What Plyushkin dead souls looked like. Dead souls characterization of the image of Stepan Plyushkin. Characteristics of personal qualities

The gallery of “dead souls” ends in the poem with Plyushkin. The origins of this image are found in the comedies of Plautus, Moliere, and in the prose of Balzac. However, at the same time, Gogol’s hero is a product of Russian life. “In an environment of general extravagance and ruin... in the society of the Petukhovs, Khlobuevs, Chichikovs and Manilovs... a suspicious and intelligent person... should involuntarily be seized by fear for his well-being. And so stinginess naturally becomes the mania into which his frightened suspiciousness develops... Plyushkin is a Russian miser, a miser out of fear for the future, in the organization of which the Russian man is so helpless,” notes the pre-revolutionary critic.

Plyushkin's main traits are stinginess, greed, thirst for accumulation and enrichment, wariness and suspicion. These features are masterfully conveyed in the portrait of the hero, in the landscape, in the description of the situation and in the dialogues.

Plyushkin's appearance is very expressive. “His face was nothing special; it was almost the same as that of many thin old men, one chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit; the small eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under their high eyebrows, like mice, when, sticking their sharp muzzles out of the dark holes, their ears alert and their noses blinking, they look out to see if the cat is hiding somewhere...” Plyushkin’s outfit is noteworthy - greasy and a torn robe, rags wrapped around the neck... S. Shevyrev admired this portrait. “We see Plyushkin so vividly, as if we remember him in a painting by Albert Durer in the Doria Gallery...” the critic wrote.

Small running eyes, similar to mice, indicate Plyushkin’s wariness and suspicion, generated by fear for his property. His rags resemble the clothes of a beggar, but not of a landowner with more than a thousand souls.

The motif of poverty continues to develop in the description of the landowner's village. In all the village buildings, “some kind of special dilapidation” is noticeable; the huts are made of old and dark logs, the roofs look like a sieve, and there is no glass in the windows. Plyushkin’s own house looks like “some kind of decrepit invalid.” In some places it is one floor, in others it is two, there is green mold on the fence and gates, a “naked plaster lattice” can be seen through the decrepit walls, only two of the windows are open, the rest are closed or boarded up. The “beggarly appearance” here metaphorically conveys the spiritual poverty of the hero, the severe limitation of his worldview by a pathological passion for hoarding.

Behind the house stretches a garden, equally overgrown and decayed, which, however, is “quite picturesque in its picturesque desolation.” “The connected tops of trees growing in freedom lay on the celestial horizon like green clouds and irregular, flutter-leaved domes. A white colossal birch trunk... rose from this green thicket and rounded in the air, like... a sparkling marble column... In places, green thickets, illuminated by the sun, diverged...” A dazzling white marble birch trunk, green thickets, bright, sparkling sun - in the brightness of its colors and the presence of light effects, this landscape contrasts with the description of the interior decoration of a landowner's house, recreating the atmosphere of lifelessness, death, and grave.

Entering Plyushkin's house, Chichikov immediately finds himself in darkness. “He stepped into the dark, wide hallway, from which a cold breath blew, as if from a cellar. From the hallway he found himself in a room, also dark, slightly illuminated by the light coming out from under a wide crack located at the bottom of the door.” Further, Gogol develops the motif of death and lifelessness outlined here. In another room of the landowner (where Chichikov ends up) there is a broken chair, “a clock with a stopped pendulum, to which the spider has already attached its web”; a chandelier in a canvas bag, thanks to the layer of dust, looking “like a silk cocoon in which a worm sits.” On the walls, Pavel Ivanovich notices several paintings, but their subjects are quite definite - a battle with screaming soldiers and drowning horses, a still life with a “duck hanging head down.”

In the corner of the room, a huge pile of old rubbish is piled on the floor; through a huge layer of dust, Chichikov notices a piece of a wooden shovel and an old boot sole. This picture is symbolic. According to I.P. Zolotussky, the Plyushkin pile is “a tombstone above the materialist ideal.” The researcher notes that every time Chichikov meets one of the landowners, he makes an “examination of his ideals.” Plyushkin in this case “represents” fortune, wealth. In fact, this is the most important thing that Chichikov strives for. It is financial independence that opens the way for him to comfort, happiness, well-being, etc. All this is inextricably fused in Pavel Ivanovich’s mind with home, family, family ties, “heirs,” and respect in society.

Plyushkin takes the opposite route in the poem. The hero seems to reveal to us the other side of Chichikov’s ideal - we see that the landowner’s house is completely neglected, he has no family, he has severed all friendly and family ties, and there is not a hint of respect in the reviews of other landowners about him.

But Plyushkin was once a thrifty owner, he was married, and “a neighbor stopped by to have lunch with him” and learn housekeeping from him. And everything was no worse with him than with others: a “friendly and talkative hostess”, famous for her hospitality, two pretty daughters, “blond and fresh as roses”, a son, a “broken boy”, and even a French teacher. But his “good mistress” and his youngest daughter died, the eldest ran away with the captain, “the time has come for his son to serve,” and Plyushkin was left alone. Gogol carefully traces this process of disintegration of the human personality, the development of his pathological passion in the hero.

The lonely life of a landowner, widowhood, “gray hair in his coarse hair,” dryness and rationalism of character (“human feelings...were not deep in him”) - all this provided “well-fed food for stinginess.” Indulging in his vice, Plyushkin gradually ruined his entire household. Thus, his hay and bread rotted, flour in the cellars turned into stone, canvases and materials “turned to dust.”

