In the 30s. 19th century N.V. Gogol conceived an epic work in which he dreamed of reflecting the development of Russian society. A.S. Pushkin, in a conversation with the writer, outlined the approximate plot of the novel to him, Gogol liked the idea and in 1842 he brought it to life.
Genre affiliation
« Dead Souls"By the number of heroes and the detail of the image of the images of the landlords, it can be called a novel. However, the absence of significant events brings him closer to the story. L.N. Tolstoy argued that the work of N.V. Gogol is unique in its genre.
As a result, the author defines it as a poem - due to poetic inserts in the first volume of "Dead Souls" - reflections on the fate of Russia. This form of the work allows us to travel with Chichikov to the deepest corners of Russia and consider the types of Russian people of that time.
Main character
The main character of the poem is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov - a new image for Russian literature. He is a young adventurer, an entrepreneur, ready to give up any moral principles in order to achieve his own goals of enrichment.
He comes from a poor family, where the testament of his father before his death was a covenant of obedience, diligent teaching and saving money. It is from the thirst for money that the idea of \u200b\u200bbuying comes to Chichikov's head dead souls from the landowners and their further sale as living peasants.
Individual approach
He travels across Russian expanses and meets with a whole gallery of landowners. Being a subtle psychologist, Pavel Ivanovich is able to find an approach to each of them. Is it not because the landlords are so understandable to him that the qualities of each of them are in him? Gogol develops precisely this idea. When the hero is left alone with himself, Sobakevich's thriftiness, Manilov's daydreaming, Nozdryov's rudeness, Korobochka's pettiness, and Plyushkin's stinginess are revealed in him.
After meeting with the landowners, a whole provincial town appears before Chichikov. Satirical notes sounded in a new way on a new political theme. The governor is fond of embroidery, while the people are in poverty: they are starving, drinking, they have no opportunity for treatment.
The story about Captain Kopeikin, which can be considered as a separate work, caused a lot of controversy among literary critics and was even banned by the authorities. They saw in it a parody of the state system of Russia.
The first volume ends with poetic lines about Russia-troika, about its further path, unknown to the author.
Second volume
The second volume was conceived by N.V. Gogol as a gallery positive images in Russia. Chichikov turned out to be along with these heroes, which indicates the writer's desire to show the spiritual rebirth of his hero. However, the second volume never saw the light of day. The author burned it three years after the start of work on the book.
I would like to reflect on why Gogol acted so cruelly with his offspring - destroyed the fruit of three years of labor? It seems to me that before his death, the writer became disillusioned with his homeland, he did not see its happy future and, not wanting to deceive the reader, burned the book.
Lesson 2 Analysis of Chapter 1 of "Dead Souls"
Purpose: to prepare students for the study of the poem, to introduce the writer into the understanding of the ideological intent, to arouse interest in Gogol's poem
Equipment: presentation for the lesson
During the classes
1. Message of the topic and purpose of the lesson.
1) Introductory speech of the teacher
We are starting to study Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" - the largest and most significant of Gogol's works, the pinnacle of his work. 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 had written 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 separate draft sketches and chapters of it have survived. In the future, we will talk all the time 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 - scenes and sketches from nature - Pushkin was struck 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 a few features to suddenly expose him as if he were alive, with this ability not to take on a larger composition!” Pushkin gave Gogol the plot of "Dead Souls"; Pushkin's approval was also received by the first chapters of the poem, which Gogol read to him before his departure abroad.
Gogol began to write his poem even before he wrote The Inspector General, and after the end of The Inspector General, he completely immersed himself in work on Dead Souls, gave her all his strength.
According to the ideological plan, 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 then “masters of life.” Gogol foresaw new bitterness and slander from the “dead souls” so correctly shown to him., “New ones will still rise up against me estates and many different gentlemen, - he wrote to Zhukovsky, working on a poem, - but what should I do! It is already my destiny to be at enmity with my countrymen.
The plot suggested by Pushkin - Chichikov's trip to buy dead souls from the landowners - was very convenient in order to bring out various representatives of the landowner's world, to show also the officials whom Chichikov meets when he arrives in the provincial town and draws up his deals for the purchase of dead souls.
Chichikov himself, buying up dead souls, was also a very typical representative of a new businessman, an 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 a poem. “All Russia will appear in it.”
Thus, it is not the external history - the adventures of Chichikov - that constitutes the content of Gogol's poem, but the display of all of Russia. The landowners and officials in it are depicted as dead souls. However, Gogol is not limited to a satirical denunciation of various types of "Dead Souls" - landowners and officials. The poem also shows the images of peasants. Gogol speaks with special love in his poem about the strength of the people, about the Russian people, about the expanses of his homeland, about the folk song. The dead souls of landowners and officials are opposed in the poem by 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 denunciation of the entire feudal-serf society in the poem, Gogol shows the people's strength of Russia, gives the image of a great homeland, with deep patriotic strength is opposed to the whole dead kingdom of landowners and officials and rogue acquirers of the people "Russia. In the majestic image of Russia - the irrepressible trio. rushing forward - the poem ends.
2. Conversation in order to explain incomprehensible words
"caniface pantaloons" (trousers made of kanifas-striped paper fabric),.
"tavern" (restaurant; later - a restaurant of the lowest rank), "demi-cotton frock coat" (a frock coat made of thick paper fabric),
"sbitenshchik" (seller of sbiten - a hot drink made from honey with the addition of spices),
"collegiate adviser" (civil official; in tsarist Russia there were 14 ranks;
collegiate adviser - middle rank in the table of ranks), etc.
