Analysis of Gogol's poem “Dead Souls. Russia. linguistic and cultural dictionary what are dead souls, what does it mean and how to spell it correctly At what age did Gogol write dead souls

“Dead Souls” is a work by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, the genre of which the author himself designated as a poem. It was originally conceived as a three-volume work. The first volume was published in 1842. The almost finished second volume was destroyed by the writer, but several chapters were preserved in drafts. The third volume was conceived and not started, only some information about it remained.

Gogol began work on Dead Souls in 1835. At this time, the writer dreamed of creating a large epic work dedicated to Russia. A.S. Pushkin, who was one of the first to appreciate the uniqueness of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s talent, advised him to take up a serious essay and suggested an interesting plot. He told Gogol about one clever swindler who tried to get rich by pawning the dead souls he bought as living souls on the board of guardians. At that time, many stories were known about real buyers of dead souls. One of Gogol’s relatives was also named among such buyers. The plot of the poem was prompted by reality.

“Pushkin found,” Gogol wrote, “that such a plot of Dead Souls is good for me because it gives me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out many different characters.” Gogol himself believed that in order “to find out what Russia is today, you must certainly travel around it yourself.” In October 1835, Gogol reported to Pushkin: “I began to write Dead Souls. The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny. But now I stopped it on the third chapter. I'm looking for a good sneaker with whom I can get along briefly. In this novel I want to show at least one side of all of Rus'.”

Gogol anxiously read the first chapters of his new work to Pushkin, expecting that they would make him laugh. But, having finished reading, Gogol discovered that the poet became gloomy and said: “God, how sad our Russia is!” This exclamation forced Gogol to take a different look at his plan and rework the material. In further work, he tried to soften the painful impression that “Dead Souls” could have made - he alternated funny phenomena with sad ones.

Most of the work was created abroad, mainly in Rome, where Gogol tried to get rid of the impression made by the attacks of critics after the production of The Inspector General. Being far from his homeland, the writer felt an inextricable connection with it, and only love for Russia was the source of his creativity.

At the beginning of his work, Gogol defined his novel as comic and humorous, but gradually his plan became more complex. In the fall of 1836, he wrote to Zhukovsky: “I redid everything that I started again, I thought about the whole plan and now I am writing it calmly, like a chronicle... If I complete this creation the way it needs to be done, then... how huge, how original plot!.. All Rus' will appear in it!” Thus, in the course of the work, the genre of the work was determined - the poem, and its hero - all of Rus'. At the center of the work was the “personality” of Russia in all the diversity of its life.

After the death of Pushkin, which was a heavy blow for Gogol, the writer considered the work on “Dead Souls” a spiritual covenant, the fulfillment of the will of the great poet: “I must continue the great work that I began, which Pushkin took from me to write, whose thought is his creation and which from now on turned into a sacred testament for me.”

Pushkin and Gogol. Fragment of the monument to the Millennium of Russia in Veliky Novgorod.
Sculptor. I.N. Shredder

In the fall of 1839, Gogol returned to Russia and read several chapters in Moscow from S.T. Aksakov, with whose family he became friends at that time. Friends liked what they heard, they gave the writer some advice, and he made the necessary amendments and changes to the manuscript. In 1840 in Italy, Gogol repeatedly rewrote the text of the poem, continuing to work hard on the composition and images of the characters, and lyrical digressions. In the fall of 1841, the writer returned to Moscow again and read the remaining five chapters of the first book to his friends. This time they noticed that the poem showed only the negative sides of Russian life. Having listened to their opinion, Gogol made important insertions into the already rewritten volume.

In the 30s, when an ideological turning point was outlined in Gogol’s consciousness, he came to the conclusion that a real writer must not only put on public display everything that darkens and obscures the ideal, but also show this ideal. He decided to embody his idea in three volumes of Dead Souls. In the first volume, according to his plans, the shortcomings of Russian life were to be captured, and in the second and third the ways of resurrecting “dead souls” were shown. According to the writer himself, the first volume of Dead Souls is just “a porch to a vast building,” the second and third volumes are purgatory and rebirth. But, unfortunately, the writer managed to realize only the first part of his idea.