Plyushkin's passion for hoarding became truly pathological: every day he walked the streets of his village and collected everything that came to hand: an old sole, a woman's rag, an iron nail, a clay shard. There was so much in the landowner’s yard: “barrels, crosses, tubs, lagoons, jugs with and without stigmas, twins, baskets...”. “If someone had looked into his work yard, where there was a stock of all kinds of wood and utensils that had never been used, he would have wondered if he had ended up in Moscow at the wood chip yard, where efficient mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law go every day. ..make your household supplies...,” writes Gogol.

Submitting to the thirst for profit and enrichment, the hero gradually lost all human feelings: he ceased to be interested in the lives of his children and grandchildren, quarreled with his neighbors, and drove away all the guests.

The character of the hero in the poem is entirely consistent with his speech. As V.V. Litvinov notes, Plyushkin’s speech is “one continuous grumbling”: complaints about others - about relatives, peasants and abuse with his servants.

In the scene of buying and selling dead souls, Plyushkin, like Sobakevich, begins to bargain with Chichikov. However, if Sobakevich, not caring about the moral side of the issue, probably guesses the essence of Chichikov’s scam, then Plyushkin does not even think about it. Having heard that he could make a “profit,” the landowner seemed to forget about everything: he “waited,” “his hands trembled,” he “took the money from Chichikov in both hands and carried it to the office with the same caution as if would be carrying some liquid, every minute afraid of spilling it.” Thus, the moral side of the issue leaves him by itself - it simply fades under the pressure of the hero’s “surging feelings.”

It is these “feelings” that take the landowner out of the category of “indifferent”. Belinsky considered Plyushkin a “comical person,” disgusting and disgusting, denying him the significance of his feelings. However, in the context of the author’s creative plan and the hero’s life story presented in the poem, this character seems to be the most complex among Gogol’s landowners. It was Plyushkin (together with Chichikov), according to Gogol’s plan, who was supposed to appear morally reborn in the third volume of the poem.

In the famous poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, the characters of people are clearly presented using the example of landowners. Their features show all the weaknesses that a person may have. One of these expressed weaknesses is stinginess and greed. These two features form the basis of Plyushkin’s image.

Plyushkin is portrayed as a landowner who has neglected not only himself, but the entire village. His stinginess left its mark on everything, including the furnishings of the house. When Chichikov found himself in Plyushkin’s room, it seemed to him that it was uninhabited. There was a large layer of dust on everything, there were broken objects, small pieces of paper written on them - everything had an unkempt appearance. And in the very corner of the room there was a large pile of garbage. And this pile perfectly reflects Plyushkin’s character. He put everything he came across there, any little thing that he then didn’t use anyway. This is how all misers behave - the heap reflects the fact that they accumulate various rubbish just so that they simply have it. So they feel richer materially because such people do not enrich their inner world, cluttering it with unnecessary things and thoughts.

Plyushkin’s stinginess was not always so visible: he had a family that restrained these character traits. When he was left alone, he had no one to take care of, to try to somehow develop his character, and only one goal appeared for him - to accumulate as much as possible. Stingy people don’t care what they save - everything is not enough for them, stinginess becomes more and more, and they no longer look at what they save. Thus, stingy people try to fill the lack of human feelings - love, friendship, understanding. Because when Plyushkin remembered his friend from his youth, the expression on his face changed - he was able to feel the emotions that he had in childhood and youth. But no one wants to communicate with such people, there is nothing to talk about with them, and therefore they become more and more greedy.

Perhaps if Plyushkin had someone close to him who would not talk to him about money, but would try to develop his inner world, then he would not be so greedy and stingy. Because when his daughter came to him, the conversation still returned to money. It turns out that Plyushkin was not interested in anyone as a person, and because of this he becomes indifferent to the feelings of others and values ​​only material things. If there was a person with him who would strive to help him, to improve his character, then Plyushkin would be a kind and fair landowner.

Option 2

A year ago he was a completely different person. Very happy and kind. He had a wonderful loving family, wife and children. Plyushkin was a wonderful friend and comrade. His estate flourished, he managed it well. The workers had great respect for their employer. But his wife suddenly dies of illness. And this crippled the main character. His wife was his main support and muse. After all, she inspired Plyushkin to work. But he gathered his strength into a strong man's fist, and somehow he stayed afloat. After some time, his beloved daughter runs away from her parents' house. And with whom, with the officer, Plyushkin hated the army to death. And this is the next blow to the heart of the main character. And the son refuses civil service and goes to serve in the regiment.

Plyushkin completely gives up, but finishes him off with the death of his beloved youngest daughter. And his existence is over, he has lost the meaning of life, all his loved ones have died and betrayed him. If before he worked for the benefit of his family, now Plyushkin is going crazy. Now he has directed all his forces in one direction, collecting all the goods and making warehouses. He no longer needs his workers, I work and do well. He doesn't pay any attention to them.

When Chichikov drove around Plyushkin's estate, he was horrified by how everything was slowly disintegrating and fading. A rickety fence, the houses are about to fall. But these people who lived there resigned themselves to such a life, and Plyushkin collects tribute from them in linen and bread. People are impoverished, and Plyushkin collects goods under his roof and does not use them in any way. People watched with tears in their eyes as it all disappeared and lay like a dead weight. They lost respect for their owner, but they still worked for him. But some could not stand such mockery of themselves and about eighty people ran away from such a landowner. Plyushkin didn’t even bother looking for them, since he didn’t care about what was happening around him. His main goal is to take possession of good, and as much as possible.

Gogol described his hero as death, since whatever falls into the hands of the landowner is immediately buried in darkness. Because of his indifference and indifference, the estate turned into a huge dump of goods. The landfill belongs to only one person. But people hope that after Plyushkin’s death his daughter and son will return to their native nest. They will put the estate on its feet, and life will flow with a new stream.

Essay Characteristics of Plyushkin Grade 9

In Gogol’s work “Dead Souls” there is a very interesting character, his name is Stepan Plyushkin. Unfortunately, people like him often come across in life.

