The main thing is dead souls. Dead souls analysis
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 cleansing " 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 up “dead souls” at a low price, and then pawn them in the guardianship council 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 are united storyline works.
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".
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. An analysis of "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. Were well known to the future author of the poem real stories, which are based on scams with 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.
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, the printed edition “Dead Souls”, authored by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, was published. 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, Pushkin himself wanted to take up the work, but he “gave” the idea to the 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 responsible for 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, Gogol 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 Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy". The main path actor Chichikov had to go through hell, purgatory and heaven, growing new shoots of a good person in his mutilated soul. 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 individual. 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 draws attention to 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...”. It is a kind of collective image, symbolizing a box, like 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 pays special attention not only to dialogues, but also to colorful descriptions of village landscapes, the 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 the high level of literary significance, the plot of the work is quite simple. This is the use of those very dead peasants 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. More energetic and interesting events follow in the plot. 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 reached 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 the existing depravity in it.
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?
“Dead Souls” is a poem for the ages. The plasticity of the depicted reality, the comic nature of situations and the artistic skill of N.V. Gogol paints an image of Russia not only of the past, but also of the future. Grotesque satirical reality in harmony with patriotic notes create an unforgettable melody of life that sounds through the centuries.
Collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov goes to distant provinces to buy serfs. However, he is not interested in people, but only in the names of the dead. This is necessary to submit the list to the board of trustees, which “promises” a lot of money. For a nobleman with so many peasants, all doors were open. To implement his plans, he pays visits to landowners and officials of the city of NN. They all reveal their selfish nature, so the hero manages to get what he wants. He is also planning a profitable marriage. However, the result is disastrous: the hero is forced to flee, as his plans become publicly known thanks to the landowner Korobochka.
History of creation
N.V. Gogol believed A.S. Pushkin as his teacher, who “gave” the grateful student a story about Chichikov’s adventures. The poet was sure that only Nikolai Vasilyevich, who has a unique talent from God, could realize this “idea”.
The writer loved Italy and Rome. In the land of the great Dante, he began work on a book suggesting a three-part composition in 1835. The poem was supposed to be similar to Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting the hero's descent into hell, his wanderings in purgatory and the resurrection of his soul in paradise.
The creative process continued for six years. The idea of a grandiose painting, depicting not only “all Rus'” present, but also the future, revealed “the untold riches of the Russian spirit.” In February 1837, Pushkin died, whose “sacred testament” for Gogol became “Dead Souls”: “Not a single line was written without me imagining him before me.” The first volume was completed in the summer of 1841, but did not immediately find its reader. The censorship was outraged by “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”, and the title led to bewilderment. I had to make concessions by starting the title with the intriguing phrase “The Adventures of Chichikov.” Therefore, the book was published only in 1842.
After some time, Gogol writes the second volume, but, dissatisfied with the result, burns it.
Meaning of the name
The title of the work causes conflicting interpretations. The oxymoron technique used gives rise to numerous questions to which you want to get answers as quickly as possible. The title is symbolic and ambiguous, so the “secret” is not revealed to everyone.
In the literal sense, “dead souls” are representatives of the common people who have passed on to another world, but are still listed as their masters. The concept is gradually being rethought. The “form” seems to “come to life”: real serfs, with their habits and shortcomings, appear before the reader’s gaze.
Characteristics of the main characters
- Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is a “mediocre gentleman.” Somewhat cloying manners in dealing with people are not without sophistication. Well-mannered, neat and delicate. “Not handsome, but not bad-looking, not... fat, nor.... thin..." Calculating and careful. He collects unnecessary trinkets in his little chest: maybe it will come in handy! Seeks profit in everything. The generation of the worst sides of an enterprising and energetic person of a new type, opposed to landowners and officials. We wrote about him in more detail in the essay "".
- Manilov - “knight of the void”. A blond "sweet" talker with "blue eyes." He covers up the poverty of thought and avoidance of real difficulties with a beautiful phrase. He lacks living aspirations and any interests. His faithful companions are fruitless fantasy and thoughtless chatter.
- The box is “club-headed”. A vulgar, stupid, stingy and tight-fisted nature. She cut herself off from everything around her, shutting herself up in her estate - the “box”. She turned into a stupid and greedy woman. Limited, stubborn and unspiritual.
