Publications in the Literature section

Estates and dachas in the works of Russian classics

A country house or estate located near the city is a real Russian phenomenon. We often find descriptions of such estates in Russian literature. classical literature: many important events occur precisely in country settings, in shady alleys and gardens.

Lev Tolstoy

One of the famous summer residents was Leo Tolstoy. His life revolved around the family estate Yasnaya Polyana, where he raised his children, taught peasant children and worked on manuscripts. The Russian estate became for Tolstoy not just a home where happy childhood years were spent, but also a place where character was strengthened. His views on the structure of manor life and the way of life in general formed the basis for the worldview of the young landowner Konstantin Levin, one of the heroes of the novel Anna Karenina.

“The house was large, old, and although Levin lived alone, he stoked and occupied the whole house. He knew that it was stupid, he knew that it was even bad and contrary to his current new plans, but this house was the whole world for Levin. This was the world in which his father and mother lived and died. They lived the life that for Levin seemed to be the ideal of all perfection and which he dreamed of resuming with his wife, with his family.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

For Levin, the estate is not only fertile ground for nostalgia, but also a means of earning money, an opportunity to provide a decent existence for himself and his family. Only a well-groomed and strong farm could survive in new Russia. In Tolstoy's estate there was no place for the pampered Onegins - they fled to the cities. There remains a real owner in the village, to whom laziness is alien: “Levin also ate oysters, although White bread it was more pleasant for him with cheese".

Ivan Turgenev

The inhabitants of Ivan Turgenev's provincial noble nests are enlightened and educated people who are aware of cultural and social events. Although the widowed landowner Nikolai Kirsanov lived constantly on the estate, he adhered to progressive ideas: he subscribed to magazines and books, and was interested in poetry and music. And he gave his son an excellent education. The Kirsanov brothers turned their old parents' house into a fashionable mansion: they brought furniture and sculptures there, laid out gardens and parks around it, dug ponds and canals, erected garden pavilions and gazebos.

“And Pavel Petrovich returned to his elegant office, the walls covered with beautiful wallpaper wild color, with weapons hanging on a colorful Persian carpet, with walnut furniture upholstered in dark green tripe, with a renaissance library (from French “in the style of the Renaissance.” [I] - Ed. [I]) made of old black oak, with bronze figurines on a magnificent desk, with a fireplace ... "
Ivan Turgenev, “Fathers and Sons”

During Turgenev’s youth, the estate was considered a place where a nobleman could hide from high society and rest his soul and body. However, the writer felt anxiety - as if the estate, as a stronghold of reliability and peace, would soon disappear. Even then, descriptions of decaying estates appeared in his works - this is how he imagined the future of the landowner culture of Russia.

“Lavretsky went out into the garden, and the first thing that caught his eye was the very bench on which he had once spent several happy, never-to-be-repeated moments with Liza; it turned black and became distorted; but he recognized her, and his soul was overcome by that feeling that has no equal in both sweetness and sorrow - a feeling of living sadness about the vanished youth, about the happiness that he once possessed.”
Ivan Turgenev, “The Noble Nest”

Anton Chekhov

The dilapidated dachas from Turgenev’s works, overgrown with weeds, burdocks, gooseberries and raspberries, in which traces of human presence will finally fall silent very soon, are reflected in the works of Anton Chekhov. An empty or ruined estate as a place of events appears in almost every one of his stories.

Chekhov himself was not a “chick of the noble nest”; in 1892, he and his family moved to a neglected and uncomfortable estate in Melikhovo. For example, in the story “House with a Mezzanine,” all that remains of the former landowner’s wealth is a house with a mezzanine and dark park alleys, but the life of the owners adapts to new era: one of the daughters left her parents forever, and the second now “lives on her own money,” which she is very proud of.

“He said little about the Volchaninovs. Lida, according to him, still lived in Shelkovka and taught children at school; Little by little, she managed to gather around her a circle of people she liked, who formed a strong party and at the last zemstvo elections “rolled” Balagin, who until that time had held the entire district in his hands. About Zhenya, Belokurov only said that she did not live at home and was unknown where.”
Anton Chekhov, "House with a Mezzanine"

In the play The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov portrayed the Russian aristocracy as doomed and degenerating. The nobles who are bogged down in debt and unable to think pragmatically are replaced by new person- merchant, enterprising and modern. In the play, he became Ermolai Lopakhin, who proposed to the owner of the estate, Lyubov Ranevskaya, “ The Cherry Orchard and divide the land along the river into dacha plots and then rent them out for dachas.” Ranevskaya resolutely rejected Lopakhin’s proposal, although it would have brought huge profits and would have helped pay off debts. Chekhov shows readers: a new time has come, in which economics and pure calculation reign. But aristocrats with a fine mental organization are living out their days and will soon disappear.

“The scenery of the first act. There are no curtains on the windows, no paintings, there is only a little furniture left, which is folded in one corner, as if for sale. It feels empty. Suitcases, travel items, etc. are stacked near the exit door and at the back of the stage.”
Anton Chekhov, "The Cherry Orchard"

Ivan Bunin

Ivan Bunin, a representative of an impoverished noble family, the “last classic” of Russian literature, more than once turned to the theme of a noble estate in his work. The events unfolded at the dacha in the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”, and in the collection of short stories “Dark Alleys”, and in the story “Mitya’s Love”, and, of course, in the story “At the Dacha”.

Bunin's estate is not just a place of action, but a full-fledged hero of the work with his own character and constantly changing mood. In Bunin's first works country houses inextricably linked with cultural traditions nobility, an established way of life and its own customs. The dachas are always quiet, green, well-fed and crowded. This is the estate in the stories “Tanka”, “On the Farm”, “ Antonov apples", "Village", "Sukhodol".

“The clucking of chickens was heard loudly and cheerfully from the yard. There was still the silence of a bright summer morning in the house. The living room was connected to the dining room by an arch, and adjoining the dining room was another small room, all filled with palm trees and oleanders in tubs and brightly illuminated with amber sunlight. The canary was fussing there in a swaying cage, and you could hear how sometimes grains of seed were falling, clearly falling to the floor.”
Ivan Bunin, “At the Dacha”

In 1917, the writer witnessed the mass destruction of the world of noble nests that was dear and close to him. In 1920, Ivan Bunin left Russia forever - he emigrated to France. In Paris, Bunin wrote a cycle of stories “Dark Alleys”, the story “Mitya’s Love” and the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”.

