Living Rus' in dead souls. Living Rus' in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls. “Living Rus'” in the poem “Dead Souls”
Interest in Gogol's works continues unabated even today. Probably the reason is that Gogol was able to most fully show the character traits of a Russian person and the beauty of Russia. In the article “What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity,” begun even before “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote: “Our poetry has not expressed to us anywhere the Russian person completely, nor in the form in which he should be, not in the reality in which it exists.” This outlines the problem that Gogol was going to solve in Dead Souls.
In the poem Gogol draws two opposite worlds: on the one hand, the real Russia is shown with its injustice, acquisitiveness and robbery, on the other - perfect image future fair and great Russia. This image is mainly presented in lyrical digressions and the thoughts of the writer himself. " Dead Souls"begin with a depiction of city life, sketches of pictures of the city and a description of the bureaucratic society. Five chapters of the poem are devoted to the depiction of officials, five to landowners, and one to the biography of Chichikov. As a result, it is recreated big picture Russia with a huge number characters different provisions and states that Gogol snatches from the general mass, because in addition to officials and landowners, Gogol also describes other urban and rural residents - townspeople, servants, peasants. All this adds up to a complex panorama of Russian life, its present.
Typical representatives of this present in the poem are the mismanaged landowner, the petty, “club-headed” Korobochka, the careless playmaker Nozdryov, the tight-fisted Sobakevich and the miser Plyushkin. Gogol, with evil irony, shows the spiritual emptiness and limitation, stupidity and money-grubbing of these degenerate landowners. These people have so little humanity left that they can fully be called “gaps in humanity.” The world of Dead Souls is scary, disgusting and immoral. This is a world devoid of spiritual values. Landowners, common people provincial town are not its only representatives. Peasants also live in this world.
But Gogol is by no means inclined to idealize them. Let us remember the beginning of the poem, when Chichikov entered the city. Two men, examining the chaise, determined that one wheel was not in order and Chichikov would not go far.
Gogol did not hide the fact that the men were standing near the tavern. Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Manilov’s serf, are shown as clueless in the poem, asking to earn money, while he himself goes to drink. The girl Pelageya does not know where the right is and where the left is.
Pro-shka and Mavra are downtrodden and intimidated. Gogol does not blame them, but rather laughs good-naturedly at them. Describing coachman Selifan and footman Petrushka - Chichikov's courtyard servants, the author shows kindness and understanding. Petrushka is overwhelmed by a passion for reading, although he is more attracted not by what he reads, but by the process of reading itself, as if from the letters “some word always comes out, which sometimes the devil knows what it means.” We do not see high spirituality and morality in Selifan and Petrushka, but they are already different from Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay. Revealing the image of Selifan, Gogol shows the soul of the Russian peasant and tries to understand this soul.
Let us remember what he says about the meaning of scratching the back of the head among the Russian people: “What did this scratching mean? and what does it even mean? Are you annoyed that the meeting planned for the next day with your brother didn’t work out...
or has a sweet-hearted sweetheart already started in a new place... Or is it just a pity to leave a warm place in a person’s kitchen under a sheepskin coat, in order to again be dragged through the rain and slush and all sorts of road adversity? An exponent of an ideal future Russia is Russia, described in lyrical digressions. The people are also represented here.
This people may consist of “dead souls,” but they have a lively and lively mind, they are a people “full of the creative abilities of the soul...”. It was among such people that a “bird-three” could appear, which the coachman can easily control. This is, for example, the efficient man from Yaroslavl, who “with one ax and a chisel” made a miracle crew. Chichikov bought him and other dead peasants.
Copying them, he pictures their earthly life in his imagination: “My fathers, how many of you are crammed here! What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime?” The dead peasants in the poem are contrasted with the living peasants with their poor inner world. They are endowed with fabulous, heroic features. Selling the carpenter Stepan, the landowner Sobakevich describes him like this: “What kind of power she was! If he had served in the guard, God knows what they would have given him, three arshins and an inch in height.” Image of the people in Gogol's poem gradually develops into the image of Russia.
