MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF THE MUNICIPAL FORMATION CITY OF KRASNODAR
SECONDARY SCHOOL No. 66 NAMED AFTER EVGENIY DOROSH
METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT ON LITERATURE
Subject:
« Lyrical digressions in the poem by N.V. Gogol
Stepanyan A.S.,
teacher of Russian language and literature
MBOU secondary school No. 66
I. Introduction.
1. The significance of N.V. Gogol for Russian literature and for Russia.
II. Main part
“Dead Souls” is the pinnacle of Gogol’s creativity.
The idea and history of the creation of the work.
Composition of Gogol's poem
Lyrical digressions and their role in “Dead Souls”
III. Conclusion.
1. The significance of Gogol’s work for modern reader.
“...For a long time there has not been a writer in the world who was as important for his people as Gogol was for Russia.” This is what the leader of Russian democracy N.G. Chernyshevsky wrote about Gogol when Gogol was no longer alive. And not only Chernyshevsky, many great Russian critics and writers pointed out the enormous importance of Gogol both in literature and “for Russia” in general.
Why is Gogol so important? Gogol turned literature into a formidable weapon. Gogol's satire was such a weapon. Truthful satirical works the writer was mercilessly ridiculed and exposed the rulers Tsarist Russia. With his works, Gogol awakened the consciousness of the people.
Gogol's works are filled with ardent love for to the common people, to the “little people”. The writer believed in the mighty forces of the people, in the great future of his Motherland. He was proud of its glorious history.
In Russian literature, Gogol finally established critical realism.
The poem "Dead Souls" is the pinnacle of Gogol's work. In it all the main features of his talent found their highest expression: deep realism, nationalism, lyrical animation and endless humor, turning into a menacing, punishing laugh.
Reading Dead Souls, we laugh at first. We laugh at the comic animation with which Gogol talks about Mr. mediocre Entering the city of K, we laugh at the reasoning of two men about the wheel of a passing chaise, at a dandy in very narrow and short rosin trousers. And we continue to laugh further, reading the poem, just as Pushkin and all of reading Russia laughed when they first became acquainted with Gogol’s wonderful work. However, laughter soon gives way to reflection, and it becomes completely clear that there is nothing humorous or funny in the poem, as in all of Gogol’s works, that not a single word in it is intended to make the reader laugh: everything in it is “serious, calm, true and deeply,” as V.G. Belinsky wrote.
First of all, I would like to talk about the history of the creation of the work.
Gogol began writing Dead Souls in 1835. A.S. Pushkin gave him a plot for a comic story about how a rogue official tries to get rich by buying dead serfs from landowners. When Gogol read his travel notes, sketches and sketches from life to A.S. Pushkin in the summer of 1835, he was amazed by Gogol’s powers of observation and the accuracy of his sketches of people and characters. “How,” he exclaimed, “with this ability to guess a person and with a few features suddenly make him look like he’s alive, with this ability not to get down to business? big essay!” And Gogol, working on the comedy “The Inspector General,” begins to write his poem.
In 1836, The Inspector General was published and shown in the theater. He was a resounding success with the democratic public. A.S. Pushkin, V.G. Belinsky, Herzen and other leading writers enthusiastically welcomed comedy as a historical event in public life Russia. But the idea of comedy was also well understood by the defenders of autocracy, whom the satirist angrily ridiculed. They declared Gogol a dangerous writer. The Tsar banned the production of “The Inspector General” in theaters, and a frenzied persecution of Gogol began. Gogol wrote bitterly: “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me... Now I see what it means to be a comic writer. The slightest ghost of truth - and not just one person, but entire classes rebel against you...” In 1836, the persecuted writer was forced to leave Russia. Gogol lived most of all in Italy. In Rome, Gogol completed work on Dead Souls. The writer devoted 6 years to the first volume. In the fall of 1841, Gogol brought the first volume, ready for printing, to Moscow, but censorship difficulties arose. “The blow was completely unexpected for me: the entire manuscript is banned,” Gogol told Pletnev.
The chairman of the Moscow censorship committee rebelled against the title of the poem: “No, I will never allow this: the soul can be immortal!” It was explained to the narrow-minded official that we were talking about audit dead souls. The chairman sternly replied that “this certainly cannot be allowed, it means against serfdom.”
Gogol sent the manuscript of the poem to St. Petersburg. The writer's friends, including Belinsky, helped the author overcome censorship resistance. Gogol had to make significant changes. In May 1842, Dead Souls was published.
Under serfdom, the landowners owned the peasants. They could sell peasants, exchange them, give them as collateral, i.e. deposit it in the bank and receive money for it. But for their peasants, landowners were obliged to pay taxes or taxes to the state treasury. For this purpose, the government periodically conducted audits and compiled lists of serfs (these lists were called “revision tales”), according to which landowners paid taxes until the next audit. Landowners also had to pay taxes for those peasants who died between revisions. The landowners, therefore, were interested in getting rid of the “dead souls” and not paying taxes for them.
The plot of Gogol's poem is connected with these circumstances of the era of serfdom. Its hero, retired official Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, decided to take advantage of the existing order to make capital and get rich. He travels around the estates of landowners and buys “dead souls” from them. The landowners give them to him almost for nothing. Chichikov then hopes to either pawn the “dead souls” in the bank, receiving money for them as if they were alive, or to become known as a rich man and marry a really rich landowner.
Although Chichikov actively participates in all the events that take place, the plot of the work goes beyond the story of his life, his personal fate. “Dead Souls” is a book about Russia, not about Chichikov. This is how the author understood his great plan. This is how Gogol shared his plan with Zhukovsky: “If I complete this creation the way it needs to be accomplished, then what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it!”
"Dead Souls" is big prose work, which in its content and structure is close to the novel. But it differs from the novel in some ways. An epic narrative, that is, a description of events, the actions and actions of the heroes of the work, pictures of life - which is also typical for the novel - is combined in “Dead Souls” with numerous authorial or lyrical digressions and reflections. Such lyrical digressions are characteristic of the poem genre. In Dead Souls they play the same important role ideological role, as does epic storytelling. The author expresses in lyrical digressions his thoughts and feelings about what is happening, expresses his attitude towards the life phenomena depicted. Gogol turns to lyrical digressions in those cases when the description of external events and actions of the characters turns out to be insufficient to fully reveal the author's intention. The epic narrative in “Dead Souls” is mainly associated with the exposure of the ruling classes, satirically depicting their contemporaries, the philistine world of landowners and officials. Lyrical digressions, in their solemn and pathetic tone, seem to contradict the general satirical nature of the narrative, in fact they are of enormous importance. Pictures of what is happening in the feudal world leave us with gloomy moods and feelings.
Herzen, in his article “On the Development of Revolutionary Forces in Russia,” having characterized Gogol’s poem as a “cry” of horror and shame that is emitted by a man humiliated by a vulgar life when he suddenly notices his castrated face in the mirror, adds: “But so that such a cry could to sound from someone’s chest, there must be healthy parts and a great desire for rehabilitation.”
Gogol had a passionate desire for the “rehabilitation” of Russia. He understood that everything was bleak and gloomy in the life of his homeland. It is not Russia and its people that are doomed to destruction, but the serf system. In lyrical digressions, the writer expressed faith in his people, in the future of his country. That is why the author defines the work as a poem that goes back to its classical images. IN Ancient Greece poems were folk epic works that depicted the life and struggle of the entire people. Such literary genre gave Gogol the opportunity to “look around at all the enormous rushing life,” his homeland “in all its enormity.”
Lyrical digressions give " Dead souls"and a special poetic emotion, which is usually characteristic of poetic works. All this gave Gogol the basis to call his work a poem.
The themes of lyrical digressions in the poem are very diverse:
Gogol's reflections on the fate of the representatives of the dead world of human vulgarity he depicts;
reflections on the fate of the satirical writer;
reflections on the fate of the Russian people, the conditions of serfdom;
reflections on the sweeping and lively Russian word;
a short story about Kif Mokievich and Mokiye Kifovich;
final lyrical reflection on Rus' - the bird-three.
Lyrical digressions differ from each other in content. In some, the author, as if something in the course of the poem accidentally gives the reader an idea, begins to talk about life in Russia in general, and the reader, meanwhile, draws parallels between the cities of NN and the whole Russian Empire. Sometimes it’s not even clear whose reasoning these are: the author’s voice is intertwined with Chichikov’s voice, the author himself seems to go into the shadows. Such lyrical digressions include, for example, discussions about “fat” and “thin” people who appear in the scene of the governor’s ball.
