The images of modern officials in the poem are dead souls. Images of officials in the poem N

Officials, bred in "Dead Souls", are strong in their mutual responsibility. They feel the commonality of their interests and the need, if necessary, to defend themselves together. They have the features of a special class in a class society. They are the third force, the average acting, average statistical majority, which actually governs the country. Provincial society is alien to the concept of civil and public duties, for them a position is only a means of personal pleasure and well-being, a source of income. Bribery, servility to higher ranks, a complete lack of intelligence reign in their midst. The bureaucracy rallied into a corporation of embezzlers and robbers. Gogol wrote in his diary about the provincial society: “The ideal of the city is emptiness. Gossip that has crossed the limits. Among officials, "meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness" flourishes. Most of the officials are uneducated, empty people, living according to a pattern, who give up in a new everyday situation.
Abuses of officials are most often ridiculous, insignificant and absurd. “You do not take according to your order” - that is what is considered a sin in this world. But it is the “vulgarity of everything as a whole”, and not the size of the criminal acts, that horrifies readers. “The amazing mire of trifles,” as Gogol writes in the poem, has swallowed up modern man.

Officialdom in "Dead Souls" is not only the "flesh of the flesh" of a soulless, ugly society; it is also the foundation upon which this society rests. As long as the provincial society considers Chichikov a millionaire and a "Kherson landowner", then the officials treat the visitor accordingly. Since the governor "gave the go-ahead", then any official would immediately issue the papers necessary for Chichikov; of course, not free of charge: after all, the original habit of taking bribes from a Russian official cannot be eradicated by anything. And Gogol, with short, but unusually expressive strokes, painted a portrait of Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoye Rylo, which can be safely called a symbol of Russian bureaucracy. He appears in the seventh chapter of the poem and speaks only a few words. Ivan Antonovich is, in fact, not even a person, but a soulless “cog” in the state machine. And other officials are no better.

What is even a prosecutor worth, in which there is nothing but thick eyebrows ...
When Chichikov's scam was revealed, the officials were confused and suddenly "found ... sins in themselves." Gogol laughs angrily at how bureaucrats, mired in criminal activity, endowed with power, help the swindler in his dirty machinations, fearing their exposure.
To the greatest extent, the lack of spirituality of the state machine is shown by Gogol in The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. Faced with the bureaucratic mechanism, the war hero turns not even into a speck of dust, he turns into nothing. And in this case, the fate of the captain is unjustly decided not by the provincial semi-literate Ivan Antonovich, but by the capital's nobleman of the highest rank, who is well received by the tsar himself! But even here, at the highest state level, a simple honest person, even a hero, has nothing to hope for understanding and participation. It is no coincidence that when the poem passed the censorship, it was The Tale of Captain Kopeikin that was ruthlessly cut by the censors. Moreover, Gogol was forced to rewrite it almost anew, significantly softening the tone and smoothing out sharp corners. As a result, little remains of The Tale of Captain Kopeikin from what the author originally intended.
Gogol's city is a symbolic, "prefabricated city of the entire dark side", and bureaucracy is an integral part of it.

N.V. Gogol was outraged by the fact that officials were leading the country not to development, but to decline. That is why he portrayed them exactly as they really are. For this truth, the writer was criticized.

All officials as on selection. They are no different from each other, except that some like to chat about trifles, while others are silent, because they have nothing to say. All of them are spiritually dead, they have no interests, they do not care about the fate of ordinary people, whom they must help according to the duties assigned to them.

The world of officials is a world full of holidays, entertainment and bribes. Everyone, without exception, does nothing until they receive a reward. Their wives do not work and do nothing, from which you understand that officials make excellent money on bribes. Together they lead an idle life. Officials like to get together and play cards all day and night.

The world of officials is full of selfishness, deceit, meanness and undeserved money. This world is full of dead souls, that's what all officials were like. Here, betrayal and meanness are regarded as commonplace. Officials do not understand that they live an unworthy life. In their understanding, they have achieved a lot and occupy a high position, so they must be respected.

