Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most mysterious writers of the 19th century. His life and work is full of mysticism and secrets. Our article will help you prepare well for a literature lesson, for the exam, test tasks, creative work by poem. When analyzing Gogol's work "Dead Souls" in the 9th grade, it is important to rely on additional material to get acquainted with the history of creation, problems, figure out which artistic means the author uses. In "Dead Souls" the analysis is specific due to the content scale and compositional features works.
Brief analysis
Year of writing– 1835 -1842 The first volume was published in 1842.
History of creation- the idea of the plot was suggested to Gogol by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The author has been working on the poem for about 17 years.
Topic- the customs and life of landlords in Rus' in the 30s of the 19th century, a gallery of human vices.
Composition- 11 chapters of the first volume, united by the image of the main character - Chichikov. Several chapters of the second volume that survived and were found and published.
Direction- realism. The poem also has romantic features, but they are secondary.
History of creation
Nikolai Vasilievich wrote his immortal brainchild for about 17 years. He considered this work the most important mission in his life. The history of the creation of "Dead Souls" is full of gaps and mysteries, as well as mystical coincidences. In the process of working on the work, the author fell seriously ill, being on the verge of death, he was suddenly miraculously healed. Gogol took this fact as a sign from above, which gave him a chance to finish his main work.
The idea of "Dead Souls" and the very fact of their existence as a social phenomenon was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. It was Alexander Sergeevich, according to the author, who gave him the idea to write a large-scale work that could reveal the whole essence of the Russian soul. The poem was conceived as a work in three volumes. The first volume (published in 1842) was conceived as a collection of human vices, the second one made it possible for the heroes to realize their mistakes, and in the third volume they change and find the way to a right life.
While in work, the work was corrected many times by the author, its main idea, characters, plot changed, only the essence was preserved: the problematics and plan of the work. Gogol finished the second volume of Dead Souls shortly before his death, but according to some reports, he himself destroyed this book. According to other sources, it was given by the author to Tolstoy or someone close to him, and then lost. There is an opinion that this manuscript is still kept by the descendants of the high society of Gogol's environment and will someday be found. The author did not have time to write the third volume, but there is information about its intended content from reliable sources, a future book, its idea and general characteristics discussed in literary circles.
Topic
The meaning of the name“Dead Souls” is twofold: this phenomenon itself is the sale of dead serf souls, rewriting them and transferring them to another owner and the image of people like Plyushkin, Manilov, Sobakevich - their souls are dead, the characters are deeply soulless, vulgar and immoral.
main topic"Dead Souls" - the vices and customs of society, the life of a Russian person in the 1830s of the 19th century. The problems that the author raises in the poem are as old as the world, but they are shown and revealed in the way that is characteristic of a researcher of human characters and souls: subtly and on a grand scale.
Main character- Chichikov buys from the landowners long-dead, but still registered serfs, who he needs only on paper. In this way, he plans to get rich by getting paid for them in the board of trustees. The interaction and cooperation of Chichikov with the same swindlers and charlatans, like himself, becomes the central theme of the poem. The desire to get rich in all possible ways is characteristic not only of Chichikov, but also of many heroes of the poem - this is the disease of the century. What Gogol's poem teaches is between the lines of the book - Russian people are characterized by adventurism and craving for "light bread".
The conclusion is unequivocal: the most correct way is to live according to the laws, in harmony with conscience and heart.
Composition
The poem consists of the complete first volume and several surviving chapters of the second volume. The composition is subordinated to the main goal - to reveal a picture of Russian life, contemporary to the author, to create a gallery of typical characters. The poem consists of 11 chapters, full of lyrical digressions, philosophical reasoning and wonderful descriptions of nature.
All this from time to time breaks through the main plot and gives the work a unique lyricism. The work ends with a colorful lyrical reflection on the future of Russia, its strength and power.
Initially, the book was conceived as a satirical work, this influenced the overall composition. In the first chapter, the author introduces the reader to the inhabitants of the city, with the main character - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. From the second to the sixth chapters, the author gives portrait characteristic landlords, their unique way of life, a kaleidoscope of quirks and customs. The next four chapters describe the life of bureaucracy: bribery, arbitrariness and tyranny, gossip, the way of life of a typical Russian city.
main characters
Genre
To define the genre of "Dead Souls", you need to turn to history. Gogol himself defined it as a "poem", although the structure and scale of the narrative are close to the story and the novel. A prose work is called a poem because of its lyricism: a large number of lyrical digressions, remarks and comments of the author. It is also worth considering that Gogol drew a parallel between his offspring and Pushkin's poem "Eugene Onegin": the latter is considered a novel in verse, and "Dead Souls" - on the contrary, a poem in prose.