In December 1841, the manuscript was ready for publication, but censorship prohibited its release. Gogol was depressed and looked for a way out of this situation. Secretly from his Moscow friends, he turned for help to Belinsky, who arrived in Moscow at that time. The critic promised to help Gogol, and a few days later he left for St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg censors gave permission to publish “Dead Souls,” but demanded that the title of the work be changed to “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” In this way, they sought to divert the reader’s attention from social problems and switch it to the adventures of Chichikov.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which is plot-related to the poem and is of great importance for revealing the ideological and artistic meaning of the work, was categorically banned by censorship. And Gogol, who treasured it and did not regret giving it up, was forced to rework the plot. In the original version, he laid the blame for the disasters of Captain Kopeikin on the tsar’s minister, who was indifferent to the fate of ordinary people. After the alteration, all the blame was attributed to Kopeikin himself.

Even before receiving the censored copy, the manuscript began to be typed at the printing house of Moscow University. Gogol himself undertook to design the cover of the novel, writing in small letters “The Adventures of Chichikov, or” and in large letters “Dead Souls.”

On June 11, 1842, the book went on sale and, according to contemporaries, was sold out like hot cakes. Readers immediately divided into two camps - supporters of the writer’s views and those who recognized themselves in the characters of the poem. The latter, mainly landowners and officials, immediately attacked the writer, and the poem itself found itself at the center of the journal-critical struggle of the 40s.

After the release of the first volume, Gogol devoted himself entirely to work on the second (begun back in 1840). Each page was created tensely and painfully; everything written seemed to the writer to be far from perfect. In the summer of 1845, during a worsening illness, Gogol burned the manuscript of this volume. Later, he explained his action by saying that the “paths and roads” to the ideal, the revival of the human spirit, did not receive sufficiently truthful and convincing expression. Gogol dreamed of regenerating people through direct instruction, but he could not - he never saw the ideal “resurrected” people. However, his literary endeavor was later continued by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who were able to show the rebirth of man, his resurrection from the reality that Gogol so vividly depicted.

Draft manuscripts of four chapters of the second volume (in incomplete form) were discovered during the opening of the writer’s papers, sealed after his death. The autopsy was performed on April 28, 1852 by S.P. Shevyrev, Count A.P. Tolstoy and Moscow civil governor Ivan Kapnist (son of the poet and playwright V.V. Kapnist). The whitewashing of the manuscripts was carried out by Shevyrev, who also took care of their publication. Lists of the second volume were distributed even before its publication. For the first time, the surviving chapters of the second volume of Dead Souls were published as part of the Complete Works of Gogol in the summer of 1855.

Still from the film “Dead Souls” (1984)

Volume one

The proposed history, as will become clear from what follows, took place somewhat shortly after the “glorious expulsion of the French.” Collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov arrives in the provincial town of NN (he is neither old nor too young, neither fat nor thin, rather pleasant in appearance and somewhat round) and checks into a hotel. He makes a lot of questions to the tavern servant - both regarding the owner and income of the tavern, and also exposing his thoroughness: about city officials, the most significant landowners, asks about the state of the region and whether there were “any diseases in their province, epidemic fevers” and other similar things misfortunes.

Having gone on a visit, the visitor reveals extraordinary activity (having visited everyone, from the governor to the inspector of the medical board) and courtesy, for he knows how to say something nice to everyone. He speaks somewhat vaguely about himself (that he “has experienced a lot in his life, endured in the service for the truth, had many enemies who even attempted on his life,” and is now looking for a place to live). At the governor's house party, he manages to gain everyone's favor and, among other things, make acquaintance with the landowners Manilov and Sobakevich. In the following days, he dines with the police chief (where he meets the landowner Nozdryov), visits the chairman of the chamber and the vice-governor, the tax farmer and the prosecutor, and goes to Manilov’s estate (which, however, is preceded by a fair author’s digression, where, justifying himself with a love of thoroughness, the author attests in detail to Petrushka, the visitor’s servant: his passion for “the process of reading itself” and the ability to carry with him a special smell, “resembling a somewhat residential peace”).