There is also a contrast here real Russia ideal future Russia. At the beginning of the eleventh chapter, Gogol gives a description of Russia: “Rus! Rus! I see you...” and “How strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road!” But these two lyrical digressions are broken by the phrases: “Hold it, hold it, you fool!” - Chichikov shouted to Selifan.
“Here I am with a broadsword!” - shouted a courier with a mustache as long as he was galloping towards. “Don’t you see, the devil take your soul: a government carriage” In lyrical digressions, the author refers to the “immense space”, “mighty space” of the Russian land. IN last chapter poem by Chichikov's chaise, the Russian troika turns into a symbolic image of Russia, rapidly rushing into an unknown distance. Gogol, being a patriot, believes in a bright and happy future for his Motherland. Gogol's Russia in the future is a great and powerful country.
“ALL Rus'” IN N. V. GOGOL’S POEM “DEAD SOULS”
The plot of the poem “Dead Souls” was, as you know, suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. He attracted writers with the opportunity to travel all over Russia with his hero and bring out a wide variety of characters. The reader of Gogol's poem passes through a whole gallery of images of landowners, officials, and peasants. All of Russia is revealed by Gogol in this work.
The self-title of the poem is already somewhat unusual. It seems to me that it has two meanings, two plans. The first is associated with the designation of the revision soul, the serf peasant. It is sold, bartered, given as a gift, lost at cards or checkers - in a word, they treat it in the same way as with a thing or an animal. The title of the poem accurately reflects the cruelty and callousness of Russian reality.
However, Gogol’s concept of “dead souls” refers not only to serfs. After all, deadness is also manifested in the absence of reasonable human interests, in the emptiness and insignificance of activities and aspirations. It is known that the body is subject to death, but the soul, on the contrary, is immortal. In this sense, the definition of “dead soul” expresses extreme lack of spirituality, the complete loss of everything high by a person.
In “Dead Souls” there is nothing usual for novels love story. In my opinion, Gogol deliberately refuses it. Revealing the ugliness of contemporary Russian life, he shows that not Love, not high feelings, but vulgar calculation, monetary gain turn out to be the main incentives for the behavior of the “dead souls” of the landowner and bureaucratic world.
Let's take a closer look at Chichikov, with whom we are traveling around Russia. By nature, he is by no means an ordinary person, endowed with ingenuity, enterprise and intelligence. The trouble, however, is that everything positive traits his nature is subordinated to the achievement of one mercantile goal - “to save money.” Herself surrounding reality, the laws of which Chichikov learned well from an early age, contributes to the shrinking of a person.
An even more depressing impression is made by the Delicacy with the landowners with whom Chichikov meets in order to carry out his conceived plan for Enrichment. The life of the sugary and helpful Manilov passes in empty and fruitless dreams, while the economy is falling apart. The box is stupid and limited, which does not prevent it, however, from remembering its benefit under any circumstances. Nozdryov - insignificant person, brawler and gossip. Sobakevich is cunning and greedy, a sort of bear in human form. Finally, Plyushkin represents a completely complete type of living dead, who has already completely lost everything human.
The order in which Gogol introduces the reader to the landowners has a deep inner meaning. The writer strives to reveal in his heroes an increasing degree of loss of personal dignity, human degradation, and the death of his soul. There is still something human in Manilov, which manifests itself at least in helpless impulses towards spiritual life: there are books in his house. The strong-headed Korobochka does not even have a hint of spirituality. The impudent mischievous Nozdryov, unscrupulous in his thoughts and actions, completely lacks the principles of morality. In Sobakevich, some kind of primitive, bestial principle clearly emerges. And at the end of Chichikov’s route a landowner appears before us, in which human personality has reached the limit of spiritual impoverishment and is on the verge of collapse. This is Plyushkin.
