Review of the poem dead souls. "Dead Souls", analysis of Gogol's work. The humble beginning of a great poem
”is one of the most serious mysteries of world literature. This is not only a poem that looks like a satirical novel. This is a book about hell, written by a genius in a feverish state.
The author laughs and frightens at the same time, winking meaningfully: do not be afraid, I know the door through which we will come out into the light together, leave the limits of evil! When the door was firmly closed or did not show up at all, Gogol died at the age of forty-two. He died so purposefully, brushing aside all options for recovery, that the thought of the death of a guide to paradise who lost his way is natural. Gogol left us with a delightfully funny narration, which for the author himself was a message about the Last Judgment. He left us in a cheerful hell, dying heroically while ascending to the heights of goodness and light.
At the same time, the reader has the opportunity to evaluate Dead Souls as an artistic guide to organizing an effective business. Enterprising Chichikov, a master of creating "leftist" financial schemes, came to one of the provincial cities with a clearly defined task. It is necessary to buy for a penny from the local landowners the names of the deceased peasants, who have not yet been crossed out from the official lists by the sedentary bureaucracy, and play a risky game with society and banks, which should bring a rich landowner and quite real money.
Gogol tells us: if an official, a landowner or a swindler without a certain place tries to engage in bad business, he is under the power of Satan. Maybe, like a governor, sensibly embroider on tulle, or, like a police chief, be considered a “father and benefactor”, flaunting his “perfect nationality” ... If you lie in your official place, grow fat at the state expense and use loopholes for unrighteous enrichment, hell is yours place. Neither temper, nor polite communication with colleagues, nor love for children will save.
What is literature and art in general for Gogol? A master class in humor, a pleasant break from everyday worries, or killing time with the help of correctly composed words? No, the artist must save a person from base feelings, show the possibility of salvation from numerous sins, call for immortality. There are, of course, examples: the Christian Dante with his Divine Comedy, the pagan Homer with the Iliad and Odyssey. Of ours - Alexander Ivanov, who worked selflessly for many years on The Appearance of Christ to the People. Art for Gogol is religion in images and colors!
What are the characteristics of talent? Gogol explodes everyday life with a predatory look and presents his readers with pettiness and vulgarity, the ordinary demonism of a generally normal person, who has long been sour without significant goals and serious feelings. The swamp of life (who is not familiar with its oceanic volumes?) is filled with laughter, the faces of the inhabitants turn out to be hilarious faces. Human vices, our readiness for some kind of habitual idiocy, are immediately picked up by the writer, brought to the point of absurdity, turning into signs of a terribly funny life. This funny thing can really be scary, and words about Gogol's heavy and dangerous laughter are often heard. " In his work there is homicide", - wrote the philosopher Berdyaev. And the philosopher Rozanov assured that Dead Souls was not only the title of the poem, but Gogol's recognition of his main vice, his inability to feel and portray a heartfelt person.
Your talent is to make you laugh, and your innermost desire is to save. What should Gogol do? Take a chance! Take a low story about a former customs officer who decides to turn into a serious landowner, and make something great out of the ridiculous. Something that will transport the laughing reader to the high realms of spiritual truths. An example would be the medieval Divine Comedy. First - "Hell": it is him ("Dead Souls, Volume") that we study at school. Then - "Purgatory": from it, burned by Gogol, separate pages miraculously survived. Finally - "Paradise": it didn’t work out, nothing was written at all.
What kind of hero is destined to ascend from the abyss to Heaven? Here he is - Chichikov! Not fat, not thin, knowing "the great secret to like", carefully watching his precious health and carefully thinking about the unborn offspring. Chichikov - who managed to hear his father's words about pleasing teachers and bosses, about saving a penny. He is the one who has learned to be stingy and ascetic, to live without comrades and love, to be hypocritical and step over the commandments for the sake of ... For the sake of, in fact, what? Gogol never ceases to be a realist: “He imagined ahead of him life in all contentment, with all sorts of prosperity, carriages, a house perfectly arranged, delicious dinners - that’s what was constantly rushing through his head.” Chichikov's vulgarity is a variant of the norm: of the Gogol era, of our time ...