Having traveled, as promised, not fifteen, but all thirty miles, Chichikov finds himself in Manilovka, in the arms of a kind owner. Manilov’s house, standing on the south, surrounded by several scattered English flower beds and a gazebo with the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection,” could characterize the owner, who was “neither this nor that,” not burdened by any passions, just overly cloying. After Manilov’s confession that Chichikov’s visit is “a May day, the name day of the heart,” and dinner in the company of the hostess and two sons, Themistoclus and Alcides, Chichikov discovers the reason for his visit: he would like to acquire peasants who have died, but have not yet been declared as such in the audit certificate, registering everything in a legal manner, as if for the living (“the law - I am dumb before the law”). The first fear and bewilderment are replaced by the perfect disposition of the kind owner, and, having completed the deal, Chichikov leaves for Sobakevich, and Manilov indulges in dreams about Chichikov’s life in the neighborhood across the river, about the construction of a bridge, about a house with such a gazebo that Moscow can be seen from there, and about their friendship, if the sovereign had known about it, he would have granted them generals. Chichikov's coachman Selifan, much favored by Manilov's servants, in conversations with his horses misses the necessary turn and, with the sound of a downpour, knocks the master over into the mud. In the darkness, they find accommodation for the night with Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka, a somewhat timid landowner, with whom in the morning Chichikov also begins to sell dead souls. Having explained that he himself would now pay the tax for them, cursing the old woman’s stupidity, promising to buy both hemp and lard, but another time, Chichikov buys souls from her for fifteen rubles, receives a detailed list of them (in which Pyotr Savelyev is especially amazed by Disrespect -Trough) and, having eaten unleavened egg pie, pancakes, pies and other things, departs, leaving the hostess in great concern as to whether she has sold too cheap.

Having reached the main road to the tavern, Chichikov stops to have a snack, which the author provides with a lengthy discussion about the properties of the appetite of middle-class gentlemen. Here Nozdryov meets him, returning from the fair in the chaise of his son-in-law Mizhuev, for he had lost everything on his horses and even his watch chain. Describing the delights of the fair, the drinking qualities of the dragoon officers, a certain Kuvshinnikov, a big fan of “taking advantage of strawberries” and, finally, presenting a puppy, “a real little face,” Nozdryov takes Chichikov (thinking of making money here too) to his home, taking his reluctant son-in-law as well. Having described Nozdryov, “in some respects a historical man” (for everywhere he went, there was history), his possessions, the unpretentiousness of the dinner with an abundance of, however, drinks of dubious quality, the author sends his dazed son-in-law to his wife (Nozdryov admonishes him with abuse and words “fetyuk”), and Chichikov is forced to turn to his subject; but he fails to either beg or buy a soul: Nozdryov offers to exchange them, take them in addition to the stallion, or make a bet in a card game, finally scolds, quarrels, and they part for the night. In the morning, the persuasion resumes, and, having agreed to play checkers, Chichikov notices that Nozdryov is shamelessly cheating. Chichikov, whom the owner and the servants are already attempting to beat, manages to escape due to the appearance of the police captain, who announces that Nozdryov is on trial. On the road, Chichikov’s carriage collides with a certain carriage, and while onlookers come running to separate the tangled horses, Chichikov admires the sixteen-year-old young lady, indulges in speculation about her and dreams of family life. A visit to Sobakevich in his strong estate, like himself, is accompanied by a thorough dinner, a discussion of city officials, who, according to the owner, are all swindlers (one prosecutor is a decent person, “and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig”), and is married to the guest of interest deal. Not at all frightened by the strangeness of the object, Sobakevich bargains, characterizes the advantageous qualities of each serf, provides Chichikov with a detailed list and forces him to give a deposit.

