burned the second volume Dead souls, and did not have time to write the third volume at all, since the writer’s life was cut short.
Gogol Dead Souls
Gogol's short poem Dead Souls is suitable for reader's diary, where you can make a short annotation of the work.
Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a poem where the plot is based on the scam of the main character Chichikov, who planned to buy up all the dead souls for little money, and then pawn these souls in the guardianship council, but for a lot of money. What are these dead souls? In Russia, every ten years a census of serfs was carried out, however, people tend to die, and if a person died between the census, the landowner still had to pay taxes, since this person According to documents, he was considered alive. So Chichikov hoped to ransom all the dead, believing that such a deal would benefit the landowners.
It was with Chichikov’s trip to the city of N that our acquaintance with various landowners and officials began, who were the personification of all the rich people who lived during the times of serfdom. Among them were spendthrifts, such as Manilov and Nozdrev, there were also hoarders, such as Korobochka and Sobakevich, and there was also Plyushkin, who was so stingy that he himself went hungry and in rags, his people were dying of hunger, at that time like food rotting in pantries.
When you get acquainted with Gogol's work, you understand dead souls the author does not only mean dead peasants. Here the concept is much broader, because we see how degraded the landowners are, how devastated and spiritual they are. Whoever we take, Chichikov with his scam, Plyushkin, who has lost his human appearance, Nozdryov, whose children are like those dogs, but the dogs live in grand style, or Sobakevich, where there is no nobility and no decency. Everyone has dead souls.
Gogol in Dead Souls reveals the bureaucracy of that time, where he shows how corrupt it is and where there is continuous theft and fraud.
Gogol Dead souls main characters
Gogol in work Dead souls created his main character Chichikov as a rogue in whose image one can catch the features of other heroes of the work. Chichikov is a good psychologist, so his bargaining with the landowners is based on top level. He is cunning, enterprising, and greedy.
In addition, in each of the chapters other heroes appear before us, so we get acquainted with Manilov, a wasteful landowner, and Korobochka, a widow who was petty, cunning and calculating. We meet Nozdryov, a playmaker, and Sobakevich, who was a tight-fisted and stubborn owner. There is also Plyushkin, who was such a miser that he brought his farm to ruin.
Plan:
1.
Chichikov is in the city and finds out information about the landowners
2.
Chichikov and a successful free deal with Manilov
3.
Chichikov got lost and ended up on Korobochka's estate.
4.
Chichikov from Nozdryov with an attempt to ransom dead souls from him. Chichikov left Nozdryov empty-handed
5.
In the village near Sobakevich. He sells dead souls, praising every dead peasant
6.
Chichikov with Plyushkin and the deal with him
7.
Chichikov goes to court to certify the deal
8.
Chichikov was invited to a reception with the governor
9.
Everyone is discussing Chichikova and the issue with dead souls. Chichikov is no longer invited to balls. Chichikov is sick
10.
Everyone continues to wonder who Chichikov is. I remembered the story with Captain Kopeikin. Nozdryov is at Chichikov’s and talks about what is happening on the streets of the city
11.
Here we learn about Chichikov, his parents and his life. Chichikov flees the city
What everyone should know about immortal work Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Text: Sergey Volkov, Evgenia Vovchenko
Photo: artists Lesha Frey/metronews.ru and Mikhail Kheifets/plakat-msh
Everyone has read “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Whether completely or carefully is another question. In the meantime, Chichikov’s adventures are an obligatory part school curriculum, and schoolchildren patiently look for lyrical digressions, carefully analyze the life of landowners with such speaking surnames: Korobochka, Manilov, Nozdryov, are trying to understand the meaning of what has already become catchphrase“Rus, where are you going? give me the answer..."
But how many people reread Gogol after school? Are you ready to return to this mysterious work and look at it with your own adult eyes, and not with the eyes of school teacher, who is usually taken at his word. But sometimes you really want to show off your erudition among your friends, showing yourself to be an educated and well-read person. It is precisely for such people that the “Yes to Reading” project was invented, where in a few hours of intensive lectures you can fill in your gaps in literature. The project lecturer, a teacher of Russian language and literature, offers his own set of facts that everyone needs to know about the immortal “Dead Souls”.10 facts about “Dead Souls”
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It is believed that the plot of the work was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. Most likely, he grew up from Pletnev about his imminent marriage and about his dowry, formed after mortgaging 200 souls.
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The first volume was written abroad. As I noticed, “It’s scary to say that you not only love your country more from afar, but you also see it better and understand it better. Remember that our great genius
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s work “Dead Souls” is one of the author’s most striking works. This poem, the plot of which is related to the description of Russian reality of the 19th century, is of great value for Russian literature. It was also significant for Gogol himself. No wonder he called her “ national poem” and explained that in this way he tried to expose the shortcomings Russian Empire, and then change the appearance of their homeland for the better.
The birth of the genre
The idea for Gogol to write “Dead Souls” was suggested to the author by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. At first, the work was conceived as a light humorous novel. However, after work began on the work “Dead Souls,” the genre in which the text was originally intended to be presented was changed.
