We can say that the poem “Dead Souls” was the work of N.V. Gogol’s life. After all, out of the twenty-three years of his writing biography, he devoted seventeen years to working on this work.
History of creation " Dead souls"is inextricably linked with the name of Pushkin. In “The Author's Confession,” Gogol recalled that Alexander Sergeevich more than once pushed him to write a large, large-scale work. The decisive story was the poet's story about an incident he heard in Chisinau during his exile. He always remembered it, but told Nikolai Vasilyevich only a decade and a half after what happened. So, the story of the creation of “Dead Souls” is based on the real adventures of an adventurer who bought long-dead serfs from landowners with the aim of mortgaging them, as if alive, in the Board of Trustees to obtain a considerable loan.
Actually in real life the invention of the main character of Chichikov's poem was not so rare. In those years, fraud of this kind was even widespread. It is quite possible that in Mirgorod district itself there was an incident involving the purchase of dead bodies. One thing is obvious: the history of the creation of “Dead Souls” is connected not with one such event, but with several, which the writer skillfully summarized.
Chichikov's adventure is the plot core of the work. Its smallest details look authentic, as they are taken from real life. The possibility of carrying out such adventures was due to the fact that until the beginning of the 18th century, peasants in the country were not counted en masse, but by household. It was only in 1718 that a decree was issued to conduct a capitation census, as a result of which all male serfs, starting with infants, began to be taxed. Their number was recalculated every fifteen years. If some peasants died, ran away, or were conscripted, the landowner had to pay taxes for them until the next census or divide them among the remaining workers. Naturally, any owner dreamed of getting rid of the so-called dead souls and easily fell into the adventurer’s net.
These were the real prerequisites for writing the work.
The history of the creation of the poem “Dead Souls” on paper begins in 1835. Gogol began work on it a little earlier than on The Inspector General. However, at first he was not too interested in it, because after writing three chapters, he returned to comedy. And only after finishing it and returning from abroad, Nikolai Vasilyevich took up “Dead Souls” seriously.
With every step, with every written word, a new work seemed to him more and more grandiose. Gogol reworks the first chapters and generally rewrites the finished pages many times. For three years in Rome he leads the life of a recluse, allowing himself only to undergo treatment in Germany and relax a little in Paris or Geneva. In 1839, Gogol was forced to leave Italy for eight long months, and with it the work on the poem. Upon his return to Rome, he continued to work on it and completed it within a year. The writer only has to polish the essay. Gogol took Dead Souls to Russia in 1841 with the intention of publishing them there.
In Moscow, the result of his six-year work was taken for consideration by the censorship committee, whose members showed hostility towards him. Then Gogol took his manuscript and turned to Belinsky, who was just visiting Moscow, asking him to take the work with him to St. Petersburg and help him get through the censorship. The critic agreed to help.
The censorship in St. Petersburg was less strict and, after long delays, they finally allowed the book to be published. True, with some conditions: to make amendments to the title of the poem, to “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” and to thirty-six other dubious places.
The long-suffering work finally came out of print in the spring of 1842. This is brief history creation of "Dead Souls".
One of the most famous works Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” is considered to be. The author worked meticulously on this work about the adventures of a middle-aged adventurer for 17 long years. The history of the creation of Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is truly interesting. Work on the poem began in 1835. Dead Souls was originally conceived as comic work, but the plot was constantly becoming more complicated. Gogol wanted to depict the entire Russian soul with its inherent vices and virtues, and the conceived three-part structure was supposed to refer readers to Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.
It is known that the plot of the poem was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. Alexander Sergeevich briefly outlined the story of an enterprising man who sold dead souls to the board of trustees, for which he received a lot of money. Gogol wrote in his diary: “Pushkin found that such a plot of Dead Souls was good for me because it gave me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out many different characters.” By the way, in those days this story was not the only one. Heroes like Chichikov were constantly talked about, so we can say that Gogol reflected reality in his work. Gogol considered Pushkin to be his mentor in matters of writing, so he read the first chapters of the work to him, expecting that the plot would make Pushkin laugh. However great poet was darker than a cloud - Russia was too hopeless.
