All school essays on literature. Image of landowners based on the poem Dead Souls (Gogol N.V.)

14.04.2019

Essays on literature: Portrayal of landowners in the poem by N.V. Gogol Dead souls

Gogol is a great realist writer, whose work is firmly entrenched in Russian classical literature.

His originality lies in the fact that he was one of the first to give a broad picture of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia. In his poem “Dead Souls,” Gogol extremely exposes the contradictions of contemporary Russian reality, shows the failure of the bureaucratic apparatus, the withering away of serf-feudal relations, and the plight of the common people. Therefore, the poem “Dead Souls” is rightly called the encyclopedia of Russian provincial life of the first thirds of the XIX century. In the poem, along with negative images landowners, officials, a new hero - an emerging entrepreneur, images of the people, the Motherland and the author himself are given.

We note a complete lack of understanding of the practical side of life and mismanagement of the landowner Manilov. He is not involved in the management of his estate, entrusting this entirely to the steward. He cannot even tell Chichikov how many peasants he has and whether they have died since the last audit. His house “stood alone on the Jurassic, open to all the winds that might blow.” Instead of a shady garden, there were five or six birch trees “with thin tops” around the manor’s house. And in the village itself there was nowhere “a growing tree or any greenery.” Its impracticality is also evidenced by the interior furnishings of his house, where next to the magnificent furniture there were “two chairs, covered with simple matting,” or “mountains of ash knocked out of a pipe,” lying on an expensive polished table. But we find the most vivid reflection of Manilov’s character in his language, speech manner: “... Of course... if the neighborhood were good, if, for example, there was such a person with whom in some way you could talk about courtesy, about good treatment, follow some kind of science, so that it would stir the soul, would give, so to speak, something like that to the guy.” Here he still wanted to express something, but, noticing that he was a little confused, he only picked his hand in the air.”

Korobochka has a completely different attitude towards farming. She has a “pretty village”, the yard is full of all kinds of birds, there are “spacious vegetable gardens with cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets and other household vegetables”, there are “apple trees and other fruit trees”. She knows the names of her peasants by heart. But her mental horizons are extremely limited. She is stupid, ignorant, superstitious. The box does not see anything further than “its nose”. Everything “new and unprecedented” frightens her. She is a typical representative of small provincial landowners leading subsistence farming. Her behavior (which can also be noted in Sobakevich) is driven by a passion for profit, self-interest.

But Sobakevich is significantly different from Korobochka. He is, in Gogol’s words, “a devil’s fist.” The passion for enrichment pushes him to be cunning and forces him to seek out various means of profit. Therefore, unlike other landowners, he uses an innovation - cash rent. He is not at all surprised by the buying and selling of dead souls, but only cares about how much he will get for them.

A representative of another type of landowner is Nozdryov. He is the complete opposite of Manilov and Korobochka. Nozdryov is a restless hero, a hero of fairs, drinking parties, and the card table. He is a carouser, a brawler and a liar. His farm has been neglected. Only the kennel is in excellent condition. Among dogs, he is like a “dear father” among a large family (I just want to compare him with Fonvizin’s Skotinin). He immediately squanders the income received from the forced labor of peasants, which speaks of his moral decline and indifference to the peasants.

Complete moral impoverishment and loss of human qualities are characteristic of Plyushkin. The author rightly dubbed it “a hole in humanity.” Speaking about Plyushkin, Gogol exposes the horrors of serfdom. Putting it in the form of a light joke, Gogol reports terrible things that Plyushkin is “a swindler, he starved all the people to death, that convicts live better in prison than his serfs.” Over the last three years, 80 people have died at Plyushkin’s place. With the eerie mien of a half-crazed man, he declares that “his people are painfully gluttonous, and out of idleness they have acquired the habit of eating.” About 70 peasants from Plyushkin escaped and became outlaws, unable to endure starvation. life. His servants run around barefoot until late winter, since the stingy Plyushkin has only boots for everyone, and even then they are put on only when the servants enter the vestibule of the master’s house. Plyushkin and others like him slowed down the economic development of Russia: “On the vast territory of the estate. Plyushkina (and he has about 1000 souls) economic life froze: mills, fulling mills, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills stopped moving; hay and bread rotted, luggage and stacks turned into pure manure, flour turned into stone, into cloth. canvases and household materials were scary to touch. Meanwhile, on the farm, income was still collected, the peasant still carried the quitrent, and the woman still carried the linen. All this was dumped into storerooms, and it all became rot and dust." Truly "laughter through tears."

Plyushkin and other landowners represented by Gogol were “written off from life.” are a product of a certain social environment. Plyushkin was once a smart, thrifty owner; served in the army and was a modest, delicate, educated officer, but turned into a vulgar, idle, sugary dreamer. WITH enormous power Gogol indicted the feudal-serf system, the Nicholas regime, the entire way of life in which Manilovism, Nozdrevism, Plyushkinsky squalor are typical, normal life phenomena.

