Dead Souls is the main work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol not only in the scale and depth of artistic generalizations. For this author, work on him has become a long process of writing and human self-knowledge. An analysis of Dead Souls will be presented in this article.
Gogol noted after the publication of the first volume that the main subject of his work was not at all the ugly landowners and the province, but a "secret", which suddenly had to be revealed to readers in the following volumes.
The "pale beginning" of grandiose design
The search for the genre, the change of concept, the work on the text of the first two volumes, as well as the deliberation of the third are fragments of a grandiose “construction” carried out by Nikolai Vasilyevich only partially. When analyzing Dead Souls, it should be understood that the first volume is just the part in which the outlines of the whole are outlined. This is the "pale beginning" of labor, as the writer himself defines it. No wonder Nikolai Vasilievich compared it with a porch hastily attached to the "palace" by the provincial architect.
How did the idea of the work come about?
Features of the composition and plot, the originality of the genre are associated with the deepening and development of the original concept of "Dead Souls". At the origins of the work was Pushkin. As Nikolai Vasilievich said, the poet advised him to take up a great composition and even suggested a plot from which he himself wanted to create “something like a poem”. However, not so much the plot itself as the "thought" contained in it was the "prompt" of Pushkin to Gogol. Real stories that were based on scams with the so-called "dead souls" were well known to the future author of the poem. In the youthful years of Gogol, one of such cases occurred in Mirgorod.
"Dead Souls" in Russia since Gogol
"Dead Souls" - serfs who died, but continued to be listed alive until the next "revision tale." Only after her they were officially considered dead. It was after the "revision tale" that the landowners stopped paying the capitation tax for them - a special tax. Peasants who existed on paper could be mortgaged, donated or sold, which fraudsters sometimes used, seducing landowners not only with the opportunity to get rid of serfs that did not generate income, but also get money for them.
The buyer of "dead souls" at the same time became the owner of a very real state. The adventure of the main character of the work, Chichikov, is a consequence of the “most inspired thought” that dawned on him, - the Board of Trustees will give 200 rubles for each serf.
Adventure-Dodger novel
The basis for the so-called adventure-rogue novel was given by a "joke" with "dead souls". This kind of novel has always been very popular, because it was interesting. Gogol's older contemporaries created works in this genre (V.T. Narezhny, F.V. Bulgarin and others). Their novels, despite a rather low artistic level, were very successful.
Modification of the genre of adventure-roguish novel in the process of work
The genre model of the work we are interested in is precisely an adventurous-roguish novel, as the analysis of Dead Souls shows. She, however, greatly changed during the work of the writer on this creation. This is evidenced, for example, by the author’s designation "poem", which appeared after the general plan and main idea was corrected by Gogol ("Dead Souls").
Analysis of the work reveals the following interesting features. “All Russia will appear in it” - Gogol’s thesis, which not only emphasized the scale of the Dead Souls plan in comparison with the initial desire “to show Russia from one side”, but also meant a radical revision of the previously chosen genre model. The framework of the traditional adventure-rogue novel became close to Nikolai Vasilievich, since he could not accommodate the wealth of the new plan. Chichikov’s odyssey turned into just one way of seeing Russia.
The adventurous and roguish novel, having lost its leading significance in Dead Souls, remained at the same time a genre shell for the epic and moral descriptive tendencies of the poem.
Features of the image Chichikova
One of the tricks used in this genre is the secret of the origin of the hero. The main character in the first chapters was either a common man or a foundling, and at the end of the work, overcoming life's obstacles, he suddenly turned out to be the son of wealthy parents, received an inheritance. Strongly refused Nikolai Vasilyevich from such a template.
When analyzing the poem "Dead Souls", it should be noted that Chichikov is a man of the "middle". The author himself says about him that he is "not of a bad appearance," but not handsome either, not too thin, but not too fat, not very old and not very young. The life story of this adventurer is hidden from the reader up to the final, eleventh chapter. You will be convinced of this by carefully reading Dead Souls. Analysis of the chapters reveals the fact that the author tells the background only in the eleventh. Having decided to do this, Gogol begins by emphasizing the “vulgarity”, the mediocrity of his hero. He writes that his origin is "modest" and "dark." Nikolai Vasilievich again rejects the extremes in defining his character (not a scoundrel, but not a hero), but dwells on Chichikov's main quality - this is the “acquirer”, “master”.
