The people depicted by Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General” with amazingly unprincipled views and ignorance of any reader amaze and seem completely fictitious. But in fact, these are not random images. These are faces typical of the Russian province of the thirties XIX century, which can be found even in historical documents.
In his comedy, Gogol touches on several very important public issues. This is the attitude of officials to their duties and the implementation of the law. Oddly enough, the meaning of comedy is also relevant in modern realities.
The history of writing "The Inspector General"
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol describes in his works rather exaggerated images of Russian reality of that time. At the moment the idea of a new comedy appeared, the writer was actively working on the poem “Dead Souls”.
In 1835, he turned to Pushkin regarding an idea for a comedy, expressing a request for help in a letter. The poet responds to requests and tells a story when the publisher of one of the magazines in one of the southern cities was mistaken for a visiting official. A similar situation, oddly enough, happened with Pushkin himself at the time when he was collecting materials to describe the Pugachev riot in Nizhny Novgorod. He was also mistaken for the capital's auditor. The idea seemed interesting to Gogol, and the very desire to write a comedy captured him so much that work on the play lasted only 2 months.
During October and November 1835, Gogol wrote the comedy in its entirety and a few months later read it out to other writers. Colleagues were delighted.
Gogol himself wrote that he wanted to collect everything bad that is in Russia into a single pile and laugh at it. He saw his play as a cleansing satire and a weapon in the fight against the injustice that existed in society at that time. By the way, the play based on Gogol’s works was allowed to be staged only after Zhukovsky personally made a request to the emperor.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
The events described in the comedy “The Inspector General” take place in the first half of the 19th century, in one of the provincial towns, which Gogol simply refers to as “N”.
The mayor informs all city officials that he has received news of the arrival of the capital's auditor. Officials are afraid of inspections because they all take bribes, do poor work, and there is chaos in the institutions under their subordination.
Almost immediately after the news, a second one appears. They realize that a well-dressed man who looks like an auditor is staying at a local hotel. In fact, the unknown person is a minor official, Khlestakov. Young, flighty and stupid. The mayor personally showed up at his hotel to meet him and offer to move to his home, in much better conditions than the hotel. Khlestakov happily agrees. He likes this kind of hospitality. At this stage, he does not suspect that he has been mistaken for who he is.
Khlestakov is also introduced to other officials, each of whom hands him a large sum of money, supposedly as a loan. They do everything so that the check is not so thorough. At this moment, Khlestakov understands who he was mistaken for and, having received a round sum, keeps silent that this is a mistake.
Afterwards, he decides to leave the city of N, having previously proposed to the daughter of the Mayor himself. Joyfully blessing the future marriage, the official rejoices at such a relationship and calmly says goodbye to Khlestakov, who is leaving the city and, naturally, is not going to return to it.
Before that main character writes a letter to his friend in St. Petersburg, in which he talks about the embarrassment that occurred. The postmaster, who opens all letters at the post office, also reads Khlestakov’s message. The deception is revealed and everyone who gave bribes learns with horror that the money will not be returned to them, and there has been no verification yet. At the same moment, a real auditor arrives in town. Officials are horrified by the news.
Comedy heroes
Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov
Khlestakov's age is 23 - 24 years. A hereditary nobleman and landowner, he is thin, thin and stupid. Acts without thinking about the consequences, has abrupt speech.
Khlestakov works as a registrar. In those days, this was the lowest-ranking official. He is rarely present at work, increasingly plays cards for money and takes walks, so his career is not moving forward. Khlestakov lives in St. Petersburg, in a modest apartment, and his parents, who live in one of the villages in the Saratov province, regularly send him money. Khlestakov does not know how to save money; he spends it on all kinds of pleasures, without denying himself anything.
He is very cowardly, loves to brag and lie. Khlestakov is not averse to hitting on women, especially pretty ones, but only stupid provincial ladies succumb to his charm.
Mayor
Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. An official who has grown old in the service, in his own way, is not stupid, making a completely respectable impression.
He speaks carefully and in moderation. His mood changes quickly, his facial features are hard and rough. He performs his duties poorly and is a swindler with extensive experience. The mayor makes money wherever possible, and is in good standing among the same bribe-takers.
He is greedy and insatiable. He steals money, including from the treasury, and unprincipledly violates all laws. He doesn’t even shun blackmail. A master of promises and an even greater master of keeping them.
The mayor dreams of being a general. Despite the mass of his sins, he attends church weekly. A passionate card player, he loves his wife and treats her very tenderly. He also has a daughter, who at the end of the comedy, with his blessing, becomes the bride of the nosy Khlestakov.
Postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin
It is this character, responsible for sending letters, who opens Khlestakov’s letter and discovers the deception. However, he opens letters and parcels on a regular basis. He does this not out of precaution, but solely for the sake of curiosity and his own collection of interesting stories.
Sometimes he doesn’t just read letters that he particularly likes, Shpekin keeps them for himself. In addition to forwarding letters, his duties include managing postal stations, caretakers, horses, etc. But this is not what he does. He does almost nothing at all and therefore the local post office works extremely poorly.
Anna Andreevna Skvoznik-Dmukhanovskaya
Mayor's wife. A provincial coquette whose soul is inspired by novels. She is curious, vain, loves to get the better of her husband, but in reality this only happens in small things.
An appetizing and attractive lady, impatient, stupid and capable of talking only about trifles and the weather. At the same time, he loves to chat incessantly. She is arrogant and dreams of a luxurious life in St. Petersburg. The mother is not important because she competes with her daughter and boasts that Khlestakov paid more attention to her than to Marya. One of the entertainments for the Governor's wife is fortune-telling on cards.
Mayor's daughter is 18 years old. Attractive in appearance, cutesy and flirtatious. She is very flighty. It is she who at the end of the comedy becomes Khlestakov’s abandoned bride.
Composition and plot analysis
The basis of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” is an everyday joke, which was quite common in those days. All the comedy images are exaggerated and, at the same time, believable. The play is interesting because all its characters are interconnected and each of them, in fact, acts as a hero.
The plot of the comedy is the arrival of the inspector expected by the officials and their haste in drawing conclusions, because of which Khlestakov is recognized as the inspector.
What is interesting about the composition of the comedy is the absence of love intrigue and love line, as such. Here vices are simply ridiculed, which, according to the classical literary genre, receive punishment. Partly they are already orders for the frivolous Khlestakov, but the reader understands at the end of the play that even greater punishment awaits them ahead, with the arrival of a real inspector from St. Petersburg.
Through simple comedy with exaggerated images, Gogol teaches his reader honesty, kindness and responsibility. The fact that you need to respect your own service and comply with the laws. Through the images of heroes, each reader can see his own shortcomings, if among them are stupidity, greed, hypocrisy and selfishness.
And this apocalyptic rumor was especially strong in Gogol...
Archpriest G. Florovsy
N.V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General,” which premiered on April 19, 1836, has been included in the repertoires of leading theaters in Russia for more than one hundred and seventy years.
Several generations of talented directors and actors addressed the audience from the stage in order to, together with them, comprehend the depth of Gogol’s creative thought, aimed at overcoming sin in the soul of every person.
According to the recollections of individual actors, the first performers of roles in the comedy “The Inspector General,” they felt the mystery of this play, sometimes perplexed about the stage embodiment of the images.
The confusion of the artists, Gogol’s indignation after the premiere of “The Government Inspector” at the Alexandrinsky Theater, the contradictory opinions of critics - all this testified to the unusualness of this work for the Russian stage. It is no wonder that then, in 1836, few people could “accommodate” The Inspector General in all its completeness and versatility.
To understand the comedy, it took the author's comments, his letters, specialist research and... time. And if revolutionary-democratic criticism revealed only one aspect of comedy - social, then today, when Gogol’s creative legacy is revealed to us in all its depth and completeness, we should talk about the spiritual meaning of “The Inspector General,” which is comprehended gradually, as the human soul ascends to the light , to the truth, to God...
1.Gogol’s symbolism in the comedy “The Inspector General”
1.1Premiere of “The Inspector General” and the author’s personal tragedy
At the consecrated entrance of the Alexandrinsky Theater it was lively: not only police gendarmes were on duty, there were also dozens of officers on duty. More and more rich carriages drove up, men in ceremonial uniforms and ladies in satin and ermine emerged from the carriages and hurriedly climbed into the illuminated hall of the St. Petersburg theater.
The people, representing the entire color of the capital, were very excited and excited, and every time someone entered the hall, whispers ran through - they were waiting for the sovereign.
Finally, everything calmed down, and the performance began: the clicking of heels on the wooden flooring of the stage, arguments, and screams could be heard. And all this was accompanied by uncontrollable laughter from the audience. Although, according to Annenkov’s recollections, in some places the play was not without “intense attention” and even “indignation.”
And only one person was sad that evening. He fidgeted in his seat, pressed himself into his chair, his gloved hands were sweating, his heavily starched collar was cutting his neck. And with every minute, with every new action taking place on stage, his face became darker and darker. Finally, unable to bear it, he jumped out of his seat, snatched the coat from the footman, ran out into the street and quickly walked along the streets illuminated by dim lanterns, repeating as he walked: “Nobody, no one understood!!!”
This man was Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.
What made him leave the theater that April evening where the premiere of the comedy “The Inspector General” was taking place? Why did the first production of his play make such a depressing impression on him? In a letter to one writer (presumably Pushkin), he wrote: “The auditor has been played - and my soul is so vague, so strange... my creation seemed disgusting to me, wild and as if not mine.” Many years later, Gogol recalled in a letter to Zhukovsky: “The performance of The Inspector General made a painful impression on me. I was angry with the audience for not understanding me, and with myself, who was to blame for not understanding me. I wanted to run away from everything."
But what really happened? In fact, Gogol’s play was a “colossal success” (Panaev, “Literary Memoirs”). “The comedy was a huge success on stage” (S.M. Aksakov). “The Inspector General” was a success on stage: the general attention of the audience, applause, heartfelt and unanimous laughter, the challenge of the author... - there was no shortage of anything” (Kyaz P.A. Vyazemsky).
So why was the author so annoyed and shocked? M.M. Dunaev explains this by the fact that this success was primarily artistic. Apparently, this was not enough for Gogol, he expected a completely different reaction from the public, and “perhaps for the first time his soul was shocked by the feeling of such inconsistency...”. What meaning did Gogol put into the content of his comedy, and what did he expect from the production of “The Inspector General” on the stage of the Russian theater?
1.2 Creative biography of “The Inspector General”
The plot of The Inspector General was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. The play was created, as they say, in one breath: “As the first edition is written in a fever, then the second, it is again completed and rewritten.” And all this in two months. The comedy, having met the first obstacles of censorship, moves forward thanks to Gogol's longtime defenders - Pushkin and Zhukovsky. With the approval of the Emperor, The Inspector General received permission to be published in early March, and on April 19, 1836, it was staged on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater.
Regarding the idea of “The Inspector General,” Gogol wrote in “The Author’s Confession” in 1847: “In “The Inspector General,” I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and cases where What is most required of a person is justice, and to laugh at everything at once.”
In 1848, in a letter to V.A. Zhukovsky, Gogol once again spoke about the origin of “The Inspector General”. All the “bad things” that the satirical writer decided to collect “in one pile” really took place in contemporary Russia. The arbitrariness of officials, corruption, abuse of official powers - this is what is open to every reader and viewer of the play. But still, this is the simplest and somewhat naive interpretation of “The Inspector General”. Well, Gogol couldn’t just write about the lawlessness of officials. After all, it is known: bribery is as old as the hills. The accusatory pathos of the comedy is only the initial stage of understanding the content of this mysterious work.
The confessions of actor P.I. Grigoriev, the first performer of the role of judge Lyapkin - Tyapkin, have been preserved: “... this play is still like some kind of mystery for all of us... for our brother actor it is such a new work that we have not yet been able to evaluate it once or twice."
“For more than a century and a half of the existence of The Inspector General in Russian literature, meticulous critics have not discovered anything in it: outstanding artistic merits, right down to the subtlest and smallest needs, and all-crushing social criticism, and political revelations, and denunciations of morality - and everything is fair , only prophetic words against human apostasy they didn’t want to hear, they didn’t even believe the author himself when he decided to explain himself,” writes M.M. Dunaev in the book “Orthodoxy and Russian Literature.”
1.3 “Soulful City” in the play “The Inspector General”
According to I.A. Vinogradov and V.I. Voropaev, Gogol is “the best commentator on his works,” and one must treat all the author’s explanations with “trust.”
The city itself, in which the incredible events of the comedy unfold, is unreal, unrealistic, as the author himself admitted later in the play “The Inspector General's Denouement” (1846): “Take a close look at this city, which was depicted in the play! Everyone agrees that there is no such city in all of Russia: it is unheard of that where we have officials, every single one of them is such monsters: at least two, at least three are honest, but here there is not a single one. In short, there is no such city. Isn't it? Well, what if this is our spiritual city and it sits with each of us?” .
This recognition of the author allows us to conclude that this is a symbolic work. Behind the specific events of the play and its images, which make up the visible plan of the comedy, like behind the scenery, the sacred space of “The Inspector General” opens up. “And if the district town N is interpreted as a “spiritual city,” then its officials embody the “passions” rampant in it, and the auditor is our awakened conscience, which will force us to suddenly look at ourselves with all our eyes.”
The provincial town of N in Gogol's comedy truly presents a terrifying picture of morals and customs. (“There is a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness,” says the owner himself, the mayor). Officials, these venerable city fathers, called upon to ensure a sufficient level of civil well-being, have long trampled all the God-established laws of human society and care only about their own well-being.
Gogol's characters who violate God's commandments are spiritually ugly and hopelessly vulgar. “Vulgarity for Gogol is primarily a religious concept, testifying to the impoverishment and perversion of the soul; about the insignificance and emptiness of her movements in the presence of other forces that can lift a person." Vulgarity is destructive for a person, because it destroys the image of God in him.
1.4 Khlestakov: image or idea?
Chizhevsky's conjecture .
The consequence of a person’s apostasy is his communion with another spiritual source. “It seems that Gogol believed that vulgar thoughts and mental movements are instilled in an “unclean” person.
According to some researchers, the characters in the play often mention the name of the “evil one”: the word “devil” appears in the text 42 times! The spirit of the “devil”, “devil”, “evil one”, “demon” invisibly hovers over the city, inhabits the souls of officials, fear blinds the eyes, takes away the mind (“And my hands are shaking, and everything is clouded”, “As if some kind of fog has stunned , the devil got me wrong."
In such a “stifling” atmosphere of moral impurity and fear of retribution for crimes committed (the Law of God is written on the tablets of every person’s heart), other vices may appear, which Khlestakov embodies. This image is semantic center"The Inspector General", Gogol himself more than once insisted on its special significance in revealing the idea of this comedy in remarks to the gentlemen actors.
A certain young man, who found himself in a difficult financial situation and for this reason stayed in the city known to us, at the beginning of the play is none other than himself, i.e. Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, and does not introduce himself. “The role of the “Inspector General” from St. Petersburg - a consequence of the mistakes of officials - is actively imposed on him from the outside,” “...he is not a fraudster at all and does not deceive anyone. He himself is deceived. He was deceived by the Governor and his associates."
Gogol finds stage movements in the surprises of the characters themselves, in the versatility human soul. “Only the human soul gives him the material for the stage development of the plot. Delving into certain characters, the great comedian finds in them such surprises that amaze and fill the artist’s soul with such joyful excitement that he uses them with unshakable conviction for the stage movement of the comedy,” wrote the famous Russian director V.I. Nemirovich in 1909. Danchenko.
Priest Nikolai Bulgakov in his “Etude about Khlestakov” calls his imaginary auditor “a spinning top man,” “a balloon man,” huge on the outside and completely empty on the inside, inflated with flattery, pride, and the desire to occupy highest place in the atmosphere, to be someone (everyone! preferably everyone! in the field march...), to have something (everything! preferably everything...). And he alone, Khlestakov, became inflated here with this vice, and became this very vice.
If you follow Khlestakov’s remarks in his moments of “inspiration,” then in him, as in the city officials, two main passions are revealed. The first is the desire to live to fully satisfy one’s needs, to “pluck flowers of pleasure,” which “requires wealth” (hence bribes). The second is the desire for power, expressed in the following words: “... I would admit, I would not demand anything more as soon as you show me loyalty and respect, respect and devotion.”
It is interesting that these two passions will be characteristic of people in the last times for all mankind. In his epistles, the Apostle Paul warns that before the Second Coming people will be weak in spirit, weak in conscience, “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud,... ungodly,... not loving what is good, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God... The wicked men and deceivers will prosper in evil, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:1-5,13). Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, in his interpretations of the 24th chapter of Matthew, writes that the “normal” state of people will be enslavement to all types of sin. The “spiritual degradation of humanity” will become the “soil” necessary for the coming of the “lawless one,” the “son of perdition” (i.e., the Antichrist).
