- the main work of N.V. Gogol. He worked on it from 1836 to 1852, but was never able to finish. More precisely, the original plan of the writer was to show Russia "from one side." He showed it - in the first volume. And then I realized that black paint alone is not enough. He remembered how Dante's Divine Comedy was constructed, where after Hell followed by Purgatory, and then Paradise. So our classics wanted to "highlight" their poem in the second volume. But this was not done. Gogol was not satisfied with what he had written and burned the second volume. Preserved drafts, by which it is difficult to judge the entire volume.
That is why only the first volume is studied at school, as a completely finished work. This is probably correct. To talk about the ideas and plans of the writer that have not been realized means to regret the missed opportunities. Better to write and talk about what is written and implemented.
Gogol was a deeply religious person - this is well known from the memoirs of his contemporaries. And it was necessary to decide to give the work such a "blasphemous" title - "Dead Souls". No wonder the censor who was reading the book immediately became indignant and protested - they say, souls are immortal - this is how the Christian religion teaches, such a work should never be printed. Gogol had to make concessions and make a "double" title - "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls." It turned out the name for some kind of adventure-adventure novel.
The content of the first volume is easy to retell - the "scoundrel" and "purchaser" Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov goes to visit the landowners and offers them to buy the souls of the dead peasants. The reaction is different: someone is surprised (), someone even tries to bargain (Korobochka), someone offers to "play on the souls" (Nozdryov), someone praises their dead peasants, as if they did not die at all (Sobakevich).
By the way, it is the praises of Sobakevich that convince us, the readers, that for dead souls Gogol saw living souls. No one ever dies if they leave behind a good memory, if the living use the products of his hands. Cartwright Mikheev, shoemaker Stepan Probka and others rise from the pages of the poem, as if alive. And although Chichikov imagines them alive, and we know his nature, all the same - the dead, at least for a short time, seem to change places with the living.
When Chichikov looks through the "revision tales" (the so-called lists of dead peasants), he accidentally discovers that he was deceived - along with the names of the dead peasants, the names of the fugitive peasants were entered. It is clear that no one will run away from a good life. This means that the conditions in which the peasants were then were incredibly difficult. After all, our serfdom - this is the same slavery, only called differently. And runaways cannot be considered dead. They died to their old lives in an attempt to find a new, free life.
It would seem that no one of the landowners can be classified as living souls. The author himself admitted that he placed the heroes according to the principle of degradation, an ever deeper moral and spiritual fall. And in fact - a huge gap between Manilov and Plyushkin. The first is refined, courteous, although in character and none, and Plyushkin even lost his human appearance. Let's remember that at first Chichikov even takes him for a housekeeper. Plyushkin's own peasants are not worth a penny. If his daughter, Alexandra Stepanovna, had not been mentioned in the poem, we probably would not have known his name.
And yet it cannot be said that Plyushkin is deader than all the other characters. Let us ask ourselves the question: what is known about the past of each of the landowners? Almost nothing, just a few expressive details. And about Plyushkin's past is told in great detail. He did not change out of the blue, everything happened gradually. Plyushkin slipped from reasonable economic stinginess to pettiness and greed. Thus, this landowner is shown to change for the worse. But the main thing is change! After all, Manilov, for example, has not changed at all for many years, like Nozdryov. And if there are no changes with the person, then you can give up on this person - no benefit or harm from him.
Gogol probably reasoned as follows: if a person has changed for the worse, then why should he not be reborn again, for a new, honest and rich life? In the third volume of Dead Souls, the writer planned to lead Plyushkin to spiritual revival. To be honest, it's hard to believe in this. But we do not know the whole plan, therefore we have no right to judge Gogol.
Finally, in the last lyrical digression of the first volume, a grandiose image of Russia appears, like a "bird-three". And again, it doesn’t matter that Chichikov’s chaise is carried away into this unknown distance, but we know who he is. Lyrical pressure, mood distracts us both from Chichikov and from his "dark" deeds. The living soul of Russia is what occupies Gogol's imagination.
So what happens? Can the question in the title of this essay be answered in the affirmative? Can! After the first reading of the poem, it is difficult to give such an affirmative answer. This is because the first reading is always rough, approximate, incomplete. As the writer Vladimir Nabokov once put it, who wrote a long essay about Gogol, "a real book cannot be read at all - you can only reread it." And it is true!