And so this is not an old, tall man at all. He is dressed in a rather unique way; if you don’t look closely, you might think that he is an elderly woman. Stepan is a rich landowner, he has a huge estate, many souls, but at first glance at the environment around him, you might think that the man is in cramped circumstances. There is terrible devastation around, the clothes of both the master himself and his servants should have been changed to new ones long ago. Despite the rich harvests and crowded barns, he eats breadcrumbs, what can we say about the servants who die of hunger like flies.

Plyushkin was not always so greedy and stingy. With his wife, he simply tried to save, but after her death, every year he became more and more suspicious, greed and hoarding took possession of him more and more. Now Stepan not only saved, but also saved money and did not spend it even on necessary needs. For him, children ceased to exist, and grandchildren, only the goal of profit moved him. Trying to save more, he simply fell out of life. He no longer understood why he was saving and for what. As he gets older, he becomes more and more indifferent to people. He doesn’t give money to his daughter or son; there is some kind of cruelty in him towards his own children. Stepan not only became a petty and insignificant person, but lost his self-esteem and subsequently the respect of his neighbors and his peasants.

There are things that he does not care about at all, although they are the ones that require primary attention, but he strictly monitors the decanter with liqueur. Plyushkin has not lived for a long time, but lives out his life in terrible despondency and the desire to profit even more. True, there are still glimpses of humanity. Having sold dead souls, he expressed a desire to help the buyer draw up a bill of sale, was this awakened kindness or an understanding that he was not the only one engaged in enrichment?

How important it is when tragedies happen in life to have someone nearby. He supported me not only financially, but also morally. Many, fixated on their grief, like Plyushkin, begin to degrade. Stepan Plyushkin should be pitied, not despised and condemned.

Meeting with Plyushkin

In the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol “Dead Souls” in the 6th chapter, the main character comes to the estate of Stepan Plyushkin. The author says that he used to be curious about exploring an unfamiliar place and its owners. This time he arrives indifferently. At the same time, the writer describes in detail everything that the character sees.

All the village buildings were dilapidated: the roofs were leaky, the windows were without glass. Then Chichikov saw two rural churches, which were empty and worn out. Next comes the manor house. Outwardly, he is old and weather-beaten. Only two windows were open, and the rest were closed or boarded up. In the text we learn that there was a terrible mess inside, it felt cold, as if from a cellar. It is known that a house is a reflection of its owner. From the description of the estate it follows that Plyushkin is an old man, which is also proven by his words about being in his seventh decade. In addition, Gogol tells us about the stinginess of the landowner. He collects absolutely everything he sees and puts it in one pile. On the way to Plyushkin, Chichikov learned about the nickname “patched.” In one word, the people described the appearance of the landowner and his entire household.

At first glance, he looks poor and pitiful, but the main character knows that this man has more than a thousand souls. He was a thin old man with a protruding chin. He has small eyes and high eyebrows. The look seems suspicious and restless. Dressed in greasy and torn clothes. We also learn about his past. It turned out that he changed dramatically after the death of his wife.

When Chichikov finally decided to talk about the deal, the landowner showed us his soul. He reproaches the peasants for absolutely everything, and also does not trust them. Every year people run away from him. There is a lot of food rotting in Plyushkin’s barns, which he does not give to anyone. He believes that peasants are gluttonous. He goes to them to eat, under the guise of caring. In addition, he is hypocritical, as evidenced by his words about his good nature.

The poem is not only about buying the souls of dead peasants, but also about making the reader see the souls of these people. Each of them is already dead mentally. Using the example of Plyushkin, Gogol shows stinginess, inhospitality, pettiness, insignificance, hypocrisy and greed. The landowner did not even give any money to his own children who needed his help, despite having huge reserves. It is impossible to find a common language with such people. He is ready to give even what is no longer there, for the sake of profit alone.

Sample 5

In the poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, a whole gallery of landowners passes in front of us. It ends with Plyushkin.

Stepan Plyushkin is fundamentally different from other landowners. The character of the hero is given in development. Using his example, Gogol shows how man gradually became “a hole in humanity.”

Chichikov meets with Plyushkin on his estate, where everything is in disrepair. The manor's house looks like a grave crypt. Only the garden reminds of life, which is sharply contrasted with the ugly life of the landowner. Plyushkin's estate smells of mold, rot, and death.

At the first meeting of Chichikov with Plyushkin, it is not clear who is in front of him, in any case, he does not look like a landowner - some kind of figure. The landowner's appearance is such that if Chichikov had seen him near the church, he would have taken him for a beggar. It’s dark in Plyushkin’s house and it feels cold. All the rooms are locked, except for two; the landowner lived in one of them. There is chaos everywhere, mountains of garbage. Life has stopped here - this is symbolized by the stopped clock.

But it was not always so. The author shows how Plyushkin gradually degraded to such a state. Once he was a good owner, had a family, communicated with neighbors. But his wife died, the children left home, and he was left alone. He was overcome by melancholy and despair. Plyushkin becomes stingy, petty and suspicious. He does not feel the need to communicate with anyone, even with his own children and grandchildren. Sees everyone as an enemy.

Plyushkin is a slave to things. He drags everything into the house. It senselessly fills warehouses and barns, where everything then rots. Countless wealth is wasted. Plyushkin considers peasants to be parasites and thieves. They live poorly in his village and are starving. As a result of such a life, the peasants die or flee from the estate.

Chichikov's proposal regarding dead souls amazed Plyushkin. He's happy about this deal. Chichikov purchased from Plyushkin not only dead people, but also fugitives at a low price and was in good spirits.

