The Inspector General is the best Russian comedy. Both in reading and in staging on stage, she is always interesting. Therefore, in general, it is difficult to talk about any failure of the "Inspector". But, on the other hand, it is also difficult to create a real Gogol performance, to make those sitting in the hall laugh with a bitter Gogol laugh. As a rule, something fundamental and deep escapes the actor or spectator, on which the whole meaning of the play is based.

The premiere of the comedy, which took place on April 19, 1836 on the stage of the Alexandria Theater in St. Petersburg, was a tremendous success, according to contemporaries. The mayor was played by Ivan Sosnitsky, Khlestakov - Nikolai Dyur, the best actors of that time. "... The general attention of the audience, applause, sincere and unanimous laughter, the challenge of the author ..." recalled Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, "there was nothing short of anything."

At the same time, even the most ardent admirers of Gogol did not fully understand the meaning and significance of comedy; the majority of the public took it as a farce. Many saw in the play a caricature of the Russian bureaucracy, and in its author - a rebel. According to Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, there were people who hated Gogol from the very appearance of The Inspector General. Thus, Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (nicknamed the American) said at a crowded meeting that Gogol was "an enemy of Russia and that he should be sent to Siberia in shackles." Censor Alexander Vasilyevich Nikitenko wrote in his diary on April 28, 1836: “Gogol's comedy“ The Inspector General ”made a lot of noise. Many believe that the government is wrong to approve of this play, in which it is so severely condemned. "

Meanwhile, it is reliably known that comedy was allowed to be staged on stage (and, therefore, to print) due to the highest resolution. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich read the comedy in manuscript and approved; according to another version, "The Inspector General" was read to the king in the palace. On April 29, 1836, Gogol wrote to the famous actor Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin: "If it were not for the high intercession of the Tsar, my play would never have been on the stage, and there were already people who were trying to ban it." The Emperor not only attended the premiere himself, but also ordered the ministers to watch The Inspector General. During the performance, he clapped and laughed a lot, and leaving the box, he said: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, but I got it more than anyone else! "

Gogol hoped to meet the support of the tsar and was not mistaken. Soon after the staging of the comedy, he answered his ill-wishers in the "Theatrical passing": "The generous government, deeper than you, saw the purpose of the writer with a high mind."

Gogol's bitter confession sounds in striking contrast to the seemingly undoubted success of the play:

“... The Inspector General” is played - and in my soul it is so vague, so strange ... I expected, I knew in advance how things would go, and with all that, a feeling of sad and annoyingly painful clothed me. My creation seemed to me disgusting, wild and as if not mine at all "

("Excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of the" Inspector "to a certain writer").

Gogol was, it seems, the only one who perceived the first production of The Inspector General as a failure. What is the matter here that did not satisfy him? In part, the discrepancy between the old vaudeville techniques in the design of the performance is the completely new spirit of the play, which did not fit into the framework of an ordinary comedy. Gogol insistently warns: “One must fear most of all in order not to fall into caricature. Nothing should be exaggerated or trivial, even in the last roles "(" A warning for those who would like to play the "Inspector" properly).

Why, let us ask again, was Gogol dissatisfied with the premiere? main reason was not even in the farcical nature of the performance - the desire to make the audience laugh - but in the fact that with a caricatured manner of play, those in the audience perceived what was happening on the stage without applying to themselves, since the characters were exaggeratedly funny. Meanwhile, Gogol's plan was designed for just the opposite perception: to involve the viewer in the play, to make one feel that the city indicated in the comedy does not exist somewhere, but to one degree or another anywhere in Russia, and the passions and vices of officials are in the soul of each of us. Gogol addresses everyone and everyone. This is the tremendous social significance of the "Inspector". This is the meaning of the famous remark of the Governor: “Why are you laughing? You are laughing at yourself! " - facing the audience (precisely to the audience, since no one is laughing on the stage at this time). This is indicated by the epigraph: "There is no reason to blame the mirror if the face is crooked." In a kind of theatrical commentary to the play - "Theatrical passing" and "The denouement of the" Inspector "- where the audience and the actors discuss the comedy, Gogol seeks to destroy the wall separating the stage and the audience.

Regarding the epigraph, which appeared later, in the edition of 1842, let us say that this popular proverb means the Gospel under the mirror, which Gogol's contemporaries, spiritually belonging to the Orthodox Church, knew very well and could even reinforce the understanding of this proverb, for example, the famous fable of Krylov “ Mirror and Monkey ".

Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev) in his major work "Foundations of the Art of Holiness" (1920s) connects the meaning of this fable with attacks on the Gospel, and this (among others) was Krylov's meaning. The spiritual concept of the Gospel as a mirror has long and firmly existed in the Orthodox consciousness. For example, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, one of Gogol's favorite writers, whose works he read repeatedly, says: “Christians! As a mirror to the sons of this world, so let the Gospel and the immaculate life of Christ be to us. They look in mirrors and correct their bodies and cleanse the vices on their faces. Let us offer you a clean mirror in front of our spiritual eyes and look in it: is our life in accordance with the life of Christ? "

The holy righteous John of Kronstadt in his diaries published under the title "My Life in Christ" remarks "to those who do not read the Gospel": "Are you pure, holy and perfect, without reading the Gospel, and you do not need to look into this mirror?" Or are you very ugly mentally and afraid of your ugliness? .. "

In Gogol's extracts from the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, we find the entry: “Those who want to cleanse and whiten their faces usually look in the mirror. Christian! Your mirror is the essence of the Lord's commandments; if you put them in front of you and look at them intently, then it will reveal to you all the spots, all the blackness, all the ugliness of your soul. " It is noteworthy that Gogol also referred to this image in his letters. So, on December 20 (New Style), 1844, he wrote to Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin from Frankfurt: "... always keep on your table a book that would serve you as a spiritual mirror"; and a week later - to Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova: “Look also at yourself. For this, have a spiritual mirror on the table, that is, some book into which your soul can look ... "

As you know, a Christian will be judged according to the Gospel law. In The Denouement of The Inspector General, Gogol puts into the mouth of the First Comic Actor the idea that on the day of the Last Judgment we will all find ourselves with “crooked faces”: “... let's take a look at at least some of ourselves through the eyes of the One Who will call all people to face-to-face confrontation, Before Whom, the best of us, do not forget this, will lower their eyes from shame to the ground, and let us see if any of us will then have the spirit to ask: "Do I really have a crooked face?" Here Gogol, in particular, answers the writer Mikhail Nikolaevich Zagoskin, who was especially indignant at the epigraph, saying at the same time: "But where is my crooked face?"

It is known that Gogol never parted with the Gospel. “Above that, one cannot invent what is already in the Gospel,” he said. "How many times has humanity recoiled from him and how many times it has been converted."

It is impossible, of course, to create some other "mirror" like the Gospel. But just as every Christian is obliged to live according to the Gospel commandments, imitating Christ (to the extent of his human strength), so Gogol the playwright, according to his talent, arranges his mirror on the stage. Any of the spectators could be the Krylov Monkey. However, it turned out that this viewer saw "gossips ... five or six", but not himself. Gogol later said the same in his address to readers in Dead Souls: “You will even laugh heartily at Chichikov, perhaps even praise the author. And you add: "But I must agree, there are strange and ridiculous people in some provinces, and besides, they are not small scoundrels!" And who of you, full of Christian humility, will deepen this difficult inquiry into your own soul: "Isn't there some part of Chichikov in me too?" Yes, no matter how it is! "

The Governor's replica, which appeared, like the epigraph, in 1842, also has its parallel in Dead Souls. In the tenth chapter, reflecting on the mistakes and delusions of all mankind, the author notes: “Now the current generation sees everything clearly, marvels at the delusions, laughs at the folly of their ancestors, not in vain that a piercing finger is directed at it from everywhere, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new delusions, which the descendants will also laugh at later. "

In The Inspector General, Gogol made his contemporaries laugh at what they were used to and what they had stopped noticing. But most importantly, they are used to being careless in their spiritual life. The audience laughs at the heroes who die spiritually. Let us turn to examples from the play that show such a death.

The governor sincerely believes that “there is no person who does not have any sins behind him. This is already so arranged by God Himself, and the Volterians in vain speak against this. " To which Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin objects: “What do you think, Anton Antonovich, are sins? Sin to sin - strife. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but why bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter. "

The judge is sure that bribes as greyhound puppies and bribes cannot be considered, "but, for example, if someone has a fur coat worth five hundred rubles, and a shawl for his wife ..." Here the Governor, having understood the hint, retorts: "But you do not believe in God; you never go to church; and I, at least, am firm in the faith, and every Sunday I go to church. And you ... Oh, I know you: if you start talking about the creation of the world, your hair just stands on end. " To which Ammos Fedorovich replies: "Why, he came by himself, with his own mind."