Living souls among dead souls are a rarity for Gogol. But they are! And don't take the expression "dead souls" too literally. There are those who have died spiritually, but who are still alive in the physical sense. There are many of them both then and now. And there are those who left us and went to another world, but their light is still coming to us long years... It doesn't matter what a person did during his lifetime. He was useful, necessary, gave goodness and light to those around him. And for this reason it is worthy of the grateful memory of posterity.
From the collection of P.N. Malofeeva
The plot of the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls" is supposed to be the journey of the landowner-adventurer Chichikov, who travels all over Russia and buys up peasant souls that do not actually exist from the serfs, but still appear in the documents. However, it is not the very fact of Chichikov's cunning trip that is important, but the reflection in the poem of the characters and mores of the people of that era. In five "portrait" chapters, describing the meeting of the hero with the landowners, it is shown how differently and at the same time in essence, serfdom developed in the time of Gogol (that is, in the first half of the 19th century) in one of the provincial corners of Russia and how they were reflected in the way of life and the characters of the landowners of that time.
The landowners meet Chichikov in the order corresponding to the author's plan. First, Pavel Ivanovich meets with the mismanaged and soft-bodied Manilov, then with the petty Korobochka, then with the buffoon and "master of life" Nozdryov, after him with the tight-fisted Sobakevich, and at the end with the curmudgeon Plyushkin. Thus, as we read the poem, we come across more and more perverted characters. In essence, these heroes are “dead” souls in the poem.
So, the gallery of "portraits" presented in Gogol's poem begins with the landowner Manilov. Manilov's appearance, his cutesy manners fully correspond to the basic properties of his character - senseless dreaminess and complete isolation from life. IN everyday life Manilov, we do not see any serious independent undertakings. He abandoned the farm a long time ago, the clerk manages the estate. As we learn from the conversation between Manilov and Chichikov, the would-be landowner does not even have an idea of \u200b\u200bhow many peasants he actually has and whether any of them have died since the last census. The idleness and mental sluggishness of the landowner is eloquently testified by the fact that for two years now there has been a book in his office, all laid on the same page and since then has never been taken into his hands.
However, not everything is so bad in Manilov: sometimes a thirst for activity awakens in him, and he begins to daydream, dreaming, for example, of building a stone bridge across a pond near his house. The only pity is that these dreams were never destined to come true, and in general, all Manilov projects seem to be fun that a real owner should not think about.
As we move away from Manilov, we remember him with increasing sympathy: although he is empty, he is harmless and in his own way even charming, while the rest of this class appear in the image of Gogol as truly disgusting. This quality received the greatest expression in the image of Plyushkin.
Plyushkin, according to the author, is a "hole in humanity." Everything that was human in him died long ago. The amazed Chichikov sees in front of him an amorphous creature that has lost all signs of sex and age. Portraying Plyushkin, the author shows what a person who has forgotten about his true destiny can become.
The feeling of death is present, it seems, in the very atmosphere surrounding the "patched" Plyushkin: his estate has long been dilapidated, the house looks like a "decrepit invalid". At the same time, Plyushkin owns thousands of serf souls, and his barns and storerooms are full of various goods. However, everything acquired and accumulated rots, the peasants, who are left without work and bread, “die like flies,” and the owner, driven by pathological avarice, continues to accumulate all kinds of rubbish in his house. His frugality borders on insanity. Plyushkin's soul is so dead that he has no feelings left, and he does not even want to know his children. "A person could condescend to such insignificance, pettiness, nastiness!" - exclaims the writer.
In his poem, Gogol contrasts the “dead” souls of the landowners with the “living” souls of the people, in which, despite all the hardships and obstacles, the flame of diligence, sympathy and love does not fade away. These are the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, Stepan Probka, uncle Mityai and uncle Minyay, the coachman Mikheev, the serf girl Pelageya, Proshka and Mavra, brick-maker Milushkin. The author feels annoyance and bitter regret that the peasant - a "living" soul, a representative of the majority of the country's population, its breadwinner and protector - is in shameful dependence on "dead" souls. Gogol's poem is an attempt by the writer to draw the attention of thinking people to the intolerance of such a situation in Russia.