- Nozdryov is a “historical person”. He can easily lie whatever he wants and deceive anyone. Empty, absurd. He thinks of himself as broad-minded. However, his actions expose a careless, chaotic, weak-willed and at the same time arrogant, shameless “tyrant.” Record holder for getting into tricky and ridiculous situations.
- Sobakevich is “a patriot of the Russian stomach.” Outwardly it resembles a bear: clumsy and irrepressible. Completely incapable of understanding the most basic things. A special type of “storage device” that can quickly adapt to the new requirements of our time. He is not interested in anything except running a household. we described in the essay of the same name.
- Plyushkin - “a hole in humanity.” A creature of unknown gender. A striking example of moral decline, which has completely lost its natural appearance. The only character (except Chichikov) who has a biography that “reflects” the gradual process of personality degradation. A complete nonentity. Plyushkin’s manic hoarding “pours out” into “cosmic” proportions. And the more this passion takes possession of him, the less of a person remains in him. We analyzed his image in detail in the essay .
- Thorns on the path of development of the Motherland are the main problem in the poem “Dead Souls” that the author was worried about. These include bribery and embezzlement of officials, infantilism and inactivity of the nobility, ignorance and poverty of the peasants. The writer sought to make his contribution to the prosperity of Russia, condemning and ridiculing vices, educating new generations of people. For example, Gogol despised doxology as a cover for the emptiness and idleness of existence. The life of a citizen should be useful to society, but most of the characters in the poem are downright harmful.
- Moral problems. He views the lack of moral standards among representatives of the ruling class as the result of their ugly passion for hoarding. The landowners are ready to shake the soul out of the peasant for the sake of profit. Also, the problem of selfishness comes to the fore: nobles, like officials, think only about their own interests, the homeland for them is an empty, weightless word. High society does not care about the common people, he simply uses them for his own purposes.
- The crisis of humanism. People are sold like animals, lost at cards like things, pawned like jewelry. Slavery is legal and is not considered immoral or unnatural. Gogol illuminated the problem of serfdom in Russia globally, showing both sides of the coin: the slave mentality inherent in the serf, and the tyranny of the owner, confident in his superiority. All these are the consequences of tyranny that permeates relationships in all levels of society. It corrupts people and ruins the country.
- The author’s humanism is manifested in his attention to “ little man”, a critical exposure of the evils of the state system. Gogol did not even try to avoid political problems. He described a bureaucracy that functioned only on the basis of bribery, nepotism, embezzlement and hypocrisy.
- Gogol's characters are characterized by the problem of ignorance and moral blindness. Because of it, they do not see their moral squalor and are not able to independently get out of the quagmire of vulgarity that drags them down.
Genre and composition
Initially, the work began as an adventurous picaresque novel. But the breadth of the events described and the historical truthfulness, as if “compressed” together, gave rise to “talking” about the realistic method. Making precise remarks, inserting philosophical arguments, addressing different generations, Gogol imbued “his brainchild” with lyrical digressions. One cannot but agree with the opinion that Nikolai Vasilyevich’s creation is a comedy, since it actively uses the techniques of irony, humor and satire, which most fully reflect the absurdity and arbitrariness of the “squadron of flies that dominates Rus'.”
The composition is circular: the chaise, which entered the city of NN at the beginning of the story, leaves it after all the vicissitudes that happened to the hero. Episodes are woven into this “ring”, without which the integrity of the poem is violated. The first chapter provides a description of the provincial city of NN and local officials. From the second to the sixth chapters, the author introduces readers to the landowner estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. Chapters seven - ten - satirical image officials, registration of completed transactions. The string of events listed above ends with a ball, where Nozdryov “narrates” about Chichikov’s scam. The reaction of society to his statement is unambiguous - gossip, which, like a snowball, is overgrown with fables that have found refraction, including in the short story (“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”) and the parable (about Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich). The introduction of these episodes allows us to emphasize that the fate of the fatherland directly depends on the people living in it. You cannot look indifferently at the disgrace happening around you. Certain forms of protest are maturing in the country. The eleventh chapter is a biography of the hero who forms the plot, explaining what motivated him when committing this or that act.
The connecting compositional thread is the image of the road (you can learn more about this by reading the essay “ » ), symbolizing the path that the state takes in its development “under the modest name of Rus'.”
Why does Chichikov need dead souls?
