Retreats in Dead Souls. Lyrical digressions in Gogol's story Dead Souls - abstract
“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 O spiritual world writer, about his ideals.
The most important are the lyrical digressions about Russia and the Russian people. Throughout the poem, the author's idea of positive image of the Russian people, which merges with the glorification and celebration of the homeland, which expresses the author’s civil-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 living soul Russian people, their daring, courage, hard work and love for 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, drawn out 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 a deep and broad soul 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 how true patriot believes that in the future there will be no Manilovs, Sobakeviches, Nozdrev 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 artistic space and to create complete image 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 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 in one way or another connected with the image of the road in the work. So, in the sixth chapter Gogol exclaims: “Take it with you on the journey, coming out of the soft teenage 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, like this made by the landowners described in the novel, stasis “ 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.
It all recreates lyrical image author, who will go hand in hand with “ strange hero, to look around at the whole enormous rushing life, look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears!”
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.
The author's thoughts and feelings about ideal Russia are expressed in lyrical digressions filled with feeling deep patriotism and love for the Motherland and a feeling of hatred for injustice. In lyrical digressions, the writer’s thought goes far from the events in the life of the main character and covers the entire subject of the image, “all of Rus',” and even reaches a universal level. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are contrasted gloomy pictures Russian life.
Lyrical digressions, scattered throughout the poem, are organically woven into the narrative and sound like a cry of pain, indignation and delight. They touch on issues that are relevant for all times and enhance the impression of the pictures depicted. In digressions, the reader becomes acquainted with persons who do not act directly in the poem. These are gentlemen “fat” and “thin”, gentlemen “ big hands"and "middle-class", the ruler of the chancellery Ivan Petrovich, broken fellows, drunkards and brawlers and others. These episodic faces are drawn by the author with two or three strokes, but they play big role. They never meet the main character, Chichikov, but help the author in creating the image of a united Rus'.
The narrative of the poem is more than once interrupted by upbeat, lyrical travel sketches and sincere conversations with the reader. In one of the most poetic places in the work, which precedes the story about the life and formation of the personality of the protagonist, the theme of the road and the future of Russia merge. In this lyrical digression, colloquial speech is intertwined with a sublime tone of speech, and the reader, along with the author, is imbued with the charm and music of the word “road” itself and a feeling of delight in nature: “What a strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful thing in the word: road ! and how wonderful it is, this road: a clear day, autumn leaves, cold air..."
The author speaks of “churches with ancient domes and blackened buildings”, “dark log and stone houses”, “fields and steppes”, “huts scattered on the slope”, soulfully conveys the feelings of a man racing in a troika: “God! how beautiful you are sometimes, long, long way! How many times, like someone dying and drowning, have I grabbed onto you, and each 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!..”
Extra-plot elements are organically included in the poem, insert episodes, scenes, paintings, author's thoughts. For example, Gogol casually sketches portraits of “thin” and “fat” officials. "Alas! Fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin people,” writes Gogol. Or a satirical portrait of a certain chancellery ruler. Among his subordinates, the ruler is “Prometheus, decisive Prometheus!.. and a little higher than him, with Prometheus, such a transformation will take place, which even Ovid would not invent: a fly, even smaller than a fly, is destroyed into a grain of sand!”
IN last chapter, which tells about the development of Chichikov’s character, the reader is again plunged into the world of vulgarity and evil. Using the example of the life of his hero, the author very accurately formulates the principles that dominate in his contemporary world: “most of all, take care and save a penny,” “hang around with those who are richer,” “please your superiors.” With undisguised irony, the writer speaks of a system of education in which abilities and talents have no value, and eternal truths are driven into the heads of young men through flogging and other punishments. The spirit of commerce and profit, which reigned in the world of the feudal nobility, penetrated into educational establishments and destroyed everything pure and poetic in the souls of young people.
However, having once again plunged into the world of self-interest and profit, Gogol again returns us to positive beginnings Russian character, inspires confidence in the bright future of his people. In a lyrical digression that concludes the story, he talks about the talent of the Yaroslavl peasant, who built a road wagon with a chisel and a hammer, about a bird or three, which originated among the lively people “in that land that does not like to joke, but was scattered evenly across half the world,” about courage and daring of a simple Russian person. The poem ends with a grandiose in its expressiveness image of the rushing Rus' - a trio of birds. In the last lyrical digression, the author emphasizes the doom of the world of officials and landowners and the belief in the limitless possibilities of the Russian people.
Throughout the entire narrative, the author draws our attention to Chichikov’s troika, more than once even indicating the names of the horses harnessed to it. Chichikov's troika is one of the main and expressive characters works. At the end of the poem, we again see Chichikov’s troika: Selifan slaps Chubari on the back, after which he breaks into a trot. The movement of the troika gradually accelerates, and the image of the troika changes its internal meaning. Instead of Chichikov's troika, a Russian troika appears, and at the same time the intonation of the narrative changes. An image appears before us native land, and the horses rush in a whirlwind, separate from the ground and turn into lines flying through the air, and instead of the troika, Rus' appears in all its rapid movement. The author’s speech is melodious, filled with emotional epithets and synonyms, metaphors and exclamations: “Rus, where are you rushing? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer." This digression contains the result of many years of Gogol’s thoughts about the fate of Russia, about the present and future of its people. After all, it is the people who oppose the world of officials, landowners, and businessmen, like a living soul against a dead one.
