The image of the road in dead souls briefly. NPK "the symbolic meaning of the image of the road in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" and its relevance in modern Russia"
THE IMAGE OF THE ROAD IN N.V. GOGOL'S POEM "DEAD SOULS"Roads are difficult, but worse without roads...
The motif of the road in the poem is very multifaceted.
The image of the road is embodied in a direct, non-figurative meaning - this is either a flat road along which Chichikov's spring cart gently rides ("The horses stirred and carried, like fluff, a light cart"), then bumpy country roads, or even impassable mud, in which Chichikov falls out , getting to Korobochka (“The dust lying on the road quickly kneaded into mud, and every minute it became harder for the horses to drag the britzka”). The road promises the traveler a variety of surprises: heading towards Sobakevich, Chichikov finds himself at Korobochka, and in front of the coachman Selifan "the roads spread in all directions, like caught crayfish ...".
This motif acquires a completely different meaning in the famous lyrical digression of the eleventh chapter: the road with a rushing chaise turns into the path along which Rus' flies, “and, looking sideways, step aside and give it way to other peoples and states.”
This motif contains the unknown paths of Russian national development: “Rus, where are you going, give me an answer? Doesn’t give an answer”, representing an opposition to the paths of other peoples: “What twisted, deaf, narrow, impassable, drifting roads mankind has chosen ...”. But it cannot be said that these are the very roads on which Chichikov got lost: those roads lead to Russian people, maybe in the backwoods, maybe in a hole where there are no moral principles, but still these roads make up Russia, Russia itself - and there is a big road leading a person into a vast space, absorbing a person, eating him all. Having turned off one road, you find yourself on another, you cannot follow all the paths of Rus', just as you cannot collect the caught crayfish back into the bag. It is symbolic that from the outback of Korobochka Chichikov is shown the way by an illiterate girl Pelageya, who does not know where the right is, where the left is. But, having got out of Korobochka, Chichikov gets to Nozdrev - the road does not lead Chichikov to where he wants, but he cannot resist it, although he is making some plans of his own for the further path.
The way of life of the hero is embodied in the image of the road (“but for all that, his road was difficult ...”), and the creative path of the author: “And for a long time it was determined by my wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes ...”
The road is also an assistant to Gogol in creating the composition of the poem, which then looks very rational: the exposition of the plot of the journey is given in the first chapter (Chichikov meets officials and some landowners, receives invitations from them), then five chapters follow, in which the landowners sit, and Chichikov travels from chapter to chapter in his britzka, buying up dead souls.
The main character's chaise is very important. Chichikov is the hero of the journey, and the chaise is his home. This substantive detail, being, undoubtedly, one of the means of creating the image of Chichikov, plays a large plot role: there are many episodes and plot twists in the poem that are motivated just by the britzka. Not only does Chichikov travel in it, that is, thanks to her, the plot of the journey becomes possible; the britzka also motivates the appearance of the characters of Selifan and three horses; thanks to her, she manages to escape from Nozdrev (that is, the chaise rescues Chichikov); The chaise collides with the carriage of the governor's daughter and thus a lyrical motif is introduced, and at the end of the poem Chichikov even appears as the kidnapper of the governor's daughter. The cart is a living character: she is endowed with her own will and sometimes does not obey Chichikov and Selifan, goes her own way and finally dumps the rider into the impassable mud - so the hero, against his will, gets to Korobochka, who greets him with affectionate words: “Oh, father my, but you, like a boar, have mud all over your back and side! Where so deigned to be salted? » In addition, the chaise, as it were, determines the ring composition of the first volume: the poem opens with a conversation between two men about how strong the wheel of the chaise is, and ends with the breakdown of that very wheel, which is why Chichikov has to stay in the city.
In creating the image of the road, not only the road itself plays a role, but also characters, things and events. The road is the main "outline" of the poem. Only all side plots are already sewn on top of it. As long as the road goes, life goes; while life goes on, there is a story about this life.
The image of the road in the poem "" is quite diverse and ambiguous. This is a symbolic image that denotes the journey of the protagonist from one landowner to another, this is the movement of life that develops in the expanses of Russian land.
Very often in the text of the poem we are faced with a confusing image of the road, it leads the traveler into the wilderness and only circles him and circles. What does this description of this image say? I think this emphasizes the unrighteous goals and desires of Chichikov, who wanted to cash in on buying dead souls.
While the protagonist travels around the neighborhood, the author of the work does it together with him. We read and think about Gogol's remarks and expressions, we notice that he is very familiar with these places.