3. Analysis of two or three fragments of the poem (the first chapter).
a) The beginning of the poem is Chichikov's entry into the city.
teacher
The poem has no preface. As we shall see below, 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", a page of the poem, given in the eleventh chapter. Chichikov himself is described very vaguely at the beginning of the poem. First, a rather beautiful, small spring britzka is shown, in which bachelors, middle-class landowners, “gentlemen of the middle hand,” ride. Thus, Chichikov is characterized through the description of his chaise: bachelors, middle-class landowners ride in such a chaise. And then we don’t even see a description of Chichikov’s appearance. Gogol says nothing about this, but he was the greatest master portrait!
b) What does Gogol write about Chichikov?
“In the britzka sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; one cannot say that he is old, but it is not so that he is 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 to one of the most distinctive features Chichikov: Chichikov is a man who hides his true face, the face of a predator, a tireless and unprincipled acquirer; he always hides under one mask or another. Entering the city 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 terms, conveys how all officials speak favorably of Chichikov, and even Sobakevich, who has never praised anyone in his lifetime.
in) - Starting his poem, Gogol talks only about Chichikov?
Peasants are also shown here (two men talking about the wheel of Chichikov's britzka), and a dandy with a Tula pin - a representative of that secular society that Gogol will so maliciously ridicule in the poem.
Already on the first page, Gogol begins to draw a typical picture of Russian life, showing the usual atmosphere of a provincial town: a dirty hotel, a room with cockroaches, drinking houses, a tavern, state institutions painted with ever-yellow paint.
d) What did the hotel look like? Reading text
Such a detail is especially characteristic: in the “quiet” room assigned to Chichikov, a neighbor, a “silent and calm” observer-representative of the police, is arranged 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 room for those passing by.
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:
“What are these common halls - everyone passing by knows very well: the same walls ... the same smoked chandelier ... the same paintings ... in a word, everything is the same as everywhere ... "
f) Chichikov looked into the city garden.
- How does Gogol describe the city garden? This is one of the brightest satirical places in the first chapter.
Pay attention to what really happened, what the real garden was and how the garden was described in government newspapers, with what words the imaginary feelings of citizens for the mayor were painted in government newspapers: “... although these trees were no taller than a reed, 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, broad-branched trees, giving coolness on a hot day, and that at the same time it was very touching to look at how the hearts of citizens trembled in excess of gratitude and streams of tears flowed as a token of gratitude to the mayor."
g) Why does Gogol not 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 depicts not a particular city, but a typical provincial city.
Chichikov sets off to see the city. "Chichikov ... found that the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities." All cities were then about the same. Here is a store with caps, caps and the inscription: "Foreigner Vasily Fedorov."
Here is another typical detail of the city: “Most often, the darkened double-headed state eagles were noticeable, which have now been replaced by a laconic inscription: “Drinking House”.
3. Conclusions, generalizations as a result of the work done .
Gogol from the first page draws vivid real pictures of Russian life, emphasizing that his goal is not a story about the adventures of the adventurer Chichikov, but a satirical image 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-bred 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 elsewhere, were of two kinds: some thin, who all hung around the ladies ...” and to the end.
Gogol speaks here of officials with unconcealed mockery: subtle officials hover around the ladies, waddle back and forth, lower the goods acquired by their fathers on courier. They deliberately combed their sideburns, etc. d.
Fat officials are also drawn 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, recording them not in their own name. The following words of Gogol are remarkable: “Finally, fat, having served God and the sovereign ...”, etc.
The emptiness, the lack of spiritual content of officials is especially emphasized by Gogol in that he fully characterizes them, describing only their appearance: figures, costume, hairstyles. All this makes Gogol's speech comical: we laugh at people who look like flies, people who differ from each other only in that some are fat and others are thin.
This method of exhaustive characterization of a person through the description of two or three features of his appearance, we meet 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, nevertheless, Gogol has to speak 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 on tulle. It becomes clear to the reader what kind of "kindness" the governor had. Speaking of the prosecutor with thick black eyebrows and a winking eye, he continues: "a man, however, a serious and silent one." Here again it is clear what the seriousness of the prosecutor is. The description of the postmaster is sustained 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 ridiculous essence of the characters he portrays, who had nothing human behind their souls.
Gogol resorts to the method of a purely external description of his characters, based on the ideological concept of the poem - to show dead kingdom dead souls. We laugh at the squalor, the absurdity, the animal primitiveness of the landlords and officials.
B) Now let's see how Gogol draws Chichikov in the first chapter.
Exposing Chichikov, Gogol writes: "In his receptions, the gentleman had something solid and ... blew his nose extremely loudly." After dinner, Chichikov fell into a sound sleep, snoring "with might and main a pump wrap, as they say in other places of the vast Russian state."
Gogol deliberately, with a purpose, applied these rude, common people's expressions to Chichikov in order to reveal the true essence of Chichikov: Chichikov pretended to be a secular person, very delicate and well-mannered, but in fact he was a businessman, a clever swindler, uncultured and rude. Gogol always speaks of his hero with subtle mockery.
Speaking with the tavern servant, Chichikov did not ask him all empty questions: he asked with extreme accuracy about all the highest officials of the city. Here, it turns out, what serious, not empty questions mean for Chichikov.
Chichikov said "neither loudly nor quietly, but exactly as it should, in a word, wherever 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 softly, but exactly as he should.”
Gogol's concluding remarks about Chichikov are also ridiculous, they fully characterize both the main character and the officials, reveal the true essence of both Chichikov and the officials.
“The governor spoke of 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, revered bosses, etc.); the prosecutor said about him that he was a practical person (again, irony; as we learn later, the prosecutor himself was the greatest loafer); the gendarme colonel said that he was a learned man (here it is ridiculous for us to compare the gendarme and learning). Subsequently, children can be given tasks to identify the features of satire and humor in the description of the landlords .._,
Working on the improvement of his works, Gogol strives to put it briefly, to free himself from foreign and bookish words in general, from vague and obscure words. Wherever possible, he replaces foreign and book words with Russian words, simple, colloquial, folk, which are closer to life, really and figuratively convey the character of the depicted object and person.
