The essay “Comic Means in The Inspector General. The most comical episode in "The Inspector General" The most comical episode in "The Inspector General" N.V. Gogol (review of the episode). preferably the last one when he arrives

The genre of The Inspector General is a comedy, in which Gogol develops traditions social comedy, laid down by Fonvizin and Griboyedov and supported by other Russian comedians. "Inspector" is satirical comedy, in which social and moral vices are sharply and caustically ridiculed Russian society and the state-bureaucratic structure of power. IN art world“The Inspector General” did not have room for a positive or lofty hero, unlike the great comedies of Fonvizin and Griboyedov. Honest and noble hero Comedy, as the author himself noted, showed laughter, causing righteous denunciation and angry denial of the unworthy and base. Also noteworthy is the absence in comedy love conflict- this testifies to Gogol’s refusal of established traditions, his principled position not to deviate from reality: firstly, in the light social conflict all people are equal, and secondly, in the distorted world of The Inspector General there is no love, there is only a parody of it.

For creating satirical portraits Gogol uses various techniques among officials, the leading of which is the grotesque. Exaggeration negative qualities and the behavior of officials goes beyond what is recognizable in ordinary life; the heroes are perceived as dolls, thanks to which for the viewer (reader) it is not the personal qualities of the heroes that come to the fore, but their vices. This technique characterizes the originality of the humanism of Gogol’s satire: his satire is aimed not at a person, but at exposing vice and sin in a person. In other words, Gogol attacks not a certain person Lyapkin-Tyapkin, but stupid complacency, insensitivity, selfishness, which are shown without any condescension, inevitable when depicting the personal character of the hero.

The action in comedy is characterized by fussiness, turmoil, and vaudeville. Everything in comedy happens quickly, stupidly, and absurdly. For example, hearing Khlestakov’s steps (the opening scene of the fourth act), the officials rush to the doors in fear, but cannot all leave at once, they interfere with each other. Similar comedic effects are characteristic of the entire play. Nevertheless, Gogol resorted to comic situations not only to cause simple, thoughtless laughter. The writer actively uses farce in action (farce is a comedy genre and at the same time it is a type of comic laughter based on the creation of external effects). So, in the first act, the mayor, getting ready to go to Khlestakov’s hotel, in a hurry, instead of a hat, puts a paper case on his head. Bobchinsky in the second act, eavesdropping on the mayor’s conversation with Khlestakov, got so carried away that he simply lay down with his whole body on the door separating them, and it fell off its hinges, and the unlucky hero flew into the middle of the room with the door and broke his nose in the fall. Of course, Gogol does not introduce these scenes with the aim of simply making people laugh: the comedian makes visible two forces, driving development plot action - the fear of the mayor and the curiosity of the townspeople, especially Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky.

The author's laughter contains sarcasm and irony; humorous intonations slip through to a lesser extent. In addition to the grotesque, the play uses hyperbole and elements of fantasy. A striking example hyperbolas (in in this case quantitative metaphor) are details from Khlestakov’s story about his balls: for dessert they serve watermelon “for seven hundred rubles,” and soup arrives by boat “directly from Paris.” Watermelon and soup are the usual food of the petty official Khlestakov, and since he is not accepted in high society and his imagination is poor, in order to impress his listeners, he incredibly exaggerates the cost of the watermelon, and “delivers” the soup from afar. The element of fantasy is manifested, for example, in the “thirty-five thousand couriers” sent through the streets of St. Petersburg to his home with a request to head the department.

The most important means of comedy in the play is the technique of “ speaking names", which during the development of Russian comedy at the end of the 18th - early XIX centuries has undergone significant changes. In accordance with the classic tradition, Fonvizin in “The Minor” gives the character a name that fully corresponds main characteristic image and his role in comedy: Starodum, Prostakova, Skotinin, Pravdin, etc. Griboedov in “Woe from Wit” already uses quite a lot complex system speaking names, where heroes are named not only by one leading character trait (for example, Molchalin or Famusov), but also visual, evaluative, and associative names are introduced. Gogol's system of speaking names is extremely diverse. Here is the clarity of the Griboyedov surnames (compare Khlestova and Khlestakov), and their associativity (Zagoretsky - Poshlepkina), and the emphasized pairing (G. N. and G. D . in Griboyedov, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky in Gogol). Despite the certain simplicity of the names of the police officers, they are given to the characters in order to describe in detail the activities of the police department in the city: for example, Svistunov keeps order, Pugovitsyn is with the authorities, Derzhimorda is suitable for cordoning off and protecting, and the private bailiff Ukhovertov is busy with “edification” and “education” » population. The names of retired officials (Lyulyukov, Korobkin, Rastakovsky), reflecting them, are also interesting former image behavior in service. The names of officials require separate comments: the name of the judge is formed from the combination “blunder-blunder”, but he is so absurd that the basis of the name becomes the confused “blunder-blunder”. The curious surname Strawberry contains a contradiction between the name and behavior of a person, which causes special hostility towards this character, and the collision of the name Christian and the surname Gibner of the district doctor clearly expresses the author’s idea of the death that his activity brings.

