The people in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials similar to the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serf peasantry, had to be.
Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serf peasantry: their lot is poverty, illness, hunger, and terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as their slaves: they sell them individually, without families; dispose of them like things. “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way, just watch!” Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.”
In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and back-breaking work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Probka, endowed with heroic strength, a remarkable carpenter-builder, and Uncle Micah, who meekly replaced the murdered Stepan in his dangerous work.
In the soul of the enslaved peasantry there lives a desire for freedom. When the peasants can no longer endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But Plyushkin’s servant Popov still preferred life in prison to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, escaping serfdom, went into barge hauling.
Gogol also talks about cases of mass indignation. ‘The episode of the murder of assessor Drobyazhkin shows the struggle of the serf peasantry against their oppressors.
The great realist writer, Gogol, figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one cap to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”
In a country where the peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant little boxes, Nozdryovs and Dogevichs, it was not surprising to meet the stupid Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, and the courtyard Pelageya, who did not know where the right side was and where the left side was.
But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty power of the people, suppressed, but not killed by serfdom. It is manifested in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the hard work and energy of the Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “Russian people are capable of anything and get used to any climate. Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut,” say officials, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants to the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks about the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “lively people”, about the “efficient Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to aptly characterize a person in one word.
Thus, depicting feudal-serf Rus', Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people’s Russia, with its persistent and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the working masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “three bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

The image of the people in the poem "Dead Souls". The poem “Dead Souls” occupies a special place in the work of N.V. Gogol. Gogol’s global plan is to show all of Russia in cross-section, all its vices and shortcomings. The majority of the population of Russia at that time were peasants. In the poem, their world is described very figuratively.

In my opinion, it is divided into several components. Every landowner always has a little world of peasants that belongs to him and characterizes him.

The peasants themselves are not described, but we can judge them by their homes. At Manilov's, for example, "gray log huts darkened length and breadth."

Korobochka already had other huts, “which, although they were built scattered, but, according to a remark made by Chichikov, showed the contentment of the inhabitants.” Sobakevich’s peasant lands do not cause surprise - we see them as we expected to see them - “poorly tailored, but tightly sewn.” The huts of Plyushkin's peasants, like himself, are shown to be old, dilapidated, and practically unnecessary. In addition to the little worlds of the peasants, in my opinion, there are other little worlds. The first is an allegorical world of peasants who died or fled from their landowners, very different from all the others, which is mentioned only occasionally.

Also on the pages of the poem we feel the presence of another - the so-called “central world of peasants, presented in specific situations. The strangest and most incomprehensible for us, probably, is the world of dead or fled peasants. Its inhabitants are, as it were, opposed to the population of the world of the “living”.

With the help of this technique, Gogol manages to emphasize the poverty of the morals of the main characters. After Sobakevich’s excessively boastful speech describing his dead peasants, he himself, cunning and selfish, descends in our eyes to several levels at once. But the peasants are the property of the landowner; skilled, spiritually rich people were forced to meekly submit to a man with the life principles of a tradesman.

The following reminders about this world show us it from a completely different side. It appears to us as the “world of the living” who have left the “world of the dead.” The so-called central world requires special attention. He imperceptibly joins the narrative at the very beginning of the poem, but its plot line does not often come into contact with it. At first it is almost invisible, but then, along with the development of the plot, the description of this world is revealed.

At the end of the first volume, the description turns into the anthem of all Rus'. Gogol figuratively compares Rus' “with a brisk and unstoppable troika” rushing forward. Throughout the entire narrative, the writer extols the peasants, who constitute the main, most active and useful part of this world, through contrast with the deliberately humiliated landowners, officials, and employees. The description of this world begins with a conversation between two peasant craftsmen discussing the technical capabilities of a crew entering the city of NN. On the one hand, their conversation smacks of idleness; one feels its incompleteness and uselessness.

