Description of the city in dead souls. Description of the morals of the provincial city NN (According to the poem N

>Essays on the work Dead Souls

Image of the city

The work of N.V. Gogol is an amazing book glorifying Rus' and its folk foundations. This is partly a satirical poem exposing reality. The main character of the poem, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, wanders through the cities of Russia with the aim of ransoming the “dead souls” of peasants. In depicting the city, the author used the technique of typification. Chichikov arrives in the ordinary provincial town of NN, which serves as a collective image. It is the same as all other cities. Thus, it is easy to reproduce a picture of the morals of the entire country.

In the first chapter, the hero, walking through the streets, notices that there are typical houses with a mezzanine, the usual signs, washed out by the rain, and only the sign “Pub House” is found more often than usual. At first glance, this city seems to Chichikov to be a little more lively than others. Balls, receptions, joint dinners, trips to public places, etc. are often held here. But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that here there is still the same sleepy, frozen spirit of landowner life, and the representatives of the elite are faceless and spiritually dead. They eke out an aimless existence from day to day and are “non-smokers”.

The author pays special attention to the description of officials, the so-called arbiters of the destinies of city residents. These people are so useless and faceless that he gives them very brief characteristics. So, for example, the governor was neither fat nor thin, but kind-hearted. The prosecutor had very black thick eyebrows. The postmaster was short, but witty and philosophical. It is noteworthy that all the officials in the city of NN were poorly educated. Gogol specifically emphasizes that one read Karamzin, another Moskovskie Vedomosti, and many did not read anything at all. Not a single case was considered without bribes. All people with administrative power necessarily robbed the population, engaged in embezzlement and bribery.

Describing the life of the provincial city, the author pays special attention to the female half, that is, the wives of officials. Despite the fact that they put on luxurious dresses and all kinds of ribbons, at heart they are empty and worthless. Gogol pays tribute to their taste, noting that the ladies of the city are in no way inferior to the capital and even Paris. However, he immediately notes their imitative details like peacock feathers and unprecedented caps. By nature, the ladies of the city are active. They not only spread gossip with lightning speed, but also have a strong influence on their husbands. They make them believe incredible rumors and even turn them against each other. The author notes that all provincial residents have certain ideals associated with metropolitan life. Perhaps for this reason, St. Petersburg is mentioned in almost every chapter.