“The estate was small, the house was old and simple, the farming was simple and did not require a lot of housekeeping - life began quietly for Mitya.”
Ivan Bunin, "Mitya's Love"

In all works one can feel the bitterness of loss - of one’s home, homeland and life’s harmony. His emigrants noble nests Although they are doomed to death, they keep memories of the world of childhood and youth, the world of ancient noble life.

Gogol gives a description of Manilov’s estate at the beginning of the second chapter, having previously talked about how Chichikov wanders in search of Manilovka. The very name of the estate - Manilovka, which the author alternates with Zamanilovka, hints that if he visits the landowner, he will be disappointed and deceived.

The estate through the eyes of a guest

As it turned out, the owner slightly embellished the story about the location of his estate; it was much further away than was said. At the entrance to the village, Chichikov notices a large stone house, which is located on a hill, flower beds with lilacs in the English style. The picture is “decorated” by two women who wander through the water and catch fish and crayfish from the master’s pond with a net, while swearing and using foul language. The guest is surprised that there is practically no vegetation in the village (neither a tree nor a bush), but only wooden huts. The incredibly hospitable owner greets the guest right at the porch with a sweet smile and the same speeches.

Home and furnishings

Even before Chichikov got into Manilov’s house, he noticed an object that clearly characterizes the owner’s nature - this is a green gazebo with the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection.” The “temple” is overgrown and a little dilapidated, but it is the pride of the owner, emphasizing, as he thinks, his delicate mental makeup. The pond is also a detail that characterizes the owner - he started it according to fashion, it has no practical use. Such ponds, as the author notes, were not uncommon on estates of that time. Everything, like everyone else, is Manilov’s hidden motto.

The only difference from the generally accepted order of the Manilov family was that, drowning in dreams and fun, they did not know how to arrange their life properly. The necessary furniture was not purchased; discussions about the time to order it continued for years. The furniture in the living room was beautiful, but several armchairs covered in matting had been waiting for years to be remembered and the work begun to be completed. The unfinished state was noticeable throughout the interior. The situation indicated that the owners had a very good income, but were completely unsuited to life, not practical, and, most likely, lazy. Beautiful, expensive objects in the house coexisted with cheap, unsightly ones (the author gives the example of a delightful “antique candlestick” and a “copper greasy invalid” - they both decorated the table at meals, and this did not bother the owners). This approach does not speak of high taste, but of the fact that the Manilovs are too subtle and sublime to pay attention to everyday trifles.

Study

The author describes Manilov’s office quite ironically. It is worth mentioning the fact that the landowner was not involved in managing the estate (everything went somehow by itself), did not write, and did not have papers and documents. In fact, the presence of an office is a tribute to the same motto “everything is like everyone else.”

Like everything in the house, the interior of the office was “not without pleasantness.” The walls were painted some kind of blue color, reminiscent of grey, there were four chairs and an armchair. It was in it that the owner forced the guest to sit down. Perhaps this is the only case when a landowner needed an office for working moments. The rest of the time he sat there in thought, smoking his pipe almost continuously. This was evidenced by the fact that tobacco was laid out in different places in the room, and piles of ash from a smoking pipe were laid out in a bizarre pattern on the windows. This emphasized that the owner spends a lot of time here in pleasant thoughts.

Course work

“Description of the estate as a means of characterizing the landowner in “ Dead souls ah" N.V. Gogol"

Kyiv – 2010

Introduction

Poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is a work of genius that was the crown of the writer’s entire work. It has been studied in detail in literary criticism. Researchers are finding more and more artistic techniques, which Gogol used to create images of landowners.

So, M.S. Gus in the book “Living Russia and “Dead Souls”” talks about the use of popular proverbial motifs. For example, the sixth chapter contains a number of proverbs from Dahl’s collection that characterize Plyushkin: “Stinginess did not come from poverty, but from wealth,” “He looks at his grave, but trembles over a penny,” “The stingy rich man is poorer than the beggar,” etc. . (3, p. 39). Gogol widely uses proverbs and thematically close works of other folklore genres, thus surrounding his heroes with images that have become symbols of certain human shortcomings: the “bearish” imprint on Sobakevich, numerous birds, against which Korobochka appears, the figure of Nozdryov, illuminated by him a damaged barrel organ. “The images of “Dead Souls” are in a sense like the tip of an iceberg, for they grow from a gigantic layer of historical and artistic history hidden from view. national traditions"(3, p. 40).

Yu.V. Mann in the book “Gogol’s Poetics” talks about the structure of the poem: about the rationalism of the completed first part, in which each chapter is thematically completed and has its own “subject”, for example, the first reflects Chichikov’s arrival and acquaintance with the city, chapters from the second to the sixth - visits to to landowners, chapter seven – registration of deeds of sale, etc., about in the most important way road, which symbolizes Chichikov’s life path, about the contrast of the living and the dead and the death of the living as a form of grotesque, which is embodied with the help of certain motifs. These motives must reach a certain degree of intensification: “It is necessary for a doll or an automaton to, as it were, replace a person... so that the human body or its parts seem to become objectified, become an inanimate thing” (4, p. 298). In Gogol, the contrast between the living and the dead is often indicated by a description of the eyes - and it is their description that is missing in the portraits of the characters in the poem, or their lack of spirituality is emphasized: “Manilov “had eyes as sweet as sugar,” and Sobakevich’s eyes were like those of a wooden doll” (4, p. 305). Extended comparisons play the same grotesque role. A peculiarity of the composition of the poem is that each subsequent landowner that Chichikov encounters is even “more dead than the previous one.” Gogol gives each hero detailed description, introducing it into action, but the characters are revealed until the last appearances of the characters in the poem, surprising us with unexpected discoveries.

Also Yu.V. Mann talks about two types of characters in Dead Souls. The first type are those characters about whose past almost nothing is said (Manilov, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdrev), and the second are those whose biography is known to us. These are Plyushkin and Chichikov. They also have “some kind of pale reflection of feeling, that is, spirituality” (4, p. 319), which the characters of the first type do not have. It is worth noting the use of introspection - objective evidence about the character’s internal experiences, his mood, thoughts. Each landowner is associated with several cases of using this technique, which indicates the heterogeneity of the characters in the poem. Turning to the question of genre, we can draw a parallel with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: Manilov opens a gallery of landowners - in Dante’s first circle there are those who have done neither good nor evil, which means impersonality and deadness. The following characters develop at least some kind of enthusiasm and their own “passion”, which determines their further description.

