As for the composition of the work, it is extremely simple and expressive. It has three links.
First: five portrait chapters (2 - 6), in which all types of landowners available at that time are given; second - counties and officials (chapters 1, 7 - 10); the third is chapter 11, in which the background story of the main character. The first chapter describes Chichikov’s arrival in the city and his acquaintance with officials and surrounding landowners.
Five portrait chapters dedicated to Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin describe Chichikov’s visits to landowners’ estates with the aim of purchasing “dead souls.” In the next four chapters - the hassle of processing “purchases”, excitement and gossip in the city about Chichikov and his enterprise, the death of the prosecutor, who was frightened by the rumors about Chichikov. The eleventh chapter concludes the first volume.
In the second volume, which has not reached us in full, there is much more tragedy and dynamism. Chichikov continues to pay visits to landowners. New characters are introduced. At the same time, events take place leading to the rebirth of the main character.
Compositionally, the poem consists of three outwardly not closed, but internally interconnected circles - landowners, the city, the biography of the hero - united by the image of the road, plot-related by Chichikov’s scam.
“... It was not in jest that Gogol called his novel a “poem” and that he did not mean a comic poem by it. It was not the author who told us this, but his book. We do not see anything humorous or funny in it; In not a single word of the author did we notice an intention to make the reader laugh: everything is serious, calm, true and deep... Do not forget that this book is only an exposition, an introduction to the poem, that the author promises two more such large books in which we will meet again with Chichikov and we will see new faces in which Rus' will express itself from its other side...” (“V.G. Belinsky about Gogol”, OGIZ, State Publishing House of Fiction, Moscow, 1949).
V.V. Gippius writes that Gogol built his poem on two levels: psychological and historical.
The main task is to bring out as many characters as possible who are attached to the landowner environment. “But the significance of Gogol’s heroes outgrows their initial social characteristics. Manilovshchina, Nozdrevshchina, Chichikovshchina received... the meaning of large typical generalizations. And this was not only a later historical reinterpretation; the generalized nature of the images is provided for in the author's plan. Gogol reminds us of this about almost each of his heroes.” (V.V. Gippius, “From Pushkin to Blok”, publishing house “Nauka”, Moscow-Leningrad, 1966, p. 127).
On the other hand, each Gogol image is historical because it is marked by the features of its era. Long-lasting images are supplemented by newly emerging ones (Chichikov). The images from “Dead Souls” have acquired long-lasting historical significance.
The novel remains inevitably within the framework of the depiction of individual people and events. There is no place in the novel for the image of the people and the country.
The genre of the novel did not accommodate Gogol’s tasks. “Based on these tasks (which were not canceled, but included an in-depth depiction of real life), it was necessary to create a special genre - a large epic form, broader than the novel. Gogol calls “Dead Souls” a poem - by no means in jest, as hostile criticism said; It’s no coincidence that on the cover of Dead Souls, drawn by Gogol himself, the word poem is highlighted in especially large letters.” (V.V. Gippius, “From Pushkin to Blok”, publishing house “Nauka”, Moscow-Leningrad, 1966).
There was innovative courage in the fact that Gogol called “Dead Souls” a poem. Calling his work a poem, Gogol was guided by his following judgment: “a novel does not take the whole life, but a significant incident in life.” Gogol imagined the epic differently. It “encompasses in some features, but the entire era of time, among which the hero acted with the way of thinking, beliefs and even confessions that humanity made at that time...” “...Such phenomena appeared from time to time among many peoples. Many of them, although written in prose, can nevertheless be considered poetic creations.” (P. Antopolsky, article “Dead Souls”, poem by N.V. Gogol”, Gogol N.V., “Dead Souls”, Moscow, Higher School, 1980, p. 6).
A poem is a work about significant phenomena in the state or in life. It implies historicity and heroism of the content, legendary, pathetic.
“Gogol conceived Dead Souls as a historical poem. With great consistency, he attributed the time of action of the first volume at least twenty years ago, to the middle of the reign of Alexander the First, to the era after the Patriotic War of 1812.
