Creativity N.V. Gogol is shrouded in many secrets and mysteries. The writer’s personality itself was unique and mysterious. Since childhood, he was a special person: because of his illness, he did not communicate much with his peers, he very sensitively perceived insults and failures. The sensitivity of nature came to him from his mother. However, together with the emotionality of the family, a deepest love for the Fatherland and enduring moral values were laid in his soul .
The idea of "Dead Souls" was presented to Gogol A.S. Pushkin. Perhaps the most unusual in the work is the genre. "Dead souls" are designated by Gogol as a poem. Literary sources give a rather clear definition of the poem - a lyroepic work that tells about any events, which has a poetic form. It should be noted that initially the poems were exclusively heroic, vaguely reminiscent of Russian epics. They must certainly have a plot narration with heroes, events, but at the same time there must be a lyrical beginning.
Why N.V. Did Gogol choose this particular genre? Dead Souls is a
prose work that describes the adventures of a certain Chichikov. In terms of plot, the work is closer to a rogue novel. However, the goal is different for the author. He seeks not only to tell about the adventures of Chichikov, but to show the absurdity and absurdity of serfdom. The name itself is an oxymoron (a combination of incompatible things). The genre of "Dead Souls" by Gogol partially reveals the author's idea. It laid the foundation on the scale, comprehensiveness of the image of events. Gogol seeks to show the whole of Russia. The work should also have a lyrical beginning - this is indicated by the genre. Dead Souls is a work full of lyrical digressions of the author, reasoning about Russia, about the road, about nature. Extensive deviations from the main line of the narrative introduce a philosophical beginning into the poem. They tell us about why the work was written. Gogol writes about how Russia is dying due to the injustice, slavery, baseness and meanness of the landowners and officials. Chichikov goes from one landowner to another, and each of them personifies one or another vice. And Chichikov himself is more like an antihero with clearly visible demonic features.
Gogol skillfully transforms the genre. Dead Souls is not a poem about a hero, not a novel, not a story. This is a synthetic work that combines several elements. The plug-in element, "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin," is particularly notable in its structure. It has nothing to do with Chichikov, this is a retreat in which Gogol expresses his attitude to the current socio-political situation in Russia. Gogol cannot be called a revolutionary; he did not advocate a coup. But he wanted Russia to never forget the basic moral laws. To show the disastrous path of Russia, Gogol creates his "Dead Souls". The genre created by Gogol and called the "poem" helps the writer in this. He burned the third volume of the book, and the second left unfinished. According to the author’s idea, in the last parts of the poem, a more optimistic outlook on the future of Russia should have been “revealed”.