State educational institution
"high school No. 11 of Svetlogorsk "
ESSAY
“Dead and living souls in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"
Completed by: Fedotov Vladislav
student: 9 "B" grade
svetlogorsk, 2015
1. The history of the creation of the poem "Dead Souls" …………………………. 3
2. The purpose of Chichikov's life. Father's Testament …………………………………… ..4
3. What are “dead souls”? ......................................... ...........................five
4. Who are the “dead souls” in the poem? ....................................... ..6
5. Who are the “living souls” in the poem? ....................................... .................. 7
6. The second volume of "Dead Souls" - a crisis in the work of Gogol ………… ..8
7. A journey to meaning ……………………………………………… ..9
List of references
The history of the creation of the poem "Dead Souls"
There are writers who easily and freely come up with the plots of their works. Gogol was not one of them. He was excruciatingly uninventive in plots. With the greatest difficulty he was given the idea of \u200b\u200beach work. He always needed an external push to give wings to his imagination. Contemporaries tell how eagerly Gogol listened to various everyday stories, anecdotes picked up on the street, and there were fables. I listened professionally, as a writer, memorizing every characteristic detail. Years passed, and one of these accidentally heard stories came to life in his works. For Gogol, later recalled P.V. Annenkov, “nothing was wasted”.
As you know, Gogol owed the plot of Dead Souls to A.S. Pushkin, who had long urged him to write a great epic work. Pushkin told Gogol the story of the adventures of a certain adventurer who bought up dead peasants from landowners in order to mortgage them as living ones in the Board of Trustees and receive a hefty loan for them.
But how did Pushkin know the plot that he presented to Gogol?
The history of fraudulent tricks with dead souls could have become known to Pushkin during his Kishinev exile. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of peasants fled here, to the south of Russia, to Bessarabia, from different parts of the country, fleeing the payment of arrears and various extortions. Local authorities obstructed the resettlement of these peasants. Chased them. But all the measures were in vain. Fleeing from their pursuers, fugitive peasants often took the names of deceased serfs. They say that during Pushkin's stay in Kishinev exile, rumors spread throughout Bessarabia that the city of Bendery was immortal, while the population of this city was called an "immortal society." No deaths have been reported there for many years. An investigation has begun. It turned out that in Bendery it was accepted as a rule: the dead "should not be excluded from society," and their names should be given to the fugitive peasants who arrived here. Pushkin visited Bender more than once, and he was very interested in this story.
Most likely, it was she who became the seed of the plot that was retold by the poet Gogol almost a decade and a half after the Chisinau exile.
It should be noted that Chichikov's idea was by no means such a rarity in life itself. Frauds with "audit souls" were quite common in those days. It is safe to assume that not only one specific case formed the basis of Gogol's design.
The core of the plot of Dead Souls was Chichikov's adventure. It only seemed incredible and anecdotal, but in fact, it was reliable in all the smallest details. The feudal reality created very favorable conditions for such adventures.
By the decree of 1718, the so-called household census was replaced by the capitation. Henceforth, all male serfs, "from the oldest to the very last baby," were taxed. Dead souls (dead or fugitive peasants) became a burden for the landowners who dreamed of getting rid of it naturally.
The purpose of Chichikov's life. Father's testament
Here is what V.G. Sakhnovsky in his book "On the play" Dead Souls ":
“... It is known that Chichikov was not too fat, not too thin; that, according to some, he even looked like Napoleon, that he had a wonderful ability to talk to everyone as a connoisseur of what he talked pleasantly about. Chichikov's goal in communication was to make the most favorable impression, to win over and instill confidence in himself. It is also known that Pavel Ivanovich has a special charm, with which he overcame two catastrophes that would have knocked someone down forever. But the main thing that characterizes Chichikov is his passionate desire for acquisitions. To become, as they say, "a man with weight in society", being a "man of the San style", without clan and tribe, who is worn like "some kind of barge among the fierce waves" - this is the main task of Chichikov. To gain for oneself a firm place in life, without reckoning with anyone or with any interest, public and private - this is what Chichikov's end-to-end action is.
And everything that did not respond to wealth and contentment made an impression on him that was incomprehensible to him, - Gogol writes about him. Father's admonition - "take care and save a penny" - went to him for the future. He was not possessed by parsimony or avarice. No, he dreamed of life ahead of him with all sorts of prosperity: carriages, a house perfectly arranged, delicious meals.
“You will do everything and you will break everything in the world with a penny,” his father bequeathed to Pavel Ivanovich. He has learned this for the rest of his life. "Selflessness, patience and limitation of needs he showed unheard of." This is what Gogol wrote in Chichikov's Biography (Chapter XI).
... Chichikov comes to poison. There is an evil that rolls across Russia, like Chichikov on a troika. What is this evil? It is revealed in each in its own way. Each of those with whom he does business has his own reaction to the poison of Chichikov. Chichikov leads one line, but he has a new role with each character.
... Chichikov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich and other heroes of Dead Souls are not characters, but types. In these types, Gogol collected and generalized many similar characters, revealing in all of them a common life and social order ... "
What are dead souls?
