What is the poem Dead Souls about briefly? Analysis of the poem Dead Souls by Gogol
The main work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is not only in the scale and depth of artistic generalizations. For this author, working on it became a long process of literary and human self-discovery. Analysis " Dead souls" will be presented in this article.
Gogol noticed after the publication of the first volume that the main subject of his work was not the ugly landowners or the province, but a “secret” that was suddenly to be revealed to readers in the following volumes.
"Pale Beginning" of a Grand Design
The search for a genre, changing the concept, working on the text of the first two volumes, as well as thinking about the third - these are fragments of a grandiose “construction”, carried out only partially by Nikolai Vasilyevich. When analyzing “Dead Souls,” it should be understood that the first volume is only a part in which the outlines of the whole are outlined. This is the “pale beginning” of the work, as defined by the writer himself. No wonder Nikolai Vasilyevich compared it to a porch hastily attached to the “palace” by the provincial architect.
How did the idea for the work come about?
Features of the composition and plot, the originality of the genre are associated with the deepening and development of the original concept of “Dead Souls”. Pushkin stood at the origins of the work. As Nikolai Vasilyevich said, the poet advised him to take up big essay and even suggested a plot from which he himself wanted to create “something like a poem.” However, it was not so much the plot itself, but the “thought” contained in it that was Pushkin’s “hint” to Gogol. The future author of the poem was well aware of real stories that were based on scams with the so-called " dead souls". IN teenage years Gogol in Mirgorod one of these cases occurred.
"Dead souls" in Russia during the time of Gogol
“Dead souls” - who died, but continued to be counted as alive until the next “revision fairy tale”. Only after this were they officially considered dead. It was after this that the landowners stopped paying a special tax for them. The peasants who existed on paper could be mortgaged, gifted or sold, which scammers sometimes took advantage of, seducing the landowners not only with the opportunity to get rid of serfs who were not generating income, but also to receive money for them.
The buyer of “dead souls” became the owner of a very real fortune. The adventure of the main character of the work, Chichikov, is a consequence of the “most inspired thought” that dawned on him - the guardianship council will give 200 rubles for each serf.
An adventurous picaresque novel
The basis for the so-called picaresque adventure novel was provided by an “anecdote” with “dead souls.” This type of novel has always been very popular because it is entertaining. Gogol's older contemporaries created works in this genre (V. T. Narezhny, F. V. Bulgarin, etc.). Their novels, despite their rather low artistic level, were a great success.
Modification of the genre of the picaresque novel in the process of work
The genre model of the work we are interested in is precisely an adventurous picaresque novel, as the analysis of “Dead Souls” shows. It, however, changed greatly during the writer’s work on this creation. This is evidenced, for example, by the author’s designation “poem”, which appeared after the general plan and main idea corrected by Gogol (Dead Souls).
Analysis of the work reveals the following interesting features. “All of Rus' will appear in it” is Gogol’s thesis, which not only emphasized the scale of the concept of “Dead Souls” in comparison with the initial desire “albeit from one side” to show Russia, but also meant a radical revision of the genre model chosen earlier. The framework of the traditional adventure and picaresque novel became cramped for Nikolai Vasilyevich, since he could not accommodate the richness of the new plan. Chichikov’s “odyssey” turned into just one way of seeing Russia.
The adventurous picaresque novel, having lost its leading significance in Dead Souls, remained a genre shell for the epic and morally descriptive tendencies of the poem.
Features of Chichikov's image
One of the techniques used in this genre is the mystery of the hero's origin. Main character in the first chapters he was either a man from the common people or a foundling, and at the end of the work, having overcome life's obstacles, he suddenly turned out to be the son of rich parents and received an inheritance. Nikolai Vasilyevich decisively refused such a template.
When analyzing the poem "Dead Souls", it should certainly be noted that Chichikov is a man of the "middle". The author himself says about him that he is “not bad-looking,” but not handsome, not too thin, but not too fat, not very old and not very young. The life story of this adventurer is hidden from the reader until the final, eleventh chapter. You will be convinced of this by carefully reading “Dead Souls”. Analysis by chapter reveals the fact that the author tells the backstory only in the eleventh. Having decided to do this, Gogol begins by emphasizing the “vulgarity,” the mediocrity of his hero. He writes that his origins are “modest” and “obscure.” Nikolai Vasilyevich again rejects extremes in defining his character (not a scoundrel, but not a hero either), but dwells on Chichikov’s main quality - he is an “acquirer”, “owner”.
Chichikov - an "average" person
Thus, there is nothing unusual in this hero - he is a so-called “average” person, in whom Gogol strengthened a trait that is characteristic of many people. Nikolai Vasilyevich sees in his passion for profit, which has replaced everything else, in the pursuit of the ghost of an easy and beautiful life, a manifestation of “human poverty,” poverty and spiritual interests - everything that is so carefully hidden by many people. An analysis of “Dead Souls” shows that Gogol needed a biography of the hero not so much in order to reveal the “secret” of his life at the end of the work, but rather to remind readers that this is not an exceptional person, but a completely ordinary one. Anyone can discover some “part of Chichikov” in themselves.
