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What everyone should know about the immortal work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

Text: Sergey Volkov, Evgenia Vovchenko
Photo: artists Lesha Frey/metronews.ru and Mikhail Kheifets/plakat-msh

Everyone has read “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Whether completely or carefully is another question. In the meantime, Chichikov’s adventures are an obligatory part of the school curriculum, and schoolchildren patiently look for lyrical digressions, carefully analyze the life of landowners with such telling names: Korobochka, Manilov, Nozdryov, and try to understand the meaning of the now catchphrase “Rus, where are you going? Give an answer…".
But how many people reread Gogol after school? Are you ready to return to this mysterious work and look at it with your own adult eyes, and not through the eyes of a school teacher, who is usually taken at his word? But sometimes you really want to show off your erudition among your friends, showing yourself to be an educated and well-read person. It is precisely for such people that the “Yes to Reading” project was invented, where in a few hours of intensive lectures you can fill in your gaps in literature. The project lecturer, a teacher of Russian language and literature, offers his own set of facts that everyone needs to know about the immortal “Dead Souls”.

10 facts about “Dead Souls”

1.

2.

It is believed that the plot of the work was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. Most likely, he grew up from Pletnev about his imminent marriage and about his dowry, formed after mortgaging 200 souls.

3.

The first volume was written abroad. As I noticed, “It’s scary to say that you not only love your country more from afar, but you also see it better and understand it better. Remember that our great genius

Lesson 2 Analysis of Chapter 1 of “Dead Souls”

Goal: to prepare students for studying the poem, to introduce them to an understanding of the writer’s ideological plan, to arouse interest in Gogol’s poem

Equipment: presentation for the lesson

During the classes

1. Statement of the topic and purpose of the lesson.

1) Introductory speech by the teacher

We begin to study Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" - the largest and most significant of Gogol's works, the pinnacle of his creativity. Gogol worked on the first volume of “Dead Souls” for over six years, from the autumn of 1835 to the autumn of 1841. Until the end of his life, that is, for over ten years, he worked on the second volume of the poem. Dissatisfied with the result of his work, Gogol in 1845 burned everything he wrote for the second volume. A few days before his death, Gogol burned the second volume of the poem, which was already completely ready for printing. Thus, the second volume of the poem has not reached us; only a few rough drafts and chapters of it have survived. In the future, we will always talk about the first volume of Gogol’s poem.

The poem “Dead Souls” was conceived under the direct influence of Pushkin. When Gogol read his travel notes to Pushkin in the summer of 1835 - sketches and sketches from life - Pushkin was amazed by Gogol's powers of observation and the accuracy of his sketches of people and characters. “How,” he exclaimed, “with this ability to guess a person and suddenly make him appear as if he were alive with a few features, with this ability not to begin a larger essay!” Pushkin gave Gogol the plot of “Dead Souls”; The first chapters of the poem, which Gogol read to him before his departure abroad, also received Pushkin’s approval.

Gogol began writing his poem even earlier than he wrote “The Inspector General,” and after finishing “The Inspector General,” he completely immersed himself in working on “Dead Souls,” giving it all his strength.

According to the ideological concept, the first volume of the poem “Dead Souls” is close to “The Inspector General”. Gogol in The Inspector General told the harsh truth about bureaucratic arbitrariness, about bribery that reigned in all corners of Russia.

In “Dead Souls” Gogol decided to expose and show the true face of not only officials, but also landowners - the “masters of life” of that time. Gogol foresaw new bitterness and slander from the “dead souls” so faithfully shown by him. “New ones will rise up against me.” estates and many different gentlemen,” he wrote to Zhukovsky while working on the poem, “but what should I do! It’s already my destiny to be at enmity with my fellow countrymen.”

The plot suggested by Pushkin - Chichikov's trip to buy dead souls from landowners - was very convenient for bringing out various representatives of the landowner world, and also showing the officials with whom Chichikov meets, arriving in the provincial city and formalizing his transactions for the purchase of dead souls.

Chichikov himself, buying up dead souls, was also a very typical representative of the new man-businessman, entrepreneur, who was just emerging in society at that time. Gogol was very pleased with the plot given to him by Pushkin. “What a huge, what an original plot! - he exclaims in a letter to Zhukovsky in November 1836, while working on the poem. “All of Rus' will appear in it.”

Thus, it is not the external story - the adventures of Chichikov - that constitutes the content of Gogol's poem, but the display of all of Russia. Landowners and officials are depicted in it as dead souls. However, Gogol is not limited to satirical exposure of various types of “Dead Souls” - landowners and officials. The poem also shows images of peasants. Gogol speaks with special love in his poem about folk power, about the Russian people, about the vastness of his homeland, about folk song. The dead souls of landowners and officials are contrasted in the poem with the living soul of the people. In a number of lyrical digressions, Gogol expresses his love for his homeland and faith in its great future.

Along with the satirical exposure of the entire feudal-serf society, Gogol’s poem shows the people’s strength of Rus', gives an image of the great homeland, and with deep patriotic force contrasts it with the entire dead kingdom of landowners and officials and rogues-acquirers of the people’s Rus'. The majestic image of Rus' - the irresistible troika.” rushing forward, the poem ends.

2. Conversation to explain unclear words

“rosin pantaloons” (trousers made of rosin-striped paper fabric).

“tavern” (restaurant; later - a restaurant of the lowest category), “demi-cotton frock coat” (frock coat made of thick paper fabric),

“sbitenshchik” (seller of sbitnya, a hot drink made from honey with added spices),

“collegiate councilor” (civil official; in Tsarist Russia there were 14 ranks;

collegiate adviser - average rank in the table of ranks), etc.

3. Analysis of two or three passages of the poem (first chapter).

a) The beginning of the poem is Chichikov’s entry into the city.

teacher

The poem has no preface. As we will see later, the preface to it can be considered a lyrical digression about a traveler returning home and about two types of writers, placed at the beginning of the seventh chapter. At the beginning of the poem there is no biography of Chichikov, which is moved to the end of “Gogol in Memoirs”, page of the poem, given in the eleventh chapter. Chichikov himself is described at the beginning of the poem very vaguely. First, a rather beautiful, small spring britzka is shown, in which bachelors, middle-income landowners, “gentlemen of the middle class,” ride. Thus, Chichikov is characterized through the description of his chaise: bachelors and middle-income landowners travel in such a chaise. And then we don’t even see a description of Chichikov’s appearance. Gogol doesn’t say anything about this, but he was the greatest master of portraiture!

b) -What does Gogol write about Chichikov?

“In the chaise sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking either, neither too fat nor too thin; I can’t say that I’m old, but I can’t say that I’m too young.”

Teacher. That's all. Gogol deliberately does not give a portrait of Chichikov at the beginning of the poem. By refusing to characterize him, Gogol pointed out one of the most distinctive features of Chichikov: Chichikov is a man hiding his true face, the face of a predator, a tireless and unprincipled acquirer; he hides under one mask or another all the time. Entering the city of N. Chichikov put on the guise of a well-bred, cultured, secular person. The end of the first chapter shows that Chichikov achieved his goal: Gogol, in comic, ironic expressions, conveys how all the officials speak favorably of Chichikov, and even Sobakevich, who has never praised anyone in his life.

V) - Starting his poem, Gogol talks only about Chichikov?

Peasants are also shown here (two men talking about the wheel of Chichikov’s chaise), and a dandy with a Tula pin, a representative of that secular society that will be so viciously ridiculed by Gogol in the poem.

Already on the first page, Gogol begins to paint a typical picture of Russian life, showing the usual environment of a provincial city: a dirty hotel, a room with cockroaches, drinking houses, a tavern, government institutions, painted with ever-yellow paint.

d) -What did the hotel look like? Reading text

This detail is especially characteristic: in the “quiet” room allotted to Chichikov, a neighbor, a “silent and calm” observer-representative of the police, settles down behind the door

Let's see how Gogol further describes the provincial city, officials and the main character - Chichikov.

Here Chichikov goes to the common hall for travelers.

e) How does Gogol describe the common room? Reading text.

This common room is also shown by Gogol as a very ordinary phenomenon: go to any city and in every hotel you will find just such a common room. Gogol writes:

“Everyone passing by knows very well what these common rooms are like: the same walls... the same smoked chandelier... the same paintings... in a word, everything is the same as everywhere else...”

e) Chichikov looked into the city garden.

- How does Gogol describe the city garden? This is one of the most striking satirical places in the first chapter.

Pay attention to what happened in reality, what the actual garden was like and how the garden was described in government newspapers, with what words in government newspapers they described the imaginary feelings of citizens towards the mayor: “... although these trees were no taller than reeds, about them It was said in the newspapers when describing the illumination that our city was decorated, thanks to the care of the civil ruler, with a garden consisting of shady, wide-branched trees, giving coolness on a hot day, and that at the same time it was very touching to see how the hearts of the citizens trembled in an abundance of gratitude and Streams of tears flowed as a sign of gratitude to the mayor.”

g) Why doesn’t Gogol give a specific name to the city he depicts?

Gogol deliberately does not give a specific name to the city he depicts, but calls it a provincial city; the author’s goal is to show that he is not depicting any specific city, but a typical provincial city.

Chichikov goes to see the city. “Chichikov... found that the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities.” All cities were about the same then. Here is a store with caps, caps and the inscription: “Foreigner Vasily Fedorov.”

Here is another typical detail of the city: “Most often noticeable were the darkened double-headed state eagles, which have now been replaced by a laconic inscription: “Drinking house.”

3. Conclusions, generalizations as a result of the work done .

From the very first page, Gogol paints vivid, real pictures of Russian life, emphasizing that his goal is not a story about the adventures of the adventurer Chichikov, but a satirical depiction of all contemporary Russian life.

In the way Gogol portrays landowners and officials, Gogol’s nationality is revealed: he exposes them, shows that under the outer shell of cultured, well-educated people they hide spiritual squalor and a rude, animal nature.

3. Chichikov at the governor’s party

A) - What two characteristics of officials does Gogol give in the first chapter of the poem?

“The men here, as everywhere else, were of two kinds: some thin ones, who kept hovering around the ladies...” and to the end.