The fact is that Gogol considered the plot to be very original and gave the presentation a different, deeper meaning. As a result, a year after the start of work on the work “Dead Souls,” its genre became more extensive. The author decided that his brainchild should become nothing more than a poem.
Main idea
The writer divided his work into 3 parts. In the first of them, he decided to point out all the shortcomings that took place in his contemporary society. In the second part, he planned to show how the process of correcting people takes place, and in the third - the lives of heroes who have already changed for the better.
In 1841, Gogol completed writing the first volume of Dead Souls. The plot of the book shocked the entire reading country, causing a lot of controversy. After the release of the first part, the author began work on a continuation of his poem. However, he was never able to finish what he started. The second volume of the poem seemed imperfect to him, and nine days before his death he burned the only copy of the manuscript. Only drafts of the first five chapters have been preserved for us, which today are considered a separate work.
Unfortunately, the trilogy remained unfinished. But the poem “Dead Souls” should have had significant meaning. Its main purpose was to describe the movement of the soul, which went through a fall, purification, and then rebirth. The main character of the poem, Chichikov, had to go through this path to the ideal.
Plot
The story told in the first volume of the poem “Dead Souls” takes us to the nineteenth century. It tells the story of a journey across Russia undertaken by the main character, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, to acquire so-called dead souls from landowners. The plot of the work provides the reader with full picture morals and life of the people of that time.
Let's look at the chapters of "Dead Souls" with their plot in a little more detail. This will give general idea about a brilliant literary work.
Chapter one. Start
Where does the work “Dead Souls” begin? The topic raised in it describes the events that took place at a time when the French were finally expelled from Russian territory.
At the beginning of the story, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who held the position of collegiate adviser, arrived in one of the provincial cities. When analyzing “Dead Souls,” the image of the main character becomes clear. The author shows him as a middle-aged man with an average build and good appearance. Pavel Ivanovich is extremely inquisitive. Situations arise when one can even talk about his intrusiveness and annoyingness. So, from the tavern servant he is interested in the owner’s income, and also tries to find out about all the city officials and the most noble landowners. He is also interested in the state of the region to which he came.
A collegiate advisor does not sit alone. He visits all officials, finding the right approach to them and choosing words that are pleasant for people. That is why they treat him just as well, which even surprises Chichikov a little, who has experienced many negative reactions and even survived an assassination attempt.
The main purpose of Pavel Ivanovich’s arrival is to find a place for a quiet life. To do this, while attending a party in the governor’s house, he meets two landowners - Manilov and Sobakevich. At a dinner with the police chief, Chichikov became friends with the landowner Nozdryov.
Chapter two. Manilov
The continuation of the plot is connected with Chichikov’s trip to Manilov. The landowner met the official on the threshold of his estate and led him into the house. The road to Manilov's home lay among gazebos on which signs were posted indicating that these were places for reflection and solitude.
When analyzing “Dead Souls,” one can easily characterize Manilov based on this decoration. This is a landowner who has no problems, but at the same time is too cloying. Manilov says that the arrival of such a guest is comparable to a sunny day and the happiest holiday. He invites Chichikov to dinner. Present at the table are the mistress of the estate and the two sons of the landowner - Themistoclus and Alcides.
After a hearty lunch, Pavel Ivanovich decides to talk about the reason that brought him to these parts. Chichikov wants to buy peasants who have already died, but their death has not yet been reflected in the audit certificate. His goal is to draw up all the documents, supposedly these peasants are still alive.
How does Manilov react to this? He has dead souls. However, the landowner is initially surprised by this proposal. But then he agrees to the deal. Chichikov leaves the estate and goes to Sobakevich. Meanwhile, Manilov begins to dream about how Pavel Ivanovich will live next door to him and what kind of good friends they will be after he moves.
Chapter three. Getting to know the Box
On the way to Sobakevich, Selifan (Chichikov’s coachman) accidentally missed the right turn. And then it began to rain heavily, and Chichikov fell into the mud. All this forces the official to look for accommodation for the night, which he found with the landowner Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka. Analysis of “Dead Souls” indicates that this lady is afraid of everything and everyone. However, Chichikov did not waste time and offered to purchase the deceased peasants from her. At first the old woman was intractable, but after the visiting official promised to buy all the lard and hemp from her (but next time), she agrees.
The deal was completed. The box treated Chichikov to pancakes and pies. Pavel Ivanovich, having eaten a hearty meal, moved on. And the landowner began to worry very much that she did not take enough money for the dead souls.
Chapter Four. Nozdryov
After visiting Korobochka, Chichikov drove onto the main road. He decided to visit a tavern he came across along the way to have a little snack. And here the author wanted to give this action some mystery. He makes lyrical digressions. In "Dead Souls" he reflects on the properties of appetite, inherent in people, similar to the main character of his work.
