In Gogol's work one can discern both good and bad sides in Russia. The author positions dead souls not as dead people, but as officials and ordinary people, whose souls have hardened from callousness and indifference to others.
One of the main characters of the poem was Chichikov, who visited five landowner estates. And in this series of trips, Chichikov concludes that each of the landowners is the owner of a nasty and dirty soul. At the beginning it may seem that Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, Korobochka are completely different, but nevertheless they are connected by ordinary worthlessness, which reflects the entire landowner foundation in Russia.
The author himself appears in this work like a prophet, who describes these terrible events in the life of Rus', and then outlines a way out to a distant but bright future. The very essence of human ugliness is described in the poem at the moment when landowners are discussing how to deal with “dead souls”, make an exchange or a profitable sale, or maybe even give it to someone.
And despite the fact that the author describes the rather stormy and active life of the city, at its core it is just empty vanity. The worst thing is that a dead soul is an everyday occurrence. Gogol also unites all the officials of the city into one faceless face, which differs only in the presence of warts on it.
So, from the words of Soba-kevich, you can see that everyone around is swindlers, sellers of Christ, that each of them pleases and covers up the other, for the sake of their own benefit and well-being. And above all this stench rose pure and bright Rus', which the author hopes will definitely be reborn.
According to Gogol, only the people have living souls. Who, under all this pressure of serfdom, preserved the living Russian soul. And she lives in the word of the people, in their deeds, in their sharp mind. In a lyrical digression, the author created the same image of ideal Rus' and its heroic people.
Gogol himself does not know which path Rus' will choose, but he hopes that it will not contain such characters as Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Nozdryov, Korobochka. And only with understanding and insight, all this without spirituality, can the Russian people rise from their knees, recreating an ideal spiritual and pure world.
Option 2
In Gogol's poem you can see Russia, both from the good side and from the bad. The writer considers dead souls not the dead, but officials and ordinary people, whose hearts hardened and became stone from indifference to the fate of ordinary citizens. The poet writes this work, feeling all the pain and sadness of the people.
Officials Manilov, Nozdryov, Korobochka, Sobakevich are completely different people, but they are united by worthlessness, which reflects the entire foundation of the rulers. Each official covers up the other for lies, theft for their own benefit, just to bite off someone’s piece and put it in their pocket. It’s like worms are crawling in their souls in an apple and have already gnawed their holes, which are getting bigger and bigger each time. And as they rot, they emit the disgusting smell of the very personalities of officials. They are like one faceless creature that exists feeding only on living, blooming souls. These "living" souls are subject to constant imprisonment and suppression.
The real soul of Russia is the Russian men who have preserved their humanity. The prudent people, on whom the foundation of all Rus' rests, remain in serfdom. It is in them that the soul itself lies, that very center, the very core that holds the entire essence of the country. Gogol writes about the peasants in such a way that he presents them as blooming flowers, which, despite all the difficulties, grow through the stones, destroying them.
Gogol fiercely believes that Russia will move towards a bright future. He believes in the hidden talents of the people, which can rise from the depths and show that not all is lost. He hopes that even in the dead souls of officials a ray of light will pierce and their lives will change, their attitude towards good souls who know how to live and breathe deeply.
You can always get a different attitude. But faith in goodness will never fade. Because big and true, loving covers everything. Since Gogol’s hope makes it clear that even in a hardened heart there are echoes of goodness and love. The example shows Chichikov how he speaks with warmth in his heart about his mother and recalls his childhood, shrouded in affection and care. It is in such moments that you believe that you can change the worst shortcomings into the best. Into growth, prosperity, trust and good attitude. The writer’s message makes it clear and revealing how imperfect a person is in his life, how he has the right to deviate from the path of good, but still he is always given a chance to return to the bright path.
Essay 3
The great Russian writer N.V. Gogol worked in difficult times for Russia. The unsuccessful Decembrist uprising was suppressed. There are trials and repressions throughout the country. The poem “Dead Souls” is a portrait of modernity. The plot of the poem is simple, the characters are written simply and are easy to read. But in everything written there is a sense of sadness.
In Gogol, the concept of “dead souls” has two meanings. Dead souls are dead serfs and landowners with dead souls. The writer considered slave serfdom to be a great evil in Russia, which contributed to the extinction of peasants and the destruction of the country’s culture and economy. Speaking about the landowners' dead souls, Nikolai Vasilyevich embodied autocratic power in them. Describing his heroes, he hopes for the revival of Rus', for warm human souls.
Russia is revealed in the work through the eyes of the main character Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich. The landowners are described in the poem not as the support of the state, but as a decaying part of the state, dead souls that cannot be relied upon. Plyushkin's bread is dying, without benefit to people. Manilov carefreely manages an abandoned estate. Nozdryov, having brought the farm into complete disrepair, plays cards and gets drunk. In these images, the writer shows what is happening in modern Russia. Gogol contrasts the “dead souls”, the oppressors, with ordinary Russian people. People deprived of all rights who can be bought and sold. They appear in the form of “living souls”.
Gogol writes with great warmth and love about the abilities of the peasants, about their hard work and talents.
The carpenter Cork, a healthy hero, traveled almost all over Russia and built many houses. Beautiful and durable carriages are made by carriage maker Mityai. Stove maker Milushkin builds high-quality stoves. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov could make boots from any material. Gogol's serfs are shown as conscientious workers who are passionate about their work.