Sin will become the norm, the natural state of the human soul (look how careless the city officials are), and then the Antichrist will come to this fallen world. We learn about his short reign from the Apocalypse, from the Book of Revelation of John the Theologian. Orthodox Church traditionally considers the book of Revelation mysterious and extremely difficult to interpret. Nevertheless, a keen interest in eschatological issues has always been characteristic of Russian consciousness. Questions concerning the last times, the Second Coming and the Antichrist are also reflected in Gogol’s works, which, according to Archpriest G. Florovsky, are distinguished by a special apocalyptic rumor.
D.I. Chizhevsky is trying to reveal the secret of “The Inspector General”: he suggests that N.V. Gogol was among those people in Russia who believed in the prediction of the mystic and spirit seer G. Jung-Stilling about the imminent coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world, which should was to come in 1847. In his reasoning, he refers to quotes from the first, apocalyptic edition of the story “Portrait,” where Gogol, in the words of the hero, says the following: “... soon, soon the time will approach when the tempter of the human race, the Antichrist, will be born into the world. The terrible thing is that the time will be before the end of the world."
Vladimir Glyants in the book “Gogol and the Apocalypse,” referring to patristic interpretations and Chizhevsky’s hypothesis, considers the events in “The Inspector General” as an allegory on the eve of the Last Judgment, and Khlestakov not so much as image, how much like central idea comedy, more precisely - as an emblematic image of the idea of the Antichrist - the most ambitious “impostor of the finale of human history.”
Khlestakov’s type is Gogol’s real artistic discovery: an imaginary inspector, a “phantasmagoric” face, “deceitful deception personified,” he personifies not only human vices, and the very spirit of the last times. The system of analogies helps to see the parallels of the two plans of the comedy: just as in the play Khlestakov is appointed as an “auditor” in an atmosphere of absolute vulgarity, so the Antichrist “will be the product of all humanity, will increase, so to speak, by its sins and crimes. “Out of the “emptiest” Khlestakov, the officials (humanity) are blowing out a great nobleman (the Antichrist) with their own fear.”
In his letter to S.M. Aksakov dated May 16, 1844, N.V. Gogol, discussing the machinations of the “evil one”, his influence on a person, writes: “He is like a petty official who has entered the city as if for an investigation. He will throw dust at everyone, scatter them, and shout. All you have to do is chicken out a little and move back - then he will start to show courage. And as soon as you step on him, he will tuck his tail between his legs. We ourselves make a giant out of him; but in fact he God knows what» .
1.5 The motif of the Last Judgment in the comedy “The Inspector General”
The Antichrist, who will unlawfully appropriate divine dignity to himself, will come for a short time - Khlestakov does not stay long in the provincial town of N. Similar to the Second Coming of Christ in the end of times the arrival of the real auditor also occurs in the finale (it is important that Gogol does not bring him onto the stage, because in fact this is not an official), and the famous “silent scene” already points to the highest, Last Judgment that awaits every person.
The motionless figures standing on the stage during the performance are an image of the deadness of life, a symbol of dead souls killed by sin (“My soul ached,” Gogol once wrote, “when I saw how many dead inhabitants there were right there, in the midst of life itself”). The “silent scene” seems to suddenly tear off all the outer covers from a person and reveal a single human soul in her great shock: she, taken by surprise by God and not prepared to meet Him, is no longer able to correct or change anything. Gogol also recalled the idea of inevitable spiritual retribution in “Petersburg Notes of 1836,” talking about the calm and formidable Great Lent: “It seems that a voice is heard: “Stop, Christian, look back at your life.”
This topic has always been close to the writer, who has a keen religious feeling. Gogol's memory of the unforgettable moments of his childhood, when he heard the story of the Last Judgment from his mother's lips, has been preserved. In one of the letters addressed to his mother, Gogol writes that this impression “planted and subsequently produced in me the most high feelings» .
2.The idea of “serving” Russia, or the unrecognized prophet
From his early youth, Gogol was fascinated by the idea of “serving” Russia; he always wanted to be active and creatively transform Russian life. In “The Inspector General” the author will say: “This was my first work, conceived with the goal of making a good impression on society.”
“This was his first public explanation with that part of the nation in whose life the theater played an important role. For Gogol, the theater was the pulpit from which he could speak to the king, the minister, and the official. “The Russian world was intricately mixed in the theater and appeared in its diversity, including the diversity of opinions.” Gogol appeals to everyone and everyone. This is precisely the social significance of The Inspector General. It was necessary to direct the viewer not to “censure the actions of another, but to contemplate oneself” (from letters to Zhukovsky dated January 10, 1848) - this is the meaning of the famous remark of the Governor addressed to the audience: “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!”
On that April evening in 1836, Gogol saw his spectator, watched his reaction, heard laughter, and sometimes exclamations of indignation. But what he expected did not happen... “Gogol was deeply shocked that everything was limited to the artistic success of “The Inspector General” - he clearly needed from art not only artistic success, but... something else magical influence on Russian society,” wrote Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky.
“Is it possible to assume that Gogol was counting, perhaps half-consciously, that The Inspector General would produce some kind of immediate and decisive action? Russia will see its sins in the mirror of comedy and all, as one person, will fall to its knees, burst into tears of repentance and instantly be reborn! And nothing like that happened,... disappointment causes a spiritual turning point in the author,” Konstantin Mochulsky analyzes Gogol’s state after the premiere.
Gogol left his homeland, feeling like an “unrecognized prophet.” M.M. Dunaev, discussing The Inspector General, concluded that Gogol “created extremely outstanding work of art, and made it unusually funny and witheringly incriminating in relation to reality - it was impossible for prophecy to break through this barrier... The art of earthly forms cannot fully express heavenly truths.” Ten years later, in 1846, Gogol himself carried out the “translation” literary plot“The Inspector General” into the language of spiritual prophetic truths in “The Inspector General’s Denouement.”
3. The third idea in revealing the secret of “The Inspector General”
Researcher V.I. Vlashchenko, analyzing Gogol’s auto-comments to his works, talks about the third idea in revealing the secret of “The Inspector General”: “In the book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” (1846), in chapter 18, in the third letter, Gogol as a penitent Human in its confession gives a new key to understanding “The Inspector General” and admits: “All my... writings are the history of my own soul... None of my readers knew that, laughing at my heroes, he laughed at me... in me consisted of a collection of all possible nasty things, a little of each and, moreover, in such a multitude that I had never encountered them in any person... I was prompted by extraordinary spiritual events to convey them to my heroes... From then on I began to impart my heroes on top of their own nasty things with my own trash. Here’s how it was done: having taken on a bad quality, I pursued him in a different rank and in a different field, tried to portray him as a mortal enemy who had inflicted the most sensitive insult on me, to pursue him with anger, ridicule and everything else.”
Before us is the most valuable material that reveals the process of cleansing the soul of the brilliant Russian Christian writer. Archpriest V. Zenkovsky wrote about Gogol that he began the “reform” of Russian life with himself.” It is known that the writer in his letters asked his friends to make him best gift- indicate its vices and shortcomings. From experience own life Gogol made a “discovery”, known to the fathers of the Church, “that “obstacles” on external paths are the triggers of attention to the internal view - and this testifies well to Gogol’s concentration on inner life, on its dialectics."
It is significant that in the extracts of Gogol’s drafts there is the following passage: “Those who want to cleanse and whiten their faces usually look in the mirror. Christian! Your mirror is the Lord's commandments; if you put them in front of you and look at them closely, they will reveal to you all the spots, all the blackness, all the ugliness of your soul.”
V.A. Voropaev in the work “A little-known part of the creative heritage of N.V. Gogol,” exploring the system of the writer’s rough work, it is said that “extracts of various kinds, including church ones, partly reveal the secret of his work: it becomes possible to see and understand the hidden meaning of his works” (3.247). Thus, the researcher, talking about the epigraph , which appeared in 1842 (“ There's no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked"), indicates its evangelical origin: "The spiritual idea of the Gospel as a mirror has long been firmly entrenched in the Orthodox consciousness. So, for example, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says: “Christians! As a mirror is to the sons of this age, so may the Gospel and the immaculate life of Christ be to us. They look in the mirrors and correct their bodies and cleanse the blemishes on their faces... Let us, then, assume this mirror of purity before our spiritual eyes and look into it: is our life unique to the life of Christ? ".
So, carefully studying Gogol’s comments to “The Inspector General,” tracing his rich epistolary heritage, taking into account the conclusions of leading experts on the writer’s work, we can draw an interesting conclusion: Gogol himself offers us three “keys” for revealing the secret of “The Inspector General”: it is “everything bad” in Russia, in the soul of every person, in the soul of the author.
The three plans of The Inspector General reflected to us three levels of existence. The author, reflecting on “the properties of our Russian nature”, on “everything good and bad in Russian people”, turns to internal observation of the human soul. And his own spiritual dispensation helps him in this: “Oh, how deeper this knowledge is revealed to you when you begin the matter with your own soul.”
The diversity of what is depicted and expressed in the comedy “The Inspector General” provided the unique artistic structure of the plot, the versatility of the play’s figurative system, and revealed examples of the symbolic creativity of the brilliant Russian writer that were still unknown in literature.
Shchelkunova Svetlana Aleksandrovna , teacher of Russian language and literature of secondary school N22 (Sergiev Posad)
Literature
Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments.
1. Bulgakov Nikolai, priest. "The soul hears the light." Sketch about Khlestakov. M. - 2003.
2. Vlashchenko V.I. “Two extraordinary rats in The Inspector General.” Literature at school. 2004, - N4.
3. Voropaev V.I. A little-known part of the creative heritage of N.V. Gogol. In: The Gospel text in Russian literature of the 18th-20th centuries. Petrozavodsk. - 2001.
4. Gogol N.V. Inspector. Collected works in 2 volumes. Volume 1. Moscow - Kyiv - Paris. - 2002.
5. Gogol N.V. From letters. What can benefit the soul. M. - 2007.
7. Gogol N.V. Favorites. Publication of the Sretensky Monastery. - 1999.
8. Glyants V. Gogol and the Apocalypse. M. - 2004.
9. Dunaev M.M. Orthodoxy and Russian literature. Part 2. M. - 1996.
10. Zolotoussky I.P. Gogol. M. - 1984.
11. Marchenko V. “Be not dead, but living souls.” Orthodox writer-patriot N.V. Gogol. M. - 1998.
12. Mochulsky K. Gogol’s spiritual path. In: N.V. Gogol and Orthodoxy. M. - 2004.
13. Orthodox encyclopedia. Volume 11. M. - 2006.
14. Protopresbyter Vasily Zenkovsky. The meaning of Orthodox culture. M. - 2007.
15. Elder Joseph of Vatopedi. About the end of the century and the Antichrist. M. - 2006.
"Inspector"
Send me, I ask you earnestly, if you took with you, my comedy “Marriage”, which is not in your office and which I brought to you for comments 1. I am sitting without money and absolutely without any means; I need to give it to the actors to act out, which is usually done at least two months in advance. Do me a favor, send it quickly and quickly make at least some major comments.
I started writing "Dead Souls". The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny. But now I stopped it on the third chapter. I'm looking for a good sneaker with whom I can get along briefly. In this novel I want to show at least one side of all of Rus'.
Do me a favor, give me some kind of story, at least some kind of funny or unfunny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. If this doesn’t happen, then my time will be wasted, and I don’t know what to do with my circumstances. Apart from my lousy university salary - 600 rubles - I don’t have any jobs now. Do me a favor and give me a plot; in spirit there will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear, it’s much funnier than the devil! For God's sake, my mind and stomach are both starving.
Neither “Arabesques” nor “Mirgorod” suit me at all. God knows what that means! Booksellers are the kind of people who could be hanged from the first tree without any conscience.
The idea of "The Inspector General" belongs to Pushkin.
During the conversation, Gogol, among other things, noticed that the first idea for “The Inspector General” was given to him by Pushkin, telling about Pavel Petrovich Svinin, how he, in Bessarabia, pretended to be some important St. Petersburg official and only having gone far (he began to take petitions from convicts) was stopped. “Later I heard,” he added, “several more similar tricks, for example, about some Volkov” 2.
Pushkin told Gogol about an incident that happened in the city of Ustyuzhin, Novgorod province, about some passing gentleman who pretended to be a ministry official and robbed all the city residents. In addition, Pushkin, being in Orenburg himself, learned that a letter had been received about him. V. A. Perovsky a secret paper in which Perovsky was warned to be careful, since the history of the Pugachev rebellion was only a pretext, and Pushkin’s trip was intended to revise the secret actions of Orenburg officials. Based on these two data, “The Inspector General” was conceived, of whom Pushkin always called himself the godfather 1*.
Gr. V. A. Sollogub. From memories. Rus. Arch., 1865, p. 744.
It is known that Gogol took the idea of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” from Pushkin, but it is less known that Pushkin did not quite willingly cede his property to him. In the circle of his family, Pushkin said, laughing: “You have to be careful with this Little Russian: he is robbing I’m so bad that you can’t even shout.”
P. V. Annenkov. "Gogol in Rome". Literary Memoirs, 20.
According to Nashchokin, Gogol was never close to Pushkin. Pushkin, who joyfully and affably greeted everything young talent, received Gogol, provided him with patronage, took care of the public’s attention to him, personally took care of the production of “The Inspector General” on stage, in a word, brought Gogol into the public eye. Nashchokin, while respecting Gogol's talent, does not respect him as a person, contrasting his search for effects and conceit with the simplicity and kindness, the artlessness of Pushkin 3.
P. I. Bartenev from the words of P.V. Nashchokin. Stories about Pushkin. M., 1925. Pp. 44--45.
Gogol once read his “Marriage” at Zhukovsky’s on one of those Fridays where a society of Russian literary, scientific and artistic celebrities gathered. At the last words: “but when the groom jumped out the window, then…” - he made such a grimace and whistled so hilariously that all the listeners roared with laughter. At the presentation, this whistle was replaced, it seems, by the actress Guseva, with the words: “It’s just my respect,” which is what they always say now 2*. But this ending is far from being as comical and original as the one invented by Gogol. He does not complete the play and does not complete in the viewer, with the last comic feature, the general impression after a comedy based on humor alone.
Gr. V. A. Sollogub. From memories. Rus. Arch., 1865, p. 743.
They talked a lot about me, examining some of my aspects, but they did not define my main essence. Only Pushkin heard it. He always told me that no writer had ever had this gift of showing the vulgarity of life so clearly, of being able to outline the vulgarity of a vulgar person with such force, so that all the little things that escape the eye would flash large in the eyes of everyone. This is my main quality, which belongs to me alone and which, for sure, other writers do not have... But this dignity would not have developed in me in such strength if my own spiritual circumstance and my own spiritual history had not been combined with it. None of my readers knew that, laughing at my heroes, he laughed at me. There was not one too strong vice in me that would have stuck out more clearly than all my other vices, just as there was also no picture-perfect virtue that could have given me some kind of picture-perfect appearance; but instead, in me there was a collection of all possible nasty things, a little of each, and moreover in such a multitude that I had never encountered in any other person. God gave me a multifaceted nature. He also implanted in my soul, already from my birth, several good qualities; but the best of them was the desire to be the best. I never liked my bad qualities. As they began to open up, my desire to get rid of them intensified; I was led by an extraordinary spiritual event to pass them on to my heroes. What kind of event this was, you should not know. From then on, I began to endow my heroes, in addition to their own nasty things, with my own trash. Here's how it was done; Having taken my bad quality, I pursued him in a different rank and in a different field, tried to portray him as a mortal enemy who inflicted the most sensitive insult on me, pursued him with anger, ridicule and everything else. If anyone had seen the monsters that came out of my pen at first for myself, he would certainly have shuddered. When I began to read to Pushkin the first chapters of “Dead Souls” in the form as they were before, Pushkin, who always laughed when I read (he was a lover of laughter), began to gradually become more and more gloomy, gloomier, and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading ended, he said in a voice of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is!” It amazed me. Pushkin, who knew Russia so well, did not notice that all this was a caricature and my own invention! It was then that I saw what a matter taken from the soul means, and spiritual truth in general, and in what a terrifying form for a person darkness and the frightening absence of light can be presented to him. From then on, I began to think only about softening the painful impression that “Dead Souls” could make.
Gogol. Four letters to to different persons about "Dead Souls". Selected passages from correspondence with friends, XVIII. 3.
We are all healthy here. Sisters grow and learn and play. I also hope to get something nice. So, in no more than a year or two I will come to the opportunity that, perhaps, I will invite them to St. Petersburg to look at them, but until then there is nothing to be annoyed about.