Gogol directly states: “However, we must remember that all this happened shortly after the glorious expulsion of the French.” That is why, in the minds of officials and ordinary people of the provincial city, Napoleon is still alive (he died in 1821) and can threaten to land from St. Helena. That is why the true story or fairy tale about the unfortunate one-armed and one-legged veteran - the captain of the victorious Russian army, who took Paris in 1814, has such a vivid effect on the postmaster's listeners. That is why one of the heroes of the second volume (on which Gogol... worked much later), General Betrishchev, completely emerged from the epic of the twelfth year and is full of memories of it. And if Chichikov invented some mythical story of the generals of the twelfth year for Tentetnikov, then this circumstance is grist for Gogol’s historical mill.” (Introductory article by P. Antopolsky, “Dead Souls”, Moscow, Higher School, 1980, p. 7). This is on the one hand.
On the other hand, it was impossible to call “Dead Souls” anything other than a poem. Because the name itself betrays its lyrical-epic essence; soul is a poetic concept.
The genre of “Dead Souls” has become a unique form of raising everyday life material to the level of poetic generalization. The principles of artistic typification used by Gogol create an ideological and philosophical situation when reality is realized exclusively in the context of a global ethical doctrine. In this regard, the title of the poem plays a special role. After the appearance of Dead Souls, fierce controversy broke out. The author was reproached for encroaching on sacred categories and attacking the foundations of faith. The title of the poem is based on the use of an oxymoron; the social characteristics of the characters correlate with their spiritual and biological state. A specific image is considered not only in the aspect of moral and ethical antinomies, but also within the framework of the dominant existential-philosophical concept (life-death). It is this thematic collision that determines the specific perspective of the author’s vision of the problems.
Gogol defines the genre of “Dead Souls” already in the title of the work, which is explained by the author’s desire to precede the reader’s perception with a hint of the lyrical epic of the artistic world. “Poem” indicates a special type of narrative in which the lyrical element largely prevails over the epic scale. The structure of Gogol's text represents an organic synthesis of lyrical digressions and plot events. The image of the narrator plays a special role in the story. He is present in all scenes, comments, evaluates what is happening, expresses ardent indignation or sincere sympathy.” (“The originality of the narrative style in the poem “Dead Souls”, gramata.ru).
In “Dead Souls” two worlds are artistically embodied: the “real” world and the “ideal” world. The “real” world is the world of Plyushkin, Nozdryov, Manilov, Korobochka - a world that reflects the Russian reality of Gogol’s time. According to the laws of the epic, Gogol creates a picture of life, most tightly covering reality. He shows as many characters as possible. To show Rus', the artist distances himself from current events and is busy creating a reliable world.
This is a scary, ugly world, a world of inverted values and ideals. In this world the soul can be dead. In this world, spiritual guidelines are upside down, its laws are immoral. This world is a picture of the modern world, in which there are caricature masks of contemporaries, and hyperbolic ones, and bringing what is happening to the point of absurdity...
The “ideal” world is built in accordance with the criteria by which the author judges himself and his life. This is a world of true spiritual values and high ideals. For this world, the human soul is immortal, for it is the embodiment of the Divine in man.
“The “ideal” world is the world of spirituality, the spiritual world of man. There is no Plyushkin and Sobakevich in it, there cannot be Nozdryov and Korobochka. There are souls in it - immortal human souls. He is perfect in every sense of the word. And therefore this world cannot be recreated epically. The spiritual world describes a different kind of literature - lyrics. That is why Gogol defines the genre of the work as lyric-epic, calling “Dead Souls” a poem.” (Monakhova O.P., Malkhazova M.V., Russian literature of the 19th century, part 1, Moscow, 1995, p. 155).
The entire composition of the huge work, the composition of all volumes of “Dead Souls” was suggested to Gogol immortally by Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, where the first volume is hell and the kingdom of dead souls, the second volume is purgatory and the third is heaven.
In the composition of Dead Souls, inserted short stories and lyrical digressions are of great importance. Particularly important is “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which seems to be outside the plot, but shows the peak of the death of the human soul.
The exposition of “Dead Souls” is moved to the end of the poem - to the eleventh chapter, which is almost the beginning of the poem, showing the main character - Chichikov.
