At the beginning of work on the poem, N.V. Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: “What a huge, what an original plot! What a diverse bunch! All of Rus' will appear in it.” This is how Gogol himself determined the scope of his work - all of Rus'. And the writer managed to show in its entirety both negative and positive aspects life in Russia of that era. Gogol’s plan was grandiose: like Dante, to depict Chichikov’s path first in “hell” – Volume I of “Dead Souls”, then “in purgatory” – Volume II of “Dead Souls” and “in heaven” – Volume III. But this plan was not realized until the end, until the reader in full only volume I reached, in which Gogol shows negative aspects Russian life.
The images of the author's contemporary landowners are most widely represented on the pages of the poem.
In Korobochka, Gogol presents us with a different type of Russian landowner. Thrifty, hospitable, hospitable, she suddenly becomes “club-headed” in the scene sales of the dead shower, for fear of selling out. This is the type of person with his own mind.
In Nozdryov, Gogol showed a different form of decomposition of the nobility. The writer shows us 2 essences of Nozdryov: first, he is an open, daring, direct face. But then you have to be convinced that Nozdryov’s sociability is an indifferent familiarity with everyone he meets and crosses, his liveliness is an inability to concentrate on any serious subject or matter, his energy is a waste of energy in revelries and rowdy behavior. His main passion, in the words of the writer himself, is “to spoil your neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.”
Sobakevich is akin to Korobochka. He, like her, is a hoarder. Only, unlike Korobochka, he is a smart and cunning hoarder. He manages to deceive Chichikov himself. Sobakevich is rude, cynical, uncouth; No wonder he is compared to an animal (a bear). By this Gogol emphasizes the degree of savagery of man, the degree of death of his soul.
This gallery of “dead souls” is completed by the “hole in humanity” Plyushkin. It's eternal in classical literature image of a stingy person. Plyushkin - extreme degree of economic, social and moral decay human personality.
To the gallery of landowners who are essentially " dead souls", provincial officials also join in.
Who can we call living souls in the poem, and do they even exist? I think Gogol did not intend to contrast the suffocating atmosphere of the life of officials and landowners with the life of the peasantry. On the pages of the poem, the peasants are depicted far from being pink colors. The footman Petrushka sleeps without undressing and “always carries with him some special smell.” The coachman Selifan is not a fool to drink. But it is precisely for the peasants that Gogol has kind words and warm intonation when he speaks, for example, about Pyotr Neumyvay-Koryto, Ivan Koleso, Stepan Probka, resourceful man Eremey Sorokoplekhin. These are all the people whose fate the author thought about and asked the question: “What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime? How have you gotten by?”
But there is at least something bright in Rus' that cannot be corroded under any circumstances; there are people who are the “salt of the earth.” Did Gogol himself, this genius of satire and singer of the beauty of Rus', come from somewhere? Eat! It must be! Gogol believes in this, and therefore at the end of the poem appears artistic image Rus'-troika, rushing into a future in which there will be no Nozdrevs, Plyushkins. A bird or three rushes forward. “Rus', where are you going? Give me an answer. He doesn’t give an answer.”
In 1852, after Gogol’s death, Nekrasov wrote a wonderful poem, which can be an epigraph to Gogol’s entire work:
Feeding my chest with hatred,
Armed with satire,
He goes through a thorny path
With your punishing lyre.
These lines seem to give the exact definition of Gogol’s satire, because satire is an evil, sarcastic ridicule of not just universal human shortcomings, but also social vices. This laughter is not kind, sometimes “through tears invisible to the world,” because (and Gogol believed so) it is the satirical ridicule of the negative in our lives that can serve to correct it.
Laughter is a weapon, a sharp, combat weapon, with the help of which the writer fought all his life against the “abominations of Russian reality.” The great satirist began his creative path from a description of the life, morals and customs of Ukraine, dear to his heart, gradually moving on to a description of all of vast Rus'. Nothing escaped the artist’s attentive eye: neither the vulgarity and parasitism of the landowners, nor the meanness and insignificance of the inhabitants. “Mirgorod”, “Arabesques”, “The Inspector General”, “Marriage”, “The Nose”, “Dead Souls” - a caustic satire on existing reality. Gogol became the first of the Russian writers in whose work the negative phenomena of life were most clearly reflected. Belinsky called Gogol the head of the new realistic school: “With the publication of Mirgorod and The Inspector General, Russian literature took a completely new direction.” The critic believed that “the perfect truth of life in Gogol’s stories is closely connected with the simplicity of fiction. He does not flatter life, but does not slander it; he is happy to expose everything that is beautiful and human in it, and at the same time does not hide anything and its ugliness."
