Depiction of the world of the Moscow merchants in the comedy Our own people - let's be numbered!

The plays of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky are often called a “window” into the merchant world of creations by merchants of all guilds, shopkeepers, clerks, minor officials... Ostrovsky was even called “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”, because he, like Columbus, opened a whole world to the Russian reader - the world of Moscow Zamoskvorechye, “ countries" of Moscow merchants.

The playwright did not invent many of the plots for his comedies, but took them directly from life. His experience of serving in Moscow courts, where property disputes, cases of false bankruptcies, and conflicts over inheritance were considered, was useful. Ostrovsky, it seems, simply transferred all this to the pages of his plays. One of these comedies, taken from the very thick of merchant life, was the comedy “Bankrupt,” which the playwright wrote at the very end of the 40s of the 19th century. It was published in the magazine "Moskvityanin" in 1850 with the title "Our people - let's be numbered!" and brought the young author well-deserved fame.

The plot of the comedy is based on a very common in the last century in merchant environment a case of fraud: a wealthy merchant, Samson Silych Bolshov, borrowed a rather large amount of money from other merchants, not wanting to return it, he declared bankruptcy. And he transferred all his property to the name of a “faithful man” - clerk Lazar Podkhalyuzin, to whom, for greater confidence and peace of mind, he gives his daughter Lipochka, Olympiada Samsonovna, in marriage. The insolvent debtor Bolshov is sent to prison (debt pit), but Samson Silych is sure that his daughter and son-in-law will contribute a small amount of money for him from the property received and he will be released. However, events do not develop at all the way Bolshov would like: Lipochka and Podkhalyuzin did not pay a penny, and poor Bolshov is forced to go to prison.

It would seem that there is nothing interesting or entertaining in this plot: one swindler deceived another swindler. But the comedy is interesting not because of its complex plot, but because of the truth of life, which, it seems to me, forms the basis of all Ostrovsky’s works. With what accuracy and realism all the characters in the comedy are drawn! Let's take Bolshov, for example. This is a rude, ignorant man, a real tyrant. He was used to commanding everyone and being in charge of everything. Samson Silych orders his daughter to marry Podkhalyuzin, completely disregarding her wishes: “An important matter! I can’t dance to her tune in my old age. For whom I command, he will go for him. My brainchild: I want to eat it with porridge, I want to churn butter...” Bolshov himself started from the bottom, “trading in sheep”; As a child, he was generously rewarded with “jabs” and “slaps on the head,” but now he saved up money, became a merchant and is already scolding and urging everyone on. Of course, the harsh “school of life” educated him in his own way: he became rude, resourceful, and even became a swindler. But at the end of the play, he also evokes some sympathy, because he was cruelly betrayed by his own daughter and deceived by “his” man - Podkhalyuzin, whom he trusted so much!

Podkhalyuzin is an even bigger swindler than Bolshov. He managed not only to deceive the owner, but also to win the favor of Lipochka, who at first did not want to marry him. It’s like a “new” Bolshov, even more cynical and arrogant, more in line with the mores of the new time - the time of profit. But there is one more character in the play who is inextricably linked with the previous ones. This is the boy Tishka. He is still serving as a “gofer,” but little by little, little by little, he is beginning to collect his capital, and over time, obviously, he will become the “new” Podkhalyuzin.

Particularly interesting in comedy, it seems to me, is the image of Lipochka. She dreams of a “noble” groom and does not want to marry some “merchant”; Give her a groom “not with a snub nose, but he must be dark-haired; Well, of course, he should be dressed like a magazine...” She doesn’t look like the merchant women of old; she wants to add nobility to her father’s money. How reminiscent of Moliere’s comedy “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”! however, the cunning Podkhalyuzin easily convinced her that with her father’s money and his resourcefulness they could live even better than the “nobles.” Lipochka, like Podkhalyuzin, does not evoke the slightest sympathy in us.

All the characters in the play, both main and secondary (matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna, housekeeper Fominichna and others) are depicted satirically. At the beginning of his work, Ostrovsky immediately declared himself as a satirist writer, a successor to the tradition of D. I. Fonvizin, A. S. Griboyedov, N. V. Gogol. And the playwright’s subsequent works only strengthened and expanded his fame.