While in the tavern, Chichikov meets Nozdryov. The landowner complained that he lost money at the fair. Then they follow to Nozdryov’s estate, where Pavel Ivanovich intends to make good money.
By analyzing “Dead Souls,” you can understand what Nozdryov is like. This is a person who really loves all kinds of stories. He tells them everywhere he goes. After a hearty lunch, Chichikov decides to bargain. However, Pavel Ivanovich cannot beg for dead souls or buy them. Nozdryov sets his own conditions, which consist of an exchange or purchase in addition to something. The landowner even suggests using dead souls as bets in the game.
Serious disagreements arise between Chichikov and Nozdrev, and they postpone the conversation until the morning. The next day, the men agreed to play checkers. However, Nozdryov tried to deceive his opponent, which was noticed by Chichikov. In addition, it turned out that the landowner was on trial. And Chichikov had no choice but to run when he saw the police captain.
Chapter Five. Sobakevich
Sobakevich continues the images of landowners in Dead Souls. It is to him that Chichikov comes to him after Nozdryov. The estate he visited was a match for its owner. Just as strong. The owner treats the guest to dinner, talking during the meal about city officials, calling them all swindlers.
Chichikov talks about his plans. They did not frighten Sobakevich at all, and the men quickly moved on to concluding the deal. However, here troubles began for Chichikov. Sobakevich began to bargain, talking about the most best qualities already deceased peasants. However, Chichikov does not need such characteristics, and he insists on his own. And here Sobakevich begins to hint at the illegality of such a deal, threatening to tell anyone about it. Chichikov had to agree to the price offered by the landowner. They sign the document, still fearing a trick from each other.
There are lyrical digressions in “Dead Souls” in the fifth chapter. The author ends the story about Chichikov’s visit to Sobakevich with discussions about the Russian language. Gogol emphasizes the diversity, strength and richness of the Russian language. Here he points out the peculiarity of our people to give everyone nicknames associated with various offenses or the course of circumstances. They do not leave their owner until his death.
Chapter six. Plyushkin
A very interesting hero is Plyushkin. "Dead Souls" shows him as a very greedy person. The landowner does not even throw away his old sole that has fallen off his boot and carries it into the already quite decent pile of similar rubbish.
However, Plyushkin sells dead souls very quickly and without bargaining. Pavel Ivanovich is very happy about this and refuses the tea with crackers offered by the owner.
Chapter seven. Deal
Having achieved his initial goal, Chichikov is sent to the civil chamber to finally resolve the issue. Manilov and Sobakevich had already arrived in the city. The chairman agrees to become the attorney for Plyushkin and all other sellers. The deal took place, and champagne was opened for the health of the new landowner.
Chapter eight. Rumors. Ball
The city began to discuss Chichikov. Many decided that he was a millionaire. Girls began to go crazy for him and send love messages. Once at the governor's ball, he literally finds himself in the arms of the ladies. However, his attention is attracted by a sixteen-year-old blonde. At this time, Nozdryov comes to the ball, loudly inquiring about the purchase of dead souls. Chichikov had to leave in complete confusion and sadness.
Chapter Nine. Profit or love?
At this time, the landowner Korobochka arrived in the city. She decided to clarify whether she had made a mistake with the cost of dead souls. The news about the amazing purchase and sale becomes the property of the city residents. People believe that dead souls are a cover for Chichikov, but in fact he dreams of taking away the blonde he likes, who is the daughter of the governor.
Chapter ten. Versions
The city literally came to life. News appears one after another. They talk about the appointment of a new governor, the presence of supporting papers about false banknotes, about an insidious robber who escaped from the police, etc. Many versions arise, and they all relate to Chichikov’s personality. The excitement of people negatively affects the prosecutor. He dies from the blow.
Chapter Eleven. Purpose of the event
Chichikov does not know what the city is talking about about him. He goes to the governor, but he is not received there. In addition, the people he meets on the way shy away from the official in different directions. Everything becomes clear after Nozdryov arrives at the hotel. The landowner tries to convince Chichikov that he tried to help him kidnap the governor’s daughter.
And here Gogol decides to talk about his hero and why Chichikov buys dead souls. The author tells the reader about his childhood and schooling, where Pavel Ivanovich already showed the ingenuity given to him by nature. Gogol also talks about Chichikov’s relationships with his comrades and teachers, about his service and work in the commission located in a government building, as well as about his transfer to serve in customs.
The analysis of “Dead Souls” clearly indicates the inclinations of the protagonist, which he used to complete his deal described in the work. After all, in all his places of work, Pavel Ivanovich managed to make a lot of money by concluding fake contracts and conspiracies. In addition, he did not disdain working with smuggling. In order to avoid criminal punishment, Chichikov resigned. Having switched to work as an attorney, he immediately formed an insidious plan in his head. Chichikov wanted to purchase dead souls in order to pawn them, as if they were alive, in the treasury in order to receive money. Next, his plans were to buy a village in order to provide for future offspring.
In part, Gogol justifies his hero. He considers him the owner, who with his mind has built such an interesting chain of transactions.