The image of this landowner evokes sadness. Everything human in man has been destroyed. Plyushkin's soul was deadened by greed. In the person of Plyushkin, Gogol depicted spiritual degradation brought to the last line.

9th grade literature

One of Hans Christian Andersen's most famous fairy tales is The Snow Queen. Kai and Gerda loved each other like family

The gallery of persons with whom Chichikov enters into transactions is completed by the landowner Plyushkin - “a hole in humanity.” Gogol notes that such a phenomenon is rare in Rus', where everything likes to unfold rather than shrink. The acquaintance with this hero is preceded by a landscape, the details of which reveal the soul of the hero. Dilapidated wooden buildings, dark old logs on the huts, roofs resembling a sieve, windows without glass, covered with rags, reveal Plyushkin as a bad owner with a deadened soul. But the picture of the garden, although dead and deaf, creates a different impression. When describing it, Gogol used happier and lighter colors - trees, “a regular sparkling marble column”, “air”, “cleanliness”, “neatness”... And through all this one can see the life of the owner himself, whose soul has faded away, like nature in the wilderness this garden. In Plyushkin’s house, too, everything speaks of the spiritual disintegration of his personality: piled-up furniture, a broken chair, a dried lemon, a piece of rag, a toothpick... And he himself looks like an old housekeeper, only his gray eyes, like mice, run from under his high eyebrows . Everything dies, rots and collapses around Plyushkin. The story of the transformation of a smart person into a “hole in humanity,” which the author introduces us to, leaves an indelible impression. The extreme degree of human degradation was captured by Gogol in the image of the richest landowner in the province (more than a thousand serfs) Plyushkin. The indelible imprint of the hero’s life practice, his relationship to the world is carried by Plyushkin’s portrait; it clearly indicates the erasure of the human personality, its death. To an outsider's eye, Plyushkin appears to be an extremely amorphous and indefinite creature. His only purpose in life is to accumulate things. As a result, he does not distinguish the important, the necessary from the trifles, the useful from the unimportant. Everything he comes across is of interest. Plyushkin becomes a slave to things. The thirst for hoarding pushes him along the path of all sorts of restrictions. But he himself does not experience any unpleasant sensations from this. Unlike other landowners, his life story is given in full. She reveals the origins of his passion. The greater the thirst for hoarding becomes, the more insignificant his life becomes. At a certain stage of degradation, Plyushkin ceases to feel the need to communicate with people. The character's biography allows us to trace the path from a "thrifty" owner to a half-crazy miser. “Previously, he was a good, zealous owner, even his neighbors came to him to learn housekeeping. But his wife died, the eldest daughter married a military man, the son began to make a career in the army (Plyushkin was extremely hostile to the military), soon the youngest daughter died, and he was left alone and became the guardian of his wealth. But this wealth was worse than poverty. It accumulated without purpose, not finding not only reasonable, but also no use. He began to perceive his children as plunderers of his property, not experiencing any joy when meeting them. As a result, he found himself completely alone. Plyushkin has sunk to the extreme in senseless hoarding. As a result, that moral degradation of the individual began, which made a good owner “a hole in humanity,” a sickly miser who collects all sorts of rubbish, be it an old bucket, a piece of paper or a pen. This comparison indicates the pettiness, suspicion, and greed of the hero. Just as a mouse drags into a hole everything it finds, so Plyushkin walked along the streets of his village and picked up all kinds of garbage: an old sole, a shard, a nail, a rag. He dragged all this into the house and put it in a pile. The landowner's room was striking in its squalor and disorder. There were dirty or yellowed things and things piled up everywhere. Plyushkin turned into some kind of asexual creature. The tragedy of loneliness is playing out before us, developing into a nightmarish picture of lonely old age. To an outsider's eye, Plyushkin appears to be an extremely amorphous and indefinite creature. “While he (Chichikov) was looking at all the strange decorations, a side door opened and the same housekeeper whom he had met in the yard came in. But then he saw that it was rather the housekeeper than the housekeeper; The housekeeper, at least, doesn’t shave her beard, but this one, on the contrary, shaved, and, it seemed, quite rarely, because his entire chin with the lower part of his cheek looked like a comb made of iron wire, which is used to clean horses in a stable.” Despite the general amorphous appearance of Plyushkin, some sharp features appear in his portrait. In this combination of formlessness and sharply prominent features - all of Plyushkin. “His face was nothing special,” “one chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit; the small eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under their high eyebrows, like mice, when, sticking their sharp muzzles out of the dark holes, pricking their ears and blinking their whiskers, they look out to see if a cat or a naughty boy is hiding somewhere, and sniff the very air suspiciously.” . Small running eyes, diligently looking out for everything around, perfectly characterize both petty greed and Plyushkin’s wariness. But when depicting Plyushkin’s portrait, the writer pays special attention to the hero’s costume. “His attire was much more remarkable: no amount of effort or effort could have been used to find out what his robe was made of: the sleeves and upper flaps were so greasy and shiny that they looked like the kind of yuft that goes into boots; in the back, instead of two, there were four floors dangling, from which cotton paper came out in flakes. He also had something tied around his neck that couldn’t be made out: a stocking, a garter, or a belly, but not a tie.” This description vividly reveals the most important feature of Plyushkin - his all-consuming stinginess, although nothing is said about this quality in the description of the portrait.