The creative story of Gogol’s “Dead Souls” could have ended at this point, but the writer enthusiastically made edits, trying to remove the painful impression and adding comical moments. Subsequently, Gogol read the work in the Askakov family, the head of which was the famous theater critic and public figure. The poem was highly appreciated. Zhukovsky was also familiar with the work, and Gogol made changes several times in accordance with Vasily Andreevich’s suggestions. At the end of 1836, Gogol wrote to Zhukovsky: “I redid everything I started again, thought over the entire plan and now I am writing it calmly, like a chronicle... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be done, then... what a huge, what an original plot! .. All Rus' will appear in it!” Nikolai Vasilyevich tried in every possible way to show all sides of Russian life, and not just the negative, as was the case in the first editions.
Nikolai Vasilyevich wrote the first chapters in Russia. But in 1837 Gogol left for Italy, where he continued to work on the text. The manuscript went through several revisions, many scenes were deleted and redone, and the author had to make concessions in order for the work to be published. Censorship could not allow “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” to be published, since it satirically depicted the life of the capital: high prices, the arbitrariness of the tsar and the ruling elite, abuse of power. Gogol did not want to remove the story of Captain Kopeikin, so he had to “extinguish” the satirical motives. The author considered this part to be one of the best in the poem, which was easier to redo than to remove altogether.
Who would have thought that the history of the creation of the poem “Dead Souls” is full of intrigue! In 1841, the manuscript was ready for printing, but censorship in last moment changed her mind. Gogol was depressed. In upset feelings, he writes to Belinsky, who agrees to help with the publication of the book. After a while, the decision was made in Gogol’s favor, but he was given a new condition: to change the title from “Dead Souls” to “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” This was done in order to distract potential readers from relevant social problems, focusing on the adventures of the main character.
In the spring of 1842, the poem was published; this event caused fierce controversy in the literary community. Gogol was accused of slander and hatred of Russia, but Belinsky came to the writer’s defense, highly appreciating the work.
Gogol again leaves abroad, where he continues to work on the second volume of Dead Souls. The work was even more difficult. The story of writing the second part is full of mental suffering and personal drama of the writer. By that time, Gogol felt an internal discord that he could not cope with. Reality did not coincide with the Christian ideals on which Nikolai Vasilyevich was raised, and this gap grew larger every day. In the second volume, the author wanted to portray heroes different from the characters in the first part - positive ones. And Chichikov had to undergo a certain rite of purification, taking the true path. Many drafts of the poem were destroyed by order of the author, but some parts were still preserved. Gogol believed that the second volume was completely devoid of life and truth; he doubted himself as an artist, hating the continuation of the poem.
Unfortunately, Gogol did not realize his original plan, but “Dead Souls” rightfully plays its very important role in the history of Russian literature.
Work test
Plan
1.Introduction
2. The meaning of the name “Dead Souls”
3. Genre and essence of the poem
4. Heroes and images
5. Composition of the work
6. Conclusion
In May 1842 it was published printed edition"", the author of which is Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. From the very first days of its existence, the work interested readers, being not just a poem, but a reflection of all of Russia. Although initially the author wanted to show the country only “from one side.” After writing the first volume, Gogol had a desire to further and deeper reveal the essence of the work, but, unfortunately, the second volume was partially burned, and the third was not written at all. The idea of creating a poem came to Nikolai Vasilyevich after a conversation with the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin on the topic of fraud with dead souls somewhere in Pskov. Initially, I wanted to take up the work myself, but I “gave” the idea to a young talent.
The meaning of the name “Dead Souls” is multifaceted and multi-level. As you delve further into the reading, the author’s intention becomes clear. When serfdom existed, dead peasants were “excluded from the list of the living” only once every four years when carrying out an audit. Until this moment, they were listed as alive and unscrupulous owners or other officials took advantage of this, selling or buying them for their own selfish purposes. It is these peasants who are the “dead souls” in the first chapters. Next, the author introduces us to the officials and landowners who are precisely involved in the movement of non-existent serfs. Their greed, inhumanity and thirst for profit speak of the callousness of their soul, or its absence altogether. This is who the real “dead souls” are.