Gogol speaks here about officials with undisguised mockery: subtle officials hover around the ladies, wiggle here and there, and sell the property acquired by their fathers on courier. They deliberately combed their sideburns, etc. d.

Fat officials are also depicted in a funny way: their faces are full and round, some even had warts. They, “serving God and the sovereign,” make capital for themselves and, in order to hide the loot, buy villages, registering them not in their name. The following words of Gogol are remarkable: “Finally, the fat one, having served God and the sovereign...”, etc.

The emptiness and lack of spiritual content of officials is especially emphasized by Gogol by the fact that he fully characterizes them, describing only their appearance: figures, costume, hairstyles. All this makes Gogol’s speech comical: we find people who look like flies funny, people who differ from each other only in that some are fat and others are thin.

We see this technique of exhaustively characterizing a person through a description of two or three features of his appearance all the time in Gogol. The prosecutor, for example, is fully characterized by the fact that he has very black thick eyebrows and a winking left eye.

When Gogol nevertheless has to talk to some extent about the moral qualities of his “heroes,” he always accompanies this with a reservation, emphasizing that the spiritual quality he noted in the “hero” was of a “special” kind.

So, saying that the governor “however, was a great kind man,” Gogol immediately adds that he was so kind that he even sometimes embroidered tulle himself. It becomes clear to the reader what kind of “kindness” the governor had. Speaking about the prosecutor with thick black eyebrows and a winking eye, he continues: “a serious and silent man, however.” Here again it is clear what the seriousness of the prosecutor is. The description of the postmaster is in the same tones: “the postmaster was a short man, but a wit and a philosopher.”

It should be emphasized that the point here is not in external comedy, not in unexpected transitions of speech, but in the fact that Gogol shows the funny essence of the heroes he portrays, who had nothing human behind their souls.

Gogol resorts to the technique of a purely external description of his heroes, based on the ideological concept of the poem - to show the dead kingdom of dead souls. We laugh at the squalor, the absurdity, the animal primitiveness of landowners and officials.

B) Now let's see how Gogol draws Chichikov in the first chapter.

Exposing Chichikov, Gogol writes: “The gentleman had something respectable in his receptions and... blew his nose extremely loudly.” After dinner, Chichikov fell into a deep sleep, snoring “at the top of his lungs, as they say in other parts of the vast Russian state.”

Gogol deliberately, with purpose, applied these rude, common expressions to Chichikov in order to reveal the true essence of Chichikov: Chichikov presented himself as a secular person, very delicate and well-mannered, but in fact he was a businessman, a clever swindler, uncultured and rude. Gogol always talks about his hero with subtle mockery.

Speaking with the tavern servant, Chichikov asked him not all empty questions: he asked with extreme precision about all the highest officials of the city. This, it turns out, is what serious, not empty questions mean to Chichikov.

Chichikov spoke “neither loudly nor quietly, but absolutely as he should; in a word, no matter where you turn, he was a very decent person.”

Again, it’s funny to us that the conclusion that Chichikov was a very decent person was made on the basis of the fact that oh. “he spoke neither loudly nor quietly, but absolutely as he should.”

Gogol's final remarks about Chichikov are also funny, they fully characterize both the main character and the officials, and reveal the true essence of both Chichikov and the officials.

“The governor explained about him that he was a well-intentioned person” (“well-intentioned” meant at that time that there were no “free” thoughts in Chichikov’s head, that he did not have liberal views, respected his superiors, etc.); the prosecutor said about him that he was a efficient person (again irony; as we learn later, the prosecutor himself was the greatest slacker); the gendarme colonel said that he was a learned man (here it makes us laugh at the comparison of the gendarme and learning). Subsequently, children can be given tasks to identify features of satire and humor in the description of landowners..._,

Working to improve his works, Gogol strives to put it briefly, to free himself from foreign and generally bookish words, from vague and unclear words. Wherever the opportunity presented itself, he replaces foreign and bookish words with Russian, simple, colloquial, folk words, which are closer to life, realistically and figuratively convey the character of the depicted object and person.

Gogol widely expanded the boundaries of literary language, enriching it with bright, apt words and phrases. While working on the images of the poem, we came across these kinds of words from Gogol.

Neither Pushkin, nor Lermontov, nor any of our writers can find such a number of folk words and phrases as in the language of Gogol.

4. Homework:

Prepare for oral answers (possibly closer to the text) to the following questions:

a) How is Manilov described in the first chapter of the poem?

b) How is Manilov characterized on behalf of the author in the second chapter of the poem?

c) How does Gogol describe Manilov’s estate?

d) What is Manilov’s living situation?

e) How does Gogol describe Manilov’s meeting with Chichikov in the seventh chapter?

History of creation. In the history of Russian literature, it is difficult to find a work, the work on which would bring its creator so much mental anguish and suffering, but at the same time so much happiness and joy, as “Dead Souls” - Gogol’s central work, the work of his whole life. Of the 23 "years devoted to creativity, 17 years - from 1835 until his death in 1852 - Gogol worked on his poem. Most of this time he lived abroad, mainly in Italy. But of the entire huge and grandiose trilogy about Life of Russia, only the first volume was published (1842), and the second was burned before his death; the writer never began work on the third volume.

The work on this book was not easy - many times Gogol changed the plan, rewrote parts that had already been corrected into pieces, achieving complete execution of the plan and artistic perfection. The discerning artist worked on the first volume alone for 6 years. In the fall of 1841, he brought the first volume ready for printing from Italy to Moscow, but here an unexpected blow awaited him: censorship opposed the publication of a work entitled “Dead Souls.” I had to send the manuscript to St. Petersburg, where his influential friends stood up for the writer, but even here everything was not settled right away. Finally, after long explanations regarding the misunderstanding with the title and making corrections, in particular regarding “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” the first volume of the poem was published in May 1842. Making concessions, the author changed the title: the book was published under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” Readers and critics greeted it favorably, but much in this unusual work immediately caused controversy, which developed into heated discussions.

In an effort to explain to the reader his new grandiose plan, Gogol actively begins to work on the continuation of the work, but it is very difficult, with long interruptions. During the creation of the poem, Gogol experienced several severe spiritual and physical crises. In 1840, he suffered from a dangerous illness, he was already ready to die, but unexpectedly healing came, which Gogol, a deeply religious man, perceived as a gift sent to him from above in the name of fulfilling his lofty plan. It was then that he finally formed the philosophy and moral idea of ​​the second and third volumes of “Dead Souls” with the plot of human self-improvement and movement towards achieving a spiritual ideal. This can be felt already in the first volume, but such a plan should have been fully realized in the entire trilogy. Starting work on the second volume in 1842, Gogol felt that the task he had set was very difficult: the utopia of some imaginary new Russia was in no way consistent with reality. So, in 1845, another crisis arose, as a result of which Gogol burned the already written second volume. He feels that he needs intense internal work on himself - Gogol reads and studies spiritual literature, the Holy Scriptures, and enters into correspondence with like-minded friends. The result is the artistic and journalistic book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” published in 1847 and causing the most fierce criticism. In this book, Gogol expressed a thought similar to that which underlies the concept of the “Dead Souls” trilogy: the path to the creation of a new Russia does not lie through the destruction of the state system or various political transformations, but through the moral self-improvement of each person. This idea, expressed in journalistic form, was not accepted by the writer’s contemporaries. Then he decided to continue its development, but in the form of a work of art, and with this is connected his return to the interrupted work on the second volume of Dead Souls, which is being completed in Moscow. By 1852, the second volume was actually written in its entirety. But again the writer is overcome by doubts, he begins editing, and within a few months the white paper turns into a draft. And physical and nervous strength was already at its limit. On the night of February 11-12, 1852, Gogol burns the white manuscript, and on February 21 (March 4) he dies.

Direction and genre. Literary criticism of the 19th century, starting with Belinsky, began to call Gogol the founder of a new period in the development of Russian realistic literature. If Pushkin was characterized by harmony and objectivity of the artistic world, then in Gogol’s work this is replaced by critical pathos, which determines the artist’s desire to reflect the real contradictions of reality, to penetrate into the darkest sides of life and the human soul. That is why, in the second half of the 19th century, supporters of the democratic camp sought to see in Gogol, first of all, a satirical writer, who marked the arrival in literature of new themes, problems, “ideas and methods of their artistic embodiment, which were first picked up by the writers of the “natural school”, united around Belinsky , and then developed in the realistic literature of the “Gogol period” - this is how, in contrast to Pushkin’s, the literature of critical realism of the second half of the 19th century began to be called.

Now many scientists dispute this point of view and say that, along with critical pathos, Gogol's realism is distinguished by a striving for the ideal, which is genetically connected with the romantic worldview. The position of Gogol, who recognized himself as a missionary artist, called upon not only to show acute social problems and the depth of the moral decline of contemporary society and man, but also to point the way to spiritual revival and transformation of all aspects of life, was especially clearly manifested in the process of working on “Dead Souls” "

All this determined the originality of the genre specificity of the work. It is obvious that Gogol's poem is not traditional, it is a new artistic construction that has no analogues in world literature. It is not without reason that the debate about the genre of this work, which began immediately after the release of Dead Souls, has not subsided to this day. The writer himself did not immediately determine the genre of his work: it was the result of a complex creative process, a change in ideological concept. At first, he thought of the work he was creating as a novel. In a letter to Pushkin dated October 7, 1835, Gogol notes: “In this novel I would like to show at least one side of all of Rus'... The plot stretched out over a long novel and... It seems like it will be very funny." But already in a letter to Zhukovsky dated November 12, 1836, a new name appears - a poem.

This change corresponded to a new plan: “All of Rus' will appear in it.” The general features of the work are gradually becoming clearer, which, according to Gogol’s plan, should become similar to the ancient epic - the epic poems of Homer. He imagines the new work as a Russian “Odyssey”, only in the center of it was not the cunning Homeric traveler, but the “scoundrel-acquirer,” as Gogol called the central - “through” - hero of his poem, Chichikov.

