The meaning of the title of the work is dead souls. Meaning and inner fullness in the title of the poem N

In the title of the poem by N. V. Gogol “ Dead Souls” is reflected main idea works. If we take the title of the poem literally, then we can see that it contains the essence of Chichikov's scam: Chichikov bought the souls of dead peasants.
But in fact, the title contains more deep meaning reflecting author's intention the first volume of Dead Souls. There is an opinion that Gogol planned to create “Dead Souls” by analogy with “ Divine Comedy” Dante, which consists of three parts: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”. They had to correspond to the three volumes conceived by N.V. Gogol. In the first volume, N. V. Gogol wanted to show the terrible Russian reality, to recreate “hell” modern life, in the second and third volumes - the spiritual upsurge of Russia.
In himself, N.V. Gogol saw a writer-preacher who, painting a picture of the revival of Russia, brings it out of the crisis. When publishing Dead Souls, N.V. Gogol himself painted title page. He drew a carriage, which symbolizes the movement of Russia forward, and around - skulls, which symbolize the dead souls of living people. It was very important for Gogol that the book should come out with this title page.
The world of "Dead Souls" is divided into two worlds: the real world, where the main character is Chichikov, and the ideal world of lyrical digressions, in which main character- N. V. Gogol himself.
Manilov, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, the prosecutor - these are typical representatives real world. Throughout the poem, their character does not change: for example, “Nozdryov at thirty-five was the same as at eighteen and twenty.” The author constantly emphasizes the callousness and heartlessness of his characters. Sobakevich “didn’t have a soul at all, or he did have one, but not at all where it should, but, like immortal Koshchei, somewhere behind the mountains and closed with such a thick shell that everything that turned at the bottom did not produce any shock on the surface. All the officials in the city have the same frozen souls without slightest development. N.V. Gogol describes officials with malicious irony.
At first we see that life in the city is in full swing, but in reality it is just a senseless fuss. In the real world of the poem, a dead soul is a common occurrence. For these people, the soul is just what distinguishes a living person from a dead one. After the prosecutor's death, everyone guessed that he "was definitely a soul" only when "only a soulless body" remained of him.
The title of the poem is a symbol of the life of the county town N. and county town K, in turn, symbolizes the whole of Russia. NV Gogol wants to show that Russia is in crisis, that people's souls have turned to stone and died.
In an ideal world, however, there is a living soul of the narrator, and therefore it is N.V. Gogol who can notice all the vileness of the life of a sunken city. In one of the lyrical digressions, the souls of the peasants come to life when Chichikov, reading the list of the dead, resurrects them in his imagination. N.V. Gogol contrasts these living souls of peasant heroes from the ideal world with real peasants, completely stupid and weak, such as, for example, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay.
In the real world of "Dead Souls" there are only two heroes who have a truly living soul, these are Chichikov and Plyushkin.
The image of Plyushkin differs from the images of other residents of the city. In the poem, Gogol highlights the chapter with Plyushkin, it is located exactly in the middle. The chapter begins and ends with lyrical digressions, which has never happened when describing other landowners. This shows that the chapter is really important. You could say this chapter is completely out of whack. general plan. When Chichikov came to other officials to buy dead souls, everything was the same: Chichikov looked at the house, then bought the peasants, dined and left. But the chapter with Plyushkin, as it were, interrupts this monotonous chain. Only one resident of the city, Plyushkin, shows the story of his life, that is, before us is not just a person with a frozen soul, but we see how he reached such a state. Plyushkin's story is the tragedy of his life. Gradually, from each blow of fate, his soul hardened. But did his soul die to the end? At the mention of the name of his comrade on Plyushkin's face, "some kind of warm beam, it was not a feeling that was expressed, but some kind of pale reflection of a feeling. This means that something alive remained in Plyushkin, that his soul did not freeze, did not ossify at all. Plyushkin's eyes were also alive. The sixth chapter contains detailed description Plyushkin's garden, overgrown, neglected, but still alive. The garden is a kind of metaphor for Plyushkin's soul. Only Plyushkin has two churches on his estate. Of all the landowners, only Plyushkin delivers a diatribe monologue after Chichikov's departure. All this allows us to conclude that Plyushkin's soul has not completely turned to stone.
The second real world hero to have living soul, is Chichikov. His name is Paul, and this is the name of the apostle who experienced a spiritual upheaval. So Chichikov in the second volume was supposed to become an apostle, to revive the souls of people, to guide them on the true path. And already in the first volume there is a hint of this. Gogol trusts Chichikov to tell about the former heroes and by this, as it were, resurrect the peasants.
The ideal world of "Dead Souls", which appears before readers in lyrical digressions, is the exact opposite of the real world. In an ideal world, there are not and cannot be dead souls, since there are no manilovs, dogs, prosecutors. For the world of lyrical digressions, the soul is immortal, since it is the embodiment of the divine principle of man.
Thus, in the first volume of "Dead Souls" N. V. Gogol depicts all negative sides Russian reality. The writer reveals to people that their souls have become dead, and, pointing out the vices of people, thereby returns their souls to life.

