The artistic world of Gogol

Gogol began his creative activity like a romantic. However, he soon turned to critical realism, opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the beneficial influence of Pushkin. But he was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

Gogol’s originality was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia and “ little man", a resident of St. Petersburg corners.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who castigated the “vulgarity of a vulgar man” and extremely exposed the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

This social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, and events public importance. At the same time, Gogol’s plot serves only as a pretext for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of character types.

Deep insight into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol to genius artist words, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

The names of Khlestakov, Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and others became household names. Even the minor characters depicted by Gogol on the pages of his works (for example, in “Dead Souls”): Pelageya, the serf girl Korobochka, or Ivan Antonovich, the “jug’s snout,” have great power of generalization and typicality. Gogol emphasizes one or two of his most significant features in the character of the hero. Often he exaggerates them, which makes the image even more vivid and prominent.

To the goals of the bright, satirical image Gogol's heroes are served by a careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. For example, portraits of the heroes of “Dead Souls” were created. These details in Gogol are mainly everyday: things, clothes, the hero’s home.

If in romantic stories Gogol gives emphatically picturesque landscapes that give the work a certain elation of tone, but in his realistic works, especially in “Dead Souls,” landscape is one of the means of depicting types and characteristics of heroes.

The subject matter, social orientation and ideological coverage of life phenomena and people’s characters determined the originality of literary speech Gogol.

Two worlds depicted Gogol - folk collective and “existence” - determined the main features of the writer’s speech: his speech is sometimes enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism, when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in “Evenings”, in “Taras Bulba”, in lyrical digressions“Dead Souls”), then becomes close to live conversational (in everyday paintings and scenes of “Evenings” or when the story is told about bureaucratic and landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries. Gogol loved and had a keen sense of folk speech and skillfully used all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena. public life.

1) the periodic structure of a phrase, when many sentences are connected into one whole (“Taras saw how vague the Cossack ranks became and how despondency, indecent for the brave, began to quietly embrace the Cossack heads, but was silent: he wanted to give time to everything, so that they would get used to despondency brought on by farewell to his comrades, and meanwhile in the silence he was preparing to wake them all up at once and suddenly, whooping like a Cossack, so that again and with greater force than before, cheerfulness would return to everyone’s soul, which only the Slavic breed, the wide one, is capable of. a mighty rock is to others as the sea is to shallow rivers");

2) the introduction of lyrical dialogues and monologues (for example, the conversation between Levko and Ganna in the first chapter of “May Night”, monologues - appeals to the Cossacks of Koshevoy, Taras Bulba, Bovdyug in “Taras Bulba”);

3) an abundance of exclamation marks and interrogative sentences(for example, in the description of the Ukrainian night in “May Night”);

4) emotional epithets that convey the power of the author’s inspiration, born of love for native nature(description of the day at the Sorochinskaya Fair) or to the folk group (Taras Bulba).

Gogol uses everyday speech in different ways. IN early works(in “Evenings”) its bearer is the narrator. The author puts into his mouth both vernacular words (everyday words and phrases), and such appeals to listeners that are of a familiar, good-natured nature, characteristic of this environment: “By God, I’m already tired of telling! What are you thinking

The character of a person social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol’s characters.

Gogol's strength as a stylist lies in his humor. Gogol's humor - “laughter through tears” - was determined by the contradictions of the Russian reality of his time, mainly by the contradictions between the people and the anti-people essence of the noble state. In his articles about “Dead Souls,” Belinsky showed that Gogol’s humor “consists in the opposite of the ideal

life with the reality of life." He wrote: “Humor is the most powerful weapon of the spirit of negation, destroying the old and preparing the new.”

What characteristic features of Gogol’s prose are present in the above fragment of “The Overcoat”?

"Overcoat" N.V. GogolIn the department... but it’s better not to say in which department. There is nothing angrier than all kinds of departments, regiments, offices and, in a word, all kinds of official classes. Now everyone private person He considers the whole society insulted in his own person. They say that quite recently a request was received from one police captain, I don’t remember any city, in which he clearly states that state regulations are perishing and that sacred name it is pronounced decidedly in vain. And as proof he attached to the request a huge volume of some romantic essay, where every ten pages the police captain appears, sometimes even completely drunk. So, in order to avoid any troubles, it is better to call the department in question one department. So, one official served in one department; the official cannot be said to be very remarkable, short in stature, somewhat pockmarked, somewhat reddish, somewhat blind in appearance, with a small bald spot on his forehead, with wrinkles on both sides of the cheeks and a complexion that is called hemorrhoidal. What to do! The St. Petersburg climate is to blame. As for the rank (for with us, first of all, it is necessary to declare the rank), he was what is called an eternal titular councilor, over whom, as you know, they made fun of and joked around a lot different writers who have the commendable habit of leaning on those who cannot bite. The official's last name was Bashmachkin. Already from the name itself it is clear that it once came from a shoe; but when, at what time and how it came from the shoe, none of this is known. And father, and grandfather, and even brother-in-law, and all completely Bashmachkin, walked in boots, changing the soles only three times a year. His name was Akaki Akakievich. Perhaps it will seem somewhat strange and searched out to the reader, but we can assure that they were not looking for it in any way, but that such circumstances happened of their own accord that it was impossible to give another name...