A satirical writer, turning to the “shadow of little things,” to “cold, fragmented, everyday characters,” must have a subtle sense of proportion, artistic tact, and a passionate love of nature. Knowing about the difficult, harsh field of a satirist writer, Gogol still did not renounce it and became one, taking it as the motto of his work the following words: “Who else but the author should tell the holy truth!” Only a true son of the motherland could, in the conditions of Nicholas Russia, dare to bring to light the bitter truth in order to contribute through his creativity to the weakening of the feudal-serf system, thereby contributing to Russia’s movement forward.
In The Inspector General, Gogol “collected everything bad in Russia into one pile,” bringing out a whole gallery of bribe-takers, embezzlers, ignoramuses, fools, liars, etc. Everything in “The Inspector General” is funny: the plot itself, when the first person of the city mistakes a vacuous man from the capital for an inspector, a man “with extraordinary lightness of mind,” the transformation of Khlestakov from a cowardly “elistratishka” into a “general” (after all, those around him mistake him for a general) , the scene of Khlestakov’s lies, the scene of a declaration of love to two ladies at once, and, of course, the denouement and silent comedy scene.
Gogol did not bring out in his comedy " positive hero". The positive beginning in The Inspector General, in which the high moral and social ideal of the writer underlying his satire was embodied, was "laughter", the only " honest face"in comedy. It was laughter, wrote Gogol, "which completely flows out of the bright nature of man... because at the bottom of it lies an ever-bubbling spring of it, which deepens the subject, makes brightly appear that which would have slipped, without the permeable power of which it is a trifle and the emptiness of life would not frighten a person so much.”
Show skill N.V. Gogol in the description of the characters of landowners in the poem “Dead Souls”.
Design:
- Portraits of Chichikov and landowners.
- Text of the poem “Dead Souls”.
- Presentation “Images of landowners in the poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls”. (Appendix 1)
- Fragments of the video film “Dead Souls”. (DVD series “Russian Classics”)
PROGRESS OF THE LESSON
I. Organizational moment (greeting).
Reporting the topic of the lesson, goal setting.
II. Opening remarks teachers.
Close up in the poem “Dead Souls” images of landowners are drawn, these “masters of life”, responsible for its economic and cultural condition, for the fate of the people.
What are they, the masters of life? A plan is proposed to analyze the images of landowners. Slide 2
III. Analysis of the image of Manilov.
Which landowner does Chichikov visit first? Slide 3
When does Chichikov's first meeting with Manilov take place? View V ideological fragment “Chichikov at Manilov”
Assignment: using the memo plan, tell about Manilov. Performance by the 1st group of students.
What detail in the description of the hero is dominant?
What is hidden behind Manilov’s smiling face? How the author himself characterizes the hero ?
A pleasant Manilov smile for everyone is a sign of deep indifference to everything around him; such people are not capable of experiencing anger, sorrow, joy.
With the help of what details does Gogol give a comic coloring to the images of his characters?
An integral part of Gogol's portrait drawing are poses, clothing, movements, gestures, and facial expressions. With their help, the writer enhances the comic coloring of the images and reveals the true essence of the hero. Manilov's gestures indicate mental impotence, an inability to comprehend what goes beyond the boundaries of his wretched little world.
What is distinguishing feature Manilov?
His main psychological trait is the desire to please everyone and always.
Manilov is a calm observer of everything that happens; bribe takers, thieves, embezzlers - all the most respected people for him. Manilov is an indefinite person; he has no living human desires. This is a dead soul, a person “so-so, neither this nor that.”
Conclusion. Slide 4
Instead of real feeling, Manilov has a “pleasant smile”, cloying courtesy and a sensitive phrase; instead of thought - some kind of incoherent, stupid reflections, instead of activity - either empty dreams, or such results of “labor” as “slides of ash knocked out of a pipe, arranged, not without effort, in very beautiful rows.”