Gogol fervently believes in the bright future of his Russia, in the enormous, but for the time being hidden talents of the people. He hopes that a ray of happiness and goodness will break through even into the dead souls of the landowners. Its main character is Chichikov P.I. remembers his mother's love and his childhood. This gives the author hope that even callous people have something human left in their souls.
Gogol's works are funny and sad at the same time. Reading them, you can laugh at the shortcomings of the heroes, but at the same time think about what can be changed. Gogol's poem is a vivid example of the author's negative attitude towards serfdom.
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The theme of living and dead souls is the main one in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”. We can judge this by the title of the poem, which not only contains a hint at the essence of Chichikov’s scam, but also contains a deeper meaning that reflects the author’s intention of the first volume of the poem “Dead Souls.”
There is an opinion that Gogol planned to create the poem “Dead Souls” by analogy with Dante’s poem “The Divine Comedy”. This determined the proposed three-part composition of the future work. "The Divine Comedy" consists of three parts: "Hell",
“Purgatory” and “Paradise”, which were supposed to correspond to the three volumes of “Dead Souls” conceived by Gogol. In the first volume, Gogol sought to show the terrible Russian reality, to recreate the “hell” of modern life. In the second and third volumes, Gogol wanted to depict the revival of Russia. Gogol saw himself as a writer-preacher who, drawing on... pages of his work, a picture of the revival of Russia, brings it out. crisis.
The artistic space of the first volume of the poem consists of two worlds: the real world, where the main character is Chichikov, and the ideal world of lyrical digressions, where the main character is the narrator.
The real world of Dead Souls is scary and ugly. Its typical representatives are Manilov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, police chief, prosecutor and many others. These are all static characters. They have always been the way we see them now. “Nozdryov at thirty-five was exactly the same as at eighteen and twenty.” Gogol does not show any internal development of the landowners and city residents, this allows us to conclude that the souls of the heroes of the real world of “Dead Souls” are completely frozen and petrified, that they are dead. Gogol portrays landowners and officials with evil irony, shows them as funny, but at the same time very scary. After all, these are not people, but only a pale, ugly semblance of people. There is nothing human left in them. The dead fossilization of souls, the absolute lack of spirituality, is hidden both behind the measured life of the landowners and behind the convulsive activity of the city. Gogol wrote about the city of Dead Souls: “The idea of a city. Arising to the highest degree. Emptiness. Idle talk... Death strikes an unmoved world. Meanwhile, the reader should imagine the dead insensibility of life even more strongly.”
The life of the city outwardly boils and bubbles. But this life is really just empty vanity. In the real world of Dead Souls, a dead soul is a common occurrence. For this world, the soul is only what distinguishes a living person from a dead person. In the episode of the prosecutor’s death, those around him realized that he “definitely had a soul” only when all that was left of him was “only a soulless body.” But is it really true that all the characters in the real world of “Dead Souls” have a dead soul? No, not everyone.
Of the “indigenous inhabitants” of the real world of the poem, paradoxically and strangely enough, only Plyushkin has a soul that is not yet completely dead. In literary criticism, there is an opinion that Chichikov visits landowners as they become spiritually impoverished. However, I cannot agree that Plyushkin is “deader” and more terrible than Manilov, Nozdryov and others. On the contrary, the image of Plyushkin is much different from the images of other landowners. I will try to prove this by turning first of all to the structure of the chapter dedicated to Plyushkin and to the means of creating Plyushkin’s character.
The chapter about Plyushkin begins with a lyrical digression, which has not happened in the description of any landowner. A lyrical digression immediately alerts readers to the fact that this chapter is significant and important for the narrator. The narrator does not remain indifferent and indifferent to his hero: in lyrical digressions, he expresses his bitterness from the realization of the degree to which a person could sink.
The image of Plyushkin stands out for its dynamism among the static heroes of the real world of the poem. From the narrator we learn what Plyushkin was like before and how his soul gradually coarsened and hardened. In Plyushkin's story we see a life tragedy. Therefore, the question arises, is Plyushkin’s current state a degradation of the personality itself, or is it the result of a cruel fate? At the mention of a school friend, “some kind of warm ray slid across Plyushkin’s face, it was not a feeling that was expressed, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling.” This means that Plyushkin’s soul has not yet completely died, which means that there is still something human left in it. Plyushkin’s eyes were also alive, not yet extinguished, “running from under his high eyebrows, like mice.”
Chapter VI contains a detailed description of Plyushkin’s garden, neglected, overgrown and decayed, but alive. The garden is a kind of metaphor for Plyushkin’s soul. There are two churches on Plyushkin’s estate alone. Of all the landowners, only Plyushkin utters an internal monologue after Chichikov’s departure. All these details allow us to conclude that Plyushkin’s soul has not yet completely died. This is probably explained by the fact that in the second or third volume of Dead Souls, according to Gogol, two heroes of the first volume, Chichikov and Plyushkin, were supposed to meet.
