Dead souls are works. Gogol "Dead Souls" - an idea

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol worked on this work for 17 years. As conceived by the writer, a grandiose literary work was supposed to consist of three volumes. Gogol himself more than once reported that Pushkin proposed the idea of ​​the work to him. Alexander Sergeevich was also one of the first listeners of the poem.

The work on Dead Souls was difficult. The writer changed the concept several times, altered 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 believed "Dead Souls" satirical a novel in which he intended to show "all of Russia." But in 1840 the writer fell seriously ill, and was healed literally by a miracle. Nikolai Vasilyevich decided that this is a sign - the Creator himself demands that he create something that serves the spiritual rebirth of Russia. Thus, the concept “ Dead souls"Was rethought. There was an idea to create a trilogy like “ Divine Comedy"Dante. This is where genre definition the author is a poem.

Gogol believed that in the first volume it was necessary to show the disintegration of serf society, its spiritual impoverishment... In the second, to give hope for the cleansing 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 of an 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 in the period between the censuses, according to official documents (revision tale), were considered alive. Chichikov's goal is to buy up "dead souls" at a low price, and then lay them in the board of trustees and get big money. The fraudster hopes that such a deal is profitable for the landowners: there is no need to pay taxes for the deceased until the next revision. In search of "dead souls" Chichikov travels across Russia.

This storyline allowed the author to create a social panorama of Russia. In the first chapter there is an acquaintance with Chichikov, 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 the people of their circle and time: wasteful (Manilov and Nozdrev), accumulators (Sobakevich and Korobochka). Completing this gallery is the wasteful and accumulator rolled into one - Plyushkin.

Manilov's image especially successful. This hero gave the name to the whole phenomenon of Russian reality - "manilovism". In communicating with those around him, Manilov is soft to cloying, loving posturing in everything, but an empty and completely inactive owner. Gogol showed a sentimental dreamer who is only able to line up the ashes knocked out of a pipe in beautiful rows. Manilov is stupid and lives in the world of his useless fantasies.

Landlord Nozdrev on the contrary, it is very active. But his ebullient energy is not directed at all to economic concerns. Nozdryov is a player, a freak, a reveler, a braggart, an empty and frivolous person. If Manilov seeks to please everyone, then Nozdryov is constantly nasty. Not out of malice, however, that is his nature.

Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka- a type of economic, but narrow-minded and conservative landowner, rather tight-fisted. Her range of interests: pantry, barns and a poultry house. Even in the nearest town, Korobochka got out twice in her life. In everything that goes beyond the limits of her everyday worries, the landowner is impenetrably dumb. The author calls her "clubhead".

Mikhail Semenovich Sobakevich the writer identifies with a bear: he is clumsy and awkward, but sturdy and strong. The landowner is primarily interested in the practicality and durability of things, not their beauty. Sobakevich, despite his rude appearance, has sharp mind and cunning. This is a vicious and dangerous predator, the only landowner capable of accepting the new capitalist way of life. Gogol notes that the time for such cruel business people is coming.

Plyushkin's image does not fit into any framework. The old man is malnourished himself, starving the peasants, and in his pantries a lot of food rotting, Plyushkin's chests are packed expensive things that become unusable. Incredible stinginess deprives this person of his family.

The bureaucracy in Dead Souls is a thoroughly corrupt company of thieves and crooks. In the system of urban bureaucracy, the writer paints in large strokes the image of a "jug snout", ready to sell his own mother for a bribe. The narrow-minded chief of police and alarmist prosecutor, who died of fear because of Chichikov's scam, is no better.

The main character is a rogue in whom some of the traits of other characters are guessed. He is kind and prone to posturing (Manilov), petty (Korobochka), greedy (Plyushkin), enterprising (Sobakevich), narcissistic (Nozdryov). Among officials, Pavel Ivanovich feels confident, since 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 dead peasants who are being bought up by Chichikov. By "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 only dogs live well, his own children are abandoned. Manilov's soul sleeps with an undisturbed 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 the housework, but is smart and talented. Kostanzhoglo and an exemplary landowner. Millionaire Murazov also arouses sympathy. He forgives Chichikov and stands up for him, helps Khlobuev.

But we never saw the protagonist's rebirth. A person who has let the "golden calf" into his soul, a bribe-taker, embezzler and a swindler, is unlikely to be able to become different.

During his life the writer did not find an answer to main question: where rushing, like a fast troika, Rus? But "Dead Souls" remain 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 up a whole direction in her, which Belinsky called "Critical realism".

