Artistic features in Gogol's works. Stylistic features of the works of N.V. Gogol

1. Features of the genre

Situations of this kind in works further determine their genre identity.

IN early period of his work, Gogol created a number of romantic short stories from the Ukrainian folk life. These are, in particular, “The Night Before Christmas”, “May Night”, “Sorochinskaya Fair”. Here, love affairs serve for the main characters (for Vakula and Oksana, Levka and Ganna, Gritska and Parasy) as a kind of test of their characters and experiences and lead them, in the fight against obstacles, not only to external victory over everything that interfered with their happiness , but also to the internal overcoming of their own doubts, disagreements, selfishness, etc.

In other words, plot conflicts in these works develop the characters of the main characters in their clashes with the social environment. This is what it is characteristic feature the genre of the short story, as well as the genre of the novel, characterized by broader prospects for the development of characters and hence greater detail of motivations.

Then Gogol wrote "Taras Bulba", a heroic story. In it, the military actions of a number of heroes (Taras, Ostap and others) serve as a test not for their social and everyday character, but for their national character - their moral fortitude and devotion to the ideals of the national struggle. Thus, their military actions expressed the historical formation of the entire nationality, the entire Ukrainian people.

In the same and subsequent years, Gogol made attempts to develop other heroic plots, both in the epic genre (the unclear and contradictory in its composition “Hetman”), and in the dramatic (“The Shaved Mustache”, “Alfred”), but none of them didn't finish it.

Having turned to a critical depiction of his modernity, Gogol naturally turned to other genres. The modernity of reactionary Nicholas Russia, especially from an abstract civil-moralistic point of view, did not show anything heroic. And the writer could only dream of the coming Russian “heroism” or, at the end of his work, vainly call for “heroism” on Russian landowners and officials.

But Gogol now basically abandoned both the short story and the novel genre. The overwhelming majority of his new, realistic plots, including the plot of “Dead Souls,” are based on neither a novelistic nor a novelistic situation. Gogol now turned to another narrative genre, which has its own characteristic features.

Unfortunately, our science has not yet adopted any specific name to designate this genre, and this makes it very difficult to consider Gogol’s epic works. However, one circumstance can come to our aid here. This is because works of the same genre in the dramatic genre have long had a firmly established name: comedy. And this allows us to reason by analogy.

Gogol began to harbor dramatic ideas early, and all of his completed works of this kind were comedies 1 .

The plots of Gogol's comedies amaze with the activity and speed of events, the severity and undivided dominance of intrigue. And yet, these are typically comedic intrigues. They develop themselves very quickly and actively, but at the same time they do not develop the characters of the heroes who act in them. They only reveal the already established characteristics of these characters. In the purposefulness of their movement, they reveal, on the contrary, their social inertia - the inability of the heroes to make decisive changes in their lives (Podkolesin), their moral ossification and unrepentance (the mayor and his friends), their tendency to self-deception, to accepting what is desired or imagined as existing (officials and auditor), etc.

All this is typical for comedy in general. It always, with the help of certain incidents and conflicts, more or less effective, exposes and evaluates the state of society in one or another part of it, in one or another aspect of its life, a state that in most cases is subject to ideological negation due to its objective properties .

A comparison of Gogol's comedies with most of his realistic stories 2 leads to the conclusion that in his narrative works he depicted similar situations. The course of events, naturally, tends to develop more slowly here, and the narrative is often interspersed with descriptive characteristics. But the meaning of intrigue and the entire development of the action here is basically the same as in a comedy.

A long quarrel over the word “gander” did not change anything in the character of the proud neighbor-landowners; on the contrary, she revealed all the baseness of their stubborn and stupid pride and thereby all the comicality of their situation, arising from the very essence of their local existence. A love affair with a bourgeois woman did not reveal any changes in the views and state of mind of the complacent official from Nevsky Prospekt. On the contrary, the denouement of this affair, for all its offensiveness, showed all his moral limitations and inertia, which could have been assumed in him in advance.

The acquaintance of the landowners with Chichikov and their participation in the deal with him only more sharply and deeply emphasizes the peculiarity of the character of each of them, and Nozdryov’s drunken chatter at the governor’s ball, which is the climax in the plot of “Dead Souls,” does not change anything in the state of the heroes; and “just a nice lady,” despite her obvious personal interest in Chichikov, goes to “revolt the city” in “her own direction” along with her friend, etc.