The primary meaning of the expression "dead souls" is as follows: these are deceased peasants who are still on the revision lists. Without such a very specific meaning, the plot of the poem would be impossible. After all, Chichikov's strange enterprise consists in the fact that he buys dead peasants who were listed alive in the revision lists. And that it is legally feasible: it is enough just to draw up a list of peasants and arrange the sale and purchase accordingly, as if the subject of the transaction were living people. Gogol shows with his own eyes that the law of sale and purchase of living goods rules in Russia, and that such a situation is natural and normal.
Consequently, the very factual basis, the very intrigue of the poem, built on the sale of revision souls, was social and accusatory, no matter how the narrative tone of the poem seemed harmless and far from denunciation.
True, one can recall that Chichikov does not buy living people, that the subject of his deal is the peasants who are dead. However, Gogol's irony is also hidden here. Chichikov buys up the dead in exactly the same way as if he was buying up living peasants, according to the same rules, in compliance with the same formal and legal norms. Only at the same time Chichikov expects to give a much lower price - well, as if for a product of lower quality, stale or spoiled.
“Dead Souls” - this capacious Gogol formula begins to fill with its deep, changing meaning. That is a conventional designation of the deceased, a phrase behind which there is no face. Then this formula comes to life - and behind it stand real peasants, whom the landowner has the power to sell or buy, specific people.
The ambiguity of the meaning is already hidden in the very Gogol phrase. If Gogol wanted to emphasize a single meaning, he would most likely take the expression “revisionist soul”. But the writer deliberately included in the title of the poem a phrase unusual, bold, not found in everyday speech.
Who are the “dead souls” in the poem?
“Dead Souls” - this title bears something terrifying ... Not revision - dead souls, but all these Nozdrevs, Manilovs and others - these are dead souls and we meet them at every step, ”Herzen wrote.
In this sense, the expression "dead souls" is no longer addressed to the peasants - living and dead - but to the owners of life, landlords and officials. And its meaning is metaphorical, figurative. After all, physically, materially, "all these Nozdrevs, Manilovs and others" exist and for the most part prosper. What could be more certain than a bear-like Sobakevich? Or Nozdryov, about whom it is said: “He was light like blood and milk; health seemed to sprinkle from his face. " But physical being is not yet human life. The vegetative existence is far from true spiritual movements. "Dead souls" in this case denote deadness, lack of spirituality. And this lack of spirituality manifests itself in at least twofold. First of all, this is the absence of any interests, passions. Remember what is said about Manilov? “You won't get any lively or even arrogant word from him, which you can hear from almost everyone if you touch an object that is bullying him. Everyone has their own, but Manilov had nothing. Most hobbies or passions are not lofty or noble. But Manilov did not have such a passion. He had nothing of his own at all. And the main impression that Manilov made on his interlocutor was a feeling of uncertainty and "deadly boredom."
Other characters - landlords and officials - are far from being so dispassionate. For example, Nozdryov and Plyushkin have their passions. Chichikov has his own "enthusiasm" - the "acquisition" enthusiasm. And many other characters have their own "bullying subject" that sets in motion the most diverse passions: greed, ambition, curiosity, and so on.
This means that in this respect, “dead souls” are deathly in different ways, in different degrees and, so to speak, in different doses. But in another respect, they are equally deadly, without distinction or exception.
Dead soul! This phenomenon seems to be contradictory in itself, composed of mutually exclusive concepts. How can there be a dead soul, a dead person, that is, that which is animate and spiritual by nature? Can't live, shouldn't exist. But there is.
A certain form remains from life, from a person - a shell, which, however, regularly dispatches vital functions. And here one more meaning of the Gogolian image of "dead souls" is revealed to us: revision dead souls, that is, a conventional designation of dead peasants. Revision dead souls are concrete, reviving faces of peasants who are treated as if they were not people. And the dead in spirit - all these Manilovs, Nozdrevs, landowners and officials, a dead form, a stifled system of human relationships ...
All these are facets of one Gogolian concept - "dead souls", artistically realized in his poem. And the edges are not isolated, but make up a single, infinitely deep image.
Who are the “living souls” in the poem?