Seeing Plyushkin for the first time, Chichikov “for a long time could not recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. The dress she was wearing was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap worn by village courtyard women, only her voice seemed somewhat hoarse for a woman: “Oh, woman! - he thought to himself and immediately added: “Oh, no!” “Of course, woman!” It could never have occurred to Chichikov that he was a Russian gentleman, a landowner, the owner of serf souls. The passion for accumulation disfigured Plyushkin beyond recognition; he saves only for the sake of hoarding... He starved the peasants, and they are “dying like flies” (80 souls in three years). He himself lives from hand to mouth and dresses like a beggar. With the eerie mien of a half-crazed man, he declares that “his people are painfully gluttonous, and out of idleness they have acquired the habit of cracking food.” About 70 peasants from Plyushkin escaped and became outlaws, unable to endure starvation. His servants run barefoot until late winter, since the stingy Plyushkin has only boots for everyone, and even then they are put on only when the servants enter the vestibule of the master's house. He considers peasants to be parasites and thieves, hates them and sees them as beings of a lower order. The very appearance of the village speaks of the hopeless lot of serfs. The deep decline of the entire serf way of life is most clearly expressed in the image of Plyushkin.

Plyushkin and others like him slowed down the economic development of Russia: “On the vast territory of Plyushkin’s estate (and he has about 1000 souls), economic life froze: mills, fulling mills, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills stopped moving; hay and bread rotted, luggage and stacks stopped turning into pure manure, flour turned into stone, cloth, linens and household materials were scary to touch. Meanwhile, on the farm, income was collected as before, the peasant still carried the quitrent, the woman carried the linen. All this was dumped in the storerooms, and that’s all it became rot and dust." In the village of Plyushkina, Chichikov notices “some kind of special disrepair.” Entering the house, Chichikov sees a strange pile of furniture and some kind of street trash. Plyushkin is an insignificant slave of his own things. He lives worse than “the last shepherd of Sobakevich.” Countless wealth is wasted. Gogol’s words sound warning: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, nastyness a person could descend! He could change so much!.. Anything can happen to a person.” Plyushkin folded pieces of paper, pieces, sealing wax, etc. A symbolic detail in the interior is: “a clock with a stopped pendulum.” So Plyushkin’s life froze, stopped, and lost connections with the outside world.

Plyushkin begins to be indignant at the greed of officials who take bribes: “The clerks are so unscrupulous! Before, it used to be that you would get away with half a piece of copper and a sack of flour, but now send a whole cart of cereals, and add a red piece of paper, such love of money!” And the landowner himself is greedy to the last extreme. In the scene of the purchase and sale of dead souls, the main feature of the hero is expressively revealed - stinginess, brought to the point of absurdity, crossing all boundaries. First of all, Plyushkin’s reaction to Chichikov’s proposal attracts attention. With joy, the landowner is speechless for a moment. Greed has so permeated his brain that he is afraid of missing out on the opportunity to get rich. He had no normal human feelings left in his soul. Plyushkin is like a block of wood, he doesn’t love anyone, he doesn’t regret it at all. He can only experience something for a moment, in this case the joy of a good deal. Chichikov quickly finds a common language with Plyushkin. The “patched” master is only concerned about one thing: how to avoid incurring losses when making a deed of sale. Soon the landowner's usual fear and concern return to him, because the deed of sale will entail some expenses. He is unable to survive this.

From the scene of the purchase and sale of “dead souls” one can learn new examples of his stinginess. So, Plyushkin for all the servants: both young and old, “had only boots, which were supposed to be in the entryway.” Or another example. The owner wants to treat Chichikov to a liqueur that used to contain “boogers and all sorts of rubbish,” and the liqueur was placed in a decanter that “was covered in dust, like a sweatshirt.” He scolds the servants. For example, he addresses Proshka: “Fool! Eh, you fool! And the master calls Mavra “robber.” Plyushkin suspects everyone of stealing: “After all, my people are either a thief or a swindler: they will steal so much in a day that there will be nothing to hang a caftan on.” Plyushkin deliberately becomes poor in order to “snatch” an extra penny from Chichikov. What is characteristic in this scene is that Plyushkin bargains with Chichikov for a long time. At the same time, his hands tremble and shake with greed, “like mercury.” Gogol finds a very interesting comparison, indicating the complete power of money over Plyushkin. The author’s assessment of the character is merciless: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, and disgust a person could condescend! Could have changed so much!” The writer calls on young people to preserve “all human movements” in order to avoid degradation, so as not to turn into Plyushkin and others like him.

The description of the hero's life and morals reveals all his disgusting qualities. Stinginess has taken up all the space in the character’s heart, and there is no longer any hope of saving his soul. The deep decline of the entire feudal way of life in Russia was most realistically reflected in the image of Plyushkin.

The image of Plyushkin is important for the realization of the ideological concept of the entire work. The author in the poem poses the problem of human degradation. The hero completes the portrait gallery of landowners, each of whom is spiritually insignificant than the previous one. Plyushkin closes the circuit. He is a terrible example of moral and physical degeneration. The author claims that “dead souls” such as Plyushkin and others are ruining Russia.

Plyushkin Stepan - the fifth and last of the “series” of landowners to whom Chichikov turns with an offer to sell him dead souls. In the peculiar negative hierarchy of landowner types derived in the poem, this stingy old man (he is in his seventh decade) occupies both the lowest and the highest level at the same time. His image personifies the complete death of the human soul, the almost complete death of a strong and bright personality, completely consumed by the passion of stinginess - but precisely for this reason, capable of resurrection and transformation. (Below P., of the characters in the poem, only Chichikov himself “fell”, but for him the author’s plan preserved the possibility of an even more grandiose “correction.”)

This dual, “negative-positive” nature of P.’s image is indicated in advance by the ending of the 5th chapter; Having learned from Sobakevich that a stingy landowner lives next door, whose peasants are “dying like flies,” Chichikov tries to find out the way to him from a passing peasant; he doesn’t know any P., but guesses who he’s talking about: “Ah, the patched one!” This nickname is humiliating, but the author (in accordance with the through-line technique of “Dead Souls”) immediately moves from satire to lyrical pathos; admiring the accuracy of the folk word, he praises the Russian mind and, as it were, moves from the space of a morally descriptive novel into the space of an epic poem “like the Iliad.”