Chichikov’s path to the neighboring landowner Plyushkin, mentioned by Sobakevich, is interrupted by a conversation with the man who gave Plyushkin an apt, but not very printed nickname, and the author’s lyrical reflection on his former love for unfamiliar places and the indifference that has now appeared. Chichikov at first takes Plyushkin, this “hole in humanity,” for a housekeeper or a beggar whose place is on the porch. His most important feature is his amazing stinginess, and he even carries the old sole of his boot into a pile piled up in the master's chambers. Having shown the profitability of his proposal (namely, that he will take on the taxes for the dead and runaway peasants), Chichikov is completely successful in his enterprise and, having refused tea with crackers, equipped with a letter to the chairman of the chamber, departs in the most cheerful mood.

While Chichikov sleeps in the hotel, the author sadly reflects on the baseness of the objects he depicts. Meanwhile, a satisfied Chichikov, having woken up, composes deeds of sale, studies the lists of acquired peasants, reflects on their expected fates and finally goes to the civil chamber in order to quickly conclude the deal. Met at the hotel gate, Manilov accompanies him. Then follows a description of the official place, Chichikov’s first ordeals and a bribe to a certain jug snout, until he enters the chairman’s apartment, where, by the way, he finds Sobakevich. The chairman agrees to be Plyushkin’s attorney, and at the same time speeds up other transactions. The acquisition of Chichikov is discussed, with land or for withdrawal he bought peasants and in what places. Having found out that the conclusion and to the Kherson province, having discussed the properties of the sold men (here the chairman remembered that the coachman Mikheev seemed to have died, but Sobakevich assured that he was still alive and “became healthier than before”), they finished with champagne and went to the police chief, “father and to a benefactor in the city" (whose habits are immediately outlined), where they drink to the health of the new Kherson landowner, become completely excited, force Chichikov to stay and attempt to marry him.

Chichikov's purchases create a sensation in the city, rumors spread that he is a millionaire. The ladies are crazy about him. Several times approaching to describe the ladies, the author becomes timid and retreats. On the eve of the ball, Chichikov even receives a love letter from the governor, although unsigned. Having, as usual, spent a lot of time on the toilet and being satisfied with the result, Chichikov goes to the ball, where he passes from one embrace to another. The ladies, among whom he is trying to find the sender of the letter, even quarrel, challenging his attention. But when the governor’s wife approaches him, he forgets everything, for she is accompanied by her daughter (“Institute, just released”), a sixteen-year-old blonde whose carriage he encountered on the road. He loses the favor of the ladies because he starts a conversation with a fascinating blonde, scandalously neglecting the others. To top off the troubles, Nozdryov appears and loudly asks how many dead people Chichikov has traded. And although Nozdryov is obviously drunk and the embarrassed society is gradually distracted, Chichikov does not succeed in either whist or the subsequent dinner, and he leaves upset.

About this time, a carriage enters the city with the landowner Korobochka, whose growing anxiety forced her to come in order to find out what the price of dead souls is. The next morning, this news becomes the property of a certain pleasant lady, and she hurries to tell it to another, pleasant in all respects, the story acquires amazing details (Chichikov, armed to the teeth, bursts into Korobochka in the dead of midnight, demands the souls that have died, instills terrible fear - “ the whole village came running, the children were crying, everyone was screaming." Her friend concludes that the dead souls are just a cover, and Chichikov wants to take away the governor’s daughter. Having discussed the details of this enterprise, Nozdryov’s undoubted participation in it and the qualities of the governor’s daughter, both ladies let the prosecutor know everything and set off to riot the city.