The poem "Dead Souls" is one of central works the world-famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who turned the literary world prevailing at that time and became an object of veneration and sometimes condemnation of critics.

Gogol was reproached by many for his pessimistic attitude towards society, in many of his works there is not a single positive character who could become "a ray of light in dark kingdom". Each Gogol hero either has an overestimated self-esteem, or, on the contrary, does not love himself so much that sometimes he rushes to extremes. It is worth remembering, for example, the same comedy "The Inspector General", about which Nikolai Vasilyevich himself said that the only goodie is laughter. But in "Dead Souls" there is no time for jokes: instead of laughter, the reader has a kind of disgust for such characters, which the writer so passionately described.

Then sadness arises from the fact that everything written in the poem is pure truth: all the time you can find corruption and bribery, speculation and other things that exist in our life.

Initially, Gogol conceived three volumes of the poem "Dead Souls", but only one has reached the readers. According to legend, Nikolai Vasilyevich burned the second volume, and the third remained only in his ideas. Literary world I saw this work back in 1842, however, despite the fact that this work was written more than a hundred years ago, unfortunately, in the modern world, practically nothing has changed.

It is interesting that the idea of ​​creating "souls" was suggested to Gogol by the authority in Russian literature- Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

This happened long before the poem was written: Pushkin was told a story that supposedly took place, so that the modern reader can judge that Gogol literally described the reality that took place on the territory of the Russian Empire.

The story, which Pushkin told, said that in the city of Bandera, by a strange coincidence, no one died, except for the military. So strange fact explained by the fact that the names of the dead were given to fugitive peasants who did not have documents. Alexander Sergeevich told this story to Gogol, of course, literally transforming it, but Nikolai Vasilyevich caught the salt of the problem and took it as a basis in Dead Souls.

In his work, Gogol no longer describes cunning speculation among landowners, but the types of characters of people who have developed in our society long ago and have not yet eradicated themselves.

In modern psychology, there is even "Plyushkin syndrome", which implies compulsive personality disorder and the desire to accumulate unnecessary things.

So Nikolai Vasilyevich was a subtle psychologist who just scrupulously understood people! Let's look at the characters who participate in this poem, because it is these portraits that carry the main meaning of the work.

Chichikov- one of the main characters of the poem, who travels throughout Russia in search of his plans. In the course of the plot, he talks with each of the landowners. He is a pitiful and narcissistic young man who, fraudulently and by his pretense, is trying to extort from other landowners the benefits he needs, namely "dead souls", for his personal documentation.

He accepted the behavior of his interlocutor and adjusted to him like a chameleon. Differs in arrogance, duplicity and hypocrisy.

Nozdrev- a young landowner, a kind of passionate lover and a reckless driver. He only cares about himself: in any situation, Nozdryov is ready to dump all the blame on his friend. The landowner is full of energy, but he does not channel it into a useful channel.

Manilov- at first this landowner, because of his courtesy, evokes sympathy, but thanks to the scrupulous description of the details, Gogol practically completely discourages the desire to respect this person. He is very lazy: "there was always a book of some kind, bookmarked on page fourteen, which he had been constantly reading for two years now." Dreamy Manilov seems to live in his "sugar world", in real life exists as an amoeba and does not bring any benefit to society.

Box- the widow of a landowner, in whose world everything is frozen: despite the fact that she has a strong house, flies fly in it, to which Korobochka has nothing to do. This lady is very greedy and in every interlocutor she sees a way of making money. Differs in its terrible stupidity: it was Korobochka who accidentally "handed over" Chichikov's scam.

Sobakevich- the only one who is not so doomed in this poem. The appearance of this forty-year-old man is repulsive: he looks like a bear, and his manners leave much to be desired.

Plyushkin- a person doomed to a low existence, whose will has broken. Due to his stinginess, which occurred as a result of the death of his wife, Plyushkin broke down and cluttered his soul. The mess in his life is everywhere, from home and appearance and ending with the soul. His image, unlike the previous characters, is not so typical: with the help of Plyushkin, Gogol wanted to show a man who fell below the plinth.

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 transformation as state system Russia, its social structure, and all social strata and each individual person - the main themes and problems posed in the poem "Dead Souls" are determined.