The image of the road is revealed in different ways in the perception of the heroes of the poem. The main character - Chichikov loves to drive on roads, loves fast driving, soft dirt road. The pictures of nature surrounding him are not pleasing to the eye and do not cause admiration. Everything around is scattered, poor and uncomfortable. But, with all this, it is the road that gives rise in the author's head to thoughts about the homeland, about something secretive and alluring. It is for the protagonist that the road can be compared with his life path. Traveling along the paths and back streets of the city of NN indicate a false and incorrectly chosen life path. At the same time, the author traveling nearby sees in the image of the road a difficult and thorny path to fame, the path of a writer.
If we analyze the real road, which is described in the text of the poem "Dead Souls", then it appears before us all in bumps and potholes, with mud, shaky bridges and barriers. It was with such roads that the entire territory of Russia at that time was lined.
M.A. Weak-bearded
FESGU, Faculty of Philology, 3rd year
SYMBOLIC SPACE "ROADS"
IN THE POEM "DEAD SOULS"
Many studies have been devoted to the poem "Dead Souls". The work of the classic was considered in a variety of aspects. In the poem, a historical and philosophical plan of narration is singled out, its symbolic ambiguity is noted; attention was focused on the special meaning of lyrical digressions. Of course, it cannot be said that the theme of the road in Dead Souls has remained outside the field of research attention. On the contrary, it is difficult to find works where this topic is not discussed. For a poem, the plot of which is based on the journey, the "wandering" of the character, the image of the road, of course, is key. This article aims to study the symbolic plan of the image of the road in the poem "Dead Souls".
Understanding the image of the road in "Dead Souls" has its own tradition. Even Andrei Bely (1880-1934) in his book “Gogol’s Mastery” included the image of the road in the context of his consideration, connected the motives of Chichikov’s “leaving”, “turning off” the main road with unexpected turns in the logic of the course of events.
In this regard, the work of M. Huss (1900-1984) “Living Russia and Dead Souls” is interesting, where the author traces the history of Chichikov’s journey; proves that in Gogol's poem the reader sees not only a real traveler, but also an invisible one, a kind of lyrical hero who gives his own assessment of Chichikov's deeds.
I.P. most consistently addressed this image. Zolotussky (1930). He devoted two voluminous works to the study of the personality of N.V. Gogol and his work: “In the footsteps of Gogol” and “Poetry of prose”. In the first book devoted to the biography of the writer, the scientist notes that the theme of the road is close to the author of "Dead Souls" also because he himself traveled a lot. In another study, I. Zolotussky draws attention to the ambiguity and ambiguity of the image of the three-bird, subtly analyzes the solar images of the wheel and the penny.
The work of Yu.M. Lotman (1922-1993) "On Gogol's "realism". Yu.M. Lotman approached the study of the meaning of the image of the road in the poem from the theoretical side. He, following M.M. Bakhtin, calls the road a universal form of space organization and draws a thin line between the synonyms "path" and "road", delimiting them.
Before proceeding to a direct analysis of the symbolic image of the road used by N.V. Gogol in Dead Souls, let us recall a small dialogue with which the narrative opens: “Look at you,” one said to the other, “what a wheel! What do you think, will that wheel, if it happens, reach Moscow or not?” “It will come,” answered the other. “But I don’t think he will reach Kazan?” - “He won’t reach Kazan,” answered another.
The dialogue is a dispute between two simple men about the wheel. With such a conversation, Chichikov's journey begins. It may seem that this episode represents a very everyday picture and has nothing to do with further narration, except that the wheel belongs to Chichikov's britzka, has nothing to do with it. However, the dispute that precedes further narration carries an important semantic load. In mythology, various representations are associated with the image of the wheel, the common basis of which is the consideration of the image of the wheel as an image of a cyclic rhythm, the continuity of the universe. In the process of reading, the reader repeatedly encounters the motif of a cyclically closed space: the action of the poem begins in the city of N and ends here, while visiting the landowners, Chichikov has to constantly move off the high road and come back again.
In addition to N.V. Gogol, some other Russian writers resorted to the image of the wheel, among them A.N. Ostrovsky (1904-1936) can be distinguished. In the play Profitable Place, he depicted fortune as a wheel: “Fate is like fortune ... as depicted in the picture ... the wheel, and people on it ... rises up and again falls down, rises and then humbles itself, exalts himself and again nothing ... so everything is circular. Arrange your well-being, work, acquire property ... ascend in dreams ... and suddenly naked! . Chichikov's life path from his arrival in the city of N to his exposure at the governor's ball appears before the reader like a fortune.