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The prose of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol has several characteristic features. One of these features is giving the heroes of their works meaningful surnames, such as Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, Plyushkin. However, the hero of Gogol's "Overcoat" has not only a telling surname, but also speaking name. Bashmachkin, such an insignificant person that even the name Akaki gets him from his father, the hero, literally from birth, is deprived of a piece of any individuality. This is confirmed by the portrait of the hero: “somewhat pockmarked, somewhat reddish, somewhat even seemingly blind,” precisely the abundance of words “

Features of the narration in N.V. Gogol’s story “The Overcoat”

FEATURES OF THE NARRATOR IN N.V.’S STORY GOGOL
"OVERCOAT"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
1. Historical reference 4
2. Features of revealing the idea of ​​the story 5
3. Characteristics narratives 6
4. The image of a “significant person” in the story 9
CONCLUSION 12
REFERENCES 13
INTRODUCTION
Among the remarkable figures of Russian and world culture, a place of honor belongs to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Brilliant Master poetic word, he created great works that captivate with the depth and truthfulness of his images, the power of creative generalization of life, and artistic perfection.
It is known that the works of great writers, in terms of depth of content and meaning, artistic images go far beyond the historical time when they appeared. The largest artistic creations live for centuries and millennia, arousing the interest of many generations of readers, giving them aesthetic enjoyment. This happens because the creative generalizations of outstanding artists illuminate universal human problems and help people of different historical periods understand many very different phenomena of life.
Each new era judges the writer in her own way, perceiving in his work artistic principles that are close to her. The historical existence of literary phenomena is highly complex. Here, periods of widespread interest in a writer and his works are often followed by decades and even centuries of declining or fading interest in them. With all this, over time there is a process of gradual disclosure of the artistic potential of classical creations. In the emergence of this potential, the decisive role belongs to the talent, individuality of the artist, and his connections with reality. That is why clarifying the writer’s place in the movement of life, in the development of society and literature is very important not only for understanding his originality, but also for clarifying the fate of his work. Ignoring the historical approach to the artistic heritage gives rise to subjectivism, all kinds of arbitrary judgments and “concepts”.
1. Historical background
The idea of ​​the “Overcoat” first appeared to Gogol in 1834 under the impression of a clerical anecdote about a poor official who, at the cost of incredible efforts, realized his long-standing dream of buying a hunting rifle and lost this rifle on his first hunt. Everyone laughed at the joke, P. V. Annenkov says in his memoirs. But in Gogol this story caused a completely different reaction. He listened to her and bowed his head thoughtfully. This anecdote sank deeply into the writer’s soul, and it served as an impetus for the creation of one best works Gogol.
Work on "The Overcoat" began in 1839 abroad and was roughly completed in the spring of 1841. The story was originally called "The Tale of an Official Stealing an Overcoat."
"Overcoat" occupies special place in the cycle of St. Petersburg stories. The story of an unhappy official overwhelmed by poverty, popular in the 30s, was embodied by Gogol in a work of art, which Herzen called “colossal.”
With his story, Gogol first of all distanced himself from the development of a plot about a poor official, characteristic of reactionary writers of the 30s, who was a target for ridicule and vulgar ridicule. The polemical address was indicated by Gogol quite clearly: Bashmachkin “was what is called the eternal titular adviser, on whom, as you know, various writers have worked hard and sharpened their wits, having the commendable habit of leaning on those who cannot bite.”
2. Features of revealing the idea of ​​the story
"The Overcoat", like Gogol's other stories about humiliated man, is in continuity with Pushkin’s “The Station Agent”. Based on the creative experience of Pushkin, Gogol created Petersburg stories deeply original artistic generalizations. Author's Spotlight" Stationmaster"was a depiction of sharp clashes between a "little" man and nobles, strongmen of the world this, clashes that resulted in the collapse of the hero’s happiness. Gogol more broadly reflected the social inequality of “little” people, showing not only their defenselessness, but also the harsh struggle for everyday existence. Image life destiny Gogol's heroes inextricably merge with the revelation of constant social oppression, which, dooming the “little” person to suffering, mercilessly disfigures him, erasing living human individuality.
The deep drama with which “The Overcoat” is imbued is revealed, on the one hand, in the depiction of the everyday and-on the other-in showing the hero's "shocks". The development of the plot in the story is primarily based on this internal conflict. "This is how it went peaceful life a man who, with a salary of four hundred, knew how to be satisfied with his lot, and would have lived, perhaps, to a very old age, if there had not been various disasters scattered along the road of life not only to titular, but even secret, real, court and all kinds of advisers.” The story about the acquisition of an overcoat is everyday life revealed in its dramatic tension. An ordinary, ordinary phenomenon appears in the form of a “disaster”; an insignificant event, as if in focus, concentrates a reflection of the essential aspects of reality.
The tension and drama of these clashes make the ending of the story organic, into which the author introduces fantasy. Fiction in "The Overcoat" is a necessary element in revealing the main idea of ​​the story.
3. Characteristic features of the narrative
"The Overcoat" is one of those works in which the writer resorts to the technique of narration on behalf of the narrator. But the narrator in “The Overcoat” is not at all like Rudy Panka, who brings with him a special, sharply expressed manner of narration; He also doesn’t look like the narrator from the story about a quarrel, who is distinguished by his bright “characteristics.” In "The Overcoat" the narrator is not highlighted, but at the same time this image is clearly felt in the story. “Unfortunately, we cannot say where exactly the official who invited us lived; our memory is beginning to fail us greatly, and everything that is in St. Petersburg, all the streets and houses, have merged and mixed up so much in our heads that it is very difficult to get anything decent from there. form". While retaining the features of some external simplicity, the narrator in “The Overcoat” is far from the “spontaneity” of narrators belonging to the patriarchal world.
