Essay on living and dead souls in Gogol's poem dead souls. Living and dead souls in the works of Gogol Living and dead souls according to the work of Gogol

When publishing Dead Souls, Gogol wished to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov's carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many human skulls. The publication of this particular title page was very important for Gogol, as well as the fact that his book was published simultaneously with Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” The theme of life and death, rebirth runs like a red thread through Gogol’s work. Gogol saw his task in correcting and directing human hearts to the true path, and these attempts were made through the theater, in civic activities, teaching and, finally, in creativity. “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked,” says the proverb taken as the epigraph to “The Inspector General.” The play is this mirror into which the viewer had to look in order to see and eradicate his worthless passions. Gogol believed that only by pointing out to people their shortcomings, he could correct them and revive their souls. Having painted a terrible picture of their fall, he makes the reader horrified and think. In “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” the blacksmith Vakula “paints the devil* with the thought of salvation. Like his hero, Gogol continues to portray devils in all subsequent works in order to use laughter to pillory human vices. “In Gogol’s religious understanding, the devil is a mystical essence and a real being in which the negation of God, eternal evil, is concentrated. Gogol as an artist, in the light of laughter, explores the nature of this mystical essence; how a man fights this real being with the weapon of laughter: Gogol’s laughter is a man’s struggle with the devil,” wrote Merezhkovsky. I would like to add that Gogol’s laughter is also a struggle with hell for a “living soul.”

“The Inspector General” did not bring the desired result, despite the fact that the play was a great success. Gogol's contemporaries were unable to appreciate its significance. The tasks that the writer tried to solve by influencing the viewer through the theater were not completed. Gogol realizes the need for a different form and other ways of influencing people. His “Dead Souls” is a synthesis of all possible ways of fighting for human souls. The work contains both direct pathos and teachings, and artistic sermon, illustrated with the image of the dead souls themselves - landowners and city officials. Lyrical digressions also give the work the sense of an artistic sermon and sum up the terrible pictures of life and everyday life depicted. Appealing to all of humanity as a whole and considering ways of spiritual resurrection and revival. Gogol, in lyrical digressions, points out that “darkness and evil are inherent not in the social shells of the people, but in the spiritual core” (N. Berdyaev). The subject of the writer’s study is human souls, depicted in terrible pictures of an “undue” life.

Already in the very title of “Dead Souls” Gogol defined its task. The consistent identification of dead souls along Chichikov’s “route” entails the question: what are the reasons for that carrion? One of the main ones is that people have forgotten their intended purpose. Even in “The Inspector General”, officials of the county town are busy with everything they want, but not with their direct responsibilities. They are a bunch of idlers sitting in the wrong place. In the court office, geese are bred, the conversation instead of government affairs is about greyhounds, and in “Dead Souls” the head and father of the city, the governor, is busy embroidering on tulle. These people have lost their place on earth, this already indicates some of their intermediate state - they are between earthly life and otherworldly life. City officials in “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat” are also busy only with idle talk and idleness. The entire merit of the governor of city N is that he planted a “luxurious” garden of three miserable trees. It is worth noting that the garden as a metaphor for the soul is often used by Gogol (remember Plyushkin’s garden). These three stunted trees represent the souls of city dwellers. Their souls are as close to death as these unfortunate landings of the governor. The landowners of “Dead Souls” also forgot about their responsibilities, starting with Manilov, who does not even remember how many peasants he has. Its deterioration is emphasized by a detailed description of his life - unfinished armchairs, always drunk and always sleeping servants. He is not a father or master to his peasants: a real landowner, according to the patriarchal ideas of Christian Russia, must serve as a moral example for his children - the peasants, as a suzerain for his vassals. But a person who has forgotten God, a person whose concept of sin has atrophied, cannot in any way be an example. The second and no less important reason for the death of souls according to Gogol is revealed - this is the rejection of God. On the way, Chichikov did not meet a single church. “What twisted and inscrutable paths humanity has chosen,” exclaims Gogol. He sees the road of Russia as terrible, full of falls, swamp fires and temptations. But still, this is the road to the Temple, for in the chapter about Plyushkin we meet two churches; The transition to the second volume - Purgatory from the first - hellish is being prepared.

This transition is blurred and fragile, just as Gogol deliberately blurred the antithesis “alive - dead” in the first volume. Gogol deliberately makes the boundaries between the living and the dead unclear, and this antithesis takes on a metaphorical meaning. Chichikov's enterprise appears before us as a kind of crusade. It is as if he collects the shadows of the dead in different circles of hell in order to bring them to real, living life. Manilov wonders if Chichikov wants to buy the souls of the land. “No, to conclude,” Chichikov answers. It can be assumed that Gogol here means a conclusion from hell. It was given to Chichikov to do this - in the poem he alone has a Christian name - Pavel, which also alludes to the Apostle Paul. The struggle for revival begins, that is, for the transformation of sinful, dead souls into living ones on the great path of Russia to the “treasury assigned to the tsar in the palace.” But on this path one encounters “goods that are alive in all respects”—these are peasants. They come to life in the poetic description of Sobakevich, then in the reflections of Pavel Chichikov as an apostle and the author himself. Those who live are those who laid down “their souls for their friends,” that is, selfless people who, unlike the officials who forgot about their duty, did their job. This is Stepan Probka, carriage maker Mikheev, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, brickmaker Milushkin.

The peasants come to life when Chichikov rewrites the list of purchased souls, when the author himself begins to speak in the voice of his hero. The Gospel says: “Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it.” Let us again remember Akakiy Akakievich, who tried to save on anything, just to get a replacement for a living soul - a dead overcoat. His death, although it evokes sympathy, was not a transition to a better world, but only turned him into a barren shadow, like the ghost shadows in the kingdom of Hades. So, the hagiographic shell of this story is not filled with hagiographic exploits at all. All the asceticism and all the hermitage of Akaki Akakievich are aimed not at saving the soul, but at obtaining an ersatz overcoat. This situation is also played out in the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt.” There, in the hero’s dream, the wife turns into matter from which “everyone sews frock coats.” The word “wife” in Gogol’s works is often replaced by the word “soul”. “My soul,” Manilov and Sobakevich address their wives.