S.I. Mashinsky in the book “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol" compares landowners with ancient heroes: Sobakevich with Ajax, Manilov with Paris, and Plyushkin with Nestor. The first person Chichikov goes to is Manilov. He considers himself a bearer of spiritual culture. But, watching his reaction to Chichikov’s offer to buy dead Souls, we are convinced of the opposite: with empty profundity, his face becomes like that of a “too smart minister.” Gogol's satirical irony helps to expose the objective contradictions of reality: comparison with a minister could only mean that another minister is the personification of the highest state power- not so different from Manilov himself. After him, Chichikov was going to Sobakevich, but ended up with Korobochka, which was not an accident: the inactive Manilov and the busy Korobochka were in some way antipodes, so they are compositionally placed side by side. Chichikov calls her “club-headed” for good reason: in terms of her mental development, Korobochka seems inferior to all the other landowners. She is calculating, but shows indecisiveness when selling the dead shower, for fear of selling it cheap and out of fear “that the household might suddenly need it for an emergency” (5, p. 42). Having left her, Chichikov meets Nozdryov. He is an independent person, who has a phenomenal ability to lie unnecessarily, buy whatever comes his way and blow it all away. There is no hint of Korobochka's hoarding in him: he easily loses at cards and likes to waste money. He is also a reckless braggart and a liar by vocation and conviction, who behaves arrogantly and aggressively. After him, Chichikov comes to Sobakevich, who bears little resemblance to other landowners: he is “a prudent owner, a cunning trader, a tight-fisted fist, who is alien to the dreamy complacency of Manilov, as well as the violent extravagance of Nozdryov or the petty, meager hoarding of Korobochka” (5, p. 46 ). Throughout his estate and household, everything is strong and strong. But Gogol knew how to find a reflection of a person’s character in the trifles of everyday life surrounding him, since a thing bears the imprint of the owner’s character, becomes a double of its owner and an instrument of his satirical denunciation. The spiritual world of such heroes is so shallow and insignificant that a thing can fully express their inner essence. In Sobakevich’s house, all the things remind him of himself: the pot-bellied walnut bureau standing in the corner of the living room on absurd four legs, and the unusually heavy table, armchairs, chairs seemed to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” (5, p. 48). And the owner himself looks like “ average size bear”: and he looks somehow askance, and the tailcoat on him is the color of a bear, and he walks like a bear, constantly pressing on someone’s feet. When it comes to buying dead souls, a direct conversation begins between two scammers, each afraid of missing the mark and being deceived, we see two predators satirically depicted. And finally, the last person Chichikov honored with his visit was Plyushkin. Possessing enormous wealth, he rotted bread in bins, kept the courtyard people from hand to mouth, pretending to be poor.

After the publication of the poem, reports began to appear about possible prototypes of landowners with whom Gogol was personally acquainted.

E.A. Smirnova in her book “Gogol’s Poem “Dead Souls”” notes that the entire picture of Russian reality in the first volume of the work is illuminated by an idea that connects it with the darkest area of the universe - hell, defining the concept according to the type “ Divine Comedy" The motif of immersion and descent is visible when Chichikov and his chaise keep getting stuck in the mud. For the first time he was thrown out of the chaise into the mud in front of Korobochka's house, then he ended up in the mud at Nozdryov's; In Plyushkin’s room there hung an “engraving” depicting drowning horses. In Dante's Limbo there is a certain source of light, from which we can conclude that the lighting here is twilight; Gogol repeats the light gradations of “Hell”: from twilight to complete darkness.

E.S. Smirnova - Chikina in the commentary “Poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” gives the work a historical, everyday and literary context.

Describing the historical situation of the 40s. XIX century, E.S. Smirnova-Chikina mentions the stratification of the village, which arose due to the inevitability of the transition from the feudal system to the bourgeois one, and caused the fall of many noble estates, or forced landowners to become bourgeois entrepreneurs. Also in Russia at that time, it was very common for women to manage estates, who, when married, often became its head. There was no unified monetary system, but quitrent was widely used.

The researcher also pays great attention to details, such as a book with a bookmark on page fourteen, which Manilov “has been constantly reading for two years,” a portrait of Bagration in Sobakevich’s living room, who “looked extremely carefully from the wall” at the deal, etc.

M.B. Khrapchenko in the book “Nikolai Gogol: Literary path. The Greatness of the Writer" writes about a generalization of the images of landowners, emphasizing the prevalence of such characters throughout Rus', and highlights the dominant features in the psychological image of each landowner. In Manilov’s appearance, what was most striking was his “pleasantness.” He is sentimental in everything, creates his own illusory world. In contrast, Korobochka is characterized by the absence of claims to higher culture, simplicity. All her thoughts are focused around the farm and estate. Nozdryov is energetic and perky, ready to take on any task. His ideal is people who can live noisily and cheerfully for their own pleasure. Sobakevich knows how to act and achieve what he wants, he soberly evaluates people and life; at the same time, it bears the imprint of clumsiness and ugliness. Plyushkin's goal in life is to accumulate wealth. He is a devoted slave of things, not allowing himself even the slightest excess. Chichikov himself is a swindler who easily “transforms”, moving from one behavior to another, without changing his goals.

The topic of our course essay involves familiarization with works of a theoretical, literary and cultural nature. Thus, the prominent Ukrainian literary theorist A.I. Beletsky, in his work “In the Word Artist’s Workshop,” analyzes inanimate nature, to denote which he uses the term “still life.” The researcher examines the role and functions of still life in the history of world literature from folklore to modernist literature of the early twentieth century. In realistic literature, writes A.I. Beletsky, still life performs the function of a background, a characterological function, and also helps to describe the internal state of the hero. These remarks are very valuable when analyzing Gogol's Dead Souls.

O. Skobelskaya in the article “Russian estate world” talks about historical origin Russian estate, about its features and elements, such as gazebos, lawns, a menagerie, bridges, benches, etc. The gazebos added beauty and comfort to the garden and served both for relaxation and for a cool refuge. A lawn meant a meadow covered with fine grass. Paths were laid for walks in the garden and there were different types(covered and open, simple and double). A labyrinth is a part of a garden that consists of a walking area filled with tangled paths. Benches were located in conspicuous places. They served as garden decorations and resting places, often painted green. Paths were lined with flower beds and areas around gazebos and benches were decorated. The exterior became the subject of poeticization.

But, as we see, the topic of describing the estate as a means of characterizing the landowner has not become the object of a holistic and focused study by scientists and therefore is not sufficiently covered, which determines the relevance of its research. And our goal course work is to show how the features of the everyday environment characterize the landowners from the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls".

