Illness and death of the soul. Souls dead and alive in N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” Souls dead and alive in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

13. True happiness for a person is life according to the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication of souls with each other and with the world of saints and angels. The light and dark state of the shell of the soul I wanted to respond to the one posted at the end of the last letter

THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL AND THE KILLING OF THE SOUL When the soul appears Existing and former Children who are to be born The vast halls of the Azure Palace, where the children who are to be born await... Children in beautiful azure clothes. Some are playing, others are walking, others are talking or

ILLNESS Illnesses must be accepted as a visit from God. You write that illnesses and sorrows visit you. This is a sign of God’s mercy to you: since the Lord loves him, punishes him, and beats every son he accepts (Heb. 12:6), then you must thank the Lord for His fatherly care for you

On the topic “The problem of necrosis human soul in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century" can be used as an example of the poem by N.V. Gogol " Dead Souls”, the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the stories of A.P. Chekhov, among which this theme is most fully revealed in the story “Ionych”. We offer you a detailed statement on “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, which you can use as the basis for your essay.

Souls dead and alive in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

Gogol himself defined his art world so: “And for a long time it was determined for me by the wonderful power to walk hand in hand with my strange heroes, to look around at the whole enormous rushing life, to look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to it tears.”

Really, strange heroes in the poem. If N.V. Gogol indicates in the title the existence of “ dead souls“, which means that there are living ones in the work...

Who is who? Who can be called truly dead and who can be called truly alive? This is not an idle question. Especially if we take into account that the poem “Dead Souls” is perceived by Gogol not just as piece of art, but as a book of life, almost a new Gospel, which should change Russia, and humanity, and himself!

The phrase “dead souls” has many meanings (there is a lot of reader guesswork, scientific debate and research).

The origins of the name are seen in the Gospel - in the thoughts of the Apostle Paul about eternal life in Christ. (And rightfully so).

Researchers have found the phrase “dead soul” on the pages of Gogol’s contemporary literature with the meaning: “the soul of a great sinner, a devastated soul, incapable of love, devoid of hope...”. It's hard to disagree with this definition.

There is a direct and obvious meaning arising from the history of the work itself. Since the times of Peter the Great in Russia, audits (checks) of the number of serfs were carried out every 12-18 years, since for male peasants the landowner was obliged to pay the government a “per capita” tax (for each male soul - the “soul” of the family breadwinner). As a result of the audit, audit “tales” (lists) were compiled. If during the period from revision to revision a peasant died, he was still listed on the lists and the landowner paid taxes for him - until the lists were compiled.

It was these dead people who were still considered alive that the rascal businessman Chichikov decided to buy up cheaply.

What was the benefit here?

It turns out that peasants could be pledged to a board of guardians (in a bank), i.e. get money for every dead soul.

So, it is obvious that the “dead soul” is a peasant who has died, but exists in a paper, bureaucratic “guise”, and who has become the subject of speculation.

But everything is not so simple in the plot of the poem! In fact, the dead come to life before our eyes and look more alive than others characters. Interesting observation? Certainly! Landowners, officials, their wives, innkeepers depicted more or less fully on the pages of the poem?! What kind of souls are they? In appearance, in their extraordinary mobility, they are quite alive. But in essence?

One after another, each spiritually more insignificant than the previous one, the owners of the estates follow in the work: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. Typical Russian landowners.

Manilov is a “knight of the void”, a pointless dreamer, divorced from real life. Sentimental to the point of cloying. For Manilov, everyone around him is wonderful. He does not show concern for his serfs, he entrusted everything to the clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner himself. He does not know how many of his peasants died. The estate has many flaws. Everywhere there is only a claim to sophistication. Just look at the inscription on the gazebo: “Temple of Solitary Reflection.” A book has been lying in the office for two years, open to page 14. On the windowsill there are ash from a smoking pipe in beautiful rows. Chichikov quickly manages to convince Manilov of the legality of the “zhegotsia” (deal). “The law... I am speechless before the law.” To please the “unexpected” dear friend", to Chichikov, he not only gives dead souls, but also takes upon himself the preparation of the deed of sale. And in the city he solemnly presents the “future Kherson landowner” with papers rolled into a tube and tied with a pink ribbon.

