Why Gogol calls dead souls. "Dead Souls": meaning of the name

Russian empire The first quarter of the 19th century was the Great Power. The Russian army defeated Napoleon and took Paris. Emperor Alexander dictated his conditions to all of Europe. Before the Decembrist uprising was still far away. It seemed that Russia had joined the new brilliant stage of his existence ...
Somewhere in the distant provincial town there is a measured life, the laws of which were established, perhaps, half a century ago. The governor is a rocky father of the people, a police officer - the kindest patron of merchants, the prosecutor is a good-free guard of legality ... This list can be continued. The city is extremely cozy. Public life It just boils here. Wonderful city, right? And here in gubernsky city NN entering a bridge in which those who are called the Lords usually drive middle Hand... so begins the action of the novel " Dead Souls”.
Gogol does not relate the beginning of the narrative of the "dead souls" with a certain year, but researchers in one voice claim that it is approximately 1816-1820. Post-war life already firmly settled, or rather Patriotic WarApparently, little touched this quiet corner of Russia. Nothing does not violate the head of the work, and the main classes of landowners and officials is the accumulation of capital, game, balls and techniques. "To what our Russia is sad!" - Remember this Pushkin exclamation?
Gogol masterfully creates an image of a dead Russian reality. The item clings for the item, the detail follows the details, and the reader arises a generalized and rather unsightly picture of the provincial existence of the first decades of the 19th century.
The main attraction of the city of NN is officials. The main attraction of its surroundings - landowners. And those and others live through the labor of other people. This is drunk. Faces of their estates are their faces, and their villages are an accurate reflection of the owners's economic aspirations.
Russian nature is rich in paints, it is not inherent instant changes. On this stubborn background, Gogol draws the world that surrounds the provincial city, nourishes and at the same time poisoning it.
Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky, a talented researcher of Gogol's creativity, noticed that the images of the landowners resemble mannequins, figures from the Panofitikum, so they are so dead and lifeless. It is impossible, of course, to say that life in them does not manifest itself. For example, Sobesevich takes a lot about the well-being of his peasants, because this is his personal well-being. A box is extremely manty, and even a simple mention of the trait scares her to death. Nozdrev adores dogs and horses - much less he appreciates his fortress. But such qualities only emphasize the mental emptiness of Gogol landlords. If you look closely, each character of the poem resembles a doll, which, though able to move, but still remains empty and dead inside. Many researchers indicated on the lifelessness of Gogol characters. Thus, the symbolist writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky found modernist trends in the "dead souls", in particular when the landowners depicting.
Working on his poem, Gogol did not seek to produce an external effect, but the so-called "world of things" his works are embedded, born and unforgettable. The image of the "Dead" landowners reminds of the principles of the classic comedy: "Passion man", a character, obsessed with one idea, one desire.
The world of the poem consists of "dead" and "sleeping". The people whose creative strength could make up the contrast of the inertness of destroyers, is depicted here in a rather unsightly form. Peasants are undeveloped, servants are corrupted. Drunkenness, laziness, wildness, - all these features "Russian national Character"Very faithfully captured Gogol. "Heavy dream", mastered the "black Russia", that is, the people, ready to turn into a nightmare.
Only "Rus" is an artistic convention, a generalization, an abstraction, invented by Gahol, especially for the "dead souls" and more than once arising in his later works, - it seems in the poem alive and movable. But lyrical deviationswho violate a frightening-detailed description of "Dead Russia", sounds only in the consciousness of the writer ...

(No ratings no)

Other writings:

1. Hogol wrote his work "Dead Souls" over the years. During his work, he called "Dead Souls" by Roman, the story, the poem. But in the end, it stopped at the last option. Why? Of course, in this work, the features of the novel are strong: strictly built pricing, Read more ......
2. Although the concept of the genre is continuously changing and becomes complicated, the historically folding type can be understood under the genre. literary workwho has certain features. According to these features, the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe work becomes clear, and we are about guessing its content: from the definition of "novel" we are waiting for the description of Read more ......
3. In 2-6 chapters "Dead Souls" Gogol depicts the life of Russian landowners. The writer introduces us with various representatives of this class, explaining the visits to them by one goal - the desire of Chichikov to buy "dead souls". Episodes associated with landowners are built in the same way: the image of the village, Read more ......
4. The image of Tatiana is one of the most captive and deep in the history of Russian literature. Tatiana opens the gallery of portraits of beautiful women with a truly Russian character. She is a spiritual predecessancy of poetic, distinctive, selfless "Turgenev women." A. S. Pushkin invested his read more in this image ......
5. The interweaving of the Heroes is the plot of the novel Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". So different images - Onegin, Lensky, Tatiana, the author - still so similar in her loneliness ... Onegin does not find a response from others and turns into a cynic. Lensky, enthusiastic young man, loves everyone. Read more ......
6. At the base of the poem N. V. Gogol "Dead Souls" is a scam of her main character - the former official of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikova. This man conceived and practically carried out very simple, but ingenious fraud in its essence. Chichikov bought U. dead landowners peasant souls, read more ......
7. A few words about the poem Gogol: Chichikov's adventures, or the dead souls we do not undertake yourself important labor give a report in this new great work Gogol, who has already become highly previous creatures; We consider it necessary to say a few words to point to read more ......
8. Gogol reveals the great drama of the enslaved people. Friendic oppression, unlimited power over peasants boxes and plush cripples live soul People, condemning him to ignorance and poverty. However, Gogol sees and shows the bright parties of the people's life. Fortress peasants hardworking. Any job Read more ......