"The Overcoat" was by no means written in the techniques of skaz; nevertheless, in a number of places Gogol subtly notes language features narrator: “... Akaki Akakievich was born against the night, if memory serves, on March 23... Mother was still lying on the bed opposite the doors, and right hand stood the godfather, an excellent man, Ivan Ivanovich Eroshkin, who served as the head of the Senate, and the godfather, the wife of a quarterly officer, a woman of rare virtues, Arina Semyonovna Belobryushkova"; "in such a state, Petrovich usually very willingly gave in and agreed, every time he even bowed and thanked. Then, however, the wife came, crying that her husband was drunk and therefore took it cheaply; but sometimes you add one kopeck, and it’s in the bag.”
The image of the narrator carries a clearly expressed sympathy for the ignorant, to the common man. Along with this, the writer, in individual episodes of the narrative, expresses in a direct, immediate form his attitude towards the hero of the work. This determines the lyric pathetic flow of the story, which is revealed both in the words about cruel “inhumanity” and in the reflections in connection with the death of Akaki Akakievich (“the creature disappeared and hid itself”).
In creating "The Overcoat", Gogol relied on his enormous creative achievements in the use of wealth vernacular. Unlike a number of his other works, the writer in this story almost did not turn to a picturesque and concrete description of life, the “environment” of the hero, which made it possible to clearly outline him psychological appearance. The most important creative task that Gogol set for himself in “The Overcoat” was, first of all, to clearly show the microscopic world humiliated hero, and then characterize the relationship of a depressed person with those around him social world. Consistently carrying out this creative task, Gogol achieved amazing concentration of verbal expression, extraordinary accuracy artistic word. “There, in this copying, he saw his own diverse and pleasant world. Pleasure was expressed on his face;
He had some favorite letters, which if he got to me, he was not himself: he laughed, and winked, and helped with his lips, so that in his face, it seemed, one could read every letter that his pen wrote."
The richness and accuracy of Gogol's metaphor is an integral feature of the description of the hero's actions and the events of his life. “Akaky Akakievich began to feel for some time that he was somehow feeling a particularly strong pain in his back and shoulder, despite the fact that he was trying to run across the legal space as quickly as possible. He finally thought whether there were any sins in his overcoat Having examined it carefully at home, he discovered that in two or three places, namely on the back and on the shoulders, it had become like a sickle." An aptly found word, an expressive metaphor very often seems to sum up an entire narrative episode. “He returned home in the happiest mood, took off his overcoat and hung it carefully on the wall, once again admiring the cloth and lining, and then deliberately pulled out, for comparison, his old hood, which had completely fallen apart. He looked at it and even laughed himself : such a far difference! And for a long time afterwards at dinner he kept grinning, as soon as the situation in which the hood was located came to his mind.”
Characterizing real place hero in public life, his attitude to reality, the writer widely uses the technique of internal comparisons, which becomes an organizing principle in the construction of the sentence itself, in the selection of its lexical composition. “If rewards had been given to him in proportion to his zeal, he, to his amazement, might even have ended up as a state councilor; but he served, as his comrades’ wits put it, a buckle in his buttonhole and acquired hemorrhoids in the lower back.”
Internal comparisons in the narrative speech of “The Overcoat” are very diverse; they are built on the collision of the imaginary and the real, the sublime and the prosaic. “Fire sometimes appeared in his eyes, the most daring and courageous thoughts even flashed in his head: should he just put a marten on his collar.” Or: “Thanks to the generous assistance of the St. Petersburg climate, the disease spread faster than could have been expected, and when the doctor appeared, he, having felt the pulse, could not find anything to do except prescribe a poultice, only so that the patient would not be left without a beneficial medical assistance
The use of internal comparisons in the structure of a sentence or a whole group of sentences is often combined with emphasizing, “playing on” one stressed word. “If Akakiy Akakievich looked at anything, he saw his clean, even handwriting lines written out on everything, and only if, out of nowhere, a horse’s muzzle was placed on his shoulder and blew a whole wind into his cheek with its nostrils, then he only noticed that he is not in the middle of the line, but rather in the middle of the street."
4. The image of a “significant person” in the story
Gogol brilliantly uses the “play” of words to expressly characterize heroes, social phenomena, and reality. In this sense, the disclosure of various semantic shades of the word “significant”, which appears in the description of a “significant person,” is very interesting. "You need to know that one significant person recently became significant person, and until that time he was an insignificant person. However, his place even now was not considered significant in comparison with others, even more significant. But there will always be a circle of people for whom what is insignificant in the eyes of others is already significant. However, he tried to enhance significance by many other means." Comparison in different connections“significant” with “insignificant” gives an ironic character to the story about a high-ranking person.
IN satirical purposes Gogol with great skill combines seemingly mutually exclusive semantic meanings of words and achieves a remarkable effect. “The police made an order to catch the dead man, at any cost, alive or dead, and punish him, as an example in another, most severe way.” The constant formula of the zealots of order about the capture and punishment of the guilty appears here in its comic absurdity.