All these plots, like the plots of comedies, do not show the character of the characters in development, but only reveal and humorously or satirically deny their established characteristics. All these are not novelistic or romantic stories by Gogol. All these are stories that, in their own way, genre originality identical to comedies. And if one or the other of them could be remade in a dramatic way for production on stage, it would become a comedy there, not a drama, not a vaudeville, not a tragedy. So "Dead Souls", dramatized by M. Bulgakov and presented by Moskovsky Art Theater them. A. M. Gorky in 1932 on stage, became a comedy. It was a comedy from the Russian bureaucratic and noble life of the era of the decline of the serfdom system. They could, however, be called that even without alteration for the stage, just as Balzac called a group of his novels “Human Comedy” for the broad picture of the national life of France that was painted in all of them taken together.

Revealing with the help of their plots the state of society in one or another of its layers, from one side or another, stories of this kind, like comedies, naturally evaluate it differently. From this point of view, they can receive different designations. Thus, Gogol’s story “The Old Sad Landowners,” according to the writer’s original plan, contains a sentimental affirmation of the patriarchal nature of landowner life and, despite the fact that it is mixed with a humorous denial of this life, can still be called an idyllic story. In “The Tale of How He Quarreled...” humor reigns supreme in the depiction of the main characters; This is a humorous story. IN Petersburg stories the nature of the laughter changes as the topic changes. Among them, the story "The Nose" in particular is a grotesque satirical story. Corresponding differences exist in Gogol's dramaturgy - between the humorous comedy "Marriage" and satirical comedy"Inspector".

Gogol's predominant interest in comedies and stories of the same genre follows, as is clear in connection with everything said above, from his worldview, from his civil-moralistic point of view on the life depicted. In terms of genre, Gogol continued the traditions outlined in the works of Fonvizin, Kapnist, Krylov, who in their comedies, satirical essays, and fables revealed similar trends. But with Gogol, creative realism, which had already been outlined or even dominated among the above-mentioned writers, reached its peak, and not only in the typification of life, but also in the completeness of its artistic expression.

However, in Gogol’s work these genre interests were only predominant, but not exclusive. In the St. Petersburg stories, which contain urban motifs and were the most innovative of all the cycles of Gogol’s works, he also outlined other genre possibilities. Here the writer not only satirically denounced the metropolitan bureaucratic strata that were adjacent to the ruling reactionary circles. Here he also depicted those who were victims of their cold bureaucratic arrogance or their monetary temptations - the poor workers of the capital, petty officials and artists.

Gogol showed their attempts to defend their human dignity, he showed them in an unequal struggle with the difficult circumstances of their lives, in a clash with their superiors, with “society”, in their inevitable defeat in these clashes. All this led him to reflect them to some extent. social character in development - in the transition from a state of downtroddenness to dissatisfaction, despair, protest. In other words, he created a number of novelistic plots here. The very contradictions of metropolitan life, realistically realized by the writer, led him, contrary to the premises of his civil-moralistic worldview, to create an everyday realistic novel. This is the first story line in Nevsky Prospekt, dedicated to Piskarev. The same is the first part of the “Portrait”, if we ignore those fantastic motives, which embody there (and rather unsuccessfully) the author’s programmatic aesthetic constructions. This applies to a greater extent to “Notes of a Madman” and especially to “The Overcoat”.

However, Gogol was not sufficiently aware of all these novelistic situations and did not ideologically and creatively use the rich possibilities that could have opened up to him here. He resolves these situations realistically, showing the weakness of his heroes and the inevitability of their defeat in the typical circumstances of mercantile-bureaucratic St. Petersburg. But he does not sufficiently develop the motives for their social protest. In "Nevsky Prospect" and "Notes of a Madman" he shows this protest in an abstract psychological sense, without translating it into everyday plot relationships or into ideological relationships. In "Portrait" and "Overcoat" he leads his heroes to protest shortly or even at the very moment of their death. But the very development of everyday novelistic stories from the life of the democratic lower classes big city was a huge creative discovery of the writer, his contribution to the emerging artistic culture Russian democracy.

Notes

1 (These were comedies in the narrow, proper sense of the word, different from vaudeville comedies, which are, so to speak, stage novels.)

2 (We use the name “story” in a broad sense, meaning by it any narrative prose work more or less significant size, in contrast to the small form of narrative prose - “story” and, on the other hand, from narrative in poetic form - “poem”. Among the stories, with this understanding, there may be works of different genres.)

