Who is the living soul in the poem dead souls. Souls "dead" and "alive" in the poem by N.V.

poem" Dead Souls"- a mysterious and amazing work. The writer worked on the creation of the poem for many years. He devoted so much deep creative thought, time and hard work to it. That is why the work can be considered immortal, brilliant. Everything in the poem is thought out to the smallest detail: characters, types of people , their way of life and much more.

The title of the work - "Dead Souls" - contains its meaning. It describes not the dead souls of serfs, but the dead souls of landlords, buried under the petty, insignificant interests of life. Buying dead souls, Chichikov - main character poems - travels around Russia and pays visits to landowners. This happens in a certain sequence: from less bad to worse, from those who still have a soul to completely soulless.

The first person Chichikov comes to is the landowner Manilov. Behind the outward pleasantness of this gentleman lies senseless daydreaming, inactivity, feigned love for the family and peasants. Manilov considers himself educated, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A pile of ashes, a dusty book that has been open to page fourteen for two years now.

Something is always missing in Manilov's house: only part of the furniture is upholstered in silk, and two armchairs are covered with matting; the household is handled by the clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner. Idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and vital interests, with seeming intelligence and culture, allow us to classify Manilov as "idle non-smokers" who give nothing to society. The second estate that Chichikov visited was Korobochka's estate. Her callousness lies in her strikingly petty vital interests. Besides the price of honey and hemp, Korobochka cares little, if not to say that she doesn't care about anything. The hostess is "an elderly woman, in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around her neck, one of those mothers, small landowners who cry for crop failures, losses and hold their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile they are gaining a little money in motley bags ... "Even on sale dead souls The box is afraid to sell cheap. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. This hoarding borders on insanity, because "all the money" is hidden and not put into circulation.

The next on the way to Chichikov is the landowner Nozdrev, who was gifted with all possible "enthusiasm". At first, he may seem like a lively and active person, but in fact it turns out to be empty. His amazing energy is directed to continuous revelry and senseless extravagance.

Added to this is another trait of Nozdrev's character - a passion for lies. But the lowest and most disgusting thing in this hero is "the passion to spoil one's neighbor." In my opinion, the soullessness of this hero lies in the fact that he cannot direct his energy and talents in the right direction. Then Chichikov gets to the landowner Sobakevich. The landowner seemed to Chichikov "very similar to a medium-sized bear." Sobakevich is a sort of "fist" whom nature "simply chopped off from the whole shoulder", not particularly smarting over his face: "she grabbed with an ax once - her nose came out, she grabbed it in another - her lips came out, she poked out her eyes with a large drill and, without scraping, let it go on light, saying, "lives."

The insignificance and pettiness of Sobakevich's soul emphasizes the description of things in his house. The furniture in the landlord's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich's objects seems to say: "And I, too, Sobakevich!".

The gallery of landlord "dead souls" is completed by the landowner Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Once Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn "stingy wisdom." But after the death of his wife, everything went to dust, suspicion and stinginess intensified to the highest degree. Soon the Plyushkin family also fell apart.

This landowner has accumulated huge stocks of "good". Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walked every day through his village and collected everything that came across and put it in a heap in the corner of the room. Mindless hoarding has led to a very rich owner starving his people, and his supplies rotting in barns.

Next to the landlords and officials - "dead souls" - there are bright images ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom in the poem. These are the images of the dead and fugitive peasants, first of all, the peasants of Sobakevich: the miraculous master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Cork, the stove-maker Milushkin. Also, this is the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebellious villages Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovka and Zadiraylova.

It seems to me that Gogol in Dead Souls understands that a conflict between two worlds is brewing: the world of serfs and the world of landowners. He warns of the upcoming collision throughout the book. And he ends his poem with a lyrical reflection on the fate of Russia. The image of Rus'-troika affirms the idea of ​​the unstoppable movement of the motherland, expresses the dream of its future and the hope for the appearance of real "virtuous people" who can save the country.

Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is one of the best works world literature. The writer worked on the creation of this poem for 17 years, but never completed his plan. "Dead Souls" is the result of many years of Gogol's observations and reflections on human destinies, the fate of Russia.

The title of the work - "Dead Souls" - contains its main meaning. This poem describes both the dead revisionist souls of serfs and the dead souls of landlords, buried under the insignificant interests of life. But it is interesting that the first, formally dead, souls turn out to be more alive than the breathing and talking landlords.

Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, carrying out his brilliant scam, visits the estates of the provincial nobility. This gives us the opportunity "in all its glory" to see the "living dead".

The first person Chichikov pays a visit to is the landowner Manilov. Behind the outward pleasantness, even the sweetness of this gentleman, is hidden senseless daydreaming, inactivity, idle talk, false love for the family and peasants. Manilov considers himself educated, noble, educated. But what do we see when we look into his office? A dusty book that has been open on the same page for two years.