Chichikov - the "average" person
In this hero, therefore, there is nothing unusual - this is the so-called "average" person, in whom Gogol strengthened the line characteristic of many people. Nikolai Vasilievich sees in his passion for profit that has replaced everything else, in the pursuit of the ghost of an easy and beautiful life, the manifestation of “human poverty”, poverty of life goals and spiritual interests - all that many people so carefully hide. An analysis of Dead Souls shows that Gogol needed a hero’s biography not only to reveal the “secret” of his life at the end of the work, but to remind readers that this is not an exceptional person, but quite ordinary. Anyone can find in himself some "part of Chichikov."
"Good" characters
In adventurous-roguish novels, the traditional plot "spring" is the persecution by the malicious, greedy and vicious people of the protagonist. The rogue who fought for his rights against their background seemed to be almost a "model of perfection." As a rule, compassionate and virtuous people helped him, naively expressing the author's ideals.
However, nobody pursues Chichikov in the first volume of the work. Also in the novel there are no characters who could at least to some extent be followers of the writer’s point of view. Analyzing the work “Dead Souls”, we can notice that only in the second volume do “positive” heroes appear: the landowner Kostanzhoglo, the farmer Murazov, the governor, irreconcilable to the abuses of various officials. But even these characters, unusual for Nikolai Vasilievich, are very far from novel templates.
What interests Nikolai Vasilievich in the first place?
The plots of many works written in the genre of an adventurous-roguish novel were far-fetched, artificial. The emphasis was on adventures, "adventures" of rogue heroes. But Nikolai Vasilievich is not interested in the adventures of the main character in themselves, not their “material” result (Chichikov ultimately got the same state in a fraudulent way), but their moral and social content, which allowed the author to make cheating a “mirror” reflecting modern Russia in the work "Dead Souls". The analysis shows that this is a country of landowners who sell "air" (that is, dead peasants), as well as officials who assist the fraudster, instead of obstructing him. The plot of this work has great semantic potential - various layers of other meanings — symbolic and philosophical — are superimposed on its real basis. It is very interesting to analyze the landowners (Dead Souls). Each of the five characters is very symbolic - in their image Nikolai Vasilievich uses the grotesque.
Slow motion
Gogol deliberately slows down the movement of the plot, accompanying each event with detailed descriptions of the material world in which the characters live, as well as their appearance, discussions about their human qualities. Not only dynamics, but also significance loses the adventurous-roguish plot. Each event of the work causes an avalanche of author's assessments and judgments, details, facts. The novel, contrary to the requirements of this genre, almost completely stops in the last chapters. This can be seen by independently making an analysis of Gogol’s poem "Dead Souls". For the development of action, only two events of all the rest that occur from the seventh through the eleventh chapter are significant. This is a departure from the city of Chichikov and the design of his deed.
Exactingness to readers
Nikolai Vasilyevich is very demanding on readers - he wants them to penetrate the very essence of phenomena, and not slide on their surface, to think about the hidden meaning of the work "Dead Souls". It should be analyzed very carefully. It is necessary to see for the “objective” or informative meaning of the author’s words not explicit, but the most important is symbolically generalized. Equally necessary, like Pushkin in Eugene Onegin, is the co-creation of readers with the author of Dead Souls. It is important to note that the artistic effect of Gogol's prose is created not by what is told, what is portrayed, but by how it is done. You will be convinced of this by once analyzing the work "Dead Souls". The word is a subtle instrument that Gogol perfectly owned.
Nikolai Vasilievich emphasized that the writer, addressing people, must take into account the fear and insecurity living in those who commit bad deeds. Both approval and reproach should carry the word "lyric poet." Discussions about the dual nature of the phenomena of life is a favorite topic of the author of the work of interest to us.
This is a brief analysis (Dead Souls). You can talk a lot about Gogol’s work. We highlighted only the main points. It is also interesting to dwell on the images of the landowners and the author. You can do this yourself, based on our analysis.