Images of landowners
These heroes of Dead Souls are especially vividly presented in five chapters. Moreover, each of them is dedicated to only one landowner. There is a certain pattern in the placement of chapters. The images of the landowners of “Dead Souls” are arranged in them according to the degree of their degradation. Let's remember who was the first of them? Manilov. “Dead Souls” describes this landowner as a lazy and dreamy, sentimental and practically unadapted person to life. This is confirmed by many details, for example, a farm that has fallen into disrepair and a house standing on the south side, open to all winds. Author using amazing artistic power words, shows his reader the deadness of Manilov and his worthlessness life path. After all, for visual appeal there is a spiritual emptiness.
What other vivid images were created in the work “Dead Souls”? The heroic landowners in the image of Korobochka are people who are focused only on their farm. It is not without reason that at the end of the third chapter the author draws an analogy between this landowner and all aristocratic ladies. The box is distrustful and stingy, superstitious and stubborn. In addition, she is narrow-minded, petty and narrow-minded.
Next in terms of degree of degradation comes Nozdryov. Like many other landowners, he does not change with age, not even trying to develop internally. The image of Nozdryov represents a portrait of a reveler and a braggart, a drunkard and a cheater. This landowner is passionate and energetic, but all his positive qualities are wasted. The image of Nozdryov is as typical as that of previous landowners. And this is emphasized by the author in his statements.
Describing Sobakevich, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol resorts to comparing him with a bear. In addition to clumsiness, the author describes his parodically inverted heroic power, earthiness and rudeness.
But the extreme degree of degradation is described by Gogol in the image of the richest landowner in the province - Plyushkin. During his biography, this man went from a thrifty owner to a half-crazy miser. And it was not social conditions that led him to this state. Plyushkin's moral decline provoked loneliness.
Thus, all landowners in the poem “Dead Souls” are united by such traits as idleness and inhumanity, as well as spiritual emptiness. And he contrasts this world of truly “dead souls” with faith in the inexhaustible potential of the “mysterious” Russian people. It is not for nothing that at the end of the work the image of an endless road along which a trio of birds rushes appears. And in this movement the writer’s confidence in the possibility of the spiritual transformation of humanity and in the great destiny of Russia is manifested.
). It’s hard for him at home. “Everything, including the very air, torments and suffocates me,” he says. In the summer of 1842, he left Russia again, this time for six whole years. At the end of the same year he prepares for publication full meeting of their writings. This date marks the end of the last literary period of his life. For the remaining ten years, he slowly and steadily moves away from literature.
Gogol. Dead souls. Lecturer - Dmitry Bak
In “The Author's Confession,” Gogol reports that Pushkin advised him to write a great novel and gave him a plot: some clever rogue is buying up serfs who have already died, but according to the papers are still listed as alive; then he pawns them in a pawnshop and in this way acquires large capital. Gogol began to write without a specific plan, carried away by the opportunity to travel with his hero throughout Russia, to depict many funny faces and funny phenomena.
Initially, “Dead Souls” seemed to him to be an adventure novel like “Don Quixote” by Cervantes or “Gilles Blas” by Lesage. But under the influence of the spiritual turning point that occurred in him while working on this work, the character of the novel gradually began to change. From the adventurous story “Dead Souls” they turn into a huge poem in three volumes, into the Russian “Divine Comedy”, the first part of which should correspond to “Hell”, the second to “Purgatory” and the third to “Paradise”. First - the dark phenomena of Russian life, vulgar, stupid, vicious “dead souls”. Then the gradual onset of dawn: in the excerpts of the unfinished second volume, “virtuous” faces are already encountered: the ideal owner Kostanzhoglo, perfect girl Ulenka, the wise old man Murazov, preaching about the “improvement of mental property.” Finally, in the third volume conceived but not written, there is a complete triumph of light.
Gogol fervently believed in the spiritual beauty of Russia, in the moral treasures of the Russian people - and he was tormented by the reproaches of critics who claimed that he was capable of depicting only the base and ugly. How he longed to glorify his homeland. But his tragedy was that he would have been given a great satirical talent, a brilliant ability to notice everything funny and vulgar in life and a complete inability to create “ ideal images“- Meanwhile, he looked at his work as a religious and social service; he did not want to entertain and make the reader laugh, but to teach him and turn him to God. From this internal conflict Gogol died without finishing his poem.