The box Chichikov ended up with quite by accident is a different kind of landowner. The surname is “speaking”. She has a “good village” and “abundant farming.” She is not interested in anything other than profit. During the auction, she brought Chichikov to the point of exhaustion: she was afraid to sell herself short. After all, she had never sold such a product. And I didn’t feel any fear of sin! He calls Chichikov “club-headed.” The landowner turned out to be a strong-willed person.

After the departure of the unexpected guest, she went into the city to find out what the price of the “product” was. Not a glimpse of mind, soul, heart!.. In a word - a hoarder.

Nozdryov - “knight of scandal”, lover of revelry, card games. At 35 years old it is the same as at 18. Lack of development is a sign of inanimateness. He " historical person": "Wherever he was, he could not do without history." A carouser, a money changer, a liar, an informer. Dog lover. Gogol gives a damning detail, characterizing the landowner. “Nozdryov was among<собак>just like a father among the family”... he had one passion - to spoil his neighbor. After the proposal to sell dead souls, he began to blackmail Chichikov. He was saved by chance: the police captain came to arrest Nozdryov. The cheerful dirty trickster once again “suffered” for robbery.

The landowner Sobakevich had everything of gigantic size: the house, the peasant huts, the furniture. Yes, and I looked like average size bear: wore a brown frock coat and constantly stepped on other people's feet. And his name was Mikhail Semyonovich. He calls all officials and landowners swindlers. He performs his “exploits” only at the dinner table. “When I have pork, bring the whole pig to the table, lamb – bring the whole lamb, goose – the whole goose!” Chichikov's request to sell dead souls did not cause him either surprise or fear. He immediately assessed the situation and said: “By stu a piece!" And he bargained with Chichikov for a long time. He paid according to high price Sobakevich - two and a half. And in the Guardianship Council he could receive 200 rubles for each “soul”, i.e. 80 times more. He squeezed money out of Chichikov for the dead, as for the living. Chichikov calls the landowner a “fist” and a “beast.”

In the dictionary V.I. Dahl’s word “kulak” means a miser, a deceiving merchant, a tight-fisted businessman.” Gogol emphasizes his “inanimate”, “wooden” essence. “...It seemed that this topic had no soul at all, or it had it, but not at all in the right place.” The meaning of Sobakevich’s life is profit.

There is a commandment in the Gospel that Jesus called the main one. It is simple: love for God is alive only in love for man. The word “love” is not applicable to Sobakevich.

The gallery of landowners ends with the image of Plyushkin. The owner of a huge estate. He has more than 1000 serf souls. The estate is an “extinct place”, decay, dust. The only reminder of life here is the garden, which does not succumb to the will of the “knight of avarice.” A killer detail: on Plyushkin’s table there is “a clock with a stopped pendulum, in which a spider has attached ... a web.” (Time has stopped here). Plyushkin does not eat, does not drink, and is constantly worried: is it easy to let such a wealth of goodness rot from year to year? He keeps his serfs hungry, so they die like flies (to Chichikov’s joy!). and many went on the run. It should be said that in his youth he was only a thrifty owner. After the death of his wife, he gradually turned into a miser, broke up with his own children, showed no mercy, and gave nothing from his inheritance! This is the limit of human fall! A burning warning sounds in this chapter lyrical digression: “And a person could stoop to such insignificance and pettiness! could have changed so much... “Take it with you on the journey, coming out of the soft teenage years into stern, bitter courage, take with you all human movements, don’t leave them on the road, you won’t pick them up later.”

By all definitions, “not the revisionists are dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and the like are dead souls, and we meet them at every step. I completely agree with the opinion of A.I. Herzen.

Dead souls and selfish officials led by the governor, who loves to embroider on tulle, his subordinates, bribe-takers and embezzlers. Gogol writes sarcastically about the prosecutor who, without looking, signed papers to “the right people.”