As if two Pavel Ivanovich Chichikovs are sitting in the mind of Gogol. We know one - a petty criminal with a good knowledge of psychology. But Gogol constantly keeps in mind another Chichikov, who looks more like the Apostle Paul than a former collegiate adviser. The Apostle Paul was a persecutor of Christ, then - after a miracle happened - he became his most needed disciple. So Pavel Ivanovich will be completely transformed, repent of his sins and carry the word of truth along the Russian road. Maybe he will become a monk. And the worse he is in the first volume, the happier his image will be in the third volume! Gogol gladly conveys the rumors that fettered the provincial town: Chichikov is an auditor... No, Napoleon in disguise... Worse, he is the Antichrist!
Gogol is looking forward to the transformation for which the novel-poem was conceived. But so far it is far from it. And talent directs its action in areas under its control. Chichikov's meetings with the landlords are a benefit performance of an ironic psychologist who is able to present the "type" in exhaustive detail. "Sugar" Manilov is an empty delight about a wonderful event that will never happen, because a new delight will soon come, therefore, the dream of a new unrealizable business will shine. Whether it's an underground passage or a stone bridge for drinking tea together ... And a book that is always open on the fourteenth page. Manilov, this sentimental "brake", daily celebrates the "name day of the heart" and kisses so hard, so sincerely, that the victim's front teeth hurt until the evening.
“Oh, my father, but you, like a boar, have mud all over your back and side! Where did you deign to get salty?... Maybe you are used to someone scratching your heels at night? My dead man couldn’t fall asleep without this, ”Korobochka gives a voice, decomposing her soul into food and clothing parts with the same thoroughness with which she put her cap on a scarecrow that scares away birds in the garden. Next comes the “historical man” Nozdryov: this is an extremely dangerous and ever-occurring beast, capable of substituting, slandering and bringing any righteous person to a deadly story. Scandal is the only interesting form of existence for someone who has been “repeatedly beaten with boots.” Sobakevich is nearby, looking like a "medium-sized bear." Nozdryov is a “rubbish man”, Sobakevich is a fist “who cannot straighten into the palm of his hand”: only to condemn his neighbors, only to digest the side of lamb with “other exciting graces”, only to grab a coin, praising the human qualities of dead peasants. The parade is completed by Plyushkin, who drove away and cursed the children, who became a grave for himself, where rusting coins and rotting pieces of junk food are securely stored. This sour suicide causes Gogol's maximum contempt.
... And a trembling hope: Plyushkin will change and become a kind wanderer, Chichikov will turn from Antichrist into a useful Christian, dead souls will be resurrected! Hell is not forever! Gogol urges himself and the heroes on: quickly, quickly, we must transform! So that the Tale of Captain Kopeikin, told by a frightened postmaster, would not come true: a serviceman came from the war without an arm and a leg, he wanted to receive legitimate help from big bosses, but he was simply sent - first politely, then rudely. Kopeikin had to go into the forests, put together a gang, and then make a revolution ...
Rus' should help. Gogol is well aware that it is precisely here that the insignificance of an everyday fact and the greatness of a resurrecting feeling are combined. Gogol believes that the Russian road is so significant for the destinies of the world, and the running of horses here is so fast that it cannot simply get by, forget, end, as it were, in nothing. Either Christ will reign here in all power and glory, or vice versa. Or or.
