Gogol's "Dead Souls". Female images in N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

An essay on the topic “Female images” in the works of N.V. Gogol

Creativity N.V. Gogol occupies a special place in Russian literature. No one else could describe the broad panorama of Russian life in such a lively and humorous manner. Of course, first of all, the artist is interested in shortcomings; he does not feel sorry for his homeland, but shows all its injuries, all the bad things that exist in everyday life. The satirist's pen serves to expose officials and landowners, and evilly ridicules their vices. In his works, Gogol does not pay special attention to female images. The writer does not consider it necessary to depict separately the shortcomings of men and women, he only gives big picture desolation reigning in the cities and villages of Russia. However, on the other hand, they prompt the reader to think more deeply about the causes of desolation, adding color to the description and dynamics to the actions.

One of Gogol's most famous creations is the play "The Inspector General". This work seems to be a kind of prologue to the monumental poem " Dead Souls", the writer's life's work. In "The Inspector General" the sting of satire is directed against the life and morals of a remote town, against the greed and arbitrariness of county officials.

"Dead Souls" is a work of a much larger scale. In it, all of Russia appeared before the reader's court. Gogol does not feel sorry for her, but caustically mocks her shortcomings, believing that this treatment will be beneficial, that in the future the homeland will definitely get rid of dirt and vulgarity. The idea of ​​"Dead Souls" is a continuation of "The Inspector General". It doesn’t just show the life and morals of officials of the county town. Now Gogol exposes both landowners and officials; he castigates glaring shortcomings on a much larger scale. The “dead” souls of all Russia pass before the eyes of readers.

One of the main functions performed by female characters in both works is the formation of ideas about certain social and socio-psychological types. Most shining example This is the image of the landowner Korobochka. She is described by Gogol as a terrible person with her stinginess and stupidity, who is more like a machine than a person. Her characteristic- the desire to get as much as possible more money, and she is not interested in whether the buyer needs the product or not. Korobochka is stingy and thrifty; nothing goes to waste in her household, which, in general, is commendable. But main feature Her character is hidden in her “talking” surname: she is an impenetrable, limited and stupid old woman. If some idea comes to her mind, then it is impossible to convince her; all reasonable arguments “bounce off her like a rubber ball from a wall.” Even the imperturbable Chichikov becomes furious, trying to prove to her the undoubted benefit of selling the peasants. But she firmly took it into her head that Chichikov wanted to deceive her, and cracking this nut, this box was extremely difficult even for the hardened businessman Chichikov. In Korobochka, Gogol embodied all the limited thinking of Russian landowners; it became a symbol of the abyss in which the Russian landed nobility, having completely lost the ability to think sensibly.

In order to show the picture of life and the depth of the decline of morals in the provincial city of N., the author introduces images of city gossips. Their exaggerated and fictitious stories about Chichikov's adventures, mixed with discussions about fashion, do not evoke anything in the reader except a feeling of disgust. Vivid images are simple nice lady and the ladies, pleasant in all respects, characterize the city and the province from a very unfavorable side, emphasizing the flatness of their thinking.

Because of the gossip started by these ladies, the shortcomings of dishonest officials were revealed. And this is not the only example of how female images help Gogol to show real picture life, real situation.

Outwardly, there is nothing interesting about Anna Andreevna, the mayor’s wife in The Inspector General: a fussy, curious chatterbox, the reader immediately gets the impression that she has the wind in her head. However, it is worth taking a closer look at it. After all, the author in his “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” characterizes her as a woman who is smart in her own way and even has some power over her husband. This is an interesting representative of provincial society. Thanks to her, the image of the mayor becomes more prominent, acquires additional meaning, and the reader gets a clear idea of ​​the lifestyle and problems of the county ladies.

Marya Antonovna is not very different from mother. She is very similar to her, but much less active; she is not a double of the energetic official, but only her shadow. Marya Antonovna tries with all her might to seem significant, but her behavior betrays her: outfits occupy the most space in a girl’s heart; she pays attention primarily to Khlestakov’s “suit,” and not to its owner. The image of Marya Antonovna characterizes the city from the bad side, because if young people are busy only with themselves and “suits,” then society has no future.

The images of the mayor's wife and daughter brilliantly reveal author's intention, illustrate his idea: the bureaucracy and society of the county town are rotten through and through. Female images help to reveal the author's intent in " Dead souls". Mortification is manifested in Korobochka, who is always painstakingly collecting a penny and is afraid of making a mistake when making a deal, and in the wives of the landowners.

In addition, the wives of Manilov and Sobakevich help the author reveal male characters more fully and in detail, and emphasize any character traits. Each of them is, as it were, a copy of her spouse. For example, Sobakevich’s wife, upon entering the room, sat down and did not even think about starting a conversation, which confirms the rudeness and ignorance of the owner. Manilova is more interesting. Her manners and habits exactly repeat the manners and habits of her husband, we recognize in the expression of her face the same cloying, she, like Manilov himself, has not yet left the world of dreams. But at the same time, there are hints of her independence; Gogol recalls studying at the boarding school and her playing the piano. Thus, Manilova separates from her husband, acquires her own characteristics, the author hints that her fate could have turned out differently if she had not met Manilova. However, the images of the landowners' wives are not independent; they only enrich the images of the landowners themselves.

The image of the governor’s daughter is extremely important in this aspect. Although she does not utter a word throughout the entire poem, with her help the reader discovers the amazing character traits of Chichikov. A meeting with a charming girl awakens tender feelings in Chichikov’s soul; this rogue suddenly begins to think about love and marriage, about the future of youth. Despite the fact that this obsession will soon subside like a haze, this moment is very important; here the reader encounters a vague hint of the possible spiritual rebirth hero. Compared to the image of the mayor's daughter in The Inspector General, the image of the governor's daughter carries a fundamentally different semantic load.