The second hero of the real world of the poem, who has a soul, is Chichikov. It is in Chichikov that the unpredictability and inexhaustibility of the living soul is most clearly shown, albeit not God knows how rich, even if it is becoming scarcer, but alive. Chapter XI is devoted to the history of Chichikov’s soul, it shows the development of his character. Chichikov's name is Pavel, this is the name of the apostle who experienced a spiritual revolution. According to Gogol, Chichikov was supposed to be reborn in the second volume of the poem and become an apostle, reviving the souls of the Russian people. Therefore, Gogol trusts Chichikov to talk about the dead peasants, putting his thoughts into his mouth. It is Chichikov who resurrects in the poem the former heroes of the Russian land.
The images of dead peasants in the poem are ideal. Gogol emphasizes the fabulous, heroic features in them. All biographies of dead peasants are determined by the motive of movement running through each of them. It is the dead peasants in “Dead Souls” who have living souls, in contrast to the living people of the poem, whose soul is dead.
The ideal world of “Dead Souls,” which appears to the reader in lyrical digressions, is the complete opposite of the real world. In an ideal world there are no Manilovs, Sobakeviches, Nozdryovs, prosecutors; there are not and cannot be dead souls in it. The ideal world is built in strict accordance with true spiritual values. For the world of lyrical digressions, the soul is immortal, since it is the embodiment of the divine principle in man. In an ideal world, immortal human souls live. First of all, it is the soul of the narrator himself. It is precisely because the narrator lives according to the laws of the ideal world and that he has an ideal in his heart that he can notice all the filth and vulgarity of the real world. The narrator has a heart for Russia, he believes in its revival. The patriotic pathos of lyrical digressions proves this to us.
At the end of the first volume, the image of Chichikov’s chaise becomes a symbol of the ever-living soul of the Russian people. It is the immortality of this soul that instills in the author faith in the obligatory revival of Russia and the Russian people.
Thus, in the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol depicts all the shortcomings, all the negative aspects of Russian reality. Gogol shows people what their souls have become. He does this because he passionately loves Russia and hopes for its revival. Gogol wanted people, after reading his poem, to be horrified by their lives and awaken from a deadening sleep. This is the task of the first volume. Describing the terrible reality, Gogol depicts to us in lyrical digressions his ideal of the Russian people, speaks of the living, immortal soul of Russia. In the second and third volumes of his work, Gogol planned to transfer this ideal to real life. But, unfortunately, he was never able to show the revolution in the soul of the Russian people, he was unable to revive dead souls. This was Gogol’s creative tragedy, which grew into the tragedy of his entire life.
- CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 “PORTRAIT” CHAPTER 2 “DEAD SOULS” CHAPTER 3 “SELECTED PLACES FROM CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS” § 1 “Woman in the Light” § 2 “About...
- The title of N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” reflects the main idea of the work. If you take the title of the poem literally, you can see that it contains the essence...
- When publishing Dead Souls, Gogol wanted to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov’s carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many human skulls....
- Gogol's work “Dead Souls” was written in the second half of the 19th century. The first volume was published in 1842, the second volume was almost completely destroyed by the author. A...
- When publishing the poem “Dead Souls,” Gogol wanted to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov’s carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many...
- Explaining the concept of “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote that the images of the poem are “in no way portraits of insignificant people; on the contrary, they contain the features of those who consider themselves...
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- ANSWER PLAN 1. The main conflict of N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”. 2. Characteristics of various types of landowners. Dead souls: -Manilov; -Sobakevich; -Box; -Nozdrev; -Plyushkin. 3. The image of Chichikov. 4.Souls...
- In the poem “Dead Souls” Gogol brought out representatives of the dominant social strata of Russia of his time. Using their example, he showed different types of serf owners and how...
- A baby is dropped into the house of the wealthy Squire Allworthy, where he lives with his sister Bridget. The squire, who lost his wife and children several years ago, decides to raise a child...
- Every time I open a volume of “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol with special trepidation and re-read this work with great interest and attention. In due time...
- Chapter 1 A chaise drives through the gates of a hotel in the provincial town of NN. Sitting in it is “a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking either, neither too fat, nor...
- GOGOL Nikolai Vasilievich, Russian writer. Gogol's literary fame was brought to him by the collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", rich in Ukrainian ethnographic and folklore material, marked by romantic moods,...
- ...The further continuation becomes clearer and more majestic in the head, from which something colossal may eventually emerge. From a letter from N.V. Gogol to S.T. Aksakov. 1840....
When publishing “Dead Souls” N.V. Gogol wished to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov's carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many human skulls. It was this title page that was very important for Gogol, as well as the fact that his book was published simultaneously with A. A. Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” Gogol saw his task in correcting and directing human hearts to the true path, and these attempts were made through the theater, in civic activities, teaching and, finally, in creativity. “There’s no point in blaming the mirror if you have a crooked face,” says the proverb taken as the epigraph to “The Inspector General.” The play is this mirror into which the viewer had to look in order to see his unseemly actions. Gogol believed that only by pointing out to people their shortcomings, he could correct them and revive their souls. Having painted a terrible picture of their fall, he makes the reader horrified and think. In “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” the blacksmith Vakula “paints” the devil with the thought of salvation. Like his hero, Gogol continues to portray devils in all subsequent works in order to pillory human vices with the help of laughter. “In Gogol’s religious understanding, the devil is a mystical essence and a real being in which the negation of God, eternal evil, is concentrated. Gogol as an artist, in the light of laughter, explores the nature of this mystical essence; how a person fights this real being with the weapon of laughter: Gogol’s laughter is the struggle of a person with the devil,” wrote D. M. Merezhkovsky. I would like to add that Gogol’s laughter is also a struggle with hell for a “living soul.”