Something is always missing in Manilov's house. So, in the study, only part of the furniture is covered with silk, and two chairs are covered with matting. The economy is managed by a "dexterous" clerk who ruins both Manilov and his peasants. This landowner is distinguished by idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and vital interests. And this is despite the fact that Manilov seems to be an intelligent and cultured person.

The second estate that Chichikov visited was the estate of the landowner Korobochka. It is also "dead soul". The soullessness of this woman lies in the amazingly petty interests of life. Apart from the price of hemp and honey, Korobochka cares little. Even in the sale of dead souls, the landowner is only afraid to sell too cheap. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. She tells Chichikov that she does not know any Sobakevich, and, consequently, he does not exist in the world.

In search of the landowner Sobakevich, Chichikov runs into Nozdryov. Gogol writes about this "merry fellow" that he was gifted with all possible "enthusiasm". At first glance, Nozdryov seems to be a lively and active person, but in fact he turns out to be completely empty. His amazing energy is directed only to revelry and senseless extravagance. Added to this is the passion for lies. But the lowest and most disgusting thing in this hero is "the passion to spoil one's neighbor." This is the type of people "who will start with a satin stitch and finish with a reptile." But Nozdryov, one of the few landowners, even evokes sympathy and pity. The only pity is that he directs his indomitable energy and love for life into an "empty" channel.

The next landowner on Chichikov's path is, finally, Sobakevich. He seemed to Pavel Ivanovich "very similar to a medium-sized bear." Sobakevich is a kind of "fist", which nature "simply chopped from the whole shoulder." Everything in the guise of the hero and his house is thorough, detailed and large-scale. The furniture in the landlord's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich's objects seems to say: "And I, too, Sobakevich!".

Sobakevich is a zealous owner, he is prudent, prosperous. But he does everything only for himself, only in the name of his interests. For their sake, Sobakevich will go to any fraud and other crime. All his talent went only into the material, completely forgetting about the soul.

The gallery of landowners' "dead souls" is completed by Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Gogol tells us the background of this hero. Once Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn "stingy wisdom." But after the death of his wife, the suspicion and stinginess of the hero intensified to the highest degree.

This landowner has accumulated huge stocks of "good". Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walks every day in his village and collects all the rubbish that he puts in his room. Senseless hoarding has led Plyushkin to feed himself on leftovers, while his peasants "die like flies" or run away.

The gallery of "dead souls" in the poem is continued by the images of the officials of the city of N. Gogol draws them as a single faceless mass, mired in bribes and corruption. Sobakevich gives the officials an angry, but very accurate description: "A scammer sits on a scammer and drives a scammer." Officials mess around, cheat, steal, offend the weak and tremble before the strong.

At the news of the appointment of a new governor-general, the inspector of the medical board feverishly thinks of the patients who died in significant numbers from a fever, against which proper measures were not taken. The chairman of the chamber turns pale at the thought that he has made a bill of sale for dead peasant souls. And the prosecutor generally came home and suddenly died. What sins were behind his soul that he was so frightened? Gogol shows us that the life of officials is empty and meaningless. They are just smokers of air, who have wasted their precious lives on meanness and fraud.

Next to the "dead souls" in the poem, there are bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom, talent. These are the images of the dead and fugitive peasants, primarily the men of Sobakevich: the miracle worker Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Cork, the stove-maker Milushkin. Also, this is the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebellious villages Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovka and Zadiraylova.

It was the people, according to Gogol, who retained in themselves a "living soul", national and human identity. Therefore, it is with the people that he connects the future of Russia. The writer planned to write about this in the continuation of his work. but he couldn't, he couldn't. We can only guess about his thoughts.

Having begun work on Dead Souls, Gogol wrote about his work: "All Rus' will appear in it." The writer most carefully studied the past of the Russian people - from its very sources - and the results of this work formed the basis of his work, written in a living, poetic form. On none of his works, including the comedy The Inspector General, did Gogol work with such faith in his vocation as a citizen writer, with which he created Dead Souls. He did not devote so much deep creative thought, time and hard work to any other work of his.

The main theme of the poem-novel is the theme of the present and future fate of Russia, its present and future. Passionately believing in a better future for Russia, Gogol mercilessly debunked the "masters of life" who considered themselves bearers of high historical wisdom and creators of spiritual values. The images drawn by the writer testify to the exact opposite: the heroes of the poem are not only insignificant, they are the embodiment of moral deformity.