Gogol is the best commentator of his works. In the "Advance Notice ..." he remarks about the Judge: "He is not even a lover of lying, but he has a great passion for hunting dogs. He is busy with himself and his mind, and is an atheist only because in this field there is room for him to show himself. "

The governor believes that he is firm in the faith; the more sincerely he expresses this, the funnier it is. Going to Khlestakov, he gives orders to his subordinates: “But if they ask why a church was not built at a charitable institution, for which a sum was allocated five years ago, then do not forget to say that construction began, but burned down. I presented a report on this. And then, perhaps, someone, having forgotten, will foolishly say that it did not begin. "

Explaining the image of the Governor, Gogol says: “He feels that he is sinful; he goes to church, even thinks that he is firm in the faith, even thinks of repenting sometime later. But the temptation of everything that floats into one's hands is great, and the blessings of life are tempting, and grabbing everything, without missing anything, has become with him, as it were, just a habit. "

And so, going to the imaginary inspector, the Governor laments: “Sinful, sinful in many respects ... Only, God, let me get away with it as soon as possible, and there I’ll put a candle like that, which no one else has put: I will put on every beast of a merchant deliver three poods of wax. " We see that the Governor has found himself, as it were, in a vicious circle of his sinfulness: in his repentant reflections, unnoticed for him, sprouts of new sins arise (merchants will pay for the candle, not he).

Just as the Governor does not feel the sinfulness of his actions, because he does everything according to an old habit, so do the other heroes of The Inspector General. For example, postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin opens other people's letters solely out of curiosity: “I love death to learn what is new in the world. I will tell you that this is the most interesting reading. You will read another letter with pleasure - this is how different passages are described ... and what edification ... better than in Moskovskiye Vedomosti! "

The innocence, curiosity, the habitual doing of any untruth, the freethinking of officials when Khlestakov appears, that is, according to their concepts, an auditor, are suddenly replaced for a moment by an attack of fear inherent in criminals expecting severe retribution. The same inveterate freethinker Ammos Fedorovich, being in front of Khlestakov, says to himself: “Lord God! I don't know where I'm sitting. Like hot coals under you. " And the Governor in the same position asks for pardon: “Do not ruin! Wife, small children ... do not make a person unhappy. " And further: “Out of inexperience, by God, out of inexperience. Lack of wealth ... You can judge for yourself: the state salary is not even enough for tea and sugar. "

Gogol was especially dissatisfied with the way Khlestakov was played. “The main role is gone,” he writes, “as I thought. Dyur didn’t understand what Khlestakov was. ” Khlestakov is not just a dreamer. He himself does not know what he is saying and what he will say the next moment. As if someone sitting in him speaks for him, tempting all the characters in the play through him. Isn't this the very father of lies, that is, the devil? It seems that this is exactly what Gogol had in mind. The heroes of the play, in response to these temptations, without noticing it, reveal themselves in all their sinfulness.

Tempted by the crafty Khlestakov himself, as it were, acquired the features of a demon. On May 16 (New Style), 1844, Gogol wrote to Aksakov: “All this excitement and mental struggle is nothing more than the work of our common friend, everyone knows, namely, devil. But do not lose sight of the fact that he is a clickfighter and is all about inflating. You beat this brute in the face and do not be embarrassed by anything. He is like a petty official who has climbed into the city as if for an investigation. The dust will start up for everyone, print, scream. One has only to chicken out a little and move back - then he will go to be brave. And as soon as you step on it, it will also hold its tail. We ourselves make a giant out of him. A proverb is not a gift, but a proverb says: the devil boasted to take over the whole world, but God did not give him power over the pig either. This is how Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov is seen in this description.

The heroes of the play more and more feel a sense of fear, as evidenced by the replicas and the author's remarks ("stretching out and trembling with all the body"). This fear, as it were, spreads to the audience. After all, there were those in the hall who were afraid of auditors, but only real ones - the sovereigns. Meanwhile, Gogol, knowing this, called them, in general, Christians, to the fear of God, to the cleansing of their conscience, which would not fear any inspector, not even the Last Judgment. The officials, as if blinded by fear, cannot see Khlestakov's real face. They always look at their feet, and not at the sky. In The Rule of Living in the World, Gogol explained the reason for this fear: “Everything is exaggerated in our eyes and frightens us. Because we keep our eyes down and do not want to raise them up. For if they lifted them up for a few minutes, they would see from above everything only God and the light emanating from Him, illuminating everything in its present form, and then they would laugh at their own blindness. "

The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe "Inspector General" is the idea of \u200b\u200binevitable spiritual retribution that every person should expect. Gogol, dissatisfied with the way The Inspector General is staged on stage and how the audience perceives it, tried to reveal this idea in The Inspector's End.

“Look closely at this city, which is shown in the play! - says Gogol through the mouth of the First Comic Actor. - Every single one agrees that there is no such city in all of Russia.<…> Well, what if this is our spiritual city, and it sits with each of us?<…> Say what you like, but the inspector who is waiting for us at the door of the coffin is terrible. As if you don't know who this auditor is? What to pretend? This inspector is our awakened conscience, which will make us suddenly and at once look with all eyes at ourselves. Nothing will hide before this auditor, because according to the Named Supreme Command, he was sent and will announce him when it will not be possible to take a step back. Suddenly, such a monster will open before you, in you, that a hair will rise from horror. It is better to revise everything that is in us, at the beginning of life, and not at the end of it. "

We are talking here about the Last Judgment. And now the final scene of The Inspector General becomes clear. It is a symbolic picture of the Last Judgment. The appearance of a gendarme, announcing the arrival from St. Petersburg "at the personal command" of an already present inspector, produces a stunning effect. Gogol's remark: “The spoken words strike everyone with thunder. The sound of amazement unanimously flies out of the ladies' lips; the whole group, having suddenly changed the position, remains petrified. "

Gogol attached exceptional importance to this "silent scene". He defines its duration at one and a half minutes, and in "Excerpt from a Letter ..." he even talks about two or three minutes of "petrification" of the heroes. Each of the characters, with the whole figure, seems to show that he can no longer change anything in his fate, move at least a finger - he is in front of the Judge. According to Gogol's plan, at this moment in the hall there should be a silence of general reflection.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe Last Judgment was to be developed in Dead Souls, as it really follows from the content of the poem. One of the rough sketches (obviously for the third volume) directly draws a picture of the Last Judgment: “Why did you not remember about Me, that I am looking at you, that I am yours? Why then did you expect rewards and attention and encouragement from people and not from Me? What then would it be for you to pay attention to how an earthly landowner will spend your money when you have a heavenly landowner? Who knows how it would have ended if you had reached the end without fear? You would have surprised you with the greatness of your character, you would have finally taken over and made you wonder; would you leave the name like eternal monument valor, and would drop streams of tears, streams of tears about you, and like a whirlwind you would wave a flame of goodness in your hearts. " The steward dropped his head, ashamed, and did not know where to go. And after him many officials and noble, wonderful people who began to serve and then left the field, sadly bowed their heads.

In conclusion, let us say that the theme of the Last Judgment permeates all of Gogol's work, which corresponded to his spiritual life, his desire for monasticism. And a monk is a person who has left the world, preparing himself for an answer at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Gogol remained a writer and, as it were, a monk in the world. In his writings, he shows that it is not a person who is bad, but the sin acting in him. The same has always been affirmed by Orthodox monasticism. Gogol believed in the power of the artistic word, which could indicate the path to moral rebirth. It was with this faith that he created The Inspector General.

The Inspector General is an immortal comedy by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol. From the moment of its writing, they did not stop reading and staging it on stage, because the problems that the author revealed in the work will never lose their relevance and will find a response in the hearts of viewers and readers at all times.

Work on the work began in 1835. According to legend, wanting to write a comedy, but not finding a story worthy of this genre, Gogol turned to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin for help in the hope that he would suggest a suitable plot. And so it happened, Pushkin shared an "anecdote" that happened either to him or to an official he knew: a person who came to a city on his own business was mistaken by the local authorities for an inspector who had arrived on a secret mission to track, find out, report. Admiring the talent of the writer, Pushkin was sure that Gogol would cope with the task even better than him, he was looking forward to the release of the comedy and in every possible way supported Nikolai Vasilyevich, especially when he was thinking of abandoning the work he had begun.

For the first time, the comedy was read by the author himself at an evening with Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky in the presence of several acquaintances and friends (including Pushkin). In the same year, The Inspector General was staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The play angered and alarmed with its "unreliability", it could be banned. It was only thanks to the petition and patronage of Zhukovsky that it was decided to leave the work alone.

At the same time, Gogol himself was dissatisfied with the first production. He decided that neither the actors nor the public had taken The Inspector General correctly. This was followed by several explanatory articles by the writer, giving important instructions to those who really want to grasp the essence of comedy, correctly understand the characters, and play them on stage.

Work on the "Inspector General" continued until 1842: after numerous corrections, it acquired the form in which it has come down to us.