“Chichikov is conceived as a hero who faces an upcoming rebirth. The way of motivating this very possibility leads us to something new for the 19th century. sides of Gogol's artistic thinking. Villain in educational literature of the 18th century. retained the right to our sympathies and to our faith in his possible rebirth, since at the basis of his personality lay a kind Nature, but perverted by society. The romantic villain redeemed himself by the enormity of his crimes; the greatness of his soul ensured him the sympathy of the reader. Ultimately, he could end up as an angel gone astray, or even a sword in the hands of heavenly justice. Gogol's hero has hope for revival because he has reached the limit of evil in its extreme - low, petty and ridiculous - manifestations. Comparison of Chichikov and the robber, Chichikov and Napoleon,
Chichikov and the Antichrist makes the former a comic figure, removes from him the halo of literary nobility (in parallel runs the parodic theme of Chichikov’s attachment to “noble” service, “noble” treatment, etc.). Evil is given not only in its pure form, but also in its insignificant forms. This is already the extreme and most hopeless evil, according to Gogol. And precisely in its hopelessness lies the possibility of an equally complete and absolute revival. This concept is organically connected with Christianity and forms one of the foundations of the artistic world of Dead Souls. This makes Chichikov similar to Dostoevsky’s heroes. (Yu.M. Lotman, “Pushkin and “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin.” On the history of the design and composition of “Dead Souls”, gogol.ru).
“Gogol loves Rus', knows and guesses it with his creative feeling better than many: we see this at every step. The depiction of the very shortcomings of the people, even if we take it in moral and practical terms, leads him to deep reflections about the nature of the Russian person, about his abilities and especially upbringing, on which all his happiness and power depend. Read Chichikov’s thoughts about dead and fugitive souls (on pp. 261 - 264): after laughing, you will deeply think about how a Russian person, standing at the lowest level of social life, grows, develops, is educated and lives in this world.
May readers also not think that we recognize Gogol’s talent as one-sided, capable of contemplating only the negative half of human and Russian life: oh! Of course, we do not think so, and everything that has been said before would contradict such a statement. If in this first volume of his poem comic humor prevailed, and we see Russian life and Russian people mostly on their negative side, then it does not in any way follow that Gogol’s imagination could not rise to the full scope of all aspects of Russian life. He himself promises to further present to us all the untold wealth of the Russian spirit (page 430), and we are confident in advance that he will gloriously keep his word. Moreover, in this part, where the very content, characters and subject of the action carried him away into laughter and irony, he felt the need to make up for the lack of the other half of life, and therefore, in frequent digressions, in vivid notes thrown occasionally, he gave us a presentiment of the other half. side of Russian life, which over time will be revealed in its entirety. Who doesn’t remember episodes about the apt word of a Russian man and the nickname he gives, about the endless Russian song rushing from sea to sea about the wide expanse of our land, and, finally, about the swaggering troika, about this bird-troika that he could have invented only a Russian person and who inspired Gogol with a hot page and a wonderful image for the rapid flight of our glorious Rus'? All these lyrical episodes, especially the last one, seem to present us with glances cast forward, or a premonition of the future, which should develop enormously in the work and depict the fullness of our spirit and our life.” (Stepan Shevyrev, “The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls”, poem by N.V. Gogol).
Stepan Shevyrev also writes that a complete answer to the question of why Gogol called his work a poem can be given if the work is completed.
“Now the meaning of the word: poem seems to us twofold: if you look at the work from the side of fantasy, which participates in it, then you can accept it in a real poetic, even lofty sense; - but if you look at the comic humor that predominates in the content of the first part, then involuntarily, because of the word: poem, a deep, significant irony will appear, and you will say internally: “shouldn’t we add to the title: “Poem of our time”?” (Stepan Shevyrev, “The Adventures of Chichikov or Dead Souls”, poem by N.V. Gogol).
The soul must not be dead. And the resurrection of the soul is from the realm of poetry. Therefore, the planned work in three volumes of Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is a poem; This is not a matter of joke or irony. Another thing is that the plan was not completed: the reader saw neither purgatory nor heaven, but only the hell of Russian reality.
The genre uniqueness of “Dead Souls” is still controversial. What is this - a poem, a novel, a moral narrative? In any case, this is a great work about the significant.
Gogol had long dreamed of writing a work “in which
all of Rus'." This was supposed to be a grandiose description of the life and morals
in Russia in the first third of the 19th century. The poem became such a work
"Dead Souls", written in 1842. The first edition of the work was
called "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls." This name reduces
lo the true meaning of this work, translated into the realm of adventure
novel, Gogol decided on this for censorship reasons, in order
for the poem to be published.