But the movement towards death in “The Overcoat” (Akakiy Akakievich becomes a shadow) and in “The Inspector General” (silent scene), in “Dead Souls” is used as if with the opposite sign. Chichikov's story is also given as a life. Little Pavlusha as a child amazed everyone with his modesty, but then he begins to live only “for a penny.” Later, Chichikov appears before the inhabitants of the city of N as a certain Rinaldo Rinaldini or Kopeikin, the defender of the unfortunate. The unfortunate are souls doomed to hellish suffering. He shouts: “They are not dead, they are not dead!” Chichikov acts as their defender. It is noteworthy that Chichikov even carries a saber with him, like the Apostle Paul, who had a sword.

The most significant transformation occurs when the Apostle Paul meets the fisherman Apostle Plyushkin. “Our fisherman has gone hunting,” the men say about him. This metaphor contains a deep meaning of “catching human souls.” Plyushkin, in rags, like a holy ascetic, recalls that he had to “catch” and collect instead of useless things - these human souls. “My saints!” - he exclaims when this thought illuminates his subconscious. The reader is also told the life of Plyushkin, which fundamentally distinguishes him from other landowners and brings him closer to Chichikov. From the world of antiquity, Chichikov finds himself in the early Christian world of Plyushkin’s two churches. Plato's associations are used, likening the human soul to a team of horses (engraving in Plyushkin's house) crawling out of the mud. Chichikov introduces Plyushkin somewhere at the church doors.

The lyrical element after Chichikov’s visit to Plyushkin takes over the novel more and more. One of the most inspired images is the governor’s daughter; her image is written in a completely different key. If Plyushkin and Chichikov have yet to remember their purpose of saving souls, then the governor’s daughter, like Beatrice, points the way to spiritual transformation. There is no such image either in “The Overcoat” or in “The Inspector General”. In lyrical digressions, an image of another world emerges. Chichikov leaves hell with the hope of the revival of souls, turning them into living ones.

In the 19th century, novels of various directions - romantic, historical, didactic, etc. - only increased the misunderstanding of the essence and features of the novel. 1.3 Genre originality of the poem “Dead Souls” Gogol called “Dead Souls” a poem, but the famous critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky defined their genre as a novel. In the history of Russian literature, this definition of Belinsky was established, and “...

Requirements for realistic art. Belinsky found the nationality of literature not in the description of “peasant bast shoes and village sundresses,” but in a reflection of the fundamental interests of the people. Belinsky demanded that writers criticize social phenomena that hindered the progressive development of the country. Working on the poem “Dead Souls,” N.V. Gogol sought to create a sharply accusatory work and for this he used

When publishing Dead Souls, Gogol wished to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov's carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many human skulls. The publication of this particular title page was very important for Gogol, as well as the fact that his book was published simultaneously with Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” The theme of life and death, rebirth runs like a red thread through Gogol’s work. Gogol saw his task in correcting and directing human hearts to the true path, and these attempts were made through the theater, in civic activities, teaching and, finally, in creativity. “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked,” says the proverb taken as the epigraph to “The Inspector General.” The play is this mirror into which the viewer had to look in order to see and eradicate his worthless passions. Gogol believed that only by pointing out to people their shortcomings, he could correct them and revive their souls. Having painted a terrible picture of their fall, he makes the reader horrified and think. In “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” the blacksmith Vakula “paints the devil* with the thought of salvation. Like his hero, Gogol continues to portray devils in all subsequent works in order to use laughter to pillory human vices. “In Gogol’s religious understanding, the devil is a mystical essence and a real being in which the negation of God, eternal evil, is concentrated. Gogol as an artist, in the light of laughter, explores the nature of this mystical essence; how a man fights this real being with the weapon of laughter: Gogol’s laughter is a man’s struggle with the devil,” wrote Merezhkovsky. I would like to add that Gogol’s laughter is also a struggle with hell for a “living soul.”

“The Inspector General” did not bring the desired result, despite the fact that the play was a great success. Gogol's contemporaries were unable to appreciate its significance. The tasks that the writer tried to solve by influencing the viewer through the theater were not completed. Gogol realizes the need for a different form and other ways of influencing people. His “Dead Souls” is a synthesis of all possible ways of fighting for human souls. The work contains both direct pathos and teachings, and artistic sermon, illustrated with the image of the dead souls themselves - landowners and city officials. Lyrical digressions also give the work the sense of an artistic sermon and sum up the terrible pictures of life and everyday life depicted. Appealing to all of humanity as a whole and considering ways of spiritual resurrection and revival. Gogol, in lyrical digressions, points out that “darkness and evil are inherent not in the social shells of the people, but in the spiritual core” (N. Berdyaev). The subject of the writer’s study is human souls, depicted in terrible pictures of an “undue” life.