1. The estate as a means of characterizing Manilov

Gogol paid great attention to the social and everyday environment, carefully describing the material environment, the material world in which his heroes live, because the everyday environment gives a clear idea of their appearance. This setting is described using the exterior and interior. Exterior is the artistic and architectural exterior design of the estate. Interior is a description of the interior decoration of a room, carrying an emotional or meaningful assessment.

Manilov was the first landowner whom Chichikov visited. His two-story stone house stood “on the south, open to all the winds that might blow.” The house was surrounded by a garden. Manilov had a type of garden that was called English - it became popular with beginning of the nineteenth century. There were winding paths, lilac and yellow acacia bushes, “five or six birches in small clumps here and there raised their small-leaved thin tops” (p. 410). Under two birch trees there was a gazebo with a flat green dome, blue wooden columns, on which was the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection.” Below was a pond, all covered with greenery.

All the details of the estate speak about the character of its owner. The fact that the house stood in an open, windy area tells us that Manilov was impractical and mismanagement, because good owner I wouldn't build my house in such a place. The sparse trees and the green pond show that no one is taking care of them: the trees grow on their own, the pond is not cleaned, which once again confirms the mismanagement of the landowner. “Temple of Solitary Reflection” testifies to Manilov’s inclination to talk about “lofty” matters, as well as his sentimentality and dreaminess.

Now let's turn to interior decoration premises. Gogol writes that in Manilov’s house there was always “something missing” (p. 411): near the beautiful furniture in the living room, upholstered in silk, there were two chairs upholstered in matting; in the other room there was no furniture at all, although immediately after the marriage it was agreed that the room would soon be filled. For dinner, an expensive candlestick made of dark bronze “with three ancient graces, with a mother-of-pearl dandy shield” (p. 411) was served on the table, and next to it was placed some kind of copper invalid, covered in lard. But this did not bother the owner, nor his wife, nor the servants.

Gogol gives a particularly detailed description of the office - the place where a person engages in intellectual work. Manilov's office was a small room. The walls were painted with “blue paint, sort of gray” (p. 414). There was a book on the table, with a bookmark on page fourteen, “which he had been constantly reading for two years” (p. 411). But most of all in the office there was tobacco, which was in the tobacconist, and in caps, and piled on the table. On the windows there were piles of ash knocked out of the pipe, which were carefully arranged “in very beautiful rows” (p. 414).

How does the interior characterize the hero? The incompleteness that is constantly observed in Manilov once again tells us about his impracticality. Although he always wants to please everyone, he is not bothered by the strange appearance of his house. At the same time, it makes claims to sophistication and sophistication. When we “enter” his office, we immediately notice that the author constantly highlights the color blue, which symbolizes the dreaminess, sentimentality, and spiritual pallor of the landowner. It is known that Gogol’s unread book is an image that accompanies a vulgar person. And from the piles of ash laid out, it immediately becomes clear that the landowner’s “work” in his office comes down to smoking tobacco and thinking about something “lofty”; his pastime is absolutely pointless. His activities are worthless, as are his dreams. Manilov’s things bear the imprint of his personality: they either lack something (chairs upholstered in matting), or they contain something superfluous (a beaded toothpick case). He brought no benefit to anyone and lived on trifles. He did not know life, reality was replaced by empty fantasies.

2. The estate as a means of characterizing the Box

After Manilov, Chichikov went to Korobochka. She lived in a small house, the yard of which was full of birds and all other domestic creatures: “there was no number of turkeys and chickens” (p. 420), a rooster walked proudly among them; there were also pigs. The courtyard was “blocked by a plank fence” (p. 421), behind which were vegetable gardens with cabbage, beets, onions, potatoes and other vegetables. Around the garden were planted “here and there apple trees and other fruit trees” (p. 421), which were covered with nets to protect against magpies and sparrows; for the same purpose, in the garden there were several scarecrows “on long poles with outstretched arms” (p. 421), and one of them was wearing the cap of the landowner herself. The peasant huts had good view: “the worn-out planks on the roofs were replaced everywhere with new ones, the gates were not lopsided anywhere” (p. 421), and in the covered sheds there was one, and sometimes two, spare carts.

It is immediately obvious that Korobochka is good hostess. Tirelessly busy, she is opposed to Manilov. Her peasants live well, they are “content”, since she takes care of them and her farm. She also has a nice well-kept garden with scarecrows to keep away pests. The landowner cares so much about her harvest that she even puts her own cap on one of them.

As for the interior decoration of the room, Korobochka’s rooms were modest and quite old, one of them “was hung with old striped wallpaper” (p. 419). On the walls hung paintings with “some birds” (p. 419), and between them hung a portrait of Kutuzov and a “written oil paints some old man with red cuffs on his uniform” (p. 420), between the windows there were small old mirrors with dark frames in the form of “curled leaves” (p. 419), and behind each mirror there was either a letter or an old deck of cards , or stocking. Also on the wall was a clock “with flowers painted on the dial” (p. 419).

As we see, Korobochka’s life is exuberant and rich, but it is lower, since it is at the level of the animal (numerous birds) and plant (flowers on the dial, “curled leaves” on the mirrors) world. Yes, life is in full swing: the guest woke up due to an invasion of flies, the clock in the room was emitting a hiss, the courtyard, filled with living creatures, was already buzzing; In the morning, the turkey “chattled” something to Chichikov through the window. But this life is low: the portrait of Kutuzov, the hero, which hangs on the wall in her room, shows us that Korobochka’s life is limited to routine troubles; in the person of the general we see another world, completely different from the petty and insignificant world of the landowner. She lives secluded in her estate, as if in a box, and her homeliness over time develops into hoarding. Korobochka strives to benefit from everything, being very afraid to undercut in some unfamiliar, unexplored matter. Thus, she is a generalized image of thrifty, and therefore living in contentment, widowed landowners, slow-witted, but able not to miss their profit.

