Souls dead or alive. Dead and living souls in the poem “Dead Souls”. The living and the dead in the poem "Dead Souls"

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

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

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

Manilov's house is always missing something: only part of the furniture is covered in silk, and two armchairs are covered with matting; The farm is run by a clerk who ruins both the peasants and the landowner. Idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and vital interests, despite seeming intelligence and culture, allow us to classify Manilov as an “idle sky-smoker” who contributes nothing to society. The second estate that Chichikov visited was the Korobochka estate. Her callousness lies in her amazingly petty interests in life. Apart from the prices of honey and hemp, Korobochka doesn’t care much about anything, if not to say that she doesn’t care about anything. The hostess is “an elderly woman, in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around her neck, one of those mothers, small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile they are gradually gaining a little money in motley bags..." Even when selling dead souls, Korobochka is afraid to sell things down. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. This hoarding borders on madness, because “all the money” is hidden and not put into circulation.

Next on Chichikov’s path he meets the landowner Nozdryov, who was gifted with all possible “enthusiasm.” At first he may seem like a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be empty. His amazing energy is directed towards continuous carousing and senseless extravagance.

Added to this is another character trait of Nozdryov - a passion for lying. But the lowest and most disgusting thing about this hero is “the passion to spoil his neighbor.” In my opinion, the soullessness of this hero lies in the fact that he cannot direct his energy and talents in the right direction. Next, Chichikov ends up with the landowner Sobakevich. The landowner seemed to Chichikov “very similar to a medium-sized bear.” Sobakevich is a kind of “fist” whom nature “simply hacked away from all over”, without making much of his face: “she grabbed it with an ax once - her nose came out, she grabbed it another time - her lips came out, she picked out her eyes with a large drill and, without scraping them, let go light, saying, “Lives.”

The insignificance and pettiness of Sobakevich’s soul is emphasized by the description of the things in his house. The furniture in a landowner's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich’s objects seems to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!”

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

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

Next to the landowners and officials - “dead souls” - stand bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, and love of freedom in the poem. These are images of dead and runaway peasants, first of all, Sobakevich’s men: the miracle master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove maker Milushkin. This is also the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebel villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovki and Zadirailova.

It seems to me that Gogol in “Dead Souls” understands that a conflict is brewing between two worlds: the world of serfs and the world of landowners. He warns about the upcoming clash throughout the book. And he ends his poem with a lyrical reflection on the fate of Russia. The image of the Rus' Troika affirms the idea of ​​the unstoppable movement of the motherland, expresses a dream about its future and the hope for the emergence of real “virtuous people” who are capable of saving the country.

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

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

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

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

There is always something missing in Manilov's house. Thus, in the office only part of the furniture is covered with silk, and two chairs are covered with matting. The farm is managed by a “skillful” clerk who ruins both Manilov and his peasants. This landowner is characterized by idle daydreaming, inactivity, limited mental abilities and life interests. And this despite the fact that Manilov seems to be an intelligent and cultured person.

The second estate that Chichikov visited was the estate of the landowner Korobochka. This is also a "dead soul". This woman's callousness lies in her amazingly petty interests in life. Apart from the prices of hemp and honey, Korobochka doesn’t care about much. Even in the sale of dead souls, the landowner is only afraid of selling herself too cheap. Everything that goes beyond her meager interests simply does not exist. She tells Chichikov that she doesn’t know any Sobakevich, and, therefore, he doesn’t exist in the world.

While searching for the landowner Sobakevich, Chichikov runs into Nozdrev. Gogol writes about this “merry fellow” that he was gifted with all possible “enthusiasm.” At first glance, Nozdryov seems to be a lively and active person, but in reality he turns out to be completely empty. His amazing energy is directed only to carousing and senseless extravagance. Added to this is a passion for lying. But the lowest and most disgusting thing about this hero is “the passion to spoil his neighbor.” This is the type of people “who will start with satin and end with shit.” But Nozdryov, one of the few landowners, even evokes sympathy and pity. It’s just a pity that he directs his indomitable energy and love of life into an “empty” channel.