The author emphasizes the equivalence of the epic and lyrical in his work. Critics take a different view of genre features poems. For example, V. G. Belinsky called the work a novel and it is customary to reckon with this opinion, since it is quite justified. But according to tradition, Gogol's work is called a poem.
Artwork test
Analysis Rating
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Determining the main idea of the poem "Dead Souls" is not entirely simple. This is explained, first of all, by the fact that we now have only a small part of this work - only the first part, and separate scattered pieces of the second - something that was not destroyed by Gogol himself. So judge everything ideological content work we do not have the opportunity. And then the position of the critic is hampered by the fact that he has at his disposal the interpretations that the author himself gave to Dead Souls, and the promises that he wanted to fulfill at the end of the poem, but did not have time. By Gogol's own admission, at first he himself wrote without any serious goals. Pushkin gave him a plot grateful for his talent; Gogol was carried away by the comedy of those provisions that were easily woven into this plot - and began to write a “caricature”, “without defining a detailed plan for himself, without giving himself an account of what the hero himself should be like. I simply thought, - says Gogol, - that the ridiculous project, the execution of which Chichikov is busy with, will lead me to various faces and characters. This free, purely artistic creativity helped Gogol to create the best pages of the first part of Dead Souls - those pages that caused Pushkin to exclaim: “Lord! how sad is Rus'. This exclamation struck Gogol - he saw that something large, ideologically meaningful could come out of the "prank" of his pen, from his playful, frivolous work. And so, encouraged by Pushkin, he decided to show in "Dead Souls" "from one side of Russia", that is, more fully than in "The Inspector General", to depict the negative aspects of Russian life.
The deeper Gogol went into his work, the weaker Pushkin's influence became; the more independent Gogol's attitude to his work became, the more complex, artificial, and tendentious his plans became. First of all, he was imbued with the idea of expanding the limits of what was depicted - he wanted to show Russia not “from one side”, but in its entirety - evil and good, concluded in her life; then he began to think about a "plan" for his already begun work - he asked himself "anxious questions about the" purpose "and" meaning "of his work. And then the poem "Dead Souls" in his imagination grew into three parts. He probably later saw in it an allegorical meaning. According to his idea, the three parts of Dead Souls should, in their finished form, correspond to the three parts of The Divine Comedy by Dante: the first part, dedicated to depicting only evil, should have corresponded to Hell; the second part, where evil was not so disgusting, where a gap begins in the soul of the hero, where some positive types are already being deduced - would correspond to "Purgatory", - and, finally, in the final third part, Gogol wanted to present in the apotheosis all that good that was in the soul of the "Russian man" - this part had to correspond to "Paradise". Thus, that artificial, cumbersome construction of Dead Souls appeared, that cunning systematization of material that Gogol could not cope with.
But, besides this thoughtful composition, Gogol was also prevented from creating freely by a moral tendency. All the growing concerns about his "spiritual business", about the purification of his heart, had a detrimental effect on his work. And so, “Dead Souls” gradually turned into some kind of “sewer pipe”, where he poured their imaginary and real "vices". “My heroes are close to the soul, he says, because they are from the soul, all of my recent compositions is the story of my own soul. He himself admitted that when the desire to get rid of various spiritual vices intensified in him, he “began to endow his heroes, in addition to their own “nasty things” - with their own. And, according to him, it helped him to become better himself ...
So, Gogol himself gives us three interpretations of the idea of "Dead Souls" - 1) its beginning (the first part) - a simple image of peculiar faces and characters taken from Russian life. A characteristic feature that unites almost all the heroes of the first part is the bleak vulgarity, the complete unconsciousness of life, the misunderstanding of its goals and meaning: from "this side" he introduced " Russian society”, 2) the work “Dead Souls” was supposed to cover the whole of Russia - all the evil and good contained in it. In such a broad interpretation of Russian reality, Gogol saw "service" to his homeland - and 3) this work was supposed to serve him personally, in the matter of his spiritual self-improvement. He looked at himself as a “moralist” who would not only point out to fellow citizens the evil that certain vicious figures bring into life, but also draw those ideals that would save the homeland.