Why did Gogol call his work a poem? Definition
genre became clear to the writer only at the last moment, since he was still working
melting over the poem, Gogol calls it either a poem or a novel.
To understand the features of the genre of the poem "Dead Souls", you can
stage this work with the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, the poet of the epic
hi Renaissance. Its influence is felt in Gogol's poem. "Divine
comedy" consists of three parts. In the first part, a shadow appears to the poet
ancient Roman poet Virgil, who accompanies the lyrical hero
to hell, they go through all the circles, a whole gallery passes before their eyes
sinners. The fantastic nature of the plot does not prevent Dante from revealing the theme of his
Homeland - Italy, its fate. In fact, Gogol intended to show the same
circles of hell, but the hell of Russia. No wonder the title of the poem “Dead Souls” is ideological
echoes the title of the first part of Dante's poem "The Divine Come-
Diya" which is called "Hell".
Gogol, along with satirical negation, introduces an element of glorification
creative, creative - the image of Russia. Associated with this image is the “high
lyrical movement", which in the poem at times gives way to the comic
narration.
A significant place in the poem "Dead Souls" is occupied by lyrical
digressions and inserted episodes, which is typical for the poem as a literary
tour genre. In them Gogol touches on the most pressing social issues.
We and the people here are contrasted with gloomy pictures of Russian life.
So, let's go for the hero of the poem "Dead Souls" Chichikov to N.
From the very first pages of the work we feel fascination
its plot, since the reader cannot assume that after the meeting
Chichikova and Manilov will have meetings with Sobakevich and Nozdrev. Reader
cannot guess the end of the poem, because all its characters are post-
swarmed according to the principle of gradation: one is worse than the other. For example, Manilova, es-
Whether to consider it as a separate image, it cannot be perceived as
positive (on his table there is a book open on the same
page, and his politeness is feigned: “Don’t allow this to happen to you.”
fuck"), but compared to Plyushkin, Manilov even wins in many ways
character traits. But Gogol put the image of Koroboch in the center of attention.
ki, since she is a kind of unified beginning of all characters.
According to Gogol, this is a symbol of the “box man”, which contains
the idea of an insatiable thirst for hoarding.
The theme of exposing bureaucracy runs through all creativity
Gogol: she stands out both in the collection “Mirgorod” and in the comedy “The Inspector General”.
In the poem "Dead Souls" it is intertwined with the theme of serfdom.
“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” occupies a special place in the poem.
It is plot-related to the poem, but is of great importance for the disclosure
ideological content of the work. The form of a tale gives the story life-
nal character: she denounces the government.
The world of “dead souls” in the poem is contrasted with a lyrical image
people's Russia, about which Gogol writes with love and admiration. Behind
Gogol felt the soul of the terrible world of landowner and bureaucratic Russia
of the Russian people, which he expressed in the image of a quickly rushing forward
troika, which embodies the forces of Russia: “Isn’t it so, Rus, that
brisk, unstoppable troika are you rushing?" So, we settled on
what Gogol depicts in his work. He depicts social
disease of society, but we should also dwell on how it is possible
Gogol should do this.
Firstly, Gogol uses social typification techniques. IN
The image of the landowners' gallery skillfully combines the general and the individual.
Almost all of his characters are static, they do not develop (except
emphasizes once again that all these Manilovs, Korobochki, Sobakevichs,
The Plyushkins are dead souls. To characterize his characters Go-
Gol also uses his favorite technique - characterizing a character through
detail. Gogol can be called a “genius of detail”, so sometimes it’s exactly like
Tales reflect the character and inner world of the character. What is it worth, for example
measures, description of Manilov's estate and house. When Chichikov entered the estate
Manilov, he drew attention to the overgrown English pond, to the mowed
the crumbling gazebo, the dirt and neglect, the wallpaper in Manilov’s room, then
either gray or blue, on two chairs covered with matting, up to which
the owner's hands never reach it. All these and many other details are under-
lead us to the main characteristic made by the author himself: “Neither
nothing, but the devil knows what it is!" Let's remember Plyushkin, this "hole in the
humanity", who has even lost his gender. He comes out to Chichikov in
greasy robe, some incredible scarf on his head, desolate everywhere
shadow, dirt, dilapidation. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of degradation. And that's all
this is conveyed through detail, through those little things in life that are so
A.S. Pushkin admired: “Not a single writer has ever had this supreme gift.”
to express the vulgarity of life so clearly, to be able to outline the vulgarity in such force
a vulgar person, so that all the little things that escape your eyes,
would have flashed large in everyone's eyes."