"Positive" heroes of the work
In adventure and picaresque novels, the traditional plot “spring” is the persecution of the main character by malicious, greedy and vicious people. Compared to them, the rogue who fought for his own rights seemed almost like a “model of perfection.” As a rule, he was helped by compassionate and virtuous people who naively expressed the author’s ideals.
However, no one is pursuing Chichikov in the first volume of the work. Also, there are no characters in the novel who could, to any extent, follow the writer’s point of view. Carrying out an analysis of the work “Dead Souls”, we can notice that only in the second volume do “positive” heroes appear: the landowner Kostanzhoglo, the tax farmer Murazov, the governor, who is irreconcilable with the abuses of various officials. But even these characters, unusual for Nikolai Vasilyevich, are very far from novel templates.
What interests Nikolai Vasilyevich first of all?
The plots of many works written in the genre of the picaresque adventure novel were far-fetched and artificial. The emphasis was on adventures, the “adventures” of rogue heroes. And Nikolai Vasilyevich is interested not in the adventures of the main character in themselves, not in their “material” result (Chichikov eventually got his fortune through fraudulent means), but in their moral and social content, which allowed the author to make trickery a “mirror” reflecting modern Russia in the work "Dead Souls". Analysis shows that this is a country of landowners who sell “air” (that is, dead peasants), as well as officials who assist the swindler instead of hindering him. The plot of this work has enormous semantic potential - various layers of other meanings - symbolic and philosophical - are superimposed on its real basis. It is very interesting to analyze the landowners (“Dead Souls”). Each of the five characters is very symbolic - Nikolai Vasilyevich uses the grotesque in their depiction.
Slowing down the plot
Gogol deliberately slows down the movement of the plot, accompanying each event with detailed descriptions of the material world in which the heroes live, as well as their appearance, reasoning about their Not only the dynamics, but also the significance is lost by the adventurous and picaresque plot. Each event of the work causes an “avalanche” of the author’s assessments and judgments, details, facts. The action of the novel, contrary to the requirements of this genre, almost completely stops in the last chapters. You can verify this by independently analyzing Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” For the development of the action, only two events out of all the others are significant, which occur from the seventh to the eleventh chapters. This is the departure from the city of Chichikov and the execution of a deed of sale.
Demanding on readers
Nikolai Vasilyevich is very demanding of readers - he wants them to penetrate into the very essence of phenomena, and not skim over their surface, to ponder the hidden meaning of the work “Dead Souls”. It should be analyzed very carefully. It is necessary to see behind the “objective” or informative meaning of the author’s words the not obvious, but the most important meaning is the symbolically generalized one. Just as necessary, as for Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin,” is the co-creation of readers for the author of “Dead Souls.” It is important to note that the artistic effect of Gogol’s prose is created not by what is told or depicted, but by how it is done. You will be convinced of this once you analyze the work “Dead Souls”. The word is a subtle instrument that Gogol mastered perfectly.
Nikolai Vasilyevich emphasized that a writer, when addressing people, must take into account the fear and uncertainty that lives in those who commit bad deeds. Both approval and reproach should be carried by the word of the “lyric poet”. Discussions about the dual nature of the phenomena of life are the favorite topic of the author of the work that interests us.
That's how brief analysis("Dead Souls"). A lot can be said about Gogol’s work. We have highlighted only the main points. It is also interesting to dwell on the images of landowners and the author. You can do this yourself, based on our analysis.
The artistic depth and scale of the work “Dead Souls” indicate that it can well be considered the main one in creative biography Nikolai Gogol. The author worked long and painstakingly on its creation, starting with the understanding that, first of all, the writer has all the problems and storyline, as well as the character of the heroes, should be passed through yourself. Let's analyze the analysis of "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol.
The humble beginning of a great poem
We will begin our analysis of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" with the fact that in the first volume of the work the author outlined only general features and called it a "pale beginning." How did Gogol come up with the idea for the plot, because in order to think through such a serious thing in detail, you need an appropriate approach and a solid foundation?
It turns out that the idea to start a new poem was given to Gogol by none other than Alexander Pushkin. The poet said that he had a plot in his outline that he himself would like to use, but recommended that Nikolai Vasilyevich do it. But it is important to remember that the most important thing: Pushkin “suggested” the leading idea of the poem, and he outlined the plot in general outline. Gogol himself perfectly developed the storyline, because he knew a lot real stories, which were based on various scams involving “dead souls.”
For example, let’s include in the analysis of the poem “Dead Souls” one such incident from Gogol’s life. When he was still a very young man and lived in Mirgorod, he heard a similar story in sufficient detail - it was advantageous to count some serfs who had already died as alive, at least until the upcoming audit. This practice spread throughout Russia, and on official papers only after an audit such peasants began to be considered dead. In view of this, until the so-called “revision fairy tale,” landowners had to continue paying taxes in the form of a poll tax.
What is the essence of the “dead souls” scam?
When a peasant remained “alive” only on official papers, he could be given away, sold or mortgaged, which was beneficial in some fraudulent scams. The landowner could be tempted by the fact that the serf did not bring more income, but this way you could get some money for him. There was a buyer who, if the transaction was completed, began to own a very real fortune.
