Characteristics of images of officials from dead souls. Depiction of the world of officials in the poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls. Collective image of officials
N.V. Gogol, when creating his poem “Dead Souls,” thought about showing what Rus' looks like from one side.” Chichikov is the main character of the poem and Gogol talks about him most of all. This is an ordinary official who buys “dead souls” from landowners. The author managed to show the entire sphere of activity of Russian officials, talk about the city and its inhabitants as a whole.
The first volume of the work clearly shows the bureaucratic and landowner life of Russia from the negative side. The entire provincial society, officials and landowners are part of a kind of “dead world”.
(Gogol's provincial town in the poem "Dead Souls")
The provincial town is shown very clearly. Here one can see the indifference of the authorities to ordinary residents, emptiness, disorder and dirt. And only after Chichikov comes to the landowners, a general view of Russian bureaucracy appears.
Gogol shows bureaucracy from the point of view of lack of spirituality and thirst for profit. The official Ivan Antonovich loves bribes very much, so he is ready to do anything for the sake of it. To get it, he is even ready to sell his soul.
(Official conversations)
Unfortunately, such officials are a reflection of the entire Russian bureaucracy. Gogol tries to show in his work a large concentration of swindlers and thieves who create a kind of corporation of corrupt officials.
The bribe becomes a legal matter the moment Chichikov goes to the chairman of the chamber. The most interesting thing is that the chairman himself accepts him as an old friend and immediately gets down to business, telling him that friends do not have to pay anything.
(Ordinary moments of social life)
During a conversation with an official, interesting moments in the life of city officials appear. Sobakevich characterizes the prosecutor as an “idle man” who constantly sits at home, and the lawyer does all the work for him. At the head of the entire system is the police chief, whom everyone calls the “benefactor.” His charity is to steal and enable others to do the same. No one in power has any idea what honor, duty and legality are. These are completely soulless people.
Gogol's story reveals all the masks, showing people from the side of their cruelty and inhumanity. And this applies not only to provincial, but also to district officials. The work is dedicated to the heroic year of 1812, which shows all the contrast of the petty, soulless bureaucratic world that Gogol saw at that time in modern Russia.
(Courtyard meetings and balls)
The worst thing is that the work shows the fate of the captain, who fought for his Motherland, is completely crippled, he cannot feed himself, but this does not bother anyone at all. The highest ranks of St. Petersburg do not pay any attention to him and this is very frightening. Society is on the verge of indifference to everything.
The work written by Gogol many years ago does not leave indifferent the inhabitants of the modern world, since all the problems remain relevant at the moment.
Images of officials in the poem “Dead Souls”
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol more than once addressed the topic of bureaucratic Russia. This writer’s satire affected contemporary officials in such works as “The Inspector General,” “The Overcoat,” and “Notes of a Madman.” This theme is also reflected in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls,” where, starting from the seventh chapter, bureaucracy is the focus. In contrast to the portraits of landowners depicted in detail in this work, the images of officials are given in only a few strokes. But they are so masterful that they give the reader a complete picture of what a Russian official was like in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century.
This is the governor, embroidering on tulle, and the prosecutor with thick black eyebrows, and the postmaster, the wit and philosopher, and many others. The miniature portraits created by Gogol are well remembered for their characteristic details, which give a complete picture of a particular character. For example, why is the head of the province, a person occupying a very responsible government position, described by Gogol as a good-natured man who embroiders on tulle? The reader is forced to think that he is not capable of anything else, since he is characterized only from this side. And a busy person is unlikely to have time for such an activity. The same can be said about his subordinates.
What do we know from the poem about the prosecutor? It is true that he, as an idle man, sits at home. This is how Sobakevich speaks of him. One of the most significant officials in the city, called upon to monitor the rule of law, the prosecutor did not bother himself with public service. All he did was sign papers. And all the decisions were made for him by the solicitor, “the first grabber in the world.” Therefore, when the prosecutor died, few could say what was outstanding about this man. Chichikov, for example, thought at the funeral that the only thing the prosecutor could be remembered for was his thick black eyebrows. “...Why he died or why he lived, only God knows” - with these words Gogol speaks of the complete meaninglessness of the life of a prosecutor.
And what meaning is the life of the official Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoe Rylo filled with? Collect more bribes. This official extorts them using his official position. Gogol describes how Chichikov placed a “piece of paper” in front of Ivan Antonovich, “which he did not notice at all and immediately covered with a book.”