The effective means of comedy in the play is the speech of the characters. First of all satirical characterization officials are represented by their general speech portrait, consisting of vernacular, abusive words and soulless bureaucratic bureaucracy. The speech of the other characters accurately conveys them social status, character traits, as well as their inherent manner of expression. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky speak hastily, chaotically, interrupting each other; the speech of the locksmith Poshlyopkina is heavy and angry; The merchants speak flatteringly and obsequiously. In the speech of the characters there is a large share of illogicality and absurdity of statements; the speech of the mayor’s wife and city landowners is replete with them. The mayor’s phrase that the non-commissioned officer’s wife “flogged herself” has forever entered Russian speech culture. Gogol also uses such a technique as changing stable (phraseological) expressions, for example, Strawberry tells Khlestakov that his “sick people, like flies, get better.”

The innovation of Gogol the playwright was expressed in the fact that he combined two traditional type Comedy: sitcom and character comedy. In a comedy of characters, the comic is based on the image funny characters heroes, their shortcomings, vices, passions, unworthy morals. This, apparently, was what the comedy “The Inspector General” was supposed to be at first, but with the introduction of a “mirage” situation, that is, with a change in direction in the development of the plot, it also becomes a sitcom, where funny things arise on the basis of different plot situations.

In 1836, the comedy by N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" first appeared on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Russian society was confused, bewilderment was reflected on the face of every spectator after watching the play: everyone found “The Inspector General” something unexpected, not previously known.

It wasn't just the audience that was puzzled: the actors also saw completely new characters and were at a loss as to how to play them. Indeed, “The Inspector General” was noticeably different from the numerous melodramas and vaudevilles that filled the theater stages of that time. But, due to its dissimilarity to conventional works, the comedy was not perceived as Gogol intended. He was upset and, to some extent, disappointed by the effect produced, by the audience's reaction to his play. He noticed more than once that the "Inspector General", who collected in himself all the negative phenomena modern life, should become a kind of “medicine”: people, seeing the heroes on stage, may recognize themselves in them, or at least some of their features, and even within the walls of the theater they will think about it, and when they come home, they will decide to improve and start a new life.

But Gogol did not achieve this. The actors made caricatures out of the heroes, and Khlestakov, whom he rightly called the most complex character, turned out to be an ordinary braggart and liar, a traditional “vaudeville naughty.” We managed to achieve only one thing - laughter in the hall; but the laughter was not caused by the reasons the author had counted on. The audience laughed at the comical characters, their stupid remarks, actions, facial expressions, etc. Undoubtedly, this is funny, but this is not what the main blow of Gogol’s irony was aimed at. Paying tribute to traditional vaudeville, in “The Inspector General” he used their characteristic techniques, scenes whose comedy was designed for meaningless laughter, and not for understanding their deep meaning. Nevertheless, their appearance is completely justified: they reflect the characters of the heroes and are therefore typical of them.

To make the viewer laugh, Gogol used two methods. One of them involves understanding the characters’ characters, and from this side “The Inspector General” is a comedy of characters; on the other hand, to portray these same characters, Gogol forces their owners to do unexpected, stupid things, to find themselves in funny situations - this is a comedy of situations.