I gave up on the university, and a month later I was a carefree Cossack again. Unrecognized I ascended the pulpit and unrecognized I leave it. But in these one and a half years - the years of my disgrace, because the general opinion says that I did not take up my own business - in these one and a half years I took a lot from there and added to the treasury of the soul. It was no longer childish thoughts, not the limited former circle of my information, but lofty thoughts, filled with truth and terrifying grandeur, that excited me... Peace be with you, my heavenly guests, who brought divine moments to me in my cramped apartment close to the attic! Nobody knows you, you are again lowered to the bottom of the soul until a new awakening; when you are torn out with greater force and the shameless insolence of the learned ignorant, the learned and unlearned mob, the always agreeing public does not dare to resist... and so on, and so on. ... I'm telling you this alone; I won’t tell anyone else: they’ll call me a braggart, and nothing more. Past, past all this!
Now I'm out fresh air. This refreshment is needed in life, like rain is needed for flowers, like a walk is needed for someone sitting too long in the office. Let's laugh, laugh more now. Long live comedy! One ("Inspector") I finally decide to give it to the theatre, bringing a copy to be copied in order to send it to you in Moscow, along with a request to notify who should be informed about this matter. Tell Zagoskin that I will write to him about this and convincingly ask for any assistance from him, and dear Shchepkin that he has ten roles in one comedy; whichever one he wants, let him take it; It can even play everything at once. I am very sorry that I did not prepare anything for his benefit. I was so preoccupied this time that I barely managed to finish the play on the third day. That comedy that I read with you in Moscow ("WomenAndhee"), I don’t intend to give it to the theater.
I vividly remember Gogol’s last lecture: his pale, emaciated and long-nosed face was tied up with a black scarf for toothache, and in this form his figure, and even in his uniform, gave the impression of a poor, oppressed official, from whom work was demanded that was beyond his natural gifts. .
Established in the 8th grade, N.V. Gogol, former adjunct in the department of history at the imperial. St. Petersburg University... on the occasion of the transformation of the university remained behind the reform with the issuance of an annual salary of 1836, January 1st... He was always certified as capable and worthy and throughout his service he behaved as befits a decent, noble person .
Gogol certificate issued from St. Petersburg University. Rus. Star., 1902, Sept., 651.
The comedy is completely ready and rewritten, but I must, as I saw now, redo several phenomena. This will not slow down, because in any case I decided to definitely give it to the Holy Day. She will be completely ready for the post, and during the post the actors will have time to completely learn their roles.
Gogol- M.P. Pogodin, January 18, 1836, from St. Petersburg. Letters, I, 360.
Yesterday (on Saturday Zhukovsky) Gogol read us a new comedy “The Inspector General”... The whole life is described very funny, and in general inexhaustible gaiety; but there is little action, as in all his works. He reads masterfully and excites continuous bursts of laughter in the audience. I don’t know whether the play will lose on stage, because not all the actors will play as he reads... Wigel can’t stand him because he somewhere spoke about the vile mug of the director of the department... Gogol often lies from excess gaiety , and that’s what makes his gaiety sticky.
Book P. A. Vyazemsky- A.I. Turgenev, January 19. 1836, from St. Petersburg. Ostafevsky Archive, III, 285.
Baron Rosen was proud of the fact that when Gogol read his “The Inspector General” for the first time at Zhukovsky’s party, he alone of all those present did not show the author the slightest approval and never even smiled and regretted Pushkin, who was carried away by this insult to art farce and rolled with laughter while reading.
I. I. Panaev. Literary. memories. Full collection cit., VI, 68.
I'm now busy staging a comedy. I am not sending you a copy because I am constantly forwarding it. I don’t even want to send it to the actors before my arrival, because if they read it without me, it will be difficult to retrain them in my way. I think I will be in Moscow, if not in April, then in May.
(Yakim, Gogol’s servant, about Pushkin): - “They loved the master so much. There would be snow, rain, slush, and they would run here in their greatcoat. They would sit with the master for whole nights, listening to our man read his works to them, or reading my poems to him."
According to Yakim, Pushkin, going to Gogol and not finding him, rummaged through his papers with annoyance, wanting to know what he had written new. He lovingly followed Gogol’s development and kept telling him: “write, write,” and his stories made him laugh, and he always left Gogol cheerful and in good spirits.
Gr. P. Danilevsky. Works, XIII, 121.
Gogol occasionally visited my aunt (A.I. Vasilchikova, for whom he was her son’s teacher in 1831) and once made such a strange visit to her that it is impossible not to mention it. The aunt was sitting with her children in deep mourning, with plerezas, on the occasion of the recent death of her mother 3*. They report on Gogol. He comes in with a blank face. As usually happens in similar cases, the conversation began about the frailty of everything earthly. Gogol must have been tired of this: then he was still cheerful and in full burst of his humorous inspiration. Suddenly he begins a very long and lamentable story about some Little Russian landowner whose only beloved son was dying. The old man was exhausted, did not leave the patient day or night, finally got completely tired and went to lie down in the next room, giving the order to be woken up immediately if the patient got worse. Before he could fall asleep, a man runs: “You’re welcome!” - “Is it really worse?” - “Which is worse! He died completely!” At this denouement, all the faces of those listening with attention to the story stretched out, there were sighs, a general exclamation and the question: “Oh, my God, well, what about the poor father?” “But what should he do,” Gogol continued calmly, “he spread his arms, shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and whistled: wow, wow!” The loud laughter of the children concluded the joke, and the aunt, with every right, became angry at this joke, which was indeed very inappropriate in a moment of general sadness. It is difficult to explain to oneself why Gogol, always meek and shy in society, decided on such a prank. Perhaps he decided to cheer up the children from the sad mood prevailing in the house; perhaps, without noticing it himself, he was carried away by the stream of irresistible comedy that was constantly flowing within him.
Gr. V. A. Sollogub. From memories. Rus. Arch., 1865, p. 742.
Once Gogol arrives, enters, A. I. Vasilchikova sits sad, in deep mourning. Gogol, in order to entertain her, begins a long story about how such losses still exist, that he knew one father who had an only, dearly beloved son. This son falls ill, the father, out of despair, calls for a consultation the best doctors, worried, tormented, taking his son abroad. Nothing helps. Strength is fading, the son is dying. - “Well, what about father?” - the grandmother asks in excitement. “Father? Nothing! He blew into his palm and said only: whew!..” Grandma was terribly angry at such inappropriate consolation.
A. A. Vasilchikov according to the recording of A. A. Miloradovich. Rus. Arch., 1909, II, 540.
According to one of Gogol’s interlocutors, Mr. K-go (with whom I talked the other day and whom I thank here for the kind communication of some information about Gogol), at that time (around 1836) Gogol’s dominant quality was the extraordinary power of communicative humor with great secrecy of character. When Gogol read or spoke, he caused uncontrollable laughter in his listeners, literally making them laugh until they dropped. The listeners gasped, writhed, crawled on all fours in a fit of hysterical laughter. His favorite type of stories at that time were obscene anecdotes, and these stories were distinguished not so much by erotic sensitivity as by comicism in the taste of Rabelais. It was Little Russian lard, sprinkled with coarse Aristophanes salt.
Al. Ivanov(book A.I. Urusov). Theater. Notes and observations. Order, 1881, N 28.
Gogol had to work hard before presenting his play. When reading it, the censorship got scared and strictly banned it. All that remained for the author was to appeal this decision to a higher authority. He did just that. Zhukovsky, book. Vyazemsky, gr. Vielgorsky decided to intercede for Gogol, and their efforts were crowned with success. "The Inspector General" was requested to the Winter Palace, and Count Vielgorsky was instructed to read it. The Count, they say, read perfectly; Khlestakov really liked the stories of Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky and the scene of the presentation of officials, and then, at the end of the reading, followed highest resolution play a comedy.
A. I. Wolf. Chronicle of St. Petersburg theaters. St. Petersburg, 1877. Part I, p. 49.
The Emperor read the play ("The Inspector General") in manuscript.
Book P. A. Vyazemsky- A.I. Turgenev. Ost. Arch., III, 317.
If the sovereign himself had not shown his high patronage and intercession, then, probably, “The Inspector General” would never have been played or published.
Gogol- mother. Letters, I, 380.
In March 1836, "The Inspector General" fell into the dramatic censorship of the Third Department 4. It was examined by the famous censor Eustathius Oldekop. He presented a lengthy report on the play, as usual, in French.
"This play is witty and superbly written. Its author is one of the outstanding Russian short story writers... (The following is a detailed summary of the contents of the comediy.) The play contains nothing reprehensible."
On this report, by the hand of General Dubelt, it was written: “allow.”
Bar. N. V. Drizen. Notes about Gogol. East. Vestn., 1907, N 10, pp. 164--166.
Living in St. Petersburg, back in the days of “Mirgorod” and “The Inspector General,” Gogol was received very cordially in one house, where he had to appear for dinner in a tailcoat. To avoid observing this ceremony, Gogol pinned the skirts of his coat with pins and thus appeared for dinner. The owners, out of their kindness, tried not to notice this trick and forgave the poet for it.
P. A. Kulish. Notes on the life of Gogol, II, 253.
One day, a magnificent carriage, sent for him by a high-ranking person, arrived at Gogol’s apartment. Gogol was not at home, he was in a circle of his friends. The carriage went there; A footman enters and says that the carriage has arrived for Mr. Gogol and that they are expecting him. Hearing this, Gogol became very alarmed and at first flatly refused to go. But then all his comrades began to persuade him to go without fail and without any excuses. “I don’t even have a tailcoat here!” They found a tailcoat and pulled it on Gogol: the sleeves turned out to be a little short, and the tails were too long... They dressed it up as quickly as they could, and Gogol rode off. At the high person who invited Gogol, he read “The Inspector General” in the presence of a large society, generals and other dignitaries. They said later that he read The Inspector General inimitably. Each character in this comedy spoke in Gogol's own voice and with his own facial expressions. All the listeners laughed a lot and heartily, thanked the talented author and excellent reader for the pleasure they had given, and Gogol received an excellent watch as a gift 5 .
T. G. Pashchenko according to V. Pashkov's recording. Shore, 1880, N 268.
At brilliant literary evenings hosted by V. A. Zhukovsky, Gogol often read his comedy “The Inspector General.” I am sitting in the circle of eminent writers and several respectable, educated persons; everyone applauds, admires, amuses... I happened to hear “The Inspector General” at least ten more times, as the only reading at those literary evenings.
Zhukovsky's Saturdays are thriving... Only Gogol, whom Zhukovsky calls Gogolek, revives them with his stories. Last Saturday he read to us a story about a nose that suddenly disappeared from the face of some collegiate assessor. Hilariously funny!
Book P. A. Vyazemsky- A.I. Turgenev, April 9. 1836, from St. Petersburg. Ost. Arch., III, 313.
I'll have lunch with you on Sunday. But here's a suggestion; you wanted to hear Gogol's comedy. Do you want me to bring Gogol to you? He would read after lunch, and I would settle myself so as not to fall asleep while reading.
V. A. Zhukovsky- A. O. Smirnova, in 1836. Rus. Arch., 1883, I, 336.
When “The Inspector General” was staged, all the participating artists somehow got lost; They felt that the types brought out by Gogol in the play were new to them and that this play could not be played the way they were used to playing their roles on stage in French vaudevilles converted to Russian customs.
A. Ya. Panaeva-Golovacheva. Memories. Lgrd. 1928. Pp. 43.
In Lent 1836, rehearsals began at the theater for a new comedy, rumored to be prohibited by censorship, but allowed to be presented by the sovereign himself, at the diligent petition of Zhukovsky. When it was read by the author himself at Sosnitsky, in the presence of the actors for whom the roles were intended, most of them, brought up on the original comedies of Knyazhnin, Shakhovsky, Khmelnitsky, Zagoskin or on translations of the most boring Dusis and the pompous Marivaux, a new comedy written by some young Little Russian. Gogol, who a year ago published several funny stories under the title “Mirgorod”, most artists, we say, were in some kind of bewilderment. “What is this?” the listeners whispered to each other at the end of the reading. “Is this a comedy? He reads well, but what kind of language is this? The footman speaks in a footman’s language, and the locksmith Poshlepkina speaks like a simple a woman taken from Sennaya Square. What is it that our Sosnitsky admires here? What good do Zhukovsky and Pushkin find here? This is how the first performers of this comedy reacted to “The Inspector General”; P. A. Karatygin was also among the critics (a famous actor-comedian and vaudeville performer in his time). A student of the old classical school, he, until time, could not abandon the classical traditions. Both artists and many writers could not decide to throw off their powdered wigs from their heads, French caftans from their shoulders and put on Russian dress, the real Siberian coat of the merchant Abdulin or the worn and greasy frock coat of Osip 6. But the hostile attitude of the artists towards Gogol's work was accompanied by an extremely remarkable phenomenon: the two oldest actors of both capital stages, Shchepkin - Moscow and Sosnitsky - St. Petersburg, reacted to "The Inspector General" with the liveliest sympathy. Like all his colleagues, P. A. Karatygin treated Gogol’s comedy, if not with disdain, then with complete indifference; but the very personality of the author attracted the artist’s special attention and was deeply etched in his memory. During one of the rehearsals of The Inspector General, Karatygin, while backstage, sketched a portrait of Gogol on the wrapper of his role, folded in half. According to the stories of the late P. A. Karatygin, this was at the morning rehearsal, on Sunday, April 18, 1836, i.e., on the eve of the first performance of The Inspector General. Gogol was greatly alarmed and apparently upset; often spoke in a low voice with Sosnitsky, almost exclusively with him, and only occasionally with the head of the repertoire, A. I. Khrapovitsky. The latter, pinching his mustache, smiled sarcastically and shrugged his shoulders in many scenes. Some of the young actors and actresses winked secretly. Their immodest gaiety was aroused not by the comedy, but by its author. A short blond man with a huge toupee, wearing gold glasses on a long birdlike nose, with narrowed eyes and tightly compressed, as if bitten, lips. A green tailcoat with long tails and small pearl buttons, brown trousers and a tall top hat, which Gogol either impulsively took off, running his fingers into his toupee, or twirled in his hands, all this gave his figure something of a caricature. No one guessed what great talent was hidden in this weak body, what suffering he experienced, foreseeing that neither the performing actors nor the majority of the public would appreciate and understand “The Inspector General” at its first performance,
In the forties he served in Alexandrinsky Theater small actor O. O. Prokhorov, an intemperate drinker. He is mentioned by Gogol in The Inspector General, when the mayor asks the policeman: - Where is Prokhorov? - Prokhorov is in a private house, but he can’t be used for business. - How so? - Yes, so: they brought him dead in the morning. Two buckets of water have already been poured out, and I still haven’t sobered up. This scene was written by Gogol at one of the rehearsals, when, in response to the call of the mayor, who was portrayed by I. I. Sosnitsky, some weekend actor ran in and began to read the role of the policeman, and since Prokhorov had rehearsed this role at previous rehearsals, Sosnitsky asked from himself: - “Where is Prokhorov?” - “I got drunk again...” Gogol liked this private conversation so much that he immediately inserted it into his comedy in the above edition.
At the first performance of The Inspector General in 1836, Mr. K. told me, (or at the dress rehearsal?) Gogol himself ordered the removal of the luxurious furniture that had been placed in the mayor’s rooms, and replaced it with simple furniture, adding cages with canaries and a bottle on the window. Osip was dressed in a livery with braid. Gogol took the oily caftan off the lamp maker and put it on the actor playing Osip.
Al. Ivanov
SPECTACLES
At the Alexandrinsky Theater, for the first time, The Inspector General, an original comedy in five acts; - Matchmaker Gavrilych, or Conspiracy to the Pit, a picture of Russian folk life.
The hall was filled with the most brilliant audience; the entire aristocracy was present, knowing that the sovereign had promised to be in the theater. Sosnitsky played the mayor, Sosnitskaya - his wife, Asenkova - his daughter, Dur - Khlestakova, Afanasyev - Osip, Karatygin 2 - Tyapkin-Lyapkin, Tolchenov - Strawberry, Guseva - Poshlepkin, Sosnovsky - Abdulina.
A. I. Wolf. Chronicle of St. Petersburg. theaters, I, 49.
At the performance, the sovereign was wearing epaulettes, the stalls were dazzling, covered in stars and other orders. Ministers and P. D. Kiselev (soon - Minister of State Property) sat in the front row. They had to applaud with the applause of the sovereign, who kept both hands on the barrier of the box. They laughed loudly. Kiselev was louder than the others, since he had nothing to reproach himself with.
