A harsh realist of a critical direction, and also a mystic, a satirist, exposing the ulcers and vices of his time, and a subtle, soulful lyrics; a patriot who painfully loves the Russian people, Russia, but at the same time maintains a close relationship with his native Little Russia, Ukraine ... Such is he, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, one of the most interesting and mysterious writers of the 19th century.
The poem Dead Souls
So, the summary. “Dead Souls", the famous work of Gogol, is thus rather difficult to retell. It is too full of philosophical and socially revealing meaning. Yes, and lyrical digressions, their piercing, heart-pounding tone can not be described - Gogol is one of those writers who must be read, as they say, in the original. But still…
To retell the summary of “Dead Souls” we will begin, of course, with the famous arrival in the provincial city of NN of a certain gentleman of the “middle arm”: not too fat, but not thin; not young, but not old, not handsome, but not a freak. This is the main character of the work, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a college assessor. He arrived here on his private business, settled in a hotel, where cockroaches the size of prunes run in each room, and began to question the owner about what is being done in the city and its environs.
Further, a summary of Dead Souls should include a story about Chichikov’s visit to city officials. Gogol in one or two words gives accurate, accurate characteristics to all city rulers, simultaneously drawing a general picture of the mores and orders that prevail in NN. It turns out that bribery, double-dealing, mutual responsibility, outright theft of public funds and many other lawlessness flourish here. However, Chichikova is not concerned about this. It is important for him to know what large landowners live in the district, whether there was any plague in their direction, epidemics and other disasters. With officials, Pavel Ivanovich behaves extremely courteously, politely, and well-mannered. He says little about himself, only reports that he is a victim of official injustices and wants to settle down in these parts. He knows how to choose a key for each official, therefore he is everywhere accepted with pleasure and open arms.
He won the favor of some landowners, whom he met in the city, and then decided to visit new friends. And then a brief summary of “Dead Souls” is a narrative about the Hero's journey through his native Russia.
Peasant Russia gives Gogol and we have a double impression. On the one hand, the breadth and expanse of its open spaces remind us of the remarkable strength and talents of the Russian people. On the other hand, the outright poverty and poverty of the villages, the dirt and gloom of the landscapes set in a sad mood. Serfdom is truly terrible in its routine.
Chichikov visits in turn the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev and other landowners. He makes a strange request to everyone - to sell him the dead peasants as if they were alive. Each landowner has his own specific reaction to the proposal. If Manilov was somewhat taken aback and gives Chichikov "souls", then at Korobochka, Sobakevich, Plyushkin he has to sweat pretty and spend money to get what he is looking for. And Gogol has a wonderful opportunity to show in all its "glory" the terrible face of serfdom, to prove that not the dead peasants, but the living landowners and officials are those "dead souls", "non-smokers" who, like parasites, stuck to the people and live , eating his "juices" - folk labor.
The image of the landowners is built on the principle of gradation - from the cloying Manilov, the man "neither this nor that," to Plyushkin - "holes in humanity."
Chapter 11 plays a special role in the poem Dead Souls, a brief summary of which can be reduced to a story about Chichikov’s life. Gogol reveals before us not only the essence of his scam, but tells in detail about his childhood, school years, youth. Passion for a “penny”, for hoarding, early corroded his soul, turned it into a vile, unprincipled villain, a scoundrel who would not stop before any morally unscrupulous acts in order to obtain the desired profit and profit. Therefore, in the story Dead Souls, the summary of chapter 11 can be considered the ideological and artistic center of the work.
Chichikov’s idea failed. Instead of dizzying success, he has to flee the city. But the hero does not lose heart. His "bird three" rushes across the expanses of Russia, like inevitable rock, as a sign of the onset of a new century - the century of capitalism, predation, moral decay, the decline of morality. And Chichikov himself is a hero of the new era, a capitalist, replacing the obsolete feudal landlords.