The literary genre of this unique work is also not so simple. Before starting to write Dead Souls, he positioned the work as adventurous - picaresque or social novel. But in the process of work, a lot changed, and the writer realized that a love affair was not at all what he wanted to show to his contemporaries and descendants. During the publication of the first volume, the author insisted that the work be framed as a poem. Nikolai Vasilyevich’s desire was completely justified.
Firstly, it was planned to write two more volumes, in which the topic of the work would be revealed from a different angle. And secondly, multiple digressions of a lyrical nature also indicate this literary genre. Gogol himself explained this by saying that the events in the poem unfold around one main character, on whose path he encounters various difficulties and events that reflect the essence of a given time.
This poem is based on the brainchild of Dante Alighieri “ Divine Comedy" The main path actor Chichikova had to go through hell, purgatory and heaven, growing new shoots in his mutilated soul good man. Social system, and way of life folk life plays a significant role in the development of the personality of each individual hero. The situation in the country as a whole, in a particular city or estate and a person’s attitude towards this social life are an expression of the vicious sides of the personality. It is not for nothing that the author believed that the soul dies mainly from circumstances and living conditions.
Earlier in his works, Gogol revealed the life of the Russian people only in one specific area. In “Dead Souls” the entire Russian land and the life of various segments of the population are covered - from serfs to the prosecutor. From the provinces to the capital, the problems that worried the people were closely interconnected and clearly, but rather sharply outlined by the author. Unpunished corruption, theft, cruelty and destruction were the main problems. But, despite all this, the Russian people did not stop believing in a bright future, standing out against the gray background with their sublimity and nobility of purpose. This is probably why the poem acquired such significance and popularity, which has survived to this day.
The positive characters of “Dead Souls” can be counted on one hand. This is the writer and landowner Kostanzhoglo himself. Having scientific knowledge, the landowner differed from other heroes of the poem in his prudence, responsibility, and the logic of his deeds. Having fallen precisely under his influence, Chichikov begins to take a closer look at his actions, comprehend them and take the first steps towards positive correction. The image of the writer himself, as the hero of the work, is presented by a man tragically rooting for his country.
Corruption and unrest reigning everywhere mercilessly wound him to the very heart and involuntarily make him deeply feel responsibility for the wrongdoings committed by others. The images of the remaining characters are negative and appear in the plot as they decline morally. All officials and landowners are negative individuals. They are driven by the thirst for profit. All their actions and thoughts are justified only by absurdity and madness, and are absolutely beyond logical explanation.
The author focuses on the fact that each specific hero describes not the person himself, but the human type, in general. For example, about Korobochka the author writes “...one of those...”. She is someone collectively, symbolizing the box as a vessel full of thirst for profit and accumulation of other people's goods. And about Manilov it is said that he “...belongs to so-so people...”.
In each chapter Gogol devotes special meaning not only dialogues, but also colorful descriptions village landscapes, furnishings of houses and estates as well as portrait characteristics hero. The image of Stepan Plyushkin turned out to be especially vivid and memorable. “...Oh, woman! Oh, no!...” First impressions of this landowner did not give a clear answer to what gender he was, “... the dress she was wearing was completely vague, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap worn by village courtyard women...”. The landowner's character was quite bright, despite his stinginess, greed and sloppiness. The people around him described him as a miser, a swindler, a dog, in whom “... human feelings, which were not deep in him anyway, became shallow every minute...”. Despite the fact that Plyushkin manifests himself in the highest degree of degradation and sloppiness, and Chichikov is full of absurd greed, the author presents them to us as people capable of better changes.
Despite high level of literary significance, the plot of the work is quite simple. This is the use of those very dead peasant souls for their own ignoble purposes. For example, the visiting official Chichikov bought them in order to pawn non-existent workers and get a considerable amount for them. The composition of the poem is divided into three parts, each of which contains a certain number of chapters. The first compositional part of “Dead Souls” shows the landowner types that existed during the work of N. Gogol. Their images include Manilov, Nozdryov, Korobochka, Sobakevich and Plyushkin.