Genre and direction

The Inspector General is a comedy, where the subject of the story is the life of Russian officials. This is a satire on the mores and orders established among people belonging to this circle. The author skillfully uses elements of the comic in his work, supplying them with both plot twists and turns and a system of characters. He cruelly ridicules the current state of society, then openly ironic about events that illustrate reality, then covertly laughing at them.

Gogol worked in the direction of realism, the main principle of which was to show "a typical hero in typical circumstances." This, on the one hand, made it easier for the writer to choose the topic of the work: it was enough to think about what issues are burning for society at the moment. On the other hand, this posed a difficult task for him to describe reality in such a way that the reader would recognize it and himself in it, believe the author's word and himself, plunging into the atmosphere of disharmony of reality, realized the need for change.

About what?

The action takes place in a county town, which naturally has no name, thereby symbolizing any city, and therefore Russia as a whole. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, the mayor, receives a letter, which says about an auditor who can come to the city incognito with a check at any moment. The news literally puts on the ears of all residents who have anything to do with the civil service. Without thinking twice, the frightened townspeople themselves find a contender for the role of an important official from St. Petersburg and in every possible way try to flatter him, to appease a high-ranking person, so that he will condescend to their sins. The comic nature of the situation is added by the fact that Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, who made such an impression on others, until the last minute does not guess why everyone behaves with him so courteously, and only at the very end begins to suspect that he was mistaken for someone else, throughout the appearance of an important person.

A love conflict is also woven into the canvas of the general narrative, also played out in a farcical manner and built on the fact that the young ladies participating in it, each pursuing their own benefit, try to prevent each other from reaching it, and the instigator at the same time cannot choose one of the two I will.

The main characters and their characteristics

Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov

This is a petty official from St. Petersburg, returning home to his parents and mired in debt. “The role of the one who is taken by the frightened city for the auditor is more difficult for everyone,” says Gogol about Khlestakov in one of the articles attached to the play. An empty and insignificant person by nature, Khlestakov turns around his finger a whole city of rogues and swindlers. The main assistant to him in this becomes the general fear that gripped the officials mired in official "sins". They themselves create an incredible image of an omnipotent auditor from St. Petersburg - a formidable person who decides other people's destinies, the first of the first in the whole country, as well as a metropolitan thing, a star of any circle. But such a legend must be able to support. Khlestakov brilliantly copes with this task, unrolling every passage thrown in his direction to an exciting story so impudently absurd that it is hard to believe that the cunning city N could not see through his deception. The secret of the "auditor" is that his lies are pure and naive to the extreme. The hero is incredibly sincere in his lies, he practically believes in what he is telling. This is probably the first time he has received such overwhelming attention. They really listen to him, listen to his every word, which makes Ivan absolutely delighted. He feels that this is the moment of his triumph: whatever he says now, everything will be received with admiration. His fantasy takes flight. He is not aware of what is really going on here. Stupidity and bragging do not allow him to objectively assess the real state of affairs and realize that these mutual enthusiasm cannot last long. He is ready to stay in the city, taking advantage of the imaginary benevolence and generosity of the townspeople, not realizing that the deception will soon be revealed, and then there will be no limit to the fury of the officials circled around the finger.

Being a loving young man, Khlestakov drags right after two attractive young ladies, not knowing who to choose, whether the mayor's daughter or his wife, and rushes in front of one or the other on his knees, which wins the hearts of both.

In the end, gradually starting to guess that all those present take him for someone else, Khlestakov, surprised by this incident, but without losing courage, writes to his friend, the writer Tryapichkin, about what happened to him, and offers to ridicule his new acquaintances in the relevant article. He joyfully paints the vices of those who accepted him complacently, those whom he managed to rob (taking only loans), those who gloriously turned their heads with their stories.

Khlestakov is a "deceitful, personified deception" and at the same time this empty, insignificant character "contains a collection of many of those qualities that are found not behind insignificant people," which is why this role is more difficult than everyone else. You can find another description of the character and image of Khlestakov in the format of an essay.

Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, mayor

"Dodger of the first category" (Belinsky)

Anton Antonovich is not a stupid person and knows how to manage affairs. He could have been a good mayor if he hadn't taken care of his pocket first of all. Dexterously settling in his place, he carefully looks at every opportunity to grab something somewhere and never misses his chance. In the city he is considered a fraud and a bad manager, but it becomes clear to the reader that he earned such fame not because he is angry or ruthless by nature (he is not at all like that), but because he put his interests much higher than those of others. Moreover, if you find the right approach to him, you can enlist his support.

The governor is not mistaken about himself and does not hide in a private conversation that he himself knows everything about his sins. He considers himself a devout man, for he goes to church every Sunday. It can be assumed that some repentance is not alien to him, but he still puts his weaknesses above him. At the same time, he is anxious about his wife and daughter, he cannot be reproached with indifference.

In the arrival of the auditor, the mayor is rather frightened by the surprise than by the check itself. He suspects that if the city is properly prepared and the right people to the meeting of an important guest, and also to take the official from St. Petersburg into circulation, then you can successfully arrange a little business and even win something for yourself here. Feeling that Khlestakov succumbs to influence and comes into a good mood, Anton Antonovich calms down, and, of course, there is no limit to his joy, pride and the flight of his imagination when the opportunity arises to intermarry with such a person. The governor dreams of a prominent position in St. Petersburg, of a successful game for his daughter, the situation is under his control and turns out as well as possible, when it suddenly turns out that Khlestakov is just a dummy, and a real inspector has already appeared on the threshold. It is for him that this blow becomes the most difficult: he loses more than others, and will get him much more severely. You can find an essay describing the character and image of the mayor in The Inspector General.

Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna

The main female characters of the comedy. These ladies are the wife and daughter of the mayor. They are extremely curious, like all bored young ladies, hunters for all city gossip, as well as big coquettes, they like to be carried away by others.

Khlestakov, who appeared so unexpectedly, becomes a wonderful entertainment for them. He brings news from the high society of the capital, tells many amazing and amusing stories, and most importantly shows interest in each of them. Mother and daughter are trying in every possible way to achieve the location of an adorable dandy from St. Petersburg, and, in the end, he marries Maria Antonovna, which her parents are very happy about. Everyone is starting to make bright plans for the future. Women do not realize that the wedding is not included in his plans, and in the end both, as, indeed, all residents of the city, find themselves at a broken trough.

Osip

Khlestakov's servant is not stupid and cunning. He understands the situation much faster than his master and, realizing that things are not going well, advises the owner to leave the city as soon as possible.

Osip understands well what his owner needs to always take care of his well-being. Khlestakov himself clearly does not know how to do this, which means that without his servant he will disappear. Osip also understands this, so sometimes he allows himself to behave familiarly with the owner, is rude to him, behaves independently.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky

They are city landowners. Both are short, round, "extremely similar to each other." These two friends are talkers and liars, the two main city gossips. It is they who take Khlestakov for an auditor, which misleads all the other officials.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky give the impression of funny and good-natured gentlemen, but in fact they are stupid and, in essence, are just windbag.

Other officials

Each official of the city N is remarkable in some way, but nevertheless, they first of all make up a general picture of the bureaucratic world and are of interest in the aggregate. They, as we will see later, have all the vices of people in important positions. Moreover, they do not hide it, and sometimes they are even proud of their actions. Having in the person of the mayor's ally, the judge, the trustee of charitable institutions, the superintendent of schools and others freely do any arbitrariness that comes to their mind, without fear of reprisals.

The announcement of the arrival of the inspector horrifies everyone, but such "sharks" of the bureaucratic world quickly recover from the first shock and easily come to the simplest solution to their problem - bribing a terrible, but probably the same as they are dishonest inspector. Overjoyed by the success of their plan, the officials lose their vigilance and composure and find themselves smashed on their heads at the moment when it turns out that Khlestakov, whom they care about, is no one, and a real high-ranking official from St. Petersburg is already in the city. The image of the city N is described.

Themes

1. Political themes: arbitrariness, nepotism and embezzlement in government... A provincial town N falls into the author's field of vision. The absence of a name and any territorial indications immediately suggests that this is a collective image. The reader immediately gets acquainted with a number of officials living there, since they are the ones who are of interest in this work. These are all people who completely abuse power and use their official duties only in their own interests. The life of the officials of city N has developed for a long time, everything goes on as usual, nothing violates the order they created, the foundation of which was laid by the mayor himself, until there is a real threat of court and reprisals for their arbitrariness, which is about to fall on them represented by the auditor. we talked about this topic in more detail.
2. Social topics... Along the way, the comedy touched on the topic of universal stupidity, which manifests itself in different ways in different representatives of the human race. So, the reader sees how this vice leads some of the characters of the play into various curious situations: Khlestakov, inspired by the opportunity to become what he would like to be once in his life, does not notice that his legend has been written with a pitchfork in the water and he is about to be exposed ; the mayor, at first frightened to the core, and then faced with the temptation to go out to the people in St. Petersburg itself, is lost in the world of fantasies about a new life and is not ready for the denouement of this extraordinary story.

