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Provincial society in Gogol's poem dead souls. Provincial society in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" Provincial society in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

In notes to the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol wrote: “The idea of a city. Gossip that has crossed the limits, how it all arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous in the highest degree ... The whole city with all the whirlwind of gossip is a transformation of the inactivity of the life of all mankind in the mass. This is how the writer characterizes the provincial town of NN and its inhabitants. It must be said that the provincial society of Gogol's poem, as well as Famusov's in Griboyedov's play "Woe from Wit", can be divided into male and female. The main representatives of the male society are provincial officials. Undoubtedly, the theme of bureaucracy is one of the central themes in Gogol's work. Many of his works, such as, for example, the story "The Overcoat" or the comic play "The Inspector General", the writer devoted to various aspects of bureaucratic life. In particular, in "Dead Souls" we are presented with the provincial and higher Petersburg officials (the latter in "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin").

Exposing the immoral, vicious, flawed natures of officials, Gogol uses the technique of typification, because even in vivid and individual images (such as the police chief or Ivan Antonovich), common features inherent in all officials are revealed. Already creating portraits of officials using the method of reification, the author, without saying anything about their spiritual qualities, character traits, only described “wide nape, tailcoats, frock coats of provincial cut ...” clerical officials or “very thick eyebrows and a somewhat winking left eye” prosecutor, spoke of the deadness of souls, moral underdevelopment and baseness. None of the officials bothers themselves with worries about state affairs, and the concept of civic duty and the public good is completely alien to them. Idleness and idleness reign in the bureaucratic environment. Everyone, starting with the governor, who “was a big good man and embroidered on tulle,” spends time senselessly and fruitlessly, not caring about the performance of his official duty. It is no coincidence that Sobakevich notes that “... the prosecutor is an idle person and, it’s true, he’s sitting at home, ... the inspector of the medical board is also, it’s true, an idle person and went somewhere to play cards, ... Trukhachevsky, Bezushkin - they all burden the earth for nothing...”. Mental laziness, the insignificance of interests, stupid inertia form the basis of the existence and character of officials. Gogol ironically speaks about the degree of their education and culture: “... the chairman of the chamber knew “Lyudmila” by heart, ... the postmaster went into ... philosophy and made extracts from “The Key to the Mysteries of Nature”, ... who read” Moskovskie Vedomosti”, who didn’t even read anything at all.” Each of the provincial governors sought to use his position for personal purposes, seeing in it a source of enrichment, a means to live freely and carelessly, without spending any labor. This explains the bribery and embezzlement that prevails in official circles. For bribes, officials are even capable of committing the most terrible, according to Gogol, crime - to inflict an unfair trial (for example, they “hushed up” the case about merchants who “left to the death” of each other during a feast). Ivan Antonovich, for example, knew how to benefit from every business, being an experienced bribe-taker, he even reproached Chichikov that he “bought a hundred thousand peasants, and gave one little white one for his labors.” Solicitor Zolotukha - "the first grabber and visited the guest yard, as if in his own pantry." He only had to blink, and he could receive any gifts from merchants who considered him a “benefactor”, because “even though he will take, he will certainly not betray you.” For his ability to take bribes, the police chief was known among his friends as a "magician and miracle worker." Gogol ironically says that this hero “managed to acquire modern nationality,” for the writer more than once denounces the anti-nationality of officials who are absolutely unaware of the hardships of peasant life, considering the people “drunkards and rebels.” According to the officials, the peasants are “an empty and worthless people” and “they must be kept in tight rein.” It is no coincidence that the story about Captain Kopeikin is introduced, for in it Gogol shows that anti-nationality and anti-nationality are also characteristic of the highest Petersburg officials. Describing bureaucratic Petersburg, the city of “significant persons”, the highest bureaucratic nobility, the writer denounces their absolute indifference, cruel indifference to the fate of the defender of the motherland, doomed to certain death from starvation ... So officials, indifferent to the life of the Russian people, are indifferent to the fate of Russia who neglect their official duty, use their power for personal gain and are afraid of losing the opportunity to carelessly enjoy all the “benefits” of their position, therefore provincial governors keep peace and friendship in their circle, where an atmosphere of nepotism, friendly harmony reigns: “... they lived between they were in harmony with themselves, they were treated in a completely friendly way, and their conversations bore the stamp of some special innocence and meekness ... ”Officers need to maintain such relations in order to collect their“ incomes ”without any fear ...