At the same time, an analogy is formed with Dante’s poem “The Divine Comedy”, which is associated not only with the features of the general three-part structure, but also with the aspiration to the ideal - spiritual improvement. It was the ideal beginning in such a work that should have become decisive. But as a result, of this entire grandiose plan, only the first part was completed, to which, first of all, the words about depicting Rus' only “from one side” were related. Nevertheless, it was wrong would consider that in the first volume there is only satire. It is not for nothing that the writer retained the genre definition of a poem for it. Because here, in addition to the depiction of the real state of life, which causes the writer’s protest, there is an ideal beginning, revealed primarily in the lyrical part of the poem - lyrical digressions..

Thus, the originality of the genre, this lyric-epic work, lies in the combination of the epic and lyrical (in lyrical digressions) beginnings, the features of a travel novel and a review novel (through-out hero). In addition, features of the genre are revealed here, which Gogol himself singled out in his work: “Training Book of Literature” and called it “a lesser kind of epic.” Unlike the novel, such works tell a story not about individual heroes, but about the people or their people. parts, which is quite applicable to the poem “Dead Souls”.

Composition and plot. The composition and plot of the work also changed as the concept developed and deepened. According to Gogol himself, the plot of “Dead Souls” was given to him by Pushkin. But what was this “gifted” plot? According to researchers, it corresponded to the external intrigue - Chichikov’s purchase of Dead Souls. "Dead soul" is a phrase from 19th century bureaucratic jargon for a dead peasant. Around the scam with the serfs, who, despite the fact of death, continue to be listed as alive in the audit fairy tale and whom Chichikov wants to pledge at interest to the Guardian Council, a “mirage intrigue” revolves, the first storyline of the work.

But another story is more important - an internal one, showing the transformation of Russia and the revival of the people living in it. It did not appear immediately, but as a result of a change in the general concept of the poem. It was when the concept of “Dead Souls” began to be associated with the grandiose poem “The Divine Comedy” by the great Italian writer of the early Renaissance, Dante Alighieri, that the entire artistic structure of “Dead Souls” was redefined. Dante's work consists of three parts (“Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”), creating a kind of poetic encyclopedia of life in medieval Italy. Focusing on it, Gogol dreams of creating a work in which the true Russian path would be found and Russia in the present and its movement towards the future would be shown.

In accordance with this new plan, the general composition of the poem “Dead Souls” was built, which was supposed to consist of three volumes, like Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The first volume, which the author called “the porch to the house,” is a kind of “Hell” of Russian reality. It was he who turned out to be the only one of the writer’s vast plans that was fully realized. In the 2nd volume, similar to “Purgatory,” new positive heroes were supposed to appear and, using the example of Chichikov, it was supposed to show the path of purification and resurrection of the human soul. Finally, in the 3rd volume - “Paradise” - a beautiful, ideal world and truly spiritualized heroes were to appear. In this plan, Chichikov was assigned a special compositional function: it was he who would have to go through the path of resurrection of the soul, and therefore could become a connecting hero who connects all the parts of the grandiose picture of life presented in the three volumes of the poem. But even in its 1st volume, this function of the hero is preserved: the story about Chichikov’s journey in search of sellers from whom he acquires “dead souls” helps the author to combine different storylines, easily introduce new faces, events, pictures that make up the broadest a panorama of life in Russia in the 30s of the 19th century.

The composition of the first volume of “Dead Souls,” similar to “Hell,” is organized in such a way as to show as fully as possible the negative aspects of life in all components of modern Russia to the author. The first chapter is a general exposition, followed by five portrait chapters (chapters 2-6), in which landowner Russia is presented." Chapters 7-10 give a collective image of bureaucracy, and the last, eleventh chapter is dedicated to Chichikov.

These are externally closed, but internally interconnected links. Outwardly, they are united by the plot of purchasing “dead souls.” Chapter 1 tells about Chichikov’s arrival in the provincial town, then a series of his meetings with landowners are shown sequentially, chapter 7 deals with the formalization of the purchase, and chapters 8-9 talk about the rumors associated with it, chapter 11 Chapter 1, along with Chichikov’s biography, reports on his departure from the city. Internal unity is created by the author’s reflections on contemporary Russia. This internal plot, the most important from an ideological point of view, allows us to organically fit into the composition of the 1st volume of the poem a large number of extra-plot elements (lyrical digressions, inserted episodes), as well as include an insert that is completely unmotivated from the point of view of the plot about the purchase of dead souls. “Tale”. about captain Kopeikin."

Topics and problems. In accordance with the main idea of ​​the work - to show the path to achieving a spiritual ideal, on the basis of which the writer imagines the possibility of transforming both the state system of Russia, its social structure, and all social strata and each individual person - the main themes and problems posed in the poem are determined. Dead Souls". Being an opponent of any political and social upheavals, especially revolutionary ones, the Christian writer believes that the negative phenomena that characterize the state of contemporary Russia can be overcome through moral self-improvement not only of the Russian person himself, but also of the entire structure of society and the state. Moreover, such changes, from Gogol’s point of view, should not be external, but internal, that is, we are talking about the fact that all state and social structures, and especially their leaders, in their activities should be guided by moral laws and the postulates of Christian ethics. Thus, the eternal Russian problem - bad roads - can be overcome, according to Gogol, not by changing bosses or tightening laws and control over their implementation. To do this, it is necessary that each of the participants in this matter, first of all the leader, remember that he is responsible not to a higher official, but to God. Gogol called on every Russian person in his place, in his position, to do things as the highest - Heavenly - law commands.

That is why the themes and problems of Gogol’s poem turned out to be so broad and comprehensive. In its first volume, the emphasis is placed on all those negative phenomena in the life of the country that need to be corrected. But the main evil for the writer lies not in social problems as such, but in the reason for which they arise: the spiritual impoverishment of contemporary man. That is why the problem of the death of the soul becomes central in the 1st volume of the poem. All other themes and problems of the work are grouped around it. “Be not dead, but living souls!” - the writer calls, convincingly demonstrating the abyss into which one who has lost his living soul falls. But what is meant by this strange oxymoron - “dead soul”, which gives the title to the whole work? Of course, not only a purely bureaucratic term used in Russia in the 19th century. Often a “dead soul” is called a person who is mired in worries about vanity. The gallery of landowners and officials shown in the 1st volume of the poem reveals such “dead souls” to the reader, since they are all characterized by lack of spirituality, selfish interests, empty extravagance or soul-consuming stinginess. From this point of view, the “dead souls” shown in the 1st volume can only be opposed by the “living soul” of the people, presented in the author’s lyrical digressions. But, of course, the oxymoron “dead soul” is interpreted by the Christian writer in a religious and philosophical sense. The very word “soul” indicates the immortality of the individual in its Christian understanding. From this point of view, the symbolism of the definition “dead souls” contains the opposition of the dead (inert, frozen, spiritless) principle and the living (spiritualized, high, light). The uniqueness of Gogol's position lies in the fact that he not only contrasts these two principles, but points out the possibility of awakening the living in the dead. So the poem includes the theme of the resurrection of the soul, the theme of the path to its revival. It is known that Gogol intended to show the path of revival of two heroes from the 1st volume - Chichikov and Plyushkin. The author dreams that the “dead souls” of Russian reality will be reborn, turning into truly “living” souls.

But in the contemporary world, the death of the soul affected literally everyone and was reflected in the most diverse aspects of life. In the poem “Dead Souls,” the writer continues and develops the general theme that runs through all of his work: the belittlement and disintegration of man in the illusory and absurd world of Russian reality. But now it is enriched with an idea of ​​what the true, high spirit of Russian life is, what it can and should be. This idea permeates the main theme of the poem: the writer’s reflection on Russia and its people. The present of Russia presents a terrifyingly powerful picture of decay and decay, which has affected all layers of society: landowners, officials, even the people. Gogol demonstrates in an extremely concentrated form “the properties of our Russian breed.” Among them, he especially highlights the vices inherent in the Russian person. Thus, Plyushkin’s frugality turns into Manilov’s stinginess, daydreaming and cordiality - into an excuse for laziness and sweetness. Nozdryov's daring and energy are wonderful qualities, but here they are excessive and aimless, and therefore become a parody of Russian heroism. At the same time, by drawing extremely generalized types of Russian landowners, Gogol reveals the theme of landowner Rus', which correlates with the problems of relationships between landowners and peasants, the profitability of landowner farming, and the possibility of its improvement. At the same time, the writer condemns not serfdom and not the landowners as a class, but exactly how they use their power over the peasants, the wealth of their lands, and for the sake of which they engage in farming in general. And here the main theme remains the theme of impoverishment, which is associated not so much with economic or social problems, but with the process of death of the soul.

Gogol does not hide the spiritual misery of a forced person, humiliated, downtrodden and submissive. Such are Chichikov's coachman Selifan and footman Petrushka, the girl Pelageya, who does not know where is right and where is left, men thoughtfully discussing whether the wheel of Chichikov's chaise will reach Moscow or Kazan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai fussing around senselessly. It is not for nothing that the “living soul” of a people is visible only in those who have already died, and in this the writer sees a terrible paradox of his contemporary reality. The writer shows how the wonderful qualities of the people's character turn into their opposite. Russian people love to philosophize, but often this results in idle talk. His leisureliness is similar to laziness, gullibility and naivety turn into stupidity, and empty vanity arises from efficiency. “Our land is perishing... from ourselves,” the writer addresses everyone.

Continuing what was started in “The Inspector General” the topic of denouncing the bureaucratic system a state mired in corruption and bribery, Gogol paints a kind of review of “dead souls” and bureaucratic Russia, which is characterized by idleness and emptiness of existence. The writer talks about the lack of true culture and morality in his contemporary society. Balls and gossip are the only things that fill people's lives here. All conversations revolve around trifles; these people are unaware of spiritual needs. Performance

about beauty comes down to a discussion of the colors of the material and fashionable styles (“motley is not motley”), and a person is assessed, in addition to his property and class status, by the way he blows his nose and ties his tie.