Problems

The comedy aims to ridicule the specific vices of people who have a high position in the service. Residents of the city do not disdain either bribery or embezzlement, they deceive ordinary inhabitants, rob them. Self-interest and arbitrariness are the eternal problems of officials, therefore "The Inspector General" at all times remains an actual and topical play.

Gogol touches on not only the problems of a separate class. He finds vices in every inhabitant of the city. For example, in noble women, we clearly see greed, hypocrisy, deceit, vulgarity and a tendency to betrayal. In ordinary townspeople, the author finds slavish dependence on masters, plebeian narrow-mindedness, a willingness to grovel and fawn for the sake of momentary profit. The reader can discern all sides of the coin: where tyranny reigns, there is no less shameful slavery. People accept this attitude towards themselves, they are satisfied with such a life. This is where unjust power draws its strength.

Meaning

The meaning of the comedy is laid down by Gogol in the folk proverb he chose as an epigraph: "There is no reason to blame the mirror if the face is crooked." In his work, the writer speaks about the pressing problems of his country of his contemporary period, although more and more new readers (each in his own era) find them topical and relevant. Not everyone meets the comedy with understanding, not everyone is ready to admit the existence of a problem, but is inclined to blame the imperfection of the world around people, circumstances, life as such - just not himself. The author sees this pattern in his compatriots and, wishing to fight it with the methods available to him, writes The Inspector General in the hope that those who have read it will try to change something in themselves (and, perhaps, in the world around them) in order to avoid trouble and excesses on their own, but by all possible means to stop the triumphant path of dishonor in the professional environment.

In the play no goodies, which can be interpreted as a literal expression of the main author's thought: everyone is to blame for everyone. There are no people who would not take a humiliating part in atrocities and riots. Everyone is doing their bit for injustice. Not only officials are to blame, but also merchants who give bribes and rob the people, and ordinary people who are always drunk and live in bestial conditions on their own initiative. Not only greedy, ignorant and hypocritical men are vicious, but deceitful, vulgar and stupid ladies. Before criticizing someone, you need to start with yourself, reducing the vicious circle by at least one link. This is the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe "Inspector".

Criticism

The writing of The Inspector General entailed a wide public response... The audience perceived the comedy ambiguously: the reviews were both enthusiastic and indignant. Criticism took opposite positions in assessing the work.

Many of Gogol's contemporaries strove to analyze comedy and draw any conclusion about its value for Russian and world literature. Some found it rude and harmful to read. So, F.V. Bulgarin, a representative of the official press and a personal enemy of Pushkin, wrote that The Inspector General is a slander against Russian reality, that if there are such customs, it is not in our country, that Gogol portrayed a Little Russian or Belarusian city and so ugly that it is not clear how he can stay on the globe.

O.I. Senkovsky noted the talent of the writer, believed that Gogol had finally found his own genre and should improve in it, but the comedy itself was not so complacently received by the critic. Senkovsky considered it a mistake of the author to mix something good and pleasant in his work with the amount of dirt and meanness that the reader eventually encounters. The critic also noted that the plot on which the whole conflict rests is unconvincing: such hardened scoundrels as the officials of city N could not be so gullible and let themselves be led into this fateful delusion.

There was a different opinion regarding Gogol's comedy. K.S. Aksakov stated that those who scold "The Inspector General" did not understand his poetics and should read the text more carefully. As a true artist, Gogol hid his real feelings behind ridicule and satire, in reality, his soul was rooting for Russia, in which in fact there is a place for all the characters of the comedy.

Interestingly, in his article "The Inspector General," a comedy, Op. N. Gogol "P.A. Vyazemsky, in turn, noted the complete success of the stage production. Remembering the accusations of implausibility against the comedy, he wrote about the psychological causes of the phenomena described by the author as more significant, but he was also ready to admit that what happened was possible from all other points of view. An important note in the article is an episode about attacks towards the characters: “They say that in Gogol's comedy not a single smart person is visible; not true: the author is clever. "

V.G. Belinsky praised the "Inspector". Oddly enough, he wrote a lot about Gogol's comedy in the article "Woe from Wit." The critic carefully considered both the plot and some of the characters in the comedy, and its essence. Talking about the genius of the author and praising his work, he admitted that everything in the "Inspector General" is excellent.

It is impossible not to mention the critical articles about the comedy of the author himself. Gogol wrote five explanatory articles to his work, as he considered that it was misunderstood by actors, spectators, and readers. He really wanted the audience to see in The Inspector General exactly what he showed, so that they perceive it in a certain way. In his articles, the writer gave instructions to the actors on how to play roles, revealed the essence of some episodes and scenes, as well as the general one - the entire work. He paid special attention to the silent scene, because he considered it incredibly important, the most important. Separately, I would like to mention "Theatrical patrol after the presentation of a new comedy." This article is unusual in its form: it is written in the form of a play. The audience who has just watched the show, as well as the author of the comedy, are talking among themselves. It contains some clarifications regarding the meaning of the work, but the main thing is Gogol's answers to criticism of his work.

Ultimately, the play became an important and integral part of Russian literature and culture.

Interesting? Keep it on your wall!

We owe Gogol the fact that he laid a solid foundation for the creation of a national-Russian drama. ( This material will help to write competently and on the subject of the Inspector N. V. Gogol. Part 1 .. The summary does not make it possible to understand the whole meaning of the work, so this material will be useful for a deep understanding of the work of writers and poets, as well as their novels, stories, stories, plays, poems.) After all, before the appearance of The Inspector General, one can only name Fonvizin's "Minor" and Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit" - two plays in which our compatriots were artistically fully depicted. It is therefore understandable that Gogol, indignant at the repertoire of our theaters, which consisted almost entirely of translated plays, wrote in 1835-1836: “We ask for a Russian! Give us yours! What are the French and all overseas people to us? Do we have little of our people? Russian characters! Your characters! Let's ourselves! Give us our rogues ... To stage them! Let all the people see them! Let them laugh! "

“The Inspector General” was the comedy where “Russian characters” were brought to the stage. "Our rogues" were ridiculed, but on top of that the social vices and social ulcers generated by the autocratic serf system were exposed. Bribery, embezzlement, extortion, common among government officials, were shown with such vividness and persuasiveness by Gogol that his "Inspector General" acquired the force of a document denouncing the existing system not only of Gogol's time, but of the entire pre-revolutionary era.

"The Inspector General" had an indisputable influence on the development of public consciousness not only of contemporary Gogol readers and viewers, but also on subsequent generations. Undoubtedly is the influence that Gogol had with his “Inspector General” on the approval and development of the critical direction of drama, first of all, by Ostrovsky, Sukhovo-Kobylin and Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Finally, the comedy created by Gogol, more than any dramatic work before The Inspector General, contributed to the fact that our Russian acting skills was able to move away from the techniques of playing borrowed from foreign artists that dominated the Russian stage in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and master the method of critical realism, which became the mainstream of the national-Russian realistic scenic art that existed before the Great October Revolution.

In October 1835, Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Do me the favor, give me some story, at least some funny or not funny, but purely Russian anecdote. The hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime ... Do mercy, give a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil. "

And Pushkin gave Gogol a plot.

In one letter, Gogol wrote that Pushkin gave him his "first thought" about the Inspector General: he told him about a certain Pavel Svinin, who, having arrived in Bessarabia, pretended to be an important Petersburg official and only when he came to the point that prisoners, "was stopped." Moreover, Pushkin told Gogol how in 1833, collecting materials on the history of the Pugachev uprising, he was mistaken by the local governor for a secret inspector sent to examine the provincial administration.

Similar cases took place more than once in Russian life at that time. It is not without reason that similar facts were reflected even in drama. About five years before "The Inspector General" was written, the well-known Ukrainian writer G. R. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko wrote a comedy "A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town" on a similar plot.

Not only did the plot of "The Inspector General" remind readers and viewers of facts they were familiar with, but almost every character in the comedy brought up in the memory of someone they knew.

“The names of the characters from“ The Inspector General ”changed the next day (after the appearance of copies of the comedy in Moscow. - Vl. F.) into their own names: Khlestakovs, Anna Andreevna, Marya Antonovna, Gorodnichy, Strawberries, Tyapkin-Lyapkin went hand in hand with Famusov , Molchalin, Chatsky, Prostakov ... they, these gentlemen and ladies, walk along Tverskoy Boulevard, in the park, around the city and everywhere, wherever there are a dozen people, between them probably one comes out of Gogol's comedy "(Rumor magazine , 1836).

Gogol had the gift of generalizing his observations and creating artistic types in which everyone could find the features of people he knew. After all, many Russian postmasters recognized themselves in Shpekin, opening private letters and parcels, like the head of the post office, who, as is known from the letters of Gogol himself, read his correspondence with his mother. After all, it is no coincidence that at the first performance of The Inspector General in Perm, the police, who thought that the play exposes precisely her criminal actions, demanded that the performance be stopped.