The appearance of Chichikov in the city and his trips to the estates are also described in detail. The first link at first seems like empty movements of the protagonist from one estate to another. But in fact, this is a kind of peculiar preparation of the reader for the denouement of the poem. Further in the plot follow more energetic and interesting events. Making “purchases” of souls and talking about the cases carried out by Chichikov and the prosecutor. Besides main character finds time to become infatuated with the governor's daughter. At the end of this link, death awaits the prosecutor, since he cannot withstand the reproach of his conscience in front of his actions.
The last chapter of the first volume is the last link and the beginning of the writer’s next work. In the part of the second volume that has come down to us, deeper and more tragic feelings about the resale of the unfortunate souls of dead peasants are revealed. The plot can still be called unexpected and completely incomprehensible. The appearance of the main character comes out of nowhere and he also leaves for nowhere. The ambiguity of his actions points more to the theme of character than to the country's widespread misfortune.
With his poem, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol not only exposes officials, showing us their callousness, rottenness and hypocrisy, but also draws attention to the fact that each of us can grow a seed of cruelty and indifference in our souls. “Isn’t there some part of Chichikov in me?...” With these words, the author warns the reader, forcing him to listen to his inner world and eradicate existing depravity in him.
The author in his work devoted considerable importance to the theme of love for one’s Motherland, respect for work, humanity, both in general and for each individual. The volumes of Dead Souls were supposed to identify the past, present and future of the country. But, unfortunately, the third volume was not written. Perhaps, in this way, the writer gives a chance to create the future on his own?
Editor's responseFebruary 24, 1852 Nikolai Gogol burned the almost completed second volume of Dead Souls, on which he had been working for more than 10 years. The story itself was originally conceived by Gogol as a trilogy. In the first volume, the adventurer Chichikov, traveling around Russia, encountered exclusively human vices; in the second part, fate brought the protagonist together with some positive characters. In the third volume, which was never written, Chichikov had to go through exile in Siberia and finally take the path of moral purification.
AiF.ru tells why Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls and what adventures were supposed to happen to Chichikov in the continuation of the story.
Why did Gogol burn the second volume of Dead Souls?
Most likely, Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls by accident. IN recent years Throughout his life, the writer felt constant weakness in his body, but instead of receiving treatment, he continued to exhaust his body with strict observance of religious fasts and exhausting work. In one of the letters to poet Nikolai Yazykov Gogol wrote: “My health has become rather poor... Nervous anxiety and various signs of complete disintegration throughout my body frighten me.” It is possible that this “unsticking” prompted the writer to throw the manuscripts into the fireplace on the night of February 24 and then set them on fire with his own hands. A servant witnessed this scene Semyon, who persuaded the master to spare the papers. But he only rudely replied: “It’s none of your business! Pray!The next morning, Gogol, amazed by his action, lamented to his friend Count Alexander Tolstoy: “That's what I did! I wanted to burn some things that had been prepared for a long time, but I burned everything. How strong the evil one is - that’s what he brought me to! And I understood and presented a lot of useful things there... I thought I would send out a notebook to my friends as a souvenir: let them do what they wanted. Now everything is gone."
Gogol claimed that he wanted to burn only drafts and unnecessary papers, and the second volume of “Dead Souls” was sent to the fireplace due to his oversight. Nine days after this fatal mistake, the writer died.
What is the second volume of Dead Souls about?
Gogol's letters and remaining drafts make it possible to reconstruct the approximate contents of some parts of the burned manuscript. The second volume of “Dead Souls” begins with a description of the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov, whom the author calls “the smoker of the sky.” An educated and fair person, due to laziness and lack of willpower, drags out a meaningless existence in the village. Tentetnikov's fiancee Ulinka is the daughter of the neighboring general Betrishchev. It is she who becomes the “ray of light in dark kingdom" story: "If in dark room suddenly a transparent picture flashed, illuminated from behind by a lamp; it would not have struck as much as this figure, shining with life, which seemed to appear then to illuminate the room... It was difficult to say what land she was born in. Such a pure, noble outline of a face could not be found anywhere, except perhaps on some ancient cameos,” this is how Gogol describes her. Tentetnikov, according to Gogol’s plan, should have been convicted of participation in an anti-government organization, and his beloved would have followed him to hard labor. Then, in the third volume of the trilogy, these heroes had to go through exile in Siberia along with Chichikov.