3. The estate as a means of characterizing Nozdrev

landowner Gogol is dead soul

Nozdryov was the third landowner whom Chichikov visited. True, they met not on the owner’s estate, but in a tavern along the highway. After this, Nozdryov persuaded Chichikov to go visit him. As soon as they entered the yard, the owner immediately began to show his stable, where there were two mares - one dappled gray and the other brown, and a bay stallion, “unsightly in appearance” (p. 431). Then the landowner showed his stalls, “where there used to be very good horses” (p. 431), but there was only a goat, which, according to the old belief, “was considered necessary to keep with the horses” (p. 431). Next came a wolf cub on a leash, which he only fed raw meat, so that he would be a “perfect beast” (p. 431). In the pond, according to Nozdrev, there were such fish “that two people could hardly pull the thing out” (p. 431), and there were dogs, which were in a small house surrounded by “a large yard fenced off on all sides” (p. 432). simply immeasurable. They were of different breeds and colors: thick-dog and pure-dog, murugi, black and tan, black-eared, gray-eared, and also had nicknames in the imperative mood: “shoot”, “scold”, “burn”, “flutter” (p. 432) and etc. Nozdryov was among them “like a father” (p. 432). Then they went to inspect the Crimean bitch, which was blind, and after her - the water mill, “where the flutter into which the top stone is set was missing” (p. 432). After this, Nozdryov led Chichikov through a field in which “the Russians were so dead that the land was not visible” (p. 432), where they had to make their way “between fallow fields and harrowed fields” (p. 432), constantly walking through the mud, since the terrain was very low. Having passed the field, the owner showed the boundaries: “all this is mine, on this side and even on that, all this forest, and everything beyond the forest” (p. 432).

We see that Nozdryov is not at all interested in his farm; his only area of interest is hunting. He has horses, but not for plowing the field, but for riding; he also keeps many hunting dogs, among which he is “like a father” (p. 432) among a large family. Before us is a landowner devoid of true human qualities. Showing his field, Nozdryov boasts of his possessions and “russians”, and not of the harvest.

In Nozdryov’s house “there was no preparation” (p. 431) for receiving guests. In the middle of the dining room there were wooden trestles on which two men were whitewashing the walls, and the entire floor was sprayed with whitewash. Then the landowner took Chichikov to his office, which, however, did not even resemble an office: there were no traces of books or paper; but there hung “sabers and two guns, one worth three hundred and the other eight hundred rubles” (p. 432). Then came Turkish daggers, “on one of which, by mistake, it was carved: “Master Saveliy Sibiryakov” (p. 432), and after them pipes - “wooden, clay, meerschaum, smoked and unsmoked, covered with suede and uncovered, chibouk with amber a cigarette holder, recently won, a tobacco pouch embroidered by some countess...” (p. 432).

The home environment fully reflects Nozdryov's chaotic character. Everything at home is a mess: there are sawhorses in the middle of the dining room, there are no books or papers in the office, etc. We see that Nozdryov is not the owner. The cabinet's passion for hunting is clearly visible, and the owner's warlike spirit is shown. The author also emphasizes that Nozdryov is a big braggart, which can be seen from the Turkish dagger with the inscription “Master Savely Sibiryakov”, from the pond in which huge fish supposedly live, from the “infinity” of his possessions, etc.

Sometimes in Gogol one thing symbolizes the whole character of a person. In this case it is a barrel organ. At first she played the song “Malbrug went on a hike”, after which she constantly switched to others. There was one pipe in it, “very lively, never wanting to calm down” (p. 432), which whistled for a long time.

And again we are convinced that the everyday environment has a very great importance in the characterization of the image: the barrel organ exactly repeats the essence of the owner, his senselessly perky disposition: the constant jumping from song to song shows Nozdryov’s strong, causeless changes in mood, his unpredictability, and harmfulness. He is restless, mischievous, violent, ready at any moment to misbehave for no reason or do something unexpected and inexplicable. Even the fleas in Nozdryov’s house, which unbearably bit Chichikov all night, are “persistent insects” (p. 436). The energetic, active spirit of Nozdryov, in contrast to the idleness of Manilov, is nevertheless devoid of internal content, absurd and, ultimately, just as dead.

4. The estate as a means of characterizing Sobakevich

His village seemed quite large. To the right and left, like two wings, there were two forests - birch and pine, and in the middle one could see " wooden house with a mezzanine, a red roof and dark gray, wild walls” (p. 440), like those built for “military settlements and German colonists” (p. 440). It was noticeable that when building the house, the architect, who was a pedant and wanted symmetry, constantly struggled with the taste of the owner, for whom convenience was important, and it turned out that all the corresponding windows were boarded up on one side, and in their place a small, “probably needed for a dark closet” (p. 440). The pediment also did not end up in the middle of the house, “because the owner ordered one column on the side to be thrown out” (p. 440), and it turned out to be three columns instead of four. Sobakevich's yard was surrounded by a thick and very strong lattice, and it was clear that the owner put a lot of effort into its strength. The stables, barns and kitchens were made of full-weight and thick logs, designed to last “for centuries” (p. 440). The village huts were built firmly, tightly, that is, as they should, although without “carved patterns and other tricks” (p. 440). And even the well was lined with such strong oak, “the kind that is used only for mills and ships” (p. 440). In a word, everything was “stubborn, without shaking, in some kind of strong and awkward order” (p. 440).

Solidity, fundamentality, strength are the distinctive features of both Sobakevich himself and his everyday environment. But at the same time, all the details of everyday life bear the stamp of clumsiness and ugliness: a house with not four, but only three columns, corresponding windows only on one side, etc.

In Sobakevich’s living room, the paintings were of Greek commanders, “engraved to their full height” (p. 441): “Mavrocordato in red trousers and uniform, with glasses on his nose, Kolokotroni, Miaouli, Kanari” (p. 441). They all had thick thighs and huge mustaches. And between them, “it is not known how” (p. 441), skinny Bagration fit with small banners and cannons below, and he was within the narrowest frames. He was followed by the Greek heroine Bobelina, one of whose legs seemed “larger than the entire body of those dandies who fill the living rooms today” (p. 441). “The owner, being a healthy and strong man himself, seemed to want his room to be decorated by strong and healthy people too” (p. 441). Near Bobelina hung a cage in which there was a dark blackbird with white specks, also very similar to Sobakevich. Everything in his room “had some strange resemblance to the owner himself” (p. 441): in the corner of the living room there was a pot-bellied walnut bureau “on absurd four legs” (p. 441), reminiscent of a bear. The table, armchairs, chairs - everything was somehow heavy and restless, and “it seemed that every object said: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” or “and I, too, are very similar to Sobakevich” (p. 441). When Chichikov was bargaining with Sobakevich for dead souls, “Bagration with an aquiline nose looked from the wall extremely carefully at this purchase” (p. 446).