In the first volume of Dead Souls, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a man of very decent appearance and a notorious rogue, comes to a provincial town, charms the governor, police chief, prosecutor and the entire provincial society, meets with the largest landowners and then visits their estates. We get acquainted with the “types” of landowners, depicted so vividly, with such vitality that their surnames have long become common nouns. Sweet to the point of cloying, Manilov, who gave his sons the names of Themistoclus and Alcidas and touchingly whispered to his wife: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this piece for you.” The club-headed, stingy housewife Korobochka, mortally frightened by the fact that she sold dead souls for cheap. Nozdryov, a fine fellow with rosy cheeks and jet-black sideburns, a carouser, a liar, a braggart, a sharper and a brawler, always selling, changing, buying something. Sobakevich, similar “to a medium-sized bear,” tight-fisted and cunning, the kulak is the owner, bargaining for pennies on each dead soul and slipping a woman “Elizabeth Sparrow” into Chichikov instead of a man. The miser Plyushkin, in a robe that looks like a woman's hood, with four flaps dangling behind him, is a landowner who robs his own peasants and lives in some kind of warehouse of dusty junk; Chichikov himself, overwhelmed by the passion of profit, committing fraud and meanness for the sake of the dream of a rich life; his footman Petrushka, who carries a special smell with him everywhere and reads for the sake of the pleasant process of reading, and the coachman Selifan, philosophizing while drunk and bitterly reproaching his treacherous horses. All these figures, improbable, almost caricatured, are full of their own, eerie life.
Gogol's fantasy, which creates living people, takes little account of reality. He has a special “fantastic realism”; this is not verisimilitude, but the complete convincingness and independence of artistic fiction. It would be absurd to judge Nikolaev Russia by “Dead Souls.” Gogol's world is governed by its own laws, and his masks seem more alive than real people.
When the author of “Dead Souls” read the first chapters of the poem to Pushkin, he first laughed, then “he began to gradually become gloomier and gloomier, and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading ended, he said in a voice of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is.” “It amazed me,” adds Gogol. “Pushkin, who knew Russia so well, did not notice that all this was a caricature and my own invention.”
The first volume of Dead Souls ends with Chichikov's hasty departure from provincial town, thanks to Nozdryov and Korobochka, rumors about his buying dead shower. The city is engulfed in a whirlwind of gossip. Chichikov is considered a robber, a spy, Captain Kopeikin and even Napoleon.
In the surviving chapters of the second volume, Chichikov's wanderings continue; new “types” appear: the fat glutton Pyotr Petrovich Rooster, the brave warrior General Betrishchev, the lazy and dreamy “baybak” and the “sky smoker” Tentetnikov. The author's humor is noticeably weakening, his creative powers are diminishing. The artist is often overshadowed by the moralist preacher. Dissatisfied with his work, Gogol burned the second volume before his death.
The verbal fabric of “Dead Souls” is unusually complex. Gogol mocks the romantic “beauties of style” and strives for accuracy and detailed recording of actual facts. He counts all the buttons on his heroes' dresses, all the pimples on their faces. He will not miss anything - not a single gesture, not a single grimace, not a single wink or cough. In this deliberate solemnity of the depiction of trifles, in this pathos of exalting insignificance, there is his merciless irony. Gogol destroys his heroes with laughter: Chichikov puts on his tailcoat of “lingonberry color with a sparkle” - and the stigma of vulgarity forever falls on his image. Irony and “natural painting” turn people into mannequins, forever repeating the same mechanical gestures; life is mortified and scattered into countless meaningless little things. Truly a terrible kingdom of “dead souls”!
And then suddenly, unexpectedly, a fresh wind flies into this musty and stuffy world. The mocking prose writer gives way to the enthusiastic poet; interrupted pedantically - detailed description vulgar faces and wretched things and a stream of inspired lyrics flows. The author touchingly recalls his youth, speaks excitedly about the great purpose of the writer and stretches out his hands to his homeland with ecstatic love. Against the backdrop of cold mockery and evil satire, these lyrical flights amaze with their fiery poetry.
Chichikov in his chaise left the city of NN, sadly and sadly stretched along the sides of the road “miles, station keepers, wells, convoys, gray villages with samovars, small towns, pockmarked barriers, bridges being repaired, endless fields...”. This enumeration resembles not so much a description of a landscape as an inventory of some wretched junk... and suddenly Gogol turns to Russia:
"Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you!.. Everything in you is open - deserted and even; like dots, like icons, your low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains; nothing will seduce or enchant the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song heard and heard incessantly in your ears, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul and curl around my heart? Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection lies between us? Why are you looking like that, and why did everything that is in you turn its eyes full of expectation to me?.. And still full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains, has already overshadowed my head, and my thoughts are numb in front of your space . What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn't a hero be here when there is room for him to turn around and walk? And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; my eyes lit up with unnatural power! what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus!.."
Analysis of the poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol for those who take the Unified State Examination in Russian language and literature.
Ideological and artistic originality of the poem “Dead Souls”
“Dead Souls” as a realistic work:b) Principles of realism in the poem: Historicism Gogol wrote about his modernity - approximately the late 20s - early 30s, during the crisis of serfdom in Russia. Typical characters in typical circumstances. The main trends in the depiction of landowners and officials are satirical description, social typification and a general critical orientation.
“Dead Souls” is a work of everyday life. Particular attention is paid to the description of nature, the estate and interior, and the details of the portrait. Most of the characters are shown statically. Much attention paid to details, the so-called “mud of little things” (Plyushkin’s character). Gogol correlates different plans: universal scales (a lyrical digression about a three-bird bird) and the smallest details (a description of a trip along extremely bad Russian roads).