In principle, the female images of The Inspector General do not play an important role in understanding the main idea of ​​the work. But their significance is also great. After all, women are not officials, which means Gogol’s satire is not aimed directly at them, their function is to emphasize the general degradation of the county town. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna highlight the shortcomings of officials. Their stupidity and overly high self-esteem expose the same shortcomings of officials, hidden under the mask of integrity and diligence, under the blinding light of satire.

In “Dead Souls,” the female characters, on the contrary, are versatile. They are much more complex, more developed than in The Inspector General. None of them can be clearly characterized. But one thing is certain: female characters allow the reader to understand the work more deeply; their presence enlivens the story and often makes the reader smile.

In general, Gogol’s female images, although not the main ones, characterize in detail and accurately the morals of the bureaucracy. they show the life of landowners in an interesting and varied way, revealing more fully and deeply the most main image in the writer’s work - the image of his homeland, Russia. Through the description of such women, Gogol leads the reader to think about her fate, about the fate of his compatriots, and proves that Russia’s shortcomings are not her fault, but a misfortune. And behind all this lies the author’s enormous love, hope for her moral revival.

“The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” are perhaps the most outstanding works not only in Gogol, but throughout Russian literature. Both of these masterpieces show the main types of people of that time. Each writer's hero is individual, each has his own character. And, of course, Gogol did not ignore female images in his work.

The description of the female half of humanity plays a significant role in the poem “Dead Souls”. Shown here are a “typical”, very thrifty landowner, a young coquette, and two pleasant ladies who are ready to instantly turn any news into a town rumor.

The only female landowner in Dead Souls is Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka. She is one of the “small landowners who complain about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile little by little they collect money in colorful bags placed on the drawers of the chest of drawers!” Korobochka has a “pretty village”, the yard is full of all kinds of birds, there are “spacious vegetable gardens with cabbage, onions, potatoes, beets and other household vegetables”, there are “apple trees and other fruit trees”.

The box does not claim to be high culture: her appearance stands out for its very unpretentious simplicity. This is emphasized by Gogol in the heroine’s appearance: he points out her shabby and unattractive appearance. This simplicity also reveals itself in relationships with people. the main objective The life of a landowner is consolidation of her wealth, incessant accumulation.

The box does not see anything further than “its nose”. Everything “new” and “unprecedented” scares her. The only thing that worries the heroine is the price of hemp and honey. It seems that she has no feelings other than the desire to acquire and benefit. The situation with “dead souls” is confirmation. Korobochka sells to peasants with the same efficiency with which she sells other items of her farm. For her there is no difference between an animate and an inanimate being. In Chichikov’s proposal, the helper is frightened by only one thing: the prospect of missing something, not taking what can be obtained for “dead souls.”

Korobochka is a stupid, “club-headed” and greedy landowner. She has little left of her female appearance. The small house and large yard of Korobochka symbolically represent her inner world- neat, strong, “inhabited” with flies, which in Gogol always accompany the frozen, stopped, internally dead world of the hero.

In addition to Korobochka, the Governor’s daughter is present in the poem. The reader can form her portrait only after the ball scene. This girl is a socialite, and Chichikov is unable to carry on a conversation with her.

Also in the novel there is a description of “secular” ladies, whose main occupation is to dissolve various gossip. It is these “ladies who are pleasant in all respects” and “simply pleasant ladies” who become main reason Chichikov's collapse. It is the completely groundless rumors they spread, accepted by everyone as the truth and giving rise to new, even more absurd, hypotheses that fundamentally undermine Chichikov’s authority. And the “nice” ladies did all this out of “nothing to do”, accidentally turning to this conversation after an argument about the pattern. They personify the “metropolitan” people in the poem society ladies, which although differ in financial condition and position in society, but in terms of the desire to wash bones and spread rumors, they are absolutely in no way different from their provincial “sisters”.

The play “The Inspector General” also features female characters. These are the mayor's wife and daughter, typical provincial coquettes. The meaning of their life is an endless change of outfits, and their range of interests is limited to reading pulp novels and collecting low-grade poems in albums.

Anna Andreevna is the mayor’s wife. She first appears in the first act of the play. Here she is very emotional, her speech is full of exclamatory and interrogative sentences. Anna Andreevna constantly yells at her daughter and even forces her to wear a blue dress just because she herself wants to wear a fawn one. Thus, the mother competes with her daughter, wants to prove to her that she is the best.

Anna Andreevna flirts in front of Khlestakov, not embarrassed by her husband, and then also declares that the guest liked her. And when the hero proposes to her, he replies: “But let me note: I’m in some way... I’m married.” Thus, before us is an over-aged social coquette, the main thing for whom is her position in society. The mayor's wife is already dreaming of life in St. Petersburg after Khlestakov proposes to her daughter.

Marya Antonovna is the daughter of the mayor. This is a young coquette, very similar to her mother. But still, she is not averse to arguing with her mother. Marya Antonovna has taste and a reluctance to be like others. For example, the scene where her mother tells her to wear a blue dress: “Hey, mommy, blue! I don’t like it at all.” And why? Yes, because all the young girls in the city wear blue dresses.

Besides, this girl is quite well read. So, in a conversation with Khlestakov, when he mentions that he wrote “Yuri Miloslavsky,” Marya Antonovna says that this is the work of “Mr. Zagoskin.”

