Gogol offers a whole gallery of images of Russian landowners. In each character, the author finds something typical and special.
In general, the images of landowners in the poem "Dead Souls" convey the features of those who filled Russia and did not allow her to follow the path of development.
Manilov
The first landowner does not have a name, only a surname - Manilov. The landowner tried to create a semblance of a foreign country in the Russian outback, but his desires remained a hint of the architecture of sophistication and thoughtfulness of real masters. The essence of character is empty idleness. Manilov is immersed in dreams, building unrealizable projects. He creates underground passages, high towers, beautiful bridges. At this time everything around is decaying and crumbling. The peasants are destitute, the rooms in the manor house are empty, the furniture is becoming unusable. The landowner lives without worries and work. Outwardly, in the estate, everything goes on as usual, nothing changes from inaction, but everything is not eternal and nothing can appear from laziness. Manilov is not unique. Such landowners can be found in any city. The first impression is a pleasant person, but almost immediately it becomes boring and unbearable with him. The concept of "manilovism" began to exist after the release of the poem. This word was used to explain an idle, meaningless way of life, without a goal and real actions. Such landowners lived in dreams. They devoured what they inherited, spent the labors of the peasants who passed on to them. The gentlemen were not interested in the economy. They believed that they lived with a rich inner strength of the mind, but laziness consumed their minds, and they gradually moved away from the real business, the soul was dead. Perhaps this can explain why the classic chose Manilov in the first way. The "dead" soul of a living person is worth less than those who have lived their lives in labor, even after death they are useful to people like Manilov. They can "flatter" the scoundrels Chichikovs with their help.
Box
The next classic is the female character. Landowner Korobochka. This is a cudgel-headed woman who sells everything she has. The landowner is named Nastasya Petrovna. There is some resemblance to Russian fairy tales, but it is in the name that the character is typical for the Russian hinterland. The “speaking” surname is again played up by Gogol. Everything in the estate is hidden in a box, accumulated. The landowner puts money in bags. How many are there? Can not imagine. But what are they for, what is the purpose of accumulation, for whom? Nobody will give an answer. Accumulation for the purpose of accumulation. The scary thing is that for Nastasya Petrovna it's all the same what to trade: living souls (serf girls), dead people, hemp or honey. The woman, who was created by God for the continuation of the human race, found her purpose in the sale, hardened and became indifferent and indifferent to everything except money. The main thing for her is not to sell too cheap. The author compares the image to a swarm of flies that flock to the mud to profit. It is also dangerous that they multiply quickly. How many boxes are there in the country? More and more.
Nozdrev
The drunkard, player, and brawler Nozdryov is the next character. The essence of his character is meanness. He is ready to "shit" anyone, indiscriminately, sense. Nozdryov does not set specific goals for himself. He is messy, unstable, and cheeky insolent. Everything around the landowner is the same: in the stable there are horses and a goat, in the house there is a wolf cub. He is ready to play checkers for the dead, sells and changes. There is no honor and honesty in character, only lies and deceit. Communication with Nozdryov often ends in a fight, but this is if the person is weaker. The strong, on the contrary, beat the landlord. The landowner did not change love. Probably she was not there. Sorry for the troublemaker's wife. She quickly died, leaving two children with no interest. The children have a nanny, according to the description she is "pretty", Nozdryov brings her gifts from the fair. The author hints at the relationship between the landowner and the nanny, since one can hardly count on disinterestedness and respect from him. The brawler takes more care of the dogs than of his loved ones. Gogol warns the reader that the Nozdrevs will not leave Russia for a long time. The only good thing is that the cunning Chichikov could not buy dead souls from Nozdryov.