The men here, as everywhere else, were of two kinds: some thin, who kept hovering around the ladies; some of them were of such a type that it was difficult to distinguish them from those from St. Petersburg, they also had very deliberately and tastefully combed sideburns or simply beautiful, very smoothly shaven oval faces, they also casually sat down to the ladies, they also spoke French and they made the ladies laugh just like in St. Petersburg. Another class of men were fat or the same as Chichikov, that is, not too fat, but not thin either. These, on the contrary, looked sideways and backed away from the ladies and only looked around to see if the governor’s servant was setting up a green whist table somewhere. Their faces were full and round, some even had warts, some were pockmarked, they did not wear their hair on their heads in crests or curls, or in a “damn me” manner, as the French say - their hair They were either cut low or sleek, and their facial features were more rounded and strong. These were honorary officials in the city. Alas! fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin people.
Gogol speaks here about officials with undisguised mockery:
Subtle officials hover around the ladies, wiggle here and there, and sell off the property acquired by their fathers on courier.
Fat officials are also depicted in a funny way: their faces are plump, round, and some even had warts. They make money for themselves and, in order to hide the loot, they buy villages.
Gogol devotes several lyrical digressions to women, although he admits that he is very afraid to talk about ladies. With regret, he notes that the gap separating Korobochka from a lady of high society is not so great.
Maybe you will even begin to think: come on, is Korobochka really standing so low on the endless ladder of human improvement? Is the abyss really that great that separates her from her sister, inaccessibly fenced by the walls of an aristocratic house with fragrant cast-iron staircases, shining copper, mahogany and carpets, yawning over an unread book in anticipation of a witty social visit, where she will have the opportunity to show off her mind and express her expressed thoughts? thoughts, thoughts that, according to the laws of fashion, occupy the city for a whole week, thoughts not about what is happening in her house and on her estates, confused and upset thanks to ignorance of economic affairs, but about what political revolution is being prepared in France, what direction it has taken fashionable catholicism
The author accuses a lady of high society of lacking sincerity; she talks about fashionable nonsense, and not about what is going on in her estate. This makes the writer sad and he hurries: “...past! Past!” - further along the road, your life path and the path of plot development.
The image of the road becomes the compositional core of the poem. With the righteous right life In Russian culture, a straight road is always associated. Symbolic meaning in the poem he accepts that Chichikov constantly “loses his way,” turns, and chooses roundabout paths to achieve his goal. As the work progresses, the road becomes a symbol of the fluidity of time, the path of life and the path of a person’s spiritual quest. Several author’s digressions, imbued with special lyricism, are dedicated to her, the road.
Before, long ago, in the years of my youth, in the years of my irrevocably flashed childhood, it was fun for me to drive up for the first time to an unfamiliar place: it didn’t matter whether it was a village, a poor provincial town, a village, a settlement - I discovered a lot of curious things in it childish curious look. Every building, everything that bore the imprint of some noticeable feature - everything stopped me and amazed me...
Now I indifferently approach any unfamiliar village and indifferently look at its vulgar appearance; It’s unpleasant to my chilled gaze, it’s not funny to me, and what would have awakened in previous years a lively movement in the face, laughter and silent speech, now slides past, and my motionless lips keep an indifferent silence. O my youth! oh my freshness!
In this lyrical digression, the author, based on impressions on the road, judges the degree of decline of a person, the passing of his youth. It seems that life moves as quickly as the mileposts flash past the window of the post coach. As a child, the author looks at everything with a curious gaze, everything seems joyful and tempting to him. However, as he grows older, he becomes more and more indifferent to the wonders of life. The writer regrets his irrevocably past youth and freshness. With this lyrical digression, he makes readers think and feel the difference between the road of life and the high road: along the first one you can never return to where you are coming from.
Describing the commotion caused in the city by rumors about dead souls that Chichikov was buying up for no apparent reason, Gogol devotes several lines to reflections on the misconceptions of mankind. And in this lyrical digression, the image of the road grows to a symbol of the path of the entire human race:
Many mistakes have been made in the world that, it would seem, even a child would not do now. What crooked, deaf, narrow, impassable roads that lead far to the side have been chosen by mankind, striving to achieve eternal truth, while the straight path was open to them, like the path leading to the magnificent temple assigned to the palace! Wider and more luxurious than all other paths, it was illuminated by the sun and illuminated by lights all night, but people flowed past it in the deep darkness. And how many times already induced by the meaning descending from heaven, they knew how to recoil and stray to the side, they knew how to find themselves again in impenetrable backwaters in broad daylight, they knew how to once again cast a blind fog into each other’s eyes and, trailing after the swamp lights, they knew how to get to the abyss, and then ask each other in horror: where is the exit, where is the road? The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later.
But the author devotes the most heartfelt lyrical digression, covered in real poetry, to the road - his companion and muse. Gogol can live real life only on the road, only there can he feel “strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful.” Only while on the road can a person see life in all its diversity, feel harmony and unity with the sky. In addition, in this lyrical digression, the author admits that without the road his poem would not have existed.
Not only in this place does Gogol reflect on the hard work of a writer as a traveler. Co happy traveler, a family man who, after a long journey, is waiting for a family, he compares the writer who describes outstanding characters. And he compares the writer, who, like him, exposes the reader to a terrible picture of life, to a familyless traveler who has only a “bitter, boring road” ahead of him.
Despite the bitterness of this author's digression, it defends the power of the moral influence of laughter, Gogol's main weapon. How much more magnificent do they seem to the writer who are ready, despising fame and honor, to make a person like Chichikov the main character of the poem. Thus, they give the “scoundrels” hope for correction, and they also look for grains of human greatness in them. And Gogol ends his lyrical digression with words that perfectly characterize Gogol’s satire as a whole: the satirical writer looks at life “through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him.”
In every word of Gogol one can feel both laughter and some kind of sadness. Gogol sees all the shortcomings of Russian reality, he ridicules them, but all this deeply touches him and hurts him, as a person who truly loves Russia. The writer perceived all the wounds of the fatherland as his own. But there were even those who reproached Gogol for his lack of patriotism, and it was to them that the author dedicated a lyrical digression about Kifei Mokievich and Mokiya Kifovich. In it, the author says that these same patriots do not think about that. To avoid doing bad things, they just talk about it. Gogol feels the obligation to tell the whole truth.
This is how two inhabitants of a peaceful corner spent their lives, who unexpectedly, as if from a window, looked out at the end of our poem, looked out in order to respond modestly to the accusation from some ardent patriots, until time calmly engaged in some philosophy or increments on the account of sums tenderly their beloved fatherland, thinking not about not doing bad, but about not saying that they are doing bad. But no, it is not patriotism or the first feeling that are the reasons for the accusations; another is hidden under them. Why hide the word? Who, if not the author, should tell the holy truth?
In addition to reflecting on creativity and the purpose of the writer, Gogol devotes one lyrical digression to the main “instrument” of his work - the Russian word. He admires the “aptly spoken Russian word,” and seems to see in it the main dignity of the Russian people. The speech of no other nation can compete with the Russian word.
Just as a countless number of churches, monasteries with domes, domes, and crosses are scattered throughout holy, pious Rus', so a countless number of tribes, generations, and peoples crowd, motley, and rush about the face of the earth. And every nation, bearing within itself a guarantee of strength, full of the creative abilities of the soul, its bright features and other gifts of God, each in its own way distinguished itself with its own word, with which, expressing any object, it reflects part of its own character in its expression. The word of a Briton will echo with heart knowledge and wise knowledge of life; The short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash and spread like a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own, not accessible to everyone, clever and thin word; but there is no word that would be so sweeping, would burst out so smartly from under the very heart, would seethe and vibrate so quickly as something aptly said Russian word.
In his lyrical digressions, Gogol is able to very subtly notice all the features of the Russian character. The main thing in them is that the writer very objectively perceives and sees the Russian people. The author also notices a certain dreaminess of the man, who is capable of philosophizing over the most empty subjects; The Russian peasant is characterized by superstitiousness, which often only prevents him from working; and at the same time, how wonderfully Gogol describes the men-craftsmen, gifted, wonderful workers-heroes.
Sobakevich’s register was striking in its extraordinary completeness and thoroughness; not a single one of the man’s qualities was omitted; about one it was said: “a good carpenter”, to the other it was added: “he understands the business and does not get drunk.” It was also indicated in detail who the father was and who the mother was, and what behavior both had; Only one Fedotov had it written: “the father is unknown, but was born from a courtyard girl, Capitolina, but of good character and not a thief.” All these details gave a special kind of freshness: it seemed as if the men were alive just yesterday.
Gogol believes in the high destiny of Russia, since the Russian people have a lively and lively mind. “... the lively and lively Russian mind, which does not reach into its pocket for a word, does not hatch it like a hen, but sticks it right away, like a passport on an eternal sock...”