The next landowner on Chichikov's path finally turns out to be Sobakevich. He seemed to Pavel Ivanovich “very similar to a medium-sized bear.” Sobakevich is a kind of “fist” whom nature “simply chopped with all its might.” Everything in the appearance of the hero and his house is thorough, detailed and large-scale. The furniture in a landowner's house is as heavy as the owner. Each of Sobakevich’s objects seems to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!”

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

The gallery of landowner “dead souls” is completed by Plyushkin, whose soullessness has taken on completely inhuman forms. Gogol tells us the background story of this hero. Once upon a time, Plyushkin was an enterprising and hardworking owner. Neighbors came to him to learn “stingy wisdom.” But after the death of his wife, the hero’s suspicion and stinginess increased to the highest degree.

This landowner has accumulated huge reserves of “goods”. Such reserves would be enough for several lives. But he, not content with this, walks around his village every day and collects all kinds of garbage, which he puts in his room. Senseless hoarding led Plyushkin to the point that he himself feeds on scraps, and his peasants “die like flies” or run away.

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

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

Next to the “dead souls” in the poem there are bright images of ordinary people who are the embodiment of the ideals of spirituality, courage, love of freedom, and talent. These are images of dead and runaway peasants, primarily Sobakevich’s men: the miracle master Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, the hero Stepan Probka, the skilled stove maker Milushkin. This is also the fugitive Abakum Fyrov, the peasants of the rebel villages of Vshivaya-arrogance, Borovki and Zadirailova.

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

Having begun work on “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote about his work: “All of Rus' will appear in it.” The writer most carefully studied the past of the Russian people - from its very origins - and the results of this work formed the basis of his work, written in a living, poetic form. Gogol did not work on any of his works, including the comedy “The Inspector General,” with such faith in his calling as a citizen writer with which he created “Dead Souls.” He did not devote so much deep creative thought, time and hard work to any other work of his.

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

The plot of the poem is quite simple: its main character, Chichikov, a born swindler and dirty businessman, opens up the possibility of profitable deals with dead souls, that is, with those serfs who have already gone to another world, but were still counted among the living. He decides to buy dead souls cheaply and for this purpose goes to one of the county towns. As a result, readers are presented with a whole gallery of images of landowners, whom Chichikov visits in order to bring his plan to life. The storyline of the work - the purchase and sale of dead souls - allowed the writer not only to unusually clearly show the inner world of the characters, but also to characterize their typical features, the spirit of the era. Gogol opens this gallery of portraits of local owners with the image of a hero who, at first glance, seems to be quite an attractive person. What is most striking about Manilov’s appearance is his “agreeableness” and his desire to please everyone. Manilov himself, this “very courteous and courteous landowner,” admires and is proud of his manners and considers himself an extremely spiritual and educated person. However, during his conversation with Chichikov, it becomes clear that this man’s involvement in culture is just an appearance, the pleasantness of his manners smacks of cloying, and behind the flowery phrases there is nothing but stupidity. The entire lifestyle of Manilov and his family smacks of vulgar sentimentality. Manilov himself lives in an illusory world he created. He has idyllic ideas about people: no matter who he talked about, everyone came out very pleasant, “most amiable” and excellent. From the very first meeting, Chichikov won the sympathy and love of Manilov: he immediately began to consider him his invaluable friend and dream of how the sovereign, having learned about their friendship, would honor them as generals. Life in Manilov’s view is complete and perfect harmony. He doesn’t want to see anything unpleasant in her and replaces knowledge of life with empty fantasies. A wide variety of projects arise in his imagination that will never be realized. Moreover, they arise not at all because Manilov strives to create something, but because fantasy itself gives him pleasure. He is carried away only by the play of his imagination, but he is completely incapable of any real action. It was not difficult for Chichikov to convince Manilov of the benefits of his enterprise: he just had to say that this was being done in the public interest and was fully consistent with “the future vision of Russia,” since Manilov considers himself a person guarding public well-being.