IV. Analysis of the image of the Box.
Briefly describe the contents of Chapter 3.
What can you find out about main feature Character Boxes from direct author's characteristics?
Gogol does not hide the irony regarding her thinking abilities: she thought, opened her mouth, looked almost with fear. “Well, the woman seems to be strong-minded!”
The essence of Korobochka's character is especially visible through the dialogical speech of the characters. The dialogue between Korobochka and Chichikov is a masterpiece of comedic art. This conversation can be called a dialogue of the deaf.
Watching the video clip “Dialogue between Korobochka and Chichikov”
What character traits of Korobochka were revealed in the bargaining scene?
She was not embarrassed by the trade in dead souls, she is ready to trade in dead souls, but she is afraid of selling herself cheap. She is characterized by tedious slowness and caution. She went to the city to find out how much “dead souls” were being sold these days.
What is the situation of the peasants near Korobochka?
The village is a source of honey, lard, and hemp, which Korobochka sells. She also trades with peasants.
Draw a conclusion about the meaning of the box's thriftiness .
It turns out that landlordism can have the same vile, inhuman meaning as mismanagement.
What made Korobochka like this?
Traditions in the conditions of patriarchal life suppressed Korobochka’s personality and stopped her intellectual development at a very low level; all aspects of life not related to hoarding remained inaccessible to her.
Assignment: using the memo plan, tell about the Box. Performance of the 2nd group of students
Conclusion : Slide 6
The “club-headed” box is the embodiment of those traditions that have developed among provincial small landowners leading subsistence farming.
She is a representative of a departing, dying Russia, and there is no life in her, since she is turned not to the future, but to the past.
V. Analysis of Nozdryov’s image.
It consists of separate fragments that tell about the hero’s habits, episodes from his life, manners and behavior in society. Each of these sketches is a condensed story that reveals one or another trait of his character: drunken revelry, a passion for changing everything, an addiction to playing cards, empty vulgar talk, complete lies.
How is Nozdryov’s desire to lie exposed?
In Nozdryov's office, Turkish daggers are shown, on one of which was carved: master Savely Sibiryakov.
What is the hero's speech? ?
Swear words: fetish, pig, scoundrel, rubbish. And this reveals not only a personal, but also a social trait. He is sure that he is allowed to insult and deceive with impunity - after all, he is a landowner, a nobleman, the master of life.
What are life goals Nozdreva ?
What Nozdrev cares about is profit: this tavern hero is in no way suitable for the role of an acquirer. He is possessed by a thirst for pleasures - those that are available to his dirty soul. And Nozdryov plays dirty tricks on his neighbor with pleasure, without any malicious intentions, even good-naturedly, since his neighbor is only a means or source of pleasure for him. Pleasure was denied or it did not take place: “fetish”, “scoundrel”, “rubbish”
Assignment: using the memo plan, tell about Nozdryov. Speech by the 3rd group of students
Conclusion. Slide 8
In general, Nozdryov is an unpleasant person, since he completely lacks the concepts of honor, conscience, and human dignity.
Nozdryov’s energy turned into scandalous vanity, aimless and destructive.
VI. Analysis of the image of Sobakevich.
What details and things does Gogol use when characterizing Sobakevich? ?
Description of the manor house: “...a wooden house with a mezzanine could be seen... “...In a word, everything he looked at was stubborn, without swaying, in some kind of strong and awkward order.
The Greek heroes in the pictures in his living room were strong, with thick loungers, unheard of mustache
Is there a difference in the characterization of Sobakevich in chapters 1 and 5?
In Chapter 1, Sobakevich is characterized as a person “clumsy in appearance.” This quality is emphasized and deepened in Chapter 5: he looks “like a medium-sized bear.” The author persistently plays on the word “bear”: a bear-colored tailcoat, his name was Mikhail Semyonovich.
What is striking about Sobakevich’s portrait?
In the portrait, what is most striking is the complexion: “.. stony, hot, like the one on a copper coin”;
“It is known that there are many such persons in the world, over the finishing of which nature did not spend much time, did not use any small tools, such as files, gimlets and other things, but simply chopped with all their might: just hit with an ax once - the nose came out, it was enough to another - her lips came out, she picked her eyes with a large drill...”