But the closer Chichikov is to P.’s house, the more alarming the author’s intonation; suddenly - and as if out of the blue - the author compares himself as a child with his present self, his then enthusiasm with the current “coolness” of his gaze. “Oh my youth! oh my freshness! It is clear that this passage applies equally to the author - and to the “dead” hero, whom the reader will meet. And this involuntary rapprochement of the “unpleasant” character with the author in advance removes the image of P. from that series of “literary and theatrical” misers, with an eye on whom he was written, distinguishes him from the stingy characters of picaresque novels, and from the greedy landowners of the morally descriptive epic, and from Harpagon from Molière’s comedy “The Miser” (Harpagon has the same hole as P.’s below his back), bringing, on the contrary, closer to the Baron from Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight” and Balzac’s Gobseck.

The description of Plyushkin's estate allegorically depicts desolation - and at the same time the “cluttering” of his soul, which “does not grow rich in God.” The entrance is dilapidated - the logs are pressed in like piano keys; Everywhere there is a special disrepair, the roofs are like a sieve; the windows are covered with rags. At Sobakevich’s they were boarded up at least for the sake of economy, but here they were boarded up solely because of “devastation.” From behind the huts one can see huge piles of stale bread, the color of which is similar to scorched brick. As in a dark, “through the looking glass” world, everything here is lifeless - even the two churches that should form the semantic center of the landscape. One of them, wooden, was empty; the other, stone, was all cracked. A little later, the image of an empty temple will be metaphorically echoed in the words of P., who regrets that the priest will not say “a word” against the universal love of money: “You cannot resist the word of God!” (Traditional for Gogol is the motif of a “dead” attitude towards the Word of Life.) The master’s house, “this strange castle,” is located in the middle of a cabbage garden. The “Plyushkinsky” space cannot be captured with a single glance, it seems to fall apart into details and fragments - first one part will be revealed to Chichikov’s gaze, then another; even the house is in some places one floor, in others two. Symmetry, integrity, balance began to disappear already in the description of Sobakevich’s estate; here this “process” goes in breadth and depth. All this reflects the “segmented” consciousness of the owner, who forgot about the main thing and focused on the tertiary. For a long time he no longer knows how much, where and what is produced on his vast and ruined farm, but he keeps an eye on the level of the old liqueur in the decanter to see if anyone has drunk.
The desolation “benefited” only the Plyushkino garden, which, starting near the manor’s house, disappears into the field. Everything else perished, became dead, as in a Gothic novel, which is reminiscent of the comparison of Plyushkin’s house with a castle. It’s like Noah’s Ark, inside of which there was a flood (it’s no coincidence that almost all the details of the description, like in the Ark, have their own “pair” - there are two churches, two belvederes, two windows, one of which, however, is covered with a triangle of blue sugar paper ; P. had two blond daughters, etc.). The dilapidation of his world is akin to the dilapidation of the “antediluvian” world, which perished from passions. And P. himself is the failed “forefather” Noah, who from a zealous owner degenerated into a hoarder and lost any certainty of appearance and position.

Having met P. on the way to the house, Chichikov cannot understand who is in front of him - a woman or a man, a housekeeper or a housekeeper who “rarely shaves her beard”? Having learned that this “housekeeper” is a rich landowner, the owner of 1000 souls (“Ehwa! And I’m the owner!”), Chichikov cannot get out of his stupor for twenty minutes. Portrait of P. (long chin, which has to be covered with a handkerchief so as not to spit; small, not yet extinguished eyes run from under high eyebrows like mice; a greasy robe has turned into yuft; a rag on the neck instead of a handkerchief) also indicates a complete “loss of "A hero from the image of a rich landowner. But all this is not for the sake of “exposure,” but only for the sake of recalling the norm of “wise stinginess” from which P. was tragically separated and to which he can still return.

Previously, before the “fall,” P.’s gaze, like a hardworking spider, “ran busily, but efficiently, along all ends of its economic web”; Now the spider entwines the pendulum of the stopped clock. Even the silver pocket watch that P. is going to give - but never gives - to Chichikov in gratitude for “getting rid of” dead souls, and they are “spoiled.” A toothpick, which the owner may have used to pick his teeth even before the French invasion, also reminds us of a bygone time (and not just stinginess).

It seems that, having described the circle, the narrative returned to the point from which it began - the first of the “Chichikovsky” landowners, Manilov, lives just as outside of time as the last of them, P. But there is no time in Manilov’s world and never has was; he has lost nothing - he has nothing to return. P. had everything. This is the only hero of the poem, besides Chichikov himself, who has a biography, has a past; The present can do without the past, but without the past there is no path to the future. Before the death of his wife, P. was a zealous, experienced landowner; my daughters and son had a French teacher and madame; however, after this, P. developed a widower “complex”; he became more suspicious and stingier. He took the next step away from the path of life determined for him by God after the secret flight of his eldest daughter, Alexandra Stepanovna, with the captain and the unauthorized assignment of his son to military service. (Even before the “flight” he considered the military to be gamblers and wasteful people, but now he is completely hostile to military service.) The youngest daughter died; son lost at cards; P.'s soul became completely hardened; “The wolf hunger of stinginess” took possession of him. Even the buyers refused to deal with him - because he is a “demon”, not a person.

The return of the “prodigal daughter,” whose life with the captain turned out to be not particularly satisfying (an obvious plot parody of the ending of Pushkin’s “The Station Agent”), reconciles P. with her, but does not save her from her destructive greed. After playing with his grandson, P. did not give Alexandra Stepanovna anything, but he dried the Easter cake she gave her on his second visit and is now trying to treat Chichikov to this cracker. (The detail is also not accidental; Easter cake is an Easter “meal”; Easter is the celebration of the Resurrection; by drying the cake, P. symbolically confirmed that his soul had become dead; but in itself the fact that a piece of cake, albeit moldy, is always kept by him , is associatively connected with the theme of the possible “Easter” revival of his soul.)