The "dead souls" of the poem are contrasted with the "living" - a talented, hardworking, long-suffering people. With a deep sense of a patriot and faith in the great future of his people, Gogol writes about him. He saw the lack of rights of the peasantry, its humiliated position and the stupidity and savagery that were the result of serfdom. Such are Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, the serf girl Pelageya, who did not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin's Proshka and Mavra, who were beaten to the extreme. But even in this social depression, Gogol saw the living soul of the "lively people" and the quickness of the Yaroslavl peasant. He speaks with admiration and love about the ability of the people, courage and daring, endurance and thirst for freedom. Serf hero, carpenter Cork "would be suitable for the guard." He walked with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders all the provinces. The coachman Micah created carriages of extraordinary strength and beauty. Stove-maker Milushkin could put a stove in any house. Maksim Telyatnikov, a talented shoemaker, says “what stabs with an awl, then boots, what boots, then thanks.” And Eremey Sorokoplekhin "brought one quitrent for five hundred rubles!" Here is the fugitive serf Plyushkin Abakum Fyrov. His soul could not stand the oppression of bondage, pulled him into the wide Volga expanse, he "walks noisily and merrily on the grain pier, having contracted with the merchants." But it is not easy for him to walk with the barge haulers, "pulling a strap under one endless, like Russia, song." In the songs of the barge haulers, Gogol heard the expression of longing and the people's desire for another life, for a wonderful future. Behind the crust of lack of spirituality, callousness, and carrion, the living forces of the people's life are fighting - here and there they make their way to the surface in the living Russian word, in the merriment of barge haulers, in the movement of Russia-Troika - the guarantee of the future revival of the homeland.
An ardent faith in the hidden until time, but immense strength of the entire people, love for the homeland, allowed Gogol to genius foresee its great future.
The second volume of "Dead Souls" - a crisis in the work of Gogol
"Dead souls," Herzen testifies, "shook the whole of Russia." He himself, having read them in 1842, wrote in his diary: "... an amazing book, a bitter reproach of modern Russia, but not hopeless."
The Northern Bee, a newspaper published at the expense of the III Department of the personal office of Nicholas I, accused Gogol of depicting some kind of special world of villains that never existed and could not exist. " Critics criticized the writer for a one-sided portrayal of reality.
But the landlords gave themselves away. A contemporary of Gogol, the poet Yazykov, wrote to his relatives in Moscow: “Gogol receives news from everywhere that he is being strongly abused by the Russian landowners; here is clear proof that their portraits were written off by him correctly and that the originals are hurt! Such is the talent! Many before Gogol described the life of the Russian nobility, but no one angered him as much as he did.
Fierce controversy boiled around the Dead Souls. In them, in the words of Belinsky, “the question is as much a literary as a public one” was solved. The famous critic, however, very keenly grasped the dangers that awaited Gogol in the future, while fulfilling his promises to continue Dead Souls and show Russia from the other side. Gogol did not understand that his poem was over, that “all of Russia” was outlined and that another work would (if possible) come out.
This controversial idea was formed by Gogol towards the end of work on the first volume. Then it seemed to the writer that the new idea was not opposed to the first volume, but directly emerged from it. Gogol had not yet noticed that he was cheating on himself, he wanted to correct the vulgar world that he painted so truthfully, and he did not refuse the first volume.
Work on the second volume proceeded slowly, and the further, the more difficult. In July 1845, Gogol burned what he had written. This is how Gogol himself explained a year later why the second volume was burned: “Bringing out a few beautiful characters, revealing the high nobility of our breed, will lead nowhere. It will excite only one empty pride and boasting ... No, there is a time when it is impossible to direct society or even the whole generation to the beautiful in any other way, until you show the full depth of real abomination; there are times when one should not even speak of the sublime and the beautiful, without immediately showing clearly ... the paths and roads to it. The latter circumstance was little and poorly developed in the second volume, and it should be almost the main thing; and therefore he was burnt ... "
Thus, Gogol saw the collapse of his plan as a whole. It seems to him at this time that in the first volume of Dead Souls he portrayed not the actual types of landowners and officials, but his own vices and shortcomings, and that the revival of Russia must begin with the correction of the morality of all people. This was a rejection of the former Gogol, which aroused the indignation of both the close friends of the writer and the entire advanced Russia.
A journey to meaning
Each subsequent era reveals in a new way the classical creations and such facets in them, which to one degree or another are consonant with its own problems. Contemporaries wrote about the "Dead Souls" that they "woke up Russia" and "awakened in us the consciousness of ourselves." And now the Manilovs and Plyushkins, Nozdrevs and Chichikovs have not yet died out in the world. They, of course, have become different than they were in those days, but they did not lose their essence. Each new generation discovered new generalizations in Gogol's images that prompted thoughts about the most essential phenomena of life.
This is the fate of great works of art, they outlive their creators and their era, overcome national borders and become eternal companions of humanity.