After the great success of “The Inspector General,” Gogol realizes the need for a different form and other ways of influencing people. His “Dead Souls” is a synthesis of many techniques to achieve this goal. The work contains both direct pathos and teachings, and artistic sermon, illustrated with the image of the “dead” souls themselves - landowners and city officials. Lyrical digressions sum up the terrible pictures of life and everyday life depicted. Appealing to all of humanity as a whole and considering the ways of spiritual resurrection, Gogol in lyrical digressions points out that “darkness and evil are embedded not in the social shells of the people, but in the spiritual core” (N. A. Berdyaev). The subject of the writer’s study is human souls, depicted in terrible pictures of an “undue” life.
Already in the title itself, Gogol defined the purpose of writing this “poem in prose.” The consistent identification of dead souls along Chichikov’s “route” entails the question: what are the reasons for that carrion? One of the main reasons is that people have forgotten about their direct responsibilities. In “The Inspector General” the officials of the county town are busy with everything but their own service. They are a bunch of slackers. In the court office, geese are bred, instead of government affairs, the conversation is about greyhounds... These people have lost their place on earth, this already indicates some of their intermediate state - they eke out an existence between earthly life and otherworldly life. City officials in “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat” are also busy only with idle talk and idleness. The entire merit of the governor of city N is that he planted a “luxurious” garden of three measly trees. It is worth noting that the garden as a metaphor for the soul is often used by Gogol (remember Plyushkin’s garden). These three stunted trees represent the souls of city dwellers. The landowners in “Dead Souls” also forgot about their responsibilities, like, for example, Manilov, who does not remember at all how many peasants he has. Its deterioration is emphasized by a detailed description of everyday life - unfinished armchairs, always drunk and always sleeping servants. He is not the master of his peasants: after all, a real landowner, according to the patriarchal ideas of Christian Russia, should serve as a moral example for the peasants, as a suzerain for his vassals. But a person who has forgotten God, a person whose concept of sin has atrophied, cannot in any way be an example. The second and no less important reason for the death of souls according to Gogol is revealed - this is the rejection of God. On the way, Chichikov did not meet a single church. “What twisted and inscrutable paths humanity has chosen!” - exclaims Gogol. He sees the road of Russia as terrible, full of falls, swamp fires and temptations. But still, this is the road to the Temple, for in the chapter about Plyushkin we meet two churches: the transition to the second volume of the poem is approaching.
This transition is blurred and fragile, just as Gogol deliberately blurred the antithesis “alive - dead” in the first volume. Gogol deliberately makes the boundaries between the living and the dead unclear, and this antithesis takes on a metaphorical meaning. Chichikov's enterprise appears before us as a kind of crusade. It is as if he collects the shadows of the dead in different circles of hell in order to bring them to real, living life. The struggle for revival begins, that is, for the transformation of sinful, dead souls into living ones on the great path of Russia to the “temple designated for the king as a palace.” But on this path one encounters “goods that are alive in all respects”—these are peasants. They come to life in the poetic description of Sobakevich, then in the reflections of Pavel Chichikov. Those who live are those who laid down “their souls for their friends,” that is, selfless people who, unlike the officials who forgot about their duty, did their job. This is Stepan Probka, carriage maker Mikheev, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, brickmaker Milushkin.
The peasants come to life when Chichikov rewrites the list of purchased souls, when the author himself begins to speak in the voice of his hero. Let us remember the hero of the story “The Overcoat” Akaki Akakievich, who tried to save money on anything just to get the upgrade he needed. His death, although it evokes sympathy, was not a transition to a better world, but only turned him into a ghost like the shadow-ghosts in the kingdom of Hades. This situation is also played out in the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt.” There, in the hero’s dream, the wife turns into matter from which “everyone sews frock coats.” The word “wife” in Gogol’s works is often replaced by the word “soul”. “My soul,” Manilov and Sobakevich address their wives.
But the movement towards death in “The Overcoat” (Akakiy Akakievich becomes a shadow) and in “The Inspector General” (silent scene), in “Dead Souls” is used as if with the opposite sign. Chichikov's story is also given as a life. Little Pavlusha as a child amazed everyone with his modesty, but then he begins to live only “for a penny.” Later, Chichikov appears before the inhabitants of the city of N as a certain Rinaldo Rinaldini or Kopeikin, the defender of the unfortunate. The unfortunate are souls doomed to hellish suffering. He shouts: “They are not dead, they are not dead!” Chichikov acts as their defender. It is noteworthy that Chichikov even carries a saber with him, like the Apostle Paul, who had a sword.
The most significant transformation occurs when the Apostle Paul meets the fisherman Apostle Plyushkin. “Our fisherman has gone hunting,” the men say about him. This metaphor contains a deep meaning of “catching human souls.” Plyushkin, in rags, like a holy ascetic, recalls that he had to “catch” and collect instead of useless things - these human souls. “My saints!” - he exclaims when this thought dawns on him.
The lyrical element after Chichikov’s visit to Plyushkin takes over the novel more and more. One of the most inspired images is the governor’s daughter; her image is written in a completely different key. If Plyushkin and Chichikov have yet to remember their purpose of saving souls, then the governor’s daughter, like Beatrice, points the way to spiritual transformation. There is no such image either in “The Overcoat” or in “The Inspector General”. In lyrical digressions, an image of another world emerges. Chichikov leaves hell with the hope of reviving souls, turning them into living ones.