The closer the first volume of the poem “Dead Souls” moves towards its completion, the longer and more penetrating the lyrical digressions become. In them, like in a huge mosaic, the image of Rus' is assembled more and more fully. The last lyrical digressions are dedicated to her, each of which looks like a small prose poem. The author addresses Rus' from “beautiful distance.” From Gogol’s biography it follows that by “beautiful distance” he means Italy, the country that he considered his spiritual homeland and where he wrote most of the poem. However, from the text it seems that it is located somewhere very high: the author seems to be looking at Rus' from the sky, seeing its vast fields, open spaces, voids. Rus' lies before him like an open book. Gogol admires the Russian land, the beauty of which lies in the simplicity and extraordinary harmony of nature and the spirit of the people themselves. This beauty fascinates the author, just as it fascinates every truly Russian person. And Gogol literally screams: “Rus! But what an incomprehensible, secret power attracts you! Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and resounded incessantly in your souls! What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs you by the heart? Rus! What do you want from me? Why are you looking like that, and why did everything in you turn your eyes full of expectation to me?...”
And it seems that this song of Rus', perceived by Gogol the artist, is embodied in his immortal poem. Rus' itself forces him to write, turning her gaze to him, full of expectation.
Gogol admires the vast expanses of Russia: “What does this immense expanse prophesy! Isn’t it here, isn’t limitless thoughts born in you, when you yourself are endless! Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place for him to turn around and walk?” And really, what lies in these vast expanses of Russia!
Russia is a land beloved by God, but it also faces the most severe trials. But Rus' is reckless about its destiny, how many times has Russia stood on the edge of the abyss!
Finally, the poem ends with the author’s speech, extraordinary in strength and lyricism, about Rus', about its historical path and future destiny. This lyrical digression combines all the themes that worried the author throughout the poem: the themes of movement, the road, the Russian soul and Russian ingenuity, the role of Russia in the fate of humanity. He compares Rus' to a troika bird.
Ek, three! bird three, who invented you? to know, you could only have been born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but has spread out smoothly across half the world, and go ahead and count the miles until it hits your eyes. And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not grabbed by an iron screw, but hastily equipped and assembled alive by an efficient Yaroslavl man with only an ax and a chisel. The driver is not wearing German boots: he has a beard and mittens, and sits on God knows what; but he stood up, swung, and began to sing - the horses like a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed into one smooth circle, only the road trembled, and a pedestrian who stopped screamed in fear - and there she rushed, rushed, rushed!.. And there you can already see in the distance, like something is gathering dust and drilling into the air.
The lyrical and epic plots of the poem are miraculously combined. It seems that Chichikov’s chaise has imperceptibly turned into a “brisk, irresistible troika” and is galloping through the air. There is something frightening and beautiful at the same time in this vision: she rushes “all inspired by God,” but, at the same time, does not give an answer to where she is rushing.
The poem ends on an optimistic note. At the end, the image of the road appears again, but this road is no longer the life of one person, but the fate of the entire Russian state.
Is it not so for you, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika? The road beneath you smokes, the bridges rattle, everything falls behind and is left behind. Stopped amazed God's miracle Contemplator: Isn’t this lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power is contained in these horses, unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once tensed their copper chests and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into just elongated lines flying through the air, and all inspired by God rushes!.. Rus', where are you rushing? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing;
The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.
And although to the question: “Rus, where are you rushing?” - the author does not find an answer, he is confident in Russia, because “other peoples and states, looking askance, step aside and give her way.”
There are few lyrical digressions in Gogol’s poem; they make up a smaller part of it. However, it is precisely due to these beautiful, inspiredly written lines that the poem becomes a poem, it begins to sound lyrical beginning. The lyrical digressions reflect the author’s dreams and thoughts about life, the change of generations, an ideal Russia, where heroes are born and spiritually rich people live. Gogol believed that someday this beloved “wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth” would become like this. One can only marvel at the perspicacity of the author, who was able to see in his distant past what would happen. Only a fiery patriot, like Gogol, was able to see and show the whole world what awaits Russia. And we, reading his works, admiring his humor, purity and depth of thoughts and language, learn from the writer to love his homeland, to be useful to it.
So, we see that the author’s digressions help Gogol create full picture reality of Russia, turning the book into a real “encyclopedia of Russian life” of the mid-19th century. It is the digressions, where the writer not only paints scenes of everyday life of various strata of the Russian population, but also expresses his thoughts, thoughts and hopes, that make it possible to realize the author's plan. “All Rus' has appeared” is abundant in this work.
References
N.V.Gogol. Collected works. T 5 “Dead Souls” - M. “ Fiction", 1978;
Gogol in the memoirs of his contemporaries. - M., 1962;
Gukovsky G.A. Gogol's realism. - M.; L., 1959;
Mashinsky S.P. The artistic world of Gogol. - M., 1971;
Zapadov A.S. In the depth of the line. - M., 1975;
Zolotussky I.P. Gogol. - M., 1979;
Zolnikova V.I. Independent work of students on literary works. - M., 1978.
Kozak Nadezhda Vasilievna, teacher of Russian language and literature
MBOU "Secondary School No. 2" Tarko-Sale, highest category.
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Purovsky district, Tarko-Sale.
Lyrical digressions in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.
Goals: develop the skill of commentary and analytical reading;
improve the skills of understanding the ideological and artistic meaning of lyrical digressions as integral plot and compositional elements, expressive means of depicting the image of the author, expressing his position;
develop proficient reading skills;
cultivate a love and interest in literature.
Equipment: portrait of N. V. Gogol, presentation, tables for working on agricultural storage.
Behind the dead souls are living souls.
A. I. Herzen
(1 slide)
DURING THE CLASSES
I. Organizational moment.
1. Greeting from the teacher.
(2nd slide) Hello guys. Today in class we are finishing our study of N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” This does not mean that we will put an end to our acquaintance with the work and personality of the writer. What sign we will close the conversation with will be decided at the end of the lesson.
Let's remember howN.V. Gogol began working on the creation of “Dead Souls” in 1835.
(3rd slide) But soon after the production of The Inspector General, hounded by the reactionary press, Gogol left for Germany. Then he travels to Switzerland and France, continuing to work on
"Dead souls."During his visit to Russia in 1839–40, he read to friends chapters from the first volume of Dead Souls, which was completed in Rome in 1840–41. (
4 slide) It is known that the writer planned to create a large poem like “ Divine Comedy» Dante. The first part (volume 1) was supposed to correspond to “Hell”, the second (volume 2) to “Purgatory”, the third (volume 3) to “Paradise”. The writer thought about the possibility of Chichikov's spiritual rebirth.
2. Record the date, topic of the lesson, epigraph in a notebook.
Key words will be in our conversation todaywords from the title of the lesson topic.
II. The main part of the lesson.
(5 slide) Gogol’s book “Dead Souls” can rightfully be called a poem. This right is given by the special poetry, musicality, and expressiveness of the language of the work, saturated with such figurative comparisons and metaphors that can only be found in poetic speech. And most importantly, the constant presence of the author makes this work lyrical-epic.
(6 slide) Everything is permeated with lyrical digressions artistic canvas"Dead Souls". It is lyrical digressions that determine the ideological, compositional and genre originality Gogol's poems, its poetic beginning associated with the image of the author. As the plot develops, new lyrical digressions appear, each of which clarifies the idea of the previous one, develops new ideas, and increasingly clarifies the author's intention.
It is noteworthy that “dead souls” are unevenly filled with lyrical digressions. Until the fifth chapter there are only minor lyrical insertions, and only at the end of this chapter the author places the first major lyrical digression about the “myriad number of churches” and how “the Russian people express themselves strongly.”
III. Exploratory conversation based on the implementation of individual homework
1. Quick survey
Students talk about the topic of lyrical digressions.
(7 slide) Lyrical digression is an extra-plot element of the work; compositional and stylistic device, which consists in the author’s retreat from the direct plot narrative; author's reasoning, reflection, statement expressing an attitude towards the depicted or having an indirect relation to it. Lyrically, the digressions in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” introduce a life-giving, refreshing beginning, highlight the content of the pictures of life that appear before the reader, and reveal the idea.
2. Comparative work with a reference table
(8 slide) Lyrical digressions in the poem n. V. Gogol “Dead Souls”
Chapter 1 About “thick” and “thin”.
Chapter 2 About which characters are easier for a writer to portray.
Chapter 3 About the various shades and subtleties of circulation in Rus'.
Chapter 4 About gentlemen of great and middle hand; about the survivability of nostrils.
Chapter 5 About the “sweeping, lively Russian word.”
