Gogol’s characterization of officials in The Inspector General is given at the very beginning with the help folk proverb, which served as the epigraph to the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” This capacious image allows us to penetrate into the essence of the multiple “faces” of bureaucracy, as the force that filled the Russian space of the first half of the 19th century and enslaved it. The comedy was supposed to become a kind of “mirror” in which all the nuances of social ugliness could be seen. As a true artist, Gogol understood that it was best to indicate the scale of this disaster not by directly condemning it, but by placing it in a context where it would always be accompanied by laughter.
All officials in the auditor are united by an immoderate passion for acquisition, and it does not matter what: money, power, undeserved respect. These are insignificant parts of “little thanks”, so small that they are not worth talking about. Traction Russian society to traditional values gave rise to a situation where it was tradition that bought off one’s conscience. Bribery, as ancient as the world, itself became a world whose laws should be inviolable. In such a world it is easy to deceive and be deceived, which makes honesty seem offensive. The bureaucracy in The Inspector General looks grotesque also because the absurdity of their life is filled with “pretension” and righteous anger: it does not forgive anything or anyone for the disrespectful attitude towards themselves, which should be almost internal to every Russian citizen.
The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are as funny as they are monstrous, because they are true and widespread in all spheres of the then public life. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky, of course, is not stupid, like a gray gelding; he is well aware of the unsightly situation of the inhabitants of his city, the deplorable state of medicine and education. But deriving one’s own benefit prevails over everything for the mayor, and the arrival of the auditor was supposed to block the process of absorbing resources and patching up holes after that. Fear blinds the mayor so much that he mistakes Khlestakov’s cowardice and emptiness for the subtle deceit with which a passing person passes himself off as an inspector. Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky never experiences a feeling of not only guilt, but even awkwardness at the moments when he is “thanked,” because the ghost of supposedly God’s providence has long justified everything. No one dares to go against the divine will, except perhaps some Voltaireans. Among the venerable officials county town There should be no such shame under any circumstances. He's not there! The absence of Voltairian shame also frees one from intelligence and education. Ignorance is so invincible that no amount of enlightenment can budge it, like that of a city judge who takes bribes with greyhound puppies for a future hunt. Several books that he read throughout his life “and-send-here-Lyapkin-Tyapkin”, of course, gained him the reputation of a freethinker, but added absolutely nothing to his meager consciousness. He is not only unable to do the job, but also bear responsibility for his judgments, which have long been, and perhaps from the very beginning of his career, abolished by his superiors with something like: “a lot of intelligence is worse than not having one at all.”
Among the officials of the city of N in The Inspector General, Strawberry is clearly visible, who with all zeal takes care of charitable institutions. He is a terrible weasel and knows how to speak to the hearts of those in power, which always ensures him brilliant success. The trustee considers flattery the most indispensable and unmistakable means of penetrating someone else's soul and uses it on the widest scale. He curries favor with both the mayor and Khlestakov, subtly capturing the nature of their pride and fear. School superintendent Khlopov is inferior in flattery to Strawberry; he does it not so skillfully, but with great success submits complaints to the mayor about teachers who allegedly spread a free spirit among the growing youth, they are too offensively hot and educated. That’s why all the officials from “The Inspector General” are so representative, so brilliant in their stubbornness, because each of them is part of a bribery system that kills everything human, original and reasonable.
The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are complemented by such characters as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, roguish gossips who are in an endless search for amazing news. They scurry through the whole comedy as pampers and buffoons, whom no one cares about, but they endure everything - for the opportunity to be the first to find out an interesting incident, no matter what it concerns. One of them always accompanies the mayor to Khlestakov, then showers himself with pleasantries in front of Anna Andreevna, or obsequiously stutters in front of the auditor. Ultimately, in all guises they do not change, demonstrating the lowest level of mental poverty and insignificance - a petty official who, due to his position, is affectionate, but if you put power in his hands, he will tear anyone to pieces. Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky themselves experience almost pleasure from the awe of power, for “fear still pervades you when you speak with a nobleman,” and this fear does not seem humiliating at all. It is perceived as a source of low pleasure.
