To work on his main work - the poem "Dead Souls" - N.V. Gogol began in 1835 and did not stop it until his death. He set himself the task - to show backward backward serfdom in Russia with all its vices and shortcomings. An important role was played by the masterfully created by the author images of representatives of the nobility, which constituted the main social class in the country. The description of the village of Manilov, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdrev, Plyushkina allows us to understand how diverse, but at the same time typical, spiritually poor were the people who were the main pillar of power. This despite the fact that each of the landowners represented considered himself the best among the rest.
The role of the interior
Gogol builds five chapters of the first volume devoted to the landlords on one principle. He characterizes each owner through a description of his appearance, his manner of behaving with a guest - Chichikov - and family. The author talks about how life was arranged on the estate, which manifests itself through the attitude to the peasants, the entire estate and their own home. The result is a generalized picture of how the “best” representatives of serf Russia lived in the first half of the 19th century.
The first is a description of the village of Manilov - a very nice and friendly, at first glance, landowner.
Long road
Not a very pleasant impression is already leaving the path to the estate. When meeting in the city, the landowner, who invited Chichikov to visit, noted that he lived about fifteen miles from here. However, they drove all sixteen or more, and the road seemed to have no end. The two men who met indicated that there would be a turn in a mile and a half, and there would be Manilovka. But even this was a little like the truth, and Chichikov concluded for himself that the owner, as was often the case, reduced the distance by half in conversation. Perhaps in order to lure - we recall the name of the landowner.
Finally, the estate still appeared ahead.
Unusual location
The first to catch the eye was the two-story manor house, which was built on an elevation - “in the Jurassic,” as the author points out. It is with him that it is worth starting the description of the village of Manilova in the poem Dead Souls.
It seemed that a lonely house stood on all sides blowing winds, which only happened in these places. The slope of the hill on which the building stood was covered with trimmed turf.
The absurd arrangement of the house was complemented by flower beds with bushes of yellow acacia and lilac, broken in the English style. The stunted birch trees grew - no more than five or six - and there was a gazebo with a funny name for these places, “Temple of Solitary Thinking”. An unattractive picture was completed by a small pond, which, however, was not uncommon in the estates of landowners who were fond of the English style.
Absurdity and impracticality - such is the first impression of the landowner’s economy seen.
Description of the village of Manilova
"Dead Souls" continues the story of a series of squalid, gray peasant huts - Chichikov counted them at least two hundred. They were located along and across at the foot of the hill and consisted of only logs. Between the huts, the guest did not see either a tree or any other greenery, which made the village not attractive at all. In the distance, a pine forest was somehow bored . This is the description of the village of Manilova.
"Dead Souls" contain a subjective assessment of what Chichikov saw. At Manilov, everything seemed to him somehow gray and incomprehensible, even "the day was either clear or gloomy." Only two swearing women, pulling ravines along the pond with crayfish and roach, and a rooster with ragged wings, screaming at the top of their lungs, somewhat revived the picture.
Meeting with the owner
The description of the village of Manilova from "Dead Souls" will be incomplete without meeting the owner himself. He stood on the porch and, recognizing the guest, immediately broke into a most cheerful smile. Even at the first meeting in the city, Manilov struck Chichikov with the fact that in his appearance, it seemed, there was a lot of sugar. Now the first impression only intensified.
In fact, at first the landowner seemed to be a very kind and pleasant person, but after a minute this impression completely changed, and now the thought arose: "Damn knows what!" Manilov’s further behavior, which is excessively ingratiating and built on a desire to please, fully confirms this. The owner kissed the guest, as if they had been friends for a century. Then he invited him into the house, trying in every possible way to show respect for him by the fact that he did not want to enter the door before Chichikov.
Interior furnishings
The description of the village of Manilova from the poem Dead Souls causes a sense of absurdity in everything, including the decoration of the manor house. To begin with, next to expensive and even elegant furniture that stood in the living room, there were a couple of armchairs, for the lining of which at one time there was not enough fabric. And for several years now the owner has always warned the guest that they are not ready yet. For another eighth year, there was no furniture in another room at all — since Manilov’s marriage. In the same way, at dinner, a luxurious bronze candlestick, made in the antique style, and some “disabled person” made of copper, all in bacon, could be placed on the table. But no one at home paid any attention to this.
The owner’s office looked just as funny. It was, again, of an incomprehensible gray-blue color - something similar to what the author already mentioned, giving a general description of the village of Manilova at the beginning of the chapter. On the table for two years lay a book with a bookmark on the same page - no one had ever read it. But tobacco was laid out all over the room, and rows of slides laid out from the ash remaining in the pipe appeared on the windowsills. In general, dreaming and smoking were the main and, moreover, favorite activities of the landowner, who was completely not interested in his possessions.
Getting to know your family
Manilov’s wife is like himself. Eight years of marriage changed the relationship between the spouses little: they also treated each other with a piece of apple or interrupted classes to capture a kiss. Manilova received a good upbringing, who taught everything that was necessary for a happy family life: to speak French, play the piano and bead some unusual little case to surprise her husband. And all the same, that the kitchen was poorly prepared, there was no stock in the pantries, the housekeeper stole a lot, and the servants slept more and more. The pride of the spouses was their sons, called strange Greek names and promising to show great abilities in the future.
Description of the village of Manilova: the situation of peasants
From all the above, one conclusion already suggests itself: everything on the estate went somehow like that, in its own way and without any kind of host intervention. This idea is confirmed when Chichikov starts a conversation about peasants. It turns out that Manilov does not even imagine how many souls he has died lately. Can not give an answer and his clerk. He only notes that there is a lot that the landowner immediately agrees with. However, the word "a lot" does not surprise the reader: a description of the village of Manilov and the conditions in which his serfs lived make it clear that for a estate in which the landowner does not care at all about the peasants, this is a common thing.
As a result, an unattractive image of the protagonist of the chapter looms. It did not occur to the ownerless dreamer to go to the fields, find out what people depending on him need, or at least simply count how many he has. Moreover, the author adds that the man could easily deceive Manilov. He was asked to allegedly earn some money, but he calmly went to get drunk, and nobody cared about that. In addition, all the servants, including the clerk and the housekeeper, were dishonest, which did not bother Manilov or his wife at all.
conclusions
Quotations complete the description of the village of Manilova: “there is a kind of people ... neither that, nor in the city of Bogdan or in the village of Selifan ... Manilova should also join them.” Thus, this is a landowner from whom, at first glance, there is no harm to anyone. He loves everyone - even the most inveterate scammer has an excellent person. Sometimes she dreams of how to set up shops for peasants, but these "projects" are very far from reality and will never be embodied in practice. Hence the common understanding of "Manilovism" as a social phenomenon - a penchant for pseudo-philosophy, the absence of any benefit from existence. And with this, degradation begins, and then the collapse of the human personality, which Gogol draws attention to, giving a description of the village of Manilova.
"Dead souls", thus, become a sentence to a society in which the best representatives of the local nobility are like Manilov. After all, the rest will be even worse.