A. O. Smirnova. Autobiography, 331.
April 19. - For the first time "The Inspector General". An original comedy in five acts. An essay by N. Gogol... The Emperor and his heir suddenly deigned to be present and were extremely pleased, laughing with all their hearts. The play is very funny, just an intolerable curse on the nobles, officials and merchants. All the actors, especially Sosnitsky, played superbly. Called: the author, Sosnitsky and Dur.
Arriving unexpectedly at the theater, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich stayed until the end of the play, laughed heartily and, leaving the box, said: “Well, it’s a play! Everyone enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it more than anyone else!” The late Karatygin, along with some other artists, heard these words himself while being backstage as the sovereign exited the box onto the stage.
The theater was full. The entire St. Petersburg intelligentsia was assembled. By the way, sitting in the stalls was I. A. Krylov, who had never been to the theater. Gogol did not respond to the author’s calls. Excited by new sensations for him, that same evening he stopped by to visit friends, visited Pletnev, did not find him, went to another (communication by Mr. K.).
Al. Ivanov(book A.I. Urusov). Order, 1881, N 28.
Gogol was much more concerned with the opinion of the public than with the opinions of experts, friends and jury judges of literature, and the St. Petersburg public treated Gogol, if not completely hostile, then at least suspicious and distrustful. The final blow was dealt by the performance of The Inspector General. The author's fussiness during the production of The Inspector General, which seemed strange, out of all customs and even, as they said, out of all decency, was sadly justified by the vaudeville character conveyed to the main character of the comedy, and the vulgar caricature reflected in others. Gogol suffered all that evening. I, a witness to this first performance, will be allowed to say what the theater hall itself portrayed during the four hours of the most wonderful performance he had ever seen. Already after the first act, bewilderment was written on all faces (the audience was select in the full sense of the word), as if no one knew how to think about the picture that had just been presented. This bewilderment then grew with each act. As if finding comfort in the mere assumption that a farce was being given, the majority of the audience, knocked out of all theatrical expectations and habits, settled on this assumption with unshakable determination. However, in this farce there were features and phenomena filled with such vital truth that once or twice, especially in places that least contradicted the concept of comedy in general, which had developed in the majority of the audience, general laughter was heard. Something completely different happened in the fourth act: laughter, from time to time, still flew from one end of the hall to the other, but it was some kind of timid laughter, which immediately disappeared; there was almost no applause; but intense attention, convulsive, intense following of all the shades of the play, sometimes dead silence showed that what was happening on stage passionately captured the hearts of the audience. At the end of the act, the previous bewilderment had already degenerated into almost universal indignation, which was completed by the fifth act. Many later called the author out for writing a comedy, others because talent was visible in some scenes, the common public for laughing, but the general voice heard on all sides of the select public was: “This is an impossibility, slander.” and farce." At the end of the performance, Gogol came to N. Ya. Prokopovich in an irritated state of mind. The owner decided to present him with a copy of The Inspector General, which had just come out of print, with the words: “Admire your son.” Gogol threw the copy on the floor, walked up to the table and, leaning on it, said thoughtfully: “Lord God! Well, if one or two scolded, well, God bless them, otherwise that’s it, that’s it..."
P. V. Annenkov. Gogol in Rome. Literary Memoirs, 28--29.
Sovereign (performed by "The Inspector General") was quite pleased and ordered to thank the artists. All those who distinguished themselves received gifts from the court, 7 others from the management received an increase in their salaries, and Petrov, who played Bobchinsky and enjoyed special high favor for this role, received a completely unexpected surprise. During the intermission of one of the ballets, the sovereign came onto the stage and, noticing Petrov, who had come forward to appear, said: “Ah! Bobchinsky! So, can I say that Petr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city?” “Exactly so, Your Majesty...” he answered briskly. “Well, okay, we’ll know,” the sovereign concluded, turning to the others present on the stage.
“The Inspector General” was a colossal success, but in the first minutes of this success, none of even Gogol’s most ardent admirers fully understood the significance of this work and did not foresee what a huge revolution the author of this comedy would make. After the performance of “The Inspector General,” the puppeteer only grinned ironically and, without denying Gogol’s talent, remarked: “But still, this is a farce, unworthy of art.”
I. I. Panaev. Literary Memoirs. Full collection op. St. Petersburg, 1888. T. VI, p. 152.
“The Inspector General” was played, and my soul was so vague, so strange... I expected, I knew in advance how things would go, and for all that, a sad and annoyingly painful feeling came over me. My creation seemed disgusting to me, wild and as if not mine at all. The main role was gone; That's what I thought. Dur didn't understand one bit what Khlestakov was... Khlestakov became something like a whole line of vaudeville rascals who came to visit us from the Parisian theaters. He became just an ordinary liar. But it seemed clear to me. Khlestakov does not cheat at all, he himself forgets that he is lying, and he himself almost believes what he says... And so Khlestakov played a childish, insignificant role! It's hard and poisonous and annoying.
From the very beginning of the performance of the play, I was already sitting in the theater bored. I didn’t care about the delight and reception of the public. Of all the people in the theater, I was afraid of only one judge, and that judge was myself. Inside myself I heard reproaches and murmurs against my own play, which drowned out all the others. And the public was generally happy. Half of her accepted the play even with participation; the other half, as usual, scolded her for reasons that, however, had nothing to do with art... In general, the mayor completely reconciled the “Inspector General” with the public. It seems that I was sure of this before, because for a talent such as Sosnitsky’s; nothing could remain unexplained in this role. I also hoped for the Servant, because I noticed in the actor great attention to words and greatness. But Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky turned out bad beyond expectations. A cartoon came out. Already before the start of the performance, when I saw them in costume, I gasped. These two people, essentially quite neat, plump, with decently smoothed hair, found themselves wearing some kind of awkward, tall gray wigs, disheveled, unkempt, disheveled, with huge shirtfronts pulled out; and on stage they turned out to be such antics that it was simply unbearable. In general, the costume design for most of the play was very bad and caricatured. I kind of had a presentiment of this when I asked to do one rehearsal in costumes; but they began to tell me that this was not at all necessary and not the custom, and that the actors already knew their business. Noticing that they gave little value to my words, I left them alone. I repeat once again: melancholy, melancholy! I don’t know why the melancholy overcomes me.
During the performance, I clearly saw that the beginning of the fourth act was pale and showed signs of some kind of fatigue. Returning home, I immediately set about redoing it. Now it seems to come out a little stronger, at least more natural and more to the point. But I don’t have the strength to bother about including this passage in the play. I'm tired; and when I remember that for this you need to travel, ask and bow, then God bless him - it would be better with the second edition or renewal of The Inspector General.
I don't have the strength to fuss and argue anymore. I am tired both in soul and body. I swear, no one knows or hears my suffering. God be with them all! I was disgusted with my play. I would like to run away now to God knows where.
Gogol. Letter to a writer 8.
(28 Apr 1836)- Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" caused a lot of noise. They give it incessantly, almost every other day. The Emperor was at the first performance, clapped and laughed a lot. I got to the third show. There was the empress with the heir and the grand duchesses. This comedy also amused them a lot. The Emperor even ordered the ministers to go watch The Inspector General. Ahead of me, in the chairs, sat Prince Chernyshev (Minister of War) and Count Kankrin (Minister of Finance). The first expressed his complete pleasure; the second only said: “Was it worth going to watch this stupid farce?” Many believe that the government is in vain in approving this play, in which it is so cruelly condemned. I saw Gogol yesterday. He has the appearance of a great man haunted by wounded pride. However, Gogol really did an important job.
A. V. Nikitenko, I, 273.
“The Inspector General” was a complete success on stage: the general attention of the audience, applause, heartfelt and unanimous laughter, the challenge of the author after the first two performances, the greed of the audience for subsequent performances and, most importantly, its living echo, which was heard later in widespread conversations - there was nothing lacking.
Book P. A. Vyazemsky, Full collection cit., II, 259.
After all, it was Pletnev who discovered this little treasure (Gogol); his instinct is very correct, he recognized it from the first meeting.
A. O. Smirnova- book P. A. Vyazemsky, May 4, 1836. Collection. op. book P. P. Vyazemsky, 549.
Read “The Inspector General” and conclude that there is so much talk about it. Everyone is trying to be more monarchist than the Tsar, and everyone is angry that they allowed this play to be played, which, however, was a brilliant and complete success on stage, although not a success of general approval. It’s incredible what kind of stupid judgments you hear about her, especially in the highest ranks of society! “It’s as if there is such a city in Russia.” “How can we not imagine at least one honest, decent person? As if they don’t exist in Russia?”
All the youth of that time were delighted with The Inspector General. We repeated to each other by heart, correcting and supplementing each other, entire scenes, long conversations from there. At home or at a party, we had to enter into heated debates with various elderly (and sometimes, to shame, not even elderly) people who were indignant at the new idol of youth and assured that Gogol had no nature, that these were all his own inventions and caricatures that there are no such people in the world at all, and if there are, then there are much fewer of them in the whole city than here in one comedy. The contractions were hot and prolonged, but the old men could not change a single feature in us, and our fanatical adoration of Gogol only grew more and more.
I am sending you "The Inspector General". Maybe you've already heard rumors about him. I wanted to bring it to you myself and read it in person, so that some people would not have false ideas about them, which I know are extremely difficult to eradicate afterwards, but, having become acquainted with the local theater management, I became so disgusted with the theater that I alone the thought of the pleasures that are also being prepared for me at the Moscow theater has the power to deter a trip to Moscow and an attempt to bother about something. Finally, to top off the worst possible mischief for me, the local management, that is, director Gedeonov, decided, as I hear, to give the main roles to other characters after four performances of it, being moved by some petty personal hatred of some of the main actors in my play , somehow: to Sosnitsky, to Dur. No urine! Do what you want with my play, but I won’t bother about it. I'm just as tired of her as I am of worrying about her. The action she produced was large and noisy. Everyone is against me. Elderly and respectable officials shout that nothing is sacred to me when I dared to speak like that about serving people; the police are against me; the merchants are against me; writers are against me. They scold and go to a play; tickets cannot be obtained for the fourth performance. If it were not for the high intercession of the sovereign, my play would never have been on stage, and there were already people trying to ban it. Now I see what it means to be a comic writer. The slightest ghost of truth - not just one person, but entire classes rebel against you. I imagine what would happen if I took something from St. Petersburg life, which is now more and better familiar to me than provincial life. It is annoying to see people against you, who meanwhile loves them with brotherly love.
My comedy, which I read to you in Moscow, under the title “Marriage,” I have now reworked and translated, and it is now somewhat similar to something worthwhile. I appoint it in such a way that it will go to you and Sosnitsky at a benefit performance here and in Moscow, which, it seems, happens at the same time of year. I myself am going abroad in a month and a half, if not earlier.
“The Inspector General” was sold to the St. Petersburg directorate by Gogol himself for 2,500 rubles in banknotes, and therefore they immediately began to stage it in Moscow. Gogol was well acquainted with Mikh. Sem. Shchepkin and entrusted him with the production of “The Inspector General” in writing, providing him with many, mostly very practical, instructions 9 . At the same time, we learned that Gogol himself, greatly upset and upset by something in St. Petersburg, sold all the remaining copies of “The Inspector General” and his other works with a concession and was going to immediately go abroad.
S. T. Aksakov. Dating story, II.
After various worries, annoyances and other things, my thoughts are so scattered that I am unable to collect them into harmony and order. I definitely wanted to go to Moscow and talk to you to my heart’s content. But that’s not how it happened. I feel that now Moscow will not give me peace of mind, and I don’t want to come in such an anxious state as I am in now. I go abroad, there I unravel the melancholy that my compatriots inflict on me every day. A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far away from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in his homeland. That all classes have now resolutely rebelled against me, I am not embarrassed by this, but it is somehow painful, sad when you see your own compatriots, whom you love from the bottom of your heart, unfairly turned against you, when you see how falsely, in what unfaithful form they are all accepted. Take the particular for the general, the case for the rule! what is said truly and vividly already seems like a libel. Bring two or three rogues onto the stage - a thousand honest people get angry and say: “We are not rogues.” But God be with them! I’m not going abroad because I don’t know how to endure these displeasures. I want to improve my health, relax, have fun and then, having chosen a somewhat permanent stay, think carefully about my future work. It's time for me to create with more thought.
They say you're angry at the rumors (about "The Inspector General"). Well, brother, aren’t you ashamed! After all, you yourself become a comic face. Imagine, the author wants to bite people not in the eyebrow, but right in the eye. It hits the target. People squint, turn away, scold and, of course, shout: “Yes! We are not like that!” So you should rejoice, because you see that you have achieved your goal. What evidence is clearer than the truth in comedy! Are you angry?! Well, aren't you funny?
M. P. Pogodin- To Gogol, from Moscow. Barsukov, IV, 337.
I’m not angry at the rumors, as you write, I’m not angry that those who find their own features in my originals and scold me are angry and turn away, I’m not angry that my literary enemies, corrupt talents, scold me; but this general ignorance that moves the capital is sad to me, it’s sad when you see that the stupidest opinion of a writer disgraced and spat upon by them affects themselves and leads them by the nose; It’s sad when you see what a pitiful state our writer is in. Everyone is against him, and there is no equivalent side for him. "He's a firebrand! He's a rebel!" And who is speaking? This is what statesmen tell me, people who have earned a reputation, experienced people who should have some intelligence in order to understand the matter in its true form, people who are considered educated and whom the world, at least the Russian world, calls educated. The rogues were brought onto the stage, and everyone was in bitterness, why bring the rogues to the stage? Let the rogues be angry; but those who I did not know to be rogues are angry. This ignorant irritability is deplorable to me, a sign of the deep, stubborn ignorance spilled over our classes. The capital is delicately offended by the fact that the morals of six provincial officials have been inferred; What would the capital say if its own morals were even slightly removed? I am not upset by the current bitterness against my play; I am concerned about my sad future. The province is already faintly depicted in my memory, its features are already pale, but the life of St. Petersburg is bright before my eyes, its colors are alive and sharp in my memory. The slightest feature of it - and then how my compatriots will speak! And the fact that enlightened people accept it with loud laughter and participation is what outrages the bile of ignorance; and this is general ignorance. To say about a rogue that he is a rogue is considered to be undermining the state machine; to say just one living and true line means, in translation, to disgrace the entire class and arm others or its subordinates against it. Consider the position of the poor author, who meanwhile loves his fatherland and his own compatriots very much, and tell him that there is a small circle that understands him, looking at him with different eyes, will this console him? Moscow is more favorable to me, but why? Is it because I live at a distance from her, that her portrait has not yet been seen anywhere in my home, that, finally... I don’t want to list all the cases this time. My heart at this moment is filled with gratitude to her for her attention to me. Goodbye. I’m going to unwind my melancholy, deeply think about my responsibilities as an author, my future creations, and I’ll return to you, surely, refreshed and renewed. Everything that was done to me was saving for me. All insults, all troubles were sent to me by high providence for my upbringing, and now I feel that it is not earthly will that directs my path. He is probably necessary for me.
My laughter was good-natured at first; I did not at all think of ridiculing anyone for any purpose, and I was so amazed when I heard that entire classes and classes of society were offended and even angry with me that I finally thought about it. “If the power of laughter is so great that people fear it, then it should not be wasted.” I decided to collect everything bad that I knew and laugh at everything at once - that’s the whole origin of “The Inspector General”! This was my first work, conceived with the goal of producing a good influence on society, which, however, failed; in comedy they began to see a desire to ridicule the legalized order of things and government forms, while my intention was to ridicule only the arbitrary deviation of some individuals from the formal and legalized order. I was angry both at the audience, who did not understand me, and at myself, who was to blame for not understanding me. I wanted to get away from everything. The soul demanded solitude and thoughtful consideration of its most serious business.
I can’t, my good and respectable fellow countryman, I can’t in any way be with you in Moscow. My departure has already been decided. I know that you would all receive me with love; my grateful heart feels it. But I, for my part, don’t want to seem boring to you and not sharing your precious participation. It would be better for me to proudly carry in my soul this enlightened gratitude to the old capital of my homeland and preserve it as a shrine in a foreign land. Moreover, even if I came, I could not be as useful to you as you think. I would have read it to you badly, without the slightest interest in my faces - firstly, because I had lost interest in it; secondly, because I am dissatisfied with many things about it, although not at all with what my short-sighted and unreasonable critics accused me of. On the way I will be thinking hard about a play I have in mind. In the winter I will write it in Switzerland, and in the spring I will take it directly to Moscow, and Moscow will be the first to hear it.
