The essay “Satire in the poem by N.V.

"...the brilliant accuracy of his satire was purely instinctive...

his satirical attitude towards Russian life is, without a doubt, explained... by the nature of his internal development"

N.K. Piksanov Piksanov N.K. Gogol N.V. /Article from the "New Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron", 1911 - 1916. //Source: Great Encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius. Multimedia on 2 CDs. M., 2007.

There is a famous saying relating to Gogol’s work: “laughter through tears.” Gogol's laughter. But Gogol’s laughter is mixed with more than just sadness. It contains anger, rage, and protest. All this, merging into a single whole under the brilliant pen of the master, creates an extraordinary flavor Gogol's satire.

The flourishing of realism in Russian prose is usually associated with Gogol and the “Gogolian direction” (a later term of Russian criticism, introduced by N.G. Chernyshevsky). It is typical for him special attention to social issues, depiction (often satirical) of the social vices of Nicholas Russia, careful reproduction of socially and culturally significant details in portraits, interiors, landscapes and other descriptions; addressing themes of St. Petersburg life, depicting the fate of a minor official. Belinsky believed that Gogol’s works reflected the spirit of the “ghostly” reality of Russia at that time. Belinsky emphasized that Gogol’s work cannot be reduced to social satire (as for Gogol himself, he never considered himself a satirist).

Gogol's satire is addressed to the contradictions of reality itself. The degrading classes of society are clearly outlined in different groups characters: district nobility, provincial bureaucrats and nobility, entrepreneurs of a new type, courtyards, servants, peasants, metropolitan bureaucrats and nobility. Gogol reveals brilliant artistic skill, finds witty techniques for exposing “anti-heroes”: telling details appearance hero, correlating him with a certain type of person.

The poem "Dead Souls" is a brilliant satire on feudal Rus'. http://www.kalitva.ru/2007/11/28/print:page,1,sochinenie-mertvye-dushi-n.v.-gogolja.html - #Satirically depicting landowner-bureaucratic Rus', Gogol fills the work with colossal universal human content. From the first chapter, the road motif appears, and then grows and intensifies. The road, first drawn in a reduced everyday sense, then acquires the meaning of an image-symbol - the path along which Rus' rushes towards its great, although unclear, future.

The poem includes pictures of the endless expanses of Russia, the endless steppes, in which there is room for the hero to roam. Satire in Gogol's work is combined with deep lyricism, because this work is not only about six landowners, about a dozen officials, about one acquirer, not even about the nobility, the people, the emerging class of businessmen - this is a work about Russia, about its past, present, future, about its historical destiny.

Let's look at those landowners whom Chichikov visited.

The first such landowner was Manilov. Gogol conveys Chichikov’s impression of Manilov in this way: “God alone could have said what kind of character Manilov has. There is a race of people known as so-so people, neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan, his facial features were not devoid of pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to be too much given over to sugar.” Manilov is tearfully complacent, devoid of living thoughts and real feelings.

Step by step, Gogol inexorably exposes the vulgarity of a vulgar person, irony is constantly replaced by satire: “There is Russian cabbage soup on the table, but from the heart,” the children, Alcides and Themistoclus, are named after ancient Greek commanders as a sign of the education of their parents.

Manilov selflessly dreams of “the well-being of a friendly life” and makes fantastic plans for future improvements. But this is an empty phrase; His words and actions do not jibe. And we see that in the description of the owners of the estates, their hobbies and interests, the author’s ability to show the lack of spirituality and pettiness of aspirations, the emptiness of the soul with a few details of the situation. From one chapter to another, Gogol’s accusatory and satirical pathos increases.

The second estate visited by Chichikov was the Korobochka estate. The qualities inherent in Korobochka are typical not only among the provincial nobility. The hostess, as the author describes her, 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 about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile gain little by little money into colorful bags.... For a very long time our hero had to persuade Nastasya Petrovna to sell him dead souls. At first she was surprised when she heard about the item being purchased, but then she was even afraid to sell it on the price. Wow, what a clubhead! Chichikov concluded for himself...

Pavel Ivanovich also visited Nozdryov. Nozdryov, according to the author, was one of those people who were always talkers, carousers, prominent people. With irony, Gogol calls him “in some respects a historical person, because wherever Nozdryov was, there were stories,” that is, without a scandal. In addition, this landowner lies and flatters on almost any occasion, question and on any topic, for example, even when playing cards or checkers, he cheats. Nozdryov's character makes it clear that he can promise something, but not do it.