In N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls,” a panorama of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century is revealed to the reader, because the writer’s plan was “to show, at least from one side, all of Rus'.” It is this global concept that explains the genre originality of the work: the genre of the poem makes it possible to combine both the epic and lyrical principles in one text, that is, the author’s voice, his position, his pain are very strong in “Dead Souls”, and the poem also assumes a wider scope of the events depicted . One of the tasks of the work is to characterize all social strata of society, which is why the poem represents landowners, the provincial nobility, the bureaucracy, the metropolitan society, and the peasants.
The work begins with a description of the provincial town of NN, a typical Russian city of that time (it is no coincidence that the city does not have a specific name, because there could be any other in its place).
First, the reader meets the residents of the city - two peasants who are discussing a chaise that has driven through the gate with Chichikov sitting in it. Their conversation is very colorful: the men are wondering whether the chaise wheel will reach Moscow first, and then Kazan. Gogol, on the one hand, draws his characters ironically: two idle peasants solve a completely worthless problem; and on the other hand, the reader is already ready to perceive “dead souls”, which will later turn out to be both the officials of the provincial city and the landowners. Against their background, peasants are the only “living souls”, distinguished by a lively mind, curiosity, thirst for life, and interest in it.
The reader gets a second impression of the provincial city when he gets acquainted with the hotel where Chichikov stays. The author strongly emphasizes the fact that the hotel is no different from similar establishments in other cities: it is long, two floors, the top of which is painted with “eternal yellow paint,” and the bottom contains benches; “quiet” rooms with cockroaches and doors filled with chests of drawers. The author does not hide his irony in relation to the life of a provincial city; for example, he compares the face of the sbitennik with his own samovar, emphasizing that the only difference between them is the beard.
To characterize the city, the reaction of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is important, who, after resting, went to inspect the surrounding area. The hero was satisfied because “the city was in no way inferior to other provincial cities.” The wretchedness and gloom of the Russian province is striking: yellow and gray paint, a wide street with houses randomly located on it, endless wooden fences, shabby little shops, the absurdity of which Gogol emphasizes with the inscription on one of them: “Foreigner Vasily Fedorov”; The most common places to visit were drinking establishments, which indicates the main hobby of the city residents. The writer draws attention to the condition of the pavement, since roads are, in a sense, the face of the city. The city garden, which, according to newspaper reports, was supposed to be “shady, wide-branched trees that provide coolness on a hot day,” in fact consisted of thin twigs, and this fact testifies, firstly, to the activities of city rulers, and - secondly, about the corruption and hypocrisy of the city press.
Thus, without yet becoming acquainted with the city authorities, the reader gets an idea of ​​them and their activities “for the benefit of the city.” When Gogol presents a gallery of local officials whom Chichikov (without exceptions) visits to pay his respects, then first of all they are characterized by the fact that Pavel Ivanovich is treated kindly by everyone and accepted as one of their own, he is immediately invited to some house party, some to lunch, some for Boston, some for a cup of tea.
Naturally, the calling card of the city is its governor, whose belonging to the “neither fat nor thin” class gives him a unique right to power. Usually, when introducing a person, they try to point out his best qualities, and if this is a person on whom the fate of a city or country depends, then it is necessary to determine his business qualities. The distinctive feature of the governor was that he had Anna around his neck. Ironizing him, Gogol emphasizes that, despite “Anna,” the governor was a good-natured person and even embroidered on tulle. It is unlikely that all this can be useful for the head of the city, as well as for a huge number of other city officials: the vice-governor, the prosecutor, the chairman of the chamber, the police chief, the tax farmer, the head of state-owned factories, and so on (the author hints that it is impossible to remember all of them) .
It is significant that the “powers of this world” do not even have names, because the most important thing that is valued in this society is rank, and only this criterion is important for assessing Gogol’s officials. In addition, the author makes it clear to the reader that in place of the city of NN there could be any other provincial city and there will be the same set of people “performing service”. The ladies of the city also do not have names, because for them the main thing is appearance, so one will be considered “a simply pleasant lady,” the other “a pleasant lady in all respects.” Characterizing them, Gogol claims that they “were what is called presentable,” thereby emphasizing that observing conventions and following etiquette are the meaning of life for this circle of people.
The climax of the episode is the governor's ball scene. Gogol very subtly chooses artistic means to describe local society. The most striking is the comparison of the audience present with black flies on “white shining refined sugar during the hot July summer...” People scurrying around at the ball are “air squadrons” of flies that have gathered together just to show off, to circle this way and that. , then fly away again, then fly back again. That is, their movement is completely meaningless, chaotic, and the fly people themselves do not evoke any positive emotions.
In addition, Gogol gives a certain classification of the men present at the ball, thereby showing that we are not looking at individuals, but only human types, and their typicality is determined primarily by external factors, and these factors “work” not only in the provincial town of NN , but also “everywhere”. Men were divided into thin, fat, and not too fat, but not thin either, and the fate of each was predetermined precisely by which group he belonged to. The faces are also extremely colorful: those of the fat ones are full and round, with warts and pockmarks; hair is either low cut or slicked down; facial features are rounded and strong; Naturally, these are honorary officials of the city and they know how to “manage their affairs.” Among the thin ones, the most important activities at the ball are courting the ladies and dancing, and among the fat ones - cards, which officials indulge in with all seriousness: “All conversations have completely stopped, as always happens when they finally indulge in something meaningful.”
Thus, the provincial town represents, as it were, a cross-section of the life of Russia as a whole with its structure, political and social, with its vices and shortcomings, with its bureaucratic apparatus, unusually numerous and equally insolvent, with its dullness and lack of education, eternal drunkenness, idleness and so on. Getting to know the provincial town of NN together with Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, the reader comprehends the uniqueness of Russian life in the thirties of the nineteenth century and is immersed in the position of the author, sharing his pain and his hope for the future of Russia.
Review. The essay is distinguished by its literacy and thoughtfulness. The author has a good command of the text of Gogol's poem and skillfully uses it to prove his thoughts. From the work it becomes clear that the author understood Gogol’s position and realized that the image of a provincial city is a significant page in the characterization of all of Russia.

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY IN N.V. GOGOL'S POEM. Compositionally, the poem “Dead Souls” consists of three externally closed, but internally interconnected circles - landowners, the city, Chichikov’s biography, united by the image of the road, plot-related by the main character’s scam.

But the middle link - the life of the city - itself consists, as it were, of narrowing circles gravitating towards the center; this is a graphic representation of the provincial hierarchy. It is interesting that in this hierarchical pyramid the governor, embroidering on tulle, looks like a puppet figure. True life is in full swing in the civil chamber, in the “temple of Themis.” And this is natural for administrative-bureaucratic Russia. Therefore, the episode of Chichikov’s visit to the chamber becomes central, the most significant in the theme of the city.