“Chichikov glanced sideways at him again as they walked into the dining room: bear! A perfect bear!”
Why is Chichikov careful in his conversation with Sobakevich: he did not call the souls dead, but only non-existent?
Sobakevich immediately “smelled” that the proposed deal was fraudulent. But he didn’t even blink an eye.
“Do you need dead souls? - Sobakevich asked very simply, without the slightest surprise, as if we were talking about bread.”
Assignment: using the memo plan, tell about Sobakevich. Speech by the 4th group of students
Chichikov is right in thinking that Sobakevich would have remained a kulak even in St. Petersburg, although he was raised according to fashion. Yes, it would have turned out even worse: “if he had tasted the top of some science, he would let him know later, having taken a more prominent place. To all those who actually learned some science.
Sobakevich, like Korobochka, is smart and practical in a business way: they do not ruin men, because it is unprofitable for themselves. They know that in this world everything is bought and sold.
VII. Analysis of the image of Plyushkin.
The theme of moral decline, the spiritual death of the “masters of life” ends with a chapter dedicated to Plyushkin.
Plyushkin - last portrait in the landowners' gallery. Before us is the complete collapse of the human in man.
How and why a hardworking owner turned into “a hole in humanity” ?
Why does the chapter about Plyushkin begin with a lyrical digression about youth?
Why does Gogol recount the life story of Plyushkin in detail? ?
Gogol turns to the hero’s past, since the moral ugliness is the same as that of other landowners: spiritual possession, which gives rise to soullessness, loss of ideas about the meaning of life, about moral duty, about responsibility for everything that happens around. Plyushkin's tragedy is that he lost contact with people. He sees enemies in everyone, even his own children and grandchildren, ready to plunder good.
The image of Plyushkin is the embodiment of extreme dilapidation and moldiness, and in the characteristics of objects associated with him, Gogol reflected these qualities.
Find in text artistic media, with the help of which the author reveals the essence of the image of Plyushkin .
All the buildings were dilapidated, the logs on the huts were dark and old, the roofs were see-through like a sieve, the fence was broken...
Assignment: using the memo plan, tell about Plyushkin. Speech by the 5th group of students
Conclusion. Slide 12
Mold, dust, rot, and death emanate from the Plyushkin estate. Other details also chill the heart: the old man did not give a penny to either his daughter or his son.
So, for what purpose is the image of Plyushkin depicted in the poem? ?
Consistently, from hero to hero, Gogol exposes the worthless life of the landowners.
The images of landowners are given according to their spiritual impoverishment and moral decline.
It is shown how the disintegration of the human personality gradually took place.
Once upon a time, Plyushkin was just a thrifty owner. The thirst for enrichment turned him into a miser and isolated him from society.
His image reveals one of the varieties of spiritual death. Plyushkin's image is typical.
Gogol exclaimed bitterly: “And a person could condescend to such insignificance, pettiness, and disgustingness! Could have changed so much! And does this seem true? Everything seems to be true, anything can happen to a person.”
VIII. Similarities between Chichikov and landowners.
Landowner, his distinctive feature |
How does this trait manifest itself in Chichikov? |
| Manilov – sweetness, cloying, uncertainty | All residents of the city recognized Chichikov as a pleasant man in all respects |
| Box - petty stinginess | Everything in the box is laid out with the same diligent pedantry as in Nastasya Petrovna’s chest of drawers |
| Nozdryov - narcissism | The desire and ability to please everyone |
| Sobakevich – rude tight-fistedness and cynicism | There is “...no straightforwardness, no sincerity! Perfect Sobakevich” |
| Plyushkin - collecting unnecessary things and carefully storing them | While exploring the city, I tore off the poster, read it, folded it and put it in a small box. |
Chichikov's character is multifaceted, the hero turns out to be a mirror of the landowner he meets, because he has the same qualities that form the basis of the landowners' characters.
IX. Crossword . Slides 15 to 24
X. Summing up.
XI. Homework.
1. Fill out the table according to plan:
- brief description landowner;
- description of the landowner's estate;
- description of a shared meal;
- how landowners react to Chichikov’s proposal;
- further actions landowners.