Further on in the plot of the second volume, Chichikov meets the bored landowner Platonov and, having encouraged him to travel together around Russia, goes to see the master Kostanzhoglo, who is married to Platonov’s sister. He talks about the methods of management with which he increased the income from the estate tens of times, which Chichikov is terribly inspired by. Soon after this, Chichikov, having borrowed money from Platonov and Kostanzhoglo, tries to buy the estate from the bankrupt landowner Khlobuev.On the “border line” between good and evil in the second volume of the story, financier Afanasy Murazov unexpectedly appears. He wants to spend the 40 million rubles he earned not in the most honest way on “saving Russia,” but his ideas are more reminiscent of sectarian ones.
In the surviving drafts of the end of the manuscript, Chichikov is found in the city at a fair, where he buys fabric that is so dear to him, the lingonberry color with a sparkle. He encounters Khlobuev, whom, apparently, he “messed up”, either depriving, or almost depriving, his estate through forgery. Chichikov is saved from continuing the unpleasant conversation by Murazov, who convinces the bankrupt landowner of the need to work and directs him to collect funds for the church. Meanwhile, denunciations against Chichikov are discovered both about the forgery and about dead souls. However, the help of the corrupt official Samosvistov and the intercession of Murazov allow the hero to avoid prison.
Cameo - jewel or decoration made using the bas-relief technique on precious or semi-precious stones.
How to understand what Nikolai Gogol really wanted to say
Text: Natalya Lebedeva/RG
Collage: Year of Literature.RF/
Photo portrait of N. V. Gogol from the group daguerreotype of S. L. Levitsky. Author K. A. Fisher/ ru.wikipedia.org
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is rightfully considered one of the most mysterious writers Russian literature. Many secrets of his life and work have not yet been revealed by researchers. One of these mysteries is the fate of the second volume of Dead Souls. Why did Gogol burn the second volume, and did he burn it at all? But literary scholars were still able to reveal some of the secrets of Dead Souls. Why are “Russian men” so remarkable, why did playing whist become a “smart activity” and what role does the fly that flew into Chichikov’s nose play in the novel? About this and more literary historian, translator, candidate philological sciences Evgenia Shraga told on Arzamas.
1. The secret of Russian men
In the first paragraph of Dead Souls, a chaise with Chichikov enters the provincial town of NN:
“His entry made absolutely no noise in the city and was not accompanied by anything special; only two Russian men standing at the door of the tavern opposite the hotel made some comments..."
This is clearly an unnecessary detail: from the first words it is clear that the action takes place in Russia. Why clarify that the men are Russian? Such a phrase would sound appropriate only in the mouth of a foreigner describing his impressions abroad. Literary historian Semyon Vengerov in an article entitled “Gogol did not know real Russian life at all” he explained it this way:
Gogol really learned late about the actual Russian (and not Ukrainian) life, not to mention the life of the Russian province,
Therefore, such an epithet was truly significant for him. Vengerov was sure: “If Gogol had thought about it for even one minute, he would certainly have crossed out this absurd epithet that says absolutely nothing to the Russian reader.”
But he didn’t cross out - and for good reason: in fact, this is a technique that is most characteristic of the poetics of “Dead Souls”, which the poet and philologist
called “a figure of fiction” - when something (and often a lot) is said, but nothing is actually said, definitions do not define, descriptions do not describe.
Another example of this poetics is the description of the main character. He “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young”, “a middle-aged man with a rank neither too high nor too low”, “a gentleman of average rank”, whose face we never see, although he looks with pleasure in the mirror.