And, finally, Khlestakov himself is an embodied clerical emptiness, who lost at cards and, due to circumstances, took on the role of an auditor. Khlestakov is subject to filling by his very nature, so it doesn’t matter to him who he will be in the next moment, because the mayor’s intentions do not immediately reach his consciousness. He accepts admiration and generously gives everyone his attention as a person who does not need to be told about his irresistibility. His threats are funny and boyish, but this is precisely what arouses Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky’s suspicion, and then confidence - this newcomer is simply skillfully cunning, he is the auditor!
In these relations we see the end point of the absurdity of the bureaucratic world: fear of the powerful force paralyzes a person, makes substitution possible and gives prosperity to ignorance. Only cleansing laughter can help you break out of this circle - the only positive character in Gogol's comedy.
Work test
When considering the behavior, language of officials, their reaction to the arrival of the “auditor”, it gives a clear idea of the main, pronounced traits of their characters. It is important to note the attitude of officials towards the mayor. At first glance, they have friendly relations: after all, they are involved in official abuses together. The judge even invites him to his place, and Luka Lukic plays cards with him. But in fact, the attitude of officials towards the mayor is completely different, and in order to show this, Gogol introduces remarks “to the side”, in which officials express their true feelings towards the mayor. This two-faced attitude towards the mayor is most clearly visible in the behavior and words of Strawberry. When the mayor in action characterizes himself as a zealous and conscientious servant, Artemy Filippovich cannot resist saying to himself: “What a slacker, what a description! God gave such a gift!”
In Act V, when unexpected happiness is celebrated in the mayor’s house, Strawberry is one of the first (following the judge) to appear with congratulations. In response to Luka Lukich’s remark that “fate itself was leading” the mayor, Strawberry servilely corrects him: “It’s not fate, father, fate is a turkey; merit led to this,” and with the words “to the side” he completely betrays himself: “Happiness always creeps into the mouth of such a pig.” The same goes a little further. On the one hand, with the remark “to the side,” Strawberry expresses a clearly hostile attitude towards the mayor: “He’s already trying to become a general!” What the hell, maybe he will become a general. After all, with his importance, the evil one would not take him, enough,” and on the other hand, he immediately ingratiatingly turns to him: “Then, Anton Antonovich, don’t forget us.”
Thus, Strawberry is extremely two-faced in relation to the mayor: he fawns in the eyes, fawns, and behind the eyes (“to the side”) he expresses undisguised contempt, even seasoned with a significant amount of abuse. We note the same duplicity in the judge. He is ready to “treat” the mayor with a little dog, sell him a male or some other dog, he invites him to dinner, is the first to congratulate him on the “extraordinary happiness that has arrived” and, like Strawberry, asks him to provide support if the rank of general smiles on him : “If something happens: for example, some kind of business need, do not leave patronage.” But he says something completely different “to the side”: “He’ll throw something away when he actually becomes a general. That’s who the generalship is like a saddle for a cow!” etc.
In general, the officials’ remarks “to the side” contain a negative assessment of the mayor; even the modest, fearful Luka Lukich is not free from this. When the mayor tells Khlestakov about his dislike for cards, Luka Lukich could not resist and “to the side” admits: “I, the scoundrel, betted a hundred rubles yesterday.”
Let's pay attention to the lexical side of the officials' language. All these four representatives of bureaucratic Russia are characterized by official-official speech, especially when dealing with their superiors. It is characteristic that they begin their introduction to Khlestakov with literally the same words: “I have the honor to introduce myself,” and end it: “I dare not bother you any longer with my presence.”
The language of all four officials in contact with the broad provincial lower classes is characterized by colloquial phraseology and familiar idiomatic expressions. There are more of them in the judge’s speech: “scolds”, “on a military footing”, “wagging on his mustache”, “a bad deal has been brewed”, “treat... with a little dog”. But the postmaster also uses them: “the Frenchman is crap”, “I love you to death”, “I’m short-handed”; and Luka Lukich: “he cut his face”, “his tongue got stuck in the mud”, “he sold his damn tongue”; and Strawberry: “cabbage carries”, “let go... at least your soul to repentance”, “stunned”.