Changes, from the point of view of Gogol, should not be external, but internal, that is it comes that all state and social structures, and especially their leaders, in their activities should be guided by moral laws, the tenets of Christian ethics. So, the eternal Russian misfortune - bad roads - can be overcome not by changing the bosses or tightening the laws and control over their implementation. For this, it is necessary that each of the participants in this case, first of all the leader, remember that he is responsible not to a higher-ranking official, but to God. Gogol called on every Russian person in his place, in his position, to do business in the way that the highest - Heavenly - law commands.

Its first volume focuses on all those negative phenomena in the life of the country that need to be corrected. But the main evil for a writer lies not in social problems as such, but in the reason why they arise: the spiritual impoverishment of the person of his day. That is why the problem of the mortification 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!" - urges the writer, convincingly demonstrating the abyss into which one who has lost a living soul falls. Dead soul is understood not only as a purely bureaucratic term used in Russia XIX century. Often " dead soul"They call a person who is mired in worries about vanity. The symbolism of the definition of "dead souls" contains the opposition of the dead (inert, frozen, spiritless) principle and the living (spiritualized, high, light).

Gallery of landowners and officials, shown in the 1st volume of the poem. " To dead souls", Shown in the 1st volume, can only be opposed by" alive soul"Of the people, appearing in the author's lyrical digressions. The peculiarity of Gogol's position lies in the fact that he not only opposes these two principles, but indicates the possibility of awakening the living in the dead. So the poem includes the theme of the resurrection of the soul, the theme of the path to its revival. It is known that Gogol intended to show the path of the rebirth of two heroes from Volume 1 - Chichikov and Plyushkin. The author dreams of the “dead souls” of Russian reality to be reborn, turning into truly “living” souls.

But in his contemporary world, the mortification of the soul was reflected in the most varied aspects of life. In the poem "Dead Souls" the writer continues and develops that general theme, which passes through all his work: the belittling and decay of a person in a ghostly and absurd world Russian reality.

Now it is enriched with an idea of ​​what is the true, high spirit of Russian life, what it can and should be. This idea permeates main theme poems: a writer's reflection on Russia and its people. The present of Russia is a horrifyingly powerful picture of decay and disintegration, which has affected all strata of society: landlords, officials, even the people.

Gogol in an extremely concentrated form demonstrates "the properties of our Russian breed." So, Plyushkin's thrift turns into stinginess, dreaminess and hospitality of Manilov - into an excuse for laziness and sugaryness. The daring and energy of Nozdryov are wonderful qualities, but here they are excessive and aimless, and therefore become a parody of Russian heroism.

At the same time, drawing extremely generalized types of Russian landowners, Gogol reveals the topic landlord Russia, with which the problems of relations between landowners and peasants, the profitability of the landlord economy, the possibility of its improvement are correlated. At the same time, the writer condemns not serfdom and not the landlords as a class, but how they use their power over the peasants, the wealth of their lands, for the sake of which they generally engage in farming. And here the main topic remains the theme of impoverishment, which is associated not so much with economic or social problems as with the process of the death of the soul.

Two critical topics author's reflections - the theme of Russia and the theme of the road - merge into lyrical digression, which completes the first volume of the poem. "Russia-three", "all inspired by God," appears in him as a vision of the author, who seeks to understand the meaning of its movement; “Rus, where are you rushing? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. " But in that lofty lyrical pathos that pervades these concluding lines, the writer's belief resounds that the answer will be found and the soul of the people will appear alive and beautiful.

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

The artistic depth and scale of the work "Dead Souls" indicate that it can be considered the main thing in creative biography Nikolai Gogol. The author worked long and painstakingly on its creation, starting with the understanding that, first of all, the writer should pass through all the problems and the storyline, as well as the character of the heroes. Let's analyze the analysis of "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol.

The humble beginning of a great poem

We begin our analysis of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" with the fact that in the first volume of the work, the author outlined only general features and called it "a pale beginning." How did Gogol get the idea for the plot, because in order to think over such a serious thing in detail, you need an appropriate approach and a solid foundation?

It turns out that the idea to do new poem submitted to Gogol by none other than Alexander Pushkin. The poet said that he had a plot in his sketches that he himself would like to use, but recommended that Nikolai Vasilyevich do it. But it is important to remember that the most important thing: Pushkin "suggested" the leading idea of ​​the poem, and he outlined the plot in general outline... Gogol himself perfectly developed the storyline, because he knew a lot real stories, which were based on various scams with "dead souls".