The image of a “significant person” shows the cruelty of representatives of government and the law. Drawing the insults to which Akaki Akakievich was subjected to in the department, Gogol showed “how much inhumanity there is in a person, how much ferocious rudeness is hidden in refined and educated secularism.”
Gogol creates a satirically generalized type of person - a representative of the bureaucratic power of Russia. His position is not significant, it is the boss in general. The way it behaves with Bashmachkin is how all “significant persons” behave.
The scene at the general's is the ideological culmination of the story. Here the social tragedy of the “little man” in the conditions of autocratic Russia is shown most forcefully.
It is characteristic that Gogol does not even give a name to this hero of his. Unlike Bashmachkin and Petrovich, the “significant person” is depicted in satirical colors: “The techniques and customs of the significant person were solid and majestic, but not polysyllabic. The main basis of his system was severity. “Severity, severity and severity,” he usually said and at last word he usually looked very significantly into the face of the one to whom he was speaking... His ordinary conversation with those below him was stern and consisted of almost three phrases: “How dare you? Do you know who you are talking to? Do you understand who is standing in front of you?”
In his relations with “inferiors”, in his social practice, a “significant person” expresses the prevailing “norms”; his personal qualities do not play any significant role in this. "He was in the shower a kind person, good with his comrades, helpful...", "but as soon as he happened to be in a society where there were people at least one rank lower than him, there he was simply out of hand."
The personification of brute and cruel force, the “significant person” cares only about the inviolability of the “foundations”, that there is not even a hint of free thoughts. Bashmachkin’s appeal to a “significant person” for help provokes the anger of a high-ranking person. When Bashmachkin timidly remarks: “...I dared to trouble your Excellency because the secretaries of that... are unreliable people...” - a storm of indignation falls on him. “What, what, what?” said a significant person. “Where did you get such a spirit? Where did you get such thoughts? What kind of riot has spread among young people against their bosses and superiors!”
The very strong impression this scolding makes on Bashmachkin causes complete satisfaction of the “significant person.” He is intoxicated by the thought “that his word can even deprive a person of his feelings.”
Scenes depicting a “significant person” expand and generalize the impact of the social order, which predetermined the course of Akaki Akakievich’s entire life and led to his death. One of the editions of “The Overcoat” contains the following lines: “And we, however, completely ignored main reason of all misfortune, namely a significant person." There is no doubt that this passage was modified by the writer under the pressure of censorship requirements; in the printed text it acquired a different edition. "But we, however, completely left one significant person, who, in fact, is hardly was not the reason for the fantastic direction, however, a completely true story."
Bashmachkin's meeting with a "significant person" is shown in "The Overcoat" as a clash not with a bad person, but with the "usual" order, with the constant practice of "those in power." Bashmachkin suffers not from the inhumanity of individual people, but from the lack of rights into which he is placed by his social position. Portraying a “little” man in “The Overcoat,” Gogol acted as a great humanist. His humanism was not abstract and contemplative, but effective, social in nature. The writer defended the rights of those people who are deprived of them in society. The words “I am your brother” reflected the ideas of social justice and social equality.
Akakiy Akakievich is drawn as a man who obediently carries his heavy cross in life, without raising a voice of protest against the cruelties of society. Bashmachkin is a victim who is not aware of the tragedy of his situation and does not think about the possibility of a different life. In the original edition of the epilogue of the story, the writer bitterly noted Bashmachkin’s submission to fate and resignation. “The creature disappeared and hid, not protected by anyone and not dear to anyone, not interesting to anyone, not even turning the gaze of a natural observer on itself and only obediently suffering clerical ridicule and never uttering a murmur about its fate in its entire life and not knowing “Is there a better fate in the world?”
The “humility” of the hero of “The Overcoat” did not at all mean Gogol’s reconciliation with reality. By showing the hero as an uncomplaining victim of society, the writer expressed his bold protest against the social order.
CONCLUSION
Based on the principles of realism and democratic humanism, works of art Gogol had a huge influence on the development of public self-awareness, spiritual culture of Russia and other countries. His work was a significant effective factor in the growth of advanced social thought
Gogol's literary activity was characterized by ideological and creative contradictions, especially strong in last period his life. These contradictions have often been used and are being used in our time in order to interpret Gogol’s life and literary path, his artistic heritage in the spirit of outright conservatism. However, this kind of interpretation comes into irreconcilable conflict with the truth. The main direction of Gogol’s creative activity had as its source not the false views that were somehow reflected in his works, but the progressive, liberating ideas so clearly expressed in them. It was not prejudices and misconceptions that determined the content, the essence creative creatures writer, and their deep life truth, the wonderful artistic discoveries made by him.
Gogol's realistic masterpieces represent a major contribution to the treasury of Russian and world literature. The artistic generalizations created by the writer have become the property of all progressive humanity and arouse the keenest interest of readers different nationalities. Gogol boldly asserted new creative principles, which had a wide influence on literature, were further developed in the works of outstanding Russian writers and writers from other countries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Mashinsky S. Art world Gogol. M.: "Enlightenment", 1971
2. N.V. Gogol: History and modernity: To the 175th anniversary of his birth / Comp. V.V. Kozhinov, E.I. Osetrov, P.G. Palamarchuk. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1985.
3. Khrapchenko M. B. Nikolai Gogol. Literary path. The greatness of the writer. - M. Sovremennik, 1984.