In a short time, the city is seething, adding news about the appointment of a new governor-general, as well as information about the papers received: about a counterfeit banknote maker who showed up in the province, and about a robber who fled from legal prosecution. Trying to understand who Chichikov was, they remember that he was certified very vaguely and even spoke about those who attempted to kill him. The postmaster's statement that Chichikov, in his opinion, is Captain Kopeikin, who took up arms against the injustices of the world and became a robber, is rejected, since from the postmaster's entertaining story it follows that the captain is missing an arm and a leg, but Chichikov is whole. The assumption arises whether Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise, and many begin to find a certain resemblance, especially in profile. Questions of Korobochka, Manilov and Sobakevich do not produce results, and Nozdryov only increases the confusion by declaring that Chichikov is definitely a spy, a maker of false banknotes and had an undoubted intention to take away the governor’s daughter, in which Nozdryov undertook to help him (each of the versions was accompanied by detailed details right down to the name the priest who took up the wedding). All this talk has an enormous effect on the prosecutor; he suffers a blow and dies.

Chichikov himself, sitting in a hotel with a slight cold, is surprised that none of the officials visit him. Having finally gone on a visit, he discovers that the governor does not receive him, and in other places they fearfully shun him. Nozdryov, having visited him at the hotel, amid the general noise he made, partly clarifies the situation, announcing that he agrees to facilitate the kidnapping of the governor’s daughter. The next day, Chichikov hurriedly leaves, but is stopped by the funeral procession and forced to contemplate the whole light of officialdom flowing behind the coffin of the prosecutor. The brichka leaves the city, and the open spaces on both sides bring to the author sad and joyful thoughts about Russia, the road, and then only sad ones about his chosen hero. Having concluded that it is time to give the virtuous hero a rest, but, on the contrary, to hide the scoundrel, the author sets out the life story of Pavel Ivanovich, his childhood, training in classes, where he had already shown a practical mind, his relationships with his comrades and the teacher, his later service in the government chamber, some commission for the construction of a state building, where for the first time he gave vent to some of his weaknesses, his subsequent departure to other, not so profitable places, transfer to the customs service, where, showing honesty and integrity almost unnatural, he made a lot of money in an agreement with smugglers, he went bankrupt, but dodged a criminal trial, although he was forced to resign. He became an attorney and, during the troubles of pledging the peasants, he formed a plan in his head, began to travel around the expanses of Rus', so that, by buying up dead souls and pawning them in the treasury as if they were alive, he would receive money, perhaps buy a village and provide for future offspring.

Having again complained about the properties of his hero’s nature and partly justified him, having found him the name of “owner, acquirer,” the author is distracted by the urged running of horses, by the similarity of the flying troika with rushing Russia and ends the first volume with the ringing of a bell.

Volume two

It opens with a description of the nature that makes up the estate of Andrei Ivanovich Tentetnikov, whom the author calls “the smoker of the sky.” The story of the stupidity of his pastime is followed by the story of a life inspired by hopes at the very beginning, overshadowed by the pettiness of his service and troubles later; he retires, intending to improve the estate, reads books, takes care of the man, but without experience, sometimes just human, this does not give the expected results, the man is idle, Tentetnikov gives up. He breaks off acquaintances with his neighbors, offended by General Betrishchev’s address, and stops visiting him, although he cannot forget his daughter Ulinka. In a word, without someone who would tell him an invigorating “go ahead!”, he completely turns sour.

Chichikov comes to him, apologizing for a breakdown in the carriage, curiosity and a desire to pay respects. Having won the favor of the owner with his amazing ability to adapt to anyone, Chichikov, having lived with him for a while, goes to the general, to whom he weaves a story about a quarrelsome uncle and, as usual, begs for the dead. The poem fails at the laughing general, and we find Chichikov heading to Colonel Koshkarev. Contrary to expectations, he ends up with Pyotr Petrovich Rooster, whom he finds at first completely naked, keen on hunting sturgeon. At Rooster's, not having anything to get hold of, for the estate is mortgaged, he only overeats terribly, meets the bored landowner Platonov and, having encouraged him to travel together across Rus', goes to Konstantin Fedorovich Kostanzhoglo, married to Platonov's sister. He talks about the methods of management with which he increased the income from the estate tenfold, and Chichikov is terribly inspired.