For example, let us include in the analysis of the poem "Dead Souls" one such case from the life of Gogol. When he was still a very young man and lived in Mirgorod, he heard in sufficient detail a similar story- some serfs who have already died, it was advantageous to count alive, at least until the upcoming revision. This practice spread throughout Russia, and on official papers only after the audit did such peasants begin to be considered dead. In view of this, until the so-called "revision tale" the landowners had to continue paying taxes in the form of a poll tax.

What is the essence of the scam with "dead souls"

When a peasant remained "alive" only on official papers, he could be gifted, sold or mortgaged, which was beneficial in case of some fraudulent scams. The landowner could be seduced by the fact that the serf did not bring more income, otherwise it was possible to bail out some amount for him. There was a buyer who, in the event of a transaction, began to own a very real state.

Initially, Gogol, taking into account this basis of the scam, defined for his work such a genre as an adventurous roguish novel. Some authors of that time already wrote in this spirit, and their novels enjoyed quite a lot of success, although in terms of the artistic level they were not so high. In the course of his work, Gogol modified the genre, and this is an important detail in the analysis of the poem Dead Souls. After the general idea of ​​the work became clear and the idea was clearly formed, Gogol himself designated the genre - a poem. Therefore, from an adventurous rogue novel, he turned into a poem.

Analysis of the poem "Dead Souls" - features of the work

If we talk about the scale of Gogol's idea in relation to the poem "Dead Souls", then one can see how it grew, because initially the author wanted to reflect only "one side" of Russia, and later, with his thesis, Gogol showed that he had revised not only the genre model, but also wealth of ideas. The essence of his thesis lies in the thought: "all Russia" should be reflected in the poem. The new idea was so wide and rich that it was practically impossible to realize it in the tight framework of an adventurous rogue novel. Therefore, this genre began to play the role of a shell, but lost the main role.

Let's talk a little about the main character of the poem Chichikov. Its origin is shrouded in mystery, and this is the very technique that Gogol used to fully reveal his image. Analyzing the poem "Dead Souls", it becomes quite obvious that Chichikov is a man of the middle. He has not a bad appearance, that is, you cannot call him handsome, and he is not ugly. He is not thick, and not thin. Age is also incomprehensible - not young, at the same time not old. As readers, we do not know the story of Chichikov's life until we get to reading the last chapter.

In the eleventh chapter, the vulgar nature of this person becomes visible. Again, it is said very vaguely about his origin, again it is emphasized that he is not vile, but not heroic either. Chichikov's main quality is that he is a "purchaser". One can draw conclusions from how Gogol calls him an "average" person. This means that he is not particularly different from everyone else, but a trait inherent in many is strengthened in his character - Chichikov is ready to make money, to chase beautiful life yet he has almost no deep goals in life, and he is spiritually empty.

WHAT'S THE POINT
GOGOL'S POEMS "DEAD SOULS".

Poem "The Dead
soul "was written at a time when in
Serfdom prevailed in Russia.
The landlords were in charge of their peasants,
as things or livestock, could buy and
sell them. The wealth of the landowner
was determined by the number of peasants who
belonged to him. In about 10
years the state has been making a census of "souls".
According to the census lists, landlords paid
taxes for peasants. If between
two revisions the peasant was dying, the landowner
still paid for him as if he were alive, before
new census.

Once A.S.
Pushkin told Gogol, about a rogue official,
who bought for a pittance from the landlords
dead souls listed alive.
After that, the official became very rich.
Gogol was greatly interested in the plot. He
conceived to paint a picture of a serf
Russia, show what happened in it
the process of decomposition of the landlord economy.
Gogol decided to write his poem in three
volumes in which it would be necessary to show all
Russia is not "from one side", but comprehensively.
He strove to portray not only
negative feudal landlords, but
find positive among them. But since v
Russia at that time had no positive
landowners, the second volume of the poem was not published.

Box -
housewife, but with a narrow mental
outlook. She sees nothing but
kopecks and two-cents. Busting
squandering landlord Nozdryov, able to "Descend"
the whole farm in a few days.

Shown and
Sobakevich is a landowner-kulak who is very
far from enlightenment, from advanced ideas
society. For the sake of profit, he is capable of
cheating, forgery, deception. He even
manages to sell Chichikov instead of a man
woman.

The limit is
moral decline is Plyushkin - "a hole
on humanity. "
good not only for others, but also for oneself. He
does not dine, dresses in torn clothes. TO
he feeds people with distrust and hostility,
shows cruelty and injustice to
peasants. Father's feelings died out in him,
things for him dearer than people... "And before