Plyushkin dead souls characterization according to plan. Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls”: analysis of the hero, image and characteristics

Plyushkin: character story

Going for the souls of dead peasants, main character poem “Dead Souls”, I couldn’t even imagine with what bright personalities get acquainted In all the variety of characters in the work, the miser and miser Stepan Plyushkin stands out. The rest of the rich people in the literary work are shown statically, but this landowner has his own life story.

History of creation

The idea that formed the basis of the work belongs to. One day, the great Russian writer told Nikolai Gogol the story of fraud, which he heard during his exile in Chisinau. In the Moldovan city of Bendery last years Only people of military ranks died; ordinary mortals were in no hurry to go to the next world. The strange phenomenon was explained simply - hundreds of fugitive peasants from the center of Russia flocked to Bessarabia at the beginning of the 19th century, and during the investigation it turned out that the “passport data” of the dead was appropriated by the fugitives.

Gogol considered the idea brilliant and, after thinking about it, came up with a plot in which the main actor became an enterprising man who enriched himself by selling " dead souls"to the board of trustees. The idea seemed interesting to him because it opened up the opportunity to create an epic work, to show the whole of Mother Russia through a scattering of characters, which the writer had long dreamed of.

Work on the poem began in 1835. At that time, Nikolai Vasilyevich spent most of the year abroad, trying to forget the scandal that erupted after the production of the play “The Inspector General”. According to the plan, the plot was supposed to take three volumes, and in general the work was defined as comic and humorous.


However, neither one nor the other was destined to come true. The poem turned out to be gloomy, exposing all the vices of the country. The author burned the manuscript of the second book, but never started the third. Of course, in Moscow they flatly refused to print literary work, but the critic Vissarion Belinsky volunteered to help the writer, having bothered the St. Petersburg censors.

A miracle happened - the poem was allowed to be published, only on the condition that the title would have a small addition to divert eyes from the raised serious problems: “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” In this form, in 1842, the poem went to the reader. Gogol’s new work again found itself at the epicenter of a scandal, because landowners and officials clearly saw their images in it.


Gogol had a brilliant idea - first he showed the shortcomings of Russian life, then he planned to describe ways to resurrect “dead souls.” Some researchers associate the idea of ​​the poem with “ Divine Comedy": the first volume is “hell”, the second is “purgatory”, and the third is “heaven”.

It is assumed that Plyushkin was supposed to transform from a greedy old man into a wanderer-benefactor who tries in every possible way to help the poor. But Nikolai Gogol was never able to convincingly describe the ways of people’s rebirth, which he himself admitted after burning the manuscript.

Image and character

The image of a half-crazy landowner in the work is the most striking of all who meet on the path of the main character Chichikov. It is Plyushkin who the writer gives the most full description, even looking into the character's past. This is a lonely widower who cursed his daughter who left with her lover and his son who lost at cards.


Periodically, the daughter and grandchildren visit the old man, but receive no help from him - only indifference. An educated and intelligent man in his youth eventually turned into a “worn-out wreck”, a grouch and a money-grubber. bad character, becoming a laughing stock even for the servants.

The work contains detailed description Plyushkin's appearance. He walked around the house in a decrepit robe (“...which was not only embarrassing to look at, but even embarrassing”), and came to the table in a worn, but quite neat frock coat without a single patch. At the first meeting, Chichikov could not understand who was in front of him, a woman or a man: a creature of indeterminate gender was moving around the house, and the buyer of dead souls mistook him for the housekeeper.


The character's stinginess is on the verge of insanity. There are 800 serf souls in his possessions, the barns are full of rotting food. But Plyushkin does not allow his hungry peasants to touch the products, and with resellers he is unyielding “like a devil,” so the traders stopped coming for goods. In his own bedroom, a man carefully folds the feathers and pieces of paper he found, and in the corner of one of the rooms there is a pile of “goods” picked up on the street.

Life goals come down to accumulating wealth - this problem often acts as an argument for writing essays on the Unified State Exam. The meaning of the image lies in the fact that Nikolai Vasilyevich tried to show how painful stinginess kills a bright and strong personality.