Images of officials in the poem "Dead Souls"
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol repeatedly addressed the topic of bureaucratic Russia. The satire of this writer affected the officials of his day in such works as The Inspector General, The Overcoat, Notes of a Madman. This theme was also reflected in N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls", where, starting from the seventh chapter, bureaucracy is in the center of attention. In contrast to the portraits of landowners depicted in detail in this work, the images of officials are given only with a few strokes. But they are so masterful that they give the reader a complete picture of what a Russian official was like in the 30s and 40s of the 19th century.
This is the governor, embroidering on tulle, and the prosecutor with thick black eyebrows, and the postmaster, wit and philosopher, and many others. The miniature portraits created by Gogol are well remembered for their characteristic details, which give a complete picture of a particular character. For example, why is the head of the province, a person holding a very responsible state position, described by Gogol as a kind man who embroiders on tulle? The reader begs the idea that he is no longer capable of anything, since he is characterized only from this side. And a busy person is unlikely to have time for such an activity. The same can be said about his subordinates.
And what do we know from the poem about the prosecutor? It is true that he, as an idle man, is sitting at home. This is how Sobakevich speaks of him. One of the most significant officials of the city, called upon to monitor the rule of law, the prosecutor did not bother himself with public service. He only dealt with signing papers. And all decisions were made for him by a lawyer, "the first grabber in the world." Therefore, when the prosecutor died, few could say what was outstanding in this man. Chichikov, for example, thought at the funeral that the only thing the prosecutor can remember is his thick black eyebrows. “... Why he died or why he lived, God alone knows” - with these words Gogol speaks of the complete meaninglessness of the life of a prosecutor.
And what is the meaning of the life of the official Ivan Antonovich Pitcher snout? Collect more bribes. This official extorts them, taking advantage of his official position. Gogol describes how Chichikov placed a "paper" in front of Ivan Antonovich, "which he did not notice at all and immediately covered it with a book."
N.V. Gogol in the poem "Dead Souls" not only introduces the reader to individual representatives of the bureaucracy, but also gives them a peculiar classification. He divides them into three groups - lower, thin and thick. The lower are represented by petty officials (clerks, secretaries) "Most of them are drunkards. The thin ones are the middle stratum of the bureaucracy, and the fat ones are the provincial nobility, who know how to derive considerable benefit from their high position."
The author also gives us an idea of ​​the way of life of Russian officials in the 30s and 40s of the nineteenth century. Gogol compares government officials to a squadron of flies swooping down on tidbits of refined sugar. They are occupied with playing cards, drinking, lunches, dinners, gossip. In the society of these people, "meanness, completely disinterested, pure meanness" flourishes. Gogol portrays this class as thieves, bribe-takers and loafers. That is why they cannot convict Chichikov of his machinations - they are bound by mutual responsibility, each, as they say, "stigma in the cannon." And if they try to detain Chichikov for fraud, all their sins will come out.
In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, Gogol completes the collective portrait of the official he gave in the poem. The indifference faced by the disabled war hero Kopeikin is terrifying. And here we are not talking about some petty county officials. Gogol shows how a desperate hero, who is trying to get his pension, reaches the highest authorities. But even there he does not find the truth, faced with the complete indifference of a high-ranking St. Petersburg dignitary. Thus, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol makes it clear that the vices struck the entire bureaucratic Russia - from a small county town to the capital. These vices make people "dead souls".
The sharp satire of the author not only flaunts bureaucratic sins, but also shows the terrible social consequences of inactivity, indifference and greed.

« Dead Souls"- one of the brightest works of Russian literature. By the strength and depth of ideas, by
The artistic mastery of Dead Souls is on a par with such masterpieces of Russian classical literature as Griboedov's Woe from Wit, Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and The Captain's Daughter, as well as with the best works of Goncharov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Leskov.

Starting to create "Dead Souls", Gogol wrote to Pushkin that in his work he wants to show "from one side" all of Rus'. "All Rus' will appear in it!" - he also told Zhukovsky. Indeed, Gogol was able to shed light on many aspects of the life of contemporary Russia, to reflect with wide completeness the spiritual and social conflicts in her life.