That is why the immoral and dishonest rogue Chichikov so easily finds his way into this society. Along with this hero, the poem includes another important theme: Russia is embarking on the path of capitalist development and a new “hero of the time” appears in life, whom Gogol was the first to show and appreciate - “the scoundrel - the acquirer.” For such a person there are no moral barriers with regard to his main goal - his own benefit. At the same time, the writer sees that in comparison with the inert, deadened environment of landowners and officials, this hero looks much more energetic, capable of quick and decisive action, and unlike many of those with whom he encounters, Chichikov is endowed with common sense. But these good qualities cannot bring anything positive to Russian life if the soul of their bearer remains dead, like all the other characters in the poem. Practicality and determination in Chichikov turn into trickery. It contains the richest potential possibilities, but without a high goal, without a moral foundation, they cannot be realized, and therefore Chichikov’s soul is destroyed.

Why did this situation arise? Answering this question, Gogol returns to his constant theme: denouncing the “vulgarity of a vulgar person.” “My heroes are not villains at all,” the writer claims, “but they are “all vulgar without exception.” Vulgarity, which turns into death of the soul, moral savagery, is the main danger for a person. It is not for nothing that Gogol attached such great importance to the insert “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which shows the cruelty and inhumanity of the officials of the “highest commission” itself. “The Tale” is dedicated to the theme of the heroic year 1812 and creates a deep contrast to the soulless and petty world of officials. In this seemingly expanded episode, it is shown that the fate of the captain, who fought for his homeland, was crippled and deprived of the opportunity to feed himself, does not concern anyone. The highest officials in St. Petersburg are indifferent to him, which means that deadness has penetrated everywhere - from the society of district and provincial cities to the top of the state pyramid.

But in the 1st volume of the poem there is also something that opposes this terrible, soulless, vulgar life. This is the ideal beginning that must be in a work called a poem. “The innumerable wealth of the Russian spirit”, “a husband gifted with divine virtues”, “a wonderful Russian maiden... with all the wondrous beauty of a woman’s soul” - all this is just being conceived and is expected to be embodied in subsequent volumes. But even in the first volume, the presence of the ideal is felt - through the author’s voice, sounding in lyrical digressions, thanks to which the poem includes a completely different range of topics and problems. The peculiarity of their production is that only the author can lead a conversation with the reader about literature, culture, art, and rise to the heights of philosophical thought. After all, none of his “vulgar” heroes are interested in these topics; everything lofty and spiritual cannot touch them. Only sometimes does there seem to be a merging of the voices of the author and his hero Chichikov, who will have to be reborn, and therefore will have to address all these issues. But in the 1st volume of the poem this is only a kind of promise of the hero’s future development, a kind of “author’s hint” to him.

Along with the author's voice, the poem includes the most important themes that can be combined into several blocks. The first of them concerns issues related to literature: about writing and different types of literary artists, the tasks of the writer and his responsibilities; about literary heroes and methods of depicting them, among which the most important place is given to satire; about the possibility of the emergence of a new positive hero. The second block covers questions of a philosophical nature - about life and death, youth and old age as different periods of the development of the soul; about the purpose and meaning of life, the purpose of man. The third block concerns the problem of the historical destinies of Russia and its people: it is connected with the theme of the path along which the country is moving, its future, which is conceived ambiguously; with the theme of the people as they can and should be; with the theme of the heroism of the Russian man and his limitless possibilities.

These large ideological and thematic layers of the work manifest themselves both in individual lyrical digressions and in cross-cutting motifs running through the entire work. The peculiarity of the poem also lies in the fact that, following Pushkin’s traditions, Gogol creates the image of the author in it. This is not just a conventional figure holding together individual elements, but a holistic personality, with his own openly expressed worldview. The author directly evaluates everything that he tells. At the same time, in lyrical digressions the author reveals himself in all the diversity of his personality. At the beginning of the sixth chapter there is a sad and elegiac reflection on passing youth and maturity, on the “loss of living movement” and impending old age. At the end of this digression, Gogol directly addresses the reader: “Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later! The old age coming ahead is terrible, terrible, and nothing gives back and back! This is how the theme of spiritual and moral improvement of man sounds again, but addressed not only to his contemporaries, but also to himself.

Related to this are the author’s thoughts about the artist’s task in the modern world. The lyrical digression at the beginning of Chapter VII talks about two types of writers. The author is fighting for the establishment of realistic art and a demanding, sober view of life, not afraid to highlight all the “mud of little things” in which modern man is mired, even if this dooms the writer to not be accepted by his readers and causes their hostility. He speaks about the fate of such an “unrecognized writer”: “His field is harsh, and he will bitterly feel his loneliness.” A different fate awaits the writer who avoids pressing problems. Success and glory, honor among his compatriots await him. Comparing the fates of these two writers, the author speaks bitterly about the moral and aesthetic deafness of the “modern court,” which does not recognize that “high, enthusiastic laughter is worthy of standing next to the high lyrical movement.” Subsequently, this lyrical digression became the subject of fierce debate in the literary polemics that unfolded in the 1840-1850s.

But Gogol himself is ready not only to plunge into the “mud of little things” and to strike with the satirist’s pen the “vulgarity of a vulgar person.” To him, a writer-prophet, something can be revealed that gives hope and calls to the future. And he wants to present this ideal to his readers, urging them to strive for it. The role of the positive ideological pole in the poem is played by one of the leading motives - the motive of Russian heroism. It runs through the entire work, appearing almost unnoticed in Chapter 1; the mention of the “present time”, “when heroes are already beginning to appear in Rus'”, develops gradually in lyrical digressions and in the last, 11th chapter the final chord sounds - “Shouldn’t there be a hero here.”

These images of Russian heroes are not reality, but rather Gogol’s embodied faith in the Russian people. All of them are among the dead and fugitive “souls,” and although they live or lived in the same world as the other heroes of the poem, they do not belong to the reality in which the action takes place. Such folk images do not exist on their own, but are only outlined in Chichikov’s reflections on the list of peasants purchased from Sobakevich. But the entire style and character of this fragment of text indicates that we are looking at the thoughts of the author himself, rather than his hero. He continues here the theme of the heroism of the Russian people, their potential. Among those he writes about are talented craftsmen - Stepan Probka, a carpenter, “a hero who would be fit for the guard”; brickmaker Milushkin, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov. The author speaks with admiration about the barge haulers, replacing the “revelry of peaceful life” with “labor and sweat”; about the reckless prowess of people like Abram Fyrov, a runaway peasant who, despite the danger, “walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier.” But in real life, which has deviated so greatly from the ideal, death awaits them all. And only the living language of the people testifies that their soul has not died, it can and must be reborn. Reflecting on a truly popular language, Gogol notes in a lyrical digression associated with the characterization of the nickname given to Plyushkin by a peasant: “There is no word that would be so sweeping, lively, would burst out from under the very heart, would boil and vibrate so aptly spoken Russian word."

The heroic people match the Russian landscapes of that land, “that doesn’t like to joke, but has spread out smoothly across half the world, and go ahead and count the miles* until it hits you in the face.” In the final, 11th chapter, a lyrical and philosophical reflection on Russia and the vocation of the writer, whose “head was overshadowed by a menacing cloud, heavy with future rains,” is replaced by the motif of the road, one of the central ones in the poem. It is connected with the main theme - the path intended for Russia and the people. In Gogol's system, movement, path, road are always interconnected concepts: this is evidence of life, development, opposing inertia and death. It is no coincidence that all the biographies of peasants, who personify the best that is in the people, are united by this very motif. “Tea, you left all the provinces with an ax in your belt... Where are your fast legs carrying you now?.. It’s clear from your nickname that they are good runners.” It should be noted that the ability to move is also characteristic of Chichikov, a hero who, according to the author’s plan, was to be purified and transformed into a positive character.

That is why two of the most important themes of the author’s reflections - the theme of Russia and the theme of the road - merge in a lyrical digression that ends the first volume of the poem. “Rus'-troika,” “all inspired by God,” appears in it as the vision of the author, who seeks to understand the meaning of its movement; “Rus, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer." But in the high lyrical pathos that permeates these final lines, one can hear the writer’s faith that the answer will be found and the soul of the people will appear alive and beautiful.

Main characters. According to Gogol’s plan, the poem “Dead Souls” was supposed to represent “all of Rus',” even if only “from one side,” in the first part, so it would be wrong to talk about the presence of one or more central characters in this work. Chichikov could become such a hero, but within the scope of the entire three-part plan. In the 1st volume of the poem, he stands among other characters who characterize different types of entire social groups in contemporary Russia for the writer, although he also has the additional function of a connecting hero. That is why we should consider not so much individual characters as the entire group to which they belong: landowners, officials, the hero-acquirer. All of them are given in a satirical light, since their souls have become dead. Such are the representatives of the people, who are shown as a component of real Russia, and a living soul exists only in those representatives of people's Rus', which is embodied as the author's ideal.

Landlord Russia shown in several of its most characteristic types: these are Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. It is them that Chichikov visits in order to buy dead souls. We get to know each of the landowners only during the time (usually no more than one day) that Chichikov spends with him. But Gogol chooses such a method of depiction, based on a combination of typical features with individual characteristics, which allows us to get an idea not only of one of the characters, but also of the whole layer of Russian landowners embodied in this hero.

A separate chapter is dedicated to each of the landowners, and together they represent the face of landowner Russia. The sequence of appearance of these images is not accidental: from landowner to landowner, the impoverishment of the human soul, absorbed in the thirst for profit or senseless waste, becomes deeper and deeper, which is explained as the uncontrolled possession of the “souls” of others, wealth , the earth, and the aimlessness of existence, which has lost its highest spiritual goal. According to Gogol, heroes follow us, “one more vulgar than the other.” These characters are presented as if in a double light - as they seem to themselves, and as they really are. Such a contrast causes a comic effect and at the same time a bitter smile from the reader.

The characters of the landowners are in some ways opposite, but also in some ways subtly similar to each other. With such contrast and comparison, Gogol achieves additional depth of the narrative. In order for the reader to better see the similarities and differences in different types of landowners, the writer uses a special technique. The image of all landowners is based on the same microplot. His “spring” is the actions of Chichikov, the buyer of “dead souls”. The indispensable participants in each of these five microplots are two characters: Chichikov and the landowner to whom he comes. In each of the five chapters devoted to them, the author constructs the story as a sequential change of episodes: entry into the estate, meeting, refreshment, Chichikov’s offer to sell him “dead souls,” departure. These are not ordinary plot episodes: it is not the events themselves that are of interest to the author, but the opportunity to show the objective world surrounding the landowners, in which the personality of each of them is most fully reflected; not only to provide information about the content of the conversation between Chichikov and the landowner, but to show in the manner of communication of each of the characters what carries both typical and individual features.