Chichikov is not just cunning, but also pragmatic. His sophisticated mind is ready to “make candy” out of nothing. Not having sufficient capital, he, being a good psychologist, having gone through a good life school, mastering the art of “flattering everyone” and fulfilling his father’s behest to “save a penny,” starts a great speculation. It consists of a simple deception of “those in power” in order to “warm up their hands”, in other words, to gain a huge amount of money, thereby providing for themselves and their future family, which Pavel Ivanovich dreamed of.
The names of dead peasants bought for next to nothing were entered into a document that Chichikov could take to the treasury chamber under the guise of collateral in order to obtain a loan. He would have pawned the serfs like a brooch in a pawnshop, and could have re-mortgaged them all his life, since none of the officials checked the physical condition of the people. For this money, the businessman would have bought real workers and an estate, and would have lived in grand style, enjoying the favor of the nobles, because the nobles measured the wealth of the landowner in the number of souls (peasants were then called “souls” in noble slang). In addition, Gogol's hero hoped to gain trust in society and profitably marry a rich heiress.
main idea
Hymn to the homeland and people, distinguishing feature whose hard work sounds on the pages of the poem. The masters of golden hands became famous for their inventions and their creativity. The Russian man is always “rich in invention.” But there are also those citizens who hinder the development of the country. These are vicious officials, ignorant and inactive landowners and swindlers like Chichikov. For their own good, the good of Russia and the world, they must take the path of correction, realizing the ugliness of their inner world. To do this, Gogol mercilessly ridicules them throughout the entire first volume, but in subsequent parts of the work the author intended to show the resurrection of the spirit of these people using the example of the main character. Perhaps he felt the falseness of the subsequent chapters, lost faith that his dream was feasible, so he burned it along with the second part of “Dead Souls.”
However, the author showed that the main wealth of the country is the broad soul of the people. It is no coincidence that this word is included in the title. The writer believed that the revival of Russia would begin with the revival human souls, pure, untainted by any sins, selfless. Not just those who believe in the free future of the country, but those who make a lot of effort on this fast road to happiness. “Rus, where are you going?” This question runs like a refrain throughout the book and emphasizes the main thing: the country must live in constant movement towards the best, advanced, progressive. Only on this path “do other peoples and states give her the way.” We wrote a separate essay about Russia’s path: ?
Why did Gogol burn the second volume of Dead Souls?
At some point, the thought of the messiah begins to dominate in the writer’s mind, allowing him to “foresee” the revival of Chichikov and even Plyushkin. Gogol hopes to reverse the progressive “transformation” of a person into a “dead man”. But, faced with reality, the author experiences deep disappointment: the heroes and their destinies emerge from the pen as far-fetched and lifeless. Did not work out. The impending crisis in worldview was the reason for the destruction of the second book.
In the surviving excerpts from the second volume, it is clearly visible that the writer portrays Chichikov not in the process of repentance, but in flight towards the abyss. He still succeeds in adventures, dresses in a devilish red tailcoat and breaks the law. His revelation does not bode well, because in his reaction the reader will not see a sudden insight or a hint of shame. He doesn’t even believe in the possibility of such fragments ever existing. Gogol did not want to sacrifice artistic truth even for the sake of realizing his own plan.
Issues
What is unique about the work?
Adventurism, realistic reality, a sense of the presence of the irrational, philosophical reasoning about earthly good - all this is closely intertwined, creating an “encyclopedic” picture of the first half of the 19th century centuries.
Gogol achieves this by using various techniques of satire, humor, visual means, numerous details, a wealth of vocabulary, and compositional features.
- Symbolism plays an important role. Falling into the mud “predicts” the future exposure of the main character. The spider weaves its webs to capture its next victim. Like an “unpleasant” insect, Chichikov skillfully runs his “business,” “entwining” landowners and officials with noble lies. “sounds” like the pathos of Rus'’s forward movement and affirms human self-improvement.
- We observe the heroes through the prism of “comic” situations, apt author’s expressions and characteristics given by other characters, sometimes built on the antithesis: “he was a prominent man” - but only “at first glance”.
- The vices of the heroes of Dead Souls become a continuation of the positive character traits. For example, Plyushkin’s monstrous stinginess is a distortion of his former thrift and thriftiness.
- In small lyrical “inserts” there are the writer’s thoughts, difficult thoughts, and an anxious “I.” In them we feel the highest creative message: to help humanity change for the better.