The plot of the poem is quite simple: its main character, Chichikov, a born swindler and dirty businessman, opens up the possibility of profitable deals with dead souls, that is, with those serfs who have already gone to another world, but were still among the living. He decides to buy dead souls on the cheap and for this purpose goes to one of the county towns. As a result, readers are presented with a whole gallery of images of landowners, whom Chichikov visits in order to bring his plan to life. Story line works - the purchase and sale of dead souls - allowed the writer not only to show unusually vividly inner world actors, but also to characterize their typical features, the spirit of the era. Gogol opens this gallery of portraits of local owners with an image of a hero who, at first glance, seems to be quite an attractive person. In the guise of Manilov, it is primarily his “pleasantness” and his desire to please everyone that are striking. Manilov himself, this "very courteous and courteous landowner", admires and is proud of his manners and considers himself an extremely spiritual and educated person. However, during his conversation with Chichikov, it becomes clear that this person's involvement in culture is just an appearance, the pleasantness of manners smacks of cloying, and behind the flowery phrases there is nothing but stupidity. The whole way of life of Manilov and his family gives off vulgar sentimentality. Manilov himself lives in the illusory world he created. He has idyllic ideas about people: no matter who he talks about, everyone came out very pleasant, "most amiable" and excellent. From the very first meeting, Chichikov won the sympathy and love of Manilov: he immediately began to consider him his invaluable friend and dream about how the sovereign, having learned about their friendship, would grant them to the generals. Life in Manilov's view is complete and perfect harmony. He does not want to see anything unpleasant in her and replaces knowledge of life with empty fantasies. In his imagination there are a variety of projects that will never be implemented. Moreover, they arise not at all because Manilov seeks to create something, but because fantasizing itself gives him pleasure. He is fascinated only by the play of the imagination, but for any real action he is completely incompetent. It turned out to be easy for Chichikov to convince Manilov of the benefits of his enterprise: all he had to do was say that this was done in the public interest and fully consistent with "further views of Russia", since Manilov considers himself a person who guards public welfare.

From Manilov, Chichikov goes to Korobochka, which, perhaps, is the exact opposite of the previous hero. Unlike Manilov, Korobochka is characterized by the absence of any claims to higher culture and some kind of peculiar "simplicity". The absence of "splendor" is emphasized by Gogol even in the portrait of Korobochka: she has too unattractive, shabby appearance. The "simplicity" of Korobochka is also reflected in her relationships with people. "Oh, my father," she turns to Chichikov, "but you, like a boar, have mud all over your back and side!" All Korobochka's thoughts and desires are centered around the economic strengthening of her estate and unceasing accumulation. She is not an inactive dreamer, like Manilov, but a sober acquirer, forever swarming around her home. But Korobochka's thriftiness reveals precisely her inner insignificance. Acquisitive impulses and aspirations fill the entire consciousness of the Box, leaving no room for any other feelings. She seeks to profit from everything, from household trifles to the profitable sale of serfs, who are for her, first of all, property that she has the right to dispose of as she pleases. It is much more difficult for Chichikov to agree with her: she is indifferent to any of his arguments, since the main thing for her is to benefit herself. It is not for nothing that Chichikov calls Korobochka a "clubhead": this epithet characterizes her very aptly. Compound closed image life with gross money-grubbing determines the extreme spiritual poverty of the Box.

Further - again the contrast: from Korobochka - to Nozdryov. In contrast to the petty and mercenary Korobochka, Nozdryov is distinguished by violent prowess and a "wide" scope of nature. He is extremely active, agile and playful. Without hesitation for a moment, Nozdryov is ready to take on any Business, that is, everything that for some reason comes to his mind: “At that very moment, he suggested that you go anywhere, even to the ends of the world, enter into whatever enterprise you want, change whatever you have for whatever you want." Nozdryov's energy is devoid of any purpose. He easily starts and quits any of his ventures, immediately forgetting about him. Its ideal is people who live noisily and cheerfully, without burdening themselves with any daily worries. Wherever Nozdryov appears, a mess is started and scandals arise. Boasting and lying are the main features of Nozdryov's character. He is inexhaustible in his lies, which have become so organic for him that he lies without even feeling any need for it. With all his acquaintances, he is familiar, keeps with them on a short leg, considers everyone his friend, but he never remains true to his words or relationships. After all, it was he who subsequently debunked his "friend" Chichikov in front of the provincial society.