The idea of "Dead Souls" from the point of view of criticism and the reader
It is easy to understand that now this author’s idea is not entirely clear to the reader of Dead Souls: he has before his eyes only the first part of the poem, in which only random promises flash that in the future the story will take on a different character, to the personal “spiritual affair The writer doesn't care about the reader. Therefore, it was necessary to judge the work, leaving the author's intentions, without delving into his soul. And so, modern and subsequent criticism, contrary to Gogol, itself determined the idea of the work. As earlier in The Inspector General, so in Dead Souls, the author’s desire to point out the disgrace of Russian life, which, on the one hand, depended on serfdom, on the other hand, on the system of government in Russia, was seen. Thus, the idea of "Dead Souls" was recognized by the majority as accusatory, the author is ranked among the noble satirists who boldly castigate the evil of modern reality. In a word, the same thing happened that happened before with The Inspector General: 1) the author had one idea, and the results of his work led to conclusions that he did not want at all, did not expect ... 2) both regarding the "Inspector General" and With regard to Dead Souls, we have to establish the idea of the work not only without the help of the author, but even against his wishes: we must see in this work a picture of the negative aspects of Russian life, and in this picture, in its illumination, see the great social meaning of the work.
poem " Dead Souls”was conceived by Gogol as a grandiose panorama of Russian society with all its peculiarities and paradoxes. The central problem of the work is the spiritual death and rebirth of representatives of the main Russian estates of that time. The author denounces and ridicules the vices of the landowners, venality and pernicious passions of bureaucracy.
The title itself has a double meaning. "Dead Souls" are not only dead peasants, but also other actually living characters of the work. Calling them dead, Gogol emphasizes their devastated, miserable, "dead" little souls.
History of creation
"Dead Souls" is a poem to which Gogol devoted a significant part of his life. The author repeatedly changed the concept, rewrote and reworked the work. Gogol originally conceived Dead Souls as a humorous novel. However, in the end, I decided to create a work that exposes the problems of Russian society and will serve its spiritual revival. And so the POEM "Dead Souls" appeared.
Gogol wanted to create three volumes of the work. In the first, the author planned to describe the vices and decay of the feudal society of that time. In the second, give your heroes hope for redemption and rebirth. And in the third I intended to describe the future path of Russia and its society.
However, Gogol managed to finish only the first volume, which appeared in print in 1842. Until his death, Nikolai Vasilievich worked on the second volume. However, just before his death, the author burned the manuscript of the second volume.
The third volume of Dead Souls was never written. Gogol could not find an answer to the question of what would happen next with Russia. Or maybe I just didn't have time to write about it.
Description of the work
One day, in the city of NN appeared very interesting character, which stands out against the background of other old-timers of the city - Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. After his arrival, he began to actively get acquainted with important people of the city, attended feasts and dinners. A week later, the visitor was already on "you" with all representatives of the city's nobility. Everyone was delighted with the new person who suddenly appeared in the city.
Pavel Ivanovich goes out of town to pay visits to noble landowners: Manilov, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdrev and Plyushkin. With each landowner, he is kind, trying to find an approach to everyone. Natural resourcefulness and resourcefulness help Chichikov to get the location of each landowner. In addition to empty talk, Chichikov talks with the gentlemen about the peasants who died after the revision (“dead souls”) and expresses a desire to buy them. The landowners cannot understand why Chichikov needs such a deal. However, they agree to it.
As a result of his visits, Chichikov acquired more than 400 "dead souls" and was in a hurry to finish his business and leave the city. Useful acquaintances made by Chichikov upon arrival in the city helped him settle all the issues with the documents.
After some time, the landowner Korobochka let slip in the city that Chichikov was buying up "dead souls." The whole city found out about the affairs of Chichikov and was perplexed. Why would such a respected gentleman buy dead peasants? Endless rumors and conjectures have a detrimental effect even on the prosecutor, and he dies of fear.
The poem ends with Chichikov hurriedly leaving the city. Leaving the city, Chichikov sadly recalls his plans to buy dead souls and pledge them to the treasury as living ones.
main characters
A qualitatively new hero in Russian literature of that time. Chichikov can be called a representative of the newest class that is just emerging in serf Russia - entrepreneurs, "purchasers". The activity and activity of the hero favorably distinguishes him from the background of other characters in the poem.
The image of Chichikov is distinguished by its incredible versatility, diversity. Even by the appearance of the hero, it is difficult to immediately understand what a person is and what he is like. “In the britzka sat a gentleman who was not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin, one cannot say that he was old, but not so much that he was too young.”