The heroine never says too much and is more often silent. She really liked Khlestakov, and she thinks that he also paid attention to her. When Ivan Alexandrovich explains to Marya Antonovna, she does not believe him, thinks that he is mocking her, and asks him to write poems in her album instead of these unnecessary conversations. Probably, her feelings suffered most of all due to Khlestakov’s deception.

So, in “Dead Souls” and “The Government Inspector” Gogol, through secondary female characters, carries out projections on the capital’s morals. And both works contain images of society ladies. They are all very similar - in their emptiness and ordinaryness. Is it possible that in The Inspector General they are spelled out more clearly and clearly. In “Dead Souls” there is a unique image of the landowner Korobochka, which has no analogues not only in “The Inspector General,” but in Russian literature in general.

In “Dead Souls” we will not find bright, poetic female characters like Pushkin’s Tatyana or Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Gogol's heroines, for the most part, contain elements of the comic and are objects of the author's satire, and not at all of the author's admiration.

Most significant female character in the poem - landowner Korobochka. Gogol describes the heroine’s appearance in a very remarkable way. “A minute later the landlady entered, 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 gain little by little. money in colorful bags placed in dresser drawers.”

V. Gippius notes in Korobochka the absence of “any appearance, any face: a flannel on the neck, a cap on the head.” By “depersonalizing” the landowner, Gogol emphasizes her typicality, the great prevalence of this type.

The main qualities of Korobochka are thriftiness, frugality, bordering on stinginess. Nothing goes missing in the landowner's household: neither night blouses, nor skeins of thread, nor a torn cloak. All this is destined to lie for a long time, and then go “according to a spiritual will to the niece of a grand-sister, along with all other rubbish.”

The box is simple and patriarchal, it lives in the old fashioned way. She calls Chichikov “my father,” “father,” and addresses him as “you.” The guest sleeps on huge feather beds from which feathers fly; there is an old wall clock in the house, the strange ringing of which reminds Chichikov of the hissing of snakes; Korobochka treats him to simple Russian dishes: pies, pancakes, shanezhki.

Simplicity and patriarchy coexist in the landowner with extraordinary stupidity, ignorance, timidity and timidity. Korobochka is extremely slow-witted, unlike Sobakevich; for a long time she cannot figure out what the essence of Chichikov’s request is, and even asks him if he is going to dig up the dead. “Cudgel-headed,” Pavel Ivanovich thinks about her, seeing that his “eloquence” is powerless here. WITH with great difficulty he manages to convince Nastasya Petrovna to sell him dead souls. However, Korobochka immediately tries to negotiate with Chichikov about contracts in order to sell him flour in the future, lard, bird feathers.

As we have already noted, Gogol constantly emphasizes the recognition of Korobochka and the wide prevalence of this type of people in life. “Is the abyss really that great separating her from her sister, inaccessibly fenced off by the walls of an aristocratic house, ... yawning over an unread book in anticipation of a witty social visit, where she will have the opportunity to show off her mind and express her thoughts ... not about what is happening in her estates, confused and upset, ... but about what political revolution is being prepared in France, what direction fashionable Catholicism has taken.”

In addition to Korobochka, Gogol introduces readers to the spouses of Manilov and Sobakevich, who are, as it were, a continuation of their husbands.

Manilova is a boarding school graduate. She is pretty, “dressed to suit”, and kind to others. She doesn’t do housework at all, although “there are many different requests that could be made”: “Why, for example, do you cook stupidly and uselessly in the kitchen? Why is the pantry pretty empty? Why is a housekeeper a thief? “But all these are low subjects, and Manilova was well brought up,” Gogol ironically remarks. Manilova is dreamy and sentimental, she is just as far from reality as her husband. The heroine does not have a drop of common sense: she allows her husband to name their children with the ancient Greek names Themistoclus and Alcides, not realizing how comical these names are for Russian life.

Sobakevich's wife is “a very tall lady, wearing a cap, with ribbons repainted with homemade paint.” Feodulia Ivanovna somewhat resembles her clumsy, phlegmatic husband: she is calm and calm, her movements resemble those of actresses “representing queens.” She stands straight, “like a palm tree.” Sobakevich's wife is not as elegant as Manilova, but she is economical and practical, neat and homely. Like Korobochka, Feodulia Ivanovna is not concerned with “high matters”; the Sobakevichs live in the old-fashioned way, rarely going into the city.

“City ladies” are most clearly represented in Gogol in two collective images - the “pleasant” lady (Sofia Ivanovna) and the “pleasant in all respects” lady (Anna Grigorievna).

Anna Grigorievna’s manners are simply “amazing”: “every movement” comes out “with taste”, she loves poetry, sometimes she even knows how to “dreamily... hold her head.” And this turns out to be enough for society to conclude that she is “like a pleasant lady in all respects.” Sofya Ivanovna does not have such elegant manners and therefore receives the definition of “simply pleasant.”

The description of these heroines is thoroughly imbued with the author's satire. These ladies observe “secular etiquette” and are concerned about the “impeccability of their own reputation,” but their conversations are primitive and vulgar. They talk about fashions, dresses, materials, as if they were significant objects. As N.L. Stepanov notes, “the very exaggeration and expansiveness with which ladies talk about insignificant things ... produces a comic impression.” Both ladies love to gossip and slander. So, having discussed Chichikov’s purchase of dead peasants, Anna Grigorievna and Sofya Ivanovna come to the conclusion that, with the help of Nozdryov, he wants to take away the governor’s daughter. In a short time, these ladies set almost the entire city in motion, managing to “throw such a fog into everyone’s eyes that everyone, and especially the officials, remained stunned for some time.”