The poem "Dead Souls" is a mysterious and amazing work. The writer worked on the creation of the poem for many years. He devoted so much deep creative thought, time and hard work to it. That is why the work can be considered immortal and brilliant. Everything in the poem is thought out to the smallest detail: characters, types of people, their way of life and much more.
The title of the work - "Dead Souls" - contains its meaning. It describes not the dead revision souls of the serfs, but the dead souls of the landowners, buried under the petty, insignificant interests of life. Buying up dead souls, Chichikov - the main character of the poem - travels around Russia and pays visits to landowners. This happens in a certain sequence: from less bad to worse, from those who still have a soul to those completely soulless.
The first person Chichikov gets to is the landowner Manilov. Behind the external pleasantness of this gentleman lies meaningless daydreaming, inactivity, and feigned love for his family and peasants. Manilov considers himself well-mannered, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A pile of ashes, a dusty book that has been open to page fourteen for two years.
Manilov's house is always missing something: only part of the furniture is covered in silk, and two armchairs are covered with matting; The farm is run by a clerk who ruins both the peasants and the landowner. Idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and vital interests, despite seeming intelligence and culture, allow us to classify Manilov as an “idle sky-smoker” who contributes nothing to society. The second estate that Chichikov visited was the Korobochka estate. Her callousness lies in her amazingly petty interests in life. Apart from the prices of honey and hemp, Korobochka doesn’t care much about anything, if not to say that she doesn’t care about anything. The hostess is “an elderly woman, in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around her neck, one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile they are gradually gaining a little money in motley bags..." Even when selling dead souls, Korobochka is afraid to sell things down. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. This hoarding borders on madness, because “all the money” is hidden and not put into circulation.
Next on Chichikov’s path he meets the landowner Nozdryov, who was gifted with all possible “enthusiasm.” At first he may seem like a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be empty. His amazing energy is directed towards continuous carousing and senseless extravagance.
Added to this is another character trait of Nozdryov - a passion for lying. But the lowest and most disgusting thing about this hero is “the passion to spoil his neighbor.” In my opinion, the soullessness of this hero lies in the fact that he cannot direct his energy and talents in the right direction. Next, Chichikov ends up with the landowner Sobakevich. The landowner seemed to Chichikov “very similar to a medium-sized bear.” Sobakevich is a kind of “fist” whom nature “simply hacked away from all over”, without making much of his face: “she grabbed it with an ax once - the nose came out, she grabbed it another time - the lips came out, she picked out his eyes with a large drill and, without scraping them, let go light, saying, “Lives.”
The insignificance and pettiness of Sobakevich’s soul is emphasized by the description of the things in his house. The furniture in a landowner's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich’s objects seems to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!”
The gallery of landowner “dead souls” is completed by the landowner Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Once upon a time, Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn “stingy wisdom.” But after the death of his wife, everything went to pieces, suspicion and stinginess increased to the highest degree. Soon the Plyushkin family also fell apart.
This landowner has accumulated huge reserves of “goods”. Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walked around his village every day and collected everything he came across and put it in a heap in the corner of the room. Mindless hoarding has led to the fact that a very rich owner is starving his people, and his supplies are rotting in barns.
Next to the landowners and officials - “dead souls” - stand bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, and love of freedom in the poem. These are images of dead and runaway peasants, first of all, Sobakevich’s men: the miracle master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove maker Milushkin. Also this is the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebel villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovka and Zadirailova.
It seems to me that Gogol in “Dead Souls” understands that a conflict is brewing between two worlds: the world of serfs and the world of landowners. He warns about the upcoming clash throughout the book. And he ends his poem with a lyrical reflection on the fate of Russia. The image of the Rus' Troika affirms the idea of the unstoppable movement of the motherland, expresses a dream about its future and the hope for the emergence of real “virtuous people” who are capable of saving the country.
Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is one of the best works of world literature. The writer worked on the creation of this poem for 17 years, but never completed his plan. “Dead Souls” is the result of many years of Gogol’s observations and reflections on human destinies, the destinies of Russia.
The title of the work - "Dead Souls" - contains its main meaning. This poem describes both the dead revision souls of the serfs and the dead souls of the landowners, buried under the insignificant interests of life. But it is interesting that the first, formally dead, souls turn out to be more alive than the breathing and talking landowners.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, carrying out his brilliant scam, visits the estates of the provincial nobility. This gives us the opportunity to see the “living dead” “in all its glory.”
The first person Chichikov pays a visit to is the landowner Manilov. Behind the outward pleasantness, even sweetness of this master, lies meaningless daydreaming, inactivity, idle talk, false love for family and peasants. Manilov considers himself well-mannered, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A dusty book that has been open on the same page for two years.
There is always something missing in Manilov's house. Thus, in the office only part of the furniture is covered with silk, and two chairs are covered with matting. The farm is managed by a “skillful” clerk who ruins both Manilov and his peasants. This landowner is characterized by idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and life interests. And this despite the fact that Manilov seems to be an intelligent and cultured person.