I know Mr. author of "The Inspector General" - this is young Russia, in all its arrogance and cynicism. He is under the patronage of Zhukovsky, but this is not the same Zhukovsky. Just judge, this winter he gathered writers at his place on Saturdays, and I sometimes went there, as if in an enemy camp. The most important princes there are Vyazemsky and Odoevsky and Mr. Gogol. Pushkin was always there, but this one still sticks to Rus' (?).
F. F. Vigel- N. M. Zagoskin, May 31, 1836, from St. Petersburg. F. F. Vigel. Notes. Ed. "Circle". M., 1925. T. II, 327.
There was a time when I knew you for a long time and intimately (oh, woe is me!) - and I didn’t recognize you! On both sides, excessive pride did not allow us to get closer. And how, behind the severity of your views, could I guess the treasures of your feelings? It was not difficult for you to reach the treasures of your mind: despite all the stinginess of your speeches, he spoke out of his own accord.
F. F. Vigel- N.V. Gogol (regarding “Selected passages from correspondence with friends”, in 1847). N.V. Sushkov. Moscow University Noble Boarding House. M., 1858. Pp. 25.
I. I. Lazhechnikov, like many writers of the old school, quite sincerely did not understand the enthusiasm for “The Inspector General,” which he considered simply a caricature, a farce, suitable for the amusement of the district, and not a creative work of art. “I highly respect the talent of the author of “Old World Landowners” and “Bulba,” he writes to Belinsky, “but I won’t give a penny to write “The Inspector General.”
A. P. Pypin. Belinsky, his life and correspondence. Ed. 2nd. St. Petersburg, 1908. Pp. 104.
On the eve of Gogol's departure abroad, Pushkin, according to Yakim (Gogol's servant), sat in his apartment all night long. He read the works he had begun. This was their last date.
Gr. P. Danilevsky. Getting to know Gogol. Works, ed. 9th, vol. XIII, 121.
Before leaving abroad, Gogol made an order to release Yakim (St.Ohis serf servant) free, and wrote about this to his mother. But Yakim himself did not want this.
V. P. Gorlenko. Mirgorod and Yanovshchina. Rus. Arch., 1893, I, 303.
(June 6, 1836) Gogol moved abroad in the company of his friend A. S. Danilevsky. Gogol's sisters said goodbye to him at the institute. Leaving them alone at the institute, he did everything he could to make sure that they felt good, that they were visited more often, etc. Prince came on board the ship to see Gogol off in a friendly manner. Vyazemsky.
V. I. Shenrok. Materials, III, 114.
I remember as if it were yesterday, and will long remember your kindness, your farewell kiss, which you gave me already on the ship, your letters of recommendation, which gained me a favorable reception from those to whom they were given.
Notes
"The Inspector General" was Gogol's first dramatic work, which the public became familiar with, but by no means his first dramatic experience. Gogol’s first approaches to creating a comedy, the material for which would be modern life, took place back in 1833. While still a history teacher at the Patriotic Institute, he wrote to M. P. Pogodin: “I’ll get down to history - the stage is moving in front of me, applause is noisy, faces stick out from boxes, from the barracks, from armchairs and bare their teeth, and - to hell with history" (see: Current ed. pp. 146--147).
While still in Nizhyn, as a high school student, Gogol experienced a passion for theater and became famous among his fellow students for his unrivaled performance of the role of Prostakova in Fonvizin’s “The Minor.” And now he is trying his hand as a playwright. In 1833, work on “Vladimir of the 3rd Degree” was abandoned; in 1835, attempts began to create a historical drama from medieval English life; almost simultaneously, around the same time, he worked on the future “Players” and “Marriage”, initial sketches which dates back to 1833, but the publication and production of these comedies will occur only in the early 40s. Thus, by the time of work on “The Inspector General,” Gogol’s dramatic techniques had already been established, and the audience would immediately encounter the pinnacle of Gogol’s dramaturgy, the immortal “Inspector General.”
The novelty of Gogol's dramaturgy and the originality of his artistic method turned out to be beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of viewers and readers, or even the majority of actors who were to embody Gogol's images on stage. The tastes of the public and actors were brought up mostly on vaudeville and melodrama, as well as on light translated comedies, the whole interest of which was concentrated either on intrigue or on the comedy of situations. Gogol wrote that he was angry at melodramas and vaudeville: “A strange thing has happened to the plot of the current drama. The whole point is to tell some incident, certainly new, certainly strange, hitherto unheard of and unprecedented: murders, fires, the wildest passions, of which there is not even a trace in modern societies!.. I imagine what a strange bewilderment our descendant will be in if he decides to look for our society in our melodramas" (vol. 8, pp. 182--183). Vaudevilles also got it from him: “... vaudevilles have long crept onto the Russian stage, they amuse average people, fortunately they are funny. Who would have thought that vaudeville would not only be translated on the Russian stage, but even original?..” ( vol. 8, p. 181). The unnaturalness of dramatic intrigue, plots that have no relation to Russian reality—this is what caused Gogol’s skeptical attitude towards the theater; theater for him is a true depiction of the modern life of society.
But the theater and the public turned out to be internally unprepared for the revolution that “The Inspector General” produced on stage. It was the vaudeville aspect of the first production of the comedy in St. Petersburg that Gogol was dissatisfied with. Even in the opinion of P. A. Vyazemsky, who listened to “The Inspector General” in the author’s reading, there was little action in the play. The internal dynamism of the comedy, the absence of dramatic patterns in the development of action, to which Gogol’s contemporaries were accustomed, confused the audience. The actors found themselves in an even more difficult position: after all, not a single character in The Government Inspector could be played using the usual, well-established arsenal of stage techniques.
Even the outward resounding success of the comedy, due to its sharp satirical orientation, did not satisfy Gogol, because very few appreciated the play. Apparently, Gogol did not expect such an effect. And again, as after the collapse of Hanz Küchelgarten, Gogol rushes out of Russia.
1 Gogol writes to Pushkin at Mikhailovskoye and asks to return the manuscript of “Marriage,” which he gave to Pushkin in the spring of 1835. There is no information about Pushkin’s comments regarding this comedy.
2 About Platon Volkov, landowner of the Gryazovets district of the Vologda province, a swindler who posed as an auditor in the city of Ustyuzhna (see: Panov V. More about Khlestakov’s prototype // North. 1970. N 11. P. 125--127).
3 The history of the relationship between Gogol and Pushkin has more than once become the subject of research. Struggling with the idyllically touching legend of the friendship of two geniuses, B. E. Lukyanovsky went to the opposite extreme (see: Lukyanovsky B. E. Pushkin and Gogol in their personal relationships: (The question of “friendship”): Conversations // Collection of the Society of History and Literature in Moscow. M., 1915. S. 32--49; and also: Dolin A. S.. Pushkin and Gogol: (On the issue of their personal relationships) // Pushkin collection in memory of Professor S. A. Vengerov. M.; Pg., 1922. S. 181--197). In the works of other researchers, the problem of personal relationships was replaced by a more productive formulation of the question of creative relationships. See for example: Gippius V.V. Literary communication between Gogol and Pushkin // Uch. zap. Perm. state University, 1931. Issue. 2. pp. 61--126.
4 “The Inspector General” entered the III department on February 27, 1836 and was allowed to be staged on March 2 (see: Materials and Research. T. 1. P. 309).
5 Pashchenko’s memoirs as recorded by Pashkov V.V. Gippius considered them unreliable and questioned the credibility of the story about Gogol’s sudden invitation to the palace to read “The Inspector General” (see: Ibid. p. 312).
6 These words can be confirmed by a letter from the actor P. I. Grigoriev, who performed the role of Lyapkin-Tyapkin in the St. Petersburg production: “The Inspector General” by Mr. Gogol was a great success with us! Gogol went to glory! This piece went well, I just don’t know how long it will last on stage; This play is still like some kind of mystery for all of us. At the first performance they laughed loudly and a lot, supported us strongly - we will have to wait to see how everyone will appreciate it over time, but for our brother, the actor, she is such a new work that we (maybe) will not yet be able to appreciate from one or two once. How to be! Not all of a sudden!” (see: LN. T. 58. P. 548).
7 Gifts were received by Sosnitsky, Dur (rings worth 800 rubles) and Afanasyev (ring worth 700 rubles). Gogol received a royalty of 2,500 rubles for The Inspector General; In addition, Gogol received a gift from Nicholas I for presenting a copy of The Inspector General.
8 While preparing the second edition of The Inspector General, Gogol sent a letter to S. T. Aksakov on March 5, 1841, to which he attached a fragment he called “Excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of The Inspector General to a writer,” accompanying it explanation: “Here is a letter written by me to Pushkin, according to him at will. He was then in the village. The piece was played without him. He wanted to write a complete analysis of it for his magazine and asked me to notify how it was performed on stage. The letter remained unsent to me, because he soon arrived himself... It seems to me that the attached excerpt will not be out of place for an intelligent actor who happens to play the role of Khlestakov. This letter, with the title shown on it, must be attributed to the end of the play, and it is immediately followed by two attached scenes excluded from the play" (vol. 11, p. 330). "An excerpt from the letter..." was included in the second edition of "The Inspector General".
9 In a letter to Shchepkin dated May 10, 1836, Gogol wrote: “First, out of friendship for me, you must certainly take upon yourself the whole business of staging it (the comedy, - E.B...)... You yourself, without a doubt, must take on the role of the Governor, otherwise it will be lost without you. There is an even more difficult role in the entire play - the role of Khlestakov... God forbid, if they play it with ordinary farces, as they play boasters and theatrical hangers... I am very afraid for this role. It was poorly executed here too... Tell Zagoskin that I entrusted everything to you. I will write to him that I have sent you the distribution of roles. You compose a note and give it to him as if it was written by me" (vol. 11, pp. 39-40).
1* It is usually accepted that “The Inspector General” was written by Gogol during 1834-1835. (Tikhonravov, Shenrok, Kirpichnikov); therefore, Pushkin had to give Gogol the plot at the beginning of 1834. However, nowhere, neither in Gogol’s letters over the years, nor in his memoirs, do we find a single undoubted evidence that speaks of Gogol’s work specifically on “The Inspector General.” We have only one indisputable evidence about The Inspector General - Gogol’s message to Pogodin on December 6, 1835 about the end of the play on the “third day,” i.e., December 4. And two months before, on October 7, 1835, Gogol, asking Pushkin to return his comedy “Marriage” given to him to read, wrote to him: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of plot, at least some funny or unfunny, but purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. If this does not happen, then I will have wasted my time, and I don’t know what to do with my circumstances, except for my miserable university salary - 600 rubles. now, do me a favor, give me a plot; the spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear, for God’s sake, my mind and stomach are both starving.” If Gogol at this time, as they think, was already finishing his “The Inspector General,” then his letter to Pushkin is completely incomprehensible. Gogol “did not intend to give Marriage to the theater” (Letters, I, 358). Since he was finishing The Inspector General, it was much more natural for him to expect “satiation of the stomach” from this comedy, which was already being completed, than from a new one, for which he did not even have a plot yet. And how could his “hand tremble to write a comedy” at a time when he was just busy writing a comedy? We consider it very likely that only in response to Gogol’s request on October 7, Pushkin gave him the plot of “The Inspector General” that he already had ready (the program was recently found in Pushkin’s papers: “Crispin (Svinin) comes to the province for the fair, he is accepted for... The governor is an honest fool, the governor's wife will play tricks on him. Crispin is wooing his daughter." Gogol, who was hungry for creative work during his professorship, enthusiastically took up the development of the plot. In this regard, there was hope for an improvement in their financial condition. On November 10, Gogol writes to his mother: “The sisters are growing and learning. I also hope to get something pleasant. So, in no more than a year or two I will come to the opportunity that, perhaps, I will invite you to St. Petersburg to look at them” (Letters , I, 355). The work was exceptional in its intensity. It is also necessary to keep in mind that Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg on October 23, which means that only at the end of October could he give Gogol the requested plot. And already on December 4, we saw, the play was ready - indeed, it was ready “in spirit,” as Gogol promised Pushkin. The strongest argument against our guess, undoubtedly, is that such speed of writing is completely unusual for Gogol. But in his letters, Gogol is extremely stingy with messages about the process of his creativity (especially in the first period of his literary activity), and we know very little about how his works were conceived and written. However, in one late letter to Zhukovsky (from 1850, - Letters, IV, 292) Gogol writes: “While the writer is young, he writes a lot and quickly.”
2* In the original text of “Marriage” it was, indeed, as Sollogub says: “What! Slipped out the window! Fu, fu (Whistles lightly, as is usually done in the case of unfulfilled hopes).” But in the final version, Gogol himself, and not some actress, remade this passage as follows: “And if the groom rushed out the window, then, simply, my respect!”
3* Vasilchikova’s mother, E. A. Arkharova, died in 1836.
N.V. Gogol is considered the greatest satirist Russian literature. All the images he created were topical and poignant in his time, and some of them remain relevant today. The comedy "The Inspector General" became the standard of satire and one of the main creations of the writer. This immortal and universally recognizable work greatly influenced all Russian literature. The much-wise Litrekon has studied this comedy in detail, so he advises you to read the analysis of the text, which outlines the main and basic things you need to know about Gogol’s creation.
Interesting facts have been preserved about the creation of “The Inspector General”:
- The idea. The idea for the play was given to Gogol by A. S. Pushkin, telling about how in the city of Ustyuzhna Platon Volkov pretended to be an official of the third department and robbed many townspeople. Even a police report about this event was preserved, but the case was closed. Maybe this inspired the writer to write satire.
- The purpose of the play "The Inspector General". Gogol said that he collected in this comedy all the worst things that exist in Russia in order to subject it to cruel ridicule.
- Stage fate The play was not easy; the noble public greeted it with hostility. The comment of Emperor Nicholas I after the premiere was included in all the annals: “Everyone got it, but I got it more than anyone else.” However, the king himself, oddly enough, liked the comedy, and he advised all his ministers to go see it. It is also interesting that many agreed with him, although they considered the play a “stupid farce,” as one of them, E. F. Kankrin, said
- Prototypes. It is believed that Nicholas the First himself became the prototype of the mayor. The prototype of Khlestakov was the St. Petersburg journalist Pavel Svinin, a pathological liar. Nothing is known about other real prototypes.
Direction, genre
"The Inspector General" is an example of Russian realism. Despite the strong grotesqueness, the comedy aims to reflect the real life of people of that time. The characters fully correspond to the environment.
The genre of the work is a social comedy of a satirical nature. Everyday images are deliberately brought to the point of absurdity, and the narrative is seasoned with cruel ridicule of the vices of society.
The meaning of the title and ending
The name “Inspector” denotes the source of fear of officials - the inspector “from above” who came to control the work of the local authorities and report on it where it should be. It is fear that sets the plot of the comedy in motion and guides the actions of all the characters.
The title of the comedy best emphasizes the trait that Gogol most condemned - the fear of responsibility and punishment.
In addition, the title emphasizes the symbolism and meaning of the comedy's ending - a real auditor has arrived, and all officials are threatened with real exposure. This is exactly what the author wanted. The arrival of the auditor became the everyday embodiment of a religious concept - doomsday. Gogol was a religious man and often wove biblical motifs into the fabric of his work.
Composition and Conflict
In his comedy Gogol changes traditional structure plays.
- The plot begins right away with the plot, when the mayor informs his subordinates about the threat of the auditor, which triggers the main conflict - the false inspector who arrived and the one who is mad with fear high society city N.
- The exposition begins after the beginning, at the moment when the mayor is discussing the situation in the city.
- The play then follows a classic pattern with a climax in the scene of Khlestakov’s boasting, a denouement at the moment of reading the letter that reveals the truth, and, finally, a finale - a silent scene that has gone down in history.
The composition of “The Inspector General” is circular. Here is what literary critic V. G. Nazirov wrote about her:
The announcement of the gendarme about the real inspector rounds out the composition, and this return “to square one” symbolizes the immobility of the system, in which forward motion is replaced by rotation in a vicious circle: the system is forever stalling.
The essence
The mayor of a small provincial town, Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, learns about the imminent arrival of an auditor from St. Petersburg. Having gathered the people responsible for city services, he begins feverishly preparing for the inspection, but local landowners - Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky - report a mysterious young man from St. Petersburg, who has been in the city for a very long time. The frightened city authorities conclude that this particular traveler is an auditor from the capital.
In fact, the mysterious young man is an ordinary petty official Ivan Khlestakov, who squandered all his money. He was not able to pay for the services at the tavern where he was staying, so he delayed leaving. In an effort to avoid punishment and achieve their goals, the most influential people in the city surround the passing Khlyshch with honor and attention. As a result, Khlestakov, having received numerous bribes and gifts, and also promising to marry the mayor’s daughter, leaves.