Gogol widely pushed the boundaries of the literary language, enriched it with bright, well-aimed words and phrases. While working on the images of the poem, we met with Gogol's words of this kind.
Neither Pushkin, nor Lermontov, nor any of our writers can find such a number of folk words and phrases as in Gogol's language.
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 the everyday situation of Manilov?
e) How does Gogol describe Manilov's meeting with Chichikov in the seventh chapter?
Belorussian State University
Faculty of Philology
Department of Theory of Literary Studies
Holistic analysis of the work
"Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol
1st year student
Departments of Slavic Philology
(Polish and Russian philology)
Svistunov Vadim Alexandrovich
Teacher:
Morozova T.A.
Minsk - 2006
In the poem "Dead Souls", the author raised the most painful and topical issues of his contemporary life. He clearly showed the decomposition of the serfdom, the doom of its representatives. The very name of the poem had a huge revealing power, carried “something terrifying” in itself.
As conceived by N.V. Gogol, the theme of the poem was to be all of contemporary Russia. The conflict of "Dead Souls" the writer took two types of contradictions inherent in the Russian society of the first half of XIX century: between the imaginary content and the real insignificance of the ruling strata of society and between the spiritual forces of the people and their enslavers.
The problems in the poem are two-dimensional - national and socio-cultural. The national problem lies in the depiction of Gogol's attitude towards Russia at that time. The question arises - where is Russia going - which the author reveals bilaterally. On the one hand - dead Russia, with its landowners and provincial officials of all ranks, on the other - the "Russia of the Chichikovs" that is coming to replace it. Sociocultural issues are expressed by the author's emphasis on the features of everyday culture and life in various characters of the poem. Immediately, the idea of the poem is closely connected with the problem: the writer is concerned about the question of a person, about the meaning and purpose of him in life. It also shows all the lack of rights, all the obscurity and vulgarity of the interests of both the provincial society and the landowners.
Undoubtedly, in the poem "Dead Souls" there is a satirical pathos. In my opinion, in relation to the landowners, and Chichikov himself, one can apply such a definition as invective. Indeed, by satirically denouncing, for example, in Plyushkin all his bad sides, the object of ridicule becomes so pathetic that it no longer causes laughter.
In order to fully convey all the wretchedness and omission of the landowners, N.V. Gogol very skillfully uses various artistic details, primarily external ones. Consider one of artistic details- portrait - on the example of various landowners. Nozdryov - portrait description: “He was of medium height, a very well-built fellow with full ruddy cheeks, snow-white teeth and jet-black sideburns. He was fresh as blood and milk; health seemed to spurt from his face. The portrait is also revealed with the help of a description of Nozdryov's demeanor and nature: “Nozdryov's face, it is true, is already somewhat familiar to the reader. Everyone had to meet a lot of such people. They are called broken fellows, they are known even in childhood and at school for good comrades, and for all this they are very painfully beaten. Something open, direct, daring is always visible in their faces. They soon get to know each other, and before you have time to look back, “you” are already telling you. Friendship will start, it seems, forever: but it almost always happens that the one who makes friends will fight with them that same evening at a friendly feast. They are always talkers, revelers, reckless people, a prominent people. Sobakevich - portrait-comparison: “When Chichikov looked askance at Sobakevich, this time he seemed to him very similar to a medium-sized bear. To complete the resemblance, the tailcoat on him was completely bearish in color, the sleeves were long, the pantaloons were long, he stepped with his feet and at random and stepped incessantly on other people's legs.
The landscape occupies a significant place among Gogol's artistic details. So the descriptive landscape is visible in Manilov: “The village of Manilovka could hardly lure with its location. The master's house stood alone in the south, that is, on a hill, open to all the winds that it might take a fancy to blow; the slope of the mountain on which he stood was dressed in trimmed turf. Two or three flowerbeds with lilac bushes and yellow acacias were scattered on it in the English style; five or six birches in small clusters here and there raised small-leaved thin peaks. ”The psychological landscape can also be seen if we recall the weather that was when Chichikov Korobochka visited - it was night and it was pouring very heavy rain. It is also characteristic that Chichikov was going to go to Sobakevich, but got lost and ended up with Korobochka. All this did not bode well for Chichikov - it was Korobochka who later told about his strange transactions.
However, a significant place among the artistic details, along with the portrait, is occupied by the world of things. Gogol discovered an almost new function in the use of material details. But still I will designate this function as psychological. Thus, with the help of things, Plyushkin's features are revealed: “It seemed as if the floors were being washed in the house and all the furniture was piled up here for a while. On one table there was even a broken chair, and next to it was a clock with a stopped pendulum, to which a spider had already attached a web. Right there, leaning sideways against the wall, was a cupboard filled with antique silver, decanters, and Chinese china. On the bureau, lined with mother-of-pearl mosaics, which had already fallen out in places and left behind only yellowish grooves filled with glue, lay a lot of all sorts of things: a pile of finely written papers covered with a greenish marble press with an egg on top, some old book bound in leather with red cut, a lemon, all dried up, not more than a hazelnut, a broken armchair, a glass with some liquid and three flies, covered with a letter, a piece of sealing wax, a piece of a rag raised somewhere, two feathers stained with ink, dried up, as in consumption, a toothpick, completely yellowed, with which the owner, perhaps, picked his teeth even before the French invasion of Moscow.
Abstract chronotope of the poem. Gogol through the unnamed city N shows the whole of Russia.