Chapter 6 About passing life, youth, lost “youth and freshness”; “terrible”, “inhuman” old age.
Chapter 7 About two types of writers and the fate of a satirical writer; the fate of the peasants bought by Chichikov.
Chapter 11 Appeal to Rus'; reflections on the road, on why the author could not take a virtuous person as a hero; “Rus is a bird-three.”
“About fat and thin officials” (1ch); the author resorts to generalizing the images of civil servants. Self-interest, bribery, veneration of rank are their characteristic features. The contrast between thick and thin, which seems at first glance, actually reveals common negative traits both of them.
“About the shades and subtleties of our treatment” (chap. 3); speaks of ingratiation to the rich, respect for rank, self-humiliation of officials in front of their superiors and an arrogant attitude towards subordinates.
4. Ideological and thematic analysis of the lyrical digression.
About the “sweeping, lively Russian word”
What does the “sweeping, lively Russian word” indicate?
How does it characterize the people?
Why does Gogol place this digression at the end of the fifth chapter, dedicated to Sobakevich?
Conclusion. Language and words reveal the essential characteristics of the character of each people. The “loose” Russian word reveals the lively and lively mind of the people, their observation, ability to accurately and accurately characterize the whole person in one word. It is evidence of the living soul of the people, not killed by oppression, a pledge of its creative powers and abilities.
“About the Russian people and their language” (chapter 5); the author notes that the language and speech of a people reflects its national character; A feature of the Russian word and Russian speech is amazing accuracy.
“About two types of writers, about their destiny and destinies” (chapter 7); the author contrasts a realist writer and a romantic writer, indicates the characteristic features of the work of a romantic writer, and talks about the wonderful destiny of this writer. Gogol writes with bitterness about the lot of a realist writer who dared to portray the truth. Reflecting on the realist writer, Gogol determined the meaning of his work.
“Much has happened in the world of error” (chap. 10); a lyrical digression about the world chronicle of mankind, about its errors is a manifestation of the writer’s Christian views. All of humanity has wandered away from the straight path and is standing on the edge of an abyss. Gogol points out to everyone that the straight and bright path of humanity consists in following moral values, embedded in Christian teaching.
"About the expanses of Rus', national character and about the bird three"; the final lines of “Dead Souls” are connected with the theme of Russia, with the author’s thoughts about the Russian national character, about Russia as a state. The symbolic image of the bird-troika expressed Gogol’s faith in Russia as a state destined for a great historical mission from above. At the same time, there is an idea about the originality of Russia’s path, as well as the idea about the difficulty of foreseeing specific forms promising development Russia.
3. Statement of a problematic question.
Teacher. Why did the writer need lyrical digressions?
What caused their need for an epic work written in prose?
The lyrical digressions express the widest range of the author’s moods.
Admiration for the accuracy of the Russian word and the liveliness of the Russian mind at the end of chapter 5 is replaced by a sad and elegiac reflection on the passing of youth and maturity, on the “loss of living movement” (the beginning of the sixth chapter).
(9 slide) At the end of this digression, Gogol directly addresses the reader: “Take it with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, bitter courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later! The old age coming ahead is terrible, terrible, and nothing gives back and back!
(10 slide) 4. An expressive prepared reading of a passage about Rus' - the “three bird” and an analyzing conversation on it.
The image of the road that runs through the entire work is very important in lyrical digressions.
(11 slide) - What do the expressions “with a singing voice”, “the horses stirred up”, “a light chaise” mean?
How is the breadth of the Russian soul revealed, its desire for rapid movement? What visual means does the writer use to convey this movement, which is more like flight?
What does the comparison of a troika with a bird mean? Make an associative series for the word “bird”.
(Bird - flight, height, freedom, joy, hope, love, future...)\
Expand the metaphorical image of the road? What other images have a metaphorical meaning?
Why did Gogol answer his question: “Rus, where are you rushing?” - does not receive an answer?
What does Gogol mean when he says: “...other peoples and states sidestep and give her way”?
Conclusion. Thus, two of the most important themes of the author’s reflections – the theme of Russia and the theme of the road – merge in a lyrical digression that ends the first volume of the poem. “Rus'-troika,” “all inspired by God,” appears in it as the vision of the author, who seeks to understand the meaning of its movement; “Rus, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer."
(12 slide) Lyrical digressions not only expand and deepen its meaning, revealing the grandiose appearance of “all Rus',” but also help to more clearly present the image of its author - a true patriot and citizen. It was the lyrical pathos of the affirmation of the great creative forces of the people and faith in the happy future of the homeland that gave him the basis to call his work a poem.
Exercise. Now we will divide you into pairs; in front of each pair on the desk there is a table with a task. Your task is to add to the table in 3-5 minutes the means of expression that the author used in a certain digression.
This activity will help you review and reflect on the impact artistic means not only in poetic, but also in epic works. You and I are preparing for an exam in the GIA format; in Part A there is a task related to finding a means of expression. Today's work will help, I hope, to better and more clearly find and distinguish paths and figures.
Let's see what you came up with. Read your passages, give examples of the means of expression proposed to you.
So what did Gogol want to tell us in his digressions? A question, like all questions, to which you and I probably will not give a direct answer, just as Gogol could not give an answer to many of the questions posed in the poem.
Gogol's thoughts about the fate of the people are inseparable from thoughts about the fate of his homeland. Tragically experiencing the situation of Russia, given over to the power of “dead souls,” the writer turns his bright and optimistic hopes to the future. But, believing in the great future of his homeland, Gogol, however, did not clearly imagine the path that should lead the country to power and prosperity.
(13 slide) He appears in lyrical digressions as a prophet bringing the light of knowledge to people: “Who, if not the author, should tell the holy truth?”
But, as it has been said, there are no prophets in their own country. The author’s voice, sounded from the pages of the lyrical digressions of the poem “Dead Souls,” was heard by few of his contemporaries, and even less was understood by them. Gogol later tried to convey his ideas in the artistic and journalistic book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”, and in the “Author’s Confession”, and - most importantly - in subsequent volumes of the poem. But all his attempts to reach the minds and hearts of his contemporaries were in vain. Who knows, maybe only now the time has come to discover Gogol’s real word, and it’s up to us to do this.
Your home. The task will be to answer the question: how do I imagine N.V. Gogol after reading the poem “Dead Souls”?
1 group. Lyrical digression in chapter 6, beginning with the words: “Before, long ago, in the summer... I was amazed...”
following something
(words in a sentence, plot elements).
2Repetitions (repetitions of words or
cognate words, roots).
3 Appeals, exclamations.
4Parcellation (technique of dividing a phrase into
parts or even individual words in the form
independent incomplete sentence.
Its goal is to give speech intonation
expression by
5Name sentences.
6Synonyms
7Antonyms (words with opposite meanings).
8 Homogeneous members (syntactic means:
words with the meaning of listing facts,
events).
9Comparisons (one item is compared
with another).
10Metaphorical epithets (metaphor -
to the subject).
11Sound writing: alliteration (repetition
identical or homogeneous consonants).
12Sound writing: Assonance (consonance of vowel sounds).
2nd group. Lyrical digression in chapter 5 with the words: “It is expressed strongly Russian people!»
Expressive means Examples
1Inversion - changing the usual order
plot elements).
2Repetitions (repetitions of words
or cognate words, roots).
3 Appeals, exclamations.
4Gradation.
5Synonyms (words close in meaning).
artistic medium,
using a word figuratively
to define any object or
a phenomenon similar to it in certain features
or
attitude towards the subject).
8Colloquial speech.
9Phraseological units.
3rd group. A lyrical digression in chapter 11 with the words: “And what kind of Russian doesn’t like driving fast!... for a month some seem motionless.”
Expressive means Examples
1Inversion - changing the usual order
following something (words in a sentence,
plot elements).
2Repetitions (repetitions of words or
cognate words, roots).
3 Appeals, exclamations.
4Synonyms (words close in meaning).
5Gradation.
6Personifications (inanimate object
endowed with living qualities).
7Metaphorical epithets (metaphor -
artistic medium,
using a word figuratively
to define any object or
a phenomenon similar to it in certain features
or by the parties; epithet – colorful adjective,
attitude towards the subject).
8Colloquial speech.
9Rhetorical questions.
10Antonyms.
11Parcellation (method of division
her abrupt pronunciation).
4th group. Lyrical digression in chapter 11 with the words: “Eh, three! The bird is a troika and drills into the air.”
Expressive means Examples
1Inversion - changing the usual
the order of something (words)
in a sentence, plot elements).
2Repetitions (repetitions of words or
cognate words, roots).
3 Appeals, exclamations.
4Hyperbole.
5Gradation.