Already in the very title of “Dead Souls” Gogol defined its task. The consistent identification of dead souls along Chichikov’s “route” entails the question: what are the reasons for that carrion? One of the main ones is that people have forgotten their intended purpose. Even in “The Inspector General”, officials of the county town are busy with everything they want, but not with their direct responsibilities. They are a bunch of idlers sitting in the wrong place. In the court office, geese are bred, the conversation instead of government affairs is about greyhounds, and in “Dead Souls” the head and father of the city, the governor, is busy embroidering on tulle. These people have lost their place on earth, this already indicates some of their intermediate state - they are between earthly life and otherworldly life. City officials in “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat” are also busy only with idle talk and idleness. The entire merit of the governor of city N is that he planted a “luxurious” garden of three miserable trees. It is worth noting that the garden as a metaphor for the soul is often used by Gogol (remember Plyushkin’s garden). These three stunted trees represent the souls of city dwellers. Their souls are as close to death as these unfortunate landings of the governor. The landowners of “Dead Souls” also forgot about their responsibilities, starting with Manilov, who does not even remember how many peasants he has. Its deterioration is emphasized by a detailed description of his life - unfinished armchairs, always drunk and always sleeping servants. He is not a father or master to his peasants: a real landowner, according to the patriarchal ideas of Christian Russia, must serve as a moral example for his children - the peasants, as a suzerain for his vassals. But a person who has forgotten God, a person whose concept of sin has atrophied, cannot in any way be an example. The second and no less important reason for the death of souls according to Gogol is revealed - this is the rejection of God. On the way, Chichikov did not meet a single church. “What twisted and inscrutable paths humanity has chosen,” exclaims Gogol. He sees the road of Russia as terrible, full of falls, swamp fires and temptations. But still, this is the road to the Temple, for in the chapter about Plyushkin we meet two churches; The transition to the second volume - Purgatory from the first - hellish is being prepared.

This transition is blurred and fragile, just as Gogol deliberately blurred the antithesis “alive - dead” in the first volume. Gogol deliberately makes the boundaries between the living and the dead unclear, and this antithesis takes on a metaphorical meaning. Chichikov's enterprise appears before us as a kind of crusade. It is as if he collects the shadows of the dead in different circles of hell in order to bring them to real, living life. Manilov wonders if Chichikov wants to buy the souls of the land. “No, to conclude,” Chichikov answers. It can be assumed that Gogol here means a conclusion from hell. It was given to Chichikov to do this - in the poem he alone has a Christian name - Pavel, which also alludes to the Apostle Paul. The struggle for revival begins, that is, for the transformation of sinful, dead souls into living ones on the great path of Russia to the “treasury assigned to the tsar in the palace.” But on this path one encounters “goods that are alive in all respects”—these are peasants. They come to life in the poetic description of Sobakevich, then in the reflections of Pavel Chichikov as an apostle and the author himself. Those who live are those who laid down “their souls for their friends,” that is, selfless people who, unlike the officials who forgot about their duty, did their job. This is Stepan Probka, carriage maker Mikheev, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, brickmaker Milushkin.

The peasants come to life when Chichikov rewrites the list of purchased souls, when the author himself begins to speak in the voice of his hero. The Gospel says: “Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it.” Let us again remember Akakiy Akakievich, who tried to save on anything, just to get a replacement for a living soul - a dead overcoat. His death, although it evokes sympathy, was not a transition to a better world, but only turned him into a barren shadow, like the ghost shadows in the kingdom of Hades. So, the hagiographic shell of this story is not filled with hagiographic exploits at all. All the asceticism and all the hermitage of Akaki Akakievich are aimed not at saving the soul, but at obtaining an ersatz overcoat. This situation is also played out in the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt.” There, in the hero’s dream, the wife turns into matter from which “everyone sews frock coats.” The word “wife” in Gogol’s works is often replaced by the word “soul”. “My soul,” Manilov and Sobakevich address their wives.

But the movement towards death in “The Overcoat” (Akakiy Akakievich becomes a shadow) and in “The Inspector General” (silent scene), in “Dead Souls” is used as if with the opposite sign. Chichikov's story is also given as a life. Little Pavlusha as a child amazed everyone with his modesty, but then he begins to live only “for a penny.” Later, Chichikov appears before the inhabitants of the city of N as a certain Rinaldo Rinaldini or Kopeikin, the defender of the unfortunate. The unfortunate are souls doomed to hellish suffering. He shouts: “They are not dead, they are not dead!” Chichikov acts as their defender. It is noteworthy that Chichikov even carries a saber with him, like the Apostle Paul, who had a sword.

The most significant transformation occurs when the Apostle Paul meets the fisherman Apostle Plyushkin. “Our fisherman has gone hunting,” the men say about him. This metaphor contains a deep meaning of “catching human souls.” Plyushkin, in rags, like a holy ascetic, recalls that he had to “catch” and collect instead of useless things - these human souls. “My saints!” - he exclaims when this thought illuminates his subconscious. The reader is also told the life of Plyushkin, which fundamentally distinguishes him from other landowners and brings him closer to Chichikov. From the world of antiquity, Chichikov finds himself in the early Christian world of Plyushkin’s two churches. Plato's associations are used, likening the human soul to a team of horses (engraving in Plyushkin's house) crawling out of the mud. Chichikov introduces Plyushkin somewhere at the church doors.

The lyrical element after Chichikov’s visit to Plyushkin takes over the novel more and more. One of the most inspired images is the governor’s daughter; her image is written in a completely different key. If Plyushkin and Chichikov have yet to remember their purpose of saving souls, then the governor’s daughter, like Beatrice, points the way to spiritual transformation. There is no such image either in “The Overcoat” or in “The Inspector General”. In lyrical digressions, an image of another world emerges. Chichikov leaves hell with the hope of the revival of souls, turning them into living ones.

In Gogol's work one can discern both good and bad sides in Russia. The author positions dead souls not as dead people, but as officials and ordinary people, whose souls have hardened from callousness and indifference to others.

One of the main characters of the poem was Chichikov, who visited five landowner estates. And in this series of trips, Chichikov concludes that each of the landowners is the owner of a nasty and dirty soul. At the beginning it may seem that Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, Korobochka are completely different, but nevertheless they are connected by ordinary worthlessness, which reflects the entire landowner foundation in Russia.