The heroes of the poem are vividly characterized by their own speech. So Nozdrev has a very large vocabulary of different language environments. French barbarisms are found in his speech: “bezeshki”, “clicot-matradura”, “burdashka”, “scandalous”; jargon: “banchishka”, “galbik”, “password”, “break the bank”, “play doublet”; professionalism of dog breeding: "face", "barreled ribs", "breasty"; and a lot of vulgarisms: "svintus", "rascal", "you'll get the hell of a bald man", "fetyuk", "beast", "you are such a cattle breeder", "zhidomor", "scoundrel", "death do not like such thaws". Also in the work there are archaisms: “key-keeper”, “master”, “coachman”; and historicisms: "eighteen". Manilov’s speech is very rich in various tropes that serve to give speech sublimity, courtesy and courtesy: “observe delicacy in your actions”, “magnetism of the soul”, “name day of the heart”, “I do not have a high art of expressing myself”, “the chance brought me happiness” , "what grief I have not tasted."
The composition of the poem is distinguished by clarity and clarity: all parts are interconnected by the plot-forming hero Chichikov, traveling with the goal of getting "a million. In the first chapter, expositional, introductory, the author gives general characteristics provincial provincial city and introduces readers to the main characters of the poem.
The next five chapters (the plot and development of the action) are devoted to depicting landowners in their own family and everyday life in their estates. and his relationship with Chichikov. In this way, Gogol draws a whole gallery of landlords, in their totality recreating the general picture of serf society.
The culmination of the poem is the exposure of Chichikov, first by Nozdrev, and then by Korobochka. And the denouement falls on the flight of Chichikov from the city.
A significant place in the poem "Dead Souls" is occupied by digressions and inserted episodes, which is typical for the poem as literary genre. In them, Gogol deals with the most pressing Russian social issues. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are contrasted here with the gloomy pictures of Russian life.
The insert episode is "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin". The story of the heroic defender of the Fatherland, who became a victim of trampled justice, as if crowns the whole terrible picture of the local bureaucratic police Russia, painted in Dead Souls. The embodiment of arbitrariness and injustice is not only the provincial government, but also the metropolitan bureaucracy, the government itself. Through the mouth of the minister, the government renounces the defenders of the Fatherland, from true patriots, and, thereby, it exposes its anti-national essence - this is the thought in Gogol's work.
In the poem, the plot coincides with the plot. content conflict.
The system of characters was made on the principle of ever deeper spiritual impoverishment and moral decline from hero to hero. So, Manilov's economy "was somehow going by itself."
His estate is the front facade of landlord Russia. Pretensions to sophistication emphasize the emptiness of the inhabitants of the estate. A lonely house, rare lilac bushes, gray huts make a depressing impression. In the rooms next to expensive furniture there are armchairs covered with matting. But the owner does not understand, does not see the decline of his economy. By nature, Manilov is courteous, polite, but all this took on ridiculous forms with him. Sweetness, sentimentality are the essence of his character. Even Manilov's speech is too vague: "some sort of science," "that guy." He has done no good to anyone and lives on trifles. He does not know life, reality is replaced by empty fantasies. So, Manilov is a "so-so, neither this nor that" person.
Gogol called "Dead Souls" a poem, although this name did not formally correspond to the then understanding of the poem as a genre. A distinctive feature of the poem, Belinsky believed that it "embraces life in its external moments." This definition corresponded to the genre of the heroic epic poem, which is widespread in Russian literature.
AT literature XIX centuries before Gogol, a romantic poem was a great success, where attention was focused on a strong and proud personality, on her tragic fate in modern society.
Gogol's work does not look like a heroic epic, much less a romantic poem. It is no coincidence that the definition of "Dead Souls" as a poem was one of the reasons for the fierce attacks on Gogol by reactionary criticism, which sought to interpret the comic in Gogol as a caricature, satirical - as a result of the writer's coldness and dislike for the native or a penchant for jokes, wit, to mystify the reader.
There were also critics for whom the genre definition of Dead Souls served as an occasion for an enthusiastic apology for Gogol and his new creation. But such praise turned out to be more dangerous than the direct abuse of reactionary critics, because behind these praises was hidden the same desire to emasculate its critical, satirical pathos from the poem.
K. Aksakov put Gogol's poem on a par with the Iliad, proclaimed its creator a new Homer, reviving the ancient epic, and considered the novel affirmed in narrative literature to be nothing more than a crushing and degeneration of the ancient epic.
Belinsky, arguing with K. Aksakov about the genre nature of "Dead Souls", rejected his statement about "Dead Souls" as a kind of "Iliad" of the new time. The critic showed that the poem "Dead Souls" is diametrically opposed to the "Iliad", because in the "Iliad" life "is elevated to its apotheosis", and in "Dead Souls" it "decomposes and is denied." The great significance of Gogol's work, the critic wrote, lies in the fact that "life is hidden and dissected in it to the smallest detail, and these trifles are given a general meaning." Belinsky rejected Aksakov's statement about the modern novel as evidence of the shredding of the ancient epic. He pointed out that the most characteristic feature of the literature of modern times is the analysis of life, which found artistic expression precisely in the novel. The "Iliad" of Homer is an expression of the life of the ancient Greeks, their content in their form
Gogol's work, Belinsky wrote, presents a broad picture of the life of contemporary Russia. The very nature of the writer's ideological and artistic task comes primarily from Pushkin, who thought a lot about the past and about the paths of the historical development of his homeland. The scale of the problems of "Dead Souls" can be correlated with the problems of " Bronze Horseman” or philosophical letters of Chaadaev. The questions posed in them were key in the 1930s. They determined the demarcation of the fighting forces, and Gogol's poem sharpened and accelerated this demarcation. Gogol also took into account the traditions of the social and moral-descriptive novel of Russia and the West.