The scene of the purchase and sale of “dead souls” in the chapters about each of the landowners occupies a central place. Before this, the reader, together with Chichikov, can already form a certain idea of ​​​​the landowner with whom the swindler is talking. It is on the basis of this impression that Chichikov builds a conversation about “dead souls”. Therefore, his success depends entirely on how faithfully and completely he, and therefore the readers, managed to understand this human type with its individual characteristics.

The first of them appears before us is Manilov, to whom the second chapter is dedicated. He seems to himself to be a bearer of high culture, and in the army he was considered an educated officer. But Gogol shows that this is only a claim to the role of an enlightened, intelligent landowner who, living in the village, brings high culture to those around him. In fact, its main feature is idle daydreaming, giving rise to absurd projects and spiritual emptiness. This is a boring and worthless, “gray” person: “neither this nor that; neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan,” as Gogol says about him. True, Manilov does not seem angry or cruel in his treatment of people. On the contrary, he speaks well of all his acquaintances, welcomes guests cordially, and is affectionate with his wife and children. But all this seems somehow unreal - “a game for the viewer.” Even his pleasant appearance evokes the feeling that there was “too much sugar in this man.” There is no conscious deception in such deliberateness - Manilov is too stupid for this, sometimes he even lacks words. He simply lives in an illusory world, and the process of fantasy itself gives Manilov real pleasure. Hence his love for a beautiful phrase and, in general, for any kind of posing - exactly as shown in the scene of buying and selling dead souls. “Wouldn’t this negotiation be inconsistent with civil regulations and further developments in Russia?” - he asks, showing an ostentatious interest in state affairs, while completely not understanding the essence of Chichikov’s proposal. But the most important thing is that, apart from empty dreams, Manilov simply cannot do anything - after all, one cannot really consider that knocking out a pipe and lining up piles of ashes in “beautiful rows” is a worthy occupation for an enlightened landowner. He is a sentimental dreamer, completely incapable of action. It is not for nothing that his surname has become a common noun, expressing the corresponding concept - “.Manilovism”. Idleness and idleness entered the flesh and blood of this man and became an integral part of his nature. Sentimentally - idyllic ideas about the world, dreams in which he is immersed most of his time, lead to the fact that his economy goes “somehow by itself”, without much participation on his part, and gradually falls apart.

But it is not only complete mismanagement that makes this type of landowner unacceptable, from the writer’s point of view. The main argument is that Manilov has completely lost his spiritual guidelines. Only complete insensitivity can explain the fact that he, wanting to please his friend, decided to give Chichikov dead souls. And the blasphemous phrase that he utters at the same time: “dead souls are in some way complete rubbish” - for Gogol, a deeply religious man, is evidence that the soul of Manilov himself is dead.

The next type of landowner is represented by Korobochka. If in the image of Manilov Gogol exposed the myth of the enlightened master, then in the image of Korobochka the writer dispelled the idea of ​​a thrifty and businesslike landowner who wisely manages the farm, takes care of the peasants, and preserves the family hearth. The patriarchal nature of this landowner is not at all the careful preservation of traditions about which Pushkin wrote: “They kept / the habits of dear old times in their peaceful life.” The box seems simply stuck in the past; time seemed to have stopped for her and began to move in a vicious circle of petty household worries that consumed and killed her soul. Indeed, unlike Manilov, she is always busy with housework. This is evidenced by the sown vegetable gardens, the poultry house filled with “every domestic creature,” and the “properly maintained” peasant huts. Her village is well-kept, and the peasants living in it do not suffer from poverty. Everything speaks of the housewife’s neatness and her ability to manage the estate. But this is not a manifestation of a living economic mind. The box simply follows a kind of “program of action”, that is, it grows, sells and buys, and only in this plane can it think. There can be no talk of any spiritual needs here. Korobochka's house with old small mirrors, hissing clocks and pictures, behind which something is sure to be hidden, lush feather beds and hearty food tells us about the patriarchal way of life of the housewife. But this simplicity borders on ignorance, a reluctance to know anything beyond the scope of her concerns. In everything, she thoughtlessly follows the usual patterns: a visitor means a “merchant”; a thing “from Moscow” means “good work”, etc. Korobochka’s thinking is limited, like the vicious circle of her life - even to a city located not far from estate, she was chosen only a couple of times. The way Korobochka communicates with Chichikov reveals her stupidity, which is not at all hampered by her practical acumen, the desire not to miss the profit. This is most clearly manifested in the scene of buying and selling dead souls. Korobochka appears extremely stupid. not able" to grasp the essence of "profitable." Chichikov's proposals. She takes it literally; “Something you want to dig them out of. land? - asks the landowner. Korobochka’s fear of selling dead souls is absurd and ridiculous, because it’s hers. It’s not so much the object of trade itself that frightens us, but more the concern about how not to sell it cheap, and suddenly the dead souls will come in handy for some reason in the household. Even. Chichikov cannot stand Korobochka’s impenetrable stupidity. His opinion about. It surprisingly coincides with the author’s: she is a “club-headed” landowner. Gogol shows readers that people like her are not capable of any movement - neither external nor internal, because the soul in them is dead and can no longer be reborn.

In contrast to Korobochka, Nozdryov is all in motion. He has an irrepressible temperament, is active, decisive: he buys, exchanges, sells, cheats at cards, loses and always ends up in some bad stories, which is why he receives the ironic definition of “historical man”. However, his activities turn against those around him and are always aimless. He is not petty, like Korobochka, but he is frivolous like Manilov, and, like Khlestakov, he lies on every occasion and boasts beyond measure. In addition, he does not finish anything to the end: unfinished repairs in the house (when the master himself and guests come home, men paint the walls in the dining room of his house), empty stalls, an old, faulty barrel organ, absolutely useless, and a chaise lost at cards - that’s the consequences of this. It is not surprising that his estate and farm, which he is not at all concerned about, are falling apart, the peasants are in poverty, only Nozdryov’s dogs live comfortably and freely. They replace his family: after all, Nozdryov’s wife died, and the two children whom the nanny is looking after are not at all interesting to him. In fact, he is not bound by any obligations - neither moral nor material. But there is no power of money or property over him. He is ready to squander anything: a horse, a cart, money received from selling goods at a fair. That is why it is Nozdryov who is able to rebuff Chichikov, who is preoccupied with the pursuit of money: he did not sell the dead souls, he kicked them out of his house, and then also contributed to the expulsion from the city.

And yet this does not mean that in the image of Nozdryov Gogol shows a positive hero. True, it is he who the writer gives the opportunity, albeit inadvertently, to reveal Chichikov’s secret: “Now it is clear that he is a two-faced man.” There is also some kind of duality in Nozdryov himself. In his portrait there is something that is reminiscent of a folklore good fellow: “He was of medium height, a very well-built fellow, with full rosy cheeks, teeth white as snow and jet-black sideburns. It was fresh, like blood and milk; his health seemed to be dripping from his face.” Of course, there is obvious irony in this description. It is not for nothing that the author, further talking about the fights in which Nozdryov constantly gets involved, notes that “his full cheeks were so well created and contained so much vegetative force that his sideburns soon grew back” when in the next mess they were pulled out for him. There is something of an animal in this hero (remember, he was among dogs “just like a father among a family”), but the definition of “historical person” was not given to him in vain. The author's description of this landowner contains not only irony and mockery, but also another motive - the motive of unrealized possibilities contained in this nature. “You can always see something open, direct, and daring in their faces,” Gogol writes about the type of people like Nozdryov. And at the end of the chapter, describing the ugly end of a game of checkers, when Nozdryov is ready to beat up a guest who came to him, suddenly a completely unexpected comparison arises: “Beat him! - he shouted in the same voice as during a great attack he shouts to his platoon: “Guys, go ahead! - some desperate lieutenant, whose eccentric courage has already acquired such fame that a special order is given to hold his hands during hot affairs. But the lieutenant already felt the swearing fervor, everything went around in his head; Suvorov rushes in front of him, he climbs for a great cause.” Maybe the trouble with a character like Nozdryov is that he was born at the wrong time? If he had had a chance to participate in the War of 1812, perhaps he would have been no worse than Denis Davydov. But, as the writer believes, in his time such a human type shredded, degenerated, turned into a parody, and his soul became dead. All his strength and courage were only enough to almost beat Chichikov and do a fair amount of mischief to him.