The author himself appears in this work like a prophet, who describes these terrible events in the life of Rus', and then outlines a way out to a distant but bright future. The very essence of human ugliness is described in the poem at the moment when landowners are discussing how to deal with “dead souls”, make an exchange or a profitable sale, or maybe even give it to someone.

And despite the fact that the author describes the rather stormy and active life of the city, at its core it is just empty vanity. The worst thing is that a dead soul is an everyday occurrence. Gogol also unites all the officials of the city into one faceless face, which differs only in the presence of warts on it.

So, from the words of Soba-kevich, you can see that everyone around is swindlers, sellers of Christ, that each of them pleases and covers up the other, for the sake of their own benefit and well-being. And above all this stench rose pure and bright Rus', which the author hopes will definitely be reborn.

According to Gogol, only the people have living souls. Who, under all this pressure of serfdom, preserved the living Russian soul. And she lives in the word of the people, in their deeds, in their sharp mind. In a lyrical digression, the author created the same image of ideal Rus' and its heroic people.

Gogol himself does not know which path Rus' will choose, but he hopes that it will not contain such characters as Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Nozdryov, Korobochka. And only with understanding and insight, all this without spirituality, can the Russian people rise from their knees, recreating an ideal spiritual and pure world.

Option 2

In Gogol's poem you can see Russia, both from the good side and from the bad. The writer considers dead souls not the dead, but officials and ordinary people, whose hearts hardened and became stone from indifference to the fate of ordinary citizens. The poet writes this work, feeling all the pain and sadness of the people.

Officials Manilov, Nozdryov, Korobochka, Sobakevich are completely different people, but they are united by worthlessness, which reflects the entire foundation of the rulers. Each official covers up the other for lies, theft for their own benefit, just to bite off someone’s piece and put it in their pocket. It’s like worms are crawling in their souls in an apple and have already gnawed their holes, which are getting bigger and bigger each time. And as they rot, they emit the disgusting smell of the very personalities of officials. They are like one faceless creature that exists feeding only on living, blooming souls. These "living" souls are subject to constant imprisonment and suppression.

The real soul of Russia is the Russian men who have preserved their humanity. The prudent people, on whom the foundation of all Rus' rests, remain in serfdom. It is in them that the very soul lies, the very center, the very core that holds the entire essence of the country. Gogol writes about the peasants in such a way that he presents them as blooming flowers, which, despite all the difficulties, grow through the stones, destroying them.

Gogol fiercely believes that Russia will move towards a bright future. He believes in the hidden talents of the people, which can rise from the depths and show that not all is lost. He hopes that even in the dead souls of officials a ray of light will pierce and their lives will change, their attitude towards good souls who know how to live and breathe deeply.

You can always get a different attitude. But faith in goodness will never fade. Because big and true, loving covers everything. Since Gogol’s hope makes it clear that even in a hardened heart there are echoes of goodness and love. The example shows Chichikov how he speaks with warmth in his heart about his mother and recalls his childhood, shrouded in affection and care. It is in such moments that you believe that you can change the worst shortcomings into the best. Into growth, prosperity, trust and good attitude. The writer’s message makes it clear and revealing how imperfect a person is in his life, how he has the right to deviate from the path of good, but still he is always given a chance to return to the bright path.

Essay 3

The great Russian writer N.V. Gogol worked in difficult times for Russia. The unsuccessful Decembrist uprising was suppressed. There are trials and repressions throughout the country. The poem “Dead Souls” is a portrait of modernity. The plot of the poem is simple, the characters are written simply and are easy to read. But in everything written there is a sense of sadness.

In Gogol, the concept of “dead souls” has two meanings. Dead souls are dead serfs and landowners with dead souls. The writer considered slave serfdom to be a great evil in Russia, which contributed to the extinction of peasants and the destruction of the country’s culture and economy. Speaking about the landowners' dead souls, Nikolai Vasilyevich embodied autocratic power in them. Describing his heroes, he hopes for the revival of Rus', for warm human souls.

Russia is revealed in the work through the eyes of the main character Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich. The landowners are described in the poem not as the support of the state, but as a decaying part of the state, dead souls that cannot be relied upon. Plyushkin's bread is dying, without benefit to people. Manilov carefreely manages an abandoned estate. Nozdryov, having brought the farm into complete disrepair, plays cards and gets drunk. In these images the writer shows what is happening in modern Russia. Gogol contrasts the “dead souls”, the oppressors, with ordinary Russian people. People deprived of all rights who can be bought and sold. They appear in the form of “living souls.”

Gogol writes with great warmth and love about the abilities of the peasants, about their hard work and talents.

The carpenter Cork, a healthy hero, traveled almost all over Russia and built many houses. Beautiful and durable carriages are made by carriage maker Mityai. Stove maker Milushkin builds high-quality stoves. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov could make boots from any material. Gogol's serfs are shown as conscientious workers who are passionate about their work.

Gogol fervently believes in the bright future of his Russia, in the enormous, but for the time being hidden talents of the people. He hopes that a ray of happiness and goodness will break through even into the dead souls of the landowners. Its main character is Chichikov P.I. remembers his mother's love and his childhood. This gives the author hope that even callous people have something human left in their souls.

Gogol's works are funny and sad at the same time. Reading them, you can laugh at the shortcomings of the heroes, but at the same time think about what can be changed. Gogol's poem is a vivid example of the author's negative attitude towards serfdom.