The second estate that Chichikov visited was the estate of the landowner Korobochka. This is also a "dead soul". This woman's callousness lies in her amazingly petty interests in life. Apart from the prices of hemp and honey, Korobochka doesn’t care about much. Even in the sale of dead souls, the landowner is only afraid of selling herself too cheap. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. She tells Chichikov that she doesn’t know any Sobakevich, and, therefore, he doesn’t exist in the world.
While searching for the landowner Sobakevich, Chichikov runs into Nozdrev. Gogol writes about this “merry fellow” that he was gifted with all possible “enthusiasm.” At first glance, Nozdryov seems to be a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be completely empty. His amazing energy is directed only to carousing and senseless extravagance. Added to this is a passion for lying. But the lowest and most disgusting thing about this hero is “the passion to spoil his neighbor.” This is the type of people “who will start with satin and end with shit.” But Nozdryov, one of the few landowners, even evokes sympathy and pity. It’s just a pity that he directs his indomitable energy and love of life into an “empty” channel.
The next landowner on Chichikov's path finally turns out to be Sobakevich. He seemed to Pavel Ivanovich “very similar to a medium-sized bear.” Sobakevich is a kind of “fist” whom nature “simply chopped with all its might.” Everything in the appearance of the hero and his house is thorough, detailed and large-scale. The furniture in a landowner's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich’s objects seems to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!”
Sobakevich is a zealous owner, he is prudent and prosperous. But he does everything only for himself, only in the name of his interests. For their sake, Sobakevich will commit any fraud or other crime. All his talent went only into the material, completely forgetting about the soul.
The gallery of landowner “dead souls” is completed by Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Gogol tells us the background story of this hero. Once upon a time, Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn “stingy wisdom.” But after the death of his wife, the hero’s suspicion and stinginess increased to the highest degree.
This landowner has accumulated huge reserves of “goods”. Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walks around his village every day and collects all kinds of garbage, which he puts in his room. Senseless hoarding led Plyushkin to the point that he himself feeds on scraps, and his peasants “die like flies” or run away.
The gallery of “dead souls” in the poem is continued by the images of officials of the city of N. Gogol portrays them as a single faceless mass, mired in bribes and corruption. Sobakevich gives the officials an evil but very accurate description: “The swindler sits on the swindler and drives the swindler around.” Officials mess around, cheat, steal, offend the weak and tremble before the strong.
At the news of the appointment of a new governor-general, the inspector of the medical board thinks feverishly about the patients who have died in significant numbers from fever, against which proper measures have not been taken. The chairman of the chamber turns pale at the thought that he has made a deed of sale for dead peasant souls. And the prosecutor actually came home and suddenly died. What sins were behind his soul that he was so afraid? Gogol shows us that the life of officials is empty and meaningless. They are simply air smokers who have wasted their precious lives on meanness and fraud.
Next to the “dead souls” in the poem there are bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom, and talent. These are images of dead and runaway peasants, primarily Sobakevich’s men: the miracle master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove maker Milushkin. This is also the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebel villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovka and Zadirailova.
It was the people, according to Gogol, who retained within themselves the “living soul”, national and human identity. Therefore, it is with the people that he connects the future of Russia. The writer planned to write about this in the continuation of his work. but I couldn’t, I didn’t have time. We can only guess about his thoughts.
Having begun work on “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote about his work: “All of Rus' will appear in it.” The writer most carefully studied the past of the Russian people - from its very origins - and the results of this work formed the basis of his work, written in a living, poetic form. Gogol did not work on any of his works, including the comedy “The Inspector General,” with such faith in his calling as a citizen writer with which he created “Dead Souls.” He did not devote so much deep creative thought, time and hard work to any other work of his.
The main theme of the poem-novel is the theme of the present and future fate of Russia, its present and future. Passionately believing in a better future for Russia, Gogol mercilessly debunked the “masters of life” who considered themselves bearers of high historical wisdom and creators of spiritual values. The images drawn by the writer indicate the exact opposite: the heroes of the poem are not only insignificant, they are the embodiment of moral ugliness.
The plot of the poem is quite simple: its main character, Chichikov, a born swindler and dirty businessman, opens up the possibility of profitable deals with dead souls, that is, with those serfs who have already gone to another world, but were still counted among the living. He decides to buy dead souls cheaply and for this purpose goes to one of the county towns. As a result, readers are presented with a whole gallery of images of landowners, whom Chichikov visits in order to bring his plan to life. The storyline of the work - the purchase and sale of dead souls - allowed the writer not only to unusually clearly show the inner world of the characters, but also to characterize their typical features, the spirit of the era. Gogol opens this gallery of portraits of local owners with the image of a hero who, at first glance, seems to be quite an attractive person. What is most striking about Manilov’s appearance is his “agreeableness” and his desire to please everyone. Manilov himself, this “very courteous and courteous landowner,” admires and is proud of his manners and considers himself an extremely spiritual and educated person. However, during his conversation with Chichikov, it becomes clear that this man’s involvement in culture is just an appearance, the pleasantness of his manners smacks of cloying, and behind the flowery phrases there is nothing but stupidity. The entire lifestyle of Manilov and his family smacks of vulgar sentimentality. Manilov himself lives in an illusory world he created. He has idyllic ideas about people: no matter who he talked about, everyone came out very pleasant, “most amiable” and excellent. From the very first meeting, Chichikov won the sympathy and love of Manilov: he immediately began to consider him his invaluable friend and dream of how the sovereign, having learned about their friendship, would honor them as generals. Life in Manilov’s view is complete and perfect harmony. He doesn’t want to see anything unpleasant in her and replaces knowledge of life with empty fantasies. A wide variety of projects arise in his imagination that will never be realized. Moreover, they arise not at all because Manilov strives to create something, but because fantasy itself gives him pleasure. He is carried away only by the play of his imagination, but he is completely incapable of any real action. It was not difficult for Chichikov to convince Manilov of the benefits of his enterprise: he just had to say that this was being done in the public interest and was fully consistent with “the future vision of Russia,” since Manilov considers himself a person guarding public well-being.