Gogol emphasizes the stupidity and absurdity of both heroines, the vulgarity of their activities and lifestyle, their affectation and hypocrisy. Anna Grigorievna and Sofya Ivanovna are happy to slander the governor’s daughter, condemning her “mannerness” and “immoral behavior.” The life of city ladies, in essence, is as meaningless and vulgar as the life of the landowners represented by Gogol.

I would especially like to dwell on the image of the governor’s daughter, who awakened Chichikov’s poetic dreams. This image is to some extent contrasted with all the other heroines of the poem. As E. A. Smirnova notes, this young girl was supposed to play her role in the spiritual revival of Chichikov. When Pavel Ivanovich meets her, he not only dreams about the future, but also “gets lost,” his usual insight betrays him (scene at the ball). The face of the governor’s daughter looks like an Easter egg; in this face there is light opposing the darkness of life. Chichikov looks at this light, and his soul “strives to remember the true good, a hint of which is contained in the harmonious beauty of the governor’s daughter, but his spiritual resources are too insignificant for this.”

Thus, there is not a single heroine in the poem who represents true virtue. The spirituality of the image of the governor's daughter was only outlined by Gogol. The rest of the heroines are described by the author satirically, with irony and sarcasm.

Gogol is called an urban writer. The city has always been the center of the author's attention and has repeatedly become a metaphor for the world. Almost every time this was accompanied by some kind of sacred plot, which made it possible to develop the image of the city as a mythologem. (A mythologeme is a stable and repeating image of collective folk fantasy, generally reflecting reality in the form of sensory-concrete personifications, animate beings, which were thought of by the archaic consciousness as quite real). Seven cities form this mythology. Six of them are real existing cities: these are St. Petersburg and Moscow, Rome in opposition to Paris, Mirgorod and Jerusalem. But only the type of provincial city that is depicted in “The Government Inspector” and “Dead Souls” gives grounds to say that Gogol really had a unique myth of the city. The city was not easy for Gogol social environment, against the background of which the action of his works takes place, and not only a source of verbal and figurative material, but also an aesthetic, historiosophical and religious problem.

In many of Gogol’s works, an image appears of either a capital city (“The Nose”, “The Overcoat”, “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Notes of a Madman”) or a provincial city (“Mirgorod”, “The Inspector General”). In the poem “Dead Souls” both the capital and the provincial topos are given.

While working on his poem, N.V. Gogol left the following note in his drafts: “ The idea of ​​a city that emerged to its highest degree. Emptiness. Idle talk. Gossip that went beyond limits, how it all arose from idleness and took on the expression of the most ridiculous" The whole city with all its whirlwind of gossip is the embodiment of the aimlessness of existence. The author wanted to show the world of slackers and bribe-takers, liars and hypocrites. Idleness is not just the absence of any activity, passivity, but the absence of activity that has spiritual content.

The original name of the provincial town was Tfuslavl. However, the author decided to remove this name in order to avoid inappropriate associations (for example, with Yaroslavl). He didn't want to show any specific city. The features of many provincial cities in Russia are reflected in the image of the city of NN.

The city has a special chronotope (space-time continuum) of a “provincial town”. Time moves very slowly in it; no events take place in the city before Chichikov’s arrival.

Gogol's city is consistently hierarchical, and therefore one can feel the servile attitude of lower officials towards higher, richer and more influential ones. The structure of power in the provincial city has the form of a clear pyramid: “citizenship”, “merchants”, above - officials, landowners, at the head of everything is the governor. The female half has not been forgotten, also divided by rank: the governor’s family (his wife and beautiful daughter) is highest, then the wives and daughters of officials, and the society ladies of the city of NN. Outside the city there are only Chichikov and his servants. The author pays special attention to the layer of people who have power in their hands and are directly involved in management. It is to the city dignitaries (governor, vice-governor, prosecutor, chairman of the chamber, police chief, tax farmer, head of state-owned factories, inspector of the medical board, city architect) that Chichikov goes on visits as soon as he appears in the city.

Both the city of NN and its inhabitants are depicted by the author with a great deal of irony. The reader seems to find himself in a world of absurdity, complete absurdity. Thus, the houses in the city of NN were only beautiful “ according to provincial architects“, the streets seemed in some places excessively wide, and in others unbearably narrow. The city amazes with its ridiculous signs. On one of them, for example, it is written: “ And here's the establishment", and on the other - " Foreigner Vasily Fedorov" The city lives by deception. For example, city newspapers lie. They talk about a magnificent garden with " wide-branched trees", under which you can hide on a hot day, but in reality the vaunted garden consists of " made of thin trees, badly grown, with supports at the bottom" Where the painted one used to be located double headed eagle, embodying the strength and power of the state, now “flaunts” the inscription: “ Drinking house" On the store that sold caps and caps, there was an image of billiard players drawn with “ arms turned backwards and legs slanted" The very world of the provincial city seems “turned” inside out, crooked and askew.

The city amazes with its facelessness, deadness, and neglect. In a city hotel where ridiculous paintings hang, and “ for two rubles a day, travelers get a quiet room with cockroaches peeking out like prunes from all corners, and a door to the next room, always filled with a chest of drawers, where the neighbor, silent and calm person interested in knowing all the details of a passing" It seems there are no clean floors, no new things, no fresh food in this world. At the hotel, the visitor is served “ an eternal flaky sweet pie, always ready to serve" A hotel servant is ready to respect a person just because he blows his nose loudly.