From Manilov, Chichikov heads to Korobochka, who, perhaps, is the complete opposite of the previous hero. Unlike Manilov, Korobochka is characterized by the absence of any pretensions to higher culture and some kind of “simplicity”. The lack of “showiness” is emphasized by Gogol even in the portrait of Korobochka: she has too unattractive, shabby appearance. Korobochka’s “simplicity” is also reflected in her relationships with people. “Oh, my father,” she turns to Chichikov, “you’re like a hog, your whole back and side are covered in mud!” All Korobochka’s thoughts and desires are focused around the economic strengthening of her estate and continuous accumulation. She is not an inactive dreamer, like Manilov, but a sober acquirer, always poking around her home. But Korobochka’s thriftiness precisely reveals her inner insignificance. Acquisitive impulses and aspirations fill Korobochka’s entire consciousness, leaving no room for any other feelings. She strives to benefit from everything, from household trifles to the profitable sale of serfs, who are for her, first of all, property, which she has the right to dispose of as she pleases. It is much more difficult for Chichikov to come to an agreement with her: she is indifferent to any of his arguments, since the main thing for her is to benefit herself. It’s not for nothing that Chichikov calls Korobochka “club-headed”: this epithet very aptly characterizes her. The combination of a secluded lifestyle with crude acquisitiveness determines Korobochka’s extreme spiritual poverty.

Next is another contrast: from Korobochka to Nozdryov. In contrast to the petty and selfish Korobochka, Nozdryov is distinguished by his violent prowess and “broad” scope of nature. He is extremely active, mobile and perky. Without hesitation for a moment, Nozdryov is ready to do any Business, that is, everything that for some reason comes to his mind: “At that very moment he offered you to go anywhere, even to the ends of the world, to enter into any enterprise you want, exchange whatever you have for whatever you want." Nozdryov’s energy is devoid of any purpose. He easily starts and abandons any of his undertakings, immediately forgetting about it. His ideal is people who live noisily and cheerfully, without burdening themselves with any everyday worries. Wherever Nozdryov appears, chaos breaks out and scandals arise. Boasting and lying are the main character traits of Nozdryov. He is inexhaustible in his lies, which have become so organic for him that he lies without even feeling any need to do so. He is friendly with all his acquaintances, keeps on friendly terms with them, considers everyone his friend, but never remains true to his words or relationships. After all, it is he who subsequently debunks his “friend” Chichikov in front of provincial society.

Sobakevich is one of those people who stands firmly on the ground and soberly evaluates both life and people. When necessary, Sobakevich knows how to act and achieve what he wants. Characterizing Sobakevich’s everyday way of life, Gogol emphasizes that everything here “was stubborn, without shaking.” Solidity and strength are the distinctive features of both Sobakevich himself and the everyday environment around him. However, the physical strength of both Sobakevich and his way of life is combined with some kind of ugly clumsiness. Sobakevich looks like a bear, and this comparison is not only external: the animal nature predominates in the nature of Sobakevich, who has no spiritual needs. In his firm belief, the only important thing can be taking care of one’s own existence. The saturation of the stomach determines the content and meaning of its life. He considers enlightenment not only an unnecessary, but also a harmful invention: “They interpret it as enlightenment, enlightenment, but this enlightenment is bullshit! I would say another word, but just now it’s indecent at the table.” Sobakevich is prudent and practical, but, unlike Korobochka, he understands the environment well and knows people. This is a cunning and arrogant businessman, and Chichikov had quite a difficult time dealing with him. Before he had time to utter a word about the purchase, Sobakevich had already offered him a deal with dead souls, and he charged such a price as if it was a question of selling real serfs.

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

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

At the beginning of work on the poem N.V. Gogol wrote to V.A. Zhukovsky: “What a huge, what an original plot! What a diverse bunch! All of Rus' will appear in it.” This is how Gogol himself determined the scope of his work - all of Rus'. And the writer was able to show in full both the negative and positive aspects of life in Russia of that era. Gogol’s plan was grandiose: like Dante, to depict Chichikov’s path first in “hell” - Volume I of Dead Souls, then “in purgatory” - Volume II of Dead Souls and “in heaven” - Volume III. But this plan was not fully realized; only Volume I, in which Gogol shows the negative aspects of Russian life, reached the reader in full.