2. Write a miniature essay “Why did Chichikov visit the landowners in such a sequence?”
He described the most diverse types of landowners who lived in contemporary Russia. At the same time, he tried to clearly show their life, morals and vices. All landowners are depicted satirically, forming a unique art gallery. Arriving in the city of NN, the main character met many new people. All of them, basically, were either successful landowners or influential officials, since Chichikov had a plan to earn a large fortune. He described five families most colorfully, so it is by their characteristics that we can judge the people with whom the hero dealt.
This is, first of all, the good-natured and “sweet as sugar” landowner Manilov. Everything about him seems perfect, from the way he presents himself to his sweet tone. In fact, behind this mask hides a boring and lazy person who is of little interest in his household. For two years now he has been reading the same book, on the same page. The servants drink, the housekeeper steals, the kitchen cooks carelessly. He himself does not know who works for him and for how long. Against the background of this decline, the gazebo called “Temple of Solitary Reflection” looks rather strange. Chichikov’s request to sell “dead souls” seems illegal to him, but he is unable to refuse such a “pleasant” person, so he easily gives him the list of peasants for free.
Having been in Manilovka, the main character goes to Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka. This is an elderly widow living in a small village and regularly running her household. Korobochka has many advantages. She is skillful and organized, her farm, although not rich, is thriving, the peasants are educated and focused on results. By nature, the housewife is thrifty and thrifty, but at the same time stingy, stupid and stupid. When selling “dead souls” to Chichikov, she is always worried about selling things too cheap. Nastasya Petrovna knows all her peasants by name, which is why she doesn’t keep a list. In total, eighteen peasants died. She sold them to the guest like lard, honey or cereal.
Immediately after Korobochka, the hero visited the reckless Nozdryov. This is a young widower of about thirty-five who loved cheerful and noisy companies. Outwardly, he is well built, radiant in health and looks younger than his age. He manages the farm poorly, as he is never at home a day, has little interest in children, and even less in peasants. The only thing that he always has in excellent condition is his kennel, as he is an avid hunter. In fact, he was a “historical” person, since not a single meeting was complete without his intervention. He liked to lie, use swear words and spoke abruptly, without bringing any topic to the end. At first, Chichikov thought that it would be easy to bargain with him for the “souls” of the peasants, but here he was mistaken. Nozdryov is the only landowner who left him with nothing and, in addition, almost beat him.
From Nozdrev, Gogol's businessman went to Sobakevich, a man who, with his clumsiness and massiveness, resembles a bear. The village in which he lived was huge, and the house was awkward. But at the same time, Sobakevich is a good business executive. All his houses and huts are built from good wood. Knowing his peasants very well and being a smart merchant, he immediately guesses why Chichikov came and makes a deal to his advantage. Sobakevich also had a downside. As a serf owner, he was quite rude, uncouth and cruel. This character is incapable of expressing emotional experiences and will never miss his benefits.
The landowner Plyushkin seemed the strangest to Chichikov, from whose appearance it was difficult to determine what class he belonged to. He looked like an old, grumpy housekeeper with shifty eyes and a cap on her head. The men called the owner “Patched” among themselves. In fact, Plyushkin was very rich. Thousands of peasants worked for him, his house once flourished, but after the death of his wife it fell into disrepair. He was always a thrifty landowner, but over time he turned into a real miser who hoarded all unnecessary rubbish, wore cast-offs and ate only crackers. He sincerely rejoiced at Chichikov’s offer as an opportunity to earn an extra penny.
So colorfully the writer described five images of landowners, revealing the five stages of human degradation and hardening of the soul. From Manilov to Plyushkin we observe a picture of the gradual extinction of the human in man. Both in the image of Chichikov buying up “dead souls” and in the description of the landowners, the author most likely expressed anxiety and worries for the future of the country and humanity as a whole.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's poem “Dead Souls” covers various spheres of Russian reality of the 30-40s of the 19th century. In it, the author reflected the way of life and morals of different layers of society - landowners, officials, peasants. Landowners are depicted in close-up in the poem. Moreover, the sequence of their introduction to the reader was not chosen by Gogol by chance. Starting from Manilov and ending with Plyushkin, the author intensifies the bitter accusatory satire.