Despite the importance of the image of the wheel in the construction of the plot of the poem, the center-forming role belongs to the image of the road. The chronotope of the road is the main way of organizing the artistic space in the work. M. M. Bakhtin (1895-1975) in his work “Epic and Romance”, along with the chronotope of the road, singles out the chronotope of the meeting associated with it and says that the “road” is a predominant place of chance meetings. On the road, the paths of the most diverse people intersect - representatives of all classes, conditions and ages. Here the rows of human destinies and lives are peculiarly combined. The "road" is the starting point and the place where events take place. On the road, the socio-historical diversity of the country is revealed and shown.
And if we turn to Slavic mythology close to Gogol, it turns out that here the “road” is a ritually and sacredly significant locus. Such a definition reflects the multifaceted metaphorization of the path-road: “life path”, “enter on a new road”, “historical path”. The connection of the road with the semantics of the path makes it a place where fate is known, good luck or bad luck is manifested, which are realized during random encounters with people and animals. The mythological semantics and ritual functions of the road are most pronounced at the intersection of two or more roads, at forks. The motive of the road is very close to N.V. Gogol. Many of his works take place on the road. From the road leading to Sorochintsy, his first story opens, and the last story ends on the road (“Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”); "Dead Souls" is Chichikov's road.
The road in the poem is given in several semantic plans. First of all, the chronotope of the road helps the author to most fully reveal to the reader the nature of the Chichikov adventure with dead souls. In addition, the lyrical aspect of considering the image of the road cannot be ignored. The author skillfully introduces lyrical digressions into the structure of the narrative, thanks to which the road comes to life and becomes a full-fledged hero of the poem.
Consider the image of the road as the life path of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. It would be appropriate to compare the fate of Chichikov, revealed to the reader on the pages of the poem, with the "wheel of fortune" of N.A. Ostrovsky. Indeed, the history of Chichikov is the history of his gradual ascent and loud fall.
From the first pages of the poem, Chichikov's arrival does not make any noise in the provincial town of N. Quietly and imperceptibly, the britzka on soft springs rolled up to the gates of the hotel. Here, in the city, the story begins. Here, the still semi-mysterious Chichikov makes acquaintances, and, as in the prologue, almost all the characters pass by.
The movement starts from the second chapter. Chichikov, warming his insidious plans in his heart, decides to go out of town. The first among the landowners whom he visited was Manilov. Chichikov's departure made much more noise in the city than his recent arrival. chaise with thunder left the hotel. On the way, the carriage drew the attention of the townspeople passing by: “The passing priest took off his hat, several boys in soiled shirts held out their hands, saying:“ Master, give it to the orphan. The orphan's appeal to our hero deserves special attention: "Barin". Here one can see a hint of ambition, the cherished dream of Chichikov, striving to make his way from a simple gentleman, as Gogol describes him in the first chapter, from “nothing else” to “master”, before whom even hats are taken off. The action develops according to the "law of the wheel".
In parallel, Gogol describes urban and suburban roads. As soon as the britzka left the pavement, she jumped over the stones. The pavement here is compared to flour, the salvation from which the coachman Selifan, like many others, sees in a striped barrier. Having moved off the pavement, the heroes rushed along the soft earth. The description of the suburban road evokes a sharp dissonance: “As soon as the city went back, they started writing, according to our custom, nonsense and game on both sides of the road: hummocks, spruce, low liquid bushes of young pines, burnt trunks of old ones, wild heather and the like. nonsense."
Thus, Chichikov, from the environment of high society, the balls, plunges into a lower environment, the environment of the village, where all the time he will have to see dust and dirt. Significant are the words with which the author characterizes the suburban road - "nonsense and game." The fact is that Chichikov's adventures are not an easy journey along a light high road, on the contrary, he will have to wander, turning off the main road into lanes.
Despite the future success of the deal with Manilov, the path to it turned out to be quite difficult for the character. As soon as he left the city road and onto the highway, Chichikov got lost. He passes the fifteenth verst, then the sixteenth, but still does not see the village. The narrator explains this phenomenon as a typical feature of a Russian person: “if a friend invites you to his village fifteen miles away, it means that there are thirty faithful to it.” The further route to Manilovka was suggested by the peasants met by Chichikov. The description of the road leading to the village is noteworthy: “If you drive a verst, then go straight to the right. There is a master's house on the mountain. Here is a very important detail. Chichikov, driving off the high road, turns right. Turns, ups and downs from now on become the effective beginning of Chichikov's dubious wandering. If we graphically depict Chichikov's turn from the high road and his return to it, then we get a circle, that is, a symbolic image of a wheel, a cyclic rhythm. Repeated repetition of a certain action causes associations with the performance of a certain ritual. It has already been noted earlier that it is at the intersection of the road that its mythological and sacred significance is manifested to a greater extent. It can be assumed that turning Chichikov's carriage to the right before visiting the landowners and making a deed of sale with them is a kind of ritual, a kind of spell for good luck.