In Korobochka, Gogol presents us with a different type of Russian landowner. Thrifty, hospitable, hospitable, she suddenly becomes a “club-head” in the scene of selling dead souls, afraid of selling herself short. This is the type of person with his own mind. In Nozdryov, Gogol showed a different form of decomposition of the nobility. The writer shows us two essences of Nozdryov: first, he is an open, daring, direct face. But then you have to be convinced that Nozdryov’s sociability is an indifferent familiarity with everyone he meets and crosses, his liveliness is an inability to concentrate on any serious subject or matter, his energy is a waste of energy in revelries and debauchery. His main passion, in the words of the writer himself, is “to spoil your neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.”

Sobakevich is akin to Korobochka. He, like her, is a hoarder. Only, unlike Korobochka, he is a smart and cunning hoarder. He manages to deceive Chichikov himself. Sobakevich is rude, cynical, uncouth; No wonder he is compared to an animal (a bear). By this Gogol emphasizes the degree of savagery of man, the degree of death of his soul. This gallery of “dead souls” is completed by the “hole in humanity” Plyushkin. This is the eternal image of the stingy in classical literature. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of economic, social and moral decay of the human personality.

Provincial officials also join the gallery of landowners who are essentially “dead souls.”

Who can we call living souls in the poem, and do they even exist? I think Gogol did not intend to contrast the suffocating atmosphere of the life of officials and landowners with the life of the peasantry. On the pages of the poem, the peasants are depicted far from rosy. The footman Petrushka sleeps without undressing and “always carries with him some special smell.” The coachman Selifan is not a fool to drink. But it is precisely for the peasants that Gogol has kind words and a warm intonation when he speaks, for example, about Pyotr Neumyvay-Koryto, Ivan Koleso, Stepan Probka, and the resourceful peasant Eremey Sorokoplekhin. These are all the people whose fate the author thought about and asked the question: “What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime? How have you gotten by?”

But there is at least something bright in Rus' that cannot be corroded under any circumstances; there are people who constitute the “salt of the earth.” Did Gogol himself, this genius of satire and singer of the beauty of Rus', come from somewhere? Eat! It must be! Gogol believes in this, and therefore at the end of the poem an artistic image of Rus'-troika appears, rushing into a future in which there will be no Nozdrevs or Plyushkins. A bird or three rushes forward. “Rus', where are you going? Give me an answer. He doesn’t give an answer.”

Griboyedov Pushkin literary plot

The plot of the poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is based on the journey of the landowner-adventurer Chichikov, who travels throughout Russia and buys peasant souls that actually do not exist, but are still listed in documents, from serf owners. However, what is important is not the fact of Chichikov’s cunning trip itself, but the reflection in the poem of the characters and morals of the people of that era. Five “portrait” chapters telling about the hero’s meeting with the landowners show how differently and at the same time essentially the same serf relations developed in Gogol’s time (that is, in the first half of the 19th century) in one of the provincial corners of Russia and how they were reflected in the way of life and characters of the landowners of that time.

The landowners meet Chichikov in a manner consistent with the author's plan. First, Pavel Ivanovich meets with the mismanagement and soft-hearted Manilov, then with the petty Korobochka, then with the carouser and “master of life” Nozdryov, after him with the tight-fisted Sobakevich, and in the end with the miser Plyushkin. Thus, as we read the poem, we encounter more and more perverted characters. Essentially, these heroes are “dead” souls in the poem.

So, the gallery of “portraits” presented in Gogol’s poem begins with the landowner Manilov. Manilov's appearance and cutesy manners fully correspond to the basic properties of his character - meaningless daydreaming and complete isolation from life. In Manilov’s daily life, we do not observe any serious independent undertakings. He abandoned the farm a long time ago; the estate is managed by a clerk. As we learn from Manilov’s conversation with Chichikov, the unfortunate landowner has no idea how many peasants he actually has and whether any of them have died since the last census. The idleness and mental lethargy of the landowner is eloquently evidenced by the fact that in his office for two years now there has been a book, pawned all on the same page and since then he has never picked it up.