6Personifications (inanimate object
endowed with living qualities).
7Metaphorical epithets (metaphor -
artistic medium,
using a word figuratively
to define any object or
a phenomenon similar to it in certain features
or by the parties; epithet – colorful adjective,
attitude towards the subject).
8Colloquial speech.
9Rhetorical questions.
10Sayings, catchphrases.
11Parcellation. (Method of dividing a phrase
into parts or even individual words
as an independent incomplete sentence.
Its goal is to give speech intonation expression
by its abrupt pronunciation).
12Anaphora (same beginning of sentences).
5 group. A lyrical digression in chapter 11 with the words: “Aren’t you, too, Rus', so lively…”
Expressive means Examples
1Repetitions (repetitions of words or
cognate words, roots).
2 Appeals, exclamations.
3Synonyms.
4Metaphorical epithets (metaphor -
artistic medium,
using a word figuratively
to define an object
or a phenomenon similar to it in some ways
features or sides; epithet – colorful
adjective used to express
5Rhetorical questions.
phrases into parts or even into separate ones
words as independent incomplete
offers. Its goal is to give speech
intonation expression by
abrupt pronunciation.)
7Anaphora (same beginning
proposals).
6 group. A lyrical digression in chapter 11 with the words: “Rus! Rus!…"
Expressive means Examples
1Personifications.
2 Appeals, exclamations.
3Reps.
4Metaphorical epithets
parties; epithet – colorful adjective,
attitude towards the subject).
5Rhetorical questions.
6Parcellation. (Method of dismemberment
phrases into parts or even into separate ones
words as independent incomplete
offers. Its goal is to give speech
intonation expression by
her abrupt pronunciation).
7 Anaphora (same beginning
proposals).
Group 7, chapter 1 “About thick and thin.”
Expressive means Examples
1Repetitions (repetitions of words or
cognate words, roots).
2Metaphorical epithets
(metaphor is a means of artistic
figurativeness, use of words
in a figurative sense to define
any object or phenomenon,
similar to it in certain features or
parties; epithet – colorful adjective,
attitude towards the subject).
3 Appeals, exclamations.
4Synonyms, antonyms
5Rhetorical questions,
Exclamations.
6.Antithesis (opposition)
“Lyrical digressions” in N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”
“Dead Souls” is a lyric-epic work - a prose poem that combines two principles: epic and lyrical. The first principle is embodied in the author’s plan to paint “all of Rus',” and the second - in the author’s lyrical digressions related to his plan, which form an integral part of the work.
The epic narrative in “Dead Souls” is continually interrupted by lyrical monologues of the author, assessing the character’s behavior or reflecting on life, art, Russia and its people, as well as touching on topics such as youth and old age, the purpose of the writer, which help to learn more about the spiritual world of the writer, about his ideals.
Highest value have lyrical digressions about Russia and the Russian people. Throughout the entire poem, the author’s idea of a positive image of the Russian people is affirmed, which merges with the glorification and celebration of the homeland, which expresses the author’s civic-patriotic position.
Thus, in the fifth chapter, the writer praises the “lively and lively Russian mind”, his extraordinary ability for verbal expressiveness, that “if he rewards a slant with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will take it with him both to the service and to retirement , and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world.” Chichikov was led to such reasoning by his conversation with the peasants, who called Plyushkin “patched” and knew him only because he did not feed his peasants well.
Gogol felt the living soul of the Russian people, their daring, courage, hard work and love for a free life. In this regard, the author’s reasoning, put into Chichikov’s mouth, about serfs in the seventh chapter is of deep significance. What appears here is not a generalized image of Russian men, but specific people with real features, described in detail. This is the carpenter Stepan Probka - “a hero who would be fit for the guard,” who, according to Chichikov’s assumption, walked all over Rus' with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders. This is the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who studied with a German and decided to get rich instantly by making boots from rotten leather, which fell apart in two weeks. At this point, he abandoned his work, started drinking, blaming everything on the Germans, who did not allow Russian people to live.
Next, Chichikov reflects on the fate of many peasants bought from Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Manilov and Korobochka. But here is the idea of “revelry” folk life” did not coincide so much with the image of Chichikov that the author himself takes the floor and, on his own behalf, continues the story, the story of how Abakum Fyrov walks on the grain pier with barge haulers and merchants, having worked out “to one song, like Rus'.” The image of Abakum Fyrov indicates the love of the Russian people for a free, wild life, festivities and fun, despite the hard life of serfdom, the oppression of landowners and officials.
In lyrical digressions appears tragic fate enslaved people, downtrodden and socially humiliated, which was reflected in the images of Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, the girl Pelageya, who could not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra. Behind these images and pictures of folk life lies the deep and broad soul of the Russian people.
The love for the Russian people, for the homeland, the patriotic and sublime feelings of the writer were expressed in the image of the troika created by Gogol, rushing forward, personifying the mighty and inexhaustible forces of Russia. Here the author thinks about the future of the country: “Rus, where are you rushing?” He looks into the future and does not see it, but as a true patriot he believes that in the future there will be no Manilovs, Sobakeviches, Nozdrevs, Plyushkins, that Russia will rise to greatness and glory.
The image of the road in the lyrical digressions is symbolic. This is the road from the past to the future, the road along which the development of each person and Russia as a whole takes place.
The work ends with a hymn to the Russian people: “Eh! troika! Bird-three, who invented you? You could have been born among a lively people...” Here, lyrical digressions perform a generalizing function: they serve to expand the artistic space and to create a holistic image of Rus'. They reveal positive ideal the author - people's Russia, which is opposed to landowner-bureaucratic Rus'.
But, in addition to lyrical digressions glorifying Russia and its people, the poem also contains reflections of the lyrical hero on philosophical themes, for example, about youth and old age, the vocation and purpose of a true writer, about his fate, which are somehow connected with the image of the road in the work. So, in the sixth chapter, Gogol exclaims: “Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!..” Thus, the author wanted to say that all the best things in life are connected precisely with youth and one should not forget about it, as the landowners described in the novel did, becoming “ dead souls" They do not live, but exist. Gogol calls for preserving a living soul, freshness and fullness of feelings and remaining like that for as long as possible.
Sometimes, reflecting on the transience of life, on changing ideals, the author himself appears as a traveler: “Before, long ago, in the summer of my youth... it was fun for me to drive up to an unfamiliar place for the first time... Now I indifferently drive up to any unfamiliar village and I look indifferently at her vulgar appearance; It’s unpleasant to my chilled gaze, it’s not funny to me... and my motionless lips keep an indifferent silence. O my youth! Oh my freshness!”
To recreate the completeness of the author’s image, it is necessary to talk about lyrical digressions in which Gogol talks about two types of writers. One of them “never once changed the sublime structure of his lyre, did not descend from its top to his poor, insignificant brothers, and the other dared to call out everything that is every minute before the eyes and which indifferent eyes do not see.” The lot of a real writer, who dared to truthfully recreate a reality hidden from the eyes of the people, is such that, unlike a romantic writer, absorbed in his unearthly and sublime images, he is not destined to achieve fame and experience the joyful feelings of being recognized and sung. Gogol comes to the conclusion that the unrecognized realist writer, satirist writer will remain without participation, that “his field is harsh, and he bitterly feels his loneliness.”
The author also talks about “connoisseurs of literature” who have their own idea of the purpose of a writer (“It’s better to present to us the beautiful and fascinating”), which confirms his conclusion about the fate of two types of writers.
So, lyrical digressions occupy a significant place in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”. They are remarkable from a poetic point of view. In them one can discern the beginnings of a new literary style, which would later acquire bright life in the prose of Turgenev and especially in the works of Chekhov.
Lyrical digressions in "Dead Souls"
Lyrical digressions in "Dead Souls". With every word of the poem, the reader can say: “Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia!” This Russian spirit is felt in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping power of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions... V. G.
Belinsky I know; If I now open “Dead Souls” at random, the volume will open as usual on page 231... “Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection is hidden between us? Why are you looking like that, and why did everything that is in you turn its eyes full of expectation to me?..
And still, full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and already a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains, has overshadowed my head, and my thought has become numb before your space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place for him to turn around and walk? And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; My eyes lit up with unnatural power: Ooh!
what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus!" This is a favorite. Read and re-read a hundred times. Therefore, the volume always opens itself on page 231...
Why this? Why not this: “Eh, three!..” Or: “God, how good you are sometimes, long, long way!” Or... No, it's still this.
Here he is. Gogol, embraced by the “mighty space” of Rus', which was reflected in its depth with “terrible power”... And what depth did the immortal writer give to the words that reflected all his “sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth...”. This is the “incomprehensible connection” between talent and the land that nurtured this talent.