So, having made a right turn, Chichikov sets off for the village of Manilov. According to the "law of the wheel", this deal, the first for the hero, ended more than successfully. He hurries back to the main road to go to Sobakevich. Being in a contented mood, Chichikov does not pay any attention to the road that rushes past the window. The coachman Selifan is also busy with his thoughts. Only a strong clap of thunder woke them both. Sunny moods are instantly replaced by gloomy ones.
Heavenly colors thicken from the clouds, and the dusty road is sprayed with raindrops, which makes it dirty, clayey and viscous. As a result of this, a very plausible immersion into darkness occurs. Soon the rain intensifies so that the road becomes invisible. Thus, fate, or the imperious hand of the author, forces Chichikov's britzka to turn off the main path to a side one. The coachman Selifan, unable to remember how many turns he has driven, turns right again.
The author draws a clear line between a wide and light high road and a lane into which the characters have moved out. No wonder the soil around the corner is compared to a harrowed field. The collisions of Chichikov's journey were convincingly explained by D.S. Merezhkovsky (1865-1941) in his work "Gogol and the Devil": for Chichikov, the high road is a bright, kind and true path in his life. But, obsessed with the idea of getting rich, he is forced to turn off and move along a different path, a dark one. But even at the turns Chichikov met with trouble: "He [Selifan] began to slightly turn the britzka, turned and turned and finally turned it completely on its side." Chichikov's chaise will be "smeared" with mud more than once. Let us remember the girl whom Korobochka sends along with the carriage to show the guests the high road. She, having stood with one foot on the master's step, "first soiled it with mud, and then climbed to the top." Secondly, the rain that passed the day before also makes itself felt. The author describes how the wheels of the chaise, capturing the dirty earth, "became soon covered with it like felt." Don't these details play the role of a prediction, a warning of Chichikov's adventure? Focusing on such details, Gogol points out that Chichikov achieves his very noble goal - to get rich - by completely ignoble means. This is expressed in the fact that, striving for the heights, he steps into the mud, and this path seems to him the easiest. However, having once committed such an offense, he is no longer able to refuse easy "profit", as a result of which he has to plunge into it more than once, as evidenced by the image of a wheel covered with mud, like felt. In the short term, Chichikov will have an almost heroic "fight" with the local landowner Korobochka; and a little further he will fall into the mud, but in a figurative sense, at the governor's ball. This once again confirms that the action of the poem develops according to the “law of the wheel”.
In the poem "Dead Souls", along with "living" heroes, who appear before the reader in human form, there are "inanimate" heroes - the wheel and the road - which, nevertheless, carry a very important semantic load. The wheel acts as an identifier, or litmus test, which very soon indicates changes in the personality of the protagonist, whether they are external or internal. Yesterday, cheerful and dreamy, today the coachman Selifan, leaving Korobochka, “is stern all the way and at the same time very attentive.” Once at Nozdryov, Chichikov and some other characters immediately set off to inspect his possessions. N.V. Gogol describes them in the following ways: “Nozdryov led his guests through a field, which in many places consisted of hummocks. The guests had to make their way between fallows and raised fields. In many places their feet squeezed out the water under them. The author also awards this road with the epithet "nasty". It is noteworthy that the character of Nozdrev himself was similar to this bumpy and "nasty" road.
Soon Chichikov, realizing the mistake of visiting Nozdryov, and most importantly, his initiation into his plans, rushes away from the village at all times. The entire crew, including the horses harnessed to it, turns out to be out of sorts, so few people pay attention to the road. And again we, describing the circle, return to the case when Chichikov, being in a dreamy state of mind, was driving from Manilov. The road does not forgive an inattentive attitude towards oneself - a wisdom known to all. So it was conceived according to the plot of N.V. Gogol. This time, our heroes "came to their senses and woke up only when a carriage with six horses jumped on them and almost over their heads there was a cry from the ladies sitting in it, abuse and threats of someone else's coachman" . Recall that the motive of the meeting is an important detail of the chronotope of the road. MM Bakhtin, as noted above, said that the main place of chance meetings is the road.