References

To prepare this work, materials from the site were used http://www.ostrovskiy.org.ru/

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  In each of the depicted officials, the author identifies some defining, characteristic feature. For example, Judge Tyapkin-Lyapkin is known as a freethinker, as he has read 5 or 6 books. Strawberry is “a very fat, clumsy and clumsy man, but for all that he is a sly and a rogue.” For all their differences, these and other heroes have much in common. Having learned about the “unpleasant news” - the arrival of the auditor - they all try to bring at least an external shine to the institutions entrusted to them, because everyone treats their official duties carelessly and in bad faith. When characterizing city officials, it is necessary to dwell on common typical features: bribery, embezzlement, dishonesty , low cultural level, supporting your statements with examples or quotes from the text. In the final part of the work, we can conclude that Gogol’s comedy, like a drop of water, reflected the entire Nikolaev bureaucratic Russia. This means that the play is an angry satire on bureaucratic Rus'. You can express your opinion about state structure country in the 30s of the 19th century and about what vices, noticed by the brilliant satirist, continue to exist in our modern government system. Gogol condemns in the comedy not only the bureaucracy, but also the non-service nobility, represented by the city gossips and slackers Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the merchants , oppressed by the mayor, but also infected with dishonesty and greed; the police, which is rampant, offending both the right and the wrong. The monstrous tyranny of civil servants is directed against the most powerless sections of the Russian population. IN Gogol's comedy these are so episodic characters, like the mechanic Poshlepkina, whose husband was illegally given up as a soldier, the sick who are not treated but fed sauerkraut so that they would die sooner, the non-commissioned officer who was innocently flogged, prisoners who do not receive food, the garrison army who do not have underwear. These images help to understand the extent of lawlessness, injustice, theft, and negligence that permeate the entire system of Russian state power. The funny in Gogol's play is often associated with the sharp comic plot situations of the characters: the fear of officials before the arrival of the auditor, the final silent scene that puts the great swindler, the mayor, in a stupid situation when he finds himself in the pitiful position of being deceived; the comical situation of officials who pander to the poor and insignificant Khlestakov, whom they take for a powerful St. Petersburg dignitary, etc. Gogol’s characterizations of characters, witty, sly hints are funny. Comic effect It also causes a characteristic Gogolian technique - a violation of logic between cause and effect. For example, in response to the mayor’s message about the arrival of the auditor, Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin thoughtfully declares that Russia is going to wage war. The connection between the identification of abuses by officials of a provincial town and foreign policy Russia is clearly absurd. The mayor's remarks to his immediate circle regarding their departments in view of the arrival of the auditor are ridiculous. For example, he gives advice to Strawberry to order that clean caps be put on the sick so that they do not look like blacksmiths. But further discussions on the medical topic paint a terrible picture of the mockery of officials in power over helpless sick people. Gogol's comedy is literally replete with witty remarks, ironic remarks, funny characteristics and provisions. But it was written not in order to make the audience laugh, but in order to draw public attention to the negative aspects of the Russian bureaucracy, because Gogol’s laughter reveals “tears invisible to the world.” Gogol's goal is to reveal ulcers and vices Russian society and expose them to the ridicule of the whole world. Gogol's laughter is a means of moral correction of people.

  Residents of the city N (Based on the play by N. Gogol “The Inspector General”)

  “In The Inspector General,” Gogol later recalled, “I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices... and laugh at everyone at once.”

  The writer’s focus is on the fictional provincial town of N., from where, according to the mayor, “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” The action in the comedy takes place in the 30s of the 19th century. All kinds of abuses of power, embezzlement and bribery, arbitrariness and neglect of the people were characteristic features the then bureaucracy. And these negative phenomena public life could be observed throughout the country. Therefore, the district town of N., which is not on the map, is a generalized image of Russia.

  The composition of the population of this city is the same as in the whole of that time. Russian state. There are officials, nobles, merchants, and ordinary townspeople here.

  Among the bureaucrats who make up the main group of characters in The Inspector General, there is not a single positive person. At the same time, the play is not about the individual shortcomings of individual representatives of the bureaucracy. Gogol portrays them as vicious in general. While characterizing the entire bureaucratic class, the author did not ignore its main feature - a penchant for veneration of rank. To Khlestakov’s question: “Why are you, gentlemen, standing?”, the mayor, who himself knows how to humiliate a person, obsequiously answers: “The rank is such that you can still stand.” In general, all officials talk to Khlestakov “at length.” When Khlestakov intimidated the officials with his imaginary importance, they “shake with fear,” and the mayor, speechless, barely pronounces: “And va-va-va... va... Va-va-va... procession.”

  The mayor's tyranny is limitless. He embezzles money intended for the construction of the church. Imitating him in embezzlement and despotism, the trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, believes that an ordinary person “if he dies, he will die anyway; “If you get well, then you will get well,” and instead of eating oatmeal soup, he gives the sick only cabbage. The judge, confident that in his papers “Solomon himself will not decide what is true and what is not true,” turned the judicial institution into his own fiefdom.