Sobakevich
The landowner is a fist, a bear, a stone. The name of the landowner cannot be different - Mikhailo Semyonitch. Everyone in the Sobakevich breed is strong: his father was a real hero. He went to the bear alone. It is interesting that the classic gives a description of his wife - Feodulia Ivanovna, but says nothing about the children. As if there is nothing to talk about. There are children, they are as strong as everything in the landowner's breed. Probably, they live independently somewhere separately from their father. It becomes clear that everything is similar in their estates. Another interesting detail - the master was never sick. Sobakevich at first perception is somewhat different from the previous characters. But gradually you realize that there is no soul in him either. She hardened and died. There was clumsiness and a dead grip. He raises the price of the product, without even thinking about the essence of the subject of sale. The rude master rules the estate. He sees no good in anyone, all swindlers and deceivers. The irony comes through in the words of the classic when Sobakevich finds one decent person in the city and calls him a pig. In fact, Sobakevich himself is exactly what he represents people. He takes a trot when trading begins, and calms down when the goods are profitably sold.
Plyushkin
The image of this landowner can be considered a masterpiece of the genius author. What will Manilov's mismanagement lead to? What will become of the Box, keen on hoarding? How will the drunken brawler Nozdryov live? All characters are reflected in Plyushkin. Even outwardly completely incomparable with him, Sobakevich lives in the hero. One can imagine how the devastation of Plyushkin's soul began - with frugality. One landowner is more vulgar and "more terrible" than the other, but Plyushkin is the result. His life is a series of meaningless days, even the fabulous Koschey, languishing over gold, does not cause such disgust as a still living person. Plyushkin does not understand why he needs all the rubbish that he collects, but he can no longer refuse such an occupation. The pages describing the meeting of the landowner with his daughter and her children evoke special feelings. The grandfather allows his grandchildren to sit on his lap, play with a button. The hero's spiritual death is evident. The father has no affection for loved ones. He is stingy and greedy so much that he even starves himself. A stale cake, a dirty drink, a pile of rubbish against the background of huge heaps of rotting grain, bins full of flour, spoiled rolls of cloth. The absurdity of reality and the decay of personality is the tragedy of Russian life.
Serfdom leads to the loss of humanity in Russian landowners. It is scary to realize how dead their souls are. Dead peasants look livelier. The images of the landowners appear one after the other before the readers. Their vulgarity, licentiousness scares. There is a degeneration of the nobility and a flourishing of vices.
N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls", written in 1841, became one of the remarkable works not only of Russian literature of the 19th century, but also of the subsequent time. Undoubtedly, in strength and artistic skill, in the depth of ideas and the skill of their embodiment, the immortal creation of the great Russian writer is on a par with such masterpieces of Russian literature as "Woe from Wit" by AS Griboyedov, "Eugene Onegin" by A. S. Pushkin and "A Hero of Our Time" M. Yu. Lermontov.
In his unfinished poem, the author wanted to show all of Russia, all its vices, shortcomings and advantages. It is known that the artistic concept was “presented” to Gogol by Pushkin. It cannot be said that the author managed to paint a picture of the life of Russia “from only one side,” creating a gallery of landowners, images of officials of the provincial town and serfs.
The images of landowners are drawn by Gogol in the most complete and multifaceted manner. Five chapters (from the second to the sixth) are devoted to their description. In them, the author created five different portraits, so unlike each other, although the features of a typical Russian landowner show through in each of them.
When describing each of the landowners, Gogol goes the following way: a description of the village, the manor house, a portrait of the owner, an interior in which the essence of the landowner is most accurately manifested.
The first owner of serfs, to whom Chichikov comes, turns out to be Manilov. Already in his surname, his character traits appear. As Gogol writes, "his features were not devoid of pleasantness, but in this pleasantness ... it was too much transferred to sugar." Manilov is a sentimental person who lives in the world of his dreams and fantasies, far from reality. In his imagination, life is a kind of idyll, a picture of contentment with various “temples of solitary meditation”.
Once, in his youth, Manilov had a reputation in the army as an educated man, meanwhile, in his office there is a book laid on page fourteen for two years. Manilov is a parody of the hero of sentimental novels, and his groundless dreams and "projects" (for example, about the construction of a bridge) give Gogol a reason to compare the landowner with the "too clever minister." Such a comparison means that another minister may not be too different from the dreamy and inactive Manilov, and “Manilovism” is a typical phenomenon of this vulgar life. Gogol's irony invades the restricted areas.