But here's the problem - a person has a body. His goals, motives and desires fill Dead Souls, make the hell of the poem understandable and bearable. " Be living souls, not dead ones! Gogol calls out to his characters. And they answer: “Yes, we are already nothing ... We breathe, which means souls. We love to eat and gossip, we know how to say a well-aimed word ... ". “No, not that, another ... Life is not in this!” - Nikolai Vasilyevich gets excited. Heroes do not concede: “What! We are living bodies. Do you know what it is? Thinking about food all the time, eating is like a sacrament. Compare the face of a pretty girl with a "fresh testicle", a woman's face with a "long cucumber", a man's face with a "Moldovan pumpkin". These are your words, writer. You are an appetizing master of describing mushrooms, pies, shanezhki, pancakes, cakes, beluga, pressed caviar, smoked tongues, cutlets with truffles. And most importantly, it is delicious to portray the feelings that a person experiences when eating all this. “This is private! The main thing is the fight against hell and the movement to heaven!” Gogol defends himself. But the characters are also strong in arguments: “It's all you, Nikolai Vasilievich, invented: hell, paradise, Dante ... Sweet afternoon dream is your Virgil. Big dumplings in sour cream - here is your Beatrice. Do you think you fought dead souls? No, you have learned to write well about living bodies. About people like us. Yes, and you yourself, Gogol, a living body. Like every person who wants to eat, drink, be prosperous ... ".
I think that in a depression that stretched for many years, Gogol heard similar arguments. Having failed to reach paradise within the boundaries of Dead Souls, Gogol wrote Selected passages from correspondence with friends, a publicistic sermon on how to overcome sin, how to head towards salvation. There is too much screaming and fear in this book for all of us to simply rejoice at Gogol's victory. But I will not hide: many believe that it is "Selected places ..." - the true completion of "Dead Souls", the triumph of the spirit over irony, the paradise available to us. Check it out yourself.
INTERESTING FACTS
Gogol's mother was known as the first beauty of the Poltava region, she was married at the age of 14 to the writer's father, twice her age. It is believed that it was the mother who contributed to the development of Nikolai Gogol's religious and mystical feelings. Gogol never started his own family. True, in the spring of 1850, Nikolai Vasilievich made an offer (first and last) to A. M. Vielgorskaya, but was refused. The source of the plot of the play "The Government Inspector" was a real incident in one of the cities of the Novgorod province, about which Pushkin told Nikolai Vasilyevich. He also offered him the plot of Dead Souls. According to rumors, Gogol liked to cook and treat his friends to dumplings and dumplings. One of his favorite drinks is goat's milk, which he boiled with rum. He called this concoction mogul-mogul and often, laughing, said: “ Mogul loves mogul!". What happened shortly before his death on February 12, 1852 (and the writer died on February 21), no one still knows. Biographers say that until three in the morning Gogol prayed earnestly, after which he burned the contents of his portfolio (the second volume of Dead Souls), and then sobbed until morning in his bed. In his will, the author of Dead Souls warned that his body should be buried only in case of obvious signs of decomposition. This then became the reason for the assumption that in reality the writer was buried in a state of lethargic sleep. When reburied in 1931, a skeleton with a skull turned to one side was found in his coffin, and the lining of the coffin was damaged.
STATEMENTS
The directors loved the poem. It was staged at the Moscow Art Theater, in the theater. Stanislavsky, Lenkom, Sovremennik. By the way, the Krasnodar Musical Theater is not far behind them - we have a light opera “Gogol. Chichikov. Souls." This year she claimed the highest Russian theater award "Golden Mask" in three categories.
FAMOUS QUOTATIONS
"Rus, where are you going?" Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer.
“Fear is more sticky than the plague.
- Oh, the Russian people! He does not like to die a natural death!
- There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.
- No, whoever is a fist cannot straighten into a palm.
“No matter how stupid the words of a fool are, sometimes they are enough to confuse an intelligent person.
- There are people who have a passion to spoil their neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.
- Love us black, and everyone will love us white.
- Sometimes, really, it seems to me that a Russian person is some kind of lost person. There is no willpower, no courage for constancy. You want to do everything and you can't do anything. You keep thinking - from tomorrow you will start a new life, from tomorrow you will go on a diet - it didn’t happen at all: by the evening of the same day you’ll fill up so much that you just blink your eyes and your tongue doesn’t toss and turn; like an owl you sit, looking at everyone - right, and that's all.
Alexey TATARINOV
This material was published on the BezFormata website on January 11, 2019,below is the date when the material was published on the site of the original source!