Means of satirical typification:
a) Author's characteristics of the characters,
b) Comic situations (for example, Manilov and Chichikov cannot separate at the door),
c) Appeal to the past of the heroes (Chichikov, Plyushkin),
d) Hyperbole ( unexpected death prosecutor, Sobakevich’s extraordinary gluttony),
e) Proverbs (“Neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan”),
f) Comparisons (Sobakevich is compared to a medium-sized bear. Korobochka is compared to a mongrel in the manger).
Genre originality:
Calling his work a “poem,” Gogol meant: “a lesser kind of epic... Prospectus for a textbook of literature for Russian youth. The hero of epics is a private and invisible person, but significant in many respects for observing the human soul.” Poem is a genre that goes back to traditions ancient epic, in which holistic existence was recreated in all its contradictions. The Slavophiles insisted on this characteristic of “Dead Souls,” appealing to the fact that elements of the poem, as a glorifying genre, are also present in “Dead Souls” (lyrical digressions). Gogol, in letters to friends, called “Dead Souls” not only a poem, but also a novel. In "Dead Souls" there are features of adventurous, picaresque, and also social novel. However, it is customary not to call “Dead Souls” a novel, since there is practically no love intrigue in the work.Features of the plot and composition:
Features of the plot of “Dead Souls” are associated primarily with the image of Chichikov and his ideological and compositional role. Gogol: “The author leads his life through a chain of adventures and changes, in order to present at the same time a true picture of everything significant in the traits and morals of the time he took... a picture of shortcomings, abuses, vices.” In a letter to V. Zhukovsky, Gogol mentions that he wanted to show “all of Rus'” in the poem. The poem is written in the form of a journey, disparate fragments of Russian life are combined into a single whole. This is the main compositional role of Chichikov. The independent role of the image comes down to describing a new type of Russian life, an entrepreneur-adventurer. In Chapter 11, the author gives a biography of Chichikov, from which it follows that the hero uses either the position of an official or the mythical position of a landowner to achieve his goals.The composition is built on the principle of “concentric circles” or “closed spaces” (city, estates of landowners, all of Russia).
Theme of homeland and people:
Gogol wrote about his work: “All of Rus' will appear in it.” The life of the ruling class and the common people is given without idealization. Peasants are characterized by ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and downtroddenness (the images of Petrushka and Selifan, the yard girl Korobochka, who does not know where is right and where is left, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, who are discussing whether Chichikov’s chaise will reach Moscow and Kazan). Nevertheless, the author warmly describes the talent and other creative abilities of the people (a lyrical digression about the Russian language, a characterization of the Yaroslavl peasant in a digression about the bird-troika, Sobakevich’s register of peasants).Much attention is paid to the popular revolt (the story of Captain Kopeikin). The theme of the future of Russia is reflected in Gogol’s poetic attitude towards his homeland (lyrical digressions about Rus' and the three-bird).
About the second volume of “Dead Souls”:
Gogol, in the image of the landowner Kostanzhoglo, tried to show a positive ideal. It embodied Gogol's ideas about the harmonious structure of life: reasonable management, responsible attitude to the work of all those involved in organizing the estate, the use of the fruits of science. Under the influence of Kostanzhoglo, Chichikov had to reconsider his attitude to reality and “correct.” Feeling the “untruth of life” in his work, Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls.1. The originality of the genre of N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.
2. The meaning of the title of the poem.
3. The plot and composition of the poem.
4.Principles of creating characters in a poem.
5.The image of Chichikov as a “hero of the time” of the initial accumulation of capital.
6.Role and subject matter lyrical digressions.
7.The image of the author and his ideals.
8. The essence of the comic in the poem.
9.Image of the provincial city and St. Petersburg.
The poem “Dead Souls” is the pinnacle of Gogol’s creativity. He worked on it from mid-1835 until last days life. He envisioned a large-scale epic work consisting of 3 volumes. But the second volume reached us in drafts and sketches, and Gogol never started the 3rd. However, the first part, which, after its publication in May 1942, seemed to Gogol only an introduction to what was to follow, “only a porch to a palace that was planned to be built on a colossal scale,” as he reported in a letter to Zhukovsky, in fact, it turned out to be completely complete, moreover, perfect in plot-compositional, aesthetic and moral relations work.
The plot of “Dead Souls,” as we know, was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin, which Gogol spoke about in “The Author’s Confession.” Pushkin told Gogol the story of the adventures of one adventurer, who decided to buy from the landowners the peasants who died after the last census, who were listed as alive according to the so-called “revision tale,” and mortgage them to the newly created Guardian Council for a loan. The idea of creating Guardian Councils on a state scale was intended to activate the owner and help landowners adapt to new living conditions in the conditions of the advancing capitalization of Russia. But what looked quite reasonable on paper, in reality immediately revealed its senselessness and illogicality. The story that actually happened, under the pen of Gogol, turned, on the one hand, into a phantasmagoria in which “dead souls” with “cold, fragmented, everyday characters” act, and on the other hand, presented to the reader a complex, polyphonic, incomprehensible Rus', which rushes into the unknown distance, “like a lively,” unstoppable bird-three.”