However, Manilov is far from the most negative character of the poem, since excessive sweetness, sentimentality, vulgarity are not the worst traits of a human character. This landowner does not have the extravagance of Nozdryov, the hucksterism of Sobakevich, the tight-fistedness of Korobochka, the avarice of Plyushkin.
It should be noted that when describing landowners, Gogol goes from best to worst: from Manilov to Plyushkin, "a hole in humanity, which has the most deadly soul."
After meeting Manilov, Chichikov goes to Sobakevich, but, getting lost on the way, ends up at Korobochka. Describing Korobochka, the author compares her to “one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures,., And meanwhile are gaining a little money”. The basic life principle of the "club-headed" Korobochka (as Chichikov characterizes her) is "not to sell too cheap." Subsequently, she comes to the city to find out the prices for dead souls.
Describing the landowner, Gogol cannot refrain from adding that “a different and respectable, and even a state person, but in fact a perfect Korobochka comes out,” thereby emphasizing the typicality of the landowner.
A completely different type of landowner is Nozdryov, whom Chichikov meets in a tavern on his way to Sobakevich. This is a “historical man”, “a master at casting bullets”, a sharpie, a gambler, ready to exchange anyone for anything. He is an utter liar with a kind of "breadth of soul", having a "passion - to shit on your neighbor." It is interesting that everyone knows about this and nevertheless Nozdryov is accepted everywhere. As Gogol pointed out caustically, "this could have happened in Russia alone." Nozdryov behaves defiantly, even aggressively (which is only the scene of the game of checkers). He is not engaged in his household, the only place that he kept in exemplary order was the kennel, where he was "the most perfect father among the family." He is the founder of such a social phenomenon as “nozdrevshchina”.
After a miraculous rescue with the help of the police captain, Chichikov finally reached the village of Sobakevich. When describing the character of this character, Gogol resorts to the method of animating the inanimate. The village itself, solidly built, of massive logs (even the well was cut down from logs that go only to mills and ships), it seems, personifies Sobakevich himself. Likewise, the interior of the manor house: everything is massive, solid, heavy, it seems that each object said: "And I, too, Sobakevich." To Chichikov the landowner resembles a "medium-sized bear."
By nature, Sobakevich is a cynic, not ashamed of moral deformity either in himself or in others. Communicating with city officials NN. playing whist with them, doing business with them, he gives them extremely unflattering characteristics (he calls the governor a robber, the police chief a swindler).
This landowner is a type of landowner-huckster, "kulak". He tries to profit from everything, even from the sale of “-dead souls,” and in the end he gives Chichikov a certain Elizabeth Sparrow, passing her off as a serf. He also cares about his peasants insofar as they are his serfs who bring him profit.
The last landowner Chichikov visits is Plyushkin. He is the only character in the poem whose past is shown to us (with the exception of Chichikov). Sobakevich, Manilov, Nozdrev, Korobochka - they are all frozen in their development, their images are static. The image of Plyushkin is dynamic, he is undergoing some kind of evolution, however, from the best to the worse. Previously, he was a good, zealous owner, even the neighbors went to him to learn how to manage. But his wife died, the eldest daughter married a military man, the son began to make a career in the army (Plyushkin was extremely hostile to the military), soon the youngest daughter also died, and he was left alone. As a result, the moral degradation of the personality began, which made a “hole in humanity” out of a good master, a sickly curmudgeon who collects all kinds of trash, be it an old bucket, a piece of paper or a pen. Plyushkin turned into a kind of asexual creature (Chichikov cannot understand for a long time who is in front of him, a woman or a man, and finally decides that this is a housekeeper). The countryside and the landlord's economy are in complete decline, everywhere "some particular decay is noticeable." But still, even this landowner leaves a chance for rebirth. His soul resembles a garden near the house: “The same gloomy, overgrown, decayed”. However, in the garden, Chichikov notices that the sun, somehow penetrating into this garden, illuminates one branch of the maple so that it becomes "transparent and fiery, wonderfully shining in this dense darkness." The fiery maple branch in the garden is somewhat similar to the semblance of a feeling that flashed on Plyushkin's face at the mention of his school friend. It is quite possible that in the subsequent parts of the poem the author wanted to show the moral degeneration of not only Chichikov, but also Plyushkin, whose soul still did not die to the end (“on this wooden face ... it was expressed ... some pale reflection of feeling” ).