The names of the heroes who decorated the walls of Sobakevich’s living room say nothing to the modern reader, but contemporaries N.V. Gogol was very well known and respected by the heroes of the liberation war. Smirnova-Chikina characterizes each of these heroes. Alexander Mavrocordato was one of the leaders of the Greek uprising. Theodore Kolokotronis led the peasant partisan movement. Andreas Vokos Miaoulis was a Greek admiral and Constantine Kanari was a minister of war in the Greek governments. The outstanding Russian commander - Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration - took part in Suvorov’s campaigns and was a hero Patriotic War 1812, and Bobelina was a heroine of the Greek War of Independence. These prominent figures, who gave their lives for their homeland, are contrasted with low swindlers-acquirers who care only about their own good.

Everything in Sobakevich’s house surprisingly resembles him. Not only in his house, but throughout the entire estate - down to the farm of the last peasant - everything is strong and strong. This is how Gogol achieves brightness and expressiveness in his description characteristic features hero. Things appear before the reader as if alive, revealing “some strange resemblance to the owner of the house himself,” and the owner, in turn, resembles “a medium-sized bear” (p. 441) and has all the corresponding habits: the animal essence revealed bestial cruelty and cunning. We see that a person, generated by social conditions, in turn leaves an imprint on everything that surrounds him, and himself influences the social environment.

5. The estate as a means of characterizing Plyushkin

The last person Chichikov visited was Plyushkin. The guest immediately noticed some kind of disrepair in all the buildings: the logs on the huts were old and darkened, there were holes in the roofs, the windows were without glass or covered with rags, the balconies under the roofs were askew and blackened. Behind the huts were huge stacks of grain, clearly stagnant for a long time, the color of which resembled poorly burnt brick; All sorts of rubbish grew on their tops, and bushes clung to the side. From behind the grain deposits, two rural churches could be seen: “an empty wooden and a stone one, with yellow walls, stained, cracked” (p. 448). The disabled man's manor's house looked like an excessively long castle, in some places one floor high, in others two stories high, on the dark roof of which two belvederes protruded. The walls were cracked, “and, as you can see, they suffered a lot from all sorts of bad weather, rain, whirlwinds and autumn changes” (p. 448). Of all the windows, only two were open, the rest were covered with shutters or even boarded up; on one of open windows the “pasted triangle of blue sugar paper” darkened (p. 448). The wood on the fence and gate was covered with green mold, a crowd of buildings filled the courtyard, and gates to other courtyards were visible near them to the right and left; “everything indicated that farming had once taken place here on a large scale” (p. 449). But today everything looked very cloudy and dull. Nothing enlivened the picture, only the main gates were open and only because a man with a cart drove in; at other times they were locked tightly - a lock hung in an iron loop.

Behind the house stretched an old, vast garden, which turned into a field and was “overgrown and dead” (p. 448), but it was the only thing that enlivened this village. In it, the trees grew freely, “the white colossal trunk of a birch, devoid of a top, rose from this green thicket and rounded in the air, like a regular sparkling marble column” (p. 449); the hops, which were suppressing the bushes of elderberry, rowan and hazel below, ran up and entwined the broken birch, and from there began to cling to the tops of other trees, “tying them in rings.”

their thin, tenacious hooks, easily shaken by the air” (p. 449). In places the green thickets diverged and revealed an unlit recess, “yawning like a dark mouth” (p. 449); it was cast in shadow, and in its dark depths a running narrow path, collapsed railings, a swaying gazebo, a hollow, decrepit willow trunk, a gray-haired chapberry and a young maple branch, “stretching out its green paw-leaves from the side” (p. 449) were barely glimpsed. . To the side, at the very edge of the garden, several tall aspens “raised huge crow’s nests to their tremulous tops” (p. 449). Other aspens had some branches hanging down with withered leaves. In a word, everything was good, but as happens only when nature “passes with its final cut, lightens the heavy masses, gives wonderful warmth to everything that was created in the cold of measured cleanliness and neatness (p. 449).

The description of the village and the estate of this owner is imbued with melancholy. The windows are without glass, covered with rags, dark and old logs, drafty roofs... The manor's house looks like a huge grave crypt where a person is buried alive. Only a lushly growing garden reminds of life, of beauty, sharply contrasted with the ugly life of the landowner. It seems that life has left this village.

When Chichikov entered the house, he saw “dark, wide entryways, from which a cold air blew in, as if from a cellar” (p. 449). From there he entered a room, also dark, slightly illuminated by light that came from under a wide crack that was located at the bottom of the door. When they entered this door, light finally appeared, and Chichikov was amazed by what he saw: it seemed that “the floors were being washed in the house and all the furniture had been piled here for a while” (p. 449). There was a broken chair on the table, next to it there was a clock with a stopped pendulum, entwined with cobwebs; there was a cabinet with antique silver right there. Decanters and Chinese porcelain. On the bureau, “lined with mosaics, which in some places had already fallen out and left behind only yellow grooves filled with glue” (p. 450), lay a whole lot of things: a bunch of scribbled pieces of paper covered with a green marble press, some kind of old book bound in leather , a dried lemon, the size of a nut, a broken armchair handle, a glass “with some kind of liquid and three flies” (p. 450), covered with a letter, a piece of rag, two feathers in ink, a toothpick from a hundred years ago, “which the owner may have , was picking his teeth even before the French invasion of Moscow” (p. 450). Several paintings were hanged stupidly on the walls: “a long yellowed engraving of some battle, with huge drums, shouting soldiers in three-cornered hats and drowning horses” (p. 450), without glass, inserted into a mahogany frame with “thin bronze strips and bronze circles in the corners” (p. 450). In a row with them there was a picture, occupying half the wall, all blackened, painted with oil paints, on which there were flowers, fruits, a cut watermelon, a boar's face and a duck hanging upside down. From the middle of the ceiling hung a chandelier in a canvas bag, which from the dust became like “a silk cocoon in which a worm sits” (p. 450). In the corner of the room, everything that was “unworthy to lie on tables” was piled on a heap (p. 450); it was difficult to say what exactly was in it, because there was so much dust there that “the hands of everyone who touched it became like gloves” (p. 450). All that could be seen was a broken piece of a wooden shovel and an old boot sole, which protruded most noticeably from there. There was no way to say that a living creature lived in this room if it weren’t for “the old, worn cap lying on the table” (p. 450).