Svbakevich seems to be the complete opposite of Nozdryov; he, like Korobochka, is a zealous owner. But this is a special type of landowner-kulak, who, unlike Korobochka, may well fit into the new conditions of the coming century of capitalist economy. If the busy landowner is petty and stupid, then Sobakevich, on the contrary, is a large, ponderous, clumsy person, similar to a “medium-sized bear” (he even has the name Mikhail Semenovich), but possessing a fast, tenacious, calculating mind. Everything around is a match for this bear-man: solidly and well made, but clumsily and roughly (“in the corner of the living room there was a pot-bellied walnut bureau on the most absurd four legs: a perfect bear”), His village is “big, rich, ... peasant houses they are strong, and they apparently do not live poorly. The master's house also testifies to the owner's concern, first of all, for convenience and reliability - so, contrary to the architect's plan, it came out unsightly and tasteless. But unlike the pretentious, but narrow-minded Manilov, Sobakevich does not care about the appearance, the main thing is that everything is practical and durable. And he himself looks in such a way that it becomes clear: he is “one of those people, second nature didn’t think twice about finishing..., he took an ax once, his nose came out, he took it another time, his lips came out, he picked out his eyes with a big drill...” It seems that he is only interested in filling his stomach more tightly. But behind this appearance lies a smart, evil and dangerous predator. No wonder Sobakevich recalls how his father could kill a bear. He himself turned out to be able to “overwhelm” another powerful and terrible predator - Chichikov. The buying and selling scene in this chapter is fundamentally different from all similar scenes with other landowners: here it is not Chichikov, but Sobakevich who leads the party. He, unlike the others, immediately understands the essence of the fraudulent transaction, which does not confuse him at all, and begins to conduct a real bargain. Chichikov understands that he is facing a serious, dangerous enemy who should be feared, and therefore accepts the rules of the game, Sobakevich, like Chichikov is not embarrassed by the unusual and immoral nature of the transaction: there is a seller, there is a buyer, there is a product. Chichikov, trying to bring down the price, reminds that “the whole thing is just wow... who needs it?” To which Sobakevich reasonably remarks: “Yes, you’re buying, so you need it.” Some researchers of Gogol’s work believe that in this episode two demons seem to have come together and are arguing about the price of the human soul: eight hryvnia, as Chichikov suggests, or “one hundred rubles apiece,” as Sobakevich wrangles at first. We agreed on a price of two and a half. The author concludes with a bitter smile: “This is how it happened.”
Maybe it’s true that those souls that pass in succession before the reader’s eyes are no longer standing? But it is not without reason that it is the list of peasants prepared by Sobakevich for the execution of the deed of sale that later leads Chichikov, and with him the author and the reader, to the idea that the Russian man contains “limitless possibilities, and therefore his soul is priceless. The main thing is that it was "alive. But this is precisely what Sobakevich does not have: “It seemed that there was no soul in this body at all...” That is why all the wonderful economic qualities of this type of landowner, his practical “acumen, intelligence, quickness cannot” give hope that such - people will revive Russia.. After all, according to the writer, a business without a soul is nothing. And Gogol is horrified by the thought that the age of such businessmen as Chichikov and such landowners as Sobakevich is rapidly approaching. It is difficult to imagine that a person whose soul, “like that of an immortal Koshchei, is somewhere behind the mountains and is closed by such thick shell,” can be reborn to a new, real, spiritual life. “No, someone who is a fist cannot straighten into a palm,” the writer concludes.

But to the last of the series of landowners - Plyushkin, who, it would seem, stands at the lowest stage of the fall and devastation of the soul, Gogol leaves hope for transformation. If in other chapters the typicality of the characters presented in them is emphasized, then in Plyushkin the writer also sees a kind of exclusivity: even Chichikov, who has seen “a lot of all kinds of people,” has “never seen this before,” and in the author’s description it is said that “ a similar phenomenon rarely occurs in Rus'.” Plyushkin is “some kind of hole in humanity.” The rest of the landowners can be characterized by their attitude towards property as “hoarders” (Korobochka and Sobakevich) and “spendthrifts” (Manilov, Nozdrev). But even such a conditional definition cannot be applied to Plyushkin: he is both a hoarder and a spendthrift at the same time... On the one hand, he is “the richest of all landowners, the owner of a large estate” and thousands of serf souls. But everything that the reader sees with Chichikov suggests a state of extreme desolation: the buildings are rickety, the farm is falling apart, the harvest rots and spoils, and the peasants are dying of hunger and disease or running away from such a life (this is what attracted Chichikov to the village of Plyushkin ). But the owner, who has starved even his servants and is constantly undernourished, is always dragging something into his pile of all sorts of unnecessary rubbish - even a used toothpick, an old dried piece of lemon. He suspects everyone around him of stealing, he feels sorry for money and spending anything at all, it doesn’t even matter what - even for the sale of surplus grain, or for the life of his grandson and daughter. He became a slave to things. Incredible stinginess disfigured him, depriving him not only of his family and children, but also of his normal human appearance. Drawing a portrait of Plyushkin, the author thickens the colors to the limit: Chichikov could not even “recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man,” and in the end decided that in front of him was the housekeeper. But, perhaps, even the housekeeper will not wear the rags that this rich landowner wears: on his robe, “the sleeves and upper flaps were so greasy that they looked like yuft, the kind that goes on boots.”

How can a person stoop so low, what led him to this? - this is the question the author asks while drawing Plyushkin. To answer this, Gogol had to slightly change the plan according to which the landowners were depicted in other chapters. We learn the biography of Plyushkin, a kind of “case history” whose name is stinginess.

It turns out that Plyushkin was not always like this. Once he was simply a thrifty and economical owner and a good father, but the loneliness that suddenly set in after the death of his wife exacerbated his already somewhat stingy character. Then the children left, friends died, and stinginess, which became an all-consuming passion, took complete power over him. It led to the fact that Plyushkin generally ceased to feel the need to communicate with people, which led to a severance of family relationships and a reluctance to see guests. Plyushkin even began to perceive his children as property thieves, not experiencing any joy when meeting them. As a result, he finds himself in complete loneliness, which, in turn, became a breeding ground for the further development of stinginess. Completely absorbed by this terrible spiritual illness - stinginess and thirst for money - he lost his understanding of the real state of affairs. As a result, Plyushkin cannot distinguish the important and necessary from the little things, the useful from the insignificant. “And a person could stoop to such insignificance, pettiness, and disgustingness! Could have changed so much!” - the writer exclaims and gives a merciless answer: “Everything seems to be true, anything can happen to a person.” It turns out that Plyushkin is not such an exceptional phenomenon. Of course, he himself is largely to blame for the misfortune that happened to him. But under certain conditions, anyone can find themselves in a similar position - and this frightens the writer. It is not for nothing that this chapter contains his lyrical digression about youth and “inhuman old age,” which “gives nothing back.”

Is there any salvation from this misfortune, is it possible to bring a numb soul back to life? After all, nature, even in a state of extreme desolation, is still alive and beautiful, like the “old, vast garden that stretched behind the house” on Plyushkin’s estate. Likewise, a person who has retained at least a small spark of a living soul can be reborn and flourish. In any case, Gogol assumed that this was possible, intending to show in the next parts of the poem the story of the revival of Plyushkin’s soul. And the features of this plan are visible in the chapter about Plyushkin. Incredibly, it is Chichikov who awakens in him something similar to a living spiritual movement. Having quickly figured out how to persuade the old man to sell him dead souls, Chichikov focuses on generosity: he is supposedly ready to take upon himself the loss of paying the tax for Plyushkin’s dead peasants solely out of a desire to please him, “Oh, father! Ah, my benefactor! - exclaims the touched old man. He, who has long forgotten what kindness and generosity are, already wishes “all kinds of consolation” not only for Chichikov, but even for his children. Plyushkin's "wooden face" was suddenly illuminated by a completely human feeling - joy, however, "instantly and past, as if it had never happened at all." But this is already enough to understand: after all, something human still remains in him. He was so generous that he was ready to treat his dear guest: Chichikov was offered “crumbs from Easter cake” and “a nice liqueur” from “a decanter that was covered in dust, like a sweatshirt,” and even with “boogers and all sorts of rubbish” inside. And after the departure of his unexpected benefactor, Plyushkin decides to do something completely unprecedented for him: he wants to bequeath his pocket watch to Chichikov. It turns out that so little is needed to stir up this crippled soul at least a little: a little attention, albeit disinterested, participation, support. And a person also needs a close person, someone for whom nothing is sorry. Plyushkin doesn’t have any of those left, but he does have memories that can awaken long-forgotten feelings in this curmudgeon. Chichikov asks Plyushkin to name some acquaintance in the city to complete the deed of sale. It turns out that one of his past friends is still alive - the chairman of the chamber, with whom he was friends back in school. The old man remembers his youth, “and suddenly some kind of warm ray slid across this wooden face, it was not a feeling that burst out, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling.” But this is enough to understand: in this soul, enslaved by the passion for profit, there still remains, albeit a tiny, but living part of it, which means revival is possible. This is the main fundamental difference between Plyushkin and other landowners. shown by Gogol. And the face of landowner Russia, reflected in them, becomes less scary and deadened.

Such, for example, is the official Ivan Antonovich, nicknamed “the jug’s snout,” drawn in quick strokes. He is ready to sell his own soul for a bribe, assuming, of course, that he has a soul. That is why, despite the comic nickname, he does not look funny at all, but rather scary.
Such officials are not an exceptional phenomenon, but a reflection of the entire system of Russian bureaucracy. As in The Government Inspector, Gogol shows a “corporation of thieves and swindlers.” Bureaucracy and corruption of officials reign everywhere. In the court chamber, into which the reader finds himself together with Chichikov, the laws are openly neglected, no one is going to deal with the case, and the officials, the “priests” of this peculiar Themis, are only concerned with how to collect tribute from visitors - that is, bribes. The bribe here is so mandatory that only the closest friends of high-ranking officials can be exempted from it. So, for example, the chairman of the chamber in a friendly manner exempts Chichikov from tribute: “My friends don’t have to pay.”

But what is even more terrible is that in an idle and well-fed life, officials not only forget about their official duty, but also completely lose their spiritual needs, lose their “living soul.” Among the gallery of officialdom in the poem, the image of the prosecutor stands out. All the officials, having learned about Chichikov’s strange purchase, fall into panic, and the prosecutor was so frightened that he died when he came home. And only when he turned into a “soulless body” did they remember that “he had a soul.” Behind the sharp social satire, a philosophical question arises again: why did man live? What's left after him? “But if you take a good look at the case, all you really had was thick eyebrows,” this is how the author ends the story about the prosecutor. But maybe that hero has already appeared who opposes this entire gallery of “dead souls” of Russian reality?

Gogol dreams of his appearance and in the 1st volume he paints a truly new face of Russian life, but not in a positive light. Chichikov is a new hero, a special type of Russian person who appeared in that era, a kind of “hero of the time,” whose soul is “enchanted by wealth.” It was precisely when money began to play a decisive role in Russia and to establish itself in society, when independence could only be achieved by relying on capital, that this “scoundrel-acquirer” appeared. In this author’s description of the hero, all the accents are immediately placed: a child of his time, Chichikov, in pursuit of capital, loses the concepts of honor, conscience, and decency. But in a society where capital is the measure of a person’s value, this does not matter: Chichikov is considered a “millionaire” and therefore accepted as a “decent person.”