Gogol began his creative activity like a romantic. However, he turned to critical realism, opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the noble influence of Pushkin, but was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature. Gogol’s originality was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the “little man”, a resident of the corners of St. Petersburg. Gogol was a brilliant satirist who castigated the “vulgarity of a vulgar man” and extremely exposed the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality. Gogol's social orientation is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, and events public importance. At the same time, the plot serves only as an excuse for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of character types. Deep penetration into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of words, to draw images of enormous generalizing power. For bright purposes satirical image Gogol's heroes are served by a careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. For example, portraits of the heroes of “Dead Souls” were created. These details in Gogol are mainly everyday: things, clothes, homes of the heroes. If in romantic stories Gogol gives emphatically picturesque landscapes, giving the work a certain elation of tone, then in his realistic works, especially in “ Dead souls", landscape is one of the means of depicting types and characteristics of heroes. The themes, social orientation and ideological coverage of life phenomena and people's characters determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech. The two worlds depicted by the writer are - folk group and “existents” - determined the main features of the writer’s speech: his speech is sometimes enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism, when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in “Evenings ...”, in “Taras Bulba”, in lyrical digressions“Dead Souls”), then becomes close to live conversational (in everyday paintings and scenes of “Evenings...” or in stories about bureaucratic and landowner Russia). The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries. Gogol loved and had a keen sense of popular colloquial speech, skillfully using all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of public life. The character of a person social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol's characters. Gogol's strength as a stylist lies in his humor. In his articles about “Dead Souls,” Belinsky showed that Gogol’s humor “consists in the opposition of the ideal of life with the reality of life.” He wrote: “Humor is the most powerful weapon of the spirit of negation, destroying the old and preparing the new.”

Artistic features in Gogol's works

Gogol began his creative career as a romantic. However, he soon turned to critical realism and opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the beneficial influence of Pushkin. But he was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

Gogol’s originality was that he was the first to give the broadest picture of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia and “ little man", a resident of St. Petersburg corners.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who castigated the “vulgarity of a vulgar man” and extremely exposed the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

This social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events of social significance. At the same time, Gogol’s plot serves only as a pretext for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of character types.

Deep penetration into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of words, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

The names of Khlestakov, Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and others became household names. Even the minor characters depicted by Gogol on the pages of his works (for example, in “Dead Souls”): Pelageya, the serf girl Korobochka, or Ivan Antonovich, the “jug’s snout,” have great power of generalization and typicality. Gogol emphasizes one or two of his most significant features in the character of the hero. Often he exaggerates them, which makes the image even more vivid and prominent.

The purposes of a vivid, satirical portrayal of the characters are served by Gogol’s careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. For example, portraits of the heroes of “Dead Souls” were created. These details in Gogol are mainly everyday: things, clothes, the hero’s home.

If Gogol’s romantic stories contain emphatically picturesque landscapes, giving the work a certain uplifting tone, then in his realistic works, especially in “Dead Souls,” landscape is one of the means of depicting types and characteristics of heroes.

The subject matter, social orientation and ideological coverage of life phenomena and people's characters determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech.

The two worlds depicted by Gogol - the people’s collective and the “existents” - determined the main features of the writer’s speech: his speech is sometimes enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism, when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in “Evenings”, in “Taras Bulba”, in lyrical digressions of “Dead Souls”), then it becomes close to a live conversational one (in everyday pictures and scenes of “Evenings” or when the story is told about bureaucratic and landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries. Gogol loved and had a keen sense of folk speech and skillfully used all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena. public life.

1) the periodic structure of a phrase, when many sentences are connected into one whole (“Taras saw how vague the Cossack ranks became and how despondency, indecent for the brave, began to quietly embrace the Cossack heads, but was silent: he wanted to give time to everything, so that they would get used to despondency brought on by farewell to his comrades, and meanwhile in the silence he was preparing to wake them all up at once and suddenly, whooping like a Cossack, so that again and with greater force than before, cheerfulness would return to everyone’s soul, which only the Slavic breed, the wide one, is capable of. a mighty rock is to others as the sea is to shallow rivers");

2) the introduction of lyrical dialogues and monologues (for example, the conversation between Levko and Ganna in the first chapter of “May Night”, monologues - appeals to the Cossacks of Koshevoy, Taras Bulba, Bovdyug in “Taras Bulba”);

3) an abundance of exclamatory and interrogative sentences (for example, in the description of the Ukrainian night in “May Night”);

4) emotional epithets that convey the power of the author’s inspiration, born of love for native nature(description of the day at the Sorochinskaya Fair) or to the folk group (Taras Bulba).