Increasing goodness is Plyushkin’s favorite pastime, as evidenced even by the change in his speech. At first, the old curmudgeon greets Chichikov warily, clarifying that “there is no use in visiting.” But, having learned the purpose of the visit, the dissatisfied grumbling gives way to undisguised joy, and the protagonist of the poem turns into a “father”, a “benefactor”.

The miser's vocabulary includes a whole dictionary of swear words and expressions, from “fool” and “robber” to “the devil will get you” and “scum.” The landowner, who has lived all his life among peasants, has a speech full of common folk words.


Plyushkin's house resembles a medieval castle, but battered by time: there are cracks in the walls, some of the windows are boarded up so that no one sees the wealth hidden in the home. Gogol managed to combine the character traits and image of the hero with his house with the phrase:

“All this was dumped into storerooms, and everything became rotten and a hole, and he himself finally turned into some kind of hole in humanity.”

Film adaptations

Gogol's work was staged in Russian cinema Five times. Based on the story, two cartoons were also created: “The Adventures of Chichikov. Manilov" and "The Adventures of Chichikov. Nozdrev."

"Dead Souls" (1909)

In the era of the formation of cinema, Pyotr Chardynin undertook to capture on film Chichikov’s adventures. A silent short film with a stripped-down Gogolian plot was filmed at a railway club. And since the experiments in cinema were just beginning, the film turned out to be unsuccessful due to incorrect lighting. The role of the stingy Plyushkin was played by theater actor Adolf Georgievsky.

"Dead Souls" (1960)

The film-play staged by the Moscow Art Theater was directed by Leonid Trauberg. A year after the premiere, the film received the Critics' Prize at the Monte Carlo Festival.


The film starred Vladimir Belokurov (Chichikov), (Nozdryov), (Korobochka) and even (a modest role of a waiter, the actor was not even included in the credits). And Plyushkin was brilliantly played by Boris Petker.

"Dead Souls" (1969)

Another television performance conceived by director Alexander Belinsky. According to film fans, this film adaptation is the best film production of the imperishable work.


The film also features prominent actors of Soviet cinema: Pavel Luspekayev (Nozdrev), (Manilov), Igor Gorbachev (Chichikov). The role of Plyushkin went to Alexander Sokolov.

"Dead Souls" (1984)

The five-episode series, directed by Mikhail Shveitser, was shown on central television.


He reincarnated as a greedy landowner.

“The Case of Dead Souls” (2005)

The latest film work for today, which represents fantasy on famous works Gogol - “The Inspector General”, “Notes of a Madman”, “Dead Souls”. I decided to please the viewer with such an unusual mix, collecting on film set the color of modern cinema.

They appear on the screen in the role of Nozdryov, in the image of Chichikov, who made an excellent wife of the governor. The audience also admires the acting - the actor is called Plyushkin in the film.

  • The meaning of the character's name contains a motive of self-denial. Gogol created a paradoxical metaphor: a ruddy bun - a symbol of wealth, satiety, joyful contentment - is contrasted with a “moldy cracker”, for which the colors of life have long faded.
  • The surname Plyushkin has become a household name. This is what they call overly thrifty, manically greedy people. In addition, the passion for storing old, useless things is a typical behavior of people with mental disorder, which received the medical name “Plyushkin syndrome”.

Quotes

“After all, the devil knows, maybe he’s just a braggart, like all these little money-makers: he’ll lie, he’ll lie to talk and drink tea, and then he’ll leave!”
“I’m living in my seventies!”
“Plyushkin muttered something through his lips, because he had no teeth.”
“If Chichikov had met him, dressed up like that, somewhere at the church door, he would probably have given him a copper penny. But standing before him was not a beggar, standing before him was a landowner.”
“I don’t even advise you to know the way to this dog! - said Sobakevich. “It’s more excusable to go to some obscene place than to go to him.”
“But there was a time when he was just a thrifty owner! He was married and a family man, and a neighbor stopped by to have dinner with him, listen and learn from him about housekeeping and wise stinginess.”

The hero's surname has become a household name for centuries. Even someone who has not read the poem represents a stingy person.

The image and characterization of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” is a character deprived of human traits, who has lost the meaning of the appearance of his light.