The main theme of the poem is the fate of Russia: its past, present
and the future. In the first volume, Gogol revealed the theme of the past of his homeland. Conceived-
The second and third volumes he gave were supposed to tell about the present and the future.
the soul of Russia. This idea can be compared with the second and third parts
Dante's Divine Comedy: Purgatory and Paradise. However, this idea
Lama was not destined to come true: the second volume turned out to be unsuccessful in concept, and
the third was never written. Therefore, Chichikov’s trip remained a trip
deep into the unknown. Gogol was at a loss, thinking about the future of Russia:
“Rus, where are you going? Give me an answer. He doesn’t give an answer.”
It found its expression in the fact that the images of landowners, peasants, the description of their life, economy and morals are depicted in the poem so clearly that after reading this part of the poem, you remember it forever. The image of landowner-peasant Rus' was very relevant in Gogol’s time due to the aggravation of the crisis of the serfdom system. Many landowners have ceased to be useful to society, have fallen morally and become hostages of their rights to land and people. Another layer of Russian society began to come to the fore - city residents. As earlier in “The Inspector General,” in this poem Gogol presents a broad picture of officialdom, ladies’ society, ordinary townspeople, and servants.
So, the image of Gogol’s contemporary Russia determines the main themes of “Dead Souls”: the theme of the homeland, the theme of local life, the theme of the city, the theme of the soul. Among the motifs of the poem, the main ones are the road motif and the path motif. The road motif organizes the narrative in the work, the path motif expresses the central author’s idea - the acquisition by Russian people of a true and spiritual life. Gogol achieves an expressive semantic effect by combining these motifs with the following compositional device: at the beginning of the poem, Chichikov’s chaise enters the city, and at the end it leaves. Thus, the author shows that what is described in the first volume is part of an unimaginably long road in finding the way. All the heroes of the poem are on the way - Chichikov, the author, Rus'.
“Dead Souls” consists of two large parts, which can be roughly called “village” and “city”. In total, the first volume of the poem contains eleven chapters: the first chapter, describing Chichikov’s arrival, acquaintance with the city and urban society, should be considered expositional; then there are five chapters about landowners (chapters two - six), in the seventh Chichikov returns to the city, at the beginning of the eleventh he leaves it, and the next content of the chapter is no longer connected with the city. Thus, the description of the village and the city account for equal parts of the text of the work, which fully correlates with the main thesis of Gogol’s plan: “All of Rus' will appear in it!”
The poem also has two extra-plot elements: “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” and the parable of Kif Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich. The purpose of including a story in the text of the work is to clarify some of the ideas of the poem. The parable serves as a generalization, connecting the characters of the poem with the idea of the purpose of intelligence and heroism as two priceless gifts given to man.
It is also noteworthy that the author tells the “story of Chichikov” in the eleventh chapter. The main purpose of placing the hero's backstory at the end of the chapter is that the author wanted to avoid the reader's preconceived, prepared perception of events and the hero. Gogol wanted the reader to form his own opinion about what was happening, observing everything as if it were in real life.
Finally, the relationship between the epic and the lyrical in the poem also has its own ideological meaning. The first lyrical digression in the poem appears at the end of the fifth chapter in a discussion about the Russian language. In the future, their number increases; at the end of Chapter 11, the author speaks with patriotism and civic passion about Rus', the bird-three. The lyrical beginning in the work increases because Gogol’s idea was to establish his bright ideal. He wanted to show how the fog that had thickened over “sad Russia” (as Pushkin described the first chapters of the poem) dissipates in the dream of a happy future for the country.
56. Genre originality of the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". Features of the plot and composition.