The image of landowner Rus' is replaced in the poem by the image of the provincial city. Gogol introduces readers to the world of officials dealing with affairs government controlled. There is a governor in the poem about whom nothing bad seems to be said. It is known that he embroiders on tulle, knits purses, walks with a lapdog in his arms or with a piece of candy paper. This, however, is quite enough to understand: he is nothing in the provincial administration. The prosecutor, who should be a zealot for the law, is in fact a slacker, a drunkard and a glutton. The figure of the police chief is very colorful, shown as a clever robber who goes into other people's storerooms as if into his own pocket. Lower-ranking officials also match the city fathers. Let us remember, for example, the arrogant extortionist and bribe-taker Ivan Antonovich!.. In Gogol, all officials turn out to be people without the slightest concept of duty, honor and legality, bound by mutual responsibility and mutual patronage. And this is not only the case with provincial and provincial officials. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” shows us metropolitan officials of the highest level. But they are just as indifferent to the needs of a particular person, just as indifferent to legality and justice.
There is another Russia in Gogol’s poem - people’s Russia. But even in his depiction of peasants, Gogol is far from idealizing them. What are Selifan and Petrushka, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai worth, for example! The men appearing on the pages of the poem are ridiculously helpless and stupid. They are clumsy, spiritually undeveloped, indifferent to their fate. When you see them, you feel bitter and upset for the person. The definition of “dead souls” also fully applies to them, as to landowners and officials.
N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” reflected “everything good and bad that we have in Russia” (N. Gogol).
Images of living souls are created in the poem exclusively at the lyrical level. Living and dead souls cannot collide at the plot level.
How were the images of living souls embodied in the poem?
Secondly, the poem presents images of people from the people who carry within themselves a living principle: in the author’s lyrical digression at the beginning of the seventh chapter, the peasants bought by Chichikov from Sobakevich, Korobochka come to life before our eyes... The author, as if intercepting the internal monologue of his hero, speaks of them as if they were alive, truly showing living soul dead or runaway peasants. Among landowners and officials, one nonentity replaces another. But above this gathering of “sky smokers” the image of Rus' rises. The writer connects the living beginning of Russian life, the future of the country with the people. Serfdom disfigures and cripples people, but it is not able to kill the living soul of the Russian person, which lives in the “sweeping, lively” Russian word, and in a sharp mind, and in the fruits of the labor of skillful hands. In lyrical digressions, Gogol creates images of boundless, wonderful Rus' and the heroic people. That is why the poem ends with the image of Rus'-troika. Gogol does not know what the future of Rus' will be. But what is important in the poem is the pathos of this movement, which is associated with the soul of the Russian person.
For the “ideal” world, the soul is immortal, for it is the embodiment of the Divine principle in man. And in the “real” world there may well be a “dead soul”, because for him the soul is only what distinguishes a living person from a dead person. In the episode of the prosecutor’s death, those around him realized that he “had a real soul” only when he became “only a soulless body.” This world is crazy - it has forgotten about the soul, and lack of spirituality is the reason for the collapse. Only with an understanding of this reason can the revival of Rus', the return of lost ideals, spirituality, and soul, begin. The “ideal” world is the world of spirituality. It cannot contain Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Nozdryov, Korobochka. There are souls in it - immortal human souls. He is perfect in every sense of the word. And therefore this world cannot be recreated epically. Spiritual world describes a different kind of literature - lyrics. That is why Gogol defines the genre of the work as lyric-epic, calling “Dead Souls” a poem.
On the pages of the poem, the peasants are depicted far from rosy. The footman Petrushka sleeps without undressing and “always carries with him some special smell.” The coachman Selifan is not a fool to drink. But it is precisely for the peasants that Gogol has good words and warm intonation when he speaks, for example, about Peter Neuvazhay-Koryto, Ivan Koleso, Stepan Probka. These are all the people whose fate the author thought about and asked the question: “What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime? How did you get by?”
Even the greatest genius would not be far off if he wanted to produce everything from himself... If there is anything good in us, it is strength and the ability to use means outside world and make them serve our higher purposes.
The poem "Dead Souls" is the pinnacle of N.V. Gogol's creativity. In it, the great Russian writer truthfully depicted the life of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. But why does Gogol call his work a poem? After all, a poem is usually understood as a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. But before us prose work, written in the genre of a travel novel.
The thing is that the writer’s plan was not fully realized: the second part of the book was partially preserved, and the third was never written. According to the author’s plan, the completed work was supposed to correlate with “ Divine Comedy" Dante. The three parts of “Dead Souls” were supposed to correspond to the three parts of Dante’s poem: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”. The first part presents the circles of Russian hell, and in other parts the reader should have seen the moral cleansing of Chichikov and other heroes.