The plot of his poem is very simple: these are the adventures of Chichikov. “Pushkin found,” Gogol wrote, “that such a“ plot ”of Dead Souls is good for me because it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out many different characters.” Gogol himself also repeatedly stated that in order "to find out what Russia is today, you must certainly travel around it yourself." The task required the reproduction of a general picture of the life of autocratic serf Russia (“All Russia will appear in it”), and the appeal to the travel genre turned out to be natural and logical.
Chichikov's trips around Russia to buy up dead souls turned out to be a very capacious form for the artistic framing of the material. This form carried great cognitive interest, because not only Chichikov travels in the poem, but also invisible to him (but quite visible to the reader), the author travels with his hero. It is he who owns sketches of road landscapes, travel scenes, various information (geographical, ethnographic, economic, historical) about the “passing” area. These materials, which are integral components in the travel genre, serve in Dead Souls for the purposes of a more complete and concrete depiction of Russian life in those years.
It is the author, meeting with representatives of the landlord, bureaucratic and popular world, who creates the richest gallery of portraits-characters of landowners, officials, peasants, combining them into a single, coherent picture, in which everything serves to reveal the springs of people's actions and intentions, motivate them with circumstances and psychology of the characters any turn in the plot. "Dead Souls" is an artistic study, where everything seems to be calculated, each chapter has its own subject. But at the same time, all sorts of inconsistencies and surprises burst into this strictly verified scheme. They are in the descriptions, and in the alternation of plans, stories, in the very nature of Chichikov’s “negotion”, in its development, in the opinions of the inhabitants of the city N about it. that these inconsistencies, alogisms are characteristic features of Russian life, and not so much Chichikov with his fraudulent "passages", as a huge epic theme, the theme of Russia is the essence of the work, and this theme is present on all pages of the poem, and not only in lyrical digressions. That is why it is impossible to consider the characters of "Dead Souls" separately. Take them "out of context, environment, the whole mass actors poem means to cut it into pieces and thereby kill its meaning, ”says the Soviet researcher of Gogol’s work ( Gukovsky G. L. Gogol's realism. M., 1959, pp. 485-486).
The author, filling his journey with great social and patriotic content, undoubtedly relies on Fonvizin ("Letters from abroad"), Radishchev ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow"), Pushkin ("Onegin's Journey").
But Dead Souls is not a novel of adventure or travel. There is no complication of the plot here, just as there is no violation of life and artistic logic. The work does not tell about the life and suffering of one hero like Onegin or Pechorin. It does not contain the poetry of love, which plays such an important role in the development of the plot in the novels "Eugene Onegin", "A Hero of Our Time". Gogol in Dead Souls breaks with the family plot structure and begins another, new type of Russian novel. Although his work depicts private life, flowing in the "everyday life", but it flows in the social "everyday life". The writer consciously refuses the love plot and love affair developed over the centuries. Revealing the ugliness of contemporary Russian life, he shows that it is not love, not passion, but base, vulgar "excitement" - and the strongest of them: "money capital, profitable marriage" - turn out to be the main incentive for the behavior of the "dead souls" of the landowners and bureaucrats. peace.
A look at life through “laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears”, the depth of the artist’s penetration into reality, its harsh and uncompromising analysis, the civic pathos that fills the work, the tragic meaning of the comic – all these qualities are inherent in a realistic novel. Thus, Gogol's work is the largest achievement of Russian literature and constitutes a new link in the history of Russian literature. realistic novel XIX century.
With particular force, Belinsky emphasized the satirical, critical pathos of Dead Souls, directed against Russian feudal reality.
Considering the measure of the "dignity of a poetic work to be true to its reality," Belinsky pointed out the irreparable mistake of the general plan of "Dead Souls" as a poem, declaring the impossibility of realizing this plan by means of realism, because "the substance of the people" can be the subject of a poem as an epic work "only in its own reasonable definition, when it is something positive and real, and not conjectural and conjectural, when it is already past and present, and not only future” ( Belinsky V. G. Full coll. op. in 13 vols. M., 1956, vol. VI, p. 420). And yet Belinsky nowhere calls Dead Souls a novel.
O genre originality works of Gogol JI. Tolstoy said: “I think that every great artist should create his own forms. If the content works of art can be infinitely varied, so is their form ... let's take Gogol's "Dead Souls". What's this? Not a novel, not a short story. Something completely original."
Why did Gogol call "Dead Souls" a poem? In the words "poetry" and "prose" he put a broader meaning than "verse" and "prose": and the prose kind, he said, "can imperceptibly rise to a poetic state and harmony", which is why a number of works written in prose can be attributed to works of poetry.
Gogol divides narrative literature into types and genres depending on the breadth of coverage of reality. Narrative literature is all the more significant, the more convincingly the poet proves his idea not by direct statements from himself, but by living persons, “each of which, with its truthfulness and true chip from nature, captivates the reader’s attention.” The work from this does not at all lose its educational, "didactic" value. Moreover, the more natural, vitally true events will unfold in it, the more effective its educational value.
Gogol was not satisfied with the existing forms of literature (novel, story, drama, ballad, poem). He opposes unprincipled works, where the lack of thought is covered by the spectacular incidents or copying nature, and the author appears as a simple descriptor.
The most complete and greatest creation of narrative literature, according to Gogol, is the poetic epic. Its hero is always a significant person who comes into contact with many people, events, and phenomena. The epic "embraces" not individual features of life - it finds its expression "the whole epoch of time", among which the hero acted, with a way of thinking, beliefs, with the entire amount of knowledge that mankind had reached by that time. The epic is the highest form of art, which does not grow old either in its cognitive or in its aesthetic essence, since it gives a picture of the life of an entire people, and sometimes of many peoples. The brightest example of the epic is the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer.