In this display of the thoroughly vicious serfdom order and political system Russia lies the great significance of the poem “Dead Souls”. “The poem shocked all of Russia” (Herzen), it awakened the self-awareness of the Russian people.

The images drawn by Gogol in the poem were received ambiguously by his contemporaries: many reproached him for drawing a caricature of contemporary life and depicting reality in a funny, absurd way. Gogol unfolds before the reader a whole gallery of images of landowners (leading his main character from the first of them to the last) primarily in order to answer the main question that occupied him - what is the future of Russia, what is its historical purpose, what modern life contains at least a small hint of a bright, prosperous future for the people, which will be the key to the future greatness of the nation. In other words, the question that Gogol asks at the end, in a lyrical digression about the “Russian Troika,” permeates the entire narrative as a leitmotif, and it is to it that the logic and poetics of the entire work, including the images of landowners, are subordinated.

The first of the landowners whom Chichikov visits in the hope of buying dead souls is Manilov. Main features: Manilov is completely divorced from reality, his main occupation is fruitless soaring in the clouds, useless project-making. He talks about this as appearance his estate (a house on a hill, open to all the winds, a gazebo - a “temple of solitary reflection”, traces of begun and unfinished buildings), and the interior of living quarters (assorted furniture, piles of pipe ashes laid out in neat rows on the windowsill, some kind of book , the second year laid down on the fourteenth page, etc.). Drawing an image, Gogol special attention pays attention to details, interior, things, through them showing the characteristics of the owner’s character. Manilov, despite his “great” thoughts, is stupid, vulgar and sentimental (lisping with his wife, “ancient Greek” names of not quite neat and well-mannered children). The internal and external squalor of the depicted type encourages Gogol, starting from it, to look for a positive ideal, and to do this “by contradiction.” If complete isolation from reality and fruitless wandering in the clouds lead to something like this, then perhaps the opposite type will inspire us with some hope? Korobochka in this respect is the complete opposite of Manilov. Unlike him, she does not have her head in the clouds, but, on the contrary, is completely immersed in everyday life. However, the image of Korobochka does not give the desired ideal. Pettiness and stinginess (old coats stored in chests, money put in a stocking for a “rainy day”), inertia, dull adherence to tradition, rejection and fear of everything new, “club-headedness” make her appearance almost more repulsive than the appearance of Manilov . Despite all the dissimilarity between the characters of Manilov and Korobochka, they have one thing in common - inactivity. Both Manilov and Korobochka (albeit for opposite reasons) do not influence the reality around them. Perhaps an active person will be a model from whom the younger generation should take an example? And, as if in response to this question, Nozdryov appears. Nozdryov is extremely active. However, all his hectic activities are mostly scandalous in nature. He is a regular at all the drinking and carousing in the area, he exchanges everything for anything (he tries to sell Chichikov puppies, a barrel organ, a horse, etc.), cheats when playing cards and even checkers, and mediocrely squanders the money he gets from sales. harvest. He lies without any need (it was Nozdryov who subsequently confirms the rumor that Chichikov wanted to steal the governor’s daughter and took him as an accomplice, without batting an eyelid he agrees that Chichikov is Napoleon who escaped from exile, etc.). Repeatedly he was beaten, and by his own friends, and the next day, as if nothing had happened, he appeared to them and continued in the same spirit - “and he is nothing, and they, as they say, are nothing.” As a result, Nozdrev’s “activities” cause almost more troubles than the inaction of Manilov and Korobochka. And yet, there is a feature that unites all three types described - it is impracticality.

The next landowner, Sobakevich, is extremely practical. This is the type of “master”, “fist”. Everything in his house is durable, reliable, made “to last forever” (even the furniture seems to be filled with complacency and wants to shout: “Iya Sobakevich!”). However, all of Sobakevich’s practicality is aimed at only one goal - obtaining personal gain, to achieve which he stops at nothing (“cursing” Sobakevich of everyone and everything - in the city, according to him, there is one decent person - the prosecutor, “yes and he, if you look at it, is a pig,” Sobakevich’s “meal”, when he eats mountains of food and so on, it seems capable of swallowing the whole world in one sitting, the scene with buying the dead shower, when Sobakevich is not at all surprised by the very subject of the purchase and sale, but immediately feels that the matter smells of money that can be “ripped off” from Chichikov). It is absolutely clear that Sobakevich is even further from the sought-after ideal than all previous types.