Gogol hoped that with his poem he would really help the “resurrection” of the Russian people. Such a task required a special form of expression. Indeed, already some fragments of the first volume are endowed with a high epic content. Thus, the troika, in which Chichikov leaves the city of NN, imperceptibly transforms into a “bird troika”, and then becomes a metaphor for all of Rus'. The author, together with the reader, seems to fly high above the earth and from there contemplates everything that is happening. After the mustiness of the ossified way of life movement, space, and a feeling of air appear in the poem.
The movement itself is called “ by God's miracle”, and rushing Rus' is called “inspired by God.” The strength of the movement is growing, and the writer exclaims: “Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours?.." Rus', where are you rushing? Give me an answer. Doesn’t give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; the air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give her way.”
Now it becomes clear why Chichikov acts as a “fan of fast driving.” It was he who, according to Gogol’s plan, was to be spiritually reborn in the next book, to merge with the soul of Russia. In general, the idea of “travelling all over Rus' with the hero and bringing out a multitude of very diverse characters” gave the writer the opportunity to build the composition of the poem in a special way. Gogol shows all layers of Russia: officials, serf owners and ordinary Russian people.
The image of the simple Russian people is inextricably linked in the poem with the image of the Motherland. Russian peasants are in the position of slaves. Gentlemen can sell, exchange them; The Russian peasant is valued as a simple commodity. Landowners do not see serfs as people. Korobochka says to Chichikov: “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl, she knows the way, just watch out! Don’t bring her, the merchants have already brought me one.” The housewife is afraid of losing part of her household, not thinking about it at all. human soul. Even dead peasant becomes an object of purchase and sale, a means of profit. The Russian people are dying from hunger, epidemics, and the tyranny of the landowners.
The writer figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one of your caps to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.” In the poem you can meet Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay, who are unable to separate their horses on the road. Yard Pelageya doesn’t know where Right side, where is the left one. But what could this unfortunate girl learn from her “club-headed” mistress?! After all, for officials and landowners, peasants are drunkards, stupid people, incapable of anything. Therefore, some serfs run away from their masters, unable to bear such a life, preferring prison to returning home, like the peasant Popov from the Plyushkin estate. But Gogol paints not only terrible pictures of the people’s fate.
The great writer shows how talented and rich in soul the Russian people are. Images of wonderful artisans and folk craftsmen appear before the reader’s eyes. With what pride Sobakevich speaks about his dead peasants! Carriage maker Mikheev made excellent carriages and did his work conscientiously. “And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? I’ll lay my head down if you can find such a man anywhere,” Sobakevich convinces Chichikov, talking about this heroic man. Brick maker Milushkin “could install a stove in any house”, Maxim Telyatnikov sewed beautiful boots, and “even the mouth of a drunken one.” The Russian man was not a drunkard, says Gogol. These people were used to working well and knew their craft.
Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokoplekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.” The efficiency of ordinary peasants is recognized by the gentlemen themselves: “Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” Love for the working people, the breadwinner, can be heard in every author’s word. Gogol writes with great tenderness about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant” who brought together the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind”.
The Russian man knows how to use wealth remarkably well. vernacular. "Expressed strongly Russian people“- exclaims Gogol, saying that there is no word in other languages, “which would be so sweeping, lively, so bursting out from under the very heart, so seething and vibrant, like an aptly spoken Russian word.”
But all the talents and virtues common people shade even more its - heavy position. “Eh, the Russian people! They don’t like to die their own death!” - Chichikov argues, looking through endless lists of dead peasants. Gogol painted a bleak but truthful present in his poem.
However, the great realist writer had the bright confidence that life in Russia would change. N. A. Nekrasov wrote about Gogol: “He preaches love with a hostile word of denial.”
A true patriot of his country, who passionately wanted to see the Russian people happy, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol castigated the Russia of his time with destructive laughter. Denying feudal Rus' with its " dead souls", the writer expressed in the poem the hope that the future of the Motherland does not belong to landowners or “knights of a penny,” but to the great Russian people, who store within themselves unprecedented possibilities.