But all the same, both the landowners and their way of life are motionless, they have frozen everything in their development.
Gogol in his immortal poem "Dead Souls" showed an unattractive picture of the life of the local nobles, their moral degeneration, decline. The gallery of landowners is a gallery of “dead souls”, “fossils”. They are no longer able to fulfill their intended purpose - to contribute to the prosperity of the Russian state. They are dead not only morally but also spiritually.
Manilov Instead of a real feeling, Manilov has a "pleasant smile", a luscious courtesy and a sensitive phrase; instead of thoughts - incoherent, stupid reflections, instead of activity - or empty dreams, or such results of his "work" as "heaps of ash knocked out of a pipe, arranged not without effort in very beautiful rows." Portrait Characteristic Farmstead Attitude towards housekeeping Attitude towards housekeeping Lifestyle
Portrait “There was a prominent man: his features were not devoid of pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to have been too much transferred to sugar; there was something ingratiating and acquaintance in his methods and turns. He smiled temptingly, was blond, with blue eyes.
Characteristics Enthusiastic naivety and daydreaming, carelessness of the “disinterested philosopher”, sophistication, stupidity, lack of independence and fearfulness. Gogol gives the surname to his hero "the speaker" - from the words "lure, lure, deceive." Two traits in the character of Manilov are especially distinguished by the author - these are worthlessness and corny, senseless dreaminess. Manilov has no living interests. He is not involved in the economy, he can not even say if his peasants have died since the last revision.
Manor Manilov's mismanagement and impracticality is clearly illustrated by the furnishings of the rooms in his house, where next to the fine furniture there were two armchairs “covered with matting”, “a dandy candlestick made of dark bronze with three antique graces” stood on the table, and next to them stood "Some kind of simple brass invalid, lame, curled up on the side and covered in fat."
Way of life Manilov spends his life in complete idleness. He has abandoned all work, does not even read anything: for two years in his office there is a book, all laid on the same page 14. Manilov brightens up his idleness with groundless dreams and meaningless "projects", such as the construction of an underground passage from a house, a stone bridge over a pond ...
Box "Dubinnogolovaya" The box is the embodiment of the traditions that have developed among the provincial small landowners who conduct subsistence farming. She is a representative of the outgoing, dying Russia, and there is no life in herself, since she is turned not to the future, but to the past. Portrait Characteristic Farmstead Attitude towards housekeeping Attitude towards housekeeping Lifestyle
Characteristic “... One of those mothers, small landowners who cry for crop failures, losses and keep their heads a little to one side, and meanwhile they are gaining a little money in variegated bags placed on the drawers of the chest of drawers. In one bag they take all the rubles, in the other half a ruble, in the third quarter, although it looks like there is nothing in the chest of drawers except linen and night jackets ... the old woman is thrifty ... ”. A typical small landowner - the owner of 80 serf souls. The box is a homely mistress.
Lifestyle Korobochka's mental horizons are extremely limited. Gogol emphasizes her stupidity, ignorance, superstition, indicates that her behavior is guided by self-interest, a passion for profit. She is very afraid to "sell too cheap". Everything "new and unprecedented" scares her.
Nozdryov On the whole, Nozdryov is an unpleasant person, since the concepts of honor, conscience, human dignity are completely absent from him. The energy of Nozdryov turned into a scandalous bustle, aimless and destructive. Portrait Characteristic Farmstead Attitude towards housekeeping Attitude towards housekeeping Lifestyle
The Manor “There was no preparation in the house to receive them. In the middle of the dining room stood wooden goats, and two peasants, standing on them, whitewashed the walls ... First of all, they went to inspect the stable, where they saw two mares ... Then Nozdryov showed empty stalls, where there were also good horses before ... Nozdryov led them to his study, in which, however, there were no noticeable traces of what happens in the study, that is, books or paper; only a saber and two guns were hanging. "
Lifestyle He plays cards dishonestly, he is always ready to go “anywhere, even for a light, enter whatever enterprise you want, change everything that is, for whatever you want”. It is natural that all this does not lead Nozdryov to enrichment, but, on the contrary, ruins him.