Clever Chichikov, having guessed the substitution that occurred in P., “retools” his usual opening speech accordingly; just as in P. “virtue” is replaced by “economy”, and “rare qualities of the soul” by “order”, so they are replaced in Chichikov’s “attack” to the theme of dead souls. But the fact of the matter is that greed was not able to take possession of P.’s heart to the last limit. Having completed the deed of sale (Chichikov convinces the owner that he is ready to take on the tax costs of the dead “for your pleasure”; the economic P.’s list of the dead is already ready, unknown to what need), P. ponders who could reassure her in the city on his behalf, and remembers that the Chairman was his school friend. And this memory (the course of the author’s thoughts at the beginning of the chapter is completely repeated here) suddenly revives the hero: “... on this wooden face<...>expressed<...>a pale reflection of feeling." Naturally, this is a random and momentary glimpse of life.

Therefore, when Chichikov, not only having acquired 120 dead souls, but also having bought runaways for 27 kopecks. for the soul, leaves P., the author describes a twilight landscape in which the shadow and light are “completely mixed” - as in the unfortunate soul of P.

A brief description of Plyushkin in the work “Dead Souls” is a realistic description of the old landowner, his character and way of life. The fact is that this character is presented by the author in an unusual manner for him - without humor.

Stepan Plyushkin is one of the landowners in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". This is one of the most significant and deep characters not only of the mentioned work, but of all Russian literature in general.

The hero first appears in the sixth chapter, when he comes to the landowner to buy “dead souls” from him.

The image and characteristics of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls”

The landowner is incredibly stingy and unkind.

The hero symbolizes the spiritual collapse of a strong man, drowned in the vice of boundless stinginess, bordering on cruelty: a huge amount of food is stored in the barns of the landowner, which no one is allowed to take, as a result of which the peasants go hungry, and the supplies disappear as unnecessary.

Plyushkin is quite rich, he has a whole thousand serfs on his account. However, despite this, the old man lives like a beggar, eating crackers and dressing in rags.

Symbolism of the surname

Like most characters in Gogol's works, Plyushkin's surname is symbolic. With the help of contrast or synonymy of the surname in relation to the character of the corresponding character, the author reveals certain features of a given personality.

The meaning of the surname Plyushkina symbolizes an unusually stingy and greedy person, whose goal is the accumulation of material wealth without a specific purpose for their use. As a result, the collected wealth is not spent anywhere or is used in minimal quantities.

It is noteworthy that Plyushkin’s name practically does not appear in the text of the work. In this way, the author shows the hero’s callousness, detachment, and the absence in him of even a hint of humanity.

The fact that the landowner's name is Stepan can be learned from his words about his daughter, whom he calls by her patronymic. By the way, ordinary men from other estates did not know such a surname at all, calling the landowner by the nickname “patched.”

Plyushkin family

This character is the only one of all the landowners who has a fairly detailed biography. The hero's life story is very sad.

In the plot narration, Plyushkin appears before us as a completely lonely person leading a hermit’s lifestyle. The wife who inspired him to show the best human qualities and made his life meaningful has long since left this world.

In their marriage they had three children, whom their father raised very carefully and with great love. During the years of family happiness, Plyushkin was completely different from his current self. At that time, he often invited guests to his house, knew how to enjoy life, and had a reputation as an open and friendly person.

Of course, Plyushkin was always very economical, but his stinginess always had reasonable limits and was not so reckless. His clothes, although not sparkling with newness, still looked neat, without a single patch.

After the death of his wife, the hero changed a lot: he became extremely distrustful and very stingy. The last straw that hardened Plyushkin’s temper was new problems in the family: the son lost a large sum at cards, the eldest daughter ran away from home, and the youngest died.

Surprisingly, glimmers of light sometimes illuminate the dark recesses of the dead soul of the landowner. Having sold his “souls” to Chichikov and reflecting on the issue of drawing up a deed of sale, Plyushkin remembers his school friend. At this moment, a faint reflection of feeling appeared on the old man’s wooden face.

This fleeting manifestation of life, according to the author, speaks of the possibility of the revival of the hero’s soul, in which, as if in twilight, the dark and light sides mixed with each other.

Description of the portrait and first impression of Plyushkin

When meeting Plyushkin, Chichikov first mistakes him for the housekeeper.

After a conversation with the landowner, the main character realizes with horror that he was mistaken.

In his opinion, the old man looks more like a beggar than a rich owner of the estate.

His whole appearance is like this: his long chin covered with a scarf; small, colorless, mobile eyes; a dirty, patched robe indicates that the hero has completely lost touch with life.

Appearance and condition of the suit

Plyushkin's face is very elongated and at the same time is distinguished by excessive thinness. The landowner never shave, and his beard began to look like a horse comb. Plyushkin has no teeth left.

The hero’s clothes can hardly be called such; they look more like old rags - the clothes look so worn and unkempt. At the time of the story, the landowner is about 60 years old.

The character, demeanor and speech of the landowner

Plyushkin is a man with a difficult character. Probably, the negative traits that manifested themselves so clearly in him in his old age also existed in previous years, but their such pronounced appearance was smoothed out by family well-being.

But after the death of his wife and daughter, Plyushkin finally broke away from life, became spiritually impoverished, and began to treat everyone with suspicion and hostility. The landowner experienced such an attitude not only towards strangers, but also towards relatives.