Plyushkin is a kind of generalizing image. He is the only one whose path to his current state (“how he got to this life”) is shown to us by Gogol. Giving the image of Plyushkin in development, Gogol raises this final image to a kind of symbol that contains Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, and Sobakevich. What is common to all the types depicted in the poem is that their lives are not sanctified by thought, a socially useful goal, and are not filled with concern for the common good, progress, or the desire for national prosperity. Any activity (or inaction) is useless and meaningless if it does not contain concern for the good of the nation or country. That is why Plyushkin turns into a “hole in humanity”, that is why his repulsive, disgusting image of a miser who has lost all human form, stealing old buckets and other rubbish from his own peasants, turning his own house into a dump, and his serfs into beggars, - - that is why his image is the final stop for all these manilas, boxes, nozdrevs and dogs. And it is precisely “a hole in humanity,” like Plyushkin, that Russia may turn out to be if it does not find the strength to tear away all these “dead souls” and bring to the surface of national life a positive image - active, with a moving mind and imagination, zealous in business, and most importantly - hallowed by concern for the common good. It is characteristic that it was precisely this type that Gogol tried to bring out in the second volume of Dead Souls in the image of the landowner Kostanzhoglo. However surrounding reality did not provide material for such images - Kostanzhoglo turned out to be a speculative scheme that has not the slightest relation to real life. Russian reality supplied only manilas, boxes, nozdrevs and Plyushkins - “Where am I? I don't see anything... Not a single one human face,.. There’s only snout, snout around...” Gogol exclaims through the mouth of the Governor in “The Inspector General” (compare with the “evil spirits” from “Evenings...” and “Mirgorod”: a pig’s snout sticking out of the window in “Sorochinskaya fair", mocking inhuman faces in " Enchanted place"). That is why the words about Rus'-troika sound like a sad cry of warning - “Where are you rushing?.. Doesn’t give an answer...”.

So, the main and main meaning poem is that Gogol wanted to understand through artistic images historical path Russia, to see its future, to feel the sprouts of a new reality in the surrounding reality, better life, to distinguish those forces that will pull Russia from the sidelines of world history and include it in the general cultural process. The image of landowners is a reflection of precisely this search. Through extreme typification, Gogol creates figures of a national scale, representing the Russian character in many forms, in all its inconsistency and ambiguity. The types derived by Gogol are an integral part of Russian life; these are precisely Russian types, which, no matter how bright, are just as stable in Russian life - until life itself radically changes.

Like the images of landowners, the images of officials, a whole gallery of which Gogol unfolds before the reader, perform a certain function. Showing life and customs provincial town NN, the author is trying to answer the main question that worries him - what is the future of Russia, what is its historical purpose, what in modern life contains at least the slightest hint of a bright, prosperous future for the people.

The theme of bureaucracy is an integral part and continuation of the ideas that Gogol developed when depicting landowners in the poem. It is no coincidence that the images of officials follow the images of landowners. If the evil embodied in the owners of the estates - in all these boxes, Manilovs, Sobakevichs, Nozdrevs and Plyushkins - is scattered throughout the Russian expanses, then here it appears in concentrated form, compressed by the living conditions of the provincial city. Huge number“dead souls” gathered together creates a special monstrously absurd atmosphere.

If the character of each landowner left a unique imprint on his house and estate as a whole, then the city is influenced by the entire huge mass of people (including officials, since officials are the first people in the city) living in it. The city turns into a completely independent mechanism, living according to its own laws, dispatching its needs through offices, departments, councils and other public institutions. And it is officials who ensure the functioning of this entire mechanism. The life of a civil servant, which is not imprinted with a lofty idea, the desire to promote the common good, becomes an embodied function of the bureaucratic mechanism. Essentially, a person ceases to be a person, he loses all personal characteristics (unlike the landowners, who had, albeit ugly, but still their own physiognomy), even loses given name, since the name is still a kind of personal characteristic, and becomes simply Postmaster, Prosecutor, Governor, Chief of Police, Chairman or the owner of an unimaginable nickname like Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoe Rylo. A person turns into a detail, a “cog” of the state machine, the micromodel of which is the provincial city of NN. The officials themselves are unremarkable, except for the positions they occupy.

To enhance the contrast, Gogol gives grotesque “portraits” of some officials - the chief of police is famous for the fact that, according to rumors, he only needs to blink when passing a fish row to ensure a sumptuous lunch and an abundance of fish delicacies. The postmaster, whose name was Ivan Andreevich, is known for the fact that they always added to his name: “Sprechen zi deutsch, Ivan Andreich?” The chairman of the chamber knew Zhukovsky’s “Lyudmila” by heart and “masterfully read many passages, especially: “Bor has fallen asleep, the valley is sleeping,” and the word “Chu!” The others, as Gogol sarcastically notes, were “also more or less enlightened people: some read Karamzin, some Moskovskie Vedomosti, some didn’t even read anything at all.” The reaction of city residents, including officials, to the news that Chichikov was buying dead souls is noteworthy - what is happening does not fit into the usual framework and immediately gives rise to the most fantastic assumptions - from the fact that Chichikov wanted to kidnap the governor’s daughter, to the fact that Chichikov is either a wanted counterfeiter or an escaped robber, about whom the Chief of Police receives an order for immediate arrest. The grotesqueness of the situation is only enhanced by the fact that the Postmaster decides that Chichikov is Captain Kopeikin in disguise, a hero of the War of 1812, an invalid without an arm and a leg. The rest of the officials assume that Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise, having escaped from St. Helena Island.

The absurdity of the situation reaches its climax when the prosecutor dies as a result of a collision with insoluble problems (from mental stress). In general, the situation in the city resembles the behavior of a mechanism into which a grain of sand suddenly fell. Wheels and screws, designed for very specific functions, spin idle, some break with a bang, and the whole mechanism rings, jangles and “goes haywire.”