Sobakevich is one of those people who stands firmly on the ground, soberly assesses both life and people. When necessary, Sobakevich knows how to act and achieve what he wants. Describing the everyday way of life of Sobakevich, Gogol emphasizes that here everything "was stubborn, without shaking." Solidity, strength distinctive features both Sobakevich himself and his everyday environment. However, the physical strength of both Sobakevich and his way of life is combined with some kind of ugly clumsiness. Sobakevich looks like a bear, and this comparison is not only external: the animal nature prevails in the nature of Sobakevich, who has no spiritual needs. According to his firm conviction, the only important thing can only be taking care of one's own existence. Saturation of the stomach determines the content and meaning of his life. He considers enlightenment not only an unnecessary, but also a harmful invention: "They talk about enlightenment, enlightenment, and this enlightenment is a bang! I would say another word, but it's just indecent at the table." Sobakevich is prudent and practical, but, unlike Korobochka, he understands well environment, knows people. This is a cunning and impudent businessman, and Chichikov had a rather difficult time with him. Before he had time to utter a word about the purchase, Sobakevich had already offered him a deal with dead souls, and he had broken the price as if it were a question of selling real serfs.

Practical acumen distinguishes Sobakevich from other landowners depicted in Dead Souls. He knows how to settle down in life, but it is in this capacity that his base feelings and aspirations are manifested with particular force.

All the landowners, so vividly and ruthlessly shown by Gogol, as well as central hero Poems are living people. But can you say the same about them? Can their souls be called alive? Haven't their vices and base motives killed everything human in them? The change of images from Manilov to Plyushkin reveals an ever-increasing spiritual impoverishment, an ever-increasing moral decline of the owners of serf souls. Calling his work "Dead Souls", Gogol had in mind not only the dead serfs, whom Chichikov was chasing, but also all the living heroes of the poem, who had long since become dead.

At the beginning of work on the poem, N.V. Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: "What a huge, what an original plot! What a diverse pile! All Rus' will appear in it." So Gogol himself defined the scope of his work - all of Rus'. And the writer was able to show in its entirety both negative and positive aspects of life in Russia of that era. Gogol's idea was grandiose: like Dante, to portray the path of Chichikov, first in "hell" - Volume I of "Dead Souls", then "in purgatory" - Volume II of "Dead Souls" and "in paradise" - Volume III. But this plan was not carried out to the end, only Volume I reached the reader in full, in which Gogol shows negative sides Russian life.

In Korobochka, Gogol presents us with another type of Russian landowner. Household, hospitable, hospitable, she suddenly becomes "club-headed" in the scene of the sale of dead souls, afraid to sell too cheap. This is the type of person on his mind. In Nozdryov, Gogol showed a different form of decomposition of the nobility. The writer shows us two essences of Nozdryov: at first he is an open, daring, direct face. But then you have to make sure that Nozdryov's sociability is an indifferent familiarity with everyone you meet and cross, his liveliness is an inability to concentrate on some serious subject or business, his energy is a waste of energy in carousing and debauchery. His main passion, according to the writer himself, is "to spoil your neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all."

Sobakevich is akin to Korobochka. He, like her, is a hoarder. Only unlike Korobochka, this is a smart and cunning hoarder. He manages to deceive Chichikov himself. Sobakevich is rude, cynical, uncouth; No wonder he is compared with an animal (bear). By this Gogol emphasizes the degree of man's savagery, the degree of necrosis of his soul. Plyushkin completes this gallery of "dead souls". It's eternal in classical literature the image of a miser. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of economic, social and moral decay of the human personality.

Provincial officials adjoin the gallery of landlords, who are essentially "dead souls".

Who can we call living souls in the poem, and do they exist? I think Gogol did not intend to oppose the life of the peasantry to the suffocating atmosphere of the life of officials and landlords. On the pages of the poem, the peasants are far from being depicted in pink colors. 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 both kind words and a warm intonation when he speaks, for example, of Pyotr Neumyvay-Koryto, Ivan Koleso, Stepan Probka, and the resourceful peasant Yeremey Sorokoplekhin. These are all the people whose fate the author thought about and asked the question: "What did you, my hearts, do in your lifetime? How did you survive?"

But there is at least something bright in Rus', not susceptible to corrosion under any circumstances, there are people who make up the "salt of the earth." Did Gogol himself come from somewhere, this genius of satire and singer of the beauty of Rus'? Eat! Must be! Gogol believes in this, and therefore at the end of the poem appears artistic image Rus'-troika, rushing into the future, in which there will be no nostrils, plushies. A trio bird rushes forward. "Rus, where are you going? Give me an answer. Doesn't give an answer."

Griboedov Pushkin literary plot

The theme of living and dead souls is the main one in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". We can judge this already by the title of the poem, which not only contains a hint at the essence of Chichikov's scam, but also contains more deep meaning reflecting author's intention the first volume of the poem "Dead Souls".

There is an opinion that Gogol conceived to create the poem "Dead Souls" by analogy with Dante's poem " The Divine Comedy". This determined the proposed three-part composition of the future work. "The Divine Comedy" consists of three parts: "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise", which were supposed to correspond to the three volumes of "Dead Souls" conceived by Gogol. In the first volume, Gogol sought to show the terrible Russian reality, to recreate "hell" modern life. In the second and third volumes, Gogol wanted to portray the rebirth of Russia. Gogol saw himself as a writer-preacher who, drawing on. pages of his work a picture of the revival of Russia, brings it out. crisis.