Character appearance

The landowner is over 60 years old. He is old, but he cannot be called weak and sick. How does the author describe Plyushkina? Stingily, like himself:

  • An incomprehensible floor hidden under strange rags. Chichikov takes a long time to figure out who is in front of him: a man or a woman.
  • Hard White hair, sticking out like a brush.
  • An insensitive and vulgar face.
  • The hero’s clothing evokes disgust, one is ashamed to look at it, ashamed of a person dressed in something like a robe.

Relationships with people

Stepan Plyushkin reproaches his peasants for theft. There is no reason for this. They know their owner and understand that there is nothing left to take from the estate. Everything has been tidied up at Plyushkin's, rotting and deteriorating. Reserves are accumulating, but no one is going to use them. A lot of things: wood, dishes, rags. Gradually, the reserves turn into a pile of dirt and scrap. The heap can be compared to the trash heap collected by the owner of the manor's house. There is no truth in the landowner's words. People don't have time to steal and become a swindler. Due to unbearable living conditions, stinginess and hunger, men run away or die.

In relationships with people, Plyushkin is angry and grumpy:

Likes to argue. He quarrels with men, argues, and never immediately accepts the words spoken to him. He scolds for a long time, talks about the absurd behavior of his interlocutor, although he is silent in response.

Plyushkin believes in God. He blesses those who leave him on their journey, he is afraid of God’s judgment.

Hypocritical. Plyushkin tries to pretend to care. In fact, it all ends with hypocritical actions. The gentleman enters the kitchen, he wants to check if the courtiers are eating him, but instead he eats most of what he has cooked. Whether people have enough cabbage soup and porridge is of little interest to him, the main thing is that he is full.

Plyushkin does not like communication. He avoids guests. Having calculated how much his household loses when receiving them, he begins to stay away and abandons the custom of visiting guests and hosting them. He himself explains that his acquaintances fell out of touch or died, but what is more likely is that no one simply wanted to visit such a greedy person.

Character of the hero

Plyushkin is a character who is difficult to find positive features. He is completely riddled with lies, stinginess and sloppiness.

What traits can be identified in the character’s character:

Incorrect self-esteem. Behind the external good nature lies greed and a constant desire for profit.

The desire to hide your condition from others. Plyushkin becomes poor. He says he has no food when barns full of grain rot for years. He complains to the guest that he has little land and no patch of hay for the horses, but this is all a lie.

Cruelty and indifference. Nothing changes the mood of the stingy landowner. He does not experience joy, despair. Only cruelty and an empty, callous look are all that the character is capable of.

Suspicion and anxiety. These feelings develop in him at breakneck speed. He begins to suspect everyone of stealing and loses his sense of self-control. Stinginess occupies his entire essence.

Main distinguishing feature- this is stinginess. The curmudgeon Stepan Plyushkin is such that it is difficult to imagine unless you meet him in reality. Stinginess manifests itself in everything: clothes, food, feelings, emotions. Nothing in Plyushkin is fully manifested. Everything is hidden and hidden. The landowner saves money, but for what? Just to collect them. He does not spend either for himself, or for his relatives, or on the household. The author says that the money was buried in boxes. This attitude towards a means of enrichment is amazing. Only the miser from the poem can live from hand to mouth on sacks of grain, having thousands of serf souls and vast areas of land. The scary thing is that there are many such Plyushkins in Russia.

Attitude towards relatives

The landowner does not change in relation to his relatives. He has a son and a daughter. The author says that in the future his son-in-law and daughter will happily bury him. The hero's indifference is frightening. The son asks his father to give him money to buy uniforms, but, as the author says, he gives him “shish.” Even the poorest parents do not abandon their children.

The son lost at cards and again turned to him for help. Instead, he received a curse. The father never, even mentally, remembered his son. He is not interested in his life, fate. Plyushkin does not think whether his offspring are alive.

A rich landowner lives like a beggar. The daughter, who came to her father for help, takes pity on him and gives him a new robe. The 800 souls of the estate surprise the author. Existence is comparable to the life of a poor shepherd.

Stepan lacks deep human feelings. As the author says, feelings, even if they had the beginnings, “diminished every minute.”

A landowner living among garbage and rubbish is no exception, a fictional character. It reflects the reality of Russian reality. Greedy misers starved their peasants, turned into semi-animals, lost their human features, and aroused pity and fear for the future.