The latter method is clearer; one of his options was to use “rude comedy”, understandable to everyone, and therefore there is no need to rack your brains, looking for some kind of secret intention of the author in the falls and stutters. All these situations serve only to understand how this or that hero behaves in this or that case. One cannot help but smile, seeing how the Mayor, worried and fussing, being, so to speak, in a state of passion from the news of the arrival of the auditor, tries to put on a paper case instead of a hat; The viewer laughs both at the scene of Anna Andreevna reading a note from her husband with instructions on preparations for the meeting of the “auditor”, mixed with a mention of pickles and caviar, and at how Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky collide with the congratulations of Gorodnichy’s wife.

These are all elements of "rude comedy". In order for the actor to correctly portray the facial expression and nature of the character’s movements, the comedy contains stage directions, which, it should be noted, are largely involved in creating a specific atmosphere of comedy. Thus, a brilliant assessment was given to the district doctor Gibner, who “makes a sound somewhat similar to the letter u and somewhat like e.” Gogol managed to accurately characterize in a few words the medical “help” provided in some district (and not only) cities: how can a doctor who does not speak or understand Russian help?

No less remarkable is Khlestakov’s speech in the scene of his conversation with Osip about dinner: at first he “speaks in a loud and decisive voice,” then “loud, but not so decisive,” and ends with “a voice that is not at all decisive and not loud, very close to a request.” ".

What Gogol gave great importance speech and intonation of the characters is indisputable, because the very form he chose for his work - a play - implies that one can only find out about the reasons that prompted the characters to take certain actions by analyzing the author's summaries (in this case - "Notes for gentlemen actors ") or actually from their monologues, which are of a confessional nature, but there are none in The Inspector General. Therefore, it is from the stage directions that the actor learns how his character behaved, his facial expressions at the moment of the action: he shuddered, jumped for joy, screamed, or sat “with his eyes bulging.” Thus, the author's remarks, the speech of the characters, the stupid situations in which they find themselves serve to create a picture of their characters. The revelation of the psychology of the city's inhabitants occurs in the process of developing the central intrigue ("mirage", in the words of Yu. Mann). Its premise is a meeting between Khlestakov and Gorodnichy, here every word they say causes laughter: of course, there are no funnier people who do not hear what their interlocutors say to them and answer inappropriately. The intensity of passions occurs in Act V, where the scene of reading Khlestakov’s letter to his friend Tryapichkin takes place. The indignation of officials over the very unflattering characteristics given to them is combined with the despair of the Governor due to the fact that he “took an icicle, a rag for important person", and creates a unique effect of the general confusion of the heroes after the blow inflicted on them; then Gogol "finishes off" them: a real inspector has arrived. The audience cannot help but laugh, looking at the officials frozen in the "silent scene". Someone "turned into a questioning sign,” someone spread their hands, someone just stands like a pillar...

Gogol's language, “unprecedented, unheard of in its naturalness” (V.V. Sokolov), fully accommodates and reflects his unusual humor. Not only in the stage directions, in the “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” (i.e., where the presence of the author is directly indicated), every word is imbued with irony; the speech of the characters themselves causes the audience to laugh at them. One gets the impression that “The Inspector General” is one big joke, and, despite the undoubted existence of tragic notes, they are still dressed in a peculiar humor inherent only to Gogol.

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Essay “What kind of person is the Mayor?”