From Manilov, Chichikov heads to Korobochka, who, perhaps, is the complete opposite of the previous hero. Unlike Manilov, Korobochka is characterized by the absence of any pretensions to higher culture and some kind of “simplicity”. The lack of “showiness” is emphasized by Gogol even in the portrait of Korobochka: she has too unattractive, shabby appearance. Korobochka’s “simplicity” is also reflected in her relationships with people. “Oh, my father,” she turns to Chichikov, “you’re like a hog, your whole back and side are covered in mud!” All Korobochka’s thoughts and desires are focused around the economic strengthening of her estate and continuous accumulation. She is not an inactive dreamer, like Manilov, but a sober acquirer, always poking around her home. But Korobochka’s thriftiness precisely reveals her inner insignificance. Acquisitive impulses and aspirations fill Korobochka’s entire consciousness, leaving no room for any other feelings. She strives to benefit from everything, from household details to the profitable sale of serfs, who for her are, first of all, property, which she has the right to dispose of as she pleases. It is much more difficult for Chichikov to come to an agreement with her: she is indifferent to any of his arguments, since the main thing for her is to benefit herself. It’s not for nothing that Chichikov calls Korobochka “club-headed”: this epithet very aptly characterizes her. The combination of a secluded lifestyle with crude acquisitiveness determines Korobochka’s extreme spiritual poverty.
Next is another contrast: from Korobochka to Nozdryov. In contrast to the petty and selfish Korobochka, Nozdryov is distinguished by his violent prowess and “broad” scope of nature. He is extremely active, mobile and perky. Without hesitation for a moment, Nozdryov is ready to do any Business, that is, everything that for some reason comes to his mind: “At that very moment he offered you to go anywhere, even to the ends of the world, to enter into any enterprise you want, exchange whatever you have for whatever you want." Nozdryov’s energy is devoid of any purpose. He easily starts and abandons any of his undertakings, immediately forgetting about it. His ideal is people who live noisily and cheerfully, without burdening themselves with any everyday worries. Wherever Nozdryov appears, chaos breaks out and scandals arise. Boasting and lying are the main character traits of Nozdryov. He is inexhaustible in his lies, which have become so organic for him that he lies without even feeling any need to do so. He is friendly with all his acquaintances, keeps on friendly terms with them, considers everyone his friend, but never remains true to his words or relationships. After all, it is he who subsequently debunks his “friend” Chichikov in front of provincial society.
Sobakevich is one of those people who stands firmly on the ground and soberly evaluates both life and people. When necessary, Sobakevich knows how to act and achieve what he wants. Characterizing Sobakevich’s everyday way of life, Gogol emphasizes that everything here “was stubborn, without shaking.” Solidity and strength are the distinctive features of both Sobakevich himself and the everyday environment around him. However, the physical strength of both Sobakevich and his way of life is combined with some kind of ugly clumsiness. Sobakevich looks like a bear, and this comparison is not only external: the animal nature predominates in the nature of Sobakevich, who has no spiritual needs. In his firm belief, the only important thing can be taking care of one’s own existence. The saturation of the stomach determines the content and meaning of its life. He considers enlightenment not only an unnecessary, but also a harmful invention: “They interpret it as enlightenment, enlightenment, but this enlightenment is bullshit! I would say another word, but just now it’s indecent at the table.” Sobakevich is prudent and practical, but, unlike Korobochka, he understands the environment well and knows people. This is a cunning and arrogant businessman, and Chichikov had quite a difficult time dealing with him. Before he had time to utter a word about the purchase, Sobakevich had already offered him a deal with dead souls, and he charged such a price as if it was a question of selling real serfs.
Practical acumen distinguishes Sobakevich from other landowners depicted in Dead Souls. He knows how to get settled in life, but it is in this capacity that his base feelings and aspirations manifest themselves with particular force.
All the landowners, so vividly and ruthlessly shown by Gogol, as well as the central character of the poem, are living people. But can this be said about them? Can their souls be called alive? Didn’t their vices and base motives kill everything human in them? The change of images from Manilov to Plyushkin reveals an ever-increasing spiritual impoverishment, an ever-increasing moral decline of the owners of serf souls. By calling his work “Dead Souls,” Gogol meant not only the dead serfs whom Chichikov was chasing, but also all the living heroes of the poem who had long since become dead.
At the beginning of work on the poem N.V. Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: “What a huge, what an original plot! What a diverse bunch! All of Rus' will appear in it.” This is how Gogol himself determined the scope of his work - all of Rus'. And the writer was able to show in full both the negative and positive aspects of life in Russia of that era. Gogol’s plan was grandiose: like Dante, to depict Chichikov’s path first in “hell” - Volume I of “Dead Souls”, then “in purgatory” - Volume II of “Dead Souls” and “in heaven” - Volume III. But this plan was not fully realized; only Volume I, in which Gogol shows the negative aspects of Russian life, reached the reader in full.