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Gogol began his creative career as a romantic. However, he turned to critical realism and opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the noble influence of Pushkin, but was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

Gogol’s originality was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the “little man”, a resident of the corners of St. Petersburg.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who castigated the “vulgarity of a vulgar man” and extremely exposed the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

Gogol's social orientation is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events of social significance. At the same time, the plot serves only as an excuse for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of character types.

Deep penetration into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of words, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

The purposes of a vivid satirical portrayal of the characters are served by Gogol’s careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. For example, portraits of the heroes of “Dead Souls” were created. These details in Gogol are mainly everyday: things, clothes, homes of the heroes. If in Gogol’s romantic stories there are emphatically picturesque landscapes, giving the work a certain elation of tone, then in his realistic works, especially in “ Dead souls", landscape is one of the means of depicting types and characteristics of heroes. The themes, social orientation and ideological coverage of life phenomena and people's characters determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech. The two worlds depicted by the writer are - folk group and “existents” - determined the main features of the writer’s speech: his speech is sometimes enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism, when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in “Evenings ...", in “Taras Bulba”, in the lyrical digressions of “Dead Souls” ), then it becomes close to living conversational (in everyday pictures and scenes of “Evenings...” or in stories about bureaucratic and landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries.

Gogol loved and had a keen sense of popular colloquial speech, skillfully using all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of public life.

The character of a person, his social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol’s characters.

Gogol's strength as a stylist lies in his humor. In his articles about “Dead Souls,” Belinsky showed that Gogol’s humor “consists in the opposition of the ideal of life with the reality of life.” He wrote: “Humor is the most powerful weapon of the spirit of negation, destroying the old and preparing the new.”