Dead Souls is one of the most widely read and revered works of Russian classics. No matter how much time separates us from this work, we will never cease to be amazed at its depth, perfection and, probably, will not consider our idea of \u200b\u200bit exhausted. Reading Dead Souls, you absorb the noble moral ideas, which bears in itself every genius creation of art, and imperceptibly for yourself you become both purer and more beautiful.
During Gogol's time literary criticism and art history often used the word "invention". Now we refer this word to products of technical, engineering thought, but before it also meant artistic, literary works... And this word meant the unity of meaning, form and content. After all, in order to express something new, you need to invent - create an artistic whole that has never existed. Let us recall the words of A.S. Pushkin: "There is the highest courage - the courage of invention." Learning the secrets of "invention" is a journey that does not involve the usual difficulties: you do not need to meet with anyone, you do not need to move at all. You can follow the literary hero and follow in your imagination the path he has traveled. It only takes time, and a book, and a desire to think about it. But this is also the most difficult journey: you can never say that the goal has been achieved, because behind everyone understood and meaningful artistically, solved by a mystery, a new one arises - even more difficult and exciting. That is why a work of art is inexhaustible and the journey to its meaning is endless.
List of references
dead gogol soul of chichikov
1. Mann Yu. "The Courage of Invention" - 2nd ed., Supplemented. - M .: Det. lit., 1989.142 p.
2. Mashinsky S. "Dead Souls" by Gogol "- 2nd ed., Supplemented. - M.: Khudozh. Lit., 1980.117 p.
3. Chernyshevsky N.G. Sketches of the Gogol period of Russian literature. - Complete. Coll. cit., vol. 3. M., 1947, p. 5-22.
4.www.litra.ru.composition
5.www.moskva.com
6. Belinsky V.G. "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls" - Complete. collection cit., vol. VI. M., 1955, p. 209-222.
7. Belinsky V.G. "A few words about Gogol's poem ..." - Ibid, p. 253-260.
8. Sat. "Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries", S. Mashinsky. M., 1952.
9. Sat. "N.V. Gogol in Russian criticism ", A. Kotov and M. Polyakov, M., 1953.
Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is one of the best works world literature. The writer worked on the creation of this poem for 17 years, but he never completed his plan. "Dead Souls" is the result of many years of observations and reflections of Gogol over human destinies, the destinies of Russia.
The title of the work - "Dead Souls" - contains its main meaning. This poem describes both the dead revisionist souls of serfs, and the dead souls of landowners, buried under the insignificant interests of life. But it is interesting that the first, formally dead, souls turn out to be more alive than the breathing and speaking landowners.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, carrying out his ingenious swindle, visits the estates of the provincial nobility. This gives us the opportunity "in all its glory" to see the "living dead".
The first to whom Chichikov pays a visit is the landowner Manilov. Behind the external pleasantness, even the sugaryness of this master, there is a senseless dreaminess, inactivity, idle talk, false love for the family and peasants. Manilov considers himself well-mannered, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A dusty book that has been open for two years on the same page.
There is always something missing in Manilov's house. So, in the study, only part of the furniture is covered with silk fabric, and two chairs are covered with mat. The farm is managed by a "clever" clerk who ruins both Manilov and his peasants. This landowner is distinguished by idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and vital interests. And this is despite the fact that Manilov seems to be an intelligent and cultured person.
The second estate that Chichikov visited was the estate of the landowner Korobochka. It is also a "dead soul". The soullessness of this woman lies in strikingly small interests in life. Apart from prices for hemp and honey, Korobochka doesn't care much. Even in the sale of dead souls, the landowner is only afraid to sell too cheap. Anything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. She tells Chichikov that she does not know any Sobakevich, and, therefore, he is not even in the world.
In search of the landowner Sobakevich, Chichikov comes across Nozdrev. Gogol writes about this "merry fellow" that he was gifted with all possible "enthusiasm". At first glance, Nozdryov seems to be a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be completely empty. His amazing energy is directed only to revelry and senseless prodigality. Added to this is a passion for lies. But the lowest and most disgusting in this hero is "a passionate shit on one's neighbor." This is the type of people "who will start with a satin stitch and finish with a reptile." But Nozdryov, one of the few landowners, even evokes sympathy and pity. The only pity is that he directs his indomitable energy and love of life into an “empty” channel.
Finally, the next landowner on Chichikov's path turns out to be Sobakevich. He seemed to Pavel Ivanovich "very similar to the average size of a bear." Sobakevich is a kind of "fist" that nature "simply chopped off from the entire shoulder." Everything in the guise of the hero and his house is thorough, detailed and large-scale. The furniture in the landlord's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich's items seems to say: "And I, too, Sobakevich!"