The portrait of a dashing reveler is satirical and sarcastic at the same time. “He was of average height, a very well-built fellow with full rosy cheeks. Health seemed to be dripping from his face.” However, Chichikov notices that one of Nozdryov’s sideburns was smaller and not as thick as the other (the result of another fight).

Such was Nozdryov, a reckless nature, a gambler, a reveler. For Nozdryov, any deal is something like a game; there are no moral barriers for him, as, indeed, for all his life’s actions. For example, only the arrival of the police captain to Nozdryov saves Chichikov from physical harm.

The image of Sobakevich was created in Gogol’s favorite hyperbolic manner. Describing Sobakevich's appearance, Gogol resorts to zoological comparison. Sobakevich seemed to Chichikov very similar to average size bear Nature didn’t play tricks on his face for long; she took an ax to his nose once, took another blow at his lips, picked out his eyes with a large drill and, without scraping them, released him into the light, saying he lives! The furniture in Sobakevich's house is as heavy as the owner. He is gluttonous and can eat a whole sturgeon or a side of lamb at one time. In his judgments about food, Sobakevich rises to a kind of “gastronomic” pathos: “When I have pork, put the whole pig on the table, lamb, bring the whole lamb, goose, the whole goose!” Although slow-witted, he will not miss his goal.

Finally, our hero came to Plyushkin.

Irony and sarcasm in the characterization of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov and Sobakevich are replaced by a grotesque image of Plyushkin. He is, of course, the most deadened among the “dead souls,” since it was in this hero that Gogol showed the limit of spiritual emptiness. He even outwardly lost his human appearance. Chichikov could not understand what gender this figure was. Seeing some strange figure, Chichikov at first decided that it was the housekeeper, but it turned out to be the owner himself.

Chichikov “for a long time could not recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. The dress she was wearing was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap worn by village courtyard women, only her voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for a woman: “Oh woman! - he thought to himself and immediately added: “Oh no!” "Of course, woman!" It could never have occurred to Chichikov that he was a Russian gentleman, a landowner, the owner of serf souls.

Chichikov thought if he met Plyushkin on the porch, then... he would give him a copper penny..., although this landowner had more than a thousand peasant souls. His greed is immeasurable. He had accumulated huge reserves, such reserves would be enough for many years of a carefree life, but he, not content with this, walked around his village every day and took everything he came across to his home.

Nozdryov’s arrogance and rudeness, his desire to harm his neighbor still did not prevent him from appearing in society and communicating with people. Plyushkin completely isolated himself in his selfish loneliness, cutting himself off from the whole world. He is indifferent to the fate of his children, much less the fate of the peasants dying of hunger. Everyone is normal human feelings completely driven out of Plyushkin’s soul by a passion for hoarding. But if Korobochka and Sobakevich collected the money to strengthen the economy and spent it meaningfully, then Plyushkin’s senile stinginess crossed all limits and turned into its opposite. Busy collecting all sorts of rubbish, such as shards and old soles, he does not notice that his farm is being destroyed.

Thus ended our traveler’s trip to the estates of landowners. Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, despite the fact that the characters of all of them are far from ideal, each of them has at least something positive. The only exception is, perhaps, Plyushkin, whose image evokes not only laughter and irony, but also disgust. Gogol, thanks to his writing professionalism and skill, as we see from the above, talks about all this in a very interesting satirical form.

Gogol's laughter can be kind and crafty - then extraordinary comparisons and stylistic turns are born, which constitute one of the characteristic features Gogol's poems. Describing the ball and the governor, Gogol talks about the division of officials into fat and thin, and the thin officials, standing around the ladies in black tailcoats, looked like flies that had sat on refined sugar. It is impossible not to mention very small comparisons, which, like sparkling diamonds, are scattered throughout the poem and create its unique flavor. So, for example, the face of the governor’s daughter looked like a “just laid egg”; The head of Feoduliya Ivanovna Sobakevich looked like a cucumber, and Sobakevich himself looked more like a pumpkin, from which balalaikas are made in Rus'. When meeting Chichikov, Manilov’s facial expression was like that of a cat whose ears were lightly scratched. Gogol also uses hyperbole, for example, when talking about the Plyushkin toothpick, which was used to pick teeth even before the French invasion. The appearance of the landowners described by Gogol also evokes laughter.