Initially, Gogol, taking into account this basis of the scam, defined for his work such a genre as an adventurous picaresque novel. Some authors of that time already wrote in this spirit, and their novels were widely used great success, although the artistic level was not so high. In the course of his work, Gogol modified the genre, and this is an important detail in the analysis of the poem “Dead Souls”. After the general idea of the work became clear and the idea was clearly formed, Gogol himself designated the genre - poem. Therefore, from an adventurous picaresque novel, it turned into a poem.
Analysis of the poem "Dead Souls" - features of the work
If we talk about the scale of Gogol’s idea in relation to the poem “Dead Souls,” we can see how it grew, because initially the author wanted to reflect only “one side” of Russia, and later with his thesis Gogol showed that he had revised not only the genre model, but also wealth of ideas. The essence of his thesis lies in the thought: “all Rus'” should be reflected in the poem. The new idea was so broad and rich that it was practically impossible to realize it within the tight confines of an adventurous picaresque novel. Therefore, this genre began to play the role of a shell, but lost main role.
Let's talk a little about the main character of the poem, Chichikov. His origins are shrouded in mystery, and this is the very technique that Gogol used to fully reveal his image. Analyzing the poem "Dead Souls", it becomes quite obvious that Chichikov is a man in the middle. He doesn’t have a bad appearance, that is, you can’t call him handsome, and he’s not ugly. He is not thick, and not thin. The age is also unclear - not young, but at the same time not old. As readers, we do not know Chichikov's life story until we reach the last chapter.
In the eleventh chapter, the vulgar nature of this man becomes visible. His origins are again said very vaguely, again it is emphasized that he is not vile, but also not of a heroic type. Chichikov's main quality is that he is an “acquirer.” One can draw conclusions from the way Gogol calls him an “average” person. This means that he is not particularly different from everyone else, but in his character the trait inherent in many is strengthened - Chichikov is ready to make money, to chase beautiful life and yet he has almost no deep goals in life, and he is spiritually empty.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol worked on this work for 17 years. According to the writer's plan, the grandiose literary work was to consist of three volumes. Gogol himself more than once reported that the idea for the work was suggested to him by Pushkin. Alexander Sergeevich was also one of the first listeners of the poem.
Work on “Dead Souls” was difficult. The writer changed the concept several times and reworked certain parts. Gogol worked on the first volume alone, which was published in 1842, for six years.
A few days before his death, the writer burned the manuscript of the second volume, of which only drafts of the first four and one of the last chapters survived. The author never got around to starting the third volume.
At first, Gogol considered “Dead Souls” satirical a novel in which he intended to show “all of Rus'.” But in 1840 the writer became seriously ill, and was healed literally by a miracle. Nikolai Vasilyevich decided that this was a sign - the Creator himself was demanding that he create something that would serve the spiritual revival of Russia. Thus, the concept of “Dead Souls” was rethought. The idea arose to create a trilogy similar to Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. This is where the genre definition of the author - a poem - arose.
Gogol believed that in the first volume it was necessary to show the decomposition of serf society, its spiritual impoverishment. In the second, to give hope for the cleansing of “dead souls.” In the third, the revival of a new Russia was already planned.
The basis of the plot the poem became an official's scam Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Its essence was as follows. A census of serfs was carried out in Russia every 10 years. Therefore, peasants who died during the period between censuses were considered alive according to official documents (revision tales). Chichikov's goal is to buy " dead Souls"at a low price, and then pledge them to the board of trustees and get a lot of money. The fraudster hopes that the landowners will benefit from such a deal: they do not have to pay taxes on the deceased until the next audit. In search of “dead souls” Chichikov travels around Russia.
This plot outline allowed the author to create a social panorama of Russia. In the first chapter, Chichikov is introduced, then the author describes his meetings with landowners and officials. The last chapter is again dedicated to the swindler. The image of Chichikov and his purchase of dead souls unite the storyline of the work.
The landowners in the poem are typical representatives of people of their circle and time: spendthrifts (Manilov and Nozdrev), hoarders (Sobakevich and Korobochka). This gallery is completed by a spender and a hoarder rolled into one - Plyushkin.
Image of Manilov especially successful. This hero gave the name to a whole phenomenon of Russian reality - “Manilovism”. In his interactions with others, Manilov is soft to the point of cloying, loving posing in everything, but an empty and completely inactive owner. Gogol showed a sentimental dreamer who can only arrange the ashes knocked out of a pipe in beautiful rows. Manilov is stupid and lives in the world of his useless fantasies.
landowner Nozdryov, on the contrary, is very active. But his ebullient energy is not directed at all to economic concerns. Nozdryov is a gambler, a spendthrift, a reveler, a braggart, an empty and frivolous person. If Manilov strives to please everyone, then Nozdryov constantly causes mischief. Not out of malice, really, that’s his nature.
Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka- a type of economical, but narrow-minded and conservative landowner, quite tight-fisted. Her interests include pantry, barns and poultry houses. Korobochka even went to the nearest town twice in her life. In everything that goes beyond her everyday concerns, the landowner is impossibly stupid. The author calls her “club-headed.”
Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich the writer identifies it with a bear: he is clumsy and clumsy, but strong and strong. The landowner is primarily interested in the practicality and durability of things, and not in their beauty. Sobakevich, despite his rough appearance, has a sharp mind and cunning. This is an evil and dangerous predator, the only landowner capable of accepting the new capitalist way of life. Gogol notes that the time for such cruel business people is coming.