The description of presence is the apotheosis of Gogol's irony. The author recreates the true sanctuary of the Russian empire in all its funny, ugly form, revealing all the power and at the same time the weakness of the bureaucratic machine. Gogol’s mockery is merciless: before us is a temple of bribery, his only “living nerve.”

In this supposed temple, in this citadel of depravity, the image of Hell is being revived - albeit vulgarized, comical - but truly Russian Hell. A peculiar Virgil also appears - he turns out to be a “petty demon” - a chamber official who “served our friend, as Virgil once served Dante, and led them into the presence room, where there were only wide armchairs and in them in front of the table, behind a mirror and two The chairman sat alone, like the sun, with thick books. In this place Virgil felt such reverence that he did not dare to put his foot there...” How brilliant is Gogol’s irony! How incomparable is the chairman - the “sun” of the civil chamber! How inimitably comical is this wretched Paradise, before which the college registrar is seized with sacred awe! And the funniest thing is as well as the most tragic and terrible! - that the newly-minted Virgil truly honors the chairman as the sun, his office as Paradise, his guests as holy Angels...

How diminished, how exhausted souls are in such a world! How pitiful and insignificant are their ideas about the concepts fundamental to a Christian - Heaven, Hell, soul!

What is considered a soul is best shown in the episode of the death of the prosecutor: after all, those around him guessed that “the dead man definitely had a soul” only when he died and became “only a soulless body.” For them, the soul is a physiological concept! And this is a spiritual catastrophe.

In contrast to the quiet, measured life of a landowner, where time seems to stand still, the life of the city is in full swing and bubbling. But this life is illusory, it is not activity, but empty vanity. What stirred up the city, made everything in it move? Gossip about Chichikov. All this is funny and terrible at the same time. Idle talk that develops into spiritual emptiness is the main idea of ​​Gogol's city.

The contrast between bustling external activity and internal ossification is striking. The life of the city is dead and meaningless, like all the life of this crazy world. The illogical features in the image of the city are taken to the limit: the story begins with them. Remember the stupid, meaningless conversation of the men, the wheel will roll to Moscow or Kazan; the comical idiocy of the signs “And here is the establishment”, “Foreigner Ivan Fedorov”...

In many ways, the image of the provincial town in Dead Souls is reminiscent of the image of the city in The Government Inspector. But the scale has been enlarged: instead of a town lost in the wilderness, from where “even if you drive for three years, you won’t reach any state,” the central city is “not far from both capitals.” Instead of the small fry of the mayor, there is a governor. But life - empty, illogical, meaningless - is the same: “dead life”.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a famous Russian critic and poet. From birth he bore the surname Yanovsky, but over time he began to have a double surname Gogol - Yanovsky. A native of the Poltava province, he takes his origins from the Cossacks. The military leader Ostap Gogol is his blood relative. Since childhood, Nikolai was distinguished by his extraordinary thinking, and eventually became a classic of Russian literature.

The work “Dead Souls” has become one of the masterpieces of Russian literature, in which the author deeply reveals the essence of life in Rus' and all its subtleties. Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich is the main character in this poem, and the first thing that can be said about the image of the city in which the poem took place was the opinion of this hero. Chichikov himself is a traveler who redeems the “dead souls” of peasants in cities of this kind.

Arriving in this city, Pavel initially assumed that this city was more “live”, in which one could more often see celebrations and street signs. But plunging into the everyday life of his life, Chichikov understands that this is just a mask behind which lies the life of the same rich people who rule everywhere and everywhere, at the same time desecrating the usual noble character. In the city itself, all actions take place strictly according to the schedule, which is observed daily. Visits to prosecutors, the movement of postal workers, and women decorating the gray but dense streets of the city of N. It was a brief description of their appearance that made the reader understand how Pavel Ivanovich felt about them. The governor of the city, in his opinion, was a typical good-natured man, a gloomy prosecutor, distinguished by thick eyebrows, and the postal worker seemed to him a witty philosopher.

The author paid special attention to the women of these rulers. The ladies of the rich and government officials were very “empty” but beautiful in nature. Their image could be compared with the image of French ladies. Despite their beauty, women were huge gossips. And due to their status, they could safely influence their husbands. Thus, to convince them of things that they themselves understood only from hearsay.

Like everywhere else, there were cockroaches in the hotels, everything was painted grey, the mirrors greatly distorted the reflection, and the golden eggs on the shelves of the taverns emphasized the majesty of the city.