And only when he died (And death came from fear caused by rumors about Chichikov), people learned that he definitely had a soul. Before this, no soul was noticed in him.

“The “Kherson landowner” himself, who bought up dead souls coming. (Why not buy the dead when they sell the living too.) - dead soul, “knight of the penny.” His life is a desire for a golden mirage. He became worthy son his father, who bequeathed to value a penny above friendship and love.

The poem contains not only the denial of the Russia of the Sobakeviches and Plyushkins, but also the affirmation of the Russia of the Russian people.” Behind scary world Gogol discerned landowners and officials living Rus'. Not without shortcomings and vices.

And the most interesting thing is that the dead revision souls turn out to be truly alive.

“Here is the coachman Mikheev! After all, he never made any other carriages other than spring ones. And it’s not like the Moscow work, which is for one hour - it’s so durable, it will cut itself and cover it with varnish.”

“And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? After all, what kind of power was that! If he served in the guard, God knows what they gave him, three arshins and an inch tall!”

“Milushkin, brickmaker! I could put a stove in any house.”

“Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: whatever pricks with an awl, so do the boots, whatever the boots, then thank you”...

The image of the Russian people, their suffering soul runs through the entire poem. Breadth of soul, sincere kindness, heroic prowess, sensitivity to the striking apt word, a broad song of freedom - this reveals the true soul of the Russian person. People's soul is a bird-three that knows no barriers.

But that's not all.

N.V. Gogol believed that any person, degraded and sinful, can and should be reborn to a worthy life, realizing his spiritual decline. It is no coincidence that he wrote in a note relating to last days his life: Be not dead souls, but living ones..."

A.L. Murzina, honored teacher of Kazakh. SSR, teacher-methodologist of NP secondary school "Lyceum "Stolichny"

“This son of mine was dead” (Luke 15:22), the Gospel says about prodigal son. Mortification of this kind is invisible, but undoubted spiritual death. This is coldness towards faith and complete indifference to one’s afterlife fate.

Just as pain is no longer felt in a paralyzed hand, so in such a soul there is no longer any sympathy for anything spiritual. This condition occurs as a result of a long carefree life. Carefree, however, about her one spiritual side: about the soul, about eternity, about God, but at the same time unusually caring about her material part.

Therefore, at a young age, as a rule, there is no death of the soul. It is typical for elderly and even old people. It goes well with gentleness of character and a life that is impeccable in appearance, and is reconciled with any title, even spiritual. Mortification is a coldness already acquired by the soul, a constant quality of the soul.

For example, a person is convinced, advised, proven the benefits of faith in God, called to pray, confess, take communion; he listens, but doesn’t seem to understand anything, doesn’t contradict or even get angry, but just doesn’t seem to hear. Such a person, finding only emptiness in himself, lives entirely outside himself, in external, created things.

All the powers of his soul are directed only to the sinful, earthly, or at least to the vain. The mind is busy with a lot of knowledge, a lot of reading, curiosity; the emptiness of the heart is filled with worldly and social entertainment, worries about material things and other objects that delight his senses. The emptiness of the will is filled with many desires and striving for the vain.

But most of all, it is worthy of regret that such a person does not see the destruction of his spiritual state, does not feel any danger, and does not worry about responsibility for his sins. The thought of the need to change his life does not even occur to him. It often happens that those who are dead in spirit, but not obviously vicious, honor themselves and are considered sinless by others like them.

To get out of this extremely dangerous state, a person often needs a strong shock, intimidation and tenderness of the heart. To be touched at heart means to feel sorry for oneself in view of the terrible afterlife fate awaiting the unrepentant sinner.

Also, a cold heart will be warmed if a person begins to read the Gospel often, pray fervently, and think about the torments beyond the grave. But long-standing diseases are not cured quickly and easily. Likewise, the soul’s insensitivity to everything divine can only be healed after a considerable period of time.

Literature

Answer to ticket number 12

Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls”.