Image of Plyushkin does not fit into any framework. The old man himself is malnourished, starving the peasants, and a lot of food is rotting in his pantries, Plyushkin’s chests are filled with expensive things that are becoming unusable. Incredible stinginess deprives this man of his family.
The bureaucracy in “Dead Souls” is a thoroughly corrupt company of thieves and swindlers. In the system of city bureaucracy, the writer paints with large strokes the image of a “jug’s snout”, ready to sell his own mother for a bribe. The narrow-minded police chief and alarmist prosecutor, who died of fear because of Chichikov’s scam, is no better.
The main character is a rogue, in whom some traits of other characters are discernible. He is amiable and prone to posing (Manilov), petty (Korobochka), greedy (Plyushkin), enterprising (Sobakevich), narcissistic (Nozdryov). Among officials, Pavel Ivanovich feels confident because he has passed all the universities of fraud and bribery. But Chichikov is smarter and more educated than those with whom he deals. He is an excellent psychologist: he delights provincial society, masterfully bargains with every landowner.
The writer put a special meaning into the title of the poem. These are not only dead peasants whom Chichikov buys up. By “dead souls” Gogol understands the emptiness and lack of spirituality of his characters. There is nothing sacred for the money-grubbing Chichikov. Plyushkin has lost all human semblance. The box doesn’t mind digging up coffins for profit. At Nozdrev's, only the dogs have a good life; their own children are abandoned. Manilov's soul sleeps soundly. There is not a drop of decency and nobility in Sobakevich.
The landowners in the second volume look different. Tentetnikov- a philosopher disillusioned with everything. He is immersed in thought and does not do housework, but is smart and talented. Kostanzhoglo and a completely exemplary landowner. Millionaire Murazov also arouses sympathy. He forgives Chichikov and stands up for him, helping Khlobuev.
But we never saw the rebirth of the main character. A person who has let the “golden calf” into his soul, a bribe-taker, an embezzler and a swindler, is unlikely to be able to become different.
During his lifetime the writer did not find the answer to main question: where is Rus' rushing like a fast troika? But “Dead Souls” remains a reflection of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century and an amazing gallery satirical images, many of which have become household names. “Dead Souls” is a striking phenomenon in Russian literature. The poem opened up a whole direction in her, which Belinsky called "critical realism".
Many people associate the poem “Dead Souls” with mysticism, and for good reason. Gogol was the first Russian writer to combine the supernatural with reality. The second volume of Dead Souls, the reasons for the burning of which are still debated to this day, has become synonymous with an unrealized plan. The first volume is a guide to the life of the Russian nobility in the 1830s, an encyclopedia of landowner and bureaucratic sins. Memorable images filled with deep thoughts lyrical digressions, subtle satire - all this, coupled with the artistic talent of the author, not only helps to understand the specific features of the era, but also brings true reading pleasure.
When it comes to Russian literature of the first half of the nineteenth century, two writers most often come to mind: Pushkin and Gogol. But not everyone, however, knows the following interesting fact: it was Pushkin who suggested to his friend the themes of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls”. The poet himself extracted the idea from the story of fugitive peasants who did not have documents, who took the names of the dead and thus did not allow a single death to be registered in the city of Bendery.
Having picked up the idea, Gogol began to develop a general plan. On October 7, 1835, he writes to Pushkin (this is when the documented history of the creation of the work begins):
I started writing Dead Souls. The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny.
Gogol's idea, according to one version, was to create a poem modeled after Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. The first volume is hell. The second is purgatory. The third is heaven. We can only guess whether this was really the author's plan, and also why Gogol did not finish the poem. There are two versions on this matter:
- N.V. Gogol was a believer and listened to all the recommendations of his confessor (the priest who accepted his confessions and advised him). It was his confessor who ordered him to burn “Dead Souls” entirely, since he saw in them something ungodly and unworthy of a Christian. But the first volume had already been distributed so widely that it was impossible to destroy all copies. But the second one was very vulnerable at the preparation stage and fell victim to the author.
- The writer created the first volume with enthusiasm and was pleased with it, but the second volume was artificial and strained, because it corresponded to Dante's concept. If hell in Russia was depicted without difficulty, then heaven and purgatory did not correspond to reality and could not be depicted without a stretch. Gogol did not want to betray himself and try to do something that was too far from the truth and alien to him.
Genre, direction
The main question is why the creation “Dead Souls” is called a poem. The answer is simple: Gogol himself defined the genre this way (obviously, in terms of structure, language and number of characters, this epic work, more precisely - a novel). Perhaps this was his way of emphasizing genre originality: equality of the epic (the actual description of Chichikov’s journey, way of life, characters) and lyrical (the author’s thoughts) principles. According to a less common version, Gogol made a reference to Pushkin, or set his work in contrast to “Eugene Onegin”, which, on the contrary, is called a novel, although it has all the signs of a poem.
WITH literary direction easier to understand. It is obvious that the writer resorts to realism. This is indicated by a fairly scrupulous description of the noble way of life, especially estates and landowners. The choice of direction is explained by the demiurgic task that Gogol chose for himself. In one work, he undertook to describe all of Russia, to bring to the surface all the bureaucratic dirt, all the chaos going on both in the country and within each civil servant. Other trends simply do not have the necessary tools; Gogol's realism does not get along with, say, romanticism.