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When publishing Dead Souls, Gogol wished to design the title page himself. It depicted Chichikov's carriage, symbolizing the path of Russia, and around there were many human skulls. The publication of this particular title page was very important for Gogol, as well as the fact that his book was published simultaneously with Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” The theme of life and death, rebirth runs like a red thread through Gogol’s work. Gogol saw his task in correcting and directing human hearts to the true path, and these attempts were made through the theater, in civic activities, teaching and, finally, in creativity. “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked,” says the proverb taken as the epigraph to “The Inspector General.” The play is this mirror into which the viewer had to look in order to see and eradicate his worthless passions. Gogol believed that only by pointing out to people their shortcomings, he could correct them and revive their souls. Having painted a terrible picture of their fall, he makes the reader horrified and think. In “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” the blacksmith Vakula “paints the devil* with the thought of salvation. Like his hero, Gogol continues to portray devils in all subsequent works in order to use laughter to pillory human vices. “In Gogol’s religious understanding, the devil is a mystical essence and a real being in which the negation of God, eternal evil, is concentrated. Gogol as an artist, in the light of laughter, explores the nature of this mystical essence; how a man fights this real being with the weapon of laughter: Gogol’s laughter is a man’s struggle with the devil,” wrote Merezhkovsky. I would like to add that Gogol’s laughter is also a struggle with hell for a “living soul.”

“The Inspector General” did not bring the desired result, despite the fact that the play was a great success. Gogol's contemporaries were unable to appreciate its significance. The tasks that the writer tried to solve by influencing the viewer through the theater were not completed. Gogol realizes the need for a different form and other ways of influencing people. His “Dead Souls” is a synthesis of all possible ways of fighting for human souls. The work contains both direct pathos and teachings, and artistic sermon, illustrated with the image of the dead souls themselves - landowners and city officials. Lyrical digressions also give the work the sense of an artistic sermon and sum up the terrible pictures of life and everyday life depicted. Appealing to all of humanity as a whole and considering ways of spiritual resurrection and revival. Gogol, in lyrical digressions, points out that “darkness and evil are inherent not in the social shells of the people, but in the spiritual core” (N. Berdyaev). The subject of the writer’s study is human souls, depicted in terrible pictures of an “undue” life.

Already in the very title of “Dead Souls” Gogol defined its task. The consistent identification of dead souls along Chichikov’s “route” entails the question: what are the reasons for that carrion? One of the main ones is that people have forgotten their intended purpose. Even in “The Inspector General”, officials of the county town are busy with everything they want, but not with their direct responsibilities. They are a bunch of idlers sitting in the wrong place. In the court office, geese are bred, the conversation instead of government affairs is about greyhounds, and in “Dead Souls” the head and father of the city, the governor, is busy embroidering on tulle. These people have lost their place on earth, this already indicates some of their intermediate state - they are between earthly life and otherworldly life. City officials in “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat” are also busy only with idle talk and idleness. The entire merit of the governor of city N is that he planted a “luxurious” garden of three miserable trees. It is worth noting that the garden as a metaphor for the soul is often used by Gogol (remember Plyushkin’s garden). These three stunted trees represent the souls of city dwellers. Their souls are as close to death as these unfortunate landings of the governor. The landowners of “Dead Souls” also forgot about their responsibilities, starting with Manilov, who does not even remember how many peasants he has. Its deterioration is emphasized by a detailed description of his life - unfinished armchairs, always drunk and always sleeping servants. He is not a father or master to his peasants: a real landowner, according to the patriarchal ideas of Christian Russia, must serve as a moral example for his children - the peasants, as a suzerain for his vassals. But a person who has forgotten God, a person whose concept of sin has atrophied, cannot in any way be an example. The second and no less important reason for the death of souls according to Gogol is revealed - this is the rejection of God. On the way, Chichikov did not meet a single church. “What twisted and inscrutable paths humanity has chosen,” exclaims Gogol. He sees the road of Russia as terrible, full of falls, swamp fires and temptations. But still, this is the road to the Temple, for in the chapter about Plyushkin we meet two churches; The transition to the second volume - Purgatory from the first - hellish is being prepared.

This transition is blurred and fragile, just as Gogol deliberately blurred the antithesis “alive - dead” in the first volume. Gogol deliberately makes the boundaries between the living and the dead unclear, and this antithesis takes on a metaphorical meaning. Chichikov's enterprise appears before us as a kind of crusade. It is as if he collects the shadows of the dead in different circles of hell in order to bring them to real, living life. Manilov wonders if Chichikov wants to buy the souls of the land. “No, to conclude,” Chichikov answers. It can be assumed that Gogol here means a conclusion from hell. It was given to Chichikov to do this - in the poem he alone has a Christian name - Pavel, which also alludes to the Apostle Paul. The struggle for revival begins, that is, for the transformation of sinful, dead souls into living ones on the great path of Russia to the “treasury assigned to the tsar in the palace.” But on this path one encounters “goods that are alive in all respects”—these are peasants. They come to life in the poetic description of Sobakevich, then in the reflections of Pavel Chichikov as an apostle and the author himself. Those who live are those who laid down “their souls for their friends,” that is, selfless people who, unlike the officials who forgot about their duty, did their job. This is Stepan Probka, carriage maker Mikheev, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, brickmaker Milushkin.

The peasants come to life when Chichikov rewrites the list of purchased souls, when the author himself begins to speak in the voice of his hero. The Gospel says: “Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it.” Let us again remember Akakiy Akakievich, who tried to save on anything, just to get a replacement for a living soul - a dead overcoat. His death, although it evokes sympathy, was not a transition to a better world, but only turned him into a barren shadow, like the ghost shadows in the kingdom of Hades. So, the hagiographic shell of this story is not filled with hagiographic exploits at all. All the asceticism and all the hermitage of Akaki Akakievich are aimed not at saving the soul, but at obtaining an ersatz overcoat. This situation is also played out in the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt.” There, in the hero’s dream, the wife turns into matter from which “everyone sews frock coats.” The word “wife” in Gogol’s works is often replaced by the word “soul”. “My soul,” Manilov and Sobakevich address their wives.