Important dignitaries representing the city government do not bother themselves with concerns about government affairs and do not think about how to improve the well-being of the residents of the city of NN. For example, the governor, instead of improving roads, embroiders on tulle. Each of the “managers” views his public position as a means to live freely and carelessly, without expending any labor. Idleness and idleness reign supreme in this environment. Mikhail Sobakevich gives an accurate description of some residents of the city: “ Send now to the prosecutor, he is an idle man and probably sits at home: the lawyer Zolotukha, the greatest grabber in the world, does everything for him. An inspector of the medical board, he is also an idle man and, probably, at home, if he has not gone somewhere to play cards; and there are also many here who are closer: Trukhachevsky, Begushkin - they all burden the land for nothing!»

The governor's house is a city in miniature. To emphasize the insignificance and vulgarity of the people who came to the governor’s house, the author compares them with flies crawling over a piece of refined sugar on a hot summer day. Among the guests there are thin gentlemen who flirt with the ladies and recklessly spend their father’s money, and plump ones who were considered “honorary officials” of the city. The goal of these people is to accumulate capital, acquire houses and entire villages. Fat gentlemen enjoy universal respect, and Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov dreams of the same life path.

The city reigns mutual responsibility. Officials, speaking to each other respectfully, (“ ^ Dear friend Ilya Ilyich!” etc.) only pretend that they truly value their interlocutor, but at the first opportunity they can deceive, set up or betray him. The inhabitants of the city are extremely ignorant: " who read Karamzin, who read Moskovskie Vedomosti, who even and didn't read anything at all" Bribery is rampant in the city. In the seventh chapter of the first volume of the poem there is a scene where the execution of a bill of sale is shown. Chichikov turns to the experienced campaigner Ivan Antonovich, who “ the entire middle of the face protruded forward and went into the nose; this was the face that is called a pitcher's snout" He refuses Chichikov’s request: “ Today you can't. We need to make further inquiries to see if there are any other prohibitions." And only then, when Chichikov informs Ivan Antonovich that he is ready to pay everyone he should (“ I served myself, I know the matter"), he allows us to go to the chairman Ivan Grigorievich. " Chichikov, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket, placed it in front of Ivan Antonovich, which he did not notice at all and immediately covered it with a book." It is clear that quick registration of the deed of sale can only be achieved if you give bribes to everyone “who should”.

The police chief has special power in the provincial city. Among his bureaucratic friends, he is known as a real magician and miracle worker. Any of his orders are an immutable law for residents. Bribes and gifts from his clients flow to him like a river. He demanded huge sums of money from the merchants, but did it so cleverly that they were even grateful to him, believing that “ although he will take it, he will certainly not give you away».

The postmaster of the city of NN is not engaged in his direct duties, but in playing cards and philosophy, writing out quotes from Jung’s treatise “Nights”. He strives to equip his speech with effective words, but in his monologue trashy phrases like “ my sir”, “some kind of thing”, “in some way”, “so to speak».

The provincial town of NN exists according to the same laws as the provincial town shown by Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General”: the same bribery, the same embezzlement, the same arbitrariness and paperwork. The provincial town in “Dead Souls,” as in “The Inspector General,” is essentially a quasi-urban space, cruel, “undeveloped,” and absurd.

However, in “Dead Souls” the provincial city is not opposed to the capital. When describing the evening at the governor’s house, the author emphasizes that the outfits and behavior of the “thin” men “ it was difficult to distinguish them from the St. Petersburg ones, they sat down just as casually next to the ladies, spoke French the same way and made the ladies laugh just like in St. Petersburg" St. Petersburg is also mentioned in the author’s reflection on the Russian stomach. The author begins the fourth chapter of the poem with an ironic contrast between the gentlemen of the big hand and the gentlemen mediocre. Gentlemen of the big class live in the capital and before eating any delicacy (sea spider or oyster) they are forced to put a pill in their mouth, and gentlemen of the middle class eat less sophisticated dishes, but in countless quantities. It is significant that both gentlemen think only about how to fill their stomachs.

The image of St. Petersburg appears in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” included in the tenth chapter of the poem. The “Northern capital” is depicted by Gogol as a world of luxury, untold riches which were brought from different countries. If Pushkin, in his novel “Eugene Onegin” and the poem “The Bronze Horseman,” depicted St. Petersburg as a “window to Europe,” then for Gogol, St. Petersburg is a city influenced by both the West and the East. It is no coincidence that the postmaster, through whose eyes we see the “northern capital” in the story about Kopeikin, mentions Persia and India. It is also significant to compare the bridges of St. Petersburg with hanging gardens, which, by order of the Assyrian queen Semiramis, were created in Babylon. Babylon, this ancient city in Mesopostamia, has long been perceived as sinful, whose inhabitants were punished for pride and arrogance (it is no coincidence that the Apocalypse of John the Theologian says: “ Woe to you, Babylon, strong city"). Petersburg is also shown as a cursed, ghostly city, a “Whore of Babylon” or a monster metropolis, a symbol of an inhumane civilization. The postmaster points out the demonism of St. Petersburg: “ the bridges hang like hell...».

Such a city is trying to get rid of poor and humble people. Captain Kopeikin, who arrived in St. Petersburg and was shocked by the brilliance and splendor, is so timid that he is ready to rub his hands with soap for two hours before touching the shining door handle of any house, “ and then decide to grab it" In this ghostly world, where even the doorman " looks like a generalissimo", no one wants to listen to the hero of the War of 1812, to help him. The ministers, important nobles and generals to whom he addresses are like soulless puppets, capable of only saying: “ Without the royal will I can do nothing" Thanks to people like Captain Kopeikin, Russia remained free, and St. Petersburg retained its splendor, but no one in “ northern capital"doesn't remember anymore real heroes.