If the city is a soulless machine, killing everything living and pure in people, destroying the very human essence, depriving them of all human feelings and even a normal name, turning the city itself into a “cemetery” of dead souls, then ultimately all of Russia can accept a similar appearance, if it does not find the strength to reject all this “dead carrion” and bring to the surface of national life a positive image - active, with a mobile mind and imagination, diligent in business and, most importantly, sanctified by concern for the common good.

In Gogol's poem there is a clearly visible storyline. This is a visit by the main character to the owners of the estates around the provincial city. The depiction of landowners in the poem “Dead Souls” allows us to imagine different, but similar types of nobility.

Sweet romantic

The first image of landowners is Manilov. He tries to attract to himself with sweetness, dreams of better world. The prosperity of humanity in the merchant's head is stupid and lifeless. Immersed in sweet dreams, the owner becomes lazy and soulless. Everything around is falling into disrepair. The house stands alone on a hill, the pond, once beautiful and stylish, is covered in green mud. A farm without Manilov is like a house without a roof. People die, the landowner doesn't care. He is not interested in how many of them died, from what, whether it is possible to fix something, to make people’s lives easier. Manilov is worried about sycophancy; he is ready to curry favor with any high-ranking official. The sycophant and flatterer are looking only for profitable connections.

Wealth in a box

Chichikov ends up in the possession of a woman. Nastasya Korobochka is limited in her thinking. She hid her mind deep, under locks. The box has become calloused and dull. External efficiency buries itself with greed and the true desire of the housewife - to get rich at any cost. The landowner knows all the peasants, remembers their names, but can sell any of them if she notices a benefit in the transaction.

The merchant's wife hides the kopecks in her chest of drawers, does not give anyone an extra coin, becomes poor and complains about poverty and poverty. The landowner is similar to the Koshchei: she sits on bags of money, dry, soulless and scary.

Egoist and reveler

The next landowner Chichikov met on his way was Nozdryov. Merchant gambler and drunkard. He doesn’t appreciate what he got, he spends everything on his own entertainment. Nozdryov likes to live on credit. He becomes aggressive, angry and cruel when dealing with people. The character's speech is constant rude language. Nozdryov does not like people, but he values himself very much. The egoist does not change his behavior, he was like this in his youth, and remains a regular at taverns and parties at the age of 35. The development of the landowner stopped, the soul outlived its usefulness, became dead. A fun pastime will not end well for the landowner; fights and drinking will take their toll.

"Devil's fist"

Chichikov calls Sobakevich a damn fist when he is visiting him. The combination of words is difficult to understand. Devils are small creatures, harmful and dangerous. The fist is the strong part of the hero’s hand. Sobakevich is like that. He is healthy like the Russian fellows, but greedy, like all representatives of the black forces. The landowner eats like a fairy tale character, a lot and indiscriminately. Food is the meaning of existence for him. The merchant denies other interests; there is nothing more important than his own satiety. Self-interest, cynicism and greed are visible in the words and behavior of the landowner. The prudence of the seller of dead souls is frightening. His soul died long ago and flew out of his body, leaving only carnal desires for the owner.

"Flatness" of the spiritual world

Plyushkin is the very bottom of the degradation of the landowner class. The dirty owner of the estate does not resemble a merchant in appearance and behavior. There is no soul, just as there is no life around a person. The house is empty and scary. It is difficult to imagine how a person could reach such a state. How greedy the landowner becomes that he denies natural desires even to himself. Living with a lot of garbage, wearing torn clothes, eating moldy crackers - is this the lot of the masters of life? The classic gives Plyushkin a vivid description - “a hole in humanity.” You can simply condemn the hero, but it is important to understand where such people are dragging Russia.

The meaning of the poem becomes clear after meeting the landowners of the city of N. It is not difficult to write an essay “The portrayal of landowners in the poem “Dead Souls”; you need to imagine the characters who Chichikov met on the way to his goal. It will become easier to describe them using prepositional material.

Work test

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a great realist writer, whose work has become firmly entrenched in Russian classical literature.

His originality lies in the fact that he was one of the first to give a broad picture of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia. In his poem “Dead Souls,” Gogol extremely exposes the contradictions of contemporary Russian reality, shows the failure of the bureaucratic apparatus, the withering away of serf-feudal relations, and the plight of the common people. Therefore, the poem “Dead Souls” is rightly called an encyclopedia of Russian provincial life in the first third of the 19th century. In the poem, along with negative images of landowners, officials, a new hero - an emerging entrepreneur, there are images of the people, the Motherland and the author himself.

Plyushkin and other landowners represented by Gogol were “written off from life.” are a product of a certain social environment. Plyushkin was once a smart, thrifty owner; Manilov served in the army and was a modest, delicate, educated officer, but he turned into a vulgar, idle, sugary dreamer. With enormous force, Gogol indicted the feudal-serf system, the Nicholas regime, the entire way of life in which Manilovism, Nozdrevism, Plyushkinsky squalor were typical, normal life phenomena.