The artistic space of the first volume of the poem consists of two worlds: the real world, where the main character is Chichikov, and the ideal world of lyrical digressions, where the narrator is the main character.

The real world of "Dead Souls" is scary and ugly. His typical representatives are Manilov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, the chief of police, the prosecutor, and many others. All of these are static characters. They have always been what we see them now. "Nozdryov at thirty-five was just as perfect as at eighteen and twenty." Gogol does not show any internal development landlords and residents of the city, this allows us to conclude that the souls of the heroes real world The "Dead Souls" are completely frozen and petrified that they are dead. Gogol portrays the landlords and officials with malicious irony, shows them funny, but at the same time very scary. After all, these are not people, but only a pale, ugly likeness of people. There is nothing human left in them. The deadly fossil of souls, absolute lack of spirituality is hidden both behind the measured life of the landowners and the convulsive activity of the city. Gogol wrote about the city of "Dead Souls": "The idea of ​​the city. Arising to the highest degree. Emptiness. Empty talk... Death strikes the untouched world. Meanwhile, the dead insensibility of life must appear to the reader even more strongly.

The life of the city outwardly boils and bubbles. But this life is really just empty vanity. In the real world of Dead Souls, a dead soul is a common occurrence. For this world, the soul is only that which distinguishes a living person from a dead person. In the episode of the prosecutor’s death, those around him guessed that he “had definitely a soul” only when “only a soulless body” was left of him. But do all the characters in the real world of "Dead Souls" really have a dead soul? No, not everyone.

Of the "indigenous inhabitants" of the real world of the poem, paradoxically and strangely enough, only Plyushkin's soul is not quite dead yet. In literary criticism, there is an opinion that Chichikov visits the landowners as they become spiritually impoverished. However, I cannot agree that Plyushkin is "deader" and more terrible than Manilov, Nozdryov and others. On the contrary, the image of Plyushkin is much different from the images of other landowners. I will try to prove this by referring first of all to the structure of the chapter devoted to Plyushkin and to the means of creating Plyushkin's character.

The chapter on Plyushkin begins with a lyrical digression, which was not the case when describing any landowner. A lyrical digression immediately sets the readers up to the fact that this chapter is significant and important for the narrator. The narrator does not remain indifferent and indifferent to his hero: in digressions, (there are two of them in Chapter VI), he expresses his bitterness from the realization of the extent to which a person could sink.

The image of Plyushkin stands out for its dynamism among the static heroes of the real world of the poem. From the narrator, we learn what Plyushkin used to be like and how his soul gradually hardened and hardened. In the story of Plyushkin, we see a life tragedy. Therefore, the question arises whether the current state of Plyushkin is a degradation of the personality itself, or is it the result of a cruel fate? At the mention of a school friend, Plyushkin's face "slid some kind of warm ray, expressed not a feeling, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling." So, after all, Plyushkin's soul has not yet completely died, which means that there is still something human left in it. Plyushkin's eyes were also alive, not yet extinguished, "running from under high-growing eyebrows like mice."

Chapter VI contains detailed description Plyushkin's garden, neglected, overgrown and decayed, but alive. The garden is a kind of metaphor for Plyushkin's soul. There are two churches on the Plyushkin estate alone. Of all the landowners, only Plyushkin delivers an internal monologue after Chichikov's departure. All these details allow us to conclude that Plyushkin's soul has not yet completely died. This is probably due to the fact that in the second or third volume of Dead Souls, according to Gogol, two heroes of the first volume, Chichikov and Plyushkin, were to meet.

The second hero of the real world of the poem, who has a soul, is Chichikov. It is in Chichikovo that the unpredictability and inexhaustibility of a living soul is most strongly shown, even if God knows how rich, albeit impoverished, but alive. Chapter XI is devoted to the history of Chichikov's soul, it shows the development of his character. Chichikov's name is Pavel, this is the name of an apostle who survived a spiritual upheaval. According to Gogol, Chichikov was to be reborn in the second volume of the poem and become an apostle, reviving the souls of the Russian people. Therefore, Gogol trusts Chichikov to tell about the dead peasants, putting his thoughts into his mouth. It is Chichikov who resurrects the former heroes of the Russian land in the poem.

The images of the dead peasants in the poem are ideal. Gogol emphasizes in them fabulous, heroic features. All biographies of the dead peasants are determined by the motive of movement passing through each of them (“Tea, all the provinces came with an ax in the belt ... Where are your fast legs now carrying you? ... And you are moving from prison to prison ...”). Exactly dead peasants in "Dead Souls" they have living souls, in contrast to the living people of the poem, whose soul is dead.