But the movement towards death in “The Overcoat” (Akakiy Akakievich becomes a shadow) and in “The Inspector General” (silent scene), in “Dead Souls” is used as if with the opposite sign. Chichikov's story is also given as a life. Little Pavlusha as a child amazed everyone with his modesty, but then he begins to live only “for a penny.” Later, Chichikov appears before the inhabitants of the city of N as a certain Rinaldo Rinaldini or Kopeikin, the defender of the unfortunate. The unfortunate are souls doomed to hellish suffering. He shouts: “They are not dead, they are not dead!” Chichikov acts as their defender. It is noteworthy that Chichikov even carries a saber with him, like the Apostle Paul, who had a sword.

The most significant transformation occurs when the Apostle Paul meets the fisherman Apostle Plyushkin. “Our fisherman has gone hunting,” the men say about him. This metaphor contains a deep meaning of “catching human souls.” Plyushkin, in rags, like a holy ascetic, recalls that he had to “catch” and collect instead of useless things - these human souls. “My saints!” - he exclaims when this thought illuminates his subconscious. The reader is also told the life of Plyushkin, which fundamentally distinguishes him from other landowners and brings him closer to Chichikov. From the world of antiquity, Chichikov finds himself in the early Christian world of Plyushkin’s two churches. Plato's associations are used, likening the human soul to a team of horses (engraving in Plyushkin's house) crawling out of the mud. Chichikov introduces Plyushkin somewhere at the church doors.

The lyrical element after Chichikov’s visit to Plyushkin takes over the novel more and more. One of the most inspired images is the governor’s daughter; her image is written in a completely different key. If Plyushkin and Chichikov have yet to remember their purpose of saving souls, then the governor’s daughter, like Beatrice, points the way to spiritual transformation. There is no such image either in “The Overcoat” or in “The Inspector General”. In lyrical digressions, an image of another world emerges. Chichikov leaves hell with the hope of the revival of souls, turning them into living ones.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Municipal educational institution

Literature abstract on the topic:

“Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls"

Novocherkassk

1. The history of the creation of the poem “Dead Souls”

2. Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls"

2.1 The purpose of Chichikov’s life. Father's Testament

2.2 What are “dead souls”?

2.3 Who are the “dead souls” in the poem?

2.4 Who are the “living souls” in the poem?

3. The second volume of “Dead Souls” - a crisis in Gogol’s work

4. Journey to meaning

Bibliography

1. The history of the creation of the poem “Dead Souls”

There are writers who easily and freely come up with plots for their works. Gogol was not one of them. He was painfully inventive in his plots. The concept of each work was given to him with the greatest difficulty. He always needed an external push to inspire his imagination. Contemporaries tell us with what greedy interest Gogol listened to various everyday stories, anecdotes picked up on the street, and even fables. I listened professionally, like a writer, remembering every characteristic detail. Years passed, and some of these accidentally heard stories came to life in his works. For Gogol, P.V. later recalled. Annenkov, “nothing was wasted.”

Gogol, as is known, owed the plot of “Dead Souls” to A.S. Pushkin, who had long encouraged him to write a great epic work. Pushkin told Gogol the story of the adventures of a certain adventurer who bought up dead peasants from landowners in order to pawn them as if they were alive in the Guardian Council and receive a hefty loan for them.

But how did Pushkin know the plot that he gave to Gogol?

The history of fraudulent tricks with dead souls could have become known to Pushkin during his exile in Chisinau. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of peasants fled here, to the south of Russia, to Bessarabia, from different parts of the country, fleeing from paying arrears and various taxes. Local authorities created obstacles to the resettlement of these peasants. They were pursued. But all measures were in vain. Fleeing from their pursuers, fugitive peasants often took the names of deceased serfs. They say that during Pushkin’s stay in exile in Chisinau, rumors spread throughout Bessarabia that the city of Bendery was immortal, and the population of this city was called “immortal society.” For many years, not a single death was recorded there. An investigation has begun. It turned out that in Bendery it was accepted as a rule: the dead “should not be excluded from society,” and their names should be given to the fugitive peasants who arrived here. Pushkin visited Bendery more than once, and he was very interested in this story.

Most likely, it was she who became the seed of the plot, which was retold by the poet to Gogol almost a decade and a half after the Chisinau exile.

It should be noted that Chichikov’s idea was by no means such a rarity in life itself. Fraud with “revision souls” was a fairly common thing in those days. It is safe to assume that not only one specific incident formed the basis of Gogol’s plan.

The core of the plot of Dead Souls was Chichikov’s adventure. It only seemed incredible and anecdotal, but in fact it was reliable in all the smallest details. Feudal reality created very favorable conditions for such adventures.

By a decree of 1718, the so-called household census was replaced by a capitation census. From now on, all male serfs, “from the oldest to the very last child,” were subject to taxation. Dead souls (dead or runaway peasants) became a burden for landowners who naturally dreamed of getting rid of it. And this created a psychological precondition for all kinds of fraud. For some, dead souls were a burden, others felt the need for them, hoping to benefit from fraudulent transactions. This is precisely what Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov hoped for. But the most interesting thing is that Chichikov’s fantastic deal was carried out in perfect accordance with the paragraphs of the law.

The plots of many of Gogol’s works are based on an absurd anecdote, an exceptional case, an emergency. And the more anecdotal and extraordinary the outer shell of the plot seems, the brighter, more reliable, and more typical the real picture of life appears to us. Here is one of the peculiar features of the art of a talented writer.

Gogol began working on Dead Souls in mid-1835, that is, even earlier than on The Inspector General. On October 7, 1835, he informed Pushkin that he had written three chapters of Dead Souls. But the new thing has not yet captured Nikolai Vasilyevich. He wants to write a comedy. And only after “The Inspector General,” already abroad, Gogol really took up “Dead Souls.”