In the poem “Dead Souls” N. Gogol depicted a gallery of Russian landowners. Each of them embodies negative moral qualities. Moreover new hero turns out to be more terrible than the previous one, and we become witnesses to what extremes the impoverishment of the human soul can reach. The image of Plyushkin closes the series. In the poem “Dead Souls,” according to the author’s apt definition, he appears as “a hole in humanity.”

First impression

“Patched” - this is the definition given to the master by one of the men from whom Chichikov asked the way to Plyushkin. And it is completely justified, you just have to look at this representative landed nobility. Let's get to know him better.

Having passed through a large village, which was striking in its squalor and poverty, Chichikov found himself at the manor’s house. This one didn't look much like a place where people lived. The garden was just as neglected, although the number and nature of the buildings indicated that there had once been a strong, prosperous economy here. The characterization of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” begins with such a description of the master’s estate.

Meeting the landowner

Having driven into the courtyard, Chichikov noticed how someone—either a man or a woman—was quarreling with the driver. The hero decided that it was the housekeeper and asked if the owner was at home. Surprised by the appearance of a stranger here, this “some creature” escorted the guest into the house. Finding himself in a bright room, Chichikov was amazed at the disorder that reigned in it. It seemed as if garbage from all over the area had been taken here. Plyushkin really collected on the street everything that came to hand: a bucket forgotten by a man, and fragments of a broken shard, and a feather that no one needed. Taking a closer look at the housekeeper, the hero discovered a man in her and was completely stunned to learn that this was the owner. Then the author of the work “Dead Souls” moves on to the image of the landowner.

Gogol draws Plyushkin’s portrait like this: he was dressed in a worn, torn and dirty robe, which was decorated with some rags around his neck. The eyes were constantly moving, as if they were looking for something. This indicated the hero’s suspicion and constant vigilance. In general, if Chichikov did not know that one of the richest landowners in the province was standing in front of him, he would have taken him for a beggar. In fact, the first feeling that this person evokes in the reader is pity, bordering on contempt.

Life story

The image of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” differs from others in that he is the only landowner with a biography. IN old times he had a family and often received guests. He was considered a thrifty owner who had plenty of everything. Then the wife died. Soon eldest daughter she ran away with the officer, and her son joined the regiment instead of serving. Plyushkin deprived both children of his blessing and money and became stingier every day. Ultimately, he focused on his wealth alone, and after the death of his youngest daughter, all his former feelings finally gave way to greed and suspicion. Bread was rotting in his barns, and he regretted even an ordinary gift for his own grandchildren (over time, he forgave his daughter and took her in). This is how Gogol portrays this hero in the poem “Dead Souls”. The image of Plyushkin is complemented by the bargaining scene.

Successful deal

When Chichikov began the conversation, Plyushkin was annoyed at how difficult it was to receive guests these days: he had already had dinner, but it was expensive to light the stove. However, the guest immediately got down to business and found out that the landowner had one hundred and twenty souls unaccounted for. He offered to sell them and said that he would bear all costs. Having heard that it was possible to get benefits from peasants that no longer existed, Plyushkin, who began to bargain, did not delve into the details and ask how legal it was. Having received the money, he carefully took it to the bureau and, pleased with the successful transaction, even decided to treat Chichikov to a cracker left over from the Easter cake his daughter had brought and a glass of liqueur. The image of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” is completed by the message that the owner wanted to give a gold watch to the guest who pleased him. However, he immediately changed his mind and decided to include them in the deed of gift, so that Chichikov would remember him with a kind word after his death.

conclusions

The image of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” was very significant for Gogol. His plans were to leave in the third volume of all the landowners only him, but already morally reborn. Several details indicate that this is possible. First, the hero’s living eyes: let us remember that they are often called the mirror of the soul. Secondly, Plyushkin is the only one of all the landowners who thought about gratitude. The rest also took money for dead peasants, but took it for granted. It is also important that at the mention of his old comrade, a ray of light suddenly ran across the landowner’s face. Hence the conclusion: if the hero’s life had turned out differently, he would have remained a thrifty owner, a good friend and family man. However, the death of his wife and the actions of his children gradually turned the hero into that “hole in humanity” that he appeared in the 6th chapter of the book “Dead Souls”.

Plyushkin's characterization is a reminder to readers of the consequences that life's mistakes can lead to.