Only two cities in the world were ideal for Gogol - Jerusalem and Rome, but he cherished the dream of Russian Rome and Russian Jerusalem, as written in “Petersburg Notes of 1836”. “Barracks” Petersburg appeared to Gogol not only as cold, mercantile, faceless, but also as business-like, hard-working, “two-legged.” Petersburg is a “fallen” city, sinful, under the power of devilish forces. But it is the fallen, sinful one who is destined to be transformed, to discern the true path and find the strength to follow it. It is possible that in the third volume of the poem the city of St. Petersburg was destined for Gogol to play approximately the same role as Chichikov and Plyushkin in the unwritten finale of Dead Souls.

^ Female images and their role in the poem “Dead Souls”

Gogol began his journey in literature with a fantasy called “Woman” (1831) and ended his journey with the letter “Woman in the Light” (1846) as part of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends.” In Russian literature the first thirds of the XIX century, the establishment of two opposing ideas about a woman was formed: the ideal, holy virgin mother, the embodiment of divine energy and beauty and the source of evil, sin, a demonic vicious woman, with whose beauty the concept of destruction and death is associated. Both “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, and “Mirgorod”, and “Petersburg Tales” show women bound by devilish power.

In the first volume of Dead Souls you can see two types of female characters. The first is women who embody the idea of ​​demonic emptiness. These are “dead souls”, people interested only in the everyday sphere of life.

Such women include, firstly, Manilov’s wife Lisa, who, while studying at a boarding school, studied three subjects that make up “ the basis of human virtue: French necessary for a happy family life; piano, to bring pleasant moments to the spouse, and, finally, the actual economic part: knitting wallets and other surprises" Lisa and her husband have been married for more than eight years, but during this long period their relationship has not changed in any way, as if frozen at a dead point: “ Each of them still brought the other either a piece of an apple, or a piece of candy, or a nut and said in a touchingly tender voice, expressing perfect love: “Open your mouth, darling, I’ll put this piece for you.”" For their birthdays, they gave each other microscopic gifts such as a beaded toothpick case, and kissed for so long that during this kiss “ could easily smoke a small straw cigar" These relationships seem deliberately sentimental, unnatural, lifeless.

Even more unpleasant than Manilov's wife is the collegiate secretary ^ Nastasya Petrovna Korobochka , appearing before the readers " in some kind of sleeping cap, put on hastily, with a flannel around his neck..." All of Korobochka’s thoughts were focused around incessant accumulation. She was the one" one of those mothers, small landowners. Those who cry about crop failures and losses, and meanwhile, little by little collect money in colorful bags placed in dresser drawers. All the rubles are taken into one bag, fifty dollars into another, quarters into a third, although in appearance it seems as if there is nothing in the chest of drawers..." Korobochka's excessive thriftiness reveals her inner insignificance. The landowner tries to benefit from everything, from household details to the profitable sale of serfs, which she, fearing to sell them cheap, trades in the same way as honey or lard. The box is very conservative, unable to accept anything new (“ After all, I've never sold dead people before"). It is no coincidence that Chichikov calls her “strong-browed” and “club-headed.” These definitions accurately characterize the landowner. The whole world for her is limited to her house and garden, so she seriously believes that only those people exist that she knows about. When Chichikov asks if she knows Manilov, Korobochka confidently replies: “ No, I haven’t heard, there is no such landowner».

Researchers often compare Korobochka with the folklore woman Yaga - a bone leg, thereby emphasizing the “demonic background” (Weisskopf) of this image. " The whole setting of Chichikov’s appearance at Korobochka’s is vaguely reminiscent of similar meetings between the traveling hero and the corresponding type of old women living in a small hut-house somewhere on the outskirts of the forest. Here is the bad weather, which forced the hero in a “dark, bad time” to ask her for an overnight stay, and a hissing clock that frightened Chichikov (“as if the whole room was filled with snakes”), and a somewhat suspicious complaint (“the leg that is higher than the bone, so That’s where it hurts”). Korobochka is not just the owner of the estate, but “the mistress of the forest,” “the mistress of all kinds of creatures.” “It is the “hostess” in this sense that Korobochka is perceived in the context of the bird kingdom, which her abode represents, already in the rooms decorated with paintings depicting birds, which were then transferred in innumerable quantities to the courtyard and vegetable gardens, where a garden scarecrow in a cap shows us a fantastic double of the hostess.”(A. Tertz “In the Shadow of Gogol”).

The very name of the heroine - Korobochka - is internally connected with Chichikov’s symbolic box, which the hero opens precisely in the landowner’s house. What is common in this case is the motif of accumulation, so characteristic of many of Gogol’s works.

No better than Korobochka and Sobakevich’s wife ^ Feoduliya Ivanovna , whose face resembles a cucumber and whose hands smell like cucumber pickle. The name of this landowner was mentioned by Gogol already in the first chapter of the poem in the scene of Sobakevich’s arrival home. Mikhail Semyonovich, lying down on the bed next to his thin wife, said to her: “ “I, my dear, was at the governor’s party, and had dinner with the police chief, and met the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov: a pleasant man!” To which the wife replied: “Hm” - and pushed him with her foot" Feodulia Ivanovna, because of her thinness and figure (she holds her head straight, “ like a palm tree") seems to be the antipode " healthy and strong"I'll give a shout out to Sobakevich.