In the fall of 1839, circumstances forced Gogol to travel to his homeland and, accordingly, take a forced break from work. Eight months later, Gogol decided to return to Italy to speed up work on the book. In October 1841, he came to Russia again with the intention of publishing his work - the result of six years of hard work.

In December, the final corrections were completed, and the final version of the manuscript was submitted to the Moscow Censorship Committee for consideration. Here “Dead Souls” met with a clearly hostile attitude. As soon as Golokhvastov, who chaired the meeting of the censorship committee, heard the name “Dead Souls,” he shouted: “No, I will never allow this: the soul can be immortal - there cannot be a dead soul - the author is arming himself against immortality!”

They explained to Golokhvastov that we were talking about revision souls, but he became even more furious: “This certainly cannot be allowed... this means against serfdom!” Here the committee members chimed in: “Chichikov’s enterprise is already a criminal offense!”

When one of the censors tried to explain that the author did not justify Chichikov, they shouted from all sides: “Yes, he does not justify, but now he has exposed him, and others will follow the example and buy dead souls...”

Gogol was eventually forced to withdraw the manuscript and decided to send it to St. Petersburg.

In December 1841, Belinsky visited Moscow. Gogol turned to him with a request to take the manuscript with him to St. Petersburg and facilitate its speedy passage through the St. Petersburg censorship authorities. The critic willingly agreed to carry out this assignment and on May 21, 1842, with some censorship corrections, “The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls” was published.

The plot of “Dead Souls” consists of three externally closed, but internally very interconnected links: landowners, city officials and the biography of Chichikov. Each of these links helps to more thoroughly and deeply reveal Gogol’s ideological and artistic concept.

2. Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls"

2.1 The purpose of Chichikov’s life. Father's Testament

This is what V.G. wrote. Sakhnovsky in his book “About the performance “Dead Souls”:

“...It is known that Chichikov was not too fat, not too thin; that, according to some, he even resembled Napoleon, that he had the remarkable ability to talk to everyone as an expert on what he pleasantly talked about. Chichikov's goal in communication was to make the most favorable impression, to win over and inspire confidence. It is also known that Pavel Ivanovich has a special charm, with which he overcame two disasters that would have knocked someone else down forever. But the main thing that characterizes Chichikov is his passionate attraction to acquisitions. To become, as they say, “a man of weight in society,” being a “man of rank,” without clan or tribe, who rushes about like “some kind of barge among the fierce waves,” is Chichikov’s main task. To get yourself a strong place in life, regardless of anyone’s or any interests, public or private, is where Chichikov’s through-and-through action lies.

And everything that smacked of wealth and contentment made an impression on him that was incomprehensible to himself, Gogol writes about him. His father’s instruction – “take care and save a penny” – served him well. He was not possessed by stinginess or stinginess. No, he imagined a life ahead with all sorts of prosperity: carriages, a well-appointed house, delicious dinners.

“You will do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny,” his father bequeathed to Pavel Ivanovich. He learned this for the rest of his life. “He showed unheard-of self-sacrifice, patience and limitation of needs.” This is what Gogol wrote in his Biography of Chichikov (Chapter XI).

...Chichikov comes to poison. There is an evil that is rolling across Rus', like Chichikov in a troika. What kind of evil is this? It is revealed in everyone in their own way. Each of those with whom he does business has his own reaction to Chichikov’s poison. Chichikov leads one line, but he has a new role with each character.

...Chichikov, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and other heroes of “Dead Souls” are not characters, but types. In these types, Gogol collected and generalized many similar characters, identifying in all of them a common life and social structure...”

2.2 What are “dead souls”?

The primary meaning of the expression “dead souls” is this: these are dead peasants who are still on the audit lists. Without such a very specific meaning, the plot of the poem would be impossible. After all, Chichikov’s strange enterprise lies in the fact that he buys dead peasants who were listed as alive in the audit lists. And that this is legally feasible: it is enough just to draw up a list of peasants and formalize the purchase and sale accordingly, as if the subject of the transaction were living people. Gogol shows with his own eyes that the law of purchase and sale of living goods rules in Russia, and that this situation is natural and normal.

Consequently, the very factual basis, the very intrigue of the poem, built on the sale of revision souls, was social and accusatory, no matter how the narrative tone of the poem seemed harmless and far from exposure.

True, one can remember that Chichikov does not buy living people, that the subject of his transaction are dead peasants. However, Gogol’s irony is hidden here too. Chichikov buys up the dead in exactly the same way as if he were buying up living peasants, according to the same rules, in compliance with the same formal and legal norms. Only in this case Chichikov expects to give a significantly lower price - well, as if for a product of lower quality, stale or spoiled.

“Dead Souls” - this capacious Gogol formula begins to be filled with its deep, changing meaning. This is a conventional designation for the deceased, a phrase behind which there is no person. Then this formula comes to life - and behind it stand real peasants, whom the landowner has the power to sell or buy, specific people.

The ambiguity of meaning is hidden in Gogol’s phrase itself. If Gogol had wanted to emphasize one single meaning, he would most likely have used the expression “revision soul.” But the writer deliberately included in the title of the poem an unusual, bold phrase that was not found in everyday speech.

2.3 Who are the “dead souls” in the poem?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.4 Who are the “living souls” in the poem?

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

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

3. The second volume of “Dead Souls” - a crisis in Gogol’s work

“Dead souls,” Herzen testifies, “shocked all of Russia.” He himself, having read them in 1842, wrote in his diary: “...an amazing book, a bitter reproach to modern Rus', but not hopeless.”

“Northern Bee,” a newspaper published with funds from the III Department of the personal chancellery of Nicholas I, accused Gogol of depicting some special world of scoundrels that never existed and could not exist.” Critics criticized the writer for his one-sided portrayal of reality.