Doesn't the scandal in Rostov-on-Don prove the typical character of the comedy, where the mayor considered the performance "a lampoon against the authorities", demanded to stop the performance, and threatened to put the actors in prison.

The plot of "The Inspector General", taken from life, the characters, who almost reminded everyone of someone, or even allowed themselves to be recognized in them, made the comedy modern.

Various and numerous details contributed to this.

In the play, Khlestakov mentions the popular at that time literary works and names among them "Robert the Devil", "Norma", "Fenella", which he "immediately in one evening, it seems, wrote everything." This could not fail to cause laughter in the audience - after all, all three works are operas. The audience could not help but laugh when Khlestakov, mentioning the Library for Reading magazine and Baron Brambeus, the author of very popular works, assured: “All this that was under the name of Baron Brambeus ... I wrote all this”, and to Anna Andreevna's question: "Tell me, were you Brambeus?" - Answers: "Why, I correct the articles for all of them." The fact is that Senkovsky, hiding under the pseudonym of Brambeus, openly said that he, as the editor of the Library for Reading, did not leave all the materials received by the editorial board in their original form, but altered them or made one of two.

Genuine surnames widely known in the reader's circles are mentioned in The Inspector General. A well-known St. Petersburg publisher and bookseller, in whose shops Gogol's works were also sold, Smirdin, who paid the authors a pittance, turns out to be paying Khlestakov “forty thousand” for “correcting” the articles to everyone.

There were also other mentions in The Inspector General, which were perceived differently by the audience.

"So, it is true, and" Yuri Miloslavsky "is your composition ..." - Anna Andreevna Khlestakova asks. “Yes, this is my composition.” - “I just guessed.” - “Oh, mamma, it says that this is Mr. Zagoskin’s composition.” - “Oh yes, this is true: this is definitely Zagoskin,” Khlestakov says, not at all embarrassed and immediately adds: "and there is another" Yuri Miloslavsky ", so that one is mine."

For the majority of viewers, this was a mention of a popular novel that was read literally everywhere - "in living rooms and in workshops, in the circles of commoners and at the highest court." This novel, published in 1829 and spreading rapidly, even reached those county towns from which "you can ride for even three years, you will not reach any state." Therefore, the mayor and her daughter also read it. This dialogue could remind others of the cases of the appearance on the book market of books that bore the names of popular works but belonged to unknown authors that took place in the 30s of the last century. Therefore, Khlestakov's confession was perceived as a mockery of the books that were being fabricated at that time.

The entire play is permeated with hints that allowed the audience to feel the reality of Gogol's contemporary.

The play talks about bribes by "greyhound puppies" (at that time they did not admit that this was also a "bribe"), about the mayor's fear about the non-commissioned officer's wife hewed out (there had just been a categorical prohibition on corporal punishment of the wives of non-commissioned officers, and the perpetrators were punished with a monetary fine in favor of the victims).

The mention in the play of the novelty of that time "labardan" (freshly salted cod), which the rich not only treated, but also sent as a gift to each other, speaks of the facts of modern life; and the arrived "soup in a saucepan directly ... from Paris", now giving the impression of utter lies, was at one time a reality. Under Nicholas I, canned food first appeared in Russia, the import of which from abroad was prohibited, so they were available only to a few. Even the mention of the name of Jochim (“It's a pity that Joachim did not rent a carriage”) was not only an indication of the coachman, famous in St. Petersburg, but also Gogol's settlement of accounts with his former householder, in whose house on the fourth floor Gogol lived during his first year in the capital ... Gogol, who did not have the opportunity to pay the owner for the apartment on time, threatened him for harassment to "insert his name" into the comedy.

The examples cited (their number can be significantly increased) indicate that Gogol did not invent anything. By his own admission, he only succeeded in what he took from life.

"The Inspector General" is one of the wonderful dramatic works written on the basis of life observations. The very plot of the comedy, the types deduced in it and the most diverse particulars revealed to the reader and viewer the contemporary reality surrounding him.

Gogol, who asked Pushkin in October 1835 to give him a plot for the play, finished it in early December. But this was the very original version of the comedy. Painful work began on it: Gogol reworked the comedy, then inserted or rearranged scenes, then cut them down. In January 1836 he informs in a letter to his friend Pogodin that the comedy is completely ready and rewritten, "but, as I have seen now, I must remake several phenomena." At the beginning of March of the same year, he wrote to him that he did not send a copy of the play, since, busy with the production, he was “incessantly” sending it.

The first thing the demanding author strove for was liberation "from excesses and immoderation." This painstaking work over the "Inspector" took about eight years (the last, sixth, edition was published in 1842). Gogol threw out several characters, cut a number of scenes, and most importantly, carefully finished the text of The Inspector General, in every possible way reducing and condensing it and achieving an expressive, almost aphoristic form.

One example is enough. The famous plot of the "Inspector" - "I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you the unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us" - contains fifteen words. Whereas seventy-eight words were in the first version, forty-five in the second and thirty-two in the third. In the latter version, the introductory part of the comedy acquired extraordinary impetuosity and tension.

Work on "The Inspector General" went in one more direction. Having begun his dramatic career at a time when vaudeville reigned on our stage, the only task of which was to amuse and amuse the audience, Gogol could not help but succumb to the generally accepted methods widely used by vaudevilleists. Both in the early drafts of the play, and in its first editions, we find a lot of exaggeration, unnecessary deviations, bringing nothing in anecdotes and all kinds of absurdities.

However, the influence of vaudeville traditions was so strong that even in the final version of 1842, Gogol retained some of the vaudeville techniques. Here we will find reservations ("let everyone take it down the street ..."), a play on words ("walked a little, thought if the appetite wouldn't go away - no, damn it, it doesn't go away") or a meaningless combination of words ("I'm in sort of ... I'm married "). This also includes the collision of the foreheads of Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky, who are "fit to the handle," and the fall of the latter ("Bobchinsky flies with the door to the stage"). Let us also recall the sneezing of the mayor, evoking wishes: "We wish you good health, your honor!", "One hundred years and a sack of chervontsy!", "God prolong for forty forties!", After which voices are heard - Strawberries: "So that you disappeared!" and Korobkin's wife: “Damn you!”, to which the mayor replies: “Thank you most humbly! And I wish you the same! "

But in contrast to the numerous purely farcical passages withdrawn by the playwright and designed for meaningless laughter, all the remaining ridiculous scenes are traditionally vaudeville only in form. In terms of their content, they are completely justified, since they are justified by the characters of the characters and are typical for them.

Gogol's obvious desire to thoroughly cleanse the play of all sorts of excesses was caused by the fact that in the mind of the playwright there was growing conviction of the enormous influence of the theater. “Theater is a great school, its purpose is profound: it reads a lively and useful lesson at a time to a whole crowd, a thousand people at once ...” - he writes, preparing an article for Pushkin's Sovremennik.

And in another article, Gogol writes: "The theater is not at all a trifle and not at all an empty thing ... It is such a chair from which you can say a lot of good to the world."

It is clear that, recognizing the great importance of the theater, Gogol had to remove from his "Inspector General" everything that did not correspond to his understanding of the high tasks of the theater.

The further creative process of working on "The Inspector General" was directed by the playwright to enhance the accusatory-satirical sound of the comedy, which became an image not of a separate special case that took place in one of the county towns of Tsarist Russia, but a generalized display of typical phenomena of Russian reality.

In the final version of 1842, Gogol for the first time puts a formidable cry into the mouth of the mayor: “Why are you laughing? laugh at yourself! .. ”directed against everyone sitting in the auditorium.

Representatives of the ruling classes and the spokesmen of their views in the press, trying to reduce the satirical sound of The Inspector General, argued after the first performance of The Inspector General that “it was not worth watching this stupid farce”, that the play was “a very amusing farce, a series of funny cartoons”, that “ it is impossibility, slander, farce. " True, in the initial version, farcical moments were in the play and they, through the fault of the theater, were emphasized by the actors. But Gogol, in the last "canonical" edition of 1842, managed not only to deflect these reproaches, but, adding to the play as an epigraph the popular proverb "There is no reason to blame the mirror if the face is crooked," he sharply emphasized the "crooked faces" of his contemporaries ...

These are some examples of Gogol's work on The Inspector General, which strengthened the socially accusatory significance of the comedy, depicting the negative phenomena of the Nicholas kingdom, the autocratic serf system.

This "supremely artistic comedy," wrote Belinsky, "is imbued with deep humor and terrifying in its loyalty to reality" and was therefore a generalized display of social ulcers and social vices of modern life.

Not only official crimes, brought to general ridicule, make the "Inspector General" a work of great incriminating power, but also convincingly disclosed by Gogol the process of turning a person into a conscious bribe-taker.