It is difficult to understand and embrace the nature of the protagonist. He is changeable, many-sided, able to adapt to any interlocutor, to give the face the desired expression. Thanks to these qualities, Chichikov easily finds a common language with landowners, officials and wins the right position in society. Chichikov uses the ability to charm and win over the right people to achieve his goal, namely, obtaining and accumulating money. Even his father taught Pavel Ivanovich to deal with those who are richer and take care of money, since only money can pave the way in life.
Chichikov did not earn money honestly: he deceived people, took bribes. Over time, Chichikov's machinations are gaining more and more scope. Pavel Ivanovich seeks to increase his fortune by any means, not paying attention to any moral norms and principles.
Gogol defines Chichikov as a man with a vile nature and also considers his soul to be dead.
In his poem, Gogol describes the typical images of the landlords of that time: "business executives" (Sobakevich, Korobochka), as well as not serious and wasteful gentlemen (Manilov, Nozdrev).
Nikolai Vasilievich masterfully created the image of the landowner Manilov in the work. By this image alone, Gogol meant a whole class of landowners with similar features. The main qualities of these people are sentimentality, constant fantasies and lack of activity. The landlords of such a warehouse let the economy take its course, do nothing useful. They are stupid and empty inside. This is exactly what Manilov was like - in his soul not a bad, but mediocre and stupid poseur.
Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka
The landowner, however, differs significantly in character from Manilov. Korobochka is a good and tidy mistress, everything in her estate is going well. However, the landowner's life revolves exclusively around her household. The box does not develop spiritually, it is not interested in anything. She does not understand absolutely anything that does not concern her economy. The box is also one of the images by which Gogol meant a whole class of similar limited landowners who see nothing beyond their household.
The author unequivocally classifies the landowner Nozdrev as not a serious and wasteful gentlemen. Unlike the sentimental Manilov, Nozdryov is full of energy. However, the landowner uses this energy not for the benefit of the economy, but for the sake of his momentary pleasures. Nozdryov plays, wastes money. It is distinguished by its frivolity and idle attitude to life.
Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich
The image of Sobakevich, created by Gogol, echoes the image of a bear. There is something from a large wild beast in the appearance of the landowner: sluggishness, sedateness, strength. Sobakevich is not concerned about the aesthetic beauty of the things around him, but their reliability and durability. Behind the rough appearance and harsh character lies a cunning, intelligent and resourceful person. According to the author of the poem, it will not be difficult for such landowners as Sobakevich to adapt to the changes and reforms coming in Rus'.
The most unusual representative of the class of landowners in Gogol's poem. The old man is distinguished by his extreme stinginess. Moreover, Plyushkin is greedy not only in relation to his peasants, but also in relation to himself. However, such savings make Plushkin a truly poor man. After all, it is his stinginess that does not allow him to find a family.
officialdom
Gogol in the work has a description of several city officials. However, the author in his work does not significantly differentiate them from each other. All officials in "Dead Souls" are a gang of thieves, crooks and embezzlers. These people really care only about their enrichment. Gogol literally describes in a few lines the image of a typical official of that time, rewarding him with the most unflattering qualities.
Analysis of the work
The plot of "Dead Souls" is based on an adventure conceived by Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. At first glance, Chichikov's plan seems incredible. However, if you look at it, the Russian reality of those times, with its rules and laws, provided opportunities for all sorts of machinations related to serfs.
The fact is that after 1718 in Russian Empire A polling census of peasants was introduced. For each male serf, the master had to pay a tax. However, the census was carried out quite rarely - once every 12-15 years. And if one of the peasants escaped or died, the landowner was forced to pay tax for him anyway. The dead or runaway peasants became a burden for the master. This created fertile ground for various kinds of fraud. Chichikov himself hoped to carry out such a scam.
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol knew perfectly well how Russian society was organized with its serf system. And the whole tragedy of his poem lies in the fact that Chichikov's scam absolutely did not contradict the current Russian legislation. Gogol denounces the distorted relations of man with man, as well as man with the state, speaks of the absurd laws in force at that time. Because of such distortions, events that are contrary to common sense become possible.
"Dead Souls" is a classic work, which, like no other, is written in the style of Gogol. Quite often, Nikolai Vasilievich based his work on some kind of anecdote or a comical situation. And the more ridiculous and unusual the situation, the more tragic the real state of affairs seems.