In May 1842, the first volume of Gogol's "dead souls" is published. The work was conceived by the author even during his work on the "auditor". In the "dead souls", Gogol appeals to the main topic of his creativity: dominant classes of Russian society. The writer himself said: "My creation is huge and great, and not the end of him." Indeed, "Dead Souls" is an outstanding phenomenon in the history of Russian and world satire.

"Dead Souls" - satire for serfdom

"Dead souls" - a work in this Gogol is a successor of Pushkin prose. He himself speaks about this on the pages of the poem in the lyrical retreat of two types of writers (VII chap).

Here opens a feature of Gogol realism: ability to expose and show close-up All flaws of human nature that are not always striking. The "dead souls" reflected the basic principles of realism:

1. Historicism. The work is written by O. modern writer Time - Light 20-30s of the XIX century - Then the serfdom experienced a serious crisis.
2. Typical characteristics and circumstances. The landowners and officials are depicted satirically with a pronounced critical direction, the main social types are shown. Special attention Gogol gives the details.
3. Satirical typification. It is achieved author's characteristic Characters, comic situations, appeal to the past of heroes, hyperbolization, using speech and proverbs.

Meaning of the name: Literal and metaphorical

Gogol wondered writing a product of three volumes. As the basis he took " Divine comedia»Dante Aligiery. Similarly, the "dead souls" should consist of three parts. Even the name of the poem refers to the reader to the Christian principle.

Why "Dead Souls"? The name itself is an oxymoron, comparison of the incomparable. The soul is a substance that is inherent in the living, but not dead. Using this technique, Gogol gives hope that everything is not lost that a positive start in the crippled souls of landowners and officials can be reborn. About this and should have been the second volume.

The meaning of the name of the poem "Dead Souls" lies in several planes. On the surface itself - literal meaning, because it was the dead souls who were dead peasants in bureaucratic documents. Actually, this is the essence of Chichikov's Machination: to bother the dead serfs and take money under their deposit. In the circumstances of the sale of peasants and show the main characters. "Dead souls" - this is the landowners themselves and officials who are facing chisters, because there is nothing human, living. They rules the thirst for profit (officials), scoomy (box), cruelty (nostrils) and rudeness (Sobashevich).

Depth sense of the name

All new aspects open as the poem reading the "Dead Souls". The meaning of the name, molding in the depths of the work, makes you think about the fact that anyone, a simple manual, can over time to turn into Manilov or Nozdrev. Enough in his heart to settle one small passion. And he will not notice how the vice sprouts there. To this end, in the XI chapter, Gogol encourages the reader to look deep into the soul and check: "But is there any part of Chichikov?"

Gogol laid into the poem "Dead Souls" the meaning of the name of the multifaceted, opening the reader not immediately, but in the process of understanding the work.

Genre peculiarity

When analyzing the "dead souls", another question arises: "Why is Gogol positions a work as a poem?" Really, genre peculiarity Creation is unique. In the process of working on the work of Gogol in letters shared with his friends with his creative finds, calling the "dead souls" and the poem, and novel.

About the second volume "Dead Souls"

In a state of deep creative crisis For ten years, Gogol writes the second volume of "dead souls". In the correspondence, he often complains to his friends that the case is going very tight and does not particularly satisfy it.

Gogol refers to a harmonious, positive image of a landowner Kostagnzhlo: reasonable, responsible to use scientific knowledge In the manor device. Under its influence, Chichikov revises their attitude to reality and varies for the better.

Seeing in the poem "Life Life", Gogol burned the second volume of "dead souls".

Why "Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol called the poem?

"Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol - the phenomenon is equally brilliant and amazing, how much and the work of A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". Both texts (from the point of view genre definition) Provide author's innovation in the genre system of the Russian literature of the nineteenth century. How unusually seemed then literary society Definition lyrical work As a "novel" (albeit "in verses"), and the definition of "poem" in relation to prosaic text sounds as surprisingly.
Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, the great critic of the nineteenth century, characterizes the work of Gogol as a novel, building a clear system of evidence. However, perfectly knowing the point of this view, Gogol and in the second edition of the "dead souls" determines the genre of the work as "poem". This has a number of significant reasons that can be found in a detailed analysis of text.
First, according to the definition, the poem is a limier genre, in which any significant and weighty characters are derived to the fore. You can confidently assert that the work of N.V. Gogol is not just a text, it's not just a story about the fate and adventures of Chichikov, about his amazing scam, about the bold and incredible idea and so on. No, the text of the poem is also the place of the tangible existence of the author: the reader cannot but detect the living writer, reflected in lyrical devices in which Gogol argues about the fate of Russia. That is, the thin lyrics of the author's soul, his sincere experiences are closely intertwined with the main scene linedefined in the work.
Secondly, the heroes of the "Dead Souls" are peculiar "anti-bogatyri". They are significant, known to all of the people, they became famous, but all their actions and actions are characterized by negative sideThey cause dislike. Lermontov, representing the reader of Pechorin as a hero of his time, in the same colors described a typical nature modern generation (It is worth saying that not without shade of regret). So Gogol: He shows all the most vigilant, exposes the reader ordinary and all famous Russia - not strong state With great victories and a centuries-old history, but the country with its ugly, low-lying passions and bad defects, in which there are no brave liberators, but small and greedy landlords. Manilov, box, Sobashevich, Nozdrev and Plushkin - Here are the most significant characters of the time: the characters are low and stupid, immoral and absolutely dead, empty; However, these are the heroes of his time, these are the morals of Russia, boldly and brightly shown by the Grand Writer.
Thirdly, it is worth noting that Gogol called "dead souls" by the poem also because he considered a significant and very important idea of \u200b\u200bhis work: he thought it was a significant impulse to the spiritual revival of Russia.
It is possible that this is the attitude towards his idea and gave the reason N.V. Gogol determines the genre of his work as a "poem".

Why N.V. Gogol called the "Dead Souls" by the poem?

I. Introduction

Under the poem, the poetic work of a lyrol-epic nature is commonly understood (see dictionary). It is clear that Gogol meant something else.

II. main part

1. For Gogol, the poem is the "small genus of the epic", and the epic puts its task to portray not separate fate, but the life of the country, the nation, the people as a whole.
2. That is why "dead souls" can not be called a novel or tale. Although through all the work passes chikchik as central characterFor Gogol, it is still not important for himself, it is impossible to be called the main hero. Chichiku Gogol pays no more, and maybe less attention than Manilov, a companion, the prosecutor, the police officer, etc. That is why the prehistory of Chichikova Gogol puts the last chapter I of Tom.
3. The desire to portray and comprehend the life of the entire nation, the whole state leads to reproduction in the poem of many characters, to the emergence of many characters, which at first glance seem episodic, and in fact extremely important for understanding Russian life. In particular, Gogol widely presented three main estates in the poem: landowners, officials (Chairman of the Chamber, Prosecutor, Ivan Antonovich Kuvshina, the officials, who served chikchik, etc.), People (Selifan, Parsley, Stepan Cork, Maxim Tubenets, Unnamed men who meet on the Chichot's Road and others).
4. The same goals also serve numerous descriptions and retreats that characterize the total structure of Russian life (interiors of houses, sketches of urban life and life in estates in landlords, retreats about "thick and thin", about the ability to apply, descriptions of life and morals in the rank, landlord and peasant medium, etc.).
5. Important property of the poem in xIX-XX literature centuries are a lyrol-epic character, that is, a combination of an image of objective reality with direct subjective statements of the author ( lyrical hero). (For more details, see Slika, Art. Childbirth literary and lyrol-epic works.) "Dead souls" - the work is rather epic than the lyrol-epic, but the author's statements are played in it (lyrical retreats, see dictionary), in which Gogol expresses his experiences and reflections (about the properties of the Russian national nature, about the Russian Word, about the fate of the writer, etc.). This circumstance also allows you to consider the "dead souls" by the poem.

III. Conclusion

In the "Dead Souls", Gogol created a picture of Russia's life, the image of a nation in which individual fates of people occupy a subordinate place. That is what is characteristic of the poem and Gogol understanding.