The novel in Gogol's view can also be a poetic phenomenon. But it is not an epic, since it does not depict the whole of life, but is limited only to an incident in life - albeit so significant that it made "life appear in a brilliant form, despite the agreed space."
But Gogol found that in modern times another, completely special kind of narrative literature had appeared, constituting "as it were, the core between the novel and the epic" - the so-called "small kind of epic." The hero in the "small epic" is a private, invisible person who does not have many connections with people, events and phenomena of the era, but still significant "in many respects for the observer of the human soul." There is no worldwide coverage of phenomena, as in the epic, nevertheless, the "small epic" pushes the genre boundaries of the novel. The novel, but the thoughts of Gogol, is constrained in its possibilities by a limited circle of persons chosen for depiction, by the movement of the plot and by the narrowness of space. In the novel, the author cannot dispose of the characters at his own discretion, their connections and relationships between themselves and the outside world are determined by the incident in which they are “entangled” and which should reveal human characters. That is why in a novel everything must be strictly thought out: the plot, the events, the characters.
The "Small epic" knows no such restrictions and, unlike the novel, carries "the full epic volume". It is achieved by the fact that the author leads the hero “through the chain of adventures and changes” in order to provide the reader with “a true picture of everything significant in the features and customs of the time he took”. Such a work is a wide canvas of life, has a free composition. It will also include a large number of characters, many of whom are not very closely connected with the main character, with his fate. In such a work, the descriptive epic element is organically combined with the lyrical element, for life is also revealed through the author's experiences. Finally, such a work is also inspired by a lofty goal, since its tasks include the author's desire to attract the "look of an observant contemporary" who is looking for "life lessons for the present" in the past. It, according to Gogol's deepest conviction, is a poetic creation, although it is written in prose.
It is easy to see that the listed features of the "small epic" can be attributed to "Dead Souls", because in this work "a picture of shortcomings, vices and everything that Gogol saw" in the taken era and time "is statistically captured.
"Dead Souls" is a new stage in the development of the poem. This is a realistic poem-novel, where a monolithic picture of the whole is given, where each episode is large-scale, as it is one of the moments in the great story about the endless content of human life. So, Proshka, an episodic person, appears in the poem only once, but he allows the reader to see the homeless, joyless, cursed life of thousands of boys in the hallway, in the hall of the landowner, running errands from the official. And Manilov, and Korobochka, and Plyushkin also represent truly mournful pages from a huge book that tells about what lies in wait for a person in his life destiny. .
Citing Gogol's formula "laughter through tears", researchers usually have in mind the bitterness that filled the mind and heart of the writer at the sight of untruth and evil reigning in the world, distorting human nature.
We believe that this is only one side of the matter. There is another - "laughter" and "tears" stand in the same emotional row, as if equalized with each other. The tears that appear in the eyes of the satirist may also be tears of delight, may be caused by the realization, as Saltykov-Shchedrin said, that the vice has been guessed and laughter has already been heard about it.
Gogol's book is permeated with active humanism. There is no indifference in it, a light display of life. It contains artistic and life truth in its harsh, sometimes bitter and cruel impartiality. The cry of the heart in the chapter about Plyushkin is one of the manifestations of the writer's humanistic aspirations, evidence of his deep love for man, faith in the victory of the bright in people. To understand Gogol means to show sensitivity to the spiritual world of man, to see the extraordinary in the ordinary, the sublime in the earthly. In his book, the great idea of humanity triumphs, humanity - the idea is basically beautiful and life-affirming, expressed through concrete images and facts. "Dead Souls" is an effective book, it awakened the conscience of people, called to destroy the evil, vulgar, shameful in life.
In "Dead Souls" negative characters act in the foreground, the deathly insensitivity of the ruling exploiting class, which held back the economic and cultural development of the country, is exposed with great force, but the title of the work does not reveal its theme, for the true epic image in it is the image of the native land. The hero of the work is the people, disenfranchised, downtrodden, being in slavery and yet fraught with inexhaustible forces. Through the whole poem, on the one hand, passes the Russia of the Sobakeviches, the Plyushkins, the Nozdrevs, the Chichikovs - Russia, every minute standing before our eyes, although strong, but dead; on the other hand, the Russia of the future is mighty and beautiful, a living Russia, rapidly rushing into the unknown "sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth."
In the work, therefore, there are two planes, both of them in their development and movement enter into a complex interaction. But the direction of their movement is the same—to the death of the “dead souls” of Russia, the landowners and officials, and to the triumph of the living souls of the people’s Russia. This makes the poem a work of major, optimistic. Real Russia is embodied in a whole gallery of "cold, fragmented everyday characters" - landowners, officials, Chichikov. Russia of the future emerges from the lyrical digressions with which the composition of the poem is "layered" and which constitute the integral beginning of its poetic structure.
The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Dead Souls" is one of the most striking works of the author. This poem, the plot of which is connected with the description of the Russian reality of the 19th century, is of great value for Russian literature. It was also significant for Gogol himself. No wonder he called it a "national poem" and explained that in this way he tried to expose the shortcomings Russian Empire and then change the face of their homeland for the better.
Birth of a genre
The idea that Gogol wrote "Dead Souls" was suggested to the author by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Initially, the work was conceived as a light humorous novel. However, after the start of work on the work Dead Souls, the genre in which the text was originally supposed to be presented was changed.
The fact is that Gogol considered the plot to be very original and gave the presentation a different, deeper meaning. As a result, a year after the start of work on the work Dead Souls, its genre became more extensive. The author decided that his offspring should be nothing more than a poem.
Main idea
The writer divided his work into 3 parts. In the first of them, he decided to point out all the shortcomings that took place in contemporary society. In the second part, he planned to show how the process of correcting people takes place, and in the third part, the life of the heroes who have already changed for the better.