But, on the other hand, both of them showed a fairly high level of knowledge of the structure and capabilities of the crew. These two characters, in my opinion, are expressionless and are shown more on the negative side than on the positive side. They appear at the very beginning of the work and, as it were, introduce us to the world of the poem. The next colorful representatives of the “central world” shown in the poem are two men who showed Chichikov the way to Manilovka. They know the territory well, but their speech is still lame.

The most colorful character among the peasants, in my opinion, is the one we saw when he dragged “a very thick log E like a tireless ant to his hut.” He expresses the whole sweeping nature of the Russian person. Gogol emphasizes this by speaking through his lips “an aptly spoken Russian word.” The most striking expression of the writer’s patriotic feelings in the poem is his discussion of the fate of Rus'.

Comparing her “immense expanses with the incalculable spiritual riches of her people, Gogol sings an ode of praise to her: “Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are endless? Shouldn't a hero be here when there is room for him to turn around and walk?

And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in the depths of my soul; My eyes lit up with unnatural power: oh! What a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! - Rus!"

Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials similar to the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serf peasantry, had to be.

Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serf peasantry: their lot is poverty, illness, hunger, and terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as their slaves: they sell them individually, without families; dispose of them like things. “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way, just watch!” Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.”

In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and back-breaking work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Probka, endowed with heroic strength, a remarkable carpenter-builder, and Uncle Micah, who meekly replaced the murdered Stepan in his dangerous work.

In the soul of the enslaved peasantry there lives a desire for freedom. When the peasants can no longer endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But Plyushkin’s servant Popov still preferred life in prison to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, escaping serfdom, went into barge hauling.

Gogol also talks about cases of mass indignation. The episode of the murder of assessor Drobyazhkin shows the struggle of the serf peasantry against their oppressors.

The great realist writer, Gogol, figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one cap to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”

In a country where the peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant little boxes, Nozdryovs and Dogevichs, it was not surprising to meet the stupid Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, and the courtyard Pelageya, who did not know where the right side was and where the left side was.

But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty power of the people, suppressed, but not killed by serfdom. It is manifested in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the hard work and energy of the Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “Russian people are capable of anything and get used to any climate. Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut,” say officials, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants to the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks about the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “lively people”, about the “efficient Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to aptly characterize a person in one word.

Thus, depicting feudal-serf Rus', Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people’s Russia, with its persistent and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the working masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “three bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

The topic that the author raises expands from page to page. Buying dead souls becomes a description of the life of the peasantry. The people in the poem “Dead Souls” stand out for their diversity, talent, kindness and insane desire to live.

Feature of the Russian character

The classic lovingly describes characters from the people. Russian people are not afraid of difficult climates or severe frosts. He is not afraid of Kamchatka. A man will sew mittens for himself; if he gets cold, he will pat his hands together. With one ax he will cut down a hut for himself that will last for centuries. The people, from the pen of the author, come up with an amazingly beautiful image:

• Madonna's charming face;
• rounded oval cheeks;
• wide size.

In Rus' everything is wide and spacious: fields, mountains, forests. The writer puts their face, lips and legs on the same line. The broadest part of a people is its soul.

Russian word

Gogol loves Russian speech. He is favorable to French words and expressions, but a man’s weighty, biting word is often brighter than foreign phrases. There is no alien language in the poem, everything is native to the people.

The names of the characters are interesting. Somewhere they look grotesque, someone may laugh at them, but in them is the ability of the people to snatch the most significant and living things from their surroundings.

• Zavalishin - the desire to fall on one side;
• Polezhaev - love of relaxation;
• Sopikov - quiet snoring during sleep;
• Khrapovitsky - a dead sleep with “snoring”, whistling nose.

Gogol points out words that work “miracles on Russian people.” One of these words is forward. Russian calls raise uprisings and sink deep into the soul. The Russian word makes you shiver. In one word, the Russian people can characterize an entire class.