The poem tells in detail about society ladies provincial town NN. These women (for example, a lady who is simply pleasant and a lady who is pleasant in every way) are ready to talk for hours about city rumors and modern fashion: scallops, lace, ribbons, etc. Gogol gives excellent examples of the false, empty pathos of the speech of society ladies. One of the brightest forms of this pathos is heated, inspired conversations about the most insignificant object or phenomenon, enthusiastic discussions about trifles: “ What a cheerful chintz! “Narrow, narrow stripes, such as only the human imagination can imagine in a Word, incomparable! We can say decisively that there has never been anything like it in the world!».

It was precisely because of the empty chatter and gossip of society ladies that Chichikov had to hastily leave the provincial city. Residents would not have believed either Korobochka, who came to the city to find out how much the dead soul was walking now, or the screamer Nozdryov, who burst into the governor’s house with exclamations addressed to Pavel Ivanovich: “ Ah, Kherson landowner! What? Did you sell a lot of dead people? Don’t you know, Your Excellency, he sells dead souls!" Chichikov’s main failure was that by paying too much attention to the governor’s daughter, he angered the women of the city of NN.

The second type of woman, revealed in the first volume of the poem, is a fatal beauty, enchanted by whom, a man forgets about his mathematically verified life plans and scams. The first time Chichikov suffered because of a woman was when he had the imprudence to become interested in the same “ a woman, fresh and strong, like a vigorous turnip”, as his companion (Popovich), with whom they were transporting smuggled goods - expensive Brabant lace. The companion wrote a denunciation against Chichikov, “ officials were put on trial, confiscated, everything they had was described" The woman with whom the officials were in love went to Staff Captain Shamsharev.

The meeting with the governor’s daughter also turns out to be fatal for Chichikov. The collision of Chichikov's chaise and the governor's carriage allows Chichikov to stop on his sinful journey and pay attention to the girl who embodies beauty and youth. Dominant in portrait characteristics The governor's daughter turns out to have a motive of light. Mention of light, shine, fire is often present in Gogol when describing beauties (“Viy” - what a terrible, sparkling beauty”; “Overcoat” - “ the lady passed by like lightning..."). Light like " supermaterial, ideal figure"(Vl. Solovyov) in Gogol becomes a kind of ideal hero; " miracle produced by light" - one of his favorite effects. Christian, including Baroque, mystics have lost true light (remember, the day of Chichikov’s arrival at Manilov’s was “either clear, or gloomy, but somehow light gray colors", " gray"the huts of Manilov's peasants, the walls in Manilov's house, painted "with some kind of blue paint like gray", "silk scarf pale colors" on Liza Manilova, etc.) was associated with darkness, dullness, fog, smoke, promising the approach of another, hellish glow, as well as with sadness, melancholy, boredom. A beautiful woman, as the very embodiment of light, is revealed to the world in order to rid it of emptiness and dullness.

It is also significant that the author compares the face of the governor’s daughter to a fresh egg just laid by a chicken. The egg is a symbol of nascent life, a kind of structural model globe.

The image of the governor's daughter appears as " fleeting vision", mirage, beautiful ghost: " a pretty head with delicate features and a thin figure disappeared, like something similar to a vision».

The governor’s daughter is contrasted with the other heroines of the poem: “ Everywhere in life, whether among the stale, rough, poor and unpleasantly moldy low-lying ranks of it or among the monotonously cold and boringly neat upper classes, everywhere at least once on the way a person will encounter a phenomenon that is not similar to everything that exists. what had he seen before that would at least once awaken in him a feeling different from those that he was destined to feel all his life" Chichikov did not immediately feel madly in love with the young beauty, but her sudden appearance made Pavel Ivanovich think and reflect on her fate. The beauty made an even stronger impression on him when he met her at the governor’s and learned about her financial situation.

After meeting the governor’s daughter at the ball, the shocked Chiichikov looked like a man who “ he tried to remember that he had forgotten, Everything seemed to be with him, and meanwhile some unknown spirit whispered in his ears that he had forgotten something" In the poem, the theme of Plato’s recollection arises, which was also present in Lermontov’s poem “ From under a mysterious cold half mask" The ability to love psychologically discovered by Chichikov indicates the possibility of the hero’s spiritual transformation.

Creativity N.V. Gogol occupies a special place in Russian literature. No one else could describe the broad panorama of Russian life in such a lively and humorous manner. Of course, first of all, the artist is interested in shortcomings; he does not feel sorry for his homeland, but shows all its injuries, all the bad things that exist in everyday life. The satirist's pen serves to expose officials and landowners, and evilly ridicules their vices.

In his works, Gogol does not pay special attention to female images. The writer does not consider it necessary to depict separately the shortcomings of men and women; he only gives a general picture of the desolation that reigns in the cities and villages of Russia. However, on the other hand, they prompt the reader to think more deeply about the causes of desolation, adding color to the description and dynamics to the actions.

One of Gogol's most famous creations is the play "The Inspector General". This work seems to be a kind of prologue to the monumental poem “Dead Souls,” the writer’s life’s work. In "The Inspector General" the sting of satire is directed against the life and morals of a remote town, against the greed and arbitrariness of district officials.

"Dead Souls" is a work of a much larger scale. In it, all of Russia appeared before the reader's court. Gogol does not feel sorry for her, but caustically mocks her shortcomings, believing that this treatment will be beneficial, that in the future the homeland will definitely get rid of dirt and vulgarity. The idea of ​​"Dead Souls" is a continuation of "The Inspector General". It doesn’t just show the life and morals of officials of the county town. Now Gogol exposes both landowners and officials; he castigates glaring shortcomings on a much larger scale. The “dead” souls of all Russia pass before the eyes of readers.