Meaning of the name
The title used is probably the most famous oxymoron in the Russian language. The very concept of the soul includes the concept of immortality and dynamism.
It is obvious that dead souls are the subject around which Chichikov’s machinations and, accordingly, all the events of the poem are built. But the poem is named not only and not so much to denote an extraordinary product, but because of the landowners who willingly sell or even donate souls. They themselves are dead, but not physically, but spiritually. It is these people, according to Gogol, who make up the contingent of hell; it is them (if you believe the hypothesis about borrowing the composition from Dante) that heaven awaits after the atonement of sins. Only in the third volume could they become “alive”.
Composition
The main feature of the composition “Dead Souls” is the ring dynamics. Chichikov enters the city of NN, makes a journey within it, during which he makes the necessary acquaintances and carries out his planned scam, looks at the ball, after which he leaves - the circle closes.
In addition, acquaintances with landowners occur in descending order: from the least “dead soul”, Manilov, to Plyushkin, mired in debts and problems. The story of Captain Kopeikin, woven by the author into the tenth chapter as the story of one of the employees, is intended to show the mutual influence of man and the state. It is noteworthy that Chichikov’s biography is described in the last chapter, after his chaise left the city.
The essence
The main character, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, comes to the provincial town of NN with the goal of buying up dead souls from landowners (supposedly for withdrawal, to the Kherson province, where lands were distributed for free), pawning them on the board of trustees and receiving two hundred rubles for each. In a word, he passionately wanted to get rich and did not hesitate to use any methods. Upon arrival, he immediately meets government officials and charms them with his manners. No one suspects what a brilliant but dishonest idea lies at the heart of all his activities.
At first, everything went smoothly, the landowners were happy to meet the hero, sold or even gave him souls, and invited him to visit them again. However, the ball that Chichikov attends before leaving nearly deprived him of his reputation and nearly derailed his scheme. Rumors and gossip about his fraud begin to spread, but the swindler manages to leave the city.
The main characters and their characteristics
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov- "middle-class gentleman." He really is an average character in everything: “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; I can’t say that I’m old, but I can’t say that I’m too young.” From the eleventh chapter we learn that his character was largely determined by his father’s instructions to obey teachers and superiors in everything, and also to save a penny. Toadying, cloying in communication, hypocrisy - all these are means for fulfilling the father's decree. In addition, the hero has a sharp mind, he is characterized by cunning and dexterity, without which the idea with dead souls could not have been realized (and perhaps would not have occurred to him). You can learn more about the hero from the Many-Wise Litrecon.
The images of landowners are described in accordance with the chronology of their appearance in the work.
- Manilov- the first landowner to meet Chichikov and stand on a par with him in terms of sweetness and vulgar mannerisms. But the motives for Chichikov’s behavior are clearly defined, while Manilov is gentle in himself. Soft and dreamy. If these qualities were supported by activity, his character could be classified as positive. However, everything Manilov lives by is limited to demagoguery and having his head in the clouds. Manilov - from the word beckons. It’s easy to get bogged down in him and his estate and lose your bearings. However, Chichikov, faithful to his task, receives souls and continues on his way...
- A box he meets by chance when he cannot find his way. She gives him a place to stay for the night. Like Chichikov, Korobochka strives to increase her wealth, but she lacks mental acuity and is “club-headed.” Her last name symbolizes a state of detachment from the outside world, limitation; she closed herself in her estate as if in a box, trying to see benefit in every insignificant detail. You can find out more about this image in.
- Nozdryov– a real playmaker. This is indicated at least by the fact that Chichikov’s meeting with him took place in a tavern. Nozdryov whiles away his days in such establishments. He is not involved in the affairs of his estate, but he drinks a lot and squanders money at cards. Self-centered, vain. He tries in every possible way to arouse interest in his person by telling fables that he himself composed. However, we should give him his due - he is the only landowner who refused to sell his soul to Chichikov.
- Sobakevich- a bear in human form. Also clumsy, he also sleeps a lot and eats even more. Food is the main joy in his life. And after eating - sleep. He feeds Chichikov almost to death, which is reminiscent of Manilov, who also seems to “entangle the wanderer,” detaining him on the estate. However, Sobakevich is amazingly pragmatic. Everything in his household is of good quality, but without excessive pretentiousness. He bargains with the main character for a long time, and ends up selling many souls at a favorable price.
- Plyushkin- “a hole in humanity.” He abandoned the affairs of the estate, does not look after his own appearance so much so that at the first meeting it is difficult to determine his gender. His passion for hoarding is the apotheosis of stinginess. His estate brings only losses, there is barely enough food to survive (it spoils and rots in the barns), the peasants die. An ideal situation for Chichikov, who buys many souls for next to nothing. It is worth noting the connection between these characters. Only their biographies are given by the author; nothing is said about the past of the others. This may serve as a basis for the hypothesis that they could go through purgatory (the second volume) and go to heaven in the third. The Many-wise Litrekon wrote more about this image in a small one.