While preparing for the wedding, the mayor receives from a curious postmaster a letter from Khlestakov to a friend, in which the whole truth about the self-deception of the mayor is revealed. At this moment, Anton Antonovich is summoned by the real auditor who has completed his inspection of the city.
The main characters and their characteristics
- Ivan Khlestakov- a representative of the younger generation of idle and stupid nobility. A mediocre fool. An idle gambler and a coward. Lives for today, striving to satisfy only the lowest human needs. He has a huge ego and a frivolous immoral character, so he easily agrees to an adventure and gladly deceives officials. As the author himself wrote in the stage directions for the actor playing the auditor: “Everything in him is a surprise and a surprise.”
- Mayor Anton Antonovich Skovoznik-Dmukhanovsky is a dishonest official. Established his absolute power in the city. Ruthlessly tyrannizes those below him and grovels before those above him. Ignorant, rude and cowardly. Quite cunning, has repeatedly escaped punishment in the past, and has extensive connections.
- Marya Antonovna- daughter of Anton Antonovich. An empty, unremarkable girl. Ignorant, vain and superficial. Dreams of a full-fledged social life in the capital. He easily succumbs to Khlestakov’s advances and lies. For the sake of wealth and honors, she is ready for any marriage.
- Antonovich Antonovich's wife- no longer a young woman. She differs from her daughter only in age. Infantile, ambitious and stupid. He also succumbs to Khlestakov’s charms. Characterized by greed, arrogance and love of gossip.
- Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin- city judge. Stupid and ignorant tyrant. He takes bribes with greyhound puppies.
- Artemy Filippovich Strawberries- trustee of charitable institutions. A cheat and a scoundrel. For the sake of his survival, he did not hesitate to tell Khlestakov about the sins of his colleagues.
- Luka Lukic Khlopov- superintendent of schools. A cowardly, irresponsible and pathetic person.
- Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin- postmaster. Out of pure curiosity, he abuses his authority and opens other people's letters.
- Christian Ivanovich Gibner- doctor. A German who does not know Russian.
- Peter Dobchinsky and Peter Bobchinsky- landowners. They look alike like twin brothers. Chatty, fussy and stupid people. Gossipers.
Gogol very actively uses speaking names. With their help, the writer mockingly characterizes the activities of the characters and their character traits.
Table of officials in the “Inspector”:
| speaking surname | meaning |
| Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky | comes from the Ukrainian variants of the words “draft” and “to blow”. the surname emphasizes the mayor’s ability to penetrate into any cracks and achieve goals by any means. Thus, he literally seeps through uniforms and service entrances, acquiring useful connections. for justice he was as elusive as the wind. the association with a draft shows its harmfulness and danger to the city. |
| Lyapkin-Tyapkin | The judge performs his work quickly, carelessly and poorly, for this feature people say: “he makes a blunder.” he never pays due attention to work, always strives to turn a blind eye to problems rather than solve them. |
| strawberries | the surname indicates the “sweetness” and baseness of the official’s character: strawberries spread along the ground and cling to everything that comes their way. So the hero sticks his nose everywhere, writes denunciations and slander. |
| Khlestakov | comes from the verb “whip”, which in Gogol’s time had a second meaning - to lie. Vladimir Dal in his dictionary writes about the meaning of such a surname as follows: “n an insolent, an impudent, a gossip, an idle crank, a parasite, a dandy, a rake, a shuffler and a red tape.” |
| shpekin | The telling surname comes from the Polish word "spek", which means "spy". indeed, the postmaster constantly opens other people's letters and is more interested in other people's secrets than in his own life. It is he who debunks the myth of the auditor-Khlestakov. |
| claps | comes from the word "serf". The official himself does not hide his slavish nature and dependence on his superiors: “If someone of a higher rank spoke to me, I simply have no soul, and my tongue has withered into the dirt.” |
| gibner | the surname comes from the word “to perish.” the doctor cannot effectively treat patients because he does not speak Russian, so there is simply no medicine in the city. |
| whistlers | comes from the word "to whistle". this official talks more than he does, and in general is busy exclusively with entertainment and not with service. |
| keep your mouth | a curse against law enforcement officers who turn into cruel martinets and arbitrarily torture citizens. comes from two words: “hold” and “muzzle”. |
Topics
The theme of the play “The Inspector General” is relevant to this day.
- City theme. The provincial town is presented as a remote and nondescript outback, inhabited by wild and slovenly people. The townspeople live in an atmosphere of hatred towards the authorities and each other. At the same time, they are too stupid and passive to do anything, and can only rely on the mercy of the auditor. The top of the city considers its outback insignificant and with all its soul strives to the capital.
- Law. The law in the city is shamelessly flouted by all layers of society. Officials are guided only by their own will. Even those who come to Khlestakov to ask for deliverance from the oppression of corrupt officials do not hesitate to give him large bribes and gifts themselves.
- The world of bureaucracy. The officials are presented as a bunch of self-righteous tyrants. They openly break the law and take it for granted. At the same time, every official is ready to sell another official whole if it helps him avoid responsibility. Mutual envy is hidden under the mask of benevolence.
- Mores of the city. Relations between townspeople are built on hypocrisy, fear and secret contempt. This is demonstrated in the scene when the auditor received the residents of the city and listened to their complaints. Then the merchants began to “drown” officials and complain about the local authorities, which they had been sponsoring with bribes all this time, and the officials completely attacked each other, just to save themselves.
Problems
Social and moral vices play a major role in the book. Gogol created a whole kaleidoscope of problems of Russian society that were relevant in his days and remain topical to this day:
- Lack of initiative and servile Russia. The writer emphasized the ubiquity of what was shown in the comedy. He was very concerned about the fate of the country, which was ruled by people like those whom he depicted in his work. But the most basic problem was the passivity and humility of the people, who not only tolerated lawlessness and injustice, but also actively participated in all this. If overnight the townspeople were caught up in places with the officials, they would continue to do the same thing: steal and waste their lives.
- Bribes. Gogol gives a sharply negative picture of corruption in Russian Empire, portraying bribe takers as narrow-minded and rude people, indifferent to the fate of the country. It is no coincidence that almost all officials are depicted in the body, this is how the writer exposes their selfishness and greed: they appropriate all the country’s wealth for themselves, are already bursting with it, but cannot stop consuming.
- Lie. The atmosphere of universal lies is well shown, when a person himself begins to believe in what he came up with and convinces others of it. In the bureaucratic environment, it is customary to be hypocritical and not speak frankly. Thus, at the slightest danger, officials who previously only praised each other begin to sharply criticize their colleagues. But the lie also shows on a more global level: the peripheral leaders mistook the frivolous fanfare Khlestakov for an auditor, because they had the same opinion about all the officials from the center and were ready to deceive them. They understood that the efficiency and power of the top were as ostentatious as their diligence and responsibility.
- Embezzlement. The boundless cynicism of officials is shown. Theft of funds has reached such a scale that people are dying without receiving the most basic medical care.
- Ignorance. All thieving officials are presented as extremely uneducated people. They have absolutely no understanding of management. An excellent example is the activities of Lyapkin-Tyapkin. The judge does not know how to work at all and does not know the laws.
- Frivolity. None of the characters want to be held accountable for their actions. Nobody wants to work long and hard and improve themselves. Everyone strives to take the easy path and get everything without doing anything. The consequences are the last thing the heroes care about.
- Reverence. Instead of working, officials only satisfy their ambitions and try to maintain their positions. Cruel, tyrannical and suppressing the weak, they are ready to humiliate themselves before the strong and powerful people.
main idea
Injustice in our lives comes from stupid, greedy, dishonest and power-hungry nonentities who live for today and think only about themselves. These are truly pathetic individuals who will inevitably destroy themselves and all of Russia. As long as the country is ruled by mayors who are only interested in themselves and their success, they will block all initiatives from the center and sabotage any project. Interestingly, irresponsible officials are not special cases, they are a direct consequence of tyranny. The king does not obey the laws and can reward and execute arbitrarily, which means that it is safer for the subject to do nothing, because the slave is not responsible for anything: he has no free will, and no responsibility. This conclusion is the meaning of “The Inspector General”, namely: autocracy corrupts the nation, under its influence people become only serfs to whom the ideals of civic valor and honor are alien. The Tsar himself brought Russia to the position of the city of N, so the country needs a change of government.
Gogol wanted to ridicule the vices that prevent our country from developing, which make the life of an essentially rich people poor and slavish. The author’s main idea is to show what not to do, and also to teach people to objectively evaluate their own and others’ actions, without smoothing over corners and without agreeing to compromises with their conscience.
The meaning of the silent scene in the finale reveals the author's intention in full: sooner or later all thieving officials will answer for their vices before the highest and incorruptible court. In the image of a real auditor, one can discern the highest justice of the heavenly court, which will not have mercy on sinners. They will also have to answer to the court of history, which mercilessly lynches the memory of those who turned out to be unworthy of their descendants.
What does it teach?
This comedy talks about how not to live. She teaches us that theft, careerism and lies are the lot of pathetic and stupid people. Nikolai Gogol ridicules petty-bourgeois greed and pettiness. After reading, each of us must draw a conclusion: what will such an irresponsible attitude towards everything and everyone lead to? According to the author, to the inevitability of an answer to justice.
Also, the writer in “The Inspector General” says that once a person has set foot on a slippery slope, he will no longer be able to get off it, and sooner or later punishment will overtake him. This is the moral of the play, dictated by the open but expressive ending.
Criticism
The comedy was negatively received by conservative sections of society. But it was glorified by such outstanding critics as Belinsky and Aksakov, and warmly received by the public:
“This comedy was a complete success on stage: the general attention of the audience, applause, heartfelt and unanimous laughter, the challenge of the author after the first two performances, the greed of the audience for subsequent performances and, most importantly, its living echo, which was heard later in widespread conversations - not a single one. what was not lacking (P. A. Vyazemsky)
Reviewers highlighted artistic features plays “The Inspector General” and the originality of the comedy:
“... Let’s move on to “The Inspector General.” Here, first of all, we must welcome in its author a new comic writer, with whom Russian literature can truly be congratulated. Mr. Gogol's first experience suddenly revealed in him an extraordinary gift for comedy, and also a kind of comedy that promises to place him among the most excellent writers of this kind.<…>"(O. I. Senkovsky)
“...I have already read The Inspector General; I read it four times and that’s why I say that those who call this play crude and flat did not understand it. Gogol is a true poet; After all, in the comic and funny there is also poetry. (K.S. Aksakov)
“In The Inspector General there are no better scenes, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, as necessary parts, artistically forming a single whole, rounded out by internal content, and not by external form, and therefore representing a special and closed world in itself.. "(V. G. Belinsky)
Even Tsar Nicholas I praised the play. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a contemporary:
He was the first to apply Gogol's satire to real people. In one province his carriage overturned on a bad road. Having recovered from his bruises, the emperor held a review of the local bureaucratic elite and said: “Where did I see these faces?” When the officials reached the proper shock, the sovereign remembered: “Ah, in Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”!”
However, reactionary criticism, which always attacked Gogol, found a reason to criticize:
Later literary scholars carefully studied the text and described the meaning of the play and those aspects of it that seemed controversial to readers:
A. L. Slonimsky wrote:
“How could it happen that such an experienced servant as the mayor mistook “an icicle, a rag” for an important person? Such a misunderstanding is possible only where blind veneration of rank prevails and no one thinks of doubting the words of the “superior”
R. G. Nazirov wrote:
In Khlestakov there is an exaggeration of political irresponsibility, typical of Nicholas Rococo, and in the mayor there is an exaggeration of readiness for “surprises”.
The relevance of “The Inspector General” has not faded to this day. Many expressions from it became catchphrases, and the names of the characters became common nouns.
At the beginning of 1936, the play premiered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, Gogol continued to make adjustments to the text of the work until 1842, when the final edition was completed.
“The Inspector General” is a completely innovative play. Gogol was the first to create a social comedy without a love line. Khlestakov's courtship of Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna is rather a parody of high feelings. There is also not a single positive character in the comedy. When the writer was reproached for this, he replied that the main goodie“Inspector” - laughter.
Unusual and composition play because it lacks traditional exposition. From the very first phrase of the Mayor it begins plot plot. The final silent scene also surprised theater critics a lot. No one had used this technique in drama before.
The classic confusion with the main character takes on a completely different meaning in Gogol. Khlestakov did not intend to impersonate an auditor; for some time he himself could not understand what was happening. I just thought: the district authorities were ingratiating themselves with him only because he was from the capital and fashionably dressed. Osip finally opens the dandy’s eyes, persuading the master to leave before it’s too late. Khlestakov does not seek to deceive anyone. The officials are deceiving themselves and dragging the imaginary auditor into this action.
Plot The comedy is built on a closed principle: the play begins with the news about the arrival of the auditor and ends with the same message. Gogol's innovation was also evident in the fact that there were no secondary plot lines in the comedy. All characters are tied up in one dynamic conflict.
An undoubted innovation was the main character. For the first time he became a stupid, empty and insignificant person. The writer characterizes Khlestakov as follows: "without a king in my head". Character of the hero manifests itself most fully in scenes of lying. Khlestakov is so inspired by his own imagination that he cannot stop. He piles up one absurdity after another, and does not even doubt the “truthfulness” of his lies. A gambler, a spendthrift, a lover of hitting on women and showing off, a “dummy” - this is the main character of the work.
In the play, Gogol touched upon a large-scale layer of Russian reality: state power, medicine, court, education, postal department, police, merchants. The writer raises and ridicules in “The Inspector General” many unsightly features of modern life. There is widespread bribery and neglect of one's duties, embezzlement and veneration of rank, vanity and passion for gossip, envy and gossip, boasting and stupidity, petty vindictiveness and stupidity... There is so much more! “The Inspector General” is a real mirror of Russian society.
The strength of the plot and its spring are also unusual for the play. This is fear. In Russia in the 19th century, audits were carried out by high-ranking officials. That is why the arrival of the “auditor” caused such panic in the district town. Important person from the capital, and even with "secret order", horrified local officials. Khlestakov, who in no way resembles the inspector, is easily mistaken for important person. Anyone traveling from St. Petersburg is suspicious. And this one lives for two weeks and does not pay - this is exactly how, according to ordinary people, a high-ranking person should behave.
The first act discusses "sins" to all those present and orders are given for "cosmetic" measures. It becomes clear that none of the officials consider themselves to blame and are not going to change anything. Only for a while will clean caps be given to the sick and the streets will be swept.
In comedy Gogol created collective image of bureaucracy. Civil servants of all ranks are perceived as a single organism, since they are close in their desire for money-grubbing, confident in impunity and the correctness of their actions. But each character leads his own party.
The main one here, of course, is the mayor. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky in service for thirty years. As a tenacious person, he does not miss the benefit that floats into his hands. But the city is in complete chaos. The streets are dirty, prisoners and the sick are fed disgustingly, the police are always drunk and lethargic. The mayor pulls the beards of merchants and celebrates name days twice a year in order to receive more gifts. The money allocated for the construction of the church disappeared.
The appearance of the auditor greatly frightens Anton Antonovich. What if the inspector doesn’t take bribes? Seeing that Khlestakov is taking the money, the mayor calms down and tries to please the important person by all means. The second time Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky gets scared is when Khlestakov boasts of his high position. Here he becomes afraid of falling out of favor. How much money should I give?
Funny image of judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who passionately loves hound hunting, takes bribes with greyhound puppies, sincerely believing that this "that's a completely different matter". There is complete chaos going on in the court reception area: the guards have brought in geese, there are hangings on the walls. "all sorts of rubbish", the assessor is constantly drunk. And Lyapkin-Tyapkin himself cannot understand a simple memo. In the city the judge is considered "freethinker", since he has read several books and always speaks pompously, although he speaks completely nonsense.
Postmaster I am sincerely perplexed as to why I can’t read other people’s letters. For him, his whole life consists of interesting stories from letters. The postmaster even keeps the correspondence he particularly likes and re-reads it.
The hospital of the trustee of Zemlyanika charitable institutions is also in chaos. The patients' underwear is not changed, and the German doctor does not understand anything in Russian. Strawberry is a sycophant and an informer, not averse to throwing mud at his comrades.
Comical couple of city gossips attracts attention Bobchinsky And Dobchinsky. To enhance the effect, Gogol makes them look similar in appearance and gives the same names; even the characters’ surnames differ by just one letter. These are completely empty and useless people. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are busy only collecting gossip. Thus, they manage to be the center of attention and feel important.
Having started writing The Inspector General, Gogol promised Pushkin: “I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.” Nikolai Vasilyevich kept his promise. Nicholas I, after watching the comedy, remarked: “Everyone got it. And most of all for me.”