Meeting with the ladies plays an important role in the further development of the plot. She prepares Chichikov for the governor's ball, where he will have to rotate among many representatives of high society. Some researchers, in particular D.S. Merezhkovsky, in relation to Chichikov to a beautiful girl, see the main positive idea of the hero - the idea of "women and Chichenki", which, however, is aimed only at the complete assertion of its own existence. However, in Chichikov's admiration, his next desire for a "penny" is manifested. After all, our hero, barely saying “Glorious grandmother!”, Begins to think about her position in society: “And it would be interesting to know whose she is? What, like her father? Is it a wealthy landowner of respectable character, or just a well-meaning person with capital acquired in the service? After all, if, let's say, this girl is given two hundred thousand dowry, a very, very tasty morsel could come out of her.
The trip to Sobakevich was supposed to be Chichikov's last visit for "dead souls", but here he learns about Plyushkin, a local landowner whose peasants are "dying like flies." Gogol does not go into the description of the road from Sobakevich to Plyushkin. The fact is that at this stage of the trip, the reader is distracted by Chichikov's lyrical digression and thoughts about the nickname that the peasants gave Plyushkin. As a result, the author, in an effort to make up for the loss of pace, takes a number of measures to draw the reader's attention to a new cycle. Thus, the description of the road appears before us only at the entrance to the village. Here, the pavement met the heroes with a “pretty push”: “its logs, like piano keys, rose up and down, and the unguarded rider acquired either a bump on the back of his head, or a blue spot on his forehead, or it happened with his own teeth to bite off the tip of his own tongue painfully” . The log pavement is a reminder of the city pavement, which became a real torment for the coachman Selifan. Note that Gogol enhances the description of the village pavement in order to indicate the degree of devastation that reigned in the Plyushkin estate. However, like the first time, Chichikov's torment promises him good luck. We see the successful completion of the transaction and the departure of the cart to the city.
The plot of the poem by N.V. Gogol is built according to the law of ring composition. Chichikov returns to the provincial town N, from which his journey began, however, he returns in a different status: he is famous and "rich". This fact is another reminder that the action of the poem is built according to the "law of the wheel", which we stipulated at the very beginning.
So, returning to the city, Chichikov makes a bill of sale. Like a talisman, Manilov accompanies him everywhere. Sobakevich is present at the signing of the papers. It is noteworthy that none of them mentions that the souls are dead, and the papers are just fiction. Thus, the author in every possible way postpones the time of exposure, thus giving Chichikov, as well as himself, the opportunity to carefully prepare for the meeting. The deal, meanwhile, is successfully completed, and the main setting is transferred to the governor's ball. Both governor's balls (the first - acquaintance with Chichikov, general sympathy for him, the beginning of his success; the second - in fact, farewell to him, scandal, growth of suspicions) form a symmetrical structure in the form of a frame structure. A visit to the chamber, a conversation with its chairman, and the making of a bill of sale form a connecting link that, strictly speaking, does not have an independent compositional significance within the fragment under consideration, but is updated in connection with the theme of the later developed scandal associated with the exposure of Chichikov.
Nozdryov was called upon to dispel the halo of lies around the figure of Chichikov. He planted a seed of doubt in the minds of those present, which changed the attitude towards Chichikov to the diametrically opposite one. Korobochka was called to finish the job, and she came to the city, worrying about whether she had sold cheap with the sale of "dead souls". Exposed, Chichikov soon leaves the ill-fated city N: “Our hero, sitting better on a Georgian rug, put a leather pillow behind his back, squeezed two hot rolls, and the crew went to dance and sway.” It is noteworthy that N.V. Gogol completes the story of Chichikov with precisely the gallery of images of nature with which he opens it: “Meanwhile, the britzka turned into deserted streets; soon there were only long wooden fences, heralding the end of the city. Now the pavement has ended, and the barrier, and the city is behind, and there is nothing, and again on the road. This description, along with other events, forms the ring (or frame) composition of the poem.
Summing up the study of the symbolic meaning of the image of the road in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls", it is necessary to talk about the multifunctionality of this image. First of all, as M.M. Bakhtin noted, the chronotope of the road serves as the main way of organizing the artistic space and, thereby, contributes to the movement of the plot. Along with this, we note that the image of the road within the framework of this poem is closely connected with the image of the wheel, which, in turn, contributes to the formation of certain circles, cycles in the work.
Notes
Bely, A. Gogol's Mastery: A Study. - M.: MALP, 1996. - 351 p.
Gus, M.S. Living Russia and Dead Souls. - M.: Soviet writer, 1981. - 336 p.
Zolotussky, I.P. In the footsteps of Gogol. - M.: Children's literature, 1984. - 191 p.
Zolotussky, I.P. Poetry of prose: articles about Gogol. - M.: Soviet writer, 1987. - 240 p.