N.V. Gogol in the poem “Dead Souls” not only introduces the reader to individual representatives of the bureaucracy, but also gives them a unique classification. He divides them into three groups - lower, thin and thick. The lower ones are represented by petty officials (clerks, secretaries) Most of them are drunkards. The thin ones are the middle layer of the bureaucracy, and the fat ones are the provincial nobility, who know how to derive considerable benefit from their high position.
The author also gives us an idea of the lifestyle of Russian officials in the 30s and 40s of the nineteenth century. Gogol compares officials to a squadron of flies swooping down on tasty morsels of refined sugar. They are occupied by playing cards, drinking, lunches, dinners, and gossip. In the society of these people, “meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness” flourishes. Gogol portrays this class as thieves, bribe-takers and slackers. That is why they cannot convict Chichikov of his machinations - they are bound by mutual responsibility, each, as they say, “has a cannon.” And if they try to detain Chichikov for fraud, all their sins will come out.
In “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” Gogol completes the collective portrait of an official he gave in the poem. The indifference that the disabled war hero Kopeikin faces is terrifying. And here we are no longer talking about some small county officials. Gogol shows how a desperate hero, who is trying to get the pension he is entitled to, reaches the highest authorities. But even there he does not find the truth, faced with the complete indifference of a high-ranking St. Petersburg dignitary. Thus, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol makes it clear that vices have affected the entire bureaucratic Russia - from a small county town to the capital. These vices make people “dead souls.”
The author's sharp satire not only exposes bureaucratic sins, but also shows the terrible social consequences of inactivity, indifference and thirst for profit.
Gogol, a contemporary of Pushkin, created his works in the historical conditions that developed in our country after the unsuccessful speech of the Decembrists in 1825. Thanks to the new socio-political situation, figures of literature and social thought were faced with tasks that were deeply reflected in the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich. Developing the principles in his work, this author became one of the most significant representatives of this trend in Russian literature. According to Belinsky, it was Gogol who for the first time managed to look directly and boldly at Russian reality.
In this article we will describe the image of officials in the poem "Dead Souls".
Collective image of officials
In Nikolai Vasilyevich’s notes relating to the first volume of the novel, there is the following remark: “The dead insensibility of life.” This, according to the author, is the collective image of officials in the poem. It should be noted the difference in the image of them and the landowners. The landowners in the work are individualized, but the officials, on the contrary, are impersonal. It is possible to create only a collective portrait of them, from which the postmaster, police chief, prosecutor and governor stand out slightly.
Names and surnames of officials
It should be noted that all the individuals who make up the collective image of officials in the poem “Dead Souls” do not have surnames, and their names are often named in grotesque and comic contexts, sometimes duplicated (Ivan Antonovich, Ivan Andreevich). Of these, some come to the fore only for a short time, after which they disappear in the crowd of others. The subject of Gogol's satire was not positions and personalities, but social vices, the social environment, which is the main object of depiction in the poem.
It should be noted the grotesque beginning in the image of Ivan Antonovich, his comic, rude nickname (Pitcher Snout), which simultaneously refers to the world of animals and inanimate things. The department is ironically described as a “temple of Themis.” This place is important for Gogol. The department is often depicted in St. Petersburg stories, in which it appears as an anti-world, a kind of hell in miniature.
The most important episodes in the depiction of officials
The image of officials in the poem “Dead Souls” can be traced through the following episodes. This is primarily the governor's "house party" described in the first chapter; then - a ball at the governor's (chapter eight), as well as breakfast at the police chief's (tenth). In general, in chapters 7-10, it is bureaucracy as a psychological and social phenomenon that comes to the fore.
Traditional motives in the depiction of officials
You can find many traditional motifs characteristic of Russian satirical comedies in the “bureaucratic” plots of Nikolai Vasilyevich. These techniques and motives go back to Griboyedov and Fonvizin. The officials of the provincial city are also very reminiscent of their “colleagues” from Abuse, arbitrariness, and inactivity. Bribery, veneration, bureaucracy are social evils that are traditionally ridiculed. It is enough to recall the story with a “significant person” described in “The Overcoat,” the fear of the auditor and the desire to bribe him in the work of the same name, and the bribe that is given to Ivan Antonovich in the 7th chapter of the poem “Dead Souls.” Very characteristic are the images of the police chief, the “philanthropist” and the “father” who visited the guest courtyard and shops as if they were his own storeroom; the chairman of the civil chamber, who not only exempted his friends from bribes, but also from the need to pay fees for processing documents; Ivan Antonovich, who did nothing without “gratitude.”