- Captain Kopeikin- great veteran Patriotic War. He lost an arm and a leg, and therefore had to stop working. He went to St. Petersburg to beg for benefits, but, having received nothing, he returned to hometown and, according to rumors, became a robber. This character embodied the image of an oppressed people rejected by the state. It is noteworthy that the edition of the fragment, permitted by the censorship of that time, carries a diametrically opposite message: the state, unable to do so, helps the veteran, and he, despite this, goes against him. You can learn about the role and significance of this story from.
- Three bird, appearing at the very end of the poem, embodies Rus' and is also one of the characters. Where is she going? Chichikov's journey is the historical path of the country. His main problem is the lack of a home. He can't come anywhere. Odysseus had Ithaca, but Chichikov only has a chaise, moving in an unknown direction. Russia, according to the author, is also in search of its place in the world and, of course, will find it.
- Author's image, revealed through lyrical digressions, brings a pinch of sanity into the swamp of sin and vice. He sarcastically describes his heroes and reflects on their destinies, drawing funny parallels. His image combines cynicism and hope, a critical mind and faith in the future. One of the most famous quotes written by Gogol on his own behalf is “What Russian doesn’t like driving fast?” - is familiar even to those who have not read the poem.
- The system of images introduced by Gogol still finds correspondence in reality. We meet walking Nozdryovs, sleepy Manilovs, enterprising opportunists like Chichikov. But Russia is still moving in an unclear direction, still looking for its “home”.
Topics and issues
- The main theme raised in the poem is Historical path of Russia(in a broader sense - the theme of the road). The author tries to comprehend the imperfection of the bureaucratic apparatus that led to the current state of affairs. After the publication of Gogol’s work, they criticized him for his lack of patriotism and for putting Russia in a bad light. He foresaw this and gave an answer to the skeptics in one of the digressions (the beginning of the seventh chapter), where he compared the fate of a writer who glorifies the great, the sublime, with the fate of the one who dared to “call out everything that is every minute before the eyes and which indifferent eyes do not see, all the terrible, stunning mud of little things that entangle our lives, the whole depth of cold, fragmented, everyday characters with which our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring path is teeming, and with the strong force of an inexorable chisel, who dared to expose them prominently and brightly to the eyes of the people!” True patriot- not the one who does not notice and does not show the shortcomings of the homeland, but the one who plunges headlong into them, explores them, describes them in order to eradicate them.
- The theme of the relationship between the people and the authorities represented by the antithesis of landowners - peasants. The latter represent Gogol's moral ideal. Despite the fact that these people did not receive a good upbringing and education, it is in them that one sees a glimpse of a real, living feeling. It is their unbridled energy that can transform today's Russia. They are oppressed, but active, while the landowners have complete freedom, but sit with their hands folded - this is exactly what Gogol ridicules.
- The phenomenon of the Russian soul is also a topic of thought for the author. Despite all the problems raised in the book, our people are fraught with real wealth of talent and character. The Russian soul is visible even in morally inferior landowners: Korobochka is caring and hospitable, Manilov is kind-hearted and open, Sobakevich is economical and businesslike, Nozdryov is cheerful and full of energy. Even Plyushkin is transformed when he remembers friendship. This means that Russian people are unique by nature, and even in the worst of them there are virtues and dormant abilities for creation.
- Family theme also interested the writer. The inferiority and coldness of the Chichikov family gave rise to vices in him, a talented young man. Plyushkin became a distrustful and malicious miser when he lost his support - his wife. The role of the family in the poem is central to the moral purification of dead souls.
The main problem of the work is the problem of the “death of the Russian soul”. The gallery of landowners in the first volume clearly demonstrates this phenomenon. Leo Tolstoy, in his novel Anna Karenina, came up with the following formula, which later began to be applied to many areas of life: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” She surprisingly accurately notices the peculiarity of Gogol's characters. Although he shows us only one positive landowner (Kostanjoglo from the second volume), and we cannot verify the first part of the formula, the second part is confirmed. The souls of all the characters in the first volume are dead, but in different ways.
Ultimately, it is the totality of characters, insignificant for society individually, that becomes the cause of a social and moral crisis. It turns out that everyone influential person with his activities he can change the state of things in the city - Gogol comes to this conclusion.
Bribery and embezzlement, sycophancy, ignorance are components of the problem of “death of the soul.” It is interesting that all these phenomena were called “Chichikovism”, which was used by our ancestors for a long time.
main idea
The main idea of the poem lies in the seventh chapter, in the passage where Chichikov “revives” the souls he bought and fantasizes about what all these people could be like. “Were you a master, or just a peasant, and what kind of death killed you?” - the hero asks. He thinks about the fate of those whom he previously considered goods. This is the first glimpse of his soul, the first important question. Here the hypothesis about the possibility of purifying Chichikov’s soul begins to seem plausible. If this is so, then every dead soul is capable of moral rebirth. The author believed in a happy and great future for Russia and connected it with the moral resurrection of its people.
In addition, Gogol shows the liveliness, spiritual strength, and purity of each peasant character. “Stepan is a traffic jam, that’s the hero who would be fit for the guard!”, “Popov, a yard man, should be literate.” He does not forget to pay tribute to the workers and peasants, although the subject of his coverage is Chichikov’s machinations, his interaction with the rotten bureaucracy. The point of these descriptions is not so much to show as to ridicule and condemn dead souls in order to raise the conscious reader to a new height of understanding and help him set the country on the right course.