Lotman, Yu.M. On the "realism" of Gogol. // Gogol in Russian Criticism: An Anthology / Compiled by S.G. Bocharov. - M .: Fortuna EL, 2008. - p. 630-652
Gogol, N.V. Dead Souls. // Collected works in 7 volumes. / under the general editorship of S.I. Mashinsky and M.B. Khrapchenko. - M .: Fiction, 1978. Volume 5.
Ostrovsky, A.N. Plum. // Collected works in 3 volumes. - M .: Fiction, 1987. Volume 1.
Bakhtin, M.M. Epic and novel. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2000. - 304 p.
Julien, N. Dictionary of Symbols. – Ch.: Ural L.T.D., 1999. – 498 p.
Merezhkovsky, D.S. Gogol and hell. – M.: Scorpion, 1906. – 219 p.
Answers to exam questions in literature 11th grade 2005
Cheat sheet >> Literature and Russian language... souls « dead" and "live" poem N.V. Gogol " Dead souls". (Ticket 10) 20. Lyrical digressions in poem N. V. Gogol " Dead souls"... narratives introduced by vast geographic space: Polovtsian steppe. ... melancholy ("Winter road"), mentally tormented ...
Answers to examination questions in literature 11th grade 2006
Cheat sheet >> Literature and Russian languageMy decent creation." Why poem? "Dead souls" thought by analogy with ... Russia. Not only in the airless space fantasy, but also in a certain, ... iron road". Iron road here is an image symbolic. We have an iron road life...
A word about Igor's regiment. Basic images. The idea of patriotism
Abstract >> Literature and Russian language... "On the iron road"- easy to hold ... develops into symbolic, which receives ... the scale of the displayed space and time... Dead souls" poem. « Dead souls" N.V. Gogol. The meaning of the name and the originality of the genre. The concept of " dead
>Compositions based on Dead Souls
road image
N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is considered one of the author's best works and occupies a worthy place in Russian literature of the 19th century. This work has a deep meaning and reveals several pressing topics at once. The author managed to masterfully show Russia of that period and the last days of serfdom. A special place in the work is occupied by the theme of the road. The main character, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, travels from city to city in search of "sellers" of dead souls. It is through the movement of the protagonist along the roads that a broad picture of life in Rus' is formed.
The poem begins with "dear" and ends with the same. However, if at first Chichikov enters the city with hopes of a quick enrichment, then at the end he runs away from it in order to save his reputation. The theme of the road is extremely important in the work. For the author, the road is the personification of life, movement and internal development. The road along which the main character travels smoothly turns into the road of life. When he wanders along the tangled roads that lie in the wilderness, sometimes leading nowhere, this symbolizes the deceitful path that he has chosen for his enrichment.
There is a remarkable phrase in the work, which the landowner Korobochka drops and which reveals the essence of the road. When Chichikov asks her how to get to the main road, she replies that it is not surprising to explain, but there are many turns. These phrases carry a symbolic meaning. The reader, together with the author, is invited to think about how to get to the "high road" of life. And then the answer sounds that it is possible to get there, only there will be many obstacles and difficulties on the way. Thus, throughout the following chapters, the author acts as a guide and leads his hero along intricate roads from one estate to another.
In the final chapter follows a lyrical digression about the roads of Russia. This is a kind of hymn to the movement, in which Rus' is compared with a rushing troika. In this digression, the author intertwines his two favorite themes: the theme of the road and the theme of Russia. It shows the meaning of the historical movement of the country. For the author, it is in the road that the whole Russian soul lies, its scope and fullness of life. Thus, the road in the work is Rus' itself. It should lead the country to a better, brighter future. Moreover, it must revive a society entangled in the contradictions of life.
ROAD AND WAY. POEM ABOUT THE WHEEL
Annotation: Analyzing Gogol's poem, the author separates the concepts of "road" and "path", talking about Chichikov's adventures, and connects them when Chichikov, under Gogol's pen, realizes that he "stumbled from the straight path", that he "has no love for good" , that is, together with his creator, he goes the way "from darkness to light."
Key words: road and path - the concepts of geographical and spiritual; many roads - one way; momentary and eternal; self-interest, circling around the Russian land, a revolution in Chichikov's soul, the great idea of \u200b\u200bthe "great poem"; the metaphor of the wheel is the poetic code of Dead Souls.
The road and the path in Gogol's poem either converge or diverge two concepts: the road and the path. The road is movement in space, on the map of Russia, from city to city, from village to village. This is the following along the postal stations and milestones. The road is a geographical concept, the way is spiritual.