The history of the creation of Gogol's The Inspector General begins in the 1830s. During this period, the author worked on the poem “Dead Souls”, and in the process of describing the exaggerated features of Russian reality, he had the idea to display these features in comedy; “my hand is shaking to write... a comedy.” Previously, Gogol had already made a successful debut in this genre with the play “Marriage,” in which both the comic techniques characteristic of the author and the realistic orientation characteristic of subsequent works had already been outlined. In 1835, he wrote to Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.”
The plot suggested by Pushkin
The story proposed by Pushkin to Gogol as a plot actually happened to the publisher of the journal “Otechestvennye zapiski” P.P. Svinin in Bessarabia: in one of the district towns he was mistaken for a government official. There was a similar case with Pushkin himself: he was mistaken for an auditor in Nizhny Novgorod, where he went to collect material about the Pugachev rebellion. In a word, this was the very “purely Russian anecdote” that Gogol needed to realize his plan.
Work on the play took only two months - October and November 1835. In January 1836, the author read out the finished comedy at an evening with V. Zhukovsky in the presence of many famous writers, including Pushkin, who suggested the idea. Almost everyone present was delighted with the play. However, the story of “The Inspector General” was still far from over.
“In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and at one time laugh at everything.” - this is how Gogol spoke about his play; This is exactly the purpose he saw for it - merciless ridicule, cleansing satire, a weapon in the fight against the abominations and injustices that reign in society. However, almost no one, even among his fellow writers, saw in “The Inspector General” anything more than a solid, high-quality “situation comedy.” The play was not allowed to be staged immediately and only after V. Zhukovsky personally had to convince the emperor of the comedy’s reliability.
First premiere of "The Inspector General"
The premiere of the play in its first edition took place in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Gogol was disappointed with the production: the actors either did not understand the satirical orientation of the comedy, or were afraid to play in accordance with it; the performance turned out to be too vaudeville, primitively comic. Only I.I. Sosnitsky, who played the role of the Mayor, managed to convey the author's intention and introduce satirical notes into the image. However, performed even in such a form, which was very far from the author’s desire, the comedy caused a stormy and controversial reaction. The “tops” of society, denounced by Gogol, still felt ridicule; the comedy was declared “impossibility, slander and farce”; According to unconfirmed reports, Nicholas I himself, who was present at the premiere, said: “Well, what a play!
Everyone got it, and I got it the most.” Even if these words were not actually spoken, it reflects well how the public perceived Gogol's bold creation.
And yet, the autocrat liked the play: the risky comedy was allowed for further productions. Taking into account his own observations of the game, as well as the comments of the actors, the author repeatedly made edits to the text; The creation of the play “The Inspector General” by Gogol in its final version continued for many years after the first production. The latest edition of the play dates back to 1842 - this is the version that is known to the modern reader.
Author's commentary on the comedy
The long and difficult history of the creation of the comedy “The Inspector General” is inseparable from Gogol’s numerous articles and comments on his play. The misunderstanding of the idea by the public and the actors forced him to write again and again in an attempt to clarify his idea: in 1842, after staging the comedy in its final version, he published “A warning for those who would like to play “The Inspector General” properly,” then “Theater Road Trip.” after the presentation of the new comedy,” later, in 1856, “The denouement of The Inspector General.”
Conclusion
As we can see, the history of the creation of the play “The Inspector General” indicates that writing this work was not so easy for the author, taking away a lot of both his strength and time. And, nevertheless, comedy found its connoisseurs among enlightened and thinking people. The Inspector General received very high marks from many leading critics; Thus, V. Belinsky writes in his article: “In The Inspector General there are no better scenes, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, as necessary parts that artistically form a single whole...”. Many other representatives of enlightened society shared a similar opinion, despite the flow of criticism against the comedy and the author himself. Today, the play “The Inspector General” occupies a well-deserved place among the masterpieces of Russian classical literature and is a brilliant example of social satire.
Work test
"Comedy "The Inspector General". History of creation."
Lesson objectives:
· To acquaint children with the history of comedy, to develop students’ perception literary work.
· Give basic theoretical concepts. Explain the nature of Gogol’s laughter, instill interest in the writer’s works.
Progress of the lesson.
Teacher's word.
We ask for Russian! Give us yours!
What do we care about the French and all the overseas people!
Don't we have enough of our people?
Russian characters? Their characters!
Let's ourselves! Give us our rogues...
Take them to the stage! Let all the people see them!
Let them laugh!
Gogol is one of the most read writers in the school curriculum. In this capacity he can compete even with Pushkin. Gogol at school is our everything, good and reliable. For all grades - from 5th to 10th. In all forms - epic, drama and even poetry. Methodological literature cannot be re-read (there are even several books with the same title “Gogol at school”).
With all this, Gogol is one of the most unread writers in school. And here, too, is Pushkin’s fate: the soul is “in the cherished lyre,” “für Wenige,” and the crowd continues to pave its meaningless path to the idol-monument. Isn’t Alexander Kushner talking about this school-scale monument:
To be a classic means to stand on the cabinet
A senseless bust, bristling with collarbones.
Oh, Gogol, is this all in a dream, in reality?
This is how they put up a stuffed animal: a snipe, an owl.
You stand instead of a bird.
He wrapped himself in a scarf, he loved to make things
Vests, camisoles.
It’s not like undressing - swallowing a piece
Couldn't in front of witnesses - naked sculptor
Delivered. Is it nice to be a classic?
To be a classic - watch from the closet in the classroom
For schoolchildren; they will remember Gogol
Not a wanderer, not a righteous man, not even a dandy,
Not Gogol, but Gogol's upper third.
A word about life and creativity.
- years of life.
After graduating from high school - St. Petersburg, work as a history teacher and clerical official. Meeting writers and artists. Since 1831 The name of Gogol is widely known to Russian readers - the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” was published.
In 1848 after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem), Gogol returns to his homeland. Most of the time he lives in Moscow, visiting St. Petersburg, Odessa, and Ukraine. In February, in the house on Nikitsky Boulevard, where he lived with the count, in a state of deep spiritual crisis, the writer burned the new edition of the second volume of “Dead Souls”. A few days later, on February 21, he died. The writer's funeral took place with a huge crowd of people at the cemetery of the St. Daniel's Monastery (in 1931, Gogol's remains were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery).
Comedy “The Inspector General”.
The year was 1835. Gogol in St. Petersburg, the city of theaters. Having met with Pushkin, the writer asked: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of funny or unfunny, but purely Russian joke... Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts, and I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.” And the poet told him about how in Nizhny Novgorod he was mistaken for an auditor; He also spoke about how one of his acquaintances posed as an important St. Petersburg official in Bessarabia (Moldova). The anecdote about the imaginary inspector attracted Gogol so much that he was immediately inspired by the idea of writing “The Inspector General,” and the comedy was written surprisingly quickly, in two months, by the end of 1835. The person was not mistaken for who he really is; an “insignificant” person appeared as “significant.” There is confusion behind it all. But error, confusion is the soul of comedy, a constant source of the funny.
The first production of the play was on April 19, 1836. at the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater, and on May 25 at the Moscow Maly Theater.
On the evening of April 19, 1836, extraordinary excitement reigned in the theater square. Carriages drove up and slammed carriage doors. The boxes and chairs were filled with the highest St. Petersburg nobility and dignitaries. In the royal box - Nicholas I with his heir, the future Alexander II. Spectators from the democratic circle are crowding into the gallery. There are many acquaintances of Gogol in the theater - V. Zhukovsky, B. Vyazemsky, I. Krylov, M. Glinka and others. Here is what Annenkov says about this first performance of “The Inspector General”: “Even after the first act, bewilderment was written on all faces. The bewilderment grows with every act. Everything that happened on stage passionately captured the hearts of the audience. The general indignation was completed by the fifth act.”
The Tsar laughed a lot at the performance, apparently wanting to emphasize that the comedy was harmless and should not be taken seriously. He understood perfectly well that his anger would be another confirmation of the veracity of Gogol’s satire. By publicly expressing royal complacency, he wanted to weaken the public sound of “The Inspector General.” However, left alone with his retinue, the king could not stand it and said: “What a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than everyone else.”
Plot Comedies were given to Gogol by Pushkin. A widespread anecdote about an imaginary auditor allowed the author of the play to reveal the morals of officials of Nicholas's time: embezzlement, bribery, ignorance and arbitrariness. The bureaucracy became a force. All over the country, feathers creaked, uniforms were worn out, and mountains of papers swelled. And behind all this Rus' lived, suffered, sang and cried.
Genre Comedy was conceived by Gogol as a genre of social comedy, touching on the most fundamental issues of people's and social life. From this point of view, Pushkin's anecdote was very suitable for Gogol. After all, the characters in the story about the pseudo-auditor are not private people, but officials, representatives of the authorities. Events associated with them inevitably involve many people: both those in power and those under power. The anecdote told by Pushkin easily lent itself to such an artistic development, in which it became the basis of a truly social comedy.
Gogol wrote in “The Author's Confession”: “In “The Inspector General” I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and laugh at everything at once.”
So, the comedy was staged. But few true connoisseurs - educated and honest people - were delighted. The majority did not understand the comedy and reacted to it with hostility.
“Everything is against me...” Gogol complained in a letter to famous actor Shchepkin. “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me.” And a few days later, in a letter to the historian, he bitterly notes: “And what would be accepted by enlightened people with loud laughter and sympathy is what the bile of ignorance outrages; and this is general ignorance...”
After the production of “The Inspector General” on stage, Gogol is full of gloomy thoughts. He was not completely satisfied with the acting. He is depressed by the general misunderstanding. In these circumstances it is difficult for him to write, it is difficult for him to live. He decides to go abroad, to Italy. Reporting this to Pogodin. He writes with pain: “A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far away from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in his homeland.” But as soon as he leaves his homeland, the thought of her great love to her with new strength and sharpness arises in him: “Now there is a foreign land in front of me, a foreign land around me, but in my heart is Rus', not nasty Rus', but only beautiful Rus'.”
Literary commentary.
In order to understand the work “The Inspector General,” we will talk about what are the features of a literary work intended for the theater, for production on stage (this work is called a play).
Features of a literary work intended for the theater, for production on stage: (plays)
- Drama(play) - literary genre. Drama genres: tragedy, comedy and drama. Comedy- a type of drama in which the action and characters are interpreted in funny forms or imbued with the comic. Collision– a clash of opposing views, aspirations, interests. Remarks– explanations for stage directors and actors.
They tell you which characters are participating in the play, what their age, appearance, position are (the author's stage directions are called posters), the location of the action is indicated (a room in the house, the city, nothing), it is indicated what the hero of the play does and how he pronounces role words (“looking back”, “to the side”).
The play is divided into parts - actions or acts. There may be paintings or scenes within the action. Each arrival or departure of a character gives rise to a new phenomenon.
2. The play recreates the speech of the characters and their actions in dialogic and monologue form.
In terms of volume, the play cannot be large, since it is designed for stage performance (2-4 hours). Therefore, in plays, events develop quickly and energetically, pitting characters against each other, waging a struggle, hidden or overt - a conflict.
Composition of the play.
3. The action in the play develops through the following stages:
Exposition- the action of the play, depicting the characters and positions of the characters before the action begins.
The beginning– an event from which the active development of an action begins.
Climax– moment highest voltage in the play.
Denouement– an event that completes an action.
Hanger" href="/text/category/veshalka/" rel="bookmark">hangers. Gogol knew: theater begins with a poster.
Gogol said that “if we want to understand dramatic works and its creator, we must enter his domain, get acquainted with actors”…
Let's open the program and, carefully getting acquainted with the characters in the comedy, try to guess the character of the hero by his last name.
Anna Andreevna | |
Luka Lukich Khlopov | |
without first name or patronymic. |
|
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin | |
Artemy Filippovich Strawberry | A cautious, cunning man. |
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin | Postmaster. |
Petr Ivanovich Bobchinsky | Urban |
Ivan Alekseevich Khlestakov | |
Christian Ivanovich Gibner | |
Stepan Ilyich Ukhovertov | Private bailiff. |
Svistunov | Policemen. |
What did you think about after getting acquainted with the names of the characters?
Demonstration of a creative task: “At the theater poster.”
· Make a poster for the play.
· Make a program for the performance.
· Draw illustrations for a play (any character)
· Parade of Heroes
Mayor.
The mayor, already old in the service and not a very stupid person in his own way. Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves very respectably; quite serious, somewhat even reasoning; speaks neither loudly nor quietly, neither more nor less. His every word is significant. His facial features are coarse and hard, like those of anyone who began hard service from the lower ranks. The transition from fear to joy, from baseness to arrogance is quite rapid, as in a person with crudely developed inclinations of the soul. He is dressed, as usual, in his uniform with buttonholes and boots with spurs. His hair is cropped and streaked with gray.
Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna.
Anna Andreevna, his wife, is a provincial coquette, not yet quite old, raised half on novels and albums, half on chores in her pantry and maiden room. He is very curious and shows vanity on occasion. Sometimes she takes power over her husband simply because he is unable to answer her; but this power extends only to trifles and consists of reprimands and ridicule. She changes into different dresses 4 times during the play.
Marya Antonovna- daughter of Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky (Gorodnichey)
Khlestakov.
Khlestakov, a young man of about 23, thin, thin; somewhat stupid and, as they say, without a king in his head, - one of those people who in the offices are called empty. He speaks and acts without any consideration. He is unable to stop constant attention on any thought. His speech is abrupt, and words fly out of his mouth completely unexpectedly. The more the person playing this role shows sincerity and simplicity, the more he will win. Dressed in fashion.
Osip.
Osip, the servant, is as servants who are several years old usually are. He speaks seriously, looks somewhat downward, is a reasoner, and likes to read moral lectures to himself for his master. His voice is always almost even, and in conversation with the master it takes on a stern, abrupt and even somewhat rude expression. He is smarter than his master, and therefore he guesses more quickly, but he does not like to talk much, and is silently a rogue. His costume is a gray or blue shabby frock coat.
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky,
both are short, short, very curious; extremely similar to each other; both have small bellies, both speak quickly and are extremely helpful with gestures and hands. Dobchinsky is a little taller and more serious than Bobchinsky, but Bobchinsky is more cheeky and lively than Dobchinsky.
Lyapkin-Tyapkin,
a judge, a man who has read five or six books and is therefore somewhat free-thinking. The hunter is big on guesswork, and therefore gives weight to every word. The one who represents it must always preserve it. He speaks in a deep voice, with an elongated drawl, wheezing and gulping, like an ancient clock that first hisses and then strikes.
Strawberries,
a trustee of charitable institutions, a very fat, clumsy and clumsy man, but at the same time a sly and a rogue. Very helpful and fussy.
Laughter is the only “honest, noble face in comedy”
In the article “The St. Petersburg Stage in 1835-36,” the brilliant satirist said that when creating his comedy, he set himself the goal of “noticing” the common elements of our society that drive its springs. Depict on stage the “tares” from which there is no life for the good and over which no law can keep track.”
The epigraph: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked” characterizes the genre of comedy - social and political comedy.
“The exposure of negative heroes is given in comedy not through a noble face, but through the actions, actions, and dialogues of themselves. Gogol’s negative heroes expose themselves in the eyes of the viewer.”
But... heroes are exposed not with the help of morals and moral teachings, but through ridicule. “Vice is struck here only by laughter” (Gogol).
Announcement homework.
https://pandia.ru/text/77/499/images/image004_10.png" alt="C:\Documents" align="left" width="50" height="79 src=">5. “Человек “пожилых лет”, смотрит вниз, в разговоре с барином принимает грубое выражение”!}
THE SMARTEST
1. Poltava is located 1430 versts from St. Petersburg and 842 versts from Moscow. 1 verst = 1.067 m. What is the distance from Moscow to Poltava and from St. Petersburg to Poltava?
2. “However, I only mentioned the district court, but to tell the truth, it’s unlikely that anyone will look there. This is such an enviable place, God himself patronizes it.” How does the mayor explain this statement?
3. His last name is synonymous with the autocratic police regime, meaning: a willful and rude administrator.
4. “Mail” is defined as:
1) “establishment of an urgent message for sending letters and things”;
2) “a place for receiving letters and parcels.”
There are 2 meanings in “The Inspector General”. What other responsibilities did Shpekin have?
5. What rank was Khlestakov?
6. Who is the mayor?
7. What are charitable institutions?
8. Who is a private bailiff?
9. What does incognito mean?
10. What are boots?
11. Who wrote the novel “Yuri Miloslavsky”?
12. What kind of dish is “labardan”?
13. Who like this and What is bad manners?
Last name __________________ First name _________________ Date _____________
0 " style="border-collapse:collapse;border:none">
Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky - mayor.
*What is the first part of the surname “Skvoznik” associated with?