But the landowners gave themselves away. Gogol’s contemporary, the poet Yazykov, wrote to his relatives from Moscow: “Gogol receives news from everywhere that Russian landowners are strongly scolding him; here is clear proof that their portraits were copied by him correctly and that the originals touched a nerve! Such is the talent! Many people before Gogol described the life of the Russian nobility, but no one angered him as much as he did.”

Fierce debates began to boil over Dead Souls. They resolved, as Belinsky put it, “a question as much literary as social.” The famous critic, however, very sensitively grasped the dangers that awaited Gogol in the future, while fulfilling his promises to continue “Dead Souls” and show Russia “from the other side.” Gogol did not understand that his poem was finished, that “all Rus'” had been outlined, and that the result (if any) would be another work.

This contradictory idea was formed by Gogol towards the end of his work on the first volume. Then it seemed to the writer that the new idea was not opposed to the first volume, but directly came out of it. Gogol did not yet notice that he was betraying himself, he wanted to correct the vulgar world that he so truthfully painted, and he did not refuse the first volume.

Work on the second volume proceeded slowly, and the further it went, the more difficult it became. In July 1845, Gogol burned what he had written. This is how Gogol himself explained a year later why the second volume was burned: “Bringing out a few wonderful characters who reveal the high nobility of our breed will lead to nothing. It will arouse only empty pride and boasting... No, there is a time when it is impossible to otherwise direct society or even an entire generation towards the beautiful until you show the full depth of real abomination; There are times when you shouldn’t even talk about the lofty and beautiful without immediately showing clearly... the paths and roads to it. The last circumstance was small and poorly developed in the second volume, but it should be perhaps the most important; and that is why he was burned...”

Gogol, thus, saw the collapse of his plan as a whole. It seems to him at this time that in the first volume of Dead Souls he depicted not the actual types of landowners and officials, but his own vices and shortcomings, and that the revival of Russia must begin with the correction of the morality of all people. This was a rejection of the former Gogol, which caused indignation among the writer’s close friends and throughout advanced Russia.

In order to more fully understand Gogol’s spiritual drama, we must also take into account the external influences on him. The writer lived abroad for a long time. There he witnessed serious social upheavals that culminated in a number of European countries - France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Prussia - with the revolutionary explosion of 1848. Gogol perceives them as general chaos, the triumph of a blind, destructive element.

Messages from Russia caused Gogol even greater confusion. Peasant unrest and the aggravation of the political struggle intensify the writer’s confusion. Fears for the future of Russia inspire Gogol with the idea of ​​the need to protect Russia from the contradictions of Western Europe. In search of a way out, he is carried away by the reactionary-patriarchal utopia about the possibility of national unity and prosperity. Was he able to overcome the crisis, and to what extent did this crisis affect Gogol the artist? Would a work better than “The Government Inspector” or “Dead Souls” have seen the light of day?

The contents of the second volume can only be judged from surviving drafts and stories from memoirists. There is a well-known review by N. G. Chernyshevsky: “In the surviving passages there are many such pages that should be ranked among the best that Gogol ever gave us, which delight us with their artistic merit and, more importantly, truthfulness and power. .."

The dispute could have been finally resolved only by the last manuscript, but it is lost to us, apparently forever.

4. Journey to meaning

Each subsequent era reveals in a new way classical creations and facets in them that are, to one degree or another, consonant with its own problems. Contemporaries wrote about “Dead Souls” that they “awakened Rus'” and “awakened in us the consciousness of ourselves.” And now the Manilovs and Plyushkins, the Nozdryovs and the Chichikovs have not yet disappeared from the world. They, of course, became different than they were in those days, but they did not lose their essence. Each new generation discovered new generalizations in Gogol’s images, which prompted reflection on the most significant phenomena of life.

This is the fate of great works of art; they outlive their creators and their era, overcome national boundaries and become eternal companions of humanity.

“Dead Souls” is one of the most read and revered works of Russian classics. No matter how much time separates us from this work, we will never cease to be amazed at its depth, perfection and, probably, we will not consider our idea of ​​it exhausted. Reading “Dead Souls”, you absorb the noble moral ideas that every brilliant work of art carries, and unnoticed by yourself you become purer and more beautiful.

During Gogol’s time, the word “invention” was often used in literary criticism and art history. Now we refer to this word as products of technical and engineering thought, but previously it also meant artistic and literary works. And this word meant the unity of meaning, form and content. After all, in order to say something new, you need invent - to create an artistic whole that has never existed before. Let us remember the words of A.S. Pushkin: “There is the highest courage - the courage of invention.” Learning the secrets of “invention” is a journey that does not involve the usual difficulties: you don’t need to meet anyone, you don’t need to move at all. You can follow a literary hero and follow in your imagination the path he took. All you need is time, a book, and the desire to think about it. But this is also the most difficult journey: one can never say that the goal has been achieved, because behind every understood and meaningful artistic image, solved mystery, a new one arises - even more difficult and fascinating. That is why a work of art is inexhaustible and the journey to its meaning is endless.

Bibliography

gogol is dead the soul of chichikov

1. Mann Y. “The Courage of Invention” - 2nd ed., additional - M.: Det. lit., 1989. 142 p.

2. Mashinsky S. “Dead Souls” by Gogol” - 2nd ed., additional - M.: Khudozh. Lit., 1980. 117 p.

3. Chernyshevsky N.G. Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature. - Complete. Collection op., vol.3. M., 1947, p. 5-22.

6. Belinsky V.G. “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” - Complete. collection cit., vol. VI. M., 1955, p. 209-222.

7. Belinsky V.G. “A few words about Gogol’s poem...” – Ibid., p. 253-260.

8. Sat. “Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries”, S. Mashinsky. M., 1952.

9. Sat. "N.V. Gogol in Russian criticism”, A. Kotova and M. Polyakova, M., 1953.

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