  Very interesting speech characteristic city ​​officials. The speech of the trustee of charitable institutions is flattering, florid and pompous and bureaucratic: “I dare not disturb with my presence, take away the time allocated for sacred duties...” The vocabulary and intonations of the judge are determined by the claims of a smug ignoramus to intellectuality. “No, I’ll tell you, you’re not the one...” The speech of the school superintendent reflects his extreme timidity and fear: “I’m timid, your blah...preos...shine...” The postmaster’s phraseology is a clear evidence of his stupidity: “What am I? How are you, Anton Antonovich? He is meager in thoughts and words, often gets confused and leaves out phrases.

  Gogol also paints a negative picture of the nobility of the city of N. So, for example, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are slackers, gossips and liars. Emphasizing the complete facelessness of the landowners, Gogol gives them the same names (Peter), patronymics (Ivanovich) and similar surnames (Bobchinsky - Dobchinsky). The landowners' vocabulary is extremely poor and primitive. They make abundant use of introductory (or similar) words (“yes, sir,” “entogo,” “please see”) and connect phrases using coordinating conjunctions (“And not having found Korobkin... and not having found Rastakovsky”). To Khlestakov’s question: “Have you hurt yourself?” Bobchinsky answers tongue-tiedly: “Nothing, nothing, sir, without any insanity.”

  The nobility is also represented in the images of the mayor's wife and daughter. Anna Andreevna is very cutesy and mannered. It seems to her that she looks more like a society lady when she says: “Oh, what a passage!” WITH important look she says: “If I’m not mistaken, you are making a declaration about my daughter,” and then expresses herself very colloquially: “She ran in like a mad cat.” The essence of her character was perfectly defined by the mayor himself, calling her a “ratchet.”

  Gogol laughs evilly at his heroes, sometimes making them look like complete fools. So, for example, the judge, clearly at odds with elementary logic, sees the reason for the assessor’s characteristic alcoholic smell in the fact that “his mother hurt him a little when he was a child, and since then he smells a little like vodka.” When asked by the mayor what he thinks about the arrival of the auditor, the postmaster declares: “... there will be a war with the Turks... It’s the Frenchman who is crap.” The trustee of charitable institutions boasts: “Since I took over, it may even seem incredible to you - everyone is getting better like flies.” We understand the depth of the author's irony by remembering the well-known saying - “they die like flies.”

  We also see the merchants in the play. Merchants, accustomed to giving bribes, come to Khlestakov “with a body of wine and sugar loaves.” Just like the officials of the city of N., merchants are always ready to deceive. They are afraid of the mayor’s anger and his disfavor, so they always try to please him.

  When depicting minor figures, like Derzhimorda and Gibner, Gogol uses only social-typical features that absorb individual ones. Derzhimorda is extremely rude and despotic.

  But why does Gogol paint a non-commissioned officer’s wife? As a victim of police brutality? Of course, but not only. Otherwise, she, like other residents of the city, would not have been exposed to general ridicule. She is not concerned about restoring justice or protecting her human dignity. Like her offender, who, as we know, “is a smart man and does not like to miss what comes into his hands,” she, too, is trying to benefit from the insult inflicted on her. “And for his mistake they ordered him to pay a fine. I have no reason to give up my happiness,” she tells Khlestakov. Thus, the non-commissioned officer, unfairly flogged behind the stage, morally flogs, that is, humiliates herself, in front of the audience, confirming the justice of the seemingly absurd words of the mayor: “She flogged herself.”

  Gogol refused to include in the play positive hero, since it would soften satirical image the social environment he depicts would weaken the general meaning of his comedy. The only honest and noble face, operating throughout the comedy, is the author's laughter. In Gogol’s understanding, social comedy, in contrast to the entertaining comedy that dominated the Russian stage at that time, was supposed to arouse indignation in the viewer against “society’s deviation from the straight path.” In “The Inspector General,” the author, by his own admission, decided to collect “in one pile everything that is bad in Russia.” That is why among the residents of the city of N. there is not a single decent person. Before us are selfish and greedy officials, dishonest merchants, rude and ignorant ordinary people.

  It is known that the only time Gogol had the opportunity to observe a Russian provincial city was in Kursk, where he had to stay for a week due to a crew breakdown. Through the power of literary talent, these impressions turned into images that were mysterious for all of Russia during the time of Nicholas I. It is curious that Nicholas himself confirmed this. On the way from Penza to Tombov, the tsar was injured and was treated for two weeks in Chembar. Having recovered, he wished to see local officials. They say that the sovereign carefully examined those who had come and said to the provincial leader of the nobility: “I know them...” And then added in French that he saw them at the performance of Gogol’s “The Inspector General.”

  Indeed, Gogol made officials the heroes of the comedy county town. Thanks to a seemingly simple plot device, a passing petty official is mistaken for an auditor - the author reveals the life and customs of not only a provincial staff town, but throughout Russia.