1. The main conflict of the poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls”.

2. Characteristics of various types of landowners. Dead souls:

Manilov;

Sobakevich;

Box;

Nozdrev;

Plyushkin.

3. The image of Chichikov.

4. Living souls are the embodiment of the talent of the people.

5. The moral degradation of the people is the result of the moral emptiness of society.

1. The pinnacle of creativity N.V. Gogol's poem “Dead Souls”. When starting to create his grandiose work, he wrote to Zhukovsky that “all of Rus' will appear in it!” Gogol based the conflict of the poem on the main contradiction of contemporary reality between the gigantic spiritual forces of the people and their enslavement. Realizing this conflict, he turned to the most pressing problems of that period: the state of the landowner economy, the moral character of the local and bureaucratic nobility, the relationship of the peasantry with the authorities, the fate of the people in Russia. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” displays a whole gallery of moral monsters, types that have become household names. Gogol consistently portrays officials, landowners and the main character of Chichikov's poem. Plot-wise, the poem is structured as the story of the adventures of Chichikov, an official who buys “dead souls.”

2. Almost half of the first volume of the poem is devoted to the characteristics of various types of Russian landowners. Gogol creates five characters, five portraits that are so different from each other, and at the same time, in each of them the typical features of a Russian landowner appear. The images of the landowners whom Chichikov visits are presented in contrast in the poem, since they carry various vices. One after another, each spiritually more insignificant than the previous one, the owners of the estates follow in the work: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. If Manilov is sentimental and sweet to the point of cloying, then Sobakevich is straightforward and rude. Their views on life are polar: for Manilov, everyone around them is beautiful, for Sobakevich they are robbers and swindlers. Manilov does not show real concern for the well-being of the peasants, for the well-being of the family; he entrusted all management to a rogue clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner. But Sobakevich is a strong owner, ready to engage in any scam for the sake of profit. Manilov is a carefree dreamer, Sobakevich is a cynical fist-burner. Korobochka's callousness is manifested in petty hoarding; the only thing that worries her is the price of hemp and honey; “I wouldn’t go cheap” when selling dead souls. Korobochka resembles Sobakevich in his stinginess and passion for profit, although the stupidity of the “clubhead” takes these qualities to a comical limit. “Accumulators”, Sobakevich and Korobochka, are opposed by “spendthrifts” - Nozdryov and Plyushkin. Nozdryov is a desperate spendthrift and debauchee, a devastator and ruiner of the economy. His energy turned into a scandalous bustle, aimless and destructive.

If Nozdryov threw away his entire fortune, then Plyushkin turned his into mere appearance. That the last line Gogol shows, to which the death of the soul can lead a person, using the example of Plyushkin, whose image completes the gallery of landowners. This hero is no longer so much funny as scary and pitiful, since, unlike previous characters, he loses not only his spirituality, but also his human appearance. Chichikov, seeing him, wonders for a long time whether it is a man or a woman, and finally decides that the housekeeper is in front of him. And yet he is a landowner, the owner of more than a thousand souls and huge storerooms. True, in these storerooms bread rots, flour turns into stone, cloth and linens turn into dust. No less creepy picture appears in the manor’s house, where everything is covered with dust and cobwebs, and in the corner of the room “there is a heap of things that are coarser and that are unworthy to lie on the tables. It was difficult to decide what exactly was in this pile,” just as it was difficult to “get to the bottom of what... the robe” of the owner was made from. How did it happen that the rich educated person, the nobleman has turned into a “tear in humanity”? To answer this question. Gogol turns to the hero's past. (He writes about the rest of the landowners as already formed types.) The writer very accurately traces the degradation of man, and the reader understands that man is not born a monster, but becomes one. This means that this soul could live! But Gogol notes that over time, a person submits himself to the prevailing laws in society and betrays the ideals of his youth.