In 1841 Gogol completed the first volume of Dead Souls. The plot of the book shocked the entire reading country, causing a lot of controversy. After the release of the first part, the author began work on the continuation of his poem. However, he was never able to finish what he started. The second volume of the poem seemed to him imperfect, and nine days before his death he burned the only copy of the manuscript. For us, only drafts of the first five chapters have been preserved, which today are considered a separate work.
Unfortunately, the trilogy was never completed. But the poem "Dead Souls" should have had a significant meaning. Its main purpose was to describe the movement of the soul, which went through a fall, purification, and then rebirth. This path to the ideal had to be passed by the main character of the poem, Chichikov.
Plot
The story told in the first volume of Dead Souls takes us to the nineteenth century. It tells about a journey through Russia undertaken by the main character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov to acquire the so-called dead souls from the landowners. The plot of the work provides the reader with a complete picture of the customs and life of the people of that time.
Let's look at the chapters of "Dead Souls" with their plot in a little more detail. This will give a general idea of \u200b\u200ba bright literary work.
Chapter first. Start
How does the work "Dead Souls" begin? The theme raised in it describes the events that took place at the time when the French were finally expelled from the territory of Russia.
At the beginning of the story, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who served as a collegiate adviser, arrived in one of the provincial cities. When analyzing "Dead Souls", the image of the protagonist becomes clear. The author shows him as a middle-aged man with an average build and good looks. Pavel Ivanovich is extremely inquisitive. There are situations when you can even talk about his importunity and annoying. So, at the tavern servant, he is interested in the income of the owner, and also tries to find out about all the officials of the city and about the most noble landowners. He is also interested in the state of the region to which he arrived.
The collegiate adviser does not sit alone. He visits all officials, finding the right approach to them and choosing words that are pleasant for people. That is why they treat him just as well, which even surprises Chichikov a little, who has experienced many negative reactions towards himself and even survived the assassination attempt.
The main purpose of Pavel Ivanovich's arrival is to find a place for a quiet life. To do this, when attending a party in the governor's house, he meets two landowners - Manilov and Sobakevich. At a dinner at the police chief's, Chichikov became friends with the landowner Nozdrev.
Chapter two. Manilov
The continuation of the plot is connected with Chichikov's trip to Manilov. The landowner met the official on the threshold of his estate and led him into the house. The road to Manilov's dwelling lay among the pavilions, on which signs were hung with inscriptions indicating that these were places for reflection and solitude.
Analyzing "Dead Souls", Manilov can be easily characterized by this decoration. This is a landowner who has no problems, but at the same time is too cloying. Manilov says that the arrival of such a guest is comparable for him to a sunny day and the happiest holiday. He invites Chichikov to dine. The mistress of the estate and the two sons of the landowner, Themistoclus and Alkid, are present at the table.
After a hearty dinner, Pavel Ivanovich decides to tell about the reason that brought him to these parts. Chichikov wants to buy peasants who have already died, but their death has not yet been reflected in the audit certificate. His goal is to draw up all the documents, supposedly these peasants are still alive.
How does Manilov react to this? He has dead souls. However, the landowner is initially surprised by such a proposal. But then he agrees to the deal. Chichikov leaves the estate and goes to Sobakevich. Meanwhile, Manilov begins to dream about how Pavel Ivanovich will live next door to him and what good friends they will be after his move.
Chapter three. Getting to know the Box
On the way to Sobakevich, Selifan (Chichikov's coachman) accidentally missed the right turn. And then it began to rain heavily, besides, Chichikov fell into the mud. All this forces the official to look for lodging for the night, which he found at the landowner Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka. Analysis of "Dead Souls" indicates that this lady is afraid of everything and everyone. However, Chichikov did not waste time in vain and offered to purchase deceased peasants from her. At first, the old woman was intractable, but after a visiting official promised to buy all the lard and hemp from her (but next time), she agrees.
The deal went through. The box treated Chichikov with pancakes and pies. Pavel Ivanovich, having eaten a hearty meal, drove on. And the landowner became very worried that she took little money for dead souls.
Chapter Four. Nozdrev
After visiting Korobochka, Chichikov drove out onto the main road. He decided to visit an inn along the way to have a bite to eat. And here the author wanted to give this action a certain mystery. He makes lyrical digressions. In Dead Souls, he reflects on the properties of appetite inherent in people like the protagonist of his work.
While in the tavern, Chichikov meets Nozdryov. The landowner complained that he had lost money at the fair. Then they follow to the estate of Nozdrev, where Pavel Ivanovich intends to profit well.
By analyzing "Dead Souls", you can understand what Nozdrev is. This is a man who loves all sorts of stories. He tells them everywhere, wherever he is. After a hearty dinner, Chichikov decides to bargain. However, Pavel Ivanovich cannot beg for dead souls or buy them. Nozdrev sets his own conditions, which consist in an exchange or in a purchase in addition to something. The landowner even offers to use dead souls as a bet in the game.
Serious disagreements arise between Chichikov and Nozdryov, and they postpone the conversation until morning. The next day, the men agreed to play checkers. However, Nozdryov tried to deceive his opponent, which was noticed by Chichikov. In addition, it turned out that the landowner was on trial. And Chichikov had no choice but to run when he saw the police captain.
Chapter five. Sobakevich
Sobakevich continues the images of the landowners in Dead Souls. It is to him that Chichikov comes after Nozdryov. The estate he visited is a match for his master. Just as strong. The host treats the guest to dinner, talking during the meal about city officials, calling them all swindlers.
Chichikov talks about his plans. They did not frighten Sobakevich at all, and the men quickly moved on to making a deal. However, trouble began for Chichikov. Sobakevich began to bargain, talking about the most best qualities dead peasants. However, Chichikov does not need such characteristics, and he insists on his own. And here Sobakevich begins to hint at the illegality of such a deal, threatening to tell whoever needs to know about it. Chichikov had to agree to the price offered by the landowner. They sign the document, still fearing a dirty trick from each other.