Such is the men's society of the city of NN. If we characterize the ladies of the provincial town, then they are distinguished by external sophistication and grace: “many ladies are well dressed and in fashion”, “there is an abyss in their outfits ...”, but internally they are as empty as men, their spiritual life poor, primitive interests. Gogol ironically describes the “good tone” and “presentability” that distinguish the ladies, in particular their manner of speaking, which is characterized by extraordinary caution and decency in expressions: they did not say “I blew my nose”, preferring to use the expression “I relieved my nose with a handkerchief”, or, in general, the ladies spoke in French, where "words appeared much harder than those mentioned." The speech of the ladies, a true “mixture of French with Nizhny Novgorod”, is comical in the highest degree.

Describing the ladies, Gogol characterizes their essence even at the lexical level: “...a lady fluttered out of the orange house...”, “...a lady fluttered up the reclined steps...” With the help of metaphors, the writer “fluttered” and “fluttered” shows the “lightness” characteristic of a lady, not only physical, but also spiritual, inner emptiness and underdevelopment. Indeed, the greatest part of their interests are outfits. So, for example, a lady in all respects pleasant and simply pleasant conducts a meaningless conversation about the “jolly calico” from which the dress of one of them is made, about the material where “the stripes are narrow, narrow, and eyes and paws pass through the entire strip ... ". In addition, gossip plays a big role in the life of ladies, as well as in the life of the whole city. So, Chichikov's purchases became the subject of conversation, and the "millionaire" himself immediately became the subject of ladies' adoration. After suspicious rumors began to spread about Chichikov, the city was divided into two “opposite parties”. “The female one was engaged exclusively in the kidnapping of the governor's daughter, and the male, the most stupid, drew attention to the dead souls” ... Such is the pastime of the provincial society, gossip and empty talk are the main occupation of the inhabitants of the city. Undoubtedly, Gogol continued the traditions laid down in the comedy The Inspector General. Showing the inferiority of the provincial society, immorality, baseness of interests, spiritual callousness and emptiness of the townspeople, the writer “collects everything bad in Russia”, with the help of satire exposes the vices of Russian society and the realities of contemporary reality to the writer, so hated by Gogol himself.

Provincial Society.

Drawing a broad picture of the nobility and landlord Russia of his time, Gogol, in addition to the local nobles, also depicts provincial officials. In the notes to the first volume of the poem, Gogol wrote: “The idea of the city is a void that has arisen to the highest degree. Empty talk. Gossip that has crossed the limits. How all this arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous in the highest degree, how intelligent people come to doing complete stupidities.

This is the life of the provincial society and its representatives that Gogol shows.

This is also the kingdom of "dead souls", idleness and inner squalor. Provincial officials are essentially no different from the county officials previously drawn by Gogol in The Government Inspector. Like the mayor, "the miracle worker-police chief" visited the shops and the guest yard, as if in his own pantry. The propensity of the “freethinker” Lyapkin-Tyapkin to read Masonic books was shared by the postmaster of the city, who “deepened more into philosophy and read very diligently, even at night” the books of the mystics. Khlopov's timidity was inherited by the "morgun" prosecutor, "who died of fright" from the rumors that went around the city in connection with Chichikov's purchase of dead souls. The appointment of a new governor-general frightened the provincial officials just as much and deprived them of their minds, as the expected arrival of the auditor - county officials. The same nepotism, the same venality and the same arbitrariness reign here as in the county town; the same bribery flourishes (which is worth one Ivan Antonovich - "jug snout"!), The same ignorance and vulgarity. Like the heroes of The Inspector General, the officials of the provincial city are cut off from the people, from their needs and requests.

Gossip, idle thought and idle talk, pettiness of interests, the pursuit of entertainment characterize the provincial ladies.

Gogol caustically ridicules the emptiness of the life of the provincial society, balls and parties, the eternal game of cards, the ridiculous proposals of officials about Chichikov, showing the extraordinary wretchedness of their thoughts. He scoffs at "etiquette and many of the most subtle proprieties," which the provincial ladies strictly observed both in their behavior and in words. “They never said: I blew my nose, I sweated, I spat, but they said: I eased my nose, I got by with a handkerchief.” The desire of the ladies to emphasize their "culture" led them to arrogant disdain for the Russian language. “In order to further ennoble the Russian language, almost half of the words were completely thrown out of the conversation, and therefore it was very often necessary to resort to French,” which, however, they very distorted.

Such is the landowner-bureaucratic Russia in the image of Gogol, the Russia of "dead souls". The writer draws it satirically. He morally destroys the landowners and officials with his smashing laughter, seeing them as enemies of social progress, idlers who have lost touch with the people, and destroyers of the country. This is how the advanced Russian public perceived Gogol's poem.