Very quickly he visits Colonel Koshkarev, who has divided his village into committees, expeditions and departments and has organized a perfect paper production in the mortgaged estate, as it turns out. Having returned, he listens to the curses of the bilious Kostanzhoglo against the factories and manufactories that corrupt the peasant, the peasant’s absurd desire to educate, and his neighbor Khlobuev, who has neglected a sizable estate and is now selling it for next to nothing. Having experienced tenderness and even a craving for honest work, having listened to the story of the tax farmer Murazov, who made forty million in an impeccable way, Chichikov the next day, accompanied by Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, goes to Khlobuev, observes the unrest and dissipation of his household in the neighborhood of a governess for children, dressed in fashion wife and other traces of absurd luxury. Having borrowed money from Kostanzhoglo and Platonov, he gives a deposit for the estate, intending to buy it, and goes to Platonov’s estate, where he meets his brother Vasily, who efficiently manages the estate. Then he suddenly appears at their neighbor Lenitsyn, clearly a rogue, wins his sympathy with his ability to skillfully tickle a child and receives dead souls.

After many seizures in the manuscript, Chichikov is found already in the city at a fair, where he buys fabric that is so dear to him, the lingonberry color with a sparkle. He runs into Khlobuev, whom, apparently, he spoiled, either depriving him, or almost depriving him of his inheritance through some kind of forgery. Khlobuev, who let him go, is taken away by Murazov, who convinces Khlobuev of the need to work and orders him to collect funds for the church. Meanwhile, denunciations against Chichikov are discovered both about the forgery and about dead souls. The tailor brings a new tailcoat. Suddenly a gendarme appears, dragging the smartly dressed Chichikov to the Governor-General, “angry as anger itself.” Here all his atrocities become clear, and he, kissing the general’s boot, is thrown into prison. In a dark closet, Murazov finds Chichikov, tearing his hair and tails of his coat, mourning the loss of a box of papers, with simple virtuous words awakens in him a desire to live honestly and sets off to soften the Governor-General. At that time, officials who want to spoil their wise superiors and get a bribe from Chichikov, deliver a box to him, kidnap an important witness and write many denunciations in order to completely confuse the matter. Unrest breaks out in the province itself, greatly worrying the Governor-General. However, Murazov knows how to feel the sensitive strings of his soul and give him the right advice, which the Governor-General, having released Chichikov, is about to use when “the manuscript breaks off.”

Retold

DEAD SOULS

Poem N.V. Gogol.

It was started by Gogol in October 1835 and completed in 1840. The first volume of the book was published in 1842 under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” The second volume was burned by the author in 1852; only a few chapters of the draft survived.
The story that became the basis of the plot of the poem was told to Gogol A.S. Pushkin. The events take place in the 30s of the nineteenth century. in one of the central provinces (cm.) Russia. The work is written in the travel genre. The main character of the poem, Pavel Ivanovich, travels around the province in order to buy the so-called “dead souls,” that is, serfs ( cm., ), who recently died, but until the new revision are listed as living. Chichikov needs “dead souls” in order to pawn them and, having received a significant amount of money and land, get rich. Chichikov's travels give the author the opportunity to depict a wide panorama of Russian life, to show a whole gallery of satirical images landowners and officials ( cm.). In accordance with the genre, the poem, in addition to the main line, also includes lyrical digressions. The most famous of them is dedicated to Russia, which the author compares with threesome1, flying somewhere into the distance, forward: Eh, three! bird three, who invented you?
The poem "Dead Souls" remained unfinished.
Gogol failed to complete the second volume, where it was supposed to bring out positive heroes and show the possibility of correcting social evil by preaching moral principles.
The heroes of the book, satirically depicted by Gogol, were perceived by the reader as types of human characters, embodying such vices as stupidity, stinginess, rudeness, deceit, and boasting. It is they, and not the dead peasants, who are ultimately perceived as “dead souls,” that is, as people “dead in spirit.” cm. The poem “Dead Souls” was enthusiastically received by Gogol’s contemporaries and still remains among the favorite works of Russian readers. It is regularly included in school (
) programs on literature of the 19th century. The poem has been repeatedly illustrated, dramatized and filmed. The best illustrators of “Dead Souls” were artists A.A. Agin and P.M. Boklevsky. One of the best dramatizations of the poem was made M.A. Bulgakov For Moscow Art Theater
in 1932 The surnames of the main characters of the book began to be perceived as common nouns. Each of them can be used as a disapproving characteristic of a person.This is real Plyushkin can be said about a painfully stingy person; In a box they can call a mentally limited woman, a hoarder, completely immersed in the household; Sobakevich - an impolite, rude person with a strong appetite and clumsiness; bear Nozdrev - a drunkard and a brawler; Chichikov
- entrepreneur-swindler. From last name Manilov the concept was formed manilovism
- that is, a dreamy and inactive attitude towards the environment. Some phrases of the poem became popular. For example:; And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast?!; A lady who is pleasant in every way Historical man (about constantly getting into different stories);.
Rus', where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't answer

