What Gogol laughs at in the comedy “The Inspector General. What did Gogol laugh at? What is Gogol laughing at?

“Dead Souls” is Gogol’s greatest creation, about which there are still many mysteries. This poem was conceived by the author in three volumes, but the reader can only see the first, since the third volume, due to illness, was never written, although there were ideas. The original writer wrote the second volume, but just before his death, in a state of agony, he accidentally or deliberately burned the manuscript. Several chapters of this Gogol volume have nevertheless survived to this day.

Gogol's work has the genre of a poem, which has always been understood as a lyric-epic text, which is written in the form of a poem, but at the same time has a romantic direction. The poem written by Nikolai Gogol deviated from these principles, so some writers found the use of the poem genre as a mockery of the author, while others decided that the original writer used the technique of hidden irony.

Nikolai Gogol gave this genre to his new work not for the sake of irony, but in order to give it a deep meaning. It is clear that Gogol’s creation embodied irony and a kind of artistic sermon.

Nikolai Gogol's main method of depicting landowners and provincial officials is satire. Gogol’s images of landowners show the developing process of degradation of this class, exposing all their vices and shortcomings. Irony helped tell the author what was under a literary ban, and allowed him to bypass all censorship barriers. The writer’s laughter seems kind and good, but there is no mercy from it for anyone. Each phrase in the poem has a hidden subtext.

Irony is present everywhere in Gogol's text: in the author's speech, in the speech of the characters. Irony is the main feature of Gogol's poetics. It helps the narrative reproduce a real picture of reality. Having analyzed the first volume of “Dead Souls”, one can note a whole gallery of Russian landowners, whose detailed characteristics are given by the author. There are only five main characters, which are described by the author in such detail that it seems that the reader is personally acquainted with each of them.

Gogol's five landowner characters are described by the author in such a way that they seem different, but if you read their portraits more deeply, you will notice that each of them has those features that are characteristic of all landowners in Russia.

The reader begins his acquaintance with Gogol's landowners with Manilov and ends with a description of the colorful image of Plyushkin. This description has its own logic, since the author smoothly transfers the reader from one landowner to another in order to gradually show that terrible picture of the serf-dominated world, which is rotting and decomposing. Nikolai Gogol leads from Manilov, who, according to the author’s description, appears to the reader as a dreamer, whose life passes without a trace, smoothly transitioning to Nastasya Korobochka. The author himself calls her “club-headed.”

This landowner's gallery is continued by Nozdryov, who appears in the author's depiction as a card sharper, a liar and a spendthrift. The next landowner is Sobakevich, who tries to use everything for his own benefit, he is economical and prudent. The result of this moral decay of society is Plyushkin, who, according to Gogol’s description, looks like “a hole in humanity.” The story about landowners in this author's sequence enhances the satire, which is designed to expose the vices of the landowner world.

But the landowner’s gallery does not end there, as the author also describes the officials of the city he visited. They have no development, their inner world is at rest. The main vices of the bureaucratic world are meanness, veneration for rank, bribery, ignorance and arbitrariness of the authorities.

Along with Gogol's satire, which denounces the landowner's life in Russia, the author introduces an element of glorification of the Russian land. Lyrical digressions show the author’s sadness that some part of the path has been passed. This brings up the theme of regret and hope for the future. Therefore, these lyrical digressions occupy a special and important place in Gogol’s work. Nikolai Gogol thinks about many things: about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the people and the Motherland. But these reflections are contrasted with pictures of Russian life, which oppress a person. They are gloomy and dark.

The image of Russia is a high lyrical movement that evokes a variety of feelings in the author: sadness, love and admiration. Gogol shows that Russia is not only landowners and officials, but also the Russian people with their open soul, which he showed in an unusual image of a trio of horses that rush forward quickly and without stopping. This three contains the main strength of the native land.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" was published in 1836. It was a completely new type of drama: an unusual plot, which consists of just one phrase, “The auditor is coming to see us,” and an equally unexpected denouement. The writer himself admitted in the "Author's Confession" that with the help of this work he wanted to collect all the bad things that exist in Russia, all the injustice that we face every day, and laugh at it.

Gogol tried to cover all spheres of public life and government (only the church and the army remained “untouchable”):

• legal proceedings (Lyapkin-Tyapkin);
• education (Khlopov);
• mail (Shpekin):
• social security (Strawberry);
• healthcare (Giebner).

How the work is organized

Traditionally, the main rogue leads the active intrigue in comedy. Gogol modified this technique and introduced the so-called “mirage intrigue” into the plot. Why mirage? Yes, because Khlestakov, the main character around whom everything revolves, is not actually an auditor. The entire play is built on deception: Khlestakov deceives not only the residents of the town, but also himself, and the viewer, initiated by the author into this secret, laughs at the behavior of the characters, watching them from the side.