The ideal world of "Dead Souls", which appears before the reader in lyrical digressions, is the exact opposite of the real world. In an ideal world there are no Manilovs, Sobakeviches, Nozdrevs, prosecutors; there are no and cannot be dead souls in it. The ideal world is built in strict accordance with true spiritual values. For the world of lyrical digressions, the soul is immortal, since it is the embodiment of the divine principle in man. Immortals live in a perfect world human souls. First of all, it is the soul of the narrator himself. Precisely because the narrator lives by the laws ideal world and that he has an ideal in his heart, he can notice all the vileness and vulgarity of the real world. The narrator is heartbroken for Russia, he believes in its revival. The patriotic pathos of lyrical digressions proves this to us.

At the end of the first volume, the image of the Chichikovskaya chaise becomes a symbol of the ever-living soul of the Russian people. It is the immortality of this soul that gives the author faith in the obligatory revival of Russia and the Russian people.

Thus, in the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol depicts all the shortcomings, all the negative aspects of Russian reality. Gogol shows people what their souls have become. He does this because he passionately loves Russia and hopes for its revival. Gogol wanted people, after reading his poem, to be horrified by their lives and wake up from a deadly sleep. This is the task of the first volume. Describing the terrible reality, Gogol draws to us in lyrical digressions his ideal of the Russian people, speaks of the living, immortal soul of Russia. In the second and third volumes of his work, Gogol planned to transfer this ideal to real life. But, unfortunately, he was never able to show a revolution in the soul of a Russian person, he could not revive dead souls. This was the creative tragedy of Gogol, which grew into the tragedy of his whole life.

N. V. Gogol is a writer whose work has rightfully entered the golden fund of the classics of Russian literature. Gogol is a realist writer, but the connection between art and reality is complicated for him. In no case does he copy the phenomena of life, but he always interprets them in his own way. Gogol knows how to see and show the ordinary from a completely new angle, from an unexpected perspective. And then an ordinary event takes on a strange, sometimes even sinister, coloring. This is exactly what happens in the poem "Dead Souls".

The artistic space of the poem consists of two worlds, which can be conditionally designated as the “real” world and the “ideal” world. The “real” world is built by the author, recreating a contemporary picture Russian life. According to the laws of the epic, Gogol recreates reality in the poem, striving for the maximum breadth of coverage of its phenomena. This world is ugly. This world is terrible. This is a world of inverted values, spiritual guidelines in it are perverted, the laws by which it exists are immoral. But, living inside this world, having been born in it and having accepted its laws, it is almost impossible to assess the degree of its immorality, to see the abyss separating it from the world. true values. Moreover, it is impossible to understand the reason causing spiritual degradation, moral decay.

In this world live Plyushkin, Nozdrev Manilov, the prosecutor, the police chief and other heroes who are original caricatures of Gogol's contemporaries. A whole gallery of characters and types devoid of soul,

created by Gogol in a poem.

The first in the gallery of these characters is Manilov. Creating his image, Gogol uses various artistic means, including a landscape, a description of the Manilov estate, and the interior of his dwelling. Things characterize Manilov no less than the portrait and behavior: "Everyone has his own enthusiasm, but Manilov had nothing." Its main feature is uncertainty. Manilov's outward benevolence, his willingness to render a service seem to Gogol not at all attractive features, since all this is exaggerated in Manilov.

Manilov's eyes, "sweet as sugar," express nothing. And this sweetness of appearance brings a feeling of unnaturalness to every movement of the hero: here on his face appears "an expression not only sweet", but even cloying, "similar to the potion that the clever doctor sweetened mercilessly, imagining to please the patient with it." What kind of "potion" sweetened Manilov's cloying? Emptiness, its worthlessness, soullessness with endless discussions about happiness, friendship and other lofty matters. While this landowner is complacency and dreams, his estate falls into decay, the peasants have forgotten how to work.

Korobochka has a completely different attitude to the household. She has a “pretty village”, the yard is full of all kinds of birds. But Ko-robochka does not see anything further than her nose, everything “new and unprecedented” frightens her. Her behavior (which can also be noted in Sobakevich) is guided by a passion for profit, self-interest.

Sobakevich, in the words of Gogol, "damn fist." The passion for enrichment pushes him to cunning, makes him find various means of profit. Therefore, unlike other landlords, he uses an innovation - cash dues. He is not at all surprised by the sale and purchase of dead souls, but only cares about how much he will receive for them.

The representative of another type of landowners is Nozdrev. He is a fidget, a hero of fairs, card tables. He's also a bigot, a brawler, and a liar. His business is running. Only the kennel is in good condition. Among dogs, he is like a “father”. The income received from the peasants, he immediately squanders.