Despite all this, the city lives by its own certain rules, which have its own ideals that most of its residents aspired to. Perhaps for this very reason, this city was often mentioned by the author in his work.

For 9th grade

Several interesting essays

• Essay There is no bond holier than fellowship (based on Gogol’s story Taras Bulba)

  In his works, Gogol very often touched on the topic of human society and all the terms arising from this concept. He described the processes taking place in society, saying that at the moment

I have a small and funny hedgehog Frosya. She is two months old, she is my wonderful mischievous Frosya. She once really surprised me. I left apples for guests

• Essay Bazarov and Pavel Kirsanov comparative characteristics

  The clash of different generations, different views is a problem that will never cease to be relevant. The most striking example is the novel by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”. In this work, I. S. Turgenev masterfully reveals

• Essay on the Battle of Borodino in the novel War and Peace by Tolstoy

  Thanks to careful analysis and study of this magnificent work written by Leo Tolstoy, historians have raised more and more new questions regarding the verisimilitude of the events described

• Essay February 8 Russian Science Day 4th grade

  Science is one of the fundamental areas of human life. Thanks to the dedicated work of tens of thousands of inventors, humanity can exist comfortably today, enjoying all the benefits of civilization.

Compositionally, the poem “Dead Souls” consists of three externally closed, but internally interconnected circles. landowners, a city, a biography of Chichikov, united by the image of a road, plot-related by the main character’s scam.

But the middle link - the life of the city - itself consists, as it were, of narrowing circles gravitating towards the center; this is a graphic representation of the provincial hierarchy. It is interesting that in this hierarchical pyramid the governor, embroidering on tulle, looks like a puppet figure. True life is in full swing in the civil chamber, in the “temple of Themis.” And this is natural for administrative-bureaucratic Russia. Therefore, the episode of Chichikov’s visit to the chamber becomes central, the most significant in the theme of the city.

The description of presence is the apotheosis of Gogol's irony. The author recreates the true sanctuary of the Russian empire in all its funny, ugly form, revealing all the power and at the same time the weakness of the bureaucratic machine. Gogol’s mockery is merciless: before us is a temple of bribery, his only “living nerve.”

In this supposed temple, in this citadel of depravity, the image of Hell is being revived - albeit vulgarized, comical - but truly Russian Hell. A peculiar Virgil also appears - he turns out to be a “petty demon” - a chamber official who “served our friends, as Virgil once served Dante, and led them into the presence room, where there were only wide armchairs and in them in front of the table, behind a mirror and two The chairman sat alone, like the sun, with thick books. In this place Virgil felt such reverence that he did not dare to put his foot there...” How brilliant is Gogol’s irony! How incomparable is the chairman - the “sun” of the civil chamber! How inimitably comical is this wretched Paradise, before which the college registrar is seized with sacred awe! And the funniest thing is as well as the most tragic and terrible! - that the newly-minted Virgil truly honors the chairman as the sun, his office as Paradise, his guests as holy Angels...

How shallow, how debased souls are in such a world! How pitiful and insignificant are their ideas about the concepts fundamental to a Christian - Heaven, Hell, soul!

What is considered a soul is best shown in the episode of the death of the prosecutor: after all, those around him guessed that “the dead man definitely had a soul” only when he died and became “one, only a soulless body.” For them, the soul is a physiological concept! And this is a spiritual catastrophe.

In contrast to the quiet, measured life of a landowner, where time seems to stand still, the life of the city is in full swing and bubbling. But this life is illusory, it is not activity, but empty vanity. What stirred up the city, made everything in it move? Gossip about Chichikov. All this is funny and terrible at the same time.” Idle talk that develops into spiritual emptiness is the main idea of ​​Gogol’s city.

The contrast between bustling external activity and internal ossification is striking. The life of the city is dead and meaningless, like all the life of this crazy world. The illogical features in the image of the city are taken to the extreme, and the story begins with them. Remember the stupid, meaningless conversation of the men, the wheel will roll to Moscow or Kazan, the comical idiocy of the signs “And here is the establishment”, “Foreigner Ivan Fedorov”...

In many ways, the image of the provincial town in Dead Souls is reminiscent of the image of the city in The Government Inspector. But the scale has been enlarged: instead of a town lost in the wilderness, from where “even if you drive for three years, you won’t reach any state,” the central city is “not far from both capitals.” Instead of the small fry of the mayor, there is a governor. But life - empty, illogical, meaningless - is the same: “dead life”.