In the image of Chichikov, such traits as the desire for success at any cost, enterprise, practicality, the ability to pacify one’s desires with a “reasonable will”, that is, qualities characteristic of the emerging Russian bourgeoisie, combined with unprincipledness and selfishness, received artistic embodiment. This is not the kind of hero Gogol is waiting for: after all, the thirst for acquisition kills the best human feelings in Chichikov and leaves no room for a “living” soul. Chichikov has knowledge of people, but he needs this to successfully complete his terrible “business” - buying “dead souls”. He is a force, but “terrible and vile.”

The features of this image are associated with the author’s intention to lead Chichikov through the path of purification and rebirth of the soul. In this way, the writer wanted to show everyone the path from the very depths of the fall - “hell” - through “purgatory” to transformation and spiritualization. This is why Chichikov’s role in the overall structure of the writer’s plan is so important. That is why he is endowed with a biography (like Plyushkin), but it is given only at the very end of the 1st volume. Before this, his character is not completely defined: in communicating with everyone, he tries to please the interlocutor, adapts to him. With every new person he meets on his way, he looks different: with Manilov - sheer politeness and complacency, with Nozdryov - an adventurer, with Sobakevich - a zealous owner. He knows how to find an approach to everyone, he finds his own interest and the right words for everyone. Chichikov has knowledge of people, the ability to penetrate their souls. It is not for nothing that he is immediately accepted by everyone in city society: ladies look at him, “city fathers” - high officials - court him, landowners invite him to visit their estates. He is attractive to many, and this is his danger: he seduces the people around him. That is why some researchers believe that there is something devilish in Chichikov’s appearance. Indeed, hunting for dead souls is the devil’s original occupation. It is not for nothing that city gossip, among other things, calls him the Antichrist, and something apocalyptic is visible in the behavior of officials, which is reinforced by the picture of the death of the prosecutor.

But in the image of Chichikov, completely different features stand out - those that would allow the author to lead him through the path of purification. It is no coincidence that the author’s reflections often echo Chichikov’s thoughts (about Sobakevich’s dead peasants, about a young boarder). The basis of the tragedy and at the same time the comedy of this image is that all human feelings in Chichikov are hidden deep inside, and he sees the meaning of life in acquisition. His conscience sometimes awakens, but he quickly calms it down, creating a whole system of self-justifications: “I didn’t make anyone unhappy: I didn’t rob the widow, I didn’t let anyone into the world...”. In the end, Chichikov justifies his crime. This is the path of degradation from which the author warns his hero. The writer calls on Chichikov, and with him the readers, to take the “straight path, similar to the path leading to a magnificent temple,” this is the path of salvation, the revival of the living soul in everyone.

It is not for nothing that the two images that complete the story of Chichikov’s journey in the 1st volume of the poem are so opposite and at the same time so close - the image of the chaise carrying Chichikov and the famous “three bird”. Our strange hero paves the way into the unknown in his constant chaise. As it flies into the distance, it gradually loses its outline, and its place is taken by the image of a “three bird”. The britzka is carrying the “scoundrel-purchaser” along the roads of Russia. buyer of dead souls. She circles off-road from province to province, from one landowner to another, and there seems to be no end to this path. And the “three bird” flies forward, and its swift flight is directed towards the future of the country, its people. But who rides in it and who controls? Maybe this is a hero familiar to us, but who has already chosen the path and is able to show it to others? Where it leads is still unclear to the author himself. But this strange merging of the images of Chichikov’s chaise and the “troika bird” reveals the symbolic ambiguity of the entire artistic structure of the poem and the grandeur of the author’s plan: to create an “epic of the national spirit.” Gogol finished only the first volume, but his work was continued by the writers who came to Russian literature after him.

Artistic originality. According to Gogol, Pushkin best of all grasped the originality of the writing style of the future author of Dead Souls: “Not a single writer had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so clearly, to be able to outline in such force the vulgarity of a vulgar person, so that all the little things that elude eye, would have flashed large in everyone’s eyes.” Indeed, the main means of depicting Russian life in the poem is artistic detail. Gogol uses it as the main means of typifying heroes. The author identifies in each of them the main, leading feature, which becomes the core of the artistic image and is “played out” with the help of skillfully selected details. Such leitmotif details of the image are: sugar (Manilov); bags, boxes (Korobochka); animal strength and health (Nozdrev); rough but durable things (Sobakevich); a bunch of rubbish, a hole, a hole (Plyushkin). For example, Manilov’s sweetness, dreaminess, and unreasonable pretentiousness are emphasized by the details of the portrait (“eyes as sweet as sugar”; his “pleasantness” was “too much of the sugar”), details of behavior with people around him (with Chichikov, with his wife and children), and the interior (his office has beautiful furniture - and then there are two
unfinished chairs covered with matting; a dandy candlestick - and next to “some simple copper invalid, lame, curled to one side and covered in fat”), speech details that allow you to create a unique manner of speaking “sweetly” and vaguely (“May day, name day of the heart”; “let me You won't be allowed to do that."

These kinds of leitmotif details are used as a means of characterizing all characters, even episodic ones (for example, Ivan Antonovich has a “jug snout”, the prosecutor has “very black thick eyebrows”) and collective images (“thick and thin” officials). But there are also special artistic means that are used to create a certain number of images. For example, in order to more clearly highlight what is characteristic of each of the landowners representing generalized types, the author uses a special compositional technique in constructing chapters. It consists of repeating a certain set of plot details, which are arranged in the same sequence. First, the estate, courtyard, and interior of the landowner's house are described, his portrait and author's description are given. Then we see the landowner in his relationship with Chichikov - his manner of behavior, speech, we hear reviews about neighbors and city officials and get acquainted with his home environment. In each of these chapters, we witness a dinner or other treat (sometimes very unique - like Plyushkin's) that Chichikov is treated to - after all, Gogol's hero, an expert on material life and everyday life, is often characterized precisely through food. And in conclusion, a scene of the purchase and sale of “dead souls” is shown, completing the portrait of each landowner. This technique makes it easy to make comparisons. Thus, food as a means of characterization is present in all chapters about landowners: Manilov’s dinner is modest, but with pretension (“cabbage soup, but from the heart”); at Korobochka’s it is rich, in a patriarchal taste (“mushrooms, pies, skorodumki, shanishki, pryagly, pancakes, flat cakes with all sorts of toppings”); Sobakevich serves large and hearty dishes, after which the guest can barely get up from the table (“when I have pork, put the whole pig on the table; lamb, bring the whole lamb”); Nozdryov's food is tasteless, he pays more attention to wine; At Plyushkin’s, instead of dinner, the guest is offered liqueur with flies and “rusks from Easter cake”, left over from the Easter treat.

Of particular note are the household details that reflect the world of things. There are a lot of them, and they carry an important ideological and semantic load: in a world where the soul has been forgotten and has become “dead,” its place is firmly occupied by objects, things to which their owner is firmly attached. That’s why things are personified: such as Korobochka’s clock, which “had a desire to beat,” or Sobakevich’s furniture, where “every object, every chair seemed to say: I too Sobakevich!”

Zoological motifs also contribute to the individualization of characters: Manilov is a cat, Sobakevich is a bear, Korobochka is a bird, Nozdryov is a dog, Plyushkin is a mouse. In addition, each of them is accompanied by a specific color scheme. For example, Manilov's estate, his portrait, his wife's clothes - everything is given in gray-blue tones; Sobakevich’s clothes are dominated by red-brown colors; Chichikov is remembered for a clear detail: he likes to dress in a “lingonberry-colored tailcoat with a sparkle.”

The speech characteristics of the characters also arise through the use of details: Manilov’s speech has many introductory words and sentences, he speaks pretentiously, and does not finish the phrase; Nozdryov’s speech contains a lot of swear words, jargon of a gambler, a horseman, he often speaks in alogisms (“he came from God knows where, and I live here”); Officials have their own special language: along with bureaucratic language, when addressing each other they use phrases that are stable in this environment (“You lied, mommy Ivan Grigorievich!”). Even the surnames of many characters characterize them to a certain extent (Sobakevich, Korobochka, Plyushkin). For the same purpose, evaluative epithets and comparisons are used (Korobochka - “club-headed”, Plyushkin - “a hole in humanity”, Sobakevich - “man-fist”).

All together, these artistic means serve to create a comic and satirical effect and show the illogical existence of such people. Sometimes Gogol also uses the grotesque, as, for example, when creating the image of Plyushkin - “a hole in humanity.” This is both a typical and fantastic image. It is created through the accumulation of details: a village, a house, a portrait of the owner and, finally, a bunch of old things.

But the artistic fabric of “Dead Souls” is still heterogeneous, since the poem presents two faces of Russia, which means that the epic is contrasted with the lyrical. Russia of landowners, officials, men - drunkards, lazy people, incompetents - is one “face”, which is depicted using satirical means. Another face of Russia is presented in lyrical digressions: this is the author’s ideal of a country where genuine heroes walk in the open spaces, people live a rich spiritual life and are endowed with a “living” and not a “dead” soul.” That is why the style of lyrical digressions is completely different: satirical -everyday, colloquial vocabulary disappears, the author’s language becomes bookish-romantic, solemnly pathetic, saturated with archaic, bookish vocabulary (“a menacing blizzard of inspiration will rise from the chapter, clothed in holy horror and splendor”). comparisons, epithets (“something ecstatically wonderful,” “daring diva of nature”), rhetorical questions, exclamations, appeals (“And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast?”; “Oh my youth! Oh my freshness!”).

This paints a completely different picture of Rus', with its endless expanses and roads running into the distance. The landscape of the lyrical part contrasts sharply with that present in the epic, where it is a means of revealing the characters' characters. In lyrical digressions, the landscape is connected with the theme of the future of Russia and its people, with the motif of the road: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk?” It is this artistic layer of the work that allows us to speak of its truly poetic sound, expressing the writer’s faith in the great future of Russia.

The meaning of the work. The enormous significance of the poem “Dead Souls” for the history of Russian literature, social and Christian-philosophical thought is beyond doubt. This work entered the “golden fund” of Russian literature, and many of its themes, problems, and ideas have not lost their significance even today. But in different eras, representatives of different directions emphasized those aspects of the poem that aroused their greatest interest and response. For such critics of the Slavophile trend as K.S. Aksakov, the main thing was to emphasize the importance of the positive pole of the poem, the glorification of the greatness of Russia. For representatives of democratic criticism, Gogol's work is an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian realism and its critical direction. And Christian philosophers noted the height of the writer’s moral position, which brings the poem closer to a sermon.