Gogol. "Dead Souls" the main problem works. What is the main theme of the piece. And what was the relationship and got the best answer
Answer from GALINA[guru]
According to Gogol, the essence of the first volume of "Dead Souls"
is to show flaws
vices and weaknesses of the Russian people:
"... The book... depicts a man taken from our own
states ... It was taken more in order to show
the shortcomings and vices of the Russian man, and not his
virtues and virtues, and all people who
surround him, are also taken to show
our weaknesses and shortcomings; the best people and
characters will be in other parts ... "
(N. V. Gogol, "To the reader from the writer",
preface to the second edition of the first volume of "Dead Souls")
The main problem of the poem is spiritual death and
spiritual rebirth of man.
The author explores the causes of moral degradation
landlords, officials, Chichikov, reveals depressing
consequences of this process.
At the same time, Gogol, a writer with a Christian worldview,
does not lose hope for the spiritual awakening of his heroes.
On the Spiritual Resurrection of Chichikov and Plyushkin Gogol
was going to write in the second and third volumes of his
works, but this plan is not destined
was to come true.
Source: detail
Answer from Vladimir Pobol[guru]
at Chichikov's with the landowners - did I understand you correctly?
Answer from Ira Kuzmenko[active]
Theme and problems. In accordance with the main idea of the work - to show the way to achieve the spiritual ideal, on the basis of which the writer conceives the possibility of transforming both the state system of Russia, its social structure, and all social strata and each individual - the main themes and problems posed in the poem " 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 of the entire structure of society and the state. Moreover, such changes, from the point of view of Gogol, 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, postulates of Christian ethics. So, according to Gogol, the age-old Russian misfortune - bad roads - can be overcome not by changing bosses or tightening laws and control over their implementation. For this, it is necessary that each of the participants in this work, above 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 business as the highest - Heavenly - law commands.
That is why the themes and problems of Gogol's poem turned out to be so wide and all-encompassing. In its first volume, the emphasis is on all those negative phenomena in the life of the country that need to be corrected. But the main evil for the writer does not lie in social problems as such, but in the reason for which they arise: the spiritual impoverishment of his contemporary man. That is why the problem of the necrosis 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 what abyss the one who has lost his living soul falls into. But what is meant by this strange oxymoron - "dead soul", which gave the name to the whole work? Of course, not only a purely bureaucratic term used in Russia in the 19th century. Often " dead soul"They call a person who is mired in worries about vain things. The gallery of landowners and officials, shown in the 1st volume of the poem, presents such “dead souls” to the reader, since all of them are characterized by lack of spirituality, selfish interests, empty extravagance or soul-absorbing 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, which appears in the author's 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) beginning and the living (spiritualized, high, bright). The originality of Gogol's position lies in the fact that he not only contrasts these two principles, but points to the possibility of the awakening of the living in the dead. So the poem includes the theme of the resurrection of the soul, the theme of the path to its rebirth. It is known that Gogol intended to show the way of the revival of two heroes from the 1st volume - Chichikov and Plyushkin. The author dreams of the "dead souls" of Russian reality being reborn, turning into truly "living" souls.
But in the contemporary world, the mortification of the soul affected literally everyone and was reflected in the most diverse aspects of life.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol worked on this work for 17 years. According to the writer's plan, the grandiose literary work was to consist of three volumes. Gogol himself repeatedly reported that the idea of the work was proposed to him by Pushkin. Alexander Sergeevich was also one of the first listeners of the poem.
Work on "Dead Souls" was difficult. The writer changed the concept several times, reworked individual parts. Only on the first volume, which was published in 1842, Gogol worked for six years.
A few days before his death, the writer burned the manuscript of the second volume, from which only drafts of the first four and one of the last chapters survived. The author did not have time to start the third volume.
At first, Gogol considered "Dead Souls" satirical a novel in which he intended to show "all of Rus'." But in 1840, the writer fell seriously ill, and was healed literally by a miracle. Nikolai Vasilievich decided that this was a sign - the Creator himself demands that he create something that serves the spiritual revival of Russia. Thus, the idea of "Dead Souls" was rethought. There was an idea to create a trilogy like " Divine Comedy» Dante. Hence the genre definition of the author - a poem.
Gogol believed that in the first volume it was necessary to show the disintegration of feudal society, its spiritual impoverishment. In the second, to give hope for the purification of "dead souls". In the third, the revival of a new Russia was already planned.