It is noteworthy that there are few foreign words in the speech of these officials: they have to move mainly in the provincial bureaucratic and middle-class environment.
Here foreign words from their replicas: nature, Jacobin (Strawberry), ministeria (judge), passages, estafeta (postmaster), exhibited (Luka Lukic). It is worth noting the following details of the speech: the respectable judge is not averse to sometimes inserting a florid bookish expression into his speech, which is explained by his erudition: “the distinguished visitor tasted the bread.”
Strawberry uses definitions of a bureaucratic nature: a “well-ordered” state, society, “unwell-intentioned” rules, “reprehensible” behavior. The postmaster enthusiastically conveys excerpts from the letters he left behind: “my life, dear friend, flows... in the empyrean: there are many young ladies, music is playing, the standard is jumping.”
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N.V. Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General” outlined a panorama of the life and customs of provincial Russia in the 30s. 19th century. The district town of N is presented as a kingdom of hypocrisy, deception, pettiness of interests, pride, humiliated human dignity, prejudice and gossip. This is most clearly visible in the appearance of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the mayor’s family, merchants and philistines. The laws of town life are most clearly represented in the images of officials.
During the reign of Nicholas, the bureaucracy was distinguished by its lust for power, theft of state property, bribes, and arrogance towards “little people.” This is exactly how we see officials in the comedy “The Inspector General”.
Mayor
The main official in the comedy is the mayor - the smartest and most reasonable of all. He logically thinks about the reasons for the inspector’s arrival. We see that with him life experience he is able to put any fraudster in his place. He does not shun bribes and often borrows money from the state treasury. With his subordinates he is rude and arrogant, while with his superiors he is respectful and flattering. The main goal his life becomes a general's rank.
Lyapkin-tyapkin
The speaking surname Lyapkin-Tyapkin immediately declares his efforts in the service and achievements in life. This is a judge who feels the right to argue with the decisions of the mayor. Those around him consider him a highly educated person only because in his life he has mastered 5 books. Such remarks emphasize the ignorance of employees and the insignificant level of their education. He neglects his official duties, so there is never order in court.
Strawberries
The head of the Zemlyanika hospital is absolutely indifferent to his state affairs. The patients die one after another because the doctor hired by Strawberry does not understand a word of Russian. His thoughts about the meaning of a hospital for ordinary people are frightening: if a person is destined to die, he will die with medications, and if fate has prepared life for him, then he will live without pills. Reasoning this way, he doesn’t buy any medicine at all. Complaining about one of his comrades does not cause him any difficulty. And this is the first thing he does when he considers Khlestakov an auditor.
Khlopov
Responsible for education is Luka Lukich Khlopov, an official who fears everything in the world, even louder than the usual sounding voice. Shpekin, who was responsible for postal delivery, became adept at opening letters from citizens and thus tracking all the secret movements of the city.
Khlestakov, who does not actually belong to the circle of officials, finds himself involved in the life of provincial bureaucracy by accident. He, a city employee, is so empty, frivolous, and superficial that due to this he very easily joins their society. Gogol shows by this that officials are the same throughout Russia.
It becomes scary that these are the people who rule Russia and set the laws. According to V.G. Belinsky, officials are “a corporation of official thieves and robbers.”
In a satirical form, depicting the abuses of the authorities in a small county town, the author of the narrative exposes and ridicules at once the entire bureaucratic Russia, drowning in the swamp of bribery and embezzlement.
The image of the mayor Anton Antonovich
At the very top of the bureaucratic pyramid is the mayor Anton Antonovich. Having risen from the very bottom, he rules the city and does not consider bribery a great sin. After all, the government salary, the mayor is sure, is not enough even for bread and salt. Thus justifying his actions, he robs the treasury without remorse, extracts huge bribes and expensive gifts from merchants. With his superiors, Anton Antonovich is respectful and obsequious, with those lower in rank he is unceremonious and demanding. His dream is to rise to the rank of general and move to the capital.