Herzen wrote: “Thanks to Gogol, we finally saw them (“noblemen”) leaving their palaces and houses without masks, without embellishment, always drunk and overeating: slaves of power without dignity and tyrants without the compassion of their serfs, sucking out the life and blood of the people with the same naturalness and naivety with which a child feeds on its mother's breast. "Dead Souls" shocked all of Russia.

Such an accusation was necessary for modern Russia. This is a case history, written in a masterful hand. Gogol's poetry is a cry of horror and shame emitted by a person who has humiliated himself from a vulgar life, when he suddenly notices his beastly face in the mirror.

People

Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials like the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serfs, should have been.

Following Chichikov in his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serfs; his destiny is poverty, disease, hunger, terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as if they were their slaves: they sell them one by one, without families; they dispose of them as if they were things: “Perhaps I will give you a girl,” says Korobochka to Chichikov, she knows the way from me, only you look! Don't bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me. In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and hard work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Cork, endowed with heroic strength, a wonderful carpenter-builder, and Uncle Mikhey, who resignedly replaced the murdered Stepak in his dangerous work,

The desire for freedom lives in the soul of the enslaved peasantry. When the peasants are no longer under her strength to endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But the courtyard Plyushkina Popov still preferred life in prisons to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, escaping from serfdom, went to barge haulers.

Gogol also speaks of cases of mass indignation, and the episode of the murder of assessor Drobyazhkin shows the struggle of the serfs against their oppressors.

The great writer-pealist, Gogol figuratively speaks of the downtroddenness of the people: from the police captain, although you don’t go yourself, but send only one cap to your place, then this cap alone will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.

In a country where the peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant Korobochki, Nozdreva and Sobakevichn, it was not surprising to meet both the stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minya, and the yard girl Pelageya, who did not know where the right and where the left side was. But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty strength of the people, crushed but not killed by serfdom. It manifests itself in Mikheev's talent. Stepan Cork, Milushkin, in the diligence and energy of a Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “A Russian person is capable of anything and gets used to any climate. Send him at least to Kamchatka, but give only warm mittens, he will pat his hands, an ax in his hands, and went to cut himself a new hut, ”the officials say, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants in the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks of the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “brisk people”, about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to accurately characterize a person in one word.

Thus, depicting feudal-feudal Rus', Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people's Russia, with its staunch and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the laboring masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “troika bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

Works on literature: Provincial society in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

In the notes to the first volume of "Dead Souls" Gogol wrote: "The idea of the city. Gossip that has crossed the limits, how all this arose from idleness and took on the expression of the ridiculous in the highest degree ... The whole city with all the whirlwind of gossip - the transformation of the inactivity of the life of all mankind into mass". This is how the writer characterizes the provincial town of NN and its inhabitants. It must be said that the provincial society of Gogol's poem, as well as Famusov's in Griboyedov's play "Woe from Wit", can be divided into male and female. The main representatives of the male society are provincial. Undoubtedly, the theme of bureaucracy is one of the central themes in Gogol's work. Many of his works, such as, for example, the story "The Overcoat" or the comic play "The Inspector General", the writer devoted to various aspects of bureaucratic life. In particular, in "Dead Souls" we are presented with the provincial and higher Petersburg officials (the latter in "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin").