However, not everything is so bad in Manilov: sometimes a thirst for activity awakens in him, and he begins to daydream, dreaming, for example, about building a stone bridge across a pond near his house. It’s just a pity that these dreams were never destined to come true, and in general, all Manilov’s projects seem like fun that a real owner shouldn’t think about.

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

Plyushkin, according to the author, represents a “hole in humanity.” Everything that was human in him died long ago. The astonished Chichikov sees in front of him an amorphous creature that has lost all signs of gender and age. By portraying Plyushkin, the author shows what a person who has forgotten about his true purpose can turn into.

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

In his poem, Gogol contrasts the “dead” souls of the landowners with the “living” souls of the people, in which, despite all the hardships and obstacles, the flame of hard work, sympathy, and love does not go out. These are the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, Stepan Probka, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, the carriage maker Mikheev, the serf girl Pelageya, Proshka and Mavra, and the brickmaker Milushkin. The author feels annoyance and bitter regret that the peasant - a “living” soul, a representative of the majority of the country’s population, its breadwinner and protector - remains in shameful dependence on “dead” souls. Gogol's poem is an attempt by the writer to draw the attention of thinking people to the intolerance of this situation in Russia.

The purpose of the trip to the provincial cities of the enterprising Chichikov was to purchase revision souls who were still on the lists of the living, but already dead. Dead and living souls in Gogol's poem take on a new meaning. A classic, the very name of the work makes you think about people’s lives, the value and materiality of human existence.

Revision soul

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

As soon as an official, a bureaucrat, was born, crimes based on documents began. “Paper” souls are skillfully sophisticated in order to enrich themselves. Even from audit lists they manage to find benefits. Chichikov is a bright representative of such people. He planned to pass off the men who had died in another world as living ones, to raise his social position with their help, and to appear in the world as a rich landowner with many souls. And no one will know what they are, dead or no longer alive.

Dead masters of life

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

All that remains of the human image is the form, the shell. Landowners fulfill their physiological needs: eat, sleep, roam. There is no such thing as what a living person should do. There is no development, movement, desire to benefit others.

Literary scholars argued with the author’s position. Some tried to prove the vitality of the characters by the presence of passion, which can only be found in the living. Greed, greed, rudeness, cunning - negative qualities confirm the lack of spirituality, but not the deadness of the representatives of the landowners.

The majority agreed with the classic. The landowners are arranged in order of increasing degradation: from the initial stage (Manilov) to the complete collapse of personality (Plyushkin).

Living images

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

In 1842, the poem “Dead Souls” was published. Gogol had many problems with censorship: from the title to the content of the work. The censors did not like the fact that the title, firstly, actualized the social problem of fraud with documents, and secondly, combined concepts that are opposite from a religious point of view. Gogol flatly refused to change the name. The writer’s idea is truly amazing: Gogol wanted, like Dante, to describe the whole world as Russia seemed, to show both positive and negative features, to depict the indescribable beauty of nature and the mystery of the Russian soul. All this is conveyed using a variety of artistic means, and the language of the story itself is light and figurative. No wonder Nabokov said that only one letter separates Gogol from the comic to the cosmic. The concepts of “dead living souls” are mixed in the text of the story, as if in the Oblonskys’ house. The paradox is that only dead peasants have a living soul in “Dead Souls”!

Landowners

In the story, Gogol draws portraits of people contemporary to him, creating certain types. After all, if you take a closer look at each character, study his home and family, habits and inclinations, then they will have practically nothing in common. For example, Manilov loved lengthy thoughts, loved to show off a little (as evidenced by the episode with the children, when Manilov, under Chichikov, asked his sons various questions from the school curriculum).

Behind his external attractiveness and politeness there was nothing but senseless daydreaming, stupidity and imitation. He was not at all interested in everyday trifles, and he even gave away the dead peasants for free.

Nastasya Filippovna Korobochka knew literally everyone and everything that happened on her small estate. She remembered by heart not only the names of the peasants, but also the reasons for their death, and she had complete order in her household. The enterprising housewife tried to provide, in addition to the purchased souls, flour, honey, lard - in a word, everything that was produced in the village under her strict leadership.