"...I have been living in the service for thirty years; not a single merchant or contractor could deceive; I deceived swindlers upon swindlers, swindlers and swindlers such that they are ready to rob the whole world, I cheated at the bait. I deceived three governors!.. What governors! ( waved his hand) there is nothing to say about the governors..."
Image of Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin
The city judge with the eloquent surname Lyapkin-Tyapkin does not lag behind the mayor. Having read a total of six books in his entire life, he is confident in his own education. There is a connivance towards serving the law - in the court office, servants dry clothes and raise poultry. Lyapkin-Tyapkin prefers hunting to service and accepts offerings of purebred greyhound puppies.
“...I’ve been sitting on the judge’s chair for fifteen years now, and when I look at the memorandum, ah! I’ll just wave my hand. Solomon himself won’t decide what’s true and what’s not true in it...”
The image of the official Strawberry
Another city official, ridiculed by Gogol, with the “sweet” surname Zemlyanika, is charged with overseeing charitable institutions, where true chaos reigns everywhere. No one cares about the patients - no regime or medical discipline. The appointed doctor, a German by nationality, does not even understand Russian speech. And Strawberry himself fawns over his superiors and is dismissive of the common people. During the treatment process, the official is of the opinion that whoever of his charges does not die will certainly recover even without the medicines he stole.
"... There are ten people left, no more; and the rest have all recovered. This is how it is arranged, this is the order. Since I took over the leadership - perhaps it will even seem incredible to you - everyone is recovering like flies. The patient is not will have time to enter the infirmary, already healthy, and not so much with medicine, but with honesty and order..."
Luka Lukic
Khlopov Luka Lukich is in charge educational institutions The city and its departments are no different from the previous ones in terms of collapse. Teachers instill disgusting manners in their students, promising to raise a “worthy” replacement for the current generation of thieves. Khlopov, on the other hand, tries to please his superiors, but what and how happens in the affairs entrusted to him does not bother him.
“...I can’t, I can’t, gentlemen. I admit, I was brought up in such a way that if someone of a higher rank spoke to me, I simply don’t have a soul and my tongue is stuck in the mud...”
Postmaster Shpekin
Communication and messaging services are also in complete chaos. Postmaster Shpekin shamelessly opens other people's correspondence in order to keep abreast of any news; he leaves the letters he likes as souvenirs.
“...I know, I know... Don’t teach me this, I do this not so much out of precaution, but more out of curiosity: I love to know what’s new in the world. I’ll tell you that this is very interesting reading. You’ll read another letter with pleasure - this is how various passages are described... and what edification... better than in the Moskovskie Vedomosti!
Khlestakov
But the main charlatan among all this disgrace is a small clerical worker from St. Petersburg, Khlestakov, who was mistakenly mistaken by the plundered officials for a visiting auditor. On the way, Ivan Aleksandrovich lost a lot and the “title” assigned to him in the city of N was very opportune. Khlestakov took full advantage of the existing misunderstanding. And after all the actions of local officials came to light, a message was received about the arrival of a real auditor, which, apparently, should be understood as an inevitably impending punishment.
“...I love cordiality, and I confess, I like it more if people please me from the bottom of their hearts, and not just out of interest...”
Gogol’s characterization of officials in “The Inspector General” is given at the very beginning with the help of a folk proverb, which served as an epigraph to the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” This capacious image allows us to penetrate into the essence of the multiple “faces” of bureaucracy, as the force that filled the Russian space of the first half of the 19th century and enslaved it. The comedy was supposed to become a kind of “mirror” in which all the nuances of social ugliness could be seen. As a true artist, Gogol understood that it was best to indicate the scale of this disaster not by directly condemning it, but by placing it in a context where it would always be accompanied by laughter.
All officials in the auditor are united by an immoderate passion for acquisition, and it does not matter what: money, power, undeserved respect. These are insignificant parts of “little thanks”, so small that they are not worth talking about. The craving of Russian society for traditional values gave rise to a situation where tradition was used to buy off conscience. Bribery, as ancient as the world, itself became a world whose laws should be inviolable. In such a world it is easy to deceive and be deceived, which makes honesty seem offensive. The bureaucracy in The Inspector General looks grotesque also because the absurdity of their life is filled with “pretension” and righteous anger: it does not forgive anything or anyone for the disrespectful attitude towards themselves, which should be almost internal to every Russian citizen.