Undoubtedly, " Dead souls And" were very relevant for their time. Even the title of the publication of the work Gogol had to change, as it irritated the censors. The high political effectiveness of the poem is due to both the sharpness of the ideas and the topicality of the images.
The poem broadly reflects the Nikolaev reactionary era, when any initiative, free-thinking were suppressed, the bureaucratic apparatus grew significantly, and a system of denunciations and investigations operated.

Dead Souls raises extremely important questions both for its time and for Russia in general: the question of serfs and landowners, of bureaucracy and corruption in all spheres of life.

Depicting Russia contemporary to him, Gogol devoted a significant place to the description: provincial (VII-IX chapters) and capital (“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”).

Provincial officials are represented in the images of officials of the city N. It is characteristic that they all live as one family: they spend their leisure time together, address each other by name and patronymic (“My dearest friend Ilya Ilyich!”), They are hospitable. Gogol does not even mention their names. On the other hand, officials are bound by mutual responsibility in matters related to the service.

The widespread bribery that reigned in Russia was also reflected in Gogol's work. This motif is very important in the description of life. Officialdom in the poem Dead Souls: the chief of police, despite the fact that he visits the Gostiny Dvor as if in his own pantry, is loved by merchants because he is not proud and courteous; Ivan Antonovich accepts a bribe from Chichikov deftly, competently, for granted.

The motive of bribery also appears in the biography of Chichikov himself, and the episode with a certain generalized petitioner can be considered a digression about bribes.

All officials treat the service as an opportunity to profit at the expense of others, therefore lawlessness, bribery and corruption flourish everywhere, disorder and red tape reign. Good soil for the growth of these vices is bureaucracy. It was under his conditions that Chichikov's scam was possible.

Because of "sins" in the service, all officials are afraid of checking the auditor sent by the government. Chichikov's incomprehensible behavior terrifies the city Officialdom in the poem Dead Souls: “Suddenly both turned pale; fear is more sticky than the plague and is communicated instantly. All of a sudden, they found in themselves such sins that did not even exist. Suddenly, they have assumptions, there are rumors that Chichikov is Napoleon himself, or Captain Kopeikan, going to the auditor. The motif of gossip is typical for describing the life of Russian society in the literature of the 19th century; it is also present in Dead Souls.

The position of an official in society corresponds to his rank: the higher the position, the greater the authority, respect, the more preferable is acquaintance with him. Meanwhile, there are some qualities that are necessary "for this world: both pleasantness in appearance, in turns of speech and deeds, and briskness in deeds ..." Chichikov possessed all this, who knew how to maintain a conversation, present himself favorably to society, unobtrusively show respect, provide service. “In a word, he was a very decent person; therefore he was so well received by the society of the city of N.”

For the most part, officials are not engaged in service, but spend time in entertainment (dinners and balls). Here they indulge in their only "sensible occupation" - playing cards. Playing cards is more characteristic of fat than thin, and this is what they do at the ball. The fathers of the city give themselves up to the game of cards without a trace, show imagination, eloquence, liveliness of mind.

Gogol did not forget to point out the ignorance and stupidity of officials. Saying sarcastically that many of them "were not without education", the author immediately points to the limit of their interests: "Lyudmila" Zhukovsky, Karamzin or "Moscow News"; many did not read anything at all.

Entering into the poem "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin", Gogol introduced a description of the capital's bureaucracy. Just like in a provincial town, officialdom Petersburg is subject to bureaucracy, bribery, servility.

Despite the fact that Gogol presented officialdom more as a whole, individual images can be distinguished. Thus, the governor, who in his person represents the highest city authority, is shown somewhat in a comical light: he had "Anna around his neck" and, perhaps, was introduced to a star; but, by the way, he was "a great kind man and even sometimes embroidered on tulle himself." He was "neither fat nor thin." And if Manilov says that the governor is "the most respectable and most amiable person", then Sobakevich directly declares that this is "the first robber in the world." It seems that both assessments of the governor's personality are correct and characterize him from different angles.

The prosecutor is an absolutely useless person in the service. In his portrait, Gogol points out one detail: very thick eyebrows and a seemingly conspiratorial winking eye. One gets the impression of dishonesty, uncleanliness, cunning of the prosecutor. Indeed, such qualities are characteristic of court employees where lawlessness flourishes: the poem mentions two of the many cases when an unjust court was committed (the case of a fight between peasants and the murder of an assessor).