In his "Author's Confession" Gogol points out that Pushkin prompted him to write "Dead Souls". (This material will help to write competently on the topic Review of the poem Dead Souls. The summary does not make it possible to understand the whole meaning of the work, therefore this material will be useful for a deep understanding of the work of writers and poets, as well as their novels, short stories, stories, plays, poems .) “He had long persuaded me to take up a large essay, and, finally, once after I had read one small image of a small scene, but which, however, struck him most of all I had read before, he said to me: “ How, with this ability to guess a person and a few features, they suddenly make him look like a living person, with this ability not to start a big essay. It's just a sin! .. ”, and, in conclusion, he gave me his own plot, from which he wanted to make something like a poem himself and which, according to him, he would not give to anyone else. It was the plot of "Dead Souls" ... Pushkin found that the plot of "Dead Souls" is good for me because it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a lot of the most diverse characters.
Gogol followed Pushkin's advice, quickly set to work, and in a letter dated October 7, 1835, informed him: “I have begun writing Dead Souls. The plot stretches over a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny ... I want to show in this novel, at least from one side, all of Rus'.
However, in the process of work, Gogol planned to give not one, but three volumes, in which Rus' could be shown not “from one side”, but comprehensively. The second and third volumes of "Dead Souls" were supposed, according to the author, along with the negative ones, to bring out the positive characters and show the moral revival of the "scoundrel-acquirer" Chichikov.
Such a breadth of the plot and the richness of the work with lyrical places, allowing the writer to reveal his attitude to the depicted in a variety of ways, inspired Gogol to call Dead Souls not a novel, but a poem.
But Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls, and he did not proceed to the third. The reason for the failure was that Gogol was looking for positive heroes in the world of "dead souls" - representatives of the social strata that dominated at that time, and not in the popular, democratic camp.
Back in 1842, Belinsky predicted the inevitability of Gogol's failure in the implementation of such a plan. “A lot, too much has been promised, so much that there is nowhere to take what to fulfill the promise, because that is not yet in the world,” he wrote.
The chapters of the second volume of "Dead Souls" that have come down to us confirm the validity of Belinsky's thoughts. In these chapters there are brilliantly written images akin to the landowners of the first volume (Petr Petrovich Petukh, Khlobuev, etc.), but the positive characters (the virtuous governor-general, the ideal landowner Kostanzhoglo and the tax farmer Murazov, who "acquired over forty million in the most irreproachable way") are clearly not typical, life is not convincing.
The idea "to travel all over Rus' with the hero and bring out a wide variety of characters" predetermined the composition of the poem. It is built as a story of the adventures of the "acquirer" Chichikov, who buys actually dead, but legally alive, that is, not deleted from the audit lists, souls.
Images of officials
The central place in the first volume is occupied by five "portrait" chapters (from the second to the sixth). These chapters, built according to the same plan, show how different types of serf-owners developed on the basis of serfdom and how serfdom in the 20-30s of the XIX century, in connection with
The poem "Dead Souls" is a brilliant satire on feudal Rus'. But fate has no mercy on the One whose noble genius Became the accuser of the crowd, Its passions and delusions. The work of N.V. Gogol is multifaceted and varied. The writer is talented...
Chichikov occupies a special place among the characters in Gogol's Dead Souls. Being the central (in terms of plot and composition) figure of the poem, this hero, right up to the last chapter of the first volume, remains a mystery to everyone - not only to officials ...
Work plan: 1. Introduction 2. Main part 2.1. Plushkin's estate 2.2. Feelings and emotions of Plyushkin, their manifestation 2.3. Plyushkin's path to complete degradation 2.4. The influence of loved ones on the fate of the protagonist 2.5. Appearance ...
Gogol, according to V. G. Belinsky, "was the first to look boldly and directly at Russian reality." The writer's satire was directed against the "general order of things", and not against individuals, bad executors of the law. Predatory money-grubber Chichikov, landowners...