What does it teach?
Everyone will draw their own conclusion after reading this book. Someone will object to Gogol: the problems of corruption and fraud are characteristic to one degree or another for any country; they cannot be eliminated completely. Someone will agree with him and become convinced that the soul is the only thing that any person should care about.
If it were necessary to identify a single morality, it might look like this: a person, no matter who he is, cannot live life to the fullest and be happy if you do not use energy for creative purposes, while enriching yourself illegally. What’s interesting is that even vigorous activity coupled with illegal methods cannot make a person happy. As an example, Chichikov is forced to hide the true motives of his behavior and fear for the disclosure of his plans.
Artistic details and language
Grotesque is Gogol's favorite technique. The famous Soviet literary critic Boris Eikhenbaum in his article “How Gogol’s Overcoat was Made” showed that his genius is manifested not so much in the content of his works, but in their form. The same can be said about “Dead Souls”. Playing with different stylistic registers - pathetic, ironic, sentimental - Gogol creates a real comedy. Grotesqueness is the discrepancy between the seriousness and importance of the chosen topic and the language used. The writer was guided by the principle “the longer we look at a funny work, the sadder it seems.” With a satirical style, he lured the reader, forcing him to return to the text and see the terrible truth under the humor.
A striking example of satire is the use speaking names. Some of them are described in the section on characteristics of landowners. The meaning of some (Disrespect-Trough, You-Won’t-Reach, Sparrow) can be debated. Historicisms (chaise, goats, irradiation) make the details difficult for the modern reader to understand.
Meaning, originality and features
“Dead Souls” occupy a central place in Gogol’s work. Despite the fact that “we all came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat”” (according to Eugene de Vogüe), the poem about Chichikov also needs careful study.
There are many interpretations of the text. The most popular is continuity with the Divine Comedy. Poet, writer and literary critic Dmitry Bykov believes that Gogol was guided by Homer's Odyssey. He draws the following parallels: Manilov - Sirens, Korobochka - Circe, Sobakevich - Polyphemus, Nozdryov - Aeolus, Plyushkin - Scylla and Charybdis, Chichikov - Odysseus.
The poem is interesting for the presence of many features available only to professional researchers and writers. For example, at the beginning of the first chapter we read: “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...” Why clarify that the men are Russian, if it is clear that the action takes place in Russia? This is a characteristic of the poem technique of the “figure of fiction”, when something (often a lot) is said, but nothing is defined. We see the same thing in the description of the “average” Chichikov.
Another example is the awakening of the hero at Korobochka as a result of a fly flying into his nose. Mukha and Chichikov actually play similar roles - they awaken from sleep. The first awakens the hero himself, while Chichikov, with his arrival, awakens the dead city and its inhabitants.
Criticism
Herzen wrote “Dead souls shook Russia.” Pushkin exclaimed: “God, how sad our Russia is!” Belinsky put the work above everything that was in Russian literature, but complained about the extremely pompous lyricism, which was not combined with the theme and message (obviously, he perceived only the content, discarding the ingenious language game). O.I. Senkovsky believed that “Dead Souls” was a humorous comparison with all the great epics.
There were many statements from critics and amateurs about the poem, they are all different, but one thing is certain: the work caused a huge resonance in society, forced us to look deeper at the world and ask serious questions. A creation can hardly be called great if it pleases and pleases everyone. Greatness comes later, in heated debate and research. Time must pass before people can appreciate the works of geniuses, which undoubtedly includes Nikolai Gogol.
). It’s hard for him at home. “Everything, including the very air, torments and suffocates me,” he says. In the summer of 1842, he left Russia again, this time for six whole years. At the end of the same year, he prepared a complete collection of his works for publication. This date marks the end of the last literary period of his life. For the remaining ten years, he slowly and steadily moves away from literature.
Gogol. Dead Souls. Lecturer - Dmitry Bak
In “The Author's Confession,” Gogol reports that Pushkin advised him to write a great novel and gave him a plot: some clever rogue is buying up serfs who have already died, but according to the papers are still alive; then he pawns them in a pawnshop and in this way acquires large capital. Gogol began to write without a specific plan, carried away by the opportunity to travel with his hero throughout Russia, to depict many funny faces and funny phenomena.
Initially, “Dead Souls” seemed to him to be an adventure novel like “Don Quixote” by Cervantes or “Gilles Blas” by Lesage. But under the influence of the spiritual turning point that occurred in him while working on this work, the character of the novel gradually began to change. From the adventurous story “Dead Souls” they turn into a huge poem in three volumes, into the Russian “Divine Comedy”, the first part of which should correspond to “Hell”, the second to “Purgatory” and the third to “Paradise”. First - the dark phenomena of Russian life, vulgar, stupid, vicious “dead souls”. Then the gradual onset of dawn: in the excerpts of the unfinished second volume there are already “virtuous” faces: the ideal owner Kostanzhoglo, the ideal girl Ulenka, the wise old man Murazov, preaching about the “improvement of spiritual property.” Finally, in the third volume conceived but not written, there is a complete triumph of light.