“In “Dead Souls” his subjectivity is felt and tangibly revealed everywhere... which in the artist reveals a person with a warm heart... which does not allow him with apathetic indifference to be alien to the world he draws, but forces him to carry it through his soul live phenomena outside world, and through that I can breathe my soul into them... The predominance of subjectivity, penetrating and animating Gogol’s entire poem, reaches high lyrical pathos and covers the reader’s soul with refreshing waves...” (V.
G. Belinsky). Reading the lyrical digressions (and not only them, but the entire poem) for the first time, without knowing the name of the author, you can confidently say: “Wrote by a Russian.” What precise expressions, the very construction of phrases, deep and extensive knowledge of the land you are writing about! Truly Russian (smooth, slightly sad, rich in the most subtle shades of mood) poetry.
You have to be a poet like Gogol was to write such a poem in prose! In “Dead Souls” Gogol became “a Russian national poet in the entire space of this word” (V. G. Belinsky). Poet?
Poem? Yes. Poet. And a poem. It was not for nothing that Gogol called his brainchild a poem. Neither in a story, nor in a novel, nor in a novel can the author so freely intrude his “I” into the course of the narrative.
The digressions in Dead Souls are of great value. They are valuable for their highly artistic quality, the extreme self-expression of the author, and their relevance in a particular context. Gogol ironically talks about “fat” and “thin” representatives of the nobility, about “gentlemen big hands” and “gentlemen of the middle class,” speaks of the Russian word and Russian song. All this is subtly and skillfully woven into the plot of the work. Remember the beginning of chapter six?
“Before, long ago, in the years of my youth...” Remember: “... O my youth! oh my freshness! And a few pages later: “Near one of the buildings Chichikov soon noticed a figure... The dress she was wearing was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap, like the kind worn by village courtyard women “Only one voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for a woman.”
Bah, it’s Plyushkin! Well, this “hole in humanity” looks pathetic against the backdrop of such a lyrical passage! And between two beautiful retreats (“Rus! Rus'! I see you...
” and “How strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road!”), which at the beginning of the eleventh chapter sounds with a nightmarish dissonance: “Hold, hold, fool!” - Chichikov shouted to Selifan. “Here I fell! - shouted a courier with a mustache as long as he was galloping towards.
Don’t you see, the devil take your soul: it’s a government carriage!” The vulgarity, emptiness, baseness of life emerge even more clearly against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast was used by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile traits of the heroes of Dead Souls. This is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem.
But the most important thing is that many of the author’s views on art and relationships between people are expressed in lyrical digressions. From these short passages you can get so much warmth, so much love for your native people and everything created by them, so much smart and necessary things that you can’t get out of some multi-volume novels. Gogol brought to the pages of the book “all the terrible, amazing mud of little things, all the depth of everyday characters...”. Gogol, with the strong force of an inexorable chisel, exposed the boring, vulgar little things of life in a convex and bright way for the whole people to see and ridiculed them in the proper way.
And here is the road. The way Gogol paints it: “A clear day, autumn leaves, cold air... tighter in our travel overcoat, a hat over our ears, let’s snuggle closer and more comfortably into the corner!.. God! how beautiful you are sometimes, long, long way!
How many times, like someone dying and drowning, have I grabbed onto you, and every time you generously carried me out and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt...” Honestly, I just want to get ready and go on the road. But now they travel a little differently: by train, by plane, by car. Only steppes, forests, cities, stops, and clouds sparkling under the sun would flash before our eyes.
Our country is wide, there is something to see! “Isn’t it like that, too, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika?..” Rus is rushing, always moving towards the better. She is already beautiful, Rus', but is there a limit to the best, is there a limit to a human dream? And is this “unknown distance to the earth” familiar to us now?
Familiar in many ways. But she still has a lot ahead of her, which we will not see. It is impossible to analyze each lyrical digression separately, it is impossible to short essay evaluate each passage: in “Dead Souls” there are many large and non-verbose author’s digressions, assessments, comments, each of which requires and deserves special attention. They cover many topics. But the common thing is that from each digression we see one of the features of a writer dear to our memory, as a result of which we get the opportunity to draw the image of a true humanist, a patriotic writer.
___________________________________________________________________________
N. V. Gogol’s poem combines two principles - a satirical denunciation of the socio-political reality of the writer’s time and the affirmation of goodness, beauty and creativity as the foundations of existence. The first of them is associated with a series of events, and the second is presented primarily in lyrical digressions.
The author gives in the poem a detailed description of the social life of Russia, shows, using the example of six landowners and a dozen officials, the depressing moral state of the privileged part of Russian society, but at the same time, in his digressions, speaks of the original beauty human soul, glorifies the creative powers of the Russian people, expresses faith in the great future of Russia.
The idea of the initially pure and good nature of man is one of the leading motives in the writer’s worldview. The pain of a person who has completely lost his spirituality is heard with particular emotional force in the author’s commentary dedicated to Plyushkin (sixth chapter): “And to what insignificance, pettiness, and disgust a person could descend! And does this seem true? Everything seems to be true, everything can happen to a person. Today’s fiery young man would recoil in horror if he were shown a portrait of himself in old age.”
Further, the author indicates the only path that can save the soul from decay and will not allow a person to become a living dead like Plyushkin: “Take it with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave they’re on the road, you won’t pick them up later!” The author prefaces the episode associated with Plyushkin with elegiac memories of his own youth, of the years of “irrevocably flashed childhood.” The writer complains that his soul did not escape the deadening influence of time - after all, before, every new impression struck him, “nothing escaped fresh, subtle attention.” Connected with the theme of youth is a fleeting reflection on the meaning of dreams and the “brilliant joy” that illuminates life, in connection with the description of Chichikov’s chance meeting on the road with a young blonde.
Gogol was convinced that only through the denial of the ugly and ugly can the path be paved to an awareness of the true foundations of life. This position of the author is reflected in a lyrical digression at the beginning of the seventh chapter. If the writer’s goal is to create beautiful characters, hiding “the sad things in life,” to win applause, to soar above the world (“He has no equal in strength - he is a god!”), then “this is not the destiny, and the fate of the writer who dares to call out is different. .. all the terrible, stunning mud of little things that entangle our lives, all the depths of the cold, fragmented,
everyday characters..."
Some digressions are devoted to ridiculing “small things.” So, the writer divides everyone
officials on “fat” and “slender” ones, recognizing the greater adaptability of “fat” people to life: “Alas! fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin people. Thin... wagging here and there; their existence is somehow too easy, airy and completely unreliable. Fat people never occupy indirect places, but all are straight, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will sooner crack and bend under them, and they will not fly off.” What is being contrasted, of course, is not the physical, but the psychological properties of people. The author uses the example of “fat” and “slender” people to illustrate two types of social behavior. “Fat” people are acquirers and hoarders; what is important to them is not external brilliance and momentary fun, but a serious career, significant, large acquisitions - houses, lands (variants of this type are presented in the images of Korobochka, Sobakevich, Chichikov); The “sloppy” ones are spenders, wasters of life, who, “according to Russian custom, send away all their father’s goods on courier bags” (Nozdryov). A detail noted in passing - “by
Russian custom" - indicates a somewhat more good-natured and condescending attitude of the author towards the "thin" (spenders) than towards the "fat" (hoarders). This is confirmed by the general meaning of Chichikov’s denunciation, which combines the most disgusting features of modern Russian life: service to the “penny”, unbridled craving for acquisition.
The world of corrupt and lazy officials, stupid and greedy, spiritually dead landowners, “the type of little things” is contrasted in the poem with the romantic image of the creative, morally and spiritually healthy, gifted Russian people, the majestic image of Rus' itself.
Every people, “full of the creative abilities of the soul,” is distinguished by “each with his own word,” but, according to Gogol, “there is no word that would be so sweeping, lively, would burst out from under the very heart, would boil and vibrate so much like an aptly spoken Russian word.”
The image of the road runs through the entire poem, which Gogol fills with a variety of meanings. “Chichikov’s Road” is an alternation of successes and disasters, movement in a vicious circle, a path to nowhere. “The Author’s Road” is the road to creative comprehension of life. In the lyrical digression that concludes the poem, the image-symbol of the road reveals its main content: the author writes about the historical movement of Russia into an unknown future.
“Dead Souls” is a lyric-epic work - a prose poem that combines two principles: epic and lyrical. The first principle is embodied in the author’s plan to paint “all of Rus',” and the second - in the author’s lyrical digressions related to his plan, which form an integral part of the work.