Russian classics
Review of Gogol's book "Dead Souls"
Even during the life of the writer, his contemporaries (K. S. Aksakov, S. P. Shevyrev) dubbed his famous novel the Russian Iliad. A hundred and fifty years later, this assessment is by no means outdated. Gogol's novel-poem is one of the few books that define the very face of Russian literature. And her spirit too. For the present times, the ideas of "Dead Souls" are no less relevant than for the middle of the last century. Are not the words of the final chord of Gogol's poem addressed to our days: “Rus, where are you rushing to? Give an answer. No answer"? Is there at least one person today who would intelligibly answer the question of the classic? There's no such thing! And never will!
And the immortal types created by Gogol are very topical. Starting with the seeker of dead souls - Chichikov, whose main distinguishing feature is acquisitiveness. The man-acquirer - isn't he our contemporary? Not a sign of today's Russia? How many newly-minted Chichikovs - born acquirers - are now scouring the world in search of their "dead souls". Buy, sell, deceive, cash in by hook or by crook, and there - at least the grass does not grow. What people? What country? After us - at least a flood. Everything else is exactly the same as Gogol. Here he is - a modern hero-acquirer:
Who is he? So, a scoundrel? Why is a scoundrel, why be strict with others? Now there are no scoundrels among us, there are well-meaning, pleasant people, and those who would expose their physiognomy to a public slap in the face to general disgrace, only two or three people can be found, and even they are already talking about virtue. It is most fair to call him: the owner, the acquirer. Acquisition is the fault of everything; because of him things were done, to which the light gives the name of not very pure. “...” Countless, like the sands of the sea, human passions, and all are not alike one another, and all of them, low and beautiful, are at first obedient to a person and then already become his terrible rulers.
The last phrase is worthy of the lips of a great philosopher. However, Gogol was a philosopher. For, as is well known, Russian philosophy for a long time was created mainly through Russian literature - poetry, prose, journalism, criticism and the epistolary genre. Dead Souls is one of the most philosophical books. And at the same time - one of the most poetic. It is named so by the author - a poem. Poem about Russia! About her people! About his heroes! Chichikovs, Manilovs, Boxes, Sobakevichs, Nozdrevs, Plyushkins - they are all flesh from the flesh of our people. So that's who we are. “There is nothing to blame on the mirror ...” - as the same Gogol noted in another place.
By the way, those who are usually classified as "people" are debunked by the writer with the same frank ruthlessness as representatives of the so-called "high society". And not only the servant Petrushka, the coachman Selifan, and two peasants who are philosophizing at the very beginning of the novel about the cart wheel: it will reach Moscow or Kazan. But the very salt of the people, its beauty and glory - blacksmiths, indisputable heroes of songs and fairy tales - are presented by Gogol without any embellishment and exaggeration, but as they were and remain in reality:
... The blacksmiths, as usual, were notorious scoundrels and, realizing that the work was needed in a hurry, they broke exactly six times. No matter how excited he [Chichikov] was, he called them swindlers, robbers, robbers of those passing by, even hinted at the Last Judgment, but the blacksmiths did not get through with anything: they completely withstood the character - not only did not retreat from the price, but even were transported at work instead of two hours as many as five and a half.
So much for you and "we forge the keys of happiness"! By the way, about happiness. If you look at Gogol's heroes from this side (from the point of view of the classical concept of eudemonism, that is, the doctrine of happiness - see: an essay on Feuerbach), then all of them - in many ways - are the embodiment of already achieved happiness. Isn't Chichikov happy, acquiring another portion of dead souls? Or Sobakevich, having shaken off the worthless "goods"? And the lucky Manilov? rowdy Nozdrev? hoarder Box? superscopid Plushkin? Their ideas about achieved happiness fully correspond to the teaching of the eudemonists about the human striving for happiness as the main driving force of any social development. But is this happiness people need? This dumb question is precisely what Gogol asks along with his immortal types.