The mighty power of the Russian peasant

Chichikov, through the mouth of Gogol, talks about the people, studying the list of peasants he bought. There are no living people on the list, but the author introduces everyone in such a way that their image appears before the reader. Moreover, it is easier to see the dead than the landowners, blurred from the abundance of food or dried up from greed. Gogol shows the hardships of life of the common people. Serf bondage and humiliation lead to escapes. Freedom is not given to everyone. Most fall into even greater bondage. The surprising thing is that the desire to be free in men does not die. Peasants are fighting for their rights - the murder of Drobyazhkin. Gogol emphasizes one trait - glibness. She is in everything - in movements, in intelligence, in talent.

Labor and people

Beautiful palaces, multi-windowed halls, painted walls hide the work of talented craftsmen from the people. Men-craftsmen create masterpieces from stone blocks. Formless and dead, they come to life under the master's ax. The reader sees how what the people created perishes. Manilov's ponds are overgrown, Nozdryov's kennels are empty, Plyushkin's rooms are covered with dust. Bold nature seems to specifically highlight the wretchedness of the dying estates. Against the backdrop of amazing landscapes, the eyes of men from the list of revision souls sparkle. They are no longer there, but the memory and deeds are alive.

A treasure trove of intelligence and cunning

The people in the poem are not just hardworking, they are wise and cunning. Gogol admires the Russian man, but admits to his vices. What amazing features does the writer emphasize:

• ability to communicate: shades of conversation, incomprehensible to foreigners, will depend on the number of souls of the person being spoken to;
• decisiveness: will not go into reasoning when it is necessary to act;
• reluctance to admit guilt;
• skill of envy necessary acquaintances.

Even negative character traits distinguish Russians from others.

The concept of people in the work becomes so broad that it is difficult to cover. It will not be possible to write the essay “The people in the poem “Dead Souls” if you are based on one social stratum. The people are men, landowners, officials, everyone whom the writer tried to portray.

Work test

Russia and the Russian people in N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

Interest in the works of N.V. Gogol does not wane even today. The reason for this, most likely, lies in the fact that the writer was able to most fully show the character traits of the Russian people, the greatness and beauty of Russia.

The poem "Dead Souls" begins with an image of city life. Five chapters of the work are devoted to a narrative about the life of officials, five to a description of landowners, and one to the biography of Chichikov. As a result of this narrative, a general picture of Russia is created with a huge number of characters of different positions and conditions. In addition to officials and landowners, the author depicts other urban and rural residents - townspeople, servants, peasants. All this adds up to a complex panorama of life in Russia, contemporary to the author.

The theme of Russia and the Russian people occupies one of the main places in N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”. Let's see how he portrays the peasantry. The author is not at all inclined to idealize him; he talks about the merits of Russian people and their shortcomings. At the beginning of the poem, when Chichikov entered the city, two men, examining his chaise, determined that one wheel was not in order and that Chichikov would not go far. N.V. Gogol noted that the men were standing near the tavern. Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Manilov’s serf, are also shown as stupid in the poem, asking to earn money, but he himself goes to drink; the girl Pelageya does not know how to distinguish where is right and where is left; Proshka and Mavra are downtrodden and intimidated. The author does not accuse them of ignorance, it is not their fault, he simply laughs good-naturedly at them. But when talking about the coachman Selifan and the footman Petrushka, Chichikov’s courtyard servants, the writer shows kindness and understanding towards them. Because Petrushka is overwhelmed by a passion for reading, although he is more attracted not by what is written in the book, but by the process of reading itself, as if from the letters “some word always comes out, which sometimes the devil knows what it means.” And by revealing the image of Selifan, N.V. Go-gol shows the soul of the Russian peasant and tries to understand it. Let us remember what he says about the meaning of scratching the back of the head among the Russian people: “What did this scratching mean? And what does it even mean? Is it annoyance that the get-together planned for tomorrow with my brother didn’t work out... or some sweetheart has already started in a new place... Or it’s just a pity to leave a heated place in a people’s kitchen under a sheepskin coat, so that again to trudge through the rain and slush and all sorts of road misfortunes? »