Gogol himself wrote about Khlestakov in his "Pre-Notice for Those Who Would Like to Play The Inspector General," They themselves kind of put everything in his mouth and create a conversation. " Something similar happens with the transformation of Khlestakov into a bribe-taker - he is "created" by those around him.

For several scenes, Khlestakov does not even think that he is receiving bribes.

Hearing that the mayor "is ready to serve this minute" and give him money, Khlestakov was delighted: "Give, give me a loan, I will pay off the innkeeper right away." And having received the money, immediately with a sincere conviction that he will do it, he promises: "I will immediately send it to you from the village ..."

And the thought that he received a bribe does not arise in him: why and why a "noble man" lent him money, he does not care, he knows only one thing - he will be able to pay off his debts and finally eat properly.

Of course, breakfast in a charitable institution is not perceived by him as "greasing", he asks with sincere surprise: "What, do you have this every day?" And the next day, recalling this breakfast with pleasure, he says: "I love hospitality, and I confess, I like it more if I am pleased with my heart, and not just out of interest." Where can he guess that he is being treated just "out of interest"!

Officials begin to visit him. The first is Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who drops money on the floor with excitement. “I see the money has dropped ... Do you know what? lend them to me. " Having received them, he considers it necessary to explain why he asked for a loan: "I, you know, wasted on the way: this and that ... However, I will send them to you from the village now."

He also asks the postmaster for a loan. Gogol explains that Khlestakov "is asking for money because it somehow breaks off the tongue by itself and because he already asked the former and he readily offered."

The next visitor, the superintendent of the schools, was "intimidated" by Khlestakov's unexpected questions. Noticing this, Khlestakov cannot but boast: "... in my eyes, for sure, there is something that inspires timidity." Immediately he announces that "a strange incident happened to him: he was completely spent on the road" and asks for a loan.

Strawberry comes. Having fooled his fellow officials ("for the good of the fatherland, I must do this"), Strawberry expects to sneak away without giving a bribe. However, Khlestakov, who is interested in gossip, returns Strawberry and, reporting a "strange case", asks for "a loan of money."

Finally, he convinces us that Khlestakov does not even for a minute realize that he is taking bribes, a further scene with Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky. One of them is "a resident of the local city", the other is a landowner, and they have no reason to bribe him, and nevertheless he "Suddenly and abruptly", without even resorting to reporting a "strange case" that he "I wasted on the road", Asks: "Do you have any money?" Having asked for a thousand rubles, I am ready to agree to a hundred and is satisfied with sixty rubles.

Only now it begins to seem to him that he is "taken for a statesman." But he still has no idea that he was given bribes - he is still sure that “the officials are good people: this is a good trait on their part that they gave me a loan.”

Finally, the merchants come with complaints about the "obligations" that they suffer from the governor. The merchants ask Khlestakov: “Do not disdain, our father, bread and salt. We bow to you with sugar and a box of wine ", but Khlestakov refuses with dignity:" No, you don't think that, I don't take any bribes at all. "

Finally it dawned on him: for the first time he utters the word "bribe", understanding by it material "offerings" from the merchants, and he immediately says: "Now, if you, for example, offered me a loan of three hundred rubles, - well then it is quite another matter: I can borrow ... Excuse me - I do not borrow a word: I will take. " And then he agrees to take the "tray" and again, refusing the "sugar", asserts: "Oh, no: I have no bribes ..." Only the intervention of Osip, convincing his master that "everything will come in handy on the way", leads to the fact that Khlestakov, who considers the "tray" a bribe, which he just refused twice, silently agrees that Osip take everything ... He became a conscious bribe-taker and, moreover, an extortionist.

The history of the creation of Gogol's work "The Inspector General"

In 1835, Gogol began work on his main work, Dead Souls. However, work was interrupted. Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Please, give me some story, at least some funny or unfunny, but purely Russian anecdote. The hand is shaking to write a comedy meanwhile. Do me a favor, give me a plot, a five-act comedy in spirit, and I swear it'll be funnier than hell. For God's sake. Both my mind and stomach are starving. In response to Gogol's request, Pushkin told him a story about an imaginary auditor, about a funny mistake that entailed the most unexpected consequences. The story was typical of its time. It is known that in Bessarabia the publisher of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski Svinin was mistaken for the auditor. In the province, too, a certain gentleman, posing as an inspector, robbed the entire city. There were other similar stories about which Gogol's contemporaries tell. The fact that Pushkin's anecdote was so characteristic of Russian life made it especially attractive to Gogol. Later he wrote: "For God's sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics on stage, for the laughter of everyone!"
So, based on the story told by Pushkin, Gogol created his comedy The Inspector General. I wrote it in just two months. This is confirmed by the memoirs of the writer V.A. Sollogub: "Pushkin met Gogol and told him about an incident in the town of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province - about some passing gentleman who pretended to be a ministry official and robbed all city residents." It is also known that while working on the play, Gogol repeatedly told A.S. Pushkin about the course of its writing, sometimes wanting to leave it, but Pushkin insistently asked him not to stop working on The Inspector General.
In January 1836, Gogol read a comedy at an evening with V.A. Zhukovsky in the presence of A.S. Pushkin, P.A. Vyazemsky and others. On April 19, 1836, the comedy was staged at the Alexandria Theater in St. Petersburg. The next morning Gogol woke up as a famous playwright. However, not many viewers were delighted. The majority did not understand comedy and reacted to it with hostility.
"Everyone is against me ..." Gogol complained in a letter to the famous actor Shchepkin. "The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me." A few days later, in a letter to the historian M.P. Pogodinu, he notes with bitterness: “And what the enlightened people would accept with loud laughter and sympathy, the very same outrages the bile of ignorance; and this ignorance is universal ... "
After staging "The Inspector General" on stage, Gogol is full of gloomy thoughts. Poor acting and general misunderstanding push the writer to the idea of \u200b\u200bgoing abroad, to Italy. Telling Pogodin about this, he writes with pain: “A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in the homeland. "

Genre, genre, creative method

Comedy is one of the most basic genres of drama. The genre of "The Inspector General" was conceived by Gogol as the genre of "public comedy", touching upon the most fundamental questions of the people's, public life. From this point of view, Pushkin's anecdote suited Gogol very well. After all, the protagonists of the story about the imaginary auditor are not private people, but officials, representatives of the authorities. The events associated with them inevitably capture many people: both those in power and those under control. The anecdote told by Pushkin easily succumbed to such artistic development, in which it became the basis of a truly social comedy. The Inspector General contains humor and satire, which makes it a satirical comedy.
"Inspector" N.V. Gogol is considered an exemplary comedy. It is remarkable for the unusually consistent development of the comic position of the main character - the governor, and the comic position grows more and more with each picture. At the moment of the mayor's triumph, when he sees the upcoming wedding of his daughter, and himself in St. Petersburg, Khlestakov's letter is a moment of the strongest comic in the situation. The laughter with which Gogol laughs in his comedy achieves extraordinary strength and becomes important.
At the beginning of the 19th century in Russian literature, along with romanticism, realism began to develop - a trend in literature and art that strives to depict reality. The penetration of critical realism into literature is primarily associated with the name of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, in theatrical art - with the production of The Inspector General. One of the newspapers of that time wrote about N.V. Gogol: “His original view of things, his ability to grasp the traits of characters, impose the stamp of typism on them, his inexhaustible humor, all this gives us the right to hope that our theater will soon be resurrected, that we will have our own national theater that will treat us not by violent antics in someone else's manner, not by borrowed wit, not by ugly alterations, but by artistic representations of "our social" life ... that we will clap not wax figures with painted faces, but living creatures, which, having seen once, can never be forgotten. " ...
Thus, Gogol's comedy, with its extraordinary fidelity to the truth of life, angry condemnation of the vices of society, and naturalness in the unfolding of events, had a decisive influence on the establishment of the traditions of critical realism in Russian theatrical art.