The great significance of the poem “Dead Souls” lay in this demonstration of the thoroughly vicious serfdom and political system of Russia. “The poem shocked all of Russia” (Herzen), it awakened the self-awareness of the Russian people.

Similar material -

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 heroes of 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 from the house of the story. underground passage. 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 occurrence.

Next in the gallery of landowners is Nozdryov. A carouser, a gambler, a drunkard, a liar and a brawler - here brief description Nozdreva. 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 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,” was how Chichikov described 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 - big, 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 - both 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 collapse 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 reflected signs of spiritual degeneration landed nobility and universal human vices.

Manilov -- meaningful name(from the verb “to lure”, “to lure”) is played ironically by Gogol, parodying laziness, fruitless daydreaming, projectism, and sentimentality. The image of Manilov dynamically unfolds from the proverb: a person is neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan. Things surrounding Manilov testify to his inability, isolation from life, indifference to reality: the manor house stands on the south, “open to all winds”; Manilov spends time in a gazebo with the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection,” where various fantastic projects occur to him, for example, to build an underground passage from the house or to build a stone bridge across a pond; in Manilov’s office for two years in a row there has been a book with a bookmark on the 14th page; There are ashes scattered in caps and a tobacconist, piles of ash knocked out of a pipe are neatly placed on the table and windows, which constitutes Manilov’s leisure time. Manilov, immersed in tempting thoughts, never goes out into the fields, and meanwhile the men get drunk, near the gray huts of the village of Manilov there is not a single tree - “only one log”; the economy goes on somehow by itself; the housekeeper steals, the servants sleep and hang out.

The portrait of Manilov is built on the principle of inflating enthusiasm and hospitality to extreme excess, turning into negative quality: “his facial features were not devoid of pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to have too much sugar in it”; in Manilov’s face “the expression is not only sweet, but even cloying, similar to that mixture that the clever secular doctor sweetened mercilessly...” “In the first minute of conversation with him you can’t help but say: “What a pleasant and kind person ! The next time... you won’t say anything, and the third time you’ll say: “The devil knows what it is!” - and you will move away!..” The love of Manilov and his wife is parodic and sentimental. They bring sweets and tidbits to each other with the words: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this piece for you.” Refined delicacy is expressed in the absurd phrases “cabbage soup, but from the heart,” “May day, name day of the heart.” Officials, according to Manilov, are entirely the most respectable and most amiable people. The image of Manilov personifies a universal human phenomenon - “Manilovism,” that is, the tendency to create chimeras and pseudo-philosophizing. Box. Korobochka's last name metaphorically expresses the essence of her nature: thrifty, distrustful, fearful, feeble-minded, stubborn and superstitious. Korobochka is “one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures and losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile little by little they collect money in colorful bags... In one... rubles, in another fifty rubles, in the third quarters ...” The chest of drawers, where, in addition to linen, skeins of thread, a torn cloak, and bags of money are kept, is an analogue of the Box (like Chichikov’s box). Korobochka's pettiness, the animal limitation of her interests to concerns about her own household, is emphasized by the bird-animal surroundings around her: neighbor-landowners Bobrov, Svinin; “There were no numbers of turkeys and chickens...” The things in Korobochka’s house, on the one hand, reflect her naive idea of lush beauty, on the other, her hoarding. “The room was hung with old striped wallpaper; paintings with some birds; between the windows there are old small mirrors with dark frames in the shape of curled leaves; Behind every mirror there was either a letter, or an old deck of cards, or a stocking; wall clock with painted flowers on the dial.” The universal human passion depicted by Gogol in the image of Korobochka is “club-headedness.” Korobochka is afraid to sell the “dead souls” at a low price, she is afraid that Chichikov will deceive her, she wants to