The first landowner whom the main character of Chichikov's poem visited was Manilov. “God alone could have said what kind of character Manilov had. There is a kind of people known by the name: people are so-so, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan... His facial features were not without pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to be too much of a touch of sugar” - such Gogol draws a portrait of this landowner.
From this description it becomes clear that despite the generally favorable external impression that Manilov made, he was not distinguished by anything special. Except perhaps for the conspicuous sugary sweetness and courteous manners, behind which ordinary stupidity was hidden. We see that disorder and ruin reign in Manilov’s village, while all his activities consist of meaningless dreams, stupid and impracticable projects (“how good it would be if he could suddenly get away from home underground passage or build a stone bridge across the pond..."). When creating this image, Gogol masterfully used such a detail as the book lying in Manilov’s office, which had been bookmarked on page fourteen for two years. Manilov's character is fully revealed during the deal with Chichikov. This landowner, who doesn’t even know how many peasants he has
died, cares, “whether this negotiation will not be in accordance with civil decrees and future views of Russia”...
Unlike Manilov, Korobochka, the next landowner depicted by Gogol, is very thrifty and knows how to run a household. The author describes Korobochka as follows: “An elderly woman, in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around her neck, one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses... and meanwhile they are gradually gaining money in motley bags..." Korobochka knows the value of a penny, which is why she is so afraid of selling herself short in the deal with Chichikov. All the latter’s arguments are shattered by her “club-headedness” and greed. She refers to the fact that she wants to wait for the merchants and find out the prices. Gogol, at the same time, draws our attention to the fact that this landowner runs the household herself, and the peasant huts in her village “showed the contentment of the inhabitants.
But the problems of money and housekeeping do not concern the landowner Nozdryov at all, to whom Chichikov ends up after visiting the Korobochka estate. Nozdryov is one of those people who are “always talkers, revelers, prominent people.” His life is filled with carousing, card games, a pointless waste of money. He is energetic, active and agile. It is not surprising that Chichikov’s proposal to sell him dead souls immediately found a lively response from Nozdryov. An adventurer and a liar, this landowner decided to trick Chichikov. Only a miracle saves the protagonist from physical harm. Nozdrev's estate helps to better understand his character, and the pitiful situation of the serfs, from whom he beats out everything he can.
In Sobakevich, unlike Nozdryov, everything is distinguished by good quality and durability, even the well is “made of strong oak.” But this does not make a good impression against the backdrop of the ugly and absurd buildings and furnishings of this landowner’s house depicted by Gogol. And he himself does not make a favorable impression. Sobakevich seemed to Chichikov “very similar to a medium-sized bear.” Describing the appearance of this landowner, Gogol ironically notes that nature did not play tricks on his face for long: “I grabbed it with an ax once - my nose came out, I grabbed it another time - my lips came out, I picked my eyes with a large drill and, without scraping them off; released into the light, saying: “he lives!” Creating the image of this landowner, the author often uses the technique of hyperbolization - this is Sobakevich’s brutal appetite, and the tasteless portraits of commanders with thick legs and “unheard-of mustaches” that decorated his office and much more.
Sobakevich is an ardent serf owner who will never miss his profit, even if we are talking about dead peasants. During the bargaining with Chichikov, his greed and desire for profit are revealed. Having raised the price - “one hundred rubles” for a dead soul, he finally agrees to “two and a half rubles”, just so as not to miss the opportunity to get money for such unusual product. “Fist, fist!” - Chichikov thought about Sobakevich, leaving his estate.
The landowners Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov and Sobakevich are described by Gogol with irony and sarcasm. In creating the image of Plyushkin, the author uses the grotesque. When Chichikov first saw this landowner, he mistook him for the housekeeper. Main character I thought that if I met Plyushkin on the porch, then “... I would give him a copper penny.” But later we learn that this landowner is rich - he has more than a thousand peasant souls. Gogol shows Plyushkin's immense greed. In his house there were such huge reserves that would be enough for several lives.