The basis of the plot the poem became a scam official Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Its essence was as follows. A census of serfs was carried out in Russia every 10 years. Therefore, the peasants who died between the censuses, according to official documents (revision tale), were considered alive. Chichikov's goal is to buy "dead souls" at a low price, and then pawn them in the board of trustees and get a lot of money. The fraudster is counting on the fact that such a deal is beneficial for the landlords: they do not need to pay taxes for the deceased until the next revision. In search of "dead souls" Chichikov travels around Russia.
Such a plot outline allowed the author to create a social panorama of Russia. In the first chapter, an acquaintance with Chichikov takes place, then the author describes his meetings with landowners and officials. The last chapter is again devoted to the swindler. The image of Chichikov and his purchase of dead souls unite storyline works.
The landowners in the poem are typical representatives of people of their circle and time: spenders (Manilov and Nozdrev), savers (Sobakevich and Korobochka). This gallery is completed by the spendthrift and accumulator in one person - Plyushkin.
Image of Manilov especially successful. This hero gave the name to the whole phenomenon of Russian reality - "Manilovism". In communication with others, Manilov is soft to the point of cloying, loving posturing in everything, but an empty and completely inactive owner. Gogol showed a sentimental dreamer who is only capable of lining up beautiful rows of ashes knocked out of a pipe. Manilov is stupid and lives in the world of his useless fantasies.
landowner Nozdrev on the contrary, it is very active. But his seething energy is not directed at all to economic concerns. Nozdrev is a gambler, a spendthrift, a reveler, a braggart, an empty and frivolous person. If Manilov seeks to please everyone, then Nozdryov is constantly dirtying. Not from evil, however, such is his nature.
Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka- a type of economic, but narrow-minded and conservative landowner, quite tight-fisted. The circle of her interests: pantry, barns and a poultry house. Korobochka even went to the nearest town twice in her life. In everything that goes beyond the limits of her everyday worries, the landowner is impassibly stupid. The author calls her "cudgel-headed".
Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich the writer identifies with the bear: he is clumsy and clumsy, but strong and strong. The landowner is primarily interested in the practicality and durability of things, and not their beauty. Sobakevich, despite his rough appearance, has a sharp mind and cunning. This is a vicious and dangerous predator, the only one of the landowners capable of accepting the new capitalist way of life. Gogol notices that the time is coming for such cruel business people.
Plushkin's image does not fit into any framework. The old man himself is malnourished, starves the peasants, and a lot of food rots in his pantries, Plyushkin's chests are crammed with expensive things that are becoming unusable. Incredible stinginess deprives this man of his family.
Officialdom in "Dead Souls" is through and through a corrupt company of thieves and swindlers. In the system of urban bureaucracy, the writer paints with large strokes the image of a “jug snout”, ready to sell his own mother for a bribe. No better than the narrow-minded police chief and alarmist prosecutor who died of fear because of Chichikov's scam.
The main character is a rogue, in which some features of other characters are guessed. He is amiable and prone to posturing (Manilov), petty (Korobochka), greedy (Plyushkin), enterprising (Sobakevich), narcissistic (Nozdrev). Among officials, Pavel Ivanovich feels confident, because he went through all the universities of fraud and bribery. But Chichikov is smarter and more educated than those with whom he deals. He is an excellent psychologist: he delights the provincial society, masterfully bargains with every landowner.
The writer put a special meaning into the title of the poem. These are not only the dead peasants who are bought by Chichikov. Under " dead souls» Gogol understands the emptiness and lack of spirituality of his characters. There is nothing sacred for the money-grubber Chichikov. Plyushkin has lost all human likeness. A box for the sake of profit does not mind digging up coffins. At Nozdryov's, only dogs live well; their own children are abandoned. Manilov's soul sleeps like a deep sleep. There is not a drop of decency and nobility in Sobakevich.
The landowners look different in the second volume. Tentetnikov- A disillusioned philosopher. He is immersed in thought and does not do household chores, but is smart and talented. costanjoglo and an exemplary landowner. Millionaire Murazov also endearing. He forgives Chichikov and stands up for him, helps Khlobuev.
But we never saw the rebirth of the main character. A person who has let the “golden calf” into his soul, a bribe taker, embezzler and swindler is unlikely to be able to become different.
The writer did not find during his life the answer to the main question: where is Rus' rushing like a fast troika? But "Dead Souls" remains a reflection of Russia in the 30s of the XIX century and an amazing gallery satirical images, many of which have become household names. "Dead Souls" is a striking phenomenon in Russian literature. The poem opened a whole direction in it, which Belinsky called "critical realism".