Compositional structure of the poem
The poem itself is based on the adventures of an official (Chichikov) who buys up dead souls. This image is impersonal: the author practically does not talk about Chichikov himself.
The 1st volume of the work, as conceived by Gogol, shows various negative aspects of the life of Russia at that time - both bureaucratic and landowner. The entire provincial society is part of the “dead world”.
The exposition is given in the first chapter, in which a portrait of one provincial city is drawn. There is desolation, disorder, and dirt everywhere, which emphasizes the indifference of local authorities to the needs of residents. Then, after Chichikov visited the landowners, chapters 7 to 10 describe a collective portrait of the bureaucracy of the Russia of that time. In several episodes, various images of officials are given in the poem "Dead Souls". Through the chapters you can see how the author characterizes this social class.
What do officials have in common with landowners?
However, the worst thing is that such officials are no exception. These are typical representatives of the bureaucracy system in Russia. Corruption and bureaucracy reign in their midst.
Registration of a bill of sale
Together with Chichikov, who has returned to the city, we are transported to the court chamber, where this hero will have to draw up a bill of sale (Chapter 7). The characterization of the images of officials in the poem “Dead Souls” is given in this episode in very detail. Gogol ironically uses a high symbol - a temple in which the “priests of Themis” serve, impartial and incorruptible. However, what is most striking is the desolation and dirt in this “temple”. Themis's "unattractive appearance" is explained by the fact that she receives visitors in a simple way, "in a dressing gown."
However, this simplicity actually turns into outright disregard for the laws. No one is going to take care of business, and the “priests of Themis” (officials) only care about how to take tribute, that is, bribes, from visitors. And they are really successful at it.
There is a lot of paperwork and fuss all around, but all this serves only one purpose - to confuse the applicants, so that they cannot do without help, kindly provided for a fee, of course. Chichikov, this rascal and expert in behind-the-scenes affairs, nevertheless had to use it to get into the presence.
He gained access to the necessary person only after he openly offered a bribe to Ivan Antonovich. We understand how much of an institutionalized phenomenon it has become in the life of Russian bureaucrats when the main character finally gets to the chairman of the chamber, who receives him as his old acquaintance.
Conversation with the Chairman
The heroes, after polite phrases, get down to business, and here the chairman says that his friends “shouldn’t pay.” A bribe here, it turns out, is so obligatory that only close friends of officials can do without it.
Another remarkable detail from the life of city officials is revealed in a conversation with the chairman. Very interesting in this episode is the analysis of the image of an official in the poem “Dead Souls”. It turns out that even for such an unusual activity, which was described in the judicial chamber, not all representatives of this class consider it necessary to go to service. Like an “idle man,” the prosecutor sits at home. All cases are decided for him by a solicitor, who in the work is called “the first grabber.”
Governor's Ball
In the scene described by Gogol in (Chapter 8) we see a review of dead souls. Gossip and balls become a form of miserable mental and social life for people. The image of officials in the poem "Dead Souls", a brief description of which we are compiling, can be supplemented in this episode with the following details. At the level of discussing fashionable styles and colors of materials, officials have ideas about beauty, and respectability is determined by the way a person ties a tie and blows his nose. There is not and cannot be real culture or morality here, since norms of behavior depend entirely on ideas about how things should be. That is why Chichikov is initially received so warmly: he knows how to sensitively respond to the needs of this public.
This is briefly the image of officials in the poem “Dead Souls”. We did not describe the brief content of the work itself. We hope you remember him. The characteristics presented by us can be supplemented based on the content of the poem. The topic “The image of officials in the poem “Dead Souls”” is very interesting. Quotes from the work, which can be found in the text by referring to the chapters we indicated, will help you supplement this characteristic.
Composition
In Tsarist Russia of the 30s of the 19th century, a real disaster for the people was not only serfdom, but also an extensive bureaucratic bureaucratic apparatus. Called to guard law and order, representatives of the administrative authorities thought only about their own material well-being, stealing from the treasury, extorting bribes, and mocking powerless people. Thus, the topic of exposing the bureaucratic world was very relevant for Russian literature. Gogol addressed it more than once in such works as “The Inspector General,” “The Overcoat,” and “Notes of a Madman.” It also found expression in the poem “Dead Souls,” where, starting from the seventh chapter, bureaucracy is the focus of the author’s attention. Despite the absence of detailed and detailed images similar to the landowner heroes, the picture of bureaucratic life in Gogol’s poem is striking in its breadth.