Portrait of N.V. Gogol. Artist F. Moller. 1841:


Chichikov. From the album “Types from Dead Souls.” Artist A.M. Boklevsky. 1895:


Still from the TV movie M.A. Schweitzer "Dead Souls". Plyushkin - I. Smoktunovsky:


Sobakevich. From the album “Types from Dead Souls.” Artist A.M. Boklevsky. 1895:

Russia. Large linguistic and cultural dictionary. - M.: State Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin. AST-Press. T.N. Chernyavskaya, K.S. Miloslavskaya, E.G. Rostova, O.E. Frolova, V.I. Borisenko, Yu.A. Vyunov, V.P. Chudnov. 2007 .

See what "DEAD SOULS" are in other dictionaries:

Dead Souls- This article is about the poem by N.V. Gogol. For film adaptations of the work, see Dead Souls (film). Dead souls ... Wikipedia

Dead Souls- DEAD SOULS. 1. Non-existent, invented people for some kind of fraud or personal gain. It somehow occurred to me: Gogol invented Chichikov, who travels and buys “dead souls,” and so shouldn’t I invent a young man who went... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

dead Souls- noun, number of synonyms: 1 dead souls (1) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

"Dead Souls"- DEAD SOULS is the title of the poem by N.V. Gogol (1st volume published in 1842). Before Gogol, this expression was not used and the writer’s contemporaries were struck by it as strange, contradictory, and even unlawful. For the author of the poem, it literally means... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Dead Souls- 1. Book. or publ. People fictitiously registered where l. F 1, 179. 2. Jarg. Arm. Joking. iron. Civilian soldiers (musicians, artists, athletes) who are employed in military positions and carry out special assignments from their superiors. Cor... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

Dead Souls (poem)- Dead Souls (first volume) Title page of the first edition Author: Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol Genre: Poem (novel, novel poem, prose poem) Original language: Russian ... Wikipedia

Dead Souls (film, 1984)- This term has other meanings, see Dead Souls (film). Dead souls Genre... Wikipedia

Dead Souls (film, 1960)- This term has other meanings, see Dead Souls (film). Dead souls ... Wikipedia

Dead Souls (film- Dead Souls (film, 1960) Dead Souls Genre Comedy Director Leonid Trauberg Scriptwriter Leonid Trauberg Starring ... Wikipedia

The main characters of the poem “Dead Souls” personify the society of past centuries.

"Dead Souls" main characters

The figurative system of the poem is built in accordance with three main plot-compositional links: landowner, bureaucratic Russia and the image of Chichikov.