Plyushkin’s appearance, which struck the wicked and hypocrite Chichikov himself (he couldn’t figure out for a long time whether the housekeeper was in front of him or the housekeeper), the “fisherman-beggar” habits that blossomed in Plyushkin’s soul - all this is surprisingly witty and funny, but Plyushkin, it turns out , is capable of causing not only laughter, but also disgust, indignation and protest. This degraded personality, who cannot even be called a personality, ceases to be funny. Is a person who has lost everything human: appearance, soul, heart really funny? Before us is a spider, for which the main thing is to swallow its prey as quickly as possible.

Gogol's laughter is not only angry, satirical, accusatory, there is a cheerful and affectionate laughter. It is with a feeling of joyful pride, so to speak, that the writer speaks about the Russian people. This is how the image of a man appears who, like a tireless ant, carries a thick log.

Gogol's laughter seems good-natured, but he spares no one, every phrase has a deep, hidden meaning, subtext. But along with satirical negation, Gogol introduces a glorifying, creative element - the image of Russia. Associated with this image is the “high lyrical movement”, which in the poem at times replaces the comic narrative.

With the release satirical works Gogol, the critical direction is strengthened in Russian realistic literature.

Essay on the topic “Humor and Satire in the poem “Dead Souls””

“Dead Souls” is a poem-caricature of society during feudal Russia. In this work, N.V. Gogol succeeded, with the help of humor and satire - the most complex subtle literary devices, to show all the hopelessness of his modern society, while at the same time ridiculing it.
Satire is the hidden ridicule of human shortcomings.

The work features many funny and, at times, even comical characters. In their characters, the writer ridiculed many human vices characteristic of that time. For example, stinginess, unfoundedness, lies and gluttony.

The characters in the poem are both funny and tragic. “Dead Souls” is one of the few works that makes you think and laugh at the same time.

The poem is easy to understand. The universal here intersects with the funny. For example, the case when at the ball Manilov and Chichikov could not enter the hall for a long time, because out of politeness they let each other through. In fact, there is little humor in this situation, but nevertheless it causes laughter. Main problem this scene - politeness that is shown to people not because good attitude, but because of the desire to present oneself in the best light.

Another no less funny scene is when a village girl shows the way to the coachman and cannot distinguish “right” from “left”. The lack of education of the people is also an important problem during the times of feudal Russia.

One of the most satirical characters in the poem is the landowner Nozdryov. He constantly gets involved in funny stories, for example, only having learned about “dead souls”, he immediately begins to bargain or obsessively offers to exchange them for horses or a wolf cub. He even plays cards for dead souls without understanding what they are. This hero is funny due to his lack of education and stupidity, and his words “Something is burnt, something is overcooked” make you smile.

Officials in the poem are the most important subject of satire. The writer ridicules their stinginess, bribery and dishonesty. These vices are eternal and relevant even today.
The degradation of society is one of eternal themes jokes and discussions. This theme is also reflected in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” Using the example of ordinary peasants, landowners and officials, the writer showed how bad life is in his country. His greatest mastery of satire helped him portray his heroes in such a way that even today they seem funny and hopeless. From their example, as from the example of any accusatory joke, there is much to learn in our century.

A contemporary of Pushkin, Gogol created his works in those historical conditions, which developed in Russia after the failure of the first revolutionary uprising of the Decembrists in 1825.

The new socio-political situation posed new tasks for figures in Russian social thought and literature, which were deeply reflected in Gogol’s work. Having turned to the most important social problems of his time, the writer went further along the path of realism, which was opened by Pushkin and Griboyedov. Developing the principles of critical realism. Gogol became one of the greatest representatives of this trend in Russian literature.