wait so that “somehow she does not incur a loss.” Korobochka at first believes that Chichikov intends to dig up the dead from the ground. She is going to slip Chichikov, instead of the “dead souls,” hemp and honey, the prices of which she knows, but in relation to the “souls” Korobochka declares: “It’s better for me to wait a little, maybe the merchants will come, and I’ll apply the prices.” Korobochka decides to sell her “souls” out of fear and superstition, because Chichikov promised her the devil and almost cursed her (“to hell with your whole village!”). The image of Korobochka contains a type of “club-headed” stubborn man, deadened in his limitations: “someone is both respectable and even a statesman, but in reality he turns out to be a perfect Korobochka. Once you’ve got something in your head, you can’t overpower it with anything.” Sobakevich. Heroic power (a leg shod in a boot of gigantic size), feats at the dinner table (cheesecakes “much larger than a plate”, “a turkey the size of a calf”), heroic health (“I’ve been alive for five decades, I’ve never been sick”) parody the appearance and deeds of fabulous heroes. Rudeness and clumsiness are the essence of Sobakevich’s portrait. Nature, when creating his face, “cut with all her might: she grabbed the ax once - the nose came out, grabbed another - the lips came out, she picked out the eyes with a large drill and, without scraping them, let them into the light...”. The things around Sobakevich repeat the heavy and durable body of the owner: a strong and asymmetrical house, “like we build for military settlements and German colonists; the pot-bellied walnut bureau is a perfect bear; table, chair,” the chairs seemed to say: “And I, too, are Sobakevich!” He is a master, a materialist, and he does not care about “treasures in heaven.” He scolds everyone, sees everyone as a scoundrel and a swindler. The governor is “the first robber in the world,” “he will kill the whole city for a penny.” he sits and drives a swindler... there is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.” Sobakevich only remembers the soul when bargaining with Chichikov, reducing its essence to a material shell: “You have a soul.” human is like a steamed turnip.” The unrealized heroic potential of Sobakevich’s “dead” soul is parodically represented by portraits of heroes. Sobakevich is a “man-fist.” He expresses the universal passion for the heavy, the earthly, the carnal. Nozdryov is a character in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” He is a type of “broken fellow,” a reveler. He is a “historical person,” because every time he ends up in history: either he gets drunk in a buffet, or he lies that he kept a blue or pink horse. He is eager for the female sex, and is not averse to “taking advantage of strawberries.” Nozdryov’s main passion is “to spoil his neighbor”: he spread tall tales, upset a wedding, a trade deal, and still considered himself a friend of the one to whom he had spoiled. Nozdryov's passion is universal and does not depend on rank. Like Nozdryov, a man “with a noble appearance, with a star on his chest” craps. “The Sensitive Nose (Nozdryov!) heard him several dozen miles away, where there was a fair with all sorts of conventions and balls.” The things around Nozdryov are identical to his boastful and gambling nature. Everything in his house is splattered with paint: men whitewash the walls. A pond where previously “there was a fish of such size that two people could hardly pull it out.” The field where Nozdryov caught a hare by its hind legs. In his office, instead of books, there are sabers and Turkish daggers, on one of which it is written: “Master Savely Sibiryakov.” Organ organ: “Nozdryov had long ago stopped playing, but in the organ organ there was one very lively pipe that did not want to calm down, and for a long time afterwards it whistled alone.” Even the fleas in Nozdryov’s house are “fast insects.” Energetic, active Nozdryov is devoid of inner content, and therefore dead. He changes anything: guns, dogs, horses, a barrel organ - not for the sake of profit, but for the sake of the process itself. He is a sharper, he gets Chichikov drunk in order to beat him at cards. While playing checkers with Chichikov, he manages to push the checkers into kings with the cuff of his sleeve. Nozdryov’s food expresses his reckless spirit: “some things were burnt, some were not cooked at all... in a word, roll and roll, it would be hot, but some kind of taste would probably come out.” He is impulsive and angry. While drunk, he whips the landowner Maksimov with rods and is about to beat Chichikov. He was the first to reveal Chichikov’s secret at the governor’s ball, after which he “sat down on the floor and began to grab the dancers by the skirts.” Portrait: “sometimes he returned home with only his sideburns, and even those rather thin. But his healthy and full cheeks were so well created and contained so much plant power that his sideburns soon grew back, even better than before.”