"I am the way," says Christ. If we adhere to the final plan of the poem, which was determined at the end of the forties (the time when “Selected Places from Correspondence with Friends” was created), then this is the path that Chichikov will have to take.
For there is no third way, as the Holy Scriptures say. And the Gospel, as stated in the second epistle of the Apostle Peter, can be called "the path of truth" or "the path of righteousness."
The path to Christ is a stern vow made to oneself, a narrow path (literally: a path "burdened" with sorrow). In Jesus, the goal is identical to the path.
The path may be determined on the road, but it will never merge with it. There are many roads, but only one way. In June 1842, Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: “Heavenly power will help me climb the ladder that lies ahead of me, although I stand on its lowest and first steps.”
The path is God’s plan for the salvation of man (see Acts, 3-10), and when printing the first volume of Dead Souls, Gogol knew this: “Having cooled down for a long time And extinguished for all the excitement and passions of the world, I live in my inner world.”
The first volume, in his opinion, is only "a slightly pale prelude to that great poem that is being built in me and will finally solve the riddle of my existence."
All this is said on the threshold of the second volume, by the end of which ChichiKOBblM will see his path drawn.
Selfish circling around the Russian land, now and then being resolved by crises, must at a critical point turn his soul.
Paradoxically, but here the paths and paths of the author and his hero converge. The "Great Poem" is "built" in Gogol himself, who does not separate it from himself, but himself from Chichikov.
Already in 1842, he understands that the matter will not be limited to “dead souls”, that self-interest itself will ask for mercy. Chichikov has some sins, Gogol has others. But there is no salvation without cleansing from sin.
“Sins, indications of sins my soul longs and longs for! Gogol writes in July 1842. “If you only knew what a holiday is happening inside me now when I discover a vice in myself.”
Isn't this the holiday that its hero should also celebrate at the end of the "great poem"?
That is why she is “great”, because her plan and the plan of the life of Gogol himself are great.
The “forger of false papers” will also have to stand on the stairs that he wants to climb.
The full title of the poem is Chichikov's Adventures, or Dead Souls. "Adventures" accurately conveys Gogol's original idea. Chichikov in the poem "walks", one might even say rejoice, and his journey is quicklike an adventurous adventure,than a serious business. He lay downKo rolls in his chaise, easily cheated does business.
The word "adventures" includes this lightness, this windiness. The long-term perspective is not visible: whatever comes to hand goes into production.
This wandering on the top, the plot of luck (or, conversely, failure), buffoonery and acting.
The opening chapters of Dead Souls are a classic picaresque novel, as common as a genre in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Vladimir Dal interprets the word "adventure" as follows: "An adventure, an accident, an incident with someone, especially when traveling." Gulliver's Journey, for example, cannot be called adventures, because this is not an adventure, but a very capital plot.
Adventures can be considered the adventures of Khlestakov in The Inspector General. There is only one difference from Dead Souls. Chichikov fools deliberately, Khlestakov on a whim. On the way, he loses his vacation pay to an infantry captain, and when he arrives at city N, he restores the loss at the expense of the mayor and the company.
"Dead Souls" was born in the element of "Inspector General", in the element of unbridled laughter and road incidents, and they dawned in Gogol's imagination at the same time as "Inspector General", in the fall
1835. In the initial chapters, the handwriting of the creator Khlestakov is clearly visible. At the end of that autumn, Gogol wrote to MP Pogodin: “Laugh, let's laugh more now. Long live comedy! But, as always with Gogol, tragedy was added to the comedy.
Realizing that Gogol's poem is fiction, let's try to correlate Chichikov's route with the postal map of the 30s of the 19th century.
Chichikov makes a detour of the Russian province in a circle, And his wheel dictates this choice to him, or rather the metaphor of the wheel, which is the poetic code of Dead Souls.
They begin with the “wheel” (the conversation of two men near the walls of the tavern about the wheel of the visitor’s britzka) and end with it: the wheel takes Chichikov’s troika out of the city N not when it wants to
Chichikov, but at your own discretion. The wheel is almost a rock and a higher will. As soon as he breaks down, the route of the cart changes, it is worth recovering, and again Chichikov goes to the wrong place.
The peasants, looking at the visitor, ask one another: will the wheel of his britzka reach Kazan or Moscow or not?
By the name of these cities, one can at least establish at what point in the Russian Empire Chichikov currently resides. The fact that he once lived in Moscow, we learn from the story of his youth (chapter eleven) and from Petrushka, who, in a dispute with the servant of the landowner Platonov, who of their masters traveled more, names Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Moscow .