One of the most bright characters Gogol, literary hero, whose name has long become a household name, a character who is remembered by everyone who read “Dead Souls” - landowner Stepan Plyushkin. His memorable figure closes the gallery of images of landowners presented by Gogol in the poem. Plyushkin, who even gave his name to the official disease (Plyushkin syndrome, or pathological hoarding), is essentially a very rich man who led a vast economy to complete decline, and a huge number of serfs to poverty and a miserable existence.

This fifth and final companion of Chichikov is a shining example how dead it can become human soul. Therefore, the title of the poem is very symbolic: it not only directly indicates that we're talking about about “dead souls” - as the dead serfs were called, but also about the pitiful, devastated souls of landowners and officials, devoid of human qualities.

Characteristics of the hero

("Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

Gogol begins the reader’s acquaintance with the landowner Plyushkin with a description of the surroundings of the estate. Everything indicates desolation, insufficient funding and the absence of a strong hand of the owner: dilapidated houses with leaky roofs and windows without glass. The sad landscape is enlivened by the owner's garden, although neglected, but described in much more positive colors: clean, tidy, filled with air, with a “regular sparkling marble column.” However, Plyushkin’s home again evokes melancholy, around there is desolation, despondency and mountains of useless, but extremely necessary for the old man, rubbish.

Being the richest landowner in the province (the number of serfs reached 1000), Plyushkin lived in extreme poverty, eating scraps and dried crackers, which did not cause him the slightest discomfort. He was extremely suspicious; everyone around him seemed treacherous and unreliable, even his own children. Only the passion for hoarding was important for Plyushkin; he collected everything he could get his hands on on the street and dragged it into the house.

("Chichikov at Plyushkin's", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

Unlike other characters, Plyushkin's life story is given in full. The author introduces the reader to a young landowner, talking about a good family, his beloved wife and three children. Neighbors even came to the zealous owner to learn from him. But the wife died, the eldest daughter ran away with the military man, the son joined the army, which the father did not approve of, and the youngest daughter also died. And gradually the respected landowner turned into a person whose entire life is subordinated to accumulation for the sake of the accumulation process itself. All other human feelings, which had not previously been bright, faded away in him completely.

It is interesting that some professors of psychiatry mentioned that Gogol very clearly and at the same time artistically described a typical case of senile dementia. Others, for example, psychiatrist Ya.F. Kaplan, deny this possibility, saying that psychopathological traits do not appear sufficiently in Plyushkin, and Gogol simply illuminated the state of old age, which he encountered everywhere.

The image of the hero in the work

Stepan Plyushkin himself is described as a creature dressed in unkempt rags, looking like a woman from afar, but the stubble on his face still made it clear that the main character was a representative of the stronger sex. Given the general amorphousness of this figure, the writer focuses attention on individual facial features: a protruding chin, a hooked nose, lack of teeth, eyes expressing suspicion.

Gogol - Great master words - with bright strokes shows us a gradual but irreversible change human personality. A person, in whose eyes intelligence shone in previous years, gradually turns into a pitiful miser who has lost all his best feelings and emotions. the main objective the writer - to show how terrible the coming old age can be, how small human weaknesses can turn into pathological traits under certain life circumstances.

If the writer simply wanted to portray a pathological miser, he would not go into details of his youth, a description of the circumstances that led to his current state. The author himself tells us that Stepan Plyushkin is the future of the fiery young man in old age, that unsightly portrait, upon seeing which the young man would recoil in horror.

("Peasants at Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

However, Gogol leaves a small chance for this hero: when the writer conceived the third volume of the work, he planned to leave Plyushkin - the only landowner Chichikov met - in an updated, morally revived form. Describing the landowner’s appearance, Nikolai Vasilyevich separately highlights the old man’s eyes: “the little eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under his high eyebrows, like mice...”. And the eyes, as we know, are the mirror of the human soul. In addition, Plyushkin, seemingly having lost all human feelings, suddenly decides to give Chichikov a gold watch. True, this impulse immediately fades away, and the old man decides to include the watch in the deed of gift, so that after death at least someone will remember him with a kind word.

Thus, if Stepan Plyushkin had not lost his wife, his life could have turned out quite well, and his old age would not have turned into such a deplorable existence. The image of Plyushkin completes the gallery of portraits of degraded landowners and very accurately describes the lowest level to which a person can slide in his lonely old age.