The epic narrative in “Dead Souls” is continually interrupted by lyrical monologues of the author, assessing the character’s behavior or reflecting on life, art, Russia and its people, as well as touching on topics such as youth and old age, the purpose of the writer, which help to learn more about the spiritual world of the writer, about his ideals.
The most important are the lyrical digressions about Russia and the Russian people. Throughout the entire poem, the author’s idea of a positive image of the Russian people is affirmed, which merges with the glorification and celebration of the homeland, which expresses the author’s civic-patriotic position.
Thus, in the fifth chapter, the writer praises the “lively and lively Russian mind”, his extraordinary ability for verbal expressiveness, that “if he rewards a slant with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will take it with him both to the service and to retirement , and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world.” Chichikov was led to such reasoning by his conversation with the peasants, who called Plyushkin “patched” and knew him only because he did not feed his peasants well.
Gogol felt the living soul of the Russian people, their daring, courage, hard work and love for a free life. In this regard, the author’s reasoning, put into Chichikov’s mouth, about serfs in the seventh chapter is of deep significance. What appears here is not a generalized image of Russian men, but specific people with real features, described in detail. This is the carpenter Stepan Probka - “a hero who would be fit for the guard,” who, according to Chichikov’s assumption, walked all over Rus' with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders. This is the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who studied with a German and decided to get rich instantly by making boots from rotten leather, which fell apart in two weeks. At this point, he abandoned his work, started drinking, blaming everything on the Germans, who did not allow Russian people to live.
Next, Chichikov reflects on the fate of many peasants bought from Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Manilov and Korobochka. But the idea of “the revelry of the people’s life” did not coincide so much with the image of Chichikov that the author himself takes the floor and, on his own behalf, continues the story, the story of how Abakum Fyrov walks on the grain pier with barge haulers and merchants, having worked “under one, like Rus', a song.” The image of Abakum Fyrov indicates the love of the Russian people for a free, wild life, festivities and fun, despite the hard life of serfdom, the oppression of landowners and officials.
In the lyrical digressions, the tragic fate of the enslaved people, downtrodden and socially humiliated, is presented, which is reflected in the images of Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, the girl Pelageya, who could not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra. Behind these images and pictures of folk life lies the deep and broad soul of the Russian people.
The love for the Russian people, for the homeland, the patriotic and sublime feelings of the writer were expressed in the image of the troika created by Gogol, rushing forward, personifying the mighty and inexhaustible forces of Russia. Here the author thinks about the future of the country: “Rus, where are you rushing?” He looks into the future and does not see it, but as a true patriot he believes that in the future there will be no Manilovs, Sobakeviches, Nozdrevs, Plyushkins, that Russia will rise to greatness and glory.
The image of the road in the lyrical digressions is symbolic. This is the road from the past to the future, the road along which the development of each person and Russia as a whole takes place.
The work ends with a hymn to the Russian people: “Eh! troika! Bird-three, who invented you? You could have been born among a lively people...” Here, lyrical digressions perform a generalizing function: they serve to expand the artistic space and to create a holistic image of Rus'. They reveal the positive ideal of the author - people's Russia, which is opposed to landowner-bureaucratic Rus'.
But, in addition to lyrical digressions glorifying Russia and its people, the poem also contains reflections of the lyrical hero on philosophical topics, for example, about youth and old age, the vocation and purpose of a true writer, about his fate, which are somehow connected with the image of the road in the work . So, in the sixth chapter, Gogol exclaims: “Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!..” Thus, the author wanted to say that all the best things in life are connected precisely with youth and one should not forget about it, as the landowners described in the novel did when they became “dead souls.” They do not live, but exist. Gogol calls for preserving a living soul, freshness and fullness of feelings and remaining like that for as long as possible.
Sometimes, reflecting on the transience of life, on changing ideals, the author himself appears as a traveler: “Before, long ago, in the summer of my youth... it was fun for me to drive up to an unfamiliar place for the first time... Now I indifferently drive up to any unfamiliar village and I look indifferently at her vulgar appearance; It’s unpleasant to my chilled gaze, it’s not funny to me... and my motionless lips keep an indifferent silence. O my youth! Oh my freshness!”
To recreate the completeness of the author’s image, it is necessary to talk about lyrical digressions in which Gogol talks about two types of writers. One of them “never once changed the sublime structure of his lyre, did not descend from its top to his poor, insignificant brothers, and the other dared to call out everything that is every minute before the eyes and which indifferent eyes do not see.” The lot of a real writer, who dared to truthfully recreate a reality hidden from the eyes of the people, is such that, unlike a romantic writer, absorbed in his unearthly and sublime images, he is not destined to achieve fame and experience the joyful feelings of being recognized and sung. Gogol comes to the conclusion that the unrecognized realist writer, satirist writer will remain without participation, that “his field is harsh, and he bitterly feels his loneliness.”
The author also talks about “connoisseurs of literature” who have their own idea of the purpose of a writer (“It’s better to present to us the beautiful and fascinating”), which confirms his conclusion about the fate of two types of writers.
All this recreates the lyrical image of the author, who will continue to walk hand in hand with the “strange hero for a long time, looking around at the whole enormous rushing life, looking at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him!”
So, lyrical digressions occupy a significant place in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”. They are remarkable from a poetic point of view. In them one can discern the beginnings of a new literary style, which would later find a vibrant life in Turgenev’s prose and especially in the works of Chekhov.
With every word of the poem, the reader can say: “Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia!” This Russian spirit is felt in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping power of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions...
V. G. Belinsky
I know; If I now open “Dead Souls” at random, the volume will usually open at page 231...
"Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection is hidden between us? Why are you looking like that, and why has everything in you turned its eyes full of expectation on me?.. And yet, full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains, has already overshadowed my head , and the thought became numb before your space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place for him to turn around and walk? And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; My eyes lit up with unnatural power: Ooh! what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus!" This is a favorite. Read and re-read a hundred times. Therefore, the volume always opens itself on page 231...
Why this? Why not this: “Eh, three!..” Or: “God, how good you are sometimes, long, long way!” Or... No, it's still this. Here he is. Gogol, embraced by the “mighty space” of Rus', which was reflected in its depth with “terrible power”... And what depth did the immortal writer give to the words that reflected all his “sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth...”. This is the “incomprehensible connection” between talent and the land that nurtured this talent.
“In “Dead Souls” his subjectivity is felt and tangibly revealed everywhere... which in the artist reveals a person with a warm heart... which does not allow him with apathetic indifference to be alien to the world he draws, but forces him to carry it through his soul I live the phenomena of the external world, and through this I breathe my soul into them... The predominance of subjectivity, penetrating and animating Gogol’s entire poem, reaches high lyrical pathos and covers the reader’s soul with refreshing waves...” ( V. G. Belinsky).
Reading the lyrical digressions (and not only them, but the entire poem) for the first time, without knowing the name of the author, you can confidently say: “Wrote by a Russian.” What precise expressions, the very construction of phrases, deep and extensive knowledge of the land you are writing about! Truly Russian (smooth, slightly sad, rich in the most subtle shades of mood) poetry. You have to be a poet like Gogol was to write such a poem in prose! In “Dead Souls” Gogol became “a Russian national poet in the entire space of this word” (V. G. Belinsky).
Poet? Poem? Yes. Poet. And a poem. It was not for nothing that Gogol called his brainchild a poem. Neither in a story, nor in a novel, nor in a novel can the author so freely intrude his “I” into the course of the narrative.
The digressions in Dead Souls are of great value. They are valuable for their highly artistic quality, the extreme self-expression of the author, and their relevance in a particular context.
Gogol ironically talks about “thick” and “thin” representatives of the nobility, about “gentlemen of great hands” and “gentlemen of medium hands”, talks about the Russian word and Russian song. All this is subtly and skillfully woven into the plot of the work.
Remember the beginning of chapter six? “Before, long ago, in the years of my youth...” Remember: “... O my youth! oh my freshness! And a few pages later: “Near one of the buildings Chichikov soon noticed a figure... The dress she was wearing was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap, like the kind worn by village courtyard women “Only one voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for a woman.” Bah, it’s Plyushkin! Well, this “hole in humanity” looks pathetic against the backdrop of such a lyrical passage!
And between two wonderful digressions (“Rus! Rus'! I see you...” and “How strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road!”), which at the beginning of the eleventh chapter, sounds with a nightmarish dissonance: “Hold , hold on, you fool! - Chichikov shouted to Selifan. “Here I fell! - shouted a courier with a mustache as long as he was galloping towards. “Don’t you see, damn your soul: it’s a government carriage!”
The vulgarity, emptiness, baseness of life emerge even more clearly against the background of sublime lyrical lines. This technique of contrast was used by Gogol with great skill. Thanks to such a sharp contrast, we better understand the vile traits of the heroes of Dead Souls.