As Belinsky notes, “Gogol was the first to look boldly and directly at Russian reality.” One of the main themes in Gogol’s work is the theme of the Russian landowner class, the Russian nobility as the ruling class, its fate and role in public life. It is characteristic that Gogol’s main way of depicting landowners is satire. The images of landowners reflect the process of gradual degradation of the landowner class, revealing all its vices and shortcomings. Gogol's satire is tinged with irony and "hits right in the forehead." Irony helped the writer speak directly about things that were impossible to talk about under censorship conditions. Gogol's laughter seems good-natured, but he spares no one, every phrase has a deep, hidden meaning, subtext. Irony is a characteristic element of Gogol's satire. It is present not only in the author’s speech, but also in the speech of the characters. Irony is one of the essential signs of Gogol’s poetics; it gives the narrative greater realism, becoming artistic medium critical analysis of reality.

In Gogol's largest work, the poem "Dead Souls", the images of landowners are presented most fully and multifacetedly. The poem is structured as the story of the adventures of Chichikov, an official who buys “dead souls.” The composition of the poem allowed the author to talk about different landowners and their villages. Characteristics various types Almost half of volume 1 of the poem is devoted to Russian landowners (five chapters out of eleven). Gogol creates five characters, five portraits that are so different from each other, and at the same time, in each of them the typical features of a Russian landowner appear.

Our acquaintance begins with Manilov and ends with Plyushkin. This sequence has its own logic: from one landowner to another, the process of impoverishment of the human personality deepens, an ever more terrible picture of the decomposition of feudal society unfolds. Opens portrait gallery landowners Manilov (1 chapter). His character is already evident in his surname. The description begins with a picture of the village of Manilovka, which “not many could lure with its location.” The author ironically describes the master's courtyard, with the pretense of an "English garden with an overgrown pond", sparse bushes and with the pale inscription "Temple of Solitary Reflection." Speaking about Manilov, the author exclaims: “God alone could say what Manilov’s character was.” He is kind by nature, polite, courteous, but all this took on ugly forms in him. Manilov is beautiful-hearted and sentimental to the point of cloying. Relations between people seem to him idyllic and festive. Manilov did not know life at all; reality was replaced by empty fantasy. He loved to think and dream, sometimes even about things useful to the peasants. But his projecting was far from the demands of life. He did not know and never thought about the real needs of the peasants. Manilov considers himself a bearer of spiritual culture. Once in the army he was considered the most educated man. The author speaks ironically about the atmosphere of Manilov’s house, in which “something was always missing,” and about his sugary relationship with his wife. When talking about dead souls, Manilov is compared to an overly smart minister. Here Gogol’s irony, as if accidentally, intrudes into the forbidden area. Comparing Manilov with the minister means that the latter is not so different from this landowner, and “Manilovism” is a typical phenomenon of this vulgar world.

The third chapter of the poem is devoted to the image of Korobochka, which Gogol classifies as one of those “small landowners who complain about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile little by little collect money in colorful bags placed in dresser drawers!” This money comes from the sale of a wide variety of subsistence products. Korobochka understood the benefits of trading and after much persuasion agrees to sell such unusual product like dead souls. The author is ironic in his description of the dialogue between Chichikov and Korobochka. The “club-headed” landowner cannot understand for a long time what they want from her, she infuriates Chichikov, and then bargains for a long time, fearing “just so as not to make a mistake.” Korobochka's horizons and interests do not extend beyond the boundaries of her estate. The household and its entire way of life are patriarchal in nature.

Gogol depicts a completely different form of decomposition of the noble class in the image of Nozdryov (Chapter IV). This is a typical "jack of all trades" man. There was something open, direct, and daring in his face. He is characterized by a peculiar “breadth of nature.” As the author ironically notes: “Nozdryov was in some respects historical person". Not a single meeting where he attended was complete without stories! Nozdrev with with a light heart loses a lot of money at cards, beats a simpleton at a fair and immediately “squanders” all the money. Nozdryov is a master of “pouring bullets”, he is a reckless braggart and an utter liar. Nozdryov behaves defiantly, even aggressively, everywhere. The hero's speech is full of swear words, while he has a passion for "messing up his neighbor." In the image of Nozdrev, Gogol created a new socio-psychological type of “Nozdrevism” in Russian literature. In the image of Sobakevich, the author’s satire takes on a more accusatory character (Chapter V of the poem). He bears little resemblance to the previous landowners; he is a “kulak” landowner, a cunning, tight-fisted tradesman. He is alien to the dreamy complacency of Manilov, the violent extravagance of Nozdryov, the hoarding of Korobochka. He is laconic, has an iron grip, is on his own mind, and there are few people for whom It would be possible to deceive him. Everything about him is strong and strong. Gogol finds a reflection of a person’s character in all the surrounding things of his life.