Sobakevich The author emphasizes the greed, narrowness of interests, inertia of the landowner. The strength and strength of Sobakevich lead to stiffness, clumsiness, immobility. Portrait Characteristic Farmstead Attitude towards housekeeping Attitude towards housekeeping Lifestyle
The portrait "A healthy and strong man", whom nature "cut from the whole shoulder"; very similar to "medium-sized bear"; “... it seemed that this body did not have a soul at all, or he had it, but not at all where it should be, but, like an immortal koshchei, somewhere beyond the mountains, and covered with such a thick shell that everything, whatever was tossing and turning at the bottom of it did not produce absolutely any shock on the surface ”.
Manor “Chichikov once again looked around the room, and everything in it was solid, awkward to the highest degree and bore some strange resemblance to the owner of the house himself; in the corner of the living room stood a big-bellied walnut bureau on preposterous four legs, a perfect bear. The table, armchairs, chairs - everything was of the heaviest and most restless quality - in short, every object, every chair seemed to say: "And I am Sobakevich too!" or "And I am also very similar to Sobakevich"
Plyushkin The author exclaims: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, disgusting man could condescend! Could have changed so much! And it looks like the truth? Everything looks like the truth, everything can happen to a person. The current fiery youth would have jumped back in horror if they had shown him his portrait in old age. " Portrait Characteristic Manor Lifestyle
Portrait “For a long time he [Chichikov] could not recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. Her dress was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman's bonnet, on her head was a cap, which is worn by village courtyard women, only one voice seemed to him somewhat husky for a woman ... "" ... little eyes had not yet gone out and were running from under high-raised eyebrows, like mice, when sticking out sharp little muzzles from dark holes, ears alert and blinking with a mustache, they look out if a cat or a mischievous boy is hiding, and smell suspiciously the very air ... "
Characteristics There are no human feelings in Plyushkin, not even paternal ones. Things are dearer to him than people, in whom he sees only scammers and thieves. The senseless avarice that reigns in Plyushkin's soul generates in him distrust and hostility to everything around him, cruelty and injustice towards serfs.
The Manor The house was in disorder: "... it seemed as if the floors were being washed and all the furniture was piled here for a while ..." An expressive description of the village of Plyushkina, with its completely dilapidated log pavement, with "particular dilapidation" village huts, with huge loads of rotten bread, with a manor house, which looked like some kind of "decrepit invalid". Everything has come to a complete decline, the peasants are “dying, kg :; flies ”, dozens are on the run.
Lifestyle The author confronts two epochs of Plyushkin's life: when “everything flowed alive” and when he turned into a “hole in humanity”. Following the changes in Plyushkin's life, one cannot fail to notice that the "mortification" of the soul begins with the poverty of feelings. It seems that humanity is not available to Plyushkin. If we did not know that Plyushkin was once a kind family man, a reasonable owner and even an affable person, the image created by Gogol could have caused rather a grin. The told story of Plyushkin's life makes this image more tragic than comic. Using the technique of contrast, Gogol forces the reader to compare the human and the ugly-ugly within one life.
The gallery of landlords is built on a top-down principle. Each subsequent character is "deader" than the previous one, according to Gogol, "my heroes follow, one more vulgar than the other." The image of each of the landowners is revealed according to the same scheme. First, the character's dwelling is described, then his appearance and manner of communication with Chichikov. The playwright pays special attention to the scene of the transaction for the sale of dead souls, because it is these episodes that expose the landowners and demonstrate the absurdity of the world in which the heroes live.
Manilov is the first representative of the Gogol gallery. He resembles the hero of sentimental novels: "... his facial features were not devoid of pleasantness, but it seemed that sugar was too much transferred to this pleasantness ...". Manilov's speech, like his appearance, is oversweetened, overflowing with empty polite phrases. The arrival of Chichikov is "May Day ... the name day of the heart." Sweetness and sentimentality constitute the essence of the character of the searchlight, the "beautiful-minded dreamer" Manilov, who spends his life in idleness and inaction. The hero's estate is ridiculous and uncomfortable, the economy, one might say, goes with the flow, since the landowner is not interested in the state of affairs. He is amazed at Chichikov's offer to sell dead souls, but beautiful phrases about the legality of the deal quickly calm Manilov down. Having made a deal and seeing off the guest, the hero puts on cozy slippers again and plunges into the world of sweet dreams. "... God alone could have said what Manilov's character was. There is a kind of people known by the name: people are so-so, neither this nor that, nor in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan, according to the proverb. Manilov should also join them ... "- writes N. V. Gogol.