The subject of the work

Analysis of the work shows that the comedy "The Inspector General" raises topics both social and moral. Social themes include the life of the county town and its inhabitants. Gogol collected all social shortcomings in a provincial town, showed the social order from a petty official to a governor. City 14, from which "even three years ride, you won't reach any state", "there is a tavern on the streets, uncleanness -", \u200b\u200bnear the old fence, "that near the shoemaker ... all kinds of litter are piled on forty carts", makes a depressing impression ... The theme of the city is the theme of everyday life and life of the people. Gogol was able to fully and, most importantly, truthfully portray not only officials, landowners, but also ordinary people ... Outrage, drunkenness, injustice reign in the city. Geese in the waiting room of the court, unhappy patients without clean clothes once again prove that officials are inactive and are busy with their own business. And all officials are satisfied with this state of affairs. The image of the district town in "The Inspector General" is a kind of encyclopedia of provincial life in Russia.
The social theme is continued by the image of St. Petersburg. Although events unfold in the district town, St. Petersburg is invisibly present in action, symbolizing respect for rank, striving for material well-being. It is to Petersburg that the mayor seeks. Khlestakov arrived from Petersburg, his stories are full of vain boasting about the delights of metropolitan life.
Moral themes are closely related to social ones. Many actions of the characters of the comedy are immoral, because their environment is immoral. Gogol wrote in The Author's Confession: “In The Inspector General, I decided to put together all the bad things in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person. and laugh at everything at once. " This comedy is aimed at "correcting vices", at awakening a person's conscience. It is no coincidence that after the premiere of The Inspector General, Nicholas I exclaimed: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got the most! "

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe comedy "The Inspector General"

The epigraph preceding the comedy: "There is no need to blame the mirror if the face is crooked" - the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe play is laid. The environment, order, foundations are ridiculed. This is not "a mockery of Russia", but "a picture and a mirror of public ... life." In his article “The Petersburg Scene in 1835-36,” Gogol wrote: “In The Inspector General, I decided to put together everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices ... and laugh at everything at once. But this, as you know, had an amazing effect. "
Gogol's idea is not only to laugh at what is happening, but to indicate future retribution. The silent scene that ends the action is a vivid evidence of this. The officials of the county town will face retribution.
The exposure of negative characters is given in comedy not through a positive character (there is no such character in the play), but through action, deeds, dialogues. Gogol's negative heroes themselves reveal themselves in the eyes of the viewer. They are exposed not through morality and morality, but through ridicule. “Only laughter strikes here vice,” wrote N.V. Gogol.

The nature of the conflict

Usually, the conflict of a dramatic work was interpreted as a clash of positive and negative principles. The innovation of Gogol's drama lies in the fact that there are no positive characters in his play. The main action of the play unfolds around one event - an inspector from St. Petersburg goes to the county town N, and he travels incognito. This news excites officials: “How is an auditor? There was no concern, so give it! ”, And they start to fuss, hiding their“ sins ”by the arrival of the inspector. The mayor is especially trying - he is in a hurry to cover especially large "holes and gaps" in his activities. Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, a petty official from St. Petersburg, is taken for the auditor. Khlestakov is windy, frivolous, "somewhat silly and, as they say, without a king in his head," and the very possibility of mistaking him for an inspector is absurd. This is precisely the peculiarity of the intrigue of the comedy "The Inspector General".
Belinsky singled out two conflicts in the comedy: external - between the bureaucracy and the imaginary auditor, and internal - between the autocratic-bureaucratic apparatus and the general population. The solution to situations in the play is related to the nature of these conflicts. The external conflict is overgrown with many of the most ridiculous, and therefore ridiculous collisions. Gogol does not spare his heroes, exposing their vices. The more merciless the author is towards comic characters, the more dramatic the subtext of internal conflict sounds. This is a heartbreaking Gogol laugh through tears.

The main characters of the work

The main characters of the comedy are city officials. The author's attitude to them is inherent in the description of the appearance, demeanor, actions, in everything, even in the “speaking surnames”. The surnames express the essence of the characters. The “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V.I. Dahl.
Khlestakov is the central character of the comedy. It represents a typical character, embodies a whole phenomenon, which later received the name "Khlestakovism".
Khlestakov is a "metropolitan little thing", a representative of the noble youth who flooded the St. Petersburg offices and departments, with complete disregard for their duties, seeing in the service only the possibility of a quick career. Even the hero's father realized that his son would not be able to achieve anything, so he summons him to him. But Khlestakov, accustomed to idleness and unwilling to work, declares: “... I cannot live without Petersburg. Why, in fact, should I ruin my life with men? Now the needs are not the same, my soul yearns for enlightenment. "
The main reason for Khlestakov's lies is the desire to present himself from the other side, to become different, because the hero is deeply convinced of his own uninteresting and worthlessness. This gives Khlestakov's boasting a painful self-affirmation character. He exalts himself because he is secretly full of self-contempt. Semantically, the surname is multi-layered, it combines at least four meanings. The word "whip" has a lot of meanings and shades. But the following are directly related to Khlestakov: to lie, to gossip; holsko - a rake, a rascal and a red tape, an insolent, impudent; Khlestun (Khlystun) - Nizhne-Novgorod - an idle connecting rod, a parasite. In the surname - the whole Khlestakov as a character: an idle rake, impudent red tape, who is only capable of strong, boldly lying and babble, but not working in any way. This is really an “empty” person, for whom a lie is “almost a kind of inspiration,” as Gogol wrote in his “Excerpt from a Letter ...”.
At the head of the city is the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. In Remarks for Messrs. Actors, Gogol wrote: “Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves respectably ... somewhat reasonable; speaks neither loudly nor softly, neither more nor less. His every word is significant. " He began his career young, from the very bottom, and by his old age he rose to the head of a district town. From a letter from a friend of the mayor, we learn that Anton Antonovich does not consider bribery to be a crime, but thinks that everyone takes bribes, only "the higher the rank, the greater the bribe." The auditor's check is not terrible for him. In his lifetime, he had seen many of them. The governor proudly announces: “I have been living in the service for thirty years! He deceived three governors! " But he is alarmed that the auditor is traveling "incognito." When the mayor finds out that the "inspector" has already been living in the city for the second week, he clutches his head, because a non-commissioned officer's wife was carved in those two weeks, there is dirt on the streets, the church, for the construction of which the money was allocated, did not begin to build.
"Skvoznik" (from "through") is a cunning, keen-sighted, perceptive person, a pass, a rogue, an experienced rogue and a creep. "Dmukhanovskiy" (from "dmit" - Little Russian, that is, Ukrainian) - dmukhat, dmitsya - pomp, pomp, become arrogant. It turns out: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is a snobby, pompous, cunning rogue, an experienced rogue. The comic arises when the "cunning, sharp-sighted mind" rogue made such a mistake in Khlestakov.
Luka Lukich Khlopov - superintendent of schools. By nature, he is very cowardly. He says to himself: “Speak to me of the same rank, someone higher, I just don’t have a soul, and my tongue, like in the mud, has dried up”. One of the teachers of the school accompanied his teaching with constant grimaces. And the history teacher was breaking chairs out of excess of feelings.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin - judge. He considers himself to be a very smart person, as he has read five or six books in his entire life. He is an avid hunter. In his office, above a filing cabinet, hangs a hunting arapnik. “I tell you frankly that I take bribes, but why bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter, ”the judge said. The criminal cases that he considered were in such a state that he himself could not figure out where the truth was and where the lie was.
Artemy Filippovich Strawberry is a trustee of charitable institutions. Hospitals are dirty and messy. The cooks have dirty hats, and the sick have their clothes like they worked in a smithy. In addition, patients are constantly smoking. Artemy Filippovich does not bother himself with determining the diagnosis of the patient's disease and treating it. He says on this score: “A simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will recover. "
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin is a postmaster, "an innocent person to the point of naivety." He has one weakness, he likes to read other people's letters. He does it not so much as a precaution, but more out of curiosity ("I love to know death what is new in the world"). He collects the ones he especially liked. The surname Shpekin may have come from the South Russian - "pin" - an obstinate person, all across, in hindrance, an evil mocker. So, for all his "innocence to naivety," he brings people a lot of evil.
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are paired characters, big gossips. According to Gogol, they suffer from "unusual scabies of the tongue." The surname Bobchinsky may have come from the Pskov "bobych" - a stupid, stupid person. There is no such independent semantic root in the surname Dobchinsky; it is formed by analogy (the sameness) with the surname Bobchinsky.

The plot and composition of the "Inspector"

A young rake Khlestakov arrives in town N and realizes that city officials accidentally mistake him for a high-ranking inspector. Against the background of a myriad of violations and crimes, the perpetrators of which are the very city officials headed by the mayor, Khlestakov manages to play a successful game. Officials happily continue to break the law and give the false auditor large sums of money as bribes. At the same time, Khlestakov and other characters are well aware that they are breaking the law. In the finale of the play, Khlestakov manages to escape by collecting "borrowed" money and promising to marry the mayor's daughter. The latter's jubilation is hindered by Khlestakov's letter, read by the postmaster (illegally). The letter reveals the whole truth. The news of the arrival of a real auditor makes all the characters of the play frozen in amazement. The end of the play is a silent scene. So, in "The Inspector General" a picture of the criminal reality and depraved morals is comically presented. The storyline brings the heroes to pay for all their sins. The silent scene is the expectation of imminent punishment.
The comedy "The Inspector General" compositionally consists of five actions, each of which can be titled with quotations from the text: I action - "Unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us"; Act II - "Oh, a delicate thing! .. What a fog he let loose!"; Act III - “After all, that's what you live to pick flowers of pleasure”; IV act - “I have never received such a good reception”; Action V - "Some pork snouts instead of faces." The comedies are preceded by Notes for Messrs. Actors, written by the author.
"The Inspector" is distinguished by the originality of the composition. For example, contrary to all regulations and norms, the action in a comedy begins with distracting events, from the beginning. Gogol, without wasting time, without being distracted by particulars, introduces into the essence of things, into the essence of a dramatic conflict. In the famous first phrase of the comedy, a plot is given and its impulse is fear. “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to inform you of the unpleasant news: an inspector is coming to us,” the mayor informs the officials who have gathered at his place. The intrigue starts with its first phrase. From this second on, fear becomes a full-fledged participant in the play, which, growing from action to action, will find its maximum expression in a silent scene. As Y. Mann aptly put it, The Inspector General is a whole sea of \u200b\u200bfear. " The plot-forming role of fear in comedy is obvious: it was he who allowed the deception to take place, it was he who "closed" everyone's eyes and confused everyone, it was he who endowed Khlestakov with qualities that he did not possess, and made him the center of the situation.