There are lyrical digressions in "Dead Souls" in the fifth chapter. The author finishes the story about Chichikov's visit to Sobakevich with a discussion about the Russian language. Gogol emphasizes the diversity, strength and richness of the Russian language. Here he points to the peculiarity of our people to give each nickname associated with various misconduct or with the course of circumstances. They do not leave their master until his death.
Chapter six. Plushkin
Very interesting hero is Plushkin. "Dead Souls" shows him as a very greedy person. The landowner does not even throw away his old sole, which has fallen off his boot, and carries it into a rather decent pile of such rubbish.
However plushkin dead soul sells very quickly and without bargaining. Pavel Ivanovich is very happy about this and refuses the tea with cracker offered by the owner.
Chapter seven. Deal
Having reached his original goal, Chichikov is sent to the civil chamber to finally resolve the issue. Manilov and Sobakevich have already arrived in the city. The chairman agrees to become an attorney for Plyushkin and all other sellers. The deal went through, and champagne was opened for the health of the new landowner.
Chapter eight. Rumors. Ball
The city began to discuss Chichikov. Many thought he was a millionaire. The girls began to go crazy for him and send love messages. Once at the ball to the governor, he literally finds himself in the arms of the ladies. However, a sixteen-year-old blonde catches his attention. At this time, Nozdryov comes to the ball, loudly interested in buying dead souls. Chichikov had to leave in complete confusion and sadness.
Chapter nine. Benefit or love?
At this time, the landowner Korobochka arrived in the city. She decided to check if she had miscalculated with the cost of dead souls. The news about the amazing sale and purchase becomes the property of the residents of the city. People believe that dead souls are a cover for Chichikov, but in fact he dreams of taking away the blonde he likes, who is the daughter of the governor.
Chapter ten. Versions
The city literally revived. The news comes one after another. In them in question about the appointment of a new governor, about the presence of supporting papers about fake banknotes, about an insidious robber who escaped from the police, etc. There are many versions, and they all relate to Chichikov's personality. The excitation of people negatively affects the prosecutor. He dies on impact.
Chapter Eleven. Purpose of the event
Chichikov does not know what the city is talking about him. He goes to the governor, but he is not received there. In addition, people who meet him on the way shy away from the official in different directions. Everything becomes clear after Nozdryov comes to the hotel. The landowner tries to convince Chichikov that he was trying to help him kidnap the governor's daughter.
And here Gogol decides to tell about his hero and why Chichikov is buying up dead souls. The author tells the reader about childhood and schooling, where Pavel Ivanovich already showed the ingenuity given to him by nature. Gogol also tells about Chichikov's relationship with his comrades and teachers, about his service and work in the commission, which was located in the government building, as well as about the transition to service in customs.
The analysis of "Dead Souls" clearly indicates the makings of the protagonist, which he used to complete his deal described in the work. Indeed, at all places of work, Pavel Ivanovich managed to make a lot of money by concluding fake contracts and collusion. In addition, he did not disdain to work with smuggling. In order to avoid criminal punishment, Chichikov resigned. Having gone to work as an attorney, he immediately put together an insidious plan in his head. Chichikov wanted to buy dead souls in order to pawn, as if alive, into the treasury for the sake of receiving money. Further in his plans was the purchase of a village for the sake of providing future offspring.
In part, Gogol justifies his hero. He considers him the owner, who built such an entertaining chain of transactions with his mind.
Images of landlords
These heroes of "Dead Souls" are especially vividly presented in five chapters. Moreover, each of them is dedicated to only one landowner. There is a certain pattern in the placement of chapters. The images of the landlords of "Dead Souls" are arranged in them according to the degree of their degradation. Let's remember who was the first of them? Manilov. Dead Souls describes this landowner as lazy and dreamy, sentimental and practically unadapted to life. This is confirmed by many details, for example, the farm that has fallen into disrepair and the house standing southward, open to all winds. The author, using the amazing artistic power of the word, shows his reader the deadness of Manilov and his worthlessness. life path. After all, behind external attractiveness there is a spiritual emptiness.
What other vivid images are created in the work "Dead Souls"? Heroes-landlords in the image of the Box are people who are focused only on their household. Not without reason, at the end of the third chapter, the author draws an analogy of this landowner with all aristocratic ladies. The box is distrustful and stingy, superstitious and stubborn. In addition, she is narrow-minded, petty and narrow-minded.
Next in terms of degradation is Nozdrev. Like many other landowners, he does not change with age, without even trying to develop internally. The image of Nozdryov embodies a portrait of a reveler and a braggart, a drunkard and a cheater. This landowner is passionate and energetic, but all his positive qualities are wasted. The image of Nozdryov is as typical as the previous landowners. And this is emphasized by the author in his statements.
Describing Sobakevich, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol resorts to comparing him with a bear. In addition to clumsiness, the author describes his parodic inverted heroic power, earthiness and rudeness.
But the ultimate degree of degradation is described by Gogol in the form of the richest landowner in the province - Plyushkin. During his biography, this man went from a thrifty owner to a half-crazy miser. And it was not social conditions that brought him to this state. Plyushkin's moral decline provoked loneliness.
Thus, all the landlords in the poem "Dead Souls" are united by such features as idleness and inhumanity, as well as spiritual emptiness. And he opposes this world of truly "dead souls" with faith in the inexhaustible potential of the "mysterious" Russian people. Not without reason, in the finale of the work, an image of an endless road appears, along which a trinity bird rushes. And in this movement, the writer's confidence in the possibility of the spiritual transformation of mankind and in the great destiny of Russia is manifested.