Gogol's artistic discoveries in this work largely determined the development of the creativity of leading Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century. The theme of impoverishment and destruction of noble estates was picked up by I.S. Turgenev, thinking about the causes and consequences of the stagnation of deep Russian life was continued by I.A. Goncharov, and N.A. Nekrasov took the baton in creating the image of people's Russia. The heir to the traditions of Gogol’s satire was M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, F.M. Dostoevsky, following Gogol, raised moral and philosophical issues based on Christian positions to unprecedented heights. L.N. Tolstoy continued Gogol’s work in creating large-scale epic paintings, creating the epic “War and Peace,” and A.P. Chekhov creatively developed the line of conjugation in the work of satirical and lyrical principles. In the 20th century, symbolists, especially A. Bely, rethought Gogol’s poem in a new way, but the most significant heir to Gogol’s traditions was M.A. Bulgakov.

Point of view
The controversy over the poem “Dead Souls” began immediately after the work was published, and debates about it have not stopped to this day. Get acquainted with the positions of several representatives of literary critical thought.

V.G. Belinsky:
“And suddenly... there appears a creation that is purely Russian, national, snatched from the hiding place of people’s life, as true as it is patriotic, mercilessly pulling back the veil from reality and breathing a passionate, nervous, blood-filled love for the fertile grain of Russian life; a creation immensely artistic in concept and execution, in the characters of the characters and the details of Russian life - and at the same time profound in thought, social, public, historical... In “Dead Souls” the author took such a great step that everything he had written so far , seems weak and pale in comparison with them...

Dead Souls will be read by everyone, but, of course, not everyone will like it. Among the many reasons is that “Dead Souls” does not correspond to the crowd’s concept of a novel as a fairy tale... Gogol’s poem can be fully enjoyed only by those who have access to the thought and artistic execution of the creation, to whom the content is important, and not the “plot” "..."Dead Souls" requires study.

As for us, then... we will only say that Gogol did not jokingly call his novel a “poem” and that he does not mean a comic poem by it. It was not the author who told us this, but his book. We don’t see anything humorous or funny in it... It’s impossible to look at “Dead Souls” more erroneously and understand them more crudely than seeing them as satire.”1

(V.G. Belinsky. The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls. Poem by N. Gogol, 1842)

K.S. Aksakov:
“We do not at all take upon ourselves the important work of giving an account of this new great work of Gogol, who has already become superior to previous creations; we consider it necessary to say a few words to indicate the point of view from which, it seems to us, we should look at his poem...

Before us, in this work, appears... a pure, true, ancient epic that miraculously arose in Russia... Of course, this epic, the epic of antiquity, which appears in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”, is at the same time a phenomenon in extremely free and modern. ...In Gogol's poem, phenomena come one after another, calmly replacing each other, embraced by a great epic contemplation, revealing the whole world, harmoniously presented with its inner content and unity, with its mystery of life. In a word, as we have already said and repeat: the ancient, important epic appears in its majestic flow. ...Yes, this is a poem, and this title proves to you that the author understood what he was producing; understood the greatness and importance of his work...

At the very least, we can, we even have the right to think that in this poem Rus' is widely embraced, and isn’t it possible that the secret of Russian life lies contained in it, and won’t it be expressed artistically here? - Without going into detail about the first part, which, of course, has the same content throughout, we can at least point to its ending, which follows so wonderfully and naturally. Chichikov rides in a chaise, in a troika; the troika rushed quickly, and no matter who Chichikov was, even though he was a roguish person, and even though many would be completely against him, he was Russian, he loved driving fast - and here immediately this general popular feeling, having arisen, connected him with the whole people, hid it, so to speak; here Chichikov, also Russian, disappears, is absorbed, merging with the people in this feeling common to all of him. The dust from the road rose and hid him; you can’t see who’s galloping—one rushing troika is visible...Here it penetrates outside and one sees Rus', which lies, we think, in the secret content of his entire poem. And what lines these are, what breathes in them! And how, despite the pettiness of previous persons and relationships in Rus', how powerfully what lies deep was expressed...”

(K.S. Aksakov. A few words about Gogol’s poem:
The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls, 1842)

D.S. Merezhkovsky:
“It seemed that there was no soul at all in this body,” Gogol notes about Sobakevich. He has a dead soul in a living body. And Manilov, and Nozdryov, and Korobochka, and Plyushkin, and the Prosecutor “with thick eyebrows” - all these are “dead souls” in living bodies. That's why it's so scary with them. This is the fear of death, the fear of a living soul touching the dead. “My soul ached,” Gogol admits, when I saw how many, right there, in the midst of life itself, there were unresponsive dead inhabitants, terrible with the motionless coldness of their souls.” And here, just as in “The Inspector General,” “Egyptian darkness” is approaching... only “pig snouts” are visible instead of human faces. And the most terrible thing is that these “decrepit monsters with sad faces” staring at us, “children of ignorance, Russian freaks,” in the words of Gogol, “were taken from our own land, from Russian reality; despite all their illusory nature, they are “from the same body from which we are”; they are us, reflected in some devilish and yet truthful mirror.

In one of Gogol’s youth fairy tales, in “Terrible Revenge,” “the dead gnaw the dead” - “pale, pale, one taller than the other, one more bony than the other.” Among them is “another one, taller than all, more terrible than all, rooted in the ground, a great, great dead man.” So here, in “Dead Souls,” among other dead people, the “great, great dead man” Chichikov grows, rises, and his real human image, refracted in the fog of the damn haze, becomes an incredible “bogeyman.”

). 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, looking “like a medium-sized bear,” tight-fisted and cunning, the kulak is the master, bargaining for pennies on every 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 a 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 verisimilitude, but the complete convincingness and independence of artistic 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 gallant warrior General Betrishchev, the lazy and dreamy “baibak” and the “sky smoker” Tentetnikov. The author's humor is noticeably weakening, his creative powers are diminishing. 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 stretched along the sides of the road “miles, station keepers, wells, convoys, 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? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? 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!.."

Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Any literary work can be considered as a kind of author’s statement. In this sense, it is true that a work of art can be presented as a kind of question, appeal or appeal to people. And the title of a work is the first word in the dialogue between the author and the reader; it helps to understand the main idea, that is, the direction of the author’s address to the reader. The title reveals the essence of the work and becomes part of the text. For example, in the title of a satirical work, the author gives vent to irony, his mockery. It often happens that the title becomes a key word that carries many meanings (acquires a symbolic meaning) and is the leitmotif of the work. The title is irreplaceable, since it conveys the author's concept, the author's vision of the world, it must be concise, expressive, sonorous, must be complete, be original, that is, unique. The preliminary censorship was afraid of the title “Dead Souls,” so the first edition was published under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls,” that is, the title of the work included something that the author did not want to put there, since the central idea of ​​the work was focused precisely on the concept “ dead souls”, and not in the description of Chichikov’s adventures.

The title has its own characteristics. Often in the titles there is a contrast ("War and Peace"), an oxymoron ("Feast during the Plague", "The Stone Guest", "The Miserly Knight"), paradoxes (in "Marriage" there is no marriage, in "The Inspector General" there is no auditor).

What occupies Gogol in “The Inspector General” is not the mayor’s mistake, but the very process of transforming the dummy Khlestakov into an important person (as the title of the work hints at). This is the real innovation of Gogol the playwright.

It happens that the names discreetly indicate a hidden meaning. The name “Dead Souls” is very ambiguous, because initially the word “souls” itself has several meanings. In the usual understanding of this word, the soul is an immortal substance that determines life, elevates a person above all other earthly creatures, giving him the ability to think and feel. In Gogol, an oxymoron arises, since in the traditional understanding the soul cannot die. The title of Gogol's poem sounds defiant, too bold and even blasphemous.

The reader understands the ambiguity, innovation and boldness of the title “Dead Souls”. But the fact is that this contains the direct meaning of the word, and this is what hits the reader’s consciousness. In Dahl's dictionary, from the meanings of the word “soul” it is clear that the concept of “dead souls” existed at that time: these are people who died between two national censuses, but are still listed by paying taxes.

That is, for the reader - a contemporary of Gogol, there is nothing incredible in the title of the poem. But these words take on a different meaning in connection with Chichikov. For landowners, “dead souls” is the name of the product. Over time, new shades of meaning appeared in the title: landowners, officials, city fathers, and even Chichikov himself began to be called “dead souls.”

Gogol himself speaks very uniquely about his characters. He wrote: “My heroes are not villains at all; If I had added just one good trait to any of them, the reader would have made peace with them all.” Here the moral and ethical problem of the work arises: one might think that Gogol did not see them as monsters, tormentors, but he aimed further. It was important for him that every reader think about his own soul. The author addresses the reader almost directly (similar to Eugene Onegin).

In “Eugene Onegin” there are two aspects of the reader (an opponent and a like-minded person), as is the case with Gogol, but this is not so noticeable. The author polemicizes with the enemy reader in both comic and serious ways. And Gogol addresses the like-minded reader in lyrical digressions (it is there that the reader becomes acquainted with the author’s position and hears the author’s word), where the hope for sympathy and understanding is clearly visible.

Gogol leaves hope that the dead can still turn into the living. Literary critic Yuri Mann proves that Gogol portrayed officials not in terms of their level of degradation. Mann believed that in Plyushkin, in comparison with Manilov, there was more human enthusiasm, albeit distorted, and perhaps even terrible. There is more life in Plyushkin than in Manilov with his sweetness.

Gogol believed that what is like death is dead, lifeless. But the first to connect these concepts was Pushkin, not Gogol:

And everything that pleases lives,

All that rejoices and shines,

Brings boredom and languor to a soul that has been dead for a long time...

A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”

Gogol argues with those readers who proudly look down on the writer. Gogol is worried that a person of his time has a cold gaze, that a living soul and curiosity are not eternal in a person. At the end of the first volume there is a motif that echoes the title. Gogol believed that the dead human soul could be resurrected, and he believed that a writer could help him.