All Gogol's landowners are bright, individual, and memorable characters. But with all their external diversity, the essence remains unchanged: while possessing living souls, they themselves have long ago turned into dead souls. We do not see the true movements of a living soul either in the empty dreamer, or in the strong-minded housewife, or in the “cheerful boor,” or in the bear-like landowner-fist. All this is just an appearance with a complete lack of spiritual content, which is why these heroes are funny. Convincing the reader that his landowners are not exceptional, but typical, the writer also names other nobles, even characterizing them by their last names: Svinin, Trepakin, Blokhin, Potseluev, Bespechny, etc.

3. Gogol shows the reason for the death of a person’s soul using the example of the formation of the character of the main character, Chichikov. A joyless childhood, deprived of parental love and affection, service and the example of bribe-taking officials - these factors formed a scoundrel who is like everyone around him. But he turned out to be more greedy in his pursuit of acquisitions than Korobochka, more callous than Sobakevich and more impudent than Nozdryov in the means of enrichment. In the final chapter, which completes Chichikov’s biography, he is finally exposed as a cunning predator, acquirer and entrepreneur of the bourgeois type, a civilized scoundrel, the master of life. But Chichikov, differing from the landowners in his entrepreneurial spirit, is also a “dead” soul. The “brilliant joy” of life is inaccessible to him. The happiness of the “decent man” Chichikov is based on money. Calculation crowded out all human feelings from him and made him a “dead” soul. Gogol shows the emergence of a new man in Russian life, who has neither a noble family, nor title, nor estate, but who, at the cost of his own efforts, thanks to his intelligence and resourcefulness, is trying to make a fortune for himself. His ideal is a penny; They see marriage as a profitable deal. His preferences and tastes are purely material. Having quickly figured out a person, he knows how to approach everyone in a special way, subtly calculating his moves. The inner diversity and elusiveness are emphasized by his appearance, described by Gogol in vague terms: “In the chaise sat a gentleman, neither too fat nor too thin, one cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young.” Gogol was able to discern individual features of the emerging type in his contemporary society and brought them together in the image of Chichikov. NN city officials are even more impersonal than the landowners. Their deadness is shown in the ball scene: no people are visible, muslins, satins, muslins, hats, tailcoats, uniforms, shoulders, necks, ribbons are everywhere. The whole interest of life is concentrated on gossip, gossip, petty vanity, envy. They differ from each other only in the size of the bribe; all are slackers, they have no interests, these are also “dead” souls.

4. But behind the “dead” souls of Chichikov, officials and landowners, Gogol discerned the living souls of the peasants, the strength of national character. According to A.I. Herzen, in Gogol’s poem “behind the dead souls - living souls” appear. The talent of the people is revealed in the dexterity of the coachman Mikheev, the shoemaker Telyatnikov, the brickmaker Milushkin, and the carpenter Stepan Probka. The strength and acuity of the people's mind is reflected in the glibness and accuracy of the Russian word, the depth and integrity of Russian feeling - in the sincerity of the Russian song, the breadth and generosity of the soul - in the brightness and unbridled fun national holidays. Unlimited dependence on the usurper power of the landowners, who condemn the peasants to forced, exhausting labor, to hopeless ignorance, gives rise to stupid Mityaevs and Minyaevs, downtrodden Prosheks and Pelageyas, who do not know “where is right and where is left,” submissive, lazy, depraved Petrushkas and Selifans. Gogol sees how high and good qualities are distorted in the kingdom of “dead” souls, how peasants die, driven to despair, rushing into any risky business, just to get out of serfdom.

Not finding the truth from the supreme authorities, Captain Kopeikin, helping himself, becomes the chieftain of the robbers. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” reminds the authorities of the threat of revolutionary rebellion in Russia.

5. Serf-like deadness destroys the good inclinations in a person and destroys the people. Against the backdrop of the majestic, endless expanses of Rus' real pictures Russian life seems especially bitter. Having depicted Russia “from one side” in its negative essence in the poem, in “stunning pictures of triumphant evil and suffering hatred,” Gogol once again convinces that in his time “it is impossible otherwise to direct society or even an entire generation towards the beautiful until you show all the depth of its true abomination.”