The accumulation of things, material values becomes the only goal of Plyushkin’s life. He is a slave of things, not their master. The insatiable passion of acquisition led to the fact that he lost a real understanding of objects, ceasing to distinguish useful things from unnecessary rubbish. With such internal devaluation objective world The insignificant, insignificant, insignificant inevitably acquires special attractiveness, on which he focuses his attention. The goods accumulated by Plyushkin brought him neither happiness nor even peace. Constant fear for his property turns his life into a living hell and brings him to the brink of mental collapse. Plyushkin rots grain and bread, and he himself shakes over a small piece of Easter cake and a bottle of tincture, on which he made a mark so that no one would drink it by stealing. The thirst for accumulation pushes him onto the path of all kinds of self-restraint. The fear of missing out on something forces Plyushkin with tireless energy to collect all sorts of rubbish, all sorts of nonsense, everything that has long ceased to serve the vital needs of a person. Plyushkin turns into a devoted slave of things, a slave of his passion. Surrounded by things, he does not experience loneliness and the need to communicate with outside world. This is a living dead man, a misanthrope who has turned into a “tear on humanity.”

conclusions

We are once again convinced that Gogol is one of the most amazing and original masters artistic word, and “Dead Souls” is a unique work in which, by describing the external and internal appearance of the estate, the character of the person living in it is fully revealed.

The poem “Dead Souls” interested many scientific researchers, such as Yu.V. Mann, E.S. Smirnova-Chikina, M.B. Khrapchenko and others. But there were also critics who paid attention specifically to the topic of describing the estate in the poem - this is A.I. Beletsky and O. Skobelskaya. But so far this topic has not been fully covered in the literature, which determines the relevance of its research.

Each landowner has similar and different character traits with other landowners. Gogol highlights in each hero the most distinctive feature, which is expressed in the everyday environment. For Manilov it is impracticality, vulgarity and dreaminess, for Korobochka it is “club-headedness”, fussiness and in the world of low things, for Nozdryov it is abundant energy that is directed in the wrong direction, sudden mood swings, for Sobakevich it is cunning, clumsiness, for Plyushkin it is stinginess and greed.

From hero to hero Gogol reveals life of crime landowners. The images are given on the principle of ever deeper spiritual impoverishment and moral decline. In Dead Souls, Gogol flaunts all human shortcomings. Despite the fact that there is a considerable amount of humor in the work, “Dead Souls” can be called “laughter through tears.” The author reproaches people for forgetting about eternal values. Only the outer shell is alive in them, and the souls are dead. Not only the people themselves are to blame for this, but also the society in which they live, which, in turn, also leaves its mark.

So, the poem “Dead Souls” is very relevant to this day, because, unfortunately, the modern world is not very different from the one described in the poem, and such human traits as stupidity and stinginess have not yet been eradicated among the people .

List of used literature

1. Gogol N.V. Dead Souls // Collection. op. – M.: State. art publishing house lit., 1952. – P. 403 – 565.

2. Beletsky A.I. In the workshop of a word artist // Beletsky A.I. In the artist's studio words: Sat. Art. – M.: Higher. school, 1989. – P. 3 – 111.

3. Gus M. Living Russia and “Dead Souls”. – M.: Sov. writer, 1981. – 334 p.

4. Mann Yu.V. Gogol's poetics. – 2nd ed., add. – M.: Artist. lit., 1978. – P. 274 – 353.

5. Mashinsky S.I. “Dead Souls” N.V. Gogol. – M.: Artist. lit., 1966. – 141 p.

6. Skobelskaya O. Russian estate world // World literature. and culture in educational institutions Ukraine. – 2002. – No. 4. – P. 37 – 39.

7. Smirnova E.A. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". – L: Nauka, 1987. – 198 p.

8. Smirnova – Chikina E.S. Poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". A comment. – L: Education, 1974. – 316 p.

9. Khrapchenko M.B. Nikolai Gogol: Literary path. The greatness of the writer. – M.: Sovremennik, 1984. – P. 348 – 509.

Course work

“Description of the estate as a means of characterizing the landowner in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol"

Kyiv – 2010

Introduction

Poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is a work of genius that was the crown of the writer’s entire work. It has been studied in detail in literary criticism. Researchers are finding more and more new artistic techniques that Gogol used to create images of landowners.

So, M.S. Gus in the book “Living Russia and “Dead Souls”” talks about the use of popular proverbial motifs. For example, the sixth chapter contains a number of proverbs from Dahl’s collection that characterize Plyushkin: “Stinginess did not come from poverty, but from wealth,” “He looks at his grave, but trembles over a penny,” “The stingy rich man is poorer than the beggar,” etc. . (3, p. 39). Gogol widely uses proverbs and thematically close works of other folklore genres, thus surrounding his heroes with images that have become symbols of certain human shortcomings: the “bearish” imprint on Sobakevich, numerous birds, against which Korobochka appears, the figure of Nozdryov, illuminated by him a damaged barrel organ. “The images of “Dead Souls” are in a sense like the surface of an iceberg, for they grow from a gigantic layer of historical and artistic national traditions hidden from view” (3, p. 40).

Yu.V. Mann in the book “Gogol’s Poetics” talks about the structure of the poem: about the rationalism of the completed first part, in which each chapter is thematically completed and has its own “subject”, for example, the first reflects Chichikov’s arrival and acquaintance with the city, chapters from the second to the sixth - visits to to landowners, the seventh chapter - registration of deeds of sale, etc., about the most important image of the road, which symbolizes Chichikov’s life path, about the contrast of the living and the dead and the death of the living as a form of grotesque, which is embodied with the help of certain motifs. These motives must reach a certain degree of intensification: “It is necessary for a doll or an automaton to, as it were, replace a person... so that the human body or its parts seem to become objectified, become an inanimate thing” (4, p. 298). In Gogol, the contrast between the living and the dead is often indicated by a description of the eyes - and it is their description that is missing in the portraits of the characters in the poem, or their lack of spirituality is emphasized: “Manilov “had eyes as sweet as sugar,” and Sobakevich’s eyes were like those of a wooden doll” (4, p. 305). Extended comparisons play the same grotesque role. A peculiarity of the composition of the poem is that each subsequent landowner that Chichikov encounters is even “more dead than the previous one.” Gogol gives each hero a detailed description, introducing him into action, but the characters are revealed until the last appearance of the characters in the poem, surprising us with unexpected discoveries.