Gogol created a sad poem because life itself is sad. “God, how sad is our Russia!” - said Pushkin, reading the handwritten sketches for "Dead Souls". Sad book about sad Russia. But Russia is impossible without holy faith in its greatness and immortality, in its inexhaustible mystery and fabulous radiance. And therefore all this cannot but be in Gogol's poem. And it's all there, of course. And all of it is the anthem of Russia, solemn and majestic:
Rus! Rus! I see you, from a wonderful, beautiful far away I see you; poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you; the impudent divas of nature, crowned with impudent divas of art, will not amuse, will not frighten the eyes. “…” Everything in you is open-desert and even; like dots, like badges, your low cities imperceptibly stick out among the plains; nothing will seduce or charm the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs by the heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive to the soul and curl around my heart? Rus! what do you want from me? What incomprehensible bond lurks between us? Why do you look like that, and why does everything that is in you turn eyes full of expectation on me? And still, full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and already a menacing cloud overshadowed my head, heavy with coming rains, and my thought was dumb before your space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is it not possible for a hero to be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk around? And menacingly embraces me a mighty space, reflected in my depths with terrible power; my eyes lit up with an unnatural power: what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus!
But here's something else amazing: Gogol's "beautiful far away" is not only sunny Italy, from where he addressed his compatriots. Today, this is already a temporary category, and the great Russian writer turns from his distant time to our present and not our future, to that Russia in which he always believed wholeheartedly and in which he believes and teaches all of us!
Ekaterina Petrochenko's review of N. V. Gogol's book "Dead Souls" as part of the competition "My Favorite Book" of the literary portal "Buklya". .
Picking up the book, I had a very vague idea of what it was about. You could say I didn't know at all.
Gogol always knew how to denounce and ridicule human sins and vices (specifically here: avarice, greed and stupidity), and in this work this is especially highlighted and striking. No one escaped Nikolai Vasilyevich's watchful eye, everyone got it. The author christened the heroes with speaking surnames, which cannot be imperceptible, in each character this or that essence is thoroughly revealed. That is why this work remains relevant to this day.
As always, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol pleases us with his description of nature. Russian nature! It is through the endless pages of expression of love for the native land that the great writer is recognized.
Very interesting, unusual and unexpected plot. Fascinating reading accompany this book. There was a sense of slowness in the story, there was a desire to know everything to the end. The book conveys all the features of life.
I also liked the main character Chichikov. His character and mind. Gogol was able to present it from all sides. But he struck me with his cunning, resourcefulness, good manners and upbringing. Probably, you can even learn something from him. In general, the book has a lot of good advice and you can draw a lot of conclusions.
Books most often play the role of a time machine, a kind of guide on an excursion into the past. This one also takes the reader to that era of Rus', conveys the spirit of that time, all the nuances and subtleties in certain estates. The author notices all the small details, which creates a unique cozy atmosphere. It even seems to me that the work has a certain historical value.
It is interesting to note that the title of the work has two interpretations:
- These are the souls of peasants who have long since died, but according to the lists are listed as alive.
- These are landlord "dead souls" who need to go through the path of purification and change for the better.
After reading, many probably felt how lacking a complete second volume, in which the writer promised to continue the adventures of Chichikov. But maybe this is fortunately, since the reader himself can come up with the missing continuation of the book.
The most important thing is to read the book slowly, not to force yourself to do it under duress and not to let others do it. Even if it is necessary for school, it is better if you take care in advance and get acquainted with the book in the summer. And then the amazing work of the great Russian classic will open for you!
The review was written as part of the contest "".
Friends, this is a review of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" and let it be said and retold about this work, and such a review is likely to be a complete "button accordion", I can not say anything about the wonderful book of the wonderful author, which they will talk about still whole generations after me, of which I am sure.
Here I will even omit the fact how mystical and interesting for researchers and fans the figure of Gogol himself is and how many mysteries his biography hides.
So talking about Gogol's work will never be superfluous. Even at school, I was hooked by Dead Souls, and now, after many years, I decided to reread this novel, or rather a poem, because the author himself calls his work a poem.
Many have probably seen the Internet meme about Gogol: Do you want to surprise a girl? Be unpredictable - call a novel a poem.