With two or three masterful strokes, the writer draws wonderful miniature portraits. This is the governor, embroidering on tulle, and the prosecutor with very black thick eyebrows, and the short postmaster, a wit and philosopher, and many others. These sketchy faces are memorable because of their characteristic funny details that are filled with deep meaning. In fact, why is the head of an entire province characterized as a good-natured man who sometimes embroiders on tulle? Probably because there is nothing to say about him as a leader. From here it is easy to draw a conclusion about how negligently and dishonestly the governor treats his official duties and civic duty. The same can be said about his subordinates. Gogol widely uses in the poem the technique of characterizing the hero by other characters. For example, when a witness was needed to formalize the purchase of serfs, Sobakevich tells Chichikov that the prosecutor, as an idle person, is probably sitting at home. But this is one of the most significant officials of the city, who must administer justice and ensure compliance with the law. The characterization of the prosecutor in the poem is enhanced by the description of his death and funeral. He did nothing but mindlessly sign papers, as he left all decisions to the solicitor, “the first grabber in the world.” Obviously, the cause of his death was rumors about the sale of “dead souls,” since it was he who was responsible for all the illegal affairs that took place in the city. Bitter Gogolian irony is heard in thoughts about the meaning of the prosecutor’s life: “...why he died, or why he lived, only God knows.” Even Chichikov, looking at the prosecutor’s funeral, involuntarily comes to the conclusion that the only thing the deceased can be remembered for is his thick black eyebrows.
The writer gives a close-up of a typical image of the official Ivan Antonovich, the Jug Snout. Taking advantage of his position, he extorts bribes from visitors. It’s funny to read about how Chichikov put a “piece of paper” in front of Ivan Antonovich, “which he did not notice at all and immediately covered with a book.” But it’s sad to realize what a hopeless situation Russian citizens found themselves in, dependent on dishonest, self-interested people representing state power. This idea is emphasized by Gogol’s comparison of the civil chamber official with Virgil. At first glance, it is unacceptable. But the vile official, like the Roman poet in The Divine Comedy, leads Chichikov through all the circles of bureaucratic hell. This means that this comparison strengthens the impression of the evil that permeates the entire administrative system of Tsarist Russia.
Gogol gives a unique classification of officials in the poem, dividing representatives of this class into lower, thin and fat. The writer gives a sarcastic characterization of each of these groups. The lowest ones, according to Gogol's definition, are nondescript clerks and secretaries, as a rule, bitter drunkards. By “thin” the author means the middle stratum, and the “thick” are the provincial nobility, which firmly holds on to their places and deftly extracts considerable income from their high position.
Gogol is inexhaustible in choosing surprisingly accurate and apt comparisons. Thus, he likens officials to a squadron of flies that swoop down on tasty morsels of refined sugar. Provincial officials are also characterized in the poem by their usual activities: playing cards, drinking, lunches, dinners, gossip. Gogol writes that in the society of these civil servants, “meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness” flourishes. Their quarrels do not end in a duel, because “they were all civil officials.” They have other methods and means through which they play dirty tricks on each other, which can be more difficult than any duel. There are no significant differences in the way of life of officials, in their actions and views. Gogol portrays this class as thieves, bribe-takers, slackers and swindlers who are connected with each other by mutual responsibility. That’s why the officials felt so uncomfortable when Chichikov’s scam was revealed, because each of them remembered their sins. If they try to detain Chichikov for his fraud, then he too will be able to accuse them of dishonesty. A comical situation arises when people in power help a swindler in his illegal machinations and are afraid of him.
In his poem, Gogol expands the boundaries of the district town, introducing into it “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin.” It no longer talks about local abuses, but about the arbitrariness and lawlessness that is committed by the highest St. Petersburg officials, that is, the government itself. The contrast between the unheard-of luxury of St. Petersburg and the pitiful beggarly position of Kopeikin, who shed blood for his fatherland and lost an arm and a leg, is striking. But, despite his injuries and military merits, this war hero does not even have the right to the pension due to him. A desperate disabled person tries to find help in the capital, but his attempt is frustrated by the cold indifference of a high-ranking official. This disgusting image of a soulless St. Petersburg nobleman completes the characterization of the world of officials. All of them, starting with the petty provincial secretary and ending with the representative of the highest administrative power, are dishonest, selfish, cruel people, indifferent to the fate of the country and the people. It is to this conclusion that N. V. Gogol’s wonderful poem “Dead Souls” leads the reader.