"Dead Souls" can be safely called the most important and final work of Gogol. The writer worked on his creation for many years, from 1835 to 1842. Initially, the writer wanted to build his work following the example of Dante's Divine Comedy. In the first volume, Gogol wanted to describe hell, in the second - purgatory, in the third - a paradise for Russia and the heroes of the poem. Over time, the idea of ​​"Dead Souls" changed, and the title of the poem also changed. But the combination “dead souls” was always present in it. I think that Gogol put a lot of meaning into these words, they are very important for understanding the work.

So why "Dead Souls"? The first answer that comes to mind is because it has to do with the plot of the book. business man And big scammer Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov travels around Russia and buys dead revision souls. He does this, allegedly, in order to take the peasants to the Kherson province and start farming there. But in fact, Chichikov wants to receive money for the souls, pawning them in the board of trustees, and live happily ever after.

With all his energy, the hero gets down to business: "having crossed himself according to Russian custom, he began to perform." In search of dead peasant souls, Chichikov traveled through the villages of Russian landowners. Reading the description of these landowners, we gradually understand that these people are the real "dead souls." What is the most kind, very well-mannered and liberal Manilov worth! This landowner spends all his time behind empty reasoning and dreams. In real life, he turns out to be completely helpless and useless. Manilov is not interested real life, the case replaces the word. This is a completely empty person, vegetating in fruitless dreams.

Just as empty and dead is the landowner Korobochka, whom Chichikov happened to visit. Any person for this landowner is, first of all, a potential buyer. She can only talk about buying and selling, and even about her late husband. The inner world of the Box has long stopped and froze. This is evidenced by the hissing clock, and the "outdated" portraits on the walls, as well as the flies that simply filled the whole Korobochka's house.

Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin... All these landowners have long ceased to live a spiritual life, their soul has died or is on the way to complete death. No wonder the author compares the landlords with animals: Sobakevich looks like a medium-sized bear, Korobochka is depicted surrounded by birds. And Plyushkin doesn’t look like anyone or anything at all: he appears before Chichikov as a sexless creature, without age and social position.

Spiritual life is replaced among the landowners by gluttony. Korobochka is a hospitable hostess who loves to eat herself. She treats Chichikov with “mushrooms, pies, quick-thinkers, shanishkas, spinners, pancakes, flat cakes ...” Dashing Nozdryov likes to drink more than to eat. This, in my opinion, is quite consistent with his broad and daring nature.

The biggest glutton in the poem is, of course, Sobakevich. His strong, "wooden" nature requires cheesecakes the size of a plate, a lamb side with porridge, a nine-pound sturgeon, and so on.

Plyushkin, on the other hand, has reached such a degree of necrosis that he almost does not even need food. Keeping huge wealth, he eats leftovers, and even Chichikova treats them to them.

Following the movements of Pavel Ivanovich, we find more and more "dead souls". Chichikov appears in the houses of prominent officials of the city N, after buying peasants, he begins to go to various authorities, making out his purchases. And what? We understand that almost all of the officials are "dead souls". Their deadness is especially clearly visible in the ball scene. There is none here human face. Hats, tailcoats, uniforms, ribbons, muslins are circling everywhere.

Indeed, the officials are even more dead than the landowners. This is a "corporation of official thieves and robbers", taking bribes, doing nothing and profiting from the needs of petitioners. None mental interests officials do not show up. Gogol ironically remarks about the interests of these people: “some read Karamzin, some Moskovskie Vedomosti, some even didn’t read anything at all ...”

It is interesting that, while serving the soulless masters, the serfs begin to lose themselves, their souls. An example is the black-footed girl Korobochka, and the servant Chichikov - the coachman Selifan, and the peasants Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay.

It is important to note that Gogol considered the soul to be the main thing in a person. It is the soul that is divine beginning in each of us. The soul can be lost, sold, lost... Then the person becomes dead, regardless of the life of his body. A person with a "dead" soul does not bring any benefit either to the people around him or to his fatherland. Moreover, he can harm, destroy, destroy, because he does not feel anything. But, according to Gogol, the soul can be reborn.