Gogol fervently believed in the spiritual beauty of Russia, in the moral treasures of the Russian people - and he was tormented by the reproaches of critics who claimed that he was capable of depicting only the base and ugly. How he longed to glorify his homeland. But his tragedy was that he would have been given a great satirical talent, a brilliant ability to notice everything funny and vulgar in life and a complete inability to create “ideal images” - And yet he looked at his work as a religious and social service, he wanted not to to entertain and make the reader laugh, but to instruct him and turn him to God. From this internal conflict, Gogol died without finishing his poem.
In the first volume of Dead Souls, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a man of very decent appearance and a notorious rogue, comes to a provincial town, charms the governor, police chief, prosecutor and the entire provincial society, meets with the largest landowners and then visits their estates. We get acquainted with the “types” of landowners, depicted so vividly, with such vitality, that their surnames have long become household names. Sweet to the point of cloying, Manilov, who gave his sons the names of Themistoclus and Alcidas and touchingly whispered to his wife: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this piece in for you.” The club-headed, stingy housewife Korobochka, mortally frightened by the fact that she sold dead souls for cheap. Nozdryov, a fine fellow with rosy cheeks and jet-black sideburns, a carouser, a liar, a braggart, a sharper and a brawler, always selling, changing, buying something. Sobakevich, similar “to a medium-sized bear,” tight-fisted and cunning, the kulak is the owner, bargaining for pennies on each dead soul and slipping Chichikov the woman “Elizabeth Sparrow” instead of a man. The miser Plyushkin, in a robe that looks like a woman's hood, with four flaps dangling behind him, is a landowner who robs his own peasants and lives in some kind of warehouse of dusty junk; Chichikov himself, overwhelmed by the passion of profit, committing fraud and meanness for the sake of the dream of rich life; his footman Petrushka, who carries a special smell with him everywhere and reads for the sake of the pleasant process of reading, and the coachman Selifan, philosophizing while drunk and bitterly reproaching his treacherous horses. All these figures, improbable, almost caricatured, are full of their own, eerie life.
Gogol's fantasy, which creates living people, takes little account of reality. He has a special “fantastic realism”, this is not plausibility, but complete persuasiveness and independence fiction. It would be absurd to judge Nikolaev Russia by “Dead Souls.” Gogol's world is governed by its own laws, and his masks seem more alive than real people.
When the author of “Dead Souls” read the first chapters of the poem to Pushkin, he first laughed, then “he began to gradually become gloomier and 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,” adds Gogol. “Pushkin, who knew Russia so well, did not notice that all this was a caricature and my own invention.”
The first volume of “Dead Souls” ends with Chichikov’s hasty departure from the provincial town; thanks to Nozdryov and Korobochka, rumors are spreading there about his purchase of dead souls. The city is engulfed in a whirlwind of gossip. Chichikov is considered a robber, a spy, Captain Kopeikin and even Napoleon.
In the surviving chapters of the second volume, Chichikov's wanderings continue; New “types” appear: the fat glutton Pyotr Petrovich Rooster, the brave warrior General Betrishchev, the lazy and dreamy “baibak” and the “sky smoker” Tentetnikov. The author's humor noticeably weakens, creative forces it is decreasing. The artist is often overshadowed by the moralist preacher. Dissatisfied with his work, Gogol burned the second volume before his death.
The verbal fabric of Dead Souls is unusually complex. Gogol mocks the romantic “beauties of style” and strives for accuracy and detailed recording of actual facts. He counts all the buttons on his heroes' dresses, all the pimples on their faces. He will not miss anything - not a single gesture, not a single grimace, not a single wink or cough. In this deliberate solemnity of the depiction of trifles, in this pathos of exalting insignificance, there is his merciless irony. Gogol destroys his heroes with laughter: Chichikov puts on his tailcoat “lingonberry-colored with a sparkle” - and the stigma of vulgarity forever falls on his image. Irony and “natural painting” turn people into mannequins, forever repeating the same mechanical gestures; life is mortified and scattered into countless meaningless little things. Truly a terrible kingdom of “dead souls”!
And then suddenly, unexpectedly, a fresh wind flies into this musty and stuffy world. The mocking prose writer gives way to the enthusiastic poet; is interrupted pedantically - a detailed description of vulgar faces and wretched things - and a stream of inspired lyrics flows. The author touchingly recalls his youth, speaks excitedly about the great purpose of the writer and stretches out his hands to his homeland with ecstatic love. Against the backdrop of cold mockery and evil satire, these lyrical flights amaze with their fiery poetry.
Chichikov in his chaise left the city of NN, sadly and sadly they stretched along the sides of the road for “miles, station guards, wells, carts, gray villages with samovars, small towns, pockmarked barriers, bridges being repaired, endless fields...” This enumeration resembles not so much a description of a landscape as an inventory of some wretched junk... and suddenly Gogol turns to Russia:
"Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you!.. Everything in you is open - deserted and even; like dots, like icons, your low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains; nothing will seduce or enchant the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song heard and heard incessantly in your ears, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul and curl around my heart? Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection lies between us? Why are you looking like that, and why has everything that is in you turned its eyes full of expectation on me?.. And still full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains, has already overshadowed my head, and my thoughts are numb in front of your space . What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will be born, when you yourself are endless? Shouldn't a hero be here when there is room for him to turn around and walk? And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; my eyes lit up with unnatural power! what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus!.."