- The fate of people who create works for the people or not to please “those in power” does not leave Gogol indifferent, because in literature he saw a force capable of “re-educating” society and promoting its civilized development. Social strata of society, their position in relation to everything national: culture, language, traditions - occupy a serious place in the author’s digressions. When it comes to Rus' and its future, through the centuries we hear the confident voice of the “prophet”, predicting the difficult, but aimed at a bright dream, future of the Fatherland.
- Philosophical reflections on the frailty of existence, lost youth and impending old age evoke sadness. Therefore, it is so natural for a tender “fatherly” appeal to youth, on whose energy, hard work and education depends on which “path” the development of Russia will take.
- The language is truly folk. The forms of colloquial, literary and written business speech are harmoniously woven into the fabric of the poem. Rhetorical questions and exclamations, the rhythmic construction of individual phrases, the use of Slavicisms, archaisms, sonorous epithets create a certain structure of speech that sounds solemn, excited and sincere, without a shadow of irony. When describing landowners' estates and their owners, vocabulary characteristic of everyday speech is used. The image of the bureaucratic world is saturated with the vocabulary of the depicted environment. we described in the essay of the same name.
- The solemnity of comparisons, high style, combined with original speech, create a sublimely ironic manner of narration, serving to debunk the base, vulgar world of the owners.
Why does Chichikov buy dead souls? This question often arises among readers, and not only because they may not have read the work very carefully, but due to the fact that the meaning of Chichikov’s scam is not entirely clear.
The fact is that according to the laws Russian Empire In the 1830s and 1840s, until the next revision, deceased serfs were formally considered alive, and therefore could be the subject of trade transactions of their owners. Having bought a large number of peasants of this kind, Chichikov could be considered a rich landowner, which would give him weight in society. However, this is not the main goal of the swindler Chichikov. He had the opportunity to realize his fictitious capital. Having learned about an oversight in the legislation concerning dead souls, Chichikov exclaimed to himself: “Oh, I’m Akim-simplicity - I’m looking for mittens, and both are in my belt! Yes, if I bought all these people who died out before they submitted new revision tales, buy them, let’s say, a thousand, and, let’s say, the guardianship council will give two hundred rubles per head, that’s two hundred thousand for capital.” Chichikov knows that for such an operation one must also be the owner of the land, a landowner, and intends to use another opportunity to enrich himself: “True, without land you can neither buy nor mortgage. Why, I’ll buy for withdrawal, for withdrawal; Now the lands in the Taurida and Kherson provinces are given away for free, just populate them.”
So, Chichikov is going to take advantage of the state’s oversight and benefit from it. It should be noted that similar cases occurred in reality. Pushkin told Gogol about one of them so that he could use it as a plot work of art. Gogol took Pushkin's advice and created a brilliant poem about Russia. What is it the main idea poem, what is criminal in Chichikov’s scam?
Chichikov causes economic damage to the state, intending to fraudulently obtain land and money. After all, in fact, Chichikov will not populate these lands, and the state will give them away not only for free, but also in vain. The moral damage from this scam is no less significant, since Chichikov, buying dead peasants from landowners, involves them in his crime. The poem depicts Chichikov's five visits to the landowners, and each of these visits shows how this criminal deal affects people. Manilov gives his peasants to Chichikov out of naivety, which stems from a lack of character and senseless “beautiful soul.” Through this image, Gogol warns about the dangers of carelessness and mental laziness. Korobochka sells dead souls, obeying pressure from Chichikov. In this case, he acted as a tempter, confusing the old landowner to such an extent that she, who had never left her estate, went to the city to find out how much dead souls cost these days. By talking about dead souls, Chichikov drove the sharper and spendthrift Nozdryov into a frenzy, and it almost came to assault. The offer to sell dead souls made to Sobakevich evoked an immediate response from him. At the same time, the landowner revealed his inherent cynicism and greed. The landowner Plyushkin sincerely rejoices at his “luck” to sell off many dead and runaway peasants for a penny profit.
The reader may not immediately think about it, but then he understands more and more clearly the hidden damage of Chichikov’s criminal enterprise - the moral one. Having taken possession of formally dead people, Chichikov, along with their names, takes with him the memory of them, that is, they no longer belong to the place where they lived and died. Chichikov seems to “wash away” the fertile layer of soil - the peasants; The “ground” of the nation disappears into nothingness. This is the deepest semantic metaphor behind this story. And finally, having made the dead an object of sale and purchase, Chichikov extends his greed to the afterlife. This moral and religious idea was especially close to Gogol; it permeates all of his work.