  What is Russia like in miniature - a city from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.”? “There is a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness!” Near the old fence, “near the shoemaker, ... all kinds of rubbish are piled on forty carts.” A church at a charitable institution, “For which a sum was allocated five years ago, ... began to be built, but it burned down"... A depressing picture.

  How is life for the “merchants” and “citizens”? Some were robbed, some were flogged, some had bruises on their cheekbones from Derzhimorda’s zeal; the prisoners are not fed, the hospitals are stinky, not clean, and the sick “are all recovering like flies.”

  And everything is to blame for the extreme cynicism of actions and arbitrariness of the “pillars of the city” - those who, by virtue of their public duty, are called upon to resist lawlessness and care (take care) for the welfare of the townspeople. However, the conical effect in the play is precisely based on the discrepancy between the actions of the heroes and their social calling. The mayor, for example, proudly announces: “I have been living in the service for thirty years! I deceived three governors!” The judge echoes him: “I tell you frankly that I take bribes, but what are bribes with? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter.” The postmaster, after listening the order: “to print out every letter a little” naively admits: “I know, I know, don’t teach this, I do this not just out of precaution, but more out of curiosity: “I love to die to know what’s new in the world. “So, completely unscrupulousness, selfish calculation, abuse of official position - this is what forms the basis of the consciousness and activity of the “masters of life.” But most importantly, Gogol pulled the veil of secrecy from bribery - the most dangerous and widespread vice of the huge bureaucratic apparatus of Russia. Not without reason during the monologue Mayor "Why are you laughing? You're laughing at yourself! "The actor Shchepkin came close to the ramp and threw these words into the prim stalls, where many prototypes of Gogol's heroes were sitting, among whom were, according to Mikhail Semenovich himself, half of the “takers” and half of the “givers.”

  And yet, embezzlement, bribery, robbery of the population - all these inherently terrible phenomena - are shown by Gogol as everyday and completely natural. According to Anton Antonovich’s deep conviction, “there is no person who does not have some sins behind him,” who would miss what “floats into his hands.”

  And now there is an “incognito” auditor in the city - an unexpectedly looming danger for all officials, but especially for the Mayor. After all, the first demand is from the father of the city, and his sins are more serious: “not only fur coats and shawls and coolies of goods from merchants are floating into our hands, but also the state treasury, funds allocated for the improvement of the city, social needs. And this cannot be corrected with a quick order : “You cannot remove mountains of garbage, you cannot cover voids and ruins with straw, you cannot build a church, and most importantly, you cannot silence all the offended. “But the whole point is that it’s not an auditor who lives in the hotel, but a pathetic “elistrate” who squandered his money in St. Petersburg. According to the laws of the conical, Gogol gives his frightening surname, derived from the word lash - to hit with a backhand. And the officials tremble. He didn’t recognize the “whip” ", "dummy" and the Mayor himself. The even more frightened Antonovich perceives every remark of the frightened Khlestakov in a completely different sense. However, everything was decided by a repeatedly tested remedy - a bribe. It confirmed the idea that the game went according to all the rules. Now it’s time to get the guest drunk and find out everything finally. Which of the auditors refused a tasty treat!

  In the end, events turn out in such a way that the auditor “field marshal” is already Anton Antonovich’s son-in-law and the patron of the family. The viewer is convinced that extraordinary ease of thought is not characteristic of Khlestakov alone. She takes the Governor and the Governor to St. Petersburg, where Anton Antonovich is going to “kill” the rank of general, eat hazel grouse and smelt, and Anna Andreevna should have “such an aroma in her room that it is impossible to enter.” And the newly-minted general is already triumphant, before whom everyone trembles and trembles: the titular, the mayor... Despite the fact that the Mayor has just experienced panic fear upon learning that the merchants complained about him, he is immensely happy. After all, now this fear will creep through others in front of his person. It's tempting to see those trembling and trembling! Contempt for inferiors and subservience to higher ranks is what forms the basis of relationships in the bureaucratic world. Therefore, the scene of congratulations to the Gorodnichy family on their newfound happiness is depicted by Gogol as a parade of hypocrisy, envy and arrogance.

  Gogol promised Pushkin that the comedy would be “funnier than the devil,” laughter permeates every episode and scene of the comedy. However, by showing not private individuals, but officials in whose hands power over people resides, Gogol takes the stage action beyond the scope of an anecdotal incident. His cheerful, but sharp and stern word fights for a person’s high calling, an intelligent, noble life. I recall the words of Chernyshevsky: Gogol “was the first to present us to us in our present form... The first taught us to know our shortcomings and to abhor them.”