Plyushkin. The image of a moldy cracker left over from an Easter cake is a reverse metaphor for a surname. The portrait of Plyushkin is created using hyperbolic details: he appears as a sexless creature, Chichikov takes him for the housekeeper. “One chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit.” On the greasy and oily robe, “instead of two, there were four hems dangling.” This is a universal type of miser: “a hole in humanity.” Object world around Plyushkin indicates rottenness, decay, dying, decline. Bread rots in storerooms, green mold covers fences and gates, log pavements move “like piano keys,” huts where “many roofs leak like a sieve.” From a thrifty, exemplary owner, Plyushkin transforms into a spider. After the death of his wife eldest daughter runs away with the headquarters captain, Plyushkin curses her and his son, who has become a military man. Things deteriorate, time stops. Mental abilities Plyushkin also declines, reduced to suspicion, insignificant pettiness: he considers the servants to be thieves and swindlers; compiling a list of “dead souls” on a quarter of a piece of paper, he laments that it is impossible to separate another eighth of paper.

The image of landowners in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” The central place in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” is occupied by five chapters in which images of landowners are presented: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. The chapters are arranged in a special sequence according to the degree of degradation of the heroes. The image of Manilov seems to grow from a proverb: a person is neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan. He is cut off from life, unadapted. His house is located on the Jurassic, “open to all winds.” In a gazebo with the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection,” Manilov makes plans to build an underground passage and build a stone bridge across the pond. These are just empty fantasies. In reality, Manilov's economy is falling apart. The men are drunk, the housekeeper is stealing, the servants are idle. The landowner's leisure time is occupied by aimlessly putting ashes from a pipe into piles, and the book has been lying in his office for two years with a bookmark on page 14. The portrait and character of Manilov were created according to the principle: “in pleasantness, it seemed, too much sugar was transferred.” On Manilov’s face there was “an expression not only sweet, but even cloying, similar to that mixture that the clever secular doctor sweetened mercilessly...” The love of Manilov and his wife is too sweet and sentimental: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this in your mouth.” piece." But despite the “excessiveness,” Manilov is truly a kind, amiable, harmless person. He is the only one of all the landowners who gives Chichikov “dead souls” for free. The box is also distinguished by “excessiveness,” but of a different kind—excessive frugality, distrust, timidity, and limitations. She is “one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile they gradually collect money in colorful bags.” The things in her house reflect her naive idea of wealth and beauty and, at the same time, her pettiness and limitations. “The room was hung with old striped wallpaper; paintings with some birds; between the windows there are old small mirrors with dark frames in the shape of curled leaves; Behind every mirror there was either a letter, or an old deck of cards, or a stocking; wall clock with painted flowers on the dial.” Gogol calls Korobochka “club-headed.” She is afraid to undercut the price when selling “dead souls,” so as not to “incur a loss.” Korobochka decides to sell souls only out of fear, because Chichikov wished: “... and be lost and bereft with your entire village!” Korobochka’s “club-headedness” is a trait of a man who “once he’s got something in his head, you can’t overpower him with anything.” Sobakevich outwardly resembles an epic hero: a gigantic-sized boot, cheesecakes “much larger than a plate,” “he has never been sick.” But his actions are by no means heroic. He scolds everyone, sees everyone as scoundrels and scammers. The whole city, in his words, is “a swindler sitting on a swindler and driving the swindler on... there is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.” The portraits on the walls depicting heroes speak of the unrealized heroic, heroic potential of Sobakevich’s “dead” soul. Sobakevich - “man-fist”. It expresses the universal human passion for the heavy, earthly, the absence of sublime ideals. Nozdryov is a “broken fellow,” a reveler. His main passion is “to spoil his neighbor,” while continuing to remain his friend. “A sensitive nose heard him several dozen miles away, where there was a fair with all sorts of conventions and balls.” In Nozdryov's office, instead of books, there are sabers and Turkish daggers, on one of which it is written: “Master Savely Sibiryakov.” Even the fleas in Nozdryov’s house are “fast insects.” Nozdryov’s food expresses his reckless spirit: “some things were burnt, some were not cooked at all... in a word, roll and roll, it would be hot, but some taste would probably come out.” However, Nozdrev’s activity is devoid of meaning, much less social benefit, which is why he is also “dead.” Plyushkin appears in the poem as a sexless creature, whom Chichikov mistakes for the housekeeper. The images surrounding this hero are a moldy biscuit, a greasy robe, a roof like a sieve. Both objects and the owner himself are subject to decay. Once an exemplary owner and family man, Plyushkin has now turned into a recluse spider. He is suspicious, stingy, petty, mentally degrading. Showing successively the life and character of five landowners, Gogol depicts the process of gradual degradation of the landowners

Poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls” -- greatest work world literature. In the death of the souls of the characters - landowners, officials, Chichikov - the writer sees the tragic death of humanity, the sad movement of history in a vicious circle. The plot of “Dead Souls” (the sequence of Chichikov’s meetings with landowners) reflects Gogol’s ideas about the possible degrees of human degradation. “My heroes follow one after another, one more vulgar than the other,” the writer noted. In fact, if Manilov still retains some attractiveness, then Plyushkin, who closes the gallery of feudal landowners, has already been openly called “a hole in humanity.” Creating the images of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, the writer resorts to general techniques of realistic typification (image of a village, a manor house, a portrait of the owner, an office, a conversation about city officials and dead souls). If necessary, a biography of the character is also given. The image of Manilov captures the type of idle, dreamer, “romantic” slacker. The landowner's economy is in complete decline. “The master’s house stood on the south, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds that might blow...” The housekeeper steals, “it cooks stupidly and uselessly in the kitchen,” “the pantry is empty,” “the servants are unclean and drunkards.” . Meanwhile, a “gazebo with a flat green dome, wooden blue columns and the inscription: “Temple of Solitary Reflection” was erected. Manilov's dreams are absurd and absurd. “Sometimes... he talked about how nice it would be if suddenly an underground passage was built from the house or a stone bridge was built across the pond...” Gogol shows that Manilov is vulgar and empty, he has no real spiritual interests. “In his office there was always some kind of book, bookmarked on page fourteen, which he had been constantly reading for two years.” vulgarity family life(relationships with his wife, education of Alcides and Themistoclus), the sugary sweetness of speech (“May Day”, “Name Day of the Heart”) confirm the insightfulness of the character’s portrait characteristics. “In the first minute of a conversation with him, you can’t help but say: “What a pleasant and kind person!” In the next minute of the conversation you won’t say anything, and in the third you’ll say: “The devil knows what it is!” - and move away; If you don’t leave, you will feel mortal boredom.” Gogol with amazing artistic power shows the deadness of Manilov, the worthlessness of his life. Behind the external attractiveness lies a spiritual emptiness. The image of the hoarder Korobochka is already devoid of those “attractive” features that distinguish Manilov. And again we have a type in front of us - “one of those mothers, small landowners who... little by little collect money into colorful bags placed in dresser drawers.” Korobochka's interests are entirely concentrated on farming. “Strong-browed” and “club-headed” Nastasya Petrovna is afraid to sell herself cheap by selling “dead souls” to Chichikov. The “silent scene” that appears in this chapter is curious. We find similar scenes in almost all chapters showing the conclusion of Chichikov’s deal with another landowner. This is special artistic technique, a kind of temporary stop of action, which makes it possible to show with particular salience the spiritual emptiness of Pavel Ivanovich and his interlocutors. At the end of the third chapter, Gogol talks about the typicality of the image of Korobochka, about the insignificant difference between her and another aristocratic lady.