The life of the city of N did not change from year to year, auditors came and left, but the city remained the same... Charitable institutions are like taverns in which patients smoke tobacco and do not know what they are sick with and how to treat them. In public places, geese with little goslings scurry about underfoot, a belt whip hangs above the filing cabinet, and the assessor smells as if he came out of a distillery. IN educational institutions the teacher, entering the department, makes a grimace, another, talking about Alexander the Great, breaks chairs on the floor. At the post office, the postmaster, out of curiosity, prints out and reads other people's letters. The streets are not swept, and on one of them there is forty cartloads of rubbish piled up. Oh, there are so many more “attractions” of this amazing city.
The head of the city was Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. This is a man who has already aged in the service, he is experienced, not stupid in his own way, he knows the ropes and layout of important matters. He loves to give moralizing speeches, his every word is significant, he does not beat around the bush. Before those of lower rank, he shows himself to be an important person, who is considered significant even in St. Petersburg. He is always ready to talk, deceive, play any role, he likes power over people, and is capable of fraud for the sake of profit. The mayor quickly moves from fear to joy, from baseness to arrogance, which makes his role comic. He is a bribe-taker, but he behaves respectably; quite serious; speaks neither loudly, nor quietly, nor little.
But then one day the Mayor receives a letter saying that an inspector from St. Petersburg is coming to the city, incognito, with a secret order. And in this not happy situation, the head of the city did not forget to tell his “dream in hand” about two terrible rats. Thus, he makes it clear that he has very well developed intuition. After this, the fuss begins, everyone needs to cover up their sins as quickly as possible. The mayor gathers a trustee at his home charitable institutions, a school superintendent, a judge, a private bailiff, a doctor and two police officers. He gives everyone instructions on what and how to do, what and where to clean, sweep, and so on. Each one does his best, and together they try to bring the city to a “normal state” in a few hours. Again, we see a comical situation when several years were not enough to put the city in order, but the auditor arrives, and everyone starts running, fussing, oohing and aahing. But let’s return to the mayor’s house, where the breathless landowners come running and vying with each other to report that a hundred
A young man has been living in the tavern for two weeks, he is dressed like a metropolitan, he is going to the Saratov province, he does not pay any money and looks into all the plates. The mayor decides to personally go to the tavern, look at this inspector and find out everything as soon as possible...
The scene of the first meeting of the mayor and Khlestakov takes on a comic situation when the interlocutors talk about different things. Khlestakov thinks that they want to take him to prison because he does not pay for housing and food, and the mayor thinks that the people have already complained about him, and this auditor is very indignant at the disorder that is happening in the city. Khlestakov stutters at first, but then speaks loudly, and the mayor becomes more and more timid and trembles, but, not at a loss, invites the auditor to live at his home. Khlestakov agrees, thinking that they treat him this way because of his metropolitan suit and demeanor. The mayor is very pleased, because now he can follow every step of this official, gain his trust and give a bribe.

Legacy of N.V. Gogol cannot be imagined without the comedy "The Inspector General", in which great writer carried out a public execution by laughing at officials who were embezzlers, bribe-takers, and sycophants. As a satirist, Gogol attaches especially great importance to comedy. Its strength is laughter, which scourges many sides. public life. No writer has had the gift of showing so clearly the vulgarity of life, the vulgarity of every person. Driving force in The Inspector General it is not a love affair, but the state of society. The plot of the comedy is based on the commotion among officials awaiting the auditor and their desire to hide their affairs from him.

The comedy also ridiculed the everyday side of life of the city's inhabitants: mustiness and vulgarity, insignificance of interests, hypocrisy and lies, arrogance and gossip. The comedy is already emphasized by the surnames acting heroes: Khlestakov, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Tyapkin-Lyapkin, Ukhovertov, Poshlepkina, etc. The most comical thing, perhaps, is that one “empty” person is trying to deceive others who are just as “empty.” It's about about the imaginary auditor - Khlestakov. The image of Khlestakov is written with exceptional artistic power and breadth of typical generalization. According to Gogol’s definition, Khlestakov is “one of those people who are called empty in the offices. He speaks and acts without any consideration.” Khlestakov himself does not know what he will say in the next minute; “Everything in it is a surprise and a surprise” for himself. He is comical in his desire to appear better than he is. For this, Khlestakov uses lies: “He lies with feeling; his eyes express the pleasure he received from this.”

But the most important one, characteristic Khlestakov - the desire to play a role at least one inch higher than the one assigned to him.

The action in “The Inspector General” dates back to the early 30s of the century before last. Gogol very accurately depicts life and people at that time and gives them a general diagnosis. The satirist's penetrating gaze penetrates everywhere and nowhere does he find anything good. All the images in the play are comical and absurd.

So, the daughter and wife of the mayor look very funny in an attempt to recapture Khlestakov from each other:

“Anna Andreevna.<. ..>However, he really liked me: I noticed that he kept looking at me.

Marya Antonovna. Oh, mamma, he was looking at me!”

The inseparable couple Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky are comical. Bobchinsky dreams of one thing: “I humbly ask you, when you go to St. Petersburg, tell all the different nobles there: senators and admirals, that, your Excellency or Excellency, Peter Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city. Just say: Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives.” And Dobchinsky is talking about something else - to see his eldest son under his last name: “That is, it just says so, but he was born to me as completely as if in marriage, and all this, as it should, I then completed legally - with the bonds of marriage - sir . So, if you please, I want him now to be completely, that is, my legitimate son, sir, and to be called like me: Dobchinsky, sir.”