The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are as funny as they are monstrous, because they are true and widespread in all spheres of public life of that time. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky, of course, is not stupid, like a gray gelding; he is well aware of the unsightly situation of the inhabitants of his city, the deplorable state of medicine and education. But deriving one’s own benefit prevails over everything for the mayor, and the arrival of the auditor was supposed to block the process of absorbing resources and patching up holes after that. Fear blinds the mayor so much that he mistakes Khlestakov’s cowardice and emptiness for the subtle deceit with which a passing person passes himself off as an inspector. Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky never experiences a feeling of not only guilt, but even awkwardness at the moments when he is “thanked,” because the ghost of supposedly God’s providence has long justified everything. No one dares to go against the divine will, except perhaps some Voltaireans. Among the venerable officials of the district city there should under no circumstances be such a shame. He's not there! The absence of Voltairian shame also frees one from intelligence and education. Ignorance is so invincible that no amount of enlightenment can budge it, like that of a city judge who takes bribes with greyhound puppies for a future hunt. Several books that he read throughout his life “and-send-here-Lyapkin-Tyapkin”, of course, gained him the reputation of a freethinker, but added absolutely nothing to his meager consciousness. He is not only unable to do the job, but also bear responsibility for his judgments, which have long been, and perhaps from the very beginning of his career, abolished by his superiors with something like: “a lot of intelligence is worse than not having one at all.”
Among the officials of the city of N in The Inspector General, Strawberry is clearly visible, who with all zeal takes care of charitable institutions. He is a terrible weasel and knows how to speak to the hearts of those in power, which always ensures him brilliant success. The trustee considers flattery the most indispensable and unmistakable means of penetrating someone else's soul and uses it on the widest scale. He curries favor with both the mayor and Khlestakov, subtly capturing the nature of their pride and fear. The caretaker of the schools, Khlopov, is inferior in flattery to Strawberry; he does it not so skillfully, but with great success he submits complaints to the mayor about teachers who allegedly spread a free spirit among the growing youth, they are too offensively hot and educated. That’s why all the officials from “The Inspector General” are so representative, so brilliant in their stubbornness, because each of them is part of a bribery system that kills everything human, original and reasonable.
The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are complemented by such characters as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, roguish gossips who are in an endless search for amazing news. They scurry through the whole comedy as pampers and buffoons, whom no one cares about, but they endure everything - for the opportunity to be the first to find out an interesting incident, no matter what it concerns. One of them always accompanies the mayor to Khlestakov, then showers himself with pleasantries in front of Anna Andreevna, or obsequiously stutters in front of the auditor. Ultimately, in all guises they do not change, demonstrating the lowest level of mental poverty and insignificance - a petty official who, due to his position, is affectionate, but if you put power in his hands, he will tear anyone to pieces. Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky themselves experience almost pleasure from the awe of power, for “fear still pervades you when you speak with a nobleman,” and this fear does not seem humiliating at all. It is perceived as a source of low pleasure.
And, finally, Khlestakov himself is an embodied clerical emptiness, who lost at cards and, due to circumstances, took on the role of an auditor. Khlestakov is subject to filling by his very nature, so it doesn’t matter to him who he will be in the next moment, because the mayor’s intentions do not immediately reach his consciousness. He accepts admiration and generously gives everyone his attention as a person who does not need to be told about his irresistibility. His threats are funny and boyish, but this is precisely what arouses Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky’s suspicion, and then confidence - this newcomer is simply skillfully cunning, he is the auditor!
In these relations we see the end point of the absurdity of the bureaucratic world: fear of the powerful force paralyzes a person, makes substitution possible and gives prosperity to ignorance. Only cleansing laughter - the only positive character in Gogol's comedy - can help you escape from this circle.
Work test