The work reflects social phenomena and conflicts that were characteristic of serf Russia in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century. At this time, the country was ruled by landowners and officials. N.V. Gogol also depicts a bleak picture of the life of peasants. The landowners mercilessly exploit them, buy and sell them like things, treat them like slaves. Afraid of selling dead souls too cheaply, Korobochka tells Chichikov: “...it has never happened to me to sell the dead. I gave up the living ones, and for the third year now I gave two girls a hundred rubles each...” The true image of the people is seen, first of all, in the description of the dead peasants. Both the author and the landowners admire them. In their memory they acquire a certain epic image; they are endowed with fabulous, heroic features. The dead peasants seem to be contrasted with the living serfs with their poor inner world. Although this people consists of “dead souls,” they have a lively and lively mind; they are a people “full of the creative abilities of the soul...”.

This is how Sobakevich boasts about his dead peasants: “Milushkin, a brickmaker, could install a stove in any house. Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: whatever pricks with an awl, so do the boots, whatever the boots, then thank you, and even if it’s a drunken mouth! And Eremey Soro-koplekhin! Yes, that guy alone will stand for everyone, he traded in Moscow, brought one rent for five hundred rubles. After all, this is what people are like! And the coachman Mikheev! After all, I never made any other carriages other than spring ones.” And when Chichikov answers him that they have already died a long time ago and cannot be worth much, that this is only a “dream,” Sobakevich objects to him: “Well, no, not a dream! I’ll tell you what Mikheev was like, you won’t find such people: such a machine that he wouldn’t fit into this room... And he had such strength in his shoulders that a horse doesn’t have....” And Chichikov himself, looking at the lists of purchased peasants, sees them as if in reality, each man in his eyes acquires “his own character”: “My fathers, how many of you are crammed here! What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime? How did you get by?” The image of the carpenter Stepan Cork, endowed with heroic strength, who probably set out from all the provinces with an ax in his belt, attracts attention: “Probka Stepan, carpenter, exemplary sobriety... Ah! Here he is... here is the hero who would be fit for the guard!” Serfs are hardworking, any work is successful in their hands.

N.V. Gogol paints a terrifying picture of the life and back-breaking work of the people, their courage and patience, outbursts of anger and protest during Chichikov’s reflections on the list of souls he acquired. In the soul of an enslaved people there lives a desire for freedom. On Plyushkin’s estate, the peasants, reduced to extreme poverty, are “dying like flies” and fleeing from the landowner. Examining the list of fugitives, Chichikov concludes: “Even though you’re still alive, what’s the use of you! The same as the dead... are you sitting in prisons or are you stuck with other masters and plowing the land? Plyushkin's yard servant Popov prefers to live in prison than to return to his master's estate. Over the course of many pages of his work, the author introduces us to the diverse destinies of ordinary people. In the episodes of the murder of assessor Drobyazhkin, the author talks about cases of mass indignation of peasants against their oppressors.

At the same time, N.V. Gogol also sees the mighty power of the people, crushed, but not killed by serfdom. It is manifested in the hard work of the Russian people, in their ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. He portrays the people as cheerful, lively, talented and full of energy. Discussing the resettlement of peasants bought by Chichikov to the Kherson province, officials argue: “Russian people are capable of everything and get used to any climate. Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.”

The image of the people in the poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol gradually develops into the image of Russia. Here you can also see the contrast between the real Russia and the future, ideal Russia. In lyrical digressions, the author refers to the “immense space”, “mighty space” of the Russian land. Russia stands before us in all its greatness. This is not at all a country where officials take bribes, landowners mercilessly squander their estates, peasants get drunk, roads and hotels are always bad. Through this real Russia, N.V. Gogol sees a different Rus', the “three bird.” “Aren’t you, Rus, like a brisk, unstoppable troika, rushing along?” The writer sees a great country, showing the way to others; it seems to him how Rus' is overtaking other countries and peoples, who, “squinting, turn aside and give her the way.” The image of the bird-troika becomes the image of the future Russia, which will play the main role in world development. It is with such an optimistic mood that N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” ends.