The whole essence of the play is that everyone wants something impossible: the mayor sees Khlestakov as his future son-in-law and dreams of living in St. Petersburg; Tyapkin-Lyapkin dreams that judicial matters will be resolved on their own; Anna Andreevna dreams of young lover etc. All attempts by the characters to look significant make the reader laugh.

Gogol painted in The Inspector General the world of provincial officials of one of the cities of Russia. In essence, the play revealed everyday life provincial Russia. Each image, without losing its individual character, represents a typical phenomenon of that time - the beginning of the 19th century. And we still laugh at the heroes of The Inspector General, comparing them with their contemporaries.

"The Inspector General" by Gogol

"The Inspector General" first appeared on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Russian society was confused; the face of every viewer after watching the play reflected bewilderment: everyone found “The Inspector General” something unexpected, previously unknown.

But it wasn't just the audience who were puzzled: the actors also saw completely new characters and were at a loss as to how to play them. Indeed, “The Inspector General” was noticeably different from the numerous melodramas and vaudevilles that filled the theater stages of that time. But, due to its dissimilarity to conventional works, the comedy was not perceived as Gogol intended. He was upset and, to some extent, disappointed by the effect produced, by the audience's reaction to his play. He noted more than once that “The Inspector General,” which collected in itself all the negative phenomena of modern life, should become a kind of “medicine”: people, having seen the heroes on stage, may recognize themselves in them, or at least some of their features, even within the walls of the theater They’ll think about it, and when they come home, they’ll decide to improve and start a new life.

"vaudeville naughty" We managed to achieve only one thing - laughter in the hall; but the laughter was not caused by the reasons the author had counted on. The audience laughed at the comical characters, their stupid remarks, actions, facial expressions, etc. Undoubtedly, this is funny, but this is not what the main blow of Gogol’s irony was aimed at. Paying tribute to traditional vaudeville, in “The Inspector General” he used their characteristic techniques, scenes whose comedy was designed for meaningless laughter, and not for understanding their deep meaning. Nevertheless, their appearance is completely justified: they reflect the characters of the heroes and are therefore typical of them.

“rude comic”, understandable to everyone, and therefore there is no need to rack your brains, looking for some secret plan of the author in the falls and stutters. All these situations serve only to understand how this or that hero behaves in this or that case. One cannot help but smile, seeing how the Mayor, worried and fussing, being, so to speak, in a state of passion from the news of the arrival of the auditor, tries to put on a paper case instead of a hat; The viewer laughs both at the scene of Anna Andreevna reading a note from her husband with instructions on preparations for the meeting of the “auditor”, mixed with a mention of pickles and caviar, and at how Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky collide with the congratulations of Gorodnichy’s wife.

on certain actions, it is possible only by analyzing the author’s summaries (in this case, “Notes for Gentlemen Actors”) or actually from their monologues, which are of a confessional nature, but in “The Inspector General” there are no such. Therefore, it is from the stage directions that the actor learns how his character behaved, his facial expressions at the moment of the action: he shuddered, jumped for joy, screamed, or sat “with his eyes bulging.” Thus, the author's remarks, the speech of the characters, the stupid situations in which they find themselves serve to create a picture of their characters. The revelation of the psychology of the city's inhabitants occurs in the process of developing the central intrigue ("mirage", in the words of Yu. Mann).

The intensity of passions occurs in Act V, where the scene of reading Khlestakov’s letter to his friend Tryapichkin takes place. The indignation of the officials over the very unflattering characteristics given to them is combined with the despair of the Governor due to the fact that he “took an icicle, a rag for an important person,” and creates a unique effect of the general confusion of the heroes after the blow they suffered; Gogol immediately “finishes off” them: a real inspector has arrived. Spectators cannot help but laugh, looking at the officials frozen in the “silent scene”. Someone “turned into a question mark”, someone threw up their hands, someone simply stood like a pillar...

“unprecedented, unheard of in its naturalness” (V.V. Sokolov) fully accommodates and reflects his unusual humor. Not only in the stage directions, in the “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” (i.e., where the presence of the author is directly indicated), every word is imbued with irony; the speech of the characters themselves causes the audience to laugh at them. One gets the impression that “The Inspector General” is one big joke, and, despite the undoubted existence of tragic notes, they are still dressed in a peculiar humor inherent only to Gogol.