Answer: “Dead Souls” is the poem of all Russian life and all of Gogol’s work. In 1835, Gogol read the first chapters to Pushkin, and in 1842 he published the first volume. Gogol burned the second volume. Fragments of individual chapters have reached us. “Dead Souls” is a poem of Gogol’s life.
M.D. determine the development of literature itself. Subsequent Russian prose refers to the text by M.D. Gogol's text was created at the turn of two socio-economic periods: the era of the nobility was ending and the era of commoners was beginning. A new hero is born: a man who makes money at any cost. In M.D. reflected global problems of human existence. The last romantic heroes can be traced here. The typology of social consciousness can be traced in Gogol's text.
Poem is a polysemantic definition. Gogol violates the lyroepic traditions of the poem, in which there is no poetic language. It was important for the author to emphasize the synthesis of epic and lyrical forms of expression. Gogol pushes the boundaries of prose and its possibilities. His epic takes on the energy of lyricism. Gogol relied on the traditions of the world epic poem (“The Divine Comedy” by Dante corresponds to the structure of Gogol’s plan to lead Russian people through hell, purgatory and heaven; “The Undivine Comedy” by Krasinski - parodia sacra). Writing climaxes M.D. was associated with Zhukovsky and his translation of the Odyssey. The idea of the cunning Odysseus, who has found his fatherland, gives Gogol associations with Chichikov. In 1847 Gogol wrote an article about
"Odyssey". In the last chapters of M.D. a reflection of the Homeric style is visible (complex epithets). Gogol is looking for a figure in the Russian world who will give Russia the meaning of development.
The double title was published for censorship reasons. The titles of “The Adventures of Chichikov” return to the tradition of the picaresque novel. The play of yellow and black on the cover is a play of light and darkness. Yellow is the color of madness. Starting with the cover, Gogol wanted his concept of the epic to reach the reader.
The poem grew out of an anecdote. The anecdotal situation gradually becomes symbolic. The most important motifs - road, troika, soul - express the Russian character. All of Chichikov’s thoughts correlate with Gogol’s way of thinking. Gogol defends his hero, calling him “the hero of our time.”
Gogol continues the traditions of Russian heroics. Chichikov is a hero capable of development. M.D. - his “Odyssey”, the movement of a wanderer in search of his homeland. The road is the path of Russian life. Gogol's hero constantly gets lost, losing his way.
In M.D. initially 33 chapters, returning to the sacred age of Christ. 11 chapters left.
Composition by M.D.:
1. Chapter I – exposition; 2. Chapter II – VI – landowner chapters; 3. Chapter VII – X – city heads; 4. Chapter XI – conclusion.
Gogol chooses the plot of a travelogue. The road plot gave a glimpse of the world. The poem begins with a road episode. The wheel is a symbol of Chichikov’s movement. Roads expand Russian space and the author's consciousness. The chaos of repetition is a symbol of unpredictable Russian life. The image of the heap as Russian dirt is symbolic. Symbolic images constantly create a feeling of the Russian world. The theme of Russian heroes and the Patriotic War is created, running through the plot.
By the end of 1835, the dominant features of Gogol’s plan emerged: the motive of traveling around Russia, many different characters, a depiction of all of Rus' “albeit from one side,” and the genre of the novel. It is obvious that the image of Russia as a national substance, as “our everything,” is at the center of Gogol’s artistic reflection. But since there were quite long breaks between audits, many of the “audit souls” for whom taxes were supposed to be paid were often already dead, and the landowners naturally wanted to get rid of them. The essence of Chichikov’s adventure is based on this absurdity, who managed to turn the dead, “waning” revision souls into revived, living ones. The game itself with the concepts of living and dead souls acquired an anecdotal, but very real meaning. But it was no less important that in the vocabulary of Gogol’s poem, real-life landowners and representatives of the bureaucratic apparatus turned into dead souls. Gogol saw in them a lack of vitality, a deadening of the soul. Essentially, with the whole meaning of his poem, he revealed the idea of preserving a living soul during life. His philosophy of the soul was based on eternal values. The writer considers passive submission to the force of external circumstances and, above all, to the inhumane morality of Gogol’s contemporary society as the spiritual death of the individual, or the death of the soul.” In a word, the title of the poem is polysemantic and contains various artistic meanings, but the anthropological aspect, which helps to broadly reveal national problems, the “Russian spirit,” can be considered decisive. In this sense, the genre definition of POEM, which Gogol’s work received already at the first edition and which he so graphically and with symbolic overtones (peculiar caryatids of heroes supporting the genre subtitle) recreated in