Exposing the immoral, vicious, flawed natures of officials, Gogol uses the technique of typification, because even in vivid and individual images (such as the police chief or Ivan Antonovich), common features inherent in all officials are revealed. Already creating portraits of officials using the method of reification, the author, without saying anything about their spiritual qualities, character traits, only described "wide nape, tailcoats, frock coats of provincial cut ..." clerical officials or "very thick eyebrows and a somewhat winking left eye" prosecutor, spoke of the deadness of souls, moral underdevelopment and baseness. None of the officials bothers themselves with worries about state affairs, and the concept of civic duty and the public good is completely alien to them. Idleness and idleness reign in the bureaucratic environment. Everyone, starting with the governor, who "was a great kind man and embroidered on tulle," spends time senselessly and fruitlessly, not caring about the performance of his official duty. It is no coincidence that Sobakevich notes that "... the prosecutor is an idle person and, it is true, is sitting at home, ... the inspector of the medical board is also, it is true, an idle person and has gone somewhere to play cards, ... Trukhachevsky, Bezushkin - they are all burden the earth for nothing..." Mental laziness, the insignificance of interests, stupid inertia form the basis of the existence and character of officials. Gogol ironically speaks about the degree of their education and culture: "... the chairman of the chamber knew Lyudmila by heart, ... the postmaster went into philosophy ... and made extracts from The Key to the Mysteries of Nature, ... who read " Moskovskie Vedomosti" who didn't even read anything at all." Each of the provincial governors sought to use his position for personal purposes, seeing in it a source of enrichment, a means to live freely and carelessly, without spending any labor. This explains the bribery and embezzlement that prevails in official circles. For bribes, officials are even capable of committing the most terrible, according to Gogol, crime - to commit an unfair trial (for example, they "hushed up" the case of merchants who "departed to death" each other during a feast). Ivan Antonovich, for example, knew how to profit from every business, being an experienced bribe taker, he even reproached Chichikov that he "bought peasants for a hundred thousand, and gave one little white one for his labors." Solicitor Zolotukha - "the first grabber and visited the guest yard, as in his own pantry." He only had to blink, and he could receive any gifts from the merchants, who considered him a "benefactor", because "even though he will take, he will certainly not betray you." For his ability to take bribes, the police chief was known among his friends as a "magician and miracle worker." Gogol ironically says that this hero "managed to acquire modern nationality," for the writer more than once denounces the anti-nationality of officials who are absolutely unaware of the hardships of peasant life, considering the people "drunkards and rebels." According to officials, the peasants are "an empty and worthless people" and "they must be kept in tight rein." It is no coincidence that the story about Captain Kopeikin is introduced, for in it Gogol shows that anti-nationality and anti-nationality are also characteristic of the highest Petersburg officials. Describing bureaucratic Petersburg, the city of "significant persons", the highest bureaucratic nobility, the writer denounces their absolute indifference, cruel indifference to the fate of the defender of the motherland, doomed to certain death from starvation ... So officials, indifferent to the life of the Russian people, are indifferent to the fate of Russia who neglect their official duty, use their power for personal gain and are afraid of losing the opportunity to carelessly enjoy all the "benefits" of their position, therefore provincial governors keep peace and friendship in their circle, where an atmosphere of nepotism, friendly harmony reigns: "... they lived between they were in harmony with themselves, they were treated in a completely friendly way, and their conversations bore the stamp of some special innocence and meekness ... "Officers need to maintain such relations in order to collect their" income "without any fear...

Such is the men's society of the city of NN. If we characterize the ladies of the provincial town, then they are distinguished by external sophistication and grace: "many ladies are well dressed and in fashion", "there is an abyss in their outfits ...", but internally they are as empty as men, their spiritual life poor, primitive interests. Gogol ironically describes the "good tone" and "presentability" that distinguish the ladies, in particular their manner of speaking, which is characterized by extraordinary caution and decency in expressions: they did not say "I blew my nose", preferring to use the expression "I relieved my nose with a handkerchief", or, in general, the ladies spoke French, where "words appeared much harder than those mentioned." The speech of the ladies, a true "mixture of French with Nizhny Novgorod," is comical in the highest degree.

Describing the ladies, Gogol characterizes their essence even at the lexical level: "... a lady fluttered out of the orange house...", "... a lady fluttered up the reclined steps..." With the help of metaphors, the writer "fluttered" and "fluttered" shows the "lightness" inherent in a lady, not only physical, but also spiritual, inner emptiness and underdevelopment. Indeed, the greatest part of their interests are outfits. So, for example, a lady in all respects pleasant and simply pleasant conducts a senseless conversation about the "jolly chintz" from which the dress of one of them is made, about the material where "the stripes are narrow, narrow, and eyes and paws pass through the entire strip ... ". In addition, gossip plays a big role in the life of ladies, as well as in the life of the whole city. So, Chichikov's purchases became the subject of conversation, and the "millionaire" himself immediately became the subject of ladies' adoration. After suspicious rumors began to spread about Chichikov, the city was divided into two "opposing parties". "The women's one was engaged exclusively in the kidnapping of the governor's daughter, and the man's, the most stupid, drew attention to the dead souls" ... Such is the pastime of the provincial society, gossip and empty talk are the main occupation of the city residents. Undoubtedly, Gogol continued the traditions laid down in the comedy The Inspector General. Showing the inferiority of the provincial society, immorality, baseness of interests, spiritual callousness and emptiness of the townspeople, the writer "collects everything bad in Russia", with the help of satire denounces the vices of Russian society and the realities of contemporary reality for the writer, so hated by Gogol himself.

Provincial society in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

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