Landowners. The generally accepted idea of the composition of Volume I is as follows: Chichikov’s visits to the landowners are described according to a strictly defined plan. The landowners (starting from Manilov and ending with Plyushkin) are arranged according to the degree of intensification of the traits of spiritual impoverishment in each subsequent character. However, according to Yu. V. Mann, the composition of volume I cannot be reduced to a “single principle”. Indeed, it is difficult to prove that Nozdryov, for example, is “worse” than Manilov or Sobakevich “more harmful” than Korobochka. Perhaps Gogol placed the landowners in contrast: against the background of Manilov’s dreaminess and, so to speak, “ideality,” the troublesome Korobochka stands out more clearly: one ascends into the world of completely meaningless dreams, the other is so mired in petty farming that even Chichikov, unable to bear it, calls her “ clubhead." In the same way, the unrestrained liar Nozdryov, who always ends up in some story, is further contrasted, which is why he is called by Gogol a “historical man,” and Sobakevich, a calculating owner, a tight fist.
As for Plyushkin, he is placed at the end of the landowner’s gallery not because he turned out to be the worst of all (“a hole in humanity”). It is no coincidence that Gogol endows Plyushkin with a biography (besides him, only Chichikov is endowed with a biography). Once upon a time Plyushkin was different, there were some kind of spiritual movements in him (other landowners have nothing like that). Even now, at the mention of an old school friend, “some kind of warm ray suddenly slid across Plyushkin’s face, not a feeling was expressed, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling.” And perhaps that is why, according to Gogol’s plan, of all the heroes of Volume I of Dead Souls, it was Plyushkin and Chichikov (who will be discussed later) who should have come to rebirth.
Officials. In Gogol’s surviving notes to volume I of the poem there is the following entry: “The idea of the city. Emptiness that has arisen to the highest degree... The dead insensibility of life.”
This idea was fully embodied in “Dead Souls”. The internal deadness of the landowners, manifested in the first chapters of the work, correlates with the “dead insensibility of life” in the provincial city. Of course, there is more external movement, bustle, visits, and gossip. But essentially all this is just a ghostly existence. Gogol’s idea of Emptiness finds expression already in the description of the city: deserted unlit, endlessly wide streets, colorless monotonous houses, fences, a stunted garden with skinny trees...
Gogol creates a collective image of officials. Individual figures (governor, chief of police, prosecutor, etc.) are given as illustrations of a mass phenomenon: they only come to the fore for a short time, and then disappear in the crowd of others like them. The subject of Gogol's satire was not personalities (even if they were as colorful as ladies - simply pleasant and pleasant in all respects), but social vices, or more precisely, the social environment, which becomes the main object of his satire. The lack of spirituality that was noted when it came to landowners turns out to be inherent in the world of provincial officials. This is especially evident in the story and the sudden death of the prosecutor: “... only then did they learn with condolences that the deceased definitely had a soul, although out of his modesty he never showed it.” These lines are very important for a correct understanding of the meaning of the title of the poem. The action of "The Inspector General" takes place in a distant provincial town. In “Dead Souls” we are talking about a provincial city. From here it is not so far to the capital.
In the fall of 1835, Gogol began working on the poem “Dead Souls,” the plot of which was suggested to him by Pushkin. Gogol had long dreamed of writing a novel about Russia, and was very grateful to Pushkin for the idea. “In this novel I want to show at least one thing...
Poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” (1835-1841) belongs to those timeless works of art that lead to large-scale artistic generalizations and raise fundamental problems of human life. In the death of the souls of the characters (landowners, officials,...
N.V. Gogol, like M.Yu. Lermontov before him, for example, was always concerned with problems of spirituality and morality - both of society as a whole and of the individual. In his works, the writer sought to show society “the full depth of its real abomination.” Ironically...
Gogol worked on the poem “Dead Souls” for about seven years. In the center of the plot of the poem is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Outwardly this person is pleasant, but in reality he is a terrible, calculating money-grubber. His hypocrisy and cruelty are striking when he achieves...