The playwright built the play according to the “principle of the fourth wall”: this is a situation when there is an imaginary “wall” between the characters of a work of art and real spectators, that is, the hero of the play does not know about the fictional nature of his world and behaves accordingly, living by the rules that he invented author. Gogol deliberately destroys this wall, forcing the Mayor to establish contact with the audience and utter the famous phrase, which has become a catchphrase: “What are you laughing at? Are you laughing at yourself!..”

Here is the answer to the question: the audience, laughing at the ridiculous actions of the residents of the county town, also laugh at themselves, because they recognize themselves, their neighbor, boss, and friend in each character. Therefore, Gogol managed to brilliantly accomplish two tasks at once: to make people laugh and at the same time make them think about their behavior.

What did Gogol laugh at? On the spiritual meaning of the comedy "The Inspector General"

Voropaev V. A.

Be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves. For whoever hears the word and does not do it is like a man looking at the natural features of his face in a mirror. He looked at himself, walked away, and immediately forgot what he was like.

Jacob 1, 22 - 24

My heart hurts when I see how people are mistaken. They talk about virtue, about God, and yet do nothing.

From Gogol's letter to his mother. 1833

"The Inspector General" is the best Russian comedy. Both in reading and in stage performance she is always interesting. Therefore, it is generally difficult to talk about any failure of The Inspector General. But, on the other hand, it is difficult to create a real Gogol performance, to make those sitting in the hall laugh with bitter Gogol laughter. As a rule, something fundamental, deep, on which the entire meaning of the play is based, eludes the actor or the viewer.

The premiere of the comedy, which took place on April 19, 1836 on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, according to contemporaries, was a tremendous success. The mayor was played by Ivan Sosnitsky, Khlestakov Nikolai Dur - the best actors of that time. “The general attention of the audience, applause, sincere and unanimous laughter, the challenge of the author...,” recalled Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, “there was no lack of anything.”

At the same time, even the most ardent admirers of Gogol did not fully understand the meaning and significance of the comedy; the majority of the public perceived it as a farce. Many saw the play as a caricature of Russian bureaucracy, and its author as a rebel. According to Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, there were people who hated Gogol from the moment The Inspector General appeared. Thus, Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (nicknamed the American) said in a crowded meeting that Gogol is “an enemy of Russia and that he should be sent in chains to Siberia.” Censor Alexander Vasilyevich Nikitenko wrote in his diary on April 28, 1836: “Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” caused a lot of noise... Many believe that the government is in vain to approve this play, in which it is so cruelly condemned.”

Meanwhile, it is reliably known that the comedy was allowed to be staged (and therefore printed) in the highest resolution. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich read the comedy in manuscript and approved it. On April 29, 1836, Gogol wrote to Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin: “If it were not for the high intercession of the Sovereign, my play would never have been on stage, and there were already people trying to ban it.” The Emperor not only attended the premiere himself, but also ordered the ministers to watch The Inspector General. During the performance, he clapped and laughed a lot, and when leaving the box, he said: “Well, a play! Everyone enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it more than anyone else!”

Gogol hoped to meet the support of the tsar and was not mistaken. Soon after staging the comedy, he answered his ill-wishers in “Theatrical Travel”: “The magnanimous government saw deeper than you with its high intelligence the purpose of the writer.”

In striking contrast to the seemingly undoubted success of the play, Gogol’s bitter confession sounds: “The Inspector General” has been played - and my soul is so vague, so strange... I expected, I knew in advance how things would go, and with all that, the feeling is sad and An annoying and painful feeling came over me. My creation seemed disgusting to me, wild and as if not mine at all” (Excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of “The Inspector General” to a certain writer).

Gogol was, it seems, the only one who perceived the first production of The Inspector General as a failure. What was the matter here that did not satisfy him? This was partly due to the discrepancy between the old vaudeville techniques in the design of the performance and the completely new spirit of the play, which did not fit into the framework of an ordinary comedy. Gogol persistently warned: “Most of all you need to be careful not to fall into caricature. There should be nothing exaggerated or trivial even in the last roles” (Warning for those who would like to play “The Inspector General” properly).

When creating the images of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, Gogol imagined them “in the skin” (as he put it) of Shchepkin and Vasily Ryazantsev, famous comic actors of that era. In the play, in his words, “it turned out to be a caricature.” “Already before the start of the performance,” he shares his impressions, “having seen them in costume, I gasped. These two little men, in their essence quite neat, plump, with decently smoothed hair, found themselves in some awkward, tall gray wigs, disheveled, unkempt, disheveled, with huge shirtfronts pulled out; and on stage they turned out to be such antics that it was simply unbearable.”