Chichikova's chaise goes to Korobochka, in whose estate the hero falls absolutely by accident, he is mistaken on the way to Sobakevich. Korobochka is "one of those mothers, small landowners who cry for crop failures, losses, and meanwhile accumulate money little by little, hiding them in drawers of dressers." This is a generalized image, her name shows the essence of character, which lies in hoarding. Korobochka, unlike Manilov, has a well-groomed farm. The heroine, mistaking Chichikov for the "buyer", begins to treat him with various dishes in order to appease him. But the essence of the proposed deal is beyond her understanding due to the limitations of the mind. "Dubin-headed" Korobochka is afraid of only one thing: lest she be deceived in price, and for a long time cannot understand why Chichikov needs "bones and graves." The only thing that calms the heroine is the promise to buy food from her. But after a while, it was she who was sent to the city in order to find an answer to the pressing question about the price of dead souls.
The next is the meeting between Chichikov and Nozdrev, which also turned out to be unscheduled. The heroes collide when one goes to the inn, and the other returns from the fair, enthusiastically bragging about how much money he lost. Nozdreva Gogol refers to the category of people who are reputed to be "broken-hearted". This hero is a scoundrel, capable of substituting even the closest comrade at any time, without admitting absolutely no guilt. Nozdryov's way of life is made up of play, fun, aimless activity, supported by the absence of any moral principles. The appearance of this hero is always symbolic, as it portends an impending scandal. Gogol ironically calls Nozdryov a "historical person." He tries to turn the deal on the sale of dead souls into a bargain, then into a game, in the end, Chichikov hardly remains intact after this meeting. The character of Nozdryov has a unique flavor. The hero is a typical braggart, reckless man, chatterbox, debater, rowdy, booby, who never minds drinking and playing.
After a while, Chichikov finally gets to Sobakevich, whom he promised to visit immediately after Manilov. This is how the hero is shown in the poem: "... this time he seemed to him very similar to a medium-sized bear. To complete the resemblance, his coat was completely bearish, sleeves were long, pantaloons were long, he walked with his feet at random and stepped on incessantly on the feet of others. The complexion had a hot, hot, what happens on a copper penny ... "An important place in Sobakevich's life is taken by food, it becomes a kind of cult. The hero is an active and solid landowner. All buildings in the estate are strong, durable and reliable. True, they look awkward, like the "hero" Sobakevich himself. The hero cares, first of all, about the convenience and strength of things, and not about beauty and grace. Chichikov's proposal to buy dead souls instantly prompts Sobakevich to think about the maximum price increase, he does not care about the essence and legality of this transaction. The hero begins to praise the already dead peasants in order to "catch the profit." Sobakevich is hostile to spirituality. The main thing for him is taking care of his own well-being and a well-fed existence under any circumstances.
The "gallery of landowners" is completed by Plyushkin, whose lifestyle is the apogee of mortification, degradation and vulgarity. The appearance of the hero is not inherent in human outlines. But it is worth paying attention to the fact that Plyushkin is the only character with his own prehistory, only a semblance of life flashes on his face: "... suddenly a warm ray slipped, not a feeling was expressed, but some pale reflection of feeling." The family drama shocks the hero, he loses the meaning of life, becomes "a hole in humanity." Plyushkin - the only once "alive" - \u200b\u200bappears in the most disgusting guise of a dead soul. This sixth chapter is the culminating point in the plot of the poem, presenting the tragic theme of change for the worse for Gogol, and it concludes the plot of the journey. In that case, is it fair to judge Plyushkin as the worst? Or is it just that the measure of vulgarity by the sixth chapter becomes unbearable?