By the age of 60, Plyushkin had become very unpleasant due to his difficult character. Those around him began to avoid him, his friends visited him less and less, and then completely stopped all communication with him.

Plyushkin’s speech is abrupt, laconic, caustic, loaded with colloquial expressions, for example: “poditka, they beat, ehva!, actor, already, podtibrila.”

The landowner is able to notice any little things and even the most insignificant errors and shortcomings. In this regard, he often finds fault with people, expressing his comments by shouting and cursing.

Plyushkin is not capable of good deeds; he has become insensitive, distrustful and cruel. He doesn’t even care about the fate of his own children, and the old man suppresses his daughter’s attempts to establish a relationship with him in every possible way. In his opinion, his daughter and son-in-law are trying to get closer to him in order to get material benefits from him.

It is noteworthy that Plyushkin absolutely does not understand the true consequences of his actions. He actually fancies himself a caring landowner, although, in fact, he is a tyrant, an incredible miser and a stingy man, a rude and grumpy old man who destroys the destinies of the people around him.

Favorite activities

The joy in Plyushkin's life consists of only two things - constant scandals and the accumulation of material wealth.

The landowner likes to spend time completely alone. He sees no point in receiving guests or acting as such. For him, this is just a waste of time that can be spent on more useful activities.

Despite large financial savings, the landowner leads an ascetic lifestyle, denying literally everything not only to relatives, servants and peasants, but also to himself.

Another favorite pastime of Plyushkin is to grumble and become poor. He believes that the supplies stored in his barns are not enough, there is not enough land and there is not even enough hay. In fact, the situation is completely opposite - there is plenty of land, and the amount of reserves is so huge that they spoil right in the storage facilities.

Plyushkin loves to create scandals for any reason, even if it is an insignificant trifle. The landowner is always dissatisfied with something and demonstrates it in the most rude and unsightly form. A picky old man is very difficult to please.

Attitude to the economy

Plyushkin is a rich but very stingy landowner. However, despite the huge reserves, it seems to him that they are not enough. As a result, a huge number of unused products become unusable without leaving the storage facility.

Having a large fortune at his disposal, including 1000 serfs, Plyushkin eats crackers and wears rags - in a word, he lives like a beggar. The landowner has not been monitoring what is going on on his farm for many years, but at the same time he does not forget to control the amount of liquor in the decanter.

Plyushkin's life goals

In short, the landowner has no specific goal in life. Plyushkin is completely absorbed in the process of accumulating material resources without a specific purpose for their use.

House and interior of rooms

Plyushkin's estate reflects the spiritual desolation of the character himself. The buildings in the villages are very old, dilapidated, the roofs have long since become leaky, the windows are clogged with rags. There is devastation and emptiness all around. Even the churches look lifeless.

The estate seems to be falling apart, which indicates that the hero has fallen out of real life: instead of the main things, the focus of his attention is on empty and meaningless tasks. It’s not for nothing that this character is practically devoid of a name and patronymic - it’s as if he doesn’t exist.

The Plyushkin estate is striking in its appearance - the building is in a terrible, dilapidated condition. From the street, the house looks like an abandoned building in which no one has lived for a long time. It’s very uncomfortable inside the building – it’s cold and dark all around. Natural light enters only one room – the owner’s room.

The whole house is littered with junk, which is becoming more and more every year - Plyushkin never throws away broken or unnecessary things, because he thinks that they can still be useful.

The landowner's office is also in complete disarray. The appearance of the room embodies real chaos. There is a chair that cannot be repaired, as well as a clock that has stopped long ago. In the corner of the room there is a dump - in the shapeless heap you can see an old shoe and a broken shovel.

Attitude towards others

Plyushkin is a picky, scandalous person. Even the most insignificant reason is enough for him to start a quarrel. The hero shows his dissatisfaction in the most unsightly way, stooping to rudeness and insults.

The landowner himself is completely confident that he is behaving caringly and kindly, but people simply do not notice or appreciate this, because they are biased towards him.

Probably due to the fact that his son once lost at cards and did not return home, Plyushkin is prejudiced towards officers, considering them all to be spendthrifts and gamblers.

Plyushkin's attitude towards the peasants

Plyushkin treats the peasants cruelly and irresponsibly. The appearance, clothing and dwellings of the serfs look almost the same as those of the owner. They themselves walk around half-starved, skinny, exhausted. From time to time, escapes occur among the peasants - Plyushkin's existence as a serf looks less attractive than life on the run.

The landowner speaks negatively about his serfs - in his opinion, they are all quitters and slackers. In fact, the peasants work honestly and diligently. It seems to Plyushkin that the serfs are robbing him and doing their work very poorly.

But in reality, things are different: the landowner intimidated his peasants so much that, despite the cold and hunger, they under no circumstances dare to take anything from the master’s storehouse.

Did Plyushkin sell Dead Souls to Chichikov?

The landowner sells about two hundred “souls” to the main character. This number exceeds the number of “peasants” that Chichikov purchased from other sellers. This traces Plyushkin’s desire for profit and accumulation. When entering into a deal, the hero understands perfectly well what it is and what profit he can get for it.

Quoted description of Plyushkin

Conclusion

The image of Plyushkin and the characteristics of his essence serve as an illustrative example of how much a person can deteriorate morally and physically. It is no coincidence that the author calls this hero “a hole in humanity.”

Plyushkin is not interested in the spiritual development of his personality; he is indifferent to his own inner world. The landowner is characterized by pettiness, stinginess and a complete lack of deep feelings. There is no shame, no conscience, no sympathy in him.

The name Plyushkina became a household name. It denotes pathological greed, pettiness and stinginess. In the modern world, the so-called “Plyushkin syndrome” occurs quite often and characterizes those people who strive for the aimless accumulation of material resources.