his cover drawing, seems natural and significant in Gogol’s artistic system. It was the poem as a lyric-epic genre that made it possible to organically combine the epic potentials of the creative plan “All Rus' will appear in it!” with the author’s word, his reflection on the national substance, on the paths of development of Russia, what later came to be called “lyrical digressions.” The very tradition of the genre of the poem as a national epic (remember the numerous “Petriads”, “Rossiada” by Kheraskov), as heroes could not be alien to Gogol’s installation. Finally, the great examples of the genre, primarily Homer’s “Odyssey” and Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” could not help but stand before his mind’s eye and excite his artistic imagination. The very idea of a three-volume work with a recreation of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise of national existence gave rise to natural associations with Dante. Gogol introduced his genre phenomenon into Russian verbal culture - a poem in prose. With this definition, Gogol expanded the very possibilities of prose, giving it a special music of words and thereby creating an epic image of Russia - “a dazzling vision”, “the blue distance”. Even at the beginning of work on the work, Gogol realized the unusualness of his plan, which did not fit into the usual genre canons. The genre subtitle concentrates the creative strategies of the author of “Dead Souls”: synthetism of thinking, an organic combination of the epic and lyrical principles, expanding the boundaries and possibilities of prose, an orientation toward recreating national, substantial problems of existence. The image of Russia fills the entire space of the poem and manifests itself at the most diverse levels of its author’s artistic thinking. E.A. Smirnova, developing these thoughts, comes to the conclusion that “Dead Souls” owe many important features of its poetic structure to three ancient genres. The first of them is a folk song, the second is a proverb, and the third Gogol calls “the word of Russian church shepherds..."
The artistic structure of the poem contributes to the realization of the central image as the integrity of the changing, transitory aspects of things and phenomena, as a national substance. The composition of the poem is subordinated to the goal of identifying the nature of this substance. The 11 chapters create a ring that recreates the idea of “getting back to square one.” The first chapter is the entry of Chichikov’s chaise into the provincial town of NN. Chapters 3-6 - visiting the estates of the landowners Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. Chapters 7-10 - Chichikov’s return to the city. Chapter 11 - the hero’s departure from the city N. By a strange coincidence, the nomination of the city changes: instead of NN there is simply N, but we are talking about one city. It is impossible to determine the time of Chichikov’s journey: all weather realities have been washed away. This is truly wandering in eternity. “Dead Souls” can be called, without exaggeration, a road poem. The road is the main anchor of the plot and philosophy. Road plot - a look at the world. Chichikov's travels and adventures are the compositional core that brings together the entire Russian world. Different types of roads: dead ends, country roads, “spreading out like crabs,” “without end and edge,” directed into space - give rise to a feeling of endless space and movement. And Gogol’s hymn to the road: “How strange and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road! and how wonderful it is, this road... God! how beautiful you are sometimes, long, long way! How many times, like someone dying and drowning, have I grabbed onto you, and each time you generously carried me out and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt!..” (VI, 221-222) - contributes to the formation in the reader’s consciousness of the image of a road-path. The path of an individual person and the path of the entire nation, Russia, are combined in Gogol’s consciousness with two plots: real, but mirage, and symbolic, but vital. The mire of little things, everyday, everyday life gives rise to the static of dead life, but symbolic leitmotifs - roads, troikas, souls - explode the static and reveal the dynamics of the flight of the author's thought. These leitmotifs become symbols of Russian life. On a troika along the roads of life in search of a living soul and the answer to the question “Rus, where are you rushing?” - this is the vector of movement of the author's consciousness. The double plot reveals the complexity of the relationship between the author and the hero. The plot of the image and the plot of the story are plots of different levels and volumes, these are two pictures of the world. If the first plot relates to Chichikov’s adventures and his deals with landowners, then the second plot relates to the author’s view of the world, his reflection on what is happening. The author is invisibly present in the chaise, next to Chichikov, Petrushka and Selifan. “...But as for the author,” Gogol notes at the end of the first volume, “he should under no circumstances quarrel with his hero: the two of them will have to go through