Artistic originality

Before Gogol, in the tradition of Russian literature in those works of it that could be called the forerunner of Russian satire of the 19th century. (for example, Fonvizin's "Minor"), it was typical to portray both negative and positive characters. In the comedy "The Inspector General", there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the stage and outside the plot.
The relief image of the city officials and, above all, the mayor, complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. The tradition of bribery and deception of an official is completely natural and inevitable. Both the bottom and the top of the bureaucratic class of the city do not think of any other outcome than to bribe the inspector with a bribe. The county nameless town becomes a generalization of the whole of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters.
Critics also noted the features of Khlestakov's image. An upstart and dummy, a young man easily deceives an experienced mayor.
Gogol's skill was manifested not only in the fact that the writer was able to accurately convey the spirit of the time, the characters of the characters corresponding to this time. Gogol remarked surprisingly subtly and reproduced linguistic culture their heroes. Each character has his own way of speaking, his own intonation, vocabulary. Khlestakov's speech is incoherent, in conversation he jumps from one moment to another: “Yes, they already know me everywhere ... I know pretty actresses. After all, I, too, are different vaudeville ... I often see writers. The speech of the trustee of charitable institutions is very resourceful, flattering. Lyapkin-Tyapkin, a “philosopher,” as Gogol calls him, speaks unintelligibly and tries to use as many words as possible from the books he has read, often doing it inappropriately. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky always speak with each other. Their vocabulary is very limited, they abundantly use introductory words: "yes, sir", "please see."

The meaning of the work

Gogol was disappointed with public rumors and the unsuccessful Petersburg production of the comedy and refused to take part in the preparation of the Moscow premiere. In the Maly Theater, the leading actors of the troupe were invited to stage The Inspector General: Shchepkin (governor), Lensky (Khlestakov), Orlov (Osip), Potanchikov (postmaster). The first performance of "The Inspector General" in Moscow took place on May 25, 1836 on the stage of the Maly Theater. Despite the absence of the author and the complete indifference of the theater management to the premiere performance, the performance was a great success.
The comedy "The Inspector General" did not leave the stages of theaters in Russia both during the USSR and in modern history is one of the most popular productions and is popular with the audience.
Comedy has had a significant impact on Russian literature in general and drama in particular. Gogol's contemporaries noted her innovative style, depth of generalization and convexity of images. Pushkin, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen, Shchepkin admired Gogol's work immediately after the first readings and publications.
The well-known Russian critic Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov wrote: “Some of us then also saw The Inspector General on stage. Everyone was delighted, as were the general youth of that time. We repeated by heart ... whole scenes, long conversations from there. At home or at a party, we often had to enter into heated debate with various elderly (and sometimes, to shame, not even elderly) people who were indignant at the new idol of youth and assured that Gogol had no nature, that these were all his own inventions and caricatures that there are no such people in the world at all, and if there are, there are much fewer of them in the whole city than here in one comedy. The contractions came out hot, prolonged, to sweat on the face and on the palms, to sparkling eyes and dully incipient hatred or contempt, but the old people could not change a single line in us, and our fanatical admiration for Gogol only grew more and more.
The first classic critical analysis of The Inspector General belongs to the pen of Belinsky and was published in 1840. The critic noted the continuity of Gogol's satire, which takes its creativity in the works of Fonvizin and Moliere. The governor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky and Khlestakov are not carriers of abstract vices, but a living embodiment of the moral decay of Russian society as a whole.
The phrases from the comedy have become winged, and the names of the heroes are common nouns in Russian.

Point of view

Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" was received ambiguously. The writer made some explanations in a small play "Theatrical patrol", which was first published in the Collected Works of Gogol in 1842 at the end of the fourth volume. The first sketches were made in April-May 1836 under the impression of the first performance of The Inspector General. Finishing the play finally, Gogol especially tried to give it a fundamental, generalized meaning so that it did not look like just a commentary on The Inspector General.
“I’m sorry that no one noticed the honest face in my play. Yes, there was one honest, noble person who acted in her throughout her entire continuation. This honest, noble face was - laughter. He was noble because he decided to speak, despite the low importance that is given to him in the world. He was noble because he decided to speak, despite the fact that he gave the comedian an insulting nickname - the nickname of a cold egoist, and even made him doubt the presence of gentle movements of his soul. Nobody stood up for this laugh. I am a comedian, I served him honestly, and therefore I must become his intercessor. No, the laughter is deeper and deeper than people think. Not the kind of laughter that is generated by temporary irritability, bilious, painful disposition of character; not the same light laughter that all flies out of the light nature of man, flies out of it because at the bottom of it there is an eternally gushing spring of it, but which deepens the object, makes what would appear brightly that would slip, without the penetrating power of which is trifle and emptiness life would not frighten a person so. The despicable and insignificant, by which he indifferently passes every day, would not have risen before him in such a terrible, almost caricatured strength, and he would not have cried out, shuddering: "are there really such people?" while, according to his own consciousness, there are people worse. No, those are unfair who say they are outraged by laughter! Only that which is gloomy, and the laughter is light, outrages. Many things would have revolted a man if he were presented in his nakedness; but, illuminated by the power of laughter, it already brings reconciliation to the soul. And the one who would incur vengeance against an evil person already almost reconciles with him, seeing the low movements of his soul mocked. "

It is interesting

It is about the history of the creation of one play. Its plot is briefly as follows. It takes place in Russia, in the twenties of the last century, in a small county town. The play begins with the mayor receiving a letter. He is warned that an inspector, incognito, with a secret order is to arrive in the county under his jurisdiction. The governor informs his officials about this. Everyone is terrified. Meanwhile, a young man from the capital comes to this district town. Empty, I must say, little man! Of course, the officials, scared to death by the letter, mistake him for an auditor. He willingly plays the role imposed on him. With an important look, he interrogates officials, takes money from the mayor, as if on loan ...
Various researchers and memoirists at different times noted at least a dozen "life anecdotes" about an imaginary auditor, whose characters were real faces: P.P. Svinin, traveling in Bessarabia, Ustyuzhsky mayor I.A. Maksheev and the Petersburg writer P.G. Volkov, Pushkin himself, staying in Nizhny Novgorod, and so on - all these everyday anecdotes, perhaps, Gogol knew. In addition, Gogol could have known at least two literary adaptations of a similar plot: the comedy by G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko "A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town" (1827) and the story of A.F. Veltman's "Provincial Actors" (1834). This "wandering story" did not present any special news or sensation. And although Gogol himself assured that G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko had never read A Newcomer from the Capital, or the Turmoil in a District Town, but Kvitka had no doubt that Gogol was familiar with his comedy. He was mortally offended by Gogol. One of their contemporary told about it like this:
“Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, having learned from rumors about the contents of The Inspector General, became indignant and began to look forward to its appearance in print, and when the first copy of Gogol’s comedy was received in Kharkov, he called his friends to his house, first read his comedy, and then the "Inspector". The guests gasped and said in one voice that Gogol's comedy was taken entirely from his plot - both according to the plan, and according to the characters, and according to the private setting. "
Just before Gogol began writing his "Inspector General", the "Library for Reading" magazine published a story by the then very famous writer Veltman called "Provincial Actors". The following happened in this story. One actor is going to the play in a small district town. He is wearing a theater uniform with orders and all sorts of aiguillettes. Suddenly the horses were carried away, the driver was killed, and the actor lost consciousness. At that time the governor had guests ... Well, the governor, therefore, they report: so, they say, and so, the horses brought the governor-general, he was in the general's uniform. The actor - broken, unconscious - is brought into the mayor's house. He is delirious and deliriously talks about state affairs. Repeats excerpts from different roles. He's used to playing various important persons. Well, here everyone is finally convinced that he is a general. With Veltman, it all starts with the fact that the city is waiting for the arrival of the auditor ...
Who was the first writer to tell the story of the auditor? In this situation, it is impossible to determine the truth, since the plot underlying the "Inspector General" and the other named works belongs to the category of so-called "wandering plots". Time has put everything in its place: Kvitka's play and Veltman's story are firmly forgotten. They are remembered only by specialists in the history of literature. And Gogol's comedy is still alive today.
(Based on the book by Stanislav Rassadin, Benedikt Sarnov "In the country literary heroes»)

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