Sobakevich put a price on every dead soul, but he escorted Chichikov to the government chamber. He seems to be the most businesslike and responsible landowner among all the characters. His complete opposite turns out to be Nozdryov, whose meaning in life comes down to gambling and drinking. Even children cannot keep the master at home: his soul constantly requires more and more new entertainment.

The last landowner from whom Chichikov bought souls was Plyushkin. In the past, this man was a good owner and family man, but due to unfortunate circumstances, he turned into something asexual, formless and inhuman. After the death of his beloved wife, his stinginess and suspicion gained unlimited power over Plyushkin, turning him into a slave of these base qualities.

Lack of authentic life

What do all these landowners have in common? What unites them with the mayor, who received the order for nothing, with the postmaster, police chief and other officials who take advantage of their official position, and whose goal in life is only their own enrichment? The answer is very simple: lack of desire to live. None of the characters feel any positive emotions or really think about the sublime. All these dead souls are driven by animal instincts and consumerism. There is no internal originality in landowners and officials, they are all just dummies, just copies of copies, they do not stand out from the general background, they are not exceptional individuals. Everything high in this world is vulgarized and lowered: no one admires the beauty of nature, which the author so vividly describes, no one falls in love, no one accomplishes feats, no one overthrows the king. In the new, corrupt world, there is no longer room for the exclusive romantic personality. There is no love here as such: parents don’t love children, men don’t love women - people just take advantage of each other. So Manilov needs children as a source of pride, with the help of which he can increase his weight in his own eyes and in the eyes of others, Plyushkin doesn’t even want to know his daughter, who ran away from home in her youth, and Nozdryov doesn’t care whether he has children or not.

The worst thing is not even this, but the fact that idleness reigns in this world. At the same time, you can be a very active and active person, but at the same time be idle. Any actions and words of the characters are devoid of internal spiritual filling, devoid of a higher purpose. The soul here is dead because it no longer asks for spiritual food.

The question may arise: why does Chichikov buy only dead souls? The answer to this, of course, is simple: he doesn’t need any extra peasants, and he will sell the documents for the dead. But will such an answer be complete? Here the author subtly shows that the world of the living and dead souls do not intersect and cannot intersect anymore. But the “living” souls are now in the world of the dead, and the “dead” have come to the world of the living. At the same time, the souls of the dead and the living in Gogol’s poem are inextricably linked.

Are there living souls in the poem “Dead Souls”? Of course there is. Their roles are played by deceased peasants, to whom various qualities and characteristics are attributed. One drank, another beat his wife, but this one was hard-working, and this one had strange nicknames. These characters come to life both in Chichikov’s imagination and in the reader’s imagination. And now we, together with the main character, imagine the leisure time of these people.

hope for the best

The world depicted by Gogol in the poem is completely depressing, and the work would be too gloomy if not for the subtly depicted landscapes and beauties of Rus'. That's where the lyrics are, that's where the life is! One gets the feeling that in a space devoid of living beings (that is, people), life has been preserved. And again, the opposition based on the living-dead principle is actualized here, which turns into a paradox. In the final chapter of the poem, Rus' is compared to a dashing troika that rushes along the road into the distance. “Dead Souls,” despite its general satirical nature, ends with inspiring lines that sound enthusiastic faith in the people.

The characteristics of the main character and the landowners, a description of their common qualities will be useful to 9th grade students when preparing for an essay on the topic “Dead Living Souls” based on Gogol’s poem.

Work test

Who are the “dead souls” in the poem?

“Dead souls” - this title carries something terrifying... It’s not the revisionists who are dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and others - these are dead souls and we meet them at every step,” wrote Herzen.