The main character of "Dead Souls" Chichikov. This is a former official (retired collegiate councilor), and now a schemer: he is engaged in buying up so-called “dead souls” (written information about peasants who have died since the last audit) in order to mortgage them as living ones, in order to take out a loan from a bank and gain weight in society. He dresses smartly, takes care of himself, and after a long and dusty Russian road manages to look as if he only came from a tailor and barber. His name became a household name for people - nosy careerists, sycophants, money-grubbers, outwardly “pleasant”, “decent and worthy”

From last name— A pleasant, but boring and lazy middle-aged man. He doesn't do much about his estate. There are 200 peasant huts in his village. The peasants of Manilov are lazy, like the owner himself. Manilov likes to sit in his office and dream all day, smoking a pipe. A romantic and sensitive man who loves his family.

Box- old widow. She is a good housewife, thrifty and thrifty, a stupid and suspicious old woman. There are only 80 souls in her village. The peasants of Korobochka work properly, and the farm is well organized. The huts and buildings in the Korobochki estate are intact and strong. Korobochka sells goods produced by its peasants. This 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 a little money in colorful bags placed in dresser drawers.” The watercolor portrait of Korobochka represents a good-natured old lady of small stature, wearing a cap and hood, and funny knitted shoes. The round, soft figure of Nastasya Petrovna, with some kind of rag tied around her neck, surprisingly resembles a tightly stuffed sack or sack - an important attribute of a homely landowner.

Nozdryov— Young widower, 35 years old. Lively, cheerful and noisy. Likes to have fun and get drunk. Cannot sit at home for more than one day. He cares little about his estate and the peasants. Doesn't take care of his two children. He keeps a whole pack of dogs and loves them more than his children.

Sobakevich- a wealthy landowner 40-50 years old. Married. Outwardly similar to a bear. Healthy and strong. Clumsy, rude and straightforward. He takes good care of his estate. His peasants have strong and reliable huts. Loves to eat well.

This is real- A rich landowner. He has about 1000 souls. He has many dead and fugitive souls. Plyushkin lives like a beggar: he wears cast-offs and eats breadcrumbs. He doesn't throw anything away. Its peasants live in old, dilapidated houses. He inflates prices and does not sell goods to merchants, so the goods rot in storerooms.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol follows that the work was originally created as a light humorous novel. However, as writing progressed, the plot seemed to the author more and more original. About a year after the start of work, Gogol finally defined another, deeper and more extensive literary genre for his brainchild - “Dead Souls” became a poem. The writer divides the work into three parts. In the first, he decided to show all the shortcomings of modern society, in the second - the process of correction, and in the third - the life of heroes who had already changed for the better.

Time and place of creation

Work on the first part of the work took about seven years. Gogol began it in Russia in the fall of 1835. In 1836, he continued his work abroad: in Switzerland and Paris. However, the main part of the work was created in the capital of Italy, where Nikolai Vasilyevich worked in 1838 to 1842. At 126 Rome's Via Sistina there is a plaque commemorating this fact. Gogol carefully over every word of his poem, reworking the written lines many times.

Publication of the poem

The manuscript of the first part of the work was ready for printing in 1841, but it did not pass the censorship stage. The book was published the second time; influential friends helped Gogol, but with some reservations. So, the writer was given the condition to change the title. Therefore, the first publications of the poem were called “The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls.” In this way, the censors hoped to shift the focus of the narrative from the socio-political system that Gogol describes to the main character. Another censorship requirement was to make changes or delete “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” from the poem. Gogol agreed to significantly change this part of the work so as not to lose it. The book was published in May 1842.

Criticism of the poem

The publication of the first part of the poem caused a lot of criticism. The writer was attacked both by officials who accused Gogol of showing life in Russia as purely negative, which it is not, and by church followers who believed that the human soul is immortal and therefore, by definition, cannot be dead. However, Gogol’s colleagues immediately highly appreciated the significance of the work for Russian literature.

Continuation of the poem

Immediately after the release of the first part of “Dead Souls,” Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began working on the continuation of the poem. He wrote the second chapter almost until his death, but was never able to finish it. The work seemed imperfect to him, and in 1852, 9 days before his death, he burned the final version of the manuscript. Only the first five chapters of the drafts survived, which today are perceived as a separate work. The third part of the poem remained only an idea.