Meanwhile, Gogol's main goal is the complete naturalness of the characters and the verisimilitude of what is happening on stage. “The less the actor thinks about making people laugh and being funny, the more funny the role he has taken will be revealed. The funny will reveal itself by itself precisely in the seriousness with which each of the persons portrayed in the comedy is busy with his work.”

An example of such a “natural” manner of performance is the reading of “The Inspector General” by Gogol himself. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, who was once present at such a reading, says: “Gogol... struck me with his extreme simplicity and restraint of manner, some important and at the same time naive sincerity, which seemed not to care whether there were listeners here and what they thought. It seemed that Gogol was only concerned with how to delve into the subject, which was new to him, and how to more accurately convey his own impression. The effect was extraordinary - especially in comic, humorous places it was impossible not to laugh - with a good, healthy laugh; And the creator of all this fun continued, not embarrassed by the general gaiety and, as if inwardly marveling at it, to immerse himself more and more in the matter itself - and only occasionally, on the lips and around the eyes, the master’s sly smile trembled, with what bewilderment. with what amazement Gogol uttered the famous phrase of the Governor about the two rats (at the very beginning of the play): “They came, sniffed and went away!” - He even slowly looked around at us, as if asking for an explanation for such an amazing incident. It was only then that I realized how completely incorrect, superficial, and with what desire only to quickly make people laugh, “The Inspector General” is usually played on stage.

While working on the play, Gogol mercilessly expelled from it all elements of external comedy. Gogol's laughter is the contrast between what the hero says and how he says it. In the first act, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are arguing about which of them should start telling the news. This comic scene should not only make you laugh. For the heroes, it is very important who exactly tells the story. Their whole life consists of spreading all kinds of gossip and rumors. And suddenly the two received the same news. This is a tragedy. They are arguing over a matter. Bobchinsky must be told everything, nothing should be missed. Otherwise, Dobchinsky will supplement.

Why, let us ask again, was Gogol dissatisfied with the premiere? The main reason was not even the farcical nature of the performance - the desire to make the audience laugh, but the fact that with the caricatured manner of the actors' performance, those sitting in the audience perceived what was happening on stage without applying it to themselves, since the characters were exaggeratedly funny. Meanwhile, Gogol’s plan was designed for precisely the opposite perception: to involve the viewer in the performance, to make them feel that the city depicted in the comedy exists not just somewhere, but to one degree or another in any place in Russia, and the passions and vices of officials exist in the soul of each of us. Gogol appeals to everyone. This is the enormous social significance of The Inspector General. This is the meaning of the famous remark of the Governor: “Why are you laughing? Are you laughing at yourself!” - facing the hall (precisely the hall, since no one is laughing on stage at this time). The epigraph also indicates this: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” In a kind of theatrical commentary on the play - "Theatrical Travel" and "The Inspector General's Denouement" - where the audience and actors discuss the comedy, Gogol seems to be striving to destroy the invisible wall separating the stage and the auditorium.

Regarding the epigraph that appeared later, in the 1842 edition, let’s say that this popular proverb means the Gospel by a mirror, which Gogol’s contemporaries, who spiritually belonged to the Orthodox Church, knew very well and could even support the understanding of this proverb, for example, with Krylov’s famous fable “ Mirror and Monkey." Here the Monkey, looking in the mirror, addresses the Bear:

“Look,” he says, “my dear godfather!

What kind of face is that there?

What antics and jumps she has!

I would hang myself from boredom

If only she was even a little like her.

But, admit it, there is

Of my gossips, there are five or six such crooks;

I can even count them on my fingers." -

Isn’t it better to turn on yourself, godfather?” -

Mishka answered her.

But Mishenka’s advice was wasted.

Bishop Varnava (Belyaev), in his major work “Fundamentals of the Art of Holiness” (1920s), connects the meaning of this fable with attacks on the Gospel, and this is precisely the meaning (among others) that Krylov had. The spiritual idea of ​​the Gospel as a mirror has long and firmly existed in the Orthodox consciousness. So, for example, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, one of Gogol’s favorite writers, whose works he re-read more than once, says: “Christians! What is a mirror for the sons of this age, let the Gospel and the immaculate life of Christ be for us. They look in the mirrors and correct their bodies and the blemishes on the face are cleansed... Let us therefore offer this pure mirror before the eyes of our souls and look into it: is our life consistent with the life of Christ?”

The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, in his diaries published under the title “My Life in Christ,” remarks to “those who do not read the Gospels”: “Are you pure, holy and perfect, without reading the Gospel, and you do not need to look into this mirror? Or are you very ugly mentally and afraid of your ugliness?..”

>Essays on the work The Inspector General

What is Gogol laughing at?

Why are you laughing? You're laughing at yourself!..