Gogol uses everyday speech in different ways. IN early works(in “Evenings”) its bearer is the narrator. The author puts into his mouth both vernacular words (everyday words and phrases), and such appeals to listeners that are of a familiar, good-natured nature, characteristic of this environment: “By God, I’m already tired of telling! What are you thinking?

The character of a person, his social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol’s characters.

Gogol's strength as a stylist lies in his humor. Gogol's humor - “laughter through tears” - was determined by the contradictions of the Russian reality of his time, mainly by the contradictions between the people and the anti-people essence of the noble state. In his articles about “Dead Souls,” Belinsky showed that Gogol’s humor “consists in the opposite of the ideal

life with the reality of life." He wrote: “Humor is the most powerful weapon of the spirit of negation, destroying the old and preparing the new.”

Gogol began his creative career as a romantic. However, he soon turned to critical realism and opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the beneficial influence of Pushkin. But he was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

Gogol’s originality was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the district landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the “little man”, a resident of the corners of St. Petersburg.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who castigated the “vulgarity of a vulgar man” and extremely exposed the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

This social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events of social significance. At the same time, Gogol’s plot serves only as a pretext for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of character types.

Deep penetration into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of words, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

The names of Khlestakov, Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and others became household names. Even the minor characters depicted by Gogol on the pages of his works (for example, in “Dead Souls”): Pelageya, the serf girl Korobochka, or Ivan Antonovich, the “jug’s snout,” have great power of generalization and typicality. Gogol emphasizes one or two of his most significant features in the character of the hero. Often he exaggerates them, which makes the image even more vivid and prominent.

The purposes of a vivid, satirical portrayal of the characters are served by Gogol’s careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. For example, portraits of the heroes of “Dead Souls” were created. These details in Gogol are mainly everyday: things, clothes, the hero’s home.

If Gogol’s romantic stories contain emphatically picturesque landscapes, giving the work a certain uplifting tone, then in his realistic works, especially in “Dead Souls,” landscape is one of the means of depicting types and characteristics of heroes.

The subject matter, social orientation and ideological coverage of life phenomena and people's characters determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech.

The two worlds depicted by Gogol - the people’s collective and the “existents” - determined the main features of the writer’s speech: his speech is sometimes enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism, when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in “Evenings”, in “Taras Bulba”, in lyrical digressions of “Dead Souls”), then it becomes close to a live conversational one (in everyday pictures and scenes of “Evenings” or when the story is told about bureaucratic and landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries. Gogol loved and had a keen sense of folk speech and skillfully used all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of public life.

1) the periodic structure of a phrase, when many sentences are connected into one whole (“Taras saw how vague the Cossack ranks became and how despondency, indecent for the brave, began to quietly embrace the Cossack heads, but was silent: he wanted to give time to everything, so that they would get used to despondency brought on by farewell to his comrades, and meanwhile in the silence he was preparing to wake them all up at once and suddenly, whooping like a Cossack, so that again and with greater force than before, cheerfulness would return to everyone’s soul, which only the Slavic breed, the wide one, is capable of. a mighty rock is to others as the sea is to shallow rivers");

2) the introduction of lyrical dialogues and monologues (for example, the conversation between Levko and Ganna in the first chapter of “May Night”, monologues - appeals to the Cossacks of Koshevoy, Taras Bulba, Bovdyug in “Taras Bulba”);

3) an abundance of exclamatory and interrogative sentences (for example, in the description of the Ukrainian night in “May Night”);

4) emotional epithets that convey the power of the author’s inspiration, born of love for native nature (description of a day at the Sorochinskaya Fair) or for a folk group (“Taras Bulba”).

Gogol uses everyday speech in different ways. In early works (in “Evenings”) its bearer is the narrator. The author puts into his mouth both vernacular words (everyday words and phrases), and such appeals to listeners that have a familiar, good-natured character characteristic of this environment: “By God, I’m already tired of telling! What are you thinking

The character of a person, his social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol’s characters.

Gogol's strength as a stylist lies in his humor. Gogol's humor - “laughter through tears” - was determined by the contradictions of the Russian reality of his time, mainly by the contradictions between the people and the anti-people essence of the noble state. In his articles about “Dead Souls,” Belinsky showed that Gogol’s humor “consists in the opposite of the ideal

life with the reality of life." He wrote: “Humor is the most powerful weapon of the spirit of negation, destroying the old and preparing the new.”