Plyushkin's senseless thirst for hoarding is brought to the point of absurdity. Despite the huge reserves in his house, he walked around his village every day and took everything that caught his eye to him and put it in the corner of the room. Plyushkin lives only by hoarding, he is completely divorced from outside world. He is indifferent to the fate of his children. Moreover, he does not care about the problems of peasants dying of hunger. All normal human feelings
died long ago in his soul. But Plyushkin was once an enterprising, hardworking owner, not lacking intelligence and worldly experience. Neighbors came to him to learn “wise stinginess.” But now Plyushkin’s stinginess has brought his estate to complete decline. It is completely meaningless and, as Gogol shows, leads to complete degradation of the individual. And if Gogol’s Korobochka is “club-headed”, Nozdryov is a “historical person”, Sobakevich is a “man-fist”, then Plyushkin is not even a person, he is a “hole in humanity”.
With his poem N.V. Gogol not only showed the reader true face landowners, but also introduced the concept of “dead souls” into literature. The dead were not only and not so much those who became the subject of Chichikov’s trades with the landowners. A. I. Herzen spoke about it this way: “This title itself carries something terrifying. And he couldn’t call it any other way; not the revision’s dead souls, but all these Nozdrevs, Manilovs and all the others - these are the dead souls, and we meet them at every step.”
The author called Dead Souls a poem and thereby emphasized the significance of his creation. The poem is a voluminous lyric-epic work, distinguished by its depth of content and wide coverage of events. This definition of the Dead Souls (poem) genre is still controversial.
With the publication of Gogol's satirical works, the critical direction in Russian realistic literature is strengthened. Gogol's realism to a large extent is full of accusatory, flagellating force - this distinguishes him from his predecessors and contemporaries. Artistic method Gogol was named critical realism. What is new in Gogol is the sharpening of the main character traits of the hero; the writer’s favorite technique is hyperbole - an exaggerated image of these traits, enhancing the impression. Gogol found that the plot of “Dead Souls,” suggested by Pushkin, was good because it made it possible to travel all over Russia with the hero and create many different characters.
The author arranged the chapters about landowners, to whom more than half of the first volume is devoted, in a strictly thought-out order: the wasteful dreamer Manilov is replaced by the thrifty Korobochka; she is opposed by the ruined landowner, the rascal Nozdryov; then again a turn to the economic landowner-kulak Sobakevich; The gallery of serf owners is closed by the miser Plyushkin, who embodies the extreme degree of decline of the landowner class.
Reading “Dead Souls”, we notice that the writer repeats the same techniques in depicting landowners: he gives a description of the village, the manor house, appearance landowner.
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In the image of Manilov, Gogol begins the gallery of landowners. Typical characters appear before us. Each portrait created by Gogol, in his words, “collects the features of those who consider themselves better than others.” Already in the description of Manilov’s village and estate, the essence of his character is revealed. The house is located on a very unfavorable location, open to all winds. The village makes a poor impression, since Manilov does not do any farming at all. Pretentiousness and sweetness are revealed not only in the portrait of Manilov, not only in his manners, but also in the fact that he calls the rickety gazebo “a temple of solitary reflection”, and gives the children the names of the heroes Ancient Greece. The essence of Manilov's character is complete idleness. Lying on the sofa, he indulges in dreams, fruitless and fantastic, which he will never be able to realize, since any work, any activity is alien to him. His peasants live in poverty, the house is in disarray, and he dreams of how nice it would be to build a stone bridge across the pond or an underground passage from the house. He speaks favorably of everyone, everyone is most respectful and kind to him. But not because he loves people and is interested in them, but because he likes to live carefree and comfortable. About Manilov, the author says: “There is a kind of people known by the name: people are so-so, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan, according to the proverb.” Thus, the author makes it clear that the image of Manilov is typical of his time. It is from the combination of such qualities that the concept of “Manilovism” comes from.
The next image in the gallery of landowners is the image of Korobochka. If Manilov is a wasteful landowner whose inactivity leads to complete ruin, then Korobochka can be called a hoarder, since hoarding is her passion. She owns subsistence farming and sells everything that is in it: lard, bird feathers, serfs. Everything in her house is done the old fashioned way. She carefully stores her things and saves money, putting them in bags. Everything goes into her business. In the same chapter the author great attention pays attention to Chichikov’s behavior, focusing on the fact that Chichikov behaves simpler and more casually with Korobochka than with Manilov. This phenomenon is typical of Russian reality, and, proving this, the author gives digression about the transformation of Prometheus into a fly. Korobochka's nature is especially clearly revealed in the buying and selling scene. She is very afraid of selling herself short and even makes an assumption, which she herself is afraid of: “what if the dead will be useful to her in her household?” . It turns out that Korobochka’s stupidity, her “club-headedness” is not such a rare phenomenon.