The inspector of the medical board is frightened by talk about Chichikov no less than others, since he also has sins: there is no proper care for the sick in the infirmaries, so people die in large numbers. The inspector is not embarrassed by this fact, he is indifferent to the fate of ordinary people, but he is afraid of the auditor, who can punish him and deprive him of his post.

Nothing is said about the postmaster being engaged in postal affairs, which indicates that he does nothing remarkable in the service: just like other officials, he either does nothing, or tries to rob and profit. Gogol mentions only
The fact that the postmaster is engaged in philosophy and makes large extracts from books.

Some lyrical digressions also serve to reveal the images of officials. For example, a satirical digression about fat and thin typifies the images of officials. The author divides men into two types, characterizing them depending on their physical appearance: the thin ones love to court women, and the fat ones, preferring the game of whist to the ladies, know how to “do their business better”, always firmly, invariably occupy reliable places.

Another example: Gogol compares Russian officials with foreigners - "wise men" who know how to treat people of different status and social status in different ways. So, speaking about the veneration of officials and their understanding of subordination, Gogol creates the image of a kind of conditional manager of the office, radically changing outwardly depending on whose society he is in: among subordinates or in front of the boss.

The world represented by Gogol, called " Officialdom in the poem "Dead Souls""very colorful, many-sided. Comic images of officials, brought together, create a picture of the ugly social structure of Russia. And Gogol's creation causes laughter and tears, because even more than a century later, it allows you to recognize familiar situations, faces, characters, fates. Great the talent of Gogol, who so uniquely vividly described reality, pointed out the ulcer of society, which they could not heal even after a century.

Composition: Officialdom in the poem "Dead Souls"

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The governor of the city is one of the secondary characters in the poem "Dead Souls". Like other officials of the city of N, the governor is delighted with the charming swindler Chichikov, invites him to his evenings and introduces his wife and daughter. The stupid governor, like all other officials, realizes too late who Chichikov is. The swindler Chichikov safely leaves the city with ready-made documents for "dead souls".

Vice-Governor "... with the Vice-Governor and the Chairman of the House, who were still only State Councilors..." a man, - answered Chichikov ... ”“ ... He and even the vice-governor are Gog and Magog! ... ”(Sobakevich says that the vice-governor and the governor are robbers)

The prosecutor is one of the officials of city N in the poem "Dead Souls" by Gogol. The main features of the prosecutor's appearance are his thick eyebrows and blinking eyes. According to Sobakevich, among all the officials, the prosecutor is one decent person, but even he is still a "pig." When Chichikov's scam is revealed, the prosecutor is so worried that he suddenly dies.

Postmaster - one of the officials of city N in the poem "Dead Souls". This article presents a quotation image and characteristics of the postmaster in the poem "Dead Souls": a description of the appearance and character of the hero
The chairman of the chamber is one of the officials of city N in the poem "Dead Souls". Ivan Grigorievich is a rather nice, amiable, but stupid person. Chichikov easily deceives both the chairman and other officials. The stupid chairman of the chamber is unaware of Chichikov's scam and even himself helps to draw up documents for "dead souls".

Police chief Alexei Ivanovich is one of the officials of the provincial city N in the poem "Dead Souls". Sometimes this character is erroneously referred to as the "police chief". But, according to the text of "Dead Souls", the position of the hero is called "police chief". This article presents a quotation image and characterization of the police chief in the poem "Dead Souls": a description of the appearance and character of the hero.
Inspector of the medical council "... he even came to pay his respects to the inspector of the medical council..." the medical board suddenly turned pale; God knows what it seemed to him: whether the word “dead souls” does not mean sick people who died in significant numbers in hospitals and in other places from general fever, against which proper measures were not taken, and that Chichikov was not sent ... "

Mayor “... Then he was […] at a snack after mass, given by the mayor, which was also worth dinner…” (the mayor hopes to profit)

Gendarme colonel "... the gendarmerie colonel said that he was a learned man ..." (colonel about Chichikov)

The manager of state-owned factories "... then he was […] at the head of state-owned factories .."
City architect “... he even came to pay respect […] to the city architect