Everything in Sobakevich’s house was surprisingly reminiscent of himself. Each thing seemed to say: “And I, too, are Sobakevich.” Gogol draws a figure that is striking in its rudeness. To Chichikov he seemed very similar “to a medium-sized bear.” Sobakevich is a cynic who is not ashamed of moral ugliness either in himself or in others. This is a man far from enlightenment, a die-hard serf owner who cares about the peasants only as a labor force. It is characteristic that except for Sobakevich, no one understood the essence of the “scoundrel” Chichikov, but he perfectly understood the essence of the proposal, which reflects the spirit of the times: everything is subject to purchase and sale, profit should be derived from everything.

Chapter VI of the poem is dedicated to Plyushkin, whose name has become a household word to denote stinginess and moral degradation. This image becomes the last step in the degeneration of the landowner class. Gogol begins to introduce the reader to the character; as usual, with a description of the village and the landowner's estate. “Some kind of special disrepair” was noticeable on all the buildings. The writer paints a picture of the complete ruin of the once godly landowner’s economy. The reason for this is not the extravagance or idleness of the landowner, but morbid stinginess. This is an evil satire on the landowner who has become a “hole in humanity.” The owner himself is a sexless creature, reminiscent of the housekeeper. the hero does not cause laughter, but only bitter disappointment.

So, five characters created by Gogol in " Dead souls", depict the state of the noble-serf class in many ways. Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin all this various shapes one phenomenon economic, social, spiritual decline class of landowners-serfs.

References

To prepare this work, materials from the site http://ilib.ru/ were used

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Lesson type: formation of knowledge, skills and abilities.

Lesson objectives: 1) determine the role of irony in the poem as an element of Gogol’s style; 2) analyze chapter 1.

Lesson progress:

I. Organizational moment.

II. Opening remarks teachers.

– Gogol uses irony in the poem “Dead Souls”, which permeates the entire poem. What is the role of irony in the author's text?

III. Conversation with students.

– Who is the narrator in the poem “Dead Souls”?

(Writer. But this is not just Gogol: before us is a generalized image, it reflects the views, aspirations, moods, ideals of Gogol and, at the same time, the features of a Russian patriotic writer.)

– Where in the text of Chapter 1 does Gogol talk about himself?

(In the mention of a woolen scarf, “which the spouse prepares for married people with her own hands, providing decent instructions on how to wrap themselves, but for single people, I probably can’t say who makes it, God knows: I have never worn such scarves,” etc. )

– But an even more important sign of the presence of the author is the tone of the narrative: irony is felt in all the variety of its shades.

– Read the description of Chichikov. Where in the text of the description does the author's irony occur?

– Read the description of the tavern, find the hyperbole.

(The floorman in the tavern was “alive and fidgety to such an extent that it was impossible to even see what kind of face he had.” In the window “there was a knocker with a samovar made of red copper and a face as red as the samovar, so that from a distance you could to think that there were two samovars standing on the window, if one samovar did not have a pitch-black beard.”)

– Read the scene of the governor’s ball. Note the satirical comparison that the author of the poem uses.

(The comparison of guests at the governor’s ball to a swarm of flies on sugar. There are two levels in this comparison. One is external: gentlemen in black tailcoats look like flies, ladies in white dresses with shiny jewelry sparkle like fragments of sugar in sunny day. The second is internal: the entire provincial aristocracy is like annoying flies, capable of “staying at” anything.)

– Gogol uses parody in the poem. Let's re-read the description of the city garden. Gogol here parodies the style of official newspaper articles praising the “prosperity” of Russia in the time of Nicholas.

– These are some of the forms of Gogol’s laughter in the poem. But why does Gogol say that for a long time he still has to “look around at the whole enormous rushing life, look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him”? Who are these tears about?

(Let us read, for example, into the comparison of thick and thin and we will see shallowing human soul. It is these fat ones who deftly manage their affairs and fill boxes, and the thin ones, who serve “mostly on special assignments” and send “all their father’s goods to courier boys” - all this is the “color” of society, these are the ones who rule Russia)

IV. Student reports:“What do Chichikov’s things tell about his owner?”, “The story with the poster”, “Speech characteristics of Chichikov.”