Sobakevich is a zealous owner, he is calculating, prosperous. But he does everything only for himself, only in the name of his interests. For their sake, Sobakevich will go to any fraud and other crime. All his talent went only to the material, completely forgetting about the soul.
The gallery of landowners' "dead souls" is completed by Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Gogol tells us the background of this hero. Once upon a time Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors stopped by to learn "stingy wisdom". But after the death of his wife, the hero's suspicion and stinginess increased to the highest degree.
This landowner has accumulated huge reserves of "good". Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walks every day in his village and collects all the garbage that he puts in his room. The senseless hoarding led Plyushkin to the fact that he himself feeds on leftovers, and his peasants "die like flies" or run away.
The gallery of “dead souls” in the poem is continued by the images of officials of the city of N. Gogol paints them as a single faceless mass mired in bribes and corruption. Sobakevich gives the officials an angry, but very accurate characterization: "The swindler sits on the swindler and drives the swindler." Officials sit back, cheat, steal, offend the weak and tremble before the strong.
At the news of the appointment of a new governor-general, the inspector of the medical council thinks feverishly about the sick who have died in significant numbers from fever, against which no proper measures have been taken. The chairman of the chamber turns pale at the thought that he has made a bill of sale for dead peasant souls. And the prosecutor came home and suddenly died. What sins were behind his soul that he was so scared?
Gogol shows us that the life of officials is empty and meaningless. They are simply air smokers who have wasted their priceless lives on dishonesty and fraud.
Along with the "dead souls" in the poem, there are bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom, and talent. These are images of dead and fugitive peasants, first of all Sobakevich's peasants: the miracle-master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove-maker Milushkin. They are also the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the revolted villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovka and Zadirailov.
It was the people, according to Gogol, that retained the “living soul”, national and human originality. Therefore, it is with the people that he connects the future of Russia. The writer planned to write about this in the continuation of his work. but could not, did not have time. We can only guess about his thoughts.
The theme of living and dead souls is central in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". We can judge about this by the title of the poem, which not only contains a hint at the essence of Chichikov's scam, but also contains a deeper meaning, reflecting the author's intention of the first volume of the poem "Dead Souls".
There is an opinion that Gogol planned to create a poem "Dead Souls" by analogy with Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy". This determined the supposed three-part composition of the future work. The Divine Comedy consists of three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, which were supposed to correspond to the three volumes of Dead Souls conceived by Gogol. In the first volume, Gogol tried to show the terrible Russian reality, to recreate "hell" modern life... In the second and third volumes, Gogol wanted to portray the rebirth of Russia. Gogol saw himself as a writer-preacher, who, drawing on. pages of his work a picture of the revival of Russia, takes it out. crisis.
The artistic space of the first volume of the poem consists of two worlds: the real world, where the main character is Chichikov, and the ideal world of lyrical digressions, where the main character is the narrator.
The real world of Dead Souls is scary and ugly. Him typical representatives are Manilov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, chief of police, prosecutor and many others. These are all static characters. They have always been as we see them now. "Nozdryov at thirty-five was as perfect as at eighteen and twenty." Gogol does not show any internal development of the landowners and residents of the city, this allows us to conclude that the souls of the heroes of the real world of "Dead Souls" are completely frozen and petrified, that they are dead. Gogol portrays landlords and officials with evil irony, shows them funny, but at the same time very scary. After all, these are not people, but only a pale, ugly semblance of people. There was nothing human left in them. The moribund fossilization of souls, absolute lack of spirituality is hidden both behind the measured life of the landowners and behind the convulsive activity of the city. Gogol wrote about the city of “Dead Souls”: “The idea of \u200b\u200ba city. Emerged to the highest degree. Emptiness. Babble ... Death strikes the untouched world. Meanwhile, the dead insensibility of life must appear to the reader even more strongly.
Outwardly, the life of the city is boiling and bubbling. But this life is really just empty vanity. In the real world of Dead Souls, a dead soul is common. For this world, the soul is only that which distinguishes a living person from a dead person. In the episode of the death of the prosecutor, those around him guessed that he "had exactly a soul" only when "only one soulless body" remained of him. But really everyone actors in the real world of "Dead Souls" the soul is dead? No, not everyone.