2. The mystery of the rainbow scarf
This is how we see Chichikov for the first time:
“The gentleman took off his cap and unwound from his neck a woolen scarf of rainbow colors, which the wife prepares for married people with her own hands, providing decent instructions on how to wrap themselves up, but for single people - I probably can’t say who makes it, God knows...”
“...I have never worn a headscarf like this,”- continues the narrator of “Dead Souls”. The description is constructed in a very characteristic Gogol image: the intonation of a know-it-all - “I know everything about such scarves”- changes abruptly to the opposite - “I’m single, I didn’t wear anything like that, I don’t know anything.” Behind this familiar technique and in such a familiar abundance of details, a rainbow scarf is well hidden.
“The next day he woke up quite late in the morning. The sun through the window shone straight into his eyes, and the flies that had slept peacefully yesterday on the walls and ceiling all turned to him: one sat on his lip, another on his ear, the third strove to settle on his very eye, the same one that had the imprudence to sit close to the nasal nostril, he pulled in his sleep right into his nose, which made him sneeze very hard - a circumstance which was the cause his awakening."
It is interesting that the narrative is filled with detailed descriptions of the universal dream, and only this awakening of Chichikov is an event that is described in detail.
Chichikov wakes up from a fly flying into his nose. His feelings are described almost in the same way as the shock of officials who heard about Chichikov’s scam:
“The position of them [the officials] at the first minute was similar to the position of a schoolboy, whose sleepy comrades, who had risen early, thrust a piece of paper filled with tobacco into the nose of a hussar. Having pulled all the tobacco towards himself in his sleep with all the zeal of a sleeper, he awakens, jumps up, looks like a fool, his eyes bulging in all directions, and cannot understand where he is, what he is, what happened to him ... "
Strange rumors alarmed the city, and this excitement is described as the awakening of those who had previously indulged in “dead dreams on their sides, on their backs and in all other positions, with snoring, nasal whistles and other accessories”, the entire “hitherto slumbering city " Before us is the resurrection of the dead, albeit a parody. But all this had such an effect on the city prosecutor that he completely died. His death is paradoxical, since in a sense it is a resurrection:
A. A. Agin. "Dead Souls". Chichikov and Korobochka. 1846/ www.nasledie-rus.ru
“...They sent for a doctor to draw blood, but they saw that the prosecutor was already one soulless body. Only then did they learn with condolences that the deceased definitely had a soul, although out of his modesty he never showed it.”The contrast between sleep and awakening is associated with the key motifs of the novel - death and revival. The impetus for awakening can be the most insignificant little thing - a fly, tobacco, a strange rumor. The “Resurrector,” played by Chichikov, does not need to have any special virtues - it is enough for him to be in the role of a fly in his nose: to break the usual course of life.
5. How to keep up with everything: Chichikov’s secret
Chichikov leaves Korobochka:
“Although the day was very good, the ground became so polluted that the wheels of the chaise, catching it, soon became covered with it like felt, which significantly burdened the crew; Moreover, the soil was clayey and unusually tenacious. Both were the reasons that they could not get out of the country roads before noon.”
So, in the afternoon, the hero struggles to get out onto the pillar. Before this, after lengthy bickering, he bought 18 revision souls from Korobochka and ate unleavened pie with eggs and pancakes. Meanwhile, he woke up at ten. How did Chichikov manage to do everything in just over two hours?
This is not the only example of Gogol's free use of time. Setting off from the city of NN to Manilovka, Chichikov gets into a chaise wearing an “overcoat on big bears,” and on the way he meets men in sheepskin coats - the weather is clearly not summer. Arriving at Manilov, he sees a house on the mountain, “clad with trimmed turf”, “bushes of lilacs and yellow acacias”, birch with “small-leafed thin peaks”, “a pond covered with greenery”, women are wandering knee-deep in a pond - no longer wearing any sheepskin coats. Waking up the next morning in Korobochka’s house, Chichikov looks out of the window at “spacious vegetable gardens with cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets and other household vegetables” and “ fruit trees covered with nets to protect them from magpies and sparrows"- The time of year has changed again. Returning to the city, Chichikov will again put on his "a bear covered with brown cloth." “Wearing bears covered with brown cloth and a warm cap with ears” Manilov will also come to the city. In general, as it is said in another Gogol text: “I don’t remember the numbers. It wasn’t a month either.”