IN Explanatory dictionary Russian language Ozhegova “A draft is a stream of air blowing a room through holes located opposite each other.”
This suggests that the mayor is characterized by lawlessness, swagger, and complete impunity.
Anna Andreevna
Luka Lukich Khlopov
without first name or patronymic.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin
Judge.
The surname reveals the principle of his attitude to official affairs “a clumsy mess” and the job is done, as well as his mental clumsiness, incongruity, clumsiness, and tongue-tiedness of speech.
Artemy Filippovich Strawberry
Trustee of charitable institutions.
A cautious, cunning man.
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin
Postmaster.
The surname is derived from the word “spy” - he constantly spies, reading other people’s letters, unceremonious in his simplicity.
Petr Ivanovich Bobchinsky
Petr Ivanovich Dobchinsky
Urban
Only one letter in the surname has been replaced, they are similar in everything, curious, talkative.
Ivan Alekseevich Khlestakov
“Whip”, “whip – hit, hit with something flexible”
Christian Ivanovich Gibner
District doctor.
The surname is associated with the word “perish.”
Stepan Ilyich Ukhovertov
Private bailiff.
The surname is formed by adding two stems “twirl your ear.”
Svistunov
Pugovitsyn
Derzhimorda
Policemen.
The names themselves speak about the actions of these law enforcement officers.
The great Russian classic, playwright, publicist, poet and critic Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (né Yanovsky) wrote many works during his life. Many of them are included in the compulsory school curriculum, and have also become the basis for magnificent performances, films, and productions. One of Gogol’s most striking works is the comedy in 5 acts “The Inspector General”. The history of the creation of “The Inspector General” is interesting and unusual. We invite the reader to get acquainted with the birth of the imperishable classics and plunge into the world brilliant writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol.
A little biography
There were a total of 12 children in the family, six of them died either at birth or in infancy. The first two sons were stillborn, but Gogol was the third, suffered and desired child - the first who was born healthy...
Steps of creativity
The classic's youth was rebellious - he, like all creative people, had a subtle mental organization and was looking for himself and a place in the sun. Such stories as “Sorochinskaya Fair”, “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” were published. After a while, the collections “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod” were published.
Significant meeting
The history of the comedy “The Inspector General” dates back to 1834. Gogol was sure that the comedy genre was the future of Russian literature. He decides to discuss this with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, and he, in turn, tells him an anecdote about a false auditor who arrived in the city of Ustyuzhna and famously robbed all its inhabitants. The history of the creation of Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" would not have existed if not for that significant meeting.
Pushkin’s story about a clever swindler unusually amazed Nikolai Vasilyevich, and he decided to write a work about it, which resulted in an action-packed comedy in 5 acts. By the way, the theme of the play was unusually relevant at that time - every now and then there was news that in different parts of Russia, daring and enterprising gentlemen, pretending to be auditors, were robbing the people completely. By the way, the history of the creation of Gogol’s “The Inspector General” is reflected in our days. It is enough to draw parallels.
The pangs of creativity and a successful ending
While composing the comedy, Gogol experienced all facets of the story of the creation of “The Inspector General,” described by literary scholars, who claim that the writer even wanted to leave his work unfinished. Nikolai Vasilyevich often wrote to Pushkin about his torments, but he persistently convinced him to finish the play. Gogol heeded the advice of Alexander Sergeevich, and already in 1034, in the house of Vasily Zhukovsky, he read his creation in front of Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Turgenev and other writers. The play aroused extraordinary delight among the audience and was subsequently performed on stage. This is exactly how the history of the creation of the comedy “The Inspector General” developed, the plot of which we will briefly describe in this article.
The play featured...
There are many characters in the work. We will tell you about each of them.
- Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky Anton Antonovich. Chief mayor county town N, who has confidently secured his position in society and feels almost like the master of life. He knows all the sins of local officials and manipulates this knowledge for his own benefit. In addition, he allows himself various liberties - for example, he takes any goods on the market for free, and also imposes high taxes on merchants and obliges them to bring him treats on his name day. In a word, he feels very at ease. By the way, the history of the creation of Gogol’s “The Inspector General” claims that the image of the mayor is a subtle hint at the image of Russia.
- Anna Andreevna- wife of Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky.
- Marya Antonovna- the mayor’s daughter, a savvy and sharp-tongued young lady.
- Teddy bear- servant of Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky.
- Khlopov Luka Lukich- supervisor of educational institutions.
- Lyapkin-Tyapkin Ammos Fedorovich- local judge.
- Strawberries Artemy Filippovich- trustee of charitable institutions.
- Shpekin Ivan Kuzmich- postmaster.
- Bobchinsky Pyotr Ivanovich and Dobchinsky Pyotr Ivanovich- wealthy landowners.
- Khlestkov Ivan Alexandrovich- St. Petersburg official.
- Osip- Khlestakov's servant.
- Gibner Christian Ivanovich- local doctor.
- Korobkin Stepan Ivanovich, Rastakovsky Ivan Lazarevich and Lyulyukov Fedor Ivanovich- retired officials, honorary persons of the city.
- Ukhovertov Stepan Ilyich- bailiff
- Derzhimorda, Pugovitsyn and Svistunov- police representatives.
- Abdulin- local merchant.
- Poshlepkina Fevronya Petrovna- locksmith.
- Tavern servant, petitioners, townspeople, merchants and guests of the city of N.
The history of the creation of the play “The Inspector General” lasted several years and resulted in as many as five acts. Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Act one
Ivan Ivanovich Khlestakov with his faithful servant Osip is heading from St. Petersburg to Saratov and, passing by the provincial town of N, decides to take a break from the road and play cards. As a result, the unfortunate loses and is left without a penny in his pocket.
Meanwhile, the city leadership, mired up to its ears in theft of the treasury and bribes, awaits in horror the arrival of a strict auditor. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky learned about the arrival of an important person from a letter he received. Anton Antonovich arranges a meeting of officials in his house, reads out a letter and gives them instructions. The city's rich people, Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky, having by chance learned about the new guest of the hotel, Khlestakov, come to the conclusion that he is the same auditor. In panic, the landowners report him to Anton Antonovich. A commotion begins. All those who are “in the dark” begin to frantically cover up their affairs, while the mayor himself, after much deliberation, decides to meet with the auditor in person.
By the way, the horror of officials is easy to understand - the history of the creation of the comedy “The Inspector General” by Gogol suggests that at the time this work was written, everyone was very afraid of auditors. was ineradicable, and yet those in power and officials continued to sin and steal, thereby literally being on the razor's edge. It is not surprising that Gogol's characters panicked - no one wanted to be punished.
Act two
At the same time, starving and completely lost, Khlestakov, settled in an economy room in the cheapest hotel, is thinking about how and where to get food. He managed to beg the tavern servant to serve him soup and roast, and, having eaten everything without a trace, he speaks rather unflatteringly about the quantity and quality of the dishes served. Suddenly, for Khlestakov, the impressive figure of the mayor appears in his room. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is sure that Ivan Aleksandrovich is that terrible auditor. And Khlestakov, in a panic, thinks that Anton Antonovich has come after him for non-payment on a tip from the hotel owner.
Meanwhile, the mayor behaves very strangely: he is shy in front of Khlestakov and ingratiatingly gives him a bribe. Ivan Aleksandrovich does not realize that he was mistaken for an inspector, and comes to the conclusion that the mayor is a good man with a kind heart who lends him money. And Anton Antonovich is happy to heaven because he managed to give a bribe to the uninvited guest. The mayor decides to play the role of a naive fool in order to find out about the plans of the auditor. However, Khlestakov, not knowing the essence of things, behaves simply and directly, completely confusing the mayor.
Anton Antonovich comes to the conclusion that Khlestakov is a cunning and smart guy with whom you need to keep your “ears on top.” To get Ivan Aleksandrovich to talk, he invites him to visit charitable institutions in the hope that alcohol will loosen the auditor’s tongue.
The history of the creation of the comedy “The Inspector General” takes us to an ordinary town of those times. In this work, Gogol reveals to us all the intricacies of city life. In addition, the writer describes the architecture and customs of the inhabitants. Agree, after so many years nothing has changed - except that the mayor is now called the mayor, the tavern is a hotel, and the charitable establishment is a restaurant... The history of the creation of “The Inspector General” began a long time ago, but the theme of the play is relevant to this day.
Act three
After a drinking binge, the rather tipsy false auditor ends up in the mayor’s house. Having met Anton Antonovich’s wife and daughter, Khlestakov tries to impress them by talking about what an important rank he holds in St. Petersburg. Having entered into a rage, Ivan Alexandrovich told that he writes operas under a pseudonym, gives receptions and balls with expensive treats, and also composes music. Clever Marya Antonovna openly laughs at the guest’s inventions and aptly catches him in lying. However, Khlestakov doesn’t even blush and goes to the sideline.
Act Four
The next morning, Khlestakov, who overslept, does not remember anything. Meanwhile, a line of errant government officials is lining up for him, eager to give him a bribe. Ivan Aleksandrovich accepts the money, being firmly convinced that he is borrowing it and will return everything to the last penny upon his arrival home. The naive Khlestakov understands what’s what only when ordinary townspeople reach out to him with complaints about the mayor. He categorically refuses to accept offerings in the form of bribes, but his servant, Osip, shows remarkable persistence and ingenuity and takes everything.
Having seen off the guests, Khlestakov asks Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky to give consent to marry his daughter, Marya Antonovna. Naturally, the mayor happily agrees. On the same day, Khlestakov, together with Osip and all his belongings, leaves the town.
Act five
Anton Antonovich and other city officials breathed a sigh of relief. The mayor, anticipating a quick relationship with the auditor, imagines himself living in St. Petersburg with the rank of general. He gathers guests in his house to publicly announce his daughter’s engagement to Khlestakov. However, suddenly the postmaster presents the mayor with an unpleasant surprise - a letter in which it is revealed that Khlestakov is in fact just a minor official. Discouraged Anton Antonovich tries to come to his senses, but he is overtaken by a new blow - a real auditor is staying at the hotel, who calls the mayor “on the carpet.” The finale of the play is a silent scene...
This is what a brief history of the creation of “The Inspector General” looks like, along with its content.
The people depicted by Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General” with amazingly unprincipled views and ignorance of any reader amaze and seem completely fictitious. But in fact, these are not random images. These are faces typical of the Russian province of the thirties of the 19th century, which can be found even in historical documents.
In his comedy, Gogol touches on several very important public issues. This is the attitude of officials to their duties and the implementation of the law. Oddly enough, the meaning of comedy is also relevant in modern realities.
The history of writing "The Inspector General"
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol describes in his works rather exaggerated images of Russian reality of that time. At the moment the idea of a new comedy appeared, the writer was actively working on the poem “Dead Souls”.
In 1835, he turned to Pushkin regarding an idea for a comedy, expressing a request for help in a letter. The poet responds to requests and tells a story when the publisher of one of the magazines in one of the southern cities was mistaken for a visiting official. A similar situation, oddly enough, happened with Pushkin himself at the time when he was collecting materials to describe the Pugachev riot in Nizhny Novgorod. He was also mistaken for the capital's auditor. The idea seemed interesting to Gogol, and the very desire to write a comedy captured him so much that work on the play lasted only 2 months.
During October and November 1835, Gogol wrote the comedy in its entirety and a few months later read it out to other writers. Colleagues were delighted.
Gogol himself wrote that he wanted to collect everything bad that is in Russia into a single pile and laugh at it. He saw his play as a cleansing satire and a weapon in the fight against the injustice that existed in society at that time. By the way, the play based on Gogol’s works was allowed to be staged only after Zhukovsky personally made a request to the emperor.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
The events described in the comedy “The Inspector General” take place in the first half of the 19th century, in one of the provincial towns, which Gogol simply refers to as “N”.
The mayor informs all city officials that he has received news of the arrival of the capital's auditor. Officials are afraid of inspections because they all take bribes, do poor work, and there is chaos in the institutions under their subordination.
Almost immediately after the news, a second one appears. They realize that a well-dressed man who looks like an auditor is staying at a local hotel. In fact, the unknown person is a minor official, Khlestakov. Young, flighty and stupid. The mayor personally showed up at his hotel to meet him and offer to move to his home, in much better conditions than the hotel. Khlestakov happily agrees. He likes this kind of hospitality. At this stage, he does not suspect that he has been mistaken for who he is.
Khlestakov is also introduced to other officials, each of whom hands him a large sum of money, supposedly as a loan. They do everything so that the check is not so thorough. At this moment, Khlestakov understands who he was mistaken for and, having received a round sum, keeps silent that this is a mistake.
Afterwards, he decides to leave the city of N, having previously proposed to the daughter of the Mayor himself. Joyfully blessing the future marriage, the official rejoices at such a relationship and calmly says goodbye to Khlestakov, who is leaving the city and, naturally, is not going to return to it.
Before this, the main character writes a letter to his friend in St. Petersburg, in which he talks about the embarrassment that occurred. The postmaster, who opens all letters at the post office, also reads Khlestakov’s message. The deception is revealed and everyone who gave bribes learns with horror that the money will not be returned to them, and there has been no verification yet. At the same moment, a real auditor arrives in town. Officials are horrified by the news.
Comedy heroes
Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov
Khlestakov's age is 23 - 24 years. A hereditary nobleman and landowner, he is thin, thin and stupid. Acts without thinking about the consequences, has abrupt speech.
Khlestakov works as a registrar. In those days, this was the lowest-ranking official. He is rarely present at work, increasingly plays cards for money and takes walks, so his career is not moving forward. Khlestakov lives in St. Petersburg, in a modest apartment, and his parents, who live in one of the villages in the Saratov province, regularly send him money. Khlestakov does not know how to save money; he spends it on all kinds of pleasures, without denying himself anything.
He is very cowardly, loves to brag and lie. Khlestakov is not averse to hitting on women, especially pretty ones, but only stupid provincial ladies succumb to his charm.
Mayor
Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. An official who has grown old in the service, in his own way, is not stupid, making a completely respectable impression.
He speaks carefully and in moderation. His mood changes quickly, his facial features are hard and rough. He performs his duties poorly and is a swindler with extensive experience. The mayor makes money wherever possible, and is in good standing among the same bribe-takers.
He is greedy and insatiable. He steals money, including from the treasury, and unprincipledly violates all laws. He doesn’t even shun blackmail. A master of promises and an even greater master of keeping them.
The mayor dreams of being a general. Despite the mass of his sins, he attends church weekly. A passionate card player, he loves his wife and treats her very tenderly. He also has a daughter, who at the end of the comedy, with his blessing, becomes the bride of the nosy Khlestakov.
Postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin
It is this character, responsible for sending letters, who opens Khlestakov’s letter and discovers the deception. However, he opens letters and parcels on a regular basis. He does this not out of precaution, but solely for the sake of curiosity and his own collection of interesting stories.
Sometimes he doesn’t just read letters that he particularly likes, Shpekin keeps them for himself. In addition to forwarding letters, his duties include managing postal stations, caretakers, horses, etc. But this is not what he does. He does almost nothing at all and therefore the local post office works extremely poorly.
Anna Andreevna Skvoznik-Dmukhanovskaya
Mayor's wife. A provincial coquette whose soul is inspired by novels. She is curious, vain, loves to get the better of her husband, but in reality this only happens in small things.
An appetizing and attractive lady, impatient, stupid and capable of talking only about trifles and the weather. At the same time, he loves to chat incessantly. She is arrogant and dreams of a luxurious life in St. Petersburg. The mother is not important because she competes with her daughter and boasts that Khlestakov paid more attention to her than to Marya. One of the entertainments for the Governor's wife is fortune-telling on cards.
Mayor's daughter is 18 years old. Attractive in appearance, cutesy and flirtatious. She is very flighty. It is she who at the end of the comedy becomes Khlestakov’s abandoned bride.
Composition and plot analysis
The basis of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” is an everyday joke, which was quite common in those days. All the comedy images are exaggerated and, at the same time, believable. The play is interesting because all its characters are interconnected and each of them, in fact, acts as a hero.
The plot of the comedy is the arrival of the inspector expected by the officials and their haste in drawing conclusions, because of which Khlestakov is recognized as the inspector.
What is interesting about the composition of the comedy is the absence of love intrigue and love line, as such. Here vices are simply ridiculed, which, according to the classical literary genre, receive punishment. Partly they are already orders for the frivolous Khlestakov, but the reader understands at the end of the play that even greater punishment awaits them ahead, with the arrival of a real inspector from St. Petersburg.
Through simple comedy with exaggerated images, Gogol teaches his reader honesty, kindness and responsibility. The fact that you need to respect your own service and comply with the laws. Through the images of heroes, each reader can see his own shortcomings, if among them are stupidity, greed, hypocrisy and selfishness.