In Korobochka, Gogol presents us with a different type of Russian landowner. Thrifty, hospitable, hospitable, she suddenly becomes a “club-head” in the scene of selling dead souls, afraid of selling herself short. This is the type of person with his own mind. In Nozdryov, Gogol showed a different form of decomposition of the nobility. The writer shows us two essences of Nozdryov: first, he is an open, daring, direct face. But then you have to be convinced that Nozdryov’s sociability is an indifferent familiarity with everyone he meets and crosses, his liveliness is an inability to concentrate on any serious subject or matter, his energy is a waste of energy in revelries and debauchery. His main passion, in the words of the writer himself, is “to spoil your neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.”
Sobakevich is akin to Korobochka. He, like her, is a hoarder. Only, unlike Korobochka, he is a smart and cunning hoarder. He manages to deceive Chichikov himself. Sobakevich is rude, cynical, uncouth; No wonder he is compared to an animal (a bear). By this Gogol emphasizes the degree of savagery of man, the degree of death of his soul. This gallery of “dead souls” is completed by the “hole in humanity” Plyushkin. This is the eternal image of the stingy in classical literature. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of economic, social and moral decay of the human personality.
Provincial officials also join the gallery of landowners who are essentially “dead souls.”
Who can we call living souls in the poem, and do they even exist? I think Gogol did not intend to contrast the suffocating atmosphere of the life of officials and landowners with the life of the peasantry. On the pages of the poem, the peasants are depicted far from rosy. The footman Petrushka sleeps without undressing and “always carries with him some special smell.” The coachman Selifan is not a fool to drink. But it is precisely for the peasants that Gogol has kind words and a warm intonation when he speaks, for example, about Pyotr Neumyvay-Koryto, Ivan Koleso, Stepan Probka, and the resourceful peasant Eremey Sorokoplekhin. These are all the people whose fate the author thought about and asked the question: “What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime? How have you gotten by?”
But there is at least something bright in Rus' that cannot be corroded under any circumstances; there are people who constitute the “salt of the earth.” Did Gogol himself, this genius of satire and singer of the beauty of Rus', come from somewhere? Eat! It must be! Gogol believes in this, and therefore at the end of the poem an artistic image of Rus'-troika appears, rushing into a future in which there will be no Nozdrevs or Plyushkins. A bird or three rushes forward. “Rus', where are you going? Give me an answer. He doesn’t give an answer.”
Griboyedov Pushkin literary plot
In the story, Gogol draws portraits of people contemporary to him, creating certain types.
After all, if you take a closer look at each character, study his home and family, habits and inclinations, then they will have practically nothing in common. For example, Manilov loved lengthy thoughts, loved to show off a little (as evidenced by the episode with the children, when Manilov, under Chichikov, asked his sons various questions from the school curriculum). Behind his external attractiveness and politeness there was nothing but senseless daydreaming, stupidity and imitation. He was not at all interested in everyday trifles, and he even gave away the dead peasants for free.
Nastasya Filippovna Korobochka knew literally everyone and everything that happened on her small estate. She remembered by heart not only the names of the peasants, but also the reasons for their death, and she had complete order in her household. The enterprising housewife tried to provide, in addition to the purchased souls, flour, honey, lard - in a word, everything that was produced in the village under her strict leadership.
Sobakevich put a price on every dead soul, but he escorted Chichikov to the government chamber. He seems to be the most businesslike and responsible landowner among all the characters. His complete opposite turns out to be Nozdryov, whose meaning in life comes down to gambling and drinking. Even children cannot keep the master at home: his soul constantly requires more and more new entertainment.
The last landowner from whom Chichikov bought souls was Plyushkin. In the past, this man was a good owner and family man, but due to unfortunate circumstances, he turned into something asexual, formless and inhuman. After the death of his beloved wife, his stinginess and suspicion gained unlimited power over Plyushkin, turning him into a slave of these base qualities.
What do all these landowners have in common?
What unites them with the mayor, who received the order for nothing, with the postmaster, police chief and other officials who take advantage of their official position, and whose goal in life is only their own enrichment? The answer is very simple: lack of desire to live. None of the characters feel any positive emotions or really think about the sublime. All these dead souls are driven by animal instincts and consumerism. There is no internal originality in landowners and officials, they are all just dummies, just copies of copies, they do not stand out from the general background, they are not exceptional individuals.
The question may arise: why does Chichikov buy only dead souls? The answer to this, of course, is simple: he doesn’t need any extra peasants, and he will sell the documents for the dead. But will such an answer be complete? Here the author subtly shows that the world of the living and dead souls do not intersect and cannot intersect anymore. But the “living” souls are now in the world of the dead, and the “dead” have come to the world of the living. At the same time, the souls of the dead and the living in Gogol’s poem are inextricably linked.
Are there living souls in the poem “Dead Souls”? Of course there is. Their roles are played by deceased peasants, to whom various qualities and characteristics are attributed. One drank, another beat his wife, but this one was hard-working, and this one had strange nicknames. These characters come to life both in Chichikov’s imagination and in the reader’s imagination. And now we, together with the main character, imagine the leisure time of these people.
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