V. Lesson summary. One thing is clear that our hero is a seasoned kalach, has seen a lot in life, is smart, dexterous and knows people well.

9th grade student

It is better to write laughing than with tears, because laughter is a human characteristic.

F. Rabelais.

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What does Gogol laugh at in the poem “Dead Souls”?

It is better to write laughing than with tears,

for laughter is a human characteristic.

F. Rabelais.

Gogol had long dreamed of writing a work in which

all of Rus'." This was supposed to be a grandiose description of life and customs

Russia in the first third of the 19th century. The poem became such a work

“Dead Souls”, written in 1842. The author widely uses satirical visual means in his work. What does Gogol laugh at in the poem “Dead Souls”?

Firstly, in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” there is irony in the description of the provincial city of N. .

So, Chichikov quite liked the city: he found that “the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities.” What is its appeal? The author gives the answer to this question, first ironizing about the external appearance of the city: yellow paint on stone houses ( government agencies and homes powerful of the world this), as it should be, is very bright, gray on wood is modest. Then he emphasizes that the houses have an “eternal mezzanine”, very beautiful, “in the opinion of provincial architects.”
Particularly ironic is a newspaper report about an alley of “broad-branched trees that provide coolness on a hot summer day.” The author’s sense of humor is especially clearly visible here, ridiculing pompous speeches that in fact do not represent anything significant.
He also laughs at the inhabitants of the city, for whom “Chichikov’s entry made absolutely no noise and was not accompanied by anything special.” “Moreover, when the chaise drove up to the hotel, he met a young man in white rosin trousers, very narrow and short, in a tailcoat with attempts at fashion, from under which a shirtfront was visible, fastened with a Tula pin with a bronze pistol. The young man turned back, looked at the carriage, held his cap with his hand, which was almost blown off by the wind, and went his way.” And here two men are just discussing the wheel of Chichikov’s spring chaise.
City officials are quite decent people. They all live in peace, quiet and harmony. For the residents, the police chief is a benefactor and a dear father, just like the mayor. They all live in harmony with each other, the relationship between them is very warm, one might even say, family-like.
Chichikov is very comfortable in their world. He shows himself to be a very secular person, able to say what needs to be said, joke where necessary, in general, he appears as a “most pleasant person.”
Gogol also pays attention to the tavern where Chichikov stays. Given detailed description a common hall with paintings: “Everyone passing by knows very well what these common halls are like: the same walls, painted with oil paint, darkened at the top from pipe smoke and stained below with the backs of various travelers, and even more so by native merchants, for merchants came on trading days here... to drink yours famous couple tea; the same smoke-stained ceiling; the same smoked chandelier with many hanging pieces of glass that jumped and tinkled every time the floor boy ran across the worn oilcloths, briskly waving a tray on which sat the same abyss of tea cups, like birds on seashore; the same paintings covering the entire wall, painted with oil paints - in a word, everything is the same as everywhere else...”

The central place in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” is occupied by five chapters in which images of landowners are presented: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. The chapters are arranged in a special sequence according to the degree of degradation of the heroes.
The image of Manilov seems to grow from a proverb: a person is neither this nor that, neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan. He is cut off from life, unadapted. His house is located on the Jurassic, “open to all winds.” In a gazebo with the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection,” Manilov makes plans to build an underground passage and build a stone bridge across the pond. These are just empty fantasies. In reality, Manilov's economy is falling apart. The men are drunk, the housekeeper is stealing, the servants are idle. The landowner's leisure time is occupied by aimlessly putting ashes from a pipe into piles, and the book has been lying in his office for two years with a bookmark on the fourteenth page.
The portrait and character of Manilov were created on the principle that “in pleasantness, it seemed, too much sugar was transferred.” On Manilov’s face there was “an expression not only sweet, but even cloying, similar to that mixture that the clever secular doctor sweetened mercilessly...”
The love of Manilov and his wife is too sweet and sentimental: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this piece for you.”
But, despite the “excessiveness,” Manilov is truly a kind, amiable, harmless person. He is the only one of all the landowners who gives Chichikov “dead souls” for free.
The box is also distinguished by “excessiveness,” but of a different kind - excessive frugality, distrust, timidity, and limitations. She is “one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile they gradually collect money in colorful bags.” The things in the house reflect her naive idea of ​​wealth and beauty and, at the same time, her pettiness and limitations. “The room was hung with old striped wallpaper; paintings with some birds; between the windows there are old small mirrors with dark frames in the shape of curled leaves; Behind every mirror there was either a letter, or an old deck of cards, or a stocking; wall clock with painted flowers on the dial.” Gogol calls Korobochka “club-headed.” She is afraid to undercut the price when selling “dead souls,” so as not to “incur a loss.” Korobochka decides to sell souls only out of fear, because Chichikov wished: “... and be lost and bereaved with your entire village!”
Sobakevich outwardly resembles an epic hero: a gigantic-sized boot, cheesecakes “much larger than a plate,” “he has never been sick.” But his actions are by no means heroic. He scolds everyone, sees everyone as scoundrels and scammers. The whole city, in his words, is “a swindler sitting on a swindler and driving the swindler on... there is only one decent person there - the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.” The portraits on the walls depicting heroes speak of the unrealized heroic potential of Sobakevich’s “dead” soul. Sobakevich - “man-fist”. It expresses the universal human passion for the heavy, the earthly.