Plyushkin completes the portrait gallery of provincial landowners. It is shown differently than all previous types. Before us is the story of Plyushkin's life, then, like the previous heroes of Gogol, there is as if no past that would differ from the present and explain something in it. Plyushkin's deadness is absolute. Moreover, we see how gradually he lost all human qualities how he became a "dead soul".

In the estate of Plyushkin, decay and destruction, and the landowner himself even lost his human appearance: he, a man, a nobleman, can easily be mistaken for a housekeeper. In him and in his house one can feel the inevitable influence of corruption and decay. The author dubbed him "a hole in humanity."

The gallery of the landlords is crowned by Chichikov, a rogue who has everything calculated in advance, wholly seized by a thirst for enrichment, mercantile interests, who has ruined his soul.

But besides the landlords, there is also the city of N, and in it there is a governor, embroidering with silk on tulle, and ladies showing off fashionable fabrics, and Ivan Antonovich Pitcher snout, and whole line officials aimlessly eating and losing their lives at cards.

There is another hero in the poem - the people. This is the one alive soul, which preserves and reveals all the best human. Yes, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay are funny, they are funny in their narrow-mindedness, but their talent and their life is in work. And the people are part of the "ideal" world, which is built in strict accordance with true spiritual values, with that lofty ideal to which the living soul of man aspires.

The two worlds presented in the poem mutually exclude each other. In fact, the "ideal" world is opposed by the "anti-world", in which virtue is ridiculous and absurd, and vice is considered normal. To achieve a sharp contrast between the dead and the living, Gogol resorts to a variety of different techniques. Firstly, the deadness of the "real" world is determined by the dominance of the material principle in it. That is why the descriptions widely use long enumerations of material objects, as if displacing the spiritual component. The poem is also replete with fragments written in a grotesque style: characters are often compared to animals or things.

The title of the poem contains the deepest philosophical meaning. The very concept of "dead souls" is nonsense, because the soul, according to Christian canons, is immortal. For the "ideal" world, the soul is immortal, since it embodies divine origin in a person. And in the “real” world, a “dead soul” is quite possible, because for him the soul is only what distinguishes the living from the dead. So, when the prosecutor dies, those around him guessed that he "had definitely a soul" only when he became "only a soulless body." This world is insane - it has forgotten about the soul, and lack of spirituality is the cause of decay. Only with an understanding of this reason can the revival of Rus' begin, the return of lost ideals, spirituality, the soul in its true, highest meaning.

Chichikov's britzka, ideally transformed in the last lyrical digression into a symbol of the ever-living soul of the Russian people - a wonderful "three-bird", completes the first volume of the poem. Recall that the poem begins with a seemingly meaningless conversation between two peasants about whether the wheel will reach Moscow, with a description of the dusty, gray, dreary streets of the provincial city. The immortality of the soul is the only thing that instills in the author faith in the obligatory revival of his heroes and all life, all of Rus'.

Purpose of travel for provincial cities enterprising Chichikov - the purchase of audit souls, who are still on the lists of the living, but already dead. Dead and living souls in Gogol's poem acquire new meaning. The classic by the very title of the work makes one think about the life of people, the value and materiality of human existence.

Audit soul

The irony of Gogol hides behind a huge problem. "Dead Souls" is a capacious phrase that expands with each page. Two words cannot stand together. They are opposite in meaning. How does a soul become dead? The boundary between the dead working people and the merchant full of health is lost, blurred. Why couldn't another name be found? For example, people (a person) without a soul, a revision soul, human trafficking? It was possible to hide the essence of the protagonist's deal with a title about the wandering of an official.

As soon as an official, a bureaucrat, was born, crimes based on documents began. "Paper" little souls are skillfully contrived in order to enrich themselves. Even from audit lists they manage to find a benefit. Chichikov - bright representative such people. He planned to give the dead men to another world for the living, to raise his social position with their help, to appear in the world as a rich landowner with a large number of souls. And what they are, dead or no longer, no one will know.

Dead masters of life

The figurative meaning of the title of the poem is difficult for the thoughtful reader. Physically, all landowners look alive and strong. Death and disease do not hover around them. Sobakevich never experienced ailments. Nozdryov drinks more than men, but his body is full of health, and his face is "blood with milk." Manilov enjoys the view of nature, flies away, dreaming, higher than Moscow. Korobochka - smartly sells everything that her serfs do. Plyushkin drags into the house what he can lift. None of them can be imagined as dead. But the author seeks to convey a different meaning. The landlords are dead at heart. The contradiction raises a lot of questions: a living person is a dead essence. What is left of man? Why can't he be considered ordinary lively, passionate and active?