In this meaning, the expression “dead souls” is no longer addressed to peasants - living and dead - but to the masters of life, landowners and officials. And its meaning is metaphorical, figurative. After all, physically, materially, “all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and others” exist and, for the most part, are thriving. What could be more certain than the bear-like Sobakevich? Or Nozdryov, about whom it is said: “He was like blood and milk; his health seemed to be dripping from his face.” But physical existence is not yet human life. Vegetative existence is far from real spiritual movements. “Dead souls” in this case mean deadness, lack of spirituality. And this lack of spirituality manifests itself in at least two ways. First of all, it is the absence of any interests or passions. Remember what they say about Manilov? “You won’t get any lively or even arrogant words from him, which you can hear from almost anyone if you touch an object that offends him. Everyone has their own, but Manilov had nothing. Most hobbies or passions cannot be called high or noble. But Manilov did not have such passion. He had nothing of his own at all. And the main impression that Manilov made on his interlocutor was a feeling of uncertainty and “deadly boredom.”

Other characters - landowners and officials - are not nearly as dispassionate. For example, Nozdryov and Plyushkin have their own passions. Chichikov also has his own “enthusiasm” - the enthusiasm of “acquisition”. And many other characters have their own “bullying object”, which sets in motion a wide variety of passions: greed, ambition, curiosity, and so on.

This means that in this regard, “dead souls” are dead in different ways, to different degrees and, so to speak, in different doses. But in another respect they are equally deadly, without distinction or exception.

Dead soul! This phenomenon seems contradictory in itself, composed of mutually exclusive concepts. Can there be a dead soul, a dead person, that is, something that is by nature animate and spiritual? Can't live, shouldn't exist. But it exists.

What remains of life is a certain form, of a person - a shell, which, however, regularly performs vital functions. And here another meaning of the Gogol image of “dead souls” is revealed to us: revision dead souls, that is, a symbol for dead peasants. The revision's dead souls are concrete, reviving faces of peasants who are treated as if they were not people. And the dead in spirit are all these Manilovs, Nozdrevs, landowners and officials, a dead form, a soulless system of human relationships...

All these are facets of one Gogol concept - “dead souls”, artistically realized in his poem. And the facets are not isolated, but make up a single, infinitely deep image.

Following his hero, Chichikov, moving from one place to another, the writer does not give up hope of finding people who would carry within themselves the beginning of a new life and rebirth. The goals that Gogol and his hero set for themselves are directly opposite in this regard. Chichikov is interested in dead souls in the literal and figurative sense of the word - revision dead souls and people dead in spirit. And Gogol is looking for a living soul in which the spark of humanity and justice burns.

Who are the “living souls” in the poem?

The “dead souls” of the poem are contrasted with the “living” - a talented, hardworking, long-suffering people. With a deep sense of patriotism and faith in the great future of his people, Gogol writes about him. He saw the lack of rights of the peasantry, its humiliated position and the dullness and savagery that were the result of serfdom. Such are Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, the serf girl Pelageya, who did not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra, downtrodden to the extreme. But even in this social depression, Gogol saw the living soul of the “lively people” and the quickness of the Yaroslavl peasant. He speaks with admiration and love about the people’s ability, courage and daring, endurance and thirst for freedom. Serf hero, carpenter Cork “would be fit for the guard.” He set out with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders throughout the province. The carriage maker Mikhei created carriages of extraordinary strength and beauty. Stove maker Milushkin could install a stove in any house. Talented shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov - “whatever stabs with an awl, so will the boots; whatever the boots, then thank you.” And Eremey Sorokoplekhin “brought five hundred rubles per quitrent!” Here is Plyushkin’s runaway serf Abakum Fyrov. His soul could not withstand the oppression of captivity, he was drawn to the wide Volga expanse, he “walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier, having made a contract with the merchants.” But it’s not easy for him to walk with the barge haulers, “dragging the strap to one endless song, like Rus'.” In the songs of barge haulers, Gogol heard the expression of longing and the people’s desire for a different life, for a wonderful future. Behind the bark of lack of spirituality, callousness, and carrion, the living forces of the people's life are beating - and here and there they make their way to the surface in the living Russian word, in the joy of barge haulers, in the movement of the Rus' Troika - the guarantee of the future revival of the homeland.

Ardent faith in the hidden but immense strength of the entire people, love for the homeland, allowed Gogol to brilliantly foresee its great future.