Sobakevich regards the sale of souls quite calmly: “Do you need dead souls? - Sobakevich asked very simply, without the slightest surprise, as if he were talking about bread.
“Yes,” Chichikov answered and again softened his expression, adding: “non-existent.”
“There will be reasons why not be...” said Sobakevich.” But at the same time, he demands 100 rubles for each dead soul: “Yes, so as not to ask too much from you, one hundred rubles apiece!”

Nozdryov is a “broken fellow”, a reveler. His main passion is “to spoil his neighbor,” while continuing to remain his friend: « The closer someone got with him, the more likely he was to annoy everyone: he spread a tall tale, the stupidest of which is difficult to invent, upset a wedding, a trade deal, and did not at all consider himself your enemy;
on the contrary, if chance brought him to meet you again, he would treat you again in a friendly manner and even say: “You’re such a scoundrel, you’ll never come to see me.” Nozdryov was in many respects a multifaceted person, that is, a man of all trades.” “A sensitive nose heard him several dozen miles away, where there was a fair with all sorts of conventions and balls.” In Nozdryov’s office, instead of books, there are sabers and Turkish daggers, on one of which it is written: “Master Savely Sibiryakov.” Even the fleas in Nozdryov’s house are “fast insects.” Nozdryov’s food expresses his reckless spirit: “some things were burnt, some were not cooked at all... in a word, roll and roll, it would be hot, but some taste would probably come out.” However, Nozdrev’s activity is devoid of meaning, much less social benefit.

Plyushkin appears in the poem as a sexless creature, whom Chichikov takes for the housekeeper: “Near one of the buildings, Chichikov soon noticed some kind of figure,
who began to quarrel with the man who arrived in a cart. For a long time he could not
recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. She was wearing a dress
completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, a cap on her head,
the kind worn by village courtyard women, only one voice seemed to him
somewhat husky for a woman. “Oh, woman!” he thought to himself and then
added: “Oh, no!” “Of course, woman!” he finally said, having examined
take a closer look. The figure, for its part, also looked at him intently.
It seemed that the guest was a novelty for her, because she examined not only
him, but also Selifan, and the horses, from the tail to the muzzle. By hanging from
the keys in her belt and the fact that she scolded the man in rather obscene terms
In words, Chichikov concluded that this was probably the housekeeper.
“Listen, mother,” he said, getting out of the chaise, “what’s the master?..
“There’s no home,” the housekeeper interrupted, without waiting for the end of the question, and
then, after a minute, she added: “What do you need?”
- There is something to do!
- Go to the rooms! - said the housekeeper, turning away and showing him
the back, stained with flour, with a large hole lower down... What about the master? At home, or what?
“The owner is here,” said the housekeeper.
- Where? - Chichikov repeated.
- What, father, are they blind, or what? - asked the housekeeper. - Ehwa! And Vit
I’m the owner!”