From human image only the form remains, the shell. The landowners fulfill their physiological needs: they eat, sleep, roam. There is no thing that a living person should do. There is no development, movement, desire to benefit others.

Literary critics argued with the position of the author. Some tried to prove the vitality of the characters by the presence of a passion that only the living can have. Greed, greed, rudeness, cunning - negative qualities confirm the lack of spirituality, but not the deadness of the representatives of the landlords.

Most agreed with the classic. The landowners are lined up in ascending order of degradation: from the initial stage (Manilov) to the complete collapse of the personality (Plyushkin).

Living images

Russian peasants stand out with other features, they are living souls in the poem "Dead Souls". Even the landowners recognize them as alive. The serfs did so much good for them that the merchants feel sorry for the dead. Pity, of course, is built on greed: no income. Even the dead they want to sell at a higher price. Each peasant from Chichikov's list has his own craft, talent and favorite thing. Gogol believes in the future of Russia with such people. He hopes that the landowners will also begin to change, to be reborn. The troika bird takes Rus' away from slavery and poverty into another free world. beautiful nature, flight.

The basis of the plot of the poem N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" is based on the journey of the landowner-adventurer Chichikov, who travels all over Russia and buys from the feudal lords the peasant souls that do not actually exist, but still appear in the documents. However, it is not the fact of Chichikov's ingenious trip that is important, but the reflection in the poem of the characters and customs of the people of that era. In five "portrait" chapters, which tell about the meeting of the hero with the landlords, it is shown how differently and at the same time the same in essence, serf relations developed in Gogol's time (that is, in the first half of the 19th century) in one of the provincial corners of Russia and how they were reflected in the way of life and characters of the landowners of that time.

The landowners meet Chichikov in the order that corresponds to the author's intention. First, Pavel Ivanovich meets with the mismanaged and soft-bodied Manilov, then with the petty Korobochka, then with the reveler and "master of life" Nozdryov, after him with the stingy Sobakevich, and at the end with the miser Plyushkin. Thus, as we read the poem, we encounter more and more perverted characters. In essence, these heroes are "dead" souls in the poem.

So, the gallery of "portraits" presented in Gogol's poem begins with the landowner Manilov. Manilov's appearance, his cutesy manners fully correspond to the main properties of his character - senseless daydreaming and complete detachment from life. IN Everyday life Manilov, we do not observe any serious independent initiatives. He abandoned the farm a long time ago, the estate is managed by a clerk. As we learn from Manilov's conversation with Chichikov, the unfortunate landowner has no idea how many peasants he actually has and whether any of them have died since the last census. The idleness and mental lethargy of the landowner is eloquently evidenced by the fact that for two years now there has been a book in his office, laid all on the same page and since then has never been taken into his hands.

However, not everything is so bad in Manilov: sometimes a thirst for activity awakens in him, and he begins to daydream, dreaming, for example, of building stone bridge across the pond near his house. The only pity is that these dreams were never destined to come true, and in general, all Manilov projects seem to be fun that a real owner should not think about.

As we move away from Manilov, we remember him with increasing sympathy: although he is empty, he is harmless and even charming in his own way, while the rest of the representatives of this class appear in the image of Gogol as truly disgusting. This quality received the greatest expression in the image of Plyushkin.

Plyushkin, according to the author, is a "hole in humanity." Everything that was human in him had long since died. The amazed Chichikov sees before him an amorphous creature that has lost all signs of sex and age. Depicting Plyushkin, the author shows what a person can turn into if he forgets about his true destiny.

The feeling of death is present, it seems, in the very atmosphere surrounding the “patched” Plyushkin: his estate has long since fallen into disrepair, the house looks like a “decrepit invalid”. At the same time, Plyushkin owns thousands of souls of serfs, and his barns and storerooms are full of various goods. However, everything acquired and accumulated rots, the peasants, left without work and bread, “are dying like flies,” and the owner, driven by pathological stinginess, continues to accumulate all sorts of rubbish in his house. His frugality borders on insanity. Plyushkin's soul is so dead that he has no feelings left, and he does not even want to know his children. “A person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness, vileness!” the writer exclaims.

In his poem, Gogol contrasts the “dead” souls of the landlords with the “living” souls of the people, in which, despite all the hardships and obstacles, the flame of diligence, sympathy, and love does not fade. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, Stepan Cork, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay, carriage maker Mikheev, serf girl Pelageya, Proshka and Mavra, brick maker Milushkin appear in this work. The author is annoyed and bitterly sorry that the peasant - a "living" soul, a representative of the majority of the country's population, its breadwinner and protector - is shamefully dependent on "dead" souls. Gogol's poem is an attempt by the writer to pay attention thinking people intolerance of such a situation in Russia.