Next in the gallery of landowners is Nozdryov. A carouser, a gambler, a drunkard, a liar and a brawler - this is a brief description of Nozdryov. This is a person, as the author writes, who had a passion “to spoil his neighbor, and for no reason at all.” Gogol claims that the Nozdryovs are typical of Russian society: “The Nozdryovs will not leave the world for a long time. They are everywhere among us...” Nozdryov’s chaotic nature is reflected in the interior of his rooms. Part of the house is being renovated, the furniture is arranged haphazardly, but the owner doesn’t care about all this. He shows the guests a stable, in which there are two mares, a stallion and a goat. Then he boasts about the wolf cub, which he keeps at home for unknown reasons. Nozdryov's dinner was poorly prepared, but there was plenty of alcohol. An attempt to buy dead souls almost ends tragically for Chichikov. Together with the dead souls, Nozdryov wants to sell him a stallion or a barrel organ, and then offers to play checkers on dead peasants. When Chichikov is outraged by the unfair play, Nozdryov calls the servants to beat the intractable guest. Only the appearance of the police captain saves Chichikov.
The image of Sobakevich occupies a worthy place in the gallery of landowners. “A fist! And a beast to boot,” - this is how Chichikov gave him. Sobakevich is undoubtedly a hoarding landowner. His village is large and well-equipped. All the buildings, although clumsy, are extremely strong. Sobakevich himself reminded Chichikov of a medium-sized bear - large, clumsy. In the portrait of Sobakevich there is no description at all of the eyes, which, as is known, are the mirror of the soul. Gogol wants to show that Sobakevich is so rude and uncouth that his body “had no soul at all.” In Sobakevich’s rooms everything is as clumsy and large as he himself. The table, armchair, chairs and even the blackbird in the cage seemed to be saying: “And I, too, are Sobakevich.” Sobakevich takes Chichikov’s request calmly, but demands 100 rubles for each dead soul, and even praises his goods like a merchant. Speaking about the typicality of such an image, Gogol emphasizes that people like Sobakevich are found everywhere - in the provinces and in the capital. After all, the point is not in appearance, but in human nature: “no, whoever is a fist cannot bend into a palm.” Rude and uncouth Sobakevich is the ruler over his peasants. What if someone like that were to rise higher and give him more power? How much trouble he could do! After all, he adheres to a strictly defined opinion about people: “The swindler sits on the swindler and drives the swindler around.”
The last in the gallery of landowners is Plyushkin. Gogol assigns this place to him, since Plyushkin is the result of the idle life of a person living off the labor of others. “This landowner has more than a thousand souls,” but he looks like the last beggar. He has become a parody of a person, and Chichikov does not even immediately understand who is standing in front of him - “a man or a woman.” But there were times when Plyushkin was a thrifty, wealthy owner. But his insatiable passion for profit, for acquisition, leads him to complete collapse: he has lost a real understanding of objects, has ceased to distinguish what is necessary from what is unnecessary. He destroys grain, flour, cloth, but saves a piece of stale Easter cake that his daughter brought a long time ago. Using the example of Plyushkin, the author shows us the disintegration of the human personality. A pile of rubbish in the middle of the room symbolizes Plyushkin’s life. This is what he has become, this is what the spiritual death of a person means.
Plyushkin considers the peasants to be thieves and swindlers, and starves them. After all, reason has not guided his actions for a long time. Even to the only one to a loved one, to his daughter, Plyushkin has no paternal affection.
So sequentially, from hero to hero, Gogol reveals one of the most tragic sides of Russian reality. He shows how, under the influence of serfdom, the humanity in a person perishes. “My heroes follow one after another, one more vulgar than the other.” That is why it is fair to assume that when giving the title to his poem, the author did not mean the souls of dead peasants, but the dead souls of landowners. After all, each image reveals one of the varieties of spiritual death. Each of the images is no exception, since their moral ugliness is formed social order, social environment. These images reflect signs of spiritual degeneration landed nobility and universal human vices.