Thus, calling his work "Dead Souls", the author, in my opinion, had in mind, first of all, living people who lost their souls, who died while still alive. Such people are useless and even dangerous. The soul is the divine part of human nature. Therefore, according to Gogol, it is necessary to fight for it.

/ / / What is the meaning of the title of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"?

The poem "" was created by N.V. Gogol for a long time. He spent about seven years writing this text. At first, the author had an idea to create something similar to the Divine Comedy. Gogol wanted to depict three worlds - hell, purgatory and paradise, which at that time triumphed in Russia. But, over the time of writing, the plot was constantly changing, and a beautiful poem appeared before us, which passed through the years and centuries.

The phrase "dead souls" was constantly present in the thoughts of the author, therefore, it became the name of the whole creative work. Why did he name his poem that way? I have multiple answers to this question.

Firstly, reading the meaning of the poem, we learn that the main character, Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich, came up with an unusually cunning plan, during which he bought dead peasant souls from the landowners and then received a monetary reward for them. That is why the author could call his poem "Dead Souls".

Reading carefully into the lines of the work, I get acquainted with the persons of the landowners who inhabited one of the Russian cities. And what do I see! These people are internally dead, although, in fact, they are still alive. Their souls have long been extinguished and extinguished. The landlords and landowners were so carried away by the process of collecting and accumulating wealth that they completely forgot about all sorts of things. human qualities and habits.

The landowner could only talk about the sale of goods. In her village, she raised birds, sold honey, flour and other products, so there was always tasty and satisfying food on her table. The inner world of this woman has long since froze and stopped, as did the old clock in her house.

The landowner was always flying in his dreams. He was sharp-tongued, fantasized a lot, but, in fact, never did anything.

He was the biggest glutton among the rest of the landowners. He loved to eat and the portions of the food were decent enough.

The landowner was so greedy and stingy that he did not even spend money on food. He ate incomprehensible leftovers, although he kept decent wealth.

Making his journey through the city of NN, Pavel Ivanovich also met with many officials who were as dead as the landlords presented above. The author does not describe their personas, because they are empty. The main principles of the work of officials are theft, bribery and idleness. Such people have no appearance, they live their lives in vain and do not bring any benefit.

It turns out that in the poem "Dead Souls", I came across several images that fit the title of the work. And it seems to me that under the concept of "dead souls", the author meant precisely living people who had long since died inside, lost their souls and all humanity. For N.V. Gogol inner world and the soul is the most important thing in a person. This is what needs to be preserved and protected within oneself.

WHAT'S THE POINT
GOGOL'S POEMS "DEAD SOULS".

Poem "The Dead"
soul" was written at a time when
Russia was dominated by serfdom.
The landlords controlled their peasants,
as things or livestock, could buy and
sell them. The wealth of the landowner
determined by the number of peasants who
belonged to him. Approximately 10
years the state produced a census of "souls".
According to the census lists, the landowners paid
peasant taxes. If between
two revisions the peasant was dying, the landowner
still paid for him as if he were alive, until
new census.

One day A.S.
Pushkin told Gogol about one rogue official,
who bought for nothing from the landowners
dead souls listed as alive.
After that, the official became very rich.
The plot greatly interested Gogol. He
conceived to paint a picture of a fortress
Russia, show what happened in it
the process of disintegration of the landlord economy.
Gogol decided to write his poem in three
volumes, in which it would be necessary to show the entire
Rus' is not "from one side", but comprehensively.
He sought to portray not only
negative feudal landlords, but
find positive ones among them. But since V
Russia at that time had no positive
landlords, the second volume of the poem was not published.

box -
housewife, but with a narrow mental
outlook. She sees nothing but
kopecks and two-kopeck pieces. ruined
landowner-squanderer Nozdrev, capable of "Lower"
the whole household in a few days.

Shown and
Sobakevich is a kulak landowner who is very
far from enlightenment, from advanced ideas
society. For the sake of profit, he is capable of
cheating, forgery, deceit. He even
manages to sell Chichikov instead of a man
woman.

The limit
moral fall is Plyushkin - "hole
on humanity." He regrets wasting his
good not only for others, but also for yourself. He
does not dine, dresses in torn clothes. TO
people he harbors mistrust and hostility,
shows cruelty and injustice to
peasants. Paternal feelings died out in him,
things for him more expensive than people. "And to