quite a lot of road and road together, hand in hand; two large parts in front are not a trifle” (VI, 245-246). There is no place for fantasy in the artistic space of the poem, but the author's imagination is limitless. She easily turns the scam with dead souls into a real story, the chaise into a troika of birds, comparing it with Russia: “Aren’t you, Rus', like a brisk, unstoppable troika, rushing?” (VI, 247); it promotes the “circulation of lyricism” in order to recreate not a gallery of satirical portraits, but to give a spiritual portrait of the nation. And this portrait has many faces: in it there is only one step from the great to the ridiculous. Each of the subsequent heroes has its own unique face. The traditions of Russian lubok, Tenier and Rembrandt painting are manifested in the depiction of faces, interiors, and landscapes. But behind all the differences in types, the commonality of their philosophy and behavior is revealed. Gogol's landowners are inert; they lack vital energy and development. Gogol's laughter in Dead Souls is more restrained than in The Government Inspector. The genre of the poem itself, in contrast to comedy, dissolves it in epic paintings and lyrical authorial reflection. But it is an integral and organic part of the author’s position. Laughter in “Dead Souls” develops into satire. It acquires a world-building meaning, since it is aimed at the very foundations of Russian statehood, its main institutions. Landowners, the bureaucratic apparatus, and finally, state power itself are subject to sober analysis.
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According to Gogol’s plan, the composition of the poem “Dead Souls” was supposed to consist of three volumes, like Dante’s “Divine Poem,” but only the first volume was realized, according to the author - “the porch to the house.” This is a kind of “Hell” of Russian reality. In volume 2, similar to “Purgatory,” new positive heroes were supposed to appear and, using the example of Chichikov, it was supposed to show the path of purification and resurrection of the human soul. Finally, in volume 3 - “Paradise” - a beautiful, ideal world and truly spiritualized heroes were to appear.
The author also determined the genre of his work by analogy with the “Divine Comedy”: he called “Dead Souls” a poem. It is obvious that Gogol’s poem is not traditional, it is a new artistic construction that has no analogues in world literature. No wonder the debate about the genre of this work, which began immediately after the release of Dead Souls, has not subsided to this day. The originality of the genre of this work lies in the combination of the epic and lyrical principles (in lyrical digressions), the features of a travel novel and a review novel (through-out hero). In addition, features of the genre are revealed here, which Gogol himself identified in his work “Training Book of Literature” and called it “a lesser kind of epic.” Unlike a novel, such works tell a story not about individual characters, but about the people or part of them, which is quite applicable to the poem “Dead Souls.” It is characterized by a truly epic breadth of scope and grandeur of design, going far beyond the history of the purchase of audit dead souls by a certain swindler.
But another story is more important, showing the transformation of Russia and the revival of the people living in it. It would become, according to Gogol’s plan, the unifying beginning of all three volumes of “Dead Souls”, making the poem a genuine Russian “Odyssey”, similar to the great epic of the ancient Greek poet Homer. But in the center of it was not the cunning Homeric traveler, but the “scoundrel-acquirer,” as Gogol called the central character of his poem, Chichikov. He also has the important compositional function of a connecting character, connecting all parts of the plot and making it possible to easily introduce new faces, events, pictures, which, as a whole, make up the broadest panorama of Russian life. Material from the site
The composition of the first volume of “Dead Souls,” similar to “Hell,” is organized in such a way as to show as fully as possible the negative aspects of life in all components of the author’s contemporary Russia. The first chapter is a general exposition, followed by five portrait chapters (chapters 2-6), in which landowner Russia is presented; in chapters 7-10 a collective image of bureaucracy is given, and the last - eleventh - chapter is dedicated to Chichikov. These are externally closed, but internally interconnected links. Outwardly, they are united by the plot of the purchase of “dead souls” (Chapter 1 tells about Chichikov’s arrival in the provincial town, then a series of his meetings with landowners are successively shown, in Chapter 7 we talk about completing the purchase, and in 8-9 - about rumors, associated with her, in Chapter 11, along with Chichikov’s biography, his departure from the city is reported). Internal unity is created by the author’s reflections on contemporary Russia. Therefore, a large number of extra-plot elements (lyrical digressions, inserted episodes), as well as the inserted “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” organically fit into the composition of the poem.