Of the "indigenous inhabitants" of the real world of the poem, paradoxical and strange as it may seem, only Plyushkin's soul is not quite dead yet. In literary criticism, there is an opinion that Chichikov visits the landowners as they become spiritually impoverished. However, I cannot agree that Plyushkin is "deader" and more terrible than Manilov, Nozdrev and others. On the contrary, Plyushkin's image is much different from the images of other landowners. I will try to prove this by referring first of all to the structure of the chapter devoted to Plyushkin, and to the means of creating Plyushkin's character.
The chapter about Plyushkin begins with a lyrical digression, which was not in the description of a single landowner. A lyrical digression immediately sets the reader up to the fact that this chapter is significant and important for the narrator. The narrator does not remain indifferent and indifferent to his hero: in lyrical digressions, (in chapter VI there are two of them) he expresses his own bitterness from the realization to what extent a person could sink.
The image of Plyushkin stands out for its dynamism among the static heroes of the real world of the poem. From the narrator we learn what Plyushkin was like before and how his soul gradually hardened and hardened. In Plyushkin's story, we see a life tragedy. Therefore, the question arises, is Plyushkin's current state of degradation of the personality itself, or is it the result of a cruel fate? At the mention of a school friend on Plyushkin's face "a warm ray slipped, not a feeling was expressed, but some pale reflection of feeling." So, after all, Plyushkin's soul has not yet completely died, which means that there is still something human left in it. Plyushkin's eyes were still alive, not yet extinct, "running from under the high-grown eyebrows like mice."
Chapter VI contains detailed description Plyushkin's garden, neglected, overgrown and decayed, but alive. The garden is a kind of metaphor for Plyushkin's soul. There are two churches in the Plyushkin estate alone. Of all the landowners, only Plyushkin utters an internal monologue after Chichikov's departure. All these details allow us to conclude that Plyushkin's soul has not yet completely died. This is probably due to the fact that in the second or third volume of Dead Souls, according to Gogol, two heroes of the first volume, Chichikov and Plyushkin, should have met.
The second hero of the real world of the poem who has a soul is Chichikov. It is in Chichikov that the unpredictability and inexhaustibility of a living soul is most strongly shown, even if not God knows how rich, albeit impoverished, but alive. Chapter XI is devoted to the history of Chichikov's soul, it shows the development of his character. Chichikov's name is Paul, this is the name of the apostle who survived a spiritual upheaval. According to Gogol, Chichikov was to be reborn in the second volume of the poem and become an apostle, reviving the souls of the Russian people. Therefore, Gogol trusts Chichikov to tell about the dead peasants, putting his thoughts into his mouth. It is Chichikov who resurrects in the poem the former heroes of the Russian land.
The images of the dead peasants in the poem are perfect. Gogol emphasizes fabulous, heroic features in them. All biographies of dead peasants are determined by the motive of movement passing through each of them ("Tea, all the provinces came with an ax in a belt ... Somewhere now your fast legs are carrying you? ... And you are moving yourself from prison to prison ..."). It is the dead peasants in Dead Souls that have living souls, in contrast to the living people of the poem, whose soul is dead.
The ideal world of "Dead Souls", which appears before the reader in lyrical digressions, is the complete opposite of the real world. In an ideal world there are no Manilovs, Sobachevichs, Nozdrevs, Prosecutors, there are no and cannot be dead souls. The ideal world is built in strict accordance with true spiritual values. For the world of lyrical digressions, the soul is immortal, since it is the embodiment of the divine principle in man. Immortal human souls live in an ideal world. First of all, it is the soul of the narrator himself. Precisely because the narrator lives according to the laws of an ideal world and that he has an ideal in his heart, he can notice all the filth and vulgarity of the real world. The narrator is heartbroken for Russia, he believes in its revival. The patriotic pathos of lyrical digressions proves this to us.
At the end of the first volume, the image of the Chichikovskaya chaise becomes a symbol of the eternally living soul of the Russian people. It is the immortality of this soul that instills in the author the belief in the obligatory revival of Russia and the Russian people.
Thus, in the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol depicts all the shortcomings, all the negative aspects of Russian reality. Gogol shows people what their souls have become. He does this because he deeply loves Russia and hopes for its revival. Gogol wanted people, after reading his poem, to be horrified at their lives and wake up from a deadly sleep. This is the purpose of the first volume. Describing the terrible reality, Gogol draws to us in lyrical digressions his ideal of the Russian people, speaks of a living, immortal soul Russia. In the second and third volumes of his work, Gogol planned to transfer this ideal to real life... But, unfortunately, he was never able to show the revolution in the soul of a Russian person, he could not revive dead souls. This was Gogol's creative tragedy, which grew into the tragedy of his entire life.