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In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" all the characters have collective and typical traits. Each of the landowners whom Chichikov visits with his strange request for the purchase and sale of “dead souls” personifies one of characteristic images landowners of Gogol's modernity. Gogol’s poem, in terms of describing the characters of landowners, is interesting primarily because Nikolai Vasilyevich was a foreigner in relation to Russian people, Ukrainian society was closer to him, so Gogol was able to notice the specific character traits and behavior of certain types of people.


Plyushkin's age and appearance

One of the landowners whom Chichikov visits is Plyushkin. Before the moment of personal acquaintance, Chichikov already knew something about this landowner - mainly it was information about his stinginess. Chichikov knew that thanks to this trait, Plyushkin’s serfs were “dying like flies,” and those who did not die were running away from him.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the summary of N.V. Gogol’s work “Taras Bulba,” which reveals the theme of patriotism and love for the Motherland.

In the eyes of Chichikov, Plyushkin became an important candidate - he had the opportunity to buy up many “dead souls.”

However, Chichikov was not ready to see Plyushkin’s estate and get to know him personally - the picture that opened before him plunged him into bewilderment; Plyushkin himself also did not stand out from the general background.

To his horror, Chichikov realized that the person he mistook for the housekeeper was in fact not the housekeeper, but the landowner Plyushkin himself. Plyushkin could have been mistaken for anyone, but not for the richest landowner in the district: he was extremely skinny, his face was slightly elongated and just as terribly skinny as his body. His eyes were small size and unusually lively for an old man. The chin was very long. His appearance was complemented by a toothless mouth.

In the work of N.V. Gogol “The Overcoat” the theme is revealed little man. We invite you to familiarize yourself with it summary.

Plyushkin's clothes were absolutely not like clothes; they could hardly even be called that. Plyushkin paid absolutely no attention to his suit - he was worn out to such an extent that his clothes began to look like rags. It was quite possible for Plyushkin to be mistaken for a tramp.

Natural aging processes were also added to this appearance - at the time of the story, Plyushkin was about 60 years old.

The problem of the name and the meaning of the surname

Plyushkin's name never appears in the text; it is likely that this was done deliberately. In this way, Gogol emphasizes Plyushkin’s detachment, the callousness of his character and the lack of a humanistic principle in the landowner.

There is, however, a point in the text that can help reveal the name Plyushkin. The landowner from time to time calls his daughter by her patronymic - Stepanovna, this fact gives the right to say that Plyushkin was called Stepan.

It is unlikely that this character's name was chosen as a specific symbol. Translated from Greek, Stepan means “crown, diadem” and indicates a permanent attribute of the goddess Hera. It is unlikely that this information was decisive when choosing a name, which cannot be said about the hero’s surname.

In Russian, the word “plyushkin” is used to nominate a person distinguished by stinginess and a mania for accumulating raw materials and material resources without any purpose.

Marital status of Plyushkin

At the time of the story, Plyushkin is a lonely person leading an ascetic lifestyle. Already for a long time he is widowed. Once upon a time, Plyushkin’s life was different - his wife brought the meaning of life into Plyushkin’s being, she stimulated the emergence of positive qualities in him, contributed to the emergence of humanistic qualities. They had three children in their marriage - two girls and a boy.

At that time, Plyushkin was not at all like a petty miser. He happily received guests and was a sociable and open person.

Plyushkin was never a spender, but his stinginess had its reasonable limits. His clothes were not new - he usually wore a frock coat, it was noticeably worn, but looked very decent, there wasn’t even a single patch on it.

Reasons for character change

After the death of his wife, Plyushkin completely succumbed to his grief and apathy. Most likely, he did not have a predisposition to communicate with children, he was of little interest and fascination with the process of education, so the motivation to live and be reborn for the sake of children did not work for him.


Later, he begins to develop a conflict with his older children - as a result, they, tired of constant grumbling and deprivation, leave their father’s house without his permission. The daughter gets married without Plyushkin’s blessing, and the son starts marriage military service. Such freedom became the reason for Plyushkin’s anger - he curses his children. The son was categorical towards his father - he completely broke off contact with him. The daughter still did not abandon her father, despite this attitude towards her family, she visits the old man from time to time and brings her children to him. Plyushkin does not like to bother with his grandchildren and perceives their meetings extremely coolly.