Nozdryov continues the gallery of dead souls in the poem. Like other landowners, he is internally empty, age does not concern him: “Nozdryov at thirty-five years old was exactly the same as he was at eighteen and twenty: a lover of a walk.” The portrait of a dashing reveler is satirical and sarcastic at the same time. “He was of average height, a very well-built fellow with full rosy cheeks... Health seemed to be dripping from his face.” However, Chichikov notices that one of Nozdryov’s sideburns was smaller and not as thick as the other (result another fight). Passion for lies and card game largely explains the fact that not a single meeting where Nozdryov was present was complete without “history.” The life of a landowner is absolutely soulless. In the office “there were no visible traces of what happens in offices, that is, books or paper; only a saber and two guns were hanging...” Of course, Nozdryov’s farm was ruined. Even lunch consists of dishes that are burnt or, on the contrary, not cooked. Chichikov's attempt to buy dead souls from Nozdryov is a fatal mistake. It is Nozdryov who spills the secret at the governor’s ball. The arrival of Korobochka in the city, who wanted to find out “how much dead souls walk for,” confirms the words of the dashing “talker.” The image of Nozdryov is no less typical than the image of Manilov or Korobochka. Gogol writes: “Nozdryov will not be removed from the world for a long time. He is everywhere between us and, perhaps, only wears a different caftan; but people are frivolously undiscerning, and a person in a different caftan seems to them a different person.” The typification techniques listed above are also used by Gogol for the artistic perception of the image of Sobakevich. Descriptions of the village and the landowner's economy indicate a certain wealth. “The yard was surrounded by a strong and excessively thick wooden lattice. The landowner seemed to be concerned a lot about strength... The village huts of the peasants were also cut down amazingly... everything was fitted tightly and properly.”

Describing Sobakevich's appearance, Gogol resorts to zoological comparison: he compares the landowner with a bear. Sobakevich is a glutton. In his judgments about food, he rises to a kind of “gastronomic” pathos: “When I have pork, put the whole pig on the table, lamb, bring the whole lamb, goose, the whole goose!” However, Sobakevich (in this he differs from Plyushkin and most other landowners) has a certain economic streak: he does not ruin his own serfs, achieves a certain order in the economy, profitably sells dead souls to Chichikov, knows business and affairs very well. human qualities their peasants. The extreme degree of human degradation was captured by Gogol in the image of the richest landowner in the province (more than a thousand serfs) Plyushkin. The character's biography allows us to trace the path from a “thrifty” owner to a half-crazy miser. “But there was a time when he... was married and a family man, and a neighbor stopped by for dinner... two pretty daughters came out to meet him... his son ran out... The owner himself came to the table in a frock coat... But kind the owner died, some of the keys, and with them minor worries, passed to him. Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy.” Soon the family completely falls apart, and unprecedented pettiness and suspicion develop in Plyushkin. “... He himself finally turned into some kind of hole in humanity.” So, it was not social conditions that led the landowner to the last point of moral decline. Before us is a tragedy (precisely a tragedy!) of loneliness, developing into a nightmare picture of lonely old age. In the village of Plyushkina, Chichikov notices “some kind of special disrepair.” Entering the house, Chichikov sees a strange pile of furniture and some kind of street trash. Plyushkin lives worse than “the last shepherd of Sobakevich,” although he is not poor. Gogol’s words sound warningly: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, and disgust a person could descend! He could have changed so much!.. Anything can happen to a person.” Thus, the landowners in “Dead Souls” are united common features: idleness, vulgarity, spiritual emptiness. However, Gogol would not have been a great writer if he had limited himself to only a “social” explanation of the reasons for the spiritual failure of his characters. He really creates “typical characters in typical circumstances,” but “circumstances” can also lie in the conditions of a person’s inner, mental life. I repeat that Plyushkin’s fall is not directly related to his position as a landowner. Can’t the loss of a family break even the strongest person, a representative of any class or estate?! In a word, Gogol’s realism also includes the deepest psychologism. This is what makes the poem interesting to the modern reader. The world of dead souls is contrasted in the work with an ineradicable faith in the “mysterious” Russian people, in their inexhaustible moral potential. At the end of the poem, the image of an endless road and a trio of birds rushing forward appears. In its indomitable movement the writer sees the great destiny of Russia, the spiritual resurrection of humanity.