It has long been known that any work can be compared to an iceberg. There is always the top, which is 10 percent, and the deep part, which is under water, which accounts for the remaining 90 percent. The comedy "The Inspector General" is no exception.

On the surface lies a provincial town mired in corruption, tyranny, bribes and denunciations. Officials and law enforcement officers, called for the good of society, are only worried about their own interests, trying to snatch a bunch of delicacies. To make the images more vivid, the author resorts to the grotesque and also uses the technique of telling names.

Despite the fact that the play was written almost 200 years ago, unfortunately, Russian officials, whom N.V. mocks. Gogol, has not undergone any significant changes.

The deepest part of the work contains human vices. Of course, the basis is greed, baseness, meanness, and feeble-mindedness. Using the characters in the play as an example, we see the following:

An informer, a flatterer and a deceiver, this is just a weak list of the merits of the trustee of charitable institutions of Strawberry. Without a twinge of conscience, he is ready to betray and resort to meanness just to win over the auditor.

From which we can conclude that laughing and mocking the characters in N.V.’s play. Gogol is trying to reach our hearts. Pointing out how often we attach excessive importance and seriousness to empty worries ridicules the despicable and insignificant. And all this would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Gogol’s world-famous comedy “The Inspector General” was written “at the suggestion” of A.S. Pushkin. It is believed that it was he who told the great Gogol the story that formed the basis of the plot of The Inspector General.
It must be said that the comedy was not immediately accepted - both in the literary circles of that time and at the royal court. Thus, the emperor saw in The Inspector General an “unreliable work” that criticized the state structure of Russia. And only after personal requests and explanations from V. Zhukovsky, the play was allowed to be staged in the theater.
What was the “unreliability” of the “Inspector General”? Gogol depicted in it a district town typical of Russia at that time, its orders and laws that were established by officials there. These “sovereign people” were called upon to equip the city, improve life, and make life easier for its citizens. However, in reality, we see that officials strive to make life easier and improve only for themselves, completely forgetting about their official and human “responsibilities.”
The head of the district town is his “father” - mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. He considers himself entitled to do whatever he wants - take bribes, steal government money, inflict unjust reprisals on the townspeople. As a result, the city turns out to be dirty and poor, there is disorder and lawlessness going on here; it is not for nothing that the mayor is afraid that with the arrival of the auditor, he will be denounced: “Oh, wicked people! And so, scammers, I think they are preparing requests under the counter.” Even the money sent for the construction of the church was stolen by officials into their own pockets: “If they ask why a church was not built at a charitable institution, for which the amount was allocated a year ago, then do not forget to say that it began to be built, but burned down. I submitted a report about this.”
The author notes that the mayor is “a very intelligent person in his own way.” He began to make a career from the very bottom, achieving his position on his own. In this regard, we understand that Anton Antonovich is a “child” of the corruption system that has developed and is deeply rooted in Russia.
Other officials of the district town are equal to their boss - judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika, superintendent of schools Khlopov, postmaster Shpekin. All of them are not averse to putting their hand into the treasury, “profiting” from a bribe from a merchant, stealing what is intended for their charges, and so on. In general, “The Inspector General” paints a picture of Russian officials “universally” evading true service to the Tsar and the Fatherland, which should be the duty and matter of honor of a nobleman.
But the “social vices” in the heroes of “The Inspector General” are only part of their human appearance. All characters are also endowed with individual shortcomings, which become a form of manifestation of their universal human vices. We can say that the meaning of the characters depicted by Gogol is much larger than their social position: the heroes represent not only the district bureaucracy or the Russian bureaucracy, but also “man in general,” who easily forgets about his duties to people and God.
So, in the mayor we see an imperious hypocrite who firmly knows what his benefit is. Lyapkin-Tyapkin is a grumpy philosopher who loves to demonstrate his learning, but flaunts only his lazy, clumsy mind. Strawberry is a “earphone” and a flatterer, covering up his “sins” with other people’s “sins”. The postmaster, who “treats” officials with Khlestakov’s letter, is a fan of peeping “through the keyhole.”
Thus, in Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” we see a portrait of Russian bureaucracy. We see that these people, called to be a support for their Fatherland, are in fact its destroyers, destroyers. They care only about their own good, while forgetting about all moral and ethical laws.
Gogol shows that officials are victims of the terrible social system that has developed in Russia. Without noticing it themselves, they lose not only their professional qualifications, but also their human appearance - and turn into monsters, slaves of the corrupt system.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, in our time this comedy by Gogol is also extremely relevant. By and large, nothing has changed in our country - the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy has the same face - the same vices and shortcomings - as two hundred years ago. This is probably why “The Inspector General” is so popular in Russia and still does not leave theater stages.