Plyushkin's youngest daughter died as a child.

Thus, Plyushkin remained alone in his large estate.

Plyushkin's estate

Plyushkin was considered the richest landowner in the district, but Chichikov, who came to his estate, thought it was a joke - Plyushkin’s estate was in a dilapidated state - repairs had not been made to the house for many years. On wooden elements You could see moss in the house, the windows in the house were boarded up - it seemed like no one really lived here.

Plyushkin's house was huge, now it was empty - Plyushkin lived alone in the whole house. Because of its desolation, the house resembled an ancient castle.

The inside of the house was not much different from appearance. Since most of the windows in the house were boarded up, the house was incredibly dark and it was difficult to see anything. The only place where he penetrated sunlight- These are Plyushkin’s personal rooms.

An incredible mess reigned in Plyushkin's room. It seems that the place has never been cleaned - everything was covered in cobwebs and dust. Broken things were lying everywhere, which Plyushkin did not dare to throw away, because he thought that he might still need them.

The garbage was also not thrown away anywhere, but was piled right there in the room. Plyushkin's desk was no exception - important papers and documents lay mixed in with trash.

Behind Plyushkin's house there is a huge garden. Like everything else in the estate, it is in disrepair. No one has looked after the trees for a long time, the garden is overgrown with weeds and small bushes that are entwined with hops, but even in this form the garden is beautiful, it stands out sharply against the background of deserted houses and dilapidated buildings.

Features of Plyushkin’s relationship with serfs

Plyushkin is far from the ideal of a landowner; he behaves rudely and cruelly with his serfs. Sobakevich, talking about his attitude towards serfs, claims that Plyushkin starves his subjects, which significantly increases the mortality rate among serfs. The appearance of Plyushkin’s serfs becomes confirmation of these words - they are excessively thin, immeasurably skinny.

It is not surprising that many serfs run away from Plyushkin - life on the run is more attractive.

Sometimes Plyushkin pretends to take care of his serfs - he goes into the kitchen and checks whether they are eating well. However, he does this for a reason - while undergoing food quality control, Plyushkin manages to eat to his heart’s content. Of course, this trick was not hidden from the peasants and became a reason for discussion.


Plyushkin always accuses his serfs of theft and fraud - he believes that the peasants are always trying to rob him. But the situation looks completely different - Plyushkin has intimidated his peasants so much that they are afraid to take at least something for themselves without the knowledge of the landowner.

The tragedy of the situation is also created by the fact that Plyushkin’s warehouses are overflowing with food, almost all of it becomes unusable and then thrown away. Of course, Plyushkin could give the surplus to his serfs, thereby improving their living conditions and raising his authority in their eyes, but greed takes over - it’s easier for him to throw away unsuitable things than to do a good deed.

Characteristics of personal qualities

In his old age, Plyushkin became an unpleasant type due to his quarrelsome character. People began to avoid him, neighbors and friends began to visit less and less, and then they stopped communicating with him altogether.

After the death of his wife, Plyushkin preferred a solitary way of life. He believed that guests always cause harm - instead of doing something truly useful, you have to spend time in empty conversations.

By the way, this position of Plyushkin did not bring the desired results - his estate steadily fell into disrepair until it finally took on the appearance of an abandoned village.

There are only two joys in the life of the old man Plyushkin - scandals and the accumulation of finances and raw materials. Sincerely speaking, he gives himself wholeheartedly to both one and the other.

Plyushkin surprisingly has the talent to notice any little things and even the most insignificant flaws. In other words, he is overly picky about people. He is unable to express his comments calmly - he mainly shouts and scolds his servants.

Plyushkin is not capable of doing anything good. He is a callous and cruel person. He is indifferent to the fate of his children - he has lost contact with his son, and his daughter periodically tries to reconcile, but the old man stops these attempts. He believes that they have a selfish goal - his daughter and son-in-law want to enrich themselves at his expense.

Thus, Plyushkin is a terrible landowner who lives for a specific purpose. In general, he is endowed with negative character traits. The landowner himself does not realize the true results of his actions - he seriously thinks that he is a caring landowner. In fact, he is a tyrant, ruining and destroying the destinies of people.

Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls”: analysis of the hero, image and characteristics

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