One of the main functions performed by female characters in both works is the formation of ideas about certain social and socio-psychological types. The most striking example of this is the image of the landowner Korobochka. She is described by Gogol as a terrible person with her stinginess and stupidity, who is more like a machine than a person. Her characteristic feature is the desire to get as much money as possible, and she is not interested in whether the buyer needs the product or not. Korobochka is stingy and thrifty; nothing goes to waste in her household, which, in general, is commendable. But the main feature of her character is hidden in her “talking” surname: she is an impenetrable, limited and stupid old woman. If some idea comes to her mind, then it is impossible to convince her; all reasonable arguments “bounce off her like a rubber ball from a wall.” Even the imperturbable Chichikov becomes furious, trying to prove to her the undoubted benefit of selling the peasants. But she firmly took it into her head that Chichikov wanted to deceive her, and cracking this nut, this box was extremely difficult even for the hardened businessman Chichikov. In Korobochka, Gogol embodied all the limited thinking of Russian landowners; it became a symbol of the abyss in which the Russian landed nobility finds itself, having completely lost the ability to think sensibly.

In order to show the picture of life and the depth of the decline of morals in the provincial city of N., the author introduces images of city gossips. Their exaggerated and fictitious stories about Chichikov's adventures, mixed with discussions about fashion, do not evoke anything in the reader except a feeling of disgust. Vivid images of a simply pleasant lady and a lady pleasant in all respects characterize the city and province from a very unfavorable side, emphasizing the flatness of their thinking.

Because of the gossip started by these ladies, the shortcomings of dishonest officials were revealed. And this is not the only example of how female images help Gogol to show a real picture of life, a real situation.

Outwardly, there is nothing interesting about Anna Andreevna, the mayor’s wife in The Inspector General: a fussy, curious chatterbox, the reader immediately gets the impression that she has the wind in her head. However, it is worth taking a closer look at it. After all, the author in his “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” characterizes her as a woman who is smart in her own way and even has some power over her husband. This is an interesting representative of provincial society. Thanks to her, the image of the mayor becomes more prominent, acquires additional meaning, and the reader gets a clear idea of ​​the lifestyle and problems of the county ladies.

Marya Antonovna is not very different from mother. She is very similar to her, but much less active; she is not a double of the energetic official, but only her shadow. Marya Antonovna tries with all her might to seem significant, but her behavior betrays her: outfits occupy the most space in a girl’s heart; she pays attention primarily to Khlestakov’s “suit,” and not to its owner. The image of Marya Antonovna characterizes the city from the bad side, because if young people are busy only with themselves and “suits,” then society has no future.

The images of the mayor's wife and daughter brilliantly reveal the author's intention and illustrate his idea: the bureaucracy and society of the district town are rotten through and through. Female images help to reveal the author's intention in Dead Souls. Mortification is manifested in Korobochka, who is always painstakingly collecting a penny and is afraid of making a mistake when making a deal, and in the wives of the landowners.

In addition, the wives of Manilov and Sobakevich help the author reveal male characters more fully and in detail, and emphasize any character traits. Each of them is, as it were, a copy of her spouse. For example, Sobakevich’s wife, upon entering the room, sat down and did not even think about starting a conversation, which confirms the rudeness and ignorance of the owner. Manilova is more interesting. Her manners and habits exactly repeat the manners and habits of her husband, we recognize in the expression of her face the same cloying, she, like Manilov himself, has not yet left the world of dreams. But at the same time, there are hints of her independence; Gogol recalls studying at the boarding school and her playing the piano. Thus, Manilova separates from her husband, acquires her own characteristics, the author hints that her fate could have turned out differently if she had not met Manilova. However, the images of the landowners' wives are not independent; they only enrich the images of the landowners themselves.

The image of the governor’s daughter is extremely important in this aspect. Although she does not utter a word throughout the entire poem, with her help the reader discovers the amazing character traits of Chichikov. A meeting with a charming girl awakens tender feelings in Chichikov’s soul; this rogue suddenly begins to think about love and marriage, about the future of youth. Despite the fact that this obsession will soon subside like a haze, this moment is very important; here the reader encounters a vague hint of the possible spiritual rebirth of the hero. Compared to the image of the mayor's daughter in The Inspector General, the image of the governor's daughter carries a fundamentally different semantic load.

In principle, the female images of The Inspector General do not play an important role in understanding the main idea of ​​the work. But their significance is also great. After all, women are not officials, which means Gogol’s satire is not aimed directly at them, their function is to emphasize the general degradation of the county town. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna highlight the shortcomings of officials. Their stupidity and overly high self-esteem expose the same shortcomings of officials, hidden under the mask of integrity and diligence, under the blinding light of satire.

In “Dead Souls,” the female characters, on the contrary, are versatile. They are much more complex, more developed than in The Inspector General. None of them can be clearly characterized. But one thing is certain: female characters allow the reader to understand the work more deeply; their presence enlivens the story and often makes the reader smile.

In general, Gogol’s female images, although not the main ones, characterize in detail and accurately the morals of the bureaucracy. They show the life of landowners in an interesting and varied way, revealing more fully and deeply the most important image in the writer’s work - the image of the homeland, Russia. Through the description of such women, Gogol leads the reader to think about her fate, about the fate of his compatriots, and proves that Russia’s shortcomings are not her fault, but a misfortune. And behind all this lies the author’s enormous love, hope for her moral revival.