I was prompted to reread the poem by the fact that in all souvenir shops in Lviv there was a collection of clothes (t-shirts) called "Ukraine, know your heroes." And the T-shirts feature Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, Ivan Franko and, of course, Nikolai Gogol! But the authors on T-shirts look like modern young people: tattooed Gogol, "Sheva" with a smoking pipe, dressed in hoodies and fashionable. I really liked the T-shirts and I would like to buy such a “gogol” for myself.
But this is not about that, but about "Dead Souls". As I said, at school I liked the work, but when I read it, being an already formed personality, my impression is even deeper. And, knowing more about society, reading becomes much more interesting, Gogol's subtle humor becomes closer and each unique character of his poem reminds of his contemporaries.
Such Gogol's attention to details in everyday life, the appearance of the characters, their behavior simply cannot but arouse admiration! Gogol characterizes herself in the poem as an attentive and observant author who spied, overheard, described. And he certainly is. He described the time in which he himself lived, but is it possible to say that his poem is not relevant to this day? It seems to me that in every character, you can find a piece of yourself, though often a piece of shame that people usually try to hide from others. Gogol, on the other hand, tears the veil from each character, exposes and exposes everything that is hidden. But at the same time, the author does not condemn any of his heroes, because he writes about people, and people remain people, with all their shortcomings. Also, reading about Chichikov, Korobochka, Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev and Plyushkin, it is simply impossible not to draw parallels with acquaintances from real life with whom I was lucky enough to intersect. Undoubtedly, the types described by Gogol continue to live in many people in our time. As he himself says, "probably he has not yet died out on earth."
What about society? Perhaps it has become even more corrupt, self-serving, deceitful, ingratiating, opportunistic with the main principle "hand washes hand", full of gossip, notoriety, or overwhelming blind popularity.
The main character Chichikov is a typical opportunist, patient and ingratiating, ready to do anything to move up the career ladder, one might say a chameleon who, for his own purposes, will find an approach to any person and deftly get out of any tricky situation, so that the rest will only see how they sparkle him heels.
Even at school, such a character as Plyushkin made me laugh. Reading about him now, I felt sorry for him. My new favorite hero is Nozdryov! One of his descriptions is worth it:
<Лицо Ноздрева, верно, уже сколько-нибудь знакомо читателю. Таких людей приходилось всякому встречать немало. Они называются разбитными малыми, слывут еще в детстве и в школе за хороших товарищей и при всем том бывают весьма больно поколачиваемы>…<Они скоро знакомятся, и не успеешь оглянуться, как уже говорят тебе «ты». Дружбу заведут, кажется, навек: но всегда почти так случается, что подружившийся подерется с ними того же вечера на дружеской пирушке. Они всегда говоруны, кутилы, лихачи, народ видный. Ноздрев в тридцать пять лет был таков же совершенно, каким был в осьмнадцать и двадцать: охотник погулять.>…<Чуткий нос его слышал за несколько десятков верст, где была ярмарка со всякими съездами и балами; он уж в одно мгновенье ока был там, спорил и заводил сумятицу за зеленым столом, ибо имел, подобно всем таковым, страстишку к картишкам. >…<И что всего страннее, что может только на одной Руси случиться, он чрез несколько времени уже встречался опять с теми приятелями, которые его тузили, и встречался как ни в чем не бывало, и он, как говорится, ничего, и они ничего.>
Well, haven't you met the broken Nozdrev, whose whole life is a party? Or have you not met a middle-aged woman, narrow-minded, but at the same time capable of inducing panic and inciting people almost to rebellion, such as the landowner Korobochka? I think we met.
But the fun ends quickly. On February 24, 1852, Nikolai Vasilyevich burned the almost finished second volume of Dead Souls, and at the end of the first part he wrote that he planned to turn the poem into a trilogy. So, unfortunately, we are not destined to find out how the adventures of the cunning Chichikov will end. For us, he will forever remain a hero, riding in his britzka along broken Russian roads, forward to his dreams and aspirations. We can only guess how much more noise he would have made.
I advise everyone to re-read Gogol's "Dead Souls", because every time in this book you can notice something that was not noticed before. Or meet the heroes again and remember that you have already seen them somewhere. With my own eyes.