The plot, donated by Pushkin, was significantly transformed, overgrown with details and details of Russian life, the most colorful figures of landowners and officials, each of which is a true masterpiece of Gogol’s talent, inserted short stories and stories, author’s digressions and reasoning, embodied in a work of a unique genre form that is being thought about and many generations of readers, researchers, critics argue.
Gogol himself thought long and painfully about the genre nature of his brainchild. Initially, he was inclined to call it a novel, but later he was inclined to think that his new work was a poem, but not in the traditional sense, but in some kind of special significance words. Gogol set himself the task of not just an accusatory, but also a philosophical one: to see behind the petty and fragmented life of insignificant people who deserve only the name “dead souls”, the future of Russia, its creative forces, its “living soul.” Therefore, the genre forms of the novel in the form in which they then existed were cramped for the writer.
But the poem in its traditional form that existed at that time does not suit Gogol. Gogol creates his new work without constraining himself by the framework of the genre forms that existed at that time, boldly combining an objective-epic narrative and the lyrical voice of the author, coming from the heart, pathos and drama, humor and satire, sharp, accusatory grotesque and subtle, refined irony.
The plot of the poem is based on the movement of a “changing” character who knows how to adapt to circumstances, in general, mimicking, through a whole series of “fixed” characters - landowners. Moreover, this movement is far from random in nature, even if the meeting of the characters occurred by chance (Chichikov got to Korobochka after getting lost among the endless Russian roads, and met Nozdryov in a tavern). From chapter to chapter, the monstrous nature of the heroes intensifies, manifested in their portrait, clothing, attitude towards the guest and towards their serfs, in the manner of conducting a conversation and bargaining - i.e. in all the details depicting their life and customs. In the guise of Manilov - “excess sugar”, Korobochka - “club-headedness”, Nozdryov - open rudeness and fraud, Sobakevich - “kulaks”, Plyushkin - senseless hoarding, destroying both the economy and the soul. But the intensification of the grotesque when characterizing landowners is not straightforward. And where the destruction of the individual, it would seem, has already reached its limit, something suddenly appears indicating that, perhaps, everything is not so hopeless. Sobakevich’s farm has been firmly put together; his serfs, released on quitrent (let us remember that this action itself testified to the progressiveness of the landowner, for example, Onegin “replaced the yoke of the ancient corvee with an easy quitrent,” as a result of which the neighboring landowners began to consider him a most dangerous eccentric), become, by virtue of their skill and hard workers are known not only in the province, but also in Moscow: the carriage maker Mikheev, the carpenter Stepan Probka, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the merchant Eremey Sorokaplekhin, who lived in Moscow with his home and brought in one quitrent for five hundred rubles. For comparison, it is appropriate to remember that the official Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin received a salary of only four hundred rubles or so per year. “The old rogue and beast,” Sobakevich was the only one able to resist the pressure of the rogue new formation Chichikova.
The image of Plyushkin is even more complex. Either a woman or a man, in general, “a hole in humanity”; he was the only landowner who was included in normal human relations, albeit in a distorted form. He had a family, children, and currently grandchildren, whom he even rocked on his knees when they came to visit him; there was a friend, in his words, a “one-tender”, at the mention of whom his eyes sparkled with a lively sparkle and he, separated by his stinginess from all humanity, even from his own children, wished to convey greetings to him through Chichikov. But his degradation is irreversible: “Plyushkin’s face, following the feeling that instantly slid across it, became even more insensitive and even more vulgar.” But even this warm ray of life that appeared for a moment in this insensitive world helps Gogol overcome the hopelessness of what he depicts and call readers to a new, better, have a wonderful life: “Take it with you on the journey, emerging from the soft years of youth into harsh, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!” Lyrical digressions and author’s comments on epic paintings and sketches permeate the entire narrative . The author’s voice is ironic when he describes his “cold and fragmented” heroes, sad when he talks about the difficult path of a satirical writer called upon to “look at the whole enormously rushing life ... through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him,” sublime, when his thought concerns the destinies of Russia, he is inspired, when it comes to the creative, constructive forces of the people, about national treasure him - a burning Russian word. The vulgar, insignificant characters about whom the writer narrates do not notice the endless expanses of Russia, the forces folk spirit, the very energy of perpetual movement, which is formed by a system of lyrical digressions and gives birth, in turn, to the image of Rus'-troika: “Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are endless? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place for him to turn around and walk?” But there is no such hero and there is nowhere to get one. This is how the reader’s inner tragic conflict poem: “Rus, where are you rushing? Give me the answer. Doesn't give an answer."