The images surrounding this hero are a moldy biscuit, a greasy robe, a roof like a sieve. Both objects and the owner himself are subject to decay. Once an exemplary owner and family man, Plyushkin has now turned into a recluse spider. He is suspicious, stingy, petty, mentally degrading: “But there was a time when he was just a thrifty owner! was married, and a neighbor came to have lunch with him, listen and learn from him
economy and wise stinginess. Everything flowed lively and happened at a measured pace:
mills and fulling mills were moving, cloth factories, carpentry machines were working,
spinning mills; everywhere the owner’s keen eye entered into everything and, like a hardworking
the spider ran busily, but efficiently, to all ends of its economic
cobwebs. Too much strong feelings were not reflected in his facial features, but in
the mind was visible in the eyes; his speech was imbued with experience and knowledge of the world,
and the guest was pleased to listen to him; the friendly and talkative hostess was famous
hospitality; two pretty daughters came out to meet them... But the good housewife died; Some of the keys, and with them minor worries, went to him. Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy. He could not rely on his eldest daughter Alexandra Stepanovna for everything, and he was right, because Alexandra Stepanovna soon ran away with the captain of God knows what cavalry regiment, and married him somewhere hastily in a village church, knowing that her father doesn’t like officers due to a strange prejudice, as if all military gamblers and money-makers.”
Showing successively the life and character of five landowners, Gogol depicts the process of gradual degradation of the landowner class, revealing all its vices and shortcomings.

Chichikov – main character poem, it appears in all chapters. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​the scam with dead souls, it is he who travels around Russia, meeting a variety of characters and getting into the most different situations.
The characteristics of Chichikov are given by the author in the first chapter. His portrait is given very vaguely: “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; One cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young. Gogol pays more attention to his manners: he made an excellent impression on all the guests at the governor’s party, showed himself to be an experienced socialite, maintaining a conversation on the most different topics, skillfully flattered the governor, police chief, and officials and formed the most flattering opinion of himself. Gogol himself tells us that he did not take a “virtuous man” as his hero; he immediately stipulates that his hero is a scoundrel. The author tells us that his parents were nobles, but whether they were nobles or private - God knows. Chichikov's face did not resemble his parents. As a child, he had neither a friend nor a comrade. His father was ill, and the windows of the small little house did not open in winter or summer. Gogol says about Chichikov: “At the beginning, life looked at him somehow sourly and unpleasantly, through some cloudy window covered with snow...”
“But in life everything changes quickly and vividly...” Father brought Pavel to the city and taught him to go to classes. Of the money his father gave him, he did not spend a penny, but, on the contrary, added to it. Chichikov learned to speculate from childhood. After leaving school, heHe immediately got down to business and service. With the help of Chichikov's speculationI was able to get a promotion from my boss. After the arrival of the new boss, Chichikov moved to another city and began serving at customs, which was his dream. “Of the assignments, he received, by the way, one thing: to arrange for the inclusion of several hundred peasants in the guardianship council.” And then the idea came to his mind to carry out one little business, which is discussed in the poem.

In addition to the ironic characteristics of the heroes, Gogol saturates the poem with comic situations and situations. For example, I remember the scene between Chichikov and Manilov, who for several minutes have not been able to go into the living room, because they persistently cede this honorable privilege to each other, like cultured, delicate people.

One of the best comic scenes of the poem is the episode of Chichikov’s visit to the landowner Korobochka. In this dialogue between Nastasya Petrovna and an enterprising businessman, the whole gamut of the heroine’s feelings is conveyed: bewilderment, confusion, suspicion, economic prudence. It is in this scene that the main character traits of Korobochka are fully and psychologically revealed: greed, perseverance and stupidity.

Thirdly, comic situations in the poem are associated not only with landowners and officials, but also with people from the people. Such a scene, for example, is the conversation between the coachman Selifan and the courtyard girl Pelageya, who, while showing the way, does not know where the right is and where the left is. This episode speaks volumes: about the extreme ignorance of the people, their underdevelopment and darkness, which was a consequence of centuries of serfdom. Same negative traits people are emphasized by the comic scene between Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, who, helpfully rushing to dismantle the horses, became entangled in the lines.

N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is a satirical work. In this poem, the author ironically draws portraits of landowners and officials. With the same irony, Gogol describes the signs of a typical provincial city. Also, this poem is filled with comic situations associated with landowners, officials and people from the people. Irony helped the writer talk about things that were impossible to talk about under censorship conditions. With its help, Gogol revealed all the vices and shortcomings of landowners and officials.