All topics in the book “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. Summary. Features of the poem. Essays":
Summary poem "Dead Souls": Volume one. Chapter first
Features of the poem “Dead Souls”
Lyrical digressions in Gogol's poem Dead Souls
Lyrical digressions in Gogol's poem Dead Souls
The book “Dead Souls” by Gogol can rightfully be called a poem. This right is given by the special poetry, musicality, 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.
The entire artistic canvas of “Dead Souls” is permeated with lyrical digressions. 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.
A lyrical digression about “the myriad of churches” and how “the Russian people express themselves strongly.” This author’s reasoning leads to the following thought: here not only is marksmanship glorified Russian word, but also God’s word, spiritualizing it. It seems that both the motif of the church, which appears for the first time in the poem in this chapter, and the noted parallel vernacular And God's word, indicate that it is in the lyrical digressions of the poem that some spiritual instruction of the writer is concentrated.
On the other hand, the widest range of the author’s moods is expressed in lyrical digressions. 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). At the end of this digression, Gogol directly addresses the reader: “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! The old age coming ahead is terrible, terrible, and nothing gives back and back!
A complex range of feelings is expressed in a lyrical digression at the beginning of the next seventh chapter. Comparing the fates of two writers, the author speaks with bitterness about the moral and aesthetic deafness of the “modern court”, which does not recognize that “glasses that look at the sun and convey the movements of unnoticed insects are equally wonderful”, that “high enthusiastic laughter is worthy to stand next to the high lyrical movement "
The negative sides of life, to dead souls. The author understands perfectly well what he is dooming himself to by taking the path of “exposing the crowd, its passions and delusions” - to persecution and persecution from false patriots, to rejection by his compatriots - but he courageously chooses precisely this path.
Such an ethical system forces the artist to perceive literature as a tool of correction. human vices first of all, the cleansing power of laughter, “high, enthusiastic laughter”; the modern court does not understand that this laughter “is worthy to stand next to the lofty lyrical movement and that there is a whole abyss between it and the antics of a buffoon.”
At the end of this retreat, the author’s mood changes sharply: he becomes an exalted prophet, a “formidable blizzard of inspiration” opens before his gaze, which “will rise from the chapter clothed in holy horror and splendor,” and then his readers “will feel in embarrassed trepidation the majestic thunder of other speeches "
An author who cares for Russia, who sees in his literary work the path to improving morals, instructing fellow citizens, and eradicating vice, shows us images of living souls, a people who carry within themselves a living principle. In a lyrical digression at the beginning of the seventh chapter, the peasants bought by Chichikov from Sobakevich, Korobochka, and Plyushkin come to life before our eyes. The author, as if intercepting internal monologue of his hero, speaks of them as if they were alive, showing the truly living soul of dead or runaway peasants.
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, perhaps, went all over Rus' “with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders.” This is Abakum Fyrov, who walks on the grain pier with barge haulers and merchants, having worked to the tune of “one endless song, like Rus'.” The image of Abakum indicates the love of the Russian people for a free, wild life, festivities and fun, despite the forced serf life and hard work.
In the plot part of the poem we see other examples of people who are enslaved, downtrodden and socially humiliated. Enough to remember vivid images Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya with their bustle and confusion, the girl Pelageya, who cannot distinguish between right and left, Plyushkin’s Proshka and Mavra.
But in the lyrical digressions we find the author’s dream about the ideal of a person, what he can and should be. In the final 11th chapter, a lyrical and philosophical reflection on Russia and the vocation of the writer, whose “head was overshadowed by a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains,” gives way to a panegyric for the road, a hymn to the movement - the source of “wonderful ideas, poetic dreams,” “wonderful impressions.”
So two the most important topics The author's thoughts - 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."
Horseman,” and with a rhetorical question sounding there: “And what fire is in this horse! Where are you galloping, proud horse, / And where will you land your hooves?”
A rushing country, directed towards the future, not obeying its “riders”: the formidable Peter, who “raised Russia on its hind legs”, stopping its spontaneous movement, and the “sky smokers”, whose immobility sharply contrasts with the “terrifying movement” of the country.
The high lyrical pathos of the author, whose thoughts are directed to the future, in his thoughts about Russia, its path and destiny, expressed the most important idea of the entire poem. The author reminds us of what is hidden behind the “mud of little things that entangle our lives” depicted in volume 1, behind the “cold, fragmented everyday characters that teem with our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring path.”
It is not for nothing that in the conclusion of volume 1 he speaks of “wonderful, beautiful far away", from which he looks at Russia. This is an epic distance that attracts him with its “secret power”, the distance of the “mighty space” of Rus' and the distance of historical time: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is 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 where he can turn around and walk?”
In retreats, there is no place for them: they seem to diminish, disappear, just as “dots, icons, low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains.”
Only the author himself, endowed with knowledge of true Rus', “ with terrible force"and the "unnatural power" he received from the Russian land, becomes the only true hero of volume 1 of the poem. 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.