The “hero of time” in the poem turns out to be not a hero, but a rogue. In the preface to the second edition of Dead Souls, Gogol said about Chichikov: “He was taken more to show the shortcomings and vices of the Russian man, and not his virtues and virtues.” We see in these words much in common with how Lermontov characterizes his hero: “a portrait made up of the vices and shortcomings of an entire generation in their full development.” Chichikov is faceless and multifaceted, which allows him to easily adapt to those whom he wants to please: with Manilov he is cloyingly amiable, with Korobochka he is petty-persistent and rude, with Nozdryov he is cynical and cowardly, with Sobakevich he is firm and cunning, with Plyushkin – hypocritical in his imaginary “magnanimity”. It’s easy for Chichikov to turn out to be a “mirror” of any of these heroes, because he himself contains the empty dreaminess of Manilov, when he imagines himself as a Kherson landowner, forgetting that he is the owner of serfs only on paper, and Nozdryov’s narcissism, and Sobakevich’s cynicism, and the hoarding behavior of Korobochka and Plyushkin, materialized in his little chest, where he puts unnecessary trifles, like Plyushkin, but with Korobochka’s thorough neatness. Despite the fact that he is constantly obsessed with all kinds of activities, primarily aimed at improving his financial situation, despite the fact that he is able to be reborn after the next setbacks and failures of his scams, he is also a “dead soul”, because it is not available to him “the brilliant joy of life” even when he rushes in the “bird-three.” Chichikov, striving to enrich himself at any cost, frees himself from everything human in himself and is merciless towards people who stand in his way. In passing judgment on his hero, Gogol understands that the type of bourgeois businessman is very viable, and therefore intended to take Chichikov through all three volumes of his epic poem. The theme of the provincial city, as it were, frames the narrative of Chichikov’s journey to the landowners. The image of the City has independent meaning, giving completeness to the story of modern Russia. In one of the rough sketches for Dead Souls, Gogol wrote: “The idea of the city. Originated before highest degree Emptiness. Idle talk. Gossip that went beyond limits, how everything arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous to the highest degree.” The provincial town, located not far from two capitals, is a caricatured reflection of the morals that reign everywhere: bribery, embezzlement, the illusion of activity and, ultimately, the illusion of life instead of life itself. It is no coincidence that when describing the inhabitants of the city and its morals, comparisons from the inanimate, lifeless world are so often used. At the governor’s ball, “black tailcoats flashed and rushed apart and in heaps here and there, like flies rush on white refined sugar during the hot July summer, when the old housekeeper chops and divides it into sparkling fragments in front of open window“, the officials were enlightened people: “some read Karamzin, some Moskovskie Vedomosti, some even read nothing at all” - for the “dead souls” everything is the same. In a solitary environment, wives, wanting to caress their betrothed, also do not go beyond the boundaries of the objective, non-spiritual world; calling them “little pods, fat ones, pot-bellies, nigellas, kiki, juju, etc.” The official Ivan Antonovich resembled a “jug’s snout”, and in his presence they were working on papers “tailcoats, frock coats of the provincial cut and even just some kind of light gray jacket, which, turning its head to the side and placing it almost on the very paper, wrote out in a smart and sweeping manner what "protocol." Although Gogol does not paint the officials in as much detail and detail as the landowners, highlighting only one characteristic detail of their appearance and behavior, in general, the ominous and expressive portrait of the City takes its rightful place in the poem.
The theme of St. Petersburg is also connected with the description of the officials of the provincial city, which turns out to be a cross-cutting theme in Gogol’s work, starting with “The Night Before Christmas.” In almost every chapter, Gogol recalls St. Petersburg in one way or another, and always with irony and condemnation of its deadening morals. Just look at his reasoning that even among respectable statesmen there are people as stupid, club-headed as Korobochka. The theme of St. Petersburg occupies an important place in the insert short story “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which is not directly related to the plot. Nevertheless, Gogol was very sensitive to the censor’s desire to shorten or completely remove this story from Dead Souls. In the history of a disabled person Patriotic War, left with his misfortune to the mercy of fate, many themes of “Dead Souls” are focused: the theme of the lack of rights of the people, the theme of bureaucratic arbitrariness, but most importantly, the theme of future retribution for sins, relevant for Gogol’s work as a whole, acquires here quite definite social features. Kopeikin, humiliated to the limit, straightens up and gains a sense of self-esteem: “If the general tells me to look for the means to help myself, fine, I’ll find the means!” The hero of the Patriotic War becomes the chieftain of robbers. If in previous chapters the indifference of officials to the needs of ordinary petitioners who are unable to give a bribe is described ironically, then in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” the contrast between the unfortunate Kopeikin and high-ranking St. Petersburg officials is grotesque in nature and reveals its connection with the story “The Overcoat”, which appears in protection " little man».
With the advent of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls,” the satirical line of Russian literature gained new strength, expanded the methods of expression, and introduced new principles of typification. The experience of Gogol's satire turned out to be fruitful in the second half of the 19th century, being realized in Nekrasov's satirical poem "Contemporaries", novels and fairy tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Chekhov's short stories.