Chichikov himself casually points to the provinces he visited: Simbirsk, Ryazan, Kazan, Moscow, Penza and Vyatka. All of them are connected with the Volga, like Kostroma, Nizhny and Yaroslavl.
In the Ryazan forests, a gang of captain Kopeikin robs travelers (according to the postmaster - a gang of Chichikov), Ryazan stands on the Oka, which flows into the Volga, Vyatka on the Vyatka River, which flows into the Kama, a tributary of the Volga, Kazan and Simbirsk are Volga cities, Penza province is spread within the borders Volga upland, turning into the Volga forest-steppe. Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod are cities on the Volga.
Where we are talking about the peasants bought by Chichikov, Tsarevo-Kokshaisk and Vesyegonsk are commemorated. Vesyegonsk is located in the Tver province and has a pier on the Volga. Tsarevo-Kokshaysk (now Yoshkar-Ola) is a place for which, as stated in the Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary (2001), "the main river is the Volga." .
Thus, the Chichikov troika describes a circle covering the center of Russia and holding its historical vertical, the Volga. The Volga lies within native Russia, the homeland of the ancestors and the homeland of the Russian language. The Volga is the trunk of Russia, around which its fruit-bearing branches are scattered. The land of the landowner Tentetnikov in the second volume is cut by a navigable river. It has a pier. And in the first volume, among the peasants bought by Chichikov, there are barge haulers who were dragged along
heavy barges on the banks of a large river. And the city where the action of the second volume takes place is “located not far from both capitals”, and therefore from the Volga.
Gogol gives him the not very sonorous name Tfuslavl, suggesting a sound similarity with Yaroslavl and the presence of a parodic element. And where is Chichikov heading from Tfuslavl? It is clear that not to the Kherson province, where he intends to "transfer" the dead peasants. And not to the Lithuanian border, where he was unlucky with the customs scam.
On the former road, he “retracted far from the path”, “the demon-tempter knocked down, led astray, Satan, devil, fiend!” (his own confession). So, it is necessary to break away from the demon, the devil and Satan. Chichikov's roads always circled around his dream of "property". Along the "crooked roads" and attracted his "crooked wheel". At the end of the second volume, “there was enough snow”, “the road, as Selifan says, was established”, and it was necessary to switch from wheels to “skids”.
You can also go to Siberia on the tracks. But there is no serfdom there, therefore, there are no serf souls either. If, as the postmaster believes, Chichikov is Captain Kopeikin, then he has the prospect of realizing his talent in the country of capital, in America. But, as you can see, the paths of the author and his hero run through their native land. It is time for Chichikov to think about "the improvement of spiritual property", because "without this the improvement of earthly property will not be established."
The farmer Murazov admonishes him: “Think not about dead souls, but about your living soul, but with God on the other road!”
The track was established, hardened, and Chichikov left the city at the same time as the ruined landowner Khlobuev. Khlobuev goes to collect money for the temple, Murazov advises Chichikov: "Settle in a quiet corner, closer to the church."
Gogol also thought about a "quiet corner" somewhere not far from Moscow, where one could retire. The aforementioned "corner" often flashes in his letters. More than once we hear about him And in the poem.
Before leaving, Chichikov repents: “I twisted it, I won’t hide it, I twisted it. What to do! But after all, he twisted it only when he saw that you couldn’t take the straight road and that the oblique road was more straight. I am not going the right way, I have strayed far from the straight path, but I can no longer! No
great aversion to vice, nature has become coarsened, there is no love for good. There is no such desire to strive for good, as there is for obtaining property.
This time there are no lies in his speech, no complaints about the vicissitudes of fate and persecution by enemies. And let a hypocrite resurrect in him a minute later and for thirty thousand he will return both the selected box and the money, sew a new tailcoat of Navarino smoke with a flame (the former
broke from despair in prison), “this,” as Gogol notes, “was the ruin of the former Chichikov.”
He compares the state of his soul “with a dismantled structure, which is dismantled in order to build a new one out of it; and the new has not yet begun, because the definitive plan did not come from the architect, and the workers remained at a loss.”
What building are you talking about? Most likely, this is a house with bright rooms and finally found peace. But who is the "architect"? Isn't the "heavenly" architect meant? Yes
and who, besides Him, having sprinkled Chichikov's soul with living water, is able to turn a dismantled structure back into a whole?
Only He. He will calm, He will raise, give strength. And, having forgiven him everything, he will save. Gogol also hopes for this, including for himself. If you look closely at the course of the second volume, the paths of Chichikov and Gogol, like non-Euclidean straight lines, crossed.