This is the role of lyrical digressions in the composition of the poem.
But the most important thing is that many of the author’s views on art and relationships between people are expressed in lyrical digressions. From these short passages you can get so much warmth, so much love for your native people and everything created by them, so much smart and necessary things that you can’t get out of some multi-volume novels.
Gogol brought to the pages of the book “all the terrible, amazing mud of little things, all the depth of everyday characters...”. Gogol, with the strong force of an inexorable chisel, exposed the boring, vulgar little things of life in a convex and bright way for the whole people to see and ridiculed them in the proper way.
And here is the road. The way Gogol paints it:
“Clear day, autumn leaves, cold air... tighter in your traveling overcoat, a hat over your ears, let’s snuggle closer and more comfortably into the corner!.. God! how beautiful you are sometimes, long, long way! How many times, like someone dying and drowning, have I grabbed onto you, and every time you generously carried me out and saved me! And how many wonderful ideas, poetic dreams were born in you, how many wondrous impressions were felt...” Honestly, I just want to get ready and go on the road. But now they travel a little differently: by train, by plane, by car. Only steppes, forests, cities, stops, and clouds sparkling under the sun would flash before our eyes. Our country is wide, there is something to see!
“Isn’t it like that, too, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika?..” Rus is rushing, always moving towards the better. She is already beautiful, Rus', but is there a limit to the best, is there a limit to a human dream? And is this “unknown distance to the earth” familiar to us now? Familiar in many ways. But she still has a lot ahead of her, which we will not see.
It is impossible to analyze each lyrical digression separately, it is impossible to evaluate each passage in a short essay: in “Dead Souls” there are many large and non-verbose author’s digressions, assessments, comments, each of which requires and deserves special attention. They cover many topics. But the common thing is that from each digression we see one of the features of a writer dear to our memory, as a result of which we get the opportunity to draw the image of a true humanist, a patriotic writer.
Lyrical digressions are a very important part of any work. Due to the abundance of lyrical digressions, the poem “Dead Souls” can be compared with a work in verse by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". This feature of these works is associated with their genres - a poem in prose and a novel in verse.
The lyrical digressions in “Dead Souls” are filled with the pathos of affirming a person’s high calling, the pathos of great social ideas and interests. Does the author express his bitterness and anger about the insignificance of the heroes he shows, does he talk about the writer’s place in modern society whether he writes about the living, lively Russian mind - the deep source of his lyricism are thoughts about serving his native country, about its destinies, its sorrows, its hidden, suppressed gigantic forces.
Gogol created new type prose, in which the opposite elements of creativity inextricably merged - laughter and tears, satire and lyricism. Never before, as has already been established, have they been found in one work of art.
The epic narrative in “Dead Souls” is continually interrupted by the excited lyrical monologues of the author, assessing the behavior of the character or reflecting on life and art. Genuine lyrical hero This book is Gogol himself. We constantly hear his voice. The image of the author is, as it were, an indispensable participant in all the events taking place in the poem. He carefully monitors the behavior of his heroes and actively influences the reader. Moreover, the author's voice is completely devoid of didactics, for this image is perceived from the inside, as a representative of the same reflected reality as the other characters in Dead Souls.
The author's lyrical voice reaches the greatest tension on those pages that are directly dedicated to the Motherland, Russia. Another theme is woven into Gogol’s lyrical thoughts - the future of Russia, its own historical fate and place in the destinies of humanity.
Gogol's passionate lyrical monologues were an expression of his poetic dream of undistorted, correct reality. They revealed poetic world, in contrast with which the world of profit and self-interest was exposed even more sharply. Gogol's lyrical monologues are an assessment of the present from the standpoint of the author's ideal, which can only be realized in the future.
Gogol in his poem appears, first of all, as a thinker and contemplator, trying to unravel the mysterious bird-three - the symbol of Rus'. The two most important themes of the author’s thoughts - the theme of Russia and the theme of the road - merge in a lyrical digression: “Aren’t you, too, Rus', like a brisk, unstoppable troika rushing along? ...Rus! where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer."
The theme of the road is the second the most important topic“Dead Souls”, related to the theme of Russia. The road is an image that organizes the entire plot, and Gogol introduces himself into lyrical digressions as a man of the road. “Before, long ago, in the summer of my youth... it was fun for me to drive up to an unfamiliar place for the first time... Now I indifferently approach any unfamiliar village and indifferently look at its vulgar appearance; my chilled gaze is uncomfortable, it’s not funny to me... and my motionless lips keep an indifferent silence. O my youth! O my conscience!
The most important are the lyrical digressions about Russia and the Russian people. Throughout the entire poem, the author’s idea of a positive image of the Russian people is affirmed, which merges with the glorification and singing of the homeland, which expresses the author’s civil-patriotic position: the real Russia is not the Sobakevichs, Nozdryovs and Korobochki, but the people, the national element. Thus, in the fifth chapter, the writer praises “the lively and lively Russian mind”, his extraordinary ability for verbal expressiveness, that “if he rewards a slant with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will take it with him both to the service and to retirement , and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world." Chichikov was led to such reasoning by his conversation with the peasants, who called Plyushkin “patched” and knew him only because he did not feed his peasants well.
In close contact with lyrical statements about the Russian word and national character is the author’s digression that opens the sixth chapter.
The narration about Plyushkin is interrupted by the author’s angry words, which have a deep generalizing meaning: “And a person could condescend to such insignificance, pettiness, and disgusting!”
Gogol felt the living soul of the Russian people, their daring, courage, hard work and love for a free life. In this regard, the author’s reasoning, put into Chichikov’s mouth, about serfs in the seventh chapter is of deep significance. What appears here is not a generalized image of Russian men, but specific people with real features, described in detail. This is the carpenter Stepan Probka - “a hero who would be fit for the guard,” who, according to Chichikov, walked all over Rus' with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders. This is the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who studied with a German and decided to get rich instantly by making boots from rotten leather, which fell apart in two weeks. At this point, he abandoned his work, started drinking, blaming everything on the Germans, who did not allow Russian people to live.
In the lyrical digressions, the tragic fate of the enslaved people, downtrodden and socially humiliated, is presented, which is reflected in the images of Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, the girl Pelageya, who could not distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra. Behind these images and pictures of folk life lies the deep and broad soul of the Russian people.
The image of the road in the lyrical digressions is symbolic. This is the road from the past to the future, the road along which the development of each person and Russia as a whole takes place.
The work ends with a hymn to the Russian people: “Eh! troika! Bird-three, who invented you? You could have been born among a lively people...” Here, lyrical digressions perform a generalizing function: they serve to expand the artistic space and to create a holistic image of Rus'. They reveal the positive ideal of the author - people's Russia, which is opposed to landowner-bureaucratic Rus'.
To recreate the completeness of the author’s image, it is necessary to talk about lyrical digressions in which Gogol talks about two types of writers. One of them “never once changed the sublime structure of his lyre, did not descend from his top to his poor, insignificant brothers, and the other dared to call out everything that is every minute in front of his eyes and which indifferent eyes do not see.”
The lot of a real writer, who dared to truthfully recreate a reality hidden from the eyes of the people, is such that, unlike a romantic writer, absorbed in his unearthly and sublime images, he is not destined to achieve fame and experience the joyful feelings of being recognized and sung. Gogol comes to the conclusion that the unrecognized realist writer, satirist writer will remain without participation, that “his field is harsh, and he bitterly feels his loneliness.”
Throughout the poem, lyrical passages are interspersed into the narrative with great artistic tact. At first, they are in the nature of statements by the author about his heroes, but as the action unfolds, their internal theme becomes increasingly broader and multifaceted.
We can conclude that the lyrical digressions in “Dead Souls” are filled with the pathos of affirming a person’s high calling, the pathos of great social ideas and interests. Whether the author expresses his bitterness and anger about the insignificance of the heroes he shows, whether he talks about the writer’s place in modern society, whether he writes about the living, lively Russian mind - the deep source of his lyricism is thoughts about serving his native country, about its destinies, her sorrows, her hidden, suppressed gigantic forces.
So, art space The poem “Dead Souls” consists of two worlds, which can be designated as the real world and the ideal world. Real world Gogol builds by recreating his contemporary reality, revealing the mechanism of distortion of man as an individual and the world in which he lives. The ideal world for Gogol is the height to which the human soul strives, but due to its damage by sin it does not find a way. Virtually all the heroes of the poem are representatives of the anti-world, among whom the images of landowners, led by the main character Chichikov, are especially striking. With the deep meaning of the title of the work, Gogol gives the reader a perspective on how to read his work, the logic of the vision of the characters he created, including the landowners.