S.I. Mashinsky in the book “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol" compares landowners with ancient heroes: Sobakevich with Ajax, Manilov with Paris, and Plyushkin with Nestor. The first person Chichikov goes to is Manilov. He considers himself a bearer of spiritual culture. But, observing his reaction to Chichikov’s proposal to buy up dead souls, we are convinced of the opposite: with empty profundity, his face becomes like that of a “too smart minister.” Gogol's satirical irony helps to expose the objective contradictions of reality: a comparison with a minister could only mean that another minister - the personification of the highest state power - is not so different from Manilov himself. After him, Chichikov was going to Sobakevich, but ended up with Korobochka, which was not an accident: the inactive Manilov and the busy Korobochka were in some way antipodes, so they are compositionally placed side by side. Chichikov calls her “club-headed” for good reason: in terms of her mental development, Korobochka seems inferior to all the other landowners. She is prudent, but shows indecisiveness when selling dead souls, fearing to sell them too cheap and out of fear that “they might suddenly need them on the farm” (5, p. 42). Having left her, Chichikov meets Nozdryov. He is an independent person, who has a phenomenal ability to lie unnecessarily, buy whatever comes his way and blow it all away. There is no hint of Korobochka's hoarding in him: he easily loses at cards and likes to waste money. He is also a reckless braggart and a liar by vocation and conviction, who behaves arrogantly and aggressively. After him, Chichikov comes to Sobakevich, who bears little resemblance to other landowners: he is “a prudent owner, a cunning trader, a tight-fisted fist, who is alien to the dreamy complacency of Manilov, as well as the violent extravagance of Nozdryov or the petty, meager hoarding of Korobochka” (5, p. 46 ). Throughout his estate and household, everything is strong and strong. But Gogol knew how to find a reflection of a person’s character in the trifles of everyday life surrounding him, since a thing bears the imprint of the owner’s character, becomes a double of its owner and an instrument of his satirical denunciation. The spiritual world of such heroes is so shallow and insignificant that a thing can fully express their inner essence. In Sobakevich’s house, all the things remind him of himself: the pot-bellied walnut bureau standing in the corner of the living room on absurd four legs, and the unusually heavy table, armchairs, chairs seemed to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” (5, p. 48). And the owner himself looks like a “medium-sized bear”: he looks sideways, and his tailcoat is bear-colored, and he walks like a bear, constantly pressing on someone’s feet. When it comes to buying dead souls, a direct conversation begins between two scammers, each afraid of missing the mark and being deceived, we see two predators satirically depicted. And finally, the last person Chichikov honored with his visit was Plyushkin. Possessing enormous wealth, he rotted bread in bins, kept the courtyard people from hand to mouth, pretending to be poor.

After the publication of the poem, reports began to appear about possible prototypes of landowners with whom Gogol was personally acquainted.

E.A. Smirnova in her book “Gogol’s Poem “Dead Souls” notes that the entire picture of Russian reality in the first volume of the work is illuminated by an idea that connects it with the darkest area of the universe - hell, defining the concept as the “Divine Comedy”. The motif of immersion and descent is visible when Chichikov and his chaise keep getting stuck in the mud. For the first time he was thrown out of the chaise into the mud in front of Korobochka's house, then he ended up in the mud at Nozdryov's; In Plyushkin’s room there hung an “engraving” depicting drowning horses. In Dante's Limbo there is a certain source of light, from which we can conclude that the lighting here is twilight; Gogol repeats the light gradations of “Hell”: from twilight to complete darkness.

E.S. Smirnova - Chikina in the commentary “Poem by N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” gives the work a historical, everyday and literary context.

M.B. Khrapchenko in the book “Nikolai Gogol: The Literary Path. The Greatness of the Writer" writes about a generalization of the images of landowners, emphasizing the prevalence of such characters throughout Rus', and highlights the dominant features in the psychological image of each landowner. In Manilov’s appearance, what was most striking was his “pleasantness.” He is sentimental in everything, creates his own illusory world. In contrast, Korobochka is characterized by the absence of claims to higher culture and simplicity. All her thoughts are focused around the farm and estate. Nozdryov is energetic and perky, ready to take on any task. His ideal is people who can live noisily and cheerfully for their own pleasure. Sobakevich knows how to act and achieve what he wants, he soberly evaluates people and life; at the same time, it bears the imprint of clumsiness and ugliness. Plyushkin's goal in life is to accumulate wealth. He is a devoted slave of things, not allowing himself even the slightest excess. Chichikov himself is a swindler who easily “transforms”, moving from one behavior to another, without changing his goals.

description of the Manilov estate

Gogol paid great attention to the social and everyday environment, carefully describing the material environment, the material world in which his heroes live, because the everyday environment gives a clear idea of their appearance. This setting is described using the exterior and interior. Exterior is the artistic and architectural exterior design of the estate. Interior is a description of the interior decoration of a room, carrying an emotional or meaningful assessment.
Manilov was the first landowner whom Chichikov visited. His two-story stone house stood on the south, open to all the winds that could blow. The house was surrounded by a garden. Manilov had a type of garden that was called English; it became popular from the beginning of the 19th century. There were winding paths, lilac and yellow acacia bushes, five or six birch trees in small clumps here and there raised their thin, small-leaved tops. Under two birch trees there was a gazebo with a flat green dome, blue wooden columns, on which was the inscription Temple of Solitary Reflection. Below was a pond, all covered with greenery.

All the details of the estate speak about the character of its owner. The fact that the house stood in an open, windy area tells us that Manilov was impractical and mismanagement, because a good owner would not have built his house in such a place. The sparse trees and the green pond show that no one is taking care of them: the trees grow on their own, the pond is not cleaned, which once again confirms the mismanagement of the landowner. The temple of solitary reflection testifies to Manilov’s inclination to talk about lofty matters, as well as his sentimentality and dreaminess.
Now let's turn to the interior decoration of the room. Gogol writes that something was always missing in Manilov’s house: near the beautiful furniture in the living room, covered with silk, there were two chairs covered with matting; in the other room there was no furniture at all, although immediately after the marriage it was agreed that the room would soon be filled. For dinner, an expensive candlestick made of dark bronze with three antique graces, with a mother-of-pearl dandy shield, was served on the table, and next to it was placed some kind of copper invalid, covered in lard. But this did not bother the owner, nor his wife, nor the servants.

Gogol gives a particularly detailed description of the office, the place where a person engages in intellectual work. Manilov's office was a small room. The walls were painted with blue paint, sort of gray. On the table lay a book, bookmarked on page fourteen, which he had been reading constantly for two years. But most of all in the office there was tobacco, which was in the tobacconist, and in caps, and piled on the table. On the windows there were piles of ash knocked out of a pipe, which were carefully arranged in very beautiful rows
blah blah blah
description of the Monilov estate