Cover of the first edition of the poem “Dead Souls”, made according to a drawing by N. V. Gogol
In general, the world of “Dead Souls” is a world without time. The seasons do not follow each other in order, but accompany a place or character, becoming its additional characteristic. Time stops flowing in the expected way, freezing in an ugly eternity - "a state of continued immobility", according to the philologist Michael Weiskopf.
6. The mystery of the guy with the balalaika
Chichikov orders Selifan to leave at dawn, Selifan scratches his head in response, and the narrator discusses what this means:
“Is it annoyance that the meeting planned for the next day with my brother in an unsightly sheepskin coat, surrounded by a sash, somewhere in the Tsar’s tavern, somewhere in the Tsar’s tavern, did not work out, or some kind of sweetheart has already started in a new place and I have to leave the evening standing at the gate and political holding of white hands at that hour, as twilight falls on the city, a kid in a red shirt strums a balalaika in front of the courtyard servants and weaves quiet speeches of the common, well-served people?<…>God knows, you won't guess. Scratching the back of the head means many different things to the Russian people.”
Such passages are very typical of Gogol: to tell a lot of everything and come to the conclusion that nothing is clear, and there is nothing to talk about at all. But in this next passage that explains nothing, the guy with the balalaika attracts attention. We've already seen it somewhere:
“Approaching the porch, he noticed two faces looking out of the window almost at the same time: a woman’s in a cap, narrow, long, like a cucumber, and a man’s, round, wide, like the Moldavian pumpkins, called gourds, from which balalaikas, two-stringed, are made in Rus' , light balalaikas, the beauty and fun of an agile twenty-year-old guy, flashing and dandy, winking and whistling at the white-breasted and white-necked girls who had gathered to listen to his quiet-stringed strumming.”
You can never predict where Gogol’s comparison will lead:
the comparison of Sobakevich’s face with a Moldavian pumpkin suddenly turns into a scene with the participation of our balalaika player.
Such extended comparisons are one of the techniques with which Gogol further expands art world novel, introduces into the text something that did not fit even into such a capacious plot as a journey, something that Chichikov did not have time or could not see, something that may not fit into the big picture life of the provincial city and its environs.
But Gogol does not stop there, but takes the dandy with the balalaika who appeared in the extended comparison - and again finds a place for him in the text, and now much closer to the plot reality. From a figure of speech, from a comparison grows real character, which earns its place in the novel and ultimately fits into the plot.
7. Corruption secret
Even before the events of Dead Souls began, Chichikov was a member of the commission “to build some kind of government-owned, very capital building”:
A.A. Agin. "Dead Souls". Manilov with his wife. 1846/ www.nasledie-rus.ru
“For six years [the commission] was busy around the building; but the climate somehow interfered, or the material was already like that, but the government building just couldn’t rise above the foundation. Meanwhile, in other parts of the city, each of the members found themselves beautiful home civil architecture: apparently the soil was better there.”
This mention of “civil architecture” generally fits into Gogol’s redundant style, where definitions do not define anything, and the opposition can easily lack a second element. But initially it was: “civil architecture” was opposed to church architecture. In the earlier edition of “Dead Souls,” the commission, which included Chichikov, is designated as “the commission for the construction of the temple of God.”
This episode of Chichikov’s biography was based on the story of the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, well known to Gogol. The temple was founded October 12, 1817 years, in the early 1820s a commission was established, and already in 1827 abuses were discovered, the commission was abolished, and two of its members were put on trial. Sometimes these numbers serve as the basis for dating the events of Chichikov’s biography, but, firstly, as we have already seen, Gogol did not really commit himself to exact chronology; secondly, in the final version, references to the temple are removed, the action takes place in provincial town, and this whole story